Director: Daisuke Kurose
Writer: Shōgo Yasukawa
First Aired: 13 October 2023
Adapts: Volume 3, Chapter 4
The various rescue parties converge on the Pillar of Light emitted by Pete's beacon, but the poor boy is so exhausted he falls into a pit of mud, lamenting that he wanted to see the Sword Roses again, and Oliver in particular. That wish is granted moments later when Oliver and the others fish him out.
Their tearful reunion is interrupted by Ophelia Salvadori. Miligan tries to negotiate, but the succubus blows her off and begins changing a Magical Incantation far longer than any we've previously heard. Within minutes, the group is swept within Ophelia's Grand Aria: a Pocket Dimension of her design, crafted in the image of her own womb wherein she can birth chimeras without limit—unless she herself ends the spell or is killed.
Nanao and Chela activate their Super Modes, and, joined by Stacy and Lynette Cornwallis, who were caught up in the Grand Aria, the party desperately tries to reach her. The initial attack by Miligan and Chela is thwarted, and Miligan is taken out of the fight—but not before getting in a few barbs about Ophelia's romantic history, causing the chimeras to falter. Oliver seizes the opening: he, Chela, and Stacy will draw Ophelia's fire, while Nanao goes for the Decapitation Strike. On broom-back, the war party charges in. One by one, the diversions fall to the chimeras, but Nanao blasts her way through—
—and whiffs. Seeing tears streaming down Ophelia's face, Nanao hesitates, and in that moment Ophelia's Combat Tentacles send her flying. Nanao laments to Oliver about what she saw in that moment: "She's just a child. I can't kill a crying child."
Oliver lifts her to her feet, and Pete exits Lynette's barrier to join his friends in their Last Stand. Ophelia weeps at the sight... and then a quiet song breaks in. The wall of the Grand Aria collapses to reveal Carlos and Godfrey, who advance on their former friend as Carlos continues singing her magic away. Godfrey holds Oliver back, while, battered by her tentacles, Carlos embraces Ophelia and apologizes for failing to make her smile, before they both disappear into light. The Grand Aria dissipates into white sand, and the party is left standing on the third layer again. The Sherwoods, Lesedi, and Tim catch up, and everyone returns to the surface to rejoin their friends.
Oliver narrates over the happy reunion and the Anime Theme Song that talk of the Ophelia incident dissipated after a few days, because this is what life at Kimberly is. And indeed, what became of Ophelia and Carlos is one of the better deaths that await mages at the pinnacles of their craft—unlike what awaits him, he comments as the Sword Roses pass Headmistress Esmeralda and Professors Gilchrist, Aldiss, and Forghieri in a breezeway. He glares daggers at the backs of his mother's murderers... before being jolted out of his thoughts by Nanao, who as usual is cheerfully clueless and wondering what's for dinner.
Bokuto Uno wrote a Short Story titled "Encore", included in the Blu-ray set, that takes place immediately following this episode and provides a coda to year 1 of the series.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The entire epilogue scene is original to the anime.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Ophelia lost every chance she could have had to be happy, and her death is a source of regret from all concerned, not relief.
- Compressed Adaptation: In the novel, the Sherwoods were blocked from reaching the Grand Aria by Cyrus and had to fight him, preventing them from reaching the Grand Aria until it was all over. This is dropped from the episode.
- Counter Spell: The magical component of Carlos's Beautiful Singing Voice is explained: they're a Castrato, born male but neutered before puberty to create a mage whose singing voice counteracts Sex Magic—up to and including Ophelia's Grand Aria, something that shouldn't normally be possible.
- Death Glare: Oliver gives the group of teachers a nasty side-eye, given they consist of four of the six remaining targets on his Enemies List. (Baldia Muwezicamili and Demitrio Aristides are camera-shy.)
- Decapitation Strike: The only way to break the Grand Aria—so Oliver and Chela believe—is to either get Ophelia to break it or kill her. Chela and Miligan, the two heaviest hitters among the rescue party, try to brute-force it and fail, so Oliver moves to a backup plan: draw their fire away from Nanao so the samurai girl can go for the head. Nanao whiffs at the last moment, due to empathizing with Ophelia's sorrow.
