Natsuki Subaru/Synopsis

* Arc 4
* Arc 5
* Arc 6
* Arc 7

## The Everlasting Contract

Three days after the battle against the Witch Cult, Subaru and Emilia headed back to the village from the Karsten Mansion in the last of the six Dragon Carriages prepared for the villagers, though he didn't take the children with them as he wanted to talk with her in private. In addition, they were also taking back Rem's unconscious body, which already had its name and memories eaten by Lye Batenkaitos. Before he left for Roswaal Manor, he was approached by an amnesic Crusch, along with Ferris and Wilhelm, to bid them farewell. Ferris was somewhat concerned about Subaru, who had overused his already damaged gate during the battle, nonetheless he didn't feel any different, yet was ordered not to use magic for two months. Emilia asked Crusch if she was concerned she was a silver haired Half Elf, but Crusch, after hearing from Emilia that she wasn't embarrassed about how she was living her life, told her that she wasn't afraid of her in the slightest.

On the way to Roswaal's land, the mood inside of the Dragon Carriage was terrible, prompting Otto to try and lighten it up, however he was shocked when Subaru forgot he was there since he was driving. Still, he did manage to lighten up the mood after a brief conversation, after which he was shut out from the carriage. Following a bit of trivial talk, the conversation shifted to business, at which point Otto rejoined the conversation. Once they reached the village, they were surprised to see that it was empty, with no sign of the villagers that had evacuated to the Sanctuary, leading them to believe that something was happening there. Subaru and Emilia decided to return to the mansion, along with Otto, since they didn't know where the Sanctuary was, and to Subaru's surprise the inside of the mansion was clean, as he had expected it to be trashed. Suddenly, a shadow approached him from behind, and upon seeing a mouth filled with white beast like fangs, he lost consciousness.

He woke up later, receiving an apology from Frederica soon after, and moved on to the topic at hand. Frederica revealed that she had been called back by Ram to work the mansion, as she didn't have the skills to do it herself. When Otto asked Subaru on what to do with Rem, he was surprised that he was told coldly to not touch her, since he would carry her instead. After thinking about what happened to Rem during the battle, he had Emilia insult him to clear his mind, then left for the library to visit Beatrice. Upon arriving at the library, he asked her if she remembered Rem, however she refused to answer, pointing out that his question was inquiring about someone eaten by gluttony. Hearing this, he tried to get information about that from her, though she still refused to say anything about it. She was surprised to see that he had Petelgeuse's gospel book, prompting him to tell her that he killed Petelgeuse, causing her to ask about the Sloth Witch Factors. Seeing that he didn't understand her words, she wondered why Subaru killed him, telling him that he would have to come to a decision about the Witch Factors sometime in the future. She then informed him that she wasn't his convenient tool for answers before kicking him out of the library.

Returning from the library, he went to the Dragon Carriage with Frederica to take Rem to her room, learning on the way to her room that Beatrice was a Spirit. After setting Rem down on the bed, he discussed the situation with Emilia, who decided that they needed to go to the Sanctuary. Having heard their plan, Frederica agreed to prepare for their trip, informing them that it would be two days later, and warned them to be careful of Garfiel Tinsel while they were there. During the wait, Subaru attempted to talk Otto into joining Emilia's Camp, which he succeeded in doing, but as a precaution had Petra act as a witness. Two days later, Subaru, Emilia, and Otto left for the Sanctuary, leaving Frederica and Petra behind to take care of the mansion. As they entered the forest near the Sanctuary, Emilia lost consciousness, and they were subsequently attacked by Garfiel. Garfiel is easily defeated by both Patrasche and Otto, however he decided to let Subaru through after seeing him protect Emilia whatever happened, offering to guide all of them to the village.

Once they arrived at the village, they met Ram, who guided them to the house where Roswaal was. To their surprise, Roswaal was lying down on a bed, his body heavily injured. Questioning the injured man, Roswaal confirmed that the Sanctuary was also known as the "Witch of Greed's Graveyard", who he insisted the others refer to by name as Echidna. Continuing on, he revealed that the "Roswaals" were in charge of taking care of the graveyard, along with the fact that he and the villagers were under house arrest, which was why they were unable to return. Noticing that Subaru was misunderstanding the situation, he explained that he wasn't injured to be placed under house arrest but rather he was injured so he was placed under house arrest, adding that the villagers weren't directly responsible for his injuries. Soon after, Garfiel arrived, who became angry at Roswaal for not properly explaining things, prompting Roswaal to ask him to guide Subaru and Emilia to the graveyard, and as they left, Ram quietly warned Subaru to not enter the graveyard if he didn't want to be captivated by the thoughts of the witch.

Fifteen minutes later, the trio arrived at the grave, prompting Garfiel to ask Emilia to enter to check whether she was worthy of taking the trials or not. The two were confused by his request, leading him to reveal that he didn't know much about the trials himself, only that those who worthy of taking them were unable to leave the Sanctuary until they cleared them. Hearing this, Emilia recalled that she lost consciousness upon entering the Sanctuary, something Garfiel confirmed was the sign of someone worthy, stating that those who were worthy were all halfs. Fearing for her safety, Subaru asked Garfiel to accompany her during the trials, nevertheless he refused, revealing that he couldn't enter because of a contract, causing Subaru to think of looking for Otto to take his place. When she mentioned that she'd be fine, Subaru offered to scout ahead first, but Garfiel advised against it, mentioning that those unworthy who were in the grave at nightfall would end up in a fate like Roswaal's. Nonetheless he decided to scout ahead anyway, which the two protested against, making him promise Emilia that he would return safely. Despite their promise, Subaru fell into a trap hole right as he entered the grave, and ten minutes after waking up in the pit, he encountered a girl, who introduced herself as Echidna.

Echidna, noting that Subaru was too cautious of her to talk properly, decided to change the area into a grassy plain, then invited him to have tea with her at a white table. After joking around with him, such as telling him that his tea was made of her body fluids, she got down to business, telling him that he was in her dreams. Subaru told her to send him back though he was convinced to stay when she offered to answer any questions he had. Seeing that he was still intimidated, Echidna swapped places with Typhon, who, after some small talk, checked to see if he was an evil person by shaking his hand, deducing right after that he wasn't. However, Subaru noticed that she had pulled his right arm off, and as he panicked, she shattered both of his legs from the knee down, making him fall into her arms. He became confused even further when she introduced herself as the Witch of Pride, the feeling growing when she was replaced with Sekhmet, who commented that Subaru was the third person to meet three Witches in a row, the first two being Flugel and Reid Astrea. He pleaded for her to fix his missing body parts, nevertheless she refused as she claimed it would be a hassle, leaving it to Minerva to take care of.

Looking him over, Minerva quickly deduced that it was the work of Typhon, lamenting about conflict while she repeatedly punched him to heal him. Once she finished, she made him promise to not get injured, telling him that she would heal him even if he did, then swapped places with Echidna, who asked him if that proved how harmless she was compared to the others, to which he referred to her as a witch. As they returned to the table, Echidna revealed that she had collected the souls of the other Witches since had been important to her while they were still alive. Going through various topics, such as Daphne's Three Great Demon Beasts and Reid Astrea, the topic eventually ended up at Echidna's situation, who Subaru was curious about since she was said to be deceased. Confirming that she was dead, she explained that she was confined to the grave by the dragon Volcanica as a deterrent to Satella, as her seal wasn't firm, nor was the dragon immortal. She also expressed somewhat of an interest in Roswaal, mentioning that Roswaal was "a little too earnest", willing to give up her own life for a single purpose. A while later, the effects of the tea she served him started to take effect, prompting her to tell him that what he drank was without a doubt her body fluids, which were helping the Witch Factors inside his body settle in.

Listening to her explanation, he realized that she talked similar to Puck, which she became interested about yet didn't say much about. As he was about to leave, Echidna made him promise not to tell anyone what he learned and allow the Witch Factors to anchor themselves inside of him, and in exchange she would allow him to take the trials in Emilia's place, remarking that he seemed to have made a similar contract with someone. A short while later, Subaru awoke in a building in the village, then made his way with Emilia to the house Roswaal was staying in, where Emilia declared that she would take the trials. The next night, Subaru visited the grave with Emilia and Ryuzu, and the two waited outside while she took the trial, the lights in the grave suddenly went out, prompting him to run in and help her. Immediately, he heard a phrase telling him to face his past, and ended up in his room in Japan. After interacting with his parents (Kenichi and Naoko) for a while, he decided to go to school for the first time in a while, where he encountered Echidna wearing his school's female uniform. Subaru went over the details with her, thanking her for letting him tell his parents what he wanted to say, even if they were fake, before leaving the trial. Once he left, Echidna turned her attention to the teacher's stand, where Satella was standing. Satella was annoyed that Echidna had toyed with his feelings, which she claimed were only hers, causing her to try and absorb her, nonetheless Echidna calmly dealt with her by summoning Sekhmet to push her back into the darkness.

Subaru awoke near Emilia, who he saw was struggling with her trial, causing him to go over to her. He woke her up, however the stress from what she saw during the trial made her mentally unstable, forcing him to carry her back to the village. She recovered later that day, and while she was surprised that he passed the first trial, she refused to have him take it in her place, stating that she would take it alongside him. Unfortunately, they quickly found out that he couldn't move on until she finished, which she was unable to do as she spent the next three nights failing her trial, earning Garfiel's annoyance. Faced with the results, Subaru negotiated with Garfiel to release the hostages in exchange for him to take the trial instead of Emilia, to which both sides agreed. Later that day, he returned to the village with the hostages, then visited Roswaal Manor to take care of things, when he noticed something was strange. As he looked for Frederica and Petra, he was killed by Elsa in Roswaal's room, who reminded him of what she said to take care of their bowels until the next time she appeared.

Returning from death, he quickly realized that he was in the graveyard after the first trial. Going through the same situations as the previous loop, he brought Emilia back to the house, however this time around Garfiel objected to him participating in the trials. He tried protesting Garfiel and Ryuzu's decision to Roswaal, though when he refused to do anything about it, he asked about Emilia's past instead, learning that she had frozen her entire village in Elior Forest in the past. Leaving Roswaal's house, he decided to head to the grave, only to be intercepted by Garfiel, who had been patrolling the area as he knew Subaru would try something. Subaru demanded to know why he was blocking his way, causing Garfiel to tell him that he smelled like the witch, which was why he didn't trust him at all. He tried the next morning but saw that Garfiel was still there and ended up going to Ryuzu's temporary house to talk with her. While there, he noticed a contradiction in her words about whether she took the test or not, yet the only thing she said in response was that no one in the Sanctuary could lie. The next day, with Roswaal's counsel, the hostages were freed, and Subaru led them back to the village, with him stopping at the mansion to ask Frederica about Garfiel. Upon returning to the mansion, Subaru visited Rem, then sat down with Frederica to talk about stuff about the Sanctuary, though she told him that she couldn't tell him much because of her contract with Roswaal. To begin her story, Frederica told him about the Demi Human War, then moved on from there to her family, explaining how they ended up with Roswaal. She revealed that they had been able to leave the Sanctuary as they were quarter, nevertheless Garfiel refused to leave, stating that he wouldn't leave the others behind.

Once their discussion was finished, Subaru tried searching around for the entrance to the library, and after failing to find it, he opened the entrance to the hidden passageway in Roswaal's room with Petra's help, who explained that it connected to a shack in the mountains. Making his way through the passage with Petra, he reached the room where he had previously died from frostbite, and when he opened the door he was immediately attacked by Elsa. Quickly realizing that it was her, he used Shamak to hold her off, with the two retreating as fast as they could. Fortunately, Frederica came to their aid, blocking the entrance to the passageway once they got through. After taking a moment to think, Subaru tried to wake Petra up, who he thought was unconscious, though unfortunately he saw that a Kukri Knife was embedded from the back of her neck to the back of her head, which had killed her instantly. Not knowing what do, he took Petra's body to Rem's room, but before he could enter he despaired when he heard Elsa's voice coming from behind him.

Refusing to let her kill him, he entered Rem's room only to find himself in the library, despairing at the thought that Elsa was about to kill Rem. Beatrice confirmed his thoughts, stating that his reason for trying to leave just vanished, and began to heal his wounds. He tried to commit suicide by biting his tongue, however Beatrice prevented him from dying, causing him to become angry, and when he took it out on her, she dropped her gospel book. Immediately recognizing the book, Subaru demanded to know if she could only do what the book told her to do, prompting her to kick him out after an argument, sending him to a laboratory like place. Making his way outside, he realized that he was in the Sanctuary, and decided to interrogate Roswaal about everything. Soon after, he arrived in the village, noting that no one was there, and made his way to the grave, where the Oousagi ate a hole straight through him, killing him from blood loss.

Subaru returned from death once again in the grave, and just like his two previous loops, he took Emilia back to her house before heading over to Roswaal's house to interrogate him about everything. During the questioning, he learned that Roswaal also had a gospel book, which Roswaal referred to as one of the only two complete books owned by him and Beatrice, making him realize that he knew everything that had happened. Subaru accused him of letting Rem die, leading him to ask who she was, and at that point he lost it and tried to attack Roswaal but was stopped by Garfiel who smashed the right side of his face in. He was subsequently placed in a cell, though he was rescued three days later by Otto, then, with Ram's assistance, led the villagers out of the Sanctuary. As they neared the barrier, Garfiel blocked their path, nevertheless he agreed to let them pass as long as Subaru remained, yet in spite of that he tried to kill him once they left, forcing Ram to hold him back to let Subaru leave with the villagers. Her actions angered him, causing him to beastify and chase after the villagers, beginning to massacre them when they tried to prevent him from killing him. Subaru himself tried to help but was thrown off into the distance by Patrasche. Returning to the scene a while later, he was confused as to why there were no bodies, his confusion increasing when he saw that there was no one in the Sanctuary either. Confused and tired, he made his way to the grave, and on the way there he encountered the Oousagi and was eaten again.

Subaru returned from death again, however this time Echidna brought him to a second tea party, where they went over his Returns from Death ability. As they wrapped up the topic, he shifted the topic to his most recent death, and after he explained how he died, she informed him that he was killed by the Oousagi, one of the Three Great Demon Beasts created by the Witch of Gluttony Daphne. Hearing this, he requested to see the witch, though she was reluctant to let them meet until he convinced her otherwise. The two argued about the Demon Beasts, causing Daphne to make him experience extreme hunger, which he recovered from a short while later thanks to Minerva's punch. Wary of her after experiencing hunger, he declared that he would get rid of the Oousagi, which she laughed at, and soon after she switched places with Echidna. As his body began to awaken in the grave, Echidna took Petra's handkerchief as the cost for her help. He awoke in the grave but then realized that Emilia wasn't near him, prompting him to go look outside since he felt a bad feeling.

Once outside, he was shocked to see that the entire Sanctuary was enveloped in shadow, quickly coming face to face with the Witch of Envy's shadow. The witch tried to absorb him, though fortunately Garfiel saved him, explaining that everyone else had been swallowed by the shadows. The witch continued to try and absorb him, forcing Garfiel in his beastified form and the Ryuzu Meyers to try to fight her, however they were quickly killed by the shadow. The shadow then approached him, trying to absorb him once again, but this time a light shone from his chest, its source Petra's handkerchief that he had given Echidna earlier. As Echidna had modified it, the handkerchief hardened in accordance to his will, allowing him to use it as a weapon to cut away the shadows trying to absorb him. Using the handkerchief, he cut his way straight to the witch, but was shocked when he saw it was Emilia behind the shadows, his agitation allowing the witch to ensnare him in her shadows again. Seeing that there was no other choice, Subaru slit his throat with the handkerchief, and as he died he realized that the witch was controlling Emilia's body, leading him to promise to save her.

Subaru awoke in the grave like before, though unlike the other loops, this time he discussed the trials with Emilia after he woke her up. The events that followed were the same as the previous loops, but this time he stayed with Emilia for a while to discuss the trials a bit more, this time lying to her about taking the trial himself. Once he finished, he questioned Ram about Roswaal's gospel book, then was interrogated outside by Garfiel. When he questioned Garfiel about Ryuzu, the boy immediately became angry, claiming that he wouldn't understand the things they've been through since he hadn't gone through hardships, causing Subaru to tell him that he'd been through something similar many times. After parting with the boy, Subaru recalled the time he met him in front of the grave while he was talking with Otto, and retraced his steps to end up at the laboratory like place he had been teleported to by Beatrice. Making his way inside the building, he was shocked to see Ryuzu inside of a huge crystal, but quickly regained his composure to analyze the situation. Noticing that the room placement was strange, he checked the walls as he thought there was an extra room hidden somewhere, and as he turned toward the door to check the other room, he met eyes with another Ryuzu who had just arrived. He tried to talk with her, nevertheless Ryuzu ignored him and began taking care of the crystal, and as he watched he felt the same feeling when powerful magic was used as the crystal shone with bluish white light, noting that the crystal was interfering with the mana in the atmosphere.

Her work finished, Ryuzu tried to leave but was stopped again by Subaru, who held her with one hand to prevent her from leaving while he touched the crystal with the other. Suddenly, he was gripped with an intense feeling of heat inside of his body, forcing him to the ground out of pain. The feeling left him soon after, and he was surprised to see Ryuzu drop to her knees and respectfully bow her head to him, subsequently leading him outside where the Ryuzu he knew was waiting, who promised to explain once they moved to a different place.

