8.1.5

When, with a very deep bow and lavish laughter, the madman greeted him, Subaru put a hand to his chest. Standing before Petelgeuse, his mortal enemy, he realized that he was exceedingly calm.

"It's strange…"

This was the enemy he had hated so much, cursed with his desire to kill, the despicable foe that was the cause of all his woes.

He'd raged that he would snap the man's neck with his own hands, had he not? And yet, with the demonic fiend before him that very moment, Subaru was embraced by relief.

"I welcome thee, beloved child, recipient of Her favor! Spleeendid…ahh, splendiiiid! What depths of love entwined about you! What heights of love wrapped around you! What heat with which love embraces you! I am grateful! I am TRULY, sincerely grateful!!"

In front of Subaru, deep feelings stirring in him, Petelgeuse quickly broke into madness. He plucked at his hair and scratched the back of a hand, drawing blood; the madman was overwhelmed, unable to keep his fierce emotions inside him.

The first time, Subaru had seen his madness in fear; the second, in enmity. Subaru now saw him for the third time. Finally, what he felt was not really disgust; rather, he felt this was just how the madman was.

At the same time, he was certain Petelgeuse's ways would never be compatible with those of normal people.

"—"

Without thinking, Subaru gave his cheek a tug, then took a deep breath. After calming himself, he waved lightly at Petelgeuse, offering the friendliest smile he could manage.

"Yo. Wasn't expecting such a big welcome. I've gotta say, all this doesn't seem real…"

"That iiis to be expected! For many, the beginning comes as a surprise. Anyone can realize one particular day, 'I am loved.' And once realizing it for the fiiirst time, you cannot let that love go—yes, for love is everything!!"

When Subaru sought a place to begin, Petelgeuse eagerly ran with the conversation. Spreading his blood-smeared arms wide, he extolled his particularly insane vision of love—very twisted yet forthright.

"For love! For the love granted to us! I, we cannot fail to reeespond with diligence! Accordingly, we administer the trial, the ordeal! To give meaning to the favor the Witch has granted to this world, to this age, to me! For love, for love forloveforloveforloooove!"

"So you can't be lazy about it. You've gotta be diligent to faithfully repay that love."

"YES—precisely!!"

When Subaru picked up the gist and pretended to understand, Petelgeuse laughed maniacally, deeply impressed.

The understanding and agreement were strictly on the surface. With Subaru keeping pace on the surface, and Petelgeuse unable to peer into his soul, the words were nothing more than sweet, empty nothings. Truly, Subaru wished he could end the conversation there and then.

"Ah, er, so what should I do now? Can I…join you people? What else is needed? A handwritten letter, a formal document with a stamp? I don't have an actual stamp, so will a fingerprint do?"

But Subaru suppressed all the disgust welling in him and turned to face Petelgeuse. The longer he kept the conversation going, the more likely it was that he could drag useful information out of the madman.

"Hmm, hmm…that spirit, that enthusiasm, that forward thinking, is to be treeeeasured… However…"

As the calculating Subaru stepped nearer, Petelgeuse sniffed the air, as if confirming that the scent of the Witch was really present. Then, as an ecstatic smile came over him, the madman extended both hands, showing Subaru his ten perfectly intact fingers. The slender, gnarled digits that resembled branches quivered.

"…The favor that you have been granted is too thick to add you to my fingers at thiiis juncture… I wonder, just how rich is the love of the Witch I see before me? Even Wrath would be envious of this… Could it be that you are Pride?!"

"Pride…?"

"Among the six Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins, only the seeeat of Pride is currently vacant! None of this generation worthy of the sin had appeared in this era…but the Witch Factor has suuurely reached the next generation's Pride—you have received your Gospel, of course?"

Taking a step, Petelgeuse closed the distance between them.

Petelgeuse's question, posed with his head tilted ninety degrees, could not fail to throw Subaru off.

