A shadow like a wave, a jet black passion, surges towards Subaru and the others.
Subaru was hanging on to the branches of the tree trunk, with no way to escape. He glanced over at Garfiel, who should have been beside him,
"Garfiel?!"
He let go of the branch he was holding on to, and without a word of thought, he free-falls to the ground. The shadow-covered ground tries to engulf his feet. But Garfiel doesn't care, and slams both his hands down into the ground, and when his limbs touch the ground,
"How about before you were swallowed by the shadow, ora――!!"
With a roar, Garfiel raises both of his arms that were stuck into the ground.
And, following that movement, the ground turned up, and the earth shrouded in shadow turned over on an unimaginable scale― the wave of shadow tore the ground that was on the verge of being swallowed up in black away, and slammed it into the ground, aiming to cancel each other out in an overly forceful move of strength.
Clods of earth flew up, and with an explosion the earth tumbled up and crashed into the shadow. For just an instant the impact was counterbalanced by the shadow, which should have had no mass, and just like with the previous building, the shadow swallowed up the earth storm and grew in size.
The waves of shadow grew taller, wider, and deeper in color. The more the shadow consumed, the more vicious it became - but a small stagnation was born.
"If you don't get off quickly, I'll leave you behind!"
"Whoa--!"
Subaru watched the scene in amazement, but was unable to withstand the sudden impact and was knocked from the tree to the ground. Just before he hit the ground, Garfiel grabbed him by the waist with his hand, causing him to suddenly brake. His eyes spun, he realized what had happened,
"You're not going to kick me down, are you!?"
"Your judgement is delayed. It seems you're obsessed with me. Regardless of me, if you get caught you'll be swallowed up in an instant and that'll be the end of you."
Grabbing Subaru, Garfiel grabbed the shadow that was growing in power before his eyes with his chin and laughed ferociously. Following its gaze, he saw the source of the shadow beyond the waves - a vague outline of a person, reaching its arms out towards him with single-minded concentration.
"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--"
It was strange that the muffled voice still reached me like a whisper, even at this distance.
It was as if the distance between them didn't even matter, and the abnormality that came at them ignoring the laws of physics was horrifying to Subaru.
Looking at that shadow, with such strong, dark passion directed at him, all that rose up in Subaru's heart was an unbearable feeling of loathing and discomfort.
That was the reason he was able to "Return by Death", and in a way, it was also his benefactor.
But it's impossible. I can't accept it. My body, my soul, rejects it.
I would rather jump into the mouth of the white whale than be embraced by that shadow.
"Garfiel, what will you do...?"
"We have no choice but to retreat! We can't rely on that bastard Roswaal. Ram, the old hag… I don't think the others were able to resist that shadow either."
Garfiel grunted in frustration, chattering his teeth.
Unlike Subaru, he had seen with his own eyes those close to him, such as Ram and Lewes, being swallowed up by the shadows.
For Subaru, who harbours hateful memories of Garfiel, seeing him in such grief was an extremely complicated situation.
"----!"
If the wriggling shadow was a giant palm, then its fingertips suddenly reached out towards the two of them. Garfiel dodged at the last moment by backing away, still holding on to Subaru. The amount of shadow soaking the ground it stepped on was still tiny, and if he could put some distance between them and the central shadow, it would at least be possible to avoid being instantly sunk into a bottomless swamp.
"Even if we retreat, we're still in a difficult position... What was the result of our attack?"
"The shadow dress won't tear. It would be a different story if I hit it with all my might, but I can't find the opportunity to do so."
Subaru and Garfiel exchanged opinions as they jumped back, each step large, and passed through the gaps between the trees. Their speed left the shadow behind on the other side of the forest, but they were unable to shake off the shadow that was supposed to be slowly chasing them.
Is it the power of the shadows that is preventing him from completely erasing the sense of distance? And there is still something strange happening.
"...Dammit."
Garfiel spat out his saliva and cleared his throat in irritation.
His shoulders were shaking with his heavy breathing, sweat was pouring from his forehead, and every one of his movements gave off an unusual feeling of discomfort.
