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

7. Environmental Hazard

Hello everyone it's been a long time hasn't it?

since I last updated this story it's been just over a year, and a lot has happened in that time most of it that kept me from actually updating the story more than I wanted to. In other words, my life's been a bit of a shit show over the last year lol

But thankfully all of that is behind me now and with this being my last year at college, hopefully, be I will able to update my stories on a more frequent basis.

Anyway a bit of clarification before the chapter begins, you may notice that I have released this chapter at the same time as chapter 8, this was done because I feel that it's more worth releasing two chapters at a time going forward, because it gives you reader more content to enjoy, even if admittedly it might take me a long time to do two chapters back to back, although feedback would be appreciated on whether or not all of youreaders think this is a good idea.

But without further ado here is the long overdue Chapter 7 and 8 for Pleiades: A Lonely Star Dies

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'Subaru, please be alright'

As the screen went black once more, the thought "How much longer can he keep going?" flashed through the minds of most in the audience. Subaru had been pushing himself relentlessly, both physically and mentally, and it was clear that he was reaching his breaking point. Even when everything around him seemed to be working against him, he had managed to keep going. But now, as he collapsed inside the tram car that was taking him to his next horrifying adventure, it was clear that he could not keep this up for much longer.

But much to the relief of many, it seemed that Subaru himself knew that he didn't have long left before he keeled over, managing to keep himself awake just for long enough to make it into the tram, and once he was inside, only then finally letting the darkness of unconsciousness take him.

However even though he had managed to find some relative safely before he collapsed, that fact did very little to actually reassure anyone considering the severity of both his physical and mental injuries.

"Why must you push yourself so relentlessly I suppose..." Beatrice muttered quietly, looking down at the sleeping face of her contractor as a small frame made its way onto her delicate features.

Subaru's persistence was one thing that she always found remarkable. Still, it was also something that deeply worried her, because of his willingness to sacrifice his body, mind, and soul, in the pursuit of saving someone or achieving a goal that he set his mind to.

Beatrice thought that Return by Death was an evil and disgusting ability that had brought nothing but heartbreak and suffering to her contractor. She could objectively say that it was a useful ability in the right circumstances, but that was precisely what worried her. Despite Subaru not mentioning or even thinking about it for the most part, a small part of Beatrice couldn't help but fear that he no longer had access to the ability. If that was the case, it meant that he was in grave danger.

'If he dies there will not be another redo'

Beatrice couldn't suppress a shudder from running down his spine at that thought. Of course, it wasn't the concept of her contractor's mortality unnerved, she had long come to accept the inevitability that he would one day pass on. But what unnerved her was that his death could very well be nipping at his heels right now, and that wouldn't be a redo if it finally decided to clamp its teeth into him.

"Beatrice... are you right?" Beatrice was quickly dragged from her thoughts by the sound of someone's voice, and after looking around confused for a moment her eyes settled on a concerned-looking half-elf. "You were shaking... is that anything to matter?" Emilia asked tentatively.

Beatrice opened her mouth to respond, but then she hesitated, a frown creasing her delicate features. She couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't worry Emilia even more. Fortunately, fate intervened.

"I'm sure that she's fine Emilia" Emilia spun around at the sound of the voice, and her eyes widened in surprise to see Crusch standing there. "After all everything we've seen so far is a lot of information to absorb," She said as Beatrice sent the green-haired Duchess a thankful look.

Emilia's face scrunched up into a frown, as her eyebrows furrowed. "I suppose you're right..." she paused the frown on her face deepening, as she remembered all of the strange seemingly supernatural events that had happened to her. "I'm just reallllly worried as all Crusch" She said with a slight shake in her voice.

Crusch could still hear Emilia's words echoing in her mind as they stared at each other. She understood Emilia's fear and worry, and she didn't need Emilia to say anything else for her to know how much the recent supernatural events had affected her. It was written all over Emilia's face.

In fact, despite Crusch managing to hold herself together better than most, she had to admit that her mind was beginning to be run ragged by what was happening to her. Everything from the hallucinations down to watching Subaru teeter on the edge of the precipice between life and death. It was all just becoming too much, yet the greenhead duchess knew that she needed to keep herself together, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of a certain boy, that was currently resting in his contracted spirit's lap.

Rem wasn't the only one who was focused on the sleeping boy. She couldn't help but stare at him, her jealousy growing as she watched the half-elf and the duchess crowd around him. She felt like she was losing him, and she didn't know what to do about it.

And even though the rational part of her brain kept telling her to calm herself, the anger and jealousy would not leave her, simply settling in her heart to fester like an open wound. She wanted to kill them, she wanted to absolutely brutalize both of them for going to go near her beloved, after everything they had done to him.

Emilia had been the cause of so much pain for her beloved, from outright disregarding his feelings, to pushing him over the edge sending him crashing down into a pit of self-loathing and despair that he almost didn't recover from. And now that she had the audacity to say that she loved him after everything she had done to him. it was a miracle that Rem had not acted on her intent to kill.

yet

Crusch on the other hand had insulted and belittled her beloved, labeling him nothing more than a weak-willed madman, incapable of doing anything. And practically signed his death, when she didn't try to stop him from leaving her mansion, which resulted in one of the darkest and most hopeless loops he had experienced up until that point.

"Sister, are you alright?" Rem was pulled from her thoughts by the voice, snapping her head around a bit more forcefully than she intended to, as her eyes came to rest on her pink-haired twin.

Ram despite not having never ever been afraid of her sister, flinched slightly when Rem's ice-blue eyes came to rest on her, but she managed to recover herself quickly. "Sister you're starting to worry Ram with your behaviour..."

Rem was quiet for a moment, the vicious and almost animalistic scow that had been etched into her features, quickly forming into a mild frown as the rational part of her mind took over once again.

Where was all of this anger coming from? Sure she had always felt some resentment towards Emilia considering that she was the one that Subaru chose to love. But Rem always believed that she could suppress those negative feelings because even if her beloved did not see her in the way that she wanted, she was at least content in the fact that he still cared for her even if it was only in the platonic sense.

As such the overwhelming rage she felt whenever she saw Emilia and now the Duchess being close to her beloved was this much a mystery to her as it was her pink-haired sister. but with her sister looking at her expecting a response, Rem quickly found her words once again. "I... don't know sister, I just don't feel like myself," She said with a slight wobble to her voice.

Ram was not pleased by the response, and in fact, it only served to worry her even more. The fact that her twin sister Rem was acting strange, and even Rem didn't have an answer for it, left a bad feeling in Ram's gut. And considering that she had learned in her relatively short life to always trust her gut, she simply couldn't ignore the bad feeling she was getting from all of this.

Ram knew that something was wrong, and she was determined to find out what it was.

"I see..." a frustrated sigh escaped her lips, as she leaned back into the relatively comfy theatre chair. she wasn't frustrated at her sister of course.

How could she help her sister when not even her sister knew what was causing her strange behaviour? This was precisely what frustrated her the most because it meant that there was nothing she could do to help her. She felt helpless, like a small child who could do nothing but sit and watch.

The feeling of helplessness and inability to do anything was shared by someone other than the pink-haired maid. And that person was none other than the sword Saint himself Reinhard.

In fact, he had been well acquainted with the feeling of helplessness for much of his life. It is an omnipresent feeling that he felt every single day since he was "blessed" ability, title and responsibilities of the sword saint.

And ultimately the feeling of helplessness was made even worse, by the fact that even without his divine protections, he could tell that there was something wrong with this Theatre. In fact, to be more precise it was as if something was lurking in the shadows, waiting for the opportune moment to poke out of the darkness and unleash whatever it had planned.

"Hey Rein"

Reinhardt immediately snapped to attention, turning his head to a certain young blonde, who was gazing at him with a look of obvious concern on her face. He could see the worry lines etched into her forehead, and the way her eyes wandered around the room, he knew that whatever was lurking in the theatre she had was at least subconsciously aware of it.

"Excuse me lady Felt, I was... lost in thought for a moment" Felt had known the red-headed sword saint for long enough to know that his calm voice and relaxed demeanor were just a façade. He was anything but calm and relaxed on the inside.

He was good at hiding what he was truly thinking, she would give him that, but his eyes told her everything she needed to know. "Spare me the crap, Rein... Something's going on isn't there?" Felt asked with a small amount of apprehension in her voice.

Reinhardt opened his mouth, but after a moment closed it again, the gears inside his mind beginning to turn furiously as he thought about how exactly he could respond to that. His young mistress was correct in her assertion that something was definitely wrong, but that was precisely the problem.

Even with all of his divine protections and the countless others that he could create on a whim, none of them gave even the slightest indication that something was the matter. Which just served to frustrate and confuse the sword saint, because if what was happening to Emilia and Duchess Crusch was any indication, then there was clearly something more going on. Something that somehow was able to completely evade his divine protections.

Felt's expression grew more concerned as she stared into Reinhardt's ocean-blue eyes. She didn't like the answer he gave her one bit. She had felt it for quite some time, an almost imperceptible chill in the air combined with the feeling like she was being watched. Whether it was because of her heightened senses, as a result of being raised on the streets, or simply because she was more perceptive than most, it didn't matter. The fact that Reinhardt himself had no idea what was going on meant that she had no chance of figuring it out even if she tried.

"Alright boys and girls, I think it's time we..."

The voice of the warden started but then abruptly ended, their sentence being cut off at the end as if they had stopped to rethink what they were about to say.

Everyone was caught off guard by the sound of the warden's voice and was even more caught off guard when the voice abruptly ended mid-sentence, in fact, the abruptness of their words being cut off was enough to cause quite a few in the audience to become somewhat concerned for the faceless entity. Anastasia raised her hand, "Umm… Mr. Warden?" she asked, but her question was met with complete silence as the warden failed to respond.

Wilhelm arched one of his bushy eyebrows as he stared at the blank screen. "Mr. Warden, are you there?" the aged swordsman asked, much like Anastasia getting no response whatsoever.

"How strange... perhaps he's gone somewhere?" Crusch said tentatively, as she got up from her seat next to Emilia. Gradually but steadily began to make her way toward the screen, approaching it as if it were some kind of scared wild animal that would disappear at any moment.

"Warden this better not be one of your tricks... Hello?" she said quietly, being no more than an arms-length away from the black and dead-looking screen.

Even though she tried to suppress it, Crusch couldn't stop the slight shaking in her arms and legs, despite spending an almost unknown amount of time watching events on this very screen. Actually standing so close to it began to finally remind her just how alien and unfamiliar it truly was.

"Something's wrong..." Crusch didn't flinch or jump when Emilia's soft voice sounded off beside her. The half-elf having gotten up from her seat and also made her way over to the screen, both women now staring up at it as if expecting it to somehow respond to their queries.

"You're right Emilia... I can't shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong" Crusch expressed without even turning her head, both she and Emilia continuing to stare at the screen.

"I know... I have a bad feeling as well..." Emilia stopped, a scared look quickly making its way across her face, as a disturbing thought raced across her mind. "but I hope I'm wrong" The words were barely above a whisper as they left her mouth.

"Hey, bozo! Why the hell have you gone silent on us!?" Garfiel quickly jumped from his seat, raising his voice as he held a fist up to the screen as if he was somehow challenging it to a fight.

"Garfiel C-Calm down" Otto expressed with a nervous twang in his voice, grabbing the arm of the blonde-haired beast boy at his side.

Garfiel tore his eyes away from the blank screen, looking into the cyan blue of his bro's eyes. "Like hell I am! That bastard drags us here, to watch whatever... the hell all that was, and then he just leaves!" He said with a bit more force than he intended to.

Otto cringed as he remembered all of the absolutely awful stuff he had seen. "I understand...

B-but getting angry is not going to help!" The grey-haired merchant exclaimed. Otto wanted Garfiel to calm down because he was afraid of the warden. The warden had complete authority over the theatre, and Otto didn't want to imagine what he would do if he was angry. The warden had already shown that he was capable of great power by pulling everyone into the theater. Otto knew that if the warden was provoked, he could do something even worse.

"Miss Frederica, where did the warden go?" Petra asked innocently, looking up at the blonde-haired beast woman.

Frederica opened her mouth to respond but failed to do so for a moment, her mouth repeatedly opening and closing before she finally found the words. "I'm unsure Petra... But I assure you that he will come back" She said reassuringly

"Indeed, Miss Frederica is most definitely correct young Petra" Julius had a calm tone to his voice as both of the Roswaal maids turned to look at him. "I'm sure whether he's gone he will return momentarily"

Petra turned away looking much more at least than she did a moment ago, Frederica however continued to look at the purple head knight for a moment. mouthing a silent thank you to which Julia simply gave a nod of acceptance.

However, the reassuring smile that he wore on his face quickly disappeared, as the seeming disappearance of the warden began to weigh down on his mind. It was quite strange because even though the warden normally remained silent unless directly interacted with. this was the first time that he had seemingly disappeared completely.

"I don't like this Julius" Anastasia's quiet voice, made Julius look at her. Both of them stared at each other for a moment, concern etched into both of their faces before they turned their attention back to the screen.

Julius remained silent for a moment continuing to stare at the screen, a small part of him hoping that it would come back to life once again. "As do I lady Anastasia, something is definitely not right," he said calmly, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Anastasia turned to look at her knight, a concerned expression plastered across her face. despite not having any divine protection of any kind or any other special abilities, it didn't take any of that stuff to know that something was not right in this theatre. and if there was one thing that Anastasia trusted more than anything else, it was when she had a bad feeling and her gut.

But she wasn't the only one who always trusted her gut. Priscilla Barielle didn't rise to her position as the matriarch of her family and potential ruler of Lugunica, by disregarding her gut feelings.

In fact due to the cutthroat nature of the society she came from, always trusting her gut no matter what was something she had learnt very quickly at a young age, In fact, Anastasia had not trusted her gut on multiple occasions she would most likely be nothing more than a rotten corpse now.

As such she could not disregard the strange almost apprehensive feeling that she was getting from the theatre itself, and even though she was not an overly paranoid person, it didn't change the fact that she could feel something watching her, seemingly studying everything about her as if looking for any kind of weakness.

But whether or not this feeling of being watched was just Anastasia's imagination, she would not show any weakness either physical or mental, having a flawless body and mind was one of the things that she took pride in after all.

"Man... why does it feel like I'm being watched?" Al's slightly muffled voice sounded from underneath his helmet. His armour-laden head swivelled around looking at all of the dark corners of the room. Al could have sworn he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, there was nothing there. He shook his head and tried to focus on the task at hand, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and he even stopped to listen for a moment, but he couldn't hear anything. He was starting to feel paranoid, but he couldn't help it. He just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
An annoyed huff escaped from Priscilla's lips, as she turned to look at her hopeless knight. "Because you are overly paranoid idi-" The words died in her throat. Everything about her world came to a sudden stop, as she felt something that made her entire body go rigid, which also sent a shock running up her spine.

Someone touched her... Someone touched the area between her shoulder blades on her exposed back.

Normally somebody having the audacity to touch her in such a manner without her consent would usually result in that person facing a suitable punishment. But that was the furthest thing from the red-headed princess's mind at this moment, as for the first time in a long time Priscilla felt something foreign flowing through her veins, something that she told herself when she was a child that she would never feel ever again.

Fear

Complete unyielding fear

It was flowing through her like an uncontrollable wave that threatened to take her over completely, and even though Priscilla tried to fight back and reassure herself that it was nothing more than her imagination. That did absolutely nothing to stop the uncontrollable fear that was seemingly infecting her. Her entire body began to shake as the feeling of pure fear only intensified.

"Hey, princess..." Al finally noticed Priscilla's strange behaviour. In fact, the longer he looked at her, the more concerned he became because plastered across her normally elegant face was a look of abject terror. Al leaned in closer, his hand outstretched. "What's wrong?"

A concerned frown quickly grew on Al's face underneath his helmet, Priscilla had not responded at all, not even a flinch of acknowledgement that he had spoken to her. As such the helmeted man did something that he really never did in the company of others.

"Priscilla talk to me... what the hell has gotten into you?" His words were accompanied by him lifting the face plate of his helmet and then putting his hand on the princess's shoulder.

Priscilla responded, her head snapping to look at his exposed eyes. The look of fear and pure terror in her eyes was enough to make Al recoil slightly, however as the two continued to stare at each other, Priscilla finally seemed to come back to her senses, the look of terror never leaving her face.

"A-Aldebaran..." Priscilla's voice trembled as the name left her lips, as she looked into the dark ash-coloured eyes of her knight. She tried to get herself under control, yet actually getting control of her emotions again was proving much more difficult than she would have liked.

Al didn't respond immediately. He wasn't surprised that the princess called him by his full name, as she was one of the few people who did so in private. But what shocked him was that Priscilla still looked absolutely petrified after saying his name. Her eyes locked onto his for a moment, then darted around nervously, as if she was desperately searching for something.

"Priscilla… What's gotten into you" Al asked tentatively keeping his hand on the Princess's shoulder as a reassuring measure, even though she would most likely kill him for daring to touch her once she recovered.

Even despite the fear coursing through her veins, Priscilla racked her brain trying to think and find the words to say. What could she honestly say that wouldn't make her sound like a completely delusional nitwit? She didn't even know what had touched her and caused her to feel so terrified, so how exactly could she respond to her knight in a way that actually answered his question?

Priscilla opened her mouth, yet no words immediately came out, her mouth opening and closing several times before she finally found her voice. I'm U-unsure A-Aldebaran... I feel as if..." her voice trailed off, any more words that she was about to say dying in her throat.

She felt it again, in the exact same spot as before. Except somehow this time the touch felt colder as if what had touched her had sapped the very heat from her body. Despite managing to somewhat calm herself, the fear came rushing back in a fresh new wave of terror, her hands shaking so violently that the fan she had been holding this entire time was thrown from her grasp and clattered to the floor.

"You can pretend all you want... but I know you are nothing more than a scared child... Prisca Benedict"

It was awful, the way that the thing whispered directly into her ear. Her entire body convulsed with each word, tears beginning to run from her reddish umbra eyes. Absolutely nobody knew that name, not even her knight. And even as she could feel herself beginning to slip, the rational part of her brain screamed at her that it was nothing more than her imagination. And as her world finally turned black, she could faintly hear the voice of Al saying or shouting something.

"Princess!"

Al watched her dark red eyes roll into the back of her head as she slumped forward in her seat. luckily enough he was able to catch her before she whacked her head on the chair in front of her.

"Princess!... Hey, answer me damn it!" Al didn't care if everyone could hear his raised voice, the only thing he was concerned about right now was the fact that Priscilla had completely passed out unexpectedly.

Al gently repositioned her in his arms, resting her head against the back of the seat she was currently sitting in. Looking at her face he could see that even though she was out like a light, her face held a look of mild strain, twitching ever so slightly as her eyes darted beneath Her eyelids as if she was experiencing a very vivid dream… or nightmare.

"Sir Al, what happened ?" Al turned his head to the source of the voice, finding it to be none other than the age swordsman Wilhelm. "Has something happened to Miss Barielle?" he asked with a slightly concerned tone in his voice.

Al didn't even hesitate to answer the aged swordsman's question. "Yeah, there is! The princess just suddenly went out like a light!" He exclaimed gesturing to the unconscious woman next to him.

Wilhelm immediately got up from his seat Felix wordlessly trailing behind him as both of them horrid to the unconscious woman. Al moved out of the way allowing the aged swordsman to get to her, and once Wilhelm kneeled down next to the unconscious princess, he quickly placed two gloved fingers onto the side of her neck, holding them there for a moment as he checked her pulse.

"It is as you said sir knight" Wilhelm quickly pulled his fingers away as he got back up from his kneeling position. "Miss Barielle is unconscious, although I can't begin to guess what could have caused it" Wilhelm said quietly as he made space for the helmeted man.

Al quickly sat down next to Priscilla once again, turning his armoured head to look at her as concern was plastered across his hidden face. Despite the relationship between him and the princess not being one everyone would consider normal or even healthy, they both still cared for each other in their own way.

After all, the princess was the one that had chosen him to be her knight, lifting him out of the life of a gladiator, and giving him a chance to actually see this fantasy world that he had been dropped into. However, his attention was suddenly taken away from Priscilla's unconscious form, by the arrival of two other royal candidates.

"Wilhelm, Felix, what is the matter with Priscilla?" Crusch couldn't stop her voice from trembling ever so slightly, as she addressed her servants. She hadn't seen exactly what happened but she was already getting an almost deja vu-like feeling from seeing Priscilla unconscious in her seat.

"I'm afraid I'm unsure Lady Crusch" Wilhelm turned towards his mistress, his words causing the look of concern on her face to grow larger. "She seems in perfect health, so I am uncertain why she fell into unconsciousness so suddenly"

Crusch couldn't stop the frown on her face from growing, despite not being what you would call friends, they didn't change the fact that she was still concerned for the red-headed princess. Especially if Priscilla's sudden unconsciousness was anything related to her unconsciousness earlier in the viewing.

"Felix... what do you make of this?" Crusch turned her gaze towards her feline knight, considering his extraordinary knowledge of the human body, if there was any one that could get to the bottom of this it was him.

Felix didn't immediately respond, a frown making its way onto his androgynous features as his eyes traced over Priscilla's still and unconscious form. "I don't know~Nyah. Like old man Will said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with her, so I'm not sure why she passed out without warning" He said matter-of-factly.
The room fell silent as the group absorbed Felix's report. Priscilla was not one to faint, especially for no apparent reason. Crusch and Emilia exchanged a knowing look. They suspected that Priscilla's fainting was connected to their own recent incidents.
Crusch remained rooted to the spot, the gears in her mind working furiously, as she remembered the few bits and pieces she could remember from her nightmare which ultimately led her to a horrifying notion. "Is it possible that she is experiencing something like I did" Her words were quiet as a chill ran down her spine.

Emilia in a similar manner to Crusch, was also sifting through the memories of her own nightmare, her already pale face somehow going even whiter as she came to the same horrifying conclusion as both women suddenly snapped to look at each other.

"Emilia/Crusch! There's something I need to tell you!" Both women blinked in surprise not expecting the other to speak at the exact same time they did. The suddenness of their speaking also caught everyone else around them off guard.

Crusch blinks a few more times, quickly recovering from her momentary surprise. "Emilia, when you passed out did you... See anything or feel anything strange?" She asked with an almost pleading tone.

Emilia felt the blood rush away from her face, the words all but confirming that her friend Crusch had experienced something of her own when she was unconscious.

"Y-Yes, I saw something... I S-S-saw things that I don't want to R-remember" Emilia's voice was barely above a whisper, yet each word felt like a cannon blast in Crusch's ears as the colour drained from her face.

Both women stood there for a moment, not even acknowledging the theatre or those around them, the fact that both of them had experienced something when they were unconscious. Sent waves of panic racing through them like uncontrollable tidal waves. However, they were both quickly pulled from their respective trance-like states by the familiar voice of a helmeted man.

"What are you on about?" Al turned his helmeted head to look at both women, he didn't hear exactly what they had talked about but considering the shocked and horrified look on their faces, he knew that it wasn't anything good, especially if it was somehow related to Priscilla's unconsciousness.

"Lady Crusch, what exactly did you mean by seeing things in unconscious" Crusch turned to look at her butler, Wilhelm's aged but smooth voice making its way into her ear, as she saw the look of concern on his aged features.

She opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it again when she felt almost the same nagging compulsion from before. It was as if something really didn't want her to tell anyone else but Emilia about what she had experienced during her unconsciousness. But before she could push past the compulsion, another voice made itself known.

"Crusch if there's anything wrong please tell Felix!" Felix exclaimed loudly, quickly scooping up both her hands into his own as he looked up at her with a pleading expression. "If something's wrong, please tell me so I can help you!"

Crusch tried but simply couldn't bring herself to speak, although this time it wasn't because of any strange compulsion, it was purely out of a misplaced fear that if she spoke about what she had experienced, then her two servants would view her as nothing more than a mad woman.

However, as she finally managed to win the mental tug of war, she opened her mouth to speak. Something unexpected happened, something that was so sudden it caught everyone's attention immediately.

The screen… The screen had come back to life once more.

The screen turned itself back on without warning, unlike previous times. It was as if it had a mind of its own. This was not a strange conclusion to draw, given the warden's absence.

Having been saved by the return of the screen, Crusch let out a quiet sigh of relief, before she quickly turned to Felix and Wilhelm. "Felix, stay with Al and make sure that Priscilla is alright" She said with an authoritative tone.

Felix opened his mouth to protest, but then he realized that it was probably for the best if he made sure the red-headed princess was okay. Even though he wasn't the biggest fan of Priscilla, considering her high and mighty attitude, he knew that it was his duty to help her.

"Wilhelm, come, we're going back to our seats" Crusch said as she turned on her heels, Emilia close at her side as Wilhelm fell into lockstep behind her, practically becoming her shadow like any good Butler would. The 3 of them making their way back to the front of the theatre.

As all three of them made it back to the front of the theatre, Wilhelm and Crusch separated for Emilia, intending to return to the seats they had been occupying previously. However, Crusch stopped when she felt a small tug on the sleeve of a uniform, and turning around she saw Emilia with an almost shy look on her face.

"Crusch, if it's not a problem... I would realllly like it if you could sit with me again" Emilia looked away purple cheeks going a rosy red, as she couldn't help but feel just a bit embarrassed for asking such a thing.

Crusch was silent for a moment before a pleasant smile made its way across her lips. "I'd very much like that Emilia" She said kindly.

Emilia gave a broad smile as she quickly made a beeline for a certain sleeping boy. Crusch quickly followed on her heels, however, she stopped looking over her shoulder at a certain aged Butler. Who after a moment gave a small nod as he got up from the seat he had just sat down in. And once he had caught up to her both of them made their way to the frontmost row of seats, Crusch sitting down in the seat nearest Emilia, Beatrice and Subaru, while Wilhelm chose to sit in the seat next to the blonde maid Frederica, who gave a polite nod as he did so.

Darkness.

Endless unyielding darkness.

It completely surrounded him and all his senses as he felt himself almost floating in the endless void of nothingness. The darkness brought back memories of when he experienced something similar due to the jealous witch. Yet even though this darkness was all-consuming like hers, this darkness somehow felt comforting and calming instead of crushing and suffocating, it numbed his senses allowing him to finally relax after what felt like a lifetime.

But whatever relaxation was to be gained by being surrounded by discomforting darkness was not to last, as a gentle familiar voice reached his ears.

"Subaru... you must wake up... you still have to make us whole again"

That voice... the voice was so familiar yet who it belonged to was just able to escape his grasp, he felt the familiar sensation of pain beginning to race through his body again. But as the darkness crumbled away as the waking world approached, Subaru finally remembered.

"Nicole!" Subaru snapped his eyes open, jumping up from the seat he had collapsed into. However, the sudden movement, made an almost unbearable bolt of pain shoot through his entire chest, causing him to double over in agony as a series of painful moans escaped his lips.

Beatrice couldn't help but wince as she felt the brief flashes of absolute agony that her contractor was currently experiencing. "You N-need to be more C-careful I suppose" She said quietly, a small tremor in her voice.

Emilia picked up the sleeping Subaru's into her own, caressing it gently as she watched the on-screen version of him experience what she did only imagine was absolute agony.

"I still don't understand how that idiot's pain tolerance is so high" Ram crossed her arms over her chest, a disapproving frown gripping her delicate features. Despite it not being the biggest mystery surrounding the black-haired man, Subaru's ridiculously high pain tolerance was something that she found both remarkable and absolutely terrifying.

"It's a mystery for sure... but nothing about young Subaru is ever straightforward," Wilhelm said matter-of-factly.

After what seemed like an agonising eternity, Subaru managed to push through the pain just enough to stand up again, the pain was almost unbearable each breath feeling like a thousand red hot knives were being repeatedly stabbed into his sides. Subaru pushed through the pain regardless, he was on a mission to rescue Nicole and he would never stop until she was safe again in his arms.

"I can't stop... not until... until I find Nicole" Subaru painted between breaths feeling a jolt beneath his feet as he quickly grabbed onto one of the overhead rails. The tram noticeably beginning to decelerate as it arrived at its next destination.

Subaru awkwardly limped towards the tram doors, almost losing his shaky balance as the entire car came to a controlled but abrupt stop. And as he regained his balance, the large metal doors quickly opened revealing a surprisingly well-lit and remarkably clean platform.

Subaru limped out of the tram, each step causing him to hiss in pain as the slight vibrations from his steps travelled throughout his body, aggravating his already broken and cracked ribs even further. However, as he slowly made his way towards a small corridor off to the right of the platform, he noticed two items sitting neatly on the floor.

"Thank... God" Subaru immediately grabbed the first item which was revealed to be a large medical pack. With an almost desperate ferocity, he pulled one of the cylindrical objects from its container, unscrewing the cap and Downing its entire contents in one massive gulp. His face grimaced noticeably as the cold gel-like substance went down his throat and settled into his stomach.

And as the pain noticeably began to subside Subaru turned his attention to the other object lying on the floor. Not being surprised at this point to see that it was none other than a personnel tablet.

"I still find it remarkable how that... this gel stuff has the ability to heal wounds but also act as a pain relief when eaten" Julius couldn't stop the smallest twinge of nausea from making itself known, the gel-like material inside the canisters didn't exactly look the most appetising, which was confirmed to him when he saw the slightly disgusted look on Subaru's face as he drank the material.

"Yes, Julie yes it is quite remarkable" Anastasia could already feel with gears inside her mind beginning to turn. "In fact, if I was able to get my hands on some of that stuff, I can already imagine how well it would sell" She said with a glint in her eye.

After all, that healing substance could prove very lucrative if she was able to replicate it in some way, although her thinking wasn't entirely motivated by profit, it was also motivated by the thinking that this healing gel could do wonders for the poor individuals that were less fortunate than the upper classes.

"Big bro finally managed to find something for the pain" Felt shifted uncomfortably in her seat. despite how many times she had seen it, watching Subaru be in so much pain never got any easier for her to watch. Which was why she was thankful both for him and also for herself that he managed to find something to dull the pain even if only temporarily.

"Indeed Lady Felt" Reinhardt said as he cast his eyes downward, a sad expression crossing his.

She immediately noticed the sad look on her knight's face, it was a look of sad acceptance, something that Felt was deeply familiar with considering the kind of person that Reinhardt was. Whenever something bad happened he always believed it to be his fault somehow even if it took simple observations to show that wasn't the case.

Felt, much to Reinhardt's surprise quickly took his hand into her own. "Reinhardt listen to me, not everything is your fault idiot, so you need to stop blaming yourself for everything crap" Just she said as she jabbed a finger into his chest.

Reinhardt was surprised for a moment, for the look of sadness quickly melted away, being replaced by a small shy smile on his face. despite the abrasiveness of the way she said it, he knew that ultimately she was right. he couldn't keep blaming himself for everything that happened, especially when it came to events that like the ones on screen had yet to even occur.

"Thank you my la-" Reinhardt went to say but was quickly cut off.

"And another thing! just call me Felt dammit! I'm seriously getting ticked off with all of this "lady and madam" crap!" The little blonde couldn't help but wave her arms around in frustration, smoke practically flying out of her ears.

Reinhardt was stunned for a moment but quickly began to giggle quietly to himself, only adding to the young blonde girl's frustration. "I will try to remember that in future Felt" He managed to say between his giggling.

Subaru gently kneeled down, being careful not to aggravate his ribs while the healing ointment was doing it thing. He quickly scooped up the personnel tablet, returning to his full height as he pressed play on the front of the device.

"Hydroponics log, August 17th 2508, Dr. Elizabeth Cross reporting. I'm pleased to say that we are working close to maximum capacity at this time. All flora is healthy and thriving and the food yield has created a surplus. I was going to pass the subclass on to the colony, but the captain has given a strict no-fly order" Subaru was only paying partial attention to the message, as he began to slowly wander around the platform, keeping a close eye out for any useful items he could use. And didn't take a lot of searching to find something that made the eyes behind his helmet go wide.

However, as he picked up the new item revealing it to be a completely fresh rack of Ripper blades, the recording on the personnel tablet continued after a slight pause. Subaru took note of the indignant tone that the woman in the recording was using. "I would like it to be on record my strong opposition to this order, Everyone knows that those people down there are in trouble, and I don't see what denying them our surplus will achieve"

"So this colony on the planet below was experiencing trouble long before the appearance of the monsters" Wilhelm rubbed his beard chin in thought, this audio log had revealed another piece of information in regards to this whole dilemma. "How interesting" He murmured quietly as he continued to rub his chin thoughtfully.

"If that's the case, Wilhelm, I suppose it's not out of the realm of the possibility that it's connected to the monsters somehow... if not directly caused by them" Crusch much like her Butler couldn't help but think about the new piece of information that had been shared. It now left no doubt in her mind that whatever had happened on the colony on the planet below, was either directly caused by or was somehow related to the monster infestation on board the USG Ishimura.

"I'm not sure I understand, how they could be connected to each other" A confused expression quickly made its way onto Emilia's face. The gears inside her brain began to work furiously on how exactly what was happening on the ship, could be related to something that happened on the planet below, when to her knowledge there didn't seem to be any physical connection between the two places.

"Your head truly is empty in fact," Beatrice said with an annoyed huff as she looked at the confused half-elf next to her, who looked a little flabbergasted and a bit annoyed at being insulted by the little spirit. "How do you suppose that Subaru and his companions made it to that ship in the first place I suppose"

Emelia thought for a moment the gears inside her mind so furiously that steam was practically flying out of her ears. And after a couple of moments of this, a look of realisation crossed Emilia's face.

"Ooooh" Was all that came out of the half-elf's mouth as Beatrice gave out another annoyed huff turning her attention back to the screen. On the other hand, Emilia felt her cheeks and the tips of her pointed ears go bright red, as she realised just how idiotic she had made herself look.

