Torture Princess

8
The Butcher’s Story
Kaito and the others ran atop the narrow pathway that sat between the two fissures. Bottomless abysses lay on either side. One wrong step and they would be swallowed up by the unknowable darkness.
They dashed quickly but carefully. The dark blob in the distance slowly but surely grew closer, eventually revealing the silhouette of a familiar back. In a way, it really did look lonely.
It feels kinda like he’s waiting for someone who’ll never come.
As he quickened his pace even further, Kaito felt a strange pressure coming from ahead. It was like a wind was blowing up from the bottom of the pit. However, the air around him didn’t seem to be moving an inch.
Now that he thought about it, the snow had stopped falling as well. The atmosphere was frozen over and tense.
It felt as though the whole world were holding its breath.
I guess this really is the moment that the world was waiting for.
However, he didn’t know what it was waiting for in particular. He didn’t know what would happen, or what would become clear, once they reached the Saint’s Apostle, either. In fact, he didn’t even have proof that they’d be able to find out where the Saint really was.
Even so, he kept on running. Eventually, as he closed in on the figure’s back, he called out to it.
“Butcher!”
“Why, if it isn’t Mr. Dim-Witted Servant, Madam Elisabeth, and Ms. Lovely Maid! And the rest of you fine people, you’re all here!”
The Butcher did a little hop. His reply was no different from normal, as though he’d been out on a stroll and had just happened to bump into them. It was not a response anyone had expected.
Perplexed, Kaito came to a stop. Everyone else did the same. Hina’s expression was just as confused as his, and Lute scrunched up his snout and made no efforts to hide his wariness. Elisabeth frowned in displeasure.
Jeanne, bringing up the rear, wore a serene expression on her face.
Not looking at the Butcher, her gaze was solidly fixed on the woman she was cradling in her arms.
It was Izabella, with more than 70 percent of her body supplemented with machine parts. She was adrift in a defenseless slumber.
The way Jeanne was carrying Izabella reminded Kaito of a statue from his old world called the Pietà that he’d once caught a glimpse of on television. As the Butcher looked at her, he let out a surprised cry.
“Ah, so that’s what you chose! Goodness gracious, what a surprise! I had a hunch, somehow or other, yet it’s a surprise all the same!”
“You little…”
“Humans really are intriguing creatures, I must say. They have wisdom surpassing any beast, yet at times they find themselves driven by their emotions despite knowing full well how illogical they’re being. I can’t say I hate that contradiction, mind you!”
“You knew this was gonna happen, just like the Grave Keeper did, then?”
Kaito’s voice was full of quiet rage, indicating his revulsion and fury at having been toyed with by the two of them. However, the Butcher’s demeanor didn’t change. His response was clear and prompt.
“Oh no, I just heard bits and pieces of information from my little whelp. So I figured, this is what would happen if the golden, Deus Ex Machina–wielding Torture Princess butted heads with the Grave Keeper, that’s all. She was quite the devout believer, after all, and she had a rather solid head on her shoulders. But, me oh my, I’m just glad that that delightful woman is all right!”
“You don’t get to say that!”
“I’m being entirely sincere! Back when I was trapped in the Gibbet, she was kind enough to show me concern. Wishing death on her was the furthest thing from my mind!”
“Skip the nonsense, Butcher.”
A cold voice interrupted Kaito and the Butcher’s exchange. Slipping adroitly through the group’s ranks, Elisabeth took her place at its head. She then went on, marking the Butcher as an enemy with her gaze.
“You referred to yourself as the enemy of the world. And even had you not, this entire affair began when you sold Vlad that demon meat. Was this nonsense about restructuring your desire as well? Every creature in this world may well die thanks to you. So you can skip the nonsensical rejoicing over a single woman’s survival.”
“Hmm, I must say, calling it my ‘desire’ is really quite off the mark. But I suppose you are right.”
“Yet, at the same time, you invited us here. To what end?”
The Butcher offered no answer. Instead, he began thinking to himself and turning about idly in place. As he did, his usual cross-marked sack dangled from his shoulder. Then he began humming a strange tune.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, my meats are the finest meats around! Filled with love and bravery, they’ll never let you down! Eat them and your courage will increase one millionfold! As always, I’m your friendly neighborhood Butcher! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!”
“…!”
Kaito shuddered in spite of himself. The Butcher was acting the same as always. Given their current situation, only madness could account for that. And at the same time, a sort of melancholy struck him as well. It was the kind of pathos one would feel toward a clown atop a stage, the kind of pity one felt toward those who had no choice but to play the part of the comic.
Could it be that none of us has ever known the Butcher for who he really is?
“To the contrary, Mr. Dim-Witted Servant!”
Kaito’s gaze had apparently been enough to convey his sentiment, as the Butcher hopped up and down in protest. When he finally landed, he thrust his finger straight toward Kaito.
“I’m overfond of tall tales, it’s true, but never once have I told a lie! Thank you very much! Okay, well, there’s a small chance that I might have exaggerated a bit from time to time, and I might have told a lie here and there, but… Ahem. But the kind, adorable, lovable Butcher you’ve all come to know and love is the real deal! It merely…wasn’t all there was to me.”
“Truth, lies, they make little difference. The point where such things mattered has long since passed.”
Elisabeth offered no reaction to the gloomier words the Butcher had ended his speech with. She stepped forward, as though to demonstrate how fed up she was. Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal glittered in her hand.
“Now, I’ve but one question for you. Where is the Saint?”
With each step she took forward, the Butcher took one back. The heel of his foot struck a hard, frozen snowflake. It slid backward a smidgen, then was soundlessly swallowed up by the darkness. The Butcher had nowhere left to run.
Elisabeth thrust Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal toward him, then continued pressing him for answers.
“Talk. We’ve come to kill her. All the way here to the World’s End.”
“And how well you’ve done to make it here. Ah, the efficiency of your questions…how very like you, Madam Elisabeth.”
“You’d do well to understand this, Butcher: The time for buffoonery is over.”
Elisabeth’s calm retort shut the Butcher down. His glib remarks came to a complete stop. Tilting his head a smidgen to the side, the Butcher let out a docile murmur.
“…It’s over, is it?”
“We are those who know what goes on behind the stage. Never again can we return to the audience. Not even you would keep performing to no end, I suspect. Isn’t it about time to put an end to this farce?”
Elisabeth laid out her question dispassionately. But deep in her voice was a faint hint of sympathy, a fact that caused Kaito no small amount of shock. Hearing Elisabeth show sentiment toward an enemy was a rarity among rarities.
Maybe…maybe Elisabeth appreciates where he’s coming from.
Like a faithful jester, the Butcher had continued playing out his role. But perhaps he wasn’t the only one who’d chosen to become something instead of just being someone.
As he stood before the Torture Princess, the Butcher gently scratched his chin.
“I see, I see. Time to close up shop, is it? Yes, well, I suppose it is.”
“It is, isn’t it? And in following, enough playing around. Tell us what your duty was.”
“In that case, allow me to start by sharing a serious little anecdote with you.”
“Very well. Speak.”
Still training her sword on him, Elisabeth jerked her chin. The Butcher nodded, then gave a bow.
Then, as though he were laying his heart bare, he began narrating.
“Did you know, Madam Elisabeth? Fairy tales are always born from the smallest of things.”
“More of your tall tales, even now?”
“Destiny is much the same way, you see… The very shortest of memories can come to define a man’s whole life.”
Although his story seemed to have little to do with their current situation, the Butcher persisted in telling it. Serious to the last, he spoke his truth. His voice sounded strangely old and hoarse, and his tone was firm and inflexible.
Although he should have already known it, Kaito realized something all over again.
The Butcher is the Saint’s Apostle.
In other words, he’d been alive since before the world had even finished forming. In a sense, he was literally the oldest person in existence. He’d lived for far too long for the word lifetime to even begin to cover it.
In spite of that, though, the age of the memory he was laying out hadn’t worn it away in the slightest.
“Madam Elisabeth, do you have memories of your mother?”
Elisabeth replied with silence. Kaito suddenly thought back on the facts he knew. Elisabeth’s parents had died in an “unfortunate accident.” Right before it, though, there had been sightings of a massive black dog.
The Butcher peeked around behind Elisabeth. His gaze landed on Kaito and Hina.
“Mr. Dim-Witted Servant and Ms. Lovely Maid, what about…? No, I suppose not. My apologies. Whether or not one has such memories varies from person to person. It’s neither a good thing nor a bad one. But I…I have them. Not that she could truly be called my mother, that is.”
