...
{3rd Pov}
When Subaru was suddenly transported into another distorted timeline, he found himself materializing high above the ground, right on top of a tree.
For once, he felt somewhat relieved that his body hadn't fused with the wood this time—an accident that could have will not ended him but certainly frustrated him before he even had the chance to take in his new surroundings.
"Are you all okay?" Subaru immediately asked, directing his concern toward the spirits accompanying him.
The sudden displacement through space and time had clearly rattled them, their forms flickering slightly as if still stabilizing.
'Ugh! Betty will definitely have to complain to Mother about this,' Beatrice whined, holding her head in frustration. 'In fact, Betty insists this ridiculous magic be adjusted properly! It's always so horribly fuzzy and uncomfortable every single time!'
'Hmph! Unlike you weaklings, this concubine is perfectly fine!' Gloria declared with an exaggerated huff, crossing her arms in pride.
'A little space-time distortion is nothing to one such as myself.'
Her arrogance earned her nothing but a few weary glances from the other spirits, most of whom could only manage small, groaning responses as they tried to recover.
Once Subaru felt confident that his companions weren't in immediate danger, he climbed down from the tree and looked around carefully.
His eyes widened the moment he caught sight of the Capital in the distance.
The once lively and bustling cityscape now appeared in a horrifyingly dilapidated state, buildings broken down, walls crumbling, and an oppressive atmosphere lingering in the air like an invisible poison.
As Subaru made his way closer and finally entered the Capital, the situation grew far worse than he could have imagined.
The streets were filled with scenes that turned his stomach.
Demi-humans walked around with heavy iron collars strapped tightly around their necks. Many of them had been stripped bare from the waist up, their bodies exposed and marked with bruises, scars, and lash marks.
The females among them wore nothing more than tattered rags that barely counted as clothing.
Meanwhile, the humans walked around freely with whips in their hands, striking the enslaved demi-humans openly and without restraint.
Subaru's fists clenched in disgust as he noticed some groups of humans laughing and jeering while forcing themselves on a female demi-human in plain sight of the public.
The worst part, the part that would made one's blood boil, was that the Knights—who were supposed to be symbols of order and justice—were not only ignoring the atrocities but watching them with complete indifference, as if this cruelty had become normal.
Gritting his teeth, Subaru expanded his senses outward, pushing his awareness as far as he could. Every direction he reached only confirmed the horrifying truth.
No matter where he turned his perception, he found more violence, more oppression, and more brutality.
It was not a case of isolated cruelty; the entire Capital was drowning in it.
His stomach churned and his face twisted in revulsion.
The sheer scale of the suffering, the endless parade of inhumanity, made him feel sick to his core.
In that moment, Subaru instantly understood the reality of his situation.
He had once again been thrown into another warped and broken reality.
Normally, his instincts would drive him to immediately investigate the cause—to search for the reason this timeline had spiraled into such a twisted state and to uncover what had gone wrong here.
However, after witnessing the endless atrocities being carried out right before his eyes, Subaru exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
The sound wasn't just fatigue—it carried a trace of resignation, a sign that he had already weighed the consequences of what he was about to do.
And then, in that very moment, he made a firm, irreversible decision.
Without hesitation, Subaru unleashed his aura.
His presence spread outward like a tidal wave, covering the entirety of the Capital in a suffocating blanket.
Every street, every corner, every alley—his sense of perception extended into them all.
His mind began processing the torrent of information at a speed far beyond normal human comprehension, filtering through every heartbeat, every thought, every malicious act.
With frightening precision, he locked onto those committing crimes, no matter how blatant or subtle.
It wasn't just the obvious cases that drew his attention—the rapists forcing themselves onto victims, the slavers striking demi-humans with whips, or the murderers spilling blood in backstreets.
Subaru's perception dug deeper.
Even the individuals who weren't directly committing physical atrocities were not spared.
Those who carried twisted, oppressive emotions—malice, cruelty, arrogance, superiority—were marked in his mind as guilty.
Was such a judgement truly fair? Of course not.
By any conventional measure of law or justice, what he was about to do would be considered absolute tyranny, a merciless execution without trial.
But in Subaru's mind, this wasn't about fairness anymore.
It wasn't about due process or leniency.
It was about a decision that needed to be made in this nightmare of a timeline.
"All of you… please die."
With that quiet but absolute command, Subaru invoked his Authority of Lust.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic.
Across the Capital, every single human who had been inflicting cruelty—whether through rape, violence, exploitation, theft, murder, or even passive complicity—collapsed.
Their lives were snuffed out in an instant, their bodies hitting the ground without warning.
There was no dramatic spectacle, no drawn-out suffering.
They simply ceased to live.
The terrifying part wasn't the act itself but the sheer potency behind it.
Subaru's Authority of Lust had already been deadly, but ever since it had fused in strength with the overwhelming power of his Authority of Wrath, it had become something far beyond what it once was.
