The hulking form of Enkidu imposed over Gilgamesh in every physical way. Their body larger, their aura more oppressive, their emotions raging wilder. Yet in the face of this, Gil did nothing but smile in the face of the incoming strike from his once and still friend.
Because as their giant fist, almost three times as large as Gilgamesh's head, began to fly down towards him he knew that he couldn't allow himself to succumb to something like this.
Hundreds of weapons filled the air, striking rusted-golden chains and cleaving through limbs of clay. The scream of cut air and cracked earth silenced everything else in the immediate area. The winds picked up and swirled with the force of the clashing weaponry and chains, Gilgamesh kicking off the ground and moving back a good twenty or so meters to avoid the wild grab at his head from Enkidu.
"What happened to your resplendent chains of glowing gold, Enkidu!? They're thicker than normal. They're faster than normal. Yet they've dulled so horribly!"
Sparks filled and heated the air and the ground rumbled. The clash between two of the oldest heroes in the Throne was almost like a natural disaster coming to life. A danger that the modern world was not ready to witness and had not witnessed since long before the Age of Man.
Yet neither Gilgamesh nor Enkidu moved. Any strike of Enkidu's chains blocked or deflected before they even ruffled Gilgamesh's hair and any weapon that posed no true threat was just allowed to strike Enkidu with impunity. The truly dangerous weapons found themselves in a fate similar to the chains as they were caught, blocked, or parried them.
In their current state, one of Enkidu's chains was easily a match for three or four of Gilgamesh's average weaponry but even the higher-class Noble Phantasms weren't enough to stalemate the chains as they once might have. The golden king's only saving grace currently being the lack of mental faculties that Enkidu had currently. Their attacks are powerful and fast and their body even more so, but simple and straightforward. Easy to read.
'Even when they were first created, Enkidu's chains were not rusted like this. What is the cause? Their class container?' Gilgamesh thought to himself, tilting his head to the side and letting the broken tip of one of Enkidu's chains zip past him.
The edge of the sharpened tip missed his skin by barely 2mm.
"What is the cause of your rusted chains, Enkidu!? Is it your class container? Have you allowed yourself to be corrupted so easily!?" Gilgamesh called over the gale winds, his voice seeming to carry over despite the sheer incredulity of the action.
Enkidu's wide, blank, eyes narrowed slightly, and they roared. The sheer power of their voice crumbled the ground beneath them and stirred the winds even further. Like an omen of death and destruction brought to life specifically to deal with Gilgamesh.
"Or are you still in there!? Are you showing your disapproval of your current state? Of how the body that you loved so dearly was stripped from you!?"
Drops of blood floated through the air, seeming to hang in the air for longer than they had any scientific right to. The world has slowed down to the senses of the First Hero as he felt himself stumbling back. The cut on his neck sent a surge of stinging pain throughout his body as his blood coated the chains of his enemy for the first time today.
The chain had come at him so fast and so suddenly that it had taken all of his B-ranked Agility simply to turn a certain kill into a grazing cut. The king had been unable to dodge it entirely despite his best efforts.
He'd forgotten what it was like to face Enkidu. The challenge, the adrenaline, the way that his very being seemed to click into its highest gear. Yet evidently Enkidu, whatever remained of the friend that he knew within this clay monstrosity, had not. And he'd stepped on his friend's only trigger.
'Oh well. If he wants me to stop, he'll have to come out and tell me himself.' A wide grin of elation found its way onto Gilgamesh's lips as he firmly planted his foot beneath himself.
Gil's senses finally realized that the lethal danger had passed and slowed themselves down. The world snapped back into regular speed and the drops of Gilgamesh's blood hit the grass.
"Did I hit a nerve, Enkidu?" Gilgamesh taunted, 73 weapons fired and closing in on Enkidu before he'd even gotten halfway through his sentence.
The chains that met them released more sparks into the air. Heating it further and further as Gilgamesh pushed his offense to abuse the Berserker's lack of finesse and fine control. The sparks continued to fly and the very air itself felt like it was about to ignite, leaving even Gilgamesh beginning to sweat as he continued to rain weaponry of every shape and size down on Enkidu.
XXXxxxXXX
"T-This is insane!" Rin cried out, wiping some sweat off her forehead as the teens and two Servants watched from the sidelines.
"The heat just keeps getting worse…" Luvia muttered, her heavy dress beginning to leave her in an even worse state than Rin.
