——When the aurora subsided and vision returned to normal, the state of the cathedral had completely changed.
"I feel like I've said something like this before, but..."
Surveying the scene before him, Subaru let out a small breath.
He held his sleeve up to his mouth to avoid the billowing dust and scattering splinters of wood.
The cathedral had been blown wide open, and as Subaru stood bathed in the night wind pouring through, he stomped the floor hard and jabbed a finger straight ahead.
"I knew it—you're the real monster here!"
"I've said it before, but that hurts my feelings, Subaru. If you keep talking like that, even I have a heart that can be wounded."
"Now's not the time for 'a heart that can be wounded'! Get your body actually wounded! What the hell was that?!"
Confronted once again with Reinhard's absurd capabilities, Subaru clutched his head in exasperation.
Reinhard smiled wryly and turned around, and the ice sword in his right hand shattered to pieces. Even a single swing—for it to endure a blow from the Sword Saint was praiseworthy durability.
And the one who had created it,
He had snatched her away from Regulus's grip in that split-second clash.
As a result, only Regulus had been sent flying by the strike.
For an opening move, it was a satisfactory outcome—but.
"That was way too close. Are you okay?"
"——"
The person Subaru addressed with concern was the same woman Reinhard had pulled close just before the blow—a beautiful woman with golden hair. But the fact that neither her expression nor her eyes showed any trace of emotion was troubling.
Subaru figured this must have been a shocking sight to witness, and after matching gazes with the woman who had collapsed to the ground: "Sorry if I scared you. That was the only way to exploit that guy's opening. If anything hurts, let me know. I'll see what I can do."
"——"
The woman gave no response to Subaru's words whatsoever.
Though concerned about her state, Subaru couldn't afford to linger. Leaving the seated woman behind, he headed for what had once been the altar.
The cathedral, which had closely resembled the church Subaru knew, had been reduced to ruins by Reinhard's single swing.
The entire front of the building—the altar and the corridors leading to side rooms—everything lay buried in aurora light and debris. The only parts still standing were the outer edges and the rear. Fortunately, thanks to Emilia's ice wall, the seats where the women had been were unharmed.
Subaru then rushed over to where Emilia and Reinhard stood among the remnants of the collapsed altar. Emilia had separated from Reinhard's arm and was coughing faintly with a pained expression.
"Emilia-tan, are you okay?"
"*Cough, cough*... Mm, I'm okay. My throat's a little sore, but..."
"Nothing happened to you? Nobody said anything weird to you? That guy seems like the type to lick a girl's cheek with his tongue, so nothing gross happened, right? That wedding dress is super cute, by the way! Who changed you into it—please tell me it wasn't Regulus. Damn it, I'll never forgive that bastard. But the dress choice was good. You look cute in anything, Emilia-tan."
"S-Subaru, calm down! I can't even understand what you're saying!"
Emilia pushed away the panting, in-your-face Subaru with a bewildered expression.
Seeing Subaru scrutinize every inch of her to make sure she was really okay, Emilia let out a soft sigh and smiled.
"Mm, thank you for coming to save me. I believed you would come, Subaru."
"And I believed that you believed in me and were waiting. I was worried I might not make it in time for the wedding."
"It's fine. I have no intention of marrying that man. If I'm going to marry someone, it has to be someone I love."
"R-Right! Great, I'm relieved. So the person you love..."
"Oh! Reinhard! Are your wounds okay?!"
Just as Subaru was about to press further, Emilia noticed Reinhard and cried out.
Her attention immediately shifted to Reinhard, and Subaru grimaced as he scratched his head, following her gaze before frowning.
The Reinhard who had freed Emilia—his body was in surprisingly bad shape.
The front of his white outfit was heavily torn, and a copious amount of fresh blood stained the fabric red. He looked as though he'd taken a direct hit from explosives, and Subaru could see Emilia gasp.
"Whoa, that's grotesque! Are you seriously okay with that!?"
"Yes, it's a terrible injury! Let me see—I'll heal it!"
"Thank you. But there's no need to worry. The wound has already closed."
Reinhard smiled at the two panicking before him and wiped the blood from his chest with his white sleeve.
And sure enough, the bloodied chest plate showed no traces of injury whatsoever. There was not a mark to be found—just Reinhard's uninjured body.
"You have no wounds... but you got hit, right? What was that about? Were you secretly packing fake blood without telling me?"
"What do you mean by 'that'?"
"Don't play dumb—or are you actually that dense? ...When Regulus made that idiotic hostage declaration, I held back to see what you'd do, but I'm asking how you survived."
