Re; A Hero’s New Life in a New World!

Chapter 19 — “Despair vs. Hope”

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     “Oh, that’s it. Now I understand.”

     “No matter how long I wait… my sister—”

     “—Isabel, will no longer return…”

     Ulysse approached Aisha. “Aisha,” he called for her. “Will you have me?” Puck’s mouth gaped open, followed by him face-palming. “What?!” he furiously asked. “We’re not the ones that are supposed to ask for a contract!”

     Aisha began to pet Ulysse. She looked him in the eyes and grabbed both of his paws. “Do you really want to do this?” He nodded his furry head. “Yes.”

     “Alright,” she said. “I, Aisha Landar, wish to form a spiritual contract with the Great Spirit, Church Grimm.”

     “…Your wish has been heard by the name of Ulysse, the Church Grimm.”

     A violet magic circle appeared underneath both of them. It radiated magical energy and surrounded Aisha and Ulysse. The magical aura transformed into black chains that moved around the two, mesmerizingly. Ulysse stared at Aisha, “Do you wish to give me a new name?” She shook her head. “No.”

     The chains stopped flailing and became stiff. They began to dissipate into small sparkling lights. At the same time, Ulysse reverted to his human form. “The contract has been established.”

     “Alri—Ulysse, behind you!”

     Immediately hearing Aisha’s distraught voice, Ulysse swiftly turned around—and saw Vetto deathly close, his arm glowing with magic energy.

     “No!”

     Just before impact, a barrier surrounding Ulysse was created, completely blocking Vetto’s attack and shielding Ulysse. Aisha looked at her hands. “Did I do that?” she quietly asked herself. As the barrier disappeared Ulysse prepared to attack, leading Vetto to jump backward.

     “[Aethero]!”

     Ulysse fired a purple beam at the beastman, who easily deflected the attack.

     “[Demon Beast Magic]: ⊠∎⊡☗▬⊞▒▀⊡.”

     The shape of a giant ram’s head formed around Vetto’s body. It opened its mouth and released a giant beam of magic. Ulysse extended his hand forward and created a portal that absorbed his foe’s attack. A new portal appeared behind Vetto and fired the previously absorbed beam. Noticing this, Vetto used his fast reaction time and animal instincts to turn around swiftly and block the attack with his own magic.

     Immediately afterward, Vetto jumped up to dodge mini-crystalized swords that were fired at him. Moments later, a figure showed up.

     “Otto!” Emilia yelled out. “You’re finally here!”

     “Yeah, what’s the current situation?” he asked.

     “We’re battling him,” she answered, pointing at the beastman who seemed irritated. “And I’m trying to heal Subaru and the others. Are you hurt?”

     “I’ve been able to heal my wounds,” the merchant replied. “And, I’m not alone.” He looked behind him and many of the village’s people appeared.

     “I went around rallying the villagers so we could fight together, in case there was a leader to the robed men. Looks like I guessed right.” Otto quickly kneeled down. “[Earth Magic]: Raijing!”

     He pressed his hands on the ground, hard. Chunks of crystals began to pop-up from the ground and headed towards Vetto. Meanwhile, the villagers began to use their own magic to try and attack the man-beast himself. Easily, Vetto destroyed the crystals.

     “[Acid Splash],” “[Plasmira],” “[Nature’s Arrow],” “[Goa],” “[Explode],” “[Howl],” [Dona],” “[Whip],” “[Rehn],” the villager’s continued to use more of their attacks.

     “Worthless.”

     Vetto deflected the villagers’ attacks with ease. “Every last one of you scum of the sticks will be eliminated.” Before he could land a blow on any of the village’s people, he was met with hordes of icicles, which he was obligated to dodge.

     “Don’t think that I’m going to take a backseat role,” Puck told him as he continued to fire his ice magic.

     Ulysse, Otto, Puck, and the villagers were all using their strength to take down Vetto. As the battle continued, Emilia managed to heal all of Subaru’s wounds—who stayed knocked out—and moved on to heal, Ram, Justice, Sister Lily, and Father Orsi. Aisha and Rem could only watch the battle, unable to do anything. Through Emilia’s healing Justice was able to regain a slight glimpse of consciousness, though, he was stuck in a day-dreaming phase.

