It had been a month since Yogiri was first invited to the Mathers household, and since first joining his life in another world had been extremely boring. Since Ram was dead, she couldn't teach Yogiri to read and write anymore. Those duties fell onto Beatrice, who was more than obvious about her dislike of the situation.
"Why do I have to teach the likes of him, I wonder? Just get the brat to do it instead." was the extent of Beatrice's thoughts on the situation.
That didn't stop her from doing it, and she claimed she kept teaching Yogiri due to the fact that Roswaal had insisted very sincerely.
The only issue with such an arrangement was that Beatrice was absolutely awful at teaching. Not in a boring way, but more in an incapable of teaching way.
Most of Yogiri's lessons with her ended in failure, which she usually chided him for but did not punish him for. This was because she blamed herself for this failure, not Yogiri. Something that Yogiri was unaware of.
Although most of the mansion resident's thoughts of Yogiri had been marred by his killing of Ram and Rem, and his ability itself, Beatrice was unaware of any of this, and only knew that something deeply disturbing was contained within him—or perhaps it was that he was contained inside it.
Thus, Beatrice only knew that he was probably very powerful and that he was very interesting. This combined with the fact that she spent a lot of time with him, had made her happier. She would never admit this, but the loneliness went away when he was nearby to tell her stories during her failed lessons.
As for the other residents, Emilia was still as friendly as ever with Yogiri, and Puck was still as elusive as ever. Yogiri only ever saw Puck when he met with Emilia, and he would usually disappear as soon as they started talking.
Roswaal was very mysterious and creepy, just like he always was. He and Yogiri met somewhat often, but their conversations usually boiled down to pointless small talk. For some reason, Yogiri noticed that Roswaal was completely unbothered by Rem and Ram's death.
Emilia had at the very least been distraught, but eventually realized that there was pretty much no other alternative. Rem and Ram had tried to murder Yogiri and Yogiri defended himself, it all made sense and was completely fair.
Beatrice, with how little she knew the two, was barely concerned. She didn't even find out until the next day when Roswaal told her about it. Her biggest concern was how Yogiri had beaten those two. Roswaal described it as Yogiri simply killing them with a word, but Beatrice figured it was just Roswaal's lack of combat experience that made him think that.
Now, the mansion residents were just Emilia, Yogiri, Beatrice, Roswaal, and Puck. Because the maids were dead, the mansion was not in very good shape. Yogiri often cleaned his own room, but beyond that nothing was really getting done. Roswaal said he was getting new maid staff very soon.
Yogiri woke up fairly late today, as last night he had been in the library for too long. He mostly understood the language, despite Beatrice's terrible lessons, because it was fairly easy to figure out and comparable to Japanese.
He got out of bed, put on his clothes, and walked out of his room. It was likely that he would have to cook for everyone again today since it seemed like nobody else here knew how to cook.
Walking downstairs, he went through the long hallways and into the kitchen to prepare food. He decided to make something akin to western breakfast. After preparing the correct number of meals, he exited the kitchen and placed the plates in the correct positions on the table. One at the end, in front of the lord's seat, three next to each other on the left side of the table, and one across from those two.
Yogiri then walked back up the stairs, knocked on Emilia's door and informed her food was ready and then walked through the hall to find Beatrice's door. After finding the library, he informed Beatrice that the food was done, and she agreed to come and eat.
He then found Reinhard's room on the third floor and notified him breakfast was done.
Finally, Yogiri went to Roswaal's office and told him breakfast had been made. Roswaal came out and also went downstairs.
Yogiri went back downstairs and sat next to Emilia to eat. Everyone was seated.
"Oooh. I forgot to mentiooon this, Yogiri. All of us, eeexcept for Miss Beatrice, will be goooing to the capital, for the roooyal selection."
It sounded fun to Yogiri.
"The capital, that's where I first met Emilia, right? Is there gonna be some big meeting between the royal selection candidates?"
"Whiiile Lady Emilia is paaart of the selection, the seeelection has not started yet! Soon, all of the roooyal selection candidates will meet tooo officially start the selection."
"So we have to make a good name for Emilia out there and get her votes."
"Myyy, myyy, you catch on quuiite quick! We will be leaving aaafter breakfast."
For the remainder of breakfast, Emilia, Yogiri, and Roswaal talked. Beatrice was very busy doting on Puck across from them.
Somewhere in a damp, dark cave, a small platinum haired girl was smiling. The Od Laguna had just somehow died. The Sword Saint was now powerless, and so were many of the kingdom's knights.
She was wearing a white poncho, with blue strings attached to it, but nothing else. Sure, she had a small frame, but her power was no joke. She didn't get to her position with nothing to back her up.
She began speaking.
"The gospels of the Sin-Archbishops read 'The authority is no longer repressed. The capital of Lugnica burns.'"
This message would be sent out to all of her subordinates. The gospel was a book they all had, which told them the best path to get what they ultimately wanted. It was a sort of copy of another Witch's old authority, although less powerful. Typically, it worked automatically, but using her power to manipulate causality completely, she could simply make them say what she wanted.
They would attack the capital soon, and finally gain control over Lugnica.
As the carriage rolled towards the capital, something was noticeably wrong. Namely, numerous large pillars of smoke were coming from it, and dead bodies were strewn around the gate they were entering through.
"Whaaaat happened here?!"
Roswaal acted perplexed. He knew this was going to happen, but the others didn't.
"Oh… no…"
The sight deeply shook Emilia. As the carriage rolled closer, everyone saw several corpses in various disgusting positions and states. Some had their stomachs ripped open, others were twisted in ways humans could not twist, and there are also random piles of meat and bone.
