White light appeared.
Warm, gentle, heartbreakingly soothing light.
How long had it been since he had greeted the morning with such peace in his heart?
Waking from sleep had always been gloomy, and the days spent in never-ending nightmares had held not a shred of tranquility.
He had been so thoroughly convinced that the darkness would never lift—not now, not ever.
And perhaps that was why this light pierced so deeply into his heart.
"——Hey, wake up."
A voice called to him.
Someone was calling his name from beyond the white light. Guided by that voice, drawn by that hand, he broke through the darkness.
The white light that had seemed so distant gradually filled his entire field of vision—.
"Good morning. Time to wake up, sleepyhead."
Beyond the eyelids that peeled open, a silver-haired girl smiled bashfully as she spoke.
Tears traced down Sylphy's cheeks at those words.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Pale blue light surged into the sky, and the barrier of ice dissolved.
The ice that had enveloped the half-destroyed church turned to light, and the scattering mana was swallowed up by the dancing minor spirits before vanishing.
The sight of an invisible fantasy being consumed by another invisible fantasy carved a profoundly melancholic sentiment into the hearts of all who beheld it.
It would be no surprise if anyone's tears were stirred by such a sight, but the reason the sobbing women wept surely ran deeper than that alone.
It was liberation—from the nightmare that had shackled the most brilliant years of their lives.
"Still,
Subaru let his lips loosen and murmured dazedly.
What lay before his gaze was Emilia, and clinging to her in tears—the brides. Or rather, the former brides, all present and accounted for.
The women in dresses numbered exactly fifty-three. Not a single one was missing.
"…When I heard that the brides were fused with his heart, I kept thinking there was no way to save them without letting them die."
Taking the brides' lives and erasing the location of the Lion's Heart—that was the only method Subaru had half-resigned himself to for stopping that madman. He had been prepared to accept the sacrifices.
But unlike Subaru, Emilia had refused to give up.
Granted, she had been locked in a life-or-death clash with Regulus at the time, and it was true that she had momentarily stopped thinking there were no other options. But Emilia had not stopped trying.
She had considered what she could do with the cards in her hand—and she had done it.
That was why, "This time, Emilia-tan completely stole the show."
"That's not true at all."
Hearing Emilia's reply, Subaru slumped against the wall and let out a breath of relief. Emilia, having noticed his sigh of release, came back to him. Her white dress was torn, and her silver hair—having endured a death struggle—hung loose and disheveled. And yet, the Emilia standing there after the battle was still beautiful.
Exhaling that inner sentiment, Subaru lifted his chin.
"Those ladies over there still look like they haven't finished thanking you, Emilia-tan."
"Oh, stop teasing me. Besides, I can't exactly act all high and mighty in front of everyone. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but… I forced everyone into a choice that might have killed them."
"But nobody died. Everyone's alive. ——And that's what matters most."
That outcome was the greatest reward of all.
Having received the answer he sought, Subaru relaxed. Emilia placed her hands on her hips, and as usual, shelving her own low self-assessment, pouted her lips at Subaru.
"You're covered in wounds, you pushed yourself way too hard… If Subaru hadn't worked so hard, everyone would have been finished by now. You're the one who figured out the Lion's Heart, too."
"Leaving the finishing blow to someone else again… I can't exactly just shrug that off. But you really figured it out, didn't you? Freezing the brides and putting them into suspended animation."
"I was frozen for a long time myself, so—"
Emilia stuck out her tongue with a sheepish "tehe~." Cute.
But it wasn't actually the kind of thing that could be brushed off with a laugh.
That said, Emilia's actions and quick thinking had achieved the greatest possible effect in defeating Regulus—preventing any unnecessary sacrifices.
Fifty-three precious brides had been saved.
"I didn't really have confidence I could pull it off."
"But you did it. Emilia-tan, you've been putting in the effort to master your own powers."
"Still, there was a chance I'd stay frozen forever. I'm honestly relieved I managed to free myself properly."
And then, hiding her bashful smile, she placed her hand over her own chest.
As if to confirm the heartbeat beneath her palm—her own, unique pulse.
