Chapter 1: One Last Ripple For The Water Gate City
Warning: Please go and read the 81 chapters of Arc 5 from the Rezero Web Novel. You can read the English translation of the novel on Witch Cult. No matter if I had trouble with one of their members, I will always be a fan of the effort they've given us to bring this story to our audience!
Also, Thank you Tappei for the creation of all of this.
This was a spoiler warning by the way. Enjoy!
Once the dust had finally settled, desperation filled Subaru's heart. Fearing nothing but the worst, the tired, wounded youth held on to his trusty whip for safety and faced the after-effects of his latest plan. His forehead was sweaty and his body was riddled with smaller wounds that burned him every time his clothing would graze against them.
More so, was the fear that had encompassed his heart. If this move did not win them the battle, then Subaru might just have to die one more time, something he absolutely didn't want to do, and felt disgusted just thinking about the thought. The boy clung tightly to his weapon, slithering it on the ground nervously, eyes focused on the demolished part of the city yard.
The desperation for a concise conclusion to this tiring fight wasn't felt by him alone. He wasn't alone.
A lady in tattered clothing and several smaller cuts around her arms and legs, silver hair that was disheveled, and beautiful facial features stood beside him with the same apprehensive face. Magical icicles were formed around the area, commanded by her magical prowess.
Overlooking the pair, one handsome young man with red hair and eyes shining like stars with bluish light had honed his gaze towards the middle point of destruction he'd caused. In an unconscious haze, his hand gripped the scabbard of his sword. An act that seemingly helped the charming redhead relax as he adjusted his stance to that of readiness. He seemed to be prepared to set himself before the two companions below him should that be needed.
Each of the trio held on to their respective weaponry and waited with expressions of anticipation and determination aimed towards the gigantic hole before them. The tension grew heavier as they waited for the aftermath of their efforts to be determined.
Before them, laid the creation of their collaboration. The recent attack the three had executed spectacularly on their powerful enemy had left a misshapen gigantic hole carved into the Earth's floor, expanding cracks into the rocky surface around the man-made terrain.
The great pond upon which the megacity had been built above was still very much present underneath the buildings and roads. Miniature rivers and streams of water were a large attraction of the city as for every road, there seemed to be a canal running alongside it.
What was worse, the water from the great pond that stretched across every road of the Water Gate City started to reach these cracks in the ground, filling and spreading all around the city's damaged faculty.
But the drowning downflow of water and significant damage they had caused was not what the trio focused upon.
All three heroes ignored the disastrous water malfunctions and focused on a far more dangerous threat than the overflowing of a river. Emilia held her breath and increased the capacity of her icicle magic, Subaru prepared his whip and felt the adrenaline flowing into his brain as his wounds didn't burn him as much anymore, Reinhard tightened his grip on his sword and narrowed his eyes towards the bottom of the pit.
They waited for the murderer, the monster that terrorized their world for so long, someone that had infinite amounts of power and used it selfishly. The Archbishop had killed thousands for the smallest of reasons or just because he felt like it. A madman with unreasonable expectations.
Someone that had forced demolition and unexpected burdens upon the people of Preistella City during this seige today, and the monster each of the three heroes had been fighting for the past few hours without even putting a scratch on him.
This is why the three were currently staring at their structure with hope and desperation clear in their eyes. This must work, it must be the way to defeat the villain for the last time.
Everyone stared down to where the cave ended, where one man became nothing but a mere crushed, now drowning, entity stuck in the underground.
Anyone who'd have been near them during the battle would be on their knees paying their blessings to the gods above. Emilia's eyes widened, hands falling to her side. Beside her, Subaru had fallen to his knees with his whip on the ground. Even the Sword Saint above them stared with his mouth ajar.
Even the team of three seemed shocked beyond belief at their supposed victory.
The Sin Archbishop representing Greed from within the Witch Cult, Regulus Corneas, had finally been defeated, vanquished by the Sword Saint and The Spirit Knight serving Emilia.
Shortly after this was clear, shaking his surprise away, Reinhard simply gestured a farewell to his two companions, a simple hand wave and a nod. Once he bid his due, he turned on the rooftop and vaulted high with a boosted jump to reach the other rooftops of the great city. The city still had villains roaming around and he had the power and responsibility to stop them.
With him gone, Subaru and Emilia moved on to their next task, taking care of the victims and consequently assessing the damage Greed has done to this quarter of the city.
Before moving to do so, Emilia stopped for a moment to inspect the structure that had been crushing the evil man moments distinct feeling of familiarity with the man washed over Emilia, making her try her hardest to remember if she had met him before any time during her life. She reminisced about a memory of meeting this man, but it was so vague and inconsequential to the half-elf, she just turned away and threw no more look towards the murder's tomb.
With that, Subaru took Emilia's hand and delivered a smile filled with warmth to her. Emilia gave him a nod and pulled him towards the destroyed church where Emilia was almost married off to the Sin archbishop.
The building itself was a grand work of architecture akin to the most impressive religious monasteries in Japan. Even with the damage done to it via Greed's rampage, the structure was more than beautiful enough to stand proud the way it was currently.
Once the two entered the building, they were met with an entirely different atmosphere. The cold made Subaru shiver in his shoes, an impressive thing since it was so warm outside. The glamorous divinity of the building was not lost on the inside, the artistry of the interior provided an aura of blissfulness.
The grand sculpture of ice inside of it was simply adding to this magnetic image the building seemed to possess. An impressive display of morbidity facing the divinity of the building's interior, the building was filled with inanimate people stuck in heaps of solid ice. It was as if they were painted inside of the solid cold walls. All of the prisoners seemed to be white-haired women that didn't seem to be alive inside of the freezing chunks.
There were many, and the church's interior was downright freezing because of the frostbite coming off of their frozen prisons.
Without waiting any longer to observe their work, the pair quickly worked over to unravel all fifty-three of Regulus' 'wives' from the dormant world of ice.
Emilia seemed guilty for trapping them inside of such an existence in order to help stop the madman. It was the best course of action she could make to stop all of the women's hearts without killing them.
A potent yet dangerous solution she had come up with to try and hinder Greed's impossible authority.
The Authority of Greed, Lion's Heart. Where Regulus had placed his real heart inside of someone dear to him. Making him immortal and powerful enough to stand against the Sword Saint himself. The team of three had a lot of trouble finding out where this heart was, or whom it was Regulus had chosen to protect his heart. Ultimately, Subaru concluded that it must be one of the mass harems of wives the Archbishop had brought with him.
Emilia was faced with the possibility of killing each of them in order to help her knight and Reinhard get an advantage above the powerful villain.
Obviously, Emilia refused. Deciding to freeze the mass hall, placing the women inside of it into a state of inanimation, stopping their hearts without taking their lives.
And apparently, that wasn't enough for none of the wives held the Lion Heart within them and Greed became more enticed with bloodlust and cockiness after they failed.
Until Subaru realized where the Heart actually was. And to everyone's surprise, Emilia didn't need to freeze herself with the risk of staying frozen for another hundred years.
Instead, Subaru had finally found a good use for his Invisible Providence. His Invisible Hand was taken from Sloth's Witch Factor which he'd absorbed a year ago. He'd used it to crush Regulus' Lion Heart from within Emilia's chest in a grotesque mirror of irony for how similar this move was to Subaru's stalker whenever he committed a taboo.
This allowed the force of the three to face a now, weaker, mortal, and completely batshit Regulus that raged about his rights without realizing his weakness.
A complicated chain of events that wouldn't be coherent enough to be understandable by a mere outsider. This battle concluded with a victory for the resistance force of the Water Gate city. But the war raged on still.
As a result of this siege, the entire metropolis was stricken with the wrath of the Witch Cult. Each and every majestic building inside the great city was ravaged by vandalism and destruction. In some parts of the city, the effects were so drastic that there was no longer any sense of charm or magic that the rest of the districts possessed.
No district could fit the statement other than in the city quarter where Subaru and Reinhard engaged with the Archbishop of Greed. Regulus leveled almost every building in his wake only so he could attempt and kill Subaru.
