case, but it appears the impression of you that we got from the battle against the Earl held true." Lute flashed him a faint smile, to which Kaito responded with a strong nod. As he'd thought, Lute and his men didn't plan to offer up any information regarding the beastfolk. Even so, though, it looked like his amenable behavior had curried him some favor. They seemed to hold more trust in him than he'd expected. That fact alone made Kaito truly glad. Lute raised his bowl to try to conceal his bashfulness. He completely drained the cooled floral broth, then spoke. "By the way, Mrs. Sena, might I trouble you for seconds?" "Eeeeeee! He called me 'Mrs. Sena'! He called me 'Mrs. Sena'! For that, you can have as many refills as you want!" "Wait, Hina, hold up. We're lying in ambush here, we can't drink too much, orâ€”huh?" Then Kaito trailed off midsentence. Something was shining near the edge of his vision. Upon closer inspection, the moonlight was reflecting off something in the tree line. But there was nothing natural that should have glinted like that late at night in the forest. Everything was completely silent, the lively atmosphere from a moment ago having vanished like a distant memory. First Hina, then Lute stood up. Kaito rose to his feet as well. Then he looked at the "thing." "...What is that?" It looked like neither a human nor a beast. In fact, it didn't look alive at all. At first glance, it looked like a silver spider. Or, perhaps, a better way to put it would be to describe it as an intricate mass of rubbish. Kaito squinted. Whatever it was that had appeared out of the darkness, it was made out of a series of joined pieces of metal. But although it did have eight legs, its basic shape was like that of an insect or a crustacean. However, the metal plates that made up its body constantly shifted and squirmed as they glimmered. The fact that its exterior was constantly undergoing minute changes caused its appearance to be wholly divergent from that of any creature found in nature. Kaito involuntarily racked his memories for something similar to compare it to. Suddenly, an old memory flashed through his mind. His teacher back in elementary school had been fond of visiting art museums, and Kaito thought back to the contents of a picture his teacher had enthusiastically described during recess one day. ...Avant-garde art. The picture had been a piece of art enclosed in inorganic material that was designed to ridicule the living. That was the closest thing he could come up with to describe the entity before him. But there was no reason for it to exist in this world, let alone within the beastfolk territories. It was probably akin to an underling that someone had created. As he vigilantly collected his thoughts, Kaito felt a sense of unease. All the underlings up till now have been weirdly large animals and hideously distorted people. Underlings were, fundamentally, living creatures who'd undergone terrible transformations. Because of that, no matter how hideous they became, they usually resembled their original forms, more or less. But the thing he was facing now was far too alien to be a mere mutation. It was simply too inorganic. And it was giving off too much power to be classified as a familiar. But then what the hell is it? Kaito found himself at a loss. Then the thingâ€”which probably resembled a machine more than a work of avant-garde artâ€”began moving. It immediately became oddly blurry as the chunks of metal making up its body started audibly vibrating. Then, as though it had received some kind of order, it spread its eight legs wide. It looked almost like a massive silver lily sitting atop a grassy field. Then it vanished. "...Huh?" Kaito lost sight of their foe. At the same time, his arm moved. His beastly left arm practically moved on its own to pursue the path the silver thing had taken. His sharp claws dug into and caught the flying machine. Sparks flew, as though two swords had just collided. After taking stock of the situation, he came to the realization that his arm was numb. It was so very heavy. Kaito let out a shout from the depths of his diaphragm. "Hrrragh!" Using all his strength, he swung down the arm he'd caught the thing's leg with. The machine nearly crashed into the ground. Just before it made impact, though, it gave off a clacking noise and rearranged its body. Its previously straightened legs sprang joints. They gently bent, reducing the impact and allowing the machine to make a clean landing. â€”Screeeee, scraaaaaw! It let out a high-pitched, roar-like noise. Hina frantically rushed over to Kaito's side. He turned to her, then asked a question. "Hina, you know what that thing is?" "I'm very sorry. My Self-Recording Device contains no information on anything resembling that. It isn't an automaton, and it isn't the same type of construct as the Church's communication devices. Whatever could it be?" "Oh-ho! Now there's a surprise!" A deep voice rang out from somewhere rather unexpected. Kaito's eyes went wide. It was rare for anything to elicit a response from the Kaiser. With his body still hidden, the supreme hound laughed in amusement. "Why, if it isn't Deus Ex Machina! I surely didn't expect to see that in a land such as this!" "â€”Wait, what did you just say?" Kaito frowned at the strange echo. However, he didn't have time to sit around asking questions. The shrill noise rang out once more. â€”Screeeee, scraaaaaw! The machine rose to its feet. Its torso didn't so much as twitch as its eight legs began rapidly revolving. Spraying mud every which way, it drilled its way into the dirt. Then, in the blink of an eye, the machine disappeared