Spoiler so far the more he dies the stronger the presence of the witch becomes, she just stops him from spilling the beans which he also uses to his advantage later on and with his courage paying off he get to know some things like: the witch is in love with him ..
Spoiler: Spoiler You read the WN? That stronger smell thing was only mentioned in the WN and touched upon in the anime when Rem says "That bad smell has gotten worse" That last part you put was interesting. Also, there's a theory I've heard that goes something like. Spoiler: Spoiler Emilia is actually Satella, but she doesn't realise it. So sort of a split personality thing. All the authorities this far have powers based on their sin. So Sloth has invisible hands so he doesn't have to move and so he can be more slothful. Although unconfirmed, Suburu has pride so he can never lose in a life or death situation (He has an infinite number of tries to win). Satella is also known as the witch of envy. So she should be envious and have an ability similar to that. The idea is that Satella was envious of how close other people were getting to Suburu (the witches) so she killed them all. More info here http://aminoapps.com/page/anime/8089494/re-zero-the-satella-and-subaru-theory
Spoiler: Spoiler Emilia is actually Satella, but she doesn't realise it. So sort of a split personality thing. All the authorities this far have powers based on their sin. So Sloth has invisible hands so he doesn't have to move and so he can be more slothful. Although unconfirmed, Suburu has pride so he can never lose in a life or death situation (He has an infinite number of tries to win). Satella is also known as the witch of envy. So she should be envious and have an ability similar to that. The idea is that Satella was envious of how close other people were getting to Suburu (the witches) so she killed them all. More info here http://aminoapps.com/page/anime/8089494/re-zero-the-satella-and-subaru-theory [/QUOTE] Spoiler don't agree with this theory: subaru seem to be the witch of envy's apostle. pride ? lol subaru cant have any after everything he has to do, in FACT since subaru cant be any stronger he can ONLY ENVY other's powers. every apostle has a cheat. my theory is : the witch of envy absorbed the other witches powers to fight the dragon, the dragon tricked the hero cuz hes not good and sealed the witch ( witches) and now they get an apostle with cheats) to free them from the seal. the dragon somehow uses the royal family to gain back his power cuz hes injured or sealed or something.. anyway as for emilia . i always thought she might be the witch or body for the witch of envy to take over.. meaning: when the witch of envy is freed she will take over emilia's body and maybe fuse with her mind .. since they both love subaru ..
It's this... Spoiler: Arc 2 Arc 2: Subaru wakes up in unknown room alone and decides to figure out where he is, when it turns out he's he's stuck in a endless, looping corridor. He eventually stumbled across a little girl who was apparently the one who healed him. She dislikes Subaru's attitude so she drains his mana (painfully) and he passes out, once again waking up in the same room but this time being watched by the twin maids Ram and Rem. He learns that Emilia had brought him to her sponsor's mansion in the country side in order to treat him. He greets the mansion's owner and Emilia's sponsor, Roswaal, the royal court magician who speaks in a silly way and wears heavy cosmetics resembling a jester's. Subaru learns that the item Emilia was after in the first arc was a symbol of proof that allowed her to be a candidate to be the next ruler of the country, since the previous royal family including relatives have all died off to a strange and incurable disease. Subaru, having no real plans having just come to this world, decides to work as a butler for Roswaal to stay with Emilia. Subaru begins learning how to read and write the new world's language under the tutelage of Ram, how to clean/be a butler (he's really bad it), general magic knowledge (he has an aptitude for dark magic, but can only use all his mana to more or less blind himself and a little of his surroundings. This is fairly useless since using all your mana means you pass out), getting bit by the village dog, playing with the village kids and doing morning exercises with them, getting to the know the mansion's residents, etc. He doesn't get too acquainted with Roswaal as he leaves early for business. But one day after going to sleep, he wakes up in his room again being watched by the twin maids, this being somewhat unusual but not enough for Subaru to mind, he talks to them normally. They're somewhat taken aback by his over-friendly demeanor as they don't recognize Subaru. Subaru realizes that he had died in his sleep somehow and that his loop ability had created a checkpoint to return to for some reason. Subaru, now paranoid that death is lurking around the corner, tries to figure out what happened and more or less repeats everything. On the same night that he died in the first loop, he starts feeling very cold and weak, and it quickly gets worse. Despite his condition, he's worried about Emilia and goes to see if she's suffering from the same thing, but is killed by someone before he can get there. Subaru begins to changing his actions a little. Like instead of working for Roswaal, he decides to leave the mansion to watch it from afar to see what the deal is. This time he hunted down and heavily injured by Rem who for some reason deemed him a threat without consulting Roswaal or Ram, and then finished off by Ram who caught up and pity-killed Subaru. Subaru at some point