Standing down the road were the Archbishops of Greed and Gluttony.
We are so screwed right now... What do we do?
Countless thoughts ran through your mind, but it was the last one that made it out of your mouth. "We need to get out of here."
You whispered these words to Rem and Crusch, hoping that you could at least stop Gluttony from eating their names/memories.
"What did you say?" questioned Crusch.
"I said that we need to get out of here. Now." Your voice trembled as you tried to talk as quietly as possible. "We can't beat these guys, so go now!"
Instead of Crusch responding, you heard someone else's voice. "Huh. You people seem to have a lot more manners than those idiots who just tried to run me over. How dare they?! They didn't even know me, but they decided that I was better off dead! Now, introduce yourselves and apologize. When you almost hit a pedestrian, they deserve an apology!"
"Nonsense! You killed all of those men and ground dragons! How dare you do those brutal things! Who are you?!" Horrified, you looked back at Crusch, who said this. This was the last thing that Regulus needed to hear. He could destroy anything with ease, and attacks don't affect him. Fighting him was useless.
Regulus looked disgusted. "You know, when you want to know someone's name, it is only fair that you introduce yourself first! Did you not hear what I just said?! You don't introduce yourself, and you don't apologize to me. Instead, you-"
"I'm sorry for her behavior!" You interject. "My name is-"
"Don't interrupt me! That is a violation of my right of speech! When somebody is talking, is it not common courtesy to hear them out? What if they have something important to say? Have you ever thought of that?! How would you feel if you were interrupted? Angry, of course! So I have every right to be frustrated that you will not let me finish my sentences! If you had any sense of respect, you would understand my pain!"
Once Regulus began to rattle on, you felt hopeless. Talking to him won't do any good, so there was only one course of action left.
You jumped to the front of the carriage, and took the reins. You didn't have any experience steering a ground dragon, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
"What are you doing, (Y/N)?!" yelled Rem, who had brandished her morning star. "Those are Witch Cultists! They reek of the Witch! We need to kill them!"
You shook your head violently as you tugged on the reins, urging the ground dragon to turn around. "No! We can't beat those two! The only way that we're getting out of here without dying or getting your memories and existence erased is to run away!"
Your words confused the two passengers. "What do you mean, getting our existence erased? Is that not what the White Whale did?" Crusch asked.
"Yes! It did! But over there is the Archbishop of Gluttony, and he does the same thing! So if you want to get out of here, help me steer this thing out of here!"
A bewildered Crusch began to near you, but your carriage was suddenly ripped apart. Shattered pieces of wood flew everywhere, and you fell onto the ground. Crusch and Rem landed a short distance behind you, which made you the closest person to Regulus.
"And now, you have the audaciousness to ignore me! All I wanted was an apology, but nooooooo! Does nobody know how to properly treat other people?! No! Of course not! It seems like people lose manners as time goes on! What happened to treating others like you want to be treated? Huh?! Did your parents not teach you proper etiquette? Did you not learn to respect others?! I am trying to hold a civil conversation, but I cannot help but feel violated by your rudeness. Do not deny my rights!" Regulus approached you, and you punched the ground. Everything was going wrong, and it was all your fault.
If I would have brought Reinhard, maybe he could have beat them. If I would have chosen a different road, this wouldn't have happened. If I could have stopped them from even trying to transport the Whale, this wouldn't have happened.
To be honest, you had originally thought that Regulus was a really cool character, but now you were just terrified and annoyed by him.
"I-I am sorry. My name is (Y/N) (L/N), and my companions here are Crusch Karsten and Rem. We a-are sorry for... for all of that."
"Tsk." Regulus's frown stayed on his face. "That was a very weak apology, but this is a start. Now that you've introduced yourself, it is only fair that I do the same." He smirked, and you could almost even hear the boss music playing in the background. "Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult... representing Greed... I am Regulus Corneas!"
"Well then Regulus, die!" Crusch finally swung her blade forward, trying to end the Archbishop's life. You knew this situation was getting worse, and you wanted to curse Crusch for still trying to fight him.
Her attack seemed to hit Regulus, but it had no effect on him. It was as if nothing had even touched him. You don't know the specifics of his Authority, but you know that it is OP.
He frowned again once Crusch attempted to attack him. "Now, that's just rude! Who taught you to try to hurt someone while they're happily talking? You are violating my right to speak!" In a fit of anger, Regulus brought his arm up, knowing that any of his attacks will be fatal.
You had enough with this, so you jumped in front of his arm, willing to take the blow. If you could accomplish anything, it would be saving those two girls.
