Above the Fantasy Tree Mayall, a searing brilliance like the sun itself blazed down.
Behind that figure, each swaying tail burned like a flame capable of reducing all things to ash. If one looked closer, each tail seemed to hold the image of a three-legged sun crow in flight.
Nine tails. Nine miniature suns. A radiance impossible to look upon.
The Beast IV had descended!
The Fantasy Tree of this Lostbelt had already fused with her, transforming into a tree that nourished the sun crows themselves.
It became her fortress, her source of endless power.
From above, Tamamo gazed down at Chaldea's forces.
"Give it up, Nameless. Mortals have no right to challenge the divine. Crawl, and worship at my feet!"
Her tails flicked lazily, yet the sheer heat suffocating the battlefield made everyone falter.
The sky burned into a dome of fire.
The air itself warped, trembling under the inferno.
No human could even approach her.
Like moths rushing into the flames, they would ignite and vanish the instant they drew near!
Nameless raised his head toward the fox cloaked in crimson fire.
"Humanity's Evil… So you've truly fallen this far."
Humanity's Evil.
The words struck like a thunderclap, leaving the audience unable to believe—
…
Meanwhile, in Academy City.
Another Tamamo, watching this unfold on the screen, couldn't hold back—her tails twitched uncontrollably, wagging with excitement.
She pointed proudly at the screen.
"See that?! That's me in my true, full-power glory!"
Back then, she had descended as a mere fragment—only a single tail.
If an ordinary A-rank Heroic Spirit had a "power level" of 100, then one-tailed Tamamo had just 9.
The weakest of A-ranks.
But!
For every additional tail, her strength multiplied ninefold.
A geometric explosion of power.
When all nine tails gathered—her strength soared to 387,420,489.
Over three million times that of a normal A-rank.
Her Saint Graph had transcended "heroic" and entered the realm of the impossible.
A true Humanity's Evil.
A being who could trample over every Heroic Spirit, who could casually swat even the King of Heroes aside!
Tamamo's pride only swelled higher.
"Keep your eyes wide open! I'm the real deal—the one who kicks Gilgamesh into the dirt, smacks the First Emperor with a flick of my tail, and crushes Nameless without breaking a sweat! Now behold—the Nine-Tails, complete!"
Even Merry, usually relaxed with her legs sprawled wide, had unconsciously pressed her knees together, her entire body tense beneath the crushing pressure.
Humanity's Evil—evil born from humanity's own love, twisted into hatred, turning into the will to destroy.
Tamamo's aspect as a Beast represented the collective sins humanity inflicted upon one another—the cruelties, the persecutions, the selfish evils.
It was as if the natural world itself had forged an avatar of retribution in her.
She was, at her very core, a calamity born of humans hurting humans.
And she was a fox spirit who excelled in illusions—one of the worst possible matches for Nameless.
Merry, watching her gloat with tails wagging high, muttered sourly,
"Don't forget—you will be defeated. Otherwise we wouldn't even have a proper Human Order left to speak of."
"Heh. Defeated? Ridiculous. Unless I choose to fall, like Tiamat did, there is no force alive that can stand against me!" Tamamo answered with supreme confidence.
She was nothing like Tiamat.
The Beast II, the primordial mother, who carried the principle of [Return]. She had always loved her children.
Even as humanity betrayed her, forgot her, struck her down, never once did she truly wish for humanity's extinction.
Her so-called "self-sealing" hadn't merely suppressed her life force—it had sealed away most of her Saint Graph, slashing her power by tens or even hundreds of times.
It wasn't holding back. It was drowning the battlefield with the entire Pacific Ocean.
And in the end, she had willingly lent her strength to Nameless to mend the fractured world.
But Tamamo?
Her very essence was malice. She was born to destroy, incapable of mercy.
"Hmph. More likely, Nameless will be the one groveling at my feet—begging me to spare humanity!"
Her tails quivered with delight as she laughed, basking in her own glory.
"Now then… watch closely! Enjoy the sight of my supremacy!"
And when the recording ended—when she recovered all her memories—so too would her full power awaken.
From six tails, she would ascend in an instant to seven… and then to eight, and finally nine.A form that could overwhelm every Heroic Spirit in existence.
Tamamo felt her body surge with limitless energy. Light as air, as though she could soar at any moment—what was there left to fear?
