"I know who ya are, after all."
Weitz's familiar voice cut through the tension.
"But that ain't the point. Don't lump me in with Hiain and his smooth talkin'. I ain't interested in whatever crown yer wearin'. I just wanna lend ya my strength. Remember tha——"
Then Subaru's fist slammed into the wall to his right.
The movement came so suddenly, so violently, that for a second Subaru forgot to reinforce his body with cursed energy at all.
His knuckles split against the stone, and pain shot up his arm. But he was too confused and outraged to be bothered by the pain.
"Natsuki!?" Weitz's eyes widened in shock.
"Fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck!" Subaru hissed through clenched teeth, staring down at his bloodied hand before curling it into a fist.
How many times was this going to happen? How many times was he going to break his promise to Louis? She had died again, and once again he had been helpless to stop it.
They had all been killed in an instant by something he could not see, could not hear, could not even begin to understand.
It felt impossible. Even after everything he had gone through, even after getting stronger, he still managed to die in the most pathetic ways imaginable.
"Natsuki——hey?! Are you alright?" Weitz's voice finally dragged him out of it.
Subaru lifted his head and let out a long breath, forcing himself to calm down.
"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine. Something happened, that's all..."
"What...?" Weitz asked, clearly confused.
"It's not something I can explain..." Subaru muttered, already moving past him. "Just stay alert, alright? If you see anything suspicious, keep away from it!"
"What?!"
He ignored the rest of Weitz's confusion and took off at a high-speed run down the pathway.
How... how, how, how? It can't be poison. That makes no sense. Cecilus would have noticed something like that. And invisible attacks too——unless he had somehow let it happen? But that made even less sense, because Cecilus would have died too, right after me, most likely.
Subaru grit his teeth.
"Pride, I need you. Something's happening."
A few moments later, Pride emerged from the shadows and matched his pace beside him.
He was probably glaring at him, if he had a face to glare with. "Does this mean that you..."
He left the rest unsaid, thankfully.
"Yeah, exactly..." Subaru muttered. He died and returned.
Apparently, now that they were no longer fully linked, Pride did not come back through Return by Death with him. That was good. Very good, actually. If Pride ended up being someone he had to deal with later, then this meant it was still possible.
"I can't even explain it properly, even though I experienced it myself. We were just talking, and then suddenly..."
Pride gave a slow nod when Subaru trailed off. "I get it. That's annoying, for sure. This is the first time?"
Subaru nodded once. "Yeah... as much as I hate to say it, I don't have much of a choice here. I need to trust you this time, Pride. Find Louis and protect her. If it's right now, she should be in the mess hall with Hiain and Idra."
Pride let out a tired sigh. "You want me to babysit? How the hell am I supposed to protect her from something even that blue guy couldn't see? That's impossible, you know."
Subaru clicked his tongue. "I don't know, alright? Just... if you see anything suspicious, go after it. There should be some supposed special guests arriving on the island right about now. That's too big a coincidence to ignore."
"Damn it..." Pride muttered. "Fine. Just don't go blaming me if she dies again and I couldn't do anything about it."
Without waiting for a reply, Pride broke off and sprinted toward the mess hall.
As for Subaru, he had to find out what had killed them before everyone died again.
Even if all he managed to uncover was one clue, it didn't matter. For that was already one step closer to his victory.
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Subaru headed down the corridor toward Gustav's office with a knot already tightening in his stomach.
It was not a place he had visited once or twice, but somewhere he had already been forced to return to more than a few times, and by now he knew the route well enough to walk it without thinking. It was also the room where he had first spoken to Gustav properly, which meant that if there was anyone on this island who might actually answer him seriously, it would be the four-armed Governor.
That, at least, was Subaru's hope.
Gustav was strict, and he was clearly dangerous in his own way, but he was also one of the few people here who had never treated Subaru like a pest. Even when he had believed Subaru was a traitor to the Empire, Gustav had still spoken to him like a person. In his own blunt way, he had even helped him, giving him permission to fight in the Sparka and save the other gladiators in future matches.
