The instant he emerged from his crossing, the smoke he inhaled sent him coughing. The hot wind felt like it was scorching his skin.
"—The entrance?! How courteous. Shit!"
Lifting up his black, grimy face, Subaru realized he was at the entrance of the burning mansion.
Looking farther, he was certain the entirety of the building was already engulfed by flames; the inferno touched not only the main wing, where the fire had started, but also the east and west wings.
It was difficult to find a place inside the mansion that was still in its original shape. Even the door of the entrance from which Subaru had just emerged had its lower half enveloped by flames. That Passage had worked at all was itself a miracle.
He wouldn't be able to leap back into the archive of forbidden books from there—No, it was questionable whether there was a single door leading to the archive remaining in the mansion.
He wasn't inside the burning mansion; he'd been thrown outside. Beatrice had probably intended this to be her reply.
"Good-bye, my ass—How are you gonna act tough, then show me a face like that at the end?!"
Brushing those rising doubts aside, Subaru kicked the burning door in all his fury, rushing into the entryway. He was immediately greeted by a wave of heat incomparable to anything he felt outside, and the agony of his singed windpipe brought tears to his eyes.
Charging into a burning building like someone who didn't know better, trying to save lives and be a hero—that was the kind of dumb stunt that got people killed. But Subaru had no intention of dying.
"And I'm not letting her die, either!"
Subaru raced across the flaming Roswaal Manor in search of anything that might be connected to the archive.
His face, his neck, and his limbs were roasting, and his skin felt pain as if it was being scorched. It hurt to breathe, but not so much that he couldn't run. Subaru shoved everything else out of his mind.
If Subaru had been capable of seeing things more clearly at the time, the sheer horror of the sight might have caused his body to quiver uncontrollably.
For as Subaru ran through the inferno, swearing he would bring the girl with him, he was enveloped by an incredibly dense black miasma, almost like a cloak of shadow that shielded him.
Unaware of this, Subaru broke through a particularly large wall of flame and found the stairs.
The first-floor dining room was where the fire had begun. Entryway included, it was highly probable that every door there had burned up. If there was a door still intact, it would be on a higher floor—probably at the very top.
In such a conflagration, it was naturally unlikely that he could get back up there from the first floor. Even so, without any hesitation, Subaru started climbing the stairs, racing toward the topmost floor.
A moment later—.
" "
He heard a sound like something wet was being dragged; Subaru turned about.
It had come from the corridor of the main wing, where the fire raged wildly, even though all reason told him it could not be so.
After their chain of command collapsed, the demon beasts were fleeing, for this was an inferno of certain death that brooked no living beings. What could be in such a place? —Wait, what the hell is that?
A figure dressed in black emerged from the flames: a black-haired woman holding a black blade in her hand.
"Elsa…?"
" "
There was no reply. But so far as Subaru knew, it could be no one but that all-black killer.
Multiple times in multiple loops, Subaru had run into her and died by her hand. In his latest plan, he'd left the woman to his most capable companion, thinking he would surely never meet her again.
And yet here, in a fiery world of life and death, Subaru and Elsa had come face-to-face once more.
" "
Encountering her in the burning Roswaal Manor, Subaru licked his lips, forgetting his sense of unease.
He'd borrowed the strength of many to arrive at that point.
Otto. Ram. Ryuzu. Shima. Patlash.
Emilia. The people of Earlham Village. Garfiel. Petra. Frederica.
They were why Subaru could stand then and there—Subaru Natsuki did not doubt his allies.
"Garfiel wouldn't lose to you. There's no way you beat him."
" "
"You're not Elsa anymore, are you?"
When Subaru posed the question, Elsa—nay, the thing that had been Elsa —turned its empty black eyes toward him. There was no glint of life within them, only bottomless darkness. Subaru was peering into an abyss.
An empty body, a departed soul, and obsession incarnate. Driven by inexhaustible bloodlust, it dragged its smashed lower body along as it crawled toward Subaru through the raging fires.
This was far beyond an unnatural vitality that kept death at bay. The power had become nothing but a curse.
Just like Subaru's Return by Death, it was nothing save a curse, a yoke placed upon her very life.
"You've got it pretty rough, too, but I don't have time to deal with you.
I've gotta get Beatrice—"
Out of here, he was stating to the corpse that had once been Elsa, ready to abandon it to the flames. It was certainly crawling slowly enough that he could easily shake it off. But— "—!!"
Suddenly feeling death brush against the nape of his neck, Subaru immediately leaped up. After jumping to the flaming landing, he turned around. Behind him, the undead's wicked blade had sliced clean through the steps below.
Closing the distance, the corpse swung as it came again to claim Subaru's life. Naturally, the blade had not fallen short out of mercy. The swing had missed because the undead's smashed lower body had prevented it from lunging forward properly.
"You're kidding me—!"
Subaru instantly kicked away the corpse's hand, which was reaching for the stairs, and dashed away.
Smoke from a fire moved upward. Accordingly, it was thicker on the floor above, increasing in its potency. The flames were strong there, too; he couldn't call searching for a door in those conditions very realistic.
—More importantly, the undead had not relented in its pursuit for even a second, doggedly pursuing Subaru.
"Shit! Gotta go higher!"
Relentlessly chased by the corpse that had lost all humanity, Subaru kept running to the topmost floor. Stumbling onto the blaze-enveloped third floor, he found himself at the corridor that led to the study where he saw off Petra and Otto.
They must have made it out safe and sound. Garfiel and Frederica, too.
And judging from the lack of organization among the demon beasts, Meili must have been routed, too. As for Elsa—
" Roooaaah!!"
"Dah?!"
When that roar and a monstrous set of claws shot out from some nearby flames, Subaru screamed, unable to conceal his shock.
The culprit was a demon beast sporting a lion's face. It had lost its mane, and half its body looked hideously burned, but there was no mistake: This was the same Giltirau Subaru and the others thought they had burned to death back in the dining hall.
Appearing to be struggling to even breathe, perhaps it was only still standing to obey its master's command.
If that was true, then Subaru was truly like a moth to flame—the irony of chancing upon it in the middle of a massive inferno was too rich to be funny.
" !!!"
Roaring, the nearly expired demon beast swung its massive arm toward
Subaru. Scraping the wall, it was a lethal blow that whistled through the air as it closed in. Even barely clinging to life, this beast could rob him of his life just as easily as it could mow down some weeds.
"You're both one-trick ponies—!"
Subaru evaded the attack by rolling forward toward the demon beast's flank—he'd already learned, probably from too much personal experience, that demon beasts had a habit of aiming for the vitals of their prey.
Thoroughly embarrassed after missing a clean shot, the demon beast angrily unleashed a follow-up attack—
" !!!"
It was then that the undead pursuing Subaru bared its fangs toward the demon beast.
