Fremd Torturchen - Volume 5 - Chapter 2

2

The Little Lady’s Choice

Officially, the underground tomb’s sixth floor didn’t exist.

Everything past it was blockaded off by a colorful barrier, and the architecture took a turn for the bizarre. But once Kaito and the others ascended the seemingly endless staircase and returned to the fifth floor, the rest of the tomb was as calm and sanctified as ever.

They walked down the long passageway. Individually crafted mausoleums of the kings of old lined them on either side. Even with the tomb’s innermost secrets laid bare, the resting kings on the upper floors were unperturbed.

As he cast a sidelong glance at the extravagantly decorated mausoleums, Kaito posed a question to Jeanne.

“Did any of the kings know about the First Demon?”

“Who can say? I imagine it depends on how close to the Church and how devout they each were. For example, I think the odds that the third king, hailed as the ‘Faithful King,’ was informed are quite high. He gave his generation’s Grave Keeper special rights, after all, and their relationship was rather cordial. They’re all crazy!”

“Makes sense. Still, though, for some of the kings to find out about it and still give it their endorsement… Fanaticism’s a hell of a drug, I guess.”

Kaito turned his gaze toward what appeared to be the third king’s mausoleum. Compared to the other kings’ mausoleums, its design was rather plain. It didn’t even sport flowers, although the uncouth suits of armor surrounding the sarcophagus within hinted that the third king had specialized in battle. The only piece of ornamentation that could be described as beautiful was the statue of the Saint hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Perhaps the cause of his faith had been a desire for divine protection in his countless wars. Now the Saint was always watching over him. Red gemstones were embedded in the sarcophagus’s lid, even replicating the Saint’s tearstains.

That’s one messed-up charade they’re pulling.

Kaito leveled a blunt rejection of the king’s beliefs that he was clearly adhering to even in death. But he chose not to voice that impression of his. Instead, he asked a different question.

“What about the current king, then?”

“His predecessor died early, so he is still a whelp. I’d wager they haven’t told him a thing. Ha, he’d likely faint on the spot.”

This time, it was Elisabeth who answered. Jeanne then offered a follow-up.

“He also entrusted the battle against the demons wholly to the Church and has done little in the way of mobilizing troops on his own. As a result, the Royal Knights generally just obey the Holy Knights’ orders. The Church no doubt saw that as an opportunity to seize greater power, but Godd Deos refused to use their strength as a pretext to meddle in domestic affairs. That geezer was a pain in the ass, but I gotta give him credit for being a decent guy. At some point, though, the king’s advisers began tithing more and more, and their ranks grew flush with the pious. That being the case, it’s anyone’s guess as to what would happen if the king found out about the first demon.”

The two Torture Princesses exchanged a glance, then shrugged. Their billowing blond and straight black heads of hair shook.

Kaito sighed. He knew almost nothing about the current king. But unlike the third imperial beastfolk princess, Vyade Ula Forstlast, he didn’t seem like he’d be particularly reliable if things got down to the wire.

It’s gonna be rough, not having any influential humans who are sympathetic to our cause.

Kaito sank into thought. Once he stopped talking, his surroundings grew quiet as well.

Eventually, the group approached the stairwell to the entrance. As they did, Kaito looked up, thinking he’d heard something. Noise from the surface was finally starting to reach them, running down the stairs and echoing off the thick walls.

Someone’s shouting orders. And that’s a lot of armor, swords, and footsteps I hear.

Kaito cautiously strained his ears to make out the intermingling sounds. As a consequence, he found himself inadvertently frowning.

“Sounds like they’ve got quite the crowd up there, huh.”

“I should certainly think so. Izabella and I originally came on orders from the Church to kill you, after all. And I did happen to destroy Yah Llodl’s communication device before we entered the tomb, not to mention the fact that we left the paladins behind. ’Twould have been stranger if they hadn’t called in reinforcements.”

“…Oh, right. That makes sense.”

As he bore the brunt of Elisabeth’s exasperation, Kaito thought back to their battle from a few hours ago. He and Elisabeth had traded blows directly in front of the underground tomb. However, he’d been so engrossed in the fight that he hadn’t spared much thought as to what would come afterward. And afterward, their entire worldview had been turned on its head.

