"Stabbed in the back by none other than moi, what a fitting way to die." Vivia noted, "Now you may not believe me here, but I truly didn't want it to have to come to this."

"The fuck do you mean?" I barked back.

"Don't look at me like that, I really mean it." She sighed, "From the beginning, Lune was always the only target among you guys. A huge part of me actually hoped you'd run away to live your lives freely. Trust me, no one would have sought you out."

"Cut the crap! After we rebelled against an entire kingdom, you're saying you'd just let us run away?!" I cussed her out, "Neither you nor that asshole of a father of yours let us go when we retreated after you shot Grim! Why the hell should I believe you now-!?"

"Because you're special to me." She interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Not just you, Ed, but Cily too. And Meil was pretty fun in his own special way, I guess. If it means anything to you, I really did consider you my friends while you took care of me. I'm just sad that you had to be friends with that horrible man is all."

"Grim isn't horrible! You know nothing about him!" I then started sighing from the exhaustion, "Besides, I'm not inclined to believe you on that whole "friend" thing when you're literally shoving that knife into my back even as we speak. Remove it, and I might actually trust you then."

Obviously, that was a complete and utter lie. I won't ever consider such a foul woman my friend, not now, not ever. She killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, tricked us... Hell, she killed Grim! Fuck her, honestly. The moment she lets her guard down, even if it'll cost me my life at this point, I'll attack her with the intent to kill. I don't mind dying here if it means I got to avenge Grim, after all...

"So, this is it, huh?" Her grip on the knife loosened ever so slightly, "Got a musical wish? I don't mind lulling you to your eternal sleep if it'll at least ease your pain."

"He doesn't need your singing." A woman's voice whispered close to her ear, "Ed prefers jazz, not your damned elegies."

"Cecily!" I shouted.

"Cily!?" Vivia suddenly jolted for a moment, just enough for me to roll out of her grip, "Oh no!"

With the knife still firmly planted in my back, I knew better than to pull it out. Doing so would mean certain death, as I'd bleed out before I could get myself treated. For now, my best bet at surviving through this would be to stay still and not move too much. However, it's not like I can just let Cecily hog all the fun, especially after she was the one who insisted on not being here, then still coming anyways.

"Oof!" Vivia too a blow to the face, "Shit...! Ack, huff..."

"More where...!" Cecily grabbed her by the skull before kneeing her nose in, "...that came from!"

"Cecily!" I shouted as I ran up to them.

Understanding my intentions perfectly, she had started spinning Vivia around. Obviously, she accomplished this by pulling her by her hair. After finally letting go, Vivia was all but launched directly at me. Now it was time for me to rally her back.

"Augh!" She whimpered as I kicked her straight in the gut, "Stahp-!"

The kick had sent her tumbling back to Cecily, however I failed to kick her far enough in my weakened state, thus leading to her falling short a meter or two of her. Still, Cecily wasn't gonna let this combo go, so she followed up Vivia's fall with a beautiful atomic slam. At this point, Vivia was a complete and utter mess, her body bruised and bloody, her mouth practically spewing out last night's dinner. Still, she was awake, if barely.

"S..." She begged and pleaded, "Stop this..."

"You know, I wonder if Lune truly never once begged like you're doing right now." Cecily spit in her face, "Ed told me Lune had a smile on his face as his body went limp. To tell you the truth, that makes me kind of happy."

"...?"

"I'd like to imagine that he was happy because he lived a fulfilling life." Her Eyes went scary, "But me? I can't even begin to imagine a fulfilling life without him. He's someone I wanted to spend the rest of my days with. Though, I imagine you've never even had someone love you, so all these words probably sound like a foreign language to you."

Taking out an arrow from her quiver, Cecily Had thrust the tip into Vivia's shoulder. Screeching an absolutely blood-curdling scream, Vivia's Eyes had began to close. Cecily, however, wouldn't let her die so easily.

"Wake up!" She slapped her awake as took some pills out of her pockets.

"What are those?" I asked, still trying to forget about the knife in my back.

"Painkillers." She tossed a ton of them into her mouth and made her swallow, "She ain't dying from this much. I'll make sure she properly suffers before that moment comes."

"Painkillers, huh...?" I smiled for a bit before shouting at her, "If you had those with you the entire time, then gimme some!"

"Ah, all out." She shrugged after reaching into her empty pockets, "Sorry Ed, you'll have to deal with it."

"Geez, if it's preserving her life you want to achieve, then making her overdose on all those pills certainly won't help you." I stammered towards them before flashing Vivia a scary grin, "Trust me, I'm a doctor's apprentice, after all. I know all the ins and outs of a body, including the best way to torture someone without fatally wounding them."

***

"AAAARGH!" She screamed as I tore her pinkie's nail off.

"Hm? Did that hurt?" I handed Cecily the knife I used, gesturing for her to continue, "Don't worry, just nineteen more and we'll be done, okay? Be a good girl now."

"Ed, please! I'm begging you, stop this-!" She cried out to me, only for Cecily to tear off her ring fingernail, "AAAAAAAHH!"

