Dense Fog

"Subaru-! Run!"

Rem held the incapacitated Ram tightly against her with one arm, while her other hand gripped Subaru's wrist in a vise.

The wrist Rem had grabbed was already red from the pressure. She held on as if he were her most important lifeline in this sea of fire.

"Yeah... I know. Rem, hold on tight to Ram."

Subaru's voice was far too calm for his pale face. He pulled free of Rem's hand, then ran up beside her before she could look back in alarm.

Only after Rem confirmed that Subaru was right behind her did she stop trying to grab him.

In this world he had already decided to restart, Subaru felt there was one last thing he had to do.

After that, he had to save everyone who had died.

But first, Subaru had to get Rem and Ram somewhere safe before starting over.

"They're coming-!"

Through Antares's senses, Subaru picked up the malice suddenly closing in behind them. The Witch Cultists had caught up.

"Damn it! How many of them are there?!" As he ran, Subaru twisted around and aimed his gun at the dark figures pouring out of the shadows of the trees behind them.

"Bang!"

The bullet shot out wrapped in a green gust, slicing the foremost Witch Cultist clean in half at the waist. The two halves of the corpse tumbled to the ground, tripping several people behind him, but more dark figures stepped over their companion's body and kept coming.

"...Wind magic? What's going on?!"

Subaru froze. Antares's explanation promptly surfaced in his mind: all the mana replenished in his body had just been absorbed by Antares from Ram's horn.

The mana in the air was unaspected, and Lesser Spirits converted it to their own attributes after absorbing it. But the mana stored in Ram's horn had already been converted; it was pure wind-aspected mana.

So Subaru could now cast Ram's wind magic. Of course, Ram's strength came from the horn itself. Subaru had only borrowed her attribute, and his power fell far short of hers.

"Boom-!"

A massive fireball suddenly flew straight at them from ahead. Subaru had no time to think. He raised his hand and fired again, sending a huge wind blade howling from the muzzle to cleave the fireball in two. The split flames poured out to either side, setting the roadside bushes ablaze.

"-!!"

Rem stopped abruptly. In the woods ahead, several Witch Cultists had already cut off the three of them.

They raised their hands at once, scorching fireballs beginning to form above their palms. They plainly meant to set the entire area ablaze and trap the three of them in this wall of fire until they died.

"Rem! Don't use your horn! I'll find a chance to hold them off, so keep running!" Subaru raised his gun and stood in front of Rem.

"No-!!"

"This is no time to be stubborn!"

"Why... why are you doing something so cruel to Rem...?"

"Just hurry up and die."

The searing heat rolling off the fireballs in the Witch Cultists' hands warped the air. Their pursuers had closed in from behind as well. Attacked from both sides, the three were about to be trapped in the burning woods with no way out.

"Awooo!"

Suddenly, a howl rang out.

A black shadow burst from the dense forest and, before anyone could react, slammed into a Witch Cultist who was about to release a fireball, sending him flying.

"What was that?!"

"A beast?!"

The Witch Cultists turned their weapons toward it. Subaru had already recognized the figure that had come to his rescue.

It's you-!

The black Ground Dragon raced through the woods, its slender body deftly weaving around trunks and bushes. It dodged every spell the Witch Cultists hastily cast.

It was the Ground Dragon Subaru had rescued while chopping wood in the forest a little over half a month ago.

Its hind leg had completely healed now. Its sturdy muscles rippled smoothly as it ran, propelling it at a speed no human could ever reach.

The Ground Dragon dodged the attacks as it rushed to Subaru's side. It opened its mouth, seized his collar, and gave a powerful upward toss, landing him securely on its back.

"Wait! Them too-!"

As though it had understood Subaru's shout perfectly, the Ground Dragon immediately swooped toward them. Subaru reached out, grabbed Rem's arm, and pulled her up along with Ram, whom she held tightly in her arms.

Fortunately, all three were the size of children, so carrying them didn't slow the Ground Dragon down much.

It darted nimbly left and right through the trees, then suddenly found an opening and shot through it like an arrow.

The Witch Cultists immediately gave chase, fireballs and wind blades flying at them from behind.