Emilia scrambled to open the door, and vomited outside of it.
"Only one group would do something this disgusting… The witch cult."
Reinhard hated that all of this could even happen.
Yogiri was also bothered by the state of the corpses and felt bad for anyone who had to die in the ways that lead to someone looking like that.
The carriage stopped suddenly, and they saw the driver of it run away screaming. They exited the carriage and ended up outside the main southern gate of the capital. They walked through the entrance to the gate and entered the city's walls.
And then, suddenly, a mass of meat that had been attached to the outside of the wall fell, directly onto the carriage. It was crushed, and completely unusable.
The Emilia camp had no choice but to simply push onward.
They walked along the roads in silence. Emilia and Reinhard were likely contemplating what they had just seen, but Roswaal and Yogiri just had nothing to say.
"Hey, Reinhard. What's the witch cult?"
Everyone looked at Yogiri, likely surprised that he had no idea what such an infamous group was.
"The witch cult is an organization dedicated to worshiping and eventually releasing the Witch of Envy. They're cowards that kill weak people for no reason other than to push their own horrible and unjust ideology."
"Terrorists, huh."
After walking for a while, the group finally found where the main fighting was happening. A number of people with black robes were battling with knights. The robed people had insane speed and used what looked like daggers, while the knights used swords.
Particularly noticeable, were the two robed individuals with their hoods down, and the knight with purple hair. The purple haired knight was using flashy rainbow magic to battle the robed people—presumably cultists, and looked to be pushing them back.
"You, you, you, you, you! You sully the love of the Witch! You who hate her! Who hates her love! Die, die, die, die, die!"
One of the cultists with no hood was screaming.
"I'm afraid I must refuse. Both your disgusting Witch's love and death. This is the end. Al Clarista."
The purple haired knight's sword began to glow rainbow. He lifted it and then swung it down towards the cultist.
"Authority of Sloth! Unseen Hands!"
The rainbow slash hit an invisible object before being dissipated. Suddenly, the purple haired knight was struck, and flew into a market stall, destroying it. He had been hit by something invisible.
"Die, die, die, die, die!"
The two cultists screamed, and the area around them was being destroyed. Some kind of invisible force was ripping apart stone, wood, fruit, and everything else around them.
"No, you die."
Suddenly, the destruction stopped.
And then, the two cultists crumpled to the ground at the same time.
The masked cultists looked toward the unmasked cultists and realized something.
Then, they ran away.
The knights that had been battling the cultists, and the purple haired one who was still in the market stall, looked at the newcomer.
A boy with black hair, as well as a silver haired half elf, and a blue haired clown.
Then, they looked at the cultists.
The two were laying on the ground, unmoving.
They were dead, just like that. A few words killed them, presumably.
Nobody could believe that, it was simply incomprehensible.
And then, a man came rushing in. He was a knight too, by the looks of it.
"Sir! The unmasked cultist our squadron was battling suddenly fell to the ground and died! All the other cultists fled!"
Another man rushed in.
"Sir Julius! The two powerful cultists and the sin-archbishop that had almost made it to the noble district suddenly died!"
Julius couldn't understand.
"I understand."
"Huh? Something just tried to enter my body, but it seemed kinda evil so I killed it."
Yogiri spoke up suddenly. Some weird entity had tried to enter his body, but since he could tell it was dangerous, Yogiri killed it. He couldn't really tell what it was though.
Julius got up and walked towards Yogiri.
"You. Who are you."
He said that with some threat.
"I'm Yogiri Takatou. This is—"
"I don't care. How did you kill them? How did you kill the cultists?"
"Really fast martial arts."
That was a really obvious lie—everyone there thought that.
"Are you a member of the Witch Cult?"
"No. I didn't know they existed before today."
Another baffling statement, Julius wondered why this boy was lying so blatantly.
"So you are, but why turn on your own?"
"Sir Julius, he really isn't part of the Witch Cult!"
Emilia spoke up.
And then Reinhard spoke up as well, and Julius finally noticed him. The reason it took him this long was that Reinhard's presence was tiny. There was no more mana powerhouse there, just a man.
"Julius, this man is innocent."
"Reinhard? What happened to you?"
"Yogiri freed me."
Reinhard glanced at Yogiri, with clear happiness in his eyes.
"I don't really understand it myself."
Yogiri had no idea how he had saved Reinhard, but just went with it.
"I see, then—"
Suddenly, the knights behind Julius got cut in half.
Julius whipped around and saw what had happened. They had all cleanly been cut in two by seemingly nothing.
A man was walking towards Julius from behind where the knights were.
He was wearing white clothing and had white hair. He had some golden accessories on his body.
Julius ran towards the man with his sword out, to kill him for what he had done to the knights.
Suddenly, the man lifted his right arm and swiped up. Julius' left arm toppled to the ground.
Feeling the pain of his arm being severed, Julius dropped his sword and reached for the arm, clutching the wound tightly.
"Is that any way to greet someone? I politely entered the scene and showed myself to you, and instead of saying hello like a kind and normal person, and you decide to attack me? That is a clear violation of my right to free movement. I was merely walking down this street towards you, and you attempted to hinder my ability to do so. Do you know anything about manners? As a knight of the kingdom, surely they teach you these things. I deserve to be treated like everyone else, fairly, and yet you attack me for no particular reason without even announcing yourself."
Looking down at Julius, who was clutching the stump where his left arm used to be, the man began speaking again.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult, representing Greed, Regulus Corneas.
Walking past Julius, Regulus approached Yogiri's group. Emilia and Reinhard backed away, as well as Roswaal.
