"Shall we begin?"
Subaru found himself on his foot, in the middle of a ring. Julius stood in front of him, wielding a wooden sword. The wind blew in his violet hair, giving his figure even more charm.
"Huh? No! This cannot be possible! Not again!" The Japanese boy screamed in frustration. "I thought I finally did it! I hoped I've done with this! That loop has to be the best perfect chance to avoid this fight." Subaru fell on his knees, his eyes weeping more and more.
I've felt somehow a cold airwave extinguishing the flames. I thought I survived that fire attack. Maybe my savior has been too slow. I'm tired of this. I've tried everything.
"It's impossible. I can't do anything right now." The black-haired boy muttered; then he raised his head, meeting the standing knight's gaze. "Julius, please. I'm sorry for what I said. I agree it was too much and-"
"Worthless."
What?
"Someone like you is worthless. You cannot wield properly a sword, your physical strength is embarrassing and you do not know any etiquette or polite manner." Julius' eyes flashed as a slight grin curved his lips. "Also, your gate is flimsy and damaged and your magic cannot hurt your opponents. You might have a spiritual affinity, but you as a person are not enough attractive to contract a bug. The only thing you are truly good at is dying."
Subaru's eyes widened and his jaw fell off, his throat suddenly dry. How the hell can he know that? Then a chill run down his spine. He clenched his fists to hide the intense tremor that was afflicting his hands. Isn't that hand coming? I'm scared! Not again! Not my he-
Wait, why nothing is happening?
"Oh, do you wonder why I know these things? That is not important." The knight continued, closing his eyes and passing his hand through his hair with nonchalance.
"The only thing that matters is your utmost being worthless. Am I wrong, Natsuki Subaru?"
Julius lowered himself, a knee on the ground, his right arm placed on his own flexed right leg. His head was at the same height as Subaru's one. "You cannot defeat me. You cannot run away from me. You are aware that the more aware you are of your own skills, the more you feel pathetic and useless. I pity you – nay, I pity Lady Emilia because is bothered by someone weak as you are. You don't deserve any form of pity. You did nothing in your life, so keep being the nullity you have always been."
Subaru tried to reply, but no words came out from his dry and stuck throat.
"Do you see? You cannot reply because this is what you truly are." The violet-haired knight continued, his arrogant smile spreading on his elegant face.
"You humiliated Lady Emilia."
"Rem put herself in danger because of your weakness against the Wolgarms."
"You ran cowardly from Ram when she asked you to save her little sister."
"You did not go on a date with Emilia, breaking your promise."
"You were not able to stop Elsa."
"You got killed by those petty thieves."
"You caused the death of old man Rom and Felt. But most important of all…"
The violet-haired knight moved his head near Subaru like he wanted to kiss him.
"…as Puck entrusted her to you…"
Julius whispered in Subaru's left ear, but his voice overwhelmed his mind.
"…you let Emilia die."
Subaru wanted to talk, to scream, to cry. His body however was frozen in place, and not a single sound or breath came out from his mouth.
"Your existence has no utility, value or meaning." Julius said getting up. Then all was enveloped in darkness, like if black clouds coming from the borders of Subaru's view field surrounded everything near him with a spiraling motion. The boy heard the last phrase from what he thought was Julius' mouth, and that kept echoing in his head.
"You have no place by her side."
As he blinked, he suddenly found himself on a hilltop surrounded by trees, in the orange light of the sunset.
"Stop there!"
Subaru turned his head, seeing two figures of the same height mowing towards him. As they came closer, he recognised them: their pink and light-blue helmet hairs and the waitress uniforms they wore made impossible for him not to do so.
"Rem! Ram!"
He ran towards them, feeling heartened.
A strong wind slash frozen him on his feet, cutting the tracksuit on his right shoulder. The Japanese boy stood there, his mouth slightly opened.
"Stop talking, you Witch Cultist!"
What? "…Rem?"
As the pink-haired Oni twin lowered her wand, the younger one apostrophised him. Her visible eye was glimmering like she wanted to burn the boy down with her gaze.
"Who are you?"
"I-I'm Subaru! Natsuki Subaru! Don't you re-"
" Don't interrupt her. Just answer our questions, if you want to live a bit longer."
"As always, Sister is so helpful and kind. Why you have come here, in Master Roswaal's Mansion, looking for Lady Emilia?"
