"Of course. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, I wouldn't want to take such a dangerous action either." Merlin nodded readily. The main reason he had been so anxious was that, when using Clairvoyance outside, he had seen the Herrscher of Reason's Sword God effect gradually weakening, which had frightened him.
Even such terrifying attacks were slowly being adapted to. He did not dare gamble that this operation would definitely succeed.
Unless that Grand Class Assassin was willing to act... He would speak with that Assassin later.
The group's discussion did not last long. Or rather, there was not much left for them to discuss. At this point, with the decisive battle approaching, they had already accounted for everything they could foresee. All that remained was to wait.
Merlin did not return to the house with everyone else. Instead, he went off alone to do something unknown.
When he returned that evening, he had brought Anna with him, her Divinity fully released and Gorgon's Spirit Base fused into her.
In truth, Anna might have seemed as though she had never done much, but that was only because Merlin had sealed her Divinity early on. This had not only been to spare Anna's self-loathing, but also to catch Gorgon off guard at a critical moment.
Even without fusing Gorgon's Spirit Base, Anna with her Divinity released was a powerful Servant not much weaker than Jaguar Man.
Time passed second by second. Though it had only been four short days, they felt incomparably long.
With everyone standing ready, Best II, Tiamat, had arrived less than ten kilometers from Uruk.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky above Uruk. Reflected by the black-red Sea of Chaos, the entire world seemed to have turned a dim yellow. Countless Lahmu flew through the sea and the sky, each of them far beyond humans in strength, reaching the domain of Heroic Spirits.
"Just looking at it is already oppressive." Ushiwakamaru pressed her lips together.
She had already experienced the Lahmu's strength. Their physical bodies were not actually stronger than Heroic Spirits, but as Tiamat's children—children of a god—they possessed a Mystery that granted them extremely powerful resistance against ordinary Heroic Spirit attacks.
Even a famous general like her, whose name had endured through the ages, found much of her strength difficult to use without special attacks targeting Divinity and Mystery.
"You just need to protect this golden punk here. As long as no one gets close to him, our chances of victory are high," Ishtar said.
"My apologies. Protecting the Master is all I can do as well." Benkei wisely had no intention of stepping forward.
"Doing your own job is enough." Gilgamesh nodded, then stepped forward two paces.
Golden rings revolved around him. As he activated his magical energy, the 360 Divine Authority Seals arranged throughout Uruk lit up one after another, and bombardments rivaling missiles in power fired simultaneously toward Tiamat and the Sea of Chaos.
The ferocious firepower instantly blasted a row of massive craters before the city gates. The Lahmu caught in the barrage were reduced to dust before they even had time to struggle.
"All the Divine Authority Seals are active..." Though Mash had known beforehand, she still could not help exclaiming at the breathtaking sight. "Amazing!"
"Do not let your guard down!" Gilgamesh shouted, his expression deadly serious. "The Lahmu are born from the Sea of Chaos. Unless one possesses the power to evaporate the entire Sea of Chaos, they are endless war machines!"
"That is true." Ishtar nodded.
"The task of the main assault falls to you! The war of myth has officially begun! Chaldea! And Crimson Kite Immortal! Whether we can overcome this final hurdle depends on your performance! Do not hold back! Engrave the glory of victory upon that boundless Sea of Chaos!" Gilgamesh could not be bothered with Ishtar and instead looked toward the others.
"Yes!" Ritsuka nodded, then looked at Quetzalcoatl.
"Leave it to big sister~" Quetzalcoatl gave a wink, then leaped onto the pterosaur that had long been prepared. "Just as planned, I'll deal with the Sea of Chaos around Tiamat. You can all fight without restraint~!"
After saying that, she looked at Amber and the eager Herrscher of Reason.
"You don't need to tell me. With the great Lady Herrscher of Reason here, you have nothing to worry about!" The Herrscher of Reason had already lost interest in Tiamat. Not only had Fu Hua told her not to keep interfering with Amber's growth, but fighting Tiamat was honestly no fun at all.
Rather than that, she might as well go bully the Lahmu hordes.
Amber nodded as well, and the two of them flew into the sky together.
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. They could not possibly let Tiamat bring the Sea of Chaos into the Underworld, so Quetzalcoatl needed to use her Noble Phantasm to burn away the Sea of Chaos at the front and stop it from spreading any farther.
Gilgamesh, meanwhile, would preserve both his own life and Uruk's. After all, he and Uruk were like the heart of this land. They could survive if one was lost, but it would be best to keep both.
At the same time, the presence of him and Uruk would help Shi Bao clear the Lahmu on land, preventing them from interfering with Quetzalcoatl's sustained Noble Phantasm deployment.