"Yes. You holding back and observing actually helped. If you'd drawn unnecessary attention, it could have triggered his wrath."
To Subaru's irritated words, Reinhard replied in his usual composed manner. The response felt slightly off to Subaru, and he sighed.
"I figured you'd find some way to handle it. When you collapsed covered in blood, you looked dead, so I was genuinely panicked for a moment..."
"Even so, you moved. I'm glad you trusted me."
"That's because you dropped that cryptic 'leave the rest to me' right before the fight!"
Subaru nudged Reinhard's shoulder without any real malice, responding with a grumble. Watching their exchange, Emilia's eyes went wide.
"With just that little bit of communication, you were able to cooperate like that?"
"Emilia-tan, you handed Reinhard the ice sword too. We're the same."
"That was a great help. Touching his body without any weapon gave me a rather unpleasant premonition. The impact was more than sufficient."
"You wrecked half the building, so it'd better be. Well, I guess that counts as a survival flag."
He wasn't optimistic, given what had happened with Elsa before.
Even as they talked, he remained vigilant against Regulus.
"So, Reinhard, the answer to that trick from before? Was it a clone, or some kind of body double? Don't tell me you're going to start calling yourself a ninja or something."
"I don't know what a ninja is, but it's nothing that elaborate. It's called the 'Blessing of the Phoenix'—it lets me come back from death once. That's why I looked dead, and your assessment was correct. I was technically dead for a little bit."
"You were technically dead for a little bit—don't just say that so casually! What are you, an idiot?"
The answer was so unexpected—or rather, beyond anything Subaru had imagined—that he could only be thrown into confusion.
Dying once from the Blessing of the Phoenix—what did he think death was? Granted, Subaru was hardly one to talk—but no, this was precisely something only Subaru could say.
"What are you trying to do, stealing my shtick..."
"——? My apologies. But I thought that was the best way to distract the Sin Archbishop. And it worked. Though I'd really rather not die again."
"Wow, I feel, like, super guilty that he died for me..."
"Ugh."
"Why does Subaru look like he's in pain?"
Boomerang after boomerang of emotional damage came flying in, and continuing this conversation was becoming mentally exhausting.
Besides, it seemed they wouldn't be able to talk much longer anyway.
"——Subaru."
"I know."
Reinhard narrowed his blue eyes and called Subaru's name.
At the sound, Subaru looked up, and Emilia too was staring in the same direction as Reinhard.
——There, standing among the wreckage, was a menace radiating an ominous aura.
The villain stood atop the towering pile of rubble from the collapsed cathedral, looking down at the three of them. Clad entirely in white—white hair, white clothes, and a white expression—the white-clad menace twisted his mouth.
"Did you have a lovely, friendly little chat without me? Setting aside that you can stay perfectly calm after all this—it's inhuman, isn't it? Or what—is it like you barely even noticed? Like stepping on an ant? Am I that insignificant to you—just a bug you swatted away? Well, how about it?!"
Exaggerating his own emotions as he spoke, Regulus descended from the rubble into the cathedral.
The moment he landed, he straightened the collar of his white tuxedo, smoothed the sleeves of his starched jacket, and dusted off the hems of his matching trousers. The composure with which he glared at them was completely unchanged.
There was no difference from moments before Reinhard's devastating slash.
Not only was he uninjured—there wasn't even a wrinkle in his clothing.
"I see. Just as Subaru told me, this is a peculiar opponent."
"Subaru and the others were talking about a Sin Archbishop... this person?"
Reinhard and Emilia each murmured as they looked at Regulus.
Hearing this, Regulus glared at Emilia with eyes burning with loathing.
"Yes, that's right. I am
"Inadequate? You're the one who never told me anything. I have no idea what you mean by indecent or immoral. And if you're part of the Witch Cult... Witch Cult, Witch Cult...?"
Emilia's expression clouded as she tried to retort at Regulus's filthy outburst.
She pressed her hand to her forehead and furrowed her brow, as if trying to think of something.
"The Witch Cult... Sin Archbishop... Have we... met before?"
"Hah? I don't know. Or what—are you going to start going on about some fateful encounter now that you've grown attached? That's hilarious. You've got a pretty face, but if you're mentally a cheater, there's no saving you. I have no use for someone like—*pfah!*"
"Shut up, you loudmouthed idiot."
The crack of Subaru's whip connected with Regulus's face, interrupting his rambling. Regulus's head snapped to the side, and he glared at Subaru with irritation.
There was, of course, no mark on his cheek from the blow.
