CHAPTER 62: SLAUGHTER AT ROSWAAL MANSION
Seeing that woman in the doorway, a shiver dashes down Subaru's whole body.
Even for Subaru, who had undergone many predicaments since being summoned into this parallel world, and had occasionally even lost his life, she encourages in him a very irregular kind of dread.
Donning her black cloak, her ebony outfit clings snug over her voluptuous body. Her rare black hair, same as Subaru's, stretches down in a long braid, with a rather salacious smile arisen on her gentle face. Were it not for the knife dripping blood casually held in her hand, she would be the very picture of a beauty—this murderer, and as far Subaru cared, this worst of calamities. His first killer. The GUTHUNTER, Elsa Granhiert.
Subaru: “W-hy... 're you here!?”
Elsa: “—My, I thought I had smelled this scent somewhere before, and it was you? I wonder how your body is faring. Have you been caring after your guts for me?”
Elsa's brows rise as she tilts her head, as if only just noticing Subaru's presence. She replies to his question, but it is already too late for any conversation to emerge here. To care after your internal organs is an incomprehensible deed, which no ordinary person could possibly accomplish. Meaning, this lady who sought such as thing as if it were a normal desire, was unmistakably a madman. One distinctly different from Betelgeux Romanée-Conti, a madman on another vector.
His entire body stiff and tense, Subaru pays ultimate attention to Elsa's every move. This madwoman's combat prowess was enough that the Sword Saint Reinhardt had failed to kill her —extradimensional. Subaru could sharpen his attention, but he would not be catching even the first signs of her motions.
Beatrice: “—Who gave you permission to be here, I suppose?”
Asks Beatrice, unimpressed, from behind Subaru. She stands as she had been during her confrontation with Subaru, her expression vanished of tears. Elsa lightly sweeps her long hair aside.
Elsa: “It didn't look as though it were locked, so all I did was open it and come inside? The next time you're having an important conversation, you would best not forget to lock the door.”
Beatrice: “That wasn't what I meant, in fact. Entering Betty's Forbidden Archive without permission is... for other than this man, not so commonly possible, I suppose. How did you?”
Elsa: “Oh, then that's easy.”
Beatrice glances at Gate Crossing Exception Case Subaru. Elsa nods as if finally understanding what Beatrice is asking. She gestures at the yet-open door.
Elsa: “Your magic to isolate spaces... uses doors an intermediary, yes? The magic connects a closed room to a closed room, through doors.”
Beatrice: “That's right, in fact. Without Betty's permission, it shouldn't be possible to reach this Forbidden Archive connected to some door of the mansion. So how could...” Elsa: “I did say it's easy. It uses closed doors as an intermediary... so if you leave all the doors open, wouldn't that start eliminating the alternative options?” Beatrice: “—!” Elsa points out an extremely easy way to overcome Beatrice's Gate Crossing.
Her statement is indeed correct. Gate Crossing is magic which switches the rooms between identically closed doors. Meaning, it can't connect to opened rooms. If the magic is restricted to doors in the mansion, and you left every door in the mansion open, the last remaining door would obviously be the one connecting to the Archive. But, to do that,
Subaru: “You'd need to open every door in the mansion... someone would've, had to have had disrupted you with th...” As he speaks, Subaru truly realises the extent of his own idiocy. Possibly this was the outcome of him averting his gaze from a reality he did not want to see.
Subaru: “Your, knife... is wet, with whose blood?” Blood sticks, clinging down the blade of Elsa's kukri. The drips falling from its point, as if it had only just slashed open its prey, make Subaru far more than capable of imaging the worst.
Subaru's lips pallid and trembling, Elsa traces her finger down the side of her blade. She licks up the blood dirtying her pale finger. Elsa: “Whose do you think?” Subaru: “You goddamn...” Elsa: “A hint. They were wearing a maid outfit.” Three persons remain in the mansion. They were all wearing maid outfits. Or no, the sleeping Rem was in negligee. Discount her. Two left. Elsa: “A second hint. Their hair was not long.” Petra with hers shoulder-length, Frederica with hers grown long.
