MOROSITAS

"Tap."

The crisp click of a leather shoe rang through the deathly still air of the ruins, like the first beat of a war drum.

Wei Zhenzu raised his head.

"Although you've made a complete mess of yourself..."

Vergilius's voice was low and even, yet it carried an authority that sent chills down the spine.

"You've done well to hold out this long against a Distortion of this level. It seems you've made your choice, manager."

Wei Zhenzu swallowed the bloody froth rising in his throat.

"Hah... I didn't expect Director V to be the one who came in the end."

Wei Zhenzu slowly got to his feet, his suit in tatters.

"Hah... I can only maintain this for three minutes."

"Now that you've obtained that piece of the Golden Bough, look at that tree, Dante."

Vergilius gave the orange-red short blade in his hand a casual flick and turned to face the WAW-class Abnormality.

"Light is not a gift from the gods. It is a seed that must break through the soil through self-examination."

The scar on the right side of Vergilius's face seemed to glow faintly as he spoke.

"You have struggled in despair for too long. So let your soul become that mud."

The Color Fixer turned his head slightly, the scarlet light in his eyes blazing.

"Do it, Dante."

Wei Zhenzu took a deep breath. The cold air poured into his burning lungs, but left his mind clearer than ever.

"Under the laws of the City..."

Wei Zhenzu raised his left hand, gripping the Golden Bough, and drove it hard into the flagstones beneath his feet without hesitation. His gaze pierced toward the demonic dragon in the sky like a blade.

"There are no gods."

A strange, profound dark-blue wave swept across the entire ruined square in an instant, spreading from the Golden Bough.

A rich aroma of coffee, slightly bitter yet utterly tranquil, abruptly spread across the smoke-filled battlefield.

The warm scent brought a caffeine-like, forced clarity, instantly suppressing every trace of the mental pollution emanating from the Final Judgment Heavenly Demon.

[MOROSITAS]

[First release effect: Chesed's mercy will last for the entire battle. Enters permanent cooldown after use.]

The law descended, and all beings were equal.

In the sky, the Final Judgment Heavenly Demon let out a terrified roar.

The crushing pressure that had blanketed the sky was forced firmly back to the horizon the instant the blue wave swept over it.

And on the ground.

"Hahahahaha!"

A wild shout exploded from the other side of the ruins.

Varka yanked his twin swords from the deep crater in the ground.

The Grand Master stared at his hands in astonishment and frenzy. He felt his depleted Anemo instantly refill and, under the equalizing adjustment of this strange law, erupt with destructive power far beyond what he had possessed at his peak.

"Hah... I don't know what you did, but I like this rhythm!"

Varka crossed his swords, and a raging cyan tornado soared into the sky, dispersing the surrounding poisonous mist.

Not far away, the unconscious Kaeya drew a sharp breath and pushed himself up from the ground.

Though shock still lingered in his remaining right eye, the crushing pressure that had reached into his very soul was utterly gone.

He tightened his grip on his sword, and Cryo condensed along its edge with a crisp crackle.

The muddy law of this cup of coffee had completely erased the class divide between the haughty calamity and mortals.

Vergilius adjusted the collar of his coat, unperturbed by the drastic changes in the energy field around him.

He simply raised the orange-red short blade in his hand and pointed it at the Heavenly Demon in midair.

"Good. The synchronization rate has reached an acceptable level."

He spoke to Wei Zhenzu behind him without looking back.

"I'll cut through its arrogance. You carry out the sentence. Prove your worth to me, manager."

A smile curled at the corner of Wei Zhenzu's mouth.

"As you wish."

Facing the ruined sky lit by scarlet karmic fire, he slowly raised his mangled right hand.

Under the law of [Mud], the lofty calamity had been dragged into the mire of mortals, stripped of the suppression of rank and the majesty of a god.

Now, this was simply an execution fought with lives on the line.

"beep*beep*"

The boiling liquid metal inside the terminal began to reassemble frantically.

Across Wei Zhenzu's face, concealed beneath a multifaceted metal mask, the blue light of the oracle intertwined with the scarlet in his eyes.

He murmured that blood-soaked string of numbers:

"Lower the blade's trajectory, strip away the remnants."

In a single frame, the liquid metal reshaped itself into a cold, deadly bastard sword.

Wei Zhenzu became a blurry black streak, charging upward along the Heavenly Demon's massive body. His blade cut into the churning black flesh at a vicious angle and dragged ruthlessly through it, forcibly stripping away great swathes of proliferating poisonous blood crystals.

The Heavenly Demon writhed frantically in pain, but the weapon in Wei Zhenzu's hand had already boiled and lengthened, reconstructing itself into a heavy spear in milliseconds.

Using the remaining momentum of his upward charge, he drove the spear with immense force into a gap between the bone plates on the monster's neck, forcibly pinning its struggling body in place.

Then he planted a foot hard against the spear shaft and used it as a pivot to leap into the air.

The instant he went airborne, the spear he pulled free contracted and surged outward like mercury, condensing with a crash into an iron hammer in his palm.

The wind tore at his suit. At the apex of his leap, he arched back with extreme force and aimed at the core of flesh he had just exposed below. With a violent pressure that threatened to crush everything, he brought the heavy hammer crashing down!

"Eight. One left."

"Roar-!"

The Heavenly Demon let out a bellow that shook the clouds apart.

The three hollow violet openings in its pale judgment mask locked onto the people on the ground.

"...Your sins... are like... that... poisonous blood... that can... never... be washed clean..."

A twisted will pierced everyone's minds like steel needles.

The Heavenly Demon violently beat its six deformed wings, wrapped in black bandages like guillotines, and the [Final Judgment Storm] descended with a roar.