7

Cold sweat ran down his face trailing down towards his chin, he could feel his hair standing on end as his instincts began to blare at him. Adrenaline shot through his body activating his fight or flight response, but even so he couldn't bring himself to move out of the position he was in, his sword was in his right hand which pointed it towards her, his eyes in a glare.

After his encounter with her initially he didn't bother learning too much about her, it being a touchy subject. He knew a few things, that she was an assassin reigning from the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, that her title was that of the bowel hunter, and that she was incredible at what she did. He also now knew that she was more than just all of that, she was what she made him.

Vampire.

"Elsa Granhiert." Saying her name felt like a poison on his tongue, corroding his throat making it sound guttural, it left a bad taste in his mouth. He had so many questions for her, about her.

Elsa smiled at him with an unnatural look, it felt predatory. Her beauty was unmatched but there was something ugly behind it all, he could see it in her eyes which glowed at him with such intensity it took him aback.

Elsa Granhiert was unusually tall for a woman, standing around the same height as Subaru. Her purple eyes angled down towards their edges and presented Elsa with a certain level of calmness and gentleness. Below her left eye Elsa had a beauty spot. Her long wavy hair was the same shade of black as Subaru's, and was braided into a long tail on the left side of her head that reached down to her hips. A single purple flower decorated the left side of Elsa's head. Elsa was a woman of incredible beauty who oozed eroticism with every move she made. Her white skin was unusually pale to the point that it could almost be described as sickening, and Elsa's slim body was well-endowed with large breasts and sultry curves. Her bewitching beauty coupled with her well-endowed body was enough to catch the eye of most people she met.

But her beauty hid beneath a monster deep within.

As for her clothes, it was extremely provocative. Her outfit consisted of a pair of black elbow-length gloves with purple trimmings at the top, a pair of black high-heel shoes, and a black dress with purple decorations that was both strapless and backless and featured brown tights. The dress, that clung to Elsa's body fairly tightly, also had thigh-high slits on either side and an exposed front that flaunted her bellybutton and cleavage.

"Oh my~ You look surprised to see me." Her voice came out sickeningly sweet, gentle yet strong. It might have been the fear he had for her that made her words hold such power against him, or maybe it was something more than that, they were bound together by a curse after all.

"Should I not be? You popped out of nowhere and considering who you are and what you did…"

Her smile widened and it made him take a step back, her leg slowly had risen and been planted towards him, one step forward.

"You're doing well for yourself, a knight now are you? Well~ my congratulations…" Her voice trailed off, another step forward.

Subaru took another step back.

"Do you think such a thing would have been possible if not for what I did to you?"

She was walking at a steady pace towards him now, which led him to increase his pace backwards, what she said struck home to him, would he have had the strength to do such a thing? She made him into what he is now, and a part of him felt vile for being what he was, but he'd be lying that if it weren't for this curse… if it wasn't for Elsa, he would have died to Rem a long time ago and been forced to reset.

Elsa's hands suddenly flicked inside of her outfit, and suddenly the magic crystal that emanated light on the street behind her shattered causing that portion of the street to be shrouded in darkness, only lit up slightly by nearby lanterns.

As she walked towards him, more and more of the lights went out, it was a scene from a horror movie, the smile on her face never leaving.

"You're pretty dramatic when it comes to backing people in a corner…" he found his voice, it nearly wavered but held strong. He was now several feet away from his starting position, he realized if she pushed him back any further, they might enter a populated district, and he couldn't have other people being put at risk.

His eyes widened, why was she here in the first place. Was it just to fuck with him?... Or did she have a target? Had she already dealt with her original reason for being here? He felt his jaw clench at that thought, shit while he was fucking around, she might have been hurting someone.

As the last light shattered, he found himself no longer backing away. His feet planted firmly on the ground he forced himself to meet her gaze, determined eyes met amused ones.

Her walk slowed down to a halt and she stood underneath the last street light, her arms were crossed underneath her bosom, her hand held onto one of her signature weapons, a custom designed Kukri blade.

She didn't say anything to him, seemingly waiting to see what he would do. Her amethyst eyes focused entirely on him with curiosity, amusement.

Subaru forced the tremble out of his hand, and took a deep breath.

"That night… why did you do what you did?"

Elsa twirled her blade in her hand, her fingers lightly trailing the edge of the blade, her lips parted and tilted upwards as she spoke.

