I do not own Re:Zero or any of the characters.
Bad news
The sounds of combat filled the chamber as Ian and Reid clashed. The others had all retreated from the Trial chamber, save for Rem and Ram, while Ian struggled with all his might to overcome Reid. For Elena's sake, he was neglecting to use his Authority, but everything else was in play, even his horn, though with a promise from Reid not to target it, or to break anyone's weapons when they fought, out of a sense of sportsmanship, no matter how small that sense may have been.
"Open, ya prick!" Ried roared, sending Ian flying backward yet again.
They'd been going for several hours, but Ian hadn't even come close to making Reid even pivot, much less move. Rem had also taken her turn interspersed with Ian's, using both her flail and Ian's Whip Sword, and using both at once one time, but she'd also failed to defeat Reid. Only Ram had not gone yet.
"Alright, now it's your turn, ya twat," Reid said, grinning at Ram.
Ram narrowed her eyes and stalked forward with her scythe. As she held the scythe under her arm and behind her, the blade on her right and extending into the air, her horn grew from her forehead. Reid instantly tensed, sensing the difference in power between Ian and Ram.
"Don't damage the tower, Ram," Ian reminded her. "No need to set off Shaula yet."
Ram nodded, then leapt forward, seeming to take flight. Reid became a blur of movement, his chopsticks deflecting her scythe over and over. However, the longer they fought, the faster Ram moved, rapidly becoming as much a blur as her scythe was. She flashed around and around Ried, striking anywhere from once to five times each time she passed him, but also when she twirled around him, flipped over him, or otherwise passed within range. Ian couldn't even track the battle. They were both too fast and powerful. Finally, however, the shaft of Ram's scythe slammed into him with no warning, and he sailed backward, bouncing and rolling across the floor. Reid stood, grinning, and nodded.
"Not bad, ya twat," Reid commended. "Next?"
"Not right now," Ian said. "We'll be back."
Reid nodded and pulled his left sleeve back on before sitting beside his unused sword again. Ian and the others left the chamber at last, making their way first to the Green Room to check on Shaula, Julius, and Anastasia, then to the adjacent room where the others were gathered.
"There you are!" Subaru said immediately. "Any luck?"
"Ram won," Ian said. "No dice for me and Rem, though."
Subaru sighed, nodding. "At least someone else did."
Ian nodded in agreement, one hand resting on his White Whale Sword's hilt. He itched to try again. He'd enjoyed the impossible challenge of facing Reid, but now wasn't the time to uselessly waste his time facing a foe that he couldn't defeat. They all began to go over everything they knew about Reid Astrea, but it wasn't a very useful exercise. None of them were history buffs. Only Julius was.
"Ian!" Elena shouted, bursting through the door with Shaula, who had her hand in Elena's. "Julius is gone!"
"God dammit!" Ian growled. "He went to challenge Reid again!"
Everyone ran outside, but Ian and Ram activated their Wind Magic cloaks, racing up the stairs ahead of the others. However, when they arrived, they stopped. Julius was wielding Reid's sword, Julius's own sword shattered between Ian and Julius. Except, Julius was being beaten bloody, and unlike Reid's earlier agreement, Reid's feet were moving. However, neither Ian nor Ram, nor even Julius, made mention of it. This battle wasn't simply for the qualifications to enter the next section of the library. It wasn't about the Trial. This fight was for Julius. As such, when Rem and Emilia arrived a moment later, Ian and Ram held out their arms, blocking them from interfering. Both remained silent in understanding that it wasn't their place to step in, and they all watched in silence as Reid broke down Julius more and more. As Julius struggled pitifully against Reid, Ian explained to Emilia in a whisper that Julius wasn't fighting for the Trial, but for his own pride and honor, which was why Reid hadn't lost despite moving around. Subaru arrived next, followed by Elena and Shaula as the last pair, but all of them remained silent. Shaula was silent from fear, Subaru was silent from understanding as soon as he saw the shattered sword before the group, and Elena was silent from shock that Julius was even able to move still. And finally, Reid took an overtly offensive stance, then struck. The strike was the pinnacle, the absolute zenith of swordsmanship, and through swordsmanship alone took on a magic quality, unleashing a blinding white light as it struck Julius. As the strike fell, and as Reid's sword, which Julius had been wielding, crashed to the ground, only Subaru shouted out to him, Ian, Rem, and Ram all remaining silent in respect to Julius's intentions in fighting Reid alone again, and the others all too stunned at the strike itself to speak.
