—The space warped, the world tore open, and he plunged headfirst into the rift that formed.
The world split apart with the ease and clean cut of torn parchment.
Subaru's eardrums, swallowed headfirst into the distortion, heard not a single scrap of noise to accompany the grand visual display.
All he heard was his own scream, and someone calling his name.
Even those sounds grew distant, and eventually faded to nothing.
The sensation of contact receded, fingers were torn away, and the distance widened.
Would he be cast out into a place with no one and nothing, left utterly alone?
Tormented by such loneliness and sorrow, Subaru's consciousness slowly surfaced.
And then— ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "—How long are you going to keep sleeping? Wake up already, Barusu."
"Pwah!?"
A sharp sensation stabbed into his side, and the impact drew a scream from Subaru.
He instinctively jolted upright, and the sand caked all over his body flew up as dust. He coughed and spat out the gravel from his mouth.
"Gah! Peh—! *Kahh!* Peh—!? What happened? What's going on!?"
He rubbed his eyes roughly and stood up while surveying his surroundings. His knees buckled the moment he tried to rise, betrayed by the uneven footing. Beneath his feet, it was still the same vast sea of fine-grained sand.
The moments before losing consciousness came flooding back, and Subaru determined that this must be an extension of the
In the gloom so deep he could barely see his own hands, the only thing Subaru's eyes caught was the presence of artificial light.
"To think you could fall asleep so soundly in a time like this. It's so exasperating I'm at a loss for words."
A caustic voice cut down from above, and its owner gave a small snort.
The light source was a kind of magical stonework—a torch fashioned from processed Lagmite ore. Looking at the face illuminated by that light, Subaru furrowed his brow.
"—
"Who else would I look like? I certainly hope you weren't going to give me the boring answer '
"…You and Rem might look the same, but the stuff that seeps out from the inside couldn't be more different."
Subaru brushed off his knees in response to Ram's even more sharp-tongued remark than usual. Then he took the torch she offered, held it up to lightly illuminate the area, and looked around.
"Where is this? What happened?"
"I'd like to know where this is more than anyone. As for what happened, it's three steps worse than whatever you're imagining."
"Three steps worse—were you expecting me to be an optimist, or betting on me being a pessimist?"
"Which one would be better in this case, I wonder?"
The answer was surely accompanied by a shrug—though Subaru couldn't be entirely certain of even Ram's presence in this darkness that swallowed everything close by. The space illuminated by the torch was absurdly vast. It seemed they had entered some kind of cavern.
Above, a faintly high ceiling was barely visible, and contiguous walls testified to the depth of the space.
"I don't feel any outside air, and I can't see the sky. So we've been thrown somewhere…?"
"If
"Severance… Right, the severance! What about the others!?"
As he listened to Ram's flat, emotionless explanation, Subaru's understanding finally caught up with reality.
He swept the light left and right, searching for anyone besides Ram among the shadows. But no matter how he shone the light around, the figures he hoped to see simply refused to appear.
"As you can see, we've been severed. Whether Barusu's magic invalidated the ruse up to the Watchtower and we entered the correct path, or whether we've been trapped in a spatial distortion to wander here for eternity—I couldn't say."
"No time for that! Why are you so calm!? If the two of us are paired together, that means we've been scattered completely at random!?"
Subaru's face flushed blue and his voice rose in volume in response to Ram's serene explanation.
He could clearly remember Beatrice screaming as the space before them tore open. That rift had swallowed their entire group and dragged them into another space.
At that moment, Subaru and Ram had been traveling together, but they should have been in separate groups. Subaru had been riding on
"With this kind of severance, physical contact doesn't seem to be the criterion for staying together. The moment we fell into the rift, Ram should have been holding Rem… but as you can see."
"Beatrice was clinging to me too. But she's nowhere to be found… There's really nobody, is there? Could it really be just me and Ram here? What kind of group assignment is this?"
If contact wasn't the condition for grouping, then there had to be some other reason.
This time's group had eight members total. As far as Subaru and Ram were supposed to be concerned, there was nothing remarkable that they shared in common. So it really was a completely random assignment.
"No, speculating on the conditions can wait! More importantly right now, we need to hurry and regroup with everyone—No! There's something more urgent! Rem!"
"————"
"The two of us being together is still better than nothing. If the others are each paired with someone, there's still hope. But if someone ended up alone, and that someone turned out to be Rem… it would be the worst."
Meili and Beatrice, with their respective abilities, could manage on their own. As for
Every other member was arguably better off than the Subaru-and-Ram pairing.
—But Rem was a different story entirely.
Rem alone was completely unlike the others—she was incapable of independent action.
