AN: Sorry I took so long, personal things happened, but I have returned! And so has JDUBZYT! And we're back with a vengeance!

ARC Four: Battle From Zero

Chapter Twenty Nine: Sinister Sloth

Julius dismounted from his ground dragon and stared at Subaru and Batman.

"I take it you're doing well?"

"...Uh, yeah totally! Nothing that a little bit of spit and rest wouldn't fix. By the way, have come up with an appropriate apology for going so rough on an amateur like me?"

"I was talking about injuries to your pride from this subjugation. But I see you've been doing well since then."

The two laughed, though Subaru's was obviously sarcastic. Julius turned his attention to Batman and gave a slight nod.

"Batman."

"Julius, good to see you."

"Likewise. I learned a lot from our previous encounter. It would seem I have been lacking in my training since I was defeated by the likes of you. And so I have made it my mission to surpass you in order to restore my honor."

"..."

Batman stared wide-eyed at the young knight, while Subaru gave a wry smile.

"You know, Batman-san has been training since he was a kid"

"And so have I."

"Sure, but where I'm from he's considered one of the best warrior around."

"Hmmmm...so he is regarded highly such as 'Blue Lightning' Cecilus and 'Admirer' Halibel, then?"

"If those guys are the best this world has to offer, then yes."

"Well, all the more reason to strive for my goal."

He gave a polite bow and proceeded to meet with the others, meanwhile Batman and Subaru let out a bemused sigh.

Batman brought his fingers to his mouth, and sharply whistled, and from a forest clearing emerged Zorro. The ground Dragon let out a low growl and placed it's snout at his hands. He proceeded to pat him.

"Sorry I took so long."

The meeting proceeded with Subaru explaining the plans to take down the Witch's Cult and evacuate the villagers. The mood slightly changed when Subaru informed them that there was a Sin Archbishop was amongst them. Things calmed down when it was decided that Batman and Wilhelm would be the ones to take him on.

Riding through the highway, Batman caught up with Julius.

"You patch things up with Subaru?"

"...In a sense."

"Well that's good."

Things became awkwardly quiet between the two, before Batman spoke up.

"Julius."

"Yes?"

"I want to apologize to you for what happened in the capital."

"...!"

"I realize I was trying to do what I felt was right, but I can't lie and say that I didn't have a personal agenda behind it. So I apologize."

"It isn't anything to apologize for. My actions merely met with a reaction and my underestimating of you led to my defeat."

"...Listen. I wanted both you and Subaru to learn something that day."

"Huh?"

"For Subaru I wanted him to really self reflect on himself and look at all his weaknesses. And for you I needed to bring you back from your own drunkenness from the chivalry you have. It's good to have pride in your role in this kingdom, Julius. But not at the expense of others or their feelings… I've learned that many times."

"..."

"Also, try not to underestimate your opponents you'll regret it. That's all, food for thought."

"Yes, thank you."

Batman whipped the reins to catch up to Subaru. Julius smiled while watching his new rival ride off.

"You are a strange one.."

There was now a cave which lied miles in the outskirts of the village. It was a cave filled with pained and fearful memories for Natsuki Subaru, but it was also a hiding place of their enemy, The Witch's Cult.

At the entrance stood a lone Cultist who was staring down at the lone Subaru. The Cultist began biting his bottom lip out of pure excitement.

"Welcome fellow believer of love! Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, Petelgeuse Romanee Conti!"

"Yo."

"..."

"You said I am supposed to be loved, but I don't feel it."

"It happens suddenly for everyone, the moment they realize they are loved. Yes...Lovelovelovelovelove! Hehehehehe!"

"You sure about that?"

"Hmm. Though you do have a thicker smell of it. You wouldn't happen to be Pride would you?"

"Huh?"

"Of the Six Archbishop positions, the seat of Pride is still left vacant!"

He then slowly slid over to Subaru as he shifted his body to turn to him.

"You...let me see your Gospel."

"Gospel?"

"My brain...TREMBLES!"

He then shifted through the pages of his own Gospel while laughing maniacally. He then stopped as he closed the Gospel and looks back at Subaru.

"You. Are. Not. Here? What is the meaning of this? What are you doing here? Answer me!"

Subaru patted away the Gospel that was now right in his face and gave a fake smile.