"Besides, if Subaru hadn't pulled Regulus's heart out of my chest, I would've had to cast the same spell on myself. In that case, unfreezing Sylphy and the others—and myself—would've been so much harder than it was now. It might've taken another hundred years."
"Come on, come on—surely that's a bit of an exaggeration."
"……"
"It IS an exaggeration!? Wait, seriously!? That was a razor-thin play!"
At Emilia's silent, wry smile, Subaru was floored.
Emilia, who had been provoked by Regulus into trying to stop both him and the Lion's Heart together. If he hadn't noticed that—if he'd slipped up—it could have meant a final parting from Emilia in this life. Of course, Subaru figured he would have searched for a way to melt the ice rather than just let that happen, but still.
"The last thing I need is two Sleeping Beauties and my disease-goddess reputation going through the roof, so please don't do that again."
He grumbled, but Subaru let out a breath of relief all the same.
Either way, Emilia had been rescued safely, and the brides had survived unharmed. The battle with Regulus had produced destruction on a scale unimaginable for a fight against a single individual—but as a final outcome, the damage on their side was almost nothing.
At most, Subaru had shouldered some physical burdens, and there was the unnecessary entanglement with the
And then— "Reinhard left without even having his wounds treated. I wonder if he's okay?"
Lost in thought, Subaru was addressed suddenly by Emilia.
He looked up and waved his hand dismissively.
"No problem. Apparently, minor spirits heal his wounds on their own even if you leave him alone. He said so himself."
"Oh, so that's it. There were so many minor spirits in this area, and the moment Reinhard left, they all followed after him… Reinhard might have the aptitude of a spirit user."
"Don't kill off my niche!"
And besides, in Reinhard's case, he was more than strong enough even without that. Subaru himself had thrown Reinhard at Regulus, but Reinhard's combat prowess in what amounted to a final duel was nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Was it really possible for a human being to leap into the sky like that so effortlessly? He couldn't be considered the same as any normal human, and yet he was a knight of one of the royal selection candidates all the same.
"Emilia-tan, even though I'm weak, please don't abandon me."
"—? I rely on Subaru soooo much, you know?"
"Right!? I knew it! I'll keep serving you with all I have!"
"Sorry, I'm not sure why you're coming on so strong…"
Either way, he should stop comparing himself to this one and that one. If he needed to measure himself against others to feel at ease, he'd end up just like Regulus.
He had thought there was nothing worth learning from that man, but actually, as a cautionary tale he wasn't half bad.
"…Is everyone else okay?"
"That's what Reinhard is for. And honestly, they're all stronger than me anyway."
Telling himself to leave it in their hands might sound like he was outsourcing his worries, but "trusting them" was the expression that fit best.
Their factions were different, and someday they would probably clash head-on over a single throne—but Subaru believed in them. In their character, their abilities, their convictions.
At the very least, he wished with all his heart that they would not lose to something as cowardly and irredeemable as the Witch Cult.
"————"
And if someone were to be defeated, if lives were at stake—then perhaps Subaru would have to consider Return by Death. His contract with Roswaal notwithstanding, if there was even a possibility of saving them, he knew he would try.
Pain and suffering—he hated them both.
But sorrow, he knew, was something he hated even more.
"Subaru."
"————"
Noticing something in the Subaru who sat contemplating the possibility of death, Emilia settled down beside him.
She leaned against his left shoulder, and gently stroked his head as it drooped forward. It tickled. But he couldn't bring himself to pull away.
"Emilia-tan?"
"I'm feeling the same way Subaru is right now. I'm worried about everyone, but I'm completely out of power and can't go help. So let me pray alongside you, okay? For everyone's safety."
"————"
"I'm sure they'll be fine. They're all so much stronger than us, so much smarter, and so much harder-working."
Choosing her words carefully—as if to reassure Subaru—Emilia's particular way with words was so quintessentially her that Subaru felt his heart ease, just a little.
He would believe. In everyone. In the Reinhard he had sent out.
Right after defeating Regulus, Reinhard had immediately dashed off to rescue their other allies. The battlefields he would reach held nothing to worry about.
