Wind and steel split our surroundings in two. Noble Phantasms were hurled in all directions as compressed air wound around us, lifting my hair sideways in wild streams.
Gold flashed at my peripheral and Artoria came to a sliding stop at my side, Excalibur pointed at Gilgamesh, dirt scattering from her heels.
I pulled away from Medea.
"You should go help Medusa. She won't be able to hold out for long with her mana reserves."
"But, Master... what about you?" Medea asked, eyes fixed on Gilgamesh ahead.
"Caster, go. Master and I will take care of everything here." Artoria said, bending into her standard stance.
I nodded, and settled in a stance eerily similar to Artoria.
Medea bit her lips, and looked between me and Artoria. A magic circle rotated to life beneath her, violet color from it reflecting off my coat.
"Done with your talks? Let's continue then." Gilgamesh had a wild smile spread across his face, hand already plunged inside another Gate.
He pulled out a silver sword with golden runes running down its spine, accompanied by a silver-gold hilt and pommel.
The Sword of Original Sin.
Merodach.
Every other Gate behind him sealed shut. Two opened in the sky to take their place.
Gilgamesh took a step forward.
An enormous sword with a jagged blade of flames unsheathed itself from the first Gate. Temperature skyrocketed—leaves curled black and ignited, soil superheated and rose upward like ash, air itself rippling in visible distortion.
The Cleaving Ocean Sword. Sul-Sagana.
Artoria and I snapped our gazes up. Medea's hands faltered mid-cast.
Another gigantic sword, this one with a green and grey blade, emerged behind Sul-Sagana. It eclipsed the whole forest, a sword that could split it in two with a single swing.
The Cleaving Mountain Sword. Ig-Alima.
An instant and Ig-Alima descended. A gorge cleaved open from the atmospheric pressure of its descent alone, soil erupting in curtains for a hundreds meters straight.
Medea vanished into specks as I tensed my knees.
[Square Accel] awoke. A boundary field stretched from my heels, climbed up my legs, torso, neck and ended at my crown.
Time fractured. The world moved in frames four times faster than normal.
Embers of golden mana flickered around Artoria.
I could go even further.
[Beast Will] had been roaring inside my veins for some time now, perfectly synchronised with my new magic circuits.
[Square Accel]. I took it apart, modified its base formula, configured it to suit my body's current limit, and assembled it back, all done in a fraction of a second.
Everything fractured further in my perception. Time flashed past ten times faster.
[Deca Accel].
I couldn't keep it active continuously. I had to use it in bursts. Just like Artoria's [Mana Burst].
Ig-Alima was a meter above us now—a green-grey monolith, its blade wide enough to be a road.
Artoria's eyes met mine. No words were needed.
Gold bloomed beneath her feet and she launched skyward. I followed a heartbeat later, pure physical strength carrying me in her wake.
We struck Ig-Alima's spine simultaneously and ran. Steel that could cleave mountains became our bridge. Wind tore at our hair. Each footstep rang in a symphony—our strides perfectly matched, left foot forward, right foot pushing off the same fraction of a second later.
Gilgamesh watched us ascend. Merodach's light had grown blinding, Original Sin burning at its zenith.
We reached the sword's midpoint.
Artoria leapt first, a vertical line of radiance aimed at Gilgamesh's chest. I stayed on Ig-Alima for one more step, building angle, then pushed off after her.
Silence—
The world went quiet. Artoria hung ahead of me, her golden light frozen mid-trail. Gilgamesh's arm had begun its descent, Merodach carving a diagonal path through air. Heat from Sul-Sagana above had stopped mid-ripple—visible waves suspended like solidified wax.
In this still world, something flashed.
Gold—
Everything snapped back.
And I was already sliding behind Gilgamesh from his left. Artoria slid beside me from his right.
Gilgamesh snapped his face down. Under his widening eyes, blood erupted from his sides as two gashes opened across his abs.
Both of us turned on our heels and erupted.
Silence—
Gold—
Time collapsed down to just two frames. On my path, dust remained static mid-air, leaves hung motionless, Gilgamesh's reaction frozen—his head still turning, eyes wide, blood from his sides hanging in crimson droplets.
Beside me, Artoria moved. On her path, the surroundings stretched into long smears of gold, Excalibur carving a streak of light that connected her previous position to her current one like a brushstroke on a frozen canvas.
Two realities flowed side by side. Hers and mine.
And then we had reached him.
Gilgamesh was still turning, Original Sin sweeping horizontally right behind his rotation.
Yet my fist was already an inch from his spine.
Gates shone around us in a dome, weapons screaming from them long before they had opened fully.
