Chapter Text
Natsuki Subaru, a man hated and despised by the world. Whoever controlled fate must have been harboring hatred toward that boy’s existence from the moment he came into this world.
Every time Subaru did something, it backfired horribly, forcing him to find another way. But now, things had become even more dire: the Witch Cult had set their eyes on him.
In one of his adventures to the Watergate City, Priestella—one of Lugnica’s five great cities, also called the Water Capital—he was attacked by the Witch Cult.
Facing the might of three Archbishops of Sin, Subaru prevailed through determination and his strategic mind. But fate had other plans. Cruel plans.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUHHHHH THIS IS TORTURE!!! THIS IS TORTURE!!” The nasty eyed boy screamed and writhed in pain, his shackles holding him in place not letting him go, his body was filled with different types of scars engraved into it.
He was locked up inside a dark gloomy cell, sitting in his own pool of blood, the shackles digging deep into his hands and legs; the blood that was supposed to be there had already dried up ages ago.
‘Eyuuuuuup’
‘That’s me, Natsuki Subaru. You're probably wondering what am I doing here or even yet why am I giving you this type of cliché intro.’
‘You should brace yourself, because things are gonna get crazy.’
*------------------------------------------------------------*
‘Out of cruelty from the creators, cutscenes are unskippable.’
[1]WR record we're coming baby!
[2]”World Record record” indeed.
“Don't jinx it now we only started the run” Subaru said quietly to himself.
Subaru found himself surrounded by his friends, after helping with repelling the attack of the witch cult he had a small encounter with a sin archbishop, the archbishop of gluttony to be exact.
Their battle was a short one, Subaru wasn't a strong fighter especially not against those who are way above him but he had a nasty power, a nasty ability.
Return By Death.
Even with this ability he couldn't prevent the horrible fate that will befall on him, his name was erased and everyone forgot him, even his closest friends.
‘While we're waiting for the cutscene to finish I'll set up our game, we will decide who is the best girl via donations the one who gets the most donations wins.’
Subaru thought to himself all while he was slowly backing away from the hostile tiger boy who was approaching him while cracking his knuckles.
Truthfully, Subaru wasn't feeling threatened or scared. He was calm and almost bored, since this is a beginning cutscene he was forced to watch he can't do anything to intervene with what will happen to him.
“Wait.” A man with red hair and blue eyes called out as he grabbed Garfiel’s shoulder to stop him from whatever he was planning to do.
“We can't be rash with our decision; he can be an innocent person for all we know.” Reinhard said. Being the sword saint and the hero of the kingdom he couldn't afford to throw an innocent man into the cruel and cold hands of justice without strong evidence to back this accusation.
[3] I wish I could sniff his red hair and lick his beautiful eyes.
‘What?’
‘Okay so this is our first piece of dialogue now we can start mashing.’
“What are y— this guy is—- bisho—- My—--Self—- won't let him —-arm the prince—!” Garfiel replied, for some strange reason he felt like he was being interrupted even though no one was talking.
‘Huh, are you serious? I forgot that I have the wrong window open, alright I fixed it up.’
Just suddenly, everyone present started feeling like they were being watched. Garfiel especially, he felt like thousands of people were gazing into his very soul as he became unsettled.
‘Just so you know, we will be going for the happy ending. Take down Gluttony and don't get executed’
“W-wha—this—eeling— I suppo—” Beatrice, being close, grabbed her contractor's hand firmly. She also felt unsettled, she noticed the increase of the miasma in the air coming from the boy.
Her contractor, the half elf royal candidate Emilia also shared the same unknown feeling, she looked at her contracted spirit and saw how she was gripping her hand.
Reinhard also feeling this became cautious, it wasn't the feeling of being watched by an invisible crowd but it was the intense miasma that suddenly poured out, his suspicion put aside by the miasma he was the one who began approaching the boy with a serious look on his face.
Everyone was on alert.
“Wait wait! We can talk about this! I'm not an archbishop, please believe me!” Subaru pleaded, he took more steps back as he noticed Reinhard approaching.
