On the uppermost floor of the capitals outermost barracks was a smoke-filled room, the smoke so thick that it created a haze that obscured one's vision, so thick that the unprepared choked on the very air they tried to breath as they entered. From the room emanated laughter as a rambunctious crowd of guardsman sat around a table covered in cards, coin, and empty bottles of ale.
This behavior they were exhibiting was certainly not accepted by the standards Lugunican guardsmen were normally held to, it was such a deviation of the expectations they were held to that it could even be considered explicitly forbidden. However, these men were not knights, they were guardsmen; guardsmen were not drawn from the upper crust of society, nor were they considered skillful enough to warrant being uplifted into the nobility to become knights. These men were ordinary commonfolk who carried a sword solely for the money and nothing more, they held no debt to society, no sense of honor that drove them to diligence. It was this lack of drive that encouraged their slothful behavior, patrolling only enough to pass the rare inspections by the knights. Outside of this they participated in a gross dereliction of duty, spending there days gambling and drinking their money away. It was these activities that currently consumed the men who formed the main line of defense for Lugunica's capital.
"Heyyyyyyyyy Fritz, can ya grab us some more bottlessssssss, we're running dry hereeeeeee" Slurred the man at the head of the table as he leaned back hoisting an empty tankard over his head, the compatriot he was speaking to stumbling into the room while doing up his trousers.
"Why can't ya get it yerself ya lazy fuck?" Slurred back the man just as he sat down.
"As yer captain I'm ordering ya ta grab some more ale from the storeroom!" The guard captain slammed his hands down on the table, causing some of the coins to roll off the table onto the floor.
"Hey!"
"Watch it!"
"Calm down!"
The other guardsmen shouted at the captain as he made a mess of their carefully arranged gambling winnings, and losses.
"Okay, Okay, hold yer dang horses, I'll be right back." Shouted the guard as he stood up and began to walk to the basement where they stashed their excess ale.
The storeroom located in the basement was used to store a multitude of things, from the arms and armor they carried during patrol, to the guilty pleasures like ale, to a small tunnel that led outside of the city they used to smuggle in illicit goods to earn money on the side, money that routinely exceeded their wages.
But it was because of this tunnel that when the guardsmen walked down into the basement that he was greeted not by the normally empty room full of boxes, but by a procession of robbed and hooded figures headed by a green haired man.
"OI! Who the fuck do ya think you and yer buddies are to be here, this aint some fucking playground!" Fritz shouted at the group only to freeze when the green haired man lifted his head, so their eyes met.
"Witch's Cult Sin Archibishop representing sloth, Beteguese Romanée-Conti" and with his introduction a wide smile crossed the face of the crazed sin archbishop as Fritz stared right into his eyes, he did not even get the chance to scream.
"What the fuck is taking him so damn long…" Grumbled the Captain as he stood up from his chair and began to walk towards the door when it was unexpectedly thrown open.
"There you finally ar….." The Captain suddenly stopped speaking when he saw Fritz in the doorway, or more correctly, when he saw Fritz's broken and mangled corpse floating in the doorway as blood dripped onto the wooden floorboards with a steady drip sound.
He was just there suspended, his limbs looked like they had been twisted around to the point his joints had broken open, the jagged ends of the bones were poking out of his skin, his head was twisted 180 degree's from where it should have been, leading to them looking at the back of his head.
As they stood there in a morbid silence, Fritz's neck started to turn; with the snapping of cartilage and the shattering of bone, the tearing of skin and muscle, he now faced him. His face was stuck in an expression of terror, blood poured out of the corners of his mouth, his nostrils, and from behind his eye lids.
Suddenly his mouth began to open and close, jarringly move as if he was talking, but the voice speaking was not his own, it was but a very crude imitation.
"IT HURTS, IT HURTS CAPTAIN. MAKE THE PAIN STOP. TWISTING, TURNING, BITING, SNAPPING, CRACKING, MAKE IT STOP!" The corpse of Fritz then began to make a sound like it was crying, as its mangled arms rose to its eyes as if wiping away tears, but they achieved nothing more than smearing blood all over its own face.
The men at the table were so shocked that when they did not even move when Fritz's corpse was suddenly hurled from the doorway into the table they sat around. It slammed into the table with enough force to break it, shatter the few intact bones left in Fritz's body, and cause most of the guardsmen to be knocked to the floor.
As they began to stand up from the floor a robed man with green hair entered the room. "What a truly, truly, truly, truly, truly mind-bending sight. The fact that the people entrusted with overseeing the safety of the city, the ones trusted to be diligent, have fallen to sloth." The man then bent over backwards and grabbed at his own hair in a frenzy, "Such a very, very, very, very entertaining sight! My brain trembles at the idea that those most diligent in the city are too slothful to even keep their own safe. It was with your fingers, your hands, your actions that lead to your friend's death, and it will be your slothfulness that will be what leads to this entire city becoming the most slothful of all" The man then had his face break into a big smile, and with a excited and almost happy voice he finished his sentence, "DEAD!"
