Re:Zero, From ZERO back to TEN.

Merchants and Terrible Luck.

"Okay.. uh.." Ben gulped. "I guess I should welcome everyone to the official Defeat The Arch Bishop of Sin Pride meeting, and er.."

Ben gulped, he wasn't all too into public speaking, even when he was a celebrity back in the past Earth, he never really had it down unless he was just showing off to a bunch of kid fans. 

Rem, who was back in her Maid's outfit, put a hand on Ben's hand, smiling encouragingly. 

Ben took a deep breath, looking at everyone else who was seated around the dirty coffee table inside the ruined Tenement House. 

"Okay, well down to business, due to the sudden actions by the Witch's Cult here in Banan town, where many innocents were nearly turned into a bunch of memory and existence jelly, we've all agreed that we cannot afford to wait any longer, we need to go back Lugnica and stop Eltanin Draconis, Arch Bishop of Pride."

"I would've preferred to wait until Ben-san is more able to control and steady his emotions and trauma, but even an eternal playboy like me can't deny the situation." said Halibel, stroking his chin. "Hmmm."

"Indeed." Crusch said. "The fact that the Witch's Cult pulled off something like this in this small town tells us that leaving Eltanin to his own devices for even a single moment more is close to suicidal for the country of Lugnica."

"Well lets examine what we know." Ben stated, reinvigorated by the words of Crusch and Halibel. "The Witch's Cult was here doing something. We know that Elsa and Meili are implied to be part of the cult, so their actions can be summarized as on the cult's orders. And while Petelguese wasn't directly involved, he was still here, which means he must've been here looking after Elsa and Meili for some reason."

"Backup is likely." said Wilhelm. "He knew precisely where we were headed and waited in ambush for us there. If it weren't for the DNAliens, we probably would've been overwhelmed by sheer numbers."

"Nya.. I don't know, maybe Humungousaur could've gotten us out of that." said Felix with a wink and shrug. "But overall I guess the DNAliens waking up was a better choice. After all we found Looma-chan nya!"

"So, we know thanks to Beatrice that the bowl was intended to make a powerful barrier using people's memories and souls as a power source." said Ben. "A long lasting one, and after further investigation of cult activities in the town by Crusch we know a bit more."

"It was a huge experiment, led by the Arch Bishop of Vainglory." said Crusch. "He goes by the name A, or at least that is his alias, everything about him is  practically unknown except that he did introduce himself as an Arch Bishop to one of the maids in the manor.  They intended for this place to function as a laboratory to conduct experiments on new kinds of magic. Apparently Vainglory is a bit of a mad professor."

"And also thanks to several witnesses who had their existences brought back, we know that Vainglory erased some of them only because they witnessed vital clues, namely other basins being made in strange workshops throughout Kararagi, before being shipped off in Merchant carriages to Lugnica." said Wilhelm. "In other words-."

"They're attempting to do the same thing in a number of locations in Lugnica." finished Ben. "And we know some of the locations already. One of them is Roswaal manor and the village it sits next to, the manifest whose records we found in Elsa's hideout proves that much. Another is Rukrid town, a village near Vertilot Manor, and the last one is a more remote town southeast of the landmark called the Flugel Tree."

Each of those locations were managed only by Vainglory, Sloth, and Pride, meaning without Sloth in the picture, we'll only have to deal with Eltanin and this mysterious A." said Crusch. "I don't like not knowing about A or his authority, it feels like we're definitely heading into a trap."