"Whatever do you mean?~"

Subaru took a step forward and threw his free hand to the side, was she fucking around with him?

"Don't fuck with me! You know what I mean!"

His hand snaked upwards to his neck, pulling aside the popped collar of his knight outfit, he tilted his neck towards her. Residing on it was two little scars that resembled a bite mark.

Elsa paused for a second look at the bite mark, before giving him a provocative smile.

"You're offering yourself to me like that? You're quite bold~!"

"You know that's not what I meant by that gesture!"

Elsa let out a melodious laugh at his ire, finding the entire situation truly amusing, it echoed into the nearby streets. It was a terrifying sound.

Her laughter died down and the look on her face changed, her eyes narrowed as her gaze lowered into his own dangerously, even though she was a couple feet away from him, he could almost feel her touch, as if her gaze had a cold grip on his heart that froze him.

"It's funny you ask me about that, rather than the reason I was after the half-elf in the first place. I guess this matters to you more than she does."

"Elsa!"

"I didn't like the look in your eyes."

The world stilled for a moment, silence filled the atmosphere. It was as if even the sounds of the capital, all the animals and everything else came to a halt.

"W-What?" he managed to get out.

Elsa took another step towards him snapping him out of his frozen stupor.

"You had this look in your eyes, when I charged towards you. As if death wasn't something that could touch you, as if death wasn't something that mattered to you. As if you were above it, that even if I struck you down, it would nothing more than an annoyance."

Elsa's voice had softened and grown quieter, and with every word she took a step closer to him until her voice was barely above a whisper and held a playful and dangerous tone, until finally she was right upon him. Her hand struck out and pushed him against a wall, cracking it causing him to wince. He tried to push back but her strength was on another level.

She leaned in close to him, causing him to tense up. Her lips found themselves beside his ear, and he could feel her warm breath on his neck, trailing down to his nape and collarbone sending a shudder down his back causing his entire body to shake slightly.

Her lips parted and she whispered into his ear.

"It annoyed me just a little bit, so I bit you."

As those words came out of her mouth, she suddenly ran her tongue on the spot where she had initially bit down all that time ago causing his entire body to react violently, he instinctively swung his sword at her channeling as much mana as he could into it.

She leapt away acrobatically, twisting and twirling her body in the air until she landed on her feet several feet away.

Several Minya crystals shot out of his sword and hit nearby building, crystallizing portions of the wall, the remaining mana had shot out in an arc which cut deeply into the ground, his breath was wild and untamed.

His cheeks were flushed red, his other hand was touching the spot she had violated, his eyes glared at her intensively, but they were not filled with just anger, but fear, confusion.

"Y-You're insane…" he muttered out not believing his ears.

That was her motive?! He felt his knees trembling, threatening to give out on him. Back when she dashed at him, he remembered feeling those feelings, that he had failed again… and that he would have to try again.

Try again, as if death was an inconvenience and that it wasn't the end of him. She saw that look in his eyes and got annoyed by it, so she bound him with the same curse that inflicted her… such a reason was her motive?!

"Am I? Isn't it reasonable for someone to do something about whatever annoys them?"

"This is beyond reason! You turned me into a fucking vampire!"

Elsa was in front of him before he could begin his next sentence, her eyes baring into his, he instinctively swung his sword but she brought up her blade and blocked it with ease.

"Are you complaining, Natsuki Subaru?"

Subaru grit his teeth and snarled out at her.

"Huh?!"

Her free hand snaked up and caught his throat shutting up his snarl midway through, she brought his face closer to hers so that all he could see was her eyes.

"Look at how you've grown, you went from pathetically weak to someone at the very least capable. You are unrefined but can you not say that this is a gift?"

He glared at her, his free hand shot up and landed a nasty punch to her nose causing her head to snap back, he kicked off of her and landed onto the side of a building, digging his hand into the brick that made up the building and hanging on there.

She let out a giggle as her head slowly tilted back down to look at him, there was blood on her nose but the damage was already gone, completely healed. Her healing was leagues above his own.

"You could never have dreamt of being able to do this prior, you are bound to me but is that really so bad?~"

"Considering I'm a bloodsucker, yeah I'd say so! You should have fucking killed me instead that night."

"You are not required to suck blood, you don't need it to survive you know."

Subaru's thoughts and words halted, he let go of the building and fell back to the floor, landing on his feet, he took a step towards her cautiously.

"What do you mean by that?..."

