Before we begin, I just want to apologize if you find any grammatical mistakes. This time, it was only me beta reading this chapter since the beta readers from Reactionist's discord server didn't bother giving me any feedback at all, and the people I thought could offer me great feedback already ignored me for months even when they agreed to beta my older stuff, and I simply can't wait for so long (agreeing to beta a short 3k chapter in August/November and then getting no feedback from them). I don't know how I'll go on about beta reading from now on if this is how things will be.

Anyway, enjoy!

Quietly setting their feet on the ground, Subaru and the witches finally descended the stairs… at least most of them.

Subaru smelled the fresh air as he gazed at the forest's outskirts and smiled. The air was the cleanest he could ever experience. After all, there were no cars in this world, at least he thought so.

But that smile would be wiped off his face as quickly as it appeared when the loud footsteps of Daphne's coffin reached his ears. Everyone widened their eyes, and Subaru was the first to act as he ran back up the stairs and wrapped his arms around the large coffin that imprisoned Daphne.

"Don't move a muscle, Daphne!" he whispered, loudly enough for her to hear.

He stopped her fast enough that one of her coffin's legs was raised above the first pair of stairs. She retracted the leg and looked at Subaru's face with her usual look of hunger.

Subaru awkwardly swallowed as he was close enough for her to take a huge bite out of his face, fortunately, in their current situation, food was not the first thing on Daphne's mind.

"What do you think I should do in that case?" Daphne asked as she cocked her head forward to have a better look at Subaru, even though her eyes were still covered with a blindfold.

Subaru thought for a moment, nothing coming to mind when he heard someone coming closer. Turning to his left, he saw Echidna.

"I might have an idea, though it's going to require Sekhmet being a team player for once," she said.

Subaru let go of Daphne as he felt the coffin leave his grip.

"Sekhmet, huh?" he let out a sigh of relief as they finally got back on track with this "escape plan".

But then realization hit him.

"Wait, where is Sekhmet?" he asked as he looked around and the Witch of Sloth was nowhere to be found.

Minerva also returned to them, Typhon in hand.

"I think she fell asleep as soon as we teleported here…" Minerva said as she shook her head from bewilderment, her eyes pointing at the tomb's entrance.

Subaru turned towards her. "But I thought you girls were waking her up?" he questioned as he remembered Satella, Minerva and Typhon trying to make Sekhmet move from the ground.

"And we did. She opened her eyes for a second, told us to get lost and that she will come out in a minute. Here we are," Satella said with a quiet chuckle.

"We should go wake her up. We already wasted enough time," Echidna stated, not impressed with their getaway.

"Alright. I'll go get her," Subaru proposed, not even hearing the girls' response and he already ran into the tomb again.

"Wait!" Minerva shouted in a whisper. "At least take Typhon with you, you idiot!"

Echidna's visage adorned a wide smile. "Let's see how this goes. I wonder if we forgot to tell him that Sekhmet doesn't like her sleep to be disturbed by anyone except for Typhon?" she asked no one in particular. "Well, it doesn't matter. Once he comes back, Typhon should wake Sekhmet up herself."

And so, they waited for the inevitable.

"Damn it… Is this supposed to be the isekai life I always wanted? Yeah, I get to be surrounded by five beautiful women and two kids, but nothing worthy of an isekai protagonist has happened yet!" Subaru cursed the situation he ended up in.

Finally inside, Subaru spotted the sleeping witch and went to her.

"Oi Sek-" he stopped himself to gaze at her face.

'I never had the chance to properly look at her face, but now that I'm seeing it, she's kinda hot. No! I can't think about that sort of thing now. Let's just wake her up.' Subaru thought.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently shook her.

"Sekhmet. Sekhmet! It's time to wake up! We need to get away from the Sanctuary and we need you to move Daphne's coffin while at it!" No response. Subaru decided to shake her a little bit rougher, but before he could get to that, he felt a strong aura in front of him.

His right foot kicked into the ground, just barely dodging the invisible threat.

*DUM*

"What the hell was that!" Subaru shouted as he looked underneath his crotch to see a hole the size of his head.

He felt the presence once more and jumped to the left.

*DUM*

Another hole underneath him. This time, twice the power was applied as the hole looked to be about the size of his torso.

