Pleiades: A Lonely 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

5. Obliteration Imminent

hello everyone, if you are reading this, then welcome to the fifth chapter Pleiades: A Lonely Star Dies

I don't have too many things to say this time. except go check out my good friend heretics story RE:union, the guy could really use the interaction and views.

Anyway without further ado, let's get onto the next chapter of the story shall we.

---

Crusch wasn't entirely sure for how long she sat here. It could have been days, years or possibly centuries for all she knew. But ultimately there she sat, in her own personal study, that had once belonged to her father, and his father before him. Yet despite feeling like the study that she knew, Crusch somehow just inherently knew that it wasn't real. Simply just being something that her mind had created during her unconscious state. But even if it wasn't real and she just sat here doing nothing, it was at least somewhat comforting to be in such a familiar environment again, after spending who knows how long, stuck in that theatre watching the life and adventures of a certain black-haired boy, that she could safely admit that she was interested in.

However, after a moment of calm peaceful silence, something new happened. Several loud but gentle knocks quickly emanated from the door of her study. Which momentarily caught her off guard, because despite all of the time she had spent here, nobody had actually knocked on the door. In fact, the door itself was seemingly just completely fake, not opening no matter how much force she put behind it.

"C-come in..." Crusch for a moment, thought but she might have been hearing things, considering that the door did not immediately open up on command. But then she heard the familiar click of the locking mechanism unlatching, as the door began to slowly swing open. And despite being well maintained, the hinges of the door gave out quite cracks and squeaks as they moved. And once it was fully opened, standing in the doorway was none other than her most trusted butler and somebody that almost was like a second father to her, Wilhelm van Astrea.

"Madam Crusch, you have an unexpected visitor that just arrived for you, they said that they needed to speak about something of the utmost urgency" Wilhelm gave a slight bow. Putting a hand over his heart as a sign of respect, despite the action being something that all of her maids and butlers did as a show of respect to their master. Crusch always felt her heart warm slightly at the fact that Wilhelm of all people, somebody who had once been above her in terms of social standing and status, did it wholeheartedly whenever he greeted her.

"Very well, send them in" With a small motion of her hand, Wilhelm quickly and wordlessly step to the side. Allowing her unexpected guest to finally enter, and that is exactly what they did, quickly entering in and stepping into the middle of the room. Crusch would have normally been shocked by their appearance, considering that instead of a person. The thing that was standing before her, was nothing more than a clump of darkness. That was in the shape of a human being, yet for some reason, she didn't find that surprising and instead greeted them like they were an old friend.

"It's so good to see you, but I must ask, what is so urgent that you needed to speak with me right now?" Her guest was silent for a moment, leaving Crusch to just sit there and complete silence. Wilhelm just stood at his position next to the door not moving, but after a moment her guess finally responded, their words being not spoken verbally, but seemingly imprinted directly into her mind.

M̷͚̟͔̟̞̅͋̍̉ͅȃ̵͍̮̪͙̪̠͉͂̈́̅͂̚͜͝K̸̻̣̠͕͎̟̖̆̽e̶̟̳̬̤̤̝̩̼̜̱͎̬͆͗̑̋̿͛́͛̋̏͆͘ ̴̧̛̏̌̀̉͋̈͝u̸͔̣͙̘̱̭͋̎̎́͑̆̓̽̇̕͝S̵̨̧͈̭̲̭̣͉̤̗͕̩̍̓̾͐̒̎̃͐̒̕ ̶̛͓͕͇̖̎̓̌̃͐̔̃̎͠ẃ̵̨̤͉̤̮̘͕̠̆̀̾ͅH̷̨͓͎̫̻̫̣̘̞̘̼͌̽͋̀̐̓͛̈̑͋͝ọ̸͈̭͍̱̼̟̣͖̓́͆̓͜ͅͅĹ̸̡̛̤͉͖͆̇̒̕ẹ̶̢͍͓̪̫̬͔͖͔̈́̽̒̈́ ̸̨̡͇̜̝̭̫̘̘̱̦͇̈́̀

Crusch immediately closed her eyes. Letting out a grunt of pain, as she brought her hand up to her aching head, the pain being almost indescribable. As, despite the words not being said verbally, each one of them felt like a red-hot spike being punched directly into her brain. And she tried to recover herself her mysterious and now obviously malevolent guest spoke again.

W̴̖̞̭͍͇̙̅̌̿̈ḩ̶͉̭͈͑̌̈́̀͒͒̃́̚Y̴͚̦̊̏̌̂̓͊̿̀̔͝͝͠ ̶̼̯̟̝̙̜̩̣̈̈̇̒̀̂͑͝d̵̬̈̿́̔̈́̓͘͠Ơ̶̡̨̡͎̭͖͔̼̠̜̞̋̃͗̐͘̕ͅ ̵͇̘͉͊̀́͛͊ͅy̴̞̭̠̦̥͑̐̇̓͐͘̚Ơ̴̧̭̭̜͙̲͇̼̟̙̹͇̰̒̈́̀̈͌̂̇̎̿̒́̕͝ṳ̷͓̞̞̩̑̈͜ ̷̢̨̭͈̰͚̲̠͎̘̱͖̣͆̇͐̓͜c̵̡̛̹̲͈̤̤̠͚͉̖͛̋͂͐͌̊͠͠O̶͇̲͑̄͊̓̿̇͛͌͋̄̽̄̈́͠n̶̤̭̦͕̆̅T̸̜̙̯̉̒̈̇̈́̽̔̐͘ị̸̡̡̺͚̤͎̤͋͌̿͒͑͘͝N̷͎̦̯̙͚̋̎̈́̃̐̅͐̋̽̚͘ŭ̶̡̝̝̬̞̭̼̱͙̹̊͠E̶̲̗̼̱͉̭̮͈̟̭̭͋ ̷̰̜͙͚̱̜̲̰̭̿̍̃̕ţ̶̗͉̦̱̹̋͗͆̒̒́̉̎̊̔̊̽̒̕͝Ǫ̶̡̛̛͎̠̠͇̹̼̈́̐̀͑̉͌͗̉̉̀̿̕̚ͅ ̴̧̗̖̪̪̰͖͙̝͖͖̺̆͆̐̐̈́͂̆ṛ̸͈̌̀͐̉͝Ě̵̢̛̩͓́͂̉͋͂̐͗̋̅̽̓͝s̸̞͑̐̀͛́̈̿̽͠Î̵̡̡̱͘s̴̨̨͇̪̟̹̜̙̠̯̲̣̣̜̎̉͗̓̌͆̕͝͝T̴̛̘̫͙̭͙̹̞̣̰̦̭̅̔͗́̍͂̽̋̔̓̓̀͂͜ ̴̨̟͖͚̙̲̤̅̉̉̽̍̍̃̕u̶̜̥̥̪͉̤̠̺̹̅̈͗̀̓́̇̚̕̕͝ͅͅŞ̷̡̣͓̣̲̮̳̩̠̟̮̭̒̌̍͊̒͑̕?̶̡̛̳̰̙͔͚̮̬͈̣̖͎̖̎̾̈́̕ͅͅ

Again each word was punctuated by a bolt of agonising pain. Crusch continued to grant and eventually started screaming in agony. As her mysterious guest just simply stood there, seemingly Observing her in curiosity,as if she was nothing more than a piece of meat, just waiting to be consumed. And despite them having no visible eyes to do such, and as the pain began to reach a crescendo. The fabric of her sanity and herself as a human being was completely ripped to shreds. Crusch finally called out to Wilhelm, her voice barely recognisable as her own, due to housed her throat was from screaming.

"W-Wilhelm H-H-help M-me... P-P-please make T-the pain S-S-stop" Crusch due to the tears running from her eyes. Was barely able to make out Waltham quickly moving from his spot, briskly coming to her aid. And as soon as he reached his hand out she grabbed it, feeling herself almost immediately and forcefully being pulled to her feet, having no time to react if she was quickly forced to look at Wilhelm. And as soon as she laid eyes on his face, she began to cry and scream, desperately trying to free herself from his grip. Because what was before her was not the aged swordsman she almost considered a second father, instead, it was some kind of entity. An entity that looked like him in every regard except for his face, its face was a twisted conglomeration of flesh and tentacles. It having way too many eyes to be a human and an almost impossibly shaped mouth, filled with impossible amounts of sharp teeth, that could rip a human being to shreds with a single bite.

Crusch didn't get a chance to scream as the disgusting imitation of Wilhelm, quickly pulled her in close. Its entire head opened up down the middle, revealing to her that the entire head of this thing was in fact a giant gruesome mouth. Squirming tentacles quickly wriggled past its sharp and dangerous-looking teeth, most likely intent on taking a bite out of her and savoring the taste of her flesh. Yet despite fighting with everything she had, ultimately it meant nothing as the creature had her locked up tight in its iron grip.

I̵̧̮͗͊̽ͅt̶̨̧͚͕̲̬̰̲̭̯̲̲̗̞̔'̶̢͍͕̱͔̮̟͚̬͍̳̜̣͛Ș̴̰̥̱̜̮̜̃̀̀͗́̈́̀ ̸̨̢̢̤̥̗̩̳̳̉́̿̽̈́̚t̴͕͖͇̰̗̙̭͔̒I̶̢͎͔̘̩͉̤̖͓̺͈͛͐̈́̂̽̈́̈̂̒̆͜͜͠͝͠m̶̧̧̦̗͓̦͎̫͙̲͙̦̭͐̌W̶̻̩̝̟͆̒́̇͋̏̽̀̚ ̸̢̝̗̖̫͙̦̯̹̥̳̥́̑͒͐͋̀̃̑̀̈ť̸̨̧̛̛̫͎̦̭͓̪̖̜͖̺͔͍̽̊̔͑̎̀̃̈́͠Ó̷̤́̈́̑̃́͐ ̴̧̧͔̘̪͙̪͓̺̬̰̅͗̓̿͆̃͒̀͜͝b̴̬̼͓̪͈̏̋̍̃͝E̵̡̯̘̞͎̰̙̙̹͒̄̾͐̑̈̀̄̑̀̒͝͝͝ ̴͈̞̟̈́͐̕m̶̼͚̫̼͍͎̗͉̜͌͂ͅA̷̧̢̹̮̺̱͕̜͎̲̳̍ď̵̡̛̩̙̹̊͗͐̓̀͝E̷̢̫̥̟͉̟̺͛̾̾̌̈́̑̽̆͛̋́̍͌̚͝ ̶̟͇̬̯͂͑̈́ẅ̵̢͚̲́̿̀̈́̈́͑́̽̀H̴̼͔̦̎̇̔̒̐̈́̔̐̓̏̍̚͠͠ͅȏ̷̜͍͔̞̮̣̩̳̘̰̣͚̘L̵͓̂̈́̂̋̌͘é̶͇͋͋̀͑̓̿͌̀͐͌̈́̾̕̕ ̶̭̹̳͍͙͓̙̰̰̘̭͖̺̟̾

Crusch was somehow still able to register the stranger's inaudible voicem, over her screams as the disgusting imitation of Wilhelm, quickly drew closer. Opening its head mouth wider and wider, its strange mouth tentacles began to lap at her face, much to her Disgust as they left trails of saliva in their wake. In fact, despite the panic she was in, the act almost reminded her of how a chef would taste a newly created meal, before sending it out to a waiting patron. But as the creature was about to finally take a bite out of her, a loud cracking and shattering noise, quickly assaulted her ear causing the creature and the entity to both stop for a moment. The sound continuing to grow stronger and stronger, until it sounded like millions of glasses were all being smashed at the exact same time.

After a moment, the very world itself began to crack and crumble, The familiar surroundings of her study and the very world itself, along with the shadow entity and the Wilhelm look-alike abomination, quickly began to crack and shatter. Crusch looking on in relief and confusion, as the black shadow entity finally crumbled away with the world itself, the creature and the black entity crying out at the same time in the exact same voice, as they both vanished from existence.

Ỹ̸̡̞͓̪͕͔̼̦̆ō̶̮͍U̸̩̿͋̎̉͒̈̀̌͠ ̶̡̡͙̖̣̮͓͍̟̖̯̗̏͆̂̓́̋̄̿͘͝ͅc̷͕̩̭͆̉̑̽̏͌̄̃̕S̶͔͙͍̤̦̘͎̤̖̙͙̫̟̯͛̀̎̎̓́̊͒̕͘ͅn̶͓͙̯͙̟̭̜̳̣̯̬̠̬͑̋̓̀͌̿̍̈́̈́́̉͝͠Ṋ̵̙͚͔̱͖͓̤̺̐̍̈́̊͋̚̕͘ǫ̸̧̦̖̞̥͍͉̮̭͔̏̐͜Ț̷̛̝̺̐̄̃̄́̔̊̀͋́̉͑̕͝ ̸͔̳̘̱͓͈̞͐́̏̋̽̀s̶̨̢̪͎̘̱̱̞̚͘ͅT̷̬̲̥̥͎̲̘͔̮̟͓̮̣͕̜͑̽͗̂̃̓̔̍͛̍͒̈ö̵̢̟͖̻̮̗̼̹͓̉̅́̽̅͌͂P̸̛̻̣̭͇̘͉͔͙̙͑̃̏̏̚̚ ̸̧̣̗̉͊̇̋ų̸̻̗̝̲̝̜̤̬͔̼̊͗͘S̷̫̩̮̠̺̦̻͚̲̣̼̞͊͒̏̈̕ ̴̠̥͝ͅf̵̗̫̠̟̪͍̭͎̤̥̳̍̔̉͂̃̆͋̄̓̓̈́͗̽͠͠O̸̹̎͌̑ŗ̷̢̢̢̯̤̞̣͚̩͇̖̭̀͜Ë̶̟͈̟̂̃̊͂̓v̵͚̯̲͇͉͍͔̼͖̟̥̬̖̰̐͊É̴̡̡̜̼̠͚̯͓͕̘̀̔̈́̽̐̋̽͗̂̕͝ͅr̸̛̪̘͙̮̼̗̜̱̝̰͌̐́̿̂̇̎͠.̶̢̤͎͐̐̊̃̐.̶̢̤̯̘̙̘̻͚̙͈̼̋͐̓̍̿̐̈́͊̅͒̀͠.̵̨̧̧̳͈͍͕͍͈̜̼̤̋̽̂̀͌͆̐̾ ̶͓̰̺̖͖̰͚̑͜Ẅ̷͇̼̻͉̤̺͓͎̟̯̐͂́̀̌͒̚͠ͅͅe̷̛̳̗͖̼̯̗͎͎̬͚̤̝̽͌͌̈́ ̵̢̯̬̖̲̳̬̉͑̈́͐̄̆̓̎̌͛̇́̀̕͝W̸͚͕͆́̈́̇ͅí̵̮̬͈̣̺̣̾̽͘l̴̢̠̲͍͙̇̓̔͑̈́͊̈̄̐͌̓̐̄͘̚Ļ̷͎͈̣̰̜͙̘͚̤̪̱̟̰̎̅̐̑͋͌̽͌̕͘͜͠ ̶̡̧̣͎̪̤̰̻̎̑̀̍̉̄̈́́̋͂̓͌b̴̨̨̨͔͔̗̺̼͖͇̭͚̓̈́͐͝͝ͅE̸̢̟̫̱̼̩̠̽̈͋̿̇̒͆͗̆̅̑̈́͘͠ ̶̢̪͕̬͙̩̳̬̩͎͕̗̫̋͌̓͒͝m̴̡̢̢̡̨̼͇̗̻͔̩̫̻̈́̾̀͑̀̌͠ͅͅA̵̡̡̛̤̮̺̻͆̀̈́͛̅͐͒͌̆̉̕͠͝d̶̲̘͓̼͔͓̳̼̼̒̔̇͑͌̊̌̇́͝Ě̵̘̟̃̾̿̽̄͂̎͋̓͜͠ ̷̛̳͚͖̬̖̬͕̩̝̰͚̊͊̃̒͑̇̄͗͂͐̑͘͝ẅ̵͕̺̠̱̠̥̪͙̥͍̭̖͍́̈̉͋̋̿͘̕͘͠͠Ḧ̸̢̠̬͚͈̭̰̱͍͊̇͊̽͊̒̋͑́̔̀̕͜͝o̵͉̠̹͓̹̖͉̙͇̳̩͔̙̅͒̂̐̐͑́̀̿̐̂̓L̷̢̢̪͓̥̲͎͇͒́͂̍̉̇̇ͅe̵̲̘͑̿͗̐͋̏̐͂̇̿ ̸͔̜̫̪͇̬̪͙̘̘̫̠̀͆́̂̓̾̚ ̸̡̲̱̂̈̾̃͂̊̈́͠

She was expecting herself to shatter much like the entities and the world around her. yet to Crusch's surprise, she was left completely unharmed, standing there completely alone a now completely white void, where her familiar study had been only moments ago.

But after a moment strange noises began to make themselves known to her, at first they were unintelligible and barely recognisable, but after straining her ears for a moment she was able to recognise what it was. it was the voices of everyone that was gathered in the theatre, as well as the noises of the screen itself.

"I said I wasn't going to help... but you looked like you are having a hard time" Crusch was caught completely off guard by the painfully familiar voice. She quickly on the spot, only to reveal somebody that she wasn't expecting, and somebody who she thought was still currently asleep in that theatre.

"S-Subaru?" Standing before Crusch was none other than the black-haired boy. The very same one that had changed her and everyone else's lives just by the mere fact of existing.

"Unfortunately no, my true form is a bit well... a bit unknowable for mortals like yourself, so as a substitute I take the form of the person that you desire most" The explanation that he gave, left her with more questions than answers, with the biggest the most nagging ones question being if this wasn't Subaru standing before her. Then who exactly was it, and what did they mean by "true form" and "mortals like yourself"

But as those questions bounce around inside her head, something else he said suddenly registered in her mind, causing Crusch, a woman who was openly known to act very masculine, and defy the gender norms of her society, to blush furiously like a schoolgirl that had just been noticed by her crush. Yet before she could stammer out a response of any kind. The white void suddenly and violently shook, causing her to almost be knocked off her feet, the Subaru look alike not even noticing the shake, remaining in the exact same spot as if his feet were glued to the ground.

"Well I guess it's time for you to wake up now, which I suppose is good timing" Was the last thing that the Subaru look like said as. Crusch was completely thrown off her feet by the violent shaking, the voices from the theatre now becoming almost deafening, as she instinctively closed her eyes. Expecting to feel the impact of her face hitting the floor, yet almost immediately her eyes snapped open again, the white void and Subaru look alike, being replaced by surroundings that for a moment confused her. Before Crusch realised where she was again, she was back in the theatre, in the exact same seat that she had been in before. The screen now completely dark and lifeless, but her attention was quickly grabbed by something else, that being the relieved and concerned looks of two particular individuals sitting next to her.

"C-Crusch!"

Crusch had almost no time to react, as a certain catboy quickly threw himself at her. Wrapping her up in a tight embrace that for a moment stand and confused her, she tentatively reached up and wraps her arms around him. His quiet relief-filled cries being just audible over the chit-chat of everyone else in the theatre, and as Felix continues to cry into her shoulder. She looked over to her left, her body uncontrollably flinching slightly, when she laid eyes upon Wilhelm, but after a moment she quickly relaxed, realising that this was indeed for real Wilhelm, and not whatever that thing was in a dream. But Wilhelm being perceptive as he was, noticed the flinch and the momentary fear in her eyes as she looked at him. Which certainly did dampen his mood, but ultimately he was just glad she was awake again.

"It's good to see that you have awoken, Mistress Crusch" Wilhelm could definitely say that he was relieved to see his lady awake again. Although her strange reaction upon seeing him certainly did confuse and unconcern him, ultimately, however, his relief outweighed all of that, simply appreciating that she was amongst them, back here in the waking world again. However, before he could express this any further, a new voice suddenly interjected.

