"Nothing at all. It's a dead end. The path we chose was wrong. There's nothing for me to say. It is what it is."
"Liar! Do you think I'm stupid? If you don't want to say it, then keep the whole thing to yourself! What's the point of making a shit show and then
acting like it wasn't anything? How dumb can you be!"
In response to Ram's cool attitude, Subaru's fever just grew.
We've been separated from everyone else, walking for hours, and we hit a dead end. She's being too unfair. I've been doing my best here. She's got no right to look down on me.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, both of you. There's no need to—"
"Shut your goddamn mouth! Ram and I are talking right now!"
Anastasia tried to mediate, but Subaru mercilessly brushed her off. Subaru's expression was wrath made manifest as he glared at Ram.
"If you want to talk shit, then start talking! Go on, I'm all ears!"
"—You're awfully keen to keep advancing, aren't you?"
"Damn straight! Why the hell do you think we came here? To meet the
Sage! That's why I'm working so goddamn hard! What of it?!" "Wrong. We didn't come here to meet the Sage."
"Huh?"
"The reason we came here is to awaken Rem."
Ram was looking Subaru straight in the eye as she asserted that. Even Subaru with his thoughts seething was slightly overwhelmed by the sharpness of her eyes.
But doesn't meeting the Sage equal saving Rem?
"They're not the same thing. Saving Rem is more important, and seeing the Sage is secondary to that. You've got the order of precedence wrong.
You've got things flipped."
" "
"I came here for Rem, to remember my little sister. So what are we doing now? Rem isn't here, and we're just wandering around in a place like this…
Don't screw with me."
"No one's screwing with you! But there's no helping the fact it ended up like this!"
Ram's strained words hurt Subaru, and he fired back in an emotional rage.
Hearing that, Ram's pink eyes slowly filled with grief— "—Why did you grab me and not Rem?"
She hit him with what happened in the instant the world shattered, when he had reflexively held on to Ram.
"I'm sure you just had your hands full with what was going on immediately around you. That's how you always are. That's how it always goes, and it's not like you really cared about Rem. Your head was just filled with thoughts about Lady Emilia and Lady Beatrice. What a man you are.
Poor Rem."
"…Shut your mouth…"
"Rem believed in you, didn't she? Or was that just another of your convenient explanations? Just running your mouth to get by? Just your bad habit of saying whatever it takes to get women to trust you? Poor Lady Emilia and Lady Beatrice, too. Being tricked by a man like you!"
"Shut your goddamn mouth!"
"No, I won't! Because it's not like you actually care at all about Rem!"
"—Don't you dare!"
The world turned red, and his head erupted in flames.
Look at her, so smug and looking down on me, spouting random shit. I oughtta drag her off her goddamn high horse.
"Invisible Providence!"
"Gh, ah?!"
Giving in to the dark feelings taking over his head, Subaru unleashed it.
The black hand cheered rapturously as it grabbed the girl spouting her misguided insults from the dragon's back and dragged her down onto the sand.
Looking down on Ram, who couldn't figure out what was happening, Subaru gnashed his teeth.
"Don't play with me."
You think I don't care about Rem? You think this is some sick joke?
In a fit of rage, his head was burning as he leaned over her slender body
—
"—Ugh."
Subaru wrapped both his hands around her neck and started throttling her with all his strength. His fingers bit into her small neck. He could feel her bones creaking under his hands.
"…Ah…ugh…"
Ram groaned as Subaru straddled her and was strangling her.
Her face warped in pain, and saliva started to dribble from the corner of her lips. Her red tongue moved in her mouth as she struggled to get free, but Subaru had pinned her shoulders with his knees, taking a perfect mount, so even Ram couldn't fight back.
You'll regret what you said about me when you stop breathing! You'll regret saying that shit about me! How dare you hurt me! "It's your fault. You. You!"
I hate you. I hate you. I hate you!
As all little resentments piled up and overflowed, Ram's face drained of color.
"Die. It makes me sick that an asshole like you looks the same as Rem!"
" "
"Huh? What's that? I can't hear you. If you want to say something, just speak u—"
"…ra…"
Ram softly whispered something. As he narrowed his eyes at the sound of it—
"What?!"
The sand below him exploded upward, sending the both of them flying.
Subaru spun as his mouth and eyes were filled with sand from the sudden explosion.
Caught up in the explosion, too, Ram rolled to the side, coughing as she escaped Subaru's murderous rage.
She had been injured in the explosion, and her blood was dripping onto the sand—
"Magic…! It's too late to beg for your life now!"
"That's my line, Barusu! Nothing good will come of allowing Rem to see an emotionless womanizer like you. I'll cut you to pieces, and you can rot in the sands here."
"Big talk!"
Holding his face in pain, Subaru reached to his hip and grabbed his whip while Ram took her wand from her thigh and bristled with determination to fight.
" "
She has the advantage when it comes to matching blow for blow, but my whip won't lose in terms of speed. In speed alone, a whip even works against people on the superhuman level in this world.
"I'll gouge out that face of yours so there's no one else who looks like Rem in this world."
"Stupidity is a disease caught by spending too much time talking to idiots — So shut up and die before you pass it to me."
Subaru's eyes were bloodshot from the sand, and Ram's lips curled into a bloody, lethal smile. The two of them carefully measured their distances, facing off against each other in the circular passage.
It was a lit powder keg, and neither of them would make it out unscathed
—
"—All right, that's enough." —But the fuse was snuffed out.
" "
Dumbstruck, Ram looked down at her small chest. The bloody tip of a knife was sticking out of it. It was a precise stab in the back that went straight through her heart.
"Ahh, gh…"
"There was no stopping you two, so I just weighed who would be more useful… Hope you'll forgive me."
The knife twisted and then slipped back out of Ram with a fountain of blood.
Ram slumped to her knees and then fell forward. Her limbs twitched for a few moments, but she soon stopped moving, and her blood seeped into the sand.
And just like that, Ram died.
"You, why…?"
"Huh? You're asking that? You were going to just chip away at her. I figured it would be bad if I left it be, so I gave you a hand is all."
Faced with Subaru's furious expression, Anastasia just shrugged. There was no hint of any guilt on her conscience. She just looked like she had done the obvious and natural thing.
"What, can't take the fact that your prey was stolen out from under you, so now you're turning on me?"
" "
Anastasia was looking up at him with the bloodstained knife in one hand.
Quieted by what she was saying, he looked her over, as if appraising her.
There was a belittling nuance to it, but she has a point. It's stupid to keep fighting and kill more people like this.
Foxidna is my guide to the watchtower, and there's still a good chance she'll be useful to me. Unlike Ram, who was useless and just kept pissing me off, she's a piece that would be a problem to lose.
"…Fine, I'll go along with your smooth talk."
"That's good. I knew you were a smart one. That's a relief."
Anastasia smiled thinly as she made a show of breathing a sigh of relief. Then she stepped awkwardly across the sand toward Subaru, holding out her white hand.
"Let's shake on it. A reconciliation—and to working together going forward."
" "
"Natsuki?"
Subaru slipped into thought at Anastasia's seemingly innocent expression.
I know I was just thinking Foxidna was a useful pawn, but is that actually true?
She's smiling right now, but she had the same smile on her face when she stabbed Ram in the back, didn't she?
She was holding the knife in her other hand. It was a thick, top-grade survival knife. Even in her hands, it could easily cut into a human body. Not just Ram's body, but Subaru's, too.
"…Are you not going to shake on it?"
Foxidna cocked her head, wanting to shake hands. Handshake range. Close enough to reach with a knife. And a range that was too close for a whip to be useful.
—I have to kill her before she kills me.
"What is it, Natsuki?"
"…No, nothing."
Subaru smiled slightly and then reached his own right hand out toward hers.
As they were shaking, Subaru was waiting for the moment when she let her guard down completely.
—Invisible Providence.
