Arc 1 – 11: A Struggle Too Late

Arc 1 – Chapter 11: A Struggle Too Late

There were drops of blood running down the glass’s sharp shards, and following them upward one would find Rom’s throat.

He had lost his arm and his throat was ripped apart which caused a large amount of foamy blood to pour out of his mouth, after which the light left his gray eyes as he collapsed to the ground.

His twitching body had already lost its vitality, and there was no doubt that it no longer held life.

Elsa elegantly bowed to his fallen body as if to pay her respects.

She placed the glass she’d used to kill him down by his still twitching body,

“I’m returning this. I no longer have a need for it, you see.”

She said cruelly as she twirled the kukri knife in her hand.

Cleaning the blood off the blade, she once again pointed it toward the other two.

Subaru who was still on the ground could not even say anything.

He was entirely focused on the brutal slaughter that had just occurred before him.

Someone he had been conversing with just a few minutes ago was now dead. And it wasn’t due to an accident or illness, it was due to another person’s malice.

“―Ah, so you’re the braver one.”

Subaru, who was still frozen, raised his head when he heard her voice filled with admiration.

His limbs would not obey him. As he lay there in that stupefied state, he saw Felt stand up before him, striking her trembling knees as if to encourage herself.

She straightened her legs and combed hair blood-soaked hair back.

“How dare you...”

Subaru couldn’t see her expression since he was behind her.

However, it was clear that her strained voice filled with hatred was not a tearful one.

“If you resist unnecessarily, you might end up getting hurt.”

“You’re going to kill me either way, you damned sadist!”

“I might not cut you properly if you move. I’m not very good with blades, you see.”

She skilfully turned the knife in her hand, and acted out a rehearsal of her cutting ability.

Felt was facing her with no weapons whatsoever, her chances of victory seemed non-existent.

He should raise his voice, his brain decided.

He should attract Elsa’s attention and buy Felt time to escape.

He at least had to give her time to call someone, or even just escape on her own.

Analyzing the difference in their ability with his minimal experience, this was the conclusion he had drawn.

Despite this, his throat produced no sound, as if it was frozen.

His will to fight did not reach his limbs, they merely continued to tremble with fear..

“... Sorry for getting you caught up in this.”

“... I, I’m”

She whispered a small apology to Subaru.

These words caused his face to jolt up toward her, and he completely forgot about his plan to shout and instead all that left his mouth were words that seemed to be begging for forgiveness.

And then, Felt left his sentiments behind forever as she dashed forward.

There was a loud sound as her body flew forward, seeming light as a feather.

The instant after she moved, it was as if a gale was blowing through the loot house.

It looked to Subaru like she had completely disappeared when she started running.

Having disappeared from his field of view, she then reappeared right next to Elsa, whose eyes were wide at this extreme speed as Felt’s slender leg sunk into her side.

Having landed her attack, Felt stepped back as if leaping, and once again drew in wind as she moved at top speed.

In that limited space she was even treating the walls as solid ground, her movements were simply amazing and even Elsa couldn’t help but be surprised.

“The divine protection of wind. Ah, how wonderful. It seems you’re loved by the world,―I’m envious.”

Elsa’s ecstatic smile suddenly changed, her eyes filled with loathing as her arm whizzed through the air.

That was all it took,

“―Ah”

His pathetic behavior truly seemed like that of a weakling waiting to be hunted by a predator. From Elsa’s perspective this was probably terribly boring, it was like he was just laid out on a cutting board.

Consequently, when she appeared from the shadows her slash was exceedingly straightforward.

“Wha―?!”

Having judged that she’d target his stomach, Subaru barely managed to dodge.

He stepped back a bit, drawing in his abdomen as he did, due to which the horizontal swing merely grazed him. The slight cut caused a sharp pain to run through him which he bore by clenching his teeth.

“Rrrruuuaaahhh!!”

He then spun his whole body, landing a spinning kick right into Elsa’s face.

A satisfying blow delivered by twisting his waist, the tremendous impact on his foot confirmed that he managed to land a hit, the feeling rushed through his heart. And then,

“Aah, I really felt that one.”

The second kukri knife Elsa had drawn had just torn about 70% of the way through Subaru’s torso, causing blood and guts to spill out,

“―Ah?”

One step, two steps, he staggered around until his shoulder hit the wall, causing him to collapse as if he’d slipped. Looking down, he could see copious amounts of blood pouring out of his abdomen, and unable to handle the pressure, his internal organs had also started falling out.

He tried to place them back in with his shaky arm, but the clotting blood prevented him from doing so.

“Are you surprised? I split your stomach when we passed by one another. This happens to be my specialty.”

Elsa said as she smiled, forming small splashes in the sea of blood as she walked toward him.

Once she reached Subaru’s side, who was by this point incapable of even speaking as he shrieked, she lovingly looked upon his entrails within his darkened blood,

“Aah, your bowels truly do have such a lovely color, just as I thought.”

This woman was abnormal. She was insane.

Even the endorphins flowing through him couldn’t hide the terrible pain that was causing his vision to dim, and before he knew it seemed like he had ended up on his side.

Like this, he slowly extended his arm, frailly grasping Elsa’s foot.

“Au... Uah”

“Does it hurt? Are you suffering? Is it hard? Are you sad? Wanna die?”

With his hand still on her ankle, Elsa crouched down by him, her line of sight intersecting with his.

Her eyes looked like she was in a trance, it was as though she didn’t feel anything at all when she took a life. No, she was definitely feeling something.

The ultimate pleasure.

“But it’d be a shame to make it too easy.”

Still crouching next to him, she smiled sweetly as she swung her blade.

And that was the last thing Subaru saw.

Her slash was vivid, and it cut right across Subaru’s face. The result,

“―GGaaaaaahhh?!”

Both of his eyes had been torn apart, he had forever lost his sight.

Still collapsed on the ground, Subaru used his hands to feel his deeply cut eyes.

There was a mixture of blood and tears, and he once again vomited blood as he screamed, and he was assailed by the feeling that his insides were completely empty, as if all of his blood and organs had spilled out.

It was strange that he was even alive. It was like he had entered hell.

And he couldn’t even look at himself, he simply lay there on the verge of death not knowing when death would finally come.

“Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, writhe around.”

As he approached the end, he felt Elsa’s voice gently strike his eardrums, it seemed tormenting, savoring, grieving, cherishing, and loving.

His pain, suffering, rage and despair were all overwhelmed by a jet black fear.

In that world he couldn’t see, in that world where he didn’t know when the candle of his life would burn out, what dominated his now empty heart was a single-minded fear, the extreme fear of death.

―When will I die? When will I die? Am I still alive? Am I not dead? What defines life? Can it really be said that I’m alive, in this state lesser than any insect? Can it really be said that I’m alive, now that I’m being toyed with in the palm of life and death?

―What are life and death? Why am I afraid of dying? Do I need to be alive? No?

I’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscaredI’mscared

His instincts rejected the inevitable death that was ceaselessly approaching.

It ended up filling Subaru’s mind, he was already at the end and now his blank field of view was dyed white,

―Ah, I’m dead.

With this, Natsuki Subaru’s life reached its disappointing conclusion.