Re:Strengthened By Death

by AiriMage

With endless regrets and wishes, all of which go unheard, Natsuki Subaru finds himself betrayed and in a cell, tortured by those he once called friends, the world having forgotten him. As he calls out for friends and family, and even the witch, none answer his call. Feeling more betrayed than ever, he steels his resolve to save himself. Strengthened by his will, can he escape?

10. Dragon

Chapter 9:Dragon

Author Notes!

Hello, Airi here, welcome to chapter 9 rewritten. I've been taking these rewrites very slowly since I figured it'd be better if I'd like to flesh out the story more. Anyways, halfway through chapter 11 I realized the story was deviating from what I wanted, Capella's first "defeat" was too short and I didn't like the spell Subaru made in the end, too op and kinda an ass pull honestly, I'd like him to use the tools he has to kill her instead of making a new one since that's what makes Subaru so appealing. Along with that a certain ability of Subaru's was being showcased poorly, and a lot what should've been explained was shortened simply because I wanted to keep a consistent length in chapters, for example, Subaru never gave a solid reason for why he'd want to go save the Emilia camp and I realized I needed to expand on that more and not just have it be some emotional bullshit. With this I hope to make Subaru a little more selfish. Basically, the story was kinda going to shit, and I didn't want that, which is why we've got these couple rewrites. I'll also be editing the earlier chapters, making them easier to read and fixing some spelling errors.

However, this may all take a while, I'm just one person after all, so if the story takes a while to continue, I apologize, I'll be as fast as I can while still making the chapters up to my standards, which may mean going a few weeks without a new one if I can't properly write what I want to. That's also why, I'm going to be posting some one off's and making some more Re:Zero based content here and there. Now then, hope you all enjoy this little rewrite.

(Subaru POV)

ROAAAAAAR

A deafening sound that shakes the very ground spills from Capella's mouth as she chases Subaru. Running through the forest at a speed incomparably fast to before his last death, Subaru's still only barely managing to keep out of the reach of Capella in her Black Dragon form by using a Murak spell on Capella's body to increase her weight and a Vita spells on his body to reduce his own weight.

Like this, Subaru's been chased by Capella for a full hour, nearly dying again several times, only saved by using his assortment of spells and Unseen Hands to block or dodge her massive claws or black flames. On occasion, when Capella gets truly too close for comfort, Subaru will hit her with several Minya crystals to freeze her body in place to give himself some to make distance, but because of Capella's ludicrous regeneration, that never last long.

FWOOOOSH

The sound of flames billow out behind Subaru as he creates a wall of Unseen Hands to block it, setting the Hands alight in the process. Just as Subaru thinks he's completely blocked her once again, Capella in her human form has appeared in front of him near instantly, her right arm transformed into a giant gorilla-like arm that quickly punches towards Subaru's face.

"Stop running and face me head on instead of being a limp dicked coward!" Shouts Capella, annoyance and anger present in her voice. After letting Ward run off earlier she's become increasingly annoyed, even if she did send subordinates after him, the fact they haven't returned yet means her people are likely dead.

"Ugh!" Grunts Subaru as he raises both his arms, now merged together with Unseen Hands to counter Capella's authority, and blocks Capella's massive fist, getting sent flying due to the massive force of it. Slowly standing, Subaru mumbles "Did the world get turned up to Reinhard difficulty or something? Her strengths ridiculous…"

"An insignificant shitbag shouldn't be taking their attention away from my mesmerizing self!" Shouts Capella as she once again throws her giant fist toward's Subaru. Throwing one hand up, Subaru just barely manages to manifest Fortress, his defensive spell that freezes space, in time to block Capella's attack, creating a large shockwave in the air that throws him back and sends him rolling to the ground. Recovering quickly, Subaru throws his hand up and shouts—

"EL SHAMAK" causing a large, black smoke to shoot out from his hand, that resembles Capella's own dragon breath. Getting hit by the black smoke, it seems to swirl around Capella for a moment before being suddenly sucked into her hand. The moment her face is revealed, Subaru can't help but shutter at the cruel smile on her face as she holds something high in the air that Subaru can't quite identity yet because of the Shamak spell. That's soon rectified however, as the black smoke fully gets absorbed, revealing… Emilia's… Pyroxene crystal with Puck, a magic circle layered on top of it…

Subaru's brain seemingly stops functioning at this reveal as he just sits there blankly, before it quickly reboots and a million questions rush through his head at once. 'How did Capella get Emilia's Pyroxene crystal? Is it really the same crystal and not a fake or one that just looks similar? Does this mean something happened to Em-' breaking him out of his thoughts is Capella's hand flying straight at his face in an attempt to grab him, her arm having elongated in an instant so that she can reach him without moving.