After they arrived at Ryuzu's temporary house, she explained to him that the Ryuzu Meyer inside of the crystal was the real girl and that all of the other Ryuzu's he'd seen were all copies of the original, which she revealed were created by crafting an artificial Od through a special spell and creating the rest of the body through mana, adding that all Ryuzu created were given enough intelligence to follow orders from birth. This led him to realize that the copies were being created to experiment with immortality, though she pointed out that Echidna's experiment hadn't been successful as the copies weren't a good enough vessel to hold her soul, explaining that because of this the few copies that experienced it had broken personalities, and that it was troublesome to get rid of them as they had fragments of the Witch of Greed's power. She continued by telling him that aside from the four that acted as Ryuzu, the rest of the copies acted as eyes and messengers, revealing that it took three days for one of the four copies to recharge, further explaining that Subaru was able to order the copies around as he was a Disciple of Greed. He had no idea what she meant until he told her about Echidna's tea, which she confirmed was the cause.

Gathering the information in his mind, he left Emilia a note, then had the copies help him escape from the Sanctuary, making sure to take Petelgeuse's gospel book along with him, which he somehow became able to read. Just as he expected, Garfiel tried to prevent him from leaving, however he dealt with him by having the copies along with one of the four main Ryuzu hold him back while he left on Patrasche. Arriving at the mansion half a day later, he asked Petra to stay home for the next week, then discussed Garfiel with Frederica, learning that Garfiel had taken the trial before in the past. Afterward, he visited Beatrice in the library, telling her his reasons, which she reacted to every time he presented more information, and he dealt the finishing blow by mentioning that she was most likely Echidna's Contract Spirit. Defeated, she dropped her gospel book to the floor, prompting him to pick it up. He was surprised that the entire book was blank, causing her to mention that it had been that way for years, and asked him to kill her to set her free from the contract. He refused to do so, causing her to have an emotional outburst, telling him that she been alone for 400 years. When he offered to form a contract with her, she asked if he would put her first, pointing out that he wouldn't do it as that spot in his mind was already given to Emilia and Rem. Hearing this, he asked her why she was letting him finish her, but before she could answer she was interrupted by Elsa, who was standing in the doorway with a blood stained Kukri Knife in her hand.

Surprised to see her in the library, Beatrice asked how she was able to find the place, prompting her to reveal that she left all the doors in the mansion open, as her Door Crossing couldn't connect to open doors. Upon hearing that she had killed Petra, Subaru cast Shamak before pulling himself and Beatrice into it, using it to confuse Elsa while they escaped past her. While running through the mansion, the two found Petra's dead body on the dining table, though they decided to leave her for the time being to find Rem. He was certain that Frederica was the one who let Elsa in, however his suspicions were cleared when they discovered her dead body in front of the door to Rem's room, which she had died to protect. Before they could enter the room, Elsa caught up to them, forcing Beatrice to fight back using Yin Magic. They succeeded in retrieving Rem, nevertheless Beatrice was killed by Elsa, who she thought she had killed instead, and Elsa proceeded to repeatedly cut him before knocking him out. He awoke a while later to realize that he nor Rem had been killed, which he didn't really understand, nonetheless he took Petra and Frederica's bodies along with him to the village to find 12 huge blobs of meat there and no villagers. Ignoring the terrible feeling he had, he buried both girls in the village, then returned to the Sanctuary, eventually coming face to face with an angry Garfiel who informed him that he had taken back control of the copies.

Taking Rem as a hostage, Garfiel ordered Subaru to drag Emilia out of the grave, pointing out the winter like condition around them, telling him that he suspected Emilia of freezing the area just like Elior Forest. Having no choice, he checked up on Emilia, who was worried about him, even mentioning that she loved him, nonetheless upon exiting the grave he informed Garfiel that she had lost her mind, as he knew she would never depend on him like that. Before Garfiel could say anything, he revealed everything he had learned about him, including the fact that Roswaal was the one who was making it snow, pointing out that he was most likely the one who was keeping them in the Sanctuary. Soon after, the two confronted Roswaal about the snow, but to his surprise, he asked him if he was the one who told him that. Roswaal was disappointed about Subaru's answer but didn't deny making it snow, causing Garfiel to try to attack him, which Ram prevented by holding him, earning her a comment from Roswaal that she was a good follower. Subaru didn't understand what he meant until he saw him stab through both of them with his arm, then destroy Garfiel's head to prevent him from beastifying, killing them both. Wiping his boots with the mattress, he proceeded to talk with Subaru, pointing out that he wasn't feeling any kind of sadness over their deaths since he had a method to reverse it, causing him to realize that Roswaal knew about his Returns from Death. He revealed that everything that had happened in the Sanctuary had gone entirely according to plan, as he had used the snow to manipulate Garfiel into making the others think it was Emilia's fault.

Hearing this, Subaru ordered the Ryuzu copies to attack him, revealing that he had received control over them before confronting him, nevertheless Roswaal easily killed them with magic, he himself revealing that he had stopped making it snow a short while earlier, allowing him to use magic again. After killing them, he cast Goa repeatedly in the direction of the forest, where the Oousagi was just arriving at the Sanctuary. While killing them one by one, Roswaal explained that the mana and snow had attracted them to the Sanctuary, then stopped killing them, stating that he no longer had any reason to live. As the Oousagi approached, Roswaal advised him to get rid of everything except the one thing he held dear, as that would allow him to be like him, before getting eaten by the Demon Beast. Running with all his might, Subaru made his way to the cathedral, in spite of that he was too late in arriving as it was already in flames, the villagers choosing to die instead of fighting back. He remembered that Rem was also in the cathedral and knew that there was nothing he could do to save her. Making his way back to the grave, the crazed Emilia greeted him again, this time giving him a lap pillow. As she had lost her mind, Emilia didn't notice the Oousagi beginning to eat him, and as he died, Emilia gave him a kiss, which he described to taste like cold death.

Returning from death for the fifth time, Subaru went along with the events as normal, but this time he revealed everything he knew about Garfiel to him after lying that he failed the trial, making him promise not to interfere with him. Returning to the grave, he tried to return to Echidna's realm, only to be forced into starting the second trial, which was seeing the continuation of his 13th death, the time he killed himself after seeing that Rem's name and memories were eaten. Wilhelm and Ferris tried to save him, however the thing inside of Subaru tried to attack them, causing Puck to freeze the entire area. At that moment, Subaru returned to the grave, but soon after he was pulled back to the trial, this time to view his 12th death, the time Ferris and Julius had killed him along with Petelgeuse. He watched as everyone there grieved for him, with Julius stating that he had wanted to be friends with him. He was forced back to reality with his words, and after realizing that the voice that started the second trial was his own voice, he was forced to watch the continuation of another death, this time his 7th death where he had jumped off of a cliff in front of Ram and Beatrice. Standing next to his dead body, an angry Ram tried to lash out at Beatrice but stopped when she saw that she was crying while kneeling next to his body. Following that scene, he was forced to view the continuation of his 9th death, the time when Puck had frozen him at Roswaal Manor after escaping from Petelgeuse's cave. Reinhard had confronted Puck after Subaru's death and killed him, but not before Puck mentioned that Reinhard could only become a hero. Once he had killed him, Reinhard commented that Felt would be sad.

Afterwards, he was forced to view his 1st death, the time where Elsa had killed both him and Emilia at night at the Stolen Goods Warehouse. Once Elsa had killed both of them, Puck appeared to take revenge, freezing the entire area. The trial moved on to Subaru's 5th death, which was the time he was killed by Rem as he tried to make his way to Emilia's room. After hearing that Rem had killed Subaru, Emilia cut ties with Roswaal, slapping him when he called her actions a tantrum. She then had Rem guide her to his dead body as she had decided to bury him in Elior Forest. The trial moved on to Subaru's 11th death, which was the time he was forced to kill himself after being controlled by Petelgeuse. Emilia had come down to the village when the female Petelgeuse was there, forcing Beatrice to send her back to the mansion and Puck to break the contract and freeze Petelgeuse's soul. Once he viewed the scene, he returned to a place he didn't recognize and encountered Rem there, who he quickly realized was a fake when he heard her say things the real Rem would never say. Upon realizing that the Rem in front of him was fake, she turned into a different girl, who introduced herself as Carmilla, the Witch of Lust. He demanded to know why she took Rem's form, prompting her to tell him that if he saw her as someone else that was what he wanted to see, causing him to try and make him feel his anger, though he had to be saved by Echidna, who pointed out that being captivated by Carmilla could lead to death. True to her words, the instant Echidna caught his attention he felt intense breathlessness and dry eye from forgetting to breathe and blink.

Leaving Subaru at the bottom of the hill, Echidna sat down at the table, telling him that she sent Carmilla to prevent him from wearing himself down and breaking from the trial. In response to her words, he sat down at the table, though he refused to drink her tea. To begin their discussion, they went over the second trial, which he correctly guessed as seeing a different future than what had actually happened, leading him to question her about Returns from Death. Echidna herself didn't know exactly how it worked either, causing the topic to shift to the Witch of Envy, with her explaining that the witch he encountered was an imitation of the real thing as the vessel was immature and none of her seals were broken, therefore limiting her power far below what it was at her prime, which still shocked him. Eventually, she offered to form a contract with him to help him, however they were interrupted by Minerva who wouldn't acknowledge it. He didn't understand what she was talking about, but with her, Carmilla, and Sekhmet's assistance, he realized that Echidna hadn't been telling him the whole truth, leading him to reject her offer. Before she could say anything in response, Satella appeared, causing Minerva to go over to her and determine who she was, with Echidna explaining that Satella and the Witch of Envy were separate personalities. Minerva determined that the woman in front of her was Satella and suggested to him to talk with her. Through his conversation with Satella and the other Witches, he learned to come to terms with himself and promised to save Satella even though she asked him to kill her.

Subaru returned to reality the next morning to find himself outside of the grave, learning soon after from Otto that Patrasche had braved injuries to pull him out. Afterward, he tried to enter the grave to check what the next trial was, only to realize that his right to take the trials had been revoked, which he confirmed by trying to take authority over the Ryuzu copies only to fail to do so. Not knowing what else to do, he visited Roswaal that night go over information, leading to an intellectual battle between the two to try and outdo the other. Partway through the battle, Subaru revealed that Echidna revoked his right to the trials, causing Roswaal to panic as that future wasn't listed in his gospel book, his agitation making him slip that he was the one who hired Elsa to kill everyone at the mansion just to strengthen Subaru's resolve. Despite his pleas, Roswaal refused to order Elsa to stop, stating that he would do whatever it took to "complete" Subaru. Leaving Roswaal's house, Subaru met Emilia outside, who he tried to convince to wait in completing the trials until he found a better way, nonetheless she refused his offer, telling him that she couldn't always depend on him. He fell asleep in the woods that night and woken by Garfiel the next day, then cheered up by Otto who promised to help, making him realize what to do as he returned to Roswaal to make a bet. He told Roswaal that he would do what he wanted to do in his current loop, but if he died because of it, he would obediently listen to him in the next one. Claiming he would gain Garfiel as an ally and have Emilia pass the trials, he made the bet contract with Roswaal, who didn't really think he would be able to accomplish it. Their contract sealed, Subaru returned to Otto to discuss their next move.

Heading to the laboratory to deal with his first condition, he discussed Garfiel's actions with Ryuzu, coming to the conclusion that one of the four other main Ryuzu was instructing him to oppose the Sanctuary being set free. That night, he visited Emilia, and with some encouragement, he managed to convince her to discuss what she saw in the trial. Right after that, he realized that Puck wasn't sleeping at all, causing him to speak with him telepathically, revealing to him that Emilia was unconsciously making him unable to materialize because of her fear of her past. Puck explained that the only way she would get through the trials was for him to break their contract and that he wanted Subaru to support her while he was gone. The next morning, she had an emotional outburst for most of the morning, finally falling asleep near noon, letting Subaru meet with the Ryuzu he dubbed as Ryuzu Sigma. During their meeting, Subaru learned that Ryuzu Theta was the one he needed to see, before regrouping with Otto to visit Roswaal, where Otto had him agree to not interfere with them directly. He visited Emilia soon after, who asked him to hold her hand until morning, however he was forced to break his promise to prepare, causing her to disappear the next morning. Ryuzu Theta also disappeared the next morning, forcing Subaru and Otto to find her before Garfiel in order to ask what they needed to ask, though fortunately Subaru found her at Garfiel and Frederica's old house, who explained what she saw during the trial, then agreed to support him in his effort to set the Sanctuary free. Following Ryuzu Theta's story, he had a decent idea of where Emilia was and headed there to speak with her, leaving Otto to deal with Garfiel.

Across the Sanctuary, Garfiel smelled a large number of people heading in one direction, and upon seeing Otto and some Dragon Carriages, he demanded to know what they were doing. He soon realized that the smell he was sensing actually came from people's clothes and that the real villagers were already leaving the Sanctuary on Dragon Carriage in various places, leading him to consider going to the grave to stop Subaru and Emilia from meeting, however Otto prevented him from doing so, using various tricks to keep his attention. Eventually, Garfiel tried to finish him off, however Ram joined their fight to help him. Garfiel didn't understand why they were helping Subaru, prompting both to tell him that they trusted him. Not wanting to think any more, Garfiel turned into his beastified form to finish them, but this was exactly what Ram was waiting for. With a little of Otto's help, Ram defeated Garfiel, whose reasoning wasn't clear because of the tricks Otto had used on him.

Back at the grave, Subaru had arrived to find Emilia there, subsequently asking her to talk with him. After an argument between the two about keeping promises, he decided to be strict with her but made sure to tell her that he believed in her because he loved her, and to prove it, he kissed her, which he described tasting like hot life, unlike their previous kiss. Leaving her to organize her feelings, he stepped outside to confront a wounded Garfiel, with her joining soon after. Both of them pointed out that Garfiel seemed to be scared of something, which he tried to deny repeatedly. Despite that, he caved in when Subaru mentioned what he had heard about Garfiel's trial, prompting him to reveal the rest of the trial, telling them that their mother had died after leaving them in the Sanctuary, and that was why he opposed the Sanctuary being set free, as he believed that there was no happiness outside of it. Hearing this, Subaru decided to forcibly prove to him that he was kindhearted, and they began their fight. Partway through the battle, Garfiel tried to beastify, though his attempt was negated with a crystal stone with Puck inside of it stabbed into his right shoulder that sucked all of his mana, forcing him to revert back to his original form. Although Subaru was successful in stabbing him, he had to cast Shamak to accomplish it, resulting in his damaged gate to completely collapse. Even then Garfiel refused to surrender, nonetheless Subaru defeated him by uppercutting him with an Unseen Hand, then having Patrasche slam into him.

After she watched their man's battle, Emilia turned her attention toward the trees nearby, where Roswaal appeared, claiming to have come because he was worried about them. Pointing out that Roswaal was prepared to attack Subaru during the fight, Emilia talked with him about his intentions, leading him to show her his gospel book, stating that he and Subaru were the same in forcing their ideals on the woman they yearned for. When Emilia refuted his remark by revealing what Subaru did, he became agitated, nevertheless he quickly regained his composure as he still didn't think he would lose, and left them for the time being. Ten minutes later, Otto joined them with an injured Ram on his back.

Regrouping together again, Ram talked Garfiel into retaking the trial, to which he agreed, entering the grave to begin the trial. To his surprise, the reason his mother left was to bring back their father, and not because she wanted to live her own life. After talking it over with an image of a young Frederica, Garfiel decided to help those who needed him, leading him to start referring to Subaru as "boss" once he returned. Before Emilia took her turn with the trial, each member present gave her advice except for Subaru, who she told that they would sort out what they did inside of the grave later, sending her off into the grave with confidence. To her surprise, she saw that Subaru had carved pictures and words inside the first room to cheer her up, making her realize what he had done when he left her the night before when she asked him to hold her hand until morning.

While Emilia was inside the grave, Subaru discussed Garfiel's former stance and was puzzled by it, as none of the Ryuzu recalled telling him to be wary of Subaru and Emilia. Leaving her to focus on the trials, Subaru's group returned to Roswaal's house to speak with him, where they encountered a fifth main Ryuzu copy he dubbed Ryuzu Omega, who had no intention of blocking their efforts to free the Sanctuary. The two entered Roswaal's room to find that it was in a mess as Roswaal had raged for a short while. Seeing Garfiel with him, he began to mock him for switching sides so easily, but when Garfiel calmly refuted his claims by mentioning that he cleared the first trial, Roswaal was pressured even further, beginning to redirect his insults at Emilia, causing Subaru to grab his clothes and yell at him, demanding to know if he tried caring about her even once. Telling him that Emilia would succeed, he announced himself to be her knight, then left with Otto and Garfiel to stop Elsa. Back at the mansion, Frederica arrived just in time to prevent Elsa from attacking Petra, with Garfiel taking her place soon after, telling her to go help the others. Meanwhile, Subaru tried to convince Beatrice to leave with her but failed, making her kick him out of the library. Soon after Otto and Petra joined him, informing him that a horde of Demon Beasts had surrounded the mansion, making it impossible to escape, and at that moment they were attacked by Elsa who had left her battle with Garfiel, luckily Frederica joined them with Rem strapped on her back. Garfiel smashed his way through the ceiling with a dead Demon Beast, which Meili had brought with her, the girl herself joining seconds later.