So if Subaru needed information, Gustav was the best place to start.
He reached the office door and knocked hard enough to make the wood rattle.
"Gustaaaaav, it's me. I've got a few really important questions that I need answering, ASAP."
He leaned closer to the door, waiting.
Nothing.
Subaru blinked, then straightened. That was odd. Gustav was usually here unless the island was in the middle of a Sparka.
Unless he was meeting those special guests...
Subaru frowned. "... Well. I'm coming in then."
He turned the knob, found it locked, and immediately forced the mechanism open with the smallest twist of cursed energy he could manage. The lock gave way with a soft click, and he pushed the door inward.
The office was exactly how he remembered it. Neat. Quiet. Stern. Bookshelves lined one wall, and an open window let in a thin slice of sea air that did little to soften the otherwise dry, heavy atmosphere.
Then Subaru looked toward Gustav's desk.
His eyes widened.
"———!! What?!"
Gustav's cleanly bisected corpse, his upperhalf and lowerhalf was sprawled out on the ground before a splintered, flipped table. It was so severe that for a second Subaru had to stare just to convince himself that it was real. The wound had easily split the large man clean open and even through the wall behind him.
Subaru took a step forward, his face tightening.
The sight of it hurt in a way he did not like. Gustav had not been a bad person. Whatever else could be said about Gladiator Island, this did not feel like the death of someone who deserved it.
Subaru walked around the ruins carefully, grimacing at the sight. He reached down and gently closed Gustav's eyes.
"... Just who did this?"
Gustav could not have been weak. Subaru had never gotten a proper answer on just how strong the Governor really was, but a man who kept this island in line and managed gladiators and soldiers alike could not have been some soft target. A cut this clean, this deep, meant someone dangerous had come through here.
He turned sharply and went to the open window.
Outside, the island was a graveyard.
Bodies were everywhere.
Not only gladiators, either. The guards were there too, scattered among the dead in heaps and twisted angles, blood soaking into the stone and pooling in the cracks. It looked like the whole island had been wiped out in one sweep.
And they were all dead in the same awful way.
Blood from the eyes. Blood from the nose. Blood from the ears.
Subaru stared at the sight, his mind refusing to accept it.
No, not all of them. Not like this. Not so suddenly.
Then, all of a sudden, an explosion ripped through the air from the direction of the mess hall.
Smoke shot upward in a dark column toward the sky in the distance.
"Shit, there's no time!"
Subaru threw himself back through the window. Cursed energy surged through his body as he kicked off the stone wall and launched himself into the air, aiming for the mess hall as fast as his current body would allow.
He did not make it very far, however.
Something cold spread through his chest.
Not pain, exactly. Something worse. A dead, hollow chill that seemed to crawl through him all at once.
Subaru wiped at his face mid-air and came away with an intense amount of blood.
His breathing hitched. Then his body gave out midair.
The landing drove the air out of him, and whatever ribs were left intact after the impact decided they did not want to stay that way. He rolled across the ground, skidding for several long meters before coming to rest on his front.
"G-guhk...!"
He pushed weakly at the ground, trying to force himself up, but his arms trembled and buckled beneath him. Instead, he coughed up blood.
He could not stop here. Louis. He had to get to Louis.
His whole body shook as he tried again, clawing at the stone and forcing himself forward with every shred of stubbornness he had left. But the body failed where the mind would not. His forehead slammed against the ground again, and his strength vanished into nothing.
All that was left now was to wait for death——
"Huh? What the hell are you doing here?"
The voice came from above him.
Subaru froze.
Someone was speaking, calmly, casually, as if they had not just stepped into a slaughterhouse where every other living thing had already been wiped out.
Subaru tried to turn his head, but his vision was already wavering. Blood continued to trickle from his nose and ears.