"Fuck this crazy, lets get him!"
"Yes lets end this madman!"
"What he did to Fritz is unforgivable, I'm going to enjoy flaying this fucktard!"
The guardsman grabbed their swords and other assorted weapons and prepared to charge the robbed man when all of a sudden, they found themselves floating in the air, they felt something wrap itself, or more correctly grad them by the neck and squeeze as it lifted them up.
"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH" Screamed one of the guards as his comrades could only watch as he was slowly having his limbs torn off one by one as they all floated helplessly in midair.
"Authority of Sloth, Unseen Hand." Said the green haired man in what resembled a normal voice as he slowly torn apart the guardsmen until the room was awash with nothing but blood and dismembered corpses.
Betelgeuse then turned to face his procession of cultists who had waited diligently behind him as he had dealt with the guardsmen. Before speaking he pulled a small black book from his robes, the gospel, the symbol of the love bestowed upon him by the Jealous Witch. Every action, every life he takes, every injury he sustains is for her, all of it to show his love and affection for her, all in the hope of receiving the slightest bit or reciprocation.
The gospel made it clear to him what he needed to do next, although indecipherable to most, it provided him the guidance necessary to ensure that Satella, The Witch of Envy would once again walk this world free of any bindings or seals. It was this gospel that had instructed him to trust and adhere to the suggestions from the man's letters. And with all of this being confirmed once more Betelgeuse could begin the next chapter of the final act, The Ordeal.
As he began to speak, he began to lead to the procession of cultists towards the exit of the guards building, "Today is a day of love, truly about love, familial love, erotic love, generous love, respectful love, pure love, tender love, friendly love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. Today is the day we can finally repay her for all the love she has granted us, show her the diligence we've been driven to by our love for her. Go forth my fingers, preform what is necessary for the Ordeal with the utmost extent of your loving diligence!" As Betelgeuse finished his sermon, he and the cultists were standing outside the guard hut surrounded by the residents of the city, all completely frozen in shock. As the cultists drew their blades and conjured their mana into fireballs that shock quickly rose into panic as a cacophony of shrill cries filled the air, and as fire and blood began to fill the streets.
Betelgeuse left his fingers to their work as he began his walk towards the square mentioned in the letter, removing the letter from his robes in order to ensure he was following the writ of the gospel down to the exact letter.
Dearest Betegeuse
It has come to my attention that we now share a common obstacle, someone who is both a hinderance to your ordeal and to my reunion with my sensei. This hinderance is a young man by the name of Natsuki Subaru, one who has been chosen as the champion of the Witch of Envy yet who has rejected the role.
Betelgeuse did not lift his eyes from the page as he lifted a knight with his unseen hands and smashed him into the wall with enough force to scatter his brains all across the roadway.
Natsuki Subaru bares Satella's love in such abundance that I daresay exceeds even your own my friend, yet he does not even attempt to return it towards her, instead using it to spite her in the form of obstructing you and your followers. In all likelihood he will attempt to save the half-elf that you intend to use as a vessel for Satella's return, and should you not act with the utmost diligence, he will likely succeed.
A crowd of civilians who were trying to squeeze through a narrow archway block Betelgeuse's path, so he simply picked up several pieces of burning timber from a nearby house and hurled them into the crowd, killing many and injuring many more as only a few managed to escape through the passageway. As Betelgeuse stepped over their charred corpses, he did not even grant those being burned alive due to being trapped under the timber mercy, for those too slothful to act did not deserve the mercy of death.
I trust you to eliminate this threat, and in return for doing such a favor for me I will ensure that the half-elf you seek is trapped in the lower market square on the day of your ordeal. All but one of the cities gates will fail to open, creating chaos which should allow you to achieve your goal as the majority of the knights and the sword saint will be too busy saving the innocent to stop you.
Betelgeuse began to approach the lower market square which appeared to be packed with civilians that seemed to be preparing to evacuate through the fire and his cultists. Among them to serve as escort were only a handful of knights, led by one with purple hair, a force that was no match for his diligence or his love. And behind the knights was his prize, the silver haired half-elf who would serve as the vessel needed for the completion of the ordeal.
But I must warn you once more, beware of Natuki Subaru for he will certainly be your most dangerous opponent should he become involved in this. I wholeheartedly recommend his immediate elimination.
"You really were and have always has been truly useless." A faint yet familiar voice ran through Emilia's head, her own voice.
"Puck please come out, people are dying right now and I can't help them without you!" Emilia pleaded into the dormant crystal, pleading with the great spirit that had been by her side since she had unfrozen in the Elior forest.
"You have never managed to accomplish anything on your own merit alone, you will always and forever will be reliant on the strength of others." The voice ran through her head again.
