11 ( part 4)

"The fog…" Frederica narrowed her eyes in worry as she remembered the stories told of the calamity, "That's how that man was taken away…"

Rem quickly hugged the boy's neck and softly rested her cheek against his while looking at the screen in fear.

Petra was trying so hard not to hide and be strong for Subaru. But the atmosphere was too terrifying after seeing that beast for herself. "H-How did Subaru beat that… Why are all of these people just… Breaking him like this?"

A redhaired young man looked at the screen with an expression of despair that allowed his arms to grow numb and hang at his sides. "No…" Heinkel's face contorted from despair to horror. "Holy fucking shit…"

"Heinkel-sama! Breathe!" Schult got over his scare over the Whale immediately when Heinkel dropped to the floor before their seats and kept grasping at his neck, unable to breathe.

"Oi… Bro… Are you okay?!" Al knelt with Schult to turn the man over his back and help him breathe. "He's having a panic attack? What the hell's the matter with him?!" Al pondered this as he began taking necessary precautions while the man struggled to breathe below him and Schult.

Priscilla stared at Heinkel with a look of thought, not at all caring for the man's sudden reaction to the beast above her.

"So 'tis a part of why you're so pathetic, is it?" She questioned under her breath as her knight and butler tried to revive the Deputy Commander in the back.

"No…" Reinhard's heart clenched in pain, unable to walk up to his father and help as Wilhelm held his wrist in place. "Grandfather?"

"It will not be pleasant… But we all need to keep away from him or else it will hurt more…" Wilhelm's words were lost on Reinhard, but the voice of the Whale above him made him look up at the screen with a look of loss.

"Reinhard-dono… Please…" Wilhelm begged his grandson, making the knight choose by letting his wrist go.

"Fuck!" Ricardo shouted in anger.

Julius and Otto stared at the scene with despaired glances thrown toward one another before looking at the screen once again.

Garfiel choked and stepped back, excitement gone as he witnessed the size of the mabeast. "W-Woah… Hang on… HANG FUCKIN' ON! CAP'N WON'T BEAT THIS ALONE! GET OUTTA THERE!"

Emilia and Beatrice both gasped and stared at the screen slack jawed.

"Run! Big bro!" Felt shouted with a terrified expression on her face for Subaru's sake.

Wilhelm scowled deeply at the monster on screen, returning to his seat alongside Reinhard.

Reinhard's face contorted to one of anger as his aura flared up similar to his grandfather's. "The Whale…" The knight's cool charming smile was gone, replaced with one of an angry child at the beast that ruined his life. At the beast that well kill his friend.

Emilia's eyes were filled with complete fear. Not of the beast's size or its tactics, but fear for what will happen to Subaru. A boy who was just caught in all of this after surviving darkness after darkness.

"Crusch… Is this why you didn't want to tell me earlier…" Emilia's voice was broken and defeated as she looked on without a reason not to keep her eyes from blinking.

"Yes… I wasn't sure of the timing but the location here meant that our suspeciousness was correct… Subaru Natsuki had to meet the White Whale in a loop before meeting with me for the deal…" Crusch looked at the window with a haunted glint in her eyes that showed her accepting what she saw. "I never thought I would see it again…"

"Will it be painful, I suppose?" Beatrice questioned, her face emotionless now as she heard everyone talking about what would happen to her contractor. "When the mabeast of Gluttony kills him."

"The Whale you mean?" Crusch seemed unfamiliar with the name Beatrice used but she shook her head to answer. "I… wish it wouldn't be."

["Woaaaaahhhh!" Subaru was shown lifting off into the air and being scrambled in a tornado-like wind wave because of the monster's attack.

"Subaru-kun!" Rem quickly caught him and jumped to the back of the carriage with Subaru in her grasp.

The boy fell over with his phone getting knocked beside him and showing him the time.]

Crusch's eyes went wide and her breathing stopped completely at this moment. "Oh my…"

She looked back to find that Wilhelm and Felix gave the same exact looks of shock and immediate understanding as well.

"That's how he knew the timing of its arrival…" Crusch whispered to herself, finding little hope that this might be the last loop Subaru needed to die in.

[The monster above them began spraying white smoke that was so heavy it demolished the carriages around Subaru and Rem. Otto struggled to turn the cart away from the destruction of this monster's fog.

"What happened? What the hell is going on?!" Subaru shouted as he struggled to fight the wind and gravity pushing him down on the cart floor.

"Subaru-kun, stay down! We've lost our divine protection of Windbreak!" Rem held his hand as the cart began moving with increased speed.

Subaru and Rem both looked towards the front of the cart to find that they both landed on Otto's speeding wagon. The platinum-haired boy had a look of terror on his face as he shouts for the both of them while operating the dragons by their leashes.

"You didn't know? There's only one being that can fly through fog with such a huge body! The White Whale!"

Subaru's eyes showed fear and despair as the giant Whale roared through the foggy atmosphere above him.

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH *]

The fear of god was put into most of the theater except for the few who held enough power to protect themselves. Priscilla and Roswaal were the only ones left without giving the Whale a frightened expression, while all of the others increased their panic due to the voice of the Whale becoming an echo inside of the room with no end to it.

Heinkel's breathing had stabilized while the window continued showing the scene, so he was left to pant on the ground with his eyes clenched closed and his head covered by his hands at Priscilla's feet with Al and Schult patting his back.

[His breath stopped in place as the Whale's haunting noise filled the world around him.

"Rem, do you see the white whale?" Subaru asks desperately while holding on to the speeding cart.

"I can't it's too dark." Rem turns to him with alarm.

"What happened to the other carriages?" He asked while watching his surroundings very carefully.

"It seems they've scattered and fled. But I don't know where they've fled to!" Rem answers.

"Damn! After we finally found some transportation… "

Before they could blink, a large mouth suddenly opened behind the moving cart. It was like a gaping whole into another abyss that was different to the pupils of the beast. This open void of darkness led to unsavory places that none in the cart wished to see. The open mouth began sucking the air and fog around them. Like a tornado, the whirlwind was sucked into the Whale's snout making Subaru fly directly in the middle of the open jaws.

Subaru shouted for dear life as he gripped a rope that was keeping up with the whirlwind and kept Subaru tied to the moving cart.

A feminine shout filled the harsh winds around Subaru as Rem jumped from the cart wagon and forced her mace directly above the Whale's dry lip, drawing blood as well as pained screeching from the beast.

Rem landed right beside Otto firmly, cracking the wood chair of the driver seat and startling Otto.]

"Thank you, Rem!" Frederica held a hand to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief as Subaru was safely on the ground.

"Very well done, Rem-sama." Wilhelm nodded his head firmly, approving of the way she made the beast bleed. Such a fearsome young lady.

Garfiel sat down with saucer-like eyes and a wide-opened jaw at the whale's form and fearsomeness.

"That was reckless of you, sister! You could've been hurt because of Barusu's uselessness and your self-sacrificing nature." Ram admonished while glancing down at her sister in disappointment.

Remembering their talk before the viewing, Rem hugged Subaru tightly and looked at the screen in worry.

"If I can't sacrifice myself… How will I show him what I'm good for." The maid whispered softly to herself as her eyes teared up.

Felix gave her a look of sympathy, giving her a small pat on the back to comfort her in complete understanding.

["Run past it to the left!" She orders hurryingly.

"Left! Left! Left!" The boy shouted and managed to place the cart just past its original place… where the Whale's mouth was now residing.

Subaru's robe was cut and the boy was sent flying away but a chain was quickly wrapped around his torso, pulling him back into the carriage.

Rem glared back as soon as she made sure Subaru landed by her side on the wagon. She shouted with fury and threw a large part of the back wagon directly on the monster's eye.

"Eat this!"

* RAAAAAAOOOOOOOORRRRR*]

"Rem is so awesome!" Garfiel shouted and jumped in his seat in anticipation and fear for his Cap'n.

Rem glared at the whale on screen and cursed it for trying to hurt her Subaru.

Emilia's hurt clenched as she felt guilty for not being there to save the boy from this heinous monster.

Crusch's hold on Subaru's hand tightened even further as her fear for the boy facing the mabeast increased her anxiety.

