Fixed up Chap 10, was pretty sloppy. I explained Subaru sword thing a little bit more and there's an extra C-A conversation on the end if you want to re-read.

Chapter 11: The Threat Deepens

"UGH..."

His whole body aches, how long has he been out, did he die, was he in the tomb, probably. He rolled his body to the side and relaxed, he opens his eyes slowly, nothing seemed to be in his mouth which was strange.

"Wait... why is it... morning?"

He sat up covering his eyes from the morning light, he was sitting on something solid, definitely not soft so it's not a bed, but not hard enough to be considered a rock, something in between.

"Wooden floor... where..."

His memory was hazy, he shot up quickly, scanning his surroundings. He was currently in a small room, with a lone window up high in the ceiling, it was definitely early morning, it may seem like he is in a shack, he looks around, nothing really caught his eyes, mostly just wooden furniture and... a white circle?

In the corner of the room he spotted some kind of circle with patterns engraved inside it, many crystals of different elements, most have lost their color and gleam. If he were to make a guess this would be...

"This is probably some kind of replacement for machines I guess... magic circles, maybe I'll ask Beako later... wait, where is-"

Suddenly he remembered what had happened, "ARGH! So we lost again!" he voiced his displeasure as he punched the wooden wall.

Elsa had attacked much earlier than before and with back up as well, did his sudden return caused that? Most likely. Now, he has more information, if he does nothing, Elsa attacks at the sixth night, if he returns any faster, not only does she attack sooner but harder, so now all he needs to do is get the timing right and it should finish this loop off.

"Well... could kill myself here... though, I'm kinda curious about this place..." The window on the roof was way too high for him to reach and he doesn't really want to use his gate too much, it's on the verge of collapsing.

He searched the room for a way out, there were no doors so Beatrice most likely teleported him to it, though he vaguely remembered breaking one.

In the corner of his eye, he saw a hatch, or trapdoor, whatever you call it. He walks over it and opens it up. It was a passageway, barely enough to fit him and it seemed to go to another, more spacious room. He got in and crawled through, the distance he covered made it possible to make a whole other room outside of this vent like passage.

"Argh..." He went out from the other side, he looked around and the first thing he noticed was a highly pungent and unpleasant stench enter his nose. He reflexively covers his nose, the smell was so bad that tears started forming in his eyes and his stomach was acting up.

He made a run for the door and got out of the building, falling down and taking a deep breath of fresh air.

"The hell was that smell..."

He picked himself up once more and peeked into the wooden shack. It had two windows and a large hole in the back, it seemed like something was fit there before, well whatever it was, it was none of his concerns.

He turns around, expecting to be somewhere around the mansion, but to his surprise, "Why... Sanctuary?" He was surrounded by trees, a dirt path extended towards a nearby village, and it was most definitely Sanctuary.

"So Beako brought me here... gah... well better check up on everyone then..."

It was silent, dead silent, no sound can be heard, "Hey!" his voice echoed through the lifeless village, no one was there, he could feel that the surrounding was slightly colder than the last time he came here, and the ground seemed to have been watered recently, but then something came in his vision.

"Snow...?"

A very small pile under one of the houses, he runs over to it and scoops it up, he watched it melt in his hands, "Did Emilia do this? Wait, where's Emilia?!" He frantically searched, every house, every corner, he shouted her name and countless others, but no one replied.

"Did she already finish the trail...?"

That's a possibility, but he could've sworn some of Sanctuary's residents were against leaving, there should at least be a few people behind, besides, all the carriages were used to take the hostages back so they shouldn't have left yet unless he was out for longer than he thought.

He went over to the center of the Sanctuary, intending to check the tomb to see if anything has changed but in his way was... "A bunny... haven't seen you guys in Lugunica yet..."

Well, he hasn't seen many animals, the ones he has would be dogs, cats, birds, and lizards, nothing more. He approached the little white rabbit and extended its arms towards it, but he noticed something, "A horn... wei- MABEAST!"

He jumped back after realizing what he was looking at, his momentum made him roll back before he could stop himself. He got up and took a defensive stance but he notices something, his hand was no more, it was all blood and bones. Looking at the defenseless bunny, he saw it nibbling on his arm, well, more like feasting on it.

"The hell... are... you-"

Before he could say any more, he had fallen to his knees, the pain started kicking in, he noticed that his legs were also eaten, and his arm, and parts of his stomach. They were eating him alive, one even went inside and ate his intestines, stomach, liver, and whatever was left. One would describe it as the most terrifying, most traumatic, most disturbing feeling ever and it still wouldn't be enough.

