The Original Sin Crystal, as its name suggests, isn't some pure, shiny trinket. It's got a dark side. Until it fully forms and falls under Nero's control, the stronger it grows, the more it chips away at her mind, tainting it with the corruption of original sin. If that sin swallows her whole, Nero will fall, becoming a demon of pride just like Pavone.
To keep her swelling ego in check, to smother the arrogance bubbling inside her, Nero instinctively weaves words of Lucifer's fall into her improvised chant. As she does, Jeanne d'Arc's voice faintly echoes from the depths of her heart:
"Pride is loving yourself too much. It's putting yourself above others, so you end up hurting them. It's putting yourself above the divine, so you end up scorning what's sacred."
The ancients had it right: too much of anything is trouble. When love crosses the line, it twists into sin.
Nero swings her blade in a cross, tearing open space itself, letting Leme's beam of light shoot harmlessly behind her. She keeps chanting: "You said in your heart, 'I'll rise to the heavens, set my throne above God's stars!'"
Deep purple demonic flames morph into meteors, crashing around her. Nero stomps on the blackened ground, snuffing out the fire like a candle. She channels the surging prideful demonic energy into a massive crimson orb, hovering above her head, compressing tighter and tighter. "I'll sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far reaches of the north! I'll climb above the highest clouds and stand equal to the Most High!"
Finally, Nero shapes that energy into a hazy giant sword, nearly half the size of the Demon Pillar itself. With the final verse of her hymn, she delivers judgment—to the Pillar and to herself.
"Yet you will be cast down to the underworld, to the deepest pit."
With a thunderous roar, the sword plummets from the sky, slicing into the Demon Pillar's core like a hot knife through butter, splitting the earth in two.
"Impossible… to comprehend…"
Even now, the Demon Pillar clings to life. Trembling, it speaks in a cold, mechanical voice, dripping with defiance: "Just… a human…"
"Yeah, just a human!"
From a distance, another voice booms in response to Leme's question, laughing, sighing, and marveling all at once. "But it's exactly because they're so small that their rebellion feels so grand! It's because they're weak that their faith shines so bright."
It's Mephistopheles.
Nero leaps down from the air, landing on the scorched earth. Her golden hair spills over her blue cloak as she points her sword at the demon. "What're you doing here?"
With her newfound power awakened, she can finally wield the Yama Blade on its own, no Devil Trigger needed.
"Just dropping by to give you a heads-up," Mephistopheles says, standing beside the Demon Pillar. He smiles, raises his hand, and snaps his fingers.
Snap.
"What kind of heads-up—" Nero starts, but her voice falters.
In that instant, the stars shift, and the moon sinks into the sea. A deep indigo hue suddenly blooms on the eastern horizon.
"You…" Leme, clinging to its last breath, lets out a shocked gasp. "When?"
"Just now," Mephistopheles replies, his smug face practically glowing. "Right after I reclaimed all my power."
He continues, "Since you've already bulldozed through the first phase, I figured I'd up the stakes. Come on, come on! A story's only thrilling when the actors are on the edge of a cliff!"
Unbeknownst to them, Mephistopheles has expanded the domain of his fictional Noble Phantasm, dragging Nero and Ritsuka back into his illusion. With that snap, the Phantasm fully dissipates, and time in the Singularity lurches back to normal.
Now, there's probably less than ten minutes until sunrise.
"You damn demon!" Nero snarls, ready to throw down—not that it'll fix anything, but it'll sure feel good. But Mephistopheles stops her with a single move.
"Not your cue yet," he chuckles, lightly waving his cane. Countless ethereal spirits swarm from all directions, forming a transparent doorframe that traps Nero inside.
"So, take a breather. Before the next act begins, let's see if you can pass this trial—" He pauses, smirking. "This body is none other than 'the demon who came for you, Mephisto.'"
In an instant, Nero vanishes like a popped bubble within the door. Mephistopheles steps over the dying Leme, strolling lightly toward the warship on the coast.
"Wait—" Leme calls out. "What are you?"
"I am the spirit of eternal negation," Mephistopheles replies, tipping his hat. "Born from nothingness, spreading nothingness, yet loathing nothingness."
With that, he vanishes, and Leme's form crumbles into specks of light, dissolving into the air.
On the warship, Hernan watches the Demon Pillar fade, silently cheering. Her respect for Nero, who took it down almost single-handedly, grows a bit more. But then she notices the shift in the eastern sky and realizes Mephistopheles is up to something again.
"Damn it!"
Leaving Beatrice on the ship, Hernan bolts toward the disturbance. But the moment she steps out of the cabin, she spots him—sitting at the ship's bow, dressed in a black tuxedo.
"Mephistopheles?!"
Hernan raises her flintlock, aiming square at him.
"Easy, easy," Mephistopheles says, tapping the deck with his cane, clearly not buying that she'll shoot. "I'm here to help."
"Help us?" Hernan scoffs, like she's just heard the worst joke ever.
But Mephistopheles sounds oddly sincere. "Yup. Don't you want to know how to stop Pavone from breaking out of her cocoon?"
"What, you gonna stop the sun from rising?" Hernan snaps. The Sphinx already spilled the beans on this fake Noble Phantasm. Even if Mephistopheles keeps the night going in his illusion, the moment the real sun rises, Pavone will shatter the fantasy and emerge as a full-blown Beast.
Mephistopheles just smiles mysteriously. "Not me. You can."
"Me?" Hernan laughs at the absurdity, but then her eyes flick to the ring on her finger, and she freezes.
"Exactly," Mephistopheles says, crossing his legs and extending a hand toward her. "Make a wish to me. Do that, and this ring can channel the power of the sun god himself. With that kind of strength, delaying the sunrise? Piece of cake."
Hernan goes quiet.
After a long moment, she finally speaks, her voice low and sharp. "And what's the cost?"