Greed's thoughts completely froze.
Her head was clamped tightly by a hand covered in dragon-scale armor, its five Fingers like steel-forged instruments of torture, leaving no room for even a hint of struggle. This was not the grip a human should possess, nor even the strength a living creature could unleash.
Her cervical spine emitted a groaning, cracking sound, preventing her from even the most basic turn of her head.
Carlisle's left hand still held Greed's head, while his right hand, gripping the Flame Sword, was already raised high above, tracing a beautiful yet tragic arc in the air.
"Boom!!!"
The flat of the sword crashed heavily onto Greed's back.
Centered on the impact point, the already shattered ground within a thousand-meter radius collapsed once more! This time, it wasn't a spiderweb of cracks, but the entire crust of the earth was blasted upwards, only to be pulverized into dust by the shockwave the next second. Distant cliffs toppled like building blocks.
The destructive shockwave spread in a ring, ionizing even the air in its path into a ghostly blue arc. Pandora, at the edge of the storm, had her body disintegrated into countless crimson fragments by the violent energy.
But the next second
Pandora reappeared unharmed not far from the battlefield, her snow-white long hair wildly dancing in the hot wind.
Carlisle's arm suddenly exerted force. He clamped Greed's neck with one hand, lifting her entire body like a rag doll. Her feet left the ground, her golden pupils slightly dilated, and hoarse, tuneless gasps squeezed from her throat.
This... impossible... Her mind was a mess. Her Authority furiously operated, attempting to freeze time and break free, but it was useless. The armored hand was like the shackles of fate, unmoving.
The next second
"Swoosh!!"
Carlisle suddenly hurled her! Greed's body became a blurry afterimage, flying at terrifying speed towards the distant mountains. Thousands of meters vanished in an instant, accompanied by a dull "Boom!!!" as her body violently slammed into the mountain, causing the entire peak to tremble violently and gravel to tumble down like a rainstorm.
The battlefield fell into a brief silence.
Pandora stood quietly in place, her snow-white long hair gently swaying in the residual energy. She softly murmured.
"Your duty is not over; come back."
The moment her words fell
Space slightly twisted, and Greed's figure suddenly appeared in the center of the battlefield. Her feet staggered as she landed, her hands desperately clutching her throat, gasping for air. Not from exhaustion, but from pure, never-before-experienced terror.
Her dress was still perfectly intact, her Authority protected her from harm, but that power, that absolute suppressive force capable of throwing her around like trash, was deeply imprinted in the depths of her consciousness... Ineffective... My Authority... useless against him?
In Regulus's perception, she was the most perfect, most unanswerable existence in this world. Even Pandora, her nominal "superior," she never truly regarded her. She couldn't kill Pandora, but Pandora likewise couldn't do anything to her. She could "erase" Pandora at any time, even if only temporarily, she never truly took this Witch seriously.
But this guy in front of me... I... have no power to fight back?
Pandora's voice came, carrying a hint of warning.
"Be careful, he is very dangerous."
"This is impossible!!"
Greed suddenly sprang up from the ground, her face twisting again with rage.
"I am absolute! No one in this world can infringe upon my rights like this! Sneak attacks! Beatings! Throwing me around like a sandbag! Do you know how precious my time is?! A perfect existence like me, every second should be treated gently by the world! Not, not beaten up by a barbarian who crawled out of some gutter!!"
She suddenly grabbed a handful of dust.
"I'll let you know what happens when you anger me! I'll-!"
Her threat was cut short
"Swoosh!"
Carlisle's figure flashed before her like a ghost, his left hand clamping down on her wrist just as she was about to swing it. Greed's pupils suddenly constricted; she could even hear the unbearable "cracking" sound of her wrist bones.
"You-wahhh!!"
The world spun!
Her vision suddenly inverted, and the entire world became a blur of colors. Before she could react.
"Boom!!"
Her back slammed heavily into the ground, the immense impact causing the ground within a ten-meter radius to instantly collapse!
"Bang!"
Before the dust could settle, she was picked up again and swung to the other side like a rag doll.
"Rumble!!"
This impact directly blasted out a twenty-meter-diameter crater!
"Wait"
"Bang!"
"You"
"Boom!"
The earth groaned, and Greed's body became the most violent ramming hammer. Each impact triggered a small earthquake.
Pandora, affected by the aftershocks, once again dissolved into blood foam and reformed not far away. She watched this one-sided brutalization and sighed softly.
"Break free from the restraints."
...Nothing happened. Greed was still being slammed back and forth like a sandbag.
Pandora put a hand to her forehead. "Appear beside me."
Space slightly twisted, and Greed, looking utterly disheveled, suddenly appeared beside Pandora. She collapsed to the ground, and to her surprise, two lines of tears appeared on her face.
Carlisle's movements suddenly paused. He looked at his empty left hand in confusion. But the next second, his compound eyes locked onto the two figures a hundred meters away.
Greed trembled, pointing at him, and shrieked with a crying voice.
"Pandora! He, he, he's looking over here! Do something! Aren't you able to rewrite reality?! Quickly turn this monster into ant! Turn him into a frog! Turn him into anything!!"
Her voice suddenly rose eight octaves.
"He's charging over here ahhh!!"
— — — — — —
Deep within the soul.
Carlisle stood in a void of darkness, with no light, no sound, not even his own breathing audible. He looked down at his hands, only to find them translucent.
Where is this...?
His consciousness drifted in the void, and as he looked around in confusion.
A flickering flame suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.
"Subaru...?!!"
His voice echoed in the void, trembling with disbelief. In the distance, Subaru's figure floated quietly in the darkness, her entire body enveloped in burning flames. The flames did not scorch her body, instead, they were like a gentle veil, softly wrapping around her.
Carlisle staggered forward, his translucent soul rippling in the void. As the distance closed, his pupils sharply constricted.
Tears instantly blurred his vision.
The Subaru before him was completely different from the figure he remembered lying in a pool of blood. Although surrounded by flames, her expression was exceptionally serene, a faint smile even playing on her lips, as if she had merely fallen into a sweet dream.
"Subaru..."
He tremblingly reached out, wanting to touch her face. Just as his Fingers were about to make contact.
The flames on Subaru's body suddenly spread up his arm!
Intense pain instantly pierced through his head!
Carlisle fell to his knees, his soul in agony as if being torn apart. Countless unfamiliar images exploded before his eyes, sweeping through his consciousness like a blizzard.
Snowy night.
He saw Subaru kneeling on the pure white snow, before her a gradually dissipating figure. Her tears froze into ice crystals, shimmering with a tragic beauty under the moonlight.
Is that... me?
The "self" in the image was gradually becoming transparent, and Subaru desperately tried to grasp the scattered specks of light, but could only watch them slip through her fingers.
"Why?! Why is your body disappearing?! Stop... please stop!!"
Her cries pierced his eardrums; it was a wail of ultimate despair that Carlisle had never heard before.
Carlisle clutched his head in pain, the emotions from those images crashing into his soul like a tsunami. Every scene carried Subaru's intense longing and despair, so heavy they almost crushed him.
"Whose... memory is this?!"
Note: Author has specifically said, that Carlisle won't be able to know about Rebirth by death ability, as it is the main premise of Rezero. So y'all don't have to worry about that.
...
Re@d adv@nce ch@pters on p@t
guilt_free_daoist
Jo!n d!sc0rd I!nk in synops!s.
GIVE ME YOU POWER STONES.