Apocrypha - Book 2: War

by LoneTaker

After weathering the storm of Demons, the world lulls back to a normal calm. But with every calm, a new storm brews as ghosts of the past and new threats alike all ready themselves for the second wave. If the world desires peace, then they must be ready for war.

36. Saga 36: The Anthem Part Finale

Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

---

Saga 36: The Anthem Part Finale

---

Quatre Refugee-State, Noble Realm, Clover Kingdom, Noon

---

"Hey, is it just me, or did the music just stop?" Sol pointed out as she and Cole ran adjacent to each other.

"Not gonna look at the gift horse in the mouth, that's for sure!" Cole remarked as he and his partner began running free from the constraints of the [Law of Slander]. "... Oh fuck, it feels so good to move however we want-!"

Then the building behind them was then bulldozed through by a t-rex Chaos, who was also now free from the same restrictions as their allotted prey.

"... AND SO CAN THEY! RUN!" screamed Cole as he and Sol ran for their lives from the Chaos running rampant.

As the pair ran, the two heard the various cacophony of screams and wreckage echoing throughout the whole capital city now that the movement restrictions were off.

"No time to think about it," Cole briskly hissed as the two ran down the alleyway littered with the corpses of the civilians that fell during the restriction, almost all of them clutching where their hearts were and their death masks frozen in anguish. "... Joining them is not an escape."

The fact that Sol and Cole were now getting used to running through corpses disturbed them then the act itself. But the sounds of a literal t-rex monster chasing them dispelled their fears of violating common ethics in favor of survival.

"WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?!" Sol pointed out as the t-rex ground both sides of its bodily frame through the buildings it was scraping its sides against.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Cole replied as the two ducked under the falling cascade of rubble closing in on them. "I'M BARELY KEEPING UP WITH YOU-!"

"DUCK!"

Hearing the voice cry out towards them, both Cole and Sol duck their heads as they ran.

Two sprigs the grass the size of rope then tie onto each other into a knot, forming a tripwire behind the two running Blue Rose Knights.

"IS THAT GRASS?!" Sol pointed out as the t-rex Chaos' feet were then caught by it, triggering more grass to grow around its legs to momentarily bind the monster in place.

"NOW PULI!"

The plump Magic Knight then flies over the pair as she then forms a giant fan made of her wings in her hand.

"[Wing Creation Magic]!" She then lifts up her fan over her head. "[CRUSHING WINGBEAT WAR FAN]!"

An oppressive blast of gale then smashes the t-rex's head into the earth, completely burying it into the ground.

"Over here!" the voice cried out again, revealing itself to be Juniper.

Sol, Cole, and Puli all reunite before they continue running through the city drowning in literal Chaos (both the monsters and the actual state of affairs).

"Where were you guys?!" asked Cole.

"Sorry, we got lost since the music started," Juniper apologized. "I tried looking for the orphans from Hage when the pandemonium started. So far, no dice."

"Found her running around like a headless chicken," Puli pointed out as she ran nimbly for someone of her physical stature. "Had to convince her while hell was breaking loose."

"Shit, this is already getting out of hand..." Sol grimaced as she kept her head on a swivel. "... We need to reunite with the others! And fast!"

The four of them nod before turning another corner.

"Come on!" Juniper cried out as she sped up, running ahead of everyone else in a visible hurry. "The sooner we rally with the other Magic Knights, the sooner we can start saving the civilians-!"

Not minding where she was stepping, her foot then slips on a particularly-slick puddle of blood, falling onto her back.

"June!" Puli cried out as she helped up her fellow Blue Rose. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine-"

As soon as Sol and Cole caught up, the four Blue Rose Knights all come across a fresh scenery of carnage.

The blood around Juniper was warm.

"... No," she muttered before breaking into a sprint towards one cluster of corpses. "... NO!"

Laid in a pile were corpses of children and an old priest. All of their throats were slit open cleanly and recently.

Juniper then broke into a sob as she fell to her knees at this sight. "... I promised him," she sniffled. "... Yuno... I'm so sorry!"

All of Hage's orphans and Father Orsi were slain a second too soon.

"... We need to go," Puli pointed out. "... They're not coming back-"

Then a rush of turbulence was heard between where the Magic Knights were standing at.

"... The hell was that?!" Sol cried out as she and the other readied their grimoires. "Another one of those monsters-?!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Cole then tackles Sol out of the way before his neck was severed across the side of his nape and through his spine.

A sanguine spray splashed across Sol's face as her brain registered what had happened.

"COLE!" Sol cried out as the male Blue Rose Knight fell dead before her. "FUCK! WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?!"

The three Blue Rose Knights all huddled their backs together upon realizing that their speedy adversary was near, zipping through the cramped alleyways, its presence completely unannounced saved for the paper-thin gashes that it left in its trails.

"How many are you picking up?" Puli asked as she used her [Wing Magic]'s appendages to read the disturbances in the air to pick up the enemy's numbers.

"It's too fast..." Juniper heaved in panic as her emotionally-compromised state of mind wasn't helping matters. "... The winds... it's riding the winds between the alleyways. And it just took out our [Wind Magic] user!"

"Dammit!" Sol cursed as she then unleashed her [Earth Magic: Raging Mother Earth]. "COME OUT SO I CAN KILL YOUR ASS-!"

Instantly, the golem she'd summoned was split in twain before eluding the three once again.

"FUCK!" Sol cursed upon wasting her magic. "If only the music was playing, then maybe we might be able to see it coming!"

Puli then lets out a seething sigh. "... At minimum, one of us has to get the word out and rejoin with the others," she pointed out. "... I'll make an opening, and hopefully, I'll be able to bring that bastard down."

Sol then looked at the stout woman with disbelieving eyes. "... You can't be serious!"

"WE'RE MAGIC KNIGHTS! MAN OR WOMAN, OUR DUTY TAKES PRECEDENT OVER OUR OWN LIVES!" Puli pointed out as her wings' feathers then turned black. "... Get going. NOW!"

In desperation, Sol then grabs Juniper by her arm before breaking off into a sprint as Puli then scatters her black plumage across the air.

"TRY WORMING YOUR WAY THROUGH THIS ONE!" she declared. "[WING MAGIC: BUFFER FETTERS]!"

The leaden feathers scattered throughout the air as Sol and Juniper ran for their lives. The unseen assailant then sped out of its recess, slowed down by Puli's magic just enough to reveal itself as a boa-sized ermine Chaos with a pair of tribal tattoo-styled claws reminiscent of sickle blades.

"Well shit. Aren't you a cutie," Puli remarked with a smirk, half-sarcastic at her words regarding her discovered quarry. "HAVE AT THEE!"

Puli then used her [Wing Magic] to then shoot out a barrage of razor-sharp quills towards the monstrous ermine, pricking it like a pincushion before her back was then drilled through by another ermine Chaos and its sickle-limbs burrowing out of her stomach, ripping through bone, flesh, and fat, emerging from her covered in gore as it then made a beeline towards Sol and Juniper's backs.

"OH FUCK!" Sol then uses her [Earth Magic] to construct simple walls behind herself to at least slow down the pursing Chaos.

One ermine Chaos opts to travel around it.

The second opts to slither over each one.

And then the third makes its entrance by breaching through the barriers with its razored limbs.

DON'T THINK! DON'T THINK AND JUST KEEP RUNNING! Sol thought as she kept running while erecting more walls with her magic while keeping one hand tight around Juniper's. DON'T LOOK BACK! DON'T SLOW DOWN! THESE THINGS ARE WAY TOO FAST FOR MY [EARTH MAGIC] TO KILL! I NEED THE OTHERS' HELP SLOWING THEM DOWN!

She follows through her words echoing in her head like a desperate prayer to the gods that were no longer listening, her only beacon of solace in a world gone mad.

"... I see a light!" Sol remarked as her eyes were stung by the glimmer leading out of the alleyways. "WE'RE ALMOST THERE! JUST KEEP RUNNING-!"

In the last moment, Sol betrays her own word, and dared to look back.

Her hand was only holding onto the severed arm of Juniper, the rest of her lying behind in the alley's shadows, piece by piece like a trail of dropped apples.

Before Sol could realize what she had done, her whole mind breaks in two as the primal urge of animal survival overtook every inch of her rational mind.

She began screaming and running like a woman gone mad, her confidence and hope shattered upon the revelation of the Chaos simply toying with her. She threw the severed arm behind her to elude her pursuers, daring not to look back as she solely delegated all of her remaining focus on getting out of the alleyway, her survival be damned.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Sol begged desperately, even going as far as to throw off her Magic Knight's robe to unburden herself.

It was all in vain.

One of the ermine Chaos slipped out of the drainage pipes before cutting its blade across her right leg, severing through the bone with a single swipe right before Sol face-planted on the brick-paved road.

Her adrenaline then triggered past its limit from this sudden crisis, her brain able to ignore the pain of losing a limb as she began to crawl as fast as her arms could drag her.

"HELP!" she cried out. "HELP ME-!"

As if they weren't tormenting her enough, the ermine Chaos then cut off both of her arms with their sickled limbs, now stripping of her last methods of escape.

The adrenaline bottoms out, causing Sol to go into a state of shock as she begins flailing on the ground, unable to move beyond where she was laid at. As she bled all over herself, the three ermine Chaos look over her pitiful state, their cute and neutral expressions unchanging even as they behold their recent masterpiece of suffering.

Their blank expressions were mocking to Sol, who was now slowly losing the will to resist as all three of them raised their scythes to deliver the killing blow.

"... Fuck."

But just then, a smoothing aria followed up with a booming shockwave blew all four of them off of where they were situated at, with Sol's back hitting onto one of the walls that the Chaos had burrowed through, while the ermine-like creatures struggled to orient themselves from this crushing sound wave.

"I FOUND A SURVIVOR!" a young man's voice cried out. "I'M COMING! HOLD ON!"

The three ermines take umbrage at this sudden shift in development as they all switch their priorities from Sol to this stranger.

Lashing out their blades, the three Chaos all lunge at the young man, only for their dizzying blows to be parried by the stranger's own twin blade, literally dancing around them in this cramped space.

"Sorry little fellas, but I'm also adept at dancing in the dark!" he boasted. "[Dance Magic: Duet with Death]!"

Kiato keeps the three ermines busy, seamlessly switching his "dancing partners" between the three ermines while his twin sister Kahono and their friend Mago both run into the alleyway with their heads ducked under to retrieve Sol.

"You'll be okay," reassured the girl as the seaweed-haired boy then applied tourniquets on Sol's stumps to alleviate the bleeding. "Alright, here's the plan, my brother will keep those things busy while we get you out of here? Are there others that need our help?"

Sol deliriously shakes her head side to side, no longer having the will to speak.

"... Shit," cursed Mago as he and Kahono lifted up Sol by her shoulders before making a break for it.

Upon reaching outside, Sol faintly spots the Witches and Thaumaturges fending off the elephant Chaos that are shooting beams of red energy from their trunks like cannons, using their spells and magical weapons to fend off the incoming monsters before passing out.

"What the hell happened to her?!" one of the Witches remarked as she and her sisters blasted the elephant Chaos "And where are the others?!"

"Gone," Kahono broke the news as she and Mago properly treated Sol's injuries more throughly. "... We found new kinds of Chaos in the alleyways. I think they're the ones mopping up the noncombatants."

"Are you shitting me?!" the Witch exclaimed as her sisters and the armored Thaumaturges finish slaying the giant monster next to where she's standing at. "What kind of Chaos are they-?"

"INCOMING!" Kiato cried out as he was then pushed back by several more ermine Chaos joining the initial trio, now swarming all over Kiato as they tried to overwhelm his [Duet with Death] through sheer numbers.

"... Why do those minks have sickles for forelimbs?" asked one of the Thaumaturges

"Same reason why those giant monsters have maces for tails," deadpanned Mago.