As for the rest, it was obvious. Leonidas, the strongest shield, would deploy his Noble Phantasm at Uruk's gates and block every Lahmu attempting to raid Uruk. Ushiwakamaru and Benkei... neither of them possessed Divinity, so they had little use in this decisive battle, but they could still eliminate any stragglers.
This lineup was the surface force responsible for ensuring Uruk's survival.
Everyone else would be responsible for the underground operation to subjugate Tiamat.
"Then leave it to me!"
Quetzalcoatl flew near Tiamat. Golden flames ignited in her hand, and the temperature around her surged violently in an instant.
"What existed here in the past exists now, and shall exist in the future!"
"O wind, descend! O thunder, arrive."
As her magical energy rose sharply, Quetzalcoatl leaped down from the sky. Wrapped in flames from head to toe, she resembled a blazing sun falling from the heavens.
"This is the moment Venus shines! The sun too shines beyond!"
"Piedra—del—Sol!"
Golden-red flames enveloped her entire figure. As she crashed down at Tiamat's feet, temperatures of hundreds and thousands of degrees, accompanied by the cracking earth, instantly evaporated all the Black Mud within three kilometers.
Forget it. I won't obsess over finishing this in exactly fifty-five chapters anymore. No matter how I compress the plot, fifty-five chapters won't be enough... I should never have tried to compress it in the first place...
This works out nicely. If I write it step by step, I'll have time to think about the next volume. 2
Please vote! Please bookmark it! Everyone's support is also what motivates me to update!
The Earth Goddess Takes Flight
"Detected an intense magical energy reaction! Piedra del Sol has evaporated the Sea of Chaos, and the evaporated area is continuing to expand!"
Roman's voice sounded beside Ritsuka's ear.
"With this, Tiamat can't move anymore. Which means it's our turn now." Ritsuka nodded, then looked up at the sky. "Ishtar! Knock Tiamat into the Underworld!"
"I've been waiting!"
The black-haired, red-eyed goddess smiled. As her divine power rose at high speed, golden magical energy belonging to a god rose around her, changing her eye color as well.
"Gate Open!"
With a wave of the goddess's hand, a massive gate unfolded above her head. The gate, over a thousand meters tall, reflected the cosmic starry sky. A colossal golden planet rapidly descended under the pull of divine power. Its form, countless times larger than the gate, revealed an indescribable pressure even from the mere tip of the iceberg.
Even the Herrscher of Reason could not help twitching at the corner of her eye.
No, how can someone whose full-force attacks normally don't even hurt me much just pull out a planet to smash people with?
"This is my full power—" Seeing everyone's stunned expressions, Ishtar finally revealed a satisfied smile.
That said, this power did not entirely belong to her. She could only use it after Ritsuka enhanced her with a Command Spell.
It was not because she was weak. Rather, her Spirit Base simply could not support her full strength. Put simply, gods could only manifest as Servants after being downgraded. Whether it was her, Ereshkigal, Gorgon, or Quetzalcoatl, none of them were complete. Otherwise, ordinary Spirit Bases could not bear them at all.
But Quetzalcoatl at least had the support of her temple, Noble Phantasm, and faith, allowing her to exert power beyond that of an ordinary Spirit Base.
Ereshkigal also had the Underworld's support.
Gorgon had even obtained part of Tiamat's Authority.
Only she, Ishtar, had always been the bottom-ranked goddess among them. Not only had she lost her bull, Gilgamesh had even stripped her of her position as city goddess, leaving her unable to receive Uruk's faith. The strength she could unleash simply could not compare to the other goddesses.
Whenever she thought of that, tears of bitterness welled up in her eyes. It just so happened that she could vent all of it now!
As Ishtar continued pulling and compressing it, the enormous celestial body slowly transformed into a sphere of light beside her, then became a purple arrow loaded into Ma'anna's firing port.
This was not Venus itself, but the concept of Venus—the pinnacle of her Authority.
"Shatter! Star of the Beginning!"
The purple arrow was fired from Ma'anna in an instant. As it struck Tiamat, it also blasted her straight into the earth.
The attack's range and power naturally affected Quetzalcoatl as well, but she was not worried. Due to Ishtar's nature, the attack could only affect her with its aftershock, so it would not interfere with her continued maintenance of her Noble Phantasm.
When the Lahmu saw Tiamat knocked into the Underworld, they rushed madly toward the entrance. The temperature capable of evaporating the Sea of Chaos naturally left severe burns on their bodies, but it did not hinder their movements in the slightest.
Yet at that moment, another volley interrupted their advance.
"Do not be so hasty. If you wish to overturn Human Order, then keep your eyes where they belong!" Gilgamesh sneered.
"That King of Uruk sure is acting tough now. Would he dare act this tough with Tiamat still here?" The Herrscher of Reason unhesitatingly used Sword God, eliminating more than half the incoming Lahmu, then snorted as she snapped at Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh:?
