Sadako lacked nothing in any meaningful way. What had broken her was her past—a childhood that had ground her confidence down to nothing. Whenever something big happened, her first instinct was to retreat.
When her dark side erupted, she'd immediately shrunk back, retreating into the smallest corner of her own mind, watching everything with wide, frightened eyes.
Bella's words sparked something in her.
"But… but can we really do this? I'm not very smart."
"Trust me—it'll work. Wait for my signal. We move at the same time and drive that thing out."
Sadako's dark side was blazing. She drew on every last bit of her own power, forcing Himiko back step by step. In the final moment, she pooled everything she had left—spending every scrap of resentment remaining in the blood river like playing her last card—and reversed the current like a tide turning, driving Himiko's spirit back into the queen's own mummified body.
But before she could sever the soul-connection between them, Bella's voice came through the link: now.
And Sadako—the real one—woke up.
This was her body. Reclaiming it required no effort at all. She began pushing the dark side out.
"No! You can't do this! I am you! Everything I did, I did for you! For you! You can't treat me like this!"
The dark side screamed, but her resentment was almost entirely spent. Sadako forced her out anyway—expelled from the body, sent tumbling into the desiccated husk of Himiko's form.
"Wait—what is that?"
Bella's eyes caught it immediately: a jewel hanging around Himiko's neck. In her vision it existed in a strange in-between state—almost material but not quite, almost a soul-object but not exactly.
She couldn't get a clear read on it with a quick glance.
There was no time to think. Himiko's spirit and the dark side of Sadako were writhing together in a tangle. Bella lunged forward, grabbed the jewel, and yanked it free.
Then everything fell apart at once.
Himiko had just been forced back into her own body—an indignity she'd never suffered in all her centuries of existence—and before she could even begin to rally, she realized the dark side of Sadako had followed her in.
She was completely baffled. You worthless thing. Are you seriously trying to possess me? Where do you get the nerve?
Two spirits fought for control of the same body. They were locked in a stalemate for two seconds.
Then Bella stole the jewel.
Without the Shikon Jewel's restraining force, Himiko's soul fractured instantly. That proud, imposing spirit—eighteen hundred years of accumulated power—suddenly looked like cracked porcelain. Colorless veins of decay spread across it, ashen gray bleeding through what had been solid and vivid. Rot advanced from the inside out at terrifying speed.
Her soul was hitting its limit.
"Move!" Bella shouted, already grabbing Dr. Graham and sprinting for the exit. She pulled Sadako with her. The doctor stumbled but kept her feet.
Lara needed no second warning. She vaulted back the moment Bella yelled.
Behind them, Himiko lurched forward two steps in their direction.
She could barely move. She was a mummy to begin with, and now a torch was buried in her back, her body burning freely, vital force hemorrhaging with every second.
On her fifth step, she finally finished it—Sadako's dark side was destroyed. Completely and utterly erased.
But her own life was spent in the same moment.
A walking human torch, swaying with each step. She made it two more steps and then toppled forward. She didn't get back up.
"Did I… do that?" Lara asked, not entirely certain. "Does she die from fire? Did I kill her?"
Looking at the scene, the logical conclusion was that her torch had been the deciding factor. Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that things hadn't been quite that simple. Was Himiko really that fragile?
"Yep, that was you. She must have had a weakness to fire. Next time you should—oh no. Run! Everyone run!"
Bella had been about to play it up and hand Lara all the credit, but she'd spotted the problem. Himiko's spirit was still fighting for survival even now, but her control was slipping fast—and eighteen hundred years of storm-force energy, coiled inside a soul on the verge of collapse, was threatening to detonate.
That was not good. If that energy lost containment, the explosion would rival a fuel-air bomb.
Himiko was trying to shed her body, but with the Shikon Jewel gone her control had degraded sharply. Her soul and the storm-force inside it were still tangled with the charred remains of her physical form. All three layers knotted together, inseparable.
"Run! Stop standing there—RUN!"
Bella threw an arm around the wounded Dr. Graham and bolted. Lara grabbed Sadako, and all four of them tore through the tomb like their lives depended on it—because they did.
They'd made it less than five hundred yards (~450 m) from the main chamber when the sound hit.
A roar that shook the world.
Himiko detonated—from the inside out. The storm-force that had been compressed to its absolute limit erupted inside the main chamber. The ceiling disintegrated. The shockwave tore outward in every direction.
Himiko's underground tomb had been built to last, but even solid construction had its limits. The main chamber's collapse triggered a chain reaction. Burial room after burial room went down like dominoes.
The entire tomb was falling apart, and the window to escape was closing fast.
"Faster! Faster!" If she got buried down here, Bella genuinely wasn't sure how she'd claw her way out. Her legs churned like pistons—she was moving faster than anyone else.
She was fast. Luck, however, was another matter.
Crisis after crisis materialized in her path.
A massive stone column crashed down directly ahead—she had to check her stride.
A boulder that looked like it weighed several tons dropped from the ceiling—she had to dodge.
A fissure over ten meters (~30 ft) wide split the floor in front of her—she grabbed Dr. Graham and threw everything she had into the jump.
She was the fastest one here, and yet when she finally burst out of the tomb, she found herself shoulder to shoulder with Lara—dead even, neither ahead of the other. Her expression went slightly odd. Fortunately, everyone was caked in dust and grime, and no one noticed.
Himiko was gone. Trinity's soldiers had all been eliminated. The storm that had blanketed Yamatai was already dissipating rapidly.
Dr. Graham used her own credentials to contact Professor Serinuma, and a rescue team arrived shortly after.
"Come visit me in England sometime." Lara had always been resistant to going home—resistant to Croft Manor, resistant to everything it represented. She'd rather rent a flat and deliver takeout than set foot in that cold, hollow house. But now she'd found her father. Everything was different.
She thanked Bella warmly and extended an open invitation for Bella and her family to visit.
"Miss Swan." Lord Croft pulled Bella aside just before he departed. "Please be careful. I'd strongly advise against revealing your true identity."
He'd gone missing before Bella had arrived in this world. He didn't know her reputation. But a woman with her looks and education wasn't going to be a nobody—he was sure of that. He was worried Trinity might come after her in their hunt for the truth about Yamatai. It was a genuine warning.