A Devil Amongst Worms is a crossover between Chainsaw Man and Worm, with Makima as the Villain Protagonist. Needless to say, there's going to be all kinds of horrors here in this story.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- For starters, it bears repeating, Makima is the main character. The same sociopathic, power-hungry, manipulative, Evil Overlord, who has no intention of pulling a Heel–Face Turn even after her defeat in her home world to Denji, is now currently let loose in a world where no-one has ever even heard of Devils before, let alone has any idea of what they're capable of. To say that the inhabitants of Earth-Bet are in for a rude awakening is an understatement.
- While she mercifully no longer has access to the nigh-immortality she possessed in her home universe, its shown that thanks to the Simurgh's machinations massively increasing the fear of control, her power has increased exponentially, to the point that she's capable of holding her own against Leviathan.
- In the midst of the battle with Leviathan, Alexandria, in her thoughts, describes Makima's face and expressions as being reminiscent of the Simurgh. Even with her Thinker power, she describes the Evil Redhead as lacking the sorts of micro-expressions and subtle facial tells that regular people have, describing her changes in expression as being akin to different frames in a film.
- Speaking of Leviathan, he manages to be a pretty hefty source of Nightmare Fuel as well. Those familiar with Worm's setting will remember that one of the biggest sources of Paranoia Fuel regarding the Endbringers was the fact that they never put in more than a token amount of effort in their attacks, and that if they decided to bring their A-game to the table, no one would stand a ghost of a chance against them. Well, here we get to see exactly what it looks like when they decide to stop pulling their punches and get serious. For starters, instead of showing up for a dramatic pre-battle stare-off with the capes like he does in canon, he instead decides to open things up with multiple gargantuan mega-tsunamis that would've completely flattened the defenders if it weren't for Makima.
- He later kills many top heroes, such as Myrddin and Chevalier, as well maims others like Armsmaster and even Legend himself both suffer An Arm and a Leg.
- Makima's first fight with Leviathan ends with her taking a backhand that breaks every bone in her body, completely pulverizes her organs, and leaves most of her brain outside her skull.
- How she recovers is also chilling. Because she no longer has her contract with the Japanese Prime Minister that results in all of her injuries being shifted onto Japanese citizens, she has to recover the old-fashioned way for Devils, by ingesting blood. And Leviathan's backhand ends up landing her straight in a red-haired girl's, heavily implied to be Emma, bedroom. It ends with her being reduced to Ludicrous Gibs by the Control Devil's power, and Makima reminiscing that she'd forgotten how delicious blood tasted.
- Makima's meeting with Lung and what happens afterward. It starts off with the PRT convoy transporting Lung, Bakuda, and Canary getting attacked by a huge swarm of birds reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds before a massive force smashes into the van, sending it cartwheeling almost a dozen times before stopping. It's followed by the PRT officers filing out to confront the attacker, only to be followed by a massacre, as they futilely empty entire magazine of ammunition in seconds, before being cut down one by one, accompanied by the ever-growing stench of blood and voided bowels. She even gives the last guard a Hope Spot before killing him anyway.Lung eyed the bodies and limbs that littered the floor as blood pooled with the rain. Their owners were killed in a variety of ways. Some were missing heads, and some had no legs. Some were cut in half from head to groin, while others were cut from the waist. A couple was just a puddle of blood, as if a hammer had mashed them to the ground, leaving behind nothing but their bloodied clothing. Lung showed nothing, not even a hint of fear or disgust. In contrast, Canary turned green and rushed to the side to empty whatever remained in her stomach.
- Her subsequent "fight" with Lung is also this, as she proceeds to utterly dominate the otherwise near-unstoppable cape. The first time, he ramps up to the same level at which he able to take on the entirety of the Protectorate at once, only to get utterly pulped by a single palm blast from Makima. Then, the feelings of helplessness and the resulting reminder of his utter humiliation at Contessa's hands cause him to swell to a level of power eclipsing even what he had in Kyushu when he fought Leviathan, only to get utterly destroyed again, this time being reduced to a bodiless head.Even when he was imprisoned by the CUI, even when he was losing against that bug girl, he had never once lost certainty in his eventual victory. But for the first time in decades since he had faced Leviathan, a thought flashed across his mind. "I cannot win".
- After that Lung's power fails him as he loses the will to fight, he is left butt-naked and tries to pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here. Despite running as fast as he could while hurting feet and arms on the rocky terrain, Makima easily catches up to him, grabbing him by the hair and proceeds to shove his face into a muddy puddle on the street. Despite his kicking, punching, and (to his personal shame) begging, the Control Devil doesn't let up her impromptu waterboarding on the helpless villain.
- Lung asks her why she is doing this to him as he comes up for air, (he assumes he either attacked her before in the past or killed someone she loved), her response? "I just enjoy killing the country mouse.” and that she had never heard him before today and she found this to be calming for her. He not only compares her to Contessa but also a humanoid Endbringer as he starts to Stress Vomit.
