children, scrambling to be the first ones into a domed theater. As the last rat entered, the door closed. Slabs of metal clanged as they barred it and sealed the entrance. "Now then, it's showtime!" Elisabeth spun her pipe in a circle. It transformed into the Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal. As she tapped the tip of her sword against the metal cage, a crimson flower garden spread across it. When she tapped the cage a second time, the flowers burst into flames, like candles on a cake. Elisabeth then shrugged, stood up, and returned from the top of the cage to the head of the nail she'd been on previously. At first, it was quiet. The flowers quietly continued to burn atop the cage. However, before long, things inside the cage got noisy. Kaito, finally realizing the comical method by which the torture worked, recoiled in horror. The heat is circulating through the cage. The rats, unable to bear the heat from above, began fleeing downward. They bit and chewed their way through the petals and into the flower. And the entire flower was made out of the Grand Earl's flesh. A scream rang out. The rats gnawed their way farther into the flower. Their tiny mouths ripped into the petals, ripped into the sepals, ripped into the stem, and caused the Grand Earl to faint in agony. Putrid nectar spilled forth from within it. Suddenly, though, something wholly unforeseen followed and came out as well. It was a naked, elderly man. The man, drenched in nectar, was no doubt the Grand Earl's original form. In seemed that in accordance with the Grand King's orders, he'd caused his fused form to swell up while hiding his proper body within the flower. A needle was stuck in his neck. Even so, he blinked and looked down reverently at his restored body. He tried to thank Elisabeth. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Rats came raining down around him. "...Huh?" "Grand Earl, you do realize that this is torture, yes? There will be no saving you. You shall simply die in agony." Hearing her gentle warning, the man's eyes went flush with shock. As they did, the rats began gnawing at his shoulders, gnawing at his ears, and gnawing at his nose. One after another, the rats filled the man's body with holes as they burrowed deeper. He grabbed rats like mad and hurled them away. However, their numbers proved far too great for him. As the rats rained down in succession, they gnawed at him as if he were a block of cheese. "Aah! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The Grand Earl's screams were hoarse and monosyllabic. He began dancing like a madman at the pain. His urine, blood, and chunks of flesh spilled out and mixed with the nectar at his feet. However, Elisabeth showed no signs of granting him pity. Just as she'd said, there would be no salvation for him. Eventually, the Grand Earl collapsed where he stood. A few rats made their way into his exposed stomach. One dug out his eyeballs, and another made its way inside his skull. The rats had eaten through almost the entirety of both his body and the flower. Having eaten their fill, they rolled about, their original task all but forgotten. All at once, black feathers scattered into the air. The roots, which had crept throughout the town, were all transforming into feathers. The underlings loitering among them, having lost the support of their demonic master's mana, collapsed one after another, their innards having likely caved in. Like an out-of-season snowfall, the black feathers poured down upon the seaside town. One woman stood as she basked in them, as fiercely sinister as she was beautiful. The bearded man rubbed his eyes repeatedly. Beside him, Kaito removed his gaze from Elisabeth and surveyed his surroundings. Seeing that the underlings' corpses had crumbled into dust, a smile spread across his face. But then something he saw out of the corner of his eye made his face freeze. As Kaito's entire body stiffened, the bearded man murmured in shock. "What...what in the world...? What could that...? I mean, what's happening?" "Don't worry about it... Just take that kid and run for the remains of the Church's office! Now that the demon's dead, the land should be safe. Just hurry and get as high up as you can!" "Wait, but what are you going to do, son? You're covered in blood..." "Don't worry about me, just go! Hurry, before..." Struggling against the dizziness that still ate at his mind, Kaito rose to his feet. He glared at the putrid crimson sea. Either due to having noticed the Grand Earl's death or due to having received prior orders from the Grand King, a change was occurring in the corpse-filled sea. Kaito spoke, his expression grim. "...before the tsunami hits." The crimson sea was slowly receding. The flesh-colored jellyfish, the Grand Duke, smiled at its center. "Hey, Elisabeth! Did you see what's going on with the sea? What're we gonna do?!" "Master Kaito, Lady Elisabeth! Are you two all right?" "Good job finding us, Hina! How were the kids?" "I used floral scents to calm them down and get them to sleep. Then, Master Kaito, I followed the smell of your blood and arrived here! Your blood has a sweet smell to it, you see." "The fact that you know what my blood smells like is convenient but also kinda creepy." "Eeeeeeeeeeeek! Master Kaito, your wounds! You're even more wounded than before! Damn you, demons, even if you all fell into Hell, I would never forgive you! May you all die another two thousand deaths! If they had graves, then I should like to go defile them rightâ€”" "Settle down, you lot. You're worsening my headache, which is no mean feat." Hearing Kaito and Hina's vigorous exchange, Elisabeth was pressing down on her forehead. There was nothing to block their view. The only