Subaru was frustrated. He replayed the last loop in his head, trying to find the gap. What had he missed that led to the slaughter at the carriage?
Had he miscalculated the cultists? Had he wrongly assumed they'd only target the village? Or was there a piece on the board he hadn't accounted for?
SNAP!
A finger clicked in front of his face. Subaru blinked, pushing the hand aside as the world came back into focus.
"You good?" Gojo asked, tilting his head. "You zoned out hard there."
"Ah." Subaru looked around. The soldiers were standing at ease. Wilhelm, Ferris, Rem, and Crusch were all there. And Gojo—alive and grinning.
They were back at Flugel's Tree. The White Whale was dead.
Subaru shook off the daze and straightened up. "My bad. Right—where was I?" He found his voice, forcing confidence into it. "Crusch and half the army are heading back to deliver the Whale's corpse. The rest of us are moving to the Mathers Domain. The Witch's Cult is making a move on the village."
Murmurs rippled through the troops. After the victory they'd just tasted, the fury in their eyes outweighed the fear.
"Two Sin Archbishops," Subaru continued. "Sloth and Greed. Plus a horde of cultists." He turned to Gojo, his expression turning grim. "I need you to stall Greed. Not just until we beat Sloth, but until Emilia and the kids are safely on the road to the capital."
Gojo raised a brow.
"Stall? Me? You forget who you're talking to?"
Subaru didn't flinch.
"I'm not underestimating you. If anything, I think Regulus is your perfect counter. I don't know the mechanics, but his attacks... they seem completely unstoppable to any defense…"
Gojo whistled low, his playful energy dipping into something more observant. "Well, if you're putting it like that, I'll be cautious." He clapped his hands together with a sharp sound. "But hey, I wouldn't be much of a sensei if I didn't listen to my one and only pupil."
Subaru exhaled, the tension in his chest loosening slightly.
"Good. He might already be there holding the villagers hostage. We can't wait."
Gojo's face darkened.
"Yeah, that's a problem. Alright, see you later."
"Wait!" Subaru leaned forward. "Stall him for a little less than an hour. Once we arrive, disengage and wait back here for the carriage with Emilia and the kids."
Gojo didn't waste another word. Space bent around him, and he vanished in a flicker of refracted light.
Subaru turned back to the group, his eyes like steel.
"Wilhelm. Rem. You're with me. We're taking down Sloth."
He sharpened his tone, speaking from the bitter experience of previous deaths. "Sloth has a trick——he can jump into different bodies when he dies. He also uses invisible hands. I'm not sure of his exact limit, but they'll crush you instantly if they catch you."
He caught Wilhelm's eye and smirked. "The solution? Kick up dust. Lots of it. It'll reveal their path."
I have you to thank for that idea, Wilhelm...
Rem's eyes gleamed with a quiet, fierce determination. "Rem will stand with her hero until every last cultist is in ruin."
Wilhelm gave a short, respectful nod. "After your role in slaying the Whale and helping me avenge my beloved Theresia... I would walk through death with you tenfold, Natsuki Subaru."
Subaru couldn't help but grin. "That's what I like to hear. Let's move out!"
————————————————
Later…
FWOOM—! BOOM—! CRACK—!!
The echoes of destruction carried for miles. Massive waves of Cursed Energy reverberated through the forest, sounding like thunderclaps from a distant storm.
"Seems like Gojo's keeping the yellow-eyed bastard busy," Subaru muttered, scanning the horizon where the treeline met the sky.
Ferris looked uneasy, his ears twitching at every blast. "Nya… Gojo's really a powerhouse, isn't he?"
"That's my teacher!" Subaru said with a grin, though his eyes remained serious. "Anyway... let's move."
He hopped off Patrasche as they reached the village, his boots crunching into the dry dirt. He turned to the soldiers following closely behind.
"Free the villagers! Get them ready to evacuate immediately!"
The prisoners flinched at his shout, but as they recognized him, their terror melted into relief. It was playing out exactly like the last loop, which was a good sign, but Subaru wouldn't let himself get comfortable. Last time, he let his guard down and paid for it in blood.
He watched the soldiers move, cutting restraints and helping people up. Subaru stepped forward before the panic could spiral.