Just as his face is about to be grabbed, Subaru creates a massive Unseen Hand by combining all 8 of the current unseen hands he can manifest, and uses it to smack Capella's own massive dragon hand up into the air. Before she has time to recover, Subaru shouts "Take this! EL MINYA!" Sending 40 Minya crystals crashing down onto Capella who's quickly turned into a purple crystal statue. Taking this chance, Subaru separates his 8 Unseen Hands and uses them to send himself flying through the air by slamming them to the ground, then quickly recombines them to form a platform underneath himself that he uses to float away. Behind him, another roar shakes the woods as Capella flys into the air, only for a red streak of light to hit her right in the side and send her flying to the ground.

In the distance, Subaru can see his goal, a massive tree that Ward fled to and has just sniped Capella from. Quickly pushing his Unseen Hands to their max speed, Subaru glances behind him and watches Capella slowly get up, no longer in her dragon form and obviously infuriated.

"DAMN YOUUU, RUNNING AWAY AGAIN LIKE THE COWARDLY PIECE OF SHIT YOU ARE?! I DEMAND YOU RETURN TO ME NOW OR I SWEAR A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH WILL GREET EVERYONE YOU LOVE!" Capella's shout of wrath reverberates throughout the entirety of the Elior Forest, sending all beings fleeing in the opposite direction, from demon beast to normal animals.

Hearing that, Subaru's eyes immediately grow cold as he remembers the Pyroxene crystal in Capella's hands, 'Everyone I love, is it?… I wonder how many people I can truly include in that list.' As he thinks about it, a few faces pop up in his mind, Ward, Rem, Patrasche, Clind, Annerose… 'is that really all?' As a certain half elf's face pops up in his mind without Subaru's consent, his heart beats hard for a moment, but—["Who are you?"] Emilia's betrayal briefly appeared within his mind, pushing that feeling of a time long past so far down Subaru wasn't sure it would ever surface again.

'Yeah, that really is all.' Subaru reconfirms to himself.

"Still, even if it's only those few people, I need to check on them, if only to know how Capella got them." activating Cor Leonis, Subaru's minimap appears as he focuses in on the mansion, revealing not a single person inside or in the vicinity. Focusing in on the capital, Subaru searches for that single blue dot that previously represented Rem but fails to find it there either. Just as he's about to keep looking around Pristella, Subaru hears a shout—

"SUBARU! Come to your senses damnit!" Ward shouts, alerting Subaru to the fact he's about to crash face first into the Tree of Prayers. Just barely stopping his Unseen Hands in time, Subaru goes flying up into the air because of the momentum, landing in Ward's arms.

"I'm flattered to be princess carried by you and all, but we should probably save it for when Capella's been defeated—" Ward instantly drops Subaru onto his ass, eliciting an "Ow!" From Subaru.

" , I've got everything prepared, we simply need to draw Lust over this direction now." Says Ward as he pulls out a bow from his backpack of seemingly infinite space due to it being a rare Yin based Magic Item. When Subaru asked how Ward got it, Ward simply said it was a gift from an old friend of his. Subaru watches as Ward notches an arrow on the drawstring and pulls it back, as the arrow begins to glow red. Then, Ward releases the arrow with a loud boom as it fires off into the distance incredibly fast, leaving only a red streak behind in its path.

Subaru can only mumble "I need to learn that…" in response to the overwhelming power of Ward's arrow.

Ward says " , although I hit her, she transformed herself into something small afterwards and I've since lost track of her. Please track her with your map."