There was not a single reason the demon beast and the undead should have to fight. To the undead chasing Subaru, the demon beast's hulking body was nothing more than an obstacle on the path Subaru had traversed first.
There was no deeper reason behind the undead sending the demon beast's hind paw flying away. Screaming as the wicked blade drew black blood, the beast cracked its serpentine tail at the undead.
In a feat beyond the limitations of a human body, the corpse evaded the tail attack, retaliating by slicing the tail off at its base. Unleashing the murderous techniques ingrained into its flesh, the undead cut into the demon beast in a one-sided manner.
Subaru, not letting slip the opportunity to turn misfortune into fortune, kicked open one closed door after another on the topmost floor.
The stateroom and the reference room were both busts. The battle between undead and demon beast continued, but all he heard were the screams of the demon beast, clearly losing the lopsided fight.
"Please, Beatrice…!"
Finally arriving at the study, Subaru flung the door open with a prayer in his heart.
However, uncertainty crept in as the only sight before him was a ransacked office.
"This didn't work, either…! Then the last door is…"
The burning floors below were all wiped out. The other wings were burning up even faster than the main one, perhaps because of the collapses there. Was there even a single intact door left inside Roswaal Manor at that point?
"No, not yet! There's still more! There's one door!"
Biting down any thoughts of giving up, Subaru set eyes upon the wideopen entrance to the spiraling stairs leading to the escape tunnel. If he went down the stairs and arrived at the underground passage—there definitely ought to be a door ahead.
Previously, when he'd returned to the mansion during a Witch Cult attack, Subaru had headed deep into the escape tunnel, was bathed in cold through the door, shattered into dust, and died—that door was still there.
Instantly, hesitation arose in the back of Subaru's mind. It was not fear. It was doubt.
His thoughts coalesced. Were his actions being guided? All the other doors in the mansion were misses, leading Subaru to the escape tunnel—was this Beatrice's intent?
Was this all Beatrice's plan so that Subaru might escape outside, so that he might live?
"—! I don't even have the time to think about it!"
Behind him, death throes thundered throughout the mansion as the beast suffered a decisive blow. The demon beast had been unwittingly buying him time, but with that last strike, the cruel undead had surely taken its life.
—He had no other options. Subaru was being herded into the hidden passage.
The smoke was overwhelming the spiraling staircase leading to the basement of the mansion. With zero visibility and the fact that taking a single breath would spell death and a one-way trip to a world of nightmares, Subaru hardened his resolve, held his breath, and ran down.
What had once been extreme cold was now instead scalding hot. Subaru advanced deeper, deeper into the dark underground passage.
Finally, ahead of the smoke-infested darkness, he stopped, for he had found the door he sought.
"This is…"
It was the final possibility—Subaru drew in his breath as that realization sank in.
Subaru had never gone beyond the door in the hidden passage. He knew this escape tunnel ultimately led to a cabin off in the forest. But not once had he actually gone that far. Everything beyond that door was personally unknown to Subaru.
Accordingly, to Subaru, this door was the final candidate. It was his last chance to get through to Beatrice.
If he really had been guided there by Beatrice's will, it was a poor wager.
Fearful of just that, Subaru reached his hand toward the door's handle—
"Daaah! This door again…!!"
His palm felt like it was on fire. His fingers hadn't even touched it. Subaru drew his hand back and glared at the door. The door's reaction seemed to mock Subaru for his fear of what might result—and then suddenly, he came to a realization.
"The doorknob's hot…?"
—Even if hot air had crept in, there was no sign of fire in the underground escape tunnel.
The hovering smoke and heat had coursed in through gaps in the stone comprising the spiral stairs. There was nothing burning in the tunnel. How could this interior door possess so much heat?
"…Beatrice. If you can hear this, listen to me."
Keeping his hand away from the door, Subaru slightly craned his neck upward and spoke those words.
He believed his voice would reach the girl who was nowhere to be seen.
"You led me this far, didn't you? To be blunt, if you were plotting to bring me to the escape tunnel by making it the only option, blatantly leading me
here by the nose, then your plan's a complete failure."
Even if he'd had to slip past the mansion fire, Elsa, and the demon beast along the way, she'd no doubt hatched a plan and put it into action. If this door was a bust, too, leaving him no choice but to go to the cabin, her goal would have been achieved.
"But it doesn't look like things are gonna go that smoothly… Even if this door's a bust, I'm not running like you want. This isn't talking tough or some bluff saying I don't wanna run, okay? Sure, nine-tenths of how I feel lines up with all that…but this is a serious, legit issue."
Subaru continued earnestly trying to convince her, not even knowing if the other party could hear him.
Subaru tapped the door barring his path with his foot as he let out a sigh.
"If I open this door, I'll probably die. I don't know if you or anyone else gets it, but that's exactly what'll happen…and I know because I have the power of science."
Though it had failed him miserably with the misfire in the dining hall, the latent modern knowledge sleeping within Subaru was now ringing an alarm.
The door in front of Subaru's eyes that moment was a door that had to be left untouched. This was a frequent danger at the sites of fires.
In front of him was a door of hellish flame. Behind him was the undead Elsa—this was a gambling parlor, and his life was on the line.
"Beatrice. I'm…going to open this door—I'll leave it up to you to interpret my words."
Was his voice really reaching Beatrice?
And if it did reach her, would Beatrice believe Subaru's words?
Somehow, the idea that his life would be determined by her choice put Subaru's heart at ease.
…Of course it did.
"—Beatrice. I…trust you."
As he spoke, Subaru felt the pain of his palm being burned as he flung the door open.
And then—
8
—The undead arrived underground, not by taking the spiral stairs but by rolling down them.
Black smoke invaded its lungs. The heat singed its skin. The flames threatened its life. The undead charged forward, heedless of all the danger.
It gripped a wicked blade in its right hand. In its left was the heart of the demon beast it had killed. One would think no sight so ghastly could exist in the world. Regardless, the undead felt an inexhaustible sense of duty as it pursued its prey.
Its flesh had been destroyed to the point that it should have been unresponsive. Its life had been whittled away beyond its ability to regenerate. There was no longer a person's will residing within the crawling corpse.
That it moved even so was because the undead's reason for existence waited ahead.
Finally, wordlessly, cruelly, the corpse arrived at the innermost part of the passage.
" "
Sensing black, stagnant miasma ahead, the undead instantly lashed out with its blade.
The firmly shut door was cut down, so that the life of the prey on the other side might be sliced asunder.
There was a dull sound as the door split apart. Kicking away the wreckage, the undead peered into the darkness on the other—
" "
A faint wind blew past. The undead felt like it was being pulled into the darkness ahead.
Before its eyes, white smoke blew in from the depths of the darkness. Suddenly, the white smoke mixed with the black smoke in the corridor, causing a puff of heat.