—Subaru's throat sucks in the air needed to scream. Elsa: “A third hint. As they died crying, they sobbed Subaru, Subaru!” Subaru: “ELSAAAAAAAAAA!!” Baring his fangs, ducking down low, Subaru dashes directly for Elsa.
Elsa loosely stretches out her slender limbs in counter, readying to meet the tip of her steadied knife with the oncoming Subaru's hea—
Elsa: “—Huh?”
Subaru: “Who the hell would rush straight-on into a monster like you!”
Posture low, Subaru sweeps his arms from the floor to the air. Following that trajectory, up fly the scattered gospel pages. For an instant, some tens of pages block the line of vision between Subaru and Elsa. Instantaneously, taking in a breath, Subaru centres power into the core of his gut, straining his mana, and,
Subaru: “—Shamac!!”
Spouting out black fog, the distance between Subaru and Else drowns in tumult. Shamac did not work so well on Julius, but from a previous loop it is confirmed that it does work somewhat on Elsa. Unlike last time where he wound up fully expelling his internal mana, the experience this time ends only with a strange feeling of fatigue, indicating increased proficiency in handling mana.
Subaru: “Beatrice!”
Twisting back, Subaru grabs the arm of an onlooking Beatrice. For an instant her tense arm moves to reject Subaru's hand, but there is no escaping from Subaru's firm grip. He yanks her light frame close, embraces the small girl in his arms, and hesitates not a second before launching himself into the Shamac.
—Confusion. He sees nothing, hears nothing, feelings nothing, there being darkness only.
The sensation beneath Subaru's footfalls alone comprise his everything, the world's everything. In the space between his right foot leaving the ground and his left foot making contact, he is completely sequestered from the world. Right foot hits ground. Contact with the world. Left foot rises. Isolated. Right foot hits. Contact. Isolation. Contact. Isolation. In his arms, something struggles. Not letting go. Not permitting isolation. Contact. Contact. Contact.
Subaru: “—Phaa!”
With the suddenness akin to breaking his face up through a surface of water, the darkness clears. His vision opened, where Subaru now stands is in a mansion hallway. Him being in this red-carpet corridor was unmistakably because he had just bounded out the Forbidden Archive door. He had avoided Elsa standing in the doorway, and successfully dashed out the room.
Subaru: “Knew, that'd do it—!”
If Shamac appeared right in front of her, Subaru figured with this being a combat-learned Elsa that she would skirt around the curtain of dark, her aim set on Subaru and Beatrice who would be on the opposite side. Taking an unexpected move, Subaru purposefully dashed straight into the darkness and passed right through the doorway Elsa had graciously opened for them.
Subaru: “Wanna say I goddamn nailed it, but...”
He would be given no time to brag. Shamac's upkeep time is an unknown—but should Elsa discover that Subaru and Beatrice are not on the opposite side, she would immediately snap back around to pursue them. Subaru slams the door shut with a kick, cutting off Gate Crossing. It depended on Beatrice, but now he should no longer know if his immediate surroundings connected to the Archive.
Subaru: “Beatrice! Connect that door to some different door—”
Beatrice: “No need telling me, that is what I'm doing, I suppose. Anyway you, going around closing the open doors will buy us time, in fact.”
Subaru: “Fuck, right!”
Answering the complaints of the girl in his arms, Subaru slams shut the door neighbouring and the door neighbouring that. He glances inside before shutting the doors, but finds no obvious remains. That being said, he did not know how trustworthy Elsa's statement is, but—
Subaru: “What do I do, what do I do what do I do whatdoIdowhatdoIdowhaddaIdo—”
The questions go unending. Why was Elsa right now right here? This was the soonest Subaru had returned to the mansion in this loop series. On the sixth day, the fourth day, and now on the second day—every time, Elsa's attack on the mansion comes on the day of Subaru's return. Subaru for a while now had harboured a suspicion as to why this was. Between this attack and Elsa's statements in the archive, that suspicion is shifting into conviction. But, if that was it then even moreso why—,
Subaru: “Why couldn't one more day... no, she didn't even give us a handful of hours!”
