Behind me was a room stuffed with giant flies.

Smashing through the wall beside me, an enormous black dragon had fallen, unable to move.

And before my eyes was a girl, laughing maniacally while trampling on Crusch.

With a sinister grin, mocking words, and if I believed her claim, standing there was none other than the Archbishop of Sin responsible for “Lust,” Capella Emerada Lugnica.

—It felt like my head would explode.

“W-what the hell is this…?”

“Isn’t it useless to think? You filthy meat sacks should quit racking your brains and just accept the reality before you! A beautiful girl, who once shrank in fear, turns out to be an Archbishop of Sin!”

In front of a bewildered Subaru, Capella stuck out her tongue, grinning lewdly. Beneath her feet, Crusch lay unconscious, rolling her eyes and bleeding profusely.

There didn’t seem to be any obvious external wounds. But it was clear that the damage was fatal. With Garfiel too far away to use healing magic, things could take a disastrous turn.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that you’re all here? This is the City Hall, the central hub of urban functionality. You really think it’s normal for little meat sacks to be wandering around here? It’s a mystery to me how you can live your lives so naïvely, thinking, ‘Oh look, a child in trouble! I must help!'”

“Shut up! I have a lot to say, but first, get your foot off!”

“Huh? Are you drooling over my lovely legs? Or perhaps you’re dying to lick my soles? With a body like mine, how could you resist? Is little Subaru aching to squeeze some flesh, kya-ha-ha!”

“—! That person! You have no right to treat them like that!”

Crushing down on Crusch’s sternum with her heel, Capella savored the act of cruelty, while Subaru kicked the ground in fury.

Keeping his posture low, he stepped forward. Capella, who was evidently enjoying the moment, clapped her hands and welcomed him, but he wasn’t stupid enough to charge in blindly.

Even without memory, Crusch was a warrior.

A warrior capable enough for Wilhelm to allow her to participate in this battle. Yet in merely a few seconds, while she was distracted, she had been struck down without putting up any resistance.

There was no doubt that Capella’s power surpassed Subaru’s.

Thus, what Subaru needed to prioritize was not defeating the enemy but breaking this situation.

“——-”

He had to retrieve Crusch, and hurry to regroup with Julius and the others.

His top priority was to abandon this location and escape. While he wanted to stop the broadcast, that feeling was trivial compared to the danger to their lives.

And the people he needed to save, who should’ve been in this City Hall, were nowhere to be found on this floor.

As things stood, he concluded that they lacked the strength to reclaim the City Hall.

Therefore, Subaru didn’t hesitate.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“Shh!”

With a silly voice, Capella widened her eyes at Subaru’s actions.

He swung his whip, targeting not Capella but a shelf affixed to the wall beside him. It was a metal figurine inside the shelf, the kind of whimsy that had no clear motif. Wrapping the tip of the whip around it, he skillfully flicked his wrist and threw it at Capella.

It spun rapidly, a metallic weapon of destruction.

With enough force to crack the wall, its power far exceeded that of the whip. Whether she tried to block or dodge, moving while standing on Crusch was inevitable.

Seizing that opportunity, he would retrieve her—.

“Hit!”

“Sure thing!”

“What?!”

As Subaru shouted his declaration, Capella replied smugly.

In the next moment, a sound resembling something hard piercing flesh and bone echoed, blood spraying from the impacted area on Capella’s head. Her forehead split wide open in a gruesome display, her hair and skin were torn apart, creating a ghastly wound where viscous blood trickled down her cheek.

The charming girl’s face was left grotesquely crushed and misshapen.

Seeing her left eye nearly destroyed, devoid of light, staring at him with a grotesque gaze, Subaru found himself blanking out in shock at the unexpected outcome.

This was an action meant to create an opening against the enemy, but instead, he felt a swell of shock—there was no way the Archbishop would miss this moment.

“Why are you all so adorably pawing at my palm? I just love your helplessness. Kya-ha-ha!”

As Capella’s mocking laughter filled the air, she twirled around before unleashing a black whirlwind that slammed into Subaru from the side, sending him flying.

“Gaaah!”

It felt as if he’d been struck by a giant’s slap; his right side was hit all at once, rolling across the floor and sending furniture crashing down. Hitting various parts of his body and dazed, Subaru barely managed to prop himself against the wall to look up.

