Standing atop the Great Altar, Artoria raised a hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light. Even so, she kept staring through the glare, trying to catch what remained once the brilliance faded.
Shiomi's strike with Marduk's Axe, timed with Orion's unexpected arrow, had pierced through Zeus's Authority defense for a single instant and slammed straight into the head of his Machine God True Form.
Even a colossal annihilation-class interstellar warship could not endure such an impact. Zeus's vast body was hurled sideways, tumbling through the air before barely regaining control.
"So this is the war god Marduk of distant Mesopotamia… a deity even Ares could not rival." Zeus finally sounded moved. "That axe is indeed dangerous."
Shiomi let out a long breath. His right hand extended calmly to the side, steadying the massive axe suspended in the air as he looked down at Zeus.
"Relax, Zeus. I barely managed to nick your head. You and I both still have plenty left in us, don't we?"
To challenge the supreme god of Olympus, only two weapons could truly match him.
Marduk's Axe, and Odin's Spear.
But Zeus still maintained that enormous Machine God True Form. Orion had cast aside his Grand Spirit Origin and, together with Artemis, offered up a life-bound arrow—yet it had only destroyed a portion of Zeus's Grand Composite Authority.
Otherwise, that axe blow would have done far more than carve a mere gash.
Thunder roared without end. The Mana in the air had grown so dense that even with Chaldea's Mystic Code protection, drawing breath felt difficult.
Every movement, every word, altered phenomena.
The lightning that once burned blue-white had gradually shifted to pale gold, bathing the Great Altar—and even the entire Orbital Grand Temple · Dodona—in a lavish, almost unreal glow.
Shiomi slowly raised his left hand. From afar, he locked eyes with Zeus, each watching the other for the slightest shift.
All things flowed. Winds and clouds churned.
Mana condensed into thunder, flame, frost, and storm, colliding between them and sweeping outward. The Great Altar was reduced to ruin in mere moments under the shockwaves.
Dozens of phenomena. Hundreds. Then thousands.
With nothing more than the twitch of a finger, Authorities surpassing any Magecraft manifested as endless natural disasters, clashing repeatedly in this sky where Mana had been activated to its utmost density.
Artoria drew the Holy Sword and thrust it into a pillar of the altar to steady herself. Charging in recklessly now would only distract Shiomi.
He was engaged in a new war of attrition with Zeus, forcing him toward an opening.
After that would come the full collision of their Noble Phantasms.
She had to be ready.
[—Great Main God. Grand Composite Authorities sustaining parallel deployment.
—Full function release increased to 45%.]
Through the deafening thunder, Artoria heard the emotionless broadcast again.
"Forty-five percent…" she murmured, staring at Zeus.
The chief god of Olympus clearly understood that the next exchange—the final strike—would decide the outcome of this cataclysmic battle.
So Zeus had no intention of holding anything back.
If he failed to defeat this new god before him, the fate awaiting him would be no different from that of Kronos.
Ancient gods were overthrown by newborn ones. Even among the Olympians, that pattern held true.
And yet, Zeus's release of full functionality was slow.
Seconds passed. The clash continued. Still, it had not reached fifty percent.
As a super-civilization machine surpassing the intelligence of this planet, Zeus could not unleash his power without limit. Beyond a certain threshold, the strain would inflict catastrophic damage upon his own Machine God True Form.
His internal self-preservation systems restricted the pace—but they could not truly stop him.
When a god resolved to act, no one could refute it—not even the god himself.
Of course, another reason for the delay was the damage left behind by Orion's strike. It hindered Zeus's attempt to fully unlock his functions and activate his ultimate Noble Phantasm.
On the other side, Shiomi felt something changing within himself.
He was drawing nearly limitless Mana from the environment without restraint. He had expected his body to give out under the burden, to collapse into greater danger.
Instead, the opposite was happening.
He felt like a mechanism.
A humanoid device converting Mana into Authority output—or perhaps… a divine apparatus.
Even as he manipulated Mana on the brink of self-destruction, backlash did not immediately follow. The Authorities he wielded were not only being expended; they were also repairing and refining him in turn.
Gradually, the thunder faded from his ears. The howl of wind softened.
And yet his awareness of the world deepened.
Though he stood on a battlefield where a single misstep meant defeat and annihilation, Shiomi felt the world itself becoming clear and almost comfortable.
Not because this was a Lostbelt.
Not because it was the Age of Gods.
Simply because it was a world.
A world he could understand.
A world he could change.
As if this had been the reason for his birth from the very beginning.
He had not been born for destruction or slaughter, nor did he exist merely to save the world or cling to life.
"…So that's why I was born…"
It was as if he had heard a voiceless whisper. For a fleeting moment, Shiomi almost turned around to search for its source—but forced himself to suppress the impulse and refocus on the present.
Zeus's functions continued to unlock.
47%… 51%… 53%… 56%…
The percentage climbed—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly—until it finally halted at around 62%.
If it went any further, Zeus would collapse from the strain of his own output before he could destroy his enemy.
He had already exceeded the power and scale he was meant to possess at birth. Even with his Authorities expanded through Kronos Crown, he had reached the limits of a god.
He needed to defeat the foe before him.
But not by trading his life away.
The great god Zeus had greater ambitions. To see his plan through, he had to win—and survive.
There was no signal. No warning.
The endless clash of phenomena suddenly ceased. Heaven and earth fell into a brief, heavy silence.
The Noble Phantasms were ready.
The next strike would decide everything.
"Looks like we're both tired of this deadlock…"
Shiomi laughed softly, staring down at Zeus's vast form.
"If we're going to settle this, there's only one way—go all in with a single decisive blow—"
"—Noble Phantasm, preparing for release."
Zeus locked every shred of his attention onto Shiomi.