"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on. The guy with white hair and yellow eyes? He's a Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult." He snapped his fingers to get their attention. "That was real. and it's about to get worse. More are coming, so we need you to move to the carriages now."
They delayed us a little, but we're still on track.
Subaru's brows furrowed. They reacted so fast last time, like they knew we were coming. I don't have Gojo's Six Eyes or Wilhelm's reflexes. If a spy is among them, or someone is already under Betelgeuse's control, I won't know until it's too late.
"...Subaru?"
The voice was warm and familiar. Under different circumstances, he would have been thrilled to hear it.
"…Emilia."
He looked down for a second, feeling that sharp pang of shame. Then he steadied himself and met her gaze. "Emilia. Rem's letter gave you the basics, but I'm telling you directly: The Witch's Cult is here. They're after you."
He tilted his head toward the distant tremors. "If you listen, you can hear it. Gojo-sensei is already fighting one of the Archbishops to buy us time."
Emilia's eyes widened, her hand flying to her mouth. "Will——will he be alright?"
"Yeah. He's a monster in a fight," Subaru said. "But that's not the point. The Cult is coming for you, and I need you to evacuate with the others."
She flinched as if he'd struck her. "I—I should fight! I'm not weak, Subaru! I won't just run when they're coming because of me!"
Subaru stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders, his voice low and urgent. "I know you're strong. If it were anything else, I'd want you right beside me. But this plan depends on you leaving. I'm not asking you to forgive me for how I acted before—I was a mess. We'll talk properly after this. But right now, you being here is exactly what they want. So please?"
Emilia looked at the ground, her lips parted in hesitation, before looking back up with a firm expression. "Fine. But when this is over... you're not getting out of that talk!"
Subaru let out a small, relieved laugh. "Nobody says 'done and dusted' anymore, but... alright!"
He watched the carriages roll away, carrying Emilia and the villagers toward safety. He took a deep breath, centering himself.
"Alright… and right on cue——"
His eyes darted skyward. A massive purple hand coalesced from thin air, descending like a hammer.
"One hand——overhead!!" Subaru yelled, reinforcing his limbs with Cursed Energy.
SWOOSH—
Wilhelm was a silver blur. He leaped into the air, his sword cleaving through the phantom wrist. The limb dispersed into nothingness. He landed in a crouch, his boots skidding across the dirt as he regained his stance.
"Nice one, old man!"
From the treeline, masked cultists emerged in a swarm, daggers glinting.
"It's time!!" Subaru bellowed.
The soldiers charged with a collective roar. Steel clashed, and the air filled with the sounds of a desperate struggle.
Rem, her horn glowing with a pale light, moved like a hurricane. Her morning star was a blur of destruction, tearing through cultists in brutal arcs.
Beside her, Wilhelm was pure lethality. He dismantled his foes with terrifying efficiency, evading the invisible hands and dodging them by watching the displacement of the dust in the air.
Every one we kill brings us closer to the real fight. I'm not alone this time—Gojo made me realize that. With Rem and Wilhelm, Betelgeuse doesn't stand a chance.
Subaru's gaze hardened as he joined the fray.
Falling rocks, previously suspended in the curse-forged stillness, finally resumed their descent. They crashed against the ravine floor like heavy war drums, the echoes rattling through the gorge.
Gojo stood atop a jagged slab of stone, a brief monument of calm amidst the wreckage. His breathing was sharp and deliberate. His wounds bled slowly, stubborn and stinging, while his mind raced behind his unreadable eyes.
Across from him, Regulus stepped out from a crater in the cliff wall. His arms were relaxed. His robes were slightly torn, but his skin remained untouched. His golden eyes glowed through the settling dust—arrogant and entirely unscathed.
Between them lay a stretch of empty air. Tension. The fragile heartbeat before the next hurricane.
Gold met blue. It was a standoff born of calculation and inevitability, not fatigue.
How much longer can I keep this up?
Gojo barely let the thought form. He couldn't afford doubt, but it was there, buried in the back of his skull like a splinter of truth. He could stall, he could weave, and he could counter——but none of it mattered if he slipped once. One wrong breath, one twitch out of sync, or a second too slow, and it would be a hole through his head.
