Subaru extended the middle finger of his outstretched right hand and drove his declaration of war down with his fist.
Petelgeuse, knocked flat by the blow, wore an expression of stupefaction. Unable to even wipe the blood trickling from the corner of his split lip, his mouth trembled as he stammered, "What—exactly—what do you think you are doing!? I am an Archbishop of Sin, an Archbishop of Sin who has been blessed with the
"Unspeakable, is it? Sorry, but I've had enough of that sort of talk. I have no intention of discussing this with you and what you believe in anymore. The Witch can go straight to hell, Petelgeuse."
He threw those words at the madman, whose face had stiffened into a rigid glare. Then Subaru beckoned lightly in a provocative gesture. As if the movement had rekindled his fury, Petelgeuse slammed himself to his feet like a man striking the ground, his bloodshot eyes bulging wide enough to burst— "Fine! Very well! If you—yes, if you have forgotten the Witch's favor, her grace—if you would deny it so brazenly, then I shall use the love bestowed upon me to atone for your insolence! I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand! Nonsensical, nonsensical, nonsensical! No, no, no, no, no! Why! Why do you reject love!? I don't understand your true meaning!"
"Whether it's the world that's gone mad, or yourself that's gone mad—when you're driven into unreasonable situations where nothing goes the way you want and you find yourself trapped in a dead end of thought, it's easy to think along those lines, but..."
Tuning out Petelgeuse's spittle-flecked ravings, Subaru recalled the misfortune that had befallen him and the tangled confusion of his mind when he had been caught in its vortex.
That time when he had kept insisting he was right, loudly imposing upon everyone around him that they were the ones who were wrong, throwing tantrums and screaming like a child.
How different was that, from the behavior of the madman before him now?
"Well, it's always been a question without an easy answer, but there is one thing I can say."
"You're the one who's gone mad. I'm right.—This ends here, Petelgeuse!"
At Subaru's words, Petelgeuse's eyes trembled with dark delight.
It was the dark ecstasy that came from inebriation with his own diligence—the anticipation of punishing the fool who had so dismissively treated his faith. At the same moment, Petelgeuse's shadow exploded, and from the ground at his feet, countless dark hands erupted and reached toward Subaru—to tear off his limbs, wring his neck, and bathe in his blood.
But— "Why—!?"
"This way, demon, to the sound of clapping—! Well, I'm not exactly composed enough for that, though!"
He twisted his body and leaped left and right in broad arcs, dodging the approaching palms by a hair's breadth. The number of approaching arms was limited to seven—not because Petelgeuse was underestimating him, but because the madman hadn't yet grasped how many "arms" had returned to his disposal.
Either way, the number was manageable, the speed was slow, and since it wasn't even a surprise attack, dodging the first assault wasn't all that difficult.
Of course, if this were playing out the same way as before, there would have been no need to risk getting this close. He could have simply provoked Petelgeuse's frenzy from a distance and calmly dodged the wild flailing of the Unseen Hands.
But this time, Subaru chose otherwise. Even knowing the danger, he had chosen to face the Unseen Hands at close range—grazing past the hands that could strip flesh to the bone, all for the sake of seizing victory.
"Impossible! This cannot be! Why can you see it—my granted favor! The Authority of Sloth, the Unseen Hands!?"
"Take it up with the Witch who apparently douses my body in her scent. Oh, right—you don't have the clearance to freely meet with the Witch, do you? Unlike me, that is."
"What do you mean by that!? You speak as though you... as though you have exchanged words with
"She's got her hand wrapped tight around my heart—literally."
His face flushed crimson with fury, Petelgeuse bit down on his fingertips to savor the unbearable passion. There was the sound of nails, bone, and flesh being crushed, and the dull crack of teeth threatening to snap at their roots.
At the same time, the volume of shadows gushing forth seemed to respond to his emotions, increasing in number. The reality that evasion would grow exponentially harder caused sweat to bead on Subaru's forehead. But for Petelgeuse, this too served to reveal a single fact— "The Unseen Hands are returning!? Why!? My fingertips—what has happened to my fingertips!!"
