Natsuki Subaru/Synopsis

Volume 2
After surviving the ordeal at the Stolen Goods Warehouse, Subaru awoke in a room he didn't recognize, immediately noticing that it was a high class room, and wondered if he was in Reinhard's mansion. He checked his body for wounds, which had all healed by what he thought was Emilia's magic, then left the room to explore the building. Upon encountering the same picture he'd seen earlier, he theorized that the hall must be under some kind of loop, deciding to see if opening the nearby door would help, only to encounter a girl in a library. His actions gradually irritated the girl until she decide to drain mana from him, effectively knocking him out.

A while later, Subaru woke up to the sound of voices, their source two girls dressed in maid uniforms. While he interacted with them, Emilia arrived, whose clothes he liked, complimenting whoever chose them for her. As she checked up on his condition, she asked if he wanted to take a walk outside, telling him that part of her contract with her Spirits was to interact with them in the mornings. He quickly accepted, all the while referring to her as Emilia-tan, causing her to wonder what tan meant.

Once he changed back into his clothes, the two exited the mansion, and Emilia, seeing Subaru start some radio exercises, decided to join him. Finishing their routine, Emilia summoned Pack, then left him with Subaru while she interacted with her Minute Spirits, though their conversation about her caused her to cut the interaction short. Soon after, both Ram and Rem came to fetch them for breakfast, informing them that Roswaal L Mathers had returned. At breakfast, Subaru asked to be hired as a servant for his reward, and after working for several days, he was horrified to realize that he'd been killed in his sleep, as that meant his promise to go to the village with Emilia never happened.

Trying to figure out what happened, Subaru went through breakfast with Roswaal and the others again, asking to become a servant for a second time. Expecting things to be the same, he was surprised that they didn't go as planned, and was shocked when Roswaal joined him in the bath. While bathing, Subaru asked him about the bath, the topic eventually shifting to magic itself, with Roswaal determining that Subaru was compatible with Yin Magic, revealing to him that Beatrice was an expert with that type of magic. As he got out of the bath, Subaru cursed both Roswaal and Ram, not knowing that Ram was right behind him, ready to help Roswaal change into his clothes. That night she taught him how to write, however she fell asleep on his bed, causing him to break the quill pen.

Days later, on the same night that he died the last time, Emilia came instead of Ram to teach him how to read and write. As she listened to his explanation, she noticed a particular story within the children's storybook he was planning to read, causing her to shut the book and focus on teaching him. While studying the language, he asked for a reward, succeeding in getting her to agree to go on a date with him to the village the next day. Unfortunately for him, he was assaulted by an extremely cold feeling which made his body not function correctly. Struggling down the hallway, he tried to make his way to Emilia's room when he was attacked by an unknown assailant, and was subsequently killed by a weapon with a chain.

Subaru screamed as awoke at his last save point, scaring both Ram and Rem, who he quickly apologized to, then asked them for the date and time. Unlike his last two lives, he decided to be a guest for the third time around in order to gather information. Partway through the week, Subaru told Ram the story of the Red and Blue Oni, though she refused to discuss the story of the witch with him and warned him not to tell Rem about the Oni story. He left the mansion on the day he died the last two times, ready to protect those living at the Roswaal Mansion from the mysterious assailant, only to despair that night when he learned that the identity of the assailant was none other than Rem. She proceeded to torture and heal him over and over, telling him to confess his true intentions, and Subaru was killed when an attack gouged out his throat, prompting Rem to comment that her sister was too nice.

Waking up once again, Subaru started to wildly move around while on the bed, forcing both maids to hold him down, and Emilia healed him when she arrived. Gathering his resolve, he tried to tell her about his Returns from Death ability, only for the world to stop around him, a hand made of black mist threatening to crush his heart. Fortunately, he was quickly brought back to his senses by Emilia, however he told her not to worry about him. He spent the next couple of days in the mansion, during which time he formed a contract with Beatrice, and stayed in the library on the night of the fourth day. To his surprise, he learned on the fifth day that Rem had died, causing Ram to accuse him of killing her. She tried to attack him but was blocked by Beatrice who informed everyone about their contract, allowing him to escape from the mansion. Making his way to the mountain, he tried to commit suicide by jumping off of a cliff, only to find that he didn't have the courage to do so.

A while later, Subaru awoke to find Beatrice standing there, holding his hand. The feeling from her hand made him realize that it was Ram and Rem who had held his hands earlier to try and calm him down. As he gathered his resolve, Ram appeared, ready to kill him, but before she could do anything he told her that he loved them and jumped off the cliff.

Volume 3
Returning from his suicide, Subaru awoke from his fourth death, and, seeing the twin maids, grasped their hands to check if they were the ones who had held his hands in his sleep, earning him insults from both of them. Going through the same events as his earlier lives, this time he asked to be employed, making sure to act normally while trying to figure out the identity of the shaman. Despite Subaru's attempts to hide his mental state, Pack noticed how he was feeling when they played around the following morning, and informed Emilia that he would get worn out in the near future at the rate he was going at.

Fearing for his mental state, Emilia tracked Subaru down within the mansion, then led him into a room to give him a lap pillow. He didn't understand what was happening, nonetheless he relaxed when she calmed him down, eventually falling asleep with his head on her lap. When he woke up a while later, he excitedly informed an unimpressed Beatrice, then asked for her help, which she reluctantly agreed to give after he promised to have Pack listen to one of her requests. As part of their agreement, she answered his question about curses, revealing that they needed physical contact to work. At that moment, Subaru remembered that Rem had said something about a witch, to which Beatrice told him about the Witch of Envy Satella, revealing that she was said to be a silver haired Half Elf.

The next morning, Subaru asked Pack about Satella, wondering when people would use her name, and Pack answered that they would use it when they wanted the other person to think that they were insane. Subaru realized that Emilia had tried to keep him away in order to not trouble him with the election in his first life. The topic shifted to magic, with Pack determining like Roswaal that Subaru was compatible with Yin, and demonstrated Shamak to him. Somewhat affected by the magic, Subaru requested to try some Yin Magic, however his attempt with Pack's helped failed as his gate wasn't used enough.

Later that morning, Subaru requested to go to the village, which Ram eventually agreed to, adding that he would work as hard as he could until then. Once Rem left the room, Ram warned him to be careful with his magic, as she had to stop Rem from rushing to the scene, and he realized that the magic could've been seen as an attack. He then wondered who was going to go with him to the village, prompting her to reveal that both sisters were going, causing him to hope that he wouldn't be caught up in any trouble.

During the afternoon, the three of them headed to the village, with Subaru making sure to touch everyone to check who the shaman was, all the while teaching them radio exercises. After he finished, Meili led him to a separate part of the village and called a small dog like animal, letting him play around with it, though unfortunately he irritated it by trying to touch its bald spot, causing it to bite his hand. Leaving the village, the three returned home to see that Roswaal was about to leave, needing to attend to an urgent matter. That night, once Subaru learned from Beatrice that the source of the curse was from the thing that touched his hand, he immediately tried to leave for the village, and, after some negotiations, was allowed to leave as long as Rem went with him.

Upon arriving, Subaru and Rem noticed that the village was in an uproar, learning that Petra and the other children had disappeared. He had a fairly decent idea of where they were and led Rem to the forest, where she noticed that the barrier had been broken, causing her to explain that Demon Beasts lived in the forest. Seeing him go deeper into the forest, she questioned him motives, prompting him to tell her about each of the childrens' dreams, leading to her cooperation. Deeper in the forest, the two of them found all of the children except for Meili, who Petra mentioned was farther along. Subaru made Rem promise to watch over the children until the villagers arrived, promising to answer any of her questions if she did so.

Soon after, Subaru found Meili collapsed in the forest, however, before he could get her to safety, he was attacked by a whole group of Demon Beasts, though fortunately Rem came to his assistance, allowing him to escape with the girl. Despite her intervention, she began to be overwhelmed due to the number difference, causing her to go into her Oni Form, and began killing Demon Beasts. The difference in numbers still proved to be a problem, forcing him to knock her out of her Oni Form to get her to think clearly, ending up with him getting attacked by a group of Danger Beasts in her place. Fortunately, she noticed him getting attacked and killed the Danger Beasts attacking him, pleading for him to not die.

Subaru woke up the next morning, realizing that he hadn't died, instead surviving the encounter the night before. As he wondered what had happened, Pack appeared from a sleeping Emilia's hair to explain the whole situation to him, including the fact that all seven children were safe. After he received some steamed potatoes from Ram, he left the house he was temporarily staying to check up on the children, and while he was doing so he met Beatrice, who revealed to him that he had only half a day to live. Surprised by a lack of a reaction, she confirmed his assumption that he had been given another curse, further adding that the multiple curses had meshed together, making it too complicated to try and remove it, using thread as an example to give him a good idea of what was happening. Seeing that Subaru had resolved to stay alive, Beatrice revealed that there was a way to stop an already activated curse, and that was to kill the user, which was how the children survived the attack.

About to give up due to the difficulty, Subaru remembered Rem's words, realizing that he hadn't seen her even once in the village, then asked Beatrice of here whereabouts, causing Ram to join their conversation. Gaining her support, Subaru and Ram headed into the forest to save Rem, though she informed him that she wasn't as strong as Rem in her Oni Form since she was a Hornless. Making their way through the forest while killing Wolgarms from time to time, Ram tried to find Rem using her Senrigan, but was unsuccessful. After she finished, Subaru tried to her about his Returns by Death to attract the Wolgarms to him, as the smell of the witch deepened when the black hands appeared, and Rem would follow the Demon Beasts if they moved.

Unfortunately, Ram tired after killing seventeen Wolgarms with her magic, forcing Subaru to carry her in his arms as they escaped from them. One of the Wolgarms managed to bite Subaru's shoulder, knocking him off balance and off a cliff. He tried to stop his fall with the sword he had borrowed, however that broke from the pressure, forcing Ram to use her wind magic to cushion their fall, resulting in her becoming severely weakened. To add to their problem, both the Wolgarms and Rem arrived, and while the Demon Beasts fled the maid came down to where they were to attack them. Noticing Ram in Subaru's arms, Rem ordered him to let go of her, attacking him with her weapon as she did so. After a short while, the Wolgarms tried to attack her again, making her turn her attention way from him in order to fight them.

Temporarily relived, he watched the two forces fight each other, and seeing that Rem was starting to take more and more damage, he decided to bring their attention back to him by attempting to mention his Returns by Death again. He succeeded, turning the fight into a three way battle. Subaru carefully maneuvered his way around the battle, making sure to avoid any damage, though unfortunately one of the Wolgarms activated the curse it had placed on him in order to gather mana to fight Rem. To his surprise, Rem killed the Demon Beast that activated the curse, causing Subaru to realize that even in her Oni Form she still remembered why she was fighting the Wolgarms. At that point Ram woke up, informing him that a powerful strike to her horn would bring Rem back to normal. Taking her advice, Subaru attempted a strike at her horn by throwing Ram to distract her, but he missed her by a few millimeters. Taking advantage of the situation, the small Wolgarm attacked them with magic, sending him flying into the sky, nonetheless he took this to his advantage by attempting another attack on her horn. His second attack succeeded in striking the horn, bringing Rem back to normal.

As soon as he returned Rem to normal, Subaru grabbed both sisters and ran as fast as he could, leaving their defense to Ram. Rem didn't understand why they were helping her, claiming that she needed to do it herself, to which he told her to depend on them. He then left Rem with Ram while he ran off to be a decoy, which Rem protested, nonetheless he refuted her protests and left. Making his way back to the small Wolgarm, he was shocked when it grew several times its size into a large Wolgarm, and as he was about to fight it he heard Rem call his name, brining a smile to his face. He then used Yin Magic to cover the area in darkness. Gathering all of his energy, he made his way outside of his own magic, then swung his sword, stabbing his sword deep within the Wolgarm, whose head was still within the magic. Subaru was immediately overcome with a sense of disgust at the thought of killing a living being, though he got over it and ran off, his mana holding up because of a Bocco Fruit the children had given him.

To his surprise the Wolgarm attacked him and picked him up from behind, ready to devour him, however Subaru blocked its attempt by drawing his sword from its body, then plunged it into its mouth, wounding it from the inside. The Demon Beast fought back, but before sides could continue, Roswaal attacked it with fire magic, killing it in one hit. Subaru complained about Roswaal's late appearance, then asked him how he found his location, to which Roswaal answered by telling him that Emilia was certain he would use magic if he was cornered and made sure Roswaal knew about it before he left for the forest. Soon after, both Ram and Rem joined them, with Rem hugging Subaru with all of her might, causing him to lose consciousness. As he lost consciousness, he heard Roswaal tell him to sleep, and that he would reward him later, adding that he would get rid of everything that threatened him.

While unconscious, Subaru found himself in a shadowy place with a shadow that formed into a female humanoid shape. Before the shadow could claim his consciousness, white fingers surrounded his consciousness from behind, causing the shadow to begin to dissipate. However, before it completely disappeared, the shadow stretched out a finger and said something, though he was unable to hear it clearly.

Subaru awoke in a room within the mansion, then noticed that Rem was sitting in a chair next to his bed, her hand entwined with his right hand. He asked her why she was holding his hand, prompting her to tell him that he seemed to be suffering in his sleep, and Rem, not knowing what to do, decided to hold his hand as that was what she enjoyed being given. She began explaining the situation after he asked, informing him that all of the Wolgarms had been killed, and that Roswaal had invited the children from the village to write get well messages on his servant's shoes.

At this point Rem began blaming herself for all the trouble she had caused him, asking him why she still had her horn and Ram didn't, then told him to forget about what she just said. However, Subaru told her that she had three "stupids", the first being that she was still dragging something that had ended, the second was that she tried to resolve everything herself, and the third was that she thought of herself as inferior to Ram. He added that Rem was probably the only one who cared whether or not she had a horn or not, praised her good traits, then thanked her for saving him.

Later on, Emilia visited his room and began to lecture him about his decision, though she added that she was grateful for what he did. As a reward, Emilia agreed to go on a date with him, commenting that they should take a bouquet on the day of their date.

Volume 4
Several days after the fight with the Wolgarms, Subaru was at the village, participating in radio exercises with the villagers, and once he finished he stamped the children's cards and joined Emilia to return to the mansion. On the way back, they reflected on the past events, including the fact that Subaru had introduced everyone to the concept of mayonnaise, which proved to be a huge hit. Upon arriving at the mansion, the two of them saw an elderly man with a Dragon Carriage in front of the gate, who informed them that a messenger with news about the election was already inside. Subaru tried to accompany Emilia to the meeting with the messenger, however Rem told him to wait in his room, causing him to go back outside to spend some time with the elderly man instead.

Talking with the elderly man outside, Subaru learned that his name was Wilhelm, however he refused to tell Subaru anything about their visit, as he didn't know how important he was in the mansion. A short while later, Rem and a cat eared girl exited the mansion, and after the girl recognized Subaru, she hugged him from behind to check the water in his body, giving him a soft bite on the ear as a "service". She was surprised when she saw that he didn't understand what she meant, prompting her to tease him, nonetheless she left when Wilhelm told her it was time. Returning to the meeting room, Subaru pleaded to go to the royal capital with Emilia, a reaction both she and Roswaal expected. Although Emilia was reluctant, Roswaal ordered her to take Subaru, but he made sure to add that he was only going there to be treated.

