Makima exhaled, her voice steady, though the faint tremor gave her anger away.
"Now I'm very irritated. There's this ache in my chest. You forced that useless eyeball Mikhail into pulling some ridiculous decoy act—and because of it, I ended up here. All thanks to my talkative fiancé, Kang Woo, and his little pet eye. For the second time today… I have the urge to tear someone apart."
From her right palm, darkness coiled and formed the Red Leash gunblade, its blade shimmering with faint black fire. She closed her grip tightly, the weapon humming with her rage.
Makima's thoughts turned inward.
Before Kang Woo appeared and turned my life into chaos, I never needed to draw a blade. That contract made me untouchable—my wounds scattered across millions of lives. But that leash is gone. And when it broke, I was lost. Then Kang Woo came. He saved me… and now he's gone. Even that useless eyeball gave itself away.
Her gaze shifted briefly—Aki, Himeno, Denji,. And still, they look at me as Makima-san. Their commander. Not the devil the world branded me.
A faint smile touched her lips, brittle but resolute.
I don't want to lose again . From here on… I'll fight as myself. Free. Better than before.
Makima lowered into stance, her black wing spreading wide, the reishi wing unfurling like a banner of light. strenght surged from her body, Commandment darkness and Quincy radiance intertwining, flaring high enough to split the night sky.
Lucifero's third eye narrowed.
And Makima whispered, "Come."
Lucifero roared and lunged—only for Makima to already vanish into a streak of blue-black blur. Her blade cut upward, nearly cleaving into his neck.
Lucifero eyes widened in shock. Her speed… it's increased.
Grinding his teeth, Lucifero widened the battlefield, flying higher, dragging her into open sky where there would be no cover, . Yet Makima didn't slow. She pressed forward, relentless—her Red Leash sword striking in furious succession, each blow punctuated by salvos of small Heilig Pfeil fired from her reishi-forged left hand.
The air was a storm of steel and light, Makima giving him no chance to retaliate. Lucifero snarled, warping space into defensive layers, blocking volley after volley.
At last he caught her weapon, seizing the blade of the Red Leash in his clawed hand. Mana skin flared across his arm, hardening like iron. His mouth twisted into a cruel sneer.
"Is that all you have, wretch?"
Makima didn't answer with words. Darkness and reishi coiled in her palm, shaping into a massive dadao sword, its body black as void, its crossguard shaped like outstretched wings.
Lucifero scoffed, already reinforcing his skin further, every layer of mana condensed until it gleamed like steel.
But Makima's voice slipped through the clash, soft, almost a whisper: "Sklaverei."
The blade sang through his defenses piercing his essence.
Lucifero froze, instinct screaming at him to retreat. And he realized too late why. His mana was draining, siphoned out of his reinforced skin into her weapon.
He staggered back, wings thrashing in panic as the flow tore through him.
Makima's eyes glinted, her voice sharp with venom. "How does it feel? You're about to become a magicless creature, Lucifero… King of the underworld."
But then—something was off. Her blade, her technique—Sklaverei. It was working, but not like before. The flow of Lucifero's mana resisted, jagged and unstable. It wasn't slipping neatly into her Quincy absorption—it was like trying to drink poison through a vein .
Makima's mind raced. No matter how strong my Sklaverei is, it's still Quincy-based absorption… and Lucifero's mana—it doesn't belong in the same order of existence. Maybe it's beyond me.
Her nose tickled, a single drop of blood slipping free, but she ignored it. Her breathing steadied, her expression never breaking. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her strain.
Lucifero's fury burned hotter, his intellect drowned beneath the tide of rage. His voice cracked like thunder as he loomed over her.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, wretch. Once you die, everyone else will fall to me. This world—devoid of mana, except for you—will break. And I… I will enjoy absorbing you alive."
Lucifero's fury boiled over, his third eye burning like a star of hatred. With a thunderous beat of his wings, he closed in, each strike amplified by Gravity Magic: Heavy Infighting.
Makima met him head-on. Her left hand gripped the black dadao, her right hand the Red Leash gunblade, crossing them in dual-sword rhythm. Each of Lucifero's devastating blows, she turned aside—his fists no longer invincible, his mana skin weakened and leaking from her constant drain.
Then she saw it—an opening.
Her dadao severed through his left arm in a clean sweep, spraying ichor. Lucifero staggered, snarling, before forcing two more pairs of arms to sprout grotesquely from his hips. His body thinned, stretched—sacrificing mass to maintain form. With one of the new arms, he shaped another colossal boulder sword, gravity bending its weight into brutal edge.
