Someone in the Multiverse, Transformed into Fu Hua at the Start Chapter 26

"Of course, if it weren't absolutely necessary, I wouldn't want to resort to such dangerous measures either." Merlin nodded agreeably. The reason he had grown anxious was mainly because, while using his Clairvoyance outside, he saw the Sword God's effect on the Herrscher of Reason gradually weakening, which had frightened him.

Even such terrifying attacks were being slowly adapted to—he didn't dare gamble that this operation would definitely succeed.

Unless that Grand Class Assassin was willing to step in... He would go and talk to that assassin later.

The group's discussion didn't last long, or rather, there wasn't much left for them to discuss. At this critical moment before the final battle, everything that could be calculated had already been accounted for. All that remained was to wait.

Merlin didn't return to the house with the others. Instead, he went off alone to do something unknown.

When he came back that evening, he had brought Anna, who had fully unleashed her Divinity and merged with Gorgon's Spirit Base.

In truth, although Anna seemed to have played no significant role until now, that was because Merlin had sealed her Divinity early on. This move was not only to accommodate Anna's self-loathing but also to have a trump card against Gorgon at a critical moment.

Even without merging with Gorgon's Spirit Base, Anna with her Divinity unleashed was a powerful Servant no weaker than Jaguar Man.

Time passed minute by minute. Though it was only four days, it felt unbearably long.

Amid everyone's tense vigilance, Best II—Tiamat—had already arrived less than ten kilometers from Uruk.

Clouds blotting out the sun hung over Uruk. Reflected in the black-red Sea of Chaos, the entire world seemed to take on a dusky yellow hue. Countless Lahmu swam in the sea and flew through the sky, each one far surpassing humans in strength, reaching the realm of Heroic Spirits.

"Just looking at them is oppressive enough." Ushiwakamaru bit her lip.

She had already experienced the Lahmu's prowess. Their physical strength wasn't actually on par with Heroic Spirits, but as children of Tiamat—offspring of a divine being—their mystery granted them tremendous resistance to attacks from ordinary Heroic Spirits.

Even a famed warrior like herself, without a special advantage against Divinity and mystery, found her full strength difficult to bring to bear.

"You just need to protect that golden king here. As long as no one gets close to him, our chances of victory are high," Ishtar said.

"Apologies, all This Humble One can do is protect the Master," Benkei said, self-aware enough not to charge forward.

"Doing your own job well is enough." Gilgamesh nodded, then stepped forward two paces.

Golden halos swirled around him. As he channeled his magical energy, the 360 Divine Authority Seals arranged around Uruk all lit up. Cannon fire comparable to missile strikes rained down toward Tiamat and the Sea of Chaos.

The fierce barrage instantly blasted a row of massive craters before the city gates. The Lahmu caught in the attack turned to dust without even a moment to struggle.

"All the Divine Authority Seals are moving..." Mash already knew about them, but seeing the shocking scene still made her gasp. "Amazing!"

"Don't let your guard down!" Gilgamesh barked, his expression deadly serious. "The Lahmu are born from the Sea of Chaos. Unless you have the power to evaporate the entire Sea of Chaos, they are an endless war machine!"

"That's right," Ishtar nodded.

"The main assault is up to you! The war of myths has fully begun! Chaldea! And Crimson Kite Immortal! Whether we can pass this final trial depends on your efforts! Hold nothing back! Carve the glory of victory into that boundless Sea of Chaos!" Gilgamesh couldn't be bothered to respond to Ishtar and instead looked at the others.

"Yes!" Ritsuka nodded, then turned to Quetzalcoatl.

"Leave it to big sister~" Quetzalcoatl winked, then leaped onto a pterosaur that had been prepared in advance. "Just like the plan—I'll take care of the Sea of Chaos around Tiamat. You all fight freely~!"

With that, she looked at Amber and the eager Herrscher of Reason.

"You don't need to tell me! With the great Herrscher of Reason here, you don't have to worry about anything!" The Herrscher of Reason had lost interest in Tiamat, not only because Fu Hua had told her not to keep interfering with Amber's growth, but also because fighting Tiamat was genuinely boring.

Instead, she'd rather go bully the Lahmu mobs.

Amber nodded as well, and the two flew into the sky.

Seeing this, Ishtar also took flight. "The hole I make won't be small. Can your Noble Phantasm cover it?"

The group's plan was simple. The Sea of Chaos couldn't be allowed to follow Tiamat into the Underworld, so Quetzalcoatl needed to use her Noble Phantasm at the front to burn the Sea of Chaos dry, preventing it from spreading further.

Gilgamesh and Uruk would hold the line together. He and the city were essentially the heart of this land—losing one might still allow survival, but it was best to keep both intact.