Even Nameless and the First Emperor, in the real world, would be effortlessly crushed beneath her.
And when that day came… she would reclaim, with flame and blood, everything that belonged to her!
How dare they… How dare they take her tail—her tail!—and wear it like some tawdry fox-fur scarf?They would all pay for such insolence, trembling at her feet!
"…"
Merry opened her mouth… but no words came.
Was this woman not satisfied with how many times she'd already been humiliated?
Let it not be forgotten: her former vessel—Anastasia's scheming little fox, Koyanskaya—had been flattened by nothing more than the First Emperor's guard captain. One punch, straight into the dirt, then tossed into a dungeon like the petty criminal she was.
Face, dignity, pride—scattered to the winds.
Even so, Merry couldn't deny a thrill of anticipation.
A Nine-Tailed Tamamo, true Humanity's Evil, trampling Nameless into the ground?
That, she wouldn't mind seeing.
Preferably locking that bastard away in some pitch-black little room, breaking him into a perfect weapon.
On the screen—
The "sun" atop the Fantasy Tree Mayall blazed brighter still, casting Tamamo's form in radiance more regal, more terrible than ever.
Golden flames unfurled like blossoms, a field of dazzling flowers transforming the world into something dreamlike and unreal.
Tamamo's smile was filled with scorn.
"If you would name me 'Evil,' then answer me this—why do humans hurt one another? Why do they wage endless wars?"
"Because humanity itself evolves through disaster and conflict. Because struggle is the path to the unknown future." Nameless leveled his blade at her.
That sword—
Forged from the blessings of ancestral gods, a weapon made for the singular purpose of slaying divinity itself.
Even the Lostbelt King himself, Shikotei, had been unable to withstand its light.
With it, Nameless had pierced his Saint Graph, severing the outer god's corruption festering at its root—keeping him from collapsing into madness.
That was Nameless's true goal:
Not to cull humanity for the sake of gods, but to return love and humanity even to kings who had forgotten both.
But Tamamo only shook her head, tails weaving like mountain ranges.
"Fool. Humanity cannot forgive itself. From endless wars, you birth endless weapons of ruin."
Her voice turned into a sigh, almost pitying.
"My authority comes from humanity's own cruelty. I am the sum of every act of destruction man has ever wrought against man. And so, my purpose is singular—humanity's annihilation."
Nameless did not waver. His reply was calm, his stance firm.
"Then step over my corpse. Because that is the only way you'll destroy humanity."
Even against Humanity's Evil itself, he would not lower his sword.
"Struggle as you please, Nameless. Struggle, and amuse me!"
With a wave of her hand, she began to chant.
"From the tomb of the Yellow Thearch… from the underworld, without end…"
Hum—
A deathly aura welled up, utterly unlike her solar radiance—cold, suffocating, inexhaustible.
For once, she drew upon another role—her guise as the Nine-Tailed Fox, Su Daji, who had once guarded the tomb of the Yellow Emperor.
Guarding the tomb—guarding the gates of the underworld.
That mausoleum was no mere tomb—it was the gateway to the underworld itself. The Nine Hells.
From the breath of slaughter that lingered across history's battlefields, blades of death itself came screaming forth.
"Death? You think that will stop me?"
Nameless's sword blazed golden. He swung, and the spectral weapons shattered like glass.
For one who had clawed his way out of Hell itself—who had crossed its gates more times than he could count—who had even made acquaintances among the death gods and rulers—
Death was meaningless.
What could the Nine Hells show him that he hadn't already seen?
He thought of Ereshkigal, of Hades and Persephone.
To him, "death" was no authority at all.
His figure blurred—and in the next instant, the Nameless Sword flashed, a killing stroke aimed to end her.
But—
With a single swish of her tail, a cataclysm fell.
The radiance of the sun itself came crashing down, shattering his strike.
No—more than that.
It ignited all.Melted all. Vaporized all. Fire that clung to the soul itself.
[Rho Aias! The Seven Rings that Cover the Burning Heavens!]
Seven violet petals blossomed before Nameless.
But in the face of this inferno—
They burned.
Not shattered. Not cracked. Simply caught fire.
As though they were true flowers set to flame, each layer was consumed, one after the other.
In the blink of an eye, the shield was gone.
The crimson tide swept down to engulf Nameless whole.