Elsa gave him her usual smile, her eyes narrowing in amusement at him.

"Suddenly interested?~"

"Just answer me!"

"While blood would certainly be more nutritious for you, it's not a necessity to survive, although not drinking it would be stunting your potential. I can see the disgust in your eyes, you've already had some, didn't you."

Subaru's mind wandered back to the night Rem attacked him, he had sucked her blood not once but twice, and when he did, he felt an incredible boost in his abilities, his natural regeneration, his senses, even his energy came back. It was a maddening high.

"While the major effects are temporary, they do increase your natural abilities marginally over time with each time you take a drink."

Subaru listened to her ramble on about their nature paying close attention to it, so that's why he had gone weeks without it. It wasn't a necessity… but the urge was there, waiting in the deepest depths of himself, and in a moment of weakness he gave into it knowing he would have to.

"And what? I bite someone but then they'll just become like us as well?"

Elsa merely giggled at him in response which caused his face to contort into anger, but before he could lash out, she spoke up.

"That would be silly wouldn't it? It would be quite troublesome to make an offspring every time you fed. You have to inlay the curse upon them yourself, and not many people know how to do that. So, you don't have to worry about that, you wouldn't be able to even if you wanted to."

Subaru remained silent at those revelations, good he was glad he didn't have the ability or know how to do such a thing, he wouldn't even if he knew how to. He would not condemn someone to that.

Your abilities grow marginally every time you do, is that why her abilities were in a complete league of their own compared to him? It was like blood was the EXP, and your abilities grew with each level you gained.

"I really should have expected a system like that, it makes sense."

"Enough talking~. I've come to see how much you have grown, try not to disappoint me. I've taken quite the interest in you~."

That was the only warning he got, he brought his sword up in an instant to defend his midsection and he made it just in time, she moved faster than his mind could process.

Her blades slammed into his own, and the force behind it reverberated through his entire body, it was like a truck hit him full force.

He went flying back, hitting the ground hard and rolling several times before managing to dig his sword into the ground with mana infusion causing him to slow to a halt. He got up onto a knee and felt something piling in his throat and up to his mouth, he coughed up and spat out onto the ground revealing a red oily liquid. His eyes widened, blood? She hadn't even hit him, but rather his sword. Did that much force pass through him?

That thought was terrifying, because Subaru came to a frightening realization. She had toyed with all of them at the loot house, until Reinhard came, she was just playing with them all.

The sound of a boom and a freight train snapped him out of his thoughts as he saw Elsa rocketing towards him.

One second.

Subaru realized raw strength would not be enough to help him here, he infused his entire body with mana, coursing it through his veins empowering him.

He brought his sword up and knew not to take the blow head on again.

Elsa span several times through the air generating more and more force before she was upon him, swinging her Kukri blade with the grace of a dancer, he brought his sword up and felt the blow hit, he quickly redirected her blade to the side, causing the kinetic energy to be dispersed into the air rather than in his body.

He used his free hand to attempt a punch towards her, his fist glowing surrounded by a purple glow showing how much of his limited mana he was channeling into that punch, hoping to knock her out before she had the chance to get truly serious.

But with a surprising amount of acrobatics and grace, she spun around the attack causing him to hit nothing but air, as she spun around her leg came around and landed a devastating blow to his sternum causing his eyes to go wide and his pupils to shrink as blood and saliva shot out of his mouth, his entire body crumpling under the force of her blow.

She followed up by twisting her body into a roll beneath him, placing her hands on the ground and then using both feet to spring-kick him into the air.

Two seconds.

Flying through the air he felt nothing but pain, his entire body was on fire from those strikes alone. He tried to find strength to move but nothing answered his call, if he didn't infuse his body with mana he was sure that blow might have killed him.

Subaru watched as Elsa crouched down and shot up towards him, flying at him faster than he was going up.

He couldn't move much in the air and she knew that, and was going to take advantage of it.

She was getting closer and he realized he needed to do something, anything!

Just as she entered his range, with her blade swinging wildly at his abdomen he did the only thing he could.

"Shamac!"

The sudden outburst of black smoke enveloped her senses causing her eyes to go wide, it was a low level version of the spell and yet she found herself completely engulfed by it.

She tried to follow through with the motion of her swing but realized she could not feel her arms, she could not see, could not hear, as if she didn't even have a bod-

She felt a tremendous force hit her in the head.

