"Ahem... thanks, Enkidu..."
Rising from the 'gauze net' woven from the Chains of Heaven, Ishtar coughed lightly, barely suppressing the surging, boiling divine core within her. Putting on a hint of dignity, she placed one hand on her hip before stepping onto the summoned celestial vessel—the Bow of Heaven, Maanna.
"Ishtar, don't you have any Noble Phantasm that can enhance Gugalanna?"
On one of the few patches of mud still stable enough to stand on, a blonde goddess wearing a crown rose up from beneath the earth.
Spotless from head to toe, her crown-like headpiece, crimson cloak, and deep black dress all accentuated her noble identity. Holding a spear of the underworld with twisted silver-black shafts extending into serpent-like blades, Ereshkigal frowned beautifully.
"This world has already been completely transformed. The environment of the Age of Gods has been restored, and the effects of our Noble Phantasms have all been strengthened."
"Don't speak to me in such a condescending tone. How would I know—Father Go... huh? Eresh, aren't you only able to manifest in the underground underworld?"
"How did you suddenly come to the surface? And you're not even fighting me for control of the body?"
Gazing toward the thunderstorm clouds tens of thousands of meters above, just as she was about to take off, Ishtar finally realized something was off.
"Idiot, did Selene hit your head so hard you've gone stupid? Haven't you felt the changes in this environment at all?"
Ereshkigal covered her face, immediately launching into a stream of complaints.
"Sigh... all that time repairing the foundation, all that effort setting up the underworld barrier—completely pointless. In a situation like this, there's absolutely no way to see any chance of victory. The only option is to grind it out using Servants... hopefully Chaldea still has reinforcements they can send..."
As if realizing she had said too much, Ereshkigal waved her hand at Ishtar in annoyance. "Go, go, go..."
"Tch, you're so noisy! Let me make this clear in advance—this goddess will definitely be more useful than you!"
Nearby, Enkidu's smile had already faded, replaced by a sorrowful glance toward that 'divine beast.'
To fight side by side with the Bull of Heaven... I wonder how Gil is doing now.
"Kingu's Saint Graph reaction has disappeared. Gugalanna is probably no match for Selene either. Goddess Ereshkigal, we must hold her back."
"But... what about Fujimaru's side...?" Ereshkigal hesitated.
"All we can do is stall Selene until she withdraws. As for the rest, we can only leave it to Ritsuka Fujimaru himself."
With that said, Enkidu and Ishtar exchanged a glance and shot toward the sky tens of thousands of meters above.
"..."
In response, Ereshkigal let out a silent sigh.
As for why she didn't follow—wasn't that obvious?
She was the goddess of the underworld, its ruler, a deity of the land. With the restoration of the Age of Gods environment and the mutation of Solomon's Grand Temple of Time, being able to leave the underworld and move within a kilometer above the surface was already impressive.
Sending Ereshkigal to fight Selene tens of thousands of meters up in the stratosphere—wasn't that just asking her to die?
The farther she moved from the land, the more severely she would be weakened. Rather than going up there to throw her life away, it was better to stay on the surface and wait for Selene to descend.
...
BOOM—!!!
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!!!
Lightning flashed and thunder roared. From outer space, what could be observed was an almost perfectly circular formation spanning over 800 kilometers, blocking out the sky. The division between clouds and atmosphere was stark—textbook-level typhoon structure.
Yet at the same time, if one could see through the dense magical particles within the storm, one would realize that a colossal beast—equal in size to the typhoon itself—was slowly advancing.
Peering through the gaps in the storm clouds, what could be seen were golden-streaked bones like a moving mountain range.
Each bone was on the scale of an entire metropolis. The blue-and-gold intertwined giant beast treated the rotating storm as its own flesh, raising its head proudly as it charged toward the tiny foreign god before it, accelerating with thunderous steps.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"ROOOOAAAR—!!"
The storm was its fierce blood, the torrential rain its surging passion. Wind and rain forged its pulsing veins.
Thunder was its rage, lightning its fleeting brilliance. Thunderclaps were its deafening roar—lightning and thunder together embodying the wild, untamed name of the heavens.
But that was all.
To Selene, Gugalanna's roar—which should inspire instinctive fear in all living beings—sounded no different from the whimper of a puppy.
If she were still in her Servant Demonic Beast Goddess state, she might have been dragged into a difficult battle by Ishtar's trump card.
Crackle—
"Bucephalus!"
Slash—!
Splurt!
With a casual swing of a Subspace Lance, lightning was torn apart. Flesh and blood scattered—human bodies and horse corpses mingled into an unrecognizable mass. The handsome youth from a moment ago was now nothing more than shredded remains.
