needles' silver prongs pierced his foot clean through. Seeing them burst through the top of his shoe, Kaito grimaced. He lifted his foot up, and a horrible slurping noise sounded out as it came free of the needles, which were now covered in disgusting globs of fat. Blood gushed from his wounds. As agony shot through him, he took another step, once more bringing his foot down on the needles of his own volition. The moment he did, a melodic voice echoed through the air. "You fear pain, aye, but you're far too accustomed to it. I daresay that that contradiction there is where your warped personality stems from." "Huh? Wait, that voice... Elisabeth?" Kaito frantically glanced around. For a moment, he even forgot that his foot was being impaled. That was a bad move. He tried to twist his body to the side to get a better look, but because his foot was still stuck, he ended up losing his balance. He toppled over, and the carpet of needles quickly drew closer. Oooh, I don't like this. The prospect of being in agonyâ€” â€”and of dying in agonyâ€” â€”and of being in constant agony yet unable to dieâ€” was a most unpleasant prospect indeed. That was the fact that Kaito mused on as he fell helplessly toward the needles. The moment before he got run through, though, he stopped. Someone behind himâ€” â€”had just grabbed his hand tight. "...Huh?" "Heeeave..." Then they began dragging him upward. It was almost anticlimactic how casually he got pulled up through the air. It felt just like the time his soul got unceremoniously yankedâ€” â€”and plucked out of his original world. "...Ah!" By the time Kaito realized what was going on, he was already sitting atop something black-and-white. When he looked down, he discovered that it was the round creature from before. It was the exact same shapeâ€”just a lot bigger. The large creature floated gently through the air as it carried Kaito on its back. He didn't understand what was going on in the slightest. What he did know, though, was that he didn't have any time to waste gawking at the strange beast. He quickly glanced to his side. There, he found the exact person he'd expected. He pointed his finger straight at her. *** "Oh, hello there, Kaito." Elisabeth gave him a breezy greeting and a one-handed wave. She was sitting with her arms perched atop her knees and the scarlet inside of her dress tucked underneath her. Kaito raised his voice in indignation. "Don't you 'oh, hello' me, dammit! Do you have any idea what I just went through because of you?!" "Well, you say that, but even I hadn't the faintest idea that your nightmares' cause would take such a form. And besides, who exactly was it who refused to wait for me, striding across those needles on his own like an utter fool?" "Well, it does sound bad when you put it that way... Wait, hold on a minute. This is the cause of my nightmares?" "That it is. 'Tis a contradictory sight indeed." Elisabeth gazed down at the transformed field of flowers as she spoke. Still seated, Kaito scooted over until he was right next to her. All of a sudden, he realized that his foot didn't hurt anymore. His wounds were gone without a trace. However, the world of needles and knives showed no sign of reverting to its original state. Overwhelmed by the sheer heartlessness of the sight, Kaito asked a question. "Wait...what does this have to do with my nightmares at all?" "To pinpoint the precise source of another's nightmares, one must first dive deep into their memories. However, this is but an experimental device, and such a complex feat is beyond it. Instead, it displays a symbolic manifestation of the fear that drives its subject's nightmares. What you see before you is the result. You fear pain, yet you're accustomed to it and, at times, even accept it willingly. As I said, contradictory. 'Tis perverse, and that means a lot coming from me." "...Huh." "A sea of knives and needles, eh...? 'Tis a veritable cage of pain, impossible to ever escape from." An eternity of agony was an unpleasant prospect indeed. That was definitely how Kaito felt. That was what he was afraid of. That was what he was used to. The two of them went quiet, and for a time, it was silent atop the strange creature's back. The pair just sat there. All of a sudden, though, Elisabeth arched her back and stretched her arms all the way up. Her breasts bounced precariously beneath their leather belts. After bringing her arms back down, Elisabeth exhaled. "To be frank, though, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest." "Don't you think that's a little too honest?" "Ha. You think your trauma is special? What you fear, what you find unpleasant, what weight you bear...I've no intention of asking the details, nor would they hold my interest if I did." "That's...fair, I guess." "That said, I do aim to obliterate this place now." "...Say what?" Elisabeth's proclamation came completely out of left field. Kaito blinked. He hadn't quite registered what she had said just yet. As he gave his dumbfounded reply, he looked around. When she said "this place," she must have meant the space they were currently in. When that fact finally clicked, he worriedly shot her a question. "Now, um, Miss Elisabeth, are you really sure that's a good idea?" "It matters not! Besides, such was the purpose this device was built for in the first place!" "Ah, so what I'm hearing is that you have no proof at all that we're gonna be okay." As Kaito quickly came to that realization, Elisabeth rose to her feet. Her dress flared out behind her like a cloak as she lorded over the world of silver. Several butterflies landed on her luscious black hair. Adorned perilously with their bladed wings, she smiled in satisfaction. "When you put someone in