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

6. Lethal Devotion

Hello everyone, if you are reading this then welcome to the sixth chapter of Pleiades: A Lonely Star Dies.

Much like last time I don't have too much to say in regards to opening statements, but I hope everyone had a happy christmas and a good new year, which I can't really say for myself considering that I was sick throughout all of Christmas and the new year, but I'm on the mends now so that's always positive.

(PS I would like to give quick shout out to scattershot 98, ricky117, Deathenglegamers1144, at one of the many other guests that commented, appreciate all of you immensely)

Anyway without any further let's get onto the next chapter shall we.

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The screen quickly went blank, leaving everyone in an uneasy silence to ponder what they had just seen. So far Subaru's journey on the cursed ship that was the USG Ishimura, had undoubtedly been horrifying to watch, from the rampage hallucinations that were tearing his sanity apart. To the horrific monstrosities that were hiding around every corner, waiting for the right moment to tell him to pieces.

But for a certain half-elf, the most pressing question of all was why was it her visage and likeness, that was being used to torment him at every possible turn. Whispering sweet nothings into his ear and trying to lower his guard, for some unknown but most likely sinister purpose.

And ultimately this was the question that Emilia wanted to answer the most. But at the same time, there was also another part of the brain that didn't want to know the answer, for what the specter that was using her face was ultimately planning to do, with Subaru nothing once he finally gave in to its sweet lies.

However, she was suddenly taken from her mental tug of war, by the feeling of something wriggling slightly in her hand. And looking down she was surprised to see Subaru's and which have been opened before, had curled into a loose fist. And quickly looking over to his face, which was still currently resting comfortably in Beatrice's tiny lap. She saw his eyelids twitch ever so slightly, as a slight frown made its way onto his face.

"His dreams have turned unpleasant I suppose" Despite her voice barely being above a whisper, Emilia almost jumped out of her skin when Beatrice spoke. but after taking a deep breath and calming her racing heart, Emilia looked towards the little spirit questioningly. the curious part of herself desperately wanted to ask, what exactly Subaru was dreaming about, but the rational part of her brain quickly drown that out. Because after all, the connection between a spirit and their contractor, was a deeply personal connection that was reserved for only the spirit and the contractor. But still, it didn't stop her from being curious, and slightly worried about what Subaru had been dreaming about this entire time.

"Perhaps if Subaru was resting in my lap, his dreams would maybe be more pleasant" Rem didn't even try to hide the contempt in her voice. Looking at Beatrice as if the spirit was nothing more than a piece of trash on the sidewalk, and despite being taken off guard by the comment, Beatrice didn't respond verbally, instead sending a truly murderous and ambitious glare towards the blue hair demon maid. However, despite shuddering slightly from the vicious glad that was sent her way, Rem did not back down, instead keeping her gaze directly squared on the little spirit, that currently had Subaru resting comfortably in her lap.

"You two... P-Please T-there's no need to fight" Emilia desperately want to diffuse the situation, mostly for the sake of Subaru, who she feared would become a tug-of-war object between the two. But there was also something else, it was an almost imperceptible little voice in her mind, whispering to her, that if the blue-haired maid get her hands on Subaru. Then something pretty terrible could happened to him, considering Rem's track record from previous loops.

"Keep your mouth shut, you dirty half-el-" Rem didn't get a chance to finish. As her insult was interrupted by somebody forcefully smacking the back of her head. And after the initial shock of the strike wearing off, Rem felt her anger skyrocket as she quickly turned around, ready to brutalize whoever had just hit her. However, her anger quickly drained away, when she saw that it was none other than her sister Ram, who was giving a hard and vicious look of disapproval.

"You need to get a hold of yourself sister! as a resident of the Manor, she is as much our master as lord Roswaal is, and you need to remember that… do I make myself clear!?" Ram didn't raise her voice, but the hard and authoritative edge in her voice was enough to make even the knights in the room sweat slightly. And after a moment of looking at her pink-haired sister in shock and confusion, Rem bowed her head slightly, accepting what her sister had told her. Yet Ram was still concerned for her sister, especially when before she turned away, Rem sent a look of mild contempt toward Ram.

"Rem... what's wrong with you?" Ram murmured quietly, a deep feeling of concern for her sister quickly overtaking her. After all ever since the beginning of the viewing, Rem had been acting quite strange, from her being overly confrontational and angry with Emilia to the look of dismissal that she had sent Ram's way.

Beatrice didn't even give the blue-haired maid a response to what she had said, instead simply letting out a huff of annoyance, choosing to ignore her. However Beatrice suddenly felt a strange awful feeling, it was almost as if somebody was standing directly behind her, breathing down the back of her neck. And despite not wanting to Beatrice slowly turned her head around, but stopped as soon as the periphery of her vision, caught the briefest flash of white hair, and a brief glimpse of a black form-fitting dress.

"My dear Beatrice... don't you know it's rude to ignore your mother" The voice was barely above a whisper, but to Beatrice, it might as well have been a cannon going off right next to her ears. But due to the fear that was coursing through her veins, Beatrice didn't jump or scream out physically, instead simply tightening her grip on her contractor, as she could feel the almost disapproving glare of whatever was behind her. And after a moment of this, Beatrice could feel the presents growing angrier, before it seemingly vanished, leaving Beatrice a shaking and stuttering mess, as she tried to take some comfort from the sleeping Subaru that was in her lap.

"Beatrice... Beatrice!? what's the matter?" Emilia was the only one at first to notice Beatrice's almost near panic attack. Watching with a growing amount of concern, as the little spirit's body continue to shake like a leaf, her eyes having a horrifyingly familiar, far away and unfocused look to them. And even after putting a hand on her shoulder, Emilia couldn't seem to shake Beatrice from whatever trance she was in.

"P-P-please no... J-just leave me alone" Beatrice quietly murmured to herself, the dark and evil presents having long left. yet that did very little to actually soothe the fear still coursing through her veins, in fact, the only thing that was stopping her from having a full-blown panic attack, was her contractor's gentle breathing, and the warm feel of his skin against her own. In fact, she was so blinded by her fear, that she didn't even respond or even acknowledge Emilia.

"Beatrice, please answer-" Emilia didn't get a chance to finish her sentence, as she felt a searing pain explode in her head. Causing her to let out a quiet, but very much still audible gasp. Yet whether or not her friends heard the gasp, Emilia didn't notice, quickly grabbing her head in her hands, as the pain only seemed to increase with each passing second. But even as the pain continue to increase, something else came with it. Strange symbols and markings that she couldn't quite make heads or tails of, began to flash in her mind, accompanied by a strange almost ethereal sounding voice, whispering eldridge and unintelligible words into her ear. Yet as quickly as the pain started, it quickly subsided, the strange symbols and whispering quickly disappearing along with it. And as Emilia sat there trying to control her breathing, she was finally able to hear the voices of her concerned friends.

"Emilia! lady Emilia! are you all right!?" Emilia blinked a few times, turning her head to see that Frederica was standing next to her, a look of very palpable concern on the blonde maid's face. yet as she went to answer Emilia hesitated, something small and insignificant in the back of her mind telling her, that they didn't need to know what she had just experienced. But even if she ignored the voice, how could she put what she had just experienced into words? But before she could make a decision, it seemed like fate decided for her, as a shaky and still terrified voice made itself known.

"Y-you saw something... didn't you, I suppose... something that shouldn't have been there yet was" Emilia and everyone else immediately turned to the voice, only to find that it was Beatrice that had spoken. Her face still having a look of almost complete terror on it, yet as Emilia locked eyes with the little spirit, no words needed to be exchanged, for the half-elf to realise that Beatrice knew or at least had some idea of what had happened to her. And intern Emilia felt horror quickly rising up in her, because it was now definitive proof, that her episode when not contained to herself. As if it was some kind of strange virus that was slowly spreading amongst everyone in the theatre.

"What exactly are you talking about Beatrice?" Ram asks with a relatively flat tone to her voice. Completely betraying just how concerned she was by what Beatrice had just said, in fact, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't help her think about her sister's strange and out-of-character behaviour.

"Some really freaky shit is going" Garfiel couldn't suppress a shiver from running up his spine, although counter to what many would believe, it wasn't because of what Beatrice and Emilia had experienced. Of course, though he was concerned about them, considering that Emilia was next in line to become royalty and Beatrice was the contracted spirit of his captain. But the reason he felt so unnerved, was that his animalistic Instincts were telling him that something was incredibly wrong. In fact, the only way that Garfield could truly describe it was that it felt like he was being watched by some kind of apex predator, waiting for the perfect moment of strike.

"You're right Garfield, something's very not right" Frederica said with an even and flat tone, excusing her brother's foul language just this once. Because much like Garfiel, she also felt the strange feeling of being observed, causing a horrifying chill to run all the way down her spine. And before she knew it. She had instinctively made her way back to Petra, giving the young girl a less than convincing reassuring smile, as she sat down next to her, keeping herself on high alert just in case something jumped out of the shadows to attack them.

"Hooooowwww peculiar" Roswaal mused quietly to himself, both interested and ever so slightly concerned by the strange and supernatural happenings that were occurring to the Emilia camp. In fact, the clown-faced magician, couldn't help but think back to his own strange encounter earlier in the viewing. At the time he had nearly discounted it as nothing more than a fragment of his imagination, but with the reveal that the members of the Emilia camp seemingly were experiencing their own strange happenings, Roswaal couldn't stop a slight shiver from running down his spine. Because they could only mean that his imagination wasn't the one responsible for whatever he had felt in the earlier part of the viewing.

"The more we see... the more questions there are" Crusch murmured quietly to herself, the gears in her brain furiously racing to try and piece together the larger mystery of what exactly was going on. On that strange and horrifying ship that Subaru had found himself on, and more importantly, the green-haired duchess desperately wanted an answer to the strange dreams she had, and the other strange happenings that she had experienced.

"Nyah~you can say that again Crusch" Felix couldn't help but agree with his mistress. So far everything that had been shown to them. Simply left more questions than it ever tried to answer, which also wasn't helped by the strange happenings that happened, to quite a few members of the audience. In fact, despite there being very little evidence the say so, Felix couldn't help but feel like something was intentionally toying with them. Poking and prodding at their mental defenses like a predator, before pulling back and hiding in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"I honestly don't know if I can even keep up anymore... like what's even going on anymore? Felt said with a frustrated sigh, gently rubbing the side of her head with one of her hands, as the little gears in her brain furiously worked their hardest to try and piece together what exactly was going on.

"That's a good question Felt" Anastasia's words were quiet, as her own mind was trying to piece together exactly what was going on. So far everything they had witnessed simply left more questions than answers, with perhaps the biggest the most pressing questions, being the source of Subaru's strange hallucinations, and the strange reanimated Monsters that was stalking the hallways.

Alright girls and boys, unfortunately, we're going to have to move on very quickly now

Everyone couldn't help but give a collective groan of disappointment, so far it seemed like at the start of every new viewing, they got less and less time to actually try and piece together what they had witnessed previously. In fact, quite a few members of the audience couldn't help but feel that the pace of the viewings were becoming somewhat ridiculous. And a certain red-headed princess couldn't help but let her frustration be known.

"Honestly, this is ridiculous! You gather us here against our will to view this commoner's pathetic excuse for a life... And yet you're not even giving us time, to actually process the information we are being forced to observe" Priscilla could feel the multiple glares being directed her way, yet she did not waver or falter, keeping her nose up high. Because on top of her time being wasted by simply being here, she wasn't even given the opportunity to think about anything she has been seeing so far. And considering her short fuse, it all ultimately just served to annoy her even more.

"While she could have worded it better, I think I must agree with Priscilla, if I may be frank, you've been giving us less and less time recently to actually comprehend what they had seen so far" Crusch sent a vicious glare towards Priscilla, before turning her gaze back to the blank screen. And despite it being blank, the green-haired dutchess could somehow feel the warden's gaze upon her, as if he regarding her with a questioning and slightly annoyed gaze.

"Crusch is right, perhaps give us just a moment to process everything... it's all a bit much to take in" Emilia said quietly, flashes of the horrifying specter that was haunting Subaru quickly and forcefully entering her mind, causing her to shudder slightly. And despite her best efforts, the more horrifying and unpleasant images began to flood her mind, everything from the deformed visitors of the monsters to the remnants of her nightmare and her own hallucinations that she had experienced. All of it crashed into her psyche at once, causing Emilia to wrap her arms around her chest, as her eyes took on an almost manic look, her breathing becoming hard and ragged. But after a moment Emilia managed to control herself again, yet despite trying to clear her mind the images did not leave.

(sigh) Listen, if I could I would give you guys more time, unfortunately, time is somewhat of a luxury we don't have at the moment

"This is utterly ridiculous!" Ram said with a frustrated say, metaphorically coming to the very end of her rope, regarding the amount of annoyance she was willing to take for one day. After all, it seems like the warden was intentionally messing around with them, seemingly pushing their buttons just for the sake of it. And if that was the case she wasn't happy about it one bit.

"If I may be so bold to ask Mr warden... why exactly do we not have enough time?" Wilhelm decided that it was best not to beat around the bush, instead straight up asking the warden why exactly they didn't have time. After all, it was a bit strange for them to not have time to process what they had seen, considering that time passed differently in this space compared to the outside world, meaning that for all intents and purposes, they had infinite time to actually watch Subaru's "adventures" while almost no time passed in the outside world.

"Sir Wilhelm, does indeed make a good point" Frederica was very much on the same page as Wilhelm, not quite understanding why they were limited on time, when previously they had been told by the warden that the passage of time meant nothing in this place, meaning that they could be here for years upon years, and yet would never age and no time would pass on the outside world.

"I concur with Miss Frederica and sir Wilhelm, surely it would be for the best to give us at least some time to process everything" Julius couldn't repress a small side from escaping his lips, after all the seemingly increasing pace of the viewings, most certainly beginning to track him down. And despite not feeling physically tired, Julius could say that his mind was absolutely exhausted, trying to keep up with everything that had been happening.

Again... if I could, I would, but I simply can't and that's all I can say

Everyone that out a collective sigh of Disapproval, yet considering that the warden had all of the power in this situation, there was literally nothing they could do to argue against the ever-strict time schedule the warden of putting on them, in terms of the viewing place. As such everyone ready themselves the best they could, mentally and physically preparing themselves, for whatever twisted nightmares and abominations they were most likely going to see.

"Now arriving, Medical deck, please mind the gap"

Subaru felt the tram beginning to decelerate, quickly grabbing onto one of the many pull handles, and using it to keep himself upright as to tram came to an abrupt but controlled stop. The doors quickly opening up to reveal the very same medical deck, that he'd escaped less than an hour ago.

Yet as he stepped out onto the platform, Subaru was surprised and slightly concerned to see that the medical deck platform, was not the same as he had left it, instead of the bright and harsh hospital-like lighting, that had been there previously. Almost all of the lights have been put out. The platform and medical deck entrance bay, now having a much more sinister looked at them, as the only form of illumination in the space, was a scattering of several dimly burning candles, and in strange metal cages. Yet as Subaru instinctively gripped his Ripper closes himself, fear beginning to well up within him, his communicator suddenly came to life an incoming message from Kendra.

"Wait just a damn minute! wasn't like that before was it?" Garfiel exclaimed with perhaps just the smallest amount of concern in his voice. After all, he could admit that he wasn't the most observant person in the world, often walking past or overlooking smaller details. Yet even he could see the absolutely massive and drastic change, both in look and more importantly atmosphere, since Subaru had last been on the medical deck.

"No Garfiel... it definitely wasn't" Frederica instinctively pulled Petra closer to her. a small shiver running down her spine, as the drastic change in the atmosphere of the medical deck, seemingly tickle the wrong part of her brain, and making her feel incredibly uncomfortable and thoroughly creeped out.

"It's more creepy now... but if those are candles then..."

"Who exactly lit them" Crusch finished Emilia's question, the implication of candles of all things being there, causing her to feel a pit in her stomach. Because it could only mean that there were possibly still people left alive on that ship, but despite that being a supposedly good thing on the surface. Crusch could not think of it that way, considering all of the horrifying things that she had seen so far.

"That's definitely a good question, but more importantly considering there are monsters running around, why exactly would you take the time to light candles of all things..." Anastasia's question hung in the air like a bad omen. Because ultimately she was right, why would somebody take precious time, lighting numerous candles when reanimated corpses of the dead, when running around, Intent on slicing and cutting apart every living creature in their site? It was just something a normal and sane person wouldn't do, leading to an unnerving possibility that nobody wanted to consider.

"Shit!. Subaru I can smell the contaminated air from here. it's spreading faster than I expected! I'm trying to isolate it but it's not going to buy us much time" the face of Kendra quickly appeared in front of Subaru, as he slowly but cautiously began to make his way down the long dimly lit corridor, that lead back to the main atrium of the medical deck.

"Just do what you can Kendra, I'll get this poison stuff mixed together as quickly as possible, and then hopefully we can actually have a chance of fighting whatever the hell that thing is" Subaru tried his best to reassure Kendra, despite the fact that his own nerves were beginning to get the better of him. As Subaru could have sworn he heard something skittering around in the darkness behind him, but shining around the flashlight attached to his Ripper revealed nothing.

"You're right, we have to get this thing off the ship. All of the chemicals you'll need are in the chemistry lab. I'll hack the door when you get there" Subaru gave a simple nod, as the door in front of him opened up. The main atrium looked just as sinister in the dim light as the hallway he had just traversed.

"Very clever I must say" Julius said matter-of-factly, finding it quite remarkable that Kendra, had come up with a pretty ingenious plan to destroy or incapacitate whatever creature was poisoning the air. In fact, it was quite literally using the creature's own method of attack against it.

"What's very clever Julius?" Reinhardt asked with a slightly confused expression on his face, as he turned his head towards his purple-haired friend. Not quite understanding exactly what Julius was getting out with his comment about something being very clever.

