AN: This chapter contains explicit descriptions of gore.
Not my Rem Subaru had to remind himself so that he could distance the tragic sight from him as much as possible. It was also a far kinder and less brutal end than it would have been had Rem succeeded in overcoming the cultists.
Subaru turned away only to find bloodshot eyes staring at him. Those eyes belonging to none other than Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti. They were even more livid than usual. Without warning, the Archbishop rammed the back of Subaru's head into the cave wall. Subaru cried out in pain as the impact reverberated throughout his skull, no doubt signaling that something had been damaged.
"YOU!" Petelgeuse foamed at the mouth. "How could you reject such a genuine display of LOVE?! This girl endured so much, all for you! All for your love! Your love which you REFUSED to give! You are truly slothful."
Stop throwing that damn word at me like you know what I've been through. Just kill me and get this over with.
"And yet. And yet and yet and yet andyetandyetandyet you PERSIST with your SLOTH! Indifferent SLOTH! Nihilistic SLOTH! Cooooooowardly SLOTH! SLOTH SLOTH SLOTH SLOTH! Never have I encountered one so loved and yet so slothful! No, I cannot allow your demise to be quick. I must make an example of you and take my time tearing you apart…"
"Oh? Is that right?" Subaru said with a malicious grin plastered across his face. "And here I thought you needed to focus all your efforts on the Ordeal… Wasn't that the ultimate expression of your diligent service or whatever? Hmmm, guess you'd rather just waste your time on indulging your own sadistic desires. My my, Mr Archbishop, it would seem in the end that you are the one who is truly slothful."
Subaru couldn't help but snicker as he turned the Archbishop's own words back against him. Even after having experienced a full lifetime, Subaru's skill of getting under people's skin had remained perfectly honed. The glare he received from Petelgeuse proved that the words had achieved their desired effect.
A moment later, an ethereal shadowy fist slammed into Subaru's stomach, making him vomit up all the food that Rem had spoon-fed him over the past day.
"Guh! Wow, that was some mean jab right there, Petey! So… Which of those ten Unseen Hands are you going to use next? The one just behind your left shoulder? Maybe the one above it? Hmmm, no, personally I'd use those three to your right. Oh man, those look like they could do some serious damage."
"You…" Petelgeuse gnashed his teeth together hard enough to break them. "What… did you just say? You… can SEE my Unseen Hands?"
Gotcha.
Subaru knew from a previous loop how important Petelgeuse's Authority was to him. And most of all, that he took pride in the fact that nobody could see the hands he created. Letting the Archbishop know that Subaru could see them was a guaranteed fast track towards another Return By Death.
"Well, yeah, I mean they do kind of blend in with this dark cave but they're still pretty noticeable. Not sure what you're so upset about though. Oh, my bad, did I miscount? Or did you just not like my suggestion? Was that insensitive of me to tell you which hand to use? Do you actually have, like, favorites or something? Oh, that reminds me of something else I wanted to ask. Do you give each of those shadow hands their own name or number so that you can tell them apart? Or is there some other trick to it? Because, honestly, they all kinda look the same to me and that's gotta be—"
"IIIIIIINCONCEIIIIIIIVABLE!" Petelgeuse screeched, placing as many fingers as he could into his mouth and biting them all down to the bone. "My Unseen Hands! My Authority! NONE may be allowed to lay eyes upon them! They belong to ME! My beloved Witch endowed them to MEEEEE as a symbol of her LOOOOOOOOVE!"
As Subaru had hoped, his words had angered Petelgeuse considerably. He only needed to keep pressing and the Archbishop would give him a quick, albeit brutal, death.
"Eh? That right? Satty really cheaped out on your Valentine's gift then, huh? Guess she shoulda just given you those 'obligatory chocolates' that girls always gave out to all the boys in class that they didn't really care for. Look Petey, I'm gonna be honest here, I don't think Sacchan is actually into you at all. Yeah, sorry, I'm pretty sure that she's only being nice to you out of pity. Of course, she'd never say it to your face. But Sacchan and me… We're real close, you know? So I can just tell these things. By the way, did you know she likes to whisper all sorts of stuff into my ear? Hmmmm, I'm pretty sure she confessed to me the other day. It was just a quick and simple 'I love you' but it was real cute, you know? Too bad for you, huh? But hey, at least now you can save yourself the trouble of getting her a White Day pres— OOF!"
