"Myyy, for something like this to haaappen~" Roswaal, off to the side, gave a couple of light coughs, his tone tinged with a deliberate pity.
"Such a shame, I'm injured right nooow~ In this wretched state of mine, I'm truly no help at all. I can only ask this of youuu~"
"Leave it to me." Emilia, not noticing anything unusual about Roswaal, looked at everyone in the church with a determined gaze.
"It's not safe for everyone to stay here. I'll use my magic to create an ice wall first, which should be able to hold off the Great Rabbit's assault for a while."
As she spoke, Emilia raised her hand to channel her mana. A pale blue light gathered at her fingertips. Following her movement, thick walls of ice rose from the ground, firmly blocking the church's entrance and windows, forming a solid barrier.
"This should hold them off for some time," Ram said, glancing at the ice wall and turning to Emilia.
"But the ice wall won't last too long. We must find a safer shelter, or repel the Great Rabbit completely."
"My Great Self will guard the entrance here. I won't let a single one of those disgusting things get any closer!"
Garfiel clenched his fists, a hint of fury on his face. The grief from losing Shima just moments ago had now transformed into the resolve to fight.
It was at that moment.
A chorus of piercing "chitter-chitter" sounds suddenly came from outside. The noise grew from the distance, becoming more and more dense, louder and louder.
Peering carefully through the cracks in the ice wall, one could clearly see countless small, white figures frantically leaping and moving in the blizzard.
They were the Great Rabbit, Magic Beasts pure white all over with eyes as red as beads of blood. Their movements were swift and chaotic as they surged toward the church in a dense mass, like a constantly spreading white tide.
"It's the Great Rabbit! They're here!"
Someone cried out in alarm. A flurry of panicked whispers instantly filled the church, and the already tense atmosphere became even more fraught.
Emilia stood in the center of the church, took a deep breath, and surveyed the frightened residents around her. She spoke in a firm voice:
"Please, everyone, remain calm. Stay inside and don't move around or look outside. We will find a way to protect you all."
Roswaal leaned against one of the church's stone pillars, his mismatched eyes slightly narrowed. He raised a hand to gently touch his bandaged chest, the corner of his mouth curving into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
"Oh my, what a veeery worrisome situation. So many Magic Beasts gathered together won't be easy to deal with, y'knooow."
"Lord Roswaal, your injuries…"
Ram immediately stepped forward to support him but was stopped by Roswaal raising his hand.
"Don't worry, Ram," Roswaal said to her. "Compared to this minor injury of mine, Lady Emilia needs your assistance more right now."
Ram frowned slightly, still uneasy. "But…"
"Ram…" Emilia walked over quickly and spoke directly, "Could you please help organize the residents and move them to a safer place? I need to focus on dealing with the Magic Beasts outside."
"As you wish, Lady Emilia." Ram no longer hesitated. After a brief curtsy, she immediately turned to the crowd and raised her voice.
"Everyone, please move to the back of the church in an orderly fashion! Do not go near the doors or windows, to avoid any danger!"
Roswaal watched Ram's bustling figure and muttered to himself, "Such a reliable seeervant. With her here, it saves quite a lot of trouble, dooesn't it~"
Then, Roswaal looked toward the retreating backs of Emilia and the others as they hurried to the ice wall to face the enemy. A dark, unreadable light flickered in his mismatched eyes as he whispered to himself again:
"Everything is proceeding according to plan…"
The prophecies in the Book of Wisdom were becoming reality, step by step. He had already followed the book's instructions, hiring Elsa to attack the mansion and create chaos.
Now, here in the Sanctuary, he had used a magic ritual to conjure this blizzard, successfully luring the Great Rabbit. The goal was to force Natsuki Subaru into a corner, to make him choose between protecting the residents of the Sanctuary and Emilia, or protecting Rem and the others at the mansion.
Through this extreme trial, he would force Natsuki Subaru to abandon one part, to focus only on what he deemed most important, thereby molding him into an extreme egoist, just like himself. This was the necessary ordeal to forge that boy into a suitable candidate, an indispensable step.