Two days later, Subaru, Emilia, Roswaal, and Rem left for the royal capital, leaving Ram and Beatrice behind to manage the mansion. On the way there, Subaru worried about Rem, who was outside the carriage driving the Earth Dragon, prompting both Emilia and Roswaal to explain the concept of Divine Protections to him. This got his hopes up, though they were quickly dashed when Emilia told him he didn't have one. Eventually Subaru wanted to look out the window, causing Rem to invite him next to her, an offer he accepted, however he heard her warning not to lean too far away from the Dragon Carriage a little too late, resulting in him flying off due to the overwhelming speed the wind was flowing at around them. Fortunately he was saved by Rem's weapon and decided to behave himself for the rest of the journey.

Upon arriving at the royal capital, Emilia forced Subaru to hold hands with her, as she didn't trust him by himself, believing that he'd go off and do something if he was left alone. Unfortunately for them, they were holding hands in front of Kadomon's store, causing him to tell them to stop flirting and go away, however he eventually remembered their promise and sold Subaru some ringa. A short while later, the two made their way to the guard barracks, where they met Julius Juukulius of the Royal Guard, who Subaru took an immediate dislike to. Subaru tried to accompany them inside but was told by Emilia to wait outside, leading to him fantasizing of punishing Julius in the event that Emilia became king, however he decided to leave when he saw a girl being taken into an alley.

To his surprise, the girl refused his help, going as far to throw him against a wall when he tried to take her with him, claiming that she would do as she pleased. He then recognized the thugs that dragged the girl into the alley as Ton, Chin, and Kan, making him wonder if they were the only thugs in the royal capital. The girl's attitude, coupled with the thugs remembering who Subaru was after a hint, forced him to bring out his "trump card", which was telling the thugs that he was supposedly best friends with Reinhard. Not wanting to fight Reinhard, the thugs retreated for the time being, though they returned later when they realized that Subaru was lying, forcing the two to run from them. Fortunately they were saved by Rom and succeeded in escaping from the thugs.

Having met Rom for the first time in a while, Subaru took a little time to chat with him, telling him that Felt had been taken by Reinhard, and in exchange Rom guided them back to the main street partway, leaving the two of them when they came close. At the main street, the two ran into Emilia and Al, who had been working together to find their missing companions. After Priscilla and Al left, Emilia asked Subaru why he'd been with Priscilla, but before he could answer the thugs led by Ton managed to find them, though they were quickly annihilated by Rem, who arrived from the air. Elsewhere, the thug group led by Chin and Kan found Priscilla, though like the other group they were annihilated, this time by Al.

The next morning, Emilia refused to let Subaru come with her to the discussion about the election, ordering Rem to keep watch over him. However, Rem, due to Roswaal's order to not stop Subaru, turned a blind eye to his actions and allowed him to chase after her. Despite having left the room, he had no idea how to get to or into the castle, however fortunately for him he ran into Al, who offered to help him get into the castle. Deciding to accept his assistance, Subaru left a message for Rom with Kadomon, telling him to wait as he would search for Felt in the castle. While in Priscilla's Dragon Carriage, he correctly guessed that she was a candidate to become the king, and learned that Al had also been summoned to a different world. Once they reached the castle, she introduced Subaru to the guards as the person in charge of giving her ringa, allowing him access inside as her servant. Emilia was shocked to see Subaru, nevertheless he was allowed to stay with Roswaal's help, and the discussion began as soon as the members of the Sage Council arrived.

Joining the rest of the knights, Subaru met Reinhard and Ferris again, then glared at Julius who he thought was a rival in love. Marcos Gildark, the captain of the Royal Guard, began the discussion, but was cut short by Anastasia Hoshin right after the presentation of the insignias, who cited a waste of time. Nonetheless, after a small discussion, Marcos continued on with his speech, apologizing for his disrespect at the end, which Anastasia told him not to worry about. He then had Reinhard report on the discovery of the fifth candidate, introducing Felt to everyone present, and proved it by giving her an insignia, which immediately started glowing in her hand.

Rickert protested her candidacy, commenting that she wasn't worthy, prompting Miklotov to have Reinhard give everyone the details behind the discovery. Upon learning that she was from the slums, Rickert increased his protests, however he was shocked when he noticed she had the features of the royal family, and withdrew when he saw that Reinhard was resolved to support her. To everyone's surprise, Felt refused to be a candidate, leading to an argument between her and Priscilla. Emilia tried to stop the argument, causing Priscilla to insult her, forcing Reinhard and Al to step in to prevent it from getting worse.

Following the altercation, Miklotov brought the topic back to the election, asking Crusch to begin with her speech. Subaru, hearing that Ferris' name was Felix, remarked to Reinhard that she had a male like name, to which he told him that Ferris was indeed male, a fact Crusch confirmed by telling him that she had seen male genitals between Ferris' legs when they used to bathe together when they were young. Rickert raised some concerns over Ferris' crossdressing, which she addressed by mentioning that those clothes fit him the best, just like she wears male clothes herself. She then moved on to her speech, claiming that she would cut ties with the dragon if she became the king, pointing out that the kingdom had become too dependent on it. As Ferris had nothing to add to her speech, the time moved to the next candidate, which was Priscilla.

Priscilla began by addressing the comments regarding her alias of "Bloodstained Bride", claiming that she didn't really care for her former husband Leip Barielle, who she labeled as a "perverted old man". Al also told everyone about himself, mentioning that he was formerly from the Volakia Empire, hid his face with a helmet to hide his injuries, and became her knight after placing in the top four in a contest she held. Priscilla claimed she was the only one worthy of becoming king, telling everyone they should obey her, and that she would reward those who did so. Once she finished, Anastasia and Julius took their place. Anastasia revealed that she was originally from the lower class, working her way up to the top, and eventually reached where she was now, the head of one of the largest trading companies in Kararagi. Labeling herself as greedy, she stated that she wanted a country, and if that broke her inner scale it would mean she was satisfied, and if it didn't she would keep aiming higher. Julius added to her speech, claiming that while she labeled herself as greedy, it also meant that she was ambitious, pointing out that it would help the country, which was currently in a financial crisis due to recent events. Once Anastasia's speech was finished, Emilia and Roswaal were both called to speak.

Immediately, people throughout the room began whispering insults about her, as her appearance was that of Satella, the Witch of Envy. Even Bordeaux Zellgef of the Sage Council protested her candidacy, however, through an act by Roswaal, Pack, and an unknowing Subaru, Roswaal managed to convince those present that she was strong, allowing her to negotiate with everyone to treat her fairly. Seeing this, Bordeaux apologized for his comments, though he still refused to change his mindset, remarking that regardless of what she did the people would only see her as a look a like of Satella. After her speech, Miklotov turned his attention to Subaru, and before Emilia could comment on him, he announced that he was her knight. Julius disapproved of it, claiming that he wasn't worthy of being a knight, which soon led to an argument between the two, forcing Emilia to step in and apologize to the Sage Council, making sure to mention that Subaru wasn't her follower.

Soon after, Subaru left the room after being suggested to do so by Marcos, and to his surprise, he met Rom outside, who was being taken in for questioning for trespassing within the castle. After protecting him by pretending he didn't know him, Rom was taken to the main room, where everyone was gathered for the discussion. Rom's presence caused many of those present to start insulting the poor again, however this led her to decide to become a candidate, ordering Reinhard to cut his handcuffs. Once Rom was taken out of the room, Felt expressed her desire to be a candidate once again, promising to destroy the country if she became king. After her speech, with the agreement of the other members of the Sage Council, Miklotov announced the start of the royal election.

A short while later, Reinhard and Ferris visited Subaru to inform him of what happened, with Reinhard mentioning that Rom was safe. As they discussed Ferris' magic and Emilia's agreement to heal Subaru, Julius joined them, telling Subaru to come with him to the parade grounds to teach him a lesson. Despite his efforts, the fight was completely one sided, as Julius proved to be far stronger than Subaru was. Even his Yin Magic had no effect on him as it didn't work against those who were stronger than the user. Julius dealt the finishing blow while Emilia watched, completely knocking him unconscious.

Subaru later awoke in a room he didn't recognize. While there, Subaru got in an argument with Emilia over his actions, leading to her to cut ties with him, leaving him behind with Rem to be treated by Ferris while she and Roswaal returned to the mansion. However, before she left, she told him that she had hoped he wouldn't give her any special treatment and treat her like a normal girl. Despite her wish, there was nothing he could say in favor of it, as he couldn't see others the same way he saw Emilia.

Volume 5
Following his defeat at Julius' hands, Subaru was taken to the Karsten Mansion to be treated for his injuries, while at the same time learn swordsmanship from Wilhelm. Three days after first staying at the mansion, Subaru recalled Reinhard's visit the night before. Reinhard had apologized for being unable to stop them, calling it a senseless fight, informed Subaru of the punishment Julius received, and suggested for the two to meet and apologize to each other. Despite his suggestion, Subaru rejected his offer, as he believed the fight had meaning, therefore he didn't want Reinhard to deny that.

Returning his thoughts back to the present, Subaru was given a lap pillow from Rem, as he had hit his head during training. While resting, he asked her if he was pitiful, to which she answered that he was, nevertheless she still stuck with him because she wanted to.

Later that day, Subaru visited Kadomon, and after some small talk, asked him if something happened after noticing that the atmosphere was different. Kadomon told him to go read the board about the royal election that was put up, though when he learned that Subaru couldn't read anything other than I Characters, he decided to help Subaru read it, leaving Rem in charge of his store for the time being. Once they reached the board, Kadomon informed him that it listed information about the election, including some information about the candidates. He then told Subaru what he thought of the candidates, and when he reached Emilia, he noted that it was crazy for a Half Elf to be in the election, calling her a "Half Demon", causing Subaru to protest his words. Returning to his store, Kadomon was shocked that Rem sold more than he ever did in a day in a short amount of time, earning her praise from Subaru.

A while later, Subaru returned to his room to find Ferris lounging around inside. After some failed attempts by Ferris to tease him with cutesy gestures, the two began the treatment process, however Rem noticed that Ferris was acting suspiciously, causing her to join the process, eventually making him stop for the day. However, before he left, Ferris told Rem that it wasn't entirely a lie that he did what he did out of consideration for Subaru. Not understanding what the problem was, Subaru asked her what happened, which she answered by telling him that since the mana across his body had been receiving interference from Ferris, it made him prone to accepting whatever he said.

That night, Crusch invited Subaru to drink with her, as Ferris was busy with work. Subaru noted that she seemed to be busy, prompting her to explain the situation, but she stopped when she learned that he didn't know how Wilhelm came to work under her. The topic then shifted to recent events, with Crusch noting that she was receiving an increased amount of marriage proposals ever since the election began, causing Subaru to be worried about Emilia, though fortunately for him she quickly informed him that candidates were prohibited from marrying others to prevent unnecessary faction wars. Soon after, Ferris returned from his work, immediately expressing his jealousy over the fact that the two were together. However, through their help, Subaru managed to realize what he needed to do.

The next morning, while Subaru was busy with his daily training with Wilhelm, Rem approached him, needing to talk with him about something important. Returning to the parlor, Rem explained the whole situation, mentioning that she received a powerful synesthesia from Ram, with Crusch adding that there were reports of suspicious activity on Roswaal's land. Subaru ultimately decided to go help Emilia, even if that meant severing the contract to heal him. Seeing his resolve, Crusch decided to lend him a Dragon Carriage, while mentioning that it would take two and half days to reach Roswaal's land, which Rem explained was because of the mist. Not knowing what the mist did, Subaru tried to protest it, prompting Ferris to explain that the mist was created by the Hakugei, and that they wouldn't survive if they encountered it.

After saying their goodbyes to Wilhelm, the two left for Roswaal's land, stopping at the town of Fleur at nightfall to rest. Not wanting to put Subaru in danger, Rem used her Water Magic at the inn to force him to sleep, and left while he was asleep. He learned of what she did the following day when he read the letter she left him, causing him to look for someone that would take him there, eventually finding a merchant who introduced him to another merchant, Otto Suwen. Otto was drunk but quickly returned to normal once Ketty told him that Subaru was the answer to his problem, and, after a very short negotiation, agreed to take Subaru to Roswaal's land in exchange for all the money he had on him. On the way there, Subaru was surprised to learn that Otto was supportive of Emilia, since he was used to being misunderstood just like her.

The following morning, Subaru and Otto reached Roswaal's land, however he refused to venture any farther, as his Earth Dragon was sensing danger, nonetheless Subaru thanked him for his efforts and left on his own. On the way to the village, he encountered a group of Witch Cult members, who bowed to him, and disappeared before he could comprehend the situation. Upon arriving at the village, he saw that all of the villagers had been killed, which left him with a sense of dread as he made his way to the mansion. His dread was on the mark, as once he reached the mansion, he found Rem dead in the garden along with the remains of the Witch Cult members she had killed. Making his way inside the mansion, he found Ram dead on the second floor, though he didn't find Roswaal anywhere. Spotting a secret passageway, Subaru made his way through it and ended up in a completely frozen room with a door on the far side. The moment he tried to open it, severe frostbite tore some of his fingers off, the frostbite continuing to assault his body, ultimately breaking his body apart, killing him.

Once he died, Subaru returned right in front of Kadomon's store, however the shock of everything in his previous life made him unable to think straight, and upon seeing that Rem was with him, alive, he grasped her arm, not willing to let go. His condition was bad enough that Ferris couldn't heal him, as he couldn't heal emotional injuries, and while an emotionless Subaru would make it easier to heal him, Ferris refused to do so, as he didn't see any value in healing someone who had no will to live. Crusch intervened before the situation got worse, asking him for a proper report on Subaru's condition, to which he answered that he didn't find anything worth noting, though Rem could sense that Subaru's witch smell had gotten stronger. In the end, Rem decided to take him back to the mansion, borrowing a Long Distance Dragon Carriage to do so. As she was about to leave, Crusch asked her how she was able devote herself to Subaru that much, noting that they weren't a master and follower or a couple, prompting her to answer by telling her that he was special.

During the trip to Roswaal's Mansion, Rem told Subaru her feelings, mentioning that she had been happy to stay behind in the royal capital as she could keep him to herself, since he was always busy at the mansion. She continued by telling him that she was always filled with warm feelings by watching him interact with other people, adding that she could only find happiness and sorrow when she was with him. Seeing that the speed they were traveling at was putting a burden on his body, Rem decided to stop and camp out for the night, as night had already fallen. She considered forgetting about the whole situation and starting a new life with Subaru but decided against it when she thought of the consequences.

After waking up, Rem continued down the Lifaus Highway, sensing more synesthesia from Ram, until they were suddenly ambushed by a group of Witch Cult members. Their Earth Dragon was beheaded, forcing their Dragon Carriage off the road and subsequently causing it to overturn, leaving it in a complete mess. Rem fought the Witch Cult members while in her Oni Form, who she overpowered at first, but from there she began to be pressured, managing to lessen their numbers down to five, however she was hit by a large ball of fire while attempting to chase after the member who escaped with Subaru, leaving behind only her apron.

Ignoring Subaru's desires, the Witch Cult members ran as fast as they could through the forest while carrying him, eventually reaching a cave where Betelgeuse Romanee-Conti was waiting. Taking a look at Subaru, Betelgeuse was intrigued by him, asking if he was "pride", then when he didn't receive a response, he remembered that he hadn't introduced himself, introducing himself to Subaru as Betelgeuse Romanee-Conti, the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. At that point he became excited, causing him to write meaningless symbols on the wall with his own blood all the while going on and on about various things. Satisfied, Betelgeuse moved on to destroying the bones in his left hand's fingers with his teeth, completely destroying his left ring finger. After he did so, he turned his attention back to Subaru, hearing the report on the situation from the member that brought him, and when he heard that Rem's status was unknown, he grabbed the member's hood and slammed him down onto the ground from behind, calling him sloth. Dissatisfied with her status, Betelgeuse ordered the members to find her, leaving him alone with Subaru.

