A premonition of searing pain racing upward.
It was an unpleasant sensation, but ever since he'd come to this world, his life had been nothing if not punctuated by injuries at the very edge of death. That sensation was telling him: these next few seconds would decide everything.
Petra's scream echoed down the narrow corridor, her hand reaching toward the two stakes driven into Subaru's left flank as though to pull them out. He knew that the moment she touched them, it would begin. So before she could reach him, Subaru spun his thoughts at a dizzying speed.
Two stakes—not a fatal wound. A few more seconds before the pain hit. Petra was frozen, unable to move. Where had the attack come from? Hands still on the opened door. High-pitched screams reverberating. And through it all, a voice slick with killing intent seeping into his eardrums.
It was Elsa.
In the pitch-black darkness before him, he could sense a shape squirming. It was Elsa, crouching low in a crawling posture, about to lunge straight at him.
The attack aimed at his waist had been thrown from the far end of the corridor. With a control so precise it was nauseating—a single unbroken arc targeting his abdomen. Honestly, he wanted to give her a round of applause.
Idiotic thinking. Lax reasoning. Why was Elsa here now? Where had the grace period she should have had gone? Why was she lurking in a hidden passage that no one should have known about? How did she know? All of it could wait. Questioning could come second—he had to burn every brain cell for the sole purpose of surviving this very moment!
"—SHAMAC!!"
No weapons, no countermeasures, woefully unprepared in every conceivable way.
Confronted with this sudden crisis, the only thing Subaru could do—the one act he had silently resolved to take the moment he encountered Elsa without a shred of hesitation—was this.
In response to Subaru's cry, his incomplete gate restored the mana within his body to a state approximating incantation. His right hand, thrust forward, erupted in black smoke—darkness swallowed the corridor.
A pitch-black that was even more saturated than the shadows of light devoured the narrow space, instantly interposing itself between the threat bearing down on them and Subaru and the others. The smoke itself had no hindering effect on movement. If one pressed through, it would offer no resistance—a fragile haze one could pass right through. But— "Wall of ignorance—cross it if you can—gaaaah!!"
Right as he tried to shout that out, the agonizing pain that had been deferred came crashing back upon him. Starting from his left flank, a searing heat raced through his entire body; his brain and lower abdomen felt as though a red-hot iron had been driven into them, and a scream tore itself loose. On top of that, the cost of his incomplete incantation—mana being wrung from his body in excess of what was needed—left him with a fatigue and lethargy as though he were drying out, his knees buckling beneath him.
What kept him from collapsing right then and there was— "Subaru—!"
A small, soft sensation gripping his failing hand. He looked down to see Petra, her face on the verge of tears, worried about him, her long lashes trembling.
In her eyes were terror at being unable to comprehend the situation, rejection of the irrational threat looming before her. But more than either of those, what shone through most intensely was her concern for Subaru's safety.
The instant he caught sight of that, the mind-shredding agony and the soul-peeling sense of loss were forgotten for a single heartbeat. In the time that effect held, he squeezed her hand back and— "Either way—upward!!"
Since he couldn't advance forward, the only escape was to retrace their steps the way they'd come. As for Shamac's duration, even Subaru didn't know. After using it several times his body had grown somewhat accustomed to it; the only result so far was that he hadn't drained himself of mana to the point of fainting.
Anyway, he couldn't let this chance—where the black smoke was blocking the path—slip away— "Guh—gah!?"
The instant he pushed off to dash forward, a sharp something tore into his flesh once more.
When he directed his gaze toward the source of pain, he saw a total of four stakes driven into the area spanning from his right shoulder to the back of his neck. Fortunately, they hadn't gone in deep, but the pain of multiple stakes as thick as his little finger being twisted into him became even worse once he actually saw them.
"He can see through it…!?"
For a split second he thought Elsa was seeing through the black smoke of Shamac, but he immediately realized that wasn't the case. And Subaru understood intuitively what Elsa had done on the other side of the smoke.
Deciding the black smoke was some kind of threat and too dangerous to enter, Elsa had simply launched a blind barrage of thrown projectiles through the haze toward them.
The corridor was narrow—only wide enough for Subaru and two others standing abreast. With control precise enough to hit dead center down the corridor's length, any fleeing back would almost certainly be struck.
