While Saber distracted Kingu, Quetzalcoatl hurled her axe directly at Blood Fort Andur, allowing us to enter. Merlin, you are dead.
We found Gorgon, and Ana joined the battle, using her Mystic Eyes to cancel out Gorgon's. In the end, Ana killed Gorgon with Harpe, and the two perished together.
In the previous Singularity, we had sacrificed Bedivere. This time, we advanced through Ana's sacrifice. The fear of wondering who would be sacrificed in the next Singularity gnawed at me as we waited to report that this Singularity had been resolved to Roman.
"Damn... this is the worst possible situation. Kingu... so this was what you had planned."
"That's right. But thanks to you, the plan worked out perfectly. Now I can kill that damned knight. No, I won't let him die so peacefully."
Kingu came flying in from somewhere, only to immediately fly off again. Merlin suddenly collapsed, coughing up blood.
"This is... dangerous."
"Merlin?"
Merlin said that he had been sealing Tiamat away within a dream, but Gorgon's death had caused the backlash to awaken her.
"A Beast that would require all seven Grand-class Servants. The Beast of Original Sin, one of the Seven Evils of Humanity, has opened her eyes. Tell Gilgamesh this."
With those final words, Merlin vanished. In the midst of the chaos, Da Vinci reported an enormous magical-energy reading rising continuously from the Persian Gulf. The situation was getting worse.
We left Blood Fort Andur and returned to Uruk with Quetzalcoatl's help, but strange creatures were already slaughtering the soldiers. Mash and Quetzalcoatl fought them off, barely managing to drive them away. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they simply left.
Afterward, we went to Gilgamesh and told him what Merlin had said. He explained the Beasts of Humanity to us.
They were not evils that would destroy humanity, but evils humanity itself would destroy...
"Before that, where is Saber? Did he not return with you?"
"...Saber has disappeared. But our mana path is still connected, so he's alive. He must be rescuing civilians from another city."
"I see... Then I shall contact Ushiwakamaru and Benkei and order them to search for Saber. You will investigate Eridu."
When we reached Eridu, unknown life-forms called Lahmu—mass-produced versions of Enkidu—were killing the citizens. We tried to rescue the people, but the Lahmu ignored us and picked out only the civilians to kill.
One Lahmu waved its hand at us, but we had no time to worry about it. The situation was far too urgent. Then chains suddenly burst forth and killed the Lahmu, and Kingu appeared.
"You are defective products, lower even than useless demonic beasts..."
"Kingu... what happened to Saber?"
"Ha! That damned knight is alive and well. He's remarkably tenacious. But why has he become so weak? The spirit he had when we first fought is gone, and only his technique has improved. No matter. I, Kingu, child of Mother, will deal with you. Even if you are defective products, you are still Mother's children. I cannot allow you to die meaninglessly...!?"
"Kingu... is boring!"
Out of nowhere, a Lahmu stabbed Kingu from behind and stole his Holy Grail. The Lahmu swallowed the stolen Grail, changed into a flying form, and fled.
We wanted to pursue it, but the Lahmu surrounding us prevented us from doing so. We eliminated a fair number of them, but Kingu was nowhere to be seen. He must have escaped safely, right?
For now, we retreated and contacted Gilgamesh from the observatory. The situation was still the worst of the worst. Now that the Holy Grail had been stolen as well, things would only get worse.
But...
"But we can't stop here. Saber is still alive. We haven't given up yet."
"That's right. Neither my senior, nor I, nor our junior has given up. Doctor Roman, do you have a plan?"
"...I don't like it, but there's a Beast reaction in the Persian Gulf. That must be Tiamat. Wouldn't dealing with her solve this?"
"Right... I suppose we have no choice but to try."
We crossed the sea aboard Quetzalcoatl's pterosaur and arrived where Tiamat was. She was bound atop the Chaos Tide.
"Good, now! Ritsuka! I need a mana backup!"
"I'll support you with a Command Spell!"
"All right! Gate open!"
Ishtar unleashed her Noble Phantasm, boosted by the last Command Spell, and struck Tiamat. The magical-energy reading disappeared, and we thought we had defeated her—but what we had destroyed was not Tiamat herself, but her cerebral body. Her true form emerged and spread the Chaos Tide even faster. The situation just kept getting worse.