“What have you done? Have I rendered you speechless by my beauty?”

“…What is that?”

“Hmmm? Oh, this? Now, what do you think it looks like?”

Forgetting pain, Subaru could only gaze wide-eyed at Capella as she gleefully twirled.

The short skirt she wore swayed, revealing something that shouldn’t have been there—a thick black dragon tail.

Simultaneously, he came to realize that the tail had just swiped his body moments ago and that the sight of a petite girl fused with the massive dragon’s appendage was horrifyingly grotesque.

What in the world was that? What the hell was that?

“Could it be a dragon that can take human form…?”

“Yes, that’s the most brain-dead, pathetic thought I could imagine! You’re as dumb as they come! Even though I’ve been kind enough to drop hints, you still don’t get it, do you?”

“—!”

As Subaru muttered his assumptions about Capella’s true nature, she seemed displeased and swung her tail. The long appendage slammed the floor, creating cracks, and just narrowly Subaru managed to evade the impending strike.

But,

“If you let your guard down now, everything’s ruined!”

“Ugh! What?!”

Confused, he found himself hit by a monstrous left arm. It swatted him easily and sent him soaring, and while he fell from the ceiling, the dragon’s tail turned into a razor-sharp avian wing that tore through his body, sending him crashing into the ground.

With a scream of pain radiating from his back, Subaru rolled over, coughing from the shock, and finally laid eyes upon the source of his torment.

Dodging the dragon’s tail he had just evaded, he faced the enormous furry arm of a beast. The tail then sent him soaring again, slashed by wings fitted with razor-sharp feathers—the entirety of which was incorporated into the girl standing before him.

“It’s about time you understand the situation, don’t you?”

What else could he call her but a monstrosity?

A girl with a dragon tail, beastly arms, and birdlike wings.

Witnessing that scene left him at a loss for words. All that surfaced were the feelings of physiological disgust from witnessing an otherworldly creature manifest before him.

The disgust he felt toward the monster in front of him weighed upon him heavily—twinging at his very being.

“Mutation, transformation…”

“I am Capella Emerada Lugnica, the Archbishop of Sin responsible for Lust. All the love and respect in this world exist solely to be lavished upon me. As I am to be loved most, I can fulfill any perverse desire and embody the pinnacle of all aesthetic values. Even to your taste in beautiful girls, I can shapeshift, make myself bend and merge! I’m a girl who gives her all! Kya-ha-ha-ha!”

While she let out her nonsensical rants, Capella’s form truly began to shift with utter fluidity.

Her monstrous appearance returned to that of a petite girl, only to elongate into a curvy adult woman soon after. Just as quickly, she morphed into a seemingly innocent village girl, then transformed again into a prepubescent girl with a seductive smile.

“Now then? What kind of me do you like the best?”

“———-”

He was left speechless. Words failed him. All he could feel was the sense that this was utterly the worst.

It was a desecration of values. Despite the clarity of her ability, Capella’s power to defile all values forced the gaze of everything towards her.

With her slashed face, the wound dealt by the figurine was already healed, showing no trace. Perhaps such regenerative power stemmed from her shapeshifting talent.

Regardless, the riddle behind the black dragon disguised as a girl had unraveled. Initially suspecting a power akin to Petelgeuse’s, infesting others, it seemed there was something deeper—.

“—Huh?”

If that wasn’t the case, what then were those flies in the broadcasting room and the black dragon that had been there moments ago?

“Did you figure it out?”

“…Wait. Wait, wait, wait, stop.”

As Subaru’s facial expressions shifted, Capella grinned, seemingly able to read into his thoughts.

Her form shifted into a demure woman with flowing hair, and her voice completely transformed. In the disorienting shifts, Subaru shook his head.

There was no way. He wanted to believe it wasn’t true.

However, upon examining it, things lined up so neatly that it couldn’t be ignored.

If Capella’s ‘Lust’ could allow her to mutate her own body,

Then what if it could affect objects beyond herself—?

“Now do you get the true forms of the flies and lizards? Should be easy for even your blood-deprived brain to comprehend, huh?”

“Those are… the people who were in this building, right?”

“Yup, correct, but you’re too late. No prize for you. No compliments from me either. I can’t comprehend what purpose something as ugly and useless as you serves in this world!”

“That’s the same as what I want to say!!”

Capella affirmed her atrocious deeds with a face devoid of any guilt.