He wanted everyone to arrive at morning together, without a single person missing. If that happened, Subaru's worries could be reduced to just one—.
"————"
Looking up at the sky as if in prayer, Subaru was joined by Emilia, who gazed up through the shattered ceiling of the church at the night sky. Unseen by her, Subaru clutched his own chest tight, gripping it hard.
—Along with the reality of Regulus's death, something formless and dark had once again slipped into his chest, pulsing with a life of its own.
This was surely the same thing as what he had felt during Petelgeuse's time.
So that Emilia wouldn't notice, he simply prayed to the sky in silence—quietly steeling himself.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ —The timeline jumps back slightly from Regulus's defeat.
It was half a day after Otto had left the municipal building to recover the Tome of Wisdom, having seen off Subaru and the rest of the control tower raid team.
It was around the time Otto had encountered the Archbishop of Sin, "Gluttony," fighting
In short, it was the instant that a shockwave struck the municipal building, where only non-combatants remained.
"Tada~! Here I come~!"
The top floor of the five-story municipal building—its walls were mercilessly shattered by a colossal mass.
Violent tremors cracked the building's windows, and damage sustained during the day had critically weakened its foundations. The building that had been the core of
Whether it survived just short of total collapse or not, however, would depend on the events about to unfold in this place—and their outcome.
"Four towers, four floodgates. The day even one of 'em gets opened, the whole city goes underwater for sure… So naturally, you lot of worthless meat gotta split up and cover all four towers, forcing yourselves into an all-out battle whether you like it or not~!"
In a rapid, grating voice, the situation was laid bare.
Then, a voice rose in response: "Everyone! Let's all make it back alive and protect this city!"
"Let's reclaim this beautiful city with our own power!"
"We who fight for justice cannot possibly lose!"
"Good deeds bear good fruit, and evil deeds bear evil fruit. This battle—our victory is assured—!"
The ringing voice of a young man.
The brave voice of a young girl.
The seasoned war cry of a grizzled soldier, and the rallying cry of an intellectual woman in her prime—each speaking words backed by conviction and resolve worthy of their rhetoric.
But every last one of them had come from a single set of lips.
"You weren't actually thinking that, were you~?"
And then, with those same lips, the voice dripped with contempt, mockery, and a malice that could never be wiped away—utterly betraying every word that had come before.
The voice's owner then hugged her small frame, shrugging her shoulders left and right with exaggerated reluctance, "Kyahahahaha! No way, no waaay! I said stop it already! Why should I go along with your sweaty, grime-stinking excuse for justice, huh? You worthless meat-brains—all of you must be completely out of your minds!"
A shrill, piercing laugh rang out.
Behind that laughter—unconcealed, with no intention of concealing it—was a malevolent, coquettish shriek from a child whose body was far too young and immature to match it.
Round eyes, thin lips, neck-length golden hair, and rosy cheeks—the picture of adorable youth. And yet on that face was cast a vicious expression no child should wear. She wore nothing but scraps of cloth barely more than undergarments, and this excessively exposed body—not even fully developed as a woman, let alone as a human—instilled in every sane person an equally warped sense of revulsion.
Perhaps the child—no, the creature's aim lay precisely in that revulsion.
The Witch Cult's Archbishop of Sin, "Lust" division—
"The idea that I'd obediently wait at a tower like a good girl? What a conveniently delusional fantasy you've got if you can still believe that! How soft have your days been, huh? Were you being pampered or something? Battle is about making the enemy do things they don't want to do and doing things the enemy doesn't want you to do, isn't it? The flower-field residents need to learn their place, you worthless, worthless, worthless, worthless meat~!"
Amid the utterly unbearable stream of profanity, Capella carried herself with an adorably cute manner.
The monster who pressed a finger to her cheek and swayed her body gracefully made her way into the municipal building and immediately headed for the nearest room based on the presence she sensed. The one who encountered Capella there—and who had been subjected to all those insults up to this point—was the cat-eared knight. Behind her lay a long-haired woman on the bed.
