Re: Zero The Great Sage

(A/N: This chap is very big, so make sure to give a lot of paragraph comments!)

...

{3rd Pov}

[Loop 3]

In his third loop, Subaru made the decision to search for Reinhardt. Unfortunately, his efforts were unsuccessful. He couldn't find any trace of the man, and the confused and indifferent reactions of the people he asked only added to his growing frustration and anxiety.

Subaru was under immense pressure. Having already experienced death twice, his mental state was deteriorating. The accumulation of traumatic memories two separate deaths, and memories from two lives was starting to overwhelm his ability to think clearly. His mind felt heavy, and he found it increasingly difficult to focus on what was happening around him.

If he had been in a more stable state of mind, he might have noticed the strange inconsistencies. Perhaps he would have realized that Reinhardt might not exist in this version of the world. But with the weight of death and confusion bearing down on him, he ignored these hints.

He decided to follow a plan he quickly put together: go straight to Rom's place, retrieve Felt and Rom, and then find Emilia. From there, he would make sure to stay in public areas, preferably close to where knights were stationed. He believed that staying near the knightly presence would provide some form of safety.

Subaru knew that bringing Felt and Rom, who were slum dwellers and had criminal backgrounds, into the more secure parts of the city might be problematic.

He expected the knights to be suspicious of them, if not outright hostile. Still, he hoped there would be at least a few reasonable knights who could look past appearances. More importantly, Emilia was under Roswaal's protection, and being associated with someone of noble status might offer some degree of protection or leverage.

However, his plan failed before it even had a chance to begin. Because he had wasted too much time looking for Reinhardt, he arrived at Rom's hideout too late. What greeted him was not the chance to save anyone, but the sight of three lifeless bodies lying cold on the ground.

"You've seen this—so now I have no choice but to kill you," Elsa said as she stepped forward and charged.

Subaru barely managed to dodge her first strike. His quick reaction surprised her, and he even managed to land a desperate kick. But Elsa was too fast and too skilled. With a single motion, she swung her dagger and sliced clean through his leg.

"Aaaghhhh!!!" Subaru screamed in agony, collapsing to the ground as blood poured from the severed limb.

Elsa gave a twisted smile, clearly enjoying his suffering. "Fufu... That scream was lovely. I wonder what color your insides are?" she said with a sickening sweetness, walking toward him with slow, calculated steps, clearly relishing every moment.

"Please... someone... help—ghkk!" Subaru's plea was cut short as Elsa's dagger sliced his throat, and in the next moment, she began cutting open his abdomen.

'It hurts! It hurts so much! Please! Anyone! Someone help me!' Subaru screamed internally. Tears streamed down his face, his body convulsing in pain as his life slipped away.

Elsa watched him die with an expression of rapture, her lips curling into a euphoric smile. She slowly licked her lips, satisfied with her hunt. Just as she turned her attention to the insignia nearby and prepared to leave, the glintstone on Emilia's necklace began to glow. In the very next instant, the entire area was consumed by a violent explosion of magic.

"What the hell—?!" Elsa yelled, startled. A massive beast-like figure formed from the blast, towering over her. Its cold gaze bore down on her, unblinking.

Elsa's immortality, a curse that dulled her emotions over time, had suppressed many of her feelings. But right now, those barriers broke. For the first time in years, she felt raw, uncontrollable fear.

Her instincts screamed at her to run, to escape, to hide. But her body refused to move. She understood in that moment that the being in front of her was far beyond anything she could fight.

"You killed my daughter," the creature said. "In accordance with my contract with Emilia, I will now destroy the world."

It was Puck.

A wave of absolute cold rushed toward her.

'What kind of sick joke is this? I was supposed to fight... this?' Elsa thought as her body was frozen solid. Her immortal body had finally reached its limit. The freezing magic hardened her into a lifeless ice sculpture, and with a casual swipe of Puck's massive tail, she shattered into countless pieces.

The destruction didn't stop there.

A frozen apocalypse began to spread outward from the epicenter.

Meanwhile, Reina was returning from her morning walk through the capital. Her thoughts were still occupied by a strange conversation she had with one of the knights earlier.

