3
The man in white had abruptly intervened in the battlefield of raging fire and ice.
He was neither tall nor short and sported white hair and a symmetrical face that left a somewhat middling impression. His physique seemed to be the theoretical ideal of a man of medium height and medium build. Judging from his outward appearance alone, he seemed to have a weak presence that probably let him immediately blend in with any crowd.
But the young man, who lacked defining features, had a name that could not be ignored.
“The Archbishop of Greed…?!”
Before Subaru’s shocked eyes, the man—Regulus—stood serenely in the aftermath of the firestorm in the square.
Regulus was calm after picking up Emilia, who was still unconscious, and enduring Sirius’s apocalyptic inferno.
“But I truly must say, I am glad I reached her in time. My lovely bride was nearly burned to cinders. Even I, a person who takes pride in requesting little from others, am not so strong as to stoically accept my lovely bride being turned into a pile of ashes. Well, that is only natural. I am not an abnormal person, so of course, I could not simply bear with such degeneracy.”
Looking down at Emilia, who was resting in his arms, Regulus spoke eloquently with an expression of relief on his face. The contents of his words were strangely out of place, but there was no mistaking from what he said that he was already ignoring the urgency of the situation from the get-go.
Unfortunately, since Emilia was unconscious, there was no way for his show of concern to reach her, putting it all to waste.
Watching Regulus take everything at his own pace, Subaru swallowed hard before he spoke up.
“Wh-what do you think you’re…?”
“—Excuse me.”
Suddenly, Regulus looked toward Subaru and interrupted his attempt to say something.
Irritation shone clearly in his empty eyes as he sighed with a note of exasperated fatigue.
“Do you not understand the meaning of courtesy? I introduced myself first, didn’t I? The only considerate thing to do would be to introduce yourself to ensure that everything can smoothly proceed. Knowing each other’s names is the first step to establishing a working relationship, yes? I am the kind of person who considers that important, you see, and so I have introduced myself. Of course, this is a basic level of consideration that normally shouldn’t need to be explained—am I wrong? I mean, normally, people simply understand. The fact that you did not and could not—is that something you did on purpose? Or have you simply lived until this very day in such an obtuse manner? This is incredibly rude. To drop formalities with another is to express that you do not see the other party as worthy of politeness. In other words, that is denying their individuality. It is nothing less than infringing upon another’s rights. You are infringing on my rights—me, a rational man free of want or desire.”
“…A—all right, I get it. My name is…Subaru Natsuki.”
Seeing that Regulus’s eyes were becoming more and more tinged with madness as he rambled on and on, Subaru offered his name, heeding the alarm bells going off in his mind.
Instantly, Regulus stopped moving his lips. He slowly narrowed his eyes.
“…Yes, that’s good. Respecting others is part and parcel of respecting yourself. Such concerns may be natural, but this is what creates a better world for all parties to live in. One should not yearn for too many things and accept happiness that is appropriate to one’s station. By abandoning selfish desires, everyone may live within their means. Such is a wise and praiseworthy way of life.”
Regulus laid out his sound argument with such tranquility that it wouldn’t be strange for someone to assume he was joking. But the glimmer in both of his eyes proved that this was no game.
Just like with Sirius’s logic, Regulus’s words sounded like sane if flowery rhetoric at first glance. Yes, his remarks were the same, using superficially sound reasoning to gloss over the abominable statements nestled within—
“Thank you for your opinion— Now burn to ashes and begone!!”
The instant he had the thought, Regulus stood there as a fire resembling an overflowing waterfall assailed him.
The ferocious heat wave from the apocalyptic inferno enveloping the square made Subaru cover his face. Even though Regulus had introduced himself as a fellow Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, Sirius had mercilessly scorched the other away for having interfered with her plan.
And so without any time to counter her, Regulus and Emilia were engulfed by flame once more.
“Subaru…”
Behind his back, Beatrice’s voice trembled as she grabbed onto his shoulder with enough strength to hurt. This was a sign of her concern for Emilia. Subaru knew exactly how she felt, so much so that it stung almost unbearably.
But Greed was so off the charts that the pair’s concerns held no meaning whatsoever.
“Now just a moment. Who raised you to resort to flames before your words? If you wish to say something, then speak. Or are you a talentless fool who cannot even understand language?”
Waving an arm in annoyance, Regulus extinguished the vortex of scorching flame.
The firestorm vanished like it was nothing more than an illusion, with Regulus standing utterly unaffected at its center. Of course, the same went for Emilia there in his arms.
Even after those flames had surrounded him, he didn’t show a single drop of sweat, never mind a burn mark.
