"Are you waiting for Katarina?"
The figure walked slowly through the dim light. Only when she approached Stratford did he make out her appearance.
First came pale golden hair, then an exquisite face and a breathtaking figure concealed beneath her dress. Stratford stared fixedly at her face, his dazed expression suddenly changing as he cried out:
"You're... the Golden Queen!"
The hand holding the cross of golden light trembled, and the Mystical Item fell to the floor. Even suppressed by an Imperative Mage's prohibition, it had still retained some of its radiance.
The moment the spikes on its surface lost their supply of blood, it reverted to its original, mottled, verdigris-covered appearance. Its pure light vanished within, leaving it looking like a cheap ornament someone had tossed into a trash can.
"That's right, it's me. Disappointed that it wasn't Katarina, the White Saint?"
Angel chuckled and walked past Stratford, whose body trembled slightly and who could not muster the slightest thought of resistance. Without ceremony, she claimed the living room's only armchair.
Surrounded by three Demonesses, each distinctive in appearance but colder in expression than the last, Stratford felt no joy at all. Instead, he quietly swallowed.
If he had still possessed the courage to use the cross against Shermane and Trissy moments earlier, the Golden Queen's arrival left him without the slightest chance of victory, even if he strapped crosses all over his body. Unless...
"...Unless Katarina comes to save you, right?"
Seated before him, Angel asked with a soft chuckle. Her calves peeked out beneath her skirt, making Stratford involuntarily imagine the delights concealed beneath it. At her words, he merely raised his head in stunned silence, the last sliver of hope in his heart extinguished.
A Saint who served as the Demoness Sect's liaison with the royal