jumped to the birdlike creatures La Mules had summoned. But those things hadn't looked anything like Deus Ex Machina. Paying Kaito's confusion little heed, the Kaiser nodded in assent. "Elisabeth can summon torture devices without limit, can she not? What she does is use her own mana as a catalyst to drag formless, nameless, worthless masses of mana down from higher dimensions and temporarily mold them into the forms that best suit her purposes. Summoning beasts is similar. But whether one can do that or not, whether one is able to take formless things and mold them into shapes suited for battle, depends heavily on one's nature. 'Deux Ex Machina' refers to the entity summoned when one uses a particular summoning rite that a mad sorcerer developed to subvert that restriction." The Kaiser swung his sleek black tail toward the horrible machines. It was true; when you looked at them all lined up, they were clearly designed with only combat in mind. "Deus Ex Machina is a weapon, designed so one can use it regardless of their nature or disposition. In order to continually materialize it, though, requires colossal amounts of mana. Using it at all is liable to kill the user. That lout Vlad was thinking of summoning it, but upon looking at its particulars, he deemed it a 'hassle to maintain' and abandoned the notion. However, it seems that lass there has mastered it, and with a mere human body." "It seems I'm being complimented, but we still haven't shown you our true power. It's true that the one you sealed in ice was part of Deus Ex Machina, mister, but it was nothing more than a foot soldier I made from the spare parts that these children gathered up for me. It certainly wasn't one of the main units." Upon hearing what she had to say, Kaito shuddered. If that was the case, then just how strong were the main units anyways? After all, those were the ones Jeanne was casually surrounded by. The Kaiser pointed his long tail at her. Then, as he murmured, he laughed at the girl who'd introduced herself as a new Torture Princess. "Surely, I can think of no explanation besides her having eaten a demon's flesh." "Wait, what?" The Kaiser had suddenly dropped a new piece of information on him, one that was wholly unthinkable. Kaito was aghast. Did that mean the girl in front of him was just like Elisabeth, a person truly worthy of the title of Torture Princess? There was no way that could be possible. At the same time, he felt a degree of satisfaction at having resolved the contradiction between his conjectures and the Kaiser's proclamation. Just like the torture devices Elisabeth summoned, Deus Ex Machina itself was wholly unrelated to demons. That said, though, its master had obtained her power by consuming a demon's flesh. So in other words, the massacres had both nothing to do with demons and everything to...do...? It was at that moment that Kaito arrived at a new, horrifying question. Supposedly, Jeanne had eaten a demon's flesh. It was unclear when that had happened, but it didn't appear as though any of the fourteen contractors had known of her existence. Hypothetically speaking, if one of them had reached out to her and offered her the meat in order to form a collaborative relationship with her, they would surely have called upon her aid before being killed by Kaito and the others. But if that's the case, then which demon's flesh did she eat? Once more, Kaito trembled. "On that note, shall we take our leave, mister?" Jeanne's voice was as light as a small bird chirping. The hell do you mean, "on that note"?! But Kaito had no time to be baffled. The girl extended her hand to him, as though inviting him to dance. The chains dangling from her wrists made her look almost like a prisoner. Unclear as to what she meant, Kaito tilted his head to the side. Holding her halberd in one hand, Hina took a step forward. "I believe Master Kaito already declined your nonsense." "Oh my, oh my, oh my. Y'all still don't get it, do ya, dumb-asses." Jeanne spoke, her expression blank. Her chains rattled as she propped her index finger up on her lip. Then she went on, as though trying to explain something obvious to a child. "Allow me to put it the way you would, mister. First of all, the lives of all the beastfolk here rest in my hands... Oh, how unfortunate. I suppose the 'first' point was all I had." It seemed like she truly found that fact unfortunate, as she cast her rosy eyes down. However, she soon got over it. She pointed one slender finger toward Lute. Kaito looked at him. As he kept pressure on his wounded flank, Lute met Kaito's gaze and shook his head. He was silently screaming at Kaito not to go with her. He hadn't even tried to ask Kaito for help. He seemed to be planning to oppose her on his own. Next, Kaito cast his gaze around the council room. Again and again, he received the same response. All the beastfolk had responded the same way. That was enough for him. "Hina, put down your halberd... So where are you planning on taking us?" Kaito placed a hand on Hina's shoulder. With a small nod, she lowered the tip of her weapon. As Kaito stepped forward to cover Hina, Jeanne responded matter-of-factly to his question. "As things stand, not a single one of you stray sheep truly understands the situation we are in. But the world is in a state of crisis, and the situation grows more dire with every passing second. I intend to prove it to you with the most direct methods at my disposal. My reason for that is that fully explaining would take longer. You're the Kaiser's contractor, mister. And you're a valuable piece of bait for the Torture Princess, too. I will make you understand, whether you wish to or not. Now