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I felt as if my whole body was floating, swaying like something adrift in water.

It was a dark, infinitely dark world.

There were no sources of light, and I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I felt nothing touching my body, and even my hands, feet, eyes, and ears felt utterly unresponsive.

My consciousness was hazy; thoughts were vague.

I pondered where I was, who I was, why I was in this state—only for indistinct thoughts to drift aimlessly around.

‘—I love you.’

Suddenly, a voice reached me from the pitch black.

What reached my eardrums, trembling without a sound, was not merely a sound but consciousness itself. It resonated directly with my thoughts, sending waves through my mind, making me search for the source of that voice.

‘—I love you.’

It was a deeply fleeting tone that tightened my heart in an achingly sweet way.

Thus, hearing it tightened my own heart dangerously, but that emotion was accompanied by a familiar sense of relief, evoking a tender sadness that threatened to bring tears to my eyes.

If I had fingers, I would reach out to the voice’s owner.

If I had a mouth, I would call out their name.

If I had arms, I would hold the voice’s owner close.

If I had legs, I would rush to their side.

If I had a body, I could have kept that voice’s owner from ever leaving.

But at that moment, nothing was allowed to me, and that made me terribly sad and frustrated, aching with regret and unfulfilled yearning.

‘—I love you.’

I shared the same feeling.

Clearly articulated words shook my emotions, as if they came crashing down, and a mouth that didn’t exist shouted the explosion of feelings loudly.

I shared the same feeling! No, it was even stronger. No matter how much warmth was piled upon me, my yearning for the one I loved could never be satisfied.

Even if the other person felt the same way, my feelings were undoubtedly greater.

The love swelled like a rivalry, yet the one I should convey it to was nowhere to be found.

The inflating feelings, the overflowing affection, surfaced the sins that couldn’t be contained.

—The laziness that couldn’t wipe away tears of sorrow.

—The lust that desired to dissolve into one.

—The gluttony that sought to consume everything, to take all.

—The greed that wanted everything, craved everything.

—The wrath against a world that wouldn’t permit such a thing.

—The pride that looked down upon all but her.

The space dyed in black began to be smothered by immense love.

My heart trembled. My soul cried out. The very essence of my incorporeal self yearned for connection.

I wanted to offer everything, to expose all, and to vanish into this void. If only I could—

‘Really?’

Suddenly, the call shifted in tone, shaking my heart.

A question about my resolve. A word asking if I would affirm the transformation of my present emotions into form.

I thought it should be obvious, unquestionable—why hesitate?

Yet something was off. Something held me back. Something blocked my heart.

I felt bewildered. I felt hesitant. Confusion swirled. What was causing this?

‘Can it end?’

—It cannot end.

Instantly, an answer popped into my mind.

I couldn’t recall anything about the beginning or the end, about what I had seen or what I had sought.

All I knew was uncertainty upon uncertainty, yet the idea of staying that way was rejected by my emotions.

I cannot end. There’s no way I can end. I’m not done. I cannot end it.

‘What do you want?’

I want to do something. I will find a way. It must be my—

“I’ll do it, it’s my duty!”

A voice escaped.

Before I knew it, my feet were on solid ground. I had sensations in my hands and feet; I clearly understood myself.

Though I still didn’t know what I had left behind, I felt an urgency to run somewhere, to reach a place.

‘Not yet, I can’t see them.’

“I understand.”

I know nothing at all. But I understand that.

Suppressing the impulse to reach out, I turned my back on the voice and started running.

If I stop even once, the weight of my lingering attachments would surely keep me from running again. So I would not look back. I wouldn’t direct my awareness to it. Leaving it behind, abandoned, distancing myself—yet I will definitely take that hand someday.

‘—I love you.’

The voice faded, and the world crumbled as if peeling away.

Before me, in the pitch-black world, a white light appeared, revealing the end of the pitch blackness.

I ran, ran, ran, drawing near. And when I finally reached it—

“Subaru-kun.”

In that moment, I felt like my name was softly called by a beloved voice, and Natsuki Subaru—

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“—Big brother?”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, I was called by name as I felt someone shaking my shoulder.

As if pushed by a rough, solid hand, Subaru’s consciousness returned to reality.

—Along with that understanding, an incredible chill ran through all of Subaru.

After a few blinks, Subaru comprehended everything.

Right now, I had just returned from the void, a blank state I had experienced many times before—this was the disappearance of existence felt from dying.