- At this point Lung believes he's going to die: powerless, alone, completely naked, in a puddle of his own Stress Vomit at the hands a woman because she felt like it and believing he wasted his life. An Undignified Death for the Dragon of Kyushu. While this is happening he gets flashbacks of his Trigger Event when he was a teenager and all friends were killed by Contessa and his face shoved in a lethal amount of coke... which is vaguely similar to what Makima... is doing to him... right now... leading Lung to get a Second Trigger!
Trajectory. Alignment. Agree- CONTROL - As Lung is triggering, Makima is not only able to meddle with it but she is also able to see the Entities at work, and is described as having a look of genuine wonder in her eyes.Makima: Marvelous.
- When Leviathan reaches the shelter, the last line of defense between the civilians and certain death are Miss Militia, the wards and the Undersides. Shadow Stalker is fully aware this is nowhere near enough and the best they can do is Do Not Go Gentle and even then it wouldn't be much of a Last Stand. Luckily, for them Makima pulls a Villainous Rescue and sends the Endbringer flying away.
- When Tattletale tries to use her power on Makima it eventually goes Madness Mantra repeatedly telling her to trust Makima, giving her a Psychic Nosebleed.
- Makima vs. Leviathan. Makima is always described as being calm and dignified with a serene smile while fighting, even when Leviathan is ripping her to pieces. When the footage of the fight is shown, even the veteran Director Piggot finds this very disturbing despite speculating Makima has a Healing Factor and Feels No Pain.
- The fight ends with Makima victorious over the Endbringer. How does she win? She actually manages to take Leviathan out of Earth's atmosphere and blasting him into Mercury causing the planet to be blown to pieces. But Leviathan's Not Quite Dead though. His ultimate fate, being trapped on the remains of Mercury with no way off, and the fact that he can only sense things through water combined with the fact that Mercury and space in general have virtually no water, means he's completely blind and deaf. Forever. Or rather, until the sun begins to expand and turn red in a few billion years or so, at which point it will consume both the remains of Mercury and Leviathan.
- The horror is slightly alleviated when you remember that the Endbringer's cores are only designed to provide them with enough power to last 300 years, meaning Leviathan will eventually expire way, way before the aforementioned scenarios. Only slightly, though, as since Leviathan's only been alive for 15 years so far, he still has another 285 years to go being trapped on Mercury, which is still more than enough to qualify as a Fate Worse than Death.
- When news spread of Leviathan's defeat at Makima's hands, the whole world celebrates while praising Makima as their Hope Bringer giving her money and resources to start a new Public Safety Bureau on Earth-Bet... completely unaware of their savior's true nature.
- Just 2 days after Makima founds the new Bureau of Public Safety, the Simurgh proceeds to go completely berserk, attacking 3 cities in the United States and 15 others over the course of three hours. While it's later revealed to have genuinely practical reasons for doing this, the idea of the Simurgh being driven to a Villainous Breakdown because of Makima says terrifying things about the threat she poses.
- The vision the Simurgh has of a world where Makima is victorious and has gained complete control. What we see is a world straight out of a classic dystopian novel like George Orwell's 1984 or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Here, all of humanity has been reduced to what are effectively "biological machines", all going about in neat, orderly lines and patterns, without so much as a word exchanged between anyone, with all traces of individuality and personality having been completely excised from the population. The Simurgh believes Makima can achieve her Evil Plan on a global scale on Earth-Bet in just three years.
- The revelation that the Simurgh deliberately sent Leviathan to his doom against Makima, knowing full well it would leave him stranded on Mercury, in order to weaken her with the resulting adulation. Counts as Nightmare Fuel because 1) It serves as a reminder as to just how long-term and intricate the Simurgh's plans are, where even seeming victories end up furthering its plots, and 2) it demonstrates just how much of a threat Makima poses that the Simurgh is willing to let one of her siblings be taken out of the equation despite the fact that it both deprives Eidolon of the worthy opponents he desires and drastically reduces the overall conflict on Earth Bet, thus severely impeding her two main directives.
- Really, the fact that the Simurgh is the one only one who knows the threat Makima poses and is working against her, because 1) it's an amoral entity that cares nothing for humanity and is only opposing Makima to continue to incite conflict and misery and as such is more than willing to kill and torture to further its plans, and 2) the fact that it's in many ways the exact worst option for opposing Makima, since the Simurgh has become so synonymous with controlling people that its every action only further empowers her, meaning the one being working to oppose Makima is actually her biggest asset to succeeding.
- As Makima gathers more power and political influence to her base, she's secretly recruited former ABB members Oni Lee and Bakuda, as well as running horrible Parahuman experiments.
- Makima has Bakuda plant her Tinker bombs all around Brockton Bay and sets them off on live T.V. when Director Piggot was having an interview (killing god knows how many innocent civilians) all just to undermine the PRT even more just for speaking out against her.
- Makima appears to be Running Both Sides of the fight between the Public Safety Bureau and the ABB, resulting in many casualties.