"Oh! That Gospel, why didn't you say so? Let me see if I...oh man I messed up!"

"What?"

Subaru placed a palm on his forehead as he seemed to laugh at himself.

"I used it as a coaster last time and it got all dirty...so I threw it out."

"..."

Petelgeuse put an uncharacteristic confused expression, but after a few seconds it became one filled with rage.

"Proof of Love! Unseen Hand!"

From his back invisible forces unseen by everyone except Subaru emerged from his back. They were the very things that hurt Rem and killed Ram.

Subaru saw several dark shadowy arms with a violet aura surrounding them launched at Subaru, but before they could grab him, he jumped back and away from their grasp.

"What?!"

"Your special move is called Unseen Hand right? Well if I can see them, it isn't so special now is it?!"

"You! You can see my Unseen Hand?!"

Just then two loud yells sounded off as a shockwave hit behind him and collapsed the cave entrance and shear Witch Cultists that were watching. Mimi and Tivey let out another Sonic Scream as the cave collapsed further.

"Enjoy being buried alive you bastards! This is payback for all the horrible things you've done!"

Petelgeuse seemed utterly shocked by this development. He began to rip clumps of his hair off and his eyes began to bleed.

"My Fingers. My hardworking, diligent, innocent Fingers. Such cruel and vicious deaths was not what they deserved! Ah! MY BRAIN! MY BRAIN TREMBLES!"

Petelgeuse turned his attention to the Pearlbaton siblings and was about to release his Unseen Hands at them, but…

"Huh?"

Smoke was now covering the ground and emerging from it was Batman who fired his freeze gun at him. Petelgeuse was able to block the attack with some of his Unseen Hands. Batman charged at him, while the Pearlbaton siblings were making their escape.

"AGHHHHH! The black suited one, yes, Scarecrow-kun warned me about you!"

"What?! So Scarecrow is one of your associates!"

"Does not matter! Fall before my power of love!"

The Sin Archbishop then raised his palms toward Batman and the Pearlbatons.

"SLOTH!"

Subaru then saw a black wave of energy spread out of Petelgeuse and strike all three of his allies. They fell to their knees and grabbed their heads.

"Batman-san?!"

"Subaru stay back! It's just like Fear Toxin. Visions. Voices. All of it!"

"That bastard!"

Petelgeuse and Subaru narrowed their eyes at each other.

"Yesyesyesyes! I see then! Than it shall be! Let us see which of us is most suited to receive the witch's love! Her love! LOOOOOO-"

"-Sorry, but we're not going to be doing that. I have someone else in mind!"

Subaru smiled as he looked up in the air, this made Petelgeuse also begin to look up. But Wilhelm landed on the ground behind him, having already sliced him clean in half.

After the battle the two young sibling were pilfering Petelgeuse's corpse, when Tivey discovered the Gospel. He became terrified when Subaru told him what it really was, so he threw it away. Subaru grabbed it and alongside Batman tried to read it. They flipped through many of its pages, but neither could understand it.

"Anything Batman-san?"

"Nope, unless there is another language in this world we don't know about, this is just gibberish."

"Damn, I thought we could find something."

"Nevertheless, we should hold onto it. Maybe it's some sort of code that they teach each other during initiation."

"Like their own secret language?"

"Possibly. Let's keep an open-mind about it."

Batman used his optic eyes to scan it, but found nothing of interest. He handed it to Subaru as he tried to think. When he turned his gaze, he noticed Ferris and the others were staring at them.

"Something wrong Ferris?"

"Of course! Nyou two shouldn't be doing something so dangerous as reading a gospel! Nyothing good will come of it!"

"Some sort of superstition around it huh? Regardless, we need to learn as much about these people as we can. So don't worry we'll be careful."

"Ferri-chan is doing their best to keep nyou two safe! Don't come meowing to me when you get cursed or something!"

Batman let out a sigh and signaled to Subaru that they needed to meet with the others.

While everyone was discussing their accomplishments with their own battles, Batman took some time to survey the area. That's when he felt a sudden chill in the air. Subaru suddenly let out a scream.

"GET DOWN!"

Batman turned around and saw several allies high up in the air. He prepared to toss several Batarangs at their assailant, but they were torn apart by some invisible force.

"NO!"

He then heard a familiar voice screaming and looked back down to see Subaru being dragged off by something into the woods.