Regulus' eyes widened as you fell back to the ground. "WHAT?! Y-you! How dare you defy my Authority! Y-YOU!"
When you took the hit, nothing happened. You weren't cut. You didn't even get a scratch. "What...?" you mumbled.
Regulus began to kick the ground around him in frustration, and the area around you was destroyed immediately.
Once again, you were unscathed. There was some dirt on your clothes, but that was about it.
"How is this possible!?" yelled Regulus. "You are violating my-"
You smirked. If this meant what you thought it meant, things were about to get interesting. Interrupting Regulus, you ran right up to him and punched him in the gut. You would have used your sword, but it was lost somewhere in the debris.
Sure enough, your fist connected with his stomach, and the air was knocked out of the Sin Archbishop, shutting him up for a few seconds.
"My my... how interesting..."
You looked to your right side, where Gluttony was approaching you. "No matter how much I eat... No matter how much I devour, how much I chew, how much I bite, I gorge, I gnaw, I munch, I crunch... I'M STILL HUNGRY!" He grinned. "It's pure Gluttony! Now, you seem interesting, so feed me!"
The Archbishop of Gluttony, whose name you couldn't remember, dashed at you. Using the results of your brief training, you dodged his blades.
What you didn't dodge was his left hand. After he flew past you, he licked it. You weren't sure why he did that, but you couldn't help but wince when he did so. His hands were lathered in blood, so he just licked all of it off his hand.
Seeing as his hands were bloodstained, you looked down to your shirt. Sure enough, there was a bloody handprint on you shirt, which bothered you quite a lot.
"WHAT?!" yelled Gluttony. "Why didn't it work?!"
By this time, Regulus had recovered from your punch, and he was trying to hit you with an attack, but nothing ever hit you.
He went and talked about his rights again, but you were more focused on Gluttony at the time. He looked a lot more serious now, and he drew both of his blades out.
Right as he ran back at you, he was attacked by both Rem and Crusch.
Crusch sent another attack with her sword, and Rem followed it, hoping to attack Gluttony while he was dodging or blocking Crusch's attack.
Things didn't go as planned. He jumped to the side to evade Crusch's attack, and he met Rem's morning star with his blades.
"I thought that you would be stronger, since you beat our pet. But it seems like you are all weak! If the boy over there didn't have that strange power, you would already be dead!"
After Gluttony said this, Regulus changed tactics. "Tch. Usually, I don't like fighting and stuff, but you are getting me angry. Since I can't hit you, I'll just hit the others! And don't you dare block the attacks! It is rude to disrupt a battle between other people."
Of course, you jumped in front of Regulus once again and blocked the attack, but as soon as you went in the air, a severe pain flared up in your stomach.
When you hit the ground, you tried to feel if there was an injury, but you didn't feel anything. You looked down, and where your midsection was supposed to be was just air.
Just before passing out, you could see Gluttony smirking over the lower half of your body, and Rem was still following him.
After ten seconds, you woke up again. Your body had regenerated, but with a cost.
Your clothes didn't come back, even though you did.
"Get that sorry thing out of my sight!" Regulus paused his attacks to address your... situation. "It is not proper etiquette to dress nude in public. Did your parents not teach you this?!"
What do you expect me to do?!
Looking around, you knew that this battle was going poorly. Crusch's arm was hanging limp, and Rem was just barely surviving Gluttony's onslaught of attacks.
When he saw that you had regenerated, the Archbishop of Gluttony jumped away from Rem. "You sure are full of surprises..." He licked his lips, and didn't pay any more attention to the blue haired maid.
He slowly walked towards you, and Rem grudgingly decided to heal Crusch's worsening wound instead of fruitlessly attacking Gluttony.
The Archbishop finally reached you. "I might just keep you as foo-"
When he got close to you, you used the one attack that you could.
"Strahl!" You shot a focused beam of light into his eye, which blinded him. After doing this, you bolted up and tried to tackle Regulus. As long as his powers weren't effective against you, he was weak.
As you ran towards him, the Sin Archbishop of Greed smirked.
Before you could even wonder why he was smirking, you fell once again, and screamed out in pain.
There was a sturdy beam of wood that pierced your left thigh from behind, and it went deep into the ground, preventing you from moving any further.
Regulus walked up to you. "When you are impolite to others, you are disciplined. That is how life works! This is what you get from violating my rights! Now, you have your right of movement denied. It is only fair that you suffer as much as I have!"
"(Y/N)!" Both Rem and Crusch shouted at the same time.