loses it because the only one he thinks he can trust is Emilia and decides to hole up in his room in a loop. Eventually something happens and Beatrice (the little girl who healed him and the cause of the looping corridor) convinced him to come out, and Rem is found dead from the same thing that was affecting Subaru in the first two loops. This causes Ram to completely lose it and start going after Subaru because she thinks he has something to do with it, but he is protected by Beatrice and he runs away. He gets hurt somehow, mauled by a wolf or something, and he wakes up after Beatrice has healed him. Beatrice, despite her cold and tsun-tsun attitude, really doesn't like it when people are hurt in front of her. Eventually Ram finds them, still not having given up. After some talking (if you want to use that word for it) Subaru decides that this loop is irredeemable and throws himself head-first off a cliff, killing himself for the first time. Before he does, he lets Ram know that he in the end he likes her and everyone at the mansion. Eventually he finds out that the reason Rem had attacked him was because each time he loops, Subaru reeks more and more of the same scent of the Witch of Envy. The Witch of Envy is a legendary evil witched, sealed by the 3 sages and the cause of discrimination toward Emilia. The witch apparently was a half-elf with silver-hair, just like Emilia, but was sealed 400 years ago by the founding dragon of the nation, the holy swordsman, and a sage. Rem and Ram were of the Oni tribe, and Rem distinctly remembers the witch of envy's smell being there the day everyone was killed, but all this means to Subaru is that getting Rem to trust him is near impossible. Ram apparently can't smell it because she lost her horn as an Oni, making her more or less a normal person. Rem considered Ram losing her horn to be her fault and due to this, is extremely obedient to Ram. At some point Subaru tries to tell Emilia that he can Return by Death, but when he does black arms appear and seemingly stop time, and cause him extreme pain. He literally can't tell anyone about it. He also later learns that by doing this, the Witch's scent grows stronger on him each time. Eventually, Subaru figures out the cause of the curse killing him and Rem was the dog that keeps biting him in the village (the curse activates when the monster dog gets hungry, which can take up to a few days) and that several of the kids from the village have gone missing. Subaru goes into the forest to find them, along with Rem who is there to serve as Subaru's executioner if he does anything funny and a drug to help restore his mana after he uses Shakma (the blinding spell that costs all his mana). They find all the kids but one and Subaru has Rem take them out, since being an Oni she has super strength and Subaru couldn't even if he wanted to. While she's evacuating the kids, Subaru finds the last kid and ends up fighting a wolf, abusing the drug medicine, and eventually getting mauled by several more wolves but is saved by Rem. He wakes up again after treatment for the nth time, but this time it hasn't looped; he's covered in scars all over from the severe mauling he got. He learns that he probably doesn't have long to live since the multiple curses from the dogs are too tangled to be removed and the curse will activate whenever they get hungry. Subaru is more concerned about Rem missing, though. Ram and Subaru quickly learn that Rem acted on her own again just like when she went to hunt Subaru in and earlier loop, so they head into the forest to get her since Ram has a clairvoyant ability and can find her. As they thought, Rem is hunting wolves to try to get rid the curse because she feels bad but there's simply too many and they don't know which ones actually cursed Subaru. Ram runs out of mana along the way and ends up getting carried by Subaru. Rem is in her Oni-mode, meaning she's not very sane but a lot stronger, which Ram deems they need to hit the horn to bring her out of it. Rem tries to kill Subaru in her madness, but refuses to hit Ram for some reason. Subaru uses this by tossing Ram at Rem (after having Ram promise she won't get angry at his plan) and hits Rem on the horn, causing her to collapse. Both Ram and Rem are exhausted, but Ram becomes able to move yet now Rem can't. On their way of escorting the twins out, wolves attack them and Subaru decides to play bait (by abusing the fact that he can't talk about Return by Death, although this is a very painful way of being bait) since the wolves are attracted to the Witch of Envy scent coming from Subaru. He abuses Shakma and the mana drug a lot more here and when eventually becomes unable to move. He gets saved by Roswaal returning, who then proceeds to clean up the rest of the forest of wolves while he was at it. Rem now really likes Subaru, but Subaru's constant abuse of his mana gate (the source of mana inside of everyone) caused it to fracture, which means his mana regeneration is now worse than ever, using Shakma any more will only cause this fracture to worsen, and having a fractured gate is eventually lethal. Extra Notes: 1) The little girl Subaru goes alone to save from the monster dog is actually the one controlling them, a monster tamer, and the cause behind the monster dogs' sudden appearance. And she was hired by Rosewaal to do this. 2) The dog just kinda bites you and then when it gets hungry it drains all your mana. That's why Subaru got fucked up every time he went to the village to get supplies. The time Rem dies for no reason in a loop is because seeing as Subaru is just locked up she HAS to go to the village and ends up getting bit instead.
