—A golden tiger crouches low, its sharp gaze sweeping the surroundings.
The great tiger measures roughly four meters in length. For a quadruped, its physique exceeds by a full size class the lions and tigers and other beasts of prey that Subaru knows.
Thick forelimbs, thick hind legs; from its closed maw, fangs extend that refuse to fit inside the mouth, their tips stained wet and red with blood, swaying side to side as though showing them off.
"That… is…"
Before the dazed question can even leave his lips, the dragon carriage is launched into the air and crashes back to earth. The sound of destruction rings out, wood splinters fly, and screams echo through the trees.
The passengers swallowed by the impact are hurled to the ground—those still conscious groan in agony. Those who have lost consciousness lie still beside the pools of blood spilling from their bodies.
—Instinctively, Subaru's brain thinks: I have to help the wounded.
But before he can act on that thought, a violent lurch swings him sideways.
"Wa—! Hey, Patrasche!?"
He calls out to her, but she shows no more sign of listening to his will than she has the entire way here.
Leaving behind the other dumbfounded dragon carriage passengers and Otto, Patrasche surges forward, picking up speed. But— "———!!"
A roar tears through the forest, splitting trees apart as the beast charges after them from behind.
A torrent of fury and bestial hostility punches through the path, and even Patrasche's instinct to flee is, in the end, pinned in place.
The sensation of being targeted by a presence powerful enough to threaten your life. Having felt that sensation countless times before, Subaru's spine goes rigid with dread and terror. It is precisely because Subaru knows that feeling so intimately that he cannot bring himself to blame Patrasche for freezing up at this critical moment. He cannot blame her—but the result is plain enough.
"A—"
Turning to look, Subaru catches sight of the source of that terror, and what he sees is nothing less than barbaric violence.
A foreleg sweeps through the air like a casual backhand, flipping the dragon carriage over as easily as a toy box, scattering its contents as it slams into a stand of trees. If you were to take the sound of snapping chopsticks and multiply its thickness a hundredfold, you'd get the sound that wood and human bone make as they shatter together.
Faced with a literal monster, everyone present understands that doing nothing means death—and yet no one can move.
They fear that by moving, they will provoke the great beast and draw its claws, its fangs, its spearpoint toward themselves.
Even though they know instinctively that it only changes the order.
"Could that be… the reason the
Trembling atop the dragon, teeth chattering, Subaru forces the beast into the焦点 of his single eye with desperate resolve.
The golden fur is beautiful, and the expression, though savage, carries a wild, almost gallant dignity. The eyes, too sharp for comfort, blaze with hostility and rage, and the fangs he clacks together are beyond compare to any blade. —If this is truly what has been assaulting the Sanctuary…
"Huh?"
Subaru, straining not to miss a single gesture or movement of the creature, notices something odd about the way the tiger walks. He narrows his single eye to trace the source of that incongruity, and realizes what's causing it.
—There is something embedded in the great tiger's back, just left of center.
Given the creature's size and seemingly inexhaustible stamina, the wound is negligible. The way it walks shows not the slightest sign of awareness of the injury—he would take it for a scratch, if anything.
But to Subaru, it carries enormous meaning. Not the wound itself, but the object that caused it. He recognizes it.
—That is
It was the small staff Ram used to chant her spells. At the very least, Subaru had never seen her cast magic through any other medium. She'd had it just moments ago during the confrontation with Garfiel—there was no mistaking it.
So why was it embedded in the great tiger's body? The answer— "Ancestral… regression…"
A scene from some passing day flickers through Subaru's mind.
The day Garfiel had told Subaru about the origins of his birth and shown him the peculiarity of his body. Back then, he had transformed only a part of himself—his arm alone—into a beast's to demonstrate that he was half-human, half-beastman.
"…If he's a weretiger…"
Then this beast is Garfiel with his entire body transformed.
If that's the case, then Ram's staff—which she'd stayed behind to buy time and hold Garfiel off—being embedded in this tiger's body makes sense. But that, paradoxically, also means something else.
