Pleiades: A Lone Star Dies

by mgman

It's often been said that space is the final frontier form man, a place of infinite possibilities with the possibility of alien life. but when man ventured towards the stars, they found nothing but empty space devoid of life. but for a certain raven haired nasty eyed man, a malevolent force will try to claim his soul, tearing the very fabric of his sanity to ribbons in the process

2. New Arrivals

Hello everyone, if you are reading this then welcome to the second chapter of Pleiades: A Lone Star Dies

I don't have much to say, but I would like to apologise for the radio silence regarding this story and my other main story. College has really been kicking my ass recently, but hopefully with it coming to an end very soon, I should be able to write more and hopefully get a couple chapters that by the end of summer, anyway I'm not going to ramble on about my personal life, so without any further ado let's get onto the story shall we.

(PS shout out to the shape of Evil, The Writing Pupil, and the lovable perfume Heretic, for helping bouncing ideas around, giving me general writing advice and pointers, as well as being great friends in general)

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The screen shut off suddenly leaving everyone in silence, that was growing into concern and fear at what could have happened to Subaru. So far everything they had seen had made little sense, from the fact that despite this being his future, Subaru was far older than everyone would have expected. And then there was the revelation of the giant spacecraft that contained nothing but gruesome imagery and nightmares, and finally to top it all off the cryptic message that the strange young boy had, said that was repeated at the end before Subaru had blacked out.

Everyone's thoughts about what they had just witnessed were quite varied. One of the many subjects that was quite confusing about the Subaru they had seen, was that his iconic black head of hair was almost completely gone, replaced with hair so short that it almost made him look bald. Yet despite a certain subset of the audience couldn't help but feel their hearts flutter slightly, because even with his very short haircut. The fully matured Subaru they had seen, was indeed quite attractive, inheriting quite a few of his father's facial features as he matured.

As some of the ladies in the audience continue to think about how mature Subaru had become, others such as Julius, Wilhelm and reinhart, couldn't help but think about the eyes they had seen on the mature Subaru, there was life in those eyes certainly, yet at the same time they seem to lack something, as if a piece of Subaru's very own soul had been lost as he matured, which was the conundrum that disturbed the three of them greatly.

Sitting next to Julius as the knight continues to contemplate what could have happened to his friend. Anastasia's mind was racing a mile a minute, as she silently cursed herself for not keeping her notebook on her, so she could write down all of the amazing technology she had seen in just those brief minutes on the screen. She also couldn't help but drool slightly, if she ever got her hand from such technology, the amount of profit she could make would be astronomical. Which as far as the purple head candidate was concerned, would be one of the best outcomes from this viewing.

Frederica's line of thought was much the same as the two Astrea's, looking into the mature Subaru's eyes, she couldn't repress a shiver from running up and down her spine at the time, because unlike Subaru's normal gaze, there was a noticeable spark that was missing, as if a piece of himself was just gone.

This was also noticed by a fair few others, Garfiel and Otto being other notable examples, looking into the eyes of their mature brother, both of them felt their stomach drop slightly, because looking at Subaru instead of the determined and energetic gaze that normally looked back, the eyes they had seen what are almost empty, as if everything that made Subaru himself had been stripped away at some point in the past, leaving nothing but an empty shell of a man going about life.

Ram thinking of various things herself, but looking over to her sister, she was not surprised to see that she was in some kind of daydream, most likely Conjuring up images of her and a mature Subaru, as a small amount of drool began to form at the corner of her slightly open mouth. Ram couldn't help it as her stomach lurched slightly, at the thought of a fully matured Barusu doing unspeakably perverted things with her sister.

Beatrice much like the others, felt slightly disturbed because the eyes that had stared back at her on the screen, were not that of her contractor, there was no warmth and energy in those eyes, there was just an emptiness where emotion would have been, along with what could almost be described as a small amount of lingering Sadness, as if the on-screen Subaru have lost something important to himself in the distant past, with the only thing remaining being a faded sadness about losing such an important thing. Yet the great spirit shook her head violently, desperately trying to cleanse her mind of the disturbing thoughts about her contractor, after all he was right here in this very theatre with them. And the great spirit concluded that it was finally time to get him away from that annoying half elf that continuously smothered him throughout all of the previous viewings.

So as everyone continued to mull over the conundrums that were presented before them, Beatrice stood up from her chair without warning, and made her way over to the half elf that was currently smothering her contractor. Emilia, noticing the presence of the short great spirit, instinctively brought the sleeping boy closer to her chest, as if Beatrice was a threat to his life. Beatrice for her part simply stopped and stared at the half elf with a look that could only be described you let him go or I'll make your life a living hell. After a couple seconds of this intense staring contest, Emilia was the first to break eye contact letting out a quiet hiss of defeat, reluctantly releasing the sleeping boy from her arms. Beatrice immediately forgot about the half elf, as she knelt down next to her contractor gently grabbing onto one of his hands, as soon as their skin contacted, Beatrice could feel the contract between them grow in strength, allowing her to see snippets and pieces of what her contractor was dreaming about in his magically induced slumber. Beatrice couldn't help but like a smile spread across her which caused Emilia to look at her with a look of confusion and surprise, because even after becoming Subaru's contracted spirit it was still quite the rare sight to see Betty smile.

Well that was certainly one hell of a banger, so thank you for coming and goodnight everyone

Also remember to take all trash with you on the way out

The words were so sudden that it took a moment for everyone to process what the voice had just said. And as the seconds ticked by the meaning of the word finally began to dawn on everyone, causing quite a few to feel hope beginning to rise up in their chests, while a few were just the tiniest bit disappointed that the viewing had ended so quickly.

"Wait a sec!, does that mean you're sending us back!?" Felt words were filled with a mixture of relief and curiosity, on the one hand she was glad that it was finally over. But on the other hand she was kind of disappointed that she wouldn't get to see the rest of the viewing.

"Wait if it's all over, D-D-does that mean Subaru is going to wake up now" Emilia's words were filled with hope, as the prospect of her sleeping knight finally awakening filled her mind. thinking of the possibility that she would be able to hear Subaru's voice again, Emilia tried to pull the sleeping boy away from Beatrice, only for the great spirit to send her a death glare that said plainly, you've had your turn go away elf, causing Emilia to let out a frustrated pout.

"Humph! about time if you ask me, the quicker I can get away from all of you peasants the better" Priscilla's word cut the hopeful atmosphere like a hot knife through butter, causing everyone to direct a glare away, yet the redhead princess did not falter shooting back a glare of equal intensity.

"Old Dragon, can't you like just shut up for once in your life" Felt couldn't help but let a cheeky smirk spread across her face, as her words have their intended effect, causing one of the redheaded princess's eyes to start twitching as her face contorted into one of complete absolute rage.

"My lady could have presented it more eloquently, but I believe that she is correct, I think it's best if we don't figt-" Reinhardt was cut off mid-sentence by Priscilla slamming one of her heels into the floor, leaving a deep gouge in the carpeted floor and nearly snapping her heel in the process.

"I don't want to hear your hypocritical words, Sword Saint! if you don't want us to fight, perhaps you should keep that disgusting slum dwelling sorry excuse for a royal candidate on a tighter leash next time!" with each word priscilla's voice grew in intensity, to the point where she was nearly shouting at full volume, her words carrying an untold amount of spite and venom. as the echos of priscilla's voice faded, everyone was left in a stunned silence, their mouths hanging open at what the redhead princess just said. However, a new sound took up the silence, that being a slowly increasing cracking sound that ended with a loud snap, causing everyone to look at Reinhard in shock, only to see that the armrest that he had been holding onto, had been rendered into nothing but small splinters and chunks of wood, that were being crushed even further in his clenched hand.

"I think it would be advisable if you shut up now, before I do something I won't regret" the words were cold and icy, with the voice that those words belong to lacking its usual warmth and energy, causing everyone to feel a shiver ran down their spine as if the room itself had suddenly experience the drop-in temperature. the enraged look on Priscilla's face by this point had melted away, replaced with one that could only be described as absolute fear, because from where she was sitting, she was staring death itself in the face, because it wasn't everyday that you pissed off a sword saint, especially someone like Reinhard, who was not known for showing negative emotion very often.

Well I think I'm going to step in now before this gets any worse, you need to cool your head now sword boy

While watching miss red headed bitch be taught a deadly lesson would be enjoyable, I kind of don't want to clean the blood up afterwards

As for you Priscilla, if you talk like that again, then me and you are going to have problems, you get me?

Priscilla nodded her head so quick, that everyone thought it would fly off her shoulders, Reinhardt meanwhile still looks like he was about ready to kill someone. he suddenly felt someone grab his hand causing him to look down and surprise, and see that it was his lady, looking up at him with a look of concern and gratitude.

"Forget about her Rein, that bitch isn't worth it" Felt's words seem to reach the sword saint, as the look of anger plastered across his face slowly dissipated, as he looked back at his royal candidate.

"Of course lady Felt, Please forgive my moment of emotion, I assure you it won't happen again" Reinhardt gave one of his trademark smiles to which Felt reciprocated, giving him one of her own trademark large toothy grins.

Ok ok happy moment and all that crap,

but I was only joking about this being the end, trust me there's still a lot more to come

Just like that the positive and hopeful atmosphere that had filled the room vanished in an instant, everyone's prospects at being able to leave the theatre and seeing a sudden raven haired boy wake up finally wake up being completely dash.

"I didn't want to spoil the mood, but I was kind of expecting this" Al spoke up, having long finished his bucket of popcorn, leaving the now empty bucket on the floor next to his feet, as he reclined slightly in the quiet comfortable theatre chair.

"The hell did you know that?" Garfiel, much like everyone else, turned his attention to look at the helmeted knight, obviously confused as to why he had come to the conclusion he had.

"Call it intuition Tony the Tiger, or maybe it was because the voice was being obviously sarcastic, so take your pick" Garfiel felt his face scrunched up slightly, in the obvious confusion at the strange nickname that the helmeted Knight had used for him, while also being confused about this sarcasm thing that he had mentioned.

"I just want to go home..." Otto's whiny voice caused quite a few to let out irritated sighs, as many were getting to the end of their collective ropes when it came to the young merchants' continuous whining.

"Would you shut up I suppose! Betty wants to go home as well, but do you see her whining!?" Beatrice's patience was the first to snap, as she directed an absolutely deadly glare at the young merchant, causing his shaking to increase to an unnatural degree.

"O-ok I'll shut up now" the grey head merchant muttered nervously, as the great spirit continued to stare at him with a look that could only be described as absolute contempt.

"If I may enquire, how much is there still left to see exactly ?" Julius's enquiry was certainly an interesting one, just how much was there still to see regarding Subaru's future, it was by far the most pressing question on everyone's mind at the moment.

"I must agree with sir Knight Julius, just how much of Barusu's future are we going to witness?" Despite Ram's voice being slightly shaking and uneasy, the harshness of her words caused quite a few in the Emilia Camp to let out a sigh of relief, at the fact that the pink haired oni seemed to finally be returning to her normal self.

"Sister is right, just how much is there left for us to watch?" Rem followed up her sister's enquiry, as she cast a longing look at the sleeping raven haired boy, whose head was currently resting on the lap of Beatrice, while a very jealous half elf was not too far away, watching the scene with obvious envy in her eyes.

Hmmmmm, well when it comes to how much we've got left to see. . .

Well maybe 7 or 8 years give or take, also maybe throw in a bloodthirsty eldridge god here or there. . .

Fuck!

Ignore what I just said! I'll get the next part of the viewing ready for you now, so just sit tight for a moment!

Everyone was left in a very awkward silence, at what the mysterious voice was talking about, before what the voice had said suddenly clicked in everyone's mind.

They were going to witness and never 7-years of Subaru's future, which caused quite a few to realise that considering how Subaru looked in the previous viewing, that amount of years would take him up until he was nearly middle age.

"Wait!. . . so we are going to see another 7 years of Subaru's future?" Despite everyone's thinking it, Emilia was the first to verbalise what everyone was thinking, as she tried and failed to try and pry the sleeping boy from Beatrice's Arms. Which only caused the Great spirits' frustration with the half-elf to deepen, as she pulled her contractor deeper into her embrace, causing said half-elf to pout angrily.

"Another 7 years. . . of young Subaru's future. . . that means he wouldn't be much younger than me?" Wilhelm's words had an undeniable sad tone to them, as the prospect of missing out on so much of his surrogate grandson's life dawned on the aged swordsman.

this thought was shared by many in the audience, as the prospect of missing out on so many years of Subaru's life finally sank in, the Emilia camp in particular felt the most emotional over the revelation, Emilia Beatrice and Rem almost on the verge of tears, at the thought of not being there for the Young Boy they all loved and cherished. Even Otto and Garfiel, although mostly Otto, couldn't help but feel their eyes moisten slightly, at the thought of missing out on so many years with their brother.

A similar sentiment was shared by Crusch, although most of her emotional turmoil was born out of the revelation, regarding this Nicole character that Subaru seems to be in a long-standing relationship with. but they didn't change the fact that the prospect of losing someone that was so important to her, and missing out on so many years of his life, scared the greenhead duchess deeply. In fact it scared her so deeply, that she gave a silent pray to the to the Divine dragon of all things, that Subaru would not be taken away from her so soon.

Reinhardt and felt were both on the same page emotionally, when it came to the prospect of missing out on so many years of the raven haired boy's life, although the root cause for that emotion was different for both of them. Reinhardt was absolutely terrified of losing the only person he could ever truly consider a friend, in fact it terrified him so much that he made a promise to himself that no matter what, he would not miss out on Subarus' life. Felt, on the other hand, was concerned primarily about the implication of Subaru's future, especially regarding how he ended up in a world so different from the one that she knew. Which the more she thought about, the more her face twisted into one of Horror as realisation hit her like a tonne of bricks, that at some point in the near future, Subaru most likely going to be forcibly picked from their world and placed into another, like how he had originally arrived in their world to begin with.

sorry had to do a bit of tweaking behind-the-scenes

but I've managed to get it already now

the screen flickers to life once again causing everyone to turn their attention to it, as they prepare themselves for the potential horrors that we're going to be thrown at them this viewing.

"Here we go again I suppose" Beatrice whispered quietly into the sleeping Subaru's ear, as she held him even closer in her embrace, noticing the slight twitch his face and hands made when she spoke into his ear.

Emilia by this point had managed to prime one of Subaru's hands free on Betty's embrace, much to the great spirits annoyance, although considering that a viewing was about to start, the great spirit decided she would let it slide just this once. As everyone settled into their seats mentally and physically preparing themselves for the worst.

Well then, away we go

The white static suddenly faded, replaced with an eerie inky blackness, that seems to consume everything, however something began to make itself known in the darkness, it was faint at first, but it was the unmistakable voice of a woman, her age could not be determined from her voice, but her voice an almost ethereal sound to it, almost like the ringing of silver bells.

"Subaru. . . why did you abandon me?"

"That voice. . . Why does it sound so familiar I suppose?" Beatrice held her contractor closer to her chest, as for some reason the eerie silver voice, disturbed her greatly, yet she could not place exactly why it did so.

"The great spirit is right that voices. . . is disturbingly familiar" Julius much like the great spirit, felt a great sense of unease wash over him, as the words of the eerie voice rattled around in his head.

"Frederica I'm scared. . ." Petra whimpered to which the blonde haired Maid in question, who tightened her grip around the young girl, whispering a sweet nothing in a futile attempt to try and console the young girl. "it's alright Petra, Frederica is here for you"

While the small amount of activity happened around her, Emilia meanwhile was completely frozen in place, the voice for some reason had instilled a great sense of Fear in the half elf. Yet she could not place exactly why, something about the voice greatly disturbed her, in fact it brought back memories of the death loop at the Sanctuary, and the horrifying kiss of death, the way her voice sounded during that seemed disturbed her greatly. The sickly amount of love combined with absolute insanity that comprise her voice during that loop, would haunt the half elf as long as she lived. But despite managing to forget about it until now, the sound of that eerie silver voice, brought all of the horrified memories crashing back into the front of her mind, like a tidal wave of negative emotions mixed with Insanity.

"Subaru. . . why weren't you there?"

"Why did you let us all die?"

"Why did you let me die. . . Subaru?"

"Subaru?"

"Subaru! why did you let me die!?"

"Subaru!"

"Subaru!"

With the voice screaming one final occurrence of Subaru's name, the blackness that consumed everything, disappeared in a fraction of a second. Leaving nothing but a blinding white light, that slowly faded to reveal the concerned face of Kendra, looking down and a battered and still delirious Subaru

"Subaru alright, Hey can you hear me!?" Kendra's voice was muffled, as Subaru blinked slowly, the ringing in his ears slowly dissipating, as his mind began to reboot from his unconscious state.

"Yeah I think I'm fin-" Subaru stopped mid sentence, letting out a quiet hiss of pain, as an almost unbearable pain began to flare in his head, causing him to bring a hand up to his head, in a feeble attempt to dull the awful pain. bringing his hand away from his head a moment later, revealed that it was covered in a small amount of blood, looking at the blood it all came rushing back, he had his head in the crash, that being cause of his injury and him blacking out so suddenly.

"Subaru, Miss Daniels, are you both alright over there" a new voice made itself known, causing both Kendra and Subaru to look over to its source, only to see that it was Hammond, shaking his head trying to recover from the impact of the crash.

"Y-yeah Hammond, a bit banged up but I'll live" Subaru sends a reassuring smile Hammond's way, which falters not a moment later, much to Hammond's concern. As the intense pain in Subaru's head flares up again, causing the black haired man to let out another hiss of pain.

Instead of answering his question, Kendra looks at the dark-skinned man with a look of complete contempt, as she quickly turns her entire body to address him.

"I'm fine, but what the hell were you thinking Hammond! Were you trying to get us killed or something!?" Kendra shouts aggressively, as she gets right in Hammond's face, jabbing an accusatory finger into his chest, to which the dark-skinned man looks mildly infuriated, but remains the bigger man and not shouting back.

"I just saved our ass Miss Daniels, if we had aborted at that speed, we would have smacked right off the side of the ship" Hammond's words were calm and collected, despite having a very angry woman in his face he did not retaliate, instead he remained professional that the situation, despite Kendra's lack of thanks.

"Now let's settle down and get to work. . . Subaru are you alright over there" Hammond turns to look at the engineer in question, after a moment Subaru gives a tentative nod, the pain in his head subsiding for a moment.

"It seems Subaru is quite familiar with this Hammond person" a quiet and slightly shaky voice, causing everyone to jump in surprise. Crusch had just spoken for the first time since her emotional outburst at the beginning of the viewing.

"Indeed lady Crusch, Subaru and this Hammond individual do seem awfully close" Wilhelm replied, as he began to ponder on how exactly Subaru had come to know such a man.

"Nyah~Subaru is just good at making friends, so~nyah I'm not surprised that he and that guy are close" Felix chimed in as another thought suddenly occurred to him. "also~nyah might just be me but that Kendra lady, doesn't seem very trustworthy?"

"I think you're being paranoid sir knight" Ram was blunt and harsh like usual, but to his dismay and frustration, her words got a round of nods from many in the audience, including to his horror his own lady.

"I think Miss Ram is right Felix, perhaps you being just a bit paranoid, Subaru seems to trust her" Julius added in, causing the catboy to sink further into his seat, as he let out a frustrated growl that was very befitting of his half cat nature.

"Subaru you dunderhead, why are you always getting yourself hurt" Emilia cooed Softly, as she gently rubbing circles in Subarus hand with one of her fingers, much to a certain spirits annoyance.

"Well Cap always knows where the action is Princess" Garfield eyes shine with admiration, remembering from the previous viewings, how trouble always seems to find his captain, whether he was looking forward or not. "Plus, Cap looks cool as hell with that haircut"

"Rem's Subaru has always looked handsome Garfiel, but that haircut makes him look even better" Rem words like always had a deep admiration embedding them, yet barely noticeable to the people around her was a slightly aroused tone that was just barely evident in her voice.

Ram looked at her sister in surprise, before her face morphed into one of disgust mix two just a bit of nausea, giving Rem one of her trademark disgusted glares. "you are truly a lost cause sister"

Rem doesn't respond verbally, instead she simply looks at her sister with a look of fake innocence, closing her eyes and poking her tongue out ever so slightly in an effort to be cute.

"Big Brother Subaru looks kinda scary with that haircut" Petra's words had a slight shake to them, nervously repositioning herself in Frederica's lap, as the blonde-haired beast woman continued to stroke the little girl's hair affectionately.

"Ok then, helmsman report! just how bad off is the ship?" Hammond turned his attention from a slightly recovered Subaru to one of the helmsman's, who was rapidly typing away as a display in front of him, that was mostly red with presumably warning signs written all over it.

"I'm not getting any readings from the port booster, and I'm not getting any response from the navigation, Coms and autopilot, can't say how long but it's going to take a long time to fix" the helmsman response just the smallest amount of nervousness creeping into his voice. Hammond curses on his breath, before seeming to formulate a plan on the fly, turning to address the rest of his crew.

"All right, let's get some extra hands from flight deck to help assess the ship fully, then we'll go from there" Hammond gets a round of nobs from the rest of his crew, however one of the helmsman get his attention, causing him to look over the man's shoulder to examine something on a screen. Meanwhile Kendra makes her way over to Subaru, who is still positioned in his seat but seems to have recovered mostly from the crash. She reaches out a hand to help him up to which Subaru reaches but hesitates for a moment, as if the physical contact was deadly. Before firmly grasping her hand as she pulled him to his feet, with a surprising amount of strength for a woman her size.

"That was particularly I suppose?" Beatrice muttered quietly to herself, noticing her contractor's slight flinch, when this Kendra woman had reached out her hand, it almost looked like he was afraid to be touched by her, which what was so peculiar to her.

"What was that Beatrice?" Emilia's voice caused Beatrice to jump slightly, because of how quiet she'd spoken she was positive that no one had heard her, but apparently that wasn't the case, with the half elf now looking at her with a slight amount of concern.

"Nothing half elf" to an outsider Beatrice's words were hostile and angry, yet Emilia could tell that something was bothering the short spirit, she wanted to ask again to see if she could possibly get an answer out of her, but Emilia had found out a long time ago, that trying to force an answer out of the short great spirit, was like trying to get blood from the stone. so the half elf let out a sigh, returning her attention to the on-screen events.

"Subaru hold still for a second, let me have a look at that cut" Subaru looks on for a moment, before giving a nod, however as Kendra reaches out a hand to examine the cut, Subaru flinches again when the hand is only mm away from touching him, unlike the last time Kendra notice is this and looked at him in confusion.

"S-sorry Kendra, I kind of get nervous when people try to touch me" Subaru rubs his arm sheepishly, turning his head away from her in embarrassment, however for the briefest of moments something else flashes in his eyes, that was a look of pure fear, almost as if he remembered something extremely traumatic for him. Kendra also notices that decides to say nothing, returning to her original mission of making sure he wasn't going to get an infection from that open cut.

"Well it's not deep, but I don't think we have the medical supplies on the ship to deal with it properly. So I think you need to visit the med bay when you get a chance, but for now take this" Kendra finishes examining Subaru's cut forehead, putting in his palm a round cylindrical object with a slightly greenish tinge to it, the top of which was a slightly darker green colour emblazoned with a white cross shape.

"Thanks" Subaru's words were accompanied by a look of gratitude, as Kendra walks over to Hammond to see what all the fuss was about, meanwhile Subaru opens the strange green cylinder, revealing that it was a container for some kind of strange blue viscous liquid. Subaru dumped his fingers into and began to gently apply to the cut on his forehead, letting out small hisses of pain every so often, as he finished applying the strange liquid.

"Nyah~I wonder what that stuff is?" Felix thought aloud to himself, trying to figure out why exactly Subaru would apply that weird gel substance to his wound.

"Just a guess here, but I think it's some kind of medicinal ointment" Al voice causes Felix to look at him in surprise, not expecting anyone to actually answer his question, regarding the strange gel-like substance.

"Medicinal... ointment?" Emilia tried to wrap her head around the strange new words that have been spoken by the helmeted knight, as well as racking her brain, trying to remember if she ever read anything about such a thing in her many studies. Yet after a moment of thinking nothing came to mind, causing the half-elf the scrunched up her face in frustration.

"The hell is an ointment?" Garfiel, much like a certain half-elf, tries to wrangle his tongue around the strange word, going through his admittedly limited knowledge of the outside world to see if he'd ever heard anything similar to that before.

"If I may inquire, what exactly is this medicinal ointment you speak of?" Crusch inquired, her interest being piqued by this so-called medical ointment, that Priscilla's helmeted Knight spoke off, and more importantly she was interested in such a thing that could be replicated in their world.

"YES! I'd love to know more about this! and how expensive it can be!" Anastasia's face with one of complete childlike glee, her loud shout caused everyone to jump and look at her in shock, even Julius looked at her strangely, because for the life of him he could not remember the last time he had heard his lady shout with such excitement.

A silence prevailed as everyone continued to stare at the excited purple head merchant, Anastasia after a moment finally realised what she had done, her cheeks turning a slight red hue, and she gave a nervous cough before speaking again.

(cough) "I mean, I would be most interested in finding out more about this medical ointment, that you spoke of sir knight Al" Anastacia spoke with a much more proper and ladylike tone, much more befitting of a royal candidate, although her face returned to one of her neutral poker face expressions, that she often used during negotiations, it was plainly obvious to everyone that she was incredibly embarrassed about her outburst, judging from the faint redness evident in her cheeks, as well as her fidgeting nervously in her seat.

Al was quiet for a moment, turning to look at Priscilla as if him speaking needed her permission, after a long moment Priscilla proceeded to close her fan with a loud click, before addressing her knight.

"Well, what are you waiting for! you clearly know something so out of it already!?" At Priscilla's words, Al snapped his head forward, ready to give his answer, but stopped immediately when he realised that everyone had watched the interaction between his candidate and him.

"Well back on Earth, you could get various medicinal medications, very similar to what we just saw bro use on screen" Al stop for a moment to collect his thoughts, and reminisced just a little bit, about how in his youth is muffled always apply some anti-inflammatory who is scrapes whenever he would hurt himself, but he quickly took those thoughts away, as he realized everyone was now looking at him intently waiting for the rest of his answer.

"There was quite the range of options available back home, everything from muscle inflammatory cream, and infection preventing ointment, but since this seems to be in some kind of far future, I'm just as clueless as the rest of you at what exactly the ointment Bro used could have been for" Al finished his explanation letting the information settle into everyone's heads. Felix's mind was racing a mile a minute, thinking about what kind of possibility such substances could do if they were available, especially if they were combined with the efficiency of magic. Anastasia on the other hand was literally drooling much to her Knights dismay, as the thought of how much money she could make from such a thing played in her mind.

The other members of the audience that were well versed in Healing magic, also couldn't help but marvel at how incredible Subaru's homeland truly was, and how advanced it truly was compared to their own society.

"Man, Cap's old world really has it all!" Garfiel's loud excited Voice broke the silence, as he proceeded much to most people's amusement and ome's annoyance, gosh over just how awesome his captains world actually was.

"It sure is Garf. . ." Otto's voice, unlike the energetic blonde boy, was much more subtle and reserved, Garfiel's look of excitement about learning more about his captain's world not being shared by the grey-haired merchant boy.

"Hell yeah! Rein imagine if we had that kind of stuff and made more of it, we could help all of those people in the slums in one fell swoop!?" Reinhard couldn't help but smile, seeing his lady's excitement over acquiring something that could help in her goals, of up lifting the poorer members of society.

"Of course lady Felt, such a thing would be very beneficial to the poorer members of society, in fact such a miracle substance would be useful for all members of society, if I dare say so" Reinhard's words cause his lady to start jumping for joy at the possibility of such a thing, which in turn caused the sword Saint to let out a small laugh, as the downcast expression he had throughout the previous viewings melted away, into one of genuine but reserved happiness.

After he finishes applying some of the strange gel, Subaru closes the cap, before clipping the cylindrical gel holder to his belt. Subaru steps away From the flight chair he had been sitting in, stretching his arms above his head until several satisfying bony clicks were heard.

Satisfied with his stretches, Subaru brings up a holographic display on his wrist, and after pressing one of the holographic buttons a loud mechanical hiss is heard, as a strange box protrusion on the front of his armour opens up, revealing several metal plates that quickly fold out. Completely covering the front of his face, this is accompanied by the same action happening on the back of his head, as a compartment on his back had done the same as the one on the front. And after a second or two the two sections of helmet finally meet together, melding and clicking into place with satisfying mechanical clicks. And with the helmet now in one piece. The helmet visor lights up with a brilliant green glow, which lights up the surrounding area in front of Subaru slightly.

The camera seems to linger on the helmeted face of Subaru, and just barely visible behind the brilliant green glow of the visor, is Subaru's face, his exact expression unreadable, due to how much glare there was coming from his visor.

For a moment everyone looks on completely in shock, at what they just witnessed, despite this being a different world to the one they knew, everyone couldn't believe that they had just seen simple armour of all things do something like that. In fact Reinhard, Julius and Felix, all felt their mouths dropped to the floor after what they had just witnessed, with Julius and Felix thinking something at the exact same time, is it possible to get an armour set that can do something like that?

"OH HELL YEAH!" Garfiel shouted at the top of his lungs, silence that was there previously completely gone in an instant, as the young beast boy jumped out of his chair and excitement.

"Did you see Cap and his armour! like the way that thing went over his face, was so fucking cool!" Garfiel continued much to some people's amusement and others annoyance, jumping around ecstatically, about the amazing transforming piece of armour he had just seen moments ago, completely unaware that a very angry blonde was quickly approaching behind him, a nasty glint in her eyes.

"Garfiel Tinsel!" Garfiel's ecstatic shouts were immediately silenced, as a shutter ran down his spine. And against his better judgement he slowly turned his head around and as soon as he saw her his face paled, his sister was glaring down at him with her hands on her hips.

"Where did you learn such language young man!?" Frederica said slowly, as she glared down at him with such ferocity, that many people in the audience were entirely positive that her gaze alone could melt through solid plate armour.

"OO-oh Y-You K-know, I M-may have picked it up H-H-here or T-there" Garfield's voice was a stuttering mess, and to everyone surprised there was a noticeable crack in his voice, towards the end of this sentence, as he averted his gaze from his sister's, which only seems to intensify her armour piercing gaze.

Frederica, already fed up with the non answer she was given, closed the distance between her and her brother, with such speed that many thought she could beat the sword Saint in a speed contest.

In an instant Garfiel found himself restrained by his older sister, her gaze practically boring a hole through his skull, and most likely the wall behind him, for a moment there was a tense silence, everyone literally on the edge of their seats to see what would happen.

"I will repeat this again, just Once, where did you learn such a foul language, Garfiel Tinsel!?" Frederica did not raise her voice, yet somehow the intensity of it grew tremendously, even the most battle-hardened members of the audience such as Wilhelm and Julius, couldn't help but shudder slightly, at the menacing aura the beast maid was giving off.

Meanwhile why all of this was happening, Emilia tilted her head to the side and confusion understanding why that word for so bad

"I don't understand what's so bad about the word fuc-" Emilia the voice was silenced, by a hand clamping itself over her mouth much to her and everyone else's surprise, looking at the source it was revealed to be Beatrice the great spirit, which to everyone's surprise had vacated her spot next to her contractor, and was looking at the half elf with a disapproving gaze.

"You truly are dumb I suppose" was all Beatrice said, the half elf in question looked back at her in confusion, still not understanding why that word was bad and why she have been silenced in such a way.

Beatrice, then to everyone's confusion leaned in closer to the half elf, whispering something directly into her ear that was completely non audible to everyone else, for a moment the look of confusion on Emilia's face remained. Before it quickly melted away into one of surprise, and then one of horrified embarrassment, Beatrice, seemingly satisfied with her work, walked away from the momentarily stunned half elf, going back to her comatose contractor. Emilia's face turned a bright cherry red, and she quickly shoved her face into her hands, muttering something under her breath that no one could quite make out. the tips of her long elf ears turning a bright red as well, indicating to everyone just how embarrassed the half elf truly was.

"And thus her youthful ignorance is gone forever, or I suppose what was left of it anyway" Ram chimed in with her usual dry delivery, causing quite a few including her sister to chuckle, at what they thought was a joke about the situation.

"The joys of youth and maturing" Wilhelm added, failing to suppress his own chuckle at the situation un folding, concerning the embarrassed half elf and the beast siblings.

"Nyah~Yeah Old Man Will, I still remember when I first saw in front of my parents , they both looked like they're just seen a ghost Nyah~" Felix and Wilhelm share a chuckle between themselves, all of this talk about insults and youth, reminding the age to swordsman how rebellions he was in his own youth.

"Honestly you too, you're both hopeless" Crusch tried to sound unamused, but even she failed to contain a small giggle at the thought of her knight, sprouting off profanities like some common drunk.

Meanwhile Julius and Reinhard could only look on in surprise and confusion at their fellow feline knight, the thought of him of all people, cursing and using profanity, was something that both of them found very hard to picture in their minds.

"Subaru hold still for a minute, I'm syncing up everyone's rig with the ship" Kendra walks over and stops and front of Subaru, tapping away on some strange device in her hands, after she presses one final button, something happens on the back of Subaru's armour, more specifically a blue translucent bar snaked its way up his spine, stopping when it reaches a cylindrical protrusion between his shoulder blades.

Similar bright blue translucent tubes can be seen on the backs of everyone, despite them not wearing armour of any kind. Even Kendra was revealed to have one of these glowing tubes on her back, when she turned around to address Hammond.

If it was even possible everyone's Minds were completely blown again, by what they're just seen, not only could Subaru's armour transform, but it could also project light of its very own.

Even Frederica stopped disciplining her brother, and looked at the screen with complete surprise and shock. and almost immediately everyone's eyes turned to a certain helmeted Knight, who flinched because of so many eyes being focused upon him.

"Don't look at me, I have absolutely no idea what that is?" was all that Al could say in response, because even he was surprised and speechless, about what the glowing blue segmented cylinder was on little Bros back, could possibly be used for.

"I wonder what that glowing light is for?" Emilia's face still has a hint of redness to it, yet she, like everyone else, was intensely interested in Subaru's strange armour, and what the mysterious translucent tube on his back could possibly be for.

"I guess one way or another we're going to find out" Otto for once much to everyone's relief didn't complain about something, instead stating the obvious, regarding Subaru's strange looking armour.

"Disregarding its otherworldly features for a moment, are we actually sure that it's even armour that Subaru is wearing?" Julius's words caused quite a few to look at him in surprise.

If I may ask sir knight Julius, what made you come to that conclusion that it might not be armour that he is wearing?" Crusch responded, intently interested in why the purple haired knight had come to such a conclusion.

"Well to start with, most of the actual armour seems to be concentrated around the upper chest and neck area, with the rest of the body being completely bare of any armour protection" Julius paused for a moment seeming to collect his thoughts before continuing "although I'm not exactly sure how combat is conducted in this new world Subaru is in, but in traditional ground combat that armour would be next to useless, since it only protects the upper chest and neck"

"Wait just a moment" Ram said unexpectedly, causing everyone to turn their eyes to her. "If I remember correctly, Barusu was said to be some kind of engineer, so perhaps instead of protecting him from a potential battle, it's main function is meant to protect him from hazardous conditions?"

"Miss Ram has a fair point, being an engineer is a very hazardous occupation, and this is in a much more advanced world perhaps they need such equipment to protect themselves?" Wilhelm chimed in, finding it very logical that instead of being battle armour, it was simply to protect Subaru, from any potential injuries as a result of working on advanced machinery.

"Nyah~even if it's not effective battle armour, it still looks like it could take quite a punch to me, plus I don't even want to imagine how expensive something like that must be" Felix added, shuddering at the thought of how expensive such a piece of equipment could be, and how Subaru of all people could afford something like that, even if he was an engineer.

"Ok then we're done, clean bill of health for everyone" Kendra stepped away from Subaru, putting the strange tablet device away and one of my pockets, as Hammond looked at everyone expectedly.

"Alright, we've still got a job to do, so we're moving out" Hammond and the two helmsman walk past Subaru and Kendra, all three men picking up strange cylindrical devices from racks located on the side of the room, before making their way out of view.

Kendra quickly follows behind the three men, as Subaru gives one final stretch, before falling in line behind her, as the both of them make their way through a tiny doorway, exiting into a truly gargantuan open space, that made even the biggest royal dance hall look positively microscopic in comparison.

"Oh my dragon! look at the size of that place, you could fit the entirety of the royal castle in there with room to spare, how is a room that big even possible!?" Julius felt his mouth land squarely on the floor along with several others, at the revelation of how big this flight-deck area truly was.

"The wonders of in this case future technology my dude" was all that Al could respond with, after all an empty space of that size wasn't too surprising to him. But to people who had only seen Mansions and castles, seeing such a truly gargantuan open space obviously boggle their minds.

However, something catches Kendra's attention, causing her to stop dead in her tracks, Subaru almost walks past her before she quickly taps him on the shoulder.

"Subaru I don't think we just lost power to the port booster. . ." Subaru looked at her in confusion, quite understanding what she was getting at, that was at least until he turned around.

"Jesus Christ. . ." Was all that he could say upon seeing the state of Kelllon.