You heard another voice from behind you. "Fighting you made me hungrier! Now that you can't interfere, I'm going to have a feast!"
Oh no...
Through the pain, all that you could think about is how this wasn't going to end well.
"Rem! Crusch! Run! We messed up! Run!" you screamed. If things went the way that they were going, they were going to die or get their memories or existence eaten.
Then, three things all happened at once. Regulus attacked the two women, Rem and Crusch were locked in a stance, unsure of whether they should run or not, and Gluttony ran towards them.
It was at this time that you passed once again from blood loss.
Time Skip
You opened your eyes to see a man with a cloth over his mouth.
When you opened your eyes, he gasped. "H-how are you still alive? You've been impaled with a beam of wood for what seems to be several hours, and you should have bled out! I was just healing you just so that I looked like I was doing something productive!"
You were still light headed, but you were conscious enough to take in your surroundings.
First off, there was a huge pool of blood around you. Fortunately, your lower half was covered with a towel.
Not acknowledging the healer in front of you, you continued to look around you. The sun was beginning to set, and there were many other people just like the person in front of you.
They were searching for bodies, whether they were dead or alive. All of the healers looked busy, and if they weren't healing somebody, they were carrying the dead bodies onto the carriages that they came with.
Rem... Crusch... I failed them, didn't I...
You felt frustration and regret rise up in you, and you hit the ground hard, causing your knuckles to bleed. "Cut this wood right above my leg! Or cut my leg off! I don't care! Just get me separated from this thing!" you yelled.
This startled the healer. "B-but you will die! We need to keep the wood inside, or you will bleed out before anybody can heal you!"
You showed him your knuckles. They weren't bleeding anymore. "I won't die. Now do something about this stupid beam!"
The healer ran away, and you couldn't tell if you scared him off or if he's actually getting help.
You wanted to separate yourself from this wood, but it was firmly in the ground, and the tip of it was easily four feet off of the ground.
Since you couldn't move, you decided to do some thinking. To avoid harmful thoughts, you decided to think about how you passed out.
I guess that the wood stopped my leg from completely healing, so I would keep on losing blood and regenerating it just enough so that I don't die, and when the healer used his magic on me, that wound probably closed or got a little less severe, so I regenerated enough to be awake.
You tried to keep your mind away from grief, but trying to divert your thoughts was no use. Tears began to cloud your vision, and frustration began to take over. No matter what you had tried to do, it was still your fault that this happened. You chose the wrong thing to do, so other people paid the price. You were still useless. That hadn't changed one bit.
At this point, you began to cry. You tried to hold back the tears, but no amount of blinking was going to stop them from flowing.
I failed... I know it. I won't even try to hope for the best, because everything went wrong! Why does all of this happen to me?! Why...?
"(Y/N)..."
Hearing this voice, your whole body froze.
You wiped your tears off of your face. Trembling, you looked up into the eyes of someone who you were not expecting to be there.
Standing above you was Subaru, who looked terrified. "What... happened here?" he asked, his voice carrying a very obvious sense of dread.
He saw the beam that kept you on the ground, and he saw the destruction around the area. "Where is Rem?"
Oh no. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! This is bad. What do I do?! Oh no...
When you didn't answer, Subaru dropped down to his knees and violently picked the front of your body off of the ground. You flinched from the pain that was coming from your thigh, but you would rather suffer through the physical pain than to be a part of what was about to happen.
"WHERE IS REM?!" he screamed. Subaru shook your body, trying to get a response out of you.
"STOP THAT! If you're going to shake me like that, you might as well get this beam out of my leg, or get my leg off of this beam! Either one works!"
He momentarily stopped shaking you. As his strength left his body, Subaru put you down and plumped down to the ground next to you. With a much quieter voice, he asked again, "What happened?"
You bit your lip. You didn't want to tell Subaru this, but he deserved the truth.
"Well, I guess I'll explain from the beginning." You took a deep breath, and began your explanation. "Remember that knowledge of the future that I have? Well, the Archbishops of Greed and Gluttony were supposed to come along the highway and attack this group as they took the White Whale to the capital."
Subaru's eyes widened as he began to suspect what took place. Continuing, you said, "So I told them to take a different road." Your throat started to burn as more tears invaded your eyes. "B-but they still came. I d-don't know why, but they came down this road! A-and now..." At this point, your breath became haggard, and you could barely get words out of your mouth.
For good or for worse, Subaru made the connection and finished the sentence for you."... Gluttony... erased her existence."
Now, he began to cry along with you. "I... I want to hate you for this, (Y/N!)!"