He could just barely make out a soldier's uniform: black and red, Imperial issue.
The man gave a low, puzzled hum as he stepped closer.
"No, forget that... how are you alive?"
"You must be pretty tough to still be breathing, brat. Or just really stubborn," the man mused, tilting his head. "That is bad timing for you, huh? I mean, really bad timing. You probably had a bright future ahead of you... or maybe not. You are in Ginunhive, after all."
Subaru's eyes widened. The blood in his vision couldn't obscure that face.
That face. That voice. It was burned into his memory, after all.
"... Todd?" he muttered, the name bubbling up through the blood in his throat.
Why was Todd here? For what reason did he have to be here, right now?
Subaru had thought Todd would be elsewhere in Vollachia, dealing with the fallout of Guaral or regrouping with the Imperial forces. He had not expected to see him on Gladiator Island, completely unharmed while everyone else was dying from an unseen poison. It made no sense, none of it did, and yet Todd was standing right in front of him, looking as relaxed as if he were taking a stroll through a market.
Todd's eyes narrowed instantly. The casual friendliness vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating sharpness.
"Hey, hey. Don't you dare die just yet," Todd ordered, his voice dropping into a dangerous tone. "Answer this question first. How do you know my name?"
Subaru did not get the chance to answer.
Todd leaned down, grabbed a fistful of Subaru's black hair, and yanked him upward until Subaru was forced to stare directly into his green eyes.
"Grhk——!"
His small body screamed in protest. Subaru choked on the pain, his teeth grinding as he tried to hold himself together.
Then Todd's expression shifted.
His eyes widened slightly, a flicker of genuine realization crossing his features. "...Wait."
He looked at Subaru more carefully, his gaze raking over the boy's face with a level of attention that made Subaru's skin crawl.
"I never forget the faces of people I should avoid..." Todd muttered to himself, his grip tightening painfully on Subaru's hair. "But I don't know you. So why... why do you smell a lot like someone I know? Someone absolutely terrifying."
Subaru's breath caught.
That made no sense. Why was Todd looking at him like this? Why did he sound like this?
This was the same man who had once been capable of sounding almost kind.
Now he looked at Subaru like he was observing some kind of monster.
"Why... is everyone..." Subaru tried to ask, his voice barely a whisper.
"Dead?" Todd finished for him.
He sounded almost amused by the word.
"That is not something I plan to explain to a corpse. But since you look half-dead already, and because your very existence makes my skin crawl, I might as well do you a favor and finish the job." Todd sighed, reaching to his belt. "I'm in a pretty good mood, all things considered."
A cold edge pressed against Subaru's throat.
Todd had drawn a knife, large enough and brutal enough to look like it had been made for butchering beasts rather than men. The blade sat against Subaru's skin with the kind of weight that made him understand instantly that this was not a threat made for show.
If Todd wanted to, in his current state of being on the cusp of death, he could take Subaru's head off right here.
"I'd rather not get your blood all over my knife, but it seems you're the type of weed that needs to be pulled up by the roots." Todd said calmly.
Subaru forced the words out through clenched teeth, blood spilling over his lips.
"Curse... Rule..."
Todd's expression did not change. He didn't gasp, he didn't stumble.
Despite that, Subaru still caught the slight twitch in his shoulder, the barest flicker of surprise in his green eyes.
"——You won't get an answer from me, monster." Todd's eyes sharpened.
So that was enough. No more talking.
The knife lifted with pragmatic haste. Todd did not hesitate, nor did he gloat.
Subaru watched the blade rise, before plunging straight down toward his face, aimed perfectly between his eyes.
First, there was a split-second of white-hot agony as the steel split his skull. Then there was darkness. Then... there wassss——
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"——I know who ya are, after all."
Weitz's familiar voice cut through the tension again, but Subaru barely heard it.