Spoiler: Arc 3 Arc 3: For an extensive summary, see http://rezero.wikia.com/wiki/Natsuki_Subaru/Synopsis. Before the loop: This part introduces all of the candidates for the throne. The royal linage has been interrupted by deaths and those chosen by the dragon crest must compete to be the next King/Queen Five candidates are chosen by the Dragon, Emilia being one of them. All five women play very important role in the story, and each has their own champion. Because of Subaru's reckless behavior, Emilia tells him to stay put at the inn, and he promises he will. Emilia is a girl who holds promises very seriously because she' s a spirit/elemental contractor. Promises are very important to these existences and she considers them basically absolute. But he betrays Emilia's trust by breaking the promise by getting Apple Merchant and Rom's help sneaking into the palace. Subaru didn't really have a plan and he gets found by Priscilla immediately. He still gets a ticket into the meeting because Priscilla was bored and wanted some entertainment. Now he makes a fool of himself in front of the entire royal court. He declares himself as Emilia's knight because all the other candidates have one and Emilia doesn't. Of course no one takes him seriously and Emilia herself doesn't approve him to be. This eventually leads to Julius challenging him to a duel to quickly put Subaru in his place, granted some of the other knights don't really approve because Subaru is a complete amateur and Julius isn't, but Subaru accepts anyway. So Subaru spends his time getting his ass beat for a surprisingly long time because if there's one thing Subaru has, it's tenacity and he just keeps getting up despite being a bloodied mess who clearly shouldn't be up. Reinhart tries to stop the duel when he saw Subaru beat up, but Al got in his way, because he felt the fight should continue until Subaru stops. At this point the onlookers have basically all gone silent because it's just hard to watch at this point but Subaru is insistent on getting a hit on the smug fucker, so he uses his Shakma ability (Subaru's mana gate is still very unstable and damaged at this point in time and he isn't supposed to be doing magic things so this is a stupid move no matter how you look at it). In the end he never gets a hit in. This results in him getting the cold shoulder from Emilia and being left behind in the capital with Rem for treatment on his wounds and mana gate. The loop starts: He loses trust with everyone including Emilia, and they leave him in the capital. He sinks into depression, but the only person who didn't leave his side is Rem, who displayed her unyielding love by continually caring for him. He trains under Wilhelm, who is under Cruche's (one of the candidates) orders. He learns that the Roswall's mansion is in danger, and hurries out to get back to Emilia, breaking yet another promise. But the road back to the mansion is hazardous due to appearance of the White Whale of Gluttony. In his attempt to get back to the mansion he and Rem are captured by the Cult of the Witch, an evil cult who worship Satella the Witch of Envy, and schemes to bring the Witch back into the world. Here's where the hell starts - Subaru and Rem are killed in a variety of ways, and each loop is more taxing on Subaru than the last. In one of the loops Subaru finds his way back to the mansion alone, only to find the whole village piled in a mountain of corpses, Ram mutilated in front of them, Emilia dead in the mansion, and an enraged Puck going out of control, freezing the entire region and instantly killing Subaru. In another loop Subaru is driven insane from the torture he receives from Betelgeuse, who rips apart Rem in front of his eyes piece by piece. This insanity lasts a whole loop as Rem tries to carry Subaru who has turned into a drooling madman and make back to the mansion. At the end of this loop, the two are again captured and tortured, but this manages to snap Subaru back to sanity thanks to his anger. After many deaths and revelations Subaru starts to formulate plans to save everything. He works to redeem himself in the eyes of everyone who shunned him. He eventually wins the trust of several Queen candidates, and forms an alliance with Julius, the knight he lost duel to, Wilhelm, an elderly swordsman under Cruche, and beastmen mercenaries working for Anastasia (another candidate). The group heads out first to destroy the White Whale who is blocking the passage to the mansion (~30 chapters dedicated to this). Wilhelm has a beef with the said Whale, for losing his wife many years ago. The battle is very fierce and those who were eaten by the whale are ERASED from the world. History, memory of them, everything. No one, not even family, remembers them from ever existing. However, for some reason Subaru can remember them. But after several deaths and loops, the group finally downs the whale. Subaru's save point is moved (it seems killing the whale was an objective). Now Subaru heads the allies to face Betelgeuse and the Cult of the Witch. They lose several times, and everyone killed, but each time Subaru learns more about the Bishop and plans his tactics. The insane Bishop has the power to manifest invisible "Hands of God" that can kill anyone without them ever seeing them. After many bloody battles, Subaru and his allies is victorious and Betelgeuse is killed. It's the best possible outcome, or so it seemed. Subaru wins back the trust of Emilia, but learns a shocking truth... she doesn't remember who Rem is. He rushes to go see Rem, to find her comatose and no one remembering her. Rem and Cruche has been attacked by Bishop of Gluttony. Rem was eaten and "erased" from the world, whereas Cruche's own memory was lost (others remember her fine). Not even Ram, Rem's own sister, remembers who she is. Rem was the only person that stayed at his side with unwavering trust and devotion, so this devastates Subaru who had just managed to recover from so much averted tragedies. Moreover, after becoming romantically involved with Rem, Subaru despairs and commits suicide. But when he wakes up, he realizes the "save point" had moved forward after defeating Betelgeuse, the Bishop of Sloth, and since Rem was attacked before that time, it was now impossible to go back in time to save Rem. So many revelations about this world, Subaru's curse, and the secrets of the Witches are revealed or hinted in this arc. But in the end of it all, it still only results in sadness. Extra Notes: 1) At one point in arc 3, Subaru can't take the suffering anymore and decides to forget everything and run away with Rem. He soon changes his mind, but this alternate continuity is a "what if he didn't change his mind and did run away...?" They live happily ever after with two children. 