Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Exactly one week had passed since that starry night and the first deep kiss they had shared. Within the walls of St. Freya Academy, everything appeared normal from the outside: training continued, Valkyries hurried about, and Welt Yang was preparing new simulations in his laboratory. However, the invisible atmosphere surrounding Acheron and Subaru had completely changed.

By nature, Acheron was a being who walked the paths of Nihility, a presence whose very existence pressed everything around her beneath a melancholic weight. Before, when she walked through the Academy, people would instinctively shy away from her and place an invisible distance between themselves and her. But now, that freezing and all-consuming silence surrounding Acheron had been broken by Subaru's presence. When Subaru was beside her, Acheron was not a black hole, but merely a quiet observer calmly watching the light around her.

On a sunny afternoon, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya were sprawled across the grass in the resting area beside the Academy's vast training grounds after a grueling exercise session. Kiana lay on her back, staring at the sky and complaining.

"Himeko-sensei was really trying to kill us today! Every bone in my body hurts!" Kiana groaned dramatically, spreading her arms wide.

Mei smiled gently with her usual graceful and motherly demeanor as she handed the girls bottles of cold water from her bag. "Stop complaining, Kiana. You were very distracted during the last simulation. Besides, look, the hero of the day is coming."

The three girls turned their gaze toward the direction Mei indicated. Subaru was walking toward them carrying a tray filled with sports drinks and snacks Mei had prepared earlier. He was wearing the tactical training clothes Welt had given him; although the faint bruises beneath his eyes reflected the intense pace he had been keeping, the familiar smile on his face—neither fake nor forced, but foolishly warm—was shining brightly.

However, Subaru was not what truly caught the girls' attention. Walking exactly one step behind him was Acheron, matching her pace completely to his rhythm. In the past, there had always been a respectful distance between them. Now, Acheron walked close enough for the sheath of her long odachi sword to lightly brush against Subaru's arm, as if she were a satellite caught within his gravitational pull, unable to drift away even for a moment.

Subaru placed the tray on the small table between the girls. "Guys! Your delivery has arrived. After spending all day with Welt-sensei wracking my brain over quantum mechanics and the weak points of Honkai beasts, it's good to see your faces."

As Bronya accepted her drink, she spoke in a flat, expressionless voice. "Bronya has determined that the happiness coefficient in Subaru's facial expression has increased by 300% compared to the day he first arrived at the Academy." Narrowing her eyes, she looked toward Acheron. "It is reasonable to assume that snacks are not the sole cause."

Kiana immediately sat upright, mischief sparkling in her eyes. "How could it not be reasonable, Bronya? Just look at them!" She pointed at Subaru and Acheron. "Ever since that date, you've practically been walking around like conjoined twins! Subaru, be honest... What happened on that hill that night? You turned completely red when you noticed us!"

Subaru's face instantly turned tomato-red under Kiana's direct assault. "K-Kiana! Stop shouting in my ear! And why were you secretly spying on us from those bushes anyway? Do you have no respect for other people's privacy?!"

Mei giggled and intervened. "I tried to stop her, Subaru-kun, but you know how Kiana is. Once she gets an idea into her head, it's impossible to restrain her."

Scratching the back of his neck, Subaru averted his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, Acheron quietly stepped forward. Everyone's attention turned toward her. The usual calm and melancholic expression remained on her face, but her eyes were no longer fixed on empty space; they were looking directly at Subaru.

Slowly, Acheron raised her hand. Before the girls' astonished eyes, her slender, pale fingers touched the damp brown hair that had fallen across Subaru's forehead. When Subaru flinched and held his breath, Acheron gently brushed his hair back and wiped away a tiny speck of dust from his cheek with her thumb. The gesture was so natural and sincere that Kiana's jaw literally dropped.

"You're working too hard," Acheron said, her voice as smooth and calm as the rustling of leaves in the wind. "Even your heartbeat has accelerated. You should rest a little."

Faced with Acheron's sudden physical contact, Subaru began to stammer. "I-I'm fine, Acheron! It's just... Kiana suddenly shouted and, uh... startled me. I'm not tired, really!"

Recovering from her shock, Kiana burst into loud laughter. "I can't believe it! Acheron-sensei, who looks like some cosmic entity and carries that terrifying Nihility aura... wiped your sweat away?! Subaru, you're seriously legendary!"

Bronya nodded in agreement. "Bronya labels this situation as 'Character Development.' Acheron-sensei's protective attitude toward Subaru has surpassed the limits of rational logic."

Acheron tilted her head slightly, as though she could not understand Kiana's exaggerated reaction. Turning her gaze toward the three girls, she spoke without the slightest trace of embarrassment or hesitation. There was only pure, naked truth in her voice.

"Why are you all so surprised?" Acheron asked. "He is the only star within the darkness that surrounds me. The only reason fragments of my forgotten past, forgotten tastes, and forgotten feelings return to me. Being drawn toward his presence and reaching out to touch him with my own hands... is as natural to me as rain falling upon the earth."

Those words were as weighty as if they had been spoken upon a battlefield, yet equally romantic. Kiana turned bright red and covered her face with both hands. "Ahhh! This is too much! Even for me, this level of romance is too much!"

Mei's eyes had become moist. Smiling with her hands clasped against her chest, she said, "Acheron-sensei... that's a beautiful thing to say. Hearing what Subaru-kun means to you makes us very happy."

Subaru, meanwhile, stood frozen in place. Hearing Acheron express her feelings so openly and vulnerably healed wounds in his battered heart that he had once believed could never be repaired. He thought of the pathetic version of himself who had constantly died, constantly felt worthless, and believed that nobody could truly save him. And now, one of the most powerful beings in the universe stood before him, declaring in front of everyone that she had placed him at the center of her universe.

Taking a deep breath, Subaru pushed aside that lingering sense of worthlessness and placed a genuine, unwavering smile upon his lips. Reaching out, he gently took the cold yet elegant hand resting against Acheron's cheek. Without caring that the girls were watching, he pressed a small kiss against her fingertips.

"I'm just an ordinary, foolish, unlucky man, Acheron," Subaru said, looking directly into her eyes. "But if you want me to be the star that lights your darkness... then I swear I will never burn out for your sake."

A very small but genuine smile appeared upon Acheron's lips—a rare and precious expression none of the three girls had ever seen before.

"I know," Acheron whispered. "I wouldn't allow it anyway."

Bronya slowly slipped her data tablet into her pocket. "Bronya has determined that the sugar concentration in this environment has reached life-threatening levels. Kiana, Mei, we are retreating. Leaving them alone is the most strategically sound option."

Hooking her arm around Mei's, Kiana giggled. "You're right, Bronya! If I stay any longer, I'll explode from jealousy! Let's go prepare something for dinner. You two, don't stay out too late!" Waving goodbye, she dragged Mei away, while Mei turned back and gently waved to them.

Once the trio had left, Subaru and Acheron were alone beneath the crimson sky as the sun began to set.

Dropping his shoulders, Subaru let out a deep breath. "Kiana really is like a hurricane sometimes, isn't she?"

Acheron sat down beside him on the bench and laid her sword across her knees. Gently, she rested her head upon Subaru's shoulder. The fact that this woman, who had once shattered worlds, now leaned against him like a cat felt unreal to Subaru.

"They are good children," Acheron said quietly. "Their light is bright and noisy. But your light is different, Subaru. Your light doesn't hurt. It simply... warms."

Subaru rested his head lightly against Acheron's hair, breathing in that faint scent that was melancholic yet comforting at the same time. The boy who had spent a week ago wondering, 'Am I worthy of her?' was gone. In his place stood a man who thought, 'I would do anything to protect her.'

"I love you, Acheron," Subaru whispered.

"I love you too," Acheron replied in that unique voice that seemed to emerge from the very void itself. "With every passing moment, remembering a little more."

______

The Lion’s Heart and the Mist Within the Night

After that peaceful week at St. Freya, reality revealed its cold face in an abandoned industrial district somewhere in Asia. The detection of a high-density Honkai energy source had made an emergency cleanup operation necessary.

On the battlefield, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya fought on the front lines, while Welt Yang and Subaru provided tactical support from a safe distance. As always, Acheron stood a few steps behind Subaru, silently observing the area.

At first, the mission progressed like a routine cleanup. That was, until a gigantic, mutated Emperor-class Honkai beast suddenly burst from beneath the rubble of a ruined factory. Its speed was unexpectedly high for a creature of its size.

“Bronya, three o’clock! Fall back!” Subaru warned through the communicator.

The beast swung its enormous scythe-like forelimb directly at Bronya, who was suspended in midair. In that instant, Kiana instinctively lunged forward. Disregarding her own safety, she shoved Bronya out of the way. However, the beast’s scythe grazed Kiana’s Valkyrie armor and carved a deep gash from her right thigh toward her hip.

“Ahhh!” Kiana gritted her teeth in pain as she tumbled into the rubble. The wound was not fatal and had not damaged any vital organs, but it was a deep flesh wound that caused severe bleeding and excruciating pain.

“Kiana-chan!” Mei’s eyes flashed with fury. Seeing Kiana injured instantly triggered the dark, protective power within her. The air around her suddenly grew heavy, and purple lightning crackled around her blade. As the beast attempted to turn for a second attack, Mei leapt into the air.

“You should never have dared to do that!” Mei shouted.

The moment she swung her sword, a colossal pillar of lightning descended from the sky and struck the beast directly. The Emperor-class monster was reduced to ashes within seconds by Mei’s wrathful strike.

The moment the threat disappeared, Mei dropped her sword and rushed to Kiana’s side. Bronya had already descended beside her with Project Bunny and activated medical scan mode.

“I’m fine, I’m fine... Just a little... ah! Damn it, it burns,” Kiana said, grimacing as she clutched her wound.

Mei gently placed Kiana’s head on her lap. “Kiana-chan, don’t move. Bronya, what’s her condition?”

“No life-threatening injuries,” Bronya replied in a flat but relieved voice. “However, tissue damage is severe. Due to nerve stimulation, Kiana is experiencing a significant level of pain. Applying coagulant spray now.”

The moment Bronya sprayed the medication, Kiana hissed in pain, tears forming in her eyes.

At that exact moment, Subaru ran over and saw the pain twisting Kiana’s face. Without hesitation, he placed his right hand over his chest, directly above his heart.

“Cor Leonis.” (Lion’s Heart)

Suddenly, a golden connection emerged from Subaru’s heart—visible only to those with special perception—and linked itself to Kiana’s chest.

One second later, the pain vanished from Kiana’s expression. Her body relaxed, and her breathing immediately returned to normal.

“Eh? It doesn’t hurt...” Kiana blinked in confusion. “What? A second ago it felt like my leg was being torn off, and now it’s like a mosquito bite! Bronya, did you inject me with some kind of painkiller?”

Bronya frowned and rapidly checked the data on her holographic screen.

“Negative. Bronya has not administered anesthesia. Pain signals within Kiana’s nervous system have anomalously dropped to zero. This is irrational.”

Mei looked equally shocked.

“Kiana-chan, it really doesn’t hurt? But the wound looks so deep...”

At that moment, Subaru felt a slight twitch as the muscles in his neck tightened briefly. The burning pain from Kiana’s wound had instantly transferred into his own nervous system. Yet compared to having his intestines ripped out or being eaten alive countless times in the past, this level of pain was merely unpleasant. Subaru simply let out a quiet breath.

While the girls discussed the strange phenomenon among themselves, Subaru scratched the back of his neck in his usual shy manner.

“Um... I think that was my doing,” he admitted.

All three girls immediately turned toward him. Welt Yang, who had just arrived, also paused and looked at Subaru. Only Acheron remained silent, standing where she was and watching Subaru’s back.

“Your doing?” Kiana asked in confusion. “Subaru, what did you do, blow on my leg from across the battlefield and make the pain disappear? What do you mean?”

Continuing to scratch his neck, Subaru shrugged.

“I call it Cor Leonis. It’s my... special ability. I can take on the physical pain and fatigue of my loved ones and allies. Your wound is still there, Kiana, so don’t neglect treatment. But at least until it heals, you won’t have to suffer through that awful pain.”

Mei’s eyes widened with concern.

“Wait, you take the pain onto yourself? Subaru-kun, that’s... that’s incredibly dangerous! What if the wound had been worse? Shouldn’t you be writhing in agony right now?!”

“Bronya agrees,” the small girl added. “The pain index generated by Kiana’s injury was severe enough to send an ordinary human into shock. Subaru’s ability to stand here smiling is biologically inconsistent.”

Subaru waved his hand dismissively.

“Come on, don’t exaggerate. My pain tolerance is a little... high. I’m not exactly sensitive. This little ache won’t do anything to me.”

Kiana lightly punched Subaru’s arm in annoyance, though her eyes were filled with gratitude.

“Idiot! Why would you do something like that without asking anyone? What if something happened to you? But... thank you. It really hurt.”

Welt Yang remained silent. Looking at Subaru from behind his glasses, he quietly evaluated the severity of the situation.

For an ordinary person to consider this level of pain as ‘nothing’... This boy’s mind must have been broken and reshaped far beyond anything we can imagine.

Acheron approached Subaru. The hand gripping her sword relaxed slightly. There was neither shock nor anger in her eyes—only a deep understanding of Subaru’s selfish yet noble act of sacrifice.

“The mission is over,” Acheron said calmly. “We are returning to the Academy. There are people who need to recover.”

When night fell, silence settled over the corridors of St. Freya. Kiana had been treated in the infirmary, while Subaru kept the Cor Leonis connection active until the end of the day so she could sleep comfortably.

When he arrived at the door to his room, a familiar silhouette emerged from the darkness.

Acheron stood waiting for him with her arms crossed.

Subaru smiled.

“Were you waiting for me?”

Acheron slowly stepped forward, closing the distance between them.

“What you did today... was foolish. But considering who you are, it wasn’t surprising at all.”

Subaru scratched the back of his neck.

“I just didn’t want to watch her suffer. They’re my friends, Acheron. Besides, a wound like that... really wasn’t a problem for me.”

Acheron’s fingers gently brushed against Subaru’s cheek, her thumb stroking his cheekbone.

“I know,” she whispered. “I know how many wounds you’ve suffered in the past, and how much your soul has bled. Please... when you’re with me, don’t feel like you have to wear that mask. If you’re hurting, you can tell me.”

Subaru placed his hand over hers and closed his eyes after taking a deep breath.

“When I’m with you, nothing can hurt me,” he whispered.

Opening his eyes, he looked directly into Acheron’s melancholic purple eyes.

“Good night, my star.”

Acheron smiled faintly. Unexpectedly, she leaned forward and placed a soft, brief kiss upon Subaru’s lips, one that seemed to carry away the weight of the entire day.

“Good night, Subaru.”

When Subaru entered his room and stretched out on his bed, a tired yet peaceful grin rested upon his face. Thinking that he was the happiest man in the world, he closed his eyes. His exhausted body quickly drifted to sleep.

But his mind would find no peace.

Shortly after falling asleep, his consciousness was pulled into a dense, suffocating fog.

The surroundings were freezing cold.

Nothing was visible.

Not the Academy ceiling. Not the stars outside.

Only an endless gray void.

And then he heard it.

A desperate sound of crying, filled with sobs, echoing through the silence.

Subaru tried to move through the fog, but it felt as though his feet never touched the ground. In the middle of the mist appeared a small figure kneeling on the floor.

She wore a torn white outfit resembling a hospital gown. Long, messy purple hair covered her face. The little girl hugged herself tightly as she trembled and cried.

Subaru wanted to reach out and ask, “Are you okay?”

But his lips would not move.

No sound came from his mouth.

All he could do was listen to the heartbreaking sobs of the little girl. Her shoulders shook violently, and the freezing air around her seemed to sharpen with her pain.

Then the girl slowly lifted her head.

Because of the fog, Subaru could not clearly see her face. Yet for a brief moment, he caught sight of those aged eyes filled with sorrow and fear.

The dream suddenly shattered with a single whispered word falling from the girl’s lips:

“Mother...”

Subaru awoke with a gasp, sitting upright in bed. Cold sweat covered his forehead. In the darkness of his room, he could hear only the rapid beating of his own heart.

His hand instinctively moved to his chest.

“What was that?” he muttered into the darkness.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself. The recent intense training, his use of Cor Leonis today, and the day’s exhaustion must have strained his mind.

