...
{3rd Pov}
Astros grinned as he stared at the unsheathed Dragon Sword, fully aware of what it signified. That weapon was no ordinary blade—it would only ever unsheathe itself for an opponent it deemed worthy of facing. The very fact that it had revealed itself now was enough to confirm everything he needed to know.
Meanwhile, Reina was visibly trembling as she held the weapon in her hands. Despite her usual composure, the strain she was under couldn’t be completely hidden. Her grip was firm, but there was a slight, unmistakable shake running through her arms.
In truth, the weapon had always been willing to unsheathe for Subaru from the very beginning—from the first time they met in that alley a year ago. Even back then, it had responded to him without hesitation, as if recognizing something within him that others could not see.
However, at that time, Reina had simply believed that the reason was far more straightforward. She thought it was because Subaru was just a genuinely good person, someone worth acknowledging, someone worth respecting.
Back in those early days, her feelings toward Subaru had been closer to infatuation—strong enough that she ignored everything else about him without question. She didn’t look deeper, didn’t try to understand the complexities surrounding him, and instead focused only on what she wanted to see.
Now, however, things were different.
While her feelings for Subaru had only grown deeper over time, she had also become far more aware of the reality around her—and of Subaru himself.
Subaru stood in complete silence, remaining firmly in his position without making a single unnecessary movement. After a brief moment, he lifted his gaze and looked directly at Astros, his expression turning cold and unyielding.
“You will regret this,” Subaru said, his voice steady but filled with clear intent.
“For now, you will be the one regretting your actions,” Astros replied mockingly, his tone laced with confidence as if the outcome had already been decided in his favor. He then shifted his attention toward Reina, watching her closely.
Unfortunately Subaru's last ditch effort to buff him went to waste and he became silent.
In the next moment, the trembling in Reina’s hands gradually stopped. Her grip on the sword tightened, becoming firm and resolute, as she forced herself to suppress her hesitation.
And then, without any further delay, she finally moved.
Reina lunged forward and attacked Subaru.
Her blade collided directly against Subaru’s Authority of Stillness, the clash producing a strange and unnatural interaction between the two forces. But in the very next instant, the outcome became clear—Subaru’s hand was cleanly cleaved off.
Even though there was no blood spilling out due to the nature of his authority, the result itself couldn’t be ignored. It clearly demonstrated that Reina’s blade—Reid—was capable of cutting through stopped time itself, living up to it's name of being able to cut through any concepts.
Subaru immediately stopped using his Authority. Although he had been sharing part of the burden of that authority with Reina due to her being bound to him as his wife, he understood that continuing to use it was pointless. Against her attacks, it simply offered no real advantage.
The moment he released it, the consequences followed instantly.
A burning sensation erupted from his severed arm, spreading rapidly as if something far deeper than his physical body had been damaged. It wasn’t just his flesh that had been cut—his very soul had been torn apart. The pain that followed was overwhelming, far beyond anything a normal injury could cause.
For the first time, a clear expression of pain appeared on Subaru’s face. This wasn’t something he could easily ignore or suppress. The sensation was incomparably worse—easily thousands, if not millions of times more intense than the pain of simply having a hand cut off.
Reacting quickly, Subaru reached out to his Authority of Transfiguration and Gluttony at the same time, reinforcing the process with his own aura. The moment he activated them, his soul began to pull itself back together. The severed part was forcibly reattached, piece by piece, until the connection was restored.
Only after that did the unbearable pain finally subside.
At the same time, Reina was experiencing everything as well.
She had recently acquired the Divine Protection of Shared Suffering, an ability that caused her to share in all the pain Subaru experienced. Because of that, the same intense agony struck her.
Her body reacted immediately—sweat formed visibly across her skin, and her expression tightened despite her efforts to maintain composure. Even for her, enduring that level of pain was not something that could be taken lightly.