Still, he inhaled, grounding himself in the scent of ozone and pulverized rock. He cracked a lopsided grin, the expression as confident as it was unbreakable.
"Well then…"
He flicked a drop of blood off his chin.
"Let's keep this show moving, shall we?"
Subaru moved through the chaos, less like a strategist and more like a human wrecking ball. He wasn't the lead—not yet. He was the anchor, supporting the soldiers as Wilhelm and Rem carved paths through the forest with terrifying efficiency.
SWISH— SWOOSH— SWISH—!
Cursed energy hummed through his limbs. Every strike was amplified, every movement a blur. He bounced from one distracted cultist to the next, cracking ribs and shattering bones before they could even register his presence.
"Whoo..."
He skidded across the dirt, his eyes snapping to the flank. Felix was cornered. The healer was parrying two cultists with graceful but labored steps, his breathing shallow. He wasn't built for a prolonged melee.
"No you don't—!!"
Subaru exploded forward. Violet light trailed behind him as he closed the gap in a heartbeat.
He slid into a block, his forearm reinforced by a dense shroud of cursed energy. The cultist's dagger bounced off as if hitting solid steel. Subaru didn't even flinch. He whipped his leg in a wide arc, his shin smashing into the first cultist's ribs and launching them into the second.
With a single leap, he came down like a meteor.
The ground spiderwebbed under his heels. Subaru exhaled and gave Felix a sharp nod. "You okay, Ferris?"
The cat-boy blinked, his tail flicking nervously. "Nya... You've gotten a lot stronger. Looks like that beating from Julius actually paid off?"
Subaru's expression flattened. "Tch. Yeah, well... I deserved that one."
A blade dropped from above. Subaru sidestepped with mechanical precision, his palm surging upward.
The strike caught the cultist in the chest, folding them in half and blasting them backward with a wet wheeze. Subaru didn't even look at the body as he rushed back into the fray.
He spotted Rem. Her movements were starting to lag. Unlike Wilhelm's tireless precision, Rem's wild, wrathful swings were slowing down. A cultist slipped past her guard, plunging a dagger into her shoulder. She let out a roar of pain, blood soaking her sleeve.
SWOOSH—!
Subaru was there in an instant. He batted a follow-up strike away and drove his palm into the cultist's throat. They staggered, clutching their windpipe.
Then——
His fist didn't just hit; it drove through the cultist's torso, reinforced by a violent spear of energy that tore through the other side in a spray of blood. Subaru yanked his hand free.
He stared at his blood-drenched arm. He didn't feel shock. He didn't feel guilt. He felt a terrifying, hollow silence.
"I love you."
The whisper came from nowhere. Subaru's head snapped sideways, his eyes wide. For a second, he felt a surge of euphoria. The violence felt good.
It's the miasma... isn't it? It's getting to me.
Rem's mace slammed into a cultist who had crept too close, snapping Subaru back to reality.
"S-Subaru-kun! Please focus—!!" she cried.
He shook his head hard.
"R—Right..."
The battlefield was clearing. Wilhelm stood in the settling dust, his sword dripping as he dispatched the final stragglers. But the quiet was an illusion.
Dozens of grotesque, purple hands erupted from the earth like thorny vines.
"Gahk—!!"
Soldiers were lifted and crushed. Wilhelm dashed forward, his blade a silver streak, severing hands to free the trapped men.
Subaru's blood ran cold.
"He's here."
From the ruins, a twitching figure emerged. Betelgeuse Romanee-Conti. He jerked like a puppet on broken strings, his mouth stretched into a bleeding grin.
"WHY… WHY-WHY, WHYYYY?!?" he shrieked, biting his own fingers until blood spurted. "Why is it YOU with those pangs of LOVE, acting so... SLOTHFULLY! YES!! SLOTHFUL—!!"
Subaru stepped forward. "Betelgeuse... your plan is already dead. You just haven't realized it."
"Greed—WHERE is GREED?!" the Archbishop wailed. "That... that is SLOTH!!"
SWOOSH—!!
"Enough talk, monster!!" Wilhelm charged.
Purple hands surged in waves. Wilhelm's blade screamed as it deflected off the invisible force. He skidded back, his eyes narrowing.
