Orlando Reeves sat in the control box, his hands crossed under his chin, his expression solemn.
"Who summoned that white-haired girl-like Servant?"
He asked.
No one answered.
Let me answer that~
A sweet, soft, and smiling voice came from the corner of the operations room.
Francesca Prellati.
Short, curly, silver-gray hair; light purple eyes.
A petite girl dressed in a black gothic retro dress sat cross-legged on a chair in the corner, a happy smile on her lips.
" The Master of this terrifying being is now likely the current chieftain of the indigenous tribe in Snowfield City."
Her fingers tapped lightly on her knee.
Her name is Tiné Cherke.
" Tiné Cherke?"
Orlando's brows furrowed.
"Which indigenous tribe?"
"That's right~ I never expected that feather could summon something so terrifying."
Francesca's eyes curved into crescent shapes.
"I originally thought that feather would at most summon the profile of an angel or something... but it turns out—"
"It's a monster."
"This is going to be interesting!"
Orlando's face darkened further.
Desert, underground.
Inside the makeshift tunnel that Enkidu built out of mud, Gilgamesh knelt on the ground, his crimson eyes glowing in the darkness.
" Enkidu."
"Um?"
"That woman's attacks were too unpredictable; our defensive Noble Phantasm shattered almost instantly upon contact."
"If she has something even stronger--"
"Then we'll die," Enkidu replied, his tone as calm as if he were talking about the weather.
Gilgamesh glanced at him.
"You're quite calm."
"Because I'm with you."
"... Stop talking nonsense."
Gilgamesh stood up.
" Enkidu, stall her for ten seconds."
"Okay. But what do you want to do?"
It can no longer be kept.
Gilgamesh's voice became extremely low.
"What I will use next is one of the most Noble Phantasm in the Gate of Babylon."
Enkidu's eyes widened slightly.
"You're not going to use that, are you?"
Gilgamesh did not answer.
He simply raised his right hand.
Golden ripples slowly unfolded in his palm, this time the color of the ripples was deeper than before.
"Go."
Enkidu nodded, his body transforming into flowing soil that seeped directly out of the tunnel wall.
On the ground.
Origami was about to continue her pursuit when she suddenly felt the ground beneath her feet move.
Countless golden chains burst forth from the ground directly beneath her, densely packed, like a cage woven from chains, attempting to envelop her within.
Enkidu rose from the ground, standing barefoot on the edge of the pit, his hands raised high.
"Sorry, let me try again."
He knew that the Chains of Heaven would be ineffective against this girl.
But he wasn't trying to control her.
He was just buying time.
Origami watched expressionlessly as the chains that had wrapped around her slipped off as if they had hit some invisible barrier, without feeling a thing.
"It's useless."
She said.
"I know~" Enkidu smiled.
The world has changed.
Origami suddenly raised her head.
In the night sky above, six enormous golden ripple doors opened simultaneously.
Each door has a diameter of over fifty meters.
Between the six doors, golden energy strings are interconnected, forming a huge bowstring-shaped structure.
From the very center door, the tip of an arrow is slowly emerging.
The size of that arrow exceeded the concept of an "arrow" itself.
Its surface exudes the aura of creation myths, radiating energy fluctuations powerful enough to cause the space itself to crack.
Gilgamesh rose from the underground tunnel and stood a hundred meters behind Enkidu.
His hands were raised high above his head, fingers spread wide, manipulating the six doors and the bowstring.
The crimson eyes reflected the gleam of that arrow.
The time for tearing apart has come--
His voice echoed across the entire desert.
"--Marduk 'Marduk's Great Bow!"
" The Primordial Arrowhead That Cleaves Creation "
The oldest god-slaying weapon in Human History.
A replica of the arrow Marduk shot at Tiamat, the primordial mother of chaos, in the Babylon creation myth.
Its goal is to break through chaos and cleave the heavens and the earth.
All six doors emitted light simultaneously.
The string is taut.
The enormous arrow of light broke free from the door's restraints and shot towards the silver-haired girl in the air at a speed exceeding the speed of light.
As the arrow was launched, an energy surge powerful enough to erase a city from the world map exploded across the battlefield.
The aftershocks alone caused cracks in the ground within a 50-kilometer radius.
Origami saw the arrow.
Her eyes, unusually, revealed a hint of seriousness.
It wasn't because this attack could actually hurt her.
She subconsciously glanced back at the direction behind her.
