Fremd Torturchen - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

3

The Weapon of the Church

The sky over the capital the following morning was brisk and refreshing.

Its clear blue was highlighted by the floating white clouds.

The weather seems kinda misleading when you think about how awful the stuff going on down here is.

That was Kaito’s reaction.

As he walked forward, he glanced around and surveyed the troops marching around him.

The paladins’ silver armor was sparkling radiantly in the sunlight. The flag they were hoisting, which bore the image of a lily coat of arms and the suffering Saint, fluttered in the blue sky each time the wind blew. Its splendor seemed rather unfitting, given the stench of blood the wind also carried.

Then Kaito reconfirmed the current situation.

Many of the knights had been scattered across the capital, acting as escorts to the evacuation shelter, but they were now all marching as one. Besides the ones manning the perimeter and those in charge of maintaining the barrier, every last one of them was currently advancing toward the appointed location.

It truly was all-out war.

Kaito and Elisabeth were traveling in the company spearheaded by Izabella and Godot Deus.

From time to time, Kaito snapped his fingers to mow down approaching underlings with his blade. Trusting his judgment, Izabella and the paladins devoted all their energy into checking between buildings to head off surprise attacks. Leaving the others to act as her outriders, Elisabeth simply conserved her power.

Finally, Kaito and the others reached their destination: a hill.

A graveyard spread out behind the hill, but from atop it, Kaito could look down and see the entire townscape illuminated by sunlight.

Groups of knights and paladins from other refugee camps were supposed to be on standby after having encircled the mass of flesh that the King, Grand Monarch, and Monarch had transformed into. However, from this distance, it was impossible to confirm or deny their presence.

As if in their stead, what Kaito could make out was a rather bizarre spectacle.

“…What’s up with that?”

The area around the mass was stained gray for several miles in every direction.

The buildings within the encroachment radius were weathered like old paper, and some of them had transformed into shapes and materials that defied the laws of physics—some glassy and vitreous, others foamy and granular.

The gray world was silent. Color, time, and shape had all been robbed from it. The very nature of space shifted once past a certain threshold, as though it had been cut away with a knife.

Kaito finally realized why the mass had stopped expanding. It was simply consuming its surroundings in a different manner rather than physically corroding them.

It’s destroying the world.

Either instinctively or due to his contract with a demon, that was the conclusion Kaito arrived at.

The Kaiser whispered low in his ear.

“Behold. Demons are those who destroy God’s creations. This is what happens when we are unchained from our contractors’ egos and allowed to wield our true, unbridled power. Now then, the Church. While they crown themselves with God’s name, in the end they are but mere humans. Let us see what their play is—this is sure to be a spectacle most comedic.

Geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, fu-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.

The Kaiser laughed in a voice that sounded almost human. It seemed he intended to enjoy himself here.

Not responding to him, Kaito surveyed the scene in front of himself a second time.

A road extended out from the hill, leading to what had originally been the royal castle. However, the splendid castle, which had apparently been hailed as resembling an ivory rose, was currently nowhere to be seen. Nor was its garden or the myriad vacation homes belonging to prominent aristocrats. They had all been consumed by the mass.

When the mass of flesh had first exploded out from a storehouse in the mercantile district, it had spread toward the capital’s most important sector as though it had been aiming for it.

In spite of that, most of the important people made it out, including the king.

That had been thanks to Godot Deus, who had been attending a defense meeting in the capital after learning of the battle between the Grand King and the Torture Princess. He had single-handedly bought them enough time to evacuate.

And once he’d confirmed that they’d all made it out, he committed suicide right before the mass swallowed him up to avoid presenting the demon with an opportunity to make use of his power.

As a result, the Church had lost one of its head priests, one of the few people who could have stood against the three fused demons.

Having lost his essential strength, the paladins were waiting with bated breath for the arrival of a certain individual.

The Shepherd, La Mules.

What kind of person could they be?