Once they left, Betelgeuse turned his attention back to Subaru once again, wondering exactly what he was. He noted that while Subaru didn't come due to the Witch Cult's Gospel, Betelgeuse could sense the witch smell on him, referring to it as "love". Continuing on, Betelgeuse revealed that he knew the faces of everyone except "pride", but couldn't bring himself to think that Subaru had nothing to do with the gospel, though he came to the conclusion that his fate was in his hands as he wasn't listed in the gospel. Grabbing his face, Betelgeuse ordered Subaru to look at him, asking him various questions, yet when he refused to answer them, he decided to change the question order, and asked him why he was pretending to be insane.

Subaru didn't understand his question due to the disgust he was feeling, prompting Betelgeuse to repeat his question, pitying him for rejecting the "love" he was receiving. Soon after, the Witch Cult members returned to report that Rem was heading to their location, and soon enough a bloody Rem appeared in the cave. She told them that she was going to kill them, causing Betelgeuse to ask her how she was going to accomplish that with her injuries, proceeding to bob Subaru's head by grabbing his hair, inducing Rem's wrath. She began to massacre the members in the cave, making Betelgeuse act, and used his Unseen Hand to rip her body apart, mangling it enough that her previous wounds could be described as pretty. Forcing him to look at her body, Betelgeuse told Subaru that it was his fault she died, as he had been "slothful". Betelgeuse's actions brought Subaru's mind completely back to normal and he swore that he would kill him.

Leaving the cave to continue their objective, Betelgeuse decided to leave Subaru in the cave to die on his own, telling him that if the gospel mentions him then he was their ally, and if it didn't he was just a passerby. Once they left, he continued to curse the madman, however his stamina began to run out, gradually weakening him. Suddenly, he was shocked to see Rem crawl over to him, who proceeded to free him from the chains that bound him, and she told him to live and that she loved him before dying in his arms. Subaru freed himself several hours later, taking Rem's body with him to the village, which was already in ruins just like he saw in his previous life. Making his way to the mansion, he arrived just in time to see it collapse, the cause a supersized Pack which froze everything around, including Subaru, in a fit of rage over Emilia's death.

After he died, Subaru once again found himself in the strange place with the shadowy woman like figure, and once he realized it as a woman, he was filled with emotion, though he found himself unable to approach it. Sensing this, the shadow reached out to him, then when it touched him, it told him that it loved him.

Returning to his save point in front of Kadomon's store, Subaru collapsed, then was overcome with joy upon seeing Rem, who was alive and well. He began to confirm her warmth, noting it to be different than her dying body earlier, causing Kadomon to deem it as flirting, telling both of them to go away. As they left, Rem informed him that the witch smell had increased, making him wonder if his Returns by Death was related to the witches. Seeing that she was worried, he told her to capture him if he looked like he was going somewhere, as he was far weaker than she was. This satisfied her, making him happy, however he was seething with hate and rage on the inside, intent on killing Betelgeuse.

Volume 6
On their way back from the marketplace, Subaru and Rem met Wilhelm outside of the mansion, then met Russell Fellow, who was on his way out. The three talked for while until he left, with Wilhelm explaining that Russell was the treasurer in charge of the royal capital's trade association. He informed Subaru that Russell was the last visitor for the day, remembering that he wanted to ask something, to which Subaru told Wilhelm that he would be the last visitor instead as he needed to talk with Crusch. Meeting with her before dinner, he asked for her to provide forces to protect the village, revealing that the Witch Cult would kill everyone. She refused to help him until he provided a reason why she should help and what merits it would bring her instead of requesting something. When he protested her decision, she informed him that his information lacked authenticity, leading him to tell her that they just needed to kill the members of the Witch Cult, at which point she accused him of getting close to Emilia only to exact revenge on them.

Having said that, she pointed out that he hadn't said anything about protecting Emilia even once, instead using that as a cover for his darker motives. Her words made Subaru unconsciously move toward her with a spoon in his hand, earning him a warning from Wilhelm, and until he was stopped by Rem he had no idea what he had been doing. Looking down, he saw that he was the holding the spoon in reverse, as if to stab someone. Already annoyed by her refusal to help, Subaru asked if she really wasn't going to help instead of apologizing, prompting her to admit that while he wasn't lying, his "truth" was a lie that he himself believed to be true, labeling him as a madman. Rejecting her offer to eat dinner together, Subaru decided to leave the Karsten Mansion, telling her to be a good king, albeit one who was a dictator that didn't care for weaklings.

Once they retrieved their belongings, Subaru and Rem visited Priscilla, seeking her help with the matter. Like Crusch, Priscilla refused his request, telling him he was asking others to do something without compensation, but decided to at least consider his request if he licked her feet. He reluctantly went through with her suggestion, but before he could lick her feet, she kicked him into the air, telling him he relied on others like a dog and desired things like a pig, before throwing him toward the door to have Al take him away. Following Priscilla's kick, Subaru's mind was in a stupor, forcing Rem to have to carry him outside, though his mind began to recover. As they prepared to leave, Al mistook Rem's name for Ram, and when she corrected him, he asked if Ram was still alive, learning that she still was. While they left, Al glared at them until they disappeared, at which point he expressed his disgust that Ram was still alive.

After getting his nose treated, Subaru was on his way to his meeting place, all the while cursing both Priscilla and Al, when he ran into Mimi Pearlbaton, and subsequently Anastasia. The three of them went to the meeting place, where they began discussing things as they ate, with Subaru learning that the person gathering steel was Crusch. After a while, he realized that Anastasia had tricked him into spilling vital information she wanted, though he did gain a paper signed by her for a Dragon Carriage. Leaving the meeting place, the two borrowed the Dragon Carriage, making their way to Roswaal's land, and on the way there they ran into Otto and a group of merchants, who he hired with the money he had to carry the villagers.

Later that night, as the group made their way to the village, Subaru noticed that one of the merchants had disappeared, however Otto claimed that such a person never existed. Using his cell phone to light the area, he realized too late that they were within the Hakugei's mist, coming face to face with the beast itself. Seeing that the beast was going to be a problem, Rem moved to fight it after knocking Subaru out, who, to his horror, later finding out that she had been erased by the Hakugei's mist. The Hakugei returned to pursue him, as the witch's scent attracted it, causing a crazed Otto to push him off of the Dragon Carriage, blaming him for the current situation. Subaru begged for his life and was surprised when the beast didn't kill him, which seemingly vanished into thin air, and saw that Otto had been killed by someone when the Earth Dragon returned with a Dragon Carriage whose driver's seat was covered in blood.

Taking the Dragon Carriage, he rode it for a while until he started to lose consciousness, at which point he was found by the children from the village. He woke up later to find Ram taking care of him, who told him that Emilia had healed his wounds, and in turn he painfully informed her of Rem's death. However, he was shocked to find out that Ram didn't remember who she was. Refusing to believe her words, Subaru made his way down to Rem's room, only to find that there wasn't any of Rem's belongings in it. Still refusing to accept reality, Subaru tried to make himself believe that Beatrice was toying with him with her Door Crossing, but was brought back to reality when Ram informed him again that she didn't have a sister, ordering him to go back to his room and sleep.

Instead of returning to his room, Subaru visited Emilia's room, who he tried to convince to leave the mansion. As he expected, she didn't understand why or what he was doing, causing him to try to reveal his Returns by Death, once again bringing about the shadowy hands. Upon returning, he was puzzled to notice that he only felt the right hand grasping his heart, then despaired when he realized that the left hand had killed Emilia. Beatrice arrived in the room, and once he noticed her, he asked her to kill him, which she refused to do, recovering the pendant before removing any evidence of their presence by teleporting them outside. Quickly realizing where he was, he carried the deceased Emilia's body to the cave entrance, where Betelgeuse was waiting outside, as he thought he would kill him. However, to his surprise, the madman refused to kill him, instead praising him for killing her before them.

When Betelgeuse asked Subaru what he wanted him to do, Subaru asked to be killed, to which he gladly complied. Regardless of his previous request, Subaru dodged his Unseen Hand, as Betelgeuse had insulted Emilia before attempting to kill Subaru, causing him to remember what he was fighting for. The two began fighting until Pack, who was in his real form, joined their fight, and after a brief skirmish, Pack froze Betelgeuse, shattering his frozen body soon after. Turning his attention to Subaru, Pack mentioned to him that he had three sins; the first was breaking his promise with Emilia, the second was returning to the mansion against her wishes, and the third was that he killed her. Continuing on, Pack informed Subaru that he would destroy the world as stated in their contract, adding that Emilia was everything to him, before asking him how soon a person would die from being frozen bit by bit, proceeding to freeze him, and as he died he realized that no one expected anything from him.

After returning in front of Kadomon's store for the third time, Subaru discussed everything with Rem, including the possibility of running away from everything to Kararagi, where they could start a new life, however after being cheered up and lectured by Rem, he decided to face his problems to help Emilia, essentially starting "from zero".

That afternoon, Subaru gathered Crusch, Ferris, Wilhelm, Russell, and Anastasia to discuss an alliance, having figured out Roswaal's true intentions in leaving Rem behind with him. Crusch confirmed his theory, revealing that her camp was offered mining rights to magic stones in Elior Forest, which immediately caught Russell's interest, who explained how it would prove to be invaluable. She approved of him negotiating in Roswaal's place, adding that she wouldn't refuse an alliance just because Emilia was a Half Elf, however she wanted a small something that would push her into accepting the alliance, causing Subaru to offer information on the Hakugei's appearance, location, and time.

Volume 7
Hearing what Subaru had to offer, everyone else in the room reacted to his words, with Wilhelm giving the biggest reaction. When they questioned the information's authenticity, he pulled out his cell phone, letting Russell look it over to get a merchant's opinion. Making sure not to let Crusch see through his bluff, Subaru explained that the cell phone would help in locating the Hakugei, fortunately getting a confirmation from Rem to further his claim.

At that moment, Anastasia arrived, causing him to get straight to the topic, telling Crusch that his information would help in her planned subjugation attack on the Hakugei. Hearing his claim, Crusch questioned him about it, as a claim like that would be considered slander if false. Recalling the various bits of information he heard across his various lives, he gave his opinion, which ultimately turned out to be correct, leading Crusch to accept the alliance. Following the formation of the alliance, the Subaru, Crusch, Anastasia, and Russell discussed their plans, as they had to get everything done within 30 hours before the beast itself appeared. Following the discussion, Wilhelm approached Subaru and thanked him for his help, revealing that his surname was actually Astrea, which he claimed he already knew, causing Crusch to point out that he was lying.

Once the discussions finished, everyone got to work to prepare for the attack, except for Subaru, who didn't know what he should do. When he voiced his thoughts to Ferris, he corrected his thinking, telling him that it wasn't "his fault" but rather "thanks to him" that everyone was able to fight the Hakugei. He then began to tell him a little about Wilhelm's past, though unfortunately for him he was told off for doing so, nonetheless Wilhelm elaborated a little on it.

Twelve and a half hours later, Ferris had Subaru choose an Earth Dragon to ride, and despite having no experience in picking between various ones, he chose a proud looking one which surprised Rem, who informed him that the type he chose were known to be unsocial and feared that his hand would be eaten. Returning to the large room, he got to know some of the members of the attack force, such as Ricardo Welkin, before Crusch herself joined them. Subaru offered to use himself as bait to direct the Hakugei, as his scent would attract it, and she agreed to it after seeing that he wasn't lying. At that point ten people arrived, all above 50 years of age, who thanked Subaru for allowing them to fight the Demon Beast, as they were all victims of its powers. Soon after, before Crusch began the meeting, Subaru discussed a deal with Anastasia and Russell which would come into effect after the beast was defeated. Once Crusch's meeting finished, the members of the attack force made their way to Flugel's Tree at Lifaus Highway, where the Hakugei was scheduled to appear.

On the way to the tree, Subaru got to know Mimi and Hetaro Pearlbaton, discussing the plan a little with them, then gathered his resolve to fight. Seeing this, Ricardo moved over to his Dragon Carriage to chat with him, during which he revealed that instead of Earth Dragons the members of the Fang of Steel rode Ligers, a type of beast that was similar yet different as it specialized in nimbleness instead of power. As he left, Rem noted that he was doing his best to try and get the members to relax. The group continued on, reaching their destination five hours before the scheduled time, where they finished all their preparations for the battle the following day.

Taking advantage of the free time before the battle, Subaru and Rem visited Flugel's Tree, marveling at its huge size. While there, Rem revealed that she knew the cell phone wasn't a Demon Beast alarm, nevertheless she promised to keep quiet about it, even if he couldn't explain to her why he was lying, because she believed in him. Despite knowing her feelings, he still mentioned that he loved Emilia, however this made her tell him that she was fine with being a second wife. He told her that he would accept her offer if Emilia allowed polygyny, prompting her to tell him that she would try her best to convince Emilia to accept.

A while later, the attack force gathered together when it became close to the scheduled time, though when the Hakugei appeared, Crusch's agitation made her miss the timing for an order, causing Subaru to shout it instead with Rem attacking the beast with her magic. The two ran off on their Earth Dragon, prompting Crusch to order the others to follow suit, and the rest of the group began attacking the beast. As they moved to their planned location, Rem, who was in her Oni Form, told Subaru to look down to prevent himself from being blinded by the Night Clearing, which was formed from a large number of light stones joined together to form an artificial sun. Spotting them, the Hakugei began to give chase, allowing the others to keep on attacking it, eventually forcing it to lose altitude due to its wounds, enabling those with swords to reach it. Despite their attacks, the Hakugei didn't lower its altitude any further, however Wilhelm managed to carve out its left eye along with inflicting damage to its body, causing it to release a massive amount of mist from the mouths across its body.

Covering the area with its mist, it began using its secondary Mist of Elimination to fight back against its attackers, succeeding in eliminating twenty one people, all of whom were forgotten by everyone except Subaru, who theorized that he was able to remember them because of his ability. The mist forced Crusch to order the use of one of the two Evil Repelling Stones they had, immediately clearing the mist from the area, as the mist was the beast's mana, yet at that moment the beast let out a roar which incapacitated a large number of people. Fearing an attack while they were incapacitated, Subaru decide to resume his job as a decoy, using his attempt to talk about his Returns by Death to deepen his witch smell and guide its attention to him. As he did so, he heard a voice tell him that it loved him, and was seized by strong emotions, but they disappeared when he returned to normal.

Just as he expected, the Hakugei set its sights on him, continuously chasing after him, and didn't show any signs of stopping even after Rem tried to slow it down by launching spears of ice at it. The others helped by attacking it, causing it to climb up into the air, and then released the Mist of Elimination above, raining down a torrent of deadly mist down onto its attackers. Most of the group managed to escape the attack, still some were swallowed up by the mist, never to be remembered again. Soon after, Wilhelm was swallowed up by the Hakugei from behind, while Ricardo was blown away with a strike from its tail, with Subaru despairing when he realized that there were now three Hakugei attacking them. As the others began to lose hope, Rem attempted to save Wilhelm from being swallowed, and upon seeing this, Subaru regained hope, declaring that he wouldn't let this stop him. Quickly joining Rem, he helped her fight against the Hakugei that ate Wilhelm, using himself as bait once again to distract it while she attacked it.