The group left Garfiel behind to deal with their enemies while they looked for an exit. Dealing with other Demon Beasts along the way, the group eventually reached the hallway with the entrance to Roswaal's room, where one of Meili's trump cards, the Guiltylowe, was standing guard to prevent anyone from escaping through the passageway. Putting their skills together, they managed to trick the Demon Beast into heading into their traps one after another, with Subaru trying to finish it off with a dust explosion in the kitchen, and when that failed Otto covered it with the oil he had and burned it to death. Unfortunately, he used too much oil, allowing the fire to quickly spread across the mansion. The group quickly returned to Roswaal's room, where Subaru announced that he would stay to take care of Beatrice. As he looked around, Garfiel finished his battle against Elsa, Meili, and Meili's other trump card, the Wagpig, on the eastern side of the mansion, killing the Wagpig and using its massive body to crush Elsa after she had healed from fatal wounds for the fourth time. Searching around, Subaru tried multiple times to enter the library, and each time Beatrice kicked him out for a total of seven attempts. Unfortunately, on his way to try the passageway door for his eighth attempt, he was attacked by both a fatally wounded Elsa with the bottom half of her body destroyed and the Guilytylowe he thought they killed, though fortunately for him they began killing each other, giving him enough time to reach the door. Elsa forcibly chased after him once she killed the Demon Beast, but unlike Subaru who entered the library, she was hit by a backdraft the second she opened the door, her body completely destroyed by the fire. Seconds later, the mansion completely collapsed.

The library itself was a mess as the area itself was breaking apart and the fire was beginning to burn through the room. This time Subaru successfully convinced Beatrice to accept him, telling her that even if she lived longer than him, he would make sure she'd never forget him, prompting her to finally refer to him by his name. The two escaped from the library by teleporting to the Sanctuary, much to relief of everyone else.

A while before Subaru and Beatrice's teleport, Emilia cleared both the first and second trials, then was cheered on by the villagers of the Sanctuary who had gathered at the grave to support her, having been told about what had happened between Subaru and Garfiel in addition to Emilia and Roswaal, before she began the third trial. Meanwhile, Ram confronted Roswaal, who now viewed her as an enemy, informing him that she had come to steal him from his obsession over Echidna. Talking with each other, they went over the contract they made over the gospel book, which stated that as long as things went the same as the gospel book, Ram would serve him with her life, but if it went off course, she could do whatever she wanted to with him, though he would be an empty shell as he would lose all reason to live. He also mentioned that she probably lived a painful life since she was forced to swear loyalty to the man who was the cause of her village's destruction, intentionally using words that would hurt her. Finishing up their conversation, he told her that he would punish her for betraying him, and the two began to fight. During their fight, he was shocked to find out that she loved him rather than having feelings of revenge like he believed, nevertheless he refused to believe her words, stating that her words didn't make sense as he should be someone she hated. She agreed that she hated him at first but added that she fell in love with him in the end. Forcing herself into her Oni Form, she used it to quickly reach the gospel book Roswaal had put aside when they began fighting, subsequently throwing it in one of the remaining fires to destroy it. This earned her his wrath, leading him to hit her with a blast of fire.

At the grave, Emilia completed the third trial and entered the last room, where she found Echidna's body encased in a sealing stone coffin. Recalling what she needed to do, she read the flow of mana, using it as a guide to get rid of the magic that kept the Sanctuary sealed. Once that was done, she made her way outside to find the area covered in snow, learning from the villagers gathered there that they had returned to bring everyone out, however the snow blocked their efforts. Afterward, Ryuzu explained that as Emilia touched the coffin, the control over the Ryuzu copies had moved to her, and promised to assist her in finding Roswaal to put a stop to his actions. Across the Sanctuary, Roswaal didn't know what to do anymore, nonetheless he made it snow like before, then began giving mana to Ram like always, not wanting her to die as he still needed her. Reaching them soon after, she found Roswaal who no longer had any will to live and a dying Ram in his arms, prompting her to yell at him to get him to believe, ordering the copies to carry them along. A short while later, the Oousagi came as expected, though fortunately Subaru and Beatrice teleported near her at the grave to help fight against them. Subaru, Emilia, and Beatrice worked together to lessen their numbers until Beatrice sent them to a different dimension with Al Shamak. Seeing that they won, Subaru began celebrating by praising Beatrice while holding her up, however he tripped, making them fall face first into the snow.

Later on, Beatrice and Roswaal visited Echidna's body in the grave while everyone else played in the remaining snow outside. During their discussion inside, he revealed to her that he was indeed the original Roswaal, having used his grandchildren's bodies for the last 400 years. She decided to not judge him but ended up slapping him with her shoe. Afterward, he asked her if she would cooperate with him if she could actually reunite with Echidna. Outside, as Subaru finished his Puck snow sculptures, Emilia decided to go over what they did in the grave, causing him to be confused as she apparently thought that babies were made when a man and a woman kissed. He thought about correcting her misunderstanding, though he eventually decided to leave it to Ram and Frederica.

Garfiel, Frederica, Otto, Petra, and Rem arrived at the Sanctuary half a day later along with their prisoner Meili and immediately took turns punching Roswaal for everything that he'd done. Once they were finished, the group gathered in the cathedral to discuss their current situation, with Roswaal swearing on Echidna's soul that he wouldn't attempt anything like what he did again, nevertheless Garfiel was still suspicious of him, which Subaru took care of by having Roswaal promise to make up for everything he had done, especially to the villagers and Sanctuary citizens. Following their talk, the group dispersed, with Subaru and Roswaal visiting Echidna's body again. While there, Roswaal revealed to him that he had a method of reviving Echidna that wouldn't go against Od Lagna, though he refused to tell him the details, as it wasn't mentioned in their contract. In addition to that, he revealed that although he did hire Elsa, he didn't ask her to kill Frederica or Petra, and that he didn't hire Meili at all during the Wolgarm incident or the Sanctuary incident. Soon after, Beatrice visited him after Roswaal left, and explained the conditions her contractor had to bear.

Elsewhere, Echidna, who had returned to the living world by transferring her soul into the original Ryuzu Meyer's body by using and absorbing Ryuzu Omega's own soul as a medium, renamed herself Omega after viewing the memories left in the soul. As she looked around, she decided to spend some time getting used to everything again and left the place she was at.

## The Stars That Engrave History

A year after the events at the Sanctuary, Subaru was practicing parkour at the athletic zone Garfiel had made for him when Beatrice visited him. Petra arrived soon after, informing the two that there was a messenger, and therefore Emilia had requested their presence at the Roswaal Manor. Both Subaru and Beatrice tried to refuse but were pressed into going by Petra. Upon arriving at the mansion, they were greeted by an enthusiastic Mimi, who proudly told them that she came alone, before announcing that they were invited to a party hosted by Anastasia. They began playing around at the entrance until they were scolded by Ram, at which point the involved parties gathered in the parlour. Subaru quickly introduced himself to their other guest, Joshua Juukulius, then got straight down to business, which was mostly the same as what Mimi had said, except for the fact that it would be held in the city of Priestella, which was next to the border between Lugunica and Kararagi. Subaru questioned about whether they should go, however they were convinced to go by Joshua who mentioned that Anastasia had asked him to tell them that they would find an extremely high purity magic stone that could house Puck inside of it.

Later that night, Subaru asked Emilia about Priestella, then listened to a drunk Otto's complaints along with Garfiel about how easily they had agreed to go to Anastasia's party. Eventually ignoring him, Garfiel reported to him that Mimi seemed to be suspicious, advising him and Emilia to not walk around alone. Leaving the two to play Shatranj, Subaru visited the sleeping Rem, telling her of the experiences he had that day, before heading back to his own room. Three days later, Subaru, Emilia, Beatrice, Garfiel, and Otto headed to the city, beginning their more than ten day journey there, while Roswaal, Ram, and Petra attended the Western Border Territory Lord Meeting to convince the lords affiliated with Roswaal to support Emilia. Arriving at the city 12 days later, the group headed to the Water Plumage Inn, and Anastasia greeted them in front of the building while Otto left to take their Earth Dragons to the stable. Once Otto came back, the group had a short discussion with both Anastasia and Julius, then left to meet Kiritaka Muse to discuss a deal on the magic stone. On the way there, Subaru became seasick on the waterway boat, forcing him to stay behind and rest with Beatrice. Trying to make their way to the Muse Company on their own, they ended up at a park where Liliana Masquerade was singing, eventually threatening her to guide them there. Upon arriving, they made their way to the meeting room, however Liliana made a commotion in front of the door which caused Kiritaka to notice them, making him attack Subaru for touching "his" Liliana, ending the deal prematurely.

On their way back to the Water Plumage Inn, Otto left them to deal with some business. Emilia accidentally bumped into a cloaked Regulus Corneas, with both sides apologizing for the accident, and after they left he vowed to make her his 79th wife to fill the empty spot. Reaching the inn, they found Joshua arguing with Chin, who, with Reinhard's support, explained that he was working for Felt along with his companions. Their misunderstandings cleared, the group entered Anastasia's meeting room to find the members of the Crusch Camp there, with Reinhard coming face to face with Wilhelm for the first time in a while. The two immediately ignored each other's presence and before long everyone other than the Priscilla Camp, who wasn't invited, gathered to talk. When Felt brought up Subaru's efforts, everyone in the room starting with Wilhelm and Julius praised him. Later, Subaru, Ferris, and Julius watched Garfiel fight against Reinhard in the inn garden to see how strong he was, though he was easily dealt with by the Sword Saint who didn't even move from where he was standing. That night, on his way to the bath, Subaru spotted Wilhelm at the garden, deciding right away to talk with him, going over various topics such as his wife. Eventually, Subaru moved the topic to his bad relationship with his grandson, giving him advice on improving it, which Wilhelm thanked him for.

Wilhelm tried his advice the next morning during breakfast, however Heinkel Astrea interrupted them, telling them that had no right to make up since they hadn't changed, adding that Wilhelm himself had gotten angry at Reinhard for killing Theresia. Immediately, the four candidates urged him to leave, though a newly arrived Priscilla prevented him from doing so. Subaru questioned her as to why she brought Heinkel, prompting her to wonder who he was, as she had apparently forgotten who he was. Fortunately Al remembered him, with Priscilla revealing that she brought Heinkel because it would "make things fun". As the current head of the Astrea House, Heinkel tried to threatened to kick both Felt and Reinhard out, which he tried to accomplish by having Priscilla as his backer, nevertheless she beat him unconscious for being an annoyance, then assured them that even if he did no one would support his decision. The group dispersed after she left and later Julius thanked him for getting angry at Heinkel. Afterward, Subaru visited the same park with Emilia and Beatrice to see Liliana again, but this time Priscilla was there, impressing the crowd with her dancing. After an argument with Priscilla, Subaru was forced to buy treats for everyone, which he reluctantly agreed to, and while he was doing so he bumped into Chin. Immediately after, the crowd both of them was near stopped to look up at the nearby time tower where Sirius Romanée-Conti was standing, who introduced herself the same way as Petelgeuse.

Seeing her caution those who were about to attack her, Subaru tried to negotiate with her instead of summoning Beatrice, at which point she brought out Lusbel Kallard, explaining that he had volunteered to be her prisoner to protect his friend Tina. The crowd praised him for his efforts, making Sirius elated that there was "love", subsequently throwing him off of the tower to his death, then made everyone in the group die the same way with her Authority of Wrath. Returning from death at Liliana, he contemplated on what he needed to do, ultimately deciding to ambush Sirius before she could give her speech. Hiding in the time tower, he tried to ambush her with his whip, nonetheless she noticed his anger, leading her to block his weapon with her chain. Fortunately, his whip got caught in a chain link, allowing him to force her off balance, landing a tackle that sent her falling down to the first floor seconds later. He tried to save Lusbel when he was suddenly seized by an intense feeling of fear that was caused by Sirius' Authority, who raised its effects to make both him and Lusbel continuously feel each other's increasing fear, killing both of them by driving them insane.

Returning from death yet again, he reanalyzed the situation based on the new information he gained, this time opting to have Chin call Reinhard to the scene, who arrived in 30 seconds. He proceeded to fight Sirius in the air, which Subaru took advantage of to save Lusbel, though when they returned the crowd was chanting for Reinhard to kill Sirius. Once he killed her by chopping her with his hand from her left shoulder to her right side, everyone else in the vicinity except for Reinhard died the same way. Returning for the third time, he decided to take Beatrice with him, explaining to her the threat they were going to face to see how much he could tell her before the hands blocked him. To their surprise, Emilia also tagged along, agreeing to assist them in their fight against Sirius. Upon seeing Emilia, Sirius became enraged, leading Emilia to fight her while Subaru and Beatrice dealt with the crowd that was emotionally linked to her by her Authority. Eventually, Sirius tried to finish her off, though fortunately she was saved by Regulus, causing Sirius to try to kill him. Partway through their battle, Subaru tried to take Emilia back from him, fighting against him by using EMM and his Unseen Hand, however their fight was also interrupted by the woman whose fight they interrupted first. Taking a look at Subaru, Sirius declared him to be her missing "husband" Petelgeuse, and tried to claim him. Before she could do so, Regulus blocked her again, though right after both of their gospel books reacted, giving both of them a new entry. Prioritizing their work, Regulus left Subaru with a serious injury to his right leg and Sirius spread it to everyone except Beatrice and Emilia as they weren't worthy of being love, and then the two Sin Archbishops left.

Subaru later awoke in a slightly dark room, which Ferris referred to as a field hospital, subsequently being briefed on the situation a little by both him and Ricardo, learning that Beatrice was currently unconscious because she used up all of her mana to keep all of the people affected by Sirius' Authority alive. At that moment, Capella Emerada Lugunica began her second broadcast on the city center's broadcast meteors, warning the people of Priestella to not try anything as they had taken over the four control towers that controlled the waterways. Once her announcement was over, the three of them used the Conversation Mirror Meteor to contact the others in order to form a plan against the Witch Cult. As they discussed their plan, Garfiel returned with a dying Mimi in his arms, apologizing to everyone for being powerless. The two had spent the previous day together following his defeat to Reinhard, during which he had saved a group of children from a boat, one of which was Fred Thompson, who he later learned was a child of Reala, his actual mother. Later that afternoon, her husband Garek explained how he met her, leading Garfiel to cry himself to sleep in Mimi's arms that night on the roof of a building. The next day, both of them heard Capella's announcement, then agreed to look for Reala's family when they found her at an evacuation center. The two attempted to infiltrate the city center, however they were attacked by Kurgan and Theresia in the square in front of the building and Mimi was wounded by Theresia, forcing him to carry her back to Ferris.

As Ferris treated Mimi, the others continued with their strategy meeting, ultimately deciding to gather together at the great waterway leading to the city center, where they had another meeting to go over their opponents. A short while later, the members of the Fang of Iron cleared the way for Subaru, Crusch, Garfiel, Ricardo, Wilhelm, and Julius to reach the city center, at which point they began fighting against their two opponents, though before long Capella appeared on the roof of the city center in the form of a black dragon. Julius injured her with magic, nonetheless she recovered thanks to her regeneration, eventually retreating back into the city center to make a third announcement, forcing Subaru, Crusch, and Julius to head inside to stop her. Upon entering, the three of them encountered Roy Alphard, prompting Julius to send them off using their aliases, as that way Roy wouldn't be able to eat them, while he himself stayed behind to fight him. Subaru and Crusch ended up entering he broadcast preparation room through the window from the roof, quickly dispatching the black dragon inside once they saved the hostage girl at its feet, but when he opened the door to the broadcast room he found a large number of Human sized flies. Hearing her scream behind him, Subaru turned around see an unconscious and injured Crusch at the girl's feet, with the girl insulting them in Capella's voice. After seeing her use her Authority of Lust for a short bit, he figured out that she could transform things, realizing that the dragon and the flies were a result of her transforming the people in the building. Grabbing Crusch's body, he tried to escape from her but failed, causing her to infect him with her own blood that she mentioned to include dragon blood, wondering if either of them would survive the experience. Leaving them behind, she tried to make her way to the announcement room when the dragon she had transformed returned and attacked her with fire just as he lost consciousness.

Subaru awoke a while later, learning soon after from Julius that the Witch Cult had abandoned the city center along with the fact that the area around his leg injury had healed but had turned black. Anastasia traded places with the others while they went to check up on Crusch, revealing to Subaru the existence of the Artificial Spirit she wore, who introduced herself as Echidna. Despite his shock, both girls continued on with the conversation, telling him that one of the Witch Cult's conditions during their third announcement was for them to hand over the Artificial Spirit, though they didn't know which Spirit they were referring to. She told him the other four conditions; the second condition was the Book of Wisdom that was supposedly in the city, the third was for them to deliver twenty couples to a control tower, and the fourth was for them to not bother Regulus' wedding with the silver haired bride. Seeing his reaction, she expressed her desire to disobey the Witch Cult, then went down with him to the first floor to discuss their plan with the others. During their discussion, Al arrived at the city center, causing him to tag along with Subaru and Garfiel who were planning to visit the evacuation centers. Along the way, Subaru realized that Sirius was using her Authority to increase the emotions of people, making them hurry to the nearest evacuation center, but just as they feared the citizens had begun killing each other because of it. Subduing the remaining citizens, they returned to the city center, where Subaru suggested to Anastasia to use the loudspeaker Meteor to tell the citizens to calm down.

