AN: Here's the next chapter folks! Moving sucks, but I had a little extra time to do this. I'll try to get the next chapter done as soon as I have everything settled. Until then, thanks for understanding.

AN Fun Fact: The song title is from Eiko Shimamiya's "Naraku no Hana" , which translates to 'Flower of Hell'. You may recognize it as one of the openings to Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Other than that, have a good one and...ENJOY.

ARC Seven: Quest of Sand and Memories

Chapter Fifty Three: Flower of Hell

It was already nearing 20 days when the group left to go towards the Augria Sand Dunes. The journey, while peaceful, was very boring. There were times that individuals became quite restless or fidgety, so they decided to speak with each other about various topics and discussions to pass the time.

During one night, when everyone was to begin resting, Ram had asked Batman about his life back home.

Batman, at first, had no interest in speaking about his old life, but seeing the sparkling aura around Emilia and Meili left him no choice. He then would speak about his old allies…

"I had quite the few amount of allies back where I'm from."

"What were they like Batman-san?"

"Well...Clark was known as the strongest person in the world, much like Reinhard is."

"Hmmmm...how strong was he?"

"He could punch holes into the moon."

"What?!"

The ladies around him gasped at the insurmountable power this person seemed to have.

"Then there was Barry, he is known as the fastest man alive."

"Um...Was he really that fast?"

"Quite so, he could run around the world in a manner of minutes and he could even run on water or clouds."

"No way…!"

Once again, everyone around them was quite astonished with what they heard. However to Julius, he seemed a bit unnerved by what he was hearing. He had never heard of these people in his life, but he also knew Batman was no liar, so they were in some way real. And if they were...they would be the biggest threat to the kingdom.

Batman continued explaining his allies, including John Stewart; who could create constructs with his mind, Cyborg; who was a powerful being made of metal, and Diana; who was a powerful swordsman and overall well rounded warrior who could also fly.

There were many more, Ragman, Deadman, Oliver Queen and a few more.

Everyone sat there and listened intently about these strange people that seemed quite powerful. Once again, Julius was quite anxious about it...wherever Batman came from, in his mind, was a kingdom filled with powerful warriors that could easily topple one of the neighboring kingdoms.

Maybe more…

The two earth dragons' heads were lined up, and they were running energetically as Subaru and Julius had a conversation.

Subaru's Patrasche and Julius' equestrian dragon were leading them ahead and were pulling the large dragon carriages with their heads.

Everyone in the dragon carriage would be late to react to the occasion of emergencies. That was the lineup they had, but one could see from the conversation they were having out of boredom, the journey was peaceful.

Subaru turned his attention to Julius who was looking off in the distance, as if his mind was clouded by something.

"You don't have to tense up that much. They won't attack us so quickly. If they try to fight us, we won't get killed at such a spacious place."

Julius blinked his eyes, as if Subaru had said something unexpected.

After that, this handsome man with three scars on his face, let out a small sigh.

"Is it clear that I'm flustered right now in your eyes?"

"Yeah, I have a feeling it's a shot in the dark, though. But, I feel like everyone thinks you're straining yourself. More than usu…actually, you might just be acting like your usual self…"

"As of right now, you're the only one who knows that it's just me being my usual self, after all."

"….Yeah."

When Julius' lowered his tone, Subaru also naturally dropped his.

They couldn't hear the girls' conversations in the back in the dragon carriage, so the girls shouldn't be able to hear their conversations either. Most likely, only Deathstroke and Batman who were sitting on top of each of the adjacent carriages may have been listening in.

They were bros, and they had various complications in their positions, but as of right now, they were working together.

Perhaps this was the time when he should speak a little more frankly.

"Sorry to ask, but how are your quasi spirits?"

"It's just like I said before. The buds are gathered around me, but they won't rest their feathers on the arm I hold out as a perch. It seems my words won't reach them either."

Julius raises his arm in response to Subaru's question, and he reveals the quasi spirits.

The six quasi spirits shining faintly still had been floating around Julius, who made the earth dragon run. However, they flickered on his held out hand as if in confusion, in attempts to go away.

"Can you not re-contract them? You're attracting them somehow, so doesn't that mean your divine protection is working?"

"It seems like 'Divine Protection of Gathering Spirits' is still going strong. And on the contrary, that's involved in the mysteriousness of their recognition. It's like having certain large, incomprehensible, unmanageable emotions."