"Damned monsters!" The Thaumaturges then all brandished their arms towards the ermine swarm. "Kill them-!"

Their armor failed to protect them from the Chaos' all-rending sickles that cut through metal plates and human meat like paper. Once the swarm dispersed, the Chaos began their mad hunt for lives to cut down for fun.

The witches tried to formulate a plan, but the ermine Chaos moved too fast for them to react, slaying those who were too slow to escape.

Kiato then catches up towards the rest of the swarm, cutting down as many as he could while Kahono and Mago used their quixotic magic attributes to herd the ermine Chaos to a manageable space.

Soon enough, the Chaos were cleared out, leaving only a few Witches and Thaumaturges with the Seabed Temple trio looking out for Sol.

"... Sorry if I couldn't finish them off fast enough," Kiato winced as his body was marred with numerous cuts and gashes across his skin. "... More of those things just came out of the woodwork."

"Nothing for it save for avenging them," the surviving Thaumaturge gruffly remarked with hidden agony of the heart. "Let's go. We must not join the dead's ranks."

"I got her," Kahono then ties up Sol behind her back with Mago's assistance and his jacket as the remaining group then make their way towards the Royal Palace.

"So where to?!" asked Kiato.

"Before we got separated from our Captain, the Clover Kingdom's Magic Knight Captains all headed towards the central part of the city!" one of the helmet-less Thaumaturges revealed. "We need to head to the Royal Palace and establish a chokepoint there! Let our strongest fight unencumbered without the enemy breathing down their backs!"

"Makes sense," Mago agreed. "... Someone has to keep the fodder busy, especially when they're this numerous."

"Also, hate to point it out, but the music wasn't stopped as it was turned off, per se," Kahono elaborated. "... What's stopping the Demon from turning it on again when he feels like it-"

Now Playing: "Hybrid" by Takeharu Ishimoto

Their hearts begin thumping to the beat as the [Law of Slander] was active once more.

"Me and big mouth..." groaned Kahono as she and everyone else were forced back into this ridiculous dance routine against their wills.

"Silver lining, at least the Chaos are moving less sporadically," Mago pointed out as they spotted the ermine Chaos moving just as fast as their t-rex contemporaries.

"So deal with them before they can attack on the beat then," Kiato remarked as he drew his twin swords on beat. "Then leave it to me!"

Moving with the set rhythm, the dancer moves to the beat to confront the Chaos in order to thin the herd. The first t-rex winds up for a tail swipe, but just as it was swinging it, Kiato had jumped onto the tail itself, the arc taking out the other t-rex in a friendly fire.

Right as the ermine Chaos were about to retaliate, Kiato uses the rhythmic momentum to propel his next routine set to move ahead of the queue.

"[Dance Magic]!" declared Kiato as he spun with his blades extended outwards. "[Rug Cutter]!"

In one fluid motion akin to running river, Kiato cuts down the ermine Chaos in an instant before parrying a t-rex's bite attack with both of his swords that ended with him planting both blades into the monster's eyes.

"And that is how you dance!" the dancer boasted as he retrieved his blades on the beat.

"Show-off." Mago rolled his eyes as he then opens his grimoire as he begins writing out his scripture for his [Lyric Magic]. "... It's really hard to focus with everything that we have to balance."

"I know," Kahono nodded in agreement. "... I'm seriously trying my best not to think about what happened to the others from the Seabed Temple right now."

Does that even count as winning, though?

Yetzer's voice echoed throughout their minds as they traversed through the Chaos-occupied roads leading towards the Royal Palace.

"Ignore him!" Kahono remarked before she then blasts out a sonic screech from her vocal cords towards the shark Chaos swimming through solid ground like water and out of it.

Ah, you humans and your misguided sense of valor, taunted the bat Demon as his voice echoed throughout everyone's hearts and minds like a god made manifest. You all talk a good game, but really, why bother resisting when even killing me, unlikely as it is, is going to accomplish nothing of worth?

"Do you ever shut up?!" Kiato snarled as he clover through a gorilla Chaos' fist in twain as the Witches pelted the wounded beast with their spells.

I am [Slander] itself, children, the Demon boasted. I literally cannot shut up. As long as doubt exists, so will I. I am your every imperfection and flaw made manifest. I am the shadow that follows your every step from cradle to grave. I am every bad day you all ever experienced, from a stubbed toe to the death of your most beloved.

"Kind of overblown from an oversized bat," Kahono snarked before letting out a smashing screech that sent the wolf Chaos flying. "So what makes you so special to toot your own horn this loudly?!"

Because unlike the rest of the Eleven, I am home-brewed by humanity's collective unconsciousness.

That revelation causes everyone to freeze in place momentarily, only for reality to set in and get everyone's heads back in the game.

Ah, denial, then? remarked Yetzer. That's fine too. I understand why you prefer to think about the now than the greater picture surrounding reality. Guess it pays off to be small compared to me, more focused and more likely to fuck just to leave something behind.

No one entertains his answer, but Yetzer doesn't care.

... Well either way, you all know that I'm right, snickered the bat Demon's voice in an echoing candor. Now if you all excuse me, I have some stage-jumpers I put on "mute" to evict. Catch you all on the flip-side.

"... Asshole," growled Kiato as he and everyone else make it to the Royal Palace's gates, guarded by Julius and Thaumaturge Captain Sergei.

"Reinforcements are here!" the armored Thaumaturge remarked as he brandished a sword made of flame that he pulled it out of the slain shark Chaos.

"And not a moment too soon!" Julius remarked as he then casts [Chronostasis] onto the cluster of Chaos, freezing them all in place for a few seconds save for the ermine, who all just slipped through and the Wizard King dealt with with his clock-hand swords. "Mind lending us a hand?"

Kiato smirks as he brandishes his blades. "Let's go everyone! On the beat!"

As per instructions, everyone coordinates their assault to break through the barricade of monsters from behind.

"L-[Lyric Magic: Climax Verse-Showstopper]!" Mago then unleashed his finished scripture towards the chaos, the letters attaching them to their bodies. "All of the spells will now home in on them! G-Go get em, everyone!"

"Brother!" Kahono called out.

"Tag team time!" Kiato then combined both his and his twin's magics together.

Kahono began singing as Kiato danced to her beat, the latter forming copies of himself with each step that was left behind in an afterimage, solidifying their form through the former's sonorous verse.

"[Song & Dance Compound Magic: Aqua Beatdown]!"

All of the clones of Kiato rode on the song itself as they all struck the immobilized chaos with the song's beat.

All of the Witches and Thaumaturges present then all fire their shots towards the Chaos, destroying every last one of them from where they stood. With the enemy cluster disposed, the two groups reunite before the main gates.

"Good work," Julius approvingly nodded. "... I take it that you're here for the same reason as we are?"

"Vice-Inquisitor Saiga will be fine, as per his words," a Thaumaturge reassured as he brandished his telescoping-handled mace. "We're ready to hold the line to our dying breath! Just give us the word!"

Julius nods firmly as he spots a new stampede of Chaos approaching their defensive checkpoint. "... Brace yourselves."

A swarming horde of wolf, bear, frog, gorilla, t-rex, elephant, and ermine Chaos all stampeded towards where the group were at as they all prepared themselves to hold the line long enough for those inside the gates behind them to slay the Demon behind this mess.

"In any event, I hope the Vice-Inquisitor arrives soon..." Sergei remarked with bated breath as the music began to gradually change into a different track. "INCOMING!"

---

Northernmost Border Wastes, Diamond Kingdom, Afternoon

---

There was an upwards spike of temperature as Yama, the Prince of Death advanced further North.

His forked tongue read the air, sensing that there was a disturbance within the environment.

Something had altered the local atmosphere. Almost unnaturally hot.

"It's as if there's a second sun nearby..." Yama grimaced, unable to stomach these emotions he'd killed prior to his ascension as a Demon. "... It will all be better. It will all be resolved as soon as I get my hands on the [Akashic Records]."

As long as there were things that he couldn't understand, this boiling sensation within the Prince's dead heart will never cease.

He focused every fiber of his being in quelling such anomaly. Whatever happens after will be a problem for the future.

A future where he will reign supreme. A future where everything that is not him shall be consigned to oblivion.

"... How long are you going to skulk about, you little slink?" Yama gnashed his teeth in growing rage. "Come out already so we can settle this!"

The ground jerked up for a second upon a heavy thump slamming the earth.

Then another followed, the quaking growing more ferocious with each step it took towards the Prince.

With each step advanced, the ambient heat grew hotter and hotter, up until the very ground where Yama stood at was beginning to turn into molten sludge.

"My aren't you a bit mouthy today?" deadpanned Cleopatra's voice. "Guess you finally decided to come out of that hole I dug just for you after ten years of sitting your keister in the background like some aspiring puppetmaster without any strings to his name."

Towering over Yama was none other that Cleopatra Mara Bodhisattva, her soul now inside of the smoldering body of Goliath of the Fallout Four, representing the sin of [Ignorance].

"... One last chance, Cleo," declared the Prince as he then drew his [Fushigiri] from his scabbard before pointing it towards the scorching skeleton that his insubordinate subordinate was inhabiting. "Cease this nonsense you call a rebellion and I will ignore what you have done behind my back."

She scoffs, unimpressed. "... And what does an insular brat like you think you'll get out of 'forgiveness' when you don't even know what that even means?!"

Yama knew that his last chance of clemency was in vain before he could even attempt it. Still, there was a compulsion of just making sure that it was the case.

"So be it."

Both parties then unleash their [Death Magic] spells upon each other, with Yama using his [Fushigiri] as a conduit while Cleopatra wound back a titanic fist enveloped in flames.

"[Death Magic]!" both parties cried out as their dark-verdant auras glowed with sickly-looking ambiance.

"[Life Deletion-Homicide]!" Yama then whips out a corrosive slash that killed all forms of life that it touched.

"[Soul Deletion-Exorcism]!" the flames around Cleopatra!Goliath's fist and arm turned sickly-green as the knuckle descended like a meteor.

Normally, when [Death Magic] connects with its target, the selected target cited for destruction is to be "killed" without question.

What the two Demons don't realize is that [Death Magic], reality-breaking as its powers are, has its limits.

"WHAT THE?!" Both exclaimed upon seeing their spells collide and cancel each other out, revealing their main magic's limitation of being unable to "kill" itself due to it contradicting its objective of killing "something."

Upon that reveal, both Yama and Cleopatra learned that "death" cannot kill "death," for it lacks a (meta)physical medium that it requires to be "destroyed."

"... Well, shit," Cleopatra scoffed as her flames then turned back into their regular hue. "... Guess that means I'll have to kill you the old-fashioned way!"

Yama, with [Fushigiri] in hand, clashes his mortal blade against the burning fist of Goliath piloted by Cleopatra.

The smaller Demon was blown back after he'd parried his attack due to the square cube law working against him. Normally, he'd shrink the giant with his [Death Magic] killing the titan's "size," but as long as Cleopatra was still controlling the body and has access to her own [Death Magic] to render his usual methods inert, the only thing he can do was hold out long enough.

"HOLD STILL AND DIE!" Goliath's fists then clasp together into a hammer-fist before it was brought down upon the Prince.

Seeing that it was too massive for him to parry without leaving himself vulnerable, Yama opts to evading the searing smash before running between the giant's legs and applying his sudden theory.

Let's see if applied [Death Magic] can work, he thought as he then enchanted the blade of his [Fushigiri] with his [Death Magic: Elemental Deletion-Extinguish].

Approaching the legs, Yama then slides between the legs while running his enchanted blade across one of Goliath's legs, but as soon as the edge raked across the fiery bone, the enchant was instead burned off (in a sense).