The beast, flailing around in pain, almost hit him with its tail, however Mimi saved him with her magic, thanking him for helping the others regain hope. The two encountered a different Hakugei, which attempted to hit them with its mist, though fortunately Crusch forcibly shut its mouth with her magic, joining them right after. She thought it was strange that they never heard that the Hakugei created groups, ordering him to find out the truth, then raised the others' morale by pointing out that Subaru was trying his best. Returning to the Hakugei that Rem was fighting, he acted as a decoy again, then moved to return to the Hakugei that Crusch and the others were fighting against, all the while trying to think of a reason why there were now three Hakugei. Mimi and Hetaro joined him to protect him, with Hetaro informing him that Ricardo had noted that the one that hit him was lighter than normal, and after some thought, he realized what was happening. Running past the Hakugei Rem was fighting against, he noticed that it didn't have a left eye, coming to the conclusion that the Hakugei had split itself into three, its power also split between all three of them.

Suddenly, the Hakugei that was chasing him began rubbing its body against the ground, and following a combined attack from Mimi and Hetaro, the bottom bulged then ripped apart, letting Wilhelm out along with a torrent of blood. Regardless of his injuries, Wilhelm tried to fight on, prompting Subaru to have the two Cat Beast Humans take Wilhelm to Ferris while he returned to Crusch to report his findings. Discussing the newly gained information, he theorized that the reason the third Hakugei didn't join the fight was because it couldn't afford to be killed, then told them about a plan he had to attack it, requesting their assistance to do so. Using a large spear of ice, Rem launched him into the air inside of it, sucessfully delivering him onto the beast's back. He jumped off the beast to try and get it to chase him, and when it restrained itself from following, he told it that Rem died because of it, causing the shadowy hands to appear, along with the same voice which told him that it loved him.

The Hakugei, unable to restrain itself for a second time, dived after him with the intention of destroying him, but before it could reach him, Rem used ice spears to attack it, slowing its descent enough to allow her to retrieve him. The Hakugei smashed head first into the ground, nevertheless it tried to chase after Subaru, which he took advantage of by leading it right into the path of the falling Flugel's Tree that Crusch and the others had prepared in advance. The force from the falling tree was enough to pin it to the ground, yet wasn't enough to kill it, prompting Wilhelm to finish it off, shouting his love for his wife after dealing the finishing blow. Seeing that the Hakugei had been killed, everyone celebrated their victory, happy that the battle was finally over.

After the battle, Subaru rushed over to the injured Rem, worrying about her condition, as she had protected him from the shockwave formed from the force of the tree smashing down onto the Hakugei. She soon regained consciousness, however she was in terrible condition, and after seeing this, he accepted her request to tell her that she loved him. He also agreed to let her be with him in the future, telling her that he wouldn't give her to anyone, causing her to reveal that she wasn't dying at all, with Subaru soon realizing that she had tricked him into saying all of the things she requested. They were then interrupted by an amused Ferris, who he realized had been listening to their entire conversation right from the beginning.

Ferris teased him about it until Crusch appeared, at which point she and Subaru talked about the aftermath, explaining to him that they needed to take the Hakugei's dead body to prove that it was dead. Calling him a hero, she thanked him for his efforts in the battle, offering to add him to her camp, an offer he refused as he couldn't betray Emilia, and instead she promised to remain friendly with him even if they had to fight against each other as part of the election later on. Hearing that Subaru had something else he needed to do, Wilhelm offered to help him, and to Subaru's surprise Crusch ordered Ferris to go with them to honor their alliance. Ferris accepted her order without question and took around twenty members who were still able to fight. Surprised that Ferris agreed to go with him that easily, he questioned him about it, to which Ferris pointed out that he didn't doubt Crusch's decision to trust Subaru, quietly letting go of his dislike toward him soon after. Ferris then told Rem that she was going to stay with Crusch, prompting her to protest his decision, but calmed down once Subaru told her that she didn't need to worry about anything.

Splitting off from Crusch's group, Subaru, Ferris, the Fang of Steel members, and the rest regrouped with the other half of the Fang of Steel, which included Julius, as he was Anastasia's knight. When Ferris complained that he didn't help fight the Hakugei, Julius corrected him by claiming that he was "Yuri", as a knight working as a mercenary was dishonorable. After exchanging insults with Subaru, he thanked him for stopping the Hakugei, causing Ferris to point out that Wilhelm was the one who killed it, however Julius pointed out there wouldn't have been a battle against the beast if it wasn't for Subaru. Following his thanks, Julius asked whether he was going to keep on using the Fang of Steel or not, leading Subaru to recall what Betelgeuse had said about the Hakugei, telling Julius that the Hakugei was connected to the Witch Cult, which he deemed to be enough to continue with their assistance.

Feeling guilty after seeing that Julius was quick to understand the situation, Subaru apologized for his actions during the discussion about the election, prompting Julius to also apologize for holding him in contempt for what he did. Later on, before dawn, Subaru discussed their next objective, which was to prevent Betelgeuse and the Witch Cult from massacring everyone in the village and at Roswaal's mansion.

Volume 8
After the group discussed the plan, they headed to the specified location, then left Subaru alone so that he could lead them to Betelgeuse and the Witch Cult's lair. As he expected, a group of Witch Cult members surrounded him as he made his way through the forest, however they quickly disappeared when he ordered them to. Soon after, he reached the entrance to the cave, where Betelgeuse himself was waiting. The man was excited to see him, pointing out that he was "loved" by her, prompting him to use that to his advantage by questioning him about various topics such as the mist. Eventually the madman became suspicious of him, as he wasn't mentioned in their gospel book, causing him to order him to present his book, to which Subaru incurred his anger by mentioning that he threw it away after using it as a dish mat.

Betelgeuse tried to attack him with his Unseen Hand and was surprised when Subaru easily dodged his attack. His surprise increased when he saw Mimi and Tivey collapse the cave, leading him to accept their challenge to a fight, however he was shocked when Wilhelm attacked him from above. Wilhelm's attack sent Betelgeuse's head flying, killing him in one hit. While Ferris checked his body to make sure he was dead, Tivey checked the madman's belongings, becoming agitated when he realized that he touched the man's gospel book. Subaru was confused as to why Tivey was agitated, prompting the others to explain that people who had the likelihood of becoming a Witch Cult member were sent one, which apparently brainwashed those who received one into loyal members. Once they finished checking everything, they destroyed Betelgeuse's body with magic, then regrouped with the others to take care of the remaining Witch Cult members in the area.

A little after destroying four of the remaining groups, Julius informed Subaru that the merchants had arrived, their numbers totaling to fifteen. He decided to lie to the merchants about the Witch Cult, instead mentioning that they were planning to hunt Wolgarms in the forest, so they needed to evacuate the villagers in case of danger. Ferris and Julius were concerned when they heard that the forest contained Demon Beasts, nonetheless they decided to trust him. As they were killing the remaining groups, Subaru was shocked when he came across a group of Fang of Steel members who had been killed by being ripped apart, though the others with him weren't fazed at all. As they were about to leave, they were ambushed by 30 Unseen Hands, forcing Subaru to warn the others about their location. They were subsequently attacked by a group of Witch Cult members, making his allies unable to help him as he was dragged into the forest by an Unseen Hand, and eventually came face to face with a Witch Cult member, who he was shocked to notice that the member spoke like Betelgeuse.

The Witch Cult member took off their hood to reveal that they were female, though Subaru was still suspicious of her as she spoke like Betelgeuse, even acting like him. The woman herself was wary of him, having had the suspicion that he was "pride", then realized that he had her gospel book, but before she could touch him a Quasi Spirit exploded nearby, preventing her from doing so. Wilhelm soon joined the fight, and after dodging multiple waves of Unseen Hands, killed the woman to get rid of "sloth" again. Regrouping with the others yet again, they discussed the possibility that one person in each remaining Witch Cult group had the possibility of becoming "sloth", which meant that there were three people left who could potentially become "sloth". As they rode through the forest, the Witch Cult tried to stop them with an illusion, however Julius and Subaru were able to break free and help the others.

As Julius worked to free the others, a person in a white cloak tried to abduct Subaru, nevertheless the person was stopped by a recently freed Wilhelm and Ricardo. The person asked to be killed, forcing Subaru to stop Wilhelm from doing so, as he recognized the voice as Ram's. Ram had misunderstood their intentions, as a blank letter with the Karsten seal, a strangely quiet forest, and the arrival of the army had led her to think that Subaru had betrayed them, prompting him to explain the situation to her. Once the misunderstanding was cleared, the group along with Ram made there way to the village. Subaru was puzzled as to why the letter had been blank, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind to discuss the current situation with Ram.

Upon arriving at the village, Subaru selected Wilhelm, Julius, and Ricardo to stand with him while he gave his speech, as their presence would make his words more believable. He asked the villagers to go along with the evacuation, however one of the villagers doubted his words, mentioning that the villagers were scared that the Witch Cult was going to do something, and when he didn't deny it, the villagers started worrying, cursing Roswaal for supporting Emilia. Subaru started to lose hope but was cheered on by Ferris, giving him the courage to finish his speech, with Ram supporting him by mentioning that as the proxy for Roswaal, Subaru's words carried as much weight as the man's himself. After he finished his speech, he learned from Ram that Emilia was at the mansion, and decided to visit her with Julius, since having the knight with him would give his words credibility. Before they left, Subaru had Julius give him an explanation on his Spirits, who revealed that he was contracted with six Quasi Spirits. Once Julius finished his explanation, Subaru decided to bring Ferris along with them to clear up the blank letter matter.

Moving over to him, he was that the merchants weren't happy that they were lied to, and Ketty, as their representative, protested the deal. They managed to keep the merchant's loyalty by offering to pay twice the originally promised amount, though they would check their Dragon Carriages to come to a proper decision, and the two began with Ketty's carriage. Ketty became irritated that they weren't doing their job properly, leading him to join them in the carriage, but before he could do anything Ferris knocked him out by touching his arm. Ferris explained to a surprised Subaru that Ketty was a Witch Cult member and could potentially become "sloth". Before they could extract any information from him, Ketty began talking like Betelgeuse, then a blast of fire hit the carriage. Fortunately for Subaru, Ferris ordered Julius Quasi Spirit that was with Subaru to protect him, though Ferris took the full blast. Quickly recovering from the blast, Subaru was shocked to see that Ferris was perfectly fine except for his clothes, who told him that he just died once, as he was using the Dragon Carriage's cover as makeshift clothing. Before Subaru could inquire further, Ferris directed his attention across the village where members of the group were fighting the Witch Cult, telling him that the Witch Cult was brought into the village by the merchant. While Subaru, Ferris, and Julius helped fight the Witch Cult, Wilhelm fought the "sloth" Ketty elsewhere in the village. Wilhelm soon defeated him, nonetheless he was caught off guard when the man committed suicide by carving out his brain through his left eye with a dagger, making him unable to dodge a follow up attack in time, heavily injuring him.

Subaru and Julius rushed over to help him, opting to take him to Ferris to be healed, yet they were prevented from doing so when a female "sloth" appeared along with four Witch Cult members. The female "sloth" was annoyed that they weren't dead yet, prompting Subaru to decide to fight her himself, ordering Julius to deal with the others. Using the gospel book he took from Betelgeuse along with imitations of him, he led the woman away, then when he was far enough away he had his Earth Dragon hit her at high speed, sending her body flying into the air. Unfortunately the woman got back up and began to use her Unseen Hands to throw debris at them, forcing Subaru to run into the forest on his Earth Dragon to hide himself, nonetheless the woman chased after him in the air by using part of her Unseen Hands to throw herself around while using the other part to keep on attacking him. Eventually Subaru was forced off of his Earth Dragon and hit the ground. After she recovered the gospel book, the woman decided to give him mercy, offering to remember his last words out of respect for his efforts. In response to her words, he showed her the barrier magic stone he had picked up, and moments later a Wolgarm appeared to attack her as she had the witch's scent. The Wolgarm attempted to rip her windpipe out, forcing her to fight back, though it managed to leave a fatal wound, which Subaru took advantage of by moving the stone so that the barrier divided the people and the Demon Beast. As he took back the gospel book, the dying woman told him to keep it, mentioning that the love would be recovered, before dying of her wounds.

Making his way back to the village on his Earth Dragon, Subaru quickly spotted the last "sloth", this time a bald man. The man attempted to attack him with his Unseen Hands, but before he could Emilia appeared, telling him that she wouldn't forgive him for his actions. He immediately became excited, commenting that she looked exactly the same and that he probably wouldn't find another vessel again. His excitement soon turned into rage when he spotted Pack on Emilia's shoulder, berating the Spirit for getting too close to the vessel. Subaru tried to assist them but was held back by Ferris, who ordered him to rest, then told him to have faith in her. To his surprise, Emilia defeated the man with some effort, killing him by freezing him in her ice. As he watched Emilia after the battle, Subaru felt a strange feeling expand inside of himself, and ran into the forest so he could put as much distance between him and her as he could. Julius encountered him in the forest, wondering what he was doing, and at that moment "sloth" took control of Subaru's body and attack Julius with his Unseen Hands. Julius dodged the attack, with Ferris and Wilhelm joining them soon after, causing "Subaru" to introduce himself as Betelgeuse. Subaru had realized too late that "sloth" wasn't Betelgeuse and the ten fingers but rather Betelgeuse himself who had been controlling the fingers.

Settling himself into Subaru's body, Betelgeuse appraised Julius, Ferris, and Wilhelm's bodies while abusing himself, coming to the conclusion that Julius' body work as a finger if he got rid of the "vile" Spirits. Refusing his offer, Julius tried calling out to Subaru, which Betelgeuse called a futile effort, however he was surprised when Subaru forced control of his body back. The two began fighting for control over Subaru's body, and while they did so, Subaru felt what Betelgeuse constantly experienced, understanding why Betelgeuse acted like he did, earning him an emotionless response from Betelgeuse that he didn't expect anyone to understand him. Subaru called out to each of the three present while he still had control, saying his goodbyes to Julius and Wilhelm before asking Ferris to kill him with his Water Magic. Ferris reluctantly complied, using his Water Magic to make the water in his body go out of control, then Julius dealt the finishing blow by slitting his throat with his sword. As he died, Subaru fell into darkness, hearing the shadowy person declare her love for him once again before he returned back from death.

Arc 4
Three days after the battle against the Witch Cult, Subaru and Emilia headed back to the village from the Karsten Mansion in the last of the six Dragon Carriages prepared for the villagers, though he didn't take the children with them as he wanted to talk with her in private. In addition, they were also taking back Rem's unconscious body, which already had its name and memories eaten by Ley Batenkaitos. Before he left for Roswaal's Mansion, he was approached by an amnesic Crusch, along with Ferris and Wilhelm, to bid them farewell. Ferris was somewhat concerned about Subaru, who had overused his already damaged gate during the battle, nonetheless he didn't feel any different, yet was ordered not use magic for two months. Emilia asked Crusch if she was concerned she was a silver haired Half Elf, but Crusch, after hearing from Emilia that she wasn't embarrassed about how she was living her life, told her that she wasn't afraid of her in the slightest.

On the way to Roswaal's land, the mood inside of the Dragon Carriage was terrible, prompting Otto to try and lighten it up, however he was shocked when Subaru forgot he was there since he was driving. Still, he did manage to lighten up the mood after a brief conversation, after which he was shut out from the carriage. Following a bit of trivial talk, the conversation shifted to business, at which point Otto rejoined the conversation. Once they reached the village, they were surprised to see that it was empty, with no sign of the villagers that had evacuated to the Sanctuary, leading them to believe that something was happening there. Subaru and Emilia decided to return to the mansion, along with Otto, since they didn't know where the Sanctuary was, and to Subaru's surprise the inside of the mansion was clean, as he had expected it to be trashed. Suddenly, a shadow approached him from behind, and upon seeing a mouth filled with white beast like fangs, he lost consciousness.