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     Justice began to see memories of his own world — he saw his time at the orphanage where he lived with, played with, and took care of the kids, often doing the Nun’s jobs for them. He remembered the time he was officially accepted into the military as a knight – the proud faces of all the kids and Nuns of the orphanage made him truly realize what he was fighting for. He then saw his older sister, Elesis. Her joking attitude and heartwarming smile always made Justice’s day…

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     —Suddenly, Justice appeared in a white room. Everything felt real; he wasn’t day-dreaming. All of his wounds were now nonexistent and he felt rejuvenated. He began to look around the room.

     There were rectangular windows around the room, but, beyond them, were the white skies in the background. Similarly, there were small chairs around the room, and, next to each one, would be a small table. In the absolute center of the room was a coffee table with a vase that held a flower. On one of the chairs, sat a little girl.

     She possessed long, steel-blue hair and emotionless purple eyes. She wore a black and white Gothic Lolita dress with a blue ribbon, complimented with black shoes and long white socks. She also seemed to have a black cat tail with a blue ribbon tied on it.

     Justice didn’t understand the situation. “…Who are you?”

     The little girl looked at him, with deadpan eyes. “Bernkastel,” she answered. She grabbed a tea cup from one of the tables next to her and sipped the drink.

     “Oh,” Justice’s eyes widened in fear. “I’ve read about you,” he continued. “You’re… Bernkastel, The Witch of Miracles—who, with her dreadful ability to manipulate probability, slayed the Divine Dragon, Volcanica.”

     Putting down the tea cup in her hand, she responded to him.

     “…Something troublesome took a liking to you,” she told Justice. He had a slight understanding of what—who, she was talking about.

     “Are you talking about Salem?”

     Back when Justice, Subaru, and Aisha entered Truth’s domain, he answered that they were specifically summoned with the task of defeating Salem. The one issue, however, was that none of the three knew who Salem was, furthermore, Truth never disclosed to them who she is and where she is.

     Bernkastel nodded in response. Justice smirked.

     “I knew it,” he stated. “But, can you answer me this? — Who exactly is Salem?”

     “…She is an ancient and enigmatic figure from this world’s forgotten past. She was a part of the original humanity, before being cursed with immortality and falling into a Grimm pool.”

     Justice tilted his head in confusion. “Original humanity?”

     “The world you live in is not the first one,” she answered. “You are living in the 2nd attempt of a functioning world created by the Gods—Salem is the only being left from that previous and inferior project.”

     All of this was new news to Justice’s ears. The books from the Forbidden Library did not possess information like this and Beatrice hadn’t ever told him any stories about this topic either.

     Despite noticing the visible shock on Justice’s face, Bernkastel continued. “Currently, she is hiding somewhere within this world,” she told him. “There is common speculation that she resides within the Castle of Everknight of the Land of Darkness.”

     “Wait,” he interjected. “I’ve read that the Land of Darkness is somewhere in Lugnica, is that correct?”

     She nodded. “Yes, but the specific area and location is unknown.” Bernkastel poured more tea from a tea kettle into her cup. “She is the leader of a cabal of extraordinarily strong beings and has an army of demon beasts that will obey her every order and will do her bidding.” Continuing, she took another sip of tea. “She has three goals: steal the powers of the four priestesses, use the relics of the past, and cover to the world into darkness; to snuff out your world’s hope.”

     “…How do you defeat her?” Justice asked.

     “No one knows; not even me,” she responded. “But, I speculate that you–or rather, someone you know, has the ability to exploit the chink in her armor.”

     “What is it?”

     “I’d prefer you exploring that yourself. I can’t have you dying on me due to being blinded by a simple theory. Although I’d still have the ability to resurrect you, I’d rather not tangle myself with Truth.”

     Seeming to be somewhat disappointed with her answer, he asked her yet another question: “Thank you for all your help, though—why am I your first choice to tell all this about?”

     He was met with a few seconds of silence before Bernkastel finally decided to speak again.

     “…Something troublesome took a liking to you—just like me, when I possessed a human body,” she answered. “This common factor shared by the both of us has proven to me that I can use you as a piece of mine in this game. I can’t have you die to that beast right now, so – I’ll give you a bit of help.”

     With a snap of her fingers, Justice felt a surge of stamina and a huge load of mana envelop his body. He felt as if, within that moment, he would be able to even best Reinhard. Slowly, his vision in the room began to fade.

     “Do not take this the wrong way,” Bernkastel stated, closing her eyes. “I have no intention of being your ally. I intend to only use you to defeat Salem or until I tire of you. That’s why I’m helping you—so that I won’t get bored.”