Emilia hopped back towards the wall as an armored knight was thrown into a fountain in front of her with enough force for the masonry to perforate the thinnest parts of his armor. Emilia ran up to him and tried to call upon the minor spirits to help heal him. The wound was deep, the brickwork had penetrated in between the platework he wore and cut deep into his abdomen leading to a torrent of deep red blood leaking into the fountain, dying the water a rich crimson.
"If nearly anyone else with your gifts or strength were here then this man would be as good as saved, but this man is cursed with the luck of having only you to rely on." The voice chimed into the back of her head.
She focused with all her might to draw as many spirits as she could to herself, to try and get them to push mana into the knights wound in order to heal him. But not a single one came to heed her call for she currently was violating one of the sacred requirements of the spirit arts. For a spirit to heed the command of a spirit arts user they must like, admire, or believe in them. And such this leads to the users of the spiritual arts needing to make themselves appealing to spirits, and since this mostly boils down to an innate natural affinity it means that a practitioner of the spiritual arts needs not much more then to keep a calm head in order to not repel the uncontracted spirits when dealing with them. But if a user of the spirit arts is unable to meet this requirement, even temporarily then they cannot hope to draw upon the aide of any uncontracted minor or quasi spirits. And it was because of this that Emilia could do nothing but struggle in vain as the knight bled to death at her feet.
"He probably would prefer to have any other image to see as his life slipped away then that of a half-elf like me." The voice taunted her as she froze, looking right into the now lifeless eyes of the knight who's soul had just left his body.
"Al Clarista!" Shouted Julius Juuklius as a beam of light fired forth from his sword towards the source of their desperate situation, a man who called himself Betelgeuse Romanée-Conti, the man who claimed to be the Sin Archbishop of Sloth from the Witch's Cult.
When she heard his introduction, something stirred in her memories, something was missing. She felt some strange familiarity with the name he used, like she was supposed to feel something from seeing him, like she had known him. But she had never known nor seen this strange and crazy man in her life before.
"ARRRRRGHHHHHH" Screamed a male voice, and when Emilia looked up she could only see the horror on the face of Julius as his attack burned the last of his fellow knights to the brink of death.
The attack launched at the Sin Archbishop had been stopped just short of its mark, the same invisible power which had been steadily demolishing the knights protecting those in the square had picked up the last knight besides Julius and used it as a shield to protect its master's body.
"HA YOU KILLED HIM, With your slothful practice of making your spirits fight for you, with those words of yours you took away his life! If only you had the diligence to fight yourself then your friend wouldn't be dead!' Screamed Betelgeuse in a mania as he bent backwards with his hands pulling bits of his green hair out.
"Anastasia-sama has entrusted me to fulfill my duty as a lugunican knight by defending the citizenry of the city while she gathers the iron fang. I, Julius Juuklius do not intend to violate that trust in the slightest, and such I shall end you here and now Sin Archbishop!" Julius raised his sword in the air before shouting "Clarista!" and rushing forward with immense speed and grace to the still distracted Betelgeuse.
And he made it about half the distance before he was lifted into the air, each of his limbs being grasped by something unseen and stretched out to the point he could not do anything but struggle in vain.
"You take pride in the notion of undertaking great actions, you speak of great actions, you attempt great actions, but in the end your actions amount to nothing, everything you do amounts to nothing. Therefore you have always, and always will do nothing, therefore practicing sloth. My brain truly truly truly truly truly truly truly truly truly TREMBLES, HOW CAN SOMEONE SO FULL OF DILIGENCE BE SO SLOTHFUL!" Betelgeuse bit down onto his own fingers to the point that blood seeped out of his mouth, while he did this he slammed Julius' body into the ground with a sickening amount of force. He immediately raised it back up into the air to reveal that the impact had concussed the knight into a daze, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, alongside a multitude of cuts adorning the rest of his body.
"I cannot comprehend how someone so diligent, so trusted to be diligent, can practice sloth to such an extent?! How can the knights who should have prevented this immense tragedy in the first place let it occur, BECAUSE THEY AND YOU HAVE BEEN PRACTICING SLOTH FORM THE VERY BEGINNING! THE SIGHT IS SO TRULY ENTERTAINING, JUST HOW WE BETRAY THE WITCHES LOVE WITH OUR SLOTH, SO HAVE YOU BETRAYED THE LOVE AND TRUST OF YOUR KINGDOM!" The blood flowing from Betelgeuse's fingers grew in volume and richness as he bit deeper and deeper into the bone. He also slammed Julius into the ground again, using even more force such that when he lifted him up, Julius' entire face was red with blood, and not showing more then the faintest hint of life.
Betelgeuse began to walk forward with a leisurely stride towards the fallen Julius, kneeling down beside him and whispering into his ear, "You my friend, are truly slothful." Before standing up and looking right at Emilia who was still knelt by the corpse of the fallen knight she had attempted to heal. It was at this moment that his entire body seemed to be overcome by emotion, tears began to run from his eyes as he strode towards her swaying vigorously from side to side, his arms wrapping around his own body in order to embrace himself as he preached his sermon of love.
