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3rd Pov
Subaru together with Emilia reached the garden, ready to test his abilities.
"Hey Emilia, it will be fine if I test my physical abilities?" he asked and Emilia smiled.
"There is no problem Zero, though I guess Ram will compin" she chuckled.
"She will surely do" he added and they both ughed.
Puck meanwhile thought 'Doesn't he have just met Ram? Must be because of his earlier conversation with her'
"Anyway, let's see how fast I can run around the garden" Subaru said and got ready, then he dashed.
Ground cracked slightly as his body became a blur, accelerating to an impressive speed as he circled around the entire garden of Mather's mansion in a few seconds.
"Woah! Your running speed is impressive, only the top elite knights have such speed" Puck commented, as Subaru was essentially running at one third speed of sound.
Satisfied with his test, he asked Emilia "Emilia, how long it is from her to the entire circumference of the outer portion of the garden?"
"Well, it is around 1670 Vallian or roughly 1500 Shaku" she said.
He didn't recognize the first measuring unit, however tter? He totally recognized it.
It was Japanese unit for measuring length, thankfully due to his memories of Subaru he knows how much long it was.
'So roughly 450 meters, and I crossed that like what? In 5 to 6 seconds? Damn I am faster than a bullet train!' he thought shocked.
He then tested his punching speed, and with each punch he created a small gust of wind, showing how strong and fast his attacks were.
'Thankfully my senses, thinking speed, reaction, body bance, and maybe even my flexibility has increased, otherwise even if I had such speed, it would have been useless' he thought.
His biggest improvement was speed- or so he is thinking, 'What if my base abilities are multiplied by a certain amount each time I die? My vision is extremely good now. I can even see on faraway pces and read what is written there'
"Emilia is there any way that you can measure my speed? Or Strength? In units" he asked Emilia who shook her head.
"No, I don't have any such methods, how about you Puck? Do you have any idea?" she asked her furry father who spread his hands and said "I am pretty sure we will need meteor to measure your strength and speed"
"I see so no help here, huh?" he sighed in defeat.
"Anyway, Emilia and Puck can you two help me learn magic?" he asked them and Emilia nodded "There is no problem I guess!"
"Hmm, if Lia is okay with it then as her father, I support her, anyway let's first check what magic affinity you have!" Puck said and touched Subaru's head with his tail, and the area being touched glowed for a moment.
"Alright, I know your affinities" Puck said with a nod.
'What might be my affinities, Original Subaru just had a single affinity of Yin' he thought and looked at Puck with nervousness and anticipation on his face.
"You have Shadow and Earth Magic affinities- Not to mention, I sense absurdly high Spiritual affinity from you. Your gate and the amount of mana you possess is above average as well, decent if we go by the humans' terms" he said surprising Subaru.
'I have shadow Magic affinity as Subaru and Earth due to my second identity' he also noticed how Puck commented he had extremely high Spiritual affinity.
"You said I have high Spirit affinity?" he asked curious, though he already knew Subaru had high affinity for Spirits.
"Not just high- I mean absurdly high! Here I thought Lia's Spirit affinity was the best" Puck replied.
"Okay! Now that we know my spirit affinities! Can you start with the Magic lesson Sensei!" he asked Puck who nodded "Sure, do you want to learn Shadow or Earth Magic first?"
"Shadow magic!" he didn't even hesitate; Shadow or Yin Magic increased his survival chances exponentially.
Then Puck continued with his lesson on magic, apparently each type of magic has a prefix and suffix.
Suffix of the magic was different for each attribute of magic, and prefix decided the power of the magic casted, which were 'El', 'Ul' and 'Al' in ascending order.
The suffix for Shadow or Yin Magic was Shamak, and for Earth Magic it was Dona.
Magicians used their gate to use up their stored mana to release magic, while spirit arts user used Spirits as a pseudo-gate and mana from their surroundings to use magic, however it had a very strict requirement which was Spirit affinity.
After learning everything Subaru realized 'Does the amount of mana I possess, strength of my gate and Spirit affinity too increases with each death? If that's the case it is too broken!'
He didn't know he had hit the mark, unknown to him everything about him if beneficial to him, doubled with each death.
'It must be the case, otherwise Original Subaru's gate was weak as hell and the amount of mana he possessed wasn't great as well' he thought.
Then finally he got ready to test his magic, beginning with Shamak he imagined the flow of mana and muttered "Shamak"
A dark cloud manifested from his hands spreading around, he controlled to not use excess mana and succeeded creating a fog that only covered him.
'Damn! I can't literally see, hear or smell! Even my sense of bance has been messed up!' he thought surprised by the potency of the spell.
"Very good, now try to dissolve the magic" Puck said and Subaru followed his words, soon the bck fog had dissipated.
"We should try Dona somewhere else, preferably not in the garden else Ram and Rem will be angry" Puck said and Subaru nodded, he didn't need to give those sociopathic maids any reason for disliking him.
If they dislike him despite his honesty, then it's their fault not his.