It didn't seem like he was tired from carrying the weight of the Subaru.
Subaru frowned at this. Seeing his reaction, Garfiel clicked his tongue and said,
"My body feels abnormally heavy. The shadow is stealing the life force from those around me."
"Is that the shadow beneath my feet?!"
Dismayed by Garfiel's answer, Subaru's feet were unsteady on the ground and he shook as he looked at the shadow below him - a shadow that seemed to cover the grass no matter how far he went, and he shivered.
And now, all too late, I realized the true threat of the shadow.
"Hey, you can't be――"
--The forest is getting lower.
The trees in the forest surrounding the Sanctuary were tall, their foliage dense enough to hide the moon and stars. Now the sky above the forest was clearly visible.
The trees hadn't been chopped down, nor had their branches been burned off, but the forest's greenery remained standing, swaying softly in the wind.
--The height of the forest was so low that if Subaru jumped, his head would probably fall out of it.
"The forest is sinking--!?"
Subaru: "That's what happens if you're not constantly on the move. The more you swallow, the more powerful you've become, I guess――!"
The shadow that spread throughout the Sanctuary grew in power, and the entire forest began to be engulfed in pitch black.
No matter where I looked, front, back, left, right, there was no area that the shadows didn't reach. Even if I left the barrier or the forest, I felt such despair that it seemed as if there was no end to it.
Subaru was so distracted by the unprecedented turn of events and the appearance of the Witch of Jealousy that he misjudged the threat level of his opponent.
That was the Witch of Jealousy - the worst calamity that once engulfed half the world and still leaves deep scars of fear on the planet today.
"You're not seriously planning on expanding the scale to half the world, are you...?"
"There's a story that it swallowed up an entire country. It's funny, but there's no need for you to know about it."
Garfiel chuckled and agreed with Subaru's imagination.
The fatigue on his face was due to the negative effects of the witch's shadow, the increased speed of the shadow's erosion, and the increasing sensation of the earth sinking.
His feet sink heavily as he takes a step to escape, and the strength required to take the next step increases dramatically. Normally, Garfiel would be able to escape on his own, but...
"Garfiel, his target is me. So..."
"If you dare tell me to drop it, I'll bite off your fingers one by one with my fangs, hey."
Subaru was speechless when his proposal was rejected before he could finish his sentence. However, he quickly shook his head to regain his momentum, glared at the sweaty face, and
「This is no time for that! At this rate we'll both be swallowed whole! If I face him, I should be able to buy ourselves a little bit of time. And in that opportunity...」
"Should I run? Or should I call that bastard Roswaal? The first place that shadow headed was the center of the village... The villagers, the people who had evacuated, Roswaal... they were all swallowed up."
"--Huh. Well, there's no mistake in that."
"The areas you weren't looking at, the entire Sanctuary, were swallowed up by that shadow. Unless it was a coincidence that everyone was in the forest watching the moon, then there's no doubt about it."
There was no emotion in Garfiel's calm words, and his usually overly emotional behavior confirmed the truth of his words.
If not only were the refugees with no fighting ability and the inhabitants of the Sanctuary who disliked violence being engulfed, but even Roswaal was being engulfed, then the situation could only be deemed hopeless.
For Garfiel, whose main method of attack is to get close and punch, the Witch of Jealousy, who attacks from afar by projecting her shadow, is the worst possible opponent.
If they had still had someone like Roswaal or Ram, someone skilled in long-range attacks, they might have been able to land a strike using both long-range and close-range attacks.
"In that case, if you leave, we'll have no way to fight back..."
"The old woman! Ram! The others too, they were all swallowed up…!"
"----!"
Subaru: "And on top of that, you want to throw yourself at that guy and make me embarrass myself?! I will never, ever, ever forgive you. I won't be satisfied until I've drilled into him the lesson that 'the scars of Pararagurara's claws will never fade!!"
Garfiel bared his fangs and roared. His expression was one of boundless rage towards the shadow - but was Subaru mistaken in thinking that there was more to it than that?