The invisible hand he reactivated stretched its fingers toward Anastasia's neck.
I won't make the same mistake as with Ram. I'll snap her neck.
" "
The black hand's fingertips were reaching for her neck as he grabbed her hand. Feeling that, Foxidna's smile deepened.
At the same time, a dark smile crossed Subaru's lips.
"In that case…" Now.
While she was saying something, before she could raise the knife, he poured strength into the invisible hand. The black palm covered her thin neck and started to twist—
—Just before he could do it, though, a blade of wind split her body in half from behind.
" "
A breeze?
Just after Subaru felt that, he saw the girl in front of him explode in a red splatter as she was split in half at the waist.
"Huh?"
Blood splattered all over the white sands, and hot blood and viscera warmed the cool air as a horrific stench filled the cavern.
"—Ah."
Seeing that, Subaru looked at his hands in shock.
Anastasia's upper body was still hanging there. He was still tightly gripping her hand from the handshake. Her eyes were opened wide, looking at Subaru in a daze.
Behind her, her lower half had collapsed to the ground. Urine was leaking from her lower half as her muscles suddenly relaxed.
"Ah, ahhhhhhhhh?!"
Subaru screamed at her grisly state.
He tried to shake her off, but her grip was absurdly strong, and so he ended up swinging her upper body around, splattering more blood and viscera all around for no reason.
"L-Leggo! Let go of me!"
"No! I'm not dead yet…!"
"You're dead already! There's no way you can be saved!"
Hearing her clinging to life so strongly, Subaru screeched in response.
Her body had been cut in half, and her blood and internal organs were falling out. It made no sense that she had not died immediately. It made no sense that she was holding on so tightly to his hand. None of it made any sense.
"You. Stupid. Piece. Of. Shit! Just die already!"
"Nooo…"
Violently grabbing Anastasia's face, he forcefully pulled her off him. She was sobbing and screaming something as Subaru finally got her away and threw her down to the ground.
Her small upper body fell into a puddle of her own blood.
"Don't…leave me…"
That soft murmur that almost sounded like a drowning voice was her last.
Subaru could no longer hear her voice. It was destined from the moment she was cut, but death had finally caught up to her. Subaru was overwhelmed by a tremendous nausea and started heaving.
"Geh! Ugh! Gah-ha! Geh-hoh-hoh! Haaah…"
Expelling what little was left in his stomach, he wiped the yellowish vomit from his mouth with his sleeve. It wasn't the time to just hang his head.
The one who had just killed Anastasia was— "—Barusu."
"Just die already."
There was a shadow in the light of the lantern on the ground. It was Ram, her whole upper body stained in blood. The knife had cut deeply through her chest, but she was still alive.
Only just barely. She killed Anastasia on tenacity alone, and now she's after me—
"Just die and leave me out of it…"
Struggling to breathe, Subaru looked around for his whip. But he couldn't find it. And while he was searching, Ram approached him with faltering steps.
The whip won't make it. So there's just one other choice.
"Invisible Provide—?!"
The trump card he had relied on several times already.
Just as he tried to fall back on its power again, he suddenly felt an intense pain in his eye.
"Gah?! Ahhh?! Ohhhh?!"
A pain like a burning needle piercing his skull made his eyes roll backward in their sockets. The side effect of using his ability scorched his mind, and he grabbed his head and rolled around the sand while tears of blood seeped from his eyes.
It felt like a hellish feast was starting inside his head, and all his nerves started boiling. He couldn't escape the pain.
"Ahhh! Ghhhh! Ughhhhh?!"
As Subaru writhed in pain, Ram held up her bloody wand while barely clinging to life and pointed it at him.
Subaru rolled into Anastasia's pool of blood, getting her viscera all over himself while still writhing in pain. Ram's lips slowly moved as she cast her spell.
And, finishing the incantation, just as the blade of wind was about to tear into Subaru—
" "
The sound of something being chewed filled the cold cavern.
The earsplitting sound continued as an unpleasant sloshing sound started to be mixed in.
"Ah, haa, aa, aa?"
Just as Subaru expected to die, to be cut to pieces, for some reason, death didn't come.
Finally, the intense pain and emptiness that had been tormenting Subaru started to fade.
"Wha…?"
Covering his face with his left hand, he forced himself up. Even just that much took a stupid amount of time. His face was bright red from the bloody tears as he slowly looked around.
The pain and bloody tears were surely the backlash of overusing the Unseen Hand. Ravaged by a pain beyond imagination, he couldn't even tell how long he spent writhing on the ground.
Why did I have that long to writhe in pain?
"…Patlash?"
Dumbfounded, Subaru's black land dragon moved next to him as he slumped over.
Noticing his voice, the dragon that was squatting on the ground waved her long tail to indicate she was fine.
"You're safe? …What happened to Ram?"
There's no way she ran out of steam right before finishing me off, did she?
It was a little bit too convenient, but she had suffered a mortal wound. It wasn't all that strange.
"I don't know if that makes me lucky or unlucky…"
Either way, now's not the time for that. There's no one getting in my way now, so I should get out of here quickly. I need to get to the watchtower. "Patlash… Sorry, but I need to ride you now."
" "
"Patlash?"
He called to her, but his trusty steed didn't obey.
In fact, she didn't even turn to look at him. She was just sitting comfortably on the sand, breathing heavily next to Subaru.
Seeing that, realizing that he was being ignored, Subaru's rage started growing.
"Hey, Patlash. You listening to me? Hey!"
It was a similar sort of annoyance to what he had felt with Ram and Anastasia. His negative emotions were amplifying at a speed far greater than normal, and he erupted at the land dragon that refused to answer him. "Hey, look at me, asshole! Who do you think I am?!"
" "
"Look at you, finally listening—"
Subaru threw sand at Patlash, and perhaps finally being willing to listen, Patlash turned to look at him. Subaru was thinking to himself that he had done a praiseworthy job of not scoffing in his annoyance when he noticed it.
—When Patlash turned, her mouth was stained an unnatural red.
" "
That crimson was a color Subaru had become used to in the past few minutes.
It was the same crimson clinging to his clothes and face and wetting the dry sands below him. And its powerful smell was mixing with the stench of human excrement that was wafting in the air, too.
But there was something he wished he had not noticed.
—That there were clumps of pink hair between Patlash's fangs.
"Eeep!"
He realized it with a shudder.
Ram, who he had lost track of, was lying collapsed on the other side of Patlash.
She wasn't moving at all. Of course not. Because there wasn't anything left of her above her shoulders.
Ram's skull had been shattered by violent fangs, and her brain was splattered all around her, just like Anastasia's insides had been splattered all around her.
And the same Patlash who had done that to Ram was looking at Subaru with her yellow eyes.
Her yellow reptilian eyes were filled with a sharp, violent—
"Sto—"
Patlash's jaw opening right in front of his face was the last thing he saw.
He could hear the sound of his body being chewed until the moment his consciousness was extinguished. Even after his head was shattered and his ears were no more.
How was he hearing it? It was strange and didn't make any sense, but he couldn't laugh at it. He didn't have a mouth to laugh—or any life left, either. So he didn't laugh or even do anything.
—And so Subaru Natsuki died, eaten by his partner.
5
—His consciousness continued hearing the sound of things breaking.
Bones being chewed, his brain being crushed, his eyes bursting and splattering like overripe grapes.
His skull. It was his skull that shattered. And inside, all those important things jumbled together.
It all combined as his consciousness and memories turned into the color of flesh and transformed into vomit.
It was a head-splitting pain— As he thought that, his consciousness sneered at him.
Your head is already split, and everything inside it is already splattered. You lost the part that lets you feel pain a while back already, so what are you talking about?
His brain for storing memories was crushed, his organ for thinking destroyed, and all the crucial bits for just maintaining vital functions had burst. What was there other than death?