"We're not going to win unless we figure out the trick behind his 'invincibility'..."
"The slash, the whip—nothing works. Lady Emilia's magic was ineffective too. Taking him down is going to be a real challenge. Subaru, I'm counting on you."
"What's all this mumbling about...?"
Just as Regulus tilted his head in confusion, Reinhard clapped Subaru on the shoulder—and in the next instant, he vanished.
The next moment, Reinhard's front kick struck Regulus square in the torso, sending the villain hurtling backward through the air.
"Guh—AAH!?"
Regulus couldn't even take a breakfall as he slammed back into the pile of debris, crashing through it and sending rubble scattering everywhere.
"I'll handle him. Subaru, I need you to find the weakness in that 'invincibility.' I'll buy us time."
"Right. Buying time is fine... but you don't have to hold back, you know. Feel free to finish him off."
"If that's possible, I'd like nothing more. Subaru, get the women to safety. This place is about to become a battlefield."
"Wait, Reinhard. It might not be much, but use this."
As Reinhard moved to step forward lightly, Emilia called out to him. In her hand she held another ice sword, conjured by magic.
"I tried really hard to make this one, so it should be sturdier than the last."
"How kind."
Reinhard accepted the ice sword Emilia offered and gave a courteous bow.
Then, turning forward, he leaped out of the cathedral after Regulus. His leg power was so immense that a single jump carried him out of sight in an instant.
A moment later, Subaru's skin registered the shockwave erupting from somewhere beyond his field of vision.
Feeling that impact, Subaru turned back to Emilia.
"Emilia-tan! First, let's evacuate the women somewhere they won't get caught in the crossfire. Everyone outside... Wait, are all of them Regulus's wives?"
Even now, he noticed their strangeness—the women beyond the ice wall hadn't so much as moved.
Being Regulus's wives, were they members of the Witch Cult? Even a cursory glance showed nearly fifty of them, and if they all attacked at once, Subaru without
But Emilia shook her head, negating his worry.
"It's fine. They're all Regulus's wives, but I think most of them are being coerced into following him. So there's no need to worry."
"I see. Right. If they were enemies, there's no way Reinhard would have overlooked—Whoa! Watch out! Bullets—err, debris has been flying by nonstop! Scary!"
Outside the cathedral, a superhuman battle between Reinhard and Regulus was raging.
The shockwaves sent debris and stone fragments flying with the force of bullets. If even one of those passed right by your ear, you couldn't afford to be optimistic about staying safe.
Reinhard held a decisive advantage in the external assault, but as long as Regulus's power couldn't neutralized, even he was in a war of attrition. They needed to find a countermeasure before the villain turned his attention their way— "Hey, are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere, right?"
While Subaru was lost in thought, Emilia was shaking the golden-haired woman's shoulder.
She was the woman Subaru had saved with the whip earlier. Standing at the front of the altar, she was probably in a different position from the other women. As before, her expression was utterly devoid of life.
The woman looked up at Emilia and slowly shook her head.
"I... We will remain here. If you wish to flee, do as you please."
"Remain? Why? Are you injured? I can heal you right away. The others won't be safe behind just one ice wall either. Come on, we have to leave!"
"I decline. You are the only one leaving."
"Why!? If you stay here, you'll be caught in it! Regulus will attack without caring whether you're here or not! You have to run—"
"——I have received no instructions from my husband to leave this place."
The woman's voice, frozen with emotion, cut through Emilia's desperate plea.
With those penetrating eyes, she stared back into Emilia's violet irises.
"If I disobey my husband's orders and act on my own, I will incur his wrath. And if that happens, the result will be the same."
"That's... that's not normal..."
Subaru could understand Emilia's feeling of being at a loss.
This wasn't stubbornness—there was no self in it. It wasn't rigidity—it lacked any real firmness.
What lingered in every corner of the woman's words and attitude was nothing but a resignation that could never be wiped away.
She had—they had all given up.
Their spirits had been shattered to pieces by Regulus, and they were incapable of thinking of anything beyond him.
It was no longer a matter of words or actions—it was the violence of a curse.
"The one fighting Regulus is Reinhard, the Sword Saint. You all seem terrified of Regulus, but Reinhard will cut that guy down. There's no point in throwing your lives away here for nothing."
"It doesn't matter who the opponent is. 'Sword Saint'? Don't make me laugh. Who could possibly stand against my husband... Regulus Corneas?"
The woman dismissed Subaru's plea with a derisive snort.
It was the first genuine emotion she had shown.
