65: Sudden but Inevitable

"Hey now, don't look at me like that!" Prelati laughs, drawing closer to my frozen body. "I know what it looks like, but this isn't a betrayal! I'm still your ally. Really, I mean it!"

His words are completely disingenuous, but it's not like this kind of thing is a surprise. I knew from the start that he was going to betray me at some point - really, it's a mercy that he waited this long.

"This is me helping you - I know it's not the type of help you want, but I promise, it's for your own good or something like that!" He continues unconvincingly.

I'm already done with this loop. Marie, Jeanne, Mozart, and Gareth are dead, and Mash is locked in single combat with Lancelot with a broken arm and severe blood loss - in other words, she's dead too.

"You still look unconvinced, so I'll explain - It has to do with the nature of our enemy. Not Dark Jeanne, but the one pulling her strings, the King of the Demon God Pillars - hey, pay attention!"

This loop is a dead end. I got some good information, but it's time to pull the plug. With a nauseating feeling, I call up [Invisible Providence] and reach for my brainstem-

And find nothing. The hand grasps empty air.

"Woah, you actually went for it, huh? Absolutely no hesitation! As expected of Natsuki Subaru!" The Alchemist's voice cuts through my confusion like a razor. "Sorry for distorting your senses like that, but like I said - I can't let you kill yourself just yet! We need to prepare, after all. For your next loop, I mean."

Ice cold hands grip my gut as his words sink in. My skin crawls, and my heart thunders in my ears with an intensity that has me flashing back to fucking Sirius.

He knows.

And yet, Satella does not appear. No penalty is given. No pitch black shadow swallows him or me to end the loop.

"That's right, I know eeevery~thing!" Prelati says in a singsong voice, poking my paralyzed nose in a playful manner. "And the Witch won't be showing up to save you, because I blinded her with my illusion magecraft a few days ago."

He pauses expectantly for a moment, and then chuckles. "You know, you can still talk to me with Telepathy. I can't let you move your mouth because you might bite your tongue, but this won't be any fun if you don't scream a bit."

…{How the hell did you-} I start.

"Find out? That's such a boring question, Subaru - to be honest, you ought to know the answer to this one. Didn't anyone tell you yet? Servants and Masters can view each other's past, in their dreams. Of course, your Witch was blocking people up until you contracted me, but like I said, she can't really see anything that's happening to you right now. Long range observation on that level is suuuuper simple to scramble. And not to boast, but I'm pretty good at navigating dreams." He explains. "You could say you're an open book for me. Like Meili Portroute, right?"

…So that's how it is. I was wondering what exactly he was getting out of our contract - I knew it couldn't just be the magical energy. But it totally figures that he'd form a contract just to find some trauma to push my buttons with.

{..You really are an irredeemable piece of shit, huh?} I sigh internally.

"Ahaha, if you say so!" He laughs. "But that can't be your only question. There's another important question, right? What you should be asking isn't 'how', it's 'what'! So go on, ask! Ask away!"

I know. I was trying to avoid it, because I know I'm going to hate the answer. {'What are you going to do to me now'? That's the line you're feeding me, right?}

"Hey, you should at least try to be excited. This is part of my big plan to save humanity after all, so-" he pauses, glancing to the side. "-ah, seriously? What a pain. Sorry, Subaru, we've got to relocate a bit. One of my familiars just spotted that Chlodovech guy, so we can't just use this illusion anymore."

With a snap of his fingers, the misty world melts away-

-and I find myself being dragged through darkness, across rough stone, a cloud of chalky dust filling the air.

"By the way, did you know? Most of the stone used to build Paris actually came from quarries beneath the city. It's actually gotten to the point now that some of them are interconnected, and it's just a big underground maze." Prelati says. "If you've heard of the Paris Catacombs, these tunnels are going to become them a few hundred years from now, and serve as part of the inspiration for a certain famous Opera Ghost! Anyway, I guess that means you're going to be getting one of the first picks at a spot, Subaru! First mover advantage, I guess you'd call it."

{So you're going to kill me after all, huh?} I grumble telepathically. {Then get it over with already. Why drag it out by running from Chlodovech?}

"Ah, sorry." He lets go of me and my head cracks against the dusty tunnel floor. "This is far enough, so I guess I should explain!"

My left eye goes a bit darker, and a few instants later, pain ignites as warm wetness dribbles down my cheek. I scream internally.

"There's the scream I was looking for!~" The boy claps. "See, the thing is, just killing you is no good - I need it to be excruciating, for the plan to work. Sorry about that, but it really can't be helped."

He stomps on my still bleeding wrist, grinding the stump into the jagged dusty stone beneath me.

"So here's the thing. The King of Demon Gods, our enemy - he told you his motive, right? Or rather, Flauros did. Yadda yadda, humanity suffers too much, so we're gonna mercy kill them." Prelati gives a derisive laugh. "How boooring! What a boring reason to wipe out humanity, don't you think? Just killing you guys out of pity, in a painless manner? Where's the flair, where's the drama!? How is anyone supposed to get catharsis from that?"

{So that's your objection, you- aaahhh! Gaaah!} I start to quip, but pain quickly blots that out as he drives his knife into my thigh.

"-Anyway, I just had to oppose him after that. Not only was he going after my beloved humans, he was doing it in such a hubristic way." He continues as if nothing happened. "So I had two choices, right? To maximize the drama of it, I mean. There's the cliche route, for humanity to rise above, to prove themselves noble, to demonstrate that they did not need his pity."