Everything just changed so quickly.

Kaito’s gaze grew distant. As she stood in front of him, Elisabeth went on.

“The only reason we weren’t attacked while we investigated this place was the strict orders the paladins received not to enter it. The fewer people who know the truth, the better for them, so the reconstruction sect no doubt plans to destroy us the moment we pop our heads out. However, therein lies a problem.”

“A problem?”

“Indeed. Our foe is the Church.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You forget so quickly, fool. The Church has me bound with shackles.”

Kaito’s mouth hung agape in realization. Now that she mentioned it, he remembered.

Elisabeth had been ordered to slay the fourteen demons as a chance to atone for her sins. But because she was a sinner without peer, the Church had placed shackles on her body so that she couldn’t betray them. If one of their priests recited scripture, the shackles would activate.

That meant that Elisabeth’s ability to oppose the Church was diminished. But Jeanne merely shook her head.

“I don’t think we’ll find that to be much of a problem. This is the Capital. The reconstruction sect won’t be able to deploy their transformed paladins. And even if they wanted to use a saint, it would take them too long to get a permit issued. In other words, the force at their disposal is currently quite low. No matter how much cannon fodder they call out, cannon fodder is still cannon fodder. After Deus Ex Machina tosses them aside in one fell swoop, I can activate my teleportation circle. Hunting mice is a specialty of mine, y’see. I don’t mind taking the lead this time.”

“I see, how reliable of you. I’ve no objections.”

Elisabeth readily nodded to Jeanne’s suggestion. Kaito, too, was relieved.

Jeanne’s Deus Ex Machina was even more robust and powerful than him, the Kaiser’s contractor, and Hina, an automaton. Buying enough time to activate a teleportation circle would be a piece of cake for it. But although he gave the plan his approval, he made sure to add a warning, as well.

“Just make sure you don’t kill any of the paladins. They’re only following their beliefs, after all.”

“Given the current situation, that alone is foolhardy in the extreme. Abandoning critical thought is a crime. Ignorance is sin. Sheep end up as mutton, as they say. But if we consider what’s to come, it’s true that unnecessary bloodshed will likely prove disadvantageous. And my little lady would object, as well. Agreed. We should avoid letting things get too complicated here.”

Surprisingly, Jeanne obediently nodded. Behind her, Izabella went slack as she breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that she’d been on the verge of shouting out. If things had gone poorly, it might have even ended in a fight.

Kaito was glad it had gotten resolved peacefully. All in agreement, they headed toward the entrance. Light from outside streamed down onto the stone stairs. Kaito then stopped, calling out to Jeanne as he did.

“Hold up a minute. Before you send out Deus Ex Machina, we should have one of us get a visual on the situation up there. I’ll go—if they fire off some kind of long-range attack, I can block it with my blades.”

“…Well, I suppose that’s true. Your doll has a rather anxious expression on her face, mister, but you are in fact qualified. Guess you finally get to be useful for once, huh? After you, then.”

Despite the verbal abuse he was receiving, Kaito climbed up the stairs.

Because they’d been made from a different material, the steps near the top had been melted when the demon attacked the Capital. Making sure not to fall, Kaito carefully jumped over the pit. Then he popped his head out through the entrance.

“Let’s see, here… Man, that’s quite the crowd.”

The silver troops were lined up atop the gray earth at regular intervals like chess pieces. There was also a group Kaito wasn’t familiar with beside them, covered from head to toe in scarlet cloth. Due to the way their faces were covered, they looked almost like executioners.

Man, I’m not getting a good vibe from those guys… Hmm?

At that moment, a sense of incongruity washed over Kaito. While it was true that the underground tomb was completely surrounded, their enemies were all standing strangely far away. Kaito frowned as he tried to find the reason.

Then he noticed the bizarre-looking man standing in front of the assembled troops.

Say…what?