"Not sure if I should say it like this, but how about taking measures through other spirits?"

"I would have considered that idea if I was a spirit user that could borrow the powers of lesser spirits that go everywhere like Emilia-sama….but I can't bring out the spirits' powers perfectly that way. I needed a few years to bind with the quasi spirit buds too, after all."

"….Well, it is true that Emilia-tan can't bring out Puck's average power from other spirits too. I guess becoming partners with a spirit is a special thing after all."

"Emilia and the great spirit. And like you and Beatrice-sama."

The conversation was going sour, so they decided to change it, this time to Julius's heritage.

"How much do you know about my lineage?"

"Nothing really."

"I see...I am not the original eldest son of the Juukulius family."

"Huh?"

"To put it more accurately, I should say that I am not the official eldest son. Alviero Juukulius is the real head of the Juukulius' family. Klein Juulius was his younger brother, which makes him my father, although he's already passed away, and the son-in law is the head of the family."

Subaru did not respond to the words that were more surprising than he expected.

It was difficult to say how much the structure of this world's noble society meshed with Subaru's knowledge of the society he knew, but Julius' position definitely was complicated.

Also, in that case, then how's the position of his younger brother, Joshua? He missed his older brother Julius, and as of now, that boy was lost from the memories of the world.

"I don't know what relationship the actual me has with Joshua, who is left at Priestella. Just from him not being left in me, perhaps he is a younger brother that has succeeded the blood of my real father, Klein Juukulius. Or maybe he really is a legitimate child that succeeded the blood of my foster father, Albert Juukulius."

"...What if it's different?"

"'Siblings' is only a figure of speech, so perhaps our relationship would essentially be cousins. In that case, Joshua Juukulius would most likely become the head of the Juukulius family."

"...Alright, I get the gist of it, I guess."

"So that's why I might've wanted you to know about it now. I might've wanted you to know, the person who knows me the most in this world right now."

The blue earth dragon accelerates while swinging its tail, and Julius' expression could no longer be seen.

That being said, he wasn't going so fast that he'd leave him behind. It was a way of him being as smug as usual by simply declaring an end to the conversation.

The party had now arrived at the "Milura" town that was near the sand dunes.

It was a small inn town, a bit bigger than Irlham, but not so much as big as Dunharrow, let alone the other big five cities. The crew dismounted and seeing the quite strong winds that were coming due east, they all put on their cloaks. Subaru and Emilia went to go gather information, as did Julius and Anastasia.

Deathstroke ran up the side of the wall to reach a rooftop, and began recon over the city, making sure nothing suspicious came near them.

Batman decided to stay with the rest of the ladies in order to watch out for anything.

Subaru and Emilia eventually came across a bar, where the owner was able to give them some milk. They tried asking the bar owner for help in reaching the tower. But the owner refused and told them to forget the journey altogether as he warned them it was dangerous. Subaru's cybernetic eye then noticed something…

"Huh?"

"Subaru?"

Around the bar owner, was a strange aura, black, with a red hue to it. It was flowing out of his face and all around him. Subaru stared intently at this, then looked down at his left hand. He chugged down his cold glass of milk.

"Can I get another?"

"...Hr. Sure."

The owner grabbed the stein and turned around to get some more. As he turned around...Subaru's visor focused on the aura, then it aimed at a part of him near his hip. Subaru raised himself from his seat and quickly reached out, seemingly to rip out a part of the aura with his left hand.

He sat back down with the small mass of aura in his hand. He then took a deep breath and swallowed it.

His eyes opened widely as he saw images of the owner with his friends heading out into the sand dunes.

At first peaceful, it soon became erratic when Ma-Beasts attacked killing half of his group. The other half eventually went mad when they ingested too much Miasma from the sand and eventually started to kill each other, luckily he himself had a very tight cloth around his face...but he was forced to run off.

He kept noticing that the tower was always the same distance away and began to lose hope. Then he saw a bright light shine on the top of the tower...only for something to hit in his leg, sending it flying away...it was then fated to be eaten by some Ma-Beast. He dragged himself away, even as something was hitting all around him...he began to panic as he could also hear the roars of Ma-beast who were chasing him down….then he woke up at the edge of the desert...later, he was rescued by fellow villagers.