It was the scorn of a jaded adult laughing at a child's fairy tale.
——At this point, Subaru could only accept the truth of their twisted relationship.
Regulus Corneas's wives believed in their husband's strength with unwavering conviction.
Even against the Sword Saint, Reinhard, their faith remained absolute—an inescapable chain of bondage that no one could break.
Regulus used his incomparable, overwhelming power to keep his wives' hearts firmly in his grasp.
The wives believed in their husband, and the husband seized their hearts without letting go. In a sense, an ideal marriage.
The fact that it resembled the surface of such a thing only made it all the more twisted.
"Damn it..."
He could feel it. Words would not move them.
The woman before him spoke for all the women in the same position. The proof was in the silent, seated women who didn't so much as open their eyes.
If he tried to forcibly remove them from here, he'd have to knock every single one unconscious and carry them out one by one. Nobody in this place had the luxury of doing that.
"——Reinhard! Change of plans! We're going with Plan I first!"
Giving up on persuading the women, Subaru scrambled up the remains of the altar and called out to Reinhard. On the streets of the city, where night was beginning to fall, Reinhard defied gravity as he ran along a building wall. In that brief moment, his eyes flicked toward Subaru.
'Plan I first? Subaru, what about evacuating the women?' "——!? What!? Where the hell is that voice coming from!?"
'It's the Blessing of Telepathy. It lets me project my voice to friends within my line of sight.' "You're getting more and more superhuman by the minute!"
Before the visibly shaken Subaru, Reinhard's movements transcended human limits.
He kicked off the wall, spinning at high speed through the air.
Just before landing, he opened the hem of his coat to decelerate, then with a sweeping motion of his long legs, a blade of wind raced across the ground.
The swirling dust tore up the brick pavement, and at its end it struck the white villain dead-on—Regulus's silhouette, unable to hold his ground, was blown away once again.
"What the heck was that—some kind of murder circus trick?"
"He was using rocks and sand to attack. I was dodging between the sand grains, weaving through without getting hit."
"That sounds like something on the level of dodging raindrops. —More importantly, we need to change location! Those women won't move! They're too scared of Regulus to budge!"
"I see, understood. —Then let's try something."
Reinhard's voice dropped as he closed the distance to Regulus with a light leap.
Regulus, getting to his feet, kicked the ground and sent wood fragments and sand flying. But Reinhard dodged with minimal movement, closed in, and with the ice sword he'd been saving, swung at Regulus and launched his body skyward.
The villain's shriek as he was sent flying overlapped with the crystalline sound of the ice sword shattering.
"Subaru! Wait, what are you planning to do?"
"I'm going to lure him—woah, Emilia-tan, that's bold."
"Well, this dress is cute but it's hard to move in..."
At the end of Subaru's gaze, Emilia stood with the hem of her dress torn.
She had improved the wedding dress's restricted mobility by adding a daring slit. In exchange, Emilia's long, white legs were exposed quite far up—an eyesore.
"That doesn't matter! More importantly, what are you going to have Reinhard do?"
"One of the plans I came up with before we got here. Since we can't predict how Regulus's power works... we're going to systematically rule out every possibility, one by one."
With that, Subaru nodded to Emilia, picked up Reinhard's beloved sword from the edge of the cathedral, and then set off after Reinhard's battlefield alongside Emilia.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "You—stop dodging around like that!!"
Regulus spat curses as he swung his arms.
His target was Reinhard, who was leaping in zigzag patterns, and his weapon was whatever gravel he'd picked up off the ground.
A scatter-shot of gravel would normally be little more than an eye-stinger at best. Using it in a serious duel was already a mark of poor taste—but for Regulus, even a tactic that simple became devastatingly powerful.
The gravel decayed everything it touched across the nighttime cityscape, the destruction ravaging the scenery.
"——Tch!"
Facing that devastating bombardment, Reinhard made exaggerated evasive maneuvers.
He stayed low to the ground, moving at high speed while honing every sense in his body. His speed was astonishingly fast—far beyond what the naked eye could follow.
And so Regulus, who could only move like an amateur, could not keep up.
"You—where do you think you're going, you little insect?!"
Losing sight of his threat, Regulus attacked randomly in every direction.
A faint prickle on his skin—the premonition of danger approaching. The survival instinct he was born with issued a warning about a hostile presence nearby.
Whether he actually felt threatened by the enemy was irrelevant. For any living creature, it was an inevitable sensation. Even Regulus felt the plea from every nerve in his body.
——Though it was conditioned on a mysterious threat bearing down from all directions, through all senses.