He wanted to scream out, but his throat was long gone, his vision was filled with white puff balls coated in nothing other than his blood, he wanted to scream out of pain, out of frustration and out of confusion.

'What the hell are you...' was his last thoughts before completely losing his consciousness.

A familiar sensation, one he felt only once but has made a clear mark on his memory, he opens his eyes to a blue sky filled with clouds, silky grass brushing against his skin. "Echidna's castle huh..."

"It seems like your doing alright, so what brings this abrupt visit?" He heard a distant voice, the voice of a witch, the voice that sounded like it knew the world and more, the voice that he wanted to hear for quite a while.

"So this is... your dreamscape, was it?" He got up to his feet and walks over to the table she sat beside, with everything that just happened, he's putting up a rather calm demeanor. "So why am I here?"

"You're asking me? That's what I'd like to know, I didn't bring you here, you brought yourself in this time, it's because you wanted to know about something, no? So, spill it out, I'm all ears..."

She tapped on the cup that was in front of him, signaling that she wants him to drink it, which to her surprise he did. "My, you drank it knowing full well what it is?"

"It'd be rude if I came to a tea party without drinking any tea," He said as he gulped it down in one go, a warm fuzzy feeling hit his stomach, it wasn't unpleasant, but it was weird. "I'm just gonna drink one cup so that's that... now to my questions..."

"Yes, yes, ask all the question you want..." She said with a cheeky grin.

He positioned himself so that he felt comfortable, putting a leg on his lap, "Right then... when is this..." "Ah, such a vague question..." A vague question indeed.

"I mean, I was just eaten by a bunch of bunnies, and I wasn't in the tomb, and my whole body seems to be fine right now..."

"My, it's only been a few hours, and you've already got yourself into many things... though, I don't recall any such thing happening outside of my tomb at this moment..."

"A few hours? Then it means I must have Return by Death again... Return by... oh SHIT!" Realizing his grave mistake, he covered his mouth, cursing himself for being careless. His wavering eyes, showed fear as he slowly looks towards the other person in the empty dream world.

She looked well and alive, her eyes still held the usual greedy glimmer in it, only something was slightly off, she was disturbed? "You know, it's not polite to stare at a woman's chest, I'm not very confident with mine..."

"W...Oh n-no, it's not that... the hands didn't come...?" He stuttered out, currently in shock, confusion, and relief.

"Ah, I see... it seems that 'The witch' thinks your the one..." Echidna mumbled, "The one?" Subaru asked, interested and at the same time scared about what 'The one' meant.

"Oh, nevermind, so... can you tell me about this, Return by Death you said earlier, it seems like it's definitely something the witch gave you, no?" Hearing her say his ability out loud so nonchalantly sent shivers down his spines, "Hm? Something the matter?"

"A-Ah... well, it's just I was expecting someone to get hurt when you said that..." He said while still confused about his situation, it could imply many things, maybe he lost Return by Death... lost it!? That's bad!

"I understand, not only were you given a rather interesting power, your also unable to speak of it, what a situation you are in... luckily, nothing can get inside my citadel without my consent"

After her saying this, Subaru eased up. "By the name you've given it, it seems the ability allows you to continue living despite losing your life, whether it'd be in a whole nother universe or in past time, what a lucky person you are..." She gave him a jealous look.

"More like unlucky, it's not fun dying over and over again, you know..."

"But think about all the possibilities you could do, all the different routes and different endings you can experience, the only thing stopping you is your sanity... the endless possibilities... all that knowledge..." Putting on a face that is unbefitting for a witch, she fantasizes about all the things she could discover with what could be called near-immortality.

"She's a witch... can't expect your thoughts to match up very well..." He mumbles. "Huh, did you say something?"

"Nah... anyway, moving on... I was eaten by a bunch of white furballs, was definitely one of the worst ways to die, could they be..."

"The Great Hare most likely..."

"God... the situation just got worse now hasn't it..."

"The way you're going at it, it will only keep getting worse, you know..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If your gonna use an ability that allows you to retry upon death, might as well, use it correctly, you know?"

Echidna uprights herself, "You shouldn't waste your lives so carelessly, instead, you should use them with an objective, for instance, use one life solely for gathering information, and another for implementing, then when you feel confident, go for a final one, with everything planned out, that would be using your powers to the utmost best..."

He gave himself a mental facepalm, if he did that from the start, it would have been a lot easier and faster. "Gha, why didn't I think of that..."

