Ch.60Burning Machine (4)

*

Alice rode on horseback for five straight days.

The address Eric had discovered was, unfortunately, in a shabby port town quite far away.

According to Eric, the town—home to fewer than twenty people, mostly sailors and their families who lacked the strength or ability to establish new roots—was essentially a seaside slum.

This meant that if Balder Staff wasn’t hiding there, the entire town might be in on it together.

But it didn’t matter.

Balder fucking Staff was a villain, and anyone who helped him deserved execution.

Anticipating the long journey, Alice had chosen a sturdy pack horse rather than a swift steed. Though she allowed the horse minimal rest during the journey, she herself hadn’t slept for a single moment.

The fire raging in her chest made it impossible to rest.

Eric had suggested conducting more investigation before going, and Alice had agreed, but unfortunately, circumstances didn’t allow her that luxury.

The border, now undermanned due to Alice’s indiscriminate arrests of corrupt nobles, demanded that the Goddess Church take responsibility.

Under numerous pressures, the Pope had finally decided to dispatch Alice to the border.

Since this decision violated the Church’s rule against direct involvement in conflicts between nations, it had been preceded by many meetings, making refusal or reversal impossible.

In ten days, Alice would have to go to the border.

The opposing nation at war was also under the influence of the Goddess Church.

Since they couldn’t allow a Holy Virgin of the Church to kill fellow believers, Alice’s role would primarily be mediating conflicts and healing soldiers with her endless holy power. But truthfully, Alice didn’t care at all.

She had no interest in complicated politics, no patriotism, and no religious devotion. To her, whether it was a soldier from the neighboring country or a noble from her own, if they were evil, she wouldn’t mind killing them along with three generations of their family.

That’s what this burning chest of hers, constantly emanating holy power, urged her to do.

Besides, what truly mattered to her now was something else.

If she didn’t go now, she would lose that son of a bitch.

That was the only thought existing in Alice’s mind.

A shabby port town.

She needed to be at the border in ten days, and she had already spent five.

Given how far she had traveled, even if she immediately found a ship to the border, the timing would be tight.

There was no time to hesitate anymore.

Alice couldn’t even spare time to stable her horse, so she released it in the forest near the town entrance and began running.

It was the middle of the night, and there wasn’t a single sign of people in the streets littered with torn nets and tangled garbage.

In the midst of that stench, Alice stopped in front of a shabby brick house with a twisted smile.

The putrid smell of rotting fish wafted through the air, carried by the wind along with the distant sound of crashing waves.

“What a fitting place to hide, Balder.”

Alice pulled open the wooden door roughly with her twisted smile.

The worn-out hinges broke completely, and the door fell off.

“Wait just a little longer… Maria.”

Calling out the name of her dearest friend, Alice stepped forward.

*

The inside of the mansion was an ordinary ruin.

This slum had many abandoned houses, making it a suitable place to hide.

Alice wandered through the mansion but couldn’t find anything special.

Feeling the stench piercing her brain like an awl—still potent despite having had time to get used to it—Alice searched the mansion thoroughly once more.

Finally, she discovered a small door in the floor at the back of the kitchen.

It clearly led to a basement.

“…”

She heard something.

Faint moaning sounds came from behind this floor door.

There was someone inside.

Whether it was Balder himself, his henchmen, a hostage, or someone waiting to ambush her—she couldn’t be certain, but it didn’t matter.

The sound of horse hooves had echoed through this quiet rural town, so Balder Staff would have guessed that someone was after him.

Stealth, concealment—none of that was necessary.

She wasn’t good at such things anyway, and she had no desire to waste time on them.

“I don’t know what you’re planning, but I’ll crush you all head-on.”

White flames flickered inside Alice’s breastplate.

Bright light poured out from between the gaps in her armor at the neck and shoulders.

Soon, a translucent white sphere emerged from that light and swelled enormously, engulfing the mansion.

The sphere quickly enveloped the entire mansion.

A holy barrier that would incinerate any impure being upon contact, preventing both exit and entry.

