Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 9

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  Subaru let out an angry shout as pitch-black shadows swelled and wriggled before his eyes.

  The evil black hands stretched and erupted from a corpse, no longer a person, but a collection of delusions.

  The remains of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti consumed the forest as it pursued the carriage from behind.

  5

  It was repulsive. It was hair-raising. It was sinister beyond measure.

  The body had been crushed under a rock slide; its right arm and the right side of its torso were both gone. Hair and scalp had been torn from its skull, leaving it dyed red, and the lower body being dragged along had nothing under both shins. Its limbs drooped, their vitality meager; this was already a mere corpse.

  But the corpse had not ceased its morbid defiance, drowning in delusion as it continued its pursuit of Subaru.

  “Giiiiive…thaaaat…boooody…baaaaack!”

  “Man, you’re stubborn. Don’t you remember the rough time you had inside me…?!”

  Petelgeuse’s shout was like a voice from the grave, chilling Subaru to the bottom of his heart.

  With the body he had possessed already dead, Petelgeuse’s own “death” lay right before his eyes. However, appearances aside, the use of Unseen Hands imbued the madman’s movements with explosiveness. If he was left to his own devices, they’d probably collapse on their own, dissipating far away, but—

  “Not easy to just wait for time to run out, huh…? Damn it all!”

  Subaru gritted his teeth and glared as the madman pressed closer to the rocking wagon.

  The dragon carriage was already hurtling at nonsensical speed, but Petelgeuse moved even faster. Like a lit candle on the verge of burning out, he was radiating his final, wicked delusions.

  “This is a spirit? How? Aren’t spirits supposed to look more—holy or something?”

  “Mr. Natsuki! What is going on back there?!”

  Subaru’s lament was overshadowed by Otto’s shout. He could not see the nightmare behind them, for it was located directly behind the carriage—leaving Otto the better for it.

  “We’re just being chased by a slightly huge dark monster. I think we probably ran over its tail halfway through the forest. It makes a lot of noise and its face is scary, so I recommend you don’t look.”

  “That makes not seeing it really trouble me?! And that description was full of troubling details!!”

  “Just let ’er rip! Next time you snap at me I’m taking a bite outta you!”

  “Whaaa—?! How terrifying!”

  Otto handled the reins as Subaru intimidated him and made him focus on the horrid path. But the speed of a land dragon had limits. They were done for if, God forbid, they smashed into even a single tree; consequently, the land dragons could not be hastened any farther inside the forest. In other words—

  “The job of slowing you down falls to me. It’s time to put on a grand finale… How many grand finales are you gonna have, anyway?! What about you makes you Sloth? You’re a freaking workaholic!!”

  “Wiiitch SATELLA! Give me—me—her love, love, loooooooove!!”

  “She doesn’t love either one of us!! There’s no romantic comedy where you crush the heart of the person you like! With a heroine like that, no thank you!”

  Petelgeuse lifted up his head and screamed, looking like his eyeballs were about to fall out of his skull. He had been betrayed, turned into a dead body, yet even so, Petelgeuse continued to shout his “love” toward the Witch. For the first time, Subaru genuinely saw him as pitiful.

  He tenaciously yearned for a body, deluding himself with his lust for “love” from the Witch—and behind it all, he was a spirit without a body of his own, with a craving for affection and physical contact that could never be fulfilled.

  Gradually rotting away from a craving that could never be sated, Petelgeuse’s mind fell into madness.

  No one would ever accept a being like him in the first place.

  “I don’t have a special attack or a super spell, but I’m taking you on anyway. I ain’t letting you get past me, and no way am I letting you get to the one behind me…!”

  “Mr. Natsuki, I didn’t know you cared…!”

  “Will you shut up a second?! I’m trying to act cool here!”

  Whether Otto was flippant or serious, Subaru shut him up and turned back to face the madman.

  Thanks to the amount Julius’s sword had burned away, the total number of Unseen Hands was barely enough to propel his own scamper. The number of arms waving above his head, available for attack, was seven—the exact amount he’d started with.

