The Earth was groaning.
No—what echoed across the world was a scream: the death-cry of a planet's outer crust as it was forcibly peeled away by overwhelming heat.
Surtr, the King of the Fire Giants, was a disaster on a planetary scale, a being who had long since surpassed the rank of Servant and even transcended the level of divine. At last, he revealed his terrifying true form.
He was no longer a knight in a humanoid body. He had become a towering pillar of flame, forged from molten lava and pure destruction, rising straight up into the sky.
In his hand, he gripped the demonic sword Laevatein. With every swing, it mercilessly reshaped the world itself, as if turning ice, snow, rock, and even the air into primordial particles of flame.
"Ophelia… Ophelia! Look! This is the world I have burned down for your sake!"
The giant's roar shattered the clouds. There was no cruelty in his voice—only a bone-chillingly twisted love.
"If it's for you, I'll reduce this entire planet to ashes!"
So… look at me. Look only at me.
These deranged words, enough to drive any ordinary human to the brink of mental collapse, surged toward Chaldea in a heatwave of several thousand degrees Celsius.
Yet this time, there was no despair.
"…Noisy. You're a noisy little stove."
With a cold snort, a blizzard of absolute zero howled across the battlefield, carving out a single patch of pristine land from the sea of flames.
Scáthach-Skadi, the Ice Queen who had ruled the Norse Lostbelt for thousands of years—was not seated on a throne beneath the Fantasy Tree, guarding it from afar.
She stood right in front of the people of Chaldea.
When she raised her staff high, a colossal phantom of an ice fortress rose up behind her.
"That man from another world—Steve—has already proven that the people of Norse myth can survive, even if the Fantasy Tree is cut down…"
Skadi's red eyes shone with unwavering resolve. She glanced back at Fujimaru Ritsuka and curved her lips in a proud, arrogant smile.
"In that case, as the queen, I have no reason to let this lunatic, who brings nothing but destruction, stir up any more chaos!"
"I and this country—we've had quite enough of his harassment!"
"Primordial Runes—full release! Try freezing me, you damnable flames!"
Gate of Skye – The Gate Leading to the Haunted Land, Brimming with Death!!!
A massive gate of shadow opened in midair—not to unleash slaughter, but to absorb heat.
An aura of infernal cold, the kind with power great enough to freeze time and space itself, poured out from the Demon World and crashed head-on into Surtr's raging inferno.
They could not completely extinguish the world-ending flames. But they did succeed in halting the giant's movements for several crucial seconds.
"Now! Mash!"
Through the communication link, Fujimaru's voice rang out.
"Yes, Master!"
On the rear lines of the battlefield, Mash did not raise her familiar shield.
Instead, she was kneeling on the ground, her shoulders strapped into a strange, ominous suit of pitch-black heavy armor.
It was a miracle born of ceaseless effort by Steve and Sion in the workshop of the battleship.
[Barrel Replica]
This was a replica of the Black Barrel, one of the Seven Great Weapons of Atlas Academy.
It could not completely erase concepts or ignore all forms of defense the way the original could. Even so, it possessed more than enough firepower to deal with a god who had already manifested.
"Ether compression rate at 120%… Safety valves disengaged… Coordinate correction complete…"
Countless red data streams flashed wildly across Mash's field of vision.
The recoil alone, even before firing, was already shattering her bones. Yet her eyes remained astonishingly calm and resolute.
"Miss Ophelia!"
She shouted.
"I know!"
Ophelia was meant to sacrifice her life in this battle to sever Surtr's causality.
But at this moment, she did not use her Sirius Light.
She stood within the safety barrier and removed her blindfold. The forbidden demonic eye beneath was laid bare.
"I'm sorry… but this will be our last farewell, Surtr."
Ophelia gazed upon the giant who had fallen into madness for her sake. A complex pity flickered through her eyes.
In the next instant, that pity hardened into unshakable resolve.
Mystic Eye activated.
The key was not to cut away, but to pin down securely.
