A Random in Re:Zero

Loop 5 - Part 25

Authorities were unfair powers, often wielded by undeserving users. In short, they were designed so that only villains could possess them, or at least, only they could fully exploit them, unlike the original protagonist.

That's how it worked. Those were the inviolable rules of this story.

But I'm not Subaru: I'm an imposter who took the place of the protagonist. I'm also the kind of person who loses their temper when pushed to the limit.

At this moment, the only thing occupying my thoughts besides the unbearable pain of having my body shattered, was my burning desire to completely crush Lye Batenkaitos.

"Kill, kill, kill, I'm going to KILL him!"

Sensing my anger, Petelgeuse (or my hallucination of Petelgeuse) continued to talk nonsense.

"My brain is trembling! This adrenaline, this madness, this survival instinct is proof of your love! However, it won't last long."

I opened my eyes, feeling something snap. The Archbishop of Gluttony had raised his daggers and was about to plunge them into my eyes, but his body froze instantly.

"Huh?"

An invisible force enveloped his body and caused him to fly towards the cave in front of which the body of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti lay.

The stone structure collapsed from the impact, and rocks tumbled down like an avalanche, burying Gluttony. I wished he'd die with that, but it clearly wouldn't be enough.

I gritted my teeth and used my newly acquired authority to push my bones back into place: the adrenaline greatly reduced the pain. Finally, I tore off the fabric of my clothes to use as a temporary bandage.

As I finished dressing my wounds, the rock tomb exploded as if a bomb had gone off inside, and Lye Batenkaitos emerged, badly grazed, with a trickle of blood running from his head.

"Ah, it's incredible, splendid, marvelous! This turn of events has whetted our appetite! We'll have a feast today!"

Still smiling, Lye took a run-up and jumped towards me at great speed, but I waved my hand and one of his legs exploded.

"Waaahhhhh!?"

Gluttony's green eyes looked surprised as he noticed that one of his limbs had become a crushed, useless piece of flesh.

However, I didn't stop there. I twisted his other leg into a deformed mass, effectively crippling the bastard.

"Ah, it seems we got carried away and now we're in trouble! This is unexpected, terrifying, and in bad taste!"

He tried to crawl away, but I easily stopped him and pulled him toward me. While making eye contact, I ripped off his arms, stripped them of flesh, and buried the bones in his back.

To my disappointment, Lye's screams were like muffled shrieks, not emotional enough to make me feel pleasure in torturing him like this.

I began to crush his head very slowly, as if I were trying to crack a nut without crushing the fruit inside. I just wanted to kill him slowly.

The cracks in his head began to bleed. Despite having no legs or arms, he resisted quite a bit, rolling onto his back and trying to bite me.

"Stop! You can't do this to us!"

I was deaf to any cry or plea. I crouched down and silently pointed at his face. Lye screamed again as his eyes popped out of their sockets and floated toward my hands, which closed over them to crush them.

"ENOUGH! WE WON'T DIE THIS WAY!"

Furious and desperate, Lye thrashed like a fish out of water; his body flashed rapidly, changing shape again and again, but it did nothing to save him.

I flattened my hand like an imaginary sword and swung it vertically. Lye Batenkaitos's body split cleanly in two without me having physically touched him.

Blood and guts spilled out, forming a disturbing image, but I was so insane that I barely reacted, as if I'd just gotten rid of a mosquito. I looked at my hands and marveled at this newfound power.

"What is this? It is not the hidden hand nor the invisible providence."

In fact, authority had given me something more raw and pure, without a predetermined form. It reminded me of the power I had seen Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth, display.

A strange energy surrounded my body. I instinctively knew I could change its shape at will. That's how I'd used it a moment ago, like a kind of psychic force or telekinesis.

"This is your very own Sloth Authority, a power you can only access when your mind enters an altered state. Right now, it was your extreme anger that triggered its activation. Isn't it ironic that one sin feeds another?! This is love, love, love!"

Instead of questioning the fact that there was a phantom voice explaining things in my head, I just nodded and sat down on the floor, because I was dizzy.

"I see. Does that mean I can't use it normally?"

"You can, but even if you're the most compatible user, the authority will be much weaker, as your brain limits it to prevent you from overusing it. Ah, I couldn't grasp such power! My love wasn't compatible, I wasn't diligent enough! I'm so unhappy, unlucky, unhappy!"

"Why shouldn't I use it too much?"

Petelgeuse didn't need to answer my question. I felt something warm oozing from my eyes and nose. I brought my hand to my face and realized I was bleeding from places that definitely shouldn't be bleeding.

"Shit... Now I get it. By the way, I've been wondering something. Are you the real Petelgeuse?"

"Hahaha! Define 'real.' Am I the Petelgeuse who went mad after killing his loved one, precisely for love? Am I the Petelgeuse who naively preached vindication? Or am I an amalgamation of both, recreated by your own unstable mind?"

"How annoying, you could have told me there's no right answer."

"In fact there is... You are Petelgeuse."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

I wanted to keep talking, or rather, thinking; but as the adrenaline wore off, all the pain and exhaustion overwhelmed me. Even as I lost consciousness, the throbbing pain in my head was terrible.