The lights of Snowfield City were faintly visible in the night.
Her Master is in that city.
Tiné and her people.
Even if the arrow itself is not harmed by the energy fluctuations at this level, the aftershocks would be enough to wipe Snowfield City off the face of the earth.
"..."
Origami looked away.
His gaze became much more serious as he faced the arrow.
She deliberately lowered her altitude, descending from hundreds of meters in the air to less than thirty meters above the ground.
In this way, if the attack is met with an upward-firing method, the aftershocks will not affect the city behind.
The ten wings of light folded up from behind and rearranged in front of her.
This time, the ten wings of light overlapped one on top of the other, converging layer by layer until they finally formed a tubular structure in front of her.
Cannon barrel.
The dark, Kether muzzle was aimed directly at the arrow of creation rapidly approaching from the sky.
Metatron - Kadour.
This is her strongest attack in her current state.
Origami took a deep breath.
Inside the Kadour, dark energy began to rapidly gather.
The energy grew increasingly concentrated, and a dark spot of light appeared at the center of the Kadour.
The point of light was expanding continuously, and the energy density inside had reached a level that caused space itself to begin to distort.
The Arrow of Creation was still 300 meters away from her.
"Emission."
An incredibly thick beam of dark light shot out from the cannon's muzzle.
The beam of light exceeded twenty meters in diameter, its pitch-black surface churning with dark purple arcs of electricity and the concept of despair, like a giant dragon rising from the abyss, crashing headlong into the arrow of creation.
The two forces collided in mid-air.
The world stood still for a moment.
Then--
boom!!!!!
The light erupting from the point of impact engulfed the entire sky.
The interplay of white and black is like creation and destruction happening simultaneously at the same point.
The shockwave spread in all directions from the point of impact, and sand particles on the ground were swept up hundreds of meters into the air by the blast wave.
Gilgamesh's hands trembled as he did his best to maintain the output of Cluster of Marduk.
"Broken--!"
He roared.
But at the same time, he sensed it.
The balance of forces at the point of impact is being disrupted.
It's not going in the direction he expected.
The output of the Kadour is slowly but steadily overpowering the Cluster of Marduk.
"Impossible--!"
Gilgamesh's pupils contracted sharply.
This is Marduk's Great Bow.
A god-slaying weapon of creation myth level.
It is one of the oldest and most powerful destructive weapons in Human History.
Its purpose was to kill Tiamat, the Mother of Chaos.
However.
The dim light, like a tireless flood, devoured the arrow of creation inch by inch.
Cracks appeared on the golden arrow shaft.
The crack is widening.
" Gil--!"
Enkidu rushed forward, wanting to add chains to support the Arrow of Creation.
But it was too late.
Click.
The Arrow of Creation shattered.
Cluster of Marduk was completely destroyed.
The six golden ripple doors shattered simultaneously, their fragments dissipating into golden particles in the air.
The dark beams of the Kadour did not stop after shattering the Arrow of Creation.
It continued upwards with the remaining energy.
We passed through the clouds.
A black meteor streaked against the current, piercing the night sky and shooting into the depths of space.
The light continues to extend beyond the atmosphere.
It didn't completely dissipate until it was thousands of kilometers away.
In the desert.
silence.
Gilgamesh knelt on the ground, his hands bracing against the sand, panting heavily.
The backlash from the Cluster of Marduk nearly depleted his mana, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
He looked up at the silvery-white figure floating in the sky.
Origami retrieved the Kadour, and the ten light wings returned to their positions on her back.
Her expression returned to its blank state.
Just like that attack, it was just a small thing she did casually.
Enkidu stood beside Gilgamesh, looking at the Origami in the air, and for the first time, a bitter smile appeared on his face.
"... Gil."
"... What?"
"I don't think we can beat her."
"... Shut up."
Snowfield City, Police Station, Emergency Operations Room.
The image on the screen had turned into static.
The satellite's optical lens was burned out the instant the black beam of light shot into the sky.
The operations room was completely silent.
The Twenty-Eight-Member Monster were all deathly pale.
Orlando Reeves looked more pained than if a loved one had died.
Francesca sat in the corner, her chin resting on her hands, her light purple eyes gleaming with unusual excitement.
"Ahhh--"
She let out a satisfied sigh.
"Marvelous."
"That's fantastic."
"This Holy Grail War is a million times more interesting than I imagined!"