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{3rd pov}
All thanks to that twisted, cursed power — Return by Death.
It was supposed to be a miracle.
A gift.
A second chance.
But to Subaru, right now, it felt like the cruelest punishment imaginable.
Subaru hissed sharply through his teeth, pushing himself off the ground despite the searing pain shooting through his palms and the throbbing ache pounding in his forehead.
His legs trembled, his balance wavered, but he stood anyway — half from stubbornness, half from desperation.
Blood still dripped from his knuckles, his breaths came out ragged and uneven, yet none of that mattered anymore.
He looked up toward the fading sky, the orange glow dimming into night, and screamed at the top of his lungs, voice breaking with fury and despair.
"I can Return by—!"
And then everything stopped.
The world around him froze in an instant.
The sound of wind, the rustle of trees, the distant cry of birds — gone.
The air thickened, heavy and suffocating, as if time itself had been strangled.
Subaru's body went cold, a chill running down his spine as the familiar, horrifying sensation washed over him.
He knew this feeling.
He hated this feeling.
It was her.
The presence.
The one that always appeared when he even thought about speaking those cursed words.
The one responsible for his suffering, his torment, his endless loops of death and despair.
The one who had dragged him into this nightmare of a world and tied his fate to this cruel, merciless power.
The Witch of Envy.
Subaru's body went rigid as something unseen slithered deep inside his chest — something cold, dark, and alive.
It coiled around his heart like a living shadow, squeezing, caressing, claiming it as if it belonged to her.
The sensation burned and froze all at once, filling him with a suffocating mix of agony and terror.
He gasped, clutching at his chest, his entire body trembling violently.
Then, from the edge of his vision, something black began to form — a hand, made entirely of writhing shadow, stretching toward him with eerie slowness.
It slid across the air like liquid darkness before pressing itself firmly against his lips.
It was gentle.
Too gentle.
Almost affectionate — and that made it even more horrifying.
The touch was cold, yet it burned like fire.
His breathing hitched as the shadow hand tightened slightly, silencing him, forbidding him to speak the words he'd almost dared to utter.
Subaru's eyes went wide, bloodshot and wild.
His veins bulged against his skin, his muscles spasmed as that unbearable pain spread through his body.
His mind screamed at him to stop, to give up, but another voice — his own — screamed louder inside his skull.
Move.
He couldn't breathe.
The air refused to enter his lungs, the pressure in his chest unbearable, but still he fought.
Move! Move! Move!
He shouted it in his mind again and again, his teeth gritted so hard it hurt.
Every nerve in his body felt like it was being ripped apart, but he didn't care.
He forced his body to resist — to move even when time itself had stopped.
His veins pulsed, his muscles twitched violently, his face twisted in agony as the darkness tried to hold him still.
But he kept fighting.
Because even though he was powerless, even though everything inside him screamed that resistance was useless — he couldn't stop.
Not now.
Not when that cursed witch was watching.
Then, against every possible law of logic, nature, and sanity, he moved.
Subaru's body convulsed, his lips trembling before forcing out a single broken, strangled cry that tore through the frozen silence—
"Deeeaaaathhhhh!"
The sound ripped out of him like a dying scream, echoing unnaturally through the still air.
And then—time resumed.
The world jerked back into motion all at once.
The suffocating stillness shattered, replaced by the violent rush of reality slamming back into place.
Subaru dropped to his knees, gasping for breath, clutching at his throat as if he had just escaped drowning.
His chest heaved, each breath a desperate wheeze.
Then everything changed.
The sky darkened without warning, the faint orange glow of evening swallowed by an overwhelming, creeping blackness.
Clouds twisted unnaturally, spreading across the heavens like ink poured into water.
From the earth itself, a thick, purple fog began to seep outward, curling through the trees and blanketing the forest floor in a suffocating haze.
The air turned heavy.
Every sound was drowned out by an eerie, unnatural silence that made Subaru's heart race faster with dread.
He could feel it — the shift, the presence.
That dreadful, all-too-familiar aura pressing down on him, crawling under his skin, into his soul.
His instincts screamed at him, every fiber of his being whispering that he wasn't alone anymore.
And then he heard it.
"I love you."
The words came from nowhere and everywhere at once — soft, almost tender, but dripping with a madness that chilled his blood.
The voice was feminine, beautiful, and utterly wrong, carrying a weight of emotion so twisted it felt like it could crush him.
"I love you," the voice repeated, each syllable trembling with desperate obsession.
It wasn't just affection — it was possession.