“You mean…?”
“The moment I attained consciousness in her arms, the very first things I saw… Over the course of my long, long life, not once have I ever forgotten that memory. Not once could I forget that memory.”
The Butcher’s voice was calm and quiet. Kaito sucked in his breath.
The person who created him was the Saint.
When he spoke about her, his tone remained light, but his voice grew weighty. Contained within it were hatred; grief; a vast, untarnished amount of love; and a frightening amount of passion and emotion. The scant few decades of a human’s life could never even come close to attaining such sentiment, nor were they sufficient in understanding such a feeling.
The only thing capable of swallowing up the Butcher’s emotions was the crystal-clear air.
At long last, Kaito realized something—why the snow had stopped and why the wind wasn’t blowing.
The world is waiting for the Apostle to tell his story.
“In the end, I was but a single seed of evil. A pawn without even a name to his name. And I’ve understood that fact for a long, long time.”
The Butcher took a deep breath, then exhaled. He clutched at his tattered clothes.
Then he went on, forcing the words out of his throat.
“But I saw that smile… I saw that smile.”
Just what was he saying about that expression he’d seen?
He spoke with alarming speed as he elaborated on his answer.
“It was the smile of one who had, for the first time, obtained a companion in a desolate, lonely world. It was the desperate smile of one whose absolute solitude had been broken. In that moment, she greeted me with unmistakable love. That smile was more than enough to prove that to me. And…through her tears, she spoke…”
Then, just for a moment, the Butcher trailed off. When he spoke again, it was in a voice steeped with nostalgia for a time long gone by, or perhaps one filled with the exhaustion of countless ages.
“‘Thank you for being born unto me,’ she said. That was all. And that was enough.”
In his entire monologue, not once had he explained why he’d sold the demon meat. At the same time, though, it was more than sufficient as a confession of motive.
Because he’d heard those words, the Butcher had carried out the Saint’s mad wish.
Despite knowing that it would destroy the world, he had taken the demon meat, and he had sold it.
Kaito narrowed his eyes. The Saint’s words to the Butcher had been a blessing, one filled with joy and gratitude. At the end of the day, though, he’d spent his whole life bound by them, and they’d turned him into the entire world’s enemy.
In that sense, weren’t they more like a curse, then?
Kaito was about to say as much aloud, but he stopped himself. The Butcher didn’t need to be told that. He knew. Yet, even so, those few words of hers had given his whole life meaning. If they hadn’t, he would have stopped walking down this path long ago. He had ascended past the point where regrets were still relevant.
Suddenly, the Butcher took a small breath. Then he set down the white bag on his back.
When he did, it made a small sound. Having cast aside the goods he’d carried around for so long, he spoke in a whimsical voice.
“I had fun, Madam Elisabeth, Mr. Dim-Witted Servant, Ms. Lovely Maid, really, truly, and deeply. The living cannot live without finding enjoyment in their days. And when I watched you all fight back, my, how radiant you looked. Yet… Yet, knowing full well how mad it is, there is a request I need to fulfill.”
For that shall be the evidence of my existence, the sole proof of my love for her.
As Kaito listened to the Butcher’s cryptic declaration, a certain quote resounded within his chest.
It’s a nonsensical little fairy tale, and one that’s gone on for a very, very long time.
Was the story a tragedy or a comedy? Kaito and the others had no way of knowing.
And how is the Butcher planning on bringing it to an end?
What was the mad request he was trying to fulfill?
Elisabeth shifted her sword vertically a hair. She asked her next question in a voice fully devoid of emotion.
“So? Where is this dear Saint of yours?”
“Madam Elisabeth, it brought me such joy when you saw fit to voice how delicious something was. Mr. Dim-Witted Servant… No, Mr. Kaito. The fact that you, a mere human, made it this far on conviction alone is something to be proud of. Ms. Lovely Maid…Ms. Hina. Thank you for preparing my meats so exquisitely. And congratulations on your wedding.”
The Butcher’s voice was light as he obstinately ignored Elisabeth’s question.
Her irritation was about to show on her face, but at the last moment, the corners of Elisabeth’s mouth froze. Kaito and Hina rapidly went pale as well. Lute looked around restlessly. Jeanne offered no response.
Of all the people present, those who knew the Butcher well were the only ones who realized.
Kaito and Hina took off at a dash. Elisabeth reached out with her sword-free hand.
“Butcher, no!”
“The time has come to close up shop. This marks my final task as a merchant: delivering meat.”
The Butcher didn’t, in fact, stop, instead taking off at a dash himself.
The way he ran wasn’t forward but backward. Yet, nothing lay there except darkness.
“I said so, did I not? The fairy tale must come to an end.”
Kaito’s eyes practically bulged out of their sockets.
Just as he’d thought, the last thing the Butcher had said had been his final testament.
“Tch!”
Elisabeth snapped her fingers. Having seen that her arm wouldn’t reach far enough, she summoned forth a vortex of crimson petals and darkness from the air. Her aim was unsteady, perhaps due to her agitation. However, the chains just barely managed to wrap around the Butcher’s arm.
Kaito breathed a sigh of relief. The next moment, though, blood billowed forth.
“Wh—?”
“And finally, thank you so much for your many years of patronage.”
The Butcher’s clawed left arm remained bound by the chains.
It, and it alone, dangled in the air.
The Butcher had drawn a knife from the many folds of his cloak, then severed his own arm. His body fell, as though it were being sucked in. Ribbons of blood followed him down as the abyss consumed him.
In the end, all that remained was that one arm.

Elisabeth stopped at the edge of the cliff. Hina came to an abrupt halt, too. Kaito, on the other hand, didn’t.
His momentum practically carried him over and into the abyss. Then, with his arm still outstretched, he got ready to leap into the vast darkness. Elisabeth and Hina frantically wrapped their arms around him.
They nearly ended up slipping as well, but the two of them narrowly managed to maintain their footing. They both cried out in unison.
“Get back, you dullard!”
“Master Kaito, please step back!”
“…This isn’t right.”
The words tumbled from Kaito’s mouth. As he scooted backward little by little, he tried to get his jumbled thoughts in order.
Not even he knew what he was trying to say. He didn’t know what it was he found so wrong, so abhorrent. But then, all of a sudden, he realized what it was that was filling him with such sorrow and vexation.
“Thank you for being born unto me,” she said.
No doubt it had been a happy, joyful thing. Until he met Hina, Kaito had never had anyone tell him that, either. But in the end, the Butcher had died imprisoned by his role as a seed of evil.
He’d abandoned everything he’d enjoyed, canceled out all the memories he’d collected, and swallowed up the pain of cutting away the feelings of those who’d shouted at him not to die as well as his own arm.
Could the words that had bound him really be described as love?
Hadn’t the Butcher just died after being used up without ever truly being loved by a parent?
He hadn’t even been able to live for his own sake.
And the Butcher would never get another chance at life.
“This isn’t right, goddammit!”
Kaito screamed from the depths of his soul. Tears began spilling out from the corners of his eyes.
No matter how many times he’d lost his humanity, no matter how many times he’d tasted the pain of death, Kaito hadn’t shed a single tear. But for the Butcher’s sake, he cried. He let out animalistic wails. But he received no response.
Hina gently stroked his back. Elisabeth said nothing. She merely snapped her fingers. The silver chain transformed into petals, then vanished. The Butcher’s arm descended, accompanied by crimson.
When it did, Kaito felt a faint pressure in his eardrums. He looked up with a start. Then he heard it.
“GRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
A roar reverberated up from the depths of the pit, one that tore the heavens and cracked the earth.

The World’s End quaked at the terrible cry. Following the vibration of the atmosphere, cracks began running along the surface of the ice. Spiderweb-like white patterns began polluting the silvery ground. As they did, the darkness of the abyss inverted.
Something ominous was glowing at the bottom. Upon seeing it, Kaito was struck speechless.
A massive golden eyeball was floating amid the blackness. And it was staring straight at Kaito and the others.
They were peering into the abyss, and it was gazing back at them. Eventually, Kaito realized just what it was he was looking at.
There’s a monster down at the bottom.
It was a colossal creature, one that defied all reason and providence.
The monster then shifted its body, and its eye disappeared from sight. In its place, a giant jaw jutted up from the pit. As it did, Kaito understood what meat the Butcher had meant to deliver and to whom.
When he fell, he wasn’t carrying his bag.
In other words, the Butcher himself was the meat.