Incidentally, his and Uruk's presence would also help the Herrscher of Reason clear the Lahmu on the ground, keeping them from interfering with Quetzalcoatl's sustained Noble Phantasm deployment.

The rest were obvious. Leonidas, the strongest shield, would deploy his Noble Phantasm at Uruk's gates to block any Lahmu trying to storm the city. Ushiwakamaru and Benkei—neither had Divinity, so their role in this decisive battle was minimal, but they could handle any stragglers that slipped through.

These were the surface forces tasked with ensuring Uruk's survival.

Everyone else would handle the underground operation to take down Tiamat.

"Then watch me!"

Quetzalcoatl flew to a spot not far from Tiamat. Golden flames blazed in her hand, and the surrounding temperature skyrocketed in an instant.

"What was past exists here, what is now exists here, and what will be exists here!"

"Gale, come forth! Thunder, descend!"

As her magical energy surged violently, Quetzalcoatl dove from the air, her body wreathed in flames like a falling sun.

"This is the moment Venus shines! The sun shines yonder as well!"

"Piedra—del—sol! (Sun Stone)"

Golden-red flames engulfed her entire figure. As the light crashed down at Tiamat's feet, temperatures reaching hundreds or thousands of degrees, along with the cracking earth, instantly evaporated all the Black Mud within three kilometers.

Forget it, I'm not going to stress about finishing in exactly 55 chapters. No matter how I compress the plot, 55 chapters won't be enough... I shouldn't have tried to compress it in the first place...

Writing it step by step like this actually gives me time to think about the next volume.

Please give me votes! Please give me collections! Your support is also my motivation to keep updating!

Chapter 55: Earth Goddess, Soar into the Sky

"Detected intense magical energy reaction! The Sun Stone has evaporated the Sea of Chaos! The evaporation range is expanding!"

Roman's voice sounded in Ritsuka's ear.

"With Tiamat immobilized like this, the fight falls to us." Ritsuka nodded, then looked up at the sky. "Ishtar! Send Tiamat into the Underworld!"

"I've been waiting for this!"

The black-haired, red-eyed goddess smiled. As her divine power surged, golden mana befitting a deity rose around her, shifting her eye color along with it.

"Gate Open!"

With a grand sweep of her hand, a massive portal unfurled above her head—a gate spanning over a kilometer, reflecting the starry cosmos. Under the pull of her divine power, a colossal golden planet plummeted with terrifying speed. Its form, far vaster than the gate itself, revealed only a fraction of its mass, yet the pressure it exuded was indescribable.

Even the Herrscher of Reason couldn't help but twitch at the corner of her eye.

Wait, you—someone whose full power normally barely tickles me—can just drop a planet on people?

"This is my full strength—" Seeing the stunned expressions around her, Ishtar finally wore a satisfied smile.

That said, this power wasn't entirely hers alone. It was only usable because Ritsuka had reinforced her with a Command Seal.

Not because she was weak, but because her Spirit Base simply couldn't support her true strength. To put it plainly, when a divine spirit manifests as a Servant, they must downgrade. Whether it was her, Ereshkigal, Gorgon, or Quetzalcoatl, none of them were complete. Otherwise, an ordinary Spirit Base couldn't bear the load.

But Quetzalcoatl at least had her temple, her Noble Phantasm, and the blessing of faith, allowing her to exert power beyond a normal Spirit Base.

Ereshkigal had the Underworld as her boost.

Gorgon had even obtained a portion of Tiamat's authority.

Only Ishtar had been stuck at the bottom among the current goddesses. Not only had she lost her bull, but Gilgamesh had revoked her status as the patron deity of Uruk, cutting off her supply of faith. The strength she could actually bring to bear was nowhere near that of the other goddesses.

The thought of it all brought tears to her eyes—and now was the perfect time to let it all out!

As Ishtar continued to pull and compress, the massive celestial body slowly shrank into a sphere of light at her side, then transformed into a violet arrow loaded into Ma'anna's launch port.

This wasn't Venus itself, but the concept of Venus—the pinnacle of her authority.

"Shatter! Star of the Beginning!"

The violet arrow was fired from Ma'anna in an instant. It struck Tiamat and, in the same moment, blasted her deep into the earth.

The range and power naturally caught Quetzalcoatl in the blast as well, but she wasn't flustered. Given Ishtar's attributes, the attack's effect on her was nothing more than residual shockwaves—not enough to disrupt her continued maintenance of her own Noble Phantasm.

Seeing Tiamat driven into the Underworld, the Lahmu went berserk, surging toward the entrance. The heat capable of evaporating the Sea of Chaos left considerable burns on their bodies, but it did nothing to slow their advance.

Just then, a fresh volley of arrows halted their progress.

"Don't be so hasty. If you want to overturn the Human Order, keep your eyes on what matters!" Gilgamesh sneered coldly.

