Chapter Four: Death

The twins stared at him a moment, before Ram spoke up. "Can you not see the guidance of Grace?"

Subaru placed a thumb to his chin. "The…guidance?" he asked, then allowed his gaze to follow the trail of golden light emanating from the odd campfire. "You mean the sparkly stuff?"

Ram scowled, while Rem looked down in disappointment, then gave him an answer. "Subaru…that sparkly stuff is residual Grace that guides your people to the Elden Ring, if it calls to you. It should be attempting to take you on the path shortest to reach the first Shardbearer."

"Sh-Shardbearer?" he asked timidly. "That sounds intimidating."

Ram groaned at his ignorance. "The Shardbearers are the beings who currently possess the fragments of the shattered Elden Ring." She stepped forward and poked a finger into his chest. "You'll need to defeat them and recover those shards if you intend to reform the Ring and take the throne of the Elden Lord."

The gulp he made was audible. "A-and how strong are these Shardbearers?" he asked hesitantly.

"Well the majority of them are demigods," Rem sighed, "some of which have never been defeated in combat, even against other demigods."

"So in short," Ram interjected, "very strong." Seeing the terrified look on the boy's face, she reassured him, "not to worry, Barusu. That's the whole reason we're here. You'll get stronger as you collect runes and allow us to turn them into strength."

He seemed to calm a bit at this. "Right," he said, clenching his fist. "Thanks, Ram-Ram. Rem-Rem. I won't let you down."

Ram didn't seem terribly convinced, but Rem was again blushing at the nickname.

"Okay!" he yelled, punching his palm. "Let's do this! Just follow the sparkly stuff, yeah? No problem!" He began striding forward, attempting to not dwell on the worried looks adorning the faces of his new Finger Maidens.

Rounding a corner deeper in the cave, Subaru nearly stumbled to his hands before regaining his composure and retreating behind the wall from which he'd emerged. Several meters ahead, facing the cave wall with its back to him, was a man, seemingly very old, wearing a gold tunic and wielding a slender sword.

"My first mob, huh?" he whispered to himself, a devilish smirk adorning his face. "Looks like an opportunity to gain some XP." Readying himself, he lowered into a crouching stance and began to sneak forward.

After coming within just a meter or two, and realizing that the old man seemed to have difficulty noticing him, Subaru quickly stood and pushed his right foot into the man's back with all his might, kicking him into the rough wall of rock. The man's frail frame rebounded off its surface and stumbled back, letting out a pained wail. The scary-eyed teen caught the man and slipped an arm under his chin, beginning to squeeze with the entirety of his strength.

That strength quickly began to dissipate once Subaru got a decent look at the man's face from his peripheral vision.

"Ah, yagh!" he screamed, releasing his grip and falling to his rear end. His wide eyes and trembling hands held him in place as the decrepit old man turned to him. The corpse of a person had dry, husk-like skin, and empty, hollow eyes. He looked no different than a person dug from their grave. "Z-zombie! It's a fuckin' zombie!"

The boy found his cognisance and scrambled to his feet, establishing some distance between him and one of his greatest childhood nightmares. Ever since his father forced him to watch 'Night of the Living Dead' when he was a kid, he'd been absolutely terrified of zombies and similar undead.

"Hell no, Ram and Rem never said anything about zombies! I did not sign up for this!" The spiky-haired teen steeled himself, settling into a fighting stance with his fists raised in front of him. He released a growl in an attempt to both intimidate his opponent and psych himself up. It didn't work.

"Alright, you gross cadaver! Let's do this!" With a battle cry, he rushed forward and leapt, planting both sneakered feet into the zombie's chest. The walking corpse once again slammed into the wall, this time falling to its hands and knees, its sword clattering to the gravel floor between them. Subaru let out a gasp, before crawling forward quickly and grabbing the sword.

Standing and readying himself, he raised the slender blade above his head and just as quickly swung downward, slashing into the creature's back around the shoulder blade. The ancient man let out another pained wail, reaching out to him with the last of its strength before dying. The moment its body went limp, a small glow was emitted as the now-familiar sparkly stuff left it and flowed into Subaru's chest. His eyes glowed once again as his soul absorbed the power of Grace.

"Hell yeah! XP!" he shouted, balling his left hand into a triumphant fist while his right brandished his new weapon. "Those guys are creepy as hell, but their skill level is lacking. Must be this world's trash mobs!"

Riding high on his new-found confidence, Subaru continued forward and found another zombie on its hands and knees, digging for something in the dirt.

Grunting and swiping a thumb across his nose, he smirked and yelled, "let's go, ya bag of bones! It's farmin' time!"

He bounded forward, his sword extended behind him. The zombie noticed him and stood shakily, beginning to shamble forward. Once they were a few meters apart, the zombie raised its sword and readied itself with a hollow wail, before stumbling forward awkwardly.

'Huh?' Subaru thought to himself. 'These guys are slow!' He easily dodged the sloppy strike that took an eternity to come down towards him. 'And…not very good. Trash mobs, indeed.'