After contemplating the thought, he stood up, "Leaving already?" Echidna said.

"Nope, If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to the Witch of Gluttony... Daphne, was it? Wanna talk about how to defeat the bunnies..."

"My... your thinking on taking it on...? Well, from my time, I'm guessing only the Sword saint or Roswaal could do it... Beatrice might be able to if she's careful..."

Of the three people she mentions, one stood out, "Roswaal? As in, the Mather's? The Court Magician? Well last I checked, nobody was alive at Sanctuary, so I don't think he could beat them..."

"Hmmm... wait you're not telling me he's still alive are you?!" It seems she was losing her cool, hearing that Roswaal was alive. "Oh, wait... maybe we're talking about different Roswaals... mine's got blue and yellow eyes, Indigo hair, wears clown make-up and a jester outfit..."

Hearing Subaru's description of 'his' Roswaal, Echidna calms down, "Then no... the one I know is much less... um... comedical, you can say...". Seems she isn't too fond about Roswaal still being alive after four hundred years.

"Anyway, you want to see Daphne, yes? Are you sure, I'm afraid it may not go too well, you two... might not be able to hold a stable conversation..."

"It's alright, even if she goes berserk, it's not like I can get hurt in here right? Besides I'm gonna take your advice, gonna use this life to gather everything I can, so I'm ready to throw a limb or two..."

"I see... well, off I go then..." She starts to fade away into nothing, "Don't look at her eyes, or undo her binds, you'll regret it" was the last thing she said. Shortly after, a girl inside a large coffin replaced her.

Seeing the restrained girl with blindfolds and shoulder-length gray hair, he couldn't help but stutter in his words, "U-hm... are..."

"*Sniff*, I don't know this smell... it smells good... who are you?"

"Oh... names, Natsuki Subaru, and you are Daphne, I presume?"

"Yes, Nat-Su, Daphne is the Witch of Gluttony... now is there anything to eat?"

(Kinda forgot what Daph called Subaru so we're going with Nat-Su, though I think she called him something like Baru-Baru or something, not sure...)

"Um..." He looks around, there's nothing he can think of that's edible, except, "Well there'd Dona tea... and Dona cookies? I don't want to know what it's made of..."

He takes a cookie and was about to walk up to Daphne, who was restrained, but she took a sniff, "No... Nat-Su shouldn't come to close, it's dangerous with your smell..."

"Eh? So you don't like the witches scent? Allergies or something?"

"What? No, I smell meat, and that's more delicious than veggies..."

"Oh..."

Taking a quick step back, he prepares to throw it, putting his aim right, he swung his right arm, the cookie was well off the actual trajectory path and was heading to the ground, but the coffin shifted and it landed on her mouth.

'That's some sense of smell' Subaru thought.

.

Another cookie, then another, until nothing was left, "That should do for now... so, why was I brought here?" She sat there, in her coffin, yawning, she ate about fifty cookies by now, he doesn't even know how he had that many on him.

"Right, I wanted to talk about... your children..."

"Oh, yes, yes, Don-Don told me that you took down my whale, congratulations, so now you want to take my bunnies as well?"

"Yeah... doesn't seem too hard, just take them out one by one and should be it right?"

"Fufufu... how pitiful, you're never going to beat like that"

"If you want to beat my Great Hare, you'll have to take them all out at once, if you can't do that then your pretty much done for..."

"Oh... so about how many are we talking?"

She thinks for a while, "About one thousand if I remember correctly..." "Right, one... ONE THOUSAND?!"

"Yes, and they are able to replicate themselves at high speeds, so the faster you do it better... yeah, their not going down if you're going against them..."

"You can't even see me..."

"I can still smell you though, you don't smell like someone very strong..."

'Strength has a smell? Didn't know that...' Subaru thought, "Why the hell did you create something as indestructible as that?! The other mabeast too!"

"Well let's see... if the bunnies can replicate as much as they can, the captor can eat as much as they want, the whale is very big, so it would make a great feast, the snake too..."

It was simple, she gave life to those creatures simply to solve the world's hunger, she made them with pure intentions but, "Do you know how many people died because of them!?" Subaru shouted, clearly upset about her way of thinking.

"Well, if your hunting something, somethings gonna have to hunt you right? It's only fair... out of all the sins, gluttony is purely put for survival, you see, you can live if you do something, you can live if you don't get something you want, you can live a without getting angry, you can live seeing everyone as equal, you can live without being loved... but you can't live without food..."