"Subaru!"

Batman chased after him along with everyone else, but they were blocked by several Cultists. Batman never lost his momentum and tossed Batarangs at them, which exploded. He then used the momentum of his running to tackle two of them away, one was able to dodge and actually stabbed him in his shoulder. Batman stopped running and turned his attention to his assailant. This startled the Cultist, who couldn't defend himself from the barrage of punches Batman let loose on his face.

The others joined in on the battle as well.

Batman and Wilhelm were now running through the forest and could hear the Pearlbatons Sonic Scream in the distance. They moved faster and saw that a female Cultist was had Subaru and was releasing her Unseen Hands at them. Luckily there was water still falling from their previous attack. Batman rushed and tossed a Batarang it sliced straight through the Unseen Hands, giving Wilhelm the chance to charge forward and slice cleanly through the Cultist.

"Life is spilling out. My blood is drying out. My diligent lifeforce, my heartbeat is stopping. Ahhhh! My brain tremb-"

The Cultist fell to the ground dead.

When the others had walked back, Subaru saw all around him the gravity of the battle that had taken place. Luckily, Wilhelm gave him a warrior's advice, which helped Subaru stand firm. Batman patted Wilhelm on the back and nodded. The two warriors nodded in agreement.

After the encounter, the party was on the way to the village when suddenly it seemed that all sound had been cut from Batman, he noticed that the world had become tinted blue, and that all of his companions had disappeared. He dismounted from his unmoving ground dragon to investigate.

Just then a familiar voice invaded his mind.

"The flower!"

He recognized it as Subaru's voice, trusting his intuition he searched around and found a blue flower on the ground. He stomped on it and was freed from his illusion. He looked around and saw more familiar faces huddled near a forest clearing. He rushed over to see them.

"Hey is everyone alright?"

There he ran into Ram, who dressed in some strange white cloak.

"Well, I see Batman-san is here as well. This further confirms that Barusu has not betrayed us."

"Good to see you too Ram. Also, what would make you think Subaru would betray you and secondly, my presence gets rid of that assumption because?"

"Firstly, Barusu here made some grave errors, as he usually does, and had me assuming so."

"Figures."

"And knowing you, you would never fall for one his brain-dead schemes."

"Well, that sounds-"

"-And you would never try to hurt us."

"...!"

Ram looked up and smiled at Batman, which relaxed the both of them. Soon, it was decided that all of them would head to the village and begin evacuation procedures.

At the village, Batman left evacuation proceedings while he went to go check the defenses of the village. That's when he noticed a odd carriage near the outskirts of town. He moved towards and examine it. He opened the tarp in the back...inside was a group of Witch Cultists preparing to attack the village. He jumped back and tossed an explosive Batarang into the carriage. It exploded and he could hear grunts and moans coming from the carriage. Some of the cultists began coming out, and attacked him. He used a textbook judo throw on one, knocking him out completely, he then used a Cultist dagger he picked up and sliced at their joints. They all fell to the ground as he ran to the village, just in time to see the center of it explode.

He flew away a few feet, but used a grappling hook to keep himself from flying away further. The shockwave ended and he raced to the village. Through the smoke and debris he could hear scream and swords clashing. He rushed through the smoke and saw a young woman with a baby about to be cut down by Witch Cultist, but he shoulder tackled him to the ground and proceeded to beat him down. Batman turned to look back at the woman, he grabbed her and using his grappling hook he took out of the village.

"Go get out of here!"

"Th-Thank you!"

Batman raced back but could see clouds of debris rise up and a familiar set of transparent arms hidden in them.

"The Unseen Hands?!"

He raced over to the center but kept stopping as he repeatedly had to stop to save several civilians.

When he finally got to the center, he saw that Wilhelm was badly hurt.

"Wilhelm!"

Subaru and Julius also arrived to help Wilhelm.

"Why?! Whywhywhywhywhywhy?!"

They all turned their attention to see a female cultist clawing her face and biting her fingers as she leered at them.

"Why do you all still live?! Bend to my diligence!"

Batman heard that kind of speech before and had a theory.

"Subaru!"

"Yeah?!"

"The true ability of Sloth seems to be a 'mind transfer' ability."

"So every time he dies he transfers his thoughts and memories to one of his Fingers?"