Even though his own number of hands was increasing, Petelgeuse was shaken as though confronted by an unacceptable truth. And rightly so. For Petelgeuse's Unseen Hands to increase in number meant— "Just as expected—the 'Unseen Hands' you were using to control subordinates at various locations—your 'fingertips'—they've lost their targets, so they've returned to the main body."
Subaru had confirmed it: when Petelgeuse was defeated and possessing another body, the number of "Unseen Hands" the madman could use showed a tendency to increase.
And that number increased further the more "fingertips"—the subordinates' hiding places—were destroyed in surprise attacks.
From this, Subaru had already formed his theory: if you didn't destroy Petelgeuse's possession targets, he would simply resurrect through transmigration. And if you did destroy them, the Unseen Hands increased, bolstering his combat power. It was a headache-inducing pattern of escalating troubles with Petelgeuse that left one thoroughly exasperated.
And it seemed his theory had been correct after all. The madman was shaken by the increase in usable arms that came with the loss of his fingertips. Subaru clenched his fist at the vindication of his deduction, but— "The surviving ones are going to be a much bigger problem—!"
Still muddled by confusion, Petelgeuse didn't unleash the over-one-hundred dark hands Subaru had seen at their peak. But even so, the number of jet-black palms bearing down on him exceeded twenty—already far beyond Subaru's capacity to handle.
He ducked, slid low, executed a round-off with a twist and leaped wide. The ground was uneven, and he landed hard on his rear—which turned out to be a fine play that helped him narrowly dodge what soared over his head.
Wincing with a pain in his tailbone that felt like it might crack, Subaru scrambled to his feet half in tears and put distance between himself and Petelgeuse.
For now, no injuries from the Unseen Hands. But the scraped knees from his fall and the pain in his tailbone were anything but normal. There might even be a fracture.
"Come on, come on, can't even reach me? How pathetic! Baring your incompetence for all to see, trying to win sympathy, and you don't feel even the slightest shame when you've been blessed with her favor!? Oh dear, oh my, how slothful of you!?"
"...There are several things I find curious."
Subaru chided him while tapping his foot against the rocky ground. Yet Petelgeuse's response to Subaru's provocative goading was not the rage of before, but a quiet murmur.
He held up a finger, waving it as if to show off the blood-covered digit, "The loss of my fingertips was inevitable—a failure of my diligence! A lapse in my thinking! Sloth! I acknowledge it, I have no choice but to acknowledge it! But there are so many things I simply cannot understand even by thinking about it! That you can see the Unseen Hands, the skill with which you deduced the locations of my fingertips, and that it is you—someone with no direct combat ability—who has presented yourself before me!"
"Therefore, I shall reason thus: what cannot be understood through thought cannot be understood through thought. Therefore, I—who am not slothful—shall concern myself only with what warrants thinking, what has purpose, what yields results. Why did you appear before me? Why do you provoke me with your actions and words, drawing my attention? The answer is—"
This is bad—Subaru read Petelgeuse's intentions with gut instinct and bit his lip.
He had thought that by relentlessly goading him and hurling provocative words, he could keep Petelgeuse focused on the immediate and prevent the madman from reading his true intentions. But he had been naive.
Things had gone too smoothly on Subaru's side for too long. Conversely, the repeated misfortunes that had befallen Petelgeuse had, in the end, given him an opportunity to look at the situation with a clear head.
If Petelgeuse recognized the current situation correctly and arrived at the most logical solution, Subaru would be finished. And, much to Subaru's dismay, Petelgeuse realized.
"If you can see the Unseen Hands, and dealing with them takes time—then I shall marshal every last fingertip and settle this with sheer numbers!"
"Too late, he figured it out—!"
Simply put, the fighting force Subaru could draw away on his own was limited to Petelgeuse alone—and even then, only in an incomplete form that would fail once the Unseen Hands reached overwhelming numbers.
Currently, the other members of the subjugation force—acting as a separate unit—had been buying time with a performance so nerve-wracking it made Subaru's back itch, and had been systematically destroying Petelgeuse's fingertips. Including the ones hidden in the traveling merchant and the hidden reserve, nine locations had been confirmed destroyed.