She—according to Elisabeth, it was a woman—was a high priest who bore the authority to summon first-class mythical beasts and spirits. The paladins, Izabella included, seemed to place a great deal of faith in her. However, her tardiness planted a seed of doubt in Kaito’s mind.

The Church’s headquarters should have a permanent teleportation circle installed. If that’s the case, then why is she so late?

Given the current state of emergency, there was even less reason for them to be stingy in dispatching their high priests.

Staring at the mass of flesh, Kaito crossed his arms. Sensing his irritation, Godot Deus called out to pacify him.

“Be patient, servant of Elisabeth. You will understand once you see her.”

“When I see her?”

Not when I meet her?

As Kaito wondered about that, a voice rang out.

“La Mules has arrived.”

A raucous, rattling noise echoed out alongside the messenger’s report. A woman appeared, riding atop a wheeled wooden chair. Kaito reflexively gulped.

The moment he saw her, his doubts had indeed vanished.

La Mules looked to be more of a what than a who.

Snow-white bands ran all the way down from her face to her feet, relentlessly binding her to the chair. Because of the way she was strapped to the chair’s back and armrests, it looked almost as though she’d become one with it. It was impossible to even get a decent read on her build. Given that, it was almost uncanny how clearly her large eyes were visible from within the gaps in her restraints. A strangely innocent light burned within them.

She looked like a piece of equipment or perhaps an infantile monster.

Whichever it was, she certainly didn’t appear human.

“It’s been a while, La Mules. The fact you’re still in good health must truly be due to God’s grace.”

La Mules didn’t reply to Godot Deus’s greeting. Instead, she gnashed her teeth at her creaking metal muzzle. Drops of saliva dripped through the spaces between her restraints onto the ground.

The paladins knelt in unison. Kaito reeled back a step in revulsion.

Elisabeth whispered in his ear.

“La Mules is a high priest and has also been canonized while still alive. However, she cannot move of her own volition and possesses no will of her own.”

“She doesn’t have a will? What does that even mean?”

“While their ranks are below his, first-class mythical beasts and spirits are similar in nature to God, and summoning them means dragging them down from a higher plane of existence. To do that, one must have a strong connection to God. However, aside from the Suffering Saint, none can hold that power within themselves for long and still retain their sanity.”

As he heard that gut-wrenching truth, Kaito’s face stiffened. Looking back at La Mules, his mind raced in astonishment.

So wait, as far humans are concerned, doesn’t that mean that God and the demons are both just as fundamentally dangerous?

Having guessed his train of thought, Elisabeth laughed quietly.

“It took you this long to realize, fool? God and Diablo both do naught but create the world and destroy it. Man was not meant to lay hands on their ilk.”

As the two of them were having their secret conversation, La Mules’s preparations were proceeding.

The paladins had turned her toward the mass of flesh, chair and all. They had also tilted the back of the chair to adjust her “angle.” Once they’d finished fixing her wheels in the ground with nails, they all fled from her side.

Left behind, Kaito was at a loss for what to do. Then Izabella’s directions cut through the air.

“You two should get back as well. It’s dangerous there.”

“Okay, got it.”

Leaving La Mules alone at the hill’s summit, the paladins lay flat on the ground beside the gravestones on its slope. Kaito and Elisabeth followed their lead. After making sure everyone had evacuated, a young man wearing a dark-red robe who appeared to be La Mules’s attendant reverently approached her. His hands trembled as he removed her muzzle, then crawled away on his stomach, as terrified as though she was some sort of carnivorous beast.

For a moment, La Mules did nothing. However, she then gently opened her mouth, as though yawning. Saliva dripped down from between her uniform white herbivorous-looking teeth.

The entire scene seemed steeped in madness, and Elisabeth murmured as she looked upon it.

“La Mules was born with many stigmata within her, and she can use them as summoning circles. But activating her requires the signatures of not only all the high priests but those of the royals and titled nobility as well. That was the reason for her delayed arrival.”

“‘Activating’… That’s hardly a way to describe a person.”

“Mm, not at all. She is a high priest who bears the authority to summon first-class mythical beasts and spirits in name alone.”