["It didn't work!" Subaru called out as he watched the huge monster fly steadily behind them with its abyss of a mouth still gaping.

"Wh-Why is it zeroing in on us? There are other carriages out there!" Otto blabbered, scared out of his wit while trying to operate the terrified ground dragon.

"Complaining won't change anything!" Subaru shouts at him and then looks back towards the oncoming darkness of the beast's innards. His eyes closed shut and he tapped his forehead with his fist out of pure concentration. "Think… Think, think! We need a way out! Isn't there something? Anything?!"

Rem watched the boy mutter and shout in desperate need of a plan. Her face turned into one of determination.

"Subaru-kun." He looked up to find her handing him a bag of coins. "Please accept this."

"Did you come up with something?" Subaru looked at her with hope.

"I will get off the carriage and intercept it. You escape the fog in the meantime."

The nasty-eyed boy stared at her with shock but Rem was already moving. "Otto-sama, please take care of Subaru-kun. He has the payment we promised you."

"P-Payment? That's the least of our problems right now! We have to stay alive first!" The merchant shouted from the front.

The maid smiled softly toward Subaru who could only give a look of bewilderment.

"Subaru-kun, I'm not very smart, so this is the only plan I can think of. Please…"

"Hold on, Rem! I won't let you! I won't let you go! If… If you die too, I'll… "

Subaru hugged Rem into his chest tightly as he whimpered in despair, shielding her from falling over the tumbling cart.

The maid's eyes widened as she was held by him. "I believe I was born for this very moment."

Subaru looked at the maid he was hugging with confusion.

"What are you talki-" * SMACK*

Subaru swiftly became a lump after Rem chopped him in the neck.

"What did you…" The paralyzed boy gasped as his body was slowly placed down by Rem on the wagon's side. She knelt before him and whispered to him kindly.

"It will be alright. I'll always be watching over you from behind." Rem stepped away from Subaru.

The boy's eyes widened with agony and misery as he witnessed Rem smiling at him one last time… before jumping into the fog.]

"Rem!" Ram shouted in anger as she glared down at her sister. "How are you going to expect him to continue living without you?! Are you dead in the brain, sister?!"

"NO!" Petra shouted in horror. "Please don't be hurt! Please! I promise I'll forgive you for everything you've done to Subaru, just please don't die!"

The twins sitting next to Ricardo and Julius both looked at one another with tears in their eyes for the maid.

Rem just hugged Subaru and wished that he won't get hurt by her decision.

"Don't think like that Rem, Subaru cares about you a great deal!" Emilia shouted at the maid in sadness and pity, her heart broke at the sacrifice that was made in order to keep Subaru alive, knowing all too well that it wasn't going to help save him in the end.

Crusch shook her head and glanced at the maid in sympathy. "You are admirable as you are foolish, Rem-san."

Ram couldn't stop the tears from falling as she saw to what extent her sister's self worth had dropped.

"D-Damn it!" Garfiel shouted in anger as he once again couldn't save anyone and had to watch and suffer. "Fuck… Please…"

"I just wish he would miss me," Rem whispered selfishly.

"Are you insane…" Heinkel slowly rose from his seat, staring at the screen with a shocked face. "Who would throw themselves away like that for nothin'... Are you fuckin' daft?!"

"It's called sacrifice for a reason, pal." Al sighed and stood up to go to his chair beside Priscilla. "Isn't it what you're doing for your wife?"

Heinkel's expression froze on an expression of anguish and contempt. "But… To go against that thing…" Heinkel held his head in his hands while remaining on the floor, uncaring for how pathetic he looked as he recalled his mother's face before she was sent out to fight it.

"She's insane…" He wasn't talking about Rem this time. His eyes imagined a clear image of a red-haired woman in her Sword Saint attire.

[Scene changes to a dim light moving through a calmer cloud of fog in the darkness of the night.

Things were quiet now, the Whale was nowhere to be seen.

The paralyzed Subaru had fallen asleep a while ago. But a tumble from the cart forced him to wake up.

Subaru slowly opened his eyes and noticed that he was holding on to a bag full of coins. He looked around the empty cart.

"Where's Rem?" He asked in alarm.]

"Bring yourself some joy, guess he cares about yer sorry ass after all," Anastasia's sarcastic tone hurt more than the words she spoke to Rem.

The maid flinched but kept her hold on Subaru's body firm, her hands grazed his chest as she rubbed her cheek against the back of his head. Feeling him alive and well beside her was everything she wanted.

["Natsuki-san, you're awake? Please don't move. The ground dragon's still running at full speed! I don't have time to worry about you!" An alarmed Otto shouted from the front.

"I don't care about that! Where's Rem? What happened to Rem?! Answer me, Otto! What happened to Rem?!" Subaru shouted hopelessly.

The merchant looked distraught and remorseful as he drove the dragon. "So that we could escape, she jumped out of the carriage to intercept the White Whale." He solemnly delivered.

Subaru's eyes widened with shock and horror.

"Go back."

Otto slowly turned to him with a dumbfounded look. "Huh?!"

"I said go back! We have to… We have to save Rem! Go back right now!" Subaru jumped beside Otto and began grabbing his collar.

"Wh-What good will that do? Didn't you see how terrifying that White Whale monster is? That would be suicide!" Otto screamed as Subaru held him by the collar.

"I saw the monster up close! That's why I'm telling you to go back!"]

"Is… Is he for real?" Heinkel looked at the screen with a bewildered face. "I… He wants to fuckin' go back there?! For what?! There's nothing left but death!"

"I don't think he's going to care much about death, Deputy Comm~aaa~nder-san." Roswaal's tone was without amusement and more sternness as he watched the dire viewing with a neutral expression.

"My sister could die because of your works, master…" Ram whispered this from the side.

"I'm sorry…" The lord's only reply came as they both watched the window with wretched stink filling their souls due to how corrupt they felt while being close to one another.

"I have to stop him…" Otto looked at the screen with conviction in his eyes firing through the concern and horror. "Please let me stop him… I'll give anything I can…"

Garfiel and Julius gave the minister looks of pity, feeling the pressure he had put on himself so suddenly.

"H-Hey… Otto-bro… Ya don't gotta take any blame 'ere…" Garfiel tried to say but the minister shook his hand off of his shoulder.

"Can't you see that he won't budge from this?!" Otto looked back at the two with a tear running down his cheek. "I'm so useless that I can only make him give up on people as they die to protect him… That's what I'm reduced to after acting like I have his best interest for so long…"

Julius glared at Otto while Garfiel looked stuck without knowing what to say or do.

"Is this how you've felt this whole time? Why have you tried taking control of the situation in this prison so many times across the viewings?" Julius intensified his glare on the merchant but Otto waved the knight off.

"Off of your high dragon back already! Can't you see how damn useless I am?!" Otto pointed upwards as the window continued the scene.

[Otto pushed Subaru off and shouted. "Have you gone insane?! Do you want the hope she left with us to go to waste?"

"Don't you dare talk about Rem! You abandoned her! You have no right to talk about her! Go back!"

"You still don't understand how terrifying the White Whale is?! When a punitive force assembled by Lugunica set out to subjugate it, that monster killed the first Sword Saint! There's no way we can win!" Otto shouted and turned to operate the speeding cart.

Subaru was taken aback by this. "It killed… the Sword Saint?"]

"Fuck off!" Heinkel rammed his head against the chair nearest to him. "Shut the fuck up!" He shouted with all of his might, his voice overtaking the entire room.

From those who showed Heinkel pity, there were those who shared his grief and held their tongues from expressing it.

Wilhelm's did not open, staying closed in a moment of prayer that he made to respect his wife's name being mentioned.

Reinhard himself looked down at the floor with an emotionless frown that made him seem detached from the identity of the person that was spoken about.

All whole Heinkel lost his mind and tried to regain control through abusing himself in the background.

No one in the room wanted to intervene on the Astrea family as they suffered divided amongst themselve

[Otto could only look up ahead. "I'm weak, and so are you. So there's no way we can save that girl."

Subaru's face twisted with misery as he looked back into the foggy road. "But I know Rem isn't actually strong, either."]

