Chapter Text
“Capt are sure that something is dangerous round here?” while walking through a dark cave a blond teenager asked his older brother figure. Who had brought half of the members of the Emilia camp to deal with this new looming threat.
“Garf you know subaru wouldn't play with something like this” the person that the group was named after talked in her melodious voice, she had an absolute trust in her knight words. but there was something that brought her attention, she putting a finger to her shin expressed her question “but Subaru if it is as dangerous why not wait for roswaal or maaaaaybe we could have called the knights for help.”
“I would have liked to do that if there was a fast way of bringing them here, Emilia-tan” Natsuki Subaru the personal knight of the throne candidate Emilia who is the Lady he pledged loyalty and he's also deeply in love with. Subaru who was a once a NEET was suddenly transported to a medieval like world in this new world many things happened to him things that shouldn't have happened in the confines of his room, he faced many challenges, made many friends, found love, was loved and discovered what it is to die, like many of the Isekai stories Subaru used to read in his room the protagonist would have gotten a special skill upon arriving in the new world just that instead of being an amazing superhuman, Subaru got the ability to return by death.
A cruel power that allows him to turn back time when he dies and with that cheat ability he has managed to overcome all the dangers that come to him and his loved ones. This present situation wasn't any different. It's been one week since his comrades put a stop to Al's betrayal. In this week of pure peace Subaru was living the scenery he always wished to see. Emilia was every day more certain of herself and the people liked her more and more. Beatrice played outside with Petra and the other people in the mansion. Rem was awake and slowly adjusting to the life in the mansion even if her memories were still gone. Everything has been really dream-like at least until he died once again. He remembered how he was talking with Emilia on the courtyard about some trivial thing, then suddenly he was sent three days into the past. Subaru then spent 7 loops finding out how he died after discarding poison, curse and assassin's Subaru finally saw a bright light swallowing everything killing all things in its path. After some more loops he finally found the point where the light came from, sadly he didn't have time to call Reinhard or Julius and Roswaal had taken Ram, Rem ,Otto and Clind to an important meeting with some nobles. But on the other hand he still had enough fire power to overcome any army, Garfield the shield of the Emilia camp, Frederica Garfield’s big sister and a reliable person all around, Petra the prodigy maid that was very dependable with her fast learning of yang magic, Beatrice the yin great spirit and Subaru contracted partner, the royal candidate Emilia, the witch of glaciation and Subaru himself while he may consider himself the weakest every other member of the party would remark how vital he is in a heartbeat.
“Subaru” the boy felt someone pulling his sleeve. looking down he saw Beatrice “I Know you're lost in thought right now but you should look ahead, in fact.”
Subaru saw all of his companions suddenly stop confused over what lies ahead of them. Deep inside the cave there was a metal door, while all the others found it strange it was stranger for Subaru because that was a very modern looking metal door, he could even see a led light on top of the Doors instead of the usual magic stone lamp.
“OK this isn't what I hoped to find, well actually I didn't hope to find anything good but not this!!! Why is the setting changing from medieval fantasy to sci-fi!!!”
“Subaru-sama you're being too loud while it is weird is just a door” the usual level headed Frederica tried to pull Subaru out of his rambling, after he pressured every present member over how serious this was. Frederica didn't want Subaru to get off the point.
“Yeah you're right we don't have much time” he knows that the explosion usually happens in the late afternoon while the sun is still high in the sky. subaru sadly didn't know a way to keep time in a precise way “I'm still not used to the way clocks work here”
“Suba Subaru-sama you've been in Lugnica two years by now” the cute maid mentioned “but if you need to study, I can help you!”
The black haired teen smiled at the cute maid and how precious was in her attempt at getting closer to him.
“Well we will get nothing standing here Garf, open the door!”
“Who is the reason we had stopped to look at the door, I suppose?”
“Aye capt’n!” The young tiger grabbed the center that connected both sides of the door and easily bent the metal open.
And just like the door the hallway wasn't anything from a fantasy setting it was more modern looking for Subaru it reminded him of a hospital in a weird way.
“Ok, it keeps getting weirder and weirder”
The blond maid had to nod too. Even if she was someone used to luxury and extravagance, having worked for the marquis Roswaal for a great part of her life and visiting many noble houses, the structure now present before her was like nothing she had ever seen.
“Well it's weird ye, but with my amazing self here there is nothing to fear” Garfield praised himself. After all the fights he had experienced since leaving the sanctuary, unless it was something of the level of a true dragon or a sword saint, the young tiger could take care of it. But as soon as Garfield put one foot on the facility an alarm started to sound and from the compartments on the roof various metal boxes fell to the floor.
“....”
“Were those supposed to fall on top of our heads, I suppose?” Beatrice watched with disappointment, how this place that had her contractor so scared wasn't much after all “whoever built this place not only had a weird sense of taste, is also bad with traps, in fact.”
“Beatrice, that's no way to talk. I'm sure that person put in a lot of effort.”
While some of the two strongest magic users in the world talked about trivial things the metal boxes started to changed shape, mechanism and metal slates accommodated themselves changing from a box to a humanoid figure made of metal with sharp claws on its hands and feet and one eye in the middle.
“Killers robots and they transformed?!” Subaru's confusion reached a new high but given that now there was present danger, he had to push the questions on his head down “garf it's too late for subtleties by now just smash everything in your path, Emilia cover garf. Petra try to look for any clue on who's running this thing. Me, Beatrice and Frederica will cover the back lines”
With everyone's duties given, the plan got in motion. While Subaru was still in shock over the killer robots he wasn't worried after all Garfield was more than strong to destroy metal, the same with Emilia and Frederica and that's only counting physical strength adding the power of their magic it should be easy to deal with these fodder enemies, before arriving at the big bad.
Or so Subaru thought. Actually the fight had been harder than he imagined every member of the party right now was either exhausted or with minor wounds. It started going bad when Garfield attacks didn't immediately trashed the robots upon receiving one punch from their blond power house, they did receive damage but it wasn't at the expected level, the same was for Emilia and Beatrice magic attacks. But regardless the members of the team weren't about to be stopped for something like this Garfield had the earth divine blessing which helped him regain strength while he's on the ground and Emilia had practically bottomless mana so they could still advance through the hallway.
