Everyone was okay. Subaru gave the ruined reading room another once-over—a bookcase fell, propped on the splintered remains of a bed frame and nightstand. The entirety of the guest room above had fallen on top of them, and yet the doer was nowhere in sight. Not even the assailant in the hall seemed intent on pursuing the Queen of Lugnica.

"Uhh, it was a little person." Emilia was being helped up by Ram, who continued to hold her hand with knitted brows. "She, or he, was cloaked and hooded, but their face was… completely obscured, somehow. Doing some kind of magic, without moving their hands or speaking. It was like wind magic but… but nothing. No force behind it, just… deletion, if that makes sense." Emilia balled her fist, saying, "I wish I could say I knew them." Her glare settled on the man who saved her husband and two precious maids. "Yet, I can tell that this isn't the same person. I can just… feel… it." Emilia gasped, breaking into a sprint towards Garf. "Let me see," she demanded, revealing a mural of bloody colors across his back. "Garf," she breathed, palms out. "g-gimme a second to—"

"M'good, Queenie." He eased her glowing hands away, and Garf's ear in turn was tugged until he collided with his sister's forehead.

Frederica didn't even wince, but she bunched Otto's cloak tighter around her chest. " Last time, Garf, and this time, I'm not holding back in front of Queen Emilia and King Subaru," she said in a low, deadly voice.

"Sis—!"

"Little brother: they do not care about how cool you look more than they do keeping you alive—"

Garf hissed, "Yeah and this's nothin' worth—"

"— and if you insist on acting like a brat—,"

"—worryin' them over—!"

"GARFIEL Tinzel!" Frederica's voice launched in volume, trailing into a growl at decibels Subaru had never heard, even with Frederica as a feline. "Garfiel Tinzel, so help me, if any of us dies, it's because you wasted time putting up a fuss." Even Subaru felt that one as Garf's resistance cracked. "I'm sorry, but that's the reality—"

"Fuck you, fine!" Blushing Garf shoved his enormous, freshly-painted back into Emilia. She got right to work with the healing.

"If you get blood on that lounge dress," Petra snapped, "I'll have tailored you into an even better replacement, Gar."

"Yes, yes, banter-banter. There's someone here trying to kill us," said Ram. "Let's not traumatize Barasu further by dying because we were too good of friends."

An excellent point, though Subaru couldn't find it in him to quip. It was happening again, wasn't it? Beatrice and Meili, were they—? They were fine.

Rem looked away from the ice, frowning. "Sister—"

"A-agreed, right, plan." Subaru clapped his hands together. "We need to huddle up and hash out a plan. Yes." It was actually happening again, wasn't it? "The castle's under attack by some strong and angry people; we're cut off from our knights with no idea what the world is like outside this room." It was going to happen again.

"Subaru?" He was still holding Petra by the shoulders. In case something happened. "Don't forget about Betty and Mei."

"Of course: we're short two lovely little ladies on top of all that. And the Witch of Pride herself seems to be standing between us and where they hopefully, maybe are."

"We've been through worse," said Garf, the discoloring of his back fading as Emilia's forehead beaded with sweat. "As far as setups go, I mean. At least we're with the Boss."

"This is no Priestella, sure, but I wouldn't be so confident," said Otto, perhaps referring to Subaru's understandable lack of a convenient plan. "The setup makes this situation rather dire."

"Magical threat aside, an unusually powerful enemy has ambushed us in the depths of our home, beyond the talented knights sworn to protect against such things." Rem was still watching the ice, her words spoken distantly, focus elsewhere. "I worry for our friends within the knights as well, stationed here in this castle. Just how strong is this threat?"

It's happening again. It's happening, it's gonna start happening again. They were pinned down, Emilia couldn't get an attack in; this was bad. Really bad. The nails in Subaru's palms hardly pinched compared to the pain of failure. "I… I'm sorry." Subaru could feel everyone's eye on him, all the disappointment. "This is how it starts. This's how it always starts: bad things happen, and I have no idea what's going on—"

"Subaru."

"—I'm sorry."

"Subaru?" Her voice was closer.

"Emilia?"

"It's okay, Subaru. We're actually very lucky right now. See?" She pointed to their left, in the general direction of the instant-death assailant. "Our bedroom's on this side of the corridor, as well as Petra and Meili's, the very room after that. And this is very much to our advantage, friends."

Subaru understood before Emilia smirked from him to the Royal Bodyguard criss-cross before her. "With luck," he said, "that's where we'll find our resident angsty teenagers."

"And we can avoid engagement with the foe altogether if we're so fortunate," Emilia finished.

Subaru gave a thumbs up. "Hell yeah, Mili! Same page!"

"But I don't want us taking any unnecessary risks." Emilia put an arm across her chest. "I don't want a single bad thing happening to any one of us. I don't. That means no recklessness, Subaru. "

"Hey! Hey! You took the words right outta my mouth!" As his wife smiled, victorious and satisfied, Subaru glanced to the ceiling above, jagged hewn and deepened with a hollowed-out space, alight like a jack-o-lantern now that the light of their crystal lamps reached the next room above. The vacant guest wing's layout formed in his mind as he thought aloud, "Frederica, Ram, you guys take Petra—a-and Otto too, he'll totally die here—," Otto deadpanned as Subaru pointed up, "—take them, and please make joining with the knights a priority."