2) Rem brings up how she loves Subaru and wants to be with him, and due to her amazing support during the ordeal, he seriously considers it but tells her he still prioritizes Emilia. Rem is alright with this and will do her best to convince to take them both, and of course Subaru will give it a shot but will abide by whatever Emilia decides on. So once the fight is over and everything's peachy, he brings it up to Emilia on their way to rendezvous with others including Rem. Except Emilia has no idea who this Rem girl is, and no one else does either, and he later finds her in a coma with no one else knowing who she even is either. The first time Subaru sees Rem in coma, he kills himself immediately. He resurrects pretty much right before that point, and this is when he realizes he cannot go back in time to save Rem anymore. 3) Due to Beatrice being in a different dimension at the time, her memories of Rem aren't taken away. However, once she stops staying in the library, she does forget Gluttony's newer victims.
Spoiler: Arc 4 Arc 4: Rosewaal basically forces Emilia to undergo a trial she has no way of overcoming without Subaru's help. Emilia constantly mentally breaks in this arc. There's also loads of other fun things. Like dealing with the mansion (Beatrice) getting attacked while they're away, a swarm of Gluttony rabbits (imagine a locust swarm, but of rabbits that are super deadly and can't be killed unless you kill them all at the same time) that need dealt with. Not to mention Rosewaal himself clearly being an enemy. Subaru gets to see a what-if segment of what might have happened (the person showing him these doesn't know if they're parallel worlds or really just the world calculating what would have happened) after he dies in certain loops. Like Emilia bawling over Subaru killing himself after finding out Rem was in a coma, screaming WHY WHY would you do this to me. Or Ram and Beatrice shocked that Subaru jumped off a cliff and killed himself. Pack getting killed by Reinhardt after killing Subaru. The one time where Sloth possesses Subaru and dies a very gruesome death while keeping Sloth trapped is a good what-if. Since it was basically Emilia's fault and she knew it and had a front row seat. Subaru realizes there's a possibility that those universe didn't cease to exist and takes this all very hard. More information: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5831196&postcount=268 Subaru's meeting with Satella: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5857672&postcount=616
Spoiler: Arc 5-6 Arc 5: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5844149&postcount=389 http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5844216&postcount=391 Arc 6 (incomplete): http://pastebin.com/zCy3WGLk Timeline before Subaru's arrival: 400+ years ago: 6 witches roamed the world. They were calamity manifested, although they had no ill intent. Ekidna, the Witch of Greed created the Sanctuary to shelter oppressed half-demihumans who had no where to go. She used the Sanctuary as a laboratory for various experiments including immortality. Ekidna creates Betty as her daughter spirit, and takes in Roswaal the First as her apprentice. 400 years ago: Satella became the 7th witch, and was driven mad. She killed all the other 6 witches and devasted the world. Sage, Dragon, and Sword Saint defeated her but was unable to perish her existence. They sealed her. The Dragon sheltered Ekidna's spirit in the Sanctuary, so she can continue to exist as a ghost. He did this to have a counter-measure in case Satella's seal is broken. Roswaal continues the research of immortality and devices magic to take over the body of his family line to exist forever, and vows to resurrect Ekidna. Betty becomes the guardian of the library, waiting for her mother's call to free her from her position. 100+ years ago: Emilia is born between a unnamed human and a elf. She is raised by her aunt. Emilia befriends Betelgeuse, who is a Witch Cult member but is kind and generous and harbors feelings towards Emilia's aunt. However, Witch of Vainglory and Bishop of Greed attacks the elven village to take Emilia. In the ensuing battle her aunt is killed, Betelgeuse is driven mad and Emilia's powers goes out of control and freezes the entire elven haven. 20~30 years ago: A great Demihuman war was fought between the human kingdoms and the demihuman kingdoms. Wilhelm the "Sword Demon" makes a name for himself, and is hailed as a war hero. He falls in love with a girl named Teresia who is later revealed to be the current "Sword Saint". He manages to defeat her in duel, and proposes. 10 years ago: Teresia loses her power as "Sword Saint" in middle of the battle with the White Whale of Gluttony, and dies. The power had transferred to the next generation of Sword Saint, Reinhardt, Wilhelm and Teresia's grandson. Wilhelm blames him for the death of his wife, and the two become distanced. 6 years ago: Emilia is released from her frozen seal and meets Puck. She contacts with Puck and vows to free her people from the icy seal. At an undetermined time later she joins the race for the Queen Candidacy. 4~6 years ago: The oni village where Rem and Ram lived is attacked by the Witch Cult. Everyone is slaughtered, and the twins are taken in by Roswaal.
