The battle began, dragged into motion by Roswaal's impatient strike.
"Perish."
And with those cold words, scorching hellfire detonated across the sky as though intent on burning it to nothing.
The savage flames spread across the night in an instant. Every warrior still fighting their desperate battle against the undead must have had their eyes drawn to that burning sky.
All to incinerate a single enemy—and yet this was far too much.
"To kill a fly in a room, you'd burn down the mansion?"
Setting the mansion ablaze just to accomplish a goal—only Petra and Otto would pull a stunt that outrageous.
And with a preemptive punch, Roswaal had demonstrated an excess that wouldn't lose to either of those two.
However— "Assessment of threat level: requires revision."
Flipping through the air and escaping the burning night sky, the enemy—
All that mansion-burning would be for nothing if the actual fly got away. Roswaal had simply scorched the sky and startled everyone around him for no reason.
If Roswaal had been the only one here— "El Minya."
Her peach-colored hair streaming behind her, Sphinx flew freely through the sky—and rising into her flight path, an indigo glint: the pinnacle of destructive magic that freezes a target's time in place, then shatters it.
A confirmed technique that delivered maximum effectiveness against the undead. A finishing blow, already proven.
"The fact that nobody besides Subaru and Betty has mastered shadow magic is a real problem."
Even against the undead army, if shadow magic users assembled in force, there'd be nothing to fear.
Then again, even with Beatrice's long lifespan, she'd never seen more than ten shadow magic users gathered in one place—so she knew it was an unreasonable ask.
With such pointless thoughts, Beatrice first executed the hesitation within her.
—in order to shoot through that wretched "enemy" bearing Ryuzu Meier's face.
"Ryuzu..."
Ryuzu Meier's fleeting smile flashed through Beatrice's mind.
Unlike the Ryuzu that Garfiel and Frederica revered as their grandmother, the original Ryuzu Meier—Ryuzu herself—had been Beatrice's very first friend.
Back then, it hadn't been acknowledged. The acknowledgment had come far too late.
But now was different. Now, Beatrice could properly grasp the magnitude of what her existence had meant. That was precisely why this "enemy's" appearance was, for Beatrice— "Quite fed up!"
In Beatrice's vision, Sphinx charged headlong into the volley of indigo arrows she'd unleashed.
The "enemy" narrowed her eyes slightly, then raised both hands before her face. From the five fingers on either side, white light poured forth, sweeping away every waiting Minya crystal.
Not a single cracking sound—the indigo crystals scattered and blew apart in pieces. But Beatrice's frustration couldn't be broken so easily.
"——!"
Sphinx, who should have deflected the threat—her expression twisted ever so slightly.
The reason: the indigo crystals she'd shattered remained in their fragmented state, becoming projectiles that spread outward and pursued the high-speed flying Sphinx.
"Magic is about image. The moment you think it's been blocked, it stops working."
But the crystal arrow that Minya manifested didn't matter because it was shaped like an arrow. The real payload was its effect—freezing the struck target's time and then shattering it.
It didn't need to be arrow-shaped. As long as it pierced the opponent, the form and size were irrelevant.
So, with her competitive pride ignited, Beatrice's projectiles refused to let Sphinx escape.
And then— "Assessment of threat level: once again, requires revi—"
"You're a hundred years too late to reconsider!"
Alongside the shards of Minya, Garfiel's savage form kicked off the ground and launched into the air, appearing right beside Sphinx as she desperately tried to evade.
Eyes sharp, fangs bared, Garfiel snarled like a wild beast. His supple arms swung with reckless power as he drove a full-force blow toward Sphinx.
In that instant, Garfiel and Sphinx's eyes met.
The hesitation of striking someone who wore his grandmother's face— "You don't smell like Granny—your hearts are different!!"
Such outside concern was unnecessary for the
The punch connected—catching Sphinx square across the face. The girl's body was hammered from the sky to the ground, and with a tremendous impact, Garfiel slammed both fist and body into the earth.
A thunderous boom like a boulder had fallen, and a plume of dust erupted. Past his swung arm, Beatrice could see Sphinx's body tumbling away like a leaf.
Garfiel's blow, pure and unreserved, brimming with unhesitating fury.
