Re: Level (never) Zero
A Re:Zero x Solo Leveler crossover fanfiction.
Chapter 11: Slothly death
"Now, now, now, come forth! He mocks and scorns the exalted Witch, violates Her trial and Her favor! Rend his flesh into tiny pieces and offer him to the Witch!"
When Petelgeuse's command fell from the sky, Witch Cultists hidden in the cave under the cliff appeared in the forest without a sound. They had not attended mine and Petelgeuse's conversation, but now that they knew I was their foe, they had no reason to hesitate. Their steps seemed to glide along the ground as they pursued me and the land dragon.
Petelgeuse was above the treetops, and at their backs, the Witch Cultists were ferociously chasing them—
"Here they come here they come here they come! Patrasche , hang in there!"
"—!"
At my precise command, Patrasche dealt with the crisis using her speed, crashing through the slender trees that impeded her large frame. She trampled upon roots, vaulted over a depression, and snapped leafy branches apart as she charged straight forward, heading for their destination by the shortest possible route. Her body was now even tougher with the armor I purchased for her.
[Queen Dragon Reigns] +15 Agility +20% damage reduction.
Her speed had increased by quite a bit, managing to stay around a couple of yards or so ahead of the idiot chasing us.
"Futile! Meaningless! I shall catch up to you! Even that diligent land dragon's resistance shall be blotted out, overridden by diligence of my OWN!"
From afar, mad shouts poured down upon them, and the tyrannical evil hands poured down like a waterfall.
They aimed at the sprinting Patrasche , each landing in the forest with all the force of a cannonball. Huge trees were broken at the trunk and sent flying, with dust clouds swirling up from the ground being pulverized over and over.
But, despite that waterfall, the dust cloud, and the madman's hatred pouring down, the land dragon ferociously burst through.
"—"
Patrasche , roaring loudly, was largely unscathed. The land dragon had slipped through the attacks, protecting me and herself. She had faithfully seen all of my commands through.
"Sorry for leaning on you this hard… You're truly the best, Patrasche !"
"Howeverhoweverhoweveeeer! It ends HERE!"
Petelgeuse's cackling, laughing voice interrupted my praise for my favorite dragon's valiant efforts. Pointing beneath him, the madman was not speaking of Unseen Hands. Rather, he indicated the group of black figures chasing them.
"—"
With cross-patterned swords in hand, the Witch Cultists pursued the land dragon with unthinkable speed. The menace they posed far exceeds that of Petelgeuse's clumsy attacks.
At that rate, the Witch Cult's blades would slice apart the land dragon's scales, whittling her life away. But a moment before that could happen—
"Wah—!" "Ha—!"
A high-pitched double roar made the air tremble, becoming a shock wave that bore through the world.
These very particular voices formed a roar wave that enveloped large trees and boulders in a straight line, rocking the atmosphere as it slammed into the Witch Cultists. Bloody mist danced in the air where the shock wave had slammed into the group.
There are only three people in this world capable of using such voices.
"Whoaaa! You were in a super-tight spot, mister! You were totally gonna die just now!"
"You were in danger of slightly missing the rendezvous point. This is thanks to Sister's intuition."
With a great and silly laugh, the beast people siblings, Mimi and TB, lined up alongside me riding their large dogs. Their roar wave having rescued him from peril, I looked over to them and raised a fist.
"Hey, I was going all out back there! But thanks, I thought I was gonna bite it!"
"Ohh, thank you! You are very welcome! Yaay!"
"I understand your feelings of confusion… The man above is an Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, correct?"
Ignoring my and Mimi's banter, TB glared up at the sky and inquired in a tense voice. The little cat's monocle-covered eye caught sight of the madman, his habit flapping in the wind, and narrowed.
"What's that, that's amazing! That old man's all balled up and flying! Amazing!"
"I have never before seen such a creepy method of flight."
"Ohh, right! That's what it looks like to you two!"
I, being able to see Unseen Hands, and Mimi and TB were viewing reality differently. To the two of them, Petelgeuse, balled up like a gymnast, with a 'No talky me angy' face as he "flew" through the air, but Subaru beheld the nightmarish sight of tentacle-like evil hands throwing him again and again—well, both were awful sights, really.
"Either way, I'll deal with that one! Take care of the rear just as planned, 'kay?"
"Understood. Let us go, Sister!"
"Oh yeah! Ah! Mister, mister!"
I continued my seemingly dramatic escape from Petelgeuse while leaving subsequent Witch Cultists to the two of them. But just before changing course and departing, Mimi raised her hand to me—
"If you win, it'll be really cool!"
"Yeah! Leave it to me! The me right now cannot loose"
At Mimi's words, I gave the little cats a thumbs-up as he leaped forward, praying they would have good fortunes once more in this battle.
Split apart by the roar wave they'd eaten, the Witch Cultists bore down on the pair, weapons in hand. At that point other members of the Iron Fangs—Rajan and company—leaped in from all directions, whereupon general combat began.
I turned my back on the clashing of swords and pointed tauntingly at Petelgeuse high overhead.
"Come on, Lord Archbishop! If you get distracted by kitties and lose track of me, you'll never live it down!"
"—You, you, how far, how far will you go, how, why?!"
Naturally, even Petelgeuse's cheeks stiffened as his attacks were thwarted over and over. Having arrived in the current situation from having lost himself to rage, the madman finally realized that he was in a disadvantageous circumstance. His fingers lurking in the forest had been destroyed one by one, his Unseen Hands, in which he'd held absolute confidence, had been seen by another, and that very moment, his disciples had been ambushed and split apart, and Petelgeuse was alone.
Did that situation not mean he had been dancing on the palm of my hand in every way?
"That cannot be! There is nothing! Nothing recorded of this in my Gospel! What are you, then?! YOU receive favor, and yet you belittle the Witch! You resist, you obstruct the trial I conduct, thwart my PLANS…!"
In midair, Petelgeuse clutched his Gospel, holding it high as he shouted.
His fingers had been taken away, and his authority was ineffective. He did not know it yet, but Emilia and the others had already been evacuated, so his vile acts to bring about the trial had failed before they had begun.