Batman nodded, making them realize what they had to do.

Subaru led away the new Sloth Host into the forest, while everyone else focused on taking down the other Cult members.

Subaru was running through the forest exhausted with a barrier crystal in his hand. Behind him, he could hear a gurgling sound, trees snapping and the Unseen Hands searching for him. Earlier, the Host was bitten in the neck by Wolgarm and had begun to bleed out. She acted out of frustration and killed all the nearby Wolgarm as Subaru escaped. Suddenly, he could no longer hear any of the earlier sounds. He ran back and found the female cultist lying in a pool of her own blood, dead. Subaru ran back but turned back one last time to see another of Wolgarm descend upon the corpse and devour it. He turned away in disgust.

Batman was now busy taking on the new host as he used the debris around him to dodge the Unseen Hands. This changed however, when he saw a Witch Cultist creep over an injured knight. He ran over to the Cultist choke-slammed him to the ground, before he punched him into unconsciousness. This distracted him from an Unseen Hand that punched him away and into a nearby house, going straight through the wall.

When he lifted himself from the wreckage, he saw the Sloth Host dancing around gleefully as the civilians around him wailed in death. This infuriated Batman as blood poured out of his mouth. At the same time, Subaru had arrived and also saw the grizzly scene himself.

They both screamed out.

"SLOTH!"

Then a voice came from the distance.

"That's enough villain."

Everyone looked at the direction of the voice and saw who it came from, it was Emilia.

Emilia immediately froze the other Cultists around them and turned her attention to the new Sloth.

"I cannot overlook the horrendous evil you have committed, villain!"

"OH. OH! OHHHHHH! My witch, the purpose and guiding force of my love! How wonderous! How spectacular!"

The Host released several Unseen Hands at Emilia, but with Puck she easily dodged them. Batman realized that Emilia had made snow float all around her, allowing her to see the Unseen Hands. Emilia unleashed a shower of ice spears on top of the Cultist, but he blocked it with his own Unseen Hands. The Host tried to use his Unseen Hands to lift his body over to Emilia, but she fired ice spears to cut them away. The Host then summoned a very large Unseen Hand and tried to slam it down at Emilia, she quickly jumped out of the way and summoned a gigantic ice spear and fired it at the Unseen Hand, destroying it.

The Host smiled and cried at seeing this.

"Yes! Through you I shall go to the one that I love and they shall express their love to me!"

"That love doesn't exist, your crush is merely one sided!"

Puck and Emilia summoned another giant ice spear and fired it at the Host, he used countless Unseen Hands to try and stop it. He was pushed back several meters before his Unseen Hands gave out and it crashed into it. The host was now trapped in the ice, Emilia walked over to him and placed her hand on the ice.

"Thank you for being defeated."

"How diligent! Yes true diligence! HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

They were his last words as the ice encased him, freezing him to death.

Batman finally reached over to Emilia and grabbed her shoulder.

"Emilia are you okay?"

She turned to look at him with tears forming in her eyes, she wiped them away as she looked at all the villagers who gave her different expressions. Batman was helping out with the villagers in gathering the dead...when he noticed Subaru was nowhere to be found.

Of all the people who wanted to see Emilia right now, it'd be him.

This made Batman anxious as he searched around for him, he then used his optic eyes to find his footprints and followed them into the forest, in the distance he heard screaming so he used his optic eyes to zoom in further.

There he sees Subaru dead leaning on a downed tree.

Batman rushed forward in a panicked state. He saw Julius turn around, with the bloody sword in hand, Batman proceeded to punch him in the cheek. Julius toppled to the ground and Batman reached out to Subaru.

"Subaru! Subaru! OH GOD!"

He ripped off the sleeve off of Subaru's tracksuit and placed pressure on his neck wound. He still held onto it as he looked over at Ferris.

"FERRIS! HELP HIM! HIS ARTERY'S BEEN CUT!"

"There is nyothing to do...Subaru-kyun is dead…"

He then looked down and saw that Ferris was right. Batman closed his friend's eyes and mouth, wiping off the blood from his face as well. He turned his attention to Julius, grabbed him, and slammed him to a nearby tree. Batman glared at him with a terrifyingly enraged expression. Julius looked at him sorrowfully.