And then—
"Senpai, I'm here!"
Mash's voice rang out as she rushed to his side.
[Lord Camelot!]
The city walls of the distant ideals rose around them, her will given form as the ultimate defense.
So long as her heart stood firm, no attack could breach it.
Not even the blows of Humanity's Evil.
The firestorm broke against Camelot's walls—unable to touch Nameless behind them. But all could see the truth: Mash's face had gone deathly pale.
To withstand such a storm was crushing her, body and soul.
And this wasn't even one of Tamamo's true Noble Phantasms.
This was her idly flicking a tail!
The audience shuddered—
HungryGames-[Holy crap… even with Nameless and Mash together, they still can't hold her back!]
AlayaRiggedThisShit-[This is Humanity's Evil we're talking about! Only a Grand-class could slay her!]
MoonlitGachaVictim-[But King Hassan already gave up his Grand frame. Who else is left?]
MonaLigmaBalls-[Nameless is in danger. He may have to sacrifice everything here… but then who'll be left to face Goetia?!]
====
In real world Chaldea.
Da Vinci let out a long sigh.
"As expected. To defeat a Beast, a true Grand is required."
The last time, against the Second Beast, they had only survived because Tiamat had bound herself in seals, willingly surrendering.
Even then, it had taken everything—Nameless, alongside Gorgon, Ereshkigal, Ishtar, Quetzalcoatl, even King Hassan's final strike and Gilgamesh's Enuma Elish—to hurl her into the Imaginary Number Space.
Tamamo might be weaker than Tiamat, but she was still a Beast.
Still Humanity's Evil.
Defeating her would be nothing less than impossible.
Roman's expression darkened.
"Yes… only a Grand Caster could face her. Someone who can meet her destructive force with sorcery just as vast, just as cataclysmic."
But that path was barred.
He had given everything up. Cast aside omniscience, cast aside his clairvoyance, cast aside the throne of the Grand Caster.
To live as a man.
Against this Evil, he could do nothing.
Another man might have risen—one who had lit the fire of human history itself. But Roman… no.
Mash only gritted her teeth.
"No matter what—it won't reach Senpai! Not while I still stand!"
If they wanted him, they would have to kill her first.
"Ah, Mash. You're far too stubborn."
Da Vinci placed a gentle hand on her head.
She and Roman had watched the girl grow from the very beginning. They could only think of her as a daughter now.
Da Vinci glanced back toward the blazing inferno on-screen, and sighed again.
"If Merlin ever stopped lazing about, he'd already be a Grand Caster by now. He could tip the scales. But he just lounges in Avalon, doing nothing!"
Among Grand candidates stood Merlin and Gilgamesh both.
Gilgamesh had no need for the title—his might was already Grand-class.
But Merlin?
Merlin's role was different. His potential as a Grand Caster would enhance humanity itself.
And against Tamamo, a fellow master of illusion, he could have bound her long enough for Nameless to strike the killing blow.
Instead, he idled. Watching. Always watching, never stepping in.
Mash's face had gone pale, but she clenched her fists tight.
"I believe in Senpai. He will defeat the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
The memory was still there. From the moment she'd seen this recording, she could feel it—the suffocating presence, the hopeless power.
Like staring straight into the sun.
Like a foe no human could ever overcome.
On the screen—
Tamamo loomed over them, flame incarnate, the golden sun itself given form.
"Nameless. Always flirting, always surrounded by girls. I can't allow it. That's betrayal."
Her eyes burned as they fell on Mash.
"Another girl at your side? Then I'll kill her. And you will belong to me alone."
The sun itself flared.
Waves of fire rolled outward, swallowing the world.
From the inferno, crows of flame were born—scarlet-winged, blazing with blood-fire—storming forth to devour all.
Like the monstrous spawn that had once poured from Tiamat's mud, each was more than strong enough to crush mankind.
And as she spread her wings, Tamamo's laugh was cruel.
"Heh. As if I ever loved you."
Nameless sneered without the slightest hint of restraint.
From their very first encounter, this fox had done nothing but stir up chaos, even trying to obstruct him from aiding Shikotei in unifying the land.
To like her under such circumstances? That would be nothing short of masochism.
He swung his sword, cleaving down the fiery golden crows one after another, working in tandem with Mash to resist her terrifying onslaught.