People who ended up like that died. So naturally, Subaru Natsuki had also
—
"—rusu. Barusu. Get ahold of yourself."
His untethered consciousness was grabbed by the root and forcibly dragged to a bright place.
When he got back, the first thing he sensed was someone else calling his name. It wasn't just a voice. He could feel a gentle slapping on his cheek.
And the gravelly feel of sand in his mouth.
"Barusu, wake up already. Don't make me burn away your eyelids."
"—Ngh."
Hearing such a frightening threat as the first thing upon waking, his consciousness quickly surfaced.
Guided by that voice, his consciousness rose from a sea of darkness, breaking the water's surface—
"—Are you up, Barusu?"
Right in front of him, he saw Ram's face, her pink eyes narrowing.
" "
Dangerously close. Close enough to feel her breath. Close enough their lips might accidentally touch. Of course, Ram had no intention of something like that. It was just that the surroundings were dark, and they couldn't see each other's faces without being that close.
One breath. As Subaru exhaled, Ram slowly moved away. The darkness coloring the world felt unreal, and Subaru grabbed a handful of sand to double-check that he was really there.
And also, he could tell that he had died and reset again.
"I…I…"
Confirming his heart was beating, he took his time remembering what had happened.
The moment of death was always intense, and the perfect memory of it was as unpleasant as ever. Stepping through it, though, he traced the steps he had taken leading up to his death—
"Ugh…"
The vivid memory of the insignificant argument that had set him off, that had turned into a shouting match and then a murderous spree suddenly reared its head.
"Barusu?"
"Ugh, eh…gaaah."
Ram looked suspicious of Subaru's condition, but he didn't have the mental capacity to answer her. His eyes were spinning in nausea.
When it came to his own death, he was a veteran. He had experienced more times than he could count on two hands. But that didn't mean he was used to death, either.
That applied to his own death, too, of course, but it was the same for others as well. For his comrades and friends or anyone else.
He was scared of dying himself, but the thought of someone he knew dying was enough to tear at his heart.
—All the more so with how gruesome Ram's death had been. That was the worst shock of all—and something he had never experienced before.
"…Ogh, geh, geh-hoh, gah-ha."
He desperately tried not to remember it, but that was no different than trying to remember it.
Ram's gory fate, trusty Patlash's vicious act. The more he tried to forget them, the more vividly he saw the clumps of pink hair sticking out of the land dragon's fangs and the remnants of her head lying on the ground.
As a result, he couldn't hold back the nausea welling up inside him, and he vomited into the sand.
But his stomach and throat couldn't recover from the shock of that death.
He just hunched over, spasming as drool slipped from his mouth.
"…All that after waking up? How pathetic."
A cold voice fell on Subaru as he bent over on all fours in the sand, desperately gasping. Ram was right beside him, looking down at him. Her cold attitude just reminded him of their argument right before he died.
Remembering the rage and murderousness that had swelled in him for no reason, the argument that had turned into a fight to the death…the way he had been overcome by his impulses, his chest ached, and he got scared.
What if something like that happened again—?
"Don't you dare bite down."
"—Ngh."
With that one preface, Ram held his chin with her finger.
Subaru froze in surprise, but paying that no heed, Ram opened his mouth, and looking bored, she stuck her white finger down his throat.
"…?! Oh, eough."
"I knew you were a bungler through and through, but if you can't even do this much, how are you any better than a baby." Subaru's throat was violently assaulted.
But because of that, his stomach and throat that had only been spasming adapted to that new shock and naturally ejected the nausea that was welling up inside him.
All that came out was gastric juices and saliva, but it made Subaru feel far better than before he had been able to get anything out.
"Eh-hoh, geh-ha…haah…huu… Sorry… I'm okay now…"
"Oh? Well, I'm gwad you were able to feel bwetter."
"Y-you…"
Subaru wiped his mouth on his sleeve as Ram shrugged and responded with baby talk.
He had his complaints with that attitude, but it was true that his inability to perform that natural bodily function put him on the same level as a nursing baby. He didn't have any ground to stand on to argue with Ram's hand still gently patting his back.
It was a hard-to-understand, awkward sort of thoughtfulness.
"You can stop with the hand. More importantly, this is…"
"You remember the light from the watchtower and the crack in space shattering, right? We were swallowed up in that fissure and ended up thrown out here."
Ram gestured at the surroundings with her chin as Subaru escaped her hand on his back. Hearing that, Subaru was struck by a surprise that was late to register.
" "
Subaru had already died three times while trying to clear the Auguria
Dunes. But his restart point this time was different from the previous two points. It had moved from right before they had faced the flower garden aboveground to the starting point of the sand labyrinth after being separated from Emilia and the others.
"You look pathetic."
Subaru's face had stiffened as he realized what had happened when Ram's finger suddenly touched him. Looking toward that warmth, he saw Ram nodding, her expression unchanged.
"Don't get flustered. Just calm down. What happened, happened. Right now, we have to keep our heads about us and accept the situation we are in.
Though that might be asking a bit much of you."
" "
Ram's soft voice and the warmth of her finger gradually helped him get through the panic that hit him as he kneeled on the cold sand.
Ram's thoughts and Subaru's internal confusion were not quite in alignment, though.
Ram was thinking of the fact that they had been seemingly warped away and separated from their companions, while Subaru was dwelling on the combined facts of his previous death and that the reset point had changed, but they were both coming to grips with heavy shocks.
Finally, Subaru digested what Ram was saying—and her thoughtfulness— and slowly exhaled.
"…Ram…"
"What?"
"Your finger feels nice…bgh?!"
"Don't push your luck, you Barusu."
"Could you please not use my name like it's some kind of insult?!"
Subaru ate a slap as payment for his careless comment and complained with teary eyes. But Ram was hurriedly wiping her finger with sand, ready to shoot that request down immediately.
Just when I think she's being oddly nice, suddenly this is the treatment I get.
But Subaru experienced a heartfelt sense of relief at an exchange with her that was like normal.
It had not improved the situation at all, but even so, it felt like a weight off his chest.
Because of that, though, there was one more thing he wanted to say, before the scenario started moving again.
"—What?"
Seeing Subaru looking at her, Ram furrowed her brow dubiously.
Looking into her pink eyes, Subaru took a deep breath.
"Ram, the reason I grabbed you when this happened is because I was holding on to you before the world started shattering and because in that moment you were the weakest person and the person closest to me, and um…"
" "
"—Why did you grab me and not Rem?"
Hearing his explanation, Ram's face merged with that of the Ram who had interrogated him earlier.
It was very clear that none of them were in their right mind when that unnatural fight broke out. They were not calm, and all sorts of little things amplified and turned into a murderous rage. It had been an impossible situation, the worst sort of thing that could happen, caused by such extreme densities of miasma.
But Subaru didn't believe there wasn't some lingering truth spoken in that moment, either.
"In the moment, I wasn't weighing you and anyone else in the scales. I didn't have the composure to do something like that, and my lackluster ability to act in an extreme situation is al—"
"Idiot."
"Huh?"
Subaru was desperately trying to explain himself when Ram interrupted him with just one curt word. Subaru looked up at that unexpected response only to have Ram's finger touch his nose. Or rather, she had pointed her finger, and he had stuck her finger into his nose by looking up. A sharp pain hit him.
"Gaaah!"
"I'm sick and tired of your driveling excuses— It's pointless to keep blaming yourself. There's no meaning in searching for someone else to blame, either. You have things you should be doing instead of wasting time like that."
Heaving a sigh, Ram picked up the lantern next to her. She tapped the side of it, and the ragmite ore inside started faintly glowing, breaking the darkness of the labyrinth.
"We already wasted enough time with you spilling your stomach all over the sand."
"I know… What about the others?"
"They are separated for the most part. Other than you and me and… Ah, looks like they're back now."
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve while hating himself for the shamelessness of asking a question he already knew the answer to.
