The white light—no one knew how long it lasted—finally began to fade.
This time, the radiance lingered even longer than before, and the heat it unleashed was even more overwhelming, scattering away the infernal flames across the land until only scorched earth remained.
Altera had already vanished, her Saint Graph completely consumed.
And on the ground, what was left behind was a gaping hole, as if it could pierce straight into the planet's core, a sight that was utterly shocking.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!"
Tiamat's monotonous cries echoed once more.
But this time, her voice carried more pain, more weakness than before.
"Did it work…?"
High in the skies, raising Galatine to block the torrent of scorching heat, Rozen slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the earth below.
There, Tiamat lay prone upon the ground, struggling with difficulty, her entire body charred as smoke rose from her scorched form.
Through Wise Eye, Rozen observed that Tiamat's divine aura had diminished greatly.
Through Mind's Eye, he perceived that her Saint Graph's structure had become far more fragile than before.
"Noble Phantasm—Tears of the Star, Sword of the War God—has concluded its deployment!"
"Beast II's Saint Graph values have dropped drastically! Current Saint Graph output: 11%!"
"Th-this… this is our chance!"
Inside Chaldea, the voices of Roman, Da Vinci, and Olga Marie rang out, unable to suppress their excitement.
Because finally, they could see hope.
11%.
Compared to before, that number was frighteningly low.
And Tiamat no longer had the means to repair her Saint Graph again.
This truly was the perfect opportunity.
Then—
"Let me end this!"
Rozen dismissed Galatine, raising his right hand, glowing with luminous sigils traced from his Magic Crest, once again.
From his body, a surge of High-Grade Mana mixed with resplendent spiritual radiance erupted outward like a tidal wave.
Following the channels of contract, that vast mana poured into the summoned girls of the Kaleid Blood.
The girls of Kaleid Blood, who had been locked in fierce combat with the Laḫmu, all halted at once, as though divinely inspired, dissolving into particles of light and merging into the Beast Vassals they had summoned, fusing as one.
Even Avrora, riding atop Hokuto's head, underwent the same union.
Then, the twelve Beast Vassals soared into the skies.
Kiffa Ater was the first to cut through the heavens, halting high above.
One after another, the remaining Beast Vassals all merged into the obsidian sword, fusing completely with Kiffa Ater.
Fusion.
Rozen still had one final trump card yet to reveal.
That was the ability to fuse his Beast Vassals.
At that instant, Rozen fused together all twelve of the Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassals, letting Kiffa Ater absorb each of its kindred, its black blade shedding its form and swelling in size.
Before long, what appeared was a blade as though woven from rainbows themselves, radiating prismatic brilliance, stretching thousands of meters in length—like a divine sword of heaven—the Rainbow Light Sword shining in the sky.
Rozen invoked Cleansing, bestowing destructive properties upon the blade, igniting it with rainbow flames that blazed across its entire form.
The fused Beast Vassal born of the twelve radiated an aura that shook the heavens and the earth alike.
"It all ends with this!"
Rozen poured every last drop of his mana into the Light Sword.
The rainbow flames blazing upon its blade grew fiercer, its aura increasingly terrifying, enough to make the struggling Tiamat instinctively realize—
This strike would force her back into her original form.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!"
In the end, Tiamat's cry became almost like a sorrowful hymn.
That voice, for an instant, seemed to contain the emotions of her days when she still bore human shape.
Rozen's motion to deliver the final strike froze, his gaze unconsciously drawn to Tiamat's, meeting her star-like eyes.
And in those eyes, he seemed to glimpse the memories of the distant Age of Gods.
The memories of Tiamat.
Back when the world was nothing but ocean, before the sky and land came to be—then, as the embodiment of saltwater, Tiamat joined with the freshwater deity Abzu, merging their powers to bring forth children.
Those offspring, born from the union of saltwater and freshwater, naturally possessed incredible strength—undeniably gods.
In those days, Tiamat could still feel true joy at their birth.
In those days, she could still shower those new lives with maternal love and kindness.
But alas, the children grew. They sought independence, and from that, the desire to rule arose. They slew their father Abzu, and even sought to kill their mother Tiamat. Heartbroken, Tiamat used her own strength to create eleven children to resist the gods.
Yet without Abzu's freshwater, those eleven children created by saltwater alone could not become gods, only monsters.
In the end, even they, along with Tiamat, were slain by the gods.
From then on, Tiamat was exiled into the Imaginary Number Space, where she remained, alone, sorrowful, and lost, watching this world—forever yearning for her children, forever waiting for the day of return.
One could say that Tiamat's entire existence had been spent in grief and longing for her offspring.
Rozen could almost see it all.
And then—
"…I pity you."
Before realizing it, those words left Rozen's lips.
"Strictly speaking, you were nothing more than a victim—an innocent, rejected by the world, by mankind, and by the gods alike."
But what choice was there?
"To this planet, you are still far too dangerous."
Just like Altera.
"Altera was sealed upon the Moon, for if she were to walk the Earth, all of this planet would vanish."
"And you were exiled into the Imaginary Number Space, for if you returned to Earth, everything would be reset and undone."
"You are innocent—and yet undeniably unsuited to walk the earth again."
"But still… there remains a chance for your salvation."
Rozen declared.
"Let me be the one to grant it to you."
With those words, he swung down his arm.
Rumble…
In the heavens, the Rainbow Light Sword, wreathed in rainbow flames, tore through the skies with a deafening roar, descending with overwhelming might.
Though grand and thunderous, its speed was instantaneous.
In an instant, the Rainbow Light Sword struck, crashing down upon Tiamat before she could react.
BOOOOM—!!
From the ground, rainbow light erupted like a storm, rippling outward in unrelenting waves.
The shockwave split and shattered the earth, made the sky quake and wail, even the nearby Uruk seemed baptized in its force, its walls and structures swept away.
That sight—it was like the end of the world.
Within it, Tiamat's draconic body disintegrated, scattering into ash.
And from within, the goddess of motherhood herself emerged, as if from a core.
"Now!"
Rozen's figure appeared before the goddess.
In his hand, a Rope of Shackles lashed outward, coiling tightly around her.
///Silksong today! Yippy!///