5
Subaru’s merciless blow, literally the greatest blow he had ever mustered in his life, had been stopped cold without much fanfare.
Still biting the tip of the whip, Gluttony—the one who had presented himself as Roy Alphard—waved his hands in the air as if appealing to the audience. Faced with this foe, Subaru could feel his thoughts boiling.
This Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins was the key to awakening the still-sleeping Rem.
“Your luck’s run out!”
“You shall not escape! Prepare yourself!”
Standing at Subaru’s side as he shouted, Crusch unleashed her One Blow, One Hundred Felled skill at Alphard of Gluttony.
The raging blade of wind sliced through the still air of the rooftop, allowing the resulting violent gales to engulf the air in its wake. This scattered shock waves in all directions, and of course, the slicing attack bore down mercilessly upon Alphard—
“Ha-ha-ha, that’s really something! As a funny parlor trick, that is.”
“!!”
Alphard went low, dropping onto all fours to evade the invisible blade of wind. He proceeded to bend and fold his short limbs, licking his chops as he turned to fully face Crusch.
“From the feel of that move of yours, your flavor might be right up our alley!”
The instant after he spoke the words, Alphard shot up like a bullet, exhibiting enough explosive force to smash through the roof.
Unhinging his yawning jaws, the sight of his bare, sharp fangs made Subaru think of a feral, starving beast. But the level of danger that this boy posed was incomparable with any mere animal. This was one part of the nightmarish chaos that had befallen the city.
In contrast to Alphard, Crusch put her hips into her sword attacks, unleashing a thrust that was too fast to be followed by eye. Her target was the enemy’s face, aiming to mercilessly impale the brain behind it—
“Good form! But! Not enough polish!! As you are now, you’re barely gonna be an appetizer to us!”
As he howled, Roy Alphard rotated his arms disturbingly, as if he didn’t need to bother with his joints. Instantly, a fierce scratching sound tore through the blue sky, and Crusch’s arm was immediately thrown back.
This was thanks to the concealed weapons known as tiger claws, which Alphard had equipped on the fingertips of both hands.
“As if I’ll let you!”
A moment before Alphard could claw out Crusch’s beautiful face, Subaru wrapped his whip around her slender hips. “Eep!” cried Crusch as Subaru yanked her over to safety, pulling her right out of the range of the claws.
But dismayed at having his prey snatched from him, Alphard altered his route with a single bound—
“Good, nice, great, wonderful! Did you think you could escape?! If anything, we’ll get you and your pal over there, too! Drink!! Gorge!!”
Carrying Crusch, Subaru fell back, with Alphard drooling in hot pursuit. The chase made Subaru twist up his face.
“I didn’t think…my role is…”
“—To always play the decoy. Even now, you are incredibly effective!”
“Whaaa?!”
By wholeheartedly pursuing Subaru, who looked like an easy target, Alphard had left himself wide-open in turn—Julius, now in midair, had waited for that moment to pound his rainbow-sword blow home.
Instantly twisting his body, Alphard attempted to evade the glimmering sword flash. However, the brilliant arc of The Finest’s sword strike homed in on his foe and drew fresh blood from Gluttony, who rolled onto the floor.
“Gaaah! Now that’s a surprise! Er…”
“Then I shall provide you with further surprise. Blossom, my lovely flower buds!”
When Alphard slapped the floor and leaped to his feet, Julius pursued him with a merciless follow-up attack. The six greater spirits swirling above the knight’s head glimmered like a rainbow as they swept across the roof in a beautiful display.
“Don’t push yourself too much, spirit mage!!”
“Formally, I am a Spirit Knight. I have heard rumors that you are a gourmet, but will you grant my lovely buds a warm reception?”
“Oh, I’ll give ’em a real passionate welcome! I’ll rip ’em apart like the annoying pests they are!!”
As the approaching aurora seared his vision, Alphard brimmed with slavish appetite. To seal off his enemy’s avenues of escape, Julius pursued Gluttony with seemingly endless sword strikes from every angle.
Subaru would have liked to support him without a moment’s delay, but Alphard’s almost-feral movements, which had him darting all over the roof, prevented Julius from landing a clean hit. He had to do something with Gluttony—with Alphard right there—
“—Remember your objective, Moppet Mage!”