"The only thing that can make this worse. is Subaru seeing me like this" Her words were quiet and barely above a whisper, yet everyone around her couldn't help but find Emilia's embarrassment both funny and adorable. However, that ended abruptly when something happened on screen that nobody was expecting.

As the message ended, Subaru put the personnel tablet on a nearby bench, but as he was loading the blades and his Ripper. He abruptly stopped as an unexpected sneeze erupted from his lips.

Subaru quickly recovered, his helmet retracting into its protective housings as he gently rub his nose, a thoughtful and somewhat sad look crossing his face as he looked up towards the ceiling panels of the tram platform. "Ha... I wonder what she's embarrassed about now" Despite the small chuckle, his tone was a noticeably melancholy one.

Subaru let his eyes linger on the ceiling for a moment, he knew that she as well as everything else was gone. But still, whether or not it was a coping mechanism or simply just wanting to keep her in his memory. Every time he sneezed he liked to think that it was whenever she got embarrassed about something. After all, the way that the tips of her pointed ears turned red along with her cheeks was something that he always found absolutely adorable.

Emilia couldn't believe what she was seeing. Despite all the pain and suffering that the spectre had inflicted on Subaru, he still held fond memories of the real her. Her heart was heavy with sadness, but also filled with love for him. Any embarrassment she may have felt was quickly forgotten as her feelings for him began to grow stronger than ever before.

But at the same time, she also felt crushing sadness at the specific wording that Subaru had used when thinking about what happened. It was definitive and left no doubt in her mind that at some point in the future, she would...

Die

She would die a permanent and irreversible death.

Of course, the thought itself was upsetting, after all seeing herself die in many horrific and creative ways certainly had made her will to live much stronger. But what horrified and saddened her more was that Subaru would survive whatever had ended her own life, being forced to live on with her death wearing down on his shoulders.

After a moment of staring at the ceiling, Subaru let out a sad and dejected sigh as he activated his helmet once again, his face quickly being hidden from view as the three bars on his visor lit up with a brilliant cyan glow. And after giving his equipment a last quick once over, he quickly made his way to the end of a platform, walking through an open doorway that deposited him into a long narrow brightly lit corridor.

After looking at it with slight apprehension, Subaru began to make his way down the corridor, his plasma cutter and Ripper still clipped to his belt, but being in easy reach just in case a monster popped out from a hidden area. However, he quickly came to an abrupt stop, as an area of the floor in front of him that was coated completely in blood, contrasting horribly with the rest of the corridor.

Subaru looked to his left seeing an open and dark restroom door, blood completely coating every inch of the threshold. "Nope, not going in there" He said abruptly as he quickly continued on his way past the bloody door.

"Seems the idiot does have some sense after all" Ram said with her usual deadpan delivery. Although her sister Rem was the only one to pick up on the slightly nervous twinge and her voice.

"I mean you're right missy, I would never have guessed that dying multiple times would make someone paranoid" Despite the deadpan nature of his own delivery, Al could feel multiple pairs of eyes turn to look at him. Including a certain cat boy who was sitting opposite him.

Subaru quickly made it to the end of the hall, holding his hand out at the holographic display as the double elevator doors opened, allowing him to step inside. Once he had done so, a quick press of the button sent him in the elevator hurtling upwards. And after a relatively short journey, Subaru was let out into what looked like a small waiting area, one side of it having large glass growing chambers where admittedly quite delicious-looking apples and tomatoes were currently growing.

After letting his eyes linger on the fruit for a moment, Subaru quickly made his way through an open doorway, coming out into a large zig zag hallway, but as Subaru stepped around one of the corners, he came face-to-face with somebody he wasn't expecting.

"Hammond?!"

Subaru quickly rushed to his friend's side, getting down to one knee as he immediately noticed that Hammond's breaths were noticeably ragged and wheezy.

"Oh thank goodness, he's alive" Emilia let out a sigh of relief, thankful that Subaru's dark skin friend was in fact still alive and had not perished as she had feared. But the relief was short-lived when she noticed his very laboured and wheezing breathing.

"Indeed, I'm glad that Hammond is alive" Crusch expressed her relief upon seeing that Hammond was still alive, much like Emilia. However, she also noted that his breathing was becoming a cause for concern, which was evident from her slightly worried expression.

"It must be because of that toxic air I suppose," Beatrice said with a matter-of-fact tone of voice. of course, she was concerned for the dark-complexioned man's safety but considering what had been mentioned earlier about toxic air, his condition wasn't much of a mystery.

"Nyah~how can that staff be so fast acting?" Felix, with his extensive medical training, had studied numerous types of poisons. However, he was amazed by the speed of this particular one as it acted much faster than any he had previously encountered.

"Honestly who knows and who cares" Al couldn't keep the exasperation from his voice, he may have not died directly as a result of being poisoned, but he certainly knew just how deadly they could be. "If it's able to royally mess up somebody in good health like that, then the question of how fast it does it really doesn't matter," He said.

Felix looked at the helmeted man across from him, he knew perfectly well where Al was coming from. After all, if the end result was ultimately death, the question of how the poison did its job so fast ultimately didn't matter. Even still Felix couldn't help but try to analyse it anyway.

Subaru quickly reached for the medical appointment canisters on his belt, managing to unclasp them just as Hammond's eyes shot open, Subaru was caught completely off guard as Hammond pointed the weapon directly in his face.

"Wait... Subaru?... It's good to see you in one piece..." Subaru was immediately thankful as the Pulse rifle was quickly pointed away from his face.

"It's good to see you too but... Hammond... What the hell happened to you?" Subaru let his eyes trail over Hammond's body looking for any obvious injuries but finding none, as he quickly went to deactivate his helmet.

"Subaru... don't take... your helmet off... the air's completely rotten" Subaru was surprised when Hammond grabbed his hand ultimately stopping him from opening his helmet to the rotten air. "I got a look... at it... It's huge... You wouldn't believe it" He said between ragged and wheezing breaths.

"Hammond... if you got a look at it then where the hell is it?" Subaru asked as he handed his dark-skinned friend one of the medical appointment cylinders.

"I don't know how... but the fucking thing somehow shut itself and food storage " Hammond paused as Subaru watched him down the entire cylinder of medical appointment without so much as a grimace on his face. "The crew that was on this deck... I think they're poisoning the air directly... they've been transformed like the rest" Hammond said as he threw the now empty cylinder aside.

Subaru opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it again when he realised exactly what Hammond had just said. If the deck crew was also responsible for poisoning the air, then killing the leviathan and purging the toxic air wouldn't be as simple and straightforward as he thought.

"I got a look at one of them... they bloated and swollen... literally poison factories all of them" Despite not having the strength to do so Hammond made an attempt to stand, Subaru offered a hand of support for him to try and stand. "Listen Subaru... we need to take them out, while we can still breathe" Hammond wheezed as he and Subaru's conversation was suddenly interrupted.

"Dammit, why can't it just be as simple as killing the big monster and everything's solved!?" Garfiel couldn't stop the annoyed growl from escaping his lips. it was beginning to feel like the university itself just hated Subaru for some reason.

"I'm afraid young Garfiel, that nothing in life is ever that simple" Wilhelm could certainly understand the young blonde's frustration, after all, he was once a young lad with an equally as vicious and fiery temper. It also didn't help that Garfiel's specific phrasing brought back very unpleasant memories of a white whale.

"Rule 1 of Big Brother Subaru, everything that can go wrong will go wrong," Petra said with a matter-of-fact tone in her little voice. despite not being as smart as the grown-ups that she knew, one thing that she knew for certain despite her age was that Big Brother Subaru was incredibly unlucky, to the point where it was almost scary how much bad luck seemed to follow him.

"The young girl has a point" Crusch let a frustrated sigh escape her lips, even as a child she had never believed in the concepts of good and bad luck. But seeing Subaru's "adventures" was really beginning to turn her opinion that maybe luck was real and if such a thing did exist it was beginning to feel like Subaru was a bad luck attractor.

Beatrice remained quiet, her tiny and delicate facial features scrunching up into a vicious frown, as she pondered exactly why her contractor was always giving more than his fair share of bad luck. sure he often did put himself in quite bad positions, especially at the worst time possible. But surely it didn't warrant such a punishment from whatever controlled fate

"Subaru's bad luck aside for a moment, I'm not sure I understand how exactly these transform crew members could be responsible for creating the toxic air" Julius said with a questioning look on his face, slightly curious in a morbid way at how exactly these poor souls could have been turned into something that could produce poisonous air.

"Interesting question for sure" Anastasia turned to look at her knight with a deadpan expression, Julius mentally preparing himself as he already knew what was coming. "But I mean this with the utmost sincerity Julius... when I say I don't want to find out," She said with a completely flat tone.

"I'm with Anastasia on this one, I'm not exactly in a hurry to find out what the hell they are and how... they doing their thing," Felt said with a slightly nauseous expression on her face, remembering all of the other absolutely disgusting and deformed monstrosities that Subaru had already encountered.

"I definitely second letter opinion Felt," Reinhardt said as well, his mind flashing back to all of the disgusting abominations, and more importantly remembering that they were all once normal humans before their death and subsequent transformation.

"Hammond! I thought you were dead! You need to get to cleaner air! You're not going to be able to help Subaru in your condition" Hammond's rig link suddenly came to life, surprising both Subaru and Hammond as the face of Kendra appeared on the holographic monitor.

"No... I've still... got some fight.. left-"

"Hammond, she's right, you're not going to be able to help me at all the way you are, get yourself patched up and get out of here, I'll handle the rest" Subaru interrupted Hammond as the dark-skinned man tried to climb to his feet in protest.

"Alright... just don't get yourself killed... That's an order" Hammond said as Subaru watched Hammond lower himself to the ground, all of the strength that he had summoned previously now vanishing.

"Subaru, I'm scanning the area now. He's right, there's something really big and food storage, but I can't get a good scan. Monitor readings are off the scale. So be careful!" Kendra's face quickly disappeared as the holographic display vanished. Subaru and Hammond gave each other one last as Subaru unclipped the plasma cutter from his belt and made his way to the end of the hall. Quickly opening the door and stepping through into the next room.

This new room that Subaru had just stepped into, was much larger than the hallway he had just come from. At its centre was a large console surrounded by various pieces of climate control equipment. And walking up to the console, Subaru saw that the large holographic display was showing the air filtration system was currently offline.

"That's the door to food storage. But I can't override the integrity lockdown from here, you're going to have to kill those transformed crew members to bring the air quality back up and initiate a complete reboot of the air filtration system. Once that's done you should be able to go through and use the poison on the leviathan" Subaru heard Kendra's voice in his ear as he stepped away from the console and held his hand up in front of him. A brilliant sapphire blue line made its way around the room before going through a doorway off to his left.

"Here we go again I suppose" Beatrice muttered quietly under her breath, already mentally and physically preparing herself and whatever Horrors both physical and psychological that her contractor was most likely going to experience going forward.

"He's going to be fine" Emilia turned to look at Beatrice, both half-elf and spirit staring at each other for a moment before she continued. "I'm sure... No! I'm 100 percent positive he's going to be fine Beatrice" Emilia said with a determined glint in her eye.

"I second that, no matter what horrors he faces, I'm sure Subaru will push through no matter what" Despite her words being mostly to comfort the spirit and half-elf that were close to Subaru's heart. Crusch still believed wholeheartedly in her own words, after all, everything she had seen of him both in the viewings and in person, prove that her initial assumption of him couldn't have been more wrong if she tried.

"Interesting, In order to kill this leviathan, he must purge all of the toxic air before he can use the poison on it" Reinhardt rubbed his chin in thought, unknowingly doing the exact same thing that his father and grandfather both did when they were also in deep thought.

"Doesn't sound too difficult to me, go kill a couple of those monsters and then go after the big thing... sounds pretty easy if you ask me" Despite the way she had said it, Felt had meant it to come out more as a sarcastic statement, rather than her trying to downplay just how much of a task Subaru had in front of him to actually get to the creature, let alone actually try and kill it.

With his route now clear, Subaru made his way over and opened the door, revealing an incredibly cramped-looking vestibule hallway, which after quickly walking through deposited him out into a much larger looking room, huge cylindrical tanks filled with an unknown orange viscous liquid taking up the majority of the vertical space in the gigantic room.

"I suppose I should be glad Hammond's alive, but I still don't trust him. I think he's hiding something about the Marker" Subaru heard Kendra's voice in his ear as he navigate his way to the end of the large space. Being extra careful to avoid the steaming and scalding hot liquid occasionally being vented out of the tanks.

"Kendra... listen whatever problems you have with Hammond and this marker can wait" Subaru let an exasperated sigh escape his lips as he finally made it to the other end of the room, and stepped onto a small cargo elevator which immediately began to take him up for the next level of the room. "The only thing that should matter right now is killing the leviathan so we don't all suffocate to death" He said, his words had no room for argument.

"Strange... her dislike of Hammond is quite peculiar," Frederica said quietly to herself. Kendra's strange distrust of Hammond was odd to her, especially when everything she had seen of the man so far suggested that he was straightforward and truthful.

"Indeed Miss Baumann, her consistent dismissal of him is quite strange" Wilhelm Gravelly and deep voice had an air of suspicion to it. Kendra was so frequently questioning Hammond's truthfulness, and she was trying to get Subaru on her side and convince him not to trust the dark-skinned man. That ultimately led Wilhelm to think that maybe she had something of her own she was trying to hide.

The cargo lift came to an abrupt halt, but as Subaru stepped off the cargo lift and onto the lodge catwalk. The lights in the large room flickered several times before going out completely, the only source of illumination being Subaru's cyan visor and a few dim emergency lights.

However, despite the darkness, Subaru was able to see at the end of the catwalk a dark silhouette suddenly drop down from the ceiling, twisted arms raising above its head, revealing its identity to be one of the twisted abominations that was once one of the crew members.

Subaru immediately aimed his plasma cutter, and as the creature began to sprint directly at him, the room quickly was bathed in light once again as all of the light blinked back to life. The creature however didn't get very far in its charge, as with one shot the creature's leg was completely severed from its body, causing its twisted frame to violently crash onto the floor. The creature's horrific screams of pain and rage, quickly being silenced as the creature's head was taken clean from its shoulders by a single well-placed shot from Subaru.

He stared at the twitching corpse for a moment, looking at it with an almost passive expression, as he quickly stepped over it and with a slightly increased pace made his way to the end of the catwalk, occasionally looking over his shoulder at the corpse, until he finally reached the large double doors at the opposite end of the catwalk.

"Clean and efficient... seems that Subaru is becoming proficient at dispatching these monsters" Crusch couldn't stop a slight frown from forming on her face. Subaru's calm and cool-headed demeanour when he was dispatching the monster was for some reason slightly unnerving to her.

"Indeed Lady Crusch, his clean execution of the monster was swift and precise..." He could definitely praise Subaru for his efficient and clean execution of a monster, but that didn't stop Wilhelm from feeling slightly off-put by the entire scene. "Although... his lack of reaction is concerning," Wilhelm said, a concerned frown forming on his face.

Beatrice was silent her face looking passive and calm, yet the gears inside her brain were working furiously. her contractor's complete lack of reaction to its appearance and his dispatching of the monster was reassuring and Incredibly concerning. After all, before he would scream and shout at the monsters out of fear or anger. But now when he killed the monster, she felt him feel nothing more than indifference as if the monster was nothing more than a piece of unremarkable trash on the side of the road.

Sparing one last glance over his shoulder, Subaru made his way through the double doors, coming out went to an almost impossibly large room, his ears being assaulted by the almost foreign-sounding noise of chirping birds and clicking insects. However, even with the noise of insects and birds being a welcome change of pace from all of the machinery noises that he had grown accustomed to, he paid those noises absolutely no attention to them as he began to search the large room for any signs of the infected crew members that were poisoning the air.

"Wait just a second, he's on a ship in space..." Anastasia felt her mouth drop to the floor, the last thing that she was expecting to see in this industrial spaceship was flora, greenery and the sounds of birds and insects of all things. "So how in the Od are they growing things like plants!?" She said with a shocked expression.

"Yeah, that's a good question, how are they able to grow plants and crap if there's no soil?" Despite not being as interested in all of the technology as Anastasia was. Felt could certainly say she was caught off guard by the reveal of actual growing plants on Ishimura. However, she quickly stopped that train of thought when she remembered something. If the technology of this world was able to grow human beings of all things, then maybe plants weren't so out of the question after all.

"The technology of this world truly does know no bounds," Julius said matter-of-factly, he was a bit surprised and somewhat thankful for the change in scenery that the plants brought to the interior of the ship. But ultimately considering that this world was able to reproduce human beings as if they were a common commodity, the idea that they were also able to do the same thing with plants wasn't that surprising in hindsight.

"Indeed Julius, if technology in this world is able to replicate humans... then I suppose replicating something like a plant or tree would be a lot less complex to do" Reinhard was definitely surprised by the reveal of actual living plants. However, the fact that they were actually growing in the ship wasn't surprising to him, considering that the technology of this world was seemingly able to reproduce human beings.

After several minutes of searching, Subaru came across a door, This door was much like the rest he had passed, but what caught his attention was the green nasty vapour seeping from the edges around the door frame.

Having found his first target Subaru put a fresh energy pack into his plasma cutter, however when he put his hand to the holographic display to open the door, only opened about halfway seeming to get stuck on something as a wave of noxious gas came flooding out, immediately triggering his internal air supply to kick in.

"What the hell..." Subaru said quietly as he stared at the half-open door in front of him. However, the confusion didn't last long, as he quickly grabbed the door with both hands, pulling with all of his might as the door gradually inched itself open.

What Subaru saw before him in the now open doorway was both bizarre and sickening, the entirety of the room inside was coated in that strange fleshy organic growth he had seen before, in fact, it looked as if the very room itself had turned into an organic creature, very visible bones, organs and other body parts poking out of the fleshy mass.

Thanks to the complete lack of anything in her stomach, Felt was spared the embarrassment of throwing up once again. however, nausea still hit her full force as she saw just how disgusting the room Subaru was about to step into was. In fact, the part that disturbed her the most was the contrast between the moist fleshy interior of the room, and the cold and harsh metal of the much larger space that Subaru was currently in.

"Now that's just... nasty," Garfiel said as his face went a nasty shade of green. Even Subaru's most gruesome deaths didn't come anywhere close to the absolutely sickening and demented imagery he was currently seeing.

Otto covered his mouth and turned pale, feeling nauseous. He struggled to hold back the urge to vomit. "I think I might be sick," he managed to say.

"Subaru..." Whatever you do, please be safe" Emilia said quietly, her eyes glued to the screen, yet she held one of his hands in her own, gently stroking it to provide some semblance of comfort for herself.

"How unsightly" Crusch tried as she might, couldn't stop nausea from quickly taking over, her own face taking on a slightly green hue as she observed the absolutely disgusting room Subaru was about to enter. In fact like a certain young blonde girl, the part that she found the most horrifying was the contrast between cold metal and wet fleshy growth.

"Unsightly doesn't even begin to describe it I suppose" Beatrice said in response to the greenhead duchess. Even though she was a spirit and therefore could not feel sick, she could certainly feel the slight trepidation that her contractor was currently feeling as he stood before the disgusting fleshy room.

"Agreed, if the idiot had any sense he would turn around and walk the other way" Ram said with a deadpan tone, managing to retain her poker face which did a very good job of hiding just how disgusted she truly felt. In fact, it may have been hyperbole in a way, actually seeing something so ghastly and disgusting almost made her feel violated in a way.

"Ewww that place looks so disgusting" Petra wined incessantly, surprisingly turning away from the screen as her little face contorted into a disgusted look.

"Well... no time like the present," Subaru said under his breath as he made his way into the fleshy interior of the room. A horrific shudder ran up his spine as his feet sank into the fleshy floor. However, he pushed the discomfort away as he began searching the fleshy environment for his target, which luckily he was able to find practically half fused to the wall in the opposite corner of the room.

Subaru took aim with his plasma cutter, but before he could pull the trigger he suddenly realised that considering the creature was half fused into the wall, shooting it with plasma shots would do very little to actually kill it. As such he quickly clipped the plasma cutter to his belt, retrieving the Ripper and deactivating its safety. Once he took aim Subaru pulled the trigger, a diamond-encrusted tungsten saw blade moving at impossible speed, quickly making short work of the disgusting creature and its fleshy environment.

"Anomaly purged, re-filtering local air supply"

The automatic PA system announced as Subaru noticed all of the toxic and noxious air quickly being pulled from the room and replaced with provable fresh air, his suit switching off its internal air supply and he quickly made his way out of the living room and back out into the much larger grow room.

"One down... God knows how many of them to go" Al surprisingly enough was not too off-put by the fleshy room, of course, it was a little bit disgusting but compared to some of the stuff he had seen in horror movies and games as a teenager, a room made completely of flesh was quite tame by comparison.

Felix remained completely silent, yet his look of disgust and horror was easily readable. The twisted reanimated corpses were one thing, but actually seeing the true extent of the fleshy growth that he had briefly glimpsed earlier in the viewings was horrifying yet somehow orderly fascinating.

Wilhelm frowned as he watched Subaru leave the flashy interior of the room. "I wonder... what is the nature of this strange infection?" he wondered quietly to himself, trying and failing to think of anything that could cause living flesh to grow onto walls like that. He had never seen anything like it before.

Subaru kept the Ripper close as he walked to the opposite side of the grow room, an identical room with a mirrored layout from the one he had just come from. But opening the door he found that the fleshy growth was much less expensive, in fact, the creature still looked mostly human with only its legs being mostly fused into a small patch fleshy growth on the floor.

Subaru repeated the process used before, the Ripper eviscerating this creature much faster than the other one because, unlike the one that was fused into the fleshy walls, this one was completely unprotected.

"Anomaly purged, re-filtering local air supply"

After giving the creature's mangled corpse one last look, Subaru exited the room through the door he had come through originally. He held his hand out in front of him as the sapphire blue line snaked its way into the centre of the room before it terminated at a large cargo left at the very centre.

"He's already killed two of them..." Ram was somewhat thankful that the next room wasn't made entirely of living flesh. Although she was still curious about the exact number of these poison-spewing creatures "Just how many of them are there?" She said with an arched pink eyebrow.

"Who knows sister... but I do know that my beloved will kill every single one of them," Rem said with a happy smile on her face, her harsh and cruel words contrasting horribly with her overly happy demeanour. in fact, pink-haired sister Ram turned to look at her as if she was crazy.

Rem after a moment turned to look at her sister, her face seeming calm and gentle with a happy expression, yet the longest she looked into her sister's eyes the more Ram felt a disturbing feeling coming over her as her sister's normally soulful blue eyes hold the nothing but pure malice and hate.

Subaru followed the guiding blue sapphire line, quickly stepping onto the cargo elevator and pressing the bottom for the first level. But the elevator's upward ascent was very slow, giving Subaru some time to actually admire the sounds of the birds and insects. The simple sounds of chirping Birds were something that he had grown to miss both from his original time on earth and the of Lugunica world, he was forced to leave behind. However, his reminiscing about better times ended abruptly as the elevator finally reached the first level.

"Warning toxins dacted in Atmospheric Processing. A repair technician has been notified"

As he stepped off the elevator and onto the catwalk, Subaru held his hand out once again keeping a close eye on where exactly the sapphire blue lines sneaked it's way to. And once he had figured out where he needed to go, he quickly made his way to the end of the catwalk where a single regular door was located.

However as he opened the door and stepped into the room, Subaru suddenly felt a shooting pain in his head as all of the monitors in the room suddenly showed a very familiar face.

"Subaru... Make us whole again..."

"N-Nicole" Even with the pain, Subaru couldn't tear his eyes away from her face on the monitors. However, with another burst of pain, her face quickly vanished, the monitors returning to the dark and silent state from before.

"I'm not sure, but it seems like Nicole may not have been the one trying to communicate with him," Frederica said with a worried expression. She was afraid that Subaru's mental state might deteriorate further, just like it had in previous viewings.

"I'm inclined to agree with you Miss Baumann" Wilhelm could feel it in his aged bones that something was not right, of course, that was an obvious statement considering the circumstances but even still, something about all of this just didn't sit right with the aged Butler "Something suspicious is most definitely afoot" He mattered quietly to himself, a frown making its way onto his face"

"Oh no..." The words came out of her mouth yet Emilia didn't tear her eyes away from the screen. Emilia was completely horrified that Nicole had said the exact same phrase as the ghostly apparition of herself had said, which meant that there was a horrifying possibility that Subaru's mental state had already slipped far beyond return.

"I'm sure that he's fine Emilia..." Crusch tried her best to reassure the nervous half-elf next to her, but her attention was more focused on the strange phrase that the ghostly version of Nicole had spoken. It was the same phrase that the ghostly apparition of Emilia had said and was also the same phrase that she distinctly remembered from her nightmare. "It's all connected... but how exactly" She said quietly under her breath, Thankfully Nobody heard her exact words.

"The green-haired woman is right, my contractor is going to be completely fine I suppose" It was a bold-faced lie and Beatrice knew it. But considering Emilia's already unstable state, Beatrice decided that lying about her contractor's reaction to the ghostly Nicole was probably for the better.

"I swear this is getting more freaky by the minute" Felt wasn't sure if it was the temperature in the room or the amount of exposed skin she had. But she couldn't stop a shiver from running up her spine. Despite the phrase "make us whole" being completely innocuous, just something about the way it was said, always made her feel incredibly off-put as if the words themselves had some kind of secret sinister power.

"You can say that again short stuff" Garfiel crossed his arms over his chest, unable to stop himself from fidgeting in his seat as he felt goosebumps break out all over his body. "This shit is getting creepier by the second," He said with a slight tremble in his voice.

Subaru looked on dumbfounded at the various screens in the room, confused if what he had just seen was actually real or just a figment of his imagination. However, he quickly shook his head to clear the pain away as he returned to his original goal. Walking to the end of the medium-sized room Subaru found his target. One of the wheezing-type creatures partially embedded into a large nodule of fleshy growth.

Much like the first two the Ripper made short work of it, the creature having no time to react as it was quickly eviscerated by a diamond-encrusted tungsten blade. But as the toxic air was vented from the room, Subaru had the familiar sound of a vent cover exploding behind him. Causing him to spin around on the spot only to see one of the bat-like infectie creatures, quickly making its way to a partially dismembered body in the far corner of the room.

"I don't think so!" Subaru yelled as he quickly advanced towards the creature, pulling the second trigger on the Ripper which instead of making a blade hover in front of the weapon. Made the blade shootout at almost supersonic speeds, the creature having no time to react as it was quickly carved In two by the flying saw disc.

"That new tool of his really is scarily effective at dismemberment," Anastasia said morbidly impressed tone to her voice. This Ripper as Subaru had called it, was terrifyingly effective at dismembering abominations. In fact, the tool seemed so deadly to her, that she honestly didn't want to think about what actual weapons from this world could do to a human being.

"Indeed lady Anastasia... it's horrifyingly effective, and not to mention that it can seemingly launch those saw blades at terrifying speeds" Julius was both horrified by the destructive power of the tool but also impressed by its efficiency at dismemberment. In fact, no battle axe or sword could come anywhere close to the absolute brutality that this common tool was able to inflict.

"Ok, that was just nasty... But also awesome" Garfiel's face was a mix of both discussed and amazement. on the one hand, he was amazed by the fact that this Ripper tool was even more powerful than the plasma cutter which could already take limbs off in a single shot. But on the other, he was also disgusted and appalled by the absolute brutality the Ripper was able to inflict with a simple pull of the trigger.

With the creature now dead and unable to infect any more corpses Subaru quickly made his way out of the small room and back out onto the open catwalk in the main grow chamber. And after Consulting the sapphire blue line that was his guide, he quickly made his way across the catwalk to the opposite side of the grow chamber and threw a small access doorway.

Subaru came out into a small vestibule connecting hallway, an object on the wall catching his attention as he walked up to it and held his hand out. The object was revealed to be a standard map station, which imprinted a perfect map of the entire deck into his rig after a moment. After this was done, Subaru continued through the small vestibule, quickly exiting for a large door into a very long hallway with an almost psychedelic pulsing light flashing down each side of it.

But before Subaru could even think about making a step, at the far end of the hallway some vent covers quickly exploded open, a completely brand new shambling abomination crawling out.

It was even more deformed than the rest of those things that he had seen so far, in fact from this distance it looked nothing like a human. And the sounds it made...

The sounds it made were absolutely awful.

The closest thing he could compare the noises to was a mixture of somebody in absolute agony combined with the sound of a dying cat or dog. But more examination of the creature would have to wait as it quickly began to shamble towards, but luckily due to the length of the hallway and the creature's slow speed, Subaru was easily able to retrieve his plasma cutter and line up a perfect shot on the creatures left arm.

However after Subaru pulled the trigger, something unexpected happened as the Plasma shot connected with the creature's left arm. The creature exploded in a fountain of gore, its entire body being turned to nothing but a fine red paste, as the sack that had been attached to its left arm exploded violently.

Otto began to dry heave violently, no vomit coming out of his mouth yet he couldn't control his horrified retches. Even though he had managed to fight back nausea when Subaru had dismembered the bat-like creature. Seeing something quite literally be turned into a fine red mist in an instant was too much for him to handle.

Frederica felt Petra shove her entire little body into her side, shooting her face from the gruesome imagery she just unfortunately witnessed. "It's ok Petra... It's okay" She said practically by reflex, bringing a spare hand up to rub the back of the girl's neck.

"Disgusting," Emilia said matter-of-factly, a disgusted and mortified look crossing her face as she tried to make sense of what she had just witnessed. One moment the creature was shambling its way towards Subaru, the next it was gone, its entire body turned into nothing more than a fine red mist in the air. It was almost like a horrific magic trick.

"Indeed I suppose, absolutely disgusting, but at least the creature won't be an obstacle to my contractor anymore" Beatrice said with a slightly unnerved look on her face, but she managed to keep herself together, grateful that even if the creature's method of death was disgusting to watch, at least it would not be able to get in the way of her beloved contractor anymore.

"I suppose that's a silver lining to take away from... that" Crusch gestured to the screen with one of her hands, a slightly nauseous look on her face as she processed the fact she had just witnessed a creature quite literally explode like it was a firework, turning its entire body into nothing more than red mist in the air.

Subaru was stunned for a moment, looking down at the plasma cutter in his hands, a look of awe completely plastered across beneath his helmet. He knew that plasma cutters were powerful and Incredibly dangerous, but he certainly didn't remember them having the ability to make things explode.

After a moment of staring at his plasma cutter, Subaru turned his attention back to the now red smear that covered the end of the hallway, cautiously approaching it, feeling a small amount of nausea as his foot connected with the wet blood-soaked floor, a horrible squelching noise coming from beneath his metal boot.

Anastasia covered her mouth with her hand, trying her best to fight off the sickening feeling that was threatening to overtake her. The creature had not just exploded… it had quite literally disintegrated into nothing more than blood. "I think I'm... going to be sick" She managed to utter, her face now taking on a noticeable green hue.

"That makes two of us... lady Anastasia" Julius managed to say managing to push down and swallow a small amount of bile that had raised up in his throat.

However, after a moment of looking around at the carnage in both awe and disgust, he continued on, taking a sharp left and quickly making his way through a small vestibule hallway identical to the one he had entered through, coming out into a large square space. But as Subaru crossed the threshold felt his entire body become weightless as his magnetic boots kicked in.

"Dammit" Subaru muttered under his breath, frustration evident in his voice at the complete lack of any artificial gravity.

"Well... looks like the gravity's out again," Al said with an exasperated sigh.

Felix turned to look at the helmeted man next to him, the cat boy's face having a slightly indignant look plaster across it "You don't say~Nyah" He said with a deadpan tone to his voice.

Subaru stepped further into the large cavernous room, each step looking incredibly awkward as even after all of these years, walking around in a zero-g environment with magnetic boots was something he never quite got the hang of.

However as Subaru cursed under his breath he suddenly noticed that directly above him was a closed large metal hatch, and considering that the only other door was the one that he had just come through, the closed hatch was his most likely way forward.

But as Subaru reached out with his kinesis module and opened the large metal hatch he was caught off guard by the appearance of two lurkers who jump from the partially open metal hatch. Subaru had a hard time tracking the creatures as they effortlessly manoeuvred around the zero-g environment as if they were made for it.

"God not more of you" Subaru cursed loudly trying his best to track the little abominations as they jumped from wall to wall.

"Gross… It's more of those... baby things" Felt said with a noticeable shake to her voice. Out of all of the abominations that she had seen so far, the reanimated infants stirred something deep within her. It was a hard feeling to place into words, in fact, the only way that she could attempt to describe it was a strange mix of sadness and disgust.

Reinhardt turned his gaze towards the young blonde next to him, not needing His Divine protection to tell that something was bothering her. After all the look that was written across her face was able to tell him he needed. "Felt... is something the matter?" He asked cautiously.

Felt didn't immediately respond to her red-headed companion, yet after a moment she finally turned to look at him, opening her mouth to speak after a couple of moments of silence she closed it again, unable to bring herself to say what she wanted to say.

Even with his gravity boots slowing his movement and making him incredibly sluggish on his feet, Subaru was able to dodge out of the way just in the nick of time as one of the infantile abominations quickly launched a series of spiky bone shards at him. However, even though he tried to line up a shot on the creature his sluggish and slowed movement allowed enough time for the little monstrosity to jump to another surface.

"Stay still damn it!" Subaru shouted angrily as he let loose a shot from his plasma cutter watching with growing frustration as one of the little monsters quickly pushed itself off the wall, manoeuvring out of the way of the incoming plasma shot with ease as it almost gracefully zoomed through the zero gravity environment before landing and latching onto another wall.

But before Subaru could line up a shot on the momentarily stationary creature, its companion quickly seized an opportunity to let loose another volley of high-velocity bone shards. Subaru even with his sluggish movements managed to dodge all but one of them as the bone shard quickly scraped against the upper part of his arm, tearing through the fabric and leaving a small but nasty-looking cut.