He had mentioned a suspicious black-haired, black-eyed boy who was frantically asking about a man named 'Reinhardt, the Sword Saint.'

The knight had dismissed the boy as mentally unstable and told him to leave. The boy's panicked and unkempt appearance hadn't helped his case.

Ever since that morning, Reina had been feeling an intense unease. It was a heavy, uncomfortable sensation—as if something precious to her was slipping away, and she was powerless to stop it.

'What is this feeling?' she wondered. Even her Divine Protections, which normally offered clarity or insight, were completely unable to provide any explanation, they were unable to deduce the reason behind her feeling like this or what is triggering them.

That only deepened her anxiety.

Suddenly, the feeling intensified. Her chest tightened as if a part of her soul had been ripped away. She touched her cheek and was surprised to find it wet.

"I... I'm crying?" she whispered to herself, unable to understand what had triggered it.

Soon she felt something.

A massive distortion in mana surged from the direction of the slums. It was like a vacuum, violently pulling in the surrounding energy. The level of mana being manipulated rivaled her own—an unnatural occurrence.

She instantly leapt to the nearest rooftop and activated her Divine Protection to get a clearer view of what was happening.

That's when she saw it.

A cold wind erupted, so dense and powerful that even from a distance she could feel it gnawing at her skin. It expanded rapidly, an unstoppable wave of icy death.

'No, no, no, NOOOO!' Reina screamed internally as her eyes widened in disbelief. She watched helplessly as the massive wave of freezing magic engulfed half of the capital in mere seconds. The devastation was instantaneous—tens of thousands were frozen where they stood, their lives extinguished without warning.

And it wasn't stopping.

The wave continued to spread outward, mercilessly swallowing buildings, streets, and people alike.

Without wasting a second, Reina moved. Her instincts took over, and she broke the sound barrier as she accelerated, closing the distance to the epicenter in an instant.

From afar, Puck had appeared small and manageable, but as she arrived, his monstrous form towered in front of her, his body radiating raw magical power.

"STOP THIS!" she shouted with all the authority and urgency she could muster.

Puck turned his gaze toward her. His massive eyes were empty, devoid of warmth or recognition. His reply was cold and final.

"My daughter is dead, so I shall destroy the world," he said, without any hesitation or emotion, he felt for no remorse of his actions.

Reina's jaw clenched tightly. Her fists trembled with frustration and sorrow. Without wasting time arguing with him, she reached for the hilt of her Dragon Sword.

In one smooth motion, the blade slid from its sheath, glowing with a radiant light that signified its immense power.

"End my enemy—REID!" she declared.

The sword responded to her will instantly, unleashing a devastating beam of energy. It surged forward and struck Puck with unrelenting force.

The sheer magnitude of the attack pulverized his massive form in an instant, erasing the Beast of the End from existence.

The danger was finally over.

But the damage had already been done.

By the time Puck was eliminated, over 70% of the capital's population was dead. Entire districts were reduced to icy graveyards.

Families were wiped out. Businesses and noble houses were destroyed.

The magnitude of the loss was unprecedented.

...

The Following Day

Morning brought no comfort.

The entire city was in chaos. Survivors roamed the streets in a state of shock and grief. The sound of crying echoed from every direction as people mourned the sudden and brutal loss of their loved ones. Riots broke out as panic turned to desperation. Law and order had collapsed.

Nobles, royal knights, and many key government officials had perished in the freezing disaster.

There was no clear leadership left.

Reina, who had defeated Puck and ended the catastrophe, could find no sense of victory or relief in her heart. She was consumed by guilt. The same thoughts kept looping in her mind, 'If I had acted sooner... If I had been faster... If I hadn't been slothful...'

She blamed herself completely.

As she assisted the remaining Royal Knights in organizing relief efforts and attempting to stabilize what was left of the capital, the tension among the people grew more hostile.

Then it happened.

A rock struck her in the side of her head. She turned, stunned, and saw a woman standing in the crowd, her face streaked with tears.