Following a brief discussion, Al suggested that Subaru make the call, as he was the one known for killing a Sin Archbishop, which the others agreed to. He quickly began his speech, successfully raising the morale of everyone, enough to make Anastasia ask if he used to be a swindler. After receiving praise from everyone, Otto reappeared with Reinhard who apologized for his tardiness, explaining that Heinkel had taken Felt hostage during their meeting earlier just so he could have Reinhard protect his own like at the cost of everyone else's. Otto continued from where he left off, explaining that he helped Felt escape from Heinkel, allowing Reinhard to capture him. Otto himself had been meeting with Kiritaka at the time of the announcement, adding that Roy had appeared in the same avenue soon after and began causing a commotion, and that Kiritaka had made him escape through the secret passageway down to the underground waterways before being cut down. At that point the topic shifted to Roy's intentions, leading Otto to reveal that he was the one who brought the Book of Wisdom to the city, revealing that he had given it to a restorer to bring it back to its former condition. With the information about the book known to everyone, both Anastasia and Subaru decided to reveal the existence of Artificial Spirits, at which point Al tried to leave but was stopped by Priscilla who had just arrived with Schult and Liliana. While the others briefed Priscilla on the situation, Subaru took Otto outside to discuss the book, learning that he had brought it to make sure Roswaal was on their side. Satisfied with his explanation, both of them were about to return to the room when Wilhelm stopped him, informing him that Crusch wanted to see him.

Making their way to Crusch's room, Wilhelm revealed the identities of the two Witch Cult members they had fought, hesitating a little when he was about to mention Thearesia's name. After giving him a history of Sphinx, they arrived at Crusch's room, and Subaru entered to find her struggling against the dragon blood that had infected her body. To their surprise, he was able to take the curse from her body, however the rate it transferred at wasn't equal, causing her to stop him from taking any more of the curse from her. He assured her that he would take care of things before leaving the room. On their way back, Wilhelm asked him to not tell Reinhard that Theresia was in the city, asking to be given the permission to deal with her and Capella himself. The group continued with their strategy meeting, eventually deciding to have Priscilla, Al, and Liliana fight Sirius, Wilhelm and Garfiel fight Capella, Subaru and Reinhard fight Regulus, and Julius and Ricardo fight Roy. At a church near one of the control towers, Regulus tried to force Emilia into marrying him, nevertheless she refused, stating that she already had someone she was going to love when she properly understood what love was before Subaru and Reinhard kicked the door open. Although Subaru's kick simply opened the door, Reinhard's kick sent the door flying straight into Regulus, though it didn't do any damage because of his Authority.

When the two tried to begin fighting, Regulus threatened them by mentioning that he would kill his wives if they moved, though fortunately Emilia created a thick wall of ice to protect them, then froze his feet while holding an ice sword to his neck. Unfortunately for them, Regulus grabbed Emilia's throat, forcing Reinhard to comply with his request, which was for him to take an attack without protecting himself in exchange for the hostages' freedom. Regulus took advantage of this by killing Reinhard in one strike, subsequently attempting to kill Subaru as well, however to their surprise Reinhard got right back up thanks to his Divine Protection of the Phoenix. Shocked that he was alive, Regulus was unable to do anything to prevent Subaru from rescuing the 184th wife nearby with his whip, Emilia from kicking the ice sword to Reinhard, and Reinhard from attacking him with it. Their celebration was cut short when they saw Regulus get back up, making Reinhard resume the fight, and while he did so Subaru and Emilia tried to get the wives to evacuate but failed, as they were scared of what Regulus would do to them if they did. Leaving the wives alone for the time being, the two joined Reinhard's fight, working together with him to determine what the Authority of Greed did. After several attempts such as trying to drown him, make him receive his own attack, and attack him from below, Subaru remembered the story behind the star Regulus, asking Reinhard to check if Regulus' heart was functioning. Upon hearing that it wasn't, Subaru and Emilia attempted to return to the wives, prompting Regulus to try to stop them. Seeing that he wasn't going to let them go, Subaru had Emilia secretly head for the church while he acted as a decoy.

Remembering what he told her, Emilia explained to the wives that they had Regulus' heart, all the while trying to think of some way to get rid of it when the wives attempted to commit suicide to get revenge on him. This forced Emilia to freeze them instead, returning soon after to Subaru and Regulus. Noticing that Regulus was still able to use his Authority, they wondered if they made a mistake, nonetheless at that moment Emilia realized that she had his heart inside of her, leading Subaru to use his Unseen Hand to carefully crush Regulus' heart without damaging hers. Once he did so, Regulus was unable to use his Authority for long periods of time, causing him to plead for a one on one fight, which Subaru agreed to by having Reinhard take his place. Reinhard hit Regulus high into the air with his sword, then kicked him down into the ground. He was forced to stop using his Authority while he was still smashing through the ground, resulting in his body being mangled by the continuous force placed on his body, eventually coming to a stop in the ground. Vowing to get revenge on them, he tried digging his way back up using his Authority, only to make the mistake of digging into a waterway, and soon died of the water and mud suffocating him. A short while later, Subaru and Emilia returned to free the women from the ice, where he felt a mysterious black object enter his chest.

A while before the battle against Regulus finished, Capella invaded the city center, intending to finish off everyone there since most of the attacking force had spread across the city. To her surprise, Anastasia had been expecting her, as she had disguised herself as Crusch in an effort to help Ferris get information on how to cure the real Crusch out of her. Seeing that she wasn't going to talk, Anastasia activated the trap on the floor, dropping her all the way down to the basement, where she reformed her body immediately after hitting the ground. She attempted to leave the basement to kill them but was stopped by Al. During their battle, he cut her head off and crushed her heart with El Dona, ripping her body apart, however he was surprised when her head talked to him. He tried scaring her by telling her that help would arrive at any moment, nonetheless she crushed his hopes by telling him that his allies were being attacked by Kurgan and Theresia, and that an associate in the Witch Cult had taught her how to block Conversation Mirror Meteors from working. Transforming into a black dragon again, she tried to kill him, though Al took advantage of this by making her destroy the foundations of the building, escaping through the waterways as the building collapsed on her. The three regrouped near the ruined building, when Al noticed that Anastasia's body was being controlled by her Artificial Spirit, who explained that it was something she had to do to save her life. As they discussed their current situation, the Conversation Mirror Meteor they had shone, signalling a connection with another mirror.

Around the same time, Otto attempted to retrieve the Book of Wisdom from the restorer, and on the way there he ran into Lye Batenkaitos, with Felt, Ton, Kiritaka, and several White Dragon's Scale members joining them soon after. At first, Lye seemed to listen to him, though once he found out that Otto was a merchant his attitude changed. With their combined efforts, the group managed to let Kiritaka escape so he could head to the 8th evacuation center, a place Otto explained would help their cause. In another part of the city, Priscilla and Liliana arrived at a flaming control tower. Sirius greeted them in front of it, explaining that she lit it on fire to guide them there, then tried to have a huge crowd under her control attack them, nevertheless Priscilla held them back by creating a wall of fire along the waterways with her Yang Sword. She made Sirius angry to keep her attention on her, such as burning the already burning tower, and had Liliana sing on top of it to free the people from Sirius' control. Liliana successfully did as instructed, causing Sirius to try to kill her, forcing Priscilla to chase after her to stop her. Priscilla managed to reach her at the building but failed to do before she destroyed it. Sirius tried to dissuade her from attacking by revealing that she had Tina as a hostage underneath her coat, nonetheless she still attacked her, her sword only striking Sirius and the chain that held Tina to her. Making sure that Tina was freed, Priscilla landed a blow to Sirius' head, sending her flying into the waterway. Liliana had also fallen into a waterway and was rescued by Kiritaka.

Back at Otto's battle, Lye easily overpowered the White Dragon's Scale members and Ton with the abilities he used through his Authority of Gluttony. Partway through, he ate three members, using their memories to try to confuse the others. He tried to eat Felt, Ton, and Dynas, though his attempt was blocked by Otto with a magic stone that exploded, nonetheless he took advantage of the explosion to eat three more members, leaving only Otto, Felt, Ton, and Dynas in fighting condition. Fortunately, the others didn't know who Otto was other than his title, allowing him a bit of leeway when it came to fighting Lye. Eventually, Beatrice arrived to help them, having been sent to their location by Kiritaka. Otto stopped himself from saying her name, however to their surprise Lye knew who she was through Rem's memories, and began talking like her, causing her and Otto to realize that Lye was using the abilities and memories of those he'd eaten to his advantage. Touching the Morningstar wound on his shoulder, he continued to mock Rem, leading them to vow to not allow him to meet Subaru. Resuming their battle, Lye tried to eat Felt again, this time succeeding in touching her, however the moment he ate her he began throwing up as "Felt" wasn't her real name. Realizing this, Lye considered taking her with him to see Rom in order to figure out her real name, causing her to try to attack him with her knife. Beatrice tried to kill him with Ur Minya once everyone got out of range, but one the large magic stones Kiritaka gave her to use in place of mana shattered before the magic could finish, negating the whole thing and leaving her with four stones remaining.

Lye tried to get revenge by touching her, prompting Beatrice to avoid it by using another stone for Murak. Seeing that he was in trouble, Lye activated his trump card Lunar Eclipse, using it to effortlessly defeat both Dynas and Otto. The result of Lunar Eclipse was in Rui Arneb taking over Lye's body, with both of them able to speak using the body. Lye pointed out to him that Beatrice was the Artificial Spirit he was looking for. He tried to attack her again, though she used her remaining two stones to blind him with Shamak and heal Otto, and as she had already used a stone to revive a dying Water Dragon while she used Murak, she had it hold him in place while Felt charged up the Meteor her subordinate had brought her earlier, which she claimed even Reinhard couldn't avoid. Beatrice recognized the Meteor as the white staff Echidna had created a long time ago just to annoy Volcanica. Sensing the imminent danger, he tried to run from the blast of light that was fired, only to find out that it was able to home in on him. He began despairing, nevertheless Rui told him to turn off Solar Eclipse, escaping the blast by tricking it into believing that it had hit its target by using hair that had been cut during the battle. Before they could do anything else, Rui introduced herself to them, adding that he would retreat as Lye and Roy were exhausted and any more would cause problems with giving birth. Beatrice refused to let him leave, nonetheless he warned her of Eclipse, stating that he could still completely destroy them, not doing so simply because "the table wasn't ready". As he left, he told them that Lye and Roy didn't know anything about eating, remarking that eating was about "who you ate with" and not "what you ate".

Near one of the control towers, Wilhelm was busy fighting his former wife Theresia. After a short battle, he tried to finish her off when he spotted Heinkel out of the corner of his eye, making him hesitate and allow her to fight back. His thoughts began to wander because of this, preventing him from properly making a decision, resulting in a wound to his leg that made him collapse. Seeing that he was finished, she ignored him and moved to kill Heinkel, who began fearing for his life, though fortunately Reinhard appeared with the Dragon Sword drawn, ready to fight. Wilhelm protested his intrusion, claiming that it was dishonourable to interrupt a fight between two swordsmen, however Reinhard simply told him that the way of the sword didn't apply to those who desecrated dead bodies, adding that dead people didn't move and that there was no future for dead people. Reinhard and Theresia prepared to fight again, causing Wilhelm to protest once again, nevertheless Reinhard told him that he killed her 15 years ago, therefore the woman in front of them was a fake, before cutting her down in one strike.

Once the battle was finished, Theresia regained her reason in Wilhelm's arms, and both Wilhelm and Thearesia told each other that they loved each other, and subsequently her body crumbled to ashes. Afterward, Heinkel asked Reinhard if he was satisfied with what he'd done, threatening to tell everyone about how he cut her down. Reinhard didn't understand what he was talking about, claiming that the woman in front of them had been a dead body, prompting Heinkel to ask him about what she had done at the end. Wilhelm stopped him from saying anything more, instead asking Reinhard if he regretted what he had done, to which he replied that he didn't as he did what he thought was the correct thing to do. He accepted his answer, however he refused to speak with him from that point on, stating that he no longer had anything to talk with him about, and began speaking to him as if he was a complete stranger. Reinhard, in turn, referred to him by name instead of the usual grandfather, leaving soon after head to the city center since Wilhelm had asked him to. A short while later, Kiritaka announced on the loudspeaker Meteor that the Witch Cult had been defeated, much to the joy of everyone in the city.

Subaru and Emilia quickly returned to the ruined city center building, where they regrouped with the others, promptly hearing of everyone's survival. Spending some time with each of them, he listened to Liliana's song over the loudspeaker Meteor partway through, they visited an evacuation center, where he, after discussing the Book of Wisdom a little with Otto, learned that a Sin Archbishop was being held prisoner in the next evacuation center over. Heading there immediately, he discovered that the Sin Archbishop in question was Sirius, who refused to properly talk with him unless Emilia and Beatrice left, forcing him to have them temporarily leave so he could talk with the Witch Cult member. When he asked her if she was following the gospel to resurrect the Witch of Envy, she corrected him, saying that each Sin Archbishop followed the gospel only to fulfil their own desires. This caused him to ask about the Witch Cult's purpose, to which she answered that she was only a member because of him, adding that they didn't really have a leader or a meeting place. Eventually, Subaru got too close to her, allowing her to lick him, causing his disgust to grow due to her Authority, though fortunately Emilia intervened, knocking her away from him to protect him. As he was about to leave, Sirius warned him to be careful of "Gourmet", "Bizarre Eating", and "Satiation", asking him to kill them since they were a bother to her, making him realize that there were three Sin Archbishops of Gluttony.

Fearing that someone might've been eaten, he left the evacuation center in a hurry to check, and while he did so he met Julius, who he quickly learned had gotten his name eaten once he saw Emilia wonder who he was. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he tried to test his theory as to why he was able to remember Julius, such as having him meet with the others during their meeting, however, in the end, no one remembered him. During their meeting, the members present agreed to have the people transformed by Capella to be frozen like the wives had been, then moved on to the victims of the Authority of Gluttony, with Anastasia suggesting to visit the Sage Shaula at the Pleiades Watchtower. Despite the useful information they could gain from her, they were also worried of what would happen if they failed, since Shaula killed anyone that came near the tower or the shrine where the witch was sealed, and even Reinhard was unable to reach the tower. Leaving the decision for the time being, the others spent their time in Priestella as normal. Later on, Subaru visited Anastasia, telling her that the number of people heading to the tower was currently five, which included himself, Emilia, Beatrice, Anastasia herself, and Julius. Anastasia questioned why Echidna wasn't included, prompting him to reveal that he knew the "Anastasia" in front of him was still Eridna, leading her to drop her impersonation to discuss her current situation, revealing that she was unable to leave her body, which was why she suggested going to the tower in the first place. He agreed to work with her but decided to head back to Roswaal's Mansion first.

## The Corridor of Memories

Making their way to Roswaal's manor, Subaru, Emilia, and Beatrice headed there with Julius and Anastasia, who were accompanying them in the same Dragon Carriage. After being greeted by both Petra and Ram, the group made their way to the parlour where Roswaal was waiting. He had already learned of their plan through their letter, allowing their conversation to move along smoothly, though when it came to the topic about the effects of the Authority of Gluttony, he noted that Subaru seemed to remember Julius like Rem, telling him that he should take care of it as it meant he was special, and added right after that it was something many people couldn't get even if they wanted it. The group soon dispersed to head to take care of business, with most of the group heading to the confinement room to see Meili Portroute, while Beatrice stayed behind with Roswaal to check if he was plotting anything. During their conversation, he mentioned that Subaru "now had two" following the defeat of another Sin Archbishop, prompting her to mention that there were other candidates, though he refuted her claim by saying that none of them compared to Subaru. She was uncooperative, stating that as she was Subaru's, he would stay the same, however he simply told her that it worked in his favour if the numbers lessened.

At the confinement room, the group walked in on Meili playing around with dolls, causing her to refuse to speak with them, nevertheless Subaru quickly curried her favour by giving her a panda like doll he made on the way back, which she named "Big Bear Cat". She agreed to join them in their trip to the tower, earning her a proper room in the west wing of the mansion and bringing their total to seven including Rem. During the time before their departure, Subaru visited Rem, telling her that they might be able to save her. He was then interrupted by Ram, who, after several insults toward him for supposedly acting like a perverted man, shocked him by informing him that she was going with them. The group prepared to leave in the morning, but not before Roswaal informed them of Ram's condition, and the group began their twenty day journey to the tower. Upon arriving at the closest town, Mirula, the group spent that day and the next there getting ready for their attempt, learning that there were three "Sand Times" that raged every day, then left the day after. Once they arrived at the Augria Sand Dunes, they slowly made their way through, taking breaks during the Sand Times, and also making ice towers to mark their progress in case they became lost. Partway through, Subaru became doubtful of Meili, who had joined him in the driver's seat with Julius, causing her to summon a giant Sunamimizu out of spite, yet ordered it to disappear a short while later as she mentioned that it was smelled terrible. Unbeknownst to them, Shaula destroyed the ice towers as they proceeded.

The group spent their first night in the sand dunes as braving the midnight Sand Time would be disastrous. Discussing their situation, Julius revealed that they weren't getting any closer to the tower for some unknown reason, prompting Anastasia to theorize that space between their current location and the tower was being distorted, essentially making them travel the same place over and over again. Subaru questioned her on a way to get through it, however she added that it was caused by the miasma in the area, but despite that she theorized that there would be an opening during a Sand Time, which they attempted to find the following day. Unfortunately, they spent several days looking for an opening, eventually succeeding in getting through a Sand Time, only to find themselves at the beginning of an Oiranguma flower meadow. The flower meadow was too large to avoid, forcing them to quietly make their way through while using Meili's ability to move the Demon Beasts out of their path. They succeeded in doing so until they had a brief moment of trouble with some of them, after which the Earth Dragon they rented at Mirula made a sound and stomped the ground, causing all of the Oiranguma in the vicinity to wake up. As they ran from them, Shaula attacked them from the tower, vaporizing everyone from the neck up, effectively killing them instantly.

