(Rem x Reader) Re:Reader - Starting YOUR New Life in Another World

Chapter 172: Collapsing Star

A/N: Welp, here's the final chapter of this ACT's releases.

I want to start off by saying I'm incredibly grateful for all the amazing comments on last week's chapter. Truly, all my hopes for it were realized in every single one of your comments.

I'm also incredibly grateful to my three pre-readers as well. They've been incredibly consistent in finding my blunders and giving me feedback. The editing process for the chapters this go-around had absolutely kicked my ass, so sometimes they were getting 20k+ word chapters a mere 2 days before release and going through them.

Like I began this A/N though, I must confess that this will be the last chapter for a long while until I get arc 6 (ACT VI) written. I have to regretfully say, because of how badly the editing took up all my time, I've not written nearly as much of it as I might have wanted to have done right now (I would not even say I'm in arc 6 yet, but merely only in arc 5.5).

Personally (and in contrast to most of the community), arc 6 wasn't an arc that left a big impression on me in terms of the whole narrative. At least for me, I got caught up with the WN of Re:Zero when Arc 6 sat on hiatus for nearly 2 years, and so much of its ending was in limbo. That being said though, I have TONS of ideas of what I want this chapter's version of it to be, so I am hopeful I will make it at least interesting for myself to write. It'll take a bit of a departure from how I normally write (think POVs, storytelling devices, etc).

As for what I have planned next though, my time will probably be spent between writing arc 6, and working on the REDUX again. With the Yunyun fic though, I still want to continue that, but it may (if I get the motivation) write it a bit here and there on the hiatus of this fic.

All of that being said, this chapter sets up a lot of the grander ideas I want to explore in later arcs (7/8, and 9). This chapter features again, more artwork (3 in total). The first is by onisereru (@ - Onisemain on twitter), and the last 2 are once again by @ - MagzanZaksylyk on twitter.

Like always though, I swear I will return with the fic at a later date. Until then, please stay well.

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Chapter 172: Collapsing Star

From rooftop to rooftop, the small spirit leapt onward with a vicious sense of duty and determination. Her Contractor, having given every ounce of his energy and power to defeat the incredibly dangerous foe they faced, had earned a lengthy rest. In truth, the rest he was receiving now wasn't entirely by choice. Sapped of so much strength, he had passed out and could not be awakened.

At first, this caused panic among his allies, who had just witnessed the fruits of his year of training. It was understandable that he would collapse after expending such immense power in such a dramatic way, —yet it was the fact that he would not reawaken that truly unsettled them. Subaru had been the first to try and shake him awake beneath the newly risen full moon, insisting that the fight for the city was far from over. Emilia, meanwhile, had become convinced that he had utterly ruined his Gate, —that the prolonged use of such a powerful spell had completely exhausted his Od, leaving him unable to wake. Reinhard might have offered his own speculation, but instead he expressed a desire to assist elsewhere in the city, citing an ongoing "disturbance" that required his attention.

Although she had been the first to reach her Contractor's side when he fell, his half-conscious mumblings of the beloved he still longed for assured her that he was neither in pain nor distress. In truth, among all present, she was the most informed about his current condition, —even without voicing it, and somehow, the other two spirit-arts users beside her had yet to realize as much.