Before their very eyes, La Mules’s jaw was gradually stretching past the point jaws were designed to. Yet, she opened her mouth farther still. Little by little, the tips of her lips began to tear. Even the restraints binding her face tore off with audible groaning noises.

Then they were joined by a different sticky sound.

“…Wh—?”

Kaito’s eyes went wide. A dimly glowing blob had burst out of La Mules’s mouth. Its head was a dozen times larger than her face, and it was covered in a mucous membrane like a newborn animal.

It was a grotesque scene, one in gross defiance of the laws governing conservation of mass.

“In truth, she is the greatest weapon the Church possesses,” Elisabeth quietly continued.

Then Kaito realized something. The blob was made out of soggy feathers.

A gigantic bird was trying to make its way out from between her tiny lips.

Suddenly, as though it had been pushed from within, the bird shot out. It broke free in one fell swoop.

Kaito tried to take in its full hideous form. However, before he could, it gave off a short whooshing sound and vanished.

Light shot forward from La Mules, and a striking wind burst out in a circle. The back of the chair twisted outward. As it did, all the buildings on the side of the road leading from La Mules to the mass of flesh blew into the air like rag dolls.

Accompanied by a shock wave, something had gone rapidly flying toward the mass of flesh.

“She is little more than a living cannon.”

As Elisabeth spoke, something—most likely the bird that had come out of La Mules’s mouth—impacted the mass of flesh. Jet-black smoke shot up. The faces of the mass’s captured victims screamed in succession. Even the paladins trembled, their armor rattling, as the agonizingly sorrowful voices reached their ears.

Kaito strained his eyes, trying to make out the mass behind the smoke concealing it.

There was a deep, scorched hole bored into it. What on earth had happened?

Kaito thought back to the events that had taken place over the past few seconds to try to get them in order.

The bird La Mules made probably flew at it superfast, crashed into their target, then vanished.

Then another weird plopping noise rang out. A second blob peeked its head out of La Mules’s mouth.

Holding his breath, Kaito watched over it. He tried with utmost composure to make out what was going on.

Just like Izabella said, it’s obvious how effective these summoned beasts are.

Another bird was birthed from La Mules’s mouth. The light blasted out with a short popping noise.

The surface of the mass burst and scattered. The second bombardment had gone through successfully. However, Kaito tightly balled his fists up.

…It’s going well, so why?

A dark sense of unease was filling his chest, one that he couldn’t suppress.

It happened as La Mules was spitting out the third bird.

“They’re coming,” Elisabeth muttered in a low voice.

At practically the same time as she spoke, a black shadow gushed out from the base of the mass. Countless black dots appeared overhead, as well. The two groups almost looked like armies of ants and flies. However, their forms were sinister enough to put bugs to shame.

The mass of flesh was releasing underlings.

The evil army marched through the gray space, traveling toward La Mules—both the cannoneer and the cannon—with fierce intensity. As he leaned over a gravestone, Kaito prepared himself for battle.

Then Godot Deus issued an order.

“Hold your positions.”

With a slump, La Mules drew in her chin at a bizarre angle. Her line of fire shifted.

The third bombardment shot forth. White flames exploded, gouging the mass’s foot. The band of incoming underlings perished in the fire. Struck by the shock wave, the bird-shaped underlings violently slammed into the ground. Bones and viscera tore out of their bodies as they bloomed into pitiful crimson flowers on the road.

Seeing La Mules’s overwhelming power, the paladins raised their voices in awe.

For a moment, even Kaito felt as though victory was at hand.

Suddenly, the surface of the mass trembled and a chunk fell off.

“…Huh?”

Kaito narrowed his eyes in confusion. It was a chunk of raw flesh, but its form was like that of dough cut out by a child with a crude cookie cutter.

Waving in the wind, the thin figure floated through the air. It was shaped like a warped human. It nimbly evaded La Mules’s oncoming attack. It was slammed by its shock wave, though, and the figure drifted even higher into the air. However, it didn’t look as though it had sustained any damage. Looking at it, Elisabeth furrowed her brow and crossed her arms.

