Subjugation of Sloth

The Subjugation of Sloth (怠惰の討伐) was an event that took place roughly two months after the arrival of Natsuki Subaru into the world. It is one of the two core battles of Arc 3.

With the start of the Royal Selection underway and Emilia taking up her role as one of the five candidates, the Witch Cult finally decided to make its move. The Sin Archbishop of Sloth, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, and his fingers decided to launch an attack on Arlam Village and Roswaal Manor in order to treat Emilia to a trial, and to not be interrupted, they left the White Whale to guard the highway leading to the village. However, knowing what the Witch Cult was up to, Subaru gathered his allies together to prevent the coming disaster. With the successful Subjugation of the White Whale out of the way, the group, reinforced with new allies, made their way toward the village to confront Sloth before he could arrive.

In the end, the subjugation was a massive success, and nobody lost their life during the attack. This marked the first win against the Witch Cult since the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon, as well as a sign of great change.

Background

Subjugation of the White Whale

After experiencing a few failed loops, Subaru managed to create a successful alliance between the Emilia, Crusch, and Anastasia Camps, providing them with mining rights in Elior Forest, a chance to battle the White Whale, and offering his cell phone to Russell Fellow. Afterward, Crusch began gathering a small army of knights while Anastasia allowed for half of the Iron Fang to take part in the battle. As for Subaru, he and Rem went to retrieve an earth dragon for Subaru's use, and they chose Patrasche. He also had Rem write a note that would reach Roswaal Manor before them, and he entrusted it to merchants who would have been heading that way. After a speech later that night, the entire unit to take on the White Whale went to the Lifaus Highway by Flugel's Tree.

After a long battle against the Great Witchbeast and losing many of their men, they were finally able to trap the beast beneath the fallen Flugel's Tree, and Wilhelm van Astrea provided the final strike to end its life. Unfortunately, a good number of the knights that were there were too injured to keep going, and the dead needed transport back to the Royal Capital. Having put her trust in him, Crusch decided to leave some of them behind to assist Subaru, as well as Ferris and Wilhelm. Meanwhile, she would take the injured, the dead, Hetaro, Rem, and the severed head of the White Whale, as proof of its death, with her back to the capital. With their leave, new reinforcements in the form of the rest of the Iron Fang and Julius Juukulius. With everyone ready to take on Sloth, they began their discussion on how to bring him down.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the team returning to the Royal Capital were ambushed by the Sin Archbishops of Greed and Gluttony. This resulted in many of them being killed or being devoured, including Crusch, who was injured and lost her memories, and Rem, whose existence was entirely forgotten. This resulted in the letter she wrote being completely wiped blank and the misunderstanding that followed. Meanwhile, Subaru, who had experienced another failed loop, made preparations for the unexplained phenomenon of the blank letter and his newfound knowledge of Petelgeuse's ability to possess others.

Evacuation

On their way to the village, Subaru had a large sign hefted up for Ram to see with her clairvoyance, informing her of the letter problem and preventing her from attacking. Gaining her assistance, the group soon arrived at the village. Pleading with the villagers to evacuate the village to protect them, he managed to successfully convince them to start moving. Half of the villagers would go with Ram to the Sanctuary, and half would go to the Royal Capital. Having seen this, Puck, who was mad that Subaru came back despite Emilia's wishes, decided to help Subaru with his plan, realizing the danger that was coming. So that she wouldn't feel alone, Subaru asked Petra and the other kids to protect Emilia while he wasn't there, asking them not to tell her.

Afterward, with Wilhelm and Ram's help, they were able to convince Emilia to evacuate with the other villagers. Subaru also tried to convince Beatrice to leave, but to no avail. Though Emilia was hesitant to ride with the other villagers, knowing about the prejudice levied toward her, Subaru, who was wearing the recognition obstruction cloak she left behind, pointed out that the kids did not mind being with her, and she left with the rest of the villagers, with Wilhelm acting as their primary guardian along with some other knights and mercenaries.

