Something bizarre happened.
The beautiful body that had lost its life did not collapse; instead, it maintained its original posture, standing in the spire, right in front of Louvre.
Seeing such an eerie scene, Louvre instinctively felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint the source of his unease.
In an instant, with a speed that seemed capable of catching up to his doubts, he rapidly retreated. Though he was much younger compared to the true Ancestors, he possessed talents that did not disgrace his noble name.
Then, he heard a sound.
A strange sound.
Different from the air vibrations that typically reach the eardrums.
It was a more fundamental—impossible to exist in this dimension—alien friction, a sound the soul seemed to hear directly.
Immediately afterward, an aura not belonging to this world emanated from "inside Touko."
It was an indescribable magic power, one that even the secret treasure Louvre prided himself on could not rival—a terrifying magic power that brought despair.
Simultaneously, an unheard-of alien sound grew more piercing, so piercing that it drove Louvre to the brink of madness.
With a slight "pop," Touko's abdomen shattered.
It wasn't her clothes or flesh and bones, but as if a statue's material had peeled away—revealing a "door" within the opened wound.
From the slightly ajar gap, only pitch-blackness could be seen. Even the dead apostle's vision, far superior to humans, could not discern anything inside. It was as if darkness itself had taken physical form.
Pitch-black darkness.
An endless, distance-less, infernal abyss.
At the bottom of this darkness, where no magic or technological light could reach, two points of light glowed.
They were eyes—though not eyes in the conventional sense, Louvre knew they were eyes.
A soundless wail emerged from the throat of the "Dead Apostle of the Lake."
Touko's body crumbled, and at the same time, shadows extended rapidly from within.
Thorn-like tentacles and ominous claws bound the dead apostle who had retreated into the corner, the one who harmed their master.
"Ugh... gah..."
Reason told Louvre to resist, but his body couldn't move. He could only watch as the tentacles and claws wrapped around him, dragging him into Touko's "door," being chewed by thousands of sharp teeth.
At this moment, Louvre felt the emotions of those offerings whose blood he had drained before they died—emotions named fear, a terror that could shatter the soul. Even though he was only being nibbled away at fingertip-sized portions, his emotions were completely overwhelmed by negativity.
It's over. It's all over.
The dead apostle's life, the Ancestor's ambitions—they were all over.
The monster began eating him from his feet with countless small mouths. He could only be devoured alive, and before losing consciousness, his remaining head's vision met the lifeless puppeteer.
Her eyes were open as if she wanted to witness this horrifying death. For some reason, Louvre felt that her hollow gaze was full of contempt as if saying—I'm not bluffing. When I said I would kill you, I meant it.
Father, You Really Shouldn't Have Gotten Involved with These Monsters!
The last bit of brain matter was chewed to pieces.
That was the final thought of the "Dead Apostle of the Lake."
He never had the chance to activate that precious secret treasure.
The monster that devoured the dead apostle was not satisfied. The already formless, dark, and blurry "box" continued to expand outward. Ten times, a hundred times more thorny tentacles were released from inside the dark "box."
The floor.
The walls.
The pillars.
Even the decorations.
These tentacles dragged everything they touched into the entity hidden within the "box," leaving behind an even deeper darkness than this eternal night, along with the ever-spreading, maddening magical power.
Every being who witnessed this scene, whether they were dead apostles or humans, was stunned.
The humans were somewhat prepared, as they had been informed beforehand and knew it was a gift Touko had specifically prepared for Louvre. They just hadn't expected the gift to be so overwhelming.
The dead apostles were a mixture of shock and fear, terrified by the indescribable horror of the monster and its power to kill their progenitor.
All the dead apostles in the castle were bloodbound to Louvre. Once he perished, they would all sense it. Those directly receiving "original fluid" and power from Louvre would be affected, and their strength diminished.
The immediate result was that the slaughter by Sakura, Fujino, and Lorelei, who were acting separately, proceeded more smoothly.
Fujino, responsible for the area east of the spire, twisted the last dead apostle in her region into a ball. Sakura, teaming up with her, swiftly ended the apostle by stabbing his heart with the Divine GunBlade.
Then, the two girls looked toward the spire, now half-covered in darkness.
"It seems like sensei succeeded."
"Yes, let's hurry and meet up with Sister Touko."
On the other side, Lorelei, working alone, also gazed at the monster flaunting its presence. She recalled a legend she had heard from the Carillon Observatory.
The legend mentioned that one of the "Sealing Designation" targets, the "Grand puppeteer, Touko Aozaki, kept a monster. This monster had no name, only known to be always under Touko Aozaki's control, with no one uncovering its true mystic nature. Perhaps even Touko herself didn't fully understand the monster.
What was known was that the monster couldn't speak and had devoured a double-digit number of enforcers. Most importantly, the monster was immortal!
"To release such a monster, what is Miss Touko thinking?"
Lorelei shook her ponytail and ran toward the spire. Before leaving, she didn't forget to turn the female dead apostle, who had previously escaped her grasp, into ashes.
The three girls arrived almost simultaneously, and their first question was directed at the waiting Kirie.
"Sensei/Miss Touko/Sister Touko, where is she?"
Kirie's face showed a peculiar expression: "Uh, Miss Aozaki is with my original body."
"What?" The three girls looked at each other, all equally puzzled.
Touko was with them just a few minutes ago; how did she end up in Kirie, hundreds of kilometers away?
"Um, Sister Touko said the exact method is a secret."
"Did she say what to do here? If we leave this thing alone, it might swallow the entire castle," Lorelei said, considering the problem more thoroughly, as befits someone from the Clock Tower.
"She did. She said once its eye appears, just throw this box at it." Kirie was holding an oversized suitcase, its cubic shape reminding Lorelei of something from legend.
"A box that seals monsters from myths... As expected of Touko Aozaki, she can even make something like this. It seems this operation is over. It's a pity we can't contact Shinji to share the good news. Where exactly did the Second Magus take him? Could he have taken him on a journey to a parallel world?"
Lorelei had no idea that her casual remark was spot on; the boy they all missed had indeed gone to another world—a world called Fate/Apocrypha.