Why don't they remember? They must know me! I passed that checkpoint!
Subaru stammered "I don't know! I… I was in the knight training ring right no-"
"How do you even know she lives here, before the official start of the Royal Selection? Are you working with one of Lady Emilia's rival claimants to the throne? Or are you a Witch Cultist? " Ram asked, deadly serious.
"No! No! I swear I'm not! I'm by your side! Why don't you remember?" The boy yelled.
"How dare you lie to us? Your disgusting scent speaks for you. You surely are one of them." Rem coldly stated, pulling out from the back of her dress her black and pink morning star. "I am going to gather all your information about the Cult, then you will be able to leave."
Rem took a step forward.
"This world."
Another one.
"Forever."
What is happening here? Why they're like this? I must find out that! Subaru said himself, as he turned back and tried to run away. Before he could do a single step, a strong wind wave knocked him down on his stomach. While he was still on the ground, a black chain enveloped him tying up his arms to his sides and his legs together.
"How pathetic he is, Sister."
"How weak he is, Rem."
The Oni twins reached the lying boy, towering above him. Rem clenched her grip on the handle of her weapon.
"I will make you spit out everything you know, Witch Cultist. You are suspicious, so I will render judgment as a maid should."
Rem rose her right arm then she pulled it down to deal a blow with the bolted sphere. Subaru couldn't move, nor squirm his body or close his eyes: again, his whole body felt as it was frozen. The only thing he could do was shutting his eyes, preparing himself for the incoming attack.
The expected hit didn't land on the boy's limbs: with a metallic *CLUNK*, the morning star chain was suddenly pushed back. Ram had to jump to avoid being hit by her sister's weapon on her legs.
Slightly opening an eye, Subaru saw a metallic object quickly spinning in mid-air above him. It was a knife, and a long one no less, with its blade bent inward.
Subaru's eyes widened. He knew this knife's owner.
"Oh, how wonderful. I have come in time."
No. No. No. NO!
A white hand grasped the weapon previously thrown.
"My employer would not have allowed this boy's death."
The other one was twirling around the tip of a black braid in her fingers.
"On the contrary, my dear maids, yours would be heatedly welcomed. Moreover, I have never fought against a couple of twins before."
Licking her lips, Elsa Granhiert moved towards the three of them. In contrast to the smile on her face, her black eyes held no traces of warmth or sympathy.
"Who are you, his partner? You will share his judgment, Witch Cultist." Rem spat with a threatening glare.
"In absence of our Master, the Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers, we shall inflict the given punishment to the two of you." Ram proclaimed, raising her wand.
Wait, no! If someone must die, it's me who has to! The black-haired boy thought as he tried to free himself, but he couldn't do such a thing. In his actual conditions, even a blink was out of his league.
Elsa's eyes glimmered. "Wow, what a welcoming! Show me what you can do."
As the woman was still talking, Rem had summoned several ice spears floating in mid-air.
"Take this!"
The blue-haired maid started throwing those magical projectiles against the assassin. Elsa dodged with agility part of them, smashing some others with her knife.
"El Fula!"
Ram unleashed a blade of wind, aiming to the upper half of the older woman's body, who dodged that rolling sideways on the ground. In the meanwhile, Rem directed the remaining of her spears on Elsa's way. Her legs were hit and frozen in place, making the assassin unable to move them.
The pink-haired maid shot another wind blade, targeting again Elsa's torso. As the magical attack was hitting her, the assassin curled herself, protecting her vital organs with her upper arts. On the impact, the strength of the wind heavily scratched the woman's arms and shoulders, making her bleed.
"Ah! I feel it!" Elsa moaned.
Ice spears appeared in mid-air, slowly rotating, surrounding the black-haired assassin.
"Now die."
They stopped spinning, their tips pointing to Elsa. As the younger sister clenched her right fist, the woman was invested by the rain of spears. A cloud of dust and ice tiny fragments rose, hiding the target from the Oni twins and the tied boy, still lying on the ground.
Silence.
"Oh, wonderful! I have definitively felt that!"
Before the pair of Roswaal's waitresses could even react, a black and blurred figure popped out from the cloud, heading towards Ram.
"Sister!"
"El Fu-tch!"
The older maid started chanting a wind spell, but Elsa's speed was so high that forced her to jump back to avoid the assassin's horizontal slash.