Subaru took a breath as the aura escaped his mouth and back to the owner.

"Subaru? Are you okay?"

"You alright there kid?"

Subaru looked over at Emilia who was staring at him. He simply smiled back.

"Nothing much Emilia-tan. Just testing out some new power."

"New power?"

Emilia tilted her head and so did the returning owner. Subaru and Emilia finished the conversation with not too much info...except... they were told that birds seem to be flying towards the tower and that it may be the key to finding the tower. They thanked him with a polite bow...that's when both of them noticed the peg leg that he had.

Subaru met with Batman and told him about what happened, outside of every one else's ear shot.

"So...you have a new Authority?"

"Seems that way. With Invisible Providence, E.M.M., Revenge Counter and now Fanatical Snatch...that makes four."

"Hmmm...I wonder if we can get answers at the tower about that?"

"...I think we should just focus on getting everyone's memories back...and your request."

"...Right, sorry."

The gang decided that everyone would rely on Anastasia's guidance, while Emilia would use her lesser spirits to divert the miasma and Batman and Deathstroke would take care of any Ma-Beast that followed. While the bird theory was interesting, it was left on the side.

They all decided to take the carriages and try and make it that way.

With this, Subaru had acquired another ground dragon for their trip as he sat on Patrasche to be a better scout. The sand seemed to continue on for countless miles.

"This really is a big world huh?"

Subaru couldn't help but glance back at the earth dragon that was with them, said to have adapted to this kind of environment.

"These dragons adapted to sandy soil are going there, but can we really bring my Patrasche to a place like that? Although, most of the ladies in my camp don't allow unreasonable things."

"Your loving dragon is a Diana, which is considered the ancestor of all earth dragons. It has the genes of the initial dragon ancestors that were dominant on land, sea, and air…it has excelling adaptability, no matter what the environment is. Unfortunately, my Shaknar will be left at the town."

Julius answers Subaru's question and lonesomely looked upwards towards the inn.

Shaknar was Julius' loving, beautiful blue-skinned earth dragon.

It was a loving dragon, but it had forgotten about Julius, who had his name eaten by "Gluttony". However, this well trained dragon would always be polite to anyone that rode it. It had been accepting of Julius from the beginning, but ever since the one sided meeting at Priestella, during this trip that they've been on for half a month, they shared the intimate bond from before.

Just because of that, he had what you could call feelings of shame for leaving the loving dragon at the town.

It was decided to leave ice pillars on the road behind them as they could use them to find their way back, just in case they needed to make a tactical retreat.

Subaru now had Beatrice sitting on his lap as they continued the route ahead, even having some small talk.

"I don't mind Onii-san and Beatrice-chan being friendly with each other, but if I'm ignored too much, I'll pout."

Meili said that, and she gave them a look that didn't fit her appearance.

Meili was an essential member to deal with the Ma-beasts, and they would have to always use her for conquering the Augria Sand Dunes. Thus, as a lookout for the Ma-beats living at the sand dune, Meili was at the place where it'd be easiest for her to deal with them, in other words, she was standing by at the driver box.

Julius took up the role of staving off her boredom.

"You have the knight next to your side to escort you. He's much more smart, stylish, and elegant than me."

"I don't get more than half of what you've said. Plus, I'm fine with Mr. Knight. I'm unhappy with Onii-san."

"With me?"

Meili glared at Subaru and pouted with her cheeks while playing with her braided hair.

"Onii-san made me come along, and so he has a duty to be with me."

"Don't say such unreasonable childish things. As you can see, that frame is filled with Beako. Right?"

Beatrice shrugs her shoulders in resentment, and Subaru looks at Meili again.

Pouting was a suitable action for her age, but her mood would have a big influence from now on down the road. Considering that, it would be bold to make light of Meili.

However, saying that really would make things unmanageable.

"You're quite right. However, we'll have you fulfill your role first before you can say if it's a right or a duty."

"My role, hmm."

"We'll be entering the most favorite Augria Sand Dunes soon. I don't think the Ma-beasts will suddenly roar when we enter them, but when it does happen, calming them down will be up to you, Meili. You get that, right?"

"...Yees. For someone who spoils Beatrice-chan, Onii-san sure is a bully."

Deathstroke jumped down and sat next to Julius and put Meili on his knee.