The man had a sturdy frame, enough that Kaito could make out his gender despite the distance between them. He had broad shoulders, and his height was on the taller side. In spite of that, though, the hem of his white robes reached all the way to the ground, as did his thick, bristly black hair. That alone would have been enough to qualify his appearance as strange, but his most conspicuous feature was the thick chains binding his arms around himself in an embrace.

Kaito couldn’t help compare him to the other bound saint he was familiar with.

H-huh? He…looks kinda like La Mules, doesn’t he?

As that thought crossed through Kaito’s mind, the chains binding the man’s top half came loose without warning. He slowly spread his arms wide. When Kaito saw what was between them, a shiver of terror ran through his body.

“…!”

The man’s chest had been excavated, clothes and all. The red flesh within had been shaved down, and his white rib cage lay bare. For some reason, though, there was no blood pouring out. The heart, lungs, and other organs a rib cage was normally designed to protect were missing as well. In their place were a large number of white feathered creatures.

A second later, realization hit Kaito. The man was using his rib cage as a birdcage.

“La (fly)!”

Spurred on by instinctual fear, Kaito snapped his fingers. A blade went soaring toward the man. At the same time, white light flared up in the man’s chest, then burst out. The two collided head-on. While the blade was successfully blocking the light, it melted like candy in the process before evaporating. Kaito shot out his second attack. But to his disbelief, the man was faster. He shot out more light, this time even brighter than the first. The white entity swallowed up the blade, but this time, it didn’t stop.

Kaito’s eyes widened in shock. The light bore down on him.

An unpleasant blasting noise rang out.

As it did, the light burned away the tomb’s entrance.

“Master Kaito, no!”

“Wh—?”

It all happened in a single moment.

Right before the light made impact, something grabbed Kaito by the scruff and yanked him backward. His back toppled into Hina’s chest. After embracing him, she leaped back over the melted pit in the stairwell, then crouched down.

White light burst over their heads, accompanied by the sound of an explosion.

Kaito looked up. When he did, he saw that the metal decorations at the tomb’s entrance that had miraculously survived were glowing red and dripping. If Hina had been even a hair slower, he would have died on the spot.

“Th-thanks, Hina… Geez, I seriously misjudged that guy’s power.”

“Oh, Master Kaito… Thank goodness, thank goodness you’re safe… I was so worried for you.”

Still sitting firmly on the ground, Hina squeezed Kaito tightly.

As one might expect from the fact it had survived the demon invasion, everything from halfway up the stairs down was unmarred. The building material itself must have had a powerful anti-magic effect to it. But the bombardment showed no signs of letting up.

They’d lost the ability to carelessly go outside. Jeanne blinked, her rosy eyes flashing.

“…Well now. This falls outside my expectations.”

“Aye, it boggles the mind. What exactly is the meaning of this? Forgoing all the proper procedures to deploy a saint, then a summoned beast bombardment without so much as passing a verdict on us? Have they gone mad? No, wait… Ah!”

Elisabeth clicked her tongue, looking as though she’d just realized something. When she spoke, her tone was filled with vexation.

“The completed request, the one they submitted as part of the plan to defend the Capital immediately after La Mules’s death! Blast, we overlooked it!”

“I suspect your hypothesis is correct. We should assume they used the permit we obtained back then. Under the pretext of killing the Kaiser’s contractor and putting an end to the battle against the demons, fast-tracking its transfer would certainly be possible. And as for that light…”

The one who replied to Elisabeth was Izabella. Still cradled in Deus Ex Machina’s arms, she thoughtfully observed the exploding white light. Kaito followed her lead.

Now that he looked closely, he could see that the light was made up of tiny skylark-like creatures. Saints’ power came from sacred beasts. The man’s birds were clearly far weaker than the one La Mules had been able to deploy, but in exchange, he was able to shoot them out repeatedly.

Jeanne shook her head in annoyance.

“As far as the reconstruction sect is concerned, the end is nigh, after all. They’re starting to move more brazenly. ‘The sky is falling; the sky is falling! Let’s all dance, guys, memento fuckin’ mori!’”

“Ugh, I feel like destroying that communication device didn’t do us any favors.”

Kaito prefaced his comment with a groan as he thought back to the device Yah Llodl had been using to communicate.

