At that moment, Kaito realized something.
The battle between the paladin and the beast was unfolding in an unexpected manner. The way the paladin was swinging his sword didn’t match up with the severity of his wounds. Upon closer inspection, each and every one of the fangs wedged in the openings of the paladin’s armor was being pushed out from within. Trails of blood followed them through the air as they clattered to the ground.
“…the slaughterers had undergone transformations.”
Bandersnatch let out a wary cry. Then it lifted its silver head and howled. To put it in terms from Kaito’s old world, the way it proceeded to shoot out its fangs was like machine-gun fire.
The paladin took them head-on. But even with his eyes crushed and swathes of his skin riddled with fangs, he still held his sword aloft and hurled it with deadly accuracy. The blow rippled across the beast’s body as the sword impaled it through the midsection.
After taking the attack, the beast lay in pieces. But the scattered fangs quickly resumed their original formation, and Bandersnatch reassumed its stance. The paladin stood before it, having somehow completely stanched his bleeding. Upon closer inspection, his flesh had begun swelling peculiarly. A grotesque pink shade had stopped up his wounds and was bulging out of the openings in his armor.
Humans didn’t metamorphose like that. Seeing the repulsive spectacle, Kaito found himself at a loss for words.
Is he even human?
Given the paladin’s state, it was difficult to say for certain.
Bandersnatch and the paladin squared off against each other. Then came an ominous rattling noise.
A number of other silver-armored men had made their appearances. But something about them was off. All of them, the one Bandersnatch had just shot included, were emitting low groans from beneath their helmets. Then suddenly, one member of the group looked Kaito’s way.
“Urr…grr…ahh…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The moan turned to a howl, and the paladin charged at him.
As he did, Hina stepped in front of Kaito. In concert with the sharp maneuver, she brought her halberd crashing down.
“Not one step closer to my beloved husband, you wretch!”
The paladin she was facing off against swung his sword up from below. Each of their weapons carved a wide arc before crashing into the other.
Sparks flew. As they did, the impossible occurred once more.
“…!”
Hina had swung her halberd down, and the paladin had swung his sword up.
The two of them were vastly different when it came to reach and stance. But despite having every possible disadvantage working against him, the paladin had managed to stop Hina’s blow. No normal human would have had the strength to pull such a feat off.
Perplexed as he was, Kaito snapped his fingers as calmly as he could.
“La (dance).”
A blade came hurtling out of thin air and flew at the paladin’s flank. But the strike, which Kaito had carefully calculated to avoid being fatal, was knocked out of flight by another silver knight. The new paladin had stopped the blade with strength alone.
Before Kaito could manipulate it again, the paladin hurled it. The blade cleft deep into the surface of the road.
Hina and the paladin she faced continued trying to push each other away. With the distance between them having grown, Hina stiffened her guard.
Kaito bit down on his lip. He’d been holding back during his last attack, but still, no human should have been able to stop it with brawn alone. Or to put it another way, no human was meant to be able to.
“What’s up with these guys? They look like paladins, but are they abnormal or something?”
“Allow me to ask you a question, mister. Are you positive you saw the Monarch die?”
A surprising question came from Jeanne. As soon as she spoke, Bandersnatch leaped in front of the paladin who’d blocked Kaito’s blade, casually taking over Kaito’s fight.
Kaito was on the verge of giving Jeanne an answer, but he stayed silent instead. He’d tortured the Monarch, then killed him. Kaito was certain he’d decapitated the wailing, agonizing demon. But there was something tugging at him, preventing him from giving an authoritative answer. Then recollection of a certain fact jolted through his brain like lightning.
After they die, demons collapse and turn into a cloud of black feathers.
Kaito hadn’t properly seen the Monarch’s death through to the end.
“N-no. I cut off his head, but I didn’t make sure he did the final transformation.”
“I fuckin’ knew it, ya stupid piece of shit. You are quite the Fool! Even if they’re beheaded by a guillotine, human beings can survive for several seconds. And demons can take even longer than that to die. Someone must have reattached his head and kept him alive. I caught a glimpse of some Church documents detailing how you tortured him in order to amass power, mister, but did you by any chance leave behind a magical formula of healing?”
“Yeah…I did.”
Everything Jeanne had pointed out had been right on the mark. Kaito had been done with the formula, but he’d left it beneath the cage regardless. The Church reviled dark magic. He’d assumed they’d erase it by the following day, but Jeanne refuted that notion.
“Reusing that formula would have been feasible. They could have erased the part that transferred pain but left the part that healed. In doing so, they could shave off as much meat from the Monarch as they wanted, completing their magical rite. Wouldja look at that? The Monarch became a handy piece of livestock! A fine, good-lookin’ swine!”
“Using a demon as livestock and harvesting their meat… You can’t mean that they…!”
“That’s right, bud—they chowed down.”
Jeanne’s reply was blunt.
As she pointed toward the paladin Hina was fighting, the chains on her wrists rattled.
“Those men were induced to consume the flesh.”