Subaru nods and pulls up his minimap, quickly finding Capella who's traveling towards the wishing tree at a rate so fast it might be close to the speed of sound. Glancing down below, Subaru just barely manages to find a black dragon the size of a rat with its wings spread out, as it moves at a rapid pace. His eyes widening upon seeing this, Subaru exclaims "Crap! She's down there as a small dragon, can you hit her!?"

Ward says "I can't, we'll have to rely on your magic, . Make sure she lands there" as he points to an area down by the base of the tree.

Subaru nods as he focuses intently on Capella's position, with her inching closer and close. Just as she's about to get in range he raises his hand and…

"MURA—" is hit in the side by a rapidly flying projectile, sending Subaru flying to the side as he's yet again barely caught by a grunting Ward. Standing to their side, separate from the black dragon, is Capella with a shit eating grin.

"Did ya' forget I could change other things too? Bwahaha!" She teases as she takes a step closer "Ahh you shit faces were really a lot of trouble, but it'll be all worth it once you become my children~ don't worry, mother will be sure to train you up nicely, I'm veryyy generous and forgiving after all! BWAHAHA" says Capella as she looks genuinely ecstatic. From behind several footsteps are suddenly heard, and Subaru watches Ward spin around as he hears a clanging noise from what obviously sounds like two sounds clashing.

"Your assassins need work." Says Ward in a slightly provocative tone "their footsteps make too much noise and their swordsmanship is lousy!" With a single slash blood flies through the air as three out of a full 30 assassins are beheaded.

Subaru, now standing again with his previously bones that had been previously crushed by that projectile having healed, draws his sword and points it at Capella, and says "Ward, leave Capella to me, I'm better equipped to handle her. Can you take care of the assassins?" Capella's smiles even more creepily after hearing that from Subaru.

Ward nods and says "I'll be quick, so don't die before I can assist you, ." Then slams his foot down. The last thing Subaru sees before he's forced to pay full attention to Capella is Ward's sword brightly glowing almost as though it was the sun itself.

(Ward POV)

Dashing away from and into the crowd of assassins, Ward can't help but feel a small bout of anxiety. Although he trust to hold his own, actually killing the Archbishop is another matter entirely. After all, without ample preparation, the Archbishop is essentially immortal. Sadly, it's not as if he can truly do anything about it right this moment, as such…

"I'll finish this as fast as possible." Activating the Yang magic stored within his sun sword, a Meteor left behind by Ward's departed mentor, Ward's sword begins to glow a golden color as the surroundings heat up. Dashing forward, the first of the 27 remaining assassins meet his blade only for their own to be instantly melted away and their body to be burned through by Ward's own clean sword strike.

From the side comes an assassin wielding two dagger, from the front is one casting fire magic to create an ice spear and circling behind him is another with no weapons.

Drawing his Urimi in his free hand, Ward's whip sword extends and with a burst of wind created on top of the Urumi's blade, a result of it being a Meteor as well, the Urumi burst forward towards the magic caster, netting the ice spear head on and shattering it instantly, then going on to reap the assassins head.

Next, slicing to his right, the dagger wielding assassins and Ward's sun sword collide, both's weapons letting out an ethereal glow from the magic imbedded in them. As the assassin try's to kick Ward, Ward's sun sword, or at least the glow emanating from it, suddenly expands in width, becoming a massive sword impossible for an ordinary person to wield, yet its weight seems to not have increases at all as Ward easily blocks the assassins kick by flipping the blade and burning the assassins leg off by using the swords flat, causing the assassin to collapse to the floor in a heap of pain.

Hearing a whistling of wind from behind, Ward ducks his head down and kicks up into the air behind him, hitting the assassin directly below the head and sending them soaring through the air. With a spin to build momentum, Ward kicks them again, with them still in mid air, and sends them flying down the three.