Immediately afterward, oxygen flowed into the tunnel, where incomplete combustion had occurred. The moment the heat and the oxygen-rich air came into contact, everything burst into incandescent flames. Though the earlier attempt to cause a dust explosion had failed, the fire had just produced the explosive phenomenon known as a back draft. This was not something that an undead bereft of all reason could ever have surmised.
" "
The merciless tendrils of the bursting flames enveloped the undead. The hellish fire instantly burned its body away.
Having lost its power to heal, the body of the undead, now nothing more than a rotting corpse, was swallowed up and turned to ash. What remained burned up all at once—destroyed by the roaring inferno.
The force of the fire was so great that it did not stop there. It barreled down the underground passage, turned the spiraling staircase into a sea of incandescent heat, and burst into the study, causing it to ignite as well.
That night, everything was enveloped by fire, burning it all down. Roswaal Manor's doors were no more.
This time, the flaming Roswaal Manor truly found its end.
9
The sight of the archive of forbidden books, to which Subaru had been invited, made him inadvertently draw in his breath.
Cracks ran across the floor and walls, and the tear in space through which Subaru had been expelled remained intact. The toppled bookshelves and scattered books remained as before, and on top of that, flames were rising from a corner of the room.
The effects of Roswaal Manor burning down had finally begun to be felt even in the archive.
" "
However, such sentiments toward the room's interior dissipated with a single glance turned Subaru's way.
That moment, he concentrated on the most important thing—one little girl.
—After all, this was probably his final chance.
"…You are an idiot."
"That's the first thing out of your mouth?"
"Is it not true, I wonder? Even though Betty went through all that trouble so you might escape, you threw it away… Are there any doors left anywhere in the mansion, I wonder? This is a dead end."
As a matter of fact, she was right. There wasn't a single door left in the mansion for Passage to connect to.
The flames that had reached the archive of forbidden books were gradually increasing in force, spreading to the Witch's knowledge that Beatrice had continued protecting across four centuries, turning that promise to ash.
Her precious obligation was on fire. It was easily flammable, so it would no doubt burn down, and soon.
"At this rate, you and I are both goners."
"…Yes, is this the end, I wonder? Betty wishes for little now. Everything she was to hand to That Person will soon burn away. Is everything now not completely contrary to her promise to Mother, I wonder?"
"Oh yeah? Then hear me out to the end, okay?"
She'd failed to keep her word. Subaru had failed to persuade her. Beatrice looked toward him with empty eyes.
She spoke no words of affirmation or denial. But at the very least, she seemed to be lending him her ears. Even in a situation like that, it just wasn't in her nature to deny someone else to the bitter end.
He took a breath. There were words he had been unable to speak when they'd last parted.
—This time, he'd tell her everything he wanted to say.
"Beatrice—please save me."
"…Huh?"
Subaru stated those words boldly with his head held high.
Hearing him say such a thing with his face all covered in soot, Beatrice could only stare at him in shock.
She'd no doubt imagined countless things that he might possibly say.
With both of them facing an unavoidable end, Beatrice had probably run numerous mental simulations about what words Subaru might say to her, no doubt intending to dismiss each and every one.
—I want to save you. I won't let you be alone. I need you.
Those were the sorts of cool, manly words from That Person that she expected to be greeted with.
But if that meant trying to convey false feelings, Subaru just couldn't do it.
"I considered saying cooler-sounding stuff about whisking you away from this loneliness, mind you… I didn't think any of them would work. I figured I'd better come right out and say…what I think of you and what I really wanted to tell you."
Beatrice was speechless as Subaru poured out his genuine feelings.
He figured it was pretty mean to put the ball entirely in Beatrice's court, though.
"Really, you don't need any of my strength. Not for saving you or anything else. You're strong, you're smart, you're cute… You should be able to do anything if you put your mind to it."
" "
"But even though you're strong and smart and cute, you were scared of living alone. It must have been hard. It must have been lonely. No one can blame you for clinging to the idea of That Person."
"Th-that is not for you to… You rejected Betty's feelings… What do you know about it…?!"
Biting her lip, Beatrice glared at Subaru with an emotion that bordered on hatred.
However, her trembling did not convey that at all. As the outpouring of fierce emotion threatened to dissipate immediately, Beatrice shook her head, desperately trying to stay firm and resolute.
"I know. I know how kind you are. I know if someone was tossing and turning from a nightmare, you'd hold their hand to put them at ease. If someone was being battered by some trouble they couldn't do anything about, you'd reach out and open the way for them. You feel sad for people who lose someone dear to them, even if you can't help but hate them."
"You speak as if you know so…"
"I'm powerless. I can't save you. But I don't want you to be alone. If there's one thing a guy like me can do, it's to cling to you and beg."
When Subaru offered his right hand, Beatrice's eyes shot open even wider.
His hand was inflamed from burns and was a hideous sight. Even so, it was still in better shape than his left, which had sustained so much damage that the very sight of it was unbearable.
He offered the one hand he had that could be cleaned up to pass as something suitable for taking a pretty girl's hand.
"Beatrice. Save me, please."
" "
"I'll be too lonely to live without you. Save me."
Really, just how pathetic and unsightly was this arm-twisting of his?
He claimed he couldn't go on without her to force her hand.
He didn't know what he could do for her, so he was telling her what she could do for him, pressuring her into using it as a reason to live.
It was so very selfish, so completely illogical. It was all the coercion that Subaru Natsuki could muster.
"Not fair… This is…not fair."
The shameless manipulation made Beatrice's lips tremble with intense, barely containable emotions from the bottom of her heart.
"How…how can you speak that way to Betty…now of all times? I mean, you're not even That Person… You rejected Betty…! And yet…!"
She couldn't speak properly. Her words strayed. She hesitated. Beatrice's heart panicked as she agonized over the choice.
Beatrice clutched the book within her arms very, very tightly, never taking her eyes away from the hand offered to her.
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
"For four hundred years, I have always been alone…! I spent my time in loneliness, and even if I accept your hand here, you'll die right away anyway! The life span of a human being is a blink of an eye to one such as
Betty… How?! How can I cling to such a thing now…?!"
"I can't even begin to imagine the four centuries you spent. I'm not gonna pretend like I understand. Four hundred years? I haven't even lived a twentieth of that. I probably don't understand one thing about your fear of the time after I die."
"Then! Then…your words will change nothing…!"
"But tomorrow, I'll be there to hold your hand."
" "
"I'll be there tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after that. Even if I can't promise to be around in four hundred years, I can still spend each and every day I have together with you. Even if we can't be together for eternity, I can treasure you tomorrow and right now."
" "
"That's why, Beatrice—pick me." Subaru had already made his choice.
And he was indicating his choice to Beatrice. The rest was up to Beatrice to choose.
Would it be the flames that brought the words of her mother, words she had faithfully upheld across four centuries, to an end?