Perhaps, to Petelgeuse, this was what a nightmare looked like.
"Who…what are you…?!"
Petelgeuse screamed at the absurdity of it all, froth rising to the corners of his mouth.
With a shit eating smile I calmly replied, "I'm doing this particular level for the fifth time—when it comes to nightmares, I've seen enough to kill me."
I didn't care about Petelgeuse's confusion or his laments. Deny it all he could, it was useless. The instant before his eyes was the future I'd crossed multiple nightmares to reach—
"You truly, trulytrulytrulytrulyyyy! You are Pride—"
"My name is Subaru Natsuki."
When Petelgeuse shouted tenaciously, teeth creaking, I gave my name.
"Knight of the silver-haired half-elf, Emilia."
"—!"
"I don't know about this Pride business, but that's the only title I want and need. The rest can go to hell!"
I effectively silenced Petelgeuse with a point of his finger and his caustic words. The next moment, the forest opened all at once. Ahead, another rocky place appeared—but this was not the rocky place where Petelgeuse and myself had faced off earlier. That said, it was not my first visit to the spot.
There, once upon a time, I had lost my life due to a misunderstanding.
"What is this place…?!"
"Earlier I came to an end here. So this is the place that'll be your end— It's that kind of spot."
Arriving at their destination, I commanded Patrasche to slow her pace.
Chasing them through the sky, the change in scenery, and my statement made the madman wary, causing his vile visage to contort.
"—"
Petelgeuse released himself from the evil hand grasping him, carrying him through the air, and fell to the ground. The madman landed, slowly lifting his face as he stood opposite the precipice, straight toward me.
"If it was YOUR goal to invite me to this place…what is it you have prepared?"
"That goes without saying. A mortal enemy—yours and mine alike."
When Petelgeuse asked in a low voice, I unmounted from my land dragon and declared as such. My words made the madman grimace. I closed one eye. When I did so—
"—Mortal enemy? Once again, it is quite something, the ways that you address me. Still wouldn't you be the same as we fought to a stalemate?"
The interrupting voice of a third party made Petelgeuse's head practically bounce as it swiveled around.
Petelgeuse already realized that he had been lured. On guard against a surprise attack, the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins stuck a finger into his mouth, strongly biting it as he surveyed the area.
But his caution against a surprise attack was utterly meaningless.
"I did not believe I would ever have another opportunity to hear such words again."
Saying this, the speaker leaped straight down from the top of the precipice to the rocky ground below. A surprise attack seemed unthinkable to him as he landed lightly, using a finger to set his handsome hair, askew from the wind, in order.
"—"
Petelgeuse stifled his voice as his eyes widened, gazing at the handsome figure.
However, the handsome man merely stood at my side, saying nothing of the madman's threatening gaze. Subaru glared at the side of his calm, collected face, grimacing in pronounced annoyance.
"What, you've got a problem with my announcement?" I asked with a smirk.
"No, however It seems you are truly audacious. I am impressed that you would say such a thing in front of me, even now."
"How about I repeat it in your sleep so you see it in your dreams, hmm?"
"I shall pass. Once is quite enough. Should I hear such a statement a second time, it shall be difficult to sear from my memory."
Drawing his slender sword, the knight answered my biting sarcasm with sarcasm of his own.
Subaru couldn't even remember how often the sight of his perfectly kempt royal guardsman uniform and his purple hair swaying in the wind had annoyed him. It burned him that that abominable sight was so dependable that moment.
"Julius Eucleus, assigned to the Knights of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Lugunica."
Identifying himself, Julius poised his drawn knight's sword, pointing its tip toward the madman.
The next instant, lights of six different colors rose up and swirled around Julius, demonstrating their power to the wide-eyed Petelgeuse.
"—I am the sword of the kingdom, the sword that shall strike you down."
"A spirit knight, IS it…? Just how far, truly, just how far will you…"
Petelgeuse's teeth clenched as he received those spoken words. His anger was not so much directed toward Julius for joining to battle as toward the quasi-spirits nestling close to him. On top of that, the madman glared at me and spoke.
"So this, too, is YOUR doing…! Never before have I been so humiliated…!"
"That so? Well, do enjoy—this is your just deserts, y'see."
I replied to Petelgeuse, in whom so much hatred seethed that he clenched his teeth hard enough to split them. Then I patted Patrasche on the head, commanding her to depart from the battlefield.
"You've been a big help this far. We'll settle the rest. I will treat you to some good food afterwards girl"
"—"
Patrasche rubbed my head with her nose in apparent concern before slowly shifting from the rocky place to the forest. Seeing her go, I took a deep breath.
"Let's do this, Julius."
"You're fine with this?" Julius inquired.
I threw my shoulders back at the question. Unshakable determination rested in my eyes as he opened his mouth and spoke."I won't retreat, I won't bend, I won't lose. I don't wanna lose anyone else. He needs to die"
"I am the man who fought you, brutally beating each other with true intent to harm. Though I swear even now that I had a significant reason for doing so, that is no more than self-righteousness so far as you are concerned."
Julius answered my resolve by speaking of the unforgettable karma that existed between us.
"I am not digging up the past in the hopes of washing away the shame. Your resolve is weighty, formed by each decision and action you have taken along the road to this point. Accordingly, I ask you: At this juncture, can you carry out your long-cherished desire with me at your side, not dispirited in any way? And in case that happens, will you truly accept that as well?"
"—"
"Can you trust in me?"
Julius's question was extremely vague, coming off as out of place and even vaguely immature.
"I really like you."
He was taken back.
"That graceful air you give off annoys me, the way you talk sounds stupid and shady as high hell, and on top of that you clearly look down at me, albeit not as much cause I shown that I can be your match and now that I think about it, you kissed Emilia's hand the first time I set eyes on you. When someday I'm lavishing kisses over Emilia-tan's entire body, what, that's gonna be an indirect kiss with you? Gimme a break!"
When he thought back, he'd hated Julius even before they had exchanged words for the first time, but as time went on they became good friends, and Julius could only rely on me once the world 'lost' his memories.