However, the final location had not yet been touched—and where that last location was, you ask—right there, beneath Subaru's very feet.
Directly below the sheer cliff at Subaru's back was a boulder larger than Subaru was tall. Behind it lay the entrance to a cave, and beyond that, the last remaining fingertip.
If Witch Cultists began pouring out from there, it would be game over for Subaru's forces alone. Therefore, Petelgeuse's current insight was tantamount to a death sentence for Subaru.
"W—!"
"H—!"
But that, too, would only have been the case if it had been just a few minutes earlier.
"What in the—!?"
A resonance wave tore through the forest atmosphere with spectacular force, turning into a raging torrent of destruction that ripped up the rocky ground and raged across the face of the cliff as its focal point.
The section of cliff directly above the boulder peeled off entirely. The collapse swallowed the cave, the great hollow, and—partially—Subaru himself as it spread outward.
"Crap crap crap crap crap crap—!!"
A boulder that would have pulverized his skull if it had hit grazed the back of his head, and Subaru clawed his way out of the storm of dust as though his life depended on it—because it did.
Pointing at Subaru's undignified plight and laughing in a shrill voice with her hand on her stomach was— "AHAHAHA! Big brother's running away like a bug! Hey, Tivey, look, look!"
"I am looking, and I think the timing was just unlucky. At any other moment, big brother would have been pummeled."
The brother admonished his sister, who had been the one to cause the very destruction that had nearly engulfed Subaru—and was now laughing innocently about it. The arrival of the demi-human siblings prompted Subaru to run toward them, equal parts relief at their timely arrival and resentment at having nearly died.
"You two—thanks for showing up, you bastards."
"Oh no, big brother, you said the wrong thing! This is where you say 'thank you!' 'You're welcome!' Yay!"
"I think the way you couldn't quite decide whether you wanted to express gratitude or not was the correct response. But still—"
Tivey narrowed his eyes, his cat-like pupils sharpening as he glared at Petelgeuse. In his line of sight, Petelgeuse stared blankly at the collapsed cliff with an expression as blank as a Noh mask.
His posture, his bearing, his appearance—none of them conveyed any real combat threat.
In a test of strength, a sprint, or a fistfight—in any of these areas, even Subaru could win. For Tivey and Mimi, siblings who made their living through combat, the advantage would be even greater.
But Petelgeuse's terror lay along a different vector entirely, one separate from such straightforward threats. Whether Tivey sensed it or not, Subaru did not miss the faint flicker of unease that crossed the boy's expression.
"So that's an Archbishop of Sin... Just looking at him gives me this bad feeling—like my mind's getting unstable."
"The old saying goes, 'When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.' I'd recommend not looking straight at him—use the corner of your eye, or see him reflected in a mirror, indirectly. Oh, and keeping your distance is also a good idea."
"Why?"
"His breath is unbelievably foul—it's physically unbearable. It stings the eyes, somehow."
Subaru placated the boy—on the verge of being swallowed by Petelgeuse's aura—with a light quip, then looked toward Mimi, who was grinning carefree. She merely tilted her cute head to the side in puzzlement, apparently feeling no threat whatsoever. Impressive.
"In any case, you two joining up is the best news I could ask for. The reinforcements are taken care of, and honestly, if it'd been just a little longer, it would've been curtain call for me."
Considered in light of what would have happened had their arrival been even slightly delayed—the very wave of attacks could have shattered Subaru's hopes—it was a razor's-edge intervention.
While silently expressing his gratitude for having his life saved, Subaru cast his gaze toward the forest from the corner of his eye— "So, what about the guy we really need? Still not here?"
"Yuri should be here soon. That Mimi and I arrived first was just margin of error."
"Who's Yuri? Don't you mean Julius? If it's Julius, he should be here real soon. I can smell him."
His sister brushed aside his concern for Julius like it was nothing, pointed toward the forest, and twitched her little nose.
How much to trust the sense of smell of someone who looked entirely like a cat was anyone's guess, but if their reunion was truly imminent, all the better.