The fact that Regulus managed to commit no casualties throughout his rampage was quite impressive.
Subaru and Emilia had finished one battle in a simple corner of the city, but that didn't mean the other battles waging all around them had stopped either.
After the wives had been rescued from the ice, Subaru advised that it would be best for them to stay inside of the church for now. Things were too hectic for the women to go outside and enjoy their freedom, for now at least.
Once that was done, Emilia had to make the boy sit down and rest once she noticed his expression of worry. She wouldn't let him push himself any further than this. She assured him that their friends were capable enough to handle themselves without him.
Overlooking his doubt and worry, the boy rested against the wall with his hand on his chest. He focused his tired body to relax against the broken wall, finally dealing with the last aftereffect this battle had created.
Now that he could rest, Subaru focused on the dark feeling that resembled slime entering through his lungs and attaching itself inside of his chest. He felt his insides become oppressed as the invisible potent substance willed its way into his insides.
His insides were undergoing a harrowing experience, and he was left with no other choice than to keep quiet about it. He had to accept the invasiveness and let his heart be surrounded by the black impunity of the Witch Factor.
He found comfort in the silence of the war, now that his battle was finished. Emilia had no trouble forcing the wounded young man to sit down and rest, sitting down beside him with her head on his shoulder. They both enjoyed their comforting warmth and entered a state of blissful rest and relaxation. A moment later, they prayed that their friends and allies would be equally victorious with fewer casualties from the side fighting for the freedom of the city.
But alas, they needed to move ahead. Enemies were fighting all over and their friends were spread far too thin. Even if Reinhard himself was scouring for trouble makers, he was only one man.
And so both Knight and Master stood up to start their journey out of the area, lamenting the destruction of the beautiful city area because of Greed.
But before the tired pair could begin to stand on their legs, an echo from the far reaches of the metropolis boomed through the air, filling the world with the voice of the speaker.
"The heinous Witch Cult, who captured the four control towers and threatened the city, have been thrown back. With this, the safety of the City is affirmed―― The triumph is that of the Water Gate City Pristella!"
With the emotional announcement spread all across the war-torn city, Emilia and Subaru hurried with joy over their victory and fear for what happened to their friends that spread out to capture each control tower.
The speaker was recognized by both as the man named Kiritaka.
"Subaru! If what you said is true, our friends fought the Archbishops in every control tower, right?" Emilia said with a hand on her heart.
"Yes. We need to go and make sure everyone is okay!" Subaru excitedly bellowed.
Both hurried straight towards the central building where the kingdom's forces had agreed to rendezvous. Subaru informed his half-elf companion about the important position of the Town Hall and that everyone was to meet there so she immediately followed him with excitement filling her heart.
The pair ran through the city, jumping over rubble and various holes in the grounds of the once-impressive streets of Pristella, grimacing at the total annihilation the structures around them had been subject to.
Both Emilia and Subaru had managed to reach the City Hall… Or what was left of it.
What used to be a grand, momentous, and royal-looking building of five stories that had decorations carved all around its unique architecture, appeared as if it was nowhere to be found. Instead, they only found heaps of rubble and mountainous piles of debris scattered across the plaza of the city's central point. The Town Hall of Pristella City, had fallen.
"Well… That's bad…" Subaru said with a grimace and slowly began to climb down some chunks of the walls that blocked the road.
Emilia helped him down, frowning when he hissed in pain.
His various cuts and wounds didn't heal as fast as Emilia's and so whenever he made a movement that required his clothing to grain against his injuries it burned him greatly.
"Careful…" She whispered in worry for him as she watched him dust himself uselessly.
"I'm fine thank you, Emilia-tan." His voice had no emotion as he turned and stared at the disaster before him.
Worried, the pair inspected the area around them.
"The broadcast from before… It came from the device in the hall, no?" She asked, pointing towards the building's broken pillars.
"... You're right!" He said with distress coating his voice.
Subaru and Emilia looked at each other then back at the demolished building. Sooner, the thought of their happy announcement being fake started creeping into Subaru's mind.
There was a battle over here. And we left all of our non-combatants in the City Hall.
Subaru glared heatedly all around the heaps of rubble.
Could we have been tricked?
"S-Subaru… I don't feel right, here…" Emilia muttered waveringly, looking around with a worried gaze.
"I know," Subaru replied firmly, his eyes narrowed as he inspected more of the building's fallen walls, "This all feels pretty ominous. Even if there was nobody here they are either in another location, safe and sound… Or…", They could've died under the rubble.
Emilia looked at the mountainous rubble, now frightened.
"Emilia…" Subaru suddenly called out, his back towards her but his voice holding a hint of sternness which was out of character for him.
"Y-Yes?" the silver-haired girl answered with a worried look.
"We should look around," he said in a weak tone that waited for no reply, moving towards the rubble on his own.
"...Yes."
The silver-haired girl was slightly more disturbed by her knight's completely darkened demeanor. As if he had an outlook of every bad thing that may happen. She didn't like it.
Biting her lip, Emilia pushed her tired legs to search around the piles of stone and wall chunks. Pushing rocks out of their formation, she kept her eyes scanning from top to bottom on every single pile. She wasn't sure what she wanted to find. A drop of blood? A slick of hair crushed under the rocks? A limb coming out of the confiscation of the rubble?
She didn't know what to look for. Her heart bled at the thought that someone might be trapped under the collapsed debris left in the wake of the Hall's collapse.
In contrast, Subaru seemed to be actively looking for any sign of death around the building. He spent no time wallowing over fear of finding anyone. He seemed to be moving through with a look of desperation on his face. He'd be spending a second throwing rock and wood off of each other in one moment, only to jump on another pile and move debris away in the other.
The half-elf glanced at him slightly every once in a while with a weird glint in her eyes. She can see something akin to firmness in the boy's glare as he started to border on moving heavy bricks to clear areas where he looked for bodies.
Did he want to find someone dead?
Emilia couldn't put a feeling on it, but she actively thought that her knight had one single idea in his head. If he found at least one person dead… It was enough for him to do something.
"Why do you look so bad, Subaru?" She whispered to herself in sadness and worry for the boy. Watching him continue to swim through the rubble with a much more despairing look on his face.
And before he continued to swim in the rocks to a greater degree, something suddenly caught his eye from above him. A beam of light suddenly appeared across the skies and illuminated the entire world with its shine, even lightening the surfaces of broken rocks and granite before him.
Quickly, the pair turned to find where this illumination was coming from.
A force of magical power seemed to have been activated somewhere in between the lanes of buildings around the center of the city. Whoever was the master of this power, it seemed they were shooting the beam of light straight towards the sky.
Subaru thought it was akin to a magical beacon made out of laser light.
"Is that…?" Emilia murmured in amazement.
"...It's magic! Someone's signaling people into that direction… It must have something to do with what happened to the Hall!" Subaru quickly ignored Emilia and shot down the mountain of rocks to the leveled ground, pushing his wounded body to run towards the now fading laser that had been shooting towards the sky.
"S-Subaru…" Amazingly, the tattered black-haired boy managed to outrun the better-conditioned half-elf even with all of his wounds. Emilia followed him with apprehensiveness and worry painting her expression.
They ran through the plaza that led to the center of the city and found roads intersecting with many buildings and alleys that were not in a damaged condition. They ran through said streets, aiming to reach the source of the light above.
As they turned through the various alleyways and empty streets, their only guide to knowing where they were headed was the shining line in the sky. But sooner or later the phantom light began fading away into slithers of shattered magical interference, before dissipating completely out of the air.
The pair seemed closer to its place of resurrection or origin point, so they were less concerned about getting lost.
They navigated and turned through more alleys until the opening to a main road was suddenly before them. Subaru rushed out of the alleyway and ceased his running as soon as the street before him came into full view.
Emilia stopped to a halt as her knight stopped moving and stood stiff; she couldn't see anything since his back was blocking her view.
But she noticed the shaking of his fists, the trembling of his sweaty back.
And of course, Emilia heard his choked and disparaged sob.