"As long as I like you, that's enough. Your soul is beautiful, you know. Pure, powerful—far beyond those common mortals! So beautiful that it makes me want to rip it out and keep it by my side, forever and ever."
At last, Tamamo descended from the canopy, stepping gracefully toward them.
She licked her lips with a mischievous smile.
"Nameless, why do you struggle so? Your resistance means nothing before me. Just accept it—become my treasure."
As the golden-furred Nine-Tailed Fox, her standards naturally differed from humanity's.
She cared not for appearance, but for the allure of the soul.
And in her eyes—
The soul of the man before her radiated an almost suffocating temptation.
It was his will: a spirit that had walked through the vast history of mankind, weathered endless battles, and yet never abandoned the path of justice.
A soul so powerful it rivaled even the gods.
Like catnip to a cat—
Just the scent of his soul's fragrance made her want to leap upon him, to claim him for herself without hesitation.
"Die for me, wretched thing that is neither man nor Heroic Spirit!"
Golden flames surged from her body, her figure blazing into a miniature sun.
Behind her, tails erupted like blazing whips—hundreds of meters long—scorching the air and sky as they lashed toward Camelot's radiant walls.
BOOM!
The dazzling explosion swallowed everything within hundreds of meters, the fortress walls engulfed in blinding fire.
The impact was like a barrage of nuclear blasts, even more terrifying than Quetzalcoatl's meteor kick during the Absolute Demonic Front.
Crack—
With each strike of her tails, the city walls shuddered and cracked.
At last, the once-impenetrable walls of Camelot gave way, shattered beneath her assault.
Mash's face instantly turned deathly pale.
The walls were her will given form. And now that they had been broken, the backlash ripped into her body.
One massive tail swung toward her shield.
"Heh, you really are too weak!"
"Not a chance!"
Nameless roared, his blade flashing in defiance.
His eyes shifted into stark black and white as he poured all his accumulated mastery of the sword, all his surging magical energy, into a single strike.
Whoosh!
Golden light cleaved through the air, cutting straight toward the fox.
But she only smiled, making no effort to evade.
BOOM!
A crimson barrier burst into existence, howling with the voices of countless vengeful spirits.
It was the embodiment of humanity's endless slaughter and wars throughout history—her authority as the [Beast IV], born from the very sins of mankind's ceaseless bloodshed.
"Useless, useless, useless!"
Her mocking laughter rang out.
"My Authority is to forge every weapon humanity has ever created, and to unleash them at their ultimate potential. I am the supreme goddess of weaponry itself! Your little collection of swords is nothing but a child's toy before me!"
Before the stunned eyes of all who watched—
She reached out with slender fingers and casually caught his blade.
Crack—
Fractures spread across its surface.
And then—before anyone could believe it—
The weapon that had once pierced the First Emperor itself shattered in her grasp.
====
The sword he had forged with such effort, destroyed so effortlessly in her hand, left everyone in stunned silence.
Hopelessness swept across the audience.
They could see no glimmer of light.
She was the sun incarnate—blinding them with her radiance, only to plunge them into despair.
Mordred's voice trembled.
"She's… that strong?"
Terrifying. Beyond words.
Even when Nameless had faced the godlike Lion King, he hadn't been this overpowered.
Now, even stronger than before, he was utterly helpless before her.
"So this is the power of the sun," Gawain muttered, his expression conflicted.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, completed, was the vessel of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun.
And Gawain himself bore the title of the Sun Knight, wielding the Excalibur Galatine. Under the sun, he was meant to be invincible.
Yet here—
Why was her sun so much stronger?
If he had possessed such power, would he have been defeated so easily back in the Round Table Singularity, toyed with by Nameless in a dozen different ways?
Would the audience have ever doubted who the real Sun Knight was?
Damn it, why am I so weak?
Still, watching Nameless get pummeled left him oddly satisfied.
Seeing him humiliated and powerless—it was cathartic. Like putting on fresh underwear on New Year's morning.
"This is humanity's evil—beyond even the gods," Artoria said gravely.
A being so strong she could slaughter gods with ease.
Even corrupted by Rhongomyniad, she herself would have no chance of victory against such an enemy.
"So Nameless really is going to be crushed? His soul torn out and caged?" Mordred's chest tightened with dread.
The man who had always pulled off miracles… could even he overcome such an abomination?
