Pleiades Sealing Conflict

The Pleiades Sealing Conflict is a series of events beginning with the sealing and abduction of Natsuki Subaru and his contracted spirit Beatrice at the Pleiades Watchtower by the hand of Aldebaran, and it expanded to be not just a threat to the Royal Selection, but even to the entire world. The conflict takes place approximately 1 year and 8 months after Subaru was brought to the world, and it is the primary conflict of Arc 9.

Following the successful yet tragic end to the Great Disaster, Aldebaran, who had lost his primary pillar of support, Priscilla Barielle, set forth on the task given to him by his teacher, leading him to set up an elaborate scheme that would allow him to capture and dispose of Subaru in an effort to supposedly prevent the end of the world. Setting his sights on the Grand Mogolade Geyser in the Kararagi City-States, Aldebaran successfully sealed his target, made an ally of the Divine Dragon itself, kidnapped one of the Royal Selection Candidates, Felt, broke free a dangerous and most hated Sin Archbishop, unintentionally wrapped the Black Serpent into the conflict, and even summoned the Witch of Envy.

Background

Aldebaran’s Task

Many years ago, Aldebaran was tutored under the Witch of Greed, learning various magic spells from her, both ordinary and forbidden, as well as how to use his Authority with maximum proficiency. During this time, for unknown reasons, Aldebaran was given a task by Echidna that was related to Natsuki Subaru, who at the time had not yet been summoned to the world. However, during his time under the care of Priscilla Barielle, he had decided to not complete this task, and he settled for being Al rather than Aldebaran.

Fall of House Astrea

Approximately 17 years prior before Subaru's arrival to the world, the wife of Heinkel Astrea, Louanna, fell into a long slumber caused by her two-year-old son, and since then, Heinkel has been desperate to wake her. Three years later, a crisis unfolded in which the Lugunican Royal Family's princess Filore Lugunica was kidnapped, something that is known in the present as the Royal Abduction Incident, and Heinkel, that night, committed a betrayal and made a mistake that made said betrayal pointless, which in the end, gave Heinkel his unnatural durability. Wilhelm van Astrea was put in charge of searching for the princess while Theresia van Astrea decided to handle the Great Conquest at Heinkel's suggestion. However, because of this, Theresia was killed, Wilhelm blamed his grandson Reinhard when he revealed he had his grandmother's Divine Protection of the Sword Saint, and Heinkel refused to allow Wilhelm near his son, shattering the bonds of House Astrea.

Eventually, with Reinhard officially becoming the Sword Saint and Louanna's slumber still unable to end, Heinkel believed that ruining Reinhard's reputation as the Sword Saint and waking his mother were the only ways to somehow help his son, and he became desperate to wake his wife at any cost. Because of his behavior, he became hated, and rumors started to circulate that he was also behind the Royal Abduction Incident. In his desperation, he later joined the Priscilla Camp in an attempt to get ahold of the castle's Dragon's blood. During the Battle for Priestella, however, the bonds between the men of House Astrea shattered further upon the second death of Theresia. In response to this, Wilhelm began retraining himself in the ways of the sword, intent on using his swordsmanship to get through to Reinhard, while Heinkel continued down the path he started a decade prior.

Attempted Assassination of Priscilla Barielle

During his time in the Priscilla Camp, Al had come to be acquainted with her head chamberlain, Yae Tenzen, even having worked together to quell the undead incident that plagued the Barielle Domain. However, the night following said quelling, Yae, who had been tasked by Chisha Gold to kill Priscilla, attempted to sneak into her room and accomplish this task. Al, who became aware of this supposedly through his Authority, confronted her, using his Authority against her to thoroughly instill fear into her heart. Rather than killing her or sending her on her way, Al decided to make use of her, and he had her wait elsewhere until he needed her. The next day, Yae had vanished, and Al told Priscilla that she had left for “familial reasons”.