Or would she break her promise to her mother, abandon her hopes for That Person, and take Subaru Natsuki's hand?
"Y-you are not…That Person…"
"Nope. Don't you dare confuse me with some other guy, okay? I'm me. Subaru Natsuki. This four-centuries-old unrequited love you've held for some bastard whose face you don't even know? Forget all that."
" "
"Instead of being scared of good-byes that might come one day, come live with me for a guaranteed future. I'm weak, but even so, my dreams are really big… If you stick with me, a busybody like you will have your hands so full, you won't have any time to be bored or lonely."
"…Ugh, ngh…"
"Pick me, Beatrice."
He'd say the words as many times as it took to sink in.
That's because he understood the wavering girl's feelings.
The guilt that made the girl hesitate, her sense of shame toward casting promises aside—he'd make it so she could pin those things on the selfish high-handedness of the human known as Subaru Natsuki.
—So that this girl would never cry alone again.
"Even though you'll eventually leave me…"
"Nothing lasts forever. The future you're afraid of will definitely come someday. You'll live forever, so we'll probably part ways at one point or another. But you and I haven't tasted nearly enough of life to give up on all the fun we'll have together and live in fear of being pulled apart."
"Even though you'll leave me behind…"
"Let's be together. Let's live life together. Let's do this together. Let's build up so many memories that we can blow away all that fear, puff our chests out, then laugh and say, We sure had fun. We'll do so much that you
can make up for the four lonely centuries you spent living here." "Even…if we did all that! Someday, I'll be alone again!" He saw himself reflected in the girl's trembling eyes.
He looked shabby, unsightly, a far cry from the prince on a white horse she'd spent too many years waiting for.
The only one who stood there was the same old Subaru Natsuki.
"To someone like you who'll live forever, maybe the time you'll spend with me will be one brief moment. If that's how it's gonna be, then I'll carve my moment right into your soul."
" "
"—And when all's said and done, even weighed up against all of eternity, I'll be so vivid that nothing will fade when it comes to Subaru Natsuki!"
There was a sound like glass cracking. The world known as the archive of forbidden books was breaking down.
At some point, the rips in space around Subaru and Beatrice had become enveloped by flames.
But in that moment, he no longer felt heat or fear.
Inside Subaru, there was nothing except Beatrice.
And that moment, there was nothing in Beatrice except Subaru.
With trembling arms, Beatrice gripped the book that her mother had given her.
Believing her four centuries of loneliness would be healed once she let it go, he reached out with his hand.
And he shouted:
"Pick me! Beatrice!!"
"—Ah."
"—You wanted someone to take you outside! Isn't that why you always sat in front of the door?!"
With a decisive sound, that world finally met its end.
The girl's lonely cage, that solitary world known as the archive of forbidden books, was engulfed by flames and vanished.
But just before that happened, there was a sound.
—The sound of a single tome falling to the archive's floor.
10
Otto and Petra gazed wordlessly as Roswaal Manor burned to the ground.
" "
The three of them—Otto, Petra, and Rem, who was being carried on Otto's back—had safely used the mansion's escape route to slip past the demon beasts' perimeter.
A barrier had been scrupulously set up around the cabin in the mountains behind Roswaal Manor, to which the escape route led. This made it impossible for not only the wild demon beasts in the region to approach them but even warded off the demon beasts participating in the attack.
And it was not only Otto and company watching the mansion as it went up in flames.
A crowd of the Earlham Village residents who had not headed toward the Sanctuary could be seen gathered around—evacuated to the barrier beforehand by Subaru in a determined effort to keep them from being embroiled in the attack on the mansion. Considering the great horde of demon beasts, it was clear that his concern had not been excessive. It was not only Otto who keenly felt that way but the villagers as well.
However, no one felt at liberty to raise joyous voices at having arrived there safe and sound.
That moment, all any of them could do was gaze at the mansion with anxious hope, waiting for some visible change and believing Subaru and the others still struggling inside the mansion were safe.
" "
Otto, too, stared at the mansion, deciding to treat his burn wounds later. Petra was right beside him, latched on to Otto's arm with strength unimaginable for one so young.
She was doubtlessly worried sick. Anyone could tell the young girl had a crush on Subaru from a single glance. Considering her melancholy, one couldn't help but pray he was safe.
To try and put Petra at ease, he gently stroked Petra's brown hair. When Petra looked at him in momentary surprise, Otto smiled at her, turning his eyes toward the mansion once more—it was then that he noticed. "…That's…"
It was from the topmost floor of the main wing of the burning mansion. With incredible force, fire burst out of the office that Otto's group had used as an escape route. The windows cracked, and the outpouring flames engulfed the mansion's topmost floor. Roswaal Manor finally reached its limit, succumbed to the flames, and collapsed.
"Ah…"
The sight brought a tiny sound out of Petra's throat.
Next to spread across her eyes would likely be despair. As an adult, Otto tried to wipe that sadness away.
"Mr. Otto! Look!"
"Gah?!"
Otto had a meek look on his face when Petra slapped the side of it with her little palm.
The blow caught Otto by surprise and brought stars to his eyes. But when he saw the delighted expression on Petra's face as she pointed at the mansion, he immediately understood, hastily shaking his shock away.
Just like Petra, the people of Earlham Village were raising voices of delight.
"Ha…ha-ha…"
—From Roswaal Manor, aflame and collapsing, a single ray of white light stretched up toward the sky.
The light, which was like a shooting star, changed its angle high in the sky, glimmering as it arced and flew far off to the east, as if to signal its destination.
Otto knew what lay in that direction.
When Petra said, "There! Just now!" with a happy look on her face, his expression had already relaxed.
"The rest is up to you—all this has really worn me out."
11
Simultaneously, just as Otto let his shoulders fall with relief, Garfiel, halfnaked and wearing nothing but a tattered cloth around his hips, looked up at the same light and clacked his fangs.
"Ha! Ya sure pulled it off, General! That's my general! Hoshin kept his promises even if it killed him!"
Garfiel, who had escaped the burning mansion and broken through the perimeter of demon beasts, laughed himself silly.
He was covered in soot and burn wounds and injuries all over, but his face was full of smiles.
"Gah-ha-ha-ha-ha… Owww?!"
"Do not get worked up while you're so badly hurt! They will scar!"
As Garfiel laughed, a fist grandly struck the back of his skull. When Garfiel clutched his head and looked back, Frederica stood there with anger on her face.
"A-aren't ya happy that the general and she are safe and sound?"
"Of course I am… We were right to leave it to Master Subaru. If Lady
Beatrice has been saved, then I can rest easier as well."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Frederica gently patted her own chest. Seeing his elder sister's reaction made Garfiel crack a smile. "Gotta say, though," he said as a preamble. "Even if ya talk tough, it's hard to look tough when
you're all embarrassed while wearin' a single sheet of cloth."
"—! It cannot be helped! There was no time to strip my clothes off before transforming!"
