Makima opened her mouth to answer his remark—
The fox devil's massive head suddenly imploded, crushed from the inside out by an invisible force. Bone and fur twisted into nothing before vanishing entirely.
"I'm pulling back now, Aki. I'll return once my strength recovers," the fox devil's voice rumbled in Aki's mind before fading.
Aki only gave a silent nod.
Lucifero tore himself free, his four bat-like wings spreading wide. He launched into the air, but stopped mid-ascent—only fifty meters from Makima—sputtering dark blood into the wind.
His eyes narrowed in rage. UNACCEPTABLE.
More black blood gushed from his mouth, the weight of realization striking him. … my heart. That whore's attack… His thoughts churned, his breathing ragged. No matter how strong I am, once my devil heart is crushed—this half-manifestation will die.
Makima's gaze sharpened. She could see it now—the combination of her Heilig Pfeil and Hellblaze bombs had done more than wound him. It had crippled him.
She turned slightly to her group, voice low but clear. "Go to Kobeni's helicopter. Head to Public Safety HQ. If you want to help, I'll lure that shitty horned devil there. Make sure every trap is ready by the time I bring him in."
Denji shook his head immediately. "Aki already's got his resolve, Makima-san. We're not abandoning you again. Besides… I'm still gettin' fed by Aki."
Makima didn't look at him. Instead, she raised her Red Leash, slashing across her still-healing left arm. Blood spattered the fractured pavement, but the wound was instantly sealed by a flare of Blut Vene.
Her division froze, stunned. Has she gone completely insane? The thought was written on all their faces.
Makima's glare swept over them in silence—a look that carried the message clearly enough: Do you want to help, or are you just in my way?
Aki's eyes shifted to the battlefield around them—the devastation, the corpses, the smoking ruins. It was almost identical to the hellscape from the Gun Devil's rampage years ago.
He exhaled, then nodded. "…I understand, Makima-san."
Aki grabbed Denji by the collar, dragging him back as Himeno followed.
Makima exhaled slowly, her focus narrowing to a single point. Reishi swirled in the air, streaming toward her, gathering into a concentrated mass where her left arm had been maimed. If I can't use them at the same time… then I'll change the rules. If my left hand is made entirely of reishi… it will work.
Her gaze locked on Lucifero. The devil king had steadied himself, the tremor in his movements gone. His flesh rippled as he transformed—every ounce of his half-manifestation's strength pouring into his form. Jagged spikes erupted from his shoulders and elbows, his skin smoothing into a dense, armor-like sheen. His horns thickened, curling with oppressive weight. The digits along his wings melted away into seamless, bat-like slabs. His long, draping skirt shrank to only cover his waist and upper thighs.
Then, with a slow, ominous pulse A third eye split open on his forehead.
"I admit it…" Lucifero's voice was low, almost guttural. "You—low, vermin whore—managed to hurt me… a king of devils. And now… since you've earned this fleeting acknowledgment, I'll show you true despair."
His third eye burned with malice. "I will unleash my full power, eradicate your allies, and desecrate everything you hold dear."
Makima Reishi fully shaped, her new left arm gleamed, ethereal and perfect. She rolled her shoulders, flexed every joint, stretched every fiber of muscle , as an executioner preparing for the inevitable kill. Her spine arched slightly as the stretch completed, and with it came a shift— From her back burst a single black wing, vast and jagged like the silhouette of a fallen angel. Above her head shimmered a reishi halo, rotating in absolute stillness.
Lucifero say . "Before I deliver the final blow, tell me your name… and what you are. I want to remember the one who managed to push me this far."
Makima straightened from her stretch. Her left arm reshaped, the reishi twisting into a crossbow fused to her form. Her voice was steady, unshaken. "Makima. Current commander of Public Safety Devil Hunters… and the Control Devil."
Makima eyes changed— One a sharp black pupil, radiating the oppressive will of the Commandment. The other, a piercing blue, glowing with Quincy power. "You picked the wrong time to invade this world, I'm in the worst mood possible."
They began to walk toward each other, slow, deliberate steps that cracked the ruined earth beneath their feet. Neither flinched. Neither blinked.
Lucifero raised one clawed hand, the air around them warping under a crushing pull. Gravity Magic: Evil God's Pressure Craft. The ground split open as he tore a colossal slab of concrete from the depths. It hung suspended in the air, then compacted violently under impossible pressure, folding into a seamless, solid blade nearly three kilometers long.
