Best Experienced Never

—

Another week has passed, hello there. Since I'm no fan of bloated A/N's before the story all comment replies will go after each chapter. So without further adeu. adiu. adoo. I don't know how it's spelt, forgive me.

—

Routine.

This is a thing Meiss hasn't had since those first five days with Eura. It feels nice in all honesty. It has been another three days since returning from Sanctuary, making this six days after arriving in Sanctuary and five days after coming back to the Roswaal mansion.

Meiss has a questionable amount of fun and his desire to learn is sated by messing with this world's unique substances. The antics of "big sis" Frederica and Petra are a constant source of humor since Petra is still learning. Meiss got permission from Frederica to mess around with stable magic stones, ones that wouldn't explode and are for commercial use. When he isn't practicing his throwing with the manganese knives, he is helping Beatrice with that project. He also started his running back up again, two laps around the mansion after dinner. It would take a while to get back to where he was before he was transported here.

Speaking of the project, it was coming along nicely and would be done by sundown today. I know I'm referring to this project super vaguely, but it's not anything big like a gun or something. It's a simple shortsword, a xiphos made of a manganese alloy. A xiphos is a short, single-handed ancient greek weapon usually used as a side to a spear. Meiss chose the weapon for it's use in both thrusting and slashing, as well as short size that would make handling easy.

Meiss also enjoys experimenting and messing around with the elemental crystals. Finding the lowest temperature that water crystals will go to, trying to set up a fan-like system with a wind crystal, and nearly blinding himself with a light crystal. His agenda consists of finding out what earth crystals even do, if he can charge mana crystals by just leaking his mana all over the place, and trying to make time crystals more precise. He also wonders what would happen if he broke a time crystal, but decides against it in case it has negative reactions.

Maybe if he had the resources and the know-how he could find out what they are made of. Meiss is really stumped with this one cause it could just as well be something simple like new elements or perhaps a combination of elements in existing knowledge.

Meiss huffs at the powdered assortment of elemental crystals in a cup on his desk. He had mashed up one of each four element crystals and put the powder into a cup. He then tried to melt them by sticking acedia into the cup, but found that they sublimated directly into gas. In case the fumes were toxic, Meiss had prepared a small wind crystal and activated it to blow the fumes out his open window. He then set the cup on the window sill and left it there. Meiss sits down on his bed, looking at the wind crystal in his palm. It sucks that he has to have other people charge the crystals since his gate can't circulate mana properly, but being able to power the regular crystals would mean he wouldn't need to rely on others to help him.

Meiss activates the wind crystal again, relishing the omni-directional blast of wind. Making a directional blast of sustained wind was his goal in trying to make a fan, unfortunately, each wind crystal activation only results in a short blast of wind. Setting up a system in which a mana crystal feeds the wind crystal slowly is his thought process and what fed the desire to see if his leaking mana could be absorbed passively by the crystal like a sponge.

Meiss turns his head to the window. The sun is no longer visible. Meiss then looks at the time crystal. It's the latter parts of lunar time, but not early enough to go to bed yet.

"Might as well see if the mansion has any regular lagmite."

—

Meiss stretches as he walks down the hall in sleepwear. The crystal storage is near where the main bath is. Frederica told him that they also store volatile elemental lagmite that is depleted of mana, but she didn't tell him where. Meiss didn't expect to be told of the volatile lagmite's existence, much less location.

Meiss yawns into his hand. I might just hit the sack after getting the rock, not like I need to do anything other than be in the room for the experiment. Meiss usually has trouble sleeping, but that seems to have been getting better. His sleep schedule is still messed-up though, so until he adapts fully to it he will be tired even after sleeping for a healthy amount. It's around eight P.M. beyond-the-waterfall time. Meiss' footsteps echo off the walls, but they aren't loud since there is a rug. The blonde absentmindedly looks out the window and turns to face it.

"Wow, the moon sure is beautiful tonight."

Meiss stares at the silvery surface for a second before he remembers what that phrase means. He lowers his head and closes his eyes, slapping his cheeks.

"God, when did I even learn about that Japanese phrase? Not like I'll need to be using it."

Meiss pinches his cheeks and opens his eyes. His lowered head leaves his eyes staring at the treeline beyond the Roswaal mansion's yard. A shadow moves suddenly, and Meiss' breath hitches. No… He clutches his left arm and takes a closer look, his heart calms down.

"It's just a dog thing…"

Meiss turns and starts walking down the hallway again. Petra said something about wulgarm in the forest around Arlam village. Maybe some of that pack survived? I should tell Frederica about it so one of us can take care of it. If I remember correctly, she should be finishing up work.

Meiss exaggerates his gait because he is bored and walks in silence the rest of the way to the mansion's lobby. The worker's quarters are on the opposite side of the mansion from the guest's quarters. The guest and worker's quarters take up one upstairs wing each, while the main and secondary baths, kitchen, dining room, pottery storage, and lagmite storage take up the bottom. Many of these rooms are large, excluding the lagmite storage which takes up as much room as one of the guest rooms.

Meiss spots the staircase that leads down to the lobby with the mansion's main entrance. He just needs to walk around it and continue on his way. If Frederica isn't at her room already she will be soon and Meiss can tell her then. Meiss runs his hand along the railing that protects against falling down the stairs. It smells like iron. It was an unpleasant smell, reminding Meiss of-

"Blood…?"

Meiss looks at his hand, slick with red. He looks behind him to see blood dripping down the railing and onto the floor. Meiss stops breathing in shock. His heartbeat, a sound that is only missed when it's gone, roars in his ears as he looks over the railing.