"Fuck!" Subaru shouted as he almost lost his balance, from both the force of the bone shard and the momentum from his trying to dodge it.
Even though the cut wasn't that bad and the painkillers still in his system did a good job of numbing it, Subaru felt his anger quickly skyrocket as he saw the creature responsible for his injury quickly take off from the wall, most likely repositioning itself for another attack. However, in a spell of rage-filled focus Subaru took aim and managed to hit the creature in mid-air with a single plasma cutter shot, the creature crying out in both pain and shock as the force from the plasma cutter quickly sent it off course, the little abomination quickly tumbling uncontrollably through the zero gravity environment.

But Subaru wasn't done yet, quickly reaching out with his kinesis module and grabbing a hold of the half-mutilated and flailing abomination, and just as the other little monster was getting ready to fire more bone shards. He deactivated his gravity boots and kicked off from the floor using his momentum to throw himself and the creature in his kinesis grip around, the creature becoming a very good living meat shield against its companion's bone spike projectiles, and allowing Subaru to deliver a quick and lethal follow-up shot with his plasma cutter, the shot completely cutting the around creature in two and killing it.

"Hell yeah cap! You showed those little bastards who's boss!" Garfiel exclaimed excitedly jumping up from his seat and throwing a fist into the air at the awesome display that he had just watched Subaru perform.

Petra quickly accompanied Garfiel jumping up from her seat and excitement as she cheered at Subaru's victory over the disgusting little monsters

"That was certainly an impressive display I must say" Crusch had a look of satisfaction pasted across her face a small smile making its way onto her delicate lips. even though she was not too worried for Subaru considering that it was only two of the abominations, she couldn't help but hold her breath for a moment when it looked like the little monsters had acquired the upper hand over Subaru. But much like he always did Subaru managed to pull through once again, putting on a very impressive show of moves in the process.

"Indeed it was Lady Crusch" Wilhelm had a proud and slightly relieved smile closet across his face, Subaru's performance against the little monsters was definitely impressive, in fact, the part that impressed Wilhelm the most was Subaru's usage of the zero gravity environment and using one of the creatures as a body shield from the other.

"Okay... I will admit even for an idiot like him that was an impressive display" Ram said with a small seemingly annoyed huff. Yet everyone was able to see just the slightest of smiles making its way onto her lips.

"Thank Od!" Emilia finally let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding, Watching Subaru fight these creatures never got any easier for her considering how dangerous they were and how under-equipped he was for the task."Why do you keep making me worry you dunderhead" She said with almost mock anger as she looked towards the sleeping Subaru comfortably nestled in Beatrice's lap.

"That's my contractor I suppose, he always makes those who care for him worry incessantly" Beatrice had a matter-of-fact tone to her voice, as she momentarily looked down at the sleeping and peaceful face of Subaru.

Subaru floated there for a couple of moments the adrenaline through his system slowly beginning to fade as he let out a shaky but calming breath. Releasing the now-dead creature from his kinesis grip and allowing it to float off harmlessly to another corner of the large cavernous space.

After calming his rapidly beating heart Subaru looked towards the open hatch that was his way forward, manoeuvering himself to a nearby wall before gently but forcefully propelling himself off it, effortlessly and almost gracefully soaring through the open Hatch before turning himself around in mid-air so that his gravity boots could successfully engage to the wall that he was rapidly approaching.

Getting his bearings after his landing Subaru looked around the large space immediately spotting a large door of the same type that he had just come through. After repeating the same process of opening the large hatch with his kinesis module and manoeuvering himself into the right position, he deactivated his gravity boots pushing himself off the wall and flying through the open Hatch, quickly landing against the floor in a room that was identical to the one he had originally entrance through.

"That looks so fun" Petra said with a small amount of joy in her voice, pointing at the screen excitedly as she watched Subaru fly through the air like some kind of armoured superhero.

Frederica had a moment of surprise on her face as she looked towards Petra, but quickly the surprise faded and was replaced by a warm and gentle smile. "I'm sure it is Petra" She said affirmingly much to the young girl's excitement.

"Yeah, that looks fun as hell..." Garfiel suddenly paused, taking on a thoughtful look before his eyes suddenly widened as realisation flooded them. "Wait a sec! Doesn't Mr. Clown Face know how to fly!?" He exclaimed much to the surprise and realisation of those around him.

"He does in fact I suppose" Beatrice turned her head to look directly at a certain clown-face magician, feeling incredibly satisfied at seeing him flinch under her vengeful gaze.

Subaru wasted no time in making his way towards and through a small non-descript door, quickly entering a small vestibule hallway which was included by an identical door, the sign above it indicating that the next room had something to do with the ship's air filtration system.

As the door opened up in front of him Subaru's ears were immediately assaulted by an almost deafening roar that sounded similar to a jet engine, in fact even with the noise-cancelling technology in his helmet that was designed to protect his ears from harsh mechanical noises, the sound was so powerful that it reverberated throughout his entire body and made almost impossible to hear the automatic computerized voice or even his own thoughts.

"Warning. Air filtration system still in operation. Entering the filtration tubes is extremely hazardous"

Subaru stepped closer to the guardrail looking down at the large and very much still active filtration tubes as every couple seconds they were consumed by fire.

"You don't say..." Was all that Subaru could say as he looked around for a moment before finally spotting what looked like a small control room directly above the filtration tubes, Wasting no time Subaru quickly walked up a small set of stairs and towards the control room. But as he approached the door he noticed something that made him curse under his breath.

"God dammit! Why is it bloody locked!?" Subaru smacked his fist against the locked door both in frustration and hoping that the door would magically open by itself, however After standing there for a moment he turned around slowly, his eyes coming to rest on the large filtration tubes that so often were consumed by fire hot enough to completely incinerate a human instantly.

With his only way forward now clear Subaru quickly made his way back down the stairs and towards a small cargo lift, activating it as it brought him down to the same level as the air filtration tubes, the heat being so great that he could feel it through the protective lining of his suit.

"Why does everything on that ship have to be so dangerous?" Emilia expressed with a slightly frustrated tone to her voice, it was beginning to feel like everything on that ship was designed to be intentionally as dangerous as possible.

"That is a good question, I always knew that manual labour employment could be incredibly dangerous..." Crusch pauses for a moment trying to think of the right words to say, before finally managing to find her voice again. "But even with all of that advanced technology, it seems slightly ludicrous that every piece of machinery would be so dangerous to be around when an operation" She finished many nodding in agreement with her.

"You're most definitely right Crusch, I can only guess that whoever designed and built all of those machines obviously didn't consider safety as a top priority" Anastasia added, Despite having never had a manual labour occupation, she knew all too well the dangers that came with working around pieces of heavy machinery such as water wheels and flower grinding machines. But even though the inherent risk of injury was always high with any kind of machinery, she still found it incredibly surprising and slightly concerning that the machinery of this incredibly advanced world seemingly had little to no safety features of any kind.

As Subaru looked around for any potential way to get inside the air filtration tube, his eyes came to rest on a small personnel tablet lying on the ground its plastic LCD screen, was severely damaged by the heat but still barely illuminated, and without even thinking about it he picked it up and pressed play on the front of the device.

"Hello? Hello! thank god This is Dr. Elizabeth Cross, chief of hydroponics. I'm trying to locate Second Engineer Jacob Temple! I can't get through to Engineering!"

Subaru could hear the desperation in the woman's voice, as his eyes came to rest on a small fuse box next to a large sealed door on the side of the air filtration tube.

"Of course, I know there's a ship-wide medical alert! That's why I'm trying to locate him!" There was a long pause in the audio as the woman's voice waited for the response from whoever she was talking to. "No, we're safe for now. But the tram is down, we can't reach the escape pods... Hello? Hello?!"

The audio ended, Subaru immediately dropping the device to the floor as he took aim and shot at an exposed fuse box next to a large reinforced door. The fuse box exploded into a shower of sparks as the mechanism holding the door shut quickly released, allowing it to fully open just in time for the air filtration tube to activate, a stream of white-hot fiery plasma shooting past the exposed doorway which Subaru was about to enter.

"Warning! Warning! Temperature exceeding this rig's designed parameters" Subaru heard the computerized voice ear blaring in his ear as the jet of white-hot plasma quickly disappeared, and as soon as it had Subaru took off like a rocket, sprinting into the exposed chamber his eyes quickly falling upon an identical fuse box which he quickly shot a large metal door next to it opening up much like the first.

"Please be safe my beloved" Rem sat quietly under her breath, the backs of her hands beginning to sweat profusely as worry for Subaru's safety began to build up in her chest.

Emilia didn't say anything instead simply brought Subaru's arm deeper into her embrace Her heart quickly began to race violently as she watched Subaru put himself into mortal danger once again.

"If you die I will never forgive you I suppose," Beatrice said with an unusual amount of calmness to her voice, her face looking deceptively calm and placid, yet just looking into her eyes was able to convey just how panicked and worried she indeed was for her contractor.

"If that armour cannot withstand those temperatures for long..." Reinhart's voice trailed off a look of palpable concern quickly plastering itself across his handsome features, however, another voice quickly finished his sentence for him.

"Then he is truly in a precarious position" Crusch set matter-of-factly, her delicate and ladylike features hardening as her eyes filled with worry and concern.

"Hey it's big bro, he has a bit of a talent for managing to get himself out of trouble" Felt tried her absolute hardest to inject some kind of positivity into the atmosphere, yet they failed miserably as her words did absolutely nothing to even convince herself let alone anyone else.

Subaru could feel the sweat pouring off of him as he quickly jumped into the next air filtration tube, the one that he was in just seconds ago quickly being enveloped by a fiery hot plasma. However worrying about what kind of death could be waiting for him, was completely absent from his mind as he quickly found the next fuse box and door accompanying it, blowing the fuse box to pieces as the door quickly opened up.

He pushed his body further than it could reasonably go, the pain from his broken and cracked ribs beginning to finally break through the medical healing gel that he had ingested earlier. Yet much like his fear of death, Subaru pushed the pain aside, as he entered the last air filtration tube, white-hot plasma practically licking and lapping at his heels as he spotted the last fuse box, which was unceremoniously destroyed with the last shot in his plasma, the door not even opening fully before Subaru dived through it.

The tube instantly lit up a brilliant fiery white as Subaru skidded to a halt, his body splayed out on the floor as he took hard and deep breaths, each one of his heartbeats feeling like a hammer blow in his chest as his broken ribs to screamed at him from the exertion.

"I swear I feel like I'm getting grey hairs just by watching him" Crusch pinched the bridge of her nose, Subaru's constant dance with death was beginning to take its toll on her psyche, in fact despite not feeling physically tired Crusch could certainly say that she was beyond exhausted mentally.

"I'm with you on that one lady..." Al nodded in agreement with the green-haired duchess, before coming to this Theatre he didn't think it was possible to feel stressed just by watching someone else, but Subaru had quickly shattered that illusion for him. "Although I'm surprised little bro doesn't have any himself considering... all of that that he's been through," he said, gesturing with his hand.

"Considering this is Subaru we're talking about, his lack of significant signs of stress is not all too surprising" Julius replied, if there was one thing he had come to realise about Subaru, it was that despite the horrific things he had both seen and experienced both in Lugunica and this new world, Subaru was capable of holding himself together and somehow managing all of the stress he was under.

"Yeah I guess Subaru is just good at managing his stress~Nyah" Felix said nonchalantly many in the theatre agreeing with his statement. Felix quickly got up from his seat next to the unconscious Priscilla, and quickly marched his way down to the front of the theatre, and reclaimed his rightful seat next to Crusch.

"I suppose you're right Felix, although..." Crusch let her voice trail off. She gave Felix a quick smile before it to quickly faded from her face, being replaced by a look of deep thought, seemingly only just now remembering something.

After she had been cursed with the Dragon blood sickness, she remembered on a few occasions when he came to relieve her of the Dragon blood by taking it onto himself, she saw his exposed arms, of course, that was nothing too out of the ordinary considering that Felix would have to heal him after he absorbed the dragon blood. But what had confused her at the time and even now was the amount of what looked to be horrific scars running up his entire arm, and disappearing beneath the rolled-up sleeve of his tracksuit.

"What could of course such injuries...?" She said quietly to herself, Crusch's eyebrows furrowed as her face took on a thoughtful but confused look. Even with the context of the viewings, the exact nature of those scars was still a mystery to her, in fact since they were scars it meant that they were injuries that had time to heal meaning that they couldn't have been recent.

"Crusch... Are you alright?" Crusch was pulled from her thoughts by the almost silvery sound of a very familiar voice. Looking over to the sauce revealed that it was none other than Emilia looking at her with concern.

Crusch remained silent for a moment before she finally found the right words to say. "Thank you for your concern but I'm fine Emilia, I was just... thinking about something," She said, the half-elf in question not looking entirely convinced.

Emilia continued to look at the green-haired duchess, something about the way that Crusch had spoken left a really bad feeling slowly bubbling in her chest. "I don't want to pray, but I realllly want to know what you were thinking about," Emilia said quietly, catching Crusch completely off guard with her words.

She didn't know how to respond for a moment, but after thinking about it Crusch didn't see why she couldn't tell Emilia, In fact maybe Emilia would know the origin of the scars on Subaru's arms to begin with.

"I was... just thinking about these strange scars I saw on Subaru's arms when I was incapacitated with the dragon blood sickness" Crusch noticed the look of confusion cross Emilia's face, yet she also saw Beatrice seemingly jump almost into mid-air at the mention of the scars.

However, Crusch felt her blood beginning to run cold when she saw what looked to be a look of abstract horror on Beatrice's face. In fact, the look wasn't just of horror it was also a look of disgust, self-loathing and possibly shame. But she wasn't the only one who noticed the look on

Beatrice's face, in fact, Emilia beat Crusch when it came to actually saying something.

"Beatrice, what's the matter?" Emilia's Voice held nothing but concern for the little spirit, after all the look on her face made Emilia think that maybe Beatrice was experiencing another one of... those episodes.

Beatrice remained completely silent, her eyes wide with uncertainty and terror. Her face was twisted in a mask of self-loathing, horror, and shame. Her butterfly-shaped pupils were quickly obscured by fresh tears, which streamed down her cheeks to the shock of everyone around her. She looked like something fundamental inside her had just broken, and it was clear that she was in a great deal of emotional pain.

"Beatrice! Are you all right" Frederica said worriedly as she made to get up from her seat ready to come to the aid of the little great spirit. Yet before she could get up or anyone could say anything else in response Beatrice finally spoke.

"Those scars... They are..." Beatrice's voice faulted, the trickle of tears running down her face quickly turning into a parental downpour as a quiet sob escaped her lips.

How could she tell them, she didn't know how to tell them that Subaru often cut or injured himself with any kind of sharp implement he could get his hands on. The images from when she first found out about his cutting habit were still burned into her mind. Just seeing the absolute carnage he had unleashed on his own arms was horrifying then and now.

After she had tried her best to patch him up Beatrice made him promise her that he would never do it again, yet every so often she would always find new cuts scrapes and what looked to be horrific scratches covering every inch of his arms all the way up to the shoulders. Beatrice had long since figured out even without their spirit and contractor connection that something was bothering her contractor to the point where it would make him want to harm himself, but it was only with the added context of the viewings that she finally realized the horrific details of why he hurt himself the way he did.

It was his own horrific and traumatic way of dealing with return by death, even with the viewings she couldn't have even begun to imagine the absolute living nightmare that was his existence, the pain of constantly dying only to awaken and the loneliness of never being able to confide in any one about his trauma.

"Beatrice... where did those scars come from exactly," Emilia said quietly a horrible sinking feeling quickly forming in her stomach as watched Beatrice seemingly break down further, hugging Subaru's head closer into her lap.

Yet much to Emilia's growing dread Beatrice didn't respond immediately continuing to sob quietly, the tears now running down her face like an uncontrollable waterfall. Whatever the true origin of Subaru's arms scars actually was it had clearly affected Beatrice in such a way that for a moment Emilia actually reconsidered finding out the true origin of what it caused them

"Yeah just spit it out already" Felt wasn't entirely sure what all of the fuss was about, sure since they were scars it meant that at some point Subaru had been injured but he had obviously been fine.

"Scars look cool and stuff so they can't be that big of a deal anyway," she said nonchalantly, a strange chill running down her spine as the words left her mouth.

"Felt, please... You must have some manners" Reinhart said with his usual tone of voice, yet there was a slight force behind them that made any more words that Felt wanted to say die in her throat. And despite Reinhardt being too polite for his own good the look on his face could only be described as. 'stop talking before you say something bad

"Whoever left those scars on my beloved will pay... W-With their lives!" Rem quickly got up from her seat her eyes taking on a truly menacing glare that wasn't entirely directed at Beatrice but still did very little to reassure the little spirit.

In fact, for just a brief moment everyone could see the spot on her forehead where her horn would be beginning to crackle violently with demonic energy, Before the safety measures in the theatre activated, the demonic power quickly vanished easily. Yet, the blue-haired oni's rage was not so easily quenched.

"I don't like where this is going" Al could freely admit that he wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw, in fact, people pretending to be smaller than they actually were was something that he really hated. But even despite his relative lack of "smarts" Al was undoubtedly no fool because it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what those scars were and why they had been inflicted.

Felix remained quiet, the colour quickly beginning to drain from his face as a horrific singing feeling was quickly overtaking him. At the time he had discounted Subaru's scars as being nothing more than old wounds from the battle of Priestella, but with what was happening now Felix could feel a very familiar anger and rage beginning to bubble deep down within him, at the most likely prospect of what those scars truly were and what or who had caused them in the first place.

Beatrice remained paralyzed the fear and sadness eating away at her as tears continued to pour down her face, She wanted to tell them not for any malicious reasons, in fact far from the opposite. She wanted to tell them so that they could help her contractor, She didn't dare think of his struggles as a burden on herself but there was only so much she could do to support him even as a great spirit.

Yet before she could delve deeper into her thoughts, a hand quickly came to rest on her shoulder, a gentle and comforting hand that after looking up was revealed to belong to none other than Emilia, a look of unbridled concern on her face.

"Beatrice, please... Tell me what's the matter?" Emilia said quietly not even caring about the origin of Subaru's scars anymore, Instead all she cared about was that Beatrice was clearly hurting emotionally and she wanted to do something about it.

Beatrice looked Emilia dead in the eyes, beautiful concern field amethyst-coloured eyes looking into sadness and pain-filled butterfly-shaped pupils, and finally, after so much Beatrice was finally able to speak.

"Those scars... They exist because Subaru hurt himself" The words were quiet in fact they were barely above a whisper, yet the almost deafening silence that followed was almost unbearable, as everyone processed what her words exactly meant, with some coming to the horrifying conclusion faster than others.

Emilia blinked not quite understanding what Beatrice had just said, sure The words were simple to understand yet what did the little spirit mean by Subaru hurting himself? Did he hurt himself by accident or did he do it deliberately and if so why would he do such a thing?

It took a moment for the words to register in her mind but when they finally did, Crusch's face drained of all colour her mouth falling open in abject shock and horror as the ramifications of what exactly Beatrice had just said washed over her. Despite having never done such a thing to herself she was in some way familiar with the idea of hurting oneself to relieve some kind of emotional burden.

But something else that worried her was how exactly her servant Felix would react to this information, considering his very well-known and Incredibly vocal disdain for people who actively hurt themselves for whatever reason.

Wilhelm said nothing yet the look of abject horror on his face was able to convey just how he felt about the information. The part that disturbed him the most was that with the context of return by death now in his mind, Subaru actually hurting himself to deal with the emotional agony of return by death wasn't surprising in the slightest.

After all the taboo surrounding it and the restrictions placed upon him by the Witch of Envy, meant that he could never tell or confide in anyone about his pain and trauma, instead having to resort to more self-destructive means as an outlet for his pent-up emotions.

"Wait you mean big bro..." The words quickly died in her throat as all of the colour drained from her face, Felt's alabaster complexion was now almost completely bone white as the look of realisation and horror made itself at home on her face.

Subaru was a troubled soul mentally, that was no secret to anyone, especially to her, but she would have never actually thought or even considered that he would resort to self-harming as a way to deal with the horrific trauma he had experienced.

Reinhardt opened his mouth to speak yet not a single sound came out, his mind for a moment failing to actually process the revelation about Subaru's scars. The fact that one of his closest friends would go so far as to physically harm himself to relieve emotional anguish was horrifying to Reinhard, in fact, it made him feel even more like a failure because he was unable to help his friend yet again.

Rem and Ram true to being near identical twins have a very similar reaction to the information, with both of their mouths dropping clean to the floor a look of sickening horror Crossing both of their faces as the information about Subaru's self-harming tendency was finally made known.

Rem unlike her sister however also felt a great sense of rage washing over her, but unlike before this rage was not pointed at anyone, instead, it was directed squarely at herself. She was angry at herself because her beloved had been suffering in abject silence, unable and unwilling to tell anyone about his trauma, letting it build and build until eventually, he resulted to physically harming himself to relieve the mental trauma.

Ram on the other hand felt absolutely disgusted with herself, she had called Subaru some of the most vile names under the sun on a daily basis, branding him everything from a pervert to a degenerate and somebody who had no worth whatsoever. And even with the rational part of her brain trying to tell her that she couldn't have possibly known, it still didn't stop a wall of shame from slamming into her heart. Her mind conjuring up all of the vile words that she had said, as the darkest recesses of her mind thought that maybe her harsh and vile words had contributed to his own self-harming tendencies.

"How... depressing" Roswaal mumbled quietly under his breath, his white clown make-up doing a very good job at hiding just how pale he went. He wasn't all too worried about Subaru, after all, he and the boy were practically still at each other's throats, but that didn't change that he felt just the tiniest bit of sympathy for the boy.

Emilia's face twisted into a look of confusion, she couldn't wrap her mind around what Beatrice had said in regards to the origins of Subaru's wounds. Sure she could understand the fact that Subaru had inflicted upon himself, the most but that was the precise part that perplexed her the most.

why would Subaru or anyone for that matter intentionally hurt themselves, It just didn't make sense, she knew from experience that there were much better ways of dealing with stress. And even though Emilia couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like penalty of return by death hovering over her head like Subaru had done for so long. She knew for certain that harming yourself to try and relieve stress wouldn't accomplish anything but physical pain.

Felix was close to exploding, his face beginning to turn redder and redder as the anger washed over him. but before he could even think about uttering a single word, a stone and forceful voice quickly stopped him in his tracks.

"Don't you even think about it, Felix!" Crusch's voice was not overly loud, yet the tone and force of it were easily enough to stop him from even beginning to form a sentence.

Yet after a moment, Felix did something that if he was in a rational state of mind he would have never considered. He disobeyed a direct order "But he..." Was about as far as Felix got with his words before a gloved hand quickly contacted his cheek, the force behind it nearly knocking him out of his chair.

Felix was shocked for a moment, bringing a hand up and gently touching his now swollen and painful cheek. And after staying like that for a moment, Felix gently brought his head up, almost recoiling for a second time as he saw the look that was plastered across Crusch's face.

Anger...

Rage...

Sadness...

And finally indignation...

It was all there on her face and in her eyes, all of it mixing together into a nasty emotional concoction that made Felix's stomach drop through the floor. He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen his lady look like that, in fact... Felix couldn't remember a time when she had ever looked at him like that.

But after staring into her eyes for another moment, Crusch took a calming breath before speaking "Felix... I am ordering you to hold your tongue! Before you make me truly angry" Her command was simple and easily understandable, and even though her face had lost the look of anger, her eyes most certainly did not.

After laying there sprawled out on the floor for a moment Subaru quickly made to get up, a small amount of pain shooting through his chest with each breath but he quickly ignored that, as he looked around eventually spotting the source of all of his trouble.

Almost completely fused into the wall was another one of those strange weezer-type creatures, the only somewhat human part of its body remaining being its almost completely skeletal head, in fact Unlike the previous two he had killed, this one seemed to be much further along in its absorption into the fleshy growth.

"It's... Absorbing them?" Crusch said with a slightly disgusted tone to her voice, trying to somewhat change and redirect the subject from the reveal of Subaru's self-harming tendencies.

Although she had managed to get control of her anger, steering the conversation in a different direction had absolutely failed as seemingly no one had wanted to discuss the strange weezer creature that appeared to have merged with the wall. In fact, everyone remained silent. The revelation of Subaru's self-harm came as a complete surprise to all of them, catching them off guard. Despite having witnessed many unsettling things in the previous viewings, they had never expected to be blindsided by something like this from Subaru.

However, its absorption into the flesh matted very little just Subaru as he got up to his full height, clipping the empty plasma cutter to his belt and retrieving the Ripper, releasing the safety latch as the diamond and crusted blades inside its housing began to spin violently. And even though the creature gave no reaction to this threat, Subaru pulled the trigger anyway, a diamond and crusted saw blade quickly cutting through the flesh and bones of the creature as if they were not even there, and once it was all done Subaru had to admit that the mangled creature and gory scene, in general, looked like something straight out of an old horror movie.

Ram and Felt both simultaneously gagged, quickly covering their mouth as they both retched at the disgusting and gory display, the diamond-encrusted saw blade of the Ripper had just unleashed. Out of all of Subaru's weapons, the Ripper was the one that was arguably the most disturbing yet effective at dismembering the monstrosity that was trying to do the same to him.

Reinhardt turned his attention to the little blonde next to him, a look of concern crossing his delicate yet perfectly sculpted facial features, as Felt continued to violently gag, her body desperately trying to expel anything yet with each ragged cough and gag nothing came.

"Man, no kidding that the ship has its own limb replacement centre" Al shifted uncomfortably in his seat, both at the gruesome display that the Ripper had just put on.

"Using stuff like that, losing arms and legs must be something that happens on a daily" Al said quietly, the mental image of somebody casually getting an amputated limb replaced as if it was the most normal thing in the world, being both horrifying and somewhat morbidly comedic.

"How awful" Emilia covered her mouth with one of her hands, desperately trying to restrain her own gag reflex. "I can't even begin to imagine how painful it would be to loosen an arm or leg," She said quietly, her body flinching visibly as her mind was assaulted by the gruesome images of Subaru on multiple occasions being separated from his own arms and legs.
Frederica remained silent, but gave a nod of approval towards Emilia's words, despite having been in many battles over her relatively short life, she was thankful that so far she had not lost any limbs. After all, having seen Subaru lose every single limb of his body, and even have his entire body eaten from the Inside out. It certainly gave her a gruesomely and horrifyingly accurate interpretation of what it was like to lose a limb or be grievously injured anyway.

Despite the gruesomeness of the scene, Anastasia stopped the gears inside her brain beginning to turn, her hand unconsciously reaching up to gently stroke at her delicate chin, as a thoughtful look of deep concentration crossed her face. The idea of being able to regrow limbs, and then reattach them to anyone that had an amputated appendage, was certainly horrifying yet its actual practicality was something she couldn't deny. In fact, the ability to give people the use of a missing limb again was something that greatly intrigued her both from a profit and humanitarian perspective.

Giving the creature one last look, Subaru quickly made his way over to a small cargo elevator which immediately took him up to a platform that was almost a mirror image of the one he had used to enter the room in the first place. But instead of trying to go towards the control room, he made his way towards a small hallway, which quickly ended in a small elevator with a large sign next to it indicating that it was an emergency elevator.

The elevator doors quickly opened up for him allowing Subaru to step inside the small and quite claustrophobic elevator, which ones the doors had fully closed immediately began to make its way downwards, however, the gradual ticking of the elevator was quickly interrupted by the Ishimura's computerized PA system.

"Warning 10 Kiloton mass detected in Food Storage"

"That thing is still growing" The confusion and slight trepidation were evident in Subaru's voice as the elevator continued its downward descent, the doors eventually opening up and allowing him to step back into the main growing chamber.

Subaru glanced around the growth chamber to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, then hurried back to the Hydroponics deck's main control station. He carefully avoided the sprays of liquid coming from the tanks as he made his way through the upper and lower levels of the tank room. Finally, he made it through the vestibule and back to the main Hydroponics control station.

Subaru took a moment to take a deep breath, letting out a quiet hiss of pain, as his deep breath made his chest feel like it was burning. But he pushes the pain away and instead of heading towards the other side of the control centre, instead, he quickly makes his way over to the automatic store nestled in the corner of the room, the holographic displays automatically unfolding as Subaru steps closer towards it.

Emilia's curiosity was piqued when she saw Subaru heading to the store, momentarily dispelling the gloomy atmosphere. "I wonder what he's going to buy this time," she murmured, her eyes drifting to the sleeping Subaru in Beatrice's lap.

"Could he be going to buy more of that medicine?" Crusch wondered aloud, having noticed the pain he experienced when taking a deep breath, which led her to that conclusion.

"That is a possibility" Anastasia straightened up in her seat, her eyes almost imperceptibly widening, as if she was getting ready to absorb every single bit of visual information she was about to witness.

Rem whispered, "If I was there, I could heal him." She clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer. "Please... stay strong, my beloved," she said, her voice even softer than before.

He wasted no time in scrolling through the various holographic displays, Subaru's fingers darting past all kinds of items at multiple different prices. However, after a moment of searching, he finally found what he was looking for. He quickly pressed the holographic display and inserted the appropriate amount of credits. The holographic display disappeared, followed by a "Thank you for your purchase" message. A small compartment opened up at the front of the store a moment later.

Subaru took his item, a small, unremarkable can, and quickly clipped it to his belt. He then turned and walked to the other side of the room, noticing that, unlike the side he had just come from, many of the surfaces were covered in the strange fleshy growth material he had seen in other parts of the USG Ishimura.

"It's... just a can," Felt said in astonishment. Of all the things Subaru could have purchased from the only almost magical automatic store, he bought a mundane-looking can.

"Maybe it's some kind of special device?" Julius tried offering a sensible explanation, yet even he wasn't fully convinced by his own words. "Perhaps it could be something like a mana bomb?" he said, throwing out another possible explanation of what the cans could be used for.

"A classic Subaru," Ram said with a snort, clearly unimpressed with the small, ordinary can that Subaru had bought from the automatic store.

Subaru reached out and touched the door's holographic display, then quickly stepped through the opening as it slid open. He spared a glance at the fleshy growth as he entered the small vestibule, but as he took a step, his foot hit something on the floor and sent it skittering across the room.

"What the..." Subaru caught up with the object gently reaching down and turning the small object over, revealing it to be a personal data pad.

He wordlessly pressed the front of the data pad, and the information was sent directly to his rig. He quickly got back up to his full height and pressed a button on his wrist, revealing a holographic display in front of him. He read the text as it scrolled past his eyes.

CHEM LAB REPORT

FROM: PROF, JAGERWALD, H.

ATTN: DR. CROSS, E.

Elizabeth -

No doubt you're aware of the organic growth found in some parts of the ship. I've been examining the substance and thought the results would interest you.

The cells most clearly resemble bacteria, with viral behavior. Like bacteria, the organism infects other cells through osmosis, then mutates and reproduces agamogenetically.

What's amazing is the SPEED at which it grows. A single bacterium reproduces twenty-fold in just one minute. I've never seen anything like it. I won't stake my reputation on it, but I think this may be a genuine alien lifeform!

Prof. Hawley theorizes that it's a habitat transformer - the levels of gaseous output are tremendous, which is why it smells so bad - but to what end we simply don't know. I'll keep you posted.

- Heinrich

Subaru turned off the holographic screen and stood in the small vestibule, letting the information sink in. "What the hell did they let loose?" He muttered under his breath as he started walking again. He quickly opened the small door at the other end of the room and went through.

Emilia looked puzzled, tilting her head slightly as she tried to understand the strange words and terms in the text log. Things like bacteria and agamogenetically were completely unknown to her, but she knew enough to tell that whatever the fleshy growth was, it couldn't be good if people on the Ishimura were studying it so intently.

Beatrice remained silent, but the information about the growth was swirling around in her head. She didn't know everything about the sciences from Subaru's world, but the little that Subaru had told her about bacteria and microorganisms gave her enough of an understanding to know that if this growth was indeed some kind of bacteria, it was undoubtedly related to the monsters, given its anomalous properties and rapid growth rate. However, she couldn't say for certain whether it was directly caused by the monsters or simply a byproduct of their existence.

"So it seems they were studying the mysterious growth before it overtook them" Wilhelm uttered quietly, gently rubbing his bearded chin, as he absorbed the new information regarding the fleshy growth.

"It seems so, Wilhelm," Crusch said, straightening up in her seat. Her analytical mind was racing as she tried to make sense of the new information about the fleshy growth. "Whatever that thing is made of, I suspect it's somehow related to the monsters that are stalking the ship." She spoke with a slight tremor in her voice, worried about the implications of her hypothesis.

"Hold on a second," Frederica said, interrupting everyone. The beast maid had a worried and confused look on her face. "The text said something about a habitat change... so that could mean that the growth itself isn't as harmless as we thought." As soon as the words left her mouth, Frederica felt a shiver run down her spine at the implications of what she had just said.

"If that's the case..." Ram paused halfway through her sentence, taking a moment to think of the right words to say before she continued. "Then it would make sense why, it seemingly has grown all over the imported machinery" She finished.

Rem quickly followed up with her sister, as usual, saying, "Sister is right. If its purpose is to change the habitat of the ship, it makes perfect sense now why it would grow all over the doors and machinery. It's so that the crew cannot access it, therefore making it harder for them to fix things or even survive." Everyone around her absorbed her words.

"If that is the case, then it would explain the ship's deteriorated state," Reinhardt summarized, the USG Ishimura's deteriorated state now seemingly having a direct cause. However, something else nagged at the back of Reinhardt's mind about the fleshy growth.. "But I must wonder, why exactly was it absorbing one of the creatures from earlier?" He said mostly to himself.

