Jay stepped forward, his boots crunching lightly on the pristine, flowery grass of the sanctuary.
Ame-no-Murakumo crackled with a ominous divine lightning, the pale blue arcs of electricity jumping from the blade and scorching the air in its wake.
His expression unreadable as his eyes locked on the towering red crystalline entity before him.
Then, with a sudden flash of blue lightning that blinded the senses, his figure vanished.
CLANK
A shower of red sparks erupted into the air as Jay's opening strike was instantly parried by Malacoda. The Evil Tail moved with a clinical precision that suggested he had seen the attack coming long before Jay even moved.
"Increase Weight."
SHUTTT
The Desire rippled through the air as Malacoda's towering body was instantly buried several inches into the ground, the force of the added mass causing the earth to groan and fracture beneath him. His movements slowed to a crawl as the weight of his own body suddenly multiplied a couple folds
The reason Jay used the Desire to Increase Weight instead of attempting to Increase Gravity was that Gravity is a universal force. It affects not only the target but also the entire environment around it. As a result, the Desire would fail, since it cannot be applied to multiple objects at once.
Increase Weight, on the other hand, simply multiplies the object's mass by gravity. Because it targeted a single entity, the Desire worked perfectly.
Alichino's Sword of Desire possessed a very strict rule of thumbs. As it could not influence anything that was not a singular, defined object. This was why Jay could not simply Desire to create something out of nothing, as to do so would be to inflict his desire upon a void, which was impossible.
The same failure occurred if he tried to inflict a desire on multiple objects simultaneously.
It would have been possible to bypass this if Jay had utilized Alichino's Phantom Opera, as that ability allowed for the creation of a soul domain where the wielder soul is its defined object, meaning inside that realm the wielder is basically a God. However, exposing one's soul in a battle against gods, dragons, and maou was a double-edged sword that Jay was not willing to draw.
He believed that Alichino's Embodiment of Evil was a high-risk, low-reward ability that left the user too vulnerable to permanent damage.
FWUOOM
A massive burst of jagged ice erupted from behind Malacoda.
But before the frost could touch him, Malacoda's entire body began to twitch with a violent, rhythmic spasm.
And in a sickening display to release himself of the increase weight, he splattered himself into millions of tiny red particles that drifted through the air like a cloud of crimson mist. Jay frowned, his grip tightening on his hilt.
Lavinia's ice trapped nothing but empty air.
In just fraction of second, the red particles swirled together, and Malacoda instantly reformed his body from the scattered mist, completing the restoration in less than a second.
'Tsk, now I understand why the original Lucifer was terrified of this guy,' Jay thought, his mind racing through potential strategies. 'He is literally a nightmare for someone who relies on just one type of ability.'
Without a word, Malacoda blurred into a red flash of light. He lunged from the air with his spear leveled, aiming a piercing strike directly through Jay's chest.
Phantasmagoria.
Jay activated his spectral state, and as if he were a mere ghost, the red spear passed harmlessly through his torso.
As Malacoda's figure sailed past him, Jay instantly pivoted his body in a quick, swift motion. He unleashed a devastating horizontal slash with Murakumo, the blade tracing a bright path of lightning along its trajectory.
SHING
CLANK
The blade of Murakumo stopped mid-swing. Malacoda had easily parried the strike with a slight, almost negligent shift of his spear. But a direct hit had never been Jay's true intention.
CRACKLE
The pale blade of Murakumo was suddenly engulfed in a roaring aura of bluish purple lightning.
BOOM
A massive burst of divine electricity erupted from the contact point. The explosion was so intense that it splattered Malacoda's physical body into nothingness, leaving only his severed head floating in the air, the single burning eye still pulsing with an undimmed light. Jay narrowed his eyes, sensing the window of opportunity.
"Sealed."
Nothing happened.
'A Desire in which the effect can be varied will not work, Master. Sealing can mean vastly different things to different beings... A Desire needs to be exact. It must have one specified effect on one specified object at one specified time until you inflict the next Desire... Unless you use my Embodiment of Evil,' Alichino's voice echoed in his mind.
"That's a lot of rules!" Jay said, his voice laced with frustration.
Again, in less than a second, Malacoda's body was instantly restored from the floating head. His eye flickered like a strobe light as he regained his footing.
But-
ROARRR
A sudden crackle of ice filled the sanctuary.
Before the one-eyed Malacoda could fully orient himself, an enormous Ice Dragon manifested from the mist, biting down on his body and launching him into the ground with thunderous force.
However, just as Jay expected, the dragon could not freeze his body even by a fraction of a degree. Malacoda had become completely immune to the temporal and physical effects of Lavinia's Absolute Demise ice.