“You and I are both Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins, yes? I know that you must be touched in the head. I have enough tolerance to overlook a great many things. However, you see…”
Looking back, Regulus lowered his voice as he glared at Sirius. Taking stock of his gaze, Sirius continued to rub together the golden chains wrapped around both her arms as she gritted her teeth in hatred.
“Just now, you intended to slay this girl by fire, yes? It is somewhat unreasonable to ask me to forgive that transgression. Since time immemorial, every story tells us that when the people we love are harmed, it undoubtedly stokes the fires of anger. That is a right that everyone possesses, and therefore, it is only natural that I am justified in seeking vengeance.”
“Anger?! Ha, do not make me laugh! A small, superficial man like you should not lightly utter such words! Anger is mine! It is the irreplaceable treasure that my precious bestowed upon me!”
“What is it with you? Are you still obsessed with that fool who went ahead on his own and died? My, my, how creepy. Only a flawed person would cling to a dead man all this time. If someone you love dies, you should proactively search for another. That is a law of the world, the extent of nature, and to disobey makes you…quite the piece of garbage.”
“I know you laughed at his death—do not dare to speak such lofty words to me!!”
Showered in detached insults, Sirius sprayed spittle as she flew into a rage.
Giving in to her anger, the madwoman broke a paving stone as she stepped forward to swing her flame-imbued golden chains at Regulus—only for the blow to bounce right off the side of the man’s face. The chains made a dull sound as they struck flesh again and again, going left and right as Sirius’s blinding rage struck Regulus all over. The flaming trails left in their wake enveloped the young man as he stood perfectly still.
“Begonebegonebegonebegonebegone! Turn to cinders along with that abominable half-demon!!”
The next moment, the cage of fire converged toward the center, enveloping Regulus in a rising pillar of searing flames.
Its height surpassed that of the wrecked time tower. Paving stones melted under the intense heat, and enough melted away at the center of the scorching fire, where Regulus stood, that a crater had formed.
There was no mistaking that these flames were not something a mere human could endure. However, no matter how apocalyptic the inferno seemed—
“—You know, you really should realize it by now. You just don’t measure up, you see.”
There, in the crater that was burned by flames all over, a sad smile came over Regulus.
Sure enough, he was unaffected by chain or flame. Emilia was intact within his arms as well. Subaru should have been happy to confirm once again that she was safe, but at the same time, he could see an end coming that would be difficult to avoid.
—If the fight continued, Sirius would be slain by Regulus.
If that was the only issue, Subaru would’ve been fine with it. If anything, having the number of Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins whittled down through infighting was something to celebrate—or it would’ve been if Sirius’s death didn’t affect all the surrounding people, that is.
“ ”
Even then, the fear racing through Subaru’s body was undiminished. His knees buckled, and his lungs were unreliable, racked by pain that refused to subside.
But in this situation—
“Subaru.”
—his precious partner called him by name, scolding Subaru Natsuki for shirking and cowering.
“ ”
The warmth that he felt through his back lent strength to his bowed knees. They gave him the courage to defy his fear, to stand and face the twin natural disasters that were the madwoman of Wrath and the villain of Greed.
If Subaru had been by himself, he probably would have long since succumbed to fear. Standing up would’ve been impossible.
Subaru could only do so now because he wasn’t alone. Unlike the people consumed by madness, Subaru had someone right by his side.
That was why—
“…Lusbel. Can you stand and run on your own?”
Putting the boy, whom he had carried in his arms, down on the ground, Subaru released him from his bonds. Lusbel gazed at Subaru, and then he turned to look at Sirius’s feet out of concern for Tina.
“I know you’re worried. But leave that girl to us.”
“…Okay. Please save Tina somehow…”
With teary eyes, Lusbel entrusted Subaru with his hope. Subaru accepted it with a solemn nod—Lusbel’s wish was noble. He wouldn’t let anyone sully it.
“—Beatrice.”
“I know.”
Communicating his thought with a single call of her name, Subaru and Beatrice advanced toward the chaotic battlefield.
Fear had knocked him down. The enemy they faced was almost incomprehensibly dangerous. But most importantly, Subaru had a reason to fight.
“Hmm?”
Right as he was busy glaring at Sirius, Regulus raised an eyebrow, having abruptly felt that something was off.
The cause was probably the end of a whip wrapped around his slender neck. After flying through the air, the whip had found purchase on Regulus’s neck, tightening along its length to rob him of his freedom.
Taking this as a signal, Lusbel raced across the chaotic square. Watching his back…
“Now stop touching my Emilia like she belongs to you…!”
…Subaru howled, the explosion in his heart triggered by unceasing love.
He had no idea whatsoever how Regulus had fended off the flames. He could only assume it was probably the effect of an Authority, something on par with Petelgeuse’s Unseen Hands and Sirius’s soulwashing.