Even Beatrice might be reduced to mana dust from a single direct hit of that magnitude. Sphinx, however, was blasted beyond the smoke, rolling across the ground.
"Three-on-one cornering. Pretty good teamwork, wouldn't you say?"
"The one who threw the first tantrum gets to say that?"
"I wouldn't team up with the likes of you if my life depended on it."
From Beatrice and Garfiel respectively, barbed remarks flew at Roswaal's shrug—which radiated the air of someone who'd never been anything but calm and collected.
Dismissed like that, Roswaal simply shrugged once more.
And then— "...Once again: assessment of threat level requires revision."
In the clearing dust, Sphinx slowly moved her body and murmured those words.
Knocked to the ground and caked in dirt, Sphinx showed no pain on her face. But there was unmistakable damage accumulating in her voice.
"————"
Even so, she fixed her golden eyes on the three of them—Beatrice, Garfiel, and Roswaal.
What resided there wasn't hatred or anger born of emotion, but rather the coldly analytical gaze of an intellectual monster, one that regarded them purely as objects of interest.
"Tch. I don't like those eyes."
Like Beatrice, Garfiel felt a chill at the enemy's gaze and clicked his tongue. Roswaal wordlessly narrowed his eyes, beginning to churn mana within himself with unmistakable displeasure.
Keeping a side-eye on Roswaal to make sure he didn't charge in again, Beatrice stepped forward, glaring at the Sphinx who was trying to stand.
Speaking on behalf of these two unreliable partners, intending to sound out what truly lay beneath— "I'll call you by your name, Sphinx. What are you thinking—"
About to ask what she was really after— "————"
There, Sphinx's body trembled as she stood. Her gaze dropped to her own chest.
Protruding from Sphinx's thin chest was the tip of a blade. It had pierced through from behind—the killing blow, entering from the back and emerging from the front.
And gripping that blade was— "That girl gives off a bad aura. There's no reason to keep her alive."
Mitteld, speaking with that same ruthless bluntness, pulled the dagger out and stabbed again.
Three times—concentrating on her back and chest—then she seized Sphinx by the hair, forced her head up, and dragged the reverse-gripped dagger across her throat without mercy.
It was an undead body. No blood flowed. But without question, every wound was fatal.
Sphinx's body crumpled to its knees on the spot and pitched forward.
"You— you— you..."
Staring wide-eyed and tongue-tied at Mitteld—who was calmly checking that no blood stained her knife—Beatrice stood frozen.
Roswaal and Garfiel too had no words for Mitteld's actions.
Watching the three of them, Mitteld tilted her strikingly handsome head.
"I know she had history with you lot. But take it up with her grave. Battlefield rules."
"Well... I guess that's fair..."
A brutally blunt opinion—but Garfiel conceded, recognizing there was no room for argument.
Beatrice had been surprised many times by Volachian values, but she revised her assessment: she'd still been too soft in her understanding of their severity.
"Sphinx."
Regardless of Beatrice and Garfiel's consternation, Roswaal stepped forward. He looked down at the fallen Sphinx, and with an expression that betrayed no emotion, called the enemy's name.
Mitteld's strike was fatal—not only from its placement, but from the way Sphinx's body was crumbling apart in real time.
Her lower half had already mostly disintegrated into dust. The girl's face, which had been cracked from the start, had begun to separate at the seams, and it was only a matter of time before the whole thing shattered.
But Sphinx's undead life force hadn't yet been extinguished.
She had no strength for counterattack or flailing, but she could move her golden eyes—enough to stare back at Roswaal gazing down at her.
"————"
Even knowing the person inside was someone else, seeing Ryuzu's form crumble like this was painful.
What Roswaal felt was probably different from Beatrice's sentimentality. But Mitteld's thorough pragmatism may have robbed him of any means to heal that sentimentality.
Regardless—the source of suffering that all three of them had endured— "...That required more deliberation."
In a soft murmur, as her body disintegrated piece by piece, Sphinx spoke those words without a trace of pain on her face.
At first, Beatrice took it as an expression of regret for her own inadequacy.
"You three—"
But the words that followed made it clear that wasn't the case.
That addendum drew a sharp breath from Beatrice, and Garfiel growled, "Huh?"