Selected quotes from the Author's Q&A: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5860282&postcount=669 http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5863279&postcount=714 http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5867602&postcount=803
Spoiler: Satella Unorganized Spoilers Satella is in love with Subaru, probably since eternity ago, and reason is unknown. She pretty much went insane and nearly destroyed the world, and was sealed by combined efforts of Dragon, Hero, other witches, and the whole world. Her aspect somehow affects Subaru (and likely summoned him to the world) and any time Subaru tries to tell anyone about his ability to loop, the aspect of the witch will hurt him and kill whoever he tells it to. She's basically the reason for every goddamn mess and despair in that world. The Cult of the Witch worships Satella and is basically the world's satanists. The seal is guarded by the Sage's Tower that kills literally anything that gets too close. When Subaru starts getting close to it accident via underground tunnels, he and the two other people with him can't handle the miasma she releases. They go insane and start killing each other. Emilia also immediately died when they first saw the tower and Beatrice is the only one who could avoid dying. Once they get inside, the sage isn't even there and the caretaker is a complete dumbass that has no idea about anything ever. Not to mention they're forced to solve puzzles. PUZZLES! Satella has taken over Emilia's body once (part of her went through Emilia). The seal isn't as effective as people think. When that happened, the world immediately became fucked up and ended.
Spoiler: On Witches Satella, Witch of Envy - Satella was not a vassal fit for the Witch Factor, and forcing herself to become a Witch caused her multiple personality disorder. As the evil Witch of Envy she killed and absorbed all the other six witches of Greater Sin and destroyed half the world. The combined effort of Dragon, Sword Saint, and the Sage could not kill her existence, and merely managed to seal her in the Grand Falls. Her appearance is identical to that of Emilia. Ekidna calls Emilia the Daughter of the Witch. Ekidna, Witch of Greed - Obsessed with knowledge, she sought to learn more even after death. After her death, her spirit was sealed by the Dragon as a countermeasure to if and when Envy awakens again. Ekidna created a virtual spirit world housed by herself and artificially recreated personalities of the other witches to hang out. She invites Subaru to this lair of witches and gives him advice on his powers. She has since become free to roam the world in a cloned body of her best friend, thanks to Subaru's actions in arc 4. She is cunning and manipulative, and the mother of Beatrice. She is worshiped by Roswaal as well. Minerva, Witch of Wrath - Minerva has the power to "punch" people and heal them. Her powerful punches however destroys the world at the same time. Anytime she punches people back to health, catastrophe happens elsewhere in the world. Which causes more people to become injured, and she rushes there to punch them. This infinite cycle of destruction and healing caused more harm than good, but that never stopped her from continuing. Busty and sexy late teen with a long blond hair, Minerva is a simple and honest minded girl who speaks her thoughts out straight forwardly. Sekhmet, Witch of Sloth - Pretty much embodiment of sloth, she is too lazy to do anything, even breathing is a bother to her. She chased away the Dragon to beyond the Great Fall just so she can have peace in her laziness. She talks like an old crone despite looking in her late 20s. Daphine, Witch of Gluttony - Always hungry, prefers quantity over quality. However she also suffers from eating disorders and often pukes out the food she ate. In order to end hunger in the world she created monsters such as White Whale and White Rabbits, although they ended up being just as much of a threat. Loli. Typhon, Witch of Pride - Innocent and unforgiving loli. She punishes evil doers without mercy, and was feared for her extreme prejudice to evil. Camille, Witch of Lust - A very average looking girl with no exceptional beauty, but her power as Lust captivates anyone who gazes upon her. Her power to be loved was so strong, most who gazed upon her cannot focus on anything else, and everything becomes meaningless to them. Even breathing or beating their hearts. They end up dying with happiness engraved on their face. Pandora, Witch of Vainglory - Mysterious woman clad only in a single sheet of white cloth, she seems to be leading the Cult of the Witch. She has the power to "rewrite" reality of any immediate events, making her seem invincible. Definitely evil, as she brings doom and misery in her arrogance. She is likely still alive to this day and pulling strings. Hector, Witch of Acedia - A male witch. Said to be as powerful or more than Ekidna, and controls power of gravity. For some mysterious reason his existence is not told in history. No one on Subaru's side ever finds out about his ability. However, Ekidna figures out his powers when she invited him into her dream world. She opened up the possibly of bad ends continuing on after Subaru's death. The witches in her world are the only ones Subaru can reveal his restart powers to since Satella's influence cannot infiltrate the place. From what Ekidna says it seems there's two sides to Satella. It seems her nature as Witch of a Great Sin basically caused her to turn into the horrible incarnation of Envy. The other witches loved Satella, but hated the "Witch of Envy". The aspect of Satella pays him visit regularly, usually when she's about to do something horrible to him. Any act of trying to convey his ability, even to himself, results in yandere alone time with her. There was one time he forces himself to tell Emilia even through the pain - the witch just brutally slaughters Emilia instead. And when he finds a loophole in a second time that allows him to freely talk about it, it gets way worse. Moreover, every time Subaru makes a horrible (but necessary) decision her "scent" gets stronger. He's been consuming ability of the Cult leaders, and his bond to the Witch is getting stronger. He realizes that can't be a good thing, but he keeps choosing to do so to save his friends.