And—

“No way…!”

Having gone through so much hardship and struggles, I lost my life once again after making it through all that.

As a result, Subaru had lost the entire process he had gained up to that point—

“Oi, what’s up with you, Big Brother? You were totally spaced out.”

Startled, I turned around to find Ricardo’s dog-like face staring at me. The beastly breath almost knocked me away, and I instinctively—

“Franz!?”

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?!”

I swatted his nose with my arm reflexively, and Ricardo’s shocked expression was met with startled looks from the others around us.

Among the whirlwind of gazes—there was Julius. Felix was there, along with Mimi and Tibby, members of the hunting team, and most importantly—

“Looking a bit worn out, are we, Subaru-dono?”

With that, Wilhelm’s concerned figure stood there watching us.

“Ah…”

A sigh escaped as Subaru relaxed his tense shoulders, realizing only now that he was sitting on the ground.

As the cold soil bit into his rear, Subaru gently clutched his fist against the dirt, feeling the rough grain of grass and mud.

“Save point… updated, huh…”

Narrowly escaping death—it felt like an unwelcome stroke of fortune that wasn’t even worth a laugh.

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—From what I understood from the surrounding chatter, it seemed Subaru had returned after the fight with the White Whale and during the witch cult countermeasure meeting that had begun upon joining Julius.

As he lightly lectured about the easily done witch cult hunt, to their eyes, he suddenly looked like he had spaced out, drifting off to another world. Not that they were wrong; he had reversed time at that point, but still…

“I was taken out by that Petelgeuse… right? Yeah, not good, but…”

Subaru wore a complex expression caught between the luck of returning to this scene and the misfortune of being forced into the ‘Return by Death’ loop.

The fact that he had ‘returned by death’ was nothing but a bitter blow, but it was good that the point to which he returned was here. At worst, there was a decent chance he’d find himself back in front of the beaten-down vegetable shopkeeper.

“Thinking back, it feels like I returned there the first time too… what kind of fate is this? Is this world turning that old man into a save point or something?”

Public phones, mysterious crystals, or even old typewriters, and confessions to church priests were varied methods of return.

“When I think about it, having that old man as a save point is a fresh perspective… Ricardo is kind of similar, so is this that connection?”

“Oi, what’s wrong with you? Are you staring at me for something? Got something to say?”

“Nothing, really.”

I turned my face away, letting out a breath so that Ricardo wouldn’t see my current expression.

Letting out that breath, I steered my thoughts in a random direction to calm myself, just enough to barely suppress the tremors in my fists.

Fear of death or the relief of having regained life after nearly dying—it all had an impact on my trembling.

It wasn’t just that, but what truly shook my heart was a wholly different emotion—no, a passion.

The rage that blazed within me, an unrelenting anger toward my arch enemy, Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti—my most detested adversary.

That was what now ignited an intolerable tremor within Subaru.

“Possession… is something I need to consider. Leaving my original body behind and taking over another, leading to what happened to Wilhelm and Patrasche…”

Before my eyes, I witnessed the gruesome decapitation of both—one human, one beast. In the aftermath, my thoughts turned hazy, and I barely recall what I was contemplating then, but I now understand the outcome I arrived at in that unclear state.

I pulled the sacred sword from Wilhelm’s corpse and pierced my own throat.

While I was indeed shocked by the old swordsman’s death, I didn’t take my life right after in an instant desire to redo events; I didn’t treat my own life with such disdain.

I might have wished to redo things after thinking it over, but I would have undoubtedly contemplated more before making the choice back then.

In other words—

“I don’t want to believe it, but… did that scum enter my body?”

It was the worst scenario imaginable, a situation that felt absolutely dreadful just to think about.

To share a body with the most despicable being in the world was particularly horrific, and in the end, one could say I was forced into a struggle for dominance over my own life.

Having lived side by side for eighteen years as both vessel and soul, I felt reminded of how cold our relationship ultimately was. Other souls had easily hopped on as well.

“That bastard, I always thought he was the worst, but now this… what do I do?”

Cradling my chin with a hand, I could only hold my breath at the terror of Petelgeuse’s powers.

Assuming he could hop into any vessel of his choosing and prolong his existence, it would mean unavoidable annihilation.

No matter how many times you kill him, if he can just take over someone nearby to survive, the only way to eradicate him completely would be to wipe out every last human.

I’d like to believe he’s not someone with such a cheat-like ability.