Even if she was with someone, protecting her while she remained in her coma would be an extraordinarily difficult task. And in the worst case, if the severed Rem ended up completely alone, she would become nothing more than a figure waiting for "death" in this desolate sea of sand.
"Regrouping with everyone else is important, but the absolute priority is securing Rem! I can't just leave her behind in a lonely place like this. That's the one thing I absolutely… absolutely cannot allow. Absolutely, cannot…!"
"…Barusu."
"It's because I said I'd bring her along… because I thought that maybe meeting the 'Sage' could wake her up, and now it's come to this. No. Absolutely, damn it, not Rem…!"
"Barusu, calm down. Panicking right now won't—"
"Why are you so calm like that!? Just because Rem's been wiped from your memory doesn't mean you don't care about her, does it!?"
"—! As if that could possibly be true!"
Subaru, spiraling into the worst-case scenarios, rattled off a desperate future and self-reproach in a rapid torrent. At his words, Ram suddenly erupted as if she could no longer endure it.
She seized Subaru by the collar and shoved him forcefully against the sand wall behind him.
"Do you think you're the only one who's worried about Rem? Don't get ahead of yourself, Barusu. Even without the lived experience, Ram is Rem's sister. Don't insult me."
"————"
"…I still have a faint connection to that girl. So at least for now, she's safe. Just believe that much, and get a hold of yourself."
It wasn't the kind of expression that laid emotions bare. But seeing the anxiety and worry that she couldn't fully hide behind her composure, Subaru let the tension drain from his shoulders. Noticing this, Ram withdrew her arm. Released from the wall, Subaru hung his head.
"…Sorry. I'm sorry. Really, I was being stupid and awful just now."
"It's mostly just your usual behavior. If Barusu had to reflect on everything just for being alive, he'd run out of day before he ran out of regrets. Stop wasting your time."
"…Yeah, sorry."
Taking that sharp tongue as Ram's version of a truce, Subaru offered one final apology. Then he slapped his own cheek hard and pulled himself together.
Ram had guaranteed that Rem was safe for the time being, but that didn't erase the anxiety of her being alone. The need to regroup with everyone as quickly as possible hadn't changed.
"Anyway, let's hurry and regroup. Ram, can't you use that shared sensing thing of yours to find Rem's location?"
"It's difficult. Since she's asleep, all I receive is a heartbeat or so. For other means, there's the 'Farsight'… but that's not very reliable either."
"Why not?"
"This sand dune is crawling with magical beasts, with virtually no normal flora or fauna. 'Farsight' requires compatible wavelengths to borrow someone's eyes. It doesn't overlap with magical beasts. From this group, the only one whose eyes I could borrow is your earth dragon, Barusu."
"Patrasche, huh? No, that should be more than enough. I'd want to check on Patrasche and Gian too—whether they're with someone. And if the dragon carriage is intact, that would really help."
"…That's not really going to be useful."
At Ram's unenthusiastic attitude, Subaru clicked his tongue in frustration. Right now, they needed as much information as possible to facilitate their regrouping.
Yet when Ram balked at something like this, he couldn't understand her reasoning.
But before he could press her for the real meaning behind her words, an answer came faster than he expected.
"—?"
Suddenly, at the edge of his vision, a light appeared—different from the torch in Subaru's hand.
The flash at the edge of his vision triggered an unpleasant memory, and Subaru flinched instinctively. But the light that revealed itself moved with a gentle sway, utterly unrelated to that past.
The light gradually drew closer, and as its outline slowly sharpened into clarity— "Ram-san and Natsuki-kun, looks like you two have finished your talk?"
"—Anastasia, and Patrasche?"
The familiar
At Anastasia's question, Ram pinched the hem of her robe and dipped into a curtsy on the spot.
"I appreciate your thoughtfulness, Anastasia-sama. And what about the surroundings?"
"I took a quick look further in, but I couldn't find anyone else. Looks like we three—and this one—got tossed here together."
"I see."
"You shouldn't let it get you down. I know it's not much comfort, but—"
"Thank you for your concern. Yes, I understand… I believe."
Ram responded politely from below to Anastasia on her dragon. From the flow of their conversation, Subaru gathered that Anastasia had been scouting the area.
That much made sense. What didn't satisfy him was the lack of explanation.
"Hey, Ram. I thought it was just the two of us here. What gives? Explain."
"Ram never once said it was just Ram and Barusu. You decided that all on your own and worked yourself into a frenzy. How unsightly."
"If you'd said 'I was too worried about Rem to think straight,' that at least would've sounded a bit endearing, Sister."
"Hah."
At Subaru's remark, Ram gave her usual dismissive snort.