The Butcher had delivered his own flesh to the gigantic, presumably draconic creature.
“It awakened by consuming the Apostle? What in the blazes is it?”
Elisabeth murmured, her voice low. As she did, a massive pair of wings extended up from the pit to the sky. They were like massive, fleshy flower buds reaching for the heavens. Then, like a flower blooming, the wings unfurled.
Rejecting all constraints of gravity and volume, the dragon softly flapped them and took off into the sky.
When it did, its entire monstrous body came into view. Compared to its wings and body, its limbs were comparatively stubby. It also had no scales, which was unusual for a dragon. Its pale, pinkish flesh was fully exposed. Between that and its round shape, it called a human fetus to mind. The thin red membrane swimming in the air behind its neck made it look like it was on fire.
Jeanne narrowed her eyes. As she regarded the strange dragon, she said in almost a whisper:
“Why, if it isn’t the Legend Dragon, the supreme flesh drake… According to the literature, the male was hunted by a group spearheaded by the merchant of legend. That must be the female, then. Who’da thunk it’d survived by staying out here. Now, this, this is a fairy tale.”
“Man… Looks like those tall tales of yours were true after all.”
Kaito muttered in disbelief. He thought back to all the stories the Butcher had told seemingly half in jest. One of those stories had been about the battle against the Legend Dragon.
Although he’d dressed them up as tall tales, the Butcher had shared no small number of his memories with them.
At that moment, though, harsh winds began to blow and knocked Kaito out of his reverie.
The Legend Dragon had begun softly bending her crooked wings again. In open defiance of her own mass, she was floating gently in the air like a balloon. She cast a vast shadow atop the icy ground as she drifted.
The way she did made her look almost like a floating island. It made for a grand spectacle, one that surpassed the realm of human comprehension.
The way her reddish flesh pulsated also made it look as though she were the beating heart of the very world.
Kaito found himself once more in the harsh grip of bewilderment.
What reason did the Butcher have to want to wake up the Legend Dragon?
He probably was planning to have the Legend Dragon destroy the world, and in doing so spur on the restructuring. Massive as she was, though, she was as docile as a whale. She showed no signs of wanting to attack her surroundings. And considering their descriptor, the reason the merchants had hunted down the male probably hadn’t been to exterminate a threat but to harvest his flesh.
And the Legend Dragon just kept drifting along.
Then she slowly began turning her massive body over. Eventually, her chest entered Kaito’s frame of vision.
“Wh—?”
As it did, he let out a dumbfounded noise. He finally understood why the Butcher had woken her up.
A hard crystal had been forcibly embedded in her soft flesh.
And in the Legend Dragon’s chest, encased in the red crystal, something was sleeping.
A naked woman was floating within.
She looked as though she’d been buried within a coffin suspended in midair. She was horribly defenseless, frozen upside down and submerged naked in the bloodred liquid. Its red crisply offset her white skin.
Hina held down her hair, which was being blown about by the wind. She blinked and whispered in puzzlement:
“Is that…the Saint?”
“Man… I guess it makes sense why no one could find her.”
With that, Kaito nodded. The Saint had been hidden away in the belly of a sleeping dragon at the bottom of an abyss in a pit at the World’s End. There was no way any ordinary search party could have turned her up.
Kaito had no words; he merely looked up at the drifting dragon. The stone in his pocket containing Vlad squirmed, but he ignored it. He didn’t have time to worry about Vlad right now. The Saint they’d been seeking was floating right before their eyes.
However, Kaito didn’t have the first clue as to what to do.
So what are we supposed to do with her?
The being before them was simply too far removed from mankind’s sense of scale. Kaito gazed up at the shadow-casting giant and the woman lodged in its chest in bewilderment. And the Legend Dragon continued to drift.
However, it was then that the calm, peaceful atmosphere came to a violent end.
A low, merciless voice rang out.
“Reenactment of the Plain of Skewers: Impaled Victim.”
Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab!
Innumerable crimson petals scattered through the air, and countless stakes fired out from them. The silence was shattered, and blood flew through the air.
Easily over a thousand iron stakes had buried themselves in the Legend Dragon’s body.

The air violently trembled. Kaito was certain that the Legend Dragon had let out a scream, but he couldn’t hear it. It must have been at a frequency that human ears were unable to perceive.
The Legend Dragon contorted her body through the air in anguish. Stakes fell out from her trembling flesh in succession. They roared through the sky as they toppled to the ground and pierced the frozen earth. At the same time, massive amounts of blood gushed forth from the Legend Dragon’s wounds.
The fresh blood pooled wide atop the ground like a lake. However, a few of the humongous drops twitched, then halted in the air. Several orbs of blood hovered in place.
“Huh?”
“Hmph.”
The next moment, the bloody spheres shot toward Elisabeth. The path was narrow—she had nowhere to run.
At this rate, Kaito and the others would get taken down as well. But Elisabeth was the very image of composure. As she swung Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal, darkness and crimson flower petals spread out over the chasm.
When they vanished, they left behind a web of chains that covered the hole.
Elisabeth cracked her neck in displeasure.
“I first thought of this as I watched the Butcher fall. I must say, I’m disappointed it didn’t occur to me sooner. Ho!”
Elisabeth took an acrobatic leap and landed atop the chains. Then, despite her high heels, she effortlessly dashed across their delicate iron loops. Seemingly uninterested in harming anyone except their foe, the dragon’s bloody spheres took off in pursuit. The countless crimson orbs snapped at her heels like a pack of beasts.
Elisabeth weaved a graceful, nimble dance atop the chains.
As they grazed her afterimages, the blood pellets fell down. When they came into contact with the chains, they burst into steam and then vanished into the pit.
The Legend Dragon lurched unsteadily as she let out a groan. Many of the stakes were still embedded in her flesh. In her current state, she was nothing more than a target. Kaito thought back on the story he’d just been told.
The male Legend Dragon was once hunted down by a group of merchants.
If that was the case, then there was no reason why the Torture Princess shouldn’t be able to kill the female.
Grabbing a chain, Elisabeth hoisted herself upside down. After avoiding the blood that had been aiming for her foot, she arched her back and made a soft landing. Then she mercilessly snapped her fingers once more.
“Arachnophobia.”
A new swirl of crimson and black appeared high in the sky. Two iron claws shot out of it.
Then, like the hands of a long-fingernailed woman, they each split into four and reached for the Legend Dragon.
When they did, they snatched her massive wings up by their bases, much like an innocent child would to a small animal. Their pointed tips dug into her draconic flesh as they lifted her high into the air.
Another violent tremor ran through the air, the echoes of an inaudible scream. Blood gushed forth and melted the icy ground.
The claws froze in the air, almost as though they’d heard the scream. They were finished moving. But the Legend Dragon’s weight caused her to begin sagging. Each time she did, her wings tore from their bases where the claws remained lodged. She gradually started falling faster and faster.
Then the Legend Dragon fell, her wings shredded to pieces.
When her fleshy body impacted the ground, its weight caused the earth to quake.
Tremors ran through the World’s End. This, of course, caused the skinny path Kaito and the others were standing atop to shake.
If not for the fact that they’d immediately grabbed on to the chains stretched out atop it, they very well could have toppled into the abyss. Lute collapsed onto the chains, then frantically crawled back to the path. Kaito broke out in a cold sweat and wiped it away with his fist.
“Looks…looks like we made it.”
“’Twill only get worse from here, fool! Make haste!”
Elisabeth’s angry voice rose up to meet him. Kaito blinked in astonishment.
As he did, he heard a faint popping noise. A chill ran down his spine before he even understood what it signified. The next moment, he discovered that his ominous premonition had been on the mark.
Fatal cracks had begun loudly winding across their narrow walkway.
Kaito looked up in shock. At some point, Elisabeth had finished making her way across the chains and had reached the side of the cliff opposite them. She was waving her arms atop the solid ground and shouting.
“Hurry! At this rate, you’ll be caught up when it collapses!”
“Oh, now you tell me all of a sudden!”
“It was hardly sudden, mister. That much weight comes crashin’ down, even you should be able to put two and two together.”
“Pardon me, my beloved Master Kaito! But I have no intentions of giving you up to that abyss!”
Jeanne was cradling Izabella in her arms and had already begun running. Kaito, on the other hand, had gotten a late start, so Hina scooped him up.
That moment, the ground at her feet shattered. As she carried him bridal-style, Kaito turned to look behind them. The path had started to crumble. The ice sounded like a mirror as it shattered.