     She went to reach for her tea cup. “I am the cruelest witch in the world,” she said. “No matter who the opponent is: I will make them surrender without fail.”  She took a sip. “Even if that is the Endless Witch, Salem.”

     Re-opening her eyes, she stared directly at Justice. Despite him losing vision, even simply looking at her lifeless eyes sent chills down his spine.

     “—You are my piece, so do your best as well…” She began to let out a piercing chuckle. “Don’t bore me, okay?” She snapped her fingers.

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     Puck continued to fire shards of ice at Vetto – his attacks were accompanied by simultaneous attacks from Ulysse, Otto, and occasional attacks from the villagers. Of course, Vetto easily dodged the attacks as if they were nothing. Among everyone there, Puck was the only one who could match Vetto’s power and even beat him in a one-on-one fight, however, Puck had to hold back most of his abilities due to the others around him.

     Puck felt a chilling sensation on his body — this was unusual. While the others were battling, he turned towards Justice who was being healed by Emilia. His body was releasing an immense amount of mana, it was enough to make even the likes of Puck flinch.

     Justice’s body began to twitch ever-so-slowly. Eventually, he began to pull himself up which shocked Emilia.

     “Justice, your body hasn’t fully healed y–“

     “—I’ll be okay, Emilia,” he interjected. He pulled his blade out of his scabbard. “[Fire Magic]: Min Goa!” His sword was encased with fire and four tendrils made completely out of flame sprouted from his back. His pupils were radiating with translucent orange light as if they were flaming. Since he had just used a high-tier fire magic spell, everyone’s attention went to him. —With a single dash, he reached Vetto. He swung his blade upwards causing a massive shockwave. Vetto reacted just in time to, once again, dodge his attack, however, an inferno rose up from the ground and enveloped him.

     The man-beast jumped away from the inferno that quickly disappeared. He fully felt the pain of the attack; his right arm and part of his torso was completely scorched. This angered him.

     “You piece of shit!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “[Demon Beast Magic]: ⊠∎⊡☗▬⊞▒▀⊡.”

     A giant ram’s head formed around Vetto’s body through magic. It shot a large beam of magical energy at Justice. The four tendrils on Justice’s back grew thicker and formed a barrier in front of him. The attack collided with Justice’s barrier, and, although it pushed him back, Justice wasn’t intimidated. He pierced his sword through his own barrier, into the magical beam, and yelled out: “[Hati]!”

     The attack began to gradually get absorbed into the sword. Eventually, once Justice’s sword absorbed all of the magic spell, he fired it back at Vetto with a swing of his sword.

     “Damn it!”

     Vetto deflected the attack through [Bear Claw], however, he was too busy to realize that Justice was already above him. Justice landed behind Vetto and made his flame tendrils pierce the back of Vetto, burning him. Justice continued his attack by slicing his back. A scream of pain came from the enraged beast. Vetto swiftly moved his arms back, trying to retaliate.

     Justice dodged the attack and thrust his weapon into Vetto’s torso, piercing it. He twisted his sword, creating a huge explosion.

     The others could only watch in utter surprise of the red-haired man’s new found strength.

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     Far away from the main village and the battle, a woman was watching the fight ensue. She was the same person that met Subaru and Rem earlier the day, Cinder. She partially turned her head back.

     “Are you two finished?”

     Her accomplices, Mercury, who held an unconscious robed member of the Eye of the Midnight Sun by his robe’s collar, and Emerald who was stepping on the head of a member, both smirked at her.

     “Yes,” Emerald replied. “How does the fight look so far?”

     “The man with red hair suddenly got a boost of power and is now taking on the beast-man, Vetto, I think he called himself.”

     Mercury chuckled. “How long ’till the battle’s over?”

     Cinder shrugged “Despite the sudden boost of power – probably not anytime soon. Seems that Vetto has an extremely high amount of both mana and stamina.”

     “Shouldn’t we do something about that?” Mercury asked jokingly.

     “I agree with Mercury,” Emerald stated. “We can’t have all of them be killed by some beast thing if they’re under our technical protection.”

     Cinder listened to Emerald’s points and seemed to agree with them. “You’re right.” Cinder gestured a finger gun and aimed it at Subaru. Mercury and Emerald exchanged glances of confusion.

     “Uh, Cinder? What’re you doing?” Mercury asked.

