Volume 4 - CH 50.2

Seeing the girl standing there at the back of the clearing, watching him with her vast, boundless gaze, Subaru wavered.

Surely, Garfiel had just told him that she was swallowed by the shadow.

But that was clearly at odds with what he was seeing.

If he had to choose which one to believe in, he could only choose to believe the reality in front of his eyes. In that case, was all their previous conversation just a lie?

[Subaru: Garfiel, what is this……]

[Garfiel: ……Don’t go jumpin’ t’conclusions. I know what y’wanna say ‘n ask, but we ain’t got time for that, now that we lured that thing here]

Dismissing Subaru with a wave of his hand, Garfiel cast his gaze over his surroundings. Then, lifting his chin and drawing in a deep breath,

[Garfiel: ――――oooorrrrrrrrrRRRRR!]

Although its volume fell short of covering the entire expanse of the forest, like a distant howl, the call pierced through the wondrously silent air.

Hearing it, for a moment, the rather out-of-place thought occurred to Subaru, “That guy’s super good at making animal noises”, but it soon gave way when he saw the answer to that howl.

[Subaru: ――――!?]

Accompanied by the sound of rustling, one after another, small silhouettes stepped out of the foliage and into the clearing.

Short in stature, their long, pink hair was almost dragging on the ground. Their skins were translucent-white, and their eyes devoid of emotion. The robes they wore seemed unfitting for their size, with sleeves dangling way past the tip their hands. They didn’t seem to be wearing any other garment underneath, and, peeking between the gaps, he could see that they were barefoot.

The number of figures stepping out of the treeline must have totaled about twenty or so.

Lining up to fill almost half of the clearing, they all bore the exact same face. Not just the same expression―― but the same face.

[Subaru: What kind of, joke is……]

[Garfiel: Woulda preferred if I didn’t have t’show ya]

Garfiel’s pained mutter failed to enter Subaru’s stricken ears. Or rather, despite entering his ears, they failed to register any proper meaning in his brain.

Seeing the girls with identical faces lined up before his eyes―― all looking exactly like Lewes, gave Subaru the illusion that he might be dreaming.

Truth is, Subaru had these kinds of nightmares before, and he had hoped that this was just another one of them. But,

[Subaru: The scratches from the branches hurt… and my heart too…… this is real, isn’t it]

Checking the blood seeping from his arms, and pressing against the sharp pounding of his heart, Subaru took a deep breath. And then, having resolved to accept this scene as reality, he scanned his eyes over the girls once more.

They all looked exactly the same as Lewes, and even their expressions were identical. That is to say, they were all emotionless, unmoving, and doll-like.

Even though Subaru knew that Lewes was never an especially lively person, she was always abundant in emotion, and, more importantly, her every action resembled that of a living human being.

[Subaru: ――――]

But that characteristic feeling of living human beings was entirely absent from these girls.

They were like dolls. There could be no description more accurate than that. One could even say they were dolls.

Despite breathing and carrying life, they were no more than moving dolls―― such, was the abnormality of seeing twenty identical faces arranged in a row.

[Subaru: Clones…… this world can’t have that kind of technology. Is it some kind of replication magic……? But then why make so many Lewes-sans……]

When the term “Somatic Cell Cloning” flashed across his mind, Subaru suddenly realized it.

Why the Sanctuary was called the Experimental Grounds, and why its master, Echidona, was so reluctant to talk about it. And then, there was also why Garfiel repeatedly cursed this place as a deadlock.

[Subaru: Unless, this is the result of the Sanctuary’s experiments……? Replicating Lewes-san? No… but, what’s the point of doing something like that……]

[Garfiel: Sorry t’do this when yer busy ponderin’, but looks like it’s about time]

While Subaru’s mind was turning at an incredible speed, beside him, Garfiel’s arms began to expand.

His arms, covered over with golden hair, swelled to rip through his clothing as muscles bulged to three times their original width.

Atavism―― if the giant tiger was Garfiel’s true form, then this partial transformation was merely the first stage of his trump card.

[Garfiel: Surround it n’ crush it. Simple, but with e’ryone else eaten, this is all that’s left]

[Subaru: ……I can understand what your plan is, but they’re…]

[Garfiel: Don’t worry. They ain’t like Granny, their insides’re empty. But they can follow orders at least. If they can just create an openin’, we’re set]

Whether it was the details of his strategy, or about Lewes’ replicants, there were still too many questions Subaru wanted to ask. But there was no time for that, or for carrying on a peaceful conversation, for that matter.

With a swipe of his massive arm, Garfiel pushed Subaru to the very back of the clearing. Then, at Garfiel’s brutish signal, the Lewes-formation pressed forward to shield Subaru behind them.

Garfiel stood himself in the dead center of the clearing. Behind him, were the Lewes-clones, and at the tail end, was Subaru. All the while, swallowing the trees of the forest, on the opposite end of Garfiel’s glare,

{???: ――I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you}

With slow, writhing movements, the words of love seeped from the edge of the forest.

Boundless revulsion and blaring alarms crying “danger” rang ceaselessly inside his skull. Then, the Witch’s shadow lifted what should be its head, and caught Subaru within its sights,

[Subaru: ――――]

Before he knew it, he could see the shadow undulating with joy.

Surrounded by a black vortex sweeping the trees of the forest into its spiral, amidst the sound of crushing wood, whispering love, the shadow stepped closer.

Defiling the grass of the clearing, it took only an instant for the expanding darkness to usurp this small patch of earth. Before long, everything here would be sinking into the shadow just as the forest had.

So if Garfiel was to have any chance of winning, it would have to be before this place was engulfed by the shadow. That is, now. This very moment.