"NICE TRY!" Goliath then raised its foot to stomp the Prince, only for the latter to roll out of the way. "GOLIATH'S FLAMES ARE [IGNORANCE] INCARNATE! ANYTHING ROOTED FROM KNOWLEDGE OR WISDOM ARE DESTROYED UPON CONTACT!"

Yama bares his teeth upon his theory failing in practice.

It was going to be a long day to bring her to heel.

---

Royal Palace Grounds, Quatre Refugee-State, Noble Realm, Clover Kingdom, Afternoon

---

Now Playing: "Breaking Free" by Takeharu Ishimoto

From atop of the Royal Palace's towers and balcony, the fight to decide the fate of the Clover Kingdom was taking place.

Charlotte, Kaiser, Rill, Zora, Gordon, and Damnatio were stripped of their ability to speak/use their spells thanks to Yetzer's [Sound Magic] being able to mute their voices as the latter was given free reign.

"Even in the face of defeat, you still choose to fight!" cackled the bat Demon as he flew around the towers, blasting concussive sonic blasts from his wings and mouth as his targets scurried about the bombarded building. "Man, if only the majority of the humans had your guts, maybe I might've not been born. Oh well! SUCKS TO BE THEM!"

Deployed from his back were a pair of mobile remote amps that acted independently from the Demon, soaring about the tower where the six were in to cover more area for his [Sound Magic].

"SCREAM FOR ME, BITCHES!" The bat Demon of [Slander] with his two amps blasted a multidirectional barrage of crushing sound waves. "[SOUND MAGIC: BASS BEATDOWN]!"

But suddenly, the tower explodes before the waves could reduce it to rubble, creating a counter noise that dampens the sound bombardment as the silent six begin their counterattack.

Even as they were forced to fight on beat to this (admittedly) heart-pumping and screeching music, that didn't mean they weren't able to fight back.

You muzzling all of us is your biggest mistake! thought Zora as he then unleashes a blast of ash that fanned out into a destructive spread that struck Yetzer's wing and took out one of his amps.

Spells after all, are just refined versions of their raw magical attributes. There wasn't any rule that didn't allow the user to apply the usage of raw magic in the first place.

Yetzer tries to blast another sound wave from his mouth and remaining amp towards the [Ash Magic] user, but Kaiser uses his raw [Vortex Magic] to both suck in the air that the Demon needed for his [Sound Magic] and drag the Demon closer towards them.

Rill then gets up close and uses his [Picture Magic]'s raw form to turn his paintbrush into a sword, each stroke leaving a brush trail that cut as well as any sword. Gordon then follows it up with his [Poison Magic] pelting bubbles of the caustic concoctions that burst into noxious blasts that hissed against the Demon's armor and wings, the latter now sporting holes that prevented the Demon from flying properly.

As Yetzer clumsily descended towards the bottom of the tower, Charlotte, in a daring maneuver, slides down the side of the tower with her [Thorn Magic] acting as her tether, passing the Demon and reaching the ground, allowing her to drag her tether back to where she was to then erect a massive spire of thorns directly below where the Demon was falling towards.

The peak strikes dead center onto Yetzer's chest, sending him flying back up right as the remaining five all concentrated their raw magic towards the bat Demon.

Zora blasts another spread of [Ash Magic] that was then concentrated into a large, barb-like projectile by Kaiser's [Vortex Magic], transforming it into a drill that bored through the Demon's body in a gory fashion.

As it continued falling, Damnatio then uses his [Scale Magic] to slow the Demon's fall while speeding up their own, allowing Rill and Gordon to close the gap in order for the improv duo to deliver the following blow.

Rill brandishes his paintbrush that was wielded with the fearless grace of a mighty hero's sword, whereas Gordon, through his [Caduceus] dagger Relic as a conduit, replicates his [Giftiger Fülhalter] spell without its incantation, enlarging it into a titanic barbed jousting lance.

As the saying goes...! Rill thought as he wound back his paintbrush.

... The pen is mightier than the sword!

Both Gordon and Rill slash their weapons past the Demon right before Damnatio uses his [Scale Magic] to exchange the rate of speed of how each opposing parties were falling, causing Yetzer to land like a rock slung by a trebuchet, just for good measure.

All six of them gathered before the downed Demon, the latter still twitching as it got back up, looking ecstatic rather than troubled, despite its own injuries.

"... Man, even after all of that debilitating measures on you guys, you're still holding up!" cackled Yetzer. "... Guess I really underestimated how determined you guys are, huh?"

Spare us the flattery, Damnatio glared. ... You overplayed your hand the moment you took away our ability to speak-WHAT THE?!"

All six of them could now hear their own voices again as the music stops.

"... I almost forgot how I sounded like," Charlotte remarked as she took deep breaths. "... We really do take our ability to talk for granted."

"... I can... talk again," Gordon remarked before looking towards Yetzer. "... For what?"

"That's a secret, buddy," snickered Yetzer as he took a step back while letting his own physiology heal his wounds. "... As you can tell, shit's still going south outside. The mosh pit ain't dispersing until you get rid of me."

Kaiser narrowed his eyes. "... Be careful, everyone," he warned. "The damned creature still has tricks up his sleeve."

"Like every overhyped villain..." Rill sighed as he braced himself for combat. "... Thought it'd be too easy."

"We're getting close..." growled Zora as traces of ash gathered around his hands. "... LET'S END THIS HERE AND NOW-!"

"[Time Binding Magic: Chronostasis]."

All six of them were then encased inside the Wizard King's signature spell, unable to move as their bodies were frozen in time.

... Wh-WHAT HAPPENED?! Damnatio thought as he and the others tried to comprehend what had happened.

Yetzer began to snicker before bursting out into a crazed fit of laughter.

"Oh you poor, poor ignoramus basic-bitch neanderthals," the bat Demon shook his head in pity at the frozen six. "Remind me, what is my magic again?"

Everyone thought the same thing. It was [Sound Magic]-

... Sound also included voices.

"That's right," Yetzer's voice then shifted into Julius'. "The Chaos weren't merely my soldiers. They double as my ears and voice recorders. As long as they speak, I can control and replicate. Remember, I am [Slander] itself. I am EVERYWHERE!"

As soon as the Demon finishes healing his wings, he then takes flight to boast as he then uses his [Sound Magic] to keep their exchange confidential/muted by the outside people.

"H-HEY! LOOK!" one of the Witches pointed towards Yetzer floating in the air. "IS THAT THE DEMON?!"

"SHOOT IT DOWN-!" the helmet-less Thaumaturge was then bashed aside by the t-rex Chaos' mace tail, splattering his body across the building adjacent to him and his companions.

"BELAY THAT ORDER!" Sergei vetoed as he then swung a chain flail made of fire that he used his own telescoping mace as a handle into a frog Chaos' head. "FOCUS ON DEALING WITH THESE MONSTERS LEST WE LEAVE OUR BACKS OPEN!"

"DAMMIT!" Kiato cursed as he parried the mink Chaos' sickle blades with his own, able to keep up with their sporadic speed and lanky frame with his own nimbleness. "THEN WE CAN'T HELP THEM WHEN THE ENEMY'S BOSS IS LITERALLY STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF US?!"

"If only the enemy's numbers were culled to such a degree..." Kahono then screams out a high note that sent several wolf Chaos flying right as Mago used his [Lyric Magic] to write a scripture of [Hippocampus]-riding warriors that charged through the horde.

"We can't abandon the ones we saved..." the seaweed-haired boy pointed out as he looked back at the bandaged and limbless Sol laid against the wall behind them.

Julius himself was focused on dealing with the elephant and mink Chaos with his [Time Magic] slowing down their advance, and using his clock-hand swords to fend off the latter group who slipped through the gaps of his spell's activation.

... Odd, he thought as his blades clashed against the mink's sickles before cutting the beast in twain. ... Did I activate [Chronostasis] more than once?

He wasn't left with enough time to think as the elephant Chaos then blasted beams of energy at them.

Within the Royal Palace's ground, Yetzer began his boasting just to rub it in on the six of how utterly screwed they are, while speaking in their copied voices.

"You see, I love it how you people think that as long as you don't give up, you can overcome just about anything," the Demon spoke in Charlotte's voice before switching. "And while throughout human history that in itself has held a sliver of truth, but in reality, your acquirement of magic became a long-term confirmation bias," he stated in Damnatio's voice before switching to Rill's. "Suddenly, humans can shoot fire out of their hands! Bend water like if it was their own limb! Cure sicknesses that would've been impossible to cure without several trials and errors! That wasn't when all of mankind ascended to a new stage," Yetzer then switches to Kaiser's voice. "It was when, at that moment, mankind grew indolent. They grew entitled to power and willing to do whatever it took to get more of it, simply because the others might and were thinking the exact same thing," he then switches to Zora's voice. "... 'Betterment of society'? 'All for the common good'? 'Merit'? All of them are fucking bullshit and deep down, you all knew it was the case," then he switches to Gordon's. "... Power isn't meant to be shared, but to be hoarded by the greediest of you lot. Sephira had plucked the forbidden fruit of knowledge and introduced the madness that will decay all of mankind into nothingness. You may think that me and my fellow Eleven are the ones causing it, but in truth, we're really the symptoms rather than the disease itself."

The bubbles around them slightly shrink, allowing for their eyes and ears to be exposed to reality once more, keeping their mouths within the sphere's time-freezing properties.

"You motherfuckers have no one to blame but yourselves for getting dragged into this shit-mix of epic proportions," Yetzer spoke in his normal voice. "... Or your ancestors, but really, in hindsight, does it even make a fucking difference when all you, your parents and their parents did was contribute to my genesis? Ah well, mistakes were made, and it's too late to rewind time, even as your kind gained the power to control it. Ain't that a bitch and a half?"

Rill glares at the Demon in defiance, utterly refusing to give him the satisfaction of being right.

"... Alright, you wanna play it that way?" the Demon smirked. "Then let's try something."

Clearing his throat, Yetzer then switches to speaking in Gordon's voice.

"[Sound Magic: Doppelgänger]," Yetzer declared in Gordon's voice, willing the [Poison Magic] user's own grimoire to him. "[Poison Creation Magic: Giftiger Fülhalter]."

A large, lance-sized poisonous fountain pen was held in the bat Demon's hand as Gordon watched in horror at what he'd done. His eyes then briskly looks up and spots the Wizard King's coverless grimoire floating over them, implying that's how the Demon replicated the Wizard King's spell without the original user's knowledge.

But that line of thought was interrupted as Yetzer then thrusts the poisonous partisan into the bubble where Rill was kept in, slowly driving through his body and coming out of the other side, without as so much of a drop of blood nor a feeling of agony being registered into the artist's brain.

"I wonder..." Gordon's voice then shifted to Rill's, "of what would happen..."

The Demon then curled his wrinkled snout into the most malicious and satanic sneer ever possible for mankind to even imagine.

"... If this excruciating pain happened all at once?!"

Rill was then released from his [Chronostasis] while the copied [Giftiger Fülhalter] was impaled through his chest.

The most potent and caustic concoction of poison ran through Rill's veins, burning him inside out as his body thrashed like a fish out of water, his lungs screaming in the most harrowing, ear-piercing howls of pain, his skin crawling with webs of discolored purple as his eyes turned to the back of their sockets, and his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all gushing out streams of blood that splattered his clothes and the floor he's writhing on.

Everyone sans the Demon watched in horror as they begun to realize that they were no longer in a fight anymore.

"... Wow, 6.66 seconds? Weaksauce," Yetzer then blows a raspberry while giving a thumbs-down at Rill's warped and discolored corpse that was still as a picture, his death mask twisted in unimaginable agony of being poisoned by his own companion's magic.

... This was their execution. The Royal Palace has now become their condemnation grounds.

---

Inside the [Echo Chamber]...