"Crusch!? Oh thank Od!" Crusch still somewhat groggy. Took a moment to identify who the voice actually belong to, looking around somewhat aimlessly. Before her eyes came to rest on a certain silver-haired half-elf, who was currently standing on her feet, staring back at Crusch with a look of both surprise and immense relief. And without a moment's hesitation. Emilia quickly began to make her way towards her, and as if by instinct Crusch quickly got up from her own seat. And after a moment of her legs, shakingly taking her weight once again, she quickly and confidently made her way toward the end of the rows of seats.

"Emilia..." Crusch latched onto Emilia with a vice grip, both women wrapping each other up in a tight embrace. Both their worries and traumas being soothed slightly just by each other's presence, Everyone except a few notable individuals, staring at the slightly heartwarming scene, with relief and happiness. And after a moment both women quickly separated from their embrace, while still affectionately holding onto each other's arms, as they continue to start each other for just a moment.

"Crusch, what happened? We were so worried about you... You just passed out so suddenly?" Crusch wasn't quite sure how to respond to Emilia. Simply because she didn't quite know how it happened, one moment she was watching the viewing, and then something strange happened before she suddenly passed out and then...

Crusch wasn't quite sure what happened after she passed out, she could remember bits and pieces but couldn't remember enough, to actually piece together a complete narrative of what happened in her dream. In fact, the only bits that she could truly remember with clarity, were the nightmare she had involving the strange boy. That seemingly had been plaguing her since the beginning of the viewing, as well as the monstrous Wilhelm doubleganger, that had momentarily frightened her when she woke up. Yet other than those bits, in particular, the rest of it was too hazy to make out for certain.

"You gave us all quite a scare you know... B-but I'm happy that you're awake at least!" Felt managed to stammer out. Finding it hard to be grateful, that the green-haired woman who was her political opponent in the selection, was awake again and seemingly unharmed. in fact, Reinhard and several others found it quite amusing, how Felt was unable to accurately express her feelings, instead hiding them through aggression and abrasiveness, yet somehow failing spectacularly to hide them completely.

"Indeed, it's good to see that you're awake again Crusch... although I was beginning to think that the Royal selection has just got easier" Anastasia said with a completely straight face. Yet her face was betrayed by her slightly joking tone, making it easy for Crusch to pick up on which immediately made her chuckle slightly. Turning her head to look at her small purple head rival, as both of them stared at each other. a look of pure confidence and refined elegance very much befitting her station, quickly covering Crusch's face.

"I'm sorry to disappoint Anastasia, but I am very much here to stay, and even if I wasn't, I highly doubt you could actually win the Royal selection... considering your popularity as of recent" a several-second-long silence, persisted after she said those words. The light and uplifting mood have been in the theatre, quickly vanishing as Anastasia and Crusch were locked in a staring contest with each other. Both of their faces were stony and blank, as they stared intensely at each other, and just as everyone thought it was only going to get worse. Both women suddenly cracked, laughing quietly to themselves at the seeming disruption they had caused. because after all, despite being political rivals, both the Duchess and the Merchant had come to view each other as friends, and pulling each other's legs was always something that friends did.

"Honestly, honestly you two act less mature than the actual child here, I suppose" A small half of annoyance accompanied Beatrice's words. Although it was obvious by the slight twitching of her eyes and mouth, that she also found the interaction quite amusing, in fact, it was quite a refreshing moment, considering all of the blood and torment that the viewings have been so far.

"I suppose you're right great spirit Beatrice, but as Subaru would say. I'm just young at heart" Crusch couldn't help but chuckle at her own words. Remembering a time when Subaru said exactly the same thing to her, in regards to her admittedly at times high strung attitude. Which was ultimately a result of her years of knightly training, and her grooming to become the next Duchess of her family household, but even still the words definitely resonated with her, especially if she was using them now in a situation like this.

But her musings quickly came to an end, as Emilia quickly separated from the hand-holding that they had been doing. Giving the greenhead duchess one last smile, before she quickly made her way back to the sleeping Subaru. Yet for just a singular moment, Crusch couldn't help but feel just a little bit jealous of that silver-haired half-elf. Because she was the center of Subaru's affection and was able to be close to him at all times. But ultimately the green-haired woman let out a sigh, knowing that even if Subaru did know her true feelings, he would not reciprocate them, simply because Emilia was the center of his affection. But her mind was quickly pulled from the slightly depressing topic, as Felix came up beside her. Wrapping his arms around her own, in a manner that he had done many times before, which caught her off guard for a moment before she recovered. Looking down at him, with a smile on her face, which he definitely returned, yet before anyone else could do or say anything, the all too familiar voice warden quickly sounded off.

Alright boys and girls, now we've got the Re: union out of the way, I think it's time you get yourself ready for the next viewing

Unlike last time nobody questioned, or even said anything in regards to the next viewing starting so quickly. Simply just accepting that this was the way it was going to be from now on, but however, the warden quickly spoke again much to everyone's confusion.

Actually on second thought, considering that miss valkyrie has only just woken up, I'll be extra generous, I'm giving you one minute, to get yourselves in order before we start

"Jeez, how generous of you" Everyone could practically feel the sarcasm dripping from Felt's voice. Yet the warden did not bite back or respond verbally, instead, the temperature of the room seemed to suddenly drop, causing the members of the audience that were showing a bit more skin than others, to shiver at the sudden temperature change. Crusch would have not cared about the temperature change, even if she was standing in her underwear, because when the warden said they had 1 minute to get ready. Her first Instinct was to move back towards her seat that she had been in previously, but something kept nagging at the back of her mind, as if there was almost compelling her, to go to the front row, where the Emilia camp and more importantly Subaru was situated. But despite her and Emilia being friends, she couldn't just walk in there, and expect them to have a place for her to sit, even if there was a spare seat it would be incredibly rude. Yet at the same time, the compulsion only got stronger, and the more she tried to fight it, and ultimately with a frustrated sigh the compulsion one.

"Felix Wilhelm, we are moving to the front row" Was all that she needed to say. And Felix as if by Instinct quickly and wordlessly fell into lockstep behind her, looking at her confused for a moment before ultimately replying. Wilhelm also looked at her, confused for a moment before ultimately complying with a request, as he quickly got up from his seat. And with Crusch and her camp members ready to go, all three of them quickly made theirs toward the front rows. And before she could announce their arrival, Emilia quickly turn to look at her as if she just somehow knew that the greenhead duchess wanted to sit with them for this part of the viewing.

"Emilia... I hope you don't mind if me and my camp sit-"

"Of course, I would love you to sit with us... and I'm sure Subaru would as well" Emilia interrupted the greenhead duchess, her voice taking on a much softer tone, as she mentioned the name of the black-haired boy who was still sleeping. His head still comfortably resting in the lap of his contract spirit Beatrice, which the sight of, caused Crusch to feel a slight twinge of jealousy race through her heart. But ultimately, she push that away, sending a thankful look towards Emilia as she, Wilhelm, and Felix quickly made themselves comfortable, however as she got comfortable in her new seat, which much to her silent glee, was only one seat away from the sleeping Subaru. She suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck beginning to stand up, as if someone or something was intentionally watching her, and studying every aspect of her being. And even after snapping a head around to look behind her, all that she could see were empty seats and the other occupants of the theatre, but still, as she looks back towards the screen the feeling did not disappear, even as the warden began to speak again.

Alright then, I guess it's time

The screen quickly came to life once again, everyone readying themselves for whatever horrifying imagery they were going to see next. Emilia clutched Subaru's hand in her own, Beatrice gently stroked his hair. Rem quietly prayed for her beloved safety as she and Ram both quickly lock their hands together. Frederica instinctively pulled Petra closer to her, being ready to quickly cover the young girl's eyes, to try and preserve the tattered remains of her childlike innocence. Garfiel wasn't quite sure if he was ready to watch another viewing, especially considering what had happened previously. But he sucked it up knowing there was nothing he could do except sit back and watch. Otto on the other hand was practically hyperventilating already, despite the fact that nothing has been shown yet and that the viewing had not actually begun. Roswaal silently mused to himself interested to see where the viewing would go next.

Crusch knew for certain that she wasn't ready for the next viewing, but ultimately she took a deep breath to ready herself regardless. Felix meanwhile nervously shifted in his seat, not sure what unimaginable horrors they were going to see next. Wilhelm strangely enough was actually quite calm both externally and internally, but still, he gave a silent prayer, hoping that Subaru would make it through this unscathed.

Felt took a deep breath, trying to make herself ready for the Untold Horrors that she was most likely going to be witness to, and she also gave a silent prayer, hoping that Subaru would be safe. Reinhard very much like the little blonde next to him, readied himself the best he could, hoping above everything else that Subaru would make it out of the situation alive.

Anastasia readied herself, by activating the analytical and merchant part of her brain, which did a wonderful job at stealing her nerves against whatever potential horrors they were going to see. Julius had a grim expression on his face, desperately wanting and wishing to do more. But ultimately he was resigned to sitting here and watching, hoping against everything that Subaru would make it through all of this.

Priscilla couldn't help but scoff, quickly bringing her fan up and unfurling it, to cover up the lower portion of her face from view. Mostly so nobody could see how disgusted her face would look , when they would most likely see more of those twisted Monsters. Al made himself comfortable the best he could, which was not saying much, considering that just like the theatre seats back on Earth, these were almost impossible to actually get comfy in. And once everyone had made themselves ready, the screen quickly came to life, beginning to show more of Subaru's horrifying journey aboard the USG ishimura.

"Now arriving Bridge atrium, please mind the gap" Subaru was pulled from his daydreaming by the automatic announcement system. And after letting out a sigh, he quickly but carefully got up from his seat, small bolts of pain shooting through his side as he did so. But he quickly pushed that aside as he felt the tram quickly decelerating before coming to a complete stop, the automatic doors quickly opening up, revealing the surprisingly clean and well-lit Bridge tram platform, and after a moment Subaru quickly stepped out onto the platform, looking around before spotting and walking towards a door that was labelled as "Main atrium"

"Subaru, come in. Kendra's right, the ADS is completely shot, and you're an engineer so I'm going to need your help to fix it" A video communication from Hammond quickly popped up. Being projected in front of Subaru as he quickly made his way through the door, which opened up into a corridor, that immediately took a hard right. Opening up into a much larger corridor with blacked-out security windows on the left side, as well as rows and rows of benches lining the hallway.

"A-D-S?... Wait! that Kendra woman's actually alive?" Crusch was thoroughly confused in regard to the strange use of the letters. But also, more importantly, shocked by the reveal that Kendra somebody that she thought most likely perished as a result of the monsters, was actually still alive and apparently had met back up with Subaru and Hammond during the time that Crusch was unconscious.

"Nyah~that was very much our reaction, when we found out she was alive" Felix's words were simple and to the point. Yet they did very little to actually ease Crusch's confusion, about the circumstances of the woman's survival and everything else she had missed during her unconsciousness, and as if she could sense it Wilhelm quickly piped in.

"indeed Felix is most definitely right, we were all quite surprised by her reappearance, especially after being missing for so long" Wilhelm said with perhaps a small amount of disdain in his voice. After all,l despite her seeming like a normal woman, something about Kendra just rub him the wrong way. In fact, the way that she acted towards Hammond, in particular, was quite strange, because her interactions with Hammond had shown her to be a Confrontation individual who quickly cracked under pressure. But when she talked to the Subaru, she seemed paradoxically to be able to keep an even and calm head, which Wilhelm found bizarre, because how could somebody. Who seemingly was cracking under the pressure of the mission, be able to be so calm when talking to Subaru, yet be the exact opposite when talking to Hammond

"My contractor had to fix the engines of this strange ship, to keep it from being destroyed I suppose... But once he had managed to do so, that Kendra person made her reappearance, saying that something called the ADS was not working, which is why he is now here" The explanation was brief and to the point. But Crusch could tell that the little spirit was deliberately leaving stuff out if the pause mid-sentence was anything to go by. But despite her better judgment, telling her not to she pressed the subject, wanting to know exactly what had happened while she was unconscious.

"I appreciate the explanation great spirit Beatrice... but I can tell that you're leaving something out" Crusch didn't try to make it sound overly hostile or malicious, but the way Beatrice reacted to her words, caused a deep sense of confusion and worry to start building in Crusch's chest. In fact, it wasn't just Beatrice, Emilia despite being naturally pale in complexion, had seemingly gone as white as a sheet, a nervous and frightened expression, quickly making its way onto her face. Which only caused Crusch's apprehension and confusion to grow deeper, but before she could say or do anything else, Beatrice quickly said something that made her blood run cold.

"My contractor... he's... S-starting to see more things that aren't there, I think... T-that his sanity is S-starting to break" it wasn't a super detailed explanation, but considering the grim and frightened looks from everyone around her. Crusch felt her eyes go as wide as dinner plates, her mouth slowly hanging open in shock, after all, Subaru having hallucinations was something established all the way back in the first viewing, these hallucinations were most likey some kind of by-product, of some kind traumatic event, that led to him being in the strange alien world. But the fact that they were seemingly getting worse, was what made her truly fearful and scared, because she hated the mental image of somebody that she secretly cared for greatly, becoming nothing more than a raving mad man.

"Alright I'll be there in just a sec" Subaru quickly made his way down the security checkpoint, Hammond turning away from the screen for a moment, but as he did Subaru stopped mid-stride, a strange muffled sound quickly making itself known.

"Alright Kendra if you can hear me, see if you can get into the ships report logs, it sounds like you have better access from there" Hammond said as Subaru continue to listen to the strange muffled banging and scraping noise. However, Kendra's face quickly replaced Hammonds on the holographic video display, her face holding a look of contempt and scepticism.

"When were you going to tell us about the artefact. Hammond? "This Marker"

Both Emilia and Crusch felt almost unimaginable bolts of pain shoot through their respective heads. Both of them letting out quite hiss's of pain, much to the concern of everyone else around them, yet neither of them noticed the other experiencing the same thing, as Emilia clutched Subaru's hand tighter into her chest, while Crusch simply push through the pain, chalking it up to a symbol side-effect of her unconsciousness, instead of the strange supernatural event that truly was.

"I don't know anything about that. It's referenced in the captain's records, they brought up from the planet..." Subaru couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of pain in his head, at the mention of this marker. But he quickly took away the feeling, instead listening intently to both the muffled banging and crashing, as well as the communication that was going on for his communicator.

"It's on the ship!" Was Kendra's response, to the reveal that the Marker was indeed on the ship with them. And even though Subaru know a little bit about what the Marker was supposed to be, from the little bit that he actually read about unitology, he didn't really see why it was a big deal but it was on the ship.

"In cargo. They think it's of alien origin, but I don't know what the hell it is" The last part certainly got Subaru to raise an eyebrow, because despite unitology sprouting their religious crap, about mankind being some kind of genetic experiment by an alien species. He would never actually thought that it was true, considering that from what he had read in the history books, humanity has been sailing the stars for centurys, and yet have never found any other alien life, in all of that time. Yet the fact that the Marker was indeed real and it was found on an uncharted planet, made the black-haired engineer think that the unitolagist's despite how crazy and cult-like they were, may have been on to something.

"Hey Hammond, they found the Marker down on the planet right? and since the system is uncharted..." Subaru's quiet words certainly made Hammond and Kendra ponder exact implications of the Marker actually being real. And the fact it was found in an uncharted star system, but Kendrick face quickly scrunched up, her voice taking on a much more sarcastic and unbelieving tone.

"Really? so you're saying that the CC didn't know anything about this before they sent us out here? you're lying Hammond" Subaru did a double take, not quite believe in what Kendra had just said, yet before he could say anything Hammond quickly responded a slightly irate tone evident in his voice.

"Back off Kendra! I'm not the bad guy here. We all shaky right now. You're just going to have to trust that I don't know anything about it-" Violent and harsh static suddenly replaced Hammond's face and voice. As the ship suddenly and violently rocked, nearly throwing Subaru off his feet in the process, but luckily he managed to catch himself on a nearby railing, as the shaking subsided.

"We've entered the debris field! Subaru, get to the captain's nest, I'll explain everything later" Subaru didn't need to be told twice, as he quickly began to make his way down the hallway. However as he passed large blackout one-way security windows, something suddenly shot straight through the reinforced glass, Subaru letting out a curse, as he only just managed to dodge out of the way, of the strange fleshy appendage, as it began to wiggle around in the hole that it had just created. Most likely searching for him and trying to release itself, and after a moment it did exactly that, quickly releasing itself and disappearing back into the room on the other side of the glass. A small column of violent red light, now coming from the hole that the creature had made, however instead of staying around to find out what the hell that was, Subaru quickly made his way to the end of the hallway, quickly rounding a corner and entering the large open bridge space through a set of large double doors.

"Why is she so quick to blame it on him I wonder" Frederica said quietly, one of her eyebrows arching in curiosity, at why Kendra was blaming Hammond of all people, for knowing something about this marker despite, everything that had been shown so far, pointing to the exact opposite. And unless there was something they hadn't been shown, Frederica could definitely say that Hammond looked like he was telling the truth, in regards to his lack of knowledge about the strange object.

"That's a good question, miss Frederica, why would she blame him so quickly..." At first Wilhelm could have thought it was perhaps just fear. Considering that fear had a tendency to make you act irrationally, especially during life or death situations. But the fact that Kendra had immediately pointed her finger Hammond, in regards to some kind of conspiracy going on, certainly was quite strange. In fact, despite there being no evidence of such, Wilhelm sharpen senses and ability to read people, told him that Kendra was hiding something, and was seemingly using Hammond some kind of scapegoat, redirect suspicion away from herself.

"Maybe she's just scared... like Subaru" Emilia said quietly, finding it strange that Kendra was blaming Hammond of all people, just attributing it to her being scared senseles. After all, Emilia knew from personal experience, just just how irrational people could act, when they was scared to with an inch of their life. In fact, it brought back quite bad memories of her time at the Sanctuary, particularly when she tried to do the trials. The fear of facing a past that she couldn't remember was almost her undoing, but luckily she managed to persevere. So all she could do was hope that Subaru, Kendra and Hammond would do the same, and make it out of this waking nightmare.

"That's a possibility Emilia but... it's just strange that she would automatically blame Hammond of all people" Crusch wasn't entirely sure what to make of this. Despite being a human lie detector with her divine protection of wind reading, unfortunately, the divine protection had its drawbacks, particularly when it came to written down material, and it seemed it also extended to visual recordings of events. But still something about the way Kendra automatically started to blame Hammond, just didn't sit right with the Duchess.

"Indeed duchess Crusch, it's quite strange how she would automatically blame him, just because he's in charge... In fact, it fell like it's just to cast suspicion on herself more than anything I feel" Julius wasn't someone brag too much about his abilities. But one thing he could certainly say, was that he was good at reading people, but even still the suddenness of the accusation that Kendra had put forward was certainly strange. Considering that there was no evidence to say that Hammond knew about anything suspicious before they had arrived, in fact, Julius would tentatively like to say that Hammond seemed innocent in all of this. Kendra on the other hand though, was simply casting herself in a more suspicious the more she spoke, Julius would even go as far to say that it seems like she knew more than she was actually letting on even from the beginning.

"Nyah~ you definitely right Julius, she's acting very shifty" Felix didn't let go of Crusch's arm. Holding onto her like she was his only life flying a vast ocean, yet he still was observing everything that was happening on screen. And he couldn't help but agree with his purple head friend, Kendra was indeed beginning to act very suspiciously. However, before he could think about that any further, Felix suddenly felt something brush against the back of his neck, causing his feline ears to jump up in surprise, as he snapped his head around, only to see nothing behind him but mostly empty theatre seats, and the few of occupants of the theater. after looking around for a moment with uncertainty written across his face, he quickly turned his attention back to the screen.