"Who the hell cares why it was doing it, It really was not to anything good by doing it," Garfiel said matter-of-factly, crossing his arms in front of his bare chest as he tried to suppress a shudder, from remembering the quite frankly disgusting scene of the monster being absorbed by the fleshy mass.

"I'm with Garfiel on this one Rein" Felt's words caused Reinhardt to look at her, as she continued speaking. "To be honest I don't want to find out why it was doing it" she finished, the last part being a bit quieter than the first.

Reinhardt understood what the little blonde was trying to convey to him, but that didn't stop a small part of his brain from wondering why the growth would go to the trouble of absorbing one of the creatures.

Subaru had never given much thought to the fact that his helmet and most other CEC rig suits had built-in air filtration units. However, as soon as he entered the mirrored version of the large tank room, he was immediately hit by a wave of stale, decayed air so foul that he was sure he would have vomited if he had not been wearing his helmet.

"Jesus Christ..." The words were muffled by his helmet, as he stepped further into the disgusting-looking tank room, blood, viscera and mutilated bodies littering the floor, with the fleshy growth seemingly spreading over every exposed surface. In some cases even half absorbs the bodies into itself, making the distinction between flesh growth and corpse almost non-existent.

But as Subaru tried his best to avoid the multiple corpses and dismembered body parts that littered the floor. He suddenly noticed something at the far end of the room, something that as soon as it noticed him, immediately began to violently scream as if it was experiencing the most horrific pain imaginable.

"Fuck, not another one of you," Subaru said as he ready to himself, staring down the fleshy mass that was stuck to the wall much like a limpet. In fact, Subaru decided to nickname the creature, The Guardian, because it was directly in his way.

"Oh no, it's another one of those... wall things" Emilia instinctively clutched the sleeping Subaru's hand even tighter, as she watched his on-screen counterpart stare down the truly horrific monstrosity that had been named the Guardian.
"My contractor will wipe your disgusting visage from existence I suppose," Beatrice said quietly, gently caressing the sleeping Subaru's head that was still nestled in her lap. This guardian as the on-screen Subaru had dubbed it, was perhaps the most truly grotesque out of all of the abominations he had encountered, simply for the fact that it simply just didn't resemble a human anymore. The only human trait remaining was its half-absorbed head, which let out guttural screams of agony and pain.

"I agree with great spirit Beatrice" Rem didn't even try to suppress her burning discussed, for the creature as her eyes for a brief moment glowed a menacing red. "My beloved absolutely annihilate that disgusting abomination," she said, both her love for Subaru and disgust for the existence of the creature mixing together in her voice.

"Not that an abomination like that needs one, but it's a name I suppose" Crusch couldn't stop a slight tremor from entering her voice, in fact, she had to look away from the screen for a moment letting out a noticeably wet cough, as she tried to suppress her own gag reflex. Which was a true test of mental fortitude due to the absolutely ghastly appearance of the Guardian.

Felix's delicate, almost feminine-looking face was twisted in disgust as he was forced to look upon the Guardian, a mockery of nature. Like the one Subaru had encountered before, this one was almost completely devoid of human features.

Subaru prepared himself, readying the Ripper in his hands as the creature quickly spat out one of its disgusting spawns, the small blob of flesh and mangled bone letting out little squeals as it quickly unfolded the fleshy tentacle. However before the creature could even think about launching one of its bony projectiles, Subaru released the safety and pulled the trigger on the Ripper, a diamond-encrusted blade spinning at nearly 5000 RPM, quickly homing and eviscerating the little blob of flesh before it could even react.

Yet Subaru wasn't finished, as he quickly turned his attention to the Guardian which was now unfolding at large muscular tentacles, seemingly readying itself for battle. But if the creature had the capacity to think, it would have regretted its decision as a Subaru let loose with the Ripper. Coming just close enough that the diamond-encrusted saw blade could make short work of the Guardian's flesh, staying just far enough away where the Guardian's quickly disappearing barb tentacles couldn't reach him.

"Hell yeah!" Despite the gruesomeness of the scene, Garfiel couldn't contain his excitement at seeing Subaru dismember the disgusting abomination. "Rip that disgusting thing to shreds Cap!" he shouted excitedly, much to the annoyance of a certain grey-headed merchant sitting next to them.

Otto for his part simply looked away from the gruesome scene that was unfolding, yet it didn't stop his stomach from doing a loop to loop, as the absolutely horrific sound of the creature's screens combined with its flesh being torn asunder made him want to vomit.

"Yay! That's it Big Brother Subaru, teach that nasty monster a lesson!" Petra shouted excitedly, her eyes being covered by Frederica, thus preventing the young girl from seeing the true barbarity of the scene that was occurring in front of her. In fact, the whole image of the young girl sitting in the head lap of the Roswaal Manor's head maid, with said maid covering the eyes of the young girl, while she excitedly cheered on the gruesome execution of the monster, would certainly be a strange scene to most.

"Shit, last blade" Subaru cursed as he fired the Ripper's last diamond-encrusted blade, which quickly flew out to wreak havoc on the Guardian. The creature's movements slowed as its screams died out, and it finally stopped moving after its fleshy bulk was eviscerated and spread across the room. Subaru was covered in the creature's blood and gore, making him look like the antagonist of an old-school sci-fi horror movie, but that didn't bother him as much as it should have.

Subaru gave the creature's mangled body one last glance before he stepped passed it and onto a waiting cargo lift which quickly took him up to the walkway that ran across the top of the tank room.

Looking around at the catwalk, Subaru made his way across it, being careful to avoid the tendrils and nodules of fleshy growth that were slowly consuming the catwalk. Quickly reaching the half-open door at the end of the catwalk and proceeding through it. The growth chamber in design was completely identical to the one from earlier, yet unlike its identical twin, this growth chamber had no plant life left, all of it having been destroyed or consumed by the fleshy growth that was spreading across the walls, floor and even the ceiling.

"Warning, vegetative anomalies detected in the East Grow Chamber"

"So it's not just the Monsters it can absorb..." Crusch muttered quietly, a small hypothesis having been confirmed in regards to the fleshy growth. Judging from the corpses in the tank room and the complete lack of plant life in the growth chamber, it was evident that the growth could absorb living matter regardless of its type. Which certainly wasn't a welcoming conclusion to the green-haired duchess.

"Wait a minute~ Nyah" Felix suddenly spoke up, drawing the attention of everyone that was sitting near him. "If the growth can absorb both plant and animal matter, then..." Felix's words died in his throat, as he finally put the metaphorical puzzle pieces together in his mind.

Beatrice saw the slowly forming look of realisation and complete horror make its way across the cat boy's face. Which for just a moment confused her, yet with Felix's words in her mind, she began to slowly piece it together herself. The growth itself seemingly could absorb living matter, if the corpses and half-absorbed weezer creatures with anything to go by. That thought caused her brain to seize up, a look of horror quickly making its way onto her own face.

"What exactly are you trying to say Felix" Emelia said inquisitively, not noticing the look of Horror quickly etching itself into Beatrice's delicate and doll-like facial features.

Felix did not immediately respond. His face had turned pale, and his expression was one of pure disgust and horror. Wilhelm, who was sitting next to him, felt a pit in his stomach. He had seen that look on Felix's face before, and he knew that it meant something bad had happened.

"Well come on now" Ram crossed her arms over her chest, a look of disapproval and annoyance making itself at home on her face. "Spit out this revelation that's just occurred to you," She said with an annoyed sigh.

Felix did not respond, and the look of horror on his face grew more intense. The people around him were concerned, but Felix continued to sit there motionless. Suddenly, he felt something touch his shoulder, and he jumped nearly a foot in the air. He turned around to see Crusch looking at him with concern.

Looking into her eyes, no words needed to be exchanged between them, as after a moment Felix tried to take a calming breath. The look of disgust and horror not leaving his face as after thinking for a moment he finally found his voice and the right way to articulate the disturbing conclusion he had just come to.

"That growth can absorb living matter" Felix stopped for a moment, his usual catlike speech pattern completely absent, yet the slightly green him that his face took on was more concerning to everyone. "It can also absorb the monsters and corpses..." He continued the look of disgust ever-present, as his sickly green complexion continued to grow more evident.

"Felix, what are you trying to say?" Julius asked with a worried tone, not liking what Felix was implying about the fleshy growth and its ability to absorb matter.

Felix didn't immediately respond, desperately trying to think of the right words and the best way to say, concerning the fact that the fleshy growth was most likely comprised of the vast majority of the ship's crew. But before he could speak someone else spoke for him.

"That fleshy stuff is the crew..." Anastasia spoke quietly, yet her words echoed around the theatre like a cannon blast. Everyone turned to look at her in shocked and disgusted horror at what she had just said.

"So wait..." Felt tried to keep her voice even and level, yet she failed miserably as she felt her stomach beginning to twist and turn at the revelation. Y-you're telling me that... all of that S-Stuff... was O-O-once... P-People!?" Her voice trembled even more as she spoke.

There was a deafening silence, everyone simply sitting there as the revelation that the fleshy growth was in fact made of the deceased crew members of the Ishimura bounced around inside their heads. It was horrifying, disgusting even, yet the most disturbing part was just how much sense it truly made.

"Felix... Are you sure this is correct" Reinhardt said after a moment of silence, Despite His Divine protections protecting him from feeling nauseous, it did very little to stop the truly disgusted feeling welling up inside him. Those poor people have been disembowelled, cut apart as if they were nothing more than but should meet. Maybe it was his nature as a good person, but Reinhardt knew that not even the sickest criminals or even Witch cultists deserve such a ghastly and gruesome fate.

Felix remained silent, everyone by now looking at him and hoping that his assumption was wrong. Yet all he did was simply shake his head in affirmation, he was certain of the fact that the fleshy growth was once the former crew of the USG Ishimura.

"Oh my Od," Otto said abruptly, quickly doubling over as he began to violently cough and gag, but he wasn't the only one.

Felt did much the same, vibrantly gagging and coughing as she managed to puke up a small amount of gastric acid. The contents of her stomach that had come to the theatre with her, had long since been emptied during this and the previous viewings.

But the most extreme reaction of all was what was given by none other than little Petra. Who after a moment of simply sitting there in Frederica's lap, simply keeled over, her little blue eyes quickly rolling into the back of her head she can simply fell unconscious, much to the concern shouting of Frederica.

"Petra! Petra!?" Frederica shouted loudly, the young girl now completely limp in her arms. shouting the young girl's name didn't do anything. For just a moment, Frederica worried that the young girl, whom she secretly viewed as almost like a surrogate daughter, had befallen some kind of despicable fate that a child was undeserving of.

But as she continued to gently but vigorously shake the young girl in a vain attempt to try and wake her. Frederica's animalistic instincts suddenly allergic her to somebody approaching, causing her head to snap up aggressively, but instead of an approaching enemy, she found that it was none other than Beatrice who had vacated her spot. with Subaru now comfortably resting in an extremely giddy half-elf's lap.

Frederica opened her mouth to speak, wanting to ask Beatrice to see what was wrong with Petra. After all despite her appearance, Beatrice was a great spirit with all of the knowledge and experience that came with her centuries of life. But before she could even utter a single word, Beatrice held her hand up to silence her.

"You worry too much I suppose" Beatrice quickly hopped into the seat next to Frederica, placing a hand over Petra's forehead as she closed her eyes for a moment before speaking again. "She's simply unconscious, the information about the growth must have been too much for her I suppose" She finished hopping up from the seat and quickly making her way back to the sleeping Subaru.

Frederica watched the little spirit leave, feeling reassured that there was nothing wrong with Petra. Yet as her eyes turned from Beatrice's back to the now unconscious face of Petra who was now nestled in her lap. She couldn't stop a small twinge of worry from racing through her heart.

"I'm sure the little squirt is going to be fine sis" Frederica looked up in surprise, other than younger brother Garfiel giving her a reassuring look. if that kid is anything like you, then she's not going to be down for long because of some gross stuff!" he said energetically, a small smile making the town to Frederica's face as she turned back to the Theatre screen, while unconsciously stroking young girls hair gently.

Subaru stepped further into the growth chamber, the sounds of his feet connecting with the metal of deck plating, echoing and reverberating around the cavernous interior of the grow chamber. Shattering almost complete dead silence, in fact after a couple of steps, Subaru stopped in his tracks, the echoes of his footsteps quickly fading as he held out his hand to activate his waypoint locator. An eerie feeling crept its way up his back, as the only sound now was the gentle and raspy sounds of his own breaths echoing inside his helmet.

However, he pushed away the feeling of discomfort, as his rig locator directed him towards a room just off the main grow chamber, the sapphire blue line quickly sneaking under the crack of the door before disappearing as Subaru deactivated it.

"It's too damn quiet" Despite muttering those words under his breath, Subaru's voice still echoed throughout the growth chamber, only being drowned out by the sounds of his footsteps as he finally made his way over to the door. Yet even with the sound of his footsteps, Subaru could have sworn he heard something he hoped wasn't ominous whispering.

Subaru stopped in front of the door, holding out his hand to the holographic display, yet as the door complied with his request and began to open. It stopped halfway partially opened, the mechanism of the door audibly struggling against whatever was obstructing it before eventually giving up. The gap between the door and the frame was just enough for Subaru to slide through.

After a deep breath to calm his nerves, that's exactly what he did, the metal and heavy fabric of his suit scraping against the door frame as he pushed himself through the small gap. once he was in the room, Subaru saw just what exactly was blocking the door from opening fully, The room was halfway through its corruption, from a normal store room to something that looked more like the internal body cavity of a gigantic eldridge creature.

Instead of letting the discomfort get to him like it did before, Subaru pushed it aside and stepped into the half-consumed room. He quickly found his target, which was fused to the fleshy mat that covered much of the floor beneath it.

Subaru crept towards the creature, his spine tingling as his boots sank into the fleshy floor. He unclipped the plasma cutter from his belt and aimed it at the creature's head, but something compelled him to hold his fire. He stared at the creature's downturned head, which continued to release poison with each wheezing breath.

For what seemed like an eternity, Subaru continued to observe the creature, watching both the horrific and slightly fascinating sight, its massive lungs which took up its entire chest cavity, expanding out of its body, as it took in huge amounts of fresh air, before letting out green-tinted clouds of now poison air.

Subaru closed his eyes and steadied his plasma cutter, preparing to take the creature's head off in one perfect shot. But just as he was about to fire, the creature's head snapped up and looked him in the eyes. Despite being half-melted and locked in a scream of pure agony, Subaru recognized the face as someone he had not seen in a long time.

Despite the suddenness, Subaru did not jump. Instead, he took two steps back, his face below his faceplate twisted in horror as he stared at the deformed creature that looked just like...

F-F...Felix?

Felix wasn't sure what brain death felt like, but at that very moment, he could have sworn that his brain died for just a singular moment. His mind just couldn't process the fact that the monster had a twisted reflection of his face. Yet all of that, which took place in a single moment was quickly punctuated by a searing pressure and pain that he had never experienced before and would never experience again.

Felix clutched his head in his hands, ignoring the pain of his hair being pulled out by the roots. His feline ears flattened against his head, and his eyes closed tightly as tears streamed down his face. The pain was too much to bear, but Felix couldn't scream. He clenched his teeth so hard that they began to crack and chip.

'Make it stop!' was the singular thought that ran through his mind, as Felix continued to clutch his head in his hands, his long and feminine-like fingernails digging into his scalp enough to draw blood. horrible for a brief moment the pain suddenly just stopped.

Felix instantly snapped his eyes open and instinctively looked up. Only to see that he was no longer in the theatre, instead, he was somewhere else, somewhere moist and fleshy, in fact, panic began to build within him as Felix realised he couldn't move his body. But the panic was completely forgotten when he saw somebody standing in front of him, the person was clad in strange and futuristic-looking armour, holding a weapon that kind of looked like a crossbow with its arms in a vertical position, the stranger's helmet faceplate glowing a mysterious and ethereal blue glow ultimately obscuring their face from view.

"F-F...Felix?"

It all suddenly clicked in his head, Felix's hazy mind quickly coming back into sharp focus as he tried to scream out. Yet no sound came from his mangled and distorted throat, as he watched Subaru cladding his special rig armour, point the plasma cutter directly at his face, finger lingering on the trigger before quickly pressing it.

Felix closed his eyes, expecting to die instantly. However, after a minute, he did not feel any pain or the cold embrace of death. Instead, the sounds around him changed in an instant. The familiar sounds of the theatre came back into focus, along with the cries and shouts of the people around him.

The disoriented cat boy was quickly grabbed by strong yet feminine hands and turned to face their owner before he could even get his bearings. Now that he was facing her, Felix was even more confused. Her elegant and noble face, a perfectly kept green waterfall of hair, and even her outfit were all eerily familiar to him, but he couldn't place why. After a moment of confusion, Felix's mind finally registered who he was looking at, as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Felix! What in the Od just happened to you!?" Crusch didn't even try to control her voice both in volume and the raw fear that it contained.

She had noticed almost immediately the strange behaviour from her knight, at first, it was the way that he jumped in his seat, and the fear that crossed his face and then more concerningly, the fact that his eyes seemingly lost all life to them. Going completely blank and lifeless as if he was nothing more than a corpse.

Despite recognising the person in front of him, Felix remained silent his mouth opening several times if he was going to speak but closing it again as his still somewhat disorientated brain, tried to fully switch back on again after whatever he had just experienced. But before he could formulate any kind of sentence, a voice that had not spoken in quite a while quickly reverberated through the theatre.

"Jesus Christ that was a close one!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, all of them turning to look at the screen as the warden's voice washed over them. It had been so long since he had last spoken, that quite a few had forgotten that he was even present to begin with. But the silence that followed the warden's words, was quickly shattered by an unexpected voice.

"What is the meaning of this I suppose" Beatrice spoke up, her voice having a calm yet accusatory tone to it, now having reclaimed her spot with Subaru in her lap. Yet that didn't stop her from staring at the pause screen with a look of distrust.

Beatrice and the others were frustrated when their question was met with silence. After all, something terrible and clearly traumatic had just happened to Felix, and the warden, judging by his words just after it occurred, most likely knew something about what happened or could have even caused it himself. However, after a few more seconds of silence, the warden finally responded.

"It's not super difficult to understand, I saved that cat's skinny butt is what I did"

Despite what he had said being completely straightforward to understand, it didn't stop everyone from asking the biggest question of them all. what exactly did the warden save Felix from?

"Is that all you going to say!?" Felt jumped up from her seat, balling her fists and raising them towards the screen as if she was challenging it to a good old-fashioned punch out. "Tell us what happens dammit! like, come on! Look at the guy he's scared half to death!?" She continued to shout, motioning in one of her balled fists over towards the still recovering Felix.

"Mr. Warden, what exactly happened to Felix" Emilia jumped up to her feet, not in anger like the little blonde fireball that was Felt. Instead, she had a look of deep concern plastered across her face, instinctively cupping her hands over her chest as if in silent prayer."W-what exactly... did you save him from" She said after a moment of silence, her voice having a noticeable wobble to it.

Again the warden didn't respond, yet this time it felt different, instead of simply being a complete absence of his presence. This time everyone could feel that he was still present but choosing to remain silent as if he was contemplating what exactly they said. And those suspicions were confirmed when after letting the silence drag out just a bit more, he finally responded.

(sigh) . . . "Listen, I saved Felix from that… thing trying to drag him through to the other side, If I hadn't acted when I did, his mind would have been lost forever. And before you ask I can't explain any further than that"

Crusch while keeping a hand on Felix's trembling shoulder, looks towards the screen in surprise. A deep sense of déjà vu quickly washed over her as she contemplated what exactly the warden had just said. Something was trying to take Felix's mind. That was certainly news to her, but thinking back she couldn't help but remember her own strange experiences, specifically the one where she had been unconscious.

"Could it be that they're related?" She muttered quietly under her breath. Crusch took her eyes off the screen and looked towards the clearly distressed face of Felix, who despite his ordeal was beginning to calm down once again. But still, the possible connections between whatever happened to Felix and her experiences certainly caused her more than enough worry.

"But still doesn't explain what happened to him, and what exactly do you mean by his mind would have been lost?" Wilhelm couldn't keep the scepticism and the accusatory tone from his voice, his beige and experienced eyes narrowing dangerously as he stared down the screen that represented the warden.

"Wilhelm has asked some very good questions" Julius despite managing to keep his emotions under control, couldn't stop the slight look of anger from making itself at home on his face.

"The fact that you won't tell us, simply makes you look more guilty" Ram let out a frustrated sigh, her usual condescending tone coming back in full force as she towards the screen that represented the warden. However, as the words left her mouth, everyone felt themselves forcefully pushed down, the air seemingly becoming much heavier than before.

"For the last bloody time! If I could tell you everything I would! but I physically cannot right now, it's not the right time yet!"

The theatre physically shook, everyone, held onto their seats for dear life as felt like the very ground itself was about to be ripped apart, but as quickly as it came the shaking disappeared, the oppressive atmosphere that had accompanied it quickly disappearing as everyone let out of breath they didn't realise they had been holding.

"Look... I know you don't trust me, hell If I were in your position I wouldn't either, but I need all of you to trust me on this. When the time is right I will reveal everything, so in the meantime let's get back to the viewing."

Everyone didn't have any time to protest, as the previously paused screen began to move again, all of them letting out their own variations of a frustrated grown or sigh as they ready themselves for whatever was coming next.

"This is ridiculous" Anastasia muttered quietly under her breath, as she tried the little she could to make herself comfortable.

I couldn't agree more Lady Anastasia" Julius responded in short order, his eyes focusing on the screen but not what was happening on it, Instead it was almost as if he was trying to focus his eyes so that he could somehow see the true form of the warden.

Subaru couldn't believe what he was seeing, Felix was here he couldn't be here. But Subaru quickly shook his head, hoping that what he was seeing was nothing more than a hallucination, and opening his eyes he was somewhat relieved to see that he was correct, the deformed visage of Felix was gone, instead being replaced by a non-descript and still mostly intact-looking human face. After standing somewhat perplexed for a moment Subaru quickly resumed his task, taking aim and firing his plasma cutter, the creature's head being separated from its neck in one clean shot.

After the creature collapsed to the floor, Subaru did not waste time. He quickly made his way around the corner of the room and towards the exit. As he got closer to the door, he saw what looked like a small general-purpose container box. Subaru immediately stomped on the box, which broke into multiple pieces. Inside, he found a completely fresh rack of ripper blades. He quickly scooped them up, unclipped the ripper from his belt, and reloaded the improvised weapon before placing it back on his belt.

However, Subaru quickly exited the small supply room and made his way back out into the main grow chamber, several loud bangs followed by what felt like an earthquake nearly shook Subaru off his feet. But before he could get his footing, a truly titanic size abomination, quickly emerged from around a nearby corner, huge bone-covered front limbs smashing against the floor multiple times as it let out a roar that reverberated and echoed around the growth chamber.

"For fuck sake! Not another one of you guys!?" Subaru said as the beast roared in response, stamping its front limbs onto the already shattered deck plating once again as it could be readied itself to charge.

"Oh no! It's another one of those giant monsters!?" Emilia said with alarm, her entire body going rigid. Her grip on the sleeping Subaru's hand tightened as she watched his on-screen counterpart stare down the beast.

"My beloved will rip it to shreds like he has done with all others in his way" Rem couldn't keep the anger from making itself evident in her voice, her gaze squared directly at Emilia. "The fact that you have no faith in him makes you unworthy of his love" The last part was said quietly yet it was still loud enough for Emilia to hear, but before she could respond to the jab, someone else did it for her.

"Yes and you have dismembered him multiple times, so you have no room to talk I suppose!" Beatrice snapped, directing her vicious glare squarely at the blue-haired beast maid who was rapidly getting on her nerves.

Rem on her end, tried her best to let loose the best glare she could manage, yet eventually, she looked away letting out a quiet curse under her breath. But before she knew it, she felt someone quickly smack the back of her head, her eyes turning blood red, as her anger skyrocketed to an almost bloodthirsty level. But when she turned to see who dared to hit her, she found it was none other than her pink-haired sister, whose look was enough to immediately quell the anger in her chest.

"Strange, it looks the same, it can't be the same one" Crusch found it somewhat strange that the Beast was in fact identical in overall body design, to the one that Subaru had beaten earlier in the viewing. In fact, the only real difference was some pretty gruesome visual changes, such as different limbs and human body parts sticking out at different angles and it's generally much darker, almost jet-black complexion.

"I see what you mean Lady Crusch" Frederica spoke up, surprising Crusch immediately turned to look at the blonde-haired maid. "It is the same type as the one from before, yet it's definitely not the same one" She finished her line of thought.

"Who the hell cares if it's the same one or not? Cap's going to wipe the floor with it!" Garfiel could barely contain his excitement, after all, watching Subaru dispatch the large beast earlier in the viewing was perhaps one of the coolest things he had seen in his relatively short life. So to see that a similar or even the same Beast had come back for round two really got Garfiel's adrenaline pumping.

"I'm S-sure Mr Natsuki is going to K-kill it no problem" Despite his voice being shaky and uncertain, Otto still managed to hold a look of determination. yet even still his hands trembled like leaves, because after all the beasts that Subaru had to fight, this one was perhaps the most gruesome, in fact, it was a mockery of nature itself.

"I suppose young Garfiel is right, Subaru has already dispatched one of these beasts, so he already knows its weakness" Despite agreeing with Garfiel's sentiment, Wilhelm couldn't stop the slight tremble in his right leg, as a small amount of worry began to gently eat away at him. Despite Subaru having already dispatched one of these gigantic beasts, it didn't change the fact that Subaru was very injured and realistically was in no state to be fighting anymore.

"I don't like this, he's in no condition to be fighting something like that" The worry was palpable in Reinhardt's voice, in fact for a singular moment his body had reacted on its own, making to get up and walk towards the screen as if he was confident he could phase through it and help Subaru on the other side. But after managing to stop himself, Reinhardt frustratedly reminded himself that doing so wouldn't work even if he tried.

"I know Rein, the poor guy needs a break" Felt did turn to look at Reinhardt as she spoke, instead despite her stomach protests, keeping her gaze squarely directed on the disgusting monster that Subaru was currently facing down. "But this is Subaru after all, and we all know that he's a danger magnet," She said, trying to lighten the mood, yet failing miserably as she didn't even find her humour funny.

Reinhardt didn't respond, simply looking at the little blonde next to him, appreciating the fact that she tried to lighten the mood even if it ultimately didn't succeed.

"Man, this is like some shit from a Resident Evil game" Al said quietly to himself, darting his gaze over to the sleeping Priscilla that was still next to him, yet much to his relief nothing about to have considerably changed. But still, the fact that she hadn't woken up yet was beginning to worry him.

Subaru stared down the truly titanic beast, the creature letting out horrific roars and grunts as it quickly prepared itself to charge. And after one powerful roar, it began to charge right at him, its massive and hulking frame picking up speed at an alarming rate. But Subaru did not immediately dodge out of the way of the creature, instead holding his ground until the very last moment.

And just when the creature was about to barrel into him, Subaru let loose a blast of stasis, draining his status bar completely, yet giving him enough time to manoeuvre out of the way of the slowed-down creature, and once he was in position behind the creature. Subaru began to place shots into its back with his plasma cutter, the stasis effect quickly wearing off as the creature began to roar and howl in pain, chunks of twisted musculature and flesh quickly being ripped from its back with each shot.

The creature would not go down so easily, turning on the spot with a speed that Subaru didn't expect as it quickly throughout one of its massive tree trunk size limbs, Subaru did not have time to dodge out of the way, before the creature backhanded swing, quickly sent him flying into a nearby wall.

Subaru saw nothing but stars, his vision blurry and undefined, every sound was muffled with a slight ringing in his ears. Yet before he could even get his bearings the pain suddenly started, it was instant unbearable pain, it was so bad that it felt like every nerve ending in his chest had been turned into liquid fire instantly. Yet even despite that he did not scream, in fact, he couldn't scream because there was simply no air left in his lungs.

"No Subaru!" Emilia screamed at the top of her lungs, her worry completely overtaking her reason and sanity. Subaru is already in no condition to fight, so taking a massive hit like that could have been fatal.

Beatrice felt the air leave her lungs, her eyes bulging out of their sockets as she doubled over in pain. The slightest amount of the pain that Sudan had felt from the impact transferred through their spirit and contractor connection. Even as painful tears leaked from her eyes and she tried to catch her breath, she couldn't even begin to imagine the full extent of the pain if this was only a small sample.

"Come on get up Subaru!" Crusch tried to keep the volume of her voice somewhat reasonable, yet the worry and panic that was building inside her completely negated any kind of self-control she had. The impact Subaru had taken was a nasty one, she didn't need to be a medically minded person to see that, and she couldn't even begin to imagine what it had done to his already existing injuries.

"Get up my beloved! You need to get up!" Rem screamed at the top of her lungs, the area where her horn would be sparkling with demonic energy, her Instinct readying themselves for a fight, yet the rational part of her brain told her there was nothing she could do but sit back and watch our Subaru struggle, against this truly disgusting abomination.

"This isn't good, this is really not good" Anastasia straightened herself in her seat, letting out a quiet wince of second-hand pain at the blow that Subaru had just taken from the creature.

"You took the words right out of my mouth lady Anastasia," Julia said simply, his face being stony and unreadable, yet his eyes held nothing but fear and sorrow at what Subaru was currently going through.

Despite her worry for the young girl, Frederica was somewhat grateful that Petra was currently not awake to see this. After all, despite all of them having seen Subaru's come to an end in multiple gruesome ways, it still didn't make it any easier to watch him in agony and pain.

"F-Fuck" Subaru grunted, as he rolled himself onto his stomach, letting out a small yelp, as the action sent bolts of searing pain through his chest, in fact, it almost felt like he had jets of fire running through his chest. But despite the severity of the pain he managed to push it aside, just managing to shakily get to his knees, however instead of the creature coming over to finish him off like he expected. it seemed that his initial attack with the plasma cutter had a lot more damage than he thought, considering that the creature was currently resting on its front, desperately trying to get to its own feet as its rotten and black blood created a large puddle beneath it.

"I N-need to F-F-finish you O-off," Subaru said through shaky breaths, Despite the odds managed to rise to his feet, despite managing to take a step, his legs noticeably trembled beneath him. However his focus was instead trying to locate his plasma cutter which had been lost when he was thrown into the wall after a moment of lazily searching for it, Subaru gave up on that, instead haphazardly and lazily fumbling at his belt, trying and eventually succeeding in unclipping the Ripper. And even though it had sustained some damage, particularly the saw blade housing being completely dented and destroyed, a flick of the trigger revealed that the improvised weapon was still just barely functioning.

But when Subaru pulled the final release Trigger, instead of the blade going towards the creature and finishing it off, his aim was horribly off, the blade completely missing the creature, much to his frustration. However before he could even think about firing another Ripper blade, the creature managed to pull itself off the floor its own massive tree trunk size limbs trembling as they struggled to hold up its immense bulk.

And before Subaru could register, the Beast despite its injuries and weakened state began to charge at him with almost unnatural speed. In fact, even though it was incredibly injured like he was, its singular intent at this very moment, was to use every ounce of energy it had to kill him.

Yet despite his mind still being somewhat foggy, Subaru managed to point the Ripper in the right direction of the monster, pulling the trigger as a diamond-encrusted saw blade quickly found its mark, the creature crying out in agony and pain as the Ripper made short work of its front right limb. The massive log-sized appendage quickly detached from its body ultimately causing the creature to crash to the deck plating, its massive bulk coming to a stop just in front of Subaru.

"Jesus Christ! Talk about cutting it close!" Al said a bit louder than he actually intended to, Subaru had come this close to dying once again yet by some unholy miracle had managed to sidestep death once again.

"Told ya he do it," Garfiel said with a large amount of pride, yet even he let out a small sigh of relief because for just a moment there it looked like Subaru was about to meet his maker once again.

"Barusu getting lucky once again it seems" Ram didn't put any kind of negative inflexion in her voice this time. instead simply letting out a quiet sigh of relief, at the fact that Subaru hadn't been plastered across the grow chamber by the titanic-sized flesh amalgamate

"I don't even know if it's luck at this point" Felt likewise let out a breath that she had subconsciously been holding. very much thankful that Subaru had avoided being turned into a fine red paste by the charging monster.

"So these things can feel pain, that means the nervous system is still functioning, despite the gruesomeness of their mutations" Felix muttered quietly to himself, despite his ordeal from only moments earlier still waiting heavily on his mind. it didn't stop the medical and scientific part of his brain, from beginning to put together a proper hypothesis on these monsters.

Still, somewhat in a daze, Subaru watched with an almost dumbfounded expression as the titanic size abomination flailed around, desperately trying to get his footing once again. However, after a moment of this somewhat awkward site, Subaru as if acting on autopilot, readied the Ripper, aiming it correctly at the creature's exposed and undamaged back. And with a simple pull of the trigger, the Ripper and its diamond-encrusted blade got to work, the thick keratin and bony armour that covers the majority of the creature's body, doing very little to protect it from a saw blade that was designed to cut a part asteroid and derelict ships.

Subaru wasn't entirely sure, how long he stood there carving up the titanic brute like it was some gigantic and Eldridge-looking turkey. But a small electric beep followed by a loud click managed to shake Subaru from his stupor, and when he looked down at the tool in his hands he saw that the holographic display had changed into a big red zero, very obviously telling him that the tool had an empty magazine. However, when he looked back at the creature in front of him, Subaru was somewhat shocked to see that the creature despite its immense size, had been rendered into nothing more than a giant hunk of shredded flesh and Bone, with everything from its midsection up to where it head would have been, being almost completely skeletonized.

Yet before Subaru could marvel at his handy work any longer, he suddenly felt a sharp pain run through his entire body, causing him to double over in agony as he quickly slumped against a nearby wall, not noticing or caring about the fact that he was sitting in the dark rotten blood and viscera of the creature he had just dispatched.