---

In the monochromatic parallel world made in the mad bat Demon's image, the old High-Inquisitor Saiga and one semi-willing Black Bull Magic Knight Grey were facing down their [Echo Chamber] counterparts being a giant owl creature and an amalgam creature consisting of the latter's adoptive family members and herself.

The old man was the one mostly fighting, as the young woman was still recovering from her initial wave of panic while figuring out how she could face her other self.

"LETTING HIM DIE BEFORE YOU?! FOR SHAME!" [Dissonance] then blasts out white beams of light from its collection of mouths that sprayed in random directions, wrecking the chalk buildings and streets indiscriminately.

"Tr-[Transformation Magic]!" Grey then aimed her hands towards one of the beams. "[Magic Convert - Energy to Flowers]!"

The beam of light was then morphed into a pillar of flower petals, harmlessly flicking off of herself and Saiga as the latter clashed his dual warpicks against the owl's talons.

"IT'S USELESS TO CONTINUE!" [Hermit] screeched out as it then flew up before rapidly descending towards his original copy feet-first.

"I AM NOT DEAD YET!" the High Inquisitor then parries the stormy dive kick back towards Grey's amalgam copy, sending the two giant monsters crashing into the building and causing it to collapse. "LASS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"I-I THINK SO!" Grey cried out as she ran over towards Saiga. "... Are we any closer to defeating those two things yet?"

The old man shakes his head. "... This is a Demon's ploy," he pointed out. "We're only getting out if we die."

The two Echoes then emerge from the rubble before roaring.

"SO THOSE THINGS ARE INVINCIBLE UNLESS WE LET THEM KILL US?!" Grey pointed out.

"Too bad for me, I cannot die as long as I am a Highlander," Saiga remarked. "... Although, I may perchance have found a way out, but I need more time to confirm my theories."

"It's useless," [Hermit] interjected as it spread its wings. "We're immutable and immortal as long as you exist."

"ALL OF THOSE DOUBTS THAT CLOUD YOUR MIND, ALL OF THE SHAME YOU'VE FELT THROUGHOUT YOUR WHOLE LIFE, WE WILL REMAIN AND FOLLOW YOU UNTIL YOUR MORTAL COIL HAS BEEN SEVERED!" [Dissonance] ranted out. "If living is too painful for you... THEN DIE!"

At that moment, the amalgam lunges towards its original counterpart, only for Saiga to intercept the abomination's swipe.

"Predictable."

[Hermit], upon seeing his original occupied playing hero, swoops down towards Grey instead as am opportunistic maneuver.

Saiga tries to stop his copy from taking Grey, but [Dissonance] swamps him with its numerous limbs to keep him immobilized, leaving Grey to be kidnapped by [Hermit] as the two took to the infinite skies.

"YOU BETTER NOT BE THE ONE KILLING HER!" Grey's Echo remarked. "THAT BITCH IS MINE!"

Above the white skies, Grey found herself flailing in [Hermit]'s talons, the crescent toes grappling around her whole body like prey animal being carried off towards its captor's nest.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Grey struggled in the beast's grasp.

[Hermit] then takes a while for him to respond before speaking to her softly.

"... Stay here forever."

It was a voice void of malice or intent.

It sounded tired. Tired of life.

"... I pity you, truly," the owl continued. "A girl born without the knowledge of her real parentage, into a world where power is asked-no, demanded of you lest you suffer until you die."

"... I-It's not true!" she retorted. "We can still live without power-"

"You only tell yourself that because you and about 90% of this accursed world are beaten and beaten until you come to accept your abuse as 'normal'," [Hermit] cut her off. "... Coming from the one living the seat of power, I saw how this world works ever since Sephira had ushered magic into its inhabitants. Those who fall behind will inevitably die out. The weak are culled continuously as the 'strong' are pushed out by the stronger with each passing generation. She did not save us. She damned us into this perpetuity leading towards oblivion."

Grey couldn't believe what he'd said.

"... You're just an old man after all."

She couldn't believe that Saiga's own Echo came from a man who didn't let his own doubts hold him back.

"... Does all of that mean anything when you've clearly given up?!"

In a sudden shift in attitude, Grey, for the first time ever in her life, uses [Transformation Magic] onto her own arm, turning it into a set of metal claws that dug into one of the owl's leg.

"I SUCK! I KNOW! BUT I DON'T WANT TO QUIT JUST BECAUSE LIFE IS HARD FOR ME!" Grey cried out. "I WAS BORN FOR A REASON! I'M HERE BECAUSE I EXIST! I AM NOT THROWING IT AWAY FOR THE SAKE OF MY OWN SELF-SATISFACTION!"

"THERE'S NOTHING BUT RUIN UP AHEAD!" protested [Hermit].

"THEN I'LL DO WHAT I CAN TO LIVE UP TO THAT POINT WITHOUT ANY REGRETS!"

Her iron claw then reaches into the monster's bone before scraping further into its marrow, ripping it out of the wound like a sanguine carrot.

"I AM GREY! I AM A MAGIC KNIGHT OF THE BLACK BULLS!" she loudly declared as she hung from the beast's exposed cartilages like a tether. "I WILL RUN HEADFIRST TOWARDS DANGER WITH THE REST OF THE HERD! OUR HORNS SHALL BREAK THROUGH ALL LIMITS IMPOSED BEFORE US!"

Swinging herself upwards, Grey flings herself into the front of the owl monster's beak.

"YOU WON'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD THAT YOU WERE BORN INTO!" [Hermit] vehemently rejected. "NO MATTER WHAT, WE ARE THE SOLE TRUTHS OF THIS WORLD! AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT!"

"THEN I'LL SIMPLY CHANGE MYSELF TO KICK YOUR ASS!" Grey declared as she then brought out her grimoire. "[TRANSFORMATION MAGIC: SELF CONVERT - BLACK BULL]!"

Meeting head-to-head, Grey morphs into a giant statue of a black-hided ox with a pair of mighty horns that gored into both of the owl monster's eyes as it crashed its whole weight into the beast's face, sending the two careening back down onto the earth, landing right on top of [Dissonance]'s amalgam form, freeing Saiga from his lock.

"Well now," he smirked as he then caught the falling Grey in his burly arms after her transformation was undone. "That was a bold display of your prowess."

"Enough of that," she groaned as she willingly let herself be released from his cradle. "... Please tell me you figured out a way out of this hellhole."

Saiga smirks as he pointed his thumb towards Grey's Echo. "... Got it in one while I was being hugged by your ugly twin sister."

[Dissonance] growls as it picked itself up after tossing the healing [Hermit] off of its back.

"Contrary to popular belief, the only way it can kill us is if our own copies do it to their 'originals,' per se," he pointed out. "Normally, that multi-faced tart could've easily pummeled me to death with her fists, but it's as if something was preventing her from doing so, just as how my own Echo didn't have it in him to simply drop you from killing height."

A spark of elation glowed within Grey's breast, welling with hope. "... So the only way we can escape is to kill our own Echoes before they can do it to us?"

"No," Saiga shook his head as he stared down [Dissonance] while [Hermit] was still regrowing his leg. "They're literally parts of us. Fundamental to our own ego that the Demon who pulled them up from the muck is taking advantage of. If one of the halves die, both die. It's an inescapable trap designed to turn the human soul into the ultimate prison. That is the true power of the [Echo Chamber]!"

The light inside Grey's soul goes dim. "... SO HOW DO WE GET OUT-?!"

Suddenly, Saiga then grabs his artificial eye before messily and painfully pulls it out of his own socket before handing the bloody gold-encrusted gem to Grey's hands.

"... Run," he ordered. "Run far away as you can, and don't let that thing go!"

"... B-But what about you-?!"

Saiga then blocks both Echoes from reaching Grey, his warpicks [Hugin] and [Munin] transforming into their bronze humanoid avian forms to aid their master.

"FLY YOU FOOL!" Saiga barked out as he and his Relics held back their literal inner demons. "AND DON'T LOOK BACK!"

Having no other option, Grey runs as fast as she can, solely propelled by her primal desperation to survive, and that instinct doing its best to dispel the agony of consigning the old man to a fate worse than death just for one of them to escape this inescapable hellhole.

She screamed. Screamed so loud and primal that all other emotions were jettisoned into the void of irrelevance. Grey screamed even as her lungs were on the verge of popping like balloons. Grey screamed in both rage and sorrow as her legs pumped up and down, propelling her further and further away from the man who has gone through too much sacrificing himself towards oblivion for her sake.

She wasted naught a single breath as only one though cracked its whip that made her run past her physical limits.

"I will not die."

That thought continuously screamed into her mind as she closed her eyes and let her most primal of survival instincts wholly take over.

Back where Saiga had stayed behind, both Echoes begin pushing back against the old man and his ravens.

"YOUR SO-CALLED SACRIFICE IS POINTLESS!" screeched [Dissonance]. "THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE [ECHO CHAMBER]! ONLY DAMNATION IS NIGH!"

The old man simply smirks. "... Then why are sounding so desperate?"

"Ignore what my original says," dismissed [Hermit]. "Not even the divine shall penetrate the dimensional veil we are in!"

Saiga simply begins cackling like a man gone completely mad, his facade of the wise bearded sage shattering to reveal a devil's sneer rivaling even the most chthonian of Hell's denizens.

"Repeat what you just said," he mockingly pointed out. "You said 'penetrate,' correct? And remind me, what happens the divine is here with us?"

Both Echoes' eye widen like dinner plates upon realizing Saiga's trump card.

His eye wasn't a mere prosthetic.

It was the raw essence of his patron deity, Freki.

"DON'T LET HER GET AWAY-!"

"Game over."

As soon as Grey holding onto the bloody eye containing Freki's mana, it begins glowing like that of the sun itself, responding to the holder's most innate and primal desire to survive and escape this fate worse than death.

Any favor from a god required a sacrifice, something that Saiga himself was more than willing to become.

Throughout the monochromatic world, a beam of scorching light shoots up high towards the empty crimson aether, breaking through the veil as Grey then disappeared from this world.

All that were left behind were Saiga and the two Echoes, doomed for the rest of eternity to fight each other for eternity.

"... Now where were we?"

The once-former slave now became the king of his own destiny in a land where Hell was preferable, as he then punched [Dissonance] into her face that sent her flying.

---

Back to Reality...

---

Grey's eyes open back up as her body sprung up like a flower during the end of the winter's thaw.

Her eyes comes back to reality, with her grimoire and Saiga's still-bloodied eye in her hands.

"... I got out," she mumbled as her eyes began to water. "... Thank you. I won't let it be in vain!"

Shakily getting back up to her feet, Grey then looks around to see if there were any Chaos wandering about, but the streets were quiet.

"... You there."

With a peep, Grey pivots her head to spot Freki taking refuge in her shadow, now looking like the size of a common puppy, and its stature was that of a sick old man.

"... So that crazed fucker... actually did it," he snarled between his heaves. "... I'll make it quick... I ain't gonna live much longer now that my last believer is gone... from this world."

Grey's eyes widen upon hearing this god dying before her.

"... But... I got an idea," he pointed out. "... Take my powers... into your grimoire... before I disappear!"

Normally, a sane person would question why, but Grey wasn't sane anymore.

She was done asking questions in an era where initiative was the only thing that matters.

Without delay, she then absorbs the god into her pages, the transaction causing both the god and the gem eye to merge with her grimoire, transforming it into a new form.

Gone was her teal-colored grimoire with a golden ring on its cover and now was a navy-blue grimoire with a red wolf circling around a golden ring that was akin to the sun and replacing her three-leaf iconography was replaced with Saiga's gem eye, now containing a small bright teal wisp akin to a living soul.

... Your desire... is your life... lass, echoed Freki as his voice grew weaker. ... Don't let go of it.