"24 left." Coldly declares Ward as he hears the loud banging behind him, caused by Capella's and Subaru's fight. "Though that number will be zero quickly enough." Leaping forward with both swords pointed as the enemies, lightning begins to flicker from the blades…

(Subaru POV)

As Ward dashes off and the clashing of blades and magic echo behind him, Subaru has a stare down with Capella, keeping track of every small twitch of her fingers or movement of her feet. Seemingly getting bored rather quickly, Capella stops their standstill and slowly walks towards Subaru while taunting in a voice he's oddly familiar with "You know, it'd be sooooo easy if you just gave up, right?~" Capella's form changes to that of a familiar silver haired half elf "If you do, I wouldn't mind giving you a nice hug Subaru! You'd like that a lot wouldn't you? Just be a good boy and come to me!" Says Emilia as she smiles sweetly at Subaru.

Seeing that, all emotion on Subaru's face disappears. He displays no anger, no joy, no love or affection… he's simply blanked out, a sight which greatly upsets Capella who was vying for the boys love. "Hmmhhmmhmmm~ Subaruuu I don't really like that look on your face you know? It's not nice at all! Can you please show me your smile? You know I adore that face of yours the most!"

The moment Capella's finished her sentence, she finds herself cut down the middle by Subaru who's got cuts down every inch of his body, with blood bursting out of them. His face, no longer expressionless, shows nothing but wrath, part of which is obviously directed at Capella but… Subaru also feels a tinge of anger towards Emilia as well as the betrayal runs through his head again and again. Looking down at Capella's top half, Subaru says "You've given me a good chance to relieve myself of some anger. Thanks."

In an instant Capella regenerates and punches out at Subaru with her elven strength and speed on full display, yet those fist never reach Subaru, as he activates what he's decided to simply call, Cor Logium, a combination of two separate star names, a star from the Leo constellations and an abbreviation of Horologium a star that translates to pendulum clock. Previously, Subaru activated this power on a fluke that led to him not discovering much about it, but with the last activation, he's learned a bit more…

First, Subaru can change the rate at which time speeds up for himself and, depending on how far he speeds it up, he'll take either less or more damage from space. Next, Subaru can activate Cor Logium for 0.5 real world seconds, otherwise his heart will probably burst as though it's been grabbed by an Unseen Hand, though maybe implode is a better word for it. Knowing these two things has made combat for Subaru a bit easier, especially against fast foes such as Capella. The reason being—

As Capella's fist yet again comes flying toward Subaru's face, time slows for a brief moment, allowing Subaru to barely move his head out of the way, only to be met by Capella, having transformed her body into a Emilia-Dragon Hybrid, punching at him with 4 more fist, 2 of which he avoids, the other two being blocked by Subaru's fortress magic. Throwing his hand up, Subaru shouts "MINYA!" Only for it to have been a faint as an Unseen Hand slams straight into Capella's jaw, sending her flying backwards.

"Ugh, you dickless shitbags and your petty tricks…" glaring at him fiercely, Capella breaks out into a twisted smirk as she says "well, it doesn't matter anyways~" she says in a teasing tone as a small, black dragon suddenly appears to Subaru's right, it's mouth wide open as flames gather in its throat. Time slows to a stop as Subaru freezes in place, opting not to move until he figures out a solution.

'Crap this is bad, I completely forgot about the dragon from earlier. Can I dodge it? Nope, impossible, definitely impossible, it's like 2 feet away and already charging it's breath, and I'm already injured from moving through time earlier. Magics too slow to manifest too. Unseen Hands then?' Narrowing his eyes slightly, time begins to return to normal ever so slowly as Subaru summons 3 Unseen Hand's, each just barely peeking out of his chest and moving in slow motion. Subaru watches as the flames barely leave the dragons mouth, then is hit by a sudden pain in his chest 'Ugh, already!?'

As time returns to normal, the 3 Unseen Hands combine into a large, now flaming, Unseen Hand that promptly slaps the dragon, sending it flying, unfortunately towards Capella. As Capella, who's now shifted back to her typical loli appearance, catches the dragon out of the air, a wicked grin appears on her face as she says "Subaru, you wouldn't mind me calling for some backup, right? Bwahaha!"

Subaru can only widen his eyes in horror as the little black dragon slowly grows larger and larger, til its the size of a large mountain. "You're kidding…" Subaru mumbles as a large—

THUMP

—shakes the entire wishing tree, a result of the colossal dragon placing its feet upon several branches as it stares down at Subaru, black flames barely billowing from its mouth threateningly. Atop the black dragon sits Capella who's sensually resting on the dragons head.