Leaning back against the headboard, he shook his head.

“Just a dream...” he said, trying to convince himself. “Just a strange dream. That’s all.”

But he did not know it yet.

This was not merely a dream.

It was only the first opening of a dark doorway leading into the past of that mysterious purple-haired girl.

___________

After that night of honesty shared with Acheron on the terrace, Subaru's days had become far more bearable. Kiana's leg had completely healed, and they had returned to their routines at the Academy. Subaru cheerfully mooched off Mei's cooking, made bets with Bronya in video games, and somehow kept up with Kiana's endless energy. The presence of those three girls around him, along with the silent, unwavering support of Acheron that he always felt behind him, were the only shields holding Subaru's mind together.

But the nights... The nights still belonged to that freezing laboratory.

Subaru continued to dream. However, the mental relief he had gained from opening up to Acheron had also changed the nature of the dreams. He was no longer merely a helpless observer suffering alongside the visions; his subconscious had begun examining them like pieces of a puzzle. With each passing night, the fog grew thinner. Details became clearer. He could now make out the logos on the collars of the men in white lab coats, the Russian warning signs on the walls, and most importantly, the pure yet corrupting Honkai energy surrounding the purple-haired girl.

And then the final night arrived.

When Subaru opened his eyes, he found himself once again inside that sterile room divided by glass partitions. But this time there were no piercing screams, no men in white coats. Only a deadly silence remained.

The purple-haired girl was kneeling alone in the center of the room on the cold metal floor. Her friends were gone. Her body was covered in the traces of countless cruel experiments. Glowing purple veins ran across her arms and neck. The air around her trembled strangely, as if space-time itself were bending.

Subaru stared at her through the glass. The messy hair covering her face slowly parted. For the first time, Subaru saw her face clearly.

A pale, exhausted, childlike face. Subaru had never seen this girl before. Neither in his own world nor in this one had he ever encountered a child like her. He did not know her.

“Who are you?” he whispered from behind the glass, knowing she could not hear him.

Yet at that moment, the girl slowly lifted her head and looked directly at the glass where Subaru stood. Her eyelids opened.

Subaru's breath caught in his throat. His heart pounded so violently it felt as if it would break through his ribcage.

Those eyes... They were far too old, cruel, and cold to belong to a child.

But that was not what terrified him most.

The girl's eyes were a brilliant golden color, glowing in the darkness like those of a predator. And her pupils were not round like a normal human's—they resembled a four-pointed star, or a cross.

Time stopped for Subaru.

His mind was hurled back months earlier, to that day of apocalypse.

The final moments when Izumo was destroyed and IX devoured everything... Acheron tearing through space-time... Their fall through that rift into this new world... The ruined battlefield where they first arrived...

And floating in the sky, surrounded by cubes that warped space itself, was that figure.

It was Kiana's body, yes. Her hair had been pure white. But as she prepared to launch her final attack against the helplessly crying Mei below, there had been none of Kiana's cheerful, foolish smile on her face.

There had only been pure, arrogant hatred.

And completing that expression had been those brilliant golden eyes with cross-shaped pupils gazing down upon them from the heavens.

“Ah...”

A strangled sound escaped Subaru's lips.

The little girl in the dream stared directly at him with those golden eyes, as though peering into the deepest corners of his soul. Slowly, her face twisted into a merciless, psychopathic smile.

The dream shattered with the familiar, icy whisper that escaped her lips.

“Humanity... must perish.”

Subaru shot upright in bed. He had risen so quickly that the room spun around him. He was gasping for breath, his sheets drenched with sweat. One hand clutched his chest while his eyes remained wide open in the darkness.

Now all the pieces fit together.

The memories he had been witnessing did not belong to an ordinary child.

That purple-haired girl—the innocent child tortured in the laboratory and forced to watch her friends disappear—was none other than the Herrscher of the Void itself, the very being they had encountered when they first fell from Izumo into this world.

And the worst part was that although Kiana had been saved and returned to normal after that battle, the golden-eyed monster had never truly disappeared.

It had merely fallen asleep.

It was sleeping inside Kiana.

When Subaru had formed the Cor Leonis connection to heal Kiana's leg, he had not only connected to her pain. Without realizing it, he had resonated with the tortured, hatred-filled Herrscher core sleeping deep within her soul.

These nightmares were not Kiana's memories.

They were Sirin's.

Subaru immediately leapt out of bed. Throwing on only a T-shirt and sweatpants, he rushed out of his room. It was six in the morning; the Academy had not fully awakened yet, but he knew exactly where Acheron would be.

He sprinted toward the grove of sakura trees behind the training grounds. Just as he expected, Acheron was there, practicing sword forms in the tranquility of the early morning. When she heard him approaching, she sheathed her blade in a single elegant motion.

“Subaru?”

The moment she saw the mixture of horror and realization on his face, she quickly approached him.

“The dream again?”

Breathing heavily, Subaru grabbed Acheron's shoulders.

“Acheron... I figured it out. I know who that girl is.”

Acheron frowned slightly.

“Who?”

“I had never seen her face before... but her eyes. They were golden, Acheron. Her pupils looked like crosses,” Subaru whispered. “Do you remember? When we first fell from Izumo... Mei was crying on the ground, and that godlike being possessing Kiana's body was floating in the sky. Her eyes were golden too.”

Acheron's eyes narrowed slightly. She remembered that day clearly—the moment she had brought down that arrogant Herrscher in a single strike.

“The Herrscher of the Void,” Acheron murmured.

Subaru nodded fiercely.

“Yes! That purple-haired girl tortured in the laboratory is the true identity of the monster inside Kiana! When I connected to Kiana through Cor Leonis, I didn't just take her injury, Acheron. I touched the memories of the child sleeping deep within her soul—the Herrscher herself. She's not just a monster... she's a little girl filled with pain, whose friends were thrown away before her eyes, who grew to hate every adult in the world.”

Running his hands through his hair, Subaru's mind raced.

“Kiana doesn't know. She isn't aware of this darkness inside her. She only recently learned that even her own past was a lie and fell into depression because of it. If she allows this hatred-filled spirit, this Herrscher, to awaken, her mind will be torn apart beneath that hatred.”

Acheron listened silently to Subaru's frantic yet razor-sharp analysis. Welt's training had sharpened Subaru's intelligence and ability to connect seemingly unrelated events even further. Reaching out, she gently took his hands and calmed him.

“It is good that you learned this, Subaru,” Acheron said. Her voice anchored him to reality as always.

“Understanding your enemy's pain is the first step toward either defeating them or saving them. But we must not immediately tell Welt or Kiana. Kiana's mind is not yet strong enough to carry the truth of that destructive power and its tragic past.”

Subaru took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He knew Acheron was right.

Kiana was only beginning to cope with the weight of her fabricated past. Telling her, ‘You carry within you the soul of a tortured little girl who hates humanity,’ would only push her toward the abyss.

“You’re right,” Subaru said, gripping Acheron's hands tightly. “For now, we'll keep this a secret between us. But we need to watch Kiana more closely than ever. We can't allow that golden-eyed girl to seize control of her again.”

Acheron smiled faintly and brushed aside the hair that had fallen onto Subaru's forehead.

“We won't,” she said firmly. “You will keep her heart in the light... and if that darkness dares to emerge again, I will draw my sword as I always do.”

Subaru smiled at Acheron's unwavering promise.

Together, they had made a new secret vow to protect the girls of St. Freya.

The ghosts of that laboratory might still be waiting in the darkness, but Subaru and Acheron were prepared to stand side by side against it.

___________

After that secret conversation beneath the sakura trees with Acheron, Subaru was forced to live with the enormous secret occupying his mind throughout the day. As he walked through the cheerful corridors of St. Freya, every time Kiana laughed or stumbled into one of her usual mishaps, his thoughts were inevitably drawn back to the freezing Babylon Laboratory and those golden eyes.

At lunch, they were gathered together in the Academy cafeteria as usual. While eating the bentos Mei had carefully prepared, Kiana enthusiastically devoured the meat on her plate, overjoyed that she had fully recovered.

"I'm telling you, Bronya, thanks to Subaru's weird power, my leg is even stronger than before! I'm definitely getting the highest score in Himeko-sensei's next simulation!"

As Kiana spoke with her mouth full, Mei interrupted.

"Kiana, please finish chewing first. Also, you still haven't properly thanked Subaru-kun."

Mei turned her gaze toward Subaru. There was a subtle curiosity in her eyes.

"Subaru-kun, you seem a little distracted today. Is it a side effect of yesterday's pain?"

Startled by Mei's sharp observation, Subaru immediately put on his familiar energetic mask.

"Ah, no, not really! Welt-sensei was just explaining quantum fluctuations to me, and my brain got a little fried, that's all."

Bronya placed her chopsticks on the table and studied him.

"Bronya analyzed the micro-tremors in Subaru's pupils. Your left eyebrow rises slightly whenever you lie, Subaru. Are you hiding a database from us?"

Subaru had already begun sweating when a silent shadow approached the table and instantly changed the atmosphere.

Acheron stood behind him holding a simple cup of tea. Calmly, she placed a hand on Subaru's shoulder. That freezing aura—which for Subaru felt warmer than anything else in the world—instantly silenced Bronya's analysis and the girls' curiosity.

"Don't pressure him too much," Acheron said. Her voice was melancholic, yet carried an unshakable protectiveness. "His mind is carrying heavy burdens lately."

Kiana grinned mischievously.

"Ah, I get it! If Acheron-sensei has activated her protection field, then we can't say anything."

Subaru shot a grateful glance toward Acheron.

When night arrived, Subaru sat on the edge of his bed, resisting sleep. His eyelids grew heavier, but the fear inside him fought to keep him awake.

His door opened slightly and Acheron entered. She walked over and sat beside him.

"You're afraid of sleeping," Acheron said. She wasn't asking a question. She was stating a fact.

Subaru sighed.

"The moment I close my eyes, I know I'll return to that laboratory. And this time... I know those golden eyes are watching me."

Acheron reached out and gently enclosed Subaru's trembling hand within her pale hands.

"My presence stands within that golden bond in your heart like an anchor," she said. "Sleep, Subaru. If the darkness tries to swallow you, you'll find the shadow of my sword deep within your soul."

Comforted by those words, Subaru took a deep breath and lay down. Acheron never released his hand.

Subaru closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to sink into the fog.

He felt his mind being drawn into that freezing darkness. When he opened his eyes, he expected to see the familiar white tiles, sterile glass walls, and cruel scientists—to relive the laboratory memory as a mere observer once again.

But when the fog dispersed, the blood in Subaru's veins froze.

There were no white walls. No laboratory.

Only a starless, endless darkness, and at the center of that void floated enormous purple Honkai cubes defying gravity.

"W-Where am I?" Subaru whispered.

This was not a memory.

This was the deepest, darkest part of Kiana's mind.

At that moment, the dark figure standing atop one of the floating cubes moved.

When Subaru raised his head, his breath caught in his throat.

The purple-haired girl was there.

But this time she was not the helpless child crying on the floor and enduring torture.

She floated in the air.

The killing intent surrounding her was so overwhelming that Subaru felt as if he were being crushed beneath countless tons of weight.

The moment her cross-shaped golden eyes noticed him, they widened in pure surprise.

"A human mind?" the girl whispered.

Her voice echoed thousands of times through the void and carved itself into Subaru's brain.

"How did you manage to infiltrate my inner domain... all the way to my core?"

Yet the surprise on her face lasted only a second.

In less than a heartbeat, it vanished and was replaced by the arrogant, murderous hatred Subaru remembered from the skies above Izumo.

The girl's lips curled into a sneer.

"Ah... I understand. So you're the rat who entered my mind through that idiot's body and wandered through my memories."

Her voice was mocking and ice-cold.

"I thought you were merely a ghost observing from afar. Yet you've come here on your own to meet your end."

Subaru's legs could no longer withstand the pressure.

He collapsed to his knees.

His body trembled uncontrollably.

His stomach twisted.

The being before him... was the Herrscher who had devastated Izumo and slaughtered millions.

Compared to the divine hatred radiating from this girl, the madness of Betelgeuse and the bloodlust of Elsa were nothing.

"I-I..." Subaru stammered.

His voice failed him.

He gripped the frozen ground with trembling hands. He wanted to crawl away. He wanted to wake up. He was terrified.

Sirin laughed mockingly.

"What is it? Cat got your tongue, insect? You were much braver while spying on my memories. Or did your tiny mind finally comprehend who stands before you?"

A purple spear materialized in the air and aimed directly at Subaru's forehead.

"Sirin..."

The name slipped from Subaru's trembling lips without thought.

He was terrified beyond reason, yet he could still see the body bags, the image of that little girl crying on the cold floor while calling for her mother.

Sirin's eyes narrowed.

"How dare you speak that name with your filthy mouth?!"

"I saw..." Subaru whispered, struggling to breathe.

He could barely raise his head.

"I saw those white rooms... what they did to you... how you cried in the snow while calling for your mother..."

Silence.

The horrifying pressure within the mental world faltered for a brief moment.

When Subaru looked up, he saw Sirin's golden eyes widen completely.

Her floating body had frozen solid.

The words leaving Subaru's mouth had struck directly at her deepest wound—the fragile, bleeding scar that nobody was ever supposed to see.

For a human, one of the race she despised most, to witness her most pathetic and helpless moments...

"It was... horrible..." Subaru continued.

A tear slipped from his eye.

He wasn't even sure whether it was from fear or from the crushing weight of the hell that child had endured.

"What they did to you... no child should ever have experienced that... You suffered so much..."

"SHUT UP!"

Sirin's scream shook the entire mental realm like an earthquake.

Her face twisted with pure rage, humiliation, and hysteria.

The arrogant goddess mask shattered instantly, revealing only a wounded animal lashing out in desperate fury.

"SHUT UP! I WILL NOT ALLOW A DISGUSTING WORM LIKE YOU TO PITY ME! DON'T YOU DARE PITY ME!"

Sirin thrust both hands forward.

Dozens of purple Honkai spears appeared and tore through the void, rushing directly toward the kneeling Subaru.

Subaru's eyes widened in horror.

The only thing he could do was raise his arms in front of his face and scream as death approached.

Just as the spears were about to pierce his heart—

The world shattered with a deafening roar.

Subaru opened his eyes with a desperate gasp.

His lungs desperately pulled in air as his back slammed against the bed.

The first rays of morning sunlight poured into the room.

Cold sweat streamed down his face.

His entire body shook violently.

"Subaru!"

Acheron's voice.

Turning toward her, Subaru saw that Acheron was gripping his hand tightly with both of hers.

There was deep concern in her eyes.

Just before the fatal strike inside Subaru's mind had landed, she had used the bond between them to forcibly pull him out of the nightmare.

Subaru couldn't say a word.

He simply held onto Acheron's hand as tightly as possible and struggled to breathe through trembling sobs while the echo of those terrifying golden eyes slowly faded from his mind.

___________

After the terror of that night, Subaru had to exert an almost superhuman effort just to get out of bed the next morning. Sirin's golden eyes, the freezing pressure within his mind, and the memory of Acheron pulling him out at the very last second still sent chills down his spine. When he looked into the mirror, he saw the dark circles beneath his eyes. Splashing cold water onto his face, he tried to shove the image of those golden eyes into the deepest corners of his mind and slam a heavy door shut on them. He still did not know what he needed to do to save Kiana, but for now, the only thing he could do was cling to his daily routine.

However, the moment he stepped out of the dormitory and into the Academy courtyard, he realized that nothing about today was routine.

St. Freya was normally a lively and cheerful place, filled with energetic girls rushing from one place to another. But today... it felt as though the Academy had declared a state of war. Everything had been polished spotless, banners hung everywhere, and all Valkyrie students stood in perfect military formations in the large assembly area, their training uniforms pressed to perfection.

As Subaru made his way toward the line where his class was gathered, he found Kiana, Mei, and Bronya. Unlike her usual disheveled self, Kiana had even buttoned her collar, her hands clasped behind her back as she waited tensely.

"Good morning..." Subaru whispered as he joined the line. "What's going on? Is there a Honkai attack or something? Why does everyone look like they're about to go to war?"

"I don't know either," Kiana whispered back, barely moving her lips. "My aunt declared an emergency gathering at dawn. She only said she had an extremely important announcement."