"FREDERICA!"

The blonde maid is lying on her stomach, blood staining the carpets around her in the murals of life. Meiss vaults over the railing, activating stagno to insure he didn't hurt himself with the fall. He runs to her and slips on the rug, splashing the maid's blood as he splays his hands out and folds his legs to kneel next to her. Meiss flips Frederica over and checks her neck for a pulse.

"Oh shit!"

Meiss can't use healing magic, even if his affinity was water his dysfunctional gate would shatter him. His only option is to go about this with his scant medical knowledge.

Meiss searches for the source of Frederica's bleeding, finding a wedge cut from her abdomen and intestines slipping out. Meiss doesn't think, stuffing Frederica's insides back inside and using acedia to melt the skin together. Dolorem active, Meiss picks the dying maid up bridal-style and runs to the kitchen, where Meiss knows bandages and such are stored.

"Beatrice! Please open a door!"

Meiss yells out to Beatrice as he runs. Holding someone over half a foot taller than you bridal-style and trying to run is not easy. Meiss would have slung Frederica over his shoulder, but is worried that would hurt her more.

Tap.

Meiss whirls around, certain he heard a footstep behind him. He breathes for a second, before sprinting the rest of the way to the kitchen. The blonde kicks the door in and puts Frederica on the kitchen's island. He throws open the drawers and cabinets looking for something, anything that would ease pain or help him in any way. Plants, spices, herbs, how the hell were those used in medicine? Meiss snaps open another drawer.

"Gurrr."

Meiss reacts instinctively, grabbing a paring knife from the knife block and hurling it at the noise. The blonde hears an animal yelp as he turns to face it. It's that dog thing Meiss saw out by the treeline, though now that the thing is closer it's more of a hyena-looking thing. The hyena wobbles for a second, the short knife sticking out of it's side. Meiss springs over just as the demon beast jumps at Frederica. He shoves his fist into the beast's mouth. Acedia bursts from his fist and cooks the hyena's head.

If these things are in the mansion, I need to find Petra and get her and Frederica into Beatrice's library. There they'll be safe and Frederica can get healed. Meiss looks over his shoulder, Frederica is still alive. Her face is pained and she's covered in blood, but she is breathing. Even if the breathing is shallow she is breathing. Meiss pulls the hyena off his arm and moves closer to Frederica. He faces the door in case any more of those hyena things are around.

"What should I do? I can't move fast with her, but I need to find Petra! Shit shit shi-"

"Go…"

Meiss spins around and locks eyes with Frederica. She points to the door, her arm not even rising from the table.

"Petra…"

Meiss grasps her hand in both of his. He tries to talk, but can't. Meiss lulls his head, gripping Frederica's hand a little tighter. Eventually he is able to cough up a few words. To nobody, he whispers to himself.

"How am I supposed to be a sanctuary when I can't protect a single person?"

"For Petra… definitely."

Meiss slackens his grip on Frederica's hand. The slick blood stains his fingers. Meiss raises his head.

"Please, wait a little longer. You want to see her face again, right?"

Frederica gives Meiss a knowing look. She's lost too much blood, there's nothing I can do without healing magic. Meiss lets go of her hand entirely. Frederica relaxes her head as Meiss dashes from the kitchen.

"Protect…"

Frederica closes her eyes.

—

"PETRA! BEATRICE!"

Meiss' feet hit the ground in rapid succession as he runs down the hallway. He had left Frederica in the kitchen, dying covered in her own blood. Meiss' heart quivers, but he needs to find Petra and get her out of here.

"PET-"

"Meiss!"

Meiss skids to a stop, nearly falling as he tries to change direction. He rises to his feet and spots Petra leaning out from behind a door. Meiss runs over and throws open the door, noticing the racks of spare pottery behind the small maid. Meiss extends his hand.

"C'mon small child, we've gotta get out of here."

Petra extends her hand, and Meiss hoists her into his arms. The girl is small, unlike Frederica who is over eight inches taller than Meiss, so he can comfortably scoop her into his arms and run. Run is just what Meiss does, he runs and calls out to Beatrice. Curled into Meiss' arms, Petra notices the blood staining his shirt and lower pant legs.

"Whose blood is that…?"

"Gah! I-it's Frederica's. I'm soo sorry Petra…"

"F-frederica…"

Meiss tries to ignore the silent crying of the girl in his arms, focusing on running. He ends up meeting the end of the hall, and scrambles up the side stairwell. He bursts into the hallway known as the worker's quarters.

"BEATRI-"

"Now, now, why are we so noisy?"

Meiss slows to a stop. Petra tries to sink deeper into his arms. The sudden silence lets Meiss hear the beating of his heart and the sobbing of Petra. He holds the girl tighter, his eyes glinting in the moonlight.

"Were those your footsteps I heard behind me?"

"Mmm, perceptive."

Meiss stares unblinking, for the woman before him is not someone he knows. Her height is a little shorter than Subaru's, but she is still taller than Meiss. She has braided black hair and a cloak that covers her entire body. It looks like a thin fabric, if it was day they would probably be able to see through it. Purple feathers decorate the top of the cloak, framing a round face with sleepy eyes. She puts a hand on her hip, revealing her black, skin-tight attire that shows off more skin than most people would probably be comfortable revealing. The real blood-boiling thing though, is the bloody kukri in her hand.

"Interesting toy you've got there."

"Oh this? It's a personal favorite of mine, clean and precise. This'll go straight to your beautiful insides. As for you… You don't match anyone described to me. Oh well, the more carefully you scheme, the more unexpected events come along."