"IT'S YOU!" the woman screamed. "I heard about you—how you stole the previous Sword Saint's Divine Blessing! How your own mother ended up in a coma! You're cursed!"

The woman's voice cracked with pain and fury.

"Aren't you supposed to be the strongest?! Then why didn't you do anything?!" she shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Reina.

"My family—my entire family is dead! My husband, my daughter, my son—they're gone because of you!" the woman sobbed, barely able to keep standing.

Reina stood frozen.

The words pierced deeper than any sword ever could.

She didn't move. Her mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. She couldn't even defend herself—because part of her believed it too.

More people joined in, shouting angrily, throwing objects, pointing fingers. All of their grief, pain, and rage found a target: Reina Van Astrea.

None of them cared that she had ultimately stopped Puck. None of them wanted logic or context. They only wanted someone to blame.

The knights who were with her did not intervene. Many of them had suffered losses too—friends, partners, loved ones.

Some of them were even among the crowd, their faces filled with silent bitterness. Rumors and gossip had spread rapidly through the capital overnight.

Many of them had already formed their own opinions.

At that moment, Reina felt truly alone.

'It's my fault… All of this… It's because I exist… If only I didn't exist—if only I was dead...' she thought. Her internal voice was void of hope. Her eyes were dull, hollow, completely devoid of the strength and conviction she once carried.

Her right hand slowly moved to the hilt of her sword.

Immediately, the crowd grew quiet.

They stopped throwing rocks. Fear replaced anger. The people stared, realizing what she was about to do.

The remaining knights instinctively drew their weapons and shouted, "Lady Reina! What are you doing?! Put the sword down!", they misunderstood her intentions.

But Reina did not hear them. Or rather, she did not care.

In her mind, she was her own enemy now.

With cold determination, she drew her sword and without hesitation, swung it in one swift arc—this time directed at herself.

Splurt.

A sickening spray of blood erupted from her neck. Her head separated from her body and fell to the ground with a dull thud, her lifeless eyes still wide open. This wasn't a superficial injury. She had used her sword's power to sever her OD—her very life source.

Reina Van Astrea was dead.

The crowd screamed in shock and horror. Many people fell to their knees, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. The knights stood frozen, completely stunned. They had drawn their blades expecting her to lash out in self-defense—not to take her own life.

But the world itself reacted.

A deep, sorrowful tremor seemed to shake the foundation of reality. The air shimmered. The divine Protection she carried—the Divine Protection of the Phoenix—immediately activated, attempting to resurrect her. However, the power of the Reid sword had completely severed her OD. The resurrection faltered.

The world tried again, attempting to assign her a new Divine Blessing to preserve her existence.

But before it could do that.. everything stopped.

Reality itself became transparent, fading like mist.

And in the next moment—

Natsuki Subaru returned by death.

...

[Loop 4]

"Emilia...?" Subaru whispered weakly, his gaze lifting to catch a fleeting glimpse of the girl being carried through the air by a large feline spirit—Puck, who held her in his arms as she protested against their flight.

A smile formed on Subaru's face, but it wasn't one of happiness. It was a pained, bitter expression.

'Yeah... what was I expecting?' he asked himself as he watched her disappear into the sky. 'To her, I'm a stranger. We've never met in this loop. And on top of that, I ran away like a coward...'

His thoughts spiraled, weighed down by guilt and despair.

'But is it really wrong to not want to die?' he argued with himself in those last moments. 'It hurts. It hurts so damn much...'

His breathing slowed, his vision darkened, and as the last remnants of life drained from his broken body, Subaru was left alone with his pain.

Elsa, still crouched near his corpse, grinned in satisfaction.

To her, the scene before her was a work of grotesque beauty—her handiwork complete. She stood, leaping onto the nearest rooftop with the grace of a predator.

Her eyes locked onto her next target: Emilia, still in the air, being carried in the arms of the now massive Great Spirit.

Despite being safely away from the battle, Emilia was torn with conflict. She looked back toward the scene of the attack, struggling emotionally. Even though Subaru had been a stranger, she had just watched him be slaughtered without being able to do anything.

