Chapter 3

Rem was twisting and twirling in her bed.

'Why didn't Subaru-kun let Rem come with him…? Maybe he cares more about Rem; that's why he didn't want Rem to tag along, considering Rem was ill. But still, Rem wants to be with Subaru-kun. Rem can only hope he doesn't encounter another misadventure this time around.'

It turned out Rem's prayers went unanswered.

Subaru rushed towards one of the cultists who had already began chanting a spell.

"Al-"

But before he could complete it, Subaru gave him a hard blow straight towards his chin. Although Subaru was useless, and(he had clearly said this to himself several times, he had practiced martial arts by looking at various YouTube videos, however much that counts. His father also made him workout daily, so his strength, too, wasn't absolutely negligible.

"Al-Goa!" Another cultist chanted, and a large swathe of fire made its way towards Subaru. Subaru had to think of something in an instant. No, the fire was large enough to engulf him even if he tried to dodge it, and he couldn't use Shamak, either. His gate was already tormented enough, straining under the duress, and even if he staked his life by using it, it wouldn't even act as a shield to prevent the fire from touching him.

His mind went numb from thinking so much, when the sea of fire was coming at him with alarming speed. He looked towards Patrasche, who was fighting with two cultists on her own. He opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

'Congrats, Fate on winning again!'

- Swoosh!

Subaru opens his eyes to see the fire had vanished, and he turned to see his savior. The moonlight seemed to beam more intensely in her direction, highlighting her heroic figure, but it was simply the girl with pink hair, clad in her maid uniform.

"Ram!" Subaru cried with happiness.

"Barusu, call me sooner when such things happen. Others may see this as an act of bravery, but for me it's just idiocy at its peak," she says, while knocking out another cultist with a chant of "Al-Fula!", which conjured a large air blade chopping his head clean off.

It flew and landed on Roy's feet, who instantly grabbed it. "Waste of food," he said, and threw it away.

The cultists had been mercilessly murdered by both Patrasche and Ram, with not a single one remaining among this massacre. Subaru could do nothing but watch those people fight… people who actually could do something. It was at times like these where tears began to form in his eyes, thinking, 'How useless am I…!'.

Ram's eye darted towards Ley and Roy.

"You bastards… I will continue cutting you both till all of your blood seeps into the soil. Let's see if that bitch of yours, whom you worship, can help you then!" Ram yells at the top of her lungs. Her scream contained all her rage, her long bottled angst against the cult, and it managed to give Subaru goosebumps. But as she is about to complete a chant…

"Al-"

Her legs began to shake weakly, and she collapsed onto the ground.

"And we thought tonight we are going to have some real fun!" Roy said with a sadistic grin on his face.

"RAM!" Subaru screamed and rushed towards her, grabbing her in his arms. She struggled against his caring grip, but he calmed her down by patting her head. "You have done enough. You don't have any mana left. Let me continue from here!"

However, not even he believed his own voice, since it's coated with a clear tremble.

"Coming from you, those words are hardly giving me any hope…" she muttered, as darkness began to engulf her eyes.

"If only she were conscious, I would have given her some badass reply, but situations like these tells me it's time for another restart. If that's what's going to happen, I should actually try to at least land a punch or two on them!"

With this determination, he stood up and proceeded towards them. The chilly winds wasn't able to hinder Subaru's quickening pace, as he clenches his fist and rushes towards the gluttony duo.

"Take these, you bastards!" He yells, trying to attack Roy, who dodges it with negligible difficulty.

It's clear the difference between their strength. On one hand, the other party was a frickin' cultist, by witch's grace. On the other hand, a newbie who's only trained for barely a month, no matter how hard Subaru tried to enhance his strength, clearly was no match to fight these ruthless killers, who were taught to kill since they could stand up.

Ley, meanwhile, launched himself into the air and lashed out with a roundhouse kick, sending Subaru flying towards the carriage. Patrasche instinctively relaxed and bent her body to minimize the impact and avoid toppling over, yet, his back still hurt like hell. A sharp pain shot through his shoulder, right at the side where Ley kicked him, strangling his right arm's movements.

'Just from a single kick…! Shit!'

"Patrasche, I will divert them, you rush to the village and tell Otto to inform anyone in the mansion about this!" He wanted to send Ram along as well, but she was too far away from him. Timing here was very crucial, and he couldn't waste a single moment.

Patrasche was reluctant to leave him, proud of his bravery, and a part of her wanted to just grab him in her mouth and run away till she had no energy left to continue further. But that would never make him happy, this she knew very well from their time spent during the White Whale Hunt. With tears in her eyes, she darted off ahead. Roy went to block her, but he was distracted by the limping Subaru who still continued to make his way towards him with a pure expression of unfathomable anger.