Half trained on me. Half on Artoria.
Silence—
My closed fist opened and cut grooves on their trajectories in air. All of their paths shifted by a fraction, screeching past us instead of through.
Merodach had nearly reached me now.
Artoria's hand found my shoulder from behind.
Gold—
Her heels erupted and she pushed off, launching herself over Gilgamesh's sweeping sword.
That maneuver pushed my legs down, making me duck right under Merodach's arc. The displaced air from Original Sin's passage raked across my scalp, singeing strands of hair.
Gilgamesh completed his rotation.
I straightened.
Merodach came around for a second sweep—this one aimed low, meant to bisect my waist.
I watched as its edge tore air a fraction away from my chest. Those runes along its spine pulsed rhythmically, Original Sin ready for detonation on contact. Artoria was above, Excalibur mid-descent, her body releasing golden smoke from her last burst.
A Gate had opened directly behind me—another blade already emerging, its tip a hair from my shoulder.
I shifted my weight to my back foot. Tilted my spine sideways by three degrees. Raised my arm to deflect rather than dodge.
Before Merodach could tear into me, my hand caught its spine and redirected its path by some crucial centimeters.
Artoria landed on Merodach's flat part.
Her boots struck its surface and radiance exploded beneath her soles, using the weapon itself as a springboard. She launched upward, Excalibur dropping to carve a crescent of light that opened a gash across Gilgamesh's collarbone.
The blade behind me slid harmlessly past my tilted spine.
Gilgamesh's eyes tracked Artoria's ascent. His free hand rose and Gates opened around her, a golden chain hurled out from those Gates, trying to enclose and trap her within.
Silence—
Those chains halted their movement, hanging above me, each one catching the light of Sul-Sagana's distant flames. Their trajectory curved upward, converging on Artoria's position from more than fifty angles—no dodge would clear all of them. She was mid-ascension, momentum carrying her upward, body exposed.
My fingers traced from below.
Wind cut along their trajectories. One. Ten, Fifty.
Chains rattled against one another, their directions adjusting to open a gap for Artoria. She found it in seconds. Gold flared from her shoulder and she twisted through that opening, the remaining chains clashing against each other where her body should have been.
Gravity pulled her back down after a moment.
She landed on my shoulders.
One second of calm. Her weight barely registered—light as a feather. Excalibur's tip pointed forward. My fists braced at my sides.
Gilgamesh had taken that moment to walk inside a portal and now stood hundreds of meters away, another portal closing behind him.
He was watching us, even as blood ran from his wound, dripping onto Merodach's hilt.
"A tandem stance." His grin didn't waver for a moment. "Amusing."
Original Sin in his grip started to flare up. He brought it over his head with a single arm. Its runes dissolved into incandescent flames that covered its edge, turning the whole sword into a blade of sacred light.
Danger.
Both Artoria and I felt it together.
My legs coiled, knees bent, every fiber of muscle loaded for a charge. Artoria's stance had shifted on my shoulders—one foot inched forward, one an inch back, weight distributed for a diving strike.
We detonated.
Silence—
Gold—
Silence—
Gold—
Both our worlds overlapped. I saw everything frozen and in motion simultaneously—dust hanging while golden streaks painted arcs through it, leaves suspended while our afterimages blazed past them.
Gilgamesh swung Merodach down. A pillar of golden fire descended to erase us from existence.
Artoria dived from my shoulders. I dived beneath her.
Two paths. One destination.
Silence on Gold—
Our frames collapsed into one.
Tendon severed.
Bone parted.
Gilgamesh's arm flew through the air.
Merodach still clutched in its grip.
His hand.
His sword.
Gone.
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***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
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[Merodach: The Original Sin] - It is the original model of the "legendary swords of selection in the various parts of the world" and "foundation of the sacred right to select a king". Basically it is the OG sword from which every Holy sword descends. In fact, with it Gil had even killed Heracles in one hit, taking more than five or maybe seven of his lives in a single blast.
[Sul-Sagana] - Called The Horizon of Dawn that Purifies the Seas. It is a large, jagged Divine Construct contained in the Gate of Babylon. It was possessed by the war god Zababa, a Mesopotamian God from Gil's side.
[Ig-Alima] - Called Green Field Cutting Through Thousand Mountains. Itis a "long and unrefined" gigantic Divine Construct contained in the Gate of Babylon. Like its paired sword Sul-Sagana, Ig-Alima was possessed by the war god Zababa.
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[Authors Thoughts]
I just want to laugh after writing this... So I will.
Muhahahahaha!!!