The orb that Elisabeth had mercilessly skewered had been needlessly extravagant and flashy. He didn’t know where Yah Llodl ranked in the Church, but the man’s pride was all too evident.

Kaito had no doubt that Yah Llodl’s anger was only worsening his animosity toward himself and the others. That said, figuring out what their foes were thinking wasn’t going to help them much at this point.

This is a problem… If we can’t get outside, we can’t activate the teleportation circle.

Kaito furrowed his brow. The bombardment showed no signs of letting up. Elisabeth clicked her tongue in frustration.

“Tch, the intervals are too short. What to do. Send out Deus Ex Machina, perhaps? ’Tis fast and sturdy. Even so, it would doubtless be whittled away in short order. And you have to temporarily disassemble to activate the teleportation circle, eh… On the off chance they have a second saint in reserve, that would prove troublesome indeed. I wouldn’t mind activating the circle myself, but if they set off the shackles midway through, maintaining it would be no mean feat.”

“I concur. We seem to have quite the problem on our hands. If the Kaiser offered his help, it would make things a deal easier, but… The bad doggy’s got a lot of pride, if nothing else!”

“Hmm? Did the puny human say something? Seems to me like you fancy getting yourself bitten in two.”

“Quit fighting, all of you. I will go.”

A dignified voice rang out, remonstrating them. Everyone turned to look at the speaker: Izabella. Still sitting in Deus Ex Machina’s grasp, her arm was raised and her face was earnest.

Jeanne blinked her eyes rapidly a few times. A few seconds later, her head slumped sharply to the side.

“Have you lost your mind, miss?”

“I suppose I probably have. But I suspect my odds of success are better than you think. Now, let! Me! Down!”

Izabella contorted her body, her cynical remarks accompanied by a smile. Somehow, she was able to slip out from Deus Ex Machina’s arms. After gracefully hopping down onto the floor, she gave a long exhale.

Then she turned her blue and purple eyes toward the incessant explosions of light going off above them. She narrowed her gaze.

“I know the man who summons those beasts—La Christoph, the Modest Birdkeeper. I’ve had the honor of visiting with him a number of times. He possesses a firm spirit. Even after formally becoming a saint, he still recognized me and offered me kind words of advice.”

“That’s…impressive.”

Izabella’s words filled Kaito with earnest admiration. After all, La Mules, a similar saint, had lost her reason and humanity and become little more than an animal. Maybe it had just been the case that La Christoph’s connection to God was weaker than hers had been, but odds were that his force of will was astounding.

At the same time, being reminded of how brazenly the Church retained their saints caused Kaito to realize just how perverse of an organization it was.

The cracks were always there—the current situation just tore them wide open.

The time had finally come. The Church’s shell had cracked, and the terrible monstrosity within was now free.

That was really all there was to it. While the twisted imagery was floating through Kaito’s mind, Izabella continued laying out her plan.

“Even after being recognized as a saint, La Christoph persisted in his deep love for the people. I strongly doubt he knows anything about the plan to reconstruct the world. I’ll need someone to block two or three of his attacks for me, but if I call out to him, I believe there’s a good chance he’ll stop.”

Izabella was totally serious. But Elisabeth crossed her arms and shook her head.

“You expect a saint to see sense while firing off a bombardment? The odds are lower than low.”

“If I die, then all it will mean is that my work up until now was unworthy of being remembered. In that event, I will accept my fate. And I apologize, but you’ll need to come up with a new plan.”

Izabella’s voice was calm, and the evenness of her tone served to illustrate just how composed she was. Kaito reflexively shuddered. The degree of certainty in her voice was alarming.

“Izabella, no!”

“Oh, Master Kaito—”

Kaito hurriedly stood up, wrenching himself free from Hina’s arms. Then he turned to face Izabella.

He stared straight into her mismatched, gemstone-like eyes.

“Izabella, you can’t! Whether or not that saint guy will remember you isn’t the problem! It’s what’ll happen to you afterward. If your plan works, you won’t be able to go back to the Church. Hell, even trying to will be off the table. I’m not gonna let you go through with some plan that’ll get you killed, whether it works or not!”