Red-faced, Frederica was indignant as she stood there naked save for the curtain wrapped around her.
As he endured his sister's anger, Garfiel glanced at the girl sleeping under the shade of a nearby tree—Meili—and narrowed his eyes.
At the height of that ferocious battle, Elsa had gone to save Meili when she was in danger of being crushed by falling debris, letting her favorable chance to win against Garfiel slip away. Had she not done so, the victor and the loser might have been reversed.
In the end, Frederica had transformed and pulled Meili out of harm's way, and with all obstacles removed from the battlefield, Garfiel had settled things with Elsa—and thus, he had supposedly won.
And yet, the feeling that he hadn't really won refused to go away. Was it just that he was still immature?
Or was it a lingering symptom of having killed for the first time, one that would not allow him the comfort of immersing himself in victory?
Either way—
"The echoes of victory and the feel of killing—I can leave that all for later. The rest is happenin' in a place where my hands can't reach no matter how hard I try… Countin' on ya to take care of it, General."
Thrusting his fist forward, Garfiel glared, baring his fangs toward the trail of light heading toward the eastern sky.
Gazing in the same direction, Frederica folded her hands against her chest as if making a prayer.
"'Cause once everything's said and done, there's still that bastard we both needa smack real good!"
12
—She'd been caught.
She'd understood, yet she'd been ensnared all the same.
She'd known from the start. If she took that hand, if she clung to its warmth, she would never be able to return to those lonely nights again.
Even though she'd rebuked herself, saying living by relying on warmth that would someday vanish was foolishness, even madness…
That voice had called her.
Those eyes had gazed upon her.
That hand needed her.
She should have known. There was no way that she could reject them.
—Subaru.
"Yeah, that's right." —Subaru. Subaru.
"That's right. That's my name." —Subaru, Subaru, Subaru. —Subaru!!
"You finally said my name, huh?"
13
The snowfall had become a full-blown blizzard.
The world was dotted with enough snow to blanket one's field of vision. It was a hell of extreme cold that could freeze one's breath the instant it touched the outside air.
Though exposed to such ferocious elements, powerful will rested in the girl's violet eyes as her silver hair flapped in the wind.
"I absolutely, absolutely…won't lose, not to anyone or anything!"
With faint light entwined around both her hands, the silver-haired girl raised them to employ and release the vast amount of mana within her.
The freezing magic, amplified amid that fiercely blowing snow, began to glow, and that pale radiance became countless swords of light that flew across the world, slicing apart each and every one of the white demon beasts atop the snowy plain.
—There was a disturbing clacking of their short fangs biting against one another in unison.
This was the most unsalvageable thing in the world, the most difficult to coexist with, the great calamity that overshadowed all others since times of yore.
Before these beings, the embodiment of appetite, known as Gluttony incarnate, the girl stood, not backing away a single step.
However, her breathing was ragged; she had lost control over a portion of her mana, which was so vast that she had yet to master it; and part of her body had begun to be covered in white crystals.
At that rate, it would not be long before she was turned into a statue of ice by her very own magical energy.
—Even so, she did not retreat. She could not.
"This is for Mother, for Geuse, and for everyone in the present… Besides, as long as I don't forget the words he wrote, I'll never give up."
Therefore, even if her body was enveloped in ice, the one thing she absolutely would not do was regret.
As the demon beasts tightened their encirclement, they gradually closed in on the girl and the people depending upon her.
If push came to shove, she was ready to put her life on the line. She was ready.
"—You don't need to overdo it, Emilia-tan. Everything's gonna be all right."
There was a light sound. The girl realized someone had landed right next to her from somewhere far above.
She looked beside her. The raging blizzard was in the way, so she couldn't make out their face.
But she knew exactly who it was.
His voice, his demeanor, and more than that—there was no way he wouldn't come when she most wanted him at her side.
"You can stand back and leave the rest to me—we've got beginner's luck on our side."
"I'm sorry. I don't really get what you're trying to say."
She sensed he was making a wry smile as he stepped ahead. And tagging along was a second, smaller figure.
And then she heard two voices.
Voices that leaped, as if they had been waiting eagerly for this moment for a very, very long time—
"I do not have any idea if this will work."
"Yeah, we'll manage somehow—you and me!!"
—So began the pair's first battle, one of the many, many times Beatrice the spirit and her contractor, Subaru Natsuki, would fight hand in hand.
CHAPTER 8
FACES FASHIONED FROM SNOW
1
In the snow-marred Sanctuary, their fields of vision were filled by the great horde of demon beasts that were Gluttony incarnate.
But his trust in the lovely girl at his back and the warmth he felt in his palm were definitely the real deal.
—That was why Subaru Natsuki stood there without the slightest hesitation or doubt.
"You sure stomped the heck out of 'em, Emilia-tan…!"
Subaru's face was buffeted by the thunderous blizzard as he praised Emilia's valiant fighting.
The falling snow had instantly turned the Sanctuary into the front line of the Great Rabbit's attack. But on previous attempts, by the time that situation arose, the destruction of the Sanctuary was halfway written in stone. This time, he'd averted failure because Emilia had fought valiantly against the demon beasts without retreating a single step.
"—You evacuating everyone to the tomb means you cleared the Trials, right?"
Emilia was taking on the demon-beast horde while shielding Echidna's tomb at her back. At the tomb's entrance, he could see people from the Sanctuary and from Earlham Village watching the state of the battle hand in hand. Ryuzu, who was standing at the congregation's head, told him that this union between the two groups was the result of something that went beyond a simple weighing of pros and cons.
And the one who'd worked hardest to bring that situation about wasn't Emilia or Ryuzu.
"—Ram."
There was no reply to his call. Her eyelids were closed, and her body was limp, bereft of strength.
Ram had remained in the Sanctuary, vowing to fulfill her greatest wish. Now she was continuing to sleep in the arms of Roswaal, who was sitting on the steps of the tomb in a daze, his expression lost and empty.
Just what had happened between Ram and Roswaal? At present, Subaru had no way of knowing.
"Subaru, for now, could you focus over here, I wonder?"
Subaru was sinking into thought when he felt a tug from the little hand connected to his own. Hearing that familiar voice address him in unfamiliar fashion, Subaru replied with a spontaneous "uhyah!"
"…Why are you giving such a bizarre reply?"
"Er, having you call me by my first name is so fresh and vivid that I have to hold back my joy."
"Is that all…? Could you indulge in such deep sentiments later, I wonder?
…S-Subaru."
"Beako, you are so cute."
When Subaru voiced his honest opinion, Beatrice went red-faced, shaking their joined hands around with considerable force. Smiling at her adorable reaction, Subaru gathered himself and let out a breath.
"So, Beatrice. The opponent's the Great Rabbit. You ready for this?"
