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{3rd Pov}
The moment her face hovered above his, waiting for that kiss, she didn't get tenderness.
She got a fist.
A sharp, furious punch straight to the face.
The impact echoed through the quiet forest, breaking the oppressive silence like a thunderclap.
Satella's body jerked back, her veil fluttering as she stumbled, rolling across the dirt. She didn't scream.
She didn't fight back.
She simply let herself fall, more out of choice than pain — because even then, she refused to hurt him by resisting.
She could've stopped it easily.
She could've shattered his body with a thought.
But she didn't.
Because that's how much she loved him — enough to take the hit from the one person she adored.
Subaru didn't stop there.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest, ignoring the tremor in his arms, ignoring every ounce of love and pity he still held for the half-elf who shared her face — he pushed himself up, teeth gritted in pure fury.
And before Satella could rise, he lunged forward, tackling her to the ground.
In an instant, their positions reversed — Subaru now on top, panting, his knuckles bleeding, his eyes blazing with rage and despair.
The once helpless victim now pinned down the being who had played god with his life.
But even now, even with his hand raised, even with his glare burning holes into her, Satella didn't resist.
Her body trembled beneath him, yet her voice — calm, broken, and endlessly devoted — didn't stop.
"I love you… I love you… I love you…"
The words spilled out of her lips like a broken record, a haunting mantra that refused to die — no matter how much he wanted it to stop.
And hearing it, Subaru's fury only burned brighter.
But Subaru didn't care anymore.
He didn't care about reason, about consequences, about who or what she really was.
The floodgate had burst open, and all the rage, pain, and helplessness that had been festering inside him for so long finally exploded.
He roared, his voice breaking into a raw, guttural scream, and brought his fist down on her face.
Then again.
And again.
And again.
Each strike came heavier than the last — wild, desperate, overflowing with years of agony that had nowhere else to go.
His fists slammed into her with every ounce of strength his body had left, each blow carrying the weight of his despair.
Blood splattered across her cheek, her lips, her pale skin — but it wasn't hers.
It was his.
No matter how hard he hit her, her skin didn't bruise, didn't break.
Not even a single scratch appeared on her flawless face.
Her cheek still felt impossibly soft beneath his knuckles, warm like human skin, but unyielding — like punching through air that refused to acknowledge pain.
Meanwhile, Subaru's own hands were being destroyed.
His knuckles split open, blood gushed between his fingers, and small shards of bone dug into his skin.
Every punch made his hand tremble, the pain spreading up his arm like fire, but he didn't stop.
He couldn't stop.
"Why?!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the dead forest.
His words came out ragged, broken between sobs and fury.
"Why did you bring me to this world?!"
His next punch landed squarely on her jaw — useless, but satisfying.
"Why the hell did you make me fall in love with you?!"
His voice cracked as he shouted those words, the confusion and heartbreak bleeding into his tone.
His eyes darted between her face — her face, Emilia's face — and the Witch's calm, adoring expression.
The same silver hair.
The same eyes.
The same gentle features that once gave him hope.
He hated it.
He hated how beautiful she looked.
He hated how much she resembled the one person he wanted to protect.
He hated that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
"Why did I have to die over and over again?!" he screamed, his throat raw, his whole body shaking from rage and exhaustion.
"Why did you make me suffer like this?!"
He slammed his fists against her again, blood flying everywhere — painting the ground, the grass, and her skin with streaks of crimson.
And then, finally, he stopped.
His arms dropped limp to his sides.
His breath came out in ragged gasps, his vision blurry from tears and blood loss.
His hands were a mess of torn flesh and shattered knuckles, trembling as they hovered over her face.
Satella just lay there, staring up at him.
Her eyes — those same cursed, amethyst eyes — still gleamed with obsession.
She didn't defend herself, didn't move, didn't even blink.
Her expression hadn't changed — still soft, still affectionate, still completely mad.
But Subaru's expression had changed.
Gone was the desperation, the panic, the pleading look of the boy who once wanted to save everyone.
Now there was only emptiness.
His eyes were hollow — void of warmth, void of compassion, void of anything remotely human. What replaced it was something cold, hateful, and deeply unsettling.
His glare — sharp, cold, and venomous — could have frozen fire itself.
It was the kind of look that could make even Ram, the queen of sarcasm herself, shut her mouth and step back.
Subaru's entire body trembled, but his voice, when he spoke again, was frighteningly calm.
There was no sadness left.
No fear.
No hope.
Only disgust.
Only hatred.
And every bit of it was directed toward the woman lying beneath him — the Witch of Envy, the one who looked exactly like the girl he once loved.
"I hate you."
Those three words left Subaru's mouth like bullets — sharp, cold, and venomous enough to freeze even time itself.
For the first time, Satella — the Witch of Envy — actually stopped moving.
Her body stiffened, her smile froze, and her glowing eyes widened ever so slightly, as if those words had physically pierced her chest.
"I hate you," Subaru repeated, his voice trembling, not from fear, but from the sheer force of emotion burning inside him.
Then again — louder this time.
"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
The words spilled out of him like an eruption — wild, uncontrolled, unstoppable. It was his turn now.