"However, we fought, we exchanged blows and showed each other our true emotions and desires… we put our best and showed each other who and what we are, anything else is irrelevant, you truly are a great knight, that is why I trust you, so that is why I'm counting on you, Julius—everything I have, I give to you."
"—"
I spoke those words to Julius from close enough for two people to shake hands.
Upon hearing those words, Julius closed his eyes. He slowly opened them a few brief seconds later. Julius beheld me in his yellow eyes, nodding strongly toward him.
"Then I shall answer to that trust with all my spirit."
When his sword rose, pointing to the heavens, the quasi-spirits granted their blessing to Julius's decision.
The vibrantly colored quasi-spirits seemed to revolve around the sword as they danced in the sky. Among them, the two quasi-spirits colored white and black emitted the strongest light—and this increased still, strengthening and rising until my vision was practically burned away.
Then, when the light shining on the battlefield with the precipice at its back finally relented, the madman moved.
"…Has your farce finally reached its END?"
Petelgeuse, who had kept his silence while watching the exchange between Julius and me, inclined his head. His eyes were bloodshot as he pointed two bloody fingers toward the pair, creating countless vile, pitch-black hands in the process.
"And just what can you do with the addition of a single spirit knight to the fray? It is absurd that any mere spirit could hinder ME, MY path, MY love, MY diligence! You shall fall! I shall tear the others to pieces! I need only commence the trial anew! For my diligence knows no slothful surrender, nor demise!"
"—"
"Ahh, AHH, ahh, Sloth, Slothslothslothslothslothslothslothsloth—!"
His tongue stretched so far that his throat seemed unable to contain it. Petelgeuse dug wounds into himself deep enough to reach bone as he shouted his premonition of death, sending his Unseen Hands to smash the pair flat in one blow.
The evil hands rushing toward them exceeded a hundred, resembling a tsunami capable of covering the whole world, one that would swallow me and Julius up like two pieces of driftwood, crushing them and tearing them into a thousand pieces—
"—Al Clarista."
A rainbow-colored glimmer flashed forth, mowing the onrushing Unseen Hands down in an instant.
The aurora borealis danced wildly, reflecting light at seemingly random angles to create blades tracing shimmering arcs. Bathed in that glimmer, the black phantasms dispersed like mist down to their roots, and the savagery they were to wreak was permanently halted.
"…What?"
"You should not act so surprised."
Julius, who had swung his rainbow-imbued blade, elegantly replied to Petelgeuse's dumbfounded utterance.
"If they can touch us, we can touch them. If mutual interference is possible, a rainbow aura imbued with the six elements can cut it."
The six types of quasi-spirits contracted with Julius all rested within the cavalier's sword, giving off rainbow hues. The glimmering aurora of his blade turned it into a beautiful and frighteningly powerful enchanted blade.
However, that wasn't what was bothering Petelgeuse. The madman resentfully shook his head, his feelings of consternation causing bloody tears to flow as he pointed at Julius and spoke.
"You, YOU cannot see them. Surely you cannot. That exceeds the fact that my Unseen Hands have been cut…! That is the problem! You, you cannot, you cannot possibly see them, and yet…beyond me, they are seen by T-TWO!"
The fact that after me, Julius could also keep his Unseen Hands at bay made his teeth shake down to the molars, his face stricken less by anger and confusion than by deep, powerful fear.
It was the fear of having his final refuge, the very foundation of his faith, ripped away from him.
For the first time, the sight of Petelgeuse like that made me feel sympathy toward him as a human being—but this was overridden by a sense of accomplishment. Take that, will you?
"A base villain like you who knows not the favor of the Witch cannot possibly see the grace granted unto me alone…!"
Visibly spitting blood as he screamed, Petelgeuse was denying the reality before his eyes. Accordingly, I had taught him just what was happening, further pounding that reality home.
"I'm the only one who sees them, Petelgeuse."
"…! What?!"
"I'm the one who sees your Unseen Hands. Julius is just seeing what I see. It feels even ickier than I expected, though."
This was the quintessence of Nekt, the magic to share one's thoughts.
Normally the magic was used to link together the minds of human beings within Nekt's area of effect, enabling simple telepathic conversations. However, it required careful use, as befitted high-ranking magic. Once Julius had explained the dangers thus: "If the empathy level is too high, the boundaries between the self and others become blurred, and beings become mixed with one another."
If you mixed two minds together enough, in other words, synchronized the senses, raising the effectiveness to its highest extreme—
"It is possible to mentally maintain two persons' senses joined as one—though I had certain doubts about your sanity when you first made this proposal."
"But we pulled it off, didn't we? When you put men and courage together, they can do anything."
Through the power of Nekt, Julius's and my senses were completely synchronized on a deep level.
That moment, through my sense of sight, Julius had to be seeing it, too—the sway of Petelgeuse's countless Unseen Hands seemingly dyeing the forest black.
I was also aware of the mana coursing through Julius's entire body, and of the warm pulses imparted by the quasi-spirits that flowed into him.
The input from the five senses was doubled in the process, creating the incredibly discordant feeling of having ten senses.
"Just to get this out of the way, I don't think we can keep this thing going for all that long."
"I completely agree. So even if you beg, I shall never do this for you again."
As I twisted his lips, Julius gave his words an ironic laugh as he poised his blade. With the aura-imbued cavalier's sword, even Unseen Hands, Petelgeuse's trump card, could be opposed head-on, but neither of them had any room to send a shred of pity or mercy the madman's way.
"Why you…why you, why you, whyyouwhyyouwhyyouwhyyou whyyouyouyouyouuuuuuuu!"
Petelgeuse wailed as his unfocused bloodlust made the shadows explode.
Evil hands beyond count scattered and flew in all directions, forgetting even to aim as forest, ground, and boulder were destroyed, shorn, and sent flying.
The shameful sight of the madman surrendering to his basest impulses was so repulsive, it made one want to turn away, but I couldn't. I had to see this through.
From the opening to the conclusion.
"Doesn't really feel too good to have my fate and yours be one and the same— Let's get this over with."
"Yes, so we shall."
