His eyes roamed the area, but he saw neither any sign of Rem catching up to him nor any avenue for escape from the demon beast. Indeed, the latter had already lowered its head, clawing the ground.
He had no time to hesitate.
“Tch… Shit, if you’re gonna come, come!!”
As Subaru vented, he stripped his jacket off, wrapping the well-tailored garment around his left arm.
In a confrontation with a wild animal, the thing you had to worry about the most was its sharp fangs. Wrapping thick fabric around your arm to limit the damage was the least you could do against a four-legged beast.
He’d remembered seeing police dog training on TV in his old world and instantly copied that. He thrust his left arm out, glaring at the demon beast as it tried to figure out when best to leap at him.
The way the demon beast kept its center of gravity low, not moving a muscle, unnerved Subaru.
“Hey, what’s with the laid-back attitude here?! Hey! Come on! C—”
It vanished.
Suddenly, the demon beast that should have been right in front of him melted into the darkness.
Fright froze his throat as an indistinct black cloud headed for Subaru’s outstretched left arm. The next moment, he felt sharp fangs punch through the thick fabric, with the demon beast biting deep into his flesh.
“That—!”
In an instant, he felt a jabbing pain, intense enough to turn his vision red, slam directly into his nervous system.
But…
“—Didn’t hurt!!”
He poured strength into his left arm, tightening the muscles so that the fangs sunk into his muscles wouldn’t come out. As a result, the demon beast clamped on at an angle was now completely unable to move.
Its two red eyes met Subaru’s gaze. Subaru bathed in the beast’s overwhelming enmity as he said, “You bit me, you mangy mutt—!”
Wrapping his whole left arm around the demon beast, Subaru whipped his body around, hard. Centrifugal force sent the demon beast floating into the air, spinning it backward toward the fallen tree—and slamming against an outstretched branch.
“—!”
The sharp branch ruptured its hide, making a dull sound as it rent the beast’s flesh. Its dying howl echoed throughout the dark forest.
The demon beast, impaled through its back, kept Subaru’s arm clamped in its maw for a while, but it finally relented as it stopped moving. Subaru, for his part, fell to his knees.
“I…won?”
Seeing that it was not breathing, Subaru murmured as he yanked the demon beast’s fangs from his arm. His forearm was in horrid shape under the bloodstained jacket. Upon actually seeing the wound, Subaru made a soundless whimper as pain assailed his nerves. Even so, he made a sigh of relief, grimacing all the while.
Even without Rem’s strength, he had been able to get out of that crisis. He took the time to retie the jacket around his arm, using it as a bandage.
He made sure his arm could still move before walking back to pick up the girl for real this time.
“Hurts…but that means I’m alive. Crap. Anyway, gotta get back to the vill—”
He cut his words off there because he noticed that the grass had rustled once more. His hair stood up as his entire body was gripped by the sense that something bestial still lurked.
He looked back. Then Subaru murmured, “Oh come on…”
Red eyes flared through the dark forest—a horde of them gazed at him through the trees ahead, their numbers virtually beyond count.
Not that he really wanted to count, but all his fingers and toes put together probably wouldn’t cut it.
Before he knew it, Subaru had thrust his arms out wide. Not to surrender to the countless points of light—but to shield the little girl behind him.
“—”
The beasts were unimpressed by his silent resolve. The red points of light ignored Subaru’s wishes and leaped at him all at once.
“Ooo—!”
Subaru realized his own throat howled. He roared, unwilling to give in.
His spirit kept up the facade, telling him that he would not lose, no matter how many red eyes were before him. He was, of course, bluffing; his tiger’s mask was nothing more than paper. As Subaru yelled, a demon beast rushed up to rip out his throat—
“—”
—when the head of the demon beast before his eyes exploded like an overripe melon.
Bludgeoned to death at point-blank range, its fresh blood showered Subaru’s face. The demon beast’s headless body sailed forward and crashed into Subaru. Blown backward by the force, Subaru rolled and, feeling unpleasant from the pain and blood, he shook his head and stood up.
—What just happened?
A blue-haired girl had descended onto the field of battle, one hand lightly grasping the hem of her skirt as it made an elegant twirl, the other wielding a malevolent iron ball.
“The children are safe and are returning to the village. I see your efforts to buy time have gone well.”
“Rem, look o—!”
Subaru’s elation over the arrival of his awaited reinforcements was short-lived, for now that the vanguard of the demon beast force had been cut down, two more leaped toward her slender body.
“—Hah!”
Her right arm, wielding the iron handle, whipped sideways; the iron ball followed in the wake of the whirling chain.
The destructive weapon, which ought to have been slow and unwieldy, turned with incredible force, following the arc of the swing of her arm to utterly pulverize everything in its path. Its might mowed down branches and snapped tree trunks before slamming straight into the demon beast’s body. The weapon connected with such power it split the torso in two, turning it into fertilizer for the forest.
And, as the comrade beside it fell in a single moment, the other soared to angrily sink its fangs into Rem’s left flank—but just before it reached her, Rem smashed her left fist into its snout from above, pummeling it out of the sky. The might of her fist caved the beast’s skull in, slaying it instantly with a blow powerful enough to bury its head into the soil.