With the three children on its back, the Ground Dragon dodged from side to side, darting through the dense forest like black lightning. Even the wind seemed unable to slow it down.

Subaru lay against its warm back, his eyes stinging. Genuine affection in the midst of suffering was impossible to resist. Though he resented the heavens for bringing down this senseless slaughter, the people around him, and even this Ground Dragon he had helped only once, were all risking their lives for him without holding anything back.

"...Thank you."

Subaru couldn't keep his voice from breaking, but he had no time to wipe away his tears.

The Ground Dragon answered with a low sound from deep in its throat. It ran even faster. But the Witch Cultists showed no sign of giving up. No matter how the Ground Dragon ran, they clung to its heels like a plaster that wouldn't come off.

Fireballs kept coming from behind, and the Ground Dragon dodged left and right. After it had run for who knew how long, the forest ahead suddenly changed.

"What's going on up ahead?"

Subaru spoke in bewilderment.

It was still afternoon, and the sky was bright, yet the woods ahead were completely shrouded in a vast bank of fog.

An expanse of white churned and flowed at an eerie, sluggish pace. If they plunged into it, they probably wouldn't be able to see a thing, much less tell which way they were going.

The Ground Dragon turned its head. The Witch Cultists it had briefly shaken off were closing in again, their black figures appearing and disappearing among the trees.

There was no way back.

So the Ground Dragon faced forward and charged without hesitation into the forest swallowed by dense fog.

Behind them, the Witch Cultists all stopped at once. They stood at the edge of the fog, watching their target vanish beyond the white barrier, but not one of them took so much as half a step forward.

A moment later, they turned around without hesitation and abandoned their hunt.

"What's going on here... They stopped chasing us?"

Dense fog enveloped everything. Subaru's taut nerves sensed that the malice that had been pursuing them relentlessly from behind had all vanished.

The Witch Cultists who had clung to them like maggots on bone had actually all given up the hunt.

"Why is there so much fog...?"

Rem's voice came from behind him. She still held the unconscious, hypothermic Ram tightly with one arm, while her other hand reached around Subaru's waist and gripped him firmly.

"In other words, this isn't normal. What the hell is going on...?"

Subaru raised his head and narrowed his eyes. He couldn't see anything clearly, but he kept sensing something amiss in the air.

The Ground Dragon was still running fast, trying to get out of the fog as quickly as possible. Its animal instincts were frantically sounding the alarm.

This place was extremely dangerous, but it didn't know where the danger was coming from.

"Anta, what's it like here?"

Antares's answer sent a chill through him.

The mana here was still contaminated, and it hadn't just been contaminated recently. It had been contaminated a long time ago.

The Witch Cult had blocked off every escape route from the very beginning.

The Ground Dragon let out a deeply panicked rumble and ran faster and faster, charging ahead with almost reckless abandon.

"What's wrong? Are you all right?"

Subaru lowered his body, then turned to check on the two behind him. Rem saw the fear in his eyes. She suppressed the unease on her own face and spoke.

"...The only thing Rem is afraid of is something happening to Subaru or her sister. As long as her sister and Subaru are safe, and Rem is still by Subaru's side, Rem isn't afraid of anything."

Subaru clenched his teeth. He had only one thought now: to pray there was no danger in this fog. As long as they could get out safely, the next time he started over, he could do everything possible to bring the entire village into this area ahead of time.

"...An... Anta?! What's going on-?!"

A wave of fear, like a scream, suddenly came from the Lesser Spirit. Immediately afterward, Subaru felt it too. An unnatural sound came from the sky.

It sounded crazy... but it was like the sound of a giant airplane.

Then came an emotion. A desire that blanketed everything, surging in from every direction.

"What the hell is that?! If you're going to pull something, then show yourself!"

Subaru irritably formed a fireball. Its scorching light flared up, instantly driving away the fog around them.

"...You've got to be kidding me."

Then he saw it. Right beside him, within arm's reach.

A gigantic yellow eye, larger than a person, was silently staring at them.

White skin disappeared into the fog as it closed in again. The creature was so enormous that even the fireball's light could not reveal the tip of the iceberg that was its full outline.

"..."

"Roar!!!"

An enormous roar thundered right beside Subaru's ear!

"Run-! Ground Dragon-!!"