Looking up, the light of the lantern Ram was holding ran into another lantern's light. Anastasia and Patlash had come back after looking around their surroundings.
—Subaru's heart shuddered at the gallant and menacing visage of the land dragon that appeared in the light.
"How stupid can I be…"
Gripping his own chest strongly, Subaru gritted his teeth, swallowing the weakness that was welling up inside him.
There was no reason for him to let himself be held back by that crazy friction now. The fact that he had been killed by Patlash had left a deep, deep scar on his heart.
Still, he had come face-to-face with people who had killed him plenty of times before.
"Right, it was the same with Rem and Ram, too. At first…"
At this point, Ram had even shown him a bit of kindness, even if it could be a bit difficult to understand. And Rem had done so much to support him, had saved him from despair.
Their relationships had been bad at first, and they had both not only tried to kill him, but even actually killed him before.
Compared to that, what had just happened with Patlash wasn't even a result of her real feelings.
"—Thank goodness. So you're awake, Natsuki."
"Thank you for going to look around. Did you find anything?" Ram and Anastasia started talking.
They were going to start discussing what to do going forward and how to get through the sand labyrinth. He needed to join in and let them know. To make sure that tragedy didn't happen again.
" "
I'm past the fact that I died and the effects of what happened leading up to that. So the pain and sense of loss I'm feeling are just my imagination and not real.
Winning out against all of that is my battle, and I have to get through it with everyone safe.
In order to do that, he needed…
"—Fight, Subaru Natsuki. You don't have time to be trembling in fear."
He swallowed his fear and took a deep breath. In order to correct the mistakes he had made in his previous round, in order to change things this time.
" "
The black land dragon was looking at Subaru with concern in her eyes.
CHAPTER 5
THE WATCHTOWER GUARDIAN
1
"—Anastasia, watch out, the ceiling is low here."
"Got it. Thanks."
"Ram, the footing here is a bit rough. It should be okay for Patlash, but be careful."
"…Understood…"
"Right, are you getting cold, Ram? You can take my cloak if you need it."
" "
Subaru stopped and took off his cloak and held it up to Ram on the dragon, worrying about her body's condition. Faced with his concern, Ram fell silent and stared at him.
It was uncomfortable standing there beneath her gaze as she seemed to be trying to read his mind.
"Wh-what? What is it?"
"I could ask you the same question. What is with your weird sense of chivalry? Are you plotting something?"
"I'm not plotting anything. I just want the two of you to be healthy—"
"How lewd."
"It's not lewd at all?!"
He raised his voice a bit at her scornful gaze, but seeing how poorly the suggestion had been received, he put his cloak back on himself. And then he scratched his head and turned away from them.
—Honestly, Ram's suspicion was entirely reasonable. Subaru was confused by his own actions, too.
It wasn't as if he was trying to butter them up to avoid what happened the last time he died. He could tell that was the sort of abnormality that wouldn't just happen out of nowhere.
But he was genuinely worried about them.
This feeling is probably not unrelated to having just seen them die before my eyes.
" "
"Why are you making such a bitter face? If there's something you want to say, then say it."
"…No, it's nothing. Just the sand in my boots feels bad is all."
"If you want to hide it, then do a better job of it. Don't trouble a woman because of your awkwardness."
Subaru's mouth turned down at the corners at that retort.
It was obvious what Ram meant, but what was he supposed to say? "You are important to me, and I'm worried about you, so please just let me escort you as best I can"?
"…How lewd…"
"I didn't say anything! Don't put your own weird interpretation on silence, too, you paranoiac!"
"Putting yourself up on a special pedestal saying that? You are incorrigible."
"If I'm putting myself on a pedestal, then you must be putting yourself all the way up in heaven to be able to look down on me."
"Hah!"
As Subaru struggled to get a handle on how he was feeling, Ram, who had no memories of the last loop, was being utterly merciless. That fact was annoying but also a relief, leaving Subaru's mind to deal with a bizarre and complex mess of emotions.
"You really don't hold back with Natsuki, do you?"
Meanwhile, Anastasia let out a wry chuckle at that one-sided tirade. It was an unobtrusive attempt to keep the peace as she put her hand to her cheek.
"Or did something happen while I was gone?"
"If you left Barusu and me alone, nothing would happen. Barusu's corpse would just be found the next day is all."
"The hell? Are you the werewolf? Scary."
Subaru continued walking as he kept bantering. Anastasia cocked her head as she watched him out in front.
"Natsuki, jokes aside, pushing yourself too much isn't good. It's not like there was anything pointing one way or the other at that fork in the road before."
"Though you did give Zhuge Liang a hard time up there."
Both Anastasia and Ram had their guesses at the cause of Subaru's change. He couldn't do anything other than scratch his cheek vaguely.
—On what was now his second time searching the labyrinth of sand, they had already reached the problematic crossroads, and this time they had gone left instead of right.
Subaru didn't imagine he had done a particularly good job of naturally guiding the consensus to the left side. But the both of them had been willing to go along because of how desperate he had been.
If we went right, it would have meant being driven mad by the miasma. I don't want to go through that catastrophe ever again.
But there was no guarantee that the left path was safe. Because of that, Subaru was being especially careful and leaving no stone unturned in order to keep everyone out of harm's way.
"Is this disgusting gentleman act a symptom of hitting your head when we were sent here?"
"What?! Is me being considerate really that abnormal to you? I'm not even doing anything different than Julius usually does! Why's it okay for him but not for me?!"
"Julius does it naturally, but when you do it, it's unhealthy…and unnatural."
"Did you call it unhealthy?!"
Subaru's eyes widened at that hideous description, but neither of them paid it much mind. He was getting depressed at being ignored like that when Patlash prodded his shoulder with her nose, trying to cheer him up.
"…You're nice. You really are a great partner."
Subaru was ashamed of himself for the brief moment of hesitation he felt when Patlash comforted him.
He tensed up at having gotten Ram and Anastasia suspicious and making Patlash worry about him. Can you really protect them like this? Subaru slapped his cheeks and fired himself up again.
For the moment, they needed to clear the sand labyrinth as soon as possible and meet back up with everyone else.
—Having the restart point change after such a short amount of time had been quite disturbing, but there was something that bothered him even more than that.
The fact was that with the reset point having changed, there might be people he wanted to save that he could no longer save. Just like he had been unable to rescue Rem who had had her name and memories eaten. There might be a tragedy befalling one or all of the people who were separated from him.
He was scared of a loss that he couldn't begin to make right with his own life.
"We need to find them again soon…!" Emilia, Beatrice, Julius, and Meili. And Rem.
He prayed that nothing bad happened to them.
That nothing hurt them while they were somewhere he couldn't reach them.
That was why…
"Keep pushing forward, step by step. But carefully, so that nobody gets hurt. If you notice anything, say something. Anything I can do, I will do."
"…He's a terminal case."
The clash between a desire to hurry up and safety first robbed Subaru's words of their consistency. Ram was exasperated, and Anastasia just flashed a wry smile. Patlash whinnied a little bit.
—I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but we've already come a pretty long way from the fork and still haven't run into any of those stupid metal doors. I think it's probably safe to say we've avoided being driven mad by the overflowing miasma behind them and killing each other.
However, it was hard to imagine that the left path was just the right path all along with no hitches.
"—What? What's that strange smell?"
"Smell?"
Anastasia sniffed the air as Subaru furrowed his brow. Following her lead, he closed his eyes and focused on his nose. He quickly noticed the problematic smell.
The smell coming from down the passage, beyond where their light reached was—
"The smell of something burning."
There was a faint heat in the air coming from down the passage.
Subaru and Anastasia both nodded at Ram's observation. It was the smell of something burning. The simple smell of fire was slipping into their nostrils and making itself known.
"Do you suppose it might just be Lady Emilia carelessly starting a campfire and resting?"