"Hey!"

"Meili! Kncok it off and let everyone work! If you're so bored I can tell you a story or something."

"...Whaat kind of story?"

"Let's see...hmmm...The time I killed a titan."

Subaru overheard this and literally lost himself.

"WAIT! A titan?! Aren't those like primordial gods or something?!"

"Yeah, in a nutshell."

Batman looked down from the carriage point and gazed down at him.

"I heard about that from Diana. You caused a real ruckus on Mt. Olympus that day."

"Hahahaha! Yeah sure was fun."

"Whatever happened to the sword you used to do it?"

"The God Killer? It's at home."

"Would have been useful a month ago."

"Damn straight."

Deathstroke relaxed as he began telling the story...as they were getting ever closer to the tower.

Behind them, the ice pillars slowly began to melt….

They soon had to prepare for the "Sand Time", a moment in the day it'd blow the longest, happening three times a day. If they unreasonably advanced in the sand filled with miasma, it'd ruin their bodies, and they might lose their path.

They took the time to heal Ram, without Roswaal there to properly give mana to Ram, it fell upon all the magic users to do it instead. Batman, Pamela and even Deathstroke were forced into as well, mostly on the basis of dividing the mana evenly so that it would leave them with enough mana for the rest of the trip.

"Slade-sama, even under that mask I can see you making a sour face."

"Well excuse me. I just didn't think this fucking mission was going to consist of me healing up red-head and barely any action!"

"That hideous personality of yours is such a hindrance. You are lowering your status past that of even Barusu."

"Oh shut it, like I even care."

Emilia, Pamela and Beatrice pouted a bit at Deathstroke, who continued complaining about the healing...but deep down, they knew he was still helping them and that was enough for all of them.

Subaru, Julius and Anastasia were walking through the sand discussing the situation at hand. Subaru looked over at the tower, his visor focused on it...that's when he noticed the size of the visor looking at the tower was still the same size as before.

"Wait a second…"

"Seems like you've figured it out. That tower clearly isn't getting closer, nor is it getting any farther. We've been aiming at that tower, walking towards it this whole time…..but the distance isn't closing."

"Ah crap. All that effort was just a waste! Such a pain in the ass. There has to be a fucking reason for all of this…"

Subaru then scooped up sand from the ground with his left hand and tossed it back at his feet. He then glared over at Julius.

"Listen to me and listen very well, Julius. Can you stop thinking like that? It's not like I'll get mad when you talk about something that came to your mind! Rather, we might find a clue from it. Do you guys have a 'I'll just keep this inside of me' sort of mentality? Has that really made the situation better at all? Not once have I thought that I should have kept quiet."

"Ah, ahhh, sorry."

"Speak up immediately, even if it's something trivial. This is something that Ram said too, someone who is a disabled character in our conquering of this place. Does it need to be said to everyone?"

When Subaru became dumbfounded by the incompleteness of the three T's: told, tell, talk about, Julius also made a reflective look. Once Subaru ruled over the "Best Knight", which rarely would happen, he picked out "good enough" from the many inconveniences, and he turned to Anastasia.

"So, I guess it's safe to assume you know what's up with this phenomenon."

"I thought about the insufficient explanation…..or rather, I also felt confident about my suspicions all day. It would help if you thought of it like that."

"Start from when you had those suspicions. That's all. So, what's going on?"

Subaru sticks his tongue out at Anastasia, who said her excuses before talking, and he prompted her to continue. When he did, Anastasia said "Please don't get surprised when you hear this" as a preface and...

"About these sand dunes and the sandy plain between the watchtower, the space is distorted."

"The space is distorted...?"

"In other words, the land isn't connected, unlike what you see. If we continue walking with it being like this, weeell, we proooobably wouldn't reach it, no matter how long we walked."

Anastasia nonchalantly clarifies the truth of the impact, and Subaru could not close his mouth. The Anastasia who was equivalent to Eridna should've known it from the beginning, considering how it sounded as if that matter was being told from Eridna.

"So I guess that's why Reinhard and all the other challengers couldn't reach it."

"The destination itself can be seen there. If the distance could be closed…..if they were able to frantically escape the Ma-beasts den along the way, it could be seen even more, and they probably could not help but want to go further."

"...If I have to guess...can we use the Sand Time? My eye kept noticing something in the distance, so it might be our best bet wouldn't it?"