Subaru was interrupted by another shadowy hand delivering a blow to his side, shattering that part of his rib cage and causing profuse internal bleeding.
"YOOOOOOOUUUUUU?! Close to our beloved Witch?! A joke! A mockery! A FAAAAAARCE! You you you you youyouyouyouyouyou YOU?! Impossible! She would never! Never never never never never NEVER! Never with one so shamelessly slothful! You insult insult INSUUUUUUULT Her name by associating Her with the likes of YOU!"
As Petelgeuse ranted and raved, he used his Authority to cause more pain to Subaru by punching him constantly in the stomach and the sides.
Just a little bit more and he'll totally lose control.
"Hah… Hah… Hah… So you're jealous of Sacchan's love for me, Petey? Hah… Funny, I could have sworn that only Sacchan was allowed the… Hah… Sin of Envy…"
That was the final nail in the coffin. With that blatant display of blasphemy from Subaru, Petelgeuse's speech degenerated completely into unintelligible shrieking and his hands of shadow began attacking indiscriminately.
The onslaught of powerful strikes was not something that Subaru could possibly survive. Though the hands were slow, each of them carried tremendous force behind it. Every single impact caused serious damage to a different part of Subaru's body.
His nose, broken and bleeding profusely.
His right arm, mangled beyond recognition from the elbow down.
His kidneys, ruptured.
His stomach, haemorrhaging.
His larynx, utterly destroyed.
His left eye, mashed to a bloody and gooey pulp.
His skull, split open at its front.
His legs, crushed completely.
His lower ribcage, shattered with shards of bone sticking out of his abdomen.
It was agony but Subaru didn't care. Before long, he would finally be able to say good riddance to this terrible world and start anew. It would only take a few more hits in the right places before de ath. But amidst all of that…
…Chains?!
As soon as Subaru heard them, the iron links wrapped themselves tightly around Petelgeuse's throat.
"I… told… you… not to touch… my… Subaru…"
By some miracle, Rem was still alive, if only barely. Not that Subaru had any leg to stand on where that was concerned. Quite literally, in fact. The blue-haired maid's breathing was heavy and she still looked like she was hanging on by a single thread. The pink horn of energy on her forehead was flickering so faintly that it was almost invisible. Both of her hands were already torn and bloody from gripping the chain of the Morningstar which she was currently using to garotte Petelgeuse to death. Despite everything, it seemed like Rem was determined to use the last of her life force to save Subaru from his certain demise.
Damn you! Why won't you just let me die already?!
Subaru was far from grateful, however. Had his voice box still been functional, he would have slammed Rem for her unwelcome intervention. Instead, it was Petelgeuse himself who spoke, in between choking and sputtering.
"GAAAAAH, the girl still lives! Such… ACKKK… diligence is truly a rarity! But why why why why WHY go so far for this GUHH cowardly man who rejected your love? For this very EMBODIMENT of SLOTH?!"
"Hah…. hah… Is that all you… have to say, Witch fanatic? You… truly… understand… nothing then. Even if he were to hate me… Rem's heart would always belong to Subaru."
Rem stood up with a weak but triumphant smile on her blood-stained face. And yet, it wasn't quite the victory she may have been expecting. Despite clearly being in a dangerous position, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti was grinning from ear to ear and cackling.
"I see." The Archbishop said, using several Unseen Hands to snap the chains around his neck. "I see I see I see. Your heart your heart your heart your heart. YOUR HEART! Ahh, of course! Your heart is the expression of your love! My my, how very very very very interesting. No, how WONDROUS! Ahh, my brain trembles. Such beautiful determination! Such DILIGENCE in your love!" Yet more hands grabbed each of Rem's limbs and held her in place while pulling her closer to Subaru. "Very well… Then I shall use these diligent hands of mine, the expression of Her love for me, in order to deliver the expression of your love for him!"