Of course, Roswaal's confidence in doing so stemmed from his knowledge that Natsuki Subaru possessed a special ability that allowed him to start over. Although he didn't know the specific trigger conditions or limitations of this ability, that didn't stop him from exploiting it.
By constantly creating desperate situations, he could test the limits of Natsuki Subaru's ability bit by bit, providing enough margin for error for the implementation of his final plan.
"How I look forward to it… Natsuki Subaru."
Roswaal whispered to himself, his mismatched pupils glinting eerily in the dim church.
On the Sanctuary's plaza.
Heavy snow fell like cotton fluff. The white mist exhaled from their mouths would instantly freeze into fine ice crystals upon touching the air, rustling as they landed on their collars. Such bitter cold was truly a living, breathing arctic hell.
Emilia and Garfiel stood side by side at the front of the plaza. The two of them were the strongest beings currently in the Sanctuary, and the heavy responsibility of protecting it now rested entirely on their shoulders.
On the snowy plains in the distance, a dense mass of white figures was surging toward the plaza—it was the Great Rabbit!
One of the three Great Mabeasts, a cataclysm created by Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony. Daphne had created the Great Rabbit originally to reduce the excessive numbers of humans and demi-humans, while also serving as a food source for them.
But ironically, the most terrifying aspect of the Great Rabbit was its ability to multiply and divide infinitely. They could never be completely wiped out at once; even if a portion was temporarily defeated, the rest would quickly divide to fill the gap.
The number of Great Rabbit approaching the Sanctuary now was enough to cover the entire snowy plain. From a distance, it looked like a moving white tide, and the dense "shuffling" sound as they trod on the snow was enough to make one's skin crawl.
"We absolutely cannot let them break into the church! The evacuees are still inside!"
Emilia stood in the center of the plaza, her silver hair whipping wildly in the cold wind. But her amethyst eyes burned with an unshakeable will as she spoke to Garfiel beside her.
"I'll use my magic for the main assault to eliminate the front ranks of the Great Rabbit. Garfiel, you guard the entrance to the stone steps leading to the church. Don't let any of those stragglers get through."
"Hmph, those are My Great Self's lines!" Garfiel clenched his fists, his tone carrying its usual arrogance, but he didn't argue with Emilia's arrangement.
"Protecting the Sanctuary is My Great Self's responsibility to begin with. Leave the entrance to me, you just focus on using your magic!"
At the same time.
The foremost ranks of the Great Rabbit had already charged to within twenty meters. Their eyes were red, saliva dripped from their mouths, and they rushed forward in a dense, overlapping wave. Some even climbed on the backs of their comrades, attempting to leap higher.
"Mar-Huma!"
Without another word, Emilia immediately raised her hands, which glowed with a faint blue light. Immense mana surged around her as she rapidly drew in the cold air. Even the snowflakes falling around her seemed to freeze in mid-air for an instant.
Vwoom! Vwoom! Vwoom!
With a powerful forward thrust of her arms, hundreds of diamond-shaped icicles, each as thick as a forearm, instantly materialized before her. Their tips glinted with a cold light as they shot toward the swarm of Great Rabbit like a volley of arrows.
"Squelch! Squelch!"
The sound of icicles piercing through flesh was incessant. The front ranks of the Great Rabbit collapsed in an instant, fresh blood dripping down the icicles, freezing into dark red pellets the moment it hit the ground.
But before Emilia could even breathe a sigh of relief, the Great Rabbit from behind charged forward over the corpses of their comrades. Several even tore at the bodies of their own kind, dividing as they advanced.
"They're dividing!" Emilia gritted her teeth and channeled the mana within her again. This time, she didn't form icicles. Instead, she crossed her hands before her chest, her palms erupting in a dazzling blue-white light.
"Ul-Huma!"
