Several hours had passed since Subaru had been chained to the wall, his one-sided conversation with Petelgeuse cut off, and he had been left alone.
The cold floor took the heat from his body, and Subaru's body was not responding as he wanted it to. He was in a daze because he had lost all his strength, his body heat and he was running a fever.
Subaru was panting and breathing heavily, drool dripping from the corners of his mouth, but there was no one here to look after him in that state, let alone anyone who even noticed him.
"Move all the fingers of your remaining left hand. Clear the people from the road with just your right hand. If you can't handle it, you'll have to consider leaning forward to block the road."
In contrast to Subaru, who wasted away at the edge of the cavernous hall, Betelgeuse was endlessly energetic as he stood in the center of the hall clapping his hands and giving instructions in a high-pitched voice.
Although his appearance can only be described as a skeleton wearing human skin, his voice, eyes, and movements all reveal that he is overflowing with life.
He was behaving in a way that was appropriate for the word "diligence" that he repeatedly used, and it was clear that he was doing so consciously. It was hilarious that, given that he was such a character, he would mention the character's name, "Sloth," but there was no one here who could laugh at that.
One after the other, shadows in black clothes appeared beneath Petelgeuse, who sat in the center of the cave. Each one brought a whisper to Petelgeuse that did not shake the air, and upon receiving it, Petelgeuse followed his instructions and once again dissolved into the darkness as shadows.
Betelgeuse is the only one who is not moving, and it is impossible to tell the difference between the others who come one after the other, but if they are all different people, there must easily be over twenty of them.
The image of a group of people in black clothes emerging from the shadows stimulated my mind, as if connecting to some kind of memory.
"--Ah, now that I think of it, you were there. How is it, do you feel like talking about something?"
Once all the black shadows had disappeared and the two were alone again, Betelgeuse made his move. He walked unceremoniously towards Subaru, and looked down at his feverish, red face,
"Are you in pain? Are you in pain? Are you sad? Are you angry? If we're comrades, I'm not reluctant to be sympathetic, but is that what you want?"
"――――"
"Oh, how cold!"
Subaru responded by silently turning his face away as the madman drew closer.
Seeing this, Betelgeuse slapped his knee with amusement, turned away and tilted his head,
"Death is starting to show a pretty appropriate reaction, isn't he? With just a little more effort and a little more shaking, I think he'll understand you."
"――――"
"What do I need? What can I bring to you? What can I do to make your heart tremble and repay your love? That's good...!"
Petelgeuse gets excited all by himself, leaving Subaru behind as he shouts in ecstasy.
And, just as he was about to enter his own world again, basking in his ecstasy and spouting nonsense, he was suddenly interrupted.
"Oh dear?"
As Petelgeuse turned around, black shadows rose up from the ground one after another in front of him.
The black-robed figures, who appeared as if they had sprung up from the shadows - there were more than ten of them - knelt on the spot and looked up at Betelgeuse in silence.
Upon seeing them, Betelgeuse tilted his hips, his neck, and his eyes,
"What's going on?"
"――――"
"What, the left hand has surrounded them? Alone? Isn't that amazing?! Outnumbered, wounded, they still desperately hang on... but on the other hand, how pathetic and lazy my fingers are! Did they manage to escape?"
"――――"
"Are they running away? Instead of going outside to ask for help, have they come crawling inward? Covered in wounds! Coming towards us with an uncertain number! Ahh, well, well, well, well, well, well - what loving and diligent creatures!!"
Clap his hands, face and eyes shining, Petelgeuse bounced as he turned towards Subaru. He then bent down and met Subaru's gaze, and with a childlike smile,
"You should be happy! That you are loved that much! A diligent person is risking his life for you! Ahh, my brain, my brain, my brain is trembling!"
Petelgeuse spits in excitement, soiling Subaru's face, and stands up, busily walking between the kneeling shadows,
"Is the girl coming? Ah, so you have returned. That's great! That's very good! I really, really, really, really want to welcome you. I must go and welcome you with my own hands!"