"This is the worst situation possible. We have only just formed our pact, the opponent is one of the three great demon beasts, and we are unprepared. My contractor is an amateur, and it has been four centuries since Betty has been in a real fight."
"And?"
"One might call this an appropriate handicap."
Beatrice smiled impetuously as the clacking fangs pressed upon them all at once. Stepping forward as if to greet them, Subaru gave a thumbs-up to Emilia as she stood behind them.
"Me and Beatrice'll send that horde packing. Emilia-tan, take down any that slip by us, 'kay?!"
"—Understood—leave it to me! So the rest is up to you." "Yep, we got this."
The rule was to assign the right person to the right job. It also reminded him about the saying that the happiest wives were the ones whose husbands were well and often away from home.
Emilia exhaled deeply behind him as mana surged all about, forming an icy, defensive line. Standing in front of the zone of freezing cold, Subaru stood face-to-face against the demon beasts filling his vision.
In contrast to its adorable appearance, the Great Rabbit was ferocious, its very existence odious. Twice, he had lost his life to those fangs. His fear of slipping away as he was devoured was difficult to forget. But— "Are you scared, I wonder?"
—as Subaru held his breath, Beatrice posed the question with a composed expression. Seeing her eyes and the profile of her face told him more than mere words—they told Subaru exactly who was with him then and there.
"Nah. I'm not scared."
"Oh?"
"I have Emilia behind me and you beside me—gotta say, best feeling ever."
"As it should be."
Beatrice smiled wryly. Meeting her adorable, smiling face, Subaru donned a wicked smile of his own.
The Great Rabbit Horde raised a disturbing howl, leaping all at once toward the pair, who wore bold, fearless smiles.
Faced with that attack—no, that act of feeding—Beatrice and Subaru raised their joined hands, her left, his right.
"First, how about a minor test, I wonder? —El Minya."
The moment the chant was complete, a vortex formed in midair, summoning purple-colored crystals all around the pair.
The gleaming crystals, which were shaped like icicles, resembled the purple arrows Beatrice had used on a previous go-around to skewer Elsa; it was a spell she'd called her specialty. Yet, the sheer number of arrows loading the sky was incomparable to what he had seen before.
Targeting took but an instant. Locking on to the heads of every demon beast that made up the Great Rabbit Horde, the purple arrows shot forward at the same time.
Each missile found a skull, slaying every one of the demon beasts. Their dead bodies turned into purple crystals, like the arrows that had felled them, then shattered, unable to withstand the raging snow. The world of white was filled with glimmering purple fragments.
With a single blow at the outset of the battle, the Great Rabbit vanguard was nearly annihilated. Of course, it was difficult to call this a painful blow to a demon beast that could infinitely propagate, but the spectacular feat left Subaru amazed.
"Th-that's incredible—!"
"R-really? This is nothing at all. For Betty, this is but a piece of cake, I suppose."
"Oh, come on, be real…what's this magic that has so much power?! What element is that?!"
"The Dark element, of course. Also, is this even a fraction of its full potential, I wonder?"
Seeing Subaru's animated reaction made Beatrice proudly puff out her chest.
She took pride in the magic Mother had taught her, the magic she had worked so hard to master.
"I shall demonstrate the mastery of the Dark element and show you that the power of Dark magic is the greatest this world has to offer."
"What…should I do?"
"Would you hold Betty's hand and not leave her alone, I wonder?"
Beatrice spoke such endearing words as she strengthened her grip on Subaru's hand. Squeezing her palm back, Subaru glared at the menace before them, as if to tell Beatrice it was time to let loose.
Devouring the fragments of their comrades' corpses, the Great Rabbit host prepared to advance as a ravaging horde once more. But before they could start…
"Subaru, this is a good lesson for a spirit mage—rather than use the spirit mage's own mana, as is typical, shall I use magic to directly manipulate the mana in the air, I wonder?"
"I see—in that case, even with my busted Gate… Okay, I'll leave Shamak to you!"
"Do not expect anything as paltry as Subaru's useless Shamak! Can Subaru, who's equally useless and nothing more than dead weight, do anything for Betty save showering her with praise?"
Beatrice's imperious pop quiz left Subaru falling into thought a little. But as he pondered, the clacking of the Great Rabbit's fangs pressed near, and with nothing but his direct experiences with impending death coming to mind, Subaru shouted.
"I don't know the answer!"
"Then I should teach you, I suppose. Focus on Betty's hand and imagine it. Imagine the weaving of mana, the power to shape it into the form of an arrow, the power to materialize and shatter our foe—imagine a mighty attack."
"I imagined it!"
"Then is there anything left but to chant, I wonder?!"
Beatrice's voice made Subaru snap open his closed eyes and thrust his left hand forward. Simultaneously, Beatrice moved her right hand forward, aiming it toward the Great Rabbit Horde—power surged forth.
"—El Minya!!"
The two chanted as one. Purple-streaked power manifested in the sky, pouring earthward upon the demon beasts.
The explosive, destructive force made the stage known as the Sanctuary glimmer with purple fragments—the ferocious battle had begun.
2
To Subaru, using magic had always been an act tantamount to whittling his own soul away.
Just as Roswaal and Puck had guaranteed from the beginning, Subaru had no talent for magic. In the end, he'd abused Shamak, the one spell he'd learned, finally wrecking his own Gate, closing the path of the magician to him forever.
Therefore, he'd never thought another opportunity to use magic would visit him ever again, but—
"Minya! Minya! This is tough to say, damn it! Minyaaa!"
Relying on the vast surge of mana, Subaru did the seemingly impossible, rapidly casting Great Magic again and again.
The purple arrows thus spawned opened one hole in the demon-beast force after another, turning the ferocious Great Rabbit into purple fragments. Glancing at these, Beatrice tugged on Subaru's arm, and with a light step, they sailed into the air.
Strangely, Subaru was not surprised by the feeling of weightlessness brought by ignoring gravity. Stepping upon the sky, Beatrice twirled and wove to evade the fangs in what truly looked like the dance of a fairy.
"We're crossing."
"Got it."
An instant after she made her announcement, space distorted, and the pair vanished from the sky. It was a short-range warp that differed from Passage. The jump through space threw off the Great Rabbit; the horde did not notice when Subaru and Beatrice emerged behind it.
"Will you take care of the left, I wonder?"
"Then I'll leave the right to you."
Giving form to the magic in his mind, Subaru influenced the world through Beatrice.
It felt like he was profiting with someone else's hard-earned money, robbing the moment of any enjoyment. Subaru followed the power of his imagination, loading the sky up with purple arrows large and small, using them as deadly weapons to bore holes into the demon beasts.
In his mind, he was loading a gun. He felt like he was creating bullets of mana and then pulling the trigger.
But his imagination had an undeniable effect in reality, shooting down the onrushing demon beasts like he was hunting ducks.