The woman raises her kukri, spreading the cloak and revealing her figure. If she wasn't a murderer with Frederica's blood on her weapons, Meiss would probably have some trouble because her outfit really leaves nothing to the imagination. She raises a second kukri as well, completing a battle stance that Meiss questions the usefulness of.

"Ah, before this, mind telling me your name? It's common courtesy to know the name of someone you're going to beat the shit out of."

"Hehe, I'm Elsa Granhiert, though some call me the guthunter. I wish to extend the same courtesy to you as well before I take a look at your insides. It'll give them more flavor."

"Meiss Rhen, I don't really have an alias I'm comfortable with, and it's not a pleasure to meet you."

WIthout skipping a beat, Meiss activates dolorem and tries to jump past Elsa. He hears a whoosh of air and finds the woman right in front of him.

"Fast!"

Meiss flips in the air. He strikes out with his foot, only for Elsa to dodge and strike him with her kukris. The blades bounce off his arm, but one of them nicks Petra's upper arm. Meiss lands on his feet, with Elsa in front of him again. Meiss stares her down, their eyes glinting blue and purple in the moonlight.

She's fast, I can't fight with Petra in my arms and I can't put her down. Remember Meiss, focus on protecting rather than fighting.

"You've got me in check. Do you even have chess in this world? Doesn't matter, since this isn't checkmate."

Meiss activates dolorem once again in his legs and jumps at the window. He curls his body around Petra to protect her from the glass. Looking up, Meiss sends an acedia out that snags on part of the mansion wall. Petra screams in his arms as they swing up and over the mansion. Meiss reaches out with his legs. They touch the mansion's roof and he skids over the surface. Their slide almost sends them off the other side of the roof, but Meiss flailing about with his legs stops them in time. The two breathe for a second before Meiss uncurls from around Petra.

"Holy shit…"

Meiss looks out over the mansion yard. Those hyena things… There's so many of them he can't even see the grass anymore. They're all just… standing there. Milling around, waiting. It makes no sense. Petra removes herself from Meiss' arms and stares out at the sea of demonbeasts.

"Meiss-sa… What are we going to do?"

Meiss tries to get his breathing and heartbeat under control. He backs away from the edge of the roof, pulling Petra with him. Meiss turns to face the ginger girl. She's so scared, she's shaking. I'm shaking. We can't jump off, the fall would hurt Petra even if I had stagno active, not even mentioning the demonbeasts. Acedia isn't long enough to reach any trees and swing us to safety. So our only option is either to wait here or look for Beatrice again. Why was she not opening her doors? Shit, this situation is fucked any way I look at it.

"Our best bet is to find Beatrice and get you safe in her moving library. I know it's kind of mean, but I can't fight with you in my arms and I don't want to just leave you."

"I…"

Meiss pulls Petra into a hug. The small maid cries into his shoulder.

"Frederica… Frederica nee-sama…"

Meiss feels his throat close again. The blonde really does value people, more than himself even. They stay like that for a small bit, Petra crying and Meiss feeling like shit for letting someone die. The blonde breaks the hug, looking down as Petra continues to cry. She's not crying as hard now, but her sobs still hit Meiss like gunshots.

"I never asked about you… We can stay up here if you want."

"N-no, let's find Beatrice-sama."

Meiss tightens his lips and stands up. He extends his hand to Petra, who grabs it. Meiss hoists the maid into his arms again and looks at the roof below him. An acedia sprouts from the back of his wrist and carves a hole in the roof. The roof tiles crack and shatter under the intense heat, before they begin to fall as acedia melts through their support. A hole, wide enough for Meiss to jump down, is opened. Meiss jumps down, the shattered, cracked, and melted tiles scraping against one another as his bare feet impact them.

That was kind of noisy.

"Beatrice?"

Meiss calls out softly for the spirit. He doesn't want to alert that Elsa woman or any other demonbeasts that may have gotten inside to his and Petra's presence. Meiss looks both ways down the deserted hallway before calling out again.

"Beatrice? I know you can hear me."

A couple doors down, Meiss can hear the creaking of hinges. Meiss turns his head to see Beatrice cracking open a door. The door opens wider as Meiss runs to it, Beatrice gripping the handle. Meiss starts to let Petra down when they are a few meters away from the library.

"GAH!"

And the blonde falls. He feels a piercing cold lance through his abdomen as he throws Petra the rest of the way.

"Meiss-sama!"

Beatrice casts a spell on the girl and she floats into the library. Beatrice extends her hand, reaching for Meiss. Meiss feels blood drip down his side as he struggles to his knees.

"NO! Keep her in the library, I can deal with this woman!"

"You idiot! She'll kill you in fact!"

"Just do it, please!"

Beatrice looks conflicted for a second, before closing the door. Meiss hears Petra yell in protest behind her.

"Sooo valiant, I look forward to you more and more."

Meiss struggles to a standing position. He turns to face the woman down the hall. Not taking his eyes off of her, Meiss uses a hand to find out what happened to him. It feels like a stick has made it's way through part of his body. Meiss' hand feels the cold, smooth feeling of metal. It's some sort of throwing dart. Moving around with the point inside me would suck, but I can't pull it out since that would leave me with a hole. Damn, if only acedia worked on me, I could melt the hole shut. Meiss holds his breath and grits his teeth, before pushing the long dart the rest of the way through his body.

This sucks.

"Mmm… Interesting."