After thanking Emilia and Puck he returned to the Mansion, wanting to finally meet up with Betty the loli Great Spirit.
"Hm, let's see- which door it would be" he muttered and after a moment he opened a door, luckily enough he found the Forbidden Library with Betty sitting on the chair.
"How rude to enter someone's library without permission, I suppose" Beatrice looked at him with a cold look.
"What is this pce? I am pretty sure there isn't supposed to be a library here" he asked her.
"It is forbidden Library and its location isn't fixed as it keeps shifting throughout the mansion" she expined.
"I see- Can I come in?" he asked and she frowned "It's rude to disturb someone when they are reading"
"I guess, I will take my leave. Sorry for intruding then" he said leaving the room.
'I guess that went better than what I had expected' he thought.
He wanted to help Beatrice as he could empathize with her, both Subaru and Ayan were loners, and Subaru had it worse with all the depression stuff.
'I will see how it goes, for now let's focus on the current threats' he decided, the current thing he needed to deal was with Rem and Ram.
He didn't know what Butterfly effects there might be as well, he sighed and decided to visit Ram to get her tutor him.
...
The rest of the day passed, with Ram teaching him the basic alphabets, and words, his speed of learning was extremely fast, and to him it felt as if he had eidetic and photographic memory.
In just a few hours he could read basic sentences with ease, surprising Ram and even making her suspicious, however he shoved it up to his genius.
Finally, when the night came, he was escorted by Ram to his room, and when his body touched the bed, his muscles rexed.
"Should I sleep? What if Rem attacks me?" he muttered to himself, and decided to wait for two hours before sleeping.
After half an hour of uneasy peace, he suddenly heard something, he got up and the door opened with Rem coming inside while holding her Morningstar, her face cold.
"It would have been better if you were in sleep, it would have been painless" she said and Subaru stepped back taking out his knives.
"Can I ask why are you here with the intent to kill me?" Subaru asked gritting his teeth.
"Why? After you have done. You ask me why? You, filthy witch cultist" she spat and swung her morning star, the chains rumbled as the giant metal spiked ball came towards him, Subaru barely dodged the attack and running back he broke the window in pieces and jumped on the ground.
He looked back to see Rem looking at him with a cold face while a single white horn manifested on her forehead, she was about to jump down.
"Fuck!" he quickly ran away, soon in the forest while Rem follows him, however her speed was slower than his.
Unfortunately, she could transverse through the forest more easily than him, and soon caught upto him.
She swung her morning star decimating the trees, while Subaru jumped away in panic, finally he stopped panting a bit and turned towards Rem who also stopped running and leisurely walked towards him.
"I am not a witch cultist! Didn't I already told you all- That I reek of witch's miasma because I am cursed by her?!" he shouted and Rem frowned.
"Yes, but that must be a lie" she said and Subaru's eyebrows twitched and veins appeared on his forehead.
"Lie?! Didn't a fucking Great Spirit checked whether I was speaking truth or not? Didn't your master ordered you to treat me as you would treat him?!" he yelled at her in anger.
To all this, she simply replied "Doesn't matter, I don't believe you. You reek of miasma and hence you are a filthy witch cultist and deserve to die"
He froze- looking at her in disbelief, the absurdity of the situation settled in him, as he erupted in ughter.
"Hahahaha? Me- Me a witch cultist?!" he wiped his tear and then gred at her.
"Now you are showing you true colours, filthy witch cultist" she spat and got ready to attack him.
Then he got in a battle stance as well, and said with serious eyes "Rem- You are fucking beyond redemption"
Her eyes narrowed and she attacked swinging her Morningstar, Subaru dodged it and then charged towards her while yelling, "Shamak!"
A bck fog manifested around him erupting like an explosion covering both Rem and him, however he had already her position in mind, and in a second he arrived near her and swung her knife.
The sound of cleaving flesh reached his ears, he swung his knife again, and again, and again. Suddenly something struck his back, throwing him away like a ragdoll.
He crashed against a tree, breaking its trunk apart. His ribs cracked and he looked to find his magic dispelled and a bloody Rem.
"You disgusting Witch Cultist! Die!" she screamed and swung her Morningstar again, this time he didn't had time to dodge, so he swung his knife with all of his strength.
His one knife cracked into pieces while the impact threw him away, he flipped his body regaining his bance, Subaru took deep breaths as he stared at Rem who started going berserk.
"Dieeee!!!" she swung her Morningstar, he tried to dodge it, however due to sudden pain in his ribs he froze and the Spiked ball hit his body hard throwing him away.
"Fuck" he said as he spat out blood, she suddenly appeared before him and his eyes narrowed as he begged, "Sto- Arghhhh!"
His legs became a mush, "Plea-Arghhhh!"
His face was hit by it and his neck twisted, tears escaped out of his eyes as he coughed out a few teeth, she then hit him again, again and again.
By the end his body was a bloody mess, with his limbs crushed, bones visible and meat spread all over the pce.
Natsuki Subaru has died for the fifth time. (*32)
To be continued...