In a hidden place steeped in the stench of blood ..
A chamber that contained nothing but machines and instruments of torment ..
Snow Lionheart still hung there, naked and bound, while that madwoman, Evelyn, toyed with him.
After their sadistic kiss ended with Snow tearing off a large portion of Evelyn’s lips and mouth, the Blood Queen repaid him—and began to play in earnest.
Slowly, she tested Snow’s toughness and pain tolerance: peeling his skin little by little, flaying him alive, all while manipulating his blood to keep him from summoning any power at all.
The agony was insane. And the more Snow’s blood spilled, the deeper Evelyn’s smile became.
"I always took you for the gallant, fearless hero—the perfect man without flaws."
The wet rasp of her blood-knife accompanied every word as Evelyn spoke, having already mended what Snow had done to her.
"But you did something feral, unbecoming of a ’hero.’ I suppose even your kind are capable of that."
A noble, ’great’ hero eating human flesh, acting like demonkin themselves .. even Evelyn, steeped in gore and torture, found it strikingly strange.
Snow endured the pain and managed a smile. "Believe me... you haven’t seen anything yet."
"How lovely. You can still speak so freely despite what I’m doing to you."
His endurance was terrifying—less than Frey Starlight’s, but still higher than anyone else’s. Gradually, a strange golden force seeped through him, knitting flesh whenever the injuries deepened.
"I’m suppressing your power, and yet this sacred aura acts on its own in spite of me... fascinating."
That golden, sacred aura was peculiar .. healing Snow’s body automatically whenever he was wounded. It granted him something akin to Frey Starlight’s monstrous regeneration, letting him recover from almost any injury at once.
But that only delighted Evelyn; it meant she could play for a long time.
As she tortured Snow, he began to acclimate to the pain. His gaze grew calmer, steady enough to speak without difficulty.
"It may be strange to ask you in this state, but I truly want to know—why are you doing this?"
He fixed his eyes on Evelyn.
She was stunningly beautiful .. he could admit that easily. A different kind of beauty from Seris and Auriel: a mysterious, gentle-seeming allure that could spark any man’s curiosity.
But those slender hands had been soaked in blood too long for any return.
As his vision adjusted to the gloom, Snow noticed Evelyn’s other "toys":
Dozens .. no, hundreds of mutilated humans.
She had severed her victims’ limbs and grafted them onto one another. A man with three arms here, an extra leg there .. even extra genitals. Some she had fused to her female victims.
The madness of that place sickened Snow Lionheart.
And Evelyn’s answer left him baffled.
"Why am I doing this? What a silly question," she said, shaking her head as if she’d just heard something stupid. "To express my love, of course! What other reason could there be?"
Her deeds were diseased; her answer, more diseased still.
"Love?"
"Mhm~"
Humming as she flensed another strip of skin, Evelyn savored the scent of blood and raw flesh. "There’s no better way to show love than through pain."
She drove her claws into him. "After all, pain is the only kind of love I’ve ever had in my life. It’s only fair to share some of it with others, don’t you think?"
Those last words convinced Snow she was profoundly unstable .. dangerous not only to the Empire, but to the Ultras as well. It was why she was a Hollow, and why her personal power soared in war .. where blood flowed freely. If Evelyn fought on a battlefield awash in blood, her output could exceed her rank and brush SS+.
"Pain has never been a form of love," Snow said, eyes drifting to the other victims. "It’s a manifestation of misery and suffering. If those shapes are the signs of the ’love’ you speak of, no one in this world would want love ever again."
Evelyn’s smile deepened. She sank the blade farther into him, drawing a low groan.
"Well... you all say that at first. It makes you entertaining. But soon you start begging, and then you become boring."
How many times had she done this? How often had she crossed every human boundary in love’s name? Snow didn’t know, but the number was surely vast.
He couldn’t help wondering what had made her this way. She claimed pain was the only love she’d known .. what, exactly, had happened to her?
Whatever the answer, Snow knew Evelyn had gone far beyond any line long ago. No past, however cruel, could excuse what she had become.
The men she captured were mutilated: the ugly ones castrated outright; the handsome ones taken from time to time to sate her urges .. Snow, for better or worse, fell into that latter group.
As for the women, their fate was grim: Evelyn despised them, killing them swiftly—after prolonged torment.
Aware of everything she had done, Snow Lionheart knew he could kill her without feeling a thing.
Hours crawled by. The torture continued.
Snow endured the pain with a terrifying steadiness much like Frey .. and that only made Evelyn happier. Someone was finally withstanding her "love" without breaking, which meant she could get even more creative.
"You really are wonderful, Snow Lionheart. Your endurance is impressive ..you might be the one I’ve been searching for all these years!"
She said it as she wrapped up another session.
Snow was soaked in blood; there wasn’t a patch she hadn’t carved. Even so, his golden eyes still burned just as fiercely.
"Sorry ..you’re not my type. I suggest you find someone else," he said, dryly, even in that state.
"You’re cruel. No matter what I’m doing, I’m at least confident in how I look." Striking a provocative pose, she closed in. "No use lying .. you do find me attractive, don’t you?"
"It’s hard to call a lunatic who enjoys flaying people ’attractive.’" Snow spat blood at her.
The blood stopped in the air before it could touch her.
"That’s because you don’t understand what love is. I’ll make you understand, eventually."
"And what makes you so sure this will last?" Snow asked .. talking more than he usually would.
Evelyn noticed, but humored him anyway. "You think you’ll escape? Sorry .. that’s impossible."
She paced through her theater of torment.
"This place is completely secret. No one knows it exists but me, so your friends won’t find you. And you won’t break free of me .. I control every drop of blood in your body. In other words..."
"You’re not going anywhere."
Snow exhaled a long breath as the sacred aura quietly set to mending him again.
"What about the war? Don’t the Ultras need their Hollow?"
She shrugged. "Who cares about them or their stupid war? I already got what I wanted. I have no reason to go back."
"I see..."
Snow’s smile sharpened. "You know you’re going to lose, don’t you? Your only hope is the demons. The Ultras alone aren’t enough anymore."
He pressed the blade in. "Even without me, Frey alone is more than enough to deal with you."