"S-shit..." Subaru wheezed out, clutching his right side with both hands, the pain was almost unbearable as every breath sent a wave of pain running over him. Yet instead of simply enduring it, Subaru took one hand off his side and reached round and grabbed the second to last healing ointment container clipped to his belt. Somehow managing to unscrew the cap with just one hand, his helmet automatically retracted, revealing his tear-soaked and pain-riddled face.

Emilia remained silent, yet the look on her face at seeing Subaru in so much physical pain was definitely not hard to. In fact him in any kind of pain whether it be emotional or physical was at this point almost like a form of torture for her, After everything Subaru had been through, he above anyone else was more than deserving of some kind of respite. But unfortunately and horrifically it seemed that whatever entity most responsible for fate seemingly had some kind of vendetta against Subaru in particular.

Beatrice was very much in the same position as Emilia emotionally. Yet unlike Emilia who simply got upset seeing Subaru in such physical and emotional anguish, Beatrice on the other hand felt every single moment of both the physical and emotional agony, in fact despite his and her connection, allowing her to understand Subaru on a level that no one else truly could.

But it didn't change that sometimes Beatrice hated her connection with Subaru not because his pain was a burden, but because it was sometimes overwhelming to experience the emotional and physical roller coaster that he put himself through. However, despite her reservations, Beatrice would never waver in her loyalty to Subaru. She would stay by his side until the very end, no matter what form that end took.

"Please stay strong my love" Rem clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer, a look of deep concern making its way onto her face. "Your Rems believes in you," She said quietly.

"That idiot, why does he always have to get himself hurt like that" Ram tried to make her words sound harsh and cruel, yet the slight wobble in her voice and the fact that her face was one of deep concern, did very little to actually convey that.

Subaru brought the container of healing ointment up to his lips and quickly downed its entire contents, not even pausing to take a breath as he threw the container to one side once empty. As soon as it made its way down his throat the effect of the healing ointment was almost immediate, as he felt the pain in his entire body quickly begin to subside. But as he sat there taking calming breaths to try and calm his racing heart, his rig suddenly flashed up an incoming message.

"Subaru! Subaru my god! your rig disappeared for a moment there! I thought I'd lost you!" The concerned voice of Kendra quickly came over his rig link, Subaru straightening up ever so slightly, as he took one last calming breath before speaking.

"I'm fine Kendra… O-One of those big things M-M-managed to get a hit on me, B-but I put it down... only just though," Subaru said slowly, the last part being primarily under his breath as of the moment he finally found enough energy to get to his feet, his knees shaking and buckling slightly before he found his footing.

"Subaru you're not alright, I'm looking at your rig biometrics and... Your hurt really bad" Kendra spoke from the other end of the link, Subaru let out a quiet wince, as he moved a bit too quickly in the wrong direction, sending a jolt of pain through his system.

Yet he disregarded the pain, quickly punching a series of small buttons on his wrist, which brought up a display with what looked to be a silhouette of a human being, the majority of its chest and upper abdomen being a sickly shade of red, with several small text boxes annotated to several key points around the chest and abdomen.

"Shit..." Subaru despite being accustomed to injury, actually having it in front of him just how injured he was, certainly made him agree with Kendra's point. But considering he was currently the only one who could actually have any chance of dealing with whatever was in food storage, Subaru decided that he would just have to keep going like he always did.

"I've taken a few hits but I'm fine Kendra honestly." Subaru quickly deactivated the readout showing his current condition, his helmet automatically unfolding and covering up his face again, his visor three bar lighting up once more with a brilliant cyan blue glow. "Besides there should be enough medical supplies lying around to patch myself up when this is all done"

"He's a good liar, but I don't think Kendra is going to be convinced by it," Crusch said with a slightly disappointed tone to her voice. Despite Subaru being an exceptionally good liar, she had a sneaking suspicion that Kendra wouldn't be convinced regardless of how good and convincing of a lie that Subaru could spin.

"You are correct Lady Crusch, although I don't think it matters if she believes Subaru or not, considering that he is the only one that can actually do anything about what is going on that ship" Wilhelm couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed at the fact that Subaru had to lie once again, but considering the dire circumstances, Wilhelm couldn't really fault Subaru for this particular lie.

"I-I'm more concerned about the extent of his injuries, rather than if he telling the truth or not to Kendra or not~Nyah" Felix said matter-of-factly. At this point, it was getting plain ridiculous with how much punishment Subaru was taking and somehow managing to keep walking.

"I'm with Felix on this one, the fact that he somehow is still standing after all of that is just incredible and also concerning" True to her words Anastasia was incredibly impressed by Subaru's sheer willpower to keep standing after such horrific injuries, but also incredibly concerned by the fact that he was somehow shrugging off injuries that would put most normal men out of action for weeks or even months.

"I agree wholeheartedly Lady Anastasia, but I suppose we could put this up to Subaru just being Subaru," Julia said with a sigh, There were many things about Subaru that were a complete mystery to him, so the fact that he was able to shrug off injuries like that, wasn't all too surprising even if it was concerning.

"Fine, but you need to be more careful" Kendra spoke from the other end of the rig link, pausing for a moment before continuing, as the Subaru began searching for his plasma cutter, which had been thrown from his grip earlier in the battle.

"I did a quick scan of the area, there are four more of those things polluting the air, I'm updating the locations to your rig now," She said after a moment of silence, as Subaru finally found the plasma cutter resting some distance away from him.

"Got it" Was all that he said, as Subaru reached down and picked up his plasma cutter, checking the tool over for any signs of damage, but thankfully only finding minimal superficial damage that didn't affect its ability to function or kill.

The ripper on the other hand wasn't so lucky, the tool having taken a very bad beating during the battle with the giant brute, as such After a moment of contemplation, Subaru put the weapon down onto the metal deck plating, his eyes lingering on it almost affectionately, before he resumed his task of finding the monsters responsible for polluting the air.

Quickly making a beeline for the opposite side of the room, Subaru found another storage room much like the others. However, unlike the others which had various stages of assimilation by the corruption, this room lacked any fleshy growth whatsoever. And even the weezer which sat in the corner of the room spewing out toxic air still looked mostly human with the remains of what looked to be a medical standard issue medical uniform still clinging to its bloated and twisted form.

But Subaru paid this any mind, as he quickly walked over to the wheezing creature, bringing his plasma cutter up and unceremoniously ending its existence with just two shots, its head rolling off its shoulders and onto the floor as its body slumped over going completely limp.

"I don't like how easy it is for him to do that," Emilia said matter-of-factly, a small shudder running up her spine, at the image of Subaru unceremoniously executing a monster. in fact, it wasn't the fact that he executed the monster that disturbed her, it was the seemingly nonchalant way that he did it as if it was the most normal thing in the world for him.

"I don't like it either I suppose" Beatrice let a small frown make its way onto her face, her eyes drifting down to the sleeping Subaru that was nestled in her lap. despite knowing how kind and truly loving he was, she also knew that there was a darkness in him, a darkness that could render him unfeeling if it were to take hold of him.

Quickly exiting back out of the door he just come through, Subaru held out his hand and activated his locator, the sapphire blue line quickly sneaking its way through the room before terminating at the main gantry lift and nutrient vat containers at the centre of the room. But once he had made his way over to the centre of the room, Subaru found a bit of a conundrum waiting for him, This particular weezer that his locator had directed him to, had somehow managed to make its way down and inside the area that contained all of the spare nutrient vats.

This meant that there was no considerable way for Subaru to actually get to the creature to kill it, his plasma cutter was not strong enough to shoot through the thick reinforced glass, and the area could only be accessed when the mechanism for replacing the expended nutrient vats was in operation, which would have a high likelihood of chewing him to pieces if he even tried calling inside while it was running.

"How the hell am I going to get to it?" the frustration was evident in Subaru's voice as he tapped his foot incessantly, looking at the weezer behind the reinforced glass, it was frustratingly so close that could almost kill it, but at the same time so far away he couldn't.

However that's when a brain wave suddenly occurred to him, If he activated the system to replace the nutrient vats and used a bit of stasis to pause the mechanism, while the heavy glass shutters were open, he would have just enough time the kill the creature before the stasis wore off and the protective doors closed.

But that's when Subaru realised something that made his blood begin to boil, he had completely run out of stasis chargers and had no portable stasis refill packs meaning that he was as good as stuck when it came to actually being able to kill the creature.

"God dammit!" Subaru shouted a bit louder than he meant, his voice echoing off the cavernous interior of the grow chamber. yet before his anger could consume him any further he took a calming breath, and quickly opened up his 3D map of the deck, looking for a stasis refill point which he was able to find yet it was much further away than he would have liked.

"I'll come back for you later," He said to nobody in particular as he quickly stepped onto the cargo lift, which quickly took him up to the catwalks that ran across the top of the grow chamber. and after a moment of looking around, he was able to find another one of the weezer creatures. The catwalk it was resting on was almost completely consumed by fleshy growth, large rhythmically pulsing tentacles and artery-like structures, stretching off in all different directions and connecting to other pockets of fleshy growth.

Despite the gruesome sight that made his stomach churn, Subaru quickly reloaded his plasma cutter and fired two well-aimed shots at the creature's neck, severing its head and sending it tumbling down into the lower level of the growth chamber, where it landed with a wet thud a few seconds later.

"How many more of these wretched creatures are there?" Ram didn't need to hide the disgust in her voice, after all these creatures just by themselves were truly a gruesome sight to behold, but their appearance was just made even worse when they were half melted into the living flesh that covered the walls, floor and even ceiling. "That's the 6th one he's killed so far" She said, because despite her disgust she had kept a mental note of how many he had killed so far.

"Who knows, considering how much of the fleshy growth there appears to be... they could be hundreds of them," Frederica said gently stroking the sleeping form of Petra that was half nestled in her lap. In fact, despite being worried for the young girl, Frederica was somewhat glad that she was not awake to see any more gruesome imagery, hopefully sparing what little of her childlike Innocence remained.

"I don't like the idea of there being hundreds of those things," Garfiel said matter-of-factly, crossing his arms over his chest in a disapproving manner well letting out a quiet snort. Sure if he was there he could probably dispatch hundreds of those things relatively easily especially if he went into his beast form, but considering that Subaru was both heavily injured and ultimately just one man without any kind of magical powers, the idea of him trying to kill hundreds of those things wasn't exactly a comforting prospect.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up but I can't" Otto's quiet voice was shaky and uneven, his face almost the same colour as his forest green clothes. Yet even as he brought a hand up to try and stop another wave of nausea from running over him, he could feel the eyes of multiple people staring at him.

"Thanks for the input~Nyah" Felix couldn't help but roll his eyes, Despite feeling nauseous by looking at the fleshy growth himself, and his own horrific experience from earlier in the viewing, Otto's constant whining was starting to get on his nerves.

Giving the headlines corpse one last look, Subaru quickly turned on his heels, and made his way to the opposite side of the catwalk, passing large pulsating fleshy tendrils that were partially fused to the catwalk and its railings. Quickly came to a small nondescript door, with the holographic sign above it reading "East Refrigeration Complex "

Once Subaru had stepped through the door, he entered a small vestibule hallway illuminated in dim orange safety lights, with a door of a similar type located at the end of the small space. But as Subaste stepped closer towards the door, he heard what he could have sworn sounded like the distant roar of some titanic beast, in fact Despite the sound being quite low and seemingly far away, it was somehow still loud enough to make the bones in his body rattle.

But after quickly shaking his head, Subaru quickly opened the door in front of him, stepping out into what once was maybe a hallway but now looked like the internal body cavity of some gigantic leviathan size creature, in fact, there was so little of the original structure that wasn't covered by flesh that the hallway looked like it had always been made out of living flesh.

Yet instead of focusing on the disgusting fleshy environment around him, Subaru focused on his goal, trying to keep himself distracted just long enough to get through the hallway, but as he began to trudge his way through the flashy hellscape, he was caught off guard by the return of something familiar.

A massive messy tendril made up of countless human bodies quickly snakes its way from somewhere off in the distance, its flower-petal-like head quickly opening up and wrapping itself around his leg. And before he could react it pulled him off his feet, a yell escaping his throat as the fleshy tentacle began to violently drag him down the fleshy hallway towards its den.

"FUCK! Didn't I kill you already!?" Subaru shouted, the tentacle letting out a loud roar as continued to violently drag him, but as it dragged him ever closer towards its den, Subaru began to unload his plasma cut into the tentacle, the majority of his shots missing due to the jerking and sporadic movements of the tentacle. But after taking the last of his spare energy cells and inserting it into the plasma cutter, Subaru saw a large bulbous area of the tentacle which was oozing a viscous glowing yellow liquid.

Remembering his earlier encounter with the drag tentacle, he quickly aimed his plasma cutter at the bulbous mass, and after waiting for the tentacle to stop moving for just a moment, Subaru unloaded the rest of his clip into the tentacle's weak spot. The effect was almost immediate as the weak spot immediately exploded in a violent explosion of gore and yellow pus, the end of the tentacle which was still clamped around his leg quickly falling to the floor and going limp. The other end quickly flailed around blood and pus spewing out of the fleshy stump before it quickly retreated into the fleshy orifice that was its den, its roars and cries of pain quickly disappearing as Subaru took a deep calming breath before quickly climbing to his feet again.

"That was a close one I suppose" Beatrice's words were accompanied by a sigh of relief, for just a moment there it looked like Subaru was about to be dragged away by the colossal tentacle. But thankfully it seemed that his good luck had shone through once again, somehow managing to avoid death's cold embrace.

"Subaru, I swear you're going to give me a heart attack one of these days" Emilia muttered quietly, casting her gaze down to the sleeping Subaru that was in Beatrice's lap.

"You're not the only one Emilia" Crusch much like Beatrice let out a relieved sigh, If there was one thing she could say about watching Subaru's "adventures" it was perhaps the most stressful thing she had ever partaken in throughout her life so far

"Just by watching him I'm sure I've got a few grey hairs now" She finished with a slight sarcastic chuckle, the prospect of having grey hairs mixed with her brilliant forest green ones not exactly being a present idea to think about.

"Wait just a damn minute! I thought he killed that thing already?" Felt exclaimed suddenly, straightening up in her seat with a look of confusion and surprise making its way onto her face.

"Thinking about it that is a good question Felt" Reinhardt had also been under the impression that the drag tentacle as it was now known, had been a completely unique creature, considering its way of hunting the overall appearance. "I suppose that means there are more of them on the Ishimura," He said after a moment of silence.

"I really don't like that" Frederica couldn't exactly place why the drag tentacle unnerved her so much, just something about the way it looked, acted and sounded, was enough to send a shiver running down her spine and all the way to the tip of her concealed tail. "Just K-knowing that there were two on the ship was scary enough," She said with a slight wobble in her voice, another shiver running down her spine.

Quickly checking himself over, Subaru began to cautiously make his way towards where the drag tentacle had come from, manoeuvring around giant fleshy tendrils and arteries that pulsated with an unheard heartbeat. But as he finally made his way to the end of a corridor, he found that it was a lot less consumed by flesh than the opposite end of the corridor.

After looking around for a moment, Subaru found the hole in the bulkhead that to drag tentacle had emerged from, the metal being buckled and twisted outwards, showing that the tentacle had quite literally borrowed its way through the thick metal as if it was nothing but tissue paper.

Sparing the torn and twisted bulkhead one last glance, Subaru quickly made his way through a doorway immediately to his left, entering a small passageway that was completely absent of any kind of fleshy growth. However, as he made his way towards the end of the small space where another door was located, his foot again collided with something familiar.

And looking down he was somewhat perplexed to see another personnel tablet, and as if by reflex he quickly picked it up and pressed play on its holographic screen, before continuing on.

"This is Temple. Acting Chief Engineer. I came down here to find Dr. Elizabeth Cross, but she's not here. in fact, I can't find anyone. Just more of this organic shit everywhere" As Subaru stepped into the next large room, he couldn't help but sympathise with this Temple person. After all the entire reason why he was here in the first place, was looking for somebody he cared about.

"I'm going to check the mining deck, it's about the only place I haven't looked yet" The message quickly came to an end, and Subaru unceremoniously dropped the small tablet. ignoring it shattering into a million pieces as he found exactly what he was looking for at the opposite end of the space. Surrounded by a cluster of small storage containers was a stasis recharge station.

"Jackpot," he said with a small amount of pleasure in his voice, quickly walking up to the recharge station and holding up his wrist. pressing a series of buttons and then letting the wall-mounted device do its work. And after a couple of seconds of this, a small holographic screen appeared on his wrist showing Subaru that his stasis energy was completely refilled.

Happy that he now had stasis at his fingertips again, Subaru looked down at the various storage boxes haphazardly surrounding the base of the stasis recharge station. And to his surprise several of them appeared to be unlocked, meaning that it wouldn't hurt to take a look inside them and see if there was anything useful.

With that task now set, Subaru got to work rummaging through the unlock boxes, finding various supplies that weren't useful to him, but in the fourth box he went through, Subaru found something that would be useful to him. Inside the box were two unused and completely fresh plasma energy cells, which Subaru immediately scooped up, quickly replacing the empty cell in the plasma cutter with a fresh one, and clipping the spare to his belt.

"So it seems that this temple individual was looking for someone, much like Subaru was" Despite having not even seen what this Jacob Temple even looked like, Anastasia couldn't help but sympathise with the man. After all, she couldn't even begin to imagine what it would have been like to be on the Ishimura during the monster's initial outbreak, let alone actually trying to find a loved one in all of the chaos.

"Indeed lady Anastasia, I feel nothing but sympathy for that poor man," Julius remarked quietly, a small part of him hoping that Temple had managed to find Dr. Elizabeth and escape the doomed nightmare that was Ishimura. But the more rational part of his brain told him that that was very unlikely.

Satisfied with his finds, Subaru turned his attention back to the large open refrigeration area that was a direct mirror copy of the one he had been in earlier. But unlike the west refrigeration complex, this one was almost completely engulfed by the corruption, massive pulsating fleshy tendrils and arteries sneaking their way through the flesh-covered walls.

But thankfully, the opening to the rest of the refrigeration unit was not completely covered by flesh, there was just enough of a gap for him to float through if he deactivated his magnetic boots. and with his path now clear Subaru stepped over the threshold and into the zero gravity environment.
Subaru felt a twinge of unease as the familiar sensation of weightlessness washed over him when his magnetic boots activated to hold him to the floor. Even after all these years, he had never quite gotten used to the feeling of being completely weightless yet still having his feet planted on the floor and being able to walk around.

But pushing the discomfort inside, Subaru quickly made his way to the centre of the opening, looking up at the fleshy folds that almost looked like a giant mouth. He deactivated his magnetic boots and then gently pushed off the floor, giving him just enough speed to glide through the fleshy opening. His momentum carried him to a nearby wall that wasn't completely covered by flesh, which allowed him to quickly grab something to stop his movement.

"So far so good..." Subaru immediately took his words back when he saw a new obstacle in front of him, a wall-mounted electrical generator was malfunctioning, spewing out giant arcs of bright blue electricity in directions. "God dammit! This could be so much easier if I had a Rig with RCS" He said with an angered sigh, trying to think of a way around this new obstacle.

"How the hell is he going to get past all of that lightning?" Despite not being widely travelled, as a result of being in the sanctuary for most of his life. Garfiel did know that lightning was no joke, considering that it could come out of the sky at any moment and make you a corpse quicker than you could blink. "Something tells me that suit isn't lightning-proof," He said with a slight nervous twitch to his voice.

"Garfiel... I highly doubt that anything is lightning-proof" Frederica couldn't help but sigh, a lot of the things that her brother said ranged from just downright idiotic to absolutely frustrating. but she supposed that he was right for asking how exactly Subaru was going to get lightning.

"Knowing that idiot, he'd probably stepped into the lightning intentionally" Ram couldn't help but chuckle, mostly because the mental image of Subaru being struck by lightning and then comically turning to ash with only a pair of beady eyes being left, was darkly funny to her.

"Sister don't say that, it's not funny" Rem protested, giving her pink-haired sister an unimpressed look that could only be described as. 'I don't like your sense of humour sometimes'

"You're all wrong, It's not lightning I suppose, it's actually electricity," Beatrice said abruptly Silenceing as they all turned to look at her about the revelation she had just given. And in turn, she couldn't help the film just a little bit of smug pride built up inside her, which was accompanied by a small smile making its way onto her face.

Subaru continued to brainstorm, trying to think of a way to get past the malfunctioning generator without being burnt to a crisp. but that's when an idea suddenly occurred to him that if he was to use his stasis module on the generator, it could potentially slow down the mechanism just long enough for the electricity to be dissipated and allow him to get past. Although considering he didn't know exactly what the exact voltage of the generator was it was only a hunch, and one that might not work on top of that.

'It's worth a shot I guess' Subaru thought to himself as he readied his stasis module, aiming his hand at the electrical generator and after taking a deep breath he shot a blast of stasis at the generator. And much to Subaru's satisfaction his hypothesis was correct, the mechanism of the generator quickly slowing down to a near standstill as the arcs of electricity quickly dissipated.

Without wasting precious time, Subaru quickly pushed himself off the wall, flying past the still slowed-down generator add through a large access hatch that had been partially forced open by the fleshy growth. but as he gently floated through the and stopped himself using a giant fleshy tendril that took up the centre of the room.

He heard the all too familiar sound of one of the creatures lurking its way around in the room off somewhere where he couldn't see it. But after a moment the creature, which Subaru quickly realized was two creatures finally revealed themselves. Both of the little beasts screamed at him in their distorted baby-like voices.

"I don't think so! Not this time!" Subaru said loudly as he quickly brought up his plasma cutter, his other hand holding onto the pulsating fleshy tentacle, to keep himself steady as he quickly fired two shots in rapid succession at one of the lurkers. The little beast had no time to react as its head was quickly severed from its body by the first shot, and its upper chest was separated from its abdomen by the second shot, its blood sprayed out in all directions as the dismembered chunks of its body floating freely in the zero gravity.

Its companion quickly let off a vicious scream, Subaru momentarily losing the creature as it quickly jumped off from the surface it was clinging to. He tried to find exactly where it had disappeared to, the sounds of its scuttling and occasional cries being present as it lurked somewhere in the distance. But its concealed position was quickly revealed when it tried to shoot at him, Subaru managing to dodge out of the way just in time as several bone spikes quickly impacted the fleshy tentacle that he was just holding on to.

Yet as a Subaru floated freely in zero gravity, he saw exactly where the creature was hiding and quickly took a shot at it, but his own momentum meant that his shot didn't Impact centre mass as he had hoped. Instead, it severed one of the creature's little legs, causing it to lose its grip on the flesh-covered wall, quickly spinning out of control as it thrashed around, desperately trying to grab onto anything so we could stop its uncontrolled movement.

But conversely, Subaru bumped up against one of the metal grates that made up the walls of the room, meaning that he had the perfect opportunity to line up a shot, and that's exactly what he did quickly taking the creature apart with three precise shots. And once he was done, the little beast was nothing more than twitching chunks of Flesh and blood floating in the zero-gravity environment.

"He did it, he killed them," Emilia said with a small smile, not happy at the prospect of Subaru killing something necessarily. But more just happy that he'd managed to make it through the encounter without endangering himself unnecessarily or somehow getting himself even more injured than he already was.

"As if there was any doubt I suppose" Beatrice couldn't keep the proud tone from her voice, her contractor wasn't entirely out for the count like his mental and physical state would lead someone to believe, he was much stronger than that, and she knew it better than anyone that he would not give up so easily.

"It seems that my contractor has become a master of dismemberment in zero gravity," She said with an almost darkly comedic tone, adding "The Zero-G Butcher' to her mental library of the various nicknames that her contractor had acquired so far.

"Considering that he's in a weightless environment, I suppose it actually makes it easier for him with injuries" Crusch set mostly to herself, quietly admitting in her mind that floating around in the zero-g environment actually looks quite fun. Considering that one of her biggest fantasies as a little girl was to fly high in the sky amongst the birds that she watched every day.

"It certainly looks that way~ Nyah" Felix couldn't help but let his mind wander, in the zero gravity environment it seemed that Subaru had a much easier time moving around despite his injuries. But remembering back all the way to near the beginning of the viewing Felix remembered that the USG Ishimura's medical deck had something called zero g therapy, which with this new line of thinking he was currently on suddenly made the concept of zero gravity for healing purposes makes sense to him.

If there was no gravity then damaged organs and bones would not be pulled down under their own weight, meaning that the strain on them would be completely gone allowing them to heal more efficiently. "I wonder if it's possible to implement something like that back home" Felix mumbled quietly to himself, wishing that he had a notepad to write down his ideas.

"I shouldn't be surprised, but again young Subaru has proven himself to be a competent warrior" Even though his facial expression did not change, those who knew him could tell just how proud Wilhelm actually was. After all, Subaru was somebody that Wilhelm almost considered a second grandson, in fact despite how awful of a thing to say it was, Wilhelm could honestly admit that he had a closer connection with Subaru somebody who was not his own flesh and blood, then he did with his actual biological grandson.

"Of course he is! This is Cap we're talking about!" Garfiel exclaimed with a proud tone. watching Subaru quite literally fly around and kill horrific monsters as if he were some kind of vigilante superhero, was cooler than anything he could even imagine and he never got tired of watching it, even if the dismembered corpses of Subaru's enemies did give him the heebie-jeebies just a little bit.

"Putting aside all the blood and guts... floating around like that actually does look kind of fun" Felt tries to distract herself from the gruesome imagery on the screen. In fact true to her word she couldn't help but imagine herself floating freely without any kind of force to hold her down and how much fun it could actually be, in fact, she imagined it would be the closest that she could ever actually get to flying without learning any kind of flight spells.

"I second that, I honestly love to try it, obviously without all of the blood and gore though," Anastasia said a bit too excitedly, the prospect of being able to float completely weightless as if you were submerged in water yet completely dry and not in danger of drowning, being a very exciting thing for her to imagine. In fact, if there was a way to replicate the experience she could already think of multiple ways to monetize it to make a nice profit on the side.

"I'd be up for that as well, I always did want to be an astronaut as a kid" Al spoke for the first time in ages, a smile making its way onto his hidden face. He thought about his boyhood dream of being an astronaut and how fun it would be to actually be able to float around in zero gravity. But despite the momentary uplift in his mood, his gaze tracked itself back to the sleeping form of Priscilla who continued to ever so slightly mumble and occasionally jolt in her sleep much to his concern.

With that being no obstacles left in his way, Subaru moved on being careful to avoid the bigger patches of floating blood and corpse chunks, making his way towards another large opening that took him into an identical and largely flesh-free version of the room he had just been in. And after looking around for a second Subaru found what he was looking for, nestled in the corner of the room in a small patch of Flesh was one of the weezers, splattering and coughing as it spewed out poisonous gas into the air.

But its days of poisoning the air were quickly numbered as Subaru manoeuvred himself into the right position, before shooting at the creature with his plasma cutter, his first shot missed but his second and third shots hit home and quickly cut the creature to bits.

"All right, just one left" Subaru muttered to himself, as he began to make his way back through the maze-like environment that was the refrigeration unit, Instead of having to waste more stasis on the electric generator, from this side of it Subaru was able to deactivate it with a holographic holographic control panel on its backside.

Allowing him to pass freely and back down through the large fleshy lips of the corruption and back into the main Refrigeration entry area, after orienting himself Subaru activated his magnetic boots, which quickly clamped his feet down to the floor allowing him to walk like normal again.

But after exiting the zero gravity environment, and using the stasis recharge station once more Subaru stopped as he made his way to the exit. on the wall next to the recharge station was a series of scribbles most of which were completely unintelligible to him. Yet above all of that was the hastily scribbled message 'Don't trust their lies' And next to it was a familiar symbol that he hated, it was the Marker the symbol of the Unitologists.

"You don't need to tell me twice about those bastards" Subaru spat with a fair amount of venom, quickly resuming his task of trying to make his way back to the Central grow chamber, which without the giant tentacle trying to drag him away, was a lot easier as he made his way through the fleshy corridor. Once he had made it back to the small vestibule area, Subaru finally emerged back out onto the main catwalk that overlooked the grow chamber.

"Something tells me that my beloved doesn't like whoever these Unitologists are" Rem said matter-of-factly, if her beloved Subaru didn't like something or someone then she didn't either as a point of principle. In fact, just the name alone for some reason sent shivers up her spine, as if it was a name that had nothing but pure evil attached to it like the witch cult.

"Indeed it is quite strange, I wonder what could have happened to make Subaru distrust these Unitologists so adamantly" Reinhart wasn't exactly sure why, but just something about the word 'Unitologists' was enough to send a metaphorical shiver up his spine. As if the very word itself was tainted by something truly unholy. but he disregarded the feeling because surely he was just imagining things... right?

"If Big Bro doesn't like them then it's very likely they are not good people," Felt said matter-of-factly, if there was one thing about Subaru think she trusted more than anything, it was his uncanny ability to see and sense somebody's true character. And if these Unitologists or whoever the hell they were, were somebody that Subaru disliked then that was enough for her to say she didn't like them either.

"Judging by the name maybe it's some kind of religious group, in which I can see why Subaru would be distrusting of them" Frederica couldn't help it give her two cents on it. After all, despite always at least getting a sense of somebody before she judged their character, Frederica could safely say that her run-ins with the witch cult had made her extremely wary of anyone under the banner of organised "religion"

"S-something about that word isn't right... It just feels wrong" Otto couldn't help but mutter quietly to himself. As his words suggested, something about the word Unitologists just didn't sit right with him, it was as if the very word itself carried a dark legacy that he was completely unaware of yet could instinctually feel.

Subaru wasted no time as he quickly made his way back to the main country lift descending down to the main grow chamber floor, and towards the nutrient containment area which was adjacent to the gantry lift.

"Alright, let's try this again" Subaru quickly activated the nutrient rat replacement cycle, the large glass shutters quickly opening up as a new that was ready to be put into place, but just as it was about to do so Subaru quickly shot a blast of stasis at it. Bringing the mechanism to a near standstill and giving him just enough time to run around to the other side, finally catching sight of the weezer which had made itself very at home inside the nutrient vat containers.

But its cosy and fleshy abode was quickly interrupted as Subaru emptied the last of his plasma cutter energy cell into the creature, which had the desired effect as the creature quickly keeled over its body in multiple pieces, as the stasis wore off and the nutrient vet exchange process was complete, the thick glass shutters closing again, ceiling off the creature's corpse from the rest of the ship.

"Kendra I think I've got them all" Subaru quickly opened up a rig link to Kendra, while also making a beeline for the exit.

"That's good, I'm not picking up anymore on the scanners so that was the last one. There's a switch in Atmospheric Control to restart the oxygen recycling. Once the air has been flushed and cleaned, you can get into food storage" as Subaru made his way down the large catwalk into the incredibly spacious tank room. He picked up on the slight wobble in her voice as if something had recently scared the ever-living daylights out of her.

But as he took the cargo lift downwards, and made his way past the still corpse of the Guardian, Kendra finally spoke after a long moment of uneasy silence.

"Subaru, I've been reading these crew reports... It says that the crew began experiencing mass hallucinations and dementia. And... well. I just saw my brother on a security monitor. And that's just not possible..." Subaru came to a complete halt as soon as the words left Kendra's mouth, his eyes widening behind his visor as he took it exactly what she had just said.

"Kendra are you-" Subaru tried to say but was quickly cut off.

"I don't want to talk about it alright!... Sorry... just get to atmospheric control and begin the oxygen recycling process. I'll contact you in a bit" The line was quickly cut leaving Subaru completely alone inside the small vestibule just outside of the atmospheric control centre. Yet just the Subaru was about to continue on, he heard her voice for just a moment, whispering in the back of his ear.

"Subaru... where are you going... why won't you talk to me?"

Subaru didn't wait around or even respond to the spectre that was behind him. Instead, he quickened his pace as he quickly made his way back out into the atmospheric control centre. The door to the small and dark corridor quickly slammed shut behind him as he made sure that it was locked permanently.

Emilia didn't say anything yet the fact that the malevolent spectre had revealed itself once again certainly didn't go unnoticed by her. In fact, she tightened her grip on Subaru's hand, as if strengthening her grip was enough to send some kind of positive energy towards Subaru. Of course, it was wishful thinking, but she liked to believe that just her presence and being near Subaru, was enough to combat the malevolent spirit that followed Subaru everywhere he went.

"You again I suppose" Beatrice spat with an unhealthy amount of venom. the spectra that had been hunting her contractor had finally resurfaced after being quiet for so long after Subaru shook it off and rebutted it, She hoped that was enough to ward it off for good, but it seemed that her contract was not so lucky. The spectra that was clinging to her contractor as if it were a piece of animal experiment stuck to the bottom of his shoe, in fact comparing it to excrement wasn't that far off considering that its presence alone was enough to instil disgust in her.

"Whatever you are, I will destroy you for torturing my beloved" Rem muttered quietly under her breath, her eyes taking on a vicious red glow as she imagined eviscerating the unholy spectra that was torturing and tormenting her beloved Subaru.

As Subaru tried to calm his racing heart, his rig suddenly burst to life with loud static, most likely some kind of unknown or faulty transmission quickly linking to his rig. but before he could terminate the connection he suddenly heard another painfully familiar voice.

"Subaru... Where are you?... Help me…"

"Nicole!? Nicole can you hear me!?" Subaru quickly responded to the Undertaker voice of Nicole, rapidly pressing a series of buttons on his wrist to try and boost the signal, yet just as quickly as it came the connection was severed leaving him with nothing but dead silence.

"Damn it... I'm going to find you Nicole, even if it's the last thing I do" Subaru said to absolutely no one, his voice reverberating around the quiet atmospheric control station. but after a moment of absorbing his own words, Subaru quickly made his way to the main control terminal for the atmospheric control system.