     “Just providing someone with some Demon Beast energy…”

     She launched a zap of orange energy at Subaru’s unconscious body. It exploded on contact and created a barrier of dust around him.

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     Emilia and Rem screamed out for Subaru in woe.

     “Subaru!” “Subaru-kun!”

     Small jolts of black electricity scattered across the smoke-screen of dust. Slow footsteps could be heard—and, finally, from the dust emerged Subaru, half his face covered in blood. His grimoire was floating in front of him, flipping through pages until it would finally stop. He grabbed the sheath of his Anti-Magic sword that was sticking out of the pages, and pulled it out.

     “Subaru…?”

     Subaru heard the worried voice of Emilia and turned around. He gave her a calming smile. “Don’t worry, Emilia-tan! I’ll kick this guy’s ass and finally get you that happy ending I’ve been talking about!”

     Justice looked at Subaru and assessed his conditions. “With his current conditions and speed… he won’t even be able to touch Vetto—unless…”

     “Subaru,” Justice called out. “Ordinary attacks and magic spells will barely affect him, so it’ll all have to be up to you and your Anti-Magic.” Subaru nodded. “Right.”

     Justice extended his fingers into thin fire tendrils and hung them around the sheath of Subaru’s weapon. Subaru tilted his head in confusion. “Huh? What’re you doing.”

     “It’s something I learned from Vanessa,” he stated, with a smirk. Subaru understood what he was doing and got into a battle stance.

     —Justice was attempting to mimic Vanessa’s support back when they all fought Elsa Granhiert. The only thing different this time, however, was that Justice would have to adapt to Vetto’s insane speed and literally spear-head Subaru’s attacks for him.

     “Hey, wait!”

     Both men turned around and saw Ulysse.

     “I know what you guys are planning to do — let me help with my portals.”

     Justice and Subaru agreed.

     Subaru charged forward at Vetto, Justice’s tendrils not affecting him. As Vetto was about to attack Subaru, the latter jumped into a portal. That portal disappeared and another appeared behind that the beast-man. Subaru prepared to attack.

     “You wish… the power of the portals and your aura are gushing all over the place!”

     Before Vetto could retaliate, Justice used his tendril to pull Subaru out of the situation in time.

     “The tendril changed his trajectory?!”

     Distracted by their play, a portal appeared under Vetto. Subaru jumped out of it with extreme speeds and managed to strike his opponent right in his face. This, combined with the utter shock of the original play, caused Vetto to fly back.

     He tried healing himself after he landed.

     “I knew it… I can’t heal. Did he sever the current of magic that promotes self-healing?!”

     He laughed. “To think that three people who are worthless alone could fight me by banding together—You make me sick.”

     Vetto enhanced his legs and feet with [Bear Claw] and [Cheetah Charge], and subsequently charged at his opposition. “Don’t think you’ve got hope just because you’ve teamed up… trash!”

     Subaru dashed at him once again and jumped into a portal. Another portal appeared near Vetto, giving Subaru a chance to attack, however, the former noticed this and prepared to attack first. Justice realized this and pulled Subaru with his tendrils into another nearby portal, saving him. This exchange happened multiple times, with no side getting a hit on the other.

     “Lia,” Puck telepathically talked to Emilia. “Are you finished casting your weakening spell?”

     Emilia nodded. “Yes, Puck. This’ll affect his movements now…!”

     “Then, the time is right for me to join in!”

     Puck fired a huge batch of ice-crystals, forcing Vetto to dodge once more. Using these opportunities, Justice and Ulysse manipulated their abilities to the best they could and managed to get some shallow — albeit, strong — hits on Vetto. Despite having to deal with four separate sources, Vetto still continued to fight, he wouldn’t give up – because he was adapting.

     “Bwahaha! Fantastic focus!” He laughed. “You must be close to your limits though..! Your magic won’t last much longer either!!”

     The attacks and missed exchanges continued to continue, without any progress being made on either side, once again. Vetto’s reaction time and speed were gradually going down ever-so-slowly, without his notice however.  Everything seemed to be at a stalemate until—

     Puck yawned.

     “Lia, I’m tired,” he said, floating to Emilia’s shoulder. “I used up too much mana. If anything bad happens, you know what to do.” With those parting words, he dissipated into thin air.

     Once more, Subaru dashed towards Vetto with extreme speeds from the momentum of the portals and the tendrils.

     “Why won’t you despair?!”

     “Because I promised Emilia-tan that happy end!”