But Makima moved faster. A blur of dark and blue reishi, her dadao cleaved that new limb before the weapon could stabilize.
Lucifero only grinned, a twisted smile.—he was baiting her. Behind his wings, a singularity swelled, then detonated outward—a black hole at point-blank range, its crushing pull meant to erase her body where she stood.
But Makima was already moving. The pressure pinned her for a heartbeat, pain knifing through her muscles, yet her mind was calm. She had been studying his mana for this moment , parsing its pull, its rhythm. And now, she moved with blinding Quincy speed, dual blades slicing the singularity like fragile glass. The black hole shattered, scattering into harmless fragments of warped space.
Lucifero's eyes widened—just in time to feel her swords crossing for his throat. He roared, pouring every last scrap of mana into his skin, his neck hardening to steel. He caught the dadao with both clawed hands, straining, and sneered into her face.
"No way to run this time."
Makima only smiled. Her plan was already in motion. Through her Sklaverei and Quincy fusion, romanic circles had spun above, . Now they blossomed into full form—thousands of Sankt Bogen, each one massive, each drawn tight with a giant Heilig Pfeil. Unlike her scattered Lichtreigen, these arrows were concentrated, monstrous.
"Sankt Bogen—launch."
She released her dadao, leaping wide to escape the storm herself. The sky erupted.
A rain of colossal arrows fell, striking Lucifero's body with the brilliance of a thousand blue comet . The detonation bloomed into a blue nuclear inferno, engulfing a kilometer-wide swath of Tokyo in blinding light and seismic shock.
Makima hit the ground hard, panting, her hair disheveled, her chest heaving. She had nearly been caught by the edge of her own bombardment. But she was alive—and Lucifero had been buried under the weight of her wrath.
But then— From behind, a voice dripped with malice. "You thought it was over, magicless wretch?"
Makima's eyes widened. Lucifero emerged from warped space, his body mangled—lower half gone, only one arm left clinging to him, the right side barely intact. His third eye burned with unrelenting hate as he stalked closer.
lucifero lunged, gripping her neck with his remaining hand, the crushing weight of his grip tightening like iron.
"In the end, a magicless creature who steals scraps of power will always be a bottom feeder. Your energy is gone, your strength is gone. And now…"
"This useless fight… is worthless. Just like you are."
Lucifero's jaw stretched wide, massive fangs gleaming as he prepared to consume her whole.
Makima's lips twisted into a grim smile. "So what if I'm magicless…? I still managed to wield magic."
Her palm flared. A Hellblaze bomb ignited point-blank. Dark flames erupted, consuming the air in a violent burst. Lucifero recoiled, his lower jaw seared and mangled, his features blurring under the impact.
Makima staggered but did not stop. She reached deeper, into that place where her incarnations whispered. This time, she forced everything she had—Commandment darkness, Quincy light, and the last fragment of her soul—into one desperate strike.
Her hand rose, fingers shaping into the familiar pistol gesture. "Bang."
A piece of her soul tore free, compressed into a bullet, burning with Hellblaze and Quincy reishi. It fired from her fingertip, screaming through the air.
Lucifero snarled, thrusting up his only arm, mana skin bursting over it like iron plates. The bullet struck, burning through, tearing into his essence.
"Glughaahhh!" His cry rattled the ruins as the soul-burn carved deep.
Makima knew it wasn't enough. She let out a roar and hurled herself forward, Red Leash sword gripped in both hands. She drove it into Lucifero's head with everything she had left. "Hrraaaahhhhhh!"
The blade split his defenses, bursting through. Lucifero was flung backward, his body breaking apart as he was hurled hundreds of meters away.
Then came the . A towering mushroom cloud of blue reishi and black Hellblaze erupted, swallowing the sky in its destructive bloom, the earth trembling.
From Makima's position—hundreds of meters away—she staggered. Her body was exhausted, drained beyond measure, her balance faltering as if she'd collapse on the ruined asphalt.
But before she could fall, two hands caught her—Aki and Denji gripping her arms, steadying her.
Aki's voice was firm, yet carried something raw.
"You did it, Makima-san. You saved us all from this calamity. The truth is… even if your identity as the Control Devil was exposed sooner or later, I would always respect you. I've always believed you were the best superior I ever had."
Denji stayed silent. His chainsaws retracted, and for once, there was no dumb remark on his lips. This was the first time he had seen Makima fight like this with his own eyes. They hadn't known each other long, but in this moment—even Denji couldn't deny it. She had done something heroic.