"What ARE you, damn it—!!"
"I am the knight of
"——!?"
The voice that addressed him was so composed it seemed almost like a joke.
A hard impact struck Regulus's reeling head—he had likely been hit with a piece of iron. It snapped clean off at the root on the first blow, and a high-pitched clatter reached his ears as it was flung away.
Regulus glared at the ground and bit his lip in humiliation.
Reinhard danced across the ground with sharp footwork, never settling into a fixed stance.
The superiority of the Sword Saint over Greed was clear even to those involved.
Reinhard's otherworldly combat prowess, capable of toying with even a Sin Archbishop, defied belief. But even so— "I'm going to win, and you just can't accept that, can you? I don't know how far you've gotten using that violent power that only knows how to oppress others, but someone who can only build their happiness on the backs of others will never get further than that! How many lives have you trampled with that power—your greed is revolting."
"——Those words sting. It's true that some people lost their happiness because of me. I won't deny that what I'm doing now is, in part, atonement."
At Regulus's incoherent ranting, Reinhard's eyes briefly clouded.
And at the sight of the Sword Saint seemingly sympathizing, Regulus's eyes went wide.
"What's that supposed to mean? 'I'm aware of my sins and trying to correct them, so let's call it even'—is that the angle? Stop screwing around! Nobody expects anything from your future deeds! What matters is the past! When you crushed them underfoot, someone was down there licking the soles of your shoes! For that person, it doesn't matter if you save ten thousand, a hundred million others—it means nothing! Sinners should just die right now! Don't covet what belongs to others and then play the saint!"
"Talking to you really does feel like looking in a mirror. So this is what Subaru meant when he told me not to listen to a word you say."
"Come to think of it... that was Subaru, wasn't it? The scumbag who stole my bride—the rapist... Well, the harlot is one thing, but I won't forgive him either. Someone who takes what belongs to others deserves to be puni—*PFAH!?*"
Mid-sentence, Regulus's world was flipped upside down.
Reinhard had closed the distance in an instant, grabbed Regulus by the left ankle, and was now swinging him around. Through the dizzying rotation of his vision, Regulus's back slammed into a wall.
Dust erupted on impact, and Reinhard continued swinging him through the stone building as it crumbled.
"I figured touching you directly would be a considerable gamble, but I'm going to go all the way with this."
"What's that—'I can say whatever I want about you but don't touch my friends'? You're even more of a hypocrite than I thought. Someone like you doesn't get to have decent friends. A rapist calling himself friends with—"
"I'm done listening to you—this is unbearable. —Especially when it comes to my friends."
The wind suddenly enveloped both their bodies, and a sensation of rapid weightlessness followed.
When Regulus came to his senses, they were both in the night sky, with the full moon shining brightly right beside them. Bathed in the moonlight that seemed close enough to touch, Regulus clicked his tongue.
"So it's not about power, is it? —Thinking you can win by slamming me down from a high place? That's adorable. Are you making fun of me?"
"If raw power could settle this, I'd try dropping you into a fissure or something... but that's not what this is about."
"What are you—"
In the featureless void of the air, Reinhard reversed their positions using nothing but body mechanics. Regulus, still held by the ankle, was swung upward by centrifugal force and realized he was now above Reinhard's head. His eyes widened at the view below.
"No way..."
"It seems this is just the first round. —I hope we never meet again."
A rare bit of sarcasm from Reinhard, but Regulus had no time to dwell on it.
Regulus's body was flung downward with tremendous force by nothing more than Reinhard's arm strength—his sinewy, whip-like power launched Regulus like a bullet toward the ground. The waterway's surface rushed up before Regulus's eyes.
"With just water... there's no way—!"
Spinning wildly with no sense of up or down, Regulus extended both hands to brace for impact. Reinhard was defenseless above and would eventually fall to the same spot.
He could intercept him, shatter that smug composure—it was possible.
That was his thought— "——Emilia, do it!"
"*Ul Huma* — !"
The infuriating voices of a man and woman reached his ears, and in his peripheral vision he caught the infuriating pair.
The black-haired boy pointing at him, the silver-haired girl quietly chanting.
The next instant, a pillar of ice shot down from directly above Regulus at a speed that overtook his descent.
The ice pierced Regulus's limbs and the hem of his tuxedo, accelerating his fall. A final pillar struck him dead center in the back, freezing his entire body.
