or feasting on steak? No amount of tears that I shed, no amount of regret that I feel will change who I am or what I've done. As such, I have made my choice. I choose to be proud. "I choose to rejoice as I make all the people of this world into my sacrifices. "Why should I weep when I make victims of others? Why should I apologize?! I shall laugh as I slaughter you. I shall line you up on my plate. I shall take pleasure in devouring you. And I shall rub my belly when I've eaten my fill. However, you all have the right to kill me. I shall show you no mercy as I consume you, but the day will come when the devourer and the devoured trade places, and I shall die at the stake." "Rebuke me. Hate me. Curse my name and condemn me to Hell!" "I am the Torture Princess, Elisabeth Le Fanu!" "I am the proud wolf and the lowly sow, forsaken by all of creation!" After that, Elisabeth gave rise to myriad blood-soaked legends, accumulating magical power comparable to that of the strongest demon. Once more, she became a worthy successor to Vlad. But for some reason, she suddenly revolted against her self-proclaimed foster father. She laughed as she skewered his underlings with thousands upon thousands of stakes. "Why, hello, Vlad. Don't tell me you truly believed the day you met your match would never come, did you? 'Tis your judgment day. Your fate and mine are the sameâ€”to be killed like the swine we are." The two of them struck at once, each downing the other, and they were both captured by the Church. Perhaps her heinous deeds, committed without fear of God, were all for the sake of extending her own life. Or perhaps they were for the sake of defeating her "father," whose power and allies had grown well past the point where any normal person could stand against him. Her motives would remain a mystery. "...Gah, hah!" Kaito coughed up blood as he came to his senses. It appeared he'd been fortunate and vomited up the blood that had pooled in the back of his throat. The sudden pain had shaken his soul out of its shocked state. Elisabeth's memories faded, leaving him unable to see them anymore. Reality, along with the fact that he was steadily losing blood, came rushing back to him. The floor felt warm, like a blanket, and strangely soft. His senses seemed to be failing him. The blood he was lying in felt strangely comfortable. Closing his eyes again, Kaito thought back on the memories he'd just witnessed. ...That was rough; I'll give you that. Given your circumstances, no one could've saved you. Resisting the urge to surrender himself to sleep, Kaito opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, and he couldn't make much out in the darkness. But he could tell that Hina was waving her halberd and fighting something off. She was protecting him. His head swimming, Kaito tried to think. Even God turned away from you. And yet, you intentionally... You chose to become the Torture Princess. Man, I can't even begin to understand that. Kaito reached out his hand. It sank into the sticky pool of blood surrounding him. He stretched out his arm again, searching for a dry section of floor. His arm trembled as he frantically began moving it. Even for the sake of living or fighting back...I still don't get how you could choose something like that so easily... So brazenly... As he squirmed about on the floor, Kaito moved his fingertips once more. Ignoring his pain and the blood he was losing, he wriggled on the floor like a worm. Perhaps thinking he was trying to flee, Vlad laughed and muttered. "It seems your master intends to abandon you, even as you fight for him. Do you wish to continue in spite of this?" "Master Kaito is fleeing? How wonderful! Then I shall buy him as much time as he needs!" The metallic clang of blade against blade rang out. All the while, Kaito continued crawling around. He dragged streaks of blood across the ground, and as he connected line to line, he let out a small laugh. "But man... I guess we did have one thing in common after all. Like...birds of a feather, they say." It was just as Clueless had said. There was one area in which Kaito and Elisabeth resembled each other quite a bit. Kaito extended his arm a little more. Straining his exposed innards as he worked, he wrote a glyph. "I'm already dead...and back when I was alive, I never did manage to get in a solid hit. But you're still alive, so...while you still can...go give your 'dad' one good punch." Kaito connected the beginning and end of the circle with his finger. His work finally done, he collapsed. He could feel the blood burn with magical energy. Vlad, finally realizing what was going on, shouted. "...That'sâ€”" In front of Kaito, Elisabeth's summoning circle had been completed. Over the course of his first life, he'd developed a certain skillâ€”he never forgot any information he'd learned through pain. He'd taken advantage of that by carving a map of the castle's underground tunnels in his skin so he wouldn't get lost. And he'd once gotten Elisabeth to carve a teleportation circle on his chest. He'd drawn the teleportation circle just as he remembered it, and it began undulating wildly. The blood flowed, full of Elisabeth's magical energy. It glimmered, its vivid crimson hue resembling melted rubies. Aided by the light of the circle, Kaito could finally make out what was going on in the room. Vlad was firing off attacks, his face full of impatience, but Hina was somehow holding him at bay. Kaito coughed up blood as he let out a scream. "And then, once you've cleaned up this mess, you can go straight to Hell like you swore! Eâ€‹Lâ€‹Iâ€‹Sâ€‹Aâ€‹Bâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Eâ€‹Tâ€‹Hâ€‹!" As Kaito screamed, darkness exploded from the circle. Crimson flower petals spiraled around the room like a blood-soaked hurricane. A