  Petelgeuse savagely clawed at the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as he drew nearer to the dragon carriage. The evil hands swung upward, making tree limbs fly, and pounded down from the sky above, each blow splitting the earth. Black fingertips lightly grazed the rearmost parts of the wagon, digging deep wherever they touched regardless of their strength.

  Subaru calculated the range was such that the next blow would land for certain. If a direct blow of identical force landed in the center of the wagon, the dragon carriage would roll onto its side, killing Subaru and Otto both.

  The next move would decide the match.

  “Mr. Natsuki, we are coming out of the forest—!”

  At the same time Otto spoke, Subaru’s field of vision, covered by green, suddenly brightened.

  The dragon carriage flew out of the forest as if punching through a wall and slid down a grassy incline. Petelgeuse chased them out, clawing the ground as the mass of shadow seemed to swallow rocks and fallen trees, all becoming a twisted spirit set to consume the rear of the dragon carriage as well.

  They cut through the forest and onto the highway. Emilia and the others they were chasing were not far beyond.

  Subaru couldn’t lead Petelgeuse before them—before Emilia. The Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins couldn’t appreciate his goal, but he would not permit Emilia’s heart to be wounded.

  Therefore, accordingly, Subaru Natsuki would set his life ablaze then and there—

  “We’re out of the forest—no more holding back!”

  “LOVE! LOVE! Love is everythiiing—!!”

  Tears of blood streamed out as Petelgeuse opened his toothless mouth, laughing maniacally.

  Subaru listened to his cackling voice as he sprung loose the cargo inside the wagon. He dragged one of the heavy, lined-up containers forward as the pungent scent of the liquid within clogged up his nose.

  He wrapped his arms around it and picked it up. Then he hurled it at the mad, bloody laughter.

  “Burn in hell, Petelgeuse!”

  “—!!”

  Simultaneously, the Unseen Hands stretched into the sky swung downward in a cascade of destruction.

  But Subaru moved faster, before the evil hands could reach.

  As the vile laughter floated in the air, Subaru hurled the pot he carried—the oil pot—toward the madman. The ceramic vessel crashed and shattered, the contents within spectacularly smearing the madman’s corpse. The preparations were complete.

  The pitch-black, evil hands were falling—to blow the dragon carriage asunder, and Subaru with it.

  Heedless of that, Subaru stretched his right arm straight forward, pointing with his fingers arranged like a pistol. At the end of his fingertip was a red light—for it was there that the red quasi-spirit he had borrowed from Julius resided.

  “Gonna borrow your power, Julius Juukulius.”

  “Whyyyyy YOUUUU—!”

  “Rental Goa—!!”

  It was an incomplete chant by a novice magic user to an uncontracted quasi-spirit, two incomplete things piled upon one another—but his will was focused upon that single point, granting the incantation strength.

  And for it to interact with the world around him, only a spark was needed.

  His mana, like a gas tank running on fumes, connected to the power of the quasi-spirit, sending a tiny spark of minimal destructiveness rushing toward Petelgeuse. And then his wicked mouth, co
vered in blood and oil, opened wide.

  “AaaaaaAAAAA!!”

  That instant, Subaru’s vision was enveloped by vivid, soaring flames.

  Petelgeuse’s entire body was bathed in ignited oil that burned with incredible heat. Billowing waves of flame scorched the inside of his flesh, and Petelgeuse’s wordless scream clawed at the air around them.

  Against the spirit that was Petelgeuse, Subaru had inflicted the greatest blow possible. The elements were Otto’s cargo of oil pots and Julius’s quasi-spirit, granted as a safety net. All of it was borrowed—he’d simply patched them together for a very Subaru Natsuki–like attack.

  “It’s over for— Gahh!”

  A moment after he saw the end of the match, Subaru noticed the existence of a pitch-black, evil hand lashing above his head. The evil hand was being swung like a grim reaper’s scythe, its course reckless and its target undefined.

  However, the arm collided with the wagon, instantly sending it flying, grazing Subaru in the process. The dragon carriage violently bounced from the impact, and the wagon that had taken the direct hit was wide open, looking like some beast had taken a bite out of it.

  With the carriage gouged, Subaru was among flying pieces of wood as he tumbled deeper into the wagon. His calf was torn in the process, making him clench his teeth as the pain felt like it was setting his brain on fire.