Surtr, struggling to break free of the ice, suddenly felt his mental core being nailed into the void by countless invisible spikes.
It was not a physical restraint, but a stasis at the level of causality itself.
"Ophelia… You're looking at me? You're looking at me, right? Ahhh! Amazing! This is your gaze?!"
The giant let out an ear-splitting cheer, as if he were oblivious to the doom closing in on him.
He was intoxicated—drunk on the mere fact of being seen.
"Target locked. Connect all magical circuits."
Mash took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
"The concept of lifespan—is hereby endowed to you!"
"Black Barrel—fire!!!"
There was no thunderous explosion. No blinding flash.
A jet-black beam of nothingness, so dark it looked as if it could swallow even light, sliced through the battlefield in an instant.
It ignored the searing high-temperature field surrounding Surtr and his indestructible divine shell. Like a drop of ink falling into clear water, it passed effortlessly through his chest.
For a moment, time itself seemed to stop.
The next instant—
"Ah…?"
Surtr's colossal body suddenly went rigid.
He lowered his gaze to the black hole rapidly expanding in his chest.
There was no blood. No fire. Only a silent stillness—what could only be called the end—spreading through him at terrifying speed.
As the immortal King of the Fire Giants, he was supposed to possess a near-infinite lifespan.
But the moment he was struck by that black light, his lifespan had been forcibly set to zero.
"My body… won't move… the fire… is going out…"
The giant's form began to crumble.
The lava and flames that composed his body turned to ash, then vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Yet he felt neither anger nor fear.
In that fading face, in the one eye that remained, there was only a gaze fixed firmly on the figure lying on the ground.
"Ophelia… Ophelia…"
Even now, even if his throat had become ash, his obsession twisted itself into an echo that shook the air itself.
"Why… why won't you come with me…? I love you… so much…"
The sound cut off abruptly.
The gigantic Fire Giant collapsed completely, like a sandcastle scattered by the wind. His body broke apart into countless motes of light and dissolved into the now-chilled air of Northern Europe.
The battle was over.
"…Phew…"
White smoke streamed from the overheated black gun in Mash's hands. She nearly fell backward from sheer exhaustion, but a pair of strong arms quickly caught her.
"Good work, Mash."
Ritsuka steadied her, a relieved smile spreading across her face.
"Senpai… did we… win?"
"Yeah. We did. And by a landslide."
A short distance away, Skadi lowered her staff and gazed at the dying embers in the sky. She let out a soft sigh.
Then she turned back toward Ophelia. Ophelia was still standing there, one hand covering her eyes.
"He was a troublesome man… but his affection for you might have been genuine."
Ophelia said nothing.
She simply kept watching in the direction where Surtr had disappeared. After a long time, she let her hand fall, and a faint smile appeared—half relief, half bitterness.
"A love heavy enough to destroy the world… I could never be worthy of something like that."
She turned toward the members of Chaldea and toward Skadi, the queen of the Lostbelt who had chosen to fight at their side.
"But… thank you."
"Thanks to all of you… I didn't have to make that choice."
She placed a hand gently over her chest. The Sirius Light that had originally been meant to trigger her own sacrificial rite remained there—untouched and unspent.
…
At the battleship.
"That's the power of technology."
Steve nodded in satisfaction as he reviewed the combat data on the screen. Then he turned and looked at the Sion beside him.
"How's the data collection going on the Barrel Replica?"
"Perfect."
"There are still some issues we need to iron out, like overheating, but as a prototype, it performed beyond expectations."
Sion's fingers hovered over the keyboard, then danced quickly across it. Her face was lit with unconcealed excitement.
"With this, when we go up against the Greek Lostbelt, we'll be holding a true trump card."
"And…"
She glanced up at the display, at Ophelia—worn out, but still alive. For a brief moment, a gentle light flickered in her eyes.
"I'm really glad we were able to save her."
"Yeah."
Steve smiled faintly, his gaze drifting toward a distant future only he could see.
"And next comes the final touch."
"Queen Skadi… it's time for us to fulfill our promise as well."
…
…
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