We're on the same side. Why are you trash-talking me?
You ripped out Illya's heart. What do you think?
Having caught up on the story through memories, the Herrscher of Reason had no good feelings toward Gilgamesh.
As Tiamat fell, Amber and Chaldea followed after her. With the pterosaurs provided by Quetzalcoatl, Chaldea did not need to worry about lacking a means of flight.
Merlin was off somewhere again, but he had said he would return at the critical moment, so no one made an issue of it.
Although everyone thought he was unreliable, after learning that he had been using most of his magical energy to suppress Tiamat's awakening all along, their misunderstanding had been resolved. At this point, they trusted that he would not be absent.
"Wait!? That is!"
Yet as they all flew down toward the Underworld, they noticed a horrifying sight.
Tiamat, who should have been falling rapidly... began slowing down, and eventually stopped completely. Only after she adjusted her posture did they realize that openings had formed in her horns, creating a jet-like structure that supported her weight with magical energy.
No! She was even rising!?
"Tiamat... can fly!?" Ritsuka could not believe it.
Ishtar, who had followed them down, froze as well. "How is that possible! Mother is the Earth Mother Goddess! How can she fly into the sky!?"
"If she flies into the sky... we won't be able to keep her in the Underworld!" Mash panicked too.
"Anna?"
Ritsuka remembered that Amber did not want to fight Tiamat, so he could only look toward Anna beside him.
"No... My Mystic Eyes cannot affect Tiamat..." Anna had already been trying, but even after fusing with Gorgon, her highest-rank petrification Mystic Eyes were useless.
Gritting her teeth, she continued, "If it is only a matter of shattering her horns, then my Noble Phantasm might work..."
Rather than her Noble Phantasm, it would be more accurate to say it was Gorgon's fused Noble Phantasm: Absolute Seal: Pantheon of Ten Thousand Demons.
Gorgon had not used this move on Amber before for two reasons. First, it might not have hit the flying Amber. Second, it was more effective against organic matter, so Gorgon had no intention of wasting magical energy on something intangible like Sword God.
Since it was not very effective against either side, she had simply not used it.
But Tiamat was different. No matter how extraordinary Tiamat was, she was still organic matter, and even if her massive body could fly, it would be difficult for her to avoid Anna's attack.
"Then I'm counting on you!" Ritsuka said solemnly.
Anna was also someone who preferred answering with action. She jumped directly from the pterosaur. As purple light flashed, her petite body, less than one hundred sixty centimeters tall, instantly transformed into Gorgon's form over a hundred meters tall.
Crimson light gathered around her. Her massive wings allowed her to maintain her balance in the air.
"Become the colossal serpent god and shatter the dragon of earth—"
"Melt everything! Absolute Seal: Pantheon of Ten Thousand Demons!"
Not high heat, but a black beam whose essence was the decomposition of all things into atoms shot from Anna's forehead and struck Tiamat's left horn precisely.
The enormous magical power was helplessly blocked at the moment of impact. Anna's pupils shrank at the sight of this utterly ineffective result.
"Don't lose, Anna!"
Seeing this from atop the pterosaur, Ritsuka directly raised the Command Spell on his hand. As light flashed, powerful magical energy surged into Anna's body.
With the support of this vast magical energy, Anna, like Ishtar before her, unleashed power beyond the limits of her Spirit Base.
The beam that had previously been unable to advance instantly struck Tiamat's horn, carving huge cracks into the smooth, intact horn.
Once I stopped obsessing over finishing in fifty-five chapters, it suddenly became much easier to write!
Now that there's no word-count pressure... 1
You want to see Honkai, right? Consider it arranged! 5
But it goes premium on Friday. I originally wanted the next volume's beginning to be where it went premium... At this pace, that's looking pretty unlikely... 2
The Only Hope
"There's a chance!" Ritsuka's eyes immediately lit up.
However, a sense of helplessness swiftly filled his entire body. Even with the Command Spell's enhancement, releasing the Noble Phantasms of Quetzalcoatl, Ishtar, and Anna—three goddess-level beings—in succession finally made him realize how weak he was.
I'm almost out of magical energy..!
Anna realized it as well. The previously stable flow of magical energy was rapidly dwindling. Even if she could draw mana from her surroundings, it would not be enough to maintain her Noble Phantasm for much longer.
She feared drawing too much magical energy from Ritsuka and forcing him to make up for it with his life force, but she understood even more clearly that allowing Tiamat to escape would mean true disaster. She could only grit her teeth and continue pouring out her power.
But willpower was still only willpower. Once her magical energy was completely exhausted, Anna had no choice but to stop her Noble Phantasm.
Before you continue