IBHJ 1371

Her protective mud scattered like smoke. She hung there, suspended by the spikes that had pierced clean through her, her face twisted in agony she couldn't voice.

"You shouldn't have come." The Beast's voice carried something that might have been regret. "Your rebellion, your search for meaning, even this rescue attempt—Master saw it all coming. You can't escape this fate. I can't either. No one can."

The streams of human malice around them suddenly reversed course, flowing upward through the glowing tree like poison through veins. They poured into Manaka's wounds, seeking something deeper than flesh.

Manaka's body convulsed against the spikes holding her. Every muscle went rigid as the corruption found what it was looking for—not her body, but the soul sleeping inside her soul. The real Manaka, buried beneath layers of artificial seals.

"Ritsuka becomes the perfect Beast. You become the new Antichrist." The Beast watched with detachment as the transformation began. "Together, you'll tear this world apart. And when you do, Fujimaru Shirou will die with the Origin Era. Everything returns to the beginning. Everything becomes one again."

The Beast's voice dropped to something almost gentle. "It was always going to end this way. Fighting only makes the despair sharper."

"Miss Manaka!" Mash took a step forward, then stopped as more mud tendrils rose to block her path. She could only watch as her friend's body shook with each wave of corruption being forced into her core.

Through gritted teeth and splitting pain, Manaka managed to shout: "Don't stop, Mash!"

The words nearly caused Mash to freeze. ‘No matter what happens, don’t stop.’ Manaka had known this would happen. Had planned for it. Mash bit down on her own despair and kept running toward the cocoon.

"You can't seriously believe that girl can save anyone." The Beast watched Mash's desperate charge with mild interest. "Even if I did nothing, the corruption here would devour her in seconds."

"You know what I've learned?" Manaka's voice came out calm despite the agony. "When someone truly wants to protect what matters, the universe bends to help them."

Her eyes went black. The wounds where the tree spikes pierced her body became something else—not holes, but hungry voids that began to pull. The streams of malice reversed direction again, drawn into Manaka like water down a drain. Even the Beast aura wrapped around Ritsuka's cocoon started unraveling, flowing toward her instead.

Manaka's body began to fracture, hairline splits running across her skin like she was made of porcelain. Each breath looked like it might be her last.

But her smile blazed brighter than sunlight. "Did your Master see this coming? From that look on your face, I'm guessing no."

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He doesn't tell me everything." The Beast said. "But this will only kill you faster."

"Some things matter more than staying alive." Manaka's voice grew softer, but somehow stronger. "That's something I learned in this short, fake life of mine. And about fate?" Her smile turned sharp. "I've always hated that word."

"This is why I hate you. Disappear, human!" The Beast's palm snapped forward, and a spike of pure malice punched straight through Manaka's skull.

"Miss Manaka!" Mash's voice cracked as she cradled Ritsuka against her chest, watching her friend's body go limp.

The Beast turned toward them, footsteps echoing in the sudden silence. "Don't worry. You're next."

Mash lowered Ritsuka to the ground and raised her shield. "I won't back down."

"Such pointless defiance. Even if you somehow escape this place, the Lord of Salvation will just reclaim her later. Why do humans always choose the harder path?"

"You were born from Olga Marie!" Mash's voice rose desperately. "You're supposed to be Beast VII, human love incarnate! So where is that love?"

"This is love." The Beast's voice carried absolute conviction. "Unity is the purest form of affection. When all consciousness merges in the Root, every misunderstanding will vanish. Every wound will heal. We'll finally understand each other."

The Beast raised both hands, power gathering between her palms like a miniature star. "You can't comprehend it now, but you will. In the Root, evil and love become the same thing. Everything becomes one."

The magical energy compressed, growing denser and brighter. Reality began to buckle around them, time itself warping under the pressure. Images flickered through the air like soap bubbles—fragments of this place's history playing out in ghostly translucence.

The Three Families carving their ritual chamber. Angra Mainyu's first stirring. Shirou's arrow piercing the Greater Grail. Wallachia's desperate bargain. Miyu stepping through dimensional barriers.

All of it bleeding through from different moments, different possibilities, as the Beast's power tore holes in the fabric of causality itself.

"This is my reason. My evil. My love." The energy reached critical mass. "Goodbye, Mash."

The Beast meant to end everything with this single strike. Mash, Fuyuki City, the entire dimensional pocket. She would tear it all apart and feed the fragments to the Grand Summoning.

The energy radiating from her hands made Mash's bones ache. Every nerve in her body screamed the same thing: run. Her muscles tensed, ready to bolt. The terror clawed at her throat like a living thing.

‘I'm going to die. I'm going to die and there's nothing I can do about it.’

But her feet stayed planted.

Behind her, Ritsuka lay unconscious and helpless. Her friend. Her most precious person in the world. How could she abandon that?

Please.

The words slipped from her lips.

If I have any power at all, let me use it now.

I'll give anything.

Everything.

Her desperate prayer reached something vast and distant. High above the world, beyond the boundaries of space, the Emperor's Arm began to glow.

The light drew attention from cosmic entities—Alaya, Gaia, the consciousness of distant planets. All turned their gaze toward the Emperor's Arm.

Reality shifted.

Mash found herself standing in a space of pure white—endless and serene. A figure stood not far from her: a woman wearing a golden crown, her features blurred as if seen through water. A wooden bracelet adorned her wrist as she gestured with one hand.

Behind the empress, ranks of knights stood at attention. One stepped forward, his armor so pure it seemed carved from starlight itself.

"Sir Galahad?" Mash whispered.

The knight said nothing, only offered her the shield. When her fingers closed around it, his entire life poured into her—every moment of pain, every failed quest, every desperate search for something pure in a corrupted world.

Tears ran down her face. Now she understood why their souls had resonated. They were the same kind of broken, the same kind of hopeful.

Galahad stepped back into the ranks of knights behind the Empress. The crowned figure smiled and the vision dissolved like mist.

Far above, the Emperor's Arm cracked apart, its fragments falling like dying stars before fading into memory.