France.
Black Jeanne's stronghold.
An unsettling figure stood inside a magic circle, muttering incantations while clutching a scroll of parchment.
The disturbing silhouette belonged to Gilles de Rais (Caster), the Servant who had vanished from the battlefield earlier.
The contract in his hands was the very one that had summoned him to this Singularity through a Demon God Pillar. As far as Gilles de Rais (Caster) knew, the contract had only one purpose: to manifest that Demon God Pillar into the world.
With every word he recited, a viscous, unsettling liquid seeped from the parchment. The thick fluid carried a nauseating stench and an indescribable color that hovered somewhere between black and purple.
Finally, Gilles de Rais (Caster) spoke the last word on the scroll.
"It is done."
The moment the ritual finished, every character on the parchment oozed with the repulsive sludge, completely enveloping the entire scroll. The ancient parchment transformed entirely into the thick liquid, sliding from Gilles de Rais (Caster)'s fingertips and dripping onto the ground.
...
At the same time.
"I'm really fine."
Adam said helplessly, a headache already forming as Ciel kept fussing over him.
Ever since she had noticed something was off, she had been hovering with concern, and now Drake and Kiyohime had joined in too. Adam could only wave them off each time, insisting nothing was wrong.
Ciel frowned slightly, still unconvinced and about to speak again.
But the next second—
"Master! Emergency!"
"Amadeus's condition looks bad. He seems… to be in terrible pain."
Black Marie's familiar voice cut through the air.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
Mozart knelt in front of her, clutching his head in agony. It looked like he had been hit with some kind of curse.
Adam's brows tightened the instant he saw Mozart's state. A bad premonition stirred in his chest.
"I'm on my way!" he called out loudly to Black Marie.
The situation was urgent. After one last reassurance to the group that he was okay, Adam broke into a run.
Ciel watched his back and instinctively reached out. She still had more she wanted to say, but with the emergency unfolding, she could only lower her hand.
Adam covered the distance in seconds.
He immediately supported Mozart, who was still pressing down hard on his skull. On the way over Adam had even seen him slamming his head against the ground, trying to dull the pain.
Looking at him like this, Adam asked urgently:
"Mozart, do you know what's causing these symptoms?"
"It… it's coming out!" Mozart gripped his head with both hands, as if trying to physically hold it back. His voice came out broken and strained. "It wants to come out!"
"What's coming out?" Adam asked on instinct.
At the same time, his mind raced. This didn't look like any ordinary curse. It felt more like something locked inside Mozart's body was trying to break free from its cage.
Adam recalled everything he knew about Mozart.
Which detail could explain this?
Suddenly a spark of realization hit him.
Mozart's family line was connected to Solomon.
A bloodline tied to Solomon…
With that piece of information, Adam could roughly guess what was happening.
He looked at the man he was supporting and asked:
"The thing you say is coming out… it wouldn't be—!"
Before he could finish, Mozart shoved him away.
Even after pushing Adam back, Mozart quickly clamped the same hand over his head again. His voice was weak and stuttering, as if another consciousness was fighting him for control.
Using what seemed like the last of his strength, Mozart forced out:
"Run…! I don't want… to hurt you!"
Before Adam could react—
The moment the words left his lips, Mozart lost his final ounce of strength. His entire body began to mutate.
Eyes suddenly sprouted across his arms. The change spread to his other arm, his torso beneath his clothes, and his legs.
His body swelled rapidly, shifting into a deep, sickly purple.
At the same time, the communication devices on Adam's and Fujimaru Ritsuka's wrists blared with urgent alerts.
Fujimaru Ritsuka answered the call from Chaldea. Olga Marie's anxious face filled the screen.
"This is bad, Fujimaru Ritsuka! We have a serious problem!"
"We've detected a Demon God Pillar signal!"
"It's extremely close—only a few dozen meters away! It's practically right on top of you!"
"You need to be careful! For some reason this Demon God Pillar's magical energy readings are highly irregular!"
"It doesn't seem like a normal Demon God Pillar!"
Olga Marie's panic was written all over her face and voice. She was terrified of leaving out even the smallest detail.
In stark contrast, Fujimaru Ritsuka simply blinked, raised an eyebrow, and thought for a few seconds.
Finally she pursed her lips and asked:
"By the way… I've been meaning to ask this for a while."
"What exactly is a Demon God Pillar?"
Olga Marie: "..."
On the other end of the line, Olga Marie was rendered completely speechless.
While they spoke, Mozart's transformation had already finished. He had reached his final form.
Mozart had become a several-dozen-meters-tall deep-purple tentacle. Every inch of it was covered in disturbing eyes. Their cross-shaped pupils wriggled nauseatingly, enough to turn anyone's stomach.
In less than two seconds, Mozart's body had fully become a Demon God Pillar.
The Sixty-Seventh Pillar—Amdusias.
The gigantic tentacle instantly drew the attention of the entire battlefield.
The other Servants stared in astonishment at its enormous size, but mostly at how utterly repulsive it looked.
"What… what the hell is that thing?"
"The power it's giving off feels incredibly strong."
"Ugh, it looks so disgusting!"
"Why does it look like a giant tentacle?"