"That King of Uruk sure talks big now. Did he have the guts to act this tough when Tiamat was around?" From the sky, the Herrscher of Reason used the Sword God without hesitation, cutting down most of the incoming Lahmu, and snorted back at Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh: ?

We're on the same side—why are you trash-talking me?

You took Illya's heart, remember?

Having caught up on the story through memories, the Herrscher of Reason had zero goodwill toward Gilgamesh.

With Tiamat's fall, Amber and Chaldea pursued her into the depths. Thanks to the pterosaurs Quetzalcoatl provided, Chaldea had no trouble with aerial transport.

Merlin was nowhere to be seen again, but he'd said he'd return at the critical moment, so no one bothered to dwell on it. Though everyone thought of him as unreliable, after learning he'd actually been suppressing Tiamat's awakening with most of his magical power all along, their misunderstandings were cleared. Now they trusted he wouldn't be absent.

"Wait!? That's—!"

But as they all descended toward the Underworld, they noticed something horrifying.

Tiamat, who should have been plummeting rapidly... was not only slowing her descent but had come to a complete stop. And as she adjusted her posture, they saw that her original pair of horns had split open, forming a jet-like structure, using magical energy to sustain her own weight.

No—she was even rising!

"Tiamat... can fly!?" Ritsuka couldn't believe it.

Ishtar, who had chased her all the way down, was stunned too. "Impossible! Mother is a goddess of the earth! How could she possibly take to the sky!?"

"If she flies up... we can't keep her in the Underworld!" Mash panicked.

"Anna?"

Ritsuka remembered that Amber didn't want to fight Tiamat, so he could only look at Anna beside him.

"No good... my Mystic Eyes can't affect Tiamat..." Anna had already tried, but even fused with Gorgon, her highest-rank petrifying eyes were utterly useless.

Gritting her teeth, she continued, "If it's just shattering her horns... my Noble Phantasm might work..."

It wasn't so much her Noble Phantasm as the one fused from Gorgon—Absolute Seal: Pantheon of Ten Thousand Demons.

Gorgon hadn't used it on Amber before, first because it might not hit a flying Amber, and second because it was only effective against organic matter. Against something formless like the Sword God, Gorgon had no intention of wasting mana.

Since it wasn't useful in either case, she simply didn't use it.

But Tiamat was different. No matter how special she was, she was still organic, and with her massive body, even if she could fly, dodging the attack would be difficult.

"Then I'm counting on you!" Ritsuka said solemnly.

Anna was the type to answer with action. She leaped off the pterosaur, and as purple light flickered, her petite frame—barely over a meter and a half—instantly transformed into the hundred-meter-tall form of Gorgon.

Crimson light gathered around her body, and her massive wings kept her balanced in the air.

"Incarnate as the great serpent god, shatter the earth dragon—!"

"Melt everything away! Absolute Seal: Pantheon of Ten Thousand Demons!"

It wasn't high temperature, but a pitch-black beam with the essence of breaking everything down into atoms shot from Anna's forehead, striking Tiamat's left horn with precision.

The immense magical power was helplessly blocked at the moment of collision, and this utterly ineffective scene made Anna's pupils contract sharply.

"Don't lose, Anna!"

Ritsuka, riding on a wyvern, saw this and directly raised the Command Seal on his hand. With a flash of light, a surge of powerful mana flowed into Anna's body.

Under the support of this vast magical power, Anna, like Ishtar just before, unleashed strength surpassing the limits of her Spirit Base.

The beam, which had been unable to advance at all, instantly struck Tiamat's horn, carving a massive crack into that smooth, intact great horn.

Once I stopped agonizing over finishing in fifty-five chapters, it became much easier to write!

Since there's no pressure on length now... 1

You want to see the collapse, right? Coming right up! 5

But it's going live on Friday, and I originally wanted the start of the next volume to be paywalled... at this rate, that's pretty hopeless... 2

Chapter 56: The Only Hope

"There's a chance!" Ritsuka's eyes lit up.

Yet the ensuing weakness quickly flooded his entire body. Even with the enhancement from the Command Seal, releasing the Noble Phantasms of three goddess-level beings—Quetzalcoatl, Ishtar, and Anna—in succession made him belatedly realize how drained he was.

His mana was almost running out...!

Anna was aware of this too. The originally stable flow of magical power was rapidly shrinking. Even though she could draw mana from her surroundings, it wasn't enough to sustain her Noble Phantasm for long.

She feared draining too much of Ritsuka's mana, forcing him to supplement it with his life force, but she was even more aware that letting Tiamat escape would truly be the end of everything. So she could only grit her teeth and continue her output.

But grit was, in the end, just grit. As her magical power was completely exhausted, Anna had no choice but to stop her Noble Phantasm.