Her skill was crystal clear. Subaru had thought he appreciated Rem’s destructiveness, but now he truly knew. That made his head hurt.
“Y-you’re so strong!!”
“Are those appropriate words to speak to a girl, Subaru?”
“That’s the only thing a weakling like me can say! You’re really out there!”
Ecstatic that Rem proved far more reliable than he’d imagined, Subaru leaped as if to embrace her. He then skirted around right behind Rem as the remainder of the pack spread out and surrounded them.
Having lost two more of their number, the pack moved sluggishly. The beasts crouched, awaiting their—well, Rem’s—next move; Subaru could tell that there was bitter enmity in their eyes.
“…Incidentally, Rem, do you plan on wiping them out by yourself?”
“There are too many of them. Alone, they can overcome me with numbers.”
“Well that figures. In that case…”
Before the beasts could recover their bearings and come leaping at them, Subaru and Rem had the same thought. Their eyes swept the surroundings before settling on the same place—a weak point in the encirclement with only three of the beasts.
Subaru yelled in concert with Rem’s attack.
“There!”
The iron ball ripped through the air, with the howl heralding the slaughter. A moment before reaching the cluster of demon beasts, the iron ball smashed into the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt. Subaru sensed that the cascade of soil had thrown the beasts off.
Rem was the next to yell.
“Now—!”
Subaru ran like his body had been shot out of a cannon.
The blow from a moment before had opened a hole in the barricade, a narrow area that he could break through—
As Subaru flew through the gap, the demon beasts howled at how they had left open a path. But when they rus
hed in pursuit, they became easy prey to the iron snake lashing behind them.
“Whoa, traumatic sound alert—!”
As he sprinted full force, Subaru recalled the sound of the dancing chain sending his left arm flying off. Behind him, the iron ball swung ferociously, making numerous bloody flowers bloom fresh in the dark forest.
Subaru vaulted over a tree root, getting smacked on the cheek by a branch as he yelled, “Rem, I can’t see where I’m going!”
“Straight…straight ahead. This will be settled when we pass through the barrier. Head for the bonfires in the village!”
Straight ahead, she’d said, but Subaru couldn’t even tell which way was the front. He never imagined that the darkness, leaving him able to see only a little ways in front, would ruin his sense of direction to this degree. Nor could he grope ahead with his hands when he had a little girl weighing down his arms.
He was out of breath. He was full of anxiety that he had lost his way or that the beasts were about to catch up to him.
His left arm was going numb. The bleeding had never stopped; the fabric of his jacket was drenched in blood. He could picture in his mind how blooddrops were falling to the earth, leaving a perfect trail that led his pursuers right to him.
He saw what looked like the same scenery over and over, as if he hadn’t made a single step of forward progress. A sense of irritation burned in his chest; he felt like he was about to fall to his knees. Yet, all the while…
…he heard the sound of a chain whipping behind him.
“Aww, shit! My side really hurts—!”
Forward, forward—!
Then the darkness before Subaru suddenly lifted.
His field of vision broadened and, as his eyes instinctively narrowed at the suddenness of it, he saw man-made light off in the distance.
“Rem! I see light! Someone from the village is…at the barrier!”
Subaru looked back in joy at the appearance of a literal ray of hope. But a moment later, his eyes silently went wide.
He could describe the sight of Rem fighting to protect him from behind only as heroic.
Her perfectly sized maid outfit was ripped and gnawed to shreds; the white flesh below it was marked with countless cuts. Her vivid blue hair was all a mess, and there was too much fresh blood in it to make out the original color.
He saw Rem in a ferocious battle worthy of legend. And at that very moment, the same Rem was fast approaching Subaru as she reached out to him with a hand.
“Rem—?!”
Rem’s outstretched hand shoved on Subaru’s back, adding enough forward momentum to send him sprawling. He instantly protected the girl in his arms from the shock, but in exchange, he was unable to protect himself as he hit the ground face-first, banging up his body.
Subaru felt the pain and tasted the dirt in his mouth; he wanted to ask Rem why she’d done something so violent just then—but he was at a loss for such words.
“…You’re kidding me…”
Subaru murmured as, right before his eyes, the soil was sweeping from right to left.
Wind enveloped the earth, sand and mud rose in a vortex, and trees were torn from their roots as the very terrain of the forest changed. Faced with the violent scene before him, Subaru caught his breath when he shifted his eyes to the point from which the flowing soil originated.
—For there, he saw the little demon beast, surrounded by a golden glow as it unleashed magical power.
—Demon beasts were enemies of mankind that possessed magical energy.
This was no curse. Curses couldn’t be wielded the way that energy could. In other words, it was using magic.
“—R-Rem?!”
When he belatedly understood what was happening, Subaru realized that Rem was no longer behind him. He also realized that Rem had shoved him to protect him from the river of dirt.
And in exchange…
“—”
…the dirt and stone had launched her uniform-clad body high into the dark sky.
The ground gave Rem a rough welcome, buffeting her small body like a fallen leaf. The way blood scattered from her and how she flew helplessly in the air proved with crystal clarity that she’d taken more damage than she could bear.