The remains of the silent people crammed in the dim room. Those glowing red compound eyes gazed at him in unison. The sound of wings flapping, yet unable to take off, generated an echo that seemingly imploded his eardrums.

—They were surely reaching out for Subaru’s help.

“I can’t comprehend! Are you out of your mind?! Why… why did you do something like that?! Why can you?! To turn people into flies… into flies, what purpose does that serve?!”

“Disgusting, you say?”

“Hair-raising! You… you and your kind…!”

“You find it repulsive. It sickens you, doesn’t it? So let me ask?”

Words failed him entirely.

He spat, grinding his teeth so hard it felt like they might shatter, glaring at Capella with bloodshot eyes, seriously wishing he could end her life with just a gaze.

Turning people into flies and toying with their lives was far worse than merely killing them. It was the worst kind of cruelty.

In just a few hours, Subaru had seen the four other Archbishops of Sin he had never encountered before.

“Sirius of Wrath” toys with the emotions of others and forces selfish love upon them.

“Regulus of Greed” imposes his values upon others, a villain who’s gone too far.

“Alphard of Gluttony” steals people’s “memories” and “names,” trampling on their very existence.

And now “Capella of Lust” is a monster that mocks the dignity and values of humanity.

All of them, every last one of them, were deeply cursed, utterly beyond saving, and insane.

“———-”

As Subaru’s fury reached a boiling point, Capella, wearing an incredulous expression, posed another question then fell silent, pondering her next sickening words.

In front of Subaru, whose vision blurred red with rage, Capella declared,

“—That’s it, to feel disgust and revulsion. That’s what it’s about.”

Soaked in Subaru’s negative feelings, she wore a wide grin of pleasure.

Clapping her hands, she pointed at the room filled with families no longer human.

“You looked at those enormous flies gathering, and you felt physiological disgust. You thought it was horrific. That’s right—you’re not wrong to think that way! It’s perfectly natural to want to distance yourself from such vile creatures. It’s right.”

“What are you… saying?”

“Something everyone can see. I transformed the pathetic, squishy meat into ugly flies. No one could possibly love such a thing. Naturally.”

“That’s why! What is it that you want to say?!”

“You see, people can’t survive without loving someone. But if that’s all you see, it’s impossible to love. Then you could only love something else, right? By process of elimination, filthy things cannot be loved at all!”

His mind went blank.

Head tilting as if offering a brilliant revelation, he struggled to grasp the twisted thoughts of the monster.

Hearing the dry applause ringing out, Subaru was overtaken by the urge to flee from this place.

Immediately, without waiting a second, he wanted to escape the presence of the monster standing before him. His vision loathed to acknowledge it. He didn’t want to feel its presence. He didn’t want to hear its voice. He wished to erase any memory of it. What else could one call this but a profound physiological revulsion?

The term physiological impossibility should have been reserved solely for beings like this.

To be faced with such an entity that evoked primal terror was beyond comprehension.

“As a kind-hearted and loving being, I’m also a deeply romantic woman. You see, I’ve determined to monopolize all the love and respect in this world, but I will never skimp on the effort to be loved. I will alter myself into the version of me that you adore. To have you notice me, I’ll divert your interest away from anything but me! It doesn’t matter who you initially loved; as long as you choose me at the end, I won’t spare any effort! I’ll elevate myself beyond your wildest imagination! Meanwhile, I’ll drag down the charm of other worthless meat! It’s a guarantee everyone will fall for me, this world’s most precious beauty!”

“…You might as well kill me.”

“Why? I’m full of compassion and can’t kill out of mere impulse! Besides, no matter how idiotic or hopelessly filthy someone is… there remains a possibility of them loving me, as long as they breathe! My need for approval is strong. Therefore, I wish to be appreciated by as many as possible for as long as possible, and as loudly as possible! If you can’t do that, then die! Just die! That’s my heartfelt lesson!”

—

—

—

“I understand.”

“Oh, did you get it now? If that’s the case, then shower me with praises and dissolve into the gooey mass of flesh that I favor… ”

“Die.”

Thoughts ceased entirely. There was no need for reasoning.

What stood before him was not merely an enemy but the worst kind of enemy. He craved no further information.

With a lash of the whip, the monster stepped back, and the filthy creature finally detached itself from Crusch. Subaru plunged forward to secure her body.