then, get your ass over here already." Silently, Kaito came to a realization. He and Jeanne were never going to be able to see eye to eye. I can't even begin to understand what she's going on about. The girl herself, however, seemed to think her duty to explain the situation wholly fulfilled. Still expressionless but with an oddly satisfied demeanor, Jeanne extended her hand to him a second time. Accompanied by Hina, he took a step forward. When he did, though, someone grabbed his leg. With a start, he looked down. The expression on Lute's face was desperate as he tried to stop Kaito. "Sir...Kaito... You...mustn't go... That...girl...is mad..." "I'm sorry. I dunno what's going on at all, but it looks like I got you guys wrapped up in something terrible. If we leave with Jeanne, at least no civilians will get hurt. Once we're gone, shout for healers." "But...what about...youâ€”?" "I'm really sorry about this." Kaito found himself at a loss for what to say next. Lute's breathing was ragged. After glancing between his golden eyes and the brutal wound carved in his flank, Kaito decided to speak from the heart. "I was really happy that you guys all believed in me. Thanks...and make sure you take good care of your wife." With those parting words, Kaito began walking again. Lute frantically scrabbled at Kaito's ankles, his sharp claws scraping at Kaito's black pant cuffs. But before long, Kaito advanced beyond his reach. As he strode forward, Lute scratched at the ground. But his body refused to move. No matter how hard Lute struggled, he couldn't follow. At the same time, he hadn't called for reinforcements. No shortage of powerful soldiers had already fallen. In order to avoid adding to the victim count, Lute chose to just see Kaito's departure through to the end. In spite of that, though, he couldn't keep himself from letting out a weak, rumbling moan from deep within him. "Urooooough, urooooough, uraaaaaagh!" Kaito took Jeanne's hand. When he did, she squeezed his hand tight. The gesture seemed almost innocent, and she gave a mechanical nod. At some point, the Kaiser had taken his place by Kaito's side. Then the Deus Ex Machinas moved to surround them. With bizarre movements, they began spinning around Kaito, Hina, the Kaiser, and Jeanne. Golden flower petals and white feathers began fluttering along beside them. The two dazzling hues seared the scene into the vision of all present. It was a magnificent, elegant spectacle, but at the same time, it had a certain coldness to it. Jeanne shouted from the eye of the vortex. "Please, set your hearts at ease! Pleasant misters, rude misters, despicable misters, all of you! There is no need for any of you to mourn or lament!" Then the Torture Princess Jeanne de Rais, the oppressor of slaves, the savior of the world, the saint, and the whore, made her sonorous declaration. "All this is for the sake of salvation!" The golden-white light vanished. And when it did, Kaito and Hina left the land of the beastfolk behind. Lute had been left behind, and his furious, frustrated howls echoed off the walls. In all honesty, Kaito was prepared for the possibility of death. The things Jeanne was doing and saying gave him no confidence in her sanity. And not only was he unable to tell what she was thinking, but he couldn't even figure out what her objective was. Based on the fact that she'd referred to him as "a valuable piece of bait for the Torture Princess," he clearly held some value in her eyes, but past that, he was in the dark. Given all that, he wouldn't have been shocked to discover that their destination lay a mile up in the air or something. Hina and the Kaiser were quick on their feet, so he wasn't particularly worried about either of them. But he had little confidence that he himself would be able to make it out of such a situation in one piece. I've gotta be ready for whatever comes my way. With all that in mind, Kaito put up his guard. The golden petals and white light had melted together before his eyes and formed a firm cylinder, but before long, it shattered and collapsed like molten gold. It turned out that Kaito's fears had been partly unfounded, as their destination was on proper, solid ground. The spectacle before him, however, was bizarre enough to make up for that fact. "...Whâ€”?" Kaito had found himself standing in a small village wedged in the ravine between two precipitous mountain ranges. There were lines of tightly packed, slate-colored buildings flanking him on both sides, both of which seemed to practically cling to the narrow ground. Based on their appearance, the buildings looked to have been made exclusively from boulders quarried off the mountainsides. Each one probably weighed a considerable amount, but they'd been expanded so haphazardly that the pressure had caused them to warp. A few of the buildings had even caved in from the weight of their neighbors. All in all, they gave off a similar impression to cotton balls packed tightly into a snowdrift. In other words, the village was old, decrepit, and desolate. The gap between the mountains that the village sat in grew narrower the higher up one went. As a result, simply by standing in the middle of the town, Kaito felt as though something was oppressively looming over him. Furthermore, the whole place was starved of sunlight, and not even the wind could reach its streets. A single brush with illness could have spelled disaster for its entire populace. But while no standards would have deemed it fit for human habitation, the town's most peculiar aspect was unrelated to its layout. The honor belonged to the fact that human corpses sat crucified along the walls of each of the