Pleiades Watchtower Expeditions

A little over two months following the Battle for Priestella, the Emilia and Anastasia Camps decided to traverse the Augria Sand Dunes in an effort to reach the Pleiades Watchtower, hoping to obtain the wisdom of the Sage in order to recover the memories and bodies of those who had been affected by the Authorities of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony and the Sin Archbishop of Lust. After arriving, the camps found themselves in conflict with the tower’s guardians, the Gluttony siblings, and their army of witchbeasts. In the end, the camps emerged victorious, having killed Lye Batenkaitos after managing to get him to spit up numerous names and memories and sealing his brother Roy. However, when the Witch of Envy appeared, kidnapped Subaru, Rem, and Spica, and was hit by the dragonhusk Volcanica, who sat atop the tower, the camps decided to head to Vollachia, with Anastasia’s group first taking Roy to be locked away in the Prison Tower.

Thanks to the first successful expedition, the Kingdom’s Council of Wise Men decided to send a new expedition team to determine what to do with the tower from that point forward, leading to the Felt Camp taking on the task. Despite the struggle in getting there and discovering the birds there being used to spy on them and the tower, the second expedition was also considered a success, and with the camp deciding to return, they left behind both Ezzo Cadner and Flam Remendis to further investigate the tower.

Great Disaster Aftermath

In order to escape her bindings and bring an end to the Great Disaster that plagued the Vollachia Empire, Priscilla, who had been captured by the Witch Sphinx, used her Yang Sword to snuff out her own light and become an undead to continue fighting. In the end, her efforts proved necessary to end the disaster. However, the morning after returning to Garkla, having said what she needed to the people in town, she had a small party with Subaru and Al atop the Fortress City’s ramparts, and there, as she faded away, she praised both Subaru and Al for their efforts.

After Priscilla vanished, Al, who had lost the one he loved, decided to revert to being Aldebaran and complete the task given to him by his teacher. In the following days that everyone remained in Vollachia, Al went around using his Authority in order to divide everyone in the Emilia Camp upon their return to Lugunica, as well as to secure the assistance of Heinkel Astrea in exchange for the Royal Castle’s Dragon’s blood. At some point, he even secured Yae’s help, and he had Heinkel and Yae wait for him elsewhere. With the Anastasia Camp returning to the country via Kararagi, Al left with Subaru’s group as they made for the Pleiades Watchtower, where Subaru intended to help Al in finding the Book of the Dead he wanted to see. After arriving, the group met Ezzo, who had continued his studies of the Books of the Dead, and they spent the day in relative peace.

Conflict

Desert Skirmish

During the day, Al found one of Subaru’s Books of the Dead, and he hid it in Subaru’s belongings after scratching off its name, and he also grabbed his own Book of the Dead. At the end of the night, he met with Subaru and Beatrice alone in the library while the others rested on the floor below. After a short conversation in which Subaru let his guard down, Al cast the forbidden art Ol Shamak on Subaru, and after Beatrice tried to jump in the way to protect him, the two were sealed together.

It took no time at all for Garfiel and Ezzo to appear and confront him. Using his Authority, he managed to avoid Garfiel’s attacks and counter Ezzo’s magic, preventing them from dealing any true damage to him. Having created a new arm with earth magic, he punched Garfiel, and after Garfiel bit down on it, Al made his false hand rupture in his mouth, dealing a large amount of damage. After escaping the two, Garfiel able to heal himself, Al escaped into the stairway. However, Ezzo, having deduced that he wasn’t using magic, decided to flood the entire stairway while Garfiel protected the others with his Divine Protection. Having used his Authority once again, Al managed to survive the flood and make it to the top of the tower, where he was cornered by Ezzo and Garfiel. Despite this, Al turned the tables by having Volcanica, who continued to sit atop the tower, read his Book of the Dead. With Volcanica now bearing the mind of Aldebaran, it indirectly struck the two with Dragon’s breath, taking them out of the fight.