Just then, a voice’s shout reached the rooftop, calling out with a completely inappropriate moniker.
“ ”
In accordance with Al’s warning, Julius had concealed Subaru’s true name while communicating with just his yellow eyes whenever he could. As the knight continued with his rainbow swordplay, Subaru didn’t need him to spell everything out to understand his intent.
—Julius was saying to let him deal with Gluttony while Subaru went to stop the slaughter and broadcast.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, you sure about runnin’? Pal, you have a grudge against us, don’t ya? Destined foes always, like, taste the richest. The ultimate in deep delights? To eat, gnaw, eat, lick, nibble, eat, bite, tear, crush, gorge! Drink!! Let me do all that, okay?!”
Leaping around, Gluttony hurled insults, trying to draw hesitance out of Subaru.
In fact, Gluttony had. To Subaru, defeating Gluttony was the singular goal he had pursued for over a year. He’d dreamed of this day so many times that he’d stopped counting.
Defeating him would save a girl. Subaru would be able to see her again. He’d come this far believing that.
To just let that chance slip through his fingers—
“—Master Subaru.”
Subaru’s melancholy was shattered when Crusch looked up from his own arms and called out to him. From up close, he could see a powerful, powerful conviction and an ever-so-slight sway of regret.
—It was none other than Crusch who had as powerful a link to Gluttony as he.
To her—someone who had her memories stolen by Gluttony, someone who was forced to go forward groping through a world that was blank when it shouldn’t be—the foe before them was the key to getting her memories and her old self back. Even knowing that, she had chosen to fulfill her duty over helping herself.
They were badly lacking both time and the strength to soundly defeat their greatest enemy. Subaru and Crusch’s standpoints were the same. That was exactly why Subaru was the only one able to fully appreciate how noble her decision was.
He was hesitant. He was reluctant. He’d probably regret this. But—
—Sorry, Rem. Please wait just a little longer.
“—Damn it all! Fine, I get it! Hey, Juli! Don’t you dare lose on me!”
“That is my line. Make sure to fulfill your duty as the substitute knight of the Valkyrie!”
“Let us entrust this to Master ‘Juli’ and go, Master ‘Moppet Mage’!”
Scratching his head, Subaru set his rueful thoughts aside and took Crusch’s hand. Then relying upon the boundary lines generated by the aurora, they escaped Gluttony’s attack range.
Their destination was the door leading inside—or not. They would have to veer toward the rooftop’s bent railing. Vaulting it in one stride, Subaru supported Crusch as he took one last look at the battle unfolding behind them.
“—Go!!”
However, noticing his gaze, Julius wouldn’t permit him to waste time worrying about him until everything was settled.
Internally clicking his tongue at that annoying attitude, Subaru swore to complain to his face later. Then grabbing Crusch by her slender hips, he launched himself into the air once more—
“—Crusch, plan B!”
“Pl-please do not let go!”
Ferris’ll kill me if he hears about this, Subaru mused as he crouched, holding on to Crusch tightly and then leaping down from the roof of the city-hall building in one go.
Naturally, gravity pulled on them, and soon, they were plummeting headfirst toward the square. Halfway through the fall, the whip, which had been anchored to the railing above, reached its limit and brought them to a stop, leaving Subaru bearing the weight of two people on his shoulders.
“—Nghhh!”
Enduring the pain of his creaking bones with sheer willpower alone, Subaru and Crusch traced a large curve through the air as they swung toward the wall. Then with both feet extended toward the glass window in their path, Subaru slammed into it and broke right through.
“Raaaah!!”
“Eeeep!”
Glass fragments flew all over the place as Subaru and Crusch rolled into the room they’d aimed for.
Pushing hard on the floor with one hand, Subaru let up a second cry as he released Crusch from his grasp. Instantly settling down, the pair looked around, confirming that this place was indeed their objective.
This was the room on the topmost floor of city hall, in which the metia for broadcasts was placed.
The assault team had worked out beforehand that they would fly to the uppermost floor. Of the various methods Subaru had devised, he’d ended up using the most dramatic, but with the exception of what happened to his leg, the operation had mostly gone off without a hitch.
Subaru pictured Ferris’s indignant face in his mind as he glanced toward the back of the room, for the enormous presence of the device set into the wall stole his thoughts.
