After leaving the sewers, Rhodes and Manaka walked through the bustling streets of Tokyo late at night.
Rhodes had managed to find a blanket from somewhere, wrapping it around their unclad forms.
With their two heads snuggled together outside the blanket, Rhodes and Manaka strolled hand-in-hand toward home, their steps in perfect sync.
From a distance, they looked like a cloaked hermit, completely out of place in the city’s modern landscape.
As a Beast who had obtained a human vessel, Rhodes took the appearance of a young youth.
A striking youth of 150cm, his pale features paired with short black hair and cold black eyes gave off an inexplicably indifferent vibe.
“Why did you do something so reckless?”
There was a hint of reproach in Rhodes’s tone.
“If I hadn’t spat you out in time and reconstructed your physical body, you’d be dead by now, wouldn’t you?”
“Reckless? No, I intended for it to be this way from the very beginning.”
Leaning her head on Rhodes’s shoulder, Manaka shook her head slightly.
“From the start, I intended for you to eat me—to eat my world.”
…
Rhodes’s creator, Manaka, was a girl who was the Incarnation of truth.
She was a girl who could accomplish anything.
Let there be life—with such a wish, life would sprout.
Let there be death—with such a whisper, death would spread.
It could be said that the world was connected to her, and she was connected to the world.
An omniscient and omnipotent girl.
Anything could be manipulated, achieved, or destroyed.
Because she could find no joy in it, she set a single rule for her omnipotence.
[Do not look at one’s own future].
Equivalent to the world itself, she restricted herself.
Rules.
Restrictions.
Shackles.
Without limits, omnipotence was simply too boring.
As it turned out, her approach was correct.
She was finally able to feel alive.
But that was all.
Seeing through everything, possessing everything, understanding everything.
At the end of selflessness, gazing at the pure white purgatory, reigning upon the throne.
One could say she was nearly a god.
She had no choice but to exist like a ghost.
She had no expectations for the future.
After all, this was a [World where no Prince would appear].
Even though Manaka was the master of the world, she was not the protagonist of destiny.
Living, for her, was an eternal tribulation.
Dying while living.
Living while dying.
No pain, hardship, sorrow, or joy—
A cycle of days lived like the walking dead.
Finally, her spirit reached its limit.
Manaka made a decision that went against her ancestors.
—Be destroyed, such a boring world.
Along with the history accumulated by humanity [Human Order], let it all be utterly destroyed.
“The result of that is you, my lovely creation.”
Manaka stopped her steps, reached out from under the blanket, and cupped Rhodes’s face.
“You are a Beast, a calamity born from the filthy Negative Holy Grail.”
In Christian history, two Holy Grails once appeared.
One is the True Holy Grail of legend, which held the blood of the Savior and is capable of achieving miracles.
The other is the Cup of Wealth mentioned in Revelation, appearing alongside the Beast and the Great Whore—symbolizing human greed and arrogance.
Their appearances are identical; only the contents they once held differ.
One holds holy blood, the other holds filth.
A certain Cardinal of the Holy Church possessed the latter, treating the Cup of Wealth as the True Holy Grail.
Manaka stole that false Grail from him and placed it beneath Tokyo.
Using it as a catalyst, she cultivated a Devil King capable of destroying this boring and painful world.
This was Rhodes, the birth of Beast VI.
What is a Beast?
If Manaka is the Imperial Princess who possesses the world, then Rhodes is the Beast that destroys it.
“Whenever you roar, people will wail and cities will burn.”
“The earth will crumble, and the oceans will be dyed the color of blood.”
“Whenever you open your great maw, everything woven by life—”
“The world, history, dreams, wishes… even time, space, and Karma will be devoured and crushed by you.”
With a faint, happy smile overflowing on her exquisite face, the girl spoke with moist eyes.
“So, I once desired for you to eat me, to eat my world.”
“…Once?”
“That’s right, once.”
Manaka nodded.
“It’s no longer necessary now. Destroying the world, killing me… none of that is needed anymore.”
“…”
Rhodes fell silent, thinking for a moment.
What on earth could have happened to cause such a massive shift in Manaka’s perspective?
She had clearly felt despair toward this world until just a moment ago.
“Did something good happen?” Rhodes asked.
Though it felt a bit self-serving to say, it was likely for a reason like “Your appearance made Manaka feel that this world isn’t entirely boring.”
Rhodes waited, listening intently for her to give such an answer.
“Yes, something good happened. Today is an important day… there has never been a more important day than today.”
Manaka suddenly let go of his hand and skipped away from the youth with light steps.
Spinning.
Twirling.
“The lovely you, who gave me a heart!”
“The noble you, who saved my life!”
In the dark alleyway polluted only by scattered, sparse lights, Manaka danced innocently, brightly, and cutely.
Her pure white and slender silhouette was elegant, gorgeous, and dazzling.
“—Happy Birthday, Rhodes!”
“Hey! Wait… don’t run around! Put the blanket on! What if someone other than me sees you!”
Good grief, I really can’t deal with these Japanese girls.
Rhodes threw the blanket over Manaka, successfully capturing her.
Manaka lay flat on the ground, her back arched somewhat disheveledly, the blanket forming a small mound.
Rhodes came to her side and said, hands on hips, looking down at her: “Stop messing around. I don’t want to end up in a police station with my mother on my birthday for disturbing public order and morals.”
“…Ugh, it’s so dark. I can’t see anything.”
A few seconds later, Manaka lifted a corner of the blanket like a kitten and poked her head out.
“Sorry, Rhodes. I seem to have misunderstood your nature; you’re actually not a beast of calamity at all.”
Rhodes was utterly confused: “Eh? Am I not Beast VI [anti-messiah]?”
Manaka looked at him and nodded gently.
With her cheeks flushed a light peach color, the girl whispered.
“Rhodes… you must be the Savior [Messiah] who belongs only to Manaka.”