The fragments glittered as they descended into the darkness.
Kaito succumbed to his primal fear and gulped. Hina shot forward, accelerating like a bullet.
Lute had originally been behind her, which meant that he was now in front as they ran for dear life. However, due to the weight of his winter gear, his footsteps were sluggish. Hina caught up with him in the blink of an eye.
After thinking for a moment, she shifted Kaito to under her arm.
“Master Kaito, this may be somewhat uncomfortable, but I ask that you bear with me! And, Mr. Lute, pardon me!”
“Oh my!”
Hina reached her free arm out and snatched Lute up by his burly back. Surprised by her strength, Lute let out a little yelp. Then he reflexively flattened his ears and tucked in his tail.
The walkway continued loudly crumbling. If they slowed down even a little, the abyss would swallow them up.
“Ha!”
Hina kicked off hard against the ground. The hem of her maid uniform flared out, and the glimmering ice beneath her feet shattered. She skidded as she landed, scattering snowflakes in her wake.
The two adult men in her arms screamed. However, their screams were drowned out by a loud clattering noise.
Kaito and Lute cautiously looked backward.
The thin path between the two crevices had vanished without a trace. Now that the obstruction was gone, the two ravines had joined together like a single vast river. Beyond it was the pit with the chains stretched over the parts of it still visible.
Lute shook his entire body, and the fur on his cheeks stood up straight.
“Th-that was a rather close shave… To think that Ms. Hina would end up having to carry me. Good gracious, how embarrassing. I do thank you, though. Never shall I forget this debt I owe you.”
“Th-thanks, Hina… Seems like you’re always saving my ass, doesn’t it? Now…”
Kaito stared hard, trying to make out what was happening on the other side of the pit.
The Legend Dragon was over there, writhing in a lake of her own blood. Eventually, the fierce convulsions running through her body stopped. The red gem in her chest continued glowing unabated.
The pale woman was still sleeping inside, like an insect trapped in amber.
In a daze, Kaito thought back to what Jeanne had once told him.
“Our salvation lies in murdering Diablo, murdering God, and, yes, murdering a human.”
“Is it…is it time?”
For now, the Saint had fallen to a place where they could kill her.

As he stood atop the World’s End, Kaito Sena thought to himself.
The end was finally upon them. All they had to do was kill the Saint, just like they’d originally planned.
Ever since he’d heard the Butcher’s lonely soliloquy, every positive thought he’d had about the Saint had vanished. The very fact that the person who’d destroyed the world and built it anew still lived was unnatural.
Now, mankind would lose the Saint, and the world would avoid destruction. And they would all live happily ever after.
The fairy tale would finally end.
Will it, though?
“Now, then, I aim to proceed! Feel free to stay there, you lot; you’d be hindrances at best!”
“Please wait. I, too, shall come… Or rather, allow me to join you, Torture Princess!”
Elisabeth called out from the opposite cliffside, and Jeanne replied. Despite her expressionless visage, though, she seemed troubled as she cast her gaze down at the woman in her arms. Izabella was sleeping like a baby.
Jeanne gently stroked her mostly metal cheek. Then she whispered quietly.
“My dear little lady.”
Then, lifting her head, Jeanne looked at Lute. He’d gotten down from Hina’s arm and was currently sitting cross-legged on the ground. Jeanne slowly approached him. He quickly stood up, his fur standing on end to illustrate his wariness. Jeanne stopped directly in front of him, then quietly held out Izabella.
Lute seemed bewildered. However, his fur settled down, and he took Izabella from her.
Jeanne softly brushed Izabella’s silver hair from her face. Then she gave Lute her quiet request.
“Of the three of you, your arms seem the thickest and most comfortable, mister. I leave her in your hands. Please do not let her go. She is very precious to me. Not that she herself knows, mind you. Hell, she’d probably find it a bother! But hey, that’s first love for ya, am I right?”
“Precious…you say. I understand. Then on my name as Lute, I shall protect her to the last! Hmm?”
Being a devoted husband himself, Lute must have been moved by Jeanne’s words. His ears and tail sprang up as he acquiesced. At the very end, though, it seemed like he remembered the fact that Jeanne had severely wounded him not long ago.
Lute hmmed to himself and scrunched up his snout. As he did, Jeanne faced him and bowed deeply.
“You have my sincere thanks.”
Kaito and Hina felt a slight shock. It was the first time they’d ever seen the golden Torture Princess act so admirably. Lute’s voice got caught in his throat for a moment before he replied with a docile nod.
“Think nothing of it. I may bear resentment toward you, but that has nothing to do with Madam Izabella. And grudge or not, I can hardly forsake another’s beloved. If you would entrust her to me, then I will see to it that she remains safe.”
“Again, you have my gratitude. Thanks a million, li’l pupper.”
“Learn when to stop talking, will you?!”
As Lute shouted angrily at her, Jeanne turned around and broke into a run. Hurrying toward Elisabeth, she dashed alongside the rim of the hole. Her radiant honey-blond splendor gradually grew distant. Kaito remained where he stood.
If he went, he’d probably just be in the way. All that was left was for the two of them to lower the curtain.
The Kaiser was silent, seemingly having lost interest in the way things were proceeding. The stone in Kaito’s pocket was flaring up as usual, but now wasn’t a great time to have a conversation with Vlad.
Kaito’s gaze was fixed firmly on the woman within the red jewel.
She was still far away, but thanks to the Legend Dragon’s collapse, she was now a good deal closer. She looked utterly defenseless. All they had to do was kill her, and the nightmarish turmoil regarding the world’s restructuring would finally come to an end.
Will it, though?
However, doubt still welled up unbidden in Kaito’s mind.
All of a sudden, he noticed that his heart was palpitating strangely. Sweat was dripping from his entire body. Discomfited, he lost track of his thoughts. Then he pressed down against his forehead.
“Master Kaito? My dear Master Kaito, whatever is the matter? Your face is ever so pale.”
“No, no… I’m fine. It’s nothing… I think it’s nothing.”
Hina worriedly stroked his brow. As he felt the soft sensation of her fingertips, Kaito replied. Deep in his mind, though, his childish self was asking his rational self an innocent question.
Will it really, really, really, though?
No, you’re right. Something’s off. But what?
Kaito couldn’t really put his finger on it. But his discomfort raged on, beating incessantly against the inside of his skull. He found himself lost in the strange sensation. It wasn’t that he wanted to stop them from killing the Saint. At the moment, it was the correct choice to make. But something was off.
Will this really, really, really bring everything to a close? Do I really believe that?
You’re a big dumb-dumb! his inner child crowed.
Think about it carefully, the rational part of his brain murmured.
And now that he considered it, there were a number of questions that he and the others had more or less ignored.
Why did the Grave Keeper bring Izabella to us like that? Why did she give Elisabeth her blessings, then offer no resistance and practically kill herself off? Why did the Butcher invite us here? Why did he specifically wait for us to arrive before waking up the Legend Dragon?
Then, upon noticing another fact he’d overlooked, Kaito went pale.
The various races had each received a letter, and in the letter had been a certain phrase.
“The beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in the palm of His hand. If you wish to reject those words, make for the World’s End.”
But we were the only ones the Butcher didn’t send it to.
Perhaps that fact signified something truly terrible.
And at the same time, a question he had failed to consider up until then crossed Kaito’s mind.
The Butcher had claimed that the whole uproar about restructuring hadn’t been his desire. The Apostle and the fanatics had simply been trying to grant the Saint’s wish. But had anyone ever said that the restructuring itself was what the Saint had been wishing for?
That fundamental problem now pierced through Kaito’s brain. He frantically dug through his memories.
That’s right—it was the Grave Keeper!
She’d said that “God and the Saint have been seeking this restructuring for many ages.” But was the restructuring itself really her true desire? Wasn’t it also a possibility that the reconstructing was simply a natural part of the process involved in granting her true wish?
If that was the case, though, then what did the Saint actually wish for?
“Ah!”
At that moment, Kaito’s thoughts were forcefully interrupted. An incredible amount of heat was coming off the stone in his pocket. He was about to click his tongue in annoyance, but then he realized something.
Vlad’s never been this insistent about wanting to come out before.
So what could it be that Vlad wanted to tell him?
Kaito hurriedly ran mana through the stone. Azure petals and black darkness fluttered up through the air. When they vanished, they left behind a man in aristocratic attire. Unlike usual, he didn’t move to strike a dramatic pose.