long dress fluttered amid the tempest of darkness and petals. Its scarlet interior swirled across his view. A fair woman appeared, puffing out her buxom leather-bound bust. Her sleek black hair wafted behind her, and her crimson gaze settled on Kaito. She landed atop Kaito's blood and guts sporting her bondage-style dress and devilishly good looks. It made for a beautiful, warped image. In her hand, she held the Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal. "Hello there, Vlad." Elisabeth, immediately grasping the situation, laughed a dark laugh. Her lips twisted in the most wicked yet sublime way imaginable. Vlad recoiled a step. Elisabeth, drenched in blood, was currently free of the Church's shackles. Not only was Vlad shackled, but the Kaiser wasn't by his side. She licked her lips as she eyed her prey. She raised the Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal aloft. Crimson flower petals and darkness spiraled around the blade. She then brought the shining sword down, as if conducting an execution. "Now die aloneâ€”forsaken by heaven and earth and all of creation!" Chains appeared from every direction and quickly filled the room. Hina was lying on the ground, and they flew over her head, shredded the maids, and twined around Vlad like a serpent. He struggled and fought, trying to break the chains with his own darkness and azure petals. But the chains wound around him faster than he could cut. His bones creaked as they bore down on his skin. "Tch... Ah, rrrgh..." He hung in the air, suspended by chains as Elisabeth had once been. Crimson petals piled up around him, like a massive bouquet for the dead. Then, in an instant, they melted and transformed into a platform with a stake. The chains bound Vlad to it. Elisabeth swung her sword again, and crimson flames burned in its wake. It was not a demonic flame but a mortal one. He burned in the flames of man, as if he was being judged by the people. "To think I would be done in...by something like this... This is a cruel joke, Elisabeth..." Heavy darkness and azure petals whirled around Vlad. But the chains remained unbroken, and the fire spread to the tail of his elegant coat. His flesh began to burn. He opened his eyes in disbelief. His sapphire stare was trained on Elisabeth. She returned it with a smile that seemed almost kind. Vlad frantically looked about, as if he'd only just grasped his situation. Suddenly, he'd found himself trapped within the jaws of death for the very first time. A bleak murmur dribbled from his mouth, as if imploring her. "Elisabeth... Elisabeth... Elisabeth... Elisabeth..." "Despots are killed, tyrants are hung, and slaughterers are slaughtered. Such are the ways of the world. The demise of torturers should be garnished with their own screams as they sink to Hell with no chance for salvation. Only at such a time is a torturer's life truly completeâ€”so meet your fate, you vile man. I have no intention of fleeing. I shall follow you shortly." The tips of Vlad's long hair caught ablaze. No longer keeping up appearances, his body convulsed. The platform creaked a little. Then his skin burst into flames. He burned like an ordinary man, and Elisabeth made her declaration. "Death by Burningâ€”a fitting end for you and me." *** As Vlad let out a resentful scream, the blaze swallowed him. The flames caused his face to bulge and sizzle. His skin turned to carbon. And eventually, his entire body burned away. All that remained were bones, and the chains mercilessly shattered them. He became white ash, then scattered into the air and vanished on the wind. Vlad Le Fanu had become nothing more than another victim claimed by the Torture Princess, Elisabeth Le Fanu. *** And that was how the man who had served as the Kaiser and created the Torture Princess met his end. All that remained was Elisabeth, standing alone, ever the picture of regality. Amid the heat from the flames still lingering in the room, she closed her eyes and looked up at the sky. Her black hair drifted behind her, and a crimson flower petal fell from her skin. Having defeated her lifelong foe, Elisabeth took a short breath, exhaled, and opened her eyes. "How weak!" She thrust her fist skyward as she shouted in pure satisfaction. Out of all the things she could have chosen to say, that's what she went with? As he lamented her choice of words, Kaito's consciousness slipped away. Epilogue "â€‹Dâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹eâ€‹lâ€‹iâ€‹câ€‹iâ€‹oâ€‹uâ€‹sâ€‹!â€‹" Elisabeth gripped her fork and knife as she shouted with glee. Laid out before her were jellied beef tongue, gizzard rillettes, kidney pie with a blue-cheese sauce, and tripe cutlets. "I am grateful for your praise, Lady Elisabeth." "Man, your reactions are always way over-the-top when it comes to food." Hina smiled and gave a tidy bow. Kaito stood next to her, holding a wine bottle with both hands. Each time Elisabeth emptied her glass, he mechanically moved to refill it. His task hardly took his humanity into account. His poured the wine with dead eyes, not giving a damn about the wine's flavor. Apparently, though, as long as the food was good, Elisabeth didn't much care about the quality of the liquor. She happily drained her glass. At least my job is easy, he thought. He looked down at his clothes and sighed. He would have really appreciated it if she got him something nicer to wear than his butler uniform. Ignoring his complaints, Elisabeth devoured the spread. But as she finished her final plate and Kaito moved to refill her glass, she suddenly spoke. "Have you no misgivings?" "About what?" He immediately returned her question. Still holding the wine bottle, he waited for her reply. A few days had passed since they'd purged the Kaiser and returned to the stone castle.