As he made his way downstairs, he also incapacitated Flam, who attempted to ambush him, and pinned her against the wall with magic. Leaving behind Petra Leyte and Meili Portroute, who could do nothing to stop him, he exited the tower. Despite Patrasche being there to stop him as well, Al ignored her and flew atop Volcanica’s back, only to be knocked out of the sky by the newly arrived Reinhard van Astrea, who had been made aware of the situation thanks to the Divine Protection shared between Flam and her sister Grassis. As the two fought, steadily leading to Al’s defeat, Petra, who believed that Al had a plan to stop even Reinhard, found a Book of the Dead in Subaru’s belongings. Reading it, she discovered Return by Death, witnessing his conversation with Echidna and the Witch of Envy taking over Emilia’s body, and the backlash of reading the book caused her to black out. This caused the Witch of Envy to appear for her life. Though Al was defeated, he had bought enough time by bringing up Heinkel, and with Reinhard unable to ignore the Witch, he was forced to let Al go to stop her, and Al flew away.

While Al converged with his party and warned the citizens of Mirula to evacuate the town for a week, Meili and Flam gathered everyone together onto the carriage while Patrasche pulled them away as quickly as possible in order to escape the battle between the Sword Saint and the Witch of Envy. Petra, having awakened with a hallucination of Subaru in her head, took the reins, and they escaped to Mirula without stopping, with Flam knocking herself unconscious to quickly regain use of her Divine Protection.

Ambush of the Felt Camp

After having sent Reinhard on his way, Felt believed that Al had to have planned for something to take care of Reinhard for his bold actions in the tower. With the Divine Dragon having been spotted heading north, Felt suspected that this was meant to distract everyone while Al headed in another direction, likely west toward Kararagi. Felt informed Emilia and Otto Suwen of the current issue. After a short conversation with them and asking them to stay in the Royal Capital just in case, she used her connections with the Big Three of Flanders, the three underground groups whose backing in the Royal Selection she had procured by assisting them with resolving an incident that occurred in the city a year prior. Gathering a small army of 500 people, with Doltero Amule of the Black Silver Coin, Toto of the Flower Prison Garden, and Manfred Madison of the Balance commanding their respective forces, as well as the remaining five members of her camp at her side, the parties laid in wait in an attempt to ambush Al. Meanwhile, Otto obtained the cooperation of Wilhelm van Astrea and Ferris and set his Zodda Bugs as his surveillance system, having Emilia patiently wait in case Al overcame Felt's group.

Having left Mirula, Al sent Volcanica north in an effort to distract his enemies, hoping to lead them in a different direction. Meanwhile, his party rested within a cabin in the middle of an unnamed forest. Soon after, however, after smoke started to fill the forest, Al discovered that they had been ambushed by the Felt Camp, who had found him thanks to the Divine Protection in Manfred’s eye. Cornered, he had Yae and Heinkel set up a makeshift cannon using uprooted trees. However, this did not last long thanks to trickery by Rachins Hoffman, and the distraction allowed Felt’s group to push forward their attack. Meanwhile, Rom used the entire battle to analyze Al’s abilities.

While Yae continued restraining her enemies, Al was forced to confront Doltero, who found him no matter what he did. After many attempts and having to master the usage of one of Yae’s special rings, he was ultimately able to bring the man down. However, he was forced to keep fighting the ceaseless numbers, even having to confront Rachins, who attempted to trick Heinkel into triggering his Al Goa trap, break all of the conversation mirrors held by specific people, defeat Gaston, and use Heinkel’s body as a shield to protect him from a blast from the Star Staff being wielded by the Hexcel using Camberley. With Camberley knocking himself out and Yae preventing Toto from reaching him with her fan, Al eventually found himself face to face with Rom. Having understood Al’s mentality by leaving everyone alive and telling him that Felt had been trailing them and waking everyone up, having set up a trap to incapacitate Yae with the help of Manfred, and informing Al that he had successfully and nearly completely deduced Al’s Authority, he caused Al to misuse his Authority, who considered Rom more dangerous than Reinhard. With Volcanica on the way and Rom’s trap complete, he used Hexcel to increase his size and break a Night Banishing Stone to create an illusion. However, before he could trap Al in an endless loop, Felt stopped Volcanica from using its Dragon’s breath with the Star Staff, stopping it from killing everyone there. Having managed to escape, Yae used her strings to hold everyone down, signifying Al’s party’s victory.

