Chapter 169: Thank you—and I really want to kill you, Subaru!

Natsuki Subaru reached out, his expression perfectly calm, and shoved away the face Elsa had pushed up against his own — without the slightest mercy.

Even when his palm met that faintly cold cheek, nothing in his eyes so much as flickered. He simply pressed her face aside, inch by inch.

The motion had the practiced ease of someone disciplining a clingy kitten that kept nuzzling in where it wasn't wanted. Natural. Matter-of-fact.

Only after it was done did Subaru himself blink at what he'd just pulled off.

By any reasonable measure, he and Elsa weren't on close enough terms for a liberty like that. And yet his body had done it without consulting him.

As if he'd spent years around her. As if jokes like this were an old routine between them.

And Elsa's reaction? Subaru snuck a look.

Not a trace of offense. Not half a degree of anger at the rudeness. If anything—

Subaru tipped his head down and looked at his palm.

Ah. That cool skin he'd felt a second ago had climbed several degrees. It had gone warm.

Off to one side, Meili stood with both hands clasped behind her back, smiling as she watched her big sister and Big Brother get so cozy with each other.

Look closely, though, and the smile was stiff, slightly wrong — the kind that would collapse the instant anyone poked at it.

That's not very nice, Big Brother—

Under scrutiny, the light had drained out of Meili's eyes. They twitched once, and she pressed her lips into a hard line.

It's not nice. Playing favorites is not nice!

You act like you and Elsa go way back — so why pretend you don't know Meili at all?

Big Brother, you really are such a meanie!

"Mm-hm! So the short of it is, danger's coming, and this old woman needs to lead everyone out of here. That about right?"

The granny with the purple curls — the one who looked young again despite her years — heard the burly villager's report out, thought it over for all of a moment, and made her decision.

"Then that's how we'll do it. Go ring the bell and gather everyone up, and be quick about it! Remember, nothing but the food you can carry — nothing else! That young fella over there says we've got barely ten minutes!"

She barked the orders at the burly villager and told him to grab a few more people along the way so the word would spread faster.

In that moment, Earlham Village began to run like a machine, at an efficiency that was frankly out of the ordinary.

Before long the whole population had assembled at the village entrance, every one of them with rations in hand.

Natsuki Subaru stood at the village gate and watched the great column of villagers dwindle into the distance — no panic anywhere among them, just a strange, disciplined order.

This time, he hadn't gone to see Petra. He was afraid of a repeat of last time.

Even so, the word had reached him anyway: Petra had fallen unconscious.

So this was it, then. The so-called coercive force of fate.

Subaru let out a breath and watched the direction the column had vanished in, worry sitting heavy behind his eyes. Petra weighed on him more than the enemy he was about to face did.

He couldn't have explained why. Petra was special to him. Different.

"Here it comes!" The words came from Betty, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, her hand clasped in his, her face gone grim. Subaru raised his head toward the sky above the forest.

Thunder rolled.

Far off, the black clouds were slowly winding themselves into a monstrous spiral, as if something moving at tremendous speed were dragging a terrible current of air behind it — and coming straight for them.

By the time it had tightened into a small tornado, it was practically on top of them.

"Meili!" Subaru's shout was the signal to strike.

"Got it, Big Brother!" Meili smiled and swept one small hand through the air, sending the "bad little animals" she'd stashed long beforehand along the stretch of forest nearest the village into a suicide charge at Zarestia — the "Passing Demon" — who had just taken shape out of the tornado.

Only a dozen or so went in at a time. Last round, Subaru had learned that throwing every Mabeast at once at that legendary Great Spirit accomplished essentially nothing.

So he'd changed tactics. Meili's job was harassment, buying them a sliver of time.

That way, if things went sideways later, Emilia, Roswaal, Rem and Ram — all of them already racing this direction — could arrive in time to back him up.

That she'd wrung preparations this detailed out of Natsuki Subaru was, for this "most beautiful Grim Reaper," something to take pride in.

It was an odd thing to say about someone so young, but it was simply the truth—

Among all the formidable enemies he'd faced across his life, even one of the Four Great Spirits didn't stand out all that much.

"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Hahaha… oh, that felt good. Not a bad little welcome gift at all. Thank you kindly, Subaru!"

At the dead center of the sky-swallowing storm: a pure white kimono, long bare legs showing beneath it.

Milk-white short hair. A face of flawless, fairy-like beauty. This was the Great Spirit who governed "Wind" itself — Zarestia!

She paid no attention whatsoever to the Mabeasts flinging themselves at her. Creatures that low on the ladder couldn't so much as breach the wind coiled around her body.

Which was exactly why she could gaze down at Natsuki Subaru so idly, her mouth splitting into a grin equal parts thrill and mischief.

"It's precisely because I'm so worked up about this reunion, precisely because I'm so grateful — that's why… I want so badly to kill you, Subaru!"

The tone was light and bright. The words turned the blood to ice.

Because she wasn't joking. The proof sat right there in that Great Spirit's eyes: pitch-black killing intent, thick enough it was nearly brimming over!

That spine-crawling weight of murder settled across the entire span of Earlham Village. An aura of [Death], so dense it seemed ready to cross from concept into substance, closed over every last person there — Natsuki Subaru included!

Move… he had to move!

Feet rooted to the ground, Subaru clenched his teeth, cold sweat breaking out across his whole body as he fought his own instincts as a living creature.

He had underestimated it, no question — the way an existence this ancient bore down on them from a higher rank of life entirely. Her presence alone set his legs trembling and left him unable to act.

The good news was that everyone else could still move freely. Elsa, long since accustomed to slaughter. Betty, four centuries old and standing at the rank of a Great Spirit herself.

As for Meili, her own strength as a Mabeast tamer was probably even less than his — not that it mattered.

He'd wanted to stall a little longer, but this felt like it was about to turn very ugly, so, enough of that.

Subaru gave a squeeze to the hand Betty had locked tight around his. Signal sent.

Beako — go!

"Ul Minya!"

Betty was likely the only one present with any ranged option at all. The chant left her lips, and dozens of purple crystal blades bloomed thick in the air around her, every last one of them loosed toward where Zarestia hung.

But Zarestia was in no rush to close on Natsuki Subaru, and she was braced for it. To her, it meant nothing.

One sweep of her left hand, and countless blades of wind rushed out to meet those dozens of purple crystal edges head-on. The two attacks canceled each other out, breaking apart into light that scattered on the air.

The battle had ground into a deadlock in an instant — and where it would end, no one could say…

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