"――――"
「Yes! That will be great! Use all the fingers of your left hand and guide me to the entrance! If you collapse on the way, that's fine, but if you can reach the entrance without collapsing, I will come and greet you. Ah, ah, ahhhhh, isn't that wonderful?!」
Petelgeuse was beaming with joy. I couldn't understand what he was saying.
But Subaru twisted his body, and with a feverish expression on his face, opened his mouth, and only a groan escaped from his mouth, guided by an incomprehensible sensation welling up from inside him.
However,
"----!"
No sound came out of my mouth, as if it was blocked by something invisible.
It was different from the feeling of having one's throat blocked by fear or some other emotion. It was more like having one's mouth blocked by some physical interference.
Subaru's eyes widened as he felt an invisible hand being placed over his mouth. Then, looking up at him, Betelgeuse laughed loudly.
"Well, there's no need to be in such a hurry... we still have time."
Betelgeuse's dry laughter echoed through the cavern.
The sound, the unpleasant rumble that hit his ears, made Subaru's mouth feel blocked, but he couldn't form a single word. He simply waited patiently for the time to pass, breathing heavily and without laughing or shedding a tear.
--The change came within less than an hour.
The black-robed men continued to kneel in silence as usual. Betelgeuse silently zigzagged between them, the only sounds of his footsteps and Subaru's heavy breathing shaking the air in the hall.
The first to look up was a dark shadow kneeling closest to the corridor leading to the hall.
Following the figure's movements, the cultists raised their heads one after the other. Their gazes were all directed in the direction of the cave entrance, and when Betelgeuse noticed their movement, he also looked in that direction - a smile of delight that looked as if it would split the corners of his mouth.
"Here we go, okay?"
The joyful murmurs were drowned out by a resounding roar.
The immense mass was shattered with the force of a bomb, the sound of the destruction violently shaking the cold air of the cavern. The chain reaction of sounds traveled along the hard ground, reaching Subaru as he tumbled forward, and everyone there sensed that the entrance had been smashed open with a violent knock.
The shadow rose to its feet and took out a cross from its pocket, ready to go.
The cave was too small for a dozen people to move around in. This hall was fairly spacious, but it was still only the size of two school classrooms at most.
There wasn't enough space to fly around, run around, or do anything, and that was actually an ideal situation for the intruders, who were outnumbered.
After all, her prey was,
"--Found it."
Even from afar, it could be seen that the roaring iron ball swept away the flying black shadows, smashing them into the wall and turning them into red stains.
The iron ball that had easily taken three lives with the first hit was a deadly weapon that would take a life from the root if it hit directly - there was no option but to dodge, but even that was difficult in the narrow cave.
The iron ball fell to the ground, shattering the rock face, and the thorns covered in blood and flesh were dragged along with a heavy sound. The girl stepped forward, her blue hair now dyed a deep black, but she still cast her bright gaze into the hall, and found the boy lying on the ground.
Her lips trembled fondly, and she took a small breath.
"That's good, Subaru-kun--"
The girl who called out Subaru's name and relaxed her shoulders in relief - Rem.
The sight was so gruesome that it was clear that he had survived such a terrible experience.
There was not a single spot on her body that wasn't soaked in blood. Her blue hair was stained dark black, and there was not a single white spot left on her charred apron dress. Her legs, peeking out from her torn and ripped skirt, were riddled with lacerations, and worst of all, her left arm was missing from the elbow down.
Rem was smiling faintly, her left eye covered with blood dripping from her split forehead, the scent of blood and death covering her whole body, and she had pushed through this far despite being completely injured.
"Oh -- how wonderful!"
And seeing her in such a horrific state, Petelgeuse cheered.
He even forgot about the fact that his friend had been murdered by her right in front of him, and instead used it as further fuel for his enthusiasm as he strode along in the moment with a joyous and happy attitude.
"A girl! A girl! Even though she has been hurt this much, she still goes forward! For what reason? For this boy! You, who have gone to such lengths to save the witch, the boy favored by the witch, are also blessed with love, and live in love!"