“How do I even defeat him in this situation? If possession has conditions, that would be an understandable scenario, but I can’t read him. I have no sense of a limitation either… it’d require killing him at least three times to be sure he dies.”

If there were conditions to possession, it would be extremely tricky to identify those conditions.

The initial vessel was a frail man, the second vessel I encountered was a woman in her twenties, and finally, I found myself in Subaru’s body. There were no shared traits to identify.

If it were a matter of limitations, that too would be troublesome, as I had no way to know where the limits lie, plus it now seemed I’d have to kill him at least three times.

“Only killing him once won’t cut it, but if I just reference Wilhelm to defeat him, that seems doable… just killing him without knowing the trajectory would turn it into a game of endurance.”

As I came to this conclusion, I realized just how difficult it would be to take down Petelgeuse.

Looking back, even his fearless demeanor hinted at this possibility. Back in my original world, when I was frozen by Pack, it was all possible because he could swap bodies and survive.

In the worst-case scenario…

“Could it be that giving up on defeating Petelgeuse is an option…?”

If I prioritized my original goal, it would indeed be one of the many choices worthy of consideration. Perhaps I hated even admitting such a thing.

Natsuki Subaru was now hastily heading back to the Meisters Territory, accompanied by his allies for one primary reason beyond anything else—to save the lives of the people in the estate and village.

There was a time when that sentiment wavered, when my desire to exterminate the witch cult was overshadowed by revenge, but now that passion had subsided.

What allowed me to consider such things was none other than the blue-haired girl.

Without her devotion, I would still be wandering in that profound darkness, unable to find an exit, exhausting my heart out.

Instead of saying, “Please defeat them,” what she asked of me was—

“Don’t give up on the lives of those important to you.”

It felt humiliating. I couldn’t contain the frustration and urge to grind my teeth.

Yet, it was one of the few methods of saving I could offer—no, the only way I could save them.

Knowing of the witch cult’s impending attack, only Subaru could take action to rescue Emilia and the others first. The priority of exterminating the witch cult had merely shifted focus towards eliminating the root cause, and if survival was the priority, the option to flee was certainly worth considering.

Besides, I had already defeated the White Whale, and our alliance remained intact.

This time, I wasn’t fully prepared to take out “Sloth.” If I got ready beforehand and devised a strategy against “Sloth” just like I did with the White Whale, a chance to obliterate him would surely arise.

So—

“Subaru-dono.”

Out of the blue, I heard my name called softly, pulling me from the sea of my thoughts.

Facing me was Wilhelm, gazing with a clarity that mirrored a calm lake. My heart leapt; it felt as though he could see right into me.

“Do you feel some anxiety?”

“Uh, no…”

“Do speak your mind. There’s no need to carry it all alone.”

Seeing Subaru hesitate, Wilhelm pressed on as if he understood.

Noticing their interaction, the people around began to shift their gazes towards us.

Feeling uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed under their collective gaze, Subaru shook his head slightly.

“It’s not that. I was just trying to sort through my thoughts. It wouldn’t make much sense to speak without having clarity first, and so…”

“Are you saying you were leaning towards the choice to give up?”

“Giving up? No, it’s not like that…”

While gentle, I felt like my one consideration was negated, causing me to frown. Saying “give up” felt wrong. I merely wanted to keep my goal in sight.

Having lost sight of it cost me many opportunities, and now that I had been granted a chance to redo things, I wanted to ensure I wouldn’t let them slip from my grasp again.

However, Wilhelm interrupted my thoughts.

“Subaru-dono, while saying this might come off as crude, please allow me to say it.”

“Uh, okay. Hearing it like that is a bit much. I’ll definitely listen.”

“—Fight.”

That was a word that reverberated in the air, shaking my very being.

Receiving those words made my body, heart, and soul undeniably tremble.

I opened my eyes to see Wilhelm—the Sword Demon, gazing straight at me.

The demonic aura radiating from him enveloped and seized every part of me.

“If you have resolved yourself to fight and resist, then fight with all you have. Not for a moment, not for a second, nor an instant should you give up. With gluttony, seize the victory before your eyes and indulge ravenously. There must be no compromise, there cannot be. If you can still stand, if you can still move your fingers, and if your teeth are not shattered, then stand, stand, stand, fight. —Fight!”

“—”

Those words were remarkably similar to those Wilhelm had once imparted to me.