Grey had now bore witness to a god's death. But in return, a new surge of power welled within her body, filling her with not only a new sense of confidence, but an ironclad resolve that gave her a renewed sense of purpose.

"... The others need me," she spoke as she then brushes her hair back with her hand, styling it into a new form that represented her rebirth. "I need to get to them!"

"Someone's eager."

Grey then looks behind and sees someone rolling up towards her.

"... Need a ride?"

---

Northernmost Border Wastes, Diamond Kingdom, Afternoon

---

"HOLD STILL AND DIE!"

Yama rolled his eyes as he now experienced the displeasurable feeling of annoyance of fighting an immovable brick wall. None of Yama's methods could even affect the Demon of [Ignorance] that Cleopatra had taken over as her new body.

It's flames served both as its armor and weapons, burning away all attacks approaching it and crushing everything that were pressed under its tremendous weight.

The only thing he could do was evade the flaming giant's attacks or get his knowledge erased by the flames of [Ignorance], a fate worse than death.

So this is what it feels like for someone else to fight me, the Prince of Death growled internally as he dodged another flaming fish that crushed the earth beneath it. ... How insulting.

He felt annoyed. He felt troubled. He felt human.

Vulnerable. Weak. Limited.

And he hated every second of it. But what he hated even more was the fact that he could even feel hatred at all.

It was the easy option to simply throw himself into the flames to get rid of his pain, but then the fear of losing his valued mind came in to stop such compulsion.

There has to be a way around this, Yama thought as he dodged Goliath's clumsy kick that caused it to topple itself back onto the ground before sluggishly getting back up.

"GIVE UP! I WIN THIS FIGHT!" Cleopatra then brings down another double-hammer fist upon Yama's head, the latter dodging it before being blown back by the force of the crushing impact. "YOU CAN'T BEAT ME! I AM INVINCIBLE!"

Yama refuses to give her the satisfaction of seeing him act and err like a human being. No matter what, he will stop her here with his own powers as a Demon Prince of Death.

"I will beat you," declared Yama without a hint of irony or doubt. "I will show you that I am Death. And no one can claim invincibility as long as I exist."

"THEN EXIST AFTER THIS!" Goliath then opens its mouth to then exhale a massive stream of all-consuming fire towards the Prince.

The flames were indeed all-encompassing, as it was spreading too wide for him to evade, too high for him to jump over, and too thick for him to burrow under.

Yama then remembered that Goliath's flames burned away all that was rooted in knowledge and/or wisdom. But where was it rooted from?

... Gonna have to take a massive risk.

He then turns his own [Death Magic] onto himself, impaling himself with [Fushigiri] as the flames then completely consumed him and the surrounding world until all that were left behind were freshly-melted magma.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! VICTORY IS MINE!" boasted Cleopatra as Goliath beat its chest in triumph. "NOW THE REST OF THE WORLD SHALL KNEEL-!"

Then suddenly, a sudden jolt shocks Cleopatra and Goliath as the two suddenly collapsed into a seizure.

Upon the burning beast's back hitting the molten earth, a titanic explosion rings throughout the skies, rocking and rippling across the earth where it was birthed from until all that were left in its wake was a massive mushroom cloud that pierced the empty heavens.

---

"Wha-WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Cleopatra barked out as she tried to move. "WHY WON'T YOU GET UP-?!"

She was then slugged across the face from behind, sending her careening across the ground before landing back into a heap.

"I figured you out," spoke Yama's voice, with the traitorous Lilith looking up to see her ex-liege. "... You got rid of your body so you can inhabit this, did you?"

Wasting no time, Cleopatra and Yama both clash their [Death Magic] against each other's in a final clash to decide who walks out of here alive.

"... A complicated feeling of... respect is welling inside of me," Yama remarked as his [Fushigiri] was being pressed against Cleopatra's arm. "... I hate it. Hurry up and die."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP AND DIE, YOU MONSTER!" screeched Cleopatra as she uses her [Death Magic] as a force of raw power to deter Yama's blade as the two fought each other on even footing.

Since [Death Magic] cancels out [Death Magic], the only things that both Demons could use to maim each other were their respective experience and weapon respectively.

Yama was the one armed with a semi-mystical katana forged by a foreign god, but Cleopatra trumps him in terms of life experience of fighting for her life down at Hell.

It was primal, almost barbaric on how the two sides simply beat each other with nothing but sheer animosity that was mutual in potency.

Cleopatra catches [Fushigiri] with her teeth, snapping it two, but Yama, with what edge was left on the broken kamitsurugi, slashed the broken blade across both of her eyes, completely blinding her, causing her to flail about in the dark, until...

"Dumbass!"

Cleopatra was able to use her pseudo-snake physiology to read the air's movements with her forked tongue, parrying Yama's killing blow with the back of her scaled fist, knocking the weapon out of his grip before the two then got into a grapple that made them roll around where they stood.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" growled Yama as he pressed himself against the Lilith.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'PAY'?!" she retorted. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN PAY?!"

She then headbutts him into his nose before kicking him off.

"What... do you mean... pay...?" slurred Cleopatra as she approached him with stumbling steps. "... Who... are you...?"

Yama was confused at this sudden shift in development. ... Come to think of it, where are we again?

"... Who... am I?" she asked, now drooling on herself like a simpleton. "... Who... who...?"

Then she was completely motionless, giggling at herself while standing in place as Yama discovered where they were at right now.

Goliath, [Ignorance] incarnate.

They were also rooted in knowledge and wisdom as cognitive creatures. Meaning that this pseudo-space within the Demon was antithetical to their whole existence.

"I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

In desperation, Yama tries to use his [Death Magic] to open up an escape route, but it simply didn't happen.

Realizing that his [Death Magic] was also rooted in "knowledge" and "wisdom," he then ditches his hollow diamond grimoire before running around the unknown in complete panic, his mind feeling as if it were being chewed up slowly by the ambiance of oblivion.

"No, NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" he cried out as he ran blindly. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DISAPPEAR BEFORE THE WORLD ENDS AT MY HANDS!"

If his soul and existence were like fire, then it was being petered out by the rain called "stupidity."

Then his legs go limb as they forget how to walk and stand upright, causing him to collapse.

"... I don't want to die... I don't want to disappear..."

This feeling felt sickeningly familiar.

... He felt like a human again.

"... No... no... no... NO!"

As the embers of his mind begin dying out, it began to glow at its brightest before it could be completely extinguished.

"I WON'T DISAPPEAR LIKE THIS! I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS AS MY END!"

Abandoning all logic and pretense, Yama moves, crawling with his arms, forward towards the unknown.

"I won't let it end...! UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD DISAPPEARS FIRST!"

Then in the unknown, he spotted something up ahead, to which he began crawling faster towards it like a moth to a flame.

"Is it...? IT IS!"

Before him was the world's grimoire.

The [Akashic Records].

"IT WAS INSIDE GOLIATH THS WHOLE TIME!"

Rapturously laughing, Yama then snatches the book from the air before cracking open its pages, causing the whole world's endless stream of knowledge to flood into his quickly-vacating mind.

"FINALLY! AN END TO THIS POINTLESSLY-COMPLICATED NIGHTMARE!" cackled Yama as all of the world's knowledge flowed into his mind. "NO MORE 'WHAT-IFS'! NO MORE CHANCES! NO MORE OBSTACLES BLOCKING MY WAY TOWARDS OBLIVION!"

Yama felt joy learning the world's infinite knowledge.

"And once I'm done..." he cackled as he kept reading the divine scripture. "... With the knowledge of this world's workings... ALL SHALL BE CONSIGNED TO THE VOID OF DEATH UPON MY RETURN!"

Little did he know that Yama will never leave this prison, his mind endlessly being erased and restocked with the world's knowledge, Goliath's flames serving as a depository for the infinite well of knowledge from the [Akashic Records].

Goliath's [Ignorance] claims its first, permanent captive.

---

Royal Palace Grounds, Quatre Refugee-State, Noble Realm, Clover Kingdom, Afternoon

---

"THERE NO END TO THESE GUYS!" Kiato cried out as he cut down another gorilla Chaos.

"DON'T GIVE UP!" Kahono then screamed out another high note to dispel the frog Chaos. "WE'RE THE ONLY ONES STANDING BETWEEN VICTORY AND DEFEAT-!"

The young songstress then suddenly collapses to her knees as she begins coughing blood from overexerting her vocal cords.

"DAMMIT! WE'RE TAKING LOSSES TOO FAST!" Mago then tried his best to heal his friend with his [Lyric Magic], but it was taking too long as the tide of Chaos continued growing as their fighting proficiencies shrank.

Julius, as powerful as he is, was himself being overwhelmed like everyone else. Although his [Time Magic] was the only thing that kept their position from being overrun and allow the Witches to fire at something, the ermine Chaos proved faster than he could cast his [Chronostasis] spells, easily slipping past the confining bubbles and closing in the gap to force him to engage in melee with his clock-hand swords.

"WIZARD KING!" Sergei barked out as he yanked back his fiery flail. "THE LAST OF MY THAUMATURGES HAVE FALLEN! I'M FIGHTING BY MYSELF-!"

In that moment of hesitation, a wolf Chaos lunged at him and sunk its fangs into the Thaumaturge Captain's neck before ripping it off.

"NO!" Kiato then swung his blade across the lupine but was then knocked back by a bear Chaos' claw swipe, snapping one of his swords in two.

"KIATO!" Mago cried out as he tried to run towards his friend's help, but was then crushed by a flung boulder thrown by a gorilla Chaos standing atop one of the buildings, causing his insides to splatter all over his friend.

"... No!" Kahono hoarsely cried out as she tried to sing, but all she can belch out were blood. "... Damn it!"

Kiato tried to get up, but as soon as he got back up to his feet, he spotted an elephant Chaos aiming its trunk's nozzle straight at her.

"KAHONO!" he cried out as the monster then fired a massive energy beam towards his sister.

But just as the crimson light could engulf her, a crude earthen wall was erected before her, blocking the shot long enough for her to escape and help her twin brother up.

"You're okay!" Kiato then hugged Kahono in relief. "... That wall, can it be?!"

The siblings then look where the earthen wall had come from, revealing Sol, despite only having her left leg as he sole appendage, waking up.

"... This pain... is nothing...!" she heaved out as her grimoire willed itself towards her. "... Big sis Charlotte... everyone else... are fighting...! I have to...! I must...! I WILL!"

Then a chunk of the earth envelops her whole body before it was morphed into a new, humanoid suit of jagged armor around her body now glowing with an earthen orange aura.

"[Earth Creation Magic: War Dress of the Mother Earth]!"

Sol, her fighting spirit reinvigorated, charges head first into the fray, starting by punching a gorilla Chaos to its death before grabbing the same elephant Chaos that had tried to snipe Kahono by its trunk before then swinging the monster up and and around like an improvised flail.

"DROP DEAD YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Sol screamed as she continued using the elephant's trunk as an improvised weapon, bashing through even t-rex Chaos until it was cut into many pieces by the incoming ermine Chaos.

But just before they could reach Sol, Julius intercepts them with his [Chronostasis] before slicing them all through with his clock-hand blades. "Huh, no wonder why dodged," he remarked before helping up Sol. "Are you well enough to fight, Sol Marron?"

"Haven't got a choice, Wizard King," Sol then pointed towards the incoming next horde of Chaos. "... Can you heal the others who need healing? I think Kahono lost her voice."

"Please-"

Then suddenly the entire segment where the Chaos were approaching explodes before both Sol and Julius, the pair nearly getting roasted by the blast adjacent to them.

"... What the hell was that?!" asked Sol before she and Julius heard flapping sounds coming from above.

Everyone then looks up to see Yetzer taking Zora with him, the latter inside Julius' [Chronostasis].

"... Motherfucker," the Wizard King cursed. "GET BACK HERE! I GOT BEEF WITH YOU-!"

