Chapitre 218: [FGO]: 218
In the next moment, Sirius stared intently at Ryou and the others, and the children behind her followed suit, gazing at him with the same intensity. It was as if he had committed some unforgivable crime, while the slain Petelgeuse was a saint of benevolence and kindness.
This was Sirius's power, Soulwashing, which allowed her to share emotions and even damage within a certain range. In other words, these children were under her control. If anyone were to kill her, the children around her would also die. Moreover, if she were killed in close combat, the attacker would be affected by her power and perish with her.
To put it bluntly, her power was a vile ability that harmed others without benefiting herself. The best way to kill her was through a long-range attack.
At this moment, if this were a traditional anime, the protagonist would likely choose to lure Sirius away from the children, and then kill her from a distance for a "happy ending." Unfortunately, Ryou was neither an anime protagonist nor a good person.
His choice was… to kill, mercilessly.
In an instant, Ryou's entire body was enveloped in a glow resembling circuit patterns, the result of pushing his magic release skill to its limit.
Mana Burst: Rank B!
He raised his right arm, and the Time Gem embedded in his Apocalypse Gauntlet emitted a brilliant blue light, enveloping his entire body.
Time Acceleration!
In an instant, Ryou felt as if the world had been put in slow motion. Sirius, mid-sentence, was now stretching her words unbearably long. The flames flickering around the buildings twisted into strange, slow dances.
Ryou had a sudden realization: it wasn't that the world had slowed down, but that he had sped up.
He crouched low and tapped the ground with his feet in a special rhythm.
Shave!
With the recoil, Ryou shot forward like a cannonball, heading straight for Sirius.
Bang!
The sound of air being forcefully displaced rang out. In the blink of an eye, Ryou had crossed a hundred meters and appeared right in front of Sirius.
Sirius reacted quickly, and the chains and hooks on her wrists coiled around him like venomous snakes. But the Time Gem on Ryou's right fist lit up with a blue glow once more, this time expanding outward to form a 100-meter-wide sphere.
In Ryou's vision, the world turned gray, leaving only himself in color. Sirius, standing before him, froze like a statue.
He pulled his fist back to his side and then struck.
Machine Gun Blow!
Countless afterimages of punches enveloped Sirius's chest. Her torso was crushed flat by the immense pressure, and then Ryou's fist pierced through, leaving a gaping hole in her chest cavity.
In Sirius's perception, it was as if time had skipped. One moment Ryou was in front of her; the next, there was a massive hole in her chest.
Due to Soulwashing, the children behind her instantly suffered the same fate, their chests exploding as they perished.
In what seemed like a final moment of clarity before death, Sirius's mind regained some lucidity. The strong vitality granted by the Witch Factor kept her from dying instantly. She looked at Ryou in disbelief.
"You killed these children just to kill me? And you're clearly within the range of my power—how are you not dead?"
Ryou smirked. Such a half-baked ability could never affect his EX-ranked Magic Resistance, but he had no intention of explaining that to her. As for her first question, he answered without hesitation.
"Don't blame me. I only killed you. The others were killed by you."
Sirius's eyes widened as if she wanted to take a closer look at his face.
"What a cold-blooded man," she muttered before falling to the ground, her life finally extinguished.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
At that moment, applause came from behind him. Echidna, with the expression of a mad scientist discovering something fascinating, looked Ryou up and down with feverish excitement.
"Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous! I thought being kidnapped by you would be boring, but I didn't expect you to be such a man! How interesting! So interesting! I sincerely thank you for kidnapping me and opening the door to a new world for me!"
Whack!
Ryou delivered a swift chop to the top of Echidna's head.
"Stop being weird," he warned her sternly.
"Oww~ Don't hit my head! My brain is the smartest in the world! If you damage it, it'll be your loss!"
Echidna clutched her head, crying out in protest.
Ryou was speechless. He had seen shameless people before, but never anyone this shameless. And Echidna, of all people, had the nerve to call herself the "smartest"? In this world, "smartest" must be a polite way of saying "idiot." Shaking his head, Ryou glanced over at Rem, noticing that she looked upset. He understood instantly—Rem was unhappy with how he had ignored the children's lives to kill Sirius.
If Ryou were a master at winning people over, he might have used some smooth words to defuse the situation and recover his lost favor. But that wasn't his style.
"I'm not going to apologize. If I had to choose again, I'd do the same. To me, you all are the most important. The people of this village... they have nothing to do with me."
His words were cold and direct.
Rem's body trembled; she felt she should hate Ryou even more, yet found herself unable to. Her heart was in turmoil, and she couldn't muster any hatred toward him. Ryou noticed the confusion in her eyes and sighed inwardly. Compared to her sister, Ram, Rem was always less adept at hiding her emotions. Perhaps it was this sincerity that allowed Rem to surpass the main heroine Emilia as the most popular female character in Re: Zero.
"Ah!"
While Rem was lost in thought, Ryou placed his hand on her head.