Elsa settles into that useless-looking battle stance from before. Meiss releases his held breath. The blonde starts breathing hard after holding his breath like that, he doesn't take his eyes off of Elsa. He can't… because her speeding form is now right in front of him, filling his vision.

"Guh?!"

Meiss raises his arm. The woman's twin kukris impact him, sending him spiraling into the wall. He is quick to recover, though not quick enough. Elsa dashes at him again, leaving him to catch her kukri on his forearm again. Meiss strikes out with an arm. His impaled abdomen impedes his twisting movements, and the assassin easily dodges by jumping. Meiss jumps as well, he cannons into Elsa and they hit the ceiling. Meiss strikes out with his fist, catching Elsa in the gut and punting her into the ground.

Meiss touches the floor, breathing heavy. Elsa slowly, lazily rises to her feet. She looks at the blonde, mere meters away.

"You could have made it into that girl's library, why didn't you?"

"I said I was going to beat the shit out of you. I try to stick by my promises. Like the one I made to myself… Frederica was a person, and that's more than I can say for you."

"Really now? You call yourself human despite that feeling that hangs around you? I know very few humans that are willing to die without thinking of themselves at all or feeling no fear of death."

"Why is everyone in this world so talkative?"

The two stare at each other for a second, before Elsa speeds forward. Meiss doesn't try to guard or dodge, instead striking out with his fist. Elsa dodges, flipping over and behind Meiss. The blonde spins around, kicking at Elsa. Unable to dodge since the air provides no footing, Elsa goes flying into a wall. Meiss falls after putting himself into an awkward position for the kick. The assassin seems to stick to the wall, and climbs along the surface. Meiss raises to his feet. She kicks off, spinning in the air and slashing at Meiss again. Meiss crosses his arms above his head to block.

"Two-!"

Elsa spins like a corkscrew, aiming her second kukri at Meiss' stomach. His hands are still above his head, he can't get them down fast enough. The blade reaches closer… and acedia severs the hand that holds it. Meiss jumps away as Elsa's hand goes flying. Meiss lets the burning wire retract into his torso, watching Elsa examine her blackened and bloody stump. She then walks over to her severed hand, picking it up.

"What the-"

The guthunter shaves off the blackened and melted skin with her kukri, and does the same with her severed hand. Meiss watches in horror as she holds her severed hand to her wrist. They connect, and knit back together.

"Passive healing? Why does that have to be there?!"

Elsa examines her reattached hand. She smiles at Meiss, her face pink.

"A power in common with Mother… I have never had the pleasure to dance with someone like you."

"Mother?"

The loud banging of a door distracts Meiss from his thoughts. Both him and Elsa turn to see Beatrice with a door open. The spirit fires a purple spear at Elsa, who dodges.

"Don't listen to her drabble I suppose. That girl has a sick mind."

Beatrice fires more glassy purple spears before closing the door. Elsa jumps in the air to dodge them all. Meiss dashes at the airborne woman, cannoning into her back and falling to the ground. Elsa struggles under him, feeling the stinging pain of electricity as Meiss holds her down with advanced dolorem.

"My my, so assertive coming at me from behind."

Meiss presses his hand into her side, letting acedia burn a small divot in her flesh.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't really see people like that."

Beatrice opens another door, sending a volley of those purple glass spears at the two struggling on the floor. Meiss takes the hits from one or two with stagno before jumping away and letting Elsa get the full brunt of the barrage.

"Son of a bitch."

Elsa gets up and shakes off the spears, completely unscathed. She discards her tattered cloak, which dissipates into colored mana like the purple spears. The guthunter smiles, before launching herself at Meiss again.

"You shouldn't jump so much!"

Meiss springs off the ground and collides with Elsa midair. The two struggle as their colliding momentum makes them spin in the air for a second. Elsa aims a kukri for Meiss' head. Meiss jerks his head to the side and she cuts off that annoying lock of hair. Meiss jabbs his knee into her side, on the burn he left. Elsa tries to hit him with the pommel of her blade, but Meiss breaks away for a second. He grabs her arm just as they hit the ground. A loud pop is heard as her shoulder becomes dislocated. They are struggling on the ground again, though this time Meiss has a foot pressed into the guthunter's back and is pulling on her arm.

"Stupid healing!"

Meiss reaches for his gate and pulls a manganese dart from it. He jams the metal into Elsa's forearm between the ulna and radius. Elsa jerks her other hand out from underneath her as Meiss pries with the manganese. The woman's forearm splits in two with a horrid ripping sound just as she grabs Meiss' leg. The blonde is still holding her arm when he is thrown away. The flesh rips and tears as the ulna half of Elsa's forearm is dragged along with Meiss. Meiss hits the ground and goes rolling.

"Holy fuck!"

The blonde rights himself as he looks at his half of Elsa's arm. Half of her palm and three of her fingers are also attached. The flowing blood soaks Meiss' shirt even more as he stands up.

Elsa grimaces at him as she pops her dislocated arm back in place. The assassin steps back to dodge a purple spear. Another is fired and Elsa flips over it to dodge. She clenches her teeth as she dashes for the opened door. Her kukri flashes as she throws it, pinning the door to the wall behind it. The spirit glances at it for half a second before continuing to fire off volleys of the purple glass spears. Elsa jumps and dives and spins to evade them. She reaches out to grab the spirit, before feeling blood splatter against her. The woman's ripped off half-arm slams into her face.

"WRYYYYAA!"