It was exceedingly frustrating to admit, but without Julius's cooperation, defeating Petelgeuse was an absolute impossibility.
"...As I thought. Something is wrong."
With a slow turn of his head, Petelgeuse—who had been silently mulling things over—swung his gaze around. His restless, rolling eyes locked onto Subaru, bulging, his tongue lolling out and dripping saliva as he spoke: "An attack that could only have come from someone who knew the location of the cave I hid with a visual discrepancy formula. You also uncovered the existence of my fingertips lurking in the forest—and you possess eyes that can see my Unseen Hands as well. Considering you destroyed the fingertips beforehand, it seems you know more than even that."
He drew the Gospel from his robes once more and ran his eyes over the pages. Again and again, reaching the final page only to return to the beginning, and still—his lips began to twist, as if the answer he sought simply wasn't there.
"The Gospel! The guiding light of my fate records nothing of this! Then what are you!? You receive her favor, yet you disdain the Witch! You stand before me as I carry out this trial, and you block every last one of my plans...!"
Petelgeuse stamped his feet in frustration, showing his uncontrollable irritation through physical action.
From Petelgeuse's perspective, Subaru's actions were utterly incomprehensible. The first strike he should have launched as his "trial" had been preempted, the villagers and
If this wasn't a nightmare for Petelgeuse, then what was?
Reconsidering all that he had done, Subaru felt laughter welling up at just how ridiculously well his obsessively thorough strategy for destroying Petelgeuse had worked.
But even after doing all of this, the man's depth remained unfathomable. In the loop that had originated from the royal capital, Subaru had already died five times.
Five times, Subaru had ended the world without saving anyone.
It was only by bearing such despair, such experience, that he had finally reached this level. Nightmares for a madman meant nothing to him. As for nightmares, Subaru had seen them literally—over and over until he died.
That was why what lay before him now was, at long last, the reality Subaru had been seeking.
"As expected, as expected, as expected—! You are of 'Pride'—"
"My name is
He cut off the gnashing voice that was about to call him "Pride," and pointed his finger at Petelgeuse.
Then, he declared to the tongue-tied madman: "I'm the silver-haired half-elf Emilia's knight. I don't know if I'm 'Pride' or whatever, but that's the only title I want—nothing else."
He had been running—had always been running—to make those words real.
Mimi went "Waaah" in admiration at Subaru's words, Tivey closed his eyes and gave a slight nod. And Petelgeuse, who had received those words head-on— "That's quite enough."
With an air of something almost like resignation, he exhaled and shook his head. Shook it. Shook it. Shook it, shook it wildly, shook it in a frenzy, and flung his gaze skyward— "You repay love with ingratitude! You shall regret this sloth that does not even fear the Witch! What sloth! What sloth! What, what, what, sloth, sloth, sloth, slothhhh... SLOTH!!!"
He threw his arms wide, opened his maw, and screamed—and Petelgeuse's shadow swelled to monstrous size.
The number of jet-black hands erupting upward reached the maximum Subaru had ever seen—easily surpassing one hundred, they stretched toward the sky. And when the shadows scattered in every direction— "You've got to be kidding..."
The strength of the black palms snapped trees like twigs, lifted fallen trunks that had been broken in half with ease. From the collapse site of the cliff, several boulders the size of Subaru's head were hoisted into the air. Still more hands wandered the forest seeking prey, returning with ominous objects before rising skyward once more. The number, the weight, the lethality—just looking at it, one could die a hundred times over.
"If you can see the Unseen Hands, then how about pure violence!? The hundredfold force, the diligent destruction my Authority commands—can you avoid them all? Come, come, come, come, come, come, come! You, are you the one who is 'Sloth'!?"
There was no time to call for restraint. The violence was hurled at the three frozen figures. Rocks and logs rained down in a torrent—so many that they filled the entire field of vision—and all three shrank back as if paralyzed.
"W—!"
"H—!"
The instant the projectiles locked onto their targets, the siblings' cries met the destruction head-on.
The resonance waves shook the atmosphere, and the numerous projectiles were shattered, splintered, and blown to smithereens. But they couldn't break through everything— "Wha—!?"
"Snap out of it!"
"You'll die!"
Yanked backward from both sides simultaneously, Subaru's body was lifted and pulled back. A mere few instants later, the boulders he had been unable to resist crashed one after another into the spot where he'd been standing, the impact reverberating through the ground.
Through the billowing smoke, Petelgeuse's cackling echoed. And, as if to amplify that laughter, another set of arms appeared above the smoke, brandishing yet more projectiles.
"The strategic objective at this location has already been achieved! The fingertips are destroyed, and the last location has been spectacularly buried alive...! In other words—"
"In other words?"
"What do we do?"
"—Retreat! RETREAT!!"
Subaru's pathetic cry went up at the same moment the barrage resumed. Sensing death at their backs, Subaru and the siblings leaped away from the spot.
They kicked off the treacherous ground and plunged into the forest to secure cover. Bathed in gale-force winds, they decided the situation was dire and burst through the forest at full speed.
"Crap crap, bad bad! Damn it, this wasn't in the plan! Those hands can do more than tear a person apart!? Is Julius still not here!? PATRAAASH!!"
Subaru's mouth was finally slipping into the extreme of confusion as he raced across the grass. Running alongside him, Mimi and Tivey kept watch on their backs as they followed.
Unlike the two siblings who were accustomed to running, Subaru's footing was so unsteady he'd trip if he didn't watch his step. Why was it always like this—why could he never simply stroll through a forest in peace? He always felt like he was running desperately, fighting for his life.
"Ewww!? What is that!?"
Alongside Subaru, who was voicing his grievances with everything he had, Mimi let out a creeped-out cry. Drawn by her voice, Subaru glanced behind him—and genuinely regretted it.
Petelgeuse, of course, had no intention of letting them escape. He was in pursuit of the three who had broken into a full retreat—but his method of locomotion was beyond belief.
Petelgeuse had curled up, hugging his knees in a huddled position. He had his Unseen Hands grip his own folded body, extending countless arms like the legs of a spider as he moved. The destructive power of the black palms remained fully intact—every obstacle in his path was torn out at the roots and scattered to the wind. A malevolent "Sloth" came barreling straight ahead, shredding through the forest.
"He's floating in midair, but I've never seen anyone float so disgustingly!"
"Right! I keep forgetting—it looks different to you guys!"
What Subaru could see—the Unseen Hands—and what they couldn't meant the scenes they witnessed were entirely different things. To Mimi and Tivey, it must have looked like a nightmare of Petelgeuse flying around while sitting in a huddle. To Subaru, it was a nightmare beyond nightmares—countless arms carrying him along—a matter of choosing between the worst and the worse of two horrors.
And the situation continued to deteriorate.
"Be... SLOTH!!"
"Shi—!"
The battle cry from behind was followed by a flash of black light that scorched the world in an instant. That flash that blanketed their vision for just a split second had no effect on Subaru. But on the two running alongside him— "Ah...?"
"...!!"
Their bodies went limp, and the two siblings were about to crumple—but luckily, Subaru's outstretched arms caught them both at the same time. He tucked their small frames under each arm and kept running through the forest, carrying them while they drifted in and out of consciousness.
This was Petelgeuse's malicious secret technique: "Mental Contamination." One of his Authorities, it stripped the will to fight from everyone except Subaru and a handful of other subjugation force members who had resistance.
Subaru had explained to Mimi and Tivey that this Mental Contamination existed.
He had told them they wouldn't be able to resist it, and that being contaminated would throw their minds off balance and cause them to suffer.
But even after hearing that information, the two of them had come to offer their help. Knowing they would have their fighting spirit crushed if they faced Petelgeuse, they had come anyway.
So— "Why not throw away your dead weight and run!? Those fools who sink before the Authority of Sloth! Why do you go to such lengths to protect them!?"
"Shut your damn mouth, you idiot! I'm a Mifurist! A Mifurist can't exactly abandon his Mifuru and expect tomorrow's meals to be any good!!"
He could never abandon them.