—that Ram had failed to hold back Garfiel after losing her staff.
"Garfiel, you bastard… what did you do to Ram?"
"————"
"Answer me! What did you do to Ram?! Garfiel!!"
The beast merely grimaces at Subaru's shouting, offering no reply.
It shakes its head in annoyance at Subaru's voice and raises and lowers its forepaws, displaying its claws. Caught on the tip of one claw is a scrap of familiar black fabric, and from that alone, Subaru understands the fate of the pink-haired girl.
"Garfielaaaaa!!"
Roaring with rage, Subaru releases the reins and leaps from Patrasche's back. He botches the landing and tumbles clumsily, rolling onto all fours to glare ahead.
One human and one beast, both on all fours, facing each other across a widening gap. The difference in combat strength is self-evident. There is no chance of winning, and probably no room for communication.
"You hate me that much, huh…"
"————"
"You despise me that much…"
"————"
"If you want to kill someone that badly, then just aim for me!!"
"————!!"
In answer to Subaru's scream of fury, the beast throws back its head and howls at the sky.
The atmosphere trembles. The forest shudders in fear, leaves shaking. Every living thing freezes and terror spreads outward. But Subaru shrugs it off and bares his teeth.
"Raising your hand against the woman I love—some Sanctuary fang my ass!!"
"————!"
In the next instant, the great tiger surges forward in response to Subaru's abuse.
The dragon carriage wreckage between Subaru and the beast is blasted aside with terrifying force. Wood splinters and fresh blood spray through the air as the golden beast charges through.
Speed is overwhelming. Mass is enormous. A direct hit would rival a large truck collision—death would come instantly, with no time to even draw breath.
"Death" looms before his eyes. Feeling the unavoidable closing in, Subaru's brain begins spinning faster than it ever has. Brain cells burn out. Fury connects to every nerve. Emotions explode.
Something dark stirs in his chest, surging through his bloodstream. Hot, black, murky, pale, turbid, hollow, formless, abominable—something he can seize.
His single eye snaps wide open, and Subaru feels the sensation of grabbing hold of something inside himself.
He looks ahead. The beast's fangs are close enough that he can almost feel their breath. The gaping maw—the entrance to death itself, deep enough to see the dark-red gullet—looms before him, and Subaru's body responds beyond its limits. His arm rises, thrusting itself between the fangs and his chest— "———!?"
In that instant, a gust of wind erupts, and the great beast's body vanishes from Subaru's field of vision.
No—not vanished. The great tiger's body is sent spinning through the air, head-over-tail in a half-rotation, then slams back-down into the earth. It lets out a howl of pain and confusion, and that massive body bounces, tearing through the ground.
"What…!?"
Subaru spins around, his eyes refusing to believe the sight of the great tiger tumbling end over end. He had been half-certain, just a moment ago, that his life was over.
The same shock reaches the beast. It lies on its side, wearing an expression that suggests it has no idea what just happened, shakes its head to right itself, and collapses again as its inner ear fails to keep up.
Both sides pant in mutual incomprehension. But while Subaru's upper body sags from sudden exhaustion, the great tiger shakes off its irritation and lurches back to its feet.
After a single exchange, it is painfully obvious who holds the advantage. Subaru still doesn't understand what just happened—but— "If I managed to bait it in, that pretty much confirms it's Garfiel."
He commands his trembling arms to push him upright and bites through the corner of his lip to stay conscious. Ahead, the great beast sways its body slowly from side to side, guarding against Subaru's next move. It must be trying to work out the inexplicable phenomenon from the last exchange.
Even if someone told him to do it again, he couldn't. That strange sensation is beyond his comprehension.
He can't even feel confident that he landed a blow.
The beast's wariness is almost comical, but Subaru has lost the grounds to even mock it—he is nothing but a clown himself.
The great beast inches closer, seemingly half-doubting that Subaru will act again, but suddenly it stops. Then— "———!!"