A man who had lost all his loved ones and had a heart that didn't just howl in rage - if that was what Garfiel was, then
"Then why did you treat everyone like that..."
How could he have so cruelly killed the villagers who bravely stood up to him?
Garfiel knows the pain of having something stolen, the agony of losing something. He has the emotional capacity to think about and sympathize with that.
So why did he go about doing such a cruel thing?
Garfiel likely didn't understand the meaning of Subaru's narrow-minded question.
He silently tightened his grip on Subaru, making it clear that he had no intention of throwing him away. Without change, no, in fact he increased the strength of his steps to escape the shadow, which was further increasing the speed of erosion, and continued forward, flying through the sinking forest.
Subaru, undecided about the threat behind him and how to respond to Garfiel, suddenly looks up in surprise as his field of vision widens.
Pushing through the sinking forest, the two of them leapt out into an open space. The shadows were still encroaching only weakly in that spot. There was bare earth and low-growing flowers, and what stunned Subaru most of all was,
"--picture!?"
The moment Subaru set his eyes on it, his body was hurled towards the field.
Shocked, Subaru cried out as he rolled on the ground, clawing at the dirt to stop his momentum and shaking his head. However, rather than complaining about being thrown out like that, his desire to pursue what he had seen won out.
"Why are you here, Lewes-san――?"
Before Subaru's eyes, his voice trembling, stood a girl with long, swaying, pale crimson hair - but inside, a mature person: Lewes.
Subaru was shaken by the sight of her standing in the depths of the space surrounded by trees, with a blank look in her eyes.
After all, Subaru had only just heard from Garfiel that she had been swallowed by the shadow.
What's in front of me doesn't match the information I just heard.
If asked which one to believe, it would be the reality in front of my eyes. If that's the case, doesn't that mean that the conversation up until now was all a lie?
"Garfiel, what is this..."
"...Don't be hasty. I think I know what you want to ask and what you want to say, but there's no time. I've somehow managed to lure you here this far."
Garfiel waves his hand at Subaru, who is about to question him, and looks around. Then he lifts his chin slightly, looks up, takes a deep breath, and
"------ Wooooooow!"
Then, he let out a howl, not loud enough to pierce the forest, but enough to pierce straight through the strangely quiet air.
Hearing this, Subaru's inappropriate reaction was to think "He's a man with animal-like abilities", but when he saw the result of that howl he was truly at a loss for words this time.
「――――!?」
With a rustling sound, shadows one after another came streaming into the square, pushing aside the vegetation.
All of them were short, with long hair that nearly dragged on the ground. Light red hair, fair, translucent skin, and emotionless round eyes. They were wearing robes that were too big and the length was the wrong length, causing the hem to drag on the ground. They seemed to be wearing them directly over their naked bodies, and their bare feet were boldly peeking out from the gaps that were not completely closed.
The shadows swarming out were probably around twenty in number.
They were lined up, filling half of the square, and all of them had the same face. Not the same expression. -- They had the same face.
"What the...? Are you kidding me?"
"I wish I could have shown it to you."
Garfiel's painful mutterings don't reach Subaru's shocked ears. Well, they do reach him, but it doesn't really move his brain in any meaningful way.
The scene, with all the girls with the same face - people who looked exactly like Lewes - lined up in a row, gave Subaru the illusion that he was dreaming or something.
In fact, Subaru had seen nightmares like this many times before. He wanted to dismiss this as just another one of them. However,
"The wound from the branch hurts, and this pain in my heart... it's real."
Holding his bleeding upper arms and his pounding chest, Subaru took a deep breath. Then, preparing himself to take in the scene before him, he observed the girls once more.
The girls all share the same face as Ryuzu, but they all share not only the same facial features, but also the same expressions: emotionless, emotionless, doll-like faces.
The Lewes that Subaru knew was not a lively person, but he was nonetheless very expressive, and above all, every movement he made seemed like a real human being.
"――――"
That sense, unique to living humans, was not being felt by the girls in front of him.
The expression "doll-like" is more than accurate. It is almost like a doll.
They breathe and live their lives, but they are merely moving dolls - and the abnormality is that twenty of them with the same face are lined up like this.