The instant he realized this, Subaru yanked his arm back and pulled Petra into his chest. "Hii—!" Petra cried out. In the narrow gap where her body had just been, a piece of the same iron stake Subaru had been pierced with went whistling past.
If the aim had been any truer, it would have been a straight line through Petra's head.
"This is… the worst!!"
Spitting out blood-flecked saliva, Subaru shook his head and sprinted down the corridor toward the mansion, dragging Petra by the arm and forcing the lagging girl forward.
His vision flickered with pain—a world blinking between red and black. In the dim corridor, a faint bluish glow hovered. Red and black flickered through it in交替, and before long the world was no longer distinguishable.
In the span of that single, fleeting exchange, Subaru had burned through every last ounce of his willpower and physical strength.
Even if he made it back to the mansion, it was unlikely that a solution would come to mind immediately. Still, clinging to whatever hope lay before him, Subaru clenched his teeth until they cracked and kept running.
For one instant, a chill raced up the nape of his neck—perhaps a deathbed intuition that only someone who had touched "death" as many times as Subaru could perceive.
"————!"
Yielding to that dread sensation, he tilted his head back, and in his dark eyes he saw the trajectory of death.
A blade approaching through the wind—no, that phrasing was far too gentle. This was a blade killing the air as it came. The single worst curved blade in Elsa's arsenal, her kukri knife, its full weight brought to bear as it hurtled toward their backs at tremendous speed, spinning in a vertical rotation.
A speed impossible to react to. A lethality out of the question to contest.
Yet in the face of all that, the fact that Subaru's arm shot out in that moment could only be called a miracle born of pure reflex.
His fingertips stretched out as though to catch the blade's tip, and he managed to clamp the end of the curved knife between the index and middle fingers of his right hand—without so much as slowing its speed or reducing its force, Subaru's right middle finger, ring finger, and pinky were blown apart in different directions.
The knife continued onward, slicing vertically through his arm, cleaving cleanly from wrist to elbow. The impact drove his ruined arm outward, slamming the outer side against the wall. A mist of blood erupted, painting the corridor and Subaru's body in red speckles. A roar. A scream. A sound as though his throat had been crushed, burned, and torn apart.
His vision went entirely red. The force of his clenching was so violent that his back teeth shattered. He raised his severed arm. Red. Just red. He glimpsed something white. It was red again immediately. He no longer felt it was part of himself. Just a useless appendage that did nothing but broadcast pain.
Tear it off. Make it disappear. An organ that only knows pain—useless. Unnecessary. Be gone. Fly away. Tear off. Drop dead. Die, die, die—a sensation.
A sensation of his hand being held. On the opposite side from the organ that felt nothing but pain, there was still warmth. The instant he felt it, the screaming cut off. His throat had already been destroyed. The nerves capable of perceiving pain had exceeded their capacity and snapped. He had forgotten the pain. But he had not forgotten the warmth.
He pulled his arm, stepped forward, and shook his ruined throat as he broke into a run down the corridor, drenching everything in blood. Heavy—his legs. Heavy—his arm. Was he pulling, or being pulled? He couldn't even tell anymore. He didn't know. He didn't know. He didn't want to know.
The corridor ended. He was back at the staircase. If he climbed the spiral stairs, he'd reach the mansion. But once he reached the mansion, then what? Who— who would— who could— ask for help—
He couldn't end. It wasn't over yet. It couldn't end like this.
He hadn't seen anything yet. Hadn't found anything. Hadn't grasped anything, hadn't seized anything. So how could he possibly throw everything away here?
He looked up. The top of the spiral staircase was far away. His legs tangled beneath him. His tongue went numb. Blood dripped from his arm—his life spilling away. Worn down, diminished, he hauled upward the warmth of his left hand. And then— "—Baru-sama!!"
A bestial cry. And from midair, the sound of a heavy weight striking. In front of Subaru on the stairs, he saw a broad, massive back. An apron-dress of black, the most precious shade, billowing through the haze. Long golden hair swayed in the cold wind as the body that had landed in a crouch rose to its feet.
She turned toward him—a stern face, the one he knew so well, with worry flickering through it.
