second. But only for a second. The blob swung its arms even more violently than before. The sweeping blow came hurtling toward the Peace Brigade. With no time nor ability to stop on a dime, four more of themâ€”including the youngster who'd just shoutedâ€”got reduced to carrion. "Sure enough, there's no reasoning with it," Elisabeth muttered grimly. As she did, she noted with some surprise the disappointment in her voice. Although she hadn't consciously realized it, apparently even the Torture Princess had been hoping for a miracle. In a sense, that just went to show how close they'd been. The flesh blob had reacted. Randgrof's voice had gotten through. It hadn't accomplished anything, but even just that much already bordered on miraculous. Aguina was serving as the monster's mind, and by all rights, he shouldn't have been in any state to even process language. However, that wasn't how Randgrof had seen it. His expression was marked deep with dejection and despair. Elisabeth decelerated, then turned toward him and shouted. "Turn back, Randgrof! All you'll do now is throw away more lives! Turn back while you yet draw breath!" "But, I'm not... I can't..." Randgrof hung his head. A moment later, though, he shook his head and fixed his gaze straight ahead. Then he took everyone by surprise by raising his voice and grabbing Lute by the collar. "I'm not finished yet!" "Sir Randgrof, I say, what are youâ€”? WHOA!" "I'm fully aware of how rude I'm being! Forgive me!" With that, Randgrof tossed Lute off their summoned beast's back and grabbed hold of the leather reins himself. However, he had no idea how to properly lead or direct the beast, so he simply resorted to kicking its side. The beast began accelerating at breakneck speeds. Onward and forward Randgrof charged. One of the arms lashed out at him, and he dodged it by the narrowest of margins. However, the next one came barreling at him head-on. Elisabeth gallantly dived in front of it. Her corroded black hair fluttered behind her as she lopped the arm off. As she and Randgrof passed each other by, he gave her a shout. "You have my thanks!" "If you wish to go, then go. 'Tis best to bear no regrets." She could have stopped him. However, she said nothing to that effect. His charge was an act of supreme folly. All that awaited him at its end was death. The Torture Princess knew that. She knew, and she let him go anyway. Elisabeth left Randgrof to gallop on away. Randgrof didn't fear that which awaited him. His own father was the man behind the Sand Queen's transformation, and yet even so, there was no hesitation in Randgrof's expression. It was as though he had always known that his father might someday become a monster. He raced all the way up to the flesh blob and drew his sword from its sheath. Then he raised his arm aloft and hurled his sword at the blob. *** The blade pierced the blob's flesh. Blackened blood trickled down its length. That was enough to get all the blob's eyes to turn and look Randgrof's way. Despite the clear animosity he was facing it with, though, the flesh blob didn't turn its arms on him. Instead, it froze again. Elisabeth had trouble believing it until a certain morsel of information wormed its way out of the depths of her mind. A tranquil song echoed in her ears. â€”Her ever-closed eyes watch over her sheep â€”Ensuring all her descendants are honest and true and good and resplendent â€”Please, my queen, know it is true, believe in us as we believe in you The blob is a monster that sees all, to be sure... ...but it was also an entity that cast judgment on all those it observed. To wit, because the song influenced it and provided the inspiration for its transformation... This was no miracle. Nothing of the sort. The monster had always retained both the ability to look at people and the intellect necessary to cast judgment on them. And Randgrof was no beastfolk. He was an honest, true, good, resplendent descendant of the Sand Queen. And on top of that, he was Aguina's son. The flesh blob's eyes widened even further, then spun in their sockets. It didn't know what to do. Eventually, it decided to simply get out of Randgrof's way. It reached its arms toward the wounded white deer. Before it had a chance to avert its gaze from him, though, Randgrof made his move. He pulled something out from his pocket. This time, Elisabeth felt as though she heard her own voice echo back in her ears. "'Tis a wretched sight when one tries to kill themselves by blade and fails to finish the job." "I won't fail. What son of yours ever would?" Randgrof laughed. He held his knife at the ready. His hands were trembling. "This is the one thing I can do to make sure you don't have to bear that anguish alone. Witness me, Father." And in one clean stroke, Randgrof Elephabred slit his own throat open. Blood gushed forth. Some of it sprayed onto the Sand Queen. The air froze. Or at least, everyone there could have sworn it did. The summoned beast shook its body. Randgrof's corpse, so sorrowfully light, tumbled to the ground. The Sand Queen immediately reached an arm out, catching his chest so gently and delicately it was almost funny. However, doing so caused the arm's teeth to damage it, spreading more and more blood across Randgrof's body. Tears poured from each of the Sand Queen's many eyes. She was grieving the death of an honest, true, good, resplendent descendant. Translucent droplets splashed against the ground. As they did, the colossal hawk drilled its beak forward once more. However, the Queen ignored the attack against her person. Her body shook. Then something