Returning from death, Subaru realized that he had returned to the point where they had the brief moment of trouble with some of the Oiranguma, and attempted to warn the others about heading straight to the tower, though he was too late as the Earth Dragon repeated its behavior from his previous loop, forcing them to run from the Demon Beasts again. Fortunately, he managed to convince the others thanks to Emilia's intervention, nonetheless as they changed their path the Sunamimizu Meili had summoned to aid them was split into two by some force, its body beginning to fall down onto them. Subaru, Beatrice, and Patrasche escaped being crushed by the body but realized that they had been separated, and subsequently Shaula began attacking them, with the three of them managing to avoid the attacks until Subaru and Beatrice were impaled by a needle and killed. Returning for the second time, he calmed the Earth Dragon using his Unseen Hand, then advised the others to retreat, succeeding in returning to the spot at the beginning of the flower meadow. After a discussion on what they were going to do, Subaru suggested using EMM to block attacks, however they were hit by a space distortion attack after some time, resulting in everyone getting separated. Subaru ended up being transported to the area underneath the sand dunes along with Ram, Anastasia, and Patrasche. As she watched them get swallowed by the attack, Shaula happily remarked that she had found him.

Regrouping together underground, the four of them decided to venture through the area, choosing the left path when they reached a fork in the path. While Ram and Anastasia chose the left path because they had a bad feeling, Subaru had a separate reason as to why he agreed with them, which he kept to himself, the reason being that he felt something inside of him get excited about the right path. A while later down the left path, they encountered a Gabaou, which promptly incinerated him along with the rest of his group when they tried to help him. Returning to the point where he found Ram, the group once again ventured through the underground, with Subaru attempting to take the right path this time around. Farther down the path, the high concentration of the witch's miasma started to affect them as they were near the witch's shrine, making Subaru and Ram get into an argument, causing him to strangle her once he knocked him off of Patrasche with his Unseen Hand. After she knocked him away with her Wind Magic, Anastasia tried to calm them down, though the situation quickly escalated into an all out fight between them, resulting in his victory. However, a crazed Patrasche, who had already killed Ram, attacked him, killing him by crushing his head with her jaw.

Returning for the second time, he was reminded of the previous loop the moment he saw Ram's face, causing him to feel nauseous. Ram helped him calm down and the group made their way through the underground for the third time, this time unanimously deciding to take the left path. Just like his first loop, the group encountered the Gabaou, though fortunately Shaula saved them during their fierce battle against the Demon Beast. Letting go of his consciousness, his mind visited the shadowy area he'd been to a couple of times when he returned from death, and while there he saw hallucinations of Petelgeuse and Regulus, yet he ignored them to focus his attention on Satella, whose appearance was much clearer than before. As usual, she expressed her love for him before he returned from death. Subaru awoke to find himself in the Pleiades Watchtower, where he learned that everyone was all right from Beatrice, and at the moment Shaula arrived. She immediately hugged him, refusing to let go, earning him a kick from Emilia.

Eventually, everyone gathered to discuss the recent events, nonetheless Shaula refused to say anything, forcing Subaru to convince her to talk. Obediently obeying his order to talk, she confirmed that she was Shaula, however she revealed that she wasn't the Sage, which she added was the title of her master, whose name she claimed was Flugel, shocking everyone present. Hearing this, the group was doubtful that they would get any useful information on how to reverse the Authority's power, nevertheless Shaula began her explanation about the tower following Emilia's suggestion. She revealed that the underground floor that they were on was the sixth layer called Asterope, the ground floor fifth layer was called Celaeno, the fourth layer Alcyone, the third layer Taygeta, the second layer Electra, and the first layer was called Maia. Continuing with her explanation, she mentioned that Taygeta and above were trial rooms which needed to be cleared to access the corresponding library. On their way to the third floor, he questioned her as to why there wasn't Merope, to which she confirmed that there was indeed a zero layer called Merope, yet she refused to tell him about it as she claimed that he hadn't fulfilled the necessary conditions. He noted that there seemed to sorrow in her eyes and a new firmness in her voice, making him decide to not inquire any further about it.

During their way up the tower, Subaru and Ram visited the Green Room on Alcyone, a room that was covered in plants which was essentially one Spirit that tried to heal anyone inside. He noted that Patrasche was healing but Rem wasn't, making his renew his resolve to save her, and left the room to return to the others while Ram stayed behind to take care of Rem. Joining the others, the rest of the group made their way up to the third layer, Taygeta, to find themselves in a completely white space with a floating monolith right in front of the stairs they just climbed. The others told him to touch the monolith, and when he did the monolith shot out a massive amount of monoliths of varying sizes across the room that floated just like the original, then told everyone to "touch the brightest of the hero destroyed by Shaula", starting the trial. Not knowing what he needed to do, Subaru took Julius' advice, touching a random monolith to test it, resulting in him failing the trial and resetting it. The trial restarted the moment he touched the original monolith again, prompting Emilia and Beatrice to suggest for him to ask Shaula about it, though after he determined that it wasn't Reid, he left Beatrice and Julius to continue with their questioning, taking Emilia and Anastasia with him to investigate the monoliths. As they did so, Emilia noticed similarities between the trials they were taking in the tower and the trials at Echidna's Grave.

Soon after, Subaru realized what the answer was, but had Beatrice use Murak on him so he could look at the trial from above to make sure. His suspicions confirmed, he told the others that the key to the answer was "Orion", bringing up the tale of Orion and the Scorpion, adding that the monoliths, when viewed from above, created the shape of the constellation Orion. Taking this into consideration, the monolith he needed to touch would be either Betelgeuse or Rigel, leading him to pick Rigel as he had bad memories of a name similar to Betelgeuse. The moment he touched the "Rigel" monolith, the room was filled with light which transformed the surroundings into the Taygeta Library, showing that his answer was correct. Subaru noted that the trial would've been impossible to anyone that didn't know the constellations from his world, nevertheless he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as they checked out the library, finding books titled "Noah Libertas", "Libre Fermi", "Palma Eule", and "Coyote", making him come to the conclusion that the books were titled with people's names. While the group browsed through the library, Subaru incidentally found Typhon's book, and upon reading it, he saw portions of her past, however he was forced to have Emilia knock the book from his hands in order to completely bring his soul back from the book. Beatrice tried reading the book, causing him to try to prevent her from reading it out of worry, yet nothing happened. On the other side of the library, Julius, like Subaru, required Anastasia's help to return from the book he was reading, which was titled "Balleroy Temeglyph", containing the memories of a former general of the Vollachia Empire.

Hearing this, Subaru read the book to see if he could see the memories himself, but to his surprise nothing happened. At first, Julius was reluctant to share information about the man, nonetheless he changed his mind following Subaru's words, apologizing for his earlier behaviour. He then revealed that the man was currently dead, as he had killed him himself, and revealed that the man had been planning a coup while he, Reinhard, and Ferris were in Vollachia. Based on their experiences, Anastasia theorized that the books allowed people to see the past of people they personally knew, though it was limited to deceased people, pointing out to them that the Taygeta Library probably contained the books of every deceased person. Keeping that thought in mind, Subaru read Minerva's book next, nevertheless they still couldn't find a way to the next layer. They considered bringing in more people to help, but Anastasia was suspicious of Shaula based on her experience as a merchant, and when they questioned her, she guessed that Shaula had five secret rules when it came to protecting the tower. Coming to her own defense, she explained that she simply didn't mention anything about it since no one asked. Continuing on with her explanation, she revealed that she would kill them if they tried to leave the tower unless they reached the first layer's library, she would forbid them from violating the trial's rules, she would forbid them from disrespecting the libraries, she would forbid them from damaging the tower itself, and added that there wasn't a fifth one. Following their discussion, Emilia, based on the assumption that whoever made the tower was disobedient, suggested that the stairs to the second layer might be on the fourth or fifth layer, and true to her words, the group found the stairs in a newly created room on the fourth layer which was right next to the Green Room.

Before the group headed up the stairs, Subaru wondered if the stairs had been there in the first place, causing the others to recall that they had unconsciously avoided searching the room the stairs were in. Ascending the stairs soon after, the group arrived in a white room that looked exactly the same as the one on the layer below, making them question if they arrived at the correct layer. Fortunately, the room was different, as instead of a monolith, there was a sword stuck in center of the room. Subaru made his way to the center of the room, and upon grasping the sword, a voice told him that like a fool that arrived at the heavenly sword, he needed to obtain his forgiveness. As he looked to where the others were looking, he noticed that a man with long red hair had appeared, who kept on repeating what the voice said. Hearing a sound from behind him, he saw that Shaula seemed to be afraid of the person. However, after repeating the phrase a couple of times, the man suddenly started screaming, causing the frightened Shaula to latch onto Subaru. This made him accidentally let go of the sword, and she subsequently lost consciousness. Picking up the sword Subaru dropped, Julius confronted the man, who stopped screaming to survey his surroundings. Following a brief talk, the man noticed that they were in the white room, then told Julius to try and move him from his position if he wanted to get him to talk, later introducing himself as a simple "stick swinger".

Before their battle, Julius threw the trial's sword to the man for him to use, however he rejected his offer, kicking the sword back past the knight. The fight began with Julius' attack, though the man effortlessly stopped it with a pair of chopsticks, then kicked him away, following up by repeatedly attacking him with a chopstick in both hands. Seeing this, Anastasia tried to help by using Jiwald, but to her surprise the man easily cut through the magic with a chopstick. She tried increasing the amount of Jiwald she cast, causing him to drop down to the floor with Julius, then drag the knight along the ground by placing the tips on his solar plexus, all the while taunting her to aim properly. Eventually, Anastasia's body reached its limit, prompting Julius to try to force his way over to her. At first, the man was happy that Julius was taking it seriously, nonetheless he began mocking the knight when he began to disappoint him, labelling him as an ugly failure. Agitated by his words, Julius was unable to stop the man as he broke his sword in two and punched him, sending him flying over to where Anastasia was.

As he looked around to find his next opponent, Emilia activated Ice Brand Arts: Icicle Line, creating a barrier of ice particles around the man, and confronted him. She pointed out that he'd been running around despite mentioning to Julius to try and move him, to which he answered that he only said that as a part of the mood and wasn't serious about it. Regardless, she tried negotiating with him to keep his original promise, and, after thinking about it for a while, agreed to make it her win if she managed to move from his position. Using Icicle Line, she formed countless numbers of weapons around him, which she launched all at once, but he easily destroyed them with his chopsticks. Noticing that the barrage of weapons had no effect, she attacked him herself with a huge battleax, though like the ice weapons he easily dealt with her, deflecting her attack down onto the floor. Not giving up, she used the various weapons formed through Icicle Line to attack him again and again, nevertheless they also proved to be ineffective. She soon missed an attack, forcing her to take a step back as recoil, and the man took the opportunity to attack by stroking her breasts with his chopsticks from below. With him distracted by her breasts, she took the opportunity to smash her ice glove covered fists down on his head, making him flail around in pain. He quickly became angry with her, demanding to know why she didn't get embarrassed by having her breasts stroked, then directed that anger to Subaru, telling him to do his job properly as her attendant. Despite this, he admitted his defeat, but only to Emilia, as she was the only one so far that was able to move him.

As Subaru began despairing over the fact that there was no way the rest of the group could win, Beatrice pointed out that Emilia had said "our win", meaning that Emilia's win counted as the whole group's win. The man protested their reasoning, mentioning that he "woke up" since he didn't like being at the beck and call of the trial, leading Subaru to realize that the trial had changed because of him "waking up" to its current conditions. At that point, Meili suggested for them to retreat for the time being, and the man agreed, stating that he had gotten bored and would "close shop" for now.

Back on the fourth layer, the group discussed their situation with Ram. While they did so, the topic shifted to Julius and Anastasia, causing Beatrice to inform him that Anastasia's gate couldn't absorb mana just like Subaru's own, which meant that she needed to use od to use magic. He wondered why Echidna would risk Anastasia's life to save Julius but decided to forget about it to think about the trial. The group began to wonder who the long haired man was, as Ram had pointed out that there were only three others that were around Reinhard's level: Cecilus Segmunt of Vollachia, the "Crazed Prince" of Gusteko, and "Admirer" Halibel of Kararagi, though none of them looked like the man in question. Fortunately for them, Shaula soon woke up, and with Ram's help, they succeeded in getting her to reveal that the man was Reid Astrea, however she also mentioned that her master had informed her that Reid had died. Immediately, the group returned to the Green Room to come up with a strategy with Julius, nevertheless they were surprised when they saw that Julius' bed was empty. The knight himself had gone back to the second layer to challenge Reid for a second time, and upon hearing Julius name himself again, Reid told him that he couldn't even hope to be his playmate as long as he kept using his boring title.

Since his sword had been destroyed in their previous battle, Julius used the trial's sword. He attempted to fight like usual, nonetheless it proved to be of no use, and eventually Reid became tired of his antics, deciding to finish him off with a sword strike. As the attack hit him, he heard Subaru yelling his name, making him wonder if he still deserved to be referred to by his name. Noticing Subaru, Reid turned his attention to him, but became irritated when he was referred to by name as he thought it was cooler to not name himself. Keeping his gaze on him, Subaru rushed over to where Julius was and began carrying him down the stairs. As Julius regained consciousness partway through, they began discussing Reid, at which point Julius revealed that Reid fought Satella when he was older. Subaru recalled that Reid didn't recognize Shaula, making him wonder if the man above was from before he met her. Soon after, Julius forced himself off of Subaru's back, claiming that he could walk by himself. Nevertheless, Subaru, who thought of Julius' loss as the same as his own back in the castle, in addition to not wanting to leave him alone like what he'd been through, talked him into helping him down the stairs. The two were then found by Emilia a little over ten minutes later.

Taking him to the Green Room, Emilia ordered Julius to stay put and rest, and Subaru had Patrasche watch him in case he tried to escape, though the knight himself stated that he would obediently rest. Joining up with Ram who was outside, they headed to a room to discuss their options again with the others. They asked Shaula for Reid's weakness, though unfortunately their discussion didn't get anywhere. Seeing them desperately trying to think of a way to pass the trial, Shaula mentioned that it was fine if they took it slowly, as she would wait as long as she needed to, just like how she waited for hundreds of years for Flugel to come back. That night, Subaru awoke to discover that Anastasia was missing. While he looked for her, he spotted a bird flying through the tower, and upon following the trail of feathers it left behind, he found a section of the wall that was real from his waist up and an illusion below that.

Crawling through the fake part, he found himself on a balcony, discovering Anastasia there as well. The two began to talk, with Echidna asking who he was, as she had gotten suspicious at how Shaula seemed to know him, and revealed that Anastasia had him investigated following the ceremony after the Hakugei and Petelgeuse's defeat. He answered that his fast answer for the third floor trial was a coincidence, and the topic shifted to the balcony itself, which Echidna theorized was used by Shaula to monitor the desert. Lastly, the topic shifted to Anastasia, and Echidna revealed that she wished to find a way to give Anastasia her body back as fast as possible, as her Od was consumed at a faster rate as long as Echidna possessed her body. Subaru asked why Anastasia wanted to have her own country that badly, prompting Echidna to mention that Anastasia had a reason why she wouldn't give up, which was because she was desired to do so. At that point, Julius revealed himself, demanding to know the truth behind their words.

Echidna tried to pretend she was Anastasia, but when that didn't work, she decided to explain everything that had happened to Anastasia ever since the battle at Priestella. After they finished talking, they agreed to tell everyone else about it the next morning, and returned to the others. However, Subaru, feeling guilty for hiding the situation about Anastasia from Julius until now, didn't feel like returning to the Green Room, making him wonder what he was going to do. Encountering Ram in the hallway, he talked with her for a while, then thought up of a plan to get past Reid's trial, heading off on his own to put it into motion. The next morning, Subaru woke up in the Green Room, seemingly without any of his memories from the moment he came to the other world. Soon after, everyone found out that he had no memories of the world at all.

As the others talked discussed things with him, they noted that he used the term "isekai", wondering what it meant. He explained the term to them, expecting them to be shocked, but to his surprise they simply asked if that was some place past the great waterfall, and as they wouldn't get to a conclusion even if they continued to discuss the matter, they decided to head to the Taygeta library as originally planned. While there, Subaru noticed that he couldn't read the title of a book, causing Emilia to immediately grab it from him, telling him not be careless as the library could've been the cause of his amnesia. Echidna theorized that his memory loss was the reason why he started talking about "isekai" but it was shot down by Beatrice who revealed that Subaru learned the language when he came to Roswaal Manor. Leaving that aside, the members split into three groups: Emilia, Beatrice and Ram, Julius and Echidna, and Subaru, Meili, and Shaula who were waiting by the wall. Having nothing else to do, he talked with the two others with him, getting into a fetal position with his arms around his head after hearing Shaula words, as he didn't want them to know that he felt saved by the latter's words. Several minutes later, the others returned, reporting that they didn't find anything.

The group decided to return to the 2nd floor. Then, Echidna hypothesized that the tower had stolen Subaru's memories as it might have been part of the trial and hypothetically he may have broken one of its rules. After some back and forth among the group, Subaru continued this line of thought, and mentioned that his memories might return if they cleared the tower's trials. The team agreed to focus on the trials for now. The group made their way to the Reid trial while Subaru still felt useless. He started to think about why he had received no special powers on being summoned. He realised that he sounded ridiculous and snapped out of it, finding himself at the top of the spiral staircase. Immediately after, he felt a small push from behind. He fell down the middle of the tower, crying for his mom before dying from crashing into the floor.