"I wish I was strong enough not to have hurt you or let you go…" Rem could not hold her sobs inside of herself as she held her beloved ever closer. "I'm sorry, Subaru-kun."

"Of course he would think this way after what he's seen you do for his sake, in fact." Beatrice glared at the screen, not intending to crank her neck and look back. "He held your corpse within his hands as he died…"

Rem's tears began running down her cheeks and through Subaru's hair.

["We were fortunate to escape it for now, but in this mist, there's no telling when it'll show up again." The merchant spoke with a smile on his face, making Subaru glare hatefully.

"Otto, watch what you say!"

The merchant looked confused at this. "Huh? What do you mean, Natsuki-san?"

"Don't talk like this is some game! We were 'Fortunate'! You must be joking! Do you know how Rem felt when she-"

"Who is Rem?"

Subaru's outraged look turned to one of confusion. "Huh?"]

"What?" Otto looked up, confused and bewildered. "I… I don't understand…"

"Why…" Petra also questioned, not understanding what was happening.

"It's the Fog of the Forgotten." Crusch allowed herself to answer in a shaky yet steeled voice. "Rem was just caught in one of the Whale's attacks… leading to her erasure from our world, memories and all."

Otto's eyes widened alongside Petra and Schult, the youngest people apart from Tivey and Mimi who hadn't learned about the Whale's abilities yet.

"That's how the fog feels like?!" Otto on the other hand couldn't believe what he was seeing. "So Rem-san is just gone like that?! And I have to watch myself try to convince Natsuki-san that everything is okay from here?!"

Rem herself wasn't watching the screen anymore as she was simply holding on to Subaru's body.

Emilia's eyes gave the maid a small glance of pity, while she held Subaru's hand in silence, squeezing for comfort and peace as things continued to escalate.

[Otto glanced at Subaru worriedly and bewildered. "There was no one with that name among the merchants who separated from us. Who are you talking about?" The merchant asked while staring at Subaru innocently.

* SLAM!*

The disturbed Subaru punched Otto in the face so hard the cart began stumbling and moving unevenly for a moment.]

Garfiel sucked his breath and cringed at the sight, feeling bad for Otto. While the minister looked on with a shocked expression at the position he was placed in.

"This isn't fair…" Otto whimpered while staring up at the towering window showcasing his failure.

"Sit down… You might not change anything in this loop, but there's always the things you did do correctly." Julius gave Otto a firm hand on the shoulder to make the minister sit in his seat.

"Anyone of us could be in his final loop… You ever think about that?" Otto's words were spoken without context as he became more haunted by the screen's cruelty.

"I do, all the time. But now is not one of those times. Not with your mindset." Julius shook his head and patted Otto's shoulder after he had sat down.

[Otto kept his hold on the dragon's barring and held his cheek in pain. "What do you think you're doing?!" He asked in shock.

"Cut the crap! You talk about how Rem let us escape, and then ask who she is?! Do you have a death wish?!" Subaru shouted while grabbing hold of the merchant's collar.

"I'm telling you, I don't know what you're talking about! Why are you suddenly talking like this? Did seeing the White Whale make you lose your mind?!" Otto shouted as he glared at Subaru.

The merchant's eyes roamed to something floating behind the black haired boy holding his collar.

The whale opened its yellow eye and stared at the two.

Otto screamed in fright.

The ground dragons ran away from it while the merchant began crying and shouting in despair.]

"It's still after them!" Petra shouted with her eyes wide from the shock. "B-But… Rem's sacrifice!"

Emilia and Crusch watched with wide worried eyes as they held the boy's hands.

Rem hugged the boy tight and trembled in place. "Forgive me. Even in my death was useless." The maid softly whispered as she cried tears of agony for her hero.

"Why is it still after them?!" Felix growled, angry that Rem's sacrifice was for nothing and angry at how persistent this monster was.

"He…" Tivey perked his head when an idea came to his mind. "The Whale always followed him during the fight… He used it to pull everyone together…"

"It's because of the witch's scent…" Ram growled as she glared at the whale that had erased her sister.

Rem nodded her head and kept her grip on the boy from behind.

Crusch remembered back to that legendary scene of a young man jumping off the great calamity's snout and forcing it to follow him down to the floor of the world and stop hiding in the shadows of the clouds and the sky.

The moment when Natsuki Subaru brought down the White Whale.

"So he used the Witch's scent." Crusch whispered in awe as she understood just how crazy their plan was.

And how much pain this boy had to go through to make said plan perfect.

["Why? Why? Why is it so persistent? I thought we'd left it behind!" The merchant slowly looked at the lamp light beside him and threw it away.

"Why is it only after us? Even in the darkness… why?" Otto looked around frantically, scared, and despaired.]

Otto shook his head and understood that it was here where he would see his death along with Subaru's.

He trembled at the thought of death but he could live with the fact that it was him that held out to help Subaru till the very end.

"It's all I could do to help you, Natsuki-san. I'm sorry." Otto mourned and waited for his death to appear on screen. "I'm so sorry I was useless…"

[Subaru was sitting with his head in his hands and an expression of agony on his face.

"Rem…"

"Is… Is there some mark that it's following?!"

Subaru quickly looked up in realization after he heard Otto's statement.

"It can't be…" Subaru slowly stood up from his seat and looked behind him into the fog.

"That monster, the White Whale," He stared in despair as the whale showed itself and roared fiercely behind the carriage.

One thing could be seen from the fog… a giant white horn stemming from its forehead.

"It's a mabeast, too?" Subaru stared in horror as he realized. "So it's being drawn to me? No…"

Otto slowly looked at Subaru when he heard that sentence.

Subaru didn't notice and kept staring at the whale with a look of grief and despair. "Rem, I… No… It's my fault… " Subaru uttered in pain and misery.]

"It could never be, Subaru-kun… Please stop it…" Rem wiggled her face into his hair and sobbed.

"You won't see the end of his self-blame so don't force his hand by doing something stupid like that again, I suppose." Beatrice glared at the window while pointing her scathing words towards the maid behind her and Subaru.

Rem nodded, feeling the heat of Ram's glare on top of Beatrice's words.

["Natsuki-san, please die."]

"…Ghk!" Otto stood up with his hands shaking in shock and despair. "What…"

"What?!" Garfiel looked at his brother in shock.

Everyone looked on at the edge of their seats.

[Subaru slowly turned to the merchant beside him. That statement was said so calmly. So instantly.

"Huh?"

Otto's tearful terrified face was the last thing he saw before the merchant pushed him off the speeding cart.

"It's all your fault! It's following us because of you! T-Take responsibility! Die! Die so that I can live!" The merchant shouted as he sped away with his cart and insane twisted expression on his face.]

Otto could only drop down on his knees in shock and horror at the savage cowardice he displayed.

"Ya coward!" Felt shouted in fury as she along with Beatrice glared at him.

"Hang on… My lady…" Reinhard quickly glared at Felt to restrain her nerves and defend Otto.

The merchant just looked at the screen with tears running down his cheeks. "Natsuki-san… No… I-I wouldn't… I would never do th-"

"You did it! You spineless rat!" Mimi was insulted from the back, being held back by Tivey who didn't want the meltdown to involve his camp members.

Otto cried and hugged his knees. "He's my friend!" He shouted. "I would never do this to him!"

"Yet you did." Anastasia heartlessly spat out while glaring at him.

Otto slowly turned to look at-

"Don't look at Betty's Subaru, coward!" Otto flinched looked away from the intense glare of hatred Beatrice sent him.

"Beatrice! Otto wouldn't do something like that stop making him feel bad." Emilia earned a look of surprise from Otto due to her immediate defense of him.

"Rem, agrees with Emilia-sama, something must have been wrong with him because of the whale." Rem defended while looking at the boy with concern. "Subaru-kun should be our priority right now."

[Subaru rolled around roughly like a ragdoll, getting injured and breaking many of his bones.

He could only gasp in pain as he watched the cart disappear into the fog.

Subaru slowly tried to move his broken limbs and stand.

"HGK! AHHH! GHK…."]

"I'm so sorry…" Otto apologized while holding his head in both hands. Crying and gasping in guilt for what he had done to his friend. "I was supposed to be his last support… I-I… Please forgive me… I…"

Garfiel and Julius looked away from the minister, not knowing what to tell him as he held his armrests with trembling arms and bowed his head deeply.