"FINALLY AFTER ALL THESE CENTURIES I CAN REPAY THE LOVE I RECEIVED, I CAN REPAY THAT LOVE WITH LOVE. THE ORDEAL, THE MEANS I HAVE TO SHOW MY DILIGENT LOVE CAN FINALLY BEGIN. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELO." Betelgeuse suddenly froze, his jaw stopping midword as his whole head rotated a quarter turn to the right, his eyes slowly creeping up the building to look at the roof, his nose sniffing the air as he watched a boy with black hair and mean eyes sprinting across the rooftops.
"Natsuki Subaru-kuuuuuuun, now is the time to make your finaaaaaaal decision; will you be a hero, or will you leave this city to burn?" Hector's voice echoed through the inside of Subaru's head as he stood looking out his window.
He saw the entire city burning, it had started as a series of isolated fires springing up all of a sudden, but then it was like the entire city started to scream in pain at once. It was in sync with these screams that the isolated fires seemed to roar, grow in ferocity as they began to engulf entire buildings at once. He could see already how large crowds had formed, trying to push their way to safety outside the city, but being met with closed gates, or in some cases, cut down and slaughtered in droves by hooded figures. Whatever or whoever had decided to attack this city had decided that they would not take half measures, the entire population of the city would be given a choice, burn to ash or drown in blood. From what he could see, the knights of the city were struggling to deal with the chaos of the crowds and fire, not to mention the hooded figures that looked identical to the cultists he had seen before, who were causing it all to begin with. In all likelihood they would manage to deal with it in the end, but there would be a lot of death and damage if the situation was not improved by a near miracle.
Miracle, that is what his actions probably looked like to everyone else, when he miraculously knew things he should not, or when he dodged attacks from those far faster than him. But Natsuki Subaru had made up his mind, he would not give Lugunica anymore miracles if he could help it.
"Fuck them, they made their bed, let them die in it" Subaru responded in a bitter voice to Hector's question, he had made up his mind. Natsuki Subaru the wannabe hero who was transported to Lugunica against his will was dead and he was never coming back.
"Climb to the rooftop then and run along the roofs until you see a gate that will allow you to pass through the wall." Was all Hector said in response.
And so Subaru did exactly this, running out of his dwelling and down the corridor to the maintenance room, inside which was a service ladder used to reach the roof. Once he reached the roof he began to survey the city, stopping to take in the devastation and plotting out his route in order to escape.
There were 4 gates through the city's walls, normally all were open and allowed people to freely flow in and out, however that did not appear to be the case. By looking closely at each of them, Subaru could see a large crowd gathered around, crowds that were not moving; by looking even closer Subaru could see that the large gates themselves did not seem to be open, a state that they had no good reason to be in during an emergency like this. This situation was identical for 3 of the 4 gates, however one of the gates had a different situation, its crowd was vastly larger than the rest but appeared to be moving slowly through the grate before dispersing outside the city, it was this gate that he would need to use in order to escape.
However by looking away from the gates to the city as a whole showed the true scale of the cities woes, the woes that were strangling the city in an embrace of fire and blood. Across the whole city were large pockets of flame engulfing entire blocks of buildings as they spread outward. Many of the city's streets were awash with blood and filled with corpses to the point a ground dragon would be unable to draw a cart through them.
The only odd thing about these atrocities were there locations, they were everywhere as if originating from multiple points simultaneously, but there was one place that had no fires and no bodies, a single market square. And this meant that the only way for Subaru to cross the city safely would be to use this market square as a corridor in order to reach the only open gate.
And so Natsuki Subaru ran along the rooftops, jumping over the small gaps between the buildings as he made his way through this makeshift corridor that would let him cross the devastation of the city as he made his way to safety.
"So this is whaaaat they've been building up to aaaaaaaaaall this time" Mused Hector as Subaru continued to run along the buildings, not even bothering to respond to Hector as he focused on his footing, leading to Hector to continue the conversation on his own. "They've been bidding their time for the past hundred or so years, I rarely encountered them. But this, the slaughter of a whole city, is truuuuuly unexpected, if my memory serves correct the moderates of the cult fuuuuuuuully opposed violence, and now they're resorting to mass killings."
Subaru's focus was taken from his surroundings as he focused in on what Hector was saying, thinking about how the Betelgeuse he had met, a member of a cult that Hector claimed was initially opposed to violence, the person who had without qualm attacked him and Rem on the road back to the mansion, sparing him due to some twisted logic beyond comprehension.
Subaru then found himself falling, the roof underneath his feet collapsing into rubble as he began to fall to the ground below, towards the market square below where Betelgeuse Romanée-Conti stood waiting with a crazed yet expecting look on his face.