"I'm sor-"

"-SORRY?! YOU KILLED HIM! WHY?! TELL ME WHY!"

"The Sin Archbishop had possessed him, he even asked us to finish him off. Subaru wanted this."

"I DON'T CARE IF HE WANTED THIS! There had to be another way!"

"There was none! Would you have preferred that we keep him alive and trap Subaru's mind in a body he could no longer control?!"

"No...It didn't need to end like this…"

Batman let him go and slumped back into another tree. He then heard Wilhelm and several other soldiers arriving. He could hear Wilhelm yelling at Ferris and Julius, the soldiers weeping for their fallen ally, but what he heard next nearly broke his sturdy heart.

"-Subaru?"

He finally glanced over and saw Emilia arriving with tears forming in her eyes, she walked over to Subaru and knelt over to him. That was when she started to cry. Batman kept sitting, emotionally exhausted at that point.

A small funeral was held for Subaru in the center of the village. Many of the citizens were holding back tears or shed their own tears profusely. It pained Batman to see the Leyte family holding Petra back as she cried for Subaru. It was at that point Batman looked into the distance at the orange hued sky and clenched his fist.

"I'm going home...and-"

A single tear fell off his cheek as he looked at the wooden coffin made for Subaru.

"-When I return Subaru, you'll be recognized as hero even in my world. You'll be posthumously inducted as an honorary member of the Justice League."

Batman then turned away and headed straight to the edge of town looking at the flowing river, which had now mixed with blood. He was now unsure of what to do next…

Subaru awoke in the middle of the meeting they had after the White Whale battle. He was disoriented and looked around, before he was snapped back into reality by a quick nibble to his ear by Ferris. Though he freaked out about it, he was calmed down by Batman with a light smack to his back.

"Subaru, do you have some new info you want to tell us about?"

Subaru quickly understood what he meant and gave a brave smile. For Subaru it was comforting to know that someone would understand where his new information was coming from.

Subaru had informed them all that Petelgeuse had the ability to transfer his mind into his Fingers, giving them the hope that once Petelgeuse and his fingers were killed they'd be victorious. Though Subaru had something else to say.

"Sorry guys, but unfortunately I think he can possess me too. What do you think we should do about that?"

There was silence for a moment, until Ferris and Ricardo let out gasps of surprise.

"Subaru-kyun, what do nyou mean by that?"

Before Subaru could answer back, Batman made himself known.

"I have a theory on that."

"Batman-san?"

"Why would it be that Petelgeuse could only possess his Fingers or Subaru here? Their is some sort of qualification that is needed and that's when I thought of one thing. Petelgeuse is using spirit magic to do this...so..?"

"...Spirit. Spirit! He needs people that have an affinity to spirit magic! Wait, come to think of it I was once told I had an affinity towards it. But wait, if I could get possessed why wouldn't he be able to possess Julius?"

"I think it's because he's already contracted with spirits. He needs to take people who are not contracted by spirits."

"True, I've never seen any Cultists that use spirit magic."

Everyone there realized that out of everyone there, Subaru was the most in danger.

Subaru got up and glanced over at everyone, setting his sights on Julius.

"No worries guys, I got a plan for that."

Subaru then quickly glanced at Batman.

"Batman-san, do you have anything else we can use for this battle? It's going to be really tough and we'll need extra strength for it!"

"Hmmm...I have one more suit I can use, it's not as powerful as the Justice Buster, but it should be able to help."

"Really? Geez, how much stuff do have in that jet?"

"There's actually a small door underneath the Batwing that leads to a pocket dimension. Mr. Terific and several others helped make it."

"What really? Geez, you superheroes really have cool things don't you?! How many things do you have in there?"

"Just the Justice Buster, the armor I'm about to use and of course something else that I'll be keeping safe for now."

"The Batmobile?"

"No."

"..."

As the party was leaving for their destination they all soon noticed a shadow flying around in the sky, everyone armed themselves thinking it was an enemy or even a rogue dragon. But it landed in front of Subaru and everyone was shocked by the sight. Clad in black armor with red lines streaming across its' body, large black wings on its back and vicious white eyes that shined with its metallic body.

It was Batman. Wearing THE JUSTICE ARMOR.

"If that Sin Archbishop tries to take over my mind, he'll have a lot of trouble doing it. This suit is designed against mind control and gives me the edge on strength."