"A—"
A roar.
A wall of wind blasts Subaru's face, and he flinches, cowering. And in the gap created by that moment of paralysis, a footstep rings out.
The ground cracks. The beast's body tears through the air, lunging at Subaru.
Weight. Claws. Neither can be avoided. This time, that strange sensation does not rise from his fingertips to save him. It's over. The end is close. And then— "———!!"
"———?!"
Patrasche slams into the beast from the side, driving her head into its torso. A pain-filled cry rises. The great tiger folds into a V-shape, agonizing. Patrasche whips her tail, smacking the tiger across the face and blinding it.
She immediately wheels around, scoops up the slumped Subaru, and tries to carry him to safety on the wind— "Patra—"
The call is cut short by the sound of flesh tearing.
Patrasche had seized Subaru by the waist in her mouth, but she is instantly swung through the air and thrown to the ground. Looking up, Subaru sees that Patrasche's tail, the one she'd used to try to pull him free, has been caught in the beast's jaws. Her body—well over four hundred kilograms—is thrashed about like paper.
Patrasche's anguished cry. The moment her tail is ripped from its base—flesh splitting, blood spraying—a jet of bright crimson drenches Subaru's entire left side.
Patrasche tumbles away, powerless. Watching her broken form, Subaru forces air through ragged lungs and glares at the approaching tiger.
Filling his single eye with hatred, Subaru fixes his gaze on the one who might have been called a friend—perhaps even a brother—and growls: "Grrr… fiieeerrrrrrr…"
With nothing but undying malice behind it, he speaks the name.
There is no answer. Perhaps the beast has lost the vocal organs of a human. The great tiger extends its massive forepaw toward Subaru, and its throat does not bother translating hostility or killing intent into words.
It simply demonstrates those things through action.
—Will my neck be broken? Or will my skull be crushed?
Whatever the pain, whatever the manner of it, he will swallow "death" whole.
He will swallow everything, make it fuel, and use it as the reason to carve out the correct future.
"You think there's a place for you in that future…?"
Slowly watching the claws close in, Subaru speaks his last words of resentment.
And then he closes his left eye, shutting out the light.
The only regret is Patrasche's devotion—and his failure to save her in return— "———?"
Subaru braces for the end that should be coming—but it doesn't. Frowning in confusion, he feels an irritated flicker of frustration that "death" has somehow missed its timing. And then, slowly opening his left eye— "Huh?"
Right before him—where the claws that were about to tear him apart should be—is the face of the beast that owns them. The reason Subaru's throat lets out a stupid noise is that the beast's face—this face that had been staring at Subaru drenched in killing intent—is now fixed on something to the side.
The great beast has redirected its gaze away from Subaru, toward the left. Subaru's eyes follow involuntarily, and he sees something fly in from that direction and strike the beast's body, sending it rolling across the ground. —A stone.
A perfectly ordinary stone, the kind that could sit in the palm of your hand. Tracing its arc back, Subaru's gaze arrives at a figure standing at the forest's edge.
Short hair, gaunt cheeks, lanky limbs. Nothing particularly notable about the person, but Subaru knows him.
One of the villagers of Arlam. A member of the village youth brigade. One of the refugees who evacuated to the Sanctuary. A passenger who had been riding in the toppled dragon carriage. And a man who is now bleeding from his forehead and swaying on his feet.
The man slowly bends down, picks up a nearby stone, and with a feeble motion hurls it at the beast. It hits. The force is virtually nonexistent. But— "St— stay away from Lord Subaru. You monster…!"
He squeezes out the words, groaning with pain, yet his posture makes his intent clear.
The moment his words land, a tremor runs through Subaru's entire body. Words fail him, his voice lost. He watches on.
"————"
From all around, stones, planks, branches, shoes—one after another, they are hurled at the beast.
They are the clumsy, weak, heartbreakingly futile resistance of people who should have been crushed by the immense pressure the great creature radiates.
"Hey…"
What are they doing? Subaru thinks dazedly.