Even in this city, this was the most precious and important thing—
“—So this is the metia?”
It was the most peculiar metia of all the ones that Subaru had seen to date.
The device he spotted was designed for expanding and enhancing the user’s voice, increasing the range of its reach. Relying only upon magic crystals for its power source, this was a “machine” shaped like a pipe organ.
And while Subaru was unwittingly letting the metia steal his attention—
“—Master Subaru!!”
The sharp cry and the shock wave erupting from a savage collision of sword and claw behind him brought Subaru back to his senses.
His body went rigid as he turned around and saw Crusch engaged in a mesmerizing sword dance, delivering a painful blow to the scales of the black dragon sitting at the back of the room.
Howling in agony was the black dragon of Lust, the culprit of repeated acts of evil that targeted the residents of the city.
“—Capella!”
Leaving Subaru behind as he shouted, the black dragon and the Valkyrie engaged in a ferocious back-and-forth that covered the entire room.
The room contained not only a metia, but also a conference table, chairs, fixtures, and the like along the walls. Naturally, these furnishings were quickly blown away one after another by the powerful shock waves that marked the furious battle, leaving the items broken beyond recognition.
But in this back-and-forth, Crusch’s masterful attacks held the upper hand.
In that room, the dragon was clearly at a disadvantage, unable to freely swing her large frame about. This was probably because the black dragon had never expected Subaru and Crusch to come flying through the window.
The black dragon had probably been keeping watch over the room’s proper entrance, its flame trained toward it the whole time. While she was busy guarding that side, Subaru and Crusch launched a surprise attack by coming in from the roof—this was their plan B.
“Yaaaaah!”
Freed from her fear of high places, Crusch raised a valiant battle cry as she drove her sword home again and again.
Crusch’s wind attacks exhibited their true might not in long-range combat, but up close. In an enclosed space with nowhere to run, the invisible blades mercilessly bit into the black dragon’s hide.
“—Orrrggghhh!!”
“Look out! Get…down?”
Caught up in the moment, Subaru did his best to roll and flee when the dragon bellowed and breathed a stream of pitch-black flames. However, in the middle of his dramatic escape, Subaru realized something.
—There was a bound, squirming girl wriggling under the bleeding black dragon’s feet.
“ ”
Instantly, Subaru felt the urge to vomit as he realized Lust’s lowly scheme, in which she cunningly used a hostage in the same way that Wrath had. In the end, the Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins resorted to similar means to make their opponents falter.
He’d been defeated by the same ploy before, and as a result, Emilia had been whisked away from him.
“Uooooh!!”
With that fact lighting a fire in his heart, Subaru exhibited his greatest level of concentration as he slid directly under Capella’s feet.
Ducking under her head, he slipped between her legs, resolutely sliding over broken glass as he went straight to the girl. Picking up her trembling body, he also slammed his whip into the black dragon’s back. It did no apparent damage, but it did certainly make him feel better.
However, Crusch followed up with a sword slash that was not nearly so gentle.
“!!!”
“No quarter! Pay for the wicked deeds that are bringing calamity and disorder to the city!”
As the black dragon clutched her head in a show of fear, Crusch sliced her blade down at her from the front.
Perhaps the Archbishop was just that brittle when forced onto the defensive, for Capella continued to endure a stream of attacks, seemingly helpless against the steel blade. Her wings were rent, her fangs were broken, and the scales of her long neck were shorn, making the dragon scream from the pain.
Crusch raised a long, slender leg, delivering a powerful kick to the dragon’s torso. The force must have been far greater than any kick Subaru could muster. The strength of that attack pushed the huge dragon backward, forcing it toward a still-intact window.
Hers were not the actions of someone with a chance of victory. She was simply buckling under the weight of Crusch’s strength.
“—It ends here!”
“!!!”
Not lending her ears to Lust to the very end, Crusch slammed her blades of wind into the black dragon’s torso and wings, sweeping across her neck and slamming her massive body into the wall again. Finally, the window gave way, and Lust was completely blown outside.
Plummeting with the remains of the window, the black dragon instantly spread her wings, but one wing was broken at the root, and the other was ineffective due to countless lacerations. Her regeneration wasn’t fast enough—and so her fall was inevitable.