Finally stepping onto the bridge of the USG Ishimura, Subaru couldn't help but whistle in amazement, it was an incredibly large and open space, with large double story windows that allowed in the maximum amount of natural light. In fact despite being on this planet cracker once before on a different repair job, this was the first time that he actually been to the bridge of the Ishimura, and he could safely say it was a sight to behold. But his sightseeing was suddenly cut short, as he felt a absolutely colossal rumble, before a massive fireball can crashing through the ceiling of the bridge. The shockwave almost throwing Subaru off his feet, as the fireball quickly punch a giant hole in the floor, disappearing down into a lower part of the ship.

"Jesus... That was close" Subaru let out a sigh of relief, as he inquisitively walked over to the edge of the burning hole, looking down at the hole, before looking up to the ceiling, revealed a truly colossal hole. Burning pipes and wires hanging out of it, like the guts of some cybernetic creature, but before Subaru marvel any more at the destruction, his communicator suddenly came to life.

"Subaru. Impact on the bridge, right at your feet! I'm reading heavy damage, but containment looks solid. Life support is stabilised, we need to get the ADS working! Before we are ripped to pieces!" Subaru didn't get a chance to reply as the communication was quickly cut off. Yet after giving the hole one last inspection, he quickly made his way deeper into the bridge, looking around for a moment before eventually spotting the access way that leads down to The captain's nest. And after making his way down a short set of stairs and a standard crew lift, he came to a small round chamber, with 6 VIP escape pods, reserved exclusively for the captain as well as the other offices, however, Subaru didn't pay them any mind, instead making his way into the captain's nest.

"Talk about cutting it close!" Felt almost jumped out of her seat, when the strange fireball came crashing through the ceiling of the bridge, as a result of it being so unexpected, but she was also relieved that Subaru was uninjured.

"Thank Od, that was too close" Rem said with a sigh of relief. Thankful that she didn't have to watch her beloved experience another horrifying injury or possibly death, in fact despite having seen him die more times than she would have liked, Rem still wasn't mentally equipped to watch her beloved actually died again.

"Sometimes I can't tell if Barusu, has incredibly bad or good luck" Ram said with a small huff, while also silently thanking whatever deity was listening, that Subaru wasn't in the firing line, whatever had just coming through the ceiling of the bridge. In fact, she couldn't understand what had such power, to dust through solid armored metal, as if it was nothing more than kitchen paper, but even though she had no idea what the object actually was, she could assume that it was most likely one of these asteroids, that Hammond and Subaru had referred to earlier in the viewing.

"Subaru! Damn, you scared me. This place is making me jumpy" Subaru didn't mean to make Hammond jump, yet the dark skin man was still caught off guard momentarily, as Subaru enter the room but quickly relax when he saw that it was none other than his engineer friend.

"How you holding up Hammond" Subaru quickly made his way over to the large spinning holographic console that Hammond was typing away at. Deactivating his helmet in the process, revealing his dry blood encrusted face, with dry tear marks running down his cheeks. And even with his hair being very very short, it had a noticeable dishevelled look to it, as if Subaru had been sweating profusely on his helmet. Hammond, however, looked away from the screen for a moment, examining his friend with a obviously concern, before he motioned over. Possible to take a look at the screen with him, both of them beginning to talk, as him and Subaru tryed to make sense of the completely destroyed that was the asteroid defence system.

"I'm about to find as I can be. Fucking asteroids coming through the roof... listen, I don't know why Kendra doesn't trust me, but I don't know anything about a marker or anything else. this was supposed to be a repair mission, plain and simple" Hammond stopped typing away at the holographic display. Turning to look at Subaru, with what we can only be assumed as complete sincerity in his eyes, Subaru however didn't need to be convinced of his friend's innocence. Having known Hammond for a couple of years now, Subaru had long realised that Hammond was not the kind of person to lie, especially if it involveed a serious situation like they were currently in.

"Hammond there's no need to convince me... I know you're telling the truth, and even if you weren't. The only thing I really care about right now is finding Nicole, and getting the hell out of here" Subaru said with a completely serious expression on his face, him and Hammond continuing to stare at each other for a moment. Before the both of them let out quiet laughs, and for just a singular moment, all of the horror and death was forgotten, as the two old friends shared a laugh with each other.

"Laser focused on one thing... I guess it doesn't matter how old you get some things just don't change" Hammond said between his chuckles, taking a moment to catch his breath as Subaru did the same, both men feeling just a little bit more uplifted by the small moments they just shared together.

"You know it. My dad always taught me, that if you want to hold onto something. You need to hold onto it with a vice grip" Subaru said puffing out his chest, instinctively bringing his hand up to imitate his now famous gesture. Which Hammond found funny and peculiar, Subaru smiled affectionately, remembering the happy moments that he had spend with his parents when he was younger. Yet as quickly as those memories came, the sadness followed them, his smile quickly faltering as a tear began to form on his eyelid, whispering something quietly in his native Japanese that Hammond was able to hear but didn't understand.

"Gomen ne mama, papa" ("sorry Mum, Dad")

Despite not understanding Subarus's native language, Emilia could feel her heartstrings being violently tugged. Amost bringing her to tears as she watched Subaru seemingly mourning the fact that he would never see his parents again. Which considering her own family situation, just made Emilia want to cry even harder, and looking around her she wasn't the only one.

"Poor guy, I only had old man Rom growing up... but I can't even imagine how painful it must be, knowing that he can never see them again" Felt could feel the tears beginning to well up in her eyes, as she desperately try to fight the urge to cry. She understood the pain of losing a parent, considering old man Rom's Incredibly close brush with death, at the hands of Elsa, all the way back at the beginning of all of this mess, yet the pain that she felt, paled in comparison to the overwhelming silent agony that Subaru was in.

"I-If only there was some way... somewhere to... to-" Reinhard couldn't stop the torrential downpour of tears running from his eyes. Despite his and Subaru's family dynamics being vastly different from each other, Reinhard was unfortunately, all too familiar with the loss of losing a parent. In fact, the very day that he became the sword saint, he had, for all intents and purposes lost his entire family. With them, even viewing him as a monster, a burden or the worst his, mother falling into a coma that she would never wake from, her radiant smile and kind eyes forever last to her mysterious sickness. So the fact that he was watching somebody he considered his closest friend, struggling with the same kind of lost that he felt every day, was almost too much for him to bear, In fact, it made him hate himself, even more, knowing that he had all of the power in the world, yet he could do literally nothing to help his or Subarus families in anyway.

"Betty will take care of you, I will take care of you in their stead I suppose" Beatrice could feel the sadness and loss washing over her. Yet she held herself together, because despite Subaru never talking about it verbally, she understood all too well just how much he missed his parents, and from the memories that she had seen of them. She could understand why, they were the kindest people that she'll ever seen, people that were quite possibly too kind and caring for any world, and despite not blaming her contractor for his actions, even when he had neglected everything including them. They never gave up on him, always there to support him, and get him back on his feet if he ever needed it, and despite not wanting to feel that way, it made Beatrice slightly jealous. Because, despite her own mother caring for her in her own demented way, she never showed her the care and affection, that Subarus parents gave to him.

Crusch didn't say anything, in fact, it was more likely she couldn't bring herself to say anything. Because despite already knowing about Subarus's parents, permanently being lost to him, as a result of what they saw, during his trials at the Sanctuary. It still didn't hit any less hard when, when she was confronted, with the fact that Subaru had quite literally left everything behind in his old world. His kind and caring parents being chief among them, and despite the fact that her own father had long since passed from this mortal world. The greenhead duchess at least had the luxury of visiting his grave, where he was forever permanently at rest, and it made her feel incredibly rotten. That Subaru didn't even have that luxury, the only remanence of his parents, being the memories that he carried of them, as he marched forward with his life, and even after seemingly living for decades, they're lost still weighed heavily on his heart.

"Poor guy has it rough~Nyah" Felix couldn't really say that he understood the pain that Subaru was going through. Considering his own rough upbringing and his relationship with his now deceased parents, but still he could at least empathize with the dark haired man. Considering that Subaru's parents were a complete mirror opposite to his own, both Subaru's mother and father being incredibly kind and caring, while Felix's parents were harsh and cruel. In fact in a somewhat sadistic kind of way, Felix found it very ironic and some of funny, that his and Subarus parents were quite literally polar opposites of each other, when it came to raising their children.

"Subaru... are you alright?" Hammond asked after a moment of silence, noticing the slightly sad look in Subarus's eyes, yet as quickly as it came, it vanished. Subaru using the back of his gloved palm to wipe his eyes, and despite Hammond wanting to push the issue further. He decided that it was probably for the best he didn't, considering that he had known Subaru for long enough, to know that if he didn't want to share his problems then he wouldn't. So instead he decided to focus on the primary objective at hand.

"I'm fine... Anyway what have we got to work with and how can we fix it" Subaru said after a moment, staring much more intently at the large holographic display that was in front of him and Hammond. His eyes growing wider in shock as he silently read of the numerous different holographic readouts, all of them painting a very dire picture of the situation they were in.

"Right. this mess right here is the Asteroid Defence System. I can fix these data boards, but the main power routeing is completely shot. You're manually going to have to rewrite them for at least free junction boxes to activate the primary cannon. But first you need to activate the main atrium elevators from Bridge security. You can use them to get to the junction boxes. Oh and one other thing, it looks like you need a new suit, there should be a suit change station in Bridge security, so I'll send one over for you" Subaru didn't verbally reply, instead quickly activating his helmet, his visor lighting up a brilliant cyan blue, as he unclip his plasma cutter from his belt. Quickly putting in a fresh power cell, as he turned on his heels and made his way to the door, quickly exiting the small captain's nest, and back out into the large circular space that contained the VIP escape pod. And as his eyes scanned over each one of them, he noticed that one of them had a single non-human occupant, desperately slashing and trying to break its way out of its metal prison, and eviscerate the black-haired engineer directly in front of it.

"H-how did that thing it in there!?" Julius with a surprise tone to his voice. Not expecting to see one of the strange and disgusting creatures, confined in such a small space that had currently had a unknown purpose. In fact, considering that the creatures seemed to want nothing more, than slash and cut it'sway through every living creature they came across. Julius could only surmise that it was highly unlikely, the creature was in there by choice, meaning of somebody had most likely trapped it in there deliberately.

"I can only guess that somebody must have trapped it in there" Her statement was an obvious, but Anastacia suppose that it made the most sense, considering the predicament the monster have found itself in. Stuck in an incredibly tight little space that it could not seemingly not escape from, which she was thankful for, because it meant that there was one less monster roaming the ship for Subaru to encounter.

"Considering how ferocious these creatures are, whoever trapped it in there must have either been adept at laying traps or must have had extraordinary combat prowess" Wilhelm added, silently thanking whoever was listening that at least Subaru would have to face one less monster on his journey, considering his current state and bodily injuries.

"I don't think it matters how it got in there, at least that disgusting thing is now stuck somewhere where it can't hurt anyone" Ram said with her usual harsh-sounding tone, crossing her arms over her chest and letting out a small huff of annoyance.

"Shit, stand back" Hammonds voice came over the communicator, as the escape pod quickly began its emergency launch sequence, the twisted abomination letting out of silent scream of rage as it disappeared along with the escape pod.

"Hammond, what the hell was that thing doing in an escape pod!?" Subarus's voice had a slightly nervous twang to it, as he looked at the now empty launcher to where the escape pod have been moments ago. Before turning away from it and making his way to the personnel lift, that would take him back up to the main Bridge.

"The thing jumped me, I thought it was dead when I sealed it in the escape pod, these things don't die easily" Subaru didn't need to be told that twice, as the personal lift came to a stop, allowing him to make his way up the small set of stairs, that lead back into the main Bridge area. And after looking around for a moment, Subaru spotted what he was looking for, that being the large double doors that lead to bridge security. However as he made his way over to the doors, a strange foreboding feeling suddenly came over him, as if his body instinctively knew that something bad was about to happen, yet he pushed that away as he made his way over to the security doors.

"Alright let's get these elevators-" Subaru didn't get a chance to finish, as a loud powerful bang was heard. The large reinforced security doors buckling slightly from whatever had impacted them, and before Subaru could figure out what was going on, there was another bang, the doors buckling even more as whatever was inside try to get out. And after one final almighty crash, the doors completely disintegrated into metal fragments, revealing a truly colossal abomination, It's entire body seemingly made out of the twisted remains of multiple human beings, as it let out a powerful roar of rage upon spotting a certain shocked black-haired engineer

"You've got kidding me" Subaru said as the creature suddenly began to charge directly at him, using its massive fleshy tree trunk-like legs, to propel itself at a speed that a creature of that size and bulk shouldn't have been able to do. However before the creature could run him down, Subaru just managed to sidestep the creature, as it continued to run directly into a security console, completely destroying it with it massive bulk, as the beast was showered in sparks from the broken electrical cables of the security console.

"By the Od! what is that disgusting thing!?" Frederica wasn't even entirely sure what she was actually looking at. It was a disgusting jumble of flesh and limbs, with human fingers arms and even faces sticking out of its flesh, in fact, she felt her stomach lurch at the mere sight of it. As well as her mind imagining the unknowable suffering that it's victims went through when they were absorbed into its flesh.

"Whatever the hell it's is, that thing looks big and angry!" Garfield could feel his fighter-like Instincts beginning to come out, especially when the large disgusting abomination, charged directly at his captain, with the obvious intent of brutalising him, much like the rest of the abominations that Subaru had encountered so far.

"Nyah~look at the size of that thing... How is something like that even possible" Felix couldn't believe his eyes, or more precisely he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. The creature was by far the most gruesome and horrifying thing, he had ever seen in his entire life, which was made even worse. By the fact that he could clearly make out, the contorted and twisted faces of multiple humans stuck into the flesh of the creature, as if they had been absorbed mid-scream. And sticking out from between the large bony plates of armour, arms and dismembered legs could easily be seen waving around as if possessed, grasping at the air as if they were trying to escape from the creatures gruesomely impressive bulk.

"Subaru please... make it through this" Emilia hugged Subaru's arm even deeper into her chest. Nnot tearing her eyes away, from the screen as she watched her beloved knight, prepare himself to battle the truly colossal abomination that decided to stand in his way. And despite desperately wanting to believe that her knight could prevail against anything, she knew more than anyone that Subaru was just human, and humans were known for being fragile and having their physical limits. And considering the power the creature had displayed by destroying the piece of technology, by simply running into it, she didn't want to imagine what kind of damage it could do if it actually intended on attacking a living person like Subaru.

"How disgusting to look at I suppose" Beatrice said quietly, instinctively bringing Subarus's head closer and deeper into her lap. As she watched his on-screen counterpart beginning to face off against the truly colossal amalgamation of deceased and distorted human beings, and all she could do that he would make it through this alive.

"What a truly formidable but disgusting-looking creature" Julius could feel his arms beginning to shake from nervousness. As he watched Subaru prepare to fight the giant strange abomination, comprised of amalgamated human beings and other twisted flesh, and despite the deadliness of Subarus's weapon, Julius could tell from the creatures heavily built stature and thick bone armour plating. That the abomination could definitely take a hit or two, and could most likely dish back any damage right back to it's attacker with equal or more deadliness.

"You're right Julius, it's truly disgusting to look at" Anastasia wanted to tear her gaze away from the screen. Yet as if driven by some kind of morbid curiosity, she couldn't stop staring at the creature, analysing every horrifying detail about its form, and despite her stomach protesting at her to look away and spare herself it's disgusting visage, she just couldn't look away despite every Instinct in her body telling her that she should.

"Damn, that's like some Lovecraft shit right there!" Al was very glad that he had his helmet at that moment. Because it completely covered his disgusted and slightly green-looking face from view, because what he was looking at was truly disgusting in every possible way, and reminded him of some of the truly disgusting slasher and horror movies, that he had watched when he was a teenager. Which even back then he didn't have the stomach for, so to see something that was much more visible and have actually real looking certainly didn't do him any favours.

Felt didn't say anything, her face too contorted in disgust to do so, as she looked away from the screen. Covering her mouth with her hand, as she tried to keep her vomit from escaping, because despite the previous abominations being truly horrific to look at. They still at least looked somewhat human, but this new abomination was quite the opposite, almost nothing about it resemble that of a human being, other than the distorted arms and faces that could be seen in bed into its flesh.

However the massive deformed beast, despite its truly gargantuan bulk, was stunned for a moment by it impacting the computer console, and the electrical current rating for its body. Allowing Subaru to see that the back of its legs and arms were a lot less armored. And without wasting the pressure second that he had, Subaru quickly took out his plasma cutter, firing at the beast's back legs, causing it to scream in pain and agony. As it quickly wrenched itself free from the damaged computer console, before turning on the spots to face it,s attacker, its deformed almost human skull-like face, seeming to contort in anger and pain, as it quickly began to charge again.

Subaru with a yell of surprise, only just managed to dodge out of the way. As the creature again somehow managed to cover the distance between him and it. A lot faster than Subaru would have liked. However, this speed combined with its tremendous weight, was ultimately a detriment to it, as the titanic beast was unable to stop itself, from careening into a nearby support pylon. The pylon, a testament to its design and strength, somehow managed to hold up under the sheer strain, but still being horribly warped and bent from the sheer weight of the creature.

"Jesus! that things, like an angry mix of an elephant and a rhino!" Al exclaimed everyone being just a bit confused exactly what a rhino and an elephant actually were. Considering how dire the current moment actually was, questions about strange animals could wait for the moment.

"How can a creature of such size, move so quickly like that?" Julius was caught completely off guard, thinking that the creature's earlier burst of speed was merely a one-off event. But it was now revealed that the creature could move that quickly whenever it wanted to, although at the cost of much of its manoeuvrability.

"In my experience, it's the largest and most terrifying beasts that often move the quickest... especially when angered" Wilhelm's voice was flat and even, his mind reminiscing about many fearsome beasts that had faced in his youth. In fact, his first-time facing down a truly colossal beast in battle, he made the arrogant mistake of thinking that because of its size it would not be able to move quickly, and the scar that it gave him was a vivid memento of that mistake. And served as a reminder to never underestimate the speed of even the largest and hulking beasts.

Yet seeing his opening again, Subaru quickly advanced on the creature, standing dangerously close to it. As he began to unload his plasma cutter into it again, keeping an eye on the ammo counter which was rapidly depleting. Yet as he finally reached the last shot in the energy cell, the abomination's horrifyingly mangled leg, finally gave way, separating from its body, which sent the creature tumbling to the floor. Crying in both pain and rage, as it tried to pull itself back onto its now only three remaining legs.

"Come on Cap! Show that ugly ass thing who's boss!" Garfiel shouted, practically on the edge of his seat as fear and excitement both flow through his veins. The fear he felt was because Subaru, somebody who had no strength-altering abilities, was facing down a truly gargantuan with its strength rivalling almost any beast that Garfiel was aware of. His excitement, however, was because quite frankly, watching Subaru absolutely tear the monster's leg to pieces, with that strange and awesome-looking weapon of his, triggered Garfiel's Inner childlike excitement.

"Come on big brother, teach that ugly thing a lesson!" Petra joined in with Garfield's excited shouting. Desperately wanting Subaru to prevail against the disgusting-looking monster. Frederica despite desperately wanting to correct both her brother's and Petra's behavior, even she couldn't help but feel her heart beginning to race, as a Subaru continued his battle with the disgusting-looking abomination. the blonde-haired beast woman, silently praying that he would defeat it before it could land a significant blow on him.