Patrasche used her Divine Protection of Wind Evasion and dodged the distracted Roy. He received a blow from Subaru, but that hardly made him flinch. "That's all you have got?!" He said, grabbing the left hand of Subaru easily, preventing him from unleashing another hastily-prepared blow.

He punched Subaru deep in his guts several times, until Subaru spit blood and who knew what else from his mouth.

'It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. IT HURTS LIKE HELL! No, I don't want to die again! NOOOO!'

Roy slammed Subaru's head into the ground. The collision sent him reeling, his eyes flickering as he was unable to adjust to either the brightness of the moonlight or darkness of the woods on either side of the road. Through blurred vision, Subaru saw Ley carrying someone, and then he threw her down near him. Subaru tried to dash forward, but Roy grabbed him by the hair and prevented him from moving even a little bit.

Ley said, "We were told to just return with you. ALIVE. But there's no fun in that, isn't it?"

Roy continued, "All those tasks she gave us? This was by far the simplest. And 'simple' doesn't satiate our hunger. There's nothing to eat. You don't even look scared of dying, and that fear is very precious to us."

The sickeningly sadistic glint in his face didn't even faze Subaru one bit. All he wanted to do was chuckle at this comment. If only they knew their own goddess was the one who gave him the special gift 'Return by Death'… They would definitely flip.

"So, we thought this girl is special to you, isn't she?" Ley said.

All colors, whatever remained, drained immediately from Subaru's face.

'No, No, No… Nooo… I don't like where's this conversation's going one bit!' Subaru thought, his face full of fear. 'Nothing should happen to her. What could I possibly do?'

"Have you ever heard of somebody's existence getting eaten?"

Subaru was too scared to reply, Besides, his health was already diminished to his lowest point, just half a step away from death.

"What if you wake up tomorrow and look at her, but can't remember her? You mind will chant again and again, it will hint you with these still visages of her, but you won't be able to decipher them. She will be nothing, she won't even recognize herself. Believe us, blessings of Gluttony can help us do that. And we will do that. Nothing personal, you know? We just want some trophy of our achievement here. She was at least a fighter. You were nothing; we can't even compare you with wild beasts."

Their words rubbing salt into his wound. And his wounds were already very open, bleeding profusely from his heart and inferiority complex.

Ley grinned as he took her hand in his, and then he begins to lick it. Subaru was disgusted by his actions; he wished for nothing but a chance to cut Ley into thousand pieces. His mind was barraging with twisted desires to kill them both in most gruesome ways possible, to give them pain of a lifetime, before their soul leaves their body.

But it's all useless.

'I'm useless.'

If his face wasn't this messed up, tears of frustration would've flowed freely from his eyes. 'I'm just… so useless! What 'fate'?! This is just wrong! Everything's wrong! Getting summoned like some cool isekai anime characters, but bestowed with the worst superpower. I have to suffer pain to accomplish everything. Why? WHY?! The lamest type of magic, a damaged gate… Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Just… when will this end? Had the worst not pass yet?'

Weakly, he twitched his fingers in her direction, where her body was being sullied by these two crazy bastards.

'Ram… Ram… Please please please please please please please… God, if you're there, just save her. PLEASE! Please do something… I don't care what happens to me!'

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, Ley gobbled up Ram's existence. Moonlight slowly became dimmer, as though the nature around them was saddened by what's happening. Ley had eaten only half of her, and Roy was going to have his fill with the rest.

But a sudden change in air stopped him in his tracks.

An aura of thick miasma was detected by their highly trained noses and reflexive abilities. Ley scanned around, and seemed stupefied when he looked at Roy. Confused, Roy slowly turned his neck, to see that Subaru's hands were glowing with the intensity and luminosity of an actual fire.

Something was protruding from his head and shoulders.

They both were too stupefied to properly analyses the situation. Slowly, horns emerged; one from his head and two from his shoulders. And they were glowing orange in the middle of the night; their intensity was great enough to illuminate half a mile of area.

Subaru was there, but he also wasn't at the same time. His eyes were surrounded by raw black color; not an inky darkness, but a bestial abyss. And his demeanor clearly conveyed how angry he was.

Rey and Loy rushed towards him with their usual stance, eager to stamp out this 'variable' before it could thwart their plan. As they emerged, flanking either side of him, he swiped his hand to create a barrier of fire which defended him from their attacks, and then sent them flying away.

They had never expected this, but a greater and mysteriously powerful being was ready to attack them. And that, too, in place of a person who seemed as fragile as a cheaply-made glass.

Subaru had an evil grin on his face. He was pumped up beyond words.

He was ready to give them innumerable levels pain, for they had hurt someone special to him.

Yes, she was special indeed.