He hoisted her slender frame and quickly pulled back.

“Look at that, in the end, the masculine meat is hollering for the feminine meat! Don’t deny it. Don’t play false! I know you prefer nice things. Pretty things. Soft and pleasant things, right?! Don’t play coy with me now!!”

“——!”

As Subaru leaped back, Capella chased after him, spitting as she reached out her arms.

One arm transformed into a serpent’s head, the other into a lion’s, its twisted neck pursuing Subaru while scraping along the floor of the massive room, aiming to sink its teeth into him.

His right foot bled anew. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t matter if it got shredded. Dedicating every inch of his being to defending the warmth and weight cradled in his arms, Subaru evaded Capella’s mad pursuit with everything he had.

“Is the mate’s feminine meat that precious to you?! Then hold on tightly, don’t let go! You want to embrace that woman’s body! That pleading gaze! Those lips that utter sweet words! To touch that pleasurable flesh, flesh, flesh—! You’re desperate to have it, aren’t you filthy meat! Die! Die! Just die right now!”

“Shut up, bastard! I’m not like that with her!”

“Shut up! The feminine flesh reeks of femininity! The masculine stink wafts from you! You ever thought for a second that those two aren’t connected? If you’re telling me you’ve never thought of something nasty even once, you better say it with your chest! The moment you think of it, you’re in a relationship between male meat and female meat! What’s the difference?! What’s the difference?! Say it to me!”

The serpent and lion acted out as if they mirrored Capella’s excitement, rampaging through the room.

The sound of teeth clashing, the crunching of wooden tables, and sporadic destruction from limbs that couldn’t be easily defined continued to batter Subaru’s body.

As he groaned in pain, dodging destruction, Subaru continued to shelter Crusch. But Capella stood between him and the room’s exit, and every time he tried to inch closer, she shifted unpredictably, floating between an adult woman, a girl, and a youthful maiden, producing an atmosphere of abnormality that urged him to maintain his distance.

“Aren’t you yearning to touch my hair? To caress my lips? To embrace my body? Don’t hide behind pretty words claiming that’s love. Don’t get me wrong! Just because you cloak your base desires in sweet phrases doesn’t mean you’re any different!”

“—Guh, agh!”

“An unexpressed desire that cannot be openly stated! Don’t dress it up with the word love! Or will you say it aloud? Will you spit out the usual retort? —’I love her because I’m attracted to her spirit!’ Because of her nobility, her kindness, her benevolent heart, her grandness, the way her eyes reflect the sky, her willingness to sacrifice for others, the strength she possesses to not complain, the way she shows only her weakness to me, the fact she tries so hard to manage alone, the soothing sound of her voice, her loving gaze, the way she calls me dear, the warmth of our connected hands—every time we touch, my heart races; her beautiful hair swaying in the wind—it’s because I believe I’m tied to fate, and because she acknowledged me as I am. When I’m down, she’s there! She’s the one who taught me what true value is. The one I’ve spent countless moments with, the one who, moving forward, I want to see and feel life with together. We promised, and she never lets me forget my vow! The one who helped me find a side of me that was different from others, knowing the true me, allowing me to be real only before her, and urgently needing someone to understand my solitude. The one who reminded me of my first feelings, showing me what it is to love someone, the one who wiped my tears, the one who found me among the crowd, the one who held me so tightly I felt like I might break, because for the first time in my life—someone corrected me, the first person to speak honest words to me, the one who opened my eyes to so much, the one who showed me landscapes I had never seen, who brought me out of the cage I was in, who pulled me from the suffocating world, who became my ally, the one who understood me, who made being together feel as natural as breathing, who I can’t live without—the one who is my everything because I love you and you love me, because you set my heart ablaze, because everything looks vivid and bright when I’m with you, because without you, I cannot feel happiness, because I can’t live without someone else!”

As he unleashed what felt like a curse, Capella’s expression died with each word.

But after layering her profound feelings of affection, Capella lifted her head, a complex expression of beauty, cuteness, and lewdness twisted across her face, and she screamed.

“Stop with all this crap!!!”