I hate myself for this, so go ahead! I deserve this! I messed up!
"But I can't! You tried to protect her...but..." This statement shocked you. You thought that Subaru would hate you for this, but he seemed to have another source to direct his anger towards. "The Witch Cult! I won't forgive them! I will kill them all, and make them pay for everything that they've done!"
The Witch Cult...
Before you could finish that though, an extreme pain flared in your leg. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" you screamed in pain. You clutched your fist so hard that your palms began to bleed, and you looked behind you.
Reinhard was holding a piece of the wooden beam in his hands, and you could see some of your blood smeared across the bottom of it. It seems like he cut it right above your leg, and then pulled your leg off of the other half that was still in the ground.
His expression was difficult to read, but you could tell that he was just as frustrated as you were. "I heard that you needed assistance to get rid of this beam, so I took the liberty to remove you from it. Now, if you could, can you inform me of what transpired here?"
After taking a deep breath to steady your breathing, you told Reinhard about what happened, minus the fact that the two Archbishops should have been on the highway. While you were talking, Subaru left so that he could find Rem's body.
Once you finished, Reinhard nodded his head at your explanation. "From what I gathered, the Witch Cult may have had a source of information that informed them that this group would be traveling along this path. It seems quite impossible, but that may be a reason that two Sin Archbishops happened across your location at such a precise time."
The Sword Saint looked troubled, but he was able to hide most of his emotions. "There is one more thing that interests me. You say that you did not take any damage from Greed's attacks and his barrier-like ability did not activate when you attacked his body?"
You nodded your head.
"I would also like to note that Gluttony did not eat your memories. If you did not know, Crush-sama is in a critical condition, and I do not recall a mistress named 'Rem'. I suspect that Gluttony used his ability on them, but it seems as though he didn't use them on you. If he did, they did not take effect."
After hearing about Crusch's condition and after confirming that Rem's existence was wiped, you couldn't keep yourself together. Once again, tears fell from your eyes, and your body went limp in defeat. You failed, and now Rem was 'gone', and Crusch has probably lost her memories.
Reinhard watched as you cried, and he said, "If it makes you feel any better, we were able to defeat the Sin Archbishop of Sloth without any casualties."
You didn't reply to him, so Reinhard continued. "When we arrived at Roswaal-sama's mansion, we were greeted by the pink-haired maid and Emilia-sama. We briefly discussed our plan, and then we proceeded to evacuate the villagers. Subaru-kun was able to persuade them to follow our plan, so they were all safely escorted by Crusch's people, along with Julius. The Iron Fang and I proceeded to kill all of Sloth's 'fingers', and then I killed the Sin Archbishop myself. Just like he claimed, Subaru began to act odd following the death, but he was soon able to return to normal. I then killed the evil being once when he began to rise once more. The operation was a success."
At the end of Reinhard's lengthy report, you asked in between sobs, "Why are you telling me this?"
Reinhard crouched down next to you and put a hand on your shoulder. "There is more than misfortune in your life. I was just reminding you that beyond the darkness is beautiful light. Do not blind yourself to it."
After saying this, Reinhard walked away so that he could help more people.
What you didn't see was the shocked expression on his face. "(Y/N)... the Witch Cult's abilities have no effect on him!" he mumbled as he walked around the tragic scene.
Time Skip
Once Reinhard left you, you decided to face the people who came after the healers. They deserved to know what happened, and you were willing to take full responsibility for what happened.
Of course, Reinhard's words made this easier for you, but it was still an act that you were hesitant to go through with.
The first person that you went to was Crusch.
Well, it would be more accurate to say that you went to the ring of people around her.
You saw Felix crying over Crusch's body, and Wilhelm was on his knees. There were a lot of other people who were surrounding her, but you didn't know any of them.
As you got closer, your whole body screamed for you to go the other way. This confrontation was not something that you were comfortable with, and it was something that you might come to regret later.
Fortunately for you, Wilhelm noticed you and waved for you to come over. You sat by his side, and he quietly asked, "Can you tell me what happened here? Please..."
You looked at Felix, whose bawling was about to make you cry as well. "W-well... we were travelling down this road when t-two..." Your hands began to shake, and your voice was about to betray you. You gulped, and continued. "Two Sin Archbishops appeared..."
There was a general gasp, and Felix looked up.
"Why dyid you tell Crusch-sama to take thyis road?! WHY?! It because of nyou that she... she..."
Wilhelm put one hand on Felix and the other on you. "Now, Felix, please do not blame (Y/N)-dono for this. He had good intentions, and he must be suffering as much as we are."
