"Who are you?!"
"Show yourself!"
Both pupils contracted—neither had sensed anyone approach.
Everyone from Rhodes Island and Penguin Logistics felt the same chill: the man had appeared from nowhere.
They turned together and saw Tatsuki's irreverent grin right between Eno and Sasha, hands resting lightly on their shoulders—an almost casual pose that nevertheless filled the pair with terror. Their limbs felt shackled by a thousand-kilogram weight; no matter how frantically their brains screamed, their bodies would not move.
"Flock! Kill him!" Eno shrieked, voice raspy and sharp like a sick bird.
The herd pivoted to rush Tatsuki—He gave them a single indifferent glance and every creature froze, as though time itself had paused.
"Impossible! My flock—obey me!" Eno could not believe it; his puppets were out of control.
"You're Mephisto, yes? And you are Faust?"
Named, the two stiffened. Tatsuki's cold look melted into a mocking smile. "God says you're innocent?—I say you're guilty. Face my judgment."
Black, chaotic Wings of Sin unfurled toward the heavens.
"Ah—!" The instant they appeared, Amiya clutched her head and fell to her knees.
"Amiya!" Ace and the others cried in alarm.
Gasping, drenched in sweat, Amiya stared at Tatsuki's direction as if beholding primordial horror. "Sin… the world is flooded with sin!"
"What… is that?"
The Judgment mist swallowed Mephisto and Faust. Inside their minds every murder, every frenzy, every act of sheltering evil replayed on endless loop—sins that no tragic past could excuse. Sin ignited into karmic fire; only by becoming spotless ash could they end the agony. Both died together—Tatsuki's last mercy. Farewells? Save them for another life.
Twin drifts of spotless grey scattered on the wind.
With their arts severed, the flock collapsed—now truly corpses.
"Friend or foe?" Liskarm and the rest stayed on guard; a power that erased people with a gesture was frightening.
The wings withdrew; Tatsuki now looked mild and harmless. "Relax—we're not enemies."
He stepped off the rubble pile and walked toward them.
"Don't come closer!" Liskarm warned. The knight felt pressure like a mountain no sword could cleave.
"We're leaving!" Texas' hands shook on her photon blades; every Lupus instinct howled that this man was certain death.
"A-ah, guys—don't panic. He's, um, my buddy." Exusiai scratched her head with a dry cough.
"Hmm?" Eyes swung to her.
Exusiai waved. "Tatsuki!"
He returned the gesture. "Yo, Exu."
…Seems they really are friends.
With her word they lowered weapons, though vigilance remained—especially Texas, forcing down the tremor in her tail. Exusiai had never mentioned this friend; suspicion lingered.
Amiya cowered behind the Doctor; reliable Ace ventured a polite question. "May we ask your name, sir?"
"Tatsuki's fine—I'm Exu's friend."
"Eh? You a Sankta too, bro?"
At friend, Croissant bounced right up, fearless. The others stared; Tatsuki bore no racial traits, yet his earlier wings resembled a Sankta's—or a Liberi's—though pitch-black and lacking a halo.
"Sorry, not a Sankta." He shrugged, pointing skyward. "And there's something more urgent to worry about."
The Catastrophe was nearly formed. Sickly white clouds were flushing crimson; it looked as if the sky itself had ignited. The spiral above brewed not wind or rain but a roar of flaming meteors.
Questions about Mephisto and Faust died on their lips—Tatsuki's reminder shoved reality back: this was no time to chat.
Amiya, still shaken, hid behind the amnesiac Doctor; Dobermann took command. "Find shelter! Brace for impact—move!"
Decisive and crisp—Tatsuki spared her an approving glance. Black uniform, whip in hand, sleek hair, noble face, plus upright ears and a shepherd's tail: every inch a true Dobermann beast-girl.
The beast-eared line-up hardly ended with Dobermann.
Amiya was a rabbit-eared girl—though people often teased that her dark ears looked more like a little donkey's.
Texas carried proud wolf ears.
Liskarm? A dignified Vouivre girl.
Croissant… well, just a walking loaf of bread.
Yet Tatsuki didn't let admiration for kemonomimi distract him from his goal.
"Leave the Catastrophe to me."
Black-and-gold Chaos Wings burst outward. In their full form they split into two distinct pairs: a left pair pitch-black, a right pair molten gold.
"Wh-what is that…?"
Everyone froze. Each wing easily spanned ten meters. From the black half seeped a murky fog of madness; from the golden half spilled a comforting halo of warmth.