Her endless "I love you"s that had once filled the air like a broken lullaby were now drowned out by something colder, harsher, crueler.
Every "I love you" she whispered was crushed by his "I hate you."
Every tender word she offered was torn apart by his rage.
Every ounce of affection she poured out was burned away by his hatred.
He said it again and again, his tone getting darker each time, his voice cracking with every repetition.
It wasn't just anger anymore — it was exhaustion, betrayal, despair, and disgust all fused into one.
"I hate you," he spat through gritted teeth, eyes bloodshot and wild.
"I hate you for bringing me here! I hate you for making me suffer! I hate you for ruining my life! I hate you for looking like her! I hate you for pretending to love me!"
He didn't care if she heard the words or not.
He didn't care if it hurt her.
He wanted it to hurt.
He wanted her to feel even a fraction of what he had endured because of her.
For the first time since her manifestation, the Witch of Envy looked shaken.
Her lips parted as if to speak, to repeat her eternal phrase of devotion — "I love you" — but the words didn't come out.
They died on her tongue, trembling there as if something inside her had shattered.
Her expression twitched — eyes flickering with a pain she didn't seem to understand.
Then, slowly, her lips moved again.
"I… love yo—"
The phrase broke midway, like a record skipping.
Her mouth quivered, her voice faltered, and for a brief moment, her tone shifted — no longer smooth and obsessive, but desperate, pleading, begging.
And then she said something she had never said before.
"Love me."
The words came out broken, almost childlike.
Then again, louder.
"Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. LOVE ME!"
Her voice rose, echoing through the forest, filled with pain — raw, trembling pain.
For the first time, the Witch of Envy sounded… hurt.
Not in body, but in soul.
The tone of her chant changed — it was no longer the obsessive repetition of a monster declaring ownership. It was the desperate cry of something that couldn't understand rejection.
But Subaru didn't care.
He didn't flinch.
He didn't soften.
He just kept going.
"I hate you."
"I hate you."
"I hate you."
Each repetition sounded colder, emptier, darker — until it didn't even sound human anymore.
And then, slowly, the bitterness began to twist into something else entirely.
Subaru started to laugh.
It was quiet at first — a low, shaky sound that escaped his throat like a dying breath.
But it grew louder, unhinged, mocking.
His shoulders trembled as his laughter filled the silence, mixing with the Witch's broken cries of "Love me!"
He laughed until his voice cracked, until his breath caught in his throat, until it was impossible to tell if he was laughing or crying.
The Witch begged for love.
The boy answered with hate.
And in that moment, both of them looked completely, utterly insane.
"Love you? Love you, bitch?" Subaru asked, his tone dripping with mockery, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and bitter amusement.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Satella repeated, each word desperate, frantic, her voice trembling like a malfunctioning echo stuck on one emotion — obsession.
She was begging.
The Witch of Envy, the most feared being in the world, was actually begging.
Subaru stared at her, and then, a twisted chuckle escaped his lips.
It wasn't the laugh of someone sane.
It was broken, bitter, filled with venom and exhaustion.
"Then that's sad for you," he said, his tone sharp and cruel, every word stabbing deeper.
"Because I will never love you."
Satella froze.
Her hands twitched.
Her breath hitched, and then, for the first time, actual tears rolled down her pale purple cheeks, sliding down from beneath her veil.
The Witch of Envy — the monster who devoured half the world — was crying.
Subaru tilted his head slightly, looking at her trembling figure with a smirk that didn't belong on a human face.
"Ah? Crying already?" he mocked, his voice rising.
"What's wrong now, huh? What are you gonna do? Kill me again? Kill my friends again? Maybe rip out my heart and crush it like last time?"
He laughed — loudly, violently, manically — his voice echoing across the clearing.
"Do it! Go ahead! Do it again! You think I care anymore?"
He glared at her, his grin widening as his pupils dilated with rage.
He raised his blood-covered hands and spread his arms wide, as if embracing the madness that had long since consumed him.
"Do I look like I give a fuck?" he spat, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade.
His laughter subsided, replaced by a chilling calmness that was far more terrifying.
His eyes were no longer trembling — they were steady, focused, and empty.
"No matter how many times you kill me," he said slowly, his voice low but filled with venom, "no matter how many of those people you made me care about die because of you, I'll keep going."
He stepped closer, glaring directly into her glowing amethyst eyes.
"I will keep hating you," he said, his voice dark and unwavering.
"I will hate you every single time I die. I will hate you every single time I'm forced to live. I will hate you when you kill everyone I love, when you tear apart everything I try to protect, when you torture me, when you break me, when you destroy everything I stand for."
He leaned forward, their faces only inches apart now, his tone dropping to an icy whisper.
"So no matter what you do to me… I'll keep hating you."
He paused, his lips curling into a crazed smile.
"I'll hate you for you," he said slowly, almost as if savoring every word.
"I'll hate you obsessively, endlessly, till the end of everything — till eternity itself collapses."
His words hit her like blades, cutting through her obsession and piercing straight into the core of her being.
Satella's breath trembled, her entire body shaking as if the weight of his hatred was too much to bear.
The Witch who once demanded his love was now left frozen — broken by the very emotion she had forced him to feel.
