"No.. no! Stop! Please! Help us, Eugeo!"

Those were the words of one Tiese Shtolienen as she lay there, bound to a bed alongside her friend Ronie, both of them about to be violated against their will by the two sick bastards who had tied them up like this. A few feet from the bed, Eugeo - the boy she was a valet to - stood there, face contorted in pain as he wanted to intervene but couldn't - thanks to the Taboo Index. A seemingly simple set of laws that dictated what people could or couldn't do here in the underworld at first, until you eventually realized that they came with some pretty disturbing loopholes. One of which, Tiese along with Ronie was currently on the receiving end of right now and one that was opening up some childhood trauma she didn't want to remember.

Bad traumatic memories at that, and it shows. Tiese is hysterically wailing now, even more so than Ronie - and Eugeo can't bring himself to move to stop it. Simply forced to watch.

It's sick, it's twisted - but it's reality. It's a reality that Tiese can do nothing to escape from it.

"Ah.. ah.. n-no.. Eugeo-senpai! Help me! Mom! Dad! Eugeo-senpai!"

Eugeo can do nothing — he can only stand there and watch as the girls get violated. It's hopeless — it's just like Alice all those years ago. Pure hopeless — and then..

CRASH!

It wasn't.

The sound of glass shattering and the sound of cannons going off, people screaming, airship motors and blades running, airships hovering in the air, and more have both Humbert and Raios stop what they are doing and then both have a chill run up their spines. Both of them feel.. fear.

"Raios, there's something right behind us.. isn't there..?" Humbert asks nervously, as a very low yet very angry growl can be heard behind both of them. Tiese can't see much of what exactly is behind the two nobles, but in the brief second Raios turns around to look and turns back with the fear of god on his face, she gets a glimpse of an airship with cannons outside and parts of Centoria in flames framing dark blue hair.

"Yeah.. there is.. and he's very angry.." Raios says, before a hand reaches around and grabs Raios by the throat and then the man is screaming in horror as he is literally dragged off of the bed like a ragdoll and onto the floor. Humbert steps away from the bed in horror as Tiese gets her first look at who the unexpected third party is — it might be from his side, but it's enough for her to know that he isn't anyone that she knows.

He's shorter than Raios, yet the fact that he dragged the man off the bed like a ragdoll makes it immediately apparent that this guy isn't a skinny weakling by any stretch of the imagination. Metal spiked cuffs dot both of his wrists, and he carries what appears to be a magic wand with a blue tip in one hand while clenching his other into a fist, his foot on the throat of Raios beneath him. Aside from that, Tiese is sure that she has never seen anyone — human for that matter — with such large, wild dark blue hair, grey eyes, and the single overbite fang in the middle of his mouth. With the way he dressed — with such fancy yet durable clothing partially splattered with blood, you would have thought that this guy was a high ranking noble on the field of battle, at least that's what Tiese thought anyway.

The other major thing about him is that unlike Eugeo, this guy didn't seem to be affected by the Taboo Index — at all. It was like it didn't even exist for this guy — which flew in the face of everything that Tiese knew. Even so, still bound and unable to get free, she could only watch as this mysterious and unexpected savior glared down at Raios, eyes filled with rage and anger.

"I.. am only going to ask you vhis once.." he speaks, speaking with an accent that Tiese has never even heard before. "Vhat in vhe name of Koopa are you doing vith my bride, you piece of vhit..?"

A collective gasp is let out from the mouths of everyone in the room, as those words could not have been more clear. Whoever this man was, he considered Tiese to be his bride. Tiese for her part was now more scared than before — who even was this guy? Why was he saying that she was his bride?

"Y..your b..bride..?" Raios gasped, the man desperately gasping for air under the foot of this person. "W..what madness.. are.. you.. talking.. about..?"

Slice.

With a single flick of the wand, and a flash of blue light, up goes one of Raios' arms to the ceiling and then back down to the floor, severed from his body. Screaming from him instantly follows. "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! MY ARM! S.. Stop this! Please..! I didn't know she was your bride! Have mercy, p..please!" he begs, but from the look in the man's eyes, Tiese knows the cold hard truth. Raios is not going to get mercy.

"You touched my bride, so now you pay vhe price, you asshole.." the boy hisses, as Raios flails helplessly beneath him. A split second later, the sound of his neck being crushed by the boot of the boy echoes throughout the room and the flailing stops. Tiese can't utter a word, not believing what has just occurred at all. She's in shock — and while she is, things continue to happen around her.

By this time, Kirito had arrived, just to see the figure stomp Raios' neck and end the man's life. He turns to the broken window and even he is frozen by fear at what is going on outside. In the dark of night, partially illuminated by the fires below, a fleet of airships of varying sizes are ravaging Centoria — though the destruction appears to be centered to those in power which inevitably includes parts of the academy too.

"What.. the hell.. is this..?" Kirito mutters, just as the boy turns to Humbert, who rightfully so gets on the floor and begs for mercy. But just like Raios, the boy has no mercy, which is evident from the fact that he grabs one of Raios' swords on his way over to Humbert. With a single kick, he kicks Humbert onto his back and then places his foot onto his chest.

Humbert is terrified.

"You might call yourself a noble, but know vhis.." the boy spats. "..a Koopa crown prince always gets vhat he vants.. and right now, vhat I vant is my bride, Tiese Shtolienen. And to vhose vho violate her and vhose dear to her, vhe consequences are.. deadly." And with that, he decapitates Humbert's head from his body with one swing using Raios' sword. One scream emits from the man before he goes quiet, and the terrified sobs of Ronie are now the only sounds that emit in the room apart from what's going on outside.

The boy now turns towards Kirito and Eugeo. "Are you two friends of vheirs..?" he asks, and both boys can only nod. Kirito has seen many things so far, but even he hasn't seen anything like what has happened in here. And as a result, even he's afraid that he might do something that'll make him end up like Raios or Humbert.

The boy gets on the bed and unties Ronie, who immediately scampers over to Kirito, hugging him and crying and sobbing uncontrollably. "Apologies for all of vhis.. but seriously, keep her safe.. vorld already has enough monsters as it is.." the boy says, a bit more cynically and yet somewhat empathetically too.

Kirito nods.

Eugeo, however, speaks up. "You're not going to hurt her, are you..?" he asks, rightfully concerned for Tiese.

The boy shakes his head as he scoots over to the shaken, sobbing girl. "No.. we Koopas may do bad vhings to others.. but hurting people vhat might become our family.. vhat's a big red line" he says back, with honesty seeping through his voice.

As he unties Tiese, the girl finally finds the courage to speak up. "Who.. who even are you..?" she asks. The boy is silent for a few moments, and then gives her an answer that flips her world upside down.

"Vhe name is Ludwig Von Koopa, crown prince of vhe Koopa Kingdom. My adopted vather, King Bowser, saved you vhen you vere little — he still remembers doing vhat and promised you to me vhen ve're old enough."

Just like that, Tiese's whole world changed as she once again fell into shock, so much so that she didn't even remember Ludwig picking her up bridal style and levitating from Raios' bedroom up to a waiting airship.

When her parents receive word of the attack on Centoria and of Tiese being taken, both of Tiese's parents can only just hope, take good care of our daughter Bowser. You may have damaged our trust, but we will never not be thankful for what you did for our daughter that day.