42

Chapter 42: Defeat and retreatNotes:

Roughly half way done with this arc! (If my plans for the story don´t change.)

EDIT: 16.000 Hits!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 42

The sounds of bones crunching and dying screams were still ringing in her ears as she threw Emilia through the door and jumped after her. This hasty retreat had obviously been the right decisions as no later than a heartbeat afterwards the doorframe was reduced to splinters by the same invisible force that was tearing Ram apart at the moment.

Whatever magic the presumed brother of Petelgeuse was using was strong enough to break a human body and stop her bullets. Emilia was still unconscious despite her rough landing on the carpet so that meant she would be of no use in a fight due to severe mana exhaustion.

Overall Tanya´s chances weren´t good in the confrontation that would no doubt ensue in a few seconds. Her overworked, overcharged brain was desperately searching for a solution to a problem that she had not the time to even fully describe.

If directly attacking the super-cultist was not effective than she just would have to do it indirectly. Had she had a moment to prepare, she could have perhaps initiated a hot enough fire to burn the oxygen in the hallway and suffocate her enemy, but such a death would take too long anyway. Collapsing the building was no option with Emilia directly behind her. A thrown knife had no guarantee to penetrate his invisible shield, even with a mage blade.

Suddenly a stray idea from the depth of her subconscious hit her. Years ago she had once discussed it in a theoretical paper about guerrilla warfare as a last resort for undersupplied mages. It was risky and stupid and overall horribly inefficient, but she was desperate. Hastily she fished a spare magazine from her pocket and drew a basic heat array around it.

The madman outdoors was spouting some arrogant bullshit, but she had no time to listen as she completed the spell and charged it with as much energy she could muster in a pinch. All that excess mana was held inside a purposely shoddy storage formula that instantly began to rapidly degrade. This was it, an improvised hand grenade.

With exert precision she threw the slowly overheating magazine outside so that it would slide over the floor in the direction of the still babbling cultist.

"But you can never hide for long from the... Huh? Is that supposed to be a –"

"BOOM" thundered the sound of a dozen bullets simultaneously going off in several different directions. One even ricocheted off her own mage shell.

Tanya didn´t wait to confirm if she had gotten him, but instead reloaded her pistol lightning fast with the last clip she had on her person and pushed the most powerful penetrating formula she could into the next shot. To maximize her potential of hitting him she aimed for where she calculated his torso to be and fired blindly. Once again desperation led her hand.

Faintly she registered that the inside of her mouth tasted of blood, because she pushed herself too hard, but the logical conclusion of that thought was promptly ignored. A basic optic formula reflected the light around the corner and showed, to her immense relief, that she had at least partially succeeded. No one was standing upright in the corridor which was a good sign. Nonetheless did she send an illusionary clone out first to check if he was just faking his demise.

Only after a few moments of tense waiting did she finally step out into the destroyed hallway to look at her handiwork. She really had not needed to fear a trick from her enemy.

As a side effect of her wall-penetrating shot the flesh in the area where he had been hit had completely been evaporated from the ultra-high-temperature beam. Because the fluids inside his body had instantly been vaporized which had led to his blood vessels expanding and rupturing, he was now a nearly unrecognizable pile of steaming meat. It was genuinely hard to tell his inside and outside apart.

Although this technique had been effective at killing Petelgeuse´s accomplice, it had also taken up a considerable amount of mana. She wouldn´t last much longer if anymore of those super powered freaks showed up.

"What a mess." Tanya sighed.

Slinging the unresponsive half-elf over her aching shoulder once more she made her way over to the blown out window and jumped straight down.

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If Rem had been panicked before she was now outright catatonic. The emotions she had been feeling from her sister had gradually gotten weaker and weaker, but now they had turned to pure pain and fear before completely cutting off.

Her beloved sister was d-

No! She would not think about it! As long as she breathed she would not give up her only family. There was still hope. She owed to Ram to not write her off as d- ... lost.

Thanks to her driving the ground dragon ragged they had finally reached the village and the sit made her nauseous. Corpses upon corpses of innocent villagers lined the streets. The hl had been violated in the worst ways imaginable. Even the children.