With the two of them in his arms, Subaru's legs surged onward. Petelgeuse, closing in from behind, seemed surprised by Subaru's reserves of strength—but the distance between them was still shrinking.
Subaru, cradling two children and running desperately down the forest's treacherous paths with unpracticed legs, and Petelgeuse, who tore through bad terrain and obstacles alike without a care—they were working from fundamentally different premises even in a straight sprint. He couldn't escape for even a few dozen seconds.
That desperate situation— "I love you! PATRASCHE—!!"
Leaping over the hollows that had formed, bursting through the trees, Subaru caught sight of jet-black scales. His partner had come running in answer to his call, her glossy velvet back lowered. He threw himself—literally—onto that back, pressing the siblings close as he hugged himself to
"——!!"
With a roar, Patrasche lowered her body and took a sharp stride—and was instantly carried by the wind.
The forest's treacherous paths, the various obstacles rolling around—Patrasche crushed them all under her powerful strides. The ground beneath her wasn't even a game trail—just a purely wild expanse of green.
If the existence of earth dragons was analogous to horses in his original world, then for Patrasche, who had been trained to run on flat ground, charging through a forest's rough terrain was an outrageous abuse. And there was no room for a leisurely pace—they were going at full sprint.
"You're the best—!"
Even that cry just now—he hadn't truly believed Patrasche would come when he called her name. It was a desperate prayer that had tumbled from his mouth, pushed out by the crushing sense of crisis and impatience.
But Patrasche had answered, entering the forest of her own volition to rescue Subaru. Since the battle with the
"They all... every last one... I swear, absolutely...!"
Mimi, Tivey, even Patrasche—they had all continued to lend a hand to a good-for-nothing like him.
Therefore, Subaru had to repay them. He had to give back more than he had received—that was the only answer that could make the flower of trust bloom.
"How far, how far... just how many cards did you have hidden!? If you knew even this, even about this—then what are you really...!"
Up to this point, that hadn't been in the script.
Internally, Subaru retorted that to Petelgeuse. Then he reached for the reins and gave Patrasche her instructions. The earth dragon picked up on his clumsy guidance with exquisite sensitivity, tilting ever so slightly to turn in the direction Subaru wanted. Bit by bit, so gradually that Petelgeuse pursuing from behind wouldn't notice—but surely—they reversed direction.
Leaping over hollows, slipping between trees, bursting through the forest and covered in mud, plunging through the dim green labyrinth where sunlight was blocked—that was where— "We're back!"
"This is the same place from before...!?"
Bursting out into the clearing again, they found themselves back at the cliffside battlefield where they had been facing Petelgeuse moments ago. The scene was still heavily scarred with the marks of destruction. Subaru cast his gaze around—but before he could find what he was searching for, Petelgeuse let out an unearthly shriek: "I don't know what you're plotting, planning, or aiming for, but—all of it, every last bit—let it all be crushed, vanish, and cease to exist, here and now, DESU!!"
Additional hands—different from those crawling along the ground—once again lifted fallen trees and boulders, hurling the projectiles toward Subaru, who had been exposed in the open without cover.
Patrasche sensed the danger and tried to accelerate to shake them off, but evading the ferociously approaching barrage was no longer possible. Raising her tail, Patrasche was about to put her body between the projectiles and her master—when, in that instant, "El dona."
A wall of earth rose from the ground, the improvised barrier catching the incoming destruction head-on. The wall cracked under the impact, fulfilled its purpose, and returned to being an ordinary chunk of earth.
For a split second, Subaru—curled up on Patrasche's back—couldn't comprehend what had just happened in that brief exchange. And then— "When I arrived at our meeting point, you were nowhere to be found. I must admit, I was a touch worried."
"...That's because you took forever to get here. Where were you dawdling, arriving this far behind schedule?"
"It took time to transport the wounded back to the village. I arrived looking rather pale, I'm told... But reuniting like this—that's what matters most."
"That's thanks to our goddess. ...You can introduce me to your boy later."