This was the building's top floor—the room assigned to
"You are the Archbishop of Sin, 'Lust'…!"
Shaking with rage, Ferris glared at Capella while shielding the bed. Capella tilted her head at the glaring Ferris, then peeked at the bed behind him and nodded with understanding.
"Aaah, right, right. Resentment, I get it. Figures—the blood lost out after all, huh? I thought this would happen. I thought so, but actually seeing it is still a letdown. I had expectations, y'know, since you've got that fairly noble Lugunica blood and all~."
"What's your goal in putting Crusch-sama through this!? How can I save Crusch-sama?! Answer me!"
Rather than disappointed, Capella's mutterings sounded more bored. Ferris—his cute face flushed red with fury—roared at her. Clutched in both hands was the short sword Ferris carried.
Decorated with beautiful ornamentation and engraved with a lion's crest, it was more of a showpiece than a practical weapon. Coupled with Ferris's own still-lacking skill, it didn't look like it could be wielded effectively.
"That a toy? A precious gift? Either way, swinging something like that around with those dainty hands is pretty dangerous, isn't it, little lady? …Wait, huh?"
Capella's tongue-sticking grin faltered mid-sentence as she furrowed her brow.
"Ew, that's gross. What? You've got a pretty unnatural body going on there, don't you? A guy with that body… How the hell did you end up like that without anyone taking anything? You're nothing like some run-of-the-mill cross-dressing pervert—this is something else entirely, and I'm genuinely put off~."
"——!"
Having seen through Ferris's gender, Capella found the unnaturalness of it repulsive. The monster looked Ferris up and down and deliberately mimed gagging.
"Is that getup meant to catch guys off guard? If so, you've got a pretty good grasp of how pathetic humans are, I'll give you that. Men are idiots, women are trash, and all humans are scum without exception… That's a conclusion I can get behind~!"
"Shut up! Enough废话—answer the question! What did you do to Crusch-sama!!"
"Oh gaaah, you're so annoying~."
At Capella's complete inability to hold a coherent conversation, Ferris swallowed his humiliation and shouted again. Capella shrugged at this, and in the blink of an eye, the child's face melted away.
"——!?"
Before the gasping Ferris, the small body shifted and changed shape as it dissolved.
The tiny frame stretched upward like something from a nightmare, and the vivid golden hair changed color. The sweet features that drew out anyone's protective instinct became something stern and commanding, and the near-undergarment outfit transformed into a deep blue dress.
She had heard the stories, but this was Ferris's first time witnessing the transformation firsthand. The creator of nightmares who reshaped the bodies of whomever she touched, with or without their consent, however she pleased.
And Ferris was rendered speechless at the manifestation of that nightmare.
"Ah, uh…"
"—What are you surprised about?"
The voice—accompanied by a hand stroking long green hair—came from the face most dear to Ferris.
The Capella standing before him had taken on the exact appearance of his most revered mistress. At the sight of this, Ferris's face went chalk-white and the short sword in his grip trembled violently.
"See? That fighting spirit from before has completely vanished. This face, this body, this voice—the moment you see it right in front of you, that's all it takes."
Smiling with Crusch's face—something Ferris had never seen before—Capella slowly stepped forward.
She closed the distance until she was within arm's reach of Ferris, and then, for reasons unknown, pressed the tip of his trembling blade against the center of her own chest.
Gently, the sword's point came to rest against the middle of Crusch's ample bosom.
At the exact spot where a thrust would pierce.
"Your enemy is right here. Avenge me. It hurts. It hurts. Breathing hurts. I can't keep my eyes open. It feels as if my heart isn't pumping blood, but poison, through my entire body. So hurry—avenge me. …See? I'm asking you."
"H-haah… haaah…!"
"Just push the sword in deep, twist it hard enough to tear the wound open, and pull it out. That'll destroy the heart, sever the artery, and the bleeding won't stop. You can kill me."
Ferris's breathing quickened. His gaze became unsteady.
Before him lay a life worth more than gold—the life of his mistress's nemesis. Just as he'd been told, at this moment a certain hit was possible. He could crush the heart. He could kill.
