"No way?!" Mash gasped.
Fujimaru turned to Merlin. "Merlin, what exactly is Anti-Creation (NegaGenesis)?"
Merlin nodded gravely. "That creature intends to reboot the entire Underworld."
"Reboot?" Fujimaru echoed, puzzled.
"The zone expanding from Beast II will erase every Servant it swallows," Merlin warned.
"Authority that extreme…?" Ishtar could scarcely believe it.
It was practically a hard counter to all Servants.
"Mash." Gilgamesh called her name.
"Y-yes, my king!" she answered at once.
"To shatter her hateful barrier I need your strength," Gilgamesh said calmly. "The chalk-white rampart that bears every wish of that sovereign."
"Its manifestation may yet stand against her."
As he spoke, the image showed Mash's shield.
"You mean slam her with Lord Camelot?" Ishtar knew Mash's Noble Phantasm well; she had seen it often in battle.
"But even if we stop the zone from spreading—" Fujimaru frowned.
"Exactly," Merlin cut in. "While Mash holds the space at bay, someone must land the fatal blow on Beast II."
"And the only one who can—"
He looked straight at Fujimaru.
"Anti-Creation negates all past life to birth a new one; only the living may exist within it."
At those words every gaze turned to Fujimaru.
"I'll go!"
Fujimaru declared without hesitation.
Gilgamesh smiled at the resolve. "When that space opens I cannot act. Take this."
A golden ripple produced a gleaming dagger.
"Aim for her head—her weak point," Gilgamesh added.
Fujimaru nodded; the exhausted Ereshkigal quickly warned, "Inside that field my authority is null."
Merlin grinned. "Then Mash and I will deploy our Noble Phantasms together and open the path for you."
"Master…"
Mash hesitated, unwilling to let Fujimaru face such peril.
But Fujimaru rested a hand on her shoulder. "Just face forward and give everything you've got. Leave the rest to me!"
Those words swept away Mash's doubts. "Yes! I believe in you, Master!!"
Boom—!!
Just as their plan was set, stone shattered.
"My barrier won't last—hurry!!!" Ereshkigal gasped.
Outside the screen, viewers held their breath—two Noble Phantasms at once?
Inside Chaldea, Fujimaru's eyes widened. Mash's true Noble Phantasm—what would it look like?
If she could learn it now, their fighting power would soar!
The footage rolled on.
A magic circle bloomed beneath Merlin; he gripped his staff and murmured, "Inner Sea of Stars, Watchtower."
Mash raised her shield and closed her eyes. "True name released—at the seat of calamity I stand."
Merlin: "From the corner of paradise I speak."
"May your tale be blessed."
"Only the sinless may enter."
The scene shifted: Merlin stood beneath a tower ringed by unknown flowers.
Mash's armor changed as she chanted, "It heals every wound, every grudge—our homeland!"
"Manifest!!!" she cried, raising her shield.
"Aaaaaaaaaa!!!"
Anti-Creation stirred again, shattering Ereshkigal's Noble Phantasm.
"Lord Camelot—!!!"
Mash slammed her shield down, and a medieval city appeared.
But what surprised everyone was that Mash wasn't inside the city—she was outside the gate!
How did she lock herself out?!
BZZZT—!!!
NegaGenesis swallowed Mash's Noble Phantasm.
Yet those inside, protected by her shield, didn't vanish like the Lahmu before them.
Before the shock could settle, Merlin smiled, flicked his wand, and cried, "Garden of Avalon—!!!"
Countless blossoms drifted onto the now-distant Ideal City.
The flowers wrapped around Fujimaru Ritsuka as she sprinted forward, golden dagger in hand, and leapt.
The instant she left…
Ereshkigal collapsed, as though her strength had finally given out.
Ishtar, who'd been watching her, rushed over. Seeing the 'golden light' rising from Ereshkigal's body, she cried, "I knew something was wrong! You broke the underworld's taboo and lent your power to the living!"
"Using your authority like this, you can't possibly come out unscathed!"
Ereshkigal's pupils trembled at Ishtar's words.
Meanwhile, borne on Merlin's petals, Fujimaru Ritsuka slipped inside NegaGenesis.
Softly, Ereshkigal said, "So what? I am mistress of the underworld; to protect it, I simply chose the most effective path."
Ishtar stared at her, flustered. "You finally met someone you could talk to—if you disappear now, what was the point?!"
"Who knows if my next encounter will be more romantic? My base divinity—my personality—is gloomier than this; maybe I won't be able to chat normally."
"But even that's fine. I don't love who I am now—I admire that human's way of living."
Weakly, Ereshkigal picked up a flower from the ground, delight in her voice: "Amazing… my underworld is blooming…"
The moment she finished, she dissolved into golden particles and vanished before their eyes.
.....
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