Vlad’s limbs dangled loose as he turned to face Kaito. Upon getting a look at Vlad’s crimson eyes, Kaito gulped. Fierce madness and burning thoughts were swirling within Vlad’s gaze.
“…Why?”
“Um…”
“Why did you so obstinately refuse to let me out until now, my dear successor?”
“M-my bad. I had no idea you actually had something you wanted to tell me.”
“Well, what’s done is done. And perhaps it’s fine. I’ve yet to get all my thoughts in order.”
Vlad ignored Kaito’s apology and began mumbling to himself. He clutched at his raven locks like a man possessed. As he ruined his normally impeccable hairdo, he started laying out his thoughts.
“If one is lost, they need but retrace their steps. Where did the malaise originate? Right, from the Grave Keeper’s words and deeds. It seems that we’ve all been dancing atop the Saint’s palm. Since when, though? The golden Torture Princess was created to stave off the restructuring. Was that part of her design? Or was it not?”
Another chill ran down Kaito’s spine. That wasn’t something he had even considered.
There were those who’d worked to bring about the restructuring and those who’d worked to prevent it. What had the Saint thought of each of the groups?
“When the alchemists created their golden Torture Princess, they were aware of the black Torture Princess and used her as a reference. However, there was no need for there to be two of them. The alchemists could just as easily have gone to the ebony Torture Princess and sought out her aid. They hadn’t expected her to exist, and they chose not to rely on her. They had their pride, after all; it was the sole end their clan had been living toward. Instead, they tried to have their golden Torture Princess take the black Torture Princess on as a follower, and in doing so make it so their creation was the primary force to prevent the restructuring. But what if, say, she anticipated their pride?”
“If the Saint predicted that another Torture Princess would be created… Then what?”
“Then there would be ‘two.’ The Grave Keeper even said it! What we need to pay attention to is the resulting number!”
Vlad shouted like a madman. Hina reacted to his menacing demeanor by positioning herself in front of Kaito.
Kaito, shocked, ruminated on what the Grave Keeper had told him.
“The fact that the whelp served as a guide was proof. The fact that he sought ‘two’ was proof.”
“In the end, those who sought to prevent the restructuring and those who sought to bring it about arrived at the same method—‘finding the Saint.’ And the Butcher said that the black Torture Princess’s resistance was unexpected. Up until she arrived, he probably was simply aiming for the world’s restructuring. But if his objective changed upon the arrival of the black Torture Princess and the creation of the golden Torture Princess that accompanied it, if it took on a form closer to that of the Saint’s true desire… Oh, oh, that’s it!”
“What is?”
“The ‘significance of the two.’”
Vlad’s eyes widened, and his words served as the trigger that set Kaito’s thoughts into overdrive. Why had the Butcher, and the Saint, needed two people? What was the meaning behind that number?
What will happen when she assembles those two unbelievably powerful women? What will she be able to do?
Kaito spun around. Elisabeth and Jeanne had just reached the crystal. The two of them smoothly raised their arms, and gold and crimson flower petals began swirling.
As he gazed at their elegant backs, Vlad spoke in a hoarse voice.
“The two Torture Princesses. God and Diablo.”
Kaito didn’t fully understand what those words signified, but their ominous nature was all too clear. Vlad’s murmur had an almost prophetic ring to it. Dull as he was, Kaito could understand that much. Something irreparably wrong was happening, here and now. And once it occurred, it could never be undone.
It was something he had to stop at all costs.
“Stop, stop, run, get away from there! Elisabeeeeeeeeth!”
Kaito screamed, driven by impulse alone. His voice tore violently through the still, quiet air.
Elisabeth’s black hair fluttered as she turned. Her beautiful crimson eyes landed on Kaito.
Her expression was annoyed, confused, and a little bit listless.
It was the same face as it had always been, yet, for some reason, it seared itself into Kaito’s eyes.
And then, suddenly, something grabbed her wrist from behind.
Kaito was sure of what he’d seen. Two white arms had extended out from the red crystal.
Fingers so pale that they seemed almost dead wrapped tightly around the ebony and golden Torture Princesses’ wrists.
Elisabeth’s and Jeanne’s eyes opened wide. At some point, the surface of the crystal had turned soft and blurry and begun vibrating. After the arms came out, they were followed by a head.
The woman slid out from within the crystal as though it were birthing her. Then she toppled awkwardly to the ground. She shook her head, spraying red droplets around her. Kaito immediately realized: They were the tears that had been running down her cheeks.
The Saint then lifted her head. The whisper that came from her lips had a strangely sweet echo to it, and it traveled like a wave, reaching all the way to Kaito.
“Ahhh…you’ve finally come.”
My new Saints.


Torture Princess

*   *   *
It was a declaration pregnant with unfathomable madness and a terrifying degree of volition.
In the next instant, crimson and gold flower petals began pouring out from her palms. The two hues swallowed up the Torture Princesses.
Elisabeth tried to summon a torture device, but petals rushed at her hands and lips, sealing them off. Jeanne’s eyes began wandering. She was searching for Deus Ex Machina. Right now, though, it was serving as parts of Izabella’s body. No longer could it come to its master’s aid.
“I see. This falls outside my expectations.”
As she murmured, Jeanne gave a faint laugh.
Those proved to be her final words.
The crimson and gold petals completely engulfed the two Torture Princesses.
Even so, the naked woman refused to release their wrists. Red, capillary-vessel-like tubes tore as she wrenched even the tips of her toes free from the crystal.
Now fully free, she looked up and parted her lips.
Her rows of startlingly white, well-formed teeth came into view.
“Ha-ha… Ah-ha-ha-ha, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
The Saint began laughing uproariously. The sound of her mad laughs tore through the air.
As he shuddered, Kaito got ready to level an attack at her. However, he stopped. He couldn’t sense any power coming from the cackling woman.
She’s just…a normal woman.
She had already transferred the things that had made her into the Suffering Saint.
She’d transferred them into the two Torture Princesses.
The next moment, Kaito heard a voice deep in his eardrum. Hina pressed down on her ears, and Lute gave a small yelp.
It was being conveyed in every imaginable language, in the words of men, of demi-humans, of beastfolk, of animals, of fish, of bugs, even in languages from other worlds. It was transmitted to every living creature in a mysterious form they could all comprehend.
The voice belonged to one who’d been sleeping far, far away, deep in the bowels beneath the Capital.
“Good morning.”
Kaito understood on instinct alone. Freed from its contractor’s order, the first demon had vanished from its cradle.
And when it had, it had transferred into the body of its new contractor: Elisabeth Le Fanu.


Torture Princess

9
In the Midst of Demise
His voice solemn, Vlad began speaking.
It was no fairy tale. The entire situation had been a farce.
“It all began when the Butcher sold me the demon meat entrusted to him by the Saint.”
With that, the man responsible for part of the world’s reconstruction had set the ball in motion.
By eating the demon meat and collecting the pain of others, Vlad had been able to summon the Kaiser. Then he’d gathered up other people who wanted to summon demons and guided them on their ways. And the demon army fourteen strong had arisen.
At that point, the Butcher’s goal had simply been to have the mighty band of demons overrun the world, then to wake up the Saint once the world was in a state where she could wield the power of restructuring. The reason he’d picked Vlad was likely because Vlad had both the power and the inclination to unify the demons. But then someone had appeared, someone who opposed his dreadful plot.
The woman who’d eaten demon meat, tortured her people, and obtained the power to fight back.
The Torture Princess, peerless sinner that she was—Elisabeth Le Fanu.
Under the orders of the Church, she had begun hunting the fourteen demons.
After hearing that Vlad had been captured, the Butcher had made his way to Elisabeth’s side, then taken stock of the situation.
At around that time, another faction had made their play as well: the alchemist clan that had hidden themselves away long ago. Knowing that the first demon would appear, they devoted many generations to working toward preventing the world from being reconstructed.
Upon seeing the fourteen demons run rampant, they realized that the time was upon them and used the ebony Torture Princess as a reference to create the golden one. However, the fact that their pride and obstinacy led them to entrust matters to their own masterpiece instead of giving the raven-haired Torture Princess their support proved to be a fatal blunder.
Once the Butcher learned of the two Torture Princesses, he changed his plan in order to take advantage of the alchemists’ goal and use it against them. After inviting the Torture Princesses to the World’s End, he sacrificed himself to bring them face-to-face with the Saint. The Grave Keeper, having sensed the Apostle’s plan, got to work as well, and the two Torture Princesses were left with no way to avoid being captured.