Sensing that her composure had returned, Subaru walked over toward Anastasia.
"Setting aside the ambush, it's great news that you're safe, Anastasia. I'm relieved."
"I had nothing to do with that ambush, so don't get the wrong idea. I'm relieved I'm not alone either. Besides, Natsuki-kun, your earth dragon Patrasche-chan is such a good girl—she really helped."
Stepping into the stirrup, Anastasia gingerly tried to dismount from Patrasche. The earth dragon slowly lowered herself to the ground, assisting the dismount.
As expected of a top-class earth dragon. A gentleman earth dragon, at that. Even if she was female.
"There's nobody else hiding around, right? For real this time—it's just the four of us?"
"Counting Patrasche-chan, it's definitely four. There's no reason for Emilia-san or Julius to not show up… Well, I suppose Meili-chan is hard to say."
"You think she might've used the commotion to slip away? …I wouldn't rule it out."
His mind conjuring the image of the braided girl, Subaru considered Meili's possible choices.
Just before the severance, Subaru had caught Meili secretly commanding a magical beast as insurance. Having experienced "death and return," Subaru knew firsthand that Meili had used that beast to defend the dragon carriage against attacks from the Watchtower and the swarm of Oiran Bears.
However, that was an event that had occurred in a different loop, and what Meili's true purpose was in commanding the Sandworm—that answer existed only within her own heart.
Given the current situation, it wouldn't be strange if Meili were to flee from the group and attempt to leave the dunes on her own.
"But… I don't think she did that."
"Hope? Or—could it possibly be trust?"
"Call it a wish. More importantly, what did you find when you looked around?"
Setting aside his stance on Meili, Subaru asked Anastasia for her search report. She slipped her hands into the front of her robe and tilted her head. "That's the thing…"
"From what I can see, we're definitely still inside the sand dunes… but I think this place is underground."
"Underground? Beneath the dunes, even further down?"
"Beneath the sand of the dunes, in other words. Not quite a cave—more like a hollow. The temperature is noticeably lower than up top, and the air feels heavy."
She shook the folded front of her robe, making a gesture to emphasize the chill, and Subaru nodded.
It was true—the chill of this space was far more intense than what they'd experienced just moments ago. The high ceiling and the skyless void overhead fit that theory perfectly.
"Underneath the dunes… I've got a bad feeling. Please don't let this be a Sandworm nest."
"Ugh… that's…"
It was a plausible theory.
He had witnessed the existence of Sandworms burrowing underground with his own eyes, and given the enormous size of the one Meili had commanded, this cavern was certainly large enough. Considering the eyeless Sandworm's ecology, the pitch-black darkness of this unlit hollow matched perfectly.
"Also, this team has way too little combat power! Me, Ram, and Anastasia—did we really deliberately assemble nothing but non-combatants!?"
"As a knight of Emilia-sama, to so brazenly classify yourself as a non-combatant… This won't do."
"I'm being realistic. Without Beatrice, I don't have nearly enough confidence in my whip work to boast."
Compared to those who had means of self-defense, this group truly lacked combat power. Ram, who was restricted, and Subaru, deprived of Beatrice, went without saying.
"By the way, where is Beatrice-sama? As her contractor, can't you sense a connection?"
"Unfortunately, while Beatrice and I are strongly connected at heart, that doesn't translate into a tangible sense. Actually, she once said she could feel me, but it doesn't work the other way."
"Useless."
"Shut up."
Subaru turned his face away from the sighing Ram and quietly leaned in toward Anastasia. Then, in a low voice beside her composed profile: "So—can you fight? What's the deal?"
"—If it comes down to it, of course I'll fight. But it would cost Ana's life force. As for me, I'd prefer to avoid that as much as possible. I'll leave it to you all to handle."
"Don't count on that—I can't promise whether it'll be a good surprise or a bad one."
For just an instant, Subaru snorted at the face of
Then he quietly turned toward Patrasche, who awaited instructions, and gently stroked her snout with his palm. The jet-black earth dragon pressed close in silence, rubbing her hard scales against him.
"It hurts, it hurts… but I'm glad. Without Emilia, without Beatrice… I'm glad you're here. But it really seems like the group assignments were completely meaningless after all."
"—Barusu."
Sharing his unease with Patrasche, Subaru turned at Ram's call. Ram had her arms crossed and jerked her chin in the direction Anastasia had come from.
"We can't stay idle forever. Let's move to regroup with the others. Fortunately, thanks to Anastasia-sama, we have light. We can press forward."
"Oh right—wait, did Anastasia bring this torch?"
"Just before the dragon carriage was swallowed, I grabbed only the emergency bag Natsuki-kun had prepared. Thanks to that, I managed to bring in a light, a knife, and some emergency rations."