Meanwhile, Shirou and Sakura stood as cool as could be. Though Sakura was beginning to feel warm, she'd spent enough time helping Shirou in his forge to have some kind of resistance to environmental heat like this.
"It's only going to get worse, probably." Shirou informed Luvia, his lone eye catching the smallest whisp of steam.
Following it down to its source, Shirou saw a spark fly from the titanic battle ahead of them and hit the dirt. The tiny point of immense heat brightened ever so briefly before dying out completely in a whisp of steam as the ground cooled it off.
Slowly his eye travelled back up to the fight before them. But he did not look at the fight itself, no. Instead, Shirou looked around the fight. Watching as the sparks of their clashes and the ambient heat in the air began to create more and more steam and humidity. Even the churning and screaming winds couldn't stop the chain reaction at this stage, not while they continued their fight.
Besides and behind him, he could hear the girls feeling worse and worse over the heat and growing humidity. Yet to him, this felt normal, this felt like home. It felt like he was in his forge creating blades as he always did. He'd never experienced it outside of his forge though, it was unique, and yet the familiarity surprisingly comforted him. It almost felt like despite what he saw around him, the environment was just like his for-
Something inside Shirou clicked. A final puzzle piece that settled a hole in the teen that he'd never even known had been there until it had been plugged.
XXXxxxXXX
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Within a forge that Shirou had only ever visited in his dreams, a red-haired figure hammered away at red-hot metal. Their form imposing and their musculature a sight to behold even if they didn't stand at the intimidating size that Heracles did.
The air was thick with heat and humidity. At every second, thick black smoke toppled out of the coals and wood in the forge proper. The chimney they were funneled into was the only thing stopping the blacksmith from being choked out with the thick smog.
Yet to the blacksmith that didn't matter at all. Nothing would stop them from developing the weapon that they currently hammered away at. Over the years its shape had begun to stabilize, ever so slowly. Yet even now it continued to change shape with every swing of their hammer. But they would never stop, they could never stop working on this blade.
Because this blade was their dream. Their life's work that they refused to give up on. Their dream that was inherited 19 generations over and hundreds of times through hundreds of successors.
But this one, this successor above every other one that they'd ever had, felt special. And the world that they found themselves standing in at this very moment proved it.
A ripple resounded throughout the entire world. Shifting everything minutely but simultaneously, getting a grouch from the blacksmith as their hammer missed the blade and struck the table. Yet they couldn't find it in themselves to be mad, not when they saw the view outside the window of the blacksmith. They could never be mad at such a world.
A grin cracked the edge of their lips upwards. The blade on the table glowed a hotter red, as if reacting to the phenomenon that had just occurred.
XXXxxxXXX
The earth split as Gilgamesh leaped high into the air, avoiding the chains that had been spawned beneath himself even as they tore at his pants legs and left gashes on his calves. The wind tried to throw him around, but it was child's play to use his levitating Noble Phantasm and anchor himself in the air. Another quadruple dozen weapons raining down on his clay-formed opponent.
Once again it took barely a dozen chains to counterattack all of his fired weaponry, but Gilgamesh hardly let that phase him. He couldn't afford to let that phase him.
This wasn't Enkidu as he knew him, this was the version of Enkidu that the Gods had originally envisioned striking him down. An existence developed solely to beat Gilgamesh and despite their battle in his first life having been a multi-day dead-tie he was beginning to realize just what that meant.
He couldn't let up for even a moment.
Enkidu roared and swung their hand up at Gilgamesh, a hundred chains striking three hundred weapons.
He couldn't underestimate them for even a moment.
In the midst of the titanic clash of weapons that cratered the ground beneath them from the shockwave alone, Enkidu launched themselves high into the air. Swiping Gilgamesh down into the ground with a catastrophic explosion.
He couldn't lose focus for even a moment.
Fighting Altrouge Brunestud had been difficult but that was because of the woman's resourcefulness and trickery. If Gilgamesh went back and repeated that fight 10 times, he was certain that he would best her before the return of Primate Murder all ten times.
Yet this fight was not the fight he had with the Eclipse Princess of Black Blood. This fight was somehow so much worse than that.
Because Enkidu wasn't relying on tactics or tricks to fight Gilgamesh. They were fighting with pure force, and they were pushing Gilgamesh back.
The once green-haired monstrosity appeared beside him once more, intent on continuing its barbarian melee crusade against him. But unfortunately for them, Gilgamesh had no wish to be struck by anyone, let alone this. So in a move that he knew would throw Enkidu off guard, even a brainless variant like this one, he engaged.