Petra was promised to return to the village, were it night. Elsa's surprise attack was a more or less pre-supposed disaster. The image of Petra, her life lost in the vortex of a loop prior, has seared and sticks unvanishing in Subaru's mind. And so this time he had acted to distance her from the disaster. But still did insidiousness sprint to overtake his management plans, preventing the little girl from escaping fate.
Subaru: “Nothing's over. There's no need to give up. Of course there's a chance she was bullshitting. Course there is. Like I could stand abandoning hope...!”
Beatrice: “That isn't hope, it's not letting go, I suppose...”
Subaru: “Be quiet! Now you just shut up and have me carry you! She's full and ready to kill you too, y'know. Since she's a weirdo who gets off on knifing people's stomachs open and looking at the insides!”
Beatrice: “Wanting to see a spirit's guts is crossing the line for poor taste, in fact.”
Agreed, mutters Subaru to himself. He slips Beatrice smoothly out of his arms as she disembarks down to the hallway. She pats at the skirt portion of her dress.
Beatrice: “What are you planning to do now, I suppose?”
Subaru: “That's not a damn question. Petra's safety and checking Rem are top priority. Afterwards.... well anyway, I'm taking you along too and escaping the mansion. Or, do you really think you can fight her?”
Beatrice: “...If that thing came here to kill Betty, should I not resist then my wish will likely be granted, in fact.”
Subaru: “Thought you'd say that which's why I dragged you along. If you're still gonna be thinking like that, then I'm gonna be hauling you out slung over my shoulder. And you?”
Looking down at the shorter Beatrice, Subaru presses her for a decision. Or actually, he is not giving her any options here at all. If she's thinking to be stubborn and stay here, then he's planning to drag her out with brute force. Subaru's thoughts must have communicated. Beatrice sighs.
Beatrice: “Though I might not be able to choose where I die, I would say I'd at least like to choose who I die to, I suppose.”
Subaru: “We'll have that conversation after we properly have a change of setting and get ourselves calmed down. Let's go!”
Holding hands with Beatrice, Subaru pulls her along as he breaks into a run. Subaru dashing, Beatrice follows behind with her tiny tottering gait and cumbersome dress. It takes only ten meters of this before Subaru,
Subaru: “Fuck it! Just come here!”
He pulls her arm, and again settles Beatrice snug in his arms. Beatrice is lighter than she looks. That said Subaru can't tell whether that is because she is a spirit, or because her growth is stunted.
Beatrice: “...Let me go, I suppose.”
Subaru: “If I match to your pace she's immediately gonna catch up to us! It'd be even faster if I ran with you slung over my shoulders! And—”
Beatrice, held to his chest, voices her rejection. But her fingers cling reliant to the chest region of Subaru's jacket. Subaru's eyes freeze on the sight, his words aborted as he makes neither reference nor denial nor affirmation of it. This is okay, is what Subaru presently thinks.
Subaru: “Anyway, before Elsa shows up... we have to find Petra and Rem!”
Beatrice: “My belief was this mansion had another maid in it, in fact.”
Subaru: “Frederica's... it's best we don't meet her right now. I think.”
Subaru thinks of the blonde maid as he shakes his head. Beatrice scrunches her brows at this, but says nothing. Right now, he wanted to avoid meeting Frederica. If it were after confirming the other two's safety, then fine. Meeting her, having a talk, would tentatively be fine after that.
Were Subaru's imaginings correct, he surely knew what it would be.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Petra was atop the dining table, set alongside the tableware.
