"Are you sure about this?"
Atop the city wall, Ophis silently watched Jeanne charging ahead, leading her cavalry straight into the beast horde. Ishtar, who'd just been busy extorting soldiers out of their possessions, suddenly appeared by her side.
"You seriously think that girl can hold back Kingu?"
"Of course not," Ophis replied bluntly without even turning her head.
"She's outclassed, and even worse, countered directly. Zero chance of victory… but holding him back for a little while is enough."
Ishtar seemed unconvinced.
"Even so, I doubt that girl can stall him for long. Honestly, even if you combined the big one, the other one, and the little one together, they still wouldn't be Kingu's match. As much as I hate to admit it, he inherited Enkidu's full power—no, he's even stronger. With just those three, surviving is hard enough; there's no way they can effectively pin him down."
Ophis fell briefly silent.
"I'm betting on something here…"
Hearing this, Ishtar furrowed her brow.
"Ah, I see. That little one indeed has something even I find terrifying. But if she could truly unleash that power—or even if there was a reasonable chance she could—you'd never resort to such a cautious strategy, right?"
"There's no need for her to unleash it. There isn't even a need for an actual possibility," Ophis responded softly.
"As long as Kingu believes there's a possibility, that's enough."
Ishtar raised an eyebrow.
"Bait, huh… If that's your gamble, then I suppose having enough power to protect themselves is adequate—but do they even have that much?"
Ishtar still vividly recalled the golden spear that fell from the sky a few days ago.
Even now, she secretly felt thankful she hadn't pushed Enkidu's impostor too far back then—one hit from that same attack, and she'd probably have lost even the chance to reunite with her father-god…
"No…"
The corners of Ophis's mouth curved slightly upward.
"They already have enough."
Seeing this expression on Ophis's face, Ishtar could only curl her lips slightly.
Ophis usually seemed pretty oblivious, but whenever she wore that final-boss-like smile, Ishtar had never seen her fail.
Still, Ishtar curled her lips because that smug "everything-is-going-according-to-plan" look was honestly pretty irritating…
Actually, things had genuinely spiraled somewhat beyond Ophis's control now.
Both the sudden attack from the Beast Goddess and the current siege of monsters had strayed far from Ophis's original expectations.
The latter was understandable—after the Beast Goddess's earlier failed strike, it made sense for them to seize initiative, striking first to prevent retaliation. But the Beast Goddess's surprise attack… even now, Ophis still couldn't grasp it.
Why suddenly attack out of nowhere? Without even figuring out the enemy's real strength? Was that woman actually serious or just doing comedy?
Kingu knew Ophis would never truly kill the Beast Goddess, but the Beast Goddess herself certainly didn't know that.
Unable to guess the reason, Ophis just chalked it up to "I don't get how goddesses think." Regardless, the end result was that Uruk's morale had been severely damaged, and the subsequent monster siege had forced Ophis to firmly resolve on eliminating the Beast Goddess.
Perhaps this entire situation was precisely what Kingu had intended. Yet if she didn't act now, it would be too late once the northern wall collapsed.
The Beast Goddess's sudden madness likely hadn't come about without Kingu's subtle manipulation, either.
Even though events had accelerated faster than anticipated, the situation wasn't entirely hopeless.
Ophis alone certainly wouldn't have been enough, thus she had no choice but to stake everything on Chaldea and the Servants now…
"Well then…"
At this moment, with less than three hundred meters between Uruk's forces and the beast army, Ophis raised a single hand.
"This is all I can do right now… Dingir!"
As Ophis's hand swung downward, deafening explosions erupted along the city walls.
Hundreds of golden beams simultaneously lit the sky.
Weapons wreathed in golden light fired from the wall's cannons, raining down precisely upon the frontline beasts, detonating into explosions.
The weapons launched by Dingir cannons were rigged to explode on impact!
Such precision was naturally impossible for ordinary soldiers manning the guns manually. But with Ophis personally controlling them, each battery could accurately lock targets autonomously.
Shockwaves blasted out, virtually wiping out the entire first line of beasts about to clash with Jeanne's forces. Those behind were thrown into varying states of confusion and injury.
Under Ophis's precise calculations, the aftershocks stopped just short of harming Jeanne's troops.
After this devastating bombardment, the initial momentum of the beasts had significantly weakened. Even if they'd possessed the intelligence to reorganize, it was far too late now.
Jeanne's banner pierced effortlessly into the foremost beast's body, slaying it instantly.
Then her warhorse collided directly into a lion-like beast… pushing it several meters forward before Jeanne tossed it aside with her banner.
Watching via Merlin's surveillance spells from inside the carriage, Ritsuka stared in shock as the beast… was directly trampled over!
Naturally, due to their size difference, the cavalry couldn't easily knock down and roll over the beasts as they might with ordinary infantry. Yet even so, these creatures hardly hindered the cavalry's progress—any beast not sent flying outright was shoved aside or quickly dispatched by spear thrusts or heavy sword strikes.
A few injured beasts wailed, desperately trying to retreat, only to be ripped apart by their comrades surging up behind. Most, however, furiously rushed forward, claws extended.
Yet Jeanne—not to mention even the knights behind her—easily deflected attacks from all sides. Their mounts, armored and enhanced by special bloodlines, shrugged off nearly all physical and magical strikes from beasts of this level.
In short…these cavalrymen really were trampling the beasts like mere militia.
From Ritsuka's observations, while the special horses probably couldn't send high-speed elephants literally flying—size made that clearly impossible—they certainly could knock them down without trouble.
Though the beasts possessed abnormal strength relative to their size, it wasn't significantly greater than an elephant's.
Seeing Jeanne's successful breakthrough, Ophis turned to the still-alive Commander beside her.
"Reload Dingir. Continuous fire, targeting the beasts behind—try to clear a path along the cavalry's intended route."
"Yes!"
"Arjuna commands now; I leave the rest to you."
Ophis nodded, turning to Ishtar beside her.
"Then, Ishtar, come with me."
Turning away, Ophis vanished into purple sparks of light. Ishtar just shrugged lightly, stepping onto Maanna and soaring off.
Only moments after Jeanne, Lily's cavalry unit plunged into the beast horde as well.
A hundred cavalrymen formed a tight circle around the carriage, easily pressing forward.
The gap opened by Jeanne's forces remained wide open—without sufficient intelligence, the beasts couldn't swiftly seal it again, making Lily's advance far less pressured.
"Well, we've gotten pretty lucky…"
Sitting alongside Ritsuka inside the carriage, Merlin laughed softly.
"It seems the Goddess's womb isn't quite spacious enough; the enemy apparently couldn't birth super-sized monsters like siege beasts. Not only does that ease the frontline pressure immensely, but we also don't have to worry too much about encountering anything we absolutely can't overcome—"
Merlin abruptly cut himself off, expression suddenly grim.
A terrifying pressure engulfed them.