All because the person standing before him wore the same form as the one he revered most.
"Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab."
"————"
"Stab——!"
"U-aaaah!!"
Like a curse, the commands drove Ferris's short sword into her chest.
The blade pierced human flesh with ease, finding its way between the ribs to destroy the heart within. The sharp edge was twisted, tearing muscle with a sickening sound, and the short sword came free with a spray of blood.
"Hah… haaah…"
He retreated to avoid the arterial spray, breathing hard. The short sword clattered from his hand and he could hear it soaking in the blood dripping onto the floor.
"Guh… guhaah…"
And Capella—whose chest had been stabbed—dropped to her knees, spilling a torrent of blood from her mouth.
Still wearing Crusch's appearance, her face smeared with blood from the pain and agony, her glistening amber eyes looked up at Ferris with an expression of utter disbelief.
"It hurts, it hurts… Why, why did you do something so terrible…"
"You're the one who told me to stab you…! You told me—to stab Crusch-sama!"
"Hurts, hurts… It's awful, unforgivable. After you said you loved me, said you adored me… After we loved each other…"
"——! Don't say such ridiculous things! Me and Crusch-sama aren't like that!"
"Oh, is that so? Well, I guess there were creative differences in the staging~"
With a breezy smile, Capella wiped the blood away with her sleeve and stood up.
She casually ran her hand over her chest wound, and the wound that had certainly been there vanished instantly. The pained expression from moments ago was gone without a trace, and she let out a sigh.
"After all, if you're gonna do this kind of thing, you've gotta commit from the start or it's meaningless. Having a look-alike of me make two lovers who adore each other kill one another—that's where the catharsis of love lies, you know… Fail, fail."
"What kind of farce—what do you want?! What are you trying to make happen!?"
"Nothing, really? There's no meaning to anything, and there's nothing I want to happen. Making a husband kill his wife's doppelganger—sounds like a fun way to kill time, don't you think? Having your knight cross-dress by your side—I figured it was just that kind of hobby and that kind of relationship~"
"My promise with Crusch-sama is not some shallow thing like that!"
"Kinks and sex are shallow? That's a pretty frivolous opinion if you ask me~"
Capella tilted her head and said this to the fuming Ferris. Then she raised her right hand, and its form transformed dramatically once more.
The palm bloomed into the shape of a massive flower's petals, and extending tentacles swept Ferris's slender body away, caught him as he was blown back, and slammed him into the wall with crushing force.
"Ka… fuuh…!"
"Just as the eye sees and the hand feels—a scrawny, delicate body. If you want to be a woman so badly, why don't I make you one~? In my hands, it'd be a piece of cake—I'd have you turned in no time flat, with holes bored right through you~!"
"My body doesn't matter—Crusch-sama—more important—!"
"How stupid. Claiming someone else matters more than yourself—don't feed me that pretty talk. Besides, how do you plan to fix a body that's lost to the blood? Ha—like there's a way to do that. I'd like to know myself~"
The tentacles writhed, and Ferris's thin limbs began to congest with blood. His eyes bulged in pain, and the creaking of bone reverberated through the room.
In place of the right hand that had become a man-eating flower, the raised left arm now took the shape of a mantis's scythe. Still wearing Crusch's form, with one arm a flower and the other an insect's limb—a grotesque chimera.
And yet the face remained unchanged, still beautiful. That was what made it so revolting.
"I'd love to turn you into a lump of sluggish meat, but I'm not exactly free, you know~? Before someone else shows up, why don't I just tidy up you and your mistress together, huh~?"
"——Ugh, kuh…"
"Speaking of which, you lot are hopelessly incompetent. Not only did you not anticipate me coming—your response to the assault has been agonizingly slow. When on earth are you going to…"
Mid-sentence, Capella's gleeful expression clouded over. As if questioning her own words, she leaned close to the gasping Ferris.
"No matter how you slice it, this is too slow. Even if I came from the top floor, it's taking way too long for anyone else to arrive from above."