"Nyah~he means that Kendra plans to use the same method of attack against it, by somehow poisoning it in return" Felix couldn't help but giggle at the look of realisation quickly spreading across Reinhart's face. In fact, Felix took a lot more enjoyment at the moment considering that moments of levity like this, were very few and far between in this viewing.

"You can't stand in the way of God's plan... The natural order... Are you... Are you blind, like the rest?" As the malevolent and sinister-sounding voice washed over him, Subaru stopped dead in his tracks, causing him to start sweating and the hair on the back of his neck to stand up on end. Yet before Subaru could respond to the voice, the voice of Kendra quickly came through on his ring link.

"Looks like you were right after all Crusch" Emilia could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, as the strange and sinister-sounding voice washed over her. And even though she couldn't quite place why exactly, something about the voice caused what she thought was a memory to pop into her mind. The memory was of strange almost otherworldly voices speaking in perfect unison, saying something about a convergence candidate. But that's where the memory ended, which Emilia was thankful for, because remembering that voice, caused fear to uncontrollably cause through her veins.

"How do you mean exactly, Emilia?" Crusch felt her ears puck up at the mention of her name, turning her head to look at Emilia, in anticipation of a response. Yet the half-elf didn't immediately respond, instead, her eyes had a slightly unfocused look to them, as she seemingly stared off into space. But before Crusch could say anything, Emilia quickly shook her head, as if she had just awoken from some distant daydream.

"Oh... sorry, it's just that I remember you mentioning how it was strange that no one else was around" Emilia said matter of factly, her mind still not entirely present, due to more fragments of her dream seemingly coming back to her. Yet the more of it she remembered, the more concerned and confused she became about what its true meaning was, because as far as she was concerned it didn't feel like an ordinary dream. It almost felt too real to be nothing more than a simple dream.

"Subaru, looks like somebody has reprogrammed the locks on this deck. And recently, too. I guess we're not alone here, after all. Somebody really doesn't want you in this part of the ship" Despite his fear, Subaru couldn't help but feel just a little bit annoyed, at the fact that Kendra had stated the obvious in such a manner. after all, less than an hour ago, Subaru had been here in this exact same place, with all of the doors around him being unlocked and allowing him to carry on with his tasks.

However, instead of verbalising his frustration, Subaru simply cut his rig's connection to Kendra, making sure that his plasma cutter had a fresh energy cell, and the Ripper was ready to go just in Case. And once he had done, Subaru held his hand out, expecting the bright sapphire blue line that had been his guide so far, to appear before him. Yet much to his surprise, nothing happened, and after a moment of confusion, he repeated the action only to get the same result of nothing.

"God dammit, of all the fucking times-" Subaru's tirade was immediately stopped in its tracks, hearing something that causes his entire body to lock up. And after standing there practically as still as a statue, Subaru heard the sound again, yet this time it was clear enough, that he could recognise it as a small almost childlike voice.

(giggle) "This way... Come, this way" Subaru looked around the dark space for the source of the voice, his eyes eventually coming to rest on the now-open doorway that lead to the Imaging Diagnostics Wing. And even though the hallway on the other side of the threshold was completely black, for just a singular moment, Subaru could have sworn that he saw the silhouette of what looked like a small child, but as soon as he blinked it was gone from the open doorway.

At the sight of the childlike silhouette, Crusch felt an unbearable pain shoot through her head, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath, as she brought a hand up trying in vain to soothe the strange pain that had just appeared. Yet as those around her looked on with concern, questioning what was the matter with her.

Crusch could feel her mind beginning to wander, specifically back to the subject of the strange child that she had seen in her dream, and the strange familiarity she had with the child. Crusch couldn't exactly place why the child was so familiar to her, yet the part that confused her was that it wasn't a simple passing familiarity, that you would feel when recognizing a face in the middle of a crowd. No, this familiarity was much deeper, as if the child was an important person in her life that she had somehow forgotten, in fact, Crusch couldn't help but think that it was almost like the child was a victim of gluttony, his existence being erased from the world. But before she could think about that line of questioning any further, she felt someone place a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Lady Crusch, are you all right?" The concerned voice of Wilhelm quickly pierced through any lingering fog in her mind, turning her head to see that he as well as many others with looking at her in obvious concern, and after a moment of trying to find her words, Crusch finally managed to respond.

"I'm… F-fine Wilhelm" Was the only thing she could say, not quite knowing exactly how or if she even should tell him, about the strange things that have been happening to her. But one look at Wilhelm's and Felix's concerned faces quickly dissuaded her from telling them about all of the strangeness, that had been happening in her mind. Yet even when Wilhelm nodded in acceptance of her answer, she could tell from the look in his eyes that he wasn't entirely convinced by her words. But it was obvious that he chose to not push the issue any further regardless.

"Crusch, are you sure you're all right~Nyah?" Felix unlike Wilhelm certainly decided to push the issue much to Crusch's slight annoyance. As much as she loved Felix like a brother, one of the few aspects of his personality that she truly despised, was his sycophantic nature in regard to her. In fact, in the early days when she rescued him from his disgusting family and brought him into her service, he practically worshiped the ground she walked on as if she was some kind of living God. And even after years of telling him that he could treat her like a normal person, he still had his moments that truly got under her skin.

"Yes Felix I'm fine" Crusch kept her voice even and level, yet Felix easily picked up on her frustration and annoyance, which immediately caused him to shut up. Yet still, he couldn't help but look at her with a concerned look in his eyes. Despite Crusch understanding his concern, it still didn't change the fact that she felt oddly frustrated at him asking her when she loudly assured Wilhelm she was fine.

After staring at the door questioningly for a moment, Subaru felt something in the back of his brain, whispering to go towards go from the door. And that's exactly what he did, wordlessly and almost mindlessly walking towards the open door. Stopping on the threshold for a moment, as some part of his brain tried to fight back against whatever was compelling him to walk into the dark hallway, that lay on the other side of the door threshold.

But ultimately the compulsion won out, Subaru stepping over the threshold and into the almost entirely pitch black hallway, the doors quickly shutting behind him with a quiet metallic clank, as the little light that had been coming from the main atrium, was quickly snuffed out. Leaving him in complete Darkness, with his visor being the only source of light in the pitch-black hallway.

"How odd" Anastasia said with a slight frown on her face, finding Subaru's almost puppet-like behaviour very strange. In fact, the way that Subaru walked towards the door, made her realise that the puppet comparison was disturbingly more accurate than she would have liked.

"What's odd, Anastasia?" Julius asked, his face contorted into one of mild concern when he saw the almost semi-disturbed look on his lady's face.

"Nothing serious Julius, it's just... Something about the way Subaru acted was just not right" Anastasia said after a moment of hesitation, her words are only serving to make Julius look even more concerned than he already was, as they both turned their heads back to the screen, the concern never leaving their faces.

Beatrice didn't say anything, but her subtle reaction was more than enough to let on that she also noticed her contractor's strange behaviour just now. in fact due to the connection that him and her shared, she was able to feel the strange fog that came over his mind, and the strange almost mechanical way that is body moved, as if he was being controlled by some outside force.

"W-W-what the hell" Subaru said quietly, his breath hitching slightly, as he quickly put a hand up his now aching head, trying and failing to figure out exactly what just happened. Yet before he could think about it any further. Subaru heard the all too familiar sound of a monster somewhere often in the darkness, and as if by pure instinct the ripper in his hands, was quickly brought up and activated. The bright LED light attached to the tool quickly illuminated the dark hallway. The blade began to spin violently and almost excitedly in its housing as if it just couldn't wait to rip apart a twisted reanimated abomination that was once human.

And after a moment of waiting, the twisted abomination responsible for the noises quickly appeared from around the corner, and much to Subaru's slight discussed, it was one of the reanimated fetuses. But before Subaru could dispatch the little monster, it quickly jump from its spot on the floor onto the wall, somehow managing to hang there like a demented spider, yet before Subaru could react the creature quickly unraveled it's tentacles, which preceded to shoot several large spikes directly at him. But as if by some miracle, all of them just managed to just miss him, one of them wishing past his head, just scraping the metal of his helmet as the bony spike embedded itself in the wall behind him.

"Subaru!" Emilia felt her heart jump into her chest, as she watched the Subaru coming incredibly and uncomfortably close, having his brains plastered against the wall behind him. And in fact, much to Emilia's horror, Subaru's survival was up to nothing more than pure unadulterated luck, because if the monster have not repositioned itself at the last moment. All three of its bony spikes would have impaled him, most likely killing him instantly. In the exact same manner that Subaru and everyone else had watched one of the ship's crew members, died earlier in the viewing.

"Christ! that was a close call" Al felt his entire body clenched for just a moment there, letting out a sigh of relief that Subaru hadn't been horribly impaled by the bony projectiles.

"You idiot! Don't just stand there! Kill it already!" Rem said with a bit more forcefulness than she intended, feeling her body breaking out into a cold sweat, at just how close Subaru had come to being impaled by the sharp bony objects. In fact, the one that grazed the side of his helmet, made her hold her breath for a bit longer than she would have liked.

"Come on big bro! Don't just stand there like an idiot!" Felt was on the absolute edge of her seat, a cold sweat forming on her brow, as she watched Subaru coming credibly close to having his life snuffed out. by one of those absolutely gruesome fetus Monsters.

Subaru quickly brought the riper up, releasing the final safety latch before pulling the trigger, the tiny abomination having no time to react, as a diamond-encrusted titanium blade, moving at nearly 25000 RPM, quickly began to make short work of its body. The creature crying out in absolute agony as its body was eviscerated by the saw blade, blood shooting out in all directions as with one final cry of pain. The tiny monstrosity fall to the floor, now looking like nothing more than a pile of a mutilated flesh.

After looking at the dismembered and a mutilated corpse for a moment, Subaru began to move along, keeping his head on a swivel as he rounded the corner, and made his way to the end of the hallway. However as he stepped into a small vestibule area before the main Imaging Centre, Subaru only now just realised that he had used the last blade in the Ripper's magazine, meaning for all intents and purposes the tool was now useless as an offensive weapon.

"I still find it hard to believe how that.. thing, wasn't built with the purpose of being a weapon" Crusch despite managing to keep her face completely straight, couldn't help but feel her stomach lurch ever so slightly, at the absolute brutality that this Ripper was able to inflict upon by disgusting abominations. In fact, despite them obviously being disgusting monsters, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit sorry for them, simply because of how absolutely brutal the weapon was when it came to dispatching them. Yet it also made her think how such a tool was so effective at dealing out dismemberment when it obviously wasn't designed as a weapon from the start.

"I must agree, Miss Crusch, that tool is barbaric but effective nonetheless" Reinhardt was both disgusted and somewhat impressed by the tool's almost uncanny ability to efficiently and brutally dismember the twisted abominations. And much like the greenhead duchess, Reinhardt was a little bit off-put, by the fact that the tool wasn't even apparently designed to be a weapon, to begin with, but was perfectly capable and seemingly at home with dismemberment and bloody carnage.

"I don't care what it was meant to be used for, as long as Subaru can keep himself alive with it, then that's all I care about" Felt said matter-of-factly, managing to keep her disgust to herself. after all, while the plasma cutter as Subaru called it, was a bit disturbing, with its scarily effective ability to remove limbs, at least it left a bloody stump behind. While this Ripper tool as it was dubbed, was quite frankly just barbaric, in the way that it completely eviscerated anything in front of it, leaving nothing behind but mutilated flesh and vaporized bone in its wake.

"Felt is right, as long as Subaru can keep himself a life that's all I care about" Emilia said with a slight shake to her voice, after all despite caring about Subaru's safety above her own discomfort, she couldn't deny that the absolute brutality of this new tool was quite shocking to watch. Yet considering the things that she had seen in this viewing and the previous ones. Emilia could probably say that she was becoming ever so slightly desensitised, to all of the blood and dismemberment.

"Still despite its brutality and efficiency at dismembering, I can certainly see uses for such a tool, especially in the construction industry" Anastasia mused mostly to herself, she could certainly agree that the tool was barbaric, in its efficiency to dismember and mutilate Monsters. But despite that, she could look past all of that and see just how useful are tool like that would actually be, especially when it came to more constructive Industries.

After quickly clipping the Ripper to his belt, and bringing up the plasma cutter, Subaru quickly made his way through the small space, quickly opening a door and stepping through into the large Imaging Centre.

"Damn, this place is even more creepy now" the nervousness was palpable in Subaru's voice as he made his way through the large space, but thankful that unlike before the large imaging tank was not blocking his way this time. However as he made his way over the catwalk, keeping an eye on the vent covers as he did, Subaru suddenly heard a very strange and disgusting noise, something that sounded like wet mud sloshing around. Yet as he exited the catwalk and turned left towards the cargo elevator Subaru felt an almost visceral reaction when he found the source of the noise.

Everyone in the audience much like Subaru had an almost visceral and violent reaction to the absolute monstrosity presented before them. In fact, the creature itself is so disgusting to look at, both Felt and Anastasia quickly emptied the little contents that remained in their stomachs, much to the concern of both Reinhardt and Julius.

"H-how... how was that thing ever human" Crusch desperately wanted to look away, yet something in her brain kept her looking at the absolute abomination in front of her, the way that its fleshy body convulsed with each pulse of its fleshy mass. Was both disgusting but somehow mesmerising to watch, as if her brain couldn't decide between being morbidly amazed and disgusted by the creature.

""Nyah~There's no way... that's just no way that it could have been human!" Felix just couldn't wrap his head around what he was seeing in front of him. After all, the previous abominations have been absolutely horrifying to look at, but they still somewhat resembled a human being. While this new disgusting creature, pretty much had all of its human-like characteristics completely erased. With only a few signs remaining that this thing was ever a normal human being.

Despite her disgust and overwhelming nausea, Frederica managed to shield Petra from the gruesome sites just in time, much to the protest of the young girl who was trying to break free, from Frederica's grip. However, Frederica kept her grip reasonably tight, just enough so Petra couldn't escape, but also not too much that she would hurt the young girl. After all, no child, or anyone for that matter should have to look upon the absolutely gruesome pile of flesh, that was presented before her.

Rem remained almost completely quiet, yet the slightly green hue of her face was an obvious indicator to just how to discuss that she truly was. The previous abominations had been truly awful to look at, barely any of them resembling their original living human forms, but this new monstrosity seemingly put all others to shame, in the fact that most of its human-like traits have been completely erased, rendering it nothing more than a pile of distorted flesh and spiky bone stuck to the wall, stuck to the wall like some kind of barnacle straight out of a living nightmare.

"My… How unpleasant" Roswaal couldn't hide the disgust in his voice, his usual crown-like accent completely missing as he looked at this absolute mockery of nature in front of him. In fact, even after existing for over 400 years, the clown-faced magician could certainly say, that this thing he was looking at, was perhaps one of the most gruesome things that he'd ever seen. And of course, the irony was not lost on him. considering that he had of course done absolutely disgusting things of his own, both in his current life and the many failed loops that Subaru had been through so far.

Emilia didn't say anything, simply bringing a hand up to her mouth as she tried to fight the urge to retch. Yet unlike Crusch, Emilia did manage to tear her eyes away from the disgusting monstrosity, but that did absolutely nothing as the image of the colossal and fleshy mass was seemingly burnt permanently into her brain. But as another retch overtook her, Emilia felt an awful building pressure in her head, and even as she instinctively brought a hand up to try and soothe the pain, the strange symbols from before began to flash in her mind, each one causing more pain in the last. Until eventually she heard IT whispering in the back of her mind.

L̷o̷O̸k̴ ̸-̶ ̴u̸P̵o̷N̴ ̷-̷ ̶o̴O̸r̵ ̴-̴ ̵u̴N̴i̶T̴y̵ ̶-̴ ̸c̵H̷i̶L̸d̶,̴ ̵E̸m̵B̴r̸A̴c̵E̷ ̴-̶ ̷i̴T̵,̵ ̵b̵E̵c̸A̴u̷S̸e̵ ̶-̴ ̷w̸E̴ ̸-̷ ̸w̴I̸l̴L̵ ̷-̴ ̶b̴E̷ ̵-̵ ̶m̴A̷d̶E̸ ̴-̸ ̶w̶H̵o̸L̸e̷ ̵-̸ ̵A̴n̷D̵ ̷-̶ ̴l̷I̷v̶E̷ ̵-̷ ̶f̸O̷r̴E̶v̶E̶r̸ ̸ ̵

Emilia wanted to scream, yet the pain was so unbearable that she couldn't even will her body to do that, instead simply sitting there, unable to do anything, as the symbols seemingly continue to ravish her mind. But strangely enough, instead of looking like completely alien symbols, something about them began to look familiar. Yet before she even think about trying to decipher what they were, the pain suddenly vanished, as if it a switch had been turned off. Leaving Emilia there panting heavily, as pain fuelled tears ran from her eyes.

Beatrice simply couldn't bring herself to say anything, because quite frankly there was nothing she could say in regard to this new twisted abomination, that she was forced to look at. So instead she simply looked away from the screen, focusing her gaze on the sleeping face of Subaru in her lap, his face still contorted into one of mild discomfort, occasionally moving and murmuring himself. Yet despite this seemingly troubled sleep, Beatrice found some semblance of comfort in these small actions, serving mostly as reassurance that he was still with her. But when she glanced towards the half-elf. Beatrice felt concerned and fear skyrocket within her, causing her to instinctively recoil backward ever so slightly.

"Beatrice... I-I think S-S-somethings wrong with me" The words fell out of Emilia's mouth, but much to Emilia's confusion Beatrice did not immediately respond. And when she saw the look at the little spirit's face, Emilia felt her entire body lock up. Because Beatrice was looking at her with a look of complete and other terror, yet it wasn't terror of something that happened on the screen. No, Beatrice with seemingly scared of her.