Mei lightly nudged Kiana and signaled for her to be quiet.

"Careful, Kiana. Principal Theresa is coming."

At the podium in front of the assembly area, Theresa Apocalypse stepped forward alongside Himeko and Welt Yang. There was no trace of Theresa's usual cute, childlike expression. Instead, she carried herself with the serious and dignified bearing of a Schicksal commander. Welt stood beside her with his usual calm demeanor, his hands in his pockets as he observed the students. Somewhere near the back, standing beneath the shade of the trees, Acheron silently watched the crowd as well.

Theresa cleared her throat. Her voice, amplified through the microphones, sliced through the deadly silence like a blade.

"Valued Valkyries of St. Freya Academy!" Theresa began, her voice echoing throughout the courtyard. "There is a very urgent and important reason why I have gathered all of you so suddenly this morning. As you all know, this Academy stands through the support of the Schicksal Organization."

Theresa took a deep breath. Every student seemed to be holding theirs.

"In two days," she continued, emphasizing every word, "the Archbishop of the Schicksal Organization, our greatest benefactor and supreme leader... Mr. Otto Apocalypse, will personally visit our Academy from Headquarters for a two-day official inspection."

The moment the sentence ended, it felt as though the temperature in the courtyard dropped by ten degrees.

The name "Otto Apocalypse" instantly produced expressions of respect, tension, and pure fear on the faces of every Valkyrie standing in formation. Himeko's expression darkened, while Welt's gaze immediately sharpened. Otto Apocalypse was the embodiment of power, manipulation, dark secrets, and ruthless ambition in this world. His arrival was both an honor and a colossal threat.

However... in the middle of that freezing silence and overwhelming tension, Subaru's exhausted and disorganized mind completely filtered out the words "Archbishop" and "Apocalypse" and fixated on only a single name.

Otto.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced in Subaru's mind.

But it was not the image of Schicksal's ruthless leader.

Instead, he remembered the loyal, perpetually panicked merchant from his old world—the one with the strange gray hat, green hair, and merchant ledger always in hand, who had never abandoned Subaru even in his darkest moments.

Hearing that simple name from his old world sent an overwhelming wave of nostalgia crashing through Subaru's heart. He remembered the familiar face that constantly complained while driving his wagon but still threw himself into danger for his friends.

Forgetting the hundreds of students standing in military formation around him, forgetting Theresa and Welt's terrifying seriousness at the podium, Subaru was swept away by that warm nostalgia. Without thinking, he smiled and spoke out loud.

"Wow, Otto? I miss that guy," Subaru muttered to himself, but in the silence his voice echoed like an explosion. "He's a really good guy. A little whiny, always looks like he's about to wet himself from fear, and trouble follows him everywhere, but... he always watches my back. Poor guy. I wonder when he last had a proper good day."

For a brief moment, time stopped at St. Freya Academy.

Even the sound of a bird flapping its wings seemed to vanish.

It was as if the world itself had stopped turning.

The fact that Subaru had just referred to the world's most dangerous five-hundred-year-old Archbishop as "whiny," "looks like he's about to wet himself," and "poor guy" landed in the courtyard like a nuclear bomb.

Kiana's mouth fell open so far it looked as though her jaw might hit the ground. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as she stared at Subaru. Her brain flatly refused to associate the words she had just heard with the name Otto Apocalypse.

All color drained from Mei's face. Her hand instinctively moved toward the hilt of her sword.

The digital rings in Bronya's eyes briefly glitched as though her systems had experienced a blue screen error.

On the podium, Theresa's eye began twitching uncontrollably. Her fingers locked around the microphone.

Had a student really just called the absolute ruler of Schicksal... her grandfather... a poor coward who looked like he was about to wet himself?

But the most devastating reaction came from Welt Yang.

The Sovereign of Anti-Entropy had spent his entire life fighting Otto Apocalypse. He had witnessed Otto's horrific experiments, ruthless murders, inhuman plans, and terrifying intellect. He had risked his own life countless times opposing him.

Welt didn't even notice his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

His eyes widened.

His jaw slackened.

His brain simply stopped working.

Had this interdimensional traveler really just called the most manipulative and cruel genius in the world "that guy"?

Slowly, like a rusted machine, Welt turned his head toward Subaru.

Only one thought echoed in his mind.

What did you just say?

Even Acheron, standing in the shadows with her arms crossed, slowly straightened and raised one eyebrow in curiosity—and perhaps even a hint of astonishment—as she looked toward Subaru.

Only several seconds later did Subaru finally notice the hundreds of horrified stares directed at him.

He glanced around.

Kiana was trembling.

Himeko had covered her face with one hand.

Welt looked as though he had just witnessed the greatest paradox in the universe.

The warm smile on Subaru's face slowly faded.

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and blinked.

"What?" Subaru asked in complete innocence and confusion. "Why are you all looking at me like that? Is mentioning a merchant really that bad? When you said Otto..."

His sentence was abruptly cut off as Kiana grabbed him by the collar and yanked him closer.

"Subaru, you idiot!" Kiana hissed, her voice filled with both terror and desperation. "The Otto we're talking about isn't a merchant! He's... he's... the Archbishop! The most dangerous five-hundred-year-old leader in the world! And you just called him a guy who wets himself from fear!"

Subaru's eyes slowly widened.

His brain finally processed the words "Archbishop" and "Apocalypse" from Theresa's speech.

The most powerful man in the world.

A dictator.

Five hundred years old.

And he had just called that man a whiny loser in front of everyone.

Subaru's face immediately turned pale. His knees nearly gave out beneath him.

"A-Ah..." he swallowed. "Y-You're talking about a different Otto..."

Covering his face with both hands, he cursed his own stupidity.

"Please forget everything I just said. That was a victim of name confusion. I beg you, don't tell him any of that when he arrives. He'll tear me apart!"

At the podium, Principal Theresa let out a deep sigh of relief. She nearly crushed the microphone in her hand.

Meanwhile, Welt slowly adjusted his glasses. The expression of horror on his face gradually transformed into absurd relief.

As he rubbed his forehead, a small, involuntary chuckle escaped his lips.

For a brief moment, he had imagined the Otto Apocalypse he hated more than anyone as a frightened merchant constantly on the verge of tears, and the image had nearly broken his sanity.

Himeko also shot Subaru an exasperated look from the podium while struggling to suppress a grin.

"My God... This kid is either a genius or the biggest fool the universe has ever produced."

Watching from the shadows, Acheron shook her head slowly as she observed Subaru's panicked state. A faint smile—so subtle it was nearly invisible—appeared on her lips.

Even while carrying the heaviest darkness within his mind and standing in the most terrifying situations imaginable, this boy possessed a unique talent for leaving everyone around him speechless before turning the entire situation into an absurd tragicomedy mere seconds later.

_____________

On the top floor of St. Freya Academy, inside Principal Theresa Apocalypse's extravagant yet paperwork-filled office, the atmosphere was tense enough to cut with a knife.

The Academy's most important figures had gathered in the room.

Welt Yang stood by the window with his arms crossed, staring outside. Himeko leaned against her coffee mug and sighed in exhaustion. Kiana, Mei, and Bronya stood together in one corner of the room like guilty students, staring at the floor. Acheron stood beside the door, her back against the wall, eyes closed, maintaining her usual silent and cold demeanor.

And in the very center of the room, standing before the massive wooden desk, was Natsuki Subaru.

His head was bowed so deeply that his neck was beginning to hurt.

Standing atop her desk with her hands on her hips, her face red with anger, Theresa looked like a volcano moments away from erupting.

"You... You are a complete disaster!" Theresa shouted. Her voice was so loud that Subaru's ears rang. Despite her small stature, she was by far the most terrifying presence in the room right now. "You committed the biggest, most disrespectful, and most idiotic blunder in St. Freya's history! In front of every Valkyrie! You called Schicksal's absolute ruler—my grandfather—a 'whiny brat who looks like he's about to wet himself'!"

"O-Okay, I admit the timing was a little unfortunate," Subaru stammered, raising his hands defensively. "But I swear I was thinking of someone else! The Otto I knew was a poor merchant who never had five coins to rub together and cried 'Natsuki-san, save me!' whenever the slightest danger appeared! My brain just short-circuited because of the name!"

"Short-circuited?!" Theresa rolled up a file and slammed it onto the desk. "There aren't even any wires inside your brain! Do you have any idea about Archbishop Otto's information network? Those words have probably already been reported to Headquarters! In five hundred years of life, that was probably the strangest insult he's ever received! You've done more than anger him—you've attracted his attention!"

Subaru swallowed.

He hadn't considered that part.

"Ah... attracting his attention... that's bad, isn't it?"

"Bronya can clarify," Bronya interjected in her usual emotionless tone. "If Archbishop Otto wants someone dead, he simply sends an assassin. However, if he becomes interested in someone, he places them on an operating table, disassembles them, and plays with their mind through hundreds of simulations until he understands how they work. Statistically speaking, Otto being angry with you was a much safer scenario than Otto being interested in you."

Subaru's face turned pale once more.

That familiar cold knot settled in his stomach.

Images of the Babylon Laboratory, glass chambers, men in white coats, and Sirin's golden eyes flashed through his mind.

The man behind those cruel laboratories... would now focus on him because of his own stupidity?

"Principal Theresa, you're being too hard on Subaru!" Kiana suddenly protested, stepping forward beside him. "He doesn't know our world! How could he know what kind of horrible person Otto is? He didn't do it on purpose!"

"Kiana is right," Mei added softly, looking at Subaru with concern. "Subaru-kun was only reminded of a friend from his past. He had no ill intentions."

Theresa let out a long sigh. Her shoulders drooped as she sat on the desk and rubbed her forehead.

For a moment, the furious-principal mask cracked, revealing a worried woman trying to protect her students.

"The issue isn't whether his intentions were good or bad, Kiana. The issue is that Otto will be here in two days."

Welt Yang slowly turned from the window.

The eyes behind his glasses were deadly serious.

"Theresa is right," Welt said. The weight in his voice was enough to silence everyone. "Otto may be using a routine inspection as an excuse. But that man never does anything without a reason. A woman with Herrscher-level power who appeared in the middle of the Academy after tearing through space-time about a month ago, with no records in any database... and a boy who can mysteriously take other people's injuries upon himself. Schicksal's intelligence network could not have overlooked that."

Himeko placed her coffee mug on the table, her expression grim.

"So you think his real targets might be Subaru and Acheron?"

"Very likely," Welt confirmed. "Otto hates powers he cannot control or understand. He either wants to turn them into Schicksal's weapons or eliminate them."

Subaru clenched his fists.

Yes, he was afraid for himself.

But after seeing what happened in the Babylon Laboratory and learning what Sirin had suffered, even the possibility of this so-called Otto approaching Kiana or Mei made him sick.

At that moment, Acheron stepped forward from the corner of the room with slow, measured footsteps.

Her movements were silent, but the moment she began walking, the suffocating atmosphere inside Theresa's office froze over.

Bronya's digital sensors immediately issued a warning.

Acheron walked past Subaru and stopped directly before Welt and Theresa.

Her eyes carried no emotion, only that familiar melancholic darkness filled with endless threat.

"I do not care who this person is, how long he has lived, or what title he carries," Acheron said.

Her voice was smooth. She was not shouting, yet every word echoed throughout the room.

"The politics, rules, and hierarchy of your world do not concern me. If this man enters this building and merely looks around, I will remain a shadow."

Slowly, Acheron placed her hand on the hilt of the odachi at her waist.

The crimson, freezing aura within the room rippled for a brief moment.

"However..."

Acheron's gaze shifted from Welt and locked directly onto Theresa's eyes.

"If that man dares touch even a single strand of this boy's hair... if he attempts to place him on a table or pry into his mind..."

Her voice never changed, yet the threat within it deepened.

"Then your 'absolute ruler' will learn what Nihility truly means. And I guarantee there will be no organization left for you to investigate afterward."

The silence that followed was not born of fear this time.

It came from the absolute weight of Acheron's promise.

Welt and Himeko both found themselves swallowing hard.

They remembered what she had done in the skies above Izumo, how she had torn through those cubes as if they were paper.

They knew she was not bluffing.

Theresa's eyes widened slightly before she slowly nodded.

"We won't allow that, Acheron. He is one of my students. Protecting him—and you—is my responsibility as well."

Faced with Acheron's freezing yet fiercely protective presence, Subaru felt the trembling inside him gradually calm.

Yes, he had made a huge mistake.

Yes, the most dangerous man in the world would arrive in two days.

And yes, he still had to deal with the ticking time bomb sleeping inside Kiana—Sirin.

But he was not alone.

"I'm sorry," Subaru said.

This time he stood a little straighter, and that old stubborn determination from Re:Zero began shining in his eyes again.

"I drew attention to us because of my stupidity. But when that man arrives, I'll do whatever is necessary. If you want me to stay out of sight, I'll stay invisible. If I have to stand in front of him... then I'll do it."

Welt Yang adjusted his glasses slightly, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

"You don't need to become invisible, Subaru. We of Anti-Entropy are not Schicksal's puppets. We'll simply be careful."

Himeko crossed her arms.

"Then here's the plan: when Otto arrives, Subaru and Kiana will stay as far away from him as humanly possible. Kiana, keep your impulsiveness under control. Subaru, keep your mouth shut. Understood?"

At the exact same time, Kiana and Subaru snapped into a military salute and shouted:

"Understood, Himeko-sensei!"

Two days remained.

St. Freya was being drawn rapidly toward the center of a storm.

Yet the true battle within Subaru's heart was not against the five-hundred-year-old Archbishop approaching from outside.

It was against the golden-eyed girl sleeping deep within Kiana's soul.

METIN 7 - English Translation

When night finally fell, St. Freya Academy at last cast off the suffocating tension of the day and sank into silence.

In his dormitory room, seated beside a window illuminated by moonlight, Subaru tried to shake off the exhaustion of the day. In a dim corner of the room, Acheron leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, maintaining her usual silent and unwavering vigil. After the absurd crisis that had unfolded that morning, plans had been made throughout the day, and everyone had gone into full “Archbishop” alert mode.

Letting out a deep sigh, Subaru sat on the edge of his bed. His gaze found Acheron.

In this strange universe, while battling both the darkness in his mind and the threats outside, this woman was his only true refuge.

Quietly, he rose to his feet and approached her. Hearing his footsteps, Acheron slowly opened her eyes. Those deep, melancholic eyes traced Subaru’s face beneath the moonlight.

Without saying a word, Subaru reached out and took the cold hand resting upon the hilt of Acheron’s sword into his own warm hands. He gently intertwined his fingers with hers.

A flicker of surprise passed through Acheron’s eyes, but she did not pull away.

“Thank you,” Subaru whispered, his voice so soft that it seemed careful not to disturb the silence of the room. “For stepping forward for me in the principal’s office today... Not just today. Thank you for pulling me out of that darkness, for loving me, and for protecting me despite everything. If it weren’t for you... I would have lost my mind long ago.”

Acheron’s gaze softened.

Her lips parted slightly, but before any words could emerge, Subaru leaned toward her.

Closing his eyes, he pressed a quiet, gentle, trembling kiss against her lips.

It was not a kiss of passion, but the seal of profound gratitude, pure devotion, and affection.

For a moment, Acheron froze.

The unshakable warrior who carried the weight of worlds upon her shoulders found herself defenseless before such a fragile gesture.

Then, very slightly, she returned the gentle kiss.

When Subaru slowly pulled away, a tired but peaceful smile rested upon his face.

“Good night, my guardian angel,” he whispered.

With one of those rare, faint smiles upon her lips, Acheron inclined her head slightly.

“Good night, Subaru.”

Lying down upon his bed, Subaru closed his eyes, comforted by the warmth in his heart.

At last, he thought he would enjoy a peaceful sleep.

But the moment his mind sank into darkness, that peace shattered.

Subaru suddenly opened his eyes in the middle of a freezing void.

This was his own inner world, yet something was different.

The air was not merely cold.

It was heavy.

The pressure surrounding him was so immense that every breath felt as though shattered glass were filling his lungs instead of oxygen.

Tons of weight pressed down upon his shoulders.

His knees trembled, and he collapsed to the ground involuntarily.

Then those golden eyes emerged from the darkness.