"Don't think too much. Just be yourself."
A head pat and some reassurance brought a bit of clarity back to Rem's eyes. She bit her lip, hesitated, then gathered her courage and said, "Master, I want to stay here and give them a proper burial. Please take care of my sister and everyone else."
"Alright," Ryou agreed, then, taking the still-unwell Anastasia by the hand, climbed into the dragon carriage. With the sound of the wheels turning, they left Rem behind, heading back toward the mansion.
Once aboard, Anastasia appeared weak and sat limply in her seat. Ryou gently let her rest her head on his shoulder. Echidna, sitting opposite, showed no sign of annoyance at the affection she was forced to witness. Instead, she watched them with a curious gleam in her eyes, as if she'd discovered something new and exciting.
"Hey~ I didn't expect you to be this gentle. I thought—"
Before she could finish, Ryou gave her another chop to the head.
As Echidna clutched her head and whined, Ryou calmly said, "Thought what? I'm not a robot. I can't be cold to everyone."
"Ugh! Double standards..."
Echidna looked at him with resentment, still holding her head.
Ryou pretended not to notice. After spending time with her, he had figured out Echidna's personality. She was a selfish pleasure-seeker with a dark side. As long as her thirst for knowledge was satisfied, she had no bottom line. Beneath her calm and intellectual exterior lay a mischievous and chaotic soul.
Seeing that Ryou had no intention of responding further, Echidna muttered, "So boring," and leaned back against the dragon carriage seat, her gaze wandering idly over the scenery outside.
Boom!
Suddenly, the sound of explosions came from afar. Everyone immediately tensed up, and Anastasia, who had been leaning on Ryou's shoulder, sat up, a faint blush coloring her pale cheeks. Echidna, who had been slumped on the seat, perked up, her expression filled with schadenfreude.
"Oh-ho! They've started fighting! Those guys sure don't waste any time!"
Whack!
Her reckless comment earned her another chop from Ryou.
At this point, the dragon carriage was less than a kilometer from the mansion. At the control core of the mansion's magic array, Semiramis felt a headache coming on. After destroying Capella, the Archbishop of Lust, with the magic cannon, two more enemies appeared at the mansion's gate. She managed to kill one with the cannon, but the white-haired youth was a problem. No matter how she attacked him, he remained unharmed.
As a magus from the Age of Gods, Semiramis quickly saw through his abilities. He possessed a powerful time-stopping skill, allowing him to evade all her attacks. Moreover, his destructive power was astonishing. Semiramis had to use teleportation magic to keep throwing him out of the mansion's range, attempting to buy time until Ryou's return.
Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded at Roswaal's mansion. The white-haired youth would charge toward the mansion at lightning speed, only to be teleported back outside. Over and over again, he found himself running from the gates to the garden, only to be sent back, his temper growing shorter each time. He ranted, demanding that the occupants offer up Emilia and then kill themselves. Anyone who tried to stop him was, in his mind, committing an unforgivable crime.
His twisted logic was typical of the Archbishop of Greed, his self-righteousness rivaling his power. But Semiramis, who had poisoned her husband to seize the throne, was unfazed. No matter how much he ranted, she was unaffected. He looked like a fool, repeatedly running in only to be teleported out again. Finally, his temper exploded, and he began to destroy everything in sight.
Just then, a voice sounded behind him.
"Stop trashing other people's homes, you white-haired punk."
After a long, drawn-out battle, Ryou finally arrived, just in time to stop Regulus from causing further damage.
"Huh? Who the hell are you? You think you can stop me, you piece of trash?"
Regulus's face twisted with rage as he turned to Ryou, but then his eyes lit up. He immediately noticed the beauty of Anastasia and the allure of Echidna. With his experience of having 291 wives, he recognized their purity.
"So, you came all this way to deliver my 293rd and 294th wives to me, huh? Very well, I accept your gift. As thanks, I'll forgive your earlier rudeness and grant you a painless death."
Ryou was at a loss for words. He'd seen arrogant people, but this was on another level. He wanted to ask: Who gave you this confidence? Did you think you were some unbeatable protagonist?
His answer was simple. He activated his magic, used Shave, and crossed the hundred-meter distance in an instant, appearing right in front of Regulus.
Regulus, startled, reacted immediately. Time Stop! But as he activated his power, the Time Gem on Ryou's gauntlet lit up with a brilliant blue light. A mocking smile appeared on his face.
If the Time Gem could counter the powers of Satella, the most powerful Witch of Envy, then an Archbishop of Greed was nothing. Sure enough, Regulus's time-stopping ability was nullified instantly. His once invincible power was rendered useless for the first time.
Regulus was dumbfounded.
Ryou wasted no time. He activated the Time Stop ability from the Time Gem and unleashed Machine Gun Blow, a barrage of fist shadows enveloping Regulus's entire body.
In an instant, the once-arrogant Archbishop of Greed was reduced to a pile of minced meat.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone