very existence is all one big joke." "You know, my dear daughter tells me the same thing all the time! For how long her rebellious phase has lasted, you'd think she'd at least have mellowed out a bit by now, no?" "My Alice would never say something like that. Have you considered that she might just not like you?" A cheer of encouragement rose up from behind Lewis. "That's rightâ€”I'm Father's good little girl! Go, Father! You can do it!" The mood about them was disconcertingly relaxed. However, Vlad didn't seem to mind. "Well that can't be it," he muttered in genuine displeasure. Meanwhile, Lewis slid a new blade out of his sleeve. This time, it was his turn to mutter. "I know why you picked this fight with me." "Oh-ho, what's this? Not to steal your thunder or anything, but I was just hoping to amuse myself." "...I can tell that's no lie. But it isn't the whole truth, is it? Holding Alice in check and going up against me alone allowed Elisabeth to escape...but I don't understand why. Why would you go to such lengths?" As he posed the question, Lewis leveled a series of rapid thrusts at Vlad. Dodging them all would have been nigh impossible. However, the majority of the blows were mere feints. Vlad could see that plain as day, so he snapped his fingers as he danced his way around the important ones. One blow came at a sharp diagonal straight for his head, and that was the sole strike Vlad took the effort to actively repel. When he did, though, other blades found their marks and ran his arm and shoulder through. Despite all the blood gushing forth, though, Vlad was still able to put some distance between himself and Lewis. His body was in a grim state, but he let out a composed laugh all the same. Lewis continued his line of questioning, as though the previous exchange of blows hadn't even happened. "You're the Kaiser's old contractor, so the Torture Princess had every reason to hate you. She probably holds you in great contempt. So then, why? Do you even know? My wanting a friend was one thing, but this makes even less sense. What exactly is Elisabeth Le Fanu to you?" Lewis was clearly puzzled. Vlad stopped moving, and his glib expression vanished. Then, serious as could be, he gave his answer as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. He was like a man boasting of his greatest treasure. "My dear daughter is simply that. She's my daughter, and she's dear to me." For a few seconds, Lewis stood motionless. It was unusual, seeing him so utterly at a loss for words. He shook his head in exasperation and disbelief. At that point, he was forgetting to even attack. "That can't be... You seriously only think of her as a beloved child?" "Of...course? If not for that, I don't know how you think I could forgive being burned alive." Vlad placed his hand atop his chest and spoke with great aplomb. Lewis found himself struck speechless for the third time. However, the claim had a certain logic to it. Based on what had been listed in the records, Elisabeth had been the one to sentence Vlad Le Fanu to death by burning. Not even a crumb of ash had remained of him. Yet Vlad's replica didn't seem to resent her for that. In fact, he was even working alongside her. Nobody who thought like a normal person would ever be able to do that. "Now then, while you're reeling in shock, I hope you don't mind if I wax eloquent for a moment. You see, I thought of Kaito Sena as an outstanding son as well. He was also my lord, but even soâ€” At first, I was just amusing myself by seeing how far I could make him sink, but not even I could have imagined how clear his twisted mind would remain, right till the bitter end! Thanks to him, I enjoyed every one of my days." Suddenly, Vlad's voice became rich with emotion, catching Lewis completely off guard. Vlad's expression was that of a man reminiscing on events that had taken place a centuryâ€”perhaps even a millenniumâ€”prior, and he continued in a forlorn tone. "But then he went and sealed himself in that crystal. It was sad, of course, but still it was a decision my dear son made of his own volition. A symbol of his growth from an unfledged vessel to a full, twisted man. And I have every intention of respecting his choice. But even so, what kind of a parent wouldn't grieve over something like that?" Vlad shook his head as the emotions ran through him all over again. Lewis went pale. For Vlad Le Fanu of all people to say something like that was shameless beyond belief. Given all the lives he'd personally extinguished, it was an act that almost bordered on blasphemy. And yet Vlad went on, utterly carefree. "But ever since this whole mess began, a whole new worry began plaguing me. And the bad feeling in my gut only grew stronger when your rebel army started butchering those villages. At that rate, I feared, I was going to lose my precious daughter as well. Such was the gravity of the dangerous change Kaito Sena's death sparked in her. I lamented that change at first, but now I forgive her. For everything. There was a time when I would have welcomed her death, but that changed when I lost my son. Now, I just don't want her to die." "...What." "I said, I don't want her to die." It took Lewis a moment to parse what he'd just heard. Once he did, though, it wasn't shock that crossed his face. It was rage. He drew yet another blade, a shark-toothed sword designed to cause massive blood loss, and swung it with feral speed. Vlad dodged it several times, occasionally parrying it as it spun. As their duel to the