IBHJ 1372

“How can this be?”

“The Emperor’s Arm vanished?”

“Impossible…”

Future Gaia and the others stared in disbelief, their voices overlapping in confusion. But Artoria said nothing. She gazed toward the place where the starlight had fallen, her expression softening with a quiet, knowing smile. ‘So you’ve found someone worthy of that shield.’

Mash slowly opened her eyes.

The beam of destruction blazed just ahead, its heat and force still terrifying—but this time, her knees didn’t buckle. Her fingers tightened around the shield.

‘I can’t run.’

‘Not now. Not when she’s behind me.’

The one she cherished like her own life.

Her first friend—

Fujimaru Ritsuka.

She could feel Galahad’s regrets lingering in her soul, but she refused to let them define her.

Not this time. Not me.

Mash raised her shield.

“I won’t retreat!”

In that moment, light erupted from her body. The Emperor’s Arm surged with power—transforming her Saint Graph in an instant. Her black armor shimmered, turned white, luminous and radiant. The shield in her hands followed, reshaped into a pure white mirror of resolve.

She braced herself, planting her feet as the beam came crashing down.

And then—

BOOM.

A shockwave tore through the air, but the light didn’t consume her.

It bounced. Reflected. Turned back.

The impossibly destructive force was cast away, deflected by the shield shining in her hands.

Beast VII’s voice trembled. “Wh-what? No… That’s a beam strong enough to erase human history ten times over! How could it—how could it possibly be reflected?!”

Her words dissolved into panic as the redirected light engulfed her.

Within the blinding radiance, Mash stood firm, shield still raised. She didn’t speak, but her thoughts rang clear:

Thank you, Sir Galahad.

I swear—

I’ll protect her. Always.

…

It felt like waking up after a roller coaster—dizzy, disoriented, a little nauseous. Ritsuka blinked against the haze clouding her thoughts, slowly realizing she was sitting on something… incredibly soft.

When she opened her eyes, Mash’s face came into view.

“…Mash?”

Only then did she notice—her head had been resting on Mash’s lap.

“Yes, Senpai,” Mash said with a gentle smile.

But Ritsuka shot upright, eyes wide. “Wait—what? How are you here? Did the Beast get you too?” Her voice trembled as panic surged back in. “She said she wouldn’t touch you as long as I stopped resisting—damn it, that liar!”

She clenched her fists, but something about Mash’s expression made her pause.

There was no fear in her eyes. No sadness. Just calm and certainty.

“That’s not what happened, Senpai,” Mash said, shaking her head. “I defeated the Beast.”

Ritsuka stared at her like she hadn’t heard right. “You… what?”

So Mash told her everything—what happened after she fell, the power of the shield, the moment the Beast’s own attack was turned against her.

By the end, Ritsuka sat quietly, trying to take it all in.

“I see… So it wasn’t just you defeating her. It was her destroying herself,” Ritsuka said softly. “That shield… It even turned back the Ideal King’s attack.”

Mash nodded. But then her gaze drifted across the room, to the still figure nearby.

“It’s just… Miss Manaka…” Her voice grew faint as she pointed. “I’m sorry, Senpai. If I’d been stronger sooner… maybe she wouldn’t have—”

Ritsuka stood and walked over to Manaka’s body, kneeling beside her. “Manaka…”

Mash lowered her head, her hands tightening over her knees.

"I'm sorry. If I’d become stronger sooner… maybe Miss Manaka wouldn’t have..." Mash’s voice trailed off as she pressed her lips together.

If only she’d connected with Galahad earlier. If only she’d awakened that power in time.

But she knew better. There were no if onlys.

"Don’t say that, Mash." Ritsuka placed a hand on her shoulder. Her gaze lingered on Manaka’s peaceful expression, a bitter ache in her chest. "How do you even repay something like this? I probably never will."

“No, you can.” A new voice dropped in like a bad omen. Cold, sharp, wrong. “With your life.”

Manaka’s eyes snapped open.

Her hand shot toward Ritsuka, and from the cracks between her fingers, black shadows—twisting tendrils of malice and hatred—burst toward her.

“Senpai, watch out!” Mash shouted, instantly raising her shield. With a sharp swing, she batted the shadowy tendrils aside before they could reach.

Her eyes locked onto the figure before them.

"You're not Miss Manaka," she said firmly. "Who are you?"

Ritsuka stepped beside her, fists clenched tight. “It’s probably... her original soul. The real Manaka.”

Mash blinked, startled. “Her… original soul?”

"Heh… heh heh. Took you long enough." The girl who looked like Manaka rose slowly to her feet, brushing dust from her robes as if nothing had happened. “But I guess even a fool would’ve figured it out by now.”

Her gaze settled on Ritsuka. Cold. Amused. "That punch of yours from back then... it really hurt. Still, I don’t hold grudges over petty things like that. But your existence, Ritsuka... you're in the way. My prince and I are meant to be together, forever. So disappear.”

She extended a hand.

From her palm, a mass of dark mud twisted and surged, condensing into a black beam that shot forward like a tidal wave. The air hissed as it tore toward them, a monstrous force meant to erase.

“Move, Mash—!” Ritsuka shouted instinctively.

But Mash didn’t flinch. She stood her ground, raising her shield with both hands.

“I won’t lose to anyone who tries to hurt Senpai.”

The mud slammed into her shield with a deafening roar.

Manaka laughed. “Foolish girl. Nothing resists Father’s power. Your defiance is meaningless. You’ll be dragged into assimilation—just like everything else. The more of you that fall, the weaker the barriers between me and my prince become, and—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Mash’s shield hadn’t crumbled. It hadn’t dissolved. It hadn’t even cracked.

Instead, the mud was… recoiling.

“What…?”

Manaka’s eyes narrowed, disbelief creeping across her face. Not only had the shield resisted assimilation—it was reflecting it. The corrupted beam bounced back, tearing into her own power and folding it inward.

“No… That’s impossible! Nothing should be able to resist assimilation from the Root itself!”

Shock twisted her face as the truth hit her: the vortex wasn’t just being deflected—it was being turned inward. The shield was repurposing her own power, reverse-assimilating the mud she had unleashed.

If she let it continue, she’d suffer the same fate as Beast VII.

With a sharp cry, Manaka severed the connection.

A loud pop echoed through the space as the vortex collapsed in on itself. The severed mud, still tangled with reflected power, convulsed—and then vanished into nothing, swallowed back into the Root from which it came.

Breathing heavily, Manaka stared at Mash’s shield in surprise.

“What… what is that thing?” she whispered. “Why can’t even I touch its source? Why can’t I feel it?”

This shouldn’t have been possible.

Her power, born from the edge of the Root, had assimilated everything. Nothing escaped the pull of her vortex.

Nothing except… that shield.