Meaty, tonguelike petals dripping with mucus protruded from the flower. At the ends of its thorny stem, disturbing, flesh-colored roots resembling human genitals extended outward. The roots crept through the town, crushing buildings as they wrapped around everything in their path. Countless corpses were strewn across the streets and atop the stairs. Strangely, all their abdomens were crushed, like so many deflated leather bags. Men and women alike had the aftereffects of prolonged anguish etched onto their faces.
They had been run through by plant roots and had their organs forcefully sucked out.
“This is…horrifying…”
As he whispered in horror, Kaito traced the roots with his gaze. Right before they’d reached the sea, their growth had stopped.
The massive flower had been avoiding the sea, which was dyed red.
It, too, was contaminated.
The stained seawater was violently frothing. The beaches and wharves were covered in piles of dissolved seaweed and dead fish. Out at sea, the corpses of whales and dolphins with distended bellies were also visible.
Abandoned by their passengers, small boats belonging to the local elderly and large commercial ships alike were degrading at abnormal speeds. Their cargo had poured out of ruptured bilges and was floating among the corpses.
And in the middle of that terrible spectacle the vague outline of an enormous island had appeared.
Upon further inspection, it was pulsating.
The island was, in fact, a flesh-colored jellyfish large enough to be mistaken for land. It was as though the sea itself had developed a tumor that leaked pus and rot.
Both the flower and the jellyfish, made to grow without regards for their natural limits, were collapsing. They were too big to get a good view, so it was impossible to confirm whether or not they had needles stuck in the backs of their necks. However, it was clear to see that they had been unable to maintain their egos.
Using the magical runes they’d received from the Church, the three of them had teleported to the bottom of one of the staircases connecting the inlet to the mountains, as teleporting directly to the crushed Church branch office wasn’t an option. From that vantage point, the series of disastrous scenes was right before their eyes.
Her black hair blowing in the sticky sea breeze, Elisabeth pressed down on her forehead.
“…Ah, what a headache. It seems both of them are being controlled. What a pitiful pair they are, yielding to her so readily. Of all the possible situations I foresaw, ’tis easily the worst of the lot.”
“Are you all right, Lady Elisabeth?”
“Exasperation will do little to improve our lot, I suppose… The flower is the Grand Earl, and the jellyfish is the Grand Duke. We’ll take them down starting with the weaker of the two and before they can spit out their hearts.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bowing deeply, Hina adjusted her grip on her halberd. Kaito silently double-checked the corpses strewn throughout the town. As he did, he spotted a figure moving.
“…A survivor!”
His eyes wide with anticipation, Kaito quickly realized that he’d been off the mark.
It was a grotesque soldier, a servant of the demons, its head now transformed into a flower. The creature was trampling corpses and climbing over roots in search of something.
As Kaito wondered what it was looking for, the answer to that question became clear when a scream rang out from somewhere.
Although they’d been told that the Church had gathered up the survivors and used teleportation circles to evacuate them, apparently not everybody had made it out. The underling was tracking them down and mutely killing them.
Now that I think about it, that makes total sense. With the calamity falling on them so suddenly, of course they weren’t able to get everyone out that fast. Fuck!
Quietly clicking his tongue, Kaito called out to Elisabeth.
“Elisabeth, there are underlings loitering about. We gotta save the survivors.”
“The battlefield shan’t tolerate such naïveté. ’Tis best to overlook the victims—or so I’d like to say, but the Church would have my hide. ‘Do some good for the world,’ or so they tell me…but I haven’t the resources. Kaito, you deal with it.”
“Wait, me?”
“Worry not, I shall give you this.”
Elisabeth snapped her fingers. A sword with rubies spiraling around its blade dropped out of thin air. It was the magical tool they’d found in Vlad’s castle. Kaito hurriedly picked it up.
Kaito looked at the needle-thin sword with bewilderment. Unmoved by his reaction, Elisabeth continued speaking.
“You possess a golem body, a first-rate creation of my own making. Your control over magic surpassed my expectations, so you have a number of tools at your disposal. Fight. As far as I can tell, ’tis what you desire, yes?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll do it… I can’t just sit back and watch you all the time.”
“Hina, your task is…very well. I’ll allow it. You may stay by Kaito’s side. The prospect of standing alongside one whose expression has surpassed unease and started to become as fierce as yours frightens me, so I’ll refrain from doing so.”
Glancing at Hina’s face as she spoke, Elisabeth heaved a sigh.
Hina, who’d looked so conflicted she seemed to be on the verge of stabbing either herself or Elisabeth, frantically wiped the anguish from her face. As she bowed to Elisabeth, she raised a question.
“Hearing those words fills me with gratitude. It is my greatest wish to stay by the side of my beloved and protect him… However, um, Lady Elisabeth, what shall you—?”
“Ha, don’t make light of the Torture Princess. My current power is more than sufficient to crush the Grand Duke like an ant.”
Elisabeth scoffed. Kaito and Hina, about to express their concern, held their tongues. The Torture Princess wasn’t bluffing. Her expression made that much clear.