Five pillars of ice in total bound Regulus's limbs and froze him to the core, plunging him into the waterway. The freezing magic then spread outward, and the water's flow solidified around the point of impact—an ice tombstone that filled the waterway.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "——The Puddle Plunge, a.k.a. Plan I, is a resounding success."
"I hope it actually makes a difference, though."
Reinhard landed beside Subaru in the moonlight as the two of them stared at the frozen waterway.
When Reinhard had thrown Regulus from midair, the trajectory hadn't allowed for avoiding the water—but it felt pointless to dwell on that now.
If it was Reinhard, it wouldn't be surprising even if he'd kicked off thin air.
"His limbs are locked and he was dropped into the water, then frozen solid. Surely even he can't float up from this..."
On Reinhard's other side, Emilia stared at the water's surface and murmured.
Subaru had devised the plan, Reinhard had assisted—but the one who had cornered Regulus so thoroughly was Emilia. Even though the opponent was an incoherent madman, the look on Emilia's face carried a clear sense of unease.
If things had gone well, they would have contributed to creating a drowned body.
It was only natural that Emilia felt she'd gone too far.
"——"
Watching Emilia from the corner of his eye, Subaru crossed his arms and thought.
As much as it might hurt her, the best outcome would be for Regulus to drown. Even if that didn't happen, being reduced to a near-death state would be a bonus.
But they had to account for the worst-case scenario. For instance— "Reinhard!"
"——!"
——The moment the water's surface cracked and a geyser erupted toward them.
Reinhard immediately grabbed Subaru and Emilia, threw an arm around each waist, and leaped a single bound straight backward—putting distance between them and the spray. Then Reinhard narrowed his eyes.
"It seems that wasn't the end of it after all."
"Looks that way. Either way, that guy is seriously bad news."
Reinhard and Subaru each felt awe, though what they were seeing was different.
Reinhard was looking at the silhouette standing on a chunk of drifting ice. And Subaru was seeing the result of the playful water splash that silhouette had flicked.
The scattered water droplets were raining down on the spot where Subaru and company had been standing.
But the droplets showed none of the mercy of merely wetting the ground—they gouged into the earth as if torn apart by a massive beast, leaving scars that resembled the marks of enormous fangs.
That destructive force was no less devastating than when Regulus had fired gravel and sand.
In other words, Regulus's attacks didn't discriminate—solid or liquid, he could use anything as a weapon.
"...His body isn't frozen at all. It's the same as in the cathedral."
Emilia, too, stared at Regulus standing on the ice and whispered.
Subaru had asked her to freeze his limbs and torso with magic. Following Subaru's instruction to hold nothing back, the ice pillars had pierced Regulus's limbs and the dead center of his body—hitting vital points with lethal precision.
But at the moment of water entry, the tips of the ice pillars had not been embedded in his body, and the result of only freezing his surface was the same as what they'd already witnessed in the cathedral.
Freezing magic and offensive magic—none of it worked on Regulus.
Just like slashing and bludgeoning, they were all subject to his negation.
"When he nullified Wrath's flames, I had a vague feeling about this... But the standard theory for an invincibility power was that it specialized in either physical or magical immunity. That's been ruled out."
"Did you confirm what you needed to with Plan I?"
"To really nail that down, we need to get closer and—"
The moment Reinhard responded, the water's surface changed.
In a section separate from the frozen, cracked area, a vortex formed. It gradually gained momentum, drawing the ice floe toward it. Then— "A water dragon—!"
From the center of the vortex, a dragon burst forth and bared its fangs at Regulus on the ice.
It was one of the water dragons that patrolled the city's extensive waterways—tamed, supposedly trained not to attack humans. Yet this water dragon opened its jaws and aimed for Regulus's slender waist.
Perhaps the water dragon too had been affected to some degree by Wrath's influence. A tragedy that should never have occurred—yet those jaws would not close.
"——"
Involuntarily, Subaru's throat constricted at the ghastly sight.
How could one possibly describe what happened in that instant?
——The moment the water dragon bit down, its jaw shifted.
Like a daruma otoshi game, the water dragon's lower jaw was knocked sideways.
Carried by the momentum of its lunge, the dragon's body slid forward under the displacement of its lower jaw. The body that was supposed to bite into Regulus and return to the water instead shifted violently, unable to realign its upper and lower jaws, and was split clean in two.
The water dragon, severed from the center of its jaw, sprayed blood and plunged into the water.
A moment later, it floated to the surface—a carcass overflowing with blood and viscera. The carnage was shockingly brutal.
"Emilia. If possible, could you make me a spear?"
"...Eh?"
"A spear. Please make me a spear of ice."