As the light faded a split second later, Julius collapsed, and Subaru ran forward. Ian gripped his sword and watched Reid, but Reid made no move to interfere. Subaru lifted Julius onto his back, took a second to glare at Reid, and then turned, retreating back down the stairs. The others all stayed for a moment, Shaula hiding behind Elena.
"Well?" Reid asked. "You wanna go next, ya prick?"
"Trial rules?" Ian checked.
Reid grinned and nodded, Ian drawing his sword and extending his horn. Then, his magic roared to life around him before he exploded forward, striking at Reid over and over, only for the fight to once again be a one-sided slaughter by Reid. Finally, Ian backed away, his sword retracting.
"Ya givin' up, ya prick?" Reid asked.
"Yeah," Ian nodded. "I'm too tired from out earlier fighting to be able to beat you."
Reid grinned and nodded, only for his grin to turn to a smirk as Rem stepped past Ian, extending her own horn as she pulled her flail from under her cloak and drew Ian's Whip Sword. Reid opened his mouth to speak, only to instantly lean back as Rem's flail whipped past, less than an inch from his nose. Then, Rem was on the offensive with the sword, flail, chain, and her kicks and magic as well. Reid's grin grew more and more as he fended her off. Icicles rained at him from all sides, ranging from the small spikes of El Huma to the massive spears of Ul Huma. No matter what was used, nothing could get through, and neither could her flail, though to Reid's credit, he kept his promise not to break their weapons during a Trial match. Finally, he sent the Whip Sword spinning out of Rem's hand and back toward Ian, who caught it by the hilt, eyes not leaving the battle.
The instant that the whip sword had left Rem's hand, she'd ripped her cloak off and hurled it into the air between herself and Reid, then used for ice spikes to catch the edges and drag it toward him, with an Al Huma spear in the center as a hidden attack. However, in doing all of this, she also exposed her hidden outfit to everyone watching. Ram let out a guttural grunt at the sight, Ian hummed appreciatively, Elena squealed in jealous, approving, delight at the sight, and Shaula and Emilia simply squeaked in surprise. However, the hidden attack failed, as Reid slashed vertically with his chopstick and split both cloak and ice spear in half perfectly. Except, as soon as the halves parted and revealed Rem's outfit, his face split into a wide, lecherous grin as he darted forward. His chopsticks lunged. And then their approach reversed direction sharply as Rem's flail's chain collided with Reid between his legs from where it had been yanked up by the head trapped in the Al Huma spear being pulled to the chain's full length. Reid wailed in pain and dismay as he sailed into the air, and the ice spear shattered, freeing the flail, which Rem pulled back to herself and promptly tucked away under the cloth hanging from the side of her waist, the flail vanishing from sight as she sealed it. She returned to Ian and accepted the Whip Sword, returning it to its sheath at her waist, then reached up, kissing him, the kiss outwardly innocent yet charged with hunger, as was the one she shared with Ram a moment later.
"Ian," Elena said, her voice carefully controlled. "Excellent choice of outfits."
Ian grinned. "Thank you." He glanced at Reid, who was still cradling himself. "You alright?"
"Beat it," Reid squeaked.
Ian chuckled, nodding. "We're done for today. Thank you for humoring us."
Reid glared at him but said nothing as they all descended the stairs.
"There is no miasma here," Rem said as she, Ram, and Ian stood on the balcony, Rem still bare of her cloak, as it wasn't fully repaired yet, and also since her outfit had already been exposed, so hiding it with the cloak was unnecessary.