Kaito’s gaze swung toward the paladins so fast that it was like he’d been slapped.
Their faces were all covered by helmets. There was no way for him to tell if any one of them had been a member of Izabella’s squad or someone else he knew. The only thing he could make out was that they clearly weren’t sane.
The eyes peering out from within their helmets were bloodshot and tinged with madness, and crimson foam was frothing around their mouths.
Kaito recalled something Jeanne had just said.
They needed to gather pain.
“If one must consume the flesh of demons, there is an optimal portion size, and it takes several years before its roots finish spreading through people’s bodies to the point of being bearable. But they each ate more than double that amount. In their current states, they’re little more than weapons, seeking out the pain of others to alleviate their own. They ain’t nothin’ more than pawns to be used up and chucked aside.”
As a result, the paladins hadn’t hesitated in carrying out those massacres.
The strung-up corpses flashed across Kaito’s mind. Just like he’d suspected, that had all been assembly-line work dispassionately carried out with the intention of causing pain. And just as Vlad had suggested, whoever was designating the sites of the murders must have been selecting them with their own personal amusement in mind.
In one sense, that was definitely a demon’s doing, but in another, it was a human’s.
“I had no idea this was how—”
“Feeling personal responsibility for this would be both illogical and pointless. You’re a very kind person, mister. And even though you might be an incorrigible asshat, this turn of events was bound to occur regardless.”
Jeanne gave him a light shrug. Kaito clenched his fists tight.
As they did, Hina had begun pushing the paladin back and was now swinging her halberd in earnest. The paladin fell back in order to avoid her torrential blows. Taking on a bestial stance, she spoke in a low voice.
“You would do wel
l not to underestimate the depths of my love. Take a single step forward if you do not value your life.”
The paladin fighting Bandersnatch had retreated in much the same way. But the corrupted paladins hadn’t given up yet. Five more members joined them from the group hanging back. Apparently, their plan was to win with sheer numbers.
Kaito and Hina stood at the ready again. The Kaiser scoffed, motionless. Vlad crossed his arms.
Then Jeanne listlessly gave an order.
“Bandersnatch, my first, Gargantua, my second, Jabberwocky, my third, and Pantagruel, my fourth—don’t let them flee.”
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 on its body.
The four of them advanced, their movements perfectly controlled.
Then silver streaks flashed across Kaito’s vision.
A metallic mass had appeared in front of the paladins. Even upon seeing the “thing” in full, Kaito still found himself unable to properly parse it. In all likelihood, it was beyond mankind’s ability to comprehend altogether.
What the hell…is that?
It was firm, and it was supple. It was a sword, a shield, a bullet, and a wing. It was massive, twisted, and formless. Its whole body was both curved and straight, and it writhed as it bore down on its foes.
Then, at long last, Kaito realized what it was.
Deus Ex Machina breaks down its component parts, then combines them at will, transforming into something completely new each time.
As befitted the name Deus, the lot of them were normally just parts of one, larger weapon. They ran their hard, metal, lance-like conical feelers gently along the ground. Their movements were wholly inconsistent with their forms, and the attacks they launched defied all human expectations. With each strike, they severed the paladins’ arms and legs, silver armor and all.
Countless limbs went flying through the air. The scene would have been funny if it wasn’t so grisly.
They didn’t know if the paladins had eaten the demon flesh of their own volition. As Kaito was about to stop the tragedy by calling that fact out, though, he swallowed back his words. Before his eyes, the paladins’ wounds had begun roiling.
Their pink flesh began swelling up, burbling horribly as it did. It began taking on the shape of arms and legs.
One paladin’s helmet went flying off, exposing his face below.
“Grblargh, brglahhhhhhh, brglahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
His eyes had turned almost completely inside out, and his engorged lips were tearing even as he cried. His veins had risen to the surface, forming a grotesque, melon-like lattice over his face.
Even if they left the paladins alive, they were beyond help.
Jeanne’s voice as she stared at the hellish spectacle was even and dispassionate.
“They ate the Monarch’s flesh. What meat did Vlad and I eat, then? That was what you asked me as you buzzed about like a fruit fly, or maybe like a giant pain in my ass. It is necessary for you to know, so tell you I shall. Or rather, I shall show you. It is necessary, so that is what I shall do. It’s become noisy as shit around here, after all.”
And with that, Jeanne shrugged.
As Deus Ex Machina continued one-sidedly butchering the paladins, Jeanne turned her back on the fight.
Her honey-blond hair swayed as she walked, her gait so light that she nearly seemed to be dancing. She approached one of the corpses on the walls, the one she’d pointed out to Vlad earlier, and the only one whose bones were adorned with gold. They’d probably been an important figure, even for an alchemist.
Jeanne reached out toward the rose-colored gem resting on the corpse’s necklace.
“Time to bring down the house. The end.”
A hard, crunching noise rang out. Jeanne had, for whatever reason, crushed the gem in her bare hands.
Its rosy fragments scattered through the air. That was when it started.