To Emilia, who was staring blankly at the same sight, Reinhard murmured something urgent. When the meaning clicked, she hurriedly gathered her mana.
After several failed attempts, Emilia produced an ice spear and handed it to Reinhard. Reinhard felt the weight and texture, then said: "My apologies."
He drew back his arm holding the ice spear and hurled it at Regulus.
The spear flew straight—except the pointed tip was not aimed at Regulus. It was aimed sideways, meaning the shaft would make direct contact.
And that was exactly what happened—the shaft struck Regulus and the spear snapped in two, falling into the waterway.
"What was the point of that...?"
"So that's it. ...That's how it works, Reinhard."
Watching the shattered spear's fate, Emilia tilted her head. But beside her, Subaru understood the meaning behind Reinhard's action and trembled at the conclusion.
Seeing Subaru's comprehension, Reinhard nodded.
"Emilia, did you see what happened to the spear when it struck him?"
"It broke, didn't it? An ice spear isn't flexible like a real one, and at that speed it would naturally shatter into two pieces—"
"No. The spear didn't break. The spear... lost a piece at the point of impact. The section that struck his body separated and was left behind. It didn't split into two—it became three."
Reinhard's explanation was the answer to what had happened to both the spear and the water dragon.
Both objects that had made contact with Regulus's body had, at the point of impact, been unable to pass through and were left behind. If it had been a simple wall, the impact point would have been repelled or shattered—but that wasn't what happened.
Regulus's body completely and literally rejected whatever touched it.
"——You looked so sweet, so I let your guard up. And this is what happens."
When the three of them reached a shared understanding, Regulus suddenly spoke from atop the ice.
His voice was quiet—truly just a faint murmur. Even as it registered as such, Subaru felt his spine run colder than ever before.
"You don't get it, you don't get it, you don't get it. You really, truly understand nothing. It's pointless. No matter what you do, you can't win. You can't reach me. No matter how you struggle, it's meaningless. Why can't you understand that? I tell you, I show you through my actions, I let you see the results... and still you don't get it?"
Muttering to himself, Regulus leaped from the drifting ice. Not having enough height, he fell into the water. For a moment, he disappeared from sight. But soon he grabbed the edge of the waterway and hauled himself up onto the street, then glared at them.
"——His body isn't wet at all. He's not out of breath. Not a shard of ice, not a drop of blood. His clothes aren't even disheveled. No water, no droplets."
Reinhard reported his observations of Regulus to Subaru in rapid-fire fashion.
Hearing this, Subaru swallowed his shock and nodded—they had confirmed everything they needed to see with Plan I.
The problem was, the result was zero. It was exactly the worst-case scenario they had imagined.
"Subaru, give me my sword."
"O-Oh..."
At Reinhard's request, Subaru handed over the sword he'd been carrying. Reinhard checked the feel of his beloved blade, and Emilia timidly spoke up: "Can you draw that sword?"
"No, the hilt is still locked. It seems it has no intention of going easy on me... But I doubt I can fight without it."
"So you're going to fight with a sword you can't even draw. What are you going to do—beat him with the scabbard?"
"No. But we're not far off."
Saying this casually, Reinhard stepped forward.
Positioning himself to shield Subaru and Emilia from Regulus's line of sight, he assumed his stance.
"Subaru, I'd like you to continue buying time. Keep analyzing his power."
"The difficulty level just went up, I think. But I'll do my best."
"I-I'll do my best too!"
"Then I suppose I'll do my best as well. —Here I go!"
With that declaration, Reinhard's body surged forward.
Regulus received the charge with composure.
"Hey, you saw what happened, right? What happened to that lizard, and just now with the spear... Your imagination isn't grim enough, is it?"
"'Look for the coin at your feet and forget to look up'—words of my master."
"Sure."
To Regulus's bored sigh, Reinhard's blow came crashing in.
The sound of something penetrating flesh, bone, and something harder still echoed, and Subaru's throat tightened involuntarily. Reinhard had been gripping the scabbard, and he struck Regulus with the guard and hilt.
"Oh? So it's not a pointless move after all."
The fact that there was an impact sound meant a different result from the water dragon or the ice spear. At the very least, Reinhard's sword had not broken upon striking Regulus.
However, there was no indication that Regulus had taken any damage either. Up until now, even when Reinhard's attacks didn't wound him, there had at least been the reaction of his body being knocked away—but now there was nothing.
"You can be proud of this. You're only the second person who's made me use the Dragon Sword Reid."