"Anastasia-san…!"
Once Subaru left Emilia's way, her eyes grew wide as he ran forward towards the edge of the street as fast as his tired legs would allow.
She can now see the street in full view without him blocking her. As she cast her gaze down the street edge, she saw a disturbing pool of blood dripping into the cracks of the chiseled road. The artistry of the blood's travels to paint the street was immediately forgotten once Emilia seemed to progress the source of the crimson dripples.
"Anastasia-san!" Subaru shouted as he reached the woman's side.
The silver-haired girl remained frozen in shock at the alleyway's entrance. She gazed at what could be described as the massacred body of a girl in tattered clothing and green-dyed hair.
Taking a step closer, she realized it was Anastasia Hoshin that was leaning on the edge of a building's wall, bleeding into a large reservoir.
The western girl seemed to be in a horrible state. By-passing why her hair was dyed in its current greenish form, eyes of amethyst focused on the various mutilated balde wounds and deep cuts across Anastasia's body.
Upon her inspection, Emilia realized why there was so much blood around Anastasia.
She… She's been bleeding out this whole time!
Emilia quickly ran to the girl's side with her arms already glowing with healing magic. Kneeling beside Anastasia, Emilia started using every ounce of her spirit arts magic to heal the girl's wounds the best she could.
As the half-elf got to work, the petite girl finally acknowledged their presence as she opened her tired eyes and faced Subaru with a shocked expression.
"N-Natsuki-kun? D-Damn… I would'a lov'd if ya had the saint with ya'…"
"What the hell happened, Anastasia-san?!" In spite of Emilia's best efforts to rescue the woman from immediate death, Subaru hurled questions at the bleeding candidate as her condition worsened by the second.
"These murderers showed up outta nowhere…" she paused to cough up blood. Subaru held her shoulders gently and looked concerned. He noticed her skin growing paler.
He wanted to urge Emilia again but the half-elf looked frustrated enough as she healed Anastasia's wounds.
He noticed that the blood hadn't stopped flowing out of the various deep slash wounds on her limp arms and legs, the deep gashes on the side to her neck continuing to trickle red lines unimpeded.
Subaru looked urgently towards Emilia, the latter seemed to be gritting her teeth and trembling as she pushed her magic to its limits. Glowing orbs started manifesting out of thin air, emitting majestic lights around them and clearing the darkness with their glow.
"H-Hold on! Everything is going to be oookay!" Emilia tried to sound cheerful but her teeth were gritted in a frustrated fashion clearly showing distress.
The merchant leader gurgled on some blood, her expression turning cold and emotionless.
"They're attacking everyone in the nearest housing shelter near the City Hall."
Emilia looked disturbed for a moment as Anastasia's entire demeanor changed and she started speaking in a way that was not reminiscent of someone that's going to die from bleeding out. The western accent was completely removed from the girl's words which sounded unnatural on its own even without that cold, emotionless voice. Not to mention that the expression the merchant girl carried was one of sophistication and boredom, not the fearful pained look from before.
This isn't Anastasia!
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Emilia quickly pushed Subaru back and stopped her healing spell.
"E-Emilia?!"
"That's not Anastasia, Subaru!" the half-elf shouted and turned with a dangerous glare on her face. Emilia pointed her palm towards the bleeding green-dyed-haired girl, readying various floating icicles in the air around her.
The silver-haired candidate was on alert, but strangely, her knight simply stood up and ran to the fake Anastasia's side.
"I know. Just continue healing her please." Subaru pleaded without glancing back towards Emilia, showing his willingness to get closer to Anastasia so he can ease her suspicions.
"...?"
Emilia stood, frozen and bewildered, as the boy brazenly ignored the fact that this wasn't Anastasia and sternly asked her to continue the healing process.
"B-But-"
"You're Echidna, correct?" Subaru ignored the half-elf and further bewildered her as he started speaking to the bleeding woman with an expressionless face.
Echidna? Why isn't he asking about Anastasia? Wasn't there a cultist that takes the form of our friends against us?
Why isn't he as surprised as me? Why doesn't he look worried?
Disregarding her questions, Emilia showed reluctance as she activated her spirit arts magic once more with her hands over the chest wound of the suspicious woman. While she wondered why she was still trusting Subaru with this peculiar event, she noticed that the chest gash remained open and bleeding to a worrying extent. Her spirit healing was doing nothing, it was ineffective to the wounds which confused the half-elf greatly.
"Indeed. I was hoping to preserve this secret for Ana, but it seems I've failed her in every aspect of my mission," Scarfdona spoke through Anastasia's dying lips.
"You are being healed. And I could already tell it was you speaking through Anastasia's mouth from the beginning," the boy urged but in a softer tone this time. His eyes held a pleading glint as he faced her with sincerity.
The spirit smirked through the bloody lips of the merchant queen, "You are brighter than the others, but it seems I've not been a good imitator cough."
Subaru's expression got more desperate but his glare wasn't lost, "I'll ask about why you're possessing her later…" he held his breath with a shake of his head before continuing, "What happened to the City Hall and who else got injured and is anyone else dead?"
The spirit moved Anastasia's lips into a smile… It was a defeated, sad smile.
One that made Emilia gasp.
Subaru only further hardened his gaze.
"I had used Jiwald to signal someone more powerful to help us. But now it seems like Ana's body is dead and no one will be able to avenge our friends." The body of Anastasia moved its head to lean against the wall, the smile of defeat painting its lips resembling the Spirit's tired state.
"You're being healed right now! You'll live! Just tell me what the hell happened and who's dead?! Tell me!" shouting, Subaru grabbed on to her shoulders and shook the girl without remorse.
"Subaru!"
Meeting the boy's shouts was Emilia's shocked cry. The boy took a moment to notice that the woman in his arms was now bleeding rivers from her nose and mouth. The wounds had made her reach an ending point. Her organs had failed completely.
"Can't you heal her faster, Emilia?" Subaru gave the half-elf an urging look, making her panic.
"I-It's not working, Subaru! Her wounds haven't healed since I started!" Emilia held an expression of pure fright and frustration as she pushed both herself and the spirits around her to help save the merchant woman.
"...!"
Subaru and Emilia stared at the girl's wounds as the half-elf pumped the spirits' mana straight into the wounds.
Nothing was happening. The wounds remained open and the blood remained flowing out of them.
"What's going on?!" Subaru exclaimed in confusion, his expression growing despaired at the declining state of the girl. His entire body shivered in morbidity, he could see her skin growing paler and more motionless than before.
"L-Listen to me, Subaru…" The spirit, Echidna, spoke through Ana's lips with no honorifics used for the boy. She aimed a weak smile toward him, oddly, he could feel the warmth coming out of the spirit-possessed body.
"Run… away. Your friends… are all dead. Save… yourself."
"To hell with that! Just let me take care of everything!"
Subaru hadn't realized it, but his eyes watered as he shouted down at the defeated woman. Emilia picked up on the anger in his tone and frowned with sympathy. Her own eyes were blurry.
"... You did better than we all expected, Natsuki Subaru… But just like me, you won't be able to do… everything." Emilia looked at Subaru with pity after the boy's face contorted to one of teary-eyed anger.
"Those Witch Cultists are already cough more powerful than the combined efforts… of your spirit and Wilhelm-san." At this, Emilia and Subaru widened their eyes, the boy's breathing hitched.
"They barely... gave me enough time to… run away and get help. I'm sure they are long gone now."
"Beatrice?! Beatrice is in there?! Who're the bastards?! Gluttony? Lust? Was it Wrath?! Where are they?!" Subaru trembled with horror, his pupils delighted to the extreme in fright. He was only met with a simple smile.
"I'm sorry… But I don't wish to fail my master that much… Go away, Subaru. Don't die."
And with that… The spirit died as her master's body failed.
Emilia gasped for a second time, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight of Ana's frozen face.
"Goddamnit!" Subaru placed the girl on the side of the building and looked away. His arms trembled and his breathing was convulsing heavily out of his mouth. The boy curled into a ball and hid himself from the world.