“———-”

“Seriously, don’t be saying those sweet nothings! This inner discourse of affection? It’s a travesty! All that inside, personality, compatibility—boiling over, it’s so damn annoying! You’re drawn to the external! The appearance tantalizes your meat! If love fills your heart, then, with all those phenomenal words, gaze into each other’s eyes, and share the sweet bedtime tales together—could you really love someone turned into a fly? Test it! Observe! Can you love that? No? It’s disgusting, isn’t it? It feels horrid, right? The only thing you could ever muster is revulsion, isn’t it?! So you realize you just said that earlier, right?!”

As Capella raved, throwing out a cacophony of rage, self-pity, jealousy, hatred, victimhood, and self-preservation,

Her spitting fury and deranged cries drowned out everything around them.

The room became an inferno, crumbling as the noise stormed forth. Subaru seemed to dissolve into nothing, swallowed up in chaos, unable to discern how he was moving amid the thundering destruction.

Was he still on solid ground? Was his nearly torn-off leg still intact? The only certain thing left was the vital pulse of the woman in his arms, infusing energy into all of him.

But that struggle was reaching its limit.

“You filthy meat, just watch me!”

“—Gahhhh!!”

Smashing through the smoke, the lion’s head barreled toward him.

Its open jaws clamped down on his right leg, already bleeding profusely, ripping apart flesh and muscle.

Surpassing the limits of Ferris’ healing magic, agonizing pain boiled in Subaru’s brain, and he screamed, unable to sound coherent.

Naturally, he could barely support his body.

He collapsed, Crusch rolling nearby. Squirming in agony, blood poured continuously from him. It was beyond a heavy bleeding issue—blood gushed out like a bucket turned on its side, draining Subaru’s life at an alarming rate.

“Ugh, my head hurts. Guess I got a bit too excited. My apologies! Kya-ha!”

“———–”

On his back, Subaru pressed his palm against the wound, trembling.

Though he tried to seal it with his hand, the bleeding showed no signs of slowing. No, it did have a presence. It was merely that what was within him had begun to evaporate.

Soon, it would come to an end. The familiar sensation of “death” crept closer.

In mere hours, he had been wounded to the extent of losing a leg twice.

His complexion had shifted from pale to sallow, bloodshot eyes protruding as he gasped for air.

“Oh dear, aren’t you close to death? Watching the filthy meat writhing in agony is far too painful for someone like me who understands human sorrow.”

“…Ah, ah!”

“The feminine meat will no doubt perish too. What a pity, that’s too splendid—you were my type… I wanted to see what would happen. Whether blood could overpower you or not. Oh, by the way…”

Squatting down, Capella peered into Subaru’s face, and with a smile cast upon her features, she casually stretched her hand toward the wound on his right leg.

“Let’s see what a hideous mass of meat you’ll turn into.”

“…Wha?”

Saying that, Capella transformed her outstretched wrist into a blade with her other hand, dragging it across the skin and drawing blood. Her blood dripped onto Subaru’s mangled right leg, mingling with his crimson, creating a sight thoroughly abominable.

But soon after…

“—Huh?! Ah, aaaaahhhhhh!?”

“My blood is different from that of ordinary beings. You see, it’s mixed with dragon blood. If you succumb to this blood curse, great things will come to pass. Can you withstand it longer than this female meat over here?”

Capella seemed joyful, but Subaru couldn’t respond.

Half-dead and dulled by suffering, the blood that splattered upon him seeped into his still-wounded flesh, overrunning him, consuming him.

With an invader coursing through his veins, the sensation of himself being overwritten with an entirely different existence inflicted a fear on Natsuki Subaru that was beyond pain or suffering.

He couldn’t understand. He wasn’t even granted an escape through death.

Capella asked who would suffer more—her or Crusch. Did that mean Crusch felt the same kind of torment? He wanted to die. He craved to die, yet he didn’t want to die.

“Kya-ha-ha! Now, now! With the intruder disposed of, time’s nearing for me to… ”

Glancing back and forth between the agonized Subaru and Crusch, Capella stood up with satisfaction etched onto her face.

That form morphed back into that of a girl, and as she flicked her skirt, she turned to stroll toward the broadcasting room when she suddenly noticed something.

There lay the collapsed wall that had once trapped the black dragon before him—.

“Oh my, would you look at that!”

“—!!”

From the fallen lower levels, the vengeful black dragon clawed its way back up, letting out a mighty roar. From its wide-open maw, black flames were hurled at Capella.

—In that instant, the top floor of the City Hall was engulfed in pitch-black flames.