“RAaAaGH!” Garf destroyed another metal door while he was visibly more tired and wounded. But still his eyes showed a clear will to keep fighting.
“Ok, this one is different” the room they entered wasn't a square room filled with weird equipment like all the other rooms they visited until now this one was a very big space with a device in the middle, Subaru could only think of it as a reactor of some sort and working on the reactor there was a man in its thirty, he had golden hair with some of the hair locks colored in white here and there, his eyes where very weird one was blue and the other had a glowing yellow color in it and what he was wearing was even stranger armor that Subaru could only call it a steam punk like but Instead of steam he had a lot of magic stones incrusted in the armor all over it.
“No.No.No! Who are you? I didn't know any of it. Why didn't I mention any of this?”
His rambling was weird. Subaru couldn't help to think it was similar to that of a Sin archbishop and he was pretty sure he already meet them all except pride so the chances of this guy being the elusive sin archbishop weren't zero “guys be careful there is a chance that this guy is a sin archbishop, Frederica on the worst case grab Petra and escape to bring help”
“Another of these fucker” the warning of his capitan made Garfield more aware of the danger this mad man represent.
The big sister of the group was putting on her knuckles and getting ready to fight “Petra-chan, don't separate from me, ok?”
The smaller maid nodded with determination.
“....but Subaru aren't the archbishops, usually ostentatious this person was hiding away from everyone” Emilia voiced her observation, while she did consider him a threat she just couldn't look at him as sin archbishop.
“Emilia, is better if we let who he is after we are done, in fact.”
“Nonono, I was promised that this will work, that I will rule the world, a world without heroes that is mine for the taking, any of you aren't heroes, you will not stop me!!”
His crazy monologue didn't make any sense but even with his eyes not focusing on the machine he kept working on, he pushed a button unleashing multiple robots of all sizes.
“I kept this one's for when I'll have to take over the closest city but I guess this as good as any time”
The robots they had fought until now were slim and had the size of the average human but now there were robots two floor height with giant fists, ones that only had one big arm which Subaru could guess was cannon and some flying metal bats.
“There is more!? And you made different types?! Hey bastard, you're running the fantasy setting right now.”
“Subaru, stop playing around!” Emilia was firing her ice magic a rapid pace trying to overwhelm the robots but it was harder than before the big robots were shielding the smaller ones and now some were shooting back at them “I don't know what that red light is but it cannot be good”
“Petra-chan behind me”
“Raaagh” Garfield launched himself at a big robot and it really surprised him when not only took the punch with no issue it also struck back with considerable force. For Garfield this wasn't making any sense, all his senses told him that these robots weren't as strong as a true dragon or one of Volachia's divine generals but he was taking this much damage from one hit? “capt’n I'll deal with the big ones, find a way to stop the crazy guy.”
“Beako lets make them float!” That was Subaru's desperate attempt to clear the way and quickly reach the bad guy but once again the magic that Beatrice applied to them wasn't working as intended. The robots were glowing with a light purple but they weren't floating mindlessly as intended “it's like they're magic resistance.”
“Is not like they're Subaru those robots as you call them are magic resistance but how a golem could be controlled by magic doesn't make any sense that they resistant to it while also having it as their power source, in fact”
Beatrice who had gone into her magic teacher mode was rambling on about the weirdness of it all. Only Subaru, who wasn't from this world, thought that maybe the robots were powered by something else “if magic isn't working then let's just focus on physical attacks.”
The battle kept going but the Emilia camp weren't seeing the end of it. Garfield was collecting more and more wounds, Emilia seeing how her ice weapons kept breaking decided to fight using her fist, Beatrice started to cast spells on Frederica or Subaru to get them out of a pinch. Petra was close to the spirit or the big maid. For every robot they destroyed another would take its place and contrary to the robots they do get tired.
“Ahahahah see I was right it doesn't matter who comes I can overcome anyone in this world with no heroes.”
The maniac speech of the guy was annoying Subaru but it did bring his attention to the mention of heroes or lack thereof ‘once Rem would probably fight this guy over whether I'm a hero or not. But he isn't even counting Reinhardt?’ That was the second time he talked about it.
“Frederica-nee-sama” preta saw the blond maid bend down one knee. She had been cut on the left side by one of the smaller robots. Finally her body was reaching its limits.
Another quick look at the battlefield and things were getting worse. Subaru was the only one with a good positioning due to recently distancing himself using murak and the robots not seeing him as an immediate threat unlike Garfield, emilia and Frederica.
Subaru then saw something on the machine the maniac was working it started to emit a bright light the same that had swallowed him and his loved in the previous loops but seeing the crazy guy working on it directly without any sort of protection made him think that the purpose of the device wasn't to blow up but it had another function which couldn't be completed due the device exploding “stop it's going to blow, you're going to kill us all!”
And finally for the first time the man turned to look at Subaru, his eyes showed craziness not unlike the sin archbishop but also a little different “What are you talking dumb kid, this machine was designed by myself and armed by me, it's a master piece that will bring the future to the past!!”
The light became brighter and brighter for the mad man. It was proof of his genius. For Subaru it was a ticking clock getting closer and closer to the second where everything died. And so the young knight ran to stop it. The robots on his path slashed at him, shot at him but he endured every wound and rammed against the madman throwing him against the console commands of the machine.
“You're not making any sense! You're gonna kill us all!”
Subaru was surprised that the enemy in front of him wasn't all that strong in fact he was struggling against him. After fighting many enemies that could kill if they wished so, part of him couldn't believe that there was a villain around his level.
The two of them threw punches at each other and pushed the other onto the console commands, the robots were waiting at the side almost as if they calculated that if they intervened they may hurt their master. In their struggle they didn't notice the light became even stronger.
“Subaru!!”
“Capt'n!”
