"Ya can hit me all ya want, I won't die twice, shitty employer." Felt managed to snap out with some difficulty.
Toyota stepped in front of Elsa, eyes narrowing, and a sharp silver crosshair flared from his gaze.
The memory of her terrifying, murderous smile and knife made him want to run and cower in fear, but he kept telling himself that she couldn't hurt him. Images of his death at her hands began to play in his head.
Elsa's smirk disappeared as the silver crosshairs from his eyes spun faster and faster, and the monstrous vampiric assassin known as the Bowel Hunter fell to the floor, convulsing in pain.
An replayed memory began to play in the bloodthirsty assassin's mind as her eyes rolled up.
"Gu…ah…hot," she gasped.
A terrible heat coursed through her entire body.
"This is really bad."
She felt the hard floor against her cheek and realized she had collapsed face-first. Her strength was completely gone, and she had already lost sensation in her fingers. The heat from her core was so excruciating it made her want to tear her throat out.
"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot…"
The moment she opened her mouth to scream, what came out was no shriek, it was a clump of blood. She vomited large quantities of her lifeblood as she coughed. Frothy blood foamed at the corners of her mouth, and within her dim field of vision, the ground was dyed red.
"Aah…all…my blood?"
There was enough to soak her fallen body. It seemed she had already lost just about all of it.
She had stopped vomiting blood, but the heat, as though it would incinerate her from within, still persisted. She moved her hand toward her abdomen with great difficulty and, feeling an impossible sensation there, understood.
"My stomach's…been torn open, huh."
She felt so hot, as if her brain had confused pain for fire. Her body was nearly torn in half, only a bit of skin along her back holding her together. In short, it seemed this was a checkmate for her.
The moment she realized it, her consciousness began fading.
She died.
As if a fast-forward button had been hit, the scene skipped to a second checkpoint.
"Aah, I really felt that one." Elsa stared at herself with hatred.
The second kukri knife, drawn by the other Elsa, had just torn about seventy percent through her torso, spilling blood and guts.
"―Ah?"
One step, two steps, she staggered until her shoulder hit the wall, collapsing as if she'd slipped. Looking down, she could see copious amounts of blood pouring from her abdomen, and unable to handle the pressure, her internal organs had started to fall out.
She tried to place them back with her shaky arm, but the clotting blood prevented her from doing so.
"Are you surprised? I split your stomach when we passed one another. This happens to be my specialty," the other Elsa said with a smile, splashing small droplets into the sea of blood as she walked toward her.
Once the other Elsa reached her side, by this point incapable of even speaking and shrieking, the other Elsa lovingly gazed at her entrails in the darkened pool of blood.
"Aah, your bowels truly do have such a lovely color, just as I thought."
This woman was her. Exactly like her, yet now she herself was living a life as a victim, one she hadn't remembered taking. Her vision began to dim, and before she knew it, she seemed to end up on her side.
Slowly, she extended her arm, frailly grasping the other Elsa's foot.
"Au… Uah."
"Does it hurt? Are you suffering? Is it hard? Are you sad? Wanna die?"
With her hand still on the other Elsa's ankle, the doppelgänger crouched down, her murderous line of sight intersecting with hers.
The other Elsa's eyes looked trance-like; she was definitely feeling something. She never imagined she would look like that right before killing, that perverse, yet on the other hand, she was terrified of herself as she watched the other Elsa experience it. The ultimate pleasure.
"But it'd be a shame to make it too easy."
Still crouching, she smiled sweetly and swung her blade.
And that was the last thing Subaru saw.
Her slash was vivid; it cut straight across her face. The result:
"―GGaaaaaahhh?!"
Both of her eyes were torn apart; she had forever lost her sight. Still collapsed on the ground, she used her hands to feel the deep cuts. Blood and tears mixed as she vomited again, the scream not her own but deeper, guttural. She was assailed by the sensation that her insides were completely empty, as if all her blood and organs had spilled out.
It was as though she were experiencing ultimate karma, a hell crafted from herself.
"Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly… wriggle around," the other Elsa whispered gently in her ear.
As she approached the end, the other Elsa's voice struck her eardrums, savoring, grieving, cherishing, loving. Her pain, suffering, rage, and despair were overwhelmed by a fear she never thought possible after her transformation.
What dominated her now-empty heart was a single-minded terror, the extreme fear of death. Words repeated in her mind:
When will I die? When will I die? Am I still alive? Am I not dead? What defines life? Can it really be said that I'm alive, in this state, lesser than any insect? Can it really be said that I'm alive, now that I'm being toyed with in the palm of life and death?
The inner monologue was not hers, yet she was forced to hear it as her own:
What are life and death? Why am I afraid of dying? Do I need to be alive? No?
I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared…
It filled her mind completely. She was already at the end, and now her blank field of view was dyed white.
Ah… I'm dead.
