Subaru looked at the seven witches in front of him. These were supposedly the worst of the worse that this world had to offer. People who those twisted witch cultists worshipped and the normal inhabitants feared above all else. They were supposedly responsible for all the problems they were facing right now. The archbishop of Sloth, the Demon beasts birthed from Gluttony among all the other horrors he had faced all stemmed from them. Yet he found it almost amusing that despite all he had faced…these so-called witches had all rallied behind him regardless of the reason. Some genuinely liked him and supported him; others were just doing it to sake their own interest and in a twisted sense he had been saved by the one this world called its Devil and had been given the chance to save so many of his friends time and time again. He had tried so hard and despite feeling all like the lasts bits of his sanity was about to slip away, they had helped him pulled himself back together. So the question was…what would he do now?
He hadn't been able to save Rem, and the situation with the Great Hare was also a concern. Then you had to factor in everything else on his list. Emilia was being broken down by own trauma as well, all the while…he was playing according to Roswaal's schemes. No he needed to fix this. He had to fix this. But how could he fix this? Echidna had offered him a contract that would lead to his desired future but he didn't trust her, not in the slightest. Glancing to his right he saw Satella still there, unfamiliar feelings surged through him but he was doing his best to ignore those feelings. Satella had granted him Return by Death. If that were the case she could probably send him back on command just like she did so many times before. Perhaps he didn't need a solution for the future, perhaps all he needed was a shot at fixing the past one last time. To start all the way back from zero.
"Um, Baru are you okay?" The littlest witch, Typhon asked.
"Yes, Typhon. I am fine. I was just thinking." He answered.
"And what are you thinking exactly?" Echidna asked. Subaru turned to other witches. What he was going to ask was going to be completely insane. He was sure any normal resident of this world would probably call him crazy but he wasn't from this world and he already went crazy a few times before so what the heck.
"I have a request." He said. This earned all the witches' attention. What on earth could he possibly want?
"What is it you desire, my beloved?" Unsurprisingly it was Satella to respond first.
"I need….I need your help." Subaru said honestly. "I've been going through all this on my own and despite what you said about loving myself and relying on my friends but I don't know if I can actually go through it."
"What are you asking exactly?" Sekhmet asked.
"I need to start over. Not just a reset to the last checkpoint but an entire new game plus." Subaru answered. "And…I was wondering if I can ask for you all to help me with it. I can't fix this on my own." He said his voice breaking. "I've tried and tried but I am just strong enough to do it." He told them as tears started to form in his eyes. "I'm just not strong enough…so I need your strength." He muttered.
"And what will get in return?" Echidna asked. "I already offered you salvation once and you threw it away. So what is it that you plan to give us." She asked.
"Now, now Echidna. Subaru may not need to give us anything." Minerva said much to their surprise. "If we help him restart from zero….we can fix all the damages that are plaguing the world and we can help it heal." The Witch of Wrath explained.
"Yeah, we can go and help him deal and punish all the evildoers in the world." Typhon cheered.
"Wait a second…are you all actually considering this?" Echidna asked in disbelief. The witches of Wrath and Pride merely nodded their heads to her. She turned to the other remaining witches.
"If Typhon's agreeing to this then I'm also in. Someone is going to have to keep her in check." Sekhmet said while she laid on the ground.
"What about you Carmilla?" Echidna asked.
"Well if he wants to make amends so bad and the others are agreeing I don't see why I can't help as well." The witch of Lust said.
"Daphne?"
"Like I said Subaru has made some boastful claims and I wish to see him see it through. If he thinks he can rewrite the past once more then so be it."
"Hmm." Echidna huffed. "So it really has come to this. I already know Satella's answer so I won't bother." The Witch of Greed said.
"Wait seriously!" Subaru exclaimed. He did not think this would work. More so he did not think anyone besides Typhon, Minerva, and Satella would agree. He didn't know if to be thankful or just plain scared now that maybe they might double-cross him.
"So what do you propose we do?" Echidna asked.
"I…uh….actually didn't think that far," Subaru admitted. The greedy witch could resist the urge to facepalm at his claim, just when he was getting her hopes up.
"I don't have enough power to send you to the very start, at least not as I am now," Satella admitted. "I would need a large pool of Mana to send you back to the beginning and a lot more to give you the help you desire." She noted.
"If that's the case maybe we should... make a contract," Sekhmet said. "But it will be on Subaru's terms." She told the other witches. "Are we all in agreement?" She asked. The others nodded except for Echidna.