[Subaru slowly looked up…

The fearsome mabeast of mist was floating right over him. Towering and whaling in sadistic glee as its yellow eye shined brightly. It turned red as the whale opened its gigantic mouth and shot the wind towards the broken pathetic prey laying on the grass below it.]

"Please…." Otto shouted at the screen. "Just end it for him, please!"

Beatrice and Emilia began shedding tears for the state Subaru was in.

Rem just hugged her beloved and looked on.

Wilhelm cracked the chair handles in anger as he cursed the monster's name.

Crusch just kept her hand holding the boy's and put on her brave face, determined to see this through.

["AHHHHH AAAAAAA AHHHHHH AAAA!"

Subaru wailed in pain and agony as the attack forced him to roll on the grassy plains, breaking his arms and legs while bleeding from his bruises and cuts.]

"...GHK!" Otto couldn't blink as he watched his brother's final moments on the screen.

"I killed him… I killed him…" The distraught merchant uttered while holding his head and staring at the screen with an expression of despair.

Emilia gasped and tightly held his hand while tears ran down her cheeks.

"Big bro…" Felt choked and held her hands to her mouth at the brutal way the monster was toying with him.

"This disgusting beast, nya!" Felix shouted, glaring at the screen and keeping the tears at the corner of his eyes.

Julius kept looking on at the screen with an angry expression of his own.

[He stopped rolling and slowly opened his one good uninjured eye with tears leaking from it.

"I don't wanna die…" Subaru's breathing was shallow. He began to sob heavily as he forced his injured limbs to stand.]

Otto closed his eyes and hid his head into his knees as he sobbed in guilt.

Petra looked at the screen with her hand on her heart in despair and horror at what he had to go through alone. She didn't even have the heart to comfort Otto for how he must be feeling as the sight of Subaru was just too painful to ignore.

["No… I don't wanna die… " He shook his head and cried. Slowly getting up and shedding tears from both eyes.]

"RGHAAAAAAA!" Garfiel screamed in anger and punched the floor of the theater with tears beginning to flow down his cheek. The blonde boy dropped down and sobbed in despair at his captain's painful situation. Unable to help. No longer a useful shield. Garfiel cried beside Otto at the sheer pain he had to see both of them endure.

["Help…" He sobbed desperately, in pain and fear.]

"Crusch-sama…" Felix pointed at the lady's grip on Subaru's hand and how it was too tight for comfort.

"I'm sorry…" Crusch simply let go of Subaru's hand, keeping her face stone-like as she watched Subaru's hardship above her. "I'm sorry if I ever had to make you feel like you have to do something like that for me, Ferris…"

"... I don't think I can be able to handle doing anything close to this like Subaru-kyun, Crusch-sama…" Felix said while holding on to his skirt and looking at the expression on Subaru's face.

["I don't wanna die!"]

"No one can… nya…" Felix held his breath and watched what happened next with a sense of urgency and helplessness that was shared universally by all who watched the desperate scene.

[Subaru screamed and began limping with his broken arms and legs through the grassy plains, crawling on all fours while shouting nonsensically.

]

"St…op it…" Reinhard muttered softly, analyzing and calculating every scratch on Subaru's form as he was stalked by the beast. "Stop it already!"

Priscilla watched the scene with a small frown. "How much can one take of this?" She muttered.

"I guess that's how it goes, pal," Al shrugged his shoulder with a sad glint in his voice. "I really didn't wanna see this today."

["I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! No! No! Help me! No! I don't wanna die!"

He hurried and sped while one of his arms was so broken that it trailed behind him in the form of a hose attached to his shoulder blade.]

Rem hugged him and sobbed into his neck. "Please don't die Subaru-kun!"

Anastasia closed her eyes and held her scarf tight. She didn't want to see any of this. A few tears slipped out of her eyes.

[Screaming.]

"How could you not break from all of this?" Roswaal asked while staring at the screen bewildered.

[Crying.

He tripped and rolled on his back.

"I don't want to die…" He wheezed in pain and closed his eyes.

A shadow loomed over him.

He shut his eyes tight and waited for death.

Silence.

Slowly, he opened his eyes… to find a shining moon and a plain cleared of mist.

The Whale… was gone.

"Huh?" Subaru sounded out in confusion.]

Everyone kept looking at the screen with baited breaths waiting for anything to happen.

"What the fuck am I watching…" Heinkel's expression was aghast when he emerged from behind the chairs he fell down beside. He stared at Subaru's beaten-up face and looked at the crowds underneath him.

"After all of that, he still went back to kill the Whale?! After losing that blue-haired maid girl to it?!" Heinkel pointed at Rem and glared hatefully at all of the others who refused to tell him the story.

"Is he insane?! Stupid?! Who the fuck's gonna get back into the fight after that?!" Heinkel's face began breaking into a disturbed individual's face. "How is this fuckin' kid gonna go back now without anyone being there for 'em?!" Heinkel pointed at Rem next with his snarl reaching her particular. "How the fuck's she alive?!"

Rem kept her eyes focused on Subaru, ignoring the man completely as he continued to ask questions in the back.

[Scene change cuts to an open road with cleared hills of grass around its sides.

The injured Subaru could be seen slowly trickling and limping along the dirt path with a tired and malformed bruised up face.

"Rem…." He uttered in pain.

"Rem, forgive me."]

The maid hugged him tighter and cried tears of guilt and relief. "Rem's sorry… I'm so sorry, Subaru-kun."

"H-He made it?" Emilia asked while clutching her knight's hand in shock and worry. "But… But then…"

"He managed to survive after all of that?" Anastasia whispered in astonishment. "How's he gonna Return By Death? If not the Whale…"

"There's but one final obstacle to Barusu's life…" Ram's voice was cynical as it was brutally bold. "That damn cult…"

"Maybe it's just toying with him?" Felix glared critically at the screen, preparing himself for any surprise. "I don't trust that mabeast either."

[Subaru stopped walking as his eyes caught a carriage coming closer toward him from a distance.

"You're…"

Before him, the cart stopped to show the dragon carriage he had just pushed off of. But there was no merchant in its driver's seat.]

"Otto-kun came back!" Petra shouted happily, making the merchant raise his head instantly with hopeful tearfilled eyes.

Frederica held her hands together, praying that Otto could find some peace through this next scene.

["Where is he? Where's Otto?" He asked tiredly.

His answer came when he moved to sit in the driver's seat.

The seat was filled with blood with two blades sticking to the wood.

The blades had blood on them.]

"The damn cult… " Julius muttered in anger.

"Otto-kun must've run into them…" Emilia looked at the grief-stricken boy with a look of sympathy. "Are you okay, Otto-kun?"

"Bro, are ya alright?" Garfiel asked, his heart tired from all useless weeping. He felt anger and frustration that Otto was killed as well by those cultist bastards. But the shape of the merchant was worrying him.

"Otto-san…" Julius brought a hand to touch Otto's shoulder, leaning from his seat.

Rem looked at the boy with eyes filled with sympathy and understanding because she was in the same situation herself.

Otto kept staring at the screen with his eyes rounded and open, tears streaming. Jaw slack and horror are visible on every inch of his face.

Guilt. Hopelessness. Cowardice.

Otto witnessed himself throwing his own brother away to save his skin. He witnessed said brother get killed many times in the most horrible of ways.

And yet Subaru had saved him.

He saved him from the cultists who almost killed him.

Otto died on the screen, but the Otto in the theater was alive and well, living happily because of Subaru's kindness.

"I truly can't help him with anything…" Otto's voice was one of conclusion and finality. As if he simply stated a fact that wouldn't be refuted.

Everyone stared at the boy with worry and confusion. No one understood what the boy's sentence meant.

Except for one infuriated elegant knight.

"You damned fool…" Julius growled while narrowing his eyes at the broken Otto.

Garfiel sat his friend down and sat beside him while giving him a worried look.

"Come on man… This isn't funny."

["I see… *Cough * * Cough* Gkh…!" Subaru slowly sat on the bloody wooden seat and grabbed the helm of the dragon's leash with his broken arm.