"Now, shouldn't you introduce yourselves? It's only the right thing to do, after all."
Roswaal had widened eyes. Cold sweat slid down the back of his neck
"My name is Yogiri Takatou."
"Yes, yes, thank you. You introduced yourself properly. Now, I'm afraid that while our meeting was short, I must end it here."
Lifting up his arm, Regulus began to try and make a swipe at Yogiri's group
Suddenly, the feeling in his arm was lost. And then, it limply fell to his side.
"Wha—"
"I have the ability of instant death. Basically, if I want you to die, you die. That's how my power works. The only reason I'm telling you this is because I want to ask you some questions."
Regulus' face twisted into a sneer. He lifted up his left arm and attempted to make a swipe. Suddenly, it too went limp, and he could no longer feel it.
His face twisted into further frustration.
He kicked towards Yogiri, and his leg went limp before he could follow through. He fell to the ground.
Kicking his other leg up, it too went limp before he could do anything.
"Can you just answer my questions? Are there any other cultists in the city right now?"
Regulus opened his mouth to speak, and instead began breathing in. He was going to blow air out of his mouth and stop it's time to kill the man.
"Die."
That was the last moment Regulus was conscious. The entire time, he thought he was still in control.
Sirius Romanee-conti, the Sin Archbishop of wrath, was in the capital. She had just announced herself and captivated a crowd of people, who were currently all singing her praises. She brought out the killing vector. It was a woman Sirius had kidnapped and wrapped up. She planned to kill the vector via burning.
Suddenly, some newcomers joined her crowd. It was a red haired man, a blue haired man, a young black haired boy, and a white haired girl.
No, not a white haired girl. She had silver hair, and elvish ears. It was that bitch. The one her dear husband always went on and on about.
Sirius saw red. Instead of waiting for more people to join the crowd, she would simply kill them all now.
The crowd turned towards the silver haired woman, with seething rage in their eyes.
Sirius decided she would simply allow them to kill the silver haired bitch.
And then, suddenly, the entire crowd crumpled to the ground. Every single one had dropped in an instant, with no forewarning.
"Wha—"
Sirius collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness. She lost her life. The woman she had wrapped up fell out of her hands.
"Yogiri?! Did you just kill that entire crowd?"
Emilia couldn't understand why the rest of the crowd died.
"Yeah. They were trying to kill us too, so I had to kill them. Huh? Oh. Another weird thing tried to get into my body and I killed it again. Maybe it's like a loot drop from the cultist bosses?"
"Who cares?! You killed that whole crowd! Was there really nothing you could've done?!"
"They were being controlled, but I couldn't really do anything about that. I'm not too precise with my ability. I should probably start practicing with it."
Emilia could understand what he was saying but simply couldn't accept it.
"There was really nothing at all? Couldn't you have just killed the source of the control?"
"You're overestimating me. I can see things that are dangerous to me and kill them, but I can't see stuff like who's controlling who or what the thing targeting me is. I just know that it's gonna try to kill me."
Reinhard could sympathize with Yogiri. He used to have a massive number of overpowered abilities, but things like being notified when someone was about to be murdered, or knowing everything about the person he was fighting were not available to him. All he really knew how to do back then was kill people.
"So you really couldn't do anything…"
Emilia looked at the corpses of the crowd. She regretted that they had to die at all, but yet again, everything Yogiri had pointed out was completely logical. There wasn't a point in arguing against it.
"Mmmmff! Mmmmfff!"
Suddenly, the group heard a muffled scream from where the corpse of a bandaged woman was lying dead.
Emilia rushed to the source, and found a woman tied up in chains on the floor. She had seen this person in the arms of the bandaged lady earlier but assumed she was also dead like the crowd.
Hurriedly, Emilia removed the chains from the woman.
The woman could breathe and speak again.
"T-t-thank you for s-saving me…"
"It's no problem. Are you okay?"
"I-I'm kind of h-hurt from the ch-chains but that's it…"
Emilia reached down to grab the woman's hand, and pulled her up.
The woman stood up, and finally got a good view of the ground.
She saw the corpses of everyone in the crowd.
"Wh-wha—Huh?"
She was confused. Despite having not died, the entire crowd was dead.
"W-why are they—"
Suddenly, she spotted something. Her husband was laying down on the stone floor of the market square.
"J-John?! John! John!"
The woman scrambled down from the wooden platform and ran to the corpse.
"John…? John, please…."
She dropped to her knees next to him and began shaking his shoulders.
"W-Why…"
The despair filling her heart began to increase in volume, until it was near the breaking point. Finally—
Crash
The breaking point was reached—the love of her life was dead. She had no job. She was a housewife, she stayed at home while John worked in the markets. They were trying for a baby before this incident. Now she would never bear his child. She had nothing else to live for but him.
"Kill me now…"
She looked towards Emilia.
"Kill me."
Emilia was shocked. She had never seen something like this before. The sheer confidence in that voice—Emilia could instantly tell this woman well and truly wanted to die.
But Emilia also didn't want her death on her conscience.
Killing this woman would be fulfilling her wish, making her happy, but Emilia simply couldn't do it.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
The woman heard a male voice to her right. She looked over and saw a boy with black hair.
"Are you seriously completely sure you want to die? There's nothing you want to live for, not even a little bit? Because once I kill you, you can't come back.'
The woman thought about it for some time. However, when thinking of things to live for, all that really came to mind was her husband. Without him, her existence would be pitiful and worthless. It would be depressing.
"I'm sure."
That she had not stuttered or hesitated in saying that, told Yogiri that she truly did want this.
"Goodbye."