Subaru quickly grab another spare energy cell from his belt, disconnecting and letting the drained one fall out of the back of the plasma cutter, and after fumbling around for a moment, managing to insert the fresh One into the empty slot. The weapon letting out a satisfied energised hum, as the red zero was quickly replaced by a bright blue ten. However, before Subaru could take aim at the monster again, the beast suddenly flailed one of its arms, Subaru not having any time to dodge as the massive appendage, connect directly with the side of his chest. Causing Subaru to scream in agony as he was thrown to the floor by the force of the blow.

Emilia didn't say anything, but she most definitely did wince, sucking air through her teeth, as despite not feeling the pain that Subaru was feeling. the look on his face was enough to tell her just how much that blow hurt, which was most likely made worse by the blow, most definitely aggravating his already broken and cracked ribs.

"You idiot, why didn't you see that coming I suppose" Beatrice hissed with a disapproving tone in her voice. her face scrunching up in both anger and fear, at the fact that her contract had just experienced quite a substantial blow, from the disgusting abomination. Which was ultimately made worse for her, because she felt just how much I actually hurt him, the contract between Beatrice and him, allowing her to feel and share both his physical and emotional pain.

"Subaru!" Rem said worriedly, her eyes widening in horror as she watched the disgusting beast actually land a significant blow on her beloved, causing him to feel a great amount of pain. and despite trying to suppress it, she couldn't help but feel anger beginning to rise up in her chest, at the fact that this disgusting thing had the audacity to try and harm the person that she loved. In fact, if it was possible, she would have jumped through the very screen itself, to attack the disgusting abomination that dared to hurt her beloved Subaru. But instead, all she could do with simply sit here frustrated, at the fact she couldn't do anything about what was happening on screen, having no other option than to simply watch it unfold, before her very eyes.

"Oh Nyah~that's not going to make his ribs any better" even if Felix wasn't a medically minded person. the sheer force of the blow that Subaru had just received, would have still made him wince regardless. but it also certainly didn't help, that Subaru was carrying around a couple of broken and cracked ribs, which the Beast had most likely even made worse or simply aggravated, with its wild swing.

Subaru rolled onto his back, instinctively wrapping his arms around his chest, as the pain continue to intensify, his breathing quickly becoming ragged and horsed. As he desperately tried to make the pain go away, yet a quick and powerful roar, quickly shook Subaru from his pain fuelled daze. The Beast only just managing to pull itself onto its three remaining legs, wobbling from side to side as it looked at the downed engineering, with what could only be presumed was malice and hate for injuring it. However, after a moment Subaru managed to pull himself together, quickly although with a lot of pain, picking up his plasma cutter and getting his feet again, he and the Beast now staring each other down, as if daring the other to make the first move.

But after a moment of this strange staring contest, the Beast was the first to break, letting out a powerful roar that shook the entire bridge, as it began to charge at Subaru again. However, the Beast only managed a quarter of its previous speed due to missing one of its legs, almost stumbling and falling over as it continue to awkwardly charge.

And even despite being in pain, Subaru managed to effortlessly dodge the creature's clumsy charge, quickly and shakily bringing the plasma and shooting the creature twice in the back. Causing it to scream in agony as it collapsed onto the floor once again, its leg now splayed out, which was the perfect target for Subaru, as he began to shoot at the monster's still attached left leg. Managing to take it off after the third shot, which caused the titanic beast to scream in agony. As it tried and failed to get to its two remaining feet, its screams quickly beginning to dissipate, as the life quickly left its body, letting out one final roar before its body went limp. Leaving Subaru there completely alone on the bridge, his breaths hard and ragged, as he stared hatefully at the corpse of the latest abomination that tried to get in his way.

"I swear... when you wake up, I'm going to punish you for scaring me so much I suppose" Beatrice said quietly, her tone almost sounding like a disapproving mother, yet the small relief-filled smile on her face was easily visible, as she stroke the side of Subaru's face. Brushing away a stray black hair that had landed on his eyelid at some point, the action obviously tickling and causing her contractor to giggle slightly in his sleep, muttering something about the certain half-elf next to her. Yet Beatrice couldn't help but find it comforting, knowing that her contractor was in fact dreaming of something pleasant, and was finally getting the rest that he desperately deserved, after all of the torment he had put himself through just for their sakes.

"Hell yeah, Cap show that thing who was boss!" Garfield said excitedly jumping up from his seat and punching the air, Petra much to the amusement of many imitated him perfectly. However, Garfield also couldn't help but feel immensely relieved, because for just a moment there. It looked like the beast had the upper hand even in its injured state, but much like he always did, Subaru managed to pull through by the skin of his teeth, again being victorious despite the growing list of odds against him.

"Oh thank Od! I was getting worried there" Emilia's words were accompanied by a gigantic sigh of relief. silently thanking the Od, that Subaru had survived another encounter with the twisted and disgusting monsters aboard that ship. but as she tried to get her breathing under control, she suddenly heard something almost inaudible, something that almost resembled alien whispering in the back of her mind, desperately trying to worm their way into her mind once again.

Yet Emilia quickly shook her head violently, her long and silver hair flying around erratically, as she tried to physically shake her mind, to make the whispers leave. And after successfully doing that, she quickly turned her gaze towards the sleeping Subaru, as if just merely looking at him was enough to ease the troubles of her mind. But as her gaze traveled up from his chest to his face, she stopped for a moment, her mouth quickly falling open in shock and horror. Because instead of closed eyes meeting her own, Subaru's eyes were wide open, and despite being completely black and featureless, she could feel his almost menacing gaze, penetrating her very soul.

But as soon as Emilia blinked, those black soulless eyes were gone, Subaru's calm and peaceful sleeping face, returning to how it looked moments ago. Yet before she could actually ponder what has just happened, somebody tapped her on the shoulder, coursing how to make a quiet "yelp" As she quickly turned her head to see who it was, only to see it was none other than the slightly concerned face of Crusch.

"Emilia, what's the matter?" Crusch wasn't entirely sure wasn't entirely sure what to make of what she just witnessed, both what had happened on screen just now and Emilia's incredibly strange behaviour that she just displayed. In fact, the greenhead duchess couldn't help but feel a shudder run down her spine, because what Emilia had just done, was what she imagined that happened to her earlier, would have looked like from an outside perspective. Yet instead of answering her right away like she would have wished. Emilia simply looked back at her completely dumbfounded, as if her brain had momentarily stopped working, or she had simply lost any kind of ability to understand in regular speech. But after a moment much to Crusch relief Emilia finally managed to pull some words out of her mouth.

"I don't know, I just... I don't know what's happening" Emilia cast her gaze downwards, both in shame at the fact that she couldn't give a definite answer to her friend. But also because her mind was now racing a mile a minute. Desperately trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with her, and why this was happening to her, in fact thinking back, Emilia found it quite strange how it all started after the strange nightmare of her and Subaru being in an endless field of beautiful flowers.

But despite looking like her Subaru, that thing wasn't him, it was simply disguised as him, and then there was the voice, or more precisely the millions of voices speaking in perfect sync, that she heard just before she woke up. They spoke about something called a candidate, which at first she naively thought was about her status as a royal candidate, but the more time she had to think about it. The more than explanation made no sense, in fact, Emilia simply wanted to disregard it as nothing more than a nightmare, brought on by the trauma of what they had seen during the viewings. But something in the back of her mind told her that disregarding it as nothing more than a simple nightmare, was a foolish endeavor.

Crusch could say that she wasn't entirely satisfied by the answer that was given, although it wasn't any fault of Emilia herself. It was simply because the greenhead duchess desperately wanted an answer that could help her understand why something similar had also happened to her.

So far this viewing had brought up more mysteries than it had answered, the biggest and most pressing ones for Crusch specifically, being her connection and physical resemblance to Nicole, and the strange ghostly boy that had been hunting her since the very beginning of the viewing. And even with her very analytical mind, she just couldn't make heads or tails of what any of it truly meant. it also didn't help that the warden had said this was the future that would come to pass. Which itself just raised even more questions that haven't had any answers divulged yet.

"That was a close call indeed, if it wasn't for that weapon of his, then things could have got very ugly right there" Despite having seen its terrifying power already, Anastasia couldn't help but practically drool all over the plasma cutter, that Subaru had been using so far to dispatches enemies. In fact, the more she saw it in action, the more she wanted to duplicate and make one for herself both to sell for profit, and to satiate her almost endless greed when it came to strange and unique trinkets. Although after getting a hold of herself, Anastasia couldn't help but think that all of the technology she had seen so far, definitely qualified as strange and unique enough for her to hold onto instead of selling it to make a profit.

"You're right Anastasia, that was a bit too close for comfort I would say" Julius couldn't help but sigh, a small smile making its wild to his face, as he thought about the fact that Subaru had nearly scared him half to death again, in his battle with the strange titanic beast. Yet as that thought crossed his mind, Julius couldn't help but feel just a slight twinge of remorse, causing his smile to weaken ever so slightly. Because despite making a promise to stand by Subaru's side as a true friend and equal, he was quite literally incapable of doing that, leaving Subaru completely alone to deal with all of the twisted abominations on that strange ship. in fact, the only solace that Julius could take away from it all was that Subaru still had allies to stand by him and aid him in his endeavour aboard that strange alien ship.

After regarding the dead monster one last time, Subaru made his way over to the security station as quickly as his aching sides would allow. Once he finally reached it, looking inside he wasn't all too surprised to see that the entire room was completely trashed. Blood absolutely coating every surface, with all of the main computer consoles been completely destroyed beyond repair. However, stepping into the room and looking around for a moment, Subaru was somewhat worried that he wouldn't be able to activate the atrium elevators. But Subarus eyes came to rest on a holographic computer console, that had somehow survived the creatures rampage.

"Alright let's get these elevators back on-" Subaru didn't finish, as he was suddenly assaulted by a searing pain in his head, causing him to double over in agony, yet even through his grants and his of pain, he still heard something instantly caused his eyes to snap upwards.

"Subaru... Make us whole Again..."

"It's that idiotic phrase again?" Ram muttered quietly to herself, finding it quite peculiar that the strange almost mantra-like saying had made another reappearance. However despite not verbalising it to anyone, even to her own sister, every time so far she had heard the strange saying, it somehow sent a chill running down her spine as if the words were somehow the most sinister that she had ever heard in her life. Which she wanted to say was completely idiotic considering that the words seem to be quite benign, but even with telling herself that, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to those words.

"Indeed Ram, it certainly is a strange and maybe even slightly sinister-sounding phrase... Considering how it's been used so far" Frederica didn't need to elaborate and what she meant, everyone collectively nodding that whatever the phrase was, it certainly wasn't as benign as it's words would suggest.

"Why did she say that..." Emilia was just as clueless as everyone else, when it came to the strange phrase and its true meaning. yet unlike everyone else, she had heard the phrase outside of the viewings, remembering her whisper those exact words directly under her ear,

and one of the few bits of her nightmare she could actually remember, was the strange choir of millions of voices, saying something along similar lines to the phrase. But even with these extra instances of it being said, Emilia was no closer to figuring out than anyone else was, of course at face value the word for easy to dissect. But for some reason, Emilia could just feel that there was something more to them. something unknowable that couldn't be ascertained from simply examining the words themselves.

"What does that mean... and why is it familiar" Crusch began to furiously rub her chin in deep thought, trying to figure out exactly why the strange phrase was familiar to her. Of course she had heard it used before interviewing, but the familiarity was more than that, it almost felt like the phrase had some kind of personal meaning to her, yet she couldn't remember exactly what that was, but then suddenly a memory popped into her mind. In fact, it was a fragment from the dream she had before waking up, she distinctly remember hearing "make us whole" in her dream, but she couldn't remember if it was herself that said it or someone else did.

"Those words, still cryptic as ever I see" Priscilla scoffed, her fan doing its intended job of hiding the slightly mortified expression on her face. because those words but the exact same ones that the apparition of her mother had said to her, earlier in the previous viewing. in fact, despite not wanting to admit it the red-headed sun princess, could feel an unknown dread beginning to creep its way into her heart, seemingly intent on rotting her from the Inside out.

"Nicole?" for a split second, Nicole's face was plastered across every active monitor in the destroyed security station, her face having an unreadable look. Yet as quickly as it came, all of the screens containing her face quickly deactivated in a blast of white statue, leaving Subaru completely alone, looking at the screens in confusion. yet seeing Nicole's face was all the motivation he needed, as he took a shallow breath, and then proceed to step further into the security bridge, immediately heading towards the only active holographic display in the small space.

"Atrium elevators are now online" The computerised voice sounded off, as a Subaru quickly press the holographic display, bringing the elevators back into normal function again, however instead of lingering in front of the panel or making his way to the elevators. Subaru quickly m way over to a separate doorway, stepping inside a small space filled filled with various pieces of equipment, however after looking around for a moment, he spotted exactly what he was looking for, and without any further delay.

Subaru quickly but awkwardly stepped into the suit change station, and once he was fully inside it, the doors quickly slamming shut, as a bright light quickly began to emanate from the crack where the doors joined together, accompanied by a strange almost welding noise. And after a moment of this, the doors quickly opened up again, allowing Subaru to step out of the suit changer. Now fully equipped in his brand new suit, with the suit itself only being a minor upgrade from the one he had previously, primarily in the form of extra armour added to the legs and chest.

"Is that a new suit, or has it just been repaired?" Reinhard ask inquisitively, interested in the fact that Subaru had seemingly acquired a new suit or repaired his already existing one.

"Looks to me like it's new, it's got more armour plates on the chest and legs" Felt tried to hide her excitement, because despite not openly admitting so, she couldn't help but admit that Subaru's armour looked absolutely cool as hell. something about the combination of angles and lines, not to mention that his visor quite literally glowed with a brilliant blue, tickle the young girl's fancy more than she would have liked to admit. Yet looking over to hers right, Felt could see Reinhard staring at her, a knowing smile on his face as if he somehow knew exactly what she was thinking about, which immediately cause her cheeks to redden looked away in embarrassment.

"Frederica! Big Brother Subaru got new armour again" Petra definitely didn't hide her excitement, her eyes lighting up with childlike wonder, as she watched Subaru step out of the strange machine, that gave him new and to Petra's mind at least, incredibly cool looking and heroic armour.

Frederica couldn't help but giggle slightly, finding Petra's overly excited attitude very much refreshing and a welcome distraction. to the continuous descent into Madness that the viewings have been so far, In fact, the blonde-haired beast woman, was glad that the young girl was still able to act like a child, considering that even before coming to the theatre, Petra had seen things that no young child should ever have to see. However, her thoughts were suddenly and violently interrupted, by the overly excited voice of her younger brother.

"Hell yeah! Caps got more new armour!" Garfield shouted excitedly, his eyes absorbing every detail about Subaru's new and frankly cool-looking armour. in fact, it made the blonde-haired beast boy, that he could have something cool like that for himself.

"Strange, it's not too different from the last one" Anastasia much like Garfield was absorbing every single detail about the new armour, reason for doing so was because of her own curiosity, and insatiable lust for anything that was new and foreign to her.

After examining his new suit for a moment, Subaru activated his helmet, quickly obscuring his face from view as he quickly stepped out of the security Bridge, and back into the main Bridge area. Keeping a close eye on the corpse of the deceased creature that he had killed moments ago. As he made his way to the main elevator, waiting for a moment for the doors to open before he stepped inside, the doors quickly shutting behind him, as the elevator quickly began its downward descent into a deeper and lower part of the ship.

However Subaru was suddenly caught completely off guard, jumping really 10 feet into the air, as an ear-piercing screech suddenly filled the air. The hairs on the back of his neck standing up, as the scream almost sounded like somebody forcefully running their hands down or even possibly snapping the strings of a large bass instrument. And after recovering Subaru quickly grabbed his plasma cutter from his belt, aiming it around the small confined elevator, looking for the source of where ever the scream had come from. Yet even as the sound is echoing in his ears still, Subaru let the plasma cutter dropped his side, as he took a gentle but calming breath.

"Jesus! talk about a bloody jumpscare!" Al said perhaps a bit too loudly for Priscilla and everyone else's liking, but the sentiment was certainly shared by many. the screen was so sudden and spine-chilling, but it called everyone completely off guard, causing a few of the more easily startled members of the audience, to literally jump from their seats in fright and surprise. In fact, Felix at that very moment, did an almost perfect impression of a startled cat, giving out a startled meow, and jumping up from his seat, his tail standing straight out and his eyes going as wide as dinner plates. And if it was any other situation, Wilhelm and Crusch would have found the reaction quite humorous, but considering the situation at hand, there wasn't exactly any humor that could be taken away from it.

"It's alright Petra... just calm down" Frederica tried her best, to calm down the practically petrified girl that was clinging to her like a lifeline, yet Frederica also couldn't help but win slightly, her demihuman hearing not exactly liking the pitch and intensity of the scream that she has just been subjected to. yet considering the young and scared girl in her arms, her own discomfort could certainly wait until she had managed to calm down Petra.

"Hey Otto" Garfield looked over towards the grey head merchant, who after a moment of looking slightly startled from the scream and the sudden question responded back.

"W-what G-garfiel" the nervousness a practically dripping from his voice and he knew it, but Otto couldn't do anything to suppress it, the scream much like everyone else, catching him completely off guard due to its suddenness and loudness. In fact, for just a single embarrassing moment, Otto thought that he might have wet himself but luckily he was wrong in that regard. Thanking whatever deity was looking out for him, that he wouldn't be embarrassed like that in front of everyone.

"Were you... actually... damn it! never mind" Garfield said through gritted teeth, rethinking his question almost immediately as the word had begun to leave his mouth. and despite Otto looking at him with an obvious look of concern, Garfield simply turned his head away, trying to hide the slightly frightened expression on his face. because despite not wanting to admit it, that scream was so quick and sudden that it's scared him much more than he would have liked.

"God dammit... what the hell was that?" the only answer that Subaru received for his question, was a satisfied ding accompanied by the elevator doors quickly opening up, revealing a somewhat dark and dingy-looking waiting area, barely illuminated by a sinister Orange Glow emanating from several large computer readouts embedded into the walls of the room. and despite everything telling him that he should just turn around and walk the other way, Subaru knew that this was the only way that he could get to the first junction box, so after making sure his plasma cutter had a fresh energy cell in it, Subaru cautiously stepped into the waiting area, swiveling his head around keeping an eye out for any potential enemies, that could be lying in wait.

Seeing that there were no abominations waiting for him, Subaru cautiously stepped out of the waiting area and into a long corridor, still bathed in the eerie and unnatural orange light. Yet Subaru pushed on a head anyway, quickly making his way down to the end of the corridor, which immediately took a hard left turn, however there was also another door, this one leading into what the sign above it said was an electrical components supply closet.

"I'll have a look in now on the way back" Subaru muttered quietly, continuing his journey down the corridor which immediately took a hard right turn, eventually ending a large set of double doors. the sign above it labelling the next area as "Ship the systems and secondary server room" And without a moments hesitation, Subaru quickly held his hand out, the large doors staying closed for a moment before complying with his request, allowing him to step foot into the server room. And almost immediately he felt a wave of hot air rush over him, causing him to start sweating slightly. Which was a testament to just how hot it was, considering that his suit was able to keep him safe, from the near absolute zero that was the vacuum of space.

"That place looks very... hot" Emilia muttered quietly, her body almost instinctively beginning to sweat itself, which was remarkable considering that due to her elvin biology. She didn't really feel temperature change all that much, a course that waesn't saying she couldn't feel hot or cold, but the best way it could be described was instead of boiling water scalding her skin like it with a normal person, inspector her it would feel more like putting her hand to mildly hot water. Yet just from looking at the air alone, she could tell just how hot that room must have been, and yet thanks to Subaru's suit, he was able to walk straight into it without a moments of hesitation, and according to him only feeling a mild discomfort from the temperature.