The Great Rabbit Horde on the opposite side was being similarly attacked by the destruction wrought by Beatrice. Cracks came forth from thin air, and it was like hundreds of the creatures were being shut inside the surface of a painting. The picture fragmented, seemingly being broken apart, and the demon beasts inside were all returned to ash.
All Subaru could do was twirl his tongue at the breadth of her magical skill.
Unlike Subaru, an idiot who'd learned only one spell, Beatrice could employ multiple varieties in multiple fashions. It was as if she was going out of her way to make plain to Subaru all the cards she held in her hands.
"That said, blasting 'em without a plan won't solve anything. Beako, you have a plan, right?"
"Of course I have a plan. Is the first stage of it not already complete, I wonder?"
The Great Rabbit increased its numbers every bit as much as they dwindled. As Subaru sensed this special nature put them at a stalemate, Beatrice made a reply that sounded quite dependable indeed.
He gave her a look that demanded an explanation, and in response, Beatrice sniffed proudly.
"All that is necessary is to assemble the demon beasts in one place. Have we truly gathered the entire horde in this forest…in this Sanctuary here in front of the tomb, I wonder?"
"Well, I suppose we have. But they infinitely reproduce. It's not like we've taken a roll call."
"—Infinite, you say, but that does not mean there is no limit."
The sentence made Subaru narrow his brows; then comprehension struck him like a bolt of lightning. He looked at the horde of demon beasts. As usual, the white fur balls were visible for as far as the eye could see—yet, if they really were reproducing infinitely…
"It doesn't add up… If they could really do that, they'd cover the whole planet and even space…!"
"Most likely, even if they can propagate endlessly, there should be an upper limit. Therefore, they will not increase beyond that fixed number. In that case…"
"Get them to that upper limit and wipe them all out in one go!" Subaru's eyes glimmered as he saw the strategy laid out before him.
"But the problem is in the second stage—how should we go about eliminating them, I wonder?"
Beatrice's concern was just how to simultaneously strike down the Great Rabbit, which numbered in the tens of thousands.
If you had force on par with some kind of missile, you could just burn them away along with the Sanctuary itself, but if even one of them survived, they would recover in full. The risk was incalculable.
It was difficult to wipe them off the map with simple brute force. The other way would be to—
"Your face says you have thought of something."
"Like usual, I settled on a plan that depends on you. Sounds good?"
Beatrice used magic even in the midst of their conversation to attract the demon beasts' attention toward the pair. Subaru drew his lips close to her refined ear and whispered his idea into it. Beatrice nodded after a few moments of thought.
"Betty did think of something rather similar, I suppose. But even with Betty and Subaru, these numbers are…"
"Hey, hey, you've got something wrong here, Beako. You don't get it at all."
"—?"
"In a situation like this, it's not like we have to settle everything with you alone or just the two of us, you know?"
Listening to Subaru's reply, Beatrice let an "ah" slip out as her eyes shot open. Then the girl heaved a cloudy sigh as she turned toward Subaru with the faintest of pouts.
"Truly, Subaru…no one in the world is better at relying upon others than you."
"I promise in the future I'll become a vibrant, high-end contractor so you'll never get frustrated again."
"Did you really think that would sound even slightly convincing when it comes from the mouth of a serial promise-breaker, I wonder?"
She said that with a smile, and Subaru couldn't deny any of it. Seeing his reaction, Beatrice pressed her palm against his chest, nodding deeply with a gaze filled with trust.
"Even Betty requires time to prepare for this. Would you serve as a decoy during that time, I wonder?"
"Relax. There ain't a single person in Lugunica who can beat me when it comes to distracting powerful enemies."
Beatrice closed her eyes and sank into contemplation. This was the first step toward putting Subaru's operation into motion. Picking up her tiny body, Subaru powerfully kicked off from the snow.
Homing in on Subaru and Beatrice as they raced across the snowy plain, the approaching demon beasts clacked their fangs and moved in for the kill. Too slow. Considering the sticky situations he'd found himself in over the last couple of days, the Great Rabbit swarm he faced now just seemed tame in comparison.
"Outta my way, you little gnats! I don't have time to deal with you right now!"
Evading their fangs, leaping over their heads, Subaru trod upon purple fragments as he raced through their pack.
Chanting and loosing purple missiles to force open a path, Subaru continued carrying Beatrice as he rushed right through the battle-worn clearing toward Emilia, who stood in front of the tomb.
"Eh, Subaru?!"
Subaru's sprint made Emilia's eyes bulge wide. Sliding to a stop right beside her, Subaru put Beatrice, still deep in contemplation, down on top of the snow, patting her head as he spoke.
"Sorry, Emilia-tan! It's too tough for Beako and me to handle this on our own!"
"Th-that's fine. But what should we do? Maybe I can…"
"Nah, I've thought up a way to beat them, so there's no need for you to wear yourself out trying to land a knockout blow! Actually, please don't even try. It'd make coming this far meaningless."
It surprised Emilia that he had seen right through her and gleaned she was considering self-destructive techniques to win the day. He wasn't going to let her do it. He absolutely wouldn't let her, now or later. He fully intended to make sure she would never have to do it ever again.
He didn't want any part of her thinking it didn't matter how badly she was hurt as long as she could save everyone else.
"Everyone safe, everyone saved. That's obviously the best outcome."
"Subaru…"
"Emilia-tan, I want you to be just a little more selfish from here on. If you can't, I'll think a little harder, but if you can, I just want you to do your best.
Let's win this for everyone's sake."
" "
Emilia put a hand to her chest and blinked as if she sensed something in Subaru's words.
Subaru tried to hold the demon-beast horde in check with more purple arrows to buy time until she made up her mind. But when he turned forward, it was not purple missiles that smashed into the Great Rabbit Horde but icicles.
Emilia had a renewed determination in her eyes as she clenched her right fist and laid into the demon beasts with her magic.
"Got it. Let's do it, Subaru. Tell me what you need. Anything!"
Emilia's reply, containing determination and resolve, made Subaru clench his own fist.
"That's my Emilia-tan—let's do this thing!"
3
The upsurge in magical energy was so incredibly powerful that even Subaru could feel it.
Emilia was standing in front of the tomb. Subaru was holding Beatrice within his arms. Believing in Subaru's plan, both of them were fully devoted to controlling their respective mana to bring it to fruition.
And it fell to Subaru to buy the time they both needed until they were prepared.
"C'mon, c'mon! I'm your opponent, same as usual! Follow meee!"
Smiling and waving, Subaru mercilessly pounded the horde with a vicious blow.
The explosive bombardment created a wild dance of purple light, which sent the demon beasts flying and made them wriggle as one. The horde moved like one gigantic body and began chasing Subaru in a mad dash around the Sanctuary.
This was the beginning of the operation. At the very least, his worry that they might hit the tomb first was gone.
