Crimson Afterglow Part 2 (紅蓮の残影 中編) is a side story featured in Monthly Comic Alive. It was later adapted into Re:Zero Ex Light Novel Volume 5.
Summary[]
A short time passed by after the Imperial Selection had started. Prisca, back at her mansion, reflected on how only eleven people, including herself, had been left standing after they'd unsheathed the Yang Sword. From the 32 candidates who'd been present at the ceremony, some of them had perished after being incinerated by their Yang Sword, whilst others had refused to even try to take ahold of it. Prisca quickly identified that from the ten people she was competing with, Vincent Abellux was her greatest threat. Which was why she'd allowed Lamia to visit her today, who came bearing a proposition of alliance. Lamia offered Prisca to join forces with her already growing coalition, which would eventually strike against Vincent, which included her infamous Pruning Corps. After some tense exchanges between them, Lamia mentioned to Prisca that she didn't need to give her reply yet, but the next time she came visiting, she'd be coming to hear it. Prisca quickly realised that this would occur after Lamia had finished with the "pruning"; and on that note, Lamia left the mansion. Arakiya, who had been hiding in the shadows keeping an eye on the exchange, came out of her hiding and asked Prisca if it had gone well. Prisca replied that it had gone neither well or bad. After some further conversation between the two of them, Arakiya asked her what Lamia had meant by using the term "pruning". Prisca responded that in short, Lamia was taking care of a few routine tasks to bring the Imperial Selection Ceremony back to normalcy, supplementing her reply with the metaphor of pruning leaves and branches from a tree.
A short while after Lamia left the Benedict Estate, she went to the Fitts Estate to visit her older half-brother, Barthroy Fitts. Barthroy had been one of the dissenters at the Imperial Selection Ceremony who'd refused to even take the Yang Sword that had materialised in front of him. Along with him, another nine people had done the same following his persuasions. Lamia had told Barthroy that if she obtained the throne, she'd put Barthroy and those other siblings under her protection. The two of them talked about their agreement, in which Barthroy recalled how when she'd been younger, Lamia had asked him if there really was no way for them to not get hurt. That had led Barthroy to chose Lamia now to help carry out his gentler ideals for the country, and pit his forces, along with the other nine dissenters, against Vincent. However, Lamia had feigned her pact with Barthroy, and as they talked, had poisoned the wine he was drinking from. Barthroy died shortly after, realising just before he breathed his last that he'd been set up by Lamia, meaning that she could pass his death off as an enemy attack and gain total control over the other nine dissenters via fear.
A few moments after Barthroy's death, Berstetz Fondalfon arrived at the scene and reported to Lamia, his superior, that they'd taken care of establishing control around the Fitts estate. Lamia thanked him for his work, and the two of them continued with their plan, which would ultimately involve framing Barthroy's death as the work of the enemy to the remaining nine dissenting siblings.
Some time after achieving that goal, Lamia gathered her coalition forces which were made up of her Pruning Corps, the forces of the nine dissenters, some of her siblings' forces who were participating in the Selection, and Prisca's forces outside of one of the Abellux castles where Vincent and his forces were holed up in. Prisca, who was stationed at the summit of a hill, looked down on the amassing forces realising that this would be the climax of the Imperial Selection. She began engaging in some idle talk with Arakiya, but was interrupted by one of her soldiers bringing her a message from Berstetz, instructing her to move her forces to the rearguard when the attack commenced.
A short while after this instruction was conveyed, Lamia gave the order to attack her Pruning Corps. The Pruning Corps drove forwards into the defensive formation that Vincent had organised in front of his castle, only to be met by Cecilus, who'd been stationed with them. Cecilus began to massacre the Corps members using his lightning fast speed and katanas all on his own. Meanwhile, as the battle broke out, Prisca tried to leave her designated post with her troops; however, she was stopped by Palladio Manesque communicating to her telepathically with his Evil Eye ability. Though Palladio was suspicious of Prisca, imagining she would betray Lamia's coalition army, Prisca laughed off his concerns and cut off the telepathic link with him. Then she turned to her troops and told them they were going to destroy Vincent Abellux, and that they should merely follow her to do it.
As this was going on, Vincent Abellux and Chisha Gold had left the safety of their castle to execute a plan that the latter had come up with. However, as they walked through the forest in the vicinity of the castle, they were interrupted by Prisca who'd predicted their movements. With her troops at her back, Prisca readied herself to fight Vincent.