Rem was unable to soften the blow when she made a hard landing. The saving grace was that she hadn’t cracked her skull on the ground left bare by the flow of the soil.
“Re… You idiot! How can you…? What have I been…?!”
Doing this for, Subaru was about to yell, but in that instant, his spine froze.
No doubt they’d all felt it, too. The little demon beast making the current of earth and the pack chasing after them…they all stopped moving.
He could feel it. He was sure of it. What hovered in the air was the heavy presence of death.
—Slowly, Rem’s fallen body rose up.
Even though she’d taken such a spectacular blow, Rem didn’t show any sign of injury as she stood up. Indeed, as far as he could see, all her wounds had closed.
The incredible healing energy emitted a high temperature, and her very blood boiled, rising as red steam.
Rem turned her head, slowly looking around the area. Her eyes had lost all trace of reason. Her face, covered in blood spatter, twisted into an ecstatic smile.
Then, Subaru saw.
“—A demon.”
—With her headdress now off, he saw a white horn grow from Rem’s forehead.
“Ah-ha…ah-ha-ha—”
She laughed. It was loud laughter like that of a little girl but overflowing with naked cruelty.
Twisting herself, Rem’s body moved like the wind as it charged the demon beast pack. Faster than the unmoving demon beast in the vanguard could react, Rem smashed it with her heel. She kicked its body at the demon beasts ahead of her, slowing them down as she swung her iron ball, leaving a large quantity of bloody blossoms and beast corpses behind it.
“Demon beast! Demon beast! Demon beast!—Witch!”
Rem continued to yell with each overpowering blow as she slew one demon beast after another.
Blood scattered, skulls caved, and innards and gray matter scattered around the forest with great force.
Subaru fell to his knees, forgetting all about his pain as he took in the scene.
He didn’t have the courage to raise his voice. That ought not have been so, but somehow, Subaru knew that if he appeared on Rem’s radar right then, he’d have been killed in a heartbeat.
Rem’s behavior was so far off that he couldn’t imagine he was wrong.
Subaru was taking in the fact that Rem had gone berserk. But the demon beasts didn’t simply sit and wait for death.
Unfrozen after the initial shock, the demon beasts surrounded Rem to take advantage of any opening. The corpses slain by single blows grew in number as they whittled Rem down by fang and claw.
The horde was endless. By now, she ought to have crushed at least the number that had initially pursued them, but the numbers of red eyes had increased along the way; they came in waves that seemed as constant as the tides.
“Even if she’s in her Ultimate Mode, there’s no way she can hold out against enemies with infinite spawn…!”
The circumstances had undergone a dizzying change, but Subaru and the others were still at a steep disadvantage.
Subaru, grasping the situation objectively, looked back when he felt another spike in magical energy.
The demon pup kept its distance from the melee between Rem and the pack while deploying a magic circle. It was sucking the air dry of its mana, preparing to release yet another force to warp the space around it.
Rem’s face whipped up, apparently sensing the vortex of energy, sending the iron ball flying high so that she could whirl it to dispose of the new menace. But when Rem stopped moving, the pack of demon beasts seized their chance, leaping at Rem’s back all at once.
“—!”
It was instantaneous. He was reaching for Rem’s back before a single thought
entered his mind.
Rem’s breath caught at the impact that pushed her out of the way. Her face stiffened in shock and unrest. Her empty eyes regained the luster of reason, her monstrous smile dropped away, and her emotions spilled over.
—Ah, you can make a face like that, too, he thought in a corner of his mind.
“—Gaaaaah!!”
The next moment, something crushed the wrist of his outstretched arm.
He screamed. His right leg, his left flank, and his back felt fangs sink into them simultaneously. His vision was dyed red. He couldn’t register the pain. His ankles were crushed. His belly was rent. Blood and intestines flowed out, a waste of blood and flesh.
“Subaru—!!”
He thought he heard a shriek.
Even though he tried to lift his face toward it, his body no longer moved as he wished. His balance was wrecked. His crushed ankles were unable to respond at even half normal strength. He collapsed to the ground as such wounds demanded. Right before him, a maw lined with fangs was rushing at him. It went for his windpipe. Also right before him, the iron ball rent the earth and smashed it. Blood scattered. Was it his blood, or…?
His mind was wandering. He didn’t know when it would vanish altogether.
He felt his life drain away. He, too, thought it was a stupid thing. He’d put the cart before the horse. What was the point of redoing it all now?
Pain. Suffering. Everything was so far away—invisible, inaudible. Dwindling.
His life was oozing out of the hole in his side like grains of sand from an hourglass.
I’m fading. It’s over. It’s all…over.
“Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die—!”
A voice on the brink of tears.
A cry.
I—
CHAPTER 4
THE DEMONIC METHOD
1
His consciousness floated on a distant wave.
His mind, in a daze atop the shifting tide, floated back and forth between dream and reality.
“—no other way to save him?”
“—all, I wonder? You should do as you please, then.”
Far away—no, close by—at the border neither here nor there, he heard one person conversing with another.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 3 Page 12