Battle

Capturing the Fingers

While Subaru was busy taking care of the village, he had Ricardo, Mimi, Tivey, and other members of the subjugation force hunt down the other Fingers and Witch Cultists scattered throughout the various bases within the woods. Having located them all in the previous loop, Subaru marked their locations on a map and directed them. In one such base, they discovered Otto Suwen bound in a cave. After being rescued, he was tied up again by the Pearlbatons as someone suspicious and returned to the village.

After setting up the evacuations, Subaru took a small unit to capture Ketty Muttart, a Finger disguised as a merchant who was feeding information to other Fingers and Petelgeuse. Though perched over the village on a cliff, they managed to catch him by surprise and hold him down, retrieving his conversation mirror for themselves. After his capture, Ricardo returned with Otto, and Subaru covered for the merchant, laughing at how he got himself caught.

The Battle Against Sloth

With all of his Fingers taken care of, Subaru went to confront Petelgeuse, knowing the location of his primary base. Upon meeting him, he posed as someone who wished to join the Witch Cult, tricking Petelgeuse into treating him as a future comrade and getting him to talk more about his plan. However, this did not last long, and Subaru revealed that he outsmarted Petelgeuse. In the madman's rage, he attempted to kill Subaru with his Unseen Hands, but because Subaru could see it, he easily dodged. Frustrated, Petelgeuse unleashed the entirety of his Unseen Hands, but to his shock, his Authority was not divided, so he had his full force behind him, making him realize that something had happened to all of his Fingers. Taunting him, Subaru got on Patrasche's back, and they rode off. Petelgeuse quickly set off after him, using his Unseen Hands to chase after Subaru. Other Witch Cultists chased after him as well, but thanks to assistance from Mimi and Tivey, they were taken care of.

Before long, Subaru arrived at his desired destination: the bottom of a cliff that he had once died at. Touching down, Petelgeuse questioned Subaru's plan for choosing this location, to which Subaru replied that he was bringing both his and Petelgeuse's worst match-up: Julius. Realizing the young man was a spirit user, Petelgeuse yelled at him in rage. Afterward, Julius cast Nect to share his senses with Subaru, allowing him to see the Unseen Hands through Subaru's eyes, much to Petelgeuse's frustration. Afterward, their battle ensued.

Julius, able to cut through the Unseen Hands, was able to hold his ground, and Subaru was forced to dodge while keeping his eyes on the entire area in front of him so that Julius could react. Though Julius did take several hits, the two were able to corner Petelgeuse, forcing him to cast Ul Dona and protect himself with an earthen shield. Fortunately, by chucking a fire magic stone, he managed to completely destroy the barrier, and Julius used the smokescreen created by it to rush and stab Petelgeuse. With his body dying, he attempted to escape to Subaru's body, which also fell under Subaru's plan. Holding him back and preventing him from taking full control, Subaru attempted to state his Authority's name, summoning the Witch the evil spirit wanted to see. However, when she noticed Petelgeuse in the shadow garden that was only meant for herself and Subaru, she angrily banished him. In anguish, Petelgeuse returned to his broken body, questioning why she forgot about him. After slamming one of his Unseen Hands into the cliff above, the debris came crashing down, burying his body.

Carriage Chase

After returning to the village after the battle, the group came across a problem. Fire magic stones were not among the contents of the carriages. Subaru immediately recognized the threat, remembering a massive explosion from his previous loop, and he realized that the stones were being used as a bomb on one of the carriage Emilia was riding. Thankfully, when Otto offered a deal to take Subaru with him to chase down the carriages while providing him with a meeting with Roswaal L. Mathers in order to sell his oil, Subaru immediately took him up on the offer. With Julius injured and in need of healing, Ferris was forced to keep him in place. With Julius leaving Ia with Subaru, he and Otto went on their own.

