Chapter 10: The depths of Desperation

Subaru, Felix, Wilhelm, Mimi, and Tivey had just finished dealing with Betelgeuse which they blasted, leaving nothing but a burn mark on the ground. They had regrouped with the rest. But just as they were about to leave.

"GET DOWN"

Subaru shouted with the top of his voice, he throws a fire gem towards the forest, it exploded, kicking up dust into the air. Julius turns back and unsheaths his sword, Ricardo grabbing the siblings and ducked down. Wilhelm grabs his swords and moves to block Felix. From the dust, Something can be seen through it was unclear.

"Julius, Wilhelm, unseen hands are gonna come through that dust cloud, get ready!"

They got ready, everyone else backed up. A sudden gust of wind can be felt and something moved towards Julius, it made a trail of dust allowing Julius to predict its movements, he hops back and slashes forward, he felt some kind of force slightly opposing his strike.

"Julius! Get back"

He took a few jumps back and the hands seem to retract back into the forest.

"Huh, they're gone... that was weird, didn't we destroy his body back then?"

"Yea Mimi blasted him to bits!"

They all got up in a fighting position scanning the area. He felt something coming out from the forest again.

"On your guard!"

Everyone took out their weapons ready to attack anything in sight but nothing came.

Rustling grass can be heard, and then suddenly.

"Uwagh!"

Something grabbed Subaru by the foot and dragged him into the forest, everyone else turned towards him, they were shocked. Wilhelm rushed over to the direction where Subaru was dragged in but was stopped by a group of cultist, appearing from the ground. Everyone got on guard and started fighting.

Meanwhile, Subaru was dragged roughly through the forest floor, his face scraping the ground.

After some time, "OWCH! Hey, can't you be a little bit- UGH!" He was flung up and dark purple arms wrapped around his body, pinning him to a tree.

Infront of him appeared another cultist, "My Brain... It TREMBLES!"

Huh, isn't that...

He looked up, he noticed he was upside down, he saw the cultist, she was a woman, her face not covered by her cloak.

"You... are one of his... finger things right?"

He tried his best to talk but the arms were squeezing him tight.

"Finger... YES, I am a finger, one who reciprocates love. A finger, diligent and devoted, I will carry out the ordeal, following loves guidance!"

She started doing movements that highly resembles Betelgeuse's own. She reached into her pocket and searched for something.

"NO... NO, NO NO NO! My gospel, my proof of love, its gone, stolen, purloined! You! It was you, you took it!"

She rushes over to Subaru, screaming from the top of her voice, Subaru closes his eyes as the grip from the unseen hands tighten, she kept on approaching but then she stops.

Subaru opens his eyes and a red light appears, it went towards the cultist, she freaked out.

"SPIRIT! No, stay away from me, stay away!"

The unseen hands released Subaru and were now trying to fend off the spirit. Subaru slid to the ground, head first. He gets up and hurls a fire gem towards the cultist, it missed narrowly, suddenly the spirit shone and the gem exploded, blasting the cultist to the side.

She got up and was about to attack Subaru until Wilhelm appeared and finished her off.

"Subaru-dono, are you fine?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. We should be more careful, they appear so suddenly."

They both regrouped with the rest, everyone glad that Subaru had not died. Subaru walked over to Julius and questioned him.

"Hey Julius, this little thing, you know anything about it."

The red spirit floats around Julius as he raises his hand towards it.

"Yes, she is one of my Quasi-spirits, La. I sent her to look for you while we fought the cultists blocking the path."

Subaru tried to touch the spirit, the spirit just hovers around his hand, avoiding contact.

"Hmm, you seem to have a good affinity with spirits..."

"Really? The only spirits I've known are a grey cat and a drill loli, anyway we should get going, someone from the mansion should be waiting for us at Arlam village."

So they set off for the Arlam village, little did they know, they were being watched and followed from afar. They were about to reach Arlam village, Subaru had put on a cloak, the one Emilia used when she was outside.

"Hey, Subaru-kyun... why are you wearing that?"

"Well, someone from the mansion is waiting, if its Emilia, then the whole plan will fall apart when she sees me, if I use this then she shouldn't be able to tell it's me, it was woven with a spell that conceals the wearers face. This was her's, ill return it later when everything over."

"Good thinking Subaru-kyun"

They had arrived and they got out one by one, the villagers seemed to gather around, but one person stood out from the rest, it was a pink haired maid, she approached them from the crowd.

"Umm, Subaru-kyun, is it me, or did Rem-san change her hair color?" Felix Whispers to Subaru.