"Understatement of the last century I suppose" Beatrice huff, silently being thankful that her contractor was indeed wearing a suit that would protect him from the temperatures inside that room. of course, if she was there with him, which she desperately wanted to be. She would have no problem walking into that room without any kind of protection, considering that she could not feel high or low temperatures at all. As a result of the artificial spirit body, of course she could feel normal temperature such as warm and cold. But whether it be burnt or frozen, it was physically impossible for her to feel any kind of heat or cold that that would be anywhere near discomforting.

Felt couldn't help but squirm in her seat uncomfortably, practically feeling the heat radiating from the screen, as her skin began to clam up, her quite revealing clothing doing very little to cool off her body. and despite not mentioning it to anyone, one thing that she always hate it was incredibly hot days, the type of day where just standing out in the sun for more than 5 minutes, would cause your skin to go red and blistered. In fact, the incredibly hot room that Subaru stepped into, reminded her of one of her first times out and about, on the streets as a wannabe pickpocket. That day she ended up being out for a bit too long and ended up being red raw all over her body.

"Come on Subaru, you have to make it through this... for me" Rem muttered quietly to herself, desperately wishing that she could do something to help him, but ultimately there was nothing she could do. In fact, even if her skin must begin bubbling and burning, she would walk into that room without a moment's hesitation if it meant it would keep Subaru safe from any potential harm.

"I don't think all of the snow in Kararagi, could actually cool that place down" Anastasia wasn't opposed to warm and lovely weather, in fact, the height of summer was her favorite time of year. however, she did have a limit for hot weather, specifically when it became so hot that stepping outside was enough to simply burn your skin. so the fact that Subaru was willingly stepping into a giant room, that was radiating so much heat that she could practically feel It through the screen, certainly did make her feel just the tiniest bit uncomfortable. Cusing her to grab at her scarf and loosen it ever so slightly.

"If he can somehow feel the heat, even with that suit on... I don't want to think what it would feel like without it" Crusch gently tugged at the collar of her uniform, even though the temperature in room have not increased, because just imagining the temperature of that room that Subaru had just stepped into, was enough to make her sweat just a little bit.

"I second that~Nyah" Felix replied matter-of-factly, finding it somewhat remarkable that Subaru was able to walk into that incredibly hot room, although considering the advanced nurse of his suit, Felix probably shouldn't have been surprised by that.

Subaru stepped further into the server room, keeping his plasma cut at the ready as he looked around every corner, for both enemies as well as trying to find his way through the massive columns, of holographic servers that the ship used for its daily functions. However, as he poked his head around one particular corner he noticed something strange in the air in front of him, in fact, if he wasn't paying attention, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. It was a weird almost distortion of the air itself, swirling in strange little vortex that occasionally shimmered, yet Subaru had been an engineer long enough, to spot the tell-tale signs of the giant proverbial bullet that he had just dodged, and as he gingerly began to make his way around the distortion, his communicator suddenly came to life.

"Subaru, I'm reading lots of damage in the secondary server room. it looks like some of the gravity plating has been damaged, so keep an eye-"

"Kendra, thanks for the heads up but I've already found some of the damage plating" Subaru cut Kendra off mid-sentence, as he finished maneuvering his way around the destroyed gravity plating, letting out a little sigh of relief, and he continued on his journey, eventually coming to half open doorway that seemingly lead into the other section of the server room, however much to Subaru's annoyance, there were several large and heavy looking carts blocking the way, get a quick blast of his kinesis module was enough to remove the obstructions, as once they were pushed to the side, he stepped into the room.

And offer looking around for a moment with plasma cutter, expecting there to be an enemy waiting to ambush him, Subaru tentatively continued his way into the room, being careful not to come into contact with the large radiators, that were taking away the waste heat from the servers, and after a moment of navigating the almost Maze like environment. Subaru came to an interesting scene, it was a large open space, most likely men for maintenance and other duties, yet sitting comfortably in the centre of the room, was a large still red hot asteroid, the floor around it completely destroyed from its impact, as well as a large hole in the ceiling, which indicated where baroque had originally come from. Yet the most interesting and frustrating part for Subaru was the electrical erratically flying through the air, almost dancing and jumping through the air as millions of volts flow through them.

"God damn it, I need to get around those things Otherwise, it's going to be repeated of that one time in Vollachia" Subaru said with a slight shudder in his voice, his face scrunching up slightly he remembered the particular gruesome death, during his unintentional stay in the Vollachia Empire.

"Wait! when did Subaru go to Vollachia?" Rem couldn't quite believe what she just heard, even though she had been asleep for quite a long time as a result of gluttony, she had been well caught up on everything that happened during her slumber, and she never remembered anyone mentioning that Subaru her beloved had gone to that vile country. in fact, the very idea of Subaru going there was enough to make her blood boil, rage began to bubble up in her. Yet taking a deep breath was enough to bring her rage back under control, as she pushed it back down deep inside her where it could be locked away again.

"My contractor has never been there, simply because wherever he goes I go... although maybe he hasn't been there... yet" Beatrice could feel the gears of her little mind beginning to race, considering that the warden had said this was the future they were witnessing, so was it possible that at some point in the near or distant future, that her contractor would go to Vollachia for some purpose. yet considering that the only way to see the future had been destroyed thanks to her contractor, knowing when and why exactly he would go to that country, would be a mystery to her and everyone else up until it happened, and all she could do was pray that she would be by his side for all of it.

"Whatever the reason... I will be by his side... no matter what" Emilia said confidently, gently cuddling Subaru's limp arm into her chest, as she looked at his sleeping face, his mouth and eyes twitching ever so slightly. As a result, what she could only hope was a truly pleasant dream. In fact, it didn't matter where Subaru would go, it could be to a completely different world for all she cared, but she would not willingly leave him, after everything he had done for her, after finally recognising the feelings that she had for him, she couldn't do that not to him and not to herself.

"I don't know if I'd be able to join you two on your adventure, but I will always be an ally... after all, it's the least I could do, for the both of you" Crusch try to stop it, but she couldn't stop a small brush from making its way onto her face, thinking about Subaru, specifically the things that he did for her to spite how she had treated him in the past, never failed to make her heart flutter, as if she was a young maiden who had just found her first love. and despite not feeling that way inclined about Emilia, the greenhead duchess could certainly say that she loved the half-elf platonically as a close friend, in fact the Royal selection be damned, it didn't matter which one of them one, their friendship would prevail at least she desperately wanted to happen. because Emilia's friendship and Crusch's affection for Subaru had finally begun to fill the hole that Fourier's death had left behind all those years ago.

"I'm very much in agreement lady Crusch, I owe young Subaru much more than I could ever hope to repay, with the time I have left on this earth" Wilhelm couldn't help but think about everything that Subaru had done for him, even if it wasn't his intention to do so. The biggest one being that Subaru had finally given the old man, a chance to make right the wrong that has been committed against him and his family, and finally take vengeance on the white whale for taking away his wife. Subaru had also helped him reconnect with his actual grandson Reinhard, finally making Wilhelm realise just how badly he had treated, somebody that he should have treated like his own son. And despite the relationship between him and Reinhardt forever being scarred. Wilhelm was still forever grateful that Subaru have taken it upon himself to help, repair their fractured relationship when Subaru had no reason to do so.

(humph) "That weakling wouldn't survive five seconds in my kingdom" Priscilla scoffed finding the idea of Subaru of all people going to her country and surviving completely ridiculous. Vollachia was her homeland, the place where she was raised into what she was now, it was a country where the weak perished and the strong thrived. and she was the perfect example of that, quite literally battling her own siblings to the death, just for a chance to become the next ruler of the country. it was the way of life that she knew, and it was the way of life that everywhere should follow.

"Subaru may be physically weak... but he has proven to be far beyond any of us in terms of mental strength" despite wanting to say much harsher words, Julius still refrained, considering that despite Priscilla's abrasive attitude, she ultimately was still a real candidate, and therefore deserved at least some modicum of respect but even still. The legends and stories he had heard about Vollachia, the fact that Subaru had been there and "survived" was certainly something that made Julius feel both proud and someone jealous that his raven-haired friend. Considering that Subaru seemingly had a strange unconscious habit, of miraculously managing to outdo accomplishments that everyone had made. His instrumental role in the defeat of the white whale, and his direct actions to counter and ultimately destroy the great rabbit, being chief among his accomplishments, that no living person could honestly hope to outdo or even match.

"Yeah, Cap's got more brains than all of us put together! so keep your mouth shut, for I come over there and shut it for you" Garfield jumped up from his seat, taking an aggressive stance as he stared directly at the sun princess. after all, every chance she got, she was calling everyone else names or even worse, even though Subaru had a compliment 10 times as much as she had. and quite frankly Garfield didn't like it when people insulted his captain, somebody that he considered to be a brother.

"Y-Yeah, Leave Big Brother Subaru alone" Petra piped up as well, much to Priscilla's growing frustration, and everyone else's amusement.

"While they both certainly could have worded it better... they are both correct, you should not judge someone's abilities based purely on their physical strength princess Priscilla, after all... I know more than anyone where that kind of thinking will get you" Reinhard's point was easily made, after all, every moment of his waking Life, since he had gained the title of sword saint and his numerous divine protections. had been a continuous stream of people telling him how much power he now possessed, and how much exactly he was allowed to use in the given situation, everyone saw him as the sword saint, who possessed powers equivalent to a god. Yet Rinehard the person was never truly acknowledged, he never had anyone ask him what his interests or hobbies work, and what he liked to do on his days off. So the fact that Priscilla was making the very same mistake, in judging Subaru based purely on his physical strength, just rubbed Reinhard the wrong way.

Yet quickly pushing aside those unpleasant memories, Subaru's mind began to work at a mile a minute, trying to figure out a solution to the situation that wouldn't involve him getting shocked. However, something on the wall next to the dancing cables caught his attention, that being a large manual shut-off lever for the main power, but much to his dismay, it was right next to the cables, meaning there was no way for him to get to it without being shocked and killed in the process. But at that moment and ideas suddenly struck Subaru, an idea that was incredibly stupid and dangerous but could also just work. So with nothing to lose, Subaru hold his hand out, being careful to aim at the twitching and dancing wires, before he let loose a bolt of stasis energy, and luckily managed to hit the intended target.

The dancing and jumping wires, being slow to almost a complete stop, as they were suspended in the air, allowing Subaru to quickly run over to the emergency cut-off, faithfully flipping the lever, which immediately cause the cables to stop spitting sparks as the stasis finally wore off, the cables now falling to the ground harmlessly. Which allowed Subaru to step over to the control panel, that the cables have been preventing him from doing so, and after typing in a series of commands on holographic keyboard, Subaru press the enter button, an automatic voice sounding off once the task was complete.

"Power rerouted to the A-D-S"

"Seems like he's making progress again... although I must wander... what exactly is electricity?" Anastasia pondered, her eyes absorbing every single detail about the strange device that super had just used, storing it away in her vast and expansive vault of information she had accumulated over her years of the Merchant. yet the thing that confused her the most, was the mention of this electricity thing because even in all of her years as a successful merchant, she had never heard of anything called electricity and would it could be.

"That's a good question, Anastasia, although whatever it is, it's dangerous to some degree, especially if Subaru's testimony is anything to go by" Crusch went back to her old habit of rubbing her chin in deep thought, she wasn't even going to try and understand what exactly electricity was, considering that they didn't seem to be a parallel of it in her world, but whatever this mysterious object was it clearly was dangerous to some degree. But even then the exact word Subaru used was shocked, which just confused the greenhead duchess, because how could something that was supposed to be dangerous simply just make him surprised?

"Whatever it is, I think my contractor should stay away from it I suppose" Beatrice said matter-of-factly. even before coming to the theatre she never liked the idea, of her contractor willingly putting himself in danger even if it was ultimately for the sake of others. And despite not wanting to admit it to herself, Beatrice suppose that it was most likely a treat from her mother, who was also fiercely protective of her own personal objects.

"You're very much correct Beatrice, this dunderhead shouldn't put himself in danger like that" Emilia cooed softly, a small giggle escaping her lips as she used her endearing insult for her knight. Yet as quickly as it came the happiness vanished because instead of receiving an answer from Subaru, telling her that she was old fashioned for using words like that, instead she was met with nothing but silence and the noise is coming from the screen. In fact, she desperately wished that she could see him awake again, and so she could tell him all of the things that she couldn't before.

Yet as this was happening in the front row, Priscilla near the back was growing increasingly annoyed by her sorry excuse for a knight as he continue to fidget in his seat. As if he desperately wanted to say something, but didn't have the courage or the confidence to do so, and off this continued for a moment Priscilla finally snapped. "Do you have something you want to say, dog?"

"Humm... yeah I do princess" Was all that Al responded with, again being thankful that his face was obscured by his helmet because right now he could only imagine how embarrassed he looked.

"Well, speak then! before I change my mind" Priscilla said indignantly, the loud sound of her fan snapping shut, inadvertently catching everyone's attention and causing them all to look directly at her and her sorry excuse for a knight.

"Well... jeez how do I explain this... you see, electricity is a form of energy, in fact, back home electricity plays an important role in most machinery, if it's not outright the power source of the machinery, to begin with" Al let his words sink in, everyone's eyes widening in surprise, at the reveal of what exactly electricity was, in fact looking over to his left. Al was surprised to see that even Priscilla, was sending him a slightly surprised and curious look, and after a moment of silence, the helmeted man began again "Also if you want to visualise what electricity looks like, it's basically like lightning, because lightning is electricity in its natural form"

Everyone from Beatrice up to Priscilla was completely stunned by his words, the fact that electricity had a natural form and existed in their world was certainly a shock. but also they were stunned at the fact that it was responsible, for power in most of the technology from Subaru's homeworld.

"Hammond. I got the first junction box rerouted, I'm making my way over to the next one" Subaru said as he made his way back through the sweltering server room, being extra careful to avoid the damage gravity plating once again, as he quickly made his way to the exit, that lead back out into the main corridor.

"Powers looking good Subaru. I'm making some progress on the tracking grid... Although one of the cannons, in particular, is giving me a hard time" Subaru finally step back out into the hallway, the double doors closing behind him as he quickly deactivated his helmet for a second. Exposing his sweat-drenched face, as he took as deep of a breath as his broken ribs will allow him to do, and after rubbing the back of his palm against his forehead to get rid of some sweat. he quickly activated his helmet, again obscuring his face from view as his visor look back up in a brilliant cyan glow.

"Poor guy, even with that suit on his still-sweated buckets" Felt was feeling even more uncomfortable than before, because despite being a rough-and-tumble kind of girl, sweat and other bodily fluids still disgusted her to no end, in fact just the act of sweating alone was enough to make her feel incredibly gross, so to see Subaru's face completely drenched as if he had dumped his head in a pail of water, was unequivocally the most disgusting and gross thing she had seen so far.

"I can't even imagine how first he must be right now, considering how much he's been sweating" Frederica said quietly, feeling her sympathy go out for Subaru because she knew from personal experience, once your body started sweating a lot, you need to replace the fluids that you were losing, otherwise, you could start suffering from dehydration, heat stroke or even possibly death.

Subaru wasted no time getting himself back to the elevator, activating the holographic display on the doors and waiting somewhat impatiently for the elevator to actually arrive. however as he stood there, he suddenly felt something rough against his back, causing his breath to hitch in his throat, as a soft and gentle breath somehow managed to penetrate his suit and graze the back of his neck, a soft and quiet voice being accompanied by it.

"Subaru you dunderhead... please stop ignoring me" Subaru could feel her breath tickling his ears as she whispered directly into them. Yet surprisingly he didn't begin to panic, instead simply standing there as she gently wrapped her arms around his waist, her chest pressing into his back as she hugged him from behind. And that's how it stayed for a moment, Subaru continued to look ahead, as he waited for the elevator to open up in front of him, all while she continued to nuzzle his neck. But after a moment the elevator doors quickly opened up, and Subaru immediately stepped inside as her arms seemingly phased right through him, leaving her there completely alone in the dimly lit waiting area, Subaru slowly turned around as her dead and cold eyes met his own damaged and broken ones. yet she didn't say anything, continuing to smile in the same innocent way, that he remembered her doing all those years ago.

"Subaru... please make us whole again" Subaru watched as she opened up her arms to him, gesturing at him to come and join her embrace. Yet Subaru did not move, mindlessly pressing one of the buttons on the elevator control panel, the doors quickly shutting in front of him, leaving her behind as the elevator began its upward ascent.

"W-why... why is it me... W-what did I do to you Subaru" any positive mood that Emilia had before quickly vanished, leaving a very unpleasant feeling in her chest as she contemplated what exactly could have happened, to damage Subaru's mind to the extent he was hallucinating her, but the more she thought about it the more her brain didn't want to, considering that this was the future, and the way he talked about her almost made it sound like... Emilia shook her head as tears began to form in her eyes, not for herself however instead they were reserved exclusively for a black-haired man, who she only just now realised had lost everything dear to him.

"I hate this, I hate not being able to help you I suppose" Beatrice was in much the same boat is Emilia, any positive atmosphere or feeling that she felt before quickly vanishing with the reappearance of the apparition that was seemingly intent on hunting and tormenting her contractor to no end. But instead of breaking down and crying as he had done before, his reaction this time was far more worrying to her His eyes were dead and hollow as if he felt no emotion at all for the apparition. Yet only she could feel the emotion brimming beneath the surface, it was a maelstrom of hate, worthlessness, disgust, and self-loathing, all of it directed squarely at himself.

"What turned you into this... Subaru?" Crusch felt something break inside her own eyes beginning to moisten, as she watched somebody that she secretly considered to be mentally stronger than herself just break completely, and the worst part was the apparition that manifested from his broken mind. Of course it was her, Crusch wouldn't have expected anything else, considering how both Subaru and Emilia felt for each other. but something else that also began to eat away at her, and that was how exactly Subaru became like this, the puzzle was very incomplete, but the few pieces that were actually there painted a very morbid and disturbing picture. Considering that this was apparently the future and Subaru had mentioned something about not being able to save her, which lead the green-haired dutchess to a horrifying conclusion. At some point in the future, or possibly during whatever process of taking him to this new world, Emilia... would die, breaking Subaru's made in the process, as he was whisked away to another foreign world.

"I promise... I promise whatever happened, i will stop it and save you from this" Rem couldn't stop the waterworks from flowing, as she desperately tried to contain her sobs, watching her beloved be tormented by an apparition born from the broken state of his own mind was horrifying enough. But it was made even worse by the fact it was her of all people, which, despite her crying, made Rem's anger for a certain half-elf skyrocket to an almost unnatural degree. The fact that she had hurt Rem's beloved was completely unforgivable in her eyes, in fact, once they left this theatre, Rem knew exactly what she was going to do, and even if it would hurt Subaru, he would forgive her because after all, she was his Rem, the only one that stayed with him and everyone else abandoned him.

Subaru let out of breath he didn't realise he had been holding, his legs going slightly weak as he tried to keep himself upright, yet through sheer force of will he managed to do so, taking slow and steady breaths to calm himself, the elevator quickly letting out a ding to indicated that it had arrived at its destination, the doors opening up and allowing him to step back into the large cavernous space that was the ship's bridge.

Stepping out into the bridge, Subaru didn't wait around as he quickly made his way to the other elevator on the opposite side of the bridge, the doors opening up automatically when she steps near them, allowing him to step inside and begin his journey upwards again, however an incoming message alert suddenly popped up, as Kendra quickly opened up a communication channel.

"Subaru, listen up. I've gone over the med-sci reports. these things are bio recombinators. they take dead tissue, absorb it and molds it into new forms. One version of it seems to be made exclusively for spreading the infection... The other, well. seems to be making corpses to infect. And that body tissue we keep seeing on the walls is part of it, too. I found a report that says it's a habitat changer" Subaru didn't get a chance to respond as the message was quickly cut by a burst of static. Leaving him there alone in the elevator to ponder what exactly he had just learned about these horrifying creatures and the strange organic growth that he'd seen in the centrifuge. Yet his musing was quickly cut short as the elevator arrived at its location, the doors opening up to reveal a much more brightly lit, yet still harsh and unwelcoming waiting area.

