a knife. Beyond it was a sight that would cause anyone looking to doubt their sanity. Everything there was stained gray. The surfaces of the buildings and trees were weathered, as though hundreds of years had gone by. There was no sign of life in sight, of course. Even the air itself was cold and firm. The dim rays of morning sunlight faded and vanished into the gray as well, much like how they would in the depths of a swamp. Kaito utilized all his senses to try to impress a comprehensible form onto the world beyond the boundary line. The space beyond here is practically a corpse in its own right. He felt as though he was standing before the carcass of some colossal creature with none of its presence or warmth remaining. The entire zone, which should have been teeming with energy, had transformed into a hollow cadaver. The space was death itself, and it was close enough for him to touch. "I'd thought you'd vanished, yet here you are." The voice that called out from beside Kaito was accompanied by the hard sound of heels clicking. He cast a sidelong glance toward it. Elisabeth was standing there. Her arms were crossed, and her expression was sour. It made sense that she hadn't run into him until just then. When morning had come, he'd immediately left the plaza after getting dressed. He'd known there was a chance Elisabeth would try to stop him from coming. Kaito didn't give her much of a response. Elisabeth continued her cross-examination. "Now, then. Exactly what were you doing that required sneaking about all night long? You were even crafty enough to get the paladins on your side." Kaito averted his gaze from hers. Looking back toward the section of the world the demon had destroyed, he quietly answered her. "...Something stupid." As he spoke, he suddenly felt his earlobe get yanked. Elisabeth mercilessly pulled on his ear. "'Tis entirely obvious you were up to something stupid, you fool! Don't go trying to play this off! Who do you think you are, Vlad?!" "Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! I don't mind the pain, Elisabeth, but it's gonna be a hassle sticking it back on if you tear it off! Also, I'm nothing like him!" Kaito struggled, waving his arms in resistance. The threads of madness holding his face taut had abruptly snapped. Deep in his pocket, his stone rattled around to express its exasperation. Having sensed a change in his expression, Elisabeth snorted and let go of his ear. "Well, I have something of an idea. Your stores of mana have risen, after all. You were up to something rather stupid, indeed." "...Yeah, I figured you'd have me pegged." "Ha, I still haven't the foggiest as to your true objective. No matter what drivel you spout now, nothing shall change, nor do I intend to let it... But at the moment, that power of yours is liable to be of use." "You know, Godot Deus told me something similar." "His judgment was the same as mine, eh? Very well. Do try to keep yourself alive." Elisabeth spoke, and Kaito nodded. At least she didn't tell me to stay out of it. Secretly pleased by that, Kaito surveyed his surroundings. The only person standing by his side was Elisabeth. The Royal Knights and paladins hadn't followed. If the unthinkable happened and the Torture Princess fell, they needed to be ready to take steps to abandon the capital and seal the demon within. Because of that, they needed to preserve as many personnel as possible. Godot Deus's decision had been correct. The Torture Princess and her servant would face death alone. Just like they had back in their first battle. Like always, and just like it was back at the very beginning, huh? With that thought, Kaito nodded. However, there was one thing he found disappointing. Not having the ax-wielding automaton, Kaito's beloved, by their side made him feel a little discouraged and lonely. But he took pride in the fact that he hadn't left the Torture Princess alone. "Throughout Elisabeth Le Fanu's bloody life, she was accompanied by a single foolish servant." Kaito thought that sounded just fine. "...Let's go." "...Mm-hmm." Unlike once before, Elisabeth didn't accuse him of giving a response unbecoming of a servant. Side by side, the two of them stepped into the gray space. As they did, they crossed the boundary. The moment they did, Kaito was swallowed up by the space in which anything and everything was wrong. The Kaiser gently whispered in his ear, as though teasing him. "Welcome to the world of demons. Welcome to the nightmare." I see. This is... What did it really mean for the world to be destroyed? What was the true nature of the deeds the demons committed? In that moment, Kaito truly understood. It was quiet there. And it was engulfed in an absolute, overwhelming sense of peace. Kaito's senses of touch, hearing, and sight collectively made that abundantly clear. In that gray space, everything was uniformly dying, being killed, and silent. Demons were beings who fed on the pain of God's creations. Normally, they would be surrounded by incessant screams. However, once they'd taken everything they could, the ruins they left behind were enveloped in a surprising degree of tranquility. In a way, this made sense. Once something had been destroyed all the way to its very core, nothing possessed the means to destroy it further. Diablo destroys the world, and God creates it. At the moment, that place was waiting for God to come reassemble it. In this achromatic world, the living were clearly the foreign ones. Perplexed by the fact that they were the ones disturbing the tranquility, Kaito suddenly realized something. Demons are fundamentally evil. But at the same time, human morals don't apply to them. The words Vlad had once spoken to him crossed back through his ears. "Before they're summoned, they exist in a higher dimension. They don't possess human thoughts, they cannot use speech, and they aren't equipped with senses. When the higher-ranked demons materialize, they reflect their summoner and lower themselves such that they can understand each other as simple, evil souls. "If they didn't, we humans wouldn't even be able to comprehend their existence." "...An evil that humans can't even comprehend." As he repeated those words to himself, Kaito came to realize something. The demons fundamentally differed from the way human society defined evil. In the past, Kaito had faced off against the fourteen demons and witnessed firsthand the acts of cruelty they'd committed. But here in this quiet world marked the first time that his body stiffened not with rage but with sheer terror. Once demons wielded their true power, they didn't have anything humans might regard as an objective. There was only pure, absolute destruction. Kaito now viscerally understood that. God and Diablo weren't entities man was supposed to interact with. "What the hell was Vlad thinking, summoning something like that?" "A perfectly reasonable question, my dear successor. But it's only human to take that which we cannot comprehend and, while still ignorant of its true nature, use it for our own ends." Suddenly, Vlad's voice echoed throughout the gray world. Kaito raised his head in surprise and looked in the opposite direction from where Elisabeth was standing. "By summoning demons and dragging them down to our level, we obtained power. Perhaps it wasn't respectable, but I'd rather not be unjustly accused of folly." At some point, his slender figure had floated up. His long legs were crossed, as though he were sitting in a chair. As he spoke, he wore a smile that could best be described as beguiling. "We were carnivorous by natureâ€”it's only human to want to consume everything one can." Vlad theatrically extended one hand in front of himself as he spoke. As he looked up at Vlad's androgynous features, Kaito ignored most of what he was saying and dejectedly asked him a question. "Hey, Vlad. I didn't run any magic through your stone, so how did you materialize?" "The rules from outside don't apply in this hollow space, you see. In the face of 'zero,' both the living and reproduction of souls in stones amount to 'ones' equally. While I don't possess flesh, my soul is given form in the truest sense in here. Or rather, though I say all that, I couldn't really tell you what the underlying principles are or how they work. My research is lacking. I must admit, though, being able to take form on my own is quite pleasant... Oh, careful there." Vlad's face forcefully blurred out. A sharp fang was piercing through his phantasmal body. Kaito assumed it was Elisabeth harassing him, but in truth, it was the Kaiser. The first-rate hound had also materialized in this space, likely irrespective of his own will. As the Kaiser bit down hard into him, Vlad shrugged in annoyance. "What might be the matter, Kaiser? I'd thought your anger had somewhat abated." "Fool! Just now, you were mocking us demons! 'Wanting to consume everything in sight'... Cease your chittering, you weak meager half-wit who went and died beyond my reach! You run your grating mouth too much, O He Who Rears Hell Within His Mind!" "Good heavens, aren't you on a short fuse. Just whose influence could that have been caused by...? Oh, easy now." Once again, his face blurred in an amusing fashion. This time, it was due to Elisabeth's stakes. At that, even Vlad's expression soured. Given his temperament, he probably didn't much care for situations where he was unable to show off. Turning toward Elisabeth, Vlad made his protest. "While I'd love to let you play your adorable little pranks, would you mind giving it a rest, Elisabeth? Surely now is no time to be wasting your mana like that." "Ha, worry not. It takes nearly no mana at all to pierce your unsightly visage." "You say that, but you mustn't let your guard down... As my dear successor just heard from the Kaiser, this here is the world of demons." Suddenly, Vlad's lips curled up. He opened his arms wide. Regaining his normal demeanor, he spoke in an unpleasant tone. "Truly, the depths of man's nightmare. And don't think you're safe just because it's silent. Even this space, engulfed as it is in endless tranquility, will spit out fresh pain in order to expel foreign contaminants." His movements theatrical, Vlad nimbly extended his arm and pointed deep into the hazy, gray world. Kaito followed to where Vlad was pointing. As he did, his hazy, muddied vision instantly cleared up. A shade of raw crimson peered out in the distance. Upon further inspection, it was writhing. The wall of flesh towered high above their heads, pulsating as though it were the very heart of the world. "See, they're coming." Vlad spoke in an amused, half-mocking voice. His words were like a cue. The silence and tranquility crumbled. Kaito gulped. A wave of pain was billowing forth from the base of the mass of flesh. More underlings than he'd ever seen before were advancing on him and Elisabeth. Death howled. Pain clamored. The grotesque horde approached. They were all lined up, like a parade or an orchestra, appearing loudly and boisterously. The tumult they caused made it seem as though all the pain in the world had gathered in one place. Because of the emergency missive Elisabeth had received from the Church, Kaito had been aware of the fact that when the mass of flesh had first explosively expanded, it had slaughtered as many as a third of the capital's inhabitants. To be more precise, it had either forcibly transformed them into underlings or left them as humans just to gruesomely kill them. However, it was only when he was faced with the host before him that he realized just how insufficient his imagination was in comprehending the scope