At this moment Tatsuki looked like darkness and light embodied in one figure.
Amiya, eyes wide, felt pure love and hope welling out of the gold—feelings that completely opposed the black wing's aura.
In a blink he shot straight into the clouds.
Why the theatrical display?—because Chernobog was stuffed with sin and belief; it would be wasteful to leave without claiming a little interest.
…
Across the ruined city—citizens, Infected, Reunion soldiers—heads tilted skyward.
Tatsuki hovered directly beneath the Catastrophe's vortex, those mismatched wings an unmistakable beacon.
Croissant gasped. "Exu—cher ami, your pal can fly?"
Exusiai grinned—and casually hit the Start-Stream icon.
[Ding! Exusiai has started a livestream!]
[Ding! Hai Xiaomei has entered the room!]
.
.
.
Hai Xiaomei: "Whoa! It feels like I'm inside a movie!"
Red thunderclouds and streets filled with corpses slammed into her senses.
Mikoto Suoh: "A proper war…?"
Even the Red King felt queasy; HOMRA's turf fights never looked like this.
Chito: "It resembles the collapsed ruins I once travelled."
March 7th: "Big hug for Chito!"
Exusiai: "Long story short—Reunion seized Chernobog, set it on fire, total chaos. But the top danger is the Catastrophe overhead—Texas says it's a meteor swarm."
Hai Xiaomei: "Meteor swarm?! Won't it wipe out the city?"
Exusiai: "Usually the city would move away, but something's jammed the engine."
Saeko Busujima: "So the mobile city wasn't a metaphor after all."
Nami: "A city on legs—crazy cool!"
Bronya: "Mobile platforms are indeed efficient disaster shelters."
Silver Wolf: "I've seen planet-sized dreadnoughts cruising through space."
Hai Xiaomei: "…A-aren't we still ignoring the meteors?"
Emilia: "No worries—Mister Tatsuki is absurdly strong."
Mikoto Suoh: "That angel silhouette up there—is that the admin?"
Seitenshi: "Yes. He will handle it."
Tatsuki inhaled, tasting the air.
"Originium…"
Since arrival he'd felt dust everywhere, but here at the vortex's core it crystallised into visible grains. To him Originium was less a rock and more a raw, commandable energy.
"Originium, heed my call."
He lifted a single hand. Crystals all around behaved like disciplined children, streaming toward his palm.
From below it looked as though the entire thunderhead was sucking into his grasp; the suffocating blood-red canopy peeled back at visible speed.
Sunlight hit blackened rooftops again. Only then did people realize the clouds and dense Originium mass were gone; a few stray meteors still plunged earthward, but, stripped of crystal, they had lost most of their punch.
A Catastrophe normally leaves both destruction and infection: every crystal-laden meteor seeds high contamination. Now—problem solved.
The basketball-sized crystal sphere in his hand vanished down Gluttony's maw.
Snap.
A finger-click—and the meteor shower shattered mid-flight.
Flaming fragments bloomed like daylight fireworks across the sky.
Hai Xiaomei: "He blew them up in the air—humans can do that?"
Mikoto merely fell silent; even as a King he could never.
Aqua: "Pshaw! Easy beans—this goddess could totally pull that off too! Come worship me, Xiaomei, Mikoto!"
Hai Xiaomei: "Uh?"
Mikoto: "I don't really do religion."
Ainz: "Aqua version 3.0, I see…"
March 7th: "You land a sponsorship again?"
Aqua: "I'm a water goddess—money practically swims to me!"
Silver Wolf: "Flag raised—she's probably going to eat dirt."
The chat mostly agreed the goddess was jinxing herself.
Exusiai: "Storm's over—stream ending!"
Tushan Honghong: "Aww, I could've watched longer."
The miracle burned itself into every eye in Chernobog.
In a rubble-strewn block, a silver-haired lolita with draconic horns lifted her sword and stepped forward; blistering heat melted asphalt beneath her boots.
…
"FrostNova, ma'am—the Catastrophe's gone!"
A heavily wrapped man shouted to the pure-white Ursine ahead.
She, too, could see without being told.
"We're moving."
Ice crackled in her footsteps.
…
A hulking, black stag-headed warrior swung his glaive after staring at the clearing sky.
"Forward—advance!"
…
"Hoho… seems something wild happened. Scout, maybe you won't die today."
High atop a tower, a red-haired woman with "cockroach-whisker" bangs twirled a bomb, grinning.
Scout would have complained less if she weren't holding live ordnance.
...
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