Beatrice didn't fully grasp the meaning either. But she could sense it wasn't the kind of thing to be ignored—not idle last words.
And then— "Oh no!"
With that sharp exclamation, Roswaal's head snapped up.
His face was painted with urgency and self-reproach as he spun around—toward the chain-dragon carriage he and Beatrice had sent ahead, with Subaru still on board.
Drawn by Roswaal's urgency, Beatrice turned as well.
And driven by the restless churning in her small chest, she called— "—Subaru."
△▼△▼△▼△ It was instantaneous. Yes—everything happened in the span of an instant.
Noticing the wrongness, voicing that question, and then—all of it was swallowed by white light.
Emilia at his side,
Subaru Natsuki instantly intuited what that meant.
—That his life had been snuffed out, and "Return by Death" had begun.
The proof— "——I love you."
He heard the voice of the woman who had once found him and sworn she would never let him go again.
"Um, could you please let me process my confusion first?"
The instant that voice—equal parts exasperation, exhaustion, and a faint edge of irritation—reached him, the "Ready, set, go!" switch inside Subaru flipped.
"————"
He checked his footing, assessed the surrounding situation, and pieced together the moment from the faces present.
He was in the corridor of the chain-dragon carriage. Emilia and Julius had been talking when Rem joined them. In the flow of conversation, Subaru's last remark had been something about how "Maybe Priscilla fed me some nonsense back in
—and with that switch flipped, Subaru had cut through all of it in an instant.
"Subaru?"
Emilia called his name, startled. For a brief moment, her eyes would have caught Subaru's eyes darting around in rapid, dizzying circles.
"Schwartz-sama's eyes were darting back and forth, and it was, um... unsettling."
That was Tanza's comment—choosing her words carefully, yet unable to choose them carefully enough—at Subaru's unnatural behavior in the immediate aftermath of Return by Death.
Emilia's reaction to seeing the same thing was far more refined.
In any case— "Emilia, hold on a second."
He raised a hand, deflecting her follow-up questions, as Subaru's awareness sharpened to a razor's edge.
The sensation that enveloped him—the instinct born of an environment where death meant retry, where everyone's survival on the gladiator island was paramount—kicked into full gear. His concentration focused with extreme precision on identifying the cause of his death.
This was no time to be rattled by the question of whether he'd actually died. Without the gut-level awareness that he *had* died, he'd never reach a solution.
He had to understand that if he didn't make this switch quickly enough, he and everyone around him would lose their lives twice over.
"—? Um..."
"Rem, please."
Rem, her brow slightly furrowed, looked at Subaru's focused profile with a questioning gaze. But Emilia caught Rem's arm and held her back.
In that time, Subaru finished linking the events preceding his death with the cause of that death— "————"
Outside the window of the speeding chain-dragon carriage, he once again caught a foreign object hiding within the scenery.
In that instant, Subaru lunged at the window and shouted: "—Julius! Outside!"
"Understood!"
The change in Subaru that Emilia and Rem had felt—of course, Julius had sensed it too.
The proof was that he moved without a heartbeat's delay the moment Subaru called out. Julius drew his knight's sword behind Subaru, who was pressed against the window, slashed diagonally to cut away the corridor wall, then kicked the severed section away with his elongated limbs.
Then, carrying Subaru tucked under one arm, he burst outward—past the range of the Blessing of Wind Protection granted by the multiple earth dragons.
"Landing's on you!"
"I accept."
The instant they cleared the blessing's range, violent wind and inertia pummeled them. But Subaru had entrusted all his survival preparations to Julius, and Julius accepted.
Softly, yellow and green quasi-spirits materialized around Julius. One wove a carpet of wind; the other transformed the earth into a cushion—supporting their landing.
But Subaru's attention didn't land on the spectacular display of skill woven by Julius's renewed bond with the quasi-spirits.
Not when they'd lunged at the window and it was torn away with the wall. Not during the graceful landing through the howling gale afterward. His gaze was fixed on a single point—the girl falling from the sky.
"She really does look like Ryuzu-san..."
Peach-colored hair and a black tunic—the appearance was identical to the lovably grandmotherly Ryuzu. But no matter how worried Emilia had been about Subaru and Rem, surely even she wouldn't have dragged Ryuzu all the way to the Volachian Empire.