The knight sliced away the pitch-black evil hands pouring down upon them; with a horizontal slash, he neatly sliced one onrushing hand in two.
Julius watched as the arms thus burned away turned into black specks, scattering only to be swallowed by the wind and carried away. He laughed and said,
"With your eyes, I shall strike him down, Subaru Natsuki—my friend."
"I trust you, finest knight of the kingdom, Julius Juukulus!" I said.
"This is not amusing. This is not a joke. This is something that cannot be! For such a method, a ploy, a child's trick! To impugn! My love! My devotion…!"
"Not a very nice way to recruit someone…and your organizational culture looks pretty awful to me."
The madman frothed at the corners of his mouth as his inexhaustible shadow arms pounded away. However, Julius countered the evil hands with his rainbow or evaded with his movements alone. With elegant steps the knight danced across the rocky ground, performing a sword dance as he dominated the battlefield.
Even so, the evil hands knew no limits, over ten constantly bearing down upon him, pounding their malice upon him. A single sword swing could not defend against them all. Naturally, Julius's limbs took glancing hits, and a number of lacerations were carved into him.
"Ngg—"
Though he was willingly on that battlefield, I ate the pain of the attack, as our senses were connected. The graze of a black finger made the pain of his thigh splitting burn into his brain. For a moment he nearly let out a cry of pain, but he bit into the flesh of his cheek and endured. He strongly clenched a fist in response to the burn of his shoulder splitting.
At that time, my and Julius's five senses were completely synchronized via the magical sharing of their thoughts. Accordingly, Julius was able to see Unseen Hands through my vision; for his part, I had become able to trust in the might of the magic sword in Julius's grasp.
"—"
However, putting that goodwill aside, the makeshift partnership was extremely precarious.
Thanks to their synchronization, both had been seeing double. When partnered as such, their vision would be constantly blurry, as if the left eye and the right eye were looking at completely separate scenes. And, as touch was included in the shared senses, not only were Julius's fighting ardor and exhilaration of battle acutely engraved into me, but the pain he felt as well.
There was the sight of the wind grazing his skin, the touch of his leather soles trampling the soil, the taste of blood and saliva mixed together inside his mouth, the ear-ringing sound transmitted to his brain, the smell of risking his life to the utmost, living on the edge between life and death.
The numbers didn't add up. If both were bathed in the experiences of two people nonstop, it simply meant the burden was double. Taste, smell, hearing, pain, touch, sight—right then, they were all a chore.
The dilemma was like having an itch in a place your hand simply could not reach. Perhaps it was better described as having an itch on the back of someone else's head.
It was hard to endure the awful feeling, even though he'd been the one to propose the plan. To think blurring the border between yourself and another meant randomly clawing away at the core of your humanity to such an extent.
"It seems you have grown somewhat accustomed. Shall I increase the pace?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm with you all the way! I will cover for what you can't react to" I said as I sliced a few dozen unseen hands.
Countless evil hands leaped at Julius before Subaru could even reply. With a posture so low you'd think his chin would chafe against the ground, he slipped under the hands, and with a lash of his rainbow mowed all the shadows away.
As those became mist, the madman sent evil hands threading the dispersing shadows, headed for Julius. But even these fell to the blow of the leaping knight's sword, beautifully blasting them apart.
"—"
Julius elegantly proceeded through the battle, but his brilliant movements slightly faltered.
Of course they did. As the handsome man flung away the remnants of the shadow coiled around his cavalier's sword, the eyes of his gallant face were closed; they had actually been closed while he was engaged in battle, unlike before combat had begun.
This was to narrow the sets of vision from two to one, to achieve victory through my eyes alone.
If they'd kept sharing their synchronized vision, the world's contours would have become vaguer and vaguer. Accordingly, Julius had closed his own eyes, entrusting me with all visual information.
Julius had made that judgment without consultation. I knew his judgment was correct.
"Don't worry I will guide you trough!"
Abandoning his own vision and making me his eyes on the battlefield was putting his own life on the line, proving that he trusted me not to avert his eyes from the battle.
On top of that, inserting my vision into his nervous system was not nearly as simple as it sounded. One way of putting it was that it was like a third-person shooter, fighting on TV while watching himself from behind.
It gave me a flashback to those games I played.
"This isn't a game, and it's lunatic difficulty, one hit and it's game over! Putting your life on the line like this, gotta be nuts… You and me both!" I said as I laughed, slicing about the evil hands that where trying to attack me from behind.
"I do not believe you have the time to flap your lips!"
As I kept his eyes wide open, Julius kicked off the rock wall, leaping back to rejoin me right at his side. With a swing and a thrust, he prevented damage not only to himself, the main target, but from the stray evil hands headed for me.
A wry smile came over Julius, eyes still closed, at Subaru's state.
"You are quite a bit of trouble. I understand you are desperately trying, but perhaps you could defend yourself a little more? I cannot face the enemy head-on like this."
"I'll take those words and throw 'em right back in your face! I can barely watch you cutting it that close! Or did you miss the desperate knight I was seein' through my own eyes?!"
"I see a fine young man sad at having to keep his eyes closed. He appears to be handsome and of good upbringing."
"I'm starting to suspect you and I aren't looking at the same world here!" I said with a smirk.
The two exchanged banter as they leaped away from the evil hands rushing upon them the next moment. Subaru's feet clumsily slipped, whereas Julius split the wave of shadow with his sword, elegantly slipping through the gap to advance upon the madman once more.
"Not bad." I said.
Midbattle, Julius had grown acclimated to the unnatural physical sensations with frightening speed, raising the accuracy and sureness of his sword to new heights.
It was not a feat that knack alone could achieve.
This was the experience he had gained through the pain of ferocious training, cruelly using his body to its utmost limits.
This was the end result of clashing with swords and lives in the midst of battle, honing his own skill and conviction to a fine edge.
Hence, without the slightest fear or doubt, he could swing his sword confident in himself.
"—"
"—I'll be going now."
"Yeah, get goin'."
It was not that he heard the whisper. But I responded to Julius's words nonetheless.
Grazes from the hands sent pain from the gouge in Julius's back, from his thigh, and from his dislocated shoulder slamming into my brain.