"Bio... recombinator?" Felt tried to wrap her mind around the strange and completely foreign words that she had heard, yet try she might she couldn't make heads or tails of what they actually meant, leaving her kind of in the dark about what exactly Kendra had actually said about the monsters.

"I haven't got the slightest idea what that means... but it's probably not good either way" Ram said matter-of-factly, because despite not knowing what the words actually meant, if it was anything to do with those twisted abominations stalking the halls waiting for their next victim, then it most likely wasn't good regardless of what it truly meant.

"I think you're right Ram, whatever Kendra meant exactly I don't think it's good at all" Frederica could admit she wasn't exactly in a hurry to find out exactly what Kendra was actually on about, considering the kinds of abilities that the monsters had displayed so far. She could only hope that whatever it was, Subaru would be able to come out on top, keeping himself and his other companions alive long enough for them to either be rescued or somehow escape, from that doomed hellhole of a ship.

"Whatever she truly meant, it seems that these abominations are full of more surprises than we could have imagined," Julius said matter-of-factly, not really wanting to linger too much on any new abilities that these disgusting monsters could possess. after all that he had seen so far convinced him beyond any shadow of a doubt, that these Monsters were quite literally something from the deepest and darkest bits of the world, creatures of pure nightmare that could give the witch of envy a run for her money in terms of sheer brutality and horror. And that was truly saying something considering that she was quite literally the embodiment of evil itself, and the physical avatar for the very concept.
After stepping out of the elevator and into the waiting area, Subaru quickly activated his rig locator, holding his hand out in front of him as the brilliant sapphire blue line quickly shot forth. Sneaking through the room and disappearing behind the closed door, and with his way now clear, Subaru made way to the other side of the room, open the door, and quickly stepped out into way another large hallway, that was almost identical to the one he had passed through earlier.

However as he began his journey down the corridor, he was almost thrown clean off his feet, as a door that he was passing suddenly exploded, revealing that the room and now the corridor he was in was opened up to the vacuum of space. However, luckily, his suit automatically switched to internal air supply. The entire atmosphere in the corridor was vented Into the darkness of space, along with any sound that had been there previously. leaving Subaru completely alone in a dead silent environment, the only sound left being his own breath inside his suit.

"T-this whole place is trying to kill me, dammit!" Subaru cursed quietly to himself, quickly making his way to the end of the hallway, and towards where the next junction box most likely was. All the while being sure, to keep a close eye on his air metre which was gradually decreasing. But luckily he managed to make it to the door in time, all of the air in the next room been vented into space as he stepped through the open doorway, the door quickly closing behind him, the entire room having its atmosphere replenished, Subaru's suit automatically switching off from the internal air supply.

"I couldn't say it any better if I tried!" Felt explained, having to take a breath to calm a racing heart as a result of Subaru's close call. in fact true to his very words, it seems like everything on that ship, Monsters included, was seemingly intended to horribly brutalise him or simply end his existence.

"I completely agree with you lady Felt" Reinhardt much like the little blonde next to him, had to take a moment to calm his racing heart, both the cause of the sudden atmospheric decompression and the fact that Subaru was almost caught in the explosion that ultimately caused it.

However has a Subaru was about to take another step, his foot suddenly collided with something, causing him to look down what he had almost just stepped on, and much to his surprise it was an object that he was deeply familiar with considering that in his first days as an engineer, he spent an ungodly amount of time using a very closely related cousin to the object.

(ha ha) "Can't say I'm happy to see one of you again" Subaru quickly reach down and picked up the object, turning it over in his hands to reveal that it was a standard issue ripper saw, and even though it was the mining variant, equipped with diamond encrusted blades to cut through solid rock. Subaru in his early days as an engineer, her spent an unknown amount of time, using a variant of this exact same tool to cut apart derelict ships. In fact, looking at the weapon, Subaru couldn't help but laugh bitterly, remembering those dark days in the beginning, just after he had gotten out of the hospital and...

Subaru quickly shook his head, trying to purge the memories of those days for his mind, deciding to focus his attention instead on the new tool here just required. Quickly opening up the ripper's side compartment, and being quite relieved to see that there were still two blades on the clip. However as he closed the side compartment, he suddenly heard of the painfully familiar sound, of one of those twisted abominations smashing through a vent cover, somewhere off in the large room that he stepped into.

Beatrice remain silent, yet her mind was working a mile a minute, the connection between her and Subaru, allowing her to actually feel and hear some of Subaru's inner thoughts. the feeling of worthlessness and self-loathing that Subaru was feeling, hit her like a fully loaded freight train, causing her eyes to moisten ever so slightly. Because despite ultimately not knowing exactly what happened, the pieces that she was able to get, told her more than enough. Her contractor, somebody that for all intents and purposes was her family had seemingly lost everything, feeling guilty about being forced to leave everyone behind. Yet despite not knowing exactly what it was, Beatrice could feel from his emotions that there was something more to it, something that send a shiver down her spine. Because if her line of thinking was correct, then what happened to her contractor, was a million times worse than she could have possibly imagined.

Emilia felt her heart beginning to ache form looking at Subaru's expression, as she pulled the sleeping Subaru's limp arm even deeper into her embrace. Because despite wishing she could, she unfortunately was not psychic and therefore could not see and read his emotions or thoughts, yet even if she could she didn't need to. The look on his face as he picked up the new tool was all that she needed. Her Subaru was still deeply haunted by whatever happened to him, to the point where picking up just a simple tool was enough to trigger a wave of unpleasant memories for him.

"Oooohhh Cap's got a new weapon" the excitement was evident in Garfield's voice. As he was practically on the edge of his seat, absorbing every detail about the new weapon that his captain has just picked up, as well as being very interested, and how exactly this new weapon could dismember any potential monsters.

"It looks completely different from the last one..." Anastasia's voice betrayed just how excited she truly was at seeing the new tool in all of its glory. and much like a certain blonde-haired demihuman, she was very excited to see exactly how the new weapon would actually function. in fact, at this very moment, she desperately wished that she had brought a notepad and paper with her so that she could dot down all of the information she had learned so far, and was most likely going to learn.

"You're right lady Anastasia, it looks to be of a completely different design... But it seems that Subaru is familiar with it regardless" it didn't take a genius to figure out what Julius was trying to say. the look on Subaru's face was one of familiarity but also a deep sense of longing and pain, which ultimately just made Julius come back to the same question, how and why exactly did Subaru end up in this new world, and the more important aspect that question, just how bad was the entire ordeal to leave such a lasting and deep scar on his psyche like it had?

"Those eyes..." Crusch could feel sympathy for the black-haired man welling up within her, which was accompanied by a slight twinge of pain in her heart. Because looking into those eyes, all she saw was an emotionally destroyed damaged man, desperately trying to hold on to the few things that he had left. and despite how harsh it sounded. It was almost pathetic in a way, that Subaru, somebody who always looks towards the future with hope in his heart, had that hope completely destroyed leaving nothing behind but self-loathing and sadness.

"Those eyes… Are the eyes of a man who has lost everything near and dear to him" Wilhelm's words were flat and even, betraying just how he felt on the inside. Because looking into those eyes the aged swordsman felt an untold amount of Sadness beginning to eat away at him. Because in those eyes, he saw the exact same feelings and emotions Wilhelm had once felt when he had lost his wife at the hands of the white whale. Losing her destroy his entire world, leaving him as nothing more than a bitter old man, who blamed the loss of his wife on his own grandson, and willingly abandoned his family to wallow in his own self-pity.

Subarus eyes quickly scanned the room, instinctively bringing the Ripper up, and undoing a small latch on the side, the two saw blades that were housed inside their protected housing beginning to spin violently fast. After a moment Subaru was able to pinpoint the monster's loud and harrowing cries, as the shambling abomination stumbled out from behind the corner. Flailing its arms around about its head, catching sight of its target, and then proceeding to charge full speed at the blackhead engineer.

However, Subaru wouldn't give it the satisfaction of dismembering him, as he quickly brought the Repper up, flicking the last safety catch and pulling the trigger. The twisted abomination was completely stopped dead in its tracks, as a hovering, spinning blade was projected from the Ripper, which much to Subaru's satisfaction, immediately began to cut and tear its way into the monster's abdomen. Its hounds of agony and rage being completely drowned out, by the almost chainsaw-like noise that the blade made as it ultimately ripped and tear its way through any flesh and bone in front of it.

And after one final rip and tear, the hypersonic blade of the Ripper quickly and utterly destroys the creature's abdomen and spinal column, the abomination stumbling forward a couple of steps. Before its upper half fell forward, disconnecting from its lower body completely, the two halves of the creature fell to the floor. Both of them twitched and spasmed before they went completely still, its cries of anger and agony going silent as well.

"That was... Completely barbaric... But effective" Crusch wanted to look away from the scene of carnage, but some kind of sick curiosity kept her watching, looking on in disgusted fascination as Subaru's new tool, was revealed to be some kind of elaborate advanced rotating saw, that could easily cut through flesh and even bone as if it was nothing. The act itself was horrifying to watch, the blood and viscera spraying everywhere as the creature was cut into. But considering these creatures didn't seem to die unless they were dismembered, the new tool seemed perfectly suited for this as if it was designed expressly for the dismemberment of reanimated twisted abominations.

"I T-think I'm G-going to be sick" Emilia mumbled as turned her head away from the screen, yet that did very little to stop the sickening feeling rising up within her. The absolutely horrifying sound of flesh and bone being ripped to pieces, and the monsters haunting cries of rage and agony, left absolutely no shadow of a doubt about what was happening on screen.

"Disgustingly effective I suppose" Beatrice tries to keep her voice straight, but she wouldn't be surprised if her face had taken on a very lovely shade of green by now. Watching her contractor dismember these monsters. With his strange projectile weapon was one thing, but watching him literally cut one of them to pieces, the blood and gore spraying everywhere like some kind of fountain. Was a whole new level of unpleasant to watch, and despite knowing the reason why her contractor wasn't overly disgusted by doing this, it still didn't make watching his lack of reaction any easier to watch.

"Just like Barusu... to use the most D-D-bisgusting method P-possible... To dispatch these things" Ram didn't need to fake the disgusted expression on her face like she usually did. this time it was completely genuine, in fact despite Subaru's plasma cutter method of dismemberment being unpleasant to watch. But this new and far more brutal weapon was even worse, and far more brutal than she could have possibly imagined, and it certainly wasn't helped by the sounds that both the spinning blade made, as well as the screams and roars of agony that came from the monster, as it was brutally cut in two.

Reinhard remains silent, watching with both disgust and slight fascination as a Subaru used his new weapon to efficiently but brutally cut apart one of the twisted abominations that tried to attack him. And even though His Divine protection of anti-nausea, prevented him from feeling physically sick at the sight of so much blood and gore, his mind certainly picked up for where his body lacked, the red-headed swordsman's face going just a little bit green.

"Ok, that was... just nasty" Despite his best efforts, Garfield couldn't hide the disgusted face he had. At first, he was excited about Subarus's new weapon, positively eager to find out what it can actually do, but now seeing what the weapon was actually capable of, Garfield very much wished that he could go back to being ignorant.

"So that's what it does" Anastasia said with a flat voice, her poker face doing a very good job of hiding just have disgusted, and slightly terrified she was at the reveal of how exactly Subaru's new weapon functioned. Yet even still the greedy part of her mind was still fascinated by the way the weapon worked, despite only having a vague understanding of how anything in this world worked. Anastasia could guess the weapon most likely utilising some kind of technology to hold the spinning blades in mid-air. Which she could only imagine was very similar to how his suit's built-in levitation ability worked.

After looking at the monsters now lifeless corpse for a moment, Subaru quickly disregarded it, carefully stepping over the monster's corpse, as he ventured further and further into the near pitch-black room. However, as he continued further and further in, he noticed that some of the gravity platings in this room but malfunctioning as well.

"Dammit, this place is a death trap" Subaru muttered as he carefully made his way around the destroyed gravity plating, because after all one wrong step and he would be tied to a fleshy pulp, quicker than he could even blink, in fact as he stepped around another broken gravity plating panel. The situation brought back an unpleasant memory, during his first assignment on a smaller planet cracker, the name of which immediately escaped him. Him and another engineer named Suzann, had been tasked with preparing some malfunctioning gravity plating, they have been assured that the gravity plating was fully turned off. However, Subaru remember vividly when, when a fellow engineer that was younger than himself, stepped on for the plate, her body was almost instantly ripped to shreds. Her protective suit doing absolutely nothing to protect her she as was turned into a fine red paste before his very eyes.

"How awful..."Emilia brought her hand up to her mouth, covering it as both the shock and horror of someone dying in such a way washed over her. in fact the mental image of some poor young girl, no much older than Subaru was now. having her life ended in such a brutal and needlessly violent way was almost too much to bear.

"Even if it's a quick death... that's just a completely barbaric way to go" Crusch was certainly no stranger to the concept of brutal and needless death. in fact as the leader of a band of soldiers, death was quite literally looming over the heads of her and her men every single moment of every battle they fought. Yet imagining somebody and a young girl number less not much older than Subaru was. dying in such a horrifyingly brutal way, quite literally having her body eviscerated into nothing more than red paste was absolutely disgusting and almost too much to think about.

"You can say that again" Felt fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat, desperately trying to stop her mind from imagining the absolutely horrifying image of somebody having their body turned into nothing more than red mist. Yet try as she might, Felt couldn't stop the sick part of her brain, from imagining how such a thing that actually look in person, and as soon as the mental image popped into her mind, she felt her stomach beginning to churn. Causing her face to go green slightly as she instinctively put a hand over her mouth.

"How ghastly" Frederica covered her mouth in horror, the mental image of somebody instantly being turned into a fine red paste quickly entering her mind much to her disgust. in fact, Frederica couldn't help but feel that not even Elsa the bowel Hunter, somebody who was quite literally rotten to the core and was the personification of evil in human form, didn't even deserve that fate.

"Morbid I suppose" Beatrice shuddered at the mental image of how something like that could ever happen to a person, even the most destructive magic she knew and was capable of, paled in comparison to the brutality and violence that could render a human being to nothing more than a fine red mist.

"Are you afraid it's going to happen to him... My dear Beatrice" Beatrice's entire existence stopped for just a singular moment, her rotten and sickly voice whispering directly into Beatrice's ear. Yet with the fear that she felt, Beatrice also felt red-hot anger rising up in her chest, causing her face to scrunch up In anger, as she gently stroked Subaru's hair in a vain attempt to both calm the anger and fear.

"Be quiet I suppose" Beatrice practically snarled, unaware that her voice was much louder than she expected. Yet after a moment of silence, Beatrice felt her hot rotten breath on the back of her neck, causing a shiver to run down his spine, but even as her fear began to grow, her anger quickly raised to meet it. her hands now having left Subaru's head and hanging loosely that has sides, her fists clenching so hard that they were beginning to shake.

"My dear Beatrice... fight it all you want, but he will make us whole" Beatrice still didn't move, her eyes now having an almost crazy look to them. Yet her sanity held on, keeping her eyes family locked on the sleeping face of Subaru, as whatever was behind her continue to breathe its hot stinky breath down the back of her neck, but after a moment Beatrice almost felt like the thing was disappointed. Seemingly retreating and vanishing from existence, as if it was never there. And offer a moment Beatrice finally let loose of breath that she'd been holding, tears beginnings of form in the corners of her eyes, as she brought her head down, gently touching her forehead to Subaru's, in a very intimate gesture that only her and he ever did.

"Beatrice, are you alright?" Emilia didn't immediately receive an answer, much to her growing concern. she had noticed a while ago that Beatrice was acting strange, seemingly staring off into nothing while muttering something unintelligible under her breath. yet what threw Emilia off and set off alarm bells, was the look in Beatrice's unfocused eyes, it was a look of crazed barely constrained malice and hate, with also a great amount of fear mixed in there. And just to make things even more concerning, after a couple more moments of this, it looked as if Beatrice was trying to hold back tears, as she lowered her head, touching her forehead to Subaru's.

Beatrice didn't bring her head up or say anything for that matter, yet she turned her head ever so slightly so one of her eyes was visible. And despite nothing being said between them, the look that Beatrice sent Emilia's way, conveyed enough for the Silver-haired half-elf, to get the general gist of what happened.

Subaru quickly shook those thoughts away, as he finally reached what he was looking for. In front of him was a large array of different computer panels with large glass windows curing out into the darkness of space, allowing the cold blue light of the planetary systems star to filter into the room. In fact, if Subaru wasn't on a time crunch and fighting for his life, he would have found the light of the star and the darkness of space, somewhat comforting and pleasant to look at. But he quickly resumed his search, looking over the various computer panels, before he found the one he was looking for. And after typing in the same set of commands, he have used last time and pressing enter, the automatic voice from before sounded off again.

"Power rerouted to the A-D-S"

"It seems that young Subaru is making more progress" Wilhelm mused quietly to himself, subtly trying to steer the conversation away send the disgusting and sad death that Subaru reminisced about, as well as trying to distract himself from the very same topic. Because after all, despite death being something that he was intimately familiar with and somewhat desensitized to, hearing the way that Subaru mentally describe the poor woman's death, was just too much even for the experience swordsman's stomach to bear. In fact, it brought back very unpleasant memories of his time younger years during the demi-human war, some of the things that she had seen during the war were simply indescribable, still haunting his dreams to this very day.

"You're quite right Wilhelm, although I must wonder why exactly he's performing these tasks?" Crusch true to her word wasn't entirely sure why he was doing these tasks. Of course, she was watching when he was given these tasks to complete, and she distinctly remember something about an asteroid defense system being mentioned, but what exactly this system was and how the current tasks actually related to it, was a mystery to her. Which ultimately just frustrated her, considering that one of the things that really peeved Crusch, was either accidentally or intentionally being left in the dark on subjects.

"Considering the system has defense in its name, I don't think it's a stretch to say, that it's some kind of system that defends the ship" Anastasia rub her chin in deep thought, the gears of her greedy and analytical mind working overtime, to try and piece together what this ADS system actually was, and what it's true functions could be. although the more she thought about it, the more it seems likely that it was related in some way to those strange floating rocks, one of which had quite literally almost fallen straight on Subarus's head.

"That's not a bad assumption Anastasia, although how exactly they would defend something of that size is beyond me" Crusch said thoughtfully, her mind beginning to spin slightly as she thought about the true scale of everything she had seen so far. in particular the strange floating ship he was on completely boggle the mind in terms of scale, with open areas that dwarf the royal palace 10 or more times over, yet on the opposite end of the spectrum, the ship also had narrow corridors that would even make her feel claustrophobic.

"I don't really care what it is, as long as big bro and his friends get out of there alive that's all that matters" Felt said with a huff crossing her arms over her chest, because despite her being somewhat interested in the technology of this world, quite frankly the only thing she cares about was Subaru's safety. as such actually learning about how many of this technology worked was ultimately meaningless to her.

(Ha) "With a name like asteroid defence system, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bunch of laser cannons or some shit like that" Al said excitedly, slightly giddy, and looking forward to the prospect of seeing large laser cannons, that could blast asteroids to bits. however much like before, he immediately felt everyone else's eyes directed at him, taking a second for him to realise that none of them actually knew what a laser was, let alone a giant laser cannon.

"What exactly is a laser cannon?" Julius asked inquisitively, obviously, he knew what a Canon was, since he was a knight Julius was indeed familiar with magic canons, yet exactly what a laser cannon was eluded him much like everyone else.