Despite this, while they were discussing what to do with Felt in order to keep them from chasing after them, Felt spoke to Volcanica. By doing so, Volcanica realized that it did not want to disobey Felt, even comparing her to Farsale Lugunica. Due to this, Yae threatened to kill her, causing conflict with Volcanica. In the end, Al decided to accept Felt’s proposition to take her hostage in exchange for leaving everyone else alone and alive. Though Rom attempted to stop it by killing Al then and there, Al knocked him out. With Yae crushing the eye Manfred was using to track them and Felt’s group being forced to retreat, Al informed Felt of their intended destination of the Grand Mogolade Geyser, before setting his sights on the Royal Capital’s Prison Tower and splitting his party up once again.

Disturbance in the Royal Capital

Battle at the Prison Tower

After splitting off from the others, Al busted into the Prison Tower, defeating the sparsely gathered guards and using Volcanica's fang to destroy mechanisms in the tower. After freeing the now unsealed Roy Alphard and claiming to need his assistance, he used his Authority to defeat Roy and shatter the bones in his arms, followed by Al using an oath bound curse mark to prevent him from using his Authority on people other than who Al says. After a short conversation, Roy informed him of the strange existence of Zodda Bugs in a place where life should not have been able to be reached, alerting Al to Otto's movements and forcing him to grab Roy and rush out of the tower.

Outside the tower, however, he confronted a furious Emilia, who was warned not to listen to Al's words and to quickly take him down. Almost immediately after Al tried to speak with her, Emilia used her Ice Brand Arts to attack him. With Al using his earth version of Emilia's technique to counter her and pinning Roy inside of a pillar to prevent his escape, the two clashed, with Emilia attempting to use the new aspect of her technique to freeze Al, as well as using magic and Icicle Line to trap him and wear him down with the cold. With Al finding himself cornered, he prepared to summon Volcanica to his location, only to watch as it plummeted from the sky over Yae's location, leaving Al cornered further. The clash continued, leaving Al to think of a way to overcome the problem at hand, and after speaking to Roy, he found his answer, telling him to spit up someone's name and memories.

As Emilia attempted to defeat Al, Roy did as he was told and regurgitated the name and memories of Rem, causing Emilia to stop in her tracks and struggle with the sudden influx of information that assailed her brain. This gave Al the chance to bring down the large boulder Volcanica had prepared after being forced to descend, and, leaving the crumbling earth for Emilia to deal with, he snatched Roy and ran away. Emilia, with no choice but to stop the falling chunks of earth, created many ice pillars to catch it all, screaming at Al the whole time. Al, having made his escape, watched everything take place atop a wall, making sure to see what he did all the way through before making his escape.

Battle in the Noble District

While Al set out to obtain a new ally from the Prison Tower, Heinkel remained in the sky on Volcanica's back while Yae kept an eye on Felt in the Barielle Auxiliary Manor in the Royal Capital. Unbeknownst to Yae, they were under the watch of the Zodda Bugs, which Felt took to her advantage in order to inform Otto of Al's goal. After a short conversation with Felt, Yae found herself on the wrong end of the blades of the Sword Demon, who had attacked and nearly landed a full powered kick on Yae. The two clashed, with Wilhelm overwhelming Yae, even using her strings to his own advantage in the underground space of the manor. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to defeat Wilhelm, causing her to pull on the string around Felt's throat to summon Volcanica.

After Volcanica appeared and severed Yae's string, Wilhelm called out to Heinkel, who was cowering behind Volcanica's back. After their argument, which bought some time for the citizens in the area to escape, Wilhelm turned his blades toward the Divine Dragon, and the two entered a clash that encompassed the Noble District, with Volcanica booting Heinkel off of its back. Though Wilhelm could not pierce its scales and even found himself trapped between its teeth, his overwhelming tenacity, power, as well as being able to cut through Volcanica's breath, left both Heinkel and Volcanica in fear that he would win, despite such overwhelming odds. Because of this, while Wilhelm was on the ground, Heinkel took advantage of it to stab Wilhelm in the back, and though Wilhelm told him that his actions would not cause a change in Reinhard, Wilhelm ultimately fell. After this, Volcanica took Heinkel, Felt, and Yae and escaped from the area, leaving the area destroyed but with no casualties.