"…Ah…"
"What are you scheming? You'd better spit it out now, or your precious, precious mistress will be transformed into something even uglier…"
Capella's left arm—the mantis scythe—was aimed at Crusch lying on the bed, forcing the cruel choice upon Ferris once more. In response, Ferris squeezed out words from trembling lips: "—Useless."
"Aaahn? What kind of begging-for-mercy is that, I wonder~…"
"You… worthless thing."
"What?"
Yellow eyes shot Capella a look brimming with hatred, and Ferris spat those words out like venom.
The instant after, the tentacles binding Ferris's body began spewing smoke, and the flower petals lost their color and rotted away. At the sight of his own right arm decomposing before his eyes, even Capella made a startled face.
"Oh my~? What did you do to my hand…?"
"Guess that means bein' rotten inside is your exclusive trademark, huh~?"
The tentacles rotted and fell away, freeing Ferris's body.
Before Capella could puzzle this out further, another voice cut in. A lovely voice with a distinctive intonation. Capella glanced toward the bed where the voice had come from—and in the next instant, light flashed.
A blinding heat ray—so intense that the room's temperature seemed to spike for a split second. The searing beam struck Capella's face, blowing away the left half of it.
With the acrid stench of burning flesh and the charred cross-section of her wound exposed, Capella staggered backward with a large, deliberate step. A serpentine tongue licked the surface of the wound, and she laughed.
"You'd burn your own ally's face without hesitation. …Well, there are plenty of people for whom that sort of thing doesn't work, but I'd say that warrants some surprise~"
"Ally? Don't be ridiculous. We're business rivals—no, competitors. I don't let looking at a rival's face dull my edge. I don't live that comfortably."
"So you targeted my face deliberately while being a conditional ally and future enemy? If so, isn't that just you venting your frustrations~? I'd say that's a pretty warped personality~"
"I told you, I don't mix business with personal. I aimed for your head because I was hoping it might kill you, that's all."
Stepping down from the bed, the speaker let out a disappointed sigh.
It was Anastasia—who had taken Crusch's place lying in bed.
She ran a hand through her wavy green-dyed hair and smiled back at the still-standing Capella, whose face had been burned but showed no sign of damage.
"I expected as much, but you don't die, huh."
"You smile way too cheerfully for this. Burning a woman's face without a shred of hesitation—that goes beyond rational to outright selfish, which is exactly the kind of rotten bitch I like~!"
"You being attracted to someone like me is the last thing I need. My preferences are settled—I like them fuzzy and pleasant to touch, the lovable type."
Without a hint of fear, Anastasia engaged the monster Capella in conversation. She walked over to Ferris, who was coughing by the bedside, and pulled him to his feet.
With tears still in his eyes, Anastasia prefaced her words with "I think that's enough, right?" and said: "There's nothing more to extract. At the very least, Crusch's situation is on hold for now."
"…I know. I put you through a dangerous gamble like this, and I'm grateful."
"This time, I share a lot of the blame too, so we're even."
Even with the skills of Priestella's finest healer—Ferris—Crusch could not be healed in her current state.
To save her, they needed to learn from the source what was wrong and how to fix it. And Anastasia had not refused Ferris's plea to try.
It was Anastasia who had invited the candidates to Priestella. And this was the result. The weight of that responsibility was what had prevented Anastasia from turning Ferris down.
"Having gone through all that and coming up empty—that really is a letdown~"
"Well, I can't exactly say I've lived up to your expectations—believe me, I'm full of regret. But there was no guarantee I'd show up, was there?"
"Natsuki-san made that announcement, remember? I figured you'd move after hearing that."
Once the main fighting force—the raid team—had been sent out and headquarters was left empty, the enemy would certainly make a move. The Witch Cult had no reason to face them head-on in a fair fight. Just as Capella had said.
"Natsuki-san was a bit too soft around the edges on that front."
It was possible he had intentionally left that opening, but from the nature of the Archbishops, the attack could have been narrowed down to either "Wrath" or "Lust."
That was why Anastasia had laid a trap, and let the municipal building be attacked. The real Crusch—along with the other wounded—had long since been evacuated to the safehouse.