"[Time Binding Magic: Chronostasis]."

The Demon spoke with Julius' own voice, trapping the Wizard King in his own spell.

"Now then..." Yetzer's impersonation of the Wizard King then switched over to his captive's. "... Where were we? Ah yes."

Clearing his throat, the bat Demon then takes Zora's own grimoire before fiddling with it for a few moments.

"There we go...!" the Demon of [Slander] then conducted his demonic scheme. "... [Ash Trap Magic: Wild Joker - Dead Man's Trigger]!"

In the next instant, Zora was forced to watch as every last of his own set traps were then prematurely detonated by Yetzer impersonating his voice, setting the entire city ablaze with a carnival of explosions that devoured entire chunks of the city.

Everywhere, and everything that they've worked so hard to rebuild... gone in an instant.

"Remember this forever, brat," snickered Yetzer as he and Zora watched the whole city light up like a birthday cake from above. "This is all your fault."

"... No...! NO!" Kiato cried out as he everyone that had saw the explosions fell to their knees in despair. "... No."

All they could hear within the crackling flames was Yetzer's cackle of triumph over the crushed populace.

"So much for your resolve," he scoffed as he then let Zora go before grabbing him with his talons. "Well, maybe next time, listen to what your superiors have say. See you next fall."

With that cruel parting shot, Yetzer then drops Zora headfirst to his demise.

No one had the will to save him even as the [Ash Magic] user plummeted like a cast stone.

No one stood back up as another horde of Chaos emerged from the flames like a legion of the damned.

No one uttered a single sound, accepting the inevitable as Yetzer had won.

However, just before the masked Magic Knight could make a gory mess of himself on the stone streets leading into the Royal Palace, Grey suddenly leaps out and catches him into her arms, sliding across the ground and making sure he lands safely.

"... WTF," Yetzer flatly remarked.

"... Grey?" Zora mumbled. "... How did you-?"

She then slaps him across his face.

"... Don't give up on living just yet," she begged with a determined look. "WE CAN STILL FIGHT!"

Then the horde of Chaos were then vanished by a wave of spatial distortion brushing through them.

Coming out of the cleanly-bored hole through the buildings were a group of surviving citizens led by Langris Vaude and Jules Index, the former rolling on his wheelchair while the latter tossed aside her finished bottle of liquor.

"What-HOW?!" the bat Demon screeched. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL FUCKING DEAD!"

Langris smirked. "... Turns out being on a wheelchair has its advantages," he revealed. "Your little ballroom blitz was useless when my default movement isn't that of a human articulation."

"In other words, he covered more distance and had a larger killing range due to his physical circumstances," the flushed mathematician pointed out. "... For me, I kinda died once, but my [Number Magic: Synchro Timer] restarted my heart about four minutes after I ate shit. After that, the [Law of Slander] missed me since it registered me as 'dead'. Made it real easy to pull off that exploit behind your back as me and wheelie here gathered what survivors we could find. I'm sure you can figure the rest out."

The bat Demon's eyelid twitched at the drunkard's acts of duplicity. "... You gamed the system," he uttered. "WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE?!"

"An eye for an eye, motherfucker!" Grey then double-flipped off Yetzer. "EVERYONE! IT'S TIME TO STRIKE BACK!"

She then opens her upgraded grimoire right as Julius then breaks out of his own [Chronostasis].

"... I've seen and heard everything," the Wizard King declared. "... Everyone, I ask for your aid, one more time!"

"If you sorry sad-sacks still got a pair of balls that you want to call your own, then show it to me!" Langris cried out as he roused his fellow survivors for their final push. "WE'RE THE GODDAMN CLOVER KINGDOM! AND OUR MAGIC IS OUR RIGHT TO EXIST! SO SHOW IT TO ME THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO USE EM!"

The rallied survivors from both sides raised their voices to the heavens as a massive surge of power then burst from Grey's being, blowing open the Royal Palace's front gates and then shattering the remaining [Chronostasis] bubbles open.

Zora then looks back to see who died before his own execution could take place. Gordon's insides now painted the walls in a gory mural with his skinned-off face as the centerpiece, Kaiser's body was twisted and squeezed out like a wet rag, Damnatio's body was half-emaciated and half-overgrown with tumor-like growths, and Charlotte's whole body was impaled by her own [Thorn Magic] from the crotch up and out of her mouth, her corpse strewn into the briar tree.

All of those executions Zora had watched took place as Yetzer had placed a silence bubble around the whole palace to prevent anyone from looking back while they were busy dealing with the Chaos.

"... Grey," Zora muttered. "... Kick his ass."

She nodded with absolute confidence. "Gladly."

Letting out a yell, her body then glows into a humanoid outline of light as she began to morph.

"[TRANSMOGRIFICATION MAGIC]!" Grey declared as everyone then faced the Demon's horde of Chaos. "[REALIZE PERSONA - THE STRONGEST BEING]!"

Using her imagination, Grey then transforms herself into someone else entirely.

Previously, her [Transformation Magic] could only change the outward appearance of living beings while altering the elements of various spells with her command. But at the end of the day, its application was only skin-deep, not helped by her own innate meekness.

Now that she's completely freed from her doubts and worries, her magic had evolved, not only due to the dying Freki's remnants spilling into her, but also her emotional development that allowed her magic to evolve the way it is.

No longer she's now playing make-believe. Grey now had the power to reinvent herself, shed off her weak self into a stronger existence to adapt and overcome any adversity with her will and desires alone.

Gone was the mousey looking girl, and in place was a tall, busty, and athletic woman with silky and striking long hair dark as night, her clothes now replaced with a deep-purple spandex that hugged around her newly statuesque figure that was then covered with piece of oriental armor around her shoulders, waist, legs, arms, and neck, her Black Bulls robe was now turned into a short cape, and appearing next to her hip was a black-and-gold katana blade with its scabbard having cloud-like iconographies traced over the ocher-black wood.

Grey had now transformed into what she sees as the strongest being: herself taking the path of both High Inquisitor Saiga and the Black Bull's Captain Yami Sukehiro.

"Now then...!" the new Grey then took her sheathed sword before drawing it, revealing [Wailing Dark]'s glowing edge as it radiated from its scabbard as it was unsheathed. "... It is time to break my own limits!"

In a single bound, Grey closes in on Yetzer before swinging her blade to the Demon, knocking him back down before he could do anything.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SO TOUGH, HUH?!" the bat Demon remarked as he then takes his disc before replacing the one on his wing deck. "LET'S SEE YOU DANCE FOR ME, BITCH!"

Now Playing: "The World Is Yours" by Takeharu Ishimoto

"AS IF!" Grey the swings her blade with an arc of dark lightning. "[AVIDYĀ BANISHER - CRUSHING VAJRA]!"

Before the [Law of Slander] could take effect on everyone, Grey had cancelled the all-pervading spell by utilizing pieces of a deity's powers to override the effects while keeping the music playing throughout the whole battlefield.

"This is no longer your victory lap, Yetzer," Grey declared as she brandished her blade towards the Demon. "THIS IS OUR ANTHEM!"

The whole kingdom and their survivors all erupt into a fierce howl as they all began pushing back against the tide of Chaos.

Kahono, upon recovering her voice, uses her [Song Magic] to blast a crushing sound wave that sent the lesser Chaos flying while the bigger ones were immobilized. Kiato then followed up with his [Dance Magic] to slash through the disoriented enemy on the beat, each slash now growing in power with each successful hit.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" the dancer exclaimed with glee. "HOLY CRAP! THE MUSIC IS ON OUR SIDE!"

Kahono beams as she then lets out a death-like scream, the tearing echo ripping a t-rex Chaos apart point-blank as the survivors used their own magic to follow up on their example.

Meanwhile, Langris and his parents used their [Spatial Magic] spells to erase the Chaos out of existence.

"Dear, it appears that these beasts know no fear," the matriarch ruefully remarked.

"Then let us waste them where they stand, Liliane, or my name isn't Ledior of House Vaude," the patriarch declared. "Son, are you ready?"

"Born ready," the wheelchair-bound mage answered as all three of them then combined their [Spatial Magic] together.

"[Compound Spatial Magic: Dimension Warp Cannon - Elysium]!"

A massive pulse of spatial distortion then wipes out a whole row of Chaos before them, punching a hole through the monsters, several buildings, and the capital's walls.

"... Eh, leave the repairs to the peasants," Ledior scoffed at the collateral damage.

"Dear, I'd like to think that's just an excuse for you to cut loose without legal consequences," Liliane snarked as Langris rolled his eyes.

Elsewhere, Sol and Julius were busying themselves carving a path through the horde of Chaos with their spells and blades. Sol's earthen armor allowed the wearer to deliver punches that parried the t-rex Chaos' mace tails back to its allies while Julius began using his [Time Magic] to slow down the local time spontaneously to make it appear as if he's going at super speed, outpacing even the elusive ermine Chaos as he cut them all down with his clock-hand blades.

"I'd say, I'd love to study Grey's new magic," Julius beamed before he offhandedly dodges a gorilla Chaos' hammer fist before decapitating the beast. "But like life, work comes first."

"You go ahead and help her out, Wizard King!" Sol then catches one of the ermine Chaos before ripping it in two with her earthen hands. "I'll be fine down here! So go!"

Julius then gives her the Magic Knight's salute before taking off and bombarding the surrounding area with his [Time Magic]-infused [Mana Bullets], giving her some breathing room as he then joined Grey in her fight.

"Not bad for an amputee," Jules snickered before using her broken liquor bottle as a shiv that pierces through a bear Chaos' chest before killing it. "... Got your back, sweetheart."

In that fight, Yetzer had been on the backfoot as Grey pushed him back with her newfound strength rooted from a god. It took him only a second to realize that she'd escaped from his [Echo Chamber] and that old coot had something to do with it.

"DAMN YOU TO HELL, WENCH!" Yetzer then takes out Charlotte and Gordon's grimoires before speaking in a garble of their voices. "[Poison & Thorn Compound Magic: Kugelfische]!"

A massive blowfish covered with poisonous barbs made of thorns was then casted towards Grey. She easily dodges it, but as soon as she evades it, the projectile then explodes into a spray of toxic spikes raining down in all directions.

But just before it could hit anyone, Julius intervenes with his [Time Magic], rewinding the spell back to its inert state before accelerating the time within the bubble to age it to decay.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," apologized Julius. "... Mind if I give him a few licks for jacking my magic?"

"Be my guest," Grey consented as the Wizard King then punched the Demon so hard and fast that he didn't see him coming.

Yetzer was then sent crashing through several buildings before bursting out of the rubble. "Got that out of your system?"

"Not even close," Julius then brandished his clock-hand swords before rushing the Demon, clashing his blades against Yetzer's talons and claws.

Grey then also joins in with her [Wailing Dark] swinging into the Demon's head, but the target uses the momentum of Julius' own sword swings to propel his own counter-swing to parry both of their attacks at once.

"Sorry, I'm not much of a swordsman," apologized the Wizard King.

"Neither am I," Grey confessed. "... Confidence is one hell of a drug."

"ARE YOU TWO DONE JABBERING ABOUT?!" the bat Demon screeched out as he then manifested Kaiser and Rill's grimoires. "THEN I HOPE YOU FUCKERS SAVED ROOM FOR DESSERT! [PAINT & VORTEX COMPOUND MAGIC: PENDULUM PALETTE]!"

A swirling disc of technicolor paint was thrown toward the pair like a discus. Julius easily stops it with his [Chronostasis], but as soon as it was brought to a halt, the whole spell then explodes into a cacophony of varied elemental spells that rained down indiscriminately.

"IMMA MAKE MODERN ART OUT OF WHAT'S LEFT OF THIS FUCKING CITY!" screamed Yetzer as the spell rained down upon the survivors.