"Take cover in the barracks if they're safe," said Emilia. "If not, you have our permission to use the emergency escape tunnel."

"Woah," Petra said, almost staggering into Subaru as she held her head. "This is pretty serious, isn't it?" She'd never known a world where it was borderline hopeless.

"Now we don't know that. But we should prepare ourselves for the… for the worst," Emilia finished faintly.

"Not a hair will be out of place, Your Grace." On all fours, blonde fluff swallowed Frederica's arms, legs and face as her body jerked, widened and bent its way out of Otto's fabrics, letting them fall in a heap by her thickening paws. Frederica's snarl jut forward, lengthening until it could no more: a complete lioness stepping over the stone, eyes as warm as the greenest pasture. She did not roar. "On Mother's blood, you have my word: nothing will land so much as a scratch."

"Now you've done it, sis," Garfiel muttered. "Fail to uphold that oath, an' I'll land more than a couple scratches on the lot o' ya."

"I'm the fastest individual in the capital, short of Miss Felt."

"Just don't be a hero! Even if somethin' happens to me."

"You need not worry about me following simple orders." Frederica's feline face upturned with amusement. "I pray that yours aren't as taxing, though."

Garfiel could do no more than fume as Otto hoisted Petra and set her on the lioness.

"Thanks, Frederica," said Subaru. She was ensuring her brother had eliminated any notion of fighting from his mind, even if it meant embarrassing him a little. "For so much—for that and everything else, thank you. And good luck. I'll make these last few days up—"

"Keeping safe will render all my efforts more than worthwhile." Her eyes glinted, recognition, or something more confirming, directed at Subaru. "Not that this will be one of those times, of course."

"O-of course! Right!" Subaru felt like he was caught thinking something naughty.

"Seriously. You'd better not do anything crazy, Mister Subaru," rambled Otto, climbing on as Ram vaulted over Fred's hindquarters behind him, who added to Rem, "That goes for you, too."

"I know." The sisters held hands.

"Back atcha. I'll do my best to keep it sane." Subaru couldn't make any promises. Not when it came to this. "At least for a few. I need Beatrice if I wanna do any crazy stuff, first."

"Is it too much to at least lie and say 'Yes, sir, Otto, sir!'?" Otto gave a start that Subaru felt in turn—they were now holding hands.

And Subaru squeezed him tighter. "Please don't be like the stupid old me and try to be heroes." He glanced at Ram, Petra, then Frederica. "I'll be really sad if you kill yourselves over something as pointless as that."

Ram scoffed. "We'll decide what we do with our lives, Barasu, just as you have."

"Ram—!" Emilia scolded.

"The sooner we move, the less this debate will matter! M-my queen," Frederica added with a bow. "Sincerest apologies. Are my passengers secure?"

"Y-yes!" Petra chirped.

"Hi-ho, Frederica." Ram dug her heels into the lioness's flank, after which Frederica sprung upwards, smoothly slipping into the hollowed-out bedroom above and out-of-sight, an eruption of wood punctuating half a heartbeat later. They escaped.

"I wonder," Emilia said, turning to face her ice wall, "why that little person isn't pursuing us. Or collapsing the next floor above, or the one below our feet." She stamped her foot to demonstrate the sudden lack of random destruction.

"I should feel like we're lucky, but it only makes me more anxious," said Rem.

"Her scent hasn't drawn any closer, at least." Garf, too, seemed to have been keeping his nose on that.

"Maybe she thinks we're trapped?" Subaru put his hand to Emilia's structure, only to tear himself away as if he touched a hot stove. "Cold! That's cold!"

"You're too reckless, Subaru!" He sighed in relief as Emilia rubbed his hand between her warm palms.

"Perhaps they believe we're trapped. Or, worse, they're waiting for something else." Rem stepped around Emilia, brandishing her weapon with a rumple of its thick chain. "Apologies, Subaru. Emilia. I'm overstepping my station right now, but we cannot take any chances."

"Nah, you're doin' exactly what ya should be." Garf grinned as he leaned against the wall. "You're tough. S'why Boss and Queenie kept ya here."

Rem snapped the chain between her fists. "I'll not let them hurt you two. No matter what."

"No-no. Please keep yourself safe while Garfiel saves Beatrice and Meili." Right, Rem could make ice structures with the moisture in the air, and the castle piping besides. "In doing so, I'll better help keep us all safe," Emilia swore on her heart.

The maid smiled warmly. "Petra could have helped with this. And any difficulties with Meili."

"I'm realizing that now, but let's think of it as having less people to worry about." Emilia pointed to the right-facing wall. "Alright, Garf. Get to smashing."

"Gotcha. Should I be careful of the books, or—?"

"It's just stuff," said Subaru. "Powder every last brick in this castle if you have to. Nothing's more precious than a life." Fingers entwined and squeezed with his; Emilia was staring holes into Garfiel's broadening, strippening back.

"Please be safe, girls." Emilia tightened around Subaru's hand. "Please be okay."

Subaru was about to tell Emilia that his great spirit was definitely still alive, but bookshelves and stone thundered over the attempt. Twice. A third time then another, papers, wood, and mortar caving and chunking with every fist the bipedal tiger threw forward. Rem placed herself between them, weapon ready and eye on the corner of the bedroom Garfiel barreled his way into. The corner in the direction their assailant waited. Emilia and Subaru followed four seconds behind, holding hands.