A large holographic screen quickly popped up in front of him as he got to work, and after typing away for a minute or two, another larger holographic display popped up in front of him, showing him the oxygen levels, and with a final button press, the atmospheric control system quickly got to work flashing out all of the disgusting poison air, the ships computerised voice quickly echoing around the atmospheric control centre.

"Flushing the air vents. Restoring nitrogen and oxygen levels. Food storage lockdown lifted"

"Good work Subaru, I'm reading fresh oxygen levels from here, I noticed you had trouble moving around in zero gravity earlier. So I'm rerouting something from the store that should help with that" Despite worrying about Nicole and the fact that she was seemingly still trying to contact him, Subaru couldn't help but be slightly intrigued by what exactly Kendra was sending to him. But after walking over to the automatic store and logging in he was surprised and elated to see something that would prove very useful going forward.

And after pressing a series of holographic keys, the front of the store opened up completely allowing Subaru to quickly step inside, Once he had the doors quickly slammed shut behind him. A bright almost eye-piercing white light, shone from between the closed doors, slowly tracing a path down the crack between the doors. Once it had reached the bottom, the doors quickly opened, allowing Subaru in a fresh and upgraded suit to step out, giving a small stretch as he did so, his face scrunching up as he winced from moving his arm a bit too far in one direction. Once Subaru had finished, his helmet quickly unfolded from its concealed compartments, quickly covering his face from view as his brand-new triple triad visor lit up with a brilliant cyan glow.

"So he got a new suit it seems, I don't see much difference from the previous one," Julia said inquisitively, his eyebrow-raising ever so slightly at the new suit that Subaru had just acquired, at first glance, it was mostly identical to the previous one but looking at it closer. Julius could see that there were subtle differences. such as the fact that there was more rib-style armour, mostly clustered around the upper torso and legs. The helmet was also slightly different, with it having a much more bulky and more heavily armoured appearance. the glowing visor also looked to be different as well, the glowing slits being much more angler and Julius would even say more menacing working compared to the previous suit.

"Indeed Julius, it does look similar to the previous one but there are differences" Reinhardt surmised his flawless vision courtesy of his Divine protection of Perfect Vision. Allowing him to see every single almost indiscernible difference between this new suit and the old one. In fact, much like Julia, Reinhardt had also come to the conclusion that this suit was a lot more protected than the previous one, courtesy of all of the new pieces of armour that were not on the old suit.

"Compared to the previous one, this new armour looks like it can take more damage, although I suspected it's still not true battle armour" Despite never really having worn armour during his years as a knight and a soldier for the Kingdom. Wilhelm was still knowledgeable with most forms of armour, this was because of his occupation and as a result, Wilhelm was able to tell that this new suit was definitely more robust than the previous one. But to what extent he couldn't say considering that all the previous suits, Subaru had so far had not been designed as battle armour despite their extraordinarily robust design.

"A good observation Master Wilhelm, it seems to be a similar type to the previous sets, that much is very apparent" Julius responded to Wilhelm's line of thought. despite its definitely more robust appearance, Julius wasn't entirely confident in its ability to actually protect Subaru considering that even though the technology of this world vastly outpaces his own world. It was obvious that these monsters that were roaming the halls of the USG Ishimura, were such a threat that even the hyper-advanced technology of this world struggled against them.

"Hell yeah, Caps got a new suit, maybe this one more fly or something cool like that!" Garfiel said excitedly, the prospect of Subaru acquiring a new suit practically sending his hyperactive mind into overdrive, conjuring up mental images of Subaru doing absolutely amazing things with his brand new battle suit as Garfiel decided to call it.

"While the optimism is appreciated young Garfield, I highly doubt the suit is capable of something like that" Wilhelm couldn't help but chuckle at Garfiel's optimism, Despite the young beast Boy being somewhat abrasive in terms of his personality, Wilhelm could see exactly why Subaru considered in such a close friend, in fact, Garfiel very much reminded will have himself at that age.

"Maybe the suits are somehow responsible for keeping him going despite his injuries~Nyah?" Felix said mostly to himself, still somewhat trying to wrap his head around how exactly Subaru could keep going despite the injuries he had accumulated. Despite broken ribs not necessarily being fatal or debilitating, they were certainly nothing to sneeze at considering that they could easily become fatal if a shard of rib was able to puncture an important organ like your lungs or heart.

Once Subaru had finished inspecting his new suit, he stepped out of the store and back out into the atmospheric control centre, but instead of immediately going to the large round airlock door that led to the food storage. For some inexplicable reason, he decided that stocking up on plasma cutter energy cells would be a good idea, considering that he was currently down to his last one.

As such after a bit of searching around in the store manifest, Subaru eventually purchased 10 fully charged plasma cutter energy cells, clipping as many as he could do his belt before he ran out of space and had to resort to putting some in some of the larger compartments on his belt that were usually reserved for tool storage.

Subaru quickly made his way over to the large round airlock, replacing the empty energy cell in his plasma cutting with a fresh one, just in case any monsters decided to ambush him, while he was trying to deal with whatever the hell was in food storage.

But as the Subaru interacted with the holographic display on the large airlock door, he was in for a massive shock when the door finally opened because on the other side was a giant glass tunnel that was completely surrounded by gross rotten flesh, the half absorbed remains of humans in various states of decomposition and dismemberment easily visible pressed up against the glass.

Yet even with the gruesome imagery Subaru pressed on, keeping his gaze firmly forward as he made his way towards the end of the large glass tunnel, his eyes quickly finding a small personal tablet lying on the floor which he quickly scooped up and pressed to play, seeing what kind of message this one had for him.

"Hydroponics log. This is Dr. Cross. It... It's hard for me to believe what I'm seeing here, this is crazy, absolutely crazy. I'm heading to the mining deck. I heard that's where survivors are gathering. Jacob... I'll wait for you there, please be safe" Subaru couldn't help but feel sorry for this poor Dr. Cross, she clearly saw what he was currently walking through and she obviously just couldn't handle it, in fact, if it wasn't for all of the horrific things that Subaru had experienced which had somewhat desensitized him, he probably wouldn't have been able to handle the site before him either.

Yet returning his Focus to the mission, Subaru quickly made his way to the end of the glass tunnel, coming to another large round circular bulkhead door, which as he approached automatically opened allowing him to step inside a small space, It was a bit smaller in diameter than the previous glass tunnel, and the little volume did have most taken up by large pipes and circular tanks.

But what Subaru was actually here for was a small control panel off to the left side of the room, the circular socket on its front the same size as the tank of poison that had been clipped to his belt the entire time. And with his goal finally in front of him, Subaru unclip the tank from his belt, before placing it into the socket on the terminal and after a series of buttons. The cylinder quickly sunk into the terminal, as the poison that was contained within began to be pumped into the food storage ventilation system.

"Unknown antigen injected into filtration system"

The computerised voice of the Ishimura, filled the space around Subaru as the poison got to work. In fact, he could tell that it was working because the tentacles that were previously covering the access door to food storage began to shrivel up and retreat back into the fleshy walls, which was quickly followed by what could only be described as a low-pitched rumble, that rattled every bone in Subaru's body.

"Dammit, Subaru the poison wasn't strong enough. That thing is still alive in there. You need to get in there and kill it before it contaminates the entire ship!" Kendra's frantic voice quickly came over his rig link, Subaru felt his feet moving before his mind did, quickly covering the small distance between the console and the door to food storage, the large circular door quickly opening up for him to enter.

And even though he didn't know what was waiting for him on the other side, Subaru knew that if he didn't stop whatever it was now, there would be no hope for him or anyone else on this hell hole of a ship.

"Please be safe, and don't do anything stupid" Emilia tightened her grip on the sleeping Subaru's hand, despite not knowing what was waiting for him on the other side of that door. She already did know that Subaru was putting himself in danger once again, whether he knew it or not.

"My contractor will be fine, there is no need to worry I suppose" It was a bold-faced lie and Beatrice knew it, in fact, the lie itself was more to satiate the half-elf's anxiety than anyone else's. But despite that, Beatrice still had faith in her contractor regardless of her words, after all, he had already beaten so many other obstacles, even without the aid of his advanced technology or even return by death, so there was no doubt in her mind that Subaru, her contractor would succeed against whatever was waiting for him.

"I want to believe that Beatrice but..." Emilia trailed off, her silence hanging in the air like a vicious miasma. It wasn't that she didn't believe in Subaru's ability to overcome obstacles, far from it actually, everything she had seen in the viewings previously showed her that Subaru above anyone else could overcome any obstacle placed in front of him. But it still didn't stop Emilia from worrying about Subaru's deteriorating mental health, which certainly wasn't helped by the vicious spectra that were hunting him and using whatever tragic event happened in his past against him.

"Emilia... I can understand where you're coming from... But Subaru has shown himself to be more resilient than any of us could have imagined, no matter the obstacle placed in front of him, I know he will get through this, I'm certain of it!" Crusch finished her little speech, adding a bit of extra energy to the very end, which had the desired effect as Emilia's somewhat downcast expression quickly picked up, the Sparkle returning to her amethyst eyes as Emilia sent a small but thankful smile towards the green haired Dutchess.

"Thank you Crusch, reeeally appreciate it," Emilia said, her unusual habit of elongating certain words making a surprise return once more, much to the amusement of those around her.

"The fact that you see me we have no faith and my beloved is depressing," Rem said with a dejected sigh, the snarkiness in her voice being very present, yet before Emilia could even think about responding to the blue-haired beast maid.

Rem suddenly felt someone hit her on the side of the head, not enough to hurt but definitely enough that she would have felt it if she was not paying attention. But turning her now murderous gaze to the sauce of whoever hit her, she found none other than Frederica, head maid, of the Roswaal household, looking at her with a look of thorough disapproval.

"Rem, I've been tolerant of your behaviour for far too long, Lady Emilia has done nothing to provoke your anger" Frederica paused for a moment seemingly trying to collect herself before continuing "In fact, your behaviour is downright disgusting, she might not be the master of the household like Lord Roswaal, but you are still obligated to serve her, and treat her with the respect of that comes with her station and yours" The blonde haired maid finally finished her tirade, everyone being thoroughly speechless.

"Frederica is right sister, I don't know what has gotten into you recently, but your behaviour has been downright abhorrent, and unbecoming of a maid of the Roswaal household" Ram despite not wanting to do this simply had to put her foot down, her sister's strange behaviour and constant jabs Emilia were quite frankly beginning to get on her nerves, and also worry her as to why her sister was acting like this.

"Frederica, it's fine, I don't know why she hates me, but I will not lower myself to her level by responding," Emilia said with an almost authoritative tone to her voice, her usual soft and gentle amethyst eyes, taking on a much harder edge to them than anyone had ever seen before. In fact, Frederica couldn't help but flinch ever so slightly, because, for just a moment due to Emilia's appearance, it felt like she was staring into the eyes of the Witch of envy herself.

"O-Of course lady Emilia, please forgive me for overstepping my bounds," Frederica said hastily quickly giving a small courteous bowel towards Emilia before retreating back to her seat, where are brother Garfiel was still looking after the unconscious Petra for her.

"Now that's the attitude of a king I might say," Crusch said quietly to herself, a small almost imperceptible proud smile making its way under her lips, at Emilia's display of warranty and maturity. However, her words were not as quiet as she thought.

"Did you say something Crusch~Nyah?" Felix said abruptly, catching Crusch completely off guard, as she desperately tried to think of an appropriate response.

"N-Nothing Felix I didn't say anything," Crusch said hastily, managing to control her stammer just long enough to convince Felix, although, by the sceptical look on his face, she could tell that he was entirely convinced but decided to drop the issue regardless much to her relief.

"Despite Subaru's technology I'm still worried, I don't need my divine protections to know that there is something truly monstrous waiting behind that door" Reinhart couldn't stop the worry from swelling up within him, in fact, even if a divine protection of not feeling worried existed it would have done absolutely nothing to make him feel any better about the situation. There was just something about the situation that made Reinhart feel like it was a turning point and that everything going forward would spiral downwards out of control.

"I feel much the same Reinhardt, he is in no condition to be fighting anything right now, but considering the circumstances there are no other options" Wilhelm expressed, much to the surprise of his red-headed grandson. Even though he knew Subaru was in no position to be fighting anymore considering the known extent of injuries. True to Wilhelm's words there were simply no other options, considering that Subaru was the only one that was in a position to actually do anything about whatever was behind that large steel door.

"I suppose you're right G-grandfather" Reinhardt stuttered for a moment, something that surprised him because he thought he was not capable of doing so because of his divine protections. But ultimately his grandfather was correct despite Subaru not being in any condition to be fighting, there were simply no other options left.

"Even though it is frustrating, I suppose we can do, is sit back and hope that Subaru makes it through this" Julius's words were blunt and to the point, despite not wanting to brew to be anywhere near any kind of danger considering his injuries, he knew there was nothing he could actually do about it, despite have frustrated and angry it made him.

"I'm sure that little bro is going to make it through this just fine, although I get the feeling that it's going to descend into a crap show real quick" Al couldn't stop a nervous chuckle from escaping his mouth. everything he was seeing now left a bad taste in his mouth because it almost felt like he was a teenager again spending all of his free time watching horror movies.

"While I appreciate the reassurance, I don't think comments like that are going to help Al" Reinhardt said with his usual politeness, and even though he did not believe in jinxes, he couldn't help thinking feeling in his stomach, as if something unforeseen that he didn't know about had been changed in the background.

"Yeah, come on! Don't just jinx it like that, especially when caps actually doing well for once!" Garfiel said with an angry tone, not appreciating the helmeted man's comment in the slightest.

Subaru crossed the threshold into the almost pitch-black environment of food storage, his body immediately becoming weightless as his magnetic boots activated keeping him firmly planted on the floor. But did not last as it was quickly replaced by blinding white fluorescent light, Subaru's eyes even behind his helmet strained for a moment as they adjusted to the sudden change in light level. Yet as they did Subaru finally saw what had been causing all of this trouble, it was a creature... no, a thing that even put the size of a white whale itself to shame.

"Nanite kotoda..." Subaru said in his native language, completely shocked, as the leviathan that took up most of the food storage seemingly woke up from its slumber, quickly letting out a gigantic and powerful roar that would have sent Subaru flying if it wasn't for his magnetic boots.

The leviathan was awake and it was hungry and its prey had come right to it, but Subaru quickly recovered from the leviathan's powerful roar, he had come too far to give up now, and not even this leviathan that stood before him, nothing would stop him from finding Nicole and rescuing her from this living nightmare.

Emilia was completely speechless, her mouth simply hanging open in complete shock, is she taking the size of the literal leviathan Subaru had to fight? In fact, it was almost like something out of a dark comedy, Subaru was so small compared to it that he was basically an ant trying to fight a dragon, and if she had worried before, Emilia's worry for her knight had truly been kicked into maximum overdrive.

"Why can't the universe be fair to you I suppose," Beatrice said with a slightly sad chuckle, turning her attention away from the absolute leviathan that took up the majority of the screen and to the sleeping face of her contractor. His face was so peaceful yet, knowing that he was most likely dreaming of something pleasant, did very little to reassure Beatrice that one day he would experience this torment. Considering that the warden at the very beginning of all of this had said that this was Subaru's certain future and it could not be changed no matter what they did.

"Subaru my beloved... Please run! Turn around and just run! Please I'm begging you!" Rem was finding it very hard to control her emotions, Despite the creature's gruesome appearance and size not phasing her too much, she knew that even at his physical peak, Subaru was in no position to actually take on a creature of suction gargantuan size.

Just in his Battle with the white whale alone, he had almost died at least three or four different times and that was with her assistance. So the fact that he was going to take on a creature that was somehow even bigger than that, completely by himself while also being incredibly injured, made her almost lose hope completely.

Ram simply said nothing, her mouth was firmly planted on the floor her eyes as wide as dinner plates. The sheer size of this literal Leviathan simply left her speechless. Despite never having seen the white whale in person, the story she had heard of its size even the most exaggerated ones paled in comparison to the true scale of this monstrosity. And the fact that Subaru of all people was expected to somehow combat this creature in his injured state and completely alone, made her feel insulted simply on Subaru's behalf. It was like this entire scenario was a giant dark joke, and despite her sense of humour being as black as coal, this joke wasn't funny in the slightest.

"H-How is something like that even P-possible" Frederica was glad that Petra was not awake to see this. the leviathan truly lived up to its name it's impossible size, in fact, the sheer size of it was a mockery of nature itself. Something this large and protest didn't deserve to exist, Even the White Whale despite the terror that it had Unleashed upon the world in its centuries of life, at least had something that could almost be called natural beauty.

"You know what I take back what I said... Cap get the hell out of there now!" Garfiel said abruptly, his attitude about Subaru facing down the creature that was Leviathan doing a complete 180 when he actually saw what Subaru was up against. Something this big and monstrous could not be killed even by one man or even an entire army, in fact, Garfiel for just a moment thought that even that even the sword Saint himself would struggle against the beast of such proportions.

Otto a moment simply lost a brain function, his mouth hanging open in complete shock and terrified awe. The leviathan truly lived up to its name, dwarfing the biggest creatures he had ever seen, and even making the White Whale itself look like a shrimp by comparison.

"By the Dragon..." Reinhardt was left completely speechless, even His Divine protections all went simultaneously blank as if not even they could truly understand the creature that he was looking at. This leviathan was a creature of such size, that even with his most powerful divine protections he wasn't entirely sure he could destroy it with a single blow, like he had done with puck in one of Subaru's failed loops. and to make it even worse Subaru somebody who, through no fault of his own had no special powers other than return by death, and was somehow expected to take on this colossal monstrosity, with not even a weapon but a mining tool repurposed as a weapon.

"How... H-How is he going to kill that thing!" Felt didn't even feel sick looking at the leviathan, instead, she was just completely gobsmacked. This thing that Subaru was expected to fight with nothing but a repurposed mining tool, was a complete mockery to everything sane, in fact Despite Felt often heating cowards, this could be one of the few times that she would honestly not fault Subaru for turning tail and running in the opposite direction.

"It's size... it is big, no it's bigger than the white whale!" Despite liking to think that she was not afraid of anything, Crusch couldn't stop herself from feeling absolute terror from looking up this abomination in front of her. Its sheer size which put the white whale to shame in every respect was something that pushed her mind to its very limits. How could something so stupid and abhorrent even exist, The White Whale was a true demon that had been a curse on the world itself, yet this leviathan just by its existence, was somehow equal if not worse than the white whale had ever been in its centuries of existence.

Wilhelm remained completely silent, get the look of absolute shock and awe on his face was easily apparent, in fact, his shock was such that his mouth hung open loosely. his eyes bulged out of his sockets as he took in every inch of the leviathan's disgusting form. even the most vile creatures that have faced in combat paled in comparison to this true eldritch abomination, and the fact that Subaru somebody who was incredibly injured and was equipped with nothing but a mining tool was expected to defeat this truly abominable creature, was practically an insult to Wilhelm.

Felix couldn't contain it, quickly leaning over to the side of the seat he was sitting in, and letting out a torrent of disgusting vomit, the Familiar dining sensation of bile caused tears to begin to leak from his eyes. Obviously, the creature before him was eldridge in proportions, yet that wasn't the part that made him vomit so profusely, it was the fact that he could tell just by looking at it, that this leviathan was made up of hundreds no thousands of dead human beings, each one seemingly expertly sculpted into the form of the leviathan, making up all of the elements of its body. It was unnatural and just beyond vile, the fact that the human form could be twisted in such a way to make up a creature of such disgusting proportions.

"I don't think all of the knights in the Kingdom to take on that thing..." Anastasia was horrified and even disgusted beyond belief, the leviathan true form was truly an unholy sight to behold. Yet any of the horror and disgust was really present on her face, the leviathan's sheer presence simply left her flabbergasted and gobsmacked. a creature of such Titanic size was just beyond her imagination, even The White Whale which was created by wonderful witches of sin, was made in her mind to look more like a stuffed cuddly animal than the demon it truly was.

"I'm inclined to agree... lady Anastasia" Despite Julius managing to keep a somewhat straight face, his eyes revealed just how disgusted and shocked he was. The fact that Subaru with his injuries and his improvised weapon was somehow expected to take on this titanic beast was just insulting both to Julius and to Subaru himself

"The biggest baddest Resident Evil boss ain't got shit on that thing" Al could honestly say that he is now seen everything, the white whale was bad enough, considering that it was a giant flying Moby Dick look alike, that could simply erase you from the very memory of the world if it wanted to. but now that the leviathan's true form had finally been revealed, Al could honestly say that it truly lived up to its name, considering that it looked like something that would be trapped in the worst nightmare of HP Lovecraft himself.

Roswaal wasn't entirely sure what to make up a leviathan, Its overall physical size and presence were indeed formidable, considering that it easily made the white whale look small by comparison, but there was something else about it that rubbed him the wrong way. The only way that the magician could describe it, was that it felt like the leviathan was a lot smarter and more cunning than its initial ghastly appearance with left on. In fact, for a brief moment, it felt like Roswaal was being watched, and not by something lurking in the shadows of the theatre... no it felt like the leviathan itself for staring into his soul.

"Come on you fucking thing! You've already put me through enough trouble!" Subaru shouted at the top of his lungs, bringing the plasma cutter up aggressively, his anger beginning to overwhelm him, after all of the trouble that this creature and its kin had put him through.

The leviathan responded in kind, letting loose another deep and mighty roar, as one of its large almost school bus size tentacles quickly slithered out of the fleshy home, slamming down onto the metal deck plates of a food storage area, and beginning to roll at Subaru with almost impossible speeds. But Subaru was not so easily caught off guard as he quickly deactivated his magnetic boots, his feet leaving the floor as he quickly activated his RCS thrusters, managing to just barely dodge the leviathan's attack.

And with its first attack missing, the tentacle quickly began to retreat back into its fleshy orifice, but that's when Subaru noticed something. The tentacle despite its enormous size was almost identical to the drag tentacles that he had encountered before, which meant that about halfway down the tentacle's length was a large pus-filled fleshy bulb, that Subaru knew if he shot enough times would result in a massive gory explosion.

But before Subaru could take advantage of this newfound weakness of the Leviathan, the massive tentacle managed to fully retract into its fleshy home, completely covering up the massive bulbous weak spot. Yet the leviathan was not done with its attack, in the blink of an eye another one of its massive tentacles shot out, Subaru only managing to push himself mostly out of its way with the tentacle managing to glance him. Causing him to start spinning out of control before his RCS thrusters quickly activated stopping his uncontrolled spin.

"Damn that was close" Subaru said, as the massive bus-sized pentacle quickly began to retract, either in an attempt to strike him again or in retreat Subaru wasn't exactly sure. But he wasn't going to let either of those scenarios happen as he quickly aimed and fired at its bulbous weak spot, managing to land 5 clean shots into it which immediately caused the weak spot to explode in a violent shower of pus and blood. The leviathan letting out a loud painful howl, as the blood-gushing stump that once was a tentacle quickly retracted completely into its body.

"That's it Subaru! Teach that disgusting thing a lesson!" Emilia shouted a bit louder than she necessarily needed to. But the sheer emotion of seeing Subaru actually manage to take on this titanic beast and managing to inflict a significant wound was too much for her to contain. It was like watching the battle against the white whale all over again, except this time there was no safety net in the form of return by death

"If only Betty was there to help you I suppose, it would be no trouble for the both of us together," Beatrice said mostly herself, despite feeling absolute elation at the fact that Subaru had managed to inflict a wound onto the Beast. It didn't change the fact that she felt somewhat downtrodden that he had a fight this truly eldridge abomination completely by himself.

"Subaru is doing well but he shouldn't get too confident, he is still at a massive disadvantage" Crusch military Instincts kick in almost instantly, the fear from before almost completely forgotten as her mind went into battle mode. even though Subaru had managed to inflict a wound onto the Beast, considering that the Beast had both a size and reach advantage with the size of its tentacles.

"Although now that the creature is down one tentacle, the playing field has been evened ever so slightly," She said after a moment of contemplation, If Subaru could take out some more of its tentacles then he would definitely stand a better chance.

"Subaru will win Crusch! I'm sure of it!" Emilia said again with her voice considerably raised. Crusch for her part simply nodded in agreement much to Emilia's approval, despite their initial assessment of the situation with the reveal of the leviathan, both women knew that he now had a chance, even if it was only a small one it was still a chance.

"That's it, my beloved, rip that disgusting thing to shreds," Rem said with a dark edge to her voice, yet almost paradoxically her face was one of nothing but pure unadulterated love. Subaru her beloved would make it through this no matter what, and she knew that for certain, she had always known that. From the very moment that Rem had fallen in love with him, she knew that Subaru could overcome any obstacle that was in his path, his performance in the battle against the white whale had vindicated that to her, and she knew that this battle would be no different he would be triumphant and that was a certainty.

"Hell yeah! Cap actually has a fighting chance!" Seeing Subaru actually inflict a wound onto the leviathan. Immediately made Garfiel's spirits rise high, if the gargantuan creature could be hurt then it was possible that it could be killed, which considering that Subaru had managed to take down the white whale with nothing but his brains, meant that there was indeed a chance that he could indeed do the same of the leviathan.

"Indeed Garfiel, if it can be hurt that means it can be killed" Reinhardt had a look of pure determination on his face, the fact that Subaru could injure the creature, meant that he could kill it if he could find somewhere to do so. "Subaru will find somewhere to dispatch it, I'm sure of it," He said confidently, Garfield turning to look at the red-headed knight with an expression of agreement

"Hell yeah, he will! This is Cap we're talking about after all, if he could kill the white whale that he can kill this ugly-looking son of a bi-" Garfiel didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as somebody quickly smacked him on top of the head.

"Garfiel what have I said about your language young man!" Frederica said with a disapproving glare, Garfiel holding the top of his head in pain as he averted his gaze from his angry-looking sister, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. "Garfiel," Frederica said with a disapproving glare. Garfiel winced and averted his gaze from his angry sister, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead.

"Tsk tsk, You should mind your language I suppose Tiger Boy," Beatrice said with mock indignation, managing to lighten the mood in the theatre as she failed to keep an incredibly smug-looking smile off her face, which had the desired effect as Garfiel's face went red with embarrassment and a bit of anger, but considering his sister was still glaring at him he held back any insults he wanted to throw at the little smug spirit.

Subaru warily kept his plasma cutter trained at the leviathan, his mind moving a mile a minute trying to formulate his next plan of attack. But the leviathan suddenly did something unexpected and completely different from the previous attack, its large central mouth suddenly opened up like a butterfly, a loud powerful roar emanating from it with something quickly being expelled from its throat. Subaru managing to dodge out of the way just in time as a large clump of flesh and pus quickly impacted the area where he had been, exploding violently in a cloud of pus and blood.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Subaru's said flabbergasted as the leviathan ready another living bomb to be ejected from its throat. Yet before the leviathan could vomit up its fleshy bomb, Subaru had a brainwave, quickly bringing his plasma cutter up, and shooting the fresh bomb that was still lodged in the leviathan's throat. The flesh and pus bomb exploded instantly and violently, which had the desired effect as a seemingly hurt the leviathan immensely, the titanic creature letting out a series of painful wales, its mouth quickly clamping shut as its massive body convulsed violently.

Subaru was caught off guard when one of the leviathan's tentacles shot towards him at full speed, colliding with him and knocking the wind out of him. The impact sent bolts of pain racing through his chest. Before Subaru could recover, the tentacle retracted towards the leviathan, its giant butterfly-shaped mouth opening wide as Subaru saw its massive teeth smashing together, seemingly in anticipation of chewing him to bits.

Subaru seeing his death rapidly approaching, quickly and haphazardly began to shoot at the face of the tentacle that was clamped around his body, emptying his entire plasma cutter energy cell before quickly replacing it with a brand new one. After nearly 20 frantic shots from his plasma cutter, the tentacle had so much flesh stripped from it that its grip loosened considerably, allowing Subaru to quickly wiggle himself free and activate his RCS.

He propelled himself away from the leviathan at immense speed, but that didn't stop the Creature from extending a mandible from its throat, The leviathan's large bony plates that acted like teeth just scraped against the bottom of Subaru's boots as he flew towards the other end of the room, momentarily out of reach of the leviathan

But the leviathan wasn't done yet as it quickly used its last remaining fully functional tentacle to try and grab Subaru once again, but Subaru anticipated this, as he waited for the very last moment to move out of the path of the tentacle, it's massive bulk quickly smashing into the food storage container walls, and much to Subaru satisfaction getting stuck on the twisted metal from its impact.

This gave Subaru ample time to quickly target its weak spot, emptying the last of his second plasma cutter energy cell into it, which immediately caused it to explode violently and a shower of pus and blood, the leviathan letting out another painful roar, as it's fleshy stump quickly retracted into its body.

"How do you like that! You fucking rip off Cthulhu!" Subaru screamed at the top of his lungs, quickly exchanging the energy cell in his plasma cutter for another fresh one. The leviathan responded in kind to his insult, letting loose another powerful and angry roar that almost sent Subaru tumbling backwards from the sheer force of it.

"He's doing it! Subaru's actually winning!" Emilia could feel the pride welling up within her. although for a moment there it looked like Subaru was about to become the leviathan's next meal, he had managed to escape by the skin of his teeth once again and managed to disarm the leviathan of all of its remaining tentacles. Meaning that he had a fighting chance of actually being able to kill it.

"Subaru being himself once again I see... by cutting it extremely close and somehow managing to make it work for him" Crusch let out a slightly nervous chuckle. Subaru's habit of somehow narrowly avoiding danger by the very skin of his teeth and somehow managing to have a positive outcome for himself in the process had shone through once again with renewed vigour. It was like the battle of the white whale all over again, except this time she had to simply watch and observe instead of actually participating in the battle itself.

"That's what my knight does best Crusch, he's always getting himself into danger and making me worry, yet he somehow always comes out on top" Emilia practically beamed from pointy ear to pointy ear. looking down at Subaru's sleeping face which was comfortably nestled in Beatrice's lap, she so desperately wanted to call him a dunderhead, and for him to respond back with one of his usual comments about her being old-fashioned.

She wanted the interaction, and Emilia wanted to hear his young and youthful voice again. But unfortunately, she would have to settle for watching his older and gruffer on-screen counterpart who was currently locked into a life-or-death battle with a leviathan of titanic proportions.

"My contractor is an expert in what his world calls a slippery escape" Beatrice couldn't help but crack a small smile, remembering the times that she and Subaru would spend simply conversing about the differences between her and his world.

One of the things that Beatrice had inherited from her mother was her insatiable lust for anything new and interesting, and all of the trivia and titbits that Subaru would share about his original homeworld were enough to satisfy her cravings for new knowledge. "Although when he wakes up, I will give him a tongue lashing for making Betty worry I suppose," she said with a small huff of annoyance, but despite that Beatrice couldn't keep a small smile off her face, looking down at Subaru's peaceful sleeping face.

"Being an expert at escaping dangerous situations is one thing, and then there is just Subaru" Crusch couldn't stop herself from chuckling, if there was one thing that could truly categorise Subaru, it was his strange and sometimes scary ability to sidestep dangerous situations at the very last moment. of course in the past, this was because of return by death, but now it seems that decades in his future, his dangerous sensors have been honed to a razor-sharp edge.

Rem was proud.. no she wasn't just proud, she was absolutely elated that her beloved Subaru had managed to inflict significant injuries on the leviathan, in fact almost made her heart swoon simply because of how seemingly heroic and masculine Subaru had been during literally disarming the leviathan. Although much to her worry it did look like for a moment that he was about to become the leviathan's next snack, but thankfully that had not come about with him managing to find a way out of the situation, much like her Subaru always did.

"Of course, that idiot would cut it so close once again, I swear it feels like sometimes he actually wants to get himself killed" Ram let out a disappointed and frustrated sigh, I'm like numerous times before she didn't intend her words to be direct insults, instead it was merely an observation about the fact of Subaru was constantly putting himself or getting himself into nearly deadly situations, and only just managing to escape it by the skin of his teeth.

"Sister... please don't say that" Rem quickly responded to her sister's words, sending her a disapproving look which Ram responded with a look of her own that simply conveyed 'You know I'm right'

"Thank the Dragon. Getting rid of its tentacles with a smart choice, considering that it has put Subaru on somewhat of an even footing with it now," Frederica said with a sigh of relief, loosening her grip on the still unconscious Petra in her lap. "Although, I get the feeling the Leviathan is much smarter than it seems, considering its actions?"

"Yeah you might be onto something sis, That thing isn't as stupid as it looks" Garfield straightened himself in his seat, as he responded to his sister's line of thought. Despite not being incredibly knowledgeable when it came to matters of judging the intelligence of a creature. His animalistic Instincts were more than enough to tell him that the leviathan was much smarter than its appearance and actions

Frederica shared a look with Garfield for a moment, both of them knowing that their animalistic Instincts courtesy of their beastmen heritage were very rarely wrong. In fact, despite both of them having changed so much over the time they were part of, they both had learnt to trust their animalistic instincts as they grew.

"It might not be that Powerful, but shooting the same spot repeatedly with the plasma cutter does seem to be effective" Anastasia mused mostly herself, even though the plasma cutter was not exactly the right weapon for taking on such a colossal beast, it seemed that if used appropriately like Subaru was using it, it could still be somewhat useful against large creatures like the leviathan.

"Subaru might have relieved the leviathan of its tentacles, but it is still deadly and far from defeated," Julius said warily, despite being relieved that Subaru had managed to incapacitate the leviathan's tentacles, which were seemingly its main source of damage. Julius had to remind himself that Subaru wasn't out of the woods yet, considering that the leviathan still had its organic bombs which it could use against Subaru.

Subaru quickly recovered as the leviathan opened its mouth once again, quickly shooting out several flesh bombs in rapid succession. All of them tumbled through the zero gravity environment directly at high speed, however, Subaru wouldn't fall for the same trick as he effortlessly dodged around all of the flesh bombs, the majority of them exploding as soon as they impacted any hard surface in their path.