"I agree Emilia-tan might just be careless enough to light a fire and set up camp, but given the situation and the timing, that's a little too…"
"It's too suspicious. It is possible it's Emilia, though."
In some sense, it was the sort of change they had been wanting after wandering through the unchanging labyrinth. But faced with an actual development, all three of them were cautious.
Not knowing who or what was on the other side, they couldn't just call out, either. But nothing would change with them just hanging back and staring down a dark corridor.
"—I'm going to go take a look. I'll turn out the light and be as stealthy as possible, so whatever or whoever it is won't notice me."
Turning off the lantern in his hand, Subaru volunteered for the scouting job. Of the three of them, he was the best fit in terms of skills and mindset for the most dangerous task.
"If anything happens, we'll use you as a distraction. Don't hold a grudge."
"If the worst happens, I'll be sure to curse you from beyond the grave."
Ram would never say anything so cute as actual encouragement, but Subaru still found it reassuring.
Subaru left them behind and slowly moved forward in the darkness, walking as stealthily as he could.
" "
Breathing shallowly, he carefully, quietly stepped on the sand as he made his way to the source of the smell. It would have been great if it really was just Emilia and the others, and they had started a campfire to rest at. And even if it wasn't them, it would still be a relief to find some trace of other people. Even if it was just the Sage making some barbeque, he wouldn't mind that.
Subaru was praying for some sort of development as he stepped forward
a little bit more solidly.
—Just then, the ground under his foot crumbled, and his body was swallowed up in a shifting mountain of sand.
"Whaaaaaa—?!"
Subaru could do nothing as he was pulled diagonally downward by the sudden collapse of his footing. Rolling a dozen yards, he finally stopped when his head slammed into a mound of sand.
"Ugh! Bleh! Sand again… No, more importantly, why did…?"
Tasting some sand again for the first time in a couple of hours, Subaru spat out what he could as he got himself up. And the grumbles that had started to slip from his lips trailed off as his pupils widened.
—He found himself in a wide space, and a dozen or so yards below where he had been standing before.
" "
There was a faint orange light illuminating the big space.
It had a high, domed ceiling that seemed to connect to the surface of the desert.
The ceiling was a natural trap hole, and sand from aboveground and any poor prey that got caught up in it fell through. The poor prey in this case were the adventurers who tried to challenge the Auguria Dunes, as well as wandering demon beasts who lived in the dunes.
" Raaaaargh!"
There was a thunderous roar as an oiran bear that had been sleeping on the ground in the room woke up.
It had probably been on the surface before it got caught in the trap and fallen through the hole. The demon beast that camouflaged itself as a single bed of flowers had heard Subaru's scream when he fell and had leaped up in a furious mood.
Its eyes robbed of life by the flowers in its back focused on Subaru, who was sitting in the darkness.
There was only one enemy, but just like a bear, it was impossibly menacing for Subaru to face alone.
"—Ngh."
Gritting his teeth, Subaru frantically tried to stand up as it approached him. There were two choices that flashed through his mind. Fight or flight.
If he climbed the mound of sand he had fallen down, it wouldn't be impossible to get back to the previous passage. It was a shallow slant, and it was just sand, so he could find a way to get up it. But that would expose the others to danger.
—That brief moment's indecision ended up robbing him of either choice.
"—Ah."
He didn't have enough time to grab his whip or to climb the mound of sand. The demon beast charging at him raised its arm as it got close. The oiran bear's fiendish claws were about to shred Subaru—
" Giiiiiii!"
—But at the very last moment, something big and bright pierced the oiran bear's torso from the side.
" Raaargh!"
The attack had come hurtling at great speed. The oiran bear howled as a sharp, spear-like object pierced it. It was a howl of rage and pain, but it didn't last long. Because without any warning, the oiran bear's whole body burst into flames.
" "
The demon beast was burning so intensely that it made it pointless to wonder where the flames had even started.
The pathetic oiran bear didn't have even a moment to resist as its life was burned to ash in the blink of an eye.
As a result, Subaru was still alive, but he wasn't fool enough to breathe a sigh of relief at that.
The thing that had burned the oiran bear was even more menacing.
In the back of his head, what little bit of his mind was still thinking clearly recognized that the scent of burning flesh filling his nostrils was the source of the burning smell they had noticed in the passage.
And the rest of his mind was entirely overwhelmed by what had appeared before his eyes.
" Giiiiiii!"
—The odd-looking demon beast made a noise like countless babies crying as one.
2
" Giiiiiii!"
As he heard the demon beast's roar echo in his ears, Subaru was struck by a desire to avoid the reality in front of him.
Why does every demon beast have to have a cry that grates on the nerves?
The piercing, high-pitched cry like a multitude of babies all screaming at once washed over him.
And the source of that piercing cry was a being with an all too profane appearance.
" "
Subaru had encountered far too many demon beasts for his liking, but every one of them had had a regular, animal-like sort of form. They were all grotesque in their own way, but there had been a sort of natural morality, a set of rules defining their appearance.
Even the white whale and the great rabbits had seemed to follow that simplest and most fundamental of rules.
But the being crying in front of him didn't fit into any of that.
" Giiiiiii!"
If Subaru had to find something to compare the crying demon beast to, it was vaguely close to a horse. It had four legs with sturdy hooves for feet— and a thick torso supported by those legs. It had a long tail extending from its rear, and at least to that extent it resembled a horse. But where a horse's head would be, it had what looked like the upper body of a human. But there was no head on that body. Instead, there was a twisted, giant horn growing out of the humanoid shoulders.
From what Subaru knew, it sort of resembled the mythical half-human, half-horse centaur, but it was a twisted imitation, like whoever had been creating it gave up halfway through.
It was twice as tall as an oiran bear, over five yards of grotesque monster.
" "
Subaru couldn't speak as he looked at the profane creature that seemed almost like it had been modeled out of clay by a child.
" Giiiiiii!"
The centaur let out an earsplitting screech and crushed the oiran bear's ashes beneath its hoof.
The being didn't have a head. Its cry was coming from its upper body—
the part that looked like a human torso. There was a vertical slit from what would be a person's chest to the stomach, forming a mouth with sharp fangs on either side.
In addition to its grotesque figure, the centaur's upper body had a brilliant red mane of flames at its back. It burned the sands of the cavern at an unbelievable strength, making its surroundings glow red.
"Eep."
As the illumination of it filled the space, Subaru squawked in shock. He had already realized that the burning smell was the stench of demon beasts being incinerated. But the space he was in served more purpose than that. All around him were far more ashy corpses than he could have imagined, scattered wildly everywhere he looked.
The word crematorium flashed in Subaru's head.
A demon beast crematorium.
In other words, it was a trap, too— Sand time and the garden of demon beasts, the miasma path, and now this. They're all grisly traps in order to keep people from reaching the watchtower.
" "
As Subaru reached that conclusion, the centaur's upper body turned toward him.
Having killed the oiran bear, it had seemingly set its sights on Subaru as its next prey. Its hooves slowly rang out.
A death far more menacing than the oiran bear was drawing near to incinerate him. The demon beast was clad in a blazing heat and approaching fast, but Subaru did not move in the slightest as he waited.
Not because he had given up on survival in the face of an overpowering threat. It was the opposite.
" "
Not moving at all, Subaru collected himself, getting his breathing under control, trying to hide his presence from the demon beast approaching him. However, he wasn't even hiding behind anything. Thinking about it normally, it was a meaningless attempt.
But not against that centaur.
" "
The demon beast stopped a few yards away from Subaru. Subaru had no way of guessing what thoughts might be going through the horn that took the place of its head.
But it didn't immediately try to kill him. Not because of any doubt or hesitation.
It just wasn't sure of Subaru's presence. That was all.
—Subaru didn't know anything about the centaur and had never seen one before.