Meiss strikes out with buff dolorem, aiming for the guthunter's back. Her rib cage cracks and splinters under the force of the punch. Meiss' hand sails through her vitals and out the other side, popping her lung like a balloon and dragging her heart outside of her body. Elsa goes wide-eyed as her heart comes into view, before a fist caves in part of her skull. Meiss pummels the guthunter with his free hand, cracking and denting her skull, pulverizing her shoulder blade and shattering her neck bones. He removes his now-red arm from her chest cavity and punches Elsa's body down the hallway.

"Hah… hah…"

Meiss turns to the forbidden archive where Beatrice and Petra stare at him with wide eyes. Meiss takes a step, and then another, before he falls to his knees. Meiss was about to go to bed before this, his body was already exhausted. Stacking running around while holding somebody and a fight to the death on top of that is a bit much.

Beatrice walks outside the library, she stops in front of Meiss. He raises his head and tries to stand up. The effort is for naught as his abdomen refuses to be straightened.

"Murak, I suppose."

The spirit gently pushes Meiss and he floats over to the forbidden archive. Meiss slowly flips around in the air.

"Thanks."

Beatrice huffs.

"If you could have opened more distance between yourself and that girl Betty would have been able to open her door much sooner in fact! This would have never- Oh, this boy has fallen asleep I suppose."

—

"Guh!"

Meiss jumps awake suddenly. He tries to stand up, only for tiny hands to push him back down. The blonde notices that he's now inside a library, which is partly obscured by his hair covering his face.

"Beatrice?"

"Stay down for a bit I suppose. You started clutching your stomach and sweating after Betty healed you in fact."

"I…"

Meiss looks down at his bloody clothes, and pushes a finger into the hole in the fabric left by Elsa's dart. I feel fine. That throwing dart is gone too. Must've thought about the Witch… Meiss sighs, and reclines against a bookcase. How will we deal with those demonbeasts surrounding the mansion?

The blonde looks around. He spots Petra standing next to a different bookcase and fidgeting. Meiss sits up and twists his torso, testing his regained movement. I'm a little stiff around where I was stabbed, but that's it. He sighs, feeling the last remnants of battle jitters leave him. He stays like that for a few minutes as Beatrice huffs and hovers around him.

"With that tall maid gone our fighting force is rather low I suppose. Betty would rather have you fight than uselessly die on the floor. Hmph, Betty doesn't know what was wrong in fact; your sleeping actions were probably unrelated to your injury i'm guessing."

"Thanks, Beatrice."

Meiss stretches his legs and stands up. He wobbles, and uses the bookcase to steady himself. The blonde reaches up and pushes his hair over his head, wincing when his finger undoes a tangle. For a second, he stares into space wondering where that annoying lock of hair went. Did it finally obey like the rest of my hair? Meiss pokes around where the lock originates from, finding short hairs that stick straight up. Oh, it was cut off…

Meiss sighs and looks at the books next to him. I can't read any of this binding. The bookshelf is easily taller than two Meiss' on top of one another, and the blonde wonders how Beatrice gets the books near the top. Well, she probably uses that murak spell. Wait a second… Meiss remembers that the book on yin spells he read in Crusch's Library was in english. It wasn't broken english either, it was written by someone who had a clear grasp of the language. What the hell… Why would that be there?

"Your toy is done in fact."

Breaking through Meiss' thoughts, Beatrice walks up to him. She is holding the sword they were making together. It's a simple thing, a shortsword called a xiphos. Made of an alloy called manganese bronze, the golden-brown color is deadly to any who possess an authority. Along the flat of the blade on each side is a strip of rhenium to add coolness to the swings, it's cosmetic. The sword only took so long to make because some of the materials in manganese bronze were tricky to get.

"Oh, thanks agai- AWAWA!"

Beatrice throws the sword at Meiss. He tries to catch it and dodge as well, which ends up with him falling while holding a sword blade. Meiss gets that feeling of leaning too far back in a chair but catching himself as he stands back up.

"T-THIS COULD KILL ME! Cuts right through my damage nullification…"

Manganese and rhenium are bad sword metals overall, since rhenium bends and manganese is brittle. To counteract this, the short length of the xiphos and the strengthening of the material by making it into an alloy was done. It would probably make the properties of the manganese less potent, but that was a tradeoff Meiss was comfortable with.

Meiss gives the spirit the stink eye as he walks over to Petra. The maid has been standing next to a bookcase the entire time, unmoving. Meiss crouches in front of her, careful to point his sword away from the girl.

"Hey Petra, are you ok?"

She nods yes. Meiss creases his brows at her refusal to talk.

"Are you sure?"

Petra nods again, not speaking. Meiss is bad with emotional people when he himself is not emotional. Meiss stands up and walks over to Beatrice, who has returned to her stool. He looks back at the little maid, before he starts talking to Beatrice.

"Hey Beatrice, sorry to bother you but how many yin spells do you know?"

Beatrice continues to read her book. Not even looking at Meiss when she responds.

"You should find that Betty knows them all, even those that are lost to time I suppose."

"What about teika? How long can you use it?"

Beatrice stops mid page-flip. She looks at Meiss, and the blonde wonders if she even heard him. Meiss can feel the full force of Beatrice judging him.

Finally, she responds.

"A spell as big as teika will drain Betty's mana reserves quickly, especially if you're suggesting I exclude us both from it's effects in fact. Though Betty will humor you, I suppose. The limit for Betty alone would be around fifteen seconds, though for us both eight seconds would be my guess."

Meiss growls in his throat. eight seconds if she drained all her mana reserves? That may not be enough time. Meiss tries to remember more spells from that book. He draws a blank. The blonde wasn't reading it to memorize, he was reading that book because he needed to take his mind off of things.