Before he could take one more step he suddenly fell unconscious, his mana drained by the sword saint quickly as he caught him before he fell to the ground.
[3] AHHHHH I wish he would do that to me!
‘Someone mute that guy.’
User [3] was muted.
‘Thank you.’
“I believe we shou— leave his fat— to the crusch ca—” He said as he looked at him unsure what to do.
“Keep hi– away from Be–y’s contra—--r, I su—--e.” Beatrice warned as Emilia glanced at the unconscious boy, she was uncomfortable by everything that was going on. First they were attacked by the witch cult and now a boy with scary looking eyes is trying to say that he is her knight, not to mention he reeks of witch smell.
“Ma Amazin—- better no—- see him—----- near the prince—-- URGH STOP!” He shouted having had enough of being interrupted.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUHHHHH PLEASE! PLEASE! STOP” Subaru yelled with all of his lungs, his voice was starting to break from the yelling.
Before him stood the kingdom's finest knight, Julius Juukulius and the kingdom's greatest healer Felix Argyle, the latter was using a forbidden magic spell that boils the blood on Subaru.
[4] Another streamer in prison it's so over
“Are you going to start speaking, Pride?” Julius questioned, he motioned to Felix to pause the spell to let the prisoner talk.
“Nyaw, if you won't tell us how to fix this mess we will get even harsher dear Pride~” Felix said, despite his cute tone he was feeling incredible rage and disgust building up.
FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX FELIX
“Alright finally we can start moving” Subaru’s tone changed, no longer was he the same boy pleading to be spared but one of a man who had done this over and over again.
And upon hearing his words, the finest of the knights and the greatest healer felt like a wave of thousands of eyes staring right into them which startled them, what was this feeling, is this part of his authority? And why does it feel like they were chanting Felix’s name? He shuddered slightly at the thought.
Alarmed by this, Julius pulled out his sword ready to give a beating to ‘Pride’ if necessary but before he can do anything–
“We're gonna want to fling ourselves into that part of the roof, believe it or not there's no collision in that area, new players are usually fooled by this but it's a trick used by the devs to save resources.”
Julius and Felix looked at the roof of the cell, there was a hole in there big enough to fit a person of Subaru's stature. What was he talking about? Collision? New players? What does any of that mean? They looked back at where Subaru was sitting…. Or rather where he is supposed to be sitting only to find a pool of blood without its source.
“W-what…” Felix could only mutter as he realized that the archbishop somehow broke through his shackles and leapt into the roof all within a split second.
Damn it! How could they let him get away? They were sure they broke him. What is going on?!
“We have to find him fast, we will close every entrance and exit and heavily fortify them” Julius hurried and left the cell, he can't let Pride roam around like a free man he still has to get back his name.
Felix realizing the danger immediately started running to where his lady is, he wanted to make sure that the vile archbishop wouldn't get to her.
[EchidnaTeaTime] had donated 10 holy coins.
How do you plan on handling the Karsten manor with your body fatigued?
“Oh welcome back Echidna so glad you could make it for our stream, as for your question I've already prepared beforehand.”
“We will be needing the dragon blood from crusch for our next setup, plus the body physics here are extra realistic so without it we can't perform ISG or bullet speed projectile glitch against our upcoming battle with gluttony.” He skillfully navigated through the maze-like area of the roof.
“I hear him! Follow his voice.” Julius was running after him while Subaru was busy monologuing to himself.
“Also for some reason Julius always finds us whenever we get to Crusch’s room so our window is pretty tight unless we want to face him head on, I'm not sure if he was programmed to show up here once we step on a trigger or if his AI is actually well made.”
Programmed? AI? What the hell is this madman talking about? No it shouldn't matter his ramblings, he's going to hurt a throne candidate, he MUST stop him.
[5] You're speaking too loud maybe
“Huh? Me being too loud? Don't be ridiculous, I'm sure he can't hear me.”