But this time there was more than empty hatred within them.

There was boiling rage—pure, maddening fury that seemed capable of setting the entire mental landscape ablaze.

When Sirin’s silhouette appeared before him, the dark aura she radiated crushed Subaru beneath its weight.

The Herrscher’s hatred was so intense that Subaru’s heart felt ready to burst through his ribcage.

“S-Sirin...” Subaru groaned.

He lacked even the strength to stand.

His teeth chattered uncontrollably.

“W-What is this? Why... why are you so much angrier than usual? This rage... it’s crushing me...”

The golden eyes narrowed as though looking down upon a pathetic insect.

Sirin’s voice thundered through the walls of his mind like an earthquake.

“Pathetic insect...” she hissed, her voice sounding like the fusion of thousands of screams. “Did you truly think I wouldn’t feel it? Did you think I couldn’t smell the stench of that disgusting world outside? He is coming... The cursed man who stole my life, my friends, everything from me... Otto!”

The instant the word “Otto” left Sirin’s lips, the storm raging through the mental realm intensified even further.

The endless cycle of torture etched into Sirin’s mind, the agony of the Babylon Laboratory, was all triggered by that single name.

Yet... the moment that name was spoken... something very strange happened.

The overwhelming Herrscher hatred pressing upon Subaru, the fear of death, the suffocating pressure... suddenly shattered in his perception as though someone had pulled the plug.

His mind was instantly dragged back to that absurd moment earlier that morning, when he had called the Archbishop a “pathetic brat” in front of the entire Academy and caused Welt Yang’s glasses to nearly fall off his face.

One of the most terrifying, godlike beings in existence was speaking about her greatest trauma...

And yet an uncontrollable, high-pitched sound escaped Subaru’s lips.

“Pfft...”

He immediately covered his mouth with both hands.

But his shoulders began to shake.

“Puhahaha!”

Subaru had started laughing directly in the face of the Herrscher of the Void.

His nerves were so thoroughly broken that the sheer absurdity of the morning’s incident had pierced straight through Sirin’s terrifying aura.

The deadly black storm swirling around Sirin abruptly halted.

Her golden eyes widened first in disbelief and then in indescribable fury.

No one had ever dared laugh in the face of her suffering.

“YOU...”

This time Sirin’s voice contained not only rage, but horrifying astonishment.

“What are you laughing at?! Are you mocking my pain? My hatred?! WHO ARE YOU LAUGHING AT, INSECT?!”

An enormous invisible force wrapped itself around Subaru’s throat and lifted him into the air.

Only then did Subaru realize the fatal severity of his mistake.

His laughter instantly turned into a strangled gasp.

The being before him could erase him with a single thought.

His eyes widened in terror.

Frantically waving his hands, survival instinct took complete control.

Words poured from his mouth at machine-gun speed.

“N-No! Wait! I swear I’m not laughing at your pain!” Subaru shouted desperately while trying to pry apart the invisible grip around his throat. “When you said Otto... I thought of the Otto from my old world! Not your Archbishop! The Otto I know is a green-haired merchant with a gray hat and barely three coins to his name!”

Sirin’s eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, though she did not fully release the pressure on his throat.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I swear!” Subaru sputtered in panic, nearly tripping over his own words. “He’s always getting into trouble! The slightest danger appears and he starts crying, ‘Natsuki-san, save me!’ He’s the kind of guy who’d almost wet himself if a dog barked at him! And—and do you know the worst part?!”

Subaru was so terrified that he had no choice but to confess everything.

“When the principal said ‘Otto is coming’ this morning... I-I accidentally thought she meant that pathetic merchant Otto and called your Archbishop a ‘whiny little brat who wets himself’ in front of hundreds of people! Everyone completely lost their minds! The principal nearly tore me apart in her office afterward! I swear I wasn’t laughing at your trauma! I was laughing at my own stupidity and at the look on Welt-san’s face! Please don’t kill me! I’m already in enough trouble when that Archbishop arrives!”

Subaru’s frantic, breathless explanation echoed throughout the mental realm.

Sirin... the Herrscher of the Void, the being responsible for the deaths of countless people and the destruction of worlds... continued holding Subaru in the air.

And then she froze.

The blazing hatred in her golden eyes vanished, replaced by the unmistakable expression of someone whose brain had simply stopped functioning.

Before her stood a miserable insect who had apparently called Schicksal’s terrifying Archbishop a “little brat who wets himself” in front of hundreds of witnesses.

Inside Sirin’s mind, the image of Otto Apocalypse collided violently with the image of a green-haired merchant wetting himself in fear.

The result was a complete mental blue screen.

Silence descended upon the dark realm once more—not with murderous intent this time, but with absolute bewilderment.
____________

The freezing, suffocating atmosphere within the mental realm was cut apart in an instant.

The divine expression of rage on Sirin's face—the fury that seemed ready to burn entire worlds to ashes—froze completely. The purple Honkai cubes floating through the air drifted out of orbit, and the dark storm surrounding them faded away like a sailboat suddenly deprived of wind.

The invisible force constricting Subaru's throat vanished at once.

“Gah—!”

As gravity returned, Subaru slammed heavily onto the dark ground. Clutching at his throat, he fell into a fit of coughing while greedily drawing air into his lungs. Tears streamed from his eyes.

Sirin, meanwhile, continued floating in the air without doing anything.

Her golden eyes with their cross-shaped pupils remained fixed on the coughing Subaru.

But there was no longer any overwhelming killing intent in her gaze.

Instead, she looked as though she had just encountered the greatest logical contradiction in the universe.

The five-hundred-year-old Archbishop of Schicksal, the man who ruled the world from the shadows, whose intelligence and cruelty challenged even the gods themselves... had been described as a pathetic, whining merchant who nearly wet himself from fear? In front of an entire academy?

Sirin's lips parted slightly.

She wanted to say something, but the words caught in her throat.

The enormous shield of hatred she had built against humanity had genuinely short-circuited in the face of Subaru's cosmic-scale stupidity.

“You...” Sirin finally whispered.

Her voice no longer echoed through the realm. No storms followed her words.

She simply sounded tired.

And profoundly confused.

“You truly are... the biggest idiot in the universe.”

Still kneeling, Subaru rubbed his throat with one hand and held up the other in a “wait” gesture.

“I-I know! I admit it! It was my fault! But I swear, my brain went back to my old world for a moment! That Otto... my Otto... is genuinely a good guy! How was I supposed to know yours was a psychopath?!”

Slowly, Sirin descended toward the ground.

She landed several meters away from Subaru and crossed her arms over her chest.

Rolling her eyes, she looked at him as though he were the most pitiful insect in existence.

Yet buried deep beneath that expression, there was the faintest upward twitch at the corner of her lips—a microscopic hint of dark amusement.

Hearing the name of her greatest enemy, the monster who had ruined her life, reduced to something so absurd had momentarily silenced the destructive hatred within her and replaced it with a strange sense of satisfaction.

“The thought of that wretched snake sharing a name with a coward...” Sirin muttered.

The dangerous gleam returned to her golden eyes.

“Imagining how his arrogant face would twist because of your idiotic words...”

She paused.

“Ah. For that stupidity alone, I might spare your disgusting life today.”

Subaru let out a long sigh of relief.

Every muscle in his body relaxed.

His shoulders slumped.

He practically melted onto the ground.

“Thank you... Seriously, thank you. This might be the only time in my life that my stupidity has actually been useful.”

The microscopic amusement on Sirin's face vanished immediately.

The atmosphere grew cold again, but this time her hostility was directed not toward Subaru, but toward an unseen threat.

“Don't celebrate too early, worm,” Sirin said coldly. “You thought that name was merely a coincidence. But that man... Otto Apocalypse... is not a coincidence. He is a monster far beyond what your shallow mind can comprehend. If he is coming here, then there is something he wants.”

Subaru swallowed.

The tremor hidden within Sirin's voice carried not only hatred but also the echo of a deep, ancient trauma.

“Could he be after you?” Subaru asked quietly.

He was no longer lying on the ground.

Now he knelt upright, looking directly at Sirin.

“I mean... the you inside Kiana?”

Sirin ground her teeth together.

“He always wanted my powers... my Core. But he can't control that foolish girl's body. He's the one who used me like a laboratory rat! The true owner of those white laboratories, those cold walls, and those shattered bodies!”

As Sirin's voice rose, the realm around them began trembling.

The purple cubes shook violently.

The pain she had buried deep within herself merged with the hatred of the Herrscher and surged back to the surface.

“If that man ever finds a way to reach this mind again... If he ever tries to lock me inside that glass cage again...”

The entire realm quaked around her.

“I will burn the world, this academy, and everything that man values. None of you will survive.”

Within that cry, Subaru did not see a terrifying monster.

He saw a cornered child, a little girl who was terrified of the nightmares in her past.

Despite his fear, he remembered the promise he had made to Himeko and Welt earlier that day.

He remembered the protective fire in Acheron's eyes.

Subaru rose to his feet.

His legs still trembled, but he straightened his posture.

Looking directly into those glowing golden eyes, he spoke.

“I won't allow that.”

His voice was not loud.

Yet it carried the unbreakable will forged through countless deaths in the world of Re:Zero.

Sirin laughed mockingly.

“You? A weak insect who trembles before his own shadow? You won't allow it? Otto could crush thousands of people like you with a snap of his fingers.”

“Maybe he could,” Subaru admitted.

A bitter but stubborn smile appeared on his face.

“I'm weak. And I proved what an idiot I am just a little while ago. But I'm not alone.”

His gaze never wavered.

“If that man tries to touch you, Kiana, or anyone I care about... he'll find me standing in his way.”

Subaru's smile widened slightly.

“And believe me, behind me stands a shadow that could become even Otto Apocalypse's worst nightmare.”

The absolute trust Subaru placed in Acheron's presence gave unexpected weight to his words.

For a brief moment, Sirin hesitated.

She could feel it.

That crimson, freezing aura of Nihility beyond the boundaries of the mental realm.

The impenetrable wall protecting Subaru's soul still existed.

Sirin clicked her tongue and turned her head away as though she had tasted something unpleasant.

“Damn your arrogance, human,” she hissed. “I don't need your pathetic protection. I am the Herrscher of the Void. If that man dares approach me, I will tear him apart with my own hands.”

She violently waved her hand.

“Now get out of my mind! I can no longer tolerate your stupidity-scented presence!”

Space and time warped once again.

The world around Subaru shattered like glass.

His consciousness was hurled through the darkness and back toward reality.

Subaru opened his eyes with a deep breath.

He was back in his bed.

The room was quiet.

Moonlight still streamed through the windows.

He was breathing heavily, though this time it was not because of terror.

It was the adrenaline of having somehow survived that unbelievable encounter.

He touched his neck.

The phantom ache left behind by Sirin's fingers still lingered in his mind, but his body remained completely unharmed.

He had spoken with a Herrscher, accidentally told her something resembling a joke, and somehow survived.

Turning his head, he saw Acheron still sitting in the same place.

This time, however, her eyes were open.

She was watching him.

Within the endless emptiness contained in those eyes rested a silent question.

“I'm okay...” Subaru whispered, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

A disbelieving grin spread across his face as he remembered the absurdity of what had just happened.

“Honestly... even I can't believe my luck sometimes.”

Subaru lay back down and stared at the ceiling.

Two days.

Only two days remained until Otto Apocalypse—the terrifying Archbishop of Schicksal—would set foot inside St. Freya.

And Subaru now knew that when that man arrived, the battle would not only take place in the physical world.

It would also revolve around the wounded, furious soul sleeping deep within Kiana's heart.

But tonight, the fear inside Subaru had diminished just a little.

Because he had learned something important.

Even monsters could freeze in place when confronted with enough absurdity.

___________________

While Subaru was sweating and bargaining for his life within his own mind, a completely different silent battle was unfolding on the other side of the dormitory.

Kiana Kaslana tossed and turned in her soft bed. Mei, sleeping in the bed beside her, had already fallen into a deep and peaceful slumber; the only sound in the room was the steady rhythm of Mei’s breathing.

For Kiana, however, sleep was an unreachable mirage.

Ever since Theresa’s announcement in the courtyard that morning, an indescribable dark and heavy weight had settled inside her chest. The moment she heard the name “Otto Apocalypse,” a poisonous emotion, bubbling up from the deepest part of her heart like tar, had awakened within her.

Of course, Kiana knew who he was. He was her aunt’s grandfather and the leader of Schicksal.

But what she felt toward him was not simple unease or dislike.

This feeling was pure, primal hatred that wanted to burn the world to ashes.

*Why am I so angry?* Kiana wondered, gripping her sheets tightly. *I don’t even know that man... But ever since I heard his name, it feels like something inside me is screaming.*

As the night wore on, the feeling became increasingly unbearable.

Cold sweat dripped from Kiana’s temples. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could feel blurry purple cubes rotating in the background of her mind, accompanied by the echo of a shrill scream of rage that deafened her ears.

The darkness inside her—the ghost of the Babylon Laboratory—had sensed Otto’s approaching presence and begun breaking its chains.

Kiana felt as though she could no longer breathe.

Her throat tightened.

She bit down on her lips until they nearly bled, desperately trying to keep that disgusting, destructive hatred from spilling over onto Mei or Bronya.

The rage of the Herrscher of the Void crashed against Kiana’s mental barriers like a sledgehammer, roaring as it sought to consume her.

*Hold on...* Kiana begged herself, unable to stop the tears running down her cheeks. *Please... stop... I’m not a monster... I don’t want to hurt anyone!*

The purple storm inside her mind reached its peak.

Under that crushing pressure, Kiana felt herself on the verge of losing consciousness. She thought the foreign voice within her would seize control completely.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears like a war drum.

And then...

*Snap.*

It was as though somewhere in the universe, an enormous invisible plug had been pulled from its socket.

The worldly hatred tearing apart Kiana’s mind, the deafening purple storm... suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, vanished completely.

It was cut off as cleanly as a knife slicing through silk.

Kiana’s body had been stretched taut like a drawn bow, but suddenly she felt herself falling into empty space.

Her eyes flew open as she stared at the dark ceiling above her.

She was gasping for breath.

The screaming voices echoing inside her ears were gone.

The crushing weight inside her chest, the desire to destroy the world, had evaporated without a trace.

In its place remained something very strange.

A profoundly bewildered, utterly disbelieving silence.

It felt as though the monster inside her had been roaring, ready to attack, only to hear the most ridiculous joke in existence and freeze in place, unsure how to react.

“Eh...?”

The weak sound escaped Kiana’s lips involuntarily.

She blinked.

She listened to her heartbeat.

There was no trace of the divine fury that had been on the verge of consuming her mind moments ago.

There was only a deep silence, as though someone’s brain had completely stopped functioning.

Kiana felt as though someone had suddenly changed the channel inside her head—from a deadly documentary to an absurd comedy show.

For several minutes she remained frozen in bed.

She waited for the storm of hatred to return.

She waited for it to crush her chest once more.

But it never came back.

Whatever the dark presence inside her had experienced, it had fallen completely silent, retreating into its corner as though it had begun questioning reality itself.

Kiana could make no sense of what had happened.

The fact that the terrifying pressure she had felt all day had disappeared so suddenly and so absurdly was ridiculous.

But as the tension that had gripped her for hours vanished, a massive wave of exhaustion crashed over her.

Kiana took a deep, comforting breath.

Her tense muscles relaxed.

Her eyelids grew heavy, as though tons of weight had been placed upon them.

For the first time that day, a peaceful, foolish smile spread across her face.

“I don’t know what happened... but I think the danger has passed...” she murmured sleepily.

She buried her head deeper into her soft pillow.

A few walls away, completely unaware that the absurd mistake committed by Subaru—a dimensional anomaly in human form—had just saved both her life and her mind, Kiana drifted into the deepest, most peaceful, nightmare-free sleep she had experienced in weeks.

___________________

The hour of reckoning had arrived for St. Freya Academy.

The past two days had been nothing but an endless period of waiting, one in which even breathing seemed burdensome. Not even Himeko's harsh training sessions had been enough to dispel the gloomy atmosphere hanging over the students. And when, on Saturday morning, the engines of a massive gold-and-white Schicksal flagship echoed across the sky as it descended over the Academy, everyone knew what was coming.