Subaru landed hard on among the rubble on the cobblestone of the market square with a cracking sound as pain shot through the fingers on his left hand, his forearm and elbow, and the ribs on the left side of his chest. He could not move the fingers of his left hand anymore and they were bent at odd angles, almost certainly broken; and although he could still move his left arm it sent a sharp pain down the left side of his chest, meaning that there was likely some serious structural damage there too.
Subaru grimaced in pain as he used his right arm to help himself up, even though it felt sore it was definitely in a better condition than his left. But as he pressed himself up, he caught sight of two other people, one made him nearly sneer in delight, the other making him feel an overwhelming sense of bitterness and sadness rise within himself. Julius lay motionless on the ground, motionless and barely breathing as he looked like he got the absolute shit beat out of him. Seeing the pretentious asshole who had beat him into a pulp being on the other end of the stick would have made Subaru happy, but the other person he saw ruined that for him, like she had ruined his second chance at life.
His eyes met Emilia's, his burned with disdain at bitterness at the sight of her while hers were filled with tears as she seemingly shrank at his gaze. He hated her, he despised her, he loathed her, she took his happiness from him, drained every last bit of joy from his heart and second life, and now she had taken his joy from seeing a broken and beaten Julius too; Emilia was the half-devil who had tempted him with an apple only for that apple to be the thing that corrupted his world and caused his descent from the garden of Eden to a land of nothing but melancholy.
As Subaru slowly got up Betelgeuse seemed to be both losing his patience and what little remained of his mind, "I truly truly truly truly can't understand how someone so obviously loved could refute that very love, it doesn't make any sense, MY. BRAIN. TREMBLES" Betelgeuse bent over backwards while yanking handfuls of his green hair out as he tried to comprehend how someone could reject the witches love, the very love he had yearned after for so long.
"Love, you call the torment I've received from that silver haired half elf bitch love? My god why didn't anyone tell me that she was ruining my life because she LOVED ME, while she can take her fucking love and shove it! If the reason you're hear is because of one of these damn half-elves or the other, then you can leave me the fuck out of it because I don't want to have anything to do with either of them!" The moment Subaru let these words leave his mouth he realized that he made a mistake, to insult the Witch of Envy before someone driven mad by their love for her would not end well for him.
"To think so highly of yourself as to reject her love like that, to have so much pride as to throw insults in the face of the one who gives only love, I truly cannot understand such an idea. We are supposed to repay love with love, yet you threw her love into the dirt. The gospel warned me that you must be eliminated, she warned me that you must be eliminated yet she adorned you in such love, such intense love." Betelgeuse's whole body froze for a second as if he came to some realization, a big smile broke out across his face as he saw the Jealous Witches true intent. "MY BRAIN TREMBLES, IT TRULY, TRULY, TRULY TREMBLES! ALL OF THIS WAS MEANT AS A REWARD FOR MY DILIGENCE, LOVE FOR MY LOVE, TO HAVE A BODY SUCH AS THIS, A FINE BODY SMOTHERED IN LOVE TO BE MY NEW VESSEL. ITS WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC, AMAZING, SUPRISING, MY BRAIN WON'T STOP TREMBLING!"
As Betelgeuse was nearly dancing in place in happiness all of a sudden Subaru felt something painfully press on his head, exerting such a pressure as if it was a foreign object trying to force its way in. He grasped the sides of his head and fell back to his knees as he strained to keep whatever was trying to force its way in out, but he gradually felt his own grasp on his body slip away, and with it this foreign presence entered his mind.
Everything was black, dark, but there were no shadows, and he also was not alone. Subaru did not feel as if he had a body of his own, he could look and see anywhere with no physical restrictions. He also felt normal, there was no sadness, emptiness or bitterness affecting him here, but he also could not seem to do anything more than just look around, but that is when he saw them.
There were two men in front of him, one standing while appearing to be filled with such a maddening rage at merely seeing the other here that he was tearing chunks of his green hair out. The other sat in a wispy and barely visible chair with his head propped up by one of his arms, a look on his face that showed the immense depths of his own depression, his melancholy but also his disinterest at the whole situation. Subaru recognized both these men to some extent, they looked familiar to people he had seen before but not exactly. The depressed man strongly resembled the young Hector he had seen, the long brown hair, expression, and dress matching nearly identically. The other man however was a bit looser in his fit to the one Subaru thought he was, Sin Archbishop Betelgeuse Romanée-Conti. His robes matched perfectly, his hair was also fairly close as it was just a bit longer and did not quite have the bowl cut of the archbishop he was used to seeing. His face also had a bit more color to it, holding a healthier tone that just made him look a bit more alive. However his crazy mannerisms were identical to the Betelgeuse Subaru knew, becoming heavily apparent as he listened into the conversation the two men were having.