- Disappears into Light: Ophelia and Carlos both fade away into particles of light as they die.
- Foreign Language Title: "Last Song" spelled phonetically, with the definitional kanji 聖歌 meaning "hymn"—Carlos's Nom de Guerre in the novels.
- Hammerspace: Once again, the Flying Broomsticks emerge from nowhere, having not been mentioned in the novel until the Grand Aria scene.
- Hope Spot: Miligan blasts Ophelia with her basilisk eye and Ophelia is petrified... for about two seconds before saying she became immune to petrification curses years ago.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ophelia is seen in a flashback trying on earrings in front of Carlos, who suggests which one Godfrey would like, then hugs her from behind. One of Carlos's last words is that they, too, love her.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Miligan is stabbed all the way through by Ophelia's Combat Tentacles in multiple places.
- Last Moment Together: The main part of the episode closes with Ophelia Salvadori and Carlos Whitrow mutually consumed by the spell. They fade away into light, Together in Death, while Carlos's best friend and Ophelia's estranged Love Interest Alvin Godfrey looks on and bids them goodbye.
- Lighter and Softer: The violence in this episode is significantly toned-down compared to the novel: Nanao is said to have broken every bone in her body when she crashed. This created a bit of an Adaptation Explanation Extrication: when Carlos reached Ophelia in the novel, he was even more beaten-up by her than Miligan was, which was why he died along with her.
- Mandatory Line: Guy and Katie both get a couple lines again after being reunited with the other Sword Roses.
- No Endor Holocaust: Miraculously, all of the named students who were kidnapped by Ophelia are returned to the surface unharmed. The only casualties were Ophelia and Carlos.
- Not So Stoic: Ophelia claims to have cast aside her humanity, but Miligan is able to find her Berserk Button pretty quickly: she taunts Ophelia, the Succubus of Kimberly, for acting like a virginal maiden pining after unrequited love, which drives Ophelia into a fury. She beats the crap out of Miligan, but it causes her chimeras to falter and give the Sword Roses and Stacy an opening. Even after defeating their attack, she bursts into tears at the sight of the Sword Roses preparing to fight a Last Stand in unison, and Oliver supporting the battered Nanao, wondering how long it had been since she had been together with another human like that.
- Pocket Dimension: A Grand Aria is the pinnacle of magical research: a pocket universe created to the caster's own preferences with its own natural laws, which can only be ended by the will or death of the caster. Ophelia crafts a Womb Horror universe to allow her to breed chimeras without limit in pursuit of the perfect being sought by her ancestors, bypassing biological reproduction completely.
- Power Limiter: Carlos takes off the lacy choker around their neck and tosses it aside before advancing on Ophelia.
- Sequel Hook: Oliver notes that his mission of revenge is far from over, while glaring daggers at the group of teachers.
- She's a Man in Japan: The English translation is inconsistent on Carlos. In the subtitles, Carlos is referred to as male, but the dub follows the novels' example and has Godfrey refer to Carlos as a "them".
- Ship Tease: As Pete loses consciousness during The Teaser, he mentions wanting to see Oliver again in particular.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Ophelia, Carlos, and Godfrey, in the end: the girl who couldn't help but make every male irrationally horny was loved by the one person physically immune to her charms, and in turn loved their best friend, but couldn't overcome her history and lost them both. Ultimately, Carlos and Ophelia are Together in Death, leaving Godfrey to carry on alone.
- Tamer and Chaster: In the novel version of the flashback to Ophelia's last confrontation with Godfrey and Carlos two years ago, Ophelia was visibly pregnant with her only known human child, conceived with a male student she had raped.
- Womb Horror: Ophelia's Grand Aria takes the form of a gigantic womb-dimension where she can birth chimeras without limit, with Ophelia herself becoming part of the level geometry.