"Rem! Wilhelm!" Subaru commanded. "Together—now!!"
Subaru blurred forward, his fist cracking a spectral hand into the dirt. Wilhelm followed from above, his blade carving a wide arc at Betelgeuse's neck. The Archbishop contorted his spine unnaturally, dodging by a hair.
"How fast——how slothful!"
Rem appeared from the flank, her horn burning with a violet light. She swung her mace in a massive, overhead arc.
The blow split Betelgeuse's ribcage open. Organs burst free in a spray of blood.
"Gurk… S-Sa… tella…—"
Subaru didn't let him finish. He vaulted over Rem's shoulder and drove his fist, glowing like a violet star, into Betelgeuse's skull.
BOOM—!!
Subaru didn't stop. He rained down blows into the crater His face was a mask of indifference and focus as he struck repeatedly.
Rem stepped forward, her expression tight. She gripped his shoulder. Subaru's head snapped toward her, and for a heartbeat, his eyes weren't his own.
Then, he blinked. The light returned.
"Eh… huh… oh——"
He looked down. What was left of Betelgeuse was a red haze of bone and brain matter. Subaru's stomach turned. His body began to tremble.
That was me? Again? It's like... I wasn't in control.
Then came the sensation. An oily, cold pressure slithering down his spine.
Betelgeuse wasn't gone. He was inside.
———————————————
The world was black. It was an endless, mist-choked void where the shadows felt heavy. This was the inside of Subaru's mind, but it wasn't empty.
It was overflowing with love—twisted, manic, and absolute.
"A-Ah… S-Satella…!!"
Betelgeuse fell to his knees, trembling and weeping with joy. This was the vessel he had wanted. The Witch had heard him; she had provided for him again.
Then he heard footsteps.
They were soft, measured, and completely unhurried. A figure emerged from the black haze—a silhouette of a man with spiky hair. He was pitch black, devoid of detail, yet his gaze was paralyzing. For the first time, Betelgeuse felt primal fear. His instincts screamed that this thing could unmake him with a single thought.
"W-Who… who are you…?" Betelgeuse's voice cracked.
The silhouette stopped a few paces away. Two gleaming purple eyes opened in the void, staring down at him like twin galaxies. The head cocked sideways in mock curiosity.
"A name? But… you already know me," the figure said. His voice sounded like Subaru's, but hollow. "I just killed you, after all. Or——maybe 'I' didn't? Reality is funny like that."
Betelgeuse's teeth chattered. His pride was gone, replaced by a desperate urge to flee. Then, reflex took over. Dozens of spectral purple hands exploded from his back, screaming toward the dark figure.
STEP—
The figure took one casual step forward.
SWOOSH—
The world inverted. Betelgeuse blinked, confused.
Why, why why why, am I looking at my own body?
His torso was still on its knees below him, his head barely attached, dangling by a few threads of shadow. The figure was now behind him, lazily gripping Betelgeuse's decapitated head by the hair, swinging his vision back and forth like a lantern.
"Did you seriously just try to attack me?" the figure asked. "Are you stupid? I mean, obviously you are, but still..."
Betelgeuse twitched in the entity's grip.
"W-What are you, exactly…?"
The silhouette's grin couldn't be seen, but it could be felt. It was jagged and cold.
"——Pride."
A beat of silence passed. Betelgeuse's mind warped from terror into a delirious, fanatical glee. His eyes widened.
"Ah—Aha—!! So it's you! It's truly you—!"
But the silhouette's expression didn't soften.
"Now come along," Pride said, his voice dropping into a dark, playful tone. "We're going to have so much fun together. Haha!"
In an instant, the "fun" vanished. Betelgeuse's face collapsed into genuine, utter despair. He was dragged through the endless void, helpless and dangling by his hair like a broken puppet.
"Eh…?" the silhouette paused, looking into the deeper darkness. "What do you mean you don't want that thing in here, 'Tella?"
——————————————
Gojo was launched like a meteor. His body plowed through layers of solid stone until he burst into the open sky, trailing a shockwave of debris. Before he could even catch his breath, Regulus was there. No sound, no warning.
Hands clamped around Gojo's throat.
"Ever wonder what it's like to fly without slowing down?"