He returned from death with his save point at the green room where Emilia and Beatrice had brought him, still with amnesia but with memories of the previous loop. Subaru reasoned that he was having precognitive dreams, and wondered why the old him never told anyone. Shaula pinned him to the wall and almost kissed him, saved only by Meili's intervention. He told everyone about being isekai'd again, but then later overheard that people think he'd gone crazy right as he resolved to tell them about his "dreams". In a fit of anger, he went off to sulk after he realized that no one would believe him. He wandered off to the stairs and was once again pushed off. His death was slow and painful as he crashed against stair after stair. Just before his death, he mused about how memories shaped people. He didn't see himself as the same Subaru as before, and he kept repeating "who are you" in his mind before he died again.

Subaru returned from his death and started to panic. He ran away from Emilia and Beatrice, in his delirious state thinking that Emilia had pushed him off the staircase in the prior loop. He then accidentally ran into Reid and was non-fatally stabbed by his chopsticks. He was kicked out of the room by Reid and almost fell down a staircase again. He started to think about his past, thinking about when he put a cup in the sink without washing it, burdening his mother. In his anguish, he saw a shadow and attempted to mention Return by Death to it, only to have Satella appear, grabbing his heart.

After he was released from his heart-grab, Subaru vacated his bowels and was found by the others where he was brought back to the green room. Making his mind up to escape, Subaru ran away from Emilia and the others and made his way down to the 5th floor where he encountered the giant door. He opened the door and left the tower, only to encounter a giant Earthworm. He was almost eaten by the Earthworm, however the Earthworm was blown apart by a white needle fired by Shaula. The result of the attack caused him to sink into the sand, only to find himself in the underground cave where he had been before with his group. He was out of supplies, and had no clue where to go until he smelt a pleasant aroma. Tracking down this scent lead him into a cave where he found a door that he was sure was meant for him. As he approached, four of the seven jewels of the door began to shine. He went through the door, where he teleported back into the tower. Now, he was no longer afraid nor did he want to run away; he just wanted to kill whoever killed him, giggling and laughing about it. He found the decapitated body of the Earth Dragon Gyan on the sixth floor of the tower, paying no heed to it, and instead taking a knife out of the group's supply bag.

Subaru is repeating "kill kill kill" to himself, while planning on killing everyone. Even thinking about how easy it'd be to kill the children. Then he finds Shaula a bit sliced up with her head smashed in. Echidna's dead too. Ram's got a hole in her, seemingly from Shaula's attack. Julius is sliced up, seemingly defending Meili. Meili bled out from her wounds. Everyone is dead. Subaru was relieved the first time he saw one dead, because it meant one less for him to kill, but his enthusiasm left him. He notes that he hasn't seen Betty or Emilia's corpses anywhere. Betty wouldn't leave a body, as a spirit and all, and what happened to Emilia may be answered later. Subaru shanks Patrasche, but Patrasche doesn't mind. In fact, she grabs him and frantically starts running out as shadows start swallowing up the tower. Dragging him outside as the whole thing gets gobbled up by darkness. As he's outside, watching the tower sink into shadows and shit, after Patrasche saved him and got swallowed, he sees something. Not a shadow, lizard, or bird. He asks who it is, and it replies, in a voice he doesn't recognize, "Next, try guessing, Hero". Then his head goes flying off, he wakes up, and he rushes over to his earth dragon to hug her.

After Subaru is done hugging Patrasche, he decides to change tactics and decides to not tell anyone about his amnesia, and to his surprise, nobody noticed anything odd about him. After recalling he heard a voice in his previous loop, he tests Emilia's physical strength if she's actually strong enough, and she is. He later decides to turn to Shaula for backup and asks Julius what happened last night because he seems to be the most suspicious. They go somewhere private, and Julius explains the situation about Echidna and Anastasia. Afterward, Shaula shows up and wants to be rewarded with a hug for being helpful and guarding him. Subaru eventually hug her for a short amount of time, so she didn't feel like just being used, and gets horny. He returns to the Green Room where Patrasche is to think clearly, but Meili catches up and joins him. She asks him how seriously she should take what they talked about last night and suddenly, Subaru loses consciousness. When he comes to, he notices horrible scratch marks on his arms, which are assumed by him to be from claws or strong nails of the killer. He noticed Meili, only to have her collapse to the ground and die right in front of him. Subaru starts assuming that he's currently alone with the killer alive. Subaru deduces that he strangled Meili to death, and that the scratches on his arms are from her. But he notices he has blood on his own nails, while Meili is unscratched. He checks the arm that was causing him some pain, and finds words engraved there. "Natsuki Subaru was here". He realizes that it's his own handwriting and now thinks that "Natsuki Subaru" is taking control whenever he blacks out.

Subaru hides Meili's body, leaves and bumps into Emilia. He has trouble shaking her off, and she expresses her concern for him because she noticed something was up. Subaru realizes that she's a good person, and all the people there are good to him, and that he and "Natsuki Subaru" are the only ones who aren't. Emilia hugs him for a bit, and Subaru feels he wants to tell her about what's been going on. Ram interrupts with an urgent matter. Beatrice's been using her library experience to search the Library. She points them to a book after they arrive, one Subaru knows must be a book of the dead. He can't read the titles, though. Luckily, Emilia can and reveals that it's a book with the title "Meili Portroute".

After a lot of discussion between them, they eventually decide that Subaru should read her book. The book starts off with describing Meili's background, how she had been raised as a feral child. It then proceeds to talk about how Elsa had found her, and taken her to "Mother". "Mother" teaches her how to walk and talk, and raises her in a manner where she expects Meili to live only to love her and to grow up eviler than evil itself. During this time, Meili seemed to have formed some bond with Elsa, doing things such as imitating her speech. The scene then cuts to the Forbidden Library, where Meili had been searching for Elsa's book, as she still didn't understand concepts like grief or the value of one's life. Subaru ends up meeting her there, and she freaks out thinking that Subaru had caught onto her intentions. However, Subaru had been also looking for a book, and he goes off to find it. A little while after he returns and starts to act a bit strangely, such as accusing of Meili being a suck up with no individuality. The scene then cuts to the murder scene. Meili utters something which was a taboo, and "Natsuki Subaru" takes over and the scene where he strangles her plays out, concluding with him saying that next time he hopes her performance will be more daring.

Subaru is jerked out of the book. He feels quite confused about who he is, speaking using the same pronouns Meili did. With the help of the group, he snaps out of the worst of it. However, his mind has practically become fused with Meili's, with Subaru sometimes thinking as if he was Meili. The group try to find out what Subaru had learnt from the book, but they can't get anything out of him. Ram suggests that someone should read the book, Julius volunteering, but he was successfully convinced not to due to his current mental state. They decide to try and find where Meili had died, as they conclude that she couldn't have left the tower because according to Shaula she would have turned into a "killing machine" if that had happened. Everyone except Shaula and Beatrice leave, resulting in Shaula having a conversation with Subaru where she declares that she'd even go to the moon and knock it down for him and saying she'd do anything he'd desire. After this strange conversation, Subaru tells her to join Emilia and the other's search party, which she does after tossing him back the book. He is left alone with Beatrice, wondering why everyone loves "Natsuki Subaru", looking down at the book and starting to realize that the answer to doing so had been right there in front of him.

Subaru starts to contemplate about how it's impossible to know anyone, but realizes that he can do it through the book. He wonders if Beatrice's book would appear if he were to snap her neck. Meili's thoughts jump in saying: "It seems like it, doesn't it?" Meili's voice in his head wants him to kill Beatrice to test this out. Subaru thinks it is the rational thing to do, thinking it'd be easy to strangle everyone, though he muses that Julius would be more challenging to strangle. Beatrice realizes that Subaru is in a bad shape, and tells him she is going to bring him to the Green Room. Subaru is eager to see Patrasche again, as he regards her as his only true companion remembering how she had saved him in the prior loop. However, Meili's voice jumps in again saying that he's not the real "Natsuki Subaru" and wonders if Patrasche would really save him if she knew. In the midst of his confusion, Beatrice heals the scratches on his arms, with Beatrice mentioning something quite peculiar in saying that Subaru has a habit of scratching into his arms, even suggesting that she kept it hidden from Emilia. Meili's voice in his head is still trying to persuade him to kill her. However, Subaru decides not to until he formulates an actual plan. Subaru starts to mutter to himself how "Murder becomes a habit", quoting the fictional detective "Hercule Poirot", in that he continues to consider it as an option to solve all his problems.

Subaru considers his plan to kill everyone, contemplating on killing Rem first due to how easy it would be, but ultimately decides against it, deciding to start with the stronger individuals first. Everyone else returns from their search party, revealing that they hadn't found Meili's corpse. They discuss what to do, with Echidna saying they should drop the search and try to clear the tower as soon as possible. She doesn't want to stay within Anastasia's body too long due to the effects it has on depleting her Od. They bicker over it for a bit, with Subaru interjecting at the end saying that Meili would want them to carry on. Everyone goes to sleep, but Subaru has plans to find Meili's corpse and properly dispose of it before it rots. Subaru manages to shake off Beatrice from him, and contemplates killing Rem again. He decides now is not the time and goes back to the room where he hid Meili's body. To his surprise, it's gone.

Suddenly stepping into the room, Ram appears and asks him what he was looking for, and calls him a fake. She then goes on to call him a defective version of Barusu, a sorry excuse of Natsuki Subaru, addressing him by his full name. Ram tells him he had been watching him using Patrasche. Meili's voice from inside his head tells him to kill her, telling him how to go about it. But before he can strike, he is imprisoned in a cage of ice by Emilia, whom Ram had brought along. Ram and Emilia discuss what to do with him, Ram even bringing up torture with Emilia being against that. Ram posits Capella could be behind it, and Meili from within Subaru's head freaks out recalling how she used to turn her into frogs. Ram reveals she doesn't know where Meili's body is, and Subaru interrupts their conversation by shouting out that he had amnesia. This causes Ram to anger, taking out her wand and scream out "How about Rem?", she attacks him with her wand, and Subaru blacks out.

When he comes to, he wakes up inside the same room, his shoulder dislocated and the ice cage intact. Emilia and Ram are nowhere to be seen. Around him, on the walls is written "Natsuki Subaru was here" all over them. And then, Subaru hears a familiar voice, the one of Reid's who walks into the room asking what the hell was going on in here. Reid fixes Subaru's dislocated shoulder, and proceeds to talk to Subaru, telling him that he needs to deal with his own problems. The tower starts to shake, and they proceed to go down the stairs, finding that the lower floor was filled with a bunch of rampaging Gabaou. Julius was there alone fighting them, to which Subaru contemplates for a moment that it could be a chance for him to see his book of the dead. Reid jumps down the stairs after telling Subaru about his views on being strong or weak and proceeds to fight the Gabaou off with his chopsticks. After doing that he proceeds to challenge Julius again to fight him.

Reid and Julius fight each other whilst fending off the Gabaou, despite Julius not wanting to. Subaru notices a Gabaou right behind Julius, and for a split second considers letting it kill Julius to get his book. Instead, he shouts at a warning to him. Avoiding being killed by the Gabaou, Julius shouts at Subaru to go to where Echidna is.

He finds Echidna with Beatrice, the former doubting him and wondering how he escaped the cage. The latter trusting him, saying that she can feel her contract with him when she touches Subaru. They question him and he admits that he has lost his memories. He breaks down into tears, and begs to be sent home. Echidna ignores this and starts to go down to where Julius is.

However, suddenly, they find themselves face to face with a giant, black scorpion, which swings its tail. A blast of light shoots through four floors of the tower. The scorpion proceeds to attack them shooting its magic stinger, Subaru pulls Echidna to safety as Betty erects a magic shield to stop its attack. They manage to temporarily drive the giant scorpion off. However, Subaru spots its tail nearby to them, completely severed off, thinking that one of Beatrice's or Echidna's attacks must have damaged it. Whilst he thinks that the cut looks too clean for it to be down to that, the tail starts to move on its own accord. It explodes, Beatrice dies protecting Subaru and Echidna is caught up in the blast, her legs blown off. In agony, and dying, Echidna begs Subaru to put her out of her misery. Subaru, however, can't bring himself to do it. Echidna, realizing what had happened, apologizes to Subaru for suspecting him and passes away.

After falling to despair, Subaru hears a voice inside his head repeating "I love you, I love you, I love you". The tower seems to be fading into the darkness, swallowed up by it. A voice rings out, like one of a chiming silver bell, cutting into his thoughts, seemingly denying the end of this world. As the shadows tried to take him, Emilia appeared and pulled him out, fighting off the shadows as she did so. They then discussed the fate of the others, all the while Subaru blaming himself for everything, prompting Emilia to tell him what had occurred ever since he came to the world. She then introduced herself as Emilia, hoping for him to say his own name, but he hesitated as he still doubted himself, nevertheless he eventually did. As the darkness swallowed everything, he resolved to remember even if she didn't, vowing to start the battle to kill the current Natsuki Subaru and bring back the real him.

After hearing a final "I love you", Subaru awoke in the Green Room with Emilia and Beatrice next to him. Overcome by the fact that Beatrice was alive again, he hugged her, causing her to become embarrassed. Later on during breakfast, Subaru revealed his memory loss to everyone, causing mixed reactions; Meili inquired if he remembered what happened yesterday, which he told her he didn't. A short while later, he talked privately with Ram, who refused to accept that he had lost his memories and forgotten Rem, promising her that he'd do whatever it took to recover his memories and save Rem, telling her that she could do whatever she wanted with him if he gave up. Ram began describing Subaru as Emilia did, albeit much more critical, yet her voice mellowed when she mentioned that he had taken good care of Rem, making him promise to remember Rem even if he died.

Following his conversation with Ram, Subaru made his way to the spiral staircase, where he dodged Meili's attempt to kill him. She denied his accusation, but to her surprise he told her that he wouldn't try to punish her and that they would go back to how things were before, confusing her and making her mistrust him. He reveals that he knows her motive, mentioning Elsa, and asked her if Elsa really wanted revenge, to which she responded that she didn't, but still couldn't trust him. Nevertheless, Meili agreed to his request when Emilia revealed herself, and he patted her head while Emilia hugged her from behind. When she mentioned that she didn't want to forget about Elsa, he stated that she didn't have to, but asked her not to copy what Elsa did.

Soon after, Beatrice and Shaula came walking up the stairs, with Subaru revealing that he had them wait there in case his plan went wrong. Meili hoped they keep her assassination attempt a secret but was disappointed when she was informed that everyone knew. The group met up again and discussed matters, eventually agreeing to continue with what they've been doing, and Subaru suggested looking through the Taygeta library. This caused the group to discuss whether Reid was actually dead or not, though they concluded that he was and that his existence was tied to the tower after considering his personality and the facts they had. As the group headed to the library, Subaru stayed behind to talk with Julius in an attempt to rally his spirits. Julius had mixed feelings about it, asking him why Subaru believed in him so much, to which Subaru told him that it was based on his impression, and the fact that to him Julius hadn't lost because he didn't have the memory of him losing. Julius agreed to his request and the two followed after the others to the library.

After arriving at the library, Emilia announced that Reid's book of the dead had been found by Meili. Before diving into it, the group discuss whether it's safe for Subaru to read the book, as it could cause him to lose his memories again. However, Subaru brushed that aside by specifying that from the group in the tower doing this should be his responsibility.

Having decided between them that Subaru would read Reid's book, Subaru opened the book and was transported into a world of endless white. A world which was completely different to what he had experienced back when he had read Meili's book of the dead. He's suddenly greeted by a voice which rhetorically asked him if he'd come again. The voice belonged to a girl with extremely long blonde hair, which was so long that it spread down to the floor below. She had blue eyes, and was dressed in rags. She looked to be about thirteen years of age. After Subaru shook off some of his confusion, the girl replied to him asking where they were, stating that he was in the cradle of Od Lagna, the Corridor of Memories Following that, the girl introduced herself as one of the Sin Archbishops that represented Gluttony in the Witch Cult, Rui Arneb.

At the cradle of the Od Lagna, Subaru queried Rui about what the Witch Cult was, what Sin Archbishops were, and who Rui was. Rui answered his questions, giving him information such as that she believed that Witches and Sin Archbishops were different only in name. Finally, Subaru asked Rui about what the cradle of the Od Lagna was to which she responded that it was the place in which souls get filtered. She mentioned that souls get cleaned of their stains, until they return back to their original, clean state to be then recycled. She also added that the Od Lagna was a mechanism to keep the world from being destroyed, and that in judgement it was fair and disregarded what an individual was in their life, whether it be Witch or Sword Saint.

Finally, Subaru asked Rui if she was the one who had stolen his memories, and Rui confirmed it. She confirmed that Subaru had arrived at the Corridor of Memories previously, though she mentioned that the way he had arrived was slightly different than now. She showed that she was aware that Subaru had the Return by Death ability, and that she indeed had possession of Subaru's memories from the time that he had been summoned to this world. After finding out that Subaru was on his fifth loop, she grew excited and straddled Subaru. After he managed to get her off him, Subaru threatened to strangle her. Rui told him that she knew that Subaru didn't have it in him to do it. She continued to tell Subaru that further to that, that if he killed her and got his memories back it would be akin to suicide and he'd be losing who he is right now.