rose up to its surface from within. A new transformation was taking place. When she saw what was happening, Elisabeth gasped. A key change had taken place in the flesh blob. Now a male figure was rising up on part of its surface. Based on the amount of mana contained within, Elisabeth immediately understood what had happened. The direct spiritual hit she'd suffered had caused the source of the Sand Queen's mana to change its shape and make an appearance. Now the part of her she'd kept so deeply hidden away was out in the open. The man-shaped core tried desperately to reach out its arms. However, it was unable to reach even the corpse immediately beside it. Its hands drifted helplessly through the air. And that was when a bellow rang out. *** Lute rushed forward, shouting at the top of his lungs. He dashed at the flesh blob with sword in hand. It was a sad, pathetic attempt at a battle charge. Everything had happened so suddenly that Lute hadn't even had time to put together a plan. His mad dash had come far too late. The man was about to recede back into the fleshy depths, and that would spell their doom. They were out of optionsâ€”or so it seemed. But instead of faltering, Lute called out to Aguina. "I've been meaning to tell youâ€”we're expecting." The man came to an abrupt stop. He looked back and forth between Lute and Randgrof's corpse. In the end, his gaze settled on his son. Lute's blade drew ever closer to him. However, the man didn't move. He just waited for the blow that would mark his execution. Lute continued onward toward his unmoving opponent. When he spoke next, there was no falsehood in his voice. "You prayed for us to be blessed with a healthy child, and that's something I will never forget." The blade struck true. Lute's slash cleaved the thing shaped like Aguina in half from top to bottom. In that moment, the Queen's parts continued moving. However, her reactor itself was destroyed. That was too close for comfort, Elisabeth thought from atop her raven. If she, the white deer, or the colossal hawk had tried to destroy Aguina, he merely would have retreated back into the blob. Just now, though, he had allowed the slash to cut him clean in two. And it was all because Lute was the one who'd called out to him. They were both fathers, and that was what had sealed the deal. The man-shaped figure trembled, then melted away. All of a sudden, the flesh blob swelled up. Its skin grew taut, and blood vessels began bulging up on its surface. This was different from the earlier transformations. This was a destructive growthâ€”growth that signaled its demise. Lute hurried back. However, he didn't make it in time, and one of his arms got caught in the expanding flesh. He struggled like his life depended on it. He even kicked and punched the flesh, but all that accomplished was getting one of his feet trapped as well. Elisabeth forced her raven into a nosedive. If she used a Cat's Paw, she could cut around Lute and free him from the blob. She quickly conjured up a rope. It was the exact same trick she'd used back when Lute fell on his backside. "You saved us!" she shouted. "Now, get on back here yourself, Lute!" "Oh, what a shameful way for me to get caught!" After sharing pretty much the exact same exchange they had earlier, Elisabeth wound the rope around his wrist. This time, though, a staggering amount of force yanked her forward. The intensity with which the flesh blob was trying to swallow Lute up was simply too great. Elisabeth fell over, and the force from the impact caused her raven to crash-land. She found herself getting dragged toward the blob, so she plunged her sword into the ground in an attempt to resist. However, the handle slipped out of her blood-slick grasp. Lute stared at her. The blob had already swallowed half of his body. A determined expression crossed his face, and he reached his arm out as far as it could go. Then, after snatching hold of the belt around Elisabeth's neck, he hurled her as far away as he possibly could. It was like it was all some sort of gag. "You! Utter! Fool!" "I leave the rest to you, Madam...no, rather, Sir Kaito's belovedâ€”as well as our beloved Captain Elisabeth!" Lute spoke with a look of clear relief, and just like that, the flesh blob swallowed him up. Elisabeth landed hard and tumbled violently across the ground. She quickly raised her wounded face and stared blankly at the scene before her. Like it or not, she could tell exactly what had happened. My raven was swallowed up, too. I shan't have the mana to deploy any meaningful torture devices for some time. In short, she had no way of saving Lute. She dragged her venom- and crash-landing-battered body to its feet and began walking. The retreat she was beating was a pathetic one hardly befitting the Torture Princess. But as she tripped over her own feet, she hurried on anyway. Even as she coughed up blood, she ran away like a woman possessed. Those who owed their lives to another had a duty to fight. Stopping and putting down her burden was an option denied to her. Somehow or other, she managed to get out of range. Her vision blurred as blood dripped down into her eyes. As she rubbed them the way a child would, she looked up and observed the flesh blob's final transformation. The blob swelled and swelled and swelled, and, with a pop, it burst. Afterward, all that remained was the foul sea of flesh expanding outward. 6 A Promise to Play I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I was a bad girl I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm bad and wrong and I'm a spoiled little brat whose