“Hmm, ’twas originally quite different, but I remember that shape. Flesh in the shape of a man… I see. The Monarch has split off.”

“Split off?”

“They likely wanted to avoid all being targeted at once. Quite clever for a mass of flesh. The fruit of its survival instinct, I’d wager.”

Elisabeth nodded. Pursuing the figure, La Mules spun her neck with alarmingly smooth motions. However, her foe’s movements were too quick, and she was never able to settle on an angle of fire.

She’s like a fixed battery.

La Mules was unsuited for battle against a foe constantly on the move.

Suddenly, the figure found itself assailed by red arrows. The paladins had been on standby throughout the town, and it seemed they’d launched a magical attack. However, the figure drifted lazily and passed directly over them. It was unclear what it had done to them, but their attacks came to an abrupt stop. The whole scene seemed somewhat ridiculous, which made it all the more ominous.

Kaito felt a chill run down his spine. Shaking her head, Elisabeth spoke.

“The task is beyond them. I shall hunt him down.”

Godot Deus nodded. Using communication devices, the priests attending to him contacted what was likely another unit and told them to hold their fire. All the while, the strange figure was growing in size.

Frowning in unease, Kaito finally came to a realization.

No, that’s not it! It’s not getting bigger! It’s getting closer!

At the same time, Godot Deus cried out it a tense voice.

“Protect La Mules!”

The paladins moved in unison. As La Mules prepared her next shot, the holy warriors worked together to form a perimeter around her. A few priests took positions around them.

The next moment, a deep noise rang out, and the massive humanoid figure passed over the heads of Kaito and the rest.

The faces of a number of victims floated upon the surface of its flat stomach.

Looking up at them, Kaito shuddered in disgust.

He’d met the eyes of every single one of them.

And they were all laughing.

…!

On an impulse, Kaito dashed.

“Oh-ho, not a bad decision.”

As the Kaiser’s sarcastic compliment echoed in his ears, Kaito dashed up the footholds he’d unconsciously crafted out of darkness and azure flower petals. He reached out, grasping at a height that would have been impossible for a normal human to reach.

With his beastly arm, he slashed at the faces lined up overhead. He crushed a number of them, and blood came billowing out.

At the same time, all the intact faces opened their mouths.

Bloodred drool rained down over the paladins.

“Ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Bloodcurdling screams rang out. Wherever the saliva touched them, the dribble melted the paladins’ armor. A horrid stench wafted through the air. After eating through armor, skin, and bone, the fluid even bored holes in the ground.

Kaito bit his lip in horror. However, he quickly turned his face away from the victims who were beyond saving and surveyed the extent of the damage.

La Mules was unharmed, as the priests surrounding her had thrown up a barrier to protect her. On top of that, they’d used their mana to strengthen and consecrate the paladins’ shields, and the paladins formed a seamless wall around her.

The figure whizzed past the top of the hill, its movements like those of a breaching whale. Then it did a loop and came back, racing once more toward La Mules and her guard.

As it did, the sound of a heel clicking rang out.

A radiant woman stood atop the hill, facing the figure.

“It’s been a while. I see you’ve taken on such a hideous form, Monarch.”

Her lustrous black hair fluttering in the wind, the Torture Princess squared off against her demonic prey.

Having noticed her, the victims’ faces on the figure’s stomach opened their eyes wide. As though acting as conduits for the Monarch’s emotions, they launched into an agitated, hateful howl.

“Elisabe…be-be-be-be-be-be… ElisabeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEETH!”

There were men’s voices, women’s voices, old people’s voices, children’s voices, and beastly voices.

The cries of the victims were resounding.

“How miserable you lot are. How ugly and powerless. Wait but a hair longer. It shall take me little to snuff out your pitiful lives.”

Basking in their cries as if it was applause, Elisabeth drew the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal. Crimson flower petals scattered as she swung it before bringing it to a controlled stop. She pointed its sharp tip at the Monarch.