[Garfiel: ――――GhrraaaAAAAAAHHHHH!!]

Tilting his head to the sky, Garfiel’s throat expelled a roar that quaked the atmosphere.

The violent tremors tearing through the air petrified Subaru’s every organ with instinctive terror. Before the frozen Subaru, not only Garfiel’s arms, but his legs had transformed into those of a beast, slamming to the ground with all its force.

Instantly, with the ruptured earth under Garfiel’s foot as the pivot, the ground beneath the Witch sprang up like a giant seesaw.

It was every bit a reenactment of Garfiel’s first meeting with Subaru, where he flipped Patrasche and the carriage clean off of the ground.

As the shadow was launched into the air alongside clumps of swept-up earth, Garfiel lowered his posture, placing all four limbs onto the ground. And, with a howl, he spurred on the next stage of his transformation.

Unable to withstand his expanding body, his clothes burst into slithers of rags dangling from his golden fur. Held up by lumbering limbs, his body grew to exceed four meters in length, as dagger-like fangs lined inside his jaw.

This was none other than the manifestation of the great tiger that had once conferred on Subaru such fury and despair.

[Garfiel: ――――WWRRRRR!!]

Roaring, the beast’s body tore through the wind, lunging for the shadow.

[???: ――――]

――fingers of shadows reached out from beneath the leaping beast and wound it within its grasp. Intercepted like this, the great tiger stopped mid-air. And, the moment after, a throat-rending shriek rang out.

A mist of blood burst from the tiger’s constricted limbs, practically announcing the shadow’s intent to crush them in its grip. Arms as thick as Subaru’s waist began producing the sound of ripping flesh.

Subaru watched the great tiger, shrieking and immobilized mid-air, but couldn’t tear his eyes away. And from there, the shadow mercilessly snapped the beast’s body into an explosion of organs and blood――

[Subaru: ――ah―]

――was not what happened.

While Subaru watched on in a daze, two Lewes replicants leaped into the fray between the tiger and the Witch.

The little girls shot forward, panting pointlessly with open mouths. With incredible speed, they passed through the shadow, and, landing on the ground, they darted towards the Witch whose gaze was transfixed on the tiger held high in her grip.

[Lewes-clones: u―]

[Subaru: ――――]

Spreading their arms, they threw themselves at the Witch as if to hug her. But the Witch, having noticed their approach, easily skewered them in place with an outstretched shadow.

The sharp, spear-tipped shadow, with the motion of a whip slinging to their prey, severed the two Lewes-clone’s legs from under them before skewering them through the waist. Then, it brought them next to the shrieking Garfiel, as if to show him.

A far too abominable sight, but that laxness was the Witch’s mistake.

[Garfiel: ――wwWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRR!]

When he saw the replicants’ mutilated bodies brought before him, Garfiel’s tremoring throat, already tearing from shrieks of agony, let out a roar of an entirely different hue that forced Subaru’s brows to furrow.

Confused as to the meaning of that change in tone, before Subaru eyes, he saw the hanging bodies of the Lewes-clones rapidly engulfed by an abounding, pale-blue light――

[Subaru: ――――!?]

[???: ――――]

The next instant, the bodies exploded with a blinding flash.

There were no blood or organs, or any gory indications that a living organism had exploded. Their flesh merely transformed into particles of light, blasting clear the surrounding shadows and returning a brief moment of life to the world. Blown and scattered―― but unlike any ordinary death by explosion.

Blinded by the flash of light, Subaru violently rubbed at his eyes. And, hurriedly regaining his vision, his eyes opened in time to see the wall of Lewes-clones that was shielding him rushing towards the shadow just as the first two had done before them.

Dispersing in all directions, with impeccable coordination, the eighteen Lewes-clones surrounded the Witch. Apparently having no other means of attack, their only aim was to stick themselves onto the Witch as they closed in their encirclement with their arms spread wide.

But, even with their coordinated advance, the replicants’ movements were still constrained by human limits. Not to mention that their adversary was the primal calamity of the Witch of Envy.

Just when Subaru thought it was about to be swamped by the Lewes-clones, the tip of the up-surging shadow split into eighteen strands. Each becoming a blade, as if mocking the Leweses’ efforts to evade them, the whips sliced through their skulls, torsos, abdomens, piercing and slashing, rending them to shreds.

Despite spacing out their attacks, the Lewes-clones were annihilated, and, after the passing of a single beat, all the Leweses exploded in a pulse of white light―― temporarily expelling all darkness from the clearing, and stripping away the vortex of shadow that surrounded the Witch.

[Garfiel: ――WRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!]

There was no way the wound-ridden tiger could allow this opportunity to slip away.

Using the opening created by Lewe-clones’ charge to free himself from bondage, the moment after the replicants exploded, with a roar that surpassed all that came before, the giant beast lunged for the shadow’s head.

The Witch erected a wall of shade to meet the giant tiger rushing towards her, but the tiger, holding the silhouette of a person on the tip of his claw―― a Lewes-replicant which it had hidden for this very purpose, slammed it into the wall, blasting it apart. Through the pale-blue flash of light, his fangs and claws fell upon the heart of the shadow.

――It was so perfect that even Subaru was convinced that he had it.

An inhumane tactic that unhesitatingly sacrificed twenty-one Lewes-replicants.

If the tiger-morphed Garfiel could land a single direct strike with its claw, surely, even a Witch couldn’t hope to survive――

{???: ――I love you}

Or at least, that was what Subaru implored in his heart,

{???: ――Subaru-kun}

The shadow called sweetly, as Garfiel’s burst-open corpse shattered into dust.

-=Chapter 50 End=-