And with a single, effortless swing of his spear-
BOOM
The Ice Dragon was instantly shattered into a million glittering pieces. It was as if its magical construct had been fundamentally nullified. Lavinia's sapphire eyes widened in shock.
The way her ice dragon had been dismantled was almost identical to how Jay's Avesta deconstructed its magical structures.
As Malacoda tried to regain his momentum and launch a counterattack, hundreds of dark purple portals spiraled into existence around him.
KRIIIIING
Hundreds of obsidian Chains of Envy shot forth from the portals.
They moved like strikes of black lightning, piercing and enveloping Malacoda's towering body. Within seconds, he was completely wrapped in the chains like a dark, metallic mummy, unable to move a single limb.
A dark crimson energy began to be slowly siphoned away by the chains. The blazing Black Grail appeared at Jay's side, its dark flames roaring as Malacoda's soul was slowly pulled toward the chalice.
The Grace Stomper was living up to its name. The wrapped figure of Malacoda began to bulge and swell as his body attempted to explode outward in a burst of demonic energy.
But Jay didn't let it slide.
And suddenly, a purple flame erupted from the portals.
FWUOOOOM
The violet fire of the Incinerate Anthem bursted from every link of the chains. It quickly engulfed Malacoda's bound form, burning him in the intense, holy fire designed to purge the impure.
Instantly, Malacoda's body stopped bulging.
His soul continued to be slowly absorbed by the chains, link by link.
"Is this enough?" Jay muttered. He watched with a wary gaze as the Evil Tail appeared to stop rebelling, the resistance fading into the roar of the purple flames.
But then, the crimson light moving along the chains began to slow down.
And suddenly, it stopped entirely.
Jay widened his eyes.
"Huh!? Don't tell me..."
Jay's suspicion was proven right in the most violent way possible. The absorbed soul suddenly surged backward into the wrapped body. A massive wave of dark crimson energy bulged out against the restraints.
And slowly-
CRACKLE
The Grace Stomper chains began to crack under the demonic energy pressure.
And then-
BOOM
The Chains of Envy wrapping Malacoda were instantly broken into fragments. They exploded and shattered into thousands of obsidian shards that rained down upon the grassy yard.
Jay's eyes widened as he watched Malacoda's towering body slowly emerge from the wreckage of the chains. His red crystalline form was still enveloped in the flickering Purple Fire, but the flames had already stopped burning him.
They merely licked his skin like harmless shadows.
'Even Incinerate Anthem... the flame that is supposed to burn any creature of darkness,' Jay thought, his heart sinking.
The being before him had already adapted to the holy fire, rendering one of his cards completely obsolete.
And as the echoes of the broken chains faded, Malacoda blurred into a streak of crimson light.
He appeared instantly in front of Jay, and without a moment of hesitation, he thrust his jagged red spear toward Jay's midsection, the weapon humming with a spatial distortion, as the air around it fluttering violently.
'Phantasm-'
Jay's mental command was cut short.
He widened his eyes as, in that fraction of a second, he saw the space around the spear's tip begin to warp and bend.
His clothes, which should have been protected by the intangible phase of his Phantasmagoria, began to tear as the spear was forcing its way into the space he occupied.
And with a desperate, lightning-fast response, Jay shifted his body to the side, trying to throw himself out of the spear's path.
But-
SPLURRTTT
"Tsk!"
Jay hissed in pain. Despite his reflexes, the spear had found its mark.
FWUOOOM
But suddenly a massive wall of ice surged between Jay and Malacoda, buying Jay the second he needed to retreat. He flashed back to Lavinia's side, his breath coming in ragged bursts.
"Illya-kun, your hand..." Lavinia gasped, her sapphire eyes wide with horror as she looked at him. "Let me heal it for you."
"No, it is okay, Lavi," Jay said, his voice tight but steady.
He looked down at his right hand, or rather, the empty space where it should have been.
His hand had been severed cleanly at the elbow, and blood was beginning to soak his sleeve.
It had become a routine at this point, his Phantasmagoria, once his ultimate defensive trump card, was being shredded and nullified by his enemies who played with the laws of the world.
Using the power of the Grail, Jay willed his body to mend.
As a shroud of dark regenerative light enveloped the stump of his elbow and slowly, the bone, muscle, and skin began to knit back together.
With a flick of spatial magic, he summoned Ame-no-Murakumo back into his grip, the blade having fallen to the frost alongside his severed limb.
Meanwhile, Malacoda shattered the ice encasing him. He stood calmly, his single eye fluttering with a rhythmic, cold intelligence as he stared at Jay.