The white tablecloth seeps with a red stain, the body of a collapsed Petra at its centre. Time has already passed, with the shade of shed blood shifting soon to dark rust, the scene intensifying in its morose air.
Subaru: “Peh, trra...”
Faltering, unsteady steps lead Subaru to the table. Petra lies face-up in the middle. Frozen firm on her loveable face is an expression of agony, tears and dread, her eyes wide open in despair of what she last saw. Blood leaks from the corners of her open mouth, the lethal blow of course being the slash of the deep knife wound splitting her belly. That maid outfit she had sweetly, fairylike with skirt billowing, shown to Subaru—from beneath its breast to its gut there rips a straight slice, the spilled blood and guts further lightening the body of the little girl.
Subaru: “—ue,”
Something wells up from the back of his throat. Not vomit, but a sob. A heat burns in the back of his eyes, Subaru promptly reaching out to Petra's face before that can flow over. Her face yet remains in terror twisted. Subaru at least closes her eyes, sheds his jacket as he had before and lays it over her body. How many times now had he given this superficial compensation to an unsaved Petra?
How many times, knowing this would happen, but still not averting it, had Subaru let this girl die? How many times, purely because of her involvement with Subaru, would this girl have to suffer?
Subaru: “I'm so sorry... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... Petra...”
The apologies from his mouth reverberate only hollow. Unable to rely on anyone, Petra had encountered here a terrifying murderer, and called for Subaru as she was cruelly killed. The sorrow could crush his heart. The loathing blazes hot enough to burn him whole. If hatred enabled him to murder, Subaru could kill Elsa a thousand times over and it still would not be enough. That was the depth of the sin she had committed. Someday and no matter what, he would make her realise it.
Subaru: “And for that as well, I can't let this try just end like this...”
Beatrice: “This try?”
Subaru: “Talking to myself. I don't wanna just leave Petra like this, but... I can't do anything now. Rem's place is up ahead. I'll take Rem, and we'll leave the mansion. Can we use Gate Crossing?”
Beatrice: “We would need to go through the Forbidden Archive, in fact. And probably, the door's been left open, I suppose.”
Subaru: “—So that's how it is.”
Although simple, that alone was enough to seal off Gate Crossing. For every mansion door left open, the applicable targets for Gate Crossing dropped. And if the door to the Archive itself was left open, the only access point available anymore would be through that open doorway. If even one stick was left to hold the door open, not even Beatrice could summon the Forbidden Archive.
Subaru: “Do you know where the Forbidden Archive is connected to right now?”
Beatrice: “Naturally, in fact. —It's currently in the western wing, on a guest room on the third floor, I suppose.”
A guest room in the western wing meant it was distant from the dining room in the central block. Though, that door being open meant that Elsa had at least left the Archive. With that murderer's sense of smell, it would not be long before she found Subaru and Beatrice. Their time was none.
Subaru: “Don't have the spare time to be panic. Anyway, we're hurrying to Rem—.”
Wiping the tears seeping from his eyes with the back of his hand, Subaru jerks his head in the direction of his destination. Rem is sleeping in one of the servant's rooms in the eastern wing. If Elsa's start was in the western wing, Subaru could judge that she had not reached Rem yet. However, this was all limited just to Elsa.
Subaru: “Frederica, likely'll be there...”
Being that Frederica knows how Subaru cares about Rem's well being, it would probably occur to her that following his evasion of Elsa's attack Subaru would be aiming for that room. So, there was more than enough possibility that she had gotten there before them.
Hand to his chin in thought, Beatrice narrows her eyes at Subaru.
Beatrice: “This has been bothering me, in fact. ...Are you doubting that big maid, I suppose?”
Subaru: “...Not that I wanted to, though.”
Subaru affirms Beatrice's question with a powerless nod. Elsa's attack on Roswaal Mansion—Subaru was mostly convinced that it was likely due to Frederica's betrayal.