  “—Gahh! Shit, that hurts! Aw, damn it!”

  Subaru’s voice went ragged as he pressed a hand on the bleeding wound. But Subaru had the time neither to bandage it nor to curse his misfortune. The reason was simple: Black fingertips were grasping the rear end of the wagon that very moment—

  “Giiiive MEEE, haaand it OVERRR…”

  The dragon carriage heavily rocked as the fiendish, burning face of Petelgeuse crawled up into the wagon.

  “—”

  The thing that climbed into the wagon had abandoned a complete human form.

  The missing parts—the lost right half and torn-off lower extremities—had been replaced by wriggling black hands. Of his original body, only his head was not charred red and black. Though the fire had spread to even his habit, he somehow managed to hold his body in one piece, but even so, the sheer ugliness of the being shone through…

  Almost as if to assert beyond all doubt that this was a repulsive monster wearing the skin of a human being.

  “You look awful…not that I’m really one to talk, I suppose.”

  Grimacing from the spasm-like pain, Subaru bore it and rose to his feet. The bleeding of his leg had not stopped, but the opponent was far closer to the brink of death than he.

  Petelgeuse’s entire body had been decaying even before being set on fire; he was already at death’s door. He wasn’t seeking a war of attrition, either. The next instant would settle it for both of them.

  Subaru did not have many trump cards to play; indeed, they were few. All that Subaru had left for a weapon was cunning.

  “Bo…dy—CANNOT vanish… Cannot…allow…to vanishhh…”

  “Hey, I told you already, come into mine and you’ll have a really bad time! Who cares about the Witch?! She’s just taking us for a ride, you and me both!!”

  Petelgeuse spoke with difficulty, craving Subaru’s body as he repulsively crawled forward. As he raised his voice, refusing to give in, Subaru tried to break the madman’s spirit.

  But Petelgeuse showed a reaction to that shouting voice that he had not shown to that point.

  “—Witch, Satella…”

  Suddenly Petelgeuse murmured with lucidity as he lifted up his face. His visage was half-destroyed, his cheekbones raw and exposed, yet reason returned to the madman’s eyes.

  His disjointed eyes wavered, and one caught sight of Subaru, then the other. Together they blinked with madness.

  “You are…dangerous. Danger, danger, dangerdangerdangerdanger dangerdangerouuuuss—!”

  “Aaah?!”

  “YOU receive, receive—ceive—ve—her Favor, yet deny her love! And YOU have driven me, me, me, meeee! This close to the point of death, death, deathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeaaaath!”

  Petelgeuse’s head swayed and trembled as he ranted incoherently. But behind that fury, the power of the evil hands steadily spread, consuming the wagon and stealing Subaru’s foundation out from under him. If the evil hands were unleashed with nowhere to run, Subaru had no chance of victory.

  The madman’s intelligence had returned; he was chasing Subaru out of intellect, not instinct. With the cards stacked against him, Subaru inched away, and at the same time, a single possibility came to mind. And then—

  “The Witch, Witch, Satella…SATELLLAAA! Love, love, looove! I was loved! I WAS loved!! Satella, me—Satella loved me! I shall not forget, for even an instant! Even if YOU forget, I—shall—not!!”

  Tears flowed. These were not tears of blood, but real tears.

  Truly, since their first chance meeting, this was the first time Petelgeuse had shouted about love while sane.

  Be it affection or passion, it had dragged Petelgeuse from the brink of madness back to reality. Petelgeuse’s stagnant eyes shone with the firmness of will as they glared at Subaru.

  “You are dangerous! You shall someday pose a threat to the entire Witch Cult! Before that! Before your hand can reach Satella! Here! Now! By my hand! By my diligence! To sunder myself from Sloth, and repay Her love…YOU shaaall DIE!!”

  Petelgeuse shouted, and his body, unable to withstand the unleashing of the power of the evil hands, burst open and broke apart. But Petelgeuse was no longer bent on taking Subaru’s body, but rather, on killing Subaru, so that a threat to the Witch Cult would not be left to fester—and thus protecting the Witch he worshipped.

  These were the actions of a beast, but performed with will, with intellect…

  “I’d probably have lost if you’d stayed a monster, you know.”