"Hey, can you-"

"If you think Betty is your weapon, you are sorely mistaken in fact."

"-tell me if there are any secret passages or anything that we can use to escape."

Beatrice pauses for a second, before readjusting herself on her stool. She looks at the door to the forbidden archive for a second before returning focus to her book.

"When you exit the forbidden archive, you will find yourself in the underground escape tunnel I suppose."

Meiss looks at the door to the library. Was it that easy to change the exit?

Thinking that now is as good a time as any, Meiss lifts the bronze sword to his arm. Under his clothes, a greyish-white light shines. The organ that channels mana, and for some the producer of usable mana. Meiss is fortunate that using "gatespace" requires no mana. After a few seconds and a weird pinching feeling, the xiphos shrinks into the glowing patch of skin. Meiss rubs his arm, it's not like that feeling hurt, but the feeling of having his stiff scar tissue being pinched is weird.

"Wonder if gatespace has a limit?"

"It's around sixty-seven kirogurms I suppose, though there are slight differences between each person in fact. And it's called Krozeto, not this 'gatespace' in fact."

"Kirogurm? Kilogram? Eh, just slightly different; and why such a large limit?"

Not expecting to get an answer for his question, Meiss immediately walks over to the door. Petra slowly makes her way over. Meiss puts a hand on the doorknob, glancing at Petra behind him. The small maid hasn't stopped shivering entirely, but her shivers are less noticeable now. Meiss turns back to the door.

"Are you coming with us, Beatrice?"

"You really think the all-powerful Betty would leave the forbidden archive; her greatest weapon in fact?"

"Sigh, I thought not."

"Hurry and get out of here, and stop saying 'sigh' instead of actually sighing I suppose!"

"Sigh."

"Anger, I suppose."

Meiss twists the doorknob and opens the door a crack. He can see uneven cobblestone making up the floor and walls. The cobble is uneven only in shape, and the floor is flat except for the divots between the stones. Meiss opens the door wider and takes a step out.

"Oh damn it."

Without missing a beat, Meiss backpedals into the forbidden archive. He trips over his own feet and collapses to his side, blood pouring from his stomach. Petra goes wide-eyed and kneels next to Meiss while Beatrice looks up from her book. Pale hand on the door, the guthunter throws open access to the forbidden archive. She steps into the library, taking a moment to cleave through the door hinges so that door crossing cannot activate.

"El Minya, I suppose!"

Glassy purple spears surround Elsa. She glances around at what would surely be her impending doom. Then she flicks her wrist, and a flowing set of blades arc throughout the purple spears, destroying them. Elsa raises her arm, brandishing a thick white blade that the flashing snake-sword recedes into. Beatrice narrows her gaze.

Petra sits next to the bloody, and still bleeding, body of Meiss. He is still on his side, and Petra has a front row seat to the display of his insides. The maid slowly reaches her fingers out, flinching as a tiny purple shard cuts her hand.

"Ah."

Petra reaches again for the body of the boy, pressing her hands into his side. His blood flows over her hands as she presses them onto his shirt. Soft blue light starts to pour from the girl's fingers, and Meiss' severed skin slowly starts to knit together. Only the skin though. Petra doesn't stop, continuing to use healing magic despite her lack of training. After thirty seconds of trying her best, Petra is rewarded with a centimeter of healed skin. Beatrice's stool bounces next to Meiss, there's a gash in the seat and one of the supporting beams between the legs.

"This'll be rude, but just healing the skin is kinda useless. Thank you though, Petra."

"W-wha?!"

Petra jumps away as the body speaks. Meiss looks at her and smiles before grabbing the stool next to the maid and standing it up. He examines his abdomen with a surprisingly lax expression, as if he's had this experience before. Petra scoots back to the wall, not knowing what in the world is happening. Meiss struggles to a kneeling position.

Beatrice shouts.

"Shamak! Ql Minya in fact!"

Elsa stops moving as her vision is obscured by black smoke. Yin magic is one of the few things she hasn't had much interaction with due to the element being so rare and being such a good assassin that her prey usually has no time to react. She can't see anything, but remembers the library and dashes ahead regardless.

"Oh."

Elsa feels air upon her bloody body. It seems that she is being shredded by just moving around. No matter, something as trivial as tiny blades won't do much to her. She walks on, savoring the feeling of her warm blood spilling. The guthunter emerges from the smoke, the tiny blades having shredded her skin apart so much that one can see nothing but her clothing and liquid red.

"Wasting mana on such a useless attack, it's quite funny."

The spirit watches in disgust as Elsa disregards damage and pain. She walks through the field of glassy shards, paying no mind to the blood oozing and gushing down her body. Elsa steps out of the minefield looking like she took the brunt of a full-body shotgun blast. The holes are almost big enough to see through her. Slowly, the holes cease to be as Elsa heals.

"Curse doll… It seems that you've found a way to circumvent it's restrictions I suppose."

"What of it?"

Elsa takes a step, raising her kukris. Her white weapon seems to have disappeared. The guthunter takes another step and prepares to jump, only to stop and look at her foot. The appendage is severed from slightly above the ankle down. The smell of burnt flesh assaults everybody's noses as they look to the struggling form of Meiss. The blonde is using Beatrice's stool to support himself with one hand. He pays their gaze no heed, merely removing his other hand from his gut and examining the blood and guts running down his body.

"Really, seeing these once was enough."

"Ah, I'm really quite envious now."

