Chapter Text

Pleiades Battlefront

Arc I ~ The Forgotten's Retribution

Chapter I: Pride’s Escape

The walk through the dark corridor was one Subaru had made numerous times now but each time he was forced to walk it he never grew used to it. Of course he couldn't, he was being forced to walk to his death to be executed as the sin archbishop of pride. Subaru knew he wasn’t but no matter who he told how much he screamed his innocence they would never listen he was long used to this but he could still never accept that his friends were the ones to not listen.

As Subaru was being guided with his hands and feet bound by magic sealing chains by a group of knights he heard the knights snide comments about how he deserved this. And how much the knights despised the witch cultist that Subaru was, Subaru was so used to these comments he basically tunned them out but there was always one small thing he never got used to, that was the people who would end up being his executioners.

Subaru was greeted by the blind light that was the outside seeing light for the first time this loop almost made Subaru tear up in fact his first loop where he made it outside he did but that only caused him greater pain as he saw his soon to be executioners. Even now o many loops later the sight of Wilhelm, Felix, Julius & Garfiel watching him with hatred visible in their eyes was something Subaru never got used to.

He could see them all Felix having a sadistic look of glee in his eyes like that which Subaru was now very much accustomed to, to the point where he no longer remembered what a normal Felix used to look like. While Wilhelm & Julius had looks of cold freezing killers waiting to kill their enemy and Garfiel, one of Subaru’s best friends a boy he saved from himself and looked at like a younger brother having the look of an enraged beast barely holding his urge to kill Subaru immediately before his execution.

Subaru remembered one loop where he made it to the execution ground only to anger Garfiel past his limits, leading Garfiel to slash Subaru in half in an enraged state. Subaru was brought out of his reminiscent as his head had made contact with a rock that was pleated at his skull, as his head started to bleed more rocks and other things the crowd could find were thrown at Subaru.

“Go To Hell Scum!”

“Die!”

“Go Join Your Fellow Slain Witch Cultists!”

“Your Birth Was A Mistake!”

“Die, Witch Cult Scum!”

The comments from the crowd as well as the things thrown causing the young man to be forced to take the attacks head on as he was booed, cussed at, insulted and other things that would break a normal person who knew they were innocent. Subaru felt something hit his head as the pain wasn’t all that bad compared to what he had been forced to become used to but the impact did cause Subaru to stumble slightly as his wound bleed down the side of his face dripping towards the ground, he couldn’t help but be reminded off his torture sessions with Felix and Julius.

Subaru was imprisoned and tortured for around a month give or take before he was executed, that being if he survived to the end of that particular loop that was. The loops would usually consist of Felix destroying Subaru’s body from the inside out, destroying his body and trying to kill Subaru’s pride.

But something that Felix had forgotten and would have to be forced to remember was that Subaru has always been stubborn, and no matter how much Subaru was harmed he never gave the healer what he wanted, which would only anger the feline knight further. Once Felix grew tired of torture or felt that Subaru was close to death the healer would then start healing his subject before starting again and again and again, over and over to the point where even Subaru lost count how many times it would happen.

“How Do I Save Crusch, Tell Me Witch Scum!” Felix would hiss and scream his demands to save his lady his rage would grow with each time Subaru didn’t tell the healer what he wanted to know.

Subaru didn’t know how to save Crusch he remembered seeing one of the people he most respected bedridden in a pain filled existence but no matter how many times he said that he didn’t know or would tell Felix to let him see Crusch to try and remove the dragon blood from her body. This would always cause Felix to just grow more angry before torturing Subaru, more and more taking his anger out to the point that Subaru would most of the time pass out from the pain before having his veins fried, waking Subaru up screaming from the horrendous pain.

Overtime Subaru noticed that Felix started to grow a sadistic glee to the torture he inflicted on him, the feline healer would start taking great and immense joy in harming Subaru in any way he could think of, as the cat’s methods would grow more extreme and vile. Subaru didn’t want to think off all the things Felix had done to him it was much better for his dwindling psyche if he forgot, but when what he had subconsciously and personally forgotten would turn around and bite him in the ass, when those vary things he forgot would happen to him that was when his time in the cell would become the personification of hell.

And after a set amount of time would come where Felix would leave and Julius would come to enact his brand of so called “righteous justice” If Subaru was to pick between Julius or Felix he would pick Julius everytime, Subaru was more used to Julius signature beatings and could tolerate them much better than Felix’s so called playtime. There were times Julius was somewhat kind as other knights would take to harming or even killing Subaru but whenever he called for the greatest knight Julius would always come to Subaru’s rescue. If Subaru was in a better mental state he might joke about being a damsel in distress, but whenever Subaru tried to make a non serious quip he would receive hatred in kind from Julius.

Julius had similar demands to Felix asking how to return his name or wake his brother and the others affected by gluttony’s authority, Subaru didn’t know how to fix them but when Julius had said Subaru was allies with Gluttony the scum that took his beloved Rem from him Subaru snapped screaming hate filled curses at Julius. Causing the greatest knight to step back in terror at the sight of Subaru, before Julius left Subaru’s cell in fear. Subaru wouldn’t make it much further that loop as when a group of knights came to attack Subaru, Julius never came to save him as he was beaten to death by those knights.

It took a while for Subaru to accept that he was stuck in this cell, when he first was thrown into this cell he killed himself by biting off his tongue when he had been left alone, only to checkpoint to the time he was first chucked into the cell. Sometimes Subaru would last a few days or weeks, sometimes he only survived hours while it took up to the 11th loop. He managed to make it a full month before being beheaded, he stopped counting the loops after he reached 25. Each time he kept track of what loop he was in he would feel something die inside so he stopped trying, to keep what little left of his sanity he had intact.