“Hah…” Subaru let out a quiet sigh, quickly realizing what Reina was trying to do. It didn’t take him long to understand her intention—she was forcing him to respond, making sure he wouldn’t just stand still and let her attack him without resistance.
They were now trapped in a situation where if one of them inflicted pain on the other, both of them would end up feeling it.
This was because Subaru had awakened his second Authority of Greed, an ability similar to what the Envy version of himself possessed. Through it, he could take on the burdens of others and even share his own abilities with them.
The name of that Authority was Cor Leonis.
However, in his case, it seemed to function somewhat differently, likely because his circumstances were not exactly the same as the original Subaru. There were subtle changes in how it operated, but the core principle remained unchanged.
As a result, every single attack exchanged between him and Reina would cause damage to both of them simultaneously due to their abilities acting on each other. Neither of them could escape the consequences of their actions.
This meant that continuing the fight carelessly would only lead to both of them injuring themselves over and over again.
Because of that, there was only one realistic solution left.
They had to fight each other at equal strength, carefully controlling their actions so that neither side caused unnecessary damage beyond what was required.
Darkness began to spread beneath Subaru’s feet, expanding outward as it turned into an absolute pitch-black void, as if it were a black hole swallowing every trace of light around it. The ground itself seemed to distort under that unnatural presence.
Then, with a sharp sound resembling glass shattering, a crack formed within the space below him. From that fracture, the Yin Sword emerged, its presence cutting through the darkness as Subaru reached down and firmly grasped its hilt.
For a brief moment, everything fell silent.
Neither side moved, as if the world itself had paused in anticipation of what would happen next.
Then Reina made her move.
Once again, she aimed to cleave off Subaru’s arm.
Her plan was simple and direct. As long as she could sever all of Subaru’s limbs, Astros would eventually see the situation as being completely in his favor. That alone would buy them precious time—time that could be used to locate her mother.
At the same time, she intended to take on all of Subaru’s pain herself through her newly acquired Divine Protection of Shared Suffering. By doing so, she could ensure that Subaru wouldn’t have to endure the agony of his soul being torn apart with each strike.
Subaru understood her intentions clearly.
He knew exactly what she was trying to do.
And because of that, he decided he would no longer hold back.
He would retaliate.
Subaru swung the Yin Sword, and it collided directly with the Dragon Sword. The moment the two blades met, visible cracks began to form in the surrounding space, as if time and reality themselves were being strained by the force of the clash.
They accelerated almost instantly.
What started as rapid exchanges turned into something far beyond normal perception. Their blades collided thousands—no, tens of thousands—of times within a single passing second. Each impact sent ripples through the space-time continuum, causing it to grow increasingly unstable with every strike.
The air itself seemed to distort, unable to withstand the sheer intensity of their battle.
Subaru had already copied nearly half of Reina’s swordsmanship a long time ago, learning and adapting to her style through repeated observation and experience. However, even with that advantage, there was still a clear gap between them.
Reina’s skill continued to surpass his by a significant margin.
Realizing that the surrounding space-time was beginning to collapse under the pressure of their fight, Subaru reacted immediately. Without hesitation, he teleported away from the ground, reappearing thousands of meters up in the sky to prevent further damage to the area below.
Reina followed without delay.
And the moment they faced each other again—
They resumed their battle.
‘You can just resurrect her!’ she sent through their telepathic link, her frustration clearly leaking into her voice. It was rare for her to sound like this, but the situation had pushed her to her limit.
‘I don’t want you to get hurt because of it,’ Subaru replied immediately, deflecting her incoming attack as he spoke, his focus split between the fight and their conversation.
‘I will be far more hurt if you get hurt!’ she shot back, her expression filled with urgency and pleading as she tried to make him understand.
Subaru let out a quiet sigh, even as their blades continued to clash.
‘If only I could go back in time and deal with this problem before it even started,’ he thought to himself, the idea forming out of frustration rather than expectation.
“…”
“???!”