Anastasia pointed at Patrasche, and sure enough, a small emergency bag was hooked onto the saddle. It was the very same supply Subaru had stowed in the dragon carriage as an "emergency evacuation kit."
He'd wished he'd never need to use it, but he was relieved that it had come in handy.
"See, you shouldn't underestimate this kind of practical thinking. …From now on, I'll never forget to check the emergency exits first wherever I'm staying for the first time."
"Jokes aside, this is also Barusu's accomplishment. Now then—take the light as your reward and lead the way with a spring in your step."
"Huh… wait, this is my reward?"
The torch was thrust into his hands, and Ram and Anastasia both mounted Patrasche's back.
No matter how you looked at this arrangement, Subaru was in the servant's position.
"A three-person ride might be a bit—oh, maybe if Anastasia-san and I squeeze together, it could work?"
"Let's not, Anastasia-sama. The moment we get that close, I can practically see Barusu taking advantage of it to press his body against us."
"That's your imagination, but if you're going to go there, my imagination gets even wildier! I'm not joking—don't underestimate a teenager in his prime!"
When Subaru raised his middle finger and made his fierce assertion, even Anastasia let out a wry smile. Ram's reaction was unchanged, but Subaru took the torch in one hand and walked into the depths of the cavern.
That lighthearted banter between Subaru and Ram—as if they'd forgotten the gravity of the situation—was surely nothing more than bravado, spinning its wheels so they wouldn't have to face the anxiety gnawing at their hearts.
Both of them probably knew it, and neither said a word about it.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Struggling with the treacherous footing, Subaru and the others pressed onward through the great sand cavern.
Patrasche, as expected, was a seasoned traveler—even with two heavy riders on her back, she moved without any trouble. As for Subaru, setting aside the feel of sand in his boots, he advanced without much difficulty, applying the sand-sea walking techniques he'd learned over the past few days.
"The wind is… sort of there, sort of not."
"It's there. But given how faint it is, it'll be a long while before we reach the surface."
Along the way, Subaru licked his fingertips and held them up to detect the wind, but he couldn't tell much. In his place, Ram—who was sensitive to wind—probed for it, but the exit they sought still seemed far off.
And beyond the exit, what they wanted most was to regroup with their companions. Regrettably, that was something the wind couldn't help them find.
"Emilia-sama and Julius-sama shouldn't get lost, guided by the minor spirits. That's another reason to suspect malice in the team selection."
"Right. Minor spirits really do make excellent guides, don't they? Damn—In my case, Beatrice's spiritual presence is so overwhelming that minor spirits flee from me. I've got no bandwidth for it."
What was becoming clear was their advantage in areas beyond raw combat power—the domain of Emilia and Julius.
Among a group that conceded everything in scouting, their exploration wouldn't proceed as smoothly as they'd like. All they could do was advance carefully, scanning their surroundings as thoroughly as possible.
"Speaking of which, Natsuki-kun, before you woke up… Right after we were scattered, Ram-san was quite panicked. She couldn't find Rem-san, and now she's hiding it behind a brave face, but—"
"…I see."
Hearing this from Anastasia in a whisper, Subaru felt even more guilty about his argument with Ram upon waking.
Ram had spent a year with Rem's existence erased from her memory—Subaru had witnessed that firsthand. Between the two of them, something surely still lingered in the space where Rem had disappeared. Of all people, Subaru was the one who had to believe that.
"Well, it's no fun if we all walk around looking gloomy together. If you've reflected, you should look straight ahead. Otherwise, you'll miss the important things."
"…Don't change the subject. You're too good at saying comforting things—something similar almost happened to you with the original version of yourself, you know."
"I'd appreciate it if you could separate that 'original' from me by now. If you keep it up, you'll start to creep out the ladies. This comes from my own experience of observing the times, you know."
"I don't know any other approach, so I'll keep it on the edge of my mind."
Exchanging banter amid clicks of the tongue, they masked their impatience and anxiety over the lack of progress.
Woven through that conversation, the group advanced deeper into the great cavern. Along the path of sand flanked by sand walls—unchanging in every direction—several thoughts occupied their minds. Specifically: "For all our caution about this possibly being a magical beast's lair… We haven't run into a single one."
"That's been weighing on Ram as well."
Ram agreed with Subaru, who kicked at the sand beneath his feet as he grumbled.
They'd been advancing into the cavern for approaching an hour. The emptiness and silence stoked their anxiety, but what grew even stronger was a creeping unease and a bad premonition.
Naturally, the absence of hostile creatures was nothing to complain about, but the sheer quiet was impossible to shake. —As if they had been severed from the world itself.