Spoiler: On the Cult of the Witch The Cult of the Witch priests take up the Great Sins, though they're basically just artificial personas of the witches in life. They worship Satella, but despise the other witches. Their goal is to use Emilia as the Witch's vessel. Betelgeuse Romanée-Conti, Bishop of Sloth - A spirit demon that lives since the era of the Witches. He used to be a reasonable moderate and father figure to Emilia, but was driven insane by Pandora. Despite being the Bishop of Sloth, he actually hates laziness and constantly accuses others of being lazy and works his ass off for his zealous cause. As a spirit demon he takes over bodies to live on, and as a Bishop of Sloth he has the power to manifest the "Invisible Hands". These hands have an extremely far reach, strong enough to rip through trees with ease, and can pass through anything the user doesn't wish to be touched. Not only is he capable of summoning a hundred of these, but he can also release a wave of miasma that renders people immobile. An incredibly powerful being, he managed to kill all of Subaru's allies in arc 3 several times. In the end, he was killed by Subaru and had his Bishop powers absorbed. Rai Baten Kaitos, Bishop of Gluttony Roy Alphard, Bishop of Gluttony Rui Arneb, Bishop of Gluttony - There are at least three bishops of Gluttony, with each representing different obsession involving consumption. The power of Gluttony has two steps: by eating the victim's "name" they can erase their existence from the rest of the world, and no one will remember who you are; by eating the victim's "memory" the victim loses memory of who they are. If both "name" and "memory" are eaten, the victim also goes into a coma. In act 3 Cruche has had her memory eaten, and in act 5 Julius had his name eaten. Rem had both her name and memory eaten and now is a comatose with no one remembering who she is. Regulus Cornius, Bishop of Greed - Obnoxious, whiny, and arrogant, Regulus never shuts up. He constantly justifies his own action and complains about everyone else's. He is easily enraged and throws tantrums if anything or anyone doesn't act the way he wants them to. Regulus also forces women he finds to his liking to become his wife, and has dozens at any time. He has two powers as the Bishop of Greed, which compliments each other: "Time stop" and "the Small King". He can stop time of his own body or anything he touches, making it invincible. However using time stop also stops his own heart, so this ability is unusable by itself. "The small King" allows him to superimpose his own heart on someone else's, allowing him to have a beating heart even while his own is stopped. You'd have to kill that other person, or remove Regulus' heart from him/her first to inflict any damage. "Time stop" was also his primary method of attack - he would use his foot like a shovel and kick dirt or mud or whatever at people, and due to the object's time being stopped, it would become basically an unblockable attack and would cut through things like butter. When Subaru and co. fought against Greed, Emilia first removed the fake hearts from his wives' bodies by putting their bodies in cryostasis with ice magic. After the heart moved to Emilia. Subaru's "invisible hand" ability becomes useful for the first time as it's used to remove the fake heart from her body. Regulus was killed by Subaru and Reinhart in act 5, and had his Bishop ability absorbed. Sirius Romanée-Conti, Bishop of Wrath - Self-claimed wife of Betelgeuse. Like her husband, she is completely insane. She controls flames and fights using chains wrapped around her. Her fighting ability is very strong, enough to fight against Reinhart for a short while. Her ability as Bishop of Wrath is to impose her own emotions to others in a large radius, turning them into her puppets. Even worse, any damage she receives becomes imposed on everyone she controls, thus hurting her results in mass death of civilians around her. Capella Emerada Rugunika, Bishop of Lust - Possibly the biggest piece of shit in the cult. Most bishops while insane, follow some type of belief. But Capella seems to be sane, just completely vile and evil. She wants the whole world to love her and only her. She enjoys shitting on people's pride and values by toying with them. Her power as a Bishop is shapeshifting, both herself and others. Capella turned all her hostages into giant flies. She either takes a form that's attractive to her victim, or a form that's powerful such