It was safe to assume that he wouldn’t be able to hurt Regulus. In that case, what about binding him with a whip to hinder his movements?
“—Shamak!”
Additionally, Beatrice conjured Shamak, the greatest of all spells, and enveloped Regulus in a black cloud.
Chanting while seated on Subaru’s back, Beatrice had plunged the villain’s thoughts into the void with perfect timing. If he could only pull the guy down within the darkness and take Emilia back—
“Do you have a death wish? Then you should just wait your turn. Do not make me bother with you.”
With a single step, Regulus completely blew away the black cloud surrounding him. It didn’t seem like the spell, which was meant to obliterate the victim’s five senses, had any effect on Regulus, who now turned his gaze toward Subaru and Beatrice as they raced forward.
Instantly, Subaru felt every hair on his body stand up as he sensed impending death, and so he shouted:
“Beako, now!!”
“I suppose I’m ready!”
Matching Subaru’s voice, Beatrice began a complex ritual.
—This evoked one of the fruits of their spending almost every waking moment of the last year together.
“—E M M!!”
Howling as he chanted, Subaru sent mana to Beatrice directly from his broken Gate. This power served as the activation key to initiate an original spell, the only one of its kind in the whole world.
This was E M M, one of the three spells jointly developed by Subaru and Beatrice.
Watching it unfold, Regulus looked like he thought he was being pranked as he stretched his right hand toward Subaru. The five fingers he opened without fanfare contained such immense power that Subaru instinctively knew it was the same as death itself reaching for him.
If they touched him, dying was unavoidable. However—
“Huh?!”
—the instant he thought he’d killed the pest, Regulus’s fingertips brushed the surface of Subaru’s body.
But that was all. There was no blood spatter, nor was Subaru cruelly transformed into a corpse.
This was the effect of E M M—an invisible magic field that covered the entire body, an absolute defensive spell that physically cut a being off from the world, designed to prevent anything from interacting with Subaru whatsoever.
“Uraaah!”
As Regulus blinked hard, Subaru aimed a mighty punch right at his shocked face.
He felt feedback; the punch had undoubtedly landed. But when Regulus recovered from the recoil, there was no mark on his face or any other sign that anything had happened. He had complete damage nullification—in other words, a full-time E M M state.
When Subaru thought about how his own E M M dispelled after taking one hit, the difference in power was staggering.
“I’m still charging!”
Before Regulus could counterattack, Beatrice informed Subaru about her progress toward the next spell. In the intervening time, Subaru was defenseless in a situation where both dodging and blocking were difficult—meaning he would simply have to sacrifice a bit of his soul.
“Do not act so high and—”
“Come!! Invisible Providence!!”
Subaru howled again. A moment later, an invisible fist crashed into Regulus’s irritated-looking face from below, slamming into his jaw.
Interrupted by the blow, Regulus was sent reeling. Subaru closed the distance to try and rip Emilia out of his arms—but then he stopped as he felt his intestines churning and a hot nausea rising up in his throat.
“Ugh, ubhhh!”
Covering his mouth, Subaru coughed. Blood dripped through the gaps in his fingers—this was the cost he paid.
The price of using this invisible force, a forbidden art that exceeded his body’s capacity, was the corruption of Subaru Natsuki’s soul and abject torture for his innards.
“Subaru! Are you all right, I wonder?!”
“Cough… Sorry, I messed up. Even though I wanted to get Emilia back right then…”
Heaving up the clot of blood stuck in his throat, Subaru gritted his teeth at the fact that he’d been one step too slow.
In the one year since the time he’d first used Invisible Providence, his cheap knockoff of Unseen Hands, he still hadn’t mastered it. The unseeable, invisible black hand coming out of his chest was an incomplete Authority, and the price that it demanded was pain that racked his entire body and the deterioration of his soul.
For all that, the effect was only a single punch—a fact that made him want to cry.
“But I still got something out of it… Getting hit by that guy is bad, but his movements are sluggish. Considering all the people I’ve seen to date, even Larry, Curly, and Moe could probably beat this guy.”
Regulus’s style of fighting was amateurish, below even the likes of Subaru; he was barely more skilled than a total novice. His ability to nullify damage was very troublesome, but even lethal blows didn’t mean anything if they couldn’t connect.
Annoyed by that appraisal, Regulus adjusted his grip on Emilia.
“What petty trickery… What if you harmed my lovely bride, flailing around like that? Even without someone teaching you manners, is it not natural to treat girls with kindness? Are you incapable of even that?”