The bedroom was characterized by the stone-hewn weights in the corner, near a pillar of splinters once a scratching post: Garf's "sword sharpener." There also hung a gnawed-on hunk of salted ground dragon, also for training as well as snacking. The whole castle seemed to shake, Garfiel leaning back and throwing himself forward once more; a spiderweb of cracks appeared beyond his shoulder and motivational tapestries. He snarled, balled a fist. Garf roared, throwing it, blowing a hole at once.

The royal bedroom next, royally messed up as stone and debris lay sullying the meticulously-tended chamber. It was actually perfect otherwise, their bedroom. Even with the last couple days going on.

Even with all this RBD-stuff going on, the maids still…

It must have been Ram this morning, too. From when she went to bathe but returned dry. She didn't even want to waste time cleaning herself, despite all the grumpiness earlier. "You guys are too nice."

"Huh?" Rem whipped around.

"You all still took the time to make our bed, and clean. I'm just realizing that now."

"Oh! Um, yes, of course! But, Subaru… I'm afraid Miss Beatrice isn't here."

Their bond's existence was the only reason he wasn't worried. But Rem was right, and if their bed was like new, that meant Beatrice never ran in here to begin with. "Crap! That melodramatic loli, where is—!?"

"Meili!" Garfiel bashed himself against the wall, threw a fist before prying off to launch the other, the stone caving with every strike until, drawing back his shoulders, he roared, "Stand! BACK!" with both fists flying. The wall blew apart like it was made from cheap materials.

Just as the entire wall to their right, from corner to corner, shattered like some great, stone window.

Through the raining rubble Typhon, the long-dead Witch of Pride, graced them with a smile that, for once, failed to meet her brilliant eyes. Yes, their amber coloring was as recalled. This was undoubtedly Typhon, tan of face with wisps of green curling from the confines of her hood.

"I was joking," Subaru breathed, ice erecting before him and shattering just as quickly. "I was joking." Didn't whatshisname have the Authority of Pride? What happened to her? What was Typhon even doing, here let alone alive?

"El Huma!" The floor blew apart, pierced by a glassy column that was rendered a hundred little diamonds as Rem took her next breath, Emilia covering and failing just as promptly. "El Huma!" Rem threw up one hand then another, an ice pillar following each, destruction their shadow. The carpet was becoming a beachhead of weeping sand growing around their feet.

"Meili?!" Garfiel called.

And a shrill voice replied, "Big Brotherl?!" Thank God.

Faster than relief could settle, stone crumpled and cracked overhead. Half a heartbeat later the ceiling groaned, sagged and sanded as Emilia and Rem kept throwing up ice wall after ice wall. "We can't even support it long enough to make a difference!" the latter snarled. "Garfiel!"

"Let's trade, buddy!" Subaru swerved around the passing feline, glancing to watch him throw his palms upwards into the increasingly segmented ceiling behind Emilia and Rem. Ice crackled into existence harshly as often as it erupted into hail; the area around his friends an expanding winter wasteland. Typhon smiled, more patient than Subaru remembered.

Through the hole, Subaru found Meili and Petra's room dark. But in the gloom he could glean its usual state: halved in simplicity and dress-tailoring paraphernalia alongside an even cleaner segment, despite the several small cages housing different pairs of glowing red eyes. A ball was on Meili's bed, snuggling one of those rat-bat-things. The fact that she was still like this implied that the worst.

Or, at least, she wanted it to be—until she died, from the looks of it. 'Why do you pretend that your mind is broken?' the Sin Archbishop of Sloth had wondered several lifetimes ago.

"Mei!"

"Subaru." A light faded further from Meili's eyes as he ran up to her bedside.

"Can you walk? We gotta go. City's burning, probably."

Meili blinked, shook her head. "I don't understand." She spoke lightly, as though in shock. "I thought I heard… Are you at a checkpoint? Is that why your timing is so convenient?"

"This isn't the time to be morbid!"

"You must have died since the last time I saw you. How else could your arrival or your defense be so perfect?"

"BOSS, COME ON!" Garf sounded like he was struggling; never a good sign.

"Because I give too much of a damn, alright?!"

"But Subaru—"

"Yeah, you killed me! Many times! Can you see how much of a crap I give?!" Meili wrenched away, hugging her pet tighter. Subaru felt bad, but he didn't have the luxury nor desire to rely on Return by Death as an excuse to wax poetic. "We'll cry about this later!" Rem and Emilia's voices were growing more haggard by the yowl, the more walls of ice sang into existence, and the rumble of a hail storm went on without falter.

Subaru scooped the young woman up bridal style with an apology, to which she replied, "Good grief, Subaru. You're so desperate."

"You can hate me later!" Subaru heaved, using his upper back. While she was no Petra, Meili wasn't the preteen who was once as featherlight neither.

"Forget about the hassle and—!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Just let me walk, idiot!" Meili wriggled out of his arms, landing like a cat only to scramble left, to her personal menagerie beside the door.

"I don't think our guest is here for your pets, Mei, great as they are!"

"You were about this close to making me reconsider, I'll have you know." From cage to cage Meili stepped, clicking and throwing every door open. "I'm sorry," she said to each of the cages as she left their doors open. "I love you all." Meili kissed each of the critters jumping into her arms. "All of you, I love you all," she murmured. "You live for the kill, but I live for you. Please be mindful of that."

