4 Redo Undo

Priestella was built as a trap mechanism for extremely dangerous individuals and creatures, specifically the Witches and strong Demon Beasts. The control towers were designed so that they could flood the entire city when the floodgates are all released. This mechanism was successfully used in the past to kill the [Witch of Pride].

An invitation to Priestella, the Water Gate City —that was the contents of the letter sent to Emilia by Anastasia, one of the Royal Candidates. Heading straightway to Priestella after receiving the invitation, Subaru's group begins by once again seeing Anastasia's familiar face in the city of water. Renewing unusual old friendships, Subaru's group passes the time peacefully. But with the city Priestella as a stage, the curtain rises on the nightmare of Sirius, the [Sin Archbishop of Wrath].

"Subaru?"

"Subaru? Mother?!"

"Beako? Satella..." Subaru was crying, they were fine. Echidna's saliva made him far more relaxed than he should have been, but he still wasn't capable to do anything else than watch those two being alive...

"Mother? Subaru? How... how!?" Beatrice yelled after seeing the impossible.

Even Echidna was frowning, she as Beatrice creator, knew better than anyone else that Beatrice just died but now she was standing in front of the Witch.

"Beatrice?" Subaru looked at Echidna, trying to see if she knew what was going on but even the Witch didn't have the answers yet.

The red-haired knight who finally saw the pair didn't know how to act, "Subaru?", but that didn't matter because there was an even more important problem to take care of first. He brought his gaze back towards the person that killed all those innocents.

"As you said, I'm Reinhardt van Astrea, the current inheritor of the title of Sword Saint. Unfortunately, I think that title is too heavy for me now." He stated while looking at the woman that was standing at the top of a tower.

The Witch Cultist's, Sirius, head is covered in disorderly wrapped bandages except for her purple eyes and her teeth. She has silver hair, covers the rest of her thin body with a black coat, and has long, distorted chains around both of her arms with ends that drag along the floor. She gives off a disgusting aura.

The moment after those words, Reinhard tensed his legs slightly and leaped forwards. The movement produced a rippling explosion and effortlessly, struck Sirius out of the tower that sends her flying through the sky.

"Hahaha! Ah, how impressive you are!" Sirius crackled as she waved her arms about. That motion unravelled the chain from her wrist that now could be used as a whip. Someone who chose to wield such a weapon was clearly out of touch with common sense. They exchanged a couple of blows, which showed the Sword Saint's might, each blow coming closer and closer towards her death.

"Hahaha!" Sirius on the verge of fatigue revealed her passionate smile. The reasons behind Sirius's delight were mysterious, whatever it was because of desperation or that she was genuinely happy. One thing was clear, this was a situation only Sirius would have laughed in.

Not everyone could keep up with the fight, Subaru only saw some flashes of light but Echidna saw everything. The Sword Saint and the possessor of the [Witch Factor of Wrath] were fighting, something that should be possible if the once's fighting were Minerva and Reid. This was not the case, Priestella was also looking far better than before. The future? Another timeline? Echidna started connecting the dots, nothing was confirmed but you wouldn't be called the Witch of Knowledge by being dumb.

"Subaru we have to go." Her rational mind saw that the best thing to do now was to retreat, Echidna wasted a lot of energy against the two enemies from before. She needed to retreat to recuperate to return to her peak abilities, that's why she decided to leave.

"But Beako?!" Subaru was looking at her in disbelief, why would she let her daughter behind?

"MOTHER!" The girl screamed in tears, not believing what she saw. They just returned to her and now they would leave her... again.

The Witch already realised that the "Beatrice" in front of her was not her daughter and the cruelty of her mind didn't allow her to waste effort on something "fake" even if that was about her daughter.

Subaru wouldn't listen to her started running to Beatrice and hugged her immediately. Both were in shock, it felt right again. The little girl hugged the older boy with everything she had, it didn't matter they were different, she just didn't wish to be alone again.