the device, it reproduces the symbolic cause of their nightmares. However, that alone is but the first step. The way it ends the nightmares is by having a third party destroy the reproduction, thereby freeing the subject's mind. A violent configuration, to be sure." "I feel like that doesn't make any sense at all. Is this really gonna make the nightmares stop?" "Oh, there's certainly no guarantee of that! Most of the developers of large-scale magic devices such as this end up going mad!" "I'm starting to sense a trend with these unfounded statements you keep making." "That said, ridiculous as the ideas behind it may be, 'twas well worth testing it out. We've not had any battles as of late, and I could feel my body growing duller by the day... Plus, I just went through a rather unpleasant experience." Elisabeth finished with a low murmur. She cracked her knuckles. Kaito tilted his head to the side in confusion. Something must have happened that he didn't know about. However, there was no time to ask questions. Elisabeth was making her move. Beneath them, the mysterious creature let out an apprehensive "Bakuuuu." It sensed danger. However, Elisabeth paid its complaint no heed. To the contrary, in fact, she treated its cry as a signal to let the destruction commence. She reached out into empty space, and a vortex of darkness and crimson flower petals formed around her pale hand. Then she drew a long sword from within. "Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal!" The runes inscribed in its blade flashed crimson. Anyone who saw them would have their meaning driven straight into their brain. You are free to act as you will. But pray that God shall be your salvation. For the beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in the palm of His hand. "Witches' Dance!" Elisabeth swung the sword straight down. To Kaito, it looked like flames were billowing off it. However, that was just an optical illusion. In truth, the sword had merely cut through the air. Down below them, though, changes were occurring in the silver landscape. The air was shimmering with heat haze, and the ground had been transformed into a vast sheet of burning metal. If anyone had been standing on it, the heat would have forced them to hop around like a madman. The metal plane's temperature rose mercilessly, growing higher and higher by the moment. Its silver flowers drooped and sagged as they melted. The intense heat was permeating every inch of this bounded world. And Kaito and Elisabeth were no exception. The massive black-and-white creature rose higher into the air at the last minute, but not even it could escape the effects of the change. It flailed its stubby arms and legs about to protest the heat. Kaito had to cling tight to its back to avoid being thrown off. "H-hey, Elisabeth! At this rate, you're gonna end up burning us to death, too!" "Hmm. That is a problem, isn't it? To be quite frank, I never actually considered that possibility." "Why wasn't that the first thing you considered?!" Kaito shouted in visible panic. Elisabeth, on the other hand, was inexplicably as calm as a cucumber. She swung her sword down once more. There's no way..., thought Kaito. And yet there was. Without a moment's hesitation, Elisabeth made her bold declaration. "Now, 'tis time to seal the deal." She swung her sword down, and darkness and crimson flower petals surged forth. A series of chains went flying as the ashen sky absorbed the shock wave. Elisabeth continued attacking the world without stopping. Kaito braced himself. He had no idea what was going to happen to them. The sky creaked before his very eyes. "Whaâ€”?" Then a noise as shrill as glass shattering filled the air. The world built of pain was broken. Shards of the sky cascaded down like shooting stars. The image of the countless glittering fragments burned itself into Kaito's retinas. As the thousands of scraps of light rained down from overhead, all of a suddenâ€” Shoop. "...Huh?" â€”a disappointingly brief noise echoed outâ€” â€”and Kaito and Elisabeth got launched outside. "Taaaaaaaaaaaake that!" "Hurgh!" A shock ran through Kaito's body for the third time that day. When he took the heel or elbow or whatever it was to the chest, his eyes snapped open. His body went stiff as he contorted in agony, but he quickly rallied and got up. A dim, glowing ball sat in front of him. Its surface was covered in cracks, and it was emitting black-and-white smoke. He could faintly make out an annoyed "Bakuuuu" cry coming from somewhere, so it would seem that the events he'd just gone through hadn't been only a dream. Elisabeth was standing beside the ball. She gave it a huffy frown as she looked down at its sorry state. "What a flimsy piece of junk that turned out to be. For how dangerous a device it was, I'd have expected it to survive at least a single use." "I bet it would have if you didn't use it like a lunatic." Kaito shot her an exasperated rebuttal, but Elisabeth didn't respond to it. "Hmm," she murmured as she inspected the cracks. After giving the device a thorough once-over, she nodded. "Well, no matter. I'll just stick it back together later; I'm sure it'll be fine." "I'm pretty sure it won't." "Oh, have some faith. 'Tis nary a flaw in this world that a little welding can't fix." "Oh yeah, this isn't gonna end well." But right when Kaito was about to warn Elisabeth that her efforts were likely to accomplish little more than exacerbating the ball's already-critical damage, Elisabeth suddenly turned on her heel and shot him a question as casual as could be. "And on another note, I take it your odd drowsiness is gone?" "Huh? Oh, actually, now that you mention it, yeah... I guess today's just been one weird experience