The assembly grounds were packed just as they had been two days earlier. Every Valkyrie student stood in perfect military formation, but this time not a single sound could be heard. The air was filled with that suffocating, electric silence that comes before a storm.

At the front, directly opposite the landing platform where the ship would arrive, stood Principal Theresa. She wore her formal Schicksal commander’s uniform, her face as expressionless as carved stone. Himeko stood to her right, while to her left stood Welt Yang, present as a diplomatic “guest” despite being the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy.

Subaru stood among his class behind Kiana, Mei, and Bronya. His eyes were so focused they nearly watered, his shoulders drawn inward as much as possible. He was quite literally trying to become invisible within the crowd. His gaze was locked onto the ship’s opening ramp. His heart pounded against his ribcage. Acheron was nowhere to be seen; true to her word, she had blended into the Academy’s shadows, lying in wait like an invisible blade.

The massive ramp slowly descended with a mechanical hiss. The cold air spilling out from inside made the tension in the courtyard even heavier.

First, an elegant silhouette appeared at the end of the ramp.

A woman stepped forward wearing a flawless maid outfit. Part of her short brown hair was styled to cover her left eye. A polite yet dangerous smile rested on her face. In her right hand, she casually carried a deadly scythe nearly as tall as she was, as though it were nothing more than an umbrella.

Schicksal’s S-Rank Valkyrie, Rita Rossweisse.

Her footsteps were so quiet that it seemed gravity itself had no effect on her.

Yet the second figure to emerge from the ship immediately afterward caused every Valkyrie student—and even Himeko and Theresa—to hold their breath.

A woman with long golden hair cascading down her back stepped forward, clad in a gleaming, heavy, highly advanced Valkyrie battlesuit. Her eyes were as blue and emotionless as a stormy ocean.

She stood like a statue—so upright, so perfect, so unshakable that her mere presence caused the Honkai energy in the air to tremble.

Schicksal’s strongest sword, the invincible Valkyrie:

Durandal (Bianka Ataegina).

Durandal and Rita moved to either side of the ramp and respectfully stood aside, opening a path for the Archbishop.

And finally... he emerged from the darkness.

Subaru narrowed his eyes.

Deep down, he had expected the world’s most dangerous five-hundred-year-old dictator to look like some gigantic demonic monster radiating a sinister aura.

Instead, the man before him was both a disappointment and somehow even more terrifying.

He was tall and extraordinarily handsome, dressed in a perfectly tailored white suit. His golden hair was tied back into a ponytail. A warm, gentle smile rested on his face, one capable of putting anyone at ease. His emerald-green eyes sparkled with intelligence and curiosity.

From outward appearances, he resembled a charismatic philanthropist far more than a dangerous dictator.

But Subaru could see the way Welt and Theresa had frozen the moment they saw him.

He could see the deep hatred burning in Welt’s eyes.

That was what made him truly terrifying.

This was Otto Apocalypse—the man who committed his greatest atrocities while wearing that angelic smile.

Otto descended the ramp with calm, measured steps. Durandal and Rita followed silently behind him.

As he approached the podium, his gaze swept across the gathered students.

Subaru swallowed.

His stomach twisted into knots.

*This guy?* he thought in horror.

*After all the scenarios I imagined... this refined, elegant-looking man is the one who did those things to Kiana? This is the psychopath who rules the world?*

And then another realization struck him like a hammer.

*Dear God... I called this perfectly polished man a whining merchant who wets himself in front of hundreds of people. If he ever finds out, he'll dissect me down to my molecules!*

“My beloved granddaughter,” Otto said.

His voice was as smooth as silk, clear and charismatic enough to fill the entire courtyard without the aid of microphones.

He spread his arms toward Theresa as though preparing to embrace her.

“Seeing that you have managed St. Freya so wonderfully as always fills me with pride. Thank you for this magnificent welcome.”

Theresa’s eye twitched, but her official expression never cracked.

She offered a formal Schicksal salute.

“Welcome to our Academy, Archbishop. It is also an honor to host your knights, Durandal and Rita.”

Otto’s green eyes shifted from Theresa and immediately found Welt Yang.

The gentle smile on his face did not change by even a fraction, but the tension in the air multiplied tenfold.

“Ah, my friend Welt,” Otto said cheerfully, as though greeting an old neighborhood companion. “What a pleasant surprise to find you here. Has the esteemed Sovereign of Anti-Entropy grown nostalgic for our Academy’s atmosphere?”

Welt never removed his hands from his pockets.

His gaze remained locked onto Otto.

“I simply enjoy observing the growth of the younger generation, Otto. Some people still struggle to understand that the future is being raised here—not inside their laboratories.”

Otto chuckled softly.

Even that sound was enough to send chills down Subaru’s spine.

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. The future certainly lies here.”

Then Otto slowly turned toward the assembled students.

His gaze lingered briefly on the trio of Herrschers standing near the front—Kiana, Mei, and Bronya.

Subaru could see Kiana clenching her teeth and Mei stiffening beside her.

The moment Otto’s piercing green eyes met Subaru’s from behind Kiana, Subaru felt his heart stop for an instant.

Otto’s gaze lingered on him for only a fraction of a second.

No emotion changed within those emerald eyes.

The flawless smile never moved.

Yet during that single glance, Subaru felt as though his soul had been X-rayed and every dark corner of his mind examined.

Those eyes were not looking at a human being.

They were observing a potential test subject.

And at that very same moment, deep within Kiana’s mind...

Sirin was awake.

Her golden eyes were locked directly onto Otto Apocalypse from the darkness.

Yet the maddening screams of hatred Kiana had expected—the desire to burn the world itself—were not attempting to seize control of her mind this time.

Because as Sirin looked upon Otto’s arrogant and flawless face, she involuntarily remembered the words Subaru had shouted in panic two nights earlier.

Over Otto’s elegant image, her mind kept superimposing the ridiculous vision of a pitiful green-haired merchant wearing a gray hat, clutching a ledger, and crying in fear of a dog.

The hatred was still there.

Yes, it was as deep as an ocean.

But the seed of absurdity Subaru had planted had become a strange, tragicomic barrier that prevented Sirin’s rage from swallowing Kiana’s consciousness.

Sirin seethed internally at the situation, yet at the same time she could not deny the twisted satisfaction she felt knowing that this man’s name had become associated with “that whining coward who wets himself.”

“Well then,” Otto said, clapping his hands together and drawing everyone’s attention back to him.

“Let us set formalities aside. After all, I did not come here merely to inspect paperwork. I am eager to personally witness the potential of the Academy’s talented students and, of course... its new talents.”

The subtle emphasis Otto placed on the words “new talents” sent ice through the veins of both Welt and Theresa.

The game had begun.

And in a game where Otto Apocalypse wrote the rules, survival had never been easy.

__________________

The freezing silence hanging over the courtyard was broken once more by the polite smile resting on Otto's lips. As his emerald-green eyes swept across the crowd, they paused for a brief moment on Subaru's position.

“St. Freya is as radiant as ever,” Otto said, his voice filling the entire courtyard with a comforting yet unmistakably artificial warmth. Then he slowly stepped forward toward the row where Subaru stood. Durandal and Rita followed silently behind him.

Otto stopped only a few steps away from the trembling Subaru. Wearing that angelic smile, he looked directly into the boy's eyes.

“You must be Mr. Subaru Natsuki,” Otto said smoothly. “According to the reports I have received, you seem to have some rather... unique opinions about me. I heard you think I am a ‘little brat.’ Furthermore, it seems I am supposedly afraid of dogs and wet myself?”

Kiana held her breath.

Theresa froze on the podium.

Welt's hand clenched slightly inside his pocket.

Meanwhile, hidden within the shadows, Acheron had silently focused on the artery in Otto's neck; one wrong move and the courtyard would become a sea of blood.

The moment Subaru realized his death sentence was being read aloud, his survival instincts took over. He stepped forward and words poured out of his mouth like machine-gun fire.

“Y-Your Eminence, Archbishop! I swear it was all a huge misunderstanding!” Subaru shouted, drenched in cold sweat. “Back in my old world, there was a merchant named Otto! Green hair, gray hat, a total coward! At the slightest sign of danger he'd hide behind me and start crying! When Principal Theresa said your name so seriously, my idiot brain accidentally imagined that merchant and spoke out loud! It had absolutely nothing to do with a magnificent, charismatic, and exalted leader like you! You and that cowardly merchant are worlds apart!”

Subaru's panicked explanation echoed across the courtyard.

Otto's eyes narrowed slightly.

His mind performed millions of calculations in an instant, analyzing everything from the boy's micro-expressions to his heartbeat.

The conclusion was immediate:

This child was not lying.

He truly was an idiot.

Yet the moment Kiana's mind overlaid the image of a crying merchant in a gray hat onto Otto's dignified appearance, she involuntarily let out a loud “Pfft!” through her nose. She immediately covered her mouth with both hands, her face turning bright red as she struggled not to laugh.

Even Sirin, deep within her mind, had momentarily forgotten to unleash her rage in the face of such absurdity.

When Otto noticed Kiana's reaction, the flawless mask on his face loosened ever so slightly.

A graceful, genuine laugh escaped him.

“Hahaha... so, a merchant who wets himself,” Otto said, shaking his head. “Long live, child. That was the most creative insult I've received in five hundred years. I only hope my namesake is as successful in his investments as I have been.”

Subaru's knees nearly gave out beneath him.

He had survived.

Turning away, Otto walked back toward Theresa and Welt.

“Well then, let us not disrupt this beautiful morning any further,” he said, lightly clapping his hands together. “The students' education is Schicksal's future. My presence should not interfere with your daily routine. Everyone may return to their classes and training.”

Then he turned toward Theresa and smiled.

“Theresa, my dear. Welt, my friend. I trust you can offer an old man a cup of tea? We have much to discuss.”

Theresa responded with a formal salute.

As the Valkyries gradually dispersed, the weight of Otto's frightening yet strangely gentle aura lingered over everyone.

### Tea Time and the Silent War

Half an hour later, a three-way chess match was unfolding inside Principal Theresa's office.

Theresa sat at one end of the table. Welt Yang sat at the other.

Between them sat Otto Apocalypse, gracefully sipping tea from a porcelain cup that Rita had served moments earlier before leaving the room.

“The atmosphere at St. Freya truly is refreshing,” Otto remarked, gently setting his cup back onto its saucer. “However, a few... details have not escaped my notice. In particular, that foreign boy and the long-sword-wielding woman hiding in the shadows.”

Welt adjusted his glasses slightly.

“They are our guests, Otto. St. Freya does not close its doors to those who need help.”

“Of course it doesn't,” Otto agreed with a saintly smile. “However, the way space-time bends around that woman does not correspond to any Honkai reaction recorded in Schicksal's databases. And that boy called Subaru... He possesses neither a Stigmata nor any measurable Honkai resistance, yet he is capable of remaining near Kiana—a Herrscher. Scientifically speaking, that is fascinating.”

Theresa folded her hands atop the table.

Her voice carried a warning.

“Grandfather. They are under my protection. They are members of St. Freya. I will not allow you to drag them to Headquarters and turn them into laboratory subjects.”

The soft expression on Otto's face did not change by even a millimeter.

Raising both hands in a gesture of surrender, he smiled.

“Ah, my dear granddaughter. You always insist on seeing me as that cold scientist from the past. I am merely concerned about Schicksal's security. If remaining here keeps them—and Kiana—safe, then I will respect your decision. After all, education is more important than anything else.”

Welt disliked how easily Otto had retreated.

Because Otto Apocalypse never retreated.

He simply hid his next move within the shadows.

Later that evening, inside a secret Schicksal communications facility just outside St. Freya, Otto Apocalypse stood before a wall of enormous monitors with his hands clasped behind his back.

Two figures knelt behind him, awaiting his orders.

“Durandal. Rita,” Otto said.

Gone was the gentle grandfather from the tea table.

His voice now carried the cold authority of an absolute ruler.

“Your orders, Archbishop,” Durandal replied without raising her head.

“We will be making a few minor adjustments to our plans,” Otto began.

His eyes were fixed upon a blurry security-camera image of Acheron displayed on one of the monitors.

“Bianka. Kiana Kaslana's development has reached a critical stage. However, that foreign woman... Acheron... is a variable I cannot calculate. Your task is to observe both Kiana and that woman from a distance. Do not interfere with their daily lives. Do not reveal yourself.”

Slowly, Otto turned toward Durandal.

“However, I want every moment in which Acheron draws her sword recorded. Every frequency of energy she uses. If we are ever forced to confront her, I do not intend for Schicksal's strongest sword to be caught unprepared.”

“Understood, Archbishop,” Durandal answered with a warrior's dignity. “I will keep my eyes on them.”

This time Otto turned toward the maid whose elegant smile never seemed to disappear.

“And my dear Rita... your assignment will require somewhat more subtlety.”

Rita tilted her head slightly.

“As you wish, my lord.”

“That boy called Subaru Natsuki,” Otto said, dangerous curiosity glimmering within his green eyes. “He plays the fool remarkably well. Perhaps he truly is a fool. Yet he changes the fate of everyone around him. A cosmic being like Acheron protects him. A ticking time bomb like Kiana grows calmer in his presence. There is no place for such an anomaly within Schicksal's archives.”

Otto stepped closer to Rita.

“Become his shadow, Rita. Breathe the same air he does. Learn what he eats, what he drinks, whom he speaks to when alone, and how someone with such an ordinary body manages to survive. Do not frighten him. If necessary, approach him as a friend. Infiltrate the depths of his mind. I want his secret.”

Rita Rossweisse slowly rose to her feet.

She performed a flawless curtsy.

“Do not worry, Archbishop. I shall take a very close interest in St. Freya's newest guest. I can assure you that all of his secrets will be presented to you on a silver platter.”

Otto smiled.

The game was only beginning.

While St. Freya Academy believed life had returned to normal, Otto had already begun weaving his web into even its smallest and most hidden corners.

______________

The sun was slowly setting over the isolated training grounds behind St. Freya Academy, painting the sky crimson.

This special training facility was equipped with Anti-Entropy technology and was generally reserved for simulations that could cause severe damage. At the center of the room stood Natsuki Subaru, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, throwing himself to the floor to narrowly avoid a holographic Knight-class Honkai beast lunging toward him.

“Hah... Hah... My timing... was terrible!” Subaru shouted as he rolled across the ground and staggered back to his feet. His legs were trembling.

Standing at the control panel in the corner of the room, Welt Yang adjusted his glasses slightly and stopped the holographic monster with a single button press. The blue pixels scattered into the air and vanished.

“Your timing wasn't bad, Subaru,” Welt said in his usual calm, analytical tone. “However, your movements are still far too human. A Honkai beast doesn't use gravity and mass the way a normal animal does. Still... it felt as though you sensed its final attack seconds before it even began. Your instincts far exceed your physical capabilities.”

Subaru forced a bitter smile and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

If you'd spent your life running from giant flying whales, invisible hands, and lunatics who enjoyed disemboweling people, your instincts would improve too, Welt-sensei, he thought.

Out loud, however, he simply said, “Let's just call it luck.”

Welt already knew Subaru would never reach Valkyrie-level combat ability. His Honkai adaptability was zero, and he possessed no Stigmata. The purpose of these lessons was not to turn Subaru into a warrior—it was to turn him into a survivor. Welt was trying to forge the boy's inexplicable foresight and unbreakable will into a tactical shield.

Just as Welt began saying, “We'll do another round. This time, multiple targets—”

The heavy steel door opened with a level of elegance completely unsuited to armored machinery.

A fresh, expensive scent of roses drifted into the room, cutting through the smell of sweat and ozone.

“My, my...”

The silky, polite voice sent a chill down Subaru's spine.

Standing in the doorway was Rita Rossweisse, carrying a silver tray with two steaming cups of tea and neatly folded white towels. Not a single speck of dust could be found on her flawless maid uniform. The gentle smile beneath her half-lidded eyes seemed less like a source of light and more like something that stretched the shadows.

“I thought you might appreciate some refreshment after such strenuous training,” Rita said as she glided into the room.

Subaru swallowed hard.

Every danger alarm in his brain was screaming.

There was something in Rita's elegant movements that reminded him of Elsa Granhiert—the Bowel Hunter. He felt as though this woman could wipe out an army using nothing but the tea tray in her hands.