Two thick beams of blue light shot out from her palms. Wherever they passed, the very air froze into fine ice crystals. The Great Rabbit swept by the beams were instantly frozen into blocks of ice, falling stiffly to the ground.
But the following Great Rabbit continued to pour in endlessly, soon pushing aside their frozen comrades and continuing their advance.
On the other side, Garfiel, with his demi-human blood, had already entered a state of partial Beast Transformation! His frame instantly grew taller, his arms covered in light golden fur. The claws at his fingertips grew to be three inches long, and his eyes became as sharp as a beast's.
"You dare invade the Sanctuary? I'll let you taste the might of My Great Self!"
Seeing rows of Great Rabbit attempting to bypass Emilia's magical assault and dash toward the church entrance, he immediately crouched down and pounced like a panther, his claws whistling through the air. With a tearing sound, he ripped the foremost few Great Rabbit in half.
Seeing this, the remaining Great Rabbit immediately turned and lunged at Garfiel, but he sidestepped them and finished them off one by one.
"Is that all you've got, and you dare invade the Sanctuary?"
Garfiel flicked the blood from his claws. Just as he was about to turn and call out to Emilia, he saw another dozen Great Rabbit circling around from the side. He immediately spun to meet them, his claws swiping continuously, tearing through the bodies of several Great Rabbit with every strike.
And so it went.
Time passed, second by second. The blizzard grew more violent, howling as it battered their bodies. The bone-chilling cold seemed to seep into their very marrow.
Emilia's breathing grew labored, her chest heaving violently. Beads of sweat had just formed on her temples.
Continuously casting high-intensity freezing magic was rapidly draining her mana. The once-bright blue-white light in her palms had dimmed considerably, and even the speed at which she formed icicles had slowed by half a beat.
Just now, Emilia had unleashed another wide-area magical attack, sending a hundred icicles into the swarm of Great Rabbit. Although she had temporarily felled a large number of them, the rate of elimination was far slower than the Great Rabbit's rate of division.
The moment the fallen rabbits' bodies hit the ground, new individuals would emerge from their torn flesh, filling the empty spaces in the blink of an eye. The number of Great Rabbit in the plaza had not decreased at all; in fact, there were more than before!
They were packed together so densely that a few had even managed to get past the range of her magical attacks, rushing to within five meters of her. If Emilia hadn't reacted in time, hastily conjuring an ice shield in front of her, she would have likely been pounced upon already.
"Hey, Princess! You still holding up?"
Just then, Garfiel shouted from the other side, panting heavily.
At this moment, his back and arms were covered in several wounds from the rabbits' claws and teeth. The deepest one was still seeping blood, staining his light golden fur a dark red.
In truth, the average combat power of a Great Rabbit was not high at all. A single adult human, if they were careful, could handle one. But there were just too many of them!
While Garfiel was guarding the entrance to the church, a dense swarm of Great Rabbit had surrounded him. Some lunged at his limbs, some climbed onto his body, and others bit at his ankles from below. If he covered his front, he couldn't cover his back. If he covered his left, new rabbits would appear from the right. Before he knew it, he had been bitten and scratched in several places.
Emilia turned her head to look at Garfiel, and seeing the gruesome wounds on his body, she couldn't help but ask with concern:
"Garfiel, your wounds… are you alright?"
"Hmph! What could possibly happen to My Great Self!" Garfiel stomped his foot hard, and the ground immediately caved in. Aided by the Divine Protection of the Earth Spirit, his wounds were healing at a visible rate.
"As long as my feet are on the ground, My Great Self's body is strengthened, and my wounds heal fast… You, on the other hand, can barely cast magic anymore. Stop trying to act tough!"
Although he spoke harshly, Garfiel knew very well in his heart. The Divine Protection of the Earth Spirit was not omnipotent. It couldn't make him immortal, nor did it grant him infinite stamina. It just meant he recovered faster and was tougher than ordinary people.
Garfiel's stamina was draining rapidly. Each swipe of his claws took more effort than the last, and the explosive power of his beast form had weakened considerably.
