Re:Zero OVA 2

Re:Zero: Bond of Ice is a special OVA episode of the Re:Zero anime that was announced on September 23, 2018. It's an adaptation of the Re:Zero Prequel: Bond of Ice limited edition light novel. It was revealed on July 28, 2019, that the OVA would air on November 8, 2019. "nonoc" once again performed the theme song "Yuki no hate ni kimi no na o", (Your Name is When the Snow Ends). The OVA was released for Blu-Ray and DVD on April 1, 2020.

Furthermore, a manga adaptation was confirmed, to be published in Square Enix's MangaUP in the Spring of 2020.

Summary
Long ago, in a snowy area near the Elior Forest, an unnamed family is accosted by a Snow Blight. In their desperate time of need, Emilia appears and stops the wild demonic beast. Using her magic, Emilia slowly, but steadily takes care of the beast until it tries to attack the innocent family. It's at that moment that Emilia's Ice Flower magic activates and kills the beast. With all seemingly well, the father of the family's right arm was affected by Emilia's spell. Shocked by this, Emilia tries to console the family, but they all cringe by her appearance, as she resembles the Witch of Envy. Soon after, Emilia reflects on what happened to the family(she always worried about what happened to them since then, until that girl of this family came to Rosswal mansion to do business with her husband 7 years later, and from their conversations, Emilia learned that her parents were both alive and safe, after that Emilia felt really happy) that she tried to save and her appearance. She concludes that she must stay in the forest in order to not be a hindrance to society, because of her appearance.

In present times at Roswaal's Mansion, Emilia stares out the window to her room and is asked by Puck what's on her mind. She gives no direct answer and Puck believes that her date with Subaru was a flop. Emilia denies that's it and answers that she was merely reflecting on something. Puck understands and notes that Emilia has been staring outside at the various snowmen scattered around the courtyard. Apparently, her reason for doing so was because she wonders about the various people still living in the forest.

Back in the past, Emilia awakens in her small home in a tree. It's morning and Emilia goes outside to perform her outside daily duties and later her duties back inside her home. Running low on rations, Emilia visits a local human village knowing full well of her incident with the family that called her the Witch of Envy. The moment she enters the village, its people become apprehensive of her. At the general store, Emilia gets her resupply of rations and a new pair of shoes. That night in her home, Emilia is happy that she spoke more than usual and falls asleep. The following day, while Emilia performs her daily duties, Puck visits her. Puck notices that Emilia has new shoes. He then notes that the merchant that gave Emilia them because of her precarious nature, which annoys her. She does, however, believe that she's building a relationship with the merchant and will one day be able to talk about the weather. This news gives Puck a snide remark. The two then walk and talk about Emilia allowing some self-indulgence in her life, which Emilia abstains to do so. Within her home, Emilia cooks some soup, and Puck asks if he could enchant her robe to make it warmer. However, Emilia declines as she has it as a reminder of a certain day. Getting sleepy, Puck disappears in an amusing fashion and Emilia enjoys her soup.

The next day, Emilia and Puck find a jackpot of shiny stones to harvest. Using a map of the Elior Forest, Emilia notes how much of the forest she's yet to explore. Briefly, the two talks about the name Emilia gave the forest "Meandering Forest". Back at her house, Emilia rejoices at the load of shiny stones she harvested and tries to thank Puck, but he's gone. Outside the house, Puck tries to hold back an unknown firey force claiming she needs more time if not forever.

The next morning, Emilia awakens from a dream that causes her to cry. Later as Emilia performs her outside duties, Puck informs her that he can't be with her that day. Seemingly ok with it, Elmira goes out exploring the forest more and finds a fresh scene made by a Snow Blight. At that moment, Emilia is approached by a man named Chap and a group of men. Chap reveals that the village that she trades with committed a crime of trading with a demi-human. To prevent the villagers from suffering repercussions from her trading with the village. Chap offers Emilia surrender her body for amnesty toward the village's crime. Although hesitant at first, Emilia agrees to the demand and reveals her face at Chap's demand. Astonished by this revelation, Chap decides that he wants to keep Emilia for himself. Left with two choices each with terrible outcomes, Emilia deals with some of Chap's men. Once they've been dealt with she tries to warn and beg for Chap and his remaining men to not bring harm to the village. This causes Chap to snap at Emilia all while a Snow Blight approaches. Despite Emilia trying to warn the man and his men, the Snow Blight appears. It attacks and kills some of Chap's men until Emilia attacks it with a crossbow, then shifting its attention to her. As it charges toward Emilia, the arrow that struck it starts to grow an Ice Flower from it. The Ice Flower exsanguinates the blood from its body killing it. Although the best is dead, the deadly power from the Ice Flower spreads to Chap and his remaining two men. Begging for someone to help, Puck appears and consoles her, making her fall asleep. This deactivates the Ice Flower ability and Puck then approaches Chap and his men and gives them a fair warning. The warning causes them to flee in terror.

Awakening back in her home, Emilia calls out to Puck whom she believes had saved her. She then realizes that the village that she frequents could be in danger so she checks on it. Upon arriving there, the merchant prostates in front of her and beseeches her to never return. Learning that Chap and his men did arrive there before, but did nothing, she notes that she's happy to at least hear that. She then warns the merchant while having him look at her face to never step foot in her forest and leaves. The disconcerted merchant then calls Emilia the Witch of the White Forest, the Frozen Witch. Meanwhile, Chap tries to beg his superior of the Ganaks Organization to allow him to get revenge against Emilia. Puck then appears and threatens Chap to reactivate the Ice Flower within him causing Chap to flee in terror. At a dark and narrow alleyway, a bright red orb appears by Chap and engulfs him in a blast of flames.

