was accompanied by a single foolish servant. The boy chose to live a life that would bring about such a tale. But the world betrayed that expectation, and the boy's destiny was radically transformed. It's time for a story of a hero. The world once very nearly met a tragic end. However, that seemingly immutable fate was altered by a single person. And the one who accomplished that miraculous feat was a boy who had reincarnated from another world. He got a chance at life, then had a number of experiences, some horrifying and some irreplaceable. Then after a long series of battles, he obtained a colossal amount of mana and used it to save someone precious to him. And while he was at it, he saved the world. By sacrificing himself. After burdening himself with God and Diablo, the boy fell into a deep slumber at the World's End. Thanks to his deeds, the people of the world managed to avoid the apocalypse. The greatest good for the greatest number was, surely, the greatest outcome. One could say they lived happily ever after. As an aside, there was one little fact. Hardly any knew it, and it was of little true importance. The fact was, the boy and hero were the same person. Thus did the story of admiration and folly and love come to its end. After that, they say, everyone lived in comfort and peace forever after. "Oh, were it only that simple." Right before Elisabeth and Alice's blows met, someone reached out and caught them. The ensuing gale force sent the person's tattered cloak flapping about. Their hood hung low, obscuring their face, but whoever they were, they had just caught the blades without so much as breaking a sweat. Elisabeth frowned. She could tellâ€”if the person hadn't stepped in, she was the one whose chest would have been gouged out. She looked at the newcomer holding the blades. They really did resemble the Butcher...except for their hands. Their hands were human. This time, she had no choice but to admit it. A hot tear casually rolled down the Torture Princess's cheek. And with a thousand different emotions swelling up inside her, Elisabeth Le Fanu spoke. "Kaito, is that you?" The newcomer silently gave each of their blades a shove, and Elisabeth and Alice both leaped back. Upon landing, they reassumed their combat stances. The figure standing between them pulled back their hood. Now their face was plainly visible. The first thing that tumbled out of the tattered cloak was a mop of long dark hair, followed shortly by fair skin. Then came a pair of blinking eyes as tranquil as a lake shore. The figure's hair was the color of the night sky, and their eyes were the color of bones that had been burned to ash. Elisabeth choked out a murmur. "You." The person in the cloak was not Kaito Sena. It was, however, a woman Elisabeth knew well. The woman in question was the centerpiece of the Church's religion and, at the moment, a fugitive. She was the savior of all creation and a sinner without peer, mother to everything and an impartial reaper. She was the person who reconstructed the world, and she was the person who had beckoned its end. After a small shake of the head, Elisabeth spoke once more. "I can hardly say I expected to see you here, Saint." The genuine Suffering Woman returned Elisabeth's gaze. The faintest of smiles crossed her face. Then the Saint began her gentle speech. "We meet again, Torture Princess Elisabeth Le Fanu. I don't believe I've seen you since your dream. I'm sorry to have startled you somewhat, but now my wish to see you once more has finally been granted." "I...take it that means you've not come as my foe?" "Much to the contrary, in fact. Through God and Diabloâ€”two entities I once harbored within my bodyâ€”I heard his voice and came to rescue you. He's unable to come out here himself, but he was able to open a door and speak to me through it. Now I am here to deliver those words to you." She extended one hand toward the Torture Princess. Her skin resembled freshly driven snow, and sure enough, there was no hostility in the gesture. The hatred that had once colored her laughter was now gone and forgotten. "I impart unto you A Message from Him." Elisabeth's eyes went wide. The crystal was farther away than the World's End. Touching it accomplished nothing, and hearing voices from within was impossible. Yet the Saint was claiming that she had partially overcome that divide. Sure enough, though, Elisabeth could faintly sense Kaito Sena's presence coming from the woman before her. She could sense that kind, vaguely foolish warmth that had once always accompanied her. Almost on reflex, Elisabeth took the Saint's hand. That alien quality her palm once had was no more. Now it was faintly warm and faintly soft. The Saint and the Torture Princess looked each other in the eye. And not a moment later, a massive bombardment rained down upon them. The emanations of pain- and hate-filled magic bore a close resemblance to screams. Go on, cry out. Complain about your pain to your heart's content. Crush your throats. Burn your lungs. Your tongues and eyes and limbs have been torn from you. You are bound now as fixed batteries, and even death is denied to you. You hurt. For there is pain. You hate. For there is hatred. However, they didn't know who it was they should hate. They didn't even understand why this was happening to them. Let's make the story even simpler, then. What would a person hate in a situation like that? That's an easy enough question to answer. It's everything. They would hate the entire world. Once someone's pain reached a certain threshold, it burned away any sense of reason they might have had. By screaming, the fixed batteries were able to spread their hatred