As she woke from the nightmare, she lay at the feet of the boy, the only one currently alive, able to see her. She felt an inexplicable fear as he looked down at her with a growing demonic smile.
"It seems my plans will have to change again."
His voice and face were cheery, yet his eyes remained cold and full of inner despair.
Toyota stood atop tightly packed, sandy soil. He had moved from the castle washroom to the knights' garrison adjacent to the castle. The tamped-down, reddish training ground was ringed by sturdy stone walls that felt ancient, like a Roman colosseum. The area was large, providing plenty of space for running, a well-off place to train knights.
Toyota had re-donned his blindfold. Testing his footing by stomping the ground a few times, he began to casually stretch, unbothered by the massive crowd above him.
Julius, standing at the entrance to the parade grounds, began removing his ceremonial decorations and his white Royal Knight Guard uniform, his eyes betraying no emotion. Just like that, the growing murmurs that had filled the parade square fell silent as Julius, now fully warmed up, stepped into the center.
"I shall now duel with the ruffian who has besmirched the honor of the Royal Knights. Any objections?"
All around the training grounds, the gathered knights and guardsmen shouted, their voices creating a gale.
Everyone saw it simply: Julius was their representative against the boy who had insulted and disrespected them. They placed their trust in the finest of knights to win, forcing the boy to apologize to them all.
Never in his life had Toyota stood before so many people. Coupled with their hostile intent, it would give a normal person immense stress, chilling them to the bone. Yet Toyota remained entirely unbothered, as if their dislike had nothing to do with him. His heart was calm, and he didn't shake; he had been fated to face far worse things than unpopularity.
"Before we begin, let us state the terms."
You want me to repeat myself, making a show to this audience? Toyota couldn't help but play along.
"If you win, I will personally apologize to every knight here for calling them trash."
At this statement, outrage could be felt from the knights' stands.
As if trying to intervene quickly, not to rile up the hostile stands further, Julius continued.
"This is a knight's duel. As you are a candidate, it will not be to the death, so either an admission of surrender or unconsciousness. No magic or spirits will be permitted, nor activation of any Divine Protection. If any Divine Protection with an adverse effect violates the rules, then it will be taken as a surrender. Is that understood?"
"Sounds like you're wary of a specific Divine Protection." Toyota couldn't help but tease innocently. "But how will you be able to tell, since your resident lie detector doesn't work on me?"
"We have Roswaal, the greatest mage in the kingdom, and the Sword Saint with her Divine Protection of Judgment activated. This will be entirely impartial." Julius briefly glanced at Rei, who sat in the stands with a noticeably worried expression. She could immediately tell something fundamental about Toyota's personality had changed. She couldn't explain it, but ever since the strange phenomenon, the way others had been acting was strange as well.
Toyota's head briefly scanned the stands with his blindfold still in place, which gave the impression the blind fold was see-through.
It seems the entire Emilia camp, excluding Roswall, isn't here.
Toyota couldn't help but wonder how Subaru would react watching this.
"Any objections?" Julius's eyes asked.
Toyota gave a curt wave of his hand, showing there was no problem. At this admission, Julius nodded. "The referee shall be Felix Argyle."
Julius glanced sideways at him while Felix casually waved back, smirking at Toyota.
At this, Rei and Toyota visibly froze. Rei couldn't help but glare at the cat with a death stare, while Toyota kept his face calm on the outside, yet inside, he couldn't help but jump for joy. This was just too perfect.
He'd easily accepted the role of referee. There was a clear way to see into the healer's internal thoughts; he was definitely planning to skew the match just to mess with Toyota.
The cat grinned widely, as though he hadn't just been knocked unconscious by some invisible force a while ago.
"Have at it, you two! No matter what horrible wounds you suffer, I can patch you up, as long as you don't actually die!"
Felix wouldn't kill him in this public setting, pretending to heal, but the cat would surely use the most painful healing option, one where it felt like his internal organs would melt.
Sticking his tongue out at Toyota, he gleefully shouted, "Good luck, Crimson!"
Toyota forced a confused expression. "Why say that to just me?"
"Wow, what strong resolve. You actually believe you're going to win."
Beside him, Felt squinted up at the stands. "Is that a guy or a girl?"
"It identifies as feral, so it will be put down soon."
"…You didn't answer my question."
"…It's a dude." Suddenly aware of a certain absence, he remembered.
"Where did Elsa go?"
"Seems she's feeling a little sad."
Felt pointed to Elsa, who was rocking in the fetal position, clutching her stomach with a blank face.
"I almost feel bad. What did you do to her?"
"Ask questions after this is over. I don't want to whisper because of someone with super-hearing."
"…Who?"
"..."
Toyota stepped forward and turned to face Julius, who offered him one of the practice weapons, a wooden sword.
(AN: I won't release consistently as I have college, but I am not dropping this, so there will probably be long gaps between chapters. I've started another fanfic, which probably won't see the light of day for a while.