The woman heard those words, and then her consciousness vanished.
Yogiri looked down at the woman. She had asked for death, and he had given it to her. He felt nothing like sadness or remorse. He was happy that she had gotten what she wanted.
The group eventually looked away from the scene and began walking again. They were headed towards the royal palace, so they could understand what was happening and finally meet the selection candidates.
Looking around, they saw scared pedestrians, some corpses, and sometimes random piles of meat. However, at some point, it became more common to simply see meat and corpses than pedestrians.
Walking along the road, the group finally caught sight of the massive royal palace. It was on fire, but the fire was black. Not black but still generating light, it was more like the fire actively took away the light from the surrounding area. Part of the palace looked like it was night time because of this. There was also a large hole in the side of the top.
On the top of the palace was a black dragon, which was looking down at the gate and bridge to the entrance of the palace.
"A dragon? I guess it's weirder that I haven't heard of or seen one yet than that there's one right there."
"What… That's a dragon…? A real dragon…"
Emilia was shocked. Reinhard was too.
"I have only heard about the ancient dragons, so to see one in person is…."
"Hey, where's Roswaal?"
The group turned around and saw nothing.
"Why did he leave us at a time like this…"
"We'll talk to him later, so let's cross the bridge."
Yogiri decided they would simply press on, and question Roswaal later.
As they got almost halfway across the bridge, a booming female voice was heard from above.
"Wahahahaha! You meatbags sure made it far! But I'll kill you now! Do your best to die quickly! Wahahahahaha!"
After saying this, two people dropped down from the roof of the palace and began walking onto the bridge.
One was a large man wearing a cultist robe and holding a massive sword, and the other was a slender and shapely woman holding a smaller sword.
The two walked at an even pace silently, before finally making it to where Yogiri & co. were standing.
Suddenly, the two rushed forward towards them. Again, they said nothing as they did this, it was eerily silent. And then—
"Die."
The two stumbled in their sprint and fell down. They skidded across the stone ground for a bit, before landing at Yogiri's feet. Again, the corpse had only barely stopped in front of him.
"What the—I guess I underestimated you meatbags. Here, I'll fight you one on one! Wahahahaha! Oh, my. The red haired one is shaking. Could it be that my voice aroused you? Are you struggling to hide your erection? Or maybe you're rubbing your legs against it to get off to my voice."
"Yeesh. What's wrong with this girl…"
Yogiri was baffled that someone like this even existed.
The dragon lifted its wings, and pulled them down, pushing against the air and gaining lift. She then flew forward a bit and landed just before the end of the bridge.
"I'll introduce myself just for you meatbags! I'm the Sin Archbishop representing Lust, Capella Emerada Lugnica! Waahahhahaha!"
"Lugnica? Like the royal family? Hey! I won't kill you, so can you please answer some of my questions?!"
Yogiri called out to the dragon, hoping for a peaceful resolution.
"Won't kill me, huh?! Wahahahaha! You're a funny meatbag! Too bad it doesn't matter. Any damage that gets done to me can be regenerated anyway!"
Her form shifted, and the sounds of crunching and fleshy tears were heard.
Instead of a dragon, there stood a petite blonde girl with red eyes. She wore nothing but a tight black bikini and short shorts.
"Do you get it yet, meatbags? I'll tell you anyway, since you seem to have a pretty thick skull! I can change my form to be anything I want! That means if you cut off my limb or burn it, I can just get rid of it and make another! Wahahaha!"
Capella began walking towards the group.
"If you want to try to kill me, go ahead!"
"I'll just kill your legs."
Capella's legs began shaking, and then she fell to the ground.
"Wha—?"
Rolling onto her back, she grabbed both of her legs and ripped them off one by one, before regenerating new ones.
However, she still couldn't feel her legs. She tried moving them and nothing happened.
"No… Nononononononononononononono! RAAAAGHHH!"
She transformed her arms into massive claws and swiped towards Yogiri, it was a sure hit.
"Now, your arms."
Mid swing, one of her arms went limp and ended up just short of hitting Yogiri. Her other arm which she could no longer feel or move also went limp.
"I get it… Then I'll just make more arms and legs!"
She began generating another arm, and had one in mere seconds. And then it died again.
So, she enlarged her body and made one hundred arms, and one hundred legs. She began flailing her arms and legs at Yogiri, trying to kill him.
"Die. Die! Diediediediediediedie! I'll kill you! You can't kill me, so die!"
Using her legs, the formless meat blob of arms and legs that was once Capella began crawling towards Yogiri while still flailing its limbs.
"WAHAHHAHAHA! DIE! DIE MEATBAG!"
"Die."
Suddenly, the meat blob ceased movement. It collapsed to the ground, sending a tremor through the bridge.
"Great sage…"
Reinhard was disgusted.
"Oh my—Bleeeegh!"
Emilia spewed vomit onto the ground for the second time today.
Suddenly, a rumble was felt at the feet of the group. It was coming from the end of the bridge.
Everyone turned to see what was happening and saw that the bridge was collapsing from that side. The meat sack Capella falling must've caused the already weak end of the bridge to crumble.
The rest of the bridge also began crumbling, until it reached the middle—or, right where Yogiri and the others were standing.
The meat pile Capella fell into the water.
"Are there any other ways into the palace?"
"There is one I know of. The sewer system should lead inside."
"I guess we'll use that. Where's the entrance to the sewer system?"
Reinhard turned around.
"There's a manhole right there that we can use. However, please use caution when entering it, the ladder may be slippery."
"Okay, I'll be careful."
The group turned and walked back to the entrance of the bridge and out of the gate, before finding the manhole.