Kaito’s voice rose to a shout. When Izabella replied with silence, Kaito clenched his fists.

The odds were low that Izabella’s callout would stop the bombardment, but they weren’t zero. But if they wanted to use that opportunity to activate a teleportation circle, it would mean leaving her behind. The moment Izabella showed signs of fleeing, the saint would no doubt recommence his attack on the spot.

She was, of course, a member of the Church, and the commander of the Holy Knights to boot. But given the Church’s current state, even someone of her standing wouldn’t be able to return safely. The situation over there was anything but upstanding.

That was just how deep the roots of evil had sunk into it. The entire organization had gone completely mad.

“Even if it was just because Jeanne kidnapped you, you still ended up going into the underground tomb. You can pretend not to have seen anything, but there’s no way they’ll believe you. And I bet the Grave Keeper will be especially pissed.”

Kaito’s thoughts turned to the perverse nursery down in the depths of the tomb. There had been a monster with a snowy owl’s head and a huge mass of tentacles stationed in front of it as a guard. It had been made by taking a holy summoned beast, feeding it demon meat, and mixing in human parts.

That torture room, its guardian… It takes more than run-of-the-mill fanaticism to make messed-up shit like that.

The Grave Keeper must not have had a moral bone in their body.

And back in Jeanne’s hometown, Kaito had seen those hideously transfigured paladins, too. It was unclear whether they’d done so willingly, but all of them had eaten demon meat.

Either way, even if they’d left them alive, there was no way to save people who’d undergone transformations like that.

“If you go back, they’re just gonna dispose of you. If you’re lucky, all they’ll do is kill you. You can’t go back; it’s over!”

“I refuse to believe that! Or rather, I want to…but even I can see the truth.”

Izabella answered frankly. Her voice was calm. So calm, in fact, that it filled Kaito with ominous premonitions. Izabella wasn’t even trying to deny the evil lurking within the Church anymore. But even so, her smile remained.

“There would normally be no shortage of people who would defend me and ensure my sentence was just. But at this rate, I’m likely to be judged behind closed doors, without my allies knowing about it. Even so, there are things I still must do. You see, I want to go back to the Church.”

“That’s crazy talk…”

“I have to make sure as many of the Holy Knights know the truth as possible. If things continue as they are, they’re liable to be taken advantage of.”

“But you can’t seriously think you’re gonna get a chance to—”

“Even if I don’t. I can’t just sit back and watch my subordinates die.”

Izabella’s words were matter-of-fact. She’d clearly had her mind made up for some time now.

It was at that moment that Kaito realized something. He and Elisabeth didn’t have that many people they needed to protect. At the end of the day, both of them were criminals. But Izabella was different. Many people had placed their trust and loyalty in her.

“The Holy Knights’ main force has to receive any untoward orders. But it’s only a matter of time. It’s as Ms. Jeanne says: Organizations are, for better or for worse, like long centipedes. I refuse to let my people unknowingly destroy the very people, the very world they’re trying to protect.”

“Even so, you still—”

“I understand how you feel. Or rather, allow me to pretend to sympathize despite being wholly incapable of understanding. Still, though, foolish little lady, I must ask that you stop.”

An unexpected voice called out to restrain Izabella. Jeanne stepped forward and stood beside Kaito. She, too, didn’t hesitate to give her warning. Deus Ex Machina stooped over, as though trying to scoop Izabella back up.

Falling away a step, Izabella took on a defensive pose.

Jeanne pointed a pale finger at her. It hung in the air as Jeanne tried to elucidate the situation.

“I didn’t bring you along just to let the Church pass judgment on you, miss. I needed someone besides the Torture Princess and her servant who knew the truth of the world and was able to help convey it. Someone who was affiliated with the Church yet could accept the truth without breaking. That was what I chose you from among the stray sheep for.”

“So I supposed. I had the sense that your expectations for me were something along those lines.”

“It wasn’t so you could die a dog’s death. Don’t forget. Death is absolute. If you die, that’s it. Game over.”