"It's not as if you can ignore the smell of mana and my stench, either!"
It was the Great Rabbit's nature to be attracted by mana. It was Subaru's nature to have demon beasts want to devour him. With Beatrice, her eyes still closed, resting in his arms, Subaru Natsuki was a veritable, mouthwatering feast on the hoof as far as the Great Rabbit was concerned.
He heard the clacking of fangs. Subaru heard the deadly footsteps chasing them from behind.
"—! For one of the three great demon beasts, you're so slow! You halfwits, do you actually want me to make you extinct like ol' Whaley?"
Biting fear back with his molars, Subaru hurled the unnecessary insults he kept in the far corners of his mind. If he didn't flap his gums to maintain his calm, he'd never be able to conceal that he was trembling to the core.
He couldn't look that pathetic to the girl behind him, nor to the girl in his arms.
"Subaru—!"
As Subaru put on his own performance, a voice like a silver bell reached his ears through the gale-like snow. When he looked in the snow-filled reaches of his vision, Emilia was thrusting a fist toward the heavens—it was the signal that her preparations were complete.
Receiving this, Subaru put more strength into his legs, with which he kicked at the snow—Emilia was ready, but until Subaru's end was ready—a little more, just a little farther, just a pinch, go, go, go!
Without even time to let out his breath, Subaru laid a marker on the snowy plain at his own feet. With this, his do-or-die escape from the Great Rabbit, which was hot on his tail, had finally neared its end.
With that purple-arrow marker thrust into the snowy plain, everything had come together—so he shouted:
"Now, Emilia! Trace the lines—!!"
Plowing through the snow as he came to a halt, Subaru relied on magic for his last stand, commanding the purple arrow, "Let there be light!" The very next instant, countless purple arrows that had been shot into the clearing began to glow, forming a glittering cage.
A horde of tens of thousands of wriggling white demon beasts had been penned up inside that square cage— "That's Subaru for you! Really good job!"
Praising the splendid outcome, Emilia let up a voice of joy that she'd normally never ever make. Then as her eyes glimmered with equally rare aggression, she trained a graceful finger toward the demon beasts within the cage.
—And then she unleashed all the mana she had been forming while Subaru had bought her time.
"Cocytus!"
Applying that incantation, unfamiliar to his tongue, Subaru activated the vast amount of surging mana, transmitting power to the purple crystals, which were arrayed in a square around the clearing, one after another. The lines connected.
With a roar, the ground, the snowy plain itself, floated skyward.
"Amazing…"
Seeing this unfold left Subaru dumbstruck. The spectacle was so overwhelming, it left him speechless.
Emilia carefully supplied magic energy all along the sides of the cage of purple arrows in the clearing, shutting the Great Rabbit inside a snowy cage and lifting them into the sky. Of course, had they been normal demon beasts, they would surely have noticed the abnormality and escaped from the cage— but the Great Rabbit possessed no such decision-making capacity.
They were incarnations of hunger, felt inexhaustible urges of Gluttony, and were children gifted with Daphne the Witch's empty stomach— "That's why now you're all one step from a Giltirau and stuff!"
"—With this, there's nowhere left for you to run!"
As Subaru raised a middle finger and levied his insult, Emilia put on the finishing touches.
Emilia used magic energy to weave together an icy lid she simultaneously slammed down onto the patch of snowy ground that had floated into the sky, completing the cage and trapping the massive number of demon beasts.
Even if the Great Rabbit had a will of its own, there was no escape now that the icy prison was fully formed.
From the snow-stripped clearing beneath the prison, he looked around. Stragglers, zero. Wriggling figures, zero.
The whole Great Rabbit Horde had been in one place, enclosed within a square perimeter about twenty yards per side. With this, the conditions had been met.
"Now, the final blow if you please, Great Spirit Beatrice—"
Rocking the girl within his arms, Subaru announced it was time to follow the appetizer with the main course.
Answering his call, the girl gently opened her eyes that had remained quietly closed up to this point. Then, when she set her gaze upon the spectacle before them, she cracked a smile.
She was not surprised whatsoever. She was merely following up on the result she was sure he would deliver— "—Al Shamak."
A moment after the incantation, the ultimate manifestation of the Dark element dyed the world black.
4
—For an instant, the Great Rabbit was whipped around by a feeling of weightlessness before all its weight was slammed against the ground.
That impact freed it from the sense of tightness pressing against the entirety of its form. First, it shook its body, ridding itself of the snow that caked its fur. It made a sound through its nose as it swiveled its head around.
With its eyes, nose, ears, and whiskers, it searched for prey and consumed it. This was its only desire. It surveyed the area with its red eyes, craving the luxuriant aroma of the mana of its prey that made its whiskers tremble.
It felt nothing. Until just a moment before, it should have been surrounded by a feast. The prey was tantalizing, offering soft flesh and sweet blood that might grant it a sense of fulfillment, a momentary respite from its eternal sense of hunger.
Its eyes saw nothing. Its nose smelled nothing. Its ears heard nothing. Its whiskers did not tremble.
Disappointment. Despair. Foul feelings resembling such things instantly overrode its sense of hunger. To keep the loneliness of its mouth and the emptiness of its stomach at bay, it bit into the clump of white closest to it for the moment.
It tore with its mouth, rending the flesh, sipping the blood, and savoring its innards. It violated the clump of meat to its heart's desire, eating it clean, when it realized similar meals were occurring all about.
Its prey had vanished.
Following its instinct for survival, it was in a daze as it chewed on the white clump that had become its meal, swallowing it whole.
This happened over and over again, driven by insatiable hunger, feeding on the next prey, the prey next after that, the prey next after that after that, next after that after that after—
Finally, having at some point devoured everything in the surrounding area, it found itself alone.
Sipping on clumps of blood, licking up fragments of scattered flesh, it left behind neither dirt nor grass as it savored the fresh blood. If in so doing it had run out of things to eat, it was well and truly alone.
On the inside, it continued to be assaulted by a sense of insatiable hunger beyond its capacity for flesh.
It raised a cry. It clacked its fangs. The maddening hunger was torture— No, it was already mad. For all eternity, it was forbidden from sating its inexhaustible hunger and satisfying its limitless cravings; this was the madness of Gluttony.
—Did Mother also harbor such feelings?
For a single instant, reason bloomed in the back of its mind, which was ruled by hunger. However, it was immediately blotted out.
Its body trembled. As a consequence of its madness, it had subconsciously reproduced, creating a being separate from itself.
It ate this spawn without the slightest hesitation. There was not even an anguished cry as it stuffed itself with the flesh. Afterward, it suffered again from renewed hunger. Then, as a consequence of its hunger, it birthed another one of itself into the world.
It ate. It raged. It birthed. It ate. Over and over. It continued these things over and over.
It was alone. It was in a world without any others. There was forest.
There was soil. There was air. All that was missing was prey.