"Hammond you didn't just lose power to the port booster, you've lost the port booster" Kendra's words caused Hammond to turn around, only for a look of surprise and shock the spread across his face as well, which was shared by the two helmsman, who looked on at the absolute state of the ship.

"Jesus Christ, that thing is a complete write off!" Al exclaimed, shocked by how extensively damaged the ship actually was.

"How is that even possible, I don't understand how something can sustain that much damage, yet keep its occupants completely uninjured!?" Crusch was completely floored by the revelation that the otherworldly vessel had been subject to that much damage, yet all of its occupants have made it out completely alive with no serious injuries.

"Man, that thing must be tough as hell!" Garfiel was equally shocked as well, but also gave a silent thanks to whatever deity was listening, that his captain had made it through that crash almost completely unscaved.

"My contractor is tougher than he looks, but even I'm surprised that he made it through all of that, with only a minor head injury I suppose" Beatrice look down a contractor and her mind casting itself back to all of the times he had been gravely injured in his previous loops, yet somehow kept on living as if possessed by the human force.

"Subaru you dunderhead, why can't you go 5-minutes about getting yourself into trouble?" Emilia said quietly, her mind flashing back to all of the times that Subaru had managed to get himself into deadly situations, whether it be intentional or not. And to her dismay it seemed that in his future and even in a completely different world, this was one of the few aspects of him that didn't change.

"Young Subaru getting himself into trouble again I see, I guess even in his future that doesn't change" Wilhelm commented thinking much the same as Emilia, in the fact that Subaru was always getting himself into trouble even in this new future.

"This is big bro we're talking about old man will, we've seen that it can take more than that to put him down" Felt responded, catching the aged swordsman off guard, not expecting Reinhard's royal candidate of all people to respond to his query

"Lady Felt is right grandfather, Subaru has shown himself to be a uniquely resilient person, especially in deadly or life-threatening situations you can't help" Reinhard still not forgiven himself, for not being there to help Subaru in the past, and it seems he would not be able to help him in the future either, yet he silently reminded himself that he had to stay strong for his friend.

"I suppose you're both right, young Subaru has demonstrated that he can handle himself in deadly situations" Wilhelm couldn't help but smile thinking about Subaru, and how much Subaru reminded him Wilhelm younger self, afterall the two of them where I like in many ways, including their knack for getting themselves into trouble.

"Yeah! what the sword Saint said, Caps tough as hell, it's going to take more than that to put him down" Garfiel added, admiration very evident in his voice concerning his captain.

"Garf is most certainly correct, despite being an uncouth imbecile, Barusu is certainly much tougher than he looks" despite Ram's words being somewhat positive, everyone couldn't help but roll their eyes at her inclusion of insults concerning the black haired boy.

For an uncomfortably long moment, an awkward silence comes over the entire group, every one of them thinking about the revelation that the ship itself was almost completely trashed, meaning that even if they could do their job, they wouldn't be getting off anytime soon.

"(sigh) We've still got a mission to complete" Is all that Hammond can say, in response to the situation at hand.

Without another word, all five in the group make their way down a long straight platform, up to a double set of doors, which open automatically, revealing a small confined intersection, with many locked doors going off in different directions, however the main door of Interest that was directly in front of the group, had a red glowing symbol, accompanied by big bold words that said :Door Malfunction" directly above the door was a strange black screen, that had big bold words that read :Incoming Flight Reception Area: and directly below this was a scrolling message in bold red text that read, :Door malfunction, please contact an on beauty engineer:

"Looks like something's wrong with the door, maybe a power short circuit, or a blocked mechanism I can't be sure exactly" The nervousness that was in Subarus voice before was completely absent, as he approached the malfunctioning door, and examined it for a moment.

"Do you think it's possible to get a bypass going?" Hammond responds to Subaru, coming over to stand next to him as both of them look at the door in contemplation, about what their next move would be.

"If it's a short circuit definitely, but if somethings wrong with the mechanism it's going to be a bit more trouble" Subaru says after a moment of thinking, satisfied with his answer Hammond moves away from the door letting Subaru get to work.

Subaru quickly steps to the side of the door, before proceeding to press a series of buttons on a panel next to the door, which after a moment gives a satisfying beep, accompanied by another panel opening up next to the door with a screen folding out.

Subaru crouches in front of the opening before sticking one of his hands into the gap and up into the wall itself, he then begins to rush around looking or trying to grab onto something.

"Subaru, how long do you reckon it's going to take to get through that door?" Hammond's question seemed to be an Innocent one, however Subaru stopped what he was doing to look over his shoulder at Hammond, which despite his glowing visor being in the way, the look he was giving the dark-skinned man could only be described as shut up and let me work.

"AHHHHHHHH FUCK!" Subaru suddenly screams, accompanied by a loud electrical buzzing noise, as he quickly rips his hand out of the opening in the wall. One of the fingers on his glove has a noticeable burn patch, as it smokes slightly while he waves his hand back and forth, in an obvious feeble attempt to dissipate the pain.

Despite the oddness of the situation, and the questions that plagued everyone's mind about what they were seeing, everyone couldn't help but chuckle slightly at Subaru's on screen misfortune.

"Nyah~I guess that's what you get, when you stick your hand in a mysterious hole" despite the crudeness of Felix's comment it certainly had the desired effect, causing another round of laughter from many in the audience, but also serving to confuse to particular individuals namely Emilia and Petra, who didn't quite understand the double entendre.

"Felix, Dragon dammit!" Crusch was unable to contain her laughter anymore, letting a full belly laugh escape her lips, much to the surprise of everyone around her.

"That's the story of my life, catboy!" Al managed to say between his obnoxious roars of laughter, not caring in the slightest about the multiple stares he was now getting from a few people because of his comment.

"You're all children honestly" Priscilla snarled from behind her fan, yet nobody paid her any mind much to her anger. "Especially you!"

Priscilla made sure to put special emphasis on "you", when looking at her laughing knight, yet Al didn't seem to care or acknowledge her, as he continued to laugh loudly and obnoxiously.

After flailing his hand around for a moment, the pain subsides just enough for Subaru to get a good look at his finger, to his dismay there is a noticeable burn mark on his glove, however he is suddenly distracted by the sound of snickering. Turning around it's revealed to be Hammond and one of the helmsmen, failing to hold in their own laughter at his predicament.

After giving both of them a vicious glare, Subaru tentatively reaches back into the gap in the wall, and after fiddling around for another moment a satisfying electromechanical click is heard, with the glowing panel on the door now reading :Unlocked:

"Alright, I managed to get the door unlocked, although the rest of them are still locked, for some reason the entire deck is on lockdown?" Subaru reattach as the panel on the wall, as he does so Hammond and Kendra both raise their eyebrows at the mention of the entire deck being on complete lockdown, which was something that was added to the quickly growing pile of concern, first they couldn't contact anyone on the ship, the automatic docking procedure had malfunctioned , and now the entire deck itself was on lockdown.

Finished putting the panel back on the wall, Subaru walks to the centre of the door where the glowing translucent symbol is located, reaching out his hand the words changed to read :Open: before a loud mechanical noises heard, the door separating right down the middle, only to reveal a completely pitch black room barely illuminated by Subaru's visor. However the darkness does not last very long, as a strange electronic hissing noise is heard, followed by the room being illuminated by Strange lights embedded in the ceiling.

"Strange, there should be a security detail here?" Hammond remarks as the group of 5 enter the flight Lounge, immediately apparent is the absolute state of the room, garbage and clothing littered everywhere, suitcases of all different kinds with their contents strewn across the room. In the right corner of the room where the security desk was located, there were noticeable bullet holes in the safety glass, as if someone had been shooting through the glass into the flight lounge.

"This is too weird, where is everyone?" Subaru says to himself quietly, noticing the absolute state of the flight Lounge much like everyone else, to him and almost look like some kind of battle that taken place here, judging from the way that clothes was thrown across the floor, it almost looks like someone has been using the suitcases as makeshift weapons, as well as considering that quite a few of them looked to have been crushed by some kind of hard impact.

"I don't like this" Crusch muttered to herself, immediately noticing the obvious signs of struggle that had taken place inside the strange room, which in turn put her on edge.

"For the love of dragon, please be safe Subaru" Rem clasped her hands over her heart, praying for her beloved Hero's safety, because just taking one look at that room, she could tell that nothing good had happened there.

"I really don't like where this is going" For once Otto's complaint was shared by pretty much everyone, the state of the room being an obvious giveaway that something bad was going on.

"For once merchant I can fully agree with you, something suspicious is definitely going on here " Wilhelm replied, his years of battle experience picking up on the immediate signs, that a struggle had taken place in that room, and as a result this put the aged swordsman on edge, the concern for the black haired man and his fellow crewmates growing by the second.

"Indeed grandfather, there has clearly been some kind of altercation in that room, yet I find it does I have there's no one there at all" even without his numerous divine protections, Reinhard could just tell by looking at the room that something bad happened, and to his dismay Subaru and his crew, were potentially walking into a deadly situation without even knowing it.

"I really hope to god I'm wrong" Al said very quietly to himself, praying to whatever god was listening that the realisation he had just come to was completely wrong, because if his years of Horror experience had taught him anything, it was that a situation like this usually preceded something terrible happening.

"What are you blathering about now?" Priscilla snarled at her knight, still aggravated from how he had completely ignored her earlier.

"Nothing princess, just got a bad feeling you know" was all that Al could say in response, which seemed to pique Priscilla's interest, because to her it almost sounded like her knight knew something was going to happen.

"Yeah can't say I want to agree with you,to me it really feels like they're walking into a trap" Felt could feel a sinking feeling in her stomach, every Instinct she had gotten from being raised on the street telling her that that room was major bad news.

"That blonde girl has a point, cap and his crew are walking into something, and they don't even know what!" Garfiel wanted to be wrong, oh how desperately he wanted to be wrong, but something deep within him told him that his Captain and his crew were walking into something really bad, and they didn't even know it yet.

"Strange, looks like everyone was packing in a hurry?" Kendra comments, finding it incredibly bizarre the amount of clothing and suitcases scattered across the room, almost as if people were packing their belongings in a hurry to escape from something.

"There's no security detail or flight staff, this is a serious breach of protocol?" it's obvious by now that Hammond along with the rest of his crew are on edge, nobody being present in the flight lounge and flight control, which somewhat explained why the automatic guidance system had malfunction, but why exactly was there no one here, and why did it look like everyone was trying to leave in a hurry, these were the most pressing questions that were plaguing everyone's minds right now

"Well I don't think that matters right now Hammond, there's literally no one here! I'm not even getting any broadcasts from the surrounding deck, it's all just completely dead air!?" Kendra couldn't help but raise her voice, feeling incredibly put off by the entire situation so far.

After her outburst there was a silence for a moment, Subaru looking around the flight Lounge still, seemingly examining every little aspect of the room, even beneath the harsh blow of his visor, it was obvious that his face was growing into one of concern, about the situation at hand.

"Wait a minute, that security console is still live?" Hammond's comment, causes Subaru and everyone else to look at the security Booth, only to see that the security console was still indeed functioning, giving a read out about something that couldn't be understood because of it being backwards.

"Subaru, try and login to that console, and see if you can get any information about what the hell is going on?" At Hammond's order, Subaru gives a nod, the sound of his footsteps making abnormally loud noises, as he makes his way over to the heavy security door that separates the flight lounge and the security booth. Much to his surprise the door is unlocked, meaning that when he had hacked the main door to the flight Lounge, the security booth door must have been on the same circuit.

Giving a silent prayer of thanks, Subaru put his hand out, the heavy security door opening a moment later, unlike the rest of the flight lounge, only light in the space was coming from the large security windows, allowing light from the flight Lounge to cascade into the dark security booth, yet even in the semi dark light, Subaru could see a brownish red substance scattered across the floor, leading to the emergency exit directly behind the security booth.

"I don't get it, why is there no one there?" Emilia, much like everyone else, couldn't quite understand why nobody was there at all, if Subaru and his Friends were supposed to be helping them fix their ship. She also desperately wanted to but couldn't ignore the sinking feeling that was beginning to form in the bottom of her stomach, as if something bad was about to happen.

"Yeah, the whole place is deserted, almost like a ghost town?" Garfiel was practically on the edge of his seat, almost every animalistic and human Instinct in his body was telling him that something was going to happen to his captain, and much to his frustration there was nothing he could do but sit here and watch.

"A very pressing question indeed, it seems bizarre that nobody would be there to greet them, especially if they are there to repair the vessel?" Crusch replies to Emilia's question, herself finding the entire situation especially strange, she much like the half elf and half beast boy also feel a strange sense of foreboding beginning to form. In fact she didn't need her military Instincts that tell her that Subaru and his crew need to be a lot more on guard then they currently were.

"Honestly if Barusu was actually smart, he would had ran the first sign of trouble" for once nobody could find my fault with Ram's words, in fact they got a round of nods from everyone, because as far as they were concerned, this entire situation just reeked of trouble.

"That is a fair point, I'm surprised they haven't called for extra forces, considering the strangeness of the situation" Crusch reply to the pink haired maid, finding it truly bizarre that the leader of this operation which seemed to be the dark skinned man named Hammond, had not sent a message what any kind of assistance, once they have been greeted with an empty security post, which is far as the military minded woman was concerned, would have been an immediate red flag that something was afoot.

"Nyah~maybe there's some kind of emergency going on, which might explain why the entire area is on lockdown?" Felix's explanation was illogical one, yet at the same time even he didn't fully believe it, because there was just a persistent feeling that he couldn't ignore, that being that something bad was going to happen, at least he tried to offer a reasonable explanation though.

Taking a moment to steady his breathing, Subaru steps into the Dark security Booth, that wraps around one corner of a room, with his target in sight Subaru quickly makes his way to the security console, and despite his breathing being distorted by the helmet, it was evident that his breaths became slightly more rapid obviously showing that he was now very nervous.

finally reaching his goal, Subaru quickly begins to tap away at the security console, only to find to his surprise that the console is already logged in, as if somebody had been using it moments ago, pushing this aside he began to tap away at various symbols and words, which intern would bring up different diagrams and we doubt that will completely amenable to anyone but him.

However, looking up for a moment as if he was about to say something, he stops immediately because for just the briefest of moments, he caught a glimpse of something white and silver standing in the far corner of the room, however as soon as he blinked it was gone as if never there.

"What was that?" it was so quick that Crusch, almost didn't catch it herself, but much like the on-screen Subaru, she saw something that looked remarkably like a person standing in the far corner of the room , but it was so quick that she couldn't make out any details other than the white and silver, that seem to set Subaru off.

"It was so quick, but it kind of looked like somebody standing in the corner didn't it ?" Emilia couldn't quite be sure, but it certainly looks like a person to her standing in the corner of the room, the only defining feature that she managed to catch being the white and silver that seems to be the colour palette of this said individual

"You're right, it did look like that, Nayh~ but nobody was there when they entered, right?" He didn't want to believe it, but Felix already had a sinking feeling that he knew what was going on, judging from the way Subaru had been acting so far, all the catboy could do was silently pray to the great dragon of all things, that he was wrong

"No you're right, there was definitely no one there when they entered Felix" Julius responded to Felix, remembering distinctively that there was nobody in the flight lounge when they had entered, so the likelihood of there being an extra person in the room was unlikely

"Perhaps it was a trick of the light, or maybe something being reflected off the wall?" Rem's explanation in most situations would have been a very logical one, but considering what they had seen so far, everyone couldn't quite bring themselves to believe it despite wanting to.

"Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Big Brother is finally beginning to lose his mind, the poor guy has been through so much already" Felt couldn't help but feel a large amount of sympathy for the black haired boy, after all of the pain and suffering he had gone through, he somehow managed to hold himself together mentally, it seemed to her that he was finally beginning to crack under the pressure.

"It's not real, she's gone, she's gone dammit!" he mutters quietly to himself under his breath, however Hammond seems to notice Subaru speaking, despite him being on the other side of thick soundproof security glass.

Beatrice absolutely hated this feeling, because despite being asleep in her arms, she could feel every emotion that her on screen contractor was feeling. The sadness, his self loathing and the hatred he had for himself, she could feel every single bit of it, and it made her sick to her stomach that her contractor felt as such, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Rem felt much the same as the spirit, might not be able to feel her beloved emotions like his contracted spirit good, she could tell from the tone of his voice and look on his face that that vision had triggered some awful feelings in him, feelings of self hatred that she know he suffered from even before coming to their world. Yet even in this strange future these feelings had not seemed to dissipate, in fact they seem to have done the opposite and only strengthened as he grew older, which in turn brought a great sadness to her. Seeing the man she loved so much beat himself up other things that are outside of his control always caused her great pain.

Emilia shares very much the same feelings, as the other two women closest to Subaru's heart, over the previous viewings, she had seen a side of Subaru that he carefully tried to keep away from her, his self-loathing and self-hatred that he so expertly hidden away. It was disgusting in a way not because he tried to hide it from her, but because she was so blind that she couldn't see it even when he was at his absolute weakest.

"Subaru you all right over there" Hammond's question seems to catch super off guard for a moment, before he recovers bringing his head up to tell Hammond what he had found, on the security console.

"I don't really know what to say, I think it's best you all have a look at this" Subaru then presses a button on the security console, which intern projects a readout of the entire ship into the flight Lounge, taking one look at it everyone couldn't help but gasp, because if a read out was to be believed, it wasn't just the transmission array that was completely broken.

"Jesus Christ, Hammond are you seeing this shit! the ship is in really bad shape!?" one of the helmsman says, desperately not wanting to believe the damage report that was being shown to all of them, because it was true then that means the ship was essentially a floating junk pile at this point.

"Dammit! the tram system is offline, getting around is going to be very difficult-" Hammond was suddenly cut off by a strange humming noise that began, everyone except surprisingly Subaru was momentarily startled by the noise, before they all calmed down realising exactly what it was.

"Huh? looks like the air filtration system is back online" Hammond looks up to the vents above, noticing a small amount of dust be blowing out of the vents, indicating that they have been offline for some time, which was quite odd itself but considering the strangers of the entire situation it wasn't particularly notable.

"Air - filtration - system?" these words much like most of what she had seen so far was completely foreign to Emilia, even with her royal cancer education both the word air and system made somewhat sense to her, considering the air was what everyone breathed and system was simply an organised group of things, but the word filtration was completely new to her.

"This is just a guess on my part, but maybe it's some kind of system that can pull out toxic elements from the air?" Reinhard's potential explanation caused everyone to look at him strangely, because the idea of being able to filter something that for all intents and purposes was untouchable was completely insane, and surely was not possible, even for the advanced world that Subaru had found himself in.

"The sword Saint is right on the money, even back home we have that kind of stuff, especially in hospitals" As soon as the words left Al lips everyone felt their mouth dropped to the floor, because of the idea that you could literally filter the air itself! was a concept that most found impossible to imagine.

"You have to be joking, there's no way something like that possible" Ram gave an indignant huff, finding the entire concept very hard to believe, despite her being a practitioner of wind magic, the concept of being able to filter the very air itself or something that she just couldn't believe.

"I'm going to agree with Miss Ram on this one, I find such a concept very hard to believe sir knight Al?" Wilhelm replied, like the pink haired maid, finding such a concept very hard to believe, because even despite Subaru's world being incredibly advanced compared to their own, surely such a thing like that wasn't possible?

"As hard as it is to believe he's not lying" as soon as the words left Crusch, everyone snapped their head to look in her Direction, causing the Duchess to flinch slightly, before realisation about her words dawned on all of them. Crusch was quite literally a living human lie detector because of her divine protection, meaning if she said someone wasn't lying then that meant it was the truth.

"How is that even possible? how can you filter the air itself?" Rem said quietly to herself, trying to wrap her mind around how something like that was even possible even with incredibly advanced technology Subaru's and Al original homeworld.

"Honestly I can't tell you exactly how it was done, I wasn't really a very techy person" Al pause for a moment to rub the back of his head sheepishly before continuing "But we have these devices that could function both as air conditioners and air filtration units"

And like that everyone's mind had been blown again, the fact that you could fill to the very air itself had blown their minds, but the fact that there was such a thing as mechanical air conditioning, was something that blew the revenants off their already destroyed minds to complete oblivion.

A loud blaring noise, suddenly causes everyone to jump as the room is bathed into unnatural red light, accompanied by a strange metal grate rolling down to cover all of the doors in the room, where the holographic open symbol would have been, is now replaced with a descriptive biohazard sign.

"What the hell was that!" Kendra shouts nervously, pulling out her sidearm from its holster, and clutching it close to her as if it was some kind of lifeline.

"Hammond, it looks like the automatic quarantine system has been tripped, I'll see if I can override it from here" Subaru has to shout for Hammond to hear him, due to the blaring alarm and the safety glass muffling his voice, as he quickly begins to type away at the screen that now read "quarantine in progress"

"Subaru's right, the air filtration system coming back online must have trip the automatic quarantine system, so everyone just rel-" Hammond most certainly cut off by a strange muffled bang that emanated from the air vents, which was immediately followed by a strange almost otherworldly scratching sound, as if something sharp was being dragged across metal at high speed.

"Miss Frederica. . . I'm scared" Petra whimpered trying to bury herself even deeper in Frederica's arms. Frederica desperately wanted to respond to the young girl to try and comfort her, yep she much like everyone else was frozen in a mixture of fear and confusion about what was going on, and more importantly what was going to happen.

Otto by now had clamped himself hard onto Garfiel, everything that had happened so far, only causing the grey-haired Merchant to feel even more terrified, Garfield meanwhile despite not showing it outwardly was beginning to be freaked out by all of this, and even when Otto had clamp on the him as a lifeline, the beast boy did not push him away, instead he secretly took comfort in the fact that, his brother was right there next to him.

Emilia, despite not having Subaru to cuddle,still brought his arm up to her chest, squeezing the boy's arm tightly, as if it would disappear at any moment. Emilia prided herself on Keeping a cool head in dangerous situations. Especially after the entire ordeal in the sanctuary, alien yet familiar people the very strange world, because everything that she had seen so far only caused the half-elf to feel even more terrified, even more then the worst points during the previous viewings, even the horror of the rabbits was beginning to be replaced by this new horror that was unfolding before her eyes.

Rem and Ram by now had embrace each other, both of them despite expressing it in different ways of feeling an immense amount of fear that was on folding, it could only be described like something out of a nightmare, being locked in a room with a horror unknown coming to get you, despite both of them being older and wiser. They couldn't help but be brought back to a simpler time when they were younger, when the idea of a monster under the bed was still the scariest thing in the world, except this time it wasn't going after scared little girls, it was going after the black haired man and his unaware crew.

Despite Crusch managing to keep herself composed on the outside, on the inside she was feeling much the same as everyone else, fear was running rampant throughout her body and mind, but unlike everyone else, much of the fear itself is born from the previous revelation she'd had concerning the true identity of this Nicole that Subaru was infatuated with.

"What the hell was that? Did you hear that?!" Kendra's voice cracks a slightly as she aims her pistol at the air vent, the look on her face could only be described as pure absolute terror, which even despite his best efforts to remain calm, Hammond couldn't help but feel a small amount of Fear beginning to well up with him, Subaru meanwhile was completely oblivious to all of this, the security glass doing a very good job of muffling the otherworldly noises coming from the vent.

Suddenly a loud metallic explosion is heard, one of the vent covers being blown into the room, landing on the floor with a harsh loud bang, even Subaru looks up from the security console, wondering what the hell just happened in there.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I don't know I can't see anything damn it?!"

Both helmsman begin to desperately whirl their rifles around looking for the source of the noise, the one closest to the security booth failing to see a otherworldly entity drop down from the ceiling, Subaru saw it jump down from the vent but didn't know what it was, at least until it raised itself up onto it's disgusting broken legs, and despite the nightmarish beast be nothing more than a silhouette, Subaru immediately realised that it may have been human once, but now it was nothing more than a nightmarish beast, wearing the destroyed form of a human.

"What in the world-?" Crusch felt her blood run cold, as the twisted monster roast to its feet on screen, she was immediately thankful that most of its features were obscured, because judging from its silhouette, it wasn't human anymore

"What is that thing!?" Emilia much like the duchess felt her blood run completely cold at the side of the monster, with every fibre in her body telling her that Subaru was in danger, and needed to get out of there right now

"The fuck is that thing!?" Garfiel's animalistic senses were on full alert now, every fibre of his being telling him that whatever the fuck that thing was, it definitely wasn't friendly.

Frederica didn't even try to curtail her brother's profanity, instead she instinctively shielded Petra, away from the screen, because much like her brother, every animalistic Instinct in her body was telling her that something bad was going to happen.

Subaru looked on in stunned horror, not able to do or say anything as the mockery of what was once a human being, creeps ever closer to it's target, raising the bony blades that emanated from it's mangled arms, above its head ready to strike the unsuspecting helmsman.

Everyone much like Subaru could only stare in shock at the twisted horror, as the horrifying silhouette was revealed in all of its twisted and malformed glory, the shambling nightmare lurking behind the unaware helmsman, poising itself, ready to completely eviscerate the unaware man, many were thankful that the room was bathed in the unnatural orange light, obscuring most of the finer details of the Monster from view, yet just from its silhouette, everyone could tell that it may have been human once, but that was not the case anymore.

"God damn it, why was I right?" Was all that Al I could say, as the chaos onscreen began to unfold.

Before the unaware man could even react, the nightmarish monster plunge it's bony appendages into his body, completely severing muscle and arteries like they weren't even there, the Beast followed up with blows so quick that the man couldn't even let out a scream of agony, before the Beast silenced him by cutting the man's neck clean open, causing his blood to spray all over the security booth window, much to Subaru's horror.

Many in the audience were accustomed to the site of death, in fact many of them had inflicted it upon others many times, yet seeing someone's life be snuffed out in such a barbaric and beastly way, was something that shocked all of them to their core, as well as making their stomachs lurch at the fountain of blood that spewed forth from the man's severed neck.

Felt was the first, the site of so much blood, causing the young blonde to immediately empty the contents of her stomach, Reinhard could only watch on in horror as his lady coughed and hacked, before spewing up more of her stomach contents.

However this was quickly followed by other people Felix doing much the same, completely ruining his outfit by the amount of bile that came out of his throat, Wilhelm quickly began to rub the cat boys back, which was to help him, but at the same time as also a feeble attempt to try and distract himself from the absolute massacre that was occurring on screen, because even to the age swordsman, seeing someone be dismembered like a common farm animal was not something that sat well with him.

"By the Dragon. . ." Was all that Julius could say, the great rabbit was perhaps the most gruesome death he had ever seen, which was also made worse by the fact that happened to someone he considered to be a friend, but literally seeing someone be butchered like a common farm animal, By a creature that looked like a twisted horrified mockery of a human being, was something that could put Subaru's death at the mouths of the great rabbit to shame in his mind.

Reinhard, despite trying to comfort Felt, was in much the same position as his purple haired friend, seeing someone be butchered like that was something that even the sword Saint with his many divine protections could not quite fathom. To see someone's life force literally gush out of the mother fountain, was something that would stick with the sold sign for as long as he lived, and more importantly he was deeply afraid, no he was terrified. If one of those creatures got its claws on his black hair friend.

Ram and Rem despite having been witness to blood and dismembered bodies in the past, couldn't help but feel their own stomachs lurch at the site, seeing the blood gas from the man's cut open neck, reminded them very much of an animal that was being slaughtered. The way his face paled almost instantly as the blood flowed out of him, no flowing wasn't the correct word. It was more like a fountain of life force leaving his body as the unholy beast that had inflicted the injuries upon him continued to mutilate his body for no rhyme or reason. Both oni twins couldn't help but be reminded of the earlier viewings, particularly when Rem had gone on her murderous because of her horn, and much to their mutual discussed. The way the man was butchered by the monster, was very much reminiscent of Rem butchering the marbeasts, all the way back at the very beginning of the viewings.

"Jesus what the fuck is that!?" the other helmsman shouted, as the nightmarish beast, now finished with its victim, quickly scuttled its way towards him, Kendra and Hammond, letting out horrifying roars of pure unadulterated rage as it quickly closed the distance.

"FUCK! open fire! fire open fire!" Hammond sheltered in pure fear, the weapons that he and the rest of his crew were carrying finally coming to life, soon a Hail of bullets began to fly at the Beast, taking out chunks of its body causing rotten blood to spray everywhere. Yet much to Subaru's horror it did not slow the Beast down in the slightest, even with massive chunks of its body now missing, the Beast quickly closed the gap between it and the surviving helmsman, ending the unfortunate man's life brutally like the first.

Much like the first, seeing the other helmsman be butchered like an animal cause another wave of nausea to spread amongst a few of the audience, as well as the fact that even after being almost brutalised by the man's strange weapon, the Beast did not flinch nor did the thing slow it's advance, even with chunks of its own body missing, you could almost be said that it was possessed by one single of thought and that was to kill anything in front of it.

"Was that thing ever human!?" Julius still couldn't believe what he was seeing, the monster was a force of nature seemingly possessed by the singular intend to kill, even after having horrible and possibly fatal injuries inflicted upon it, the beast did not falter in the slightest or even flinch, it simply continued on its path of destruction, slaughtering and brutalising everything in its way.

(cough) (hack) (cough) "How is it still moving with those injuries!?" Felix managed to say between coughs and hacks, his stomach long since emptied of its contents yet the feeling of nausea did not dissipate, in fact looking at it now the beast, it was something straight out of a nightmare for the healer, the best way he could describe it was that it was a mockery of a human being, it's limbs twisted at unnatural angles, it's entire abdomen ripped open with its entrails hanging out, as well as what was left with its face. it could only be described as a pure beast of nightmare, something that made all of Subaru's gruesome deaths in the previous viewings look positively tame by comparison.

Beatrice through all of this continue to embrace her creator close to her chest, feeling her sympathy for him skyrocket, upon realising just what kind of future will the waiting him, the fact that he would be taken away from her, thrown into a completely different world again different from the one he knew, and then to experience whatever the hell was going on now, it was a fate that she wouldn't even wish on her worst enemy, especially her beloved contractor.

"Kendra! power now!" Hammond sheltered as he continue to pour gunfire into the Beast, as it finished the job of killing the unfortunate helmsman, by lopping his head clean off his shoulders, causing a fountain of blood to spray everywhere.

"Kendra!" The desperation was very evident in Hammond's voice, and he continued to unload his entire magazine into the unholy abomination in front of him.

"Come on damn it. . . I've got it!" Kendra shouts over the sound of the gun fire, as the door finally opens, much to her and Hammond's relief. the Beast by this point seems to have finally been affected by the sheer amount of firepower that have been laid upon it, barely managing to keep itself upright due to most of the fresh on its legs and lower body being missing, the beast now slowed in its advance gives Hammond just enough time to shout a Subaru who is still in the security Booth.

"Subaru, get the hell out of there!" Hammond empties the last of his magazine into the beast, with most of the flesh and muscle on its lower body having been removed by the gunfire, the Beast slumps forward landing on its front, yet to his horror it does not stop coming, now using the sword like bony protrusions bone, to drag itself along the floor leaving a trail of blood and rotten flesh behind it.

"Subaru, the door's unlocked, run!" Subaru doesn't waste any time, quickly running to the emergency exit door, which takes him into a long straight corridor, his breathing despite being muffled by the helmet is now fast and frantic, the sound of bursting metal grates, followed by the horrifying roars of more unholy beast can be heard behind him, this makes Subaru running faster if it was possible, yet out of nowhere an bony saw like appendage, swipes at his back, cutting straight through the Fabric of his suit and into the skin of his back, the glowing translucent blue cylinder on his back noticeably shrinking inside after the injury have been inflicted, but with his body running on pure adrenaline Subaru doesn't even react continuing to run down the corridor.

"Subaru!" Everyone screamed in almost complete unison, seeing that the nightmare beast had managed to land a hit on him, causing everyone's hearts to almost implode, yet much to their surprise and somewhat relief. Subaru didn't even seem to register the attack, simply pushing himself forward with all of the strength he had in his body, and considering everything they had seen in the previous viewings, it was no surprise to any of them that Subaru's pain tolerance was almost ungodly high.

Turning a corner and almost falling over in the process, a site that could only be described as heaven and escape from this nightmare, that being an open security lift directly ahead, quickening his pace Subaru, manages to jump into the elevator smashing the elevator button with his fists, the doors quickly slam behind him, the horrifying nightmare that was chasing him, crashing against the steel reinforced doors of the elevator, letting out bellowing roars of rage at the fact that their prey had escaped from them. However before Subaru can rest, one of the horrifying Monsters managers to pry the door open with its bonesaw-like appendages, pushing the doors apart to reveal a horrifying creature that could have once been a human but was now almost unrecognisable as such. Subaru lets out a scream of Fear.

"Subaru! Run!"

"Subaru!"

"Barusu! run you idiot!"

"Cap! get the hell out of there!"

"Mr Natsuki!"

Despite the unholiness of the creature being revealed in it's entirety, some couldn't help but let out cries of Fear and panic in regards to Subaru's predicament, because the black haired man had managed to trap himself in a confined metal box, with the only remaining barrier in the form of the steel door, quickly being pushed apart by the creatures share overpowering unnatural strength

"Shit I think I'm going to be sick again!" Felt managed to say through gritted teeth, as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth, her face turning a noticeable shade of green, as the true horror of the monster that had been chasing Subaru was revealed in all of its disgusting and deformed glory.

Reinhard couldn't bring himself to correct his ladies' cursing, as he was too busy being paralysed by the strange mockery that was once human being on the screen, everything about it was just wrong, it was truly something from a nightmare. No, that wasn't right, not even the most deranged and insane mind could conjure up such a nightmarish creature that seemed to be the literal embodiment of rage, trying to disguise itself by wearing the tattered and rotten remains of a human being.

Julius despite feeling an immense amount of sympathy for Subaru's situation, there was something within him that wanted Subaru to stand and fight, instead of cowering away against this nightmarish monster, yet upon seeing the monster revealed in its full unholy glory, any notion of fighting such a monster vanished from Julius's mind. Despite witnessing first-hand some of the true horrors of the world, the witch cult being chief among them, seeing such a monster like this. Something that could only be described as the literal embodiment of rage itself, wearing tattered and rotten remains that would have once been a young woman. Seeing such a sight stirred something within the young man, something that he had long thought he had managed to bring under control, and that was the complete unyielding fear of the monsters and other twisted horrors that lurked at the edge of the light, that was the comfortable world that he knew.

"Dear Lord..." Was all that Wilhelm could say, with the unholy monster now being revealed, despite having seen many twisted and horrifying things over the course of his long life, some of which could reduce even the bravest of knights to nothing more than broken deranged men. Seeing this unholy entity, the very same one that had been chasing young Subaru moments ago, started a new emotion within the age swordsman, one that he has not felt for a long time, that was fear but it was not simple fear of the monster. No it was something deeper than that, it was the kind of fear possessed by every living creature, a sense of dread and foreboding that could make even the most calculating and rational of men make snap judgements. This fear was a primal one, the kind of instinctual fear that drove animals, as well as the only kind of fear that can only be triggered when presented with something that was a threat to your very existence as a living being.

Yet even with the primal fear eating away at his heart, the analytical part of Wilhelm's brain couldn't help but analyse the features of the creature. Despite the tattered remains of what once was its face being almost unrecognisable as a human being, the aged swordsman could see the distinct subtle features that indicated this thing was once a young woman, possibly no older than 19 or 20 years old. In life she may have been beautiful, possibly the most beautiful woman to have ever existed, but that meant very little with the way the creature wore her face. Its jaw permanently dislocated in what can only be described as a permanent scream of agony, its eyes were now simply hollow sockets, yet despite the absence of eyes, there was a strange almost yellowish glow emanating from the empty sockets which simply added to the creature's terrifying appearance.

Crusch couldn't bring herself to say anything, seeing the creature's unholy silhouette was one thing, but to actually see the things face in all its disgusting glory caused even her iron stomach to begin to tremble. its appearance was far more horrifying and she could have possibly imagined, in fact compared to creatures such as the white whale or even the most horrifying depictions of the witch of envy, this thing made them all look fuzzy and cute by comparison. Because this creature, no this monster was a thing of pure nightmare, and was a mockery to nature, a being of pure terror that haunted the edges of the darkness that was the human psyche.

With one final roar of rage, the beast pulls the doors fully open with all of the strength it can muster, however before it can accomplish its goal of killing the engineer, the doors suddenly slam shut completely eviscerating the creature in a moment, it's blood and organs spraying all over the inside of the elevator, with its upper body slumping to the floor, the unnatural glow in its eyes dissipating, as the beast seemingly died.

Subaru slumped down into a sitting position in the Elevator, is it begins at slow descent downwards into the bowels of the ship, the only sound other than the hum of the elevator being his rapid breaths, with the glowing visor obscuring his face from view, the look of pure unadulterated fear was evident in the man's face, as he tried to get his breathing under control again.

Subaru sits there motionless, his breathing only now beginning to slow as the elevator continues its descent into the dark bowels of the ship, after what felt like an eternity elevator comes to a stop with a loud thump accompanied by a shudder. The doors opening with a metallic screech into surprisingly a not completely pitch black room, that seemed to be illuminated by a single but incredibly powerful light source somewhere off in the corner of the room.