"Subaruuu?!" The silver-haired girl rushed towards the two, but Subaru noticed something. How similar they might have looked, but she wasn't Satella!

"Who are you! You are not Satella!" Subaru said feeling very threatened by the girl who looked like his friend. If this was another time he would use his normal introduction, but at this moment his mind was on protecting his returned little sister.

"Subaru?" The girl looked hurt when he said his first part but looked terrified after he named Satella. Before they could continue to talk, they were interrupted by a maniac.

"Hahaha, AHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Reinhard was slowly coming closer and closer to end her existence. Every single one of his attacks was more powerful than the other. His abilities were absurd, gaining every single [Divine Protection] by just asking for one?! Criminal I tell you! His abilities differ from projectiles always missing their target to the knowledge of the legendary substance called sodium! Never would he make a mistake between salt and sugar! Who wouldn't be jealous!

It looked like the Witch Cultit's days were over. Reinhard was prepared for everything she had to offer. Nothing could stop his sword, beg all you want but Reinhard will always finish the job.

"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

"—Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

The crowd screamed and screamed and screamed like they were possessed with only one desire. With bloodshot eyes and twisted facial expressions, they voiced their desire. Wanting to be rid of the presence that disgusted all of them, their enemy, the one who killed all those people in the square. This emotion was one of murderous intent. You know what it is.

[Wrath]

Subaru who saw everybody losing their mind kept holding Beatrice but the girl in question got out of his embrace. Something that Subaru still hadn't realised was that his current situation was as bad, arguably even worse than when they stood against Pandora.

"Subaru, Betty doesn't know what happened. Why our contract is broken, why mother is here, why you are different but you have to listen to her. Escape!" She screamed shocking the silver-haired girl next to her.

"Beatrice, what happened to Subaru?" Even though Subaru had hurt her by comparing her with Satella, she was still more worried about her knight's circumstances.

"He is not Betty's Subaru or Emilia's Subaru but he is Subaru, I suppose." It hurt the legal-loli to say but it was the truth, she felt it.

"But... but Subaru is there?!" She pointed her trembling finger towards the dead body with the iconic tracksuit.

"Ugh, another place another Half-Elf. How troublesome do you need to behave till you are satisfied." Echidna spoke against the girl who resembled Satella, the wench who made everything worse. Emilia finally realised the individual that stood in front of her, the woman who was there when she did the trials.

"Echidna?!" Emilia was in emotional distress, her knight died and returned?! She never even saw the Witch right beside Subaru, her only focus was on her knight. So it wouldn't be an understatement to say that she was shocked to the core but they had far bigger pressing matters to attend to.

Many people had already fled the massacre but there still was a crowd of complete strangers that stood side by side as comrades. Their very hearts united at that moment, moving toward the same goal and facing the spirits of good and evil.

"Bringing feelings into one... this must be Love, correct? Well, there is no doubt that this is a scene only Love could achieve, don't you agree?"

Reinhard's blade was ready to cut off her neck, but before that could happen Echidna suddenly intervened. She already deducted a major portion of the situation and one of the important things was that Sirius couldn't die at the moment.

Echidna stopped Reinhard's attack but she was too greedy, thinking that she could fully stop the attack and after runaway with her partner. Reinhard wouldn't be Reinhard if he was weak, his attack might have missed the neck but he still maimed Sirius's right arm.

Reinhard had already noticed the power Sirius held, or he believed he knew and decided to end it as fast as possible. Echidna's interference only gave Sirius a couple more seconds nothing Reinhard couldn't handle.

"Mother?"

"Echidna! Why did you do that?" Subaru questioned her, he wasn't wrong to see that the red-haired knight was the good guy right? Why did she help the maniac?

"Are there any last words you want to say?" Reinhard's voice sounded once again.

"Thank you. Then, allow me to offer you a piece of advice. The other archbishops may not be as docile as me, so if you want to ask their last words, you might suffer for it." She was focused solely on the person in front of her, her executioner.