The titanic sword floated above, casting an unnatural shadow over the battlefield. It began to descend—its sheer size demolishing everything in its path, entire buildings shattering like brittle glass on contact.
Makima stood unshaken. The distance between them closed to barely three meters.
Lucifero moved first—his fist blurred forward, Heavy Infighting surging through the strike. The weight behind it was crushing, enough to pulverize mountains.
Makima brought her reishi-formed left arm up to intercept, the structure reinforced with a lattice of Blut Vene. The impact thundered through the air, shockwaves splitting the ground beneath them.
But Lucifero wasn't finished. Flesh writhed along his shoulder, a mass of muscle forcing itself into shape—a third arm burst forth, swinging for her unguarded side.
Makima's Red Leash sword ignited with Hellblaze black flame. One clean slash, and the newly formed limb fell away in smoldering pieces.
Lucifero's third eye narrowed. All I need to do… is avoid her right arm. He noted the distinction—the black flame could only be produced there, while her blue left arm burned like light magic, painful but different.
Gravity surged again, thick and suffocating. Presence of the Demon King. His body lifted from the ground, wings unfurling as he shot into the sky to reposition, the air bending around him in distorted waves.
But Makima didn't let him retreat. Her single black wing tore through the air with a snap, propelling her upward in a dark streak. She gave chase without hesitation, a predator locked on its prey.
Lucifero banked hard through the sky, his massive frame twisting with impossible agility. Chunks of debris wrenched free from the city below, compacting midair into dozens of medium-sized concrete swords. With a flick of his will, they shot toward Makima in a storm of stone and steel.
Makima met them head-on. The Red Leash carved in rapid arcs, every swing leaving trails of black flame that cleaved through the incoming projectiles. Shards and molten fragments spiraled away into the clouds.
But Lucifero was already on her. In the next heartbeat, he was in close range, his own concrete sword—its structure layered in reinforced mana skin for unbreakable durability—swinging straight for her throat.
Makima's instincts flared. She brought the Red Leash up, intercepting the strike with a shower of sparks as blade met blade. The force shuddered through her arms, but her stance held.
Lucifero smiled. Flesh tore open across his torso, birthing a fourth arm—its claws spreading wide. Gravity swelled unnaturally, and in the palm of that arm, darkness condensed into a dense, writhing point. Gravity Magic: Gravity Singularity.
The black sphere pulsed violently, its pull immediate and absolute. Air warped around it, the battlefield below screaming as entire sections of debris, vehicles, and shattered buildings were yanked upward toward annihilation.
Makima's eyes narrowed. She'd been expecting tricks—this one was lethal. In a flash, she raised her reishi-forged left arm and unleashed a burst of Heilig Pfeil, firing them at the empty air . The impact propelled her backward, snapping her free of the singularity's pull.
The black hole descended, its edges ripping apart reality itself. When it struck the ground, the detonation was silent at first—then an eruption of force obliterated everything within a six-hundred-meter radius, leaving behind nothing but a perfectly smooth crater.
Makima's gaze flicked to it, a flicker of thought crossing her mind. If I got hit by that… I'm done for.
Above, Lucifero hovered in the roiling air, black blood still dripping from earlier wounds. A slow smile crept across his face. He had her now—he could feel it. Even a brief break in Makima's focus was all he needed to press the advantage.
He raised his arms, gravity spiraling around him like an ocean about to break. Gravity Magic: Presence of the Demon King.
Makima didn't even realize the shift until her boots hit solid stone. She landed hard—on one knee—onto the massive surface of the 3-kilometer-long concrete sword floating high above the ruins. The moment she touched it, she felt it. The pull here was crushing, even heavier than the gravity he had cast over the battlefield below. felt like it was dragging her chest toward the blade's surface.
Lucifero's silhouette blotted out part of the sky above her. With a single gesture, three Gravity Singularities bloomed into existence,. They launched toward her.
Makima jumped, her black wing snapping open—but the concentrated pull dragged her back down. The air felt like lead. She wasn't free to fly.
Cornered… but not beaten. Her resolve flared hotter than the pressure trying to crush her.
One of the massive singularities spiraled toward her left side, close enough for her skin to prickle from the pull. In that instant, she did something insane—deliberately holding her ground a heartbeat longer instead of fully evading.
Her reishi-forged left arm snapped forward, unleashing a single Heilig Pfeil wreathed in Hellblaze black flame. She let the centrifugal force of the singularity whip its trajectory upward, curving it into a deadly arc aimed straight for Lucifero in the sky.