"My my! How observant Natsuki-kun! Indeed, during that "Sand Time", there should be a moment when the space connected to the watchtower collapses. We'll go through there, and we'll enter the real sand sea. That's the condition of breaking through, you see."

"Actually, I'm getting stressed out from not knowing how many days we'll have to work."

"Subaru, spit out the gravel in your mouth without swallowing. Even if it's not a lot, it's sand that has Miasma, I suppose. If you deal with it improperly, you'll have a painful experience later."

Beatrice became completely used to the feeling of tasting sand in her mouth, and she warned Subaru, who wasn't being very cautious. When Beatrice brought out the water container from her satchel, who was in Subaru's arms just like always when they'd ride dragons. She shook the water container in front of him.

"Look, I'll rinse your mouth, I suppose. I'll at least clean the inside of your mouth, the part that can't be bathed in water."

"Yeah yeah…come to think of it, you're clean even without taking a bath."

"That's because most of my body is made up of mana, I suppose. Of course, I always seem clean. Me being pretty anywhere at any time is a given, I suppose."

"Yeah yeah, cute cute."

Beatrice pouted at Subaru's apathetic response, but he patted her head, and he played with her drills pushed into her robe.

He then looked into the corner of his eyes and saw a bunch of Ma-beast against the other side of an ice wall Emilia made. Meili also came out with Deathstroke just in case.

"Oh, we've discovered a group of Ma-beasts again. They only seem like mere animals when they surround us like that."

"If they go away from me and come close, people like Onii-san will get bitten at once. It's strange, but all the animals around here stare at Onii-san."

He brings Patrasche near the dragon carriage, and he looks at the group of Ma-beasts that gathered at a place deviating from their path horizontally. Just like Meili said, she had looked at Subaru with a curious expression, and she murmured "Weeird".

It seemed liked the girl did not know about Subaru's "Witch Scent" that he had. Subaru thought about it having the same nature as the Miasma, but it seemed like he wouldn't be able to understand the true essence of it. Anyhow, even if that scent faded from Subaru, it seemed like the nature of it luring the Ma-beasts did not disappear. He was then able to catch a glimpse of something.

"Oh, Could that be a nostalgic Ma-beast? Ram, Batman-san, take a look!"

"It's really discomforting how you talk about that like it's a part of my memories. They're nothing but painful memories to me, as well as to you, Barusu."

The group of Wolgarm that were looking at them from afar were the same disastrous Ma-beasts that attacked the former Roswaal residence. Ram acted harsh towards Subaru, who got enthusiastic unintentionally.

Batman looked down at the Wolgarm and slightly grimaced at seeing them, he then moved away and looked down at Ram who joined him in shaking their heads. Subaru could only frown at their reactions.

"Don't say that. If I were to depict what they are to me, you, Batman-san and Rem, I'd say that they built the bridges between us. If they weren't there, maybe I wouldn't even be here right now. When you think about that, we don't have a bad relationship with the…..wait, it is bad! It's shit!"

"Stop killing your own enthusiasm by yourself. Watching you makes me feel pity, listening to you makes me feel miserable, and just thinking about it makes me feel miserable."

The stress caused by the Ma-beasts a year ago revived. Ram sighs at Subaru, him heating up, and when she quickly shut the dragon carriage's window, the conversation ended. Batman could scratch the back of his head watching Subaru's odd behavior.

And so, the wind's came and the Ma-beast ran off. Subaru and Emilia were the first to notice it...then everyone braced themselves.

"Wooow! 'Sand Time' is dangerous! 'Sand Time' is ridiculous! 'Sand wind' is scary!"

" I―I made some ice as soon as I could, but if it's no good, then tell me, okay?"

"It's already pretty bad! The almighty ice theory is collapsing!"

The crucial "Sand Time" arrived. They jumped towards the sand wind, looked for the space's distortion connected to the tower, and rushed in, but they were getting hit overwhelmingly by the sand's fury more than they thought.

It was a particular miscalculation, but the ice wall had performed powerfully to support their venture, and it was a complete defeat of it.

"It's an ice wall, and yet the absurd sand is sticking onto it, so I can't see what's in front of me at all! Or rather, receiving wind with a wide area of ice when the wind is so strong is beyond suicidal!"