I gritted his teeth enough they nearly broke, for he could not avert his eyes. The attacks bypassed my defenses as they were a direct feedback from Julius.
Rush, leap, slide, slice back, step, jump, advance, slip under, stop on a dime, glide past, circle inward, leap sideways, twist and evade, turn around, charge in, leap up, kick, leap about—refined motions all.
Slice away, slice down, charge in, slice up, kick away, gliding slice, slam, sweeping slice, thrust, cleave, lash, swing down, knock down, slice away, charging slice, slice in—with repeated sword blows and slices, the Unseen Hands turned to dust.
"Impossible,impossibleimpossibleimpossibleimpossible…!"
Eerie black covered the whole of the sky, yet the sight of the knight carrying on his aurora-shrouded sword dance was so beautiful. The scene was so surreal that it could make you forget this was a deadly duel.
That was probably because the thoughts of the quasi-spirits passed through Julius and were conducted to me as well. Those girls loved Julius—and in contrast, they hated the madman. They found the madman intolerable—to such an extent that they could never accept him as one of their own.
"This cannot be! It cannot possibly be so! Why is it! How can this be?! MY Authority…! I am loved, I know I am loved, I am assuredly loved! And yet, to this extent, I AM being—!"
"You persist in illogical thoughts and actions. The fitness of your so-called Authority has diminished. More importantly, I have become sufficiently accustomed to this manner of fighting through Subaru's eyes."
As Petelgeuse vented his fury, Julius thrust his sword forward, eyes still closed.
"It is finally time to cut you down in earnest. Here, I shall strike you down with my blade, and bring the long-standing menace Sloth has posed to the kingdom—nay, the world—to an end!"
"As if you can! As if I will let you! I…I am! ONE such as I who has been bathed in the Witch's grace! Four hundred years! Striving diligently to make Her will a reality! Do you really think a fool like you and your fledgling spirit flunkies can defeat me…!"
Petelgeuse bared his blood-tinged teeth as he raged at Julius's words. But the madman's very rage gave Subaru conviction that the final piece needed for his anti-Sloth strategy had fallen into place. Petelgeuse's abnormal hatred toward spirits rivaled his infatuation with the Witch—in fact, I was counting on it.
"Julius—!"
"Understood! —Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, prepare yourself!"
Julius stepped forward, advancing with the speed of an arrow. Petelgeuse opened his mouth, deploying his Unseen Hands with an incoherent shout. The evil hands spread through the sky, along the earth, through the forest, as they enveloped Julius to impale him from all directions—
"—Al Clauzeria!"
Circling around the chanting Julius, a swirling vortex of rainbow-hued light erased all the pitch-black evil hands from existence.
The aurora burned through the world for only a second—but that second was enough. In an instant, like the blink of an eye, the encircling net Petelgeuse had wrought had completely vanished. And, in so doing, opened an unobstructed path between Julius and the madman…
"Bahaa!"
Petelgeuse, struck by vestiges of the aurora and caught in the explosions of his shadows, tumbled to the earth. His crushed fingers clawed at a boulder, and the madman looked like he was about to spit up blood as he rose to his before his eyes, Julius drew near, unleashing a sharp thrust aimed straight at the madman's breast.
"I shall…not…let YOU! —Ul Doona!"
Petelgeuse spread his arms wide, intoning a spell as he took a counterattack posture. The next moment, the earth burst upward, and stone walls, a mix of boulder fragments and black soil, enclosed the madman on four sides.
The sword bounced off the rock wall. Mad laughter welled up from the other side, and Petelgeuse let Unseen Hands fly over it, slamming from Julius's blind side to deliver a serious pummeling.
"—"
Dealing with the evil hands meant giving Petelgeuse, on the other side of the wall, an opportunity to escape. However, if he pursued Petelgeuse, he would be slain by the Authority. Either way, Julius's sword could not reach him.
That is, if Julius had been waging that battle alone.
"BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELL! TAKE THIS"
Twisting his body, raising a leg, taking a great step forward, shoulder rotating in a full swing—with a speed surpassing that of a fastball thrown by a pro BML player.
Considering the stats I had on Sense and Dexterity, being able to make the tiny magic rock go through it was downright easy, it reminded me of that scene on the original Star Wars.
"What IS…?!"
The crimson magic stone imbued with destructive energies sailed past Julius and crashed into the wall of stone—and exploded in a flash of light and great heat, burying Petelgeuse's field of vision with the vermillion flames from the detonation.
"It cannot be that this, too, was your plan from the…"
"Scorning him as powerless is the cause of your defeat! After all he is one who fought against me to a stalemate"
As Petelgeuse froze in shock, Julius's voice reached him from the other side of the flames. The next instant, Julius broke through the flames in a flying leap, burying the tip of his sword in the immobile madman.
"…aa—"
His breast thus run through, the inside of Petelgeuse's entire body was charred by the rainbow aurora.
Slammed into the rock wall behind him, impaled against it, Petelgeuse flailed his limbs. The madman spit out bloody froth, wept, and bared his teeth, as if unable to believe it.
"Ab…surd. Absurd, absurd, absurd…! This cannot…be happening…to ME…!"
"The rainbow aurora has bitten into your very soul. No matter whose body you reside in, the wicked soul within shall find no escape— Now, fall to pieces at the rainbow's end!"
At Julius's voice, the glow of the cavalier's sword increased. Bathed in that light, Petelgeuse could not unleash Unseen Hands; he could only groan in agony and writhe in the unsightly manner of an insect on the brink of death.
However, as Petelgeuse struggled, the madness in his eyes was undiminished. He had not given up on living.
"It ends not here! It cannot! It shall NOT! My efforts are diligent! I shall not permit any thoughts of surrendering to laziness or sinking into SLOTH! That's why, by any means necessary…!"
The madman wailed, struggled, wriggled, and opened his tattered mouth wide as he tried to escape from the sword. Julius gazed in wonder at his implacable tenacity while twisting his sword, pouring destructive energy into the heart of his foe.
If his heart was destroyed, death was inescapable— Before that point, Petelgeuse made his decision.