"No, that's not Rem, it's her sister"

Felix, Julius, and Subaru also started to approach her.

"I assume you are the ones that sent us the letter about the alliance?"

"Yes, but sadly we can't explain it now, time is limited and the village is endangered," Julius said

"Understood," She said.

The maid bowed and the three approached the villagers, but then she grabbed on to the cloak Subaru was wearing and yanked him back, his face was still concealed.

"I know it's you Barusu"

"Owch, what are you talking about!" He protested as he fell to the ground. Everyone's attention was now on them.

"Don't play dumb Barusu, your disguise is inferior to Ram's great mind"

She looks down at him with a displeased look.

"Dammit! But how, this cloak should've hidden my face, there was no way you could tell it was me!"

He gets back on his feet, thinking of the possible ways she could have found out, but none came to mind.

"The cloak may hide the users face, but the cloak itself is still distinguishable. When Emilia-sama returned, I noticed she didn't have her cloak, she normally would, so I suspected that she left it with you, and since your wearing it, I was correct" Subaru sighs.

"Well, I guess there's nothing I can do to trick Nee-sama. Anyway, Ram, your the only one here right"

"Yes, Emilia-sama and Rem are back at the mansion"

She starts to walk up to him, Subaru was confused but then widened his eyes when she raised a fist, he knew where this is going.

"Woah! I'm sorry but can't that wait, I still need to make an announcement!"

He shrinks back and covers himself with his arms. She glares at him and crosses her arms. Everyone but Felix and Wilhelm was confused by this interaction.

Everyone was now gathered at the village center, Subaru was standing on a box, Ram and Ricardo were to his left, Julius, Felix, and Wilhelm was to his right.

"Everyone! I need to ask you to please evacuate the village, there is a massive threat currently approaching, if you stay here we cannot guarantee your safety, so please."

The crowd started to panic a bit but the elder came up and asks a question.

"May we know what the threat is?"

Subaru took a few steps and kneeled to the elder and whispered something in his ear.

"Sorry but all we can say is that this threat can burn down the whole village if we don't stop it quickly, I can't address this to everyone as it would cause panic but rest assured we can handle it as long as everyone is evacuated."

The old man eyes were in shock he nods and turns to the others villagers. Then Ram came up.

"These are the words of our master Roswall-sama, you should do as he says"

With that, the preparations for the evacuation has started.

Subaru was discussing things with Ram before she went back and informed everyone in the mansion.

"Make sure not to tell the others that I'm here"

"Will do"

Suddenly a group of kids approached them, the one leading them was a girl with chestnut hair, a red ribbon was tied to it. Her name was Petra.

"Subaru"

"Oh, Petra, something wrong," he asked, kneeling down to their level. "Um, is that lady with the cloak and Rem-rin coming with us?"

"The lady came to us yesterday and told us to take refuge in the mansion because she felt like something was wrong, but no one in the village listened to her"
She and the other kids looked down, Subaru stood up and patted Petra on the head. "It's ok Petra, she was just worried, she won't get mad, you guys should go and hurry up" They nodded and scurried off.

Subaru turned to Ram. "What happened after that?"

Ram was facing the other children, "She refused to let them go unprotected so she reinforced the barrier, in case of another mabeast attack" Subaru nods "And... hows Rem"

There was a minute of silence, Ram didn't say anything, neither did Subaru.

.

.

.

.

"Ummm, Nee-"

"She's been crying at night... I'll take my leave and inform everyone at the mansion. When this is over, I'll half kill you Barusu" With that she leaps off, not giving Subaru a chance to reply. "U- Wait!" Subaru sighs and goes to meet up with the rest.

"Hey Subaru-kyun, mind helping me check this carriage" Felix appeared from a carriage as Subaru was passing. "Oh, Sure"

Felix tugged him in, "We should inspect the goods thoroughly to make sure nothing here is fishy"

"Oh, but shouldn't that be the-"

"Hey, hey! If you guys are gonna do something sick, go do it somewhere else!"

A merchant appeared from the back of the carriage and approached them, he was angry.

"Ohhh, looks like you got caught Subaru-kyun, really you should have chosen a better spot" Felix jolted up and started to walk away "W-wait what! But you said-"

"AGHH!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Felix had drained considerable amounts of mana from the merchant. The merchant fell limp to the ground in pain.

"He's a cultist, I touched him earlier to make sure" Felix said coldly, Subaru was surprised as he observed the twitching merchant "One was among the merchants?!"

"Yep, that's why I was in his carriage"

"Well then why did I have to be here, couldn't you ask someone else!" Subaru protested.