“…Forgive me. I understand the importance of the task you’ve given me. But would you be able to find someone else to carry it out? I have my own task I need to finish, you see.”

Izabella flatly refused to heed Jeanne’s warning. Narrowing her rosy eyes, Jeanne made to set Deus Ex Machina into motion. As things were, Izabella had no means to resist. But with a gentle expression, she repeated back the words Jeanne had once thrust at her.

“I am a commander, though perhaps only in name.”

“…”

For once in her life, a look of surprise crossed Jeanne’s face.

Izabella began walking. It was easy to make out the unwavering pride in her gait, as was the fact that stopping her would accomplish nothing. She walked past Jeanne, practically daring her to act. Her silver hair nearly grazed Jeanne’s honey-blond locks.

Standing straight up, Jeanne let out a quiet whisper.

“…What a fool you are.”

Taking her cue, Deus Ex Machina sprang into motion. But instead of trying to capture Izabella this time, it strode directly forward. It seemed that the steel giant intended to serve as Izabella’s shield, just as she’d requested.

“You can’t…”

Still refusing to give up, Kaito raised his voice. But the timing with which Izabella turned around indicated that she’d seen that coming. As light continued to explode at her back, her voice was the image of composure.

“Farewell, ladies and gentlemen. Dreadful as it was, I’m glad I was able to learn the truth. Even now, I still hold that the Church’s teachings are wonderful. Using faith as a way to support a life lived nobly and properly is an honorable thing. People are weak. They need something to believe in. So as a member of the Church, I will fight to my last to right its wrongs.”

Kaito sucked in his breath. Even after learning so many ugly truths, Izabella retained her piety and pride as the commander of the Holy Knights. Her next words were stern, and her voice rang with conviction.

“That is why, Kaito Sena, Elisabeth Le Fanu, Jeanne de Rais, even if history ends up validating your actions, I cannot become like you.”

With quiet yet unfaltering words, Izabella issued a complete rejection of Kaito and the others.

The ebony and gold Torture Princesses said nothing. Kaito, too, gazed silently at lacerations running across Izabella’s skin and her tranquil eyes. His thoughts turned to the metaphor he’d just heard.

There exist shepherds who would gladly cast themselves into the fire just to catch a glimpse of a miracle.

And their sheep would follow after them, blind to the foolishness of their own actions.

Even though she was just a lone sheep, Izabella was trying to shout out warnings to the rest. She was likely to find herself cut down in the blink of an eye. But even so, she refused to abandon her flock.

Izabella Vicker is a noble person through and through.

Authority and cajolery would utterly fail to make her falter. And she had the rare power to not only believe in her own sense of justice but to put it into action, too.

Which means that there’s no way she’d ever become an enemy of the world.

Kaito now felt that fact keenly. In other words, it was pointless trying to get her to stay by their side any longer.

Kaito and the others were enemies of the world, and the road before them was paved with thorns.

At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is kill God and the Saint.

Trying to coerce someone who was living their life nobly and properly wasn’t possible. Satisfied with that fact, Kaito threw in the towel.

Elisabeth quietly clicked her tongue. Her sleek black hair rustled as she shook her head.

“Ha, do as you please. If one persists in their foolery, that, too, is a form of conviction. If you have no regrets, then go forth and die unburdened. Your brand of idiocy may differ from mine, but we are both idiots nonetheless.”

“That we are, I suppose. Idiots, one and all.”

Izabella’s smile was tinged with a hint of embarrassment. The lacerations running across her face twisted unattractively.

Yet, even so, Izabella Vicker was beautiful.

The next moment, she dashed up the stairs. Her silver hair fluttered as she broke into a run.

Explosions of white light rocked the entrance she was heading for.

With surprisingly fluid motions, Deus Ex Machina took the lead from Izabella.

The steel giant was the first to rush outside. Izabella followed unflinchingly after. The bombardment exploded across Deus Ex Machina. Protected by its massive body, Izabella shouted out.

“Please stop, La Christoph! It’s me, Izabella Vicker! I have something I wish to report! Everyone, please, you have to listen to me!”