Now, its power had grown more than tenfold, and the Authority carried with it a horrifying property—a permanent death effect.
This meant that anyone killed by its power could never be resurrected.
No form of healing, no revival magic, no divine intervention could undo it.
The only possible way would be to wield a power that could surpass the conceptual strength of a Sin Authority itself.
And in the world shaped under the system of Od Laguna, there was no denying the truth: Sin Authorities were among the most potent forces in existence, conceptually unrivaled by almost anything else.
The lives Subaru had just ended were gone for good unless he decided against it himself.
Once his purge was complete, Subaru did not hesitate in his next move.
With a flicker of psychic energy, he broke apart the cages, shackles, and bindings that restrained the demi-humans all across the Capital.
Chains shattered, locks snapped, and prison doors burst open with invisible force.
One by one, the oppressed were given a path out of their torment.
What happened from here, Subaru knew, was no longer up to him.
Their choices would define their futures.
Would they lose themselves completely, degrading into beasts driven only by hatred and revenge?
Would they choose to continue living as slaves, broken by years of subjugation and unable to imagine freedom?
Or would they try, for once, to step into the uncertain road of genuine freedom—not the kind defined by violence, but the kind defined by self-determination?
Subaru made no effort to guide them.
He had deliberately spared none of the knights, nobles, or high-ranking officials who enabled this rotten order.
The hierarchy that once controlled them had been annihilated in a single night.
If the demi-humans played their cards wisely, they not only had the opportunity to escape slavery but could possibly rise to power and reshape this broken Capital into something else entirely.
For Subaru, the blood he spilled and the deaths he caused were a necessary price.
What came after was no longer in his hands.
Subaru, after finishing his purge of the Capital, tried to locate Reinhardt.
He extended his senses several times, scanning every corner of the city, but no matter how hard he searched, there was no trace of the Sword Saint.
With a small sigh of frustration, Subaru finally gave up for the moment and retreated to a quiet, secluded place where he wouldn't be disturbed.
Once he confirmed it was safe, he sat down and activated one of his most terrifying abilities—his Authority known as Memories of World.
The Authority surged within him, dragging him into the collective remnants of this distorted reality.
Subaru directed it specifically toward Emilia, wanting to understand her perspective in this timeline. What he saw left him stunned.
The memories he accessed weren't recent at all. Instead, they belonged to Emilia from several decades in the past.
They stopped abruptly at a familiar and horrifying event—the brutal Witch Cult attack led by none other than Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti.
That wasn't what Subaru expected.
He frowned deeply and decided to probe deeper.
Switching the focus of his Authority, he then began sifting through the memories of this world's version of Subaru himself.
The flood of information nearly overwhelmed him as years upon years of experiences were crammed into his mind, showing him the bitter life this alternate version of himself had lived.
After struggling through it, Subaru finally understood exactly where he was.
'It is… Sloth IF.'
His chest tightened painfully at the realization.
He had not expected to end up in another of the infamous "IF" timelines.
But now, faced with the truth, he could no longer deny it.
As he absorbed more and more of the other Subaru's suffering, the emotions he felt were almost unbearable.
His heart ached in genuine sorrow for what the Subaru of this world had endured.
Without wasting more time, Subaru teleported directly to the location where this world's Subaru and Zarestia had taken up residence.
Carefully, he stayed hidden and observed from a distance.
The sight that met him struck him harder than he was prepared for.
The Subaru of this timeline was no longer the young man he remembered himself as—his health was deteriorating day by day, his body frail, his movements weak, and his spirit almost broken.
Inside his soul space, the spirits who shared his consciousness watched alongside him, their vision connected to his.
Even they, who had seen countless strange and horrifying things before, were taken aback by the scene.
What stood before them was an old man who bore an unmistakable resemblance to their master.
'Father… is that you? I mean, this timeline's version of you,' Gloria asked softly, her usual arrogance gone.
The seriousness in her voice was uncharacteristic, a sign that even she understood the weight of what they were witnessing.
'Uhh, yes… it is me,' Subaru answered, though his voice cracked slightly.
A weak smile crossed his face, but it was a hollow one.
After directly experiencing the memories of Sloth-Baru—the endless struggle, the crushing despair, the sacrifices—saying that Subaru was emotional would be an understatement.
The sorrow and empathy flooding his chest were beyond words.
But as he continued to watch, his expression darkened again.
He knew a cruel, unavoidable truth that couldn't be ignored.
Perhaps, Subaru thought bitterly to himself, the Subaru of this timeline would never receive the release or peace he was desperately hoping for, and the reason was cruel.
It was because of his Authority of Envy, which would not allow such a thing to happen.
Zero—Subaru's current self—after a moment of silence, decided to test something.
Convinced that his connection to the Witch had been severed long ago, he spoke firmly in his mind.
'I can Return by Death!'
"???"
Every single spirit inside his soul space froze instantly, their collective voices blending in confusion and shock.
Subaru repeated it, louder in his mind, pushing the words directly through the bond they shared.