Following the Star

Chase and Ambush

As Al and his party escaped to a quarry some distance away from the Royal Capital, Otto, with a backup plan in case he was defeated set in place, used his Divine Protection and an army of Zodda Bugs to begin harassing Al, entering a war of attrition to prevent his party from getting any rest. Meanwhile, once Petra's party arrived in Mirula and spoke with Clind, Petra offered him compensation to use his Authority of Melancholy to gather everyone, sans Frederica Baumann who needed to stay with Schult, and bring them to the Royal Capital. There, they were hit with the memories of Rem returning and began discussing Al's Authority with Rom, who claimed that it was to go back in time, something that Petra resonated with, and Rem came to realize the similarity with Subaru's own achievements. With the others discussing how to handle Al, Petra realized a weakness to Al's Authority and stopped Rem from mentioning Subaru's, mentioning the Witch of Envy could be listening. Afterward, they discussed their plan, which included Petra taking the Witch Factor of Melancholy for herself and using it while Clind would be busy elsewhere. Giving it various forms of compensation from every resident in the Royal Capital for her use, Petra was entrusted with the Witch Factor of Melancholy. Likewise, in order to counter Roy's Authority, everyone decided to undergo a "change of names", and to do so, everyone went through a makeshift adoption, giving everyone the surname of Leyte, officially changing their names in the eyes of Od Lagna. After further discussions, they waited for a signal from Otto so that they could put their plan into action.

After about a day of escaping with little rest and preventing Heinkel from killing Felt, Al spoke with Yae, who convinced him to remove the internal shackles on himself that restricted how he used the cards at his disposal. Though he refused to end a battle with someone's death, he decided that deaths caused as collateral damage while in the process of looping and the utilization Roy's Authority in order to subdue an enemy were acceptable to match his opponents. With fewer restraints, he used Volcanica's breath in tandem with his Authority to wipe out the life around them and ascertain Otto's location. After verifying Otto's location in previous loops, Al discussed how to deal with Felt with Yae, while Roy made a secret agreement with her to act as if she'd had her memories eaten and to play the role of the memoryless lost princess of Lugunica. After their plan was put into action with Al loosening the restrictions on his curse and Felt started her act, she was sealed away. However, despite the discomfort of being sealed, she realized that Roy had insurance in place: the Black Serpent, hiding within the shadows.

With Felt taken care of, Al entrusted the orb containing Felt and to Heinkel had Volcanica throw Yae, who had a means of cushioning the fall, to quickly ambush Otto and tie him up, as well as defeat Frufoo who was with him, and his defeat caused all of the Zodda Bugs to disperse, giving his allies his location. Once Al and Roy caught up, Al had Roy devour Otto's memories to prevent him from chasing after them and learn his party's plans. Immediately afterward, however, when Roy learned of Otto's backup plan, they found themselves face to face with Rem, which caused Al to freeze from the influx of memories. In that brief space of time, Al, as well as Yae, who quickly attached herself to him, were teleported into the sky. Meanwhile, the rest of the camp, as well as members of the Felt Camp and the Big Three of Flanders, had teleported to confront Roy, Heinkel, and Volcanica. After a short confrontation, in which Clind knocked down Volcanica with a kick, Roy experienced kickback from attempting to devour Ram's name and mysteriously failing, and Flam and Grassis pinned down Heinkel, Clind, Roswaal, and the Divine Dragon were all teleported away.