"What next, are her eyes gonna turn blue while her hair gets spiky? This is ridiculous…" Subaru quips to himself in an attempt to calm himself, though it doesn't work at all. "Well, Subaru, it's only death. Can't be that hard." Says Subaru with a pessimistic smirk as he ready's his sword, the blade beginning to glow purple as a low humming sum echo's throughout the air.

'My body's healed thanks to the dragon blood, and I'm using the Yin Sword Art I developed after Ward taught me a little, though it's massively underdeveloped… my authorities are working just fine too. Alright Subaru, you've got this, just gotta slay a giant ass dragon and kill a immortal Archbishop, just your typical… what day is it, Wednesday?' Subaru sighs, then takes a deep breath and…

"HAAAA!" let's out a war cry as he charges at the dragon.

Author Notes!

Hello all! After multiple days, I've redone chapter 9, one of the chapters I previously hated most has now turned into one of the ones in my top 3! Hurray! For those of you who read the previous chapter 9, you can probably see I've made some rather major changes. Especially with the greed ability, though the fine tuning of it was planned, I've now given it a proper name(it took forever to think of anything decent) and thanks to DashingSlayer101 making me aware of the Shadow Garden, I've added a restriction that I already desperately needed. Seriously, Greed was OP enough to kill Rein once, so I needed to keep it that strong, but I really didn't want Subaru spamming it too hard to I had to give it a lot of restrictions. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I'm not gonna update the Q&A's for a while, sorry about that, but I'm exhausted after this chapter and don't feel like redoing of of those. That said, all the old Q&A's are an easy copy paste from the original chapter 9, so I'll put those here. Also no SubaStats till chapter 11, I uh… don't have copies of his past stats from chapters 9-10. Yeah I suck at keeping copies lmao.

Old Q&A, will update in the future:

Q:Guest: Could those be great swords in Ward's possession?

A:I don't think I need to answer it much since I explained it in this chapter, but nah, Ward's too op to give great swords to. I do however, plan to have a very specific great sword appear at some point, I just haven't exactly decided when. I'd like it to be sometime after this arc and right before the Pleadies watchtower arc though.

Q:DashingSlayer101: Wow you came out with a new chapter much faster than I anticipated, and I certainly didn't expect to see the time stopping ability we talked about in this chapter either, nor for it to be anything like that. I mean I knew it would deadly, but I'm not sure I could've seen him damaging his body like that just from the slightest bit of movement. That said, I still like my version more though, especially since I realized that greed apparently has a lot to do with the heart based on the shadow garden scenes. I would've had the world simply loose color instead of what sounded kinda like the inside of a Shamak spell. Both versions would leave his magic and dragons blood inactive though so there's that. Anyway, I strongly recommend that you do not kill Capella here, maybe just have her temporarily trapped with yin magic or something. The thing about her is that she has far too much story potential to let it go to waste here. The biggest reason why is that she has her very own assassin organization with all sorts of characters including fellow sin archbishop Roy Alphard. Heck, if you've ever seen Prophecy of the Throne (btw there's an hour long summary on YouTube check it out) you'd have a good idea of what I'm talking about. Not to mention that she is potentially the puppet master behind the civil war in Vollachia, with Chisha Gold as her pawn, so if you still plan on including that after arc 7 it'd be better if she was still around. With all of this in mind she's the practically second in command for the entire witch cult just after Pandora. Plus, she is a member of the royal family and is most definitely responsible for their deaths including Fourier, and likely stole the preserved dragons blood of the royal families vault to create her special poison: cursed dragons blood. Oh btw, and I meant for this to be a part of the review I posted seconds before this one, but could you consider showing Ward's own stats in the next chapter? I'd like to be clear on his capabilities.