"No more excuses, Witch Cultist..."
Standing between Subaru and Rem, Petelgeuse was laughing with glee, foaming at the mouth. Rem stared coldly at him,
"You are a group of fools who have been acting unruly in the Mathers territory without the permission of its lord, Roswaal. In place of your lord, who is not here with us, Rem will punish you."
"Are you in such a tattered, tattered, tattered state? Stop talking as if you can do things you can't. After all, you only came here to bring this boy back. Stop using nice-sounding, decorative words."
Crouching down, Petelgeuse grabbed Subaru's head and forced him to look up.
Petelgeuse happily grabbed the hair and raised the reluctant Subaru's head up and down,
"...Luna."
"What is it?"
"I told you not to touch that person!!"
Roaring in rage, Rem's body leaps into the air, straining her injured body.
As if chasing her as she flew, the black shadows that had been standing on the ground also shot up into the air. Two shadows leapt at Rem. The black-clad figures brandished cross blades that melted into the darkness, and pursued Rem's body as she leapt in a straight line.
"----!"
The blade was swung at Rem from directly below, aiming to skewer her torso. However, to counter the attack from below, she swung her left arm - her arm that was missing from the elbow - and turned her body, dodging the blade as it grazed her body in mid-air.
"Ruaa!"
She swung her right arm, and the iron ball moved in tandem with her movement, smashing the face of one of the men in black clothing. At the same time, her fist clenched the handle and hit the head of the other man, caving in his skull and knocking it off.
As the two bodies fell, Rem's body landed in the center of the hall, right in the middle of the gathered fanatics, and everyone thought she had made an error of judgment.
In fact, the fanatics readied their blades and rushed towards the girl, who fell to her knees as she landed.
The number of blades thrust into her was more than enough to cover the fingers on the girl's hands, and if she was hit by them, it was inevitable that the blow would be fatal. However,
"--El, Huma!!"
In response to Rem's blood-spitting scream, the corpse beside her jumped. No, the blood gushing out of the corpse changed shape due to the interference of mana.
A spear of fresh blood shot up from the ground, impaling the shadow that had carelessly rushed towards it. The spear of frozen blood was fragile, and as it pierced the shadow, it broke at the base and lost its shape, but,
"--Ah!"
This bought Rem enough time to blow off the heads of the fanatics who had stopped in their tracks.
Blood, brain matter, and parts of skulls were scattered everywhere, and steam rose into the cold air of the cave. Every time Rem, the mass-producer of death, swung his arms, more corpses were born, and mountains were built.
There were roughly fifteen people in black clothing in the hall. Most of them had already lost their lives to Rem's attack, and it seemed unlikely that the remaining few would be able to stop her in her rage.
Rem's superiority was unquestionable. Injured and missing an arm, her strength still overwhelmed those in black.
But why is this?
"Ah, ah, ah..."
Petelgeuse holds his face and lets out a hot sigh as he watches his followers drown in the violence.
The more one senses that the expression is not one of grief, fear, or anxiety, but one of pure, unadulterated excitement, the more one's anxiety increases.
Next to Petelgeuse, Subaru watches the rampaging Rem fight.
The meaning, the reason for the scene, the image of her fighting, began to seep into my brain.
I don't understand. I don't want to understand. I'm not trying to understand.
But there is something that is conveyed. Watching her continue to fight despite being bleeding and injured, I feel an impulse well up from deep within my heart.
You can, or should, voice your fears.
But if you do that, you risk losing sight of yourself. You'll have to worry about what was right and what was wrong, and why things had to turn out the way they did.
Subaru was so afraid of this, so focused on his own cuteness, that...
"My brain is shaking"
As he spoke, Petelgeuse stood up.
Petelgeuse strode forward, the hem of his black robe swinging. Unlike his followers, he was holding nothing in his hands. On the contrary, he walked forward with a relaxed look, shaking his open hands and showing no signs of fighting.
With a body made of skin and bones, his movements seem far removed from strength.