Rem had never known them well or particularly cared for them, but the horrid sight reminded her of her own past.

Burning houses.

Whenever she had come here to buy supplies the elders had smiled at her.

The smell of blood from her dying parents.

Subaru had gathered all the kids around and they had played a game together.

Cries of despair in the starless night.

Petra had laughed so much when she caught her.

Her sister getting hurt.

Now they were all dead.

Because she had been too slow.

Too weak.

Too selfish.

She was damned to repeat the sins of her past over and over it seemed. Again everything had been taken from her and despite all her growth she was still powerless to stop it. The shame, the fury, the misery were becoming too much to suppress.

Her hands shook from rage as she finally lost control over her instincts.

Hatred and anguish pushed her humanity aside and forced a glowing, white horn out of her forehead. All the mana in the vicinity was sucked in and only further fuelled the raging Oni. Like a swirling vortex of vengeance her mind revolved entirely around violence. Her whole being became a weapon without the capacity for clear thought or compassion.

She didn´t care anymore that the carriage was threatening to topple over from all the corpses in its way. She didn´t care that Subaru was sobbing from somewhere behind her. She didn´t care that she was breaking her promise to remain level headed.

All that mattered to her was to punish the villains who had sullied her life with their evil. Nothing could be more important to her than to hear them scream in agony, crush their bones and bathe in their blood.

If seen from the right angle her eyes would have looked like they blazing with crimson light to an outside observer.

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Subaru had never felt so ill in his life. He thought that he had sunken to the deepest pits of hell before, but as always destiny loved to prove him wrong and subject him to something even more horrible. The first "worst moment of his entire existence" had been slowly bleeding out in an alleyway after a couple of thugs had robbed him blind. Then the next had been getting tortured by Rem in the woods. The one after that had been when he was forced to watch as the mabeasts ripped the village children apart.

But none of them came close to the soul-crushing dread he felt upon witnessing the massacre of Irlam village. It was... indescribable. No words could do it justice. Bile rose in his throat and he retched out of the window. Directly the next moment he felt even worse, because he had probably just vomited on a dead person. How much more disrespectful could you get.

All his hard work to save them had been meaningless. All the happy hours he had spent with Petra and the others were now a thing of the past. He would be the only one to remember them. Their hopes and dreams had been extinguished before their time. They would never laugh and squeak in joy again when he told them funny stories or showed them magic tricks.

Unbeknownst to him tears had begun to steam down his cheeks. He was far too shocked to register his surroundings anymore.

Everything was his fault. If he hadn´t been so reckless in using his gate then he wouldn´t need healing and Rem and he would not have left the mansion. He could have been there to save them all! Now it was too late!

Too late...

But...

He could prevent it, couldn´t he?

Bit by bit an ice-cold realization set in.

With Return by Death he could make it as if it never happened. It would be alone his responsibility. Only he would need to suffer.

His hope was short-lived however as he really thought about it. Would he even be fast enough? They had needed several hours to travel here and they already went as fast as they could. How could he be even quicker than that?

Tanya! Yes, she could fly! She would be able to reach the village in time and evacuate it! She already believed that he had some sort of foresight ability so she would definitely trust his word! It was the perfect plan! At least the best he could come up with at the moment.

Would the villagers believe her though? They had been hesitant to believe him at first too, because he was a stranger at the time. They wouldn't recognize Tanya and that would cost them precious time. Time they most likely didn't have.

Maybe Rem could fly with her? She would manage to convince the elders seeing as she was a trusted employee of their liege. Provided that Tanya would be able to lift her. How much did the Oni girl weigh anyway? Hopefully she wouldn´t misinterpret the question.

"Rem, do you... Rem? Where are you?"

The driver seat was empty.

"Oh no..."

Notes:

Question to all of you Re:Zero lore experts:

Is Reinhard allowed to leave the capital or does he require permission to do so?

Because I remember reading somewhere that he does, but I am not entirely sure. I know that he can´t travell near the border, because that could be seen as an act of war. He is basically a one man army after all. But does he have to stay in the capital?

And as a second question: Does the capital have a name? If so I never heard it.