"Was that just now... How was he able to bypass your magic?" Lavinia asked.
"I... I do not know for sure, but I think we misunderstood how his power works," Jay replied, his eyes never leaving the red figure. "I think this confirms that his immunity does not only apply to his defense."
Lavinia's eyes widened as the realization hit her. "Then, does that mean his attacks can be immune to our defenses too? So that is why he could easily destroy my Ice Dragon."
"Yeah... I was too reckless. I should have realized that from the moment 'Stop' failed to halt his attack," Jay said.
"He clearly stated that as long as something touches or influences his body, he becomes immune to it."
But suddenly, Malacoda opened his mouth,
"You..."
"Why don't you use your power, Spirit... Why do you use all this rigamarole to attack me?" Malacoda asked. His voice was surreal, echoing through the grassy yard of the shrine.
"The only chance of winning you have is to seal me with your power... Why do you underestimate me?"
Jay fell silent for a long moment. He looked at the white marble of the shrine, then at the black blade in his hand. Finally, he spoke, his voice low and muttering.
"Spirit... Seal... I do not really understand what you mean by that."
"But..."
Suddenly, a towering black aura erupted from Jay's body. A trace of flickering black flame appeared in both of his eyes, dancing within his pupils.
Malacoda, noticing the change, narrowed his single eye. His nonexistent mouth moved as if whispering something foreign and unrecognizable, before he spoke.
"Y-you... You are not him... This is different... W-who are you?"
Lavinia, seeing the dark aura emanating from Jay, realized he was finally going to unleash the True Cross. She opened her mouth to speak, but her voice was soft.
"Illya-kun..."
"Yeah, it's okay Lavi... Though it is a bit of a letdown that I cannot take him," Jay said.
He looked at Malacoda, the black flames in his eyes reflecting the crimson of the Evil Tail.
"You... Pretender!" Malacoda roared, his voice suddenly filled with a rare, visceral rage. He lunged forward, the red spear raised for a final, world-ending strike.
But Jay was faster.
"No Consciousness."
Malacoda suddenly felt his mind go blank for a moment, only to snap back instantly as the effect faded even before his Evil Shall Be Eternal immunity could activate to repel Jay's Desire.
When Malacoda's eye snapped open, Jay was already standing inches from him. Jay's hand was outstretched, his fingers pressing against the crystalline skin of Malacoda's chest.
Their eyes met as the dark hazel of the human, traced with the black flame of judgment, against the burning red eye of the weapon.
Malacoda's senses tensed, his instincts screaming of a danger. He tried to swing his spear to cut the man down,
Malacoda sense tensed up, and then he tried to move his hand, swinging his red spear, trying to cut the man in front of him, but before it could reach him-
As the bell tolled, it sang the anthem of the End.
He who was ordained to judge the wicked
cast forth the flame of righteous wrath,
and by holy fire were sins unmade,
consigned unto the deepest abyss,
where neither name nor memory endure.
Thus were the transgressions burned to naught,
and silence reigned where darkness once dwelt.
Jay stared at him with empty eyes as he whispered-
"True Cross."
FWUOOOM
And then, as if the world itself had fallen silent, Malacoda's body instantly turned to ash.
As the flames washed over him, the world seemed to slow down.
As the black flame slowly consumed him, the world seemed to slow. The sensation of the flame washed over him as its neither hot nor cold, neither righteous nor evil.
Yet the feeling awakened something within him. His body instinctively tried to comprehend it as a concept of Evil, attempting to create immunity to this black flame. Then, suddenly, his eyes widened.
A realization struck him.
'This flame…'
It could not be perceived as Evil.
Realizing that he could not extinguish the flame, Malacoda finally felt that his life was coming to an end.
He turned his gaze to the young man before him, one last time.
Their eyes met.
And in that fleeting moment, he felt it. That same presence from hundreds years ago, lingering in his memory, though in a different form.
"So... it was really, you," Malacoda muttered.
He wanted to laugh, he would, if he could. But when his creator had thought of him as nothing but Evil, a humane feeling felt as distant as the memory of that person, the only one who had never seen him merely as an Evil being, never as a weapon forged to slay gods.
His enemy.
His only friend.
'I know the answer now...'
Evil is judged, therefore it is.
And in a final burst of black flame, the towering, one-eyed red figure was reduced to ash.
His ability, Evil Shall be Eternal, a power to adapt, to become immune, and to endure anything, failed to manifest.
Malacoda died in the absolute silence of the black flame.
Not as Malacoda the Evil Tail, for nothing is truly eternal-
-In the face of the End.