Elsa was smiling way too much for someone who had just missed her target in a deadly fight.
"Oh, what a pity. Is really this little enough?"
Subaru saw Ram looking down at her lower abdomen. Her uniform had been cut, and its white fabric was slowly turning red.
NoNoNoNo. Please, Ram!
The pink-haired girl's leg started trembling.
"SISTER!"
RAM!
As Ram keeled over the ground, Rem tried to reach her twin but she was suddenly hit on her stomach by a powerful kick. She was sent flying against the trunk of a huge tree, smashing her back against its wooden surface and sliding weakly to the ground.
"Ah look, I finally see your guts. They're so beautiful, pinker than your hair."
No… No… No…
Subaru found himself freed from the chain. He ran over the pink-haired maid and leaned on her, trying to close her wound with all his strength. However, his hands were getting red from the blood the dress fabric couldn't absorb or hold anymore. His mouth was unable to turn in sound what his mind was screaming, his eyes didn't cry the tons of tears he wanted to.
No… No… NO! NO! NO!
"Re…m."
Ram took her last breath, a trail of blood falling from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes, which were directed towards her sister, were now glassy and empty.
"Oh, it just ended. Now let's take care of the little sister. I wonder if your bowel will be as beautiful as your big sister's one."
As Elsa said those words, an unnatural light started irradiating from where Rem had been thrown. As he noticed that, Subaru turned his head.
Rem was slowly advancing, her hair fluttering. Her eyes were flashing pink light, and a horn of the same colour was slowly growing up on her forehead.
"Ah, you are an Oni! I am having today the chance of seeing some very rare bowels, what a good luck!"
Rem didn't answer the black-haired assassin. As the horn stood in all its length and brightness, her eyes lost all their previous light, showing two constricted pupils flashing in a vicious and fierce brightness.
Moving ad inhuman speed, she attacked Elsa with her morning star. As the black-haired woman dodged her first attack, she shook the handle of her weapon, throwing again the nailed iron sphere towards the assassin.
"It seems in this form you are faster and stronger, but you are lead only by your instinct. What a savage fight."
Elsa, moving so fast her frame was blurred, dodged continuously Rem's attacks. She was slowly getting closer to the blue-haired girl, like a storm chaser approaching the eye of the storm. Even with the high speed of the attempts and the nearly not existent intervals between them, the younger maid's attack pattern lacked tactic and strategy.
As the assassin was close enough, she threw herself to the rampaging Oni. Rem directed her morning star to her, but Elsa shielded herself with her left upper art. Her forearm was ripped off, but the black-haired woman didn't stop herself and dealt a vertical slash to the younger maid's left armpit, cutting her dominant arm that held her weapon.
"REM!"
Subaru was frozen in place by the horror and the terror that filled him. While Rem was screaming her lungs out holding her bleeding shoulder with her left hand, Elsa looked at her own stump with an aroused smile.
"AAAAAAAARGHHHHH!"
"Gh! Ah, that's it! How wonderful is an Oni's strength!"
Rem looked at Elsa, then jumped towards the assassin trying to attack her, but the woman easily dodged her fierce and uncoordinated attack. Before the blue-haired girl could turn herself back, Elsa cut her right foot with a clear slash, then she sent the maid flying against a nearby huge rock with a kick on her abdomen. Once Rem crushed against it, the assassin looked at her growing back art with an apathetic and disappointed look.
"Oh? Has that feeling just ended? What a pity."
Subaru rushed towards the hurt Rem, trying desperately to find a way to help her. As he leaned on her, holding her in his arms, Elsa reached him slowly walking, a step after the other.
"I have to dispose of her, following my employer's will. Step back cutie, I do not want to hurt you."
Subaru shook his head between his tears, as a refusal to let Rem go.
"Oh, my bad. I guess I have to keep you away from her."
As Elsa spoke, Subaru's vision suddenly spun. He found himself tied to a nearby tree by Rem's morning star chain. Elsa looked away from him, her eyes on the lying girl.
She drew her knives, her left arm fully healed.
"That's enough!" A silver bell rang.
Subaru raised his head, looking for her.
His tumultuous heart was holding a fight: on a side warming love and hope, on the other concern and sheer, absolute terror.
Emilia-tan is here! She knows healing mag- WAIT, SHE'S IN DANGER! EMILIA, RUN AWAY!