'I can Return by Death! I can Return by Death! I can Return by Death! I have been stabbed! I have been sliced open! I have been brutally squashed! I have been burned alive! I have died from losing all of my vitality, drained until nothing was left! Every single one of those deaths, I remember them all!'
The spirits were overwhelmed, bombarded by the raw flood of emotions and images that bled through Subaru's telepathy.
Each memory carried a vivid weight—the agony of his deaths, the despair of his helplessness, and the suffocating loneliness that had accompanied him each time.
'Fa–Father, what are you talking about?!' Gloria stammered, her proud demeanor shattered, her voice trembling.
Then her eyes widened in realization, drawing on the vast otaku knowledge she had inherited from Subaru himself.
'Wait… you mean—you can travel through time? That's what you're saying, isn't it?!'
The other spirits, though slower to catch on, reached the same conclusion.
Beatrice, in particular, took a bit more time to process the meaning of his words.
However, being a Yin Spirit whose core specialty lay in time-space magic, she eventually understood.
The horrified look on her face confirmed it—she realized that Subaru wasn't exaggerating or speaking nonsense.
He truly possessed a power that broke the natural order of time itself.
Subaru cast one last look at this world's version of himself, the frail old man barely clinging to life, before teleporting away from that place.
He reappeared in a new location, safe and secluded, where he could speak freely.
"Why don't you all come out?" he said aloud, his tone carrying both exhaustion and seriousness.
"It's going to be a long tale, and you'll want to hear all of it directly."
…
One by one, the spirits materialized outside the soul space, each taking form as they surrounded him, their faces filled with anticipation, worry, and fear.
And soon enough, as Subaru began explaining the truth, their reactions came pouring out.
The story he told left them baffled, amazed, horrified, and furious all at once.
Return by Death.
A power unlike anything else, one that allowed Subaru to reset the flow of time upon his death, forcibly rewinding the world to a previous moment.
It wasn't an ability that he had been born with, nor was it something he had chosen.
It was a curse and a blessing given to him by the Witch of Envy herself, granted through the sharing of her Witch Factor of Envy.
The spirits trembled as they absorbed the implications.
They were horrified at the true cost of such a power.
Each reset meant Subaru's timeline was destroyed and replaced, erasing the version of reality where he had suffered and died.
It meant that every single time Subaru was killed, the world was rebuilt, but only he retained the memories.
The weight of countless deaths and tragedies had been forced onto his shoulders alone.
They were equally relieved when they learned that Subaru's struggles hadn't been entirely in vain. Each time he died, each time he pushed forward, he had grown stronger.
His mind, his body, and even his Authorities had developed further with every loop, making him more capable of surviving what awaited him.
But then came the anger—burning, undeniable, and directed not at Subaru, but at those who had taken his life again and again.
"Who?" Gloria's voice quaked, though her tone was sharp with fury.
"Yes, who killed you, in fact?!" Beatrice demanded, her usual bratty tone replaced by one of righteous anger.
"Tell us, Father! Tell us their names!" another spirit shouted, her energy crackling in agitation.
Every spirit around Subaru demanded the same thing, their voices overlapping in outrage.
They wanted to know who had been responsible for his suffering, who had dared to inflict endless pain and torment upon the one they called their master, their father, their anchor.
The spirits' fury was reaching its peak. Gloria's entire body trembled, her eyes burning with rage as she practically growled inside Subaru's soul space.
"They will fucking obliterate them!" she spat, her voice filled with venom.
'How dare they harm my father?! How dare those fucking mongrels do such a thing?! Just give me their names, Father! Once we return, I swear on my very existence, I shall tear apart their Od and destroy them at the root!'
But Subaru remained silent. His face hardened, and after a long pause, he finally spoke with a heavy tone.
"If they haven't committed that crime here… are they truly criminals yet?"
His words cut through the air like a blade, forcing the spirits to momentarily freeze.
It was a logical question, but logic had no place in the boiling fury that consumed them.
"It doesn't matter!" Gloria snapped back almost instantly, her voice shaking the entire soul space.
"Father, those mongrels have already hurt you! That alone speaks volumes about their character. Such insects are unforgivable! They must be extinguished, wiped out without hesitation!"
"Betty agrees with Goldie!" Beatrice chimed in, her small fists clenched tightly, her usual proud tone trembling with suppressed anger.
"In fact, no one hurts Subaru's Betty and gets away with it! Not a single person!"
"Must… protect… Daddy…" Sylphy muttered, her usually calm and soft demeanor now warped into something dangerous, like a child clinging to the only thing she held dear.
"Umu! Then I'll burn them all into ash! I'll incinerate every last one of them without mercy!" Agni roared, his fiery aura flaring dangerously.
"I'll fucking drown them all," Aqua said coldly, her tone dripping with venom, waves of bloodlust radiating from her.
"I'll flatten them into the ground… and then I'll shove their dicks straight up their own asses!" Gaea declared with no hesitation.