This was the third time Subaru had faced Elsa at Roswaal's mansion. His previous encounters were on the sixth and fourth day, both of them occurring after the passage of comparatively more time. However, this loop was a return two days after arriving at SANCTUARY. Every time, Elsa appears as if she is almost lying in wait for Subaru's homecoming. Were there any trick to pulling this off, it would lie in the suspected existence of a betrayer.
Subaru: “The day I return to the mansion, Elsa gets guided inside. I was sure that going to the mountain cabin'd be part of all that, but...”
Subaru's first suspicion was that Frederica had beckoned in an Elsa who was lying in wait in the mountain cabin. This was why Subaru had asked Frederica whether she was going there this loop, prepared for her to go on guard about him. He had found not a speck of strangeness or pretence in her reply and attitude then. So he had attempted to temporarily agree that it had only been a needless fear.
Subaru: “Not like that's the only method to take... and not like I could see all the way through her. Don't know if I got tricked.”
Subaru couldn't tell whether she had proficiently kept a poker face. Conversely, she perceived that Subaru was on guard about her, and he may had wound up prompting her to act more carefully. It was Subaru's mistake, resulting in him once again knowingly let a little girl lose her life. Subaru, who had knowingly failed to secure her escape, was responsible for Petra's harm. Subaru was who killed Petra.
Subaru: “And when Petra was so goddamn attached to you!”
Subaru is forced to envision Petra, idolizing her elder maid Big Sis Frederica. Did allowing that adoring Petra to fall into the hands of a murder not pain Frederica's heart? What the hell was she thinking, assisting in this?
Subaru: “The clincher is her method for breaking Beatrice's Gate Crossing. Honestly, I'm surprised it's something breakable with this child-jape kind of method.”
Beatrice: “...Betty hadn't conceived that this method would break it either, in fact. It's not a method you'd think of so easily, I suppose.”
Subaru: “I think I wouldda thought of it if I had the time to... but, that time's the problem. It's a method that wouldn't come to mind unless they knew about your existence and Gate Crossing's gimmick beforehand. It's nothing so nice and convenient as Elsa just coming up with the idea on the spot. It's another thing that most likely got passed to her in secret.”
Beatrice: “It seems that that crazy woman is an acquaintance of yours. Where did you meet her, I suppose?”
Subaru: “She kinda sliced the belly open on things with me in the Capital. ...Right, she's the assailant whose wounds you healed on the very first time you treated me.”
Thinking back on it, Subaru getting brought to Roswaal's mansion did also involve Elsa. Beatrice gives a comprehending nod.
Subaru: “Anyway, now is getting to Rem. If Frederica's there... am I okay to count on you?”
Beatrice: “Are you lacking in the backbone to at least protect the girls you love on your own, I suppose? Just imagining being thought of in first by a man like that is horrifying, in fact.”
Subaru: “If feelings could topple whales I'd go ahead and topple them, but the world just isn't that mild.”
Even this banter was likely a Beatrice-esque form of consideration for Subaru. She was attempting to even slightly distance his thoughts from Petra's death. Unlike Subaru, who had never noticed Beatrice's sorrow and even now could not present any method for resolving it, Beatrice was far too excessively smart. And so he wound up relying on her.
Subaru: “Let's go.”
Beatrice: “Mm, right, I suppose.”
Subaru reaches out to her with a natural motion, Beatrice taking his presented hand and slipping into his arms without any objection. He lifts the light girl up, breaking into a run with the same arrangement they had previously been using. Although knowing that doing this is pointless, Subaru endeavours to mute his footsteps as they head to the eastern wing. They see no signs of Elsa having beaten them there as they dart up the staircase, reaching the second, reaching the third floor. He timidly pokes out his head to peek down the hallway, trying to verify the absence of anyone else being around—
Subaru: “—”
Spotting somebody in front of his destined room, Subaru withdraws his head. Beatrice in his arms wordlessly look up at him, him responding with a nod. He jerks his chin and again carefully checks—and outside the room is someone tall, leaning against the door. He is witnessing this from a distance, but with that long blonde hair and that maid outfit, mistaking her would be impossible. It's Frederica. Just as Subaru had predicted she was standing outside Rem's sleeping room, waiting vigilantly for Subaru.
