Chapter 156

The blade struck true. Lute’s slash cleaved the thing shaped like Aguina in half from top to bottom. In that moment, the Queen’s parts continued moving. However, her reactor itself was destroyed. That was too close for comfort, Elisabeth thought from atop her raven. If she, the white deer, or the colossal hawk had tried to destroy Aguina, he merely would have retreated back into the blob. Just now, though, he had allowed the slash to cut him clean in two. And it was all because Lute was the one who’d called out to him. They were both fathers, and that was what had sealed the deal. The man-shaped figure trembled, then melted away. All of a sudden, the flesh blob swelled up. Its skin grew taut, and blood vessels began bulging up on its surface. This was different from the earlier transformations. This was a destructive growth—growth that signaled its demise. Lute hurried back. However, he didn’t make it in time, and one of his arms got caught in the expanding flesh. He struggled like his life depended on it. He even kicked and punched the flesh, but all that accomplished was getting one of his feet trapped as well. Elisabeth forced her raven into a nosedive. If she used a Cat’s Paw, she could cut around Lute and free him from the blob. She quickly conjured up a rope. It was the exact same trick she’d used back when Lute fell on his backside. “You saved us!” she shouted. “Now, get on back here yourself, Lute!” “Oh, what a shameful way for me to get caught!” After sharing pretty much the exact same exchange they had earlier, Elisabeth wound the rope around his wrist. This time, though, a staggering amount of force yanked her forward. The intensity with which the flesh blob was trying to swallow Lute up was simply too great. Elisabeth fell over, and the force from the impact caused her raven to crash-land. She found herself getting dragged toward the blob, so she plunged her sword into the ground in an attempt to resist. However, the handle slipped out of her blood-slick grasp. Lute stared at her. The blob had already swallowed half of his body. A determined expression crossed his face, and he reached his arm out as far as it could go. Then, after snatching hold of the belt around Elisabeth’s neck, he hurled her as far away as he possibly could. It was like it was all some sort of gag. “You! Utter! Fool!” “I leave the rest to you, Madam…no, rather, Sir Kaito’s beloved—as well as our beloved Captain Elisabeth!” Lute spoke with a look of clear relief, and just like that, the flesh blob swallowed him up. Elisabeth landed hard and tumbled violently across the ground. She quickly raised her wounded face and stared blankly at the scene before her. Like it or not, she could tell exactly what had happened. My raven was swallowed up, too. I shan’t have the mana to deploy any meaningful torture devices for some time. In short, she had no way of saving Lute. She dragged her venom- and crash-landing-battered body to its feet and began walking. The retreat she was beating was a pathetic one hardly befitting the Torture Princess. But as she tripped over her own feet, she hurried on anyway. Even as she coughed up blood, she ran away like a woman possessed. Those who owed their lives to another had a duty to fight. Stopping and putting down her burden was an option denied to her. Somehow or other, she managed to get out of range. Her vision blurred as blood dripped down into her eyes. As she rubbed them the way a child would, she looked up and observed the flesh blob’s final transformation. The blob swelled and swelled and swelled, and, with a pop, it burst. Afterward, all that remained was the foul sea of flesh expanding outward.