However, every last trace of the elemental barrage was erased by a wave of spatial distortion that forced the Demon to fly out of the way.

"Good grief, when you Demons aren't threatening, you're actively grating," grimaced Langris as he made himself float with his own [Spatial Magic] while on his wheelchair. "... Let me aid you in his extermination. I too wish to see it eradicated."

"Welcome aboard," Grey remarked as she brandished her [Wailing Dark] once more. "Keep an eye out on your grimoire, or else he'll jack it."

"Yeah, like NOW!" Yetzer then brandishes Damnatio's grimoire right before Julius then traps him within his [Chronostasis] before accelerating the time within the bubble to move a millennia per second as all three of them moved in with their attacks.

It only took a second for Yetzer to escape his temporal confinement, parrying their blows with his wing claw.

"DON'T YOU DARE THINK THAT YOU CAN PULL THAT KIND OF SHIT ON ME!" the bat-Demon howled as he then flew up higher, ditching the now-rotten grimoire of Damnatio, forcing the others to give chase across the city's rooftops.

Back below the grounds before the Royal Palace, everyone who had the ability to throw a single spell fought for their very lives against the never-ending tide of Chaos stampeding towards them.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Kiato cried out as he parried a gorilla Chaos' fist with his broken sword before delivering his lethal reprisal.

Everyone, but Zora, whose mind was shattered upon being a forced witness to the gruesome deaths of the three Captains, a Magic Parliament's Chairman/Supreme Court Judge, and a close ally of the Black Bulls that he'd failed to save.

... How's everyone fighting like this? he thought as he saw Kahono scream out a shattering note that repelled a t-rex Chaos' mace-tail swing along with several other Chaos creatures. ... How... are they willing to face death... even if the odds are stacked against them?

Deep down, he knew why they were fighting, but Zora could no longer comprehend it.

Even though that the Demon's gambit of using his own magic traps he'd placed around the city didn't kill anyone (as far as he knew), a sense of "what-if" had crushed his resolve like a leaden weight the size of a mountain.

... Dad, he began to sob, even as both commoner and nobility united against the horde of death. ... Is this the kind of world you sought? A world where everyone can become a Magic Knight of Justice?

"... Hell of a view, ain't it?"

A calming voice snaps him out of his funk, revealing itself to be a middle-aged doctor mage accompanied by a bob-haired young man dressed like a high-ranking noble.

"You're a Magic Knight, aren't you?" Marx remarked as he then picked up Sergei's mace before extending its telescoping handle. "... Please. We need your help! We need everyone to stand their ground!"

Zora looks down with shame. "... I almost got everyone killed-"

"But you didn't," the doctor reassured as Marx enters the fray, smashing a frog Chaos' head in with his weapon. "... I met your father once, Mr. Ideale. We only talked once, but I knew that his heart was the kind we needed in more Magic Knights back in my day. Unfortunately, my line of work kept me from socializing as much as I liked to, so imagine my horror that he was found dead with rumors that his own squad did him in."

"... Don't patronize me," Zora growled.

"I'm not, just stating the truth," the doctor bluntly replied. "... Look, I don't think anyone is born a fighter but we can choose to grow as fighters in a world without mercy or simply not. Either way, we all die someday, but do you wish to be remembered as a failed hero who at least tried to fight or a coward living to the ripe old age of seventy who only got that far by fleeing? I know my answer."

The doctor then takes off his glasses as he then summons several man o' wars made of water whose tendrils healed the injuries of the combating civilians, Witches, Magic Knights, and others who were willing to fight.

"... I'm going to be the Super Magic Knight of Justice like he was!" the doctor declared as he then summons a sizable manta ray made of water from his grimoire before it then fired a wave-blast of surging water at the Chaos. "Oh, and by the way, me and Sir Marx ran through the city, and we managed to confirm that there were no other casualties for the last five minutes. Sir Portaport's [Spatial Magic] had proven crucial to securing an escape route for the injured that I treated."

Zora's eyes widened upon seeing and hearing that the doctor's words were genuine. He then reluctantly looks back at the corpses of those who he failed to save from their cruel and unusual deaths, and rather than feel horror from their post-mortem states, all he felt now was fury.

"... Fuck, FUCK!"

Zora then slams his fist into the ground before using that action to spring himself back up to his feet as both of his hands then manifested a pair of [Riot Chain of Rebellion] bombs before he then slung both of them around towards the elephant Chaos creatures readying their laser trunks, tying them up with the bomb to prevent them from being fired.

"YOU'LL ALL FUCKING PAY FOR THIS!"

Right before the Chaos could explode from the overloading energy, Zora then triggers the chain-bombs to then explode, adding their blast into the elephant's own payload to create a bigger explosion that took both pachyderms and the surrounding Chaos flanking it.

"Welcome back, Zora," the doctor grinned.

"Sorry about pussying out there for a second," he apologized before turning towards the flames to spot more Chaos coming out of the inferno to replace their fallen. "... Okay, now I really need to get up there and kick that flying rat's face in myself. Think I can carve a way through?"

"Did someone say carve?" Jules Index then appeared between them, still wasted from the drinking earlier on. "... Leave it to the 'Theological Railgunner'!"

She then runs forth with nothing more than a broken booze bottle as her weapon to face down the Chaos.

"That's right... right there!" She then winds her hand back as if she were about to swing a sword. "[Number Curse Magic: Ratio - 7:3]!"

With a single horizontal swing, she decapitates every last Chaos approaching them, their lopped heads flying into the air before hailing down like a rain of skulls upon everyone, forcing them to take cover lest they get crushed by the bigger loads.

"... Holy shit!" Zora exclaimed as the doctor then shielded their heads with his water man o' wars. "Why didn't you do that sooner-?!"

After that display of sheer badassery, Jules suddenly collapses onto the ground, sawing logs as if she'd drunk too much in a single sitting, not caring that a literal rain of heads was being pelted around her.

"... Her drinking problem is one my long-term cases," deadpanned the doctor as he then wills his manta ray next to Zora. "... I take it that you'll be able to make your way over there?"

Zora smirked as he then got onto the manta ray. "Thanks doc. I owe you one!"

"Please, call me Owen," he replied as he then saw off his friend's son take off towards the enemy. "... Sir Portaport?"

"You rang?" the [Spatial Magic] user then popped his head out from one of the doors from the buildings as Dr. Owen the dragged the snoring Jules Index to the rotund Magic Knight's arms.

"Please be sure to keep any form of liquor away from her reach while I keep myself busy."

Back up at the city's rooftops, Yetzer was being pursed by Julius, Grey, and Langris as the former kept flying away.

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASILY!" the wheelchair-bound ex-Golden Dawn exclaimed as multiple projectiles appeared around him. "[Spatial Magic: Archangel's Shootdown]!"

Many spatial anomalies shot towards the Demon's back before it was then caught by Kaiser's [Vortex Magic] before being thrown back haphazardly.

"Sir Vaude, may I hold onto this?" asked Julius as he catches one in his [Chronostasis].

"Be my guest!" he replied as he used his [Spatial Magic] to move about freely while still being confined to his wheelchair.

"MAN YOU BASTARDS ARE SO ANNOYING!" the bat Demon screeched as he then brought out Gordon and Rill's grimoires before speaking their amalgam voice with [Doppelgänger] still active. "[Poison & Paint Compound Magic: Eisenwald]!"

The landscape painting consisting of forests with trees of poisoned blades for leaves then blocked their way.

"Hmph, predictable." Langris then swipes his hand across the obstacle to remove them with his [Spatial Magic], but as the trees were cut down, several more took their place instantly.

"Guess we're going around then!" Julius suggested as the three of them then navigated around the deadly forest, only for the trees to begin shooting their blade leaves at them like projectiles. "... Of course."

Grey then deflects most of the rain of poisoned steel with her [Wailing Dark] as Yetzer further extended the gap between them.

"KYAHAHAHAHA! NOW NO ONE WILL EVER REACH ME-!"

Suddenly, heralded by an absolutely feral roar of pure rage, Yetzer was rammed out of the sky by none other than Zora riding atop of Owen's manta ray, proceeding to then drive the Demon into the forest of his own making as his body then encased itself with a suit of thick ash.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL, HUH?!" Zora roared through his protective suit as he made sure to make Yetzer feel every second of the pain he'd inflicted onto those who he'd killed by pushing him through the [Eisenwald], shredding the demon through his own hellish creation. "HOW DOES THIS EXCRUCIATING PAIN FEEL FOR YOU, YOU MOTHERFUCKER?!"

Breaking out of the other side of the forest of poisoned blades, Zora reunites with the other three while riding atop of his borrowed manta ray ramming the bat Demon, revealing himself as his suit of ash broke apart.

"Took you long enough," grimaced Langris.

"Yeah, yeah, cut the chatter, kill that son of a bitch," Zora replied as he and everyone else then moved in for the finishing blow.

"I-I WON'T LET YOU!"

In desperation, he then brings out all four of his remaining grimoires to unleash his last-ditch attack.

"[Super Compound Magic]!" [Thorn], [Vortex], [Paint], and [Poison Magic] were all combined into an amalgam spell that was a sphere of pure destruction. "[END OF THE WORLD]!"

Seeing the projectile, Langris then unleashes an all encompassing sphere of [Spatial Magic] of his own, straining himself to match the other spell's sheer mass before unleashing it.

"[Spatial Magic: Archangel Hammer]!"

[End of the World] was averted as the wheelchair-bound ex-Golden Dawn then fell back, leaving to the others to finish the job.

Seeing that it had failed, Yetzer tries to flee, but Zora then conjures an ashen crossbow loaded with a thick-headed payload in its feed.

"YOU AIN'T GOIN' ANYWHERE!" he cried out as he pulled the trigger to shoot the payload. "[ASH BINDING MAGIC: BEGGAR'S BURDEN]!"

A sheet of ash was then unleashed from the arrow before it then envelops the bat Demon whole, trapping him within the sphere of black, allowing both Julius and Grey to move in for the kill.

"THIS IS FOR ALL THE BULLSHIT THAT YOU PUT US THROUGH!" Grey cried out as she then raised her [Wailing Dark] over her head.

"For all the lives you've snuffed out... YOU SHALL FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT!" Julius then uses the [Archangel Shootdown] he'd collected in his [Chronostasis] as his own for the killing blow.

Yetzer simply snarls. "... DON'T GET COCKY, YOU LITTLE SHITS!"

Suddenly, Yetzer then spits out a snapped blade that was caught from his own trip through [Eisenwald], the sharp projectile cracking the [Chronostasis] and then nailing into Julius' neck.

"NO!" Zora cried out as the Wizard King suffers a mortal blow to his vitals.

The poison began taking effect, discoloring the skin around his neck wound purple until his veins began to burn as if they were set ablaze from within.

No.

Then from within his soul, another voice spoke.

This is not your time.

Acting on instinct, Julius removes the blade with his bare hands before using both the borrowed [Spatial Magic] and his own [Time Magic] to cure himself from his fatal wound.

"[Spatial & Time Compound Recovery Magic: Dialogí]."

The [Spatial Magic] surgically erases the poison in his veins, whereas the [Time Magic] stitches the wounds shut in less than a second.

Yetzer also took notice before noticing that there was something peculiar about the Wizard King's own soul.

"... Oh I see," he snickered. "... You're not exactly from here, aren't you?"

Snapping back into reality, Julius then manifests a pair of clock-hand swords in both of his hands as he and Grey both brought down their blades towards the Demon.

"... Too late... to make any difference...!" mocked the Demon as it said its final words to its killers. "KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-!"

It was then decapitated by Grey's [Wailing Dark] before the head was cut into four pieces by Julius' clock-hand swords.

"... It's finished," Julius heaved out before falling to his knees as Grey followed soon after, reverting back to her original form.