"But that ain't the point. Don't lump me in with Hiain and his smooth talkin'——"
Subaru suddenly lurched forward, one hand flying to his mouth as a wave of nausea hit him all over again, not from sickness, but from the memory itself. That awful, phantom sensation of a blade driven straight through his skull still clung to him, stubborn and vile, and for a second the world around him seemed to tilt sideways.
He had been killed. Again.
But, now the pieces were starting to connect.
Todd... why, why? Was I wrong about Todd? Was the whole way he spoke and acted around me just a facade?
No, that was not the right question.
Not why Todd would do it. Why this had happened at all.
His breath caught in his throat as the answer finally scraped its way into place.
Curse Rule. That had to be it.
The curse rule Abel had warned him about before they split up had been triggered, and it was killing everyone on Gladiator Island. Poison had been the first guess, and then maybe some invisible attack, but neither of those fit anymore. Not with the way he had died. Not with Gustav already dead when he found him. Not with the fact that Cecilus had been caught in it too.
Subaru's expression hardened as the last pieces snapped into place.
Those special guests.
The timing. Gustav's death. Everyone dying all at once.
They had come to wipe out everyone on Ginunhive without leaving a single exception behind.
If the curse rule was strong enough to take Cecilus with it, then if Subaru was too slow, this loop could become a disaster far worse than anything he had already lived through.
"Sorry, Weitz. I've gotta run!"
He barked the words out over his shoulder, forcing down the panic in his chest. Even as he said it, a grim sort of determination started to replace the fear. The situation was awful, but awful still meant understandable. If he could understand it, then he could fight it.
Without waiting for a reply, Subaru shoved past Weitz and broke into a sprint.
"What're you talkin' about!?" Weitz yelled after him, the confusion in his voice fading into the distance as Subaru rounded the corner at full speed.
No one else was in sight. That was a problem and a relief at the same time. If there were no witnesses, then he could finally stop worrying about hiding what he could do.
"Pride! Get out here!"
The shadow at his fast-moving feet stirred almost immediately. A dark shape peeled itself loose from below him and emerged beside him, keeping pace with an effort that looked just a little too reluctant to be called natural.
Pride's voice came out tight, annoyed, and already suspicious. "What is it? Did you——"
"I can return by——hkk!"
The taboo hit him like a cold fist to the chest.
The feeling had not changed. It was still every bit as invasive, every bit as intoxicating, like being forced to drink something poisonous and holy at the same time. It made him feel sharp. Faster. Stronger. Like for one brief, impossible moment, he could tear through anything in front of him.
Subaru shoved the feeling down and kept running. "Go to the mess hall. Louis is there. Protect her!"
Pride's shadowy form tilted toward him. "What the hell are you——"
"Do it! There's no time!"
That made Pride stop asking questions.
For a moment he was simply there, his featureless shape wavering in uncertainty as he ran, before he let out a rough sound of annoyance and broke off to the side.
Then he was gone in a burst of darkness, leaping upward with footholds made from his own shadow and racing toward the mess hall in the distance.
Subaru watched him go for only a second before he bit his lip and turned away.
This might work. No, it had to work.
He tore through the island at full speed, slipping past panicked gladiators and bewildered guards who were still trying to figure out what was happening. Some of them shouted after him. Some just stared. Most of them, thankfully, were too scared or too confused to stop him.
He did not slow down. Not this time.
He sprinted through the corridors, up the stairs, around the turns he already knew, all with a single thought hammering in his skull.
Find Gustav. If anyone here knew what had happened, it would be Gustav.
And if Gustav was already dead too, then Subaru needed to know that as well.
He quickly reached the familiar hallway with Gustav's office positioned at the end of it, and he did not bother wasting even a second. The place looked the same as always, with its stern wooden door and heavy frame, but there was something deeply wrong with the silence hanging around it.
The only difference this time, was that he did not waste time knocking.