"Having lost all my fingers, my destruction is inescapable…BUT…BUT! BUT! There is still, one vessel, that remains for me…!"
They'd gone all over the place and preemptively taken out Petelgeuse's fingers—the spare physical bodies he had brought with him. Consequently, he had to select a replacement on-site.
"—"
His madness-suffused eyes opened wide and moved around. He looked past Julius and caught sight of Subaru.
A chill ran down Subaru's spine. Simultaneously, Petelgeuse's mad laughter grew louder, deeper—
"Ahh—my brain…is shaking."
The moment after his murmur, Petelgeuse's Julius-impaled body crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut. Light faded from its eyes, and its limbs drooped, all signs of life falling from them.
The time had come. I thrusted a hand into my pocket and shouted to Julius.
"Julius! Release!"
"Acknowledged!"
Responding to my call, Julius released Nekt just as they had arranged. As a result, Subaru was instantly freed from the ill feeling of two layers of five senses—but didn't even have time to breathe.
For next, in place of Julius's five senses, came a foreign existence, trying to overwrite me.
Stuffed into his chest, the invisible entity robbed me of his right to control his own body—and its shrill, earsplitting laughter echoed inside my own skull.
My body proceeded to bend exaggeratedly backward, opening his eyes and mouth to their utmost in acclamation.
"I. Knew. It! This flesh is a vessel with the capacity to hold ME! And with no way to stop ME! No way to impede my path! AHH, ahh, you, were LAZY!"
Petelgeuse's existence felt so close, it was as if they were sitting side by side in the same brain.
This was the final stage of Possession—with his fingers lost, Petelgeuse had moved to take over my body.
I had no way to resist that savage blow. He'd lost the freedom of his body as the madman consumed his mind.
"Now this is the body of YOUR friend, yes! Can a knight aspiring to noble virtues bring himself to cut it down?!"
Having taken me as a hostage, Petelgeuse licked my face with his own tongue. The words caused Julius, looking ready to rush over, to halt his feet as he spoke.
"Certainly, I cannot bring myself to cut him down."
"Then—!"
"yet..."
As Julius spun the quiet word, he showed the madman his own left hand. He held a glowing conversation mirror in the hand opposite to that gripping his cavalier's sword. Subaru had passed Julius the mirror in his pocket the instant Subaru was being possessed.
Its glowing surface displayed a cat-eared knight who had been observing the battle since the outset.
"Now it is your turn, Ferris!"
"Subawu, you big fat idiot for making me do this! I'm going to rip you to pieces later!"
When Julius addressed Ferris through the conversation mirror, the latter's voice sharpened to a point. The ill omen made my/Petelgeuse's eyes open wide, and in accordance with that premonition, Ferris carried out the attack.
However, with his actions having been read through Return by Death, there was nothing he could do—
"Unseen…?! GaAaaaaaH?!"
The instant he tried to unleash the Authority, me/Petelgeuse screamed so much, it seemed his throat would burst. The cause was an explosion inside the body that released a torrent of unfathomably vast heat and anguish.
With a wobble, my body lost its strength and, still feeling hot all over, collapsed onto the ground. His skull felt like a sauna within which his brain was boiling, with his scalded mind cutting in and out over and over.
And Petelgeuse, sharing his flesh, had shared that very bitter taste.
"A…ga…haa… What…what…happ…?"
Having experienced the novel anguish of having his brain sterilized through boiling, Petelgeuse moaned, his confusion plain. Myself, clawing together my mental strength heightened via my Wisdom stat, stuck my tongue out at the abominable soul that was his roommate as he answered.
"If the body you take over ain't…in good shape, you can't…do a thing, can you?" I said with a smirk.
"It cannot be…i tt…be! YOU, you expected ME to shift to your body?!"
"You bet!" I grandly stated as Petelgeuse expressed shock inside my brain.
They were two minds in one body. It felt odd for my declaration to leave me speechless. On the inside, I apologized over the conversation mirror to Ferris for foisting such a distasteful task upon him.
—For it was Ferris, on the other side of the conversation mirror, whose spell had robbed my body of its freedom.
For the purpose of healing, Ferris had interfered with my Gate, making it possible for him to make the mana inside my body go berserk through use of water magic. Indeed, it was he who had delivered fatal damage to me the last time around when Petelgeuse had possessed my body.
He'd made Ferris, proud of his power as a healer, use that power to take a human life. And yet, Subaru had asked him to use that power in such a fashion once more, so as to lay the final trap.
"So thanks to that last request, this body's no good, either… So ready to give up yet?"
"Give up? Give in? As if I would surrender! At this rate, I will rob your flesh, and it will be me, by me, for me, only me—me, me, ME?!"
Beyond his normal madness and fury, Petelgeuse, in a true sense, had begun to go (even more if possible) insane.
To so great an extent his moves had been read in advance, his plans thwarted, yet even so, Petelgeuse wailed while tenaciously clinging to his delusions; and myself, even as I tasted the suffering of my blood boiling within my body, hardened my resolve.
"At this rate, I'll die…and that'll be traumatic for Ferris… I don't wanna die, either, so I'm gonna settle things with you. We're just gonna do it my way…"
"What, are…more, unto me! What more, DO you seek from me?!"
Petelgeuse's voice shook; he was aghast at my words, words that foretold what was coming.
That moment, with Petelgeuse sitting right next to him in his brain, he knew. The madman was closer to him than he needed to be, conveying his fear and denial so much that it hurt.
The same went for him. Hence, he knew that my resolve was the real deal.
"Are you scared? Now, after all the things that you've done? Don't worry, the fear will pass and then you will be able to repay for all what have you done"
"All unto love! All to repay Her favor! What do you know about ME?! All YOU have done is interfere and obstruct my path! What is it with YOU?!"
Petelgeuse knew not my true identity. He was simply afraid.
The madman did not understand whence sprung the hatred I bore toward him. My and Petelgeuse's lives had never crossed, not even once. At the very least, that was true as far as he was concerned.
"Your actions are simply out of irrational resentment…misplaced to the EXTREME!"