A few seconds later, the sound of Lust slamming into the ground reached them. It was a heavy, wet splat, like meat being slammed against a wall, or a wet mop being dropped on the floor.
“I shall check and keep watch. Master Subaru, please see to that girl.”
“R-right, gotcha.”
Crusch walked over to the window that the black dragon had fallen through, never lowering her guard. Feeling reassured as he watched her from behind, Subaru gently released the captive girl from her bonds.
“Auuugh…”
“It’s all right. Just now, that strong, beautiful lady over there taught the bad dragon a lesson. We can’t really afford to take our time, so let me cut to the chase… Do you know what happened to…the other people?”
Subaru spoke to the girl, who still seemed disoriented by the sheer fear and bewilderment that naturally came with getting caught up in a battle between a warrior and a dragon. Kneeling to talk to her at eye level, Subaru posed his question as gently as possible.
The young girl blinked several times, not responding right away. Then slowly, she seemed like she was gasping for air as she moved her lips several times.
“Th-the room over there… Everyone’s in there.”
Her voice shaking, the girl pointed to a door on the other side of the room that was still marred with the fresh signs of combat.
Setting his eyes upon that door, Subaru somehow refrained from putting to his lips the question that immediately rose in the back of his mind—whether the captured people were dead or alive.
But asking the girl such a thing was far too cruel, and far too thoughtless. But seeing as how there was no sign of activity or life of any kind after the massive battle that had just occurred, he was not very hopeful.
“ ”
Patting the still-worried girl on the head, Subaru slowly turned toward the other room.
His limbs grew heavy and cold. Subaru keenly felt the sheen of sweat forming on his back. He wanted to believe that this being a broadcast room, no sound was leaking out simply because of soundproofing.
“Master Subaru?”
“It’s all right. I’ll check in a sec… What about Lust?”
“…There is no problem over here, either. For whatever reason, there is no sign of her moving from where she fell.”
Crusch replied as she warily kept an eye on Lust below. Hearing this, Subaru took a deep breath and stood before the door. Then he reached his hand out to the knob.
It was possible there were still Witch Cultists lurking behind this door as well. Despite that consideration, Subaru had no better option than to simply check.
However, for some reason, he was convinced that there was no need for such concern. And as a matter of fact, he wasn’t wrong. There were no Witch Cultists standing guard inside the room.
—After all, the room didn’t need guarding.
“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”“ ”
Gazes. They were gazes. Gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes.
gazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazesgazes.
—As Subaru screamed, he saw countless, wordless gazes.
—No, it was nothing more than Subaru’s impression that they were looking at him. Subaru had no way to know if they actually observed the world around them. He could not comprehend such a thing.
All he could do was scream. This was what being at a loss for words truly meant. His mind had frozen over, unable to assemble even a single thought. However, he did know one thing.
—Now he knew the true nature of the ear-grating background noise he’d heard during Lust’s threatening broadcast.
“…What…is this?”
When an incoherent voice finally managed to trickle out, that noise filled the room all at once.
What greeted Subaru was endless buzzing that brought feelings of fear, delight, rejection, and many countless others.
Within that dimly lit room, a vast quantity of multifaceted eyes glowed red as they wriggled, moving to and fro as they stared at Subaru, who stood perfectly still. These were…flies. They were, without a shadow of a doubt, flies.
—The room was jammed full of…a huge number of human-size flies.
“!! Master Subar… Ah.”
“?! Crusch?!”
Subaru, his brain bleached white by the revolting sight, turned back when he heard a sudden scream. Even as the buzzing of the flies’ wings pervaded his ear in response to the scream, Subaru looked and saw what happened.
—He saw Crusch crumple to the floor, and the wretched smile coming over the girl, who was kicking her.
The girl stroked her short, blond hair with her palm, her red eyes gleaming and glimmering as she stared at Subaru.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Really, how can you be such suckers? Did you really think you were getting one up on me? Me?! That’s not even worth a laugh! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
As Crusch lay prostrate in a pool of her own blood, the girl stomped on her, cackling in a high-pitched voice—a voice that Subaru only realized then was familiar to him. There was no doubt.
“It’s me, your dear Capella! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
Sticking her tongue out, Capella winked and posed for effect, laughing with utter disdain at Subaru for his impudence.
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