Since he had descended to this world, Subaru had experienced death many times.
Bearing in mind that most living things only get one shot at life, then Subaru, who had already challenged death ten times and won, could be considered a veteran of «Death».
Although most of his deaths were forced upon him, if you set aside his feelings on the matter, he had a pretty intimate relationship with death; this meant that Subaru alone had been able to sharpen his senses when it came to predicting death.
――His nerves could clearly sense that «Death» was approaching.
«I could have liked all of you.»
A penetratingly cold pressure accompanied that voice which rained down from the sky towards the ground.
Raising his head to look at the icicles that seemed to cover the sky with their sharp tips pointing downwards he saw a small, small figure accompanying the frozen blades.
Straining his eyes, now that he was aware of it, he could see an animal similar to a cat with gray fur.
However, it was upright as if it walked on two legs, its short arms were crossed, its strangely long tail swung back and forth, and its pink nose led to it having a strange presence.
Before that strange existence that could operate human speech, Petelgeuse and the rest of the Witch Cult were left speechless. And in the same way, Subaru, who was still face down on the ground, was shocked, although there was a clear distinction in the reasoning for their surprise.
That existence, that spirit, this was the first time that he had seen it act with such rage. And he knew that the aftershocks alone of this rage could leave the world lifeless.
Subaru: “...Puck.”
The air surrounding that floating spirit――Puck――was filled with a white mist, and the entire surrounding forest made a cracking sound as it transformed. The various tree’s greenery was dyed white; the leaves’, the branches’, and the trunks’ surfaces froze; and they withered and fell as their mana was sucked out.
The earth under them was also affected by the same influence, first the plants died, shortly after the earth would too, and then Subaru and the Witch Cult, both of whom were surrounded by the earth, would begin to be affected by that evil influence too.
His skin stung and a pain similar to burning covered his whole body. A feeling of lethargy rose within his heart, and even breathing seemed troublesome as his consciousness began to become vague.
It was coming from his mana reserves――this feeling was something that Subaru remembered, this feeling of lethargy was a result of the spirit forcibly stealing his mana. This was another thing that Subaru alone could say he had experienced, but now the enraged Puck was performing it on a global scale.
In truth, with a groan Subaru was able to endure it, but he saw that Petelgeuse had broken into a cold sweat and had stepped back while the kneeling Witch Cultists futilely gasped for air like a fish.
Overlooking their conditions, Puck let a “Hmph,” ring out from his well-shaped nose,
«The Witch Cult, huh? ――Four hundred years have passed, but you haven’t changed at all. No matter the era, I mourn for you.»
While speaking, his pupils moved, shifting Puck’s line of sight towards a point in the forest.
If one was lured by his gaze and chased after it, they would find a place that alone was unaffected by Puck’s mana drain.
The entire area was freezing, everything had begun withering, yet there alone was a space where green remained. ――It was the place where Emilia’s body was resting on the slender roots of various trees.
«Aah, poor Lia… I still can’t believe that she’s dead.»
He did his best to erase his voice of any modulation, but his voice was still mixed with grief.
Puck seemed lonely as he sadly stared at Emilia, and he slowly moved his eyes away from that place and towards those who survived.
«You bear the heavy crime of causing my daughter to lose her life. Not a single person will leave this place alive.»
Petelgeuse: “What, what what whatatatatattt, is this spirit talking about!? The ordeal called for us to break the half-devil, to mix this person WITH filth! You didn’t protect the fool, so you should BE condemned for your «Sloth»! Aah! Aah! AAAah! My brain, treeeeeeeeembbbleeess!”
Sending threats towards Puck, Petelgeuse looked up at the sky and raised both his arms as his saliva flew. In his fury, Petelgeuse’s bloodshot eyes were different sizes, and his intent to kill swelled.
Faced with such hostile power from the spirit, Petelgeuse had decided to fight against it. His decision was not a heroic choice. From his perspective, the extent of the spirit’s power held no meaning.
That was because,
Petelgeuse: “The fact that this event is happening everywhere IS good news. The Witch WILL give me her love! Therefore, she will reward my diligence with love! So, I WILL interfere with your slothful actions.”
――If he died before receiving love, the love would never come.
As far as Petelgeuse was concerned, he did not expect his faith towards the Witch to be rewarded through loving actions, rather, he believed that she would shower the world in her love.
He preferred the Witch’s love over everything, and even if it meant he had to inconvenience his comrades he would refuse to leave her love. ――The Witch’s love surpassed everything.
Petelgeuse: “The half-devil died! You WERE rewarded for your sloth! It is a favor from the Witch! It should touch your heart and make you tremble with love! You should BE fine dying as a martyr for her!”