"Let's go." He uttered with a tone of pain and exhaustion.

The diligent ground dragon looked at him for a moment and began moving the cart forward.

The scene cuts to Subaru waking up as the carriage stopped. He looked around him to find that he was at the border of the forest. His sights fell into the distant sign of buildings to the far end of the road.

"The forest?"

"Huh? Subaru?" A child-like voice exclaimed from beside him suddenly.

Subaru struggled to move his bruised eyelids so he fully turned and looked to find Petra and another kid looking at him.

"It is Subaru!"

Another two kids ran up from his other side and climbed the carriage. "What happened to you Subaru?"

"You're a mess, Subaru. You stink!"

The children began giggling and laughing at him.

Subaru's ruined face managed to smile a little. "You guys…" Subaru uttered as he looked at the smiling faces of the kids.

"I wasn't too late this time?"

He fell down unconscious.

"Subaru?" The kids shouted in worry.

Darkness…]

Schult looked at the kids surrounding Subaru with a look of admiration. "He really did survive an encounter with the White Whale… And came back to save these people anyway? That's so amazing!" The boy's awestruck look wasn't lost on his lady who tapped his head with her fan in annoyance.

Beside them, Heinkel's glare softened when he noticed the children surrounding Subaru with warmth in their eyes.

"He… Made it?" Emilia whispered from the front row, unable to comprehend the journey Subaru had taken so far in just one loop. "He's done so much… How… How does his life end then… How is this fair?" Her voice trembled with sadness as she watched.

In the back, Petra was holding on to Frederica and keeping her eyes wide open to see her friends and herself still alive and well, unlike what she had witnessed last time.

"S-Subaru made it… He still made it even though all of his plans failed… He's such an idiot…" Petra hugged her mentor's waist and forced herself to hide away her face from everyone. There was no denying that the little maid was experiencing pure happiness for her hero.

Frederica didn't have the heart to break the news that this was a failed future for her prodigy. So she kept stroking Petra's hair and patting her head.

[Subaru's eyes slowly opened. He was sleeping on a fancy-looking familiar bed wearing those same white robes from his first day at the mansion.

He was in Roswaal's mansion.

Slowly turning to his side, he found someone sitting on a chair beside his bed.

A blue-haired maid.

"Rem!" He instantly shot up from his resting place and held the girl's hand.

The girl who had been peacefully reading a book by his bedside gasped and looked at him with an annoyed stare.

"Why are you so readily touching me, Barusu? I understand that you're happy to see me after a few days away, but don't instinctively jump on me like that. It's indecent." Ram pulled her hand away and closed her book in disgust.

Subaru could only stare at her in shock as the blue hair was gone and replaced with pink instead.

He mistook Ram for Rem.

"Oh… Yeah, that's right… " He looked down in sadness.]

"Do you see, sister?" Ram sighed with a disappointed look on her face for Subaru's ruined mood after doing so much to get to the mansion. "You've made him live with the fact that he killed you and now he's going to imagine you in my place which means he will be even more perverted towards my charming figure than normal." Ram spat her admonishment with a hint of sadness towards her sister.

Rem blushed a bit and perked her head up. "He shouldn't live in guilt for what happened to me! I gave up my life for his own sake!"

"He doesn't see it that way, I suppose!" Beatrice turned on Subaru's lap to face the maid hugging him from behind. Glaring, she seethed. "You're going to make him give up sooner or later, I suppose."

"Because of me?" Rem was horrified at the thought. "He could give up…"

"What do you think will happen when he always finds ya dyin' every time he tries harder?" Anastasia rubbed her scarf as she said this from the side of the Oni. "Gotta think before ya lose yer life, gal."

Rem's hands trembled a the thought of her memory playing consequences for her actions rather than her helping Subaru get through a tough time.

[The maid changed her look of disgust and glanced at him curiously. "So, Barusu, tell me what happened. You were in terrible shape. Your dislocated shoulder, split forehead, and broken ribs have been mended, but if you move too much, they'll reopen. I've discarded your muddy, blood-soaked clothes."

"Oh, one who healed my wounds…"

"It was Emilia-sama."

Subaru's eyes widened in a haunted form.]

Emilia shrank in her seat, staying away from Subaru's hand and looking away from his expression on the window.

"It is obscene that after everything he went through… My fight with him is still making him hesitate to meet with me…" Emilia stuttered shakingly. "H-How come… he made it to me and I still wasn't able to protect him…"

[Ram raised a brow at this reaction. "She didn't tell me what happened between you two in the capital. I'm not interested. Judging by your reaction, I'm sure you did something you shouldn't have."

Subaru could only reply while frowning in shame. "That's harsh."

"I think it's an appropriate assessment. Perfect for a loser who's afraid to approach the heart of the matter and would do anything to put it off a little longer."

Subaru struggled as Ram gazed sharply toward him.

He began clenching his fist as he uttered the next words in pain and fear.

"Rem is dead." Subaru's eyes began leaking tears.

"I… couldn't do anything. The fog… the White Whale… appeared on the road. So, to cover my escape, Rem… but… I was left alone in the fog, and…"

"Barusu."

He slowly looked at the maid with tearful eyes.

The maid just looked at him curiously.

"Rem… Who is that?"

…

…

…

"Huh?" Subaru uttered as his face twisted in shock and confusion.]

Everyone in the front and second row had a look of agony and pity on their faces.

In the third row, it was only Roswaal who showed a visible reaction with his head lowering in respect to Subaru's shock.

Ram said nothing and showed no emotion beside him as she watched herself speak as if her sister didn't exist.

As for Rem below them in the second row, the maid held on to Subaru and let her tears continue in their fall. She glared upwards at the screen, seething the agony of hearing her sister completely forget about her existence.

"I'm so sorry…" Rem broke her glare and devolved into a fit of sobs on Subaru's shoulder after seeing his expression on the screen.

[Ram tilted her head and stared at him. "Who is Rem, Barusu?"

"Wh-What do you mean, Who?" Subaru asked, spooked and frantic.

"Don't be ridiculous! Sh-She's your younger sister! You know, Rem! Rem! That Rem! This is no time for-"

"I have no younger sister." Ram refuted him sharply and emotionlessly.

"Don't say that! If not for Rem… That's right! What would you call that whole mess in the mabeast forest?! You, Rem, and I fought those mabeasts and-"

"Something is seriously wrong with you, Barusu. I hate to admit it, but you were half-responsible for the ulgarm eradication. Roswaal-sama and I handled the rest. There was no place in it for this long-lost sister you call Rem."

Subaru could only stare at the glaring maid in shock.

"This isn't funny! Even for a nightmare, this doesn't make sense!" He growled in confusion.

"I am always serious. You must be the one who's dreaming."

"Dreaming… Dreaming? Dreaming?!" Subaru shouted and stood up from his bed.

"That's bull!"

"Barusu! You shouldn't stand-" Ram looked at him with worry as he moved up from his bed and stomped towards the room's door.

"Shut up! Just… Just be quiet and watch!" Subaru got out of his room and ran towards the room where the blue-haired maid once resided.

He opened the room to find it empty with no sign of life or furniture in it.

"It can't be…" He gasped in bafflement and looked around in the room.

"Barusu, are you satisfied?"

"Rem isn't… "

"No such person has ever lived in this room. Go back to your room and exhaustion is making you confused." Ram walked away and left him to his thoughts.]

"This is what it must've felt like when the victims of the Whale's fog had family members who still remember them but no one else would…" Crusch sighed and looked away from the harrowing scene, giving Subaru's hand another gentle squeeze.

"E-Even my belongings don't exist anymore?" Rem looked beyond shocked at the screen. "Is this what it felt like when I was asleep…?"

"Yes," Ram answered her sister from the back with tears starting to flow down her cheek. "It's always been on Barusu to carry this burden alone. The one who remembers everything."

Schult gave the maid's words nods of respect, realizing how precious these people see the boy even after so many failures and strokes of complete luck being revealed to them. "I wonder how he manages to get them all back in the end…"

"Subaru's been feeling this pain for so long." Emilia whispered softly and leaned more to rest on her knight's shoulder. Feeling attached to him and grateful his presence beside her. Something she wished for in the nights he would spend aimlessly talking about his day to the coma induced Rem. Every day.