"A-Emilia, Y-your eyes..." Beatrice tried to control the fear coursing through her veins, yet she simply couldn't, because whoever was looking back at her, looked like Emilia, except for one important detail. The half-elf's eyes were completely dead and soulless, holding nothing but insanity and madness. Yet as if flipped by a switch, Beatrice watched Emilia's eyes change almost instantly, switching from the dead empty ones, that she had only had a moment ago, back to her more normal-looking concern and passion-filled violet eyes. But that did very little to quell Beatrice's fear, now cleaning on the Subaru with a tight death grip as if he was the only thing keeping her safe.

"What... the... fuck..." Subaru wasn't entirely sure how to describe what he was looking at. it was quite literally just a massive lump of pulsating flesh, stuck to the wall like some kind of demented and nightmarish limpet. The only human-like trait, being a small bald head poking out of the fleshy mass.

However before Subaru could continue his grim assessment of the creature, the immovable Beast suddenly awoke, letting out an ear-piercing shriek filled with pain and agony, as an area on the creature's "stomach" opened up, five large muscular tentacles quickly flew out, sticking themselves to the wall. But before Subaru could react to the sudden movement, the creature's "stomach" opened up wider as it quickly shot out a small bundle of flesh, the small projectile landing near Subaru's feet, which then proceeded to sprout a tentacle hit with a large barb, which Subaru immediately recognised. And just as the creature let loose its bony projectile, Subaru duct around the corner of the catwalk, the bony spike embedding in the metal where he had just been standing a moment ago.

"Oh od, H-how can it give birth to those things!?" Julius felt his stomach lurch ever so slightly, as he fought back the urge to vomit. The site he had just witnessed was quite frankly just disturbing beyond anything imaginable. And the part that was the most disturbing wasn't even the ability of the creature to birth blobs of flesh, it was the scream that the creature left out. Because, unlike the previous abominations which screamed with anger and rage. This creature's screams were filled with agony and pain, which ultimately lead Julius to a disturbing possibility, was it possible that the poor soul that had been used to make that creature, was still somehow alive?

"I don't think I want to know exactly" Anastasia muttered quietly, not really caring if Julius actually heard her or not. because ultimately the creature that was in front of her was truly an abomination, one that could only be spawned from the deepest and darkest nightmare. Which was truly saying something considering all of the other disgusting abominations, roaming the dark hulls of the USG Ishimura.

"I-It S-S-screams" Emilia covered her ears, shutting her eyes as she desperately tried to block out the horrifying sounds of the creature. Yet no matter what she try she could still hear it pain agony fuel screams as clear as day as if by some unholy miracle the sounds were being transmitted directly into her mind.

"Damn, John Carpenter's hasn't got anything on this" Al's words were accompanied with a slightly nervous laugh, obviously trying to bring some kind of levity to the situation but failing horribly to do so. In fact, instead of her usual scorn, Priscilla simply looked at the helmeted man as if he was crazy.

Keeping his back pressed against the metal wall, the creature's horrifying wail still present in his ears, Subaru quickly poked his head out from behind the wall, getting another glimpse of the creature as it continues to cry and scream. Yet, Subaru observation was quickly cut short as the fleshy blob, that the creature had spat out, quickly fired another bone shard at him, Subaru managing to pull his head back just in time as the bony spike went whizzing past.

After evaluating his options for a moment, Subaru did briefly consider just making a break for it and trying to run past the monster, and its disgusting little pod friend however, he quickly disregarded that because despite its seeming "relatively" harmless, Subaru really didn't want to take the chance and accidentally get himself killed. So instead after taking a deep breath, Subaru quickly turned the corner, using one shot to take out the tentacle of the little pod monster, before turning to shoot at the disgusting mass on the wall, cursing under his breath as he missed his second and third shot. But managing to still take off all of the monster's tentacles, the Beast's cries of agony intensified before ultimately going silent, as its fleshy bulbous mass quickly went still, some of its detached tentacles still hanging onto the wall, giving occasional twitches of residual muscle activity.

"Thank Od, Subaru actually killed the thing" Felt said, her voice accompanied by a big sigh of relief. yet even with the creature now dead and silent, the little blonde couldn't help but shudder, and feel a slight twinge in her stomach, at the creature's unholy visage and its absolutely agonizing screams. Because much like many other things that she had seen in this viewing and the previous ones, Felt could say that, she was going to have some absolutely horrifying nightmares from now on.

"Indeed lady felt, I must say that I am also relieved that... T-thing has been disposed of" Reinhardt said grimley, feeling just a little bit disgusted with himself, because despite the creature being a mockery of nature and a true abomination from the deepest darkest pit of another world. Reinhardt was not the kind of person who took enjoyment in taking life, whether it be human or otherwise, it was something that he only did when absolutely necessary and and always felt disgusted with himself whenever he had to.

"Nyah~I couldn't have said it better myself, that thing was just... just a mockery to nature itself" Felix couldn't suppress a shudder from running down his spine and all the way to the tip of his tail. The creature was truly disgusting to look at, but as a healer, the part that was truly horrifying and disturbing was that this creature of a seemingly human once.

Beatrice wanted to react with some kind of praise for her contractor, yet she simply couldn't bring herself to say anything. The memory of both the disturbing creature and the malevolent force that was seemingly targeting her personally still weighed heavily on her mind. And even with Subaru comfortably resting in her lap, it did very little to actually bring her any semblance of comfort.

"Strange... that creature is growing out of the wall, almost like that strange fleshy growth from before" Crusch wasn't sure if she was the only one that noticed, but the body of the creature itself seemed to be comprised of the same fleshy growth. That had been seen in one of the deep engineering sections of the USG Ishimura. This ultimately led the green-haired Dutchess, to think that it was possible this creature with some kind out growth, of the strange fleshy substance. Of course, though, Crusch had to remind herself that was just a theory, based on pure speculation and visual similarities.

"You might just be right Crusch, it certainly looks disgusting enough to be the same thing" Anastasia couldn't help with agree with Crusch's assessment of the disgusting creature, and its visual similarities to the disgusting fleshy growth, that had been seen before the viewing. In fact, despite its disgusting nature, Anastasia couldn't help but think of how it was almost like a slime mold, in the way that it seemingly spread over every surface pulsating and convolving with almost heartbeat-like movements.

"That is an interesting theory indeed, but if that is the case, does that mean the growth and the monsters are somehow connected to each other?" Wilhelm couldn't help rubbing his bearded chin in deep thought, visually the creature and fleshy growth did indeed look similar to each other. Yet the biggest difference between them was the fact that the fleshy growth, seem to be completely benign and maybe even harmless. While this creature was very much aggressive when provoked.

Sparing the creature one last glance, Subaru stepped past it, and onto the cargo elevator, activating it which immediately sent him up to the second level of the Imaging Centre. And after navigating the gap in the catwalk using the imaging tank itself, Subaru quickly came to the unlocked zero-g therapy door. However, his hand stopped mid-way to the holographic panel, his mind flashing back to his first encounter with her. In the depressurized section of the hallway, her cold and dead soulless eyes causing fear to course through his veins.

Yet after taking a deep breath, Subaru pushed the memories and fear aside, quickly activating the door and stepping through it into the small t shaped hallway. But instead of going straight on like before, he instead took a right-hand turn this time, nearly stepping onto a horribly brutalised corpse, as he turned the corner.

Emilia much like before felt an almost visceral reaction, practically recoiling as if she was physically struck. The fact that this malevolent spectral version of herself, seemingly had scared Subaru so much that just even thinking about her for a second was enough to make him flinch and visibly scared, was enough to completely and utterly shatter her heart. Yet even still, Emilia gently picked up one of Subaru's hands into her own, looking at his sleeping face with both deep affection and even deeper sorrow.

Beatrice was also deeply troubled by the reaction, she both felt and witnessed from the on-screen version of her contractor. She could feel the fear coursing through his veins, as well as the haunting image from his memory of the ghostly Emilia, her entire body bathed in shadow yet her eyes still visible. It was enough to make a shudder run down her spine. it also didn't help that when this happened, she felt the Subaru sleeping in her lap shift ever so slightly, the slight barely perceptible contortion of his face. Enough to tell her that even the real Subaru in her lap, was affected by what was going on.

After stepping through a second doorway, Subaru came to a small cargo elevator, that was obviously intended for the transport of Medical Supplies and patients. And after taking the short elevator ride down, Subaru came to a small hallway that curved left, however when he turned the corner he saw that midway down its length, a makeshift barricade blocked the corridor. Much like the one he had melted through earlier to get to the morgue and main medical ward.

However as he was about to make his way down the corridor, Subaru spotted a small personnel tablet laying on the floor, it's screen and entire body in fact bent and broken, yet to the dim light from the screen indicated at the little device still had power. And without a second thought, Subaru reached down and picked up the small and broken tablet, fumbling around with the crack and broken screen before managing to get it to play its message.

"W-what are you doing! you C-C-can't hold me here!"

"Personal log, Dr Challus Mercer. I now have a life subject for my study. I'm eager to validate my tissue regeneration theory"

"T-this is got to be some K-kind of mistake, come on let me go, please... P-P-please I just want to go H-home..."

Subaru stopped dead in his tracks, as the audio message continue to play, feeling a chill run down his spine. But instead of it being because of the obvious distress of the other man in the audio. Something about the way this Challus Mercer spoke was enough to set off alarm bells in Subaru's head, as well as make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end.

"This isn't going to end well" Ram said matter-of-factly, simply because of both the screaming man in the background and the almost calm and clinical way that this Mercer individual was speaking. In fact, despite not wanting to admit it, she couldn't stop goosebumps from beginning to form on her arm, as the message continue to play.

"I must agree Ram" Despite there being no visual component to the audio, Frederica couldn't help but almost instinctively move to cover Petra's eyes. But unfortunately, she stopped herself, considering that there was very little she could do to shield the young girl, from whatever horrors this audio was going to contain

"A true understatement, I suppose" Beatrice said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. It was immediately obvious to her that this Challus Mercer was either a completely sadistic madman or simply just insane, the fact that he was speaking so calmly and almost clinically, all the while the mysterious voice in the background continue to grow more desperate, and the fact that he was seemingly intent on using this more and more desperate individual in some kind of unknown experiment. Was ultimately clear as day to her.

"Yep, I already want to stop listening" Felt said with a slight shiver in her life. Although not for the reason that many around her would think, the voice of this "doctor" Mercer, quite frankly gave me young blonde the heebie-jeebies, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up on end. Because ultimately the coldness in the voice, reminded her of memories of a particular black-dressed assassin that she would have rather have forgotten.

"Initial restraint was problematic. But the patient is now resting comfortably"

"P-P-please you've G-got the W-wrong person"

"He trusts me. Docter kyne. He put his life in MY hands! He understands his part in all of this.

"P-please, I just want to see my L-little girl again, J-just let me out of here, PLEASE!

"He understands what I'm doing. The patient's forehead has been swapped clean and marked"

"What are you... What are you doing with that!"

Subaru could feel a pit of dread beginning to form in his stomach, the strange audio now beginning to take a much more sinister turn. as this seemingly deranged doctor continued his "operation" on the unknown screaming and hysterical patient.

Beatrice remained quiet, gently stroking Subaru's forehead with her small delicate hand. The emotions she could feel coming from the on-screen version of himself, were all that she needed, as to know just how much the audio was beginning to unnerve him. The screaming of the Increasingly desperate man in the background, combined with the cold and clinical way that the doctor Mercer was speaking. Was certainly enough to make a chill run down anyone's spine.

"It seems that nobody has been spared from the madness" Crusch said matter-of-factly, her face having a hard look to it as she listens to the quite frankly disturbing audio. The way that this Challus Mercer individual spoke with such a cold and almost detached tone of voice, all the while some poor individual screamed and pleaded for their life in the background. Was indeed quite disturbing and extremely eerie and off-putting to listen to.

"I couldn't have put it better myself" Anastasia's voice have just the slightest hint of nervousness to it. much to her chagrin, yet luckily much of her nervous shaking was hidden by her large winter coat. After all, even though many people found it incredibly strange for her to wear thick winter coats no matter the climate or time of year, it certainly had its advantages when it came to hiding certain body language.

"And I am now proceeding to create a passage to insert the tissue sample..."

Subaru couldn't help but flinch when he heard the sound of an electrical saw beginning to rev up. The sound causing unpleasant memories to come back to him, the memories of that damned Hospital and the doctors that mocked and tormented him, quickly flooding back into his mind.

Beatrice felt her heart drop, and her breath hitch in her throat, she only saw the briefest of glimpses of Subaru's memories. Yet those brief glimpses were all she needed, as she felt tears beginning to form in her eyes. Because the briefest flashes that she had seen, were truly heart-wrenching to watch. After all, seeing Subaru, the person that she had chosen to be her contractor, be in so much emotional pain and anguish was quite literally just too much for her to bear.

Emilia could freely admit to herself that she wasn't the most observant person in the world, often overlooking the subtleties of interaction with other people. But as soon as she saw the way Subaru almost flinched, as the message seemingly took a much more sinister turn, she couldn't help but feel her heart break just a little bit. yet even with her heartbreaking, she couldn't help but wonder, what exactly had happened to Subaru to cause such a reaction from him. Of course, it was obvious that it was a negative experience involving a hospital, considering his earlier reservations about entering the hospital area of the ship. But ultimately the exact nature of what had happened was still a painful mystery.

"No! Please! NO! Nooaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

The playback quickly ended, get the sound of the man's horrified screen still filled Subaru's ears, as he felt his hands beginning to shake. The tablet quickly falling from his hands and shattered against the ground, breaking the device beyond repair. Yet after a moment Subaru quickly smacked the side of his helmet, his lit-up visor flickering for just a moment from the hit, as he got control of his emotions again. Before continuing on his way, coming to a door with the sign above it reading 'Chemistry Lab, Authorised Medical Staff Only'

Felix couldn't stop his body from shaking, yet instead of fear being the cause. Looking at the cat boy's face revealed that it was absolute blinding rage, his face was contorted into one of barely contained rage. Gritting his teeth so hard that they would have most likely cracked and shattered if it wasn't for his extraordinarily strong healing abilities. Healers and doctors were supposed to take care of their patients, making sure that any injury was treated promptly, and to always help those in need, Which was one of the fundamental tenants of being a medical practitioner of any kind. So the fact that this doctor was seemingly experimenting... No, murdering his patient, for the sake of some kind of sick experiment, absolutely sickened him and boiled Felix's blood to no end.

"It seems that other than Subaru and his companions, there are no sane people left on that ship" Wilhelm said while glaring at the screen, the completely nonchalant, cold, and clinical nature that this "Doctor" Mercer, had seemingly executed the poor soul in that audio recording. Really did stir up something within Wilhelm, in fact, it brought back quite unpleasant memories of the demihuman war, about how some of his fellow swordsmen, would mercilessly execute any demihuman, whether they be a part of the resistance or not. Even back then as a much more rambunctious young man, Wilhelm couldn't stand such events, even if they were completely condoned by the kingdom of the time. So to hear something almost similar happened in the audio recording, certainly didn't put Wilhelm in the best of moods.

"Indeed grandfather, I'm inclined to agree with you on that" Reinhardt felt a myriad of emotions flow through him, everything from Sadness, fear, even anger, and disgust. At the fact of this doctor, somebody who was supposed to take care of their patients and those in need. Had unceremoniously executed a poor man. In fact, Reinhart couldn't suppress a shudder from running up his spine, as the man's horrific screams, gave just a small hint at how brutal his final moments truly were.

"Seriously, what is it with doctors going insane in particular" Al couldn't help but shift uncomfortably in his seat. Finding it incredibly morbid, how clinical and cold that this doctor had seemingly killed his patient, in the pursuit of some kind of sick experiment. In fact, it brought back memories of his younger years, when he would watch countless horror movies, many of them featuring hospitals and insane doctors.

"Clearly these peasant minds, were too fragile to handle whatever they had uncovered" Priscilla's words were accompanied by the quiet clack of her fan closing. Her face contorted into one of mild disapproval, as despite not saying it out loud, even she couldn't help but feel just a little bit off by the man's last moments in the audio message. In fact, the way he screamed at the very end, caused her to feel a small shudder run down her spine.

"Kendra I've made it to the chemistry lab" Subaru said quietly into his rig link, as he quickly entered the small laboratory, keeping his plasma cut out the ready as he looked around the destroyed office, various pieces of medical equipment, paper and many unknown scientific instruments scattering the floor.

"Alright, the chemicals you need should already be preloaded onto the mixing computer. But once you've got them you're going to need to find a DNA sample of the alien tissue. Give me a minute and I'll search for records for one" The slight shake in Kendra's voice didn't go unnoticed by Subaru, as he made his way over to the large chemical computer in one corner of the room, passing two large cylindrical observation tanks, one of which had its metal shutters roll all the way down.

"Alright, once I've got this stuff mixed I had back to the atrium" Subaru said quietly to himself as he quickly got to work on the large computer, pressing a series of keys on the holographic keypad and quickly pressing enter. And after a moment of delay the computer began to comply with his request, fetching and mixing the requested chemicals into a large container before spitting it out, with the action being accompanied by an automated voice.

"Request processed. Antigen compound complete. Please remove the capsule."

"Big bro's making progress with… whatever he's making" Felt wasn't entirely sure what an "antigen" was, much like many things she had seen and heard in the viewings. It was a completely foreign and alien word to her. But whatever it was, it was clearly important considering that Kendra said it was capable of making the air non-toxic again.

"You're right felt, I just hope Subaru can make whatever he needs... B-B-before anything else comes for him" Emilia's voice was quiet, she didn't explain exactly what she meant, instead simply taking Subaru's hand into her own to try and get some semblance of comfort. To everyone else however she didn't need to elaborate on exactly what she meant, after all whether it be Monsters or malevolent spectral apparitions from his past, it was fair to say that almost everything on that ship was out to get Subaru in one way or another.

"I'm completely with you on that Emilia, although I must wonder exactly how this... "antigen" is going to combat the poisonous air?" Crusch said with a slightly curious air to her voice. Rubbing her chin in thought as she contemplated how exactly this antigen material, that Subaru was currently creating, would be able to combat the poisonous air that was rapidly filling up the ship.