"Freeda…"
"Don't talk! Your injuries—how could they be this terrible—"
The moment he perceived her presence and tried to call her name, Frederica saw Subaru's wounds and her face went deathly pale. She looked with anguished eyes at his right arm, which had lost most of its shape, then at the blood staining half his body, and after that— "Ah…"
She let out a breath so small it was nearly inaudible. Subaru's state must have been that devastating. Subaru himself, meanwhile, was fast becoming unable to feel his pain as pain, owing to the flood of endorphins surging through his brain. His breathing was ragged, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth without cease. He spat out the blood that bubbled up in his mouth and tried to form words for Frederica— "Ahh—gah—!!"
"—!!"
From beyond the darkness, another slash from the kukri knife hurtled toward them.
A blade pregnant with death spun toward Frederica's head. Subaru caught the flash of steel in the corner of his eye and cried out. In response, Frederica drew something from her waist and flashed it in a single arc—sparks scattered through the corridor's darkness with a piercing shriek as the curved blade was deflected. The one who had accomplished this was— "An intruder, it would seem."
Frederica spoke as she crossed her arms—on the tips of both hands she wore gauntlets fitted with hooked claws. That practiced, confident stance made it clear this was prey she was thoroughly familiar with.
In a sense, the weapon was almost too fitting for her—a brutally utilitarian armament. With both arms she cut through the air in a frontal guard, then turned toward Subaru behind her— "To the mansion. Once you've reached the top, give the signal. I'll withdraw as well."
"Bu—t—"
"With those injuries, you'd only be a hindrance no matter what. —Please, take care of Petra."
Those final, pleading words from Frederica were what shoved Subaru's back forward. He swallowed the words he'd been about to say, pulled Petra's small body close against him, and decided that carrying her would be faster than dragging her by the arm. Petra offered no resistance as she was gathered into his arms, and Subaru retreated, placing his feet on the stairs— "Don't… die…"
"Of course not. —We're only halfway there, after all."
Limping, dragging himself forward even as every fiber of his being wanted to turn back, Subaru climbed the spiral staircase toward the upper floor. Halfway up, spiraling with the stairs, the clash of blade against blade rang up from below. In the confines of the narrow space, even Elsa's mobility was neutralized, and in a head-on fight it came down to a contest of raw strength. In those conditions, Frederica stood a chance—at least, he wanted to cling to that hope.
Spitting out his shattered molars, Subaru cursed his own sluggish, spinning feet. Faster, sharper—every second Subaru spent conquering the staircase was a second shaved from Frederica's life. Faster, faster—to the upper floor, to the upper floor, to the upper floor— "I— made it—!!"
He crested the top, knees hitting the carpet as he gasped for air. Then, still in that crumbled posture, he stuck his head into the evacuation passage and shouted down toward the floor below.
"Fred—erica!! I'm—okay—!!"
If Frederica climbed the stairs and the passage was sealed behind her immediately after, Elsa could be cut off. Even as he shouted, Subaru realized this, and he rolled toward the statue that housed the mechanism. He put his hand on its head and waited for Frederica to come bursting out. But— "—!"
What struck Subaru's ears was an overwhelming impact, accompanied by the colossal roar of collapse. Falling building materials shattered against one another, billowing clouds of dust erupting as violent tremors shook the mansion.
What the hell, Subaru thought, pulling away from the statue and plunging back into the passage. Peering inside, he saw that the spiral staircase he had just climbed moments ago had been reduced to nothing—utterly destroyed.
"This… can't…"
This wasn't some shoddy construction catching up with them. For an unexpected collapse, the passage itself was far too cleanly destroyed, without a scratch on the corridor walls. From the very beginning, the staircase had been designed with a mechanism to detach itself entirely.
Whether it was to prevent pursuit after using it for evacuation, or as a countermeasure against it being exploited as an infiltration route—as it had been now—he couldn't say. All he knew was this: There was no way Frederica could come back up now.
The possibility of Elsa ascending to the upper floor had also been eliminated, but conversely, Frederica's survival now seemed virtually hopeless. Perhaps if she held the advantage in raw combat strength, she could circle around the mountain and return in triumph—but Subaru's body knew just how slim that possibility was.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, the injuries he'd forgotten about throbbed back to life, and Subaru coughed up a blood clot. The stakes lodged in his shoulder, neck, and waist began festering into his flesh. He tried to pull them out, but his fingers slipped, and the terror of massive hemorrhaging left his trembling fingers unable to even touch them.
