A massive, intricate, and extraordinarily precise instrument suddenly materialized above U-Olga Marie's head.
She shot upward at high speed and slipped straight into its core. The complex mechanism immediately began spinning at incredible velocity.
In the next instant, it unleashed a ferocious barrage of projectiles so dense it looked like a raging storm of bullets.
Even in his Demon God Pillar form, Lev couldn't endure the onslaught for even a single second. He was erased in an instant.
All that remained were his final screams of disbelief and the continuous stream of notifications ringing in Adam's mind.
[Lev Emotional Value +10]
[Lev Emotional Value +10]
[Lev Emotional Value +10]
...
Lev had thrown one last furious tantrum in his rage.
And that was the end of it.
Of course, Lev wasn't truly dead. As long as Goetia still existed, the Demon God Pillars under his command would keep being revived.
The three Chaldea members stared in shock at the devastation around them.
"That was incredible!"
"It was just like a bullet-hell attack straight out of Touhou!"
"The whole mountain's been blown away!"
"Wait… the entire mountain is gone?! Is that really okay?"
Adam glanced at Ritsuka Fujimaru, who had voiced the concern, then looked toward the shattered remains of Mount Enzou. What used to be a towering peak had been reduced to flat ground.
"It's fine. No big issue."
To the locals, it would probably just be written off as another routine gas explosion… hopefully.
Olga Marie's eyes were wide as she gazed at U-Olga Marie's heroic figure, her admiration impossible to conceal.
"Adam, that 'me' up there… she's the Olga Marie from your world, right?!"
Olga Marie bounced excitedly toward him, pointing at the figure in the sky with sparkling eyes.
Adam smiled at her adorable enthusiasm and answered.
"You guessed correctly. That really is the version of you from my Chaldea. She's essentially… one possible future for you."
Olga Marie grew even more excited. She practically leapt right in front of him, staring up with eyes full of yearning.
"Then… how can I become like her?"
To her, U-Olga Marie was the perfect ideal she aspired to reach.
Adam: "..."
He stayed silent for a moment, debating whether he should tell her that the possibility of her becoming like U-Olga Marie had already vanished the moment he arrived in this timeline.
Although another possibility did exist, it only applied to his own Chaldea—where his presence had already changed countless events from the original story. He would explain those divergences another time.
Right then, U-Olga Marie landed beside the group, cutting off their conversation.
She stood confidently in front of Adam, clearly expecting praise.
"Well? How was my performance?"
Adam paused, recalling how she had looked earlier, then raised his thumb with a grin.
"Hmm… aside from being a bit chuuni, it was a perfect score."
U-Olga Marie puffed her cheeks cutely at the remark.
"That part was completely unnecessary~"
"Careful, or I'll make you write reports once we're back!"
At the word "reports," Adam's face instantly crumpled into a bitter expression.
Ritsuka Fujimaru nodded vigorously beside him in complete sympathy.
At that moment, Olga Marie hesitantly spoke up, addressing U-Olga Marie somewhat shyly.
"Um… may I ask if you're… well, 'me'?"
U-Olga Marie turned to look at her counterpart, her expression curious.
"So this is the me of this world. She looks pretty much the same as I remember myself from back then."
"Wait a second. Since there's a version of me here…"
U-Olga Marie suddenly realized something. She glanced at Adam and began scanning the Chaldea group as if searching for someone.
Adam watched her strange behavior, puzzled.
"What are you looking for?"
U-Olga Marie glanced at Olga Marie—this other version of herself.
"Since this is a parallel world, I'm obviously looking for your counterpart of Adam."
Using process of elimination, she ruled out Mash and Olga Marie, then turned her attention to the orange-haired Ritsuka Fujimaru.
"Don't tell me…"
U-Olga Marie's eyes widened dramatically as if she had discovered something shocking. She quickly moved over to her.
"Adam… does that mean in this world, you're this cute little orange-haired girl?!"
Ritsuka Fujimaru slowly tilted her head, a giant question mark practically hovering above her.
"...?"
Adam could only respond with a dead-fish stare of pure exasperation.
Although he and Ritsuka both served as the 48th Master with the same heavy responsibilities, they were definitely not the same person.
It was then that Adam recalled what a certain white-haired old gentleman—Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Magician of the Second Magic—had once told him:
Adam possessed uniqueness across all possible worlds.
The old man had never encountered another version of him anywhere else.
"Quit joking around, Marie. This world doesn't have a parallel version of me."
U-Olga Marie's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at Olga Marie.
"Wait… your world really doesn't have Adam?"
Olga Marie shook her head, confirming that no such person existed in this timeline.
U-Olga Marie tried to imagine what her own life would have been like without ever meeting Adam.
"So that means… you had to bear the entire burden of running Chaldea completely alone?"
"..."
Thinking back to the crushing pressure and exhaustion of managing Chaldea by herself, Olga Marie pressed her lips together and stayed quiet.
U-Olga Marie frowned and continued down that line of thought.
"So no one was there to help with your mental state or pull you out from under your father's shadow, either."
Olga Marie remained silent again, remembering how she had no time for anything else while running Chaldea.
"Because I was so busy managing Chaldea… I never had time for counseling…"
U-Olga Marie blinked, and another grim possibility came to mind.
"So no one ever told you Lev was a traitor, and right now you…"
She looked Olga Marie up and down and finally realized the truth—her counterpart was no longer a complete human being. Her physical body had already been destroyed.
U-Olga Marie placed a hand on Olga Marie's shoulder and spoke with genuine weight in her voice.
"You've really been through a lot."
Olga Marie fell silent once more. The words offered no comfort. Instead, she turned her gaze toward Adam, her eyes filled with deep, unspoken longing.
It was a look Adam knew all too well.
***
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