It became brighter and brighter. After getting punched on the left cheek Subaru finally realized what was happening. Something broke inside the machine and now the light started to consume everything once again ‘ah. So this is it’ he quickly turned to see his friends again ‘but don't worry I'll try again, I'll plan better and I'll’ the last thing he try to see before dying again was the person he loves the most, the girl that this heart belonged to “this time I'll save you”
First it was as if the sun appeared inside this very room. Every living thing closed its eyes just to not get blinded. Then everyone felt a force pushing them to the ground and lastly came the sound. When everything passed Emilia and Garfield were the first one to stand up with their sight slowly coming back. Once again ready for the fight but the robots stood still waiting for new orders that didn't come, the place where Subaru and the villain had struggled was empty with only traces of some explosion left.
Emilia world freezed for a moment “.....Subaru!!!!!”
Garfield soon after followed the king candidate's gaze and came into the horrific realization “capt'n!!”
Petra who was rubbing her eyes got tightly hugged by Frederica who tried to shield her from the view. The last thing she wanted was for Petra to see the remains of her loved one “Frederica-neesama?”
“Shush close your eyes petra you shouldn't look”
“Betty's Subaru he couldn't…”
“Hahahahaha. I knew it would work. that I could do it. What Otto Octavius, what Norman Osborn, what Valeria Richard, what Shuri Aja-adanna. I did something none of them could hope to do!!”
The great sadness that overwhelmed everyone got interrupted by the appearance of one man wearing weird armor. There was something weird. Emilia noted that he was older, his hair that previously was blond with white now was mainly white with little of the original color left. His clothes were also different and on his right arm had a weird black metallic glove.
“you!!!” But Garfield in his rage didn't care about the distinctions; he transformed part of his body into his tiger form and just launched himself at the man only caring about finding out what happened to his precious captain.
“Oh? I had visitors? Weird, I instructed myself in building the device in a hidden location. Well no matter” before the transformed arm of the young tiger could strike him. The man raised his armored hand and a red glowing square appeared which was big enough to cover all of his body. The attack of the tiger connected but instead of pushing his enemy back to the ground Garfield felt a great pain all over his body.
“Garf!” Emilia saw the blond tiger fall onto the ground wriggling and screaming in pain trying to stand up but to no effect, he couldn't put any strength on his limbs, but at least with Garfield on the ground Emilia could shoot some ice cycles at the enemy without fear of friendly fire. He just redirected the shield to face the attack which surprised Emilia even more because contrary to the robots where they did received some damage just that in a smaller capacity, here her magic just disappeared, Emilia knew that some talented magic users could dispel their magic mid attack but she never heard of someone cancelling the magic of someone else, not even Roswaal.
“Ahaha see my genius!! This primitive world, this world without heroes is mine! This past without all the masked freaks!!” The man expanded his arms and as if that was the signal the robots were waiting to resume their assault, Emilia quickly formed an ice shield to stop the punch that one of the big robots threw at her “a world without Ant-Man, without the human torch!”
“Garf!!” Fredecira had left Petra with Beatrice and quickly moved to shield her younger brother from an attack that was coming directly towards him which she did using her own body as a shield “gah!” The attack had sent her flying a little farther away from her brother and the fall knocked the air out of her lungs. Garf could only watch as a big robot came to deliver the finishing blow to his sister. Frederica was barely conscious and while she heard her impending doom she only could smile knowing that she at least saved her little brother.
“A world without Moon Knight, without Cyclops, Magneto, Sentry”
“Frederica-nee sama!!!”
“No night crawler, no daredevil, no black panther, no punisher!”
“Sis, get up! Sis! Big sis!” Garfield cried out the name of his sister and tried to move his body to avail “move damnit move!”
“Frederica!!” Emilia also couldn't move because every robot she pushed away another one came. They clearly considered her the only remaining real threat.
“No Deadpool, no wolverine and the most annoying of them all”
Death was coming for Frederica, the fist of the big robot was coming down to smash her. She instinctively closed her eyes and just hoped for a miracle.
“No more Spider!!!”
*Thwip*
“...Man??”
The villain stopped completely and the members of the Emilia camp used that gap to see what happened to the blonde maid contrary to their better judgement. But instead of seeing a destroyed body smashed by the robot there was just a broken floor, no corpse, no blood, not even a torn up cloth, only the fist of the robot connecting with the hole in the ground.
“I cannot even have a normal chat with a friend for me to not get sent to a weird situation” an unknown but familiar voice spoke “ha! I usually caught thugs and criminals but a blonde is new”
Emilia's brain was fighting logic against her emotions, her brain knew I couldn't be, the voice was too deep and Subaru had been at the center of the explosion but her heart knew who that voice belonged to “Subaru??”
“Eh? Subaru-sama?” Frederica finally realizing she wasn't dying any time soon opened her eyes. Hearing Emilia comment she expected to meet the young knight who she usually worked with while maintaining the mansion. But instead she saw a man. His face was leaner, his haircut was a little longer with some bangs on the side loose instead of the usual hair combed backwards he went with and somehow his eyes were even sharper.
“Hmmm?” Seeing that the enemies were processing the situation the man took a break to see who he had rescued, after connecting the dots he only tilted his head to the side, an act that would have been cute if it didn't come from a man in his mid 20s with dangerous eyes “Frederica?? You have your hair long again?
Frederica saw the man's face get closer as if inspecting her in detail like there was a secret hidden on her face.
“Mmmm, ok no point thinking about it, right now…” he looked around the room and finally his gaze stopped on someone or to be precise his eyes finally made contact with who had been watching him since he spoke out loud. Light Brown eyes met purple, he quickly shaked his head “yeah is better if I don't think about too much right now. Hey Frederica, I'm assuming that the guy with white hair and crazy fashion is a bad guy, right?”
The maid still not used to the new but familiar voice calling her name so casually responded a little late “yes, he is, he is the one controlling those things you called roubote?”
“Ok, now would you mind putting your arms around my neck? So I can at least have one arm free.”
That comment confused the maid until she finally found out that she wasn't leaning against the dark haired man like she originally thought, he was actually carrying her princess style “eeeh!?”