as a Black Dragon. Capella's true form is unknown, but she seems to be at least part dragon. Her dark dragon blood invaded Subaru's body, causing his body parts to turn pitch black. They are apparently toxic to most, as Cruche suffered massive pain by being inflicted by it. Subaru managed to kill the Bishops of Sloth and Greed, and was forced to absorb their disgusting Sloth and Greed essences. No, they don't really help all that much. He gets them because he's a compatible vessel and the essence holder dies near him. For example, he kills Sloth via road kill and gets the essence that way. However, Reinhardt is the one who kills Greed, but Subaru gets it anyway because he was simply close by and Reinhardt can't be a vessel for it. Several people want him to gather all the essences and become a sage, whatever that means. Beatrice is against it, though Subaru himself doesn't know about any sage bullshit. By Arc 6, Sloth and Greed are dead. Wrath is captured by Priscilla. The Bishop of Pride position is still looking for employment. Lust and Gluttony are fine. The Witch of Vainglory that no one knows exists, who more or less commands these crazy fuckers, is still alive. And Envy is of course still sealed away. The powers Subaru receives have limited functionality. First he only had the dark mist spell as his only skill, and he overused it until he lost the "inner gate" needed to do magic. The mist saved his ass a few times, but it's broken and gone now. By killing Betelgeuse, Subaru gained that Sloth's power. Unfortunately he can only manifest like one invisible hand and land a single hit at a time. He also can't release a wave of sloth like the Bishop could. He got drenched in dark dragon blood which burned and poisoned Cruche. The only useful thing he got out of it is transferring that blood from her to himself in order to save her. He then gained Bishop of Greed's power, which is to become immune to any harm while he stops his heart. Obviously Subaru can't make any use of this ability yet. His only consistently useful ability is him becoming master to Betty, but due to his limited power she can't really use hers to the fullest either. On top of being not-so-useful, many of these powers are tainted with evilness of the Witch. Rem has her memories and existences eaten by Gluttony, leaving her body in an unaging super comatose state. No one remembers her except Subaru and Beatrice. Good news is she doesn't need to eat or pee like this, so she's easy to take care of. 430 chapters in, Rem STILL hasn't woken up from the coma, or have anyone else remember her. Subaru has been fighting to get her back for the past three arcs. Due to Ram forgetting about Rem, she goes full in love with Roswaald who she should in all rights hate the everliving fuck out of. He's literally the source of all her problems in life and and considers her little sister, literally the most important thing to her, as expendable.
Spoiler: On Roswaald He's been stealing the bodies of his (sometimes he gets to she a she too) descendants for centuries. He's been gathering demihumans and basically trapping them an area he calls the Sanctuary. He's trying to revive the Witch of Greed from death. He's the cause behind Ram and Rem's tribe being eradicated, as well as Ram losing her horn. The only reason he's helping Emilia is because he's after Subaru's ability to help him revive his Greed waifu. And he's been manipulating people and using them as powerful political connections. The book he's been dependent on to read into the future (and how he learned of Subaru's ability before meeting Subaru) gets burned and he's forced to think on his own for once in a long time. Rosewaal is the one who hired Elza to fuck with Subaru and Emilia, and the only reason he's helping Emilia to begin with is because he wanted to recruit Subaru. He gets beat up by literally everyone at the sanctuary. And he starts to actually support Emilia for real when before he was just her sponsor (lol) position. But he still hasn't given up on reviving his waifu and plans to attack Subaru if anything other than Subaru's ideal situation occurs. By this he means Subaru didn't allow anyone to die during the fourth arc and went for a perfect ending. So if anyone close to him dies permanently (as in saves after their death), Rosewaal will become an enemy again since he thinks Subaru has more control over his ability than he does, AKA if someone dies that means Subaru's being lazy to him and he won't accept that.