Elsa reaches down to grab her foot. Beatrice is not a physical fighter, and Meiss has extremely limited abdominal control so nobody can do anything to stop Elsa from reattaching her foot. Meiss struggles to stand without flopping over, he resorts to coiling an acedia around his torso. He starts to wobble to the outer edges of the Ql Minya minefield. He activates stagno on an arm and grabs a handful of the floating purple shards. He jumps at Elsa, throwing the shards in front of him. The guthunter dodges by jumping to the side. She goes flying into the wall after blocking a Minya from Beatrice.

"Such an interesting dance!"

Elsa doesn't slide down the wall, instead kicking off it and landing on a bookcase. She topples the structure by jumping off of it, swinging her kukri at Meiss. Meiss swipes his hand over his head, a short acedia melting through the weapon. Bright orange metal sprays the fallen books like blood. The guthunter discards the useless handle by throwing it at Meiss. Meiss tries to catch it, but ends up dropping it after unceremoniously juggling it around for a second.

Meiss looks up to see Elsa giggling at him. She pulls another kukri out from behind her and jumps. Meiss, having his movement restricted by the acedia wrapped around his torso, forgoes trying to pursue her and just watches as she pushes off the ceiling and knocks another bookcase over. The guthunter spins in the air as she approaches Meiss.

"Again with the jumping!"

Meiss catches her kukri and pulls on the blade. He swings out and catches Elsa in the temple, punching her down and into the floor. She does a backwards roll and jumps to avoid a minya.

"Honestly…"

Meiss reaches out a hand, snaring the guthunter's leg with acedia. The woman hangs upside-down, a smile on her face as she watches Meiss.

"Why don't I just use these from the beginning?"

The acedia sprouting from his hand migrates it's point of origin to Meiss' back. Another acedia sprouts from his back and works it's way over to Elsa, wrapping around her other leg.

"That's your cue, Beatrice."

"Don't boss me around I suppose! Minya minya minya!"

The three glassy purple spears are launched at the immobile guthunter. Meiss' finger twitches, and he pulls a manganese spike from his gate. She's staying strangely still. Just before the minyas hit her, Elsa pulls a kukri from her back and cleaves through the acedia holding her up. She completes the swing and throws the weapon to the side. Meiss throws the manganese spike, and it barely glances off the blade, throwing it's trajectory off ever so slightly.

"PETRA, MOVE!"

The girl sitting against the wall of the library slumps to her side on Meiss' command. The kukri imbeds itself in the wall next to where the top of her head was. Petra's nerves are so shocked that she has been holding a blank face throughout this fight.

"Bitch!"

Meiss kicks a book at Elsa, who moves her head to dodge it. The blonde follows up with another punch to the head. Elsa is quicker though, and she throws a punch that catches Meiss in the jaw. The blonde gets thrown into the air and spins like a corkscrew. God that hurts, I wasn't expecting a punch. Why are people so deceptively strong in this world?

Meiss sends an acedia into the ground to stop his spinning. He uses it to land safely on his feet. The spinning has him stumble for a second. Elsa pulls another kukri from her back and takes this opportunity to attack, but Beatrice fends her off with minya. Meiss regains his balance and picks up a book. It's one of the books that was hit by the melted kukri. This book and a few others are on fire, but the fire hasn't really spread. Meiss chucks the book at Elsa. The flaming book hits the back of her head, and her hair catches on fire.

She's distracted by her hair.

Meiss looks at the blood on his hand from his stomach. He slightly undoes the acedia around his torso, letting blood drip onto his hand. The blonde jumps forward.

"You look like a fan of dirty tricks, so what about blood in the eyes?"

He swipes his hand through the air. The scarlet drops find their mark and Elsa is blinded. This is better than destroying the eyes, because then she'd just heal them back and be fine. Meiss feels his arm start to crackle and burn as dolorem activates. Intending to punch Elsa in the throat, Meiss swings his arm.

Elsa strikes out with her kukri. The guthunter can just barely see past the hazy red of Meiss' blood. The blade travels between the blonde's middle and ring finger, traveling through the muscles and bones of his forearm. Meiss cannot have dolorem and stagno active at the same time. Disregarding injury, Meiss pushes on. He switches from trying to use dolorem to using acedia to burn through Elsa. The interference from the kukri cutting off half of his forearm results in Meiss' strike aiming for her upper torso.

Elsa uses her free arm to swipe away his half-handed punch. Meiss tilts forward after putting his weight behind that attack. He missed… Doesn't matter. Acedia sprouts from his back and circles around to attack the guthunter.

｢R̸̡̛͠͡e̸̕̕͝͝tu̢̧̕͢͡ŗ̸́͜͜n b̴̛͢͠y̢̛͟͢͠ D̶̸̡͜͝e̸̴͘͠͠a̶̷̴̶͜t̶̵̀͘͞h｣

The burning wire circles around Meiss' torso, leaving a large gash in the stone above him and revealing a sliver of starlight. The gash starts on the roof a few feet from the edge and travels down the wall, ending at Meiss' body.

The blonde jerks into motion. He starts coughing due to settled dust and grasping at his stomach. It takes a minute, but he is finally able to pull air into his lungs. Meiss looks around and notices the gentle purple light and smooth grey stone.

"I'm back in the tomb? Redo activated… even though I didn't die… Is it linked only to Subaru; and I just remember?"

Meiss looks at the gash he created in the wall with acedia, he went all the way through the stone of the tomb. The tomb…

"That's right, Emilia!"

—

Meiss and Emilia walk out of the tomb together. Meiss spots Subaru right away next to Rem, and wastes no time in power walking over to them.