"I can't feel my legs anymore..." she groaned before Zora came rolling in with Langris.

"And I'm the one in the wheelchair," he deadpanned.

Soon enough, the Chaos began fading away from existence before the civilians.

"... Hey, aren't they going away?"

"No way... They actually did it!"

"THREE CHEERS FOR THE CLOVER KINGDOM!"

"THREE CHEERS FOR THOSE WHO FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL!"

"HAZAAH!"

The whole city's remaining populace then erupted into celebration of their well earned victory. Kiato and Kahono embrace each other in cathartic joy, the remaining Witches pull Marx in for celebration, much to his embarrassment, and Sol's [War Dress of the Mother] crumbles, reverting her back into her single-legged state before Owen catches her.

"Hang on, we'll get you patched up," the doctor reassured as he dragged her towards Cob's [Spatial Magic] doors. "Sir Portaport, please assist us and any able-bodied people with the medevac."

"Yes doctor!" Cob then gives the Magic Knights salute as he then began organizing the medevac.

The survivors were all then moved outside of the capital walls upon evaluating that a destroyed city makes for poor conditions to treat people's wounds due to the risk of falling debris and lack of space.

As Sol's wounds were cleansed and properly dressed, Owen sighs before heading towards where the bodies were at, or at the least, the ones that they were able to collect relatively intact.

"... It never gets easier," he shook his head as Cob stood next to him.

"It's just like the Clover-Diamond Kingdom War twenty years ago..." he agreed. "... I got all of their names. We're ready for their funeral pyre when you give the order. The Wizard King gave us the go-ahead."

"Thank you," Owen nodded before giving the lost souls a prayer. "... I'm sorry for being unable to save you all, but we won't let your deaths be in vain-"

Then his ear twitched at the sound of something crumbling. Normally, a common person would dismiss that as one of the walls crumbling down, but as a doctor, it's literally his job to make sure that no stone was left unturned.

Heading towards where the sounds was most prominent, he then spots the acid trap where the golems from the North had been disposed of, only now the walls containing them were partially damaged from the fighting, causing cracks to start forming on the weakened, bored out surface.

"... Sir Portaport!" the doctor cried out. "EVACUATE-!"

The breach then gives away, causing a flood of caustic liquid to spill out and envelop the doctor and a few more unfortunate souls to dissolve in the acid.

The sudden flood of their breached trap forces everyone to flee for their lives, but thankfully, no other lives were lost from the spillover.

"... Why is there something moving inside?" asked Grey as she everyone saw something glimmer within the hollow.

Emerging into the daylight was a mannequin-like golem whose earthy form was replaced with a mirror like sheen.

"... I don't think it's hostile," Zora commented. "... Everyone, move back, slowly-"

"Who dares?!" Liliana then steps forth with her own [Spatial Magic], still hot-blooded from her high of their recent victory. "I won't fall back on some paltry leftovers! Perish-!"

But just as her own [Spatial Magic] shot struck the golem, the mirror sheen then bounced the spell back at her, removing her whole head from her neck until she fell to the ground as a corpse.

As soon as her body hit the floor, the sheen-covered golem then ran rampant, charging wildly and flailing its arms around like a child.

It didn't maim anyone, but the sheer force of its blows sent people flying, causing a surge of panic to run throughout the survivors.

"FUCK! WHAT NOW?!" Langris exclaimed as he rolled away with his wheelchair.

"I THINK OUR ACID TRAP CAUSED THE GOLEMS TO POLISH THEMSELVES INTO A SINGULAR BEING!" Zora pointed out. "IT'S FORM IS LIKE THAT OF BEZOAR!"

"HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!" Marx exclaimed.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME! I'M JUST WORKNG OFF OF PURE CONJECTURE!" Zora barked back as the bezoar golem chased them in a blind fury.

As it then kept chasing them, suddenly, a loud bang was heard from the horizon before it was then followed up with a flash and then an explosion that blasted everyone from behind.

Everyone turned back to spot a red-haired woman dressed in eastern clothing (or a close approximation/replica) placing her foot atop of the golem's head with her geta-sandaled feet before she then turned her head towards the once-fleeing crowd.

"You there," she spoke. "Have you seen the Mitsurugi Twins?"

No one knew how to answer save for stunned silence.

But just before anyone could comment further, the golem then springs up from her footing, sending her back before charging towards its new target.

"CAREFUL! THAT THING REFLECTS MAGIC!" warned Marx.

"I know." She then smirks as lightning crackled around her whole body. "And that's it's last mistake."

A massive bolt of lightning then strikes her from above before it was then replaced with a massive, crimson-scaled humanoid Dragon whose horns and wings were akin to golden arcs of lightning.

Everyone goes wide-eyed in sheer shock of her sudden appearance, with some fainting on the spot from her sheer majesty.

"I'LL BE FINE AS LONG AS THE MAGIC ITSELF DOESN'T HIT IT DIRECTLY, RIGHT?!"

She then flings off her entire torii gate-styled rack of weapons that then surrounded the golem, each armament charged with a titanic surge of electricity.

"[PRIMAL LIGHTNING MAGIC]!" the Dragon declared in a voice akin to a god's thunder. "[GAUSS PRESSURE]!"

The surrounding weapons began emitting crushing waves of electromagnetism that pressed the golem from all sides, as both it and the titanic weapons were all given a negative charge while the ground itself was giving out a positive charge, turning the whole place into her electromagnetic jail.

As a result, the golem's reflective sheen was unable to reflect the magic that was being reflected back at it, resulting in a one-sided feedback loop that began compressing its whole body into the size of a child's marble.

Once the golem was dealt with, the Dragon then collects its weapons and the former golem (the latter as a trinket) before reverting back to her human form.

"... Huh? What are you all looking at me like that for?" she asked before coming to her own conclusion. "... Oh right! I didn't introduce myself! How rude of me..."

She then stands wide-legged and leaning down with her right hand extended outwards.

"This one is none other than Zio, the [Lightning Dragon]!" she greeted with a hearty grin. "And I have come from Libratium in search of Akane and Mari Mitsurugi. Do any of you know where they are?!"

From the crowd of flabbergasted people, three hands raise up coming from the Platinia family.

---

Present Day...

---

"I can't believe you," deadpanned Corrin.

"I don't believe you," rebuked Jericho.

"And I for one, do not care," the Witch Queen Agatha rolled her eyes even as she and the rest of the survivors from the Forest of Denial rode atop the flying Zio's back while being debriefed of Clover Kingdom's situation through the provided [Projection Orb].

Those who weren't paying attention were either tuned off, busy flying, or sleeping (FTR, Corrin had woken up few minutes earlier upon realizing that she can't sleep in turbulence)

"Believe in what you want, but it happened regardless," Julius spoke with lifeless eyes as Akane was still torturing Ledior, now by breaking his toes one by one, even after he'd pissed himself twice. "... We're down to a third of our original populace, and efforts to reestablish contact with Avalon has been unsuccessful."

"But dat doesn't explain why dose two tarts from de east are in yer room rite now," Dagda pointed out, the "0" still hanging over his head. "... So did they come afterwards or not-?"

Then the sounds of the doors opening were heard, followed up with heavy boot steps entering the room.

"Greetings," a gruff voice remarked before revealing himself as Yami Sukehiro giving the Magic Knight's salute, now sporting a new pair of amethyst-colored horns from his brows similar to Akane's own amber ones. "... You guys too?"

"... Captain, I have several questions," Jericho pointed out. "Mainly, why are you and that Hanafudan woman sporting the same pair of horns in different colors?"

Yami then looks at Julius for something.

"... I need a break anyway," the Wizard King grumbled as he then got out of his hair before opening the windows. "Ah fuck, Queen Lolopechka is trying to unalive herself again!"

The Wizard King then flies out of the window before Akane then throws the bawling Ledior out of the same window, causing him to break more bones upon reaching the ground. "So, you want us to tell you a story of the 'Fortunate Son'?"

Yami then lights a cigarette before taking a long drag from it. "Buckle up," he warned. "This one is going to suck."

---

To Be Continued...

---

Author's Notes: Another arc down, about 4 more arcs to go before the final chapter.

Been noticing something about the Black Clover community, and aside from the mobile game spin-off, it's been rather slow since the mangaka's chapters are no longer coming out weekly. While I can hazard a guess that the author is taking his time to make sure that everything is wrapped up nicely and everyone has a chance to show up, I myself am spinning the wheels in this fic, making it low-priority while testing some of my untested ideas in this fic/this fic is a testbed for my more "experimental" story ideas.

As for real life outside of fanfiction, I've got a new volunteer gig at a local art museum, been buying Gunpla, playing Zenless Zone Zero, having trouble sleeping due to August not being like fall like when I was in elementary school (I blame climate change), and my laptop's keyboard keys falling apart because "I", "U," and "C" are being assholes.

To those still reading this, thank you for doing so, and be sure to read my main-priority fic, "High School DxD - Re:Incarnation of Malevolence," a story I adopted from dvdryms and rebooted it into my own vision.

For now, enjoy this fic's long sunset. I'll try and put my best foot forward when tackling each of these chapters. Because the next arc is going to be the Vietnam War taking place in the world of Black Clover.

References:

- The ermine Chaos are based off the Japanese Yōkai, the Kamaitachi/Sickle Weasels, and specifically based off the "- Mink" line of Noise from The World Ends With You (Thrash, Death Thrash, Grindcore, and Death Metal).

- Sol losing both of her arms is based off how Ethan lost his arm from Resident Evil Village at the hands/claws of Lady Dimitrescu.

- Yetzer's [Sound Magic: Doppelgänger] is based off IRL "deepfakes" and "robocalls" that let AI impersonate other people's voices one for one, and said spell works as identity theft for other peoples' grimoires.

- Grey's last sprint out of the [Echo Chamber] is based off Kirumi Tojo's pre-Execution escape attempt from Danganronpa V3.

- The way Cleopatra slowly loses her mind while possessing Goliath's body is based off how President Haltmann gets his soul DELETED by the Star Dream OS in Kirby: Planet Robobot.

- Yama's reaction of acquiring the [Akashic Records]/being trapped an infinitely-updating well of the world's knowledge is based off of Mad Stan's state in Batman Beyond Season 2, Episode 14, "Eyewitness," where Spellbinder hooked him up to the VR machine after his supposed "death."

- Yetzer takes a page from Sukuna Ryomen's playbook (during Jujutsu Kaisen's Shibuya Incident Arc) of putting Yuji through HELL when forcing Zora to watch all of the capital city burn from his own traps activating against his will.

- Grey's new [Transmogrification Magic]'s main function is based off Rosengarten Saga's Arthur's [Excalibur], where it allows him to manifest his alternative selves that have taken a "different path" from his current one. The hypothetical "magical girl transformation"-sequence is based of Symphogear's.

- Grey's [Transmogrification Magic: Realize Persona - The Strongest Being] form is based off of EVE from Stellar Blade and Minamoto-no-Raikou (Berserker) from Fate/Grand Order, with her custom weapon [Wailing Dark] being Augus' sword from Asura's Wrath. Also, her technique [Avidyā Banisher - Crushing Vajra]/"Mumyō Tsuihō - Funsai Kongō (無明追放 - 粉砕金剛) is also named after Augus' sword's Japanese name, named after the Buddhist concept of ignorance.

- Jules Index's [Number Curse Magic: Ratio - 7:3] is based off Jujutsu Kaisen's Kento Nanami's signature Cursed Technique, [Ratio], with her broken booze bottle acting as his blunted blade.

- Zio's [Primal Lightning Magic: Gauss Pressure] spell is based off Lance Crown's [Graviole Secondth: Torture Pole] spell from Mashle, but in reverse (push rather than pull), and named after a magnetic flux density discovered by a German mathematician and astronomer, Carl Friedrich Gauss.