Spoiler: On special books The original artifact is called the "Book of Wisdom" created by Ekidna, Witch of Greed. The book accesses the World Memory and reveals truth, but it's so powerful that most mortals would fry their brains if they try to read it. Two less powerful copies of this book exists as white "Book of Gospel", created by Ekidna and each belongs to Roswaal and Beatrice. Then there's "WItch's Gospel", black books that are poor copies of the original two Gospels, and somewhat reveals events that leads to the future the owner desires. But it reveals in such cryptic ways, it's nearly un-decipherable. It's practically useless to anyone but the complete insane, and the Bishops of the Cult of the Witch happens to be all insane. Only the owners can read the book, if anyone else reads it they can't remember what they read. It's basically the only thing the Bishops listen to. They don't even question it either, they just do it. Elza is a vampire who's more than a few screws loose. She doesn't drink blood, instead she loves the warmth of fresh intestines. She can regenerate rapidly, but has a limit on how many "lives" she stocks. Sort of like how Alucard in Hellsing works. If you kill her enough times her personality will be destroyed, and turns her into some vile creepy wraith-like shadow creature with no reasoning. She returns and kills everyone in the mansion. Upon the next try Subaru brings reinforcements including Garfiel, who goes toe to toe with her. They find out she's a vampire and can regenerate fast. They had to kill her at least 5 times, but even after that she crawled around as a shadowy wraith like creature, devoid of any consciousness and only desire to kill and feed. They trap her in the mansion as they burn down the place, finally killing her for good. Reinhart is one of the strongest characters in this world. He was born with superhuman talent with a sword and a shit-ton of blessings. His divine gift is to gain "whatever ability he needs to win" at any given time. His one drawback is that he can't use his treasured sword unless his opponent is sufficiently skilled and powerful enough (for example, he couldn't use his sword against the three stooges, Elza, or the Bishop of Greed). He has the following INCOMPLETE list of blessings: Sword Saint: Swordsmanship maxes out, and become able to draw Raid, the Dragon Sword. Arrow avoidance: he cannot be hit by projectiles. (this is why sword that Elsa threw went around him on its own) Arrow guarantee: any projectile he uses is guaranteed to hit the target Magic resistance: No curses, debuffs, or buffs can affect him Fire avoidance: 80% reduction from fire damage Wind absorption: 80% of wind magic is absorbed Earth resistance: Earth magic have 80% reduced effect on him Water reflection: 80% water magic is reflected Darkness immunity: 80% of darkness magic is nullified Light sharing: 80% light magic is shared to another target Swiftness: He can move at superhuman speed. This affects mounts as well Riding mastery: He can ride any animals Initiative: He cannot be ambushed, and all initial attacks from Reinhardt connects First attack immunity: The first time an attack is performed at Reinhardt, it always misses. Preceeding attack immunity: The second attack and all following attacks misses him Rain blessing: He gains power in rain Sun blessing: He gains power in sunny weather Night's blessing: He gains power during night Morning blessing: he gains power during morning Mind reading: Vague understanding of what's on other people's mind Item mastery: able to know how to use any item he holds Unarmed mastery: Very strong even without any weapons Blessing of War god: able to use any weapons masterfully Blessing of Lake: Can walk on water Blessing of Mist: Mist do not hinder his view Blessing of Cloud: can walk on cloud Blessing of lightning: Lightning will never strike him Sodium knowledge: He will never get salt and sugar mixed up Taste king: No matter how he cook, the food will come out delicious Blessing of Frying, Steaming, Boiling: Complete mastery of all the cooking methods Clothes designing: Can design fabulous clothes that will surely start a fad Master Teacher: His students become successful in learning Training mastery: Can train not only his body, but also other people, to their maximum potential Poison immunity: Immune to all poison Illness immunity: Immune to all sickness and disease Power bleeding: Bleeding actually makes him stronger Blessing of the Phoenix: Upon death, he is granted a "continue?" once The three stooges are antagonists in arc 3, but the Felt recruits them as her underlings. They fight alongside everyone else against the Cult in arc 5. Everyone has to ally up in arc 5 since FOUR fucking Bishops terrorize an entire city. Even Reinhard can't be in four places at once, so nearly every character that showed up in Zero so far has to ally up. There are five groups among the Queen candidates. Emilia's group - Subaru, Emilia, Puck, Ram, Rem, Betty, Roswaal, Frederica, Otto, Garfiel Felt's group - Felt, Reinhard, Old man Rom, Ton, Chin, Kan (the three alleyway stooges) Cruche's group - Cruche, Felix, Wilhelm, soldiers Anastasia's group - Anastasia, Ekidona-scarf, Julius, Joshua, Ricardo, Mimi, Hetaro, Tibby, mercenaries Priscila's group - Priscila, Al, Shult The races are: Subaru - human Emilia - half elf Rem & Ram - Oni Garfeel - Tigerman Frederica - same as above Otto - human Roswaal - Immortal spirit body snatcher Betty - Spirit of the Library Subaru, Otto, and Petra are the only humans in their team. Elves are pretty rare, and Emilia's clan of elves are in the mountain frozen in ice from her own spell gone out of control.
thanks a lot for the spoilers that sure cleared things up.. mm this shit is complicated and messed up huh
Goddamit Reinhard is too bugged is he still human? For the love of god there are too many cheat over there. Is he some kind of male witch? If the author makes that kind of plot twists I wouldn't be surprise