"Let's keep watching."
Artoria's answer was all she could offer.
Even she could not imagine how one might defeat Tamamo-no-Mae, Beast of Humanity.
As the others watched tensely—
Tamamo's fingers loosened from the broken blade, her golden eyes soft with an unsettling warmth.
"Nameless, you're so unbearably attractive. Surely others must be after you too? So, stay with me forever. Forgive me for hurting you—I'll give you all my love. No one will ever come between us."
Though her body radiated sunlight, though she blazed with warmth and brilliance, the burning madness in her gaze chilled every soul who looked upon her.
"Don't you dare come closer, you monster!" Nameless flinched, instinctively trying to push her away.
But the flames surged, shaping themselves into countless hands that reached from all sides, wrapping around him.
They weren't simply flames—they sought to consume his body, to tear his very soul free.
"Don't be afraid, Nameless. It'll hurt just a little at first. But after that… I'll make you feel so good you'll never want to leave me."
Her nine massive tails coiled into a prison, sealing him within.
Tamamo's voice quivered with love and desperation.
"I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you. But I love you. I'm sorry, I love you! I'm sorry, I love you!"
A Beast-class yandere.
A terror born from humanity's evil, yet wholly fixated on one man. Obsessive. Possessive. Ready to kill at the slightest hint of betrayal.
A corrupted yandere.
"Nameless, your soul is too beautiful. I could never share it with anyone else."
Her smile softened, but it was all the more horrifying.
"So please, Nameless—just die for me. Only then can you be mine forever. I'm sorry—I love you too much."
Viewers everywhere shivered—
GoatedBalls-[Good lord, what did I just witness?! Only in a Lostbelt could things get this insane—first the Emperor, now this fox!]
JewJitsu-[Everyone's free to have their kinks, but this chick is straight-up a soul fetishist!]
SirFucksAlot-[Damn it… I hate that she's hot. Blackened yandere fox-girl is way too tempting.]
FateShit-[Bro above me, are you actually volunteering to get your soul ripped out? You ain't right.]
…
At the Tohsaka residence, inside the Round Table "discussion chamber,"
Rin trembled, goosebumps covering her arms.
She stared blankly at the screen. "Holy crap… this woman's terrifying. The very definition of a yandere!"
Just earlier—
As a gifted magus, she'd been permitted to meet "Principal Tamamo".
She had even gone shopping with her once, thinking she was a kind, approachable older-sister type.
She had almost walked straight into hell.
This fox's disguise was flawless.
So flawless that everyone had taken her as nothing more than a respectable heroic spirit.
But in Alaya's exposed video, her true nature was laid bare.
She was nothing more than a shameless, scummy fox.
And the one she had her eyes on—Nameless—was truly pitiful to the extreme.
Even though he had always seen her as nothing but a monster, he still couldn't escape the fate of being hunted down by her.
Others, when captivated by Nameless's charm, all wanted to be with him.
But this fox? She only wanted to rip out Nameless's soul—just so she could be with him forever.
Rin Tohsaka, having witnessed plenty of bizarre kinks in her life, had honestly never seen anything like this.
Good lord… you're actually a one-of-a-kind soul fetishist?!
She couldn't help but turn toward Ereshkigal:
"Eresh, is a soul really that… attractive?"
And of course, as the goddess of the Underworld who had gathered countless souls, Ereshkigal was the most qualified to answer.
After all—she was a true expert in soul management.
"…It really is… very attractive."
Ereshkigal was briefly stunned, then a faint blush surfaced on her cheeks.
As the goddess of the Underworld, she could naturally see the beauty or ugliness of souls. And Nameless's soul… was the most perfect, the purest human soul she had ever seen.
No wonder Alaya had chosen him as the protector of humanity, the savior of mankind.
Ishtar squinted at her, suspicious:
"…Don't tell me you've thought about ripping out his soul too, keeping him in the Underworld forever?"
"W-What nonsense… of course not…"
Ereshkigal's reply lacked confidence.
Truthfully—she had thought about it.
She spent every day alone in the Underworld, surrounded only by endless souls, unable to see a single living being.
Despised by the living, shunned by all… only Nameless had ever shown her gentleness.
He'd even told her she was "the most beautiful flower in the Underworld"… enough to make her once entertain the thought of keeping him with her forever.