"HOW ARE YOU HERE YOU HERETIC? YOU SHOULDN'T EXIST, YOU SHOULD BE DEAD, GONE, BUT YOU'RE HERE IN THE VESSEL THAT IS TO BE MY REWARD FOR MY DILIGENCE?" Betelgeuse tore chunks of green hair, bits of his scalp coming with them and leaking blood onto the non-existent yet present floor.
"You're incessant and obsessive statements are making my ears bleed, their annoying, you're disgusting, why must I have to endure the wretched and depressing sight of the artificially insane like yourself. Get out, leave me alone, let me carry out my only desire in peace, your interruptions are annoying, depressing, making me feel even more melancholic…." As Hector finished speaking Betelgeuse just started to manically laugh at him.
"YES, YES I'LL DO JUST THAT, I'LL LEAVE! BUT THEN I'LL TEAR THIS BODY, THIS MOCKERY OF LOVE TO PIECES WITH MY DILIGENCE. I TRULY CANNOT ALLOW SUCH A THREAT TO THE ORDEAL SUCH AS MELANCHOLY TO PERSIST, I MUST ENSURE ONLY LOVE AND DILIGENCE REMAIN FOR HER RETURN." And with that Betelgeuse instantly vanished.
Hector sighed before everything began to spin for Subaru, the odd place that he did not have time to understand was soon replaced with the square once again. However Subaru felt just as he had before, as something boundless and floating without a body, except now he was stuck looking through his own eyes, now he was simply watching someone else control his body.
Subaru then felt his mouth open as words that were not his left his body, "Uhhhhhh, to have to go this far drains my soul of joy, so depressing, so much melancholy." Subaru then found his eyes looking right at Betelgeuse as the seven unseen hands he had witnessed before became visible to him before a brief rippling and surging occurred and suddenly there were more than a hundred around the sin archbishop.
"To think my fingers would be defeated so quickly…he must have arrived, I must begin the ordeal now or I will have fallen to sloth and failed." Betelgeuse mused as all hundred of his unseen hands darted forth right towards where Subaru was standing.
Hector simply stepped back in the laziest way possible as the ground exploded in front of him into a cloud of rubble. Seeing that his unseen hands, the token of affection bestowed upon him by the Witch of Envy had in fact been seen certainly did not sit well with Betelgeuse.
"You can see them…..YOU CAN SEE WHAT IS MEANT TO BE UNSEEN TO ALL BUT ME! MY AUTHORITY, THE SYMBOL OF MY DILIGENCE, MY REPRESENTATION OF THE WITCHES LOVE. WHY CAN YOU SEE IT? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY MUST YOU OF ALL PEOPLE, YOU THE HERETIC BE ABLE TO SEE, TO EXPLOT MY AUTHORITY!" Betelgeuse screamed this as he bit down on his fingers with enough force to draw vast amounts of blood, tearing through the soft tissue all the way down to the bone, he truly looked delusional as he wailed and screamed with a mouthful of his own blood.
"I'm irritated, annoyed, saddened by having to deal with you. This is the worst of the worst of the worst. I can't stand it anymore, why must you drag me back down like this. I hate it" Subaru could tell it was Hector controlling his body now, and Hector was acting significantly more melancholic then when he had merely been residing inside Subaru, yet Subaru felt significantly less melancholy compared to then.
Hector walked forward as the unseen hands rocketed towards him once again, except they seemed to distort for an instant before all collapsing inwards and dispersing.
"You're so weak that it bores me, bothers me to have to deal with you, why must I have to exert myself like this, I truly hate it." Hector said this as he continued to approach Betelgeuse, who was raving at how his authority was not able to overpower Hector.
"WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY MUST IT HAVE BEEN YOU, WHY MUST MELANCHOLY HAVE OPPOSED THE ORDEAL, WHY MUST THE TOKEN OF HER LOVE NOT BE ENOUGH TO STOP YOU, I TRULY, TRULY, TRULY CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART WHEN I FOLLOWED THE GOSPEL TO THE LETTER…." Betelgeuse stood still as he continued to launch attack after attack with the unseen hands, all of which were stopped midair by the authority of melancholy before they could land. Betelgeuse's own body was entirely consumed by his raving madness as he did not make even the slightest attempt to keep the distance between them.
"Putting in effort like this makes me depressed, so much melancholy, too much sadness, I truly cannot take it. Why did you have to make me endure this, why did you have to bring such melancholy to this place, this time." And with that Hector had slowly trudged across the square to stand within arm's length of Betelgeuse, all to just reach out and touch his shoulder.
The second he made contact Betelgeuse's whole body twisted and contorted, his spine twisted to the point that the cartilage broke; the nerves tightened, contracted and snapped, the muscles tore until his lower half was connected to his upper half by nothing but the small amount of remaining connective tissue. His arms were compacted into his chest until the joints popped and broke.