Realizing they wouldn't make it in time at the rate that they were going, Otto decided to cut through the forest, a shortcut that would completely ignore the highway. However, after crossing a bridge along this path, Otto could hear a disturbance in the forest wildlife around him, and Subaru went to take a look. Chasing them was Petelgeuse, his injured body wrapped in his Unseen Hands and giving him the appearance of a large black insect. Having realized that Subaru would be a threat to the entire Witch Cult, Petelgeuse made it his dying mission to kill Subaru. Attacking the carriage and chipping away at it, Subaru was fighting him off, tossing and shattering bottles of oil on him. Coming out onto the plains, Subaru had Ia burn the oil on Petelgeuse, setting him ablaze and making him drop his gospel. Though Petelgeuse hung tightly onto the carriage, Subaru taunted him by writing his name onto his gospel, and he threw his gospel out, causing Petelgeuse to reach for it and leave the earth dragons' Divine Protection of Wind Evasion. Barely hanging on, Subaru punched him in the face, knocking him backwards and getting him caught and run over by the carriage's wheels.

With Petelgeuse dead and his Witch Factor, at some point, latching onto Subaru, he made his way toward Emilia's carriage. The villagers were under attack by other Witch Cultists, but thanks to Wilhelm's and the subjugation force's efforts, they were being repelled, and Subaru managed to successfully make it to Emilia's carriage, surprising her. Forced to ignore her surprise, he began tearing through the floorboards, finding a bag of volatile fire magic stones ready to blow. Realizing it couldn't be stopped, he made his way out of the carriage, answering Emilia that the reason he came back was because he loved her. Taking off on Patrasche, the two made it to the White Whale's beheaded corpse, and he tossed the bag in before taking off to get out of the explosion's radius, narrowly avoiding being killed but still being blown away by the blast. Thanks to Emilia, he was found, and after a short conversation upon him waking up, the two returned to the Royal Capital with everyone else. However, on their return back, when he was speaking to Emilia and Petra about Rem and the decision the two made after the Subjugation of the White Whale, Subaru was stunned to hear Emilia ask, "Who is Rem?"

Aftermath

Upon returning to the Royal Capital, everyone bore witness to the aftermath of Greed and Gluttony's ambush, leaving Subaru and Ferris in particular devastated. By this point, the Iron Fang and Julius returned to Anastasia's side. Sometime later, as he was watching over Rem, Puck appeared, and he recognized it as the effects of the Authority of Gluttony. Entrusting Emilia's care to him for a while, Puck disappeared. Afterward, when Subaru left the room, Crusch appeared before him, her memories lost, and she brought him to a meeting between the Emilia and Crusch Camps. During the meeting, Ferris proposed severing the alliance, shocking Subaru and angering him. However, both Wilhelm and Crusch herself were against it, despite the dangers involved, and Ferris backed off.

With the meeting over and the alliance between the camps secured, Subaru and Wilhelm discussed the meeting and the attack. Wilhelm revealed that a wound given to him by his deceased wife had reopened, leading him to want to continue investigating the Witch Cult's activities. A short while later, Subaru was in Rem's room. Thinking that he might be able to go back and prevent the attack, Subaru stabbed himself in the throat, but he went back a mere few seconds, making the entire incident permanent. After Emilia entered the room, the two talked about Rem, and Subaru asked her to turn around so he could cry. The next day, Subaru decided to return to the Mathers Domain with Emilia, Otto, Rem, and the villagers. Having given his phone to Russell and taking Patrasche as his reward for the two successful subjugations, Crusch bid her goodbyes to Subaru and Emilia, wishing to stay friends, and everyone left.

At some point after this, having heard of her beloved's death, the Sin Archbishop of Wrath, Sirius Romanée-Conti, recovered his body and cremated it. Afterward, she began hunting down every member of the Witch Cult connected to Petelgeuse, and she slaughtered them, refusing to believe his death and hoping to find him amongst his subordinates.