But in the end—he was a living human.
She could never bring herself to force him to stay, confined to the eternal darkness of her realm.
"…You're actually kind of… cute, you know."
Rin thought for a moment before finally settling on that word.
Someone so stubbornly tsundere… even more dishonest than herself.
Or perhaps—it was just that the three-in-one Rin triplets all shared the same kind of personality.
====
In the video.
As Tamamo-no-Mae wrapped Nameless in a deathly embrace, the situation reached a crisis point.
And then—a mighty warrior thundered forth from the distance.
Heracles!
He swung his massive axe-sword, cleaving down with raw force.
The strike made Tamamo-no-Mae's brow furrow ever so slightly.
"Pointless struggling. Why resist?"
A single flick of her tails blocked the blow with ease.
At that moment—
From afar, Illya raised her glowing Command Seals high:
"Berserker—you're the strongest!"
The surge of magical power from multiple Command Spells roared into Heracles, his body swelling, surging with a bloody crimson aura.
Limitless brute strength erupted forth, forcing the fox's tails back through sheer might.
"Rahhhhh!!!"
Heracles bellowed, tearing apart the Nine-Tail Prison with unstoppable force.
At last, the imprisoned Nameless was freed once more.
In his hand, magical energy flared—shaping itself into the form of a whip.
"Back in the Age of Gods, I once learned a trick from humanity's greatest fisherman of the skies…"
"Activating all eighty-four inscription seals! Let the sky open! Fall down, O divine scourge—
[Strike of the God-Striking Whip: Dǎ Shén Biān!!]"
Hummm—!
The small whip soared skyward.
In an instant, its hidden mystery exploded forth—expanding into a massive whip tens of meters long.
Nameless flicked his wrist, lashing it down upon the Nine-Tailed Fox.
CRACK!
Tamamo-no-Mae's tails rose to defend, but the whip smote them from the air.
She stared in disbelief.
"You—you're a swordsman! How can you project Taikōbō's Noble Phantasm?!"
Yes. The [God-Striking Whip], the most powerful treasure of Taikōbō, the great figure of the Investiture of the Gods.
A weapon with divine anti-trait, forged solely to scourge the gods themselves!
"…Actually, I'm a magus."
Nameless's pale face curved into a faint smile.
Again, the whip lashed out, cracking down mercilessly.
Under the overwhelming suppression of a weapon that existed solely to punish divinity, Tamamo-no-Mae—the divine soul of Amaterasu herself—was brutally restrained.
But she sneered coldly:
"Even if you can project the God-Striking Whip, at most you can suppress my divinity. You can't touch me as the Beast of Humanity!"
The whip was indeed her bane.
Back when she had taken the form of Su Daji, she had suffered terribly under that damned attacks—utterly powerless to resist.
"But still… it's enough."
Nameless smiled faintly.
At that moment—
Yu Mei-ren suddenly rushed forward.
"To bind her as planned, I need to return to my true form!"
"…Drink."
Nameless extended his bleeding hand, unfazed by his worsening wounds.
The battles against Shikotei and Tamamo-no-Mae had already cost him much blood—yet he still offered it freely to her.
If not for the Olympian gods' blessing granted him [Battle Continuation]—so long as a drop of blood remained, he would not fall.
After drinking her fill—
Yu Mei-ren's eyes blazed with blood-red flames, her true power as a spirit of the Inner Sea of the Stars awakening at last.
Her voice rang out, low and resolute:
"Primordial power—unseal!"
As a being born of the Reverse Side, she was far more ancient than the gods.
She could share her existence directly with the magical ether of nature itself, drawing infinite mana from the world around her.
The guise of "human" was nothing but a seal upon that power.
Now, after drinking deeply of Nameless's blood, she shed that disguise—returning to her true self.
No longer Hinako Akuta—she was Yu Mei-ren!(Ahh right, for the guise of readability, I believe I( always have called her in her real name.)
Blood mist swirled around her, and the air resounded with a mournful elegy.
Yu Mei-ren's crimson gaze locked on Tamamo-no-Mae:
"Take this strike, Tamamo-no-Mae!"
But the fox only scoffed:
"Hah! Even if you are a spirit born of the Inner Sea, you can't possibly stand against me!"
Moments ago, she had considered allying with Yu Mei-ren against Nameless and Shikotei—yet here the woman was, betraying her utterly, aiding Nameless with all her strength.