"Oi Ed, why is she screaming if I gave her those painkillers?" Cecily turned to me all curious.

"A pill takes time to digest in the body to do its magic. Usually, the more you ate, the faster it'll digest, but since she threw all of her food up during our dual beatdown..."

"... That means we've got some time before she goes all immune!" Cecily finished my thought.

"Good job, you got it!" I said as she proceeded to tear off the middle fingernail next.

"OWAAAAARGH!"

"Geez, the screaming's getting annoying." Cecily rolled her Eyes, "Here, bestie, put this in your mouth."

Taking a piece of Vivia's bloodied dress and scrounging it up into a gag, Cecily had effectively managed to shut her up completely. However, this had come at a cost.

"Hey now, take that out of her mouth, Cecily." I warned, "She could try and swallow it to purposefully suffocate herself. Remember, we need her alive if we're to completely torture her."

"Ah, I didn't know." She then took the gag out, yet not before tearing out the index fingernail, "But now she's screaming again. Any doctoral way to solve this dilemma coming to mind?"

"Hmm, there really isn't any other way that doesn't include potentially suffocating her... Oh, I know!"

Approaching her all playfully as I took her squirming, shivering hand from Cecily, I proceeded to apply pressure to the parts of her fingers that were missing their nails. She screeched louder than ever before, but the more she cried out for someone to save her, the more her vocal chords grew tired. Before long, her screams got raspy, and soon after that, she couldn't even so much as whisper from straining her vocal chords so much.

"What's the matter, princess?" I teased, "What will the self-proclaimed Goddess of Song do now that her voice is gone? I was really looking forward to that song of yours..."

"P-Please..." She whispered desperately, "End... me..."

"Whaat~? What was that~? I can't hear you, you gotta speak up!" Cecily joked, all the while pulling out the final nail of the first extremity.

"A-!" Vivia wanted to scream, but her voice suddenly stopped before it could amass any more volume.

"Wow, Ed! Color me impressed! You really did manage to shut her up perfectly!" Cecily wanted to pat me on the back before remembering I'd probably die if she did it, "A-Anyways! What's next? The other hand?"

"We're not done with this one yet, though." I took the frail and soft hand of Vivia, before snapping the joint near the tip of the pinkie.

"A-!?"

"See? A hand has 16 joints in it." I handed her the hand back, "3 for each finger, and the final one being the wrist. Breaking each one is relatively easy to do, causes her a great deal of pain, and yet even after all that, since we're still only doing extremities, it's nothing fatal."

"I see!" Cecily then got an idea, "Alright, Ed, here's the knife! You do the rest of her nails on the other hand, while I break all these joints on this one! Call it double trouble!"

"I like the way you're thinking!" I gave her a weak high-five before we got to work.

Honestly, this was supposed to feel way more emotional than I had originally thought. Still, Cecily and I seemed to be having quite a lot of fun with Vivia. I wonder if we have a knack for torture? That'd certainly be a bad talent to possess, though I guess this is a clear sign that no talent is truly without its uses. For the next half hour, we carefully spent our time in the room, making sure we don't miss a single spot. I hoped we could make it to her feet so that we could force her to stand with broken legs, accentuating the pain to never before seen heights as we made her dance like the bloody, deformed mess she would be, but it appears we were too hyper focused on the hands to make it in time. Indeed, the painkillers seemed to have started kicking in, as she stopped wincing after each ligament torn.

"Aww, we were too slow." Cecily slouched, "Well, looks like we'll have to call it quits for today. You think the others did nearly as well as we did?"

"I hope they did way better." I glanced back at my knife wound, "Seriously, what took you so long to come here? I would've really appreciated your help back there."

"I can't help it! Everyone was being so reckless, I was too preoccupied helping them not die as well!" Cecily groaned, "First it was Max and Aaron almost dying in a death trap, then it was Meil being stuck in a stalemate with the king... Ack, what would you guys do without me?!"

"Heh, yeah..." I then said something unnecessary, "Maybe Lune too... N-No, never mind!"

"Ah." She realized what I was about to say, "Yeah, things might've been different had I gone with you guys..."

"No! That wasn't what I meant by that at all!" I quickly backpaddled, "Dammit, stupid mouth! I meant to say...!"

"No, it's alright, I get it." She seemed calm, "Still, it was impossible given I was super pregnant back then. Having me there would only lead to Cene and I dying on the battlefield as well."

"Y-Yeah... Sorry."

"Hm? Oh come on, it's alright, really!" She smiled as she patted me on the back without thinking.

"Yeowch!" I yelped.

"Ah, I totally forgot about that knife in your back. Shall we take the princess and skiddadle?"

"Y-Yeah." I chuckled in between breaths, "You're gonna need to do the heavy lifting though. Urk, for the both of us, I mean..."

And so, the storming of the castle was complete. Everyone was successful on their fronts, and thankfully we didn't suffer any casualties after the battle. Maybe it was Auros' blessing or something that protected us, but it was also in large part due to the castle's defenses lacking. Seriously, it's as if they wanted to get attacked or something...