What meaning does such an action have? Do they really think this will accomplish anything against the beast? Will the force penetrate through the fur to the flesh beneath? That's impossible. They can't so much as leave a scratch. It will only breed futile resistance.
"Stop…"
Holding their heads and running for it together would be the most correct thing. The most rational.
They should pile into an intact dragon carriage, reverse course, and escape from this place. Whether into the Sanctuary or through the forest—it doesn't matter. They should act in whichever direction offers even a sliver of survival. And yet, why are they— "What are you all doing?! Hurry up and run…!"
"Coming from you, Lord Subaru, that hardly carries any weight!"
Subaru raises his arm, trying to convey his will, but the words are cut off.
The voice belongs to an older man, who swings a branch-like arm with all his might, spinning the stick vertically as he smashes it into the beast's snout. Panting, he turns to look at Subaru and says: "Abandoning the man who saved us and running to save our own skins—how could we ever face our sons and daughters after that? Besides, you came all this way to protect us, didn't you?"
"That's… but…"
"If you die here, we die here too. When we decided to leave the Sanctuary, we all sat down and agreed on that as the bare minimum condition."
Subaru's face goes rigid with shock.
At his expression, for some reason the man manages a gentle smile. It is absurdly out of place—a smile from a sunlit world, as though he has forgotten the threat standing right before them.
The attack resumes. Everyone hurls stones at the beast—at Garfiel—all at once. As before, the force behind them does not even give him pause, let alone pain.
The great beast heaves its massive body upward. Garfiel begins to move. Ignoring Subaru, who is right in range to be torn apart, he turns toward the forest side—toward the injured young man who had been the first to throw.
"————"
Beast and young man face each other. Before the overwhelming pressure, the young man loses his voice—but he does not stop. He draws a short sword from his waist— "Take this—!"
He drives the blade forward with his whole body, and the point sinks into the space between Garfiel's brows—immediately, a sharp crack rings out and the blade snaps in half.
What extraordinary resilience must the golden fur possess that a crudely forged blade cannot penetrate.
And then, against the young man who managed this last act of defiance, the raised foreleg comes sweeping down— "Stop—!!"
Subaru's scream. Even that is nothing but empty sound before what follows.
The sound of flesh being crushed. The young man's lean body is driven from head to foot by the force, reduced to a mass of meat. Blood gushes between Garfiel's fingers like a fountain, and where the foreleg lands, only a dark-red whirlpool of flesh remains.
"————"
This time, a throat does erupt with a howl of rage.
Emitting that shriek, Subaru claws the ground and hauls himself up, hurling himself at the beast's back. But a light flick of the hind leg catches him in the torso, and he convulses. A tail whips into him on the follow-through, and Subaru's body flies through the air like a rubber ball, slamming back-first into a massive tree—his entire body creaks, and he hears the sound of bones shattering.
"Gah—aa—!?"
He writhes on the ground, spewing blood and a chunk of something from his throat. His body won't obey him. His right arm hangs at an unnatural angle from his shoulder. His spine, too, is no longer in a proper shape after that last hit. Weak. Fragile. Unable to change a single thing.
"————!!"
"Aaaaa—!!"
The beast roars. Leaping, it swings fangs and claws at the refugees standing nearby. Blood sprays. Screams ring out. Even without seeing it directly, Subaru can feel lives being snuffed out.
Someone's scream. A beast-like howl. Beastlike—but still a human voice. Confusion floods the beast. Whose voice is it? What cry? Subaru's brain, dealing with the deep error festering inside him, cannot tell.
"—Tsuki-san! Stay alive!"
A voice calling a name. Someone he knows—but the path to his brain to identify whose voice it is is blocked by pain. Thoughts flicker. The world blurs. His emotions become vague. Dream and reality blur together, and hatred and agony scatter them all.
This is no time for lying around. He has to stand. Stand up, stand, and if you're going to die, you die before anyone else.