Echidna ignored them and spoke towards the knight who once again stood in front of a defeated Sirius, "if you were to kill that child, all the people in the crowd will follow her to death."

The Witch tried to convince the knight, something that she did millions of times before. In the end, it was her greed for believing she could do it alone that led to this moment. Reinhard who fought like he was Od Laguna incarnate was of great interest to the Witch but failure was inevitable. Reinhard looked at the Witch Cultist with only one intent and even those around her including Subaru started feeling the same intent.

"KILL HERRR!" Shouted a girl's voice, fully in trance with the Cultist's power.

"Echidna? What is happening?" Subaru who was suffering from the same effect looked at her feeling that something terrible was happening again. The Witch looked at her partner, the sadness. Once again, once again... she failed.

"I'm sorry." The woman said with despair and regret while looking at her partner.

Did you think she could "save" everyone? She failed so many times, why would you believe that today would be different?

Reinhard did his duty.

"Ah, this gentle world." Sounded Sirius's last words as her internal organs were spilling out. Her body was cleft in half, her upper body continued soaring upward. Pouring blood and intestines through the air, while her lower body, left in place became a fountain sprinkling blood through the square.

No one could bear to look straight at that horror. However, no one looked away. No one could look away.

"It can't be..."

Re:Zero, the story about returning back again and again and again and again with no stopping finally began with Subaru's first death.

[#1: Saint's Mercy - Death by Reinhard]

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"Always you. Always only you, am I in love with."

"—ughk!"

It doesn't matter where he runs, the Witch will show her love one way or another. The cruelty of the Witch who granted [Return by Death] to her beloved.

"Subaru?"

"Subaru? Mother?!"

Echidna noticed that the [Witch Factor of Envy] was going wild inside of Subaru. How could that be, didn't she stabilize it when giving her saliva just a second ago? Something else happened to him.

She had to know what happened, where they were, how they got here but all answers could later be found inside the [Book of Wisdom]. Now was not the time to satisfy her curiosity after she saw her Subaru in pain.

"Echidnaa..." Subaru was trying to speak, trying to understand what the hell just happened. He felt suffocated, something tried to keep him close but failed. Him still possessing the bit of calm that came with Echidna's saliva, realised that he indeed had just died. The reason behind his unsightly demise being the death of the maniac who called herself a Witch Cultist.

"Mother? Subaru? How... how!?" Beatrice yelled after seeing the impossible but Echidna was fully focused on her partner.

"We have to stop him from killing her..." Subaru had a hard time speaking but started pointing towards Reinhard's and Sirius's direction. Echidna heard him perfectly and believed in him. Subaru wasn't the type to say stupid things when things really mattered. All the other times, he was stupid.

"I understand." Echidna looked at the knight and said, "I would recommend you not killing that woman, seems like her power becomes even more troublesome when she dies." Subaru's warning made Echidna study the woman even faster and created a conversation with a far less unstable Reinhard.

"Uhh, you are indeed right lady. Seems like I have to be even more careful than before." Reinhard started preparing to capture the Witch Cultist instead of killing her as he had in his mind before. He noticed that he was more affected than he believed have liked to believe and became more cautious. The suspicious lady had to wait.

Beatrice and Emilia were standing right in front of Subaru not knowing what to do. Wasn't he dead, didn't we just cry over his mutilated body, and now he was in the arms of the [Witch of Greed]?

"Beatrice we currently don't have enough time, you will have to take care of Subaru." Echidna said towards the girl, who was her daughter but at the same time wasn't. She continued, "and you girl, don't stand in the way." Her borderline hate towards the former Half-Elf carried over to the next one, who had to look almost exactly the same.

Out of nowhere, multiple buildings started to collapse and the majority of the crowd was in danger. Reinhard who was still in his fight with Sirius, saw the trick Sirius tried to pull to distract his attention and decided to fall for it. He rushed towards the group to save them from danger, but this gave the Archbishop enough time to spot the little reunion.