"Considering what we've seen so far, it's probably something unnecessarily barbaric" Ram said with a disapproving voice, a small shudder running down her spine because her mind had not fully recovered from the disgusting display, that Subaru's new weapon had put on for all of them. As such she wasn't exactly in a hurry to find out what this laser cannon could be, considering if it was anything like the cannons that she was aware of then it could only be something truly barbaric.

"Well... Christ how do I explain this, basically a laser is a beam of pure light that has been concentrated and focused" Al let his word settle in for a moment, everyone that was paying attention looking at him in surprise and confusion and how exactly light could be concentrated into a beam, and more importantly what it had to do with any kind of cannon. however, the helmeted man quickly continued after a moment. "As for a laser cannon, it's basically a canon that uses a giant laser, to either burn or melts a target"

Those who were interested, were completely silent for a moment , Anastasia, in particular, absorbing the information that she had just been given. and despite trying to stop it she couldn't stop a small but definitely eager smile from spreading across her face.

"Nyah~considering what normal cannons do to a human body, I don't think I'm in a hurry to find out what this laser canon is capable of" Felix couldn't help that shudder, remembering very distinctly and vividly what kind of damage a cannon can actually do to the human body, especially of the hit was direct. and considering Al had said that a laser cannon was capable of melting stuff, Felix certainly didn't want to see what that would actually look like in person, considering that severe burns were always the injuries that made him feel the most nauseous.

With his Task now complete Subaru quickly made his way to the other end of the room, carefully avoiding the numerous broken gravity plates that line the floor, passing the dead creature's dismembered corpse, stepping through the doors, and back out into the small hallway/vestibule area. And after taking my mum to catch himself, Subaru quickly walked to the end of the small hallway, bracing himself as all of the atmosphere in the small hallway was vented into the vacuum of space, and wasting no time he quickly made his way back through the depressurized hallway.

Stopping at the breach to look out into the cold dark vacuum of space for a moment, before continuing on. Quickly overriding the locked door that led back into the waiting area, and once he had stepped inside the door behind him quickly slammed shut, fresh atmosphere quickly being vented into the waiting area, allowing Subaru to take a deep breath once again.

And after catching his breath and making sure that all of his equipment was in working order, Subaru called the elevator, keeping his newly acquired Ripper at the ready, just in case he was ambushed by one of those monsters. However, when the elevator doors opened, beckoning Subaru to step inside, he stopped mid-stride, her voice whispering in his ear once again.

"Subaru please, don't abandon me again"

"W-W-what!?" Emilia immediately shot to attention, her eyes focusing in on the screen, as her mouth quickly fell open in horror and surprise. she couldn't make any sense of why this apparition continued to haunt Subaru using her face of all things. And despite his face being hidden by his helmet, Emilia could tell by his body language how much the apparition of herself affected him. And even though it was ultimately Subaru the one that was being affected, it still tour Emilia's heart to absolute shreds watching the person she loved, being tormented by a specter of herself "Why... I don't understand"

Beatrice didn't look up or even externally acknowledge what was happening on screen, yet behind the protective shield of her drill-like curly hair, her face was one of absolute horror and disgust. The emotions that her contractor was feeling had a definite effect on her. The tears now freely flowing from her eyes, as she tried but failed to get a hold of herself, the pain and self-loathing that her contractor was feeling hitting her full force.

Subaru much like before didn't acknowledge her, instead making a move to step into the elevator, however in a repeat of last time. She quickly wrapped her arms around his midsection, drawing him into an embrace. Yet this time Subaru finally pushed himself away from her, the specter not letting out a sound as Subaru broke away from her. And instead of turning around to face her, Subaru simply reach behind him to press the elevator buttons, the doors quickly slamming shut as the elevator began its upward ascent. And after standing there in complete silence for a moment, Subaru suddenly punched the wall directly in front of him with his unoccupied hand, letting out an emotion-filled cry as he did so, his knees threatening the buckled beneath him, yet he managed to hold himself up as a quiet sob escaped his throat.

Crusch remain silent, yet the grimmest horrified look on her face was able to tell a thousand words regardless. whatever Subaru had experienced involving Emilia, was clearly so traumatic and horrifying that the scar it left on his psyche was so deep that it could never hope to heal. in fact, it seemed to have permanently damaged his psyche, to the point where he was now being haunted by a specter of the very person he loved, seemingly constantly reminding him of his past and his failure.

Reinhardt felt his heart ached, watching one of the few people that saw him as a human being and a friend experience emotional torture beyond any kind of imagination. In fact, the red-headed swordsman felt tears beginning to fall from his eyes, which despite trying to control he simply couldn't. instead simply letting the Silent waterfall continue, as he silently prayed what are the duties for listening, that his friend would hold it together and make it through this ordeal alive.

"C-come on big bro, get a hold of yourself" felt tried to make her voice sound assertive, yet the crack and stutter of her voice were very evident, as she desperately try to hold back her own tears. She wasn't an expert regarding people's mental state, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that Subaru's mental state was beginning to slip further, if the slightly malevolent spectra of Emilia were anything to go by. In fact, the young blonde found it quite horrifying, that the spectra was seemingly a construct of his own mind, specifically, there are to torture himself for his perceived failures.

"S-Subaru, P-please stay strong for Rem" Rem tried to the tears from flowing, but try she might they wouldn't stop, and it wasn't helped by the fact that her heart was already shattered beyond repair. Watching the man that she loved and that had given her a reason to live for herself, beginning to crack under the weight of his damaged and warped psyche. And despite not wanting to acknowledge it, she also couldn't help but feel a rage beginning to bubble up in her, directed squarely at the seeming cause of all of her beloved suffering, and that was a certain silver-haired half-elf, who had the audacity to be next to him after everything she had done to him.

Another sob escaped Subaru's throat, he clenched his fists even harder to the point where it began to shake. but after a moment he took a shaky but calming breath, letting it out before taking another. After repeating this several times Subaru was able to get control of himself again. In an attempt to distract himself, Subaru quickly opened up a communication channel between himself and Hammond.

"H-Hammond, I'm making my way to the last J-junction B-B-box" Subaru tried and somewhat succeeded to keep the stutter from his voice, however, Hammond wasn't convinced, forgetting about the junction boxes and expressing his concern openly.

"Subaru are you alright?" Hammond asked with a concerned tone of voice, yet Subaru did not immediately answer, trying to think of what you could say that would make him sound like a crazy person and possibly get him thrown back into a mental hospital. After all, how did you properly articulate to somebody that you were seeing ghosts, of the woman you love, who also happens to be a half-elf, and hails from a different world straight out of a generic fantasy novel. But after a moment Subaru finally found his voice again, articulating it in a way that wouldn't make him sound completely crazy.

"I'm fine, it's just... being here and all of this happening. Just brings back some bad memories that I'd rather not remember" Subaru decided that vagueness was the best way to go, which considering how intelligent Hammond actually was, Subaru wasn't really convinced that it would for him all that much. But luckily Hammond was the kind of person who didn't like to pry other people's business unless there was a good reason to do so.

"Alright if you say so Subaru, but still I understand anyway, you don't need to tell me what. It's obviously going through some tough stuff back then, but I need you to hold yourself together alright?" Subaru let Hammond's words sink in for a moment, ultimately realising that his dark-skinned friend was right, despite what happened in the past he needed to keep his focus on the here and now, he, Kendra, and Hammond wanted to have any chance of survival. So after a moment, Subaru gave a confirming nod taking a deep calming breath along with it, as he tried to refocus his mind on the task at hand.

"Alright thanks, Hammond" Hammond gave a quick nod of approval before the communication was cut between them, leaving Subaru alone in the Elevator which had finally reached its destination, the doors opening up to reveal an identical waiting area to the one that he had left moments ago.

"We might not be there to help him... but at least he has someone looking out for him" Otto mumbled quietly to himself, quite thankful that despite all of them not being present to help him, at least still had Hammond to help him through whatever mental issues he was dealing with.

"Yeah, Cap's got a perfect friend there" Garfiel said with perhaps is there a bit of pride in his voice, quite pleased to see that even in this strange world that Subaru found himself in, he still managed to pick great friends to be by his side. although obviously none of them would be his greatest himself, still his captain's ability to make good and long-lasting friends that he could trust was put on display once again.

"He seems so nice, I can see why he's friends with big brother Subaru" Petra said innocently, feeling much happier now that Subaru was no longer crying or upset about whatever happened to him.

"Indeed Petra, if Subaru can trust him and consider him a friend, then he must be a good man" Frederica say gently, as she continued to stroke Petra's hair, quite relieved that Petra seemed to be perking up again, after Subaru's near mental breakdown. Although the blonde-headed beast maid couldn't help but ponder the same question she had been for a while, what exactly happened to Subaru for him to end up like this, clearly whatever it was it was deeply traumatic for him, to the point where he was having full-on hallucinations involving a second half-elf. But what exactly the event in question was, ultimate evil still a mystery that she and everyone else.

"Amen to that, the poor bro really needs a break" Al said matter-of-factly, a few eyebrows being raised at the strange work he had started his sentence off with, but ultimately nobody could really be bothered to ask what it meant.

But as he was about to step out of the elevator, Subaru suddenly had a voice causing him to instinctively bring the Ripper up to bear.

"Make us whole Again" Standing directly across from him and shrouded in shadow, was the silhouette of a man, his arms hanging loosely at other angles as if he was a broken puppet being held up by strings. But before Subaru could call out, the man in one fluid motion quickly walked off, disappearing around the door frame, leaving Subaru there in both stunned and slightly terrified silence.

"W-W-who the hell was that!?" Felt a bit louder than she intended to, being caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of the strange and very malevolent-looking man.

"Nyah~I don't know, B-but I don't want to find out" Felix managed to do a good job of hiding just how started he was, although the perceptive around him such as Wilhelm and his lady, were able to see the tell-tale signs of his surprise. In particular, his ears going flat against his head and the fur on his tail sticking straight up. Although considering the situation both decided to not point it out or bring it up much to Felix's thankfulness, as he focused on the task of trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"It's that strange mantra again" Crusch muttered quietly under her breath, much like everyone else being slightly started by the appearance of the strange man. But her mind was entirely focused on the strange but familiar-sounding cryptic mantra that he used. It had been said before specifically by the hallucination version of Emilia, but if that was merely a by-product of Subaru's damaged mind. then how exactly did this strange and deranged man that Subaru stumbled across, say the exact same phrase in the exact same way? And once again much to "Oh no, he's running out of air!" The fear was evident in Petra's voice, as she clung to Frederica, who despite her best efforts failed in calming young girl down. However Petra suddenly felt something brush against the back of her neck, causing the young girl to look around nervously, but there was nothing there. Yet turning her attention back to the screen, she couldn't shake the slightly terrifying feeling that something was watching her, as if it was a predator lying in wait, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike Its unaware prey.

"Nayh~he's not got much air left, so unless he can hold his breath for a long time, Subaru's going to be cutting it pretty close" Felix could feel the sweat beginning to form on his back because a Subaru was stuck between a rock and a hard place. on one end he would be torn to shreds if he stepped out at the wrong time, and on the other he would literally suffocate to death of he took too long.

"He will make it I suppose... this is my contractor we're talking about" Beatrice said with a new-found resolve, gently stroking her contractor's hair mostly as reassurance for herself. After all, Subaru was the very same person that had done the impossible before, so him making it out of this incredibly perilous situation alive was a frustration, the mystery surrounding everything that was happening continue to only grow, with more questions instead of answers being given.

Emilia felt a sharp pain in her head when the strange phrase was said verbally, although unlike previous times the pain was manageable, feeling much more like a mild headache rather than something more equivalent to being stabbed in the head by a blade. But still, Emilia still had no idea exactly what the phrase meant, and why whenever it was mentioned she had a bolt of pain shoot through her head. It was both bizarre and terrifying at the same time, yet there was simply nothing she could do about it, so she instead focused our attention on the sleeping Subaru next, gently stroking his hand with her own to try and calm her racing mind.

"That phrase again I suppose" Beatrice's voice was barely above a whisper, as she finally looked up again for the first time in ages, her eyes narrowing in confusion and suspicion at the strange mantra having been said once again. However, unlike the previous times, it has been said by what appeared to be a living and breathing person. which didn't bode well for Beatrice, considering that she thought the phrase was nothing more than a part of Subaru's damaged psyche. But now it seems that this hypothesis was completely wrong, which ultimately only deep into the mystery of what exactly it meant and what was happening in general.

After a moment, Subaru tentatively stepped out of the elevator, keeping his Ripper squarely aimed at the doors as he advanced towards it, but poking his head around the corner and seeing a completely empty hallway, didn't exactly calm him down at all. in fact, it made his fear only skyrocket even further. So after taking a member to try and calm himself Subaru quickly made his way into the small and claustrophobic hallway, which was lit in the same orange lighting from before, giving the entire space a very eerie feeling. Yet after poking his head around another corner, Subaru was somewhat relieved, to see that he had found the last junction box, to get the primary ADS cannons working again.

"About time something went right" Subaru's voice was barely above a whisper, yet as soon as the words left his mouth, couldn't help that person himself out for possibly ginseng the moment. however after a tense couple of moments. No monsters or ghosts from his past jump out to surprise him, causing Subaru to let out a sigh of relief, as he quickly made his way over to the control panel, being such to use the exact same command he had used a moment earlier, and after pressing enter, the automatic voice once again made itself known.

"Power rerouted to the A-D-S, Asteroid Defence System now online"

"Hammond, I've rerouted power from the last junction box" Subaru quickly opened up a communication channel between him and Hammond, turning on his heels and began to make his way back to the main atrium elevator, however, what Hammond said next made Subaru stopped dead in his tracks.

"All right, we've got enough power. But the ADS cannon's auto-tracking is down. I think it's a faulty data cable. Subaru, I'm going to need you to aim the cannon manually until I can replace it" Subaru had seen and heard quite a few crazy things in his time, in fact, he would go as far as to say that he himself was crazy to some degree. But what Hammond had just said to him, certainly was up there in terms of sheer craziness. because ultimately knowing how to fix an automatic asteroid defense cannon, was a completely different thing from knowing how to actually use it effectively.

"Finally, something's actually going right for big bro" Felt explained feeling a small amount of hope rising up within her, at the fact that Subaru had accomplished the goal he had set out to achieve. although she couldn't shake the feeling however that something wasn't quite right. in fact, a small part of herself couldn't help but feel that maybe him completing his gola wasn't that simple.

"Indeed, although I hope his newfound luck actually lasts" Frederica was indeed glad that Subaru had managed to accomplish its objectives, without encountering any more monsters or enquiring any more injuries himself. but considering Subaru's track record, she desperately hoped but wasn't entirely convinced that Subaru's luck would manage to hold this time, and not fail him like it has been doing continuously since the start of the viewing.

"Maybe so Frederica, but this is Barusu we are talking about, so he will most likely mess up through his own stupidity" Ram said with a harsh and skeptical-sounding tone of voice. And whether or not she was actually joking or being serious, it caused quite a few eyes to be directed at her, sending looks of disapproval her way making the pink-haired demon maid feel just a bit uncomfortable, due to the number of eyes pointed at her.

"Sister, just please stop with the insults" Rem said a bit more forcefully than she intended to, ultimately still achieving the desired effect, as her pink had sister look back at her with concern and surprise before a look of what could only be described as "sorry for going too far sister" quickly spread across her face.

"Hammond I'm an engineer, I might know how to fix an asteroid defense canon, but I haven't got any idea how to use it?" Subaru said with a grant of disapproval feeling a slight headache beginning to develop from the ridiculousness of his friend's request.

"I understand that. But without the auto-tracking on the main cannons, the ship will be ripped to shreds before I can replace the data cable" Hammond's point was very evidently emphasised, when Subaru was almost knocked clean off his feet by something large impact in the ship. The impact sending reverberations throughout the entire ship's cavernous hull, and after grabbing onto something to stop himself from falling, Subaru let out of frustrated sigh, realising that his dark-skinned friend was correct. Without the auto-tracking, the ADS canons were completely useless, meaning that the ship would be quickly ripped to pieces, killing all of them in the process.

"Fine, but if we all die because of my bad aim, I'm blaming it on you" The sarcasm was evident in Subaru's voice, as he quickly turned on the spot making his way back to the computer console and the elevator stations next to it, and after waiting a moment for the doors to open up, Subaru quickly stepped inside the doors shutting, as the elevator began its ascent towards the canon pit.

"That's a bit more like the Subaru I'm familiar with" Julius couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face, finding it very refreshing that for just the briefest of moments Subaru actually acted like himself. responding with a remark that sounded just like how he used to speak before coming to the strange alien world, although it also caused a twinge of sadness to form in the purple-head swordsman part. Because it reminded him of just how damaged this older Subaru actually seemed to be, to the point where his old personality was practically buried underneath all of the scars and trauma that he had accumulated.

Crusch remain silent, yet she couldn't stop the small but slightly sad smile from spreading across her face. After all, it was incredibly refreshing to watch the old Subaru poke his head up for just a moment, breaking through all of the mental trauma and anguish that she had grown a custom to from this particular viewing.

"Still capable of sarcasm, after everything that's happened to you I suppose... I wouldn't expect anything else from Betty's Subaru" Beatrice said quietly, savoring the moment, of the screen version of her contractor actually acting like himself. instead of the emotionally and mentally destroyed man that she had disturbingly grown a custom to over the viewing. in fact, she would go as far as to say that it was a breath of fresh air, seeing his old personality managing to breach the surface of his emotional trauma and just for a moment, having the old Subaru that she loved back.

"Subaru... Y-you dunderhead" Emilia much like the little spirit next to her, was incredibly relieved and grateful to see the old Subaru come to the surface for just a singular moment. In fact, despite how silly it was, it almost brought her to tears, because after all the Subaru that they had been watching was so different from the one that she knew, that he might as well have been a completely different person wearing the same skin. But at the same time, he was also somehow still the same Subaru that she knew, which ultimately was the part she hated the most because it reminded her that the Subaru she knew before coming to the theatre, wasn't actually the real Subaru either. Considering that she had been blind to the smiling facade that he put up to hide his pain. In fact, she wasn't even really sure who the Real Subaru actually was anymore.

After a short journey, the elevator doors quickly opened up, allowing Subaru to step into a large space, filled with all various different kinds of maintenance equipment, along with copious amounts of spare parts for the canons themselves. However Subaru paid all of that no attention as he quickly made his way to a large circular door at the end of the room, however before Subaru could hold his hand out and activate the door, Hammonds's voice suddenly blasted in his ear.

"Subaru, you going to have the cross the exterior of the ship to reach the primary ADS canon. Problem is, we're still getting bombarded by asteroids. When you're out there, look for cover or you'll be torn to pieces in seconds" Subaru quickly activated the airlock door, the locking mechanism taking them with the processes command before the door split into three sections and opened up. All of the atmosphere that has been in the small space before being vented into the cold dark vacuum of space, and as if he was a runner on the starting line. Subaru took off as fast as his gravity boots would allow him, running with an incredibly awkward-looking gait, as he took cover behind a retractable ventilation unit, as the first wave of microscopic asteroid came rushing by.

"I know space is dangerous, but damn whoever made this ship, seems like they went out of their way to make it as non-user-friendly as possible" Al said with an exaggerated motion of his remaining hand. frankly finding it ridiculous just how dangerously and non-user-friendly the ship seems to have been designed to be.

"I must agree, it seems that stupidity is a common trait among people from Barusu's world" Ram's words were accompanied by a sigh of annoyance. And for once everyone couldn't help but agree with her, because it really did seem like making things unnecessarily dangerous, and needlessly life-threatening. especially when it came to whoever designed the USG Ishimura because it was now becoming very obvious that they didn't care in the slightest about personnel safety or comfort.