"Maybe, whatever Subaru is making, is also some kind of airborne poison ~Nyah. That when introduced into the air, will somehow eliminate the other poisonous air" The gears in Felix's mind were turning a mile a minute, a deep look of thought and concentration making its way onto his androgynous-looking features. Being somebody of a medical background, the study of various poisons was part of his basic medical training, so using this knowledge, Felix tried to think of a way and the possible method, of how exactly Subaru and Kendra were going to use this antigen compound, to counter and eliminate the airborne poison that was slowly filling up the ship.

"Well, that was easier than I expe-"

"What ARE you doing?" The words died in Subaru's throat as he immediately spanned to face the window on the fire end of the room. Standing there behind the heavily crack safety glass, was a man wearing a standard issue USG Ishimura senior medical uniform, and despite the short beard covering his mouth and jaw, the few wrinkles on his face indicator that he was at least in his late thirties or early 40s. However, those details didn't matter to the Subaru as he faced down this mysterious man, who looked back at him with an almost passive gaze.

"W-who the hell are you?" Subaru said, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet as he kept his plasma cutter firmly pointed at the man behind the cracked security glass. Yet the man didn't even seem to acknowledge the fact that a dangerous mining tool has been pointed in his direction, instead after a moment of uneasy silence, the mysterious man continue to speak, completely ignoring Subaru's question about his identity.

"It's him" Was all that Felix could say, a mixture of anger and fear quickly rising up inside him, and threatening to explode outwards in a torrent of emotions. Yet through great restraint, he managed to keep his emotions under control as he finally saw the psychotic Dr. Mercer in the "flesh"

"Very much a normal-looking man I suppose... but looks can be deceiving" Beatrice said matter-of-factly, not really focusing or caring about the reveal of this doctor Mercer. Instead, her attention was more focused on how her contractor was feeling at this exact moment, she could feel a mixture of fear, curiosity, and maybe even just a tiny bit of hope flowing from him into her. The fear and concern were very much obvious to Beatrice, considering that the previous crew that Subaru had encountered, were either completely insane or simply dead, yet the hope he felt was definitely interesting, but it was also kind of morbid considering that she had the context of who the person he was standing for actually was.

Emilia simply kept her mouth shut, feeling just a little bit of concern beginning to creep into her. After all, considering everything else that has been happening on the ship, Emilia highly doubted that this new face, which was most definitely the insane doctor from the audio recording. Was out to help Subaru in any way, in fact, Emilia couldn't help but pray quietly to herself that Subaru would simply run in the other direction, and get as far away from that room and that man as quickly as possible.

"I swear, if he hurts my Subaru I'll..." Rem couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence, simply sitting there glaring at the screen, hoping and praying to whatever duties were listening. That Subaru would simply turn and run in the opposite direction, but as she continued to glare at the screen, Rem suddenly felt a strange sensation come over her, her mind almost feeling like it was foggy. Yet that's when she began to hear the whisper, quietly at first and gradually growing louder until it was just audible over the chit-chat in the theatre and the sound coming from the screen.

"Are you really going to let her take him from you? are you going to sit here, while she takes your beloved from you, and hurts him in ways beyond imagination?"

Ram couldn't really respond either verbally or mentally, her mind was still consumed by the strange fog then overtook her. But as the voice continue to whisper into her ear, she felt her anger and rage beginning to bubble up inside her, all of it directly targeted at none other than Emilia. in fact for just the briefest moment Rem's overwhelming rage almost turned homicidal. Yet before she could act on that impulse, she suddenly felt a hand come down roughly on her shoulder, the fog and the voice quickly disappearing in an instant as she was quickly forced to face none other than her sister.

"Rem!... Are you alright?" Rem was stunned for a moment, her mind for just a moment failing to register exactly what was going on. But after a moment of looking at her sister with a slightly confused expression on her face. Rem finally managed to get her brain back in gear and formed some kind of coherent sentence.

"I'm fi... I... I don't know" Rem at first tried to lie, not wanting to worry her sister with what she had just experienced, but as the words try to leave her mouth, the look of absolute concern that Ram was giving her made her quickly reconsider. Yet even with her answering honestly, Rem wasn't entirely sure how to put into words what she had just experienced, in fact, the more she tried to think about it the more it began to feed from her mind.

"I must commend, your fight for survival is admirable but pointless. And yet you keep on going regardless. It almost makes me think that we had hope, as a species" The man spoke with an almost religious Priestley sound to his voice as if he was delivering the gospel to his communion. Subaru meanwhile should be stood there in silence, not quite understanding exactly what the man was getting at.

"W-W-what hell are you talking about?" Subaru could feel the hairs on the back of his neck beginning to stand up, something about this entire situation just didn't feel right. In fact, Subaru could almost say that it was like he was being watched and not by the man in front of him, no it felt like he was being watched by something else. However, that concern was quickly put aside when the man's face contorted into one of mild disapproval as if he was some kind of disapproving father about to punish a child.

"I see that you are blind as well. How can I be the only one that sees that humanity died out a long time ago? We just haven't accepted it yet. Stop running. Stop your struggle" By now all of Subaru's alarm bells were practically screaming at him. The way the man spoke about Subaru stopping his struggle and running away, immediately made the black-haired engineer flashback to his encounters with her deadly quiet voice, whispering into his ear to accept her, so that they could be made whole. Yet as Subaru listens to the mysterious man continue his speech, there was an ever so slight change in his tone, his disapproval quickly disappearing and being replaced with something that almost sounded like eagerness.

"Our future, your future, the future of our race, ends here. you will be the first to be introduced to humanity's child, the creatures that will replace us and usher in convergence" The man finished his speech with an almost dramatic flair, crossing his arms in front of his chest in a strange cross-like gesture that Subaru immediately recognised as a unitology prayer. But before Subaru could say anything, the man quickly turned on his heels and disappeared leaving Subaru alone in the chemistry lab... or so he thought.

"What does he mean by replace humanity... what exactly is convergence?" Felt expressed with a confused look, her face scrunched up into one of deep confusion. As she tried and failed to piece together exactly what the man was talking about.

"Whatever he was going on about, he's clearly lost his mind," Ram said with a frustrated sigh, the man's world where indeed very cryptic, speaking about things such as humanity's replacement and whatever this convergence thing was. Yet ultimately didn't really matter what they meant, considering that this was the very same man that had committed an absolutely gruesome act on one of his own patients, which meant that whatever he said, had to be taken with a barrel full of salt.

"Whatever he was rambling about, it clearly isn't good I suppose" despite managing to hide it, Beatrice couldn't help but flinch when the word convergence was uttered. But she wasn't entirely sure why exactly that was the case, the word itself held no significance to her, yet strangely enough it felt familiar somehow as if the word was some long-lost memory that she could only vaguely remember. But ultimately Beatrice simply pushes those thoughts aside, instead focusing her attention back on the sleeping Subaru in her lap, his face returning to a much more placid and gentle look, and despite not needing to pier into his mind. Beatrice felt a tiny smile make its way onto her lips, because knowing her contractor, she could guess with certainty what he was dreaming about.

Emilia and Crusch, both simultaneously felt sharp pain shoot through their heads, at the word convergence being mentioned, yet both of them saw and felt different things. Emilia saw the strange alien yet almost recognisable symbols again, which was accompanied more strange whisper that she couldn't quite make out.

Crusch on the other hand saw strange images, of the same young boy from before, his face vaguely familiar yet completely foreign to her, as if he was some kind of long lost acquaintance or relative that she had completely forgotten about, yet the images of the boy were also accompanied by a strange whisper, that vaguely sounded like that of a small child, saying stuff such as "being made whole" and "turn it off"

"W-what in the absolute hell are you!" Subaru didn't expect an answer from the creature, which had finally noticed him. But, Subaru did expect what happen next as the creature lunged at him, with a speed that was surprising given its size, taking a swipe at him with one of his muscular Arms, obviously intent on slicing Subaru to pieces. Subaru however managed to dodge out of the way just in time, as the creature's saw-like appendage quickly embedded itself into the floor, slicing through the metal of the deck plating as if it was nothing more than paper.

However seeing that the monster's arm was momentarily stuck, Subaru quickly backed off and took a shot with his plasma cutter, but much to Subaru's horror and shock, the Plasma shot did relatively little to the creatures arm, burning and liquefying some flesh, but the limb stubbornly remained attached regardless, the creature finally managing the pull it's arm free from the deck plating.

"That was too close! If he didn't move at the right time, he would have had his head removed" Anastasia explained, sighing in relief at just how close Subaru had come, to having his head forcefully removed from his body. But also she felt fear from looking at this new monster because just by looking at it, she could tell that this creature was different from the others, it's body was more muscular and powerful looking and the bony saw-like appendages on the ends of its arms looked much deadlier and wicked than all of the previous monsters that Subaru had encountered and killed.

"Agreed Anastasia, just a moment's hesitation and he would have..." Julius couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence, the mental image of the creature butchering and dissecting Subaru like a piece of meat. Not exactly a pleasant one for the purple-haired swordsman, yet still, he couldn't help but find it remarkable that Subaru had been quick enough again, managing to escape certain death through the skin of his teeth like he always did.

"Damn, cap is really pushing his luck" Despite trying to sound self-confident, Garfiel could suppress the slight sweat that began forming his forehead, at just how close Subaru had come to having his life brutally ended, by the new and quite frankly vicious-looking monster. In fact, despite knowing it probably wasn't the best time to think about it, Garfiel couldn't help but think that even in his beast form, this new monster could probably put up a decent fight against him and... maybe even win"

Reinhart couldn't help himself as he almost jumped from his seat, ready to draw his sword only to remember that it had been confiscated by the warden. Still, despite Subaru managing to survive the attack from the deadly Beast, something about the creature just didn't sit well with Reinhardt. In fact, the only way that he could truly describe it, was that the creature itself was just wrong somehow as if its existence was just fundamentally wrong.

"Subaru get the hell out of there!" the voice of Kendrick quickly came over Subaru's rig link as the locked door behind him quickly opened up, allowing Subaru to bolt out of the chemical mixing room. and back down the hall, but instead of going back up the cargo elevator instead Subaru took a left-hand turn, quickly opening up a door that spat him back out into the large Imaging Centre, yet even despite the pain in his chest becoming worse with each breath.

Subaru kept running at full speed, quickly making his way through the Imaging Centre and back into the hallway leading to the main atrium, The sounds of the beast scrambling through the vents after him, being ever present as panic quickly began to overtake him. Yet after making it back out into the atrium, Subaru couldn't keep running anymore, quickly doubling over in agony as the pain in his chest grow too much for him to ignore.

"W-what's happening to Big Brother Subaru!?" Petra said with a worried expression on her face. watching Subaru double over in pain was very much quite a distressing site for the young girl. And even though she had seen things that no child should ever have to see, things that would forever be present in her nightmares for as long as she lived. Seeing Subaru in so much pain was perhaps the most unsettling thing she had ever seen.

"It's his injury from before Petra... B-but there's no need to worry, Subaru will pull through" Frederica knowing that Petra preferably idolised Subaru, tried her absolute best to reassure the young girl that Subaru was going to be fine. Yet the words of encouragement were also partly for herself considering that Subaru was suffering from multiple injuries, which made the job of actually surviving the hell hole of a ship extraordinarily more complicated and difficult.

"Barusu might be a hopeless clod, but is not entirely stupid enough to get himself killed..." at least I hope so' Ram didn't matter the last part of her sentence out loud, instead the words rattled around inside her mind, as all of the various deaths and mutilations that Subaru had suffered, in his relatively short time in their world flash before her eyes. Which despite her best efforts, made her face go just the tiniest shade of green, because despite considering him an annoying pest, the things that he had experienced and suffered, were fates that she wouldn't have wished on her worst enemy.

"Is anyone there? Repeat! Come in Subaru... Kendra, is anyone there?"

"Where the hell have you been, Hammond!?" Kendra said with an angry tone to her voice, yet Subaru didn't really care about how she spoke or even the fact that Hammond was still alive. Considering that he was still battling the ever-growing pain in his chest. But, that was when he remembered something. Something that he had been carrying this entire time, but had completely forgotten about, and so wordlessly he quickly reached his belt, disconnecting the loosely attached medical flask, deactivating his helmet, and in one smooth motion. Subaru opened up its cap and chugged the remaining the greenish liquid inside the container, his face grimacing from the absolutely disgusting taste, as the gel-like liquid quickly made its way down his throat. And once the container was empty Subaru for it aside, the container clattering across the floor loudly, Subaru persisting to breathe heavily, the pain beginning to quickly subside.

"Disgusting I suppose" Despite not having the ability to actually taste anything herself, Beatrice couldn't help but grimace slightly, as Subaru down to the rest of the strange medicinal liquid. Because if Subaru's thoughts were anything to go by, then the strange medicinal liquid he had just swallowed, was apparently the most sickening thing that he'd ever tasted in his entire life. Which immediately made Beatrice think that she definitely wouldn't volunteer to try some any time soon.

"I must say it doesn't look the most appetising... But on another note, I'm glad to see that Hammond is still alive after all" Crusch felt her stomach twist just a little bit, upon watching Subaru down the strange greenish liquid. Yet luckily she was able to distract herself from that with the reappearance of Hammond. Being somewhat surprised but also relieved that the dark-skinned man was indeed alive still, although, by the tone and franticness in his voice, Crusch could tell that he was either in great distress or possibly had incurred some kind of physical injury upon himself. at some point, while he had been absent.

"I'm glad he's ok, but... I hope Subaru is going to be fine" Emilia couldn't stop the worried expression spreading across her face when she saw his current physical state. Watching him being so much agony, desperately clutching at his chest as he tried to overcome the pain, was absolutely soul-wrenching for her to watch. Which was ultimately made even worse by the fact that there was literally nothing she could do to help him in his time of need like he had done for her so many times in the past.

"He will be fine... MY beloved Subaru will always find a way to prevail" Rem said with quite a considerable amount of animosity directed towards Emilia, practically trying to bore a hole through the half-elf with her sapphire blue eyes alone. Yet Emilia didn't even acknowledge or rise to the provocation, simply keeping her gaze locked on the sleeping face of Subaru, while she gently stroke his hand that was still resting in hers.

"Despite the pain, he's in, Subaru will make it through this, I'm sure... no I'm certain of it" Despite the overwhelming confidence in Julius's voice, even he couldn't suppress a grimace, because after all, even though Subaru was incredibly strong-willed, to the point where it would almost be considered ridiculous. It still didn't make it any easier for Julius to watch somebody who he considered a friend, be in so much pain. And it certainly wasn't helped that Julius had made a vow to be a better friend to Subaru, which considering the circumstances on screen, simply twisted the knife even further into Julius's heart.

"You're definitely correct on that one Julius, Subaru certainly does have a bit of a habit of becoming an escape artist, in the right circumstances" Anastasia said matter-of-factly, doing a very good job of hiding just how much Subaru's physical pain affected her. Because despite not considering Subaru as an Incredibly close friend, she still considered him a friendly acquaintance and considering protective and possessive she was, over her friends and the objects, that she owned. She couldn't help but feel incredibly uneasy about seeing the black-haired man in so much pain, especially considering that she was all too familiar with pain, her detective gate always giving her trouble at the worst possible moment.

"Honestly little Bro's got so many Close calls at this point, that I'm surprised the grim reaper hasn't come knocking personally" Al didn't mean for it to come across as a joke, instead more like a simple but dark observation. However, instead of getting ridiculed as he expected, he noticed that quite a few members of the audience were looking at him confused, which in turn confused him for just a moment before the proverbial light bulb went off in his brain.

"If I may enquire, Sir knight Al, what or who exactly is this... Grim Reaper that you speak of?" Wilhelm was the first to ask the question on many people's minds, after all despite himself having vague familiarity with the name, considering he had Subaru mention it once or twice in passing. He was still ultimately just as in the dark as everyone else when it came to who or what exactly this Grim Reaper actually was.

Al was silent for a moment, desperately trying to think of the right thing to say, in regards to answering the question of who exactly the Grim Reaper actually was. Because if he outright just said that the Grim Reaper was the physical incarnation of death itself, then everyone would probably take it as him making some kind of tasteless joke at Subaru's expense. However before any words could truly leave his mouth, someone else answered for him.

"The Grim Reaper is a mythological deity I suppose, and a widely believed one in Subaru's world" Beatrice accompanied her words with a small huff, completely ignoring the thankful look that the helmeted knight was giving her. In fact, helping him out wasn't even her intention, the reason that she had spoken was that she wanted to flex the knowledge that she had about Subaru's home world. After all other than Subaru himself, no one else knew as much about his home old as she did, and even though she tried to suppress it, she could feel a small and proud smile quickly making its way onto her delicate features. Because even though she hated her mother with a fiery passion, one of the things that Beatrice could say that she did inherit from Echidna was the witch's lust for knowledge, which was her namesake as the Witch of Greed.

"H-Hammond... A-are you A-A-alright? Despite the pain subsiding, Subaru continue to pant heavily, stumbling as he felt his body growing heavy, but luckily he managed to push himself against one of the walls, only just managing to keep himself upright as Hammond continued to speak on the other end of the rig link.

"I reached hydroponics through the maintenance tunnels. It's bad down here, really bad!... can barely breathe, that organic stuff is spreading everywhere... My eyes are stinging, I can barely keep them open" Even though the pain had not fully gone away, Subaru could feel his worry for Hammond skyrocket, as such after a moment to try and catch his breath again. Subaru pushes himself off the wall, stumbling at first before managing to get his footing.

"Hammond... Hammond!... dammit I lost the signal again, Subaru you're going to need to find a DNA sample of the growth. I went looking through the records, and apparently, there's an intact sample in the ICU. Someone by the name of Dr. Mercer was apparently doing intensive research on it" Subaru couldn't stop a shudder from running down his spine. If Dr. Mercer had been doing some kind of research on it, then was it possible that whatever the hell was chasing him, could have been the end result of the good old doctor playing god?