Subaru slumped in exhaustion, idly stroking Patrasche's flank. At his answer, Patrasche gave a body shake that seemed to say, "Mind your own business," but in the face of his current relief, such a protest was no more than a gentle breeze.
In any case, "I apologize for the delay. It seems things are proceeding according to plan."
He drew his slender blade, walked with composed grace across the rocky terrain, and took his place beside Patrasche—the handsome man.
The sight of his lavender hair swaying in the wind, the hem of his Royal Guard uniform fluttering—Subaru had lost count of how many times this had irritated him. That same figure, born from such vexing memories, was now—infuriatingly—dependable.
"I am
Julius announced himself, then held his drawn sword upright and raised it toward Petelgeuse.
At his appearance, Petelgeuse—who had frozen at the forest's edge—opened his eyes wide, waiting for the words that would follow. The quiet breathing, the silence, and around Julius, six types of minor spirits glowing with light.
"I am the sword of the kingdom—and I will cut you down."
"A spirit user, is it?... Always, truly—always at every turn."
More than the declaration, it was the sight of the minor spirits darting around Julius that made Petelgeuse openly furious. That figure, that reaction—Subaru felt it reinforced the possibility that the theory he had exchanged with Julius was more correct.
"Julius."
"One look tells me this fellow is entirely off the rails. He appears to be floating in midair—that would be the power of those 'Unseen Hands' you mentioned, yes?"
"Yeah, he's floating around on arms that extend like a spider's legs."
At Subaru's answer, Julius gave a small shrug. "That's terrifying." He then glanced briefly at the siblings Subaru was holding— "Are the two of them... injured? They seem off."
"I told you, it's mental contamination. Hit you with it and your mind gets shattered. ...Which is why I told you not to come. But you were a huge help anyway."
Through those spiteful words, Subaru conveyed his gratitude, and he pulled the siblings' bodies tighter against him. Then, in his arms, Mimi stirred and moved her lips slightly, trying to tell him something.
He leaned in close, straining to hear—and she said: "If you win here, you'll look really cool—"
When Subaru's eyes went wide as he looked at her, Mimi wore a definite smile amid her pained gasping. That expression, that attitude, those words—the impact Subaru felt was immeasurable. And so— "Let's do this, Julius."
"You're certain?"
At Subaru's call, Julius spoke as if asking for his resolve.
Subaru pulled his chin down in a firm nod, lighting his eyes with an unyielding determination— "I can't back down. I can't bend. I can't lose. I don't want to lose anyone ever again."
"I am the man who beat you terribly. I still believe that my actions back then had their own reasons and significance, but to you, that was nothing more than self-righteousness that had nothing to do with you."
At Subaru's answer, Julius spoke of the incident between them that could never be forgotten. The humiliation, the pain of that time surged back vividly, piercing through his chest.
"I am not asking you to dig up the past and atone for your sins. Your resolve is weighty, and your decisions and actions have shaped the road that led here. So I ask: in this moment, with me at your side, can you fully realize your ambition?"
"Can you... trust me?"
Julius's question was painfully vague, inappropriate, and hopelessly naive.
But it was precisely what was needed to make Subaru conscious of the sharp thorn that had been persistently asserting its presence in the deepest recesses of his heart—and to confront it.
At the Royal Selection ceremony, Subaru had made the most disgraceful display of himself, and rather than recovering from it, he had arrived at the training ground with his reputation further tarnished—where Julius had shattered everything he had.
He had been able to stand back up thanks to the devotion of a single girl who had supported him all along.
And now, having risen, if he were to draw upon those old feelings once more— What color did that passion—that blazing emotion from that moment—now burn with inside Subaru?
"...I hate your guts."
"Oh, I know that well."
"That fancy hairdo annoys me, and the way you talk is disgustingly polite and suspicious as hell. But you're also clearly looking down on me, and come to think of it, when I first met you, you kissed Emilia-tan's hand, didn't you? If I ever kiss every inch of Emilia-tan's body, doesn't that mean I'd be indirectly kissing you!? Get real!"
Come to think of it, Subaru had hated Julius even before they had ever spoken a word to each other.