Elisabeth wore a smile that was both ferocious and cruel.
“Now then, let us be off—they shall squeal like quartered swine and writhe like stuck caterpillars.”
Darkness and flower petals swirled, and Elisabeth took hold of the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal.
She then ascended the stairs with great leaps and bounds.
She reached a nearby root and jumped on top of it. She then broke into a gallant run toward the flower’s main body, remaining atop the root as she did. It was as though she was running atop her foe’s arm as a display of her power. The root trembled as it rose into the air. Before it could come crashing down, though, Elisabeth yelled.
“Nail Gun!”
Darkness and crimson flower petals ran across the top of the root in a spiral. Then a thunking noise rang out in succession.
Rusted nails appeared out of the air and nailed the root into the road and buildings. It looked like they’d run through a set of human genitals.
Shuddering in pain, the flower began releasing foamy mucus from the bottom of its sepals. Kaito reflexively scowled. Mercilessly stepping on the nailheads, Elisabeth ran like an obsidian meteor.
Kaito stared at her, entranced. However, Hina called out to him, and he returned to his senses.
“Master Kaito, we must set out as well. Take care not to stray from my side.”
“Oh yeah, right. Let’s go.”
Nodding, Kaito broke into a run. The two of them ran up the stairs, making their way toward the direction they’d just heard the screams come from. The town, wrapped as it was in roots, felt like a ruin that hadn’t been inhabited in a millennium. The fact that signs of life could clearly be seen made the scene feel all the more eerie.
As they continued down the main road and passed a bay window filled with well-maintained houseplants, the two of them discovered an underling. The underling, who was wearing scaly armor made of leaves, slowly turned to look at them.
As it blinked its enlarged eyes, its last remnants of the human it had once been, Hina swung her halberd sharpl
y.
“Hiyah!”
Her aim unerring, she chopped off its flowery head. However, even as it wobbled, it reached out for Hina.
Perhaps because it lacked a brain or a spinal cord, losing its head hadn’t proved fatal.
“Don’t get cheeky with me!”
With a sharp rebuke, Hina chopped off the arm reaching for her. Perhaps sensing the difference in their power, the underling reached out with its other arm and extended a thorny vine toward Kaito.
Hina immediately made to swing her halberd. However, Kaito stopped her with a look.
He then held his sword at the ready, as if to block the underling’s arm.
Calm down and act rationally. If I can’t deal with something of this level, I’ll never stop being baggage.
Right before the ivy could coil around his sword, Kaito focused his senses on the wound on his palm and then called out.
“La (burn)!”
A dazzling blaze burst forth. The magical flame spun in an ominous spiral, latching onto the ivy and devouring it. Its arm burning, the underling let out a cry of anguish.
Seeing the corpses littering the town had actually calmed Kaito down due to his intimate experiences in life involving hating and getting angry at horrible situations. However, his physical tension was another matter. Having seen that his magic worked, he breathed a sigh of relief. His trembling hand finally settled down.
That’s Elisabeth for you, always on the ball. The flaming weapon seems like it’ll be effective against these guys.
The underling ripped off its burning arm and began fleeing with an awkward gait. Kaito made to chase after it. Suddenly, though, it turned around, waving its arm around as its body burst into flames and it charged at Kaito.
“Gah!”
It looked as though Kaito was about to pay for his carelessness. A second later, however, a thunderous noise rang out and the underling went hurtling to the side. After blinking a few times, Kaito finally realized what had just happened.
Hina had mowed down the underling with the reverse side of her halberd, and it had gone flying and slammed into the wall of a building. The fire had largely gone out in the impact, but the underling was twitching and convulsing nevertheless. Merciless attacks were raining down upon it.
“Even! If! Master! Kaito! Himself! Desired! It! Know! That! Being! Beaten! To! Death! Is! A! Light! Punishment! For! Your! Rudeness!”
With the expression of an ogress, Hina shouted as she struck the underling between every word. Her attacks were focused on its chest, and its vegetal body was all but reduced to mincemeat. Her gaze was ice-cold, and after she’d confirmed its death, she gave a light nod.
“…And stay dead, filth.”
Her voice frigid, Hina turned back toward Kaito. When she did, her expression made a complete about-face. She exhaled reverently, a bright smile floating to her face as she sandwiched her halberd between her bountiful breasts and hugged herself tightly.
“Splendid work, Master Kaito! Given your skill, nobody would suspect that this is your first battle since you began learning magic! I would expect nothing less from my beloved! How lovable you are, how gallant, how cool, how I wish to hug you!”
“Th-thanks? Although I’m pretty sure you were the only one who did anything impressive there. Like, for real.”
“Oh my, no, that wasn’t the case at all. How humble you are. But even though these creatures are mere underlings, their resilience is nothing to scoff at… This trash is quite a handful. From here on out, I’d be better off crushing them than cutting them.”
Then they heard a scream. Kaito and Hina looked up with a start and then nodded to each other and ran off.
They ran by some residences and an area near the rock face to the west where the locals would sell fish from carts before reaching a group of buildings made from thick, sturdy walls.