"Aww, but no one else was around nya-"

Felix kneels down beside him and puts a glowing blue hand on his face.

"Nyow, tell us all your plans, my hands are the gentlest in the world ya know"

The blue glow on Felix's hand glowed brighter. The merchant's mouth grew into a sickening smile. Subaru felt something bad.

"What?" The cultist murmured and then started laughing maniacally "Ferris! Get back!" Subaru grabbed Felix by the arm and tried to run out of the carriage, but after a loud explosion, his vision faded.

"Hey, Subaru-kyun, don't die just yet ok" Subaru heard a voice, he opened his eyes and looked around, he saw smoke, he heard screaming.

"What happened?"

"Well, there was explosion when we exited the carriage, luckily La was able to protect us from the blast. Anyway, let's get going nya-"

Subaru got up with the help of Felix and sprinted off.

"What happened here!"

He heard screams of terror and pain coming from the town center, he saw blood splattered on the walls of buildings and severed body parts of cultists.

"That merchant brought in the Witch Cult and is nyow attacking the village, fortunately, most of the villagers were gathered in one spot and we were able to fend them off from there."

They rushed over to the town square there, they saw Wilhelm fighting off the merchant they were interrogating.
Subaru saw unseen hands sprouting from his back, Wilhelm kicked up dust in order to dodge them, he got near and slice him from the bottom up, he falls down with a slice through his chest, he continued screaming unfathomable words of love.

But then an explosion blasted Wilhelm away. Subaru saw bits of littered body parts on the floor.

They can self-destruct?!

"Wilhelm-san!"

Subaru ran up to Wilhelm, he was knocked unconscious. Felix got to there and started healing him.

As Felix was healing Wilhelm more screams can be heard, it was a woman, she had unseen hands coming right at Subaru "Why are you not dead yet!" She protested.

Before they reached him they were cut off effortlessly by Julius, Patarasche also joined into the scene.

"Things are getting out of hand here Subaru, at this rate, we might have some casualties"

"Damn it! Julius, Ill deal with this one, you go ahead and help the others" Without letting him reply Subaru dashed off, he stood in front of the cultist and calls out, "Hey there! Are you looking for something!"

From his pocket, Subaru takes out a black book, with several patterns on it, it was Betelgeuse's gospel. The woman stopped her rampaging and stared at Subaru as he waves the book in the air.

"My gospel!" She screamed out "Give it back!"

"Yeah right, your gonna have to catch me first!"

Subaru jumps on Patarashce and they sprinted off towards the forest, the cultist follows them, throwing and catching herself with the unseen hands. They entered deep into the forest, Subaru was hoping to lose her there, but unfortunately, she was able to find him.

He then got of Patarasche and threw the gospel down.

"So you finally surrender, Yes!" the cultist said in ecstasy, she was about to run for it until.

"Hold on just a minute" Subaru raised said this and raised his hand, he was holding a crystal, it wasn't a fire one, it glowed a bright green, "This is a barrier crystal, its used to keep mabeast away"

"What?" The woman tilts her head seemingly confused with this.

Subaru heard growling and pointed to it, she turns her head to the sound and suddenly, several Ulgram lunges on to her, mauling her down to bits.

Subaru picks up the gospel and starts to walk away, but then he heard yelping and whining. it was not from the woman, it was from the mabeast. He turns around and sees the woman trying to get up. By the looks of it, she is definitely dying. She slumped to the ground, she looks up to Subaru and said one last thing. "The gospel... the love... will be seized..."

Making his way back to the village on his Earth Dragon, Subaru saw several unseen hands from the distance, he whipped the reins and Patarasche let out a roar, they made it to the center of the village and saw the last finger. He saw several terrified villagers backing away from him. Then he heard something.

"That is enough villain" (there's gotta be a better word than villain right?)

Standing on a wooden beam, there was Emilia, puck floating beside her.

As Subaru saw her he panicked, he got off Patarasche and hid behind her, he put on his cloak and got back up.

The Cultist was now staring at her, his mouth hanging down, his unseen hands stayed in place.

"I won't allow you to cause any more destruction" Emilia's voice rang like a silver bell.

"AAAH! How magnificent! Splendid! What a grand moment!"

In the next moment, all the unseen hands previously inanimate burst forward towards Emilia, there was a field of ice particles around her so she was able to dodge it.

"Ah, the witch, the love, my love, my love!"