"Clones...there's no way that's technologically advanced in this world. Magic to create clones or duplicates...? But why is it only Lewes who has this..."
As the words "somatic cell clone" flashed through his mind, Subaru suddenly realized something.
The fact that this "Sanctuary" was called an experimental site, and why Echidna, the owner of that site, was so vague about it. And the reason why Garfiel had repeatedly called this place a dead end.
"Could this really be the result of this Sanctuary experiment...? A copy of Lewes. But what's the point of doing something like that...?"
"I'm sorry for worrying so much, but it looks like it's about time."
Next to Subaru, whose thoughts were racing at high speed, Garfiel appeared, his arms swollen.
His arms, covered in golden hair, expanded from the inside, tearing through his clothing, and swelled with muscle nearly three times its original size.
Atavism - if Garfiel was the true form of the Great Tiger, then this partial transformation was the preliminary stage to his trump card.
"Surround them and crush them. It's simple, but since the others have been swallowed up, that's the only option."
"...I kind of get that you were the deciding factor, but, um, the kids..."
"Don't worry about it. I'm not like that old hag, I'm empty inside. But even so, I can at least follow your instructions and act accordingly. If I can create an opening for that, then I'll make a profit."
There were so many things he wanted to ask about, both in detail about the plan and about the replica of Ryuzu, but there was no time left to pursue those questions or to have a friendly discussion.
Garfiel used his thick arms to push Subaru further into the square. Subaru stumbled along, following his violent orders, and the group of Ryuzu stepped forward behind him, as if to shield him.
Now Garfiel was in the middle of the square, with Lewes behind him and Subaru at the very back. And then, engulfing the trees in the forest that Garfiel was glaring at,
"--I love you, I ...
With slow, gliding movements, words of love gushed forth, washing over the forest.
An unrelenting sense of disgust and a constant alarm pounding at the back of her skull. When the witch's shadow raised what was likely her head, it caught sight of Subaru,
"――――"
It was clear to see that a joyous sense of dynamism had taken over the shadows' movements.
A swirling black shadow draws the trees of the forest into its spiral, the trunks snapping and smashing into compact pieces as the shadow steps towards me, whispering words of love.
The grass in the square was violated, and the shadows spread, bathing the earth in pitch black in an instant. It wouldn't be long before the square, like the forest, was plunged into shadow.
Therefore, the only chance Garfiel had was right before the shadowy forces began to engulf the plaza, in other words, right now, at this very moment.
"---Gaaaaaaah!!"
Looking up to the heavens, Garfiel let out a roar that shook the air.
The violent whirling of air made Subaru feel an instinctive fear that made his very insides tremble. In front of the trembling Subaru, Garfiel not only transformed his arms, but also his legs into those of a beast, and with all his might, slammed the soles of his feet into the ground.
Immediately afterwards, the earth explodes, with Garfiel's footstep as the fulcrum, distorting the ground on which the Witch rests, and sending the shadow flying like a seesaw.
It was a reenactment of the first time Garfiel and Subaru met, when the dragon carriage pulled by Patrasche was torn up along with the earth.
As the shadow, thrown up along with the rising mass of earth, lost all sense of direction, Garfiel lowered his body to the ground, planted his limbs on the ground, and roared furiously, further accelerating the transformation of his body.
The clothes could no longer withstand the expansion of the body and were completely blown off, leaving behind wreckage caught in the golden fur and swaying about. It had a body over four meters long, thick and muscular limbs, and a head with a jaw lined with sharp, blade-like fangs.
It was none other than the manifestation of the great tiger that had once brought Subaru despair and unforgivable rage.
「――――!!」
A roar rises, and the beast's body breaks the wind and leaps into the shadow.
The ground the mighty beast used as its foothold collapsed, and the speed at which it leapt into the air was far too ferocious for its massive size.
Its jaws opened, fangs strong enough to crush even iron, preparing to bite into the shadow's slender waist.