But Subaru noticed that one of them didn't, instead harmlessly bouncing off the walls and beginning to lazily float through the air, which immediately gave Subaru an idea, and as the leviathan readied itself to launch another garage of living bombs. The leviathan, opened its mouth once again a flesh bomb was clearly visible in its throat ready to be launched.

Subaru quickly grabbed the unexploded fresh bomb with his kinesis module, and with a powerful blast of kinesis, the bomb was sent straight back at the leviathan. And Subaru's aim was almost perfect, as the bomb quickly went down the throat of the leviathan, both flesh bombs contacting each other and exploding violently in its throat, the eldritch abomination letting out an Incredibly loud and painful roar as a stream of blood and gore spewed from its mouth.

"Oh come on! it can make more of those things now!? How is that fair?" felt exclaimed with a look of shock and disbelief. The fact that the leviathan had tentacles bigger than any carriage she had ever seen was one thing, but now, it could shoot out living bombs like a giant living cannon was just ridiculous.

"Who cares if it was fair or not! Did you see how Cap used one of its own bombs against it!" Garfiel practically shouted, his excitement levels completely through the roof by this point. Subaru was holding his own against the leviathan, which made Garfield forget any fear he had before of Subaru not being able to stand up to it.

"I must say, Lady Felt, that Garfiel is most definitely right, Subaru using one of the creature's own bombs against it was an incredibly ingenious move" Reinhardt could honestly say that he was impressed, Subaru's ingenuity and quick thinking had shone in the through once again, In fact Reinhart would have never considered using one of the creatures own bombs against it.

"I can't help but agree Reinhardt" Wilhelm said matter-of-factly, stealing an immense amount of Pride at the fact that Subaru had once again demonstrated his true ingenuity and resourcefulness when in battle.

Garfield didn't say anything, but his cheeks did take on a vibrant shade of red, an unembarrassed look pressing his face. Having two of the most renowned Warriors that were currently living agree with your point, was practically a childhood dream come true for him.

"So it seems that Subaru does have some brain cells knocking around in that skull of his" Ram said with a small chuckle. Even though her comment was somewhat negative in tone, she couldn't help but be impressed by Subaru's ingenuity, using one of the leviathan's own living bombs against it was certainly an effective strategy that she wouldn't have thought of initially.

As the leviathan continued to spasm and cry out in pain, Subaru readied himself for any potential counterattack however much to his surprise and shock, the leviathan suddenly sprouted two brand new tentacles, from the exact spots where he he had cut off the previous ones, the last partially destroyed tentacle quickly retracting into the leviathan's body before or after a moment it emerged again with almost no sign of the previous damage.

"Come on! Just how much punishment can you take dammit" Subaru shouted anger evident in his voice as the leviathan responded in kind, letting out a powerful roar as one of its tentacles quickly shot from its body, obviously intending on grabbing hold of Subaru and hopefully succeeding in eating him like it had tried to do earlier.

But Subaru wasn't falling for that trick again as he quickly dodged to the side of the tentacle, unlike before when the tentacle crashed straight into the food storage wall plating. This time it redirected its trajectory, the small appendages on the tentacle head managing to grab hold of Subaru's leg, and with Subaru now when its grip the tentacle began to retract, intending on pulling Subaru into the leviathan's waiting mouth.

"I don't think so!" Subaru despite being shaken around by the tentacle, he managed to hold steady for just long enough to shoot at the tentacle's weak spot, all of his shots landing home and causing the vulnerable weak spot to explode violently in a shower of pus and blood. But as Subaru managed to wiggle himself free of the now limp and lifeless tentacle, another very much alive and active one quickly barrelled towards him, obviously trying to finish what its fallen brother had failed to do.

But Subaru managed to dodge around the tentacle, its massive fleshy form missing him by inches as it rocketed past him at impossible speeds. But this was exactly what Subaru wanted to happen as he quickly targeted the fleshy weak spot, the result being the same as the previous one with it exploding violently in a shower of gore after being shot enough times. Subaru again wasted no time and rocketed towards the opposite end of the food storage chamber, turning around to face the leviathan once again, which was clearly being affected by its injuries, considering its sluggish movement and the sheer amount of its own blood floating in the air.

It was dying, and both Subaru and the leviathan knew it, but much like Subaru the leviathan wouldn't go down so easily, and despite injuries the creature, let out one final massive roar, for the first time since the battle began, It was a three giant yellow glowing eyes opening up to stare down Subaru directly.

Subaru himself was momentarily caught off guard by the leviathan massive eyes staring at him. For a moment it felt like some kind of small almost imperceptible pressure gently poking at the back of his brain as if something was being implanted there. But whatever it was Subaru quickly shook it off, not knowing that the seeds of something that would completely unravel his psyche had been implanted in the back of his mind by the leviathan.

Beatrice took a sharp intake of breath, quickly bringing a hand up to her head as a small bolt of pain shot through her head. It was small and almost imperceptible but she felt it. Something had just launched itself on the Subaru's mind, but as quickly as it appeared it suddenly disappeared, but Beatrice knew that it was still there, simply hiding its presence and waiting for the opportune moment.

"Beatrice... what happened?" Emilia's concerned voice caused Beatrice to jump momentarily, turning to look at the half-elf who had a look of concern plastered delicate face.

"I'm... unsure I suppose" Beatrice responded truthfully, She wasn't sure exactly what had just happened. It was a momentary lapse of pain and strangely enough the feeling of there being someone else in their contractor and spirit connection. But as quickly as that came it seemingly disappeared yet Beatrice knew that whatever it was. It was still lurking in the darkness of Subaru's mind.

Subaru quickly put a fresh energy cell into his plasma cutter, and not a moment too soon as the leviathan launched its desperate act, its last remaining tentacle quickly swiped at him and managed to make a connection, which sent Subaru uncontrollably flying across food storage like a fly that has just been swatted. But luckily the force behind the impact was not great enough to actually injure him, instead, all it did was momentarily wind Subaru before he quickly recovered by activating his RCS to stop his out-of-control spinning.

However the tentacle quickly came at him again, intending to smack into Subaru like a giant battering ram, but much like before Subaru employed the same tactic, waiting for the very last moment to quickly propel himself out of the way of the tentacle's path, which left is weak spot completely exposed. Allowing Subaru to quickly put five well-placed shots into it, causing the pus-filled inflamed weak spot to explode in another fountain of blood and gore the leviathan letting out more painful howls as lost its last appendage.

But the leviathan wasn't down for the count yet, Instead much to Subaru's growing annoyance, it began launching a haphazard stream of living bombs from its throat, yet unlike before where the fresh bombs were almost as fast as bullets. This time they were actually slow enough that Subaru could dodge around them quite easily, which really showed that the leviathan was truly on its last metaphorical legs.

And many of them much to Subaru's satisfaction didn't even explode from hitting a hard surface, instead simply bouncing off any surface they contacted and beginning to lazily float around the food storage chamber. But somewhere deep down inside himself, Subaru knew that it would only take one more to actually put the leviathan down for good, and after grabbing one of them with his kinesis module. Subaru waited for the right moment when the leviathan would open its mouth once again to shoot out another stream of bombs.

"Gotcha" Subaru said as the leviathan opened its mouth once again, its massive yellow eyes staring hateful at him, a bomb clearly visible in its throat. That was exactly what Subaru was waiting for as he shot the bomb in his kinesis hold back at the leviathan, The massive titanic beast having no time to react, as the bomb quickly lodged itself in its throat, ultimately contacting the one that was waiting to be expelled and then exploding violently.

Subaru watched with morbid fascination as the leviathan began to spasm violently, letting out painful roars and cries as blood and gore gushed out of its mouth, its massive glowing eyes quickly becoming dull as they quickly rolled into the back of their sockets. The titanic beast let out one final painful roar as its spasms quickly ceased the leviathan's massive bulk going completely still, as a steady stream of blood continued to pour out of its wide open mouth.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Subaru took a moment to rest simply letting himself in gently floating in zero gravity, and even though he was completely surrounded by blood, pus and the leviathan's other bodily fluids, for a single moment Subaru didn't care about any of that simply just resting after a hard-fought battle.

"He did it! He actually did it!" Emilia sprung to her feet, quickly grabbing the sleeping Subaru from Beatrice's lap much to the little spirit's protest, his limp head resting over her shoulder as she hugged him like there was no tomorrow.

"Put him down I suppose! you're going to hurt him you buffoon" Beatrice said aggressively, quickly jumping up to her somewhat diminutive height and trying to wrestle Subaru out of the ecstatic half-elf grip, Emilia for her part was too absorbed in her own happiness and pride for her knight to even register what Beatrice had said, that was until somebody gently placed their hand on her shoulder, the physical contact immediately grabbing her attention.

"Emilia, I'm just as glad as you that Subaru made out of that encounter alive and killed the leviathan on top of it... But please put him down before you accidentally hurt him" Crusch said with a calm but stern voice, Emilia quickly turned on the spot to look at the green-haired Dutchess with a small pout and an apologetic look. Crusch for her part only somewhat managing to keep a straight face, giggles threatening to escape her lips as she took in the sight of the sleeping Subaru completely draped in Emilia's arms.

"Give him back this instant! I won't ask again I suppose!" Beatrice snapped, Emilia hesitating for a moment before gently laying Subaru back down on the floor, Beatrice quickly fell to her knees and quickly scooped up Subaru's head into her lap once again. Sending Emilia vicious death glasses while she gently stroked Subaru's as if she were a mother protecting her child.

"I apologise, I was just so excited... I just can't believe that he did it" Emilia could barely contain herself, wanting to jump for absolute joy, at the fact that Subaru, her knight had managed to overcome something that literally seemed impossible to defeat, in fact, it simply made her love for him just grow even greater.

"Well, he most certainly did Emilia. The fact that he defeated it completely by himself was just absolutely incredible... it was like watching a battle between a mighty dragon and a handso-" Crusch felt a small brush come over her face, as she quickly closed her mouth stopping the stream of consciousness from freely flowing out.

If she had kept going any longer then she would have unknowingly revealed to everyone and Emilia in particular, that she had deep feelings for Subaru, and if they were to come to light they would most likely destroy her and Emilia's newfound friendship.

"I don't know if the fact that he didn't get injured at all was because Subaru was just stupidly lucky or if it was actual skill~Nyah," Felix said with a shake of the head, letting out a quiet sigh of relief at the fact that Subaru how to manage to make it through the entire ordeal against the leviathan completely unscathed come without any new injuries.

"Whatever the answer may be Felix, the fact that Subaru was able to kill such a titanic beast single-handedly is no doubt impressive" Despite keeping his face and voice, even and level, pride was clearly evident on Wilhelm's face.

After all, since Subaru was basically a surrogate grandson to him, actually seeing him defeat such a monstrosity single-handedly made him prouder than he could have ever imagined. "There are very few knights in history than ever be able to do such an accomplishment," Wilhelm said after a moment of silence, pride leaking into his voice.

"I couldn't agree more Wilhelm, Not only has he defeated The White Whale and the great rabbit, but now a true leviathan, I scarce to imagine what his next accomplishment will be" Crusch couldn't help but chuckle, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth as she did so which also did a very good job of hiding the small brush that was quickly making its way onto her cheeks.

"Nyah~I wouldn't be surprised if the next creature he kills will be the size of a planet," Felix said barely containing his own laughter, the mental image of Subaru standing up to a comically colossal monstrosity that was even bigger than the leviathan, being extremely comical even if it did have a slight dark undertone to it.

"As impressive as it would be Felix I don't think I want to see Subaru take on a creature of such size ever again, or anything bigger mind," Reinhardt said matter-of-factly, the fact that Subaru had managed to defeat the leviathan and come out completely unscathed was certainly an accomplishment worth celebrating, but Rinehart could honestly say that he didn't want to ever see Subaru take on such a monstrosity unsupported ever again.

"Of course my beloved killed it, I wouldn't have expected anything less," Rem said lovingly, undying love and affection practically dripping from her voice. The fact that her beloved Subaru had completely annihilated the leviathan single-handedly, simply reinforced in her mind that he was somebody truly special.

"The fact that the idiot came out completely unscathed was pure luck more than anything" Ram crossed her arms over her chest in her signature pose, the look on her face being one of happiness and even a little bit of Pride. After all despite her often outwardly negative assessment of Subaru's actions, Ram knew deep down that he was truly a good person and somebody capable of performing feats that not even the bravest knights could do. And his defeat of the leviathan was simply another notch on the belt that proved he was an exceptional individual.

"Even if it was Sister, my beloved Subaru came out on top so that's all I care about," Rem said matter-of-factly in response to her sister. And true to her words the only thing she cared about was the fact that Subaru was safe and sound.

"Ok... That was perhaps the coolest fight I've ever seen" Felt said after a moment of silence, despite the amount of blood and gore that had been unleashed during the fight. The fact that Subaru had managed to take on such a colossal creature and come out on top completely unscathed like he had done with the white whale was just completely awesome to her.

"It's my beloved Subaru, Would you have expected anything less" Rem said proudly. The fact that others were finally recognising her beloved greatness was incredibly uplifting to her.

"That was indeed a ferocious battle... And despite the amount of blood, I'm a bit disappointed that Petra wasn't awake to see Subaru triumph over that thing" Frederica was warm and loving, looking down at the sleeping face of the young girl that was in her lap "She would have loved to see him win" She said quietly after a moment of silence.

"Hell yeah! Now that now that was a badass battle!" Garfield couldn't contain his excitement any longer, jumping up from his seat as he began to geek out about Subaru's battle against the leviathan. "Like did you see how he cut off its tentacles? And... And how he used its own bombs against it!" He explained excitedly, his voice becoming a bit horsed and his breathing ragged from how fast he was talking

"If you keep talking that fast you're going to pass out~Nyah," Felix said matter-of-factly, and surprisingly the energetic tiger Boy actually took his advice, stopping what he was doing and taking several deep calming breaths.

After floating around in zero gravity for a moment to recuperate, Subaru quickly came back to his senses, descending down to the floor and activating his magnetic boots which quickly locked into the floor. And once he was firmly planted on the floor he quickly made his way to the large bulkhead door that led back out into the large circular corridor, As he was making his way through the glass tunnel, the flesh around it now noticeably more still than it was before. An alert suddenly popped up on his rig link of an incoming message.

"Subaru my god, you actually did it! I can't believe you actually did it!" The face of Kendra quickly popped up on a holographic display next to him, the look of relief easily visible on her face, despite the graininess of the footage.

"Yeah, that thing is pushing up daisies now... But hey I guess I can add eldritch abomination Hunter to my resume now" Subaru said with a slight chuckle, and for once his chuckling was ingenuine, which came as a surprise to Kendra who couldn't help but crack a smile herself before a serious looked over her face once again.

"Hammond? Do you read? Oxygen levels ship-wide should be returning to normal now" As Subaru made it back out into the main hydroponics control centre, there was absolutely no response from Hammond on both his and Kendra's ends of the rig link, which certainly made Subaru somewhat concerned for his dark skinned friend.

"Dammit! He's gone again! no sign of his rig anywhere!... I guess it's just up to us now" Kendra said after a moment of silence, Subaru sat down at one of the control terminals to rest his slightly aching legs.

"Kendra just wait a minute! he couldn't have gotten far and I know this ship better than any of us. There aren't many places on here where a rig signal is completely blocked" Subaru said, quickly deactivating his helmet to take a breath of the fresh unfiltered air that was coming into the control room. His face was covered in dried blood, dirt and sweat, and in general, just looked quite unkempt.

there was a silence for a moment between Subaru and Kendra, a small almost imperceptible look of frustration crossing her face that Subaru completely missed before it was replaced with a look of seemingly genuine concern.

"No promises but I'll keep trying... Anyway, I've got a plan to get off this ship. I've located a defunct SOS Beacon on the mining deck. If you can get down there and activate it, we might be able to send the stress call" Subaru was definitely on board with Kendra's idea, there was no guarantee that it would work, but if if the SOS Beacon was strong enough and they could get it far enough away from a ship, the signal could potentially reach the nearby shipping lanes.

"It's about the best plan we've got, so I say we go for it," Subaru said as he quickly got up from his seat, his helmet quickly covering his face from view once again as he made his way through the exit door that leads back to the elevator. However as he made his way through the small L-shaped corridor and towards the elevator, he suddenly noticed an absolutely petrified look quickly cross Kendra's face.

"Oh god... It's back. I don't know how much longer the door is going to hold" Kendra said in a quiet and terrified voice as the connection quickly was cut, leaving Subaru completely alone just outside the elevator that went back down to the tram station.

"Kendra! Kendra?! dammit!" Subaru cursed under his breath, as he boarded the elevator which quickly took him back down to the tram station. and after a moment the elevator doors opened up allowing him to step back out into the brightly illuminated and almost bone-white hallway that led back to the tram station.

After passing the blood-soaked and corpse-filled bathroom, Subaru was finally back at the station, the tram that had originally brought him to the Hydroponics deck still waiting for him like a noble steel steed. After looking around for a moment, making sure that there were no monsters ready to ambush him and more importantly that she was not watching him, Subaru bordered the tram, its Metal shutter doors quickly slammed shut behind him as it accelerated away from the platform, taking Subaru to his next location aboard the ship of nightmares that was the USG Ishimura.

---

The screen abruptly switched off, the last image it displayed being Subaru racing off towards his next "misadventure" aboard the ship of nightmares that was the USG Ishimura. Everyone couldn't help but let out a collective sigh of relief because for just a moment they would be giving respite from the emotional roller coaster that was this current viewing.

"I swwwear... each viewing gets more and more mentally exhausting than the last" Emilia let the tension leave her body, the stiffness in her shoulders noticeably disappearing, as she looked down at the sleeping Subaru next to her.

"I have to think of an appropriate punishment when you wake up considering the amount of stress you've put me through, you dunderhead," She said with a small chuckle, the affection noticeable in her voice.

"As long as you don't punish him too severely, I could allow it I suppose," Beatrice said with a small chuckle of her own, knowing that at the very worst, her contractor would most likely get a tongue-lashing from the half-elf and nothing more severe than that.

Emilia chuckled some more, her love-filled gaze never leaving Subaru. Her eyes took in every inch of his peaceful sleeping face, which was occasionally interrupted by a slight twitch, She prayed to everything nice and pure, and that was because something pleasant happening in whatever dreamworld Subaru was currently inhabiting.

But after a moment her smile faltered, the longer she looked at his peaceful face the more Emilia felt an awful feeling creeping into her heart. It was the feeling of knowing that everything she had seen transpiring on the screen so far would come to pass, whether she tried to stop it or not. Emilia would die and Subaru would have to live with the guilt of knowing that he couldn't save her, he would have to carry it for the rest of his days, and even if he did find new love, Subaru would still be quite literally haunted by it.

"A moment of rest at last" Ram didn't have any witty remarks this time, instead simply letting out a relieved sigh, her normally rigid posture noticeably loosening, as she sank further into her theatre seat.

This particular viewing had been a rollercoaster considering that at first Subaru was incredibly injured both physically and mentally, barely able to fight off even weaker monsters. But yet by the end, he fought and managed to win against a true leviathan that made the white whale look small by comparison.

Ram stretched her arms above her head, letting out a small pleasurable groan at the feeling of her joints and the knots in her back popping. But as she did she noticed that her blue-haired twin sister Rem was staring at her clearly wanting to get her attention.

"Sister... I want to apologise... for my earlier behaviour..." Rem noticeably paused for a moment, before continuing "I don't know what's come over me recently... I just don't feel like myself" She finished. Ram sees true remorse on her face.

"Apology accepted... But it's not me you should be apologising to" Ram crossed her arms over her chest, a look of disapproval quickly making itself at home on her face.

Rem didn't say anything yet the look of shame easily evident on her face. She wasn't entirely sure why she was acting the way she was. It was as if the emotional filter that she had crafted over years as a maid in service to the Roswaal Manor, had been simply removed against her will, letting her true emotions and feelings run wild without her being able to control them, but it wasn't just shame at her behaviour that she felt…

Rem felt scared.

She was absolutely terrified because it felt like something was puppeteering her against her will, seemingly using her as nothing more than a pawn in a game that Rem couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Sister... are you alright?"

Rem was quickly pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her sister's voice, turning to look at her pink-headed sibling who looked noticeably worried.

"I... don't know sister" Was all that Rem said in response. Ram looked at her with very palpable concern before she quickly took Rem's hand into her own, as a reassuring measure which did help somewhat. Yet couldn't stop the worry from beginning to eat away at Rem.

While the two oni sisters tried to comfort each other, Emilia continued to sink deeper and deeper into the pit of sadness in her heart. The prospect of her potential death in the near future terrified her, but what truly made her fearful was the fact that her beloved Subaru would very soon lose everything and everyone he cared about, having to carry the weight and the grief of their loss with him for the rest of his days.

But before Emilia could spiral even further into the darker recesses of her mind, she suddenly felt someone put a hand on her shoulder, momentarily causing her to jump as she whipped her head around to see who had just touched her.

"Lady Emilia, you seem troubled... Are you alright?" Emilia was met with the concerned gaze of none other than Frederica. The blonde-haired beast maid obviously having made her way over to the half-elf when she saw the troubled and concerned look on Emilia's face.

Emilia didn't immediately respond, not because she didn't want to tell Frederica what was troubling her. But because she simply just didn't know the right way to actually articulate it, The feelings that she was experiencing were almost impossible to put into words.

However just when she finally found her words and opened her mouth to speak, someone else interrupted Emilia much to her surprise.

"You're scared of what will happen... You're terrified of the event that will turn Subaru towards the path that his on-screen counterpart is currently on" Crusch said with no hint of emotion and her voice.

Her face was completely flat and almost stony, she knew exactly what Emilia was feeling because ultimately she was feeling the same way, the fact that what they had seen on the screen so far would come to pass whether they did anything or not...

But Crusch, despite the worry in her heart, quickly put on a brave face to the surprised and confused Emilia, as the greenhead duchess got up from her seat.

"Emilia, I can understand your worry... I am worried, myself that maybe what we have seen will come to pass..." Crusch paused for a moment, both for dramatic effect and so she could formulate the next part of a sentence in her head.

"But I have never believed in fate or destiny, Subaru once told me that the future is what we make of it... Those words have resonated with me more than I could even imagine both then and especially now," Crusch again paused, this time because she was now speaking from the heart.

"There's a possibility we might not be able to change the future, but there is also an equal one that we can... and I believe. No! I know for certain we can change it... We can all change it together" Crusch finally finished her improvised speech, panting quietly as she felt sweat begin to drip down from her forehead and into her eyes.

Yet at this very moment that was the furthest thing from her mind, instead all of Crusch's attention was focused on Emilia who looked very surprised at the speech that she had just given. And much to her satisfaction the look of surprise and fear on Emilia's face was quickly replaced by a look of reserved determination and courage.

Crusch feels Emilia's spare hand quickly come to rest on her own, both women sharing a look of determination between them. They would both try their absolute hardest to change this outcome so that Subaru would not have to suffer the gruesome fate that that causality had seen really planned out for him.

Frederica couldn't help but smile, quickly retreating from the side of Emilia, as both her and Duchess Crusch shared the moment between them. It honestly warmed her heart to see that Emilia had finally found a true friend in the greenhead duchess, in fact, it was even more heart-warming considering that they had both started as rivals for the crown of the Kingdom.

But had now come together as true friends who could support each other no matter what.

But as the blonde-haired maid made her way back to her seat, she couldn't help but overhear words from none other, none other than the tiny blonde herself Felt.

"I don't usually like all of that sappy crap, but Crusch does have a point, there's gotta be something we can do to change his future" Felt said mostly to herself because despite not wanting to admit it, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit uplifted by the green Head duchesses words.

Despite not loving Subaru like Emilia did, Felt still had a special place in her heart for Subaru, simply because of how much he and her got along, in fact even though, she never knew what it was like to have siblings growing up, she could honestly say that Subaru was the closest thing to an older brother that she had.

As such Felt vowed to herself, that she would try everything in her power to change his future and try and steer him away from the disgusting and grotesque one that was being laid out for him.

But as if on cue, a certain red-headed night suddenly decided to speak.

"Felt, I can promise you that I will do everything in my power, to try and prevent this future from occurring... I swear on my honour as a Knight and the sword saint" Reinhard said with a knightly grace that could only come from years of practice and quite literally being the sword saint. In fact, she was surprised that he didn't do some kind of courteous bow even though he was in a seat.

"Yeah Rein, I know you will... After all, you gonna have to hold me back considering when I need whoever controls fate, I'm personally going to kick their ass, for even trying to put Subaru through a future like this" Felt said with a small amount of humour, her voice being filled with nothing but energy and gusto.

In fact, Reinhard couldn't help but nervously chuckle because knowing the little blonde, if she ever did meet the entity that controlled face she probably would actually try in her own words "kick their ass"

"That was... Just incredible~Nyah" Felix said with an almost dreamy expression on his face, his eyes never leaving the elegant and handsome form of Crusch, who was still next to Emilia, both of them now conversing about something that he was too far into his admiration daydream to even comprehend.

"It was definitely an incredible speech, especially considering it was not planned or rehearsed beforehand... But Felix..." Wilhelm stopped for a moment, turning his gaze towards the cat boy who had a look of pure admiration plastered across his face, his eyes practically filled with nothing but hearts. "Ogling the head of the Karsten household is unbecoming of a servant... No matter how close they are to mistress Crusch" Wilhelm accompanied his words with a stern look, one that was capable of knocking Felix out of his admiration daydream.

Felix looked at Wilhelm for a moment, before his cheeks suddenly went a bright vibrant red, his feline ears quickly flattening against the back of his head, as he brought his hands to cover his embarrassed face. And even though Wilhelm tried his absolute best to stop it, a small chuckle still managed to escape his lips.

Garfiel from his seat, watched the entire scene with mild interest and also confusion, after all despite knowing that his captain was head over heels in love with Emilia. Garfield still didn't understand love as much as he would have liked, especially considering and mostly secret feelings that he had for Rem, which he still couldn't quite wrap his head around even now.

"Man I don't understand love sometimes," Garfield said to himself, his mind momentarily drifting towards thoughts of Ram. Before he suddenly felt someone place their hand on her shoulder

"Trust me Garfiel... love is confusing, especially first love, but you'll understand it one day when you're older" Garfield raised an eyebrow as Otto gave him a look of understanding. After all the grey-haired merchant had been in love once himself, and he would never forget his first love even as he grew old.

But as Garfiel looked at Otto, one of his eyebrows cocked upwards ever so slightly, the blonde-haired tiger Boy suddenly remembered something from one of the very earliest viewings.

"Otto my man... wasn't your first love a cat or something?" Garfiel asked innocently, yet as soon as the words left his mouth. Otto's somewhat calm expression quickly shattered, as he began to rapidly stutter, his face going red with a look of pure embarrassment.

"W-W-W-well, Y-Y-Y-yeah it W-was but-" Otto stuttering was quickly interrupted.

"Creepy, absolutely creepy~Nyah, I feel kinda violated now actually" Felix said with a somewhat mischievous tone to his voice, trying his absolute best to suppress a laugh he knew was coming. Meanwhile, Otto continued to splatter like a fish out of water, his face now having gone as red as a tomato itself.

Anastasia closed her eyes, leaning back into the relatively uncomfortable theatre chair, as she embraced the momentary respite that came with the downtime between viewings. Despite never actually feeling physically exhausted in the theatre, it didn't change the fact that Anastasia was mentally drained.

She could practically hear her queen size bed back at her abode, calling to her with a seductive allure, that only a mentally exhausted person like herself could actually perceive or understand. However, when she opened her eyes again, Anastasia looked over to her knight Julius, who had a noticeably perturbed look in his eye.

"Julius, what's on your mind?" Anastasia straightened herself, her words quickly catching Julius's attention yet he did not immediately respond much to her concern.

But after a moment of contemplation, Julius seemingly finally found the words he wanted to say, Anastasia, having no trouble whatsoever picking up the slight tremor in his voice.

"F-forgive me lady A-Anastasia, I was just... Contemplating my uselessness" Julius cast his gaze downwards, seemingly in shame at the fact that he was admitting he felt completely useless right now.

Yet Anastasia did not judge him for that whatsoever, in fact, she couldn't help but sympathize with the poor knight, quickly placing one of her delicate hands under his shoulder and giving a reassuring squeeze.

"I understand how you feel Julius.. but I'm sure we can find somewhere to avoid all of... that" Anastasia referred to the screen with her other hand, Julius immediately understanding what she was getting out. and even though it only lifted his spirit slightly, Julius couldn't help but give Anastasia a thankful smile.

"Thank you, lady Anastasia... Perhaps you're right that we can avoid this awful future" Julia's said quietly, his gaze lingering on the screen for a moment, for a new voice suddenly made itself known.

"I don't believe in fated destiny and all that other crap" Al crossed his remaining arm over his chest, his face which was hidden behind his helmet, having a look of indifference.

True to his words, Al had never been a big believer in the idea that somebody's future was predetermined for them, he had seen too much in his life both on earth and in the new world, to ever believe in such ridiculous sounding fairytales as predetermined destiny.

"It's obvious that Little Bro was meant to die on his first day when he came to the new world" Al let his thoughts flow out of him, without any kind of filter, Anastasia and Julius watching and listening with interest as he spoke.

"But with return by death, he was able to change his future... And I think even without it he still has the power to shape his own future. After all the little guy is probably the most headstrong person I've ever met... Apart from Priscilla" Al finally finished his small speech, the fact that he'd used Priscilla's real name openly, instead of the nickname that she got him to address her by when in the presence of others, feeling alien yet somehow natural to him.

Julius and Anastasia for their part couldn't help but nod in agreement with the point that the Haunted man had just said what the hell made it man have just said. After all, if one thing about Subaru had remained true from the very first day that he had entered their world, it was that he would not be held back by anything that threatened to block or even destroy the future he was creating for himself

However, as everyone continued to converse amongst themselves or simply relax, the momentary respite that came in between the viewings, it was suddenly interrupted by the voice of the warden quickly making itself known

"All right everyone, I think it's time for a break... something pressing has come to my attention and I have to solve it now before it gets any worse"

Everyone was thrown off guard by both the tone of his speech and the words that the warden used. His voice lacked any kind of humour, instead, there was a very noticeable hard edge to it. Which certainly wasn't a good sign considering if the warden was being serious about something, then it truly must be dire.

"Uhm, Mr. Warden... What exactly happened?" Emilia asked tentatively, expecting the warden to simply ignore her question or completely sidestep it altogether, but to her surprise the warden actually did somewhat answer her question.

"I can't say much, but let's just say that something which is not supposed to be here, is messing around with a side gig I have going on right now"

Despite not answering her question directly, but obviously leaving out specifics, Emilia was still somewhat thankful that he least gave her the time of day and an appropriate response instead of just ignoring the question like he had done with so many others before.

"So what, you like stepping out for groceries or something?" Al said with a somewhat humorous tone in his voice, the idea of the warden of all people which for all intents and purposes seemed to be some kind of non-physical entity, doing something so mundane as going to the grocery store being somewhat funny to him

"You're just going to leave us here with nothing to do... well you go off to Od knows where!?" Felt despite the silent protests of Reinhard couldn't keep the credulousness from her voice. The fact that the warden was just going to leave all of them here like they were nothing more than common house pets, was just insulting to the highest degree.

"The little lady does have a point, do you really expect us just to sit here and twiddle our thumbs together will you go off and do whatever you need to do?" Wilhelm raised an eyebrow, not necessarily being insulted by the action but more curious, because what exactly could the warden need to attend to that meant he would have to disappear for an unknown period of time?

And if it was something that needed his undivided attention, Wilhelm couldn't help but feel just a small twinge of anxiety in his stomach, considering the ramifications of the warden an entity of unknown power, needing to attend to something of seemingly great importance.

"What exactly is this 'side gig' that you're referring to? And how exactly is it of such great importance?" Crusch despite already knowing that the warden wouldn't answer a question directly still tried to prove regardless. Her own insatiable curiosity about what exactly needed the warden's full undivided attention.

And much like her white-haired Butler, she was also slightly concerned, considering the warden's immense power, whatever needed his undivided attention was clearly of great importance, even if she didn't know what its importance was.

However much to her surprise, the warden actually responded to her enquiry with a cryptic answer but still a direct answer nonetheless.

"Listen I can't say too much... but I'll say that it's important for what comes after all of this"

What exactly do you mea-" Crusch didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as she was quickly interrupted

"This is ridiculous I suppose, The fact that you're just going to leave us here is completely absurd, regardless of how important this task you refer to actually is," Beatrice said with a snap to her voice, the frustration clearly evident in her voice and on her delicate almost doll-like face.

"Beatrice calm down, I'm sure it's important, and the warden will not take that long" Emilia tried her best to calm down the irate spirit, but Beatrice did not really respond to her and instead continued to fume, occasionally letting out curse words it a language Emilia couldn't understand, but could only assume that Beatrice had picked up from Subaru.

"Thanks for backing me up pointy ears, As for you Pipsqueak..."

The warden's voice had a noticeably thankful tone to it, yet as his voice stopped momentarily everyone could feel the atmosphere in the theatre changed suddenly, everything becoming slightly darker and heavier, clearly reflecting the warden's now serious demeanour

"What I have to go do is of the utmost importance, and even though I cannot reveal too much yet. I will say that it may very well change everything when the time is right"

The oppressive feeling in the air remains for a moment, everyone finding it somewhat difficult to move and even breathe. But as quickly as it came it disappeared, quite a few people taking deep breaths to try and catch their breath.

"WE understand Mr warden... just please don't take too long ok?" Emilia placed extra emphasis on the word "we" sending a disapproving glare towards Beatrice who simply scoffed turning her head away and letting out a small huff of disapproval.