Swinging his arms, stamping his feet, Petelgeuse raised hell.
Watching Petelgeuse disgrace the ground he stood on, Puck’s eyes were filled with an infinite coldness. They were filled with neither pity nor anger, they did not try to find worth in what they saw, and the reason for that was clear.
And so, while basking in that gaze, Petelgeuse raised his arms overhead, and over exaggeratedly swung them backwards; those clothed in black robes――
«Die.»
――The icicle blades mercilessly rained down and stuck into the backs of all those clothed in black, protruding from their abdomens the icicles hammered into the ground, thus skewing all of them.
Like bug specimens with nails stuck through their bodies, with their limbs stuck to the ground, all of those clothed in black raised cries of agony that signaled the end of their lives. From the wound the icicle stake opened, their bodies simultaneously froze over, causing the forest to be covered in rows of ice sculptures all in strange stances.
Despite ending twenty or so lives all in one go, Puck's gaze did not waver. But, he did direct a sidelong glance towards Petelgeuse, who still had his hands on his head.
He had followed his directions to the letter, and now he had literally become a sacrifice along with the rest of the cultists; he chose to use the moment before Puck cut him from his consciousness to say,
Petelgeuse: “――My brain, trem, bles.”
His lips twisted in sadness, just following that, Subaru saw an explosion of shadows spread out from him.
Collapsing, he bent his body into a ninety degree angle, and from Petelgeuse’s figure many black hands leapt and rushed at Puck, who was floating in the air.
Considering his true strength, he would never not dodge the attack. However, with his arms still folded, Puck did not seem to mind the coming attack. ――He couldn’t see it.
Subaru: “Puck――hk.”
«Be silent, Subaru. ――You alone are different.»
Puck told Subaru, who was trying to warn him of the danger, to be quiet. While interrupting his voice, without letting Subaru’s warning reach him, the approaching hands wrapped around his body and squeezed.
«Hoh?»
Puck’s small body was entirely covered by the adult-sized hands.
There, seven hands reached him, and Subaru could no longer see him. Above anything else, those black hands had the power to effortlessly tear apart a human body.
Though he was a spirit, he could still be affected by physical forces――and that was without mentioning that the black hands were owned by Petelgeuse, a fanatic from the Witch Cult.
Petelgeuse: “Negligence! Negligence! How slothful! You assumed that I WOULD die immediately! Even with such power you COULD not accomplish anything! And so you WILL not achieve anything! Anything! Anything! Anything anything anything anything aanythiiiiiiiing!!”
The «Unseen Hand» that Subaru alone could see wrapped around Puck and crushed him.
Inside that black swarming lump, the spirit’s body was overwhelmed with spite and erased――
«It’s worthless.»
In the next moment, Subaru saw the black mist instantly get blown away.
«If this is the extent of what borrowing the Witch’s name gets you, then the past four hundred years have gone by fast. If you truly want me to kill you then――»
He smashed many trees with his weight, and then he blew the fallen trees away with his tail. Smashing apart the remains of the black robed people who had been turned into ice sculptures, his newly formed forelegs dug into the earth and invited it to move towards absolute zero.
Even a small sigh was equivalent to a blizzard, but through the white haze his golden eyes shone brilliantly as he mercilessly glared down at the dying world.
That was,
«Let’s see if you can make even half of the two thousand shadows Satella could.»
Covered in gray fur, his quadrupedal cat-like body seemed as if it was stepping over the forest.
The one who caused the mansion to collapse on the fifth day, the perpetrator behind who caused Subaru to freeze to death――was this majestic manifestation.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Having changed into a frame big enough that you had to look up at it, the gray colored beast brought with it the true meaning of something that could look down upon the world.
The chill that had emerged alongside the beast’s appearance was preferable to it exerting all of its power at once, but his field of vision was dyed white and it grew cold enough that even keeping his eyelids open brought pain.
Subaru: “――――”
Although he was receiving such pain, Subaru’s consciousness was elsewhere.
A dumbfounded feeling, or perhaps uneasiness, filled him as he saw such an incredible thing. No matter where he looked up, it seemed impossible for his vision not to be filled by it and his voice leaked as he looked,
Petelgeuse: “Wh, what…”
A shivering voice suddenly resounded within the extremely cold world.
The tremor in that voice was likely not just due to the cold that seemed to stab into his skin. As for the person who produced that voice, they likely felt the cold sapping away at their composure just as Subaru did.
Petelgeuse: “You didn’t say that you WERE accompanied by this kind of thing!?”