The sheer vulgarity of her statement made every spirit in the space pause, turning their heads toward her in silence.
"…What?" Gaea asked defensively, glaring back at them.
There was a moment of silence before, one by one, the other spirits all nodded in unison.
"Agreed!" they said firmly, their collective voices echoing together.
Subaru pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh.
Their loyalty was overwhelming, and their rage was understandable, but this wasn't the path he wanted them to go down, at least not when he had punished those who killed him for their crimes already.
"How about," Subaru said at last, his voice calmer now, "I tell you what really happened to me from the beginning… and then I'll also explain what has happened to this timeline's Subaru. You'll understand why I'm hesitating."
The storm of rage quieted.
One by one, the spirits fell silent, their blazing tempers cooling just enough to hear him out.
They gathered closely, listening intently, their expressions still tense but open to his words.
And so Subaru began his tale.
He explained everything, every single detail of his nightmare.
The several times he had died, the loops that had reset, the pain that tore him apart, and the despair that consumed him.
He told them about being stabbed, sliced apart, crushed, burned alive, drained of vitality—ten separate deaths, each one seared into his memory like scars carved into his soul.
As he spoke, the spirits' anger only grew sharper.
Their rage shifted into targets. Elsa, Roswaal, even Rem—none were spared from their list of vengeance.
Every name Subaru mentioned became etched into their minds as an enemy who needed to be destroyed for daring to harm him.
But when Subaru shifted the story, when he began describing the life of this world's Subaru—the one from the Sloth IF—their reactions began to change.
Compared to their master, this world's Subaru hadn't been blessed with growth through suffering. He hadn't grown stronger after each death.
He hadn't gained new powers or refined his resolve.
Instead, he had simply endured. Again, and again, and again.
Death after death, agony after agony, with no reward, no progress, and no hope.
When the spirits realized this, when they understood just how many times this Subaru had died without gaining the strength to stand against it, their faces paled.
Horrified silence filled the soul space.
The anger that had burned so fiercely inside them a moment ago was replaced by something far heavier—pity, sorrow, and dread.
The spirits' emotions grew even more tangled when Subaru continued his explanation.
They listened in silence as he told them about Rem—how, in one loop, she had brutally murdered him without hesitation, yet in another, she had grown to love him with all her heart.
The very same girl who once drove a blade through his body would later become his most devoted ally, someone who stood at his side through countless struggles, and eventually, even married him.
This revelation left the spirits conflicted.
The idea that the same person who had once ended Subaru's life in cold blood could later become someone precious to him, someone he cherished, was difficult to process.
Some of them wanted to condemn her outright, but hearing how deeply Subaru had come to value her left them silent and uncertain.
Beatrice, however, was the one most shaken.
It wasn't just Rem's contradiction that bothered her—it was herself.
The Beatrice of this world had failed Subaru, had remained stagnant, had not grown the way she herself had.
Subaru's Beatrice looked disappointed, but underneath that, there was a deep sense of shame gnawing at her chest.
She realized that this world's Beatrice was not so different from who she had been before meeting Subaru—the same cold, selfish, and distant spirit who pushed others away.
That truth made her lower her gaze, feeling guilt even though she wasn't the one who had committed the failure.
In the end, after much silence and deliberation, the spirits reached a conclusion.
The situation was too complex to divide cleanly into villains and allies, too layered with contradictions and second chances.
But they made one decision clear among themselves: they would only forgive the people Subaru himself had chosen to forgive in the past.
Anyone else—especially anyone in the future who dared to harm him—would not be tolerated.
They had no intention of granting mercy to those who inflicted pain on their master.
Subaru, meanwhile, considered his options. With his Authorities and his power, he could have easily escaped. He could have abandoned this timeline altogether and traveled away into another reality without looking back. But he didn't. Instead, he chose to remain. He wanted to wait.
For a few days, he stayed hidden and observed, knowing the end was near for this world's Subaru.
His body was failing, his breaths were shallow, and his strength was nearly gone. Zero—this Subaru—hoped that just like in the Pride IF, this version of himself would be granted the release of death.
He hoped that, even if it meant his soul would rest at Satella's side for eternity, at least he would finally be free of his endless suffering.
Zero and his spirits thought they had prepared themselves for this outcome, but when the moment truly arrived, it was nothing like what they expected.
Watching Subaru's life gradually fade before their eyes tore them apart.
When his chest rose and fell for the final time, when the frail light left his eyes, tears began streaming down Zero's face uncontrollably.
The spirits, too, wept openly inside of his soul space.
They had sworn themselves to protect him from every threat imaginable, yet here was a fate they could not stop—old age, the cruelest inevitability of all.
The mere possibility of losing Subaru forever in such a helpless way horrified them.
They realized with dawning terror that, although Zero himself was effectively immortal thanks to the combination of so many Authorities—especially Capella's copied Authority of Lust and his own Authority of Gluttony—this did not mean he was invincible to despair.
And then came the final sight.
