The setting of Exciting Splash was impressively mundane. Despite its quietness it bore intimate resemblance to the quiet mornings that Shirou used to spend here. More noticeably it was lacking the fear that permeated the rest of the city as if the owner's mere presence was enough to ensure the safety of all its inhabitants and to be fair it most likely was. Only the most powerful or suicidal would ever challenge the King of Heroes. It was therefore fortunate indeed that Shirou had never had a death wish. Without taking any detours Shirou headed to the main pool. It was both a suitably dramatic destination for their final fight as well as a battlefield that would put the advantage in Shirou's hands. If there was one thing to be said about Gilgamesh it was that he never liked to win unfairly in contrast to Shirou himself who would gladly win using whatever cheap methods.
Stepping into the pool room he got a sudden weird feeling that caused him to pause a bit.
"What's wrong," Arcueid said picking up on his unease.
"Nothing," Shirou said shaking his head. "Just thinking that this is the first time I'm in this room without my swimsuit. "It's pretty unusual, normally I would be underwater now," he said defending himself from Arcueid's disbelieving gaze.
"It is a rather strange choice of clothes Shirou," the unmistakeable voice of the King of Heroes appeared from the room. A moment later and he shimmered into existence in the process of drawing a familiar hat off his head. The Golden King was wearing a Hawaiian shirt as well as a pair of beach shorts and sunglasses. With one hand he drew down his sunglasses and levelled Shirou with the fullness of his gaze. "Or should I say Enki?" he enquired piercing deep into the soul of the magician.
"Shirou will do," he replied ignoring the sudden intake of air from Rin behind him. "Is there anything you want to say Gilgamesh?" he asked the King of Heroes. Despite their current animosity the two of them had been on good terms for the last few years and Shirou was slightly sad that it was going to end.
"Keep your guard up," Gilgamesh said as golden armour appeared around his body. "If you let down your guard you will die."
Shirou nodded seemingly in deep thought and then in the very next instant many thousands of needle-sharp spears of water bore down on the king. The majority of them bounced off his armour but each and every one that was aimed towards his face was immediately intercepted and broiled by countless bolts of lightning that emerged from dozens of golden discs that materialized into existence above Gilgamesh.
That was not the Golden King's only obstacle as the very instant that Shirou had launched his initial attack Arcueid had also charged forward, cratering the floor with sheer force she sprinted over the water at supersonic speeds with the aim of obliterating the king. However the King of Heroes instantly countered with a vast wave of weaponry that thrummed with noticeable power. Without hesitation they converged on the last True Ancestor whose arms lashed out creating a series of sonic booms. Weapons shattered as they impacted the White Princesses fists but in turn blood sprayed on the floor where the weapons managed to bite into her skin before their structural integrity failed. Fire and ice covered Arcueid while lightning struck at her body but through it all the True Ancestor proved herself to be the strongest in the world as she pressed forward towards the greatest king. Suddenly a sword bypassed her guard taking one of her hands off and she pierced through by hundreds of swords causing her to go stumbling back.
Gilgamesh had absolutely no time to even contemplate taking advantage of her weakened position as he was currently fending off the fourth Magician. Shirou had immediately teleported behind him and engaged him with the swords that had been bestowed upon him by Gilgamesh. At that range it was harder for the Golden King to send a barrage at him and any blade that came from the gate was immediately knocked off course by the water that surrounded him. Shirou and Gilgamesh had both owned swords before and practiced with them on occasion and thus it was a battle of two powerful amateurs that smashed swords together with some skill and much fury.
Sensing another presence behind him the king summoned a multitude of staves above his position that sent white hot flames down onto his opponents. Gilgameshes unseen opponent jumped back but the Magician matched the flames with his own water in a clash of elements not seen since the Age of the Gods. Icy water chilled and crushed the inferno then reared its head and smashed into Gilgamesh who rode the wave backwards allowing him to separate himself from Shirou. Swivelling on his heel he locked blades with the glowing knight that he had noticed while entering the room, who he quickly noted could not be called an amateur.
He would have been hard pressed to match the knight's powerful swings even if he was alone. With the backup that he now boasted a few moments too many locked in combat would mean his death as the beings that surrounded him would swiftly attack his blind spots. An invisible sword bypassed the knight's guard causing him to falter for a moment which Gilgamesh quickly followed up on by summoning lightning without form from his gate striking the knight causing him to briefly convulse.
Once again Gilgamesh wasn't able to follow up as hundreds of shields of great history and unmatched powers flared into being and were all subsequently shattered by the fist of an enraged ancestor. He stepped back out of range and found to his slight horror that the floor was coated with a layer of slippery ice. Catching himself he, for the first time since he had been summoned into this age, drew upon the full power of his most rarely used Noble Phantasm.