The immaculate pommel of Proto-Durandal found its way into his hands as he swung the blade at the Berserker's fist. The clay of their hand darkened as the blade approached, no doubt hardening in an attempt to block or parry it. But Proto-Durandal wasn't a normal blade, even by the standards of Noble Phantasms. And instead of meeting Enkidu's fist and stopping or sliding off, Proto-Durandal met Enkidu's fist and split it right in two.
The two halves of Enkidu's arm flew past Gilgamesh's head, but all the king could focus on was the vision granted to him by Sha Naqba Imuru. Attempting to throw his body away with all the speed that he could, yet still found himself too slow.
Enkidu's arm was reforming, and if nothing happened it would trap his head inside it and lead to his immediate death. And despite his panic, he knew that he'd make it out of this, because two people had just, amazingly, had the exact same idea.
"GÁE!/GÁE!"
The twin shouts from opposite sides of the field seemed to pierce the very heavens themselves.
"BOLG!/BOLG!"
And with those two shouts, spears of not only mythical renown but also mythical power flew through the air. Two spears of identical names and near identical power tore through the air and towards the antlered opponent that they had chosen as their targets.
The two spears were thrown with identical techniques and identical aims. A once in a millennium event that could never have happened if not for the irregularities of this war. Both spears flew- cut- through the air before striking the magical clay body of their opponent.
'Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death' met 'Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death' head-on.
The perfectly sharpened tips of both spears struck each other, so perfectly aimed and thrown that they met at a dead stalemate right in the middle. Unstoppable spear met unstoppable spear. The powers of both did the only thing they could and slammed into each other. And the epicenter of the strike warped.
XXXxxxXXX
Saber cleared the tree line right as she heard Scathach shout the name of her Noble Phantasm. The King of Knights raised a single foot to continue sprinting forward when her eyes finally caught the incredible sight of what was happening right in front of her.
It was incredible. It was powerful. It was….destabilized.
The chaotic, fiery red cursed energy exploded in a tornado of destruction. Tearing at the creature of clay and flinging everyone in front of the castle hundreds of meters away, including surprisingly Gilgamesh himself.
The tornado of cursed energy was destruction incarnate. Tearing away at and destroying everything that it touched. Throwing the wind into complete chaos and showering the entire field in shrapnel-like debris that had the blonde-haired Servant crouching down and defending her face with her gauntleted hand.
"SABER!"
The Servant looked over at the cry from Lancer, seeing the excited grin that was spreading her lips like the destruction playing out in front of her was the most exciting thing in the world. Though as she'd soon find out, the destruction itself wasn't quite the cause of that.
"YES!?"
"THAT MASTER OF YOURS JUST THREW MY OWN WEAPON AT BERSERKER!"
"HE DID!?" Artoria couldn't help her surprise.
She knew that he could create weapons but to be able to create Noble Phantasms!? That was an entirely new ballgame.
"WHEN THIS IS ALL DONE AND DUSTED, I'M CHALLENGING HIM TO ANOTHER SPAR!"
"DO NOT!"
And as abruptly as it had appeared, the tornado of destruction sputtered out. One spear of red faded into motes of prana and the other flew back through the air in a blur of speed and the shine of a red light. The legendary spear landed back in Scathach's hand with a satisfying ring of metal.
"At this stage, it would be a disservice not to, Saber." Scathach smirked at her fellow Servant, before blinking as Rider flung herself past the two of them.
"Rider!?" Saber was moving after the long-haired Servant before she even realized she was moving, though the realization didn't exactly stop her either.
"Our Masters!" The shout and pointed finger towards the collected teenagers high in the sky was all that Saber needed to crater the ground under her feet in an attempt to keep up with the dizzying speed of the Rider-class Servant.
"-OUT!" The cry from Heracles was barely able to be heard over the still-calming winds, yet the arrows that he'd fired were much easier to notice.
Three arrows struck the sharpened spear points of rapidly extending chains, exploding on impact and throwing them wide by a couple hundred meters. Yet the chains did not stop at just three. Another Seven flew out of the dust left behind by the double spear clash and all aimed directly at the two sprinting Servants.
Saber narrowed her eyes and deflected one with her invisible blade. Rider deftly dodged one with the kind of agility that only an upper-class Servant could ever hope to have. Heracles's arrows struck another four from the air with absolute impunity.