"Alright... I get to the ICU as quick as I can" Subaru said with a slight wheeze in his voice, quickly making his way over to the large melted barricade that he had burnt through earlier, and then quickly proceeding through the large double doors. All the while still hearing the cries and roars as it was seemingly still searching for him.

"Strange, if what Kendra says is the case, then I must wonder how long the doctor spent creating that beast?" Wilhelm said with a slightly concerned hint in his voice. Gently rubbing his bearded chin in deep thought, as he contemplated just how the Beast had come into being in the first place, considering that the monsters that Subaru had encountered were seemingly once human, and later upon their death they were turned into creatures of pure nightmare. Yet despite not knowing what DNA was, Wilhelm was no fool, it was somehow related to the monster, and the final piece that made Wilhelm conclude that the creature was some kind of artificially created Beast. Was that Mercer had specifically referred to the creature as his creation, even going as far as to say that it was his child?

"That's a good question Will, though I'm curious what this DNA stuff is, that Kendall was talking about~Nyah" Despite not knowing anything about what this DNA thing truly was, Felix could definitely say that his interest was peaked, considering that it was being stored in a medical part of the ship. That meant it was possibly some kind of highly advanced medical equipment, or possibly and more excitingly some kind of advanced medicine, much like the healing ointment cylinders that Subaru had used on himself before.

"Been a long time since biology class... but I'm pretty sure that DNA is the stuff that makes-"

"DNA is the fundamental building blocks of all living life I suppose, it is so tiny that it cannot be seen by the naked eye yet it makes up all living creatures" Beatrice quickly cut in, silence in the helmeted knight before he could finish his explanation. Much to the disappointment of Al who almost seemed to deflate, at having his chance to explain something from his home while taking away from him. Beatrice meanwhile couldn't help but bask in the glory of being able to explain something from Subaru's homeworld, the looks of surprise and awe making the little spirit feel quite proud of herself.

Subaru quickly made his way around the zig-zag hallway, stopping for a moment to quickly scoop up a spare energy pack he spotted on the floor, not even questioning why it was there at this point, instead giving a silent thanks as he quickly swapped out the old one with the new one, the holographic display on the side of the plasma cutter now reading a bright number 10. However as Subaru continued on his way, quickly opening up the doors that led into the Ishimura's clinic, he came face-to-face with a familiar Looking doctor, slowly pacing like some caged animal, on the other side of the observation window.

"Your persistence surprises me, Holding on to your final breath, you claw your way along! Holding on to a world that was once yours" Subaru came closer to the glass, keeping his plasma cutter firmly pointed at the deranged doctor in front of him.

"You're completely insane! What in the hell was that thing back there!?" Subaru said accusingly, pushing his plasma cutter forward even more to emphasise his point, yet Dr. Mercer didn't react, instead simply staring at Subaru with eyes that held absolutely nothing. In fact, to Subaru, it almost felt like the doctor wasn't even acknowledging that a person was in front of him.

"Seems like big Bro not playing around anymore" Felt said with an approving huff, nodding her head in agreement with what Subaru was doing. After all, if she was in the exact same situation, being chased around by some insane doctor's personal creature of nightmares, she could honestly say that she probably would be acting the exact same way right now.

"Cap's had enough and so have I, this... whatever his name is, is really starting to piss me off!" Garfiel said angrily gritting his teeth in frustration, at the fact that his captain has been chased around by some insane guy's personal pet monster. Yet the part that ground Garfiel's gears the most, was that this Mercer guy, had the absolute gall to patronize and talked down the Subaru like he was some kind of idiot, asking him to just simply stand there and accept his death like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Can't say I don't agree with you Garfield... but still mind your language young man" Frederica couldn't stop irritation from making its way into her voice, leveling a stern gaze at her little brother, making him flinch just a tiny bit. because they were not many things that scared Garfield more than his sister when she was mildly infuriated or even worse when she was actually angry.

(huff) "I hate peasants, who speak as if they know anything!" Priscilla said with a nasty glare on her face, not even bothering to hide behind her fan, as she glared at the clearly deranged man on the screen, feeling personally insulted by the way he spoke. Because if there was one thing she hated more than commoners, it was commoners who spoke as if they were above their station.

"This world, the world that we corrupt with our very touch... it doesn't belong to us anymore, it belongs to the children now. Be glad of the knowledge that your death... will bring about the birth of something greater, something that us insignificant humans can never hope to understand" The doctor accompanied his words by raising his hands into the air, a truly insane look crossing his face as Subaru felt a slight throb in his head, yet he pushed through the pain, keeping his plasma cutter firmly pointed at Dr. Mercer. However suddenly, Subaru heard something that made his blood run cold, it was the sound of claws scratching against metal followed by the roar of a terrible Beast.

"Listen, can you hear it?... It is coming. Say your prayers" Subaru didn't get a chance to react as Mercer quickly turned on the spot, making his way out of the small observation Booth and disappearing around the corner. Leaving Subaru completely alone in the small waiting area, however, was the muffled sounds of the Beast growing closer and closer, Subaru quickly made his way into the main ward of the clinic, shielding his eyes for a moment as the emergency lights flash brightly in the clinic.

"So that beast has finally caught up" Crusch said ominously, physically and mentally preparing herself for the upcoming fight, between Subaru and the absolute monster that was Dr. Mercer's personal handcrafted creature of nightmares.

"He's going to be fine... he's going to be absolutely fine" Emilia said quietly to herself, repeating variations of this phrase over and over, as if it was some kind of new mantra for her. But before she could repeat it again, she suddenly felt as if she was being looked at, and after a moment of looking around, she spotted that Beatrice was staring at her with a look that could only be described as, be quiet you're annoying me I suppose.

After a moment of the two staring at each other, Emilia turned away her cheeks flashing red with embarrassment, Beatrice meanwhile simply turned her gaze back to the screen, her eyes narrowing just a little bit as she mentally prepared herself for the rematch between her contractor and the absolute monstrosity that had been stalking him.

Reinhardt chose to remain silent, yet the expression on his face combined with a slight narrowing of his eyes, was enough to tell anyone around him that he was rooting for Subaru wholeheartedly, even if he was verbally expressing it.

"Od, that... T-thing is coming back" Despite Anastasia trying her hardest she couldn't keep the slight stutter out of her voice, because despite not letting onto it earlier, and choosing to outright ignore the feeling. Anastasia could now admit that the Beast truly terrified her, in a way that she didn't quite understand. But there was just something about the way the thing looked and acted that just simply rubbed her the wrong way, it was as if the creature's very existence was just wrong somehow as if it was a mockery of the very concept of Life itself.

"Kendra! the doors to the ICU are locked, and I'm trapped in here with whatever the hell Mercer created!" Subaru shouted into his rig link, as a vent cover nearby exploded open. Mercer's personal abomination quickly flying out and rose to its full intimidating height, its eyes somehow glowing a menacing orange colour, despite the bright flashing warning lights in the medical ward.

"Dammit, someone keeps shutting down the door protocol! just hang in there when while I try and bypass it!" Kendra shouted from the other end of the rig link, Subaru having no time to respond to her as the creature quickly ran forward and took a swipe at him. Intent on lopping his head off, Subaru, however, manage to dodge under the attack, feeling the creature's bone saw-like appendage, scraping against the top of his helmet. But Subaru quickly recovered, managing to put some space between himself and the creature as he took aim with his plasma cutter and fired. Putting two shots into the creature's right arm, the first shot doing relatively little damage like before, but the second shot was enough to completely severed the limb from the creature.

"Hell yeah Cap! teach that ugly ass thing who's boss!" Garfiel sheltered excitedly, feeling a lot more energised that Subaru actually turned and face the monster, and actually try and fight back against this instead of running away. Which Garfield could say was no mean feat, considering that it was obvious that Subaru was terrified of the thing yet he still fought it anyway. This was one of the aspects that Garfiel liked most about Subaru, to begin with.

Emilia didn't cheer or say anything, yet the slight smile and look of relief on her face, was more than enough for everyone around her to realise that she was, glad that Subaru was fighting back against the disgusting abomination. In fact to Emilia at least, it felt like Subaru had got a little bit of his usual gusto back, which considering how he had been acting before was definitely a positive in every way.

"I see that all that training isn't wasted after all" Wilhelm said with just the tiniest bit of pride in his voice. The way that Subaru had dodged the monster's attack, was almost identical to the way that he would dodge Wilhelm's horizontal sword slashes, during the two's very occasional sparring practice. And considering how old Subaru was supposed to be in this viewing, Wilhelm found it somewhat remarkable that he even remembered how to dodge an incoming attack like that, considering that from Subaru's perspective, it had most likely been decades since he had last used a dodge move like that.

"Even if he didn't manage to dodge yet, that was still a bit too close for comfort" Julius said with a slightly relieved sigh, holding his breath there for a moment as he saw the monster's appendage scrape against the top of Subaru's helmet. After all, a couple more inches and the monster would have easily taken Subaru's head clean off his shoulders, but even still, Julius was still impressed that even though Subaru had got older, it seems that his reaction time had remained the same even after decades of no practice.

"Well, at least he was able to take one of its arms off, so the thing is less dangerous now" Anastasia said nonchalantly, suddenly feeling an awful feeling run down her spine, causing her to shiver slightly. Because for some unexplainable reason, it almost felt like she had just unknowingly jinxed something.

Subaru ready himself to take another shot at the creature, intending to take off one of its legs with his next shot. Yet before he could pull the trigger, the creature suddenly stopped its advance, standing there for a moment before it suddenly hunched over, and despite being surprised for a moment, Subaru's surprise quickly turned to horror, as he watched the stump where its arm had been previously, begin to bubble and pulsate. A new limb growing before his eyes from the fleshy stamp, and after a moment of the sick display, the creature stood back up to its full height, looking at its newly acquired appendage with an almost satisfied look, before it turned its menacing gaze back towards Subaru

"You've got to be kidding me" Was all that Subaru could say as the creature quickly advance towards him, Subaru as quickly, advancing backward as the both of them continued their duel in the emergency ward of the USG Ishimura.

"Oh come on! how is that fair and... even possible anyway?" Felt shouted at the top of her lungs, throwing her hands up in the air at the absolute absurdity she had just seen. It was both disgusting and almost mesmerising to watch, as the creature had regrown the limb that it lost only moments ago. In fact, it just completely boggled the young blonde's mind at how something like that was even possible, sure powerful healers like Felix, could probably regrow limbs, but considering that the world Subaru was in lacked magic of any kind. Then how exactly did this creature manage to pull off something, that even in her world that was considered a very rare feat of healing magic?

"How... H-how is that even possible~Nyah" Felix couldn't fathom what here just witnessed, in fact, he was positive that for a moment his brain had completely shut down at the site of the monster managing somehow to regrow its own limb as if it was nothing more than child's play. It just didn't make sense to Felix, because even though he was able to do something similar when healing patients, often able to regenerate a limb to the point where it could at least be some more functional for the patient. The fact of this monster was able to do the exact same thing in a couple of seconds that would take Felix hours if not days to accomplish, was both offensive and just bizarre.

"Perhaps next time, it's best that you keep your mouth shut I suppose" Beatrice's words were accompanied by an angry glare directed towards a certain purple head merchant woman, who despite her best efforts to try and disappear or turn invisible, found herself unable to do so as multiple glazes were corrected her way. In fact, even Juliusm her own knight couldn't help but look at her, with a look that could only be described as, why did you have to jinx it like that lady Anastasia?

"Well now... considering that putting down this monster in the same way as the others, doesn't seem to be feasible... I think it's best that Subaru runs in the complete opposite direction" The words that came out of Crusch's mouth surprised many around her. Particularly Felix and Wilhelm, who looked at Crusch as if she has just grown a second head because if there was one thing that the green-haired duchess hated more than anything, it was the concept of retreating from a battle. She viewed it as a cowardly move, something that no proud warrior or knight would ever do, even if they were facing down an enemy more powerful than themselves. So to hear her casually and almost nonchalantly say that Subaru should retreat from a battle, was the equivalent of hearing her praise and worship the divine dragon himself.

"As much as I hate commoners and cowards who run from battle, I think this is the one time where I will find it acceptable" Priscilla despite not wanting to admit it, was very much on the same boat as Crusch when it came to her views cowardly soldiers that chose to run from a battle. But considering the enormity of the creature in front of him and its ability to seemingly regenerate from any wound, the sun princess decided that this was one of the few times where actually running from an enemy was the right, smart, and even brave decision.

"Subaru. The door's unlocked get out of there!" Subaru didn't need to be told twice, only just managing to dodge another slash from the creature, as he quickly backed up as quickly as possible, putting two shots into the creature's right leg, which was just enough to sever the limb from its body. Causing the hulking brute to fall to the floor in rage and pain, yet Subaru paid no attention to its screams, quickly turning on the spot and dashing through the open doorway. The doors themselves slammed shut behind him, the creature's roars of agony and rage still being audible even behind the large reinforced metal doors.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Subaru quickly holds his hand out in front of him, the brilliant blue sapphire line, quickly projected from his hands and slating its way around the corner. However as Subaru shut his locator off, he noticed that his hand was beginning to shake, in fact, his entire body was beginning to shake ever so slightly, because being surrounded by beds and other medical equipment, immediately sent Subaru hurtling back to those much darker days.

The days when he would be locked in a solid glass cell, while doctors watched and studied him as if he was some kind of strange alien creature. But Subaru managed to shake those thoughts away, trying to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, and after a moment of calming himself, Subaru began to walk deeper into the ICU, quickly rounding a corner into a long hallway filled with patient beds.

"What happened to you in that place I suppose" Beatrice asked thoughtfully, a small frown making its way onto her delicate little face face. While it was obvious that something had happened to Subaru, to make him so deathly afraid of hospitals and other medical facilities in general. But even with her connection, the brief flashes of memories and feelings that she could feel coming from Subaru, still didn't grant her a great understanding of exactly what happened to Subaru that traumatised him so greatly, that even stepping foot into a hospital, was almost enough to break his will.

"Whatever happened to Subaru... it's clearly left a much deep Impact than anything before" Crusch couldn't stop a small frown from making its way onto her face, the exact nature of what had traumatised Subaru so much, to the point where just stepping into a hospital was enough to make him jittery, was ultimately still a mystery that she desperately wanted answers to.

Because quite frankly to her it was just strange, Subaru was the kind of person who could be knocked down yet get back up and keep going, and even mental and physical injuries beyond imagination were not enough to stop him after time. In fact, his iron-willed sanity was one of his most well-known and even admirable traits, because after all, how many people could suffer the gruesome fate of being eaten from the Inside Out by thousands of tiny hellspawn creatures, and then got one to face the exact same little abominations with a look of confidence and bravery.

"H-He looks so... S-scared" despite not believing it was possible, Emilia could feel her heart shattering even more than it already was. despite putting on a brave face, Emilia had come to know Subaru so well, that she could see the subtle movements of his body, the way his hands almost imperceptibly shook ever so slightly. Was enough to tell her, that he was absolutely terrified, even if he has managed to convince himself that he truly wasn't, but ultimately that simply lead Emilia back to the same line of questioning, of what exactly had traumatised Subaru so much. Because out of everything she had seen so far, that was the biggest and most poignant question that Emilia wanted answers to.

"I think I can so much understand now, why Barusu doesn't like places like that" Ram said with a slight jitter in her voice. the overall atmosphere of the ICU really beginning to creep her out. Because despite keeping it a secret from many, if that was one thing that truly unnerved and even scared Ram, it was dark and eerie places that had a complete absence of any life whatsoever.

"I don't blame big bro at all... That place is just downright creepy" Felt could feel a shiver running down her spine as the words left her mouth. After all, this ICU as it was called, just looked downright eerie, in fact, it very much reminded Felt of her early years, specifically the dark moonless nights, that she would spend by herself when old man Ron would have to go and do business with his more nervous clients, and even though she didn't want to admit to such a childish fear, the dark still absolutely terrified her.

"Come on, you need to keep yourself together... For Nicole's sake" Subaru muttered quietly to himself, as he made his way down the long hallway filled with patient beds. occasionally darting his eyes around, when he thought that he saw something hiding in the shadows, only for it to turn out to be some mundane objects such as a gurney or IV stands. However, Subaru did spot one object that certainly didn't belong in the hospital-like environment. It was a small red tank approximately half a meter long, and about 25cm in diameter, and as Subaru step closer to inspect it, he finally realised exactly what it was.

"Huh... Nitrogen trichloride? What's this doing in the medical deck?" As the words left Subaru's mouth, he suddenly heard something that made his body go rigid, it was the sound of wet and sticky flesh followed by the agonising screams of some poor soul turned into an abomination against their will, and as Subaru poke his head around the corner, his worst fears were confirmed, when he saw another one of those guardians that he decided to call it, stuck to the wall and screaming like some kind of demented limpet.

"I-I-It's another one of those T-T-things" Otto stuttered, quickly bringing his hand up to his mouth to try and contain his retching and gagging. After all seeing a disgusting creature like that once was more than enough, so to see another identical one was almost too much for the Emilia camp's merchant to handle.

"Just as ghastly the first, but at least Subaru now knows how to kill it" Julius expressed managing to keep his disgust under control, although the subtle way that his face scrunched up when he saw the creature, was more than enough to tell that he was truly repulsed by what he was looking at. Because out of all of the abominations that Subaru had encountered so far, this one was the most truly alien and monstrous of them all, considering that the only human-like feature that the monster possessed, was a bald scarred head poking out of its fleshy mass.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Subaru will prevail" Reinhardt said with confidence overflowing from his voice, a look of pure determination on his face, as he watched Subaru be ready to face down another twisted abomination. Because after all, Subaru was a true hero, somebody who even when the odds are against him, never backed down always pushing forward to help people and achieve his goals.