Sha Naqba Imuru was a continuously active Noble Phantasm that allowed Gilgamesh to see the vast possibilities of every move made by both him and his opponent. An instant after activation a dozen Noble Phantasm's with the power to restrain emitted from his gate using his own broken shields as cover he hid their path until the very moment they impacted the body of the True Ancestor causing her to briefly lock-up. At that instant two more swords that specialized in killing nature spirits launched from the gate intent on impaling the True Ancestor.
They wouldn't make it through Gilgamesh knew as he pivoted to the side to dodge the extremely well timed sneak attack. Even so the armour over his right arm fell to pieces, killed by the knife of another worthy opponent. A sickle appeared in his hand and he swung it with the intent to bisect the servant but was unsurprised to see the assassin retreat backwards, contorting himself to dodge the blast of wind that would have cleaved him in two. Hopping backwards he managed to avoid the icy dragon that now pursued him. A stone tablet appeared in his hand and with a gesture hundreds of runes appeared over the dragon causing it to melt in place, the intricate magecraft that went into it utterly destroyed.
He frowned as he felt the knight advance on him again. While Gilgamesh was aware that he could be described as a one-man army he was also well aware that all four of his opponents could be called the same. Thinking through thousands of possibilities he forced himself to go on the attack whirling around to face the glowing knight. Countless spears of water impacted his armour causing dents to arise but his sole exposed arm and head were again protected by bolts of lightning emitted from the floating orbs. He was aware of an attack by the True Ancestor and he could physically feel the entire world warping to kill him but he shrugged it off by summoning an artefact that negated the powers of Gaia from his vault causing the weakened attack to only scuff his armour.
A golden glowing sword of light emerged from his vault into his hand and immediately unleashed Merodach at the body of the knight. The beam of light was met with an identical one that fought against the divine light with the fury of the sun overpowering the legendary treasure. However Gilgamesh wasn't done just yet. The curtain of night escaped from his vault and blotted out the sun far above in the sky and he noticed an immediate drop in the power of the knight. The advantage shifted and Merodach shattered the weakened beam bearing down on the knight that was so audacious as to strike the king.
The beam of killing light bore down on the knight and it looked he would be the first one to die until suddenly out of thin air Shirou Inke stepped. Gilgamesh's Sha Naqba Imuru went blank for a moment trying to figure out how he could possibly manage to have a hope of stopping the Original Sin. He didn't have to wait long as the magician extended his hand towards the beam, there was no vulgar flare of prana or vague ominous feeling that heralded the next move of the god in human form. He made a move as if to catch the beam and the light of Merodach froze.
To the heightened perception of the king it happened relatively slow despite taking place in less than a second. From the place where his hand touched the golden wave ice flowed from the light itself and the light dimmed as it was buried underneath the frigid substance.
Gilgamesh blinked, displaying an uncommonly human move at the sheer absurdity at the sight before him and that was when it all went wrong for him. In his instant of distraction he felt his golden armour die around him and when he whirled around to kill that annoying assassin once and for all he came face to face with Arcueid Brunestud and became intimately familiar with her fist. Launched out of the crumbling remains of his armour with black spots appearing before his eyes he gave himself completely over to clairvoyance and he felt numerous blows be redirected or avoided as he unconsciously moved to avoid them. Snapping his eyes open he summoned shields to avoid thousands of icy arms that struck from every direction. Ducking to the side and narrowly avoiding slipping into the pool and certain death he summoned a spiral sword into his hand and thrust forward piercing into the body of the True Ancestor. His triumph was short lived as she shrugged off the damage and he felt the force of the world hit him. His skin was scoured by the wind and his bones were being crushed by waves of gravity and he found himself abusing his clairvoyance to select the few treasures in his vault that could defend himself from such an assault. A wave of water sent him spiralling off his feet and he abused a specific Noble Phantasm that allowed him to levitate above the churning water.
He quickly took in the position of the four attackers, the magus girl being only able to harm him if he actually lets his guard down and she got very lucky as a result. The knight was weaker than before and he had already posed the least threat among the four. The assassin that had broken his armour was lurking around the edges of the room abusing his relatively low threat ranking. The last True Ancestor was continuously charging him giving him very little time to recover and he knew very few ways of getting rid of her permanently. The undercover Lord of the Abzu was by far the trickiest and was constantly switching methods and angles of attack.
He would have to incapacitate him first if he wanted a chance to win and he had just the tool. A sudden awareness came to Gilgamesh and he whirled on his heel. A massive fist of ice hammered into the hastily summoned shield of the demigod and he found himself falling but not before he wrapped a length of chain around the slippery magician. The chains of heaven clung tightly to the avatar and he could tell from his opponents face that he immediately realized the consequences of his position. Swinging around as he came down he launched him at full speed at the side of the room causing the sound barrier as well as multiple concrete walls to be shattered by the sheer force.