“Hey don't move too much!! you're wounded!!” suddenly the woman that was in his arms begun to frenetically twist herself to break free “at least stay calm until I drop you in a safe spot”
“I can walk”
“Weren't you waiting for your death just moments ago, unable to move?”
“....” She quietly did as she was told and turned her face the other way, not wanting to make eye contact.
“good just let me move my arm, I'll try my best not to touch anything that I shouldn't.”
“Do so and I'll tell Emilia-sama”
“She'll understand if I explain the emergency”
“I'll tell ram”
“Please don't. she'll punish me regardless of the emergency”
Frederica had been kind enough to bring her knee closer to her chest so Subaru passed his hand under her left arm and held her through the back of her knees.
“say I'm heavy and I'll get mad”
“Don't worry you're almost light as a feather”
Frederica for a moment remembered when the first day she met Subaru she confused him with an intruder and knocked him unconscious, after apologizing for knocking out, he made a comment on her teeth which ended on him being the one apologizing in the end after that the blonde maid had accompanied him to see the sleeping maid that was waiting in the carriage. She remembered how Subaru could hold the sleeping beauty fine enough at the start but later on his strength started to fail him little by little. She was a little concerned if that was going to happen to her now.
Thoughts were interrupted when the crazy man finally snapped.
“Kill him, kill him, don't care about the rest kill spider-”
*Thwip*
“Yeah I heard the first time don't have to yell it”
The mouth of the man was covered by a weird substance reminiscent of a spider web. But his orders had been clear and now all the robots were looking at Subaru carrying a wounded Frederica. First was one of the normal robots who swinged its claws towards him Subaru quickly stepped back dodging the attack and used his free hand to punch the robot that was coming from the left pushing it back and making a little dent on its metal shell, the amount of surprises haven't stopped for Frederica, in the eyes of the blonde maid Subaru was many things but physically strong wasn't one of them but now there was this changed version of him easily dodging attack while carrying her and dealing a lot of damage to the metal beings even in this disadvantage state. On the way to this room she and the others had fought the robots but it usually took three or four of her attacks to make a dent like he had done while being in bad footing and without applying a lot of momentum to his strike.
“Hey Frederica, how do you do with quick movement's?”
The voice of the man carrying her took her out of her train of thoughts “huh? I never had a problem” while she had calmed over the years but in her childhood days she and Garfield would just fight for the sake of it.
“Ok. I'm going to increase the pace, try not to puke.”
“please Subaru…-sama I also fought in Volachia you should know I'm not so delicate.”
Not even three minutes after she regretted her words, Subaru spined, dodged, punched, kicked, used the robots to impulse himself to jump higher and sometimes used the momentum of the fall to kick hard a robot, all that in quick succession. The blond eyes were spinning and she felt nauseated. But the enemies keep coming regardless of Frederica's sick state.
“Ok they kept coming,huh?”
“Subaru-sama if it makes it easy just drop me, my wound doesn't hurt much now I can at least defend myself.”
“Don't worry about it, I just wanted to buy time while Emilia gathered all the other's. Good. see she already picked up Garf.”
Frederica turned to see where the black haired man was looking and just like he said Emilia had put Garfield on her shoulder and rushed back to the ice wall she's been using as a cover.
“Now that's done grab tight, I'll leave you with your brother and then take care of the crazy guy.”
“But how do you plan to reach them? I can only see those metal fiends in the way.”
“By going up”
With that Subaru picked up his pace and after gaining force he jumped just like he had done before when he had to dodge an attack by going up. Next he used the head of the robot in front of him as a footstool to jump again. Frederica thought that maybe Subaru would repeat this move until they reached their allies but instead she saw Subaru stretch his free arm, do a gesture with his hand and out of nowhere a silver thread appeared as if coming from his wrist. The thread stuck to the roof and Frederica felt an increase of speed, they were swinging like a pendulum. When they reached the peak arc Subaru let go of that thread to keep their speed going and the moment they started to fall he would shoot another thread. Before she noticed they were already where their friends were.
The surprised Emilia, the tiger with his guard up, the confused spirit and the overwhelmed red haired maid. All of them had different expressions when their missing companions fell right next to them.
“and with that Subaru carrying service are over please remember to leave a good review and recommend to your friends”
He kneeled to gently let Frederica on the ground “big sis!” The young tiger still couldn't move so he cried out for his sister. Petra quickly came to support her senior maid not wanting to let Frederica's wounds touch the ground.
“She's not going to bleed out but it will be bad if she doesn't receive treatment soon, Beatrice I'll leave that you.”
“Subaru?, are you really Betty's Subaru?”
He could only smile at the cutest contracted spirit; he tried to stretch his hand to pat Beatrice's head, seeing her wariness at his sudden movement he decided to leave at that. The man stood up and moved closer to Emilia. The girl's gaze had a combination of caution and confusion but she couldn't do much more than that. outside the ice barrier the robots started doing everything to break the ice so she focused all her magic into keeping the walls up. Subaru only raised his hands showing that he didn't mean any harm as he got close to the girl.
“To be honest I don't know if I should say hello or long time no see.”
She had heard his voice, she had to lock eyes with him to confirm if it was really him.
She took one step, she had seen him put others before him.
She took one step closer, She had seen him joke to try to alleviate the mood, she had seen him save Frederica and looking up close she finally recognized him as her knight Natsuki Subaru.
He was taller, his body still on the slim side but his muscles were more marked, his face was leaner, his hair was longer and with some bangs down at the side down, he wasn't wearing the same traveling outfit he had while coming with them now he had some shoes similar to when he just arrived at the mansion a dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Emilia just kept finding differences between this man and her knight but she knew that her heart told her. He was Natsuki Subaru.
“Subaru? what happened to you?”
“I know it's confusing but let's leave the questions for later” Subaru grabbed Emilia right shoulder And moved her a little bit to the side. When the confused Emilia try to ask him with he had done that, a red beam had managed to pass through Emilia ice barrier missing by little not hitting the silver haired girl “Emilia, I'll need you to play defense, we have two wounded and two tired, so we'll have to divide our roles”
Emilia quickly fixed the hole in the ice wall and blamed herself for letting her guard down for so long that the attack passed through her defense while she also was thankful that no one got hit by it. Now her mind was also distracted by the Subaru in front of telling her to sit duck while he went through the metal army.