"Re-"

"Th' hell was that! You carved a hole straight through th' tomb's wall! That piece 'v shit's th' only way Sanctuary's gettin' freed!"

Meiss turns to face Garfiel. The boy has a very annoyed, almost angry expression.

"I'm sorry Garfiel, but I had a rather gut wrenching experience in there. I'm sure the place will be fine. If you don't mind I really need to go somewhere to talk to Rem and Subaru here."

"And why th' fuck do ya need ta go somewhere? Anythin' ya need to say can be said here."

"It would be wise to back the fuck off, I'm currently in a less-than-ideal mood, Garfiel."

"Who th' hell're you to be orderin' me around, Blondie?"

Garfiel takes a step closer to Meiss. Meiss turns his body fully to face Garfiel.

"Garf!"

Ram comes up behind Garfiel and calls his name. She moves to walk between the boy and Meiss, her hand twitching near her thigh.

"I do not wish to have to separate you two of you, but if you cannot cool down I will take pleasure in snapping them off to diffuse the situation."

Garfiel backs off, worried. Meiss shows no signs of calming down as he stalks away.

Subaru briefly looks at Meiss stalking off in the direction of the stream they talk by. Rem glances at him too, before looking from Ram to Garfiel and then to Subaru. The teen scratches his head lightly before turning to Ram. The pink maid is leading Emilia off to Sanctuary proper by the hand.

"Thanks Ram."

"I was looking forward to snapping them off…"

"Goodbye Ram."

—

Rem follows Subaru as he brushes foliage to the side. They make their way to a stream that runs through the forest. Meiss is already there, standing on dry land not far from the muddy shore of the water. Subaru walks on ahead.

"Meiss, what happened?"

"Some fucking sadist named Elsa is what happened!"

Rem tilts her head to the side. Elsa? Elsa Granhiert? Impossible, Meiss was just in the tomb, or was that his trial? The trial doesn't seem like it would be combat based.

"Wha- Elsa? The guthunter?!"

"Yeah! Attacks the mansion six days from now!"

"Six! That's the same day as the Ousagi…"

"Uhm, Subaru-kun, Meiss, what is it that you two are discussing?"

Meiss flicks his eyes over to Rem. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and kicks at the ground.

"Subaru, any chance you can call Her back so she can make Rem remember? She seemed to have a very nice opinion of you."

"Seeing what that resulted in last time… No. Though that's what you found out, listen to what I found out…"

Rem can't follow the conversation well. It's like two people having an inside joke that the third person doesn't understand. She looks between the two discussing the guthunter, the Ousagi, and something about clones. Rem creases her brows, frustrated she was called to this discussion but left out.

"Sorry Rem. But we need to dance around the explanation since you are the only one who can't. Basically, Elsa attacks the mansion six days from now, Ousagi attacks Sanctuary six days from now. Quite a headache."

"Wait, Meiss, how do you know this? It's like you can-"

Rem stops, before pressing her palm to her forehead.

"You can remember?"

Why was he allowed to remember? That means something must have happened that she wasn't a part of. Or it was something that Rem can't remember.

"We can dance around and tell you stuff, but the price for remembering was quite painful."

Rem again watches from the sidelines as Meiss and Subaru discuss what they've learned by remembering. She picks up something about command authority and being unable to kill Elsa.

"It's not a question of whether or not I can kill her. I definitely sent my fist through her and would've cut her in half. But she doesn't stay dead, always coming back and healing. Beatrice said something about 'curse doll.'"

This is something Rem knows.

"Subaru-kun, Meiss, curse dolls are people who have undergone a ritual to make themselves slightly immortal to kill someone. Though all they will think about is killing that person and they can do nothing else. Though Rem once heard a rumor about there being a way to bypass the negative effects…"

"Slightly immortal?"

"Let Rem clarify. They will heal from death and injury, but there is a limit. If they are hurt too much, they will fail. Though Rem believes Meiss should be the one to take care of Elsa, Subaru-kun would best be suited to staying by Rem's side as she protects him."

Subaru looks at Rem hurt, she ignores him while thinking.

"It seemed like Rem wasn't with you Meiss, Rem could go with you to the mansion to help with Elsa."

"Thanks Rem. Elsa was accompanied by innumerable demonbeasts that surrounded the mansion. Assuming that wasn't a coincidence, then she had to corral them or had a friend to help her. That means Elsa could have been lurking around the mansion for days before she attacks."

"And I can focus more on Emilia since Rem is gone- I'm sorry Rem! Please don't pout; AHH MY SOUL! IT HURTS!"

Subaru curls into the fetal position, he used humor!

"Rem wonders about the Ousagi. You mentioned that, right Subaru-kun? What would we do about it?"

It was ineffective!

Rem folds her arms behind her as Meiss kicks the ground again. Subaru stands up and brushes dirt off his pants. He then steps over to Rem and places a hand on her head. The teen earns a pleased expression as he rubs.

"We can do this guys."

"Rem wonders how Subaru-kun can be so upbeat when faced with such low odds."

—

Tall-Gothic-Guy: Frederica can ancestral return? Nice stuff. Unfortunately we'll have to see that another time. Big sad for Fred this chapter.

Astrogamer: Thanks! Drawing people older than they are must be a thing I do then. Welp, it's fun to draw him so I might change the picture soon once more. Maybe something including his sword instead of dolorem? I'll figure it out.

I realize I'm updating a day behind, but the lack of school leaves me with a strong desire to do absolutely nothing. Well, I bid you adeu, see you next week.