Subaru after a moment of hesitation shankly gets to his feet, his eyes never leaving the dead mutilated monster that had been the sole other occupant of the elevator, now out of the elevator and still not taking his eyes off the monster. Subaru hurriedly pressed a series of keys on the holographic elevator panel, which in turn caused the doors to slam together loudly, the sound seeming to echo for much longer than it reasonably should have, considering the size of the room.

Now with the dead monster sealed behind heavy steel elevator doors, Subaru lets out a sigh of relief, quickly followed by a hiss of pain as the wound on his back had finally made itself known.

"God that hurts" Subaru managed to say for gritted teeth, the pain in his back flaring up to an almost unbearable degree, and despite the pain indicating that it was incredibly bad, since it was on his back Subaru had no way of knowing just how bad the wound actually was. But through a combination of great effort and fear that any more of those disgusting nightmares would be lurking around, he managed to push the pain away, instead turning to look at the Illuminated room that the elevator had opened up into.

"Subaru..." Beatrice forced herself to hold back the tears, seeing her beloved contractor in pain was the thing she hated most of this world, a boy that was so generous and kind someone that tried his very best for everyone around him even if he didn't know them personally, it was simply unfair why did such a person only had kindness in their heart, deserve to be punished like this, these for the kinds of questions that floated around Beatrice's every day, and at this very moment they all crystallised into a single of thought, what did my contractor do to deserve this!?

Emilia was in much the same boat as the great spirit of dark magic, it positively shattered her heart, that the boy now man that she had come to understand she loved, was in so much pain, in an unfamiliar place with no one to help him. It just wasn't fair why did Subaru deserve to suffer like this, what had he done to deserve any of this, Emilia could feel her mind wandering back to the previous viewings. All of the things she had seen, all of the horror and torment, what did putting Subaru through all of this truly accomplish at the end of the day? This was the most pressing question that she wanted and needed answers to. But the only person that could truly answer that question, was the person that Emilia hated the most in this world, so getting a definitive answer was highly unlikely.

Useless, you are completely useless! were the thoughts bouncing around inside Garfiel's mind, after all seeing the state that his beloved captain was in, seemed to break something inside the young beast Boy, making him feel absolutely atrocious about himself, for the fact that there was nothing he could do to help his captain. In fact to the contrary of all observable reality it made him feel completely powerless, as if he truly was a simple child.

Otto was in much the same boat as blonde haired friend, sitting here watching Subaru going through torment and horror that seems to never end, in fact it made him feel absolutely horrible about himself. The amount of suffering that Subaru had been through was something that the grey haired merchant couldn't wish on even his worst enemy. Yet Subaru, a boy that Otto had at first discounted as a crazy lunatic, had somehow managed to keep himself together for all of it, always pushing forward towards his goal. But ultimately even if all of the trials and tribulations did in fact prove Subarus' character. I didn't change the fact that Subaru was for all intents and purposes an ordinary boy, with no special powers or qualities. He was simply just a kid forced into a situation that would make even the most battle-hardened of knights collapse into a prying heap on the floor, and considering the latest viewing Otto felt tears beginning to well up with in his eyes, because it seemed even after everything he had been through, Subaru would never be able to rest.

Crusch, despite remaining silent, felt her sympathy for the grown-up Subaru skyrocket upon seeing just how much pain he was truly in. She was by no means a medical expert like her Knight Felix, but she knew just enough to tell from the amount of pain he was in and the brief glimpse that she had gotten of the wound itself, that it was an incredibly deep wound that could be life-threatening if not treated properly.

However her train of thought was completely derailed, happens to glance over at Wilhelm, the look on the age man's face could only be described as absolute horror mixed with a deep sense of longing, following his gaze she found that he was staring at nothing, just an empty corner of the dark theatre, but as she turned to look back at her age friend in worry, she noticed something else flash across his face for just the briefest of moments, it was a look of pure terror and horror which seems to cause him to flinch ever so slightly. With her concern for Wilhelm now at a fever pitch, Crusch gently placed a hand on his shoulder, however any words of concern she wanted to say were quickly silenced, as the aged swordsman snapped his head to look at her, with uncharacteristic speed for someone of his age.

"Wilhelm... are you alright?" Crusch didn't use any formal titles, which was just evident to how concerned she truly was for her aged friend.

Wilhelm's eyes for the briefest of moments were unfocused and hazy, as if he was someone else entirely, but quickly they seemed to refocus bringing the age swordsman back to reality.

"L-lady Crusch!?" the aged swordsman managed to stutter out, much to the concern of the green haired duchess, as the fear and terror was quite evident in Williams voice. However before she could answer Wilhelm snapped his head back in the direction that he had originally been staring in. Seeming to desperately look around as if trying to locate something that only he could have seen, after a moment of the sword demons eyes darting around trying to locate whatever he is seen Wilhelm couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief mixed with disappointment, which again just served to make Crusch even more concerned about her aged friend.

"Wilhelm, are you sure you're alright?" Crusch asked, her voice practically overflowing with concern, Wilhelm continue to stare at her, his eyes wide almost like a dead fish, yet after a moment he seemed to compose himself.

"I'm fine lady Crusch, I apologise if I caused you any concern" Even with Wilhelm's usual politeness, Crusch didn't buy the excuse for a second in fact even without her divine protection of wind reading, she could tell that the aged swordsman was lying through his teeth, yet as concerned she was for her friend she knew that trying to force an answer out of the kind but stubborn old man was like trying to get blood from a stone.

"Wilhelm... if you don't want to talk about it it's fine, I won't pry into your business, but please don't lie to me if something's the matter" Crusch again didn't use any formalities much to Wilhelm's surprise, yet Wilhelm's gaze softened ever so slightly when he saw the overflowing concern that the lady he served was showing him.

"I apologise lady Crusch" Was all that Wilhelm said in response, sending a slightly forced but ultimately reassuring smile her way, much to the green haired duchess slight disappointment, but ultimately she accepted that you could not make someone divulge something if they weren't ready to.

"Subaru's wound looks quite bad Nayh~ I hope he finds a way to treat it before it gets any worse" Felix said completely oblivious to the interaction going on between his mistress and the age swordsman that was Wilhelm.

"I hope so too Felix, an injury like that is going to quickly hinder his ability to defend himself, if any more of those things come back" Julius couldn't help but shudder, as the nightmarish visage of the monster entered his mind again.

Making his way deeper into the room, Subaru quickly spotted the origin of the light source that was barely illuminating the room, it was on a raised platform with some kind of work bench on it, quickly making his way over to it Subaru stopped dead in his tracks when the true Horror of the scene was finally revealed. It could only be described as a massacre, blood and viscera covering every surface, and at the centre of this maelstrom of blood and gore was a deceased man, his entire chest cavity from neck to pelvis completely carved open, his vital organs and entrails spilled all over his legs.

"Oh lord" Priscilla said quietly, in her tenure as a princess, she had been witness to many gladiatorial championships and executions, yet the manner of this poor unfortunate man's death was even too much for her own stomach, in the simplest possible terms the man have been gutted like some common fish.

"Jesus Christ, that poor bastard" Al said, somewhat glad that his face was hidden by his helmet, because it hid his horrified and nauseated expression from everyone, the helmeted man was also beginning to regret asking for that popcorn earlier, considering that the site of the disembowelled man was beginning to make his stomach churn.

Emilia simply said nothing, desperately wanting to tear her gaze away from the brutal site, yet some sickly curious part of her brain made her not look away. Her eyes absorbing every detail about the man's gruesome visage, from the colour of his intestines, to the exact shape and placement of his silent and still heart, to all of the connective tissue that connected all of the vital organs together. It was exactly the same as the anatomy books she had read during her time studying to become a real candidate, except this was far more real and visceral.

"Dear dragon..." Felix managed to save through his nausea, the catboy healer was no stranger to blood and gore considering his occupation as a healer, yet to see a poor soul literally gutted like a fish, was something that was guaranteed to haunt his nightmares for years to come. But the part that disturbed him the most, was the fact that despite the chest cavity of this poor man literally being carved open, the man's face was almost pristine with only a few specks of blood dotting around his face, his facial expressions surprisingly was what stuck with Felix. Instead of being a expression of pure agony resulting from event pain and trauma, the man's expression was almost calm and collected as if he had resigned himself to his fate long ago, and even with his eyes now dull and lifeless, they projected a look of acceptance as if the man had known he was going to die.

Subaru tour his eyes away from the corpse, as a wave of nausea overtook him, the feeling of bile making its way up his throat and threatening to quickly exit his mouth growing by the second, yet through a great amount of effort he managed to suppress the urge to be sick, taking a series of deep ragged breaths that were somewhat muffled by his helmet. After bringing his breathing under control Subaru turned his attention back to the gutted man, his eyes tracing over the corpse, bringing on a fresh wave of nausea, yet his gaze quickly fell upon an object in the man's cold dead hand.

"Is that..." Subaru couldn't finish his words, as realisation struck him full force, and despite his face being hidden by the helmet, gratitude and relief came across his face, because clutch tight in the dead man's cold hands, was an object that was intimately familiar to Subaru, one that was a metaphorical ray of sunlight in the eternal darkness that was this hell hole of a ship.

Carefully crouching down in front of the disemboweled man, Subaru reached out and took the object from the man's hand, struggling slightly because of the man's death grip, yet with a bit of force the object was freed from his grasp. Standing back up from his crouching position Subaru held the object out in front of him revealing that it was a standard multi-tool plasma emitter, or as it was known to many that use them regularly simply just a Plasma Cutter.

"What is that!?" Anastasia's eyes practically let themselves up, a look of curious excitement spreading across her face as the on-screen Subaru picked up the unfamiliar piece of technology.

"Strange, it kind of resembles of crossbow, but the arms have been flipped?" Julius tried to wrap his head around what exactly the object was, it had the handle and the trigger of a crossbow and two large wing like protrusions that almost resembled bow arms, yet the more he looked at it the less it began to look like a crossbow, from the material that was made out of to the fact that they supposed bow arms were not horizontal and were instead vertical.

"I'm inclined to agree with you Julius, it indeed does have a passing resemblance to a crossbow, so perhaps it's some kind of weapon?" the analytical part of Wilhelm's went into overdrive, upon seeing the strange piece of technology. Analysing the object was also a good distraction for his own mind, considering the horrifying episode he had suffered moments ago. However a thought suddenly occurred to Wilhelm regarding the strange device, as well as a possible answer to what it was "Sir Knight Al, is that object familiar to you in any way?"

"Nope, I haven't got a clue what that thing is, although it does kind of resemble a gun" Al said matter-of-factly causing quite a few people to feel disappointed by his answer.

"Maybe it's an advanced tool of some kind?" Emilia's sudden addition to the conversation caused quite a few to look at her in surprise.

"Miss Emilia, I'm not being rude when I say this, but I think it's highly unlikely that it's just a mere tool" Julius said politely, giving Emilia the respect of royal candidate deserved, but also silently adding that she was incredibly naive and stupid for believing that the object was nothing more than ordinary tool.

"Julius is right, I'm inclined to believe that some kind of weapon, considering that Subaru looked incredibly relieved when he laid eyes upon it" Crusch added failing to suppress a smile, because despite finding Emilia's naive attitude infuriating in the past, the silver haired half elf had certainly grown on the green haired Dutchess in many ways, in fact it would be fair to say they now were friends despite being rivals to the throne.

Subaru turns the plasma cutter from side to side, seemingly examining it to see if it's damaged in any way, but match his relief other than a few cosmetic scratches and a bit of dried blood splattered on the tool, it's in a perfectly functional condition. Satisfied with his inspection, he presses the button on the back of the cutter, causing the device to come to life again, a small holographic screen being projected behind the plasma cutter, showing a logo along with a bunch of numbers and letters that read "Multi-purpose Plasma Emitter, V1-4 1998"

"Huh? an old model aren't you?" Subaru says quietly, a look that could almost be described as sad nostalgia making its way under his face, as the plasma cutter finishes as boot up sequence, the logo and text disappearing with the holographic display now showing a simple number "6"

Emilia for a moment couldn't help but puff out her chest, a very smug expression making itself at home on her face, much to the frustration and surprise of everyone else. However the smug expression didn't last long as Subarus' slightly sad tone of voice and facial expression caused the half elf's heart to ache slightly. In fact Emilia could admit to herself that she wasn't the most intelligent or the most observant when it came to people's emotions, yet even she could recognise the look on his face, it was one of pure Sadness mixed with a little bit of a nostalgia and melancholic longing, as if the tool in his hands reminded him of a time and a place long past.

Beatrice continue to hold her contractor close to her, the look of sadness and longing that his on-screen counterpart had brought tears to her eyes, Yet it was not the first time she had seen something similar to this, she could remember a time where she had absentmindedly ask him about his parents, the way his face fell, the look of pure sadness and longing in his eyes would forever be scarred into her memory, yet in typical Subaru fashion he bounced back almost immediately, changing emotions in almost a heartbeat. But Beatrice could never forget that look. It was the look of someone that had lost everything, of somebody that had lost something important to them without even realising the lost object was important to them.

Rem felt tears beginning to well up within her eyes, seeing such a look Subarus face cause the something to break inside her, the look of longing melancholy was something there she was instantly familiar with, considering the tragic past of both her and her sister, even now after everything that has happened, it wasn't uncommon to see that very same look on her sister's face.

"Mr Natsuki, what happened to you...?" Otto said quietly, a look of concern making its way onto his face, because despite not being old and wise like some people, the grey haired merchant could tell just from the look on Subarus face, that the mean eyed man had lost something important to him in the past, which picking up the strange a weapon like object seemed to bring back memories of said event.

"Subaru my boy, what happened to you indeed?" Wilhelm couldn't help but feel his a heart beginning to ache, the look on Subaru's face was one that was painfully familiar to him, it was one that he often had himself when thinking about his deceased wife, and the family that he had lost as result of it, and for the life of him he never thought he would see the very same look of longing melancholy on the boy he considered as a grandson. In fact it was fair to say that it broke his heart because it could only mean one thing, Subaru had lost something or someone important to him when coming to this new world, this very thought sent a shiver down his spine, at the possible and horrifying implications of that thought.

"Damn Cap, the hell did this place do to you?" Garfield didn't want to believe his eyes, he didn't want to believe that the broken man on screen was the very same young, kind, energetic but ultimately incredibly damaged boy that was his captain.

Crusch didn't have anything to say, or more precisely she didn't want to say anything, the look on Subaru's face was enough to tell her everything she needed to know, it was a look that she was intimately familiar with considering that it was the same look that Wilhelm often wore on his face. When he thought no one was looking, it was a look of sadness and longing, longing for better times and something that was lost that could not be replaced. The green haired Dutchess had a sneaking suspicion for some time, that the circumstances of Subaru's arrival in this strange and unfamiliar world were not pleasant in the slightest. Considering his current emotional state, in fact everything about this new Subaru was just alien, from the fear of being touched by other people, to the mean black eyes that he was famous for, having none of their usual intensity, instead they looked simply just empty. As if the emotion and the driver that had been there before, just simply vanished, leaving behind nothing but a look of pure sadness and emptiness.

After finishing one more quick inspection of the plasma cutter, revealing that there was no damage that could hinder its function, a strange noise suddenly caught Subaru's attention, causing him to instinctively bring the weapons almost to eye level. Standing there for a moment in the barely illuminated room, Subaru listened intently to the sound, his rapidly increasing breast being the only other sound in the empty space.

After what seemed like an eternity the sound became clearer it was the sound of a struggle, loud bangs and scratches accompanied by the distinct yet muffled yells of someone in great distress, these sounds were quickly followed by a series of loud of otherworldly bang noises, a sound that Subaru seems to recognise, each subsequent bang causing Subaru to clutch the plasma cutter even tighter in his grip.

After several minutes of listening intently to the sound, Subaru found that it was coming from behind a door that we was labelled "Tram Control Access" However much to his slight relief and annoyance, the door seemed to be locked up tight, most likely as a result of the deck wide lockdown that was an effect. however a bright object next to the door immediately caught Subaru's attention.

"Wait a sec... is that an exposed power capacitor" Despite there being no one to answer Subaru's question, his mind immediately began to race in regards to the brightly illuminated and dangerously exposed power capacitor.

"Power... capacitor?" Anastasia rolled the strange world around her mouth for a moment, her eyes growing wider and wider by the second, as the prospect of learning about a piece of this world technology became clear in her mind.

"Whatever it is, it looks kind of dangerous Nayh~" despite not knowing whatever this power capacitor actually was, Felix could feel every animalistic Instinct in his body telling him that it was completely dangerous to be near that thing, in fact the hair on the back of his neck and the hair on his tail standing up on it's ends, which considering how really that ever happened, really showed just how dangerous are objects really was

"Yeah, I agree Felix on this one, whatever that thing is it's clearly dangerous" Julius chimed in, being the ever observant night that he was, he had immediately noticed the danger signs dotted around the strange object as well as the discarded protective plating that now lied on the floor, which indicated him, that despite one of the function it served, this power capacitor was clearly dangerous, if it needed that many warning labels as well as thick metal plating for protection.

"I must agree with both of you, but that still begs the question, how exactly is Subaru planning on using such a dangerous object like that, and how is it ultimately going to help him in this situation?" Reinhard's question rattled around in everyone's minds for a moment, after all it was quite the present question at the current moment.

"Ultimately I don't really think it matters I suppose, this is my contractor were talking about" Beatrice said with an indignant huff, finding the idea that her contractor didn't know what he was doing even in this new and strange world simply insulting, both to his intelligence and her own, after all out of every other person in the world that she could have chosen, she chose him to be her contractor and no one else.

"Miss Beatrice is right, despite his incompetence, Barusu is certainly smarter than he seems, especially in life or death situations like this one" Ram as much as she didn't want to compliment Subaru on anything, even she had to admit that is ability to get out of life or death situations, was certainly one of his most unique traits, and of course that was without the ability of return by death.

"Sister is right, my beloved Subaru will make it through this" Rem positively beamed, her cheeks reading slightly as the thought of a strong and handsome Subaru entertain mind, her words what also accompanied by a groan from the far back of the theatre, that sounded suspiciously like a certain helmeted knight.

"I suppose you're right, Subaru has demonstrated in the past that he can take care of himself, even without return by death, so please forgive my worry" Reinhard said apologetically, of course everyone could understand why he was so concerned, considering that despite having seen very little of this new and strange world, it been made very apparent very quickly, that death seemed to be lurking around every corner in this new world, just waiting to sink it's dark and rotten claws into Subaru and never let go.

"Why must you always do this I suppose, getting yourself into trouble like this" Beatrice's voice quivered slightly, tears beginning to form in the corner of her eyes, her butterfly shaped pupils beginning to become hazy. As the tears began to flow freely from her eyes, after everything her contract had been through, all of the death and suffering that he had witnessed and experienced. It seemed that there was no peace for him, even in this new and strange world. but that wasn't the part that made her sad though. It was the fact that despite his promise to always be there with her until his last breath, that he would spend as much of his limited lifespan with her as possible, that promise had been broken seemingly through no fault of his own.

"Beatrice my dear. . . it's unladylike to cry you know" Beatrice felt her heart stop in an incident, the colour draining from her face, as her pupils turned into pin pricks. The voice was unmistakably "hers", a voice that she desperately never wanted to hear again but at the same time was secretly longing for. Her grip on her contractor tightened as the presence behind her became more and more pronounced, a vaguely feminine shape shadow falling over both her and her sleeping contractor.

"Beatrice... I always taught that it's rude not to say hello to people, when they introduce themselves" the voice sounded off again, this time much closer, so close in fact that Beatrice could feel its breath on the back of her neck, causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on ends, and goosebumps to be in the form all all over her body. And by this point all other sounds in the theatre have been drowned out, the voices of her friends and the other camps all completely silent.

"Beatrice. . . look at me when I'm talking to you young lady" by this point the voice was almost in her ear, it was exactly how Beatrice remembered her voice, yet somehow it was completely different, as if something was using the voice to speak to her. And by now Beatrice was uncontrollably shaking, and despite Subaru being twice her size, she had pulled his entire body into hers, holding on to him with such a grip that she was certain he would have a couple cracked and broken ribs.

"Y-Y-you're not H-H-here, you C-can't be here" The words practically fell out of her mouth, her usual verbal tic, completely absent as her face had gone completely bone-white. The butterfly shapes in her pupils being almost non-existent, due to how small and dilated they actually were. And despite not believing she could, she was practically sweating bullets now, with the shaking of her body reaching a point where it almost resembled full-body convulsions.

"Of course I'm here my dear, I came all this way just to see" Beatrice was completely rooted to the spot, everything else around her except her contractor now faded from existence, leaving Beatrice completely alone with this thing that used "her" voice.

"I'm right behind you my dear Beatrice. . . reaching out. . . closer and closer. . ." Beatrice could feel the presence behind her, the voice despite being "hers" now having an almost demonic / sinister edge to it.

"Beatrice my dear. . . MaKe Us WhOlE" As those words left its mouth , she felt it for the briefest of moments, a hand of pure death reached out for her, it's cold, slimy and rotten skin making contact with her shoulder, Beatrice wanted to scream but she couldn't, as the hand remained there for a moment, before the malevolent presence leaned in and whispered directly into her ear .

"You cannot save him, he will make us whole" with those final words Beatrice finally found the energy to scream, a screamed so powerful and blood-curdling, that could only be born from absolute pure terror.

Everyone looked at Beatrice in surprise and horror, as the great spirit screamed at the top of her lungs, her face completely bone white, a river of tears streaming down her face, her eyes were unfocused and her pupils were tiny little pinpricks. But after a moment her scream finally came to an end, leaving the theatre in an shocked and uneasy silence, the only sound audible being the quiet hiccups and sobs of the great spirit, as she buried her face into the sleeping Subaru's chest, further quieting her hiccups and sobs.

"B-Beatrice!?" Emilia wasted no time in getting her feet, and rushing over to the little spirit, who was still sobbing into the sleeping Subaru's chest, quickly Emilia was joined by other members of her camp, with Frederica and Garfiel coming to flank her sides, looking down at the emotionally broken spirit with a large amount of concern.

The group of concerned onlookers quickly expanded with the arrival of Wilhelm, Felix, Crusch, Reinhard and finally Julius, all of them looking on with concern as the little spirit continued to emotionally break down. But as much as they were concerned for the little spirit, there was also a great amount of surprise considering the unexpected nature of her outburst, in fact it simply came out of nowhere. but for Crusch, in particular she felt her blood run cold slightly, because this exact same thing happened to Wilhelm no more than a few minutes ago, but as the green haired duchess thought about it more she felt her blood run even colder as realisation hit her fully, something very similar had happened to her at the very beginning of the viewing, although, she had experienced some kind of horrifying vision. Something that disturb her to a very core, and at that very moment a horrifying possibility crossed her mind, that maybe Wilhelm and Beatrice had both experienced something similar to what she had, something so horrifying and disturbing that it could crumble away even the toughest emotional facades.

"Beatrice. . . Beatrice what's wrong?" Emilia's words failed to reach the little spirit, the only words that she would utter between her muffled cries and sobs, what almost unintelligible, only certain words such as "no it's not her. . ." "she can't be here. . ."

Emilia looked and everyone else that was gathered around, hoping that somebody would be able to figure out exactly what was wrong with Beatrice, yet everyone else was in much the same boat as she was. Simply looking on with concern and confusion about the little spirit's sudden emotional outburst. and finally with no one else to turn to, she decided it was time to ask the person that was in charge of all of this.

"Mr warden, please. . . P-please tell us what's wrong with Beatrice!?" As soon as the words left Emilia's mouth, the scream came to a halt, the screen now consisting of a still image of Subaru aiming his strange weapon at the equally strange device on the wall. And for just a moment Emilia and everyone else could have sworn they felt something be lifted from the room, as if the pausing of the screen had momentarily lifted some overwhelmingly powerful oppressive force from the room.

Damn it!

The voice of the Warden made itself known for the first time since the viewing began, but instead of the almost cocky tone that the voice had before. This time it sounded infuriated and possibly even a bit worried, which considering the Warden's power, if he was worried then that could possibly not bode well for the rest of them.

I don't have a clue what's wrong with her, but I have a suspicion, and I hope to all that is good and decent that I'm wrong

the warden's words sent a shiver down everyone's spine, a strange foreboding atmosphere overtaking the room, as everyone contemplated exactly what he had just said.

"For the love of the Dragon! why can't you just tell us what the hell is the matter!?" Felt piped up, surprising some of the loudness and intensity of her voice, but also getting a round of knobs and everyone else, because of her ineloquently summing up everyone's feelings about the matter.

"I must agree with the young lady, I believe it's in our best interest to know exactly what is the matter" Wilhelm like everyone else was concerned for the little spirit, but was also growing quite tired of the Wardens confrontational and avoided nature when answering questions.

"Yeah the sword demons right, just stop being so cryptic, and tell us exactly the hell is going on!" Garfiel used his usual loud tone of voice, agreeing completely with Wilhelm, regarding the warden's refusal to elaborate and answer basic questions.

For a long drawn-out moment everyone looked at the screen expectedly, hoping that the warden would give some explanation of his cryptic words, yet as the seconds ticked by, curiosity quickly gave way to frustration, as the warden didn't say anything in response.

"No answer, why am I not surprised" Priscilla sneered, which was accompanied by the sharp cracking sound of her fan closing abruptly, as she stared daggers at the screen, hoping that her murderous gaze would find the presents of the warden.

"I hate to say, but I agree with princess bitch over there" Felt said with a sigh, meanwhile causing the redhead princess to level a gaze at the young blonde, that had such an intensity that it could most likely melt its way through solid metal.

"Princess she's just a kid, don't let it get under your-" Al's words were silenced by a fiery hot glare that Priscilla sent his way, causing the helmeted man to get back into his seat. Looking directly forward as sweat begins to manifest on his arms and presumably his face.

"What did you just call me runt?" Even the strongest people in the room couldn't help but shiver at the Malice and hate dripping from the redhead princesses words. As Priscilla and Felt's gazes crossed each other, and much to the little blonde's credit, she didn't seem intimidated in the slightest, her facial expression looking calm and collected with possibly just a little bit of smugness thrown in.

"Maybe if you clean the crap out of your ears, you might hear me next time" Felt words were harsh and to the point, as Priscilla had finally marched her way over to the little blonde, bending over to look at the little blonde square in the eyes, both of their faces many inches apart. But even then, much to everyone's surprise, Felt did not back down or buckle under Priscilla's harsh and fiery gaze, simply holding her ground against the larger and angrier woman.

"I think it's time someone gave you a lesson runt!" Priscilla's suddenly took on almost murderer tone, as much to everyone to shock and horror as she began to summon has Sword of Fire. One of the seven legendary swords from the time of the great calamity, a sword that was said to be so powerful that it could completely erase someone from existence with just a single strike. However, before Reinhard or anyone else could jump to intervene, the sword stopped manifesting much to Priscilla surprise and infatuation, as a voice that had not been heard some start of the altercation made itself known.

Priscilla if you try and summon that fucking sword one more time, I'm going to make sure you'll regret it!

The wardens voice spoke out, much to everyone's surprise, with the voice having an obviously angry tone to it , which caused everyone to look at the screen as if compel by some strange force, even Priscilla was not immune, her anger fuel attempt at murder brought to a halt as she was forcefully made to look at the screen.

Ok now that I've got your attention, listen closely, because I won't be repeating myself, to answer your first question I don't know exactly what is causing this, what is happening to the little spirit is nothing that I'm doing. Of course I have my suspicions about what could be causing this, and if I am correct then I pray to whatever deity is listening, that all of you can make it through this in one piece, both physically and mentally.

"Hmmm I woooonder what you meeeeeean by that exactly~" Roswaal spoke for the first time since the viewing had began, his voice causing many to look at him in surprise, simply because they have forgotten he was even there, the clown faced magician however ignore these looks, instead deeply intrigued by what exactly the warden could possibly mean.

"I don't know why you don't just come out and tell us right away, even if it's just a hunch," Ram set with a huff, evidently annoyed at the warden's refusal to be completely straightforward with them.

"Sister is right, why not just tell us exactly what you think it is, even if it may not be the correct answer?" Rem followed up her sister's enquiry, causing many to nod in agreement with the blue haired demon maid.

"Rem and Ram are right, it would be for the best if you just tell us what your hypothesis is, even if it's potentially not correct" Frederica chimed in still trying to calm Beatrice, who threw all of this had remained as an emotional wreck.

Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. . .

The warden's voice trailed off for a moment, seemingly trying to collect his own thoughts, or maybe trying to think of the correct way to explain what he was about to explain.

I can't give away too much, unfortunately that's above my paygrade, but let's just say that there is something truly malevolent on that ship, something that has a singular drive, a singular will to eradicate and consume all living life in the universe. . .

Everyone was left completely speechless, completely blindsided by what the warden have just told them, even people like Crusch and Roswaal found their Jaws hitting the floor, the true gravity of the situation and the danger they were in finally dawning on them.

"I don't see what the problem is, you're all powerful and that crap, why can't you just stop it" Garfield said obviously much to everyone's surprise and frustration, the young beast boys seemingly not acknowledging the gravity of the warden's words.

that's the thing fuzzball, I have power that is beyond all of your comprehension, but even me with all of that stupid power, thing can't hope to do a damn thing against that vile thing

Everyone felt a chill run down their spine, not because of anything the warden had actually said, but simply because of the town he had used. It was completely and utterly dead face serious, would maybe just tiny bit of fear laced in there, and that was what caused everyone to feel a shudder. Because after all, if a being like the warden was afraid of whatever this thing truly was, then it must have been an entity that was completely beyond mortal comprehension.

"What exactly is this thing you're referring to, and how powerful is it truly, if it's influence across the boundaries of reality itself. . ." Crusch managed to keep her voice calm and even, yet everyone around her in particular Felix and Wilhelm could see that it was a very good but ultimately flawed façade, considering that her leg was beginning to twitch uncontrollably.

"How is something like that even possible?" Julius couldn't help but feel his mind begin to spin, over the past couple hours his view and scope of what was reality had expanded 10 times over, but now it just got an even bigger, and to think that there were things out there even more powerful than the Divine dragon and even scarier possibly more powerful then Od Laguna itself.

Unfortunately my purple haired friend, even if I was able to answer that question, it's probably for the best and your continued sanity, that I don't answer that question, but anyway I think we've been travelling down this side track for a bit too long

With those words everyone suddenly realised that the screen, that have been showing them Subaru's adventure through a dark and demented world had been paused this entire time. Image of his strange weapon at the glowing box on the wall having been there this entire time, as such everyone begins to shuffle back towards their seats. Although this time with a few different arrangements, Rinehart and Felt out of common courtesy had moved back of row, allowing the entire Emilia camp to sit together as one group. This also incidentally put Reinhard and Felt in the same row as Wilhelm, Felix and Crusch, the row was also shared by Roswaal, the only member of the Emilia camp to not move seats. Simply because everyone excluding Ram sent him a vicious death glare, before he could even think about moving seats. and with a sigh the magician stayed where he was, on the fire end of the road away from the other group of inhabitants.

Reinhart and Wilhelm looked uneasy as they locked eyes of each other, both of them sitting directly next to each other. Reinhard desperately wanted to say something to his grandfather but simply couldn't bring himself to, Wilhelm was in much the same boat, desperately wanting to say something that could possibly begin to mend the burnt bridge that was between them, yet his own cowardice won out, so both Astrea's simply sat there in uneasy silence, both of their cowardice wishing that the other would say something first.

ok, is everyone ready to begin again?

Nobody said anything simply looking at the screen of a mixture of thoughts and feelings, ranging from determination to see this through to the very end, all the way to disgust at having to watch more and be in the same room as peasants.

ok then, here we go

The screen came to life again, the still image of Subaru now moving again, aimed directly at the strange glowing box, for a moment he held his aim, the weapon in his hands noticeably shaking, as he made sure that he was aimed dead centre on the strange glowing object, and with a slight exhale and a simple pull of the trigger the weapon fired. Releasing a brilliant sapphire blue beam of pure energy that quickly covers the distance between the weapon and the glowing box. And upon contact it causes the box to blow up in a brilliant shower of sparks and arcing electricity, that after a moment dissipates, leaving a small fire in the centre of the box where arcing and deadly electricity had been moments ago.

"Holy crap! did you just see that!?" Garfiel exclaimed excitedly, completely enamoured by the strange and almost otherworldly powerful weapon that Subaru was now wielding.

"Such power! that things could easily penetrate even the heaviest and thickest plate armour!" Julius couldn't believe his eyes, he had assumed given the weapons relatively small size, probably couldn't have done as much damage as he was expecting, but no it did almost twice as much as he was expecting, the entire box that has the glowing object that had been pristine moments ago, was now nothing more than a melted and burnt pile of scrap, and Julius couldn't help but think, is this is what one of the hand-held weapons of this world could do, what kind of destruction could a heavy weapon from this world possibly accomplish?

"I want one! I want one now!" Anastasia screamed with almost a school girl like glee, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and filled with stars, as she finally got to see a piece of this world's technology in action, and if her expression was anything to go by she wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

"Such power, I shudder to think what an entire armies worth of those weapons could do" Crusch being the military minded woman she was , could we already see the tactical value of such a weapon on the battlefield, especially if it was employed in a vast number, in fact the weapons seems to have an almost identical effect albeit at a much smaller scale, as the mana based magic cannons that troops under her command employed in the battle against the white whale. which made of the green haired dutchess think, that despite being impossibly advanced compared to her own world, maybe this strange world weaponry worked using the same fundamentals as her own world.

With the power capacitor now destroyed, the locked message that had been on the doors glowing panel moments ago, quickly fizzled out, being replaced by the match more familiar and hopeful blue open symbol. Which in turn caused Subaru to let out a sigh of relief, however his relief was short-lived as the banging and commotion on the other side of the door louder and more frantic, which was now accompanied by audible shouts to help.

"Let's get this over with" Subaru steeled himself, clutching the weapon closer to his body, as he tentatively held out his hand to the symbol on the door, after a moment the door let out a strange electronic buzz, followed by the loud mechanical sound of its mechanism beginning to open.

Before Subaru could even react, the door was pushed open with such speed that the mechanism failed, with a loud grinding sound being heard as the doors gears ground against each other. And what weighed Subaru on the other side was something that he'd expected yet wasn't fully prepared for, a half dismembered man that was only just clinging to life, and one of those things standing over him. Blood and viscera dripping from the massive body blades that made up it's arms, the man court notice of Subaru's presents first. And despite being at death's door managed to reach out one of his dismembered arms, in one last attempt at salvation, this however drew the attention of the creature which caused it to turn its horrifyingly mutated and butylated face towards Subaru. Its eyes glowing a sickening yellow colour, and before Subaru reacted the monster jumped at him letting out a primal cry of rage, blood bubbling up from its half gouged out throat, as it threw itself at Subaru.

"AHHHHHH SHIT!" Subaru screamed as the creature leapt at him, luckily Subaru the slightly quicker managing to jump out of the monsters path, as it landed on the floor with a wet loud thump, however the creature quickly recovered using it boney sword light arms to push itself upright, as it began to advance towards Subaru again raising one of its horrifying appendages up into the air, intent on not missing this time.

Subaru, as if by reflex, quickly aimed down the sight of his weapon and quickly pulled the trigger, sending forth another bright blue sapphire beam of energy, the beam connected directly with the monster's shoulder, severing its arm in one clean shot. The monster left out of scream agony, as blood shot out of the now vacant stump where its arm had been moments ago. And as the monster let out another scream of agony, Subaru did not give it the chance to recover, pulling the trigger again, his second shot hitting the monster in the upper torso area. Completely eviscerating its chest, causing the monster to scream again, and another shot was fired, this time at the lower body, the beam connecting with the pelvis of the creature completely taking one of its legs off. Causing the creature to fall onto its front, letting out another scream of pure agony as sickly rotten blood continues to form a puddle beneath the flailing creature. And after a couple long and tense moments, the creature's agony fuelled screams seemed to slow down, eventually turning into nothing more than goggled whimpers, as the creature simply lost the energy to continue due to its blood loss.

Subaru look down at the creature, the look on his face was hard to describe, it was almost a weird mix of anger and frustration mixed with fear and terror, which wasn't helped by the hard and laboured breath that were emanating from his helmet. Yet much to his horror the creature after all of that punishment, was still not dead, now using its one remaining arm to try and pull itself towards him.

Subaru quickly aimed his weapon at the creature again, however the holographic screen that had shown a number before was now flashing yellow and red, now reading the number 3. Subaru look out a curse under his breath, seeing that his plasma cutter was always out of energy, however has the creature continued to slowly approach, a thought suddenly occurred to Subaru, which despite his helmet being on the way it was obvious that his face had gone almost pale green combined with a look of pure disgust,

And with his mind made up Subaru waited for the right moment, as the creature finally made it to within striking distance, it weekly and feebly raising its arm behind its head to try and dismember the mean eyed engineer. However before the creature could even pull it all the way back, Subaru did something unexpected, as with one quick brutal and fluid motion. He brought his foot up into the air and brought it down on the creature's skull, the force was so much that the skull completely exploded on Impact, sending blood, brain matter and other rotten bodily fluids flying in all directions. It's raised arm hanging there for a moment before going limp and falling down hitting the floor with a loud squelch sound. And as that sound faded, the only sound that replaced was the quiet almost inaudible rumble of some distant piece of machinery, and the loud and laboured breaths of Subaru, as he looked down speechless at the creature he had just brutally dismembered.

