11.4.7

Comprehension and despair, layered atop one another, canceling each other out over and over.

—Subaru's soul blazed, for the painting was a portrait of hell.

Subaru had meant to exhaust himself to the brink of death to overwrite such a scene. In point of fact, he had crossed death twice, something that surely put him in reach of the painting's brush.

Little did he know that the instant he touched the brush, the details of the painting had morphed into a different hell.

"—Ha-ha."

The wintery world made his breath a white cloud, and as he trod through the snow, Subaru put his hands on his seemingly gasping knees.

It had already been several hours since he had left the structure, walking aimlessly ever since. Subaru safely reaching the settlement the night before had been thanks to Otto leading the way via his blessing.

At present, he was without that, in the heart of the Lost Woods of Cremaldi—the landscape changed abruptly by the falling snow, with not a single thing to aid him present.

"Sh—it…!"

His endurance was depleted, the snowy landscape's low temperature robbing his body of warmth. To prevent a drop in body temperature, even to a tiny extent, Subaru tied Petra's handkerchief around his forehead before resuming his walk once more.

"My promise with Petra…"

The sun had risen high. There was no longer any way to prevent the tragedy from befalling the mansion.

He'd been unable to do anything. He hadn't saved Petra or Frederica. Probably not Rem, either. Beatrice was still clutching that magic tome; Otto was dead; Patlash was dead; what had happened to Ram? Garfiel, Roswaal, what were they thinking? Emilia was—

"But I'll…"

He'd take it all back. He'd redo everything. It was his duty to walk the path where everything was right.

Only Subaru could do it. It was something Subaru had to do.

For that reason, the memory of everything that had been lost had to continue in Subaru alone.

For that reason, the sacrifices paid for it had to continue on inside of Subaru.

For that reason, Subaru, and Subaru alone, had to pay a commensurate price.

He'd pay the commensurate price. He'd let the casualties pile up. And then, he'd bring everything back.

"_______"

The instant his responsibility to do what had to be done burned within him, the forest opened before Subaru's eyes.

The landscape he thought would continue forever ended, and he rushed into the settlement, which was also buried in snow.

He wasn't surprised. He was already resigned. There, a giant tiger would suddenly blot out his vision, as he died laughing with nothing but hatred burning within him. His heart had long frozen over.

However, contrary to his resignation, the ferocious tiger did not appear. No, rather than that—

"No one's here…?"

The fallen bonfire had vanished in the snow. He couldn't sense that anyone was present in the Sanctuary whatsoever.

He couldn't pass it off saying it was a low-population settlement to begin with. It felt like an uninhabited wasteland.

Indeed, he couldn't see even a single footstep on the accumulated white snow. There was no sign of anyone walking around.

"Snow fell… No one's here…"

Touching a hand to his forehead, he dug his nails into his forehead as he began to doubt his own sanity.

The Sanctuary was filled with tranquility. There was no sign of human presence, nor the sound of any insect. From time to time, he heard only the sound of the leaves swaying in the wind, a change announced by the faint shift in his eardrums. He heard nothing in this world—

"—Aa?"

In that soundless world, that white-marred hell, he was taken back by a change within.

At first, Subaru sensed something like a white ball of wool tumbling in the wind. However, he immediately understood that it was no ball of wool at all. It rolled to Subaru's feet, and there, made a tiny tremble. Then Subaru, eyes wide, realized it had two long ears protruding from it.

It had long ears, a soft white pelt, short legs, and two red eyes. With a tilt of its head, its mouth moved in unhurried fashion as it made a high-pitched kii.

"Rab…bit…?"

Subaru's eyes beheld a rabbit and a particularly small one at that.

The rabbit was as small as Subaru's closed fist, a creature no larger than a mouse. The long ears characteristic of a rabbit were fairly short and, combined with its round tail, all of the parts were in order, if at a very compact size.

In the Sanctuary, where insect, animal, land dragon, man, and all others had vanished in the snow, a rabbit had suddenly appeared.

"Why is a rabbit here…? …Should a rabbit be here?"

An inexhaustible supply of mysteries was born, and the crush of information made Subaru feel like even his brain wanted to retch. Was the rabbit at his feet a clue for learning what had happened in the Sanctuary?

Clinging to that thought, he stretched a hand toward the rabbit—

The next instant, from the wrist down, Subaru's hand was ripped off.

"…Aeegh?"

Blood gushed out of the raggedly cut wound; his reddish-black arteries drooped downward. Perhaps the thin white threads pulled out were muscle fibers or nerves. Either way, the spectacle of human flesh being destroyed was particularly grotesque.

Such evasion of the reality of his lost hand prevailed for exactly two seconds—whereupon his brain was wrecked by the ferocious pain from another dimension.

"G, aah?! Uoaa! Aaa, gaggaaaa—!!!"

The world blazed white.

His mind, dominated by pain, had lost all pain ability to recognize pain reality. What pain had happened that pain he had to endure such pain? What was the cause of pain? What had pain happened? Why this pain? Pain, painpainpain—

Agonizing further and further, he pressed his blood-spilling left wrist against the ground. Unwittingly, he bit into the snow, a seemingly meaningless mixture of ice and mud. He tasted the soil, crunched down the ice, and his vision whirled in search of what had happened— At his feet, the white ball of wool had red spots scattered over its pelt. It was moving its mouth.

It was chewing. Subaru could see his fingers hanging out of its moving little mouth. He understood. It had been eaten.

His hand had been eaten.

"G— Gaaaaa—!!"

An understanding he didn't want to be aware of, a pain he didn't want to feel; the agony dragged his spirit toward madness.

His mind was like stained glass as it cracked, shattering and turning into vestiges of fine sand.

"Gi—iihigiiii!!!"

And yet, pain had roused his shattered mind.

He felt a burning sensation in his calf. His eyes reeled from a stimulus like flesh and bone being mercilessly raked by a file. Reddish-black bubbles poured into the middle of his throat, causing him to convulse like a fish out of water. He didn't faint. He couldn't. The pain was too strong for that. The pain was too strong for that. The cruel pain forced his mind to remain awake.

Kii, kii, went the countless cries that his eardrums picked up.

The number of these high-pitched voices was vast, and he was surrounded by presences he couldn't bother to count. His eyeballs were already derelict in their duty, having giving up on looking at his surroundings. That was a mercy.

He was glad it was only his ears still working. He could not have borne the sight.

"_______"

Fangs tore into his entire body. From the feeling of the fangs biting into him, he knew it was a horde.

He screamed. He rolled onto his back, sending his voice toward the heavens. That very moment, he sensed something furry enter his mouth, ripping out his tongue. His throat was violated, opening a path from his windpipe to his stomach, from which his viscera could be voraciously eaten. He was being chewed away.

Fangs invaded from his anus, crashing inside his body against those that had entered from the mouth. As if in a contest, they raced left and right to consume his inner organs, making mincemeat out of Subaru Natsuki.

He was alive. He was being eaten alive. He could feel his flesh being torn into fragments.

He wasn't afraid. He couldn't feel pain anymore. He didn't even know where his mind was.

He was being eaten. He was being consumed. His left eye was eaten. His ears were gone. His inner organs had been torn away, and just then, the skin of his face was ripped off. A hole was opened in his skull, and fangs thrust into his brain—

—.

____________.

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aa—.