“Splendid Executioner: The Boondock Saints!”

Darkness and crimson flower petals swirled above the buildings of the capital, then launched something toward the ground. Metal glittered as it descended with a thunderous roar. Lumps of various shapes and sizes heaped up by the hundreds.

Each one of those lumps was a blade.

Carving knives, shears, pocketknives, and spears all piled up in a purposeful pattern. One by one, the various blades interwove with an artistic sense of balance.

Eventually, the giant made of blades was complete.

Its torso was composed of every kind of bladed object imaginable. Its right arm, though, was adorned with an executioner’s ax, and its left arm boasted a sword designed for decapitations.

The blade giant rose to its feet with surprisingly delicate movements, then swung its executioner’s ax. Like a slab of meat in a butcher’s shop, the humanoid figure was cleaved clean in two from top to bottom. Despite that, though, each of its halves tried to scurry away.

The next moment, it had been chopped into fourths.

The giant had moved faster than the eye could see, catching both halves with its decapitating sword and slicing them horizontally.

The figure had no chance to escape, and its flesh was shorn into pieces. Losing their strength, the tiny chunks collapsed to the paved ground. Without a moment’s delay, the giant crushed them underfoot.

As he watched the one-sided beatdown, Kaito suddenly realized something.

The Boondock Saints and La Guillotine aren’t torture devices, they’re executioner’s tools.

Each time the blades flashed, the screams of the figure’s victims grew quieter. Each blow sliced through every face in its path, so the sum amount of pain the giant was doling out couldn’t have been that high.

Those were probably the two that Elisabeth called on when she needed to end lives quickly.

Eventually, and in stark contrast to its original form, the Monarch had been cut down to the size of a dinner steak.

Suddenly, one of the faces on the remaining chunk of meat violently swelled up. It was unclear how it had fit inside, but a body dropped out of it onto the ground as though it were losing a tooth.

That body was the Monarch’s concealed true form.

Unlike that of the Grand Earl, whom Kaito had once seen, the Monarch’s skin was melted, and he looked barely human. The Monarch sat still, hanging his head as though waiting for the end to come. The blade giant raised its foot, looking to deal him the final blow.

Wait a minute, that’s…!

As it did, Kaito stumbled upon an idea. He snapped his fingers.

“You’re plotting something twisted again, aren’t you, boy? Very well. I shall act as you desire.”

Answering his summons, the Kaiser appeared in midair. Kicking off against the ground with his steely feet, he dashed to the Monarch’s side. Narrowly slipping between the giant and the road, the Kaiser grabbed the Monarch’s neck in his mouth and withdrew.

A loud noise rang out as the giant slammed its foot down onto the empty ground.

The first-class hound had captured the Monarch alive.

Having had her prey snatched from her grasp, Elisabeth whirled around to face Kaito.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Kaito?”

“I had an idea. Would you mind letting me deal with him?”

Kaito responded with a request. Murder flashed across Elisabeth’s eyes as she glared at him, and the knights around them cast distrustful gazes his way as well. However, Kaito pressed on without hesitation.

“It’s not like he’s strong enough to run. I can’t tell you what I’m planning on doing with him yet, but…if worse comes to worst, and we don’t succeed in taking down the mass today, then I think we’re gonna need him.”

“Even so, you intend to retain two demons in your custody?”

“I’m not gonna make a contract with him. What if we left managing him up to the paladins?”

“…And this is truly necessary?”

“It is.”

Hearing Elisabeth’s question, Kaito nodded with a serious expression on his face. The two of them glared at each other. Eventually, Elisabeth realized that Kaito didn’t plan on backing down. Clicking her tongue, she heaved a sigh as she continued.

“While I know not what you plan for him, I’ll admit there is merit to capturing him. I grant you my permission. However, don’t you dare let him get away. Godot Deus, take heed. We’re bringing the Monarch back alive.”

“As Elisabeth says, there is value in capturing a demon. As long as he remains under Church supervision, I shall allow it.”