"Eh!? What!? Subaru, did you say something!? I can't hear you at all!"

"The wind is so strong, and this is beyond suicidal!"

"Eh!? You want to die!? No, you can't! Don't lose courage!"

"I didn't say….Guwaaaa! Sand violently got in my eye!"

"Eh!? Say something!? Say it again! Subaru? Subaru-!"

"Say it again, such a spartan act is….guwaaaa!"

"Subaru?!"

He could only look straight sorward as the wind barreled down at them.

"Keep going! Hang in there, Gyan! We can only rely on your horsepower!"

The earth dragon received the sand wind head on, and it was being assaulted in it. It had already gotten through a few days in the days of conquering the sand dunes. The developed bond became its name, and it appeared.

To put it briefly, the Gyrus earth dragon pulling the dragon carriage was named "Gyan".

Gyan's tenacity held the key to break through the sand wind.

Subaru turns around while feeling thirsty.

When he did, he saw Julius and the others, who escaped the sand wind and were dumbfounded, just like himself. Of course, him being there meant that Gyan and the dragon carriage were there too.

"-Julius."

"Hey."

Subaru called out to him, and Julius gave him an acknowledging gesture with his chin, him having been stiffened up. After that, they both raised their hands at each other, unsure of who did it first, clenched their fists, and showed admiration for each other for breaking through the "Sand Time".

To Julius' side, Meili wipes the sand off her body, while Deathstroke shook off sand from his body, then he removed his helmet letting a bunch of sand fall out.

"Getting really tired of this fantasy bullshit."

Subaru raised his hands further into the air in a victorious pose.

"We broke through! We did it! We d-"

"God! You're always, always being so loud right in my ears!"

Subaru showed his joy, and his chin gets pushed up by the bottom of Beatrice's palm that came from below.

The excellent blow makes Subaru's head spin. He topples over from Patrasche like that, and he falls defenselessly onto the sand. Subaru's head gets buried in sand, getting a large amount of sand in his mouth, and he lashes out at Beatrice, as she immediately got up.

"Why'd you do that to me out of the blue!? What's up with you, people were trying to be joyful! You scared me and made me swallow a bunch of sand!"

"Getting excited by yourself even while holding onto me annoys me! I don't understand things like downshifts, off-roads, gene shifts, burning souls and all that, I suppose! I was hearing shrills this whooooole time!"

Beatrice turned to Subaru, and she complained to him vehemently while being mounted on Patrasche.

Subaru had various things to say, but he certainly could not deny the feeling that he got a bit excited and he shouted the list of appropriate terms.

"Ahem. ..A-Anyways, we broke through the "Sand Time" safely. First, let's celebrate that. Come on, Banzai!"

"…Banzai, I suppose."

Subaru patted off the sand around his body.

"Subaru."

"Batman-"

"-Get back on Patrashce, and keep quiet."

Subaru looked over...and saw it.

Colorful flower beds were spread in front of them to fill the sandy soil that continued to the watchtower.

Batman himself realized they were Courtesan Bears, a race of Ma-Beast that could be immensely troublesome. He read that they grew flowers on their backs...so with this, even he wasn't sure which were actually bears and which were just regular flowers...or if they were all bears here. He motioned his head to Subaru and whispered to him.

"Let's move quietly...maybe we can pass by them. Everyone keep your voices down."

"...Okay."

They soon made their may through the meadow as they made sure not to touch anything. Then, one of the patches of flowers rose up and out emerged a large bear with one horn on it's head. Black fur, short legs, long arms and hideous mummy like faces. While short, only two to three feet in length, they had long arms with claws similar to that of a sloth.

It rose up...then let out a yawn. It went back down and fell asleep. Batman motioned with his fingers to keep moving. Pamela looked over the sea of flowers and tried to move them...they did, but they were hard to move around for her.

She began to whisper to herself.

"Fungi. Parasitic plants and they're really attached to those bears."

"Can you try and encase them in vines Pamela-sama?"

"...The best I can do right now, is probably encase about fifty for now...the moment I do though, it might wake up the others...then we'd have a fight, Ram."

She then saw another one start to wake up so she concentrated and the flowers sprouted vines...and those vines began massaging the bear, relaxing it enough to make it fall asleep.