"Don't… any of you… die…! Dying is… more than enough if it's just me…!"
He squeezes blood and a groan from his throat and forces his body upright. His right arm is useless, so he strains to move only the left. His single remaining eye is veiled by a red curtain, and he feels blood running from a split in his forehead. He roughly wipes it away with his shoulder, clenches his teeth so hard his molars could crack, and lifts his face.
"————"
The carnage spreads with every passing moment.
Every time the beast swings an arm, a person goes flying, blood sprays, and the fire of life is snuffed out.
Every one of them fights bravely, with the resolve to die, driving futile resistance into the beast. The only thing that soils the golden fur is the blood that splashes back. Their deaths mean nothing.
They stand against it, and they are blown away. Nothing. It means nothing.
The only one who can give meaning to those "deaths" is Subaru.
"Stop it, stop it, stop stop stop stop… please, stop…!"
If someone must die, then kill him first.
From the beginning, the target was always him. There is no reason whatsoever for these brave, kind-hearted people to be hurt and killed.
Or was it his own stupidity that invited this outcome—the loss of their lives? If so, that's far too— "—Ugh!"
Subaru's body, teeth clenched and face about to bow, is lifted.
The one who drags him upright from behind, covered in an extraordinary amount of blood from head to toe, is Patrasche. Battered half to death by Garfiel's assault, she had somehow crawled her way here.
Seeing her wretched condition, Subaru cannot hold back the thing welling up behind his eyes, and tears stream down his face.
"That's enough… it's enough. It's okay now, Patrasche…"
He calls to her, reaching out to touch her blood-caked jaw. But she shakes her head at his words, as if to say it is not okay. And then, without allowing Subaru a single moment of resistance, she pushes her head under his stomach and in one motion heaves him onto her back.
Subaru gasps in surprise. With him still on top, Patrasche breaks into a run. Her steps are powerful—enough to make you wonder where she found that strength.
Perhaps it is, quite literally, the last of everything she has left.
"————"
But even spending her remaining life force, even giving everything, her speed falls far short of full. And the distance from the beast's jaws remains just as far.
The fangs sink into Patrasche's hind leg. Her throat releases an anguished shriek. Subaru is nearly thrown off again—suspended in the air, he braces to be slammed to the ground, but instead Patrasche's jaw reaches up and catches him.
She wrenches her neck with everything she has left and, pouring every last drop of her strength into it, flings Subaru's body into the depths of the forest.
"————!"
In that instant, Subaru understands. That was Patrasche—doing whatever fraction she could to put distance between him and the lethal threat.
At the same time, he realizes. The reason she had split from Ram, cut through the forest on a shortcut, and sought out the group of refugees.
—Patrasche had sensed this beast's presence.
Knowing it was there, she had fled to this place—where other prey existed in numbers—to raise Subaru's survival odds even slightly. Everything, all of it, was to protect him.
Subaru's body hits the ground. Once. Twice. A bounce. And after a third bounce, just as a groan escapes him—a sensation of floating seizes his body.
"A—"
A steep slope has opened up in the mountainside, and Subaru's body tumbles down it at speed. Without even the breath to scream, skin scraped raw by gravel and branches again and again, he bounces, and bounces, and bounces— "————"
As he slides downward, his spinning vision barely catches something above him.
And he sees a sight he did not want to see.
"————Patrasche."
Caught in the great tiger's jaws, Patrasche's torso is crushed by their terrifying force, torn by fangs, pierced—and in a massive eruption of blood, she is split cleanly in two.
The loyal dragon cannot even manage a death cry. She serves Subaru until the very end, and dies.
"————"
His throat burns. His throat splits. Fury boils his blood, and he feels it ignite.
He bounces, rolls, slides, falls, is scraped raw—Subaru keeps going down.
—A hard bounce. Another sensation of floating.
The impact of being slammed down swallows his consciousness.
His body still won't stop. And yet his consciousness has already separated from his flesh— —Only the voice of undying resentment kept swirling in his chest.