Reinhard grabbed the manhole lid by the side handles and lifted it. He then turned his body and dropped it onto the ground next to him.
After this, he lowered himself into the manhole putting his legs on the ladder rungs and grabbed onto the top rung.
Eventually, he climbed down all the way. Everyone followed him in.
They had been wandering the sewers for a while, but because the system went around the river, and to the east, they weren't very close at all to getting to the palace.
"Hey, Yogiri… Do you ever feel bad for the people you kill?"
"Sure, I feel bad for them, but usually I have to kill them, so I don't really regret it ever. If they're bad people I usually don't feel that bad, though."
"What about that woman from earlier?"
"She asked me to kill her, so I did. I don't really feel bad for her. Actually, I feel happy for her."
"Why would you feel happy for someone who died?"
"She wanted death and got it. I don't see why I shouldn't feel happy for her."
"I gue—"
"Yogiri. Two people are approaching us from the front. They look to be armed"
"Why would they be in the sewers…?"
Yogiri looked ahead and saw two short figures silhouetted in the distance. They were both short, and one of them was carrying what looked to be a knife in each hand, while the other was unarmed.
Eventually, they got close enough to see.
They were two young boys, likely in their early teenage years of age. They both had dark skin and massive mouths. The one with the knives was wearing a skintight purple bodysuit and tattered clothes, while the other was dressed in a simple tattered brown shirt and pair of pants.
"We finally found you, tsu~"
The one with the purple skinsuit spoke up first.
"Being the people who killed Capella, you must be gourmet, tsu~"
"We are the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony and Gourmet, Lye Batenkaitos, tsu~"
"And we are the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony and Bizarre Eating, Roy Alphard."
Suddenly, a tremor was felt from the right. It was shaking the walls, and dirt was falling from the ceiling. Waves were made in the water, and stones came loose.
And then, the ceiling and walls above them and to their right disappeared. There was no crumbling dust, nothing exploded, and there was no visual effect. The wall simply ceased to be, and the area looked like it had simply not been there. A large, cubical chunk had been taken out of the wall and roof.
For six hundred years, the juvenile slept underneath the forest. It had arrived in this world through the sea using massive energy, and now it needed to regain some.
And then, suddenly, a massive number of bubbles popped.
There was a massive amount of energy in the air now.
The juvenile unconsciously sucked in all the energy in the air as it slept. It will wake up soon.
After a tiny period of time, it awoke. It was inside a stony hole in the ground.
It decided to remove the space above it to exit and found itself in a densely wooded area. There was hardly any energy here.
There was however a massive energy source only a little ways away.
It used its arms to move across the ground in a sort of crawling or slithering motion.
Eventually, it made its way to a massive energy source, covered in stone, but it looked like it was artificial.
Removing the stone in its way, it collected energy from the stone and continued. Sometimes, it saw tiny little things on the ground that would see it and flee or make annoying noises. It deleted them and got lots of energy. A good food source, if not a little gross to eat.
Eventually, it made its way to what looked like one of the last energy sources. Under the surface inside a complex hole were some tiny little things standing still. After it removed the outer shell of the area, it ate the two of the little things to its right that were standing still. They disappeared, and their energy was put into the juvenile's body.
However, there was still more to eat. Three little creatures under it were still.
The juvenile unleashed its power and tried to consume them. As a being that had lived for nearly a thousand years, it was fairly young. It was also small, only being a mile or so long, and 300 feet thick. With its power to turn matter into energy and then consume that energy, nothing really stood in its way through life. Especially not in this world.
It had accidentally left its old world and entered the sea, and figured this place, which lacked powerful beings, would be suitable for feeding.
So when it used its power on these three little things, it expected nothing bad to happen.
And then, it lost consciousness. The juvenile had died.
Everyone looked to the right and saw what had caused this strange phenomenon. A massive, impossibly huge worm-like creature was above them. It had thousands of eyes on its 'head', or just the front of it. There were small human arms covering every other inch of its purple body. It was a monstrosity.
Emilia covered her mouth.
"Wha—"
One of the archbishops opened their large mouths to speak.
Suddenly, they disappeared.
The place where the two archbishops had been standing was completely gone. Where there once had been something, there was now nothing.
And then, Yogiri sensed danger. So, he quickly killed the source.
The worm's thousands of arms suddenly stopped their ceaseless movements and fell limply.
Emilia finally let out the vomit in her mouth into the sewer water.
"To think something like this has ever existed. Is it another great mabeast?"
Reinhard was staring confusedly at the being in front of him.
"What's a great mabeast?"
"The great mabeasts are three famously powerful mabeasts. The White Whale, which is a massive floating creature that spews fog which makes people disappear. There is also the Great Rabbit, a small white creature that infinitely replicates itself and eats everything it comes across, especially great mana sources. And finally, the Black Serpent, a large snake creature that spits black poison said to give a person every disease in existence. Collectively, they kill many thousands of people every year."
"Woah. Has anyone tried to kill them?"
"My grandmother joined an expedition to kill the White Whale once. She was incredibly powerful, but it still succeeded in killing her."
"Sorry for your loss."
"It's alright, I've been taught not to get very sad about these things since I was young."
Yogiri didn't really want to point it out, but that sounded pretty depressing.
"Are you okay now, Lady Emilia?"
"Just call me Emilia, Reinhard. And yes, I'm fine."
Emilia lifted up her arm, likely to wipe her face with her sleeve, but Reinhard grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Here you go."
Reinhard reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, before lightly pressing it against Emilia's face to get any of the residual vomit off.
"Thank you, Reinhard."