from the surface. "...It burrowed." "Master Kaito, I implore you to stay within a range I can defend you from." Their entire party surveyed their surroundings. For a moment, the area was silent. The leaves on the trees rustled ever so slightly. Then the ground exploded. The machine came flying out, its eight legs gathered to form a spear. So fast that it seemed to have been shot from a catapult as it hurtled toward Lute. "Captain!" "I'm fine!" Without needing to be told, he'd already anticipated that he might be attacked. As he calmly replied to his subordinate, Lute dropped down low to the ground. As he prepared for the impact, he readied his sword and let out a cry. "You shall pay for the atrocities you've committed on our people! Starting with those legs of yours!" As he raised his stormy battle cry, Lute brought down his sword. He'd probably assumed already that his weapon wouldn't pierce it, so instead of trying to cut the machine, he used the whole of his blade to strike it. A hard noise rang out. His attack had landed cleanly on the machine. But as Kaito watched, he was taken aback. Even though the machine had been caught by Lute's intense blow, it was just casually floating in the air. Its legs had grown even more joints, and those appendages coiled around Lute's sword. "Rgh!" "Lute!" Kaito tried to snap his fingers. Before he could, though, a graceful, explosive blow landed squarely on the machine's torso. "Hiyah!" The hem of Hina's maid uniform fluttered in the wind as she lashed out with her ax kick. The sound of metal scraping echoed out from where the sole of her foot had connected with the machine. After resisting for a second, the machine was blown away, sword and all. It crashed loudly into a tree. The tree's trunk bent, creaked, then snapped, crashing to the ground with a thunderous noise amid a pillar of fumes. Her silver hair swaying, Hina quietly lowered her foot, and her billowed-out skirt came to a gentle rest. "Please, pull yourself together! You don't want your wife mourning for you!" "Ah, how shameful! I vow to return the favor!" As he replied to Hina's reprimand, Lute tried to adjust his grip on his sword. However, it had been sent flying along with the machine. His ears flopped limply. But he shook his head vigorously, and they stood right back up. Having regained his dignity, he directed a sharp cry to his troops. "A spare sword!" "Here!" One of them pulled a new sword from their luggage and tossed it to him. Upon catching it, Lute nodded and drew his new weapon from its scabbard in a sweeping motion. As he did, the machine rose back to its feet. Seemingly stunned, it began joining its silver metal plates together. â€”Screeeee, scraaaaaw! Destroying it with brute force is gonna take a while. If we even can, that is. Having arrived at that conclusion, Kaito wiped away the sweat clinging to his brow. If they were able to fix it in place, they'd probably be able to pull out a victory. But if worse came to worst and it successfully burrowed its way to the village, another tragedy was bound to unfold. The question, then, was how to finish the battle quickly and decisively. Kaito racked his brains for the method that seemed most effective. Then he suddenly recalled a certain entity's existence. Wait, that's right. I have seen something similar to that thing, and it's not just the avant-garde art. During the short period he'd attended school for, he'd seen one of the bosses in a video game that his classmate had been playing. It had been composed of a series of planks, and his classmate had used a variety of weapons to tear it apart. The boss had been powerful. But individually, the planks weren't anything special. Abruptly, Kaito spoke. "Kaiser." *** "Kaiser!" "What are you causing that racket for? A master as unworthy as you should take care not to call me so frivolously." "I'm gonna stop that thing. Lend me your power." With that, Kaito made his plea. The Kaiser scoffed in irritation. Then he let out his humanlike laugh. "Ha, as if. That thing has nothing to do with demons. And destroying it would do little to exemplify my strength. Why, then, should I go out of my way to lend you my fangs?" "...It doesn't have anything to do with demons?" The Kaiser's words weren't just surprising; they came as a legitimate shock. Put another way, they meant the thing before them was neither an underling nor a familiar. But it wasn't a human, beast, or spirit, either. What, in that case, could it possibly be? ..."Deus Ex Machina"? That was what the Kaiser had called it. Kaito couldn't afford to simply stay in the dark regarding the machine. He needed to find out what it was. But although his instincts were screaming that fact out to him, he temporarily swallowed his questions. Right now, I gotta focus on taking out the enemy in front of me. With that objective in mind, he gave voice to a different query. "Answer me this. That thing is pretty strong, but the chunks of metal it's made of aren't all that tough...right?" "Something to that effect, I suppose. I can make out power residing in each of its pieces, but only by coming together as a colony can they demonstrate their strength. But whether you cut it or strike it, destroying its metal with your own is likely no mean task. And I've little desire to eat anything so hard. Now then, what do you intend to do?" "To be honest, I'm still not all that great at magic. But I've got a method that'll definitely hit it and should be effective, to boot." Kaito made his assertion. The Kaiser was silent for a few seconds. Eventually, though, he seemed to understand. Having guessed at the method Kaito was thinking of, the