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"I've heard of a Curse Rule that'd be very convenient for disposal. It seems you have a Curse Tool given to you by General First-Class Groovy Gumlet, of the Nine Divine Generals. Yes?"
Gustav's eyes narrowed slightly at Todd's words, but he did not deny it. "You would be correct in that assumption."
"Then this'll be a quick affair," Todd said cheerfully, waving a hand. "Let's get this over with and head back to the Imperial Capital together. We'll need some time to prepare the new batch of gladiators anyway, so we'll have to shut down Ginunhive for a while."
Upon Gustav's large mahogany table lay a letter sealed with the personal crest of the Prime Minister. A document carrying such weight was not something that could simply be ignored by any official of the Empire.
The Imperial Prime Minister, Berstetz Fondalfon, the man who was currently orchestrating the chaos within the Empire. The contents of his letter were blunt and uncompromising.
"――This is..." Gustav rumbled, reading the text.
"That was the intention of my impolite talk earlier. I didn't mean to offend," Todd said, holding up his hands defensively. "I just wanted to say that if the Governor is tired of managing Gladiator Island, that's completely fine. We can take it off your hands."
As Gustav ran his eyes over the letter, deep wrinkles notched into his rock-like face. Todd watched him closely, closing one eye as if observing a literal crack forming on a boulder——a crack that was slowly spreading.
Leaving Arakiya standing silently by his side, Todd continued, perfectly playing the role of the reasonable emissary.
"The gladiators of this island are a liability. They are prone to causing internal conflict. In accordance with His Excellency the Emperor's wishes, they are to be disposed of, all at once."
A heavy silence fell over the office. Neither Gustav nor Todd looked away from one another.
"'Internal conflict', you say?" Gustav finally asked.
Todd shrugged. "I can understand if it's a hard thing to accept. I am told that ever since you were appointed Governor of this island, the quality of the gladiators unveiled at the shows is incomparable to what it used to be. That must have been quite the task. It's something you're proud of, right?"
Gustav frowned, his four arms remaining perfectly still. "What is it you are trying to say?"
Even while delivering an order for mass execution, Todd's attitude was one of understanding and appreciation for Gustav's hard work. It was a terrifyingly effective negotiation tactic.
As he looked down at the letter again, Gustav's expression did not shift.
"By decreasing the risk of needless deaths, by allowing them to acquire the foundations of how to fight, and by having them stand side-by-side rather than outmaneuvering others... the quality of the gladiators who survive naturally improves," Gustav explained, his voice slow and deliberate.
"Right, exactly. And using that Curse Tool, you can get them all in one go, nice and clean," Todd said quickly. "No mess."
If Gustav were to activate the Curse Rule in accordance with the written decree brought by Todd and Arakiya, total annihilation of the island's population would follow instantly.
Therefore...
"I refuse." Gustav stated calmly.
"... What?" Todd's smile slipped for a fraction of a second.
Gustav quickly explained his stance. "As an official of the Empire, I received a direct order from His Excellency the Emperor himself. 'In preparation for an emergency, strive to develop gladiators trained in both body and mind.' I acknowledge that this letter was truly written by the Prime Minister, but..."
"It's not something you can just ignore, you know," Todd frowned, his tone hardening. "The words of the Prime Minister explicitly state that you are to retract any previous orders made. Do you not realize the authority behind this?"
"I do realize it. However," Gustav said, leaning forward slightly, "His Excellency the Emperor also told me this: 'Even if you receive conflicting orders from me in the future... do not disobey this first order.'"
Todd's green eyes darkened. The friendly facade melted away entirely. "So, what you're saying is, because you have previous orders from the Emperor, you are refusing to obey the Emperor's current orders?"
Gustav shook his head. "He told me that I need not know the reason for the contradiction. As an official, I agree. Regardless of whether I know the political truth or not, the duties that I, in my capacity, must carry out do not change."