Alice kicked the door open and plunged downward.

She did this in case someone was waiting to ambush her right below the door.

The ladder beneath the door crumbled under Alice’s feet.

Thud!

The space below was slightly deeper than twice a person’s height, but such a height was no problem for Alice.

Fortunately, there was no one waiting to attack her.

Upon landing, Alice immediately pushed off the ground and sprang forward.

Ahead was a long corridor.

With each step, the moaning grew louder.

As she turned the corner toward a dim light, there…

“Save… me…”

“Kill me…”

“Please… stop…”

Hell was unfolding.

*

It was an unusually large space for a mansion basement.

Alice was somewhat bewildered, as the basement seemed slightly larger than the mansion’s floor area above.

Numerous restraints were attached densely to the walls on both sides, and people were bound and writhing in all of them.

Middle-aged men, middle-aged women, elderly people, and occasionally visible children.

The reason she hadn’t sensed any presence when arriving in town wasn’t simply because it was nighttime.

These people, presumably residents of this slum, were all in a horrific state.

Their entire bodies, except for their abdomens, had been skinned, leaving only red flesh. Their twisted arms and legs were all contorted, and the basement floor had a slight slope, causing the fallen blood to gather in a large groove in the center of the room.

The groove looked like a massive magic circle.

As streams of blood filled the groove, an ominous red light rose from the magic circle like a heat haze.

“No, please… please, stop…”

“Ah, please, at least my childreeeAAAARGH!”

When the magic circle emitted light, the arms and legs of the people hanging on the walls slowly twisted again, causing them to bleed once more.

Amid the terrible screams and moans filling the room, the sharp scream of a pre-pubescent boy cut through the chorus of groans.

The girl next to him was already dead, showing no movement even as her arms and legs rotated a full circle.

When the light from the magic circle faded, everyone’s twisting limbs stopped again.

Those unfortunate enough to still be alive poured out miserable sighs and tears, muttering prayers that could barely be called words.

“…fuck,”

Alice had seen this magic circle before.

Though the method of torture was different, Maria’s parents had certainly met their death like this.

“These goddamn heretic bastards.”

Alice stared straight ahead.

Someone was standing there.

Though completely covered in a black robe, Alice knew of no other such wicked heretic.

Her heart pounded.

Her entire body burned hot.

No, her anger burned so hot it felt like it would incinerate her body first.

“Balder Staff!”

Alice drew the sword at her waist and charged in one breath.

The man flinched at Alice’s approach, but it was already too late to dodge.

Alice’s sword pierced through the man’s robe and impaled his abdomen in one strike.

It was a blow deliberately avoiding vital points.

Alice twisted the sword and sneered.

You, at least, I will never, ever allow an easy death.

With that resolve, Alice pulled back the man’s hood and said,

“If you like this atmosphere, I know a place, a custom-made pigsty I’ve prepared for you…”

“Urgh… keurgh!”

“…Who are you?”

This man wasn’t Balder Staff.

Alice looked at the man’s face in confusion.

The man was trembling with a reddened face, tears streaming down.

Looking closely, she saw that the man’s mouth was sewn shut with magical thread, and there were marks on his neck where his vocal cords had been cut out.

His limbs, partially visible below his neck and inside his long sleeves, also showed signs of being magically stitched to prevent movement.

Alice tore off the man’s robe with her hand.

Underneath the robe, he was completely naked, and his entire body was stitched together as if sewn.

On the man’s chest were letters carved into his flesh with a large knife:

A gift for Lady Alice

“A trap…”

As she sensed danger and tried to back away,

“AAAAARGH!”

Horrific screams erupted from all directions.

Unlike the dying moans from before, these were piercingly sharp, chilling screams of a completely different dimension.

Dozens of pitch-black chains burst through the abdomens of the residents hanging on the walls and wrapped around Alice’s arms as if clinging to her.

“No! Damn it!”

The chains wrapped around her arms pulled her body.

Instantly robbed of her freedom, Alice was yanked into the air, suspended directly above the magic circle in the center of the room.