“But even Garfield had problems with those robutos you call them.”
“Yep, they definitely have some magic resistance components, but my strength doesn't revolve around magic so I'm their best counter.”
“Doesn't revolve around magic? Subaru you're not making any sense.” Subaru's statement had been a contradiction against her common knowledge even if someone were to shun magic as a whole and religiously train their body to achieve the flow method that still revolves around having the mana circulate through your body enhancing it, being strong without depending on magic was only something an archbishop could achieve. But the man next to Emilia wasn't one, she was sure of it before she could ask any more questions the man wasn't next to her. When she turned around searching for him, she saw him getting closer to the wounded siblings that were being healed by Beatrice and tended by Petra.
“You? They sayin you're the capt'n but I can't see it”
“Keep your strength Garf, seeing how your hair is all standing up right now I guess you got quite the shock. It'll take some time for it to pass, hey can you give me some details about what hit you?”
“...I don't know that bastard summoned a red square and when I punched everything hurt.”
“energy shield most likely, ok I can deal with that and by the rule of thumb I should expect some other energy projections at least like a blade or a giant fist” he saw the ice shield around them cracking more and more while Emilia mana wasn't anywhere close to running out for some reason had an issue manipulating it into shape, Subaru moved a little closer to the wounded maid, giving a quick look at her wounds again and the speed of the healing the little spirit was doing he reached the conclusion it wasn't good, Frederica wasn't by any means dying right now or in ten minutes but that also means he doesn't know how worse it might get after ten minutes. her blood keep coming out and just like Garfield her body wasn't absorbing mana like normal making her natural healing slow, Beatrice just like Emilia was having problem controlling her mana, ‘probably a side effect of being surrounded by many of these magic resistance robots, if anything it should be worse for Beatrice since she's a spirit, she must feel like wanting to pass out’ Subaru quickly reached something from his pocket and passed it to Frederica.
The little maid Petra who was making pressure into Frederica's wounds watched with confusion as this man was giving her wounded senior a flat black rectangle.
“Subaru-sama?” The blonde maid, very confused, just took the black rectangle that was being handed to her and took it close to her chest, maybe hoping that it would relieve her pain.
“Is not something so important that you should put it before your life but I'll be a little sad if something where to happen it” in honest thoughts Subaru more than wanting to keep his device safe he wanted to give this earnest maid something to hold on ‘frederica passing out would make everyone lose focus and if Emilia can't maintain the barrier they'll be easy picking’ so giving Frederica a small mission was his best conclusion. For he knew that the responsible maid would resist any thought of passing out just to keep her menial task of safe keeping the device.
“Welp,time to work” he stretched a little and cracked his neck. Judging by Petra's reaction she didn't like the sound of it very much. And just like he had arrived Subaru aimed at the roof with his arm and made a peculiar hand sing, a silver thread seemingly was shot from his wrist which stuck on the ceiling and he pulled the string lifting himself of the ground and outside of the street ice walls with his other hand he gave the thread another pull and quickly impulsed himself reaching the roof the room, he planted his feet on the ceiling, somehow gravity didn't seem to affect him in the slightest. For little more than a second his feet weren't separating from the roof. Subaru kneeled and put strength on his legs to impulse himself like a projectile into the mass of robots.
The big crash was heard by everyone, the place where Subaru had landed stood a man with two robots broken into pieces “damn I hoped to get at least three, well I guess to matter how much I want to play it cool I'm still affected by the situation” one robot tried to sneak an attack from behind Subaru something he quickly responded by turning and delivering a punch which sends the head of the robot flying. Quickly the robots stopped pounding the ice walls and turned toward the main threat. Slashes from the robots with metal claws, shoots from the robots with a cannon for its arm, the flying drones coming down on to him, the big robots fist trying to smash him. In the sea of metallic madness one man moved swiftly, almost as it was routine for him, he knew when to dodge, when to counter attack, when to shoot a web to immobilize an enemy and when to use it to escape.
For Emilia now that the ice walls were not being constantly destroyed she made some stairs to get a better view and provide whatever assist she could to her knight but she only managed to see a blur passing through and destroying the robots no matter how many times they tried to sneak up on him he would move as if he had eyes on its back, he would dodge and attack right after, the metal carcass of the robot would easily be sunk with one of his hits.
The robot destruction continued until Subaru got close enough to the madman for him to grab one of the human sized robots and throw it at him at a speed faster than a goa spell. The man raised his hand like he did with Garfield and a red square rose from nothing protecting him once again, the look of hate he gave to the knight after seeing one of his robots broken by his own hand was almost like you would look at the killer of your children.
“You shouldn't be here!!! All of the heroes came from the other side” in his face there was pure rage, the color red completely took over his whole face “I researched I investigated no hero comes from this side of the great division”
Subaru was on the back of a big robot punching its head until he made a hole and pulled some glowing sphere, seeing how the lights and functions of the robot stopped right after Emilia could only consider it something like it's heart or od, her knight took a moment to look at the madman and he scratched the back of his head “Yeah well, I always been a little bit of a mystery box. But hey you're like 99.9% right about no heroes coming from this side of the pool. You just had bad luck, you could even say that your stars were bad.”
The man moved his metallic right hand aiming his palm towards Subaru, in the center of the palm a red circle appeared and not a second later a red beam large enough to swallow an adult came out of his palm aiming at Subaru. The big robot that Subaru was standing on got obliterated and there was no trace of the dark haired man. Emilia for the second time today thought that she lost her knight only for the person itself to appear right next to the mad man and hit with a Kick strong enough to have him hit the wall. After that Subaru landed on top of a drone. He just looked right at the cloud of smoke that the impact of the madman had created, out of the smoke a slash of red energy was fired directly at Subaru who dodged to the side and the drone he was standing on got cleanly cut in half.
