It was overwhelming.
"Incineration Formula!"
"All of you are unacknowledged!"
"So warm!"
"The time for play has come!"
"Gyahahahahahaha!"
"Unneeded, unneeded, unneeded!"
"A finite life… how enviable!"
The Devil forces led by Serafall Leviathan were being crushed by the fused entity of the Demon God Pillars known as Clan Calatin. As time passed, the Devils' lives were snuffed out one by one. Even Serafall's peerage was no exception.
"I'm sorry, Serafall-sama…"
As time wore on, more comrades fell. Those they thought invincible were killed effortlessly. This wasn't a matter of winning or losing—Clan Calatin's combat prowess was at least on par with a chief god.
To defeat this monster, pure firepower was needed—on the level of Hindu mythology's supreme gods or Indra, or a full-powered Sirzechs Lucifer. Serafall was undoubtedly strong, but still insufficient.
"Damn it! What the hell is this?!"
Saji Genshirou cursed. He and Sona Sitri's peerage were barely escaping, too overwhelmed to even use the artificial Sacred Gears provided by the Fallen Angels.
But more than his powerlessness, a harsher reality gnawed at Saji's heart: the Demon God Pillars weren't absolute evil. No, they were evil—from a Devil's perspective, they were irredeemably so. If their claims were true, these otherworldly beings were unrelated to the victims they spoke of. But was that wrong? Helping the unrelated without reward— wasn't that justice?
What is right? Who is right?
No, Saji had no right to ponder such things. His family survived because of Sona. His younger siblings could eat because of her. Even if Devils were evil, even if the Demon God Pillars had a just cause, he had no choice. No right to think otherwise.
"This is insane! One is bad enough, but twenty-eight fused together?!"
To his anguished cry, Clan Calatin responded without mockery.
"This was never our intended manifestation. It's the idea of a lascivious queen obsessed with a single hero while mingling with countless men. We revised, improved, refined it. Emotions we cannot feel. Thoughts we cannot manifest. Humans are fascinating. Humans are intriguing. They show a brilliance neither we nor you possess. Now, this farce ends."
All the crimson-black eyeballs on its massive form glowed ominously. Seeing this, Serafall Leviathan channeled her ultimate magic.
"I won't lose… I can't lose! For the Underworld's future! For Sona-tan above all!"
"We recite the twenty-eight propositions. To reach the extremity, we shall burn your truth to ashes!"
"Zero and Droplet Mist Snow Celsius Cross Trigger!"
"Incineration Formula Clan Calatin!"
A cataclysmic clash of magic. Serafall Leviathan, one of the strongest female Devils, was still just the strongest among Devils—a waning, declining, near-extinct race from the Biblical framework. Clan Calatin held the overwhelming advantage.
The shockwave from the magical collision shattered the defensive barriers Sona's peerage hastily erected. They were blown back, crashing into the ground. The impact left them unable to move.
As the shockwave subsided, Sona, sprawled on the ground, opened her eyes to see a battered Serafall, her beloved magical girl outfit in tatters. Forcing a smile, she addressed her sister.
"You okay, Sona-tan?"
"Onee-sama!"
Serafall had shielded her. Sona bore no significant injuries.
But Clan Calatin was barely damaged. Some parts were frozen, but its movements seemed unimpeded. The Kuoh Summit intrusion showed how little effort it had exerted then.
"Tenacious. Truly tenacious."
"Exposing your shame?"
"Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic!"
"But this ends now."
"We declare the rhyme of Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Great Satans: Truth, Complete Annihilation!"
"Incineration Formula—"
Then it happened.
A scream from the star itself.
A poetic expression, but the only fitting one. Something so immense had occurred that it halted even Clan Calatin's murderous intent. Its countless eyeballs twitched frantically.
"Urgent from Zepar! Emergency!"
"What's wrong, Ze— What?!"
"Diehauser Belial betrayed us?!"
"Solomon, such a move?"
"Hyoudou Issei… the ring… the mud… Understood."
"Control Bureau contacted. Awaiting response… Response received."
"Urgent! To the twenty-eight comrades forming Clan Calatin! Cease current operations immediately. Andromalius and ten Pillars, reinforce Baal's forces in the Underworld. Zepar and ten Pillars, analyze the Beast of Expectation. Glasya-Labolas and eight Pillars, return to the Temple of Time!"
Most eyeballs stilled in agreement, but a few locked onto the dying Serafall.
"Acknowledged from Glasya-Labolas. But first, this Devil's life ends. Perfectly crushed. Completely killed. Retribution for this slothful Satan. Judgment for defiling the tears of maidens."
Needless to say, it was Glasya-Labolas.
"With this Incineration Formula, your life ends. Apologize to the maidens you shamed as your soul vanishes entirely—!"
Once more, Clan Calatin's eyes fixed on Sona and her sister. Serafall tried to counter, but her body couldn't move. She thought to at least teleport Sona away, but the earlier damage was too severe.
"Help…"
Sona prayed—to God, to a Satan, to anyone. She screamed.
"Someone, please help!"
A response came, not from the monstrous Pillar conglomerate, but from behind, casual as if answering a lunch invitation.
"Got it. I'll help."
The Chains of Heaven's successor sensed it first.
"—!?!?!"
His inherited keen presence detection made him notice. But it was far from fortunate, being the first to experience such revulsion.
Almost simultaneously, gods and demons attuned to sensing presences or spatial distortions noticed. It, too, was misfortune.