Emilia was simply staring at the cold bloody face of her rival to the throne… or her possessed rival. The sight emerged a pain in Emilia she didn't think would wear off. Most of all, the half-elf felt absolutely pitiful and guilty for failing to save the lady.
"What are we going to do?" Emilia asked her knight, her eyes still on the girl.
"We need to help Beako and the others. I refuse to give up here." His voice was hoarse, his tone had a trembling to it.
Before the wounded boy could stand up on his tattered legs, Emilia immediately held his hand with all of her strength, "Wait! You can't just go on your own, let me heal you first. I was helping Ana-san so I couldn't do it before, but let me do it now."
The boy shook his head, an expression of anxiousness on his face as he faced her.
"Don't waste any time. We need to save the others. And I don't think your healing magic is gonna do anything for us now."
Emilia flinched at this. The boy's words directly implied that Anastasia's death was because of her healing magic's inability to close the wounds fast enough. The guilt of this thought was a great burden to bear for the silver-haired girl.
Holding a hand to her chest, Emilia seemed stuck as she stood before the body, wondering what went wrong with her abilities and why she had failed her one and only job.
But… my magic should've healed those wounds… Why didn't it work?
Emilia didn't have enough time to dwell on the thought and the guilt once the black-haired knight started running with his hand gripping hers.
"Wh-Where are we going?" Emilia asked in confusion.
"We are following the place Ana- Echidna ran from," Subaru rigidly, his tone displaying distaste for a reason Emilia couldn't comprehend as she was being pulled away by him running around a corner.
"How do you know where that is?!" she asked as she ran beside him.
"... Look what I'm following, Emilia-tan," Subaru answered grimly as he increased the speed in his legs.
"...?!" The half-elf's eyes widened in horror as she noticed that her knight had taken to following the trail of blood that was plastered in a clear line across the sidewalk.
The blood of an escaping Anastasia…
Ironically enough for Emilia's lapsing thoughts, she didn't lose how willing he was to use this oversight from the spirit that possessed Anastasia to disregard her wish. The half-elf's frown deepened as she picked up the pace behind him.
Emilia stayed silent as she followed her Knight by running along with the bloody footprints and droplets that took them far into the city's inner workings.
Eventually, once Subaru was nearly collapsed on the ground for air, Emilia noticed that the trail of bloody prints seems to have led them to a poor area in the Water Gate City. All of the buildings here seem vapid and unpolished with no charm to them, unlike the rest of the district they had just come from.
On the ground, Subaru took a moment to collect his breath, resting his forehead on the floor and breathing heavily. The adrenaline he was running on seemed to run vapid. He hissed in between breaths as the pain of his wounds grazing against his clothing burned him.
"This is -gasp- where they've been hiding? It seems not everyone was killed in the City Hall attack." the boy whispered in between his breathing regime, he seemed to glare towards the last few drops of blood leading to a certain building.
Emilia frowned, looking tired and in sadness as she gazed at his hunched form.. She turned her attention to the 'shelter' where Anastasia's blood seemed to have originated from, the grimace stuck to her face faster than she would've liked. The pang of guilt settled a painful hold around her heart once she was reminded of Anastasia's cold expressionless face.
"Subaru, we need to keep the focus on our surroundings!" Emilia warned in a wavered tone, her breathing seemed to calm down from her traumatic memory.
He seemed to ignore her warning, slowly getting back up on his shaking legs, wincing as his unclean injuries burned him. The pair began walking towards the last bit of blood that pointed to one larger securely hidden building.
It was a tightly knit building with one floor fit to house many inside of it. The doors and windows appeared to have been blown off, there've been blasts and magical charges happening inside. This made Subaru run faster towards the building with a sinister glare on his face…
Before his legs went cold.
His arms dropped to his side as he fell to his knees.
Emilia's boot heels stopped, clicking beside him. Her sudden sob that was akin to a kitten's cry, was muffled behind her palm.
On both sides of the street, right by the doorway to the shelter, where their friends are thought to be rallying, bodies laid in large pools of blood.
"No…" Emilia whispered in despair as her legs gave out.
Subaru stared blankly at the world, his face white as snow and his eyes nearly torn open.
There was no worse presentation of the word 'mockery' than what the pair were witnessing at that moment. The disrespect and hatred felt by simply looking at the way these corpses were left discarded on the side of the road was understood by even the more naive of the two.
And it didn't take them even a second longer of inspection to understand that they knew these bodies.
Staring in disbelief, Subaru and Emilia had their own reactions of heartache and despair as they were faced with the horribly marred bodies of their dearest friends.
There, between the door to the shelter building and the open street, the bodies of a gray-haired merchant and a blonde boy with sharp teeth were lying lifeless on the ground.
And once Subaru noticed exactly what the two clearly went through, he decided it was an appropriate time to litter said street with the contents of his stomach as nausea hit him full force, burning through his heartache.
He could see the two young men that became holders to the title of brothers in his heart. Nothing would've burned his heart more than to see his loved ones hurt, especially people as close to him as Otto and Garfiel. But that's not what this was.
This… This was a slaughter. Subaru choked and sobbed through his innards, unable to contain his tears. Otto's corpse was missing various limbs that the pair couldn't bring themselves to count. He had no life in his usually shining blue eyes and his face was half covered in the blood pool beneath him but they could see his cold, metallic expression.
Whatever could be said about the merchant's corpse, it couldn't be sufficient enough to describe how Garfield's body was desecrated. On the other side of the street, parallel to Otto's in a twisted sense of harmony was a mutilated corpse, sat down with its back leaning against a cart that was discarded on the street.
Battle scars, deep blade wounds, and cuts littered this body in a capacity that almost malformed every inch of skin on the boy's half-naked body. Clearly, Garfiel had lost his final battle right after he had come back from defeating the cultists in the control tower he'd been sent to.
But as if all of these scars and wounds weren't enough, it seemed the killers took glee in their achievement of killing the warrior kid by disgustingly deforming his corpse even more.
That was clear of the murderers, as Garfiel's expressionless head laid between his spread legs.
Subaru puked his guts out through shakable sobs.
The sight of his two brothers, his best mates, was haunting. Those wounds similar to Ana's that showed evidence of the slaughter and disrespect for their bodies was filling him with so much rage.
His heart burned and his eyes seemed to grow more unfocused even when he tried to stop his tears. But once he finally wrestled back control of his vision, there was only one thing he could stare at with courage.
Between the two bodies of his dead friends, on the middle of the road and right before the entrance to the building's hall, there seemed to be an object.
And Subaru lost his vision, eyes turning blurry once again as he noticed what the object was.
A familiar tiny royal crown laid on its side upon the ground, cosmic ambers flaring around it in small instances, shining a bright blue he never thought he'd see again, never wanting to see again.
"Beako…" Subaru whispered, his voice shaking along with his body. His face contorted into a despair-filled expression beyond that of a grimace and his heart broke into more pieces than there were flakes of blue mana drifting through the air.
Emilia closed her teary eyes and bit her lip as she moved to support the crying young man, unable to contain her own sense of great loss and needing something that she can hold on to. And so her arms found their way around his shoulders and she began sobbing into his arm.
The two stayed like this for a minute longer, having their own ways to cope with what they have just lost and coming to terms with the emptiness their lives shall be subject to-
"S-Su..baru…?"
Emilia could only gasp weakly as the boy stood up from his kneeling position in a sudden manner that almost made her fall over. The grief-stricken Emilia couldn't see his expression, but she noticed how his trembling had stopped abruptly. Emilia had thought she was the cause of his calmness but her attention was brought to the real reason as soon as the echo hit her ears.
*CLANK! *
We shouldn't.
*SHINK! CLANK!"
We shouldn't go in.
Emilia's thoughts were ignored as the boy didn't have the same fear she did.
"S-Subaru…" Her voice hoarse, Emilia tried to call to him but realized immediately that her knight was far too consumed by his rage to listen. Her heart jumped once she realized his intentions. The half-elf took no time to stand on her wobbly legs and sprint to the best of her ability after the boy.