He accepted at face value the good news that the seat of Pride among the Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins was vacant. But Petelgeuse suspected that Subaru might be the one to fill that vacancy. It was easy for him to claim that he could, but should he do so, and how would Petelgeuse react if he did? It was a hurdle he hadn't anticipated at all.

And he didn't have a clue about the Gospel the guy was asking about. Was it some kind of code word used among members of the Witch Cult, or a trap for the unwary? If the former, it was hazing the rookie Witch Cultist; if the latter, the madman was engaging in psychological warfare.

"Errr, well, you see…"

He didn't want to clumsily say anything rash, but silence would only make him seem more suspicious. Amid that extreme stress, Subaru strongly closed his eyes—once.

Behind his closed eyelids, faces rose up—faces of the people Subaru had to protect.

That was all he needed to harden his resolve.

"Setting aside the Gospel, about this Pride…if it takes a lousy personality to qualify, I just might be who you're looking for. I'm interested, but I'd like to hear a few more details first…about Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins, and this trial you mentioned."

With few avenues for follow-up, Subaru kicked the Gospel issue down the road and pursued the madman's statements—about the Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins, of which much was unclear, and the trial Petelgeuse had spoken of several times over.

Trial—given the situation, it was probably the current plan of attack. If he could find out details, perhaps even where the fingers were hiding out, it'd be the perfect intel to gather. Naturally, the meddlesome question might send Petelgeuse flying into a rage, but Subaru was already on guard for that.

Behind his lighthearted tone of voice, Subaru was already prepared to commence hostilities when he let the question fly. For his part, the madman slowly stuck his right hand's thumb into his own mouth.

"—My brain—is—shaking."

With a dull sound, he crushed his thumb with his back teeth, sending fresh blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. There was a slight tremble in his halting murmur, but the mad delight from a moment earlier had completely vanished. His hollow gaze sent a shudder through Subaru, quickening his pulse. His heart beat at such a high tempo it hurt, feeling as if it were slamming against his rib cage from the inside—and right before Subaru's eyes, Petelgeuse withdrew his thumb from his mouth and said:

"The trial… Thaaat is fine. I do not mind at all."

"…"

"It ought to be some time until word reaches all regions that the highway is sealed. Similarly, the trial will not begin yet—for time is something we still pooossess."

In contrast to his disquieting actions, Petelgeuse's words to the eager-to-learn Subaru were, if anything, amiable. A smile came over Subaru at the reaction; he strained not to let his cheek twitch.

"Huh…sealed the highway? What trick did you use to do that?"

"A very simple ONE. The mist. That is eeeenough explanation, I believe?"

"—Yeah, it's plenty."

Subaru nodded at Petelgeuse's brief reply.

The statement, suggesting that the mist and the sealing of the highway were connected, was proof positive that the White Whale and the Witch Cult were linked behind the scenes. Furthermore, from that exchange Subaru learned that word of the White Whale's subjugation had not yet reached Petelgeuse's ears. The cultists hadn't realized Subaru had brought the expeditionary force with him.

"So you sealed the highway so that you could do the trial with no one to interfere. That's a pretty shrewd way to operate, Mr. Petelgeuse."

"Yes, the trial is sacred, inviolable! To fail to overcome at all costs, no maaatter the predicament, would be insincerity toward love! Yes, toward love! The love granted to us! The love poured onto us! We must RESPOND to that love!"

"Yeah!"

Separate from his statements regarding the trial, Petelgeuse got fired up by his personal thoughts on love. The madman bent back, eyes bulging, stretching his tongue as he gazed intently at the heavens, frothing at the mouth as he searched for something intangible.

Ignoring Subaru's double take at the unhinged reaction, Petelgeuse did not stop.

"Aaaaaall must be sacrificed for love! The silver-haired half-demon, whose very existence is insolent, must answer for the deep crime of her very life! Those who bear sins must undergo trials! Yes, they must be TESTED! To find whether they are slothful or diligent! And it is my hand that must be FIRST!"

"So the trials are…to question their sins, to test if they bear sins?"