"Disgusting, the stench of that woman, filthy and detestable, the stench of the one who stole my husband from me, the stench of maggots, endless filth. Hate, I hate it so much, burning it to cinders isn't enough."

"And that other woman, she's obviously not that person, but she has such a similar stench, how shameless, the stench of rotting insects, ah, ah, ah ah aaAAAAAAH! How hateful! How rancid! How vile! My! Are you testing the love for my husband, spirit?! Were you not satisfied with taking my husband from me, YOU HALF HALF-WITCH BITCH!?"

With a wrathful cry, she leaped forward, not caring about the Sword Saint only having the two girls as her targets. Swinging her gaze back and forth, Sirius yelled with a furious voice.

"I AM the witch cult's sin archbishop of Wrath!"

"— Sirius Romanee-Conti! Damn half-elf and spirit, I'll scorch your corpses and scatter your ashes at my husband's tomb!"

Echidna was not having this bullshit and fired multiple magic spells towards the insane lunatic. She might be exhausted, but in no way in hell would she lose against someone so distasteful and disgusting as the woman named Sirius. The woman was able to come out of the attack with minor injuries, but her hate hadn't reduced in the slightest.

"I could keep burning and burning you, but it wouldn't be enough… like maggots, like flies. Haha, how much do you hate me!? Even in my saddest days, am I not allowed the freedom of mourning?"

A devastating amount of mana was being brought into the air, destroying everything in its path except for the people next to her. Reinhard who saw this show of strength went into action and protected the innocents who were in the blast area. Sirius got blasted away and what they didn't realise yet was that Reinhard only protected the living, Subaru's dead body was nowhere to be seen.

"Echidna-tan?" Subaru was confused, wasn't this lunatic supposed to be strong? Wasn't Reinhard stronger than even Echidna, so why did it go so... easy? Was she dead?

"Humph, it might be true that this generation's Sword Saint is stronger than me but that doesn't mean I'm weak." Echidna knew exactly what was in Subaru's mind and spoke her truth. Subaru was thinking about Echidna's words and something strange was being said. This generation's Sword Saint, but wasn't Reid the current one? Does that mean...

Echidna once again reading Subaru like a book said, "You are indeed correct we are in a different time."

"Then Beako..." He was interrupted by Echidna, "Let me be more specific, we are in the future but at the same time also in another timeline."

"Echidna and Subaru are from another time?" Emilia mumbled not willing to believe that he wasn't the Subaru they know and love. She hurriedly looked towards the supposed location of the deceased Subaru but saw it was not there anymore.

"That makes sense, I suppose." Said the girl with tears in her eyes, realising that her contractor was still dead.

Reinhard returned and looked at the newly arrived pair, one that looked exactly like his friend and another woman that screamed danger. Reinhard was concerned about his lady and spoke, "I believe that we should retreat."

Before the party could leave and regroup with the others, a young man stood in front of them. He was of medium height, with naturally white hair that was neither too long nor too short nor was it styled in any specific way. You could describe him as a normal-looking man, at least for those that live in this world.

"I caught up".

"I am the Witch Cult's [Sin Archbishop of Greed] —Regulus Corneas. As promised I'm here to take her as my 79th wife." Regulus said while looking at Emilia. Suddenly he started frowning and stared at the other person with white hair...

"Who are you? A woman like you imitating what is mine, defying my authority! How annoying, how disgusting. Unwilling to admit that you are just a fake, while I, the real am far superior than you. I have already introduced myself don't you believe it's common courtesy to introduce yourself back. Introductions are the most important thing to start a relationship. No matter what kind of relationship, isn't it necessary to start with an acquaintanceship where we both know each other? I'm someone who cares about such things, I often think that no matter to whom, I will be as friendly as possible..."

"Oh? Do you think I have to talk to you, someone of no importance to me? You truly are greedy..." Said the [Witch of Greed] against the [Sin Archbishop of Greed].