“You just can’t stop grating on my nerves, can you? That girl’s the one I treat the kindest in the whole world. What do you think you’re doing, going ‘lovely bride’ this and ‘lovely bride’ that and all sorts of weird garbage?!”
“I’ve told you before, yes? Do not make me repeat myself—I have come to take this girl as my bride.”
Regulus’s brazen reply treated the sacred institution of marriage with such nonchalance that it was incredibly off-putting.
Even as he forced his quest of seeking love onto others, he prioritized only himself. His fundamentally warped logic was chill-inducing.
“Previously, I was unable to uphold an identical vow. That is why I shall not yield this time. I will protect her. I will take her as my wife, cherish her, and enjoy the tranquility that I am due. I do not wish for many things, but if it is for the sake of protecting my small slice of happiness, I will not hesitate to exploit the power that I have been granted.”
For the first time, Subaru felt fear coming from Regulus’s demeanor as the man shared what seemed to be his genuine thoughts.
Seeing Subaru’s reaction, Regulus went, “Ahh,” seeming to accept something as he nodded. “I see now… You know, it might be cruel to say this, but it’s futile to try and come between destined lovers. It pains me to say this, but everyone knows that it’s quite unsightly to pine for someone who is already spoken for.”
“Shut up! Emilia-tan is my bride. No way am I giving her up to the likes of you!”
“Heh, so Emilia is this girl’s name? It has a nice ring to it. It makes me want to whisper to her, admiring her like a songbird. That name suits this charming girl perfectly, yes?”
“You don’t even…know her name…? What do you see in her that makes you ramble on and on about how she’s your lovely bride?”
“Her face.”
He was stunned. Subaru fell silent after hearing his instantaneous reply.
Regulus cocked his head in confusion as the silence made him wonder if he’d been misunderstood.
“Her face is exquisite. When it comes to love, that is everything, isn’t it?”
“Die.”
“Would it not be better if he was dead, I wonder?”
Subaru and Beatrice’s condemnations overlapped out of simple shared enmity.
Simultaneously, Beatrice tapped Subaru’s shoulder from behind his back, indicating that she was done charging. The details of how Regulus’s damage-nullification Authority worked remained unclear, but they still had something to try.
This was the third of the original spells from the SubaBeako combo—
“—Whoa?!”
The instant he took his first step forward, the ground between Subaru and Regulus suddenly cracked open, revealing a pit of roaring flames.
The heat wave billowing up at Subaru made him recoil. He proceeded to back away, glaring at the perpetrator who had cut his counterattack short.
—It was Sirius, who had been content to simply observe the fight between Subaru and Regulus up to that point.
“You…! Wait, the girl… Where did you put Tina?”
There was no sign of the girl who’d been taken hostage and ought to have been at the madwoman’s feet. However, she did not reply to Subaru, keeping her palms thrust out as she maintained her silence.
He wasn’t sure what the nutcase had in mind after observing the battle so far, but having her intervene was exceptionally worse.
Dealing with Sirius herself was already difficult, especially considering how they had to work around her Authority. Sensing that the situation was deteriorating quickly, Subaru wiped cold sweat off his brow— However, the situation had worsened far more than he had imagined.
“—I have found you.”
“—Wha?”
Finally, as she stood still, Sirius looked at Subaru, and— No, she was only looking at Subaru and him alone as she continued murmuring.
Sirius suddenly seemed as if she’d completely forgotten her bloodlust from moments before. The madwoman was now ignoring Regulus’s very existence, giving her undivided attention to Subaru. Subaru’s throat dried out instantly when he saw the crazed glint in her eye.
Then the madwoman pulled back both arms, which she had thrust out, and gently pressed her hands against her cheeks.
“I have found you. I have found you. I have found you. Ahh, ahh, ahhhh! Yes, there’s no mistake! I am sorry, I am so sorry I didn’t notice earlier! But ahh, it really was true!”
“Wh-what the…?”
“You were here all along, darling?! I searched everywhere but couldn’t find you, and all your spares had been ripped away, nowhere to be found! I have searched for you for so, so, so, so, so, so, so, long…and now you have finally returned! My darling has returned to my side!”
Her shrill, high-pitched voice was born from indecent passion.
Continuing to press her hands to her cheeks, Sirius wriggled and writhed about, her slender hips shaking as her voice leaped with joy. When it finally dawned on Subaru that every aspect of her voice and her demeanor was a manifestation of seething romantic passion, he was struck with horror.
“My feelings have reached you! Finally, my love has reached you! After all this time!”
Utterly ignoring Subaru’s shock, Sirius stretched both hands out toward him.
Then with all the spirit that the madwoman possessed, she pronounced her love in a thundering voice.
“I have been waiting aaaaall this time for you and only you…my beloved, beloved Petelgeuse!”
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