to their surroundings. Linear blasts of magic burst forth from their mouths, accompanied by heat and shock waves. Several paladins had emerged from the underground tomb upon catching sight of the Saint, and a good dozen of them were burned to a crisp. Flesh and blood and armor alike melted into the ground, and the bones peeking up from beneath the black sludge crumbled into dust. Elisabeth watched their grotesque transformations out of the corner of her eye as she waited for the light to pass. A massive shield stood before herâ€”a wall of briars the Saint had conjured. Blocked by the wall, the blinding light passed behind them and faded away. The briars' roots were coiled around the Saint's arm. Her already-tattered cloak split even further, and she began bleeding all over. That aside, that single wall was all she needed to block the attack. Whether she wished it or not, the Suffering Saint's very existence was rooted in the concept of self-sacrifice, and her magic reflected that fact. "Hurting yourself to protect yourself? What a peculiar technique. I must say, I'm a little disappointed that didn't kill you." The hollow murmur came from Aliceâ€”the same little girl who'd given the order for the fixed batteries to fire. She pursed her lips with her hands clasped behind her back. Her blue dress was just as adorable as always, yet the way she looked in it now gave Elisabeth the impression of something that it never had before. It reminded her of a gargantuan stomach. To her, Alice seemed like a bloated organ, hideously pulsating and ever ravenous. Elisabeth shuddered in horror as she realized why she felt that way. The amount of mana Alice was wielding was unusually large. And what's more, it was growing steadily. It didn't make sense. At the moment, she already had more mana at her disposal than the Torture Princess did. Now that was always going to happen eventually. The Fremd Torturchen was a limitless vessel. The fact that she had the capacity to surpass Elisabeth was the whole reason she was even there. The problem was... ...'tis too fast! What in the blazes did she even... How many did she consume, and where did she even do it? "As long as you die this time, I think it should be fine. It's okay, remember! We're allll going to die together!" Alice smiled. Cheerily. She raised her right arm high, and flower petals began swirling azure around her fingers. The fixed batteries opened their mouths in unison. In an instant, she and the batteries would unleash a magical technique coupled with raw magical destruction at the same time. Then, out of the blue, Alice's arm got rent to the side. Red blood shot out from the wound and sprayed her in the face. However, she didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow. The blood transformed into a fresh wave of petals, and most of it gathered at Alice's wrist to heal her wound. Some of it, though, took on a different form and coalesced into a bizarre-looking swarm of bread-and-butterflies. The swarm flew at Alice's attacker, shedding off butter-colored scales in its wake. The slender woman beat a hasty retreat with her silver hair fluttering behind her. "Rgh! Looks like I'm not going to get anywhere trying to take her down." Elisabeth recognized her voice in an instant. She called to the woman by name. "Izabella!" Izabella tried to reply by giving her a wave. The moment she did, though, another bombardment rained down on them. The screamed blasts were as simple as they were powerful. However, they made up for that with sheer quantity. The linear attacks came from both high and low, and Izabella had to dance her way between all of them. She cast off her cloak in midair before safely landing back on the ground. There was a limit to how much she could dodge, however, and she slid in behind the Saint's shield before her luck had a chance to run out. She stood beside Elisabeth and panted for breath. A good chunk of the mechanical section of her face had been melted like butter. She had the butterfly scales to thank for that, no doubt. Izabella forced the gears in her cheek to spin faster than usual. By the look of it, she was having to accelerate the rate at which her organic parts regrew themselves. When she turned to face her two shieldmates, her blue and purple eyes widened a bit. As the leader of the Holy Knights, seeing the Saint in the flesh like that probably affected her more than most. However, she valiantly regained her composure, then spoke. "I apologize for my delayed arrival. I was talking to my men patrolling the city about revising our defensive perimeter when it all happened. At the moment, I have them heading up the evacuation efforts. As for you, uh, ma'am, I'm sorry, but you're not the most important thing on my plate right now. Madam Elisabeth, have you noticed?" "Noticed what, Izabella? Do you mean to say there's a matter more pressing than what's going on right in front of us?" "There is. Those fixed batteries aren't just here. They're appearing all over the capital. Demon grandchildren, too. And from the reports I'm getting...Alice attacked a series of towns and villages on her way here. We're getting distress calls from some, but there's probably far more that were hit, and even the ones with survivors were all but wiped out." Her expression was racked with grief. Elisabeth nodded. That was a method only the Fremd Torturchen could have used. Furthermore, it was one that had been unavailable to her back when she was operating within the framework of rebellion and following its strict methods and logic. There was no limit to the amount of mana Alice could hold within herself. She had no laws she was beholden to, and as someone who