Meili concentrated to make the bears that woke up, move out of the way while they made their way further. She saw one get up...but concentrated with all her might as she made it walk the other way. She nodded as she looked back at Subaru and whispered back to him.

"Okaaay, we have to keep up this pace."

Deathstroke sat on the top of the carriage and looked at his overall ammo.

"Three clips and two grenades...I have to be mindful."

Deathstroke took a knee as he held on tightly to his rifle. Ram looked out the window and held Rem closely.

Then, two of them woke up at the same time, making Batman get ready to toss some sleeping gas pellets at them, hoping the sounds weren't too loud. Unfortunately, Gyan saw them and let out a growl and stomped his foot on the ground.

This made any bear nearby, quickly spring up into full rage.

"OH SHIT."

Subaru and Julius realized the severity of the situation and they turned the carriages around to run.

The bears began to chase faster them, Deathstroke wasted no time and fired his weapon at them. Several bears fell to the ground dead. Batman aimed his palm at them and screamed with all his might.

"El Jiwald!"

A large beam fired out of his palm, killing several more, but they just kept coming. Pamela concentrated as she made the vines on their backs entangle them, but this only worked on thirty of them as even more began to chase them.

"KEEP MOVING! WE NEED TO THIN THEM OUT AND RETREAT!"

Deathstroke yelled out these orders, as he grabbed his last clip of ammo. Batman then formed a a large ball of light in his hand.

"UL JIWALD!"

He tossed it, causing a huge explosion, sending sand and body parts high into the sky. Then in the distance, he saw a light shine from atop the tower.

A humongous beam shot down at all of them, making Batman concentrate all his mana into the next spell.

"AL ERMAC!"

A tear in space formed in front of them and opened to a hill that was along the road of Milura. The beam fired through the tear and saved them from death.

But when the tear closed, two large shining needles made of magic, fell out of the sky hitting Batman through the neck and Deathstroke in the head. Their bodies fell off the top of the carriages and rolled violently onto the ground.

Subaru and Julius could only watch in terror as the bears surrounded their corpses.

"Oh God! Oh-!"

Then another beam fired and struck the carriages. Everyone's heads down to their very shoulders were evaporated instantly.

"Okaaay, we have to keep up this pace."

Subaru woke up realizing that he was brought back only a few minutes before. Return by Death had activated.

Subaru motioned to Julius.

"Julius, listen to me...we have to head around and not straight through this path."

"What in the world are you suggesting?"

"Trust me, we cannot stay on this…"

Then the ground dragon once again growled and stomped it's foot.

"FUCK."

The same thing occurred as they ran away from the Ma-Beasts. Subaru then decided to yell over the frantic situation.

"Guys! Listen to me! We have to go around! It's the only way, we can't go straight from here!"

"Subaru are you sure?! We may not have the option-"

Emilia then stuck her head out and yelled back along with Batman.

"If Subaru says it's fine then we just have to do it!"

"Julius, it's all we can do! We just have to believe in him! We're already in this situation as it is!"

Julius nodded, with this Meili summoned a giant Ma-Beast for help. A large Sand Earthworm appeared and began mowing down many of the bears in the way. The two carriages curved their path as they tried to make it around the flower meadow.

Deathstroke then stabbed his sword on the top of the carriage.

"Wind Spell: Chakrum Destruction!"

Wind discs flew out slicing apart many that were following behind them. Batman then used his own most powerful spell to thin them out.

"Yang Spell: Descending Justice!"

The ball fire high into the air and rained down a powerful stream of beams and killed many of them as well, but it still wasn't enough. Beatrice aimed her staff and fired beams into several of them that were running at the side of them.

Subaru's visor noticed one was tailing them so…

"Invisible Providence!"

His Unseen Hand went behind him and struck in the face sending it to tumble onto the ground. Just then, the Earthworm was split in half by a beam and it's humongous halves began to fall towards them all.

"SPLIT UP!"

The two groups quickly made sure to split up to get away. Subaru, Patrasche and Beatrice found themselves split away from the rest of the group. Just then, Subaru saw needle like projectiles fall from the sky. They were able to dodge each one, but it was harder and harder each time. Batman saw them and began to glide towards them. Then he lost the air current, so used his spell.

"El Ermac!"

He got his speed boost only to see a large needle head straight towards them. He decelerated and watched as Subaru pushed Beatrice off Patrasche and was stabbed from behind by the needle. It shot through his stomach and out of Patrachse's head.