She ended this tirade by giving a scathing analysis of how he used to see the people closest to him, before giving him a choice whether to strangle her and reclaim back his old self by killing her, or to continue as he was now. As Subaru agonised over this decision, with his hands around Rui's neck, his form slowly started to crack. Egged on by Rui, Subaru emotionally declared that he didn't want to lose himself, and that he wanted to remain himself.

Suddenly, from a distance, Subaru saw the figure of someone else gazing down at Subaru and Rui. Subaru cried out to it, exclaiming that he didn't want to disappear, that he didn't want to die, that he wanted to stay with everyone as he loved everyone. In his emotional haze, Subaru thought it was a form of his old self, and he continued to cry out to it, renouncing himself as them. To his surprise, Subaru was interrupted by Rui who asked him who he was talking to. The figure couldn't be seen by Rui.

Subaru did not reply back to Rui, instead he shook his head and the figure grew clearer. It asked him why he must choose only one of those options that Rui had given him. A blue haired girl stood in front of him, smiling. The girl, Rem, firmly told Subaru to stand up. She firmly told Subaru to stand up a multitude of times. She told Subaru that he could save everyone because he was her hero.

As soon as he heard those words, something black deep in his chest responded to those words. The stagnant blackness glowed and transformed, seemingly purified by the words of that girl. The very core of it pulsed, and Subaru's Greed blossomed to give him the strength needed so he could fulfil his desires to save everyone. It sprouted as Cor Leonis.

With a newfound resolve, Subaru confronted Rui once again. He refused to go along with anything else she said, rejecting her mind games. Rui angered, revealing that her intentions had been so to strip the old Natsuki Subaru from the current one because she couldn't eat the same person twice. She realised that Subaru had turned against her wishes, and she broke down saying that only Subaru could sate her hunger. Subaru asked her why she was doing this, and Rui replied it was so that she could be happy. She further complained that life wasn't fair, that people could not choose where they were born, or control their future. She then posed this rhetoric in reverse to Subaru, telling him that surely anyone would choose a better life if they could choose these things. She confessed that they, the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony, kept searching for memories and names to eat so to find the best life. Finally, she told Subaru that he was her destiny. That was because he was the only one who had memories of death; she wanted to keep experiencing that over and over again.

After hearing Rui's rant, Subaru told her to go and die the most painful death imaginable, and looked for a way out. As he did so, Rui spoke out saying that Lye Batenkaitos and Roy Alphard were on their way to the tower, as she was unable to leave the Corridor of Memories. With this threat in mind, Subaru finally found an exit with a renewed sense of purpose, and left the Corridor of Memories, leaving Rui behind.

After he returned from the Corridor of Memories, Subaru jerked back into consciousness where he had sat down to read the book. Beatrice, Echidna and Meili were with him. Subaru is informed that the others who had been with him prior to opening the book had gone to investigate something that was approaching the tower. Subaru quickly gave the trio an explanation to where he had been, and whom he had encountered. After having heard his explanation, Beatrice posited that the reason why Reid's book led to the Corridor of Memories may have been because his book's contents were being used to produce the Reid Astrea that controlled the trial on Electra.

Whilst the group pondered about what had occurred, Julius interrupted them with a report that unexpected things had cropped up. The tower had been subject to tremors, and he reported that a swarm of Demon Beasts was converging on the tower, and that though Shaula was fighting back against them, it was only a matter of time before they would breakthrough. After they brought Julius up to speed, the group discussed how Gluttony had been able to reach the tower so quickly. Their hypothesis was that they took Flying Dragons to fly over to the tower.

After being briefed on the situation, the group walked over to where Shaula was positioned at the fourth floor balcony. A multitude of something that looked like gunports had been created by Shaula on the far side of the balcony, aiming down at the Demon Beasts. The ports shot out her "Infinitied Hellsnipe" ability, raining down white flashes of light at the Demon Beasts. Subaru tasked Meili with helping Shaula hold the Witch Beasts at bay.

After he gave Meili her task, Subaru started to reflect on the five issues that were occurring at the tower that he had to solve. First, the swarm of Witch Beasts that were enveloping the sand dunes. Second, the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony that launched the attack on the tower. Third, the huge scorpion that would wander around the tower. Fourth, the black shadows that would engulf both the tower, and the sand dunes. Fifth, Reid Astrea who would be allowed to wander around the tower.

As Subaru and the others tried to come up with a plan on how to deal with the situation, he was interrupted by Ram coming from the passageway that led to the Green Room. Patrasche was carrying her and her still sleeping sister, Rem. After some discussion, Subaru learnt that Ram and the others had been assailed by a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Ram went on and said that they had moved away from the scene, and had left an unknown silver-haired stranger to fend off the Sin Archbishop.

Subaru quickly came to a realisation that the unknown silver-haired stranger was Emilia, who had had her name eaten. Before rushing over to Emilia's location, Julius asked Echidna to stay with Ram, Patrasche and Rem, and to not get involved in the battle. Echidna begrudgingly complied, and Subaru, Julius and Beatrice rushed to where Emilia was fighting the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.

The trio arrived to see Emilia using her Ice Brand Arts magic to fight the Sin Archbishop, who has the appearance of a young boy, dressed in rags. Julius and Emilia fought the Sin Archbishop together and pushed him back. However, the Sin Archbishop was able to use Emilia's own magic, Ice Brand Arts, against her. He started to pull a weapon of ice from the floor, the fictional sword Excalibur that he had learnt from Subaru's memories. After the Sin Archbishop proudly proclaimed that "Knowledge is power", he landed a kick on both Emilia and Julius, knocking them both back.

After the Sin Archbishop acclaimed that he was the greatest, the voice of Reid Astrea interrupted the scene declaring that words like the greatest were reserved only for him. The Sin Archbishop was surprised to see Reid there, as he had thought he wasn't able to leave the second floor. Pleased with this development, and relishing a feast, the Sin Archbishop finally introduced himself as Lye Batenkaitos. To which, Reid replied that he was the swordsman, Hauroy Rallior. Reid easily took care of Lye, by kicking him into a wall, incapacitating him for now.

After this, Julius once again challenged Reid with Emilia giving him aid with her ice magic. After some fighting, Lye once again got up and joined the fight again. Subaru, who hadn't been able to do much to help out in the fight, suddenly felt a great heat surging from his heart. His heart was in pain, and it was beating at an alarmingly high rate. He shut his eyes, and breathed slowly to try to control his heartbeats. When he shut his eyes, Subaru could see two lights in front of him, one beside him, four behind him, one that was far away and one that was approaching directly above.

Having realised what was about to happen, Subaru immediately jumped to the side, taking Beatrice with him, as he avoided the attack from the giant scorpion. Before he could do much else, a gigantic shock was heard impacting the tower. The whole tower collapsed on top of everyone who was fighting inside, killing them all.

Having returned from death, Subaru found himself back at the library at the point after he had came back from Reid's book. He quickly explained the situation again to Beatrice, Meili and Echidna. He quickly entrusted Meili to adjoin with Shaula, in holding back the Demon Beasts. And when Julius joined them in the library, Subaru quickly caught him up to speed with the situation and entrusted him to keep Reid busy on the second floor.

After he gave these instructions, Subaru closed his eyes, letting his heart-rate increase. He saw a faint glimmer of light which represented Emilia's whereabouts. He, along with Beatrice and Echidna rushed to the scene where Emilia was holding off Lye. On the way there, he encountered Ram, Patrasche and Rem again. This time, he had arrived earlier, and Emilia's name hadn't been eaten yet. Subaru quickly assigned Echidna to take Patrasche and the still-sleeping Rem to the safety of the Taygeta library. He then assigned Ram, along with Beatrice to assist him in helping Emilia in her fight.

The trio made their way to where Emilia was, still using her ice magic to fight Lye. On seeing Subaru and the others approaching, Lye turned towards Ram and started to provoke her by impersonating Rem. After he angered Ram, he turned to Subaru and continued to speak as if impersonating Rem. And, just as he told Subaru, "Let’s repeat those emotions from back then once again! Let us start from here, onii-san! From square one, no…… from ze", Emilia hit him in the back of the head with an ice hammer, knocking him cold.

Just as they were about to celebrate their victory, Lye suddenly spoke. He had snapped back to consciousness, and got up. His body transformed into that of a large man, covered in muscle. From within Lye's transformed body, Rui declared that she had used Solar Eclipse as a trump card, and that they would take care of things whilst their sibling slept.

Emilia and Ram continued to fight Rui, who had taken over Lye's body. Rui transformed into various people that Gluttony had eaten, using their respective abilities. She first transformed into Neiji Rockheart, then to Dorkell the Leaper, then to Beli Hainelga and finally back to Neiji, all the while fighting against Emilia and Ram.

Subaru grabbed his chest, and reflected on the status of what everyone was doing around the tower, seeing them as faint dots of light when he closed his eyes. He finally realised that he could use his power to sense his comrades around him, and named his ability Cor Leonis.

Though besieged by a splitting headache during its use, Subaru used the power of Cor Leonis to take away the tiring Ram's weakness so to give her a better fighting chance in the battle against Rui. As Emilia and Ram continued to fight Rui, Subaru felt one of the lights drawing nearer, on the same floor as he was on. He hastily warned Beatrice, who cast her Minya spell at the opponent, who had been aiming right at Emilia's back. From the darkness, the giant scorpion had returned, and this time Subaru called out to it, asking whether it was Shaula. As if a confirmation to that, the scorpion clicked its pincers above its head.

Subaru paused briefly to reflect back on Shaula who'd turned out to be the scorpion that had been attacking them all along. He felt betrayed by her, and at the end of his wits by this revelation. He was jerked out of his thoughts by Beatrice, and the fight continued when Shaula launched an attack at him. Emilia took over from Beatrice in fighting back against Shaula, and Ram continued to fight against Rui backed by Subaru using his Cor Leonis authority. Eventually Ram was able to pin Rui against a wall, and tried to finish her off, only to be thwarted by Lye taking back over, untransforming himself from Neiji's form to avoid Ram's killing blow.

Straight after his transformation, Lye kicked Ram off her, stabbing her in the abdomen in the process. Subaru managed to use his Cor Leonis to bear the brunt of her injuries, though Ram continued to bleed from her wound. Ram instructed Beatrice, and then Emilia to take Subaru away from here, to which Emilia rushed over and hoisted Subaru up to her shoulders. The four of them ran away as Shaula was left to fight against Lye. Eventually, the four of them came upon Julius being launched across one of the aisleways in their retreat. Reid soon appeared after him. Julius quickly told them that he had a piece of good news and bad news to tell them. The good news was that they didn't need to worry about Gluttony, but the bad news was that the one before them, Reid Astrea, was Roy Alphard.

After this shocking revelation, Subaru came to the conclusion that Roy Alphard had taken Reid's form in a similar manner as Rui had shown. However, Reid told them they were misunderstanding. Julius corrected his words and told them that though Roy ate Reid's memories it was Reid's own spirit that took control allowing him now to descend from the second floor. Julius also mentioned that Roy wasn't able to eat Reid's name because he was already dead.

When Reid wouldn't move aside from the aisleway, Emilia and the others began to fight him again. Ram, boosted by Cor Leonis, and Emilia landed a blow on him which at first seemed devastating to them, but didn't actually cause any damage to Reid. He used this time to cut Subaru's Cor Leonis. After Subaru realised what had happened Shaula showed up still in her scorpion form having taken care of Lye. To make matters worse, Satella appeared as well shortly afterwards causing Reid to duel with them. Realising he'd failed, Subaru braced himself for death, wishing that the now unconscious Ram would stay alive a second longer than him. Following that, Reid killed Subaru with a torrent of light.

Returning from Death, Subaru made his way to the balcony where he found Shaula and asked her: "Would you die if I told you to do so?" To which Shaula replied she would. Subaru pressed on with his questioning, and asked her if she could transform into a large scorpion. She also replied she could, and mentioned its design was given to her by her master and mother. Subaru continued with his interrogation of her and then asked her to tell him the rules of the Pleiades Watchtower, and Shaula recounted the four rules she'd given to them the day before. However, predicting a fifth rule, Subaru pressed her to reveal what it was. When Shaula tried to evade answering him, Subaru continued to press her until she cracked and revealed that she'd hidden the fifth rule because she'd been cooped up in the tower for 400 years and wanted to enjoy more time with him.

Soon after, a rule of the tower was broken by someone, and she started her transformation process. During it she begged Subaru to order her to kill herself before it was too late; Subaru refused and pressed her to tell him the fifth rule. Eventually, she caved in when Subaru said he'd give her the order to kill herself, and she revealed that the fifth rule was that it wasn't forbidden to destroy the Trials. With this information in mind, Subaru turned back on his promise and jumped off the balcony just as Shaula transformed. He hit the ground and died saying he would definitely save her.

Returning from Death, Subaru told Julius and Beatrice about how Reid and Gluttony would come into contact with each other. They hastened up to Electra and found Reid manhandling Roy Alphard, eventually rendering him unconscious. After Julius expressed his disapproval at Reid tormenting him, Reid woke Roy up and challenged him to eat him. Roy took him up to the challenge and used his Authority to eat him; Reid's form vanished and a few moments later a change occurred in Roy himself. His body changed into Reid's as the latter's personality took over and Reid was reborn.

The newly reborn Reid looked at Subaru and said he was disgusting. However, Julius interceded and announced that he was his opponent. A fight broke out between them, and Reid quickly made short work of Julius. Beatrice countered by firing off Ul Shamak, producing a vast black hole in the room but Reid easily dealt with it with his chopsticks. Immediately after, Reid continued his attack and cut Subaru down, wounding him fatally. Just before he died, Subaru renewed his determination and announced that this was "Count One".

Subaru died once again and returned by death to the library. By trial and experimentation, Subaru tried various solutions to beating the five obstacles that stood against him in the tower. However, he was unsuccessful in each attempt and died a further 14 times, bringing him to "Count Fifteen". With each passing Count, his emotional state deteriorated and he started to lose sight of his ■.

When he returned from death a fifteenth time after he declared that this was "Count One", Beatrice noticed the poor condition Subaru was in. Beatrice tried to calm him down and tell him that he wasn't a superman who was capable of doing everything, and she and the others told Subaru to stay here whilst they investigated what was occurring in the tower. After they left, Subaru started to brood about "Natsuki Subaru", refusing to believe what Beatrice had said. Subaru believed that something must have happened that changed him, and as his desperation grew, he implored for "Natsuki Subaru" to show himself. When nothing happened, Subaru turned his Cor Leonis ability back on in an attempt to help the others. However, after he confirmed the others' locations, he noticed a very faint response coming from within the library itself. He traced down the source of the signal and found a book of the dead with his own name written on it in Kanji.

After a long period of contemplating why the book existed, and what would happen were he to read it, Subaru decided to read the book. In the book, he vicariously experienced his first death at the hands of Elsa when he first came to the world. After his "death", Subaru found himself back at the Taygeta library in an agitated state at what he'd experienced. After he made sure he hadn't really had his belly cut, Subaru realised that the difference between the time he'd read Meili's book and now was that now there were no points which he could use to differentiate himself.

After Subaru understood that he saw his first ever death, he realised that the books didn't stop there, and thus grabbed the next one. Subaru read all of his books of the dead in his search to find the "something" which "Natsuki Subaru" had acquired that had given him special powers, reliving his traumatic experiences. He refused to believe that he'd been weak and powerless just as he was now.

As he was about to read the final book of the dead in the series, Subaru called out saying "You understand right, "Natsuki Subaru"...". When he entered the book, he arrived back at the Cradle of the Od Lagna and received a response from "Natsuki Subaru" saying he did understand because after all, he was himself.

Now face to face with "Natsuki Subaru", the two of them launched into a conversation with each other. "Natsuki Subaru" announced that Subaru had caught up to him and that there wasn't a single thing that he didn't know about him anymore. This angered Subaru and led him to ask whether "Natsuki Subaru" was Rui, the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. He launched into a tirade about how his Return by Death was nothing more than dying and redoing, questioning whether it was such an admirable power if its user was crap. However, at the end of his tirade, he confessed that he liked everyone. "Natsuki Subaru" took over for him and said that it was because he liked everyone that he couldn't stop. Eventually, Subaru asked once more if "Natsuki Subaru" was Rui, but he denied it. When Subaru then queried why he disappeared, "Natsuki Subaru" replied that he messed up there, that he went to read Reid's Book of the Dead and then ended up running into Gluttony here. After he heard this, Subaru mentioned out loud that he thought that "Natsuki Subaru" was a weak, frail irredeemable, huge idiot, but that he was an amazing guy.

After some further conversation with "Natsuki Subaru", Subaru asked him why he was here. "Natsuki Subaru" replied saying that it was because of the Book of the Dead giving them a point of contact. Whilst formulating that question to him once again, Subaru noticed how strange it was that Books of the Dead of himself existed, and considered whether the Od Lagna itself was fulfilling the role of the observer and recording all of his deaths. Ultimately both he and "Natsuki Subaru" realised that the most plausible ruler of the Corridor of Memories wasn't Rui, but Flugel himself. Finally, after some more back and forth, Subaru asked what would happen if they combined their memories together. The two of them discussed the potential outcomes that could occur from combining their memories together. This spurred Subaru to talk about the people he'd gotten to know after he'd lost his memories, ultimately convincing himself that combining their memories together would be fine. With that decided, they shook each other's hands and thus became one again. The perspective shifted to the complete "Natsuki Subaru", who had gained the memories of the amnesiac Subaru, including his 20 new deaths, and Rui Arneb now stood in his place.

