"Huh?" Regulus's face scrunched up in slight confusion, but a slight yet noticeable anger began rising up. Looking frantically around himself he spotted one of his wives, her facial features blank and unchanging as usual. Regulus in a mood of slight disarray found that her unequivocal disconcern for their current predicament set him off.
In a fit of rage he swept his hand in an arc bisecting the girl with ease. No gasp of disapproval was voiced from his other brides, their shock and concerns being shackled in by fear. That irrational action seemed to calm the archbishop down as he began to gather his thoughts. Not too long ago he was having a discussion with Sirius, it wasn't exactly the most delightful experience, but still someone had interrupted it. Someone had disrespected HIS rights.
He was in a forest adjacent to the highway that passed Flugel's tree; he remembered he had been here not too long ago. Him and Lye were sent here by the gospel's order.. Which is why he was in a discussion with Sirius not long afterwards, afterall her beloved had died due to the entire incident, so she came running for pity. It disgusted him.
After further digging into his wretched mind he had recollections of similar incidents occurring, but he never could find the causation so he had shrugged it off. Those incidents didn't bother him, they didn't interfere with him, but this one was different. This time he was determined to set things right, to find the cause of this disrespect towards him and his privacy.
With that goal set in his mind he made headway towards the carriage. Now knowing where it was going to be he made no hesitation in rushing. He simply pushed himself slightly off the ground and in a burst of momentum set off down the highway, ignoring the fact that he'd inevitably be leaving Lye behind.
But that didn't matter to the archbishop, he needed some way to relieve his frustration. He was gonna kill them all anyways, so why did it matter if he did it now or later? Soon enough the green coloration of an earth dragon caught his eye. It was expected, his speed would allow him to cross the world in an instant.
The rider of the carriage didn't register the fact that a white blur came shooting towards him; they were torn to shreds. The earth dragon splintered into a mesh of blood and bones, the carriage torn apart with all passengers alike. Regulus didn't halt until he rammed down every last one. The white whale's corpse, despite its tough hide, was decimated as if it were paper to a shredder.
With his work done he halted looking back with a sadistic grin, they deserved it. His self validation assured, he went to walk away in the haphazard search of the true source to his suffering. However, a guttural sound was voiced out into the open air, it was quiet and low but since there was no other sound to mask it, Regulus heard it clearly.
"Su-ba...ru" Regulus' eyes whipped towards the source only to see a blue haired maid who's torso had been cleaved in half, her intestines along with her ribs was clear for all to see. Her breaths were ragged and eyes were dulled and darkened. It was a miracle she had survived the initial burst, even more surprising was the fact she didn't die from shock. With an irritated sigh he walked next to the maid looking down at her with scorn.
"Lo-ve y...you, m-my he-ro." Her voice stuttered as she seemed to be experiencing a moment of euphoria, Regulus was disgruntled by this.
"What was that? Speak up a bit would you? Don't you have the mind to give up and die like any other rational person? Why hold onto some nonsense such as hope in your state, it's disgusting. You should be satisfied with your death, not go off into some pathetic dream" She took no action to look at or acknowledge the archbishop. In fact, her eyes sparked with finality only to fade off into nonexistence, a stagnant smile still on her expression. She had died.
Regulus scoffed at the scene for some reason it had irritated him. He wasn't a rookie to death, he had acted upon it many times. Most of the time, his victims didn't have a chance to hold onto their final breaths. It was an act of mercy Regulus spared to any individual who upset him, he didn't like hearing scum grotle on their own blood. In a moment of spite he wanted to find this Subaru and kill him. Not because this man had disrespected him, but the scene of the girl's bloody end had stuck to his mind. He wanted clarification and relief, killing the one thing that gave this girly any meager sense of hope would be sufficient.
He was perfectly satisfied with himself, no adherence could shape him in any way or form. He was content with the way he represented himself, his actions displayed such an obvious notion resiliently. To think this one moment could somehow infringe on his heart made him suffer. He didn't want to be bothered by abstract things as that, his hands were small, his power meek. He was nothing to the confines of fate, destiny, or whatnot meanings put onto the acclimations of time. He had no desire to dwell on them, so for such an act to be brought out with such vulgarity. It was an insult, a diminution of his rights; he wouldn't stand for it.
"Ahh- our feast, our feast, ruined, slobbered, spilled, foiled, why, why, why?" The new presence complained as he shambled past the mess of corpses looking at Regulus with a show of clear disappointment. Regulus's brows furrowed as he turned to glare at the impolite intruder. "We came hoping, anticipating, expecting, wanting, desiring, the cause of the whale's death. Who after 400 years had been slain, but how, but why, we may never know because of youuuu." Lye lamented with a groan.