"This couldn't actually be some pocket dimension with no connection to anywhere, could it?"
"If so, then where does the wind we're relying on come from? Want to imagine it as the breathing of this cavern's master—some extraordinarily large and ferocious magical beast?"
"I'm terrified that I can't laugh that off."
In truth, nothing would be surprising anymore. He had already witnessed the world tearing apart with his own eyes. No matter where that rift led, it shouldn't be cause for shock.
"Setting aside the malicious team composition, it's hard to believe that the party who orchestrated the ruse's collapse had anticipated this. It wasn't a deliberate invalidation—it must have been a product of chance."
"So what does that mean?"
"The worst-case scenario of this path leading straight into a magical beast's stomach is pointless to even imagine. —Look, over there."
Ram rationally dismissed the pessimism born from their lack of progress. She then stopped before Subaru and gestured for him to look ahead.
Following her cue, Subaru squinted and thrust his torch forward. The illuminated passage narrowed—and before them— "A fork in the road."
"Right or left, I suppose. What do we do?"
"According to my knowledge, when you come to something like this, Kurapika says to go right."
"Who's that?"
From a behavioral standpoint, Subaru vaguely remembered hearing that when people were uncertain, they tended to unconsciously favor the left. He supposed the conditions became complicated when factoring in dominant eye, dominant hand, dominant foot, and so on, but the point was that such a theory existed.
Following the logic of the cerebral character he knew, the correct answer would be to go right— "So, which way does Barusu want to go?"
"…Honestly? Left."
"Are you ignoring Kurapika's advice?"
"Who's that?"
Ram pressed Subaru's answer with another question, and Anastasia teased him for it.
Reading only the words, that exchange could be taken at face value.
—But in reality, all three of them wore pale expressions, their faces rigid. Even Patrasche, who couldn't understand the words, glared down the right-hand path with a fierce look.
The cause was the overwhelming negative sensation emanating from the right passage.
In abstract terms, a bad feeling. To choose more precise words—it bordered on terror.
Their instincts were sounding alarm bells: choosing the right path would be dangerous.
"I think the right side is… bad. I've got a feeling nothing good will come of it."
"For once, I agree with Barusu. Anastasia-sama?"
"In a Kararagi-style majority vote, once you've got two votes it's a done deal… Besides, honestly, I don't have the courage to choose the right side here either."
She waved both hands as if to say she couldn't afford a sleeve she didn't have—and that gesture was everyone's answer.
Not just Subaru. Ram, too, and Patrasche—all of them were sensing something inexplicable on the right-hand side. Therefore, the right path was off the table.
"Left, then. …This feels like being pushed toward a choice, which is an unpleasant feeling in itself."
"Then, should we turn back? There's nothing to gain."
"Saying there's nothing to lose—that's a bit too defeatist, isn't it?"
At the hesitant Subaru, Ram and Anastasia fired off their encouragement.
With a resigned shrug, Subaru stepped out in front of Patrasche and headed for the left path—straight ahead.
With misgivings still tugging at him, pressing forward this way would gradually carry them far from the right passage across the vast expanse of the cavern. The pressure he'd felt even through the sand walls began to recede, and the tension in his shoulders naturally eased.
"—What a terrible place."
Hearing Ram murmur the same sentiment, Subaru silently agreed.
That overwhelming negative presence he'd sensed at the fork in the right passage—his instinctive revulsion wasn't the only reason he'd chosen left.
There was one more reason.
—Somewhere deep inside Subaru's chest, something existed that screamed in exhilaration toward the right path.
The terror of obeying that voice.
That, too, was undeniably a major factor in his choice of path.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ The "non-combatant team" advanced through the cavern, passed the fork, and several more hours elapsed.
"————"
"————"
"————"
Slowly, the number of words exchanged by the three continuing their search of the great cavern had dwindled.
This was partly due to fatigue, but also the mental erosion from the monotonous darkness where even the passage of time had become ambiguous.
In truth, the sense that several hours had passed was Subaru's subjective feeling—he had no way of knowing for certain. It was possible they were managing their time better than expected, or equally possible that they were wasting far more time than they realized.
All he knew was that nothing had progressed. That was all.
"…Maybe I should've gone right at that fork."
"I thought you were finally going to say something and it turned out to be whining? Stop it. It's unseemly."
Muttering through dry lips, Subaru drew Ram's sharp rebuke.
But even her venom lacked its usual energy. She, too, was being consumed by the fear that they might find nothing at all at this rate.
He was certain they had already walked several kilometers on foot through this treacherous sandy path.