Yet one chain remained. A chain that wrapped around the wrist of Rider and with the sound of rattling metal tightened around the woman's wrist. Panic flooded through Saber's entire body as she tried to slow her momentum down enough to launch herself toward Rider and help her.
Yet, apparently, she didn't need to.
'Master needs my help!' Rider growled internally, a thrum of power flowing through her veins as she whipped a dark glare on the dust-cloud housing Berserker.
The buxom Servant raised one leg high and slammed it into the ground, shattering it beneath her feet as she made the chain as taught as possible and then pulled.
Enkidu's chains were many things. Strong, fast, dangerous. They had the ability to weaken their captured target the more divinity whatever they had caught held within themselves, to the point of becoming nigh unbreakable. But there was a limit, there was only so much strength that the chains could sap with a certain amount of divinity.
So, when the chains of Enkidu met Rider, a unique interaction impossible by almost any other Divine Servant took place. The chains met the E- rank Divinity of the Servant and began to sap her strength all that they could. Only to meet the unrelenting force of A rank strength thanks to her Monstrous Strength {B} ability. A source of strength stemming not from her divinity and a disparity between the two almost impossible to find in any other Servant in the Throne.
Enkidu's chains gave it all that they had, but in the end, all that amounted to was barely a second before Rider snapped the construct with an echoing sound of shattered metal and took off like a bat out of hell once more.
Like a spring compressed to nearly the point of shattering, Medusa took off in the direction that the teenagers had been flung. The Servant moved so fast that Saber actually wondered if she'd been holding back beforehand as she batted two chains aside and took off after her. The very movement of the long-haired Servant created a small slipstream behind her that left a trail of leaves, grass, and stones following after her.
'Everyone in this war are monsters in their own right.' Saber grouched to herself, mana exploding out of her feet as she tried to close the gap and help in the Rider-class Servant's goal.
XXXxxxXXX
Gilgamesh hissed as he gently floated to the ground, his golden armour- sans chestplate- adorning his form as he looked over at the clay monster that had/would eventually be his first friend.
Mild cuts coated the exposed portions of his forearms and around his shoulders. His gaze narrowed on Enkidu as the Berserker seemed to finally remember him and turned its attention back to him.
He'd have to apologize to his smith and his friends; he was about to crank up the heat quite drastically.
Enkidu took a single step in its mindless rage toward him before the area they stood in was bathed in a golden light.
Leaves and the grass began to fade ever so slightly in colour and crinkle up. Steam wafted off of the ground and within the half-ruined castle an elaborately woven tapestry, or two, spontaneously caught fire.
"If this is your wish then so be it! Melt!"
Sul-Sagana: The Horizon of Dawn that Purifies the Seas, fell out of the sky with a shockwave of pure heat and cremated the grass beneath the King of Heroes and Weapon of the Gods. The tip of the blade struck Enkidu directly and buried itself further and further into the molten earth it created before coming to a halt. The blade created a heat-mirage around it and filled the air with a low warbling sound simply by existing, let alone the effects it had on the environment and no doubt Enkidu themselves.
Gilgamesh wanted to believe that a direct impact from such an awe-inspiring blade had done something lasting against the Berserker, but he knew better than to believe that. Yet even then, he couldn't stop widening his eyes as the gigantic blade creaked and began to rise.
It was impossible, it was downright terrifying, it was the kind of physical strength that Gilgamesh had never wanted to see again after he had fought that monstrosity Huwawa alongside the very person he was currently fighting.
Again, and again Sul-Sagana rose in steady increments as Gilgamesh struggled to bring himself out of his memories and into reality. And finally, with a roar that cracked and cooled the red-hot ground beneath their feet, Enkidu appeared over the lip of the hole that had been gouged out. Both of their hands clutched the sides of the blade tip and held it above their head even as thin whisps of steam left their fingertips.
Enkidu had caught Sul-Sagana and now held it above themselves as if it was a trophy. Their clay hands touched the actively burning edge of the blade with only tiny streams of steam to show for it.
And Gilgamesh knew exactly why. The moment before the blade had struck, Enkidu had used their transfiguration ability. The Berserker had forgone any attempt at a balanced loadout in the face of such a weapon and gone all in on Strength and Endurance.
Strength {A+++}
Endurance {A+++}
And the benefits of such a drastic stat change were evident, as was the anger in their blank eyes as they roared and threw Sul-Sagana at Gilgamesh. Their completely ludicrous strength turned the gigantic blade from something trivial to deal with into a burning missile that would kill him if it struck directly.