Welt narrowed his eyes slightly and folded his arms.

“It seems Schicksal's maids enjoy a very flexible work schedule at St. Freya,” he remarked.

The politeness in his voice could not hide the warning beneath it.

What are you doing here?

“Archbishop Otto personally ordered that all guests of the Academy be treated with the utmost hospitality, Lord Welt,” Rita replied as she placed the tray on a nearby table. “Besides... Bay Subaru's determination has become quite famous, even at Headquarters. Watching him train is an honor.”

She turned toward Subaru.

Taking one of the white towels, she gracefully held it out toward him.

“Please, Bay Subaru. You're soaked in sweat.”

Subaru wanted to step back.

His legs refused to obey.

He accepted the towel with a trembling hand.

“T-Thank you, Rita-san. You didn't have to trouble yourself.”

“It's no trouble at all.”

Rita took another step closer.

Because of their height difference, she leaned forward slightly. Through the brown hair covering one eye, she stared directly into Subaru's eyes.

“You truly are fascinating, Bay Subaru. I watched your simulation just now. A body completely vulnerable to Honkai energy finding the blind spot of a Knight-class beast within fractions of a second... It is almost as though you've experienced how that creature would kill you before.”

Subaru's breath caught in his throat.

This woman... had she already begun to understand the psychology behind Return by Death after observing him for barely a minute?

Panicking, Subaru stepped back and forced his usual exaggerated idiot grin onto his face.

“A-Ahahaha! Experienced it? No way! I'm just really good at running away! Back in my old world I had to run from really angry dogs and giant flying rabbits! It's all survival instinct! Pure panic! Nothing more than that!”

The smile on Rita's lips widened by a fraction.

“Giant flying rabbits? What a wonderfully vivid imagination. However, your body language... even while trembling with fear, your eyes never lose that stubborn light. It tells me you're far more than a simple escape artist.”

Rita gently reached out and brushed an imaginary speck of dust from Subaru's collar.

Her fingertips lightly grazed his neck.

Subaru felt as though those fingers were every bit as dangerous as the scythe she carried.

“If you ever reach the limits of your abilities... or your luck... Headquarters will always welcome you, Bay Subaru. We could provide you with much more special training there.”

“Rita.”

This time Welt's voice carried enough weight to shake the room.

The gravity within the chamber seemed to increase instantly. The edges of Rita's clothing tugged downward.

Welt stepped between them.

“Thank you for the tea and towels. However, Subaru's training is not yet finished. I am personally responsible for his education. He has no need for Schicksal's ‘special’ training.”

Despite the pressure weighing down upon her, Rita lost none of her elegance.

She performed a perfect curtsy.

“As you wish, Lord Welt,” she said. “I merely wished to help. In that case, I shall leave you to your training.”

She headed toward the door.

Just before leaving, she glanced back over her shoulder at Subaru.

“Drink your tea before it grows cold, Bay Subaru. And be careful when walking through the corridors at night... the shadows of St. Freya can sometimes become very cold.”

The door closed with the same quiet elegance.

Slowly, the suffocating scent of roses faded from the room.

Subaru collapsed onto the floor and sat cross-legged, taking deep breaths.

“Sensei...” he muttered, burying his face in his hands. “That woman feels even scarier than Otto. She was looking at me like I was some kind of insect under a microscope.”

Welt shot a dark look at the cooling tea cups before returning to the control panel.

“You're not wrong. Otto plays chess from the head of the board. But Rita Rossweisse is the most silent and deadly piece on that board,” Welt said seriously. “She's suspicious of you. Otto is becoming more interested in the irrationality of your existence than in Kiana herself. They'll try to provoke you. They'll try to get inside your head.”

Subaru swallowed.

“What am I supposed to do? Acheron can't always be around.”

“Keep acting like a fool,” Welt answered immediately. “Just like you did earlier. That story about giant flying rabbits was absurd, which makes it an excellent defense. Don't give her any consistent data she can analyze. The more irrational and unpredictable you appear, the more Schicksal's perfect analytical machinery will malfunction.”

Subaru laughed bitterly.

“So my strategy for survival is to continue being the world's biggest idiot? That's actually my specialty.”

A faint smile appeared on Welt's face, though the concern in his eyes remained.

“Just make sure you aren't alone too often, Subaru. Especially at night.”

Subaru nodded.

Yet the chill inside him remained.

The ghostly sensation left on his neck by Rita Rossweisse's fingertips was proof enough that the danger no longer came from some distant Headquarters.

It now walked the very same corridors he did.

The Archbishop had made his move.

And Subaru had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to escape the web woven by that flawless maid.

________________

While Subaru and Welt were enduring their tense tea session, an entirely different kind of storm was unfolding on St. Freya's largest outdoor training ground.

This storm, however, had neither sound nor wind.

Kiana, Mei, and Bronya were kneeling on the dusty training field, breathing heavily. All three wore their combat armor. Smoke drifted from the barrels of Project Bunny floating behind Bronya, Kiana's twin pistols were nearly slipping from her trembling hands, and Mei was using her sword as support just to remain standing.

Only ten steps away from them stood Acheron.

There was not a single speck of dust on her. Her breathing was as calm as if she had merely gone for a walk. She had not even drawn her long sword. Instead, she simply rested the tip of its sheath lightly against the ground. Her melancholic eyes held neither judgment nor arrogance as she looked upon the three exhausted girls.

And at the edge of the field, in the front row of the surrounding stands, stood another observer: Durandal.

The strongest blade of Schicksal had come to observe Acheron under Archbishop Otto's orders. Unlike Rita, however, Bianka Ataegina had no intention of hiding in the shadows. Wearing her magnificent golden armor, she stood proudly beneath the sun with her arms folded. She was not trying to steal information like a spy, nor was she concealing her intentions. She had come as a warrior to witness the battle of the strong.

Kiana blew away the white bangs stuck to her forehead with sweat and glared toward the stands.

“That golden-armored woman is getting on my nerves. Why has she been staring at us all day?”

Without turning her head, Acheron cast the faintest glance toward Durandal.

“You cannot close the eyes of someone who wishes to see, Kiana. Let her watch. Does a river care about the stone standing on its bank as it flows?”

Acheron lifted her sword sheath from the ground. That simple movement alone changed the pressure in the air.

“Again.”

Bronya inhaled deeply. The emotionless expression in her eyes sharpened into pure calculation.

“Project Bunny, switch to heavy artillery mode. Ninety-eight percent of all possible escape angles around the target will be blocked. Fire.”

A deafening barrage erupted. Shells and lasers flooded the training field. Bronya had mathematically calculated every possible route Acheron could take and sealed them beneath intersecting fire.

Acheron did not move.

She merely closed her eyes slightly.

Just before the lasers and shells struck her, she shifted her right foot a single step to the side.

Then she lowered her left shoulder slightly.

That was all.

The massive beams and missiles passed harmlessly around her, as though space itself had bent around her position, before detonating against the barriers behind her.

Durandal's blue eyes widened.

Impossible.

She didn't use any Honkai energy. She didn't slow time. She simply moved as though she already knew the attacks would pass there—not by predicting them, but by ignoring them.

“Your calculations are flawless, Bronya,” Acheron said as she emerged from the smoke. “However, battle is not an equation. If you rely only on numbers, you will lose yourself within infinity. You cannot calculate nothingness.”

“My turn!” Kiana roared.

Driven by the frustration and tension she had been carrying all day, she launched herself forward. Pouring all her strength into her legs, she leaped high into the air and swung a deadly kick while wielding her pistols like blades.

“Neko-Charm!”

Kiana's speed and raw power were extraordinary.

Yet Acheron simply raised her sheath.

The motion was so slow that Kiana thought she could retreat before it connected.

She could not.

The sheath touched Kiana's leg at precisely the dead point of her attack.

There was no force.

No impact.

Only a subtle redirection that stole all of Kiana's momentum and spun her around.

The next moment, Kiana crashed face-first into the dirt.

“Your enemy is not outside of you, Kiana,” Acheron said softly.

As she walked past, she paused.

“You are angry at the darkness within yourself. You tighten your muscles and hold your breath in order to suppress it. Fear is dulling your blade. If you fight the storm inside, you will be defeated by the wind outside. Accept it. That darkness is part of you, and you are part of it.”

Kiana clenched her teeth against the ground.

Acheron's words cut into her soul like a scalpel because she knew they were true.

At that moment, lightning split the air.

Mei appeared in Acheron's blind spot with incredible speed. Her katana crackled with pure electrical energy. As a swordswoman, Mei's technique and discipline far surpassed Kiana's. Her blade cut through the air directly toward Acheron's neck.

Without turning, Acheron swung her sheath backward.

CLANG!

The instant their weapons collided, a shockwave burst across the field.

Painful numbness spread from Mei's hands to her elbows.

The thing before her did not feel like flesh and blood.

It felt like the world itself.

Unshakable.

Unbendable.

Unsurpassable.

Acheron slowly turned her head and looked at Mei.

As their weapons remained locked, the melancholic crimson within Acheron's eyes pierced deep into Mei's soul.

For a brief moment, Mei saw dead stars, blood-red leaves, and endless emptiness reflected within those eyes.

Her breath caught.

“Your sword carries lightning, but no weight, Raiden Mei,” Acheron said as she effortlessly pushed Mei's blade aside with a gentle motion of her sheath. “You view the destructive power within you—the Herrscher of Thunder—as a curse. You fear using it. You fear hurting those you love. Because of that, you always hold your blade back.”

Mei stumbled backward, eyes wide.

“How...?”

“If you wish to grasp lightning, you must first accept being burned,” Acheron continued. Her voice carried the exhaustion of countless years.

“A blade drawn to protect cannot hesitate. If you hesitate, you will not only wound yourself—you will wound those standing behind you.”

The three Valkyries stood utterly defeated before Acheron.

Yet it was not a physical defeat.

It was the crushing weight of a spiritual lesson.

Acheron was teaching them not merely how to fight, but how to exist.

“That is enough for today,” she said, resting her sword against her back once more.

“When the body surrenders, the mind closes as well. Go rest. Think about how water flows.”

The girls slowly rose to their feet.

After bowing to Acheron with deep respect, they quietly departed. Bronya deactivated Project Bunny while Mei supported Kiana as they left the field.

Once they were gone, only two people remained within the vast arena.

Acheron turned her attention to the setting sun.

And Durandal descended from the stands.

Her armored footsteps rang steadily through the silence as she approached. She stopped roughly ten paces away from Acheron.

Between the two women hung an unspoken tension and mutual respect known only to warriors.

“It has been a long time since I witnessed swordsmanship of such perfection,” Durandal said. Her voice was open, clear, and honorable. “Schicksal's database contains records of countless martial masters. But what you demonstrated was not technique. It was as though you were bending the fabric of space itself.”

Acheron slowly turned toward her.

“If you swing a sword for hundreds of years, eventually you realize it is more than a piece of metal. It becomes an extension of your soul. And if your soul stares into darkness long enough... rules begin to lose meaning.”

Durandal clasped her hands behind her back.

“Archbishop Otto sent me here to observe you. I saw no reason to hide. Watching a warrior like you from the shadows would have been an insult.”

For the first time, a faint, sorrowful smile appeared upon Acheron's lips.

“An honorable warrior. That is a rare thing in your world.”

“Lady Acheron,” Durandal said, a subtle challenge entering her voice. “As a warrior, I would treasure the opportunity to cross blades with you in a true duel. I would like to witness the power hidden within that sheath.”

Instantly, the darkness returned to Acheron's gaze.

The light around them seemed to dim.

“You would not want that, Bianka Ataegina,” Acheron replied.

There was no threat in her voice.

Only cold truth.

“When that sword leaves its sheath, it cuts more than enemies. It cuts colors, sounds, and hope itself. My blade is not drawn for honorable duels. It is drawn for the end of worlds.”

Durandal swallowed.

For the first time in her life, her instincts urged her to step back.

The power before her surpassed Schicksal's technology and even the disasters caused by Herrschers.

This was not strength.

It was an ending.

“I understand,” Durandal said, lowering her head slightly.

Her respect had deepened further.

“Then I sincerely hope that sword never needs to be drawn. Not here. Not anywhere.”

“So do I,” Acheron whispered as she returned her gaze to the sunset.

“So do I.”

Knowing she had gathered all the information she realistically could, Durandal turned away.

As she left the training field, the report she would give Otto was already forming in her mind:

This woman is not a threat, Otto.

She is a natural disaster.

And fighting her would be no different than swinging a sword at a black hole.

______________________

When night fell over St. Freya Academy, the dormitory corridors finally sank into silence. However, there was not a trace of peace inside Subaru's room.

Subaru sat on his bed with his knees pulled against his chest, biting his nails and muttering to himself. The traumas of the day kept replaying in his mind like a broken film reel.

“That maid... that woman is definitely going to dissect me,” he muttered. “She was practically calculating the veins in my neck with her eyes. And Otto... that guy is a devil wearing an angel’s face. We only drank tea, but I swear it shaved ten years off my lifespan.”

In the corner of the room, Acheron sat cross-legged by the window, absentmindedly wiping the sheath of her sword. The room was illuminated only by moonlight streaming in from outside. There wasn’t the slightest trace of the day’s tension on her face.

“You’re overthinking it,” Acheron said. Her voice was calm, flat, and perfectly clear. “That maid, Rita. Her blade—or rather, her scythe—is sharp and dangerous. I saw her watching you too. If she offers you food, don’t eat it. That’s all.”

Subaru looked up and gave her a bitter smile.

“You really think it’s that simple? The woman practically materializes out of the shadows! I’m terrified that one day she’ll appear behind me while I’m in the bathroom!”

Acheron gently set her sword aside and turned her melancholic eyes toward him.

“Fear helps you survive. But if you don’t sleep, you won’t have the strength to run from that maid tomorrow. Close your eyes, Subaru.”

“And what if I go back to those dreams?” Subaru asked anxiously. “You know... that creepy place with all the purple cubes.”

“If you go there, you’ll find a way back,” Acheron replied with complete practicality. “I’ll be here. If a physical threat enters this room, my sword will stop it. Focus on resting.”

Those straightforward words, free of mystery or complication, reassured Subaru more than anything else. Unlike everyone else who turned everything into a tangled mess, Acheron saw only black and white.

Subaru took a deep breath and lay down.

“Alright... I trust you. Good night, Acheron.”

Acheron turned her head slightly toward the window and gazed at the stars outside.

“Good night.”

Subaru closed his eyes.

His exhaustion was so profound that within seconds his consciousness sank into darkness.

But once again, the peaceful, silent sleep he wanted betrayed him.

CRACK!

Subaru opened his eyes to the deafening sound of shattering glass.

An icy cold wrapped around his body.

When he blinked, instead of the warm ceiling of his dorm room, he found himself surrounded by gigantic purple geometric cubes slowly rotating in an endless sea of darkness.

“No... no, no, no! Again?!” Subaru shouted, springing upright.

There was no ground beneath him.

He was floating.

And directly ahead stood that familiar throne-like structure.

Upon it sat a girl whose eyes were literally burning with fury.

Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void.

She sat with one leg crossed over the other, resting her chin on one hand. Yet the mocking arrogance from their previous encounters was gone. What remained was pure, concentrated rage powerful enough to burn worlds. Space itself trembled around her, and violet lightning crackled between the cubes.

“You,” Sirin said.

Her voice echoed through the void like a thousand whispers and a roaring beast at once.

“You filthy, disgusting insect.”

Subaru immediately threw his hands into the air.

“W-Wait! I can explain! I swear I’m not doing this on purpose! My mental navigation system must be broken or something—I wasn’t trying to connect with Kiana!”

Sirin slowly rose to her feet.

With every step she took, invisible ground cracked apart, spreading crimson and violet fractures toward Subaru.

“THIS. IS. THE. THIRD. TIME.”

Each word shook the fabric of reality.

“Is my mind, my personal kingdom, some backyard for a weak, pathetic human bug like you to wander into whenever you feel bored?”

“Believe me, I’d rather sleep peacefully in my own bed too!” Subaru squealed as he tried to paddle backward through the air. “Besides, I have to get up early tomorrow! That psychopath Rita is watching me—”

“SHUT UP!”

Sirin violently waved her hand.

The void around Subaru shattered, and five colossal Spears of Space-Time materialized and shot directly toward him.