A voice was audible from within an open door to the east.
“There!”
When he charged inside, Kaito witnessed Hell.
What would happen if you tied someone’s limbs together with barbed wire and then pulled on them until they reached their limit?
What would happen if you stuck tentacles into someone’s abdomen while they were still alive and then churned them around?
What would happen if you squeezed someone’s body until their bones broke and they vomited up all their organs?
Within that building, all those questions had been thoroughly answered.
The two underlings had dispassionately slaughtered the family, as if it was just another day on the job.
The remains of the grandfather, father, and mother were stuck to the tiled floor. It looked as though they’d been killed in that order. The room was fairly large, and alongside the wall, harpoons, fishing tackle, boats, and old nets were lined up on sturdy wooden racks. Among them, jars of colorful preserves and heavy-looking sacks were crammed together.
Apparently, this building was a storehouse. Based on the fact that it had no windows, the family within must have missed the Church’s evacuation order and been discovered by the underlings.
That had resulted in the dreadful spectacle before Kaito. However, there were yet survivors hiding among the jars of pickles.
The survivors were a pair of children. A young boy and girl with flushed cheeks were huddled together.
Having just finished crushing flesh, the underlings hadn’t noticed Kaito and Hina yet.
The underlings trampled over the remains of the mother—more specifically, her stomach, which was hanging out of her mouth like a fish pulled up from the deep sea—and reached for the children.
The young boy was in shock, and he stood motionless. His ankle was hanging out from the hiding spot, and ivy was about to wrap around it. Right before it could, though, the boy’s body was pulled into the space between a jar and a rack. The young girl was yanking on the boy’s arm and trying to force him to move.
She was probably his older sister. She raised both her arms to try to conceal him and then glared at the underling. However, the brave front she put up soon vanished, like the flame of a candle. Her face scrunched up, and she let out an animalistic moan. Still, though, she never stopped defending the boy.
There was something in her eyes, something surpassing familial love and the resolve of a sister.
Suddenly, a particular memory flashed through Kaito’s mind.
There was a time when a boy with red hair had sacrificed himself to shove Kaito out of harm’s way. Muttering a small curse, that boy had a smile that looked like he was about to burst into tears before he was pulled away by the spider.
Then he was eaten alive.
Even though he hadn’t wanted to die, the boy had wished for Kaito’s happiness and instinctively protected him.
…Neue.
Ever since he’d survived that, not a day had gone by without Kaito recalling that name.
Before he noticed, he had pierced the underling through the back.
Kaito plunged the whole blade, along with the fragile-looking rubies that adorned it, deep into the underling. The underling, dumbfounded, turned around.
As their eyes met, Kaito grinned at it.
“La (burn to death).”
As he spat out the word, his mana burst forth. The sword burst into flames within the underling’s body.
The underling let out an incomprehensible cry and lashed out. Then it turned to charcoal from the inside out.
Kaito, not letting his guard down for a moment, released a second and third burst of flame before ripping his sword free. The remaining underling frantically extended ivy toward him.
Then Hina landed behind it.
“Hiyah!”
After receiving her two-legged kick, the underling crashed headfirst into a rack. A jarful of fish pickled in oil fell down and shattered. The rack swayed and then came collapsing down upon the underling.
Not missing her chance, Hina picked up her halberd and held it aloft. She wielded it like a meat t
enderizer, bringing it down on top of the rack and striking the underling again and again and again.
With each loud, rhythmic strike, the rack grew flatter and flatter. A green, foul-smelling liquid spread out, mixing together with the oil and the vinegar.
As the smashed rack came as close to the ground as it would go, Hina stomped on it with one foot before softly snorting.
Kaito, too, kicked the carbonized underling in the stomach. Like a bad joke, it fell into pieces and crumbled to the floor. His anger momentarily abated, Kaito realized that he was trembling.
“Wh-what’s…happening to me?
The underling was dead. There was nothing more to be afraid of. Kaito, trying to suppress his trembling with logic, knelt down on one knee. Trying desperately to feign composure, he called out to the dumbfounded girl.
“Are…are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“…Da…y…”
“Huh?”
A hollow voice leaked forth from the girl’s mouth, and Kaito responded carelessly. His prompting acting as a trigger, the girl suddenly opened her mouth.
Her throat rang a little as a heartfelt scream poured forth.
“Da…ddy… Mommy… Grampa… No, no, nonono, nooooooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
“Yeah…right… I’m sorry. We didn’t make it in time, did we?”
As if Kaito, too, was an enemy, the girl lashed out at him and continued screaming like a wounded animal.
Realizing that letting this go on would put her in danger—she might bite her tongue or go into convulsions—Kaito immediately stuck his hand in her mouth.
Her eyes widened as she bit down on his fingers.
“…!”
Hina was about to make a move, but Kaito reined her in with a glance. Kaito was all too familiar with the despair that accompanies events that can’t be undone; in his case, it had been his own untimely death. So he rubbed her back and patiently said the same thing again and again.
Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 2 Page 8