"For that purpose, the trials! For that purpose, the sins! The Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins! Accordingly, I MUST test her! If she is not tested to see if she truly possesses the Witch Factor, then whether she is a suitable vessel cannot be—"

Gripped by madness, Petelgeuse slipped an arm into his habit. Then, after a little rummaging, his fingertips pulled out a small, case-bound book. Subaru thought it about the size of the pocket dictionaries that were common in the world he came from. Deftly opening the book with one hand, Petelgeuse ran his bloodshot eyes along its pages.

"My duty is recorded within the Gospel, and I must fulfill it as proof of my love! If you are indeed Pride, you will understand my loooofty ideals! After all, it has been centuries since the vacancy among US, the forsaken bearing the titles of sins, has been filled!!"

"Hold on a sec! I need to hear more about this Pride and this Witch Factor stuff…"

"—Present your Gospel."

"—!"

Petelgeuse suppressed his madness once more, forcing back a sudden wave of emotion. Subaru, unable to keep up with the shift, unwittingly took a step back when Petelgeuse pressed closer.

At Subaru's reaction, Petelgeuse, the crazed zeal still absent from his eyes, tilted his head ninety degrees.

"Present your Gospel. The proof of your favor—"

Speaking this, the madman extended his blood-smeared right hand toward Subaru, demanding proof that he was a coconspirator. His undamaged left hand touched the beloved book within it. From his demeanor and actions, Subaru understood.

That book was a Gospel.

And as if to affirm his conviction, Petelgeuse thrust his Gospel text toward Subaru.

"You are not recorded within the text of my Gospel. Therefore, who aaare you, and why have you fortuitously come to appear in this place?"

"Ah! So that book is called a Gospel! I see, I see, I get it, I get it. Well, you should have said so!"

On the brink of a decisive rupture, Subaru made a grand show of patting his chest and putting a hand into his pocket. Of course, he didn't have a single page inside it, let alone a book.

"—"

Petelgeuse's pupils contracted slightly as they watched Subaru's pantomime. His madness-filled eyes caused a countdown to destruction to begin ticking down in the back of Subaru's mind. The numbers were proceeding with unusual speed; failure was surely close at hand.

Therefore—

"Oh, my bad. So, so sorry."

"What IS it?"

"About my Gospel, you see, I…used it as a pot stand and it got dirty, so I threw it out."

—Therefore, this was the watershed moment.

Judging that it was impossible to drag things out any longer, Subaru instantly brought the conversation to a conclusion.

Petelgeuse looked taken aback the instant Subaru's frivolous reply reached his ears. But when the statement immediately transformed to an insult inside the madman's brain, his visage turned fiendish.

"Proof of her favor!! Authority of Sloth!! Unseen HAAAAANDS!!"

The madman screamed with a reptilian look as his shadow exploded—no, the shadow swelled up as if exploding, becoming multiple black arms that stretched toward the heavens.

These were evil hands, imperceptible to normal people, able to destroy a human body with ease.

The hands danced high above like serpentine heads, locking on to Subaru. The black, shadowy, evil hands snapped down like whips, the tips of their fingers aimed at the ground, shooting out at breakneck speed.

And a moment before those black tendrils reached him, Subaru beat a hasty retreat from the spot.

"I told you before—if you can see 'em, they're not that hard to dodge!"

"What is this—?!"

Subaru had said it the last time around, so to Petelgeuse it was an assertion ungrounded in fact. However, the madman did not take the time to dismiss Subaru's statement as nonsense.

A total of seven pitch-black hands bore down on Subaru to tear him limb from limb. On bad, rocky footing, he leaped over them with legwork that could not be called pretty, even if one was charitable.

With Petelgeuse to the front, Subaru leaped heavily to the rear, putting as much distance between them as he could. He did this both to escape the range of the attack and to get out of the way of the counterattack.

"Just now, YOU saw my Unseen Hands—"

"Right now, I'm not the one you should worry about."

After his all-powerful move was countered, froth rose to the corners of Petelgeuse's mouth as he seemed ready to raise his voice again. To forestall him, Subaru pointed behind the madman's back. That was the signal for the counterattack.