"Very well but I expect to be properly compensated." The witch of Greed said. This got Subaru thinking about earlier offers. Maybe there was something he could offer her.
"I may have an offer you may be curious about." He told Echidna. "You have seen my time in this world….but do you know about my own world?" He asked. Echidna was a Greedy seeker of knowledge. He wasn't going to risk exploiting Return by Death for her benefit but he could at the very least exploit the knowledge and memories he had with him for his own world. Hopefully, it would be enough but who knows.
"Knowledge from another world you say….well, I will admit after seeing only a glimpse of your memories in the trials I am intrigued. A certain someone locked me out of them from before but if you are offering it now then I can't help but be curious what it may lack." Echidna said.
"I won't be giving you my memories, Echidna, you will only be free to ask and view them and even then there are some I rather not share." He responded.
"Fair enough I suppose." The witch said, "I don't need to see everything in your world." Echidna said.
"So is that it?" Subaru asked.
"Not quite," Satella said. "We can't risk you handling all of our power at once. Our authorities and our witch genes could prove quite taxing on your mind and the end result may not be something any of us desire." She said. Most of the witches including Echidna could attest to that. Incompatible witch genes were a dangerous thing just ask half of the world…oh right.
"I may have a solution to that," Daphne said.
"What kind of solution?" Subaru asked.
"This is…well this to be honest what is this?" Subaru asked. He was staring at what looked like an animal rug…you know the kind of rugs that look like they are made from animals that were deflated and stripped of their bones like those fancy bear rugs. Except instead of a bear, Subaru saw what could be described as a green metallic wolf with red lifeless eyes…wait a minute. "This is…this is a Demon Beast," Subaru said in realization.
"Yes yes, it is." Daphne said proudly. "but it is not like the others." She explained. "I've been thinking…I've let the other Demon beast ravage the land long enough and most of them don't even eat anymore, so perhaps it's best if I had something to go and clean up all the Demon beasts that cause trouble. Just so other people can hunt peacefully." Daphne explained.
"Are you trying to say you feel guilty for what you did?" Subaru asked.
"I feel no such thing. I just don't like to see wasted food." Daphne explained. "If you humans refuse to eat my Demon beasts then I'll just need to find someone else to do it. I'd do it myself but as you can see I'm a little preoccupied." Daphne explained.
"And what is this one's name?" Echidna asked.
"The beast of despair…Apollo," Daphne responded.
"That doesn't sound ominous at all," Subaru said. "So Apollo will help channel your powers?" He said as he looked at the wolf's immobile body.
"Yes….with all our powers…this should make a suitable assistant to you in channeling our power." She explained.
"So with that out of the way we can make the contract now," Subaru said.
"Make sure you are clear and concise with what you want…otherwise some of use might find some leniency and do things you don't want," Sekhmet warned.
"That's right," Subaru said. "Okay, let's start then."
The seven witches and Subaru gathered in a circle surrounding Apollo. A magic circle appeared as all individuals were connected to each other's gates. The meadow where they had been gathered soon started to dissipate as the world became a dark void and the red eyes of the Demon Beast started to open. The contract was made among the eight individuals; each having their own request for Subaru, with the exception of Satella, and Subaru, in turn, tried to limit the potential dangers the Witches could pose now that he was making a deal with them. As each said their part Apollo was slowly connected to each individual his body slowly being filled with more power from each of their Od.
The Demon Beast, now fully awakened, was standing on its hind legs. The humanoid wolf let out a loud howl as its voice echoed through the void. Subaru stared at the creature as the shadows began to crawl slowly engulfing them all, devouring the witches and leaving only the Demon Beast with him, before it too vanished. Before long Subaru felt himself be pulled not by anyone but by an unseen force through the void. When he finally opened his eyes…he was staring at a very familiar Appa vendor he had met so many months ago. He was back…he was finally starting over at zero.
He looked down to see a familiar bag of groceries from his own world. A small smile came across his face, he was back at Zero, back to where it all began, and when it began. He wasn't going to fail this time. However before he could move on he looked around for the witches, the 'evils' he had knowingly released back into the world.
"Wait where are they?" He asked himself. Was he tricked? Suddenly as if on command, all seven witches materialized in front of him just like before much to his surprise. "What the?" He almost freaked out when a familiar 'Unseen hand appear and shushed him'
"Don't you dare scream like a little girl on us now!" Sekhmet said with a smile.
"We're following you, remember," Daphne said.
Subaru did his best to contain his surprise because all 7 witches were in front of him and in the middle of the capital city in broad daylight.