If it is a living thing, it possesses the instinct to survive.
Even a Beast is no exception.
Thump!
The sixth heartbeat.
The Hole of the Holy Grail opened.
Black Mud poured forth from within, gathering into the twisted physical form before Xia Yu.
In the distance, that massive demonic body gradually withered; all the power of All the World's Evil was transferring into this specific vessel.
In truth, it didn't want this—it didn't want to face such a terrifying opponent. If it had a choice, it would never have chosen to be born in front of her.
Unfortunately, she held the contract. The Corrupted Holy Grail implanted within Matou Sakura's body was part of it, representing the foundation of its birth—a reality it could not escape.
Just like in the Heaven's Feel route, where Emiya Shirou used Rule Breaker to sever the magical contract with Matou Sakura, leaving the entity to die in the womb regardless of its grievances, the Beast was currently taking shape.
"This is bad... this Saint Graph," the Doctor's muttering in Chaldea carried a hint of gravity. "A Beast originating from the evil acts of humanity itself... any Human who faces it starts at a natural disadvantage..."
"Miss Firefly, are you certain you can complete the feat of subjugating a Beast?"
"If you're worried, have Ritsuka prepare the summoning circle," Xia Yu said without looking back. "At the very least, it might give you some peace of mind."
"Mhm. Ritsuka, be ready to summon at any moment," Da Vinci added decisively.
"Understood," Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded. She looked at Xia Yu's back, hesitation flickering in her eyes.
She really wanted to ask how much of what the other had said was true and how much was false.
But... with a great battle looming, she didn't want to disturb Firefly.
And right then.
THUMP!!!
The seventh heartbeat rang out.
"That Saint Graph... it has completely formed," the Doctor's solemn voice came through.
"That's a good thing," Xia Yu retracted her hand, speaking unhurriedly. "It means the Greater Grail has been purified, hasn't it?"
"But..." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the twisted figure opposite her.
Though traces of Matou Sakura's appearance remained, the entire body was filled with sickening deformities. It was a malformed monster with three arms, four legs, and five wings...
Just looking at that figure invoked an instinctive discomfort... and a bone-chilling cold.
The former came from the creature's body—disturbingly similar to a human yet utterly grotesque; the latter came from the soul's inherent loathing and resistance toward a Beast that represented the evil of humanity.
There was no grand entrance, no world-shaking special effects. It was simply born, plain and simple.
For the sake of efficiency and survival in the coming battle, it had to conserve every scrap of power.
"That is... the Beast?" Tohsaka Rin gently removed her outer coat and draped it over Matou Sakura, her teeth chattering as she looked at the distant figure that still held a glimmer of a familiar silhouette.
"Such a monster..."
As ordinary Magi, she and Emiya Shirou felt far more pressure than the Heroic Spirits.
What? You're asking about Fujimaru Ritsuka?
Oh, my friend, as a Master who has crossed five Singularities, she has seen her fair share of big scenes.
At the very least, she had developed a very sturdy heart.
"A premature birth?" Unlike them, Xia Yu seemed completely unaffected. "You could have taken your time to incubate. I wasn't in a hurry. Why make yourself look so disgusting?"
The appearance of a Beast didn't necessarily have to be revolting; the appearances of other Beasts were, if nothing else, aesthetically pleasing in their own ways.
But this one was different.
To be born as early as possible, it had forced itself into this horrific shape.
"Wooo..."
A whimper escaped its lips. It seemed fragile, but it was actually relying on the authority it had usurped from the Greater Grail to try and communicate with Xia Yu's Heroic Spirit identity to seize control.
The result was already obvious.
It was useless.
Thus, it abandoned the idea of taking shortcuts and began to stretch its limbs.
"It seems you're ready," Xia Yu's body ignited once more as Sam materialized. "Then, playtime is over."
"Everyone, watch this battle closely. See what the combat style of a warrior from the Interstellar Era truly looks like!"
She looked at the Beast of Evil before her, the crimson flames on her body gradually turning cyan-blue.
"Using this place as a battlefield is a bit too dull..."
Boom!