As the zombie took several moments to try to recover from its blundered attack, a slim golden blade burst forth from its chest, forcing a groan from its rotten throat. A sneering voice grumbled from beside its weathered face. "Don't be too upset about it, zombie-guy. Getting ganked by this world's destined hero is nothing to be ashamed of."

Subaru removed his blade in a quick motion, his free hand on the zombie's shoulder to keep it steady. The undead monster released a death sigh, falling to its stomach as Subaru once again absorbed its residual Grace.

Turning to walk deeper in the cave, he had no time to celebrate before he was forced to dodge the oncoming strike from a third zombie. He found his back connecting harshly with the rocky wall, slightly winding him and making it more difficult to catch his panicked breath. The discomfort was worth the relief of not being split in two by one of his worst nightmares.

"Man, you guys are sneaky!" he whined between gasping breaths. Taking the opportunity of another zombie once again needing to recover with its back to him, Subaru lunged forward and repeated his actions against the previous enemy, forcing his blade through the corpse's unsuspecting back. Forgoing the usual taunts so as to not end up being surprised again, he removed his sword and quickly spun around before the zombie's body hit the ground, preparing himself for another attack. No such thing came, luckily.

He finally caught his breath and let out a sigh, placing his hands on his knees. Focusing his vision on the path ahead, he saw another zombie guarding the way out of his current room.

"Damn it," he growled, "they aren't strong, but there's so damn many of them! I've taken infinite stamina regeneration in video games for granted."

Ignoring his rapid heart rate, Subaru rushed forward and ran the unsuspecting and unprepared zombie through, pinning it to the wall behind. He removed his blade and watched the creature fall, silently congratulating himself on the quick dispatch.

He continued forward, finding a few short ledges that he pulled himself up on. After rounding a corner, he came to a wide open space with no enemies. The relief was instant, and he broke into a light jog in an attempt to get as far into the cave as he could before finding his next opponent.

Unfortunately, he only made it six paces or so before his right side jerked backward, as if a rope tied around his arm was yanked with tremendous force. He barely kept himself afoot, regaining his balance and then inspecting the area in which he'd felt the impact. What he saw confused him a bit, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Some sort of projectile was protruding from the shoulder of his tracksuit.

An…arrow?

His nasty eyes widened as he witnessed a red stain begin to spread from the point where the wooden shaft ended and the cloth of his suit began. He…was bleeding. But that couldn't be, surely? If his body had been penetrated by a bladed weapon, wouldn't he be feeling some sort of-

"Ghk," he grunted, his left hand coming up to grasp at his upper bicep, "ah, aghhh!" He let out a stuttered and guttural scream as his sinapses finally pushed through the shock and registered to him the pain ripping through his body. He finally saw the sword he'd previously been holding lying on the cave floor, not having noticed it before now due to the entire lack of feeling and strength in his right arm from the elbow down.

He dropped to his knees in agony, his eyes gripping shut tightly as he tried to fight the pain. He pushed a single eye open to inspect his surroundings, attempting to locate his attacker. He heard a shuffle from above him, and glanced towards the sound just in time to find a knight of some kind - stood atop a rocky bridge suspended above the room in which he currently knelt - reloading a crossbow and aiming it directly at him.

"Shit!" he yelled before rolling to his left, just barely avoiding the second bolt that buried itself in the dirt and gravel. He forced himself to his feet and began to sprint towards the exit of the room, passing under the bridge. Just as he was about to reach the opening, another forceful impact found its way into the back of his upper-right thigh, taking his feet from under him and sending him sliding forward face-first on the rough ground.

The pain of the new injury came to him much faster than the last, his body not having the residual adrenaline to keep him blissfully unaware of his wounded state. Blinking the dirt from his eyes, he looked forward and found another campfire, but…an actual campfire this time, not the hopeful sparkly stuff he'd come to love so quickly.

His dashed hopes were further ground into the mud when he noticed the second knight, holding a tower shield and spear, walking towards him.

Subaru's eyes widened at the approaching foe he had no way of defending himself against. "N-no, please!" he begged, dreading his situation. The knight continued silently, ignoring his pleas. As he closed the distance, he raised his spear arm and twirled it in his grip, then brought it down swiftly, impaling the prone boy through his back.

"Ghk!" Subaru watched as blood was expelled from his throat, splattering the rock and dead grass in front of him. He tried to scream, but his airway was obscured by the thick, red fluid that long-struggled to keep his fragile form alive. The specks he'd spit up on the ground were soon engulfed by the expanding pool originating from the hole in his chest made by the spear that currently pinned him to the ground.

'I'm…I'm losing all of it,' he thought, his vision slowly leaving him. 'Am I gonna…die?' He lost all ability to move, having sacrificed too much blood to keep his body functioning and all reserve power being diverted to his vital organs in a last-ditch effort to keep the lights on, as it were. 'I-I don't want to die. I thought I was…the hero. I thought I was…supposed to…save everyone.'

As all sense abandoned him and he found himself in a void, the scared teenager felt the last of his consciousness slip away, even his perception of said void becoming paradoxical in nature as that, too, left him.

Subaru Natsuki was dead.