{Aaah…a-and the other one?} I ask as he literally twists the knife inside my wound.

"Well, it's the opposite obviously - 'humanity is something far too vile to deserve your pity' - that's the kind of refutation I'm planning to give him!" Prelati chuckles. "So here's the gist, right? He's doing all this because he can't bear to watch. He can't bear to sit back and watch humanity suffer, so he has to blot it out. That's the heart of pity, after all - it's not some variant of love. When you pity someone, you just want them to stop suffering where you can see."

I scream internally again as he starts to break my fingers one by one.

"But here's the issue - the King of Demon Gods can see everything. He sees all, past, present, and future. So he has to destroy humanity - just to put the ugliness out of sight. And that seems to have fixed it, from his point of view. Sure, there are still seven singularities, but if he plugs his ears and closes his eyes, he can pretend they don't exist long enough for them to go away. And so, he can conveniently ignore it. He can ignore all the misery he's causing."

I don't understand. I don't understand. He's just spouting nonsense. There's no justification. Not a single way in which this has anything to do with-!

"And so, we'll make him look, you and I." Prelati whispers in my ear, and the whole horrible picture starts to slot into place.

"At first, I was just going to make the singularities as bad as possible. To utilize their unique status to create atrocities far beyond anything he had seen in the timeline before he started down this path. But then [Return by Death] came into my life!" He straddles my body, panting heavily, and I feel sick. "It's simply amazing! It's amazing, Subaru - with that ability, I can create misery without limit! Together, you and I - we'll do it! We'll create a monument to sin, create a human icon of Hell itself! An abyss so deep that a mere glance at your personal history will plunge him into despair!"

"We'll gouge out his all-seeing eye together, because we're best friends~!" He pauses for just a moment. "So, what do you think of that plan?"

{Like hell I'll -gaaaAAH! Aaah! AAAH!} I protest, and he starts dragging the knife upward, along my leg. Slowly, jerking or jiggling it occasionally as it gets caught on pits of bone and flesh.

"That's too bad. But it's fine! I'll just use Plan B - I'll torture you almost all the way to death, and then erase your memory with hypnosis, so that you don't remember this loop when you go back! And I'll keep doing that! Forever and ever, until something breaks - but by that time, I'm sure it'll be good enough!"

He laughs, and I scream. "Scream more! Cry out more! It doesn't matter if I'm the only one who hears them, because that's just what it means to be in love right-!?"

"There, and there! Ah, whoops, looks like you're getting close." He concludes, who knows how long later. "Okay, time to erase your memory. I know you've only got one eye left, but look carefully, okay?"

{H-how many…} It's an idle curiosity. A question borne of nothing but despair, the answer of which won't matter. I have no way to overcome his plan. From all my experience, Satella can't fix erased memories. She probably won't even know they've been erased, the way he's got it set up. But still, I have to know.

"Wow, you can still think straight, huh? As expected of Natsuki Subaru." The demon wearing a child's skin laughs. "The truth is, I don't know! I have no way of telling how many times we've done this! This might even be the thousandth time I've killed you in this exact manner!"

{Y-you…} I have no words. There's no escape. Not even Prelati has an off ramp. I'm just going to suffer the same exact fate, forever.

Ahahaha! That's right! We'll continue for as long as it takes for you to luck out - not that I expect that to happen for a few thousand loops! By that time, you'll be a perfect work of art! A portrait of Hell, a sculpture of Atrocity, a symphony of-gkk!"

Something shifts in the darkness. Prelati's weight is pulled off of me. For a brief moment, I see what looks like the face of a ghost in the darkness of the tunnels. Prelati tugs at a rope wrapped around his neck as he's dragged into the grasp of clawed crimson fingers.

Salvation comes in the form of a madman in an opera mask.

"You speak of music, with a hideous voice like yours! Any art produced would certainly be a sight of gore!" The new arrival hisses out to a vague tune. Something red glints in the darkness, and then-

I hear the telltale sound of a Servant dispersing.

"And now, for you - but what is this? From the lands above, a marvel left unfinished!" He sings, snatching something- the sound of paper rushing through the air. "Ah, Christine, my Christine-!"

Mozart's sheet music, I realize dully as my consciousness fades.

"-The Angel of Music shall accept this offering." He mutters, just before I lose consciousness.

Dim sunlight warms my skin - and then, I'm unceremoniously dumped on the streets of Paris. For a brief instant, I see the swirl of a black cloak as my unexpected savior vanishes into the tunnel behind me.

I wake up in agony. The fingers of my right hand are broken, and the less said about the state of my right hand, the better. There are wounds all over my body oozing blood and yet-

There's a soothing sensation, where the Holy Shroud Jeanne gave me touches my skin.

Even now, I can see the worst of my injuries sealing.

But it's not enough. A winged shape descends towards me. A lone wyvern, which somehow slipped past whatever is defending this city.

(Rapid footfalls ring out on the cobbled street to my right.)

The wyvern closes the distance, drooling jaws open-

But before it can reach me, the impossible occurs. A familiar weapon bats the winged lizard out of the air. I can't call it anything other than a miracle. Because, in spite of everything, in spite of all logic, and all my expectations-

Mash Kyrielight arrives just in time to defend me.

A/N: Well, that was a chapter.

Phantom might be a bit of a deus ex machina, but oh well!~

That's what Prelati gets for killing people on his turf.