Vampire?
For the first time witnessing a person's death with his own eyes, the intense nausea made Subaru squat down in a corner.
Grandpa Rom was counting his losses, and Emilia seemed to have taken her own Insigna from Felt's hand.
Everyone's attitude was calm, and this scene gave Subaru a deeper understanding of the cruelty in this other world.
"Subaru, are you okay?"
Emilia came over with concern. Subaru suppressed the urge to vomit and turned around, then he saw it — a black shadow quietly moving behind the silver-haired girl.
"—Emilia! Defend yourself!!"
The curved blade reflected light and swung once again at the white neck, the motion as gentle as if spreading paint.
In an instant, the girl's head flew off in front of Subaru's wide-open eyes.
"Why? Why are you still alive, Elsa!"
Subaru shouted at the blade-wielding killer.
Elsa, who should have been dead, was now standing in front of him completely unharmed.
Even the right hand and right sole that he had cut off were intact on her body.
Only the torn clothing and the frozen severed limbs suspended mid-air proved the deadly fight had just happened.
"I prefer to say I'm blessed with undeath, but people prefer to call us vampires anyway. Oh! By the way, I'm a half-vampire, so I eat like normal humans and don't suck blood. I'm only interested in cutting open bellies and playing with warm intestines."
Elsa spoke while licking her blade with delight.
Her actions made her words feel real, and it was precisely because Subaru understood what kind of monster this person in front of him was that a deep fear welled up from his heart, making his hands and feet tremble.
The nausea surged again, but the situation didn't wait.
"Woooohhh—!!"
Grandpa Rom roared, charging at Elsa with his club, while Felt took out her knife and readied to assist.
Rom cursed loudly as he swung the club.
The club whooshed through the air, smashing toward Elsa.
Against such power, her clumsy defense was worse than a paper shield.
Rom used this deadly attack, which was fatal if it landed, in the cramped warehouse where there was little space to dodge.
But Elsa's fighting ability was exceptional.
After dodging several of Rom's attacks, Rom changed tactics: the spiked club switched from a sweeping strike to a thrust, narrowing the attack from a line to a point.
The strange attack aimed straight at Elsa's throat — but instead, Rom's throat stiffened.
"Th-This can't be—!!"
"That's because you're strong, so I was able to do it," Elsa said lightly, standing skillfully on the tip of the club thrust forward.
Such balance was only possible with a supernatural sense of equilibrium.
Before the exquisite balance collapsed, Elsa swung her blade forward, aimed at Rom's forehead.
A direct hit would certainly decapitate him.
"Don't think you'll get your way!"
Felt threw her knife.
The sudden strike from below slightly disrupted Elsa's blade movement.
The belly of the blade struck the giant's shoulder with a heavy clang of metal on bone.
Rom's body sprayed blood and collapsed stiffly.
"Bad child!"
After landing lightly, Elsa turned to glare at Felt.
The smile in her eyes quickly turned to hatred.
The next second, Elsa appeared in front of Felt, arm bent and swinging down.
"Ah!"
Though Felt instinctively jumped back, the blade still cut her shoulder in midair.
She couldn't even protect herself when landing.
Felt tumbled to the ground before Subaru, with a wound from left shoulder to right armpit deep enough to expose ruptured internal organs.
Blood sprayed like a fountain onto Subaru, and in the shock of pain and slashing, Felt had probably already lost consciousness.
She lay on the ground motionless.
After a few seconds, the blood stopped flowing, silently indicating her life was over.
Having lived in peaceful Japan, seeing such a deadly battle firsthand, with trembling limbs unable to move, and only able to watch Felt bleed to death before him, Subaru realized he lacked not only fighting ability but also resolve.
"Old man and the girl are down, and you're still not moving? Have you given up?"
Elsa spoke with a tone of pity, then relaxed as she approached Subaru.
That attitude made Subaru's anger surge uncontrollably—both anger at Elsa and at his own weakness.
Anger overcame fear, and Subaru crawled up like a beast, then lunged at Elsa with all his strength.
"You're hopeless. You look like a novice—big, clumsy, and inaccurate. No Divine Protection, no skill, and you thought you came up with some brilliant plan? You didn't. Why do you even challenge me?"
Elsa looked puzzled at the boy who had crawled up again.
Compared to the unscathed Elsa, Subaru's nose and front teeth were damaged, the ribs in his abdomen kicked by Elsa were probably broken, and his left shoulder and below shook weakly.
Both knew Subaru had no chance of winning.
"Let's end this. I'll send you to meet the angels."
Clearly bored, Elsa said the words that announced the game was over, then smiled and melted into the darkness.
Her exquisite footwork made it seem like she sank into the shadows.
Seeing Subaru lose focus, she swiftly attacked with a deadly slash.
"What!"
Betting everything on the title "Bowel Hunter" and convinced Elsa was aiming for his abdomen, Subaru barely dodged the lethal strike with a backward jump, then used all his strength to deliver a spinning kick to Elsa's upper body.
"Oh, impressive just now."
Elsa drew a second kukri from her waist, and the next second, a huge wound appeared on Subaru's belly as if trying to slice him in half.
Blood and guts gushed out.
"—Ah?"
Shaking, he took a step or two, then crashed against the wall and collapsed.
Looking down, blood uncontrollably poured out, staining the floor.
He tried to push the spilled blood back into his belly with trembling hands.
"Scared? Just a scratch can open a hole in your belly. That's my specialty."
She came close to Subaru, who could only moan wordlessly, gazing fondly at the black thick blood pooling over his exposed intestines.
"Ah, as I thought—I just knew your intestines would be beautiful."
This woman was abnormal. Her head was definitely messed up.
Under agonizing pain that adrenaline couldn't fully suppress, Subaru's consciousness began to blur.
At some point, his body lay sideways on the ground, and his trembling fingers weakly touched Elsa's foot.
"Ah... ugh... ugh..."
"Does it hurt? Are you uncomfortable? Sad? Heartbroken? Do you want to die?"
Allowing his ankle to be grabbed, Elsa crouched down to meet Subaru's gaze, her eyes filled with happiness—an indescribable happiness.
"You'll slowly, slowly lose your body heat, then slowly turn cold."
Like teasing, licking, mourning, and cherishing, Elsa's voice gently tapped on Subaru's ears as he neared the end.
Snapping back to awareness, his vision closed.
The blood loss was too great; his body was gradually dying.
Unable to hear, taste, smell, or see—he only felt his body cooling, knowing he was about to die. And that was terrifying.
In a world where he didn't know when his life's flame would extinguish, the fear of death overwhelmed Subaru, refusing to leave him.
When will I die? When will I die? Am I still alive? Or am I already dead?
What does it mean to live? Can this state worse than a bug be called living? What is life and death? Why is death so terrifying? Is living necessary? Or is it unnecessary?
So scary, so scary, so scary, so scary, so scary, so scary.
Instinctively endlessly rejecting the overwhelming idea of his death.
Finally Death engulfed and embraced Subaru as his vision finally faded to pure white.
—Ah, I'm dead.
With that final thought, Subaru's life easily slipped away.