As this world's Subaru exhaled his last breath, his partner Zarestia broke completely.
She collapsed over his lifeless body, tears streaming endlessly as she clung to him.
Her cries echoed through the room, raw and broken, her expression twisted in grief as she sobbed uncontrollably into his chest.
Zarestia, a being who had slaughtered countless lives without hesitation, a spirit who had never once considered the death of mortals as something worth grieving, was now sobbing uncontrollably.
For the second time in her entire existence, she was crying for the loss of someone she truly loved.
She had already accepted him, not just as a companion, not just as a partner, but as her husband in her heart.
To her, Subaru was not simply a contractor or an ally—he was family. He was the one she had chosen.
She loved him, with all the stubborn intensity her existence could muster.
Her memories came rushing back in fragments, tormenting her even as she cried.
The days of her youth spent with Subaru and Rem, when the three of them shared moments of warmth and laughter that felt almost like a dream.
And later, the countless years she spent nesting alongside the aged Subaru, watching his body weaken even as his will remained strong.
To her, those days had been the most precious, the most fulfilling period of her long and merciless life.
He had given her meaning that no slaughter, no conquest, no nest of corpses could ever compare to.
And now… he was gone.
As she wept, the world itself began to shift.
The ground cracked, the sky dimmed, and reality itself started to disintegrate piece by piece.
Zarestia, blinded by grief, did not even notice that everything around her was fading away.
Zero, however, noticed immediately.
His eyes widened, and without a second's hesitation, he acted.
With a sharp command of his Psychic power, he forced Zarestia into unconsciousness, ensuring she would not resist what he had to do next.
He then released his Aura, wrapping it tightly around her fragile form.
The destruction of the timeline was erasing everything within it, and if left unprotected, she too would have been reduced to nothing, erased as if she had never existed.
Zero had already realized something crucial: because of his Return by Death, he was immune to the erasure caused by this world's Subaru activating the power upon death.
His spirits, being housed within his soul and essentially a part of him, were also unaffected.
But Zarestia was different.
She was not connected to either Subaru's essence, and thus she was not protected by default.
Even Reinhardt, the Sword Saint, the strongest existence of this world, would not have been immune to this phenomenon.
So Zero did the only thing he could—he masked her presence with his own, shielding her essence with the full force of his Aura.
It was risky, dangerous even, but it was the only way to prevent her from being annihilated.
To his relief, the desperate gamble worked.
While unconscious Zarestia's form destabilized, collapsing into her most basic and vulnerable state—an orb of pure white light, she was now immune to timeline erasure.
That orb gently floated down and landed in Zero's palm, trembling faintly as if still experiencing it's grief over Subaru's death even when unconscious.
Zero let out a deep breath, relief washing over him for a moment.
But it was short-lived. His thoughts quickly turned to what this world's Subaru had already lost. Rigel and Spica, children of Subaru in this world, had been erased completely by the reset.
The knowledge cut deep, filling him with both sorrow and anger.
His jaw tightened as his gaze darkened.
'So you won't even let him rest, huh?' Zero thought bitterly, his teeth grinding.
He directed his rage toward the true perpetrator behind this endless cycle of suffering.
The world around him had already been reduced to a nightmarish reflection.
The streets, the homes, the Capital itself—everything was swallowed and reshaped into an endless void of blackened ground and swirling purple haze.
It was no longer the world of men, but a twisted domain that could only be described as a shadowed grave.
Satella's Shadow Garden.
Old Subaru's body, the frail vessel that had carried him for so long, had already vanished completely.
Nothing of his flesh or bone remained. What lingered in the oppressive darkness was only his soul, faintly glowing, refusing to pass on to the afterlife.
And then she appeared.
From within the choking mist of violet fog, a figure emerged, her form blurred and indistinct, yet undeniably feminine.
She moved with the weight of inevitability, her presence drowning everything in suffocating silence.
The Witch who had bound Subaru's fate from the very beginning.
The woman who refused to let him rest even in death.
The Witch of Envy.
"I love you."
The words came at last, spilling from her lips after more than half a century of silence and waiting.
"I love you."
Those words were not simply an expression of her desire.
They were not a confession in the ordinary sense.
They were her obsession made manifest, the culmination of everything she had been holding onto for all these long years.
"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you—"
Her voice droned on endlessly, repeating the same three words over and over until they lost their meaning, until they became more like a curse than a vow.
It was not affection she was speaking anymore, but an uncontrollable compulsion that echoed like a rhyme, breaking the air with its madness.
And then—
"No! No! No!"
A cry ripped out, raw and agonized.
Subaru, who had regained his awareness in a soul-state, screamed desperately.
His entire being trembled as he remembered the cursed ability, the power that he had once relied upon but had forced himself to forget.
The ability that had chained him to endless suffering.
His Return by Death.
As his body began to reconstitute in the void, reshaping itself piece by piece, he realized something horrifying.
This time, his body was not the frail shell of an old man—it was younger, restored by nearly half a century.