Gojo coughed, blood flecking his lips.
"Not really——!!"
FWOOOOOOM—!!
The sky swallowed him. Clouds tore open and the air turned into knives. Rain that usually couldn't touch him now punched holes through his flesh as he broke the sound barrier.
"Ooh, shit!"
CRACK—BOOOOOOM—!!
A distant mountain peak exploded as Gojo collided with it, caving the summit inward. Avalanches roared in response. Then, silence. Only snow fell until a hand thrust out from the crater's edge.
Gojo pulled himself free, barely alive. His skin was steaming, cursed energy holding his body together like a failing machine. He looked around. White. Mist. Ice.
"…This isn't Lugunica." He blinked, confused. "…Where the hell—"
SWOOSH——!!
A tremor cut through the mist. Instinct screamed. Gojo spun as a flat palm swiped through the air. It was a casual, sluggish movement, yet the cliff face behind him simply ceased to exist, gouged out by an unstoppable force.
Gojo didn't wait. He clasped his hands, twisting space. Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.
The world warped. He vanished into the vacuum, leaving the Sin Archbishop of Greed ranting alone on the icy peak.
Space snapped back into place near Flugel's Tree. Gojo stumbled as his boots hit the grass, his knees buckling.
Damn it…
His breathing was ragged, his lungs burning. His Reverse Cursed Technique felt sluggish, like cooling tar, fighting a losing battle to repair his brain burnout. The Infinity barrier flickered around his skin, syncing with his erratic heartbeat before finally stabilizing.
"Ugh… seriously…" Gojo wiped blood from his eye. "Now then, I just need to wai—"
A presence appeared. It didn't arrive; it was just there. It wasn't the heavy malice of a Cursed Spirit. It felt strange——like a beautiful painting hung over a rotting wall.
Gojo's head snapped to the side.
A small figure stood in the mist, draped in a single sheet of white cloth. She looked disturbingly angelic, with platinum hair and cerulean eyes that seemed to stare right through his blindfold. She smiled with a terrifying kind of affection.
"My, my. I feel so honored." Her voice was a soft whisper against glass. "To think I would meet a guest I had not invited. A variable not written in the history of this world. How… tragic."
Pandora, the Witch of Vainglory.
Gojo's Six Eyes were screaming at him.
"But, I suppose it cannot be helped," she continued, tilting her head with genuine pity. "That boy… he has such a bad habit of defying expectations. Sending you here to save himself? A clever trick, but it ruins the flow of what should be."
Gojo's brows furrowed. The alarm bells in his head were deafening.
"…The hell are you babbling about? Who's 'he'?"
Pandora blinked, her smile never wavering. "The one beloved by the Witch, of course. I was expecting him to arrive by carriage, to witness the tragedy properly. But you…"
She opened her arms as if offering a hug. The air didn't change. No killing intent flared. She simply spoke as if stating a fundamental law of the universe.
"…it would be better if you were never here at all."
————————————————
Subaru's chest heaved. The invasive, oily sickness of Betelgeuse's presence was gone. It was strange——he hadn't even needed to trigger the Witch's shadow this time.
He sat up, offering Rem a tired, shaky smile.
"Sorry. I probably made you worry. I was just... really focused."
Rem didn't respond. She was looking past him.
Wilhelm stood stoic and unreadable, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. Beside him, Felix wiped sweat from his brow.
"Phew… I healed what I could. Only a few deaths, but… deaths nonetheless." The healer's voice spiked with a flash of anger before he exhaled.
Wilhelm placed a steadying hand on Felix's shoulder.
"We won. Now all we need is——"
"Gojo-san?"
Rem asked, her voice small.
Subaru turned. His heart plummeted.
Gojo was there. His shirt was shredded and his skin was a map of dried blood and fresh gashes. But he wasn't walking like a man who had won. He moved with the jerky, mechanical gait of a puppet. His eyes, usually so vibrant behind the blindfold or glasses, were dull—milky and vacant. He looked less like a teacher and more like a corpse.
"Gojo-sensei… why are you…"
Subaru's instincts screamed. A red glow flickered in Gojo's palm. Before anyone could shout a warning, Gojo snapped his hand sideways.