And then, finally, the Saint used them as exceptional vessels, transferring the contracts with God and Diablo she bored into their bodies.
“What, then, was the Saint’s true wish?”
The Butcher had originally been following the Saint’s orders and trying to bring about the world’s restructuring. At the last minute, though, his objective changed into transferring the contracts binding the Saint over to them. But those contracts were too much for the Torture Princesses to withstand. Within the next ten days or so, the world wouldn’t even be reconstructed; it would simply meet its demise.
“Given all that, we can deduce that the Saint’s objective wasn’t the restructuring itself. In all likelihood, she merely needed the world to sustain fatal damage from the demons before she could wield God’s power. Only at the time of restructuring could she awaken with the ability to use both God’s and Diablo’s powers as she pleased. And that would also be the only time she could abandon their strength.”
If she abandoned her contracts during the restructuring, when the world was still a blank canvas, everything would undoubtedly perish. But in exchange, she would attain a brief moment of freedom. But by transferring her contracts to the Torture Princesses, she would stretch that moment out into nearly two weeks.
In short, that was all there was to it.
“She cared little for her own survival, nor for the fate of the world. She merely wanted to set down her burden, even if but for a moment. There was nothing more to it, I’d wager.”
She intended to cast aside all the blame and responsibility she’d once shouldered. Back when she’d been carrying out the original restructuring atop the blank canvas of the world, loathing toward all of creation and fear of her own deathlessness must have swelled inside her and eventually turned into madness. That was why she’d set up a time bomb in the new world she’d created.
“The Butcher worked ceaselessly toward bringing about that promised day, deftly manipulating us all the while.”
While Vlad laid out his theory, Kaito didn’t offer a single interjection.
His head was nestled in Hina’s lap, and the rest of his body was lying atop the solemn stone floor.
They had already left the World’s End. Now they were back at Elisabeth’s castle.
Hina, Lute, and Izabella were resting in the castle’s owner’s empty bedroom. Lute, still cradling Izabella in his arms, didn’t stir. He seemed absentminded. The Kaiser had yet to show his form.
Vlad was floating in front of the three of them. His legs were crossed gracefully, and he was silent, his lecture now complete. Kaito remained on his side, not saying anything. Beads of cold sweat were welling up on his forehead. His teeth were clenched tight as he tried to endure the waves of pain coursing through his body. Every few minutes, he lapsed into violent coughs and spat up blood.
As Hina wiped the blood away so it wouldn’t flow back into his trachea, she stroked his brow.
“Please, Master Kaito, get ahold of yourself. Oh, whatever am I to do…?”
“Are you quite all right, my dear successor? Or did perhaps my explanation go to waste?”
“…Don’t worry…about that… I heard…it all—Gah!”
Kaito let out another pained cry. Hina helplessly mopped the sweat off his forehead.
Kaito tried to suppress the pain gushing from within him so he could think Vlad’s explanation over. As he did, another thought faintly drifted to the forefront of his mind. It was what he’d been thinking about as Jeanne wavered over her choice.
Elisabeth, the black Torture Princess, showed no signs of bearing regrets, nor did she ever try to cast aside her sins. But what about Jeanne?
If she did bear regrets, what would she be left with after the world was saved?
If she won’t have anything left, then…
…then at that point, what had she really even saved?
This was no doubt an example of someone who’d erred in their choice, just like he’d said.
The Saint had carried out restructuring while unable to cast aside her regrets. And because of that, she’d dragged the whole world in and crumbled it. No person could become the Suffering Saint out of a sense of duty and obligation alone. But…
She doesn’t deserve my sympathy. Screw sympathy, and screw her, goddammit!
Spitting up another mouthful of blood, Kaito scratched at the stone floor. His fingernails split as he roared within his head.
GIVE ME MY ELISABETH BACK.
There was, of course, no way that his scathing, soundless scream could reach her. The World’s End was distant. However, a different voice rose up as though in reply.
The cliff-top castle was surrounded by trees and far from any human settlements. Yet, in spite of that, screams and laughter filled the air around it.
However, it wasn’t humans that the voices were coming from.
The world outside had become a living hell.
Demonic underlings laughed as they soared past the window. One monkey-like underling peeked inside.
Kaito’s eyes were still closed as he snapped his fingers. His blade swung precisely, cleaving off the underling’s wings. It let out a loud scream as it began tumbling down. In the space of an instant, Kaito forgot all about it.
Elisabeth…
As he continued coughing up blood, his thoughts turned to the events that had just occurred.
The gut-wrenching spectacle played out once more before his eyes.

First, the petals engulfing Elisabeth and Jeanne all vanished. The two of them suddenly found themselves free. And at a glance, their bodies seemed the same as ever. Their faces contorted in confusion.
Then, though, without warning, the horrible transformation began.
“…Rgh!”
“What’s the matter, miss? I—Ow!”
A single strand of dark-red blood had begun running down Elisabeth’s shoulder, and the same had happened to Jeanne’s arm. It was like they’d each been stabbed with a sharp needle. But no one had attacked them. Their skin had been impaled by something hard and pointy yet, at the same time, also soft from within.
A black feather peeked out from Elisabeth’s skin, and a white feather did the same from Jeanne’s.
It was immediately clear that something was wrong. After all, feathers had just sprouted from human flesh.
“This is…”
“…Impossible.”
The two of them exchanged a glance. But they didn’t have time to leisurely discuss the phenomenon assailing them.
Accompanied by a loud popping noise, another feather protruded out from each of them.
It was as though the two of them were down pillows, and their stuffing was bursting through their cloth. Feathers began tearing out from within them, one after another. Streaks of red blood once more made their way across the Torture Princesses’ bodies.
Kaito was struck with an ominous premonition. A moment later, that premonition came to pass.
Pop! Pop! Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!
Pop!
Just hearing it was enough to evoke the image of goose bumps rising up in succession. The patterns of erosion resembled vegetation budding. Feathers began sprouting from all over their bodies, like carelessly strewn seeds indiscriminately tearing apart the earth. They flew out from their cheeks, their backs, their eyes, their lips, and even their gums.
Elisabeth’s and Jeanne’s bodies wordlessly writhed. They were clearly in incredible pain. In the blink of an eye, the two Torture Princesses had come to resemble newborn chicks.
Elisabeth and Jeanne were being forcibly turned into something foreign.
The moment that fact hit him, Kaito recovered from his state of shock. The same seemed to be true of Hina.
Letting out loud cries, the two of them dashed forward.
“Elisabeth!”
“Lady Elisabeth!”
“Stay awaaaaaaaaaaaay!”
When they did, they were met with a bestial roar.
As she rebuked them, Elisabeth coughed up blood.
Kaito and Hina reflexively froze in place. The next moment, the countless feathers sprouting from the Torture Princesses extended with explosive force, each one of the black and white quills growing to massive proportions. Then the two sets merged together, and they formed a pair of contrasting wings. However, the wings slumped to the ground, unable to support their own weight. They writhed there grotesquely.
Eventually, they gave up on trying to fly. Instead, the two damp wings pushed off against the ground like a set of arms. At their center, Elisabeth and Jeanne rose into the air.
Then, supported by the inverted wings, they hung there, suspended.
As they did, crimson and gold flower petals began gently descending. They spread out through the air, as though they had come to replace the no-longer-falling snow. As he gazed upon the cruelly beautiful spectacle, Kaito’s eyes widened.
The petals were pouring out from within the Torture Princesses’ lips.
Several of the thin red and gold sheets wound together, taking on the shape of full flowers and decorating Elisabeth and Jeanne. Then thorny briars wound around their bodies like snakes, binding their masters’ bodies and refusing to let them go.
Finally, the thorns wrapped around their heads like crowns.
The two of them hung in the air, crucified. They looked almost noble.
And at the same time, they looked like sinners, kings who lorded over all of creation.
The Saint still hadn’t stopped laughing. With her maddened fit as a backdrop, Kaito was reminded of what the Grave Keeper had said.
“Hallelujah.”
So this transformation’s what she was alluding to?
As he watched the changes the two Torture Princesses were going through, Kaito came to understand just how outstanding of a vessel the Saint had been. The fact that she’d been able to put Diablo to sleep, shelter God within her body, and still maintain her human form was nothing short of a miracle. In truth, her ability to keep the two of them from running amok was a feat so impressive, no words could do it justice. But now, she’d given up on doing so, and the result was the scene before them.