Back in the garden of Crusch’s mansion, when I had been struck down by his wooden sword, it was then that Wilhelm had revealed a glimpse of his true nature as a Sword Demon and began speaking about the mindset of battle.

Back then, Wilhelm had called me someone “without the will to become strong,” and while I hadn’t truly faced him, things were different now.

I believed there was no discrepancy.

I wanted to be different. I wanted to change. I felt that way.

“Are you saying I shouldn’t compromise?”

“—Yes, regardless of how difficult that path might be.”

“Choosing to fight led me to drag a lot of people into the battle against the White Whale. Now, I seem to be involving everyone here as we prepare to fight again. —There may be casualties.”

As I said it, I could feel my heart clenching at the thought.

Subaru’s decisions, thoughts, and actions bore the weight of others’ lives. I had fully realized how this had always been the case.

The approaching battle with the White Whale bore the burdens of Crusch and others’ intents. The casualties that resulted from that fight weighed heavily on Subaru and Crusch’s shoulders.

However, this upcoming battle was different. This was a fight started by Subaru, one he hoped for, one he pulled others into.

The lives of those standing around him now were ones that Subaru was irrevocably responsible for. It wasn’t just about obligation or responsibility. It was a matter of souls and pride.

“Even so, you guys are choosing to stick with my selfish whims. You’re willing to trust your lives to my greedy, self-serving desires?”

“What are you saying now?”

At my inquiry of determination, Wilhelm even bore a faint smile.

Looking around, everyone else had similar expressions as they regarded me. Only Felix wore a dissatisfied face; it was so quintessentially him.

Surrounded by those gazes, inhibited from moving, Wilhelm nodded slightly.

“To act to protect what you hold dear—this is the essence of a knight. Thus, those who share the same aspirations stand by you. Who would dare to oppose your path, Subaru-dono?”

“—”

At Wilhelm’s words, all the knights drew their swords in unison.

The beastman mercenaries, delayed in their reactions, gazed on with mild smirks, drawing their own weapons in kind and lifting them lightly.

“I can understand the feeling of lamenting a lack of strength, even having the will to act. —This is precisely why we are here. We are, for now, Subaru-dono’s sword. We are the strength to grant your wish.”

“Wait a sec…”

“We shall do what must be done. Not for anyone else but for your own wish.”

With that, Subaru experienced a sensation like a burden that had lodged in his heart falling away.

That matched the process where the dark thoughts surrounding Subaru began to disperse, all while an overwhelming sense of happiness towards their unwavering support blossomed within him.

“I have to save Emilia and the others.”

“Yes.”

“But the truth is, I also want to confront the witch cult.”

“Yes.”

“Honestly, I thought it might be better to run away. This battle seems more troublesome than I expected. At worst, knowing they’re coming is already a win, so fleeing might not be a bad choice.”

If it had been any earlier, Subaru likely would have chosen that option.

He would have settled his emotions with a plausible reason, followed the next-best path, and continued fighting for at least a decent outcome.

Yet, given how the knights were affirming him—

If he ignored this, he wouldn’t be a man.

“The chance to strike down the witch cult’s ‘Sloth’ is only now. I have no prediction of when the next encounter will be, and there’s no guarantee it’ll be in a form I can hit.”

“—”

“That bastard has to be taken down here. —Without fail.”

If I put it off and fled this time, there was no way I could escape from his grasp. Given his tenacity, he would surely extend his reach again somehow, in a form unknown to Subaru. At that time, there was no guarantee he would arrive in time.

I should assume such an opportunity might not present itself again.

And it would be foolish to presume there will always be a next time or to act cleverly as if compromise is the next-best option.

“I’ll save Emilia and the others. I have to defeat the witch cult. The painful part is having to do both. Are you ready? I… have finally made up my mind.”

“—Then shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s go. It’s a race against time. I’ll gather my thoughts on the way.”

There were still things that needed consideration, obstacles to overcome, and hardships to face that loomed ahead of Subaru.

But even so, there were those who wished to support him, the powerless Subaru, strengthening him. There were people who buoyed his weak will—so he wouldn’t need to look down; he could look forward.

Let’s resist the fate standing in our way, that “Sloth.”

I’ll face my own weaknesses that wish to flee to easier paths, to overcome my own laziness.

To fight, to live—this is what it truly means.

To defeat Petelgeuse, the embodiment of “Sloth”—Natsuki Subaru’s—

—The fight of Natsuki Subaru and his companions begins once more.