Subaru watched as she got disoriented by the spell, Shamac took a huge amount of mana out of him every time he used it so he had to make it count.

He channeled as much mana as he could into his arms, letting go of his sword which began to fall back down towards the ground, he clasped his hands together overhead.

As she neared him disoriented, he swung his hands down onto her skull.

A resounding boom echoed throughout the sky causing nearby onlookers from other parts of town to look at the sky, to see two figures, and among those onlookers was a pink haired individual who cursed under her breath.

Elsa rocketed down towards the ground as her senses returned to her, she felt her skull crack open which flooded her with the feeling of nausea, she watched with a reddened gaze as the ground quickly approached, she willed her body to twist and avoided falling on her head, her back hitting the ground hard.

Subaru's sword clattered to the ground with a metallic ring a few feet from her.

Three seconds.

Subaru landed on the ground and fell to a knee, gasping for breath as he expended more and more of his mana, he was running out. He'd have to conserve what he had left until absolutely necessary to use it.

He realized something though, he only has enough mana to cast a few Shamac's when he's on a full tank, but those are the lowest level version of the spell and doesn't work on most people who know their way around magic, but it worked shockingly well against Elsa…

"You… have a weakness against magic, don't you?" he muttered out as he saw Elsa standing back up, the damage to her already healed, the only thing that might have hinted she was injured was the blood running over her eyelid and down her cheek.

Elsa shot back at him with a knowing smirk, the look in her eyes was bordering on a thin line between amused and crazed.

Subaru dashed to the side and picked up his sword, bringing it up and swinging towards her, she ducked beneath it and her jabbed him in the neck causing him to choke, causing his defense to drop for a moment.

A moment was all she needed.

She swung her blade towards his midsection, cutting open the fabric and slicing the flesh beneath causing his eyes to widen in pain, unable to scream as his throat was still closed.

Her hand dug deep into the newly made cut, her fingers trailing his intestines before she pulled them out to get a look at them.

Four seconds.

"How beautiful, they're even better than I imagined them. What a lovely color~." The feint pink blush on her face as well as the crazed and euphoric smile filled his heart with fear.

A scream finally erupted out of him and he backhanded her with enough force to send her flying away, he fell to a knee and clutched onto his now open stomach, panicking and shoving his guts back inside.

Slowly but surely, he could feel his intestines making their way back into their place, as the wound on his stomach closed painstakingly slow.

Tears welled up in his eyes at the feeling of being disemboweled again, something he wanted to avoid no matter what. It was such a horrible feeling, but more above it all, past the pain was the reminder that he was weak.

And that hurt more than anything.

Five seconds.

Five seconds had passed since the beginning of their altercation and that was all it took for her to get past his defenses, expend most of his mana, and manage to weaken him enough to slice him open.

She was on another level, she was a monster hiding behind the skin of a beautiful woman.

The sound of laughter caught his attention as he watched her slowly stand back up, her glowing amethyst eyes looked into his teared ones, filled with anger, pain and more of all the realization of his weakness, self-hate.

"That's a good look in your eyes, better than the eyes you looked at me with before. Perhaps those feelings will forge you into a stronger weapon?~"

"I'll kill you."

Elsa smiled wickedly at his declaration, her hands coming up to her face as her blush intensified.

"That really is an amazing look for you, keep this up and I might fall for more than just your intestines~!" He couldn't tell if she was mocking him or not, but considering the type of woman she was…

"Did it hurt? Are you feeling wounded? How many times do you think I can cut you open before you're forced to take a bite out of someone to survive?"

His heartbeat quickened at her words; panic was beginning to take hold of him. He couldn't let that happen, no way. He wanted to run, everything was screaming at him to abandon his pride and run to safety to get away from her.

But he was a knight now, wasn't he?! He had more on his plate than his own pride now, if he ran away like a coward that would reflect on Emilia, and not only that it would stomp on his promise he made to himself.

To never allow himself to be put in a position like this again, to never lose his life again like that, to be strong, to be something, to be someone he could finally be proud of instead of hate.

His jaw clenched so tightly he felt as if his teeth would crack, his eyes glared menacingly towards her, his already mean gaze being complimented by the sheer anger and malice coursing through him, this woman has hurt him in more ways than she realized.

She twisted him into something he never though he would become, for better or for worse did not matter to him now, she stomped on his promise to himself, she killed him three times before, took his life and made him feel true fear, mocked him as he bled out and died.