Despite most people in the room being accustomed to violence and blood, the way that Subaru dispatched the creature was certainly a shock to all. The true power of his weapon, having been shown briefly before, was now put on full display. In fact it was fair to say that the weapon was horrifyingly powerful, with its ability to completely amputate limbs in just one shot.

"Subaru. . ." Emilia couldn't quite believe what she had just seen, the very same Subaru that found it hard to hurt other living beings, had just completely eviscerated one of those twisted Monsters without a second thought, and the way he finished it off would be something that would be forever scarred into her memory.

Rem didn't say anything, although considering that her face was slightly pale with an obvious shocked expression, it was obvious to tell that, she was just a surprised at Subarus execution of the monster as everyone else was, in fact she couldn't quite believe it simply because Subaru was the kind of person that founded extremely hard to hurt and possibly kill anyone, even if they were his enemies. It was one of the things that made him different from her, she was perfectly willing to snuff out other people's life essence, if it meant protecting the ones that she loved and furthering her own goals.

Oh dragon . . " Was all that Frederica could say in response, to the horrifying imagery that she had just been witness to. Throughout the entire thing she had wanted to look away, yet some small dark and twisted part of herself could have a look away, forcing her to watch with a little bit of sick curiosity as the creature's life was extinguished.

Roswaal looked at the screen with mild surprise, the fact that this future version of Subaru was so willing to take another life, even if it was a twisted horrifying abomination, was certainly something at the clown faced magician found surprising, but at the same time it also cause the gears of his mind that begin to turn, already beginning to incorporate this new Subaru related knowledge into his plan of ultimately resurrecting his teacher.

"I think I'm going to be sick Nayh~" Felix grumbled quietly to himself, despite being a healer and therefore having seen his fair share of blood and gore, even his iron stomach had a limit, and watching someone's foot stomp down on somethings head is so much force that it brains exploded, was just too much

"D-damn that's gross!" Felt turned her head away at the very last moment not actually witnessing the creature's head explode, yet the horrifying squelch / popping sound it made was enough to make her gag.

Much like everyone else, Reinhard did find the way at Subaru dispatch the creature to be a little bit disgusting. However the fact that the creature had its head exploded by Subaru's metal boot wasn't the part that disturbed him, it was the fact that Subaru, someone that was unequivocally the most caring and compassionate person that the sword Saint had ever met. Was the one that had taken the creature's life, it sent his mind reeling at the fact that his friend was capable of taking the life of another. Even if it could not be called a human being anymore, it was still enough to show Reinhard that this Subaru was not the one that he remembered, this Subaru was one that had been tainted by the dark and twisted world that he now resided in.

"I see, so that's how it is" Wilhelm said dejectedly, letting out a sigh as he watched his surrogate grandson take the life of another being, and despite it being a twisted abomination, it was still a life taken nonetheless, it also made Wilhelm realise much like Reinhard had moments ago, that this future Subaru was not the same loving and caring young man that he had come to know. The signs were there from the beginning, but it was only now they realised just how different this Subaru truly was. The fact that he was willing to kill the twisted abomination to prolong its own life, was the final nail in the coffin

"Damn, probably the first of many" Al's voice was slightly muffled by his helmet, yet the emotion in his voice was clear for everyone to read, even if that thing was no longer a human being, it was still alive taken and once you took your first it was likely you would take another.

"Humph! about time the peasant took matters into his own hands" was all that Priscilla said in response to the gruesome imagery, using her fan to block the lower half of her face, which unbeknownst to anyone, had formed into a slight grimace, because even in all of her time overseeing executions and gladiatorial championships, even her own stomach was not quite up to the task of seeing a such a gruesome execution.

"Oh dragon. . ." Crusch managed to say from gritted teeth, bringing a hand up to her mouth to try and contain the bile that was rising in her throat. She was no stranger to blood and gore herself as a result of her military background, and the fact that one of my closest friends was a healer, yet to see something's head explode almost like it was a water filled balloon. It was something that even her iron stomach just couldn't handle, however despite the actual act itself being sickening to watch. The fact that Subaru, of all people, was the one responsible for the creature's death was the biggest shock to her, in the short amount of time she'd come to know the young man, it was made very apparent to her. That Subaru was the kind of man that found it difficult to take another's life, even if they weren't an enemy standing in his way. In fact it was fair to say that it was one of the things she secretly admired about him, the fact that unlike her, he didn't need to make other's lives a living hell or even end them to achieve his goals. Which is why watching his older and more broken self take the life of another, even if it was an abomination, disturbs her greatly.

After staring at his handiwork for a moment, Subaru was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by a loud wet cough, and looking up from the dead monster Subaru's eyes widened as his gaze fell upon the half eviscerated man, that against all of the odds was still just clinging to life.

Wasting no time Subaru quickly rushed over to the man, fumbling around with the plasma cutter before quickly camping it to his belt, before he bent down to look at the man. But as he did so Subaru felt his stomach lurch, because the man for all intents and purposes was completely gutted. His entire chest cavity was almost completely carved open, much like the original owner of the plasma cutter, yet despite all that the man was somehow still alive. His exposed heart beating slowly as another cough exited his throat, Subaru continued to stare at the man not sure which was the most terrifying aspect, the fact that the man had literally been gutted like a fish or that despite his injuries he was somehow still alive.

However Subaru's thoughts were suddenly cut short, as the man quickly grabbed Subaru's arm, looking directly into his eyes. Again Subaru couldn't bring himself to say anything, the men's eyes were filled with a maelstrom of emotions, fear, horror, anger, frustration, Sadness, agony and finally acceptance. Subaru remained still for a moment having now taken the man's hand into his own. As life slowly began to leave the man's eyes, his breathing and blood filled coughs became less and less frequent, as his heart finally beat to a stop. The life completely leaving the man's eyes has his grip on Subaru's hand tightened for a moment, before slowly going limp and falling to the cold hard metal floor.

Despite the grimness of the situation, many couldn't help but appreciate that despite the fact he had changed, it seemed that Subaru's compassionate side was still there, buried deep down but still there nonetheless.

"A very honourable thing to do young Subaru" Wilhelm murmured, as the act brought him back to his younger years, remembering the many compatriot, friends, companions and even enemies that he had done the same for on the battlefield, giving them one final piece before they depart it into the great beyond.

Emilia didn't say anything out loud, instead clasping her hands in front of her face and giving out a silent prayer to the deceased man, hoping that his spirit will find peace in the great beyond.

Garfiel looked at the screen in surprise, before it melted into a look of confirmation, despite many things about his captain changing, ultimately it seemed that even in this strange and unfamiliar world he was still the same caring man he always had then.

Otto thought much the same as blonde hair friend, making its way onto his slightly pale face, as despite many things about him changing, it seems that Subaru was still the same caring person.

With the man now deceased, Subaru closed his eyes letting out a quiet prayer in his native Japanese, and after a moment of silence Subaru opened his eyes again, getting up from his blood drenched knees. And turned his attention to the dark and ominous looking corridor that presented itself to him, pulling the plasma cutter from his belt and gripping it typed in his shaking hands, he quickly but cautiously made his way down the corridor, his eyes scanning the walls and notably the vent covers that line to the ceiling. Noticing that the corridor quickly came to a sharp bend, Subaru stopped and quietly and cautiously poked his head around the corner, his eyes immediately widening as the sight of an illuminated doorway filled his Vision, the sign above it reading "Tram control access corridor"

"Maybe I can contact Hammond and Kendra, from the tram control access Booth'' Subaru muttered quietly to himself, as he quickened his pace towards the door. And despite there being no barrier, he couldn't help but breathe a little sigh of relief, and his entire body was lit up by the bright almost blinding fluorescent lights above the doorway.

Putting his hand out, the door quickly responded, the hologram on the front disappearing, as the lock mechanism began to undo itself, before the door slid sideways clearing the way while also making a horrifying screeching noise in the process, as if its mechanism had been poorly maintained for a while. And with the tram access corridor now in view on the other side Subaru went to step through the open doorway. However he was stopped in his tracks as he heard a sound directly behind him, a sound. . . no more like a horrifyingly familiar voice that made his entire body go rigid and his blood run cold.

"Subaru. . ." despite being barely above a whisper, the voice seemed to echo throughout the entire ship, let alone the corridor, and despite there being no follow up to the voice. Subaru began to sweat profusely, and even with his eyes being unfocused and hazy, it was evident that they were full of terror and fear at what was behind him. And even with every Instinct in his body telling him not to turn around, Subaru began to slowly turn his head, however as if given the strength by God himself he's stopped turning his head midway. The periphery of vision only just being able to see behind him, as the plasma cutter was thrown from his hand by their shaking, making a loud clattering noise as it hit the floor.

"SUBARU!" the voice spoke directly into Subarus ear, it was still simultaneously barely audible, yet at the same time loud enough to make Subaru almost jump 10 feet in the air, making him with his entire body around to see what was behind him, however much to his horror nothing but a dimly illuminated hallway presented itself

"What the actual crap was that!?" Felt exclaimed, hers along with everyone else's confusion being very palpable, after wit"What the actual crap was that!?" Felt exclaimed, hers along with everyone else's confusion being very palpable, after witnessing the strange and slightly terrifying event on screen.

"Ha~ maybe he's finally losing his mind" Ram said with her usual mocking tone, yet to a select few it was obvious just how unnerved she truly was, at the events that have just happened on screen.

"Shut it Ram! that's not funny!" Garfiel shouted, being one of the only ones that didn't quite understand, that the joke at Subaru's expense had been purely to try and lightEN and the atmosphere of the room, after the strange event on screen.

"Miss Frederica, is Big Brother Subaru ok?" Petra asked worriedly, her young face full of concern and worry for the mean eyed boy that she viewed as a big brother. Frederica meanwhile looked at her apprehensively, desperately trying to think of something that would console the young girl.

"I'm sure H-he's fine Petra, maybe he's just very tired and. . . T-therefore his mind is playing tricks on him" it was a complete blatant and bold faced lie, that made Frederica feel absolutely horrible inside. but Frederica I knew it was for the best to lie, and try and preserve what little of the girl's youthful Innocence was actually left.

"What could possibly be. . ." Crusch didn't even get the chance to finish her sentence, as realisation hit her like a freight train moving at full bore, causing her eyes to grow as wide as dinner plates and her face to go completely pale. Subaru just had a hallucination, although it was only an auditory hallucination, it was still really similar to one she had at the beginning of the viewing, and connecting the dots based on what the warden have said and her own hallucination, caused her face to go even more pale if that was possible.

Emilia meanwhile simply stared at the screen, her face completely bone white, her eyes as wide as physically possible, despite the numerous cause of concern being thrown away she didn't respond, her mind replaying a single phrase over and over again, it can't be… it can't be!. . . it can't be!

"Lady Emilia! Is everything alright?" Frederica tried like many others to get a response out of the half elf, who was currently almost in a comatose state, quietly muttering to herself about something that was too quiet to make out.

"N-n-No I-it can't be. . . that voice. . .i-it S-S-sounded just like. . . J-J-just like. . ." Emilia couldn't bring herself to say it, despite the connection her mind already made regarding the hallucinatory voice, she simply couldn't spit it out, as if the act of saying it out loud with cement the confirmation in her mind.

"Lady Emilia, you need to compose yourself and stop muttering like a mad woman" since every other avenue of trying to snap Emilia out of her daze didn't work, Ram decided to try a different approach, using her famous / infamous blunt tongue, hoping that would break the half elf out of her stupor.

"But it was. . . is this most definitely-" Emilia didn't get a chance to finish her stuttering words, as something quickly grab onto her sleeve, giving it a gentle but firm tug, causing Emilia to look down her eyes still wide with horrified realisation, only just seen that Beatrice had released one of her arms from embracing Subaru, and was now looking up at her, the exact look on her face was hard to describe, but for some inexplicable reason it seemed to calm Emilia down, the rational part of her brain taking over again, as her breathing and heart rate slowed back show a much more normal pace.

Everyone in the Emilia camp and a few outside of it, latte out a collective sigh of relief, forward seems that Emilia had calmed down thanks to the intervention of Beatrice, however many was still confused why exactly she is suddenly become so emotional, regarding the hallucination that the on-screen Subaru have just had, only a select few including roswaal, Crusch, Wilhelm and Beatrice herself had realised exactly why Emilia had reacted the way she had, Roswaal was indifferent about it, simply finding it slightly amusing that this strange malevolent entity that the warden have spoke off, was using those kinds of tactics against Subaru, Crusch and Wilhelm on the other hand were both horrified once the realisation hit them, the fact that Subaru was hallucinating her of all people was something that was truly horrifying to imagine. Beatrice was also horrified upon realising exactly what her contractor had just heard, but also managed to keep her composure, realising Emilia was in great distress, regarding the supposed identity of the hallucinatory voice.

"I hope you are better now, I suppose" Beatrice's voice was barely above a whisper, yet Emilia nodded her head, sending a thankful look towards the little spirit, which Beatrice reciprocated, by opening up a spot next to the sleeping Subaru, sing this opportunity Emilia quickly dived in like a rabbit animal, clutching one of Subarus limp arms in her embrace, holding onto it like it was a lifeline that would disappear any moment.

Subaru looked around, his loud and laboured breaths echoing from his helmet, as his eyes darted around the darkened corridor, looking for whatever it was that was just behind him. Yet after an apprehensive moment, no abomination or twisted monster revealed itself, which had the exact opposite effect on Subaru. Causing his pupils to shrink even further, as he quickly scooped the plasma cutter up in his hands, before turning and bolting through the door, the door now slamming shut behind him,

With a door now between him and whatever the hell that thing was, Subaru let out a shaky breath, his back now leaning against the door, as the strength slowly left his legs, causing him to slide down the door, his rear end making contact with the cold metal floor of the ship. And that's where he sat for a moment, his breathing slowly returning to normal, as he simply looked up at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused and unreadable. The hallway was too quiet, not even the distant rumble of some large piece of machinery could be heard anymore, so it was completely and utterly silent, the only sound disturbing the silence being Subaru's slow and now calm breaths, yet that quickly gave way to a new sound, it was the sound of quiet sobbing, that quickly turned into full-on crying, since boarding the ship Subaru shakily press one of the holographic buttons on his wrist, his helmet quickly splitting into two parts, before folding themselves up and being stored in the front and back pieces of his engineering. And with his face now exposed to the world, Subaru brought his hands up to his face, openly crying into his palms, crusty and dry blood that have covered his face and hands, beginning to turn liquid again as it mixed with his tears, before proceeding to run down his face and soaked in his palms.

"S-Subaru. . ." Rem was close to tears herself, watching the man she had fallen in love with, the man that she looked up to as a true hero breakdown in such a way was, was equally as horrifying to watch a second time, yet unlike the first time she was not there to help him, she could not give him a pep talk or any kind of comfort, all she could do was sit here and watch him cry his heart out, with no one around the comfort him or help him.

"C-come on cap, W-W-what was all that S-stuff about being S-strong" Garfiel tried but couldn't keep his voice steady, feeling the corners of his eyes starting to moisten slightly. As he did everything in his power to not cry, after all to his own mind only babies and weaklings ever cried, yet try as he might, the tears continue to form eventually threatening to leak from the corners of his eyes. So in one last desperate attempt to stop them from falling, he bit into his own lip, the force combined with his sharp razor-like teeth instantly drawing blood, yet even that did not stop the tears from falling down his face. Watching the man he looked up to, quite literally break down with something that he never thought he would see, and something he didn't want to see.

"How did you end up like this I suppose?" Beatrice said quietly, looking down at the calm and sleeping face of her contractor, her mind struggling and failing to find a reason for why he would end up in such a state, yet if his internal monologue just now was anything to go by, she could safely with a slightly sad and expression, that however he got to the strange and alien world it clearly wasn't a pleasant experience , seemingly changing his personality and leaving an everlasting scar on it.

Emilia couldn't say anything, simply cradling Subaru's limp arm in her grasp, tears freely flowing down her face, as she took in just how emotionally damaged and vulnerable this future Subaru truly was. which was truly saying something, considering that Subaru was already emotionally damage to some degree, as a result of the numerous horrifying deaths he had experienced at the hands of that despicable which and the curse of return by death she placed upon him.

"Mr Natsuki. . .'' Otto tried hard as he could, but he couldn't hold back the tears. This wasn't the first time he had seen Subaru have a breakdown, he could still remember the time that Subaru seemingly just deflated both in body and spirit. Of course at the time, he had assumed that it was simply Subaru's nerves getting the better of him, but with the added context of actually seen from Subarus perspective. He was both surprised and horrified, to learn the true events that cause that breakdown, yet watching this older Subaru literally crack, was perhaps the most disturbing thing you've ever seen. This Subaru was truly defeated and broken beyond repair, which made the grey haired merchant sick and twisted curiosity run rampant, as to just how exactly Subaru of all people end up like this?

"M-miss Frederica, S-S-Subaru's crying" Petra managed to utter through her own tears, as she clung to the blonde haired maid for dear life.

I know Petra. . . I know" Was all that Frederica could say in response, simply bringing the young crying girl closer into her embrace. But despite her words lacking, her mind was racing, because even with all of the twisted horror and numerous deaths Subaru had suffered, that was not enough to break his spirit, he kept pushing forward no matter what. In fact not even death itself could stop him from achieving his goals, it was one of the things that she secretly admired about Subaru, the fact that he could keep pushing forward, even after all of the twisted horror and torment he had been put through. Yet to see him like this so broken and defeated, with no seeming way to get back up again was quite disturbing, in fact it was fair to say that it was a cold hard slap from reality itself. Reminding her that this teenage boy, she secretly admired and was almost the force of nature, was just in fact a boy. A boy not much older than her younger brother, a poor soul that had been put through so much. That it would be enough to make most lose their minds to insanity, but it was now evident that even this extraordinary but still human boy had his limits, before his spirit would shutter under the weight of the dark and twisted world.

As Subaru continue in to cry for a moment, he couldn't help and as his mind began wander, the voice that had haunted him just moments ago, forcing him to relive the painful memories he had tried to forget, that even with the copious amounts of prescriptions he would take daily, he still couldn't forget ever after all of this time. He could still see their faces clear as day, as the voices began to worm their way into his mind, like the sticky tendrils of some Lovecraftian abomination, they would always say the same things, crying out at him for why he abandoned them, and left them to die.

However, his harsh and painful trip down memory lane, was quickly interrupted by an electronic buzzing sound quickly followed up by the loud noise of static emanating from the device on his wrist. Taking his hands away from his blood and clear soaked face, Subaru looked at his wrist, before hesitantly pushing one of the buttons, which in turn projected a screen into the air in front of him. The static on the screen quickly faded, replaced by an image of him and Nicole, her arms wrapped around his neck, as they both smiled brightly at the camera. Subaru hesitantly reached her hand out to the image, his finger going straight through the screen, yet even still he traced the line of her jaw with his finger, the look of sorrow and grief replaced by sad happiness. His mind wandering away from the dark and twisted memories of his past, and remembering the happier time he had spent with Nicole. She was the light in his universe, she was the reason he kept going, and every time he felt like he had hit rock bottom, and couldn't get up anymore, she would be there to help him up and support him, acting as the singular proverbial light in the darkness that was his life.

"I N-N-need to be S-strong. . . I'll find you Nicole, no matter what it takes" Subaru managed to say through his sobs, using the back of his bloodied hand, to wipe away the tears mixed with blood that stained his face, before taking a couple deep breaths to try and get his breathing under control again.

Despite tears still flowing down her face, Rem felt a twinge of jealousy race through her heart, causing her to grit her teeth and grabbed the arms of her chair in barely contained rage, those kinds of words were only meant to be for her and no one else. And especially not for some other woman that she had never met or seen before. And even if it was Emilia she would have felt jealousy but could understand considering the feelings that Subaru had for the half elf, yet to know that his love was now directed towards another woman boiled her blood to no end.

"Disgraceful behaviour, but I'm not surprised" despite the face value harshness of her words, it was obvious to many that Ram did not really mean what she said, in fact her internal monologue was something along the lines of, about time you stop crying like a child, Barusu.

"Subaru you dunderhead. . ." Emilia said as a pout made its way onto her face, a twinge of jealousy racing from her heart at the fact Subaru was referring to another woman as his shining light. And despite only recently realising her feelings for him, it still causes a rotten and nasty feeling to form in her heart, as a result of him referring to another woman in such a way.

"Contain your jealousy both of you, my contract is emotional state is more important than your puppy love I suppose" Beatrice said with a serious tone and Edge to her voice, quite frankly she had always been disgusted by the so-called love that the blue-haired oni had directed towards her contractor. It was a self-destructive and sickly kind of love, the kind that would only be detrimental to both parties involved. Emilia was a different case however, Beatrice's anger was mostly born from Emilia's complete unwillingness to consider Subarus' feelings, she didn't know whether it was born out of complete cowardice or simply just unwillingness to address the issue directly. But she could see the strain that it put on her beloved contractor everyday, the downtrodden look he would have every time he never got an answer for his feelings. So as far as she was concerned,the fact that after being placed in this strange and alien world, he had found another woman, one that supposedly treated him much better and actually considered his feelings, was ultimately something she couldn't really argue against, in fact she would fully support his decision regardless of who he chose.

"It seems you found your own light in the darkness, after all young Subaru" Wilhelm couldn't help it as his eyes beginning to moisten slightly, he was ultimately happy for Subaru, but everything he had just seen reminded him a bit too much of his only wife, the woman that made him who he was. The wife that ever since her passing, had left a giant gaping hole in his heart where her love used to be. Still the age swordsman rubs his eyes, removing the tears before they could fall down his face.

"Humph, about time he found someone better" Anastasia muttered quietly, she had always found Subarus infatuation for the half-elf even after having much needed context as to why he loved her, she still couldn't quite understand why he loved her in the way he did. especially considering that she didn't return his feelings in the slightest. So to see him finally move on and love another woman that seems to love him back and actually respect his feelings, was quite literally a breath of fresh air.

"Indeed mistress, I am glad that Subaru has found someone that reciprocates his feelings" Was Julius simple response, which despite his best efforts was just loud enough for Emilia to hear, which in turn caused her to look down at the floor, as a look of guilt spread across her face. The look did hurt Julia somewhat, yet despite respecting Emilia greatly for the acts of heroism she had accomplished, he still couldn't understand why she never returned Subarus' feelings after all of this time, in fact that boggle his mind. Subaru, despite not always doing so, had always had Emilia's best intentions at heart, trying his best and literally giving his life multiple times to keep her safe and out of danger. And despite the amount of deaths he had suffered for her sake not being known at the time, the amount of times he had visibly put himself in danger for her, as well as directly telling her that he loved her, was seemingly still not enough to sway her heart. So as far as Julius was concerned on the matter, the fact that Subaru was deeply infatuated with this Nicole person was something that he fully supported, yet still something about this Nicole kept giving Julie is a strange feeling. Something about her face in particular was eerily familiar, almost as if he had met or even knew someone with that exact same face, yet to the best of his knowledge there was no name that matched the face, causing the purple haired man to rub his chin in both confusion and frustration.

"For the love of the Dragon , would both of you shut up! like honestly, do you have any idea how rude and annoying you are right now!?" Felt as Emilia's friend just couldn't take it anymore, her harsh words causing both Anastasia and Julia to look at her in surprise. Anastasia's face remained almost perfectly neutral, with just the slightest hint of frustration making itself known in her gaze, Julia's on the other hand to look like a deer caught in headlights, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly obviously trying to form words, ultimately he gave up instead lowering his head in shame.

"While I can agree that Emilia was in the wrong, for not giving Subaru an answer regarding his feelings for her, I think it's very poor taste that a Knight and a royal candidate of all people, are disparaging a fellow royal candidate in such a way" Crusch's words cut the air like a knife, as she adjusted herself to direct her steely gaze at both Anastasia and Julius, Anastasia didn't give much of a reaction, her poker face holding up against the steely gaze, yet much too Crusch's satisfaction she noticed the ever so slight squirming that the purple haired candidate was doing in her seat. Julia's on the other hand was a different matter, if it was even possible he somehow looked even more mortified than he already was, the look of shame on his face quickly replaced by worry and fear, as sweat began to drip on his forehead.

"Nayh~naughty naughty Julius" Felix wiggled his finger back and forth, letting out a cute and effeminate giggle at the misfortune of his purple head friend.

"S-S-shut up Felix" Julius blurted out in a very unknightly fashion, his voice cracking slightly as his cheeks went a little bit red, nervous sweat continuing to pour down his face.

As this was all going on in the back rows, Emilia continued to look down at the sleeping Subaru, gently tracing the line of his jaw with a finger, as shame at what she had done to the poor boy who continued to eat away at her. They were right, she never did give him an answer, simply because every time, she didn't understand what it meant to love someone in that way, it was a concept that was completely foreign to her mind. But even then it wasn't like being around Subaru didn't elicit some kind of emotion, far from it actually, every time she was around him it felt like her heart is fluttering in her chest, and just laying eyes upon him was enough to melt any stress that she had In fact looking into his eyes with something that she could only describe as a magical experience, to most his eyes was scary and mean looking, but Emilia could easily see past the hard glare they gave off, she could look past that and see the kind, caring but ultimately damaged the soul that lay underneath.

"S-S-subaru ,if you can hear me, I'm. . . I'm so sorry for everything" Emilia's quiet words, where a company by silent tears falling down her face, the weight of everything she had done to this poor boy that she now knew she loved, beginning to crush her heart under it's shameful weight.

"You shouldn't cry I suppose" Emilia's silent crying was immediately halted, by the little spirits harsh but effective words, looking up tears still running down her face, Emilia could see Beatrice looking at her with a look that was hard to describe.

"but-" Emilia was immediately cut off by Beatrice raising one of her little hands, which despite the tears running down her face caused Emilia to look at the little spirit in confusion.

"No buts, you shouldn't cry. . . Subaru wouldn't want you to cry I suppose" Beatrice's words immediately cause Emilia's watery eyes to widen, and as the two continued to stare at each other, Emilia could feel fresh tears beginning to roll down her face, accompanied by a few quiet sobs, because that's exactly what Subaru would have said at this moment, he would have told her to stop crying and to look on the bright side, and most importantly to try and keep moving forward.

"but everything I've done-"

"Yes that is in the past and cannot be changed I suppose, but your actions now will affect the future has yet to be written" Beatrice immediately cut Emilia off her voice raising slightly as she looked directly into the silver haired half elf eyes, for a moment both of them instead of each other, and despite the tears still flowing down her face Emilia realise that Beatrice was right, her past actions could not be undone, back here and now she could do better, no she needed to do better, she needed to be worthy of of Subarus love, she would be the shining light of his darkness like he had been for her.

"Thank you Beatrice" Emilia was deathly quiet as she rubbed her eyes, now slightly sore due to the amount of tears that flown from them, still she looked at the little spirit with a look of gratitude, a small smile spreading across her face.

"I D-D-didn't do it for you E-elf! I simply D-do not want my contracted to be sad because you are sad I suppose!`` The words practically fell out of Beatrice's mouth, a slight red hue taking over her cheeks, as she looked away from the half elf, trying and failing to suppress the small smile that was making it away on her face as well.

After getting control of himself, Subaru got up from his sitting position resealing his helmet, and quickly picked up the plasma cutter that had dropped to the floor during his emotional outburst, and with the weapon back in his grasp again. Subaru unexpectedly pressed the button on the back of the weapon, a small rectangular object being rejected from the weapon, falling and hitting the floor with a loud clattering noise. Subaru then quickly took something off his belt, the object was an identical copy to the one that had fallen from his weapon. Which he proceeded to quickly insert into the back of the weapon, the plasma cutter giving a satisfying beep and click, as the strange little box was secured into place, number on the holographic screen changing from a red 3 to a bright blue 10

"Did you see that! I want one even more!" Anastasia screamed ecstatically forgetting about her embarrassing moments ago and instead focusing on the absolute marvelous and most likely expensive piece of technology that Subaru have just displayed, in fact the more that she sort of this plasma cutter as it was referred to, the more she wanted one for herself and others to sell so that she could make massive profits.

"I can't even imagine how intricate a piece of technology like that is" Reinhard commented, one of his secret fascination as a boy was always mechanics and machinery, unfortunately it was an interest that he really got to indulge due to his role as the sword saint, so to bear witness to such a magnificent piece of intricate engineering like this was certainly a treat for him.

"Hmmmmmm a most intriguinnnngggg little thinnngg" Roswaal despite not taking much interest in what the screen was showing, was still a little bit fascinated by the intricate piece of technology that Subaru was currently using

With the plasma cutter now having a fresh battery Subaru looked around at his surroundings, the corridor slope down to either side of him, the left passageway at self was completely pitch-black, save for the partially opened door and locked door at its end, letting a small amount of light spill into the almost pitch-black corridor. Realising that the corridor was blocked, Subaru began to turn the other way, but as he did he saw something in his peripheral vision, turning to look back at the corridor, he could see a gently flashing green light in the darkness. Realisation quickly spread across his face as he knew exactly what that was, so he brought a plasma cutter up to eye level activating the built-in flashlight. And shining it down into the pitch-black corridor, which quickly drove away the darkness of the corridor, only now revealing the absolute state the corridor was in. It was completely and utterly destroyed, light fixtures broken and destroyed, wires and cables sticking out from the broken floor and walls like intestines from a disembowelled body.

"So scary. . ." Petra clanged on to Frederica with a death grip, keeping her face mostly buried in the blonde woman's chest, but occasionally sneaking peeks at the screen, before quickly diving back to the safety net that was the older woman.

"Ha! the slums were darker than that, when the sun was still in the sky, nothing to be afraid of!" Felt said with a copious amount of bravado, it was obvious to everyone, especially Reinhard, that the young blonde was not as brave as she was making herself out to be, Reinhard being right next to her, could see the slight shaking in her legs that gave it away.

Swallowing his nervousness, Subaru gently made his way into the destroyed corridor, every shape that wasn't directly illuminated by the plasma cutter, looking like some twisted abomination that could take his head off at any moment. And after perhaps the most intense walk of his life, Subaru finally found the glowing object in the darkness, shining his light on it revealed but it was a green crate of some kind. With a large white logo emblazoned on its front, and a small green glowing light in the centre of the white logo. The look on Subarus face could only be described as ecstatic, as if he had just found the most precious object in the world, reaching out he quickly pressed the button on the front of the box. But much to his frustration the green light quickly turned red, before returning to its normal green colour.

"For the love of god! give me a fucking break!" Subaru's words were quiet and hushed, yet the frustration was apparent as he pressed the button on the box again, eliciting the same response from the box, which caused him to curse under his breath again.

Then out of nowhere Subaru suddenly hit the box with his metal Fist, letting out of frustration cry, however much to his surprise surprise and satisfaction, the lid on the box broke under the force of his metal fist. It's contents now being accessible to him, however the colour quickly drained from his face, as he realised that if there were any monsters nearby, they would have heard him just now, quickly bringing the plasma cutter up to eye level and turning the flashlight with brightest setting, Subaru began nervously scanning the dark corridor. His eyes scanned over every ripped up panel from the wall and floors, as they could be potential entry points for the monsters, however after a few tense moments nothing happened. In fact the entire corridor other than his breathing remained completely dead quiet, realising there were no Monsters coming for him Subaru let out a sigh of relief, lowering his plasma cutter as he turned his attention back to the now broken box.

Shining the flashlight on his plasma cutter into the box, revealed a smattering of different items, several wrapped bars of some kind along with several liquid containers, however the thing that caught Subaru's interest immediately, was a small metallic box. A box that was completely identical to the one he had put into this plasma cutter only a couple of minutes ago.

"Jackpot!" The excitement in Subaru's voice was audible as he picked up the small box, immediately clipping it to his belt alongside the strange bottle of green fluid. And with his new treasure now found, Subaru quickly turned away from the broken box and the blocked doorway, intending to get back into the light as quickly as possible, however as he took a step, a skittering noise caused his blood to run cold, whirling around and bringing the plasma cutter up to eye level. The thing moved so fast that Subaru didn't get a good look at it, even in the Illuminated hallway on the other side of the block door, but it's silhouette was definitely not that of a human. So not wasting no time, Subaru quickly sprinted back up the corridor, trying to get to the Illuminated section as quickly as possible, not caring as if he made as much noise as physically possible. And finally returning to the Illuminated section he wasted no time, whirling around on the spot and aiming the plasma cutter back down the dark and ominous hallway, ready for anything that could potentially be chasing him. Yet after a few tense moments nothing came, whatever it was on the other side of the block door, clearly not having any interest in him or simply just didn't notice him.

"I don't like the look of whatever the hell that was!" Garfiel could feel every animal instinct in his body, telling him that whatever the hell that thing just was, it was very dangerous, possibly even more dangerous than the monstrosity that his captain had already slain, with his futuristic and amazing weapon.

"You're certainly right, Garfiel, but still mind your language young man!" Frederica chimed in, much like her younger brother every animal instinct in her body, told her that whatever that the silhouette the belonged to, it was certainly dangerou, in fact the blonde haired beast woman could almost described the feeling it gave off as like being in the presence of a true Apex predator, a think that was a true Hunter and at the top of its food chain.

"Jesus, whatever that thing was, it certainly wasn't friendly?" Al was never really a horror movie junkie, but he had certainly seen enough of them growing up, to see all the tell tale signs of what Subaru was getting himself into.

"It really makes you wonder, Nayh~" Felix's sudden question caught quite a few by surprise, causing a few to look at him in confusion as to exactly what he meant.

"What do you mean exactly Felix?" Crusch looked at her feline companion, a questioning eyebrow raised as to what exactly he was referring to.

"Pretty sure he means that there's no crew left on the ship, and that maybe they've all been turned into those things" Al interjected, answering the green haired woman question, which caused her to look surprised before her face morphed into horrified realisation.

"You mean to say. . . that the entire crew of that vessel may have been turned into those things" Crusch felt her head beginning to pound at the realisation. A vessel of such gargantuan proportions, would obviously require a crew of equally large proportions to maintain and run it, yet to imagine that every single one of those crew members could be turned into one of those creatures, was something that made her skin crawl. But at the same time, the logical part of her brain couldn't help but realise how much sense it made, from there being nobody to receive incoming communications, no crew or guards at the flight lounge, and the tell-tale and completely obvious signs that a lot of struggle and fighting have taken place.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Subaru turned away from the dark and ominous corridor, and instead looking down the right side passageway, which much to his relief was illuminated by the overhead bright fluorescent lights, keeping his plasma cutter ready just in case, Subaru quickly made his way down the sloping passageway, which terminated with a hard left bend, stopping Subaru gently poke his head around the corner, looking for any more of those things, yet much to his relief the hallway was completely empty save for a few dry splatters of some poor individual's blood. So with the coast looking clear, Subaru continued his march down the corridor, which terminated with a large metal door, with the sign above it reading "primary tram control centre"

"Maybe I can contact Hammond and Kendra, if I can jump start the local communications array" Subarus worldwide deathly quiet, as he held his hand out to the glowing symbol on the door, after a tense moment the glowing symbol disappeared as the door began to open, albeit noticeably slower than the ones that have preceded it. Once the door was fully open Subaru was presented with a mostly dark room, the rooms only source of illumination being a series of dark red emergency lights, the lights giving the room an almost demonic and otherworldly atmosphere, however as soon as Subaru take a step into the room the red light shut off, now being illuminated by the bright fluorescent light embedded into the walls and ceiling.

However before Subaru could even think of what to do next, the massive metal shutters on the windows of the room quickly began to roll up, letting a bright almost blinding light enter the room. And after shielding his eyes for a moment as the metal shutters fully retracted, Subaru was met with the site that caused his mouth to drop almost to the floor, because standing in the centre of the brightly illuminated platform, on the other side of the Tramway. Was none other than Hammond and Kendra themselves, both of which looked incredibly worse for wear, Kendra having a massive bandage wrapped around her forehead, and Hammond having what looked to be cuts and bruises all over his arms.

In his shock and excitement Subaru dropped the plasma cutter to the ground, as he ran to the windows and began to pound on them with his fists, at first Hammond and Kendra didn't seem to react at all. Continuing an argument that Subaru couldn't hear due to the thick safety glass, however after a moment of continuing to bang his fists against the window, finally both of them took notice. Both of their mouths dropped to the floor, as they saw who it was banging on the security windows across from them.

"Weight those two actually made it!?" Felt was both shocked and a little impressed, at the fact that these two people have managed to make it through a horde of nightmarish abominations, with only minor injuries to show for it.

"Indeed lady Felt, those two are indeed very remarkable individuals" Reinhard was both shocked and surprised to see that both of them had made it, both of them were completely ordinary humans with no divine protections of any kind, yet not only have they managed to fend off an entire hoard of those Monsters, they had managed to escape even while sustaining injuries. It was truly stuff like this that reminded Reinhart, that divine protections were not necessary for people to do great things, his friend Subaru was perhaps the greatest example of this, even without his return by death authority, Subaru was capable of achieving great things with just his intellect alone.