She had tried to protest, pleading with Puck to go back and help, but he ignored her completely, focused only on getting her to safety.

"I told you to stay out of this, Emilia," Puck had said to her earlier, ignoring her protests as he pulled her away. His priority had been her safety.

But suddenly, the Great Spirit froze in mid-air. A wave of tension passed through his body—his fur bristled. Something was wrong.

Before he could react, it was already too late.

Elsa struck.

Moving faster than the human eye could track, she shattered the sound barrier. Puck's senses had warned him, but even they were not quick enough to avoid what came next. Her twin kurkuri daggers cut through his body in a clean, deadly arc. His big spirit form split in two.

Emilia screamed.

"PUCK!" she cried out in shock and heartbreak, watching as her beloved guardian's body flickered and dissolved. His form grew transparent, then vanished completely—erased.

She plummeted to the ground, crashing hard onto the dirt-covered road. Her legs buckled beneath her, and she stumbled helplessly.

"PUCK!" she screamed again, her voice hoarse with panic and sorrow.

Elsa watched with amusement, disappointed by the outcome.

"Ara, ara... I expected to see his guts spill out. Instead, he just vanished into nothing. How boring," she said nonchalantly, her voice laced with mockery.

Emilia, still reeling from what had just happened, slowly raised her head. Tears blurred her vision, but she glared at Elsa with pure hatred.

"You killed my PUCK! I'll—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Elsa closed the distance between them in an instant and slashed through her stomach.

Emilia's bowels spilled out, and her body dropped to the ground like a rag doll. Her eyes widened in disbelief and pain as blood poured out of her.

"I'm in a hurry," Elsa muttered with indifference, stepping past her victim.

She turned away, sprinting off toward her next objective. Felt and Rom were still somewhere nearby, and she needed to retrieve the insignia. As for killing the original owner—Emilia—Roswaal had insisted on it. He had specifically instructed her to obtain the insignia at any cost.

Elsa never understood why her sponsor went to such extreme lengths to orchestrate this operation, considering he was sponsoring Emilia himself, but she didn't care. She wasn't paid to ask questions.

Emilia's fading eyes followed Elsa as she disappeared into the distance. Her vision blurred as darkness closed in. Her final thoughts were a mix of fear, sorrow, and confusion.

Emilia was dead.

This time, with Puck's death, there was no retaliatory explosion of freezing magic. The capital remained untouched by the icy calamity that had devastated it in the previous loop.

And yet, Reina—who knew nothing of the current events—suddenly broke down crying in the middle of a street far away after Subaru died. She collapsed to her knees, tears falling freely. Her chest ached with a pain she couldn't explain, a loss that should have been impossible to feel.

The next day, time rewound.

...

[Loop 5]

Rem stood still, staring at the mangled remains of what had once been Natsuki Subaru.

What lay in front of her barely resembled a human body anymore. His limbs were bent in unnatural angles, bones protruding through torn skin, muscles shredded and organs ruptured.

His fingers were snapped, scattered loosely around his body like discarded sticks. Blood soaked the ground, seeping into the earth beneath them.

Subaru was undeniably, thoroughly dead.

Rem inhaled deeply and then dropped to her knees, panting heavily. Her entire body trembled from exhaustion.

Her clothing was shredded, her arms and torso covered in deep knife wounds. Blood trickled from multiple cuts. But unlike Subaru, her injuries were survivable.

Despite the pain, she smiled. It wasn't a smile of kindness or relief.

It was a smirk—a cruel, self-satisfied expression.

"You deserved this... filthy Witch Cultist," Rem muttered under her breath, her tone cold and filled with hatred. Her eyes burned with unrestrained fury.

She had done what she believed was right. She had protected her sister. She had eliminated what she perceived as a threat. The man before her—Subaru—was not someone she saw as human.

She viewed him as a danger, a stain, something to be removed.

At no point did she consider that he might have been innocent.

She never questioned whether her conclusions were flawed.

She didn't allow the possibility that her rage had clouded her judgment.

In her mind, she had done the world a favor. Her self-righteousness blinded her to the horror of her actions, and she basked in her accomplishment.