She wished he would do that to her now. Just speak aimlessly and cheerfully. So she could slap him and tell him to be a good boy and rest on her lap to cry his worries and trauma away.

She gently and softly squeezed the no doubt crushed hand of her knight and hoped to have him whisper his love in her ear.

Nothing came.

[Subaru is shown walking slowly in the halls of the mansion with a disturbed face.

All I have to do is run away, run away, run away.

"What good will running do?" Subaru asked in despair as he remembered the way Rem jumped into the fog to save him.]

"C'mon… You gotta look at how Cap'n keeps fightin'..." Garfiel nudged Otto's arm and pointed toward their third brother with a proud look on his face. "Can't ya see 'em fight?"

"He's talking about running away because I helped break him, Garf-san…" Otto's voice was emotionless and cold, leading Garfiel to lean away from him with a sigh.

"Ye're not gonna stay like that…" Garfiel warned the minister with a glare. "I promise it."

"Just let me be… I'm already a coward who threw his friend out to die…" Otto turned from the tiger and moved his seat to the far end of the first row, away from Garfiel and a glaring Julius.

"I agree with you," Julius glanced at Garfiel after Otto was gone to sit by himself. "He will not stay in that disgusting mindset."

Garfiel couldn't help but feel relief from having the backing of Julius when it came to helping his friend. He gave a small nod of appreciation and turned back to the window.

[He had a determined expression as he looked back at the hall. Walking across it, he stopped at the door to this wing's quarters.

He slowly moved his hand to the handle of the door but he struggled and shook in place.

"Lend me your courage, Rem!" He shouted and opened the door with nervousness and reluctance oozing off him.

*CREAKK! *

The door opened.

"Subaru!" A startled Half-elf stood up from her desk and stepped toward the boy.

"Why… did you come back?" She looked at him with an expression of confusion and hurt.

Subaru's own guilt forced him to hesitate for a moment but he soon steeled himself in determination and stepped closer to her.]

"That's not fair!" Petra spoke in sympathy for her friend, not liking how disturbed Subaru was looking at all. "He still needs to make up with Emilia-sama after all of this?!"

"Hmm, it seems like he's finally reached a breaking point. Bro no longer wants to fight this." Ricardo mused solemnly while patting Tivey on the head.

"I would understand him not wantin' to fight anymore." Felt whispered in pity for her big bro.

Rem just looked at the screen forlornly, her tears remaining fresh as they trailed her cheeks.

[(Piano version of Styx Helix plays)

"Let's go. We can't stay here!" He declares with full force.

"Go? Where? No… Why?" Emilia shakes her head and looks at him with a puzzled face.

"Anywhere that isn't here is fine! If you have to ask why, I'd say, 'For your sake.' I came back here for you!"

Emilia turned away from him and looked riddled with guilt. "That again, Subaru? You came back covered in wounds and worried me to death. Weren't you in the capital being treated by Ferris? Why are you here now?"]

"That other you must've a lotta confusion about why he's actin' like that," Felt sighed and rubbed her forehead. "All this loop shit's got my head hurtin', and not the good kind."

Emilia frowned at the screen, slowly moving to capture Subaru's hand for her own comfort and relief. "I… I don't think I ever thought about what would happen if he met with me after the fight we had… I always just assumed he would be too angry with me…"

"Or you hoped that was the case." Anastasia snorted from behind the half-elf, making Emilia thin her lips in thought.

"P-Puck always told me that it was for the best… He read Subaru's emotions…" Emilia shook her head and trembled in place. "I should've questioned him more… But I guess I wanted Subaru to stop feeling any pain because of me."

"Then you're guilty of being my sister, Emilia-sama." Ram surprised all as she glared down at the half-elf. "You'll forgive me if I put you both in the same bracket as self-sacrificing fools."

"Delightful," Priscilla snorted dryly, enjoying the deserved shots being fired at the two girls holding Subaru so tightly.

Emilia's head flushed downward in shame.

[Subaru's guilty expression turned to one of pure determination as his eyes teared up. "If… If you're going to protest, I'll drag you away if I have to! In a few days, you'll see I was right, whether you want to or not!" Subaru quickly grabbed her arm, making Emilia grimace in pain.

"Wait! Wait, Subaru! What happened to you? You weren't this kind of person before. I thought you… And yet-" Emilia was shocked into silence from her stutters by Subaru's loud demand.

"Just be quite and do as I say!" He shouted in despair.

Emilia looked taken aback.

"You can't stay here! You'll regret it! You will! No one will be saved. I don't want to suffer and cry anymore! Just do as I say! Then everything will work out! It will!"]

"Wait, he's planning to leave the villagers behind?" Felix asked in a heartbroken tone. "But they were so happy to see him, nya…"

"After the shit Cap'n's gone through, I'm surprised he's still tryna save the princess instead o' runnin' for a knife or somethin' that can make 'em return." Garfiel leaked a small glint of disappointment. "I guess he still wants to save one person first…"

"But he's being too forceful and too rash with Emilia-sama." Reinhard frowned in worry at the situation.

"What else do you expect? He's trying to get her to do what he wants to prove himself right. That there was nothing wrong with the way he behaved when they fought and that he doesn't have issues he needs to conquer deep within himself." Anastasia explained while shaking her head sympathetically at the boy's troubled antics.

Julius winced and looked down. "I won't let you feel this way again. You damn moron. I will beat you every time you make a mistake like this." Julius vowed to his friend and watched the screen with an aura of determination surrounding him.

[The haunted look on his face changed to one of pure agony as he scratched and pulled on his hair.

"Why doesn't anyone understand?!"

Emilia looked away from him with guilt. "I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're saying. I want to… But I'm not sure I have the time for that right now. There's so much I need to do. So for now…" Emilia stared at the ground with a sad frown.]

"Nobody can understand you…" Roswaal whispered, leaning forward and watching everything with the most fascinated gaze he ever had in his life. "None could be one with you after all of these lives you've lost. You walk above them… You are above them… So why are you still uncorrupted by the feeling of loneliness…"

"I will help understand…" Petra had tears running down her cheek, her voice broken but she couldn't hear what Roswaal was saying in the back as she stared at Subaru's face. "I'll help you talk about all of it. I won't stop listening and will always be there for you to cry…"

Frederica patted her head with a proud smile, happy with the little maid's vow.

["It won't work."

Emilia slowly looked up at the boy as he muttered in a tone laced with pain. His arms fell to his sides weakly.]

First, there were Reinhard and Felt, who both watched with expressions of guilt and shame.

"I should've returned…" Reinhard sighed and let the shame overcome him.

["It won't work. You won't work. You'll fail! You can't do it. It's no use."

Emilia's eyes widened as she stared at Subaru as he rambled. The shot became focused on hiding away his eyes once more as he spoke to no one but himself while Emilia watched.]

"This is the kid that beat back the Whale and the cult?" Heinkel gave a glare that was full of pity for him.

"Might do you some good to continue watching in silence pal. This window will explain everything you're confused about sooner." Al's words were filled with a hint of anger and warning.

The drunkard took that as a sign that something bad would happen soon.

["You're all talk!"]

Second, there was Crusch who sat by his side and winced. Her hand caressed his softly, but her heart ached at the thought of what could've happened had she stopped him from leaving the mansion in her loop.

Wilhelm could be attributed to her side as the one who first noticed Subaru's eyes after Rem in the loop… And the one who did not stop the boy from talking to him.

["You can't save anyone, or be saved!"]

Third, was Rem, the poor maid who looked at the screen with a slack-jawed expression, not comprehending how painful it was to hear him speak this so openly yet.

["You'll keep doing rash and unreasonable things until you see as many corpses as the number of reckless decisions you made! That's your future!" Subaru shouted hatefully without his face being shown.]

Fourth, was the minister sitting at the tail end of the first row, all alone without anyone to comfort him by intention.

"I'm sorry…" Otto whispered hoarsely, tiredly, and painfully.

[Emilia's eyes trembled with fear. "Why?" The half-elf stared at him with sympathy and hurt.

"Why are you crying as if you're in such pain?"