Todd narrowed his eyes as he faced Gustav. The Governor maintained his resolute attitude, an immovable wall of duty. Todd's gaze wasn't trying to persuade Gustav anymore.
Todd no longer had any reason to exhaust his words trying to persuade a man who refused to listen to reason.
By that logic, there was only one option left.
"Arakiya. Negotiating has failed."
The moment those words left Todd's mouth, Gustav's eyes widened in sudden realization. In the subsequent instant, before a fatal strike could land, Gustav grabbed all four corners of his massive desk. With the muscles in his four thick arms bulging, he effortlessly lifted the heavy mahogany desk and flipped it upright, intending to use it as a shield and a weapon against the two visitors.
"Die."
Unfortunately, in the exact same moment, Arakiya raised the wooden branch she held toward Gustav.
"―――!!"
The last thing Gustav saw, was a pressurized wave of water severing both the table, as well as his own torso and the wall behind him in half.
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A few moments later, the heavy oak doors of the office exploded inward with a blast of wood and dust, the impact sounding less like a door breaking and more like a shell going off inside the room.
Arakiya's attention snapped toward the doorway at once.
Subaru came charging through the smoke a heartbeat later, one fist already wrapped in violent purple cursed energy as he swung for her head.
Arakiya shifted without hesitation.
She slipped to the side with almost lazy ease, and in the same motion her wooden branch cut across the air. A jet of high-pressure water blasted from the tip and sheared through the wall behind Subaru, ripping the side of the office open as if it had been made of paper.
Subaru twisted under it by a hair's breadth. The force of the water tore so close to him that he could feel the spray against his face. His smaller body was the only reason he had not been carved in half.
He dropped low as rubble began to collapse around him, then swept his arm upward in response. Purple cursed energy burst out in a jagged wave overhead, shredding the falling debris into a storm of splinters and broken stone.
Wood and dust rained down over the room.
Subaru landed in a crouch, breathing hard, his eyes immediately locking onto the scene in front of him.
Gustav was already dead.
Todd stood over the Governor's body with a knife in hand, his expression twisted into something sharp and urgent as he dug into the wound with far too much familiarity.
"...Too late," Subaru hissed, the words coming out with a mixture of anger and dread.
His eyes flicked between Gustav's body and Todd's hands. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Todd said nothing at first.
Instead, he reached deeper into Gustav's torn torso and yanked something free.
A small black orb came out with it.
Todd held it up in his palm for a split second, his face hardening with grim satisfaction.
"Got it..." He muttered. Then, louder, he called out toward Arakiya. "I've got the curse tool! Hunch was right, a guy like that would hide it inside of his own body."
Arakiya stared at him blankly, as if she had no idea why he was excited.
The orb was tiny, barely the size of a golf ball, but Subaru understood immediately what it was.
That was it. The curse tool.
The thing holding the curse rule in place.
If Todd kept it, then everyone on the island was dead.
Subaru's entire body went cold.
Invisible Providence.
The moment Todd barked out to Arakiya, no doubt ordering her to deal with Subaru, the black orb was snatched cleanly out of his hand by something no one in the room could see.
It crossed the space between them in an instant and dropped into Subaru's palm. The feel of it was small and light, but in that moment it weighed more than anything else on the island. For one brief second, everything depended on whether he kept hold of that thing.
Arakiya's eyes sharpened.
She spoke a strange word under her breath, and the water at her branch snapped forward again.
"Slosh——"
Subaru was already moving.
The line of water instantly eviscerated the wall where Subaru stood a second prior. He threw himself sideways and out through the shattered window just as the attack tore through the wall beside him and punched a hole through what was left of the office.
The blast missed his body by less than an inch.
Subaru tumbled through the broken frame and hit the outside ledge hard, but he did not let go of the orb.
Behind him, Todd shoved himself upright and leaned out the window, his voice cutting through the smoke.
"Arakiya! After him! You have permission to kill!"
