Nero didn't ask that question out of the blue. When Beatrice took them to track down demon traces, it was under everyone's watchful eyes. Plenty of folks knew she was cozy with outsiders, and Nero was worried that might paint a target on her back for any troublemakers looking to stir up trouble.
"No big deal, so don't worry about me," the lord said, clearly dodging the question. He gestured forward. "Please."
Nero wasn't buying the "no big deal" line—it was a brush-off, plain and simple. But as long as the lord's daughter was safe inside the mansion, she figured there wouldn't be any major issues.
If the malice stirred up by demonic energy was aimed at outsiders like them, maybe it'd cool off once they left town.
From what they'd seen, this singularity's origin didn't seem tied to the genius girl. Sure, her ideas were ahead of her time, but even she couldn't rewrite the flow of history.
Nero shifted her gaze and followed Ritsuka out.
"Sorry, Master," Hernan muttered. "I couldn't stop them."
Ritsuka shook her head, keeping her voice low. "We'll wait for Dr. Georges to get back."
As they stepped out of the mansion, the crowd at the gate parted like the Red Sea. Nero shook her head. The malice might be fueled by demonic energy, but this whole "pick on the weak" shtick? That was just human nature, plain and ugly.
Once they were out of town, Kriemhild stopped on the empty, pitch-black terrain. Her voice was ice-cold as she asked, "So, what's the plan?"
Her eyes burned with a frigid madness. One look into those sea-blue pupils, and nobody would question why her class was Berserker. She locked onto Ritsuka, her stare screaming, Give me a plan I like, or I'm going solo.
Ritsuka looked toward the east side of town and said, "We fight back."
Kriemhild grinned. That was exactly what she wanted to hear.
"No other choice, huh?" Nero chimed in, nodding.
Things had gotten messy, and their options were running thin. Push forward, carve through the demon horde, storm the cave, and take down the Demon Pillar. Protect the town, rescue their missing allies, and shut down the singularity—that was the only play left.
"Not a bad plan," a familiar voice called out from behind.
Nero turned, and sure enough, there was Sphinx, cool as ever. She'd slipped in behind them without a sound. "But here's the kicker—you're still not strong enough."
"Not strong enough?" Nero raised an eyebrow.
"Not even close," Sphinx said, nodding. "You're probably wondering why Chaldea can't get a read on what's happening out west. Well… deep down, you already know the answer."
Already know? What's she getting at?
"Let me make it crystal clear," Sphinx said. She grabbed a handful of the foul demonic energy swirling in the air, forcing it into a pulsing, writhing mass.
"No way!" Mash's voice crackled through from Chaldea, stunned. "That… that magical signature!"
Thanks to Sphinx's stunt, Chaldea finally cracked the enemy's magical frequency.
Da Vinci's voice came through, heavy. "Goetia… or, more precisely, its inverse."
"Goetia?!" Ritsuka froze. "But we already…"
Already took it down. At a brutal cost.
Nero knew the deal. Goetia, the Demon King, a festering tumor grown from human history, one of the seven "Evils of Humanity." They manifest as "Beasts," bringing cataclysms that could wipe out mankind.
Before Ritsuka's crew hit this singularity, that Beast was erased. Solomon, the First King, used his Noble Phantasm to negate his own existence, wiping Goetia out with him. Goetia was born from Solomon's corpse, and with Solomon erased from the timeline, it couldn't come back.
Could it?
Holmes' voice cut in. "From the magical signature, it's definitely the Beast I we defeated. Or… maybe we should call it 'Beast I/N.'"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nero asked.
"Let me break it down," Sphinx said, finally dropping the cryptic act. "Beast I is the King's Beast. The Goetia you took down was born from Solomon, the first divinely ordained king. Its evil was 'Pity'—the smug superiority of the high and mighty over the lowly.
"But this time… it's different. This Beast—about to be born—is Goetia's flip side. It's the top-down malice and violence of a tyrant king. If Goetia was the wise king passively bearing evil, Beast I/N is the ruthless despot dishing it out. Its evil? 'Domination.'
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"That's why you can't get a read on it. One of its traits is anti-prophecy. This Beast wants fate itself under its thumb, so it nullifies anything tied to destiny, prophecy, or divination—including Chaldea's observation tech."
"I get it…" Mash said, then her voice tightened. "Oh no, if that's true!"
Chaldea's singularity observation system, the Celestial Sphere Chaldeas, was built to predict humanity's future. As the enemy woke up, Chaldea's observation range would shrink fast.
And if they lost sight of the singularity completely, Ritsuka would be trapped in this era for good.
Even if they beat the Beast, she'd never make it home.
"Don't panic yet," Ritsuka said, calming her. "There's gotta be a way."
"Goetia's dead, like you said," Sphinx went on. "So, for a new Beast I, they need a new egg. The Demon Pillars summoned a Heroic Spirit and fused it with Astaroth, a Demon Pillar tied to Venus. Through that shared Venus symbolism, they created a demon on par with 'Satan'—the 'Lord of Demons.'"
"No way!" Da Vinci snapped. "Sure, Satan was called the 'Morning Star' before the fall, but that alone—"
"What if the Heroic Spirit was already the embodiment of pride?" Sphinx cut in.
"What?!"
Sphinx dropped the bombshell and pivoted. "Still, calling her by her original name or 'Satan' doesn't quite fit.
"For this newborn Demon King, the Beast in its egg, the name that suits it best is—
"Pavone, the 'Proud One.'"