As the reflection of the boy's face was shown from the perspective of Emilia's eyes, the most haunted wide-eyed look was plastered on his face as tears streamed down his cheeks.]

Emilia looked on with one hand clenching her chest and the other holding on to Subaru's hand. Her face trailed tears she wasn't prepared for.

"I… He… He was…" Emilia stuttered, unable to even speak what was on her mind from how cruel it had seemed.

"He was talkin' to himself…" Anastasia gave a solemn look towards the floor. "Natsuki-kun's words just now… were all meant for himself."

"He thinks like that about himself?" Petra had to hold on to her mentor for comfort again, her own tears trailing down her cheeks. "That's just… Not fair…"

Felix nodded with the maid's assessment, giving Subaru a look of pity from the back. "I don't know how I ever decided to judge him… This is too much for anyone to take on."

[Subaru slowly looked down and cried in despair. "After… After she sent me here… No, after she brought me here, there's… There's something I have to do for Rem's sake…" Subaru wheezed through his tears. He tried to wipe them but stopped as soon as Emilia voiced in bewilderment.

"Rem?"

Subaru looked up to find Emilia tilting her head worriedly.

"You, too?" Subaru's shoulders slumped in defeat. "You've forgotten Rem, too?"

"Subaru?"

The boy's hands clenched as his tears streamed down his face.

"Fine. I'll tell you everything. If all of you are going to forget Rem, I'd rather expose everything and end up vomiting blood!" Subaru growled out in determination and despair as he held his robs tightly.

If you're coming for me, then come. I'll gladly give you my beating heart!]

Rem's eyes widened in horror as she understood what was happening immediately. "Because of me… You're going to…"

"What the fuck does he think he's doing now?" Heinkel grunted in confusion, sensing the immediate alarm from everyone in the room.

"He's gonna challenge the witch?!" Anastasia looked on in outrage. "Is he insane?!"

Emilia stared at the screen with wide eyes. "I'm so useless that he would rather kill himself challenging her… Instead of telling me he needs help?" Her voice broke as her tears ran down.

[Subaru glared determinedly at the scared elf before him.

"Emilia…"

"Yes?" She steeled herself and prepared for what he was about to speak.

"I can use Return by Death to-"

The world around him stopped and clouds of dark smoke-like matter filled the room.

Two black hands gently appeared and caressed his chin. One of the hands slowly lowered down and softly touched the beating heart of the boy.]

"What the actual fuck…" Heinkel's hairs stood on end at the sight, unable to register much else happening around him in the theater. "Is that…"

"It's the Witch…" Schult trembled in fear, holding on to Priscilla's hand for protection since before this scene had started.

"You're fuckin' shittin' me…" Heinkel panted breathlessly as he felt another constraining attack in his chest. "Who the hell is this kid… Why wasn't anyone informed about this from the royal guard?!"

"We are watching the same thing as you!" Julius gritted his teeth and glared at the black hands surrounding Subaru's body.

[But the hand moved away from his heart after softly touching it.

"Huh?" Subaru asked in surprise as the hands disappeared and the mist around him dissipated.

"Huh?" He asked again and found himself able to move. He looked down at his chest with confusion.

What was that about?

Usually…

* Thump*

"Huh? Emilia?" Subaru held Emilia softly and looked at her with alarm. She had fallen into his arms.

"Don't… Wha… Huh?" Subaru slowly fell down and held Emilia's bleeding body as a pool of blood formed beneath them.

He had a disturbed expression as he raised her chin to look at her face.

He screamed and cried in terror at the corpse before him.]

"That hand just killed a candidate…" Heinkel muttered with the color white overwhelming any other on his face.

Emilia trembled against Subaru's arm, closing her eyes and keeping her breath steady as she nuzzled his neck. "I'm here… She didn't kill me… Don't let her torture you please…"

"That vile being…" Rem growled into Subaru's back as she stopped her sobbing to glare at the chair he was sitting on. "She killed Emilia-sama when Subaru-kun refused to abide by her taboo…"

"It's a way to blackmail him into submission," Reinhard spoke humbly, mystified by the prospect. "Subaru is dealing with an entity who will kill everyone he loves if he didn't care about himself enough to break the rules."

"This is absurd…" Tivey muttered, listening into what everyone was saying and keeping a look of disturbed shock. "How can one get out of a situation like this…"

"I don't suppose it's clear now why Natsuki Subaru never could talk about his ability…" Crusch earned reverant nodding from Emilia and Rem. As the others in the room understood exactly how harsh Subaru's ability was on him.

"He didn't want anyone else to die… Is that why he stopped trying to talk about all of these things that happened to him?" Petra held a hand to her chest and kept one around Frederica's arm. "That's… Cruel…"

"It's inhuman, nya." Felix glared at the window above, his tears already far too dry to join the others on the floor.

[The screen changes to the outside of the mansion for a moment.

"You have the look of someone who believes he's the most unfortunate soul in the world." A voice sounded as someone entered the quarters where Subaru was sitting with Emilia's body hugged to his chest tightly.

The disturbed boy looked up to find a girl with twin-tails glancing down at him coldly.

"Beatrice…"]

The spirit sitting on Subaru's lap earned the look of surprise she held at this moment. "I didn't expect to see myself, I suppose…"

"Beatrice-sama…" Rem looked at the girl with concern. "I'm not sure this is the best thing to see now… Remember what happened with everyone who came across Subaru-kun so far in this loop… We all failed him."

"Betty will be different, I suppose…" The spirit adopted a stubborn, desperate tone. "Betty saved him when you and your sister tried to kill him like rats. She always helped him…" Her voice trailed into the uncertainty she was creating for herself.

"Beatrice…" Emilia wiped her tears away and looked at her with a guilty expression.

["Bubby won't come out, I suppose." The girl slowly removed the green crystal from Emilia's neck.

The crystal was shattered in half.

"Don't worry. Bubby won't die, I suppose. He just returned to his original form for now." Beatrice solemnly hid the shattered crystal pieces in her pocket and glanced at the boy.

"You have something you want to say, I suppose?"

Subaru slowly looked at Emilia's corpse and closed his eyes.

"Please kill me. Right here." He pleaded pathetically.]

"No…" Beatrice sternly spoke. "That will never happen, I suppose…" She had an air of finality around her as if proclaiming it a challenge for the viewing to show her any different. "Get up and die somewhere far away from Betty if you wish it. But don't you ask me to harm you."

Rem and Emilia looked at the spirit with shocked faces, not expecting her to say such words.

"Get up…" Beatrice ordered with a merciless glare, her tears beginning to fall.

[The spirit's eyes narrowed. "You would ask me to kill you? That's too cruel, I suppose. You understand nothing. You understand nothing at all." The little girl growled in anger.

"Huh? Beatrice?"

"I won't grant any of your wishes, I you want to die, then die on your own. Betty wants no part of it, I suppose." The little girl waved a hand and distorted reality in front of the boy.

"What are you…?"

"Everything is already hopeless, but your staying here is a problem. I will at least protect this mansion, I suppose." The girl glared at him as a giant black hole opened up before them.

"Beatrice?" Subaru struggled to keep himself and Emilia on the ground as the portal raged and sucked him in toward it.

"Betty is not like Roswaal. Even if it would secure a future for me, I've had enough of pain, suffering, fear… Everything, I suppose!"

Subaru could only stare at her as the portal sucked him and Emilia's body and began closing.

"At least die where I can't see you, I suppose." Beatrice's defeated expression was the last Subaru saw as the portal closed.]

"Holy shit, pal doesn't have it easy at all." Al showed a hint of remorse in his voice. "I gotta say sorry to him when he wakes up…"

"Beatrice…" Roswaal's mouth held a frown that showcased real sadness for the first time this entire viewing. "It all worked out in the end… I had your best wishes in my heart for as long as I've been on this road. For you, and for my teacher…"

Ram glared at her master but didn't say anything to break his moment of self-reflection. It didn't appear he was guilty about anything happening on the screen, just simply telling Beatrice to be patient for his plan to work out.

Something the infuriated spirit at the front row kept to herself since she already remembered what Roswaal had told her before the viewing commenced.

"All of it led to Betty and her contractor meeting properly, in fact." Beatrice shoved the glares from Felt and Julius with a look of disinterest. "It won't matter since Betty won't kill him… in fact."

The tears that ran down her cheek afterward led her to turn around and hug Subaru's chest as tightly as she could along with Rem and Emilia.

[Darkness…

Above a clearing in a forest, the night sky tore apart as a portal suddenly opened, and out tumbled Subaru and Emilia, rolling on the ground.

Subaru slowly got up and immediately held the half-elf closer to him. "Emilia…"

She was unresponsive. Face cold and blood coming out of her slightly hung mouth.

Subaru's eyes teared up in despair. "Sorry… I'm sorry. "

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…Someone… Anyone…"

Subaru wheezed and screamed into the night sky. "Please kill me!"]

Emilia held on to him tightly, not even blinking as she watched the tragic scene play with her corpse being the center of his final words. His wish to die so he can save her.

The sheer idea of it numbed Emilia's brain into a blunt shutdown that forced her to stop breathing for a moment.

"Don't die…" She whispered with what little breath was left in her chest. "Please don't die…"

[And slowly…

A group of dozen hooded men surrounded Subaru, shocking him into silence.

"I've been waiting for you, believer in love." A figure stepped upfront before him… a raging toothy grin on his disturbed green face.]

Seeing the different expressions of anger and disdain across the room, Heinkel sighed to himself in realization.

"That's him, ain't it… The Witch Cult terrorist…" Heinkel's tone was a testament to how desensitized he has become. "After the White Whale and the Witch killed the half-elf candidate that looks like her… He still ended up facing the archbishop too… This kid's life fucking sucks."

He had his fists gripped harshly in anger for Subaru. Not particularly caring about the boy but when things were this unfair towards someone trying to do their best, Heinkel could relate heavily.

["Betelgeuse…" Subaru whispered in horror.

The man's grin grew tenfold. "My, my, my! The one you're clutching to your chest there wouldn't be the half-devil girl, would it? How diligent you are! Before we could even act, you took the half-devil's life in the name of the ordeal! HEHEHEHEHE!"

"I'm diligent?"

"That's right! You are diligent! Fantastic!" Betelgeuse laughed morbidly before abruptly stopping and glancing down at Subaru.]

"That word sickens me every time…" Frederica told her surprising gripe to everyone in the room, her tone far from the polite, restricted maid she'd always been.

No one in the room could blame her as they saw the hated man who's tortured many because of what he did to Subaru in the previous loop.

"To come so far only to end up with another corpse of someone dear at the feet of the man you've despised… What a wretched tragedy mine eyes are seeing." Priscilla spoke with the tone of someone observing from a faraway land, detached from the events being shown completely.

"Big Bro…" Felt's eyes began watering for the first time, having had enough of the piling misfortunes that continued to happen all because she couldn't take one small action at the very start of the candidacy. "Fuck… I should've gotten to him…"

["Still… Unable to overcome even one Ordeal, much less confront one of the sins, and after all that waiting… She trips over the first pebble in her path, and it's over."

Subaru held Emilia close as the nasty man stepped closer with a grin.

"Ah, you are truly slothful."]

"S…top it…" Emilia muttered into Subaru's arm. "Please, Father Guese… Stop it…" She wished for any sign of the familiar friendly face she had seen in the Sanctuary.

"Just fuckin' end this already, ya monster…" Heinkel spat hatefully, cringing at the long-winded torture Subaru was going through.

[Subaru's angry glare turned to a surprised look as he saw two long black hands coming out of the Archbishop's back.

As the hands moved to pick Emilia's corpse, Subaru quickly held Emilia and jumped out of the way.

Betelgeuse's eyes widened in shock.

"Did you see the Unseen Hand just now?" The green man asked softly, appearing disturbed by such knowledge.

Subaru just glared at him and held Emilia tightly.]

"He could see them now?" Anastasia asked this with a concerned glance at the half-elf below. "Ya don't gotta grip his hand too hard, no one's gonna take 'em away."

Julius nodded his head while gritting his teeth in fear for Subaru. He remembered the way Subaru used this to his advantage in the fight.

"Soon… He will win soon." Julius needed to remind himself that Subaru would stand up again. All he needed to do was watch what his friend had been through and understand his painful trials. "This madman will get his payback… On that, I promise." There was no sign of elegance on Julius's face, just a scowl unbefitting a man of his looks.

Otto stared at the screen with his empty eyes slowly narrowing and glaring at the madman before Subaru. His overlapping emotions did not blind him to those he must hate more than himself.

Petelgeuse is the chief among them as of this moment in time.

["No… That's bad… " The Archbishop looked betrayed and angry. "This isn't right! It's all wrong! It's a mistake! A mistake!" He shouted in anger and confusion.

Subaru's eyes widened as the man bit on his finger hard.

"My Authority… "

He bit on his other finger and made it bleed.

"The Authority of Sloth… "

He crushed another of his fingers.

"My Unseen Hand, granted to me by love… "

His entire hand had crushed and bleeding fingers.

"No others can be allowed to see it!" Betelgeuse screamed maniacally as Six dark hands spurted out of his back and over Subaru.]

Roswaal, Emilia, and Beatrice all looked at the archbishop with the same expression of familiarity, while Emilia and Beatrice showed a mix of hurt and concern for the friend they once knew, Roswaal had anger flashing within his eyes for the madman he once knew and cherished.

"Fuck this guy…" Garfiel growled, his razor teeth bared with predatory rage showing in his eyes.

Everyone began watching at the edge of their seats, concerned about what may happen to end Subaru's life.

[The boy held on to Emilia and moved to escape but the group of cultists blocked him from all sides.

Subaru could do nothing but struggle in futility as two unseen hands held him by the neck and the leg away from Emilia.

"You held her as if she were terribly precious to you, but how beautifully will you cry when the half-devil's body is torn apart? HAHAHAHAHA!"

Subaru struggled and cried as Betelgeuse sent his hands towards Emilia's discarded body.

The tears leaked as he screamed. "Stop! Stop!"

Betelgeuse laughed sadistically as his hands reached Emilia's corpse.

"Please stop!" He screamed in despair.]

Emilia gasped as the hands became nearer and nearer to her body, both she and the rest of the theater minus Heinkel and Schult remembered the disturbing scene from the previous viewing where Rem was mangled and deformed by the man in a twisted sense of pleasure he derived from breaking Subaru's insane facade.

"Please… No… Don't do it!" Rem begged from behind Emilia, wishing to spare another person the pain of seeing such a thing happen to themselves. "Please stop him, Subaru-kun!"

"The hell's the kid gonna do?" Heinkel asked with a sober expression. "He's got nothin'..."

Ricardo and Al nodded solemnly with that statement.

"Disgusting filth…" Priscilla spat a whisper of hate as her ruby eyes glowed in the darkened room due to her anger at the green corpse of a man. "What a waste of effort from mine pleasant eyes to watch something so hideous."

"Someone just save him already!" Petra shouted while holding her hair with both hands like Subaru did when he was begging Emilia to run with him. "Just prove me wrong and show me that there's some good left in this world other than Subaru! PLEASE!"

And for Petra's begging, the screen played the next scene.

[*WHOOOOSH! *

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Both Subaru and Betelgeuse stared wide-eyed as sharp magic icicles were shot down from the sky and planted firmly all around Emilia's body, blocking the unseen hands.

A voice growled from the sky.

"What are you doing?"]

"Is that…?!" Julius instantly understood who it was that did that.

Emilia's eyes widened in hope.

Beatrice allowed happy sobs to escape her throat.

"So it came? Good. I thought this farce was taking too long." Priscilla nodded her head while fanning herself.

[Betelgeuse looked up… His eyes were rife with fear.

The entire sky was filled with hundreds of sharp icicles pointed at everyone around Emilia.

In the middle of this ready storm of sharp death, was a floating small cat.

"What are you doing to my daughter," Puck growled out and glared at the Archbishop. "You scum."

Subaru looked petrified by the cat.

Title card:

Disgrace in the Extreme

Ending Theme: Stay Alive.

Episode 9 Director's Cut. End.

Episode 10… Arc 3's continuation…

Start.]