"Colour me impressed, those peasants actually made it" Priscilla's mocking voice emanated from behind her fan, despite not showing it, she was actually thoroughly impressed by the two of them, considering that these two ordinary people had managed to survive an entire hoard of abominations, supposed to the many gladiators she had seen, that probably wouldn't have made it past the first monster let alone an entire horde of them.

"Remarkable indeeeeeed" Roswaal mused, himself quite impressed that these two ordinary humans had managed to survive and fend off an entire hoard of unholy abominations.

"I'm so glad they both survived, Subaru is not the only one after all" Emilia's words were accompanied by a sigh of relief, as she cradled Subarus arm in her embrace, the feeling of dread that Subaru was the only one of his crew to survive, having been lifted with the reveal of his surviving compatriots.

"Humph, as to be expected from the people my contractor calls friends" Beatrice reaffirmed Emilia's point, a small weight lifted from her at the reveal of the two being alive, because if they were alive, that meant that all of them together might be able to escape the pure nightmare that was the ship they want on.

"Damn it! I should be there, I'd tear those things limb from limb, if they ever hurt my captain!" Garfiel was close to pulling his own hair out, the idea that he wasn't there for his captain to defend him from those things eating away at him, yet only his sister Frederica noticed the slight tremble in his arms and legs, an indication that even he was intimidated by those things.

"Subaru? Subaru oh god! we didn't think you made it!?" The holographic screen erupted from Subarus wrist, a beam projecting in front of him. Showing a very haggard Kendra, the bloody bandage on her forehead was very evident from this much closer vantage point.

"Yeah I only just made it, listen I ran into more of those things on the way over here, they don't go down easy" the words flew from Subaru's mouth, at a speed that was almost unintelligible, this was accompanied by him deactivating his helmet, revealing his face once more, and the true state of how he looked, his forehead was covered in dry blood, his eyes were red and puffy from his earlier crying fit, and there was a mixture of dried keys and blood covering his tears, giving him an almost deathly appearance, which as soon as she saw it caused Kendra to look a bit shocked and worried.

"Subaru my god! Are you alright!?" Hammond's face quickly filled the holographic screen, the look on his face was a mixture of worry and relief, worried at the fact that Subaru looked quite haggard himself, and relieved at the fact that he had survived at all.

"I'm good, a bit banged up but I live, what about you Hammond? you look a bit worse for wear yourself" Subaru replied his face taking on a look of worry, at the fact that Hammond looked even more worse for wear than he was, and that was really saying something considering some of the shit that happened to him so far.

"I've had worse but I live, we ran into more of those things on the way over here" despite the momentary lapse in his composure, Hammond's take a calming breath to steady himself, regaining his composure and taking back command of the situation like a good leader always should.

"More what?! What the hell are those things? Is that the crew?!" Kendra's voice raised in intensity of each word, until she was almost shouting hysterically, each word echoing in the cavernous chamber that was the tramway tunnel, however her rant was quickly interrupted before she could go any further.

"That woman is starting to get on my nerves I suppose" the frustration was evident in Beatrice's voice, having grown thoroughly tired of this Kendra woman's constant screaming and crying, of course since most people in the audience are no stranger to life-threatening situations themselves, the sentiment was certainly shared with them.

"Indeed, she's quite insufferable" Ram was thoroughly put off by this Kendra woman, everything about her attitude simply just annoying the pink haired maid, however there was also something else about the woman that Ram could not place. It was a strange feeling as if the woman was not being entirely truthful about something, it was a pure gut feeling plain and simple with no evidence to back it up, yet Ram had learnt long ago that her gut was usually right.

"Damn what a cry baby! crying about it's not going to make it any better idiot" Felt said as if she was speaking directly to Kendra herself, the little blonde quite literally fed up with the woman's constant crying and complaining about the situation, of course the woman's fear was justified, but continuous complaining wouldn't help her or anyone else.

"Lady Felt, please ,it's not ladylike to disparage others like that" Reinhard had found after long time ago about his ladies stubborn attitude and pig headedness, regarding situations of decorum and etiquette, so when the little blonde turned to him and gave him a look at only be described as, I couldn't give two shits, the redhead swordsman simply let out a dejected sigh.

"Nayh~she's certainly got a voice on her" Felix muttered quietly, gently rubbing one side of his head, due to the headache that was forming, from the woman's constant screaming, which certainly wasn't helped by his demihuman biology, which meant that his hearing was much more sensitive than most.

"You should give the woman a bit of slack, this might be a future version of it, but it doesn't change the fact that Earth doesn't exactly have monsters and magical people running around on the regular" Al interjected, not so subtly reminding everyone that Earth wasn't exactly the kind of place where you could see a magical beast running around every other day, or seeing people using magic regularly if at all.

"Kendra! keep your voice down dammit, or you will attract more of those things!" Subaru shouted, the loudness and intensity of his voice causing Hammond and Kendra to look at him in surprise and shock, and after a moment of silence between the three, Kendra took a shaky breath in an effort to calm herself.

"Subaru is right, whatever they are, they're not very friendly, and half of the doors on the ship of lock because of the quarantine" the frustration seeping into Hammond's voice was evident, as the dark skinned man tried to calm himself, the gains in his mind working on overdrive, to try and formulate some kind of plan to get everyone out of the situation.

"Ok then, our best bet is to try and get to the bridge, but first, we need to figure out what's wrong with the tram system" despite the straightforwardness of the plan, Subaru had his doubts, since the quarantine was still in effect it would take a colossal amount of effort to actually get to the bridge, and that of course didn't take into account, that they might be disemboweled by one of those things along the way. However, before Subaru could voice his doubts about the plan, Hammond spoke again, "Subaru, see if you can log into one of those consoles over there, and try and figure out exactly what's wrong with the tram system?"

"You're crazy Hammond, you gonna get us all killed" Kendra's voice had dropped in both the volume and pitch yet to the frustration and hopelessness was still evident in her voice, as she jabbed an accusatory finger into the dark-skinned man's chest, both of them staring at each other with equal intensity as Subaru got to work on the control panel in front of him, typing away at it furiously, the colour quickly draining from his face as the multiple warning pop-ups made themselves known.

"If you listen to me Kendra, I WILL get you out of it alive" Hammond said with both confidence and authority, Kendra looking at him dismissively before she let out a sigh, giving Hammond look that was hard to describe exactly, yet seemed to accept his words regardless, and with that obstacle out of the way, Hammond address Subaru again. "Subaru, are you making any headway on the tram diagnostics?"

"Very admirable and genuine, the true characteristics of a leader if I do say so" Wilhelm couldn't help but give praise to the dark skin man, this Hammond individuals perhaps the best example of a natural born leader, that Wilhelm had seen quite a while, the way he took command of the situation an organised for the forces around him, was a very illuminating demonstration, that this man would do very well on the battlefield as a tactical commander.

"Do I hear the sword demon himself praising someone?" Crusch couldn't suppress a small laugh as she listens to the praise that Wilhelm gave to this Hammond individual, after all she was in much the same boat as her aged friend, this Hammond was clearly someone that was a natural born leader in every respect, the way he took command and the way he ordered his "troops" was enough evidence to her to show that he was a true leader in every respect.

"His ability to take control of the situation is quite remarkable, in fact it almost reminds me of lady Crusch" Julius also chimed in, equally as impressed with the dark-skinned man's display of command, after all, the ability to naturally command people in an effective manner, was a very rare ability that very few ever possessed, so to see it on full display like this was certainly quite a show.

"Well for starters, the main data board is fried, but it might be worth checking the Maintenance Bay for a spare. . ." Subaru pause mid way through his sentence, not quite sure how to word the next part in a way that didn't make the situation at hand sound any more negative than it already was, the silence was also noticed by Hammond and Kendra who both looked at him apprehensively, both of them praying to their separate gods, that whatever he was about to say next it was at least good news. "However there's a broken tram blocking up the entire system, although it looks like it's already in position to be loaded into the Maintenance Bay, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get it off the tracks"

"Dammit why can't everything just be easy for once. . .'' Hammonds words were followed by a curse under his breath, making it very evident just how frustrated he was currently, because it seemed to him like everything on the ship was actively trying to work against them, but after taking the breath and calming himself, regaining his composure "Ok, the first order of business is to figure out how to unblock the tracks"

"And how do you suppose we do that exactly! Hammond!? everything is on the other side of that quarantine, we can't reach it from here!" Kendra said aggressively, which despite the rudeness of the way she phrased it did caused Hammond to think for just a second, she was ultimately right, they were on the other side of the quarantine, and were unable to access any of the maintenance areas, however a thought suddenly flash to Hammond's mind, causing his eyes to widen in realisation.

"No, we can't. . . But you can, Subaru, if I can get to the bridge, I should be able to access the personal files, you fix the tram and I swear I'll help you find Nicole" Subaru eyes widened in shock, the look on his face quickly moving through several different emotions, before it finally settled on relief, instead of saying anything Subaru simply gave a nod of the head, the transmission quickly cutting soon after.

"Using the peasants lover as leverage, smart and ingenious, especially for a commoner" Priscilla with a small gleam of interest in her voice, a small smile making its way onto her face, because it seems that this Hammond individual was not as bland and boring she thought.

"I wouldn't really say it to leverage princess, more like a friend helping out another friend" Al replied to the redhead princess, causing her to send a vicious glare his way because of speaking to her without being prompted.

"I agree with sir knight Al, this Hammond individual does not strike me as the kind of person to do such a thing, especially to someone that he considers a friend" Crusch turned around in her seat, both hers and Priscilla's gazes locking with each other, and much to Crusch secret satisfaction, she noticed just the slightest of twitches of one of the redhead princesses eyes.

"Yeah not everyone is as twisted as you, princess" Felt just couldn't help herself, her words getting the exact reaction she hoped for, when Priscilla's face morph into describing barely contained rage, her teeth gritted in a very unladylike manner, as her sharp nails dug into the fabric of the armrests on either side of her, however as if graced by the god of humility himself, Priscilla did not answer back much to Felt's disappointment, instead the redhead princess simply continue to correct her teeth, the look of murderous rage on her face beginning to slowly dissipate, as she tried to return to her more ladylike composure.

"Hammond seems like a nice person, if Subaru can trust him then so can I" Emilia said quietly tracing circles in Subarus palm, which was now resting up on her map, as she looked at his sleeping face with a look at only be described as complete and utter affection, mixed with a hint of sadness and regret.

"The elf is right I suppose, if my contractor trust him, then I don't see why I shouldn't either" Beatrice affirm her point, standing with Emilia's and her contractors judgement of this Hammond individual, plus there was certainly a lot more that she wanted to say but chose to bite her tongue, most of it involving a certain red-headed Princess and how utterly and completely infuriating she was.

"Ha, Barusu's friendship is wasted on people like that, but I suppose this Hammond person sees something in the poor fool" Ram usual harsh and dry delivery was on point, yeah even the most basic minded simpleton could read between the lines of our words, and figure out their true meaning.

"Wow his skin is so dark,I've never seen anything like that before" Petra's innocent and ignorance filled words cause everyone to just stop and look at her in surprise, which after a couple of moments of intense of staring from everyone, caused the young girl to start to swarm in her seat, feeling incredibly uncomfortable because of the amount of eyes on her, and a bit guilty because she thought she had said something wrong.

"Damn kid, be careful what you say, if you worded that any differently, then it could have come across as really racist" Al said hurriedly, completely forgetting that everyone wouldn't be familiar with the word racist, simply because they use the completely different term for the same concept.

"Racism?" Frederica roll the strange word around in her mouth, the word and it's meaning completely foreign her, and she tried to wrap her head around what the helmeted man truly meant.

"What is this. . . racism, that you speak of" Julius asked, the word sounding is equally foreign to him as it did to everyone else, it was so foreign sounding in fact, even with his first class education as a noble , Julius couldn't for the life of him couldn't figure out exactly what the word truly meant.

"Oh boy. . . to cut a overly and very divisive topic short, it's a word that means discrimination based on a person's race, in my world people with dark skin like that Hammond guy, were historically oppressed by people of lighter complexions" Al explanation wasn't the most in-depth, but it got the point across as realisation quickly dawn on everyone's faces as to the meaning of the strange new word

"Discrimination based on one's race, I see, why didn't you just say so sir knight Al" Wilhelm said, the concept of racial discrimination was not something that was foreign to him, in fact it brought up many unpleasant memories involving his past, specifically memories involving the great demihuman rebellion.

"I detest people that discriminate based on race, judging people based on characteristics that cannot be changed, instead of the content of their character, is the true sign of someone that is indecent" Crusch let just a little bit of malice creep into her words, despite never being on the receiving end of racial discrimination, she had seen it first-hand particularly involving her knight Felix, which due to his demihuman ancestry, was often discriminated against by the other knights of the order, and the wealthier citizens of the capital, it was one of the main reasons why she was to ever to become the country's new ruler, the first order of business would be the outlawing of such behaviour, not only to protect her knight from such actions, but also to protect all those who were discriminated against, based on characteristics that could not be changed.

"I could have never imagined that the history of Subarus world, was so dark" Anastasia heated the idea of discrimination, in fact the concept itself or something that was just incompatible with her, she valued those around her, whether they be human, demi-human or otherwise, adopted family was a mixture of all different kinds, from human to Demi human, the differences they had was the stuff that made them unique to her, that made them stand out from the crowd of monotony that was the world itself, so to imagine that people could just write off someone completely, based purely on characteristics that outside of their control, was something that was just foreign to her.

Emilia chose to say nothing, regarding the reveal of the strange word and it's meaning, her mind simply reflecting and all the times that people have judged her, and feared her simply because of the way she looked, clutching Subarus arm closely in a tight embrace as her mind began to go to its darkest places. being an elf as one thing but being an almost exact copy of the Witch of envy herself, was something that Emilia hated about herself the most, point where just catching the briefest glimpses of her reflection, in a mirror or other reflective surface, was enough to make her uncontrollably angry and nauseous, and even with Subaru telling her that she was beautiful just the way she was, Emilia still couldn't get past the fact, that her face was almost an exact copy of that monster, haunting her every time she closed her eyes, or saw the briefest of reflections of her visage, whether it be in ice, water or simply just a window pane.

"Discrimination?" Petra said innocently, her youthful and innocent mind not understanding the big word that they had been used, as well as the general concept that the word was attached to.

"It's a very touchy subject Petra, but I have to teach you about it another time, ok?" Frederica said reluctantly, dreading the day that she would have to teach such a concert to a youthful girl like Petra, someone that despite being a child was somehow completely and utterly pure, in fact Frederica could say with complete certainty, that Petra was too kind and innocent for this world, in fact it reminded her a lot of her younger brother when he was a child, so innocent and wide-eyed about everything, she failed one time to protect that youthful innocence, she wouldn't fail a second time even if it literally killed her.

And so with a definite goal now ahead of him, Subaru quickly walked over to what could only be described as a junk pile, that may have once been a central control computer, however he couldn't give a damn about most of the junk computer pieces that scattered the floor. His eyes quickly focus on a large slot in the main circuit board, where the central control data board would normally be placed, bending down to look at the slot, he gave a silent curse on his breath, the slot where the board should be was completely empty as he had expected, which meant the maintenance Bay would be a port of call on his journey, especially if he wanted to get these trams up and running again.

However as Subaru was moving away from the junk pile, that was scattered on the floor, something caught his interest in the pile, it was an object that didn't belong amongst the broken computer parts. Subaru bent down, and picked it up out of the pile of junk computer parts, his eyes widening as he realised exactly what it was. It was a personal log tablet, something that he was intimately familiar with, considering that crew members were required to carry one on their person at all times, while on duty. Turning the tablet over in his hand, Subaru could see that it still had power, and to his surprise, had a message that was already queued up to play, looking around for a moment to make sure his back was clear, Subaru extended a finger and gently poked the holographic screen, the audio message beginning to play.

"What is that!? it looks so advanced!" Anastacia practically beam from ear to ear, her eyes hungrily taking in every detail of the strange device that Subaru held in his hands, everything about it was intriguing, from the strange alien looking materials that made up its frame, to the otherworldly translucent blue glowing screen, that inhabited its interior.

"It's so shiny!" Petra said with a childlike glee, her youthful mind completely mesmerised by the strange looking object.

"I can't even begin to guess it's function, but it seems Subaru is familiar with the object" despite Crusch not being well versed in the matters of mechanics and technology herself, even she couldn't help but feel a bit intrigued by the strange object, and whatever it's possible functions could possibly be.

"It kind of looks like an iPad, but then again this is the future, so god knows what it can action do"Al said mostly to himself, his mind wandering back to his time when he was still on Earth, reflecting over the many things that he missed from his time on Earth.

"This is Benson. Everyone listen up! They're using the vents! That's how they getting around the ship! Stay away from the ve-" when's frantic speech was quickly interrupted by a loud bang off in the distance "Look out!" Get back! Get back! Ahhhhhh-"

"Oh lord..." Was all that Wilhelm could say, in response to the audio that had just been played, any positive atmosphere in the theatre before, regarding the strange device in cigarette hand was completely gone now, leaving a few intimidated and others terrified.

"For the love of the dragon, can we just go 5 minutes, without something dark and depressing happening" Felt words almost perfectly summed up everyone's feelings on the matter. And despite trying her best to not show it, the little blonde couldn't help but shake in her seat, the sound of pure unadulterated terror in that unknown man's voice, was something that she would be hearing in her dreams for a long time to come.

"There's really no one left. . .it's just them" Emilia clutched Subaru's arm even tighter than before, the hopelessness of the situation that Subaru and his Friends found themselves in, finally hitting home in her mind. Up until now she had been silently praying that there were other survivors on that ship, so that Subaru could seek help from them, but if the audio was anything to go by, then it was likely that there were no human beings left on that ship, other than Subaru and his companions.

"Subaru my beloved, please be safe" Rem said quietly, praying that her beloved would make it through this horrifying situation in one piece, however as she did so, she couldn't help feel her gaze come to rest on the sleeping form of the current Subaru, that was currently being shared by both Emilia and Beatrice, and try as she might, she couldn't help but feel like a disgusting amount of jealousy beginning to well up in her chest.

The audio quickly ceased, the man's horrified and blood-curdling screaming still ringing in Subaru's ears, however he quickly shook himself to steel his nerves. Instead looking back at the tablet to see if there's any more information that could be acquired from it, however much to Subaru's frustration the tablet quickly powered off, after the audio had been played, a symbol appeared on the screen indicating the device needed to be charged.

"Just my luck" Subaru said quietly, as he put the tablet back on the ground where it had originally come from, instead of focusing on the mission that was now at hand. The first order of business was to head down to the Maintenance Bay, and get that damage the tram off the tracks.

So with the mission now refreshed in his mind, Subaru looked around the tram control centre, his eyes immediately falling upon a door that was labelled as cargo highway access, with that a thought suddenly occurred to him. The cargo highway was an area that was off limits most of the time, yet it did have an access gangway, that lead down to the tram tunnel itself, so maybe if the door to the tram tunnel was unlocked. Maybe he could cross over and get to the maintenance Bay, which was on the other side of the tracks.

With his mind now made up about the route he needed to take, Subaru looked around as if searching for something, his eyes eventually falling upon a nondescript metal box attached to the wall, and without a second thought, he walked up to the strange box, holding out his wrist, as several bright blue beams of light emanating from the four corners of the box. Each one of them converging into a singular point and scanning over the device on Subaru's wrist, and after a moment the lights quickly vanish followed by a satisfied beeping noise. The box unfolding itself as a bright holographic screen was projected into the cavity inside the box, Subaru without saying a word, tapped away at the holographic screen, and once finished with his typing the screen then show the message, "Credentials verified: Welcome CEC First Class Engineering Subaru natsuki: ID Number: 4199921"

"cec?" The combination of letters was obviously an acronym that Emilia was certain of, however the actual meaning of the acronym itself, was something that she couldn't even begin to guess.

"ID number 4199921? how peculiar" Crusch rubbed her chin thoughtfully, despite it being a very unusual thing, the idea of labelling something based on a series of numbers, was not something that she was completely unfamiliar with, however the idea of using such a system for people, was something that she had never seen or heard of before.

"First class engineering huh? what do you think it's fair to presume that is Subaru's rank in this organisation, lady Crusch?" Wilhelm's assumption and question, made Crusch think for a moment, all of the stuff I had seen so far I had never actually giving away Subarus rank in this organisation, in fact it was fair to say that up until now, there was no evidence that he was actually in this CEC organisation.

"I think that's a sound assessment, Wilhelm, and if that is the case, Subarus intellect is much sharper than I thought" Crusch's overall first impression of Subaru was not the greatest, she could admit that, however, the one thing that she found interesting about the strange young man that appeared at her manor that day, was that he was a lot smarter and cunning then his looks and behaviour would suggest. that was also one of the reasons why at the time she was incredibly disappointed by his behaviour and irrationality, regarding the activities of the witch cult, of course she certainly regretted her actions, with the added context of what she been shown in the theatre, but it didn't change the fact that Subaru was a lot smarter than he even gave himself credit for, after all not just anyone could battle against the witch cult ro the white whale, while having no extraordinary powers of their own, return by death excluded obviously.

"cec? ID number? what the hell does all that crap mean!?" Garfiel couldn't help shouting, rubbing his head furiously as all of these strange words just confused him, even more than he already was.

"Garfiel! mind your language!" Frederica sent a vicious glare her brother's way, which immediately had the desired effect as he almost seemed to shrink in his seat, in some vain attempt to try and make himself as normal visible and as small as possible, so that his sister's fury would be directed somewhere else.

"Miss Frederica, what do all of those words and numbers mean?" Petra asked innocently, her mind completely completely unable to wrap itself around the strange letters and numbers that were being thrown around.

"I'm afraid that I'm not quite sure myself little Petra" Frederica's complete emotional 180, didn't go unnoticed by Petra or anyone else, however Petra didn't really understand and most simply care, so it was not commented upon.

"I wonder if Subaru will show me some of his engineering prowess when he wakes up" the lust was evident in Anastasia's eyes, at the prospect of learning about such advanced technology, however her bubble was quickly broken by Julius of all people.

"I'm afraid miss Anastasia that's probably not likely, considering that this is a future Subaru, we are witnessing and not the current one that is asleep" Julia said to his lady, the look of sadness and disappointment in her eyes causing his heart to almost crack in two, yet for a great amount of effort and Knightly training, he managed to keep his composure, even as his lady looked absolutely downtrodden at the prospect of not learning incredibly advanced and most importantly incredibly expensive technology.

"Looks like you won't be getting any alone time with Subaru, after all Anastasia?" the sarcasm and smugness was crackly dripping from Felt's voice, her joking remark left everyone completely stunned. Anastasia in particular simply just looked at the little blonde in confusion , before realisation quickly spread across her face, which was immediately followed up by intense red blush, as the purple head girl brought her hands up to her face to cover her embarrassment.

"Lady Felt! you shouldn't say things like that" Reinhard said quickly, sending an apologetic look over towards Anastasia and Julius before looking at his lady, seeing her clutching her stomach and giggling profusely, which despite warming his heart, her giggling fit was ultimately at the expense of someone else.

"Why not, she set herself up for that one perfectly" Felt managed to say from her laughs and giggles, her eyes beginning to water from the sheer amount of exertion that her laughter was putting on her.

However before Reinhard could answer his lady, a new sound into everyone's ears, it was the sound of the second set of giggles, this sets sounding much more mature and the lady like, then the little blonde's laughing. And looking over reinhart was surprised to see that it was in fact Crusch giggling away like a young girl,

"I'm sorry please forgive me, I suppose it's not ladylike to laugh at such juvenile humour, but I just can't help myself" Crusch quickly broke into more giggles, the intensity and loudness of her laughter growing by the second. And despite not reaching the same peak as Felt, the green haired woman certainly had a tear or two forming in her eyes, from the exhaustion of her laughter. And despite the laughter not being shared by everyone else, everyone couldn't help but feel just a little bit uplifted on the inside, because even after all of the death and suffering they had bore witness to in that theatre, they were all still capable of enjoying the small moments like this.

Even Emilia, despite feeling a small amount of jealousy, at the idea of Anastasia of all people, doing something intimate with Subaru, even she couldn't help but feel a smile make its way onto her lips, and for just the briefest of moments basking in the positive atmosphere that overtook the room.

After the system had successfully registered his login credentials, Subaru pulled his wrist away from the device, quickly closing up becoming inert once more, Subaru then quickly pressed a button on his wrist. Causing it to project what could only be described as a holographic 3D map of the local environment, with all of the different doors and hallways listed by name, along with various other symbols and markers that didn't have a directly obvious purpose on the map.

Despite her embarrassment from earlier still being present, Anastasia's eyes lit up with complete excitement, as she drank in the site of the 3D holographic map that Subaru was currently manipulating. It was something that was so incredibly advanced that it was purely just mind-boggling, yet even still she couldn't help but be mesmerised by the way it worked. The way that it could be so easily manipulated to show a very specific location, as well as what she could assume were other points of interest.

"Now that would certainly be a handy thing to have, in the heat of battle" Julius couldn't help but rub his chin in thought, the concept of a three-dimensional map with something that was completely and utterly alien to him. Yet the practicality of such a thing was completely obvious even to the most uneducated individual.

"You really are full of surprises" Emilia cooed quietly, still in high Spirits from the moment of laughter that was shared only moments ago. of course that wasn't to go without saying that the 3D map was indeed very impressive, but there wasn't much she could say about it other than that, simply because her knowledge on mechanical and machinery was quite limited.

After looking at the map for a moment Subaru then closed it, moving his arms to hold his hand out in front of him, and after a moment of this, a bright brilliant sapphire blue line manifested directly in front of him. Seemingly being projected from the device on his wrist, the line itself snake through the room, terminating at a large metal door, with the sign above it reading, Cargo Highway Access Gangway

Closing his palm, the brilliant blue line disappeared almost instantly, as if it had never existed to begin with. So Subaru wasted no time, quickly marching over to the door and holding out his hand to the glowing panel on its front, after a moment the panel disappeared as the door unlocked itself sliding into the wall like the rest. And what lay on the other side, was a short gangway that quickly terminated in a larger, more expensive brightly illuminated hallway. And quickly getting through the gangway, the door to the Tram control centre shutting behind him, Subaru came out into the brightly illuminated cargo hallway, with two different paths laid before him, one that went left and the other that went right.

"Not making that mistake twice" Subarus words for quiet, and were muffled by his helmet, as he quickly took the right side path, each step he took on the slightly rubberized conveyor belt, causing him to wobble side to side.

"Finally learning I suppose, my useless contractor" Beatrice said with her usual cold demeanour, yet looking at the little spirit's face, you would be able to see the corners of her lips twitching upwards ever so slightly, as she gently stroked her contractor's hair affectionately.

"Hey~ no fair" Emilia whined, obvious jealousy in her eyes, at the fact that Beatrice had Subaru's head resting comfortably on her lap, However Beatrice looked at the half-elf completely unamused.

"Mind your place, elf, be grateful that I am allowing you to hold my contractor's hand I suppose" Beatrice's words had a distinctly harsh and sharp tone to them, causing Emilia to shuffle back instinctively, yet she did not let go of the sleeping boy's hand. Instead a small pout made its way onto her face, as she looked out of the corner of her eyes at the sleeping face of Subaru, however looking up for just the briefest of moments. Emilia caught sight of something, that caused her blood to run cold yet also explode with incomprehensible jealousy at the same time, Beatrice the great spirit of yin magic, was giving her a cocky smile, a small almost barely noticeable one, but a cocky smile nonetheless.

But his journey didn't last very long, as he quickly came to another doorway this one surprisingly completely devoid of a metal door, that was on the other side of the open doorway going down a very steep angle, terminating with a door at its end, with the sign above it reading "Tram Line Access Point"

Finally managing to get off the rubberised conveyor belt, taking one look at it Subaru did not like how dimly lit the descending hallway actually was, however this was the only way to access the tram lines directly. So he would just have to grip and bear it, but as he began to make his way down the hallway, he suddenly spotted something about halfway down its length, the object was another personal log tablet. It's little screen, surprisingly illuminating much of the dimly lit hallway, slowing his pace. Subaru bent down and picked up the tablet, turning it over in his hands. He was both surprised and shocked that it had a message that had only been recorded 4 hours ago. Wasting no time Subaru quickly pressed the play button on the tablet, sound beginning to emanate from the device, as it played back its message.

"This is O'Connell Tram engineering. We think we figured it out, Smith managed to kill one of those fuckers! Listen, forget about shooting them in the body, you gonna cut off the limbs. grab a cutter, anything like that. Cut them apart!"

With the message now ended, Subaru stood there for a moment absorbing information, as well as thinking back to his first encounter with the nightmarish beasts. He remembered distinctly, that despite inflicting grievous injuries upon it, the wounds only served to slow its pace, instead of outright killing It. In fact the beast only seemingly died, after it had had the majority of its limbs taken off, so this new information was simply a confirmation, that the only way to kill these things was to completely dismember them, which luckily for him the plasma cutter clipped to his belt was perfectly suited for.

"I still find it hard to comprehend that this "plasma cutter" is powerful enough to take off someone's limb with a single shot" Julius even now, still found it incredibly bizarre, that a weapon of such small size. Was capable of doing such damage, especially considering it could take limbs off easily with just a single shot.

"You're right Julius, it's actually quite disconcerting how powerful that weapon is, compared to its relatively small size" Reinhard replied, much like his purple haired friend, finding it very disconcerting just how powerful the strange little Weapon actually was. In fact, most disturbingly he wasn't even sure, if his numerous divine protections, could actually protect him from something like that, if such a weapon was ever used against him.

"If such a small weapon like that can take off limbs in one shot, then what exactly can the larger and heavier weapons of this world do exactly?~Nayh" Felix couldn't help his nervousness, the power of the weapon being put on full display earlier to dismember one of those Monsters, was certainly an eye opener for the feline demihuman. But it also made him think, if such a little weapon from this world, could do such horrifying things to a flesh and blood creature, what could a larger and heavier version of that weapon do exactly, the endless and gruesome possibilities of such a thing, cause a shudder to run from the tip of his tail and all the way up his spine

"Considering some of the shit, that some weapons can do, from the time me and little bro came from, probably nothing that's good for your health" Al had never owned any type of firearm during his time back on Earth. Yet the few times he had actually shot rifles and Pistols, meant that he knew exactly what kind of damage those weapons could do to the living body, and considering what they were witnessing right now on the screen could be at most maybe 300 or 400 years in the future, there was no telling what such advanced weaponry could do to the living body.

"Considering what we've seen so far, I don't think I'm in a rush to find out exactly what you mean Al" Julius could admit that he was slightly curious, about what the helmeted man truly meant, put at the same time, but considering how powerful and the horrifyingly dangerous, Subaru plasma cutter truly was, the purple haired man, could safely say that his curiosity did not need to be indulged this time.

"I must say, that I second that opinion" Reinhard followed-up Julius, much like is Purple haired friend, who was not in a rush to find out exactly what kind of terrifying weaponry that this world had to offer, whether it be in the current time they were seeing or in the distant past.

"Nayh~I still want to know exactly what that healing substance that Subaru used truly is composed of?" Felix said quietly to himself, biting his thumb in frustrated contemplation, the gel substance that Subaru had used on his wounds, had been bugging him this entire time, more precisely exactly what the gel was comprised of, was the part that he wanted to know the most, and if it was possible to replicate such a thing, with the materials that his world had to offer.

So Subaru quickly placed the tablet back on the ground, where it had originally come from, and continued his march down the sloping hallway, finally reaching the end where the doorway to the tram lines were situated, looking to his left he saw a large warning sign with red letters that said, "Warning !Live Tramway! Only Authorised CEC Maintenance Workers Are Authorised Beyond This Point"

Paying the message no mine, Subaru held his hand out for the door that leads for the tram lines, the holographic symbol on its front disappearing as the mechanism began to unlock itself, unlike the previous doors however this one too much longer to unlock itself and open, most likely as a preventative measure to discourage unauthorised personnel from accessing the tramlines.

As the door finally opened, Subaru's ears was suddenly assaulted by a cacophony of different mechanical noises, ranging from harsh squealing noises, all the way up to loud thunderous bangs, that reverberated with such force, that it caused the bones in his body to literally vibrate.

"it's so noisy!" Petra wined as she covered her ears, the cacophony of strange and Incredibly loud noises, not doing any favours for her young and delicate hearing.

"Damn! that makes my ears hurt!" Garfiel, much like Petra, had a negative reaction to the loud and strange mechanical noises instinctively bringing his hands up to cover his ear, as the horrifyingly loud mechanical noises continued to assault his ears.

Despite managing to keep her composure, Frederica was not immune from the strange and horrible sounding mechanical noises, causing her to let out a quiet hiss of pain, as the inside of her skull began to feel like someone was using it as their personal drum set.

"I don't like this" despite there being no obvious sign of danger, in the strange and huge cavern that Subaru had just entered. Every elvan Instinct in her body was telling Emilia that something was wrong, and even though she didn't want to believe it, nine times out of ten her Instincts were usually right about these kinds of things.

"I most certainly agree, despite that atrocious noise, something about this doesn't feel right" Even though she lacked the highly attuned instincts elf or even a demihuman, Crusch could just feel it in her gut that something bad was going to happen, despite there being no obvious signs of such a thing. It was simply something that she couldn't dismiss, in fact she had made a similar mistakes in the past once, as Subaru had rode away from the battlefield that was the white whales end, she had felt something in her gut, telling her that not going with him was a bad mistake, of course with the added context of what they had seen in the theatre that feeling was proven wholeheartedly, which is why that for as long as she lived, she would never disregard a gut feeling like that ever again.

"Indeed lady Crusch, something doesn't feel right about this situation" Wilhelm wasn't sure if it was because of paranoia, or simply just his refine battle instincts, but match like the green haired woman that he served, something about the current situation that Subaru was in did not sit right with him, it was outright impossible to say what it was for definite, but something about it just didn't sit right with the aged swordsman.

Pulling the plasma cutter from his belt just in case, Subaru gently stepped into the active tramway, the door that he just come through quickly closing behind him with a loud harsh bang, looking around the dark and massive space, making sure there was no monsters hiding in the dark, Subaru immediately saw his path forward, just a short walk away from the door that he had just come through, was another door on the opposite side of the tracks. So wasting no time, he quickly began to march his way over to the other door, intent on getting out of the dark and dimly lit tramway as quickly as possible. However as he got closer the banging sound began to grow in intensity,

But before he could actually investigate what the banging sound actually was, a loud monstrous roar suddenly emanated from somewhere in the darkness. It's echo travelling the entire length of the tram tunnel, giving the roar an almost otherworldly energy about it, Subaru as if on instinct, brought the plasma cutter up to eye level, quickly scan in the entirety of the dimly lit cavan, for any signs of what could have made that horrifying noise. However despite there being no monsters jumping out of the darkness at him, that certainly didn't make him feel any better.

"Don't do anything stupid I suppose" Beatrice despite being half his size, manage somehow engulf Subaru in a tight embrace, as the monstrous roar continues to echo in her mind, and even though she has not seen the beast that made that unholy sound, she could certainly say that she wasn't in a hurry for her or her contracted to find out exactly what could produce such a horrifying noise.

Emilia likewise engulf Subaru's free arm into a tight embrace, the unholy terrifying roar, causing a shiver to run up and down her spine, yet despite that the feeling that something bad was going to happen did not diminish, which only serves to both concern and confuse her.

"T-that thing sounded really big" Felt couldn't help the slight stutter in her voice, as her body began to shake, the horrifying roar being so loud and monstrous, that it caused her teeth to rattle in her mouth, as well as sending a shiver of terror shooting up her spine.

Reinhard didn't say anything, yet just by the way his face went extremely pale, it was obvious to everyone around him that he was also completely put off by that strange otherworldly howl that had just been blasted through the theatre's speakers.

"I really hope we don't find out what that was" Despite her best efforts, Anastacia simply couldn't keep the quiver out of her voice, after all something about that horrifying and otherworldly sound, just unnerved her to the core, it sounded completely and whole heart of the alien, yet somehow eerily familiar at the same time, in fact it was fair to say, that it sounded like hell itself let out a violent roar of rage.

"Damn, that roar really did just put the white whale's to shame" Whether it was intended as a joke or a simple observation, the effect was almost immediate as a certain age swordsman turned to look at Al, with a small but no less intimidating glare.

"I'd appreciate it if you don't joke about that subject, sir Knight Al" Wilhelm's voice was firm and even, as he continue to glare at the helmeted man, and even though his face was hidden by said helmet, just a small amount of nervous sweat was beginning to form on his forehead, as the age but still deadly swordsman, gave him a look that could probably melt through solid steel.

Instead turning his attention to the door, his fear quickly gave way to frustration, as the source of the repeated banging sound was finally revealed. It was in fact the door itself, stuck in a continuous loop of closing and closing, banging sound being a result of the door slamming into its metal frame, with enough force to probably shatter bone.

"Damn it! can I just get a break!" The frustration was evident in Subaru's Voice as he smashed his fists into a panel directly next to him, however a new sound suddenly caused his ears to perk up, looking around nervously as the sound continued to grow in intensity.

"What the he-" Subaru didn't get a chance to finish, as one of the floor panels just a little bit away from him suddenly exploded in a shower of metal pieces, one of the twisted abominations quickly jumping out of the newly formed hole in the floor.

"Hell no, it's one of those things!" Garfiel upon laying his eyes on another one of those trusted abominations, could feel his stomach beginning to flip, both as a result of the absolutely grotesque visage, and the prospect that it would try and harm his captain.

"Subaru run!" Emilia clutch Subaru's limp arm tighter in her embrace, the prospect of him having to go up against another one of those horrifying Monsters not sitting well with her in the slightest, yet she couldn't help but feel just a small amount of relief, when she remembered that he was armed with a powerful weapon, that could easily dismember the monsters in just a couple of well-placed shots.

"Mr Natsuki get out of there!" Otto quickly brought his hands up to cover his eyes, not wanting to see Subaru beat absolutely torn to shreds by one of those Monsters, of course forgetting the fact that his friend, was now armed with a very powerful weapon that could easily dismember the monsters.

"S-Subaru be careful!" despite the appearance of the monster giving the red-headed swordsman cause to worry, Reinhard kept reminding himself at Subaru now had a weapon that was easily powerful enough to kill the monsters, but even still, considering the amount of punishment that these Monsters have been shown to take before, having an incredibly powerful weapon wasn't necessarily as much of an equaliser as Reinhard would have wished it was, considering the monsters strange resilience to physical attack.

"What an unsightly beast, it's even more repulsive than the last" Priscilla practically spat, from behind her fan, said fan doing an excellent job of hiding just how green and nauseous her facial expression actually was, unlike the last ones which had looked mostly human, this one was almost completely unrecognisable as a human, it's face and body almost completely deformed and unrecognisable.

"By the Dragon, those things don't get any easier to look at" Julius brought a hand up to his mouth, the feeling of hot bile rising up in his throat, as he tried with all of his mates to not puke at the side of the street monster, much like what Priscilla was thinking that's a moment, the purple haired man couldn't help but be disgusted, by just how unhuman the monster looked, in fact it was fair to say that it was almost completely unrecognisable as a human being.

"You're right Julius, although I still don't understand what could twist and mutate a human body like that~Nayh" despite feeling his stomach beginning to twist from just looking at the creature, the healer inclined part of Felix's brain, couldn't help but begin to wonder, how exactly it was possible for a human being in such a manner, to the extent where they barely even resemble the human being anymore, it was something that just didn't make sense to the catboy healer no matter how much she thought about it.

"Whatever it maybe that's twisting those humans internet things, I'm not exactly in a hurry to find out" Crusch sentiment was certainly shared by most, after all whatever was powerful enough to completely and utterly deform human being to that point, was clearly a deadly a force that was to be reckoned with.

"Indeed lady Crusch, whatever is capable of corrupting a human in such a way, is clearly a force that should be approached with extreme caution" Wilhelm replied to the green haired woman, for the first time in quite a while, feeling a small amount of fear rising up in his belly the fear however wasn't directed for him, it was instead fear at what could possibly happen to Subaru, if he was to come across whatever was turning those poor souls, into those twisted abominations.

And befor Subaru could even react, the beast roared as it began to charge directly at him, causing Subaru to let out a yell of panic. As he quickly brought the plasma cutter up, and with the monster quickly closing the distance, he pulled the trigger, the first shot missing the monster completely, as it continue to charge at him like a raging animal, and now with the monster only less than a foot away from him, Subaru panic fired again, his second shot hitting the monster directly directly in its calf, the monster letting out a cry of rage filled agony, being so loud that it reverberated through the entire cavernous space, it's now horrifyingly mangled leg bringing the creature to a complete stop, allowing Subaru to line up another shot, this one managing to take off its arm just below the shoulder, causing a fountain of blood to begin to flow from the stump, as the monster continued to scream in agony and rage. Yet Subaru did not show any mercy on the creature, quickly firing his plasma cutter again, this shot taking off its other arm, as a river of rotten blood gushed from the bloody stumps, where its arms used to be. And finally with both of its arms removed, and one of its legs only hanging on by a couple sinewy muscle threads, the monster collapsed to its knees, heavily damaged leg that Subaru had shot first, not being able to take the strain of the monster's weight as it quickly detached from its body. Allowing the monster to full face first on the cold hard floor, its rage filled agonising cries quickly falling silent, as it's body went limp, blood continuing to flow out of the creature, as the Subaru tried to get his hard and Ragged breathing under control again.

"Jesus, little bro just completely dismembered that thing" Al said as he watched the Carnage, that Subaru's plasma cutter inflicted upon the monster.

"Disgusting I suppose" Beatrice spat, feeling her non-existence stomach beginning to do a flip, as a result of the absolute brutality that was just displayed on screen. Although despite the creatures gruesome end, she was not sorry for it death in the slightest, in fact she viewed as some sort of a mercy, because no soul no matter how evil or twisted deserves to be turned into an abomination like that.

"Subaru did it, he killed another one" Emilia felt a great wave of relief wash over her, at the fact that Subaru had managed to kill one of those abominations. While also protecting himself from it, but much like the little spirit that had Subaru's head in her lap, Emilia could feel her stomach beginning to twist, at the brutal way the creature was dismembered and the amount of rotten blood that flowed out of the creature's stamps.

"Dragon dammit! I think I'm going to be sick again" Felt exclaimed in a frustrated manner, the sight of the dismembered monster, causing her stomach to begin to flip again much to her annoyance. She also couldn't help but curse herself, because after all she was meant to be a rough and tumble street girl, yet a bit of blood and gore was enough to send her stomach reeling, making her throw up twice in the span of less than an hour.

"My lady, are you sure you're alright?" Reinhard looked at the little blonde with obvious concern, after all it was his duty as a royal knight, to look after his royal candidate to the best of his abilities, but that was only partially the reason why he was concerned, over the time he had come to know the little blonde, he began to view her as somewhat of a little sister, in fact every time he looked at her he felt this uncontrollable desire to protect her at all costs.

"I'm fine, Reinhard!" The fact that she didn't use any shortened variant of his name, indicated to the red headed sword saint just how the young blonde girl was currently feeling, so instead of saying anything Reinhard simply called upon one of his numerous divine protections. After searching for a moment he found just the right one, that being the Divine protection of cleansing stomach illnesses, and as soon as his hand connected with her bare shoulder, the effect was almost immediate as the nauseous look on her face quickly disappeared, which in turn cause her overall mood to be calmed.

"Jeez Rein, what can I tell you about using the Divine protections to solve every problem?" Felt try to sound angry and disapproving, yep she failed to keep away the small and thankful smile that was trying its hardest to spread its way across her face, Reinhard simply said nothing in response, simply giving the young blonde a small smile on his own.

"Fucking (huff) thing" Subaru said through his ragged breaths, as he continue to warily observe the now dismembered and dead monster, and despite it being obviously dead, he kept his plasma cutter at the ready just in case it was faking it.

"Wait what does fuc-" Petra didn't even get a chance to finish, quickly clamped to hand over the young girl's mouth, keeping her from unintentionally sprouting profanity.

"Petra, that is a very naughty word and you should never repeat it ever, do you understand?" Frederica didn't take her hand off the young girl's mouth, as she looked at her with a serious and commanding gaze. The young girl simply nodded feeling a little bit intimidated by the serious look that the older blonde woman was giving her, however as soon as she nodded, Frederica release to hand of the young girl's mouth the look of seriousness that she had just worn a second ago disappearing in an incident, being replaced by the usual calm and elegant energy that the Beast woman radiated.

"Subaru really does have a potty mouth now" Emilia couldn't help but give a small but awkward laugh, the idea of profanity was something that she was relatively new to. And as a result when it was used in normal conversation it always made her feel uncomfortable, almost as if she wasn't supposed to be hearing such words coming out of people's mouths, especially Subaru of all people. Because despite him using what would be considered profanity in the past, it was only now with added context that she understood exactly what those words meant.

"To lose your youth and innocence is a part of life" Ram said with her usual coldness, however just the slightest of smiles made its way under her stoney face because Emilia's childlike Innocence being eroded away slowly was the something that she always did find privately quite amusing.

"Why is he so worried, it's already dead" Crusch muttered quietly to herself, trying to wrap my head around why Subaru was worried about the fresh corpse he had just created, however as she thought about it a logical explanation suddenly came to her mind, that being that his nerves were most likely getting the better of him. And what causes him to be overly nervous in regards to the monster magically rising from the dead. But as those thoughts crossed her mind, she suddenly felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, as if something bad was going to happen related to the corpse that Subaru had just made.

"Nayh~he's probably just being paranoid, not that I can blame him" Felix said in response to Crusch, not noticing the subtle changing of her facial expression, that was related to the sinking feeling that she was currently experiencing.

After a moment of nervously watching the corpse, Subaru let out a sigh of relief, at the fact that the thing seemed to be completely and utterly dead now. However as he was about to turn away, something lying near to the monster caught his attention, stepping over to look at it but being careful to my step into the pool of blood, Subaru saw that attached to the monster's severed arm, was what looks to be the remains of an engineering suit. However that wasn't the part that caught his attention, it was the device that was placed just above the monster's twisted and mangled wrist, the device immediately caused his eyes to light up in recognition, because attached to the monster's arm was none other than a standard model states unit.

"What is that?!" Any discussed or revulsion that Anastasia had regarding the corpse and the large pool of blood that coated the floor, was completely forgotten, as the strange little object attached to the monster's limp and dead limb took her full and undivided attention.

"I'm not sure, it's only a little object, but I can't even begin to guess what its function may be?" Despite the nauseousness still being there from moments ago, Julius couldn't help but be intrigued by the strange little object that was attached to the monster's limp and dead arm. The object itself was a strange little thing, consisting of a strange little box with giant serrations carved into it, initially this made him think it was some kind of weapon, but the more he looked at the mall it looks much too delicate to be some kind of weapon, there were numerous wires and cables that ran from the object, into the ripped and tattered engineering suit that the monster would have worn when it was still human.

"I wooooonder what the object poooosssssibly be" Roswaal mused quietly, he's impossibly ancient mind taking in every aspect of the strange object, evaluating it and trying to compare it to anything that he was familiar with, however much like he thought would be the case, the object was completely alien and did not have an obvious function that could easily be ascertained just from looking at it.

"Maybe it's some kind of cool weapon!" Garfiel said excitedly, hoping that the strange little box was some kind of fancy and powerful weapon that his captain could use against those horrifying monsters.

Quickly realising the importance of this Subaru stepped into the pool of blood that have come from the monster, his face contorted into a look of nauseousness, as he bent down and picked up the monsters severed arm, quickly fumbling with the device on the monsters limp wrist trying to detach it, after a bit of effort and a bit of cursing and swearing, the device was finally free from the monsters wrist, and almost immediately Subaru drop the cold and limp appendage on the ground, it making a loud squelching noise as the impact cause specks of blood to fly everywhere in all directions.

"Positively revolting" Priscilla said indignantly, and despite trying to hide it from everyone else, it was obvious to everyone, especially her Knight Al. That she was positively disgusted, and clearly didn't have as much of an iron stomach and she said she did.

"For once I can agree with you I suppose" Beatrice replied to the sun princess, the site of so much thick rotten blood making her non-existent stomach churn slightly.

"I guess I do have some good luck" Subaru said to himself as he quickly went to work, trying to attach the device to his wrist, and after a bit of fumbling around with it, and almost electrocuting himself again, the device was finally attached to his wrist.

Turning his wrist over to look at the strange little device for a moment, Subaru then flexed his hand before wrapping his fingers into a tight fist. The action was immediately followed by a strange electronic humming noise emanating from the new device on his wrist, and as the hum increased in intensity. A ball of that translucent blue energy quickly formed around his clenched fist, staying there for a moment before he unclenched his hand, the ball of energy and humming noise disappearing as quickly as they had come.

"Seems to be working properly, maybe I can stop that broken door for a moment so I can get past" Subaru wasted no time, as he quickly made his way over to the malfunctioning door. Now standing in front of the door as it continued to slam repeatedly into its own door frame, Subaru held out his hand for a moment, clenching his fist as the ball of energy formed again. Before he quickly push his fist forward, the ball of energy quickly detaching from his fists, and flying towards the door at unnatural speeds, upon contact the most remarkable and impossible thing happened, the door almost immediately slowed to the point where it was almost standing still in its frame. Subaru, now seeing his chance, quickly steps through the slowed door, turning around just in time to see the door return to its normal speed with the sound of harsh metal slamming now returning.

For a moment everyone was completely speechless at what they had just witnessed, the strange little device that Subaru had just acquired, seemingly having the ability to stop or even slow down time for objects that were hit by the strange ball of energy that he could now conjure up in his hand.

"I shouldn't be surprised any more by the stuff this world has, but I must say how is that even possible!?" Crusch felt her mouth simply drop to the floor, completely and totally stunned not the fact that the strange object that Subaru had just acquired, was quite literally capable of stopping time for an object, that he could hit using the strained ball of blue energy he could now conjure in his hand.

"This is my contractor I suppose, so it's not surprising that he can do such a thing" Beatrice didn't even try to hide the smug tone to her voice, a small but ever so smug smile making its way onto her face, as she gently caressed the sleeping boy's forehead.

"How strange, the stuff there is so advanced that they have objects that can do basic time manipulation?" Emilia by no means was an expert when it came to the field of magical studies, but she knew enough to know chronomancy was one of the few magical principles that was thought to be almost impossible. Of course that was without the reveal that Subaru had access to return by death,a time manipulation ability which was in fact a gift or a curse depending on your viewpoint, from the Witch of envy herself, but still to know that this world was so advanced that basic chronomancy was actually possible using completely artificial means, was something that made her head spin.

"My my this world is full of surprises isn't it" The usual clown like speech pattern he had was completely missing, has Roswaal's impossibly old brain, took in the information he had just seen, trying to mate with anything that he was familiar with that could result in basic chronomancy, but even his vast knowledge pertaining to the study of magic failed him in this instance, as the prospect that this world was so advanced that it's people had seemingly mastered the ability of basic chronomancy wash over him. After all, the manipulation of time was one of the few magical principles that even he couldn't use, in fact many believe that the manipulation of time using magic is simply impossible, so to see something similar to time manipulation magic put on display like that, was certainly a shock to the magician clowns system.

"Jesus, how far in the future is this?" Al exclaimed, feeling his jaw smack against the inside of his helmet, after all it wasn't every day that you saw somebody casually slowing down time for an object like that, however his comment also caused a few to look at him in surprise.

"How do you mean Sir Knight Al?" Wilhelm asked curiously, quite surprised and perplexed about the helmeted man's comment, in regards to how far in the future all of this was taking place.

"I'm also curious, exactly do you mean by how far in the future Al?" Julius has also had his curiosity piqued, while also trying to wrap his head around how something like the manipulation of time was even possible. Because despite not being a magical expert like some in the room where, he knew enough to know that's the manipulation of time was an extremely rare ability, that's very few possessed in fact he could think of only one person, actually possess that ability and just thinking about that person was enough to send a shiver running up his spine.

"Well let's just say that to the time me and little bro come from, machines that can actually manipulate time don't exist, hell we barely been able to land on our own Moon, let alone action travel the Galaxy like they're doing here" Al explanation caused quite a few to look at him in surprise, the revelation that the world him and Subaru both came from, not being as advanced as the one they were currently seeing, was certainly quite the revelation, also brought up a different question, why exactly was Subaru in a far future version of the world he originally came from.

"How strange, if he was sent back to his own world somehow, then why wasn't he sent back to the correct time?" The gears in Crusch's began to turn, as she tried to contemplate exactly what this could mean, after all if this was a future version of Subaru they were currently witnessing as the warden have told them, that begs the question of exactly why if he was sent back to his own world, he was put into a completely different time from the one he was familiar with.

"Knowing Barusu, he probably ended up going to the wrong time because of his own incompetence" Ram's comment cause quite a few eye rolls to be had, and a certain half elf and great spirit to direct hard and intimidating glares her way, which had the immediate desired effect of causing the pink haired maid, to shrink slightly in her seat. however a thought suddenly occurred to Emilia, causing her glare to lessen in intensity, the thought that ran through her mind was that, did Subaru actually choose to go back to his own world in the first place, or was he sent back against his own will.

"Has it ever occurred to you, that maybe you should just shut up for once?" Felt said with an annoyed huff, finding the pink haired maids, constant slander against Subaru simply just infuriating to listen to.

"Lady felt, please there's no need to be rude" Reinhard immediately said with a sigh, quickly sending an apologetic look towards the pink haired maid, however much to his dismay, the little blonde didn't seem to care in the slightest, simply sending Ram a trademark Felt glare.

Giving one last glance at the malfunctioning door, Subaru quickly made his way up the incline hallway, which for a moment seems to be an almost mirror image of the hallway he had descended down just moments ago, however reaching the top of the incline, revealed that the layout of the hallway was actually much different from the one on the other side of the tracks. Instead of being a cargo conveyor system, it was a completely standard personnel hallway, the lights illuminating the hallway giving off an eerie but somewhat calming fluorescent orange glow, Subaru looked down each direction of the hallway. To his right was a longer expanse of the hallway, terminating with a locked door, with the sign above it reading (Flight Reception Tram Station) to his left however was a slightly shorter piece of the corridor. With another door at its end with the sign above it causing Subaru's eyes to widen in realisation, because he just found the first step on his goal to getting the tram system back online, and that was the tram repair bay.

"He made it, it's just right there" Emilia couldn't help but beam from ear to ear, feeling both proud and immense relief, that Subaru had managed to make it to his first goal, however the smile on her face quickly faltered, has a horrible sinking feeling suddenly overtook her, and despite trying to shake away the feeling, it simply wouldn't leave her, causing her uncomfortably squirm in her sitting position.

"Indeed lady Emilia, it looks like that young Subaru has finally made it to his first goal" Wilhelm replied feeling an immense amount of relief, that Subaru had finally managed to make it to his first goal, without incurring any more injuries or encountering any more of those twisted monstrosities.

"This is my beloved we're talking about, of course he made it to the goal he was striving for" Rem spoke for the first time in ages, voice sounding incredibly proud and a little bit smug, in regards to Subaru finally managing to make it to his first goal, there's also caused a certain half-elf to look at the Blue haired maid, what could only be described as pure jealousy after she referred to Subaru as her beloved.

Crusch didn't say anything, in regards to Subaru finally managing to reach the first goal on his journey, the gears in her mind were still racing a mile a minute, in regards to the possible revelation that Subaru may have actually not chosen to even come to this world in the first place, and if that was the case, it caused a chill to run up her spine, because that can only mean that's some outside force, was responsible for transporting Subaru this new and unfamiliar world.

Filled with relief and deciding to waste no more time than necessary, Subaru quickly made his way down the shorter length of hallway, towards the door that led to his goal, however as he was about halfway to the door the entire hallway suddenly went completely pitch black. Causing Subaru to let out a yell of panic, the only illumination being the pale teal glow from his helmet, which itself didn't really illuminate much in the pitch black hallway. Subaru quickly brought the plasma cutter up, fumbling around with a switch on the side of the weapon before pressing it, causing a bright beam of white light to slice through the darkness.

"Oh no!" Emilia instinctively brought Subaru's arm closer to her chest, Acme certain extinguishing of the hallway lights, and Subaru panic fuel attempt to try and illuminate the pitch black hallway, this was also accompanied by the sinking feeling in her stomach growing even more, buy this pointed had graduated into possibly full-blown panic, but panic at what she wasn't quite sure, there was just something that she was sure it's going to happen, but she didn't know what exactly it was, and that made her very afraid.

"So dark and scary" Petra winded instantly grabbing onto the older blonde beast woman next to her, as the young girl began to shake with fear, Frederica meanwhile felt every animal instinct in her body, beginning to scream at her that something was going to happen, and something wasn't right about the current situation.

"God dammit what now?" Al by this point was getting fed up with the cliche horror stuff, that was happening to the poor little bro, but at the same time something about the situation didn't quite separate with him, the only way that he could describe it was almost as if something was deliberately toying with Subaru, in an effort to scare him.

"Something about this is not right" Reinhard didn't need his divine protections to know that something was going to happen, everything about the current situation of hand just didn't sit right with him, from the moment that Subaru and his friends had stepped on that ship, it seemed as if something was deliberately trying to mess with Subaru, using every fear and deepest darkest secret that the young man had against him.

"Yeah I don't like this Rein" Felt said nervously, again her secret fear of the dark coming back to bite her, and it didn't help how nervous the on-screen Subaru was currently acting, in regards to being put into complete pitch black darkness.

And now with the hallway mostly illuminated with the flashlight on the plasma cutter, Subaru almost calmed down, however before he could do so, he suddenly felt something touch the back of his shoulder. Causing him to instinctively spin on the spot, aiming his plasma cutter up what he thought was behind him, however much to his growing horror, the illumination from his plasma cutter revealed absolutely nothing but an empty hallway, but now Subaru was beginning to shake. Sweat forming on his forehead as his eyes began to dart around nervously, looking for whatever the hell was in the hallway with him, and that's when he felt it again, another tap on his shoulder directly from behind. Jumping on the spot and spinning at the same time, Subaru didn't even wait to see what was behind him, instinctively pulling the trigger on his plasma cutter as soon as it was facing the appropriate direction.

"What the hell was that" Garfiel shouted at the top of his lungs, almost flying out of his seat in shock and terror, at whatever the hell was in that dark hallway with his captain, it's certainly also didn't help that every beast man Instinct in his body, was telling him to run in the opposite direction from whatever the hell, was in that hallway with Subaru.

"What did you get yourself into now I suppose!?" Beatrice felt the fear skyrocket within her, however the fear wasn't necessarily her own. Something that she had kept to herself up until now, was that she could feel every emotion that this on-screen Subaru was having. She couldn't understand in the slightest why this was the case, the bond between a person and their contracted spirit was indeed strong, but even that bond had it physical and psychological limits. But despite that, it didn't change that she could feel every emotion that he had up until this point despite being in another world, which again was something that she just couldn't understand, but whether she could understand it or not. It didn't change that every emotion she felt from him, made her heart shatter, she felt his loneliness, his longing, his hatred that directed at himself and she felt the constant repressed fear that he had in his soul. She felt every single moment of it, and it made her ask a simple but incredibly complex question, why did he end up like this, what possibly could have caused such emotional damage?

"I can't see anything, it's too dark!" Emilia couldn't keep her voice level, the amount of adrenaline and absolute terror flowing through her veins, most likely would have been enough to kill a large animal, and now her Instincts full-blown screaming at her to run in the complete opposite direction, from whatever was in the hallway with Subaru.

"You idiot, run now!" Ram's voice was raised slightly, a small amount of nervousness and surprisingly fear, making itself known in her voice, after rule to spike viewing Subaru as a pervert and a womaniser, whatever was in that pitch black hallway with him, clearly was not good news for anyone.

"Damn that ship is a complete nightmare!" Felt couldn't keep the jitter out of her voice, has small and petite frame shaking almost as if she was freezing to death.

"Subaru, my boy, get out of there now!" Wilhelm felt his heart begin to race, the look on his face only be described as absolute fear, fear that was born from the fact that Subaru was now in a dangerous position, in a completely pitch-black environment, which would be able to cover any potential threats that could be in the hallway with him.

"I've seen enough horror movies to know where this is going, get out of their little bro!" Al said a bit louder than he intended to, genuinely concerned for Subaru's safety, considering how fast those Monsters where and how dark the hallway now was, any of those Monsters could now easily sneak up on him, and completely eviscerate him before he could even have a chance to react.

The shot was impossibly loud as the bolt of plasma ripped through the air, completely illuminating Subaru and the hallway in a bright blue flash, however much to Subaru's terrified horror, that brief illumination was when he finally saw it. Standing just out of reach, was the figure of a woman with her back to him, her long silver hair cascading down her back, serving as a brilliant contrast to her white and purple outfit that quite literally did not belong in the harsh and industrial hallway. But as the light from the plasma shot faded, the figure was gone as the lights in the hallway quickly came back on, revealing that other than being a new mark on one of the walls from his plasma cutter shot. The hallway was completely empty save for him, Subaru didn't react for a moment though, the plasma cutter in his hands shaking with such an intensity that an audible rattling sound could be heard emanating from the tool.

"N-no . . . No! No! No! No No!" Emilia didn't want to accept it, and everything in her mind was screaming at her that it couldn't be true, but the evidence was right in front of her, for the briefest of moments when that entire hallway was lit up by the glow of Subaru's weapon, she saw something that made her blood run cold, something that seems to scare Subaru to the point of almost madness, in that bright flash she saw... herself. she saw herself clear as day, wearing the exact same outfit she was currently wearing. she could feel her mind beginning to spiral out of control, the reveal too much for her to handle, as her sanity began to slip.

"What the hell! is that-" Garfiel didn't even get a chance to finish, Frederica quickly clamping her hand over his mouth, herself completely floored and horrified by the reveal of who exactly the apparition actually was, but as much as she was horrified, she felt her heart break in two when she saw Emilia's reaction to the reveal of the apparition.

"J-J-just as I F-F-feared I suppose" Beatrice found it incredibly difficult to keep her voice even and level, simply because of the fear that was flowing through her veins, however it wasn't her own fear that she was currently feeling, no it was the on-screen Subaru's fear, upon laying eyes on the Emilia apparition, the moment he laid his eyes on the apparition, she just felt his fear simply shoot through the roof, no fear wasn't the correct term, it was full blown absolute terror, the kind that could turn any rational person, into a complete blabbering and sobbing mess, in fact a Small Part of Beatrice founded morbidly impressive, that the black haired man have not collapsed onto his knees in sheer terror.

"Rein what's happening to him? why was Emilia just there!?" Felt could feel her head beginning to spin, the reveal of the Emilia apparition causing her brain to backfire for a moment, it just didn't make any sense to her, the fear that this older Subaru had was understandable, but at the same time she couldn't understand my Subaru was hallucinating Emilia of all people, it just didn't make any sense, but then again everything they had seen up until this point didn't make a whole of sense anyway, simply because of the amount of context that was missing.

"I don't know maybe felt, I just don't know" Reinhard answer caused the young blonde to look at him in concern, the look on the red headed swordsman's face, could only be described as complete horror, and much like Felt, Rinehart simply just couldn't understand why Emilia was the one that Subaru was hallucinating, as a result of His Divine protections, he had noticed from the very beginning that this Subaru seems to be quite mentally and emotionally unstable, which despite not been to on common for the black hair boy, the extent of his emotional and mental instability, immediately set red flags off in the sword saints mind, and now with this particular piece of the puzzle now put out before him, the picture that it was beginning to create, was one that disturbed the red-headed swordsman deeply.

"Jesus this can't be good" Al felt his skin beginning to crawl, at the implications that the on-screen Subaru had just had an encounter with an apparition that had a very familiar look to her, in fact thinking back can't remember another instance of this happening, back in the flight reception Lounge, has Subaru had looked up from a computer panel he was working on, he saw someone standing off in the far corner of the room, the only distinguishing features being their white outfit and silver hair, and the fact that he didn't realise it back then cause the helmeted man to curse under his breath, as well as wanting to kick himself for being absolutely blind and stupid.

"What in the world!?" Crusch couldn't quite believe her eyes, it was there for the briefest of moments, but it was understandable who exactly that was, the long flowing silver hair, the brilliant white outfit with purple trim, the two pointed is sticking out from the side of her head, it was unmistakably the half elf Emilia, but that itself didn't make any sense Emilia couldn't be there, and if it was just a hallucination, why was Subaru hallucinating Emilia on people, and more importantly why did the Emilia apparition incite such a reaction in Subaru, the reaction made the greenhead woman think that Subaru was deathly afraid of Emilia, or more precisely deathly afraid of seeing her again.

"I don't believe it, he really is losing his mind~Nayh" Felix could feel the fur on his tail sticking up on end, a sense of horrified realisation creeping over him as he realised exactly what's happening, if the hallucination was anything to go by then it was safe to now say that Subaru was quite literally losing his mind. in fact the catboy healer wanted to kick himself, every single red flag and warning sign was there, subtle movements that Subaru made, the overall aversion to being touched, the brief flashes of horrified insanity in his eyes, they were all signs that were their plain as day, and he had completely missed every single one of them like an idiot.

"Subaru my boy, what happened to you" Wilhelm felt his heartbreak into two pieces, the revelation that some kind of spectre using Emilia's face was haunting Subaru, was certainly something, but does she absolute panic and terror he saw in the black haired man's eyes, was something that would forever be scarred into his soul.

"lady Emilia, please calm down" Frederica by this point had moved from her seat next to Petra, and was trying her best to calm down the almost apoplectic half elf. Emilia however simply wouldn't listen, her mind was too consumed by the revelation that this spectre was using her face to torment Subaru, and it was just too much for her mind to handle.

"Miss Emilia please, you must calm yourself" despite being her rival for Subaru's affection, Rem still had a duty to uphold when it came to being Emilia's maid and helper, as such the blue haired oni had gotten up from her seat as well, and was trying her best to comfort and calm, the half elf who was currently experiencing a mini emotional breakdown.

"NO! NO!, I don't want it to be me! it shouldn't be me!" Emilia screamed at the top of her lungs, causing everyone around her to cover their ears, from the intensity of the half elf voice, it also helped that whatever the warden have done to them when transporting them into the theatre, it's seemingly had completely turned off or nullified everyone's magic, including the completely emotionally broken half-elf, who by now in the normal world would have completely frozen everything over for a 20-mile radius.

"She's too far gone, we need to do some of what she hurts herself" Ram voice lacked any of its usual smugness, instead having a hard and authoritative edge to it, is she quickly made her over to the half hour who was currently still breaking down, how about how she was about to reach out for the half elf to try and calm her down, her hand was quickly swiped away by Emilia, force of which was so strong that it completely shattered two of the pink haired maid fingers, causing her to yell out in pain.

"Sister!" Rem wasted no time and she quickly ran over to her sister, who had sunken to her knees, holding her hand out in front of her, two of her fingers bent at horrifying angles, as she bit her lip in a vain attempt to keep the pain in, the force of her bite being so strong that that blood was beginning to trickle down her chin, and quickly began to stain the front of her maid uniform.

"Emilia listen to me now, you need to get a hold of yourself!" Crusch had long since gotten up from her seat, Wilhelm and Felix following closely behind her as she quickly made her way to the half elf, however much to have frustration and fear, the silver haired half elf not responding in the slightest, causing her to send a worried look towards Felix and Wilhelm.

however before anyone else could react, Beatrice suddenly made a move, quickly and gently placing Subaru's head onto the carpet of the theatre, before rising up to her full but still short height, turning her full and undivided attention what's the emotionally breaking half elf.

"I think it's time for you to sleep I suppose" with those words Beatrice held out her hand to Emilia, the half elf turning to look at the little spirit, the look that Emilia gave her was something that she would forever remember, as the half elf eyes quickly rolled into the back of her head, all of the strength in her body simply gone as if she was a puppet with her strings suddenly been cut, and as her body suddenly began to fall, Frederica was quick on the draw, quickly scooping up the half elf in her arms.

Everyone stood there completely shocked for a moment, before a wave of relief suddenly washed over them, Beatrice had used a basic sleep spell on Emilia, knocking her out cold as well as putting an end to her emotional breakdown for the moment anyway, with her job now done, Beatrice quickly returned to the position that she'd occupied just moments ago, sitting on her knees with Subaru's head in her lap, gently stroking his forehead with one of her small and almost doll like hands.

"Is she going to be alright, great spirit Beatrice?" Wilhelm asked as he knelt down next to the sleeping half-elf that was in Frederica arms, giving her a quick check over just to make sure that Emilia was alright.

"She'll be fine I suppose, but when she wakes back up that will be a different story" Beatrice replied, not even turning to look at the aged swordsman, as she continued to gently stroke the sleeping Subaru's hair. However her mind was somewhere else entirely, it was desperately trying to piece together everything she had seen so far, but the picture that was beginning to be created was one that disturbed her greatly and one that she wished wasn't true.

"Nayh~now that she's no longer a problem, let me have a look at your hand" with Emilia now asleep and no longer a threat to her or anyone else, Felix quickly turned his attention towards Ram, who was still holding her hand, the slight throbbing in her broken fingers very evident and she desperately tried to keep the pain in. Wasting no time Felix quickly knelt down in front of her, gesturing to her blue head sister to back off a little bit, Rem hesitated for a moment before complying, standing up and packing away. Felix then began to look at Ram's mangled fingers, and after giving them a quick once over, he looked up into the pink haired maid's eyes, as if he was about to ask permission for something. However the Look she gave him was all the answer he needed, as he quickly and abruptly grabbed by the fingers, and quickly and sharply brought both of the back to a vertical standing position. The horrifying crunch sound was completely drowned out by the pink haired maids cry of agony, causing a few to cover their ears much like they had done when Emilia suddenly screamed moments ago, however are howl of agony didn't last very long as Felix quickly began to use healing magic, the broken bones completely healed within a second.

"T-Thanks for that" Ram managed to say through her hard and ragged breaths, remanence of the pain quickly being washed away by the healing Bliss that was the cat boys healing magic, and once he was done he quickly moved away from her, allowing her to give her fingers an experimental flex, the soft popping sound of her joints barely audible, as Felix quickly returned to his ladies side.

"I'm glad that your injury has been seen to Ram, but that still begs the question of what we should do with Emilia, we can't just let her lie on the floor like some common animal" Frederica sent a grateful look towards the pink haired maid, but her question also called everyone by surprise, what exactly were they going to do with the sleeping half elf. There was nowhere for her to lie down comfortably, all of the seats had armrests between so you couldn't lie across them, and the floor despite being carpeted was exactly as uncomfortable as it looked.

"That's a good question Miss Frederica, we need to prepare some kind of proper sleeping arrangement, until she awakens" Wilhelm said in thought, trying to think of a way that the half elf could be made comfortable, while she slept off her psychosis. However before anyone else could say anything, the video suddenly paused, the familiar voice of the warden now playing through the speakers.

give me a sec gramps, I'll put something together for her

As soon as the words were uttered, several of the seats behind Wilhelm and Frederica, abruptly and suddenly changed, no longer do they have armrests between them, instead there was a single cushion that went across at least 10 or 12 seats. In fact it was just long enough for a regular size person to easily lay down comfortably with room to spare, Frederica looked at the screen in surprise, before giving a delighted and thankful nod. Wilhelm did much the same, as he quickly got up from his kneeling position, returning to the side of the green haired woman that he served, Frederica on the other hand, gently quickly picked up Emilia in both Arms, surprising quite a few of her strength as she easily carried the sleeping half-elf bridal style. And quickly but gently placing her onto the modified seats, Emilia giving out a quiet but audible murmur that was unintelligible to everyone, but was most likely related to a certain black-haired boy.

"Thank you Mr warden" Frederica grabbed the hem of her dress, pulling it up slightly as she gave a slight curtsy, which itself was the customary way for a maid to thank someone of a higher status, after she did this she then motioned to Petra.

"Petra, I am going to be sitting with Lady Emilia, keep an eye on her while she sleeps, please come sit with me" the little girl didn't say anything, simply just getting up from her seat and running round the row, and once she was standing in front of Frederica, the blonde headed beast woman, gave the young girl a small but pleasant smile. Ruffling her hair with one of her hands, causing Petra turn let out a childish giggle, as the both of them quickly sat down next to the sleeping half elf, Frederica sitting next to Emilia's head, and Petra sitting on the opposite side of Frederica.

With the warden now having taken care of Emilia's sleeping arrangement for the moment, everyone began to shuffle back to their seats, however there were some noticeable differences this time around. Due to the second row of seats now being completely vacant, Crusch, Wilhelm and Felix, decided to move up a row, now sitting directly behind the Emilia camp. Which now surprisingly was entirely seated in the front room of the theatre, Julius and Anastasia also decided to move, both of them are sitting in the same row as Crusch and her camp. But still leaving just enough space between the two, so as to not feel too bunched up, Rinehart and Felt on the other hand decided to not move seats, instead deciding between the two of them to simply remain where they were for now. Finally Priscilla and her knight Al also remained in the original seats, despite the helmeted man making some effort to try and move up a row, however only to be stopped by the red headed princess, muttering something about not wanting to sit near peasants.

And after a moment of standing there completely horrified, Subaru then suddenly sprinted at full pelt to the opposite end of the hallway not caring how much noise he made on the way, as he smashed his fist into the door that led to the Tram Repair Bay. The door taking much longer than he would have wanted to open, however as it began to open Subaru didn't wait, instead he simply pushed his way through the still opening door, turning around his eyes almost manic, as he quickly airm his plasma cutter down the brightly illuminated orange hallway, and the door closed behind him. But even with the door finally closed, he simply held the plasma cutter up continuing to stare manically at the now shut door, the look of manic panic slowly fading, as the strength seemed to leave his legs, almost falling to his knees before managing to catch himself on a railing next to him, which only just managed to keep the poor rattled man upright.