A:Capella being alive is something I had planned, just didn't know how to do it, especially since Subaru needed the lust witch factor, or at least a part of it. As for her being a mastermind in the war… I'm really not sure I'm smart enough to do that, but maybe I'll just skip any POV involving her and leave all her actions as ambiguous, like the anime did when mentioning "mother." Also, yes, here are Ward's stats. In case anyone also wants further information on stats, Reinhard's full stats, currently the strongest I have written if we include his divine protections, are at 100k. To even begin to match him, Subaru would have to die far too many times. Right, as for Greed, you're right that it should've involved Subaru's heart, I sadly only learned after posting the chapter that Subaru will gain body parts with each new authority. There's seriously a lot of things I haven't explored yet, and right now I'm not even sure how I'm gonna do Arc 6 and Arc 7, considering I'm gonna have to go read through the webnovel and hope Tappei doesn't change too many things in the future LN's. Finally, the power itself. This part isn't necessarily meant for you, just for people who read this later since I can't find a better place to put it, but anyways, I got inspiration from Trash of The Count's Family with an ability that appears later on, though I'm afraid Greed(name undecided btw, I have one or two I'm going to use if no one says anything but feel free to suggest names for Subaru's forward time) may have come a little too close to the ability, something I'll be sorting out these next few chapters.

S&A:

S:Guest: Honestly I think that once everyone remembers who Subaru is he should just leave the royal selection completely not involving himself in it at all I.e quitting being emilias knight and not doing anything to directly help her as let's face it Emilia only has even a slither or a chance because of Subaru and I think Subaru should recognise that and and stop literally destroying his mind and sanity for people who would never do anything close to that for him. Now I'm not saying Subaru should let Emilia die far from it he should still care about her but suabru should just distance himself from anything g directly to do with the royal selection. Also I am going to say this now so not under any circumstance just have Subaru instantly forgive everyone. Unless of course that's is deliberate and subaru is just lying to himself trying to make things the way they were before while deep down he is furious at them all or something like that. That would actually be really sick to see Subaru trying to force himself to act like nothings wrong but the facade gradually cracks before he snaps and let's them all know how angry he actually still is.

A:All I'll say is, no instant forgiveness, and Subaru himself is gonna have to go through another change before seeing the Emilia Camp's faces.

S:The reader2234: This was awesome i love it btw if its ok can i give you some suggestions?

1:idk if this can work or not but what if subaru made a two portal and put them inside each other.

It would keep trying to push the other portal inside itself over and over to no use so it would kinda work like a mini black hole made of two portals because they would keep sucking each other so they would become folded and mor dencer so its kinda like s wish version of a black hole.

2:An armor spell or like a one hit kill defense. Subaru makes a super thin portal around his body that would more look like a glow, and anything that touches it is teleported bit by bit, but as a draw back he cant see breath or move when its on because when he does that nothing can go in or out or touch it. Also keep up the good work you're doing great. Also I have a question why would he go back to the emilia camp? I mean yesh its subaru and everyone he loves is there but wouldnt i dont know this whole thing make him scared ? I mean one way or another he would find out that there are two other people that can eat his name so he would be scared to go back and have the same thing happen again. I would think he would go on a hunt after every member of the witch cult before evn considering going back also is our dude going to die? Is that why subaru went alone to save everyone/kill *hungry child* I mean if he dies the story would be good but my man is too kind he cant die. I dont know if youre going to read this and think that im stupid or just ingore me. Either way great job on the story and sorry if i offended you in any way. You're doing great and please keep safe

A:First, allow me to say, thank you for the encouragement! I mean it, thanks for saying I'm doing great, reviews like these keep me going. Second, you haven't offended me in the slightest, so please don't be afraid to post more reviews, even if, unlike this one, those happen to be negative reviews, I won't be offended in the slightest. Now onto the portals, while usually I'd love to incorporate a spell like that, and in the far future I do have plans for teleport spells, teleport spells or portal spells are notoriously difficult to cast because of the absurd amount of mana they take. Even Beatrice, who'd collected mana for 400 years from anyone who'd entered her library, could only cast such spells around the library itself, which is a place that gives her more power since it draws in the mana around her. I think the only people capable of practically utilizing a spell like that, would most likely be Roswaal, Echidna, Satella, and possibly Emilia since her mana capacity is the largest in the whole series.