He found himself chuckling as he realized at least she was honest about her intentions from the very start, even with all of that she wasn't the one he disliked the most though in this world.

She caused him more pain for sure, but the irony that even still she was not at the top of his ire made him break out into laughter.

"Oh my?~ Have you finally lost it?"

Subaru brought a hand up to his face and laughed harder than he had in a while, it wasn't a maniacal laugh or genuine either. It was the laugh someone laughed when they realized their life had gone to shit.

"Ah –" he managed to get out before his laughter died down, he lowered his hand and Elsa saw his gaze on her, a whirlwind of emotions but if she had to put a finger on it… despair.

"How did I get to this point? What went wrong in my life?" his voice was gentle, quiet but it held much weight, weight he hadn't realized he was carrying.

"You've been dealt your cards, the decision you make now is how you'll play them~."

Subaru glanced back up to Elsa who spoke those words to him, he slowly put his sword back into its sheath. Taking a deep breath he bent his knees, and tensed his body, his eyes cleared up, and while there was still a mixture of conflicting feelings, they show that he acknowledged her words.

Elsa realized his intentions and grinned at him, she too put her weapons away and brought her arms up.

"That is the decision you have made? You really are intriguing… Alright. I'll play along, I'll disembowel you as many times as needed with nothing more than my hands."

His sword would not help him here, when he was so clearly outmatched it was the obvious choice. He had only been training with a sword for a month, she had been training with her blades for god knows how long. He would not be able to keep up with her in a battle of blades, he was an amateur and she was a world-renowned assassin. So, he would use the weapons he was born with and was adept with using, his arms, his legs, his fists, his body moved exactly how he wanted it to. He would have a better chance like this.

He hadn't expected her to do the same, and her declaration frightened him, but even if she did disembowel him over and over again with nothing but her hands, he would get back up until either she died, or he did.

Unbeknownst to him, Elsa had no intention to kill him.

A moment of silence.

And then they both moved, rocketing towards each other and cracking the ground beneath them.

Subaru threw a fist towards her side, hoping to hit her in a sensitive spot like her liver. Elsa stepped to the side and narrowly avoided it, she followed up with two jabs to his nose.

Subaru kept his head from snapping back, he jumped slightly and threw a kick towards her head, but she caught onto his leg and slammed him down into the ground, her fingernails were sharp and raked against his midsection, cutting him open once again.

He let out a yelp of pain but rolled away as blood poured out of the wound, it closed and healed as he rolled. He got to his feet to see Elsa in front of him, throwing a kick towards him.

"That's twice." Her voice came out calm and soft, stating a fact.

He barely managed to roll under it, throwing a punch to the side of her knee causing her to stumble. Subaru followed up with a punch to her chest which caused her to gasp, whether it was pleasure or pain he genuinely couldn't tell.

She rolled back a few feet from the hit, and Subaru tried to follow up by jumping into the air and slamming down on top of her. She saw it coming though and leapt to the side of him, the dust picking up as he hit the ground with as much force as he could muster and cracking it.

Re-gaining her footing, she pushed off the ground and used her elbow, slamming it into his jaw causing it to break, she used her free hand to grab onto the collar of his knight outfit and pulled him in close, unleashing a vicious headbutt into his nose breaking it as well.

He let out a scream of pain, which quickly intensified when she used her hands to disembowel him once more.

Her hand slammed onto his face and pinned him to the ground causing him to flail his hands at her, he scratched her face as deep as she could but she still held at him, a wild smile on her face.

"Incredible! You are amazing! I knew you would be an amazing investment~."

His nose and jaw had set themselves back in place, he breathed out of his nose causing the blood that had pooled in it to push out and stain his lips.

The feeling of her hands digging through him was maddening, he needed it to stop, it needs to stop. IT HAD TO STOP!

He pushed his hand into her chest making her pause and look at him.

Focus, envision the mana how you want it to move, think about the effect you want it to have and finally…

"Oh?~ How bold of you-"

"Murak!"

…say the name of the spell.

"Oh my."

Elsa found herself levitating away from him, so she gripped onto his intestines to ground herself causing him to let out a yell of pain, she needed to let go!

Subaru grabbed onto her wrist with both of his hands, and squeezed as hard as he could. He had crushed a metal pipe on his first day with these powers, and he could do a hell of a lot more to her arm!