Subaru quickly pulled his head back from the corner, thinking for a moment how exactly he was going to get past that thing, considering that he didn't have very many shots left in his plasma cutter. However that's when he remembered the tank of Nitrogen trichloride, the chemical was known for its high instability, to the point where just dropping it on the floor could be enough to make it explode.

And so with his mind made up, Subaru gently picked up the canister with his kinesis module, taking a deep calming breath before he quickly jumped around the corner, the creature noticed him but having no time to react, as the canister was quickly propelled at it. And as soon as it impacted the creature's flesh, the contents inside the canister exploding violently. Subaru covering his visor with his spare arm from the loud and bright explosion, and after taking his arm away from his face, Subaru was both shocked and slightly proud of just how much the creature has been decimated by the exploding chemical.

"Well... that was a bit more effective and messier than I expected" Subaru said with a slightly hollow-sounding laugh, giving what was left of the creature one last glance as he quickly stepped into the next room.

"Well, that was an interesting and... messy way of getting rid of the creature" Crusch was both pleasantly surprised and a little bit disgusted by the method that Subaru had used to kill the creature. Using the canister of unknown material which was apparently highly volatile, to kill the creature certainly was an interesting of dispatching it. In fact it was so effective that there wasn't much left of the creature, to begin with, most of it having been rendered to nothing more than bubbling and burning flesh, spread across all four corners of the room, in a horrifying mosaic of blood and viscera.

"That was very ingenious, especially for a commoner, I must say I'm impressed" Priscilla said with just a hint of pride and her voice, holding her hand in front of her face, which hid a small but proud smile that had made its way under her lips. After all despite how often she verbally berated him, one of the few positives that she could really say about Subaru, was his ingenuity in combat, which had been expertly and explosively shown by his use of the canister of unknown material.

"Man, talk about clean up on aisle 5" Al couldn't help but feel just a little bit sickened by the way the creature had been turned into nothing more than minced meat. But at the same time, he had to admit that it was a little bit badass and somewhat satisfying to watch the monster be completely destroyed by a stereotypical red exploding tank.

"Ever ingenious and resourceful, I would have expected nothing less from young Subaru" Wilhelm said matter-of-factly, feeling somewhat satisfied that Subaru had managed to take out the creature in such an effect with an efficient manner. Because being serious and resourceful was another one of Subaru's defining traits and one that will have had always found quite impressive, especially for a boy of his age, and to Wilhelm's pleasure it seems that even as Subaru got older that resourcefulness never left him.

"That... was both the nastiest and awesome thing I've ever seen" Garfiel said, metaphorically picking his jaw up from the floor, cause something about seeing the monster had quite literally been blown to bits, was both morbidly disgusting also incredibly awesome to the young blonde teenager. And it was made even more awesome, by the fact that his captain was the one responsible for it.

Subaru looked around the unfamiliar space, seeing several large glass cylinders each one of them having a large medical operating table at the center, which could only mean that he was on the right track, considering that he had the past through the intensive care unit to get to Dr Mercer's personal lab. And so after navigating around the different glass cylinders, and round the corner, Subaru came to a door with the sign of it reading doctor "Dr Challus Mercer personal laboratory"

"Looks like I found the right place" Subaru said, trying to keep his voice calm as he activated the door panel, the door opening up and allowing him to step into the small office. But, what he saw inside caused him to stop mid-step and made his stomach churn beyond belief. It looked like something straight out of a slasher horror movie, the shelves were lined with decapitated and mutilated human heads, some of them in jars and others haphazardly just resting on the shelf themselves. All over the walls were scribbles in an unknown language, that Subaru couldn't read. Some of them were made with white chalk while others were made with blood which also plasters the walls in every direction, and looking at all of it made Subaru think, who was the real Monster? Challus Mercer or the absolute monstrosity that he ended up creating through his sadistic and homicidal experiments.

"H-how horrid... W-W-Why would he do that to T-those poor people" Despite having seen things in the viewings, that she thought would have desensitized her to most anything. Dr Mercer's personal office and the horrors that it contained, was a complete shock and slap in the face to Emilia because despite knowing first-hand the evil people could be to one another for no reason. Seeing how this clearly deranged man had brutally murdered tens and tens of people for seemingly no reason, and had kept the dismembered heads as if there was some kind of sick trophies of his accomplishments. Was just awful to imagine let alone actually see it with her own eyes.

If it wasn't for her connection with Subaru, Beatrice wouldn't have been all too shocked by the reveal of just how deranged Dr. Mercer actually was. Yet the feelings that were coming from the on-screen Subaru, made Beatrice feel like she's almost been punched squarely in the face by them. Subaru's fear and anxiety had exploded like a dying star, in fact, the emotions were so strong that Beatrice couldn't stop her own body from beginning to shake, due to the emotions flowing into her from the connection that she and Subaru shared as contractor and spirit.

"As much as I don't want to say it, this Dr. Mercer's depravity makes Elsa look like a saint by comparison" As observing as hyperbolic as it sounded, Frederica had nothing but the truth in her words. After all, Elsa, the former bow Hunter was quite literally a demon in the form of a beautiful woman, somebody who took almost sexual pleasure, from dismembering and disemboweling her targets as well as taking great joy in watching their final moments.

Yet somehow this is Doctor Mercer, despite being less outwardly threatening was somehow worse than that, because, unlike Elsa who took pleasure in the killing, this insane doctor didn't seem to take any kind of pleasure in killing, going about the act of taking another's life with a cold clinical nature, as if he was performing some kind of mundane operation.

After a moment of looking around at the office adorned with its demented decorations, Subaru apprehensively walked into the small office, noticing a large chemical mixing computer much like the one he had used earlier immediately to his right, and so without wasting a moment, Subaru unclipped the chemical flask from his belt, before placing it into the appropriate slot, the computer on beginning to add the sample of DNA to the compound.

However as Subaru waited for the process to be completed, he notices a small personnel tablet, sitting on the main computer terminal, the name of the holographic screen reading Dr. Challus Mercer, Personal Log. And despite Subarus's reasonable side telling him to not listen to the message, his curiosity won out as he pressed play on the tablet choosing to leave it sitting on the desk as it began to relay it's recording.

"Personal log. Doctor Challus Mercer. the specimen continues to respond well to my experiments. Its cellular fortitude, not to mention its elasticity, is remarkable, Doctor kyne, I'm sure, would disapprove of my methods. But I do not anticipate that issue, as the good doctor is busying himself of the Marker" Subaru as a chill run down his spine at the mention of this marker. Although he wasn't entirely sure why exactly, however, he pushed his discomfort away, continuing to listen to the message, as well as keeping a close eye on the progress of the sample mixing.

"As if any of that matters now! he has also succumbed to the same dementia that had affected the colony. Only yesterday he told me he had spoken to his wife... but Emilia Kane has been dead for some years" The message engine about the same time as the sample mixing was completed, however, Subaru didn't acknowledge either of those, instead he was completely rooted to the spot at the mention of that oh so familiar name, in fact for just a brief moment he could hear her whispering into his ear.

"Subaru… please... make us whole again"

Emilia felt her entire body locked up, upon hearing the dastardly and horrifying imitation of her voice, the way almost lovingly and sickly whispered into his ear. Caused a torrent of emotion to engulf her mind, on the one hand, she felt unyielding fear and horror, threatening to eat away at her very sanity, but on the other, she felt anger and rage. Rage at the fact that whatever was doing this, was using her of all people to torment the person she love with all of her heart. It was almost enough to make Emilia want to tear her hair out.

"Leave him be... please just leave him be" Beatrice murmured quietly, quickly bringing her face down and touching her forehead to Subarus, tears beginning to leak from her eyes as she could feel the emotions from his on-screen counterpart. The whirlwind of emotions was almost too much for Beatrice to bear, yet trying to seek any physical comfort from the Subaru in front of her, did absolutely nothing to quell the emotional torrent that was crashing into the little spirit's mind.

"Oh no... it's back" She didn't dare address it as a person, no, Crusch wouldn't give it the dignity, because, after all, she cared deeply about Emilia. So seeing this entity daring to use the half-elf's face, was both inraging, and absolutely horrifying to watch. In fact, despite wanting to help Emilia, the green-haired duchess couldn't even begin to imagine the absolute agony and torment that Emilia was going through. Because, Emilia had a very bad habit of blaming herself for things that she felt responsible for, even if they were ultimately outside her control and not her fault. So the fact that this entity was using her face to torment the person that she loved most must have had her blaming herself.

"Come on big bro, she's not real dammit!... Y-you need to get a hold of yourself!" Felt shouted much louder than she intended but at this point, she didn't care, watching Subaru being in so much mental anguish was just too much for the young blonde to handle. Yet instead of crying her eyes as most people did she instead resorted to anger and bravado. Trying to deliver words of encouragement in the only way she knew how, yet even if the words managed to reach him, even Felt wasn't entirely sure that the words would have any effect, considering that the ghostly version of Emilia was making Subaru sink deeper and deeper into his delusions.

"Miss Frederica, whats happe-" Petra didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence, as she was quickly wrapped up into a tight embrace, her head being pressed between Frederica's ample bosom, ultimately shielding the young girl from the horrors of Subaru's spiralling mental state. And it was also quite lucky that she couldn't see Frederica's face because the young girl would have seen nothing but horror plaster all over the beast woman's face.

"How unsightly" Despite managing to keep a straight face, even Priscilla couldn't help but feel just a little bit horrified that what she was witnessing. After all, she was essentially watching a man lose his very mind, being haunted by a ghostly version of the woman he loved, who took it upon herself to torment him for his supposed sins. It was honestly just an absolutely disgusting freak show that she didn't enjoy watching whatsoever. Because despite many people thinking her to be completely heartless and with no empathy, even Priscilla had a line where simply enough was enough.

Subaru could feel the panic beginning to overtake him, the office around him seemingly began to warp and shift, the mutilated and decapitated heads quickly morphing into faces that he recognised, the faces of his friends, the faces of those that he left behind. He could hear them screaming at him.

"Why did you leave me behind I suppose! you said I would never have to experience loneliness ever again!" The decapitated head of Beatrice screamed at him, bloody tears running down from her eyeless sockets, each word that she shouted impacting Subaru as if they were physical punches, with every single one of them imparting their vitriol and hatred directly in him.

"No... P-P-please don't listen to it... Betty knows it wasn't your fault" Beatrice managed to stutter out, each word that her horrifying on-screen counterparts spoke, feeling like a physical blow to her heart. Which was only made worse by the fact that she could feel just how they affected the on-screen version of Subaru.

"You were my Subaru, you were Rem's hero... Yet you left me behind to die!" Rem's jawless lower head somehow spoke sadly at him. Subaru quickly covering his ears, hunching over in both physical and mental agony as each one of her words felt like a stab in the heart.

"N-No that's not true... you'll always be Rem's hero no matter what!" Rem screamed desperately, hoping against anything that her words would actually be able to reach Subaru on the other side of the screen. Yet her words did absolutely nothing, making the blue-haired oni feel absolutely powerless.

"You are disgusting... the one man that my sister came to love, and yet you abandoned her and us as well... you truly are despicable Subaru" Ram's half-skinned head said with a look of pure disgust in her dead remaining pink eye. As Subaru could feel what was left of his sanity quickly beginning to be eroded away, Subaru by now hyperventilating as he tried to block out the voices, yet they kept coming tormenting him for his weakness and cowardice.

"It's a trick Barusu! don't fall for it you idiot!" Despite having believed such things about Subaru at one point in time. Ram could honestly say that her opinion of him now was further from the truth. Sure he can act idiotic occasionally, but if there was one thing that she could truly say about him, it was the fact that he never abandoned anyone. Because all of the previous viewings had shown in graphic detail the lengths that Subaru would go to save someone he cared about. In fact, in some cases he would literally go against fate itself, to make sure that everyone got to see another day.

"I can't believe I was ever stupid enough to respect you... When the going got tough you ran away like you always do... I hope you're proud of yourself Cap" Garfiel's mutilated head was barely recognisable as his, the only indicator being his sharp fangs, and piercing but dead yellow eyes. And after looking at them for just a moment, Subaru began to scream and cry as apologies of all kinds began to fly from his mouth at an almost incomprehensible speed, his knees buckling as he collapsed, now clutching his head and both physical and mental agony.

Garfiel tried and failed to suppress a growl of sad rage, tears threatening to leak from his eyes. because none of the awful things that his counterpart on-screen had just said were true in the slightest, if there was one thing that Subaru wasn't then it was a quitter. one of Subaru's defining character traits and the one that Garfiel looked up to the most. Subaru's unwillingness to back down from anything that would threaten his friends and companions, was what made Garfiel so enamoured with him at first and the reason why he wanted Subaru to train him. Because Subaru and the events of the Sanctuary had shown Garfiel that he wasn't strong nor was he a shield like Garfiel thought himself to be. He was nothing but a weak crying child desperately lashing out at anyone who tried to help.

"I should have left you to be eaten by the White Whale Mr Natsuki! all you do is get everyone around you killed!" Each word that came out of Otto's completely bisected head was completely filled with hate and malice. And even despite screaming and begging "that it wasn't true" and "it wasn't his fault" couldn't make any of it stop.

"T-that's not true!" Otto couldn't stop the tears flowing from his eyes, trying but ultimately failing to counter what the horror on-screen version of him was saying. After all, Subaru was the person who saved Otto, from his gruesome fate at the hands of the witch cult and on top of that, perhaps one of the few true friends that the grey-haired merchant had in his entire life.

"You're nothing but a burden on all of us!... perhaps it's best that you should have died that day!" Frederica's mutilated head practically snarled as Subaru tried to block out the sound of her voice. Yet even with him screaming at the top of his lungs for it to just stop. the mutilated visitors of his friends kept screaming their hateful words at him, each word feeling like a physical blow as the surroundings of the laboratory seemed to completely unravel and leaving him in endless darkness.

Frederica remained completely silent, but it wasn't because she didn't have any words to say. It was quite the opposite in fact, there were so many things that she wanted to say yet she couldn't find the voice to say them. And it didn't help that she was still trying to keep Petra from hearing and witnessing what was going on on-screen, because despite the young girl having seen things that would scar many children older than herself. What was going on currently, was a new kind of freak show that the young girl did not need to be privy to.

"P-P-please stop it... Just make it stop. I... I... I'm sorry! it wasn't my fault!" Subaru screamed as he could feel his mind beginning to completely unravel, suppressed memories of his time in the hospital and the delusions of the visions that he would get of it is flowing back into his mind intent on making him remember.

"Subaru... there's no need to cry" After a moment Subaru looked up, tears freely flowing down his face, yet it wasn't the face that he had a moment ago, instead of his aged and ragged appearance, he now look considerably younger, his heavy engineering rig now gone, replaced with his familiar black white and orange tracksuit. Yet none of that mattered to Subaru as he looked up, her arms outstretched as if she was beckoning for him to come and embrace her. Behind her was a strange helix shape obelisk, red glowing symbols etched into its red surface, and behind all of that, was a truly immeasurably colossal silhouette, its three impossibly large glowing eyes glaring down at the scene in front of it, as if it was waiting patiently for something to occur.

Emilia tried to speak, but as soon as she saw the strange obelisk and the dark silhouette on the screen. She felt an absolutely awful pain shoot through her head, causing her to drop Subaru's hand as she clutched her head in absolute agony. Letting out a quite loud painful groan much to the concern of everyone around her.

Yet that was the furthest thing from her mind as strange images began to fill her vision, endless fields of white beautiful flowers, images of her and Subaru sitting together, and more disturbingly flashes of Subaru, but his face was replaced with one of the monsters. But the strangest of all was a dark silhouette on the horizon, which was accompanied by millions... No billions of voices all speaking in unison.

"W-W-what is T-this" Emilia managed to stutter, all of the images blended together into her mind, before she realised what she was seeing. They were all memories from her dream, everything from the nightmarish Subaru, all the way up to the billions of Voices screaming in her mind, she could remember it all now, but Emilia still didn't understand what any of it meant. But that's when she began to hear them or more precisely see them. The symbols, the strange alien symbols from before, yet this time she could recognise what they actually were, they were instructions but instructions to what, Emilia didn't know. However before she could try and decipher the symbols jumping across her vision, she suddenly felt someone roughly put their hand on her shoulder, before she suddenly felt herself being roughly turned to face the owner of the hand.

"Emilia! What's gotten into you!?" Emilia was a little bit surprised to see none other than Crusch looking at her with a face of very palpable concern. But instead of answering right away, Emilia couldn't think of the right thing to say, fumbling over the words in her head, as if her mind was momentarily scrambled by what had just happened.

Yet she wasn't the only one, Crusch had also had a severe reaction to the appearance of the strange obelisk and menacing-looking silhouette. But instead of seeing the things that Emilia saw, the green-haired Dutchess was finally able to remember the full events from her dream, everything from the nightmarish encounter with the black silhouette to her strange interactions with the boy that felt familiar to her. And finally her encounter with what looked like Subaru but definitely wasn't him, but before she could ponder over the details any further, Emilia finally managed to respond.

"I...I don't K-K-know... M-my head just started H-H-hurting for some reason A-and..." Emilia faltered at the last part of her sentence, it wasn't that she didn't want to tell Crusch about her experiences. But it was more like something small and insignificant in the back of her brain was telling her not to, whispering directly into her ear that she didn't need to know, and that the green-haired duchess didn't deserve to know. Yet after a small internal struggle between herself and the little voice, Emilia finally managed to spit out what she wanted to say.

"I S-S-saw things, T-things from a dream I had when I was knocked out... A-and the S-S-symbols... I keep seeing these strange symbols I D-don't U-U-understand" Emilia managed to say each word feeling almost painful to say as if something really didn't want her to talk about what she had experienced and seen. And as soon as all of the words had left her mouth, she felt an almost infuriated Sensation come over her as if something was angry with her for saying what she said.

"I see... I still can't fathom what's going on... what could be causing all of it?" Crusch said with a slightly frustrated tone, her face scrunching up in mild anger, because it felt like to have whatever was doing all of this, whether it was the warden or some kind of outside influence was deliberately trying with all of them. In fact, a pseudonym that Subaru had used many times came to her mind that moment, and that was it felt like they were being given the runaround.