It wasn't the awe of an overwhelming presence like Trihexa. Nor the terror of absolute death like the Old Man of the Mountain. It was mundane yet impossible—visceral disgust.
"What… what is this?!"
"Ughhh!"
"Gahgahgah—kyaaa?!"
It felt vile. So vile. So vile.
Like drinking water from a sludge-polluted river. Pure disgust and discomfort, overwhelmingly intense.
Those who staggered were lucky; some vomited. That no one went mad was a small mercy, befitting the star's mightiest deities.
"What's happening?!"
"What's this chill…?"
Those less attuned to detection soon noticed—not the Beast's presence, but the malice of the mud within it. No, malice might not be accurate. What these gods and demons felt was murderous intent. The hatred of victims they created and forgot. Perpetrators forget, but victims don't. The forgotten past had come to kill everyone present.
"What's wrong, Kingu? You look pale. Is it this awful feeling?"
"Tamamo, we're leaving."
Tamamo approached with concern, but Kingu scooped her up and hurriedly left the venue. Their yokai escorts followed, confused. Kingu could fly to escape, but he wouldn't abandon Tamamo and the others.
The chaotic venue didn't notice, let alone stop, their departure.
"This is bad. Worse than Mother or Solomon. No joke—this isn't even a Beast of Humanity. A supreme Lahmu? Who the hell awakened this monster?!"
Amid the venue's uproar, Trihexa stood stunned. It, too, sensed the newly born Beast's presence, its expression more shocked than anyone's.
"No…"
"Fohhh."
The defeated Beast roared, as if groaning, blood tears streaming from its eyes.
"I wasn't told! Pouring mud into my other half? This wasn't the deal, Belial!"
Seeing it, everyone thought it resembled a Devil. No, perhaps more accurately, a Demon God.
A crimson full-body armor like the Red Dragon Emperor's, adorned with eyeball-like patterns and mouth-like cracks. Its right arm was white, the left blackish. Massive pterosaur-like wings and a serpentine tail moved freely, not mere ornaments. Two horns sprouted from its helmet, like a Satan from books or paintings. A miasma, perhaps, exuded an evil aura. Its mere presence felt maddening, as if it tainted the air.
The nearby Gremory peerage, and even Rizevim and Archer at a distance, halted their battle, struck silent. Even Rizevim, a Satan's son, was speechless at its malevolence.
"What a ghastly form. Fitting for a world-destroying Beast."
Diehauser Belial remarked calmly though he was the least sane. No creature on this star was madder than a Devil who knowingly aided Solomon's true plan—except Solomon and the God of the Bible.
"Your other half would surely say, 'I wasn't told,' 'This wasn't the deal.' Naturally."
This Beast D/L wasn't in its intended form. Trihexa expected its other half to manifest correctly.
The true Beast D/L, bearing Expectation, was meant to embody "humanity's revenge for tragedies inflicted by the supernatural." It was Solomon's wrath itself. Thus, it manifests not by using the rings but by having them embedded. Its defeat comes through "trust-based cooperation between humans and the supernatural," realizing the futility of its expected revenge and the error of its vendetta, leading to its downfall.
That was the plan. But it didn't happen. The key was the mud. Not waste from Truth or the System entering through the rings, but the rings themselves containing the mud.
"Of the King of Magecraft's four accomplices—Demon King Asmodeus, Pillar Asmodai, Angel Belial, excluding the original Beelzebub—they aimed for 'a world where humans and the supernatural join hands.' A fusion of divine and human order. No hierarchy, no good or evil, no strong or weak, no right or wrong. All races dining as brothers. That clichéd utopia was their dream."
They embraced Solomon's plan, knowing it would taint their myths, to hide their motives. Their aligned desires became Truth's waste. The Beast that fed on it never doubted that the King of Magecraft shared their foolish ideal.
"Devils betrayed their kin, angels defected to the King of Magecraft. But too bad—Solomon had no intention of realizing that world. He trusted and treated his accomplices sincerely but never spoke the truth. He deceived every god and Satan. How could you think otherwise?"
"Ridiculous."
"Our successors were never like us. Cruzelei used the ring, but Shalba died unaware that the original Lucifer was betrayed."
Mocking the Satans' descendants, Diehauser was met with the Beast's cold gaze. Its first Noble Phantasm, akin to the Holy Grail's mud or Chaos Tide in another world.
"Crimson-Black Mud Welsh Chaos Tide."
Red-black mud erupted from the Beast's shadow, moving like a sinister creature, lunging at Diehauser.
"If Cleria died for forbidden love, I could've forgiven it. I'd have shared the original's ideal and challenged Solomon. But her death was due to old Devils' delusions, using her love as a pretext!"
Diehauser deployed a magic circle before the mud reached him, teleporting away with a curse.
With Diehauser gone, Rias, suppressing her nausea, addressed her Pawn.
"Issei? Issei, you know me, right? Please, answer me!"
"Yes, I know you."
"It seems Solomon's ring was embedded in you. That's divine authority—we don't know its effects. We must remove it quickly."
"No need to worry, Rias Gremory."
"—What?"
Shocked by being addressed by name, Rias was a moment late noticing Issei stab his abdomen with Ascalon.
"His entirety is already under the ring's dominion. Removal is meaningless."
The Beast activated its second Noble Phantasm.
"World, praise me! I Am a Hero!"