"――――"
At that moment, a shadow stretched out from directly below the leaping tiger, entangling it and binding it. The tiger, having lost its momentum, stopped in mid-air, and immediately afterwards let out a shriek, its throat trembling.
The shadow that had entangled the tiger's limbs was smoking, its thick arms and legs twisting as if to say it would twist them off. Subaru's arm, as big as his waist, began to tear apart, making the sound of flesh tearing.
He couldn't take his eyes off the screaming tiger, immobile in mid-air. The shadow mercilessly tore its body apart, spilling out organs and blood.
"--ah"
It never got put away.
As Subaru could only watch in a daze, two of the Lewes clones suddenly appeared side by side and jumped into the clash between the tiger and the witch.
The young girl ran with her mouth wide open, letting out meaningless gasps. She passed through the shadows with surprisingly fast speed, landed on the ground, and approached the witch, who was looking up at the great tiger tied up in the air.
"Hmm."
"――――"
He spread his arms wide and jumped in as if to embrace the witch, but the witch noticed their approach just before and her shadow stretched out and pierced him, halting his move.
The shadow, with its sharp tip shaped like the tip of a spear, slid towards its prey with the flexibility of a whip, slicing through the legs of the two running Lewes, skewering them by the torso and lifting them up, floating them for all to see next to the screaming Garfiel.
It was an extremely cruel sight, but it was a mistake made by the witch's composure.
"--Wooooow!"
Garfiel's throat trembled in pain, and when he saw the horribly injured duplicates lined up next to him, he let out a different kind of roar, making Subaru raise his brows.
As Subaru was confused and wondering what the difference in tone of voice meant, the bodies of the two Lewes were suddenly filled with a pale blue light――
"---!?"
"――――"
The next moment, the two Ryuzu exploded, emitting an incredible light.
It wasn't a cruel explosion of a living thing, with blood and organs spilling everywhere. The body turned into particles of light, scattering the shadows floating around it, and bringing the world back to life for just a moment. It exploded into pieces - but this was different from dying in an explosion.
Subaru's eyes were burned by the white light and he rubbed them violently. As he quickly regained his sight, Lewes and the others who had been blocking Subaru's way all started to run off at once, just like the first two.
Scattering in all directions, the eighteen Ryuzus surrounded the Witch in coordinated movements, varying in speed and intensity. As if they had no other means of attack, they spread their arms and entered the shadow range, as if their goal was to attach themselves to the Witch, just like the two who had made the suicide attack.
However, no matter how hard they tried to attack in unison, the clones' movements were still within the realm of human behavior, not to mention the fact that their opponent was the Witch of the worst calamity, "Jealousy."
As soon as it glanced at the surrounding Lewes, the tip of the shadow rose into the sky and split into eighteen. Transforming into sharp blades, while the eighteen Lewes tried to evade, it pierced, sliced, and devastated their skulls, torsos, and lower abdomens with precision that mocked their evasion.
The Crowns that had attempted the attack with a time lag were still all annihilated, and after a moment all the Crowns exploded, emitting a pale blue light―― The shadows in the plaza were temporarily banished, and the swirl of shadows around the Witch disappeared.
"---Rrrrrrrrrrrugaaaaa!"
The injured tiger did not miss this opportunity.
As Lewes and the others charged forward, the giant beast escaped from the shadow's hold and bent its limbs. Just after the eighteen clones exploded into pieces, it let out a loud roar and dove headfirst into the shadow.
As the great tiger charged through the wind, the witch created a wall of shadow to counter it. However, the great tiger slammed the shadow it had been hanging on its claws - its hidden duplicate - into the wall, literally exploding it into pieces as a substitute. It then overcame the pale light and its fangs and claws rained down on the shadow.
—It was such a perfect move that even Subaru was convinced he had gotten it.
An inhumane act in which twenty-one copies of Ryuzu were lavishly poured into it.
If Garfiel, who had transformed into a great tiger, made a direct hit from his claws, even a witch like her would be able to survive.
"--i love you"
Subaru's pleading conviction was,
"--Subaru-kun."
With the sweet call of the shadow and Garfiel's corpse exploding from the inside, he was smashed to pieces.