He woke up later, receiving an apology from Frederica soon after, and moved on to the topic at hand. Frederica revealed that she had been called back by Ram to work the mansion, as she didn't have the skills to do it herself. When Otto asked Subaru on what to do with Rem, he was surprised that he was told coldly to not touch her, since he would carry her instead. After thinking about what happened to Rem during the battle, he had Emilia insult him to clear his mind, then left for the library to visit Beatrice. Upon arriving at the library, he asked her if she remembered Rem, however she refused to answer, pointing out that his question was inquiring about someone eaten by gluttony. Hearing this, he tried to get information about that from her, which she also refused to say anything about, though she was surprised to see that he had Betelgeuse's gospel book, causing her to ask about the Sloth Witch Genes. Seeing that he didn't understand her words, she wondered why Subaru killed him, telling him that he would have to come to a decision about the Witch Genes sometime in the future. She then informed him that she wasn't his convenient tool for answers before kicking him out of the library.

Returning from the library, he went to the Dragon Carriage with Frederica to take Rem to her room, learning on the way to her room that Beatrice was a Spirit. After setting Rem down on the bed, he discussed the situation with Emilia, who decided that they needed to go to the Sanctuary. Having heard their plan, Frederica agreed to prepare for their trip, informing them that it would be two days later, and warned them to be careful of Garfiel Tinsel while they were there. During the wait, Subaru attempted to talk Otto into joining Emilia's Camp, which he succeeded in doing, but as a precaution had Petra act as a witness. Two days later, Subaru, Emilia, and Otto left for the Sanctuary, leaving Frederica and Petra behind to take care of the mansion. As the entered the forest near the Sanctuary, Emilia lost consciousness, and they were subsequently attacked by Garfiel. Garfiel easily defeated both their Earth Dragon and Otto, however he decided to let Subaru through after seeing him protect Emilia whatever happened, offering to guide all of them to the village.

Once they arrived at the village, they met Ram, who guided them to the house where Roswaal was. To their surprise, Roswaal was lying down on a bed, his body heavily injured. Questioning the injured man, Roswaal confirmed that the Sanctuary was also known as the "Witch of Greed's Graveyard", who he insisted the others refer to by name as Echidna. Continuing on, he revealed that the "Roswaals" were in charge of taking care of the graveyard, along with the fact that he and the villagers were under house arrest, which was why they were unable to return. Noticing that Subaru was misunderstanding the situation, he explained that he wasn't injured to be placed under house arrest but rather he was injured so he was placed under house arrest, adding that the villagers weren't directly responsible for his injuries. Soon after, Garfiel arrived, who became angry at Roswaal for not properly explaining things, prompting Roswaal to ask him to guide Subaru and Emilia to the graveyard, and as they left, Ram quietly warned Subaru to not enter the graveyard if he didn't want to captivated by the thoughts of the witch.

Fifteen minutes later, the trio arrived at the grave, prompting Garfiel to ask Emilia to enter to check whether she was worthy of taking the trials or not. The two were confused by his requesting, leading him to reveal that he didn't know much about the trials himself, only that those who worthy of taking them were unable to leave the Sanctuary until they cleared them. Hearing this, Emilia recalled that she lost consciousness upon entering the Sanctuary, something Garfiel confirmed was the sign of someone worthy, stating that those who were worthy were all halfs. Fearing for her safety, Subaru asked Garfiel to accompany her during the trials, nevertheless he refused, revealing that he couldn't enter because of a contract, causing Subaru to think of looking for Otto to take his place. When she mentioned that she'd be fine, Subaru offered to scout ahead first, but Garfield advised against it, mentioning that those unworthy who were in the grave at nightfall would end up in a fate like Roswaal's. Nonetheless he decided to scout ahead anyway, which the two protested against, making him promise Emilia that he would return safely. Despite their promise, Subaru fell into a trap hole right as he entered the grave, and ten minutes after waking up in the pit, he encountered a girl, who introduced herself as Echidna.

Echidna, noting that Subaru was too cautious of her to talk properly, decided to change the area into a grassy plain, then invited him to have tea with her at a white table. After joking around with him, such as telling him that his tea was made of her body fluids, she got down to business, telling him that he was in her dreams. Subaru told her to send him back though he was convinced to stay when she offered to answer any questions he had. Seeing that he was still intimidated, Echidna swapped places with Typhon, who, after some small talk, checked to see if he was an evil person by shaking his hand, deducing right after that he wasn't. However, Subaru noticed that she had pulled his right arm off, and as he panicked, she shattered both of his legs from the knee down, making him fall into her arms. He became confused even further when she introduced herself as the Witch of Pride, the feeling growing when she was replaced with Sekhmet, who commented that Subaru was the third person to meet three witches in a row, the first two being Flugel and Reid Astrea. He pleaded for her to fix his missing body parts, nevertheless she refused as she claimed it would be a hassle, leaving it to Minerva to take care of.

Looking him over, Minerva quickly deduced that it was the work of Typhon, lamenting about conflict while she repeatedly punched him to heal him. Once she finished, she made him promise to not get injured, telling him that she would heal him even if he did, then swapped places with Echidna, who asked him if that proved how harmless she was compared to the others, to which he referred to her as a witch. As they returned to the table, Echidna revealed that she had collected the souls of the other witches since had been important to her while they were still alive. Going through various topics, such as Daphne's Three Great Demon Beasts and Reid Astrea, the topic eventually ended up at Echidna's situation, who Subaru was curious about since she was said to be deceased. Confirming that she was dead, she explained that she was confined to the grave by the dragon Volcanica as a deterrent to Satella, as her seal wasn't firm, nor was the dragon immortal. She also expressed somewhat of an interest in Roswaal, mentioning that Roswaal was "a little too earnest", willing to give up her own life for a single purpose. A while later, the effects of the tea she served him started to take effect, prompting her to tell him that what he drank was without a doubt her body fluids, which were helping the Witch Genes inside his body settle in.

Listening to her explanation, he realized that she talked similar to Pack, which she became interested about yet didn't say much about. As he was about to leave, Echidna made him promise not to tell anyone what he learned and allow the Witch Genes to anchor themselves inside of him, and in exchange she would allow him to take the trials in Emilia's place, remarking that he seemed to have made a similar contract with someone. A short while later, Subaru awoke in a building in the village, then made his way with Emilia to the house Roswaal was staying in, where Emilia declared that she would take the trials. The next night, Subaru visited the grave with Emilia and Lewes, and the two waited outside while she took the trial, the lights in the grave suddenly went out, prompting him to run in and help her. Immediately, he heard a phrase telling him to face his past, and ended up in his room in Japan. After interacting with his parents for a while, he decided to go to school for the first time in a while, where he encountered Echidna wearing his school's female uniform. Subaru went over the details with her, thanking her for letting him tell his parents what he wanted to say, even if they were fake, before leaving the trial. Once he left, Echidna turned her attention to the teacher's stand, where Satella was standing. Satella was annoyed that Echidna had toyed with his feelings, which she claimed were only hers, causing her to try and absorb her, nonetheless Echidna calmly dealt with her by summoning Sekhmet to push her back into the darkness.

Subaru awoke near Emilia, who he saw was struggling with her trial, causing him to go over to her. He woke her up, however the stress from what she saw during the trial made her mentally unstable, forcing him to carry her back to the village. She recovered later that day, and while she was surprised that he passed the first trial, she refused to have him take it in her place, stating that she would take it alongside him. Unfortunately, they quickly found out that he couldn't move on until she finished, which she was unable to do as she spent the next three nights failing her trial, earning Garfiel's annoyance. Faced with the results, Subaru negotiated with Garfiel to release the hostages in exchange for him to take the trial instead of Emilia, to which both sides agreed. Later that day, he returned to the village with the hostages, then visited Roswaal's mansion to take care of things, when he noticed something was strange. As he looked for Frederica and Petra, he was killed by Elsa in Roswaal's room, who reminded him of what she said to take care of their bowels until the next time she appeared.

Returning from death, he quickly realized that he was in the graveyard after the first trial. Going through the same situations as the previous loop, he brought Emilia back to the house, however this time around Garfiel objected to him participating in the trials. He tried protesting Garfiel and Lewes' decision to Roswaal, though when he refused to do anything about it, he asked about Emilia's past instead, learning that she had frozen her entire village in Elior Forest in the past. Leaving Roswaal's house, he decided to head to the grave, only to be intercepted by Garfiel, who had been patrolling the area as he knew Subaru would try something. Subaru demanded to know why he was blocking his way, causing Garfiel to tell him that he smelled like the witch, which was why he didn't trust him at all. He tried the next morning but saw that Garfiel was still there and ended up going to Lewes' temporary house to talk with her. While there, he noticed a contradiction in her words about whether she took the test or not, yet the only thing she said in response was that no one in the Sanctuary could lie. The next day, with Roswaal's counsel, the hostages were freed, and Subaru led them back to the village, with him stopping at the mansion to ask Frederica about Garfiel. Upon returning to the mansion, Subaru visited Rem, then sat down with Frederica to talk about stuff about the Sanctuary, though she told him that she couldn't tell him much because of her contract with Roswaal. To begin her story, Frederica told him about the Demi Human War, then moved on from there to her family, explaining how they ended up with Roswaal. She revealed that they had been able to leave the Sanctuary as they were quarter, nevertheless Garfiel refused to leave, stating that he wouldn't leave the others behind.

Once their discussion was finished, Subaru tried searching around for the entrance to the library, and after failing to find it, he opened the entrance to the hidden passageway in Roswaal's room with Petra's help, who explained that it connected to a shack in the mountains. Making his way through the passage with Petra, he reached the room where he had previously died from frostbite, and when he opened the door he was immediately attacked by Elsa. Quickly realizing that it was her, he used Shamak to hold her off, with the two retreating as fast as they could. Fortunately Frederica came to their aid, blocking the entrance to the passageway once they got through. After taking a moment to think, Subaru tried to wake Petra up, who he thought was unconscious, though unfortunately he saw that a Kukri Knife was embedded from the back of her neck to the back of her head, which had killed her instantly. Not knowing what do, he took Petra's body to Rem's room, but before he could enter he despaired when he heard Elsa's voice coming from behind him.

Refusing to let her kill him, he entered Rem's room only to find himself in the library, despairing at the though that Elsa was about to kill Rem. Beatrice confirmed his thoughts, stating that his reason for trying to leave just vanished, and began to heal his wounds. He tried to commit suicide by biting his tongue, however Beatrice prevented him from dying, causing him to become angry, and when he took it out on her, she dropped her gospel book. Immediately recognizing the book, Subaru demanded to know if she could only do what the book told her to do, prompting her to kick him out after an argument, sending him to a laboratory like place. Making his way outside, he realized that he was in the Sanctuary, and decided to interrogate Roswaal about everything. Soon after, he arrived in the village, noting that no one was there, and made his way to the grave, where the Oousagi ate a hole straight through him, killing him from blood loss.

Subaru returned from death once again in the grave, and just like his two previous loops, he took Emilia back to her house before heading over to Roswaal's house to interrogate him about everything. During the questioning, he learned that Roswaal also had a gospel book, which Roswaal referred to as one of the only two complete books owned by him and Beatrice, making him realize that he knew everything that had happened. Subaru accused him of letting Rem die, leading him to ask who she was, and at that point he lost it and tried to attack Roswaal but was stopped by Garfiel who smashed the right side of his face in. He was subsequently placed in a cell, though he was rescued three days later by Otto, then, with Ram's assistance, led the villagers out of the Sanctuary. As they neared the barrier, Garfiel blocked their path, nevertheless he agreed to let them pass as long as Subaru remained, yet in spite of that he tried to kill him once they left, forcing Ram to hold him back to let Subaru leave with the villagers. Her actions angered him, causing him to beastify and chase after the villagers, beginning to massacre them when they tried to prevent him from killing him. Subaru himself tried to help but was thrown off into the distance by Patrasche. Returning to the scene a while later, he was confused as to why there were no bodies, his confusion increasing when he saw that there was no one in the Sanctuary either. Confused and tired, he made his way to the grave, and on the way there he encountered the Oousagi and was eaten again.

Subaru returned from death again, however this time Echidna brought him to a second tea party, where they went over his Returns from Death ability. As they wrapped up the topic, he shifted the topic to his most recent death, and after he explained how he died, she informed him that he was killed by the Oousagi, one of the Three Great Demon Beasts created by the Witch of Gluttony Daphne. Hearing this, he requested to see the witch, though she was reluctant to let them meet until he convinced her otherwise. The two argued about the Demon Beasts, causing Daphne to make him experience extreme hunger, which he recovered from a short while later thanks to Minerva's punch. Wary of her after experiencing hunger, he declared that he would get rid of the Oousagi, which she laughed at, and soon after she switched places with Echidna. As his body began to awaken in the grave, Echidna took Petra's handkerchief as the cost for her help. He awoke in the grave but then realized that Emilia wasn't near him, prompting him to go look outside since he felt a bad feeling.

Once outside, he was shocked to see that the entire Sanctuary was enveloped in shadow, quickly coming face to face with the Witch of Envy's shadow. The witch tried to absorb him, though fortunately Garfiel saved him, explaining that everyone else had been swallowed by the shadows. The witch continued to try and absorb him, forcing Garfiel in his beastified form and the Lewes Meyers to try to fight her, however they were quickly killed by the shadow. The shadow then approached him, trying to absorb him once again, but this time a light shone from his chest, its source Petra's handkerchief that he had given Echidna earlier. As Echidna had modified it, the handkerchief hardened in accordance to his will, allowing him to use it as a weapon to cut away the shadows trying to absorb him. Using the handkerchief, he cut his way straight to the witch, but was shocked when he saw it was Emilia behind the shadows, his agitation allowing the witch to ensnare him in her shadows again. Seeing that there was no other choice, Subaru slit his throat with the handkerchief, and as he died he realized that the witch was controlling Emilia's body, leading him to promise to save her.

Subaru awoke in the grave like before, though unlike the other loops, this time he discussed the trials with Emilia after he woke her up. The events that followed were the same as the previous loops, but this time he stayed with Emilia for a while to discuss the trials a bit more, this time lying to her about taking the trial himself. Once he finished, he questioned Ram about Roswaal's gospel book, then was interrogated outside by Garfiel. When he questioned Garfiel about Lewes, the boy immediately became angry, claiming that he wouldn't understand the things they've been through since he hadn't gone through hardships, causing Subaru to tell him that he'd been through something similar many times. After parting with the boy, Subaru recalled the time he met him in front of the grave while he was talking with Otto, and retraced his steps to end up at the laboratory like place he had been teleported to by Beatrice. Making his way inside the building, he was shocked to see Lewes inside of a huge crystal, but quickly regained his composure to analyze the situation. Noticing that the room placement was strange, he checked the walls as he thought there was an extra room hidden somewhere, and as he turned toward the door to check the other room, he met eyes with another Lewes who had just arrived. He tried to talk with her, nevertheless Lewes ignored him and began taking care of the crystal, and as he watched he felt the same feeling when powerful magic was used as the crystal shone with bluish white light, noting that the crystal was interfering with the mana in the atmosphere.

Her work finished, Lewes tried to leave but was stopped again by Subaru, who held her with one hand to prevent her from leaving while he touched the crystal with the other. Suddenly, he was gripped with an intense feeling of heat inside of his body, forcing him to the ground out of pain. The feeling left him soon after, and he was surprised to see Lewes drop to her knees and respectfully bow her head to him, subsequently leading him outside where the Lewes he knew was waiting, who promised to explain once they moved to a different place.