The loop had almost triggered, the cursed ability forcing itself back into effect.
Natsuki Subaru was on the verge of returning by—
"What do you think you are doing, bitch?"
The words slammed into the moment like a hammer, harsh and unrestrained.
The Witch stopped immediately.
Her obsessive chant fell silent, her movements freezing. Slowly, she turned her gaze toward the voice, and her eyes widened in disbelief.
Standing before her was a man—a second Subaru.
His face was twisted in fury, tears trailing down his cheeks, yet his golden eyes glared with such intensity that even her suffocating obsession wavered for an instant.
His gaze cut into her, piercing her amethyst-purple eyes without fear.
For a brief moment, Satella—no, the Witch of Envy—could not move.
Her entire existence halted as her mind processed what she was seeing.
Another Subaru.
It was impossible.
There should not be two.
Yet there he stood, undeniable, defiant.
She turned her head in confusion, looking back and forth between the soul of the Subaru she had bound for half a century and the one who now stood in front of her.
Again, her eyes darted between them—Subaru, then him, then back again.
Her gaze became sharper, digging deeper, almost as if she was attempting to strip him bare.
She stared into him with an intensity that went beyond sight, an obsessive probing that reached all the way down to his soul.
And then she found it.
She realized, with absolute certainty, that the soul in front of her was identical to Subaru's.
Not similar. Not close. Not an imitation.
It was exactly the same soul.
But what confused her further was that it was not a copy, nor an incomplete fragment and had a different colour as well, as if his soul was double of Subaru.
It was as though someone else's soul had been seamlessly merged with his, woven together so perfectly that no distinction could be made.
For the Witch of Envy—whose entire existence was defined by obsession, fixation, and jealousy—that realization was unbearable.
The foundation of her fixation shattered in an instant.
The Envy that had driven her, that had sustained her, that had consumed her, instantly broke.
"Mine! Mine! Mine!"
The Witch of Envy screamed with maddening desperation, her voice reverberating through the empty void of the Shadow Garden.
Her words weren't spoken in reason; they were shrieks of obsession.
In that very instant, countless shadowy hands manifested around her, spreading like an endless swarm.
They surged forward with frightening speed, reaching out to grab Subaru, to consume him, to drag him into her possession.
She didn't care who this Subaru was.
She didn't care why there was suddenly a second Subaru standing before her, nor did she waste time questioning how his soul felt slightly different.
To her, those details were irrelevant, meaningless.
As long as he was Subaru, as long as his soul was Subaru, then he belonged to her.
That was her entire reasoning, the one and only truth she recognized.
"FUCK OFF, WITCH!"
Subaru roared furiously, raising his middle finger without hesitation, the vulgar gesture cutting through her obsessive cries like a blade.
And in the next moment, the air itself twisted.
From behind his back, a wave of shadowy hands burst out, identical in form to hers.
His shadows collided directly with hers, the void rattling as two overwhelming forces clashed, each impact echoing like thunder.
Then, without warning, a surge of energy erupted from Subaru.
A radiant yet terrifying pink aura burst outward, flooding the entire Shadow Garden.
The very fabric of the space quivered under the pressure, shuddering as if it could collapse at any moment.
The Witch of Envy froze.
Her countless hands halted mid-motion, twitching unnaturally as something new filled the air. Her form trembled.
She could feel it—an emotion so overwhelming, so potent, that even she, a Witch, hesitated.
It was wrath.
Subaru's wrath.
And it was not ordinary anger.
It was not a fleeting temper.
It was pure, unrestrained fury given shape, amplified by his Authority, sharpened into a weapon that could smother the will of anyone who stood before it.
In the blink of an eye, Subaru vanished from his position.
One instant he was standing far away, the next he was directly before her.
No grandiose battle, no drawn-out exchange of spells or abilities.
It wasn't even a fight—it was domination.
He reached out, his hand snapping around her throat with terrifying ease, and with a single effortless motion, he lifted her off the ground.
The Witch of Envy's feet kicked helplessly in the air, her hands clawing at his grip, but there was no escape.
At that same moment, his other powers roared to life.
His Psychic energy slammed into her mind, piercing deep and tearing apart her defenses, while his Aura crashed against her body like a tidal wave, pressing her down with unbearable weight.
"Arghhhhhh!"
The Witch of Envy shrieked in agony, her voice cracking and breaking as her form began to destabilize.
The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She was not simply being restrained—she was being erased.
And since she was Satella's second personality, the fractured half that embodied her darkest obsession, even the true Satella felt that pain ripple through her very existence.
The change came quickly.
Her screaming face twisted as the darkness drained away from her body.
Her long, chaotic black hair shimmered, the color bleeding out strand by strand until it turned into flowing silver.
Her crazed, glowing purple eyes dimmed, softening into a gentler, calmer amethyst.
The suffocating presence of the Witch of Envy crumbled, leaving behind someone else entirely.