If the end of the cavern still wasn't in sight, then a bad premonition was all but inevitable. Doubting whether they'd taken a wrong turn was only natural.
If only they'd reached a dead end—at least that would give them an excuse to turn back.
"Those light beams that shot down from the surface… What do you think they were?"
Fearing that their negative conversation would continue, Subaru shifted the topic.
What came up was the light from the Watchtower—the trigger for this entire situation—presumably a defensive mechanism of the sand dunes prepared by the Sage.
"They were needles."
"Needles?"
In response to Subaru's question, Ram answered sparingly. She exhaled softly, then gently ran a hand through her pink hair.
"I don't know the exact mechanism, but they were long, thin needles launched with magic. The needles carried heat—probably a byproduct of the casting spell. But the needles themselves seemed to be specially made. After being deflected and landing on the sand, they crumbled and disappeared."
"…You got a good look in the middle of all that chaos."
"A passing glance was enough to tell."
She said it casually, but Ram's perception was anything but ordinary. In fact, when Subaru glanced at her, Anastasia shook her head in exasperation.
In Ram's case, she knew perfectly well what she was capable of, so her modesty was almost annoying. Still, the analysis was impressive.
"What do you think the purpose was?"
"To take out anyone approaching the Watchtower… But the way they specifically targeted Barusu is puzzling. Weakening the enemy by culling the weakest first is a basic tactic, so it could be that."
"Damn—I can't deny that!"
From a distance, if they'd judged him to be the weakest target, then that was that. But thanks to that, no one else had been hurt.
He could take comfort in the conclusion that it was a good thing he, the one with Return by Death, was weak.
But if that were the case— "So friendly contact with the Sage is going to be difficult."
"I think that's jumping to conclusions. From their perspective, they attacked without knowing who we are or what we want. There should still be room for dialogue—I think so, anyway."
"And in the worst case, what we need is the Sage's knowledge, not their personality. If they won't talk, we can just tie them up and rough them up until they do."
"Sister, that's literally the villain's argument!?"
"If you have something you need, you take the necessary measures. This isn't a child's errand."
Subaru was dumbfounded, but Ram was utterly matter-of-fact. That made her sincerity all the more palpable, and Subaru was made painfully aware of how shallow his own resolve was.
Whether it would actually come to that was another matter, but Ram clearly possessed the resolve to do it. That much was proof of her earnest dedication to Rem.
"————"
Contacting Ram's resolve made Subaru realize he might need to settle his own.
Not the resolve to dirty his hands for Rem—he shouldn't lay that burden at Rem's feet.
What he needed was the resolve to seize results.
When facing the being known as the Sage—regardless of who or what it turned out to be—the resolve to be ruthless and pragmatic.
"————!"
"Patrasche?"
At the same moment Subaru bit down on his lip in thought, Patrasche held her breath.
The earth dragon fixed her gaze ahead, her expression hardening as she let out a low growl. Noticing this, Subaru stopped and moved to soothe the dragon. He stroked her neck and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Did you notice something? What—"
"—The cause is this."
Interrupting the trail of Subaru's question, Ram answered in his stead. Anastasia grimaced and, like Patrasche, peered into the depths of the passage.
Naturally, nothing was visible in the darkness that stretched ahead. But in place of sight, a different sensation reached out to them. —Sliding into their nostrils was the smell of something savory burning.
"…Is that the smell of fire?"
"I can't identify it as anything else. Though it certainly doesn't feel like we're near any kind of kitchen facility."
"If this is a fire… then the smell means there are civilized people here, right?"
"————"
Both Ram and Anastasia hesitated to readily agree with Subaru's hopeful question.
He understood their reasoning. But the aroma wafting toward them was clearly the scent of something deliberately burning. Ram had mentioned cooking, and the smell was indeed close to that.
A campfire, or perhaps a cooking fire for a meal. If so— "Do you think it could be Emilia and the others?"
"If we assume they were dropped in the same location, then it's entirely possible. But whether using fire in this situation is foolish or reasonable… I can't really make that call."
"————"
Whoever was on the other side of that passage—debating it here wasn't going to yield an answer.
The thought of calling out to gauge the other party's intentions also occurred to him— "Just because someone's ahead doesn't mean they're friendly."
If it wasn't Emilia and the others, then the likely candidate was the "Sage." It was hard to imagine the Sage, who should be in the Watchtower, having come down here—but it wasn't impossible.
In that case, if hostilities continued, a corresponding level of attack power could be expected.
"…Should we hide our light and advance? If they're using fire, then they have a light source on their end. In the worst case, we can stay hidden."
"Checking what the source is makes sense, and that seems like a reasonable approach."
Anastasia nodded at Subaru's proposal, and Ram quietly agreed a moment later.