After they arrived at Lewes' temporary house, she explained to him that the Lewes Meyer inside of the crystal was the real girl, and that all of the other Lewes' he'd seen were all copies of the original, which she revealed were created by crafting an artificial Od through a special spell and creating the rest of the body through mana, adding that all Lewes created were given enough intelligence to follow orders from birth. This led him to realize that the copies were being created to experiment with immortality, though she pointed out that Echidna's experiment hadn't been successful as the copies weren't a good enough vessel to hold her soul, explaining that because of this the few copies that experienced it had broken personalities, and that it was troublesome to get rid of them as they had fragments of the Witch of Greed's power. She continued by telling him that aside from the four that acted as Lewes, the rest of the copies acted as eyes and messengers, revealing that it took three days for one of the four copies to recharge, further explaining that Subaru was able to order the copies around as he was a Disciple of Greed. He had no idea what she meant until he told her about Echidna's tea, which she confirmed was the cause.

Gathering the information in his mind, he left Emilia a note, then had the copies help him escape from the Sanctuary, making sure to take Betelgeuse's gospel book along with him, which he somehow became able to read. Just as he expected, Garfiel tried to prevent him from leaving, however he dealt with him by having the copies along with one of the four main Lewes hold him back while he left on Patrasche. Arriving at the mansion half a day later, he asked Petra to stay home for the next week, then discussed Garfiel with Frederica, learning that Garfiel had taken the trial before in the past. Afterward, he visited Beatrice in the library, telling her his reasons, which she reacted to every time he presented more information, and he dealt the finishing blow by mentioning that she was most likely Echidna's Contract Spirit. Defeated, she dropped her gospel book to the floor, prompting him to pick it up. He was surprised that the entire book was blank, causing her to mention that it had been that way for years, and asked him to kill her to set her free from the contract. He refused to do so, causing her to have an emotional outburst, telling him that she been alone for 400 years. When he offered to form a contract with her, she asked if he would put her first, pointing out that he wouldn't do it as that spot in his mind was already given to Emilia and Rem. Hearing this, he asked her why she was letting him finish her, but before she could answer she was interrupted by Elsa, who was standing in the doorway with a blood stained Kukri Knife in her hand.

Surprised to see her in the library, Beatrice asked how she was able to find the place, prompting her to reveal that she left all the doors in the mansion open, as her Door Crossing couldn't connect to open doors. Upon hearing that she had killed Petra, Subaru cast Shamak before pulling himself and Beatrice into it, using it to confuse Elsa while they escaped past her. While running through the mansion, the two found Petra's dead body on the dining table, though they decided to leave her for the time being to find Rem. He was certain that Frederica was the one who let Elsa in, however his suspicions were cleared when they discovered her dead body in front of the door to Rem's room, which she had died to protect. Before they could enter the room, Elsa caught up to them, forcing Beatrice to fight back using Yin Magic. They succeeded in retrieving Rem, nevertheless Beatrice was killed by Elsa, who she thought she had killed instead, and Elsa proceeded to repeatedly cut him before knocking him out. He awoke a while later to realize that he nor Rem had been killed, which he didn't really understand, nonetheless he took Petra and Frederica's bodies along with him to the village to find 12 huge blobs of meat there and no villagers. Ignoring the terrible feeling he had, he buried both girls in the village, then returned to the Sanctuary, eventually coming face to face with an angry Garfiel who informed him that he had taken back control of the copies.

Taking Rem as a hostage, Garfiel ordered Subaru to drag Emilia out of the grave, pointing out the winter like condition around them, telling him that he suspected Emilia of freezing the area just like Elior Forest. Having no choice, he checked up on Emilia, who was worried about him, even mentioning that she loved him, nonetheless upon exciting the grave he informed Garfiel that she had lost her mind, as he knew she would never depend on him like that. Before Garfiel could say anything, he revealed everything he had learned about him, including the fact that Roswaal was the one who was making it snow, pointing out that he was most likely the one who was keeping them in the Sanctuary. Soon after, the two confronted Roswaal about the snow, but to his surprise he asked him if he was the one who told him that. Roswaal was disappointed about Subaru's answer but didn't deny making it snow, causing Garfiel to try to attack him, which Ram prevented by holding him, earning her a comment from Roswaal that she was a good follower. Subaru didn't understand what he meant until he saw him stab through both of them with his arm, then destroy Garfiel's head to prevent him from beastifying, killing them both. Wiping his boots with the mattress, he proceeded to talk with Subaru, pointing out that he wasn't feeling any kind of sadness over their deaths since he had a method to reverse it, causing him to realize that Roswaal knew about his Returns from Death. He revealed that everything that had happened in the Sanctuary had gone entirely according to plan, as he had used the snow to manipulate Garfiel into making the others think it was Emilia's fault.

Hearing this, Subaru ordered the Lewes copies to attack him, revealing that he had received control over them before confronting him, nevertheless Roswaal easily killed them with magic, he himself revealing that he had stopped making it snow a short while earlier, allowing him to use magic again. After killing them, he cast Goa repeatedly in the direction of the forest, where the Oousagi was just arriving at the Sanctuary. While killing them one by one, Roswaal explained that the mana and snow had attracted them to the Sanctuary, then stopped killing them, stating that he no longer had any reason to live. As the Oousagi approached, Roswaal advised him to get rid of everything except the one thing he held dear, as that would allow him to be like him, before getting eaten by the Demon Beast. Running with all his might, Subaru made his way to the cathedral, in spite of that he was too late in arriving as it was already in flames, the villagers choosing to die instead of fighting back. He remembered that Rem was also in the cathedral and knew that there was nothing he could do to save her. Making his way back to the grave, the crazed Emilia greeted him again, this time giving him a lap pillow. As she had lost her mind, Emilia didn't notice the Oousagi beginning to eat him, and as he died, Emilia gave him a kiss, which he described to taste like cold death.

Returning from death for the fifth time, Subaru went along with the events as normal, but this time he revealed everything he knew about Garfiel to him after lying that he failed the trial, making him promise not to interfere with him. Returning to the grave, he tried to return to Echidna's realm, only to be forced into starting the second trial, which was seeing the continuation of his 13th death, the time he killed himself after seeing that Rem's name and memories were eaten. Wilhelm and Ferris tried to save him, however the thing inside of Subaru tried to attack them, causing Pack to freeze the entire area. At that moment, Subaru returned to the grave, but soon after he was pulled back to the trial, this time to view his 12th death, the time Ferris and Julius had killed him along with Betelgeuse. He watched as everyone there grieved for him, with Julius stating that he had wanted to be friends with him. He was forced back to reality with his words, and after realizing that the voice that started the second trial was his own voice, he was forced to watch the continuation of another death, this time his 7th death where he had jumped off of a cliff in front of Ram and Beatrice. Standing next to his dead body, an angry Ram tried to lash out at Beatrice but stopped when she saw that she was crying while kneeling next to his body. Following that scene, he was forced to view the continuation of his 9th death, the time when Pack had frozen him at the Roswaal Mansion after escaping from Betelgeuse's cave. Reinhard had confronted Pack after Subaru's death and killed him, but not before Pack mentioned that Reinhard could only become a hero. Once he had killed him, Reinhard commented that Felt would be sad.

Afterwards, he was forced to view his 1st death, the time where Elsa had killed both him and Emilia at night at the Stolen Goods Warehouse. Once Elsa had killed both of them, Pack appeared to take revenge, freezing the entire area. The trial moved on to Subaru's 5th death, which was the time he was killed by Rem as he tried to make his way to Emilia's room. After hearing that Rem had killed Subaru, Emilia cut ties with Roswaal, slapping him when he called her actions a tantrum. She then had Rem guide her to his dead body as she had decided to bury him in Elior Forest. The trial moved on to Subaru's 11th death, which was the time he was forced to kill himself after being controlled by Betelgeuse. Emilia had come down to the village when the female Betelgeuse was there, forcing Beatrice to send her back to the mansion and Pack to break the contract and freeze Betelgeuse's soul. Once he viewed the scene, he returned to a place he didn't recognize, and encountered Rem there, who he quickly realized was a fake when he heard her say things the real Rem would never say. Upon realizing that the Rem in front of him was fake, she turned into a different girl, who introduced herself as Carmilla, the Witch of Lust. He demanded to know why she took Rem's form, prompting her to tell him that if he saw her as someone else that was what he wanted to see, causing him to try and make him feel his anger, though he had to be saved by Echidna, who pointed out that being captivated by Carmilla could lead to death. True to her words, the instant Echidna caught his attention he felt intense breathlessness and dry eye from forgetting to breathe and blink.

Leaving Subaru at the bottom of the hill, Echidna sat down at the table, telling him that she sent Carmilla to prevent him from wearing himself down and breaking from the trial. In response to her words, he sat down at table, though he refused to drink her tea. To begin their discussion, they went over the second trial, which he correctly guessed as seeing a different future than what had actually happened, leading him to question her about Returns from Death. Echidna herself didn't know exactly how it worked either, causing the topic to shift to the Witch of Envy, with her explaining that the witch he encountered was an imitation of the real thing as the vessel was immature and none of her seals were broken, therefore limiting her power far below what it was at her prime, which still shocked him. Eventually, she offered to form a contract with him to help him, however they were interrupted by Minerva who wouldn't acknowledge it. He didn't understand what she was talking about, but with her, Carmilla, and Sekhmet's assistance, he realized that Echidna hadn't been telling him the whole truth, leading him to reject her offer. Before she could say anything in response, Satella appeared, causing Minerva to go over to her and determine who she was, with Echidna explaining that Satella and the Witch of Envy were separate personalities. Minerva determined that the woman in front of her was Satella and suggested to him to talk with her. Through his conversation with Satella and the other witches, he learned to come to terms with himself, and promised to save Satella even though she asked him to kill her.

Subaru returned to reality the next morning to find himself outside of the grave, learning soon after from Otto that Patrasche had braved injuries to pull him out. Afterward, he tried to enter the grave to check what the next trial was, only to realize that his right to take the trials had been revoked, which he confirmed by trying to take authority over the Lewes copies only to fail to do so. Not knowing what else to do, he visited Roswaal that night go over information, leading to an intellectual battle between the two to try and outdo the other. Partway through the battle Subaru revealed that Echidna revoked his right to the trials, causing Roswaal to panic as that future wasn't listed in his gospel book, his agitation making him slip that he was the one who hired Elsa to kill everyone at the mansion just to strengthen Subaru's resolve. Despite his pleas, Roswaal refused to order Elsa to stop, stating that he would do whatever it took to "complete" Subaru. Leaving Roswaal's house, Subaru met Emilia outside, who he tried to convince to wait in completing the trials until he found a better way, nonetheless she refused his offer, telling him that she couldn't always depend on him. He fell asleep in the woods that night and woken by Garfiel the next day, then cheered up by Otto who promised to help, making him realize what to do as he returned to Roswaal to make a bet. He told Roswaal that he would do what he wanted to do in his current loop, but if he died because of it, he would obediently listen to him in the next one. Claiming he would gain Garfiel as an ally and have Emilia pass the trials, he made the bet contract with Roswaal, who didn't really think he would be able to accomplish it. Their contract sealed, Subaru returned to Otto to discuss their next move.

Heading to the laboratory to deal with his first condition, he discussed Garfiel's actions with Lewes, coming to the conclusion that one of the four other main Lewes was instructing him to oppose the Sanctuary being set free. That night, he visited Emilia, and with some encouragement, he managed to convince her to discuss what she saw in the trial. Right after that, he realized that Pack wasn't sleeping at all, causing him to speak with him telepathically, revealing to him that Emilia was unconsciously making him unable to materialize because of her fear of her past. Pack explained that the only way she would get through the trials was for him to break their contract and that he wanted Subaru to support her while he was gone. The next morning, she had an emotional outburst for most of the morning, finally falling asleep near noon, letting Subaru meet with the Lewes he dubbed as Lewes Sigma. During their meeting, Subaru learned that Lewes Theta was the one he needed to see, before regrouping with Otto to visit Roswaal, where Otto had him agree to not interfere with them directly. He visited Emilia soon after, who asked him to hold her hand until morning, however he was forced to break his promise to prepare, causing her to disappear the next morning. Lewes Theta also disappeared the next morning, forcing Subaru and Otto to find her before Garfiel in order to ask what they needed to ask, though fortunately Subaru found her at Garfiel and Frederica's old house, who explained what she saw during the trial, then agreed to support him in his effort to set the Sanctuary free. Following Lewes Theta's story, he had a decent idea of where Emilia was, and headed there to speak with her, leaving Otto to deal with Garfiel.

Across the Sanctuary, Garfiel smelled a large number of people heading in one direction, and upon seeing Otto and some Dragon Carriages, he demanded to know what they were doing. He soon realized that the smell he was sensing actually came from people's clothes, and that the real villagers were already leaving the Sanctuary on Dragon Carriage in various places, leading him to consider going to the grave to stop Subaru and Emilia from meeting, however Otto prevented him from doing so, using various tricks to keep his attention. Eventually, Garfiel tried to finish him off, however Ram joined their fight to help him. Garfiel didn't understand why they were helping Subaru, prompting both to tell him that they trusted him. Not wanting to think any more, Garfield turned into his beastified form to finish them, but this was exactly what Ram was waiting for. With a little of Otto's help, Ram defeated Garfiel, whose reasoning wasn't clear because of the tricks Otto had used on him.

Back at the grave, Subaru had arrived to find Emilia there, subsequently asking her to talk with him. After an argument between the two about keeping promises, he decided to be a strict with her but made sure to tell her that he believed in her because he loved her, and to prove it, he kissed her, which he described to taste like hot life unlike their previous kiss. Leaving her to organize her feelings, he stepped outside to confront a wounded Garfiel, with her joining soon after. Both of them pointed out that Garfiel seemed to be scared of something, which he tried to deny repeatedly. Despite that, he caved in when Subaru mentioned what he had heard about Garfiel's trial, prompting him to reveal the rest of the trial, telling them that their mother had died after leaving them in the Sanctuary, and that was why he opposed the Sanctury being set free, as he believed that there was no happiness outside of it. Hearing this, Subaru decided to forcibly prove to him that he was kindhearted, and they began their fight. Partway through the battle, Garfiel tried to beastify, though his attempt was negated with a crystal stone with Pack inside of it stabbed into his right shoulder that sucked all of his mana, forcing him to revert back to his original form. Although Subaru was successful in stabbing him, he had to cast Shamak to accomplish it, resulting in his damaged gate to completely collapse. Even then Garfiel refused to surrender, nonetheless Subaru defeated him by uppercutting him with an Unseen Hand, then having Patrasche slam into him.

After she watched their man's battle, Emilia turned her attention toward the trees nearby, where Roswaal appeared, claiming to have come because he was worried about them. Pointing out that Roswaal was prepared to attack Subaru during the fight, Emilia talked with him about his intentions, leading him to show her his gospel book, stating that he and Subaru were the same in forcing their ideals on the woman they yearned for. When Emilia refuted his remark by revealing what Subaru did, he became agitated, nevertheless he quickly regained his composure as he still didn't think he would lose, and left them for the time being. Ten minutes later, Otto joined them with an injured Ram on his back.

Regrouping together again, Ram talked Garfiel into retaking the trial, to which he agreed, entering the grave to begin the trial. To his surprise, the reason his mother left was to bring back their father, and not because she wanted to live her own life. After talking it over with an image of a young Frederica, Garfiel decided to help those who needed him, leading him to start referring to Subaru as "boss" once he returned. Before Emilia took her turn with the trial, each member present gave her advice except for Subaru, who she told that they would sort out what they did inside of the grave later, sending her off into the grave with confidence. To her surprise, she saw that Subaru had carved pictures and words inside the first room to cheer her up, making her realize what he had done when he left her the night before when she asked him to hold her hand until morning.