The balcony was one of several surrounding the Watchtower. Sniping perches for Shaula to use in order to defend the tower, if Ian had to guess. They were hidden by illusionary walls at set intervals around the fourth floor, each opening only about waist high. In truth, Ian and his twin girlfriends would have never found the opening at all if not for a complete coincidence. They'd been walking along one of the hallways along the outside of the fourth floor when Rem had caught the scent of miasma blowing from an opening. She'd only barely been able to tell the difference between it and Ian's, saying that it smelled more foul than Ian's own miasma, and then reached out to the wall that seemed to stink of miasma, only for her hand to pass through.
"If we're above the miasma, apart from you being able to smell it, it should be safe to pull in Mana from here, right?" Ian asked.
"Yes," Ram nodded. "It should be safe."
Ian extended his horn alongside the sisters, and all three began to pull in Mana rapidly, Ian also transferring Mana to Wolf. Finally, once they'd restored their energy completely, they all headed back inside again.
"Should we tell the others?" Rem asked.
"Not yet," Ian said. "For now, let them focus on the Trials."
"Agreed," Ram nodded. "The only ones who need to know are us three, who require the clean Mana."
Ian nodded in agreement. "It's good we found that opening. If a rule is broken and we have to fight Shaula, I expect we'll need to have our strength as close to full as possible."
The sisters nodded. They all headed back to the lower floor where their Earth Dragon was lying with Gyan and the Dragon Carriage. As with every night, they lay against its side and it pretended to not notice them.
"Do you ever intend to give this dragon a name?" Ram asked after a few moments of silence.
"Hm?" Ian asked, looking over at her, then up at the dragon, who was watching him in silence. "I suppose I could. I just haven't really needed to, since he always seems to know when we're talking to him without us having to say a name. Do you want one?"
The dragon made no response, simply continuing to watch him.
"Well, how about Hunter, then?" Ian asked.
The dragon regarded him for a moment, then set his head down. Ian shrugged, settling back against the dragon's side again.
"I guess he approves," Rem said. "We should get some sleep, now that we've recharged."
Ian and Ram both nodded in approval, and both sisters curled into Ian's sides before the three drifted off to sleep. However, what felt like moments later, they were shaken awake by their bed rocking to the side to throw them off.
"Now what?" Ian asked, then yawned. "What time is it?"
"It's morning," Wolf reported, manifesting in his full form beside them. "And Elena, Aria, and I have been trying to wake you three for several minutes."
"What's wrong?" Ram asked.
"Subaru is in the Green Room, unconscious," Elena said from where she was standing ahead of them, Aria hovering at her side, also in her full form. "Beatrice and Emilia found him unconscious and couldn't wake him up."
"Something feels wrong," Aria reported.
Ian frowned, then pushed himself up, nodding. "Wolf, you'll be staying out for now. Let's go check on Subaru, then we'll see about whatever feels wrong."
Everyone nodded and Wolf and Aria both returned to their spherical forms but remained visible, hovering around Ian and Elena. The group hurried up the stairs and to the Green Room before stopping, finding Subaru was awake. Just as they arrived, however, the thing that was wrong became blatantly obvious.
"Let me introduce myself again. My name is Natsuki Subaru!" Subaru struck a pose, as he hadn't in so long, with one hand pointing at the ceiling and another resting on his waist, his foot cocked out to the side and a wide, false grin on his face. "Shamefully ignorant, blown here by the immortal winds of Gods and Demons! An uncouth vagrant, but nonetheless pleased to meet thee!"
"Oh no," Ian breathed.
"It can't be," Elena gasped.
"Gluttony," Ram said darkly.
"Well, but...we already know...you," Emilia said finally, after nearly ten seconds of her and Beatrice sitting in a stunned silence.
"This is way too late for self-introductions isn't it!?" Beatrice snapped.