Still, Subaru refused the idea that it was standard practice for him to be hopelessly killed by enemies he encountered for the first time. That he didn't have any way of fighting other than using the experience of that death in order to figure out how to beat them. That was underestimating Subaru Natsuki far too much.
He was a hardened veteran when it came to sudden, unexpected brushes with death. The amount of illogical, incomprehensible deaths he had endured wouldn't let him fall that easily.
He had at least amassed that much experience.
" "
Seeing the demon beast incinerated before his eyes, Subaru's brain immediately started racing, looking for a way out.
Why did it go for the oiran bear first? Because it was more dangerous?
—No.
Why is it leaving me alive? A sadistic streak? —No.
Why is it not trying to look at me? To play with me? To torment its prey? —No.
—It doesn't have eyes. So it can't pin down where I am.
" "
There's no head where the head would seemingly be. It's crying from the mouth it seemingly had pasted onto the upper body's torso. It probably can't see or even smell.
If the centaur was a demon beast that lived underground, then it might have been like a mole, losing its vision over time in the process of evolutionary adaptation. Either way, though, it was convenient for Subaru.
" "
Keeping his mouth shut, Subaru quietly swung his arm with minimal movement and threw the water bottle in his hand.
It was an individual-size, empty water bottle. It traced a gentle arc over the centaur's fiery head and hit the mound of sand behind it with a thud.
" Giiiiiii!"
The centaur's reaction to hearing that was dramatic. It whipped around and leaped right beside the water bottle.
There was even a burst of flames as it landed.
" Giiiiiii!"
Sand and ash rose into the air as the crematorium glowed brightly.
The centaur stamped its hooves over and over, tenaciously crushing the water bottle. Having done that, the cry of countless babies filled the labyrinth.
It was an absolute horror show of a demon beast, and there wasn't anything at all to like about it.
" "
But because of that excessive reaction and attack, Subaru was able to prove his hypothesis.
The centaur didn't have sight or smell. It was relying on its ears in order to attack.
" "
Its shrill whine filled the air as Subaru carefully turned just his head to look up. The top of the mound of sand he had fallen down, the opening to the passage, was a dozen yards up. And he met the gaze of two sets of eyes looking at him.
Ram and Anastasia were leaning out ever so slightly beyond the slope, looking down at the crematorium, holding their breaths as they watched Subaru's bold experiment.
Fortunately, the two of them were far wiser than he was, and they had seemingly noticed the centaur's peculiarity, so they had not done anything dangerous like calling out to him.
However, they were still stuck in the vexing position of not being able to do anything from where they stood.
" "
Meeting their gazes, Subaru silently pleaded with them to just watch in silence. He couldn't really convey much detail like that, but judging from the anger in Ram's pink eyes, he could guess he had successfully made himself understood.
He was a little scared of what waited if he managed to make it back safely, but that was something to worry about after he had made it through the pinch he was in.
" "
The centaur was standing unflinchingly in the middle of a mound of ashen corpses in the dark cavern.
Subaru was going to have to move in order to escape beyond the range of its senses. The question was whether he went up to Ram and Anastasia or whether he checked what lay ahead beyond the centaur.
"Come back at once."
He could feel Ram's powerful gaze burning into the back of his head, but it wasn't that simple, either. This was a terribly dangerous situation with a high chance of being fatal, but it was also an unexpected opportunity.
There was no guarantee a convenient demon beast would wake up and draw aggro for him when he slid down the slope. Not even if he died and reset.
He had no way of guaranteeing they would move forward at the same pace and reach this cavern at the same time. And if they were too fast or too slow, it might just be Subaru getting incinerated instead of the oiran bear.
In that sense, this was a golden opportunity that might never come again.
" "
Carefully opening the change purse in his breast pocket, Subaru tossed a bronze coin in the opposite direction.
He was afraid the coin might not make any noise when it landed, but the centaur aimed for the coin tenaciously, incinerating it mercilessly, as if its mother had been killed by a coin.
The hot breeze it created tousled Subaru's hair as he held his breath and gently started to move his leg forward. He didn't want to let the opportunity slip away.
Even just a little bit—
" "
This time he could feel it clearly on the back of his head. Subaru's leg stopped. Cautiously turning his head, he realized what the provocative gaze he felt had been.
The reason the gaze had been able to physically interact with him is because Ram was pointing her wand at him. There was a wind imbued in its tip, and it was prepared to immediately punish him if he tried something reckless.
Of course, if that happened, things wouldn't just end at that for Subaru or for them. Ram was holding herself and Anastasia hostage to make him come back if he didn't want to risk that.
" "
Subaru recognized she was playing hardball out of concern for him. And Ram was doing it knowing that he would understand her intent.
It's mortifying, but she's got my number.
He was also aware that he had not been keeping his cool, either.
We learned something about how the centaur works and that this place exists. Just take that, call it a solid B, and figure out how to get back— That's the best plan.
" "
Having decided that, it was clear what he needed to do.
Pulling a second coin out of the purse, a silver coin this time, he tossed it in the opposite direction from the centaur's head. Distract the demon beast and climb the sand mound was his chosen course of action.
Subaru took a path that wasn't too steep while keeping his eyes alert for footing that was less likely to collapse.
"—Ngh."
Suddenly, a wind pushed his body, and he let out a faint grunt. Looking up, he saw that Ram had unleashed a painless, unnatural wind.
I'm doing what you wanted, so why?
—Just then, though, his question was answered by a mass of flames that passed right in front of his eyes.
" "
It was a ball of flame the size of a soccer ball unleashing a wave of heat in its path as it flew by and then crashed into a wall of sand a few yards in front of him. It exploded with a violent burst.
Subaru's cold body was broiled in the hot swell, and he gulped down the cry that almost escaped his lips.
If Ram's wind had not stopped him, he would definitely have taken a direct hit from that fireball. He didn't know whether it was strong enough to kill him, but it definitely would have caused serious burns. The exact details were lost on him, but there was supposedly a severity level to burns, and if a third of the body was covered in burns, it could be potentially fatal.
And there was no healer in their party at the moment. Gritting his teeth as he realized he had been saved, Subaru also felt a shudder run down his spine. Why was there a fireball?
" "
The centaur should have been focused on the silver coin feint on the other side of the room. But when Subaru looked backed, the demon beast's giant horn was facing him, and there was a humming sound.
It was almost as if it was sure that Subaru was there.
" "
It can't be.
Subaru shook his head.
He cautiously opened the purse again, grabbed a few more coins to throw, getting them comfortable in his hand. He could feel Ram's and Anastasia's anxious gazes above him, but he couldn't pay attention to that at the moment.
The multiple coins traced a gentle arc through the air, falling at a place far away from the centaur.
Naturally, the centaur's focus shifted toward them, and the hideous demon beast leaped at the obvious feint.
That same flame erupted again, followed by the cry of babies again. And as that shrill sound reverberated in the space, Subaru relied on that to cover his footsteps, quickly scrambling to the sand mound.
One, two steps, as he started to move onto the slope—
"—Ngh!"
The next instant, a fireball grazed his body, exploding on the slope. The aftershock of it sent Subaru flying.
"Gah?!"
His body tumbled as the wave of hot air seared his skin, and the impact of the explosion felt like his whole body had been pummeled. He wasn't fast enough to cover his mouth, and it was impossible not to groan after being hit by that.
Gritting his teeth, Subaru looked up as he steadied himself on the sandy floor with his hands.
" "
—Right before his eyes, the demon beast clad in flames was crackling as
it looked down at him.
It clearly knew he was there.
How does a centaur that can only sense things by sound find me while it's screech—?
"It's cry…!"
"Barusu, echolocation!"
Just as Subaru's suspicions crystallized, Ram shouted in a loud voice from up above.
As they both reached the same answer, the flames on the back of the centaur grew. The inferno swelled explosively, unleashing the true force of the labyrinth's crematorium.
" Giiiiiii!!!"