"I swear, if you're planning anything suspicious I will-

"You'll destroy Me in the name of your beloved blah blah and all that, You're like a broken record and I don't need to hear a script I've already heard before"

The warden completely interrupted Rem mid-sentence much to her chagrin, her eyes taking on a slightly murderous hint before she tried to calm herself. Despite wanting to give the warden an appropriate punishment for interrupting her, Rem knew deep down there was very likely nothing she could do to the warden, considering that all evidence pointed towards him not even having a physical form.

Still, Rem could still dream of ripping him limb from limb and making him beg for Mercy and she gave him the appropriate punishment he deserved, for putting her and especially her beloved through all of this.

"Just don't take too long, The only thing worse than watching these macabre viewings, is sitting in these uncomfortable chairs with absolutely nothing to do" Ram gave a small huff, the disapproval evidence in her voice as she wiggled around in her seat, to try and find a comfortable spot actually to sit.

"Well in that case then I'll be off, you kids better not cause any trouble while I'm gone"

Once the warden had finished, everyone felt a strange feeling as if something important had just been removed from the very world.

But since there was nothing for them to do until the warden Returned, some chose to relax which was a tall order considering the uncomfortable seating arrangements. While some members of the respective camps began to converse amongst themselves concerning what had happened in the previous viewing.

However, one person did not speak to anyone, partly because of his seating placement, but mostly because he was deeply concerned for a certain red-headed princess who was sprawled out in the seat next to him.

Al leaned back in his chair, trying to relax, yet he found that task almost impossible, his eyes continued be linger on the unconscious form of Priscilla. The fact that she had yet to awaken was really beginning to concern him now, which was only made worse by the look of mild strain on her face, accompanied by twitches, and occasionally mumbling that was too quiet for him to actually understand.

At first, despite his concerns, Al thought that maybe her sudden unconsciousness was simply the result of shock, considering that she simply keeled over so unexpectedly. But the more he thought about it and the longer she stayed unconscious, Al wasn't convinced that whatever had rendered her unconscious was entirely normal.

In fact, considering what Priscilla had said and the way she was acting just before she passed out, whatever had made her fall into unconsciousness was not normal, even though he did not have any kind of extraordinary Instincts or senses. Al wasn't a clueless fool, in fact, he was far from it.

There was something lurking in this Theatre, hiding away in the shadows and waiting for the opportune moment to strike. However, before the helmeted man could consider this any further, he was elected to the sound of footsteps quickly approaching.

"Al... I see that Priscilla still hasn't woken yet" Al was momentarily surprised to see none of her then Crusch, approached him and Priscilla. The greenhead duchess quickly came to a stop just a few feet away from them.

Al wasn't quite sure how to respond for a moment, his eyes quickly going back to the unconscious form of Priscilla, who much to his concern was noticeably jumping in her sleep, the look of mild strain on her face, quickly intensifying for me before disappearing.

"Yeah... I don't know what happened to her but there's something not right about it" Al said matter-of-factly, his eyes never leaving the still form of Priscilla.

"I can't begin to imagine what could have caused it... but I have a sneaking suspicion about it" Crusch brings a hand up to her chin, gently beginning to caress it as a look of deep concentration overtook her face.

Al for his part was incredibly surprised to hear those words come out of her mouth, his helmeted head snapping around to look at her in surprise. However, Crusch didn't seem to notice his sudden reaction, a look of concentration and perhaps just a little bit of worry clearly evident on her face.

"What exactly are you getting at" Al said slowly, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet faceplate, he did not like the way that the greenhead Duchess said those words, in fact, he could feel a pit beginning to form in his stomach, as he saw the look of concern grow ever more prominent on her face.

Crusch despite noticing the helmeted man looking at her, did not say anything, but it was not because she didn't want to. In fact, it was the exact opposite, she simply couldn't find the right words to say. And Crusch wasn't 100 per cent sure if her hypothesis was correct, considering that all she was going off was the superficial similarities between her and Priscilla's sudden unconsciousness.

"I think... her sudden unconsciousness, may be similar or even the same as what happened to me" Crusch spoke slowly, each word leaving her mouth feeling like a 10-ton weight lifted off her chest, for some reason actually acknowledging what happened out loud made her feel better, even if it didn't even come close to answering the many questions she had surrounding the event.

Al was stunned for a moment, not exactly sure how to absorb the information that the green-haired woman had just related to him. But the more he thought about it, the more the pit in his stomach grew, Crusch much earlier in the viewings had gone unconscious unexpectedly. And even though he wasn't there for the conversation, Al was still able at the time to pick up bits and pieces about something strange happening inside a dream she had during her unconsciousness.

"So you think... but whatever happened to you… happened to Priscilla?" Al asked a slight pleading tone evident in his voice, as he waited for whatever response Crusch would give him.

Crusch opened her mouth to speak, Yet before she could do so, she suddenly felt something rub up against her back, feeling something sharp, cold and pointy trace a line from her lower back up to the top of her neck. A strange malevolent feeling quickly made itself known to her, feeling like a massive weight that was now crashing down on her.

A loud surprised yelp escaped Crusch's throat, as she turned around on the spot quicker than she ever thought she could do so, a small part of her mind expecting to see some grotesque abomination waiting behind her. Yet to her astonishment and fear, there was absolutely nothing there.

"W-W-what was T-that!?" Crusch felt her legs beginning to tremble beneath her, quickly having to grab onto a nearby empty theatre seat to stop herself from collapsing completely. But as she propped herself up against the seat trying to regain her balance, she suddenly noticed Al quickly get up from his seat, and also Emilia, Beatrice, Felix and Wilhelm coming to her aid.

"Whoa there! What the hell was that and are you alright?" Al said as he offered his remaining hand to Crusch, who after a moment of hesitation accepted. She felt his strong but gentle grip quickly pull her feet, just as the other group arrived.

"Lady Crusch! Are you alright!?" Wilhelm said quickly as he made a move to come to the aid of his mistress, Crusch on the other hand held up a hand to stop him as she finally found her balance once again. But before she could even think about speaking, a certain feline healer quickly spoke instead.

"Crusch! What happened? You're not hurt are you!?" Felix had a look of unimaginable worry plastered across his face, his eyes holding nothing but concern for the green-haired Dutchess. but again before Crusch could even speak, Felix's gaze turned cold as he turned his attention to the helmeted man who had assisted her.

"What did you do to her!?" Felix said abruptly and aggressively, his pupils dilating to the point where they were almost completely vertical slits, with his ears flattening against the back of his head, as he let out a very animalistic sounding hiss, very befitting of his half-cat nature.

Al was taken completely off guard for a moment, his face behind his helmet faceplate having a stunned look on his face. He knew that Felix was overprotective of the green-haired woman, but Al would have never thought that Felix would accuse him especially after he was the one who had helped her.

But before the helmeted man could get a chance to respond, somebody came to his defence for him.

"Felix! How dare you!" Crusch snapped at her knight, immediately causing him to back away with a small amount of Fear and surprise on his face. "Aldebaran was the one to help me. And yet you have the audacity to accuse him!" Despite only just managing to control her anger, Crusch still walked towards her knight aggressively, jabbing a gloved finger hard into his chest to emphasise her point.

Felix unlike last time knew that responding in any way would only get him in more trouble, as such he simply kept quiet while he took the fury of the green-haired dutchess that he served. But thankfully this time she did not slap him across the face, instead simply giving him a hard and anger-filled stare, before turning back to the helmeted man next to her.

He remained planted on the spot, Felix's eyes never leaving the handsome yet elegant form of Crusch as she presumably gave the helmeted man the thanks that he deserved. however, Felix suddenly felt somebody put a hand on his shoulder somewhat forcefully, causing him to look around.

"Felix, I think it's best you avoid Lady Crusch for the moment" Wilhelm's voice left no room to negotiate, in fact, his tone was so cold and icy that Felix felt a shiver run all the way from the tip of his tail and up his spine. But despite his better judgement telling him not to, Felix tries to argue anyway.

"B-But Old Man Will, what was I supposed to think!? I thought he might have done something to her!" Felix said a bit louder and more forcefully than he intended, the look of coldness on Wilhelm's face morphing into one of indignation and maybe just a small amount of anger, before the aged Butler composed himself.

"That is not your place to the side Felix! The fact that you have little to no faith in Lady Crusch's ability to defend herself is shameful" Wilhelm raised his voice ever so slightly, not enough to draw unneeded attention but easily enough to get his point across. "Not to mention, the fact that you would even consider for a moment that Sir Knight Aldebaran would ever lay a finger on a royal candidate is insulting and appalling" Wilhelm finished his little tirade, taking a deep breath to try and compose himself, and get his anger under control,

Despite some strange compulsion telling him to argue back, the rational part of Felix's brain finally won out, only now realising just how awful he acted both to his lady and somebody who considered a friend albeit not an incredibly close one still a friend nonetheless.

As Felix continued to sulk, and Wilhelm stood idly by waiting for when he would be needed like any good Butler should, Emilia accompanied by Beatrice made their way over to the greenhead duchess, still giving her thanks to the helmeted man, and apologising for the behaviour of her knight

"Crusch, what happened, are you alright" Emilia asked with a small amount of concern in her voice. Crusch stopped her conversation with Al as she turned to look at the half-elf.

"I'm fine now, I appreciate your concern for me Emilia" Crusch sends a reassuring smile towards Emilia, yet despite never being especially good at reading people even Emilia could see that the greenhead woman's smile was slightly forced.

"Are you sure? you don't want to talk about it?" Emilia wasn't trying to be extra nosey, the fact that she asked such a thing was mostly out of concern for her friend, but also because she could tell that whatever had happened could potentially be related to the strange happenings that had already plagued her and Crusch.

Crusch's forced smile faulted even more when she heard those words come out of Emilia's mouth, On the one hand, she wanted to tell her friend about what she had experienced. But on the other, there was some kind of strange compulsion that was telling her not to, like a small voice at the very back of her brain was telling her that it would be a bad idea to tell, despite there being no obvious negatives to her sharing her experience.

But after a quick mental tug of war, Crusch decided that sharing what she had experienced would be for the better. However as she opened her mouth to speak, she could have sworn for just a singular moment that she heard an almost small disappointed voice saying.

D̴o̸n̷'̷t̶ ̸t̴e̷l̵l̸ ̵t̴h̶e̶m̶,̵ ̴t̴h̶e̷y̸ ̶d̴o̷n̶'̶t̵ ̴n̸e̴e̷d̷ ̷t̶o̵ ̷k̴n̴o̴w̵.̵ ̸

"I was touched… Something that I could not see or hear touched me" Crusch spoke ignoring what she thought was a figment of her imagination.

Emilia tilted her head in confusion, her pointy ears twitching slightly as she thought about what the green-haired woman had just relayed to her. Yet before she could even think about asking for more information, Beatrice did it for her

"When you say you were touched by something unseen, I assume something you could not see or hear, like it was never there to begin with I suppose" Everyone picked up on the slight worry in Beatrice's voice, yet despite that little spirit's face held firm, a look of concentration quickly making its way onto her delicate features.

Crusch was silent for a moment before she spoke again "Yes precisely that... it was not the first time as well" She finished Beatrice's look of concentration morphing into one of deep concern.

"There's also what happened to me as well... In the strange nightmare I had," Emilia said roughly, much to the surprise of Al, Wilhelm and Felix.

"Yes... much like Priscilla I went unconscious suddenly and unexpectedly, I can't remember all of it, but I remember bits and pieces from a strange nightmare as well" Crusch wasn't surprised at all by Emilia's confession, considering that the two of them had already briefly discuss their own respective nightmares before.

"Hold on wait a second, you're telling me that you both had strange nightmares when you were asleep..." Al felt a shiver run down his spine, implications of what both Emilia and Crusch crashing into him like a fully loaded freight train.

Emilia and Crusch nodded in unison, both respectively reliving the parts of their respective nightmares that they could still remember. However before even one of them could speak further Beatrice finally piped up.

"I don't know exactly what could be happening I suppose, but clearly, there is something more malicious going on..." Beatrice stopped for a moment, everyone absorbing the ominous tone and implications in her voice.

Beatrice herself however was still desperately trying to work it all out, at heart Beatrice was a problem solver that was the way that her mother had created her after all. As such it was incredibly frustrating for the little spirit because there were so many pieces of the puzzle in front of her that she could get a decent idea of what was going on.

But there were still enough pieces missing from the overall picture that Beatrice couldn't make a definitive conclusion just yet, everything that was happening with her contractor on the screen, the strange events happening in the theatre and the cryptic messages that the warden had given about some malicious entity, it was all connected somehow and she knew that much for certain.

But each other was still a mystery to Beatrice, one that was making her want to tear curly blonde hair out from the roots. however before she could actually contemplate doing so, Beatrice looked up only to find herself in a completely different place than she was before.

Instead of the dark spacious yet somewhat cosy and welcoming Theatre, she found herself somewhere that looked like one of the many nondescript hulls of the USG Ishimura, and even though she was shocked, the analytical and rational part of her brain noticed that it couldn't be the Ishimura, at least not a part that she had seen and was familiarised with.

"W-What!?" Beatrice stuttered, instinctively wrapping her arms around herself as the almost unnaturally cold air, assaulted her entire body, seemingly not caring about the relatively thick garments she was wearing.

Beatrice shivered violently, watching her breath crystallizing in front of her eyes that raised into the air, her eyes rapidly scanning around the room, easily picking out all of the strange and alien-looking machinery and tools, which was all encrusted in a thick layer of ice and frost.

However something at the far end of the room caught Beatrice's attention, it was a door that was half wedged open, a large pile of condensed snow having collected on the floor in front of the door. Beatrice shivered as she tentatively made her way to the door, the sound of a harsh and uncaring blizzard becoming gradually louder and louder as she approached it.

Beatrice stood in front of it for a moment, snow and ice blowing into her face and into her curly hair through the half-open door frame. Yet despite every Instinct telling her to stay inside, something to compare Beatrice to gently approach the half-open door before squeezing through the gap, and out into the torrential blizzard. The force of the wind hit her like a fully loaded dragon carriage, as each icicle and snowflake felt like miniature daggers digging into her skin.

She looked around, squinting her eyes as she tried to keep the snow from blowing into them, all Beatrice could see was an endless sea of white, the only sound that she could actually perceive being the unnatural howl of the wind.

"W-W-where am I" Beatrice couldn't even hear her own voice over the howl of the wind, the blizzard only seemed to intensify with each word she uttered, as if it was somehow consuming the very world around her.

However Beatrice suddenly felt her feet begin to move in the knee-deep snow, her mind screaming at her to go back to the strange hut to try and escape from the blizzard, but her feet continued to move by themselves as she wandered deeper and deeper into the whiteout.

Beatrice wasn't sure how long she walked for, it could have been hours days or even years for all she knew, yet something compelled her to keep going, her legs and arms now feeling like they were made of solid ice, and even though she tripped multiple times, falling face first into the deep snow she would get back up again and keep marching.

However after what seemed like another eternity, Beatrice noticed that the blizzard around her began to subside, the snow and wind quickly dying down to the point where she could actually see something other than endless white around her.

Beatrice found herself in an environment that was completely natural yet somehow completely alien, there were jagged mountains, taller than she could even possibly have imagined, some of them reaching so high into the sky that they pierced the dark and gloomy clouds above. around her were hundreds, maybe even thousands of massive black ice spikes, each one of them a black and white monolith that reached hundreds of metres into the sky.

"This way... Come this way..."

It was so faint that it almost completely blended into the background noise of the wind, yet Beatrice was able to pick it out regardless. It was a voice a small and faint voice, seemingly calling out to her from somewhere within the white wasteland.

Beatrice felt her feet beginning to move once again, the snow now easily reaching up to her mid-thigh, making it incredibly difficult to actually move through it, yet she still pushed on regardless, slowly making her way through a large cutting, the large ice walls which had strange helical objects embedded in them, were almost polished to a mirror surface, allowing herself to see her own reflection.

But she didn't pay any attention to any of that, as Beatrice continued to manoeuvre through the chasm, the sound of the wind reverberating around the cavern began to grow louder and louder as the walls of the chasm noticeably began to narrow and the wind itself seemingly began to grow in intensity.

"̶T̷h̸i̵s̷ ̷w̶a̵y̷.̶.̶.̵ ̷y̷o̷u̴'̴r̶e̴ ̸a̸l̷m̸o̶s̷t̷ ̸h̴e̷r̸e̸"̸ ̴

Beatrice heard the voice again, a small part of herself noticing that despite the voice being just as faint, it was noticeably different than before. But regardless of that and the snow now reaching up to her waist, she continues to wade through it, finally emerging from the ice chasm and out into a tundra that seemingly stretched on forever.

"S-S-S-so... C-C-cold" Beatrice mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself, as she somehow found the strength to keep moving in the waist-deep snow. The blizzard beginning to pick up again, making any kind of observation of the white tundra around her almost impossible, in fact, she wasn't even sure where she was going anymore, there was just a strange compulsion in her mind that told her to keep going.

"̷̛̹C̴̤̎o̴͍͂m̸̦̈́e̷̺͌ ̸̠̆t̶̮͐h̴̳̄i̷̜͑ś̴̻ ̸͚͆w̸̩̆à̴̱y̵̘͐.̶̦́.̸̳̈́.̶̨̆ ̸͙̈T̵͇͐h̸̼́ȉ̵̤s̷̭͌ ̴̥̕w̵̮͑a̶̿͜y̷͚̔"̴̬̇ ̸̟͝

Beatrice followed it's command, her feet which had long since gone numb continuing to move her towards whatever was calling out to her. the Blizzard around her intensifying to the point where she couldn't see her hands in front of her, or even hear herself think over the howl of the wind.

But as she continued to trudge through the snow, Beatrice saw a shape begin to materialise in the whiteout, at first it was blurry and undefined, but as she moved closer its outline began to solidify.

It was a truly colossal double helix-shaped object that dwarfed Beatrice, easily being 4 or 5 times taller than herself, although considering the snow was up around her waist, its true size could have been even larger than that.

As Beatrice moved closer, she saw that its surface was polished to almost a mirror shine, easily being able to see her own face in its reflective surface, despite the strange little alien symbols carved Into its surface, which glowed with an unnatural and slightly eerie red light.

She moved closer again, Beatrice now standing less than arm's-length away from the object, her reflection easily visible in its polished surface. her curly hair now practically frozen still, her face covered in snow and ice, as she shivered violently, her arms wrapped around herself. However, Beatrice probably brought one of her hands away from her side, reaching out to the strange obelisk in front of her, and as her hand connected with its polished and smooth surface, Beatrice felt something within her break as everything around her... just stopped...

Beatrice abruptly pulled her hand away from the monolith, the only sound audible now being her own breaths and heartbeat, the blizzard that had been there before now completely absent as she spun around on the spot, only seeing the black monolith and an endless expanse of white in all directions.

She felt her heart beginning to beat out of her chest, as panic quickly overtook Beatrice, her breathing now beginning to sound horsed and ragged, as her pupils dilated to pinpricks, every Instinct in her body was telling her to run, yet all she could see was the endless expanse of white.

However as she felt her heart basically in her throat, Beatrice had something other than her breathing and heartbeat, it was faint and almost and almost inaudible but it was there.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are... Up above the world so high... Like a diamond in the sky"

Beatrice was rooted to the spot, it was... a song... A lullaby in fact, yet instead of inspiring any kind of comfort. She felt her legs begin to shake like jelly, her heart now beating so fast that she was sure it would jump out of her chest.

"When the blazing sun is gone, When the nothing shines upon... Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night"

The world itself began to grow dark, the sky turning from a patchwork of grey to nothing but inky blackness, the white landscape around Beatrice slowly disintegrating away, as she and the black Monolith were the only things that remained.

She was terrified pure, unadulterated terror flowed through Beatrice's veins, her legs completely giving out from under her as she collapsed to her knees, the discordant singing growing ever louder.

"Then the traveler in the dark, Thanks you for your little spark... He could not see which way to go... If you did not twinkle so"

Beatrice curled up into a ball, tears streaming from her eyes, as the discordant singing was almost deafening now. She did not care as the world around her completely disintegrated, the black Monolith and her being the only things left in this truly empty... Dead Space.

She just wanted all to stop, she just wanted to go home... she just... wanted to see Subaru again.

"When the blazing sun is gone, When the nothing shines upon...

"Beatrice opened her eyes, tears streaming from them like an uncontrollable waterfall, the singing had stopped, and now the only sound she could hear was her own muffled sobs and cries. However... seemingly against her will, her eyes slowly tracked upwards... Further and further as she slowly craned her neck... Until... She finally saw... It

Though I know not what you are...

The creature's three massive yellow eyes bore into the very depths of her soul, seemingly stripping away everything until she was reduced to her most primal instincts. Her sanity was being stripped away, layer by layer, her mind unraveling in the presence of something incomprehensible and malevolent.

Beatrice wasn't sure when she started screaming, but when it felt like her vocal cords were about to snap she certainly knew about it then. Yet that was the furthest thing from her mind, she quickly covered her eyes, yet the image of its incomprehensible shape was permanently engraved into her brain, even resorting to ripping her own eyes out, and clawing at her face did nothing to remove the impossible and disgusting image from her brain.

She could feel it, getting deeper and deeper into her mind, ripping apart her memories and feelings, as if it was examining them before unceremoniously tossing it all the side. Excruciating didn't even begin to describe the feeling of it doing so, Beatrice just couldn't wrap her mind around what was going on anymore, it was all just too much for her

"M-M-make it stop! M-M-make it stop!" Beatrice wanted to die, she wanted to end her own life so badly.

Only in death could she truly escape from this entity, but seemingly in response to what she had thought, she felt its massive and impossible tentacles wrap around her, the feeling of billions upon billions of fused bodies, making her screen louder as the creature brought her into its embrace.

Twinkle... twinkle... little... star..."

Beatrice was so frightened that she jumped to her feet, not even acknowledging the people around her as she looked around in terror. Her eyes darted around the theatre, but her brain was still consumed by unyielding fear, so she couldn't register where she was.

"Beatrice!" A familiar voice caught Beatrice's attention, her eyes instantly snapped in the direction of whoever had spoken, only to reveal that it was none other than half-elf Emilia, concern and fear plastered across her delicate features.

Beatrice didn't say anything, her heart still beating a mile a minute as her fear-driven brain considered that for a moment this Emilia in front of her was nothing more than a phantasm created by them.

However, in a single moment of clarity, Beatrice looked around herself again, seeing that she was no longer in the void with that… thing, instead she was back in the theatre. But before she could actually fully register this, Beatrice suddenly felt a pair of mutilated and fleshy tendrils wrap around her, taking her up into an almost crushing embrace.

She didn't even register Emilia's words, instead, Beatrice simply and abruptly screamed, thrashing around in Emilia's grip to try and free herself as for a moment her mind was brought back to that place with that horrific entity.

Emilia for her part was completely caught off guard by Beatrice's reaction, feeling the little spirit desperately scratching at her arms to try and free herself as she continued to scream like a raving banshee.

However, Emilia suddenly felt an awful pain in her arm causing her to yelp, as she instinctively let go of the little spirit, who after landing on her behind quickly pushed herself away from Emilia.

She looked down at her hand, Emilia noticing a very large and deep bite mark, bright red blood that contrasted severely with her pale skin, gently rolling down her fingers and dripping onto the floor.

But despite the pain, Emilia pushed that aside, instead of focusing on locating Beatrice, who after a moment she quickly found. Curled up in the foetal position in one of the unoccupied rows of theatre seats, tears leaking from her tightly shut eyes, as she muttered something that Emilia couldn't quite understand.

Emilia quietly and cautiously approached the little spirit, gently getting down on her knees before speaking "Beatrice" She said quietly and slowly.

Beatrice snapped her head up, Emilia seeing nothing but pure fear and terror in her eyes, but after a moment the fear and terror lessened slightly, recognition quickly crossing Beatrice's face, as the little spirit looked around herself in surprise, shock and fear.

Emilia held one of her hands out "It's me... you're safe I promise" she said reassuringly, not caring about the blood that continued to slowly drip from her fingertips.

Beatrice was hesitant for a moment but after some contemplation realised that this was truly Emilia in front of her. She slowly and cautiously reached a hand out until, both she and Emilia felt the fingers interlock with each other.

Emilia sat there on her knees, simply holding Beatrice's hand to try to reassure and comfort her, and after a moment, and much to Emilia's relief Beatrice still somewhat hesitantly got to her own knees, inching closer and closer to the half-elf, until their knees was almost touching each other.

But much to Emilia's sudden shock and surprise Beatrice quickly closed the gap, wrapping her arms around Emilia's torso. but the surprise quickly faded as she gently wrapped her arms around Beatrice, seemingly compelled by some deep-rooted motherly Instinct to do so to try and comfort the little spirit the best she could.

"It's alright Beatrice... You're safe now I promise" Emilia wasn't entirely sure what Beatrice was supposedly safe from, but they seemed like the right words to use, considering that she felt the stiffness in Beatrice's body slowly leave.

"Emilia... is Beatrice alright?" Crusch came up from behind, gently and slowly placing a hand on Emilia's shoulder, immediately catching the half-elf's attention.

Emilia looked over her shoulder, looking at Crusch with a look of uncertainty and a little bit of Fear. She wasn't sure what had happened to her, one moment the spirit was seemingly fine, but the next she had fallen onto her back like she was nothing more than a rigid plank of wood. And then to her and everyone else's surprise and shock, Beatrice jumped to her feet, looking like she had seen and experienced something truly awful and terrifying.

"Beatrice... are you ok now?" Emilia said quietly, the little spirit still wrapped in her arms looking up at her with a small amount of uncertainty before shakily nodding her head. both of them separated from their embrace but Emilia kept hold of one of Beatrice's hands which she appreciated as they both got to their feet.

Beatrice looked at the people around her, all of them looking at her with both concern and curiosity at what exactly happened to her.

"I..." Beatrice uttered the only word that came to mind. Before she could close her mouth, her still somewhat scrambled brain tried to think of the right way to respond to the obvious unasked question that hung in the air.

"Great spirit Beatrice, Take time to collect your thoughts, there is no need to rush," Wilhelm said reassuringly, easily being able to see that the great spirit was not exactly in the right frame of mind, to be answering any questions, especially after whatever ordeal she had just experienced. Beatrice took a moment to try to figure out what had just happened to her. One minute she was in the theatre, wondering what was going on with everyone's strange experiences and behaviour.

Suddenly, she found herself transported to a strange and alien snow-covered landscape, her mind being assaulted and her sanity stripped away by...

Beatrice tried her hardest to suppress it, but a shudder still ran down her spine, her entire body shaking as she remembered the horrific experience of those formless yet ever-present thing eating into her mind, and sifting through its contents as if it were nothing more than trash for them to examine.

"Beatrice...Are you all right?" The little spirit in question was pulled from her thoughts, by a voice that had a silvery ring to it.

Beatrice opened her mouth to respond, yet she still failed to actually think of the right words to say, even though she still wasn't entirely sure what actually happened despite the vividness of it. Therefore actually articulating it out loud in words would have been nearly impossible.

But after a further moment of contemplation, Beatrice took a calming breath as she looked up at Emilia, ready to at least try and explain what happened to her.
Beatrice stuttered, "I-I'm not sure what happened. One moment I was in the theatre, and the next I was...somewhere else." She paused to collect her thoughts and noticed the shocked expressions on Emilia, Crusch, and Felix's faces."It was a strange and alien landscape I suppose, it was covered in snow in all directions, mountains stretching as tall as I could see... And then I S-S-saw..." Beatrice couldn't bring herself to finish, her body beginning to shake violently as her eyes took on a noticeably manic look much to the concern of everyone around her.
Emilia, as if propelled by what could have been maternal instinct, moved forward and quickly scooped up the little spirit into a less tight and more comforting embrace brace. Beatrice was surprised and struggled for a moment before calming down, and after a moment of hesitation bringing her arms up and wrapping them. around Emilia.

"Take your time Beatrice... And if it's too hard to talk about then you don't have to," Emilia said with the best comforting tone she could manage. She looked down at the little spirit in her arms, who instead of looking like a grand and wise old spirit, now looked like nothing more than a scared young girl.

Beatrice sunk deeper into the embrace, not caring in the slightest if doing so made her look immature, instead she simply soaked in all of the comfort she could from it. Her terrified mind which was racing a mile a minute before, now coming down to a much slower tempo, therefore actually making it possible for her to collect her thoughts.

"I... Encountered something... Something that I can't even describe I suppose" Beatrice said calmly and quietly, her voice wobbling ever so slightly, as she and Emilia continued to embrace each other.

"What do you mean by something you can't describe..." Crusch for some reason felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine, as she contemplated what exactly the great spirit had just said.

Beatrice paused for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe the things she had seen, as she was not entirely sure what it was. However, she knew one thing about it that she could share."It was evil... N-No evil doesn't even begin to describe what it was I suppose" Beatrice silenced herself for a moment to steady her mind, feeling Emilia's grip around her becoming noticeably shaky. "It was something beyond comprehension... something that makes even the great evils of the world look tame," She said, Beatrice finally breaking by embrace between her and Emilia.

"It wasn't even a Monster... It was something that is beyond the very concept of evil itself" Beatrice couldn't stop the shaking in her limbs, her pupils narrowing as she remembered them in it's twisted glory.
Emilia, Crusch, Felix, Wilhelm, and even Al looked at each other with concern and shock. Whatever Beatrice had experienced had clearly shaken her to the core. And the way she spoke about the strange entities did little to ease their fears.

Beatrice continued to shake, Emilia was about to step forward to embrace her once again when the little spirit finally found her resolve. "We have to stand together I suppose... It wants us to be fearful, It wants us to fight with each other. That only makes it stronger if we do in fact" she said the fear never leaving her eyes yet the resolve was easily apparent.

"I also think... What has been happening to us, is related to them somehow I suppose" Beatrice said after a small moment of silence, Emilia, Crusch and Felix all going as white as fresh bed sheets simultaneously.

Emilia thought about the parts of her nightmare that she could remember, the monster Subaru look alike and the strange otherworldly and horrific voice that spoke directly into her mind. All of it was still fresh in her mind, and if Beatrice's hypothesis about these things she had encountered in her episode, then Emilia couldn't help but be fearful of what exactly they were and what they wanted.

Crusch remembered her own strange nightmare, remembering the strange young boy, and the horrific entity that seemingly tried to claim her mind. Much like Emilia, it was still fresh to her and considering Beatrice's hypothesis, the greenhead Duchess had an awful feeling that whatever this thing was, it may not be finished with them just yet.

Felix remained rooted to the spot, his mind flashing back to the strange and horrific vision he had where he found himself seemingly possessing the body of one of those strange and horrific creatures that Subaru had killed. if this thing that Beatrice was talking about, was responsible for what he had experienced, then Felix was truly terrified of what else this malevolent entity could do, if ripping someone's conscience out of their body was something they actually had the power to do.

Wilhelm and Al glanced at each other as the two women, the spirit and the catboy, all seemed to be lost in their own terrified worlds for a moment. However, as they stood there in silence, Al suddenly remembered something Beatrice had said.

"Hey, old man" Al spoke getting the aged Butler's attention. "What the little spirit said... Do you think what happened to Priscilla could be related somehow?" He finished.

Wilhelm was silent for a moment, the question bouncing around inside his mind as his aged and weathered face took on a thoughtful look. The helmeted man's question was certainly very tricky, though much to his own disappointment Wilhelm did not have an exact answer.

"I'm unsure sir Al, I'm not usually one to speculate without all of the facts present. But... Considering what has happened, there is a possibility that you might be correct in your assertion" Wilhelm despite not being able to see the man's face, could tell that his answer did nothing to ease the helmeted man's worries. But before Wilhelm could do or say anything else, a voice suddenly spoke.

"Wilhelm... we are returning to our seats, come" Wilhelm turns to his lady, easily noticing that Crusch looked very uneasy, noticeably fidgeting on her feet which was very uncharacteristic of her.

Without a single word and only a slight bow, Wilhelm quickly fell into lockstep behind hr, a very noticeably shooked Felix, taking up the rear behind him as all three of them made their way back to their seats.

Beatrice and Emilia stood where they were for a moment, both of them staring into each other's eyes before Beatrice somewhat shyly held a hand out to the half-elf. Emilia was surprised for a moment before quickly taking the little spirit's hand into her own, both of them quickly returning to their seat where the sleeping Subaru was currently being taken care of by Frederica, the blonde-haired woman gently stroking his hair much like how Beatrice and done.

"Beatrice... I know it's not my place to ask... but is everything okay, I heard some commotion up there" Frederica asked with concern, easily being able to pick up on just how nervous and even terrified the spirit actually was.

Beatrice did not say anything but instead gestured for Frederica to move aside. The beast maid did so without question. Beatrice quickly hopped down onto her knees and took Subaru's head into her lap again.

Frederica got up to her full height, sending a concerned look towards Emilia who was also sitting on her knees next to the sleeping Subaru.

"Something... reeeally scary happened to Beatrice, Frederica, something that I don't even think she fully understands yet" was all that Emilia said to the blonde-haired woman.

Frederica looked at her with concern and confusion before deciding that it was best not to pry into the Business of the great spirit, instead After giving both girls one last look over her shoulder, Frederica quickly made her way back to her seat, where Petra was currently sound asleep, with her brother Garfiel carefully watching over her like a loyal guard dog.

Al after watching everyone leave made his way back to his own seat, being careful to not disturb Priscilla, even though he knew deep down that she was not experiencing normal sleep.

"I don't like this feeling... it feels like the calm before the storm," He said quietly to himself, Al meaning back further in his relatively uncomfortable Theatre seat. The strange and somewhat off-putting feeling of something watching him never leaving, even after giving everything around him a glance through his armoured faceplate.

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That's the end of Chapter 7, not much to say this time around as I will save proper author notes for the end of Chapter 8.