The devil only sneered. Another singularity tore open before him, swallowing the attack in an instant.
"Ever heard the saying?" Lucifero's voice dripped arrogance. "That kind of trick won't work twice."
Makima smirked, her voice sharp and taunting. "Made you look at me. And I am very charming ."
That was when the sky itself changed. The reishi canopy—drawn from Kang Woo's Auswählen—finally arrived, its slow, deliberate drift ending exactly where Makima wanted. It cracked open above, spilling down a storm of Lichtreigen: countless Quincy arrows forged of pure reishi,
Lucifero's head snapped up just in time to raise his mana skin to maximum output. The barrage rained down without mercy, forcing him to stop midair and brace himself instead of advancing. From below, Makima's gaze never wavered.
Lucifero's in silent fury. Damn… cheaty whore.
In the next instant, his tactics shifted. The massive 3-kilometer sword beneath Makima jolted violently as he hurled it forward at Mach speed. The air cracked, a sonic boom ripping through the ruined city as the blade surged ahead—Makima along with it, clinging to its surface as the world blurred past.
She steadied herself against the roaring wind, lips twitching in amusement. "Same as that movie I saw. Fight on a Shinkansen train."
Then, space itself warped. Lucifero's hulking form appeared in front of her in an instant, as if reality had been folded to his will. Warp Space. There was no finesse now—only raw, unrestrained rage.
His fist came down like a meteor. Makima met it head-on. Her reishi-forged left arm, wrapped flaring Blut Vene, absorbed the crushing force. The impact made the air shudder. Lucifero didn't pause—another blow followed, then another, , each one meant to break her outright.
But Makima wasn't just holding the line. Her stance shifted with every strike, feet sliding, arms redirecting his brute force, the Red Leash sword in her right hand intercepting swipes and backhands. The fight became a collision of styles—Lucifero's raw, savage Heavy Infighting, nothing but pure destructive muscle, against Makima's precise, almost surgical martial rhythm, , every block feeding into the next counter.
Sparks of red flame flared each time her blade bit against his mana skin. Then—an opening. A sharp pivot, her sword flashing upward in a vicious diagonal cut. The Red Leash carved clean through the thick mana skin at his hand, severing his massive thumb. The piece spun off into the rushing wind, leaving a spray of black blood in its wake.
Lucifero's roar was deafening. "FUCKING WHORE! CAN'T YOU JUST DIE LIKE ALL THE OTHERS?!"
his roar still echoed when the truth slipped past him—his own hand had unknowingly delivered the 3-kilometer sword straight toward the Public Safety Devil Hunter HQ in Tokyo. A plan Makima had been setting in motion for minutes, moving the massive weapon slowly with reishi threads, now accomplished for her in an instant.
She glanced down the blade's length toward the distant city, her lips curling into a taunting smile. "Two birds… one stone."
The words struck a nerve.
Lucifero's rage spiked, and with it, his magic. His left arm swelled with gravitational force, the very air around it warping and bending. The Gravity Singularity pulsed in his palm, growing to the size of a house, its pull threatening to consume her completely.
Makima didn't flinch. Her reishi-forged arm snapped up, a Heilig Pfeil already drawn with condensed power. She loosed it with pinpoint precision. The arrow slammed into his left arm, destabilizing the flow of his magic. The singularity wavered—then expanded prematurely. The warped gravity clawed upward, devouring not her, but a chunk of Lucifero's own arm.
Makima was already moving. With a single flap of her black wing, she closed the gap in a burst of speed, her Red Leash sword swinging in a vicious arc. Hellblaze black flame licked along its edge, imperfectly braided with Quincy reishi—a hybrid strike meant to end it here and now.
But Lucifero was no fool. The massive blade beneath them shuddered… and stopped dead in the air. The crushing weight of his Presence of the Demon King magic vanished, leaving only the forward momentum of Makima's attack. It was enough to fling her bodily from the sword, sending her hurtling away at breakneck speed toward the fractured Tokyo skyline.
Wind howled past her ears as buildings rushed up to meet her.
Lucifero exhaled heavily, the ragged edge in his breath betraying just how much the last exchange had cost him. His left arm twitched and writhed, regenerating slowly, black flesh knitting back together.
Until a chain. Red, glowing, had latched onto one of his great black horns. Before he could react, the links pulled taut—then SNAP. The horn shattered, spiraling down through the ruins below.
Lucifero froze for a fraction of a second, disbelief in his eyes. Then the fury hit. His wings tore the air as he lunged forward, chasing her with the speed and violence.