While Emilia was inside the grave, Subaru discussed Garfiel's former stance and was puzzled by it, as none of the Lewes recalled telling him to be wary of Subaru and Emilia. Leaving her to focus on the trials, Subaru's group returned to Roswaal's house to speak with him, where they encountered a fifth main Lewes copy he dubbed Lewes Omega, who had no intention of blocking their efforts to free the Sanctuary. The two entered Roswaal's room to find that it was in a mess as Roswaal had raged for a short while. Seeing Garfiel with him, he began to mock him for switching sides so easily, but when Garfiel calmly refuted his claims by mentioning that he cleared the first trial, Roswaal was pressured even further, beginning to redirect his insults at Emilia, causing Subaru to grab his clothes and yell at him, demanding to know if he tried caring about her even once. Telling him that Emilia would succeed, he announced himself to be her knight, then left with Otto and Garfiel to stop Elsa. Back at the mansion, Frederica arrived just in time to prevent Elsa from attacking Petra, with Garfiel taking her place soon after, telling her to go help the others. Meanwhile, Subaru tried to convince Beatrice to leave with her but failed, making her kick him out of the library. Soon after Otto and Petra joined him, informing him that a horde of Demon Beasts had surrounded the mansion, making it impossible to escape, and at that moment they were attacked by Elsa who had left her battle with Garfiel, though fortunately Frederica joined them with Rem strapped on her back. Garfiel smashed his way through the ceiling with a dead Demon Beast, which Meili had brought with her, the girl herself joining seconds later.

The group left Garfiel behind to deal with their enemies while they looked for an exit. Dealing with other Demon Beasts along the way, the group eventually reached the hallway with the entrance to Roswaal's room, where one of Meili's trump cards, the Guiltylowe, was standing guard to prevent anyone from escaping through the passageway. Putting their skills together, they managed to trick the Demon Beast into heading into their traps one after another, with Subaru trying to finish it off with a dust explosion in the kitchen, and when that failed Otto covered it with the oil he had and burned it to death. Unfortunately, he used too much oil, allowing the fire to quickly spread across the mansion. The group quickly returned to Roswaal's room, where Subaru announced that he would stay to take care of Beatrice. As he looked around, Garfiel finished his battle against Elsa, Meili, and Meili's other trump card, the Wagpig, on the eastern side of the mansion, killing the Wagpig and using its massive body to crush Elsa after she had healed from fatal wounds for the fourth time. Searching around, Subaru tried multiple times to enter the library, and each time Beatrice kicked him out for a total of seven attempts. Unfortunately, on his way to try the passageway door for his eight attempt, he was attacked by both a fatally wounded Elsa with the bottom half of her body destroyed and the Guilytylowe he thought they killed, though fortunately for him they began killing each other, giving him enough time to reach the door. Elsa forcibly chased after him once she killed the Demon Beast, but unlike Subaru who entered the library, she was hit by a backdraft the second she opened the door, her body completely destroyed by the fire. Seconds later, the mansion completely collapsed.

The library itself was a mess as the area itself was breaking apart and the fire was beginning to burn through the room. This time Subaru successfully convinced Beatrice to accept him, telling her that even if she lived longer than him, he would make sure she'd never forget him, prompting her to finally refer to him by his name. The two escaped from the library by teleporting to the Sanctuary, much to relief of everyone else.

A while before Subaru and Beatrice's teleport, Emilia cleared both the first and second trials, then was cheered on by the villagers of the Sanctuary who had gathered at the grave to support her, having been told about what had happened between Subaru and Garfiel in addition to Emilia and Roswaal, before she began the third trial. Meanwhile, Ram confronted Roswaal, who now viewed her as an enemy, informing him that she had come to steal him from his obsession over Echidna. Talking with each other, they went over the contract they made over the gospel book, which stated that as long as things went the same as the gospel book, Ram would serve him with her life, but if it went off course, she could do whatever she wanted to with him, though he would be an empty shell as he would lose all reason to live. He also mentioned that she probably lived a painful life since she was forced to swear loyalty to the man who was the cause of her village's destruction, intentionally using words that would hurt her. Finishing up their conversation, he told her that he would punish her for betraying him, and the two began to fight. During their fight, he was shocked to find out that she loved him rather than having feelings of revenge like he believed, nevertheless he refused to believe her words, stating that her words didn't make sense as he should be someone she hated. She agreed that she hated him at first but added that she fell in love with him in the end. Forcing herself into her Oni Form, she used it to quickly reach the gospel book Roswaal had put aside when they began fighting, subsequently throwing it in one of the remaining fires to destroy it. This earned her his wrath, leading him to hit her with a blast of fire.

At the grave, Emilia completed the third trial, and entered the last room, where she found Echidna's body encased in a sealing stone coffin. Recalling what she needed to do, she read the flow of mana, using it as a guide to get rid of the magic that kept the Sanctuary sealed. Once that was done, she made her way outside to find the area covered in snow, learning from the villagers gathered there that they had retuned to bring everyone out, however the snow blocked their efforts. Afterward, Lewes explained that as Emilia touched the coffin, the control over the Lewes copies had moved to her, and promised to assist her in finding Roswaal to put a stop to his actions. Across the Sanctuary, Roswaal didn't know what to do anymore, nonetheless he made it snow like before, then began giving mana to Ram like always, not wanting her to die as he still needed her. Reaching them soon after, she found Roswaal who no longer had any will to live and a dying Ram in his arms, prompting her to yell at him to get him to believe, ordering the copies to carry them along. A short while later, the Oousagi came as expected, though fortunately Subaru and Beatrice teleported near her at the grave to help fight against them. Subaru, Emilia, and Beatrice worked together to lessen their numbers until Beatrice sent them to a different dimension with Al Shamak. Seeing that they won, Subaru began celebrating by praising Beatrice while holding her up, however he tripped, making them fall face first into the snow.

Later on, Beatrice and Roswaal visited Echidna's body in the grave while everyone else played in the remaining snow outside. During their discussion inside, he revealed to her that he was indeed the original Roswaal, having used his grandchildren's bodies for the last 400 years. She decided to not judge him but ended up slapping him with her shoe. Afterward, he asked her if she would cooperate with him if she could actually reunite with Echidna. Outside, as Subaru finished his Pack snow sculptures, Emilia decided to go over what they did in the grave, causing him to be confused as she apparently thought that babies were made when a man and a woman kissed. He thought about correcting her misunderstanding, though he eventually decided to leave it to Ram and Frederica.

Garfiel, Frederica, Otto, Petra, and Rem arrived at the Sanctuary half a day later along with their prisoner Meili, and immediately took turns punching Roswaal for everything that he'd done. Once they were finished, the group gathered in the cathedral to discuss their current situation, with Roswaal swearing on Echidna's soul that he wouldn't attempt anything like what he did again, nevertheless Garfiel was still suspicious of him, which Subaru took care of by having Roswaal promise to make up for everything he had done, especially to the villagers and Sanctuary citizens. Following their talk, the group dispersed, with Subaru and Roswaal visiting Echidna's body again. While there, Roswaal revealed to him that he had a method of reviving Echidna that wouldn't go against the Od Laguna, though he refused to tell him the details, as it wasn't mentioned in their contract. In addition to that, he revealed that although he did hire Elsa, he didn't ask her to kill Frederica or Petra, and that he didn't hire Meili at all during the Wolgarm incident or the Sanctuary incident. Soon after, Beatrice visited him after Roswaal left, and explained the conditions her contractor had to bear.

Elsewhere, Echidna, who had returned to the living world by transferring her soul into Lewes Meyer's body using Lewes Omega as a medium, renamed herself Omega after viewing the memories left in the soul. As she looked around, she decided to spend some time getting used to everything again, and left the place she was at.

Arc 5
Several months after the incident at the Sanctuary, Subaru was practicing parkour at the athletic zone Garfiel had made for him when Beatrice visited him. Petra arrived soon after, informing the two that there was an messenger, and therefore Emilia had requested their presence at the mansion. Both Subaru and Beatrice tried to refuse but were pressed into going by Petra. Upon arriving at the mansion, they were greeted by an enthusiastic Mimi, who proudly told them that she came alone, before announcing that they were invited to a party hosted by Anastasia. They began playing around at the entrance until they were scolded by Ram, at which point the involved parties gathered in the parlor. Subaru quickly introduced himself to their other guest, Joshua Juukulius, then got straight down to business, which was mostly the same as what Mimi had said, except for the fact that it would be held in the city of Priestella, which was next to the border between Lugnica and Kararagi. Subaru questioned about whether they should go, however they were convinced to go by Joshua who mentioned that Anastasia had asked him to tell them that they would find an extremely high purity magic stone that could house Pack inside of it.

Later that night, Subaru asked Emilia about Priestella, then listened to a drunk Otto's complaints along with Garfiel about how easily they had agreed to go to Anastasia's party. Eventually ignoring him, Garfiel reported to him that Mimi seemed to be suspicious, advising him and Emilia to not walk around alone. Leaving the two to play Shatranj, Subaru visited the sleeping Rem, telling her of the experiences he had that day, before heading back to his own room. Three days later, Subaru, Emilia, Beatrice, Garfiel, and Otto headed to the city, beginning their more than ten day journey there, while Roswaal, Ram, and Petra attended the Western Border Territory Lord Meeting to convince the lords affiliated with Roswaal to support Emilia. Arriving at the city 12 days later, the group headed to the Water Plumage Inn, and Anastasia greeted them in front of the building while Otto left to take their Earth Dragons to the stable. Once Otto came back, the group had a short discussion with both Anastasia and Julius, then left to meet Kiritaka Muse to discuss a deal on the magic stone. On the way there, Subaru became seasick on the waterway boat, forcing him to stay behind and rest with Beatrice. Trying to make their way to the Muse Trading Company on their own, they ended up at a park where Liliana Masquerade was singing, eventually threatening her to guide them there. Upon arriving, they made their way to the meeting room, however Liliana made a commotion in front of the door which caused Kiritaka to notice them, making him attack Subaru for touching "his" Liliana, ending the deal prematurely.

On their way back to the Water Plumage Inn, Otto left them to deal with some business. Emilia accidentally bumped into a cloaked Regulus Corneas, with both sides apologizing for the accident, and after they left he vowed to make her his 79th wife to fill the empty spot. Reaching the inn, they found Joshua arguing with Chin, who, with Reinhard's support, explained that he was working for Felt along with his companions. Their misunderstandings cleared, the group entered Anastasia's meeting room to find the members of the Crusch Camp there, with Reinhard coming face to face with Wilhelm for the first time in a while. The two immediately ignored each other's presence and before long everyone other than the Priscilla Camp, who weren't invited, gathered to talk. When Felt brought up Subaru's efforts, everyone in the room starting with Wilhelm and Julius praised him. Later, Subaru, Ferris, and Julius watched Garfiel fight against Reinhard in the inn garden to see how strong he was, though he was easily dealt with by the Sword Saint who didn't even move from where he was standing. That night, on his way to the bath, Subaru spotted Wilhelm at the garden, deciding right away to talk with him, going over various topics such as his wife. Eventually, Subaru moved the topic to his bad relationship with his grandson, giving him advice on improving it, which Wilhelm thanked him for.

Wilhelm tried his advice the next morning during breakfast, however Heinkel Astrea interrupted them, telling them that had no right to make up since they hadn't changed, adding that Wilhelm himself had gotten angry at Reinhard for killing Thearesia. Immediately, the four candidates urged him to leave, though a newly arrived Priscilla prevented him from doing so. Subaru questioned her as to why she brought Heinkel, prompting her to wonder who he was, as she had apparently forgotten who he was. Fortunately Al remembered him, with Priscilla revealing that she brought Heinkel because it would "make things fun". As the current head of the Astrea House, Heinkel tried to threatened to kick both Felt and Reinhard out, which he tried to accomplish by having Priscilla as his backer, nevertheless she beat him unconscious for being an annoyance, then assured them that even if he did no one would support his decision. The group dispersed after she left and later Julius thanked him for getting angry at Heinkel. Afterward, Subaru visited the same park with Emilia and Beatrice to see Liliana again, but this time Priscilla was there, impressing the crowd with her dancing. After an argument with Priscilla, Subaru was forced to buy treats for everyone, which he reluctantly agreed to, and while he was doing so he bumped into Chin. Immediately after, the crowd both of them was near stopped to look up at the nearby time tower where Sirius was standing, who introduced herself the same way as Betelgeuse.

Seeing her caution those who were about to attack her, Subaru tried to negotiate with her instead of summon Beatrice, at which point she brought out Lusbel Kallard, explaining that he had volunteered to be her prisoner to protect his friend Tina. The crowd praised him for his efforts, making Sirius elated that there was "love", subsequently throwing him off of the tower to his death, then made everyone in the group die the same way with her Authority of Wrath. Returning from death at Liliana, he contemplated on what he needed to do, ultimately deciding to ambush Sirius before she could give her speech. Hiding himself in the time tower, he tried to ambush her with his whip, nonetheless she noticed his anger, leading her to block his weapon with her chain. Fortunately, his whip got caught in a chain link, allowing him to force her off balance, landing a tackle that sent her falling down to the first floor seconds later. He tried to save Lusbel when he was suddenly seized by an intense feeling of fear that was caused by Sirius' Authority, who raised its effects to make both him and Lusbel continuously feel each other's increasing fear, killing both of them by driving them insane.

Returning from death yet again, he reanalyzed the situation based on the new information he gained, this time opting to have Chin call Reinhard to the scene, who arrived in 30 seconds. He proceeded to fight Sirius in the air, which Subaru took advantage of to save Lusbel, though when they returned the crowd was chanting for Reinhard to kill Sirius. Once he killed her by chopping her with his hand from her left shoulder to her right side, everyone else in the vicinity except for Reinhard died the same way. Returning for the third time, he decided to take Beatrice with him, explaining to her the threat they were going to face to see how much he could tell her before the hands blocked him. To their surprise, Emilia also tagged along, agreeing to assist them in their fight against Sirius. Upon seeing Emilia, Sirius became enraged, leading Emilia to fight her while Subaru and Beatrice dealt with the crowd that was emotionally linked to her by her Authority. Eventually, Sirius tried to finish her off, though fortunately she was saved by Regulus, causing Sirius to try to kill him. Partway through their battle, Subaru tried to take Emilia back from him, fighting against him by using EMM and his Unseen Hand, however their fight was also interrupted by the woman whose fight they interrupted first. Taking a look at Subaru, Sirius declared him to be her missing "husband" Betelgeuse, and tried to claim him. Before she could do so, Regulus blocked her again, though right after both of their gospel books reacted, giving both of them a new entry. Prioritizing their work, Regulus left Subaru with a serious injury to his right leg and Sirius spread it to everyone except Beatrice and Emilia as they weren't worthy of being love, and then the two Sin Archbishops left.

Subaru later awoke in a slightly dark room, which Ferris referred to as a field hospital, subsequently being briefed on the situation a little by both him and Ricardo, learning that Beatrice was currently unconscious because she used up all of her mana to keep all of the people affected by Sirius' Authority alive. At that moment, Capella Emerada Lugnica began her second broadcast on the city center's broadcast Meteor, warning the people of Priestella to not try anything as they had taken over the four control towers that controlled the waterways. Once her announcement was over, the three of them used the Conversing Mirror Meteor to contact the others in order to form a plan against the Witch Cult. As they discussed their plan, Garfiel returned with a dying Mimi in his arms, apologizing to everyone for being powerless. The two had spent the previous day together following his defeat to Reinhard, during which he had saved a group of children from a boat, one of which was Fred Thompson, who he later learned was a child of Reala, his actual mother. Later that afternoon, her husband Garek explained how he met her, leading Garfiel to cry himself to sleep in Mimi's arms that night on the roof of a building. The next day, both of them heard Capella's announcement, then agreed to look for Reala's family when they found her at an evacuation center. The two attempted to infiltrate the city center, however they were attacked by Kurgan and Thearesia in the square in front of the building and Mimi was wounded by Thearesia, forcing him to carry her back to Ferris.

