Love conquers all.

Love conquers all. (愛は全てに勝る., Ai wa subete ni masaru) is the 5th episode of the first season of The Ancient Magus Bride anime.

Synopsis
Ambushed by Sorcerers Renford and his partner Alice, Chise learns from them her fate as a Sleigh Beggy. However, she's immediately rescued by Elias and then performs the task she was assigned by him and, in the process, learns what led up to the creation of the corruption.

Summary
Astounded by Renfred's words about her imminent demise as a Sleigh Beggy, Chise is given an explanation from the woman in the red hoodie named Alice concerning it. Renfred tries to persuade Chise to abandon her teacher, but it only causes her to retaliate and break free. Doing this gives enough time for Molly, Jasper, and Barney to arrive and defend Chise.

When asked why Chise would side with Elias, she explains whether or not what they claim is the truth; Elias is the only one who acknowledged her as family. Spawning vines and thorns that surround Chise and attack Renfred, and Alice, Elias appears before her. After treating her neck wound, Elias has Chise purify the corruption, joined by Ariel and Molly.

Touching the corruption causes the three to be sent into the memory of the corruption. It leads them inside a bar, where Chise notices she's nearly transparent, and they watch a deal between Mina's husband Matthew Sorcerer about his wife's health. When asked to see his wife, Matthew allows it without hesitation, and the Sorcerer follows him, putting on a grim grin, which Chise notes that the Sterribleerer had terrible intentions.

Inside Matthew's home, the Sorcerer inspects Mina, and outside with Matthew, he claims that Mina will die within a few years. Desperate to save his wife, Matthew begs the Sorcerer to save his wife, regardless of what it takes. With a grin, the Sorcerer asks if Mina loves cats.

Eventually, Mina learns from a few locals that inform her that Matthew had entered the woods while wielding an axe earlier. As Mina heads into the woods, Chise and the others follow her, and Chise notes her concern about what's to come. Soon, Mina reaches a shed in the woods, where she finds Matthew inside, surrounded by caged cats, as he butchers a cat on a chopping board. Distraught by what she saw, Mina learns from Matthew that his motives for slaughtering the local cats were instructions by the Sorcerer to create a cure for her illness. The Sorcerer then appears and explains his role in the situation. He then forces Mina's mouth to be open and allows Matthew to pour the "cure" into her mouth and down her throat. Matthew's elated disposition was brief as after Mina drank the cure, she instant melted into a pile of goo. Commenting on the failure of his experiment to "condense souls", the Sorcerer leaves Matthew, who goes insane by what he had witnessed. The moment Matthew stepped outside, he spotted Tim and had hoped to kill him to gather more lives to cure Mina then. However, Tim incapacitates him by going for his throat and then explains that he was duped by a devil who used him as the other cats in the area surrounding him with the intent to kill him.

Once this is done, Mina confronts Chise and the others, apologizing for what they have witnessed, and requesting that they erase them. Although Chise was hesitant, Molly offered to do it as she was on her ninth life. However, before they can depart together, Chise concocts a plan to guide the souls of Mina, Matthew, and the other cats to the next world with the help of Ariel. Thanks to Chise's plan, Mina is teleported to a field of blue poppies, where she reunites with Matthew, and the two then depart.

Alone with Molly in her hands, Chise contemplates her own life, where she's destined to die soon, as Elias appears from where Mina and Matthew had departed.

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