"There's no time to—stand here—stupid, I—"
He couldn't stop his feet. He couldn't afford to stop thinking. Whether Frederica's survival was hopeless or not was still something that could be changed depending on what Subaru did.
Enduring the pain in his wounds, he slid to his knees and pushed himself to his feet, about to act. Then he suddenly remembered Petra—the girl who should have been in his arms. He'd sprinted back to the office, but where was she, who had been right there with him— "Petra…?"
Swinging his head around, Subaru spotted Petra across the room, near the statue. The girl had collapsed sideways—it seemed he had lost his grip on her during the chaos.
The limp girl was unresponsive—no reaction to his calls. At the absolute peak of fear and exhaustion, she may simply have been unable to remain conscious.
Worried as he was for Frederica, he had to protect Petra—both for her own sake and to honor Frederica's words. He forced his trembling knees upright and staggered toward the fallen girl. And as he reached down to lift her— —from the back of the girl's neck to the crown of her skull, he saw a curved blade driven in.
Blood was pouring from the wound, and a portion of her brain was spilling from her shattered skull. Her chestnut-colored, soft hair was heavily saturated with crimson, and her soft, warm palm would never move again.
He raised his right hand. A wretched lump of flesh missing three fingers and half an arm. The very blade he had tried to stop by extending this arm was the one that had struck Petra. He had offered up all of this, and he hadn't been able to protect a single thing.
"————Aaaargh!!"
His ruined throat let out a blood-soaked scream.
* * * * * * * * * * Staggering across the mansion's carpet, Subaru made his way toward the western wing with a ghost-like expression on his face. In his arms he carried Petra's body, draped with a white sheet to hide her dead features from anyone's view.
Her death mask, frozen in an expression of surprise, was proof at least of one mercy: she had died instantly. For her to have endured the same pain Subaru had and then lost her life on top of it—that would have been far too cruel. She could not be saved. Salvation had never existed anywhere.
Hadn't he come back here wanting to save everyone in this mansion? Hadn't he resolved in his heart to do everything in his power to at least be of some help?
He had dragged Petra into this spiral of death once again. This was the third time Subaru had witnessed Petra's death—and every single time, it was an ending that would never have happened if Subaru had just done something differently.
The previous time, it had been the
Subaru could have opposed it. When Frederica decided to take Petra on as a maid-in-training, he could have refused.
He had known that by being near Emilia—by having her near him—Petra would be exposed to danger.
"If only… if only…"
There was no end to "if only" and "what if" after the game was over. Subaru knew that. And yet, even knowing, he couldn't stop thinking it—that was his weakness.
As his spirit broke, his dragging steps grew heavier. The trail of blood that hadn't stopped flowing carved dark red stains into the carpet, and every step he took felt like a rasp grinding against his nerves.
One step, then another. The sound of body and mind wearing away. Pain. Even that, now, felt like a kind of salvation—as though he were being punished. If the blame lay with Subaru, then the punishment should fall on Subaru alone. If that rule held, then no matter how much pain was inflicted, it would be bearable.
So the girl in his arms, the woman who had stayed behind to give him a chance to escape, and— "Rem…"
Please let no calamity come near her as she continued to sleep.
He reached the floor of the western wing where the servants' quarters were lined up. Taking the shortest route from the top floor where the office had been, he still felt it had taken an immense amount of effort to get here with his injuries. At the far end of the corridor on the opposite side of the staircase was his destination.
What would happen when he reached it, he wasn't thinking about at all. Reaching it was the only goal. Touching the person who was supposed to be there was the only goal. He no longer had the will to live.
Too much blood had flowed, and mixed with it, his resolve and determination had leaked from his body. Above all, this time he had lost far too much. With this sense of loss clinging to him, it seemed impossible to lift his head and keep walking.
So at least—if he was going to perish, let it be beside her.
Beside the only person in this world before whom Subaru could lay bare his weakness.