The red spark detonated. Wilhelm was launched across the village like a missile, smashing through a cottage as the ground buckled. He was a veteran; he might survive. But Felix was a healer, not a tank. The shockwave hit him with the force of a falling mountain. His body was shattered instantly, crumpled into the earth.
"...Felix?"
Subaru's voice died in his throat.
Rem stepped forward, her morning star swinging.
"Gojo, what are you——GAAHK!?"
A fist buried itself in her gut. Ribs shattered with the sound of breaking dry wood. The shockwave flattened nearby fences as Rem was flung across the clearing.
Silence fell, followed by the frantic screams of the remaining soldiers. Gojo said nothing. He simply raised a palm toward a huddle of survivors. A blue sphere began to pulse.
Subaru moved. He didn't think; he just let the cursed malevolence in his veins take over. He lunged, his fist trailing black sparks.
The blow landed squarely in Gojo's stomach. Gojo coughed blood, stumbling backward as his feet dug into the dirt to stabilize his stance.
It hit him?!
Subaru realized with a jolt.
His Infinity is down. He's exhausted from Regulus... he's vulnerable. But…
"——WHY?!"
Subaru screamed, his arms outstretched.
"Why are you doing this, GOJO-SENSEI?!"
Gojo didn't answer. He was a corpse in motion. He simply stared, then blurred forward. He was slower than usual, his power dampened by the 'resurrection,' but he was still a monster.
He swung, and the ground where Subaru had been standing detonated. Subaru twisted in mid-air, his own cursed energy hissing like serpents around his arm. He drove a counter-punch forward.
His knuckles slammed into Gojo's ribs. Gojo staggered, spraying a crimson arc of blood across the grass.
"——Answer me!"
Subaru hoarsely cried, charging again.
He launched a jab. Gojo's arm intercepted it with a heavy thud. Subaru pivoted, his body snapping into a fluid spiral as he delivered a sweeping kick to Gojo's shin. The impact thundered through the forest.
Subaru didn't stop. He pounced like a feral animal. One jab caught Gojo's side, the other fractured his collarbone. Gojo twisted with the momentum, but Subaru followed through, surging in for a gut punch that flattened the grass in a twenty-foot radius.
Gojo's head snapped up. His hand lashed out, catching Subaru's wrist in a vice-like grip.
Gojo's knee rocketed into Subaru's chest. Ribs caved. Subaru's lungs emptied in a pained gasp as he was launched backward. He skidded through a cottage, tile and timber erupting around him.
Subaru burst from the rubble, flipping to his feet, bloody and shaking. Gojo walked through the smoke, his steps a rhythmic drumbeat. His Infinity flickered—on, off, glitching like a dying lightbulb.
"Guhk... damn it... you're still so far ahead of me?"
BAM—!!
Gojo was there again. His shoulder rammed into Subaru like a freight train, sending him through a line of trees. Branches exploded like cannon fire until a massive trunk stopped his flight with a deafening impact.
Subaru staggered out from the splintered wood, his cursed energy howling. He tackled Gojo, and they tumbled through the village, leveling a stone wall. They traded nuclear blows——flesh split, teeth cracked, blood rained.
Subaru caught Gojo's wrist, twisted his body, and slammed a knee into Gojo's shoulder joint. He followed with a heavy elbow to the back of Gojo's neck.
Gojo stumbled, his foot slipping—and Subaru swept his legs. Gojo fell.
But before Subaru could breathe, Gojo's foot shattered the ground, catching himself by pure instinct. He lunged forward and smashed his forehead into Subaru's face. Everything went white.
A palm drove into Subaru's chest. Red energy ignited.
The explosion vaporized the street. Subaru rocketed backward, dragging a trench through the village road before coming to a stop in a heap of broken stone. He was barely breathing. His vision was fading into a dark blur.
Gojo approached. He was detached, his eyes hollow pits. He knelt over Subaru, placed his hands around his throat, and began to squeeze.
Subaru tried to gasp, but his windpipe was a crushed ruin. Even as the world dimmed, he felt a faint, bitter smile touch his lips.
Good… I'll come back. I'll fix this. I'll save you, Sensei.
His limbs twitched one last time. Darkness took him. Natsuki Subaru died at the hands of the one man he thought would never hurt him.