In other words, this couldn't be the real Ryuzu. The possibility that she was one of the Pico clones, bearing Ryuzu's exact appearance, was equally nil.
They'd all been given distinct hairstyles, individual ribbons and hair ornaments to tell them apart. This one had none of those—which meant it was none of them.
"Julius! That girl! Hold her down!"
Pointing at the fake Ryuzu descending from the sky, still airborne above the ground, Subaru screamed.
Hearing Subaru's appeal, Julius too spotted the girl who blended into the night sky. What she was and what she was going to do—he pushed every such question aside as "Optimal" took flight.
Setting Subaru down on the soft earth, Julius's body wrapped itself in the remnants of the wind carpet, used it as a platform to leap through the air, and beelined straight for the fake Ryuzu.
At Julius's ferocity, the fake Ryuzu recognized him as a threat.
In that instant, the fake Ryuzu's eyes blazed with a vivid gold that even night couldn't dim—and from a distance, Subaru could now tell she was an undead with deathly pale skin.
Without hesitation, the fake Ryuzu raised a hand toward Julius, and an accursed white light was about to be unleashed— "In, Nes, lend me your power."
Where the fake Ryuzu's fingertip had kindled light, a different white light washed over Julius's entire body in a soft glow—while a dark light simultaneously shrouded the fake Ryuzu.
The instant it became clear that two quasi-spirits had simultaneously cast light magic and shadow magic, Julius's knight's sword flashed. The arm upon which the fake Ryuzu's light had rested went limp.
"Explanation required."
"I cut the tendon in your shoulder. It will no doubt reconnect immediately, but..."
Julius dutifully answered the fake Ryuzu's question about why her arm had gone limp. At the end of his response, still airborne, Julius twisted his body—and his elongated limb drove into the airborne girl, slamming her down toward the ground.
Where the fake Ryuzu was about to land, the earth transformed alongside a burst of yellow light. The ground grew more viscous, cradling the girl's body soft and deep—and then hardened all at once.
The result: wrapped like she'd been bundled in a stone futon, the fake Ryuzu was immobilized.
"I advise against resistance. If you ignore this warning, I will treat you as an 'enemy' without distinction between the living and the dead."
"————"
With his sword leveled at the fake Ryuzu lying face-up on the ground, Julius delivered that declaration.
Having neutralized his opponent, Julius glanced at Subaru—who had witnessed the whole thing—and nodded. Subaru, who'd been forced to just watch, scratched his cheek.
"No, I mean, this is exactly what I wanted you to do... But seriously, that guy? He's clearly way stronger than before."
The quasi-spirit-aided fighting style was sleeker, more refined than before.
With contracts to quasi-spirits of all six elements, this was the Spirit Knight at full power—a hybrid combat style that blended magic and swordsmanship.
"Wow, amazing! You took her down in the blink of an eye!"
Emerging from behind Subaru, having run over with grass crunching underfoot, was Emilia.
She'd apparently leapt from the carriage after Subaru and Julius, and her eyes were round at how brilliantly Julius had handled the situation.
"Emilia-tan, where's Rem?"
"I had Otto and the others told that you and Julius jumped off. I had to hurry too, so I came right after—"
"No, it's not that you were slow—it's that he was way too fast. And not bringing Rem was the right call."
He'd briefly worried the current Rem might jump down too, but thanks to Emilia's sound judgment, they'd avoid dragging her into danger.
Although, come to think of it, the Rem with her memories would have been totally likely to jump too—so either way, Emilia's instruction to stay behind was absolutely right.
In any case— "This isn't Ryuzu-san, right?"
"She looks just like her, but she's definitely a zombie. Now that I think about it, would Betty and Ryuzu-san actually turn into zombies...?"
The thought of Beatrice or Ryuzu dying was unbearable, but given their bodies were constructed differently from ordinary living beings, it was an open question whether zombification was even possible for them.
Then again, with that zombie in Ryuzu's likeness right here, unless she was a miraculous lookalike, her origin had to be the same as Ryuzu's.