Then, Power broke the quiet. She crossed her arms proudly, her grin wide.
"Let's bury Makima somewhere, since she's a devil, right?"
Himeno's ghost hand twitched, her glare sharp.
"Want me to choke you again, idiot? Besides… did you even look in the mirror? You're a blood fiend. Don't blood fiends and blood devils count as the same thing?"
Power puffed up her chest like she'd just won the argument anyway.
Makima exhaled, her voice faint, tinged with exhaustion yet still carrying her usual edge.
"I just want to sleep on the asphalt… but why are you all always so noisy?"
That broke the group laughed, because she was still here—Makima, their commander, their devil, their bossy superior, too stubborn to be anything else.
But then—her body flickered. Her outline wavered, breaking apart into motes of light like spiritual particles. Makima felt it first, a deep hollowness spreading through her chest. my time is up after all. That soul bullet… it took more than I thought. My soul itself is depleted.. This is the end of my chain.
Aki caught it immediately, eyes sharp with dread. Denji noticed too, his grin vanishing into silence. Together, they eased Makima down onto the cracked asphalt, letting her sit before she collapsed completely.
Aki didn't hesitate. He drew his katana, slashing his palm open. Blood dripped freely, staining the steel as he held it out to her. His voice was tight but steady.
"Take it, Makima-san. My blood. If it helps even a little… use it."
Makima's eyes lingered on the offering, then on him. A faint, almost amused smile tugged at her lips, though her voice was quiet, worn thin.
"I doubt blood will sustain me now, Aki-kun.."
Her gaze drifted across them all: Aki, Himeno at his side, Denji with his hands clenched, Power
"But tell me—what will you all do when I'm gone?. I want to hear it. At least then… it'll soothe me, in these last moments before I disappe---."
Makima stopped mid-word. Her senses flared. Her voice snapped like a whip. "GET OUT. NOW—!"
But it was already too late. A catastrophic weight collapsed upon them. Aki. Denji. Himeno. Power.
All four were slammed to the ground by an overwhelming gravitational force, the pavement beneath them cracking like dry bone, their lungs crushed by the air itself refusing to move.
Above them— Lucifero. Armless. Horns shattered. Torn and bleeding, his body mangled and barely held together. And yet, he floated like a king that refused to die.
The atmosphere bent around him.
"Presence of the Demon King."
Reality twisted under the force of his existence. Even as a maimed wreck, he radiated such hatred and density that the world itself seemed to recoil.
Makima's eyes locked on him, stunned. I cleaved your head… you should be dead…
Lucifero's mouth curled into a grotesque smile, blood oozing from his lips.
"As long as my devil heart survives…" "…no matter how many times I'm cleaved… I will return…"
Behind him, the air began to tear.
A new singularity formed . Enormous. Monstrous. A spinning abyss of gravity and hatred large enough to devour the sky.
He whispered it like a death sentence: "Gravity Magic: Calamity Singularity."
Tokyo itself trembled under the weight of a force it was never meant to hold.
The skies turned pitch black.
Then— The sky cracked. A line of crimson tore the heavens. A pillar of red light erupted downward—like judgment itself. Magic evaporated.
Lucifero's singularity—dissolved. His spell flickered, collapsed, and died in silence.
And then—a coat. A man. A silhouette, back turned.
Kang Woo. He stood in the center of the red column, facing away. Then, slowly, he turned.
His gaze swept over the battlefield. Over them all.
Lucifero's eyes twitched. What…? All the magic… dispersed? How?
Denji blinked, eyes wide. "… he resurrected himself ?"
Himeno, bruised and pinned, cursed under her breath. "Son of a bitch just couldn't stay dead."
Aki, forcing his head up from the ground, wheezed, "Asshole… I knew it. You're harder to kill than cockroaches."
Makima, somehow having pulled herself into a sitting posture—one leg folded underneath, the other propped upright—gazed up at him.
The light of the red pillar reflected in her eyes, casting her in both reverence and disbelief.
Kang Woo moved. In an instant. Causality bent, placing him directly in front of Makima—as if fate had arranged it so. Lucifero did not dare to move.
Makima's voice came tired, half-lidded eyes glinting. "What took you so long to come back to me?" I finally managed to capture your heart."
Kang Woo said nothing. But he smiled.
A smile without mockery. Without manipulation. . Makima let her body relax. Because Kang Woo had returned.