Her heart broke at the thought of what might happen to him. The corpses of her friends burned their image inside of her mind. And as her mind displayed an image of Subaru's corpse, Emilia found herself speeding as fast as she could with a panicked grit of her teeth.
She would never let that happen to him.
It will never happen. Ever.
The sounds of the steel coming and grinding against each other were unmistakable for the two. A swordfight had commenced and it seemed to be taking place near the far end of the shelter. Emilia tried to catch Subaru's wrist and pull him back, but to her horror, he seemed to be faster than she was. Not even glancing back, he dashed towards the echoes of steel on steel and battle cries deep within the shelter.
In his mad dash towards the darkness, Subaru kept ignoring each and everybody that littered the rooms and hallways he passed by. Decapitated, burnt, crushed against broken furniture and stuck into the wooden walls of the building, not one person was spared their friends' same gruesome fate, not one corpse was treated with even a modicum of respect. It was a truly disturbing sight, but neither Subaru nor Emilia took a moment to mourn these corpses as they did the first three from before.
The pair were lost in their own emotions of fury and panic, too consumed by those feelings to process the brutality they ran past.
"Goddamn! Who did this?!"
Subaru's thoughts were enriched with anger and hatred for the Witch Cult and their bishops to notice the bodies he'd walked over.
The half-elf running behind him did notice, however. She kept a steady pace and carefully navigated her way above the corpses. Her expression was one of mortified disgust as she followed the enraged Subaru.
They entered another hall of the shelter that was lit by the open windows on each of its walls. The pair stopped to a halt and their mouths fell.
Emilia and Subaru witnessed a most disturbing sight before them.
The floor was now entirely drenched by a sea of crimson liquid that shone under the sunlight. Scorched bodies and impaled corpses laid out in a sea of misery and pain. Knights were on the floor, withering because of their wounds, and healers were cut down in every corner. What had laid below the feet of the black-clothed blade wielders was nothing short of devil's work. Bodies and corpses of already injured fighters and civil servants cluttered across the big room in a savage improper manner. Above them stood precisely a trio of people wearing the same black attire.
Subaru quickly forced Emilia to hide behind a pillar with him. His eyes instantly honed on the unusual trio of blade wielders that had no doubt caused all of this. He inspected each and every single one of them, his mind trying to come up with a reason for why all of these three seemed so familiar to him.
The trio were standing above the bodies of several innocents. He'd noticed many of the camp members from the Karsten and Hoshin camps amongst the littered corpses. Felt and Reinhard were nowhere to be found, neither was Julius.
He realized that Priscilla and Al were not here either, which confused him because he could see the rest of Priscilla's party, namely Lilliana and Kritika, laid out beside the murdered members of the Iron Fang.
There's no time. There's no time.
Subaru's head shook, his expression turned dark as he went back to staring at the trio in the far ends of the big hall.
Their figures were well built. They had muscles and visible strength that showed underneath their grayish armor. The leather they wore seemed scuffed in a few places with scorch marks. No skin was shown from any of the trio, at least from Subaru's position. The leather armor they wore had covered almost all of their bodies. Subaru tried to observe their expressions, only to find dark gloomy masks extended over their noses with hoods covering their heads and shrouding their eyes in darkness.
All he could recognize as distinctive information on the three from his position was the scarce description of their builds and the fact that they all had the same type of sword as well. None of the menacing-looking cultists appeared to be unsheathing their blades.
One was a young-looking boy that seemed as buff as Garfiel when Subaru thought about it. The boy seemed more emotional than the other two of his group, there was a visible tremble in him. Subaru realized that he kept thinking of him as a boy because the masked person was significantly shorter than the other two.
He redirected his gaze towards the woman standing in the middle of the trio. Her outfit was the only one that had a cloak to cover her in its black color. She had Emilia's height if Subaru had to pinpoint. No hair was shown underneath her cloak. She seemed like a stiff board; her entire form was not showing any sign of animation as she stood with her hands on her waist.
Finally, the third cloaked figure appeared to be a much more callous man. He seemed to be relaxed with one hand to his sheath in a casual manner as if he was dying of boredom. This one was taller than the other two and he held his head down in a manner that made Subaru feel as if he was analyzing something.
What's with the way they're dressed? This is the first time I've seen cultists wear something other than those purple hoods…
Subaru paused observing the three to glance around the room for any more of these cultists. He looked behind him and Emilia, afraid of a cliche-like scenario where an extra member comes up from behind them.
Could they be a special faction of the Cult? Was there a Bishop leading them like Petelgeuse?
Subaru shushed Emilia, waving her magic-wielding hands down as he focused on the middle of the corpse-ridden hallway.
What're they surrounding?
His eyes could see the color of something gray from between one of the cultist's black pants.
A gleaming mop of silver hair.
One of the three, the woman in tight black clothing, moved forward with her cloak wavering behind her.
Emilia let out a soft gasp that barely lasted one second before she clamped her hands on her mouth. Subaru's eyes widened once he realized who the trio were encircling.
The cloaked woman was standing over an old man that had a face wisened by the years and unyielding blue orbs that glared shades of death aimed towards the three.
"Wilhelm-san…" Emilia whispered. Subaru's eyes glared intensely at the group of swordsmen.
They are the ones behind all of this.
Soon after, the woman spoke down at the injured Wilhelm, too riddled by cuts and bloodied by his deep wounds to stand so he remained on his knee with his blade clenched. The unparalleled determination radiated off of him how much he can still fight even in such a precarious position.
His eyes were fiery all the same.
"Wilhelm Van Astrea, the Sword Demon, it seems ya haven't been the loser of yer wife's Sword, but the one who lost her ending to the ashes."
The woman's voice was that of a beautiful symphony, she was speaking in a cryptic tone that sounded neither mocking nor congratulatory yet still held those all the same. She was a mystery all the way through.
And the old swordsman met her with a dignified glare that was as sharp as his currently broken blade.
"We should be done already, shouldn't we? I mean we just have to grab her grace's ashes and let the ones who failed rot here," one of the men in the group spoke cryptically from behind her.
"I just want to see the look on his face… The one who failed us."
Subaru and Emilia were not the only ones confused by the girl's words. Even the old man that was the target of such an accusation was staring at her with a glint of curiosity.
"..."
"Well? Aren't ya askin' for an explanation for all of this death? For why we chose to fuck your life over like this?" the young lady asked, extending her hands in the air and tilting her head at the man below her as if mocking him through the eyes of her black mask.
Wilhelm closed his eyes and leaned on his broken blade. His bloody lips parted,
"I have no intention to. I have failed to protect my reason to wield the sword. If I could have another reason to wield my blade, it would be to cut down those that ended Crusch-sama's life."
The Sword Demon overturned the group's efforts to mock him, rejected their reasoning, and refuted the blame that they placed on him.
"Of course you don't care," The woman's tone turned soft and her arms fell to her sides, "You don't even care for your son's death… You wouldn't care about our curse… You are a horrible person."
Subaru noticed how everyone in the group seemed to be shaking their heads at the old man. It's as if they were displaying disappointment in a child. Subaru's hands clenched into fists to the treatment of the wise warrior he respected. His rage at them reached a boiling point.
How dare they treat him like this… He wasn't the one who killed innocent people!
Subaru and Emilia held similar thoughts as they both glared at their backs. The pair witnessed the disgusting trio of Witch Cultists acting as if they were the ones who deserve sympathy over the old injured man.
"They all look so heartbroken," Emilia whispered from beside Subaru, unable to keep her confusion and anger from showing in her tone.
What do they have to be so sad about?! They slaughtered innocents!
To the boy, these swordsmen were no better than any of the Archbishops that he'd come across in his life, his lives. They were witch cultists. And they were pure evil.
I need to find a way to stop them in the next loop.
As he grit his teeth at this thought, the implication of this sentiment wasn't lost on him. He had promised to value his own life more, treat each life as his only one, and to count himself among those he wished to save.
But Subaru now knew that this life would end. He knew this with certainty.
He wouldn't dream of letting his brothers and spirit go like this, letting their bodies rot and their souls decay into nothing.