  When Petelgeuse saw what Subaru had taken out of his pocket and held in his hand, his eyes went wide.

  His reaction made something in Subaru’s heart cry out. But he bit back the sentiment that momentarily reared itself, hoisting his arm aloft.

  Swinging his arm high, he flung the small, black book—the Gospel—at the tip of Petelgeuse’s arm.

  “Ahhh…Satella!”

  In a daze, Petelgeuse let a low, quiet voice trickle from his mouth.

  It was a voice immersed in tranquility, calling out the name of someone lovely beyond measure.

  Desiring the heavens, Petelgeuse raised his left and only remaining arm toward the sky. Obeying his will, the evil hands stretched toward the Gospel, the black fingertips reaching for the book dancing in the air—and the next moment, it came.

  He caught the Gospel just as it was enveloped by wind, just on the verge of blowing away. It was affected by the wind. Meaning it was beyond the blessing. In other words—

  “—?!”

  As Petelgeuse grasped the book, his body heavily bent back, bathed in ferocious winds. His feet were dragged, splitting the already gouged-out floor of the wagon; half his body was cast beyond the dragon carriage. And, as a result of being cast beyond the wind repel blessing, he was wholly immersed in turbulence.

  Once upon a time, Subaru had fallen into a similar circumstance during horseplay on the way to the capital.

  Without the wind repel blessing, he was taking all the wind and shaking of a dragon carriage running at full speed over horrid footing. He couldn’t possibly have held out.

  “—Aaah, AAAAAAH!!”

  Subaru let out a great shout and put his foot down the instant Petelgeuse’s balance greatly faltered. He forgot the pain of his torn leg and leaped, bouncing into the air. He had no tremendous power to turn the tide of a battle—that’s why he had to make his move when it counted most.

  “—”

  Petelgeuse shouted something as Subaru rushed over. Subaru couldn’t hear a thing. He threw caution to the wind, lowering his head for a charge, and leaped toward Petelgeuse’s flank.

  Uns
een Hands shot out. The speed of the hands thrust out had slackened; with Subaru’s concentration at its zenith, they might as well have been standing still. As he cocked his head and violently swerved his body, a fingertip grazed Subaru’s cheek as he closed with his foe. The sense of oppression from the powerful evil hands was such that Subaru almost unwittingly shut his eyes.

  “Wilhelm taught me two things.”

  Hands grazed him. Pain ran through part of the skin of his neck, cheeks, and ears, which felt like they’d been touched by hot steel. The bursting heat scalded his thoughts, and he bit down a painful cry that threatened to tear through the inside of his throat.

  He dodged. He breathed. He wasn’t done yet.

  “That I don’t have one smidgen of talent with a sword…”

  The pain was scorching, but he became relaxed, at ease.

  These twin elements intruded upon Subaru’s mind as he looked straight before him. On the other side of the hand Subaru had dodged was another hand, snapping toward his face—

  “…and the courage not to shut my eyes when I’m being smacked!!”

  He shouted and ducked his head. The hair on the back of his neck got a shave as he evaded by a hairbreadth. Dead ahead, Petelgeuse’s face stiffened in shock, and into the side of that face, Subaru slammed his fist.

  “—!!”

  The haymaker struck Petelgeuse’s cheek, causing him to greatly snap backward. His body lost its footing, and Petelgeuse was hurled out of the dragon carriage. And then—

  “Oooooo—!!”

  Petelgeuse hung upside down in the air before being dragged back to the dragon carriage. A piece of his habit had snagged on the wagon, and his body, connected to the dragon carriage, was being dragged along the ground.

  Blood scattered. Flesh exploded. As the damage piled up, even the Unseen Hands came unmoored as the being known as Petelgeuse was undone. Even so, Petelgeuse raised his decaying face and glared at Subaru, his inverted gaze brimming with hatred.

  “It is not o-ov-over—it is not…o-overrrr?!”

  “Nah, this is as far as you go.”

  As Subaru spoke to the excessively tenacious Petelgeuse, he revealed the Gospel he held in his hand—that which Petelgeuse had dropped when Subaru struck him, and the last thing the madman’s heart clung to.