"It's no problem, La—Emilia."
Emilia smiled at Reinhard, and Reinhard smiled back.
"We should get going now."
Yogiri wanted to get a move on.
"Oh, yes you're right."
Agreeing with Yogiri, Reinhard stepped behind Yogiri.
They continued walking along the sewer, ducking under the dead worm thing and over the corpses of the two archbishops.
Reinhard climbed up the steel rungs, before lifting up the stone tile above them and pushing it to the side. He climbed up and over the side of the top of the ladder, before beckoning the two below him.
Yogiri, and then Emilia, climbed up the ladder to follow him, and found themselves in a large room with a throne at one end.
In front of the throne stood a pale skinned, platinum haired little girl. She wore nothing but a white poncho, with one blue string on the poncho and the other in her hair.
At her feet were three women, who had been tied up and were in the fetal position.
There was a purple haired girl, a green haired girl, and a red haired girl. The three were wearing very obviously expensive clothing. There were also two men tied up next to the girls, they looked incredibly old.
Yogiri looked to his left and saw the dismembered corpses of various knights. However, there were two people who were tied up in that area, near the corpses. One was very fit and wore a helmet, but was shirtless. The other was what looked like a young woman with brown hair and cat ears, who was wearing a standard knight uniform.
To the right was another pile of corpses, there were no survivors among them.
Yogiri refocused his attention on the little girl in front of the throne, and she began speaking.
"Hello. You seem to have made it here without a scratch. I take it that means you did not kill my archbishops?"
"No, I did. They tried to kill me, sorry."
Yogiri answered her question quickly. While the witch cultists were clearly bad people, if they were, say, her sons or something, it would leave a bad taste in Yogiri's mouth not to apologize.
"I see. How did you kill them without a scratch?"
"... A sword."
"And yet there is no blade on your hip. You can tell me the truth."
Yogiri decided it was probably not worth lying. He would just tell her his power for intimidation and then try to get some information out of her. For all he knew, there might be more witch cultists that he needed to worry about, not to mention the tied-up people.
"My ability is instant death. Basically, if I want someone dead, they die."
"I see… Then, will you kill me?"
"Not if you answer some of my questions, I guess. You haven't really tried to attack me yet anyway."
"Go ahead and ask me anything."
"Are there anymore witch cultists in the city?"
"I sent all of my archbishops here. Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust." Pandora answered.
"Oh. I killed Wrath, the two Gluttony guys, and Lust. I also killed some guy that could hit things with something invisible."
"That would be Sloth. In that case, you killed all of them."
"Okay. Next, who are the tied up people?"
"You are unaware? They are the royal selection candidates. The purple haired one is Anastasia Hoshin. The green haired one is Crusch Karsten, and the orange haired one is Priscilla Barielle."
"What about the ones to my left?"
"Those two are the knights of the candidates. The demi-human male is Felix Argyle, knight of Crusch Karsten. The helmeted man is Aldebaran, knight of Priscilla Barielle."
"Now, may I ask a question of my own?"
"Sure."
"What is your name?"
"Yogiri Takatou."
"I see…"
Now that was all out of the way, Yogiri was about to leave, but suddenly a question came to mind.
"Are you angry because I killed your archbishops?"
"Yes."
"Then, are you going to kill me?"
"You ruined four hundred years of work. For that, I will be ending your life."
Saying this, she did nothing. She did not get a weapon, or reach out her hands. Instead, she opened her mouth and—
"Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were killed by archbishop Romanee-conti."
She looked at Yogiri. Her eyes were as cold and emotionless as ever.
"Ah, forgive me for not introducing myself yet. I am Pandora, the Witch of Vainglory."
As Pandora locked her gaze on Yogiri, she expected him to simply disappear. Instead, nothing happened.
"Huh? Was that supposed to do anything?"
Yogiri was confused. He only said the words for style points, but this girl had simply said things expecting them to come true. Was she delusional, or did that really work?
"What? Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were massacred by archbishop Romanee-conti."
Again, nothing happened.
"I seriously don't get wha—"
"Stop talking. Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were killed by archbishop Petelgeuse Romanee-conti."
Despite being more specific, since there were two archbishop Romanee-contis, nothing happened.
"Clearly it isn't working, so you should stop."
"Cease your prattling this instant. Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were killed by archbishop Sirius Romanee-conti."
Nothing happened again. Pandora's face showed the slightest signs of frustration possible.
"S—"
"Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were killed by archbishop Alphard."
Yogiri was unmoved. Pandora knitted her brows.
"C—"
"Yogiri Takatou, Emilia, and Reinhard Van Astrea were killed by archbishop Batenkaitos."
Once again, nothing had happened, much to Pandora's chagrin. Her face began to show a frown.
"You could just leave. I won't kill you if you can't even hurt me."
He was laughing at her. This was all a joke. He was simply playing with her, she had lost from the start.
She wanted to kill him. She wanted to tear him limb from limb. She was going to kill him.
Pandora charged towards Yogiri, despite being physically very weak.
"I didn't really want to do this, since you've been so nice."
Suddenly, Pandora's legs gave out. She fell to the ground and skidded towards Yogiri, landing at his feet.
Something like this wouldn't stop her. She could simply undo it.
Pandora suddenly disappeared. Yogiri looked at where Pandora had been and saw no traces of her even reaching there. Not even a disturbance in the tiling on the ground. And then, she reappeared in the air in front of Yogiri, before gracefully floating to the ground. She landed on her legs, and then they shook, and then they gave out.
She fell backwards onto her bottom, with a thud.
"What?! N-No… You! Die! I'll kill you! I'll kill you, Yogiri! I'll send my subordinates after you to kill you!"