death grew ever fiercer, Lewis shouted. "Enough of your bullshit, Vlad Le Fanu! You've killed thousandsâ€”tens of thousands! And plenty of my people number among your victims' ranks! You slaughter people randomly and impartially, and you take joy in the act! And yet you, you say that you don't want someone to die?! I might not be in any position to talk, but you have to be kidding me!" "Oh, I assure you I'm not, but you're right on all the other fronts! Sure, I killed tens of thousands! But what's wrong with that? The vast majority of people, be they humans or beastfolk or demi-humans or mixed race, aren't worth the air they breathe! They're garbage, one and all! And that's precisely why I hold such affection for my children and none others. What is it you find so contradictory about that?" Vlad finished on a proud, brazen note. Lewis could tell that there was nothing to be gained from talking to him. Vlad lived by a value system that was his and his alone. The scales he measured the world by were simply calibrated differently from all the others. In all likelihood, nobody would ever truly understand him. Not even his beloved son and daughter. However, Vlad himself didn't mind that fact in the least. And that was all there was to it. "Love is nothing more than an illusion, and it certainly isn't something worth risking your life for. Or at least, that's what I thought. But as it turns out, making the ultimate sacrifice for paternal love's sake isn't half-bad! I guess you learn something new every day!" Vlad enjoyed a moment of personal delight. In fact, he got so immersed in his own monologue that Lewis's sword strikes began landing true and gouging deep cuts in his body. But even with his skin and flesh shorn away and his blood pouring out from all over, Vlad's smile remained unbroken, and his stance remained the same as before. Lewis wasn't about to let that opening slip him by. He snapped his fingers, and a hefty handle plopped down into his pale palms. It belonged to a massive executioner's ax. Lewis then struck with it so quickly and brutally it would have been challenging even to block. And that was when it happened. Lewis's neck split open. "Ah... Gack..." Unable to even scream, Lewis let out an agonized gasp. It took everything he had just to stay upright. Vlad looked down at him with an icy glare. He dismissed the steel wire he was holding and shook his head. "You talked a good game about being a practiced assassin, but at the end of the day, you're nothing but a rank amateur. All it takes to down a man is a tiny cut to a single artery, so what do you need a weapon that large for? Come now, don't get caught dancing to my tune over some dramatic flair and a little monologue or two." "Father!" "Stay back, Alice!" Alice cried out and made to rush over, but Lewis quickly stopped her. He staggered back a bit and summoned a swarm of azure petals and black miasma to converge on his wound. Realizing how difficult it would be to efficiently heal it, he elected instead just to cauterize it. After forcibly stopping the bleeding, he spoke. "I'm...fine. There's no need for you...to be concerned. The blow was...a far cry...from fatal." "Well, that's certainly true enough. It was never meant to kill you, after all. My son and my daughter both had rebellious streaks, and they never listened to what I had to say. Why deprive myself of the perfect audience?" "And one...other thing..." "Oh?" Vlad obediently cupped his ear, and Lewis raised his head. His mask and skin were both stained with his blood, and the visible half of his face was violently grimacing. Now his eye burned with clear, unbridled malice. Vlad observed the change with great pleasure. Lewis let out a triumphant laugh in reply. "It's over." "What is?" And with that, the right half of Vlad's grinning face vanished into nothing. What had just happened? Vlad blinked his one remaining eye in puzzlement. The next moment, though, his body crumpled to the ground, toppling unceremoniously forward like a marionette with its strings cut. Alice looked down at his unseemly state. When she spoke, her voice was cold. "I didn't move, you know. Just like Father told me." Sure enough, she was telling the truth. She had her hands clasped behind her back like a good little girl. No, the change had taken place in the courtyard itself. An attack whose pitch lay beyond audible perception had burned the temple half to the ground. Its courtyard, a precious patch of green amid the vast arid desert, was gone. Searing temperatures had burned away the ground and transfigured it into some sort of smooth material. Vlad scrunched his face up a little. Not even he grasped the reason behind the change. Seriously, what had just happened? Alice, who had seen the whole thing, glared at him. Her white rabbit ribbons bobbed from side to side, yet it was the Red Queen she resembled most as she gazed down at the broken man. Taking mercy on him, she deigned to answer his unspoken question. "But despair did." Her voice rang with ridicule as though mocking him for expecting anything more of the world. Off in the distance, a new roar rose up. Countless voices screamed, yet they were all one and the same. Die. Die. Die. The time has come. I have found you with my eyes. The heavens and earth shall be moved, and thou shalt come to judge the world by fire. This day, day of wrath calamity and misery day of great and exceeding bitterness. This day our master is resurrected. "...The Sand Queen." Vlad didn't look at the figure