Rem noticed the being's steps and knocked down another black shadow before leaping into the air. Hanging upside down from the ceiling, she glared at Petelgeuse below.
Her bent knees would gather explosive force, and in the next moment her body and arms would be projected, smashing Betelgeuse's slender body into pieces.
But, why?
Is this the kind of bad feeling that is disturbing my heart?
"--Hm."
A husky voice creeps out slightly from the back of his throat.
They were just meaningless fragments of words, and contained not even a trace of the feelings I wanted to convey. But gasping, she lifted her head, and opened her emotionless eyes wide,
"...Remu"
In a weak, whispering voice, he spoke that name for the first time in ages.
"--a"
That voice, that voice that seemed to be drowned out, could only be heard by her?
With her body upside down in the air, the girl's face, covered in blood, takes on a faint, soft expression.
Her lips loosened just a little, and her eyes trembled with joy as she gazed upon Subaru.
--Countless crosses pierced her and plunged her body to the ground.
※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※
Subaru was speechless as he saw blood spreading from Rem's fallen body.
Screams and groans of pain echoed throughout the room, and the sound of sharp things piercing flesh was repeated endlessly.
It was the sound of the blade of the cross stabbing again and again into Rem's fallen body.
The blades that had fallen out of their sockets floated in the air, searching for skin that hadn't yet been pierced, before re-stabbing. There were now eight blades without an owner, and they repeatedly stabbed into Rem's body, pulled out, and then stabbed somewhere else.
"The authority of 'Sloth' - the invisible hand, Death."
Petelgeuse muttered as he looked down at Rem, blood spurting out of her.
He raised both his hands in front of his face, waving them as if to show that he had no hands,
"Reaching out to unreachable places. Doing something without moving. Working diligently with a lazy body -- Ah, my own "laziness" makes my brain tremble!"
The crosses were drawn all at once and once again pierced her body.
Rem's body no longer even let out a cry of pain; it just remained face down on the ground, not moving a muscle.
Subaru was speechless as he watched Rem's final moments in shock.
With her eyes wide open, forgetting even to breathe, the blue-haired girl sank into the darkness, and once again, her consciousness began to fade as she was faced with the difficult reality of her final moments.
However,
"You're not allowed to run away."
His escape was cut off by Betelgeuse, who grabbed his bangs and roughly forced his face up.
Subaru grimaced in pain and shock, and Betelgeuse brought his face close to him, his grey eyes wide and ready to pop out of his head, moving wildly.
"Look, look, look. The girl is dead. She died for love. She fought despite her wounds, she stepped forward against her fear, but she ended up accomplishing nothing."
"Uh, ah..."
"I will see it. I will burn it into my memory. The results of your actions."
"--a?"
Petelgeuse pulls his face forward with all his might, refusing to let Subaru look away from Rem, who is submerged in a pool of blood. He presses Subaru, who still tries to escape, to the ground, holds his face in place with both hands, and breathes fishy breath into him.
"It is the result of your actions. You did nothing and were lazy. That is why the girl died! You killed her."
"... before."
"With my arms! With my fingers! With my body! You, you, you, you, you, you, you... I killed him!!"
There was a crash and the sound of something being torn apart.
Right in front of Subaru's eyes, Rem's body bounced wildly.
His left arm had been torn off at the shoulder and thrown to the ground like trash, tumbling and exposed on the cold ground of the cave.
"Bang, bang, bang."
"...Melody."
Betelgeuse uttered some cheesy sound effect, and each time it did so, Rem's body was destroyed: her ear was torn off, her right ankle was twisted, the blade trembling and widening the wound.
Rem was being overrun.
That dignity was being violated right before his eyes, with ease and pleasure.
It was a sight so overwhelming that I couldn't even look away.
"--Petelgeuseeeee!!"
It was enough to bring Subaru, who had been afraid to face reality, back to his senses.