The madman came out of the cloud of dust with no visible damage. The most notorious change was that his rage was burning even stronger now.
Subaru on the other hand was hanging upside down from the ceiling as if his feet were glued to the roof with his hand on his hips not taking his eyes off the enemy. The villain extended his arm straight giving the image of a blade then he moved his arm drawing a vertical line and at the end of his hand movement another red slash was shot toward Subaru. The black haired man decided that it was now a good time to let gravity do its thing as he dodged the attack by simply falling down but even then he wasn't safe the energy slash had hit the ceiling making big pieces of debris fall, subaru again shoot a thread out of his wrist and used to swing out of the incoming rocks. Those rocks fell on a group of robots if not destroying them at least making them not be able to attack. Emilia saw how more slashes of energy were fired one by one, Subaru using the threads coming off his wrist kept dodging every attack and the missed energy slashes would keep either hitting the mass of robots or the ceiling again and have big rocks fall on top of the robots.
Emilia saw that Subaru was swinging with one arm while he would shoot a thread with his other hand to grab either a part of a destroyed robot or a rock that he would throw at the mad man. For her seeing this Subaru use those threads reminded her of the times she would watch Subaru practice with his wip. But his way of using them was similar but different, while her knight's way of using his whip was more oriented towards giving support while maintaining distance, this Subaru used his threads to shorten the distance with the enemy and deliver an attack himself. He would also use his threads to grab and throw objects or to swing around. That she was more familiar with Subaru fighting style, she noticed how his threads seemed to be sticky so he didn't need to wrap it around a ledge or a corner so just hitting a surface was enough.
Since coming out of the forest Emilia had met many people and had witnessed many fights sometimes even herself being part of them. Puck vs Roswall, Reinhard vs Elsa, the fight to vanquish the white rabbit, when everyone fought against the archbishops in pristella, the fight to conquer the tower, all the people she had to face in Vollachia. And so she had seen fights of greater magnitude than this one, fights of people way more experience and talented than the combatants she was watching right now but for some reason this fight was different for her not only the two of them were fighting with technique and artifacts she could have never imagined until now, there was something about her current knight that intrigued her, Subaru as much as she disliked he would always be at the front, fighting with everything he has and more to achieve a happy ending no matter how overwhelmed the chances might be, he would put himself at risk and usually would end up pretty hurt. Emilia always feel terrible for that, that her kind hearted knight would have to go through such hardships and end up in such a wounded state but at the same time that's why she had so much pride in calling Natsuki Subaru her knight because he was someone who would give their all for the people he care about. On the other hand this Subaru wasn't showing those strong emotions. The look in his eyes while fighting was almost as if this was routine for him, kinda like waking up and washing your teeth like if this fight was one of many that have come and will come.
“Subaru”
The fight continued regardless of the doubts that were brewing in Emilia's heart. The villain keep sending slash after slash sometimes an energy beam when Subaru would get stuck dealing with a drone but even then he kept dodging but now one of the slash cut the thread he was holding making him fall to the ground, the black haired man broke his fall by masterfulling rolling forward and keeping the strength of the momentum he used his hands to impulse himself and face kick the big robot that was waiting for him, making it fall on its back. The initial surprise of Emilia upon seeing her knight quick thinking and flexibility was overshadowed when she saw Subaru lift the big robot he knocked down and throw it at the villain with great force and speed not a second after Subaru shoot his threads from both of his hands toward aimed at the back of big robot he launched taking him off the ground. The villain raised his shield again to protect himself from the makeshift projectile, Subaru who was now on the back of the robot jumped over the red shield and delivered an axe kick into the head of the mad man sending him to the ground but Emilia saw how Subaru did not take the opportunity to end the fight.
“It's like Subaru is waiting for something” during the whole fight he would do the same thing: connect one hit and back down a bit. After that continued repetition the villain was very bruised by now and its breathing irregular. It was clear who was the superior one in this match but that confused Emilia more why he didn't keep the assault, her knight wasn't someone who would relish in others pain or would extend a fight for the sake of it, part of her knew that the present version of her knight wasn't that much different given the care he put into getting Frederica to safety.
“Maaaaaybe that guy can't do attacks and defense at the same time” that would explain why Subaru always exploited an opening when the mad man put up his shield. All of his attacks, the red beam and the slash had destroyed everything in its path. If he were to have something like that for close range… Emilia did not want to imagine the possibility.
“Is not like Subaru to take something slow and safe but I guess he learned through experience, I suppose”
“Beatrice? What about Frederica and Garfield?” Emilia was surprised that the small spirit suddenly came to her side leaving the wounded at the hands of Petra.
“After the robotos stopped pinning against your ice walls and many of them got destroyed my handle with magic returned a little, in fact” Beatrice made a small crystal of yin magic floating in her little hand “I cured them the best I could. Now they only have to regain their strength on their own, in fact.”
Emilia took her eyes out of the fight to see how the pair of siblings were doing and like Beatrice said they were overall better with Petra still looking after them. For her this was great news when she turned to see how the fight was going she felt a tug on her sleeve.
“Emilia I can feel my contract with Subaru coming from that man, everything points out that it is him, but how?” The little girl's grip on her friend's sleeve became tighter. “If what I think happened, then the situation is something even mother thought impossible, in fact.”
*And that would be” Emilia tilted her head to the side, until now Emilia had the idea that maybe that explosion imbued Subaru with power he didn't have before.
“That whatever that explosion was made the Subaru from the future take the place of the present Subaru, I suppose.”
“Future like from tomorrow.”
“Maybe a little further than that, I suppose.”
“Then what happened to the Subaru that was with us until now?”
The little spirit could only shake her head with a sorrowful expression on her face “I don't know, in fact.”
Just as they were thinking what could have happened to their dear person, the older version of said person came crashing into the ice wall below them.
A groan could be heard as the man unstuck himself from the ice “ok, he has a repulse cannon in his other hand. noted.”
““Subaru?!””
“Don't worry I'm fine, it barely hurts.”
After that he quickly jumped back into action. This time he increased his speed and tried the same trick, picking one of the robots and throwing it at the mad man just so that instead of putting up his shield he used the repulse cannon on his other hand to deal with incoming projectiles.