As Subaru ran through this speculation—unnecessary though it might be—he followed Emilia toward the spot where Julius had captured the fake Ryuzu.
"She is capable of both speech and thought, Subaru. Be cautious."
"Right. Realistically, she's probably capable of far more dangerous things than her appearance suggests. Emilia, will you keep an eye on her too?"
"Yes, leave it to me. As long as you behave yourself too, then... um..."
Entrusted with vigilance, Emilia perked up—but fumbled over what to say to the fake Ryuzu.
"Resist and you'll be hurt"—was that warning even meaningful against an undead? Even so, she absolutely couldn't let her guard down.
This tiny existence had, moments ago, blown away the entire chain-dragon carriage along with all of them in a single breath.
Even with all four limbs sealed and immobilized, could they truly call it safe?
"Too bad the preemptive strike didn't work."
"—You are..."
"My name is—well, my reflex is to introduce myself, but I'm not here to make friends. The deal is: you're dangerous, and I stopped your scheme. That's the extent of it."
"I see. A curious individual. At first glance, you don't appear to possess any notable ability."
Lying on the ground, the fake Ryuzu looked up at Subaru and delivered that assessment.
He was used to being underestimated, so the evaluation didn't ruffle him. Beside him, Emilia looked ready to speak, but Julius shook his head and restrained her.
In any case— "The other zombies haven't shown up. Could she have flown ahead alone? If so, and she thought she could take us out by jumping the gun—too bad for her."
In reality, that preemptive strike had caught him dead once already, but he kept that to himself.
If this provocation got her to talk, it'd be a bonus. Though it seemed she wasn't exactly the type to be goaded—no blood draining from her face out of sheer spite. No satisfaction in provoking a reaction.
But with this type, the classic move was to keep throwing out off-the-mark comments until curiosity got the better of them and they couldn't resist showing off their intelligence.
If need be, Subaru was fully prepared to play the part of the most committed fool of a lifetime.
But— "Varga Cromwell."
"Hm?"
Without warning, the girl lying on the ground spoke an unfamiliar name.
—No, it rang a distant bell, somewhere. But Subaru couldn't immediately place when or what it referred to.
Beside Subaru, who frowned in confusion, Emilia and Julius reacted differently.
Both of them seemed to recognize that name.
But before either Emilia or Julius could press the fake Ryuzu for more— "This was his plan—one that was never executed at the time."
The fake Ryuzu continued faster than they could speak.
And the subsequent development connected seamlessly, ignoring the inquiry that had fallen a beat behind.
"Subaru!!"
Instantly, Emilia's voice turned sharp. She grabbed him with brute force, teeth clenched—and a wall of ice materialized around them.
Inside that ice barrier, Julius repositioned his knight's sword—aimed downward at the fake Ryuzu at his feet—and wreathed himself in a prismatic light formed by the combined power of all six quasi-spirits.
For the imminent crisis, Emilia and Julius had completed their instantaneous preparations.
And then— "—"
From far off in the sky, a cascade of white light poured down and obliterated everything in an instant, as though mocking their efforts.
△▼△▼△▼△ "Um, could you please let me process my confusion first?"
"——!"
At Rem's voice—equal parts exasperation, exhaustion, and irritation—Subaru let out a short breath.
Unlike last time, the self-reproach of having known what "death" was coming and failed to avoid it, and the soul-deep tremor of having received that known shock, hammered Subaru's heart from the inside.
—He had completely misjudged the cause of "death."
He'd latched onto the obvious, visible change and, buoyed by that, convinced himself he'd prevented it.
The first time: the interval between perceiving the fake Ryuzu and "death" had been so short that he'd completely missed what was actually happening.
The devastating white light that had obliterated them hadn't been fired by the fake Ryuzu at all—it had come from somewhere else entirely.
"Subaru?"
"—Emilia, hold on."
Sensing Subaru's introspection, Emilia tilted her head. He raised a hand in acknowledgment.
Interrupt self-reflection. Throw away regret. Self-reflection still had productive value, but regret was just self-indulgence dressed up as contrition.
If he indulged in that, he couldn't save himself, let alone anyone around him.
That was unacceptable. Absolutely, unequivocally unacceptable.