At this point, the remaining Servants scattered throughout the storm clouds stirred by the Bull of Heaven had already gone numb.
"At least we delayed her for half a second..." one Servant muttered in hollow self-comfort.
Completely indifferent to crushing something as insignificant as an ant, the faint smile on Selene's face never faded. Maintaining her lofty, superior posture, she looked down at the 'little bull' before her, lightly pressing her middle finger against her index finger.
"Imaginary Transfer—Restrain."
Snap!
With a crisp snap of her fingers, a purple-red glow spread outward from between them. In an instant, a space spanning hundreds of kilometers was engulfed. The next moment, it twisted, contracted, and spiraled like building blocks being rearranged.
"Honkai Arrow."
Next, Selene lightly clenched one hand, her fingers subtly moving as a cube with perfect hexahedral symmetry appeared floating in midair. It began to transform, spinning at high speed.
At the same time, she reached back as if drawing a bow from nothingness, pulling out three geometric frames formed by four Honkai crystal prisms. The closer they were to her body, the smaller and wider they became. The second-to-last structure on the right formed a spiral of two rectangular prisms, while the final one became a regular polyhedron.
The polyhedral spiral accelerated continuously, turning into a blazing elongated shaft that Selene drove directly into Gugalanna's skull.
"ROOOOAAAR—!!"
Sensing Selene's attention, Gugalanna's roar grew even more frenzied. On one side alone, a glazed horn layer the size of a peninsula swung violently, crackling with thick arcs of lightning brimming with destruction and brutality.
Within the storm clouds, golden and glazed light flared brilliantly. Through the thunderclouds, the golden-boned giant beast could be seen slowly opening its mouth.
Inhale—!
The storm clouds spanning hundreds of kilometers contained an immense accumulation of electric current. As they were drawn in by Gugalanna, the concentrated current became even more terrifying.
This was truly above Anti-Nation level!
Blinding lightning replaced all other light, thunder overtook all sound. Before that overwhelming sphere of lightning, the terrifying heat instantly scorched several nearby Servants.
"Pull back!"
But time waited for no one. Selene released her grip—
Like dropping a heavy aerial bomb into a still tank of water, this was a force beyond imagination. At the moment of impact, dazzling violet light collided with surging lightning, rapidly condensing and expanding outward.
The Servant squad closest to the clash—engaged in mobile harassment tactics—was struck by the terrifying aftershock!
Among them were a handsome man with a beauty mark wielding a pair of red and yellow spears, one long and one short; a descendant of the war god Nuada wielding a massive two-handed spear; a female Pharaoh who had been placed on the throne as a puppet in life; and a heroic captain who once dominated the seas...
In a normal Holy Grail War, without a doubt, each of them would have been contenders for victory.
Unfortunately, this was a war of gods.
All resistance was futile. In almost an instant, bodies, weapons, Noble Phantasms—everything—was erased as if wiped away by an invisible hand, shattered and scattered within the radiance of the collision.
The storm clouds stretching over 800 kilometers north to south were blown apart in an instant. Vast layers of cloud and even the ozone layer were torn open.
The world lost its color. Silence swallowed everything.
The next moment, a grating metallic tremor assaulted the senses. A piercing shriek echoed across the sky, and an invisible shockwave violently shook everything in its surroundings.
Even the surviving elite Servants hiding over a dozen kilometers away screamed as they collapsed, blood streaming from their ears and noses!
RIP—!
Visible to the naked eye, the overwhelming torrent of lightning was torn apart. A streak of violet light pierced through the sky forged of gold and glass, continuing upward without losing speed—tearing through the atmosphere and reaching the very edge of the heavens.
Crack crack—!
With no fleshly structure to speak of, the massive glazed chunks and lapis-like body began to collapse—pierced, shattered.
Like molten precious metal cascading down, multicolored blazing liquid poured from massive holes melted and blasted open, flowing over the magnificent and terrifying skeletal frame before dripping down to the surface.
Gugalanna seemed to wail in pain. The cracks widened—and in the next instant, the colossal beast disintegrated, collapsing into countless massive metallic mountains that crashed onto the now-exposed, dried seabed.
"No way... Gugalanna was defeated just like that?!"
Dodging the falling remnants of the Bull of Heaven, Ishtar stood dumbfounded. She had only been blasted underground for such a short time—and Gugalanna was already dismantled?!
Then what she said earlier sounded no better than empty bragging!
"ROAR—! Undead army—"
Squelch!
Suddenly, a pitch-black giant with golden patterns charged over with a roar, startling Selene into a momentary show of 'panic' before she immediately summoned a mass of Imaginary Hands to engulf him.
Countless pale-purple arms extended from the void, tightly wrapping around the over three-meter-tall giant before violently tearing him apart.