Subaru: “What do we do? Pretend we haven't noticed, and nonchalantly call out to her? If she hasn't met up with Elsa, if she hasn't noticed that we're suspecting her yet...”
Beatrice: “If your earlier predictions are correct, then that maid stopped having any reason to mind our attitudes the second she invited in the enemy, in fact. And the last time you parted with that maid was when you entered the Forbidden Archive, I suppose. You had no excuses left the moment that you exited, in fact.”
Subaru: “And so all there is now is busting straight though.”
Frederica's favoured weapon—as far as Subaru had seen and remember, they were clawed cestus to be worn over the back of her hands. You had her agility, you had her position as Garfiel's elder sister, and although he had not clearly verified her combat strength, she was unmistakably much stronger than Subaru. Would facing her head on really leave him any chance of winning?
Subaru: “It's not totally impossible if I start by casting Shamac, and if the surprise attack works then Beatrice goes for ranged magic, maybe...? We don't have to incapacitate her, we just need her to retreat...”
Beatrice: “A soft reception for a traitor, I suppose. It's ridiculous to face an enemy coming with intent to kill you without yourself possessing that same resolve, in fact.”
Although knowing that Beatrice's cool statement is very sound, Subaru hesitates to act as she says. He knows his opponent is a betrayer, but she was someone he had familiar interactions with. So long as Subaru could still remember those times, he was incapable of so easily delineating the issue. Even if, hypothetically, Frederica was deeply involved in Petra's death.
Subaru: “Beatrice. I'm blocking things off with Shamac, counting on you to throw a light shot of something.”
Beatrice: “—That softness will give you a terrible experience soon, I suppose.”
Subaru: “It's cause I have things I wanna ask her. Please don't think it anything more or less than that.”
This late? Is the look on Beatrice's face, but giving a small sigh out her nose at a Subaru bowing his head, she says nothing. Warning himself not to impose on her, Subaru takes a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his hands. A mild fatigue still remains, but with only one more Shamac—
Subaru: “Endure it, body of mine. —Shamac!”
He bounds out into the hallway. The black fog from Subaru's outstretched hand interrupts before Frederica can turn to face him. Subaru's aim does not falter as the mist drowns out the space between Subaru and Frederica, crafting the same situation as in the Archive. His head grows heavy with his expulsion of unnecessary mana, Subaru falling to his knees and stance crumbling greatly. Walking up from beside him, Beatrice advances with her arms readied in front of her. She mutters. The atmosphere before Beatrice warps, opening a hole in space, from which appear spears bathed in dim purple flame.
The amethyst stakes float in the air, their fiery points causing the atmosphere to tremble. —Subaru cries out at the blatantly life-threatening magic, but Beatrice pays him not a glance as she readies to shoot the spears through the darkness—
Beatrice: “...Something's strange, in fact.”
Beatrice tilts her head. Her reaction confuses Subaru. With her spears still floating Beatrice reaches out her right hand, raising a finger and promptly flicking it right to left. Just by that, the darkness of Subaru's Shamac is dispelled from the corridor. This was the result of interference from Beatrice, one far more advanced in yin magic than Subaru. So easily robbed of his efforts which fatigued his body, Subaru is dumbfounded. But his emotionality for that immediately vanishes. Because even Subaru understands why Beatrice cancelled the attack.
Subaru: “—”
He advances straight down the cleared corridor, headed for Frederica. Dragging along his mana-starved, burdensome body, Subaru proceeds to her at the pace of a turtle. There is no need for caution. She gives no reaction. None. —And never would she give any reaction again.