"God dammit! why can't you just leave me alone!" Subaru suddenly shouted, his voice reverberating around the large cavernous room, as he threw his free hand around in a small state of rage, and after a moment of raging, Subaru seems to find me lose the strength in his legs, his intent script on the railing never faltering, has he collapsed in his knees, the plasma cutter he had just been flowing around and rage moments ago, quickly falling out of his grip and clattering to the floor. and that's where's Subaru stayed for a moment, the only sound in the large cavernous room being his hard and ragged breaths, as he tried desperately to get himself on the control again, and finally after a couple of minutes of this, he managed to get some strength back in his legs again, quickly scooping up his plasma cutter as he got back up to his feet, using the railing that he was still holding onto as a support device to try and keep him straight.

"God damn it, after all these years why now?" the tone in Subaru's Voice could only be described as completely broken, as if whatever he was talking about was completely and utterly life destroying for him, but after a moment of just standing there, his mind thinking about stuff that only he was privy to, he managed to pull himself up for it, quickly taking over another couple calming and reassuring breaths, as he spared one last look at the door that led to the hallway, before turning his attention to the large cavernous room that he was now in.

"What could have caused him to become like this I wonder, it clearly must have been traumatic , if it's left this much of a scar on him" Crusch rub her chin in frustration, trying to figure out exactly what could have caused Subaru to become like this, after all despite can being emotionally broken most of the time already, he at least put on a good Façade of holding himself together, but this was different he didn't even try to pretend that he was alright, in other words this poor man she was watching was just simply broken possibly beyond repair.

"That's a good question I suppose, one that I want the answer to myself" Beatrice reply to the green haired woman, and much like her, the little spirit desperately wanted to understand why exactly her contract it was like this, she wanted to understand what could have possibly turned him into this emotional wreck, and if there was anything she could do to avoid it in the future.

"Federica, is Big Brother Subaru going to be ok?" the look that Petra gave the blonde haired woman was enough to almost kill, it was a look of pure childlike innocence and sadness mixed together into one, Frederica desperately tried to think of something to say, something that wouldn't make the young girl upset.

"I promise he's going to be fine Petra, so don't you worry your little head about it" it was a complete bold faced lie, it seems to cheer up the young girl, which was all that Frederica could ask for in this moment, a young girl like Petra, didn't deserve to have her worldview shattered, especially regarding the black haired boy that the little girl looked up to as if he was her actual sibling.

Quickly he walked onto the large platform, overlooking the entire repair bay, where the holographic interface was located, Subaru then reached his hand out, pressing one of the holographic buttons on the screen, which was immediately followed by a loud mechanical noise, as the entire wall opposite him which was now revealed to be a giant door, open up completely to reveal the non-operational and completely destroyed tram, however above be massive open door, another holographic screen quickly came to life, this one showing a mechanical diagram that only Subaru actually understood, and upon seeing it he couldn't help but they have a curse under his breath.

"For God sakes, the right arm mechanism is completely shot" the frustration with evidence in Subaru's voice, as he contemplated how exactly he could pull the tram into the repair bay , with only one of the mechanical manipulator arms actually being operational.

"Wait a second" after thinking for a moment Subaru certainly had a realisation, looking at the newly acquired stasis device on his wrist, and then looking back to the malfunctioning mechanical arm, an idea popped into his mind on how we could solve this problem. and so he pressed the button on the opposite side of a holographic screen, this one causing the other mechanical arm to quickly move from its stationary position, quickly clamping on to the rail that the tram was sitting on, however before the arm could let go, Subaru quickly pointed his fists at the mechanical arm, before firing a bolt of stasis energy at it, the result was exactly how we predicted, the arm was now almost frozen, allowing Subaru enough time to quickly press the retrieval button on the holographic screen,

And much to his satisfaction the giant holographic read out above the opening in the wall, quickly confirmed the operation, as stasis now wearing off on the mechanical arm, as the entire broken tram was pulled into the bay, before the floor benefit quickly opened up, swallowing up the entire tram as it descended into the bowels of the ship. And not a moment later another tram quickly rises up from the open floor, this one being a stark contrast from the broken and destroyed one just moments ago. And once it was in position, it was quickly pushed through the opening in the wall, a loud metallic clan noise heard as the tracks realigned themselves for the new tram car.

"Tram replacement complete, please return to the tram operation centre, to reinitialise tram operations"

A computerised voice sounded out, as the large shutter doors that led to the tram tracks quickly closed, and now his job done Subaru quickly made his way to the door that he had come from originally, still feeling a great amount of fear as he approached it, however object next the door quickly grab his attention, waking up to it Subaru was surprised to see that it was a small power node container, and realising its usefulness, he quickly opened up the box, taking the power node from inside and quickly depositing it into a small metal pouch on his belt.

"I want all of it!" much to everyone's amusement Anastasia's mouth the dental water at the site, of all of the technology that was just put on display, everything from the mechanical manipulator arms that expertly grab to the broken tram, to the actual tram itself, both the fixed and broken versions, the broken version allowed her to see inside the vehicle, almost as if it was some kind of autopsy, allowing her to see all of its components and maybe even catch a glimpse at how the machine could possibly functioned, and then there was the giant doors themselves, both in the floor and the wall, in fact the purple haired woman could feel her head beginning with spin, simply because it was just too much to take it all at once.

"That was truly a remarkable display" Wilhelm said excitedly, his eyes for the briefest of moments lighting up with an almost long-lost child-like wonder, after the truly magnificent display of mechanical complexity he had just been privileged to witness.

With his newly acquired power node stored away safely, Subaru hesitantly steps towards the door that leads to the hallway, reaching his hand out to activate the holographic interface, however his hands stopped midway, the look in his eyes could only be described as absolute terror, somehow he managed to keep them soft together, quickly pressing the holographic interface on the door, as it quickly opened revealing the hallway.

"Get a hold of yourself, come on" his words were quiet, yet they have the immediate effect, as he took a long and calming breath, clutching the plasma cutter tighten his grip, as he finally took a step into the hallway, pausing for a moment before taking another step, and then another, before he was finally through the threshold that led to the hallway, the door behind him quickly closing itself of a loud metallic clang, however as he was about to take a step, he noticed something directly on the ground in front of him, something that definitely wasn't there before, bending down he was surprised and slightly horrified to see that it was a computer component, however after looking at it for a moment confused realisation suddenly enter his mind, as to what the computer part actually was, it was a replacement tram control motherboard, the exact kind that he needed to fix the main tram control system. still kneeling he quickly looked around, desperately looking to see if anything was around that could have left this computer component lying here, however as he looked to the far end of the hallway, the briefest of moments he caught a glimpse or something, it was a quick flash of colour, but it was easily recognisable that it was a shirt with some kind, quickly disappearing around a corner at the distant end of the hallway.

"I need to get out of here!" the panic in Subaru's voice was horrifyingly evident, as he quickly scooped up the computer component in his hand, before making a break for the sloping hallway that led down to the tram tracks, turning the corner with so much speed that he almost lost his footing entirely, but luckily he managed to catch himself as he quickly came to the malfunction door, still smashing away at it's door frame, frantically held his fist out and fired another bolt of stasis at the door, the door slowing to almost a standstill as he quickly jump for it, turning around on the spot in one fluid motion as he brought the plasma cutter up to eye level, just waiting for anything that could possibly be behind him.

"I don't like whatever that was" Crusch felt her pulse skyrocket, upon seeing the small amount of a shirt that disappeared behind the corner, but at the same time it also caused her to feel a great ache in her heart, which was something that she just couldn't understand.

"Yeah lady, whatever that was, it definitely wasn't good" Al responded, causing a certain cat boy to look at him with a vicious glare, however the helmeted man didn't even seem to notice.

"The place is making the poor guy extra jumpy" felt said with a slight amount of concern and her voice, after all this was a completely different Subaru than the one she was familiar with, in fact it was almost like watching a completely different person, the way he acting even the way he carried himself was completely different from the black haired boy that she knew.

"So it would seem I suppose" Beatrice replied quietly, despite being assaulted by the emotions that the on screen version of her contractor was currently feeling, she was still trying to wrap her little mind around how exactly someone like Subaru could end up like this, there was some pieces of the puzzle that were there, but still it was simply not enough to make a full picture.

"Subaru what happened to you?" Julius felt his sympathy for the black haired boy rise considerably, everything he had seen so far, regarding this future version of Subaru, had made the purple head swordsman realise just how emotionally unstable his black haired friend actually was.

But after a few tenants and foreboding moments, no nightmare or any other monstrosities came after him, which caused Subaru to let out a sigh of relief, however his relief was short-lived, as a strange noise suddenly made itself known in the large cavernous tunnel. Looking up to where the fresh new tram was currently sitting, Subaru didn't immediately notice at first due to the dim lighting of the tunnel, however it quickly made itself known as it jumped from the tram, leaping an impossible distance, letting out a strange screeching noise, as it landed not too far away from him. The creature was truly monstrous in appearance, it only vaguely resembled the human, as its entire lower body was completely deformed, its legs completely missing and instead being replaced with a large tail like appendage, tipped with a sharp bony blade at its end. Its face and head were truly horrifying to look at, its entire lower jaw was completely missing, or more precisely had been horribly moved and deformed into two large appendages that were tipped with giant razor sharp and deadly looking spikes.

However before Subaru could examine the creature any further, it suddenly leapt at him with terrifying speed and agility, Subaru letting out a surprised yell, as he managed to only just sidestep the creature, several of its claws fingers, just managing to scrape the fabric of his engineering suit. However the creature was faster as it quickly pounced at him again, leaving him no time to react as the creatures smashed into him, knocking Subaru onto his back as the creature landed on top of him. Its large toothy appendages trying to grab onto his head, however Subaru put his arm between him and the creature, stopping the sharp blades from piercing the front of his mask.

"The monsters got him!" Petra screamed, as she covers her eyes with her hands, not wanting to see the boy that she looked up, completely be dismembered by a horrifying monster that had come from the darkest depths of a nightmare

"Subaru!" Rem likewise screamed as she watched her beloved, be pinned to the ground, bye that horrifying monster the only vaguely resemble the human, however fear wasn't the only thing she felt, she could feel white-hot rage beginning to bubble up within her, at the fact that this thing was trying to kill her beloved.

"Subaru my boy, keep fighting! don't let it get the upper hand!" Wilhelm uncharacteristically screamed at the top of his lungs, a mix of fear and rage building up within him as he watched the boy now turned man, that he saw as his own surrogate grandson, quite literally fighting for his life against a monstrous beast.

"Come on I suppose, fight with all you've got!" Beatrice yelled, holding the sleeping Subaru close to her, as she watched his on-screen counterpart fight with all he had, to simply not have his head crushed by that monster, however she suddenly felt something else, white hot rage beginning to bubble up with in the on-screen Subaru, she could see his face beginning to control due to one of pure anger as he continued to struggle.

"Come on big bro, get up and kick it's ass!" Felt jumped up from her seat, throwing her fists in the air, as if in a vain attempt to give the on-screen Subaru the will to do as she asked.

"Fucking get off me!" Subaru screamed at the top of his lungs, as him and the creature continue to struggle against each other, however for just a moment the creature seems to let up in it's assault, allowing Subaru the chance to violently throw the creature off him, causing it to be dazed slightly as Subaru quickly jump to his feet. However instead of running away like he had done previously, Subaru in that moment was completely consumed by anger, as he quickly grabbed the tail-like appendage of the creature to keep it from moving. As he quickly brought his boot down onto the creature's head, the first blow seemed to only daze the creature, allowing Subaru to deliver another blow to its head with his boot, this one causing the creature's exposed skull to crack slightly, and finally Subaru brought his boot down again with a cry of rage. This time the blow was enough to completely destroy the monster's skull, causing a shower of blood, bone and brain matter to go everywhere, and with his anger still controlling him Subaru through the creature's tail like appendage away.

However much to his frustration the creature wasn't dead, instead it simply began to flail around, in a desperate attempt to try and figure out where the target had gone, seeing his chance Subaru quickly line up a shot with the plasma cutter. The first shot taking off the monsters left arm, however since the creatures head had been completely destroyed by Subaru's boot , the only sound that exited its neck stump was a horrifying gurgling noise, as it threw itself around in obvious agony, from having it arm forcefully removed from its body. But Subaru simply shot the monster again, this shot taking off the very tip of its tail like appendage, and as it continues to flail around from the pain of having the tip of its tail taken off. However Subaru shot the monster one last time, this shot taking off its right arm, causing the monster's body to fall onto the ground while it was still convulsing, but after a moment of this. The monster simply stops moving its body going completely still, the only movement being the slightest which of its tail which even then quickly stopped.

"I need (huff) to get back to (huff) the tram control centre" Subaru said through heavy breaths, as he quickly made his way to the opposite side of the room, giving one last glance at the monsters dismembered body, has he quickly reached out his hand, the door that led to the passageway opening much slower than he would have liked, but after a moment the door was fully open, allowing him to step into the access gangway, that led back up to the cargo conveyor belt system.

"Jesus Christ that was brutal" Al exclaimed, starting to feel just a little bit queasy, especially in regards to the monster's head popping like a watermelon shot with a high-powered rifle.

"And here I was beginning to think that the idiot had lost that uncanny luck of his" Ram set with a harsh tone, but it was evident that she was also glad that Subaru had managed to survive his encounter with the monster.

"That armour of his, was able to completely crush the monsters head with a simple and swift boot slam" Julius couldn't quite believe his eyes, he had thought that the earlier instance of Subaru delivering the finishing blow to a monster with his boot. Was simply just a fluke, but Subaru boots were actually somehow strong enough, combined with how strong Subaru was, to completely destroy the monster's head with a simple boot slam or swift kick. And not to mention the power of this plasma cutter weapon, which had been put on full display once again.

"This is my contractor I suppose, there was never any doubt" Beatrice didn't even try to hide the pride and relief that was in her voice, as she stroked the hair of the sleeping Subaru, who was currently resting in her lap.

"Despite his "uncanny luck" that was still too close for comfort" Crush had to take a couple reassuring breaths, to try and get her racing hard under control. For just a moment there, she was fully convinced the Subaru was about to meet his end, at the hands of that horrible abomination. However, that suddenly caused a thought to race across her mind, something that she's surprisingly had completely forgotten about it until now, did Subaru actually even have return by death any more?

"I'm glad that he's safe, that was a bit too close for my liking" Reinhard expressed, despite not feeling any physical reaction due to His Divine protections, the sword Saint still took a reassuring breath, mostly to calm his mind, because for just a single moment there, he was fully convinced, that he was about to witness the end of someone that he considered one of his closest friends.

Making his way back up the access gangway, the device on Subaru's wrist suddenly came to life, projecting an image in front of him that said sound only.

"Subaru. I managed to patch into the deck's security system. It took some work. But I managed to get the door to the Maintenance Bay unlocked. the data board should be somewhere ins-"

"Kendra I've already got a spare data board. I'm making my way back to the control centre now" Subaru cut Kendra off mid sentence, as he came to the doorway that lead back to the cargo conveyor belt, however he stopped for a moment as Kendra was still on the line but wasn't saying anything.

"Subaru. . . how did you get a hold of one? Those are only kept in the Maintenance Bay. . ." the confused tone in Kendra's voice, was obvious to Subaru, as he thought of what to say in response, he was at first going to tell her about what he had seen so far, in regard to the weird things that have been happening on the ship besides the monsters, but he decided to hold off on that because it would simply just make him some crazy, which considering is history probably wasn't too far after begin with.

"I found it in the tram repair bay. I can only guess that somebody had the same idea we had. Before they were dragged off. or dropped it in a panic" Subaru decided that lying to Kendra was probably for the better, as to make the situation easier on himself, Kendra on the other side of the line seemed to contemplate what he had just said, before replying.

"Well I guess that's one stroke of good luck today. Hurry up and get yourself back to the control centre Subaru. I heard something big out there" the transmission was suddenly cut off, leaving Subaru alone in the cargo conveyor belt, the only company being the scattered suitcases and other personal effects, that were scattered across the conveyor belt.

"Why are you afraid to tell her what you saw I suppose?" Beatrice, looked at the sleeping form of Subaru with both concern and curiosity, the question of why he seemed to no longer trust his own friends, was burning brightly in her mind, desperately wanted to know what could have caused them to turn into such a person. But much like before there were simply not enough pieces of the puzzle to form a complete picture.

"Why doesn't he want to tell her, it seems like pretty important information to me?" Felt said questioningly, not understanding in the slightest why Subaru would be so afraid to tell this Kendra woman, about the things that he had been seeing, in fact it was quite a stark contrast from the Subaru that she knew, which other than return by death, and the mental trauma associated with it, practically shared most of the stuff about his life, which included the stuff that was completely pointless and serves no purpose.

"You're right, I can't understand why, but is clearly keeping it from her for a reason" Crush rub her chin in thought, finding it quite peculiar and a bit off putting, that Subaru was intentionally keeping information regarding his hallucinations from his colleagues, him having hallucinations seemed like important information to relate to his friends, which was why the green haired woman couldn't understand why he was intentionally keeping it from them.

"He's scared to tell them" Rem observation caused everyone to fall into an uneasy silence, the prospect that for whatever reason Subaru was actually scared to tell his friends about these hallucinations, being quite an off-putting one to think about.

"You're quite right miss Rem, I don't know why, but he seems positively terrified to tell them" there was a noticeable sadness in Reinhard voice, and despite him not knowing the exact reason why, it was obvious to him especially, even without his divine protection of emotion reading, that Subaru was deathly afraid, to tell his friends about the hallucinations he had been seeing.

Quickly making his way down the conveyor belt, and turning into the small hallway that lead to central tram control, Subaru gave out a small sigh of relief, as he quickly walked to the door, holding his hand out to activate the holographic display on its front. However a skittering noise behind him suddenly caught him off guard, causing him to spin on the spot without even thinking, bringing the plasma cutter up and reading it.

He only caught a glimpse of it, but it was undertaken by one of those monsters that had just walked past the open doorway, as such, instead of turning around and fumbling with the door in a panic, Subaru calmly reached out behind him with his spare hand, not taking his line of sight or the plasma cutter off the open doorway, as his hand fumble around for a moment, before finally connecting with the doors holographic interface. The door quickly comply with his request as it opened up with a loud mechanical noise, however instead of turning around and walking through the door quickly, Subaru kept facing towards the open doorway, that lead to the conveyor belt, gradually edging himself backwards, until he was fully within the tram control room, allowing the door to automatically close. And once the door was fully closed, he gave out a hard, ragged but reassured breath, as he turned his attention away from the door, looking over to the absolutely horrible state that was the tram control computer, which had most of its computer components guts scattered across the floor, which was exactly how he had left it.

Deciding to waste no more time and just get it over with, Subaru quickly walked up to the Tram control computer, not even bothering to try and step over the numerous computer components that littered the floor in front of it, and once he was standing in front of the computer itself, he unclipped the spare motherboard from his belt, looking at it confused for a moment, as he tried to figure out how exactly it went into the computer, and after thinking about it for a bit longer then he would have liked, he finally managed to figure out the right way to put it in, quickly inserting the motherboard into the correct socket in the computer, and almost immediately the computer counter life in a flurry of sparks, before a automatic computerised voice suddenly sounded out catching Subaru off guard slightly.

"Tram control computer now online"

"The fact that he was able to fix it so easily, is truly remarkable!" Anastasia beamed from ear to ear, her eyes hungrily absorbing everyday information, regarding the strange, fantastic and impossibly advanced technology that was being put on display for her and everyone else.

"The technology of this world is remarkable, for the fact that it can be fixed easily" Crush said, her eyes widening in surprise, as she saw just how easy it was for Subaru to fix this computer device, that controlled the entire tram system, in fact it was both incredibly remarkable and Incredibly confusing, simply because how could technology be so advanced like that, yet somehow be incredibly simple and easy to repair ,it was truly a conundrum, that confused the green haired woman to no end.

"Indeed lady Crush, the technology of this world is truly remarkable in every aspect" Wilhelm replied, feeling his childlike curiosity returning to him, as he observed the incredible technology that was put on display.

After calming himself down and the voice finishing it's message, Subaru quickly walked over to the main tram control station, the large metal shutters on the windows opening up as he did so, allowing him to see the platform on the other side of the tracks, where Hammond and Kendra were still situated.

"Here goes nothing I guess" Subaru said as he pressed the holographic display in front of him, a loud mechanical noise being heard even through the fix security Windows, has Hammond and Kendra looked up from where they were both standing, their eyes lighting up as a tram pulled into the station, the tram now blocking Subaru's field of view of his companions as a computerised voice sounded off again.

"Ship-wide tram system re-initialised. All trams now operational, Tram 28 now arriving at Flight Deck Station, Quarantine lifted"

That final part of the computerised message caused Subaru to raise an eyebrow, aas the tram that was at the station platform suddenly began to move again, quickly speeding up before disappearing out of sight, however Subaru didn't have a moment to spare, and his wrist suddenly lit up with an incoming message, holding his wrist out the image of Hammond was projected in front of him, looking at Subaru what could only be described as satisfaction and relief, before delivering his message.

"Alright, we're on board and heading to the Bridge. Good work out there Subaru" Hammond said with genuine gratitude in his voice, however his immediate holographic display was quickly replaced by Kendra looking around confused, as if something had just clicked in her mind.

"Strange... the quarantine has been lifted..." Kendras words call Subaru to raise an eyebrow, before he responded to her query.

"Yeah... the PA system announced the quarantine been lifted..." Subaru fought for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly could have caused the quarantine to lift by itself, however he suddenly realised at exactly the same time as Hammond's image replaced Kendra's on his holographic display.

"In that case whatever was in the flight lounge must have left. That's a lucky break for us, Subaru, get back to the Kellion. And see if you can get her space worthy again, We'll find out what we can from the Bridge and meet you there" Subaru's eyes immediately widened and he heard what Hammond just said. The black-haired engineer just couldn't believe what he had heard, if it was in a different circumstance, Subaru would have laughed his heart out, at the suggestion that the Kellion was even remotely flyable in its current condition, however whether it was because of the twisted abominations running around, or the fact that he was slowly losing his mind, Subaru didn't find it funny in the slightest. However before Subaru could respond to the absolutely ridiculous request, Kendra suddenly cut him off, her voice making it very obvious that she was angry and distraught.

"If we even live that long. You are out of your league. Hammond. This is suicide! We going to die out here" With each word Kendra's voice raised in intensity to the point where by the end she was practically shouting at full volume, walking Subaru to clutch the side of his head and slight pain, due to the speakers in his ears, reproducing her voice with just as equal intensity as the original, however before Hammond could respond to the raging woman, Subaru instead cut himself into the conversation.

"Hammond take it from me. That ship is a complete write-off. I'm not sure what you're asking me to do. But I can't perform miracles" Subaru let his word sink in for a moment, before Hammond responded to him, taking a reassuring breath before he spoke back to Subaru.

"Listen Subaru. I know it's a long shot. but I just want you to see what you can do ok, and if you can do that for me, I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you find Nicole" Subaru absorb Hammond's words, thinking about it for a moment before looking up to the holographic screen, giving a quiet but affirmative nod of his head, to which Hammond looked relieved. And after all if there was one thing that motivated Subaru more than survival itself, then it was to hopefully seeing Nicole again.

"As for you Miss Daniels. Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted. But I have a mission and a promise to keep. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?" As opposed to using a calm and respectful tone with Subaru, Hammond addressed Kendra would only be described as an almost military-like authority to him, causing Subaru to look a bit surprised, considering it had been a long time since he had heard his dark skinned friend talk in such a manner.

"Just get us out of here alive. I mean that" Kendra responded after a moment, her image not being displayed, but it was obvious to Subaru that she didn't sound pleased that situation in the slightest, and with the conversation now over, the holographic screen quickly disappeared out of existence, as if it was never there to begin with, leaving Subaru completely alone in the dimly lit tram control centre.

"It seems that this Hammond does have a moral code I suppose, that Kendra person on the other hand firmly gets on my nerves" Beatrice said with a small but annoyed huff, however it wasn't just Kendra's annoying and shrill voice that made her feel that way. Something about the woman just didn't seem right to her, it was almost like Kendra was putting on some kind of facade, and hiding her true intentions whatever they may be.

"Indeed miss Beatrice, this Hammond individual does seem to be a respectable man indeed" Wilhelm replied, feeling a bit relieved that Hammond individual seems to have a decent and strong character. The part in particular about him intending to keep his promise to Subaru, was what ultimately solidified Wilhelm's impression of the man's character.

"You're quite right Wilhelm, I wasn't too sure about him at first, but I can safely say now that he seems like a decent man, someone that intends to keep their promises no matter what, is truly somebody that can be relied upon" Crush could safely say that her impression of Hammond was now positive one, of course that was without her divine protection of wind Reading, but even still his actions spoke much louder than his words.

"I am glad that Subaru has managed to make a true friend in this world" the tone in Reinhard's voice could only be described as happiness mixed with a small amount of Sadness, the happiness was obviously a by-product of the fact that Subaru seemingly had at least one friend. That he could rely on, in this dark and twisted while he was currently in, on the other hand the sadness on the other hand was simply because of the fact that Reinhart wasn't there to help him. Which as far as the red-headed swordsman was concerned, was another example of him letting down one of the few genuine friends he actually had.

"Yeah Rein is right, at least big Bro has got someone to rely on in that place" Felt much like Reinhard, was happy that Subaru had at least one person he could rely on, in that twisted and dark world. After all, everything they had seen so far suggested to the little blonde that Subaru wasn't exactly in the best mental state, which was saying something considering the kind of stuff the poor black haired boy had experienced so far.

"That is well and all, but I don't know exactly how Hammond expects Subaru to get that ship operational again?" Julius's remark caused quite a few to suddenly realise exactly what kind of request and the outcome that Hammond was expecting. How exactly did the dark skinned man expect to get that junk pile of a ship operational again?

"That's a good question Julius~Nayh" Felix rub his chin in thought, His mind trying to figure out how exactly, Subaru was expected to get that completely broken ship back in operation again, after all the damage that they had saw at the very beginning seemed to the point where the ship was no longer operational. And considering how advanced everything in this world truly was, Felix had his doubts that Subaru, that even with his demonstrated engineering prowess, would be able to get the ship going again.

"Yeah, how the hell is he going to get that ship working again! the thing is completely trashed" Garfiel exclaimed, confused at why the dark-skinned man had suggested for Subaru to try and fix that junk heap of a ship. But at the same time he was also secretly excited and a little bit giddy, to see his captain's supposed engineering ability in action.

"I think Hammond already knows the ship is completely beyond repair, but I suspect that he wants to know Subaru's professional opinion, before making a judgement" Crush had to admit that her opinion of Hammond was growing by the minute. So far the man had presented himself as a true leader, which was something that she could respect greatly, but he also seemed to be a kind and considerate man. Somebody that would fulfil their promises no matter what and would be completely honest, which was something that was actually quite rare in most people. Because almost everyone lied about some things, whether it be completely innocuous white lies to save oneself from embarrassment, or pathological lying and political manipulation of the highest order, everyone lied about something. So to see this individual being completely honest was certainly a welcome reprieve, in fact for just a moment the green haired woman couldn't help but feel just a bit jealous of Subaru, for the simple fact that he had managed to make friends with one of the few that was truly honest.

"My contractors sense of judgement, is impeccable I suppose, the fact that you had any doubts, is entirely on you" The words that exited Beatrice's mouth, were indeed quite harsh, however Crush simply let out a small chuckle, finding the harsh manner of the little spirit quite amusing, but ultimately internally agreeing with Beatrice's assessment. After all, if there was one thing that she could learn from Subaru, to be more open and accepting of people's friendship, and to not judge people based on face value.

"I suppose you're right Beatrice, Subaru's ability for judging character is impeccable" Crush chuckle began, sending a smile towards the little spirit, who seems to flinch ever so slightly at the affectionate that had been shown her away, however off for a moment has faced changed just ever so slightly, most wouldn't have noticed it due to how slight it was, but Crush easily spotted it, the corners of Beatrice's mouth curved upwards ever so slightly, a small brush making its way onto her almost doll like face, and absorbing the site before her, it was in that very moment that Crush understood why exactly Subaru, positively gushed about the little spirit every time he got, the little spirit was just completely utterly adorable, causing a single of thought that overpowered everything else, to run through her mind at that very moment. By the Dragon ! she's absolutely adorable!

"Who knows maybe little bro, can perform technological miracles" Al said mostly to himself, desperately wanting it to be true, but at the same time being real enough to realise that was very unlikely that ship was ever going to fly again, considering the absolute beating it took just getting silver and his friends on to that ship of nightmares.

"Perhaps the peasant and his friends are finally going to meet their end soon" Priscilla said surprisingly without any of the usual malice that was in her voice, instead the tone of voice gave it away that it was more of an observation rather than a wish to see Subaru meet his end. Of course though her wording left a lot to be desired, causing a few to look at her with a mixture of disapproval and outright hostility.

"I think it's best if you stop speaking I suppose" Beatrice didn't even turn her head when addressing the princess, causing Priscilla to begin to her teeth and anger, because at least the someone was butting heads with her. She expected them to do it while addressing her directly, however before she could retort to the little spirit, the helmeted man that was her knight suddenly got her attention

"Princess seriously just let it go" Al said with a surprisingly straight face behind his mask, however internally he was practically screaming and begging to every deity that he could think of, that the princess wouldn't outright simply kill him for what he just said, however much to his absolute shock, instead of trying to kill him or blow up the remarks into a full-blown argument, Priscilla simply gritted her teeth for a moment, before taking a calming deep breath, and letting out a calm exhale.

"I suppose you're right, I shouldn't lower myself to their station, it's unbecoming of royalty like myself" the words that Priscilla said, were quickly accompanied by the click of her fan, as she held it out to cover the lower half of her face from view, Al meanwhile was internally cheering with everything he had, because after all it seemed like the princess was finally beginning to learn that absolutely juvenile insult were not the end of the world.

"If that's how they royalty of your home acts, I think it's best we cut ties with your homeland, as soon as I kick your butt and become the next ruler" Felt desperately wanted a reaction from the sun princess, wanting Priscilla to start screaming and raging at her or threatening to end her life like she usually did, however much to her shock and slight relief, the sun princess simply looked up a little blonde for a moment before turning her head away and letting and letting up a small huff, clearly not interested in the little blondes verbal bate.

Finding The Silence of the tram control centre quite eerie and unsettling, Subaru quickly made his way over to the strange box on the wall, and he repeated the exact same action as he did earlier, the box again complied with his request, quickly opening up its front however instead of projecting and holographic image this time, it simply remain dormant Subaru continue to hold his hand out for a moment before retracting it, the box quickly closing itself back up and going silent once more.

Subaru quickly made his way over to the door that he originally came from moment earlier, is hand stopping midway, as his mind flashback to the events that happened the hallway he had originally passed through to get to the tram control centre, however you quickly shook away that on certainty, is hand interacting with the holographic display on the front of the door, which quickly opened revealing the sloping hallway, Subaru pulled plasma cutter from his belt reading it just in case, as he quickly made his way into the hallway, quickly reaching the top of the slope, where the door that lead back to the flight lounge was located, keeping the plasma cutter firmly gripped in his hand, Subaru's eyes kept the darting over to the sloping dark hallway that led down to the block door, however once the door in front of him was open, he quickly shuffle through it, the door closing quickly behind him, however is nervousness didn't dissipate in the slightest, in fact it only seemed to skyrocket, the plasma cutter in his grip beginning to shake slightly as he jumped his head around the corner of the hallway, making sure that he wasn't going to be ambushed by any of those monsters, and once he saw that the coast was clear, he quickly made his way around the corner, however the lack of something at the end of the hallway caused him to stop dead in his tracks or more precisely, his breathing beginning to quicken, as the plasma cutter began to shake even more in his hands.

at the end of the hallway there was a distinct lack of a corpse, the body of the man that had died earlier as a result of being eviscerated by one of those Monsters, was completely and utterly gone, the only thing left behind being a large pool of drying blood, as well as what looks to be bloody footprints that would definitely not human.

Subaru almost hyperventilating by this point, quick clear and the rest of the way to the door, completely ignoring the mostly dry puddle of blood beneath his feet, smashed his fists against the holographic display on the doors front, his eyes darting around almost manically as the door tickets sweet time to open, however once the door began to open, Subaru didn't wait pushing himself through the half open door, as he quickly turned around on the spot, smashing his fists on the holographic display as the door quickly slam shut, the blue open symbol on its front, quickly changing to a harsh and bloody red lock symbol.

Finding the silence of the tram control centre quite eerie and unsettling, Subaru quickly made his way over to the strange box on the wall, and he repeated the exact same action as he did earlier. The box again complied with his request, quickly opening up its front however instead of projecting a holographic image this time. It simply remained dormant as Subaru continued to hold his hand out for a moment before retracting it, the box quickly closing itself back up and going silent once more.

Subaru quickly made his way over to the door that he originally came from earlier, his hand stopping midway, as his mind flashback to the events, that happened the hallway he had originally passed through to get to the tram control centre, however he quickly shook away the fear and uncertainty. His hand interacted with the holographic display on the front of the door, which quickly opened revealing the sloping hallway. Subaru pulled the plasma cutter from his belt reading it just in case, as he quickly made his way into the hallway, quickly reaching the top of the slope, where the door that led back to the flight lounge was located, keeping the plasma cutter firmly gripped in his hand. Subaru's' eyes kept darting over to the sloping dark hallway that led down to the block door, however once the door in front of him was open, he quickly shuffled through it, the door closing quickly behind him. But his nervousness didn't dissipate in the slightest, in fact it only seemed to skyrocket, the plasma cutter in his grip beginning to shake slightly as he poked his head around the corner of the hallway, making sure that he wasn't going to be ambushed by any of those monsters. And once he saw that the coast was clear, he quickly made his way around the corner, however the lack of something at the end of the hallway caused him to stop dead in his tracks, with his breathing beginning to quicken, as the plasma cutter began to shake even more in his hands.

At the end of the hallway there was a distinct lack of a corpse, the body of the man that had died earlier as a result of being eviscerated by one of those Monsters, was completely and utterly gone, the only thing left behind being a large pool of drying blood, as well as what looks to be bloody footprints that were definitely not human.

Subaru was almost hyperventilating by this point, as he quickly broken to a sprint, covering the rest of the distance between him and the door lead back to the flight Lounge, completely ignoring the mostly dry puddle of blood beneath his feet, as he smashed his fists against the holographic display on the doors front. His eyes darting around almost manically as the door took it's sweet time to open, however once the door began to open, Subaru didn't wait pushing himself through the half open door, as he quickly turned around on the spot, and smashing his fists on the holographic display as the door quickly slam shut, the blue open symbol on its front, quickly changing to a harsh and bloody red lock symbol.

"That man's corpse, it's gone. . ." Beatrice couldn't believe her eyes, her little mouse dropping open in surprise and horror, because the dying man that Subaru had comforted in his last moment should have still been there. But instead the man's corpse was completely absent, not even a scrap of flesh or dismembered entrail was left behind, in fact if it wasn't for the large pool of dried blood on the floor, it was almost as if the man's body was never there to begin.

"Wait just a damn moment, that guy's body should still be there!?" Felt shouted, a horrifying feeling running up her spine as the revelation that the man's corpse was now gone washed over her.

"You're right lady Felt, what could have happened to that poor man's body, it can't have just got up and walked away?" Reinhard, much like the little blonde, felt a metaphorical shiver shoot up his spine, the fact that the man's corpse was completely missing just baffled the red-headed swordsman to no end. The man's life coming to an end and subsequent corpse that were left behind, was way too vivid Subaru's hallucinations, plus there was a large puddle of dried blood that occupied the spot where the man had fallen, indicating that there definitely was a corpse there at one point in time.

"I'm in agreement with reinhart, I don't understand why it's no longer there but they're definitely was a corpse there at one point, and I don't think it was one of Subaru's hallucination either" Crush was scratching her head in absolute confusion, the fact that the man's corpse was no longer there just completely baffled her to no degree. The corpse being missing just didn't make any sense, in fact if the man had somehow managed to resurrect himself from the dead, it was highly unlikely he would be able to move very far, considering the absolute state that his body was in at the time of his death. And at the same time it was unlikely that the monsters have moved his corpse, simply because the behaviour they had shown so far, indicated at the monsters completely forgot about the corpse of their victims after they have kill the, so the fact that the man's dead corpse was just completely gone, with only a puddle of dry blood left behind, both confused and disturbed her.

"Man this is really turning into some horrible shit right now" Al didn't even try to hide the nervous twitch in his voice, he couldn't understand why the man's corpse was missing. But considering the amount of horror movies that he had seen in his youth, and everything that have been shown to him so far, the helmeted man had a few horrifying guesses at what happened to the man's corpse.

With the door now locked up tight, Subaru stopped for a moment to take a calming breath but he decided to not linger, quickly making his way to the elevator which he had originally come from. Pressing the holographic display right next to the doors, a moment however happened, the doors remaining shut as the holographic display simply projected the message "computing command" feeling his nervousness beginning to rise again, taking glance over his shoulder Subaru saw that the room was completely empty and much to his growing panic, eveeven the corpse that he had gotten the plasma cutter from was also completely gone, the only thing left being copious amounts of dried blood, and a few bits of chewed up internal organs.

"I need to get out of here!" the panic in Subaru's voice was horrifyingly evident, as he smashed his fists against the holographic display one more time, this time the elevator doors compiled without question, splitting down the middle as Subaru quickly jumped into the elevator, quickly fumbling around with the elevator controls before the elevator doors quickly slam shut, the sensation of the elevator beginning to rise, caused Subaru to feel a moment of relief as him and the elevator continued their upward ascent.