"Ah~!" Elsa let out a sound that insinuated she was fond of the pain and it made him sneer at her.

He had basically crushed her arm, and she still held onto his intestines which were threatening to spill out of the wound on his midsection, he twisted his arms in opposite directions and tugged as hard as he could.

He tore the wrist of the hand that was clutching onto his intestines cleanly off. Elsa no longer having a tether fell victim to the Murak and begin to float upwards, the smile on her face never leaving.

He grabbed her disembodied hand and tore it off of him, pushing his guts in once more and letting his body heal the damage, it was much slower this time, making him realize he was running out of juice.

Shit at this rate he was going to die.

He felt his mana draining continuously and realized he couldn't keep the spell going, with a grit of his teeth he made as much distance as he could from her and ended the spell.

Elsa landed on the ground softly, standing back up she looked towards her wrist, she watched as the muscle, sinew, tendons and skin grew back in a matter of seconds her hand was back as it had never been ripped off.

She noticed the hand that had been ripped off on the ground, so she stepped on it crushing it into a paste, her gaze moved to look at Subaru.

The message was clear, it didn't matter how many times he beat her down, she would be fine.

And he would be worn out… unless he gave into what she was, into what he was.

He was disgusted when he bit Rem the second time, he didn't want to but chose to do it anyways because Meili's life was at risk, but now it was his own life at risk.

But he didn't want to die… was he willing to allow himself to do such a thing again?

'You better be alright, Barusu!'

Those were the thoughts racing through her head as she sped down the streets of the capital, she had heard that loud resounding boom that echoed throughout the streets, hell everyone in a kilometer radius had.

When she looked up to the sky and towards the direction of the sound she saw two forms, one clouded in black and the other clouded in white, with shades of red. Normally she wouldn't have cared too much, it was probably a knight. But when she spotted that black hair, and that signature black cloud of shadow magic, she realized who it was.

And as she watched him hit that other person back down to the ground, she realized he was in trouble. She didn't hesitate, she began running towards the direction of where she saw them, it was hard to judge the street based on the distance, so she was running blind but regardless she marched forward.

She hadn't even notified Emilia-sama or Crusch-sama that Barusu might be in trouble, she just ran instead and she realized that might have been a mistake.

But she had no time to think about it, she was where she was now and she would waste time going back.

So she moved forward with one goal in mind, finding Subaru and getting him out of there.

She heard the sound of tearing, a shout of pain, a shout of anger and realized she was nearing them. She leapt up as high as she could and saw them, in an open street with broken lights she screamed out as she made her descent.

"Barusu!"

"Barusu!"

Subaru's head snapped to the sound of Ram's voice from above, he watched her descend, landing on her feet beside him, her eyes focused solely on the enemy in-front of her.

He looked at her with surprise, which quickly turned into a mix between worry and anger.

"You shouldn't be here, Ram!"

"It's quite rude to interrupt our date, are you acting on jealously? Unfortunately for you I am the type of woman to not like being interrupted, so I'll have to deal with you now." Elsa's voice came out, her eyes gleaming at a new target before her.

Shit this might have been the worst possible scenario, while he was sure Ram could handle herself in a fight, not against this opponent, even if they worked together, he was unsure if they would manage anything.

As Elsa charged at them, he made up his mind, they would have to retreat.

"Minya!"

With the remaining mana he had left, he shot a Minya crystal at Elsa. He didn't waste time to see if it hit, he quickly grabbed onto Ram whom let out a yelp of surprise, before forcing his legs to move, jumping high into the air and onto a rooftop. As his foot hit the ground, he launched forward trying to make as much distance as possible between them and Elsa.

"Barusu! Put me down!"

Subaru ignored her pleas and continued to make his way across the rooftops.

"I said, put me down!" Ram shot a blade of wind towards the ground, causing Subaru to lose his footing and they both went tumbling along the roof top, sliding to a halt.

Subaru grit his teeth and looked at her with a manic look in his eyes.

"What are you doing? We need to go!"

"And have her follow us back to where we're going to be staying? Are you okay in the head? Think!" she responded, her voice much more calm and level than his.

"Why did you come here in the first place then?! You need to get out of here, let me handle her."

But Ram merely scoffed at him, finding that idea to be ridiculous.

"I came here to help you, Barusu! Do you think I'm going to stand around and just watch as you get batted around and possibly die?"