Performing her outside duties the following day, Emilia asks Puck if he's afraid of her. The question amuses Puck who then proposes that Emilia leave the forest. On the other hand, Emilia doesn't want to do that as he responsibilities in the forest have her primarily focused there. So as a solution to help Emilia's problem, Puck offers to teach her how to make a contract with a lesser spirit. Although hesitant at first, Emilia agrees to the offer. Happy with Emilia's choice, Puck disappears while promising to find a good spirit for her to make a contract with her. Later that night, a firey red orb appears in the forest, and Puck confronts it. The orb reveals itself to be Melakuera the Arbitrator. Melakuera notes the frozen forest is unnatural, whereas Puck claims he's the cause of it. The Arbitrator believes Puck is lying, however, Puck claims that he wasn't and reinforces it by showing his icy power. Not wanting a confrontation between Puck, Melakuera retreats. Before leaving, he gives a warning indirectly mentioning Emilia, about her disturbing the natural balance.

Emilia has a dream involving a younger version of herself in a frozen scene where a weeping woman apologizes for abandoning. She soon awakens from this perplexing dream and is greeted by her lesser spirits that she made a contract with. They soon disappear due to Puck's appearance and Emilia scolds him for that. Afterward, Emilia with her map and familiars, inscribe a new place onto her map. A Guiltylowe appears not too far from her location and attacks a large black mass. However, it's engulfed by the sentient mass and goes on the attack against Emilia who uses her contracted spirits to freeze it. A piece of the frozen mass that Emilia calls Black Water to Puck who reveals it's really venom from a Black Serpent. Furthermore, he reveals that it's not dead as the frozen piece cracks open it tries to attack Emilia, but is refrozen and destroyed by Puck. Realizing that the main part of Black Water is not dead and has escaped. In Emilia's obstinance to try and stop the creature herself worrying about the forest inhabitants and the nearby village. Puck goes to take care of it.

Teleporting to the scene where the Black Water was; Puck is confronted by Melakuera. After a brief talk between the two, they fight causing tremors in the forest. Emilia back in her home feels the tremors and worries for Puck. Resolved to not allow Puck to fight for her sake all of the time, Emilia rides on a frozen board to Puck's location. On her way there, she finds a red lesser spirit that guides her to where Puck and Melakuera skirmish between each other. As this goes on, the Black Water heads towards the village, and Emilia tries to divert it from there only to be captured by it. From there, Emilia completely engulfs the Black Water in frozen ice that destroys it. Covered in a blazing blue fire, Emilia struggles to keep herself together as she creates a frozen tundra around her. Finally calm, she thanks her contracted spirits for being there with her. However, they're then attacked by the red spirit that guided Emilia and it eliminates all of her contracted spirits. The red spirit reveals itself to be Chap now a vessel to Melakuera to exact out his revenge against her. In a pinch, Emilia calls out to Puck and he appears to her aid. The confrontation between the two ends quickly as Puck easily defeats Chap by overwhelming him with his freezing powers and destroys him.

Now that Chap was defeated, Puck reveals to Emilia that she's really a half-elf, which leads her to believe that she's the cause of the frozen forest. Just when Puck tries to console Emilia's he's attacked by Melakuera. Entrapped by the flames created by Melakuera, Emilia demands to know if her existence really is that big a disturbance and Melakuera confirms it. Although in a weakened state which made him translucent, Puck rebukes Melakuera's judgment against Emilia. Furthermore, Puck calls out Melakuera for orchestrating the Black Water attack and he confirms it all to draw out Emilia. Everything was done by Melakuera because it was fate. Recalling his master's last wishes imbued to him and recalling the first time he found Emilia, Puck claims he won't lose to "Fate". Puck then proposes to Emilia to form a contract with him. This proposal has Emilia reluctant to do so as she believed Puck would one day leave her. However, Puck reassures Emilia that he'd never do that as she's precious to him and promises her that'd he'd never leave her. Feeling truly reassured by Puck, Emilia agrees to form a contract with him. The contract between them allows Puck to take his true form and go on the offensive against Melakuera.

Sometime after the fight between Melakuera and Puck, Emilia notes how beautiful the sunset is. Puck notes that if she died she would have missed it, which leads Emilia to ask why did Puck form a contract with her. His reason as to why he never did so in the past was, Puck took an oath to do so. Perplexed as to why he broke it, Puck informs Emilia that the pros outweighed the cons for breaking the oath. He also reveals that since he found Emilia, he's always been so happy. A flashback is shown when Puck and Emilia first met and became friends with one another. Back to the present, Puck notes that for now on he'll call Emilia simply Lia for now on.

Once the credits have ended, Emilia with her lesser contracted spirits stands out in the courtyard. She's soon joined by Subaru, Rem, and Ram who have just finished with some repair to a snow sculpture of a family. Roswaal then appears and then Rem and Ram leave to go prepare his breakfast. Subaru tries to follow, but is briefly stopped by Emilia who thanks him for repairing the snow sculpture of the family. He tries to brush it off as nothing as all he wanted to do was make her happy. It's then that the sculpture starts to melt and Subaru comments that there's no such thing as ice that doesn't melt. Hearing this comment makes Emilia feel elated and Puck not too far by agrees with the comment as well.

Characters

 * Emilia
 * Puck
 * Melakuera
 * Chap
 * Roswaal L Mathers
 * Natsuki Subaru
 * Rem
 * Ram
 * Geuse (flashback)
 * Fortuna (flashback)

Anime Difference

 * Chap did not use Orthrus in this adaptation. And because of that, Orthrus' appearance was cut.