Of the two torches, the one belonging to Ram and Anastasia was extinguished. Then the group advanced into the passage where the smell of fire lingered, relying on only Subaru's light.
"Barusu."
"Hm?"
"If something happens, we're leaving you behind and running without looking back. Don't hold a grudge."
"If that happens, I'll make sure to curse you."
Perhaps seeing that he was on the verge of losing his nerve, Ram's words served to bolster his courage.
When Subaru saw the faintest hint of a smile on Ram's lips at his quip, he straightened up and took the lead down the passage. Feeling Patrasche's breathing at his back, he advanced as the scent of fire grew stronger, and then— "—! A light."
At the far end of the passage, he spotted a faintly flickering red glow.
Subaru immediately doused his own light and signaled for silence behind him. Then he crouched low and crept forward on silent feet, pressing through the sand to confirm the light's source.
One step, two steps—advancing, he could make out that the light seemed to fall around a bend. The passage curved gently to the left, and the fire came from beyond it.
"————"
Reaching the corner in silence, Subaru pressed his back against the wall and peeked around. A faintly warm breeze brushed his forehead, and he squinted involuntarily.
—The instant after, the ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way, and a sand slide sent his body tumbling diagonally.
"What—!?"
Unable to brace for the surprise attack, Subaru forgot to even dig in his heels and rolled down the slope. The fine-grained sand offered no purchase, and he slid all the way to the bottom headfirst.
Crashing face-first into a mound of sand, tumbling down roughly a dozen meters of steep incline, Subaru once again spat out sand and pushed himself up.
"Guah! Peh—! Sand again… No, more than that…"
Shaking his head, he surveyed his surroundings. The shock had made him drop his torch. Hoping it might be nearby, he groped around himself and his hand touched something solid.
For a moment he thought he'd found the torch, but it felt different from the hard material he'd been gripping moments ago. The surface was rough and dry, like a wooden stick. Hefting it, it was light, though reasonably thick and long.
"What… is this?"
Peering closely, he still couldn't make it out in the dark.
Tentatively sniffing it, it carried a faint smell of charcoal— "————"
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a sudden light erupted directly behind him.
What appeared at his back was a primitive radiance flickering red—what could only be called flame. And in the world that fire illuminated, Subaru saw the true nature of the object in his hand.
—It was, most likely, the leg of a living creature.
An animal that had been burned to charcoal—completely, entirely reduced to ash.
And scattered around where Subaru sat were more of those charred remains of what had once been living things. Subaru had slid right into the midst of countless burned corpses.
"Whoa!? Wha—! Waaah!?"
He flung the charcoal from his hands and stumbled backward instinctively. But what lay behind him was a terrifying flame, and its heat seared his nape—so this time he pitched forward. Only then did he turn around and face it head-on.
"————!!"
Struck full-on by a thunderous roar, Subaru thought with a hint of escapism: Why was it that every single magical beast's cry was designed to irritate a human being's discomfort to the absolute limit?
A shrill, cracking wail rose up—like a chorus of countless babies screaming in unison.
Amid a space strewn with charred corpses, a thing burned red—a blasphemous creature Subaru had never seen before. It was indeed a magical beast, but different in kind from any he'd known.
As far as Subaru knew, magical beasts were all distorted and grotesque, but they often resembled chimeras of existing creatures.
The
But the magical beast standing before him now—he didn't want to apply that framework.
"————!!"
The screaming magical beast, at first glance, bore some resemblance to a horse.
Four lean but powerfully built legs, built to charge across the earth. A torso supported by those four legs, and a long tail swaying from its hindquarters—just like a horse.
But where a horse's neck should have been, connecting to the head, there was a human torso. The human torso possessed two arms, making the creature a quadruped with two additional limbs. And from the neck of the human torso upward, there was no head. In place of a head, growing straight from the neck, were "horns."
The proof of a magical beast—the clear, distinguishing mark that separated it from any other animal.
Those horns grew where the head should have been. There was no head. Then where was the mouth that produced those cries? The human torso's chest and abdomen were split vertically, and a mouth lined with bared fangs declared its existence sideways.
"…A monster."
Even calling it a magical beast felt presumptuous—a blasphemy against life itself had taken form before his eyes.
In Subaru's frame of reference, it was closest to the mythical centaur—half-human, half-horse. But it was a warped image that looked as if someone had given up halfway through recreating it.
And this centaur, impossibly enough, had a mane of flame erupting from the back of its human portion, incinerating the sand cavern with unbelievable firepower and spraying red light in every direction.
Judging by that firepower, it was abundantly clear who had created the charred corpses scattered everywhere. His hope that fire meant civilized people had been a fatal miscalculation.