In the end, we withdrew. Apparently, only five hundred people remained in Uruk now. The number kept dwindling.
But all we had to do was protect Uruk and Gilgamesh.
"Tiamat is a perfect and complete existence. She has no weakness. The very concept of death does not exist for her, which is why she was sealed in the Imaginary Number Space. And as long as living creatures exist, they prove Tiamat's existence."
So, according to Roman, she did not even know death—and as long as even one living creature existed, she could not die. But if we killed every living creature, the kingdom of Uruk would perish, so that was not an option either.
As long as life existed...
Ah.
"Then Jaguar Man, when does your instinct say Tiamat will arrive?"
Jaguar Man said she would arrive in two days.
Then...
"What if we send her to the Underworld, where there is no life?"
"Whaaaaaat!?"
Ishtar and Ereshkigal, who had just contacted us, were both stunned. But Gilgamesh ordered them to prepare to open the gates of the Underworld throughout Uruk and drop Tiamat into it.
"Impossible. Opening gates across all of Uruk would take ten years, but... I hate Uruk so much... that if I work really hard... three days should be enough..."
"Urgh."
"That's amazing, Ereshkigal!"
"Is that so? Hehe. Come to think of it, where's Saber? Where did my friend go?"
"Saber is still alive. Our path is still connected, so he's alive somewhere!"
"Even so, we need to hold out for three days. Even if it takes her two days to get here, how are we supposed to endure for the remaining day?"
"Ahem. Naturally, we have you, don't we? Ishtar!"
Right. Ishtar had the enormous divine beast Gugalanna. Maybe it could hold Tiamat off for a day.
But Ishtar's expression looked strange. No, it couldn't be...
"The truth is... I lost it."
"What?"
The atmosphere instantly turned frigid. Crying, Ishtar said she had been looking for Gugalanna from the very beginning.
Nothing was going our way. Where was Saber?
"...Rest for now. This will likely be our final rest in Uruk."
With the Wise King's words, the meeting ended. Roman said there was something he needed to tell us, so Gilgamesh, Mash, and I remained. What else was there to discuss?
"There's something you need to know before you sleep."
"What is it? I want to rest already."
"Sorry. But it's important. Do you remember when you first met Saber?"
"Of course. He appeared in the palace while stomping on demonic beasts."
"Right. The results just came in. It seems that when he kills demonic beasts, he absorbs their magical energy. Like a vampire drinking blood."
"So what? I don't care whether Saber is a vampire or anything else. He's always helped us. Just like when we first met him, Saber will show up to help us again."
"I'm sorry, Ritsuka. I'm sorry to tell you something unpleasant. But be careful."
"Hmm..."
When dawn broke, we set out with Mash, Ishtar, and Quetzalcoatl to approach Tiamat and hold out for a day.
Apparently, Ushiwakamaru and Benkei had been eliminated. We had no time to dwell on why. When we arrived, Tiamat was surrounded by Lahmu, and we fought our way through them as we approached her.
Then, at the right moment, Quetzalcoatl used her Noble Phantasm with the Sun Stone and successfully burned the sea of mud.
"This should buy us time to open the gates of the Underworld."
But Tiamat transformed her horns and took flight. Even if we opened the gates to the Underworld now, she could fly and would not fall in.
Was everything going to go wrong again?
"Not yet! It's not over yet!"
Quetzalcoatl absorbed the Sun Stone into her body and used another Noble Phantasm, striking Tiamat directly before vanishing. Yet Tiamat was still unharmed.
This was truly absurd.
"Senior! At this rate...!"
We're out of Command Spells and mana. There's nothing else we can do. What do we do in this situation? It's so hopeless. What should I do? If Saber were here... Even so.
"No. We can still do more."
"Senior... Yes. We're still alive. We can still move!"
It was a bluff. A bluff was all I could manage.
Just as everyone faced utter despair, a colossal figure burst up from the ground.
"Gorgon?"
And then...
Squelch.
?
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
Footsteps that could not possibly be heard echoed across the sea of mud.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register