It took Subaru some time to notice that his hair started to turn white before his execution. His black raven hair that he always styled in the image of his father was now a crystal pure white like a beautiful winter wonderland. Subaru had heard about this affliction in school, a condition called the Marie Antoinette syndrome that caused a person under extreme stress for their hair leading the cells in the subject's hair to die thus turning white. While Subaru couldn’t understand how he should feel about losing his natural hair color, one thing he never stopped wondering about is what his parents were doing, he stopped picturing his friends coming to save him so he focused his attention on his parents. He could only hope they were alright and he could only hope that what Gluttony had done to him wasn’t able to affect them, he honestly didn’t know if he would be able to handle that, so he bottled it up.

It was bad enough that his beloved spirit Beatrice had condemned him due to the witch’s scent and Emilia, the one he loved, had tried to kill him when she became aware of what Beatrice told her. The two of them even came to visit his cell to try and get information from him when they came back from their unsuccessful trip to the Pleiades watchtower. He remembered the looks the two of them gave him. It broke him deep inside, Subaru began to think about what would happen when they remembered him and how they would react.

“Stop Spacing Out And Move Witch Scum!” A large bash to the back of Subaru’s head brought him back to the scene at hand as he was forced to walk up to the gallows where Wilhelm, Julius, Garfiel & Felix waited for Subaru to reach them.

Their faces showed impatience and hatred for Subaru as he finally reached the 4 as the knights transporting Subaru passed him off to Wilhelm who took him before slamming Subaru down onto the chopping block as he readied his trusty sword waiting for the time to behead Subaru. He took one last look at the sky before he would lose his head, he never got used to being beheaded with every time he would reset he would feel the phantom pain from his neck up for the first couple days of the loop.

“Do you have any final words, Cultist?” Wilhelm said with a calm fury that Subaru only ever heard the old swordsmen say to his enemies.

“None, Wilhelm.” Subaru spoke with the tone of one who has long been dead, but none of his former friends turned executioners would notice in his eyes, the determination look Subaru had when it's do or die.

As Subaru was waiting for when Wilhelm would begin his swing his eyes drifted ever so far to see some of his ex-friends watching, waiting for him to be executed stood at the outer ring was Frederica alongside Otto, Riccardo, Mimi and some knights waiting for him to attempt an escape. With the shadow of Wilhelm’s sword growing, in that brief moment before Subaru would lose his head he made his move.

“Invisible Providence, Second Shift.” At barely a whisper so non bar Subaru would hear, he would begin his escape.

From the back of Subaru’s filthy torn & bloody tracksuit sprouted like flower petals 6 unseen hands far more and far longer than Subaru was able to summon previously, they would all move into position as they would slam down into the sandstone creating a large cloud of smoke and debris. Wilhelm, Garfiel and Julius would be the quickest to try and kill me so i’ll need to take them out of the equation seeing as Wilhelm and Garfiel were already going in for the kill I made 2 of my invisible hands to quickly smack all 3 of them away from the executioner's block.

The knights stationed all around him would move in to try and kill him as quickly as humanly possible. He had to find a way out, then from inside the smoke and debris I saw where Frederica and Otto were seeing Frederica get into a position to protect Otto. Having to use a invisible hand to throw myself behind them was easy enough, having to block a knife from Otto with my cuffs wasn’t something I was expecting to have to do ‘when did Otto get himself a knife’ was a though that in the moment crossed my mind, only to be forced to block a blonde colored fur fisted punch from Frederica’s partial transformation.

Even with this quick setback knocking away Otto over into the direction of the incoming knights, made it easier on himself as he traded blows against Frederica her hits were almost just as powerful as Garfiel now. Subaru had seen her training in secret when she had time after finishing her maid duties so he knew she had gotten better, he was happy for her but she would be his ticket out of here so he needed to win.

“What da hell was dat!?” A groggy and raspy voice of a young tiger spoke as he picked himself up from the floor where he had been flung.

“That damn, filthy, Witch Culist had a plan to escape!” A demihuman cat said not even hiding his vile sadistic anger and sheer hatefulness.

Wilhelm helped Felix to his feet, seeing that Garfiel and Julius were all ready, ready to find and then kill the escaping cultist. Seeing that the smoke had started to dissipate they readied themselves for battle. The warriors however were only to be met with a sight they couldn’t begin to accept all the knights that were guarding the exits and the cultist directly were on the ground not moving. Garfiel seeing Otto on the ground as well fearing the worst panicked as he rushed over to check his condition only breathing easier when he could see that Otto was just unconscious.

Felix alongside Mimi and Riccardo were checking on the knights seeing they were all fine but out like a light, with Wilhelm, Julius and Riccardo all on guard watching to see if they could find where the cultist had gone. Only when they could see that Subaru Natsuki was not here did the 3 knights begin to worry.

Seeing Otto start to come to, made Garfiel happy as the young warrior gave the ashen haired former merchant the tightest hug the blonde tiger could this happiness towards seeing Otto alright would not last as Garfiel had noticed that someone alongside the vile cultist was missing, the person in question being his older sister.

“Otto-bro, where’s my sis!?” Garfiel’s voice was tinged in worry as he spoke.

Otto couldn’t speak his voice dry as he tried to remember what had happened to him before he fell unconscious only to his his thoughts stop as breathing hitched when Otto looked up into Garfiel’s bright emerald eyes holding large amounts of worry and hope for his sisters wearabouts, Otto could only steel himself to let Garfiel know.

“She’s gone, Pride took her and escaped.”

As Garfiel heard the helplessness in the tone of his brother, the young tiger couldn’t contain his desperation and rage as he howled into the open sky cursing the world for taking his sister away from him, not longer after reuniting with her. Swearing he would save his sister and that he will end the life of the escaped Sin Archbishop of Pride, Subaru Natsuki.