The circumstances in which Emilia had been mistreated only added to it—his ill feelings toward Julius had been there from the start. They intensified in the Royal Selection hall, exploded at the training ground, and had continued to smolder ever since.
Even in this very moment, it burned fiercely and would not cease searing his heart.
"You broke my limbs, cracked my head open, and even cracked my permanent teeth. They healed, so I'm fine now, but in the normal course of things, that's the kind of trauma that would permanently keep you from leaving the house. Do you even know how to hold back, you bastard?"
"For the record, I was going quite easy on you."
"Seriously? You held back and I still ended up like that? Yep, you really are the worst."
Subaru, who had called himself a knight and heaped ignorance and recklessness upon helplessness to expose his shame.
Julius, who had beaten Subaru down, demonstrated power and skill and duty, and shown him what it truly meant to be a knight.
He pitied himself for having been cast in the role of the defeated one, but setting that aside—the figure Julius cut was precisely the very "image of a knight" that Subaru had so desperately been seeking.
"...I hate your guts, you 'Finest' knight."
"And I trust you. Because my shame knows what an incredible knight you are."
More than anyone here, more than anyone there, Subaru knew Julius's sword.
And so Subaru entrusted his fate to him. Because he knew the weight of that sword from before.
"Count on me, Julius.—I'm placing everything I have in your hands."
Subaru climbed down from Patrasche and faced Julius.
At Subaru's answer, Julius closed his eyes. Then, after just a few seconds, he slowly opened them. In those eyes, Subaru saw himself reflected. Julius took a short breath, held it— "Then I shall respond with everything I have—"
Raising his sword to the heavens, Julius spoke—and the minor spirits blessed his words.
The colorful spirits danced in the sky as if circling his blade, among which the most radiant were the white and black minor spirits.
Their brilliance grew stronger, intensified, and then blazed with a light bright enough to burn the eyes— "...Are you quite done with this little farce?"
Petelgeuse had crawled out of the forest and, seeing the exchange come to an end, interjected.
Floating in midair, Petelgeuse tilted his head. His bloodshot eyes drifted aimlessly, unfocused, as he pointed at Subaru and the others— "What can one spirit user possibly do by joining the fight!? For spirits to stand in the way of my path, my love, my devotion—it is the height of insolence! So perish, vanish, and be gone! Desu, desu, desu, DESUDESUDESUDESU—!"
Tongue extended, fingers crushed between his teeth, blood dripping from his mouth—Petelgeuse screamed his death sentence and hurled every last Unseen Hand in their direction.
The jet-black palms surged forth—a tidal wave that engulfed their entire field of vision, about to swallow Subaru and the others whole and crush them—when, "—Claresta."
A flash of rainbow brilliance had swept through and severed the incoming Unseen Hands entirely.
Sparkles danced wildly, tracing the blade's path with radiance while scattering refractions of light. The dark delusions that should have occupied that path vanished, and the destruction that should have followed simply did not happen.
"...Huh?"
Petelgeuse's stupefied voice.
In response, Julius waved his knight's sword, now stained with a rainbow of colors, and prefaced his reply with, "There is no need to be surprised"— "If it can touch us, then we can touch it back. If it is an ability that can interfere with the world, then there is nothing this blade—wielding all six attributes—cannot sever."
Holding his knight's sword, which housed all six contracted spirits, Julius stated this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. But Petelgeuse's question had nothing to do with that.
With trembling, crushed, blackened-red fingers, he pointed at Julius— "You—you shouldn't be able to see them! You shouldn't be able to see them! The Unseen Hands were cut...! But more problematic than that fact is—you shouldn't be able to see them! See, see, you shouldn't, shouldn't, shouldn't—no, no, no, you shouldn't, no, but you are, no, but—"
Petelgeuse stammered, overwhelmed by the terror of losing his last refuge.
At that figure, at that attitude, for the first time Subaru felt a kind of empathy—and surpassing it, the thrill of "serves you right." He had finally, genuinely, gotten the better of the madman.
"The one who can see them is me, Petelgeuse."
"I'm the one who can see your Unseen Hands. Julius is just seeing the scene I'm seeing