"Wouldn't expect anything less from Batman-san!"

Batman mounted himself on Zorro and nodded at Subaru, and so they left to the battle ahead.

They soon arrived to the village to begin preparations to evacuate while Batman and the Fangs of Iron went off to attack the secret hideout.

After assaulting the cave, they all found a secret room. Batman kicked the door down and found a young man with grey hair tied up on the floor crying.

Ricardo and Batman looked down at the young man, when he finally looked up to see them he screamed.

"Wah! The one left is going to slice me to ribbons and the other one is going to eat me!"

Batman closed his metallic eyes as he sighed.

"Why am I the one labeled the cannibal?"

Ricardo let out a cheerful chuckle as he picked up the young man and led him out of the hideout.

When they returned they saw that everyone had led the others to safety. Batman and Ricardo showed them the young man they had found in the hideout.

"Bwahahaha! Guys guys! He's not a Witch Cultist, that's Otto, he's just a simple merchant."

Ricardo dropped him to the ground as everyone gave a good chuckle at Otto who could only scream out in confusion.

Subaru decided to send Batman off to catch up with the carriages and protect them from the other cultists.

"Subaru I can help you guys fight him off-"

"-Batman-san. I know you want to help, but the plan only involves me and Julius. I need you to help Wilhelm-san and make sure they make it to safety. Okay?"

"...Use the comm link I gave you to alert me about anything!"

Batman leaped into the air and flew away with his massive black metallic wings. He looked back at Subaru, who gave him a thumbs up. He raced off to catch up to the carriages.

Later, Emilia and the children were riding in their shared carriage as she wondered what was happening.

"This all seems too well planned, how did this all happen?"

Just then, they could hear explosions in the distance and Emilia sent out Puck to see what it was. He returned quickly back to Emilia's side and began to telepathically talk to her.

"There seems to be some really bad people trying to get to us!"

"Should we-?"

"-Nah, the knights ahead of us including the old guy seem to be doing well in holding them off."

"Still-"

Just then they saw two Witch Cultists appear from the ground beside them and ran towards them with daggers in hand. Emilia held the children tight as she faced them, Puck came out and was prepared to fire.

Then, a black figure shot down to the ground crushing one of the cultists, the other one turned around and saw a dark hand emerge from the dust cloud. It grabbed his face and slammed him to the ground. It then leaped into the carriage, Puck and Emilia took defensive positions against the unknown figure, until Petra looked up.

"Ah! Batman-san!"

Emilia and Puck looked closely at him again and also realized who it was.

"B-Batman-san? What are you-?"

He then leaped out of the carriage and flew high into the air.

"Seems everyone was alright."

He flew high into the air and saw several Witch Cultists charging at some knights, so he charged down and crashed into the ground. The impact caused many Cultists to fly high into the air, he then began effortlessly tossing the others away. He even grabbed on by the legs and used him as a weapon, beating on several of the other conscious ones. He then threw the Cultist away and flew back into the air.

"Batman-san! Come in!"

His comm link activated suddenly and he responded.

"Subaru! What's wrong?!"

"There's an explosive in Emilia's carriage I need you to get it out of there! We're on the way too!"

"Got it."

He then flew back fast as he could and landed in front of Emilia's carriage, making it stop.

He then ran over and used his optic eyes to find it hidden under the flooring of the carriage. He leaped inside and with one pull ripped off the flooring and found the sack. He grabbed it and rushed back out outside, hearing Emilia scream at him.

"Wait! Subaru is here too isn't he? Why are you two-?!"

Batman turned around for just a second and nodded his head. He then flew high into the air and saw in the distance a carriage being attacked by some sort of creature. He quickly flew over and some sort of corpse chasing after the carriage.

He looked down and saw that Subaru was fighting it with barrels of oil. Batman then kicked the creature in the face as he landed on top of the carriage.

"Batman-san!"

"What the hell is this thing Subaru?!"

"It's the Sin Archbishop! He's still not giving up!"

"Let's make him give up."

Subaru pointed his index finger at him and used a borrowed spirit from Julius.

"Rental Goa!"

The small red speck of light hit Petelgeuse and set him ablaze. Batman proceeded to punch at the top of his head trying to make him let go of the carriage, but even with his skull obviously fractured, he would not.