     Subaru was flying straight towards the beast-man. Vetto was going to counter this with his own attack, but made the fatal mistake of using his own magic to attack straight at his opponent. Subaru cut straight through the magic barrier with ease and—stabbed his sword through Vetto’s abdomen. The beast-man’s movements immediately stopped.

     “We… won?”

     “GWAAAAAAAAA!”

     A scream of pain from the beast infused everyone with the hope of finally ending the battle——until he grabbed Subaru’s arms.

     “Did you really think I was finished?”

     He began to crush Subaru’s arms, making their state even worse than what they were originally at. Subaru despaired screams could be heard by everyone.

     “Did you think your paltry strength would work on me?! Is that what you thought?!”

     Silence.

     “I took that hit on purpose, so I could steal your weapon! I let you hit a spot that wouldn’t kill me… BECAUSE DESPAIR IS MOST TENSE WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE FOUND HOPE!”

     “Suba…ru..-kun…”

     “Go on, despair! DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR, DESPAIR!“

     Everyone was silent.

     Justice was in despair, Emilia was in despair, Aisha was in despair, Rem was in despair, Otto was in despair, Ulysse was in despair, the villagers were in despair.

     “No… not yet.”

     Black lightning struck Subaru and Vetto, the latter jumped out before it could hit him. A whirlwind of smoke covered the area it struck.

     “What…?”

     As the smoke dissipated, it revealed Subaru, standing up, one eye closed, and his whole body bruised.

     “I’m… not done… yet..!”

     It was the demon beast energy from Cinder. It finally activated and affected Subaru. It activated when he got a dose of full-on despair.

     Justice immediately launched his tendrils at Subaru and pulled him back.

     “I knew he wouldn’t give up. Magic and physical abilities is everything in this world – and he has none. Yet, I’m sure–no, I know he’ll go far!“

     “Subaru, you’ll need to retrieve your sword,” Justice told him.

     “I know — but I’ll need your guys’ help!”

     Justice nodded. He created more thin fire tendrils from his fingers and wrapped them lightly around Subaru’s torso. “Ulysse, now!” He threw Subaru into the air with his threads still wrapped around him. Right then, Ulysse created a portal that absorbed Subaru.

     “Why won’t you despair?!”

     Subaru was pulled out of one portal and into the other. This kept on continuing until he was a blur. Continuing onward only enraged Vetto even more.

     “Don’t screw with me!! You’re insects, a slap’s enough to kill you!! I’ve already seen through your movements…”

     Vetto then had a realization.

     “…I can’t… follow his movements?!”

     He looked down onto the sword piercing his body.

     “Is it because the Demon-Dweller Sword is still in me? …Has someone been using Weakening Magic to bolster my physical abilities?! —Have I… unconsciously been relying purely on magic more than needed?!”

     “Ridiculous! There’s no way I’d lose to MERE HUMANS!”

     He let out a war cry, trying to intimidate his foes one last time. A portal appeared in front of him, Subaru was spat out of it, his hand extended, trying to reach for the sword. Vetto reacted with supersonic speeds and prepared for one final attack on Subaru.

         “—-Geh!”

     A book flew at Vetto’s face, knocking him off balance. The book was Subaru’s grimoire – it was the same trick he used on the giant Demon Beast that tried to attack Irlam Village. Using this once-in-a-lifetime moment, Subaru grabbed the sheath of the sword that was still stuck on Vetto’s body and used all his might to pull it out. His strength, alone was not enough to pull it out, however, with the combined strength of Justice through the tendrils…

     —-Subaru was able to reclaim the blade. Feeling the pain from that, Vetto immediately shrugged the book off and went in for one more attack.

     “You’re done, you piece of shit…!”

     Justice changed Subaru’s trajectory one more time and let him avoid the attack. Subaru was then in the perfect position for the final attack. He was right above Vetto and held his sword up in anticipation for the blow. Vetto’s eyes widened as he realized one last thing:

     “There’s a breach in my armor, in my absolute self-confidence. For the first time, I feel a chill. This boy is like me—-No, he’s not a beast…”

     And that’s where he saw it – the silhouette of the demon surrounding Subaru’s body. He was the only one that could see it.

     “…He’s a demon who devours even despair.”

     “You’re done!!!”

     Subaru screamed at the top of his lungs as he slammed the Demon-Dweller Sword onto Vetto’s body. The momentum, along with the absolute force of the attack caused the ground to shatter upon the impact of the attack.

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