"Did this thing wander into the wrong set? The magical girl show is filming next door!"
The grotesque, unsettling giant pillar let out a deep, rumbling sound. It was speaking.
"Finally… I've finally broken free from this body's prison!"
"I originally wanted to transform back into the form I had while still human. It would have been more convenient."
"But that bastard seized control of the body at the last moment!"
"He actually sealed me inside his own mind!"
"Good thing I listened to Flauros's warning and kept a contingency plan, or he would have actually succeeded!"
Adam stared at the newly appeared Sixty-Seventh Pillar—Amdusias. This scene was completely different from what he remembered of the "original plot." His brows were tightly knit.
In his memory, there had been faint traces of Demon God Pillars in the First Singularity, but none had ever actually appeared before the Singularity ended.
Back then he had even found it strange. Every other Singularity had clear involvement and traces of Demon God Pillars, and they would eventually confront him and the others.
Only the First Singularity had none.
Now it made sense—the Demon God Pillar had been right beside him the whole time.
Inside Mozart himself.
Adam had suspected it before, but during the clearing of the First Singularity Mozart had never transformed, so he had eventually dismissed both the suspicion and the theory about Mozart's hidden identity.
Now, it seemed his own involvement had altered the Singularity.
The giant butterfly he created had stirred up quite the storm.
From the Demon God Pillar's words, Adam could roughly piece together how Mozart had suppressed the entity inside him.
It was probably because Mozart had seen Marie. While Mozart viewed humans as filthy, Marie was the sole exception—she represented the very last shred of his goodwill and rationality toward humanity.
Seeing her had awakened that final fragment of kindness, and like a snowball rolling downhill, it had grown larger and larger.
In the end, Mozart had used that strength to seal the Demon God Pillar within himself and had returned as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, helping Chaldea's Master save the First Singularity instead of becoming a Demon God Pillar that aided in the incineration of Human Order.
Adam reconstructed the general sequence of events in his mind. He looked at the Demon God Pillar that had once been Mozart and let out a soft sigh.
"Sigh…"
"I have to say, it really is just like you, Mozart. You actually managed to seal a Demon God Pillar through sheer willpower alone."
"I thought my earlier guess was wrong."
"It's a shame that my arrival seems to have made the Demon God Pillars even more vigilant… and stronger."
"But don't worry, Mozart. I'll clean up this mess."
Adam spoke directly to the Demon God Pillar in front of him—technically addressing Mozart, who was trapped inside it.
Then he turned his gaze toward Drake and the others behind him. The meaning in his eyes was clear.
The Demon God Pillar seemed to hear the chatter below. It directed its attention toward Adam—though with so many eyes covering its body, it was impossible to tell which one.
The Demon God Pillar suddenly recalled the warning another Demon God Pillar, Flauros, had given it earlier.
Something about a troublesome existence it should watch out for?
It observed Adam thoughtfully.
"So it's you?"
"The troublesome one Flauros mentioned?"
It then used every eye across its body to examine every detail of Adam's being—not his outer appearance, but his true power.
What it saw was far different from what it expected. Adam appeared to be nothing more than a physically weak human, only slightly stronger than average.
Black Marie beside him also seemed to possess only ordinary Servant-level strength. Nothing like the exaggerated threat Flauros had described.
"Tch~"
"I knew Flauros was just being a coward."
"The contract on that parchment doesn't only awaken me. It also carries the power of the other Demon God Pillars!"
"Chaldea's Master! My current body contains the combined strength of twelve other Demon God Pillars!"
The moment it finished speaking, the Demon God Pillar demonstrated its power. Its twisted body suddenly emitted a high-frequency sound wave.
The devastating sonic attack blasted everything within dozens of meters. The ground was torn away, leaving behind a large semicircular crater.
With nothing but a sound wave it had created physical destruction comparable to a shockwave.
From high above, it looked as if a circular blast had erupted around the Demon God Pillar, spreading outward until it finally dissipated nearly a kilometer away—like the blast wave of a nuclear explosion.
"Prepare to face my—"
The Demon God Pillar's words cut off abruptly.
It suddenly sensed several extremely dangerous presences…
The Demon God Pillar hurriedly turned all its eyes toward Adam's direction.
It had expected that last attack to take out quite a few of them.
Instead, what it saw was a holy cross-shaped shield standing tall and resolute right in front of it.
Every area not protected by the shield had been partially erased by the attack, no longer resembling its previous state.
Yet the sacred cross shield remained completely unharmed, having perfectly blocked the assault.
Behind the holy cross shield stood all the Servants, completely unscathed.
Not a single one had been eliminated.
Demon God Pillar: "..."
The Demon God Pillar faintly sensed that something was very wrong. A sudden, inexplicable dread made its entire body tremble.
Standing beside Adam were three figures:
Saint Mash—the one who had evolved to the point where she could tear Demon God Pillars apart with her bare hands!
Ciel—the cosmic Servant whose displayed power could rival that of a Beast!
The Sixth Beast / Beast of Applause / Beast of Sodom / Drake!
Demon God Pillar: "..."
Demon God Pillar: "Shh~ Can we make peace?"
***
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