He didn't even have a choice to begin with. A certain clown would never let him live on without saving everyone.
Either Subaru would save them all or he would save no one. And it was for these reasons, this principle, that he was willing and ready to face Sirius under the tower again. But first…
I need to see how much further this loop can go. What are these bastards here for?
"Emilia." Subaru's tone was hushed yet stern.
"You have that scary look on your face again, Subaru," the half-elf looked distrustful for a moment as she noticed the dark glint in his usually warm eyes.
Subaru's eyes widened at this statement. He appeared taken aback for a moment before he shook his head and brushed her worries off.
"We need to save him. Please help me," Subaru begged while bowing his head.
"..." Emilia bit her lip, glancing between the murderers and the black-haired knight.
The old man did not meet any of the three-blade wielders with any compassion or hatred, only prideful resistance.
"So defiant," The young girl whispered with a dark undertone. Her back seemed stiff, "You're a prideful knight till the end, Wilhelm Van Astrea."
"Had I not lost the ability to move my arms and legs, you would be facing my pride head-on. But since it seems I can't, please move things along." Respectful and yet indomitable, the old man didn't cut corners to show his respect and hatred for the blade wielders and their skills.
The girl simply stared out of her cloak mask for a moment, waiting for anything else to be said. But it seemed to be just a waste of time.
So she unsheathed her long blade from her waist, holding the black steel by the hilt and making a distinct light shine across the room as if the reflection of the sun transformed into the moonlight as it recoiled off the black steel.
The young lady sneered at the Sword Demon under her as she prepared her strike, "May the Death God rid us of your soul this time, Sword Demon!"
"ICE BRAND ARTS!"
"...?!"
Before the black steel had swiped down towards the wounded Sword Demon's head, an illuminating presence of mana shone in a place inches between the blade and the neck of the old man. Manifesting there was a blade made of pure ice that had, surprisingly, withheld against the black steel of the cloaked cultist.
The trio showed postures of alarm, even Wilhelm because the cultist's attack was no mere swipe of her sword. It was an attack filled with hatred and it aimed to cause agony.
But before she could react, a force suddenly attacked from the girl's side.
"ICE BRAND ARTS!"
Magical icicles started manifesting all around the wounded Wilhelm and shot towards all three of the cultists, aiming to one-hit-kill each and every one of them.
Surprisingly, each member of the blade wielders sprung out of their circle. They landed in separate areas of the blood covered hall and worked their way into dodging the blizzards of shards by kicks and punches, their swords never unsheathed except for the girl as she had been holding her naked blade to kill a moment before the attacks came.
"I see, we missed a few," the girl growled and side-kicked each spike coming towards her from left to right. It was an impressive display of speed and agility that was almost unseen for the naked eye. The young girl had power and a refined grace in her kicks. Her unsheathed blade didn't move in an attacking manner and there was no indication of it being used.
"The Greed Archbishop lost to the half-elf and Spirit Knight?! I thought the Sword Saint left them because he had lost them to Greed and couldn't catch up to him," one of the blade wielders shouted, dodging and punching a great number of ice spikes.
"We should've watched over them!" the other boy—a much shorter young man with blue hair worming out of his wrapped hood—shouted, a hammer of ice managing to land a hit on his shoulder.
"Find the half-elf! If the Witch Cult couldn't rid us of her existence and she wants to get in our way, then let's off her ourselves!" the young girl shouted in outrage, finally using her blade to cut down the overwhelming attack.
The two boys finally unsheathed their own identical blades.
The hooded girl turned to the old man situated behind her.
"Goddamn, shitty knight!" she growled in hatred and anger, realizing what was happening to her and her teammates.
She realized the dupe.
She and her companions were too busy fighting off the heaps of icicle attacks to notice what snuck behind them. And now, the nasty-eyed black-haired boy with a bandaged leg was holding the old knight steady with an arm over his shoulder.
The girl had recognized Subaru immediately, a fact the boy took note of. They didn't know it, but Subaru began committing every detail he could register to memory.
"And with that, I know you aren't Witch cultists."
"...!"
The girl froze prematurely at Subaru's monotone statement. She could almost see him narrow his eyes on hers just to see what answer he would get.
"You really are… You aren't a Cultist?… Then why the hell are you doing all of this?!" Subaru widened his eyes and pointed an accusing finger at the frozen assassin before him.
"... Tck!"
The girl quickly dashed towards the two men with her sword to her side. She was as fast as lightning, reaching the space between her and Subaru in less than a second.
If only there wasn't someone faster.
"Brand Arts!"
"Damn…!"
A grand wall of ice broke from the ground, blocking the girl and the two boys from reaching Subaru and the immobile Wilhelm.
"Subaru!"
The boy looked to his right and found an extremely tired Emilia running toward him and Wilhelm. The ice that had blocked their corner of the room gave them all a safe space but also turned the air around them cold.
Emilia-tan's magic is so amazing.
"Don't do that! She almost got you!" Emilia screamed at him with a hand to her chest and an expression of pure fear aimed at him. Subaru would've felt guilty had it not been for the need for urgency.
"It's okay, I knew Emilia-tan's efforts would protect me! But please help heal Wilhelm-san before they break the wall!"
Disliking the way he brushed her off once again, but even so, Emilia just nodded her head as soon as she took a closer look at the old man's state. She inhaled deeply for a few moments before calling her spirits to activate her healing spell over Wilhelm.
The old man's body was riddled with savage wounds from the back ends of his joints to every sensitive spot from his shoulders to his abdomen. His wounds bled miniature rivers that could not be reversed. Had the old man not moved so much, the pool beneath him would surely be bigger than it was right now.
"They were torturing you…" Emilia whispered, mystified.
"..." The old man stayed silent.
"Wilhelm-san is amazing for staying alive for so long. Those three seem more powerful than regular cultists." The half-elf held an expression of admiration and respect for the man. No pity could be seen in her eyes. She knew how insulting that would be.
"I'm sorry for failing you, Subaru-dono, Emilia-sama. I failed to protect your camp members, although I had also failed my own. I was indebted to your camp even so."
Subaru and Emilia both flinched with pained expressions. Wilhelm didn't show a difference in his honorable tone.
"That doesn't matter now. We just need you in a stable condition to run. Emilia can destroy this wall behind us and we can book it…" Subaru said, a glint in his eyes that sent shivers down Emilia's back.
Nonetheless, the half-elf increased her healing magic and nodded her head, "Y-Yes! You can depend on me!" She tried to sound cheerful, but the look in Subaru's eyes was giving her a terrible feeling.
She increased her healing much further out of fear that he might do something stupid.
But Subaru seemed like he was two steps ahead of her.
"Wilhelm-san… I-"
"You already know this from before, but these three are not cultists, Subaru-dono," the old man cut him off sternly.
"Is there any other evidence? Are there more of them?" the boy questioned hastily, sounding relieved that the old man was answering him.
"No. It seems these three are the only ones here. They are incredibly powerful and rival even the greatest of our knights in terms of swordsmanship." Wilhelm was forlorn in the way he spoke as if the sheer act of admitting their worthiness hurt a sliver in his pride.
"They managed to beat you, Garfiel, Beako, Otto… Was there anyone else?" Subaru looked more unreadable to Emilia by the second as he questioned fiercely. She noticed Wilhelm flinch at the ruthless description and shook her head in pity.
Why does he look like he's lived through this before?
The old man and nasty-eyed boy seemed to be exchanging information as if it was an interrogation. They didn't even speak of the dead like it was a recent tragedy, just another piece of information to be traded!
"Only Al-dono and his liege had passed us and left. The ambush happened in the past quarter of the hour," the old man revealed, keeping his breathing under check. His wounds were finally taking their toll on him.
"You mean Priscilla and her knight?" Emilia asked, surprised by this revelation and relieved that somebody escaped this massacre.
The boy beside her, however, seemed to have an entirely different reason for relief.
"So, there's time…" Subaru whispered under his breath, noticed by both the half-elf and the monotone old man.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you mean by that… But it seems my time has already come, Subaru-dono." Wilhelm shocked the pair with a small bow of his head.