Battle in Agzadd Canyon

Finding himself falling from the top of Kararagi's Agzadd Canyon, Aldebaran used his Authority to calm his mind and assess the situation, coming to the conclusion that, since magic, Melancholy, and Vainglory were out of the question, he must have been ambushed by the current wielder of the Witch Factor of Pride. After reaching this conclusion, he blocked an attack from Rem's morningstar with his earthen prosthetic, and he claimed that she should not even be alive. Rem, using her water magic to create platforms, used them to propel herself downward and attack him, even using her magic to destabilize their balance when Yae tried to use her strings to attach to them. Shortly after, Emilia appeared from below, and they were ambushed in a pincer attack.

Despite being pincered, Al managed to block her attack by coating himself and Yae completely in earth, using this time to have Yae attach the two together with threads. Using an icy hammer and the morningstar, the girls quickly destroyed the earthen wall, allowing for Al to charge toward Emilia and Yae to pounce toward Rem, dodging her attacks and nearly cutting off her head with her thread. Rem then coated her weapon in ice to multiply its mass and brought it down on Yae, forcing Yae to attack it repeatedly until the ice was destroyed and disperse the ball's impact with her thread just before it could reach her. Despite doing so, the impact still sent Yae flying towards Al. As Al and Emilia were using ice and earth weapons to attack each other, Rem used her morningstar to pull Emilia towards herself before Al and Yae could work together to fight Emilia. Realizing how difficult the fight was becoming, the two cast a wide Al Huma together and set it between Al and Yae, keeping them separated while creating a platform to fight on. Once the girls landed on the platform, Yae removed her shoes to increase her threads. After a small conversation, they introduced themselves before attacking once again.

Battle in the Rocky Plains

After having been separated from the group, Clind and Roswaal faced Volcanica in an open plain. After Volcanica realized that it was Melancholy that separated everyone, Clind revealed himself to be Volcanica's dragonkin, producing a pair of horns. Charged with purple lightning, Clind charged forward toward the flying Dragon, cutting through Volcanica's breath, and deflecting its tail. Propelling himself while midair, Clind unleashed a hail of strikes in the blink of an eye, forcing Volcanica to ascend further into the skies, only to plunge into a massive water sphere generated by Roswaal. Following this, Roswaal started to make the sphere boil, and Clind struck the water with a lightning-clad fist, causing the water to explode in a steam explosion with enough power to potentially wipe out a town. Despite this, Volcanica easily cut through the steam and was completely unscathed, much to Roswaal's annoyance.

After a small discussion with Clind about Volcanica's defenses and any possible weaknesses, such as the effectiveness of the Dragon Sword and Volcanica's inverse scale, Roswaal began preparing a spell in the sky. Volcanica unleashed a massive roar to rend the sky and earth and stifle its enemies, though thanks to Roswaal creating a mist, the sound was dampened. With Clind plunging into the mist, Roswaal unleashed his magic, slamming the Dragon with a massive torrent of wind, ice, and fire. Volcanica weathered through the attack and generated several gigantic fists of stone, awaiting Clind as he surged toward it. To counter this, Clind accessed more of his power to temporarily gain similar defenses as Volcanica, wrapping his body in electricity to contend with the fists, its tail, and its claws. Volcanica prepared its breath of fire and water to strike at Clind while Clind used his electricity to deflect it. Caught within one of the giant fists and wrapping himself in electricity, he barely withstood the attack before Roswaal unleashed his magic once again, using four elements with strength enough to destroy an entire city to attack Volcanica and help Clind escape from injury. However, heavily injured by counteracting the Dragon, he began falling from the sky, Clind rushing to catch him. Volcanica then began chasing after them and attacking, forcing Clind deflect its attacks as he fled, and eventually, he was stricken down by Volcanica's tail.

Deciding to finish the two, Volcanica used its breath, only for Roswaal to use the power of five elements to counter it with a massive ray of magic, completely annihilating the battlefield around them. Ultimately, Roswaal had strained his gate terribly and began convulsing and crying tears of blood while Volcanica emerged unscathed once again. Intent on continuing fighting, Roswaal, still mangled, stood up, and shortly after, Ezzo appeared behind him.

