Loud screaming sounded behind the thick walls of darkness. Abruptly, Subaru recognized the pitch on the voice. It was quite chiming, yet so high-pitched it could have made him fall into insanity just by hearing it. He covered his eyes while remembering the memory of both of them stabbing each others' eyes. It was rather scary, to think of it that way.

Echoing among his broken, shattered mind; his eyelids parted. He saw two, dark trembling eyes staring through his soul. Eyes filled with sorrow, disbelief, and fear. A sight he hadn't seen for a while. After a flash of the past loop, shone inside his mind; Subaru Natsuki took a deep breath and raised his voice.

"Emilia… d-do y-you remember… the-

Without a single sight of hesitation; Emilia swiftly interrupted him.

"The red fog? Yes, I r-remember that completely. My mind… it hurts… it hurts…"

Subaru ignored her shrieks, and instead focused within those amethyst eyes. Deep inside those glistening violet pupils were the sight of disbelief, shallowness, and inhumanity. Subaru never thought he would do this, but he pushed Emilia away from him with full force.

Immediately, Subaru backed himself to the wall and held his forehead. The horrendous memories of him dying over and over again, made him think that the visions corrupted Emilia. He was forced to believe that this traumatized silver-haired girl couldn't possibly be Emilia. So, instead of referring to her by her actual name; Subaru chose to refer to her as 'She'. Completely pushing the idea that this isn't Emilia, but rather, some clone.

Return by Death was special to him. From the moment he discovered the power, he thought this ability only belonged to him. It was the only thing that made him the hero, or rather the skill that made him redeem himself in the first place.

A skill powerful enough to restart time; so that you can learn from your mistakes and overcome those seemingly impossible obstacles.

When he grasped too heavily on that idea, it almost made Subaru depart from his humanity. But ever since that turning point where The Witch, no… Satella... opened his eyes to view who he truly cared about. However, unusually; Subaru discards that idea and decides to use it for his own gain.

While Emilia stared into the ground with disbelief, Subaru had memories of the weapon, flashing inside his mind. The crimson fog, the screams, and the desperate action to grab the knife; made his bones quake.

He had no choice, but to inform her.

"Please… don't panic. It isn't what you think, those visions may be delusions...

A complete utter lie. A white lie so that she won't break down like he did many times in the past.

"All I want to do is make sure that you and Rem are safe. We need to get out of here, now. Forget all about the others."

Emilia replied with a trembling voice, having at least some of her past characteristics resonating within the tone.

"Why are we forgetting the others? This isn't like you… Subaru. Shouldn't we inform them of the ability we have? Re-

As traces of miasma slowly rose from thin air, Subaru immediately covered her mouth. The miasma dissipated immediately after. As footsteps sound out from outside the tent, Subaru muttered to her; trying not to alert the rest of the group.

"Don't you dare say that term out loud again! I had… many experiences with this ability. There are rules behind this ability that you don't understand. It's time-altering enough that the Witch could be summoned at any time while mentioning that to others...

Subaru fell to his knees and whimpered on the ground; with tears slowly falling down from his eyes.

"Y-You seriously don't understand how many times I tried to tell you this. I never thought I would s-see the day. I… am making myself look like an idiot crying in front of you. And you're right, this isn't how I'm supposed to act. I'm supposed to be a lot tougher, and not… like how I used to."

Silence followed after. The sounds of the campfire stopped, there were no voices outside, and the footsteps halted too. It was erringly silent; enough that She could hear Subaru's heartbeats, and vice versa. Subaru whispered to himself in his mind as he held Her from behind.

"Seriously? Did the people just leave or- Wait… how long has it been since we awakened?"

He slowly peeked his head out of the tent and saw the clouds speeding up at supersonic speeds. The round ball of light that shone on the world spiraled out of control, to the point where it was a long line of luminance that stretched across the world.

"What the hell? The sky shouldn't be like that. I don't see the others either. Did they all just leave?"

She poked up from behind and fell into a trance staring into the swirling sky. The speed was enough to make him and Her vomit, uncontrollably. It's bold to assume that this… 'event'... is correlated to the crimson outskirts.

Time seemed to have shattered while Subaru and Her lie on the ground, quietly whispering.

"What the hell is going on outside? Where are the others? Did time seem to have tampered while we mentioned that ability? Is this the Witch's power that is con-

As he tried to lift Her head off from the ground, she saw her eyes were consumed in blank white. Her face is extremely pale, and her silver hair seemed to have disintegrated due to the shifting speeds of the sky. He slowly felt a heavy feeling push down on his back, like thousands of pounds of weight. He saw his own dark hair transforming into dark gray.

He looked up to the blinking sky and saw two distant purple eye-shaped… things; hovering over in the skies, squinting at him every move Subaru made. At this moment, he definitely knew who was behind this.

The Witch of Envy.

Though Subaru didn't directly say 'Return by Death' to… Her (Emilia); The Witch of Envy still knew what he was trying to explain. Though Emilia knew about Return by Death, she couldn't discuss it with Subaru… unless they somehow communicated in their minds.

As Subaru's face was planted against the floor, he slowly pulled the blanket away from Her face. A large, bare skeleton that wore the clothing of Emilia lay on the ground as if it deteriorated from Time shifting back and forth repeatedly.

Subaru couldn't process his emotions, because he too saw his skin also vanishing from aging. Before he could ever gasp and notice that the skeleton belonged to Emilia , Subaru's vision flashes into black with the sounds of bones hitting against the ground; resounding over the dark abyss.