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
A realization struck him.
For a brief moment, everything else seemed to pause in his mind as the thought fully settled in. Then, slowly, a grin began to form on his face.
‘Wait… did my IQ just drop out of nowhere?! I can literally just go back in time, find out where Lounna is being held, and then return to the present!’ Subaru thought, almost incredulous at himself for not realizing it sooner.
Even Reina, who heard his thoughts through their connection, reacted instantly. Her eyes widened in shock as the same realization hit her.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
They simply stared at each other mid-battle, the intensity of the fight briefly replaced by an awkward silence.
Both of them were left wondering the same thing.
Had they really been fighting this entire time… for no reason?
It was all because of the pressure Astros had placed on them. The situation had been carefully constructed to break them mentally—forcing Reina to watch her own mother being tortured, pushing her to the edge emotionally. At the same time, Subaru had been driven into anger, his thoughts clouded by the need to find a solution that would prevent Reina from suffering any further.
In that state, he had overlooked something obvious.
Because in reality, there was a much simpler option available to him.
He could just travel back in time.
Even now, the idea felt almost absurd in its simplicity compared to everything they had been dealing with. All the struggle, all the calculations, all the pain—they might have been unnecessary from the very beginning.
Of course, it wasn’t completely without risk.
Time travel was inherently dangerous, especially considering the scale of what he was dealing with. There were too many unknown variables, too many possibilities that could go wrong if something didn’t align properly.
However, Subaru had already experienced traveling across different timelines before. He had encountered alternate versions of himself and had navigated through those situations without everything collapsing. Because of that, he could reasonably conclude that the probability of something going horribly wrong was relatively low.
Still, a certain thought lingered in the back of his mind.
‘But if you play with time, then time will eventually play with you,’ Subaru recalled the saying, and for a moment, he hesitated. He couldn’t help but question whether this was truly the right decision to make.
Yet, there was another factor to consider.
According to Satella, he would likely need to travel back in time at some point anyway in order to become Flugel. If that was truly part of his path, then this action wouldn’t be deviating from it—it would simply be following what was already meant to happen.
From that perspective, the risk didn’t seem nearly as high anymore.
In fact, logically speaking, the chances of something going wrong were indeed very low.
Finally, Subaru made his decision.
‘Reina, I’m going to travel back in time. I’ll find Lounna’s location and then return. That way, we won’t need to continue this fight,’ he said through their mental connection, his tone firm now that he had resolved himself.
‘I—But nothing will go wrong, right?’ Reina asked, her voice filled with worry and hesitation. Even though she trusted him, the idea of tampering with time itself was not something she could accept without fear.
‘Don’t worry. Somehow, I’ll become the Great Sage of the past anyway. That means I would have needed to do this regardless,’ Subaru replied, trying to reassure her while also justifying his decision to himself.
Reina bit her lip, clearly still uneasy, but in the end, she gave a small nod of acceptance.
The next moment, Subaru disappeared.
He teleported away from the battlefield and returned to Echidna's Workshop. The place was completely empty, with no one present to interfere with him.
Without wasting any time, he moved quickly. He entered the necessary coordinates into the mechanism, carefully adjusting the parameters to shift the flow of time itself. Every second mattered now.
Then, without hesitation, he activated it.
In an instant, Subaru vanished from the present.
At first, it should have been a straightforward transition—something he had already experienced before. However, as he moved backward through his own timeline, something felt… wrong.
A strange sensation began to creep in.
It was as if something was pressing down on him, suppressing his very existence as he tried to pass through time.
Then, in the very next moment, his entire being shook violently.
It felt as though time itself was rejecting him—denying his attempt to interfere with it. The pressure intensified rapidly, turning into a suffocating force that wrapped around him from all sides.
Pain followed immediately after.
It wasn’t just physical—it felt deeper, as if his existence itself was being strained beyond its limits.
Before he could react, before he could even process what was happening—
His consciousness faded.