The drumming of ice cubes rolled and rolled on.

Subaru whirled, hearing a snarled, "Damn it all!" It was Rem, horn a pink glow stick as she spun away from her shattering shield. Taking a knee behind Emilia's wide, ice-erecting gestures, Rem winced from the increasing speed of 'Crunch, crack, boom, crunch, crack, boom.' She threw her fist around Emilia, crying, "Huma!" A spear flew from her palm, a muted crackle in the hall following. Rem shot up, still behind Emilia's constant defense.

"It's like they have the Authority of Greed," Emilia's haggard voice came between sudden gasps. "Or Pride, except not!"

"Not even Lord Roswaal has this kind of power!" Rem fired another shot.

"Please, Rem, cover me, she's getting faster!"

Rem screamed, raising both fists above her head before slamming them down on either side of Emilia. A pair of spears flew forth, then predictably broke like two glass cups hitting the floor. "Stop this pointless fight! El Huma! Leave this precious place of ours, there's no way you'll win! Even if you SLAUGHTER US ALL! Huma! " With a spin Rem hucked an icicle the size of a hunting knife before stomping, erecting another wall from the opening in the carpet that was then broken and replaced by Emilia's at the same time, and the pattern followed.

It took everything in Subaru not to test the waters and run out. And make himself useful.

"Alright, boys." The door at Subaru's left opened, and before this was fully realized: "It's feeding time!"

And then Rem and Emilia and even Garf in his hulking form went aghast as the queen cried, "They're fleeing now—?! "

A sobbing scream raked hot coals down Subaru's back.

He spun to where Meili was falling into her room, armless to the shoulders without a drop of blood to be seen. Small, pale stones flew in all directions from where her limbs flailed invisibly. Before her smiled Typhon, whose hands sprung open, the dust of Meili's wrists sprinkling like fistfuls of sand.

"So you're a sinner, but refuse to acknowledge it," she said to the dry-sobbing girl. "I guess 'Dona was right: you really are that selfish, huh?"

Meili writhed and writhed, howling into each shoulder, the carpet. Subaru moved, only moved. He saw red alone; then red and Meili in his arms.

"It hurts…" she choked, "it hurts… Subaru…"

"Sin is a dividing wedge that no one can escape."

Subaru remembered hearing that before. "Why the hell are you here?!" He blinked away the pressure swelling in his eyes.

Typhon's palm rose between Subaru and her empty smile. She could try. It wouldn't do anything. Subaru saw red alone; red and Meili in his arms; red and Meili tumbling backwards, howling, and himself standing there, unable to do anything.

Subaru saw red alone; red and Typhon's palm… and an ice spear flying wordlessly overhead at the same time a horn and blue hair appeared behind her shoulder. Typhon's palm twitched into the icicle's path, her pleasure unflinching. As the ice splintered before her hand, black iron protected in spikes kissed Typhon on the cheek.

The sound reminded Subaru of when he'd smash pumpkins as a kid.

The end result, however, was almost zombie-like.

Rem's snarl slackened as Typhon's body swung around—the chunky remains flopping gorily against her back as her palm froze before the demon's shock. It happened so fast that Subaru couldn't form her name, only scream.

And then, "I'm sorry I must do this to you!" Emilia's palm shot into Subaru's peripherals, dangerously close to touching Typhon. Rem didn't crumble, and the Witch did nothing. Subaru realized why the second Typhon's neckhole sprouted a bouquet of crystal, aglow like magic ice at first, then expanding, reddening, matching the luster of Rem's horn, only to then surpass it in ruddiness. Crimson filled the blooming structure, and Typhon's little body slumped forth, crumpled back, curling within itself until it could no more and dropped in a heap, the bloody ice thunking like a cinder block.

Subaru finally took a breath. "That's still a freaky power."

Emilia exhaled, bowing. "Thank you for being defeated." She straightened herself, adopting a collected demeanor. "Rem?"

"I-I'm okay. I am." She started nodding to each of them. "Yes. I'll be fine. Goodness," Rem gasped, "my life flashed before my eyes for a second there." She shared relief with Subaru. They did the same with Emilia, whose worry appeared as abruptly as her gaze fell on Subaru's lap.

"Meili." Emilia collapsed, fingertips grazing the sharded stump of an arm. Meili was still even as Emilia grasped it. "Meili? Meili?!"

"Is Dresden okay?" she croaked, to a collective sigh.

Rem bowed to the royals. "I'll relieve Garfiel."

As she jogged off, Meili wheezed, "Is… Chester… did he die, too?"

Emilia looked heartbroken and baffled, scrambling to think of comfort for her household staff.

"They're her mabeasts."

"O-oh?"

"I'd say it was a worthwhile trade." Meili's eyes were open, her fine features folded in ugly agony otherwise contained. The product of an assassin's guild, people. "You're welcome." She winced, sitting up with help from her queen and king. "I consider mabeast lives equivalent to human lives, for your information."

"I know." Subaru, hand still on her back, encompassed its smallness with steady circles. "Once again, thanks for saving me. More importantly, thanks for saving Mili and Rem."