Subaru stretched his neck out to bite through the throat beside him. However, the handcuffs got in the way and he couldn't reach it. He leaned forward and the force of it caused his face to fall to the ground. Looking down at him, Betelgeuse chuckled with amusement,
"Ah, you finally called me by my name. I'm so happy!"
"I'll kill you, I'll kill you... I'll kill you, I'll definitely kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you! Kill me, kill me... Die, let me kill you, die, die, dieeeee!"
"Hate someone in order to live! Ah, how twisted and wonderful. It was all worth it for my diligence and that of my fingers."
"I'll kill you, I'll kill you. You will kill Rem. Kill, kill, kill meeeee. Ah! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Die, you! You, ahh, just die!"
They spit, throw curses, and let out angry roars of resentment.
His shackled arms creaked, and the shackles that dug into his legs absorbed the blood that floated to the surface and glowed dully.
I don't mind my arms being torn off, my legs being torn off.
If I could remove the shackles and kill the man in front of me right here and now, then that would be fine. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him so much. He should die. He shouldn't be allowed to live.
This man must surely be dead, right now, at this very moment.
"This place has gotten pretty dirty, so I think it's time to say goodbye."
Smacking his knee, Petelgeuse suddenly let out a sigh, erasing the manic laughter he had been harboring.
Ignoring Subaru, whose body was shaking with rage, he called his surviving followers together,
"We'll abandon this place. It'll be quicker than cleaning up. The trial is scheduled for the day after tomorrow, and will take place around where the index finger of the right hand is hiding. You who remain will carry out your duties as the left hand. However, it would be a good idea to gather all five fingers and divide the number of people equally, okay?"
"Die! Die! Die, die, die!"
Giving quick instructions, Betelgeuse clapped his hands, and with that as a signal, his followers turned into shadows and retreated into the dim darkness of the cave.
Betelgeuse slowly walked through the cave, where the number of survivors had been greatly reduced.
The sound of high-pitched footsteps echoed through the cavern, and as they retreated, Subaru let out a blood-curdling scream,
"Wait, damn it! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Die there! Die now! Die quickly! Die! Die! Die!!"
"Oops, I forgot."
Petelgeuse stopped in his tracks and turned around with a casual attitude.
Subaru looked up at his face, filled with hatred, and Petelgeuse nodded.
"I really don't understand your position. So I think I'll judge you based on whether the gospel is brought to you or not."
Raising his finger, Betelgeuse tilted his head ninety degrees and sneered gruesomely,
"The only thing waiting for you, who is left alone with your hands and feet tied, is death. But if the gospel is brought to you here, you will be saved."
"――――"
"If it helps, you're a comrade. If it doesn't, you're just a passerby. So, how about that?"
"What a brilliant idea," Petelgeuse laughs cheerfully, and this time he turns his back on Subaru. As he walks away, Subaru continues to curse him, pouring all his hatred out upon him, with his words and his will, in an attempt to kill Petelgeuse.
Without any sign of being affected by these things, Betelgeuse heads towards the exit.
And along the way, he stopped next to Rem's horribly mangled corpse,
"Ah, that's right, that's right. You did a great job."
He muttered, straightened his back in front of Rem's corpse, made a sign of the cross, and then
"You sacrificed yourself for love, resisted with all your might. But your love was torn apart, your love lost its place, and your wish was left unfulfilled, drifting in the void."
His tone changed from praising her to saying that her actions had been in vain, and Petelgeuse crouched down with a sneer on his face.
"Ah, you're lazy."
It was the ultimate insult to the existence of a girl named Rem.
"----!!!"
Roars and screams echoed throughout the cavern.
Rage so strong it clogged his throat, passion so strong it was impossible to put into words, regret so strong that tears of blood flowed, all of these things made Natsuki Subaru let out an inhuman cry.
Hearing this, Betelgeuse chuckled as if he had received the highest praise.
Kick, kick, kick.
The march never stops.
It is impossible to stop him, let alone put an end to his life.
The laughter can be heard again and again.
Kick, kick, kick.
Kick, kick, kick.
-- Clop, clop, clop, clop, clop, clop