Battle in the Mountains

After everyone's separation, Rom helped Petra to use her Authority to direct and change the locations of everyone on the battlefield where they needed to be, starting with Ram, who attempted to use her magic to behead Roy. Using his stockpile of skills, however, he managed to avoid this, teleport to the sky with her, and try to counter. Despite this, he was unable to do so, as she had vanished and reappeared above him, and after delivering a powerful kick to him, he was sent hurtling to the ground. Before he could return to the sky, he was confronted Meili and her witchbeasts, the Guiltylowe and Wolgarms. Though he managed to stop the attack of the Guiltylowe, Ram took advantage of the distraction to attack while Meili commanded her Wolgarms forward. On the receiving end of injury, he paralyzed the Wolgarms and used his blood to slay them, and afterward, create explosive magical butterflies from the witchbeasts' corpses, before coagulating his blood and stopping his bleeding. In the lull, he determined Clind's involvement in separating Volcanica, Al, and Yae from the battlefield and determining that it was caused by an Authority, while simultaneously coming to the conclusion that they had come up with specific counters towards his Eclipse.

Nearby, Heinkel was forced to take a hard beating from Flam and Grassis, who declared their hostility toward him for his actions. However, they were shocked by his durability and that he hadn't passed out, even after having been struck in the face. After Heinkel received words from Roy, who had looked towards his battle, he steadied himself, only for Flam and Grassis to kick the earth beneath them to create a temporary smokescreen. After he slashed it away, he was ambushed from every direction by the twins until they landed a strike on his abdomen. Though he grabbed their wrists and held on tight, their assault continued. Attempting to knock them out, he raised the two to try and slam them into the ground, but he was stopped thanks to Gaston's interference, and he was stricken backwards.

After speaking to Heinkel, Roy sent forward his butterflies, which Ram and Meili countered by having trees knocked over to take their place, triggering numerous explosions. Maneuvering his remaining butterflies around the environment to reach the girls, he teleported above them in an effort to kill the Guiltylowe, only to find a Hungry Horse King instead, destroying the butterflies with its flaming spear, and the Guiltylowe had vanished. Taking advantage of Roy's distracted confusion, Doltero, who had also appeared out of nowhere, struck Roy and sent him flying backward. Correcting himself and noticing Ram in a completely separate area from before, as well as noticing Gaston's sudden arrival, he realized that, though the technique was the same, Clind was not on the battlefield, and someone else was using it. Seeing Petra, who was a distance away and was in the perfect spot to overlook the battlefield, though doubtful when scanning over all of his memories of her, he asked when she became a Sin Archbishop, only for Petra to proclaim herself the Witch of Melancholy.

By Rom's command, Petra used the Authority to move Roy's opponents to surround him. With Priestess of a Thousand Visages to see all around him, he used Compactor to obscure the vision of Doltero and Ram before turning his attention to Meili's Hungry Horse King and Guiltylowe, dodging all of their attacks. Eventually, Ram and Doltero broke through the walls, and Roy attempted to use magic spears created by Magia Manus Magister to counter them all, but Ram teleported directly in front of him and countered him instead. With Roy realizing that Ram had changed her true name and scouring through the memories he'd devoured, Roy attempted to devour the name "Ram Mathers", only to fail once again and experience the recoil of his Authority. With their opening made, Ram, her fist clad in wind, Doltero, the spears of the Hungry Horse King, and the paws of the Guiltylowe all crashed towards Roy, and he was blown away.

Despite this, finding themselves cornered, Heinkel shattered the sphere he was given, releasing Felt, and he held her hostage, calling her by the name Filore and apologizing to her for his actions. However, shortly after appearing and seeing the conflict that everyone was in, Felt decided to forego her original plan to play along with Roy in favor of warning everyone of an even greater threat, resulting in the Black Serpent appearing from her shadow. Reacting quickly, Rom had Petra use her Compression to move themselves and everyone near Heinkel away as the corruption caused by the Black Serpent spread. With their allies safe, Rom lunged forward to separate Felt from Heinkel, only to find himself injured by Roy. Shouting to Heinkel to protect Ford's daughter, Heinkel attacked Roy, knocking him away, and after pushing Rom and Felt away from the corruption, Heinkel was consumed by the filth of the Black Serpent.