“You fool, I'm not going to fall for that crude trick again. I defied the laws of space and time and I'm not going to fail because you're throwing projectiles at me. The more time you spend in your useless endeavor my armor regains more of its functions.”
“whaaaa. You even have the villain monologue to a T. You only lack the old phrases, propostuos is something the good old dock Ock likes to say.”
“Do not compare me!!!” In his anger he sended another slash of energy which Subaru dodged by sliding down. He guessed that the knight would use the space beneath his feet to hit him with an upper cut not wanting him to do that, he charged his repulse cannon to the limit “when I'm done with you insect nothing will stop my road to world domination!”
When he was ready to fire with the hope of squashing Emilia knight like a bug, Subaru moved faster he aimed his shot the thread once again aimed at the forearm that was of the hand being aimed at him. For Emilia who hadn't seen it clearly until now, she finally noticed that what Subaru shot wasn't the fine threads or ropes, no, they were more like spider's webs.
“Spider's…” Emilia never thought much of those little insects. If she found one of them in her desk she would slice a piece of paper under it and gently place it in the garden, she wasn't fond of them by any means she just thought of killing that just was passing by was wrong “shooting webs, sticking to walls. Beatrice, you think Subaru is fighting like a spider?”
“Please Emilia don't associate my contractor to those creepy bugs, in fact” Beatrice fell a shill run through her back “betty don't know how but those things always managed to enter my forbidden library and they made their spider webs on high places, Betty had to stand on a pile of books or ask a maid for help with cleaning the webs, so humiliating, in fact.”
While Beatrice was telling her very important anecdote a loud sound came from the fighting ground where the piece of armor on the left foreman had exploded.
“how nice of you to put the exhaust port right next to the cannon” said the man while kneeling down “you said to be superior to Doc Ock but he wouldn't have made that rookie mistake”
For all his intended purpose, Subaru plan worked. The crazy villain was fuming so much you could practically see smoke coming out of his head ‘I always had a knack for getting on people's nerves intentionally or not. Now the matter is whether him getting mad would make my life easier or harder’.
“Enough is enough!! My name is Tom Hallwell. I have conquered time!! And I will not be mocked by a clown who thinks is a spider” with eyes he looked at the ceiling and yelled “I can always start my army again, I have time, I have mastered time, I am the time master and you will be buried and forgotten here spider.”
“I don't think lucking out a time leap counts as mastering time. I mean I never met him but I heard of this kang the conqueror, that guy is crazy with time travel.”
“AHHHHHHH! PROTOCOL B-365!!!” then aimed his right arm to the ceiling “while you're crushed like the bug you're, I'll rise and make the future mine!!!”
Then out of his right arm a powerful beam came out making a hole through the ceiling that went for long enough for the light of the sun to shine natural light where before there was not, which he used as an escape route flying through it. For a second Subaru thought of going after him if he moved fast enough he was sure he could reach him and get a clear picture of what was happening but he quickly realized why his adversary had to run off. The ceiling of the cave started to collapse.
“¡Hey! I already said that spiders are arachnids and having a self-destruct base is a cliche on its own, you crazy scientist stereotype."
Seeing that his yells fell on deaf ears he decided to turn to look at the people he at least knew they needed help first. So he swung past the robots that seemed to have stopped completely, no longer having a master to receive orders from. And arrived right next to Emilia and Beatrice, he made a gesture to follow him while he walked to the rest.
“Ok good news the bad guy ran away, bad news he activated the self-destruct function of the base.”
“self-destruction? He made this place expecting to blow it up?” the silver haired girl put a finger on her chin tilting her head, an overall cute gesture with an increased power by coming from such a cute person.
“Yeah really a walking cliche but going by the troupe we have 3 to 5 minutes before the rocks smash us or bury us alive.”
The calmest in his tone leave Beatrice a little worried it wasn't as he was sure he would get out of this it was more of an urgency in the realm of normalcy like when you forget you leave some food in the oven and it start to get burned that was the best comparency she could give to Subaru behavior over their crucial situation.
But the world doesn't care much about Beatrice's inner thoughts because this still was a cave trying to bury them alive.
“Petra move!!!”
The scream of the older maid made them look their way. The right on top of the wounded siblings started to collapse as if wanting to condemn them to the same fate they had just been saved from. And the little wasn't strong enough especially to pull them out before the ceiling collapsed but still that did stop her from trying.
The little maid could be seen pulling up two people way bigger than her with all the strength her body could muster while dust and little rocks hit her. It was clear her impending doom was every moment more and more closer. Emilia tried to run towards them to create an ice shield to convert them but her magic still wasn't completely responding to her.
*Thwip* *Thwip* *Thwip*
After those particular sounds stopped, so did the rocks when they looked up to see what happened. The whole part of the ceiling above them was covered in webs stopping the boulders from falling down.
“I swear I wasn't trying to be dramatic, I just was calculating which points to cover first and then connect the rest”
The man kneeled down and softly patted the young tiger head.
“You're are really the capt’n”
“The one and only” then he grabbed Garfield by the back of his vest and put him into his right shoulder like a sack of potatoes “anyway we better save the chat for later because the ceiling keeps failing down.”
He once again kneeled next to Frederica and the blond maid quickly guessed his intentions, she tried to stand up on her own but her body kept failing her after trying one more time and failing again she let out a sigh and wrapped her arms around the dark haired man neck once again taking the position just like when he brought her here.
“Emilia-sama please don't think anything weird about this.”
“Mmm? Subaru only wants to help but wouldn't it be better if I also carry one.”
“You're still aren't at full power yet, so Emilia please focus on guiding me on the path out this place and don't worry these two aren't heavy.”
“Subaru please take care of Frederica-nee sama and garf” the little maid seemed to understand very well with Subaru carrying the two siblings her best position was being close to Beatrice.
“Man is a shame I have my hands full, otherwise I'll love to pat your head.”
“Subaru-sama please. Now that your age gap is larger, don't encourage petra-chan.”