"What are you…"
Confused by the old man's defeated tone, Subaru looked down at his body and instantly noticed… every wound and gash on Wilhelm's body bled without stop, creating a pool of blood beneath the old man.
"...My healing isn't working, Subaru," Emilia bit her lip and tried her absolute best to send mana through her magic to heal Wilhelm. But the wounds did not even stop bleeding, much less close up.
"At this rate…!" Emilia choked desperately and tried her best to push the limits of the spirit magic she can command out of the glowing orbs around them.
"Just like Ana… This isn't a problem with Emilia's magic, is it?" Subaru's eyes did not leave Wilhelm's as the old man leaned back with a soft smile.
"It seems that my wounds will not heal or close. This is an ironic end, especially since I had escaped this fate… Hours before... When I had been reunited with my wife."
"..."
Emilia had stopped trying to heal the old man, now resigned to sit back and watch with teary eyes.
"I had my doubts but… with Emilia-sama's magic proving it, I am now inclined to give up the fight, Subaru-dono," the smallest of smiles reached the old man's lip. The greatest sign of defeat Subaru has ever seen on a man.
"..."
"These wounds will not heal no matter the effort or attempt. This is the power I've seen once before, of my wife, Theresia. The Divine Protection of the Death God."
Following the old man's realization, Emilia gasped in shock and horror at the idea of such a power.
Subaru's jaw fell and his eyes went unblinking.
"Wilhelm-san… "
"Run, Subaru-dono."
"..."
"Don't make me witness another failure because of my weakness. Please."
Wilhelm's pride remained unbroken, unbending, unburning. But for this one moment, the old man couldn't meet Subaru's eyes.
He was a knight that had let his wife die, his master die, his allies die, and now could only sit on his ass and bleed out from wounds inflicted by nameless opponents using his wife's Divine Protection.
Wilhelm van Astrea was dying as he lived: as a failure.
But… he wouldn't allow himself to be the cause of this young man's death too.
Unfortunately, he was wholly ignorant of said young man's wishes. Unlike Emilia, he did not see Subaru's attitude in the moments before they entered the shelter.
"Emilia…" Subaru started, his voice quiet.
Wilhelm didn't see how much Subaru was unaffected by all of this. And that fact was what would make Wilhelm fail in even his final mission.
"Yes, Subaru?" Emilia replied, still distressed.
"Kick down the wall, and take Wilhelm-san on your shoulder," Subaru ordered, coldly, standing up from his spot without care for the shocked expressions on their faces.
"Natsuki Subar-" the old man began to call out, a sinking feeling overwhelming him.
But Subaru cut him off, "Go on Emilia!"
The girl flinched at the exchange, Wilhelm's shouts of anger and shock giving a voice to some of her own concerns.
She wouldn't allow her knight to be like this anymore.
"What about you, Subaru?! You won't stay here with these murderers, no way!" Emilia shot back, not moving to fulfill what Subaru had demanded of her.
The half-elf looked upon the boy as if he'd grown a second head, her eyes burning with denial and rejection to whatever idea he had in mind.
Something was wrong with her Subaru.
"Emilia… You can stop Wilhelm's bleeding by freezing his body. Like with the wives at the church. But you need to hide him somewhere far away from them. I'll distract them while you go place Wilhelm under a freezing sleep somewhere far away and come back to help me." Subaru explained to her with a calculating expression while observing the forming cracks on the ice dome.
"A-As if that's a sensible response! You think you can take them on your own?!" She shouted, her glare was one of ludicrous outrage and disbelief.
"Yes," Subaru answered without even glancing at her, he noted the cracks began expanding across the dome.
Emilia and Wilhelm stared at him in pure bafflement.
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Subaru-dono!" Wilhelm cut into the stubborn argument with a shout of desperation.
"Leave me to my fate and go, Natsuki! Please!" Wilhelm's plea was the first of its kind as the old prideful knight truly sounded desperate to not let Subaru die.
But it was pride that separated and united the two of them and that is why Subaru finally turned around and faced the pair with one of his nastiest glares.
"Don't act like you don't have any reason to live in this world! You still have a grandson out there! You can help the world do a lot of things!" Subaru shouted into the old man's face, shocking both of the people under the same ice dome as him.
Subaru set his eyes on Emilia and gave her a firm glare, "Go," he ordered while pointing at the wall, "You can do that Jiwald thing Ana did to gain attention from extra backup, maybe Julius and Reinhard will find you. Come to me as soon as you have their attention!"
"S-Subaru…" Emilia stuttered, remaining frozen and staring at him with wide-eyed disbelief.
"Go."
With one last assuring smile, Subaru pushed Emilia towards Wilhelm's immobile body.
The half-elf didn't move. She kept staring at her knight's sweet smile. That fake, fake smile of his.
"S-…"
"The sooner you get help the better for me, Emilia-tan." The boy nodded toward her with an expression of determination.
"..."
Emilia turned away from his lying face. She knew there was something he needed to do. She knew she couldn't let him die…
"Promise me you will do whatever you came here for and come back to me, Subaru." The silver-haired girl firmly asked of him, unable to glance towards him.
"... I promise, Emilia-tan." He replied softly.
"... Don't be a Lair, my knight."
Without wasting a second, Emilia held her hands up towards the wall, uncovering it and making the rubble collapse.
"Subaru Natsuki… " Wilhelm spoke out of bloodied lips, his eyes wide at the disrespect of his final wish.
Subaru simply met him with a smile, "Sorry old man. Seems like you will live another day with a snitch on your pride. But we shouldn't act stupid when things are hopeless y'know. Cheer up."
"Y-You… Cheer up?! Natsuki-dono! Flee for your life!" The old knight's weakness was placed on full display as he assumed a pleading tone while being held by Emilia with one of his arms around her shoulder. The girl did not look back at Subaru.
She couldn't see that fake lying face of his.
"Sorry!" Subaru turned around with the smile dropping from his face and ran towards the front of the ice dome, towards the place where a crack was expanding all over the dome.
Emilia jumped out of the building with Wilhelm supported by her. She went to the nearest building and immediately sat down with the old man on the floor,
"Sorry, Wilhelm-sama. You are going to have to wait here, okay?"
"Emilia-sama… I'm sorry."
The half-elf didn't say anything else, she just held a hand before the old man's face and immediately began the encasement of his wounded form by her ice magic.
Hold on for me, Subaru. You liar.
She had a furious grimace on her face the whole time.
"INVISIBLE PROVIDENCE!"
Subaru shouted and his entire world went numb. He felt his brain being encased by a squeezing force that caused him great nausea and pain.
But it all paid off as he pushed out the black shadow-covered hand from the deepest parts of his impurity. The Witch Factor of Sloth.
And he sent it crashing against the weakened dome of ice. Whether because the blade wielders had desperately attacked the dome until it was on the verge of cracking or because he was giving it his all, the black hand he sent had completely shattered the dome of ice upon impact.
Goddamn… That was so fucking cool!
"That was so fucking cool…" he heard one of the wielders shout in shock as Subaru came out of the cloud of frost.
"It's the spirit knight! Watch out!" The taller boy, seemingly content with observing and staying back, advised his two friends while keeping a close eye on Subaru.
On one knee, catching his breath and numbing his pain caused by the witch factor, Subaru managed to throw a glare at the only person that could answer his last question for this loop.
The girl could instantly see his intent.
"He wants… to talk?" She tilted her head, seemingly confused by Subaru's appearance.
"Talk? We killed his friends and allies, no?" the shorter boy gruffly asked while pointing towards Subaru and leaning back casually, as if he didn't care.
"I would rather you answer one question before we get on with this," Subaru spoke up, cutting all three off and bewildering them even more by his confident, demanding tone.
"Why the hell are you attacking us? You aren't Cultists, so I want to know why you attacked this shelter."
"..."
Meeting their cloaked faces with a simple glare, Subaru demanded. He stood bare, no weapons in hand as he demanded of the three dangerous sword wielders.