Trailing a trail of blood, leaning half against the wall, converting his last dregs of willpower into sheer tenacity, Subaru's body barely managed to reach the door of his destination—Rem's bedroom.
He leaned Petra against the wall and removed the sheet. He closed her eyes, tidied only the appearance of death. He touched her cheek, traced her lips with his finger, and bowed his head over her now-empty shell, grown cold.
"I'm sorry… there's nothing I can… I'm too stupid to do anything…!"
There should have been some way—but because Subaru was an idiot, he couldn't see it. Petra had paid the price for that, and his words of apology would never reach her now.
He let his tears fall onto Petra's knee, shook his head, then pulled the sheet back up over her features. Then he rose and turned around.
"—I think it's awfully cruel to just leave me behind, you know."
At the far end of the hallway, stepping off the very staircase Subaru had just descended, a raven-haired beauty tilted her head toward him. She toyed with the tip of her long, braided black hair with one hand, and in the other she dangled a kukri knife wet with blood.
A black bodysuit beneath a black mantle. An all-black ensemble from top to bottom, no different from the last time he'd seen her in the royal capital. She had fought Frederica, yet there was no trace of it anywhere on her. Not in terms of injury, nor in terms of fatigue.
The reason she was here—that alone was proof enough of what had become of Frederica.
The realization that yet another person stood beyond the reach of his apologies made Subaru tilt his head to the ceiling and curse his own helplessness with every last drop of blood he had left.
"You made it this far on wounds like those. I'm genuinely impressed."
"You can… put it on my tab… I'll settle it with your life…"
"So you want my life? That's practically a declaration of love."
"I'll… crush your skull… with one stomp…"
At Elsa's absurd response, a wave of nausea rose in him, but Subaru glared at the serial killer and, leaning against the wall, somehow hoisted himself upright. As his field of vision rose and he was able to fix Elsa in his gaze, she looked up and down at his battered form from head to toe— "The scent of blood, the reek of rage, the fragrance of 'death'… oh, every last bit of you is exquisite. And if those intestines of yours happen to suit my taste, there'll be nothing left to say."
"What kind of crazy… things… are you muttering… about you psycho…"
With a flushed cheek and an expression of rapturous delight, Elsa made no effort to conceal her arousal as she gazed at Subaru with fevered eyes. Beautiful though she might be, her look was that of a lunatic—it brought Subaru nothing but dread and revulsion.
Subaru's face registered only rejection. Elsa, cheeks still flushed with color, said— "Don't get me wrong—talking with you is lovely too, but I'll be scolded if I lose sight of my objective. The half-elf girl with the spirit—is she in?"
"If you'd… made a phone call before coming… I could've saved myself the trouble. Hired a mercenary company… rolled out the red carpet… for you…"
"I don't intend to answer. In that case, I'll ask your intestines."
Her red lips parted, and a pink tongue licked sensually at the corner of her mouth. She raised the blade and ran her tongue along its flat side, savoring a droplet of blood with a blissful smile.
The smile turned low and hoarse. She raised the blade and came creeping forward in a spider's stance, lunging. Fast. Far too fast to even think about countering. But— "You'll have to… kill me… to get to her…!!"
Even as he spoke, Subaru threw open the door to Rem's bedroom.
Elsa's brow furrowed at his incomprehensible action, but that reaction alone was enough to give him a small measure of satisfaction.
Subaru had all but accepted that he wouldn't break through this loop. His wounds were deep, life was still bleeding from him, and his fate in this cycle was a candle in the wind. If that was the case, then at least—let this be the one time he struck back at Elsa. If he couldn't do anything else, that alone would be a victory.
To be swallowed up by that blade before her—it was truly the one thing he refused to go along with. Rather than fall into her hands, he would throw his life away first. And before that, the one thing he refused to let happen was for her to be defiled.
It sounded like an agonized choice, but it was a selfish double suicide at the end of the day.
But like Petra, like Frederica—rather than fall into Elsa's hands— In a world that was about to end anyway, let her at least die by Subaru's hand— "I'll follow… right after you…"
With those very steps, he would follow her. With that resolve, he burst into Rem's bedroom— "—Huh?"
—The forbidden library, lined with rows upon shelves of books, greeted Subaru as he steeled himself for the end.