"Subaru, you really don't recognize anyone here, do you?" Ian asked, walking into the room with the others, left hand gripping his sword's sheath, prepared to draw at a moment's notice.
"Who are you?" Subaru asked. "And no."
"This is bad," Ian said. "Emilia, Beatrice, Gluttony is here. At least one of them. Go and find the others. Gather them all to this floor's main area."
Both girls hesitated, but then nodded and left.
"Elena, you stay," Ian said. "Rem, Ram, you two go with Emilia and Beatrice. Be careful."
The twins nodded and quickly kissed Ian before following Emilia and Beatrice out of the room.
"Did you seriously just kiss both members of a set of twins?" Subaru asked. "What a trash human being you are."
"Shut the hell up, Subaru!" Ian snapped, Subaru blinking in surprise. "I'm going to make this very simple for you, because I don't have time to deal with a complete personality reset from you. You were summoned to this world more than a year ago, not just now."
"What!?" Subaru gaped.
"Elena and I are from America," Ian said. "We understand how you feel, but there are warnings that you have to be ready to be ready to hear, and you cannot, under any circumstance, interrupt us or question what we say. You were summoned here with a special ability, something like a respawn in a video game, but you cannot speak about it yourself. If you do, there's a very painful penalty. The one who granted the ability will punish you by crushing your heart in your chest, enough to cause pain but not kill you. Using your ability, you've managed to save and protect everyone that's currently in this tower from a long list of very dangerous enemies. One of them is a member of a group known as the Witch Cult. He's one of a set, both known as the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. One's name is Roy Alphard, and the other is Lye Batenkaitos. Both of them possess the ability to steal their victims' memories, or else steal the entire world's memories of them, which is called stealing their name. Currently, you seem to have had your own memories stolen by one of the two, so we're going to be searching the tower for them and kill them.
"As for the current state of affairs, we're at a location known as the Pleiades Watchtower, or the Great Library of Pleiades, in order to find a way to restore that which was taken by Gluttony." Ian paused. "I may be able to reset your memories, to return them to you, if I make you respawn, however the save point may have updated to waking up without them."
"What, you want to kill me!?" Subaru yelped. "No way!"
"Then for the time being, you need to remain quiet and not do anything," Ian said. "We'll reintroduce everyone to you, and explain how everyone knows you, but you need to understand that your current personality is absolutely unacceptable."
"Excuse me?" Subaru asked.
"You're weak, to the point of uselessness, and you have very few redeeming qualities," Ian said. "You are literally the weakest member of our entire group. You are not flamboyant, you are not a showboat, and without your memories, you are going to cause many members of our group a great deal of emotional pain. The immediate victims will be the two girls who were just here, Emilia, who you've been in love with since you arrived a year ago, and Beatrice, the little girl who you have had a relationship with somewhere between older brother to a little sister, and father to a daughter, for about six months. We'll get into the specifics later, but here's what you need to know now. To both, promises are tantamount to religion for them. If you make them a promise, you will keep it, under pain of crushing their hearts into dust. You already made that mistake with Emilia once, and she hated you for it. You need to understand that your personality, as it stands now, is borderline toxic."
"You have an awful lot of insults for someone I just met!" Subaru snapped.
"I've known you since the day you arrived here," Ian said. "I watched you flounder in your attempts to impress Emilia, break her heart and drive her away, then risk your life to save hers, earn your spot at her side, and ultimately flounder to the point of excess in order to protect both her and all of our friends. I am also your friend, Subaru, so I'm not insulting you. I'm trying to impress upon you that you need to try and act humble, truly humble, for the sake of maintaining your friendships with the others and for the sake of sparing them all pain."
"Alright, already!" Subaru snapped. "Geez! Let's just go!"
Ian nodded and the three of them walked out of the Green Room, then waited for the others to arrive. After a few minutes, they did, and Ian took a moment to do a full headcount. Everyone was present.
"Is it true?" Julius asked.
"It's true," Ian nodded. "Gluttony is here somewhere, and he's eaten this shithead's memories."
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