Deciding to devour Felt, Roy attempted to use his Gluttony while the Black Serpent's corruption continued to spread, only for Rom to yell out at Petra to use Compression while he protected Felt. In response, Meili appeared with her Guiltylowe, and from its back, she used her Divine Protection to try and stop the Black Serpent, successfully managing to slow the corruption and the witchbeast, allowing for everyone to get out of its range. While everyone was stunned at seeing the Black Serpent's true form, Roy used the distraction to his advantage and used a palm strike to send the Guiltylowe towards the corruption, knocking Meili off of its back, and its life quickly ended. Afterward, with Roy using his blood to avoid touching the corruption, he used the Guiltylowe's corpse to generate more butterflies for his use.

As the two sides faced each other, Rachins appeared, using an Ul Goa to attack the Black Serpent and telling Felt to give everyone orders, which she proceeded to do and order everyone to fight, and Petra used her Authority to compress everyone's thoughts into one and act as a single organism. With Roy realizing that it was likely that everyone on the battlefield changed their names prior to the battle and that even Petra's proclamation and announcement of her own name could very well be a trap, Roy attempted to use Compactor, only to be countered by Gaston and Doltero, giving an opening for Rachins and Ram to combine their magics and create a tornado of flame to attack him. Roy countered that with an ice spear and butterflies, also making sure to use the butterflies generated from corpses created by the Black Serpent as mana tanks to maintain his body's Flow Method. Not allowing him a break, Flam and Grassis attacked him, which he tanked with Carnivorous Beast and countered by striking the twins with Snow Vallum and Palm of the Fist King. With the Hungry Horse King catching them before they could hit the ground, it tried to attack him with another spear, only for Roy to paralyze the attack before it could reach him. The Black Serpent also tried to attack with its body, only for it to be countered with the earth ripped from the ground and reinforced by magic, and Meili used her Divine Protection again to hinder the witchbeast's actions. Raising the corrupted earth, Roy used his butterflies to turn it into lethal shrapnel, only to be countered yet again. Finding it odd that the group managed to act together perfectly, despite the bewildering sensation that he got that was reminiscent of Al's actions, Roy came to the conclusion that it was Petra's doing.

As the fight continued, Roy continued to weaponize his blood, slowly but steadily wearing away at his life. Roy continued to expend various techniques and magics as he continued to fight, working alongside the Black Serpent, in hopes of wearing away at the compensation for the Authority of Melancholy, but each and every thing that the two attempted was handily countered by Petra's group. Eventually, as the Black Serpent decided to unleash a torrential rain of poison, Roy chose to use a new technique that revived the memories of pain that everyone experienced before, successfully managing to stun everyone and cripple Petra, who was reliving the pain Subaru experienced in each of his first 16 deaths. Despite this, however, Petra was able to use her Authority to compress all of the pain that she and everyone else experienced. With that gone and Camberley appearing on the battlefield, he tossed the Star Staff to Felt, and she started charging it. Though Roy attempted to counter it, his attacks were blocked. Using the distraction, he teleported in an attempt to strike down Petra and Meili, only for the Crimson Scorpion hidden in Meili's hair to fire a needle into his eye, and Garfiel, who also suddenly appeared, used his Divine Protection to shoot him into the sky. Meanwhile, the Black Serpent, who attempted to attack again, exploded from within, having been cut through by Heinkel, stunning Roy. With Garfiel attempting to land a hit, Roy attempted to use Leaper to try and escape, only to be interrupted by numerous Zodda Bugs directed by Otto, who had awakened and been given directions by Garfiel just prior, and he was once again left vulnerable. With Garfiel looming on the horizon, Roy spoke to Petra about the compensation for her Authority, learning that the compensation was paid by the entire Royal Capital, shocking him. Afterward, Garfiel struck him toward the contaminated ground, and Felt fired the Star Staff at him.