It was going too fast for him to de-summon it before it struck him, so his only choice was to try and deflect it with another Noble Phant-
Sul-Sagana's handle was struck by a blur of browns and tans. The blade went from a twirling sure-kill blur aimed at Gilgamesh into a wildly spinning blur that began to rise into the air and create flickers of flame as it did so as well. The comparatively tiny form of Heracles clung to its pommel by his fingertips, which were dug so powerfully into stone that the Archer-class Servant was amazed he hadn't cracked it yet.
The weight and mass of the blade, in addition to the speed at that it had been hurled, made wrestling control of the weapon almost impossible. But such a task was something that potentially only Heracles could have achieved amongst the allied Servants.
"I."
The spinning and flipping of the blade began to enter a more controlled rotation, speeding up even further as it did so.
"WILL."
More and more flames began to flicker off the glowing portions of the gigantic blade, the flames getting not only larger but hotter as well.
"NOT."
Heracles narrowed his eyes on the hulking form of Enkidu as they crouched low and launched themselves towards Gilgamesh as he and Sul-Sagana began to descend.
"FALTER!"
Heracles completed one last flip and roared. Every muscle in his body was working in tandem to make sure that the super-heated blade struck the mindlessly charging Servant with as much power as humanly possible.
A blade thrown with the speed of A+++ Strength, diverted and enhanced by physics and the equivalent of A+ Strength, and superheated even further than its original strike. It was an attack that bordered on EX rank through its sheer destructive power alone and it was all focused on one single individual.
The glowing blade atop the very edge of Sul-Sagana struck Enkidu. The fastest, hottest section of the blade struck the Servant and buried them beneath a wave of superheated air and magma. Arcs of lightning leapt off of the blade and struck the land around the weapon as it buried further and further into the earth. The electrical discharge was a side-effect of the attack and nothing more, even as it forced the air to compress and explode in a sonic boom and buzz with pure energy.
And with an exhale that came from his very soul, Heracles hit the ground and let go of the gigantic blade. The Servant had buried it so far into the ground that once he let go of it, the pommel of the giant blade continued to sit in front of him as if tempting him to attempt the same ridiculous maneuver a second time.
"Is….are they finally dead?" The voice of Rin Tohsaka floated into the ears of both Gilgamesh and Heracles as they stared at the gouge in the ground as Sul-Sagana faded into golden motes of light at Gilgamesh's mental command.
And then Morgan froze, her gaze turning in the very distant direction of the Greater Grail with a dawning look of horror that made the Tohsaka Heiress want to genuinely whimper.
"Something is happening with the Greater Grail." The words were said as calmly as they could be.
Which in this exact situation meant that it was doused in a rather heavy dosage of worry.
And then the ground beneath Heracles and Gilgamesh ruptured in a hundred rusted-gold chains. Throwing boulders and previously melted stones high into the air as the two Servants avoided the dangerous chains with everything that they had.
Heracles could perhaps survive getting pierced by the chains again, true, but he only had 8 lives left and he had no wish to try and test what other ways of killing him Berserker had up their metaphorical sleeves. Not to mention that he didn't necessarily have to die to be taken out of the fight.
Gilgamesh himself, though, would die if caught by any of the chains. Which meant that trying to avoid them would be his highest priority, right next to getting out of this fight without any casualties or mutilations.
And then, like an invisible omen of future horror, a pulse of mana left the Greater Grail. Trailing across the land and washing over everyone without missing a single beat, continuing further into the distance. Uncaring of the sheer panic that it left behind as Sakura held onto the hand with her Command Seals on them, frowning in the direction of the Greater Grail.
"Onii-Chan!" The comparatively quiet call somehow managed to pierce across the catastrophic battlefield and reach Shirou's ears, making him snap his eyes over towards Illya as she ran up to the group of teenagers and Servants as fast as she could.
"Illya, you're alright." Shirou muttered in relief, looking over her as she came to a stop in front of him.
Usually, she would have tried to make a joke to ease the tension, but now was hardly the time and everyone knew it.
"The Greater Grail just did something. I can feel a change in the flow of mana within in." Morgan relayed, while Semiramis only kept her gaze narrowed on the distance, in the direction of the Greater Grail.
"That could mean a few things. Did someone use this fight to sneak in?" Illya asked, her arms crossed and her eyes cold and hard.
"No. I can't sense any kind of tampering and the Bounded Field hasn't reacted to 'myself' either." Morgan denied, shaking her head.