A violent quake ran through the town, as though some sort of lever had been pulled.
Unable to keep his footing, Kaito lost his balance. That very instant, Hina took off at a dash and extended her arms outward. Half-hugging him, she propped him up gently, yet firmly.
“Master Kaito, please put your arms around me.”
“Right, thanks.”
The two lovers wrapped each other in a tight embrace, and in doing so, endured the steadily worsening tremors.
The sky, the earth, and everything in between was shaking.
It felt as though the end of the world had arrived.
Roused by the noise, Vlad let out a rare cry of admiration.
“Oh, how bold! And how calculated! A mechanism designed to flatten an entire town!”
Kaito followed Vlad’s line of sight. Red lights were flashing in succession at the base of the two mountains. It would seem magic circles had been concealed among the rocks and trees. One after another, the dazzling light carved away at the mountains’ surfaces. Each one empowering the next, the lights snaked their way up to the peaks.
A loud, massive explosion rang out. Then the two mountains began crumbling as though they’d been struck by lightning.
As a consequence, rocks began raining down on the village.
“Sorry, Hina! I’m gonna have to leave evasion to you!”
“I don’t mind in the slightest! I shall protect you to the last!”
Hina quickly scooped Kaito up. The footwork she then displayed in avoiding the boulders wouldn’t have been out of place at a fashionable ball. Kaito used his beastly arm to bat away some of the smaller rocks.
One of the paladins got crushed. Deus Ex Machina, on the other hand, casually pulverized the boulders coming its way with its metal arms. The Kaiser languidly bit one in half. Vlad, being phantasmal, merely shrugged, then vanished.
As for Jeanne, she simply looked up at the sky.
The way she gazed up at the heavens, one would think she was watching a gentle rainfall.
The boulders fell atop everyone equally.
That, more than anything, made it feel like punishment meted out by the heavens.
The alchemist’s hidden village was crushed, as though it had invoked divine wrath. But the one who’d brought it about was none other than the girl, the village’s sole surviving inhabitant.
“Now should be a good time.”
Suddenly, Jeanne set off. The rattling from the chains on her wrists could be heard all throughout the crumbling town. Then she began elegantly twirling. As she did, Deus Ex Machina took its place by her side.
Its fused form collapsed, and its four sub-components joined Jeanne in her dance. They waltzed, as though to extol her, and mana began gathering between them. Golden flower petals started whirling up.
“Master Kaito!”
“Yeah, let’s go!”
Kaito and Hina hurriedly made their way into the circle. The Kaiser followed after them. The remaining paladins also rushed forward but were repelled by the wall of gold petals and white feathers.
Then the teleportation circle activated, mercilessly abandoning the paladins to their fates.
Paying no heed to their howls, Jeanne spoke.
“Now then, to continue from where I left off before I was so rudely interrupted. The demon’s flesh we ate. A visit to the Capital’s abandoned underground tomb should make it quite apparent where we obtained it from. And that is where I intend to show to you…”
Gorgeous, cold light began filling their vision.
Then they left the crumbling village behind.
Jeanne continued, as though to build up anticipation.
“…a true nightmare, the likes of which you stray sheep have never seen before.”
7
His and Her
The Butcher leaped high into the air, clinging to the wall to avo
id Elisabeth’s opening blow.
Spiked Hare carved a victimless path across the floor in vain and nearly smashed through the door. Right before it could, though, Elisabeth snapped her fingers, and the torture device vanished back into darkness and crimson petals.
“Tch, cease your dashing and your scurrying!”
She was well aware of the Butcher’s evasive capabilities. Not letting her guard down for a moment, she summoned another vortex of darkness and petals. Then she drew a sword with crimson runes carved on its blade from within.
“Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal!”
At the top of her voice, Elisabeth called out the sword’s name. As she did, the runes on the blade flashed.
His tone implying an odd sneer, the Butcher read them aloud.
“‘You are free to act as you will. But pray that God shall be your salvation. For the beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in the palm of His hand,’ was it?”
His voice had a certain scornful ring to it.
In place of a reply, Elisabeth pointed the sword’s tip at him. A number of chains burst out of empty space.
Neither flustered nor panicked, the Butcher merely kicked off against the wall. The chains violently swerved like the heads of a hydra as they pursued him. Assailed by the surging attack, the Butcher bent his body like a cat as he fell.
The action seemed almost thoughtless, and the chains grazed over his head and beside his flank. Ultimately, he managed to slip through all of them, and with a thump, he landed safely on the floor.
He could well have a promising career in front of him as a circus acrobat.
Without sparing a moment to congratulate him, Elisabeth snapped her fingers again.
“Ducking Stool!”
“Good heavens!”
A chair sprouted from the ground, scooping the Butcher up in its seat. The next moment, leather belts sprung out from its back and its armrests, binding his body down. And at the same time, a rectangular chunk of floor beneath the chair vanished.
The gaping hole was filled to the brim with water. Crimson flower petals floated on its surface.
Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 4 Page 14