Fire erupted from Sam's back, propelling her forward like a meteor. Even though the Beast of Evil deployed defenses at maximum speed, stacking layer upon layer of magic circles in front of itself, it was of no use.
Even though Xia Yu didn't break through a single layer of the circles.
Because her goal was never to deal damage—it was to push back.
Or rather, to launch it!
"Come, let's find somewhere with a bit more room!"
The wildly burning flames granted her incomparable strength. Xia Yu felt the power in her heart beginning to unseal.
Boom!
The Beast of Evil's massive body was instantly struck flying, pushed upward by Xia Yu along with its stacked defensive circles, piercing straight through the entirety of Mount Enzou!
Boom!
Amidst the whistling wind, that cyan-blue meteor rose from the earth, soaring inversely, flying straight toward the vast universe beyond the sky!
"This is way too reckless!" Seeing this, Tohsaka Rin's pupils shook. "Such a massive commotion... how am I supposed to write the report for this?!"
She clutched her head with both hands, not daring to look at the massive hole above. That was a workload she wouldn't be able to settle no matter what.
"Don't worry, Tohsaka," Emiya Shirou said, rubbing his nose. "I'll help you."
"I will too, Sister," Matou Sakura said, looking down and squeezing her hand.
"Hm? Sister?" Tohsaka Rin snapped her head up. "You just called me 'Sister,' didn't you!"
"..." Matou Sakura turned her head away in silence.
"That's nice," Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the warm family scene and exchanged a knowing smile with Mash. Then she looked up at the upward-soaring meteor.
"Will she win? Miss Firefly?"
Did that even need to be said?
She would definitely win!
It was just All the World's Evil; did it really think it could flip the heavens?
Just as she approached the troposphere, the Beast of Evil finally reacted and began to struggle violently.
Its specifications came from Human History, from the civilization of this planet... On the planet, it was indeed a powerful Beast, possessing various noble Anti-Human special traits.
Because a Beast is an existence that coexists with civilization.
But once it left this planet... losing Human History, losing the foundation of its existence as a Beast...
It was a guaranteed death!
The Beast of Evil struggled first to move away from the top of the cyan-blue meteor, but even in the Type-Moon world, the Laws of Physics still existed. Under the air resistance brought by ultra-high-speed flight, it couldn't move an inch.
Then it mimicked Xia Yu, constructing thrusters on its back. Taking advantage of the fact that its connection to Human History still remained, seemingly infinite Magical Energy gushed out, intending to resist Xia Yu's speed. However, even with its full power output, it only managed to slightly slow the meteor's pace.
Even the decorative wings on its back were flapping with all their might, but it was still useless.
"Interstellar Era technology, kid," Xia Yu laughed happily, watching its desperate struggle.
Though, in truth, this didn't have much to do with Interstellar Era technology.
Even if the Beast was born in a civilization that hadn't even crossed its mother planet, and the Iron Cavalry of Glamoth belonged to a powerful civilization spanning tens of thousands of Light-years, a normal Iron Cavalry really wouldn't be a match for a Beast.
Based on its specifications, a Beast would be considered an elite unit in an interstellar war. Placed in the former war against the Propagation, it wouldn't be much different from the strength of the Swarm Mother in the final battle.
It was the kind of thing the Iron Cavalry had to use their lives to fill.
Don't look at how strong Firefly was and assume the Iron Cavalry of Glamoth was invincible. In reality, a normal Iron Cavalry was just a basic line-filler—well, at least in the war against the Swarm.
Firefly was strong because she was strong. A normal Iron Cavalry being able to beat Cu Chulainn would be quite something already.
They were only able to fight the Swarm for so long by relying on sheer numbers and high attrition rates to force a stalemate. Ultimately, they couldn't hold it off; the Swarm's ability to propagate was simply too insane. Though Glamoth's territory was vast, it didn't have an Emanator sitting in power. Relying on trading casualties with the bugs... was merely a lingering struggle.
Don't think that Emanators are cheap in that universe. General factions, like the Glamoth Empire which spanned tens of thousands of light-years, didn't have one. Even the IPC, on the surface, only had two Emanators of Preservation.