Whether he wanted to or not, Kaito immediately understood. What he was looking at was calamity incarnate.
Those two pillars of black and crimson, white and gold, would bring about an end to everything.
There’s no way… The world can’t just be ending before my eyes…can it?
For the first time in over a decade, Kaito was struck by an urge to scream and cry at his own powerlessness. The despair of it all made him want to just topple to his knees, tremble, and start wailing. Terror that no living creature could overcome seized him and refused to let go. But Kaito gritted his teeth and forced down all those emotions. He took a step forward. When he did, Hina called out in a panic.
“Master Kaito, you mustn’t! It’s dangerous!”
“I know that. But I can’t just watch this happen.”
Wallowing in terror and despair would accomplish nothing. Even in the face of his all-encompassing demise, he refused to stand by powerlessly and grieve. After all…
…Just who is it in the middle of all that?
Kaito looked up high in the sky. A single woman was hanging there, her eyes closed.
The person who’d saved him, the girl who had laughed so innocently, was being crucified.
She wasn’t the Saint. In the beginning, she hadn’t even been the Torture Princess.
She was Elisabeth Le Fanu.
The woman Kaito Sena admired most.
“Elisabeth!”
Kaito screamed her name. Then, after shaking off the trepidation running through his body, he dashed toward the pillar.
Because Kaito knew something. Screw terror. Despair? And the end of the world? So what?
The thought of losing you is way scarier than any of that.
Kaito Sena had sworn that, until the day he died, he would stay by Elisabeth Le Fanu’s side.
And he had no intention of breaking that promise.
Kaito finally arrived at the base of Elisabeth’s pillar. He reached out to grab one of the briars winding around her wing. His skin tore, and pain shot through his body. It felt like he was clutching at barbed wire. But he didn’t let go. Lifting his feet up onto the briar, he began trying to climb the wing.
His beastly hand and his human both ran red as he tried to get closer to the captured woman.
“Elisabeth! …Rgh!”
Suddenly, the feathers and thorns proliferated, nearly swallowing Kaito up. At the last moment, though, someone yanked him backward by the nape of his neck and saved him. Kaito was about to call out Hina’s name. But he was mistaken.
When he turned around, he found someone wholly unexpected there.
“…Kaiser?”
“Your foe may be the eminent Diablo, but so long as you are my contractor, I forbid you from allowing yourself to be unceremoniously consumed, O unworthy master of mine! To think, though, that it would come to this… I’d stayed on the sidelines, thinking the situation trifling, but this, truly, is proof that I was a fool! Ah, how vexing!”
As he bayed, the Kaiser flung Kaito into the air. Then the supreme hound vanished. Hina, who’d rushed up close, barely managed to catch Kaito. Large tears were welling up in her emerald eyes.
Because she’d understood how he felt, she’d been too slow to stop him.
She squeezed him tight with all her might.
“Master Kaito, I know how you feel! I…I, too, desperately don’t want to let Elisabeth go! But please, you have to endure it. You’re so wounded…”
“Hina… I’m sorry. I just…”
As he rubbed Hina’s back, Kaito took another look at their surroundings. At some point, Vlad had moved over to where the two pillars stood. His arms were spread wide, and his eyes were glittering as he gazed at the Torture Princesses’ transformations.
“It’s magnificent… It’s the peak of beauty, the apex of ugliness… Truly, ‘magnificent’ is the only way to describe it.”
His face was as innocent as a child watching a meteor shower. However, his expression suddenly took a more serious turn.
As he began rapidly coming back to his senses, Vlad started thinking.
“…Still, though… Hmm…”
While he did, the Torture Princesses continued transforming. Their engorged wings and briars slipped down under the icy ground, eroding it away. The milky-white sky quickly grew muddied as well. The rainbow film froze over into a leaden gray.
The God and Diablo pillars spread out their arms, ever wider, ever farther.
“Is this…the end?”
Hearing a trembling voice, Kaito looked down. Lute was cowering on the ground, his tail completely curled up. However, he was holding Izabella firmly.
Humans’ sensory perception was weak, so the visceral despair Lute felt was probably many times greater than theirs.
Words tumbled weakly from Lute’s mouth as he stared at the growing horrors before them.
“At this rate… At this rate, everything will come to an end. How can we stand up to such a thing?”
Lute’s right.
Kaito agreed with him. God and Diablo were both taboo entities, beings that mankind wasn’t meant to come in contact with.
Both of them transformed the land into a place wholly uninhabitable by living creatures, as though it were only natural for them to do so. Eventually, the very world would crumble, unable to bear the strain.
The two pillars grew at a steady pace. However, they suddenly quavered, and the transformation came to a temporary halt.
The briars writhed, and a trembling arm thrust its way out from each pillar. The Torture Princesses had forced their bodies to move. Their eyes still closed, they tore at what bound them, their own skin and all.
Then they raised their arms high, and their soundless voices rang out.
Begone from this place. Make haste.
Please run, Fools.
At the same time, they also snapped their fingers. Black darkness and white light flashed, and crimson and gold flower petals started raining down.
They then formed a cylindrical wall with Kaito and the others at its center. A teleportation circle was being etched in the ice.
“…!”
On impulse, Kaito tried to dive out of it. He needed to remain by Elisabeth’s side. However, he found himself unable to move. One of Lute’s arms and both of Hina’s were holding him back.
Normally, when Kaito’s violent emotions reached a certain threshold, he would return to a sound state of mind. However, the situation was so abnormal that that function of his was broken. He raged like a wounded beast and screamed.
“Let go of me! Elisabeth is—I can’t just leave her alone like that!”
“I understand your loyalty and affection for your master, I truly do! But even if you hate me for it, I won’t let you go! What do you hope to accomplish by staying here? Think of your wife!”
“But—!”
“…Master Kaito, please listen to me.”
Suddenly, Hina whispered, her voice gentle and calm. She wasn’t crying anymore.
Her beautiful, clear emerald eyes were fixed on Kaito alone.
“If that is your answer, Master Kaito, if you say that that is your sole wish, then I will release you.”
“Ms. Hina?”
“But if you do, then I will remain here as well.”
Hina made her declaration calmly. Then she gently unbound her arms to tell Kaito that the choice was his.
Kaito gulped. Hina took a step back, then smiled at him.
“It would be my pleasure to remain with my dear Lady Elisabeth and die alongside you, my beloved.”
There was no reproach in her eyes and no anger. Only pure, unadulterated love.
If Kaito wanted to stay behind, then she would no doubt die at his side without a single word of regret.
And because of that, Kaito stopped. Because of that, he was able to stop.
Then he deliberately took a long, deep breath. The strained energy that had built up in his body dissipated. He went limp, then collapsed backward. When he did, Hina made sure to catch him.
As he lay in her arms, he let out a weak murmur.
“…I’m sorry. I’m good now. God, I’m supposed to be your husband, but I—”
“It’s no matter. Anything you hold precious is just as precious to me.”
Hina gently stroked Kaito’s head. As he clung to her warmth to maintain his sanity, Kaito’s thoughts turned.
Right now, there’s nothing we can do here. We need to get a fresh start.
At this rate, the world really would end. The leisurely time for the various races to stay on guard of one another and probe for advantages was over. Right now, they needed every person possible to pool their power together so they could come up with a countermeasure.
And that was why Kaito and the others needed to leave. The world needed people who had witnessed the horrible truth. Right now, information was of the essence. As those thoughts swirled around in his head, Kaito looked up through the interweaving light and petals.
At the far end of his vision sat Elisabeth’s tragic figure, her eyes closed.
“Wh…?”
Even so, part of him still wanted to run to her.
Hina seemed to have sensed something as she released him from her arms. Kaito tottered a few steps forward. Then he extended his bloodstained hand to the edge of the teleportation circle and let out a fitful shout.
“Don’t go… Don’t go, Elisabeth!”
The hell do I mean, “Don’t go”?! We’re the ones leaving!
As he shouted to Elisabeth, he shouted at himself internally. He was the one fleeing, not her. Even knowing that, though, he couldn’t stop the nonsensical words from pouring out of his throat.
“You’re the one who called me, Elisabeth! You’re the one who called me to this world! You ordered me to become your servant, didn’t you? And you’re gonna go anyway? You’re gonna go off all on your own anyway?!”
Blood dripped down his fist. Tears dripped down his cheek.
Weeping with all his might, he screamed again.
“Please, Elisabeth, don’t leave me! I don’t want you to go!”