"Nope! Sorry, but I'm not into masochism today, or any other day!" he shouted as he ran out of the tomb's exit.

The witches heard Subaru's shouts within the tomb, and seconds later, he ran outside.

All of them chuckled except for Echidna and the breathless Subaru.

"S-Seriously… What the hell is… going on?!" Subaru breathed out as all of his life ran across his eyes.

"That was Sekhmet's Authority of Sloth. It doesn't have a name since Sekhmet is much better at sleeping rather than naming, but the gist of it is that she can use hundreds of invisible hands to crush anything in their vicinity, which is fascinatingly around five hundred meters," Echidna replied, letting her inner nerd out as she explained.

"... And I suppose Sekhmet doesn't like her sleep interrupted since that's why I almost got crushed?" Subaru inquired, his breath returning to him.

"You kno-"

"Don't worry about it, Baru. Once you get to know mommy, she's fun to play with!" Typhon interjected with a compliment to the sleeping witch.

Subaru opened his mouth to say something, but this time, he was stopped when Echidna placed her hand on his chest.

"Let's stop the chattering, please." She crouched to be at Typhon's eye level. "Typhon, could you please go to the tomb and wake up Sekhmet? We really need to move on and we are sitting ducks here."

Typhon put her hand on her chin as she rolled her head around.

"Hmm, if you promise to tell me a bed story…"

"Yes, I promise."

Typhon nodded with a wide smile and quickly left to get the job done.

After not even a minute since Typhon left, she has already returned with Sekhmet at her side.

"..." Subaru was speechless as he witnessed Typhon "taming" the Witch of Sloth.

"This is annoying… What do you need me… for?" Sekhmet asked as she walked towards them. Well, walking wasn't the right word since her feet weren't even touching the ground.

"I suppose Sekhmet is using her authority's invisible hands to support herself instead of her legs? Sounds handy," Subaru said in awe.

Echidna came closer to Sekhmet. "Alright. We need you to grab Daphne's coffin and hold it mid-air until we get out of the Sanctuary. Do you think you can do that, Sekhmet?" she inquired.

Sekhmet didn't reply, but a moment later, everyone noticed Daphne starting to lift off of the ground.

"Now… Can I sleep?" Sekhmet asked as she yawned.

"You can sleep through all of this, but we need to be able to move fast. Do you think you can allow yourself to be carried by Minerva while you carry Daphne?" Echidna asked as she looked between the two witches.

Subaru's cheeks reddened.

"W-Wait. I don't think Minerva should be straining herself. I can carry Sekhmet, as my manly pride tells me that's what should be done," Subaru said, nodding to himself.

Echidna shook her head. "It's alright. I'll have a different task for you to save 'your manly pride', but even then, I believe Minerva is stronger than you."

It hurt Subaru on many levels as he heard Echidna say Minerva was stronger than him. Not wanting to sound cocky, Subaru acted like he didn't hear her last statement and continued. "Ooh, I see. And what will that be?" Subaru's curiosity piqued as he listened to Echidna while Minerva picked up Sekhmet into a princess carry behind them.

"You see, I am not that athletic, so even moving more than a hundred meters will dry all my stamina, hence I want you to carry me," she said, looking at Subaru's visage as she tried to read his expression.

'What the hell?! What's with all these witches? Half of them are useless!' he shouted in his mind as his features twisted. Though in the end, he answered with a simple "will do!" as his lips curved into an awkward smile.

"Good. In that case, let's finally move on. We wasted enough time here. It would be no wonder if the Eyes of the Sanctuary already know about us," Echidna said in a casual tone, though Subaru could still hear the sliver of impatience in her voice.

And so, the witches and Subaru finally departed.

They decided to walk directly through the forest instead of going through the stone path since they didn't want to be visible, and since the trees here were really close to one another, it was the perfect place to hide from unwanted attention.

Subaru, Echidna and Carmilla were in the front, leading the group while Minerva - with Sekhmet still in her hands while Sekhmet's invisible hands held onto Daphne's coffin firmly- were in the backside. Typhon walked right of them, next to her mother of course, seemingly trying to protect her from any danger even though Sekhmet was more than capable of shattering bones with her authority even if she was in deep sleep. And finally, Satella was on the left, just a bit further away from everyone so she wouldn't bother them. Though in reality, the only one who would be bothered by her presence is Echidna.