Pathetic.
Unlike Tamamo, who would take what she desired by force—even through violation—this one was too cowardly to seize love for herself.
"…Can't hurt you?"
Yu Mei-ren's smile bloomed, dazzling, almost mad.
"Then I'll show you my true trump card. Explosions… are art."
Endless mana from nature itself surged into her body, filling her to the brim like a grail overflowing.
Even the vast power Tamamo wielded was devoured by her curse-born absorption.
The sky turned crimson.
The earth turned crimson.
Heaven and earth themselves seemed drowned in blood.
Spreading her arms, Yu Mei-ren embraced the apocalypse:
"I offer my body as a sacrifice—to lay upon you my strongest curse…!"
[Eternal Lament: The Grieving Song of the Departed Soul's Cursed Blood!!!]
"D-Don't come any closer!!!"
For the first time, panic flickered in Tamamo-no-Mae's eyes.
But it was already too late.
Yu Mei-ren's body exploded into a storm of crimson, a cataclysmic eruption of magical energy engulfing the Nine-Tailed Fox whole.
This was her hidden trump card.
By abandoning her flesh, letting her mana break all limits, she could annihilate her enemy with the ultimate self-destructive curse—rebuilding her body anew after the detonation.
Already suppressed by the God-Striking Whip, Tamamo-no-Mae now suffered a second devastating blow.
Her furious scream split the skies:
"You madwoman!!!"
Wounding her enemy by eight hundred, while sacrificing ten thousand of herself—
What lunatic used themselves as a Noble Phantasm?!
The audience was left dumbstruck—
ICastFart-[She actually self-destructed?!]
FifthTimeGooning-[She made Tamamo-no-Mae, the Beast of Humanity, call someone else crazy—terrifying!]
GigglesThenShit-[Too insane! Tamamo is a yandere gone mad, and Yu Mei-ren is a kamikaze lunatic!]
ConstipatedProcrastinator-[Who even remembers that "literary maiden" persona of Hinako Akuta anymore… THIS is a maiden?!]
BobUchiha-[I swear she has some Japanese blood flowing through her veins!]
====
Kirina swallowed hard.
"…When a lady loses her temper, it's really terrifying."
Terrifying indeed—when a "lady" chose self-detonation as her attack.
"You're telling me she's basically a walking bomb?!"
Miyu could only nod in sympathy:
"Big brother really has it rough—haunted by the Evil of Humanity that wants to rip out his soul, and now stalked by a spirit who can literally self-destruct…"
"True enough."
Illya shivered at the memory.
Don't forget, she too had been summoned into a Lostbelt, forced to travel with Koyanskaya.
She'd thought the woman was a quiet, elegant lady—never imagining such a violent, terrifying side.
"Why would you even think she was a lady in the first place…?"
Nameless couldn't help but look confused.
That one… she was called the 'Irritable Old Gucchan' for a reason. How could anyone mistake her for a refined maiden?
That whole "literary girl" thing was just an act at the start!
The price of letting her fight had nearly drained him dry!
Too terrifying.
Even he couldn't feed her properly.
Forget blood—couldn't she drain some other bodily fluid instead…?
…
Under everyone's shocked gazes—
Yu Mei-ren, who had just blown herself up, had already reconstructed a body and was lying in Nameless's arms.
Smiling brightly, she said:
"No helping it—only a spirit species that shares its core with the environment can unleash a self-destruct like that!"
Death wasn't a problem.
With Nameless's powerful blood to fuel her, she could easily rebuild her body.
Why would she ever be afraid?
"Damn bastard! I'll throw you into the sun and see if that kills you!" Tamamo roared in fury.
But first, she needed to replenish her energy.
Her transformation into the Evil of Humanity was only possible because of her pact with the Fantasy Tree, which gave her access to its vast energy.
Now, battered by repeated attacks, she wanted nothing more than to fully draw on the Fantasy Tree's power and crush her enemies.
Just as she moved—
Nameless launched his next strike:
"Enkidu, if you would."
Clatter—!
Behind him burst forth shining golden chains, lashing upward toward Tamamo as she fled toward the top of the sacred Tree.
The strongest sealing divine weapon of Mesopotamia's gods—
The Chains of Heaven.
