The forest was quiet in the pale light of morning. Mist clung low between the trees, thin and white like breath that refused to fade. The rain had washed the world clean, and droplets still slid from leaf to leaf, tapping softly against the earth.
Subaru stood with her arms folded, trying to look annoyed rather than cornered.
Übel's words lingered in the air between them.
"I just want to understand you."
Subaru blinked at her. "Understand me? What does that even mean?"
Übel tilted her head slightly, studying her the way one might examine an unusual insect. "You have an unnatural aura."
Subaru immediately pointed at herself. "Yeah, that's because I haven't bathed for three days and I've been walking for miles. That's called odor, not aura."
For a second there was silence.
Then Übel laughed.
It wasn't loud. It wasn't polite. It was genuine, bright amusement, like she had just discovered something entertaining.
"That's not what I meant," she said, still smiling. "I've met a lot of mages. A lot of people. Your presence feels… wrong. Not in a bad way. Just different."
Subaru rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm unique. Everyone tells me that. In what way exactly?"
Übel didn't answer immediately. Instead, she took a slow step forward.
Subaru didn't move.
Another step.
The distance between them shrank.
Subaru kept her face neutral, shoulders relaxed, as if this meant nothing. Inside, her pulse ticked faster. Don't flinch. Don't show fear. Don't give her anything.
Übel stopped about three feet away. Close enough that Subaru could see the faint freckles dusting her nose. Close enough to notice the way her purple eyes didn't blink much.
Übel lifted a hand and brushed her own green ponytail back over her shoulder. "A demon pretending to be human is quite rare, you know."
The world paused.
Just for a second.
Subaru's eyes widened before she could stop them.
That was enough.
In the next instant Subaru launched herself backward, feet kicking off the ground with explosive force. Wind rushed past her ears as she shot into the air without hesitation.
Übel's grin widened.
Her staff materialized in her hand in a flicker of mana. She didn't even look surprised.
"Ho?" she murmured.
She pointed the staff upward and lifted off the ground smoothly, as if gravity had simply decided not to apply to her.
Subaru was already soaring through the mist, heart hammering.
She didn't need a staff to fly. It came as naturally as walking now. Her body cut through the air cleanly, climbing higher, faster.
Behind her, Übel followed.
And she was faster.
Not by a ridiculous amount. Not instantly overtaking. But steadily closing the distance.
"Didn't you say you wanted to fight someone strong?" Übel called out, voice carrying easily through the wind.
Subaru grit her teeth. "Shit, shit, shit, shit—"
Trees blurred beneath her.
"I'm so cooked!"
Her mind raced. Think. Think.
She had not told Übel the full extent of Erafassen. She had downplayed it. Lied outright. She had options. Weapons she could replicate. Techniques she could borrow from a hundred stories.
But imagination-based magic against someone who could cut anything she imagined she could cut?
What if Übel simply imagined her split apart?
The thought barely formed before Subaru felt something change.
There was no pain at first.
Just… lightness.
The wind shifted oddly against her body.
Her vision tilted.
She looked down.
Her body was no longer whole.
A clean, perfect line ran through her torso.
Her lower half was no longer attached.
For a strange, detached second, Subaru watched herself separate in midair. Two halves drifting apart. Blood suspended in the air like scattered petals.
Then the pain arrived.
White-hot. Total.
Her scream tore out of her throat, raw and furious rather than frightened.
"This is so unfair!"
The sky spun.
The forest rushed upward.
Black ether crept into the edges of her vision, swallowing the green of the trees and the gray of the clouds.
Her last sight was Übel descending gracefully toward her falling pieces, staff in hand, expression unreadable for a moment.
Then her lips curved faintly.
"Huh," Übel said, almost to herself. "She didn't even fight back."
There was something like disappointment in her tone.
"What a loser."
Darkness swallowed everything before Subaru's body could hit the ground.
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