"And me!" Garfiel's serrated grin popped in overhead. "Seriously: brute strength ain't shit when you're pinned down, and a second later, that ceiling woulda fallen apart right on top of our heads!"

Rem was passing through the hole in the wall, exiting the royal bedroom not only covered in ice but supported by several thick pillars of it, too. "There's something you all must know," she said, her words weak. "Although, this should be obvious to most of us by now." Subaru noticed she'd been fishing in her dress pocket for a prune she popped into her mouth. Chewing, swallowing, Rem inhaled sharply, relishing her emergency bocco fruit. "Oof," she held her stomach, looking everyone in the eye as strongly as she could manage. "That entire time, not once did the attacker's heart beat. They didn't even smell alive."

"But they had blood, clearly." Emilia's eyes fell on the crystal, its glower washing the stone around it in deep crimson.

"Back in my world, we called things like this 'zombies.'"

"Your world sounds insane if it's full of guys like this." Garf gestured to the juiced corpse.

"They weren't real. I'll explain later." Emilia's upturned palms approached, and Subaru ignored the petty feeling of emasculation as he let his wife do the hard work, handing over Meili. Emilia didn't even grunt as she stood, murmuring something in comfort to the girl. Typhon's power was either always like this, or this was a 'freaky-zombie-strength once the limiters are removed' deal. Thing is, these are so unlike zombies that I didn't even realize that's what we were dealing with! Not until it was staring me in the face with half of one! And that was the least of their worries: who (was that), what (sent her), where (were the others—our guys and theirs), how (did this happen) and why (was this happening).

"Answering the five W's is really all Return By Death's good for." Subaru announced to the backs of his friends, the corridor rolling on before them as they ran. "I really don't wanna use it, but—"

"Don't even think about it!" all four of them snapped (Meili struggling to even lift her head, let alone open one eye).

"I wasn't going to! But, I appreciate the thought—it was very wholesome!"

"Call it what you want, asshole! So long as it stops you from blubbering like that ever again, that's all I care about!"

"Sure, Garf. But this's what I was afraid of, guys! I really don't think I'll be of much help!"

"You got me on my feet." Meili was squinting at the chandeliers passing overhead. "We'd probably all be dead, or still fighting that guy, or…" 'Not even alive to worry about any of this,' her avoidance of Subaru's gaze implied, his approach matching Emilia's pace.

"Meili?" For her comfort, Subaru looked from her face towards ahead, to the midnight luster of the spiral stairwell's crystal lamps. "Meili, listen… For what it's worth—and trust me, I get how cold this comfort is—but, for what it's worth… I'm glad you let me save you back then."

"There you go again, you sentimental fool."

Subaru didn't care. If this would save her and him from dying: "Thank you. Seriously, Meili, more than you know, thanks for wanting to become a part of my life."

"Gross." She was smiling, her eyelids shut gently. "Don't make it sound like it was all for you, because of you."

"I don't have the guts to be so presumptuous." As they stampeded down the stairs, Subaru haltingly explained, "I won't insult you anymore by lying. Sorry I tried, though—about the first week, and Sanctuary, and whatnot. I just… didn't want you to hate yourself. For things outta your control."

"Subaru, I—," Meili's face wrenched with pain, even though Typhon's judgement was momentary. "I know that, obviously. It's simple the reality of how we even got to this point. It's just that…"

"I know."

Meili choked. "Subaru, I'm sorry—"

"It's okay."

"I'm sorry I put you through so much pain—!" Meili wrenched her face into Emilia's dress, gasps muffled as she was snuggled deep. "And Betty, and Queen Emilia, and-and Petra—!"

"You can let it out, Meili." Emilia's voice soothed, smoothing her unraveling braid.

"One day at a time, right?" Subaru's wife gave a relieved smile.

"I doubt we're gonna see the next," said Meili.

"We'll all survive this." Emilia faced their run ahead. "The wounded can be healed, the villains slain. We can give Meili arms out of mana and od, and the castle can be fixed."

"I really wasn't worried about that last part," Subaru chuckled. "Though for Frederica's sanity, I'll try to be."

"Scared, Boss?"

Subaru wondered if Garf was after being reminded of his sister. "That's a silly question, Garf, doncha think?" Down and down the curling stairwell they trampled, but nothing more; surely because it was too loud to voice an obvious concern. "We'd know by now if Frederica was fighting. And I can still feel my contract with Beako."

"Sister is alive and well," said Rem. "Petra's clumsy, but she is getting better at handling water magic should they need her."

"I'm just worried about Big Bro Otto." As he said this, Garf surpassed Subaru and Emilia, then even Rem. "The guy's nothin' but guts and a mean right hook! He'll get too big for his britches if given the chance!" Garf's broad back continued powering down the stairs until suddenly jerking to a stop before tearing left into the second floor east. "What?! Big Sis's scent is this way!?" The back of the corridor where it bent was gloomy, no chandeliers had crystal lamps, unlike the sconces on the walls. It was enough for their small army of maids to keep the castle from looking like a haunt, should guests ever have need of it. Subaru felt a chill as he ran, comforted that they did not have to worry about finding anyone beyond the many passing doors.

"I'm being reminded of Lord Roswaal's old mansion," Emilia gasped. Despite keeping up with Rem's demonic charge, she kept Meili from bouncing in her arms. "It's unsettling to have not seen anybody since the attack began."