The fact that the Xianzhou, an organization only a few thousand years old, could stand as an equal to an old-guard power like the IPC, which counted its existence in tens of thousands of years, was entirely due to the generous Grace of the Hunt—a guaranteed seven Emanators passed down through generations. The IPC was crying with envy; when would the Amber Lord ever look at them like that?
So, the correct way to open that sentence should have been "Path power, kid!"
However, Xia Yu didn't want to expose too much vital information in this universe, especially to those two Counter Forces.
The reason she revealed her ability to switch bodies in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka was to intimidate the Counter Force in the upcoming moments and prevent them from trying anything. She felt her bond with Fujimaru Ritsuka wouldn't end so simply.
But that was as far as it went. Xia Yu didn't want them to know anything more.
The Beast of Evil continued to struggle incessantly.
But it was all for naught.
Before the cyan-blue meteor, everything it did was futile.
Just like that, it was pushed all the way through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and then the exosphere...
Until they emerged into true outer space.
"Roar!" The Beast of Evil felt its power constantly draining. This was the consequence of stepping into a place where Human History rarely set foot...
It knew that if this continued, it would be completely finished! Once pushed out of the Human Civilization circle, it would lose all its extra power and be forced to rely solely on its own body to fight.
And its body... to tell a joke, it was a premature birth.
Even if it wasn't a premature birth, facing such a powerful opponent, it couldn't find any way to win.
It... wasn't supposed to be like this... As the Beast representing all the evil of humanity, it should have been the most terrifying Nightmare of Humans...
But why... why did it have to face such an opponent?
If only the opponent's speed wasn't so fast, or if the armor wasn't so hard, it would have found a way to break free. But the speed was simply too fast... so fast that in the blink of an eye, it had already left the atmosphere.
She hadn't even performed any acceleration or warm-up; she had directly reached the third cosmic velocity and was still accelerating!
This speed had reached the velocity necessary for a spacecraft to break free from the Solar System's gravity for interstellar exploration.
But she was still accelerating!
This was what terrified it the most. Right now, it had left Earth, but it was still technically near Earth, so it could more or less supplement its Magical Energy. If it were taken further away—not even out of the Solar System, but just beyond the Moon's orbit—it would truly lose all bonuses from Human History.
It wasn't like a Beast like Tiamat; she was strong enough on her own, which is why she became a Beast. She even had her own interstellar travel capabilities—an entire mothership of life. Leaving the Solar System would at most lose her the Human History bonuses; her inherent strength would remain.
But this one was different. It was All the World's Evil, born from the evil acts and malice of humanity. Although it was born to face this world with malice and perform destruction, it was the Beast that could least afford to leave humans.
Once humanity went completely extinct, it would lose the foundation of its existence... the same applied to leaving the Human Civilization circle!
So, it began its desperate struggle!
The Beast of Evil began mobilizing all the Magical Energy it could muster, accumulating it within its body. Its eyes, looking at Xia Yu, were full of frantic malice. On its twisted face, the corners of its mouth began to curl.
In the next moment, it detonated all the Magical Energy in its body, launching a suicide attack!
In the silent void of space, a grand firework bloomed.
The scale was so massive that Tohsaka Rin and the others on the ground could see it by simply looking up.
"So beautiful..." Matou Sakura looked at the trail left by the meteor above and the grand firework, then at the Senpai holding her shoulder and her sister in front of her. A small spark of happiness began to ripple in her heart.
"Beautiful? No, this isn't beautiful at all," Tohsaka Rin had turned completely pale, looking as if she weren't far from death.
"Such a huge commotion... such a huge commotion... how am I going to hide this?!" she muttered. "Don't tell me the Mages' Association is going to come arrest me in the next second..."
"This..." Hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the Communicator. The Doctor gave a wry smile and said, "This probably can't be avoided... with that upward-soaring meteor and this 'grand firework,' most countries with satellites probably observed it..."
"This is modern society, after all... the eyes in the sky aren't blind..." The Doctor, long accustomed to modern society, said, "There are also all kinds of radars..."
Hearing this, Tohsaka Rin's heart grew even colder. She collapsed directly into Matou Sakura's arms.
She said in despair, "I'd have been better off dying in the Great Hollow!"