"Being forced down a path like this truly depresses me, I cannot continue to stand it, I cannot endure such melancholy as this." Betelgeuse's body was then launched upward before another force slammed into it from above, compacting it into the ground with such force as to create a small crater in the cobblestone paved square.
"Something as horrid as this would steal the remaining joy from my life if there was any left, this world truly is depressing and pointless…."
Betelgeuse's broken body was then launched into the building behind him, flying through the door.
"You really are the worst of the worst of the worst to make me feel as bad as this, there's no joy in this, just irritation, annoyance, and melancholy…"
Hector raised his hand so the palm faced the building.
"I hate it, I hate how I have been forced down a path like this, how I must be so depressed, it really is there fault, all their faults, the world's fault. Why must I be made to show how unloved you are, your weakness should be testament enough to that, so why must I be forced to exert myself…."
And with that the supports to the building creaked and groaned before giving way as it collapsed into rubble on top of the broken Betelgeuse.
"Huuuuh, finally done with this depressing business" And as those words left the lips of Subaru's body with a sigh, Subaru felt as if he was being pulled forward, pulled back into control. He felt the pain from all the injuries from falling off the roof came back, he felt the melancholy and bitterness return like a tidal wave, but he could also move his limbs and blink again.
"Satella…..Satella…Satellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Cried Betelgeuse as he slowly and painstakingly dragged his shattered body out from under the rubble, crawling on the ground towards Subaru as if he intended to continue the fight.
"I'll leave this part to you, you need to be able to kill without hesitation in the future so now will be your chance to learn." Hector's voice echoed through Subaru's mind.
"Ah, I guess you're right…." Subaru responded out loud as he walked towards Betelgeuse, limping due to the injuries from falling off the roof. As he closed in on the sin archbishop who barely clung to life he reached down to pickup a loose cobblestone from the ground.
"Forgive me Satella, I could not overcome my sloth….." Those were the last words that left the lips of Betelgeuse Romaneé-Conti as Subaru brought the stone down on his head, connecting with a sickening thunk as the archbishop's skull gave slightly to the force of the stone, flattening a bit as his body went still and blood began to leak from the wound. But Subaru was not finished, he remembered everything this sick cultist had put him through, how many loops had failed because he had encountered him. And so he brought the stone down again and again, each blow further deforming Betelgeuse's skull, each blow swung in an effort to alleviate his bitterness, but doing nothing more then fueling it.
Why must he have had to suffer through this, why did he have to get caught up in the attack on a city he could not care less about, why did this cruel world just keep dragging him back down into the mud. He hated it, he hated every last horrid piece of it, he just wanted happiness but everything that happened either made him more and more bitter, or more and more sad and upset. His swings grew more and more frantic until he stopped, he stopped because he could not swing anymore. His shoulders heaved up and down as he caught his breath, his injured left side screamed in pain due to being exerted after sustaining such extreme injuries. He looked down at the gory mush that was once the archbishops head, bearing not even the slightest resemblance to its former self. It was then when something that was black and slimy but held no form, dark but held no alignment lunged at him from the corpse. It went straight towards his heart, trying its best to worm its way in, trying its best to perpetuate the cycle since its creation by the Od Laguna untold centuries ago. But it was not let in, for something of equal power opposed it, rejected it. And so for the first time since it was removed from the box of one of its former carriers that it chose something unliving, something dead to host it. It retreated back into the corpse of its former master so that it may wait for another host.
His mind and body felt different compared to before he had lost control, physically he could almost feel as if the tentacles of something were extending out from within him, reaching out and into his body parts where they grew tiny appendages that spread throughout him. These appendages grew into his flesh in some places, and where they grew felt different, felt wrong. The Natsuki Subaru that was exposed to their influences was changed just ever so slightly, just enough to be described as different, but not enough for him to really notice. Mentally he felt as if a dam in his mind had sprung a leak, he felt as if he were sitting around a campfire, warmed by the flames of his anger and bitterness. But directly behind him stood a massive dam that held back a vast ocean of melancholy, depression, and sadness; now that ocean was beginning to leak out and lap at his ankles, suppressing his fire and drenching his spirit.
As he stood he first looked at the path out of the square that would lead him in his originally intended direction, out of the city. Much to his dismay this route was blocked by rubble, he would have to exit in the direction he had come from, but when he turned to head this way he was met with the sight of the people he least wanted to see. On the ground by the unmoving body of a fallen knight knelt Emilia, her eyes empty and glossed with water as she lamented how her uselessness had now gotten people killed. Entering the square and walking towards her was a trio comprised of Roswaal, Rem, and Ram. Roswaal's face was neutral until his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Subaru departing from Betelgeuse's disfigured corpse. Rem's face was initially still and cold, just like it had been when he had first met her, however the second she saw him her mood seemed to lighten and spirits lift before once again falling at the sight of his injuries. Behind them was a crowd of civilians their faces a mix of astonishment, fear, and joy; this range of emotions were all directed at Subaru, formerly the one who was the butt of many jokes due to his display in the castle, now occupying a position as the one who had seemingly saved them from being killed at the hands of the witch cultists.