Subaru immediately asked Rui Arneb, who had arrived here after reading his Books of the Dead, if she'd gotten to see what she wanted to see. Caught in her act, this caused Rui to reflect on her past. She was the youngest sibling of the Gluttony trio, and lived taking in the names and memories her brothers ate for her. Despite that, she was never happy, regardless of how many lives she received. At some point, she gained the ability to take over her brothers' bodies, enabling the Gluttony trio to use the Solar and Lunar Eclipse abilities. Despite Lye and Roy's misgivings and fear of Solar Eclipse, Rui delighted in that ability specifically, now setting out to find a perfect life to consume. One day, Natsuki Subaru came to the Corridor of Memories and she recognised him from one of the memories Lye had eaten, immediately gaining an interest in him due to the fact he remembered people they'd eaten. Rui ate Subaru's memories using her Authority of Gluttony, and though she succeeded, Subaru did not lose his memories. She was confused as to why this was the case, as she hadn't received any adverse reaction to eating them, and asked him if he was a Sin Archbishop, noting that Petelgeuse had mentioned that the Factors should have reached their destinations. Shortly afterwards, she realised that she wanted his "Return by Death", and because her own Authority was useless in regards to copying the ability, she decided that she'd literally become Natsuki Subaru. She split herself into two and had one of her selves enter Subaru as a Witch Factor and force his memories of everything up to that point into the Corridor of Memories. She decided that she would eat him again when the flavour of his soul had changed, which would allow her to use her Authority to make the Subaru that remained into a new individual that diverged from the original "Natsuki Subaru", which she believed could enable her to take his existence and become him.

Rui was brought out of her reflection by the now newly merged Subaru, who asked her if she got to see what she wanted to see. This caused Rui to scream, having been unable to endure the feelings of death when she was hitching a ride within Subaru. Unlike the amnesiac Subaru, who was able to deal with the numerous deaths he had stacked up, she couldn't bear it, as she believed that the human heart was unable to handle the feelings of death. Subaru promptly replied that he'd told her she'd definitely regret it. Following a brief pause where he reflected on his friends, Subaru called out to Rui and told her she'd lost. He asked her to release all the people she'd eaten, however she refused, mentioning that he never overlooked his enemies since he always crushed his enemies thoroughly. To this, after some introspection, Subaru replied saying he wouldn't save her, and that he didn't pity her. Rui reacted in anger and kicked Subaru out of the Corridor of Memories as Subaru vowed to cut away her last string of hope; her brothers.

In the Corridor of Memories, Rui quivered in fear when suddenly her other self appeared. Her other self asked how their plan to instill distrust into Subaru and make him into a different person from the original Natsuki Subaru had worked, but she quickly realised that something was wrong with her when the latter reacted strongly to her mentioning Subaru's name. This made the other Rui suspect that the Rui who had been hiding alongside Subaru as a Witch Factor had succeeded, causing her to accuse her opposite of wanting to hog Subaru's Authority all to herself. A battle broke out between the two of them; a fierce, meaningless battle that started and finished with no victors.

Meanwhile, Emilia, whose name had already been eaten, was locked in combat with Lye Batenkaitos. Subaru promptly arrived at the scene of battle and confirmed to Emilia that he was able to remember her when she mentioned that he might not be able to remember her, telling her that it'll be okay because his name was Natsuki Subaru, Emilia-tan's one and only knight. He says that the Subaru who lacked memories was still "Natsuki Subaru". After reuniting and sharing a hug, Subaru and Emilia squared off against Lye and managed to repel his attack. They tried to attack him again, with Emilia dropping a block of ice at the back of the aisle-way, but Lye had already disappeared from the point of impact. Subaru concluded that he wouldn't be able to leave the tower, and decided for the time being to get back with the others and reassign their roles in the situation.

Subaru activated Cor Leonis and he, along with Emilia, made their way over to where Beatrice was. With Beatrice were Ram, Patrasche and the comatose Rem on her back. Subaru quickly mentioned that he was back in full, confirmed that his memories were back and explained to them the situation with Emilia having lost her name. Having all been brought up to speed, Subaru affirmed his determination to completely disrupt the gluttonous feast that those three terrible siblings had started, with the bonds they had. The others all voiced their agreement at this. Subaru swiftly explained to them the problems they were facing in the tower, likening the situation to the game of Othello, with the four corners representing the two Gluttonies, the Demon Beasts they called and their so-to-speak comrade, Shaula. He warned them that Shaula would turn on them if one of the rules of the tower was broken. Soon after, Subaru pointed out that two of the corners were already being dealt with thanks to Beatrice's command initiative. Ram butted in and pointed out that she knew that Meili was holding back the swarm of Demon Beasts, but didn't know about the other one. Subaru replied that it was Julius, using his Cor Leonis to pinpoint his location to the second floor, in the middle of fighting Reid Astrea. With those situations already ongoing, Subaru began to divide the members to tasks for the upcoming battles.

A short while after assigning them to their roles, Subaru and Ram have a short conversation. She told Subaru that she wouldn't hold back, as he was going to use his Cor Leonis ability to take her burden. She told Subaru not to die because otherwise, he wouldn't be able to remember Rem before she took her leave, leaving Subaru with Emilia and Beatrice.

An unspecified time later, over at the fourth floor balcony, Shaula and Meili were trying to keep the Demon Beasts at bay, along with Echidna. However, it was at this moment that one of the tower rules were broken, and Shaula began to transform. As her transformation process began, Subaru leapt out onto the balcony; this caused Shaula to ask him to order her. However, Subaru refused, telling her that he wouldn't tell her to die, that he wouldn't let her keep crying, and that he wouldn't let her end her 400 years here. Shaula told Subaru she loved him and then she fully transformed. Beatrice used Murak on her, with Meili using a Hanemogura to push her away.

Having bought them a little bit of reprieve, Subaru called out to Meili and Echidna. Echidna realised he'd gotten his memories back by seeing the look of pride on Beatrice's face next to him. Subaru quickly brought her up to speed on things, including on who Emilia was, before then asking her to go up to the second floor with Emilia and join up with Julius who was fighting. He mentioned that he'd told Emilia what to do after that, whilst he and Beatrice would stay back with Meili to deal with Shaula in her scorpion form and the Demon Beasts. With Subaru relying on Emilia, who was his key for solving the situation in the tower, the two of Echidna and Emilia parted ways leaving Subaru and the others to fight their battle.

At the same time as Subaru, Beatrice and Meili continued their fight against Shaula and the Demon Beasts, Emilia and Echidna made their way to the second floor. Having learnt of Emilia's task, Echidna asked her what the basis was in being able to break the deadlock in the situation if she went up to the first floor of the tower. Emilia replied saying that Subaru had heard the fifth rule of the tower from Shaula, and that since it was something Subaru had come up with she was sure it was the right thing to do. The two of them finally arrived at Electra and found Julius locked in a fierce battle with Reid Astrea. Emilia butted into their fight, and after a brief exchange between the people present, Emilia tried to look for an opportunity to get past Reid and go up to the first floor. Reid spotted this and told her he didn't think he'd let her do as she liked. He tried to stop her, but was unable to because Emilia, although he had forgotten her, had already passed his trial. Emilia headed to the stairs that led up further into the floor and called out to Julius, giving him her name and vowing they'd see each other later. She rushed up the stairs leaving Julius to fight Reid with Echidna cheering him on.

As their duel raged on, Emilia ran up the stairs and made it to the first floor, which was up on the rooftop of the tower. There she was greeted by Volcanica who invited her to step through the first floor as the almighty petitioner who'd managed to reach the top of the tower. Volcanica further declared that he would ask the will of the one who'd reached the top in accordance with the ancient covenant all whilst looking down upon Emilia.

Meanwhile, Lye Batenkaitos, bemoaning that he couldn't properly use the name he'd eaten or get in contact with Roy or Rui, encountered Ram atop the spiral staircase. Looking down on Lye, Ram declared with cold eyes that she'd heard he was the one who'd tore apart her and Rem's sisterly love before telling him to "Die squealing like a pig".

*This article is not complete yet. We will complete it as soon as possible.*

## The Land of Wolves

### Chapter 1: Baptism

As soon as the smoke and dust settled, still-shellshocked Ram and Emilia frantically search the Green Room, trying to locate Subaru and Rem but to no avail. Upon realising that the duo vanished from the Pleiades Watchtower, Ram and Emilia regroup with Anastasia, Julius, Eridna, Meili and Beatrice, in order to discuss the events that had just took place. They note how the Shadows that attacked the tower moments prior were dispersed by the Divine Dragon and how without his help, all of them would definitely have died, as well as pointing out Subaru's disappearance. With a new goal set; saving Subaru and Rem, the squad starts to devise a plan to locate and save them. Anastasia remarks how they could've been dead, considering how they were swallowed by shadows, however, Beatrice calms everyone down by confirming Subaru is still alive as she can feel his state due to their contract. Ram quickly follows suit by explaining she can feel Rem being alive as well through her Synesthesia. After everyone calmed down, they started debating on what actually happened. Julius suggested the shadow most likely acted as a substitute for shadow magic to which Beatrice adds that it most likely was a form of Shamac and how it likely was the cause for Subaru and Rem's teleportation. With all that info at hand, Ram and Beatrice are able to give a rough location of the lost duo; the very South of the world, somewhere in The Empire of Vollachia. Julius then remarks what a terrifyingly bad situation that would be as the Empire and the Kingdom did sign a non-aggression pact, however, a couple of months ago, the Empire closed their borders with the Kingdom, not letting anyone trespass utill the end of the Royal Election. Just as it seemed like the situation couldn't get any worse, Ram informs the group that the third Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is with them.

The scene switches to the new location - now confirmed to be the neighboring Empire of Vollachia, where Subaru is still crying and hugging the just-woken Rem. But to Subaru's horror, Rem does not remember where she is or who Subaru is, even asking who he meant when he called a person called Rem. As Subaru is trying to calm her down and explain their situation, Rem lunges at him, tackling him to the ground and positioning herself on top of him. She starts choking him and demanding answers from the boy, who is unable to even speak due to the shock. Just as he's about to pass out, Rui Arneb lunges at Rem, successfully getting her off of Subaru and saving his life, to which Subaru doesn't react nicely, screaming at the Archbishop to leave Rem alone. He apologizes to the blue-haired girl and explains the basics to her, when it hits him that she's displaying the same symptoms as Crusch did, a bit over a year ago. Rem notes how her legs feel weak, adding how even if she wanted to, she couldn't escape on her own, so she reluctantly accepts Subaru's help. The boy gives her a piggyback ride and just as they're about to leave for the nearby forest, Rem asks him what he plans to do with the "innocent little girl". Subaru remarks that the girl is a very evil person so it's best for them to leave her alone and starts walking towards the forest. As soon as he makes the first step, however, Rem headlocks him and starts choking him. Both tumble to the ground, however, Rem only tightens her grip. Just as he was about to pass out, Rem mocks him for lying to her, despite having such a foul smell. Subaru immediately realises why Rem appeared so hostile; it was due to the Witch's Miasma. In the very next moment, Subaru loses his consciousness.

Upon waking up, Subaru firstly thinks that he had Returned by Death, however, due to the pain in his neck, he comes to a conclusion that he was simply knocked out for a couple of hours. He immediately jumps on his feet and starts searching for the two girls who're nowhere to be found. He notices a trail of flattened grass, indicating that something was dragged off into the woods. He decides to follow the trail and enters what appears to be a rain-forest. Traversing through thick flora, Subaru desperately searches for Rem when he suddenly notices movement with the corner of his eye. The moment he turned around, Subaru was shot by a large arrow, pinning him onto a large tree located behind him. Puking blood, he tried to understand what was happening but the only thing he could do was call Rem's name until the bitter end.

### Chapter 2: Animal Tracking

Subaru recalls back to one of his study sessions with Beatrice. She explains to Subaru how he's in a constat dangerous situation due to his gate shattering and not being able to absorb and disperse mana which could lead to mana poisoning, however, Subaru doesn't pay much attention and instead teases Beatrice, agitating her in the process. As a result, she flings him into a nearby wall. Beatrice then proceeds to explain what a gate is and why Subaru is in danger as he might "explode", which makes him panic in a typical Subaru fashion, however, Beatrice pays no mind to it and explains how as long as she's with him, she can regulate the flow of mana and prevent that from happening. After hearing that, Subaru proceeds to pick her up and spin around in cirlces, laughing while Beatrice's face turns bright red.

Subaru wakes up and quickly realises he had Returned by Death, as there are no wounds on his chest. After assessing the situation, he comes to a conclusion that the respawn point has been set after Rem strangles him, meaning she's long gone by the time he wakes up. He rethinks about his death, and even spawns the idea that Rem might be the one who shot him, however, he soon realises the outlandishness of it and abandons it as the arrow was masterfully well crafted, having feathers at the end and a nicely shaped and pointy tip; Rem would never be able to craft such a professional arrow in such little time. The next thing on his mind is the killer himself who he starts calling the "Hunter" and Subaru starts wondering if there's any chance to resolve the hostile situation with talking, however, he sees no leniency for negotiations from the Hunter's part. After calming himself down from the initial shock and making sure he didn't miss any important detail, Subaru once again sees the flattened grass, indicating Rem's supposed path she took. He tries using Cor Leonis to locate her but is unable to, though he doesn't know if it's because she's too far away or because she doesn't view him as an allie or a friend. Just as before, he promptly follows the traces left behind by her. This time, however, Subaru makes sure not to scream her name and attract the attention of the "Hunter" and continues traversing through the overgrown flora of the forest. He once again laments the situation and how his actions chased off Rem, before shifting his hatred towards Rui. He is unsure of what she will do now that she's alone with Rem, and reiterates he has to find them as soon as possible.

All of a sudden, Subaru finds himself in front of a new meadow. A cleared out camp is located nearby, and after some consideration, Subaru decides to try and retrieve a knife lying down next to a makeshift bed, in order to get at least a bare minimum sort of protection, in case he finds himself in a dire situation once more. As he ducks down to pick up said knife, a man appears behind him, pressing a beautifully polished blade to his throat. The man orders him to explain himself and from the tone and sound of his voice, Subaru deduces that the man must be roughly his age if not a bit older, as well as having a distinct way with words. The man then notes that Subaru doesn't seem to be from Buddheim as his skin tone is too light. As Subaru tries to complain, the man orders him to shut up or he'll decapitate him and notices Subaru's whip, remarking that it doesn't seem like he was following him as a whip isn't a weapon one would use in such a dense forest. Seeing Subaru silently staring at the ground, the man demands an answer from him. As soon as Subaru starts protesting about his unreasonabless, the blade pierces his skin, prompting Subaru to stiffen up as he's expexting his head to fly off. However, in the very next moment, the man orders him to slowly turn around, warning him that any sudden movements will cost him his life.

As he turns around, Subaru gets a general grasp of the man's appearance; he is slightly taller than him, of slender physique and long slender limbs, dressed in fine aristocratic clothes and has a piece of cloth wrapped around his face, making it impossible to discern any facial features save for a pair of black eyes. The pair continues their interaction back and forth with Subaru remarking that the man definitely isn't the Hunter that killed him in the previous loop, due to the absence of a bow, a crossbow or arrows. Subaru then proceeded to ask the man if he can teleport or become transparent to which, the man starts acquiring him on the nature and reason of the question. Subaru replies that as opposed to the so-called superhumands he regularly encounters on his journeys, the atmosphere the Masked Man is giving off, isn't that of a warrior. Although Subaru thinks that such a statement would be a death sentence if stated to someone of Reinhard's calibre, he has a strange feeling that the man won't get offended. In the very next second, the man in from of him disappears. After he reappers, he sheaths his sword and explains how by holding his breathe, he can render himself invisible and was, in fact, standing next to the bed he set up as a bait and watched Subaru sneak around the camp. Subaru then apologises for intruding into his camp and asks him if he had seen a blue haired girl wandering around, to which, the man replies that Subaru was the first person that has managed to wander into his camp. Feeling disappointed, Subaru turns around and starts walking back to the forest when the masked man stopps him, telling him he shouldn't go as he's risking his life, to which, Subaru states that Rem's survival is more important than his. This causes the man to offer sink into thought for a brief second and offer him some advice, which Subaru reluctantly acccepts.

Subaru gives the man a rough rundown of how he ended up in his camp and the Masked Man explained to Subaru how the tracks in the grass are fake and are meant to lead him into the wrong direction. When Subaru realises his mistake, he thanks the man and sprints back towards the forest but the man stops him and gives him the knife he tried to steal a bit eariler, pointing to his whip and once again explaining how useless it is in this forest. The two say their farewells but not before Subaru introduces himself and vowes to repay the favour some time in the future, to which the man shakes his hand, prompting Subaru to promise that he'll return the knife back to him. Before going, however, he gives the man a warning about the Hunter, saying he's better off avoiding the forest all together.

When Subaru returns back to the grasslands he, Rem and Rui were teleported to, he remarks how obviously fake the tracks are and easily locates a second pair of tracks, this time more similar to footprints. He point out how as causcious Rem will be, she's dragging Rui around who occasionally leaves tracks behind her, due to her state. With the dagger in hand, he swiftly navigates through the forest, cutting away leaves and branches that are in his way when suddenly, Subaru unknowingly triggers a trap created from tree branches. They slam into his left flank, sending him flying and for a couple of moments, Subaru is left paralyzed on the ground. After he regains his composure, he realises that he has just started the second battle with Rem, since his summoning to the new world.