…
“Now this is what I would call Absolute Water,” Subaru muttered as he slowly pushed himself up from the ground. The moment he stood, an overwhelming sense of weakness hit him all at once, forcing him to steady himself.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
First of all, he was no longer anywhere near where he had been before. Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by unfamiliar terrain with no immediate signs of civilization.
And secondly—
He couldn’t feel most of his Authorities.
That realization alone was enough to put him on edge.
Frowning, Subaru tried to assess his condition. He focused inward and attempted to use his Aura to examine himself more closely. However, the moment he did, he noticed something disturbing—the flow of both Aura and Ki within his body had been obstructed, as if something invisible was interfering with their natural circulation.
That wasn’t normal.
Not even close.
But what exactly was causing it?
Concentrating further, Subaru analyzed the sensation carefully. As a user of Yin Magic, he was more sensitive than most when it came to abnormalities related to space, time, and existence itself.
And then he understood.
It wasn’t just some random interference.
It was temporal pressure.
“The fuck?!” he shouted aloud, unable to hold back his reaction.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, he quickly realized that his Psychic abilities had also been restricted. While his thinking speed and mental processing remained unaffected, he could no longer extend his psychic energy outward. That meant no telekinesis, no telepathy—nothing.
It was as if something was actively suppressing any form of external output from his abilities.
And once again, the cause pointed to the same thing.
A problem related to time itself.
‘Why the hell am I getting treated like some shonen protagonist? If there’s a God out there actually listening to me, then this isn’t funny,’ Subaru thought, irritation clearly rising as the situation continued to worsen.
Trying to regain some sense of control, he decided to test his surroundings physically. He bent his knees slightly and then pushed off the ground, attempting a simple jump to gauge his condition.
The result was immediate—and disappointing.
Nothing significant happened.
Instead of the expected burst of strength, he barely managed a small, unimpressive hop before landing right back where he started.
‘Not surprising…’ Subaru muttered internally, narrowing his eyes as he began analyzing the situation more carefully.
‘Technically speaking, even without actively using Aura or Ki, my physical capabilities should still be at a superhuman level. That baseline strength shouldn’t just disappear,’ he reasoned, trying to piece together what was happening.
After a moment of thought, he reached a conclusion.
‘But if the flow of Aura and Ki is being disrupted or completely blocked, then it makes sense that my physical abilities would also be affected. My body probably relies on that internal circulation more than I realized… so if it’s restricted, then my strength gets restricted along with it,’ Subaru concluded, quickly deducing the most likely cause behind his weakened state.
Even so, that didn’t make the situation any less frustrating.
‘This is complete bullshit…’ he thought, irritation turning into genuine annoyance. ‘What is this? Is some higher being messing with me or something?’
At this point, Subaru was seriously beginning to suspect that some kind of deity might actually be interfering with him, deliberately making his situation as difficult as possible for reasons he couldn’t understand.
Finally, Subaru decided to test the last thing he hadn’t checked yet—Magic.
He focused for a brief moment and attempted to use it.
‘Wait… it works?!’ he thought in surprise.
The reaction was immediate. His body lifted off the ground with ease, floating upward as if nothing had ever been wrong in the first place. He hovered in the air for a moment, then adjusted his balance slightly, making small corrections to stabilize himself as he continued to float.
Unlike everything else, Magic was functioning normally.
“Alright… so basically my Authorities don’t work, Ki and Aura are blocked, my Psychic abilities are restricted… and the only thing that still works properly is magic,” Subaru muttered to himself, trying to organize the situation logically.
He paused for a second, thinking more deeply about what that actually meant.
‘If I had to put it into simple terms… it’s like my identity is being rewritten to fit a specific role,’ he thought, his expression slowly growing more serious.
‘In other words, my abilities are being restricted in a way that forces me to align with a different version of myself… or rather, someone I’m supposed to become.’