They have some sort of Divine Protection too… Tck!
He gritted his teeth in frustration, his heart beating quickly and the ringing in his ears bringing a great sense of claustrophobia around him.
"A-Are you a fucking moron?!" Subaru was surprised to find that the shorter boy was the first to speak.
"You're a fucking idiot! You just wasted our time and your cool ass entrance just to ask a question that won't serve any use at all! What the hell is prompting you to waste your life in such a manner?! You, that wasn't cursed to kiss the grounds a living-corpse walked on from the moment of birth! I will cut you dow- Oooofff!"
"Shut the hell up, Jal," the ranting young boy was kicked in the guts by the girl and knocked down to the floor. The girl in the black cape, held a tone that was both emotionless and yet displaying a dangerous edge. It appeared she was threatening her companion, confusing Subaru greatly.
"We agreed that she wasn't a mere corpse, man." The older man in the back shook his head at the younger boy.
"Who the hell are you?" Subaru cut in impatiently, making the girl and older boy look at him.
"Who?… Two questions? You're selfish," the hooded girl tilted her head and stared into Subaru's eyes again. Subaru tried to do the same but all he could see were two shadowed holes. The cloak and mask shrouded her eyes in complete darkness.
"You're gonna kill me anyway, just give me my answer!" even though she sounded laidback, almost adorably so, Subaru met her with hostility.
"... You want to die," the older boy said breathlessly, disturbed by the sight before him. His companion, the girl, the one Subaru had been watching this whole time, stiffened and became rigid in place.
Subaru suddenly choked on his own spit at the sudden accusation by the older masked man.
Neither the three mysterious blade wielders nor Emilia and Wilhelm understood what game Subaru was playing. Subaru had already given up on this life and wanted to use it to get as much information as he could. He promised to always treat his life as his last, but he also promised to save everyone.
This life was forfeit. Subaru was treating it as such and the observer of the trio's team could read him.
"Why… Why did you just throw your life away just now?" The girl suddenly urged, an emotion finally showing in her voice that Subaru can comprehend with clear intention. It was… unsettling disappointment. It felt like something he should dread.
And Subaru wished he wouldn't have shown how scared he was of her anger. It was unsettling, soul-haunting, nightmarish to hear this girl's voice and receive her aura of hatred. As if his entire body was under the threat of being touched by fire, Subaru couldn't hide the tremble of his legs.
"Tell me!" she ordered firmly, her voice a vortex of demand and fury.
"You're a murderer anyway," Subaru said in a low voice as he faced the girl with false confidence, "Why do you care if someone threw away a useless life? Don't act so morally rich- SLAM!"
Subaru let out a cry of pain as his nose was crushed from a sudden black-clad knee that had slammed into it. Before he could regain focus from the light speed of the attack, the leg was swiping until the heel of her boot had almost reached Subaru's face, but he was wise enough to duck.
"PROVIDENCE!"
"Jenny!"
Meeting the girl's speedy kick, Subaru found an opening, a spot where he can play out one attack that can injure the girl as she had yet to touch the ground from her boosted jump towards him. This was surprising from the trained warrior that had killed so many experienced fighters. Whether she was emotional or not, Subaru's invisible hand was more than willing to slam into the girl's abdomen.
But that was before her entire body unnaturally moved out of the Subaru's way.
What the hell?!
"Don't fucking get close to a spirit knight when he's yelling out the name of a spell, idiot!" Subaru looked as the older boy shouted at the girl.
The gloved hands he was wearing appeared to be lit up by white energy; it seemed that the older boy was the reason the girl was flung out of Subaru's way.
"Just who the hell are these people?!"
"You really need to keep your mouth shut, pal!" This time, it was the older of the three who took to berating Subaru.
"What the hell are you on?! You murdered innocents and you're acting so high and mighty because I'm facing you alone? Is this a joke?!" Subaru couldn't help but ask in frustration as he was faced by the older masked figure.
"You don't know what it's like to have to do that! The old man was being unreasonable with us and we were forced to take the most extreme measure-"
"Fuck off!" Subaru laughed the guy off hysterically, "You don't get an excuse to kill children and knights that were busy fighting off a goddamn siege on this city!"
The cloak seemed to have been silenced by this.
Subaru felt a bit cocky for throwing the self-righteous moron for a loop.
That was before a blade burst through his abdomen.
"...GH~~K!"
The painful spearing sensation he felt in his lower area was burning his nerves, immobilizing his legs into jelly and eclipsing his entire muscle system to convulse on itself to contain the innards.
And it seemed his tormentor decided it was appropriate to show him what it would feel like to feel a sharp blade cutting through him… in half.
"..AAAAHHHHHH!"
However, hidden within the depths of his blood-curdling scream, the voice of the cape-wearing girl could be heard,
"You don't even know what he's been through…"
But he was in so much pain that his entire world was nothing but the sound of his own anguish externalised; he was not even aware that the girl was speaking.
The blade, still impaled through his back and dripping blood from its tip, was forced upwards, slicing and cutting through his intestines, causing an amount of pain that only intensified Subaru's restless screaming.
"You don't know what any of us have been through. We just witnessed our destiny be rejected today! She was supposed to die and let us be free! We were supposed to be free of our oppression and our curses but the curses live even after she dies! Don't we get to use these curses however we please if they are going to stick to our wretched bodies anyway! What right do you have to call me or my brother murderers! You're the one who killed yourself, fucking bastard!"
Subaru couldn't hear her screaming. He couldn't understand. He was too busy screaming his own world into the clouds above, wishing for something cold.
The burning pain he was feeling was worse than any fire in the world. The blade that had cut through bone and flesh like his body was a simple stack of butter had finally reached his chest, and Subaru could feel all of his internal organs starting their descent out onto the floor.
Like refined cake, the girl in the black cloak that had thrust her blade into him had cut him in a clean line all the way to the chest.
And with one final push, she showed her true strength by mercilessly slicing her blade through his body until she had gone through his heart, his throat, and his skull.
The two halves of Natsuki Subaru fell at her boots.
She simply spat at it and sheathed her bloodied blade.
"Why so cruel… He didn't do anything wrong…" the older boy asked in a desperate tone, seemingly staring at the malformed body on the floor with a hint of shame.
"Neither did the others, Jinoa. This one I wanted to get rid of, personally," Jenny spat while kicking the leg of the boy's body in satisfaction.
And with that, Subaru Natsuki finally left the sensation of fire and into the cold grip of darkness and death.
…
…
…
Only for a purple vision to fill his eyes.
Blurry visions, purple filter, a muffled voice.
"-Right now, I share the same sentiments as Subaru. Although I'm worried about everyone, my own strength is spent. Even reaching out a hand is impossible. So me too, allow me to pray with Subaru? In hope that everyone will be safe and sound."
Emilia spoke in his ear while stroking his lower head softly.
Back here he was, at the moment where they prayed for the safety of those that fell to the black blades.
Before Regulus' tomb, Subaru has come back.
Into Emilia's warm grasp, he had woken up to.
But without caring for the feeling of fire leaving his veins, without being happy that his lungs could finally breathe again, Subaru quickly stood up without a care for his wounded body.
"Subaru! You must rest! I know you are worried for everyone, but you must have faith! Certainly, there won't be any problems. Because everyone compared to us, is suuuper strong, suuuper smart, suuuper hard workers," Emilia said as she, too, stood up to face her silent knight.
As the pair's moment of rest seemed to have ended prematurely, and as Emilia's prayers were cut short, all she could see was one single tear rolling down her knight's cheek.
"-I'm afraid there's one more ripple I haven't prepared us for, Emilia-tan."
"..."
All she could meet the dark ominous tone her knight spoke with, was her silence.
Hi! I'm Moe.
I know you guys don't understand what these OCs want or are trying to do. And what does this have to do with Theresia at all. But trust me. It's better a good build-up than a crack fic. I hope I do it right! See you all in chapter 2!
Special thanks to TheColourPurple123 on FF .net for Beta reading and helping me expand my writing. Go check his stories out, I recommend "Pride's Greed"