"Hey Reinhardt, can't use any of your divine protections to figure out what's going on?" Felt voice was quiet as she elbowed Reinhardt in the side of the stomach, wincing ever so slightly when she felt her elbow contact a solid mass that felt like it was made of pure metal. Reinhardt for his part looked down at the little blonde thoughtfully for a moment, but after thinking about it, he realise that whatever was doing this didn't set off any kind of divine protection that he had currently. In fact, considering what was happening seemed to be related to the mind, Reinhardt found it especially bazaar and slightly concerning that none of his mind protection-related divine protections were set off by any of this.

Subaru wasn't sure exactly what to say, yet her words were comforting and warm, and looking into her eyes he could see that they were full of life and love just like how he remembered. Subaru could feel his body beginning to Move by itself, quickly getting to his feet as he began to march towards her, opening his arms up to bring her into a tight embrace.

Yet as he drew closer something in his brain began to say... no scream at him that something wasn't right. and despite wanting to ignore it Subaru felt his feet come to a complete stop, finding himself unable to continue forward but also unable to turn and walk the other way, and as the mental tug of war continued. Subaru heard her voice again, except this time it was different, sounding more like multiple voices speaking in unison rather than a single one.

"Subaru... come be made whole with us" Subaru turned his attention back to her, yet as soon as he laid eyes on her, he felt his entire body began to shake. Because despite looking the same as she did moments ago, something about her now instinctively made Subaru terrified, and as his body continue to shake with fear, Subaru felt one of his feet step backward. Which was quickly followed by another step, and another, and then abruptly he turned on the spot and began to sprint at full speed. However looking over his shoulder for a split second, Subaru was horrified to see her slowly walking towards him, her face hidden by Shadow, but that was when he finally noticed the gigantic silhouette, and specifically, its three gigantic glowing eyes staring down at him.

"I-It's a nightmare" Was all that Ram could actually say to what she was witnessing. Everything she had seen up until this point was horrifying in some aspect, whether it be the absolute body horror of the monsters, or watching Subaru die in more elaborate and gruesome ways. But what she was seeing right now was just … twisted beyond belief, it was quite literally a waking nightmare that Subaru couldn't seemingly escape from.

Rem couldn't stop herself from letting out a frustrated growl fuelled by anger and absolute sorrow. watching Subaru experience a true waking nightmare was just impossible for her to watch, yet even if she wanted to turn her head away and not watch she simply couldn't. it was as if her eyes were completely glued to the screen, watching her beloved experience something that was quite literally a true waking nightmare.

"I C-Can't watch this" Anastasia had to turn her head away, not able to watch anymore as Subaru experience a true nightmare. Because it reminded her too much of her own vivid nightmares that she would experienced as a child. And so seeing Subaru experience a true waking nightmare, which is sanity quite literally being stripped away in the process, was just beyond anything she could imagine or bring herself to watch.

Julius can't bring himself to say anything, after all, what could he say about seeing one of his closest friends experience a true living nightmare. It was just horrifying beyond words, which was ultimately made even worse by the fact that Julius was really beginning to think that this wasn't just Subaru's mind playing tricks on him. Since the first ghostly apparition of Emilia, Julius had his suspicions, but considering Subarus's quite deteriorated mental state, the purple-haired swordsman up until now wasn't entirely sure. But now with this, happening in front of him Julius was sure that this was more then just Subaru's mind playing tricks on him.

Wilhelm chose to remain silent, yet his face help nothing but sadness and perhaps a little bit of anger, Because even though he and Reinhart had repaired their relationship somewhat, Subaru was still the closest thing that Wilhelm had to a true grandson. So watching his surrogate grandson experience a true waking nightmare that would render most experienced knights into nothing more than ranting and raving madmen. Made Wilhelm's heart feel like it was shattering all over again, much like how it did when he had lost his wife to the White Whale.

"Nyah~I can't... I just can't-" Felix managed to stutter out, quickly turning his head away from the screen as he felt every hair on his body stand up on end. Of course, he was horrified that Subaru was experiencing such a vivid and horrific waking nightmare. Because seeing all of this made Felix remember his own night terrors, specifically the ones he had after he was rescued from his abusive family, back then he would always see his father in his dreams, resembling more than demon than a human being. So seeing something similar to that in Subaru's waking nightmare was definitely a bit too close to home for the catboy healer.

Frederica didn't say anything, simply because of how horrified she was watching what was unfolding on the screen, yet despite every part of her brain telling her to not look, she couldn't tear her eyes away from it. it was as if something was forcing her to watch against her will, which was absolute anguish for sure but she was at least thankful that Petra had still not managed to break away from her embrace, giving up muffled whines and cries for Frederica to let her go so she could see what was happening.

"̷̄ͅW̴͇̊ȟ̵̢Y̵̦͝ ̸̥̀a̶͇͂R̴͇̊e̸̫̿ ̶̪͌y̷̡̏Õ̸͕ú̸̟ ̷̡̈R̴̗͐ű̸͇N̴̺̆n̷̪̂I̴̭͗n̶̟̑G̵̰̒.̴͖̽.̸̧̓.̷̹̈́ ̶͓͆i̴͇̕Ṡ̶̗n̴̦̐'̴͖̾Ť̸̹ ̵̹̈́t̸͎̄H̴͖̿í̴̬S̷̹̈́ ̸̢͂w̷̮̚Ḩ̴͂a̷̻͌Ť̶̯ ̵̪͒ÿ̶͈́O̸̘͠u̵͈͗ ̸͉̾W̴͓͝ǹ̶͙Ṱ̶̉e̷̝̿Ď̴̖,̸̼̈́ ̶̲̾t̶̤͠Ỏ̷̟ ̶͖̓ḅ̶͘E̷̺̓ ̷͔͂m̸͉͘A̵͉̔d̴̲̆E̸̼̊ ̸͈̓w̵̛̖H̵͕̚o̵̹͑L̴̼̐e̷̙̾ ̴͙̐ẉ̷̀I̵̙̕ẗ̷̹H̸̭̋ ̷̣́h̴̛̼Ẽ̷̖r̷̮͠ ̴̮͂A̶͇̚ḡ̶̲A̶̼͐i̷̩̐N̷̫͂?̴̮́"̵͍̈ ̵̱̒

The voice didn't even sound like her anymore, instead, it sounded like billions of voices all speaking in perfect unison with each other, and despite feeling her practically breathing down the back of his neck, Subaru continue to run as fast as his legs could carry him. However as he was positive that she was reaching out to touch him, her hand stopped midway, but even then Subaru pushed his legs as fast as they would go, to try and put some distance between him and her. But just a Subaru thought he was finally making some progress. He felt a hand come down to her shoulder forcing him to turn around in an instant, causing Subaru to tumble onto his behind, and looking up he finally saw her face.

Her head was crooked, bent to the side of an awfully unnatural angle, and her eyes were dead and hollow, seemingly staring right through him and into his very soul. But before he could say or do anything he suddenly heard her speak again but instead of it being her voice, it was instead billions and billions of voices all speaking in unison with each other.

"̵̼̑N̵̖͠o̶͉͘T̷̬̚ ̷͙̏ê̴͖V̸̙͝ê̵̼Ṇ̸̃ ̶̨̌y̷̧͠Ỏ̵̠u̶̯̽ ̷͖͌W̶̺̐h̷̤̾Õ̵̯ ̸̟̆ǐ̴͜S̸̳̀ ̶͍̊ļ̷̛O̴̺̊v̵̘̅E̷͈̎d̶͎̑ ̵̳̏B̷̼͠y̵̱͝ ̸͚̿A̸̻͒ ̶͓̉w̸̤̒I̸̺̍t̵̙͐Ç̷̒h̶̝̑.̸̢͘.̸̺̌.̷̯̏ ̴̧̌C̸̹̾ä̸́͜N̴̻͛ ̶̠͌s̶̜̆T̴̩̎ơ̴̙P̷̪̄ ̸̟͊o̸͎̽Ṷ̸͗r̶̛̹ ̴̛͙A̵̡̚s̸͎̈C̷͙̅e̸̖͛N̸͚̒s̸̺̽Ï̴̞ơ̵̟N̶̝͋.̷̫̅.̵͓͆.̵͈̚ ̴̹̈w̵̆͜È̸͇ ̸̡͆w̵̹͂I̷̝̍L̴͓͘l̷̮̚ ̶̥̂B̷̗̒é̸̤ ̶͚͋M̴͓̏a̸͚͗D̷̰̾e̷̫͂ ̸̰̀W̴͖̒h̴̹̓O̷̟̍l̴̬̏E̵̢̓ ̸̳̏å̶͎N̸̖̽d̵̖̚ ̷̘̐Ẁ̸͇ĕ̴͉ ̸̪̈W̷͚͛í̸̘L̵̫̃l̷͙̓ ̶͕̏Ļ̸̌i̸̻̓V̶̥̐e̶̠͝ ̷͍̎F̵̧͆o̷̧̓R̵̙͐e̸̺̓V̶̫̋e̴͓͋R̴̹̐"̸̮̍ ̴͕͒

Subaru screamed at the top of his lungs, closing his eyes expecting his inevitable end, as the billions and billions of Voices flowed from her mouth. Yet as soon as he closed his eyes he suddenly opened them again, finding himself back in the dark dank laboratory that belong to Dr. Mercer. Everything was exactly how it was, there were no decapitated heads of his long-departed friends screaming at him, there was no ghostly version of her and finally, there were no voices.

After standing there with a completely dumbfounded expression, Subaru forcefully grab the sample container from the computer's slot, not even bothering to hook it to his belt, as he bolted out of The laboratory, its door slamming shut behind him, as he slammed his back against it, his breathing becoming hard and ragged as his legs threatened to give out from beneath him. And even though he could faintly hear her voice whispering for him to come back, he somehow managed to hold himself together, but that didn't last very long as he felt the tears beginning to come again. But before he could fully break down his rig link suddenly lit up with an incoming communication alert.

The theatre was completely and utterly silent, nobody could bring themselves to say anything after the absolutely nightmarish display they had just seen, of course over the previous viewings they had all seen things that would forever scar them. But seeing Subaru experience a true waking nightmare that for a moment seemingly had no escape. Was an entirely new level of horrific that none of them could honestly fathom was even possible. After all, whatever the cause of the nightmare was, every single one of them had just seen Subaru come a hair's breadth away from experiencing a complete and utter mental breakdown, to the point where he probably wouldn't have been able to recover.

Despite not knowing when she started, Beatrice can't stop the tears flowing from her eyes, yet it wasn't just watching her contractor experience a waking nightmare that put her in distress. It was also the fact that she felt every single emotion that he felt in that moment. Everything from the momentary Bliss and happiness when he almost gave in to the nightmare, all the way to the fear and desperation Subaru felt when the nightmare threaten to swallow him whole. It was a rollercoaster of emotions that she wasn't prepared to feel let alone actually watch.

Emilia much like Beatrice couldn't stop the tears from running down her face, hugging Subaru's arm like it was a lifeline that would disappear at any second. What Emilia had seen, she couldn't even wrap her mind around it, but the part that disturbed her the most was the fact that it was so familiar to her own nightmare. Specifically, the voices that she heard and Subaru's nightmare, were the exact same that she had heard in her own nightmare. Which ultimately lead Emilia to think that whatever was haunting Subaru was also haunting her.

"Subaru!... are you there!?" The voice of Kendra quickly came over the rig link, Subaru for a moment couldn't think of the right thing to say. after me how do you tell someone that you just experienced a waking nightmare, and were having visions of a long-dead half-elf from another world?

"I'm H-H-here K-Kendra... I've got the DNA sample and the chemical mix" Subaru managed to stutter out, stumbling as he pushed himself off the door, but luckily managing to get his footing again.

"Alright, all. All you need to do now is get back to the mixing station and finish-"

"This is gone far enough! Accept your part in God's plan. Embrace your extinction" Kendra did not get to finish her sentence as Dr Mercer suddenly appeared on the Subarus rig link, much to the surprise of both him and Kendra. However before Subaru could say anything, he suddenly heard an emergency alarm beginning to sound, followed by an announcement that made his blood run cold.

"Warning! Warning! Life support system failing on Medical Deck. Please evacuate immediately"

Subaru's ears despite being protected by his helmet were suddenly assaulted by what sounded like a hurricane, all of the air rushing past him, as it was all vented into space. An indicator in the bottom right of his helmet showed just how much internal oxygen he had left.

"Shit, Subaru the entire deck has been decompressed. I'm trying to restore life support but I'm being locked out of the bloody system! Get to the main atrium! there should be a concert the life support but you don't have much time!" Despite not being fully recovered from his ordeal Subaru felt his body begin to move on autopilot, quickly running through the intensive care unit and down the emergency ward.

"Big Bros not even had time to recover..." Felt said, a look of concern plastered across her face, because despite just having experienced a near mental breakdown. Subaru was already been forced onto the move again, not having time to actually process what just happened. And even though she did not have any knowledge of how the human mind worked, the little blonde knew for certain that just bottling up everything like that was not healthy in the long run.

"I feel the same way lady felt... but I don't think he has much of a choice in this matter, considering his limited air supply" Reinhardt said with a sad expression on his face, he didn't even need his divine protections of mine Reading, to know that Subaru unintentionally repeating the same mistake from before, simply bottling up everything that happened to him and not actually processing any of it. But unlike last time, the reason why he was because of something outside of his control, which certainly didn't make Reinhardt feel any better, in regards to how it would affect Subaru's mental state going forward.

"It's a precarious situation, even if Subaru was in the proper mental state to deal with worry just happened... It seems like outside influences would prevent that from happening anyway" Wilhelm said with a dejected look on his face, he much like everyone else was absolutely horrified by what he had seen in Subaru's waking nightmare. But he was even more saddened by the fact that Subaru wasn't able to actually process what happened even if he was in the right headspace. simply because it seems like every outside force was preventing him from doing so.

"After experiencing that... I don't understand how he's able to just bottle it all inside like that?" Anastasia had a slightly worried expression on her face, after all bottling everything up inside like that, especially after such a traumatic event like Subaru had experienced was not good for him, especially considering the already dire state of his mental health. And even though Anastasia couldn't help but find it slightly disgusting to think about, the fact that Subaru was able to bottle up so much emotional anguish. And somehow be semi-functional as a human being, was slightly remarkable in an incredibly morbid way.

Subaru quickly burst out into the main emergency ICU, looking around for a moment before he found the door he came through, however as he docked into the small waiting area. He saw out of the corner of his eye, the regenerating beast from before, jump out of a nearby broken ventilation cover. Trying to let out a mighty roar that was silenced by the vacuum-like environment.

Subaru however didn't pay it any attention. As he quickly opened up the doors that lead to the zigzag hallway, rounding the corner at such speed, that he almost lost his footing causing him to stumble for a moment before he managed to catch his footing again, and as the main doors to the Atrium came into sight again. Subaru could feel his breathing beginning to become harder and harder, as his oxygen was rapidly running out.

But bursting into the main atrium, Subaru was able to make it to the console, taking a long deep breath and holding it, as he quickly and furiously typed away at the computer panel. And after pressing enter on the holographic display, the entire medical deck filling with oxygen again, Subaru taking a deep refreshing breath, followed by a hiss of pain, as he doubled over from a series of wet coughs that racked his entire body. However, after managing to catch himself Subaru was able to stand back up again, taking deep but slow breaths so as to not aggravate his cracked ribs any further.

"Kendra... I managed to get the deck repressurized... I'm heading to the mixing station now" Subaru managed to say between his deep breaths, taking a few more before he unclip his plasma cutter from his belt and clipped the chemical flask to the same spot. And after he was all set, Subaru quickly made his way over to the large double doors that lead back to the Imaging Centre, which would allow him direct access to the chemistry lab.

"Damn, what is it with little bro and cutting things close?" Al said with a sigh of relief, letting out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding all this time. Al knew better than anyone in this entire theatre the true consequences of suffocating to death, considering that he had a little bit of first-hand personal experience with such a horrifying method of dyeing. Of course, much like Subaru's return-by-death ability before they came here, his ability to cheat death was very much something that he was forced to keep himself.

"It simply wouldn't be Subaru if he didn't cut things close" Julius had a matter-of-fact tone in his voice, after all, something that Julius even now found infuriating about Subaru as a person was his seeming inability to not cut things close. Especially when it came to life-and-death situations with multiple people's lives on the line, of course though with the hindsight of return by death, his hatred for that particular Subaru-like trait did diminish ever so slightly.

"He might cut things close I suppose, but at least the idiot tends to get things done" Ram crossed her arms over her chest, letting out a small but satisfied huff. After all despite Subaru having proven himself to be an idiot on multiple occasions, often risking his and everyone else's lives unnecessarily. Ram had to admit that his methods certainly did bear fruit, which was made even more apparent with his return-by-death ability. Of course, it was still a disgusting ability given to him by a sickly demented witch, but still, its objective effectiveness could not be overstated, especially in the hands of somebody like Subaru who was determined beyond reason.

"I don't like it... I don't like it when he risks himself like that" Rem said with a frustrated sigh. if there was one thing that she truly hated about her beloved, it was his tendency to risk his life unnecessarily in his pursuits to make sure that everyone manage to make it out of a deadly situation alive. Of course, paradoxically his selflessness and willingness to put himself before others, was also one of his more admirable traits. even if it was one that always worried Rem to no end.

As Subaru was about to make his way through the large double doors, he suddenly noticed off in the corner of the room was a standard store station, and after thinking for a moment he suddenly remember the 10000 credit money clip he had picked up from before. Which was still making itself home in one of his belt pouches, so Subaru quickly made his way over to the store, the large door on its front opening automatically, as a holographic display dropped down in front of him. Various offers for different products flashing before his eyes, however with a swipe of the hand all the advertisements disappeared, allowing Subaru to type in exactly what he was looking for.