Though that only made it more confusing. Either someone or something was able to sneak past her Bounded Field without it ever once catching notice of it, or something was able to manipulate the Greater Grail remotely.
Which arguably was far, far worse than the first option.
"We need to check on the Grail and see what has happened." Semiramis spoke up suddenly, turning her gaze to the gathered group.
"I agree. Quick, decisive action is what's most needed currently." Saber nodded.
"I can teleport everyone to the edge of the barrier, but it'll be up to you to go to the Greater Grail itself." Caster spoke, getting a round of nods from everyone.
"Alright. Let's get going." Shirou nodded his head, sparing one last look at the battle before turning back to everyone.
"Alright. Everyone gather close." Morgan instructed, the other 8 all moving in close as a gigantic crack of cooled and hardened earth echoed behind them.
Now the thing to know about Morgan's teleportation was that it was truly an example of her sheer mastery over Magecraft. Something unattainable to even some of the best Casters in history. And that kind of mastery came with a casting time for such a complicated spell that was genuinely mind-boggling if she were to tell another Caster about it, let alone a Magus of the modern era.
Yet despite that, she couldn't help but widen her eyes when she watched a resplendent golden chain whip into the boundary of her spell, wrap Shirou in its grasp, and rip him out of the area. The last portion of Shirou's sandal left the boundary right as the spell went off and the space around the 8 of them distorted and left them beside the barrier to the Greater Grail that she herself had set up.
"Wha- SHIROU!?" Rin screeched, her eyes wide in full-blown panic at the very sudden kidnapping of her boyfriend.
"Caster, why didn't you cancel the spell?" Luvia asked, a troubled look on her face.
Though it only got worse when she saw the absolute befuddlement painted across the Servant's face as she continued to stare at where Shirou had previously been.
"It was too late. The spell was already in effect. The timing for something like that was….perfect."
Luvia could see what her Servant meant by those words; the timing needed to pull something like that off without messing up anything was nothing short of legendary. However, that didn't mean she had to like it.
"Gilgamesh…" The low growl from Saber got a few startled jumps out of some of the girls, their attention turning to the quietly seething form of Artoria.
"Yes, I suppose that Gilgamesh would have the kind of timing and tricks required." Morgan nodded her head, sweatdropping at the annoyed look that her sister shot her in return.
"Enough. Let's head inside before something else happens." Rin snapped, her patience at its end and her nerves frayed with worry for herself and her boyfriend in equal measure.
"Well said, Master." Semiramis grinned, patting Rin's head as if she was a pet while walking past her.
The sound of Rin's teeth grinding together was almost audible as she followed after the arrogant Servant.
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, World War Servant
Shirou grumbled as he dusted off his sleeves, seeing the shiny golden chain, thinner than anything that Berserker was throwing out, disappear into very familiar golden motes. He knew exactly who had just kept him at this battle, now he just wished he knew why.
So for now, he stayed on the sidelines, keeping himself ready to move or act at a moment's notice as his mismatched eyes watched the fight of four titans.
On paper, Enkidu vs Heracles, Scathach, and Gilgamesh may have appeared to be a very one-sided fight. Perhaps not an easy fight but definitely not a difficult fight either. However, that was only on paper, in practice as he could see right in front of him it was much different.
Heracles and Gilgamesh had to play it extremely safe when the rusted-golden chains came into play, given their Divinity. Something which limited what they could do and when they could do it. Scathach was more open in what she could do and was clearly fairing well against the Servant, but the sheer number of chains was still an issue for her, at least in regard to movement and being pierced through like a kebab.
Additionally, the Berserker-class Servant seemed to change their parameters constantly which made the fight incredibly three-dimensional in a way that Shirou was certain no other Servant could match. The only saving grace is that Berserker only seemed to change their parameters in response to a big hit. But considering their regeneration as well, a big hit was the only thing that had any hope of putting the clay monstrosity down at all.
With a narrow-eyed gaze, Shirou unclipped his smithing hammer from his side and lifted it up high. His left hand pressed on the ground and created something similar in shape to a tuning fork on the ground using transmutation.
"I am the bone of my sword."
The family crest split across both of his forearms pulsed with light beneath his sleeves and the hammer held aloft in his right hand sparked with a heatless fire.
"Alloy is my body and fire is my blood."
Shirou brought his hammer down and smashed the self-made tuning fork with all of his strength. The sound of the strike amplified and shot out of the impact zone with the shockwave that his strike created. The ground beneath his feet turned to metal instantly and spread out in a circle around him.
