Recognition of the King's Treasure? No way!

Ishtar's slightly heaving chest rose and fell violently.

She even wondered if Rovi had gone mad, frozen in place for a moment, and after the anger, she didn't know how to react.

Siduri simultaneously pressed a hand to her forehead.

Saying a beauty goddess was ugly and didn't understand what beauty meant, right in front of her... even she, as King Gilgamesh's Aide, had never seen such a thing before.

This was something even that willful King wouldn't do.

Though what Rovi said wasn't technically wrong.

Ishtar, who governed beauty, had never brought what could be called beauty to humanity. Because of the powerful authority she wielded, combined with her willful personality, every time she descended into the human world, what followed was a terror like a living hell.

Beauty?

How could it be!

But this was something many people knew yet couldn't be made public, let alone spoken to her face.

No wonder the King appreciated this guy so much...

They were both people with the same flaw.

Siduri's head ached.

But no matter how much the Aide's head ached, it couldn't change what Rovi had actually done.

In the vast, magnificent temple, dust gradually settled, faint light flowing and spreading across the flat stone floor.

A brief dead silence fell over the place.

Rovi still stared straight at Ishtar.

This goddess, favored by the gods, was in some ways quite similar to Gilgamesh.

Both were born extraordinary and had basically never faced any setbacks after birth.

So neither had ever been rebuked to their face before.

A moment of bewilderment was only natural.

But Rovi was also more convinced that this instant of daze was merely the precursor to a storm.

Could she endure this?

Definitely not.

So very soon, Ishtar snapped back to her senses, her black hair flying, her Vermilion eyes fixed tightly on the young man before her.

"It seems you truly have no regard for your life—mortal!"

The goddess's voice no longer had its earlier fluctuations; it was very steady, very calm.

This was the calm born of divinity.

It was also the calm born of divine indifference, of anger.

And even more so, the anger born of a deity.

"What do you think, ugly goddess, Lady Ishtar?" Rovi poured fuel on the fire, pressing on. "Admit it!"

"You're just an ugly piece of shit!"

Rovi burst into loud laughter.

"Damn it... bastard... foolish, stupid human aaaaah!"

The calm Ishtar had maintained through her divinity shattered instantly under Rovi's mocking words and laughter.

"I'll kill you—This Goddess will definitely kill you!"

The light in her hand grew even more dazzling, golden stars blazing and bursting, the bowstring trembling. With only ten meters between them, if Rovi were hit at this distance, he would likely be reduced to nothing in an instant.

But Rovi still stood firmly, staring steadily at Ishtar.

Ready to die for a cause.

Though he wasn't dying for remonstrating with a tyrant, as someone who had dared to mock a god to their face, Rovi believed his death would be enough to be recorded in epics and myths.

That was enough.

If he could be recorded in history, he could ascend to the Throne of Heroes.

What was death, anyway?

But what Rovi didn't know was that Siduri didn't want him to die.

Setting aside Gilgamesh's instructions to her, just Rovi's current performance alone had strengthened Siduri's resolve.

An Aide's duty was to assist the King.

Siduri's devotion to Gilgamesh was almost like a faith.

Whatever he wanted to do, she would obey unconditionally and execute it perfectly—and Rovi's existence, in Siduri's view, might be the same.

He could become someone who understood Gilgamesh.

Because they both held the same disdain for the gods, and both were equally willful and bold.

Though somewhat overreaching, having this common ground was enough.

So in that instant, Siduri decided to act, her graceful figure shimmering with trails of light.

The king's close attendants could hardly be helpless weaklings.

The treasures Gilgamesh casually tossed their way granted them tremendous boosts in strength.

So relatively speaking, Siduri was not weak.

"At the cost of my life... save Priest Rovi from Ishtar's hands!"

The woman's gaze was firm and pure.

Her body bent slightly, already coiling power, ready to spring forward at any moment.

Ishtar's divine arrow burst forth at the same time, a dazzling stream of light that, though a planar strike, fell as if from the heavens, kicking up vast trails of radiance, red and gold interwoven, blazing across the sky like wildfire.

More like a falling star.

Finally transforming into an unstoppable force mortals could not withstand—

The Venus Goddess's wrathful blow.

Yet just as Siduri's body tensed to move, she suddenly halted, because a voice sounded in her ear, stopping her.

"Wait, Siduri."

It was the king's voice.

She whirled around, startled to find that Gilgamesh, who had just left, had suddenly reappeared on his throne. He propped his chin on one hand, his crimson eyes watching the scene below with keen interest.

"Watch!"

Gilgamesh said.

Siduri fell silent and looked.

Below, Rovi still faced the goddess's strike.

He closed his eyes, motionless.

—Boom!

The roar burst forth in an instant, dust spraying upward as the entire Royal Palace Hall shook violently.

Amid it came the goddess's furious cry: "...Defying divine authority, you shall suffer heavenly punishment!"

The fleeting shockwave struck, the sound of air friction making Rovi's scalp tingle, his whole body trembling along with it.

Under such an attack, death would probably come in an instant, wouldn't it?

Not even pain... Wonderful!

Rovi smiled even more happily.

Then a sound suddenly rang in his ear.

Click.

Like a key slipping into a lock, then turning gently, driving the tumblers and mechanisms to rotate and open.

What was that sound?

Though it lasted only a moment, Rovi couldn't help but pause in surprise. Then he saw something emerge before him.

Golden ripples, appearing from nothing.

What was this?

This was...

"The treasury I, the king, built by gathering the world's treasures, a crystallization of my noble and great wisdom—the Treasury of Babylon! Even if it still lacks one supreme treasure as its core anchor, and is not yet fully complete, it is a treasure that only I, the king, in this world can possess—a peerless, unique treasure!"

On the throne, Gilgamesh's crimson eyes fixed on the scene. He tapped the armrest with his fingers and said: "Though he is a yapping, hideous mongrel from the filthy dirt, his fearless spirit in rebuking the rotten gods face-to-face is worthy of my praise."

"Look—even the King's Treasure I forged has acknowledged him, placing its gate before him for his use!"

Siduri looked at the visibly pleased Gilgamesh.

You clearly gave it to him yourself...

Siduri turned back to look at Rovi.

Though still some distance away, he had clearly heard the voice from the throne.

The King's Treasure?

This was the King's Treasure?

He was slightly startled. The golden ripples rippling before him indeed matched the image in his memory of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm being deployed.

Wait.

That meant... he wasn't going to die after all?

Holy shit.

No—

It should have been a moment of relief, but Rovi however was startled once more—yet there was no time left.

The golden star blazed as it fell.

From the golden ripples of the King's Treasure, countless Noble Phantasms shot forth simultaneously.

A roar detonated at the center, transforming into an invisible barrier.

Dust and smoke churned even more wildly.

But though there was smoke, there was no injury. Rovi stood within it, expressionless.

Why didn't I die again?