After bidding Jeanne d'Arc Alter farewell, the group returned to their base to rest and regroup.
The final battle lay ahead. While the Servants replenished their condition and Lawrence restored his mana, Fujimaru Ritsuka consumed a large amount of sugar and water.
"How do we defeat that thing?"
Wiping the corner of his mouth, Fujimaru Ritsuka stood up, breaking the somewhat silent atmosphere within the base.
"During your previous journeys, you must have fought many 'Demonic Beasts,' correct?"
James Moriarty spoke up.
"That's right. We encountered monsters similar to Demonic Beasts in almost every Singularity, but if we're talking about the most numerous, it was probably the Seventh Singularity—the Mesopotamia Singularity."
Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded and looked at James Moriarty. "Its main constituents were Tiamat and Tiamat's offspring."
"Is there a problem?"
"Wolf King Robert should not be called a Demonic Beast. Fundamentally, he was an ordinary wolf—a wolf with not the slightest connection to mana."
James Moriarty spoke at length.
"I know what you wish to say. The Native Americans once called Robert a demon, but that was merely a rumor."
"He was an ordinary wolf, an ordinary creature, an ordinary Phantom Spirit. Nothing more."
"Because of hatred?" Fujimaru Ritsuka frowned.
"Yes."
James Moriarty nodded and continued.
"Hatred that is not forgotten for decades, for centuries, can shape such a monster."
He looked into Fujimaru Ritsuka's eyes, meeting his gaze directly.
"Don't you find it terrifying?"
"Facing an ordinary wolf, we have to exercise a level of vigilance we would not even use against Demonic Beasts."
"...So this is what hatred is."
After a moment of silence, Anno, seated in the corner of the base, sighed.
"Before him, no matter what, I could not bring myself to say that he was 'an ordinary wolf.'"
"Indeed. You were never this battered