Switching his perspective to the True Ancestor he acknowledged her strength and in an instant an ornate golden key appeared in his hand. Swiftly sticking it in the air next to him he swiftly pulled out his trump card straight out of the vault. EA had already begun to spin eagerly, more eagerly than he had ever seen it spin before; it appeared the weapon harboured great feelings against its father. As soon as Arcueid Brunestud saw the weapon she dashed backwards with enough range that she could easily dodge it. Inspecting the myriad of possibilities Gilgamesh came across one that would work but ultimately leave a bad taste in his mouth. Biting back his pride he turned and aimed at the young magus that had accompanied them but had yet to do anything useful.
A slight widening of her eyes told him that the True Ancestor understood the implications. Moving faster than he had seen her move yet, she dashed in the path of EA and bravely faced down the weapon that created the world. A knife strike came from his blind spot and in the very next instant the assassin was down punctured by a single unbelievably fast sword through his chest.
Without even pausing in his original attack he summoned the Shield of the Gods, one of his strongest defensive Noble Phantasm's which easily blocked the diminished blast of energy from the knight and with a swing of his hand he fired the entire shield at his opponent driving him through all the walls and leaving him buried under rubble. "Enuma Elish," Gilgamesh said speaking his first words of the battle as EA hit its critical speed and with a sound like the roar of the gods the seams of the planet started to come apart culminating in space-time itself ripping into pieces in a maelstrom of violent scarlet energy.
The White Princess stretched her arm out and thick castle walls started to form out of nothingness. The beam of red hued energy hit the fortifications and burrowed through three pairs of the walls and a pair of thick doors s the Golden King watched as an entire castle sprung into existence in front of his very eyes only to be immediately obliterated by the world-destroying red beam. Undiminished the beam bore down on the pair of females and the Golden King watched as the world warped around the hand of the last True Ancestor as she struck the beam.
The world shook as an unstoppable force met an immovable object and then for an instant the immovable object moved. Sliding back the True Ancestor brought the other hand up to push back against the all-consuming energy of EA and for the first time in over five thousand years Gilgamesh was forced to mirror his opponent and bring his other hand to the handle of EA, leaving the key to his gate to hang in mid-air, and forced immense amounts of prana into the weapon. He watched in incredulity as the beam grew in intensity and power achieving such destructive potential that it would long ago have rendered the city of Fuyuki into ashes if the force wasn't entirely concentrated on the impossibly powerful Elemental in front of him. Even as her hands were being consumed by the light, he watched in admiration as the world sewed itself back together at her very presence. At that moment she transcended the simple status as a phantasmal being and acted as a needle that skewered down the current reality of the world.
With utmost reluctance he ceased pumping prana into EA and watched as the last vestiges dissipated against the guard of the White Princess. While he would dearly love to see how far he could push this monster in human form he was well aware of how much energy he had already burned through and he had no desire to use it all and anti-climatically fade away. He immediately became aware of the True Ancestor charging him and a quick look was all that it took to confirm the situation. While she had managed to successfully repel his attack she had done it at the cost of her sanity. Her eyes glowed red and her hands morphed into claws as she charged at Gilgamesh in a manner akin to a beast.
Unfortunately for her Gilgamesh saw it all coming letting EA hang in the air by his side he sidestepped the telegraphed blow and stabbed the key to his vault into the body of his worthy opponent. The White Princess had no chance to defend herself as weapons sprouted from inside her body tearing her muscles and nerves to shreds and piercing every organ including her heart and brain. Gilgamesh watched with no small amount of satisfaction and tiredness as the momentary corpse collapsed down to the floor. That fight had pushed him way to hard. Taking shallow breaths he focused on the mage who was staring at him holding her pathetic jewels as if they could actually harm him. He summoned a sword above his head with the power to cut through magecraft and took aim.
Suddenly Gilgamesh felt hot and sharp pain around his throat and all his oxygen was cut off, he tried to move backwards but he was immediately pressed from behind by a body. His thoughts went a mile a minute and his Sha Naqba Imuru started immediately analysing his current situation. Bringing his hands to his throat in an attempt to get some air into his lungs he found an immensely familiar golden chain that defied his every attempt to escape. Gilgamesh managed to crane his head slightly and he saw the very familiar visage of the fourth magician. His brain pieced it together but his mind refused to believe it. Somehow his opponent had supressed his divinity snapped Enkidu and then proceeded to throttle him with his own chains of heaven.
Stunned for a moment by the audaciousness of the very manoeuvre Gilgamesh had no time to recover as in the very next instant his body was struck by a hail of magic. The strikes came thick and fast and he could feel his body start to disintegrate under the hail of magic. Cursing his weak magic resistance and his incarnated body that unlike that of a normal servant proved vulnerable to oxygen depletion he primed a hail of swords and fired them towards the magus.