Without even letting out a grunt he stood up carrying the sibling in one arm each “I think you're letting Ram influence you a little too much Frederica. Anyway I don't have any idea where we are so Emilia lead the way, please.”
Emilia nodded her head and led the charge towards the way out, she wasn't anyways close to running at full strength just quick enough to see if the path was secure and wait for her allies to arrive in each intersection.
“Capt'n you lead us throughout this cave, how can't you remember it?”
“Pretty sure I'll remember if I went into a sci-fi cave during the royal election” he felt Frederica's side eye probably not liking the sarcastic response he gave to her little brother so he shaked his head and started again “sorry Garf. but it's true I don't remember this cave at all, the last thing I was doing was talking to a friend about seething up a……training schedule and suddenly I was in that room completely dazed until I heard screams calling for Frederica.”
“Your reaction time was considerably fast given what you just told us.”
Emilia nodded and puffed her chest in pride over the praise Frederica just gave to her knight, she was also very happy that regardless how much time passed her knight was still as kind hearted as ever.
“My thank you Frederica, what is it that Johnny says when saving a girl?” He looked at the ceiling contemplating which of his fiery friend lines would be the best to ease the mood “can't let anything happen to that pretty face can I?”
The blonde maid could have been mistaken over a chameleon demi-human, due to how quick her face changed colors First it was normal then a light red then her face quickly turned pale, she never expecting a flirty attitude directed toward her in this situation much less from Natsuki Subaru who is known for being completely infatuated with the royal candidate her master supports. She turned to see Emilia's back and she was completely silent, running through the hallway leading them towards the exit.
“Subaru”
“Subaru-sama”
The little one's tone showed a clear intention of reprimanding the man.
“Yeah, my bad, I guess it doesn't have the same effect as when I said that when Johnny does he usually gets some laughs and every now and then gets a girl phone number but that's beside the point.”
“Capt'n. What's a phone?” Garfield's point of view of hanging like a sack of potatoes was getting him dizzy so he wanted anything to keep him distracted.
“Ummmm. Remember that black rectangle, the one I lent Frederica for safe keeping. That's my phone. It's a little complicated explaining how it works but with it you can talk to other people from far away who also have phone's.”
Frederica's face which started to gain a little bit of color back after the conversation shifted from her rapidly lost it again after it went back right at her specially given that she put such an important object on her apron pocket “Subaru-sama don't hand such an important device so casually!”
“I didn't want it to get damaged in a fight again, I got the screen fixed last week, the guy from the repair shop is starting to give me this ‘is you again’ look every time I go there he even made me deal last time.”
“Phone phone phone” in Emilia's mind that word kept on repeating because for her this wasn't the first she heard it “wasn't that grey thingy you had when we met?”
“....ah! Right, my flip phone!” a boulder was about to fall right on top of Subaru and company but he quickly moved to the left dodging it, then he resumed the conversation like it was normal “remember trading it to that Russell guy for info. I never found out what he did with it.”
Subaru memory lane was short lived because after turning in another intersection he was already seeing the way out of this maze. He had to narrow his eyelids due to the difference in brightness the sun gives compared to the artificial light that was in the cave. Finally breathing fresh air Subaru looked around although he did hear about the outside location and its surroundings he didn't expect the strong change of scenery.
“Man, that guy really didn't wanted anyone to find his secret lab.”
“I originally thought that maybe you wanted to go out for a walk through the forest” Emilia still feels weird talking to the person in front of her like she usually did to Subaru “since we spend a loooot of time wandering around.”
“It didn't help that you didn't explain much, I suppose.”
“That is a bad habit of yours subaru, you never go into details over any crisis only that we need to move fast.” The little maid put her hands on her sides and looked at him with repromanding eyes while trying to appear as tall as possible, to get her point across ‘why did the height difference got bigger again!? I was slowly closing the distance, is not fair for him to just get 5 years older in an instant!!’ regardless of the effectiveness in petra sermon, subaru shrugged his shoulders.
“Wait, why am I getting a sermon for something past me did?, I already said but I don't remember this whole course of event”
“Subaru, regardless of this incident, you have always done this. You go somewhere and fight your way through the chaos only to end up very hurt physically and emotionally. Betty’s feeling your not remorseful at all over the way you hurt yourself and how much you worry the people close to you”
Subaru just kept following Emilia quietly through the forest, if it was anyone else he would have joked around the subject and comment how at the end of the day everything came out fine ‘but this is Beatrice the one talking I can't joke about this, not with her’ It may have been more time for him but he still remembers the nights where he couldn't hold the pain, the terrible memories just keep coming and so he scratched himself to the point of bleeding. He remembered Beatrice being the one for him in those times, the one to calm him down and heal his wounds.
“So Subaru, are you thinking about what Betty said?” for the spirit she found this subaru silence strange, the energetic young knight always tried to appear ok, specially towards the people in front of him.
“I don't know how to respond actually” what surprised him the most is that her words could still perfectly describe the current version of him even if Beatrice didn't knew anything about how he had lived his life until now ‘I really haven't changed much in the end’ his spider abilities may just be an enabler to him.
“But why don't we give capt'n a break. He just appeared in a weird place and had to fight those weird metal things” Garfield tried to ease the scolding his big brother was getting, which was hard for him since this usually was Otto duty.
“Subaru, you promise to chat with us more in the future? You know any burden gets lighter if you share it” The royal candidate also talked from her heart, she, like most members of the Emilia, wanted for the black haired boy to be more open with them.
“Emilia” the man called her name and the girl spun on her heels to face him. Orange eyes connected with purple ones, for Emilia the surprise was the sad smile on his face was a huge shock “I can't do that promise, is not my place. What you ask, only the Subaru that came to this forest with you can do it.” but he wasn't the black haired boy, he hasn't been him for a while now, time takes it toll on anyone, the user of return by death knows that more than anything. so he knows making an empty promise on someone that isn't here would only provide a fake comfort.
It hurts him to see the shock of rejection on those purple eyes to disappoint her for not being who he was and he feels anger towards the fate that once more had taken him to a place far from home.