When Subaru looked back towards the trio, he could see that Rem seemingly wanted to approach him, but was held in place by the iron grip of Roswaal, his hand on her shoulder as he regarded the situation with a slight frown on his face. However Rem calmed down and did not try and fight him when she saw that Subaru was approaching them, of course something he was only doing as it was the sole way out of the square.
"Subaru-kun! Subaru-kun! Are you alright? Rem saw part of your fight and it reminded Rem of how much of a hero Subaru-kun is, like when he fought the mabeasts!" Rem cheered at his approach.
"I'm….fine…." Subaru managed to get out, he was overcome with exhaustion and his mind felt heavy as if full of fog, but he absolutely wanted nothing more to do with these people and just wanted to get away from them.
"Subaru-kun doesn't sound fine…. you're arm, and eye look hurt, and your breathing doesn't sound right. Rem doesn't know if she can fix your internal injuries, but she can try!" Rem then lifted her hands towards Subaru as a glow began to appear around them, before Subaru swatted her hands away and began to limp past her, Rem's head just sunk as she realized that nothing had changed with him since their last meeting.
At this action Ram looked like she wanted to say something but Roswaal spoke up first, "You should let Rem heal you Subaru-kun, we owe you a great debt for protecting Emilia-sama from the witch cultist attack."
"Look at him and open your left eye Subaru-kuuuuuuuun" Hector's voice bounced around inside his head from an undetermined direction, revealing that his eye had been closed, something that he did not even realize. And so Subaru did just that, he turned to face Roswaal and opened his left eye to reveal a new black pupil. At the sight of this Roswaal visibly stiffened, giving Subaru the opportunity to give the remark that had popped into his head ever since the Emilia camp's stupid debt obsession was brought back up.
"You don't owe me a damn thing, if Betelgeuse hadn't of attacked me I just would've left her to die." Subaru spoke in a voice that was empty, the only thing revealed by the tone was how tired he was, and after leaving everyone in shock he left the square behind and headed home. He was no longer concerned with leaving the city as the atmosphere had been growing more and more calm, his only desire right now was to lay down and sleep.
Reinhard arrived on the scene by leaping over a heap of rubble blocking the road while carrying Felix in his arms bridal style, one of his divine protections had alerted him to the fact that someone close to him would die if he did not arrive with utmost haste.
His heart sunk when he saw the scene, bodies of his fellow knights were littered across the square, arrayed semi-concentrically around the heavily disfigured corpse of a witch cultist. However the civilians they were meant to protect all seemed to be safe, but Reinhard had still failed. If he had only been a bit faster in dispatching the other cultists, then he could have been here in time to prevent this tragedy from occurring.
"Julius!" Felix cried out as he sprung from Reinhard's arms and rushed to the collapsed form of their friend, soaked in what seemed like his own blood. A wave of relief washed over Felix's face as he began to heal Julius, showing that he would almost certainly be alright. Reinhard cursed himself again, if his thoughts and environmental perception had been anything but instantaneous then he would have hesitated and potentially held back Felix, which could have cost Julius his life.
As he walked towards the civilians, he first stopped by the royal candidate who was presently kneeling beside the body of a deceased knight, he called to her. "Emilia-sama, I am truly happy to see that you are alright."
But as his words met her ears all she did was look up at him with empty and broken eyes, before returning her gaze to the dead knight in front of her, not saying a single word in kind. But before Reinhard could curse himself once again over his deficiencies a voice called his name.
"Reinhard van Astrea, a truly assuring sight in trying times like these" Reinhard recognized the voice but not the manner in which it spoke, Roswaal L Mathers, the greatest magician in the kingdom.
"Roswaal-sama, I am truly grateful towards you for defending these citizens in my stead, I apologize that I was unable to do so due to my own weakness." But at these words Roswaal frowned, the second person Reinhard had made upset with his own words.
Roswaal quickly hid his facial expressions before correcting Reinhard, "It was not I who dispatched the Sin Archbishop, but my seemingly former junior butler Natsuki Subaru who did so, but he has seemingly left before he could receive treatment for his injuries or recognition for his heroics of besting Sloth in solo combat."
"Subaru….did this" Reinhard was shocked, or as shocked as he could be with his divine protections telling him that not one word Roswaal was saying was a lie.
Roswaal then lifted Emilia up by the arm and began to lead her out of the square with Rem and Ram following close behind, before he turned and said one last thing.
"I would recommend you seal the archbishop's body; you can probably tell but there is something very evil residing within it." And this Reinhard already knew, the body gave off a truly horrendous stench; even as he directed the knights now arriving on the scene to fetch a yin magician, he felt only bad omens for the future when he thought about what might be inside the body.