After taking a moment to collect himself, the elevator suddenly came to an abrupt stop, causing Subaru to jump slightly before realising what was happening. And as if on cue the elevator doors quickly opened up, splitting right down the middle, as they reveal the horrifyingly unnerving hallway, bathed in unnatural red light on the ship's emergency lights.

Subaru stood there for a moment, a small part of him wishing to simply just close the elevator force and go back down, however he shook that away, as he quickly pulled a power pack out of his plasma cutter. Simply letting it drop to the floor the mild clunk, as he inserted a fresh one into the back of the tool, holographic number on the back of the plasma cutter, now changing from a red dangerous looking 2, to much more reaffirming bright blue 10, and once that was done, Subaru began to make his way down the ominous looking hallway. Keeping the plasma cutter at the ready just in case one of those things would jump out and surprise him, however as he approached one of the corners of the hallway, he heard a horrified scratching noise, followed by what sounded like inhuman gargling. Stopping and pressing his back against the wall, he gently poked his head around the corner, just enough that the top of his helmet and its visor were visible, what he saw was one of those horrifying Monsters, however before he could get a good look at it. It quickly let out a horrifying scream as it jumped through one of the air vents, completely destroying the metal fan casing as it burst through into the ventilation system and disappearing, its horrifying Screams of rage quickly dissipating as the monster seemingly left the area of its own accord.

Both relieved and little bit concerned by the monster has suddenly left by itself, Subaru hesitantly step from around the corner, keeping his plasma cutter firmly pointed in the direction of the vent, just in case it was a ploy by the monster to lure him in and lower his guard, before attacking when he wasn't expecting. But as Subaru walked past the vent, turning around on the spot to aim his plasma cutter at it, while slowly edging himself backwards, nothing happened in the slightest, the only sound being Subaru's own breaths and the distant rumble of some piece of ship machinery. And since it seems that the monster had left completely, Subaru wasted no time, quickly making his way over to the door that led back to the security booth of the flight lounge. He quickly reached out his hand activating the holographic display on the door, the door quickly complying with his request, as he made his way into the security booth, to his left the security console which he had originally used was still active. Still showing a diagnostic read out of the ship, however he paid that no mind as he quickly made his way to the security Booth entrance, opening the door which led him back out into the trashed flight Lounge.

"We're back to where it all started it seems, also that monster running away was particularly strange, it should have known that Subaru was there, but it paid him no mind whatsoever" Wilhelm remarked, feeling a strange sense of foreboding as a result of Subaru entering the flight Lounge again. However his mind was mostly occupied by the strange behaviour of a monster, it had simply not acknowledged that Subaru was even there to begin with, despite the fact that Subaru's presents was easily discernible. In fact, going by the previous Monsters behaviour, it just didn't make any sense that the monster would leave, when it could have easily caught Subaru off guard.

"You're right I suppose, it's strange how it didn't acknowledge him" Beatrice like Wilhelm was confused by the monsters behaviour, as well as feeling a strange sense of foreboding coming over her, but the emotions that Subaru felt when he entered the flight Lounge hit her like a freight train. It was a horrible mix of discussed, Sadness, anger and quiet acceptance, the intensity of these emotions was almost enough to make a collapse, yet she held firm, simply continue into cradle the original sleeping version of Subaru in her lap, trying her best to keep them comfortable, as well as using him as some sort of a lifeline to keep a grounded in the Here and Now

"That idiot has got a death wish, going back there after what happened the first time" Ram said harshly, finding it incredibly idiotic, at the same time somehow also stupidly brave, that Subaru was returning to that current place, where this nightmare had seemingly begun.

"While I think you could have used better phrasing maid, I must at least agree with the sentiment, considering that map of his, why didn't he simply take a different route?" Crush felt her stomach drop as soon as Subaru stepped into the flight Lounge, the moment and horrifying details of what happened earlier, still horrifyingly flashing in her mind.

"M-Miss F-F-Frederica, it's the scary room again" Petra wined, grabbing onto the larger blonde haired woman with bull she had, as her tiny frame began to shake with fear, Frederica meanwhile simply reached around with one of her arms, bringing the girl into an awkward but tight embrace.

"It will be fine Petra, Subaru is going to be completely fine" Frederica said, yet she could tell that the young girl next to her wasn't fully convinced by her words, and truth be told those words didn't even convince herself.

"Damn it why does he have to come back here, I think I'm going to be sick, from remembering what happened last time" Felt's face took on a noticeable shade of green, as she put her hand over her mouth, her mind racing back to what had happened in the flight Lounge to cause all of this mess. Seeing those two poor men be completely eviscerated, watching as their blood squirted from their bodies like a fountain, would be something forever scarred into her mind, and something that would haunt her dreams every time she closed her eyes.

"Lady Felt, remember to take some deep breaths and try and relax your body" Reinhard said nervously, the fact that Subaru was now back in the very same room where this nightmare had originally started. Caused the red-headed swordsman to feel an extraordinary amount of foreboding energy, as if the very room itself had been stained by what had happened in it only less than an hour earlier, and then there was the question of the monster's strange behaviour. In fact it seemed to Reinhard that the monsters may have been even more intelligent than they let on, or maybe some kind of outside factors controlling them, but of course was no evidence to actually point to those conclusions, the red-headed swordsman simply kept that opinion to himself.

As Subaru walked back into the flight Lounge, he immediately noticed the lack of corpses that belonged to the other two members of his crew, however the communicator on his wrist suddenly came to life, causing the black-haired engineer to jump, as the voice of Hammond quickly made itself known.

"Subaru, we made it to the bridge. It's absolute carnage up here. No survivors, we're going to see if we can get the command computer up and running again, anyway though, how are things on your end?" Subaru took a moment to collect himself, His heart beating a bit faster than he would have liked due to being a bit startled by the suddenness of the transmission. However after a moment he managed to bring his heart rate and breathing under control again and responded to Hammond.

"I've just made it to the flight Lounge, I'm about to head out onto the flight deck to inspect the Kellion" Subaru's responded short and to the point as he quickly made his way over to the large double doors, that lead back out to the flight deck, the holographic display on the doors quickly complying with his request, has the large metal door split down the middle.

"Alright, give me a status update when you're done. And then we'll try and plan our next move from there. Good luck out there Subaru" Subaru quickly step through the little vestibule, coming out onto the absolutely massive and gigantic flight deck.

"Good luck Hammond" Subaru quickly end of the transmission, as he finally stood next to the wrecked ship that had brought him and his crew here originally, much like he had originally thought the ship was completely totaled. The port booster for one thing was completely separated from the main hull of the ship, as well as all of the other impact damage that the ship had sustained during its crash landing.

Once he had finished examining the outside of the ship, Subaru quickly made his way inside, quickly entering the main flight cabin, through one of these side passenger cabins, looking around Subaru was surprised to see that the main cabin was exactly as they left it. So quickly walking up to the main control panel of the ship, Subaru quickly pressed a series of bottom on holographic display, causing a large diagnostic readout to be projected in front of him.

However a loud bang followed by all too familiar scratching, cause Subaru to look up, which almost immediately made him jump back in surprised terror, crawling across the large windows of the ship, was one of those strange 3 limbed leaping things. But before Subaru could even think about beginning to shoot the monster, a sudden explosion almost threw him off his feet, looking around frantically as another explosion almost sent him off his feet again, Subaru saw on the holographic display that the ships fuel system was experiencing a chain reaction. And so without even thinking he quickly ran for the ships exit, another explosion happened in just behind him, causing him to be flung into one of the ships walls, however he quickly got back to his feet, managing to just get out of the ship as it completely exploded, the massive explosion at self-managing to throw Subaru clean up his feet, causing him to faceplant hard onto the flight deck gangway, Subaru managed to let out a grunt of pain is he quickly turned over onto his back, watching in daze horror as the Kellion went up in a colossal explosion, bits and pieces of the ship flying in all directions, as it's flaming wreckage fell down into the pit that was the cargo loading area of the flight deck.

"God damn it, that hurt" Subaru managed to safely gritted teeth as he tried to get to his feet, although as he tried to stand upright, a sharp almost unbearable pain shot down his side, however the pain was suddenly forgotten as a familiar of roar made its way to his ears, looking down the flight deck gangway, he was horrified to see that one of those leaper things and one of those regular monsters, had appeared, most likely both being drawn as a result of the ship exploding.

"Subaru!" Crush almost jumped up from her seat, as she saw the black-haired engineer be thrown clear from the exploding vessel, obviously judging from the hits of pain he let out, he have obviously been into quite severely, most likely having a broken rib or two from the impact, however knowing Subaru's almost inhuman pain tolerance and unnatural physical toughness, it wasn't that concerned her, it was more the fact that two of those Monsters were now there and down on him, with the intent to kill when he was at his most vulnerable.

Beatrice didn't say anything, or more precisely she couldn't really say anything even if she really wanted to, the emotions and pain that her contract was currently feeling, was quite literally coursing through her, as if the physical pain and emotional pain was her very own, in fact the physical pain that he was feeling right now was enough to bring her to tears.

"Subaru my boy!" Wilhelm shouted, the panic been very evident in his voice has he watched, the black-haired man be thrown from the exploding vessel, right into the jaws of two waiting monsters, that would be able to take advantage of his discombobulated and obviously injured state, that very moment that I thought suddenly occurred to the white haired swordsman, that caused every other thoughts to stop completely dead in his mind, if Subaru was to die at the hands of these monsters, would he actually return by death, so far super had managed to get lucky when it came to his encounters with the monsters, but with death maybe finally knocking at Subaru's door once again, it caused Wilhelm to think for a moment, did return by death even actually work anymore, considering that this world seemingly operated on a different set of rules, from the world that Wilhelm was familiar with.

"Damn little Bros in a tight spot now!" Al was by now gripping the arm rest of his seat tightening, as a result of fearing for Subaru's life, because the black head engineer right now was a very precarious situation, considering that he seems to be quite injured and Incredibly dazed from the ships explosion, meaning that he wouldn't be able to react in time to the monsters if they attacked him.

"Come on Cap! get off your ass and shoot them, before they come at you!" Garfiel sheltered, a horrifying feeling settling in his chest, as he watched the horrified monstrosities bearing down on his clearly incapacitated captain, in fact the feeling in his chest also cause him to feel white hot rage, the rage itself been directed towards the monsters and himself, because he wasn't there to help him when Subaru needed him the most.

"You stay away from him! you horrifying things!" Rem screamed at the top of her lungs, as she watched the two Monsters advancing towards her beloved, every instinct and her body was telling her to get up from her seat and charge a screen, as if by some miracle she would appear in the same space as him and defend him from those monstrosities, but through a colossal amount of effort, she managed to keep herself and her seat, holding on to the arms of a chair with such force that they were beginning to break on the hand grip, silently praying to whatever deity was listening, that her beloved wouldn't fall prey to those twisted abominations.

"Get up you idiot and fight! they're right on top of you" Ram raised her voice, the concern very evident in her voice, as her bodily reflexes match made her jump from her chair to try and help Subaru, however much like has sister she managed to keep herself somewhat seated , as she watched the dazed Subaru trying to collect himself, as those two twisted abominations were bearing down on him.

"Come on big bro, get up! those things are right on top of you!" Felt shouted at the top of her lungs, pure absolute fear coursing through her veins, as she helplessly watched the two Monsters edging themselves ever closer, towards the obviously incapacitated Subaru.

"Subaru! try to get up and fight before it's too late!" Reinhard raising his voice was something that would be considered very rare, however at this particular moment Reinhard completely forgot about his noble and Knightly upbringing, the only thing occupying the sword Saints mind, being the survival of his black-haired friend.

The leaper monster gave Subaru no time, as it quickly jumped straight at him, however despite the horrible pain in his side, Subaru managed to sidestep it, the creature's body slamming down onto the metal flight deck gangway, several horrifying cracks being heard. Which was most likely it's ribs cracking and breaking from the impact, yet the creature didn't seem to care about its newly broken ribs, as it quickly swiped at Subaru with its tail like appendage, the blade like protrusion on the tip of its tail, managing to catch Subaru on the arm, causing a horrifying dash to open up. However Subaru ignored the pain, his body now running on pure adrenaline, as he brought his plasma cutter up, not even bothering to aim down the crude sights, before pulling the trigger.

the monster didn't have time to react or even know what hit it, as a beam of plasma hotter than the surface of the sun, quickly took the monsters head clean off the shoulders, it's horrifying screams and roars abruptly silenced, as it began to thrashing it's tail in a vain attempt to try and strike the plasma cutter welding engineer. However before Subaru could finish off the blind and deaf monster, the bipedal monster that in silhouette still somewhat resembled the human, quickly charged directly at him. Pulling its arms into its chest as it used them and it's momentum as a battering ram, the force of which managed to knock Subaru clean off his feet, causing him to land hard on his back, sending a jolt of pain for his entire body that even the adrenaline couldn't suppress, causing him to let out a cry of pain.

As the monster quickly dive onto him, intending to finish Subaru with it's saw like appendages, however Subaru at the last moment managed to put a foot on the monsters ribcage, causing it's saw like bone protrusions, to stop just inches away from his face, Subaru in a panic, quickly put his other foot on the monsters chest, and with all of his remaining strength, gave a hard push with both of his legs. The force of which was enough to knock the monster clean onto its back, giving Subaru enough time to reach for his plasma cutter, which had been thrown from his grip moments ago, and quickly but shakily rising to one knee. As he quickly put a shot into the monster, the short managing to take off the monsters left arm, and with another shot the monster had lost both of its deadly appendages, as it continued to cry and roar in both rage and pain, however Subaru quickly rose to his feet not showing monster any mercy, as he fired his plasma cutter again. This shot managed to take off the monster's left leg, causing it to full face first onto its front, its cries of rage and agony quickly dissipating as the life left its body.

However instead of taking the moment to breathe, Subaru quickly turned around on the spot, the pain managing to finally register throughout his entire body, even in spite of his adrenaline fuelled haze, looking around Subaru saw that the second monster was only just behind him. Still wildly thrashing around desperately trying to locate the blackhead engineer, Subaru seeing his moment quickly fired up at the monster, his first shot taken off the very tip of the monsters tale , disarming it of its primary weapon, his second and third shot were fired in rapid succession, both shots taking the monsters Arms clean off at shoulders, causing life to quickly fade from the Beast, as it had lost its primary form of Locomotion and it's primary form of attack.

"Fucking (huff) things" Subaru managed to get out through his harsh and ragged breaths, as the pain his body was currently experiencing finally registered fully in his mind, causing him to almost double over in agony, yet for a great amount of effort, he managed to keep himself some what upright, using the railing on the flight deck gangway as a support to keep him upright, as he desperately clawed at his belt for a familiar object.

"He made it! oh dragon he made it!" Rem said thoroughly exhausted, collapsing down into her seat from both exhaustion and pure happiness, at the fact that her beloved Subaru had managed to make it despite the odds, get never ceased to amaze her how she was able to always come out on top in deadly situations.

"As if there was ever any doubt I suppose" Beatrice tried to keep her face straight and her voice even, yet there was the slightest of cracks in her voice, she could feel every single ache and pain that the on-screen version of her contract who was currently experiencing, and even for the little spirit it was almost overwhelming, he had at least four broken ribs, as well as several fractured ones, as well as mild internal bleeding, and that was just the stuff that she could actually identify, there were most likely more injuries that she couldn't identify specifically that Subaru was currently experiencing, the physical pain with something that would pass eventually with the right treatment, but it was the emotional pain that she felt which was what was almost bringing her to tears.

"I'm too young to have a heart attack, but I think I was just close to having one" Crush said with a sigh as she rubs her chest gently, her heart rate only just beginning to slow, as she took deep and long breaths, however seeing just how injured the on-screen Subaru actually was, cause they both of concern to flash through her mind, she wasn't a medically minded person like her Knight Felix, but even she could see that Subaru was obviously badly injured, if the way he was supporting himself was anything to go by.

I'm especially relieved that Subaru is safe, but he looks gravely injured" Julius managed to say, concerned evident in his voice as he watched the on-screen Subaru only just managing to keep himself upright, in fact it was obvious to Julius considering his Knightly training which could include basic medical knowledge, that the explosion had fractured or at the very worst broken a couple of Subaru's ribs, and possibly could have done more severe internal damage that was not immediately apparent, such as internal bleeding and possibly even ruptured organs.

"He needs medical attention for those injuries right now!" Felix's usual verbal tick completely missing, his word causing a fresh wave of concern to race through everyone's minds, after all when the best healer in the entire world, said that somebody needed to seek medical attention right away, it was best to listen to their opinion regardless of the situation.

"Felix, are his injuries truly that severe?" Wilhelm asked, the concern evident in the older man's voice, since he wanted an answer to just have severe Subaru's injuries actually worth, of course Wilhelm himself wasn't a medical expert in the slightest like Felix, but he knew enough to tell when somebody was in horrible agony like the on-screen Subaru currently was.

"I can't say for certain without checking, but I think he's got at least four broken ribs on the right side, and five or six fraction ones on the left, not to mention there is a possibility of internal organ damage, considering the shockwave that exploding ship gave off" the list of Injuries that Felix rattled off cause everyone's faces to pale slightly, as the full round occasion for Subaru's injuries was finally made clear, broken and fractured ribs certainly won't life-threatening if they were treated quickly, but internal bleeding and organ damage could be fatal, especially if it was not treated right away.

"Is he going to be alright!?" Felt exclaimed worriedly, true extent of Subaru's injuries being revealed causing a horrifying feeling to run down her spine, and despite the fact that she had seen Subaru die more time then she would have liked to since coming to this theatre, go down easy, especially considering that it wouldn't have been a death at the hands of a monster or something else like that, it would be death as a result of Injuries, that were caused by something outside of his control.

"Felix, please tell me that Subaru is going to be alright" Reinhard chipped in as well, the concern evident in his voice as he looked at his feline friend, who seems to be in deep thought for a moment, most likely trying to think of the appropriate way to respond to the question that would be posed to him.

"I can't say for certain~Nayh, if I was there with him, I'd be able to heal him up in a heartbeat, but since I'm not I can't say for certain" Felix responded tentatively, the answer does not one that everyone wanted to hear, yet they knew that it wasn't a cat boys fault, after all they knew full well that if Felix was with Subaru right now, he would do everything in his power to heal up the black haired boy and do everything he possibly could you keep them alive.

"Wait a moment, didn't that Kendra woman mentioned something about a medbay, could this medbay be some kind of medical establishment on the ship?" Julius suddenly acquired, causing everyone to look at him for a moment in confusion before they also only realised exactly what he was talking about, at the very beginning when Subaru's crew and him that crash landed on this strange ship, Kendra had mentioned something about a medbay, which dislike the word being foreign, the context that it was used in obviously indicate that it was some kind of medical centre or establishment.

"You're right Julius, she did mention something called a medbay, so it could be entirely possible that it is some kind of medical centre" Anastasia rub the side of her chin in thought, her mind racing all the way back to the beginning of this strange viewing, where Kendra had mentioned something about this medbay thing, after she had inspected Subaru's minor injuries from the crash, after all considering the amount of absolutely fantastical technology that have been displayed so far, it would only make sense that the medical technology of this world would also be on a similar level, meaning that Subaru could possibly patch himself off as good as new despite his injuries.

"I think Subaru may have already realised this to, and if I remember correctly I think he was planning to go there already, to have the wound on his head seem to" Crusch said thoughtfully, thinking back to earlier in the viewing when Subaru had had his head injury looked at, Kendra has specifically said something about going down to the Med Bay, after they had completed their mission to get himself looked at, so it was most likely that Subaru was already planning to go there, but obviously now would have to go there a bit quicker than he would have intended to considering his injuries.

(sigh) "Even in a different world, this idiot is always getting himself into trouble and hurting himself" Ram managed to suppress the worried tone in her voice, as she thought about the injuries that had been inflicted upon Subaru, four broken ribs certainly wasn't a walk in the park to deal with, after all she could remember clear as day, the time she had broken one of her own ribs, it was quite possibly the second most excruciating thing she had ever experienced, get the fact that Subaru had four broken ribs, and possibly numerous fractured ones and yet somehow remain standing, made her realise just how insane Subaru's pain tolerance truly was, as well as his mental fortitude to actually endure the pain and yet remain standing.

After fumbling around with his belt for a moment, trying desperately to find what he was looking for, his hand finally grip be familiar cylindrical object, ripping the thing of his belt Subaru quickly under his mask, the mask folding up and being stored in his chest and back plates, exposing his pain riddle face once again. Tears were freely flowing down his face as he gritted his teeth with such an intensity that it was likely that they were beginning to chip, yet Subaru quickly unscrew to the cap of the container that had the strange blue gel like substance in it, and surprisingly in one motion brought the container up to his lips and downed the whole thing in one go. The strange substance disappearing down his throat in an instant, as he threw the now empty container away without any care.

For moment Subaru just stood there, his breath turning ragged and horses as bolts of pure agony continues to jolt from his body, yet after a moment is breathing seems to slow down for a moment, the look on his face changing from one of complete agony, to one of mild pain, and then finally I look of pure absolute bliss. As all of the pain his body was in, seemed to just melt away in an instant, leaving him completely free from the pain, as if it was never there to begin with, however the bliss like relief was quickly and unceremoniously interrupted by the communicator on his wrist erupting to life.

"That stuff is edible~Nayh!? Felix couldn't quite believe what he just seen, the healing gel that super have used all the way back at the beginning of the viewing, what was the something that he had completely forgotten about up until now, so colour him surprised when Subaru had taken the container of gel off his belt, and down that in one go like it was an alcoholic shot.

"How peculiar, how can it have a healing effect, yet also be edible?" Wilhelm much like Felix couldn't quite believe what he had just seen, after all knowing that the gel like healing substance, that Subaru had used earlier, was edible and still have the same healing effect even when ingested, was truly mind-boggling even for Wilhelm to understand, it just didn't make any sense how something that was so potent at healing wounds, was also completely edible and safe to ingest.

"Everything about this world, doesn't make sense anymore" Julius rub his temples in obvious frustration, as another one of this world's curveballs was thrown directly at him, the fact that the healing substance that Subaru had had on him the entire time, was somehow edible yet retained its medicinal properties when ingested, just didn't make any sense to the purple haired swordsman.

"Subaru! what the hell happens down there. Are you alright!?" Hammonds concerned voice made itself known, as the image of him and Kendra at a computer was projecting in front of Subaru, however before Subaru could formulate a response to the question, Kendra suddenly spoke.

"That was our ride home. . . It's the only way of the ship. . ." The tone as in Kendra's voice could only be described as absolutely defeated. All of the strength seeming to leave her body, as her head droop downwards, the ramifications of the shuttle now being destroyed hitting her full force, and despite Hammond and Kendra not getting along very well, Subaru saw Hammond try and reach out for the woman, obviously in an attempt to comfort her.

"Kendra. . ."

"No Hammond. This changes everything!" Kendra suddenly snapped, turning her head away from the screen, obviously giving the dark-skinned man a look that the Subaru could guess was probably something along the lines of pissed and terrified, however before the woman could go any further Subaru suddenly cut into the conversation.

"Kendra calm down! if you lose your cool like we are never going to get out of here alive" Subaru's word seems seem to make Kendra stop and think for a moment. Before she let out a sigh, as she fully collapsed into the chair she was sitting in, Hammond meanwhile was now pacing in the background of the image, muttering quietly to himself, in what Subaru only assume was an attempt to think up a new plan, after the current one had quite literally blown to smithereens.

"Just let me think! Kendra, can you access that command computer?" The suddenness of him addressing her caused Kendra to look at him surprised for a moment, before she complied with this request quickly tapping away at the computer in front of her, as she did this Subaru began to make his way back to the flight Lounge, carefully stepping over the dismembered bodies of a Monsters he had killed. And as he stepped back into the entrance way that led back into the flight Lounge, and Kendra after a couple moments of typing away furiously finally responded to Hammond.

"It's no good. There's an executive lockdown of all primary systems. without the captain's authorisation codes, I can't access anything" Kendra looked even more defeated after she had relayed the news to Hammond, the dark-skinned man thinking for a moment on how to proceed. Subaru meanwhile, had made it into the flight lounge and had taken a seat on one of the benches, resting for just a quick moment, because he knew that even with the absurd amount of pain relief that was flowing through his system. One wrong move could easily send him to the floor in absolute agony, however before Hammond could respond a thought suddenly occurred to Subaru, regarding the predicament of the system lockdown.

"If the captain is not on the bridge, why don't we just find his location using his rigs transponder signal?" Subaru said breathlessly, his words causing Hammond and Kendra to look at each other for a moment, before realisation suddenly crossed both of their faces.

"Subaru is right, can you locate the captain's rig signal using the computer?" Hammond addressed Kendra directly, who after looking at him skeptically for a moment, began to wordlessly type away at the computer. And after a moment of this, her face lit up for just the briefest of moments, before falling again as Hammond looked over her shoulder, his own face taking on a look of concerned confusion.

"Here he is. Captain Benjamin Mathias. Location. . . Medlab. Status. . . Deceased" Kendra listed off without any emotion, the words immediately catching Subaru's attention, as the ramifications of the captain being deceased hit Subaru full Force. Hammond meanwhile was still looking at the screen over canvas shoulder, his eyes scanning over the information several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, before he ultimately responded.

"Kendra, can you access any information on what happened to the captain?" Hammond asked, as he stood up from looking over Kendra's shoulder, and began to pace again, trying to alter the already existing plan again with the new information that the captain was currently deceased, because if the captain was deceased, then that meant they were in a much worse situation than he had originally thought.

"I can't access that information from here. Find the captain and you'll find his rig. With his authorisation codes. I can crack the entire system wide open" Hammond considered Kendra's words for a moment, before an idea suddenly popped into his head, and turning to the camera he addressed Subaru in regards to the next step of his plan.

"Subaru. I'm sending the tram back to the flight deck station. get to the medical deck, and find the captain's rig as fast as you can" however as Hammond finished his sentence a horrifying and all too familiar gurgling noise suddenly came from somewhere in the room, causing Hammond and Kendra to look around in fear at what possibly could be in a room with them. And before Subaru could even react or tell them what was going to happen, a monster suddenly jumped at Hammond from somewhere off camera, the dark-skinned man only narrowly avoiding the monster's strike.

"Holy shit! Come on, get out of here!" Hammond shouted as Kendra quickly jumped up from her seat, both of them quickly running from the room, as the monster jumped onto the computer panel that Kendra had just been occupying. The camera quickly shutting off but giving Subaru just enough time to realise that it was one of those leaper monsters

"Hammond! Kendra!" Subaru shouted jumping up from his seat, has the camera feed quickly shut off, leaving him in complete silence, the only sound occupying the room being his shallow and rapid breathing, but after remember to standing there wishing that the camera feed would come back, Subaru instead quickly turned and headed towards the elevator that let down to the tram station, intending to get the captain's rig as quickly as possible and get them the hell out of this place.

"It seems that none of them can catch a break I suppose" Beatrice said with a sigh, carefully repositioning the sleeping Subaru so she could stretch one of her legs out, which was starting to go numb from having super is head constantly resting on it.

"You're right Beatrice, it seems that they're just cursed with bad luck" Crush wanted to curse very badly, simply because of how frustrated she was in regards to Subaru and his friends always seem to have impossibly bad luck, first the captain of the ship was dead, which meant that they couldn't override any of the lockdown put in place, and now his friends were possibly running for their lives or worse, being eviscerated buy one of those horrifying Monsters, in fact was really beginning to feel like that the universe itself just hated Subaru and the people around him , considering the amount of bad luck he was experiencing.

"At least if he's going down to this medical deck, maybe he can finally get his injuries seen to, if anyone there is still alive that is" Reinhard did have a good point, since Subaru had to head to the medical deck anyway, to retrieve something on the captain's person that would override the lockdown, it would be the perfect opportunity to have his grievous wounds seem to by somebody, of course Reinhard how to remind himself that was based on the assumption that there were people still alive, which every piece of evidence so far had indicated wasn't the case, but still the sword saint couldn't help but hope, that there was at least somebody alive on that ship that would actually help Subaru.

"Rein is right, whatever Subaru needs to get from this medical place, maybe he can patch himself up on the way" Felt said hopefully, hoping that Subaru would find some way to treat his quite bad wounds, in fact considering his broken ribs, she couldn't have a find a truly remarkable that he was able to stand let alone actually walk, because she from first-hand experience what breaking a rib felt like, quite possibly one of the most painful thing she ever experienced in their life, so the fact that Subaru could keep moving even with four of them broken was just incredible to her.

"I hope he's going to be alright" Rem said quietly, tears threatening to fall down her face, as the images of Subaru in pain occupied her mind, but at the same time she also found it stupidly remarkable, he was able to keep moving even with the injuries he already had, in fact thinking back on it, this wasn't the first time she had seen something like this in the viewings, after his fateful encounter with the white whale, he had most of his limbs broken, yet somehow managed to get up and run away from the beast, managing to survive just a little bit longer in that particular loop despite the odds.

"Subaru might be an idiot sister, but I don't think he's dumb enough to not seek medical attention when he obviously needs it" Ram comforted her sister in the only way that was natural to her, and despite her words having a sharpness and harshness to them, Rem immediately picked up on what her sister was trying to say, causing the blue haired maid to give her sister thankful smile, which Ram reciprocated in kind.

Subaru quickly walked over to the door that led to the elevator, the large set of double doors quickly opening after he interacted with the holographic display, the hallway itself was relatively unremarkable save for a large blood splatter and subsequent blood trial that led off into a different room. However unlike last time, Subaru's curiosity seemED to get the better of him, as he stopped to face the door that the blood trail lead to, and looking at the sign above the door, he was surprised to see that was a lavatory, and surprisingly enough the door itself already being open, despite it being an automatic type like the rest of the doors on the ship.

So gripping his plasma cutter tight and stealing his nerves, Subaru quietly and gently stepped into the bathroom, and was horrified to see that almost every surface in it was completely covered in dried blood. In fact it almost looks like a water balloon filled with nothing but blood, had exploded in the very centre of the room, but as his eyes scanned the room. He suddenly saw something on the floor that caught his attention, bending down he was surprised to see that it was a large medkit, containing 3 perfectly sealed medical containers. And not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Subaru quickly scooped up the blood medkit, and quickly retreated from the blood-soaked bathroom and back out into the adjoining hallway. Quickly clipping the large medkit to his belt, before making his way to the end of the hallway where the elevator doors were located, holding up his hand the elevator doors quickly opened up allowing him to shuffle inside, however as he did his foot suddenly collided with something, looking down he was surprised to see that it was a credit clip, and picking it up make his mouth drop to the floor. Because it was in fact a 10000 credit clip, something that could come in handy if he ever needed to get something from the automatic shops that were scattered around the ship in various locations.

And once the newly acquired cash was quickly secured away and a pouch on his belt, the elevator began its descent down to the train platform, the transit lasting just long enough to give Subaru some time to think. So far everything had been one shitshow after another, from the initial crash landing to the death of two of his colleagues, the local quarantine of the deck, and the reveal that nothing on the ship could be accessed due to an executive lockdown that was initiated by the captain. And just to add insult to injury the captain who initiated the lockdown and was the only one that production deactivate it, was most likely rotten in the morgue right now, so it was fair to say that everything that could have gone wrong, had indeed gone wrong in the worst possible way imaginable.

However his contemplation about the situation was interrupted as the elevator doors opened up, revealing the completely empty tram platform, with the tram itself waiting patiently at the platform, ready to whisk Subaru away to some other part of the ship. and as he made his way over to the tram, he could give some thought about using the money clip he had found. At the shop that was located next to the platform, however simply decided against it, considering that he had plenty of plasma cutter energy and medical supplies for the moment. And so after taking a moment to collect himself Subaru stepped onto the tram, the doors of the tram quickly shutting, as the strange machine began to move away from the platform, and as Subaru sat down and allowed himself to relax for a moment. He was completely unaware of a mysterious small figure surrounded in shadow, watching until the tram was completely out of sight, before disappearing in the blink of an eye as if it was never there to begin with.

The screen faded the black as the image of the strange figure on the platform was burnt into everyone's Minds, and nobody could really bring themselves to say anything, instead simply just savouring the quiet moment as the screen faded. Beatrice gently stroked the sleeping version of her contractor, Emilia continued to sleep, experiencing a pleasant dream that she would most likely not remember when she woke up, Rem and Ram simply held each other's hands, something they often did when comforting each other in times of stress.

Garfiel simply sat back in his seat, letting the stress in his muscles slowly fade away, as his young mind try to comprehend the horrifying things, that his Captain had experienced so far, Otto was in much the same boat as his blonde haired friend, tears freely flowing down his face, has all of the horrifying things that happened to his friend, seemed to hit him all at once.

Frederica simply held Petra close to her, trying her best to comfort the young girl but also using the young girl's embrace as a source of comfort herself, her mind thinking over all of the things she had seen so far, with one singular thought making its way into her mind at that moment. how can life be so unfair to one person, with a heart of Gold like that?

Crush felt all of the muscles in her body relax at the same moment, causing her to let out a quiet but reassured breath, as her analytical mind went to work examining and absorbing the information that she had gathered from this latest viewing. However her mind kept wandering back to one particular sequence, that being the strange young boy that they had seen at the very beginning of the viewing. For some reason that young boy seemed to be connected to her, in a way she couldn't even begin to understand, but she could feel it in her very soul that he and her were somehow connected.

Felix meanwhile couldn't help but think about all of the injuries that Subaru had actually taken during this particular viewing session. Yet despite not wanting to, the subject of the monsters also kept making itself apparent in his mind, after all they were quite literally twisted and deformed to the point when they barely even resemble humans. But the aspects of how they actually came to be, was something he couldn't understand, because what could twist the human form in such a way to the point where it barely even resembled its original state. In fact it disturbed the cat boy greatly, that with all of his magical prowess when it came to the human body, not even he was capable of doing something like that.

Wilhelm simply sat in his seat, his mind going over everything that he had seen in the viewing, cringing slightly, as he thought about all of the injuries that Subaru had sustained, and the severe mental trauma that he was carrying with him. And despite not knowing exactly what, it was clear to Wilhelm that something had happened to Subaru in the past that caused him to become so emotionally damaged. But what exactly was something wrong couldn't say for certain, and all he could really do now was hope that the viewings would give some insight into how Subaru became like this.

Reinhard, much like his grandfather, simply sat there in his seat, tears threatening to begin pouring down his face, as he thought about all of the hardship that Subaru had just experienced in that particular viewing. And much like before it caused the sword saint to feel awful about himself, because even with all of his impossible godlike power, there was not a single thing he could do to help his friend in his time of need.

Felt fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat, her stomach beginning to churn once again, as she thought about all of the horrifying monstrosity that Subaru had put down. On the one hand she was proud that he had rid the world of horrible abominations like that, on the other she was absolutely disgusted by the method he had used to do so, and the overall disgusting appearance of the monsters themselves.

Julius, much like Reinhard, felt absolutely awful about himself, because after seeing the error of his ways, Julius had found out from the previous viewings, just how exactly Subaru had come to be in his situation. And he had made a promise to Subaru and himself at that moment. And that promise was to be a better friend to Subaru no matter what, yes it seems that he couldn't keep that promise even if you wanted to, considering what the previous viewing had shown him, Julius had failed once again as a knight and as a friend.

Despite her best efforts, Anastasia couldn't help but think about the horrifying hardship that Subaru had experienced. This world absolutely trouted her own when it came to technology, but it also seemed to contain horrors that were beyond the imagination, Horrors and monsters that made the Witch of envy herself look positively cute and fluffy by comparison.

Al simply sat there, letting out a calming breath as he realised that for just the briefest of moments he could relax, reflecting all of the information he has absorbed so far from the viewing, and one thing he could definitely say, was that Subaru was in a predicament the far greater than any he had been in the past.

Priscilla despite her best efforts, couldn't help but feel just a little bit of sympathy for Subaru, after all he was basically under her boot, undeserving of most things that he currently had, but even someone like him did not deserve to be locked up in a tight space, with absolutely horrified monstrosities like that running around trying to take his head office shoulders.

And finally Roswaal, the mad clown magician himself, was most definitely intrigued by everything he had seen so far. Yet for the first time in nearly four centuries, he felt a foreign feeling beginning to creep its way up his spine, this foreign feeling was nervousness, and what exactly was causing this nervousness he couldn't say for certain. But either way, he was most definitely intrigued to see where the viewings would go next. And as everyone continued to relax for a moment, they all suddenly had a spine-chilling thought, a thought that was horrible to think about, which was most likely true considering how the previous viewings had gone.

it's going to get worse from here isn't it?

---

Well fuck that was a bloody chapter and a half wasn't it, trust me writing it was a lot more hellish then I can imagine reading it is.

Also when it comes to how long it actually took me to get this chapter completed and released, all I can really say is that I'm quite disappointed in myself, but since it out now, I don't need to worry about it anymore and can take a break for a couple days.

Anyway I don't really have much in terms of closing remarks, other than I'm going to get started on the next chapter probably a day or two after I release this, so until next time I'm signing out, amd see you in the next chapter.