Subaru let out a horrified scream and dove downward through the air.

The spears narrowly grazed his shirt before detonating against an invisible wall behind him.

Spinning helplessly, Subaru crashed face-first onto one of the floating purple cubes.

“My nose!” he groaned.

But before he could complain further, he felt an icy breath at the back of his neck.

Sirin had teleported.

She was right behind him.

Her small white hand seized him by the collar and lifted him into the air. An invisible gravitational field locked his arms and legs in place.

He couldn’t breathe.

Her face was only centimeters away.

The evil and hatred in her golden eyes were more intense than anything Subaru had ever witnessed in reality. This was the hatred of a god who wished for humanity’s extinction.

“I’m starting to hate you almost as much as I hate that damned man, Otto,” Sirin hissed. “Every time you come here, you poison my thoughts with your absurd nonsense. Thanks to you, every time I see him, I imagine him wearing that stupid merchant hat! You won’t even let me enjoy my hatred properly anymore!”

“...S-Sorry... my comedic timing is terrible...” Subaru wheezed.

“I could tear you apart forever in the darkest corners of my mind,” Sirin said, tightening her grip around his throat. “I could drown you in your own suffering until you lose your sanity. Tell me, insect... why are you trembling? Are you afraid of this unstoppable power? Of this monster standing before you?”

The answer she wanted was obvious.

All her life, the people in Babylon Labs had treated her as a monster, a test subject. There was a twisted satisfaction in hearing humans call her a monster and beg for their lives.

Yet even as Subaru’s face turned purple and tears of fear streamed from his eyes, he gently reached up and placed a trembling hand on her wrist.

Not to push her away.

Not to fight back.

Simply to touch her.

“I’m scared,” Subaru admitted, his voice cracking. “I’m really... really scared of you. Scared enough to wet myself.”

Sirin smiled.

“Good. Then beg. Beg the monster for your life.”

“But...”

Subaru swallowed.

That stubborn, foolish, unbreakable light in his eyes pierced the darkness and reached her.

“I’m never going to call you a monster.”

Sirin’s smile froze.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“What did you just say?”

“You’re not a monster,” Subaru coughed. “You’re just... a girl who’s been hurt too much, is unbelievably angry, and has serious issues with personal boundaries.”

Sirin’s expression shifted rapidly between shock, fury, and complete confusion.

“Are you mocking me?! I’m a Herrscher! I have the power to destroy the world! I’m a catastrophe!”

“My world has catastrophes too,” Subaru said with a painful smile, thinking of Satella. “But behind even the worst disasters... there’s always a lonely little girl crying somewhere. So no... even if I’m terrified of you... I’m never calling you a monster, Kiana—I mean, Sirin.”

The words invaded Sirin’s mind like a virus.

She had spent her life being treated as a lab rat and a monster. This foolish boy, standing on the edge of death inside her own mind, stubbornly insisted on treating her like a human being.

It was so infuriating, so bewildering, that her murderous rage transformed into pure exhaustion.

“You...”

The golden pupils in her eyes twitched.

Her face turned red—not from murderous intent this time, but from sheer frustration.

“You are literally the most hopeless idiot in existence!”

Sirin abruptly released him and hurled him into the void.

As Subaru spun helplessly through the air, Sirin turned away and buried her hands in her hair.

“Go! Get out of my mind! And if you somehow end up here again the next time you fall asleep, I swear I’ll turn your brain into a microwave! NOW GET LOST!”

She snapped her fingers.

The frozen purple void shattered like glass.

“GAAAAAH!”

Subaru woke up screaming in his bed.

He was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

Immediately checking his neck, he sighed in relief when he confirmed that his airway was intact.

“A dream... okay, just a dream... or rather, a telepathic beating,” he muttered.

From the corner of the room came a calm voice.

“Your heartbeat increased. You’re sweating. Did you have a nightmare?”

Subaru turned his head and saw Acheron still sitting by the window exactly as before, watching the night sky.

Falling backward onto his bed, Subaru let out a long sigh.

“I was just trying to figure out how to reprogram my brain so I don’t accidentally become the guest of a very grumpy landlady with an identity crisis for the fourth time.”

Acheron slowly nodded.

“Dreams can be dangerous places. But when you wake up, you’re here. Go back to sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

Subaru couldn’t help but smile.

Sirin’s hatred and Otto’s schemes might be waiting for him outside, but right now, in this room, one of the strongest swordswomen in existence was quietly standing guard over him.

As he closed his eyes once more, he could only hope that this time he wouldn’t fall back into that endless purple void.

__________________

The second day had passed for St. Freya Academy as though everyone were walking on a thin sheet of ice.

On the surface, everything seemed normal. Valkyries continued their training, class bells rang, and laughter echoed through the cafeteria. Yet in the shadows, the gleam of Durandal’s golden armor and Rita’s flawless, silent footsteps were never far away. Otto, meanwhile, had spent most of the day dealing with paperwork and had rarely left his office.

But amid this “normal” routine, one person was slowly falling apart: Kiana.

Throughout the entire day, she barely spoke a word. In class, she stared into empty space. During training, she destroyed targets with far more brutality than usual, reducing them to pieces. Deep within her mind, Sirin was no longer merely screaming. Every second that Otto breathed the same air as her, Sirin’s hatred flowed through Kiana’s nervous system like corrosive poison. The white walls of Babylon Labs, the cold snow, the syringes, and the cries of little girls calling for their mothers echoed endlessly in her ears.

And when evening came, the inevitable moment arrived.

In honor of Archbishop Otto’s final night at the Academy, a special dinner was held in the luxurious dining hall on the top floor of the administration building. Under normal circumstances, only Theresa, Welt, Himeko, Otto, Durandal, and Rita would have attended. However, with his angelic smile, Otto had requested that the “special students” and the “mysterious guests” join them as well. Refusing him was impossible.

The silence around the massive mahogany table was so oppressive that even the clinking of silverware sounded deafening.

Otto sat at the head of the table. Durandal was seated on his right, while Rita stood beside him serving the guests.

Theresa, Himeko, and Welt occupied one side. Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Subaru, and Acheron sat on the other. Kiana sat almost directly across from Otto. Subaru was beside her, and Acheron sat next to Subaru.

Acheron had barely touched her meal, taking only a sip of water. Her shoulders were relaxed, her gaze lost in that familiar melancholic emptiness. Yet Subaru knew she could hear every heartbeat in the room.

“The food is excellent,” Otto remarked, shattering the silence like a crystal glass. Gracefully cutting a piece of steak, he smiled. “St. Freya’s chefs rival even those at Headquarters. Don’t you agree, Kiana?”

The fork in Kiana’s hand froze.

Slowly, she lifted her head. Dark circles stained the skin beneath her eyes.

A grandfatherly warmth appeared in Otto’s eyes, but the poison in his voice was aimed precisely at her.

“You seemed very distracted today, my dear granddaughter. You look pale. Could it be that certain ghosts from the past are keeping you awake at night? Schicksal’s medical technology can suppress any unpleasant dreams. All you need to do is ask.”

Those words became the final drop that shattered Kiana’s restraint.

Babylon.

Experiments.

Mom... I want my mom...

Kiana’s breathing accelerated.

Her fingers clenched the fork so tightly that the metal bent with an audible creak.

And in that instant, one of her ocean-blue eyes trembled and transformed into a glowing, demonic gold.

The atmospheric pressure in the room dropped.

The water in every glass began to tremble.

Himeko flinched, her hand instinctively moving beneath the table toward where a weapon might be. Welt’s eyes widened. Sirin was about to tear through Kiana’s consciousness, emerge into reality, and reduce the table, the room, the academy, and the smiling man before her into atoms.

And then—

“I’M BURNING! AAAAAH, I’M BURNING!”

The absurd scream exploded through the dining hall.

Everyone jumped.

Subaru Natsuki had leapt to his feet, knocking over his chair and “accidentally” spilling a cup of hot tea all over his lap and shirt. He flailed dramatically, tugging at his clothes and hopping around while making ridiculous noises of agony.

The sudden chaos sliced through the Herrscher aura like a knife.

Everyone’s attention snapped to Subaru.

Even Kiana instinctively looked toward him in shock, and the golden glow in her eye faded back to blue.

Yet nobody—not even Welt—knew what had truly happened.

When Subaru had bumped lightly into Kiana, he had activated the Authority hidden deep within his soul:

Cor Leonis, the Little King.

The ability that allowed him to shoulder the physical and emotional burdens of his allies.

The instant it activated, it felt as though a meteor had struck Subaru’s soul.

Only half of Sirin’s rage entered him, yet it nearly crushed him.

Thousands of icy needles seemed to pierce his chest.

The despair of the children who died in Babylon Labs.

The cold floors.

The humiliation of being dissected like a laboratory animal.

And above all else... that endless, world-burning hatred directed toward Otto Apocalypse.

Subaru nearly vomited.

Not from the hot tea.

But from the unimaginable pain flooding his spirit.

“Ah! S-Sorry, I’m so clumsy!” Subaru stammered with a forced grin as he righted his chair and sat down again.

His face was white as paper.

Cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

Still, he kept acting.

“My elbow slipped... sorry about that.”

Acheron immediately noticed the terrifying pallor on Subaru’s face and the subtle tremor in his hands.

Without changing her expression, she silently offered him a black silk handkerchief from her pocket.

Subaru accepted it and wiped at his soaked shirt with shaking fingers.

The atmosphere seemed to normalize.

Himeko exhaled deeply.

Theresa wiped sweat from her brow.

But Otto Apocalypse’s emerald eyes narrowed dangerously.

His five-hundred-year-old genius mind had instantly noticed how the Honkai energy in the room had suddenly been cut in half—and how this seemingly powerless boy had somehow caused it.

The child had absorbed it.

Or connected himself to it.

A twisted mixture of admiration and cruelty appeared in Otto’s gaze.

If you can share burdens, he thought, then let us see how much you can carry.

Otto dabbed his lips with a napkin.

Then he put on his most charismatic, most savior-like expression and began speaking.

“You know...” he said, injecting his voice with philosophical melancholy, “watching St. Freya’s brilliant students today reminded me of how heavy our responsibilities truly are. We are the ones who must make the hardest decisions... for humanity.”

Kiana’s breathing faltered.

Beneath the table, Subaru’s hand clenched into a fist as Sirin’s hatred continued crashing into him through Cor Leonis.

“Sometimes,” Otto continued, deliberately locking eyes with Kiana, “certain events from the past may appear cruel from an outside perspective. Certain losses may occur. Yet we must remember that every tear shed for humanity strengthens the foundations of the future. Sometimes a few people must disappear into darkness so that billions may stand beneath the sun.”

Sirin was tearing through her chains.

Kiana began trembling.

She drove the fork into her own palm so deeply that blood pooled in her hand, yet she could no longer feel pain.

Subaru was suffering the same fate.

Through Cor Leonis, he experienced every ounce of Kiana’s fury.

Combined with his own traumas—being disemboweled by Elsa, dying in Rem’s arms, being devoured alive by rabbits—the result was a nightmare beyond words.

His own fork dug into his palm until Acheron’s handkerchief was stained red with blood.

“We,” Otto whispered, his voice becoming silk, “must never forget their sacrifices. Those little angels who drew their final breaths in those cold laboratories for the sake of humanity’s evolution... they are the hidden heroes of our victories. We are obligated to protect this beautiful world built upon their ashes.”

CRACK.

Kiana’s left eye turned gold once more.

Thin fractures spread across the wooden table.

Theresa opened her mouth in horror.

“Grandfather, enough!”

Welt placed his hand on the table, ready to unleash his Authority over gravity.

Durandal calmly listened to what Subaru said.

But before any of them could act, Subaru raised his head.

What stopped the bomb that was Kiana Kaslana was an indescribably cold aura emanating from Subaru himself.

His eyes were no longer those of a foolish, awkward boy.

His pupils had narrowed.

Darkness surrounded them.

His sanpaku eyes resembled bottomless pits.

Within them dwelled Sirin’s despair, the horror of his countless deaths, the scent of the Witch, and pure disgust.

Even Himeko, a veteran commander who had witnessed endless bloodshed, felt an icy chill crawl down her spine when she met Subaru’s gaze.

This was not the stare of a monster.

It was the stare of a man who had stared into hell itself over and over again.

Slowly, Subaru placed the fork down.

He set aside the blood-soaked handkerchief.

Everyone stared in shock.

Even Acheron had paused, her hand hovering near her sword.

And then Subaru spoke.

“‘For humanity,’” he repeated.

His voice was so hollow and cold that it seemed to extinguish the warmth of the fireplace itself.

Otto’s eyes widened slightly.

“‘For humanity,’ we took little girls away from their families,” Subaru said.

Each word struck like a scalpel.

“‘For humanity,’ we strapped them to cold tables. For humanity, we tortured them while they were awake, pumped poison into their veins, and watched their screams from behind glass walls.”

Kiana’s breath caught.

Within her mind, Sirin’s raging roar froze in place.

This boy...

How did he know?

How could he describe their suffering so perfectly?

________________

Subaru’s dark eyes locked directly onto Otto’s emerald gaze. It was as if he were staring into the deepest, darkest corridors of the man’s soul.

“‘For humanity,’ we stuffed the broken bodies of those children who died in experiments into black bags and threw them away like garbage,” Subaru continued. His voice gradually rose, pouring out the immense disgust festering inside him. “‘For humanity,’ we stole those girls’ lives, their futures, their laughter, and planted nothing but seeds of hatred in their hearts.”

Not a sound came from the table.

Theresa covered her mouth with both hands, tears streaming down her face. Welt’s fists had turned white. Even Rita’s flawless smile had vanished.

Subaru leaned forward slightly. The deadly darkness in his eyes shattered the false halo of sainthood surrounding Otto.

“And when those children, after suffering all that torture, unleashed the hatred you planted inside them upon the world… we called them ‘monsters,’ enemies of humanity. Then, when we fought those monsters we had created with our own hands, those souls we had shattered ourselves… we called ourselves humanity’s heroes.”

Pure, unfiltered disgust twisted across Subaru’s face.

“Disgusting,” he whispered.

That single word exploded through the dining hall like a bomb.

“If humanity can only be saved through the torture of little girls in laboratories… through children losing their families and friends and going mad in those cold facilities… through the bodies of innocent victims being discarded like trash…”

Subaru drew a deep breath and delivered his verdict.

“Then humanity does not deserve to be saved.”

A crushing silence descended upon the room.

Two tears slipped down Kiana’s cheeks.

For the first time, the being screaming within her mind no longer wanted to destroy the world. For the first time in her life, another human being had taken her pain, her ugly truth, and hurled it directly into the face of the monster who created it—not with power, but with words alone.

Otto Apocalypse had faced countless Herrschers, heroes, and idealists throughout his five centuries of life. Yet never had he witnessed an ordinary boy, one with neither sword nor power, tear apart his lofty philosophy so completely, so honestly, and so brutally.

The flawless mask on Otto’s face cracked ever so slightly.

The flawless mask on Otto’s face cracked ever so slightly.

At that exact moment, a faint mechanical click sounded beneath the table.

Durandal's hand moved instinctively.

Not out of blind anger.

Not because Subaru had insulted the Archbishop.

But because, for a brief moment, the atmosphere surrounding the boy had become something no warrior could safely ignore.

A threat.

An unknown.

Something that felt profoundly wrong.

Her fingers tightened around the shaft of her spear as countless combat calculations raced through her mind.

Then she felt it.

Acheron.

The woman had not moved.

Had not spoken.

Had not even looked in her direction.

Two fingers rested quietly against the table.

Nothing more.

Yet every instinct Durandal possessed screamed at her to stop.

The sensation was difficult to describe.

Not fear.

Not intimidation.

Certainty.

The absolute certainty that if violence erupted here, the consequences would be catastrophic.

A silent abyss stood between her and Subaru.

And that abyss wore the face of a quiet woman eating her meal.

Beneath the table, Otto raised a single finger.

Stop.

Durandal immediately relaxed her stance.

Not because she doubted herself.

Because she had already reached the same conclusion.

A fight now would achieve nothing.

Across the table, Subaru slowly withdrew the hellish darkness from his eyes.

The pressure suffocating the room faded.

He severed the Cor Leonis connection.