"They listened to their king, nothin' wrong with that!" Garf shot a grin behind his shoulder.

"I guess you planned ahead in case something like this happened." Rem's raspiness sounded like a death rattle, but her horn was glowing strong, chain bouncing between her fist as the ball at the end sailed and tugged behind them. "I'm glad you drilled the staff every weekend, Subaru. I was beginning to fear for everybody."

"'Cept there's a good-effin' reason Boss wanted us with the Knights of Lugnica."

Subaru looked over his other shoulder at Meili, who awaited him squinting with slivers of green. Emilia offered her best smile while flawlessly keeping up with two knights and a demon. Garf turned left at a fork; from here the guest wing was bendy, albeit linear, until the stairwell at the end.

And Garf nearly stopped. "The hell?" He charged forth with a "Let's hurry!" from Emilia. Until now the castle carpet, deep red and bordered with gold embroidery, spilled on and on in every corridor like the hydra of castle decor that it was. Upon making the turn into this one it became frizzy with tears. Further on it got worse, more fragmented until it was more scrap than rug.

Please be okay. This place was older than Emilia, the castle. Please be alive. Subaru would have made a joke about Frederica seeking vengeance if fear didn't have such a stranglehold. Fred, Otto, Ram and Petra—please, be okay and alive, please!

"SISTER, NO! " Rem collapsed mid stride, tripping and sliding on her knees, heart clenched. "Sh-she's in so much pain—! " Garf yanked her to her feet and she broke into a sprint matching his.

Subaru couldn't take the familiar terror of uncertainty. "What the hell could be more important than getting to the Knights' Barracks, dammit?!" Subaru practically flew away from Emilia, falling between Garfiel and Rem. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

"They'll be okay." Garf wasn't smiling, and he wasn't speaking jovially. Nor looking anywhere but the damages passing beneath his bare feet. "You know they will, Boss."

"Huh? But how—?"

A sharpness seldom seen in Garf outside of a fight snapped unto Subaru. "You're an asshole, you know that?"

"What the hell, man?!"

"Yeah, ya are. You're such an asshole that you'd never settle for less than everything you ever wanted."

"And's that a… good thing?"

"It's badass! Few assholes are as crazy as you are, Boss! That's how I know everything'll be fine. Even if it don't seem that way now."

"Garf, what're you saying?" Emilia cried.

"Exactly what you're afraid of!"

Their steps thumped mutedly, their gasps smothered by the vastness of the corridor. Rem's chain bounced.

And then, "Do you understand what you're telling Subaru?!"

The harshness of Emilia's voice nearly made Subaru put the brakes on, but Garf let out a despairing cry. "I smell their fuckin' blood!" His voice fractured; there must have been a lot, suddenly. "RAM! SIS?!" The rug's gouged remains squished every other step, then every step as ice chunks peppered the place. Small ones, Petra ones. And cuts rough enough to be a beast's slashed the walls between scars too flawless and straight to be anything but Ram's wind.

"Why would they come down here?" Ram gasped, tears falling down her enraged face. "What of Sister's reasoning, and Otto's?!"

"I'm glad that there isn't any," said Emilia, "but the fact that we've not seen a speck of blood is making me uneasy!"

"Forget that! What the hell was going through Sis's head when—!?" Garf choked, digging his heels for a stop upon following the bend, only to then tear ahead with greater ferocity. "You big dumb bitch!" he laughed. "Scarin' the shit outta me!"

Subaru was about to tell Garfiel to get his eyes checked. Wringing her fingers at the end of the hall stood not Frederica, nor any of the others. Just Beatrice. "Ah, there you all are," she said, strolling over. "I've been wondering where everybody is, in fact."

" You sound calm!" Garf's pace slowed as his relief shone. "Why d'ya smell like death's door, huh!?"

Subaru froze, in part because Beatrice was unfazed by her contractor, mostly from the harshness of Rem's voice, as impassioned as one of her battle cries: "Whoever that is IS NOT MY SISTER!"

Stone cracked up above, on the sides, seemingly all around. That's where Subaru found a spiderweb of fractures being spun up the walls, across the ceiling. And down the hall, back from where they came, between them and Emilia, Meili, and Rem, and further beyond. Further, further.

Too much happened at once, starting with the sound of a cartful of stone, upended and thundering down the hall—a hail of cream-colored stone dogging the wild-eyed Rem and Emilia's frenetic sprint. What could Subaru do, other than scream? Rem threw away her weapon for Emilia and Meili and hauled them all aside, through a door that broke like cheap plywood against her tough oni exterior. The falling ceiling consumed the splinters before they hit the ground.

"I have to do this, I suppose," Beatrice murmured, falling forward and… to say she "crawled" for Garfiel would be a horrific understatement. Diving forth she began clawing through the rug like a starved beast with zero motivation—her eyes enormously wide yet utterly bereft of emotion. Like he was Subaru returning from a long trip, she leapt to embrace the Garf while his back was turned.

"Tch! Yeah right!" In a snap Garfiel's arm was half the corridor's width and as thick as his chest, winding back. "You reek worse than the Boss!" In a blink he spun, his arm snapping, smacking into Beatrice. An instinctive cry was bitten as Subaru watched his great spirit splatter against the wall like a common housefly. When Garfiel's paw shrank away, his veiny forearm was caked up to the elbow in blood, the source of it looking like raw hamburger wrapped in cloth. "Nothin' to it," he exhaled, then inhaled deeper. "Nothin'..."