"I… I can still hold on!" Emilia took a deep breath, forcing her trembling arms steady. She channeled the mana in her body and once again formed a dozen icicles, firing them at the approaching Great Rabbit. But her voice was already tinged with an undeniable weakness.
"We can't retreat! If we do, the residents in the church will be harmed by these Magic Beasts. We must defend this place!"
The massive consumption of mana was taking its toll on Emilia, and she was only holding herself up through sheer willpower.
And the Great Rabbit continued to surge forward like an endless tide, their numbers not diminishing in the slightest, instead growing ever larger as they constantly divided. The corpses of the Great Rabbit had just begun to pile up in the plaza when they were pounced upon and devoured by their kin, who then split into even more new rabbits from the consumed bodies. Not a single complete corpse remained. They were like an insatiable hunger, only increasing, never decreasing.
This was the terror of the Great Rabbit, one of the "Three Great Mabeasts." For centuries, no one had ever managed to completely annihilate them.
Emilia looked at the endless stream of Great Rabbit before her and couldn't help but ask herself in her heart:
"Can these terrifying Magic Beasts truly be exterminated?"
She was well aware that the three Great Mabeasts created by the Witch of Gluttony, Daphne, were all exceedingly terrifying. The White Whale, the Great Rabbit, the Black Serpent—countless people had tried to subjugate them over the centuries, but no one had ever succeeded.
But in the next second, Emilia thought of Natsuki Subaru.
"No, Subaru succeeded in subjugating the White Whale! If it were Subaru, he would definitely find a way to deal with the Great Rabbit!"
The moment this thought surfaced, Emilia's eyes instantly brightened. She had an almost instinctual trust in Natsuki Subaru. That boy, who always created miracles in the face of despair, was her only pillar of spiritual support at this moment.
"I can't just give up!"
The thought of Natsuki Subaru reinvigorated her, and she once again unleashed a wide-area ice magic attack on the Great Rabbit swarm.
"Even if it's difficult now, as long as Subaru comes back, there will be hope."
But the reality of their predicament remained grim.
As time went on, the power of Emilia's magic grew weaker and weaker. The number of icicles decreased, and their penetrating power was far less than before.
Garfiel's movements had also slowed down noticeably. The explosive power of his beast form had diminished, and he looked more harried as he dodged the Great Rabbit's attacks.
Both of them knew that if they kept pushing themselves like this, they would eventually run out of stamina and mana. But facing the endlessly dividing cataclysm that was the Great Rabbit, they had no path of retreat.
Behind them were the residents they had to protect, and before them was the enemy they had to stop. They had no choice but to keep fighting.
————
Chitter, chitter. The piercing sound of tiny teeth clenching and grinding echoed incessantly, drilling into their ears and making their skin crawl.
This was the world's most irredeemable and incompatible creature—the Great Rabbit. The disasters they had caused since ancient times were innumerable. Wherever they went, they left devastation in their wake. They had long been regarded as a mobile calamity, and were even named the incarnation of appetite.
Facing this personification of endless desire, Emilia stood resolute in the center of the plaza. Her silver hair was a mess in the wind and snow, but her amethyst eyes shone with astonishing brightness, showing no sign of retreat.
"Hah…"
Emilia's breathing had grown even more ragged, her chest rising and falling violently. The side effects of forcibly channeling a vast amount of mana far beyond her control were finally showing.
The left side of her body was slowly being covered by white crystals, spreading from her fingertips to her arm. Even her cheek was frozen to an unnatural, pale-blue hue. The touch of the freezing crystals was bitingly cold, and Emilia could clearly feel the magic running rampant inside her body.
If this continued, it wouldn't be long before she was completely frozen into an immobile ice sculpture by her own out-of-control magic.
————Even so, I will not yield!
Behind her were the trembling residents hiding in the church, the people she had sworn to protect. She absolutely could not retreat.
But the harsh reality of their situation was right before her eyes. Emilia had already used up most of her magic, and even raising her hand to form an icicle had become difficult. Her words were punctuated by obvious gasps for air.