"You're both right, I understand that certain occupations have hazards... but this is just plainly ridiculous" Crusch expressed with a sigh. At this point, she was finding it plainly ridiculous just how deadly this ship seemed to be, and that was of course without including the disgusting and twisted abominations hiding patiently around every corner and waiting patiently to tear Subaru to pieces.

The wave of micro asteroids quickly passed, Subaru not even bothering to check as he quickly ran from behind the exposed ventilation unit, covering quite a large distance before another wave of micro meteors came. Subaru ducked behind another ventilation unit just in time, as the little rocks of death, began to shred everything around him. However as he was waiting for the wave to pass, he began to notice that breathing was becoming more difficult, and looking at his air supply he was quite alarmed to see that he only had under 40 seconds of air left.

"Oh no, he's running out of air!" The fear was evident in Petra's voice, as she clung to Frederica, who despite her best efforts failed in calming the young girl down. However Petra suddenly felt something brush against the back of her neck, causing the young girl to look around nervously, but there was nothing there. Yet turning her attention back to the screen, she couldn't shake the slightly terrifying feeling that something was watching her, as if it was a predator lying in wait, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike Its unaware prey.

"Nayh~he's not got much air left, so unless he can hold his breath for a long time, Subaru's going to be cutting it pretty close" Felix could feel the sweat beginning to form on his back because a Subaru was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one end he would be torn to shreds if he stepped out at the wrong time, and on the other, he would literally suffocate to death if he took too long.

"He will make it I suppose... this is my contractor we're talking about" Beatrice said with a new-found resolve, gently stroking her contractor's hair mostly as reassurance for herself. After all, Subaru was the very same person that had done the impossible before, so him making it out of this incredibly perilous situation alive was a given.

Subaru ran from behind the next ventilation unit, quickly cached site of a large semicircular door, and quickening his pace as much as his magnetic boots will allow him, Subaru managed to make it to the safety of the covered doorway, has another wave of micro asteroids came rushing past. Completely shredding and destroying the ventilation unit she had been behind previously, and with the last bit of air in his suit, Subaru quickly opened up the large door and ran inside, the large circular door quickly shutting behind him, and after a moment fresh atmosphere was vented into the room. Allowing Subaru to take a deep as deep of a breath as his broken ribs would allow him.

"Thank Od he made it... you dunderhead don't you worry me like that again" Emilia finally let go of the breath she'd been holding, putting a hand over her chest to try and calm her racing heart, as a result of the scare that Subaru had just given her. because despite not wanting to say as much, for just a moment she was quite worried that he wasn't going to make it in time.

"You should really doubt my contractor less I suppose" Beatrice accompanied her words with a huff of pride, yet silently she couldn't help but feel the same as Emilia because for just a millisecond it looked as if her contract so wasn't going to make it inside in time. but thankfully once again Subaru had managed to pull through just by the skin of his teeth, and much to her disapproval adding another very close call to his rapidly expanding list of them.

"That... was a bit too close for comfort" Crusch let out a sigh of relief, wiping her forehead with the back of a hand to rid herself of the sweat that had begun to form. because much like Emilia for just a single moment she was afraid that Subaru wasn't going to make it in time. But the black-haired man had pulled through once again, managing to make it just by the skin of his teeth.

And after catching his breath, Subaru looked around for a moment, before his eyes came to rest on a strange seat, with a joystick and control panels of some kind in front of it, and without a moment's hesitation, he quickly walked over to the seat. Carefully manoeuvring himself into it and getting as comfortable as he could, before he began to flip various switches and pressing a series of buttons. The entire apparatus coming to life, as the heavy metal shutters quickly roll themselves up, revealing two large mass driver cannons and the cold infinite darkness of space.

"What is this!?" Anastasia's eyes lit up like it was her birthday, her mind eagerly absorbing every detail about this new and strange object that Subaru had just brought to life. And even though it was very obvious she was going to see what its actual function was, she couldn't stop herself from beginning to endlessly speculate on what exactly its function was going to be.

"This is going to get good" Al tried to hide his excitement but failed spectacularly at doing so. because despite everyone else not understanding what they were looking at, the helmeted mad and immediately recognised what he was looking at.

"That's it, Subaru, you're in the pit. Those cannons are 150mm mass drivers, so they won't have a hard time punching through anything coming at us. Keep an eye on the hull's integrity. Too many of those things get by and we're dead. I think I've always got the system repaired. just buy me a little more time!" Subaru immediately got to work, giving the cannons a quick experimental swivel, before he let loose with them, targeting and shooting the multiple asteroids coming towards the ship, the cannon making short work of them as they were ripped to shreds. And even though the cannons were separated from him by a thick and protective glass shield. Each shot that the twin canons let off, reverberated around the cannon pit, making his body vibrate in the process. Causing him to let out a quiet hiss of pain, as the vibrations, jostled around and aggravated his cracked and broken ribs.

It took a moment for everyone to realise exactly what the device that Subaru was now using actually once. Yet after a moment that was a collective "Oh" moment, as everyone simultaneously realized exactly what the strange machine actually was supposed to be, and what its intended function actually was. However, the concussive booms coming from on-screen each time the cannons fired, were quickly and unceremoniously drowned out by an excited yell.

"OH HELL YEAH! Now that's fucking awesome!" Garfield couldn't contain his excitement, jumping from his seat and giving a fist bump. as he watched Subaru take control of what was now revealed to be a pair of massive cannons, which were shown to be capable of shredding apart giant chunks of rock as if it was nothing more than tissue paper.

"That's some straight-up Star Wars shit right there" Al said with an excited voice, becoming slightly giddy and as equally as excited as a certain blonde-haired demihuman. In fact, this was practically a dream come true for him, considering that during his younger years back on Earth, Al had always been somewhat of a sci-fi Junkie, and had fallen in love with the genre at an early age. so seen that Subaru was able to take control of a giant sci-fi-looking cannon, certainly tickled Al's fancy.

"The power of those cannons is formidable, but I must ask... what exactly is a Star-Wars Al?" Julius turned to look at the helmeted man in question, a look of obvious confusion on his face as he tried to wrap his head around what exactly a Star Wars actually was.

"Well, put simply it's a multimedia franchise, that takes place in space very much like what we seeing now" Al had to restrain himself from going into extreme over-analytical detail about one of his favorite franchises. after all, nobody in this Theatre, except for a sleeping black head boy, wouldn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about.

Subaru continue to blast away at the cannons, being sure to keep a close eye on the cannon barrel temperature, because if you find them continuously for too long, that was a very good chance that the cannons could jam or overheat. Meaning that the USG Ishimura would be a sitting duck, however as she was blasting away at a small group of rocks coming from the right side, a truly massive asteroid came screaming in, Subaru having no time to react is it impacted the ship's hull not too far away from him, the shockwave from the impact almost throwing him from his seat.

However, Subaru didn't even have the time to think about what had just happened, as another large asteroid came flying in. But Subaru was ready this time, as he quickly aimed and fired the cannons at the asteroid, the high explosive impact rounds having no trouble ripping the large rock to shreds, which caused Subaru to yell victoriously.

"Hell yeah! take that you space invader wannabes!"

"The power of those cannons... I can't even begin to imagine, what just one of those could have done to the white whale" Crusch expressed, finding the power of the highly advanced cannons both impressive and terrifying. In fact, they made the power of the magical cannons that she was used to, look absolutely puny and insignificant by comparison. considering that was just a single shot these cans could have ripped through solid rock as if it was nothing more than paper.

"Indeed lady Crusch, if we had access to weaponry of this power, then our battle against the white whale would have been assured from the beginning" Wilhelm felt his spirits lift slightly because quite frankly it was refreshing to see Subaru express something other than sadness or fear. And at the same time, he also was impressed by the power of these cannons, in fact seeing the power first-hand, the age swordsman was positive if they had access to these kinds of weapons, then the expedition to kill the white whale would have been decided before the battle even started.

"That's it Subaru... Show those rocks who's boss" Emilia said confidently quite relieved and somewhat happy to see Subaru actually expressing something other than sadness or fear.

Subaru's victory didn't last long as another wave of asteroids came rushing in. Despite all his best efforts, many of them managed to get past, each impact sending more shockwaves and reverberations throughout the ship. and despite blasting away Subaru could see the protective glass shield, which was the only thing separating him from the vacuum of space, was beginning to crack in places, as a direct result of the impacts.

"Subaru. Just one more minute and it should be ful-"

"Hammond! not now!" Subaru cut Hammond off mid-sentence, as he desperately tried to catch all of the asteroids coming towards the ship. yet much to his growing concern, many of them managed to get past his aim, each one impacting the ship and causing more irreversible damage. And just one Subaru thought that it couldn't get any worse, another wave of asteroids came screaming in, each one seemingly being larger and more robust than the last, in fact, the larger rocks began to take multiple shots to take apart, meaning that Subaru didn't have enough time to catch the small asteroids making it past. And as the ship's hull integrity continue to be whittled away with each successive hit, Subaru couldn't help but think that this might be it, and despite the seriousness of the situation Subaru couldn't help but find it slightly funny and ironic. Because despite facing adversaries such as Regulus the sin Archbishop of Greed and the fearsome black serpent, it seemed that a bunch of bloody space rocks was going to be his end.

Reinhardt couldn't stop a slight shudder from running down his spine, at the mention of the sin Archbishop of Greed. after all, how could Reinhard forget the day that he first experience the bitter taste of death, at the hands of a sin Archbishop no less. for as long as he would live, what happened that day would forever be burned in his memory.

Emilia can't stop the feeling of rage beginning to boil up in her, after all, regulus the sin Archbishop of Greed, was the very same person that kidnapped her, and tried to force her to become one of his numerous wives. In fact, Emilia would go as far as to say that Regulus Cornelius was one of the most violent men to have ever lived.

But just as Subaru was convinced that it was the end, the cannons suddenly stop responding to his control, and after a moment of being completely still, the canons begin to move by themselves. Automatically beginning to intercept all of the space debris, with the accuracy that only a computer could truly manage. And sitting there in the chair Subaru let out a sigh of relief, leaning back in the chair as he quickly deactivated his helmet, revealing his face as he wiped away the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"Good shooting, Subaru! Auto tracking is now online and is clearing a path to save orbit. As soon as we're clear all engaged the autopilot again. Make your way to the tram station and I'll meet you there when I'm done" Subaru quickly got up from his seat, wiping his forehead once again before he activated his helmet, and quickly making his way over to the large airlock door leading back out into space.

"Alright, Hammond. I'll meet you at the tram station" Once his helmet and airtight, Subaru activated the large airlock door. All of the atmosphere in the tiny room being vented into space once again, as the black-haired engineer stepped out onto the exposed hull of the Ishimura. And despite there being no threat of being torn to pieces by tiny space rocks, Subaru still ran as quickly as possible back towards the storage room and elevator.

"He did it, he actually did it" Felt exclaimed proudly, feeling both relief at the fact that he had managed to make it out unscathed, as well as feeling an immense amount of pride because he had managed to achieve his goal that he'd been tasked with doing.

"Of course he did it, this is Cap we're talking about for crying out loud" Garfield said as he crossed his arms, puffing out his chest in pride at the fact that Subaru had managed to do it. the blonde-haired demihuman was also very thankful, for the fact that he'd managed to see those awesome cannons at work, in fact, Garfield could say that it was the coolest thing he had ever seen in his relatively short life so far.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say he's almost doing this on purpose" Frederica quietly chuckled to herself because once again Subaru had managed to make it through a deadly situation by the very skin of his teeth. In fact, Frederica would almost go as far as to say, it was almost some kind of habit. However, her words which she thought were quiet, were apparently not quiet enough for a certain young girl to not pick up on.

"What are you talking about Miss Frederica" Petra asked innocently, looking up at the blonde-haired beast woman, whose lap she was currently sitting in. Frederica for her part was caught off guard, desperately trying to think of something to say in response to the young girl.

"N-nothing Petra... I was just talking to myself like us silly grown-ups do" Petra was a smart girl, and Frederica knew that more than anyone. but thankfully the young girl seem to be convinced by her words, giving the blonde-haired demihuman a quick smile before turning her attention back to the screen.

"As if there was any doubt I suppose" Beatrice said with a huff, luckily managing to hide just how relieved she truly was. because much like the on-screen version of her contractor, for a singular moment it looked as if it might be the end for him. but thankfully much to her relief, he was proven very much wrong, broken just in time Hammond managing to fix whatever was broken just in time.

Subaru finally made it back to the cannon storage room, the large automatic airlock door automatically opening up for him, and once you've stepped inside the door quickly shut behind him, the large locking bolt quickly locking itself into place, as fresh atmosphere was vented into the small space. and once that was complete Subaru quickly made his way over to the elevator, stepping into it and beginning his downward descent down to the hallway that led back to the main atrium elevators. however once the elevator doors opened up again, allowing him to step out into the hallway, his communicator suddenly came to life, the concerned face of Kendra immediately grabbing his attention.

"Isaac, Hammond... you're not going to believe this. Oxygen levels ship-wide are falling. Something's poisoning hydroponics air production, and whatever it is, it's filling the decks up with that organic stuff. We're not going to have any air to breathe soon" Subaru stopped mid-stride, his face falling as he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard from Kendra. however as he stood there in the hallway, he noticed that the air itself seemed to have gone slightly cloudy, and in that moment Subaru was suddenly very thankful that his suit had a built-in air filtration unit. but as Subaru was about to respond to Kendra she certainly continued.

"But if I'm understanding these lab reports correctly, I think I can make a poison to destroy whatever it is. Subaru, make your way back to the medical deck, it should have everything you need to make the poison" Subaru looked at Kendra questioningly for a moment before he gave a simple nod, and as he made his way through the connecting corridor and finally arriving at the main atrium elevator, Kendra slightly terrified and concerned face was replaced by Hammond frustrated one.

Everyone couldn't help but let out a collective sigh of frustration because just when it seemed like Subaru had finally caught a break, life just came along and casually reminded everyone that Subaru seemed to be truly the unluckiest person to ever live in all of recorded history.

"You really have the worst luck Subaru" Emilia's words were punctuated with a disappointed and frustrated sigh. just when it seemed like Subaru had finally caught a break and everything was going right for him, life had seemingly come along and slapped him in the face once again. and quite frankly she was beginning to get sick and tired of it, because for once she wanted her knight to actually have a spell of good luck and not continuously fight just to stay alive.

Crusch didn't say anything yet her frustration was evident by the way she crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes taking on a hard and steely look as she practically stared daggers at the screen, and to those around her, it looked as if she was trying to kill the screen with her very gaze alone.

"You truly do have the worst luck I suppose, my idiotic contractor" Beatrice said with a sigh, looking down at the sleeping face of Subaru, and letting a small but sad smile spread across her face. Because after all the one thing that she had learned above everything else when being with her contractor, was that he has truly the worst luck imaginable. To the point where before coming to the theatre she felt like he was cursed by some evil deity that wanted to see him suffer. Although Beatrice could say that particular phrasing left a particularly bitter taste in her mouth after seeing the viewings.

"Oh come on, let the guy catch a fucking break" As soon as the words left Felt's mouth, quite a few turned to look at her in surprise, considering that despite her rough-and-tumble upbringing. not many had heard of the young blonde actually using a proper curse word like that, however, the one that was called the most off guard, was none other than a certain red-headed swordsman who held the title of sword saint.

"L-L-lady F-Felt, please don't U-use such language!" Reinhard's stuttering was always a very strange sound to hear. However Felt didn't care in the slightest about what he had to say, after all, she was her own girl who could say and do whatever she wanted. And besides what she had said, it was completely right anyway, because Subaru really did have the most rotten luck, which despite Reinhard wishing it wasn't used with such profanity he could definitely agree with regardless.

"I wouldn't have worded it that way myself, but you're most certainly right Felt... although I'm curious what could actually poisoning the air, and what exactly did Kendra mean by organic growth?" Crusch said inquisitively rubbing her chin and deep thought. After all, she was incredibly curious about what could exactly be poisoning the air, that Subaru Hammond and Kendra ball breathing, but at the same time she was a bit disgusted by the idea of some kind of organic growth spreading through the ship as if it was some kind of living infection taking over the ship.

"During the last viewing, when young Subaru was fixing a piece of the ship's machinery, he came across some kind of large organic mass that was growing out of the wall lady Crusch..." Wilhelm was the first to answer a question, remembering in vivid detail just how to disgusting the fleshy mass actually was. in fact, the blob of flesh growing out of the wall, was so hideous to look at that it made the white whale look positively cute and cuddly by comparison.

"Will this never end!? Subaru, get to medical and mix together whatever Kendra's come up with. I'm heading to hydroponics. if I can slow it down that might keep us breathing for long enough to fight it" Subaru stepped onto the main atrium elevator, the door shutting behind him as it began its journey back down to the bridge.

"Hammond. Be safe and don't do anything stupid alright? Subaru expressed sincerely and despite there being no video feed between him and Hammond, Subaru just somehow knew that Hammond had a smile on his face as he responded.

"Stick around Subaru, you know I'm full of bad ideas" Subaru didn't get a chance to respond as the communication between him and Hammond will quickly came to an end, leaving Subaru alone in the elevator as it continued its downward descent towards the bridge. And after a tense moment the elevator doors finally opened up, revealing the brightly illuminated bridge, and Subaru stepped out of the elevator and began to make his way back to the train platform. He noticed that there was a distinct lack of something, and that was the corpse of the giant beast he had killed earlier. In fact other than copious amounts of dried rotten blood and the broken computer console, it was almost as if the beast had never existed, to begin with.

Nobody could quite believe their eyes, where the Corpse of the deceased beast had been before, was now nothing but an empty spot on the floor, with the only reminder of the beast's death being the copious amounts of dried blood on the floor. In fact, the disappearance of the monster's corpse sent a chill down everyone's eight, because it could only mean that the monster had not truly been dead, and was simply faking it so Subaru would let his guard down and leave

"The corpse... it's gone!?" Ram quite believe her eyes, where the monster's disgusting-looking corpse had been before, was now an empty spot on the floor the only evidence of the monster's existence and subsequent death, being the large patch of dry blood on the floor.

"That doesn't bode very well~Nayh" Felix's ears fell flat against his head, because ultimately the monster's corpse disappearing, could only mean that the monster have never been truly dead, to begin with.

"I'm in agreement with you on that one Felix" Julius much like his half-feline friend, coming up the fuel just a little bit of dread welling up within him, at the prospect of a monster actually being alive, even after the absolutely horrific wounds that Subaru had inflicted on it.

However, instead of dwelling on the disappearance of the monster's corpse any longer. Subaru instead made his way across the open expansive bridge, quickly stepping through the door that led back into the security checkpoint. And he made his way through the checkpoint passing the hole in the security glass, that the beast from earlier had made. But Subaru stopped mid-stride, not meeting to hear her voice to know that she was behind him staring at him with those cold dead eyes.

"Subaru, please don't run from me... please make us whole again" Subaru didn't respond clutching the Ripper in his hands even tighter, as his body began to shake. But after a moment, Subaru took a calming but shaky breath and then continued on his way, all the while feeling her dead eyes boring into his back. And once he had finally reached the tram platform, he was about to step onto the tram, when he felt someone wrap their arms around him from behind.

"Subaru... please don't ignore me, it hurts me so much when you do" She gently whisper in his ear causing a chill to run down his spine as he broke out in goosebumps. And after a moment he finally responded to her, as he quickly stepped out of her grasp, her arms phasing through his body as if she was nothing more than air.

"You're not real... you can't be her, because... S-S-she's gone" Subaru let his words hang in the air for a moment before he activated the tram. The metal shutters quickly closing up, as the tram quickly accelerated away from the platform, leaving the silver-haired specter alone on the platform, before she to vanished without a trace.

---

Well that was an interesting chapter wasn't it, not as many necromorphs this time around, but very jam-packed with lots of mental trauma for Subaru. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you next time