thing before them was the crimson sea, transformed as it was into a pulpy corpse soup. The three of them had gathered at the lighthouse overlooking the sea from the edge of the cape. The first floor of the building, which had been constructed from pure-white stone, contained the lighthouse keeper's lodging. The second floor was where the fuel was kept, and atop the cylindrical building was long iron scaffolding where the fire was lit. Seashells and colored tiles were embedded in the spiral staircase winding around the tower, and a statue of a holy woman shedding tears of blood hung beside the fire basket. Based on how tall and decorative it was, that lighthouse was likely one of the town's symbolic buildings. After watching Elisabeth leave behind the remains of the flower to travel there, Kaito had hurriedly followed her. Hina arrived right as he did. The situation was chaotic, and as the two of them hurried after Elisabeth, she studied the sea's transformation. The jellyfish was sucking in the viscous seawater, causing it to recede. Each time it did, its translucent cap swelled even further past its limit. "Ah...so that's it." Elisabeth crossed her arms. The runes stretching across her pale skin, up from her wrist to her shoulder and exposed sides, were an even deeper shade of crimson than they'd been before her fight with the Grand Earl. "No demon with the power to cause a natural disaster has yet descended to our world. This tsunami shan't be caused by a tectonic shift; rather, that rotting jellyfish, the Grand Earl, plans to store seawater within its body and then violently release everything at once." "Is there any way we can stop it?" "If we kill it before then, the water it's stored shall likely still result in great waves, but the damage can be minimized. However, if it's able to expel the water as planned, a town of this size will be washed away." "All the more reason to kill it right away." "However, therein lies the problem. The jellyfish is far out at sea, and any ship we could use to reach it has long since degraded. Attacking it directly is impossible. Even launching missiles with a catapult would not be effective at this range, and given my current mana situation, the odds it could repel such an attack are high. That being the case, our best option is execution by animal." Elisabeth snapped her fingers. Darkness and crimson flower petals swirled in the air. The black and crimson converged and then burst. From there, a large, beautiful raven spread its wings. The wise, sly-eyed bird sat respectfully atop the metal fixtures on Elisabeth's arm. "With this, our ability to damage it is assured. However, using this method will take time. Transforming even a few of these to be able to inflict instant death would require more mana than I currently possess... Truly, this design is infuriating. Now then, what to do." Elisabeth lightly bit her lip. While she did, the tide was receding farther, and the jellyfish continued to swell. Glaring at the sea with her emerald eyes, Hina raised her voice. "If it is as you say, would it not be best to withdraw to the castle for now? Most of the town's residents have already evacuated. Even if the buildings are washed away and destroyed, the loss of life will be minimal. We could even use the ruins as footing. If we left now and returned later, we could obtain much better conditions for our rematch." "Aye, if only we could. But should I overlook so much as the destruction of one little town, I would likely be estranged by the Church. Such are the restrictions placed on a shackled hound. 'Tis most troubling indeed." As he listened to Elisabeth and Hina talk, Kaito turned his eyes down and ruminated. Everything about the situation was terrible. The Church was placing unreasonable demands on Elisabeth. However, as far as the matter of fleeing went, Kaito too was against it. If we flee now, even though the damages will be minimal, people will still die. Kaito had told the man from before to escape to high ground. However, there were likely others who hadn't made it to shelter. There were probably also people who were injured and unable to leave. That said, though, even Kaito could tell that Elisabeth was running low on mana. She couldn't do the impossible. What to do, what to do, what to do...? Think. At the end of the day, is there anything I can do here? Or was he simply as powerless as always, unable to do anything? The sea roared. As it did, Kaito felt his eardrums tensing up. All sounds seemed distant to him. The change in his surroundings wasn't due to any spiritual abnormality on his part. His consciousness was growing dim due to blood loss. He felt the blood dripping down his neck and sticking to his clothes, and his skin grew oddly hot. Kaito instinctively turned his attention to the unpleasant heat. It crawled along his body and reached the stone in his pocket, and the blue roses within began burning. Right as he realized what the sensation was, the phantasmal hand landed on his shoulder once more. He could distinctly feel the hand's cold weight. "Now then, what to do indeed, my dear successor?" The sweet, honeyed whisper reverberated in Kaito's ear. The hand snapped its fingers. Before he knew it, Kaito was standing alone in the darkness. Before him sat the extravagant beast-bone chair, replete with pelts. Vlad sat upon it, gently stroking the skull armrests with the arrogance of a king. His nobleman's coat fluttered as he rose from the chair. As the soles of his shoes clicked against the ground, he spoke in a familiar yet dignified voice. "Given the situation you're in, shall I continue my lecture? I believe I mentioned it to you already. You can use your own pain as a fulcrum to ignite the mana within