In that moment, projected by Nameless, they manifested as the supreme binding Noble Phantasm—
[O' Humans, Let Us Restrain The Gods—Enuma Elish!]
BOOM!
Endless golden chains exploded with divine might, piercing through her blazing fox tails and wrapping Tamamo-'s radiant body in layer after layer, binding her so tightly she could no longer move.
"Damn you! Bastard!!"
She roared in rage.
If only she could reach the top of the Fantasy Tree, she could draw directly on power equivalent to the Lostbelt's very origin.
In an instant, every attempt to suppress her would be shattered.
With the sacred tree on her side, no force could oppose her!
And yet—
The short distance remaining had become an impassable chasm.
At that moment—
A bow appeared in Nameless's hands. Smiling faintly, he said:
"Truth is, I'm neither a swordsman nor a magus. My true class… is Archer."
"???"
Tamamo blinked in utter confusion.
Your close combat is that good, and you're a bowman?!
"When I let you devour that Golden Crow's core back then, I warned you not to turn it against humanity."
In his hand shimmered an ancient, primal arrow—its shaft carved from bone.
"You… you can use that arrow?!"
Tamamo's eyes widened.
That arrow—! She remembered it well.
Back when she and Nameless first sought the Sacred Tree, at its summit they had discovered the corpse of a Golden Crow.
One of the divine birds once shot down by Hou Yi.
The Golden Crows, wielders of solar power, were genuine gods.
And Hou Yi, who felled nine of them, was beyond compare.
Without a doubt, a candidate worthy of the Grand Archer seat—perhaps even like Shikotei, a being of Grand rank in his own right.
Tamamo never dreamed Nameless, a mere human, could wield Hou Yi's treasures—
The Bow and Arrows of the Sun-Shooter!
This was the ultimate counter against a being of solar divinity like herself.
Only now did Tamamo realize—he truly had the power to kill her.
No wonder he'd let her consume the Golden Crow corpse back then, after warning her so seriously!
"Hmph. Too bad. You're no Grand Archer—you can't bring out its full might."
If Hou Yi himself were here, she would indeed be in danger.
But Nameless was no Hou Yi.
Just a Chaldean Master.
"To destroy a Beast that threatens human history, only someone of the Grand Classes has the right."
Nameless smiled faintly.
"But when I performed my summoning, I received Hou Yi's blessing and inheritance. In other words, I do carry the potential to be Grand Archer."
"Heh. Inheritance is only inheritance. To be Grand Archer—to strike down suns, to reach realms untouchable by mortals—you don't have the qualification." Tamamo sneered.
Hou Yi, who felled nine suns, was indeed the truest candidate for Grand Archer.
Nameless could never compare.
He hadn't slain even a weaker god, let alone a Sun Crow.
Becoming Grand Archer was impossible.
But none of that mattered now.
Her overwhelming power was about to shatter his projected Chains of Heaven.
Their conversation was nothing but a stalling game.
"Oh? And how do you know I couldn't kill a Golden Crow?"
Nameless smiled—and in Tamamo's disbelieving gaze, a mysterious force erupted from him. He drew the bowstring taut.
The Sun-Shooter Bow and Arrow blazed with divine brilliance unseen for millennia!
"What—?! You're sacrificing your very potential as a Grand Archer?!" Tamamo gasped.
Indeed—he could have become Grand Archer. But without hesitation, he burned all that possibility into this single arrow.
The sense of crisis crushed her chest like a vice.
This wasn't just a threat—he really could kill her.
Nameless drew his bow to full, unleashing his ultimate strike:
"Like my teacher, King Hassan, I have no need for a Grand title. The proof of my strength lies in a single shot—now watch me bend the bow and shoot down the sun!
For the sake of human history—I strip you of your solar divinity!"
BOOM!!
The Bow of the Sun-Shooter bent to its limit. Power of unimaginable magnitude surged forth.
The radiant Arrow of the Sun blazed and launched—straight into Tamamo, still bound by chains.
"NOOO!!!"
Her terrified scream echoed. She tried to evade—
But there was no escape.
The arrow pierced her completely.
Her brilliant solar radiance dimmed.
Her blazing fox tails crumbled one by one.
And the dazzling Sun-Shooter Arrow flew on unhindered, soaring into the atmosphere—smashing through the Great Wall that hovered in orbit!