[XFire]

Originally Posted by aohige

Arc 3 is very long, and a lot more happens in it than entire first and second arc combined.

Spoiler:

Before the loop:
25 chapters spent to set up the protagonist's downfall.
He betrays Emilia's trust by breaking the promise to stay put, makes a fool of himself in front of the entire royal court, and gets humiliated in battle by the Julius, their best knight.

This part also introduces all of the candidate for the next throne.
Five candidates are chosen by the Dragon, Emilia being one of them.
All five women play very important role in the story, and have their champion.
Subaru declares himself Emilia's knight, thereby making a mockery of the knights order.

The loop starts:
The loop starts after he Emilia departs him, everyone thinks of him as a worm, and he sinks in depression. The only person who didn't leave his side is Rem.

Subaru finds out that the village where Roswal's mansion is (where Emilia is staying) is in danger, and tries to travel back to the village, breaking yet another promise.
But here's where hell starts. Without going into detail, it's pretty much another 25 chapters of constant death, torture, and unspeakable horrors by the Witch Cult.

As both Subaru and Rem gets tortured and killed, Subaru at one point completely goes insane, and takes another few deaths to snap him out of it.
He witnesses death of all his loved ones, mutilated, the children he saved in arc 2 slaughtered in a heap of corpse, etc. It's just completely brutal and hellish.
Imagine reading the "Eclipse" from Berserk repeatedly.

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, including Julius. Julius is a handsome and capable knight of honor, a bit stuck up, but a good man in heart. (The two become good buds after this is all said and done)
Along with multitude of other important characters, the next 30 chapters is dedicated to hunting and kill the White Whale (a huge amount of story behind this creature too) and stopping the massacre by the Witch Cult.
After the Whale is killed by our heroes, a new loop starting point is set, that lasts until the Witch Cult is defeated and the Grand Bishop of Sloth is killed by Subaru.

So many revelations about this world, Subaru's curse, and the secrets of the Witches are revealed or hinted in this arc.

After many deaths and loops, Subaru & co finally brings an end to this bloody conflict, with the best possible outcome... or so it seemed.
Rem was the heroine of the entire 80+ chapter arc but, after all was said and done, it was revealed she was "eaten" by the Grand Bishop of Gluttony. Her physical body remains in a coma, but her existence is erased from the world. Meaning, no one but Subaru remembers her. Not even her beloved sister.
And this happened BEFORE the new "loop point" was established, making it impossible for Subaru to reset. He even committed suicide in attempt to reset this tragedy.

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.

She remains in coma even now, 200 chapters later in arc 5. But the Grand Bishop of Gluttony is one of the enemies in this arc, and Rem's spirit seems to be part of him, so we may finally see her restored. Crossing fingers.

Conclusion of chapter 3 is also the start of Subaru's path as a hero.
He sinks to the bottom in the first 25 chapters, which is painful to read as he makes a complete fool of himself and pathetic. It takes a long time to redeem from there, but it's worth it. Middle of Chapter 3 is really where the "Zero to Hero" story starts, with chapter 3-53 aptly titled "From Zero"

Grand Bishops of the Witch Cult are the main antagonists of this series, and every member (each with powers of the seven sins) are completely insane.
All insane in a different manner, but all equally hellish and frightening madness. The author is really good at writing creepy crazies, straight out of horror movies.

Whoa. Just...whoa.