Kaito reached out his hand as he pleaded with the person he could no longer reach.
“Please don’t leave me,” he implored her like a child. “Not now that I’ve finally met you,” he cried.
“I’d rather watch the world get destroyed than lose you!”
Then, at the far end of his vision, Elisabeth opened her eyes.
“…Huh?”
For a second, Kaito doubted his sight, thinking it nothing more than a fanciful delusion. But it was true. Her crimson eyes were assuredly focused on him. Her lips silently moved. What poured out from them was blood. In what no doubt caused her a great deal of pain, she contorted her lips into a smile.
And when she did, she whispered.
“…………You utter fool.”
It was a heartrending, nostalgic voice.
Elisabeth then reached out her trembling arm, as though trying to grasp Kaito’s palm in reply.
Briars wound around it, trying to stop her. But Elisabeth resisted them. She extended her hand straight forward. But Kaito’s palm was too distant. After displaying another abrupt smile, Elisabeth lowered her arm.
Instead, she now snapped her fingers once more. Her fingers broke. Their skin tore, and their bones fractured.
Yet, even so, her whispers had a strange warmth to them.
“You don’t want this; you don’t want that, eh? Well, if you despise being alone so badly, then I shall grant it to you.
’Tis my loss, O peerless fool. I give unto you my everything. Do with it as you please.”
Crimson petals flitted through the air, then coalesced into a sphere. It soared away from Diablo’s pillar and floated gently through the sky. Then, all at once, the petals rushed between Kaito’s lips. His mouth filled with the sharp stink of rust and the taste of flesh.
Understanding intuitively what it was, Kaito widened his eyes. He looked up at Elisabeth.
Her voice unimaginably kind, she went on.
“Drink them down or spit them all up, the choice is yours to make. But do try to live on, Kaito.
And when you do, save the world. Your strength is equal to the task, as is your needless determination.
You are the greatest fool this world has to offer—and you are my dim-witted servant, my pride and joy.”
Her voice sounded almost like someone trying to cheer up a dejected child.
Kaito stared straight at Elisabeth. Then, with a gulp, he swallowed the petals down.
The moment he did, he clutched at his chest, and his knees crumpled. He began violently heaving up blood.
“Master Kaito!”
“S-Sir Kaito!”
“Geh… Urgh, ugh, gah, geh, blegh!”
As he heard Hina and Lute cry out, Kaito collapsed in pain. Despite that, though, he looked up. He was weeping and coughing up blood, but he looked straight at Elisabeth. He lifted his trembling arm.
Then he stuck his thumb up to say, Don’t worry. I received it.
Both of their faces were haggard, but they exchanged a smile.
Elisabeth, having used all her strength, closed her eyes back up.
In truth, she’d probably hit her limit long ago. She quickly lost consciousness. Jeanne’s eyes were still closed as well. However, the teleportation circle activated automatically. Kaito and the others had their vision covered by compound walls of crimson and gold, darkness and light. In the final moment before the world faded away, though, Kaito witnessed something.
The pillars had begun undergoing even more radical change. A flock of black birds took off from Diablo’s.
To be more specific, they weren’t birds at all. They had a variety of shapes and forms, but every one of them was an underling.
Amid the growing tempest of pain raging within his body, a thought crossed Kaito’s mind.
Oh man… The world’s gonna become hell, isn’t it?
And the way things were going, everything was going to end.


Torture Princess

“We need to inform Lady Vyade Ula Forstlast of what we’ve learned.”
Back in Elisabeth’s castle, Lute gave a quiet murmur. Odds were good that his subordinates had made it back safely and given their report on the chaotic situation, but Lute was the only one of them who’d seen the pillars up close.
He needed to go give an accurate report. It was now clear that he hadn’t just been in a daze—he, too, had been thinking hard.
“If things continue on like this, the world really will cease to exist. I can’t simply sit quietly and wait for it to meet its end. We’ll need to get in contact with the demi-humans…the humans, even, too, and come up with a plan together.”
Lute squeezed Izabella tight. She was still asleep, blissfully unaware of what was going on. He gazed at her mechanically supplemented face, then whispered so as not to wake her.
“And as for Ms. Izabella Vicker, I was thinking of leaving her in my wife’s care. The two of them are on good terms, and as her body is right now, Ms. Izabella might be in need of my wife’s skills as a healer. I can promise you that no harm will come to her under my wife’s watch. Does that sound reasonable?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. It would probably give Jeanne some peace of—Geh!”
While he was replying, Kaito heaved up even more blood.
Lute’s eyes went wide with alarm. The amount of red liquid spilled out atop the stone floor was far from normal.
Can humans really survive after losing that much blood?
Lute found himself bewildered. He’d been told that Kaito had a homunculus body, but even so, he still needed blood to maintain his existence. Now, though, Kaito was down on his hands and knees, and Hina was rubbing his back. Lute called out worriedly to the back of Kaito’s head.
“Sir Kaito, what’s the matter? Ever since we returned from the World’s End, you’ve been coughing up blood incessantly. Are you certain you’re all right?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine… I’m fine. I’m getting used to it. I’ll get better at it soon.”
“Better at what?” wondered Lute. But before he could ask, strange noises drowned him out.
Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!
One of the noises was high-pitched, and the rest were monstrous. Upon inspection, it was a group of underlings chasing around one of the Church’s communication devices. All of them, the white orb and the winged, boar-headed underlings alike, were charging toward the castle.
Lute frantically leaped away from the window. As he did, their assailants all flew into the bedroom.
After carefully setting Izabella down on the floor, Lute drew his sword. Kaito was in no state to fight, and Hina no doubt wanted to stay by her master’s side. Lute steeled himself to face the group of foes on his own.
The time has come for me to repay the debts I’ve incurred!
As that thought raced through his mind, Kaito, who was still down on the floor, weakly raised his arm. Then he snapped his wounded fingers.
“La (become).”
And with that, ten blades appeared in midair.
Dozens of silver flashes filled the air. Each of the blades had silently traveled across the room several times.
The underlings were sliced to ribbons. Their diced-up flesh toppled to the ground, and their organs all spilled out.
Faced with that overwhelming display of power, Lute found himself at a loss for words. Still holding his sword at the ready, he stared at Kaito in astonishment. Kaito himself hadn’t even watched his foes die. He was down on his hands and knees, coughing up blood once more.
Lute was overcome with shock. Hina was at a loss for words, too. Only Vlad laughed.
That was just how abnormal Kaito’s deed had been. As he was normally, it would have been wholly beyond him.
Without power on par with the Torture Princess’s, carrying out that kind of unilateral slaughter would be impossible.
“Sir Kaito, what in the world—?”
“Over here… C’mon, over here. Good boy.”
Kaito raised his bloodstained, beastly arm, and the rescued communication device obeyed his summons and landed on his palm. Its feathers then tumbled off, revealing its glossy surface and the unencrypted runes thereon. Historically, Kaito hadn’t been able to read them. Now, though, he nodded casually and rose to his feet.
“Perfect. It was a message from the Church… Looks like Vyade Ula Forstlast is already putting stuff into motion off the reports your men gave her. And the demi-humans who were at the World’s End went home and started mobilizing, too. Underlings are sprouting up all over. And because of the initial info the returnees brought back, the Church is getting bombarded with reproach and mistrust. The message was about a summit the three races are planning on holding together. Looks like things are moving fast, which is good. Sounds like at least someone over there knows what they’re doing.”
Kaito laughed. When he did, though, blood came gushing from his mouth. His black uniform was stained a wet crimson.
As blood dripped all over his body, he righted his posture. Then he chucked the communication device to the side. The violence of that action seemed strangely reminiscent of Elisabeth.
“The funny thing is, the sender was La Christoph. Which is weird, ’cause there’s no way the Church hasn’t written off Elisabeth as a traitor. For him to send her a message, man, he must have had some pretty strong thoughts about Izabella getting locked up. Hell, he even sent us coordinates. And hey, if we’ve got an invitation, it’d be rude not to go, right?”
“Go? Where to?”
“The summit, where else? Time to crash a party. I’ll handle the teleportation circle.”
That was just one more thing he casually mentioned that he wasn’t supposed to be able to do. The soles of his shoes loudly clapped as he began walking. The long hem of his uniform flowed out behind him. At some point, its inside had been dyed scarlet.
Then, his voice the very picture of composure, Kaito made his bold statement.
“We’re going to a conference about how to keep everyone alive. Let’s walk in with our heads held high, ’kay?”