All the residents visible in her peripheral vision were dead in miserable states, and the chains protruding from their abdomens were wrapping around Alice more tightly, digging into her flesh.

It almost seemed like the resentment and suffering of those who had died in agony with their limbs slowly twisting while suspended had been magically manifested.

That’s when it happened.

“It’s been a while, Lady Alice.”

Someone slowly walked out from behind the naked, bleeding man who was writhing with Alice’s sword still embedded in him.

It had clearly been just a wall with nothing there before.

It was hard to tell whether he had walked out of the wall or had been hiding in the darkness all along.

The man, who had the same hair color as Maria, stepped over the man lying on the floor and approached, saying:

“You were too young to remember, but I once visited Goldfield Estate to see my brother’s newborn niece, and that’s when I met you.”

“…Balder!”

“My, how well you’ve grown.”

Balder Staff.

The murderer of Maria’s parents.

The evil heretic who worshipped demon gods.

The cause of Ash and Layla’s disappearance in that terrible forest!

“Balder!”

“Such vigor you have. I envy that youth.”

“You bastard!”

“Ah. Perhaps it’s not youth but that heart of yours?”

Balder said with a smile.

Alice wasn’t surprised that he knew about the mechanical heart she had received.

It was surprising, but she had no time to worry about that now.

“Don’t run away! I’ll kill you! Without fail!”

“Oh my, how frightening.”

Balder hunched his shoulders in an exaggerated theatrical manner and snickered.

Alice felt the nerve bundles near her temples snapping one by one.

That bastard.

That fucking bastard is laughing while knowing what he’s done?

You?

You dare?

“Hey, you son of a bitch!”

In response to Alice’s cursing, Balder scratched his head with an awkward smile.

“Well, I didn’t expect this. I prepared answers for questions like why I killed your brother and sister-in-law, why I killed the people of this village. But you’re just cursing at me, which is quite disconcerting.”

“Fuck off, I don’t care why a psycho like you did it. I came to kill you! To capture you and return the pain that my mother and Maria’s parents suffered!”

Balder plopped down on top of the fallen man and spoke.

The man writhed, letting out painful moans through his twisted, sewn lips.

“Oh dear, me? I really don’t want to.”

“You fucking bastard!”

“Now, now, listen to me, Holy Virgin Alice.”

As Alice fumed, Balder continued with a smile.

“This world is going to end soon anyway. Everyone will die then, so what’s the big deal about dying a little earlier? Why are you so angry?”

“…!”

Alice looked at Balder in shock after hearing those words.

The extinction of humanity.

It was something she herself had only recently learned from the Pope.

Even the Pope had learned it through a direct revelation from the Goddess.

So how did this man know about it?

And what connection could there be between the apocalypse and the atrocities Balder Staff had committed?

Anger stirred beneath Alice’s restrained arms.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Huh, you’re not asking how I know or what I mean? Do you already know? Or are you so blinded by revenge that nothing else matters?”

“…”

Just a little, just a little longer.

She only needed to buy a tiny bit more time.

“You fucking bastard, if we’re all going to die when the world ends like you say, why the fuck did you do all this?”

“All this ‘fuck this, fuck that’—can’t you speak without cursing?”

“Answer me, you fucking bastard!”

“Sigh. Because I don’t want to die, that’s why. What other motive could a lowly person like me, living hand to mouth, possibly have?”

“Are you saying you know how to avoid the apocalypse?”

“…What? You didn’t know? Shall I tell you?”

“…”

As Alice fell silent, Balder chuckled and said:

“We must serve the new ruler, of course.”

Almost there.

Just a little, just a tiny bit more.

Holy power that Alice had slowly gathered beneath the chains wrapped around her arms was beginning to surge.

She didn’t care what he was babbling about.

She had no interest in the apocalypse or anything else.

Balder, you will die by my hands before the world ends.

You will crawl on the floor with your severed limbs, begging miserably for your life with your cut-out tongue.

Just wait.

Alice glared at the cheerfully chattering Balder, suppressing her rage as much as possible.

.