"That sounds like nothing but sarcasm, and you're completely mocking me, aren't you? Using a sword isn't what it looks like! The way you look down on me with that voice—anyone paying attention can tell, you know!"
"That's rather—"
Despite provoking Regulus's fury, Reinhard continued pressing in close combat. He evaded the villain's extending fingertips with footwork that surpassed his earlier display.
Then his foot stopped suddenly. No—it was stopped.
His stance broke, and Reinhard dropped to one knee.
His right shin had burst open, and a copious amount of blood was flowing out.
"You got hit!? By what!?"
Subaru cried out, and Reinhard winced in pain and confusion.
Neither the distant Subaru nor the involved Reinhard could tell what had happened. The answer came from the one who posed the question, delivered alongside the proof of his success.
"With those monster eyes and movements, you managed to dodge the gravel and the water splashes. But you're still being naive, aren't you? If you're really serious about fighting me, you need to be mindful even of your breathing. You sighed just a moment ago, didn't you?"
"Even breathing...?"
Over Regulus's kneeling form, Regulus's merciless kick descended.
If it connected, the force would likely tear Reinhard's torso apart with a single blow. Faced with that, Reinhard couldn't execute any evasion.
He raised the sword in his arms as a desperate shield, and the pitch-black scabbard absorbed the kick— "Guh...!"
"What is that scabbard even made of? It's so irritating. I'll never understand why people insist on wielding things that don't suit them."
Reinhard's body, having blocked the kick, was launched away with the force of a rubber ball.
Unable to dissipate the kick's power, he tumbled across the street and crashed straight into a building on the side. The destruction continued as his body rolled and rolled, endlessly.
It was as if, in that instant, Reinhard's body had become a cannonball.
"Now then—"
"——!"
Regulus watched Reinhard go flying, then turned back to Subaru as if remembering he was there. Pinned by that gaze, Subaru tensed.
Beside him, Emilia instinctively began chanting, erecting a row of ice pillars in midair in an instant, then hammered them down on Regulus without mercy.
But the outcome was obvious.
"I really hate a woman who won't listen. It's such a hassle to discipline them. Most women are unreasonable to begin with, so first you have to teach them what it means to be in a position to be taught. Once they're obedient, it's not so bad, though."
Regulus brushed off the ice shards that struck his body and shattered, without even flinching, then began to walk toward them.
"Emilia! Don't do anything to him right now! Until we figure out the trick, anything you throw at him won't reach!"
"But—"
"Just run! That's all we can do right now!"
Subaru grabbed Emilia's arm as she tried to press on and pulled her away from Regulus.
Rather than flying into a rage at this, Regulus— "Haha, running away? Well, that's only natural, I suppose. Given the situation, there's no way you could stand up to me, and frankly, you should have realized that from the start when you picked a fight with me... But if you want to run, then run."
Laughing to himself as he watched them flee, Regulus seemed to be in a strange mood.
But if he was willing to let them go, then they'd take it. Anything for more time to think— "——On the condition that you actually escape, of course."
Saying this, Regulus leaped toward the waterway. From the surface, he grabbed and pulled up the severed half of the water dragon.
Holding the tail of the dragon's carcass, he grinned as he turned back.
"Hey... Subaru... I have a really, really bad feeling about this."
"Yeah, me too. Honestly."
Regulus's specific intentions were unclear.
But it was abundantly clear that whatever he was about to do would not end well.
And so Subaru and Emilia quickened their pace.
In the meantime, Regulus looked up at the sky, laughed heartily, and leaped. He landed on the roof of an adjacent building, vaulted to the next, then to a still higher one—finally reaching the top of a tower as tall as a clock tower.
The distance between them had grown to where each party appeared as a mere speck.
Yet despite that enormous gap, Subaru could still see Regulus's face.
——The villain's twisted, grinning expression was perfectly clear.
"Now then—dodge this if you can! From me to the harlot who failed as a bride, and the spiritual rapist who cherishes such a woman—a gift of blood rain!"
Regulus hoisted the water dragon's half-carcass over both hands and wrung it mercilessly.
The dragon's flesh tore with ripping sounds, and the remaining blood gushed out to the last drop. Regulus swung the gore-drenched carcass from atop his perch like wringing out a wet towel.
He rotated it overhead, scattering blood in every direction.
With enough force to reach even Subaru and Emilia, who were running far below.
And the result of that would be— "——Subaru!!"
"Run, run, run, run, ruuuun—!!"
The downpour of blood became a deluge of destruction that ravaged the city, and the carpet bombing gave chase toward the backs of the two fleeing figures.