As his mouth couldn't drop out a single word, Emilia made eye contact with him. The sight of her amethyst eyes warmed the boy's soul.
"Don't worry, Subaru. I'm here. I will dispose of this bad woman. I shall save Ram and avenge Ram."
Emilia turned back herself, facing an amused Elsa. The woman had sheathed one of her knives, playing with the end of her hair tail.
"Oh, so there you are, Lady Emilia. I'm glad you've come for me."
The assassin's smile widened, growing more and more twisted.
"I have never seen how a Witch is made inside."
Emilia summoned dozens of ice spears, then threw them at Elsa. The black-haired woman dodged or deflected all of them with an unbelievable speed. In the meanwhile, the silver-haired girl summoned an icy shield with a sword and engaged the assassin in a close fight. The sounds of Elsa's knives on Emilia's shield and the clinking of the half-elf's sword stopped by the woman's weapon followed each other with incessant intensity.
With the passing of time, it was clear they were tied in a stalemate: Emilia's shield was enough resistant to block Elsa's attacks, but the silver-haired girl's attacks lacked strength or speed to overcome the woman's defensive technique.
Then Emilia, stepping back to block a vertical slash, tripped on a protruding root.
As the girl was falling back, Elsa reached her with a sudden dash…
"Puck! Protect her!"
and slashed upwards vertically.
Why don't I see any icy shield? Maybe it's small and I cannot see it behind her back-
As the blood splattered in the moonlight like water from a sprinkelr, Subaru felt an incredibly strong and freezing shiver running down his spine.
It was night right now. The Sun had already set time ago.
Puck couldn't come out so easily.
That meant…
It cannot be true! It cannot be true! THIS CANNOT BE TRUE!
Emilia was hurled on her back, the fabric of her white dress cut and reddened on her abdomen. A rain of crimson drops on the pale skin of her arms, the tips of her sparkling hair now messily dirtied by the ground she had fallen into.
"Su…ba…ru…"
The girl he swore to protect no matter what whimpered weakly, life slowly fading away from her amethyst eyes, focused with effort on the black-haired boy.
Subaru couldn't move, talk or even think.
His body felt heavy like it was made of stone, his throat was shut like a bricked-up door, and his mind…
In his mind, a silver bell was asking him several questions, one after the other, with a calm but sad and bitterly disappointed voice.
"Why are you so weak?"
"Why are you so useless?"
…
"Why didn't you save me?"
After what seemed an eternity, Emilia's eyelids dropped and her head hung down with a last, cold whisper that echoed in his mind.
"…worthless."
Worthless.
WORTHLESS.
And then Subaru lost it.
"EMILIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-uh?"
Subaru was screaming his lungs out when he suddenly stopped, noticing a few things.
First, he wasn't lying on the ground. He was in an elegant room, in a bed with refined blankets.
So, I guess it was just a nightmare. What a relief!
Second, he felt his sweating body aching and tightened, his heart still racing due to his horrific dream. A stolen glimpse at his abdomen and his arms shown him he was enveloped in white bandages, above which he wore something he judged as that world version of an elegant hospital gown.
I guess I managed to survive somehow, even if it seems I'm seriously wounded.
And third, sitting at his bedside, there was not Emilia, nor Rem, nor a beautiful waitress from some noble household.
What is he doing here?
Julius, dressed in the white and black uniform Subaru was starting to hate with all his heart, addressed him with a tone the Japanese boy found serious even for the violet-haired knight.
"Natsuki Subaru, you are finally awake. I know you are in a such sorrowful state and technically you are a recovering patient, but I am here to inform you about your current situation and, most importantly, …"
Subaru started opening his mouth to cut Julius' tiring claptrap with a harsh retort.
"…about Lady Emilia's one."
"..."
What?
Hi guys, welcome back. Sorry for my late update, but I've been busy recently.
I can say you here the plot is starting to diverge from the canon one. I hope this isn't rushed, nonsensical, or too weird.
I didn't know how to write a nightmare. I tried not to talk about the internal emotions of the dream images of characters, but only about how they looked and Subaru's emotions. I didn't make him feel physical sensations, such as pain, 'cause it's pretty rare in a dream and I didn't want to invent too many things.
As always, reviews and constructive critics are welcome, and so are your ideas.
See (hopefully) you in the next chapter!