[What she said goes, SlothGreedWrathPride&EnvyLust - Gluttony, if anyone was wondering]

"U... A..." Subaru, clearly speechless after her speech contemplated on what she said and couldn't help but think that she was right, "If you had an excess of a sin, you'd survive, you'd live, though you'd lose your sanity, but if you have excess of Gluttony, thirst/hunger in other words, you'd just die wouldn't you...?"

She's absolutely correct, you can never be too Greedy, too Lazy, too Prideful, too Envious, but hunger has a limit, once you hit it, you die...

"Ok, I see... where you're going with this..." This was what Echidna was talking about, it wasn't that the two wouldn't get along, Subaru and Daphne had completely different views on matters, Subaru was more logical while Daphne was more... nature-oriented, the cycle of life and stuff, were the one who eats also gets eaten.

"Well, listening and talking wastes too much energy so if you wouldn't mind Don-Don!" She exclaimed in a rather whispery shout, she started to fade away and once again, the white-haired witch was seated in front of him.

"So how'd it go?"

"Shouldn't you know, this is your place after all? Anyway, I got some useful info, though I get why you avoided bringing her up in the first place, she's not someone I could converse with easily..."

"Yes, her way of thinking is... very fair, you could say... so any last question?"

He pondered for a bit, to be frank, that was all he wanted to know, she doesn't know any present knowledge since she's dead so there's no help there, but then a thought surfaced his mind, "Memories of the World..." He muttered. It made her head flick up instantly.

"Beako told me about it, she said the mechanics of the Gospel you gave her was 'based' on this book..."

"Oh you mean this one" As if appearing from thin air, a huge book, say about three times the size of a normal school notebook and was about four centimeters thick, it floated in the air before landing on the table with a thump.

(I think the real thing is the one Dona usually holds, if it is, then screws that description just pretend it was never there and move on okay?)

"Woah... if that's not it, I don't know what is..."

"So, what did you want to know about this? Sadly I can't let you take a peek..."

"Yeah, I know, knowledge overloading and brain dead stuff... I just want to know... who was the other Gospel for, Beako told me only two complete ones were made"

"That is correct, the holders would be Beatrice... and..."

.

.

.

.

(Suspenseful pause)

"Roswaal A Mathers"

"Roswaal...!" It was very shocking, not only because his name was Roswaal but he was also a 'Mathers', meaning it was probable that it was Roswaal's predecessor, "My Roswaal... is also a Mathers, Roswaal L Mathers... could there be..."

"That's quite interesting... you best be careful, you never know if the Gospel was handed down... though I doubt it would function properly..."

Everything makes so much damn sense now, the 'book' Ram was talking about, it was definitely a Gospel, all the actions he's done, it was guaranteed by the Gospel that it would work out, so next question is, "Does he know of my Return by Death..." It was inaudible so Echidna paid no attention to it.

He decides he'd just ask him straight up once he's back, who knows how long he's been in here, though time flows differently between them so it's probably not a long time. "Okay then, I guess that's it for now..."

He started glowing, and waved his hand, "Leaving without payment?"

"Ah..." Of course, like last time, he had to pay a price for visiting the tea party, "Okay but I'd rather keep all the information I've earned please..."

"Oh, that's fine, I'm not interested in that, instead..." She hastily stuck her hand out and reached for one of his pockets, "I'll be taking this if you wouldn't mind"

It was the hankerchief Petra had made for him, wait, does that mean it would magically disappear from his pocket when he wakes up? Well it didn't matter, he was already gone, losing consciousness once again...

A/N

...

[ReviewR524]: Hey Dona, how high can you count?

[Echidna]: Higher than you... [Insert Roast_ 4]

[ReviewR524]: Woah, mind your manners Witch!

[Echidna]: Apologies, I've just got into this 'Roasting' thing the internet talked about...

[ReviewR524]: Oh, I see...

[Echidna]: It's a rather interesting way of seeing who can make the others speechless through words...

[ReviewR524]: That's not what roasting is about though...

[Echidna]: It's like a competition to see who's more good at asking and answering questions, ahh, such is a competition made for me!

[ReviewR524]: There she goes again...

...

I'm really liking these... breaking the fourth... no too long... hmm, these character-author conversations... we'll call it C-A conversations, there! From henceforth, this is an actual thing, too bad you can't copyright words...

I've started drinking coffee and boy is it helpful, keeps me up in the morning. Next chapter's the split chapter to Warlock if anyone wants to know... means its where Warlock fanfic begins from, ok?

Gonna work on Warlock things now... you know, the amusement park and all... see ya in 5 days or 2 weeks, idk which one...