She was no longer the Witch of Envy. She was Satella.
Subaru released his grip, letting her body drop to the ground like a discarded doll.
She landed hard, coughing violently, struggling for air as if she were a mere mortal woman and not a being of incomprehensible power.
Her body trembled, her hands clutching at her throat as she tried to process what had just happened.
Slowly, her wide eyes looked up at him, confusion and fear mixing with something else—fragile hope.
Her lips parted, her voice hoarse as she managed to ask, "Who… who are you?"
For a long moment, Zero said nothing.
He simply stared at her, his golden eyes unyielding, his expression heavy with the weight of countless experiences.
Then, without speaking aloud, he extended his hand and let his psychic ability flow.
His energy reached into her mind, transferring fragments of his memories directly into her consciousness.
Her body shivered as the information rushed through her, showing her visions of another world, another path, another Subaru.
Her breath caught as she realized the truth.
He was Subaru.
He was undeniably Subaru.
But he was not the same Subaru she had clung to all this time.
He was Subaru from another timeline, another existence, carrying the same soul yet molded by entirely different choices, burdens, and outcomes.
Her expression cracked, disbelief and shock flooding her gentle features as she whispered silently to herself—because now she understood.
"Can he return to the previous loop?" Zero asked in a sharp, almost emotionless tone.
Satella lowered her head in shame, her trembling hands clutching at her chest.
Her silver hair fell forward, veiling part of her expression as she whispered, "No… the timeline is already erased. What is gone cannot be reached again. He can only return to the past. The Witch of Envy… she erased every single checkpoint that existed after that time. The only point left… is from half a century ago."
Zero's golden eyes narrowed dangerously, becoming colder as he stared at her.
His expression carried no pity, no warmth, only judgment.
His words cut through the heavy silence like steel.
"I will not kill you. That is not my decision to make, nor do I have the right to do so. However, I have sealed the Witch of Envy. She will no longer be able to act on her own, not unless she is freed. In the future, it will not be my choice. It will be up to your Subaru—whether he decides to destroy Envy and save you, forgive both of you, or end both of you."
Satella flinched at his words.
Her entire body shuddered, and after a moment of hesitation, she slowly nodded.
Her voice shook as she replied, "I… I will accept whatever judgment he gives me. Whether it is mercy or execution, I will not resist. Because after all the pain, after all the suffering, after all the endless torment he has endured… he deserves rest. But… because of me… because of the other half of me, because of my Envy… he will be forced to suffer all of that again. He will be hurt again, die again, break again."
Her voice cracked as tears spilled freely from her eyes.
The weight of her guilt crushed her until she could no longer hold herself upright.
In the next moment, she fell to her knees, lowering herself fully into a dogeza before Zero.
Her forehead touched the ground, her body trembling with desperation as her tears dripped onto the floor of the Shadow Garden.
"Please… Please, help my Subaru!" she begged, her words raw, her voice hoarse from emotion.
"Even if you despise me, even if you hate everything I am, please… save him. He deserves to live. He deserves more than what I gave him."
Zero's gaze did not soften.
He remained still for a long moment before finally replying in a calm yet firm voice, "I would have done it either way. That is not something you needed to ask. But from now on, the situation is different. Now that you are in full control, without Envy suppressing or overwhelming you, the responsibility falls to you. You will have to choose the most advantageous checkpoints for him. You will have to guide him, not hinder him. If you want to atone, then use this cursed ability to give him the best possible chance, and try to help him in every way you can."
"...Thank you," Satella whispered, her body shaking as relief and sorrow mixed in her voice.
Slowly, she raised her head, her eyes glistening with tears.
She turned her gaze toward her Subaru—the one who had collapsed unconscious nearby.
Her heart clenched painfully as she crawled forward on her knees, inch by inch, until she reached him.
Gently, she placed her hand on his cheek, brushing her fingers across his skin as though afraid he might vanish if she touched him too roughly.
With trembling lips, she leaned down and softly pressed a kiss onto his lips, closing her eyes as the tears continued to fall.
Her voice was faint but resolute as she whispered, "If you hate me, then that is fine. If you curse me, if you despise me for everything I have done, I will not resist. I will still love you. I will love you until the day you deliver your final judgment upon me. Even if that judgment is to kill me, even if that is how it ends, I will accept it."
She slowly turned her head and looked at Zero.
Her expression was heavy with determination, though her tears had not stopped. Zero, maintaining his cold demeanor, gave her a single nod.
That was enough for her.
And then—reality snapped.
The world shook violently as if it had been torn apart by invisible hands.
Time itself folded in on itself, pulling everything backward.
The scenery dissolved, darkness rushed in, and then it all rewound.
Natsuki Subaru had Returned by Death.
...
After Subaru's return to the timeline fifty years earlier, Zero immediately began working without wasting a single moment.
The very first thing he did was travel directly to Zarestia's nest.
Upon arrival, he sought out her present self and forcibly merged her with the version of her from the destroyed future timeline.