Hearing them agree, Kaito nodded. Not being overly fond of their annoying chirping, the Kaiser waited for the humans to reach their conclusion before dragging the Monarch over. Still hanging in the Kaiser’s mouth, the half-melted man showed no signs of movement. After checking to make sure he’d been dealt with, the paladins separated from La Mules’s side.

Elisabeth did the same, turning the blade giant back into crimson flower petals. It was too small to be of much use dealing with the full mass of flesh.

La Mules went to start her barrage back up. A fresh bird was on its way out of her mouth.

At that moment, Kaito narrowed his eyes.

He felt as though the mass of flesh, having lost the Monarch, was wriggling.

The next moment, its wound frothed as though the spot had begun boiling. With smooth motions, eyes, a nose, and a mouth protruded from its surface. Above them, spiderweb-like fibers stretched out and began stitching skin together.

Eventually, a man’s face was displayed. Although its muscles looked flaccid, its chiseled features and virile masculinity could be clearly made out.

It opened its thick lips.

“—Graaah!”

A gray roar emanated from its dark throat.

The paladins immediately threw up their shields. Working in unison, they protected La Mules from the discolored air. The priests also acted quickly and threw up their barrier. All of their responses were precise. However, the moment the roar passed over them, they dropped to the ground like puppets who’d had their strings cut.

Even so, the rest of the paladins tried their best not to seem fazed and instead calmly tried to deal with the situation.

“Squad Two, advance!”

Following Izabella’s orders, a different group of paladins raised their shields and, accompanied by a handful of priests, took their places defending La Mules. As they did, a convoy of healers retrieved the fallen. However, once they were safely on the back slope of the hill, Izabella checked their conditions and frowned.

Peering at them alongside her, Kaito tilted his head.

“They’re…just asleep?”

“Yes, that’s what it looks like. What in the world happened up there?”

The fallen paladins and priests were simply deep in slumber. While their lives didn’t seem to be in any danger, they also didn’t show any signs of waking up.

Dropping to one knee, Elisabeth checked their pulse and breathing.

“Hmm, a spell designed to make them sleep, perhaps… She was caught in the roar; is La Mules—”

Then something peculiar happened.

Warped laughter echoed across the hill.

“Hee-hee… Hee-hee-hee… Hee-hee-hee… Ha-ha… Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.”

It was a voice one certainly didn’t expect to hear on a battlefield. What was strangest, though, was where it came from.

The paladins holding their shields turned nervously to look at its source.

La Mules…

…was laughing like a child.

La Mules laughed innocently, in a voice with a definite will behind it.

That was when Kaito realized for the first time how young she was. Her voice was clear and beautiful, and she sounded amused, as though something pleasant had happened.

After laughing for a while, she abruptly tilted her head to the side.

“…Hoo, wah?”

After saying some words that didn’t seem like they bore any particular meaning, La Mules opened her mouth up wide.

Then, after sticking her tongue out, she bit down hard. The muscles in her jaw were unnaturally developed, and she mercilessly put all strength behind the bite.

She neatly cut off her tongue, and it flopped down comically onto the ground.

It took everyone a moment to comprehend what had just happened.

“La Mules!”

A healer rushed up beside her. However, La Mules stubbornly refused to open her mouth.

Several people grabbed her jaws, desperately trying to pry them open. However, their efforts were in vain.

Blood dribbled from the gaps between her clenched teeth, soiling her snow-white restraints.

Gazing at the ghastly spectacle, Godot Deus spoke in a subdued voice.

“They got us… But…how?”

Nobody raised their voice to answer his question.

La Mules forcefully gulped down mouthfuls of her own blood again and again. Eventually, she convulsed, then stopped moving.

A heavy silence spread across the top of the hill.

Kaito reviewed the situation. After having fired off a single attack, the man’s face had vanished from the surface of the mass. They’d been able to capture the Monarch. And they’d successfully dealt a good deal of damage to the Grand Monarch and the King.

And the Church’s ultimate weapon, La Mules, committed suicide.

Those were the cold, hard facts of the scene laid out before him.