"NOOO!"

Beatrice ran towards Subaru as she held onto his shirt.

"SUBARU! SUBARU! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD STAY WITH BETTY! I CAN'T- I CAN'T GO ON IN THIS WORLD, ALONE WITHOUT YOU! DON'T LEAVE BETTY ALONE! SUBARU! SUBARUUUUU!"

Subaru's body was giving out as he looked up at Beatrice, who at this point was crying her eyes out. She was kneeling down as she clutched his shirt.

Subaru only thought of a way to cheer her up...to make her happy...so he summoned an Unseen Hand and wiped away some tears from her cheek.

"Su-Subaru?"

Subaru then lost his sight and died.

"No….NOOOOOOO-"

"Beatrice!"

Batman held onto Beatrice tightly. He then activated Al Mabakka, to shield them both...but it was for naught. While it did deflect one spear, the shield immediately shattered and the rest of the large needles shot through Batman and Beatrice.

"AGGHHHH!"

"HK!...I'm sorry everyone, I suppose."

Batman kept holding onto her, even as she became specks of light...until his vision left him with the last light speck disappearing from the world. His body fell over, right on top of Subaru's.

"Okaaay, we have to keep up this pace."

Subaru awoke from Return by Death and did his utmost to try and prevent the disaster. As he saw the ground dragon tense up, he summoned his Unseen Hand and quietly petted it. This relaxed it, calmed it down enough.

"Everyone, we need to retreat now."

Subaru and the others met outside the flower meadow. Batman walked over to him.

"Suabru...waht is this new information you have for us."

"Putting it lightly, the tower is definitely going to attack us."

"...We may then have to go over this plan again."

While Batman and Subaru reached an understanding. It was Julius, Anastasia, Meili and Pamela that seemed confused about the entire situation.

"Are you sure we should have this plan go over so smoothly, Batman?"

"It's fine Anastasia, I trust Subaru's instincts. It's saved us before."

"...That is quite true."

Anastasia, or maybe even Eridna seemed to look curiously at the two of them...as if suspicious about something.

Julius nodded with the two of them though.

"Subaru, do you think we may have some sort of plan to bypass it then?"

"Well, if I use E.M.M. to shield us, Batman-san can use his teleportation magic to drive the bears out, and while that happens, Meili can use her Sand Earthworm as a sort of backup tank."

"That's all fine and good but-"

Just then everyone noticed that world around them shifting around...like something was twisting their very vision.

"Thi-This is!"

Subaru instantly recognized the feeling, knowing that Beatrice used to be able to use this kind of magic before.

"Space distortion magic!"

"Yes, it truly is a powerful one, I suppose!"

"Everyone stick together!"

The entire group tried to stay close...but they soon felt themselves being pulled in different directions.

Then Subaru blinked for just a second, and found himself in a large cavern with two paths ahead of him.

"What the hell?!"

"Natsuki-kun!"

Subaru turned around to see who it was. The voice came from Anastasia, who was getting off the ground alongside Ram, Patrasche and Deathstroke.

"Holy shit. We got seperated didn't we?"

"Seems that way Slade-sama. I can't believe we fell into such a trap."

"...Whatever the case, we need to keep our wits about this."

Deathstroke tilted his head slightly as he looked over his team.

"Okay let me see...Subaru, dragon, red-head and money girl. I guess I'll have to manage."

"Why do you say that like you've been dealt a handicap?"

Subaru slightly frowned...but calmed when he saw the paths ahead of him.

"Can we really meet up with the others?"

"Barusu, look up."

Subaru gazed up and saw sand was leaking from the roof...which meant.

"We're under the desert?!"

"Yes, and from what I can tell, we have no means of going back, Barusu. We have to move forward."

"Okay, hopefully the others are safe and we can meet up with them."

Ram and the others nodded. Soon they faced forward and tried to look over the situation ahead of them.

"Now...which path do we take?"

On the top of the tower, a cloaked figure watched as their spell finished. Underneath their hood, they were beginning to smile…

"Finally!"

A small joyful giggle could be heard coming from the green eyed cloaked figure.

"I finally found you!"

The conquest of the Pleiades Watchtower has come to a short halt, as our heroes find themselves separated...as they are being watched by an unknown figure.