A series of cracking sounds rang out. When Selene dismissed the Imaginary Hands, what remained was only a mangled mass of flesh—no life, not even a recognizable form.
Expectations rise step by step. After enjoying a 'feast,' this kind of 'dessert' wasn't worth much to Selene anymore. She turned her gaze toward the direction where the largest concentration of Saint Graph reactions gathered.
Even heroes recorded in history and warriors tempered by countless battles could not help but have their resolve shaken in the face of such overwhelming slaughter.
If you can't win, you can't win. Their proud achievements, experience, and techniques were meaningless before such an absolute gap.
To use a small force to move a great one, you first need to possess that 'small force' to begin with!
"Don't give up! There is still a way!"
A man with short black hair—robust and resolute—gripped a reddish-brown longbow, turning toward the dispirited crowd with a determined and encouraging smile.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru has not given up! We, who are recorded in history and worshiped by future generations—how can we abandon hope!"
Drip—
Drawing the bow wide, he began a rapid yet solemn prayer.
"O my lord, radiant as the sun—"
In an instant, his muscles tore apart. Bright red blood soaked through his leather armor as golden flames surged from his rupturing flesh, dripping onto the back of the demonic beast beneath his feet.
"O lord who bestows wisdom, dignity, and strength—"
"Bear witness to my heart, my conviction, and the limits of my strength."
As blood mist burst from his body, his muscles and bones emitted unbearable groans, visibly distorting.
"Behold, foreign god. Witness my actions, my end, and the sacred sacrifice I shall achieve—"
"Spenta Arma—"
Rip!
It stopped abruptly.
"Ara~"
His collapsing body suddenly began to repair itself—only to be overtaken by spreading Honkai corruption patterns. The great Persian hero realized he had lost control of his own body.
"O radiant lord of the sun? Are you referring to me?"
Before him stood a figure exuding cold oppression. Her crimson eyes shone brilliantly, her beautiful face blooming like a night-blooming flower—radiant, noble, and elegant.
Yet beneath that gaze lay absolute arrogance, as if looking down upon all living beings as mere insects. Her demeanor shifted unpredictably between elegance and brutality.
"Ashura, such a hymn of prayer... are you asking me to show you mercy?"
...
"At that scale and speed, if it hit Earth, it would split the crustal plates in two."
Inside Chaldea's central control room, Da Vinci was drenched in sweat. Ever since losing communication with Ritsuka Fujimaru, she had been in a state of anxiety. Only after frantic effort did she finally restore the connection.
And the first thing she saw was the Bull of Heaven being torn apart.
"Ashura—confirmed dead," an observer reported.
"Damn it! There's no way to win. Even with divine constructs and humanity's greatest heroes, they are still powerless against her."
Even Da Vinci could not suppress her fear.
Every time it felt like they were one step away from defeating Selene, she would inexplicably grow stronger—yet always by just enough to keep hope alive, forcing them to chase after victory. Just when they thought they were about to succeed, the gap would widen once more.
It wasn't something one could think about too deeply... the more she thought about it, the more terrifying it became. This endless cycle of attrition and pursuit was utterly despair-inducing.
It was as if hope was constantly being handed to them—only for every ounce of effort they exerted to lead them into an even deeper, more unfathomable abyss.
"Her words—even her outward emotions—are deliberately displayed for us to see. She's intentionally guiding us to unleash our potential and exhaust every means," Da Vinci said with certainty.
Does she enjoy watching humanity fall into despair after struggling with everything they have?
Where is the good within you? Why won't you show it?!
Still... Da Vinci thought silently as she looked at Selene's increasingly fading figure on the screen.
Wait—no!
That familiar feeling again!
That sense of being just one step away from defeating her—could it be... there's another layer beyond this?
Doubt immediately filled Da Vinci's mind. She no longer held any hope regarding Selene's fading form.
"This side is difficult, that side is difficult... everything is difficult."
Clang!
"Da Vinci, how is the situation?"
The metal valve door opened, and Romani appeared once more. After calming himself, the anxiety on his face seemed to have lessened slightly.
"Romani... have you made your decision...?"
However, Da Vinci—who knew him extremely well and even suspected his true identity—could see the sorrow, resolve, regret, and guilt hidden beneath his gentle expression.
As she spoke, a thought suddenly struck her. Her eyes widened as she stared at him.
"Could it be... her target was you all along?"
Romani did not answer. He stepped forward, looking at the screen where 'Solomon' had already transformed into a beast and Ritsuka Fujimaru struggled, nearly kneeling under the strain.
Murmuring softly, his voice filled with nostalgia and tenderness:
"Ten years... Time really does pass in the blink of an eye."