But then, something changed.

A strange sensation passed through the air. The mana surrounding her began to vanish, as if it were being drained from existence itself.

"What...?" she muttered, her expression twisting with confusion. Her breath caught in her throat.

Then she froze.

A suffocating sense of dread took hold of her. She felt an overwhelming terror unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Her body went numb, her instincts screaming at her to run.

Footsteps echoed behind her.

She turned around, her muscles stiff and her heart pounding violently.

Standing there was a woman.

Her hair was the color of fresh blood—deep red, glinting under the light—and her eyes were a striking, piercing blue. She stood completely still, her gaze fixed on Subaru's mutilated corpse. Her face was unreadable.

But her expression told a story of its own.

It was full of disbelief, horror, despair as she stared Subaru's corpse.

The woman looked at Subaru's body as if her entire world had just shattered.

Rem could barely breathe.

She had no idea who this woman was...

But she knew with absolute certainty—

If she stayed here she would die.

"Z-Zero!" Reina screamed as she rushed to Subaru's mutilated corpse. Without wasting a second, she activated her Divine Protection of Healing. A surge of magical energy radiated from her body, surrounding his lifeless form. Muscles stitched back together, bones reconnected, and his mangled limbs began reforming under the influence of her power.

Within moments, his body was restored to its original state—untouched by injury, although now bare, lying on the blood-soaked ground. Everything seemed intact except for one critical element—life.

Subaru didn't move.

There was no breath. No pulse. No signs of consciousness.

No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much mana she poured into his body, Subaru did not return.

He was still dead.

Reina let out a gut-wrenching scream. Her voice echoed into the sky as she broke down, collapsing beside him. Tears streamed down her face, her hands trembling as she cradled his body.

From a distance, Rem turned to look at her.

Seeing an opportunity, she turned and fled.

Reina, too lost in her grief, didn't notice.

Rem ran as fast as her wounded body allowed, her mind spinning in confusion and fear. She didn't understand what had just occurred.

She had killed a suspected Witch Cultist.

That much was certain.

But then someone else showed up—someone who mourned that supposed cultist with unbearable sorrow.

And the terrifying part? That woman didn't carry any trace of the Witch's miasma. Not even a hint of it.

Still, the way Rem's instincts screamed in alarm, the way mana warped around the woman—being sucked in like a vacuum—told her something far more dangerous.

'Red hair. Blue eyes. Knightly presence. Mana distortion…'

Rem's eyes widened in panic as realization struck her like lightning.

"She's the Sword Saint?!" her thoughts screamed in disbelief.

Why had the Sword Saint appeared here? Why was she mourning someone like Subaru?

More importantly, 'why was she crying for him like he mattered?'

Rem's stomach dropped.

'Did I make a mistake?'

'Did I… kill someone innocent?'

The question gnawed at her relentlessly. Her face turned pale as she considered the implications of her actions.

Eventually, she reached the gates of the Mathers Mansion. Ram was already outside, standing beside Roswaal. Even Emilia, who had been asleep, was now awake and looking concerned.

Earlier,

Due to their synesthesia, Ram had felt the pain Rem experienced through their bond. The knife wounds Rem had suffered resonated with her in her sleep, jolting her awake. Fearing something had happened to her sister, she used her clairvoyant ability to link her vision with Rem's and witnessed the image of Subaru's mutilated corpse.

It didn't take long for her to understand what had occurred.

Her expression twisted in shock and disbelief.

Rem had killed their guest.

Despite being repeatedly warned, despite Roswaal's specific orders, Rem had acted on suspicion and executed someone who had already explained the reason for the Witch's scent on him. Puck had even confirmed Subaru's explanation.

He was in the clear.

'Has she gone insane?!' Ram screamed internally, overwhelmed with disbelief and anger.

'Zero had already explained everything, and his story checked out. Why the hell did she go that far?!;

Now what was she supposed to do?

Ram took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. She needed to think. She decided to go to Rem quietly, intending to dispose of Subaru's body in secret and tend to her sister's wounds before anyone else discovered what had happened.