"What unfounded expectations do you have of me? Did you think it unjust of me to kill the scum who dare slander me? I just wanted to create a situation where I was comfortable, they were the ones who denied me of that. Filthy, atrocious, selfish, pitiful insects who carried on their way while I had been infringed upon. They show no condolence nor hesitation to my suffering! It's like they ran off and forgot about the clear disturbance to us all, if I hadn't been so merciful I would've made them suffer for their ignorance!" Regulus spat at Lye who looked confused and merely laughed at his rabble.
"We don't like lectures, we don't need, we just want. Our hunger was about to be satiated until you rushed ahead, why couldn't you just wait? We waited, why couldn't you..?" Lye groaned as he scratched his head in discomfort. Regulus scowled anger rising from his chest, his face reddening.
"Didn't you listen to me? I thought you had manners, but I guess that's just too much to ask for. Hadn't I explained myself already, it's in the past, it's been solved, don't dwell on such things it's unbecoming. Why should I care whether or not you were satiated? If you can't be satisfied with the meager things at your disposal then you're the one with greed. I'm not hindered by your concepts of fulfillment and thus I pay no heed to them, why should I? Why do you have such expectations of me? Do you think I'm obligated to, do you find the need to justify your own downfall by throwing it all onto me. Isn't that an infringement to my disposition, my individuality, my rights?!"
With that statement he kicked a puddle of blood cutting off the droplets from the flow of time and sent them flying at Lye. Lye was barely able to react as he leaped to the side, but it was already too late for them as they shredded half of his body into bits and pieces. With a simple kick and a grunt Regulus had killed Gluttony with relative ease. Leaving Lye's corpse to rot out in the sun he looked towards the highway, with little information and no update in his gospel he decided to follow it.
_
Subaru gasped in shock and pain as he had just returned by death, images still haunting him of how he willingly drove a knife through his throat. Regardless, Emilia's voice brought back Subaru into reality, her voice filled with concern.
"Are you alright? Subaru, what's the matter?" Emilia's face tilted as Subaru looked into her eyes with anxiety.
"Where's Rem? What happened to Rem..?" His words sounded like a plea to which Emilia looked confused, her lips perked inwards as she mustered an answer.
"Wasn't she with you..? Subaru, did something bad happen to Rem?" Seeing Subaru in distraught made Emilia draw a negative conclusion. But that thought soon dissipated as she saw hope light back within his eyes.
"Y-you remember her! YOU REMEMBER REM?!" Subaru shouted, jumping out of his seat and grabbing Emilia by her shoulders.
"Yes, yes, what's got you so antsy?!" Subaru smirked at Emilia, a happy smile spread across his face.
"Who even says antsy anymore?" Subaru teased Emili as her lips puckered up in contempt.
With the knowledge of Rem's safety filled Subaru with relief, however as that spike of ecstasy wore off he started to analyze the situation. What changed to make it so that Rem wasn't forgotten? The more he thought about it the more confused he got; was Rem really safe? He wanted to shake the feeling off, but the thought stuck like glue in his mind.
"Hey! Speed up, will you?!" Subaru yelled out with a harsh tone as his worries got ahead of him. Both Emilia and Petra gave him odd looks to which he ignored looking into the distance entranced by his negative thoughts and fears.
Eventually, they met up with the destruction of the carriage, but his prior loop was nothing compared to the catastrophe Subaru now faced. His eyes widened his shock at the ruined carriages and splatter organs that painted their rubble. He vomited at the sight, Emilia soon followed her expression morphing into disbelief and fear. Slowly Subaru shuffled forth, ignoring the cat man who was caressing the decapitated head of his beloved.
Wilhelm saw the boy drawing closer and he moved to stop him, but Subaru simply brushed past him. Wilhelm looked away not willing to see the despair that would strike the dear boy. Subaru's eyes finally caught onto the little sliver of blue hair around a nearby corner, as he followed hope struck his eyes as he saw more and more of her body. That's until he caught sight of red, so much red, so much blood. Her entire lower half was gone and for some reason she was smiling. Why, why, goddammit why was she smiling?
"R-Rem?" Subaru fell to the muddied ground unable to comprehend the sheer torment of the sight right before him. Why in this loop did she die? Why? Why? What changed, what was so different in this loop that had caused her demise? From the back he heard Wilhelm discussing with Emilia just round the corner, the news struck his heart harshly. His every thought now focused onto each word Wilhelm was speaking.
"We've discovered the remains of the Archbishop of Gluttony. Whoever did this, killed the archbishop as well. As for who that is… we have no idea." Wilhelm shuddered at the thought of a man who could cause this much destruction.
Subaru knew he had to go back, Rem was better alive in a coma than dead, the relief he would feel if that was just the case was embarrassing. He couldn't believe he was actually wishing for it. He looked at his surroundings and found a suitable shard of glass, he needed to do this quickly, before Emilia came. So the throat again, huh? With the sheer determination of wanting to get Rem back, he drove the glass into his throat-