Unlike a few days beforehand, though, the metal spread even further. As if his refinement of the spell had somehow increased as well. Though he knew that, that was the case after that strange, invisible something inside him had clicked into place earlier.
This field would be most useful for defense or if somehow the fight moved into a melee with him specifically, but it was better to have it than not. Plus, it's not like there weren't things that he could do with it from this position.
XXXxxxXXX
Gilgamesh hissed as a chain scraped along the side of his abdomen before disintegrating into particles of mana. His armoury firing against his former friend constantly even despite the growing pain that he was in.
Having Scathach and Heracles fighting alongside him had certainly saved him from death multiple times by now, but he now found himself having to strategize and target around the two of them and it was getting harder and harder the longer the fight went on. At least now he had kept Shirou here, so things were going to plan. He just had to make sure that things kept on plan, which was a much harder thing to accomplish.
He gritted his teeth and summoned a shield as five chains tried to skewer him simultaneously. The sharpened tips of the deadly weapons struck his defense and threw sparks and dust high into the air as the force spread outwards when the shield failed to shatter. The King of Heroes immediately had to throw himself backward to give himself enough room to get out of the explosive clash of weapons and chains that once again renewed.
And then, from the flank of the cataclysmic combat, a salvo of arrows bombarded Berserker. Getting a roar from the beast as it didn't truly do any damage but did manage to distract it enough to stop it from catching Heracles in one of its chains once more. A grin spread across Gilgamesh's lips as he realized that his smith was finally ready to enter the battle after he'd so kindly kept him here.
"SMITH!" Gilgamesh's shout seemed to cut through the explosions and gale-force winds as if they didn't exist. "MATCH YOURSELF TO MY ATTACK PATTERN!"
The golden gates of Babylon shifted in the air into a new formation, and around Shirou, blades of all shapes and sizes began to form and rise out of the metallic ground around him. The sharpened instruments of war hovered behind him like hungry dogs as lightning crackled off of his hand pressed flat against the smooth surface.
"SO THIS IS WHY YOU KEPT ME AROUND! I'M HURT!" Shirou snarked back, his mismatched eyes blown wide as both walking armouries fired their weapons simultaneously.
Scathach and Heracles had no choice but to back off at the absolute hail of sharpened metal that rained down on the Servant. Its roars that could shatter the ground drowned out under the sound of scraping and snapping blades as the two of them fired a, quite frankly, disgusting amount of weaponry at the ancient Servant.
Gilgamesh had the upper hand in speed and quantity but even then, it wasn't by as high a margin as the Archer and Lancer class Servants were expecting. It was one thing for a modern human to find ways to move like a Servant, even as rare as that was, especially when they were a human with the kind of Mystery that clung to Shirou like a puppy-eyed crush. But it was entirely another thing for a modern human to act and, for lack of a better term, 'cast' like a Servant. Yet here they could see Shirou and Gilgamesh working together as if they were two Casters, or two Archers, brought together for the common goal of tearing Enkidu to shreds.
Both Servants already knew that Shirou Muramasa-Emiya was an enigma amongst humanity, with strength seldom seen and the attention of many powerful figures. But it was only now, eyes practically alight as lightning leapt off of his glowing arms and his hair whipped around in the harsh winds that the two of them truly understood why. Why he was so important that Gilgamesh of Uruk of all people would take such a personal involvement in him.
Somehow, someway, Shirou had the capability to become a Heroic Spirit within this modern era.
"HOW IS BERSERKER STILL ALIVE!?" Scathach called out, raising an arm to shield herself from the gale force winds, though her gaze never once left Enkidu as their body and chains took on a seemingly infinite amount of blades.
"THEY'LL LIKELY CONTINUE REGENERATING UNTIL THEIR MASTER RUNS OUT OF PRANA!" Heracles called back; an arrow held loosely in his bow in preparation for if the stalemate were to somehow end in Enkidu's favour.
"THE FACT THAT IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET IS THE MOST SURPRISING PART!"
And then, out of the corner of her eyes, Scathach noticed a red light unlike anything else on the battlefield so far. Her gaze immediately snapped to it and her blood ran cold even as she started to move instinctually.
Because off to the side of the battlefield, half hidden by battered and broken trees and bushes, sat Walter von Einzbern. With his face twisted into a look of pure hatred and his fist raised into the air even as his breath came out in puffs of pure steam and his skin, which should be pale, looked bright red.