But the moment she stepped outside, she froze.

An overwhelming sense of dread gripped her body. Her instincts flared up. Her heart pounded. Her very soul screamed at her to run, to flee from whatever was coming.

"Rem..." she whispered, now fully convinced her sister had encountered something terrible—something they were unprepared for.

Her voice rose sharply as she shouted to Roswaal, waking him fully. Emilia, disturbed by the noise, also came outside in confusion.

"Rem!" Ram cried, running toward her younger sister. She immediately pulled her into a tight embrace.

"S-Sister!" Rem cried, her voice shaking. Her entire body trembled from fear and guilt.

"Reeeeem~ Can I knowww whooo attacked yooouuu~?" Roswaal asked with an amused, yet sharply observant tone, eyeing the bloodstains on her torn clothes and the knife wounds on her body.

Even Emilia looked anxious now. Though she didn't understand the full situation, she could tell something serious had happened.

"I... I made a very big mistake," Rem said quietly, gathering what little courage she had left.

A heavy silence followed. Emilia's eyes shifted, her expression becoming more uneasy. It didn't take long for her to notice something else.

Zero wasn't here, considering how loud Ram's shouts were he should have been here, Emilia dismissed it thinking as if he was in deep sleep.

"What did you do?" Finally Emilia asked her.

Rem stiffened, and Ram's heart skipped a beat. Neither of them could answer.

Before anyone could respond, a thunderous sonic boom cracked through the air. Trees from the nearby forest were violently uprooted and hurled aside as a figure barreled toward them at incredible speed.

Everyone froze.

Reina appeared at the edge of the mansion's garden, holding Subaru's corpse tightly in her arms. Her landing shook the earth, but she said nothing.

The entire area fell silent.

Everyone present felt a suffocating pressure. Reina's eyes, once filled with light, now looked hollow and dead. Her expression was blank, yet somehow conveyed more rage and despair than words ever could.

...

A Few Minutes Earlier

Reina sat beside Subaru's corpse, staring at him as an unbearable emptiness consumed her. A void formed in her chest, threatening to swallow her whole. She had endured pain before—abandonment, trauma, ridicule—but nothing compared to this.

This pain was something else entirely.

Tears streamed down her face without stopping.

Her heart felt like it had stopped beating.

She couldn't breathe.

'Why?'

'Why did this have to happen to me?' she asked herself again and again.

Her thoughts turned dark.

Her mother was in a coma. Her grandmother had died—many believed it was Reina's fault. Her father despised her. Her grandfather hated her and blamed her for her grandma's death. Everyone she had ever known either feared her, hated her, or tried to exploit her.

To control her, they had even passed a law in her name.

No one had ever truly cared for her—except him.

Zero was the only person who had ever made her feel human. Who treated her as more than a weapon.

And now... he was gone.

Dead.

Gone forever.

She couldn't process it. She didn't want to. She prayed—begged—for a Divine Protection that could change this outcome. But the world responded with silence. It granted her nothing.

It gave her a response emphatically, it couldn't give Reina something that can ressurrect him.

She broke.

'It's my fault... I'm useless... I'm always too slow... Only if I wasn't slothful'

She leaned down and kissed Subaru's cold cheek.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I couldn't save you."

Then she made a silent promise to herself.

"But I will avenge you."

Her moral restraints shattered. Her compassion evaporated. Her logic no longer mattered. All that remained was a simple, final truth in her mind:

'If he no longer exists, then the world has no reason to exist either.'

And with that, she stood.

Her next destination was clear.

To be continued...

(A/N: 4.5k words... aghh if I had more time, I could have made it 5k.

Anyway do you enjoyed it?

I certainly did, letting everyone die so randomly. I didn't felt anything, just the fact that the plot is interesting.

No wonder everyone likes to torture Subaru in their fics.

However this proves how fucked up the world is without Subaru.

Guys give it powerstones, I have poured a lot of hardwork in it.

Here I am hearing some guys translating re zero fics having 50 patreons.

I am giving you all free, atleast make it in top 10.

I know many of you are giving me PS, but I am asking the silent readers.)