‘Oh I can hear you Pride, I can hear you loud and clear and I won't let you do this….isg thingy! Whatever that meant’
“Julius!” His thoughts were interrupted. An old but regal and elegant butler was running beside him, Julius immediately recognized him. The sword demon Wilhelm Van Astrea.
Wilhelm looked at Julius, his expression was serious, they both knew what's going on. Thanks to Felix quickly telling him what happened the sword demon is now back in action ready to cut down the archbishop.
[4] Best girl incoming! You guys know what to do
[ChurchOfCrusch] had donated 20 holy coins.
[ChurchOfCrusch] had donated 20 holy coins.
[ChurchOfCrusch] had donated 20 holy coins.
We want to make sure that our best girl is the winner!
[8] Looks like C.O.C is back at it again
[6] don't abbreviate that
“Whoa you guys! Atleast, give the others a chance, this is barely fair! Though I can't really disagree with you if I say so myself.”
[RamSimp] had donated 2 cents.
I'm throwing in my two cents, Ram better win.
Crusch Karsten, one of the five royal candidates for the throne, laid on her bed. Being one of the victims of the attack of Priestella she was wounded greatly thanks to the Archbishop of lust she suffered greatly, it's only a moment of time before she succumbs to the dragon blood.
She woke up, another morning. Another day of suffering she has to go through. Frankly, she started to feel like she should die but she held on strong seeing how desperate her knight is to bring her back to full health. She can't give up on him, not now.
Her eyes stared at her ceiling, she felt tired from all of this even though she just woke up, would anyone blame her if she took another nap?
Just before she goes back to sleep she hears a voice.
“We only have a few seconds before the others catch up” Suddenly a boy with black hair jumped down from her ceiling, his body was filled with blood and he looked pale. She noticed some fingers missing from his hands.
Ahhh that was him, the archbishop of pride. Did he come to finish her off?
Wasting no time at all he quickly rushed towards her and suddenly grabbed her arm, she was startled by the unexpected but somehow expected assault as she yelped slightly in pain.
She started looking around for anyone to help her or a way to protect herself only to realize something, the pain she was feeling started to immediately slowly diminish, she looked at her arm as she noticed how the dragon blood was slowly leaving her body towards the archbishop’s.
She looked at him, his body was shaking in pain but his face was calm, almost like only his body reacted while his mind simply passed it off as an inconvenience.
The blood left her system, she's clean and feels extremely better, Pride suddenly fell to the ground holding his body in extreme pain.
“Okay… our HP dropped from 50 to 20, we will manage.” He got up, facing the door as it was quickly pushed open by Wilhelm who wasted no time into rushing towards Subaru with Julius behind.
“Oh crap Wilhelm too? Was my RNG that bad?” He quickly hurried to the closest chair and threw it with all of his strength at the approaching threat. Wilhelm side stepped the chair while Julius quickly jumped over it before realizing something’s wrong.
It was just for a second, a split second but Julius swore he saw Pride sitting in the flying chair looking back at him.
[1] CHAIR TECH LESS GOOOOOO
[2] Wait, how did you do that? I've never seen this before
“Damn it! He's tricky!” He said in an uncharacteristically inelegant tone that didn't befit his title as he chased after him. Wilhelm left the chase for Julius, his lady was his top priority and now that he has seen Pride with her he must've done something to endanger her.
“My lady— are you alr—-” Wilhelm stood by her side checking on her, he was shocked to find the dragon blood completely removed from her veins.
Crusch extended her arm forward, staring at it. Her body free of this cursed blood, free of the pain. Part of her was still afraid of the archbishop but the other part was thankful for what he did to her.
“Please stay here, we will capture the archbishop and interrogate him thoroughly” Wilhelm said, not giving her any chance to voice out her argument, he left the room.
Crusch continued to stare at her arm, no, her body, it's been so long since she felt this peace since she felt this relief, after Wilhelm left letting his words hang up in the air she wanted to stop him, maybe Pride wasn't a bad guy? Even if it's wishful thinking, the fact that he did what he did proves there's a speck of goodness within his heart.