"The witch...SATELLA...SATELLA! Even if you have forgotten what you did for me, I shall never forget even a single moment of it!"

His insane ramblings even made Batman stop as they listened to his dying wails.

"With all of my diligence I will part of my slothful ways and repay your love!"

"If you had just stayed a monster...you could have beaten me!"

Subaru then tossed it out of the carriage as Petelgeuse tried to grab it. The book was caught in the Wind Blessing the Ground Dragons were using and he lost his balance. Subaru gave him a well placed punch to the face causing him to be dragged by the carriage. Batman actually jumped on the corpse and unleashed a flurry of punches as he tried his best to make him let go of the carriage.

Just then an Unseen grabbed Subaru by the leg and yanked him out of the carriage, Batman saw this and jumped back to grab Subaru, using his feet to actually glide on the hard floor. Batman then tossed Subaru and the sack into the air for just a moment and let loose a powerful kick to Petelgeuse's jaw, sending what was left of his teeth flying out. He then leaped into the air and caught them. Subaru then pointed to an Unseen Hand coming at them, Batman swerved around him and grabbed the fiery Petelgeuse by the face and dragged him across the floor. He let go and slammed him into some trees which easily fell on top of him. Petelgeuse tried to get up, but Subaru tossed several throwing stars at his face distracting him long enough for Batman to toss the sack at him before flying away with Subaru.

Petelgeuse looked up at the two as he ran through his memories.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru, I am the silver-haired half elf Emilia's knight!"

"Petelgeuse there is a warrior clad in black you must be wary of, his name is-!"

Petelgeuse roared as the sack began to glow…

"BATMAN! NATSUKI SUBARU!"

The sack exploded, evaporating Petelgeuse and the nearby trees. The explosion sent out a humongous shockwave which caught the both of them. Batman fell to the ground and shielded Subaru, but Batman felt that something else was shielding them.

"Patrasche!"

The ground dragon wrapped herself around the two as the smoke and heat passed over them.

Emilia watching the explosion slowly walked and then ran to the area of the explosion. When she reached it, she saw Patrasche slowly limping out of the smoke. Behind her was Batman carrying Natsuki Subaru, she began to worry when he set him to lie down on the ground. But her face lifted when she heard him groan, her eyes filled with tears as she hugged him.

"Subaru!"

Batman sat on the grass and looked over at everyone before turning back to Emilia and Subaru.

"Good job kid."

Later, Batman was watching the two as they sat on a hill overlooking the now fallen Flugel Tree. Emilia's head rested on Subaru's shoulder as he gently caressed her head with his hand.

"So he finally confessed huh?"

Batman removed his mask to wipe the blood from his face. Ferris walked over to him and began healing him.

"And how is Patrasche?"

"Nyothing to worry about Batman. She's doing just fine."

"Good to hear."

Batman looked out the blue sky and breathed in and out. He put the mask back on as he headed to the Batwing, he was able to repair it after about twenty minutes. He went back to Subaru and Emilia who were happily chatting away.

"Sorry for interrupting, but I think I'll be taking the Batwing with me back to the capital, need to do some more check ups on it as well."

"Right, right. Though I want to get back as soon as possible and see everybody."

Batman nodded and began moving away.

"So Emilia, speaking of that, um you see Rem said that...she loves me."

"...?"

"I like her too, but, she likes me way more! So we were thinking...if it's not a problem-"

"-Subaru."

"Y-y-y-yes?"

"WHO IS REM?"

Subaru stopped for a second and called out to Batman. He came back and let out a sigh.

"I've only been gone for a few seconds, you miss me that much?"

"Hahaha. Speaking of jokes, Emilia has learned to tell her own. See she was all like 'Who is Rem', that's not very good but-"

"Subaru, I don't think I follow?"

"What? You know, she's saying she doesn't remember Rem."

"...what are you talking about?"

"H-huh?"

"WHO IS THIS REM YOU KEEP MENTIONING?"

Subaru looked at the two of them and shook his head. He saw in their faces expressions letting him know that they were not joking around. Looking at him with concerned looks. Not just them but Petra and the other children.

Subaru looked away from them out to the road ahead, the last place he saw Rem going.

"...No…."

The victory against Sloth may have very well ended in defeat for Natsuki Subaru...