The invisible weight crushing everyone's hearts vanished alongside it.

Blood continued to drip from his injured palm.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Subaru paid it no attention.

The monstrous presence from moments earlier disappeared completely.

Once again, he looked like nothing more than a tired, wounded teenager.

Silence settled over the grand dining hall.

Heavy.

Oppressive.

The final words Subaru Natsuki had spoken lingered in the air.

"Then humanity does not deserve to be saved."

No one answered.

The crystal chandeliers above cast pale reflections across silver cutlery and untouched plates.

Even the servants seemed afraid to breathe.

Himeko stared quietly at the wineglass in her hand.

The crimson liquid trembled with faint ripples.

Across the table, Theresa sat frozen.

Her entire life had been devoted to protecting humanity.

Yet in a matter of minutes, Subaru had forced everyone present to confront questions none of them wished to answer.

Inside Kiana's mind, an unusual silence prevailed.

Even Sirin had nothing to say.

The Queen who had once cursed humanity more passionately than anyone found herself unable to dismiss the boy's words.

Because she could hear something beneath the anger.

Exhaustion.

Pain.

A despair so deep that even hatred seemed too small to contain it.

At the head of the table sat Otto Apocalypse.

For five hundred years, he had manipulated nations, heroes, and history itself.

He had always possessed an answer.

Always possessed a plan.

Yet now he simply watched the bloodstained handkerchief resting on the table.

His familiar smile was gone.

For the first time in a long while, Otto found himself facing something that could not be solved through intelligence, strategy, or manipulation.

A wound.

Not of the body.

But of the soul.

In the shadows behind him, Rita remained perfectly composed.

Only the faint creak of metal betrayed the pressure her fingers exerted upon the serving tray.

Durandal remained silent as well.

The outrage she initially felt had faded into uncertainty.

The terrifying darkness she had sensed earlier still lingered in her memory.

Yet the boy standing before her now looked less like a monster and more like someone carrying a burden no human being should have survived.

Ignoring the blood soaking the cloth wrapped around his hand, Subaru slowly pushed back his chair.

The sharp scrape echoed through the silent hall.

"Excuse me."

His voice sounded dry and exhausted.

Like someone who had not rested in years.

Without waiting for a response, he turned toward the door.

His shoulders sagged beneath an invisible weight.

The darkness that had shaken the room moments ago was gone.

Only a weary, broken boy remained.

Yet the instant his fingers touched the cold metal handle, Otto’s voice echoed through the room.

“Just a moment, Mr. Natsuki.”

Subaru stopped.

His hand remained on the handle, but he did not turn around.

His back faced the entire room.

Otto slowly rose to his feet.

Straightening his white-and-gold cloak, he clasped his hands behind his back.

The momentary crack in his composure had vanished.

The calculating sociopath who had manipulated the fates of billions for centuries now stood before them once more.

“Your words,” Otto said, his voice cutting through the room like a razor, “are the luxury of someone whose hands have never truly been stained with blood. The luxury of someone who has never faced the ugly reality of this world.”

“You mourn for a utopia that has not yet been built—and perhaps never can be built. But the foundation of every utopia is mixed with the corpses of innocents.”

He began walking slowly along the edge of the table.

The rhythm of his footsteps across the polished floor resembled the march of an execution squad.

“It is easy to judge me as a tyrant or a monster today. Because you never had to decide who must be thrown into the gears of the machine to stop the Honkai storm raging outside. You watched from afar. You never paid the cost.”

A poisonous smile appeared on Otto’s lips.

“But one day, Mr. Natsuki, that burden will rest upon your shoulders.”

“The scales of the world will be placed in your hands. On one side will stand those innocent little girls you cherish so dearly. On the other side, billions of lives and the survival of civilization itself.”

“And when the day comes that you must throw bodies into that machine with your own hands... when you are forced to make the same sacrifices you condemn today...”

His smile deepened.

“I will be very interested to see how quickly this honesty and innocence of yours begins to rot.”

The tension in the room became almost unbearable.

Welt tightened his grip on his cane.

Acheron’s gaze settled directly upon Otto’s throat.

She did not need to draw her blade.

A thought alone would have been enough.

Yet Subaru merely glanced back over his shoulder.

Otto expected fear.

He expected hesitation.

He expected a child crushed beneath the weight of his words.

Instead, Subaru’s dark sanpaku eyes contained only one thing:

Exhaustion.

Endless, immeasurable exhaustion.

Subaru had already held that terrible scale in his hands countless times.

He had chosen wrong.

He had listened to innocent people scream.

He had died beneath mountains of corpses.

Unlike Otto, he had paid the price himself—with his flesh, his mind, and a soul shattered hundreds of times.

“I already chose my own hell, Archbishop,” Subaru said quietly.

His voice sounded like the weary whisper of an old soldier who had lost every war.

“And unlike you...”

He looked directly at Otto.

“I don’t throw other people into the fire so I can survive the storm I created.”

“I jump into the fire myself.”

“I burn with my own hands.”

Subaru turned away.

Lowering the handle, he stepped into the dark corridor beyond.

When the heavy wooden door slammed shut behind him, Otto Apocalypse realized something he had never experienced before in his five hundred years of life.

For the first time, he had been completely—and irreversibly—defeated by a stranger whose darkness ran deeper than anything he could ever reach.

______________

When Subaru stepped out of the suffocating atmosphere of the dining hall and into the cold, empty corridors of St. Freya, illuminated only by emergency lights, all strength suddenly left his legs.

Even though he had completely severed the mental links created by Cor Leonis, the residue of the acidic hatred and pain leaking from Sirin’s soul had poisoned his already exhausted spirit. His heart pounded irregularly as if it wanted to burst through his chest, and the veins in his temples throbbed painfully.

He staggered forward several steps, pressing one hand against the cold concrete wall to keep his balance. Ragged breaths escaped his lips, but his chest felt trapped in a giant vise. The invisible burden on his shoulders had long surpassed what any ordinary human could carry, both physically and mentally. Phantom pains from past loops stabbed through his legs. His eyelids grew heavy as lead, the corridor spun around him, and his consciousness rapidly sank into darkness.

Yet just before he could collapse to the floor, the expected impact never came.

Instead, his cheek touched cold metal, followed by the softness of silky black fabric.

Acheron had caught him before he hit the ground.

With her usual impossible silence and incomprehensible speed, she had appeared in the corridor without anyone noticing. Subaru’s head rested against her shoulder, close to the sheath of her massive sword. The moment he felt the absolute stillness radiating from her, his frantic breathing slowed.

His mind finally gave out, and he fell into a deep, heavy unconscious sleep.

Acheron looked down at the completely defenseless boy sleeping against her shoulder.

There was no expression on her face, yet in the deepest part of her dark eyes lingered the melancholy of someone who had witnessed the end of worlds.

This child had stood against one of the most powerful and dangerous men alive for no personal gain—simply to ease the pain of a girl he barely knew.

Carefully, Acheron slipped one arm beneath Subaru’s knees and the other behind his back, lifting him as though he weighed nothing.

He was so exhausted that he did not even stir.

She carried him through the silent dormitories, placed him gently on his bed, removed his shoes, loosened his jacket, and pulled the blanket up to his chest.

That night, Acheron stood guard outside his room.

One hand never left the hilt of the sword capable of erasing existence itself.

No Schicksal spy or Anti-Entropy machine would pass through that doorway.

Yet even Acheron’s overwhelming power could only protect Subaru’s physical body.

His consciousness had already drifted elsewhere—into the darkest corners of his own mind.

Into the freezing dream realm of purple cubes.

---

When Subaru opened his eyes there, the dreamscape was far more unstable than before.

Cracks in space twisted violently. Purple lightning tore through endless darkness. Massive geometric cubes collided with deafening metallic crashes. Dense Honkai radiation filled the air, enough to melt an ordinary human's lungs.

Sirin was not sitting upon her throne.

She floated in the center of the void.

Dozens of dark-purple Void Spears orbited around her, each powerful enough to erase an entire city. Her long violet hair drifted weightlessly through the air, and her golden eyes burned with chaos, madness, and uncontrollable rage.

The instant Subaru appeared, Sirin launched herself toward him like a meteor.

She stopped only centimeters from his face.

The pressure alone sent shockwaves through his astral body.

“WHY?!” she screamed.

Her voice sounded like thousands of crystal glasses shattering at once.

“Why did you speak for me at that table?! Why did you throw my pain and my past into that man's face like a weapon?! Did you think I needed the broken words of a pathetic insect like you?!”

Subaru crossed his arms in front of his face to shield himself from the Honkai storm.

“I wasn’t speaking for you, Sirin!” he shouted back. “That man’s philosophy disgusted me! While you were carrying all that pain and loneliness, I couldn’t stand there and watch him pretend he was a hero who had done nothing wrong!”

“You’re lying!”

Every Void Spear instantly shifted direction, their tips aimed directly at his heart and head.

“You pitied me! You thought I was just a weak little girl crying for her mother in a laboratory corner! I am the Herrscher of the Void! I slaughtered millions! I burned cities! Why didn’t you call me a monster like everyone else?! Why don’t you hate me?!”

Subaru slowly lowered his guard.

Beyond the terrifying Herrscher, beyond the armor and divine power, he saw only a lonely child who had wanted to be loved.

“Because they never gave you another choice,” Subaru answered quietly.

“I’ll never justify what you did. You killed countless innocent people. There’s a price for that. You are a murderer.”

Sirin flinched.

“But I’ll never justify the world that turned you into one.”

His voice remained steady.

“The people who stripped away your childhood, your humanity, and your future on those cold experiment tables—they aren’t innocent either.”

“I can’t forgive you.”

“I’m not clean enough to judge you.”

“But I won’t leave you alone in that darkness.”

“I won’t let you face that man by yourself.”

The words struck Sirin harder than any weapon.

A Herrscher survived on hatred.

Humanity hated her.

She hated humanity.

That cycle defined her existence.

Yet Subaru was trying to tear that entire foundation apart.

Understanding.

Compassion.

A connection.

To Sirin, those things were more terrifying than death itself.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

She clutched her head and shook violently.

“I won’t fall for your cheap human lies! You think you're better than me! I’ll show you how selfish and pathetic humans really are!”

Sirin thrust her hand forward.

Dark Honkai energy erupted from her fingertips and crashed directly into Subaru’s consciousness.

“I’ll tear your mind apart! Let’s see if you can keep saying those heroic things once you drown in your own darkest memories!”

Subaru tried to escape.

He failed.

The wave swallowed him whole.

The moment it touched him, his consciousness collapsed.

Within the dream realm itself, he fell into an even deeper sleep.

His astral body drifted through the void like a puppet with cut strings.

And with a victorious, cruel smile, Sirin plunged directly into the deepest abyss of Subaru Natsuki’s mind.

__________________

Sirin landed heavily and arrogantly upon the foundation of Subaru's consciousness.

She had expected this layer of memories to consist of ordinary human traumas—perhaps a dog attack, severe bullying at school, or a few cruel words from parents. She intended to dig them up, throw them back in Subaru's face, and prove just how fragile and pathetic he truly was.

Instead, when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the middle of a blinding snowstorm.

This was Sanctuary.

The cold was so merciless that even a Herrscher's astral body trembled.

And the smell...

There was no Honkai in the air.

Only rust.

And stale blood.

Then a black silhouette emerged from the snow.

Subaru.

He was surrounded by thousands—tens of thousands—of small white rabbits.

At first glance they looked harmless.

Then they attacked.

A rabbit tore off his fingers.

Another gouged out his eye.

The scream that erupted from Subaru's throat was not a scream of pain. It was the sound of a soul being destroyed.

The rabbits ripped away his flesh, devoured him alive, tore apart his organs while his consciousness remained awake until the very last second.

"STOP! ENOUGH!" Sirin screamed.

She tried to summon her Void Spears.

She couldn't.

This was a fixed memory.

She could only watch.

The memory shattered.

Then came another.

A damp cave.

Rem's broken body.

Chains.

Blood.

Invisible black hands seized Subaru and smashed his skull against stone again and again.

The cracking sound of bone echoed through the darkness.

The memory shattered again.

Another death.

A giant frozen beast.

A world-ending blizzard.

Subaru's body froze solid before his head was torn clean from his shoulders.

His severed head rolled to Sirin's feet.

Death.

Pain.

Madness.

Betrayal.

Death again.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Countless Return by Death loops.

Sirin could barely breathe.

A powerless human enduring such endless suffering was impossible.

The laboratories of Babylon had been a nightmare.

But this...

This was an endless hell.

Subaru's soul had been shattered like glass again and again, only to be forced back together every single time.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Sirin screamed in panic.

But Subaru's consciousness did not release her.

The snowstorms, caves, and memories melted into black liquid.

And suddenly she stood within absolute darkness.

The Shadow Garden.

A place so ominous that even Honkai itself seemed afraid to touch it.

Whispers filled the void.

Millions.

Billions.

All speaking with one voice.

'I love you. I love you. I love you.'

For the first time in her life, Sirin felt her Herrscher Core tremble in terror.

Black shadow hands emerged from the darkness.

Then a silver-haired woman appeared.

The Witch of Envy.

Satella.

Her face was hidden behind a dark veil.

Yet the invisible pressure from her gaze felt capable of extinguishing entire galaxies.

A single shadow hand reached toward Sirin's core.

And Sirin screamed.

Not as a Herrscher.

Not as a queen.

But as a frightened fourteen-year-old girl.

--------------

"AAAAAAAH!"

Sirin was violently thrown back into the purple void. She crashed against the ground and curled into herself, trembling uncontrollably.Tears streamed from her golden eyes.

The invincible Queen was gone.

Only a terrified child remained.

Several meters away, Subaru slowly opened his eyes.

His head throbbed.

"S-Sirin...? What did you do?"

Then he saw her.

The fear.

The shaking.

The tears.

He immediately understood. She had entered the one place she should never have touched. Subaru stood and carefully approached her.

Sirin flinched the moment she heard his footsteps. She could no longer see him as a weak human. Inside that ordinary body existed an ancient will forged through endless death and suffering.

"You're insane..." Sirin whispered.

"Those memories... those monsters... that silver-haired woman... How are you still sane? How can you still save people after all that?"

Subaru stopped in front of her.

There was no hatred in his eyes.

Only understanding.

"I did go insane," Subaru admitted quietly.

"I broke countless times. I gave up countless times. But every time, someone reached out and pulled me back."

He extended his hand toward her.

"And now I'm doing the same for you."

SMACK!

Sirin slapped his hand away. She retreated and hugged herself tightly.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" she shouted.

"I don't need your pity! Don't think you're superior because you've suffered more than I have!"

Subaru calmly lowered his hand.

He knew this anger was only a defense mechanism.

If people like Subaru existed—people who had suffered even more and still chose to protect others—then the justification Sirin had built her entire existence upon began to crumble.

Slowly, Sirin stood up.

Her arms crossed tightly.

Her walls were broken, but she desperately tried to rebuild them.

"You can't share my hatred..." she whispered.

Then she finally looked directly into his eyes.

The desire to destroy humanity was gone.

In its place was something far more dangerous.

Possessiveness.

Protection.

Obsession.

"Your soul carries far too much pain," she said.

"You took my suffering onto your own shoulders. You forced me to see your memories."

The void around them had become silent.

Peaceful.

Obedient to the Queen's will.

"I won't allow that white-coated man, that golden-armored girl, or the woman lurking in the depths of your mind to break you again."

Her voice carried no warmth.

Only absolute certainty.

"You belong to me now, Subaru Natsuki."

"If Schicksal or anyone else tries to take you away from me..."

Her golden eyes narrowed.

"...I won't just destroy the world. I'll bury every tree, every branch, every dimension within the deepest void."

Subaru could see the truth behind her threats.

The loneliness.

The fear.

The desperate need not to be abandoned again.

He scratched the back of his head and smiled tiredly.

"Understood, Your Majesty."

"Then I'll leave this worthless life under your glorious protection."

Sirin clicked her fingers.

Subaru's consciousness began drifting away from the dream realm.

Alone once more in the purple void, the Queen wrapped her arms around herself.

The terror of Satella still lingered deep within her soul.

But the loneliness that had frozen her heart since Babylon Laboratory had finally cracked.

For the first time in a very long time, she had found something worth protecting.

Something worth opposing the entire world for.