In that moment, the fake Ryuzu had uttered the name "Varga Cromwell." It hadn't clicked for Subaru yet, but Emilia and Julius seemed to know it. Should he ask for the details? —No, that could wait. Even if he learned who this Varga was, it wouldn't make the white light's destructive power disappear. That attack was real—an unprecedented threat standing right before them. He had to defend against it. But was it even possible to prevent it from being fired in the first place? The fake Ryuzu couldn't be unrelated to that attack in that situation—but was she the type of undead who could be negotiated with? If she was capable of speech, wasn't shutting down negotiation a dangerous move? No—if she was someone you could talk sense into, she wouldn't have attacked without cause. Whether talkable or not, you needed to set the table before you could sit at it— "—? Um..."
"Rem, please."
Beside Subaru, whose thoughts were sparking, Emilia restrained Rem's question.
Same flow as before—but from here on, he had to change the trajectory. Order it in his head: what happened, what he did, and then—off the rails that led to "death." Change the critical branch point.
For that— "—Julius! Outside! Emilia, come too!"
"Understood!"
"Yes! I'm coming!"
The instant the girl—the harbinger of coming "death"—flickered past the window, Subaru lunged at the window and called to Emilia and Julius behind him.
Without hesitation, Julius's sword strike cut the chain-dragon carriage's wall, and with the falling wall as cover, the three of them went outside. Then, before they could escape beyond the Blessing of Wind Protection's range— "—Rem! I need a favor!"
△▼△▼△▼△ A gleam of the elongated limb—a kick strike hammered the fake Ryuzu to the ground, and the earth transformed its nature, receiving the undead's body. Once again, a dirt futon restrained her entire form.
"I advise against resistance. If you ignore this warning, I will treat you as an 'enemy' without distinction between the living and the dead."
"————"
Lying on the ground beside where those words had been spoken, the fake Ryuzu stared at Julius with his sword leveled at her. Perhaps she was marveling at Julius's fluid skill—but his combat displayed none of the advantage Subaru's Return by Death should have provided.
Julius had subdued the enemy through sheer ability alone, and Subaru clenched his fist.
"This isn't Ryuzu-san, right?"
After neutralizing the fake Ryuzu in a brief exchange, Julius stood over the figure at his feet. This time, Emilia—who had jumped from the carriage with them—furrowed her well-shaped brows.
Subaru didn't know the fake Ryuzu's true identity either. All he knew was that she was an undead, and that she possessed both hostile intent and the capability to act on it.
"She looks just like her, but she's neither Ryuzu-san nor one of Pico's clones. More importantly—put me down and stay on guard! Get ready, Emilia!"
"On guard? But Julius already beat her—"
"Something much bigger is coming. Big enough that we'll be in trouble if we're not prepared."
With that, Subaru slipped from Emilia's arms.
He'd left Emilia to handle his landing this time and had Julius immediately restrain the fake Ryuzu. Then, giving the surprised Emilia a nod, he dashed over to where Julius was holding the fake Ryuzu— "Great work! But it's not over yet! A massive shot is coming from somewhere in the sky! If we don't stop it, we're all done for!"
"From the sky?"
"I've got Emilia doing deep breathing!"
Skipping over the details, Subaru pointed to Emilia behind him.
There, Emilia stood with arms spread wide, breathing slowly, deeply, and at length—heightening her focus and preparing for what was about to unfold.
Seeing that, Julius nodded. The six-colored quasi-spirits began to swirl around him.
"You are..."
As Subaru briskly pushed Emilia and Julius to prepare, the fake Ryuzu—restrained against the ground—fixed him with a gaze full of doubt.
From their exchange, she'd already grasped that he was the one who'd been directing their movements. But the fake Ryuzu's surprise didn't end there.
"Varga Cromwell."
"————"
"That's your strategist's name, isn't it?"
One eye closed, Subaru conveyed to the fake Ryuzu that he'd seen through her.
In reality, he didn't even know what Varga Cromwell was—but the trick was never letting that slip.
Using information he'd heard from the fake Ryuzu herself, he stunned her into silence.
In fact, for the first time, the fake Ryuzu—whose expression had never changed—stiffened her cheeks and fixed Subaru with a gaze more intense than any before.