Several ice spears formed around Emilia, "I wouldn't blame you from being charmed by my daughter, but I'll keep all unwanted pests away from her" the icicle spears shot forward towards the single cultist, he used his unseen hands to swipe them from the side, effectively dispelling them. "Naive" he screamed, summoning more unseen hands at her. "Such a perfect vessel, why have you been hiding, curse my slothful for not finding her earlier!"

Emilia dodged the unseen hands again and has formed a large spear and shot it towards him, the cultist clumped all of his unseen hands together and forced the spear back, though he wasn't strong enough and the force pushed him backward.

Puck then froze the ground, spikes of ice popping from the ground, it froze his legs and his hands. He continued laughing maniacally, Emilia jumps over to him and raises the palm of her hand to his face. "Thank you for being beaten" a blast of cold air froze his entire body, the last finger was now dead, the battle is over.

Everyone was now silent they all looked at Emilia in awe and some in regret.

Julius and Felix approaches Subaru and lets out a sigh, "Looks like it's over"

"Nya- it was fun while it lasted"

From the corner of a building two people were approaching him, it was Ram, now with Rem. Rem came up to Felix with hopeful, yet sad eyes. Subaru flinched when he saw Rem.

"F-Ferris..."

"Ow, Rem-san, good to see you alright nya-"

"Uhm, Ferris, have you seen-"

She was going to ask him about Subaru until she felt something in the air, she turns over to Subaru, his cloak still on, Ram widened her eyes. Subaru was now incredibly nervous and tensed. He decided to keep up the charades.

"U-Uh... hi there..." they could tell the nervousness in his voice. They all looked at Rem, her eyes looked terrifying, she detected the witches scent around this man, was he one of them, she thought, she just continued glaring at him.

Subaru started waving his hands, "U-Uhm, hello?" Suddenly, La was flung out of him, he felt something coming inside him, he felt it infiltrating his mind, corrupting his heart, he took a step back and ran towards the forest. Everyone was surprised by this, they tried to follow him but Rem was held back by Ram.

"Rem, let them handle it"

"Nee-sama..."

Ram shakes her head and they went to meet up with Emilia.

In the forest, Subaru ran, he clutched his head as he felt his consciousness fading away, he tripped and fell down, allowing for Felix and Julius to catch up to him.

"Subaru!" Julius called up "Subaru-kyun, why'd you run off like that!"

"GET AWAY!" Subaru screamed, he tried to get himself up but then he suddenly stopped, his body fell to the ground, the other two were now on guard.

"Your slothfulness has lead to this..." they heard Subaru say.

"Subaru?" x2 they called out.

"Your too late... now let me introduce myself... my name is Betelgeuse Romanee Conti, Desu-!"

Julius and Felix jumped back in horror as they heard this, "The moment La flung off Subaru I had a bad feeling..."

'Betelgeuse' was now in control of Subaru, he started getting picking himself up, tilting his head till they heard a snap.

"Ahhh, what a great vessel, though your body would work much better, had you ridden it of those vile spirits"

Julius glares down at him and tries to call out to Subaru, "Subaru! I know you're in there, you have to break free!"

He starts laughing maniacally, "There is nothing you can do, it's too late!"

"No..." x2 they muttered as they stared at him, His laughing died down, he was now looking down, and he murmured something.

"kill... me..."

"Huh?" x2 the other two looked at him "I... said... KILL ME!" He rushes over to Julius and grabs him by the collar, "Kill me now Julius, kill me before it gets any worse!"

"What, No! Subaru, there has to be another way!" Subaru shoves him down and grabs his sword and backs off.

He unsheathes it but then, "No, just when I got a new body, it goes and kills it- no! I'll kill myself a thousand times, till your dead!"

"Subaru NO!"

Subaru backs off and starts running again, he had dropped Julius's sword, he is now holding onto a fire gem. He tried to get as far as possible from everyone as to not get attention. He starts crushing the fire gem in his hand, it started glowing and heated up, his hand now burning.

He dropped it, and took out the other one, he aimed and smacked them together, it resulted in an explosion, the booming sound could be heard from the village.

He felt his body being torn apart, he felt his blood burning, gushing out of his severed limbs, he felt his vision... fading to black...

A/N

Wooh, that was an intense chapter to make, I made this in one day but I delayed the release cuz why not. Not gonna say anything more... Anyway, Remember me? The fic is closing in on the emotional climax, though it's still a week or two away, so heads up.

I went ahead and changed the titles for chaps 1 - 5 since now i'm a little better at title making, right?

Anyhow, someone has appeared, they're translating arc 5 (Sartriest i think?), 2 chaps every week and now I'm hyped! You should be too!

Upload speeds may vary, soo yeah...