“By the way, chairs can be thrown far away and if you're quick enough you can mash B to sit just before the chair leaves your range. The chair won't lose any momentum when doing this.” He said as he started running, leaving Julius and Wilhelm to realize what's going on.
[2] Ohhhhh
“This was successful, Chat, we're actually on a world record pace” He took a glimpse behind only to find Julius after him.
“Here we can actually shake off Julius with a simple roll trick, considering how broken our gate is we're unable to cast any magic, but that's a good thing!”
Subaru rolled forward before quickly attempting to cast a spell.
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Suddenly, Subaru's body jolted forward a bit as he continued to roll.
“For those who don't know what I just did, this is the front roll animation cancel, when we roll forward we are stuck in a rolling animation which acts as a cooldown before we get to roll forward again, when we try to cast a spell we get this error because of our broken gate and because of this error we're able to bypass the rolling animation pretty swiftly”
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
Error can't cast magic without a Spirit present!
For Julius he believed in his superior speed, especially against Pride. From the beginning, Pride had shown many times that he's not as capable or as fast, he was weak, fragile and slow. It was only a matter of time before Julius’s speed caught up to him.
He was not prepared for what was about to happen. It didn't even seem possible for something like this to happen, the boy running infront of him suddenly rolled forward to gain more distance? Bad move because by the time he unrolls himself he will be caught, it was an easy way to sabotage yourself.
But that didn't happen, it didn't happen at all. Instead, the second the archbishop went for a forward roll he immediately stood up again MID-ROLL, not only did he gain a slight distance but he recovered instantly.
He was shocked this wasn't supposed to happen, by all laws of physics this is impossible! But before he could delve more into this he did it again, then again then again and again! He was rolling so quickly he created a large distance within the matter of seconds.
What type of magic is this? What a scary authority he has, oh look now he's completely gone!
“We shook off Julius, I'd say everything's going smoothly right now. This is the best run we have right now, minus the unexpected Wilhelm interference but even then it didn't matter much, I should leave before my next spawn point is set.”
[Lovelypumpkin38] had donated 5 holy coins.
Do you guys think if we pressured the devs hard enough we could get a secret Julius dating route?
“??? No way! I'd rather die before this gets added”
He ran into one of the knights who stood by waiting for him as he immediately swung his sword ready to decapitate the archbishop who was running straight to his blade, Subaru quickly slid just under his blade before kicking the knight’s foot causing him to fall.
“Haaaaah?” The knight said confused as he was falling to the ground, his sword no longer in his hand before his vision went black.
Subaru had quickly taken his sword and knocked him out with the hilt before muttering a quick apology as he continued running, now adding the sword to his inventory.
“Finally we got the final piece needed for Gluttony boss fight, we should be able to do ISG. Also for those new to the stream ISG stands for infinite sword glitch, it's a hard glitch to do that chips away the life of the sword but gives huge damage in return.” He was practically jogging to the exit now, no one is fast enough to catch up to him and no one knows where he is right now.
But one thing they knew is that he would be heading to the exit and they planned to corner him there, if they can't capture him they won't let him escape.
And that's what Subaru found out, he stood Infront of the exit covered by tons of knights and Felix and from behind him Wilhelm and Julius caught up. He was finally cornered, nowhere to go, his only exit blocked.
“You've—- un—-ong enou—-submi—- self—--to the royal g—--” Julius's dialogue was skipped through, he himself didn't know who was interrupting him but it didn't matter, the archbishop was Infront of him and he won't lose sight of him.
“Fine you caught me guys, guess it's game over for me huh?” ‘Pride’ said, holding his hands in the air to surrender.
Wilhelm looked at him, with less hatred than before, when he realized that Pride didn't harm his lady but merely got rid of her curse he started getting doubts.
“Nyaw—this was a pitifu— ttempt—-” Felix was given the same treatment.
But, where is Pride? Wasn't he standing there? Where did he go.
“DAMN IT! HE WAS WITHIN MY SIGHTS, HOW!” Julius furiously complained, he's starting to act out of his elegant knightly persona.