That realization hit him harder than expected.
‘Someone like Flugel… from the original timeline,’ Subaru concluded.
His eyes widened slightly as the implications of that idea sank in.
If that was truly the case, then what was happening to him wasn’t random at all—it was intentional.
Slowly, he descended back to the ground, his mind already moving to the next step.
Without wasting any more time, Subaru decided to test something else.
He attempted to use his second Authority of Lust.
Without any real surprise, a black, viscous substance began to form in his hand. It moved like liquid, shifting and reshaping itself before taking on the outline of a gun. Within seconds, the shape stabilized and solidified, turning into an actual, functional firearm.
“Huh…?” Subaru muttered, slightly confused but not entirely shocked.
He didn’t stop there. Deciding to test further, he immediately tried using his second Authority of Greed—Cor Leonis. The ability activated, but the moment it did, he noticed something off.
While it technically worked, something fundamental had changed.
He could no longer detect any of his allies.
That realization made his expression harden.
“So… it’s not just a partial restriction,” Subaru said quietly to himself as he processed the situation. “Only the Authorities I manifested as Zero—or as this ‘new Subaru’—are being blocked… no, scratch that… all of my abilities as the new Subaru are being suppressed.”
He paused for a moment, then corrected himself more precisely.
“Which means… what’s left is just the old Natsuki Subaru.”
The conclusion settled heavily in his mind.
‘Don’t tell me… is this actually what was supposed to happen to me?’ he thought, unease creeping in. ‘Am I… 400 years in the past?’
There weren’t many other explanations that made sense.
The fact that he couldn’t detect any of his allies, or anyone he was familiar with, strongly suggested that none of them existed in this time period yet.
But that wasn’t the only thing.
He could also feel a subtle difference in the world itself.
The atmosphere, the mana density, even the general “weight” of existence—it all felt stronger. Not overwhelmingly so, but noticeably. Roughly twenty percent stronger, if he had to estimate.
And that definitely wasn’t how the world felt back when he had just defeated the White Whale.
Everything pointed in the same direction.
He wasn’t just displaced.
He was far back in time.
And considering how the history of this world worked, the most likely conclusion was obvious.
He had been sent roughly 400 years into the past.
“…Fuck me,” he muttered under his breath, voicing his frustration one last time.
To be continued...
(A/N: With this the Volume 2 of Re Zero: The Great Sage finally ends.
Here are now answers to some questions you might want.
Why couldn't Subaru reach back to past to meet Lounna?
Ans) He is a Singularity so for him the past or future technically doesn't exists, so when he got send back into the past he got send back to the past where Original Flugel existed.
But here is a fun fact, there is also the fact that Original Flugel isn't supposed to exist since our Subaru had him replaced from chap 1, so basically he is experiencing multiple temporal distortions and paradoxes.
To make sure he doesn't breaks the dimensional integrity of the entire Re Zero Multiverse, the Time-Space continuum itself is trying correct the logic of the world.
Why Reina has been sent to a different world back in ending of Volume 1?
Ans) Because if Subaru doesn't knows Space-Time magic properly then the Logic will become irrelevant resulting in total collapse of the narrative, so she had to make a mistake to so the narrative remains consistent.
What will happen if Narrative becomes inconsistent?
Ans) You wouldn't want to know, last thing you would want Supreme Narrator, God Almighty or MahaVishnu to intervene, because it will result in an abrupt end of Fanfic with Subaru's total erasure.
There is a reason Fate/Almighty exists, and Supreme Narrator fears the Buddha Slayer in Re Zero: Exposed in 4k.
What will happen from now onwards?
Ans) Will depend on Subaru since as he is a singularity his next decision will shape everything but remember only Reina and Satella are within the influence of his narrative and the reason his narrative exists is because both of their existences support it.
Subaru is not just fighting Temporal problems, he is fighting against the narrative itself.
That's all I wanted to say, enough spoilers for today.)