Chrome Breaker volume 4: the long awaited ending – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Chrome Breaker is a lot of things. Shoujo art style, shounen plot, religious themes, Chrono Crusade vibes but Azmaria is the MC… but in the end it’s one of my childhood manga that I only got the chance to finish when I’m 21. Yep.

So I will start with what all of you are here for: the ending spoilers and a summary of what happened in volume 4. Take note that volume 3 sold out in my country with no chance of reprint and I have no luck hunting for second hands, so chapter 11-13 is lost to me. I got a hold of a copy. If you want to read that one first, the post detailing chapter 11-13 is here

Volume 4 Summary

Chapter 14 opens with the scene from Akira’s dreams, the part where Chrome pointed a gun at her and said that he’ll kill her. Turns out he was speaking to Maria, so he’ll kill Maria and save Akira. Cyus wanted none of that and sent the glasses maid doll master to fight Chrome. Chrome and a cross-dressing Seishiro took her down. Turns out that Seishiro is helping Chrome shoulder the burden of the seal, in order for Chrome to function properly. But, if Chrome dies, he dies as well. However, in the meantime, Maria awakened and announced that she will lead mankind on the right path. Chrome wanted to stop her and bring Akira back, but Maria stabbed Chrome in the chest with her sword.

Chapter 15 has a pretty good line from Maria: “Prove to me the justice of you who are slave to your desires!” or something… that was an awkward translation. Sorry. Since Seishiro and Chrome were sharing the seal, they also shared feelings of pain, and none of them were in the right condition to stop Maria. She gave the deadline of 1 year; Akira’s consciousness could only stay alive inside her body for at most 1 more year. “Try to stop me, Beelzebub. Even if you have to make enemy of the whole world, even if you have to cut the arms of those who reach for salvation or cut the legs of those who stood for justice, bring the girl you yearn for with your life back into your arms.” Then, Cyus set of an explosion and flew off with Maria in Akira’s body. Those two returned to the church and announced Maria’s return to the public. Chrome and Seishiro disappeared.

Chapter 16 skips one year later. Maria had a conflict with the Pope (who’s part of Cyus) due to their different means to the same end. Despite that, Maria became god-like, granting miracles and leading the people, garnered massive love and support from the public. Not everyone likes her, though. Rachel infiltrated her ranks and became one of her apostles, then poisoned her tea. Rachel used psychic powers to see into Maria’s true identity, as retribution for causing Chrome and Seishiro’s alleged deaths.

Chapter 17: Rachel discovered the true source of Maria’s powers. The remaining slivers of Akira’s consciousness told Rachel to run, but before she could escape, Maria woke up and tried to silence Rachel. Maria called the entire church against the traitor, having Rachel cornered. However, eyepatch girl pops up and saved Rachel from the guards, pressing her as to the whereabouts of the ‘Heavenly Weapon’. It was a sword that Maria used to try and slash Rachel a while ago and the same one she used to stab Chrome, but Rachel didn’t know what the heck it was. Before eyepatch girl got pissed out, long-haired Mamoru popped up and saved Rachel. He fought eyepatch girl to buy Rachel some time. However, Chrome jumped in and saved the day.

Chapter 18: Eyepatch girl tried to avenge her brother only to get overpowered by Chrome and disappeared (probably died). Meanwhile, Nicola and Kenji managed to escape from their imprisonment by the church and joined squad with Rachel and Seishiro.

Cyus summoned a huge black sword and was escaping (again) with Maria. Chrome pointed his gun at them and said something along the lines of “She’s not your saint, she’s my Akira.” Cyus was like, come after us then bruh. After Maria and Cyus left, humanity started wiping itself out under her influence during ‘Black Sunday’.

Chapter 19: The demon professor explained to Chrome, Rachel, and Seishiro that Maria’s Daughter has identical DNA and ‘miracles’ to the Virgin Mary. However, that Maria’s Daughter was using her miracles to control believers across the globe into a massive witch hunt where non-believers were tracked down and killed. (Uh… sounds familiar.) Believers broke into the Vatican for some reason, while the trio (Rachel, Seishiro, and Chrome) tried to find Maria. They were stopped by one of the Numbers, and Seishiro stayed behind to fight him. Meanwhile, Maria said to Cyus that there is no longer any god to pray to, only her faith. There was a flashback where Beelzebub (the original one) during Maria’s era swore to protect her. Maria said that Beelzebub has not changed, but the one he wanted to protect was no longer her but Akira. Chrome appeared, demanding Akira back, and Maria greeted him as an old friend. Cyus stepped in to defend Maria. Chrome could only use one full-power shot, and when Cyus’s giant dumb-looking sword was broken, Cyus thought Chrome had already spent his energy to break it and save himself. It turned out that it was Akira who used her own energy blast to break part of Cyus’s sword, saving Chrome, so Chrome could use his one and only shot to destroy Cyus. And so he did. Akira and Chrome greeted each other briefly before Maria’s consciousness returned and was shocked when she saw that Cyus was dead.

Chapter 20: Traumatized, Maria unleased a legion of synthetic angels into the Vatican. Rachel told Seishiro that Maria’s powers were neither angelic or demonic in nature, neither sacred or evil. It was a power born from within her own life.

A flashback revealed that Maria lost her entire village and tried to ask god why it happened. Cyus found her and told her that there was no god or anyone who would answer her, since he was also trying to search for god himself. He granted her with the power needed in order to unleash the ‘god’ that was inside her own soul, creating her very own miracles.

Chrome convinced Maria to stop, since Cyus was dead, but Akira did not want to forget Maria’s pain and hopelessness and asked Chrome not to destroy Maria. Cyus came to take Maria’s soul away, and told Chrome and Nagisa that they will meet again at the end of time, before disappearing in a pillar of light to the Promised Land.

The Pope told sister Kyouko and the others that he was sent to the church by Cyus to find out what ‘god’ was, what Cyus was, and why he had such god-like powers. In the end, he only found that god only existed within mankind, and miracles were born of out hope. Akira and Chrome would find out the rest, said he.

Akira recalled everything that happened between her and Chrome in the past, and Chrome promised to protect her. The professor took Mamoru away, but warned Seishiro, Rachel, and co that Cyus was the chain that bound the Last Race. With Cyus gone, an era of chaos would arrive. They thought Akira would have to shoulder a huge responsibility, but she would be fine since a demon (Chrome) was protecting her. Chrome returned Akira’s pocket watch, and inside was a picture of Chrome and her as a kid.

Review

That was a great ending, albeit super rushed. A lot of the side characters haven’t been fleshed out and the thing about Maria’s sword was just thrown out the window. So much happened in so little space, and this manga probably needed one more volume to settle its story properly. However, it’s a good ending, which is worth the wait. The author had to drop a sequel bait for a sequel that was never gonna happen anyway, sheesh. Why?

I was confused about what’s going on for half the time, but that’s probably because I missed the prior 3 chapters. Oh well. At least the author wrapped it up pretty well. Great finale. I was so scared they were going to go for the Chrono Crusade type ending.

Speaking of Chrono Crusade, this manga is like the shoujo version of it. Original Beelzebub looks so similar to Chrono’s original form, and Chrome’s guns are similar to Rosette’s, not to mention there’s a crusade war-like arc at the end of the story. However, Chrome Breaker has a lot of its own stuff to set it apart from Chrono Crusade. (One funny thing is that the same publisher who localized Chrome Breaker in my home country also localized Chrono Crusade.)

In the end, it was a pretty good manga for a lazy Sunday morning. Great way to end a series.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Stay healthy.