"Wa—!" "Ha—!"

Overlapping bestial howls formed a destructive shock wave that rumbled through the air and tore up the ground. The rocky ground was stripped bare, kicking up a dusty swirl of wind. The wave caused cracks in the ground, leaving crevices resembling a spiderweb; a hole was gouged into the sheer cliff, precipitating a landslide.

"Wha—?!"

Petelgeuse looked back, raising his voice in shock, eyes bulging as the beast person siblings landed, unleashing their combo attack.

The sleeves of their white robes fluttered as the brother and sister—TB and Mimi—roared on all fours.

The two had landed behind Petelgeuse, opposite Subaru, ignoring the madman as they pounded a roaring wave into the freshly cut cliff. The ferocious shock wave pulverized the rock face, the blasted pieces flowing downward like an avalanche, clamping shut the entrance of the Witch Cult's hideaway.

Rock and earth collapsed into a massive pile, and in an instant the cavern lair had become a tomb.

"Awesome, now they're buried alive—you guys can suffer and regret all that you've done!"

It was Subaru who raised his middle finger, teeth bared as he ferociously pounded the insult home.

As dust danced in the air, and the impact of the landslide was conveyed by the rumbling ground beneath their feet, it went without saying that the fate of the Witch Cultists inside the crushed, buried entrance was sealed. Their plight sent Petelgeuse gazing toward the heavens.

"How…how can THIS be…?"

The madman's throat trembled; he plucked at his head, causing droplets of blood to begin to flow. His violent gesture tore hair away, and as the skin on his head bled, Petelgeuse stamped the ground in fury.

"My fingers…cruelly, without mercy, without order, without warning, without provocation, without meaning, slain, murdered, slaughtered… Ahh, ahh! My brain is shaaaaaaking!"

"Woahoo, that old guy sure has a screw loose!"

"Sis, I think all the Witch Cultists are like that."

Viewing Petelgeuse's passion with childlike disgust, the siblings, Mimi and TB, exchanged sour looks and lighthearted banter. Of course, their intervention at that juncture was no coincidence or miracle. They were Subaru's reinforcements, coordinating with him according to plan.

The two had concealed their presence while accompanying Subaru and had responded to his signal to block the entrance to the Witch Cult hideout. Now the enemy was Petelgeuse alone, putting Subaru and company at an overwhelming advantage.

"…Ah yes, that is right—it is fine."

However, Petelgeuse's tears were just ceasing to flow as he calmly murmured. The madman slowly looked at the faces of Subaru and the others, one by one, and calmly laughed. And laughed—

"IT is fine. It IS fine—it is fine! Ahh, fine! FINE! Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!"

"Uhyaa!"

The way the madman's mood rose midway through his words, his voice turning shrill, made Mimi's shoulders jump.

Having exposed his madness, and coated with a thin layer of cold dread, Petelgeuse thrust the fingers of both hands into his mouth at the same time. Then, one by one, he crushed the fingertips with his teeth.

With all ten of his fingertips crushed, a considerable amount of blood flowed as Petelgeuse said, "It is fine. Now I uuunderstand! Now IS the time for struggle! For love, yes, for looooove!!"

Petelgeuse raked the ground with his fingernails, ignoring Mimi and TB as he declared war on Subaru alone. But Subaru shrugged his shoulders toward the madman, his face displaying none of the same militancy.

"…Sorry to disappoint when you're all worked up like this, but…"

"What is this?! I shall attend to this trial with love— This! Very! Moment!"

When Petelgeuse thrust out a bloody finger, proclaiming vehemently, Subaru said to him, "I'm having someone else take you on."

The answer made Petelgeuse's eyes widen. And the instant he tried to raise a skeptical voice—

"Yaaaaaaaa—!!"

Petelgeuse lifted his face in shock as the earsplitting cry crashed down from overhead.

And then the Sword Devil's blade bit into the madman from below the shoulder—slicing him in two.