Petelgeuse shouted while looking up and shaking his head.
His dry lips vertically tore as he screamed, and from them crimson blood blotted――even that blood, in less than the time it took to blink, froze and stopped the wound from bleeding.
Feeling as though if he were to blink he would never be able to open his eyes again, Subaru ruminated on Petelgeuse’s scream and looked up at the beast again.
Thinking it over again and again, he figured that Petelgeuse’s words were false.
Rather,
Subaru: “That thing is, Puck…?”
«Do you not understand what you see? Even after all of your malicious words?»
Interrupting Subaru’s question, the grey beast moved its mouth to reply.
His every word was accompanied by a windstorm, and he couldn’t even laugh at the irony that the beast had just denied his doubts.
At the same time, Subaru understood.
――During his most recent end, he had experienced something similar to this as he died.
Petelgeuse: “It cannot be.”
At someplace other than the silent Subaru, Petelgeuse squeezed out a murmur.
He had eaten the fingers on his right hand sequentially and after that he did not hesitate to continue chewing, as he was doing it as an aggressive method of combating the cold and tying down his dimming consciousness.
Petelgeuse: “It IS impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible! But! A spirit! The likes of a spirit! It is… It IS impossible for a spirit to hold such power! Such power!”
«――Echidna.»
Petelgeuse: “――――”
With bubbles of blood spilling from his lips, Petelgeuse opened his eyes wide and stopped moving.
Cutting off the madman’s words of refusal, Puck whispered a word for some reason. The moment that the name entered his ears and was heard, Petelgeuse stopped talking.
«I wonder if that name holds any significance to the current Witch Cult.»
As if trying to get the silent Petelgeuse’s thoughts to start moving, Puck threw a question at him. And then, facing each other, Petelgeuse dramatically reacted.
The sound of something hard shattering rang out, and Petelgeuse spat something out. He spat out small fragments of something――thoroughly chewed, smashed, and shattered molars. And then,
Petelgeuse: “Filthy…!!”
While glaring at Puck with bloodshot eyes, with blood spilling from his mouth and down his jaw, onto and under his robes, dyeing them red,
Petelgeuse: “Even letting that name pass between your lips is disgusting! Aah! How I pity your slothful fearless ignorance! Me! Before the Witch Cult and I! To stoop so low as to invoke the name of a Witch other than the Witch of Envy Satella…!!”
His capillaries tore, staining Petelgeuse’s eyes a deep crimson. Tears of blood fell from the corners of his eyes and bubbles of blood foamed from the madman’s mouth as he extended a partially missing finger towards Puck.
Petelgeuse: “Our faith, is in Love! Speaking of anything but what we are devoted towards IS nothing but an insult!”
«――So you are only a human being born a few centuries ago. I thought I had found another spirit from the same time as me.»
Coldly speaking to Petelgeuse as he stamped his feet, Puck caused his gold eyes to shine.
And just like that, Petelgeuse’s furiously trembling body stopped moving. No, it was not that he chose to stop moving. His feet had been forcibly frozen.
Still lying down, with his field of vision obscured by a white mist, Subaru watched his sworn enemy reach the brink of death.
Petelgeuse seemed to notice that his freezing body meant his final hour had arrived. Yet, while facing his death, he continued to stare up at Puck’s glittering eyes.
Petelgeuse: “Considering the depth of my faith, time DOES not matter. I have infinite time, I have spent more than half of that time doing nothing at all, yet it WAS better than spending it together with a slothful person like yourself! Aaaaaaah, my brain, treeeeeeembllees,”
With the end of his life arriving before his eyes, Petelgeuse was forced to no longer shake with fanaticism.
Subaru knew better than anyone that «Death» was more terrifying than anything else, and yet Petelgeuse’s attitude was completely off the rails.
He was facing death and yet his state of mind had not changed――that was surely pure evidence that he was a madman.
«Your death isn’t a form of divine punishment. ――However, I can say that I hate all of you.»
Petelgeuse: “The ordeal HAS been accomplished! My body will finally be allowed to arrive at the place where the sacred Witch’s body is! …Aah, that WILL be… enjoyable!”
With both hands extended as he looked towards the sky, Petelgeuse raised a roar of laughter, “Kekekeke.”
The snowstorm’s force increased, and the wind blowing against his slim figure dyed him white; gradually, his voice and his movements slowed, before fading away.
Yet still, Petelgeuse’s laughter did not stop, and even when his roaring laughter came to an end, his facial expression still clearly harbored insanity.
«――You should have stopped while you were ahead.»