Arakiya answered at once. "Alright."
Arakiya stepped onto the shattered window frame and simply walked into empty air. Wind wrapped around her body, gathering around her legs before igniting with light. A moment later she shot forward through the sky, chasing after Subaru as though gravity had simply decided not to apply to her.
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Subaru's boots hit the ground hard, the impact sending a jarring shockwave up his shrunken legs. He didn't stop to check his balance. He just rolled with the momentum and immediately broke into a dead sprint.
His heart hammered wildly against his ribs, beating so hard it felt like it was trying to crack his sternum.
His right hand was clenched into a tight, desperate fist. The smooth, cold surface of the black orb dug into his palm.
I have it. I actually have it.
The lives of every single gladiator, every guard, and Louis——they were all currently resting in the palm of his hand. If Todd got this back, he would likely activate the Curse Rule without a second thought. Total annihilation.
Subaru channeled his Cursed Energy into his legs, forcing his child-sized muscles to push past their physical limits. The stone corridors of Ginunhive blurred past him.
I need Cecilus!
Subaru's mind raced frantically. Where the hell was that battle maniac? Cecilus lived for moments like this. A Divine General attacking the island? A desperate chase? It was the exact kind of theatrical climax the Blue Lightning constantly talked about.
But Gladiator Island was massive, a sprawling labyrinth of cells, training pits, and arenas. Subaru couldn't just wander around hoping to bump into him. And if he stopped moving for even a second, he was dead.
Above him, the horrific, tearing sound of wind magic ripping through stone echoed through the open courtyard.
Subaru glanced over his shoulder and his blood ran cold.
Arakiya was just ignoring the obstacles, flying straight over the walls and rooftops to hunt him down.
The gap between their speeds was an absolute joke. Subaru was sprinting for his life, while Arakiya looked like she was casually floating through the air, closing the distance with terrifying ease.
He couldn't outrun her. That wasn't the case before he got shrunk, and definitely wasn't the case now.
Subaru gritted his teeth and took a sharp left, bursting through a heavy wooden archway and directly into one of the island's main training yards.
The yard was packed. Dozens of gladiators—lizardmen, wolfmen, and heavily scarred humans—were in the middle of their daily drills. Lining the perimeter were Ginunhive's masked guards, their spears resting lazily against their shoulders.
The sudden, frantic arrival of the black-haired child shattered the routine.
"H-Hey, watch it!" One of the gladiators barked as Subaru nearly collided with a weapon rack.
Two guards immediately snapped to attention, crossing their spears to block his path. "Halt! You are restricted from running in the——"
"Listen to me!" Subaru screamed, his voice tearing from his throat with such raw, desperate intensity that the entire courtyard froze.
He skidded to a halt, gasping for air, pointing a trembling finger back toward the direction of the Governor's office.
"The Governor is dead! Gustav has been murdered!"
The words hung in the air.
For a split second, absolute silence overtook the training yard. The guards stiffened. The gladiators exchanged bewildered, shocked glances. Gustav Morello was the untouchable absolute of this island. The idea of him being killed was incomprehensible to them.
"What nonsense are you spewing now!?" a guard captain yelled, stepping forward with his hand on his sword hilt. "If this is a joke, the Island Chief'll——"
"It's an invasion!" Subaru yelled back, holding his fist tightly against his chest. "Imperial soldiers infiltrated the office! They killed him to——"
Subaru didn't get to finish.
The air pressure in the courtyard suddenly plummeted. The heavy sensation of mana flooded the area, making the hair on the back of Subaru's neck stand up.
A massive gale of wind slammed into the center of the yard, kicking up a blinding cloud of dust and sand. The sheer force of the landing blew several heavy weapon racks backward, sending swords and axes clattering across the stone. Gladiators threw their arms over their faces, shouting in confusion, while the guards struggled to keep their footing.
As the dust rapidly settled, a lone figure stood in the center of the cratered earth.