They heard running coming from the stairs as they immediately followed it, sure enough they ended up in the attic, a dead end in sight. As much as they wanted to mock him for running into another dead end they knew better than to provoke an already tricky enemy.
“Cover the entrance if he were to get past us I entrust you all to stop him” Wilhelm ordered as the knights blocked the attic’s entrance completely sealing him.
This was it, there was no place for him to run to, either go through them or jump through the window where he falls to his death, it wasn't an easy jump and it would surely break his bones.
Julius wasn't going to let him get away, he was going to capture him and show him what hell looks like, he drew his sword and in an instant he cleared the distance between them with his sword already striking Subaru.
“Julius is a tough opponent to beat and that's me talking about his version without the support of his spirits, imagine the version with spirits” Subaru gracefully dodging the strike from Julius by jumping back as the sword teared some of his clothes, before getting another chance to touch the ground he quickly raised his sword to block another attack coming from Wilhelm which created a strong shockwave throwing him into the wall.
[7] Oh my, you really know everything about your opponent don't you subaruuuu-kun~
‘Who invited Ros-chi to the stream?’
“This is new, Wilhelm never interrupts Julius's boss fight, it's also troubling, I've only practiced Julius's attack pattern.” Blood poured from his head as he got back into his feet gripping his sword before eyeing another chair nearby.
[1] I love this tech so much bro
[4] You shoulda seen the shield surfing tech it's actually pretty neat and doesn't eat up stamina.
[8] It's impractical, you can only go so far before the shield breaks and you don't even know how long [Depending on the shield] it would last not to mentio-
[4] Buy more shields then, duplicate them
[8] No! That would waste time!
“Guys? I'm trying to focus here” Subaru shook his head lunging towards the chair with his signature smile on his face, he knows what he is going to do, Julius knows what he is going to do.
He won't stand there and let it happen to him twice, he won't be fooled again, not to mention that smile on his face annoyed him too almost as if it was daring him to attack.
Immediately closing the distance Julius swung his sword, his form elegant and refined, his eyes sharp and focusing intending to incapacitate the boy right here and right now before he pulls out another trick from his as–
Much to his dismay, he fell right into the archbishop's plan, Subaru holding the sword with all of his strength blocked the hit, generating a stronger shockwave that pushed his body and tore through the wall into the outside, falling to his doom.
“Okay we got kicked out, now we will have to deal with the fall.” Wiping the blood from his nose Subaru was completely unconcerned as the ground started getting closer and closer rapidly before immediately grabbing the chair that was falling next to him and before they hit the ground—-
“When you fall from high places using the chair sitting animation will reset the player's height tracker to ground level thus nullifying any sort of fall damage once timed right”
He quickly got up from the chair he was sitting on merely inches before it touched the ground, suffice to say this little trick had worked incredibly, receiving no damage from the fall.
“I hope that answers your question, Echidna” He said to himself, recalling the earlier donation from the witch of greed who showed up to most of his runs practice.
Julius watched as the archbishop started rolling through the ground at high speeds, his expression unreadable, no one could tell if he was at the verge of losing it or greatly shocked.
Wilhelm, although tiny bit, slightly relieved that the archbishop left stared at the fleeting figure, confusion and disappointment on his face.
The cat boy who stood by watching suddenly twitched in anger watching as the archbishop just ignored fall damage right in front of him. What the hell is wrong with these archbishops?
They talk weird, they move weird and their abilities are even weirder! What did any of this mean? And why whenever he was close to Pride he felt like there's a whole crowd observing his every move, this is unsettling everything about that man is unsettling.
Should he pursue further? No he didn't even check on his lady, what type of knight is he? His lady should be his first priority, but isn't capturing the archbishop considered serving his lady? He didn't want to think deeply into this, there's no time. Pride is running around free to continue rampaging and if they don't figure out how to counter his authority they will be humiliated.
“Felix.” Julius said as the catboy’s ears perked up.
“I want you to get rid of every chair in this building.”
Prison Escape [7:33.75]