Petelgeuse cackled and licked his lips as two shadowy hands hovered in front of Rem's chest. For a moment, the placement made Subaru worry that the twisted Archbishop had other plans in mind for the helpless maid. Subaru tried to yell something to distract Petelgeuse but nothing came out other than a pathetic gurgling noise as he coughed up blood. He then tried to bite down on his tongue instead so that he wouldn't have to see what came next, only to find out that his jaw had also been too damaged to function. When he tried turning away, Petelgeuse forcefully turned Subaru's head back towards Rem with yet another Unseen Hand while Petelgeuse himself used his own pale fingers to keep Subaru's eyelids open. There was nothing he could do but watch.
Not my Rem.
This act of denial served as little comfort. His Rem or not, fake or not, the last thing he'd wanted was to have to once again witness someone who looked like her being tortured to death by Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti.
Not my Rem.
The dual hands of shadow in front of Rem flipped over so that their backs were touching.
Then they lunged forward and their fingers pierced Rem's sternum.
Not my Rem!
A considerable amount of blood was spat out from the girl's mouth as she gasped and cried out in pain. Subaru now understood the meaning behind the Archbishop of Sloth's cryptic words. Sure enough, the fingers began to pry open Rem's ribcage while she screamed in agony. Blood vessels burst, showering both Subaru and Petelgeuse with crimson fluids. The remainder spilled and pooled on the ground.
Not my Rem! Not my Rem!
"AAAAAAAAHHH! AAAAAAAAHHH!" Petelgeuse squealed, imitating his poor victim. "It hurts! It hurts so much! AAAAAHHH! So much pain! SO much pain! But this pain… it just shows how much I loooooove you, Subaru-kun! Eeeeeeven if you haaaaate me, Rem's heart will aaaaaalways belong to you, Subaru-kuuuuuuun!"
It was an unfathomably tasteless mockery of the girl's words and feelings. Rubbing salt into what was obviously a fatal wound. Subaru recalled another loop where Petelgeuse had similarly made a disgusting spectacle out of murdering Rem. The memory, as well as the equally gruesome sight in front of him, lit an inferno within Subaru. He wanted to yell. To shout. To scream. But Subaru's own actions had ultimately led to his inability to make a single meaningful sound.
The Unseen Hands, meanwhile, continued to slowly crack open Rem's chest. Her ribs creaked violently as they were forced apart until the tension caused several to break, spraying shards of bone all over.
Not my Rem! Not my Rem! Not my Rem!
"Ahh, such difficult difficult work. Ahh, but this act of hard labor is itself an expression of my devotion to love and of my unending diligence."
Subaru could barely hear the Archbishop's crazed muttering. He was seeing red and not just because of the blood that had splashed into his eye. He at last felt like he understood the reasoning behind the Great Spirit Puck's destructive actions that had always rounded out these loops in the wake of Emilia's death. The world was unfair and cruel for allowing such terrible events to occur and thus had no right to continue existing. Subaru wished that he also had the power to end worlds steeped in misery the same way Puck did. Technically, he did. For all Subaru knew, Return By Death left behind no traces of any reality in which he died. But that gave him no satisfaction. He wanted to see those unfair and cruel worlds devastated by calamity. But unlike the harsh cold and snow brought on by Puck that ultimately only buried the world's evils as if they were never there, Subaru wanted them set ablaze instead. To have them illuminated for all to see in their final moments as they burned to ash.
This was the effect that prolonged exposure to Petelgeuse's unimaginable sadism had on a person's mind.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the hands finished their grisly task of fully opening up Rem's chest cavity. The girl's yells of torment had stopped and, if there existed any mercy in the world, that meant she was already dead. Instead, the undeniable, though weak, beating of her exposed heart showed that she was still very much alive. Subaru's remaining eye caught her gaze. Rem's pale blue eyes were filled with sadness, hurt, and betrayal.
Don't you dare look at me like that! All of this is your fault!
"Su… ba… ru…"
It was a barely audible croak but he still recognized that she was saying his name. He steeled himself for her words of contempt.