With a mutter, the gray colored beast swung its foreleg and smashed Petelgeuse’s ice sculpture.
With one hit his upper body and lower body separated, and his upper body was completely destroyed and flew away in shards. His abdomen was smashed just like how those clothed in black had previously been lost, leaving no doubts about the end of his life.
――Just as Puck had said, even in death, his wish had not been twisted.
Seeing his hated opponent be destroyed, seeing his life cruelly destroyed before his eyes, Subaru found that the only thing within his heart was an overwhelming sense of emptiness.
That was the man he had hated enough to want to murder. He had believed that that man’s existence was the origin of the vortex that consisted of Subaru’s problems. If he killed that man, then surely everything would turn out fine.
But, why did it have to come to this?
Petelgeuse was dead, the threat that was the Witch Cult had been cleared away
However, in order to accept this result, he would also need to accept that Rem’s existence had been erased from the world; in order to reconcile with the good news he would need to accept that Subaru himself had let Emilia die.
If he abandoned the duty placed upon him through their deaths, even if he didn’t try to throw away his life, the fact that he had not destroyed his foe with his own hands――his heart would fracture because of that.
In the end, he was unable to do anything. Because of that, he had reached this result.
«Well then――»
While Subaru was in the midst of being stricken with his powerlessness, Puck calmly watched Petelgeuse’s final moments and then turned to look down at Subaru.
Once again, he became conscious of the large Puck, and an understanding of his mightiness sunk deep into Subaru’s mind. Previously, in the Royal Capital when the Order of Knights and the Council of Sages saw Puck they trembled in fear, and Subaru had thought of it as nothing more than someone else’s problem.
«Let’s talk, shall we?»
――Now, he understood what they were feeling painfully well.
It was cold enough that his consciousness was growing dim.
It was already to the point where he did not know where the pain rampaging within him had gone; his injured spine, his broken ribs, and the bone fragments that dug into his internal organs, he could not feel any of them.
He could hear death’s footsteps as it drew near. As those quiet, gloomy footsteps drew near, his sense of pain had gone away to some other place.
But,
«Thinking that you can run away like that is a great mistake.»
Subaru: “――gahh!!”
The cold that had wrapped around him and had made him grow drowsy and close his eyes disappeared, leaving only the terrible heat of his wounds to wake him up.
His throat closed at the sudden pain, and it urged Subaru to shift his attention towards the source of the pain. There, he saw that numerous thin needles made of ice had stabbed into the area just below his right leg’s knee.
Seeing the opening of the wound caused his brain to fully register the information it was receiving, and then, his overstimulated brain remembered the pain from the rest of his body. Blood erupted from behind his eyes, dyeing his field of vision red. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt so bad that he couldn’t speak. The pain transcended everything else; it felt like his body had been thrown into hell.
«Subaru, you are guilty of three sins.»
Ignoring Subaru’s screams from the painful agony of the pain as he looked down at him, the gray colored beast continued talking.
Having transformed into something gigantic, he moved his mouth furnished with sharp fangs. His voice had changed along with his being, yet his way of speaking had remained terrifyingly constant.
In an attempt to divert Subaru’s mind from his pain, Puck swung his long tail to freeze and then knock down many trees.
«First, you infringed upon the contract you formed with Lia. You do not understand just how much weight a promise has to a Spirit Arts User. Do you know how badly Lia’s heart was wounded by you thoughtlessly breaking that promise? …It seems you did not even attempt to learn.»
Simultaneously as he finished speaking, a needle skewered Subaru’s left leg.
Penetrating through his foot, the icicle protruded from his knee. Furthermore, on top of the current state of Subaru’s body, the icicle stirred his muscle fibers and nerves, and his pink flesh burst through his skin and rushed out of him.
――Pain, ruled his brain.
He didn’t want to see, he didn’t want to hear, he didn’t want to understand, and he didn’t want to know. Hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtsrtsrtsrtsrtsrtsrtsrtsrts.
«Second, you ignored Lia’s request and returned. If you hadn’t come, the Witch Cult would have likely waited a while longer, and they would have likely waited until after the fog left. If that had happened, we would have probably been able to deal with them ourselves.»
Just like those clothed in black, Subaru was made to be sprawled out by the icicles, with his hands above his head. However, he differed from them as if you took a cross section of where the icicle was, you would see that an icicle had entered through the back of his hand and moved towards his elbow――from his wrist to his upper arm and everything between, his flesh, bone, veins, and nerves were all torn apart, letting air flood into them.
«And third, you let Lia die.»
All of his wounds simultaneously froze, and Subaru’s soul let out a rasp as it was suddenly shaved away by the pain.