"—El Fulla!"
The violent wind slammed into the centaur's massive body at the exact same moment it swung its flame down. The heat it unleashed caused the sandy ground to explode as the centaur was blown to the side by the wind.
"Guoooo?! Gaah! Damn ittt!"
Doused by the sandy explosion at close range, Subaru rolled across the ground, then used the momentum to leap to his feet and start running without looking back.
"—Ngh! Run run run run run ruuuun!!!"
Subaru intentionally shouted out loud to draw attention to himself as he ran through the cavern. Kicking the cold sand, the centaur's hooves rang out as it chased after him furiously.
He had not thought through what he was doing. But he had to protect the others. And he couldn't afford to die, either.
" Giiiiiii!!!"
The ghastly chorus of babies grieving being born into the world engraved the meaning of death into Subaru's soul.
The human upper body raised its arm, and there was a nasty sound of bones creaking. Glancing back, the humanoid arm was holding a lance made of transformed bone.
It was the same blazing bone lance that had incinerated the oiran bear, and that excessive force was being wielded mercilessly against Subaru as he tried to escape.
"—Damn it!"
Howling, Subaru pulled the whip from his hip and hit the centaur's arm. It didn't do any damage, but the end of the whip wound around its limb all the same. Its intense arm strength easily lifted Subaru off his feet.
"Ugh, whoaaaa?!"
Swinging through the air, Subaru's cries echoed as he spun in a circle around the centaur. Unable to see what was happening, the demon beast was confused by the speed of the voice, and ironically it lost track of Subaru.
With that, the centaur's actions were plain and simple. It started throwing fireballs all around it.
"Gwhoa?!"
Uncoiling the whip from the centaur's arm, Subaru fell to the sand just in time to be caught up in one of the fireball's explosions and sent flying.
He covered his face with both arms reflexively, but the hot air that erupted still entered his mouth and nose, lightly burning them. It hurt to breathe, and his sense of smell was temporarily out of commission with the mucous membrane scorched.
"Gh, gah!"
Rolling wildly on the ground as a terrible pain filled his face, Subaru looked up with teary eyes.
The mouth in the center of the humanoid torso opened wide, revealing a toothy hole and unleashing an earsplitting cry that almost sounded like laughter.
—No, it's laughing.
Laughing at the weak human who lost to a demon beast in a test of knowledge and is now being toyed by its incomparable strength.
"—Invisible Providence."
As he imagined those thoughts from the centaur, the dark feelings in the corner of his heart took shape.
Giving direction to the black power that responded to his murmur, he prepared to hit back at the demon beast that was casually following its prey.
It's a one-note trick, but that's fine. Since it's a one-note trick that works on anyone the first time.
" "
A human torso and a horse's torso. He didn't know which one had the most important organs. With the head being a horn, it was unclear whether there was a brain inside it. But there had to be some sort of vital organ there.
Targeting that, he reached out his invisible hand toward that horn to crush—
"?! Guh, aah, gah?!"
As he thought that, and just as he prepared to pass judgment on the centaur…
When Subaru looked at the centaur and reached the invisible hand toward its head, there was an unimaginably intense shock that rocked his head, and yellowish spittle foamed at his mouth as he slumped to his knees.
"Ghaah?! Gh, agha!"
Slumped down, he put both of his hands to his head, hitting his temples in order to try to deal with the pain. Rubbing and pressing against his temples didn't do anything. He needed a sharper shock. So he hit his head, hit it and hit it, but he couldn't overcome the pain.
A hellish bed of thorns had sprouted inside his skull, and he rolled around on the sand, writhing in agony, biting down on the sand inexplicably.
"Owww! Argh! It hurts! It hurtsss!"
He screamed until he was almost spitting up blood.
There was a massive amount of sand in his mouth, and he was grinding it between his teeth as he writhed, swallowing it to try to stave off the inexplicable pain. He couldn't resist it, though. He was losing to it.
Naturally, of course, his Invisible Providence disappeared immediately.
And when it dissipated, it couldn't interact with the centaur in any way. The demon beast seemed put off by Subaru's sudden change, but it unleashed a fireball to incinerate Subaru on the spot.
The massive fireball robbed the cavern of its cold, heating the world around it.
Just as it was about to turn Subaru Natsuki into ash—
" Giiiiiii!"
A black land dragon charged ferociously, tearing off the centaur's arm.
" "
The dragon that merged into the shadows had silently sneaked up on the centaur and unleashed a painful strike. The demon beast lost its balance after losing its arm, and it dropped the fireball it had raised over its head.
The centaur was caught up in the explosion from the fireball that had fallen at its feet, getting blown back by the close-range blast.
The centaur spun as blood dripped from the wound on its arm.
Paying it no heed, though, Patlash sprinted across the sand, biting Subaru's clothes as he writhed on the ground, and immediately started to retreat.
Subaru swung wildly as he was held up by the waist, still suffering from the splitting headache and struggling to understand what was happening as he looked back.
Behind Patlash, the centaur stood on wobbly feet.
He saw the wound where the humanoid left arm had been torn off bubble, and a new arm grew back almost immediately. Its monstrous regenerative ability worked on its other wounds, too. All of the wounds it had taken from the explosion quickly closed, and it was as good as new in just a few seconds.
And once that happened, there wasn't anything left stopping it.
A fireball welled up in its hand, and this time it stretched vertically.
Looking closer, Subaru realized it had merged the fireball and the fire lance, creating a fiery weapon.
" Giiiiiii!"
Raising the fire lance upward, it swung the point down at Patlash.
Matching the timing of the swing, Patlash ducked—avoiding the attack by crouching low to the ground, just barely slipping beneath it before accelerating.
But the moment the centaur saw it escape that attack, it kicked the land dragon in the side with one of its hooves. The force transmitted through Patlash's sturdy scales, and she whinnied in pain at the internal damage.
But even so, she didn't let Subaru go. And he didn't have the leeway to worry about his trusty steed's wounds right then. All he had was an unending pain in his head that seemed like it would go on forever.
Feeling the heat of Patlash's breath and the blood she coughed up on his skin, Subaru was on the verge of passing out.
If I have to suffer this much pain, then I might as well just d— "Don't you die, Barusu! Don't make Rem cry!"
"—Oh."
Hearing that shout in his ear, those words managed to reach his brain through all the pain.
But what that voice evoked was a rage that matched the hatred he felt for the centaur.
" "
Even though you don't know.
Even though no one remembers her.
—Don't talk like you understand us!
"—Invisible Providence!"
Unleashing his emotions in a fit of rage, Subaru's vision was hampered by a wave of tears as he slammed the black hand wildly into the demon beast that passed into his line of sight.
A crunching pain erupted in his head—but before he was swallowed up in the wild torrent of that pain, his invisible hand swatted the centaur's lance from the front, landing one blow.
—But that was the limit of his feeble resistance.
" Giiiiiii!"
In exchange for that enraged counterattack, he experienced another painful eruption for his effort.
The centaur slammed its front feet into the sand, and using them as a pivot, it forcibly rotated itself before unleashing its hind legs like a catapult.
Those hard metallic hooves gained speed and weight, flying straight at Subaru and the rest—Patlash and Ram and Anastasia, who were all probably close by as well.
It was an explosive leg strength that blew away a whole segment of the cavern, and everyone caught up in it was sent flying all around. Patlash finally let go of Subaru, and he was sent helplessly sprawling across the sand, slamming into the charred corpse of a demon beast in the aftershock of the impact.
"Agh, uuugh…"
The indescribable headache and the centaur's kick.
Between the combination of internal and external pain assaulting him, Subaru could barely stay conscious. But as his consciousness flickered aimlessly, he could sense impending death approaching.
Destruction, a party wipe, death piled on pointless death.
Those emotionless thoughts swirled in his head, but—
" "
With his lungs seemingly having forgotten how to breathe, Subaru saw someone standing in front of him.