Garfiel, on the other side, was in no better shape.
Although he was still maintaining his beast form, the light golden fur on his arms was stained dark red with blood, and many of his bite wounds were still bleeding. Each swipe of his claws was half a beat slower than before, and his breathing was just as heavy. It was clear he was also reaching his physical limit.
"Mother, Fortuna, and everyone I met today… and Subaru, I will absolutely not give up!"
Emilia gritted her teeth, her voice trembling slightly from the cold and weakness, yet it carried an unshakeable will. She raised her hand to wipe the ice crystals from her cheek. Even though her fingertips were numb, she still stared fixedly at the approaching horde of Great Rabbit.
Even if her body were to be completely encased in ice, even if she were to become an ice sculpture in the end, she would have no regrets.
On the blizzard-ravaged plaza of the Sanctuary, the situation had reached its most critical point.
The Great Rabbit's encirclement was tightening at a visible rate. The swarm of beasts, once scattered at the edges of the plaza, was now converging toward the center. The white figures were packed densely together, compressing Emilia and Garfiel's room to move from all sides.
They were getting closer and closer to the church. The foremost Great Rabbit had already set foot on the stone steps at the entrance.
Emilia and Garfiel were forced back until their backs were nearly against the church wall. A few more steps, and the residents behind them would be directly exposed to the Great Rabbit.
"Damn it! As long as My Great Self is alive, you abominations won't get past!"
Garfiel knelt on one knee, roaring through gritted teeth, his body trembling uncontrollably. This wasn't from fear, but a side effect of continuous blood loss and exhaustion.
The wounds on his back, shoulders, and calves were still bleeding. Even with the Divine Protection of the Earth Spirit accelerating his healing, the wounds were too numerous, and the blood loss too fast.
Coupled with the high-intensity battle, his stamina and mana were already depleted. Now, even maintaining his beast form had become a struggle; the golden fur on his arms had lost its former luster.
"Old hag… looks like I'm going to fail you this time."
Garfiel sighed inwardly. The image of the pink-haired girl who had entrusted him with protecting the Sanctuary flashed through his mind. He then forced himself to stand up straight and turned to Emilia.
"Princess, get into the church right now and have the people inside seal the entrance! Leave this to My Great Self. Even if I have to fight to the last, My Great Self can hold them off a little longer!"
"No." Emilia refused without hesitation, her amethyst eyes showing no sign of retreat, only a resolve that had long been made.
"I'm not leaving. If it truly comes to the final moment, even if I have to bet my own life, I will stand in front of them. I will never let them harm the people in the church."
At this moment, both of them knew just how desperate their situation was.
The Great Rabbit could divide infinitely. The more they killed, the faster new ones would appear. And of them, one was suffering from excessive blood loss and exhaustion, while the other was depleted of mana and her magic power was sharply reduced. Continuing to hold on was merely delaying the inevitable breakthrough.
Inside the church.
Roswaal stood by the window, watching the approaching swarm of Great Rabbit through the thinly iced glass. There was not a trace of worry in his mismatched eyes, only a calm, almost cold scrutiny as he whispered to himself:
"Is this loop going to be another failure… Natsuki Subaru."
Just as he thought the outcome was set, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of purple light in the sky.
The light was incredibly fast, like a tiny meteor, instantly streaking through the snow-filled sky and plummeting toward the plaza.
"What is that?" Roswaal's mismatched pupils contracted sharply, his indifferent face showing a rare expression of surprise. "This mana fluctuation… could it be…"
At the same time.
On the plaza outside the church, Emilia was gritting her teeth and gathering her last bit of mana, preparing for a final stand.
A clear voice suddenly pierced through the swirling blizzard, landing distinctly in her ears. It instantly overpowered the clamor of the Great Rabbit and the howling of the wind, carrying a warmth she knew so well, a warmth that could calm the heart:
"You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know, Emilia."
______
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