Tragically, her voice was drowned out. It looked as though the attacks would continue. But she didn’t give up.

“Rgh!”

Seizing the tiniest of gaps between explosions, Izabella made her move, leaping out from behind Deus Ex Machina. Having abandoned her shield, Izabella laid herself exposed before La Christoph.

“It’s time for us to move.”

“Indeed.”

If they didn’t leave then, they wouldn’t make it in time. With no room to doubt whether or not Izabella would succeed, Jeanne and Elisabeth dashed forward. Kaito and Hina followed after them. With a singularly nonchalant air, the Kaiser shook his head in exasperation and did the same. Vlad floated along behind, a wide grin plastered across his face.

Together, they passed through the entrance.

Unbelievably, the bombardment had stopped. It was almost miraculous how quiet their surroundings were.

They could see a priest wearing a lavish vestment shouting something at La Christoph. He was undoubtedly trying to get him to resume the bombardment. But as he gazed at Izabella in bewilderment, La Christoph obstinately refused to open his arms. The priest shouted again, even louder.

“What the hell are you doing? Why show mercy to someone who’s been won over by the demons?”

As he did, Izabella’s subordinates started moving at once. They all rushed over to the priest. The group that looked like executioners tried to get them to fall back, but the paladins gave determined shouts.

“Please, that’s not it! Our commander was taken against her will!”

“Bah! Back, you lot, back! What are you thinking?!”

“You’re the one trying to dispose of our kidnapped commander all on your own! What are you thinking?!”

“She’s fallen into the demons’ clutches!”

“We told you, she was abducted! We’re not going to just let you blow away our commander!”

Disorder swelled through their ranks. Taking full advantage of the opportunity, Deus Ex Machina collapsed into pieces. The steel giant’s body separated into a number of chunks. From them, four machines landed atop the ashen earth.

One of them was a beast made of nothing but fangs. Another was an automaton, shaped like a human except for its fatally warped frame. One of the other monsters was a lizard with limbs made from pipes and wings of glass. And the final one was a bipedal suit of armor with no visible seams anywhere on its body.

The chains on Jeanne’s wrists jingled. Taking their cue, the machines began spinning.

White light started glittering in a circle around them, and golden flower petals danced up through the air. The teleportation circle began activating, leaving Izabella behind. The priest went slack-jawed. La Christoph continued looking solely at Izabella. She made no motions to flee, so La Christoph chose not to resume his attack.

“Get ahold of yourselves! Don’t let them get away, dammit—stop them!”

As he shouted orders at the fighting paladins, the priest began chanting to activate Elisabeth’s shackles. As she stood beside Kaito, her skin started burning, and she let out a small cry of pain.

“Urk—”

“Elisabeth…”

“Lady Elisabeth.”

Kaito and Hina supported her shoulders. However, Elisabeth wasn’t the one giving the chant for the summoning circle—Jeanne was. The light gradually grew in strength. The paladins and the executioner-like group frantically rushed toward them.

As they did, Jeanne gently extended her hand. Making sure she wasn’t seen by the people closing in on them, she lifted a tuft of Izabella’s hair. Then she kissed her, like a knight kissing a princess’s hand.

Izabella’s shoulders twitched. But she didn’t turn around.

Finally, Jeanne offered a surreptitious murmur to her dignified back.

“I don’t hate seeing a mere human trying to oppose them. After all, such actions are the ones that are supposed to change the world. You may be an idiot, a dunce, and a fool, miss, but I choose to believe that your actions helped delay the clock hands in their march toward the end. You did catch my eye, and the eyes never lie.”

With slight vestiges of sorrow, Jeanne let go of the silver hair. As she did, she offered a quiet farewell.

“Good-bye, my stupid, gallant little lady.”

* * *

The next moment, the paladins and executioner-like group rushed in. Metal flower petals and white light blotted out their figures, but the moment before they faded from vision, a scene burned its way into Kaito’s eyes.

Losing a close struggle to the executioner-like group, the paladins were forced back. Countless arms draped in crimson cloth reached out. Then, one after another, they grabbed Izabella.

And then, finally, she was pushed forcefully down onto the ground.