And Garf dropped on one knee, clutching his chest.

"Garfiel?!" Subaru was promptly punched away by a tiger's fist, hard enough to go flying on his ass. The fall was nonexistent, Garf's huge, striped arm already back and clutching his other hand. "Hey! What's—?!" Subaru froze at the sight of Garf's "I'm fine" gesture.

"Somethin's wrong—?!" Paling, snarl bared to the gums, Garfiel's eyes flashed wide onto Subaru's. His fangs staggered open. "Outta here," he croaked. His forearm shone dark crimson. A squelching ahead struck Subaru to think the gore was writhing on Garf's hand until the mass in his peripherals peeled like a rearing caterpillar. The one who previously resembled Beatrice or Frederica or Ram sagged off the wall, until with a final tug, tossing flesh chunks, the carcass hung suspended by nothing in a sloppy, stringy mess. It twitched, akin to a tentacled being in the last throes of life.

"Wasting time," somebody mumbled, up above, in the unlit depths of the corridor ceiling. "Just end it already, Carmilla." Before clarity of the situation could be fully realized, the Witch of Lust was tossed on top of Garfiel.

Nobody's dying! Subaru screamed, snarling around his thumb. Subaru tasted melted copper, then the fiery burn—but it didn't matter, nothing else but Garf mattered. This prayer conjured into a ghostly hand lashing out, not punching so much as it was colliding with the gore blanket—a second after a muffled explosion of rubble surged under Subaru's sneakers, from far back, in some distant room. Rem and Emilia were on their way? Subaru felt himself exhale as Carmilla sailed, spinning down the hall before splatting several yards back in a heap. Only for the flesh to expand, shrink, and stagger haphazardly between the two as if twisting in agony.

Carmilla was alive. Typhon did not slow without a head.
Subaru looked to see how the big guy was doing. "Wha—?" Carmilla was alive. "Wh-wh-what the he'h...?" Garf was face down on the floor, back still. "Garf?!" As if dead. "HEY!" Subaru attempted to get close, only for Satella to strangle him away. Or so it felt—the light of life left Garf's eye, half-closed on Subaru, his fingers twitching once. Their sheen caught Subaru's eye, the light twisting and creeping up his elbow. It was the blood, moving on its own. As if alive.

"What the hell?!" Subaru screamed and screamed, flying back into the rubble. "WHAT THE HELL?!" The flesh was breathing, the shadows above unmoving yet hiding something. "Why did you kill him?! Why are you all like this?!" Everybody was dying again.

That's right. Garf's heart was stopped, like Echidna once explained—"something-Bride" she called it.

"All of you… so noisy," sighed the shadows, a droplet shed from within the unbroken part of the ceiling. Her descent was surreal, unresponsive—as though standing in the air itself as another shadow plummeted from the darkness, past her until it snapped, bouncing and grunting tiredly from an invisible string. "Stop resisting and we'll leave," she said in a low, bored voice. "Stop and we won't harm any more…"

He seemed unharmed, albeit his clothes were torn in places, and bespeckled in browning blood. If not for his mop of grey hair, without his greens, Subaru might not have recognized him as quick. "Oh, God, Otto!?" His eyes cracked open, a luster returning to their glaze as he comprehended Subaru. Something smothered Otto's lips as he attempted speech; until he was suddenly gasping deep, haggardly breathing in, exhaling. Otto held himself for a beat until exhaling a lone sob, his eyes falling shut. "Subaru… Petra… save Petra and Ram, you have to, I…" His eyes squinted open on Garfiel's still form. "Garf? ... Garfiel! " Otto cried, voice cracking. "You lazy tomcat, get me out of here! Quit napping on the job, please!" He awaited Garf's response. "Please…"

Subaru knew who was really at fault here. Things were going perfectly until it all depended on him. If I was faster with Invisible Providence, then Garf… "He didn't need to save me—!"

" You—! Don't you disrespect what he did, Natsuki! He did that so you wouldn't be hurt anymore!" Before Subaru could confess the reality was nowhere near that dignified, Otto dropped his red, soaking face.

"We didn't mean to kill 'em!" from behind called the little voice of Typhon, distorted ghostily. Subaru scrambled to stand, feeling her at his back. "We waited, but we had t'ah!" Nothing was there but a landslide of castle; Subaru didn't try peering through the rubble to see how she was able to form words.

"You," Otto breathed, "what? What'd you do after you carried off Petra and Ram?!"

"We didn't mean to kill anybody, but you never came," sighed the suspended figure. "We got bored."

"Then why are you doing this?!" The Witch of Sloth's eyes were not as sleepy as recalled, nor half as lively as whatever stoniness now filled her heart. "Sekhmet?! What did you do to Frederica and the others?!" Her features didn't so much as twitch. Maybe she didn't know? Yeah, that made sense. They might still be able to save everyone. "Err, the demihuman! The maids who were with this guy! Let me save them! Let me save them, and then I'll do whatever—!"

"NO, Mister Natsuki!"

"Spare ammunition," they all chimed in—Sekhmet, Typhon behind… and Carmilla's flesh in the distance.