"I should have been watching the mage and the spirit more closely. But you also require attention."
"...You've seen through the plan. You might as well give up gracefully."
Go ahead, Subaru tried to continue the bluff. But the fake Ryuzu didn't have a heart that buckled under bluffs—and moreover, her true aim was something else entirely.
The fake Ryuzu's stratagem wasn't the kind that failed just because it was seen through.
"Varga's plan can't be stopped, even when it's been figured out."
In that instant, the white light descended from far in the sky toward Subaru and the others—no. Wrong.
The white light wasn't aimed at Subaru and the others. It was aimed at the fake Ryuzu lying on the ground—fired to mow down everything on the surface.
"—Subaru!!"
The approaching "death" in the form of light—before it could obliterate Subaru's existence, Emilia extended her hand and threw up an ice barrier that clashed head-on with it.
At the same time, his collar was yanked, and Subaru's body toppled into the gap between Emilia's bracing feet. Right before his eyes, closer to the light's trajectory than Subaru was, the fake Ryuzu was swallowed by the white light and vanished.
That must have been how it worked all along.
The white light had been aimed at the fake Ryuzu. Her existence served as the targeting marker, and the detonation's radius was what had swallowed Subaru and the rest—the chain-dragon carriage.
Plunging into enemy lines, becoming the living coordinates for an overwhelming bombardment. —No. Dead coordinates, since she was dead. Either way, whoever had devised this was completely insane.
"That son of a bitch, Varga Cromwell!!"
"Al Clauzelia!!"
To Subaru's heartfelt scream, Julius's incantation—blade pointed toward the light—answered in kind.
A rainbow aurora was born. Its brilliance became a wall that crashed into the white light, while Emilia's multiple layers of ice barriers—moments from being shattered by the light—held at the last possible second.
The white light of annihilation, versus the aurora-wreathed ice wall of protection.
Unlike the previous loop where they'd been too unprepared and could only take the hit head-on, they'd had time to build power against the white light. That was why Emilia and Julius could resist it this time.
But even so— "Nnnngh—ahhhh—!"
"Ggh... ku..."
Straining in their voices, Emilia and Julius fought back against the white light.
But the fact that even these two together couldn't push it back—just how powerful was this thing? All Subaru could do in this scene was brace Emilia's back.
"Come on! Both of you, hang in there!"
Gritting his back teeth, Subaru—who couldn't provide physical support—shouted morale.
If only that would fire them up, if only a surge of power would materialize to blow the white light away entirely. But things didn't work like that.
No matter the situation, a helping hand never reached down from the void out of nowhere.
No matter how much you prayed and wished, cards you hadn't been dealt couldn't be played.
And so— "—Good of you to call me. Well done, well done."
That carefree voice—so at odds with the desperate situation—reached Subaru, and he held his breath.
Someone walked past. As they did, they reached out and ruffled Subaru's head with a large hand, then strolled up to Emilia and Julius with the casual ease of someone out for a walk.
Both of them were startled by the newcomer's sudden approach— "Aye, and here's where it's at."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the figure who'd stepped before them pulled an arm from his sleeve and flung something into the white light.
It was a light that devoured everything, reducing it to dust. Anything thrown into the other side of what Emilia and Julius were desperately holding back with their barriers would be swallowed and erased.
Or so it would seem.
"No way..."
Emilia let out a breathless whisper, her violet eyes going wide.
What reflected in those beautiful eyes was not the white "death" that had been bearing down on them—it was the thick, clouded night sky, carved open in the shape of light, with not a trace of the annihilation remaining.
Seeing the same thing, both Subaru and Julius were struck mute.
The aurora-wreathed ice barrier that had clashed with the light had also vanished. The fake Ryuzu who had served as the target was gone, erased by the light. There was nothing left— "Thanks to the blue demon's boy for calling me over. All three of you did a fine job, though. How about a sweet?"
Saying that, the werewolf who had brushed aside overwhelming "death" with a single hand—the strongest being of the city-state—turned to face them and smiled.
Then, rummaging through his pockets with his pipe still clenched between his teeth, he tilted his head— "Oh, I don't actually have any candy on me."
—and with that, he waved his empty hands, leaving the drained Subaru to sit down hard on the ground.