He looked straight at you. "Thank you," he whispered.
You nodded your head, and you were trying to blink your tears away. Seeing people this devastated only made you feel even more guilty.
Wilhelm noticed this, and placed both of his hands on your shoulders, forcing you to look at him. "Do not blame yourself for this. Everybody here feels guilt, so you should not take it upon yourself to shoulder all of it. You are still young, so do not linger on what happened in the past. Look forward, and do not blame yourself for every single thing that goes wrong!"
There were tears in Wilhelm's eyes, and you could tell that his words were genuine. He wasn't saying this because he felt sorry for you. He was saying this because these were the words that his heart told him to say to you.
"(Y/N)!"
Hearing this voice, you nodded your head at Wilhelm, and you walked towards Emilia, who finally found you.
"(Y/N)! Are you okay?! What happened?!" She looked confused and horrified, but you couldn't help but smile. Even though all of these terrible things had happened, she was the first person to ask if you were okay. Of course, this was followed by the same thing that everybody else asked, but her feelings were enough to make you feel a little less dejected.
"First off, I am physically fine." Emilia looked relieved at this answer, and she waited for you to continue. You took a deep breath, and you told yourself that you wouldn't let any tears past your eyes this time. "Two Sin Archbishops attacked us, and a lot of people died, and it looks like Crusch had her memories taken away, and Rem had her existence erased."
"Who is Rem?" Emilia asked. "Subaru kept on saying her name, but I don't remember her."
You sigh. "Like I said, her existence was erased, so you won't remember her."
Emilia looked confused. "Then why do you and Subaru remember her? That doesn't make sense."
"Well, I actually have no idea how Subaru remembers her, but I am starting to think that Authorities don't work on me."
Emilia cocked her head at that. "Authorities? What are those?"
You scratched the back of your head. "Well, they are pretty much the abilities that the Sin Archbishops use."
Emilia seemed to understand this, but there was one thing that she couldn't wrap across her mind. "So why don't they work on you?"
She just asked another question that you couldn't answer, so you just shrugged your shoulders.
Emilia was satisfied with that, so she moved on to a different topic. "Do you know where Subaru went? He disappeared while talking about 'Rem'..."
You didn't know where he was, but you knew that you would be able to find him. "Follow me. I'll help you find Subaru."
Emilia nodded, and she followed as you walked past the carnage that was everywhere. Bits of carriages were everywhere, and there were pieces of ground dragon and people strewn across the ground in some places. Not to mention the few dozen people who died, and were now laying on the ground with towels covering their bodies. (You had your towel wrapped around your waist, but nobody mentioned it.)
Once again, you began to feel guilty, but you remembered Reinhard's and Wilhelm's words. Even if you felt guilty, there were many other things that went well because of you, and the fault for this couldn't be placed solely on you. Of course, you still felt guilty, but the reassurance helped a lot.
After a minute of searching, you finally found Subaru. He was holding Rem's body, and was crying.
Emilia clutched her chest at this, and she was about to run to him. You stopped her, and said, "Give him some space. I have a feeling that he wants to be alone right now, and I don't think that we need to be invading his private space."
Surprisingly, Emilia shook her head. "And that is exactly why I need to go to him right now. He needs someone to help him. He needs someone to talk to. He needs someone to comfort him. Subaru has always been at my side, trying to help me, so it's my turn to be there for him."
Hearing this, you put your arm down and let Emilia rush to Subaru. Emilia's words reflected what just happened to you. When you were frustrated and felt hatred towards yourself, Reinhard and Wilhelm comforted you, and it helped. Without their presence, you would still be thinking that you were a failure and beating yourself up because you felt like you keep on messing up.
You looked at where Subaru was. When he saw Emilia walking towards him, Subaru turned away, not wanting her to see him in such a vulnerable state. When he did so, Emilia sat behind him and enveloped him in a hug.
You smiled at the sight.
It looks like Subaru isn't trying to kill himself this time. He is definitely growing, but I kind of feel off about this. It's kind of weird that he isn't killing himself, but I guess that he realized that the Witch Cultists would find us no matter where we went, so he probably chose to keep the present the same and save Rem in the future.
On another note, I think that I just found a new goal to focus on.
Your face darkened.
I'm going to destroy the Witch Cult.
Hey guys! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!
I am sorry if you wanted Rem to stay the way she was, but I think that Gluttony eating her name and memories will serve the plot well in the future.
If you have any recommendations, critiques, ect., let me know! All feedback helps!
Well, I'll see you next time!