Why? He didn't understand. Why was she so friendly with him anyways now that he thought about it, maybe his mind was stuck in a state of panic, and maybe some of the things Elsa said and did have affected him more than he thought, he couldn't stop himself from lashing out.

"And why would you do that?! Why don't you hate me, Ram? Your sister and I are constantly on bad terms, always at each other throats. Her and I might as well be enemies, so why aren't you?...-"

Why aren't you my enemy as well? He couldn't finish those words, but she knew what he meant.

Her face contorted into confusion, to realization, to anger, and finally she looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"Are you an idiot? Do I really have to spell it out for you, Barusu? Fine listen up."

Subaru was taken aback by her condescending tone, but he listened closely.

"When I first met you, you introduced yourself in the most stupid way possible, but it was amusing. The way you prostrated yourself and the way you acted I thought you were an idiot, but even then, I could tell you had good intentions. But regardless you were suspicious, and when we made it to the mansion that suspicion only grew and for good reason."

"There was no background on you, it was as if you just appeared in the world one day, without any trace or history. And despite that, you found yourself befriending not one, but two royal candidates in a single day, you seemed to be on edge constantly even if you tried to hide it, as if something was bothering you. And then you asked to become the knight of a royal candidate you just met. So, I kept my eye on you, and for a week I came to one conclusion."

Ram pointed a finger at him.

"You are the biggest idiot I have ever met, but despite it all you are a good person. You were not a threat to those in the mansion, you had good intentions. But that didn't convince my sister, and despite noticing her anger I didn't stop her from going with you that night. And from her own admission she brutalized you, tore your arm off, hurt you and betrayed you… you had every right to defend yourself and kill her, and there's nothing I could say that would not justify that."

"But you didn't, and you even brought her back to me, into a place that could have become your enemies in an instant. You carried her back, even though she had tried to murder you. And above all, when she was going to be sent away, and I was going to lose my sister you stepped in and said that wasn't necessary even though you would have wanted that ease of mind."

She closed her eyes, and when she reopened them, her tough gaze softened.

"And when I confronted you, I could tell you didn't send her away because you didn't want to tear her and I apart. So, tell me, Natsuki Subaru. Why on the Od would I hate you? Even if you and Rem can't stand each other, I cannot fault you for any of it. Because it wasn't your fault. Even if the two of you cause each other much stress, and as much as I hate seeing Rem so angry, I can't hate you for it. You are a good person, and the situation that happened wasn't your fault."

Wasn't your fault.

Subaru's throat hitched, and he looked down towards the ground. Seriously was he an idiot?

Ram watched him with an inquisitive gaze, as he looked down at the ground, a moment would pass before he would raise his gaze to look at her.

"I-.."

"Barusu, look out!"

He didn't feel the blade enter, but he surely felt it exit. He looked own to his abdomen where Elsa's blade had stabbed right through him, he slowly turned around to face her, and she had a smile on his face.

"Are you two quite done?~"

Subaru collapsed onto the ground, and his vision began to blur.

"BARUSU!"

The next few moments were a blur, he heard the sound of fighting, and screams. Was he going to die again? After he promised himself he wouldn't?

CLANG

The sounds of weaponry hitting each other resounded dully in his ears.

The throbbing pain in his abdomen was too much to heal at the moment, he was out of stamina and he needed a replenish if he were to stay alive.

His eyes refocused up as he heard a yell, and saw as Ram got pushed back by Elsa, he forced himself back onto his feet and began stumbling towards Elsa who had noticed him get back up.

"Ah~ I knew you wouldn't die. So, tell me, what will you do now?"

"Barusu, don't! You need to rest!"

Subaru stumbled towards Elsa who just smiled at him, turning her body towards him. She saw his lips part and she realized what he intended to do.

Subaru jumped at her, and she didn't bother moving but merely tilted her neck to the side.

Subaru's teeth latched onto her neck, which caused her to let out a moan of pain and pleasure, a blush formed on her cheeks as she grabbed the back of his head and held him there.

Ram could only watch her with jaw agape, not really understanding what was happening.

"So that is your answer, how interesting~."

She leaned down and latched her own teeth into his neck in retaliation, a smile forming on her lips.

He couldn't afford to let Ram die here, which meant he had to fight, and to fight he had to let go of what held him back.

And so as her blood entered his mouth, and trailed down his throat, Natsuki Subaru was born anew – no longer pushing away what he was in order to grow.

And no matter what, he would kill this black haired bitch.