"————"
The centaur's human portion had arms with five fingers—identical to human arms.
The centaur's horse portion had hooves—identical to horse legs.
Its body spanned six to seven meters, making it the perfect size to stride through this cavern. —In other words, the master of this cavern was the creature standing before him.
"…A trap here too."
Holding his breath, Subaru despaired.
There was nothing he could do. He reached behind his waist and grabbed the handle of his whip, but he couldn't imagine what good it would do.
And as Subaru stood there, frozen, the centaur tilted its eyeless head and blasted a roar from its gaping maw, stoking his terror.
"—!"
In that instant, Subaru moved on instinct.
On the sand, he spun around and kicked a piece of charcoal toward the centaur. The thoroughly scorched remains were impossibly light, and the impact was negligible—but a distraction was all he needed. He lunged for the steep incline, trying to climb back up to the passage above. It would mean retracing his steps, but he couldn't afford to care. The problem was that he didn't know how far this centaur would pursue. It had been hunting and burning prey—it was hard to say how strong its appetite was. Of course, magical beasts were said to have an instinctive drive to torment and kill humans, so that wouldn't necessarily work in his favor. Still, if buying even a slim chance of getting higher up was— "Ngh—"
It was at that point that Subaru realized his body wasn't moving at all.
He hadn't kicked the charcoal, hadn't turned to scramble up the slope, hadn't even reached for his whip—none of it had happened.
—Because before any of that could occur, the magical beast's breath had already engulfed him in flame.
"—agh!"
The instant understanding reached him, Subaru screamed in agony as his entire body was scorched by burning pain. But his throat was seared, the oxygen in his lungs burned away—he couldn't produce a single sound.
The scorched skin blistered instantly, swelling and rupturing, unleashing fluids he'd never seen before across his entire body. Those fluids evaporated at once, and his blood truly began to boil.
"————"
He couldn't arch backward. He couldn't roll around in torment.
He could feel his muscles and fat being charred, melted, turned to mush. The pain grew distant, and Subaru experienced the illusion of drowning in fire.
Burns—these were burns. The severity of burns—hadn't he seen something about this somewhere?
Burns had stages, and if they progressed to the third degree, scarring was permanent, and skin grafts were necessary. He'd also heard that if thirty percent of a person's skin was burned, it alone would make skin breathing impossible, leading to death.
"————"
His short hair burned to the roots, his eardrums melted, and brain matter streamed from his ears. His lips and gums evaporated, baring his teeth, and in the agony of the heat wave, he bit through his own tongue. It didn't matter. He was already drowning. Burns—could this be healed? He'd never been confident about his face in the first place, but wouldn't getting burned like this make everyone lose interest in him? Emilia, Beatrice, Rem.
"—rus!!"
It's burning, burning, my vision is burning. Everything is burning, turning red, turning white.
The tremendous heat incinerated his blood, his eyelids dissolved away, the moisture in his eyeballs evaporated, clouding white until nothing was visible.
But—he heard something. He heard someone calling. He heard a baby crying. Someone descended beside him. Idiot. What. I said I'd run. Why did you come down here again? Coming down—what does that even mean. More than that—left, right.
A horse, a human. No—it's hot. Melting, burning—sleepy.
Melting, disappearing— ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "—How long are you going to keep sleeping? Wake up already, Barusu."
"Gwahbul!?"
Feeling his limbs refuse to move, sensing his charred consciousness crumbling apart, Subaru was yanked back to reality by a sharp shock.
Bolting upright with a start, Subaru wiped the cold sweat from his sand-caked forehead.
"Wh— Huh…? What?"
He looked around.
Dark. He couldn't see anything. The very thing that conjured the terror of just seconds ago.
"Hi—"
"…How pathetic. Cowering at mere darkness. It's not as if you're a child."
"—ah…"
He had involuntarily shrunk into himself, but at that voice, his eyes flew open.
Ram illuminated his face with her torch and let out a soft sigh. Then, kneeling quietly, she placed her hand on his cheek.
"What a pathetic expression."
"…Is my face still intact? It didn't melt or anything?"
"…I've never seen it melted, except in front of Emilia-sama."
The warmth of the palm touching his cheek was incomparably gentler than the heat he had endured.
And so Subaru understood—the difference between the sensation of flame and this other warmth, and what it meant about his situation.
That he had experienced "death and returned" once more.
And that this was yet another starting point, different from the two "deaths" he had met in the dunes.
That he had to challenge the conquest of this sand labyrinth with his life on the line.
—He had the strange sensation that the cold sand drifting across the sand sea was watching him, mocking him.