Are you a Re: Zero fan and have found yourself wondering about the fate of Echidna? Perhaps you are confused as to whether she is dead or not?
Maybe you want to know more about how she died and aren’t sure where to look? Whatever your reason might be, we have the answer for you!
We know that the Re: Zero world can be a little confusing. With many different plots, spells, and characters, it is easy to get overwhelmed and confused. You can find yourself wondering about characters and their fate.
And in a world of spells and the quest for immortality, we find ourselves wondering about the fate of our favorite characters, especially Echidna.
Fans previously thought she was a victim of the Great Calamity that happened some 400 years ago, putting Satella at the cause of her death. But was this true?
Given Echidna’s fixation on immortality, we find ourselves wondering if she is dead? Did she manage to achieve a form of immortality and is her soul safe?
These questions can plague our heads and keep us awake at night as we desperately search for more information. But it can be hard to find the answers and many of us fans don’t know where to turn.
Well, no more! Today we are here to give you the answers that you need. Keep reading to find out if Echidna is dead or not, how she died, and everything else that you need to know. Get your questions finally answered today!
Let’s dive straight in and get you the answers that you need. Now, this is a little tricky to answer, as yes, Echidna did die, but not in the way that you might think.
Physically, her body is lying peacefully in a tomb, for all intents and purposes, dead. But her soul survived, and she has managed to survive for 400 years in the dream place.
When she meets Subaru in the sanctuary, the physical body is long gone. But her soul seems intact. She has retained her personality, knowledge, and memories of the Witch of Greed.
The soul even seems aware of what is happening in the present to an extent.
But why is her soul there?
To learn more about this, we need to consider the conversation between Echidna and Subaru in the first tea party in the Web Novels. It is in this conversation that Echidna explains that her physical body is gone and she is a ghost. The ghost continued to exist as a counterforce to the Witch of Envy.
Now, the Witch of Envy might be sealed in a distant land, but that seal is not unbreakable. And as we know, it doesn’t take much for a seal to break. And every change in nature that occurs could chip the sealing stone, making it weaker and offering the chance for her to escape.
The heroes and dragons that previously sealed her away might not be able to survive her for long if she did escape, and there would need to be someone that could oppose her. This person is Echidna and that is why her soul remains.
This conversation was left out of the light novels and anime. Now, there could be a few reasons for this.
The author of Re: Zero, Tappei Nagatsuki, might have decided to change the storyline or decided that this information was being revealed too early in the story.
We can’t know for certain, but think that the latter is the likely reason why. It’s unlikely that he would want to reveal this information so early in the story. After all, if he did, what else would we speculate about?
So now that we have cleared up that Echidna’s soul is alive and well, let’s look a little closer at the immortality experiments and what this means for her. The immortality experiments were conducted to see if Echidna could become immortal by passing down her soul with its knowledge and memories. And as we know, she gets very close to success.
After Echidna’s death, Roswaal perfects this soul transcription! With that in mind, if Echidna’s soul could find a suitable vessel, then she could be resurrected. And it wouldn’t be the first time we see this, as something similar happens in volume 15 of the light novel.
What Does The Light Novel Say?
Spoiler alert!
Before we go any further, this section contains a scene from a light novel that has not yet been turned into anime. Reading the following passage could be a spoiler for you, so feel free to look away or skip this section! Or, if you want to know more, then read on, but be warned, spoilers are coming!
Now, those anime-only fans might have noticed that Ryuzu Shima speaks or thinks in a different voice in her conversation with Emilia and other copies in episode 23. What we see here is some subtle foreshadowing by White Fox about what is to come.
In the light novels, Echidna is revived by Ryuzu Meyer by transferring her soul into the copy. These Ryuzu copies were created as puppets for Echidna’s experiments, serving their purpose in a way.
So what is the bottom line? Well, in the Re: Zero world, Echidna is not dead. She has been resurrected in the body of Ryuzu Meyer and calls herself Omega. Now the revival is a tricky concept, and one that we won’t go into too much detail about here (or we would be here all day!).
How Did Echidna Die? Who Killed Her?
If Echidna lost her physical body then that means at some point, she was killed. Based on the timeline, we can assume this was almost 400 years ago. So who did it?
At present, what happened in the Sanctuary after Hector arrived is a mystery. All we know is that Echidna survived the encounter as she continued to make copies of Ryuzu Meyer and performed immortality experiments after Ryuzu became the core of the sanctuary.
It is sometime after this that Echidna dies. And as her body in the tomb is her during her late twenties, we can rule out old age as the cause of her death. Another potential cause of her death could be an illness.
There is no mention of this in the light novels, web novels, or anime, but that doesn’t mean we should rule it out.
It would be difficult to prove an illness unless Echidna herself confirms this or any characters that were around at the time of her death. As there is still a lot of speculation around this time, it would be hard to find a character that can confirm anything.
Instead, we can consider murder as the cause of her death. There are a few characters that could be responsible for this, so let’s take a closer look at them and see if we can establish who could have caused Echidna’s death.
The likely candidate for murder would be the Witch of Envy. As we mentioned earlier, although previously thinking her murderer was Satella, she was probably not the one responsible for her killing.
To understand this, we need to return to the web novels for some more information. The dragon Volcanica is responsible for binding Echidna’s soul to the dream place. She seals her grave to act as a counterforce to the Witch of Envy if needed.
This implies that the Witch of Envy is already sealed when Echidna dies, ruling her out as the suspect. This is referenced in the Web Novels, during a conversation between Echidna and Subaru.
However, this conversation was later removed from the Light Novels, so it’s best to take this with a pinch of salt.
It is possible that the story has changed and we will find out more information later. The removal of this could be to avoid us from learning too much too soon, or there could have been a change to the plot.
It has likely been removed and fitted into the plot later on, but without any confirmation, we cannot be 100% sure.
Instead, we must keep our minds open and consider what else could be responsible for the demise of Enchidna’s physical body.
It’s also worth noting that the events in the Sanctuary, after Hector’s arrival, happen before Satella swallows the world. So there is a chance that Satella swallows Echidna too. But without any proof, it is hard for us to use this as an explanation.
Another candidate to explore is the Divine Dragon Volcanica. After all, the dragon was responsible for sealing her soul, so she could be responsible for killing Echidna.
There is also the discrepancy of Echidna looking different in the grave and the tea party, which complicates the issue.
The situation surrounding Echidna’s death is a complicated one and unfortunately, not one that we currently have the answer to. That does not mean to say that we won’t find out the answer, but for those wanting to know now, we are instead left with speculation.
There are plenty of hints and subtle suggestions throughout the web novels, light novels, and anime that hopefully will make more sense once we know more about Echidna’s death, but for now, we are still none the wiser.
What we can say is that she was not killed by Satella. The cause of her death around 400 years ago is currently unknown, but who knows what the future holds.
Now that she has been resurrected with her memories intact we might uncover more and find out the truth about her death and what happened in the Sanctuary.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it! Echidna’s physical body might be dead, but her soul lives on! She has existed in the dream place for 400 years and since been resurrected with her memories and knowledge intact.
While the cause of her death is still unknown, it is likely that more will be revealed about it as the novels and anime progresses. Who knows, we might get to meet the Witch of Envy and hear more about the past of Echidna!