"Huh? Wh-what?" Did Subaru hear that right? They're "ammo?" Petra, Ram and Frederica… What, like for catapults?!

"They're gone, Subaru." Only after seeing droplets fall from Otto's hidden face did the obvious hit. "Frederica thought she saw… as did Petra, who wanted to get her to come with them…"

"What, Otto?"

"The Lady Beatrice." And Otto's eyes gaped, teeth bare and clacking. "She put on this wicked smile, and from the closet… it… it came at us like a starved mabeast, Mister Natsuki!" Otto cried. "Faster than even Frederica could react—!"

"Otto?"

"Her eyes were looking into mine as it crawled inside of her, nibbling like a little rabbit—!"

The door Garfiel's corpse laid before burst open, the glow of a horn shining through first. Emilia's hands glowed, and Rem conjured and readied a barrage of ice spears around her.

"You will put those boys down if you know what's good for you," said Emilia, as her eyes fell on Garf. "Surrender, and I might let you go with a... pardon if… if no lives have been—" Emilia gasped, her offensive posture faltering a beat before she threw both hands up at Sekhmet, Rem letting out a bestial cry as she reached for her childhood friend, cursing the Witch's Cult.

"Don't try," said Sekhment. Subaru had a feeling it was justified.

"I'll try my best to grant you a swift death before my friend here rips you apart," said Emilia.

"Bad move."

"Stop talking like you've already won!" Rem snapped. "We've been through much worse than you!"

Sekhmet's lips smirked in a way that she never had at the Witch's Tea Party. Her Authority had stopped the Witch of Wrath, permitting Subaru to embrace his slothful despair long enough to regret it. It was a lesson he never quite forgot, particularly the display of power that made Betelgeuse's look like baby hands by comparison.

"Rem, don't antagonize her. Please."

"Don't worry, Subaru." Rem straightened, but that was all that relaxed about her, icicles frosting all around her. "This Witch Cultist is upsetting me, that's all. They've no idea the power they're messing with."

Emilia gasped wetly, looking over without lowering her hands. "Rem—?"

" Garfiel is dead… my queen. And Sister was in such horrible pain before it stopped altogether."

"Ram?" Subaru whispered in disbelief. "Wh-wh-what happened, what'd you do to her?" he asked Rem, then Sekhmet.

"I don't even wanna think about it," Otto muttered, his eyes horrifically huge. "I don't wanna, I don't, I-don't-I-don't-I-don't. If, i-if that little one who got Fred carried Miss Ram off to do the same, then… th-then… "

Subaru wanted to puke. Moreover, he wanted to scream; first Garf, Fred, then Ram. Where was Beatrice? Why hasn't Otto mentioned Petra? What happened to Ram— You know what happened to Ram. If tonight's theme was to be consistent, "the little one" became painfully obvious.

"My queen, with all due respect…" Rem stomped forth, teeth grit and filed into fangs. "With all due respect, SUBARU ISN'T GOING TO LIVE WITHOUT THEM!" Rem's hands swung, her spit, snarls and spears flying at the suspended Witch of Sloth. "Accept it!" But Emilia was shell shocked.

The attack broke against an invisible wall, and Rem turned into a crushed can of a corpse erupting splatter in every possible direction of the third dimension. Seemingly the whole castle shook with the weight of her death as it cracked beneath her.

Rem was gone, that's right. Rem was gone, just like that.

She was just throwing her life away for Subaru's sake. Again. "Why, Rem?" Everything until this point was bearable; they might be able to survive and outmaneuver the enemy. Meili could get arms made out of artificial od. Yeah. Yeah. Any who died… they could mourn, but the King of Lugnica could go on if his family… this band of misfits… survived. "I… I thought you treasured your own life, now, finally… so, why…?" Why for a death that would be in vain?

Was she just lost in grief?

Or was she proving a point to Emilia while preserving her and Ram's pride as demons?

Why would she think Subaru would want that?

Why?

Why?

Why, Rem?!

Otto was gasping and wheezing, sobbing dryly as he dropped his face from the sight. Emilia, wailing like a mother who watched her child die, collapsed damply beside Rem's pooling remains. She reached; closer, then retreated. "You were right, Rem. I'm sorry I snapped at you before." She lovingly caressed the mess of a maid. "Sorry, Rem. I'm sorry. Sorry."

It became a sight Subaru could no longer bear, none more than that of Rem's murderer. Awaiting with a smirk, awaiting Subaru's performance: "The only reason I'm keeping it together is because my wife isn't at the moment." He jammed his finger at her. "Otherwise, I'd be swearing on my lives to end you for good right now!" Emilia wailed a notch louder, for only one cry, before choking back to the best of her ability.

Sekhmet sighed. "Yet you did anyway, all while attempting to appear as though you're considering the distraught beloved's feelings. How utterly tedious. This will be a tedious trial for all of us." Sekhmet sighed. "Was warned—." A train of jagged ice tore into and consumed the Witch of Sloth entirely, barreling up and through the ceiling, piercing the ancient stonework like it was dry clay.

Subaru couldn't even hear Otto's yowl when he hit the floor, if he made one. As he helped the driver out, the glow left the tracks lining Emilia's cheeks as it did her hands. "If anything will be 'tedious' about this horror, I'm afraid it's that you'll have to get through me if you want to win. Every single time."

A Cold Comfort