Unfortunately none of them reached as they were all intercepted by jets of water that surpassed them in speed and struck them down. The magus flinched but she drew out another handful of gems. Gilgamesh forced himself to stay awake despite his lack of oxygen. He readied his shields to block the jewels from the magus girl and primed his swords to try and strike down Enki but he was stopped by a voice that whispered in his ear.
"Rest Gilgamesh," the voice said as confident and self-assured as the day he appeared in his throne room with a scheme to kill the bull. "Your time has long passed King of Heroes. Can you not see your friend waiting for you to join him?"
"Yes," Gilgamesh said and for the first time in a long time his mind felt suddenly clear of the corruption. "Yes I can," he said as the world around him went black and his Sha Naqba Imuru turned away from the battle and the planet and fixated on a place far away and yet so close where a green haired companion waited for him. "Yes I can," he said. His shields and weapons, bar one, faded away into the Gate of Babylon. "Thank…" was all that he got out before his body was disintegrated under the pressure of Rin Tohsaka's jewel empowered attack.
xxx
Shirou sighed as he stared at his hands. The piece of chain had disintegrated into prana when the King of Heroes had departed from the world. Melancholy overtook him as he stared at the ruins of the swimming pool that he had spent so many hours both alone and with Gilgamesh. Looking over he noticed Rin staring at the place where Gilgamesh once stood as if she was expecting him to come back. She was understandably shell-shocked by the fight. While Rin Tohsaka was an unquestionably brilliant magus she was unused to high speed combat and so she had wisely not attacked until he had finally managed to hold Gilgamesh still.
Scanning the ground he noticed that Arcueid was swiftly recovering and had slipped a bit too far into her bloodlust creating a potentially dangerous situation. He walked up to her and inflicted the concept of [sleep] on her. While normally her absurd magic resistance would allow her to overcome the simple piece of magic, she instinctively trusted Shirou and thus allowed herself to doze off.
Turning his eyes to the two servants he was gratified to see that the two of them appeared to be alive. Shiki had already removed the sword from his chest and was eying both Shirou and Arcueid.
"Battle continuation," he said in response to Shirou's unasked question.
The magician just nodded at that response and turned his head to where Gawain had managed to dig himself out of the rubble now that Gilgamesh's shield disappeared. He scanned the room and then, satisfied that the Golden King was no more went to join his master.
"That went well," Shirou said to himself stretching out his sore muscles. "All of us got out alive and with no serious injuries. Good job Rin," he said giving the magus thumbs up.
The young magus dazedly returned the gesture before shaking herself out of her stupor. "But you didn't manage to get your tool," she said. "We did all of that for nothing."
"Wrong," Shirou said bending down and shaking Arcueid awake now that she had sufficiently calmed down. "Gilgamesh would have to be taken care of sometime during the war regardless and I did manage to get my tool," Shirou said gesturing to where the cylindrical blade remained despite its owner's disappearance.
"That thing is what you were looking for?" Rin asked suddenly going a few shades paler. "Did you see what that thing did?"
"It took off my hands Shirou," a waking Arcueid said, holding up the stumps. "They're not regrowing," she continued sounding a bit miffed.
"Yeah, you're going to have to recreate them," Shirou said. "Your normal kind of healing will not work against this thing."
Arcueid pouted but nodded her head and returned her arms to her side. "This means you're going to have to make me new gloves," she said to Shirou.
"I already said I would," Shirou sighed. "I'll get you a new pair as soon as I get home. Come on," he said walking up to the cylindrical sword that was stuck into the ground and seized the handle.
There was a horrible screeching sound and the magician recoiled. Holding his arm up and inspecting it he was stunned to see the mangled pieces of what was his hand until a few moments ago.
"That is not good," he said staring blankly at the piece of tattered meat.
Author Note: Sorry for taking so long upon reading a few DXD fics I was filled with righteous rage and thus wrote out half of a one-shot if anybody is interested. I am genuinely curious if anybody has ever written a story where Rin was the person who ultimately killed Gilgamesh.
regfurby: There was a story that had just completed called Chaos theory. It is one of the few stories that actually goes into some detail about the aftermath of the war. I can confirm that if Shirou were to go back after the Grail war he would see a few empty seats.
SentinalSlice: Hope it lived up to your expectations. Ultimately Shirou won because Gilgamesh wasn't able to calculate the power of his Magic i.e. freezing Merodach and breaking Enkidu and it threw off his clairvoyance.
vanny98: Those chapter titles were going to be the death of me. No more I declare. Well maybe one.
Please Read and Review. Until next time.