Arakiya lowered her wooden branch, her dark skin and silver hair completely untouched by the dirt around her. Her red eyes slowly scanned the crowd, completely devoid of empathy, before locking onto Subaru.
"You run quite fast," Arakiya muttered, her voice carrying a dull, almost lazy annoyance. "It is annoying."
The guard captain drew his blade, his hands shaking as he looked at the intruder. "W-Who are you?! Identify yourself!"
Arakiya didn't even look at him. She just kept her eyes on Subaru's clenched fist.
"Give me the black stone," she said simply. "Todd said I can kill you if you don't."
Subaru grimaced. "No."
Arakiya stared at him for a brief moment, then raised the branch in her hand and swung it sideways with deceptively little effort.
The result, however, was anything but little.
A blade of pressurized water tore through the air, clean and fast enough to bisect the torso's of everyone in the area without even slowing down. Subaru's eyes widened as he saw the line of death coming for him and, for one terrible instant, he realized that even if he twisted the attack away with the Authority of Pride, the aftermath would still be enough to kill those around him caught in the wrong place.
"——Hrk!"
He slammed both palms downward, and a wall of shadows surged up in front of him.
The water strike collided with it hard enough to make the whole area shake. The barrier held, but only barely. The force dug into it like a saw, shuddered, and threatened to carve straight through before finally losing momentum and breaking apart in a spray of mist.
Arakiya clicked her tongue lightly. "Hmm. I should have put more mana into that."
Subaru did not waste time answering. He had already fell to one knee, his breath rough in his throat and his arm trembling from the impact. The exchange had been short, but the gap in power was impossible to ignore. Against a single strike like that, before he was infantized, he could defend. Against repeated wide-range attacks, especially while carrying the curse tool, he would be crushed.
His fingers tightened around the black orb in his hand while blood pooled between the cracks of his other hand covering his mouth.
Behind him, the gladiators and guards in the area looked frozen in place. None of them had expected this. None of them had expected the strange black-haired boy who had been cutting through impossible situations all day to suddenly look cornered.
To them, Subaru had been an absurdity. Something unreal.
Now he looked human.
Worse than human. Vulnerable.
"Get... out... of here——!"
Subaru coughed, forcing the words out while he pushed himself upright again.
"Why are you... even doing this?!" Subaru yelled, swaying in place. He was exhausted, terrified, and backed into a corner.
"I was told not to talk to dead people." Arakiya commented, her voice flat and utterly devoid of emotion.
Those words sealed it. It was a guarantee. The number of victims claimed by the Spirit Eater was about to increase dramatically.
Subaru scoffed. A bitter, jagged sound escaped his throat.
He didn't have Cecilus. He couldn't outrun her. He couldn't beat her in a fight, even before he was shrunk. But if they wanted this cursed tool so badly to wipe out the island, he wasn't going to just hand it over.
It was spiteful. It was desperate. But it was his only move.
He outstretched his hand, holding the black orb up for her to see.
"You!!" Arakiya's eyes widened.
The sound of the curse tool cracking beneath Subaru's reinforced grip was sickeningly loud.
The blank, bored expression on Arakiya's face instantly warped into a mask of pure, unadulterated outrage. Her teeth bared, her mana flaring with such intensity that chills formed along Subaru's spine.
Then, she swiped her wooden branch across the air.
A moment later, before Subaru could even properly react, the world suddenly flipped. Then it flipped again. And again.
Thus, it commenced.
——A massacre on Gladiator Island. Not because the Curse Rule was invoked, but because the Spirit Eater's rage had been unleashed.
The world spun wildly as Subaru's severed head rolled across the dusty cobblestones.
The last flicker of life his fading brain could offer him wasn't a peaceful memory or a final prayer. It was the horrific sight of the gladiators and guards in the courtyard being violently, effortlessly torn apart by a storm of water, wind, and fire.
Then, there was nothing.