"…There's no point talking to you anymore. Even among human beings, there are people you can't have a frank conversation with. That goes double if you're not even a human being."
"—"
My voice, tinged with disappointment and understanding, sent Petelgeuse into shock.
The madman's reaction was raw, for my declaration had penetrated his stupor to strike at the truth.
"What. Are. You… Are you saying…you know about ME?!"
"The fact I lured you to this rocky place should've made you imagine a nut being cracked— It's a place only for proper spirit mages and—this is flattering myself—people qualified to become 'em."
This was the final condition for Possession that the conversation between Subaru and Julius had uncovered—
"Forcing a pact onto a human being qualified to be a spirit mage and takin' over their bodies. That's the truth behind your Possession, Archbishop of…no, spirit, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti!" I said with a cheeky grin.
"You dare—!"
When his true nature was exposed in a loud, brash voice, Petelgeuse, lurking inside me, forgot his fear and shouted back.
I had long since realized Petelgeuse's true nature when in thought in the middle of the Possession incident the last time around. The real tip-off was Ia, the quasi-spirit.
Last time around, Ia ought to have been residing in my body, but the instant Petelgeuse possessed him, she was shot out of Subaru. That unnatural occurrence led him to broaden his speculation. It was for this reason I suspected that his hatred of spirits—and of the spirit mages employing them—was hatred of his own kind.
Petelgeuse's Possession was an irregular pact, the effect of Petelgeuse himself being an evil spirit. Accordingly, he saw spirit mages, which already had formal pacts with spirits, as his enemies. Even if he could hijack a provisional pact, he could not do so to a formal one. That was why spirit mages were his mortal was because of Julius's sword, and the power resting within it, that I had selected him for the decisive battle—
"Wow, getting ticked at me hitting the bull's-eye. Maybe while possessing people their humanity rubbed off on you?"
"Silence! Do not! Do not compare ME to spirits! Do not put me together with such lowly beings! I am a being beyond that of spirits! I am a chosen being surpassing mere spirits, abandoning vague self-consciousness and granted an objective through Her favor! What do YOU know about me?!"
Petelgeuse vented, forgetting all about the flesh he had taken over as his rage and hatred exceeded all limits. Ironically, the contents of his words only bolstered all of my deductions, and the more he denied it, the deeper he dug his own grave.
"Love has changed ME! Love has given me will, a reason to exist! This, and everything, is by the grace of the Witch! The Witch's favor! Thus! Thusthusthusthusthusthus! I must offer this body, this soul, everything to the WITCH!"
"You can save the sermon, Lord Archbishop—I'll grant you an audience, then…just for you."
"What?! With whom?! Of what do you speak?!"
"Why, the great Witch you've been waiting for."
Root and branch, my statement blew Petelgeuse's fierce emotions away.
What remained was shock and bewilderment, and for the first time, I had a glimpse of the underside of Petelgeuse's madness.
As the mad thoughts went blank, I turned toward them, choosing that moment to be the one to draw near.
"—I've Returned by Death…"
The instant he spoke the forbidden words, the world lost its color, and all motion came to a stop.
And then it came for me.
The world that greeted me was dominated by darkness, and darkness alone.
It was a hazy space, a world of nothing, an empty vacuum where even his own body did not exist.
Whether my body existed or not was unimportant; it was a world where existence or nonexistence held no meaning, a world where you knew not if you even had a soul.
There was a sense of oblivion alone, and there was a blissful, familiar feel to that oblivion. If he could feel anything at all in that place, he could somehow make out his own existence.
Within that darkness, where even his mind was hazy, there suddenly came a change, and the world's ambiance shifted.
"—"
In that world without light, there was a pitch-black figure blotting out even that darkness.
It was a woman.
He could grasp that at least.
Her face and the contours of her body were so uncertain, he could not be sure of anything about them. And yet his heart seethed.
This chance meeting with her—no, not a chance meeting; this was a reunion.
This was blessing, this was grace, this was gospel—this was true love.
His lack of fingers irritated him. He wanted to walk over and take her hand that very instant.
His lack of a mouth irritated him. He wanted to lavish words upon her to express his feelings.
His lack of a body irritated him. If she so desired, he would offer her blood, bone, flesh—all of it.
His being only a soul irritated him, for he had but that single thing to offer her.
""
As before, she continued to hold her silence. But her mind had certainly shifted in his direction. That was enough. Being in a world where she paid heed to his existence felt as good as if he had ascended to heaven.
And his soul, yearning for love for so long, would be hers, forever—
"—This is wrong."
The voice was tinged with disappointment and despondency.
He had prepared to receive her first words with supreme bliss, whatever they might be. Yet the instant he heard her voice, it created a shadow of worry that made his entire being tremble.
Why did it feel like this? Here, in the place that would surely grant the love that he sought…
"—You are not him."
Her disappointment deepened, her ardor dissipated, and finally her despondency changed into another emotion—anger.
"Why is someone not him here, in our place—?"
The voice shook with anger.
The angry, hateful, accursed words rejected the soul, ripping it into pieces.
Unable to grasp the reason for her pushing him away…unable to accept the reality that she truly detested him, and that his love could never reach her…he desperately sought words of sadness and lament, a voice that he could exhaust to assuage her heart.
But he had no mouth to use to form such words, nor fingers nor a body to act out his will. All he had in that place was his soul—and she had rejected him, not permitting him to offer even that.
"—Begone."
The bewilderment, consternation, and grief of his thoughts never reached her. They were meaningless, for to her he was worthless, meaningless, and idle.
Bathed in rejection and repudiation, he accepted his despair; the misery shattered his soul.
Torn away from the framework of the world, his mind was cut from it; and so he sank far, far away, the reunion he had so yearned for…severed.
The sight of her grew distant.
She, whom he had so much, so greatly, so earnestly yearned for, vanished into the ether.
But she no longer cared about such laments.
She merely gazed silently, earnestly, into the pitch blackness—
"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you—"
It was not to anyone present, but someone elsewhere, to whom she continued innocently whispering her love.
"I will one day restore the true you… until then… please wait for me to save you"
"—Aaagaah! I'm baaack!"