As Ferris treated Mimi, the others continued with their strategy meeting, ultimately deciding to gather together at the great waterway leading to the city center, where they had another meeting to go over their opponents. A short while later, the members of the Fang of Steel cleared the way for Subaru, Crusch, Garfiel, Ricardo, Wilhelm, and Julius to reach the city center, at which point they began fighting against their two opponents, though before long Capella appeared on the roof of the city center in the form of a black dragon. Julius injured her with magic, nonetheless she recovered thanks to her regeneration, eventually retreating back into the city center to make a third announcement, forcing Subaru, Crusch, and Julius to head inside to stop her. Upon entering, the three of them encountered Roy Alphard, prompting Julius to send them off using their aliases, as that way Roy wouldn't be able to eat them, while he himself stayed behind to fight him. Subaru and Crusch ended up entering he broadcast preparation room through the window from the roof, quickly dispatching the black dragon inside once they saved the hostage girl at its feet, but when he opened the door to the broadcast room he found a large number of Human sized flies. Hearing her scream behind him, Subaru turned around see an unconscious and injured Crusch at the girl's feet, with the girl insulting them in Capella's voice. After seeing her use her Authority of Lust for a short bit, he figured out that she could transform things, realizing that the dragon and the flies were a result of her transforming the people in the building. Grabbing Crusch's body, he tried to escape from her but failed, causing her to infect him with her own blood that she mentioned to include dragon blood, wondering if either of them would survive the experience. Leaving them behind, she tried to make her way to the announcement room when the dragon she had transformed returned and attacked her with fire just as he lost consciousness.

Subaru awoke a while later, learning soon after from Julius that the Witch Cult had abandoned the city center along with the fact that the area around his leg injury had healed but had turned black. Anastasia traded places with the others while they went to check up on Crusch, revealing to Subaru the existence of the Artificial Spirit she wore, who introduced herself as Echidna. Despite his shock, both girls continued on with the conversation, telling him that one of the Witch Cult's conditions during their third announcement was for them to hand over the Artificial Spirit, though they didn't know which Spirit they were referring to. She told him the other four conditions; the second condition was the Book of Wisdom that was supposedly in the city, the third was for them to deliver twenty couples to a control tower, and the fourth was for them to not bother Regulus' wedding with the silver haired bride. Seeing his reaction, she expressed her desire to disobey the Witch Cult, then went down with him to the first floor to discuss their plan with the others. During their discussion, Al arrived at the city center, causing him to tag along with Subaru and Garfiel who were planning to visit the evacuation centers. Along the way, Subaru realized that Sirius was using her Authority to increase the emotions of people, making them hurry to the nearest evacuation center, but just as they feared the citizens had begun killing each other because of it. Subduing the remaining citizens, they returned to the city center, where Subaru suggested to Anastasia to use the loudspeaker Meteor to tell the citizens to calm down.

Following a brief discussion, Al suggested that Subaru make the call, as he was the one known for killing a Sin Archbishop, which the others agreed to. He quickly began his speech, successfully raising the morale of everyone, enough to make Anastasia ask if he used to be a swindler. After receiving praise from everyone, Otto reappeared with Reinhard who apologized for his tardiness, explaining that Heinkel had taken Felt hostage during their meeting earlier just so he could have Reinhard protect his own like at the cost of everyone else's. Otto continued from where he left off, explaining that he helped Felt escape from Heinkel, allowing Reinhard to capture him. Otto himself had been meeting with Kiritaka at the time of the announcement, adding that Roy had appeared in the same avenue soon after and began causing a commotion, and that Kiritaka had made him escape through the secret passageway down to the underground waterways before being cut down. At that point the topic shifted to Roy's intentions, leading Otto to reveal that he was the one who brought the Book of Wisdom to the city, revealing that he had given it to a restorer to bring it back to its former condition. With the information about the book known to everyone, both Anastasia and Subaru decided to reveal the existence of Artificial Spirits, at which point Al tried to leave but was stopped by Priscilla who had just arrived with Schult and Liliana. While the others briefed Priscilla on the situation, Subaru took Otto outside to discuss the book, learning that he had brought it to make sure Roswaal was on their side. Satisfied with his explanation, both of them were about to return to the room when Wilhelm stopped him, informing him that Crusch wanted to see him.

Making their way to Crusch's room, Wilhelm revealed the identities of the two Witch Cult members they had fought, hesitating a little when he was about to mention Thearesia's name. After giving him a history of Sphinx, they arrived at Crusch's room, and Subaru entered to find her struggling against the dragon blood that had infected her body. To their surprise, he was able to take the curse from her body, however the rate it transferred at wasn't equal, causing her to stop him from taking any more of the curse from her. He assured her that he would take care of things before leaving the room. On their way back, Wilhelm asked him to not tell Reinhard that Thearesia was in the city, asking to be given the permission to deal with her and Capella himself. The group continued with their strategy meeting, eventually deciding to have Priscilla, Al, and Liliana fight Sirius, Wilhelm and Garfiel fight Capella, Subaru and Reinhard fight Regulus, and Julius and Ricardo fight Roy. At a church near one of the control towers, Regulus tried to force Emilia into marrying him, nevertheless she refused, stating that she already had someone she was going to love when she properly understood what love was, before Subaru and Reinhard kicked the door open. Although Subaru's kick simply opened the door, Reinhard's kick sent the door flying straight into Regulus, though it didn't do any damage because of his Authority.

When the two tried to begin fighting, Regulus threatened them by mentioning that he would kill his wives if they moved, though fortunately Emilia created a thick wall of ice to protect them, then froze his feet while holding an ice sword to his neck. Unfortunately for them, Regulus grabbed Emilia's throat, forcing Reinhard to comply with his request, which was for him to take an attack without protecting himself in exchange for the hostages' freedom. Regulus took advantage of this by killing Reinhard in one strike, subsequently attempting to kill Subaru as well, however to their surprise Reinhard got right back up thanks to his Divine Protection of the Phoenix. Shocked that he was alive, Regulus was unable to do anything to prevent Subaru from rescuing the 184th wife nearby with his whip, Emilia from kicking the ice sword to Reinhard, and Reinhard from attacking him with it. Their celebration was cut short when they saw Regulus get back up, making Reinhard resume the fight, and while he did so Subaru and Emilia tried to get the wives to evacuate but failed, as they were scared of what Regulus would do to them if they did. Leaving the wives alone for the time being, the two joined Reinhard's fight, working together with him to determine what the Authority of Greed did. After several attempts such as trying to drown him, make him receive his own attack, and attack him from below, Subaru remembered the story behind the star Regulus, asking Reinhard to check if Regulus' heart was functioning. Upon hearing that it wasn't, Subaru and Emilia attempted to return to the wives, prompting Regulus to try to stop them. Seeing that he wasn't going to let them go, Subaru had Emilia secretly head for the church while he acted as a decoy.

Remembering what he told her, Emilia explained to the wives that they had Regulus' heart, all the while trying to think of some way to get rid of it, when the wives attempted to commit suicide to get revenge on him. This forced Emilia to freeze them instead, returning soon after to Subaru and Regulus. Noticing that Regulus was still able to use his Authority, they wondered if they made a mistake, nonetheless at that moment Emilia realized that she had his heart inside of her, leading Subaru to use his Unseen Hand to carefully crush Regulus' heart without damaging hers. Once he did so, Regulus was unable to use his Authority for long periods of time, causing him to plead for a one on one fight, which Subaru agreed to by having Reinhard take his place. Reinhard hit Regulus high into the air with his sword, then kicked him down into the ground. He was forced to stop using his Authority while he was still smashing through the ground, resulting in his body being mangled by the continuous force placed on his body, eventually coming to a stop in the ground. Vowing to get revenge on them, he tried digging his way back up using his Authority, only to make the mistake of digging into a waterway, and soon died of the water and mud suffocating him. A short while later, Subaru and Emilia returned to free the women from the ice, where he felt a mysterious black object enter his chest.

A while before the battle against Regulus finished, Capella invaded the city center, intending to finish off everyone there since most of the attacking force had spread across the city. To her surprise, Anastasia had been expecting her, as she had disguised herself as Crusch in an effort to help Ferris get information on how to cure the real Crusch out of her. Seeing that she wasn't going to talk, Anastasia activated the trap on the floor, dropping her all the way down to the basement, where she reformed her body immediately after hitting the ground. She attempted to leave the basement to kill them but was stopped by Al. During their battle, he cut her head off and crushed her heart with El Dona, ripping her body apart, however he was surprised when her head talked to him. He tried scaring her by telling her that help would arrive at any moment, nonetheless she crushed his hopes by telling him that his allies were being attacked by Kurgan and Thearesia, and that an associate in the Witch Cult had taught her how to block Conversing Mirror Meteors from working. Transforming into a black dragon again, she tried to kill him, though Al took advantage of this by making her destroy the foundations of the building, escaping through the waterways as the building collapsed on her. The three regrouped near the ruined building, when Al noticed that Anstasia's body was being controlled by her Artificial Spirit, who explained that it was something she had to do to save her life. As they discussed their current situation, the Conversing Mirror Meteor they had shone, signaling a connection with another mirror.

Around the same time, Otto attempted to retrieve the Book of Wisdom from the restorer, and on the way there he ran into Ley Batenkaitos, with Felt, Ton, Kiritaka, and several White Dragon's Scale members joining them soon after. At first Ley seemed to listen to him, though once he found out that Otto was a merchant his attitude changed. With their combined efforts, the group managed to let Kiritaka escape so he could head to the 8th evacuation center, a place Otto explained would help their cause. In another part of the city, Priscilla and Liliana arrived at a flaming control tower. Sirius greeted them in front of it, explaining that she lit it on fire to guide them there, then tried to have a huge crowd under her control attack them, nevertheless Priscilla held them back by creating a wall of fire along the waterways with her Yang Sword. She made Sirius angry to keep her attention on her, such as burning the already burning tower, and had Liliana sing on top of it to free the people from Sirius' control. Liliana successfully did as instructed, causing Sirius to try to kill her, forcing Priscilla to chase after her to stop her. Priscilla managed to reach her at the building but failed to do before she destroyed it. Sirius tried to dissuade her from attacking by revealing that she had Tina as a hostage underneath her coat, nonetheless she still attacked her, her sword only striking Sirius and the chain that held Tina to her. Making sure that Tina was freed, Priscilla landed a blow to Sirius' head, sending her flying into the waterway. Liliana had also fallen into a waterway and was rescued by Kiritaka.

Back at Otto's battle, Ley easily overpowered the White Dragon's Scale members and Ton with the abilities he used through his Authority of Gluttony. Partway through, he ate three members, using their memories to try to confused the others. He tried to eat Felt, Ton, and Dynas, though his attempt was blocked by Otto with a magic stone that exploded, nonetheless he took advantage of the explosion to eat three more members, leaving only Otto, Felt, Ton, and Dynas in fighting condition. Fortunately, the others didn't know who Otto was other than his title, allowing him a bit of leeway when it came to fighting Ley. Eventually, Beatrice arrived to help them, having been sent to their location by Kiritaka. Otto stopped himself from saying her name, however to their surprise Ley knew who she was through Rem's memories, and began talking like her, causing her and Otto to realize that Ley was using the abilities and memories of those he'd eaten to his advantage. Touching the Morningstar wound on his shoulder, he continued to mock Rem, leading them vow to not allow him to meet Subaru. Resuming their battle, Ley tried to eat Felt again, this time succeeding in touching her, however the moment he ate her he began throwing up as "Felt" wasn't her real name. Realizing this, Ley considered taking her with him to see Rom in order to figure out her real name, causing her to try to attack him with her knife. Beatrice tried to kill him with Ur Minya once everyone got out of range, but one the large magic stones Kiritaka gave her to use in place of mana shattered before the magic could finish, negating the whole thing and leaving her with four stones remaining.

Ley tried to get revenge by touching her, prompting Beatrice to avoid it by using another stone for Murak. Seeing that he was in trouble, Ley activated his trump card Lunar Eclipse, using it to effortlessly defeat both Dynas and Otto. Louis Arneb arrived soon after, with Ley pointing out to him that Beatrice was the Artificial Spirit he was looking for. He tried to attack her again, though she used her remaining two stones to blind him with Shamak and heal Otto, and as she had already used a stone to revive a dying Water Dragon while she used Murak, she had it hold him in place while Felt charged up the Meteor her subordinate had brought her earlier, which she claimed even Reinhard couldn't avoid. Beatrice recognized the Meteor as the white staff Echidna had created a long time ago just to annoy Volcanica. Sensing the imminent danger, he tried to run from the blast of light that was fired, only to find out that it was able to home in on him. He began despairing, nevertheless Louis told him to turn off Solar Eclipse, escaping the blast by tricking it into believing that it had hit its target by using hair that had been cut during the battle. Before they could do anything else, Louis introduced himself to them, adding that he would retreat as Ley and Roy were exhausted and any more would cause problems with giving birth. Beatrice refused to let him leave, nonetheless he warned her of Eclipse, stating that he could still completely destroy them, not doing so simply because "the table wasn't ready". As he left, he told them that Ley and Roy didn't know anything about eating, remarking that eating was about "who you ate with" and not "what you ate".

Near one of the control towers, Wilhelm was busy fighting his former wife Thearesia. After a short battle, he tried to finish her off when he spotted Heinkel out of the corner of his eye, making him hesitate and allow her to fight back. His thoughts began to wander because of this, preventing him from properly making a decision, resulting in a wound to his leg that made him collapse. Seeing that he was finished, she ignored him and moved to kill Heinkel, who began fearing for his life, though fortunately Reinhard appeared with the Dragon Sword drawn, ready to fight. Wilhelm protested his intrusion, claiming that it was dishonorable to interrupt a fight between two swordsmen, however Reinhard simply told him that the way of the sword didn't apply to those who desecrated dead bodies, adding that dead people didn't move and that there was no future for dead people. Reinhard and Thearesia prepared to fight again, causing Wilhelm to protest once again, nevertheless Reinhard told him that he killed her 15 years ago, therefore the woman in front of them was a fake, before cutting her down in one strike.

Once the battle was finished, Thearesia regained her reason in Wilhelm's arms, and both Wilhelm and Thearesia told each other that they loved each other, and subsequently her body crumbled to ashes. Afterward, Heinkel asked Reinhard if he was satisfied with what he'd done, threatening to tell everyone about how he cut her down. Reinhard didn't understand what he was talking about, claiming that the woman in front of them had been a dead body, prompting Heinkel to ask him about what she had done at the end. Wilhelm stopped him from saying anything more, instead asking Reinhard if he regretted what he had done, to which he replied that he didn't as he did what he thought was the correct thing to do. He accepted his answer, however he refused to speak with him from that point on, stating that he no longer had anything to talk with him about, and began speaking to him as if he was a complete stranger. Reinhard, in turn, referred to him by name instead of the usual grandfather, leaving soon after head to the city center since Wilhelm had asked him to. A short while later, Kiritaka announced on the loudspeaker Meteor that the Witch Cult had been defeated, much to the joy of everyone in the city.