| Synopsis |
|---|
| With their DWMA colleagues falling to Arachne Gorgon's Madness, Maka Albarn and Soul Eater realize how to use her own web against her. As the tide turns against Arachne, Soul unleashes more power from the Black Blood in the form of a black dress that can empower Maka to kill the witch. |
Operation Capture Baba Yaga Castle (Part 14) is the fifty-ninth serialized chapter of the manga Soul Eater. It was reprinted in tankōbon form in Volume 15.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters
DWMA Infiltration Team
- Maka Albarn
- Soul Eater
- Death the Kid (imprisoned in the Book of Eibon)
- Liz Thompson
- Patty Thompson
- Kilik Rung
- Ox Ford
- Kim Diehl
- Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupré
- Medusa Gorgon (possessing the body of Rachel Boyd)
- Arachne Gorgon
- Noah (defected)
Other DWMA forces
Other Characters
- Little Ogre
- Wes Evans (flashback)
Locations
- Baba Yaga Castle
- Arachne's Room: The Spider Queen Room
- Book of Eibon
- Black Room
Techniques
Objects
- Book of Eibon
- Soul's piano
- Grigori Dress (first appearance)
Plot[]
Baba Yaga Castle[]
An image of Arachne appears in a swarm of spiders, representing the spread of her madness. DWMA and Arachnophobia agents writhe from what Sid Barrett identifies as a massive soul wavelength of madness. As Mira Naigus struggles to hold onto her sanity, Black Star, even as he lies collapsed on the floor, pulls himself up to grab her by the collar, helping himself to his feet. He tells those around him to "show some fighting spirit" against this madness as he lets out his soul wavelength, helping his colleagues retain their sanity. Inspired, Sid orders DWMA agents to hold on as well. Exhausted but undeterred, Black Star seats himself, saying it is now up to Maka and Soul.
Away from Baba Yaga Castle, the sorcerer who captured Death the Kid within the Book of Eibon smiles: he can feel the madness spreading "like a refreshing breeze."
Inside the Book of Eibon[]
Symbols circle around Death the Kid, receding into what seems like an endless field of white. Sensing the madness wavelength outside the book, Kid puts his hands together to calm himself, reminding himself all he can do is have faith in his peers.
Arachne's Room: The Spider Queen Room[]
Medusa remains collapsed on the floor, still overwhelmed by her encounter with Arachne Gorgon's madness. Soul Eater and Maka Albarn realize Arachne has targeted all souls around this throne room, drawing them into madness. Maka uses Soul Perception to feel the souls around her—which seem as if they are caught in a web, spiders crawling around them. Soul cannot determine a solution, just as he cannot understand why he and Maka are not infected by Arachne's madness, despite standing the closest to her.
"You got it, boy!!" the Little Ogre shouts at Soul from within the Black Room. Soul realizes it is Maka, through their Soul Resonance, that keeps him from falling into madness. Maka responds that they will need an option stronger than Resonance Chain to spread her and Soul's wavelength to remove the madness from others. Maka says she requires Soul's help, which means his piano.
But Soul thinks his piano is not loud enough to generate enough sound—Maka's Anti-Demon Wavelength—to reach people outside Baba Yaga Castle, let alone within the castle. The Little Ogre, tired of Soul's standoffishness, urges the weapon to play already, as the Ogre just wants to hear piano playing. "You delay much longer, and the piano strings will go slack on you before you even start playing," the Ogre says, even imagining cobwebs coating the unplayed piano. While annoyed by these remarks, Soul realizes a solution.
Soul tells Maka to focus her Soul Perception. He shows the Little Ogre the soul wavelength spider web that is everywhere, even within the Black Room. By spreading her own soul as a spider web to catch souls to draw into madness, Arachne also has given Maka an opportunity to fight back: by linking the spider web to his own piano, like a large stringed instrument, Soul can play the piano and have that sound travel through the same wavelength of Arachne that infects everyone. The Ogre asks whether Soul, a piano player, can manage a traditional stringed instrument, only for Soul to respond, "My older brother's a violinist." Soul therefore will play one song Wes used to play: "Meditation of Souls." "It even starts with the perfect note for transmitting Maka's wavelength," Soul says as he lifts the cover to his keys: "a 'G.'"
Soul commandeers Arachne's madness to release Maka's Anti-Demon Wavelength
Soul presses the G key, unleashing a powerful blast of Maka's wavelength through Arachne's web. This action confuses Arachne, while Maka stands, resolute and commandeering Arachne's very soul. Medusa, still collapsed on the floor, is impressed by Maka's Soul Perception and Anti-Demon Wavelength. Soul sees the souls of everyone nearby, and as he plays his piano, his peers, first inside and then outside the castle, recover from madness—while hearing the song "Meditation of Souls." Outside, DWMA agents recover from madness. Tsubaki Nakatsukasa immediately recognizing the soul wavelength she feels as Maka's own. Black Star chuckles at how "stupid" the song Soul plays sounds.
Arachne is furious—then she sees a soul coming towards her. This Anti-Demon Wavelength explodes at her, injuring her. Medusa chuckles, realizing that by leaving the web connected longer than she needed to, Arachne left herself open to injury, dispelling all madness and leaving Arachne's body reconstituted for Maka to perform a physical, fatal attack.
Maka stares down Arachne. Soul says, "Let's do this, Maka." The two reinitiate Soul Resonance. Dark energy swirls around the right hand by which Maka grips Soul, beginning to swirl around her own clothes, exposing skin and converting into a black dress reminiscent to what she has worn before within the Black Room. Soul is now in Devil-Hunt Slash mode. Maka announces, "We'll be taking your soul now."
Trivia[]
- Maka's final remark in this chapter, "We'll be taking your soul now," is the same remark she made to Blair in the anime's first episode. The remark is a suitable reference to Maka's first story: in both cases, she is prepared to kill a witch (or, in the case of Blair, someone she assumes to be a witch), with the added benefit of using that soul to turn her weapon into a Death Scythe.
References[]