Liberated from the agony he'd thought would last forever, my mind caught up to the speed of reality.
The pain of my heart being mercilessly squeezed was the strict penalty for speaking that which was taboo. The hands wrought from black shadow—they greatly resembled Petelgeuse's Authority, a fact likely related to the Witch.
Return by Death probably had something to do with some fated connection between Subaru and the Witch of Jealousy.
Brushing his misgivings aside, I moved my cramping limbs and rose to my feet. I vigorously used a sleeve to rub grimy drool off my cheek, practically gluing myself to the boulder right next to me as I climbed upward.
Then, as the foreign element purportedly in me vanished, I shifted my eyes toward the rock face.
"…How…can…this…BE…?!"
I saw Petelgeuse there, crawling in a pool of blood. Having returned to his own corpselike body, Petelgeuse dragged it forward as he wept, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
He had abandoned Possession of my body, breaking the forced pact, his mind returning to his own body. Having shared my body, he had to have suffered the same penalty from divulging Return by Death.
In a possessed state, pain was shared, too. I had identified my greater endurance as my final trump card against Petelgeuse.
"Worst case, I was ready to do that over and over till you tapped out…but you gave up after just once. No guts, huh?"
Wheezing while boasting of victory, I felt strength drain from my legs. But I used a branch behind me to support my tottering body, giving a snort toward the side of the face of the man standing beside me.
The knight—Julius—gave a pained smile at my demeanor, swinging his sword and turning it toward Petelgeuse.
"This time, we finish this."
There was a pale glow along the blade of his bloodied cavalier's sword as the quasi-spirits shrouded the edge in a rainbow aurora once more.
With the rainbow sword, able to cut all things, resting in his hand, Julius stared straight at Petelgeuse.
"I love…love, my love… My love is…"
Mumbling words over and over, now lacking the strength even to crawl, Petelgeuse did not notice Julius. Even if he had, it surely would not have changed anything.
Blood did not stop coming out of the wound where his chest had been impaled, and the ashen-pale look over his face was that of despair and death.
"—"
Finally, in front of the sheer cliff, the madman set his back against a boulder and turned his head.
Having lost the willpower to even act disturbed, Petelgeuse looked at Julius with a dumbfounded expression. His gaze proceeded to lower, shifting toward me, standing behind the knight—whereupon he suddenly exploded into emotion.
"Why, why…WHY?!"
Tears flowed from his wide-open eyes. The hot droplets drenched his were not the tears of joy I had seen from him several times; they simply reflected the extent of the rage and remorse pouring out of him. They were proof of an unsalvageable delusion—proof that the madman's dream had been thoroughly shattered.
Petelgeuse wept, looked up to the heavens, tried to clench something that could not be seen, and shouted—
"O Witch…O Witch! O Witch! I have given this much to YOU! I have done so much for You! Why, why have You forsaken ME?! Why?! Why is it?! O Witch! If it is so, then MY love… Your favor…?!"
"What you offered her wasn't your own love or faith, or even your own body. You were just offering up the people who happened to be passing by you, you gave nothing expecting something, what a sad little thing you are" I said to him.
Petelgeuse lamented as if clinging on, searching for salvation, when my words cut him down.
It wasn't worth listening to a word from him. Petelgeuse was just a self-righteous creep indulging in unrequited love.
Wilhelm had said as much—that it was absurd to call this love.
Shiii—!
Julius sprinted, his sword homing in on Petelgeuse's slender frame.
The only things Petelgeuse turned toward the swinging, rising sword were teary, misty, wistful eyes. A rainbow-colored sword blow struck his chest for the second time, and the torrent of light burst within him.
The accumulation of mana that was the true body of Petelgeuse—the evil spirit grafting itself to the bodies of others, feasting upon their Odo—was scorched to the core by the brilliantly colored glow.
When the cavalier's sword came out, Petelgeuse looked down, dazed, as hot blood poured out of his chest.
Then, he trained his unfocused eyes overhead, stretching a hand toward the heavens.
"—My brain…trem…bles."
From his slender shadow, he unleashed a single Unseen Hand toward the heavens above. It stretched farther and farther, as if aiming for the dazzling sun above.
However, that hand grasped nothing, heading for thin air before finally leaving a large gouge in the sheer cliff, sending large cracks running along the rock face.
He had done it on purpose… and I needed this to go on, I had to be the one to finish the job.
To Petelgeuse, it was a meaningless act. It was an impulse driven by one final delusion.
"—"
A rock slide occurred above Petelgeuse's head. Giant fragments of the gouged rock face split off and fell. Directly below was Petelgeuse, seeking the heavens, and in the end unable to grasp anything—
"She never loved m—"
The mass of rock crushed his flesh, and there was a grand sound of flesh and bone being squished.
There was a string of rumbles as dust was blown upward from the impact, and in an instant Petelgeuse was crushed, buried by his own hand under the rubble that would serve as his tombstone.
Having escaped from the peril of the rock slide, Julius walked over to where Petelgeuse surely lay. At the end of his gaze, a large quantity of blood was pouring out from under the boulders. Upon seeing this, he shook his head, returning the cavalier sword in his hand to its scabbard.
"—"
Then, when I stood in front of the tombstone, he made a small sigh.
It was not a sigh of admiration, or a sense of achievement, or satisfaction.
But he did voice the words that came to the back of his numbed brain.
"Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti."
That single phrase would serve as the marker for the end of that battle.
Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult, charged with Sloth.
He, who had battled Julius Eucleus, "The Finest of Knights," and myself, Subaru Natsuki, the Self-Declared Knight.
Before the rubble that was his tombstone, I exhaled a little, and said:
"Man, you were lazy."
TBC
Chapter end
Author's notes: I wont update for a while on this main story, however I will do some EX ones (much MUCH larger than my first one)
Also, would someone PLEASE write a story where the re:zero girls get isekai-ed to Subaru's World? (With him as well?)
It would be awesome how they would act in Subaru's world, like how does it feel to be a stranger in another world XD.
Also, anyone know where I can find the Re:zero x Konosuba colab manga/novel?