Subaru noticed her somewhat sad expression, though he decided to put it aside. They'll have plenty of time to talk once they leave this place.

Trying to avoid any overgrown bushes in their way was more time-consuming than expected. Sometimes having to choose a completely different path through the forest since it was filled with them. Truly, the forest of Kremaldy was full of surprises such as these.

It seemed as if all was going according to the plan, though soon, the time would come for Subaru to use his hands and "protect his manly pride" as Echidna's legs started to waver.

"Subaru?" the white-haired witch called out to him, her eyes gazing into his.

"Right. Do you want me to princess carry you or will you climb on my back?" Subaru inquired as everyone stopped for a moment.

"I'll climb on your back. After all, that way you won't tire yourself that fast."

Subaru half-crouched down and put his hands behind his back. Echidna wrapped her hands around his neck and carefully jumped on his back. "Whop, there we go," Subaru groaned as he lightly jumped to fix Echidna's position to make it more comfortable for the both of them.

"Are you comfortable, Echidna?" Subaru inquired once more as he raised his head to look above himself, only to meet directly with Echidna's dark eyes, their faces only a few millimeters from each other.

"Yes, I'm good. Thank you for asking." As soon as Echidna replied, Subaru immediately retracted his gaze to look in front of him, only stuttering out "I-I see. In that case, let's move," as his cheeks had a bright shade of red.

Subaru was about to move his foot forward, though he was stopped when he heard Echidna's voice whisper.

"Don't move."

As she said that, all the witches stopped their movement. Echidna slowly raised her hand at the nearby tree tops, as if aiming for something. Once she found her target - no one still aware of what she was up to- she said:

"El Fula!"

Once those words left her mouth, the air around her palm twisted. Then, the air itself shot forward with speed invisible to the naked eye.

Everyone waited in anticipation, and then it came.

The tree shredded to pieces and a large branch fell down to the ground, and with it, a person of pink hair.

The girl's body, seemingly in her fifteens, crashed to the ground. The sound of shattering bones rang in everyone's ears. One look at her body made almost everyone widen their eyes at the brutality. Every part of it was covered in cuts and bruises, and most importantly, her head was laying ways off where it should've been.

"ARGGH!" Subaru screamed as he looked at the corpse, then, he gazed at the expression she wore on her dislodged head.

Emotionless.

Subaru's ear-shattering scream echoed through the forest for a few seconds before calming down. The look on his face twisted as he continued looking at the girl, his feet frozen to the ground.

"Y-You killed her!" Subaru shouted as he gazed at Echidna.

"Calm down. Look at her clothes. They're white, meaning she was an Eye of the Sanctuary," Echidna explained. "Fortunately I noticed her in time so she didn't run away to inform anyone else."

It took Subaru another minute to calm down his breathing.

"The Eye of the Sanctuary…" Subaru repeated the name, breathing slowly.

"Yes. And there's a lot more than her. If it wasn't for me interfering with this one, she would've most likely informed the others and we'd have even more trouble," Echidna said.

"Echidna…" A voice called out to the white-haired witch from behind.

"Yes, Minerva?"

"I won't let anyone die on my watch! And you won't stop me no matter what!" she said, gritting her teeth as she carefully gave Sekhmet to Carmilla. Surprisingly enough, she was lighter than you'd expect so the trade wasn't tiring.

"Can't you make an exception here? She's a fast enemy. I only managed to kill her because she didn't think we'd notice, but as soon as you revive her, she'll most likely run too fast to catch up to. Informing Garfiel is her number one priority. After that, we'll need to fight anyway and you know it!" Echidna said to the wrathful witch.

"Then I'll bet on the 'most likely'. She's young and has her entire life in front of her! That's reason enough to save her!" Minerva shouted as she started running towards the deceased body.

'Wait, if what Echidna is telling istrue, then we'll be swarmed by very fast enemies any minute. What's worse, that Garfiel guy sounds like big trouble. In that case, shouldn't we-'

"-Everyone, run!" Subaru finished his thought aloud, making everyone perk up. Listening to the boy's plea, the witches dashed forward, running through the overgrown forest.