And Subaru, standing before her, covered in blood, with that sick smile on his face, didn't look like a victim anymore.
He looked like something far, far worse.
"Please," she muttered, her voice trembling, raw with desperation.
"Please… please, please, please, please!"
The Witch of Envy—Satella—was begging like a child clinging to something she could never have, her tone breaking between words, as if the very air refused to carry her voice.
She wasn't commanding or manipulating anymore.
She was pleading, begging for him not to hate her, begging for him to love her, just once, even if it was a lie.
Subaru gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw cracked audibly.
His hands trembled, blood still dripping from his knuckles.
"Stop your yapping, you bitch! You freak!" he shouted, his voice filled with unfiltered rage.
And then, without thinking, he slapped her across the face with all his strength.
The impact echoed through the still forest.
But as always, it wasn't her who was hurt.
The pain that followed only belonged to Subaru.
His palm burned, skin splitting open from the force, yet Satella didn't even flinch from the hit.
What broke instead was something inside her—her composure, her illusion of control, her delusion that love could fix everything.
For the first time in her existence, the Witch of Envy looked confused.
Her amethyst eyes flickered with something strange and unfamiliar—panic.
"Forgive me… forgive me, forgive me, forgive me!" she began chanting, her voice trembling, filled with fear.
The words spilled out of her uncontrollably, as if she was trying to force them to work, to undo everything she had done.
Her chant had changed.
The obsession remained, but now it was tainted with dread—she was terrified of losing him.
Terrified that the man she loved more than the world itself now despised her from the very core of his being.
Subaru looked down at her, his expression dark, merciless.
His voice came out as a low growl.
"Even if you got on your knees and kissed my feet right now," he said slowly, each word cutting through the air like a knife, "I would never forgive you."
He glared at her, his eyes bloodshot, veins visible on his forehead.
"You don't deserve forgiveness."
Satella's lips trembled, her words breaking apart as she struggled to form a coherent sentence. "I— I— I— will… will… will…" Her voice cracked as she tried to force the words out.
Subaru clenched his fists again, the blood from his split knuckles dripping down his wrist.
"You'll what?" he spat.
"You'll do anything?"
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and desperate, her tone rising to a feverish pitch.
"Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything!" she cried, her words overlapping, blurring together until they barely sounded human anymore.
She begged continuously, her body trembling, her tone bordering on hysteria, as if repeating those words over and over might somehow undo the hatred now burning in Subaru's eyes.
The Witch of Envy, the one who had cursed the world with her love, was now reduced to a sobbing, broken mess—begging the one man she loved to forgive her, while he stood there, glaring down at her with nothing left in his heart but disgust and rage.
"Do anything?" Subaru repeated, his tone dripping with venom and mockery, his lips curling into a twisted grin.
"You really said that, didn't you?" He leaned closer to her, glaring directly into those glowing amethyst eyes that once terrified him but now only disgusted him.
"You loved playing with my life, didn't you?" he sneered, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and deranged amusement.
He let out a dry, broken laugh.
"Maybe it's time we switch things up a little. Maybe it's my turn to play with yours!"
His tone turned dark, sharp, and unhinged.
"You've toyed with me, killed me, broken me, again and again—so why don't you beg for once? Beg me. Obey me. Serve me like the miserable dog you are!"
Subaru's laughter grew louder, maniacal, uncontrollable, echoing through the trees as if mocking the entire world. "
Hah! Then maybe, just maybe... I'll love you for it," he said, his grin stretching wider, his voice laced with pure insanity.
"Wouldn't that be poetic justice? The Witch of Envy herself groveling before the world's weakest man? Hah! 'The World's Strongest Witch Serving the World's Weakest Fool'—doesn't that sound like a nice anime title?"
He barked out a laugh so wild that even the shadows seemed to retreat from him. He had lost it completely.
His sanity, his pride, his restraint—everything had burned away, leaving only madness behind.
"So tell me," Subaru said, his voice suddenly calm but his eyes still blazing like a wildfire. "Will you do it? Will you become my slave?"
The words hung in the air like a curse.
For the first time, Satella—The Witch of Envy, the being who brought nations to ruin, who swallowed half the world in her love—hesitated.
Her lips quivered, trembling as if she couldn't comprehend what she had just been asked.
"I-I-I… I-I-I-I-I-I…" she stammered, her voice glitching like a broken record.
"Will? Will? Will? Will? Will? Will? Will?" she kept repeating, her words collapsing into incoherent fragments.
Her hands clenched tightly, her entire body trembling—not from fear of him, but from the dawning realization that she was no longer in control.
Her eyes lifted to meet Subaru's.
His hatred burned so intensely it almost looked alive, a fire she could never extinguish no matter how many times she whispered I love you.
And then… something inside her broke.
That same love that had once made her unstoppable now made her weak.
For the first time, she felt something she had never known before—submission.
"I…" she whispered, her voice cracking.
Then louder, more desperate, her tone hollow yet sincere.
"I will obey you."
[THIS IS NOT AN ACCURATE IMAGE BUT RATHER A SYMBOLIC ILLUSTRATION}
To be continued...