Subaru: “...Why?”
Frederica had been standing outside Rem's bedroom. The kukri stabbed through her abdomen skewers her to the door. Her arms hang limp and with cestus. Having apparently fought, her clothing is spotted with disorder, informing that the fight was a vicious one. Frederica's body is already cold, her soul long absent from her expression. Her stiffened face carries the repentance of tiding back regrets, forcing even Subaru to sense that she had likely died here risking her life to protect this door. Meaning, Frederica had frantically brawled, so that the attacker would not enter this room.
There was no reason for the one who had invited the attacker inside to do this.
Subaru: “Doubted her utterly... and for this.”
Face buried in his hands, Subaru accepts the difficultly-accepted reality. Body fraught with slashes and dead was Frederica. Faced with this, how could he possibly think she was a double-crosser, a betrayer? At the end of broken relationships came this? Subaru's need to so fervently set up Frederica as a villain was his own complacent desires to lessen his guilt. He has to accept it.
Subaru: “—I was wrong.”
Frederica was no traitor.
She risked her life fighting to protect Rem, to conclusion. Going from the coldness of her body, she had even possibly died earlier than Petra. She had no time in the least to guide Elsa to the Forbidden Archive.
Subaru: “...Rem.”
His thoughts stay in disarray, a blank vacuum in his skull. When he manages to order his scrambled thoughts, the first thing Subaru thinks of is that inside the room Frederica had protected, that lovely and sleeping girl.
Frederica's stiffening body is heavy, and with the knife pierced through to the door, unloading her comprises an incredible effort. Careful attention is required so as not to damage her body further. But nevertheless his fingers, his heart, get hasty. However, in betrayal of Subaru's focus,
???: “—Finally found you.”
A dark figure slips into view at the end of the hallway. Elsa stoops low, her hand to the floor, eyes overflowing with rapaciousness and murder as she watches Subaru and Beatrice. The gazes catches Subaru's body, freezing him still. Not letting that opening escape, Elsa's form darts instantly down the hallway. A soundless advance. This was unmistakably the approach of DEATH.
Beatrice: “If you think you'll get us so easily, you best think again, in fact.”
But there was someone there to block Elsa's advance. Beatrice flicks up her arm, the waiting purple spears fixing their sights onto Elsa. These spears once aborted of their firing, finding a new target for their power, ring in exultation.
Elsa: “So small, but you certainly play with dangerous toys.”
Beatrice: “We'll test on you whether these are any children's toy, in fact.”
Faced with the wicked magic, Elsa smiles. Scorn overwrites that smile as the purple spears launch from Beatrice's hands. The speed of the fired spears transcends that of Emilia's shots with ice projectiles. They shoot one-by-one, looming in on the zooming Elsa on a trajectory to spear her straight-on—but, ducking down so far that her chest touches the floor, Elsa's low posture permits her to dodge every shot.
Elsa: “Very unfortunate. Their speed and aim are too lax to hit the target.”
Mutters Elsa as the weapons graze past the back of her head, her utterly fearless, kukri grasped in underhand grip and aim fixed on Beatrice. The blade's dull gleam presses in on Beatrice's body, and to cleave that small figure in two she—
Beatrice: “The one who has failed to think is you in fact, human.”
—Beatrice clenches her open palm closed. Immediately, the amethyst spears swell. Having missed their target and shot on towards disappearance at the end of the hallway, the spears bulge, bursting behind a stopped Elsa like ruptured balloons.
Beatrice: “—This!”
The burst spears fracture into splinters, surrounding Elsa from every direction. Although splinters, their size rivals that of Subaru's index finger. They flood the air in innumerable number, all of their points aimed at Elsa.
Beatrice: “Is your punishment for disturbing Betty's Forbidden Archive, I suppose. —You are to be mutilated, and to end, in fact.”
Her cruel announcement as the trigger, Beatrice fires the amethyst spears.
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