The meaning behind those words was pure madness, a declaration that devoured everything else.
It was all she had.
The entire reason she existed.
The only thing she could say, the only truth left within her — to love him.
To love Natsuki Subaru.
"I love you."
Each repetition echoed louder, heavier, until the forest itself seemed to breathe her words.
Her love wasn't beautiful.
It wasn't gentle.
It was hunger — endless, consuming hunger.
The kind of love that tore apart everything it touched just to keep what it desired.
Subaru's body shook.
His heart pounded so violently it hurt.
Because he could feel her — not just her voice, but her intent, her need.
It poured into him like venom, filling his mind with images that weren't his own.
She wanted him.
Not just to see him.
Not just to be near him.
She wanted all of him — his mind, his body, his soul.
She wanted to be held by him, kissed by him, devoured by him, to the point where the line between them no longer existed.
She wanted to become one with him, to merge completely, eternally, until nothing remained except them.
It was the only way for her to satisfy that endless craving inside her — the thirst that could never be quenched, the hunger that no power or eternity could fill.
Her love was her curse.
Her envy, her madness, her existence — all of it revolved around him.
And as the purple mist thickened and the voice whispered again, Subaru realized just how truly cursed he was.
"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…"
The voice echoed over and over again, broken and unending, like a damaged record stuck on the same three words. Each repetition carried the same weight, the same suffocating intensity — as if those three words were the only ones she remembered, the only thing she was capable of saying anymore.
Subaru's body stiffened. His breathing hitched. Slowly, with his heart hammering in his chest, he turned his head toward the source of that haunting voice — and then froze completely.
She was there.
The air around her was thick with purple fog, swirling and twisting like a living thing that refused to disperse.
It cloaked her form in an eerie haze, yet not enough to hide her entirely.
Even through the shifting mist, he could make out her silhouette — the curve of her body, the faint outline of her dress, and the unnatural stillness in her movements.
She was wearing a long, black dress, the kind that clung tightly to her body, emphasizing every curve in a way that felt almost unreal.
The fabric itself seemed alive, moving faintly with the mist as if breathing in sync with her.
A thin, transparent veil covered her face, fluttering slightly in the air.
But even through it, he could see her eyes — two glowing orbs of deep amethyst, radiating an otherworldly brilliance.
They shone brighter than the fog, brighter than anything around them, piercing straight through the darkness like two beacons of madness.
Those eyes didn't just look at him — they devoured him, burning with an emotion far too twisted to be called love.
Her skin was pale, almost with a faint purple tint that reflected the fog surrounding her.
Her silver hair, long and shimmering faintly, cascaded down her shoulders, framing her face in strands that looked almost ethereal.
Her pointed ears — unmistakably elven — peeked through the hair, twitching slightly as she whispered those cursed words again.
Then she moved.
Without warning, she leaned forward and closed the distance between them.
The mist swirled violently around her as she lowered herself onto him, her knees pressing against the ground on either side of his waist.
She was now sitting right above his crotch, her figure towering over him while her glowing eyes stayed locked on his face from the moment she appeared.
Subaru couldn't move.
His breath hitched again as she tilted her head slightly, studying him with the same fascination one might have for a fragile toy about to break.
Her hands moved — slow, deliberate, trembling with obsession.
Pale fingers reached toward him, brushing against his chest.
The touch was almost gentle, yet it sent a jolt down his spine.
Her palm lingered there, caressing his chest as if she was memorizing the shape of his body, the warmth of his heartbeat, the proof that he was alive.
Then she leaned closer — so close that he could feel her breath ghosting across his skin, hot and uneven.
Her lips moved as she kept repeating those same words again and again, in the same cracked tone that no longer sounded human.
"I love you… I love you… I love you…"
The fog behind her thickened, and something darker began to stir within it.
Black shadows extended outward from her back — long, shapeless, writhing forms that slithered through the air like living tentacles.
They spread out, crawling over the ground before coiling around Subaru's limbs, waist, and neck.
He could feel them — cold, smooth, almost gentle, yet terrifyingly invasive.
The shadowy hands began caressing every exposed part of his body, tracing along his skin with the same kind of perverse affection she showed with her touch.
She moved even closer still, until her face was only inches away from his.
Her eyes filled his entire vision, those glowing amethysts staring directly into his soul.
And then, in that moment, as her lips parted slightly and her veil fluttered away, Subaru finally saw it.
Her face—when Subaru finally saw it clearly—made his entire body freeze.
It was her face.
It was Emilia's.
To be continued...