A small, delicate figure.
His consciousness was fuzzy, and he couldn't make out the silhouette. But
it was such a familiar figure that he quickly realized who it was. Ram. She was standing there unsteadily.
Her arms raised in order to protect Subaru.
—Dumbass, it's hopeless. There's nothing you can do, so stop it.
Subaru wanted to tell her to stop, but his throat wasn't working, and he couldn't speak. It was like it was filled with sand— No, it actually was filled with sand. He couldn't speak now because, like an idiot, he had swallowed mouthfuls of sand to try to stave off the head-splitting pain.
"…W…hy…?"
The only voice he managed to force out was weak, barely as strong as a mosquito's buzz.
It was all because of his mistake.
He had been impatient. He had been uneasy and unsure, too. And as a result of all that, his judgment had been off, leading to the situation they were in.
Ram and the rest had been caught up in it all because of his stupidity.
So why are you—?
"—It'll make Rem cry."
That quiet answer was all Ram said.
Ram was standing there for the sake of the little sister she couldn't remember, to protect the person her little sister who she couldn't remember loved.
Subaru couldn't understand what drove her to go that far.
But even so, there was something he did know.
At this rate, Ram would die. And Subaru would, too. There was no escaping that.
" "
The centaur roared and created two new flame swords in its hands. Or since they didn't look like swords, maybe they were supposed to be hammers or axes or something.
Either way, it was wielding two flame weapons. It would use them to cut through Ram, who was so small in comparison to it, and then it would scorch Subaru, too.
"…C-come on. There has to be something, right?"
In the face of impending death, he reached out his hand from the depths of his pain.
Rebelling against the pain, he scraped the bottom of his barrel. It was unrealistic to expect any help from someone else. Berating himself for those sorts of fantasies, Subaru looked for some sort of plan within himself. That was also obviously not very realistic, but there was at least some possibility to it.
"Come on. C'mon. Get your ass up…"
Slipping inside himself, he reached out into his murky body, pushing his way through the writhing, dark thoughts, seeking a way out of the hopeless scenario from inside himself. Not the invisible hand that he had overused, something different, something new to get through the pinch.
But his determined resolve was— "—Ahh."
Before his desperate struggle could yield any results, the centaur raised its swords.
The flames crossed over its head before flying toward Ram. It was a slash that scorched the very air itself, and it would mercilessly cut into her slender body, sending her flying, igniting her, erasing her feelings, her life, turning everything to ash.
As he saw that scene about to unfold, Subaru cried out at his powerlessness—
" "
The next instant, a white light traveling at a dreadful speed blew away the centaur's upper body.
3
The point hit by that white light was literally obliterated.
" "
Its arm and torso pierced by the light, the centaur stopped moving for a brief moment, and then the wounds started bubbling. As it regenerated its lost body parts, its appearance changed.
The humanoid segment changed shape, and its two arms increased to four while sharper, long fangs projected from the mouth on its torso. The horse lower body gained more legs, too, doubling to eight. In addition, its charred skin gave off a black glow as it hardened. At a glance, it almost looked like it was wearing armor.
And in its newly added arms, it was holding a flame sword, lance, hammer, and ax, undergoing an unbelievable evolution in such a short period of time, changing itself so much for the master of that white light.
" "
Raising its four forelegs, the centaur let out a thunderous roar, clacking its front hooves together to create a screeching sound before it charged.
With its transformation and its size, it was like an armored train car. With its weight and speed, anyone it hit would be turned into mincemeat.
With its flame to seal the deal, the being that humiliated it would be utterly erased.
" Giiiiiii!"
Sand scattered—a white light pierced it—and a wave of heat emanated from its swelling mane—a white light pierced it—as the demon beast furiously charged—a white light pierced it. A white light pierced it—the intensity of the flames was incomparable to before and—a white light pierced it—and the firepower swelled dramatically—a white light pierced it —almost like the very flames of hell—a white light pierced it. With a single glance—a white light pierced it—the centaur's very presence—a white light pierced it—no being—a white light pierced it—could help but—a white light pierced it—tremble at—a white light pierced it—the monstrous form and visage—a white light pierced it—befitting the lord of the sands—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced it—a white light pierced—a white light pierced—a white light pierced—white light pierced—white light pierced—white light pierced—white light pierced— white light pierced—white light pierced—white light pierced—white light pierced—white light—white light—white light—white light—white light— white light—white light—white light—white light—white light—
" "
And after that tremendous outpouring of energy, there wasn't a single piece left.
The demon beast that had been so deadly and menacing had been completely vaporized by the light. Every last bit of flesh was gone, blown away.
All that remained on the sand were all the lights that had been unleashed
in order to erase the centaur—the long, narrow, white needles. And those, too, soon disintegrated and crumbled away.
" "
Watching all of that in shock, Subaru forgot about the pain in his head.
Looking down, he realized he was holding a hot, slender body in his arms. It was Ram. He couldn't remember it, but he had apparently grabbed onto her in the last moment.
It was a meaningless thing to do, and Ram was already unconscious as well.
" "
His ears picked up the sound of someone walking on the sand.
Slowly, ever so slowly, but whatever it was, it was clearly moving toward them.
The cavern's air was cold and quiet as always, and the usual darkness had fallen again.
The only faint source of light was the remnants of the fire the centaur had spewed all around.
There was a fragment of smoldering flame right next to Subaru, letting him see a little of what was going on around him.
And at the edge of his vision, he saw someone's leg come into view.
" "
Raising his head, Subaru looked at the leg's owner—at what was probably the source of that white light.
Even through his blurry vision, he could tell this was a human as he raised his head.
" "
Her thin lips were turned up in an animalistic smile.
"—I found you."
At least we can communicate.
But just as Subaru thought that, his brain reached its limit.
Feeling the cold sand beneath him, Subaru slipped into unconsciousness without saying anything.
All he could do was hold the girl in his arms tightly, so as not to let go of her.
That was the limit of the willpower and obstinacy he had left.
4
—Subaru's consciousness was drifting in an inky, dark stagnant pool.
It had been a long time since he had been there.
He had been several times back then, almost like he had been forcibly summoned there when he died and reset. There was no ground or sky or edge. Just an unending sprawl of darkness.
An illusory space like an ephemeral dream that wouldn't remain when he awakened.
In the deep darkness, Subaru didn't have a body. His consciousness was just drifting along helplessly, but it didn't make him feel uneasy or scared.
But the swelling affection, the love, brought some amount of satisfaction to his heart.
However, awareness of that powerful love was— "You seem to be enjoying yourself."
"This isn't a joke. Do you think I'll stand by while you get proud of yourself just because you got a little bit lucky, and then get ahead of yourself immediately after. You know, you should learn to view yourself objectively. If you did, you would realize just how shameless you are."
" "
"This is the result of a terrible, shallow, self-satisfied love! Ahhhhh, what a sinful and corrupt way of life! Worthy of hatred and scorn and nothing more!"
"Not satisfied with merely being below average, you have actually fallen to subhuman levels. Incomplete in every way. Someone like you walking over me of all people? Know your place! You are unfit to stand before me, let alone get in my way or stop me, you subhuman animal!"
In the darkness, two unnatural consciousnesses were berating Subaru Natsuki.
Exposed to their raw anger and hatred and sinister emotions, Subaru was simply baffled. At his base consciousness level, he didn't have the ability to understand their ferocious emotions.
If he needed to, he could just make it. It felt like he could do that while he was in this space.
" "
—But for some reason, he felt like he didn't need to understand them.
He didn't feel any need to spend any time on them, to activate his consciousness for their sake. He didn't feel any desire to do that. In this place, Subaru Natsuki didn't think to expend his efforts to understand them.
"What arrogance! What contempt! What scorn! Even after pushing me to work so hard, you refuse to even try to understand me! You are incorrigibly slothful!