The process was rough, but necessary.
Furthermore, he applied his own Aura to heal and stabilize her soul and spirit body.
As a result, she not only regained her complete control over all four elements but also achieved a level of power surpassing anything she had ever possessed in this world.
With her enhanced strength, Zarestia was elevated to the position of the strongest spirit in this timeline.
While Zarestia was still reeling in confusion and panic over the sudden disappearance of Old Subaru's corpse, Zero quietly turned away and left her nest without offering any explanations.
His focus was already on the next objective.
Next, he made his way to Crusch's mansion, where this world's Subaru was lying unconscious in a room.
The boy was muttering and repeating, over and over, the names of the family he had built in another life, clinging to them as though saying their names would somehow keep them alive in his memory. Zero approached him, and with precision, knocked him out temporarily to avoid resistance.
He carefully extracted a portion of Subaru's Od and a small sample of his blood. Immediately afterward, he used his Aura to heal the boy, repairing the damage to his body and reinforcing his vitality so that he would be strong enough to continue.
With those samples secured, Zero began his next task.
He sought out this world's Yin Sword and Life Sword, rare weapons tied to the fundamental forces of existence.
He retrieved them both, melted them down, and combined them together into a single entity.
To complete the forging process, he infused the merged weapon with Subaru's Od and blood, creating a brand-new weapon that resonated perfectly with this world's Subaru, a weapon designed exclusively for him.
Only after all of this was complete did Zero allow himself a deep breath.
His golden eyes hardened with determination as he thought about what came next. "Even if I have to destroy this entire kingdom… I will make him smile again," he swore to himself.
It was not just a promise—it was a vow etched into his very soul.
(A/N: Subaru is a chad, and a bro, fr, fr.)
…
Time passed.
After parting ways with Subaru—having helped him achieve the impossible by slaying the White Whale—Zero turned his attention toward what he considered the final and greatest gift he could prepare for this world's Subaru.
He pushed his powers further than ever before.
Calling upon every single one of his Abilities possible for this act, he focused especially on his Aura and forced it to transcend the natural laws of cause and effect.
By doing this, he reached into the destroyed timeline, and with sheer force of will, he pulled out the souls of Rigel and Spica.
These were Subaru's children, lost to erasure, and reclaiming them required a feat bordering on insanity.
The cost was tremendous.
To generate the necessary amount of Aura to perform such a miracle, Zero devoured an entire mountain, breaking down its mass into raw energy.
He converted the matter into Aura vast enough to envelop the entire world for a brief moment.
Even then, the strain was catastrophic.
His soul suffered deep damage from the process, tearing at his essence until he was left on the verge of collapse.
If not for his peculiar ability to replenish his Aura by consuming matter endlessly, the damage would have been permanent, leading inevitably to the gradual collapse of his soul.
But in the end, he succeeded.
Rigel and Spica's souls were saved.
To ensure their future, Zero created a safeguard.
Using his Aura, he left an imprint—an instruction—within the Od Laguna itself, weaving a special dimension where the children's souls could safely reside until the time was right.
There, the souls of Rigel and Spica would remain dormant, patiently waiting.
When the day arrived in the future, when Subaru and Rem finally mated in this world, Rigel and Spica would return, reborn as their children once again.
That was his final gift, the proof of his devotion to Subaru's happiness.
At last, satisfied that he had done everything within his power, Zero left this timeline behind.
His work here was finished.
His search for Reina continued.
To be continued...
(A/N: The next chap will be last of this timeline)
💬 (A/N: Support the Author!)
Hey everyone! 💖
If you're enjoying my stories, check out my Re:Zero fanfic — Re:Zero: The Great Sage!
You can also join my Membership Program to get early chapters, exclusive stories, and cool illustrations!
🌟 Membership Tiers
💠 $2.5 — Trial Tier
5 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
3 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
3 chapters of Pride if Alternative
5 chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
💎 $5 — Respected Member
12 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
7 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
12 chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
🔥 $10 — Loyal Member
20 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
15 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
All available chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
Versatile Mage: Infinite Resources (Exclusive Fic Chapters)
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
👑 $15 — Royal Member (Sold Out!)
30 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
All available chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
All available chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
Versatile Mage: Infinite Resources chapters
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
💫 $20 — Mommy Minerva's Sugar Child (Sold Out!)
35 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
All available chapters of every other fic
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
⚔️ $30 — King Arthur Tier(Sold Out)
All previous perks
Special small animated scenes from my fanfics
My eternal thanks 🙏)
https://discord.gg/Xb47VnFUpQ
https://patreon.com/AkrosZero
PS: The slots for Royal Tier will be open until tmrw night then I will close them to match the current number of members, btw the higher Tiers are already sold and I am already baffled by people joining yearly because of 30% discount.
C'mon if you join yearly I will only earn 50%! Have some mercy!
And I just realized how much you can abuse this when the December discount comes, so I will decrease the discount to 10% before Christmas, hehe.