"P… lease… save… Lady… Em… ilia…"
…Huh?
Rem expending so much effort just for that totally threw Subaru for a loop. Did Rem really want those to be her last words? Did she somehow think this would guilt trip Subaru into doing what she asked?
Even if it was Rem's dying wish, it wasn't something that Subaru could fulfil. In any world. The impossibility of the request only served to anger him more. Once again, his own helplessness had been thoroughly beaten into him. For the arrogantly confident, young Natsuki Subaru of old who had naively believed he could do anything, it had been a rude awakening. But for this Natsuki Subaru who had long since accepted his weakness and run away because of it, it was unnecessarily cruel.
His hatred for the world — and for the rotten Kingdom of Lugunica in particular — was growing with every moment that passed.
Evidently, Rem also wasn't satisfied with what she'd chosen for her last words.
"Su… ba… ru… I… lo—"
She didn't get to finish her confession before a shadowy hand violently yanked the heart out of her chest in a single movement. The girl died instantly, like an animatronic whose plug had been pulled. Her lifeless eyes, still trained directly on Subaru, only gave her corpse more of an eerie doll-like look.
Not my Rem! Not my Rem! Notmyremnotmyremnotmyrem!
As the hands holding her let go, Rem's body crumpled and fell to its knees in a pool of her own blood in front of the aghast Subaru. This new position only made it even harder to avoid staring in horror at the empty chest cavity where her beating heart had been mere moments before. He also got a good look at her now emotionless eyes that had been in the middle of conveying the most important emotion of all. The word 'love' was eternally frozen on the girl's lips.
"Ahh, such a BEAUTIFUL expression of LOVE! My brain trembles!" Petelgeuse cried out in awe, admiring the heart he'd plucked from its owner's chest. "Is it not a MARVEL to behold? The heart of a girl who remained diligent diligent DIIIIILIGENT to the very end of her life!" He bent down towards the lifeless Rem, absentmindedly chewing on one of his fingers. "And yet… You failed to save the one you love. WORSE still, you failed to even make him understand your love! Instead, you wasted the last of your breath begging a sloth to save a half-devil! How utterly meaningless!" He sighed and shook his head slowly like an exhausted father disappointed in the actions of his child. "In the end, despite your diligence, you were unable to accomplish anything of value. Not for him and not for yourself."
Petelgeuse looked into the corpse's unseeing eyes.
"You are truly slothful."
She might not have been Subaru's Rem but that didn't mean she deserved to die in such an awful way. And certainly not to be slandered with that most terrible of insults.
"PPPPP… TTTTRRRR… GGGGSSSS!"
It wasn't so much a series of yells as it was the gurgling of excessive amounts of blood in Subaru's throat. And yet it still clearly called the Archbishop by name and perfectly made apparent Subaru's utter loathing for him.
"Ahh, but my work is not quite done. I must remain diligent and see my task to its completion. In preparation for the coming ORDEAL!" Petelgeuse turned his attention towards the impotently raging Subaru. "You… I understand now that you are not in fact Pride. But… in time, you certainly could be. Our beloved Witch would not have given you so much of Her Affection unless She believed in your potential. Now you need only return that love with devotion and diligence! Take up the Gospel and be saved as one of us!"
Subaru's response to the recruitment pitch came in the form of bloody phlegm on the Archbishop of Sloth's face.
"I see…" Petelgeuse lowered his head in lamentation. "Truly truly truly a shame."
At Petelgeuse's command, The Unseen Hand holding Rem's heart shoved the organ into Subaru's face.
A second arm approached from Subaru's blind spot, grasping his chin…
Then it ripped his lower jaw off.
All the blood, saliva, and bile that had built up inside Subaru's throat now spilled out of his ruined maw in an instant.
"Eguuuuuuh!"
It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. Why? Why? Why did it have to be like this? Why am I back here? I earned my peaceful slow life, damn it! Why can't this piece of shit kingdom just leave me alone?!