As soon as Minerva's fist connected with the body of the little girl, the two of them were overwhelmed with a green light and countless hearts appearing around them. In a second, the girl's body was fixed into its previous state, if not even better than before.

For a moment, the girl gazed at Minerva, assessing the situation. Then, she sprinted so fast that she disappeared from Minerva's vision instantly.

"There! I see a stone path. They know about us anyway, so let's make running away easier for us," Echidna pointed to the left. Once everyone's eyes followed her finger, all of them noticed the nearby road.

"Got it!" Subaru exclaimed as his right foot kicked to the ground, stopping his movement. That way, he easily changed his direction without having to waste time by coming to a complete stop. The others followed him, now with Minerva behind his back as well.

She managed to catch up to Subaru, Echidna still on his back, and looked into Echidna's eyes.

"I hope you're happy," Echidna remarked to Minerva.

"..."

With no answer from the blonde witch, Echidna looked forward again, only to widen her eyes as an unknown projectile was heading straight toward them.

"Watch out!" she shouted. Fortunately, everyone noticed it in time to dodge.

"What was that?" Subaru inquired, but soon, his question would be answered. In front of them stood a sole boy that resembled a tiger.

Everyone stopped, looking at the person before them.

"I've had enough of y'er bullshit. Y' come into my home, hurt granny and think you can just leave? I don't think so." The man gritted his teeth as he gazed at all eight of the trespassers.

He struck his fist into his other hand and smiled, revealing teeth sharper than a shark's.

"The time for games is over. I'll show you your way out now," the man- or more accurately boy since from the looks of it he was a lot shorter than any of the present people, assumed a fighting stance, gazing at Subaru and the others as if he was a predator scouting his prey. Well, it wasn't far from the truth.

"Is… Is that the Garfiel you mentioned?" Subaru whispered into Echidna's ear as she leaned in.

The all-knowing witch nodded. "Don't let his looks deceive you. Once agitated, he will turn into a mindless beast, killing and destroying everything in his path with no distinction between friend and foe," she explained.

Garfiel's eyes darted toward her, as if he heard her. Then, he kept gazing at her visage, his eyebrows twitching as if he was in great pain trying to remember something.

Hearing her explanation, Subaru awkwardly gulped. "What should we do then? We can't really wake up Sekhmet to use her hands unless we want to be crushed," Subaru said as he turned his head around to look at the others. "What authorities can the rest of you use?" he inquired, a bit of sweat falling down his forehead from the current situation.

Subaru already knew about Sekhmet being capable of using invisible hands with incredible force. Though, her authority remained unnamed.

Apparently Typhon can judge people about their sins, and if the weight of the sins you feel is large enough, your entire body will crash into pieces while you scream in agony.

From what he saw, Minerva could heal even death itself. Before they completely got out of sight, Subaru saw how she punched the unmoving body of that girl, and her head was reattached to her body and she instantly started to move… People from his world would surely experiment with that power of hers, and he was sure they would do the same in this world too.

All that remained was Daphne, Echidna, Satella, and Carmilla.

He wasn't sure what to do and time was quickly running out. But as if a blessing, Echidna's voice rang out in everyone's ears.

"We don't want to kill Garfiel. There is a troublesome person that could spell disaster for us if he found out. With that, I propose that Carmilla should try it?"

Everyone's eyes turned towards the greedy witch, but then they understood.

"I-I can try," Carmilla assessed as she walked to the front of the group.

Subaru wanted to question this decision. After all, what authority did the oh so cute Carmilla wield that it was considered dangerous, but not dangerous enough to kill a mindless beast-to-be?

Garfiel heard the entire talk, and when he saw the shy girl walking towards him, he couldn't help but scoff.

"Haha, don't think I won't kill ya just 'cause you're a girl," Garfiel said as he started approaching Carmilla.

One more step forward, his arm slowly started to change into that of a beast's. But with another step, it was as if a large pulse of energy coursed through him. He looked at his hand as he stopped its beastification due to the odd feeling, and when he looked back towards where the pink-haired witch should've stood, she wasn't there. Instead, he was looking at a blond-haired woman.

Everyone except for Subaru knew what was going on. The beast every one of them feared was now frozen in place, tears in the corner of his eyes.