And after typing it in and letting the computer process the request, Subaru felt a smile come to his face, as what he was looking for, was actually in stock in this particular store. so after putting in the appropriate amount of credits. The store quickly spat out the items he had requested, which were two plasma cutter energy cells, which Subaru immediately clipped to his belt, and quickly glancing at his Plasma cutters ammo counter, Subaru saw that he only had 7 shots left, before he needed to replace the energy cell. And once his new purchases were stowed away, the black-haired engineer quickly returned to the large double doors.

"So that's what it does!" Anastasia said with a slightly excited air to her voice. Her eyes practically lighting up, as she momentarily forgot about all of Subaru's trauma that she had been forced to experience. After all, being able to satiate her ravenous appetite when it came to new and interesting objects, was always a positive for her. So seeing Subaru interact with an object that she had seen him pass by many times before, and intern finding out that it was actually some kind of automatic store, made Anastasia absolutely giddy.

"A store that does not require any physical any kind of physical store operator... I know I'm repeating myself, but this world is advanced beyond reason" Crusch had a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face, after all just when it seemed like this strange world couldn't get any more advanced. It seemed that Crusch would just be blindsided by the incredibly advanced versions of objects and things that she was familiar with. Everything from weaponry and mining tools, down to basic things like a store being fully automated ultimately just confused her at how a world could be so advanced.

Subaru quickly navigate his way through the large double doors and through the darkened corridor that lead back to the Imaging Centre. however as he came to the open doorway that lead into the vestibule, the door suddenly and unexpectedly slam shut in front of him, almost taking his foot clean off if he had not moved it back at the last second.

"Jesus!... Why is everything trying to kill me!" Subaru couldn't keep the frustration from his voice as the door quickly opened up, and after looking at it suspiciously for a Subaru quickly stepped into the vestibule and then through another door at the end of the small hallway, and out into the main Imaging Centre. And after looking around for a moment checking to see if there were any Monsters lurking in the shadows, Subaru quickly but methodically made his way through the large space. Navigating over the catwalk to get to the other side of the room just that his rig link activated with an incoming message.

"Subaru, I managed to get intel on the atmosphere. A surveyor's report says that a massive creature entered the Hydroponics deck from outside the ship. That's when the air quality began deteriorating. the survivor called it... The Leviathan" Subaru couldn't help but give a small laugh under his breath, as he passed the still mass of the wall creature here killed earlier. After all, he already had experience when it came to fighting a true leviathan. However, he shook that away and focused back on the task at hand.

Making his way past the still fleshy mass of the creature and quickly entering a doorway that leads back to the chemistry mixing lab. And after navigating the tight hallway, he was finally back in the exact same place where his journey has begun. which was also the same place, where his deadly cat-and-mouse game with the regenerating monster had also started as well.

"Back to square one, I suppose" Beatrice said quietly, her voice having a slight shake to it, but thankfully she was recovering from her ordeal. But even still, what transpired in Subaru's Nightmare still weighed heavily on the little spirit's mind, to the point where she couldn't help but think that maybe the nightmare was more than it seemed. Considering how real and vivid it felt to her and how she can only imagine that felt for him.

"Damn it! Caps gone in a big bloody circle!" The frustration was evident in Garfiel's voice as he crossed his arms over his chest. because to him. It looked like Subaru was not making any progress with whatever he was trying to accomplish.

"I hope that T-thing doesn't come back" Emilia's voice was barely above a whisper, in fact just looking at the half-elf, everyone could see that she looked almost drained as if she had had the very life stuck out of her. And considering what happened in the on-screen Subaru's nightmare, and the fact that a ghostly apparition of Emilia was the centerpiece of it all, everyone could understand why Emilia wasn't exactly in high spirits.

"I don't think there's a need to fear, as it looks like he on Subaru has managed to lose the beast... For now at least" Despite not trying to make it sound ominous, Waltham couldn't help but wince when he realised the exact way he had said his words. But even still, Wilhelm was at least thankful that Subaru had a momentary respite, considering at least for the moment the beast was nowhere to be found.

Subaru looked around the chemistry lab for a moment, feeling something that almost felt like nostalgia, yet it was not a happy feeling. Considering that this is where he first officially met Dr Mercer and his truly monstrous handcrafted nightmare Beast. But Subaru quickly made his way over to the chemical mixer, pushing the negative thoughts out of his mind as he quickly unclip the capsule from his belt and inserted it into the machine.

"Processing request. Please stand by. . . . Final mixing complete. Please remove the capsule"

The computerised voice filled his ears, as Subaru quickly grabbed the capsule from the Machine. Clipping it to his belt as he quickly opened up a communication channel between himself and Kendra.

"Kendra I've got the poison mixed together" Subaru said as he waited for Kendra to respond. Keeping his head on a swivel as he inspected the entire room around him, keeping a lookout for any monsters but also making sure that he didn't miss any useful pieces of equipment he could scavenge.

"Alright let's hope the poison works. There is an auxiliary tram station just down the way from you. Use it and get the Hydroponics fast as you can. I'm still getting no response from Hammond so be careful. there's no telling how contaminated that deck is" Subaru couldn't stop a slight shaking of his knees when he heard that Hammond had still not made any kind of attempt to communicate. In fact, despite not wanting to think so, Subaru couldn't help but begin to fear the worst for his dark-skinned friend.

"Alright I'll get there as quickly as I can" Subaru said as he quickly made his way out of the small chemistry lab however instead of going back the way he came. he instead went for a different doorway, which immediately spat him out into a different corridor. In fact, it was the exact same corridor that most that Mercer had been in when he originally confronted Subaru in the chemistry lab.

"He's actually making progress again, thank Od" Rem said with a relieved sigh, being very thankful for the fact that her beloved was actually making progress, and wasn't being chased by any beasts from the deepest darkest pits of nightmares themselves. Yet for some reason, Rem Oni senses suddenly began to flare up, as if she had just accidentally triggered something that she didn't mean to.

"Yeah, at least Big Bro doesn't have that thing breathing down his neck anymore" Felt couldn't help but shudder ever so slightly, a chill running down her spine. As she remembers Subaru's encounter with the creature and the reveal of its quite frankly unfair ability to regenerate from its wounds. In fact, the way that regenerated its arm in front of Subaru, both incredibly disgusted her and somewhat unnerved her considering that it meant the creature couldn't be killed in a normal way.

"Felt is very much right, at least Subaru actually has a moment to collect himself, especially after... that" Crusch decided halfway through her sentence that mentioning the nightmare in it's entirety probably wasn't the best idea. Considering that quite a few were heavily affected by it, herself included. However, as soon as she spoke both Emilia and Beatrice cast their gazes downwards, flinching ever so slightly as if they had been physically struck by something. Which did make the green-haired Dutchess feel somewhat guilty.

"I'm beginning to truly admire your spirit, misplaced as it may be. I think... I think you should see... the whole plan. you should not spurn the brethren's offerings. I think you deserve to witness that, at least" Subaru stopped mid-step, as Dr Mercer's voice came over his rig link. however as quickly as it came it disappeared, leaving Subaru alone in the dark medical hallway, and instead of waiting around for Mercer the talk again or worse his monster to catch up.

Subaru quickly made his way to the end of the hallway, quickly walking to a set of double doors that lead into a large chamber. But the thing that caught Subaru's attention the most was the racks and racks of cryogenic pods, every single one of them filled with the frozen bodies of a monster of some description. Yet as Subaru looked around flabbergasted and what he was seeing, a voice suddenly spoke up from the other side of the room.

"Perhaps now you will understand. The work I have done must continue... Will continue! I, Dr Challus Mercer, shall serve as the catalyst for convergence and the glorious rebirth of our species!" Subaru march his way over to the observation deck, deactivating his helmet for a moment as he looked up at Mercer with a glare so vicious and hate-filled, that even the insane doctor couldn't help that flinch from Subaru's glare.

"What is convergence!?... What the hell are you planning to do with all these things?!" Subaru shouted loudly as he gestured at all of the frozen monstrosities around him.

"These specimens will return to earth with me, with them I will spread the various convergence across the entire planet! I will leave you with my creation. Embrace your fate and become one" Subaru watched with anger written across his face, as he saw Mercer quickly turn on his heels. And walked out of sight, at the same time Subaru heard from behind him a vent cover explode, followed by the guttural roar of a very familiar-sounding abomination. And without wasting a moment Subaru quickly turned on the spot, bringing his plasma cutter up, as his helmet quickly covered his face from view, the three visors on its front lighting up with a brilliant green glow.

Emilia felt her eyes brighten for just a singular moment as she saw Subaru's aged but still clearly recognisable face. In fact, despite the current Subaru being right next to her, she was almost beginning to forget exactly what his on-screen counterpart's face even looked like. Yet when he retracted his helmet to glare at the insane doctor, Emilia was able to get a good look at it again, and despite it not being the appropriate time for something like this, she couldn't help but admit that his rugged and rough appearance and more angular facial structure definitely made him more handsome looking. Of course, ignoring the blood and tear stains that were scattered across his face.

"What does he mean by spread... convergence?" Crusch said thoughtfully, the strange and alien-sounding word for some weird reason sparked a level of almost recognition inside her mind, of course, but she had indeed heard the word mentioned multiple times before. But its true meaning was still ultimately a mystery, which just made the strange familiarity that she had with the word, even more, aggravating to Crusch. Because if there was one thing she absolutely hated it was being kept in the dark about very important subjects, and considering the importance of what they were seeing, her level of frustration was definitely well founded.

"That's a good question Crusch... but I think I'm more concerned about what he plans to do with those frozen monsters~Nyah" Felix couldn't keep the slight jitter from his. because despite not knowing exactly what Mercer was talking about, it didn't take a genius to figure out that his intentions were not pure, which definitely wasn't helped by the sinister implications in his voice. After all, considering how these Monsters seemed to work, Felix didn't even want to imagine, what would happen if these Monsters were let loose again.

"Miss Frederica, the bad man said he was taking the monster somewhere called Earth... But where is that exactly?" Petra said with a slightly terrified but ultimately innocent inflection in her voice. Looking up at the blonde-haired maid obviously hoping for a definite answer on where exactly this mysterious location was, Frederica, however, wasn't entirely sure how to respond, considering that she didn't quite know exactly, where this earth place actually was. But what she did know and decided to keep from Petra, was exactly what the doctor planned to do with the frozen monstrosities once he arrived at his mysterious destination.

"Yeah the pipsqueak is right, where exactly is this earth place?" Felt asked for the slightly confused expression on her face. Both because the location was a complete mystery to her and the fact that the name itself was incredibly dumb sounding. why would you name a place after the dirt you walked on?

"I'm also curious... where and what exactly is this earth place?" Anastasia said very interested but slightly confused expression, because even though she was much more in the advanced technology of this strange world. Getting to learn about a possible new location other than the ship of nightmares that they had been seeing up until now would certainly be an interesting way, to break up the slight monotony of the viewings so far.

"Earth is the name of Subaru's... homeworld... I suppose..." Beatrice felt her entire body go cold and rigid, a look of pure horror quickly spreading across her face as she finally realised exactly what the insane doctor has planning to do. Meanwhile, everyone looked at the little spirit in confusion, yet that confusion did not last long as looks of horror quickly began to replace them as another voice spoke.

"He's going to kill everyone... if he takes them back everything and everyone on earth is going to die!" Al practically exploded from his seat, the faceplate on his helmet flying up for just a second from the sheer speed that he had gotten up with. The helmeted man just couldn't believe it, Dr Mercer was really going to take those things all the way back to earth and unleash them on the unsuspecting planet.

"N-no he can't! He will K-K-kill everyone!" Emilia couldn't believe it, this doctor was truly so insane that he was willing to kill every single person that lived in Subarus world, and was seemingly intent on turning every single one of them into those disgusting monsters. It just completely boggled the half-elf's mind how somebody could be so evil as to kill everyone and everything with seemingly no observable reason. And despite not wanting to admit it, Emilia had to admit that not even the Witch of envy herself was that evil.

"Considering how these Monsters reproduce... I don't want to imagine the end result of such a..." Wilhelm couldn't finish his words, more precisely he didn't want to. He didn't want to imagine what the absolute carnage would be if these creatures were unleashed on an unknowing populous. Yet despite not wanting to imagine the outcome, Wilhelm could already say for certain that the carnage would be on a level, that would make even the most violent battles he had participated in up until that point, look like a child's birthday party by comparison.

"It would be an absolute massacre..." Reinhardt said slowly, his eyes widening in absolute horror as his mind begin to imagine the absolute carnage that would come about from releasing these creatures from their ice prisons. It would be on a completely different level than anything he had experienced, even the battle for the city of pristella would come nowhere close, to the amount of destruction and carnage that could be unleashed by these creatures if they were given free rein to do as they wished.

"Come on you ugly piece of shit!" Subaru yelled at the creature, the fear from earlier seemingly completely gone as he stared down the monstrosity in front of him. And after a moment the monster quickly charged at him seemingly enraged by the insults that Subaru had thrown it's away.

Subaru however used this to his advantage as he quickly sidestepped the monster, putting as much distance between him and it as he quickly put a shot into the monster's left shoulder. Causing it to just scream in rage as it quickly charged at him again. Subaru however repeated the same process, managing to lure the creature all the way to the cryogenic freezing chamber on the other side of the room. And once he stepped into the small and cold chamber, the monster quickly followed suit, lunging at him obviously intent on ripping the black-haired engineered limb from limb. But Subaru managed to dodge around the creature as it took a swipe at him, quickly backing out of the Chamber as he aimed his plasma cutter at the creature's legs and fired.

"How do you like that you fucking thing!" Subaru shouted as he continued to fight into the creature's legs which after enough shots quickly separated from it's body. Causing the creature's titanic frame to fall to the floor with an incredibly loud thump, Subaru however wasn't done, as he quickly shot a both of stasis at the creature's body, freezing it in place which allowed Subaru to turn on his heels and run for the observation Centre.

But, instead of simply running away, Subaru quickly made his way into the observation Centre, jumping onto the nearby console as he typed in a series of commands and just hope that they work. And much to his pleasure it did, as the creature has just finished regenerating its limbs only to find itself quickly being frozen solid by the near absolute zero cryogenic gas, the creature letting out one final angry roar as it went completely silent and still.

"Freezing cycle complete. Transporting patient"

"Thank Od! he managed to do it... he really did kill it" Emilia couldn't help but cheer, jumping up from her position on the floor. Excitement and relief plastered across her as she cheers for Subaru's Victory. He had managed to kill the creature quickly and efficiently without getting himself injured. in fact out of all of the times that she had seen Subaru fight, this was perhaps the most impressive display she had ever seen from him.

"You always make Betty worry for nothing I suppose" Beatrice couldn't help but sigh, yet that didn't stop the small smile from spreading across her face as she gently touched her forehead against Subaru's. A small jolt of electricity running through her body, as she felt the sleeping Subaru's emotions and feelings and the on-screen Subaru's ones mixed together inside her into a strange but somehow comforting maelstrom. After all, if there was one thing that was always true about her contractor no matter what, it was the fact that he wore his emotions on his sleeves.

"Ok now that was just an impressive display if I've ever seen one... how was he able to touch like that even with his injuries?" Julius couldn't quite believe what he had just witnessed. In fact, it was almost as if the Subaru that had fought the abomination. And the Subaru on the verge of losing his sanity from earlier were completely two different people, it was completed night and day between the two. Yet after thinking about it for a moment, it was most likely adrenaline fuelled by the anger that Subaru felt, after learning about what Mercer was planning to do with the frozen Monsters.

"Nyah~a classic case of adrenaline, although when he comes down from the adrenaline high... I think he's going to feel those injuries" Felix couldn't help but wince on behalf of Subaru, after all by Felix's reckoning Subaru had at least half a dozen cracked ribs and possibly some broken ones. And considering the movement he had done and how hard he was breathing during the battle. Felix couldn't even begin to imagine the pain he would be in once the adrenaline began to wear off.

"That was a fine display indeed but... looking back on our first meeting now, I can't help but feel awful" Crusch said with a small but embarrassed blush on her face. After all, when she had first met Subaru her first impression of him wasn't entirely positive. Crusch had underestimated him, thinking Subaru to be nothing more than an emotionally prone young man. Incapable of truly doing anything to change the situation. Of course with the hindsight of the viewings and the display here just put on a moment ago. Her initial assumption of him couldn't have been further from the truth even if she tried.

Subaru wasted no time, as he quickly exited the observation Booth through another door that lead out into a small hallway. But as he began to make his way down the hallway Subaru could feel the pain beginning to return, most likely as a result of the adrenaline quickly being washed out of his system. However, Subaru managed to hold himself together as the hallway spat him out onto an identical but smaller version of the original medical deck tram platform.

"Kendra... I managed to trap whatever the hell that thing was in a cryopod. I'm going to head hydroponics and delivered this poison" Subaru said between hard and painful as he quickly leaned up against one of the walls, his legs going slightly weak below him as he tried his hardest to control the pain.

"Great... let's hope that's the last we see that thing. I managed to bypass Mercer's, the tram should be able to take you to hydroponics... I just hope we have enough time" Subaru gave a nod of the head as he pushed himself off the one, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side which almost caused him to collapse on the spot, and even though the pain was becoming unbearable Subaru just managed to push himself into the waiting tram. The corners of his vision beginning to go dark as he just managed to get inside the tram, collapsing forcefully into one of the seats as his vision went completely black. The last thing that Subaru heard before his world went black being the sound of the tram doors closing behind him.

---

Well that was certainly an interesting chapter wasn't it, I will be the first to admit that I think out of all of them this might be my least favourite simply from an execution and writing quality standpoint but that's just how it goes when creating anything.

Also, the next chapter is certainly going to be a doozy to write, considering that Subaru is going to have to go head-to-head with the leviathan itself, so hopefully, that should be interesting.

Anyway I don't have any other closing remarks to say other then you enjoyed the chapter and I will see you next time.