She began flailing her arms, trying to position herself in a way to still move towards and harm Yogiri. Her upper body strength was not enough to keep her above the ground and able to move.
"Should we just leave her like that?"
"Someone will hopefully find her and help her. She seemed pretty delusional."
The trio walked over to the tied up royal selection candidates, and untied the ropes that they were bound with.
The three royal selections rose after being untied, although Yogiri had to help Anastasia up.
"Ah. Thank you very much for saving us. I'm not sure we would have been long for this world if not for you."
Crusch expressed her thanks first.
"Thank ya' for savin' me. Y'all did fine work."
Anastasia expressed her thanks, although she knew she should be mostly thanking Yogiri.
"Is that a Kansai dialect…?"
"A whosa whatsit?"
Anastasia was confused, but Yogiri didn't really elaborate.
"As expected, everything went my way in the end. However, I must thank you, commoner, for saving mine self."
Priscilla sounded very haughty and self absorbed in her apology, and only thanked Yogiri. This was because he was basically the only one to do any work.
"No problem. Those are your knights, right?—" Yogiri pointed to the two tied up men behind them and to their left. "You should probably untie them."
"Yogiri, you didn't happen ta see a purple haired knight on yer way here, did ya?"
Anastasia looked at Yogiri, worry on her face.
Yogiri thought back and tried to remember a purple haired knight.
"Oh yeah. The one with the rainbow sword, right? I saw him get his arm cut off, but since we went through an alleyway I don't really know what happened to him afterward."
"Arm cut off, huh… I'm afraid I'll have to leave, then. Good luck to y'all."
Anastasia said this, and walked away at a quickened pace, leaving the room.
Priscilla untied the helmeted man, Aldebaran, while Crusch untied Felix. Now free, they expressed their gratitude.
"Thank you for saving me, Yogiri!"
Felix cried out thanks towards Yogiri, before turning towards Crusch and talking with her.
"Thanks, princess. Oh, and, good job, bro! Although, your power is kinda busted. Glad I don't have to fight you, I don't have any instant death resistances, just my arm missing, which is a pretty big debuff."
Yogiri noticed that Aldebaran was using video game terminology, and decided he would get closer to him to gleam some info.
"You're from Japan, right?"
"So you really were from Japan, bro. I thought the Kansai dialect thing was a coincidence, but to think… Anyway, how've ya been since you got sent here?"
"I've been fine, mostly. I just want a way back home. Do you know anything about that?"
"I don't even know how I got here in the first place, bro. I just showed up one day, eventually got into a gladiator tournament, lost my arm, and was put in the princess's service."
"Woah… I guess I'm not going to find a way back any time soon, then."
"Well, bro, there is one thing I know. There's a sage living in a watchtower called the Pleiades Watchtower. He might be able to answer your question and maybe even send you back."
Yogiri mentally noted that information. It seemed very important.
"Thanks. We're gonna leave now. There's not really anything left for us to do here."
"Hopefully, I'll see you again soon bro."
"Goodbye, commoner."
"See 'ya later, Yogiri!"
"Goodbye, Yogiri.
With the royal selection candidates and their knights giving their goodbyes, Yogiri asked Emilia and Reinhard, who had been busy inspecting the candidates for wounds and healing them if need be, to come with them, and they left the room.
They passed through the entrance hall and came across what would have been the start of the bridge. They saw Anastasia standing at the cliff which fell off into water, and decided to approach her.
"Bridge is broken, huh. I'll have ta use the sewers then…"
Anastasia lamented her situation. And Yogiri approached her.
"You can come with us. We already went through the sewers and know the way back."
"Huh? Oh, sure. I'll need ta find my way through the sewers anway. If Y'all know the way through, I'll follow."
As she finished saying this and was about to turn around, suddenly, fog filled the area.
"Huh? Fog? This is odd…"
"Yogiri. This fog is filled with mana."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that t-the White Whale is here…"
Suddenly, a shadow covered the group of four.
A whale song was heard from above, and everyone looked up.
Looming above them was a massive, white whale floating in the sky.
As everyone noticed this, it flew away, and then turned, before lowering its nose and heading straight for the four. It opened its mouth.
"Die."
Suddenly, the whale lost all lift. It began soaring through the air and downward, pulled by both gravity and its previous momentum. When it stopped, it landed in the river, with its left fin right where the bridge would normally start.
Anastasia looked on in shock. The White Whale, a creature that had terrorized merchants for years, and even killed a sword saint. It had just been killed with a word by a boy.
The other two, Emilia and Reinhard, were more or less used to this by now, and were more amazed by how perfectly the whale had landed.
"That was pretty lucky."
Yogiri was impressed with how perfectly the whale had landed.
"Well I guess we should go."
This snapped Anastasia out of her daze.
"Y-yer right. Let's get goin'"
Yogiri walked forward and stepped onto the whale fin. He walked across it, onto the whale's body, and onto the right fin. The other three followed him.
When they reached the other bridge piece, they stepped off the fin and walked along it, exiting the palace area gate.
As they walked the streets, they eventually came to the market area where Julius had been. It looked like the other knights had come back and helped him since he was currently sitting down with a few of them drinking water. He had a bandaged arm stump.
Anastasia hurried over to where he was.
"Julius! Yer okay!"
Anastasia sat on her knees next to him as quickly as she could.
"Yes, Lady Anastasia, I am fine. Thank you for being so concerned for me. However, I am afraid to say that I failed to slay the archbishop whom attacked me. In fact, I utterly failed to live up to my title. When he cut off my arm, I simply sat there like a fool."