From Subaru's point of view, Garfiel started acting like this when Carmilla approached him. In front of Subaru, there was still the cute and shy Witch of Lust, but what Garfiel saw was…

"Mother?"

"I've missed you so much, Garf."

"No… H-How could you miss me?! You left me and big sis here while you went to find happiness of your own!" he growled as he started to approach her. Even through his hostility, Carmilla- playing the role of Garfiel's mother- didn't feel the slightest bit agitated. In fact, she also started to slowly walk towards him.

"You got it wrong," she shook her head with a smile. "I went to search for your father and a better home for all of us. You always complained about the sanctuary and the forest being too small for you," she chuckled with warmth in her tone.

"My… father?"

"That's righ-"

"That's wrong!" Garfiel shouted, interrupting the girl.

"You left to find happiness but in the end destroyed mine! Even after everything, all I wanted was to be happy with all I have. But then you split that apart by leaving…" Garfiel shouted, but then slowly lowered his voice as he started crying his eyes out, even proceeding to choke in his own sadness.

He was choking from sadness, right?

"Carmilla, that's enough. You'll kill him if this goes on." A voice ordered from behind the witch.

"Ah, I'm s-sorry." Carmilla returned to her place beside the witches and Subaru as the aforementioned boy gazed at Garfiel laying on the ground.

"What was that?" Subaru asked, even after all that has happened the past hour, his tone expressed surprise.

"T-That was my authority. F-Faceless Bride," Carmilla stuttered out.

"We should run away since Garfiel is having a breakdown. Let's go," Echidna said from behind Subaru, still on his back.

The witches nodded and started running in the direction of the barrier. Subaru stood frozen as he gazed at Garfiel crying his eyes out on the floor.

"Something wrong?" Echidna inquired as she also looked at the poor tiger boy.

"No… it's nothing," Subaru retorted as he turned around and tried to catch up to the witches.

"You know, Echidna… I'm trying to make this work, but this is some terrifying stuff," Subaru sighed. It's been barely one hour since they left the tomb, yet so much stuff has happened already. And all of it flashed in front of Subaru again.

Echidna cast that spell and made the girl fall from the tree, bruises and cuts all over her body… she even got beheaded.

Subaru understood she was just one of the many clones, yet she looked so real. Too real, even.

And now the entire situation with Garfiel. Just what is this Faceless Bride? Garfiel started crying because he saw his mother instead of Carmilla? Is that what it is? Then he even started choking.

"Yes, we witches are ve~ry bad magic users," Echidna replied in a teasing way, though Subaru just kept quiet.

After they finally left the forest, they ultimately left the sanctuary. Now, what was in front of them was nothing but green plains and a single road that spanned countless kilometers.

Echidna got off of Subaru and finally touched the ground with her own two feet, and Sekhmet was still in deep sleep, yet she subconsciously felt that her work was over. Hence, she dropped Daphne back to the ground.

"Ow. Don't need to be so rough, Met-Met," Daphne complained as she felt the impact on her entire coffin.

"Alright, so now that most of our problems are behind us… yet more problems arise," Subaru said as he scratched his head. "How long is it to the closest town?" he inquired as his eyes trailed the road.

"If nothing much has changed since the last time I walked Lugunica, Hanumas should be the closest city. Though we only have around two hours before the sun sets, and walking on foot will take too long and will be exhausting," Echidna replied.

'Great. What now?' Subaru thought, but their way out of this predicament would show itself sooner than anticipated.

The ground beneath them started shaking. It was as if some huge beast was heading right towards them.

"Look! An earth dragon!" Typhon called out.

The sad look on Subaru's face was wiped and replaced with a hopeful smile as the supposed earth dragon and its carriage came closer and closer, until it suddenly stopped right in front of them.

It was a huge beast that was probably around three and a half meters long. It carried a huge wooden carriage, but it obviously didn't go on auto-pilot.

As soon as it stopped, a man with gray hair and a green cape looked at them. He put a hat on his head and smiled.

"Hello there! My name is Otto Suwen."

Author's notes

Hopefully you enjoyed this one!

Of course, why Otto suddenly finds himself on the outskirts of Sanctuary instead of trying to sell his out-of-season oil will be explained.