His nerves felt like they had been soaked in magma as the bright red pain suddenly overtook them, and Subaru even forgot how to breathe as his lungs and throat convulsed in a desire for oxygen.
After a little while of wheezing, he finally learned the secret behind how to breathe.
With his lungs swelling, and with oxygen diffusing through his entire body and his brain, he finally began to regain consciousness.
The pain and despair, the pain that was worse than «Death» had been all that he could think about up until then, but now that kind of thinking had left his mind.
«Pain» and «Death» and «Fear», human beings tried their best to entirely avoid those things, and even a weak person like Natsuki Subaru could muster the power to push them aside.
Within the world where the tears that floated up to the corner of his eyes instantly froze, Subaru understood that his arms and legs were already past the point of no return.
His wounds had already frozen over and fused with the ground, so he had to be very careful to not accidentally move his shoulders or thighs more than necessary.
As a matter of fact, he saw that his hands and feet had fused together too, leading to him figuring he looked like a kind of daruma doll.
«――In accordance with my contract, I will now destroy this country.»
Subaru’s slow consciousness began to understand that Puck was telling him he was going to die.
It was the first time since he had appeared here that he had shown anger, that clear anger was different from the emotional wall that had been present a moment ago.
«In order to deliver my parting gift to Lia, I will cover everything in ice and snow.»
Subaru: “...That, rea,soning.”
«That girl will be pleased by it, will she not? That I decided not to tear apart our contract. After all, the contract will not complete itself.»
Subaru began to respond, but Puck continued, “But,”
«I understand that I will probably not be able to accomplish it. Back when Lia and I lived in the forest we decided to spread that icy world everywhere――however, Reinhardt stands in my way. I do not have the power to overcome the Sword Saint.»
Speaking of the red-haired hero, Puck lamented the difference in power between them.
Subaru could not believe the meaning behind his words. Even Puck with his overwhelmingly mighty power said that he could not win against the Sword Saint.
Despite understanding that, despite knowing that he would be defeated, why was he still obstinately refusing to stop?
Subaru: “W…why?”
«――Lia, Emilia is my everything.»
Puck answered Subaru’s doubts.
Pressing his nose into the ground in order to hide his large face from Subaru’s field of vision, Puck’s voice somehow seemed lonely.
«That girl exists within this world, that is my reason. And so, in order to vent my anger, I will make the world vanish. ――The death of my everything, of that girl, will bring the end of everything.»
Shaking his head, it seemed that Puck had finished speaking, and the strength of the wind increased.
The wind increased the severity of the cold. Piercing his skin, his eyelids froze, and even the blood within his body began to freeze. ――The end, was near.
«If I cause you to slowly, gradually freeze from the tips of your hands and feet, I wonder when you’ll die. Isn’t it interesting, Subaru?»
Subaru: “――――”
«I’ll take your silence as a yes. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on you and find the answer.»
Slowly, slowly, his body was eaten away by the freezing.
His arms and legs were already frozen, and so his shoulders and the tops of his thighs began to freeze, and he began to feel that his four limbs were equally destroyed; accompanying that sensation, was a sharp pain.
«――The fog is coming. It seems that before he died that troublesome guy called for it, huh.»
The pain was maddening, he wanted it to smash his sanity already.
He wanted it to tear his mind apart, smash it, and dismantle it. Otherwise,
«Gluttony… Ah, now it's usually called the White Whale, right? Lia already lost her life, and now that thing has been called to take mine… Really, it can’t be helped, you.»
He could not hear it. He heard someone’s voice in the distance, but only his eternally resounding screams were clear to him.
Gradually, even those screams disappeared, and the sound of laughter, loud, roaring laughter was audible.
Kekekeke, kekekeke.
He remembered hearing that laughter before. It was from the man he hated to death.
Where was it coming from? He felt that he had to find it by any means necessary, his consciousness wanted to find the source of that laughter and became jumbled.
And then, he noticed it.
Kekekeke, that laughter that he could not stand, was coming from his own mouth.
Rather than pain or the like, pleasure began to rule his brain.
Insanity broadened its horizons, and pleasure cut its way into the scenery of his mind.
The loud laughter did not stop.
It was his own scornful laughter.
He had let Rem die, he had killed Emilia, and he had even wasted his own life.
Aah, he really hadn’t done anything at all, huh?
«――You are slothful, Subaru.»
With a snapping sound, his consciousness broke.
Surely, now that it had broken, both his consciousness and his life would cease to exist.
――Even more so, continuously, somehow, everything that he had managed to tie down broke with a snap.
With a snapping sound, it broke.