Anastasia lifted one of her hands and reached towards Julius's right cheek. And then she slapped him across the face,
"Huh—"
"Don't you say that, ya dummy! You tried to defeat the archbishop, and ya failed. So what?! Yer still alive, that's whats important. You still got worth, and ya still live up to yer title. You failed once, sure, but ya survived and even tried to attack the fella in the first place. Anyone else would've ran away!"
"But, Lady Anastasia—"
"No buts. Shaddap. Come with me."
Anastasia stood up, and grabbed Julius's shoulder before lifting him up.
They walked away from the area.
"Doesn't Anastasia seem kind of lovey dovey with him?"
Yogiri was definitely reminded of a romance manga by what just happened.
"No kidding…"
Reinhard completely agreed.
They then walked away as well, towards the gate. They would need to purchase a carriage, since their old one was destroyed.
As they walked outside the gate, they saw a carriage to the side of the road.
They decided they would try to hitchhike, or just buy the carriage.
As they approached, they saw a young white haired man in the back of it. He had green clothing, and his face was pale. His eyes were widened, and he was sweating.
"Uh. Hello."
Yogiri spoke up first.
"Huh?! Oh… H-hello… H-how can I help you…"
"Are you okay?"
The way this guy was acting was seriously concerning.
"The c-caravan I was in got attacked by the W-White Whale…"
The man shuddered.
"I was the only survivor…"
"The White Whale, right? It's dead now.
"What? The W-White Whale is d-dead?!"
"Yeah, it's corpse is in the capital. Anyway, can we buy this carriage off you, or at least ride it to where we live?"
The man's eyes were blank.
"Sure. I'll drive you there…"
It was a listless, emotionless reply, but he had agreed.
The trio jumped into the back of the carriage, and Otto slowly crawled to the exit of the cargo space, before climbing out and walking around the side to the front.
The carriage began movement shortly after, and they were back on the road.
Although Otto had suddenly lost his divine protection, he considered this to be fine. He was more or less still able to navigate.
"Go to the Mathers mansion, please."
Otto remembered the route there very well. After all, it was where he had nearly died.
The carriage arrived at the mansion, and they stopped it at the proper hitching post.
Yogiri, Emilia, and Reinhard stepped out of the carriage, and the young man, whom they had learned was named Otto Suwen, stepped off the driver's caboose.
They walked towards the mansion door and knocked on it.
"Yes. Give me one second."
The door opened, and someone was there to greet them.
It was a girl with yellow hair, wearing a maid outfit. She had a letter in her hands, which was stamped with a blue seal.
Yogiri took note that her breasts were perfect for a maid outfit that showed off cleavage.
"Welcome home, Miss Emilia. I have awaited your return."
"Frederica?"
Frederica smiled, revealing her sharp and large teeth. Yogiri let out a quiet "Woah."
"Yes. Allow me to introduce myself since there are three of you that are unaware of who I am. I am Frederica Baumann. I was employed here in the past. Roswaal left me this letter and told me to give it to one Yogiri Takatou. I presume that is you, yes?
She directed this question and the letter in her hands to Yogiri.
"Yeah. That's me."
Yogiri took the letter, and opened it.
It more or less said that Roswaal was in a place called the Sanctuary, and that he would answer their questions there.
"Where's the Sanctuary?"
"I cannot tell you more than necessary, but I may disclose to you the location of the Sanctuary of Kremaldy and how to enter it."
Everyone began listening closely.
"Remember this one name before you enter. It is extremely important. Beware of the one named 'Garfiel'. He is the one whom you must be most careful with in the Sanctuary."
Everyone made a mental note of this name, and made sure it would stick.
"Now, I will tell you the location of the Sanctuary…"
In the throne room of the royal palace of Lugnica, a lone platinum haired girl was sitting against a wall. She had managed to crawl to a wall and sat against it, but still couldn't move her legs.
The sunlight was beginning to shine through the windows. The rays of light were glorious. Nature was truly beautiful.
However, Pandora did not take note of any of this.
Her thoughts were filled with hatred for Yogiri. Revenge against Yogiri.
In four hundred years, she had never once been beaten by anyone. She was the Witch of Vainglory. She ran the Witch Cult. She was feared even among archbishops.
Dying was unfathomable to her, but what was more humiliating than dying was being essentially demobilized and left to rot.
She had already sent a message to the gospels of everyone in the cult, and nobody had come to help her.
Her desperation was such that she began yelling out, crying for help, but nobody came to help her.
She could have pretended to be a normal girl, and get saved. She could plot her revenge while being in the care of someone else. She could easily crush Yogiri in such a situation.
But nobody came to help her.
I will kill you. Yogiri Takatou. You will suffer the pain of a thousand deaths for what you did to me.
Those were Pandora's last thoughts, before the very matter that made up her being disappeared. Her entirety was gone, not just disintegrated but completely deleted. Well and truly, she had been removed.
Not only her, but the palace around her and a massive, long chunk of the eastern capital.
Where there was once a palace, markets, and slums, there was now a massive cubic hole.
The species that the juvenile which had attacked the capital earlier came from had a function inbuilt to them: they would self-destruct—destroy everything around them and themselves, or at least as much as they could, after death. This function activated shortly after death, however 'shortly' was only from the perspective of the creatures themselves. So, in just over twenty four hours, or what was basically half a second for one of those creatures, it had self-destructed.
It took with it most of the capital and the people with it. Not even their mana remained. Its corpse was gone as well.
The only people who knew of Pandora's existence now were Emilia, Reinhard, and Yogiri. All three of them had basically already forgotten her.