Of course, no one would come to this floor. The only people in this building were on this top floor, and— "…Huh, heh. So there's a sharp one in the bunch, huh? But don't you underestimate me~? That cat-eared one and that little lady there—neither of you looks like she can put up a real fight."
"Little lady? You're making me blush. I'm in the older group, you know?"
At Capella's words, Anastasia gave a wink.
At her composure, Capella's eyes held both revulsion and interest. Then, the half-melted Crusch face twisted, and Capella's form reverted once again to the near-naked child.
She might not have intended this to be her true form, but in her second child-like appearance, Capella bared a cruel grin and pointed at Anastasia.
"I've decided. That cute little face—I'll leave only that much, and turn everything below the neck into a caterpillar. Even then, let's see if you can still talk to me with that same condescending tone~"
"Well, that's terrifying… Which is why—goodbye for now."
"————"
At Anastasia's refusal, Capella grimaced with suspicion.
Anastasia tugged at her still-green hair and surveyed the room.
"I told you I was waiting for you to come. —So why would I be waiting without making any preparations?"
The moment she finished speaking, Anastasia tapped the floor lightly with the tip of her shoe.
Two sharp taps—like a signal. Instantly, a crack spread through the floor beneath Capella's feet, and the off-balance child tumbled through to the floor below.
"Oh my, how clumsy."
The floor gave out beneath her, and the floor below had a hole in it too.
Capella plunged further down through what amounted to four stories' worth of height, landing in an underground space even deeper than the ground floor.
With a wet splat, Capella's body burst on impact.
Crashed defenselessly onto the ground, the child's body was crushed on the cold surface—face spraying blood, limbs broken and mangled. But the ruined body immediately began to squirm its limbs, and the child's form shifted like formless liquid before rising to its feet.
What appeared was a woman of bewitching beauty.
A voluptuous figure displayed with abandon beneath a revealing outfit, framed by rare black hair woven into a long braid. Something vaguely dangerous clung to her air, and her beauty was the kind that unsettled the heart.
Neither Ferris nor Anastasia knew whose appearance this was modeled on. The two who had remained on the fourth floor hadn't even seen the transformation.
So no one was surprised by the new form she had taken.
"Aah, aah, truly, truly… You're all so entertaining, aren't you~! Kyahahahaha!"
Showing no sign of her near-death state or the mortal agony, Capella let that throat ring with laughter. A frivolous, coquettish voice wholly at odds with her transformed appearance echoed through the building's underground space.
It was a dim, cold, damp air—not quite the atmosphere of a proper basement, but rather part of the maintenance facilities for the citywide network of waterways.
From somewhere came the sound of flowing water, and wind drifted in from a different opening than the hole above.
"Receiving such a passionate welcome like this really makes my heart race—and I can change the size of these freely, you know~? Hurry back and let me hold you tight, and train you so that in my arms, you can only love me and no one else…"
"You ain't goin' back."
"————"
The flushed, trembling-with-excitement Capella was halted by a voice.
A low, muffled, languid male voice.
At the sound, Capella looked up as a figure stepped out from the darkness of the underground.
Her expression shifted instantly. The blissful look from moments ago twisted into one of loathing as she glared at the newcomer.
"My aesthetic sense doesn't extend to sparing ugly things that try to hide how ugly they are~."
"Yeah? Then relax. My aesthetic sense doesn't extend to sparing you either."
The languid voice responded with a heavy, burdensome sigh.
And then: "You heard it upstairs, right? Your movements were already figured out by our nasty little crew. And with a personality as nasty as that… well, there's nobody nastier than my lady, is there?"
As he spoke, the sound of a heavy blade clearing its sheath could be heard simultaneously.
A thick sword was drawn, its dull gleam reflecting the light that spilled in from the hole above.
Standing there was a one-armed man. A shadow beneath a black helmet. An eccentric in strange attire.
The eccentric pointed the blue-dragon saber he had drawn with his one arm directly at Capella.
"I'm greeting you early, but I'm in a bad mood today. —Before I die, why don't you go back where you came from. You invertebrate."