"You have only yourself and your lethargic ways to blame for this situation. True, it is by my hands and my fingers that both you and the girl have suffered so… But it is the result of your actions. Your inaction! Your contemptible IDLENESS! I even gave you MULTIPLE chances to change your ways and instead you sneered, you mocked, you BLASPHEMED! Ahhh, my brain is treeeeeembling! You refuse to give up your sinful apathetic ways, you are mired mired mired mired MIRED in sloooooooth! It is all you know! You would stop at nothing to preserve it! And that is why my diligence obligates, yes, OBLIGATES me to put an end to your existence with the very expression of that girl's love."
The Hand slowly pushed Rem's heart forward into the remains of Subaru's mouth as if trying to jam it directly down his throat. Not as if, that was precisely the intent. The large organ flattened Subaru's tongue and blocked the opening to his windpipe, suffocating him completely.
Can't breathe. Can't breathe. Cantbreathecantbreathecantbreathecantbreathe! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaahhhhh! I hate it! I hate this! I hate everything about this fucking world! I want to go home! I hate it! Save me, Halibel! I hate it! Save me, Tia! I hate it! Save me, Rigel! I hate it! Save me, Spica! I hate it! Save me, Rem! I HATE IT!
Panic and ire conquered Subaru in equal amounts.
Rem's aorta burst as Petelgeuse continued trying to shove her heart into an opening far too small for it to fit. The blood from the rupture slid down Subaru's throat. The overwhelming flow of metallic-tasting liquid made him retch.
And with the suffering came more anger.
I hate it! I hate it! I hate them! I hate them all! I hate everyone in this FUCKING Kingdom!
Anger at those causing the suffering.
I hate Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti! I hate the Witch Cult!
Anger at those who had refused to help him prevent it.
I hate Felix Argyle! I hate Crusch Karsten!
Anger at those who had made him believe they wanted to help but were only interested in filling their own pockets.
I hate Anastasia Hoshin!
Anger at those who had mocked his resolve and taken advantage of his helplessness.
I hate Priscilla Barielle!
Anger at the pathetic weakling who couldn't save anyone regardless of how hard he tried.
I hate Natsuki Subaru!
Anger at the miserable wreck who couldn't even convince his own future wife to run away with him again.
I HATE Natsuki Subaru!
Anger at the stubborn idiot who'd believed he could get back his peaceful life without lifting a finger.
I. HATE. NATSUKI. SUBARU!
Roaring fire consumed Subaru's soul. Every single remaining cell in his shattered body was filled with an uncontainable rage. He struggled relentlessly, not in resistance as it was clear he could do nothing, but merely to keep the flames inside him burning. Though if he could get even a single opportunity, he would do everything in his power to harm Petelgeuse, even if Subaru had to slit the bastard's throat with the few teeth and fingernails that he had left.
"Ahh, so this is what lies beneath all that denial and rejection..."
With the tremendous force of the hand behind it, the damaged heart broke through Subaru's tongue-bone. He writhed violently from side to side, spraying blood and vomit all over the ground.
"…A powerful, almost bestial fury! Ahhh, even Wrath would be in awe of such a sight. I must truly commend your spirit in these final moments."
The Unseen Hand and its heart-shaped battering ram proceeded to slowly force apart each row of vertebrae in Subaru's neck.
"And yet… Where where where was this energy, this drive, this TENACITY before? What value does it bring to you now?"
He's right! He's right! He's right! Aaaaaah, it hurts! This is what I get for being so passive! It hurts so much! This what I get for trying to do things the easy way! But not next time… no no no… not next time. Next time I'll be ready from the start. Next time I'll get what I want at any cost. Next time I won't let anything or anyone stand in my way.
The top of Subaru's ribcage collapsed in on itself, puncturing his lungs. With that, his oxygen supply was due to rapidly dwindle and he would possibly asphyxiate before the Archbishop could finish bringing his twisted metaphor to fruition.
"Just like the girl, you expend your energy fruitlessly and ultimately accomplish nothing. You are…"
The two hearts met at last and Subaru's death followed immediately with it. But not before he heard the end of Petelgeuse's sentence.
"…Truly slothful."
Next time… I'm not taking no for an answer.