4
Tremors raced all around the stone tower’s passage.
A beautiful dance of ice and snow unfolded as vicious, murderous blades of wind filled the air. They chased the grinning defiler mercilessly but never quite managed to finish the job.
“Ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha! Not bad, not bad, not bad. You’re really something. Truly merciless, which is all the more reason! Gluttony! Gluttony!”
“You still have time to play about? That is quite the composure you have.”
Lye Batenkaitos, an Archbishop of Gluttony, was demonstrating a phantasmagoric, ever-changing style of combat. He kept standing on walls and, now, the ceiling.
Ram was hot on his heels, chasing doggedly even as she strained against her body’s poor condition. The slender girl positioned herself perfectly and sent Lye’s small body flying backward with a heavy blow. Lying in wait for this exact moment—
“Wind up and bam!!!”
Emilia readied the massive ice hammer in her hands and swung for the fences. The hammer was as big as a person’s torso and connected with Lye’s back. After a sharp crack, Lye started bouncing like a rubber ball—in fact, he was bouncing too much.
The Archbishop had launched himself off the hammer, acrobatically dispersing the force of the impact and avoiding a deadly blow.
Lye had consumed martial arts masters from all over, and he wielded every sort of martial art imaginable. His ability to react was transcendent, and his combat sense was outstanding as well, allowing him to respond with the perfect technique with perfect timing.
The memories he stole included their previous owners’ physical experiences, too. That much was clear from the way Subaru couldn’t remember how to use the whip that he carried on him. Why had the original Subaru chosen something so difficult to use as his primary weapon?
He probably thought a versatile whip would be more useful than something more standard like a sword or spear.
“I can get on board with that, but it’s a real problem at times like this…!”
“For times like this, what you need is Betty!”
She held Subaru’s hand and reached out with her other arm, summoning dozens of purple gleaming crystals. They were all aimed at Lye, his defenseless back wide open while he was pinned between Emilia and Ram at the other end of the passage.
“El Minya!”
With one wave of her small arm, she shot the purple missiles toward Lye’s small body. The resulting purple blasts swallowed up the small Archbishop, and the sound of glass shattering filled the air.
Beatrice had used a terrifying spell that stopped time for the target, turning them into a fragile, easily broken crystal. In that state, even a glancing blow would be lethal. And the fusillade had been virtually impossible to avoid in this narrow passage.
When the light show died down, Lye was…
“—Eh?! He’s gone?!”
Emilia’s eyes widened as she stared at the epicenter of the explosion. Subaru and Beatrice were stunned as well.
As their confusion grew, Ram was the first to understand what had happened.
“Barusu!”
Spinning around, she shouted, pink eyes wide open.
It was an unusually desperate expression for her, and seeing that helped Subaru figure out that the threat was behind him now.
And that he wouldn’t have a chance to turn and face that enemy.
“—Even for us, having to deal with that over and over again would be annoying.”
They could hear Lye’s sneering voice as he reappeared after escaping the mass of purple missiles.
This was Leaping Dorkel’s Teleportation ability, a sort of short-range warp. It was the worst possible matchup for their plan to surround the Archbishop.
As that realization dawned in Subaru’s mind—
“Subar—”
Thought does not always translate into action correctly, and the ■■■■■ and the body are rarely perfectly aligned.
After he reflexively pushed her small body away, a sharp feeling tore deep into his chest.
“Ngh!”
The terrible pain immediately made him regret his decision. Sadly, there weren’t any better shields.
It terrified him that if he had been any slower, Beatrice would have been cut down. Becoming a meat shield was nothing compared to that possibility. It hurt. It definitely hurt. But the pain was temporary. Not that temporary. But better this than letting his ■■■■■ be wounded. Better than letting his ■■■■■ die.
“Subaru—!!!”
A high voice rang out in the hall as Subaru’s body slumped to the floor, unable even to crack a joke.
He held in the cry that threatened to break free. It wouldn’t make this any better. I can’t bother anyone else or risk hurting their ■■■■■.
I can’t do that. I can’t, so just shut up and die, Natsuki Subaru.
“—Nice, mister. Is that how you’re planning to go to the next one?”
I managed to hold it in. But I don’t have to stand for this.
In a situation where he couldn’t move an arm or leg, Subaru put all his remaining strength into a trembling arm and flipped the bird.
“Die in a fire.”
With that, his consciousness cut out—
Round 2
•The attempt to help Emilia and Ram finish Lye Batenkaitos quickly has failed.
•Subaru’s support is unhelpful against Lye’s martial arts mastery.
•Beatrice’s surprise attacks don’t work well against Gluttony.
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