And on his fist raised into the air, a Command Seal lit up and currently being used on something unheard over the roaring winds. Whatever it was, Scathach would never get to hear, as she immediately and without hesitation tightened her grip on the shorter half of Gáe Bolg and speared him through the heart. The sheer speed and force of the strike exploded half of his ribcage and internal organs out the back of his abdomen in a scene of pure gore.
Yet she knew she was too late as she felt an invisible weight press down on her. Something ancient and powerful in a way that she never could have once thought a Servant could create. Her gaze turned back to the fight and her eyes widened as she watched hundreds- thousands- of Berserker's chains merge together into one gigantic spear tip that flew higher and higher into the air before seeming to reach an apex to its flight and curling back down, heading directly towards Gilgamesh.
The King of Heroes, the moment he had felt the stir in the mana around him and seen the glow of red light in between the thick chains and flying weapons, had known what was coming for him. The King pulled his greatest treasure without a single moment's hesitation and began to charge it as much as he possibly could with the time he had before the Command Seal empowered Enuma Elish crashed down atop him.
He wouldn't hesitate against Enkidu. He shouldn't hesitate against Enkidu. He couldn't hesitate against Enkidu.
The rusted-golden Chain that could Restrain even the Heavens themselves, versus the desperate king's Sword That Cut the World Apart. A perversion of a 4000-year-old friendship and rivalry that would have made a certain Goddess proud.
Blood burst from Shirou's eyes like waterfalls as he clutched at his face with a pained scream that went unheard over roaring winds, and both attacks clashed.
XXXxxxXXX
Saber's vision went double for a brief moment as she stumbled mid-step, instantly getting confused and worried looks from those she was travelling with. She wanted to wave them off and say she was fine, however she couldn't, because the moment she opened her mouth was the exact same moment she reached into her link with Shirou to check how he was going.
And all she got was sheer, all-encompassing pain.
A shrill scream left her mouth as she clutched her eyes, bringing the travelling Servants and teens to a dead halt as everyone rushed to check on the blonde-haired Servant as she pressed her gauntleted hands firmly into her eyes.
"Saber!?"
"Saber are you ok!?"
The shouts from the others, usually something she would have tried to wave off or deflect, went completely ignored by the screaming blonde as she quickly cut off her connection to her Master, suddenly feeling her senses come back to her.
"M-Master…S-Something's happened at…..the battlefield." Saber panted, right as the ground rumbled and both Luvia and Rin let out incredibly brief squeals of fear.
They were underground with the equivalent of an earthquake going off. Not exactly a winning combination.
"We need to hurry. We can't afford to waste time." Semiramis spoke, her voice carrying every ounce of charisma that she held as Artoria unsteadily rose to her feet.
"Agreed. Let's all please move." Medusa nodded her head.
XXXxxxXXX
Shirou gasped as the entirety of his superimposed 'territory' began to rise into the air with him still on top of it. Chunks of earth, large enough to fit half of the ruined Einzbern castle, broken from the initial collision of the ancient Noble Phantasms and lifted slowly into the air by the stirring winds. He tried to clean the blood out of his still painful and blurry eyes to see what was happening as best as he could, his breath coming out in heavy pants that went unheard over the roaring winds and groaning earth.
Managing to get his sight at least partially back in his Fairy Eye he kept it open and stuck on the cataclysmic clash while he desperately tried to clean out and let his other eye heal behind the safety of his eyelid.
That weapon…Shirou had never met anything like it. It completely broke down the idea of a weapon, it pre-dated the very notion of 'sword'. Simply looking at it had nearly taken him out altogether. If not for Avalon and having a connection to Saber, he'd likely be down for the count.
The brief shine from another floating boulder caught his attention, bringing his lone open eye over to it and seeing Scathach drawing a long string of runes that once more made his head throb in pain just to look at. The woman was completely immersed in whatever she was doing and had to get Heracles to defend her from any debris as she continued to string together more and more runes.
The runes themselves glowed with power and began to stretch and curl as she went, eventually linking back around themselves and forming a circle that was clapped between her two palms before it exploded outwards. The runes grew in both size and power as they flew, eventually forming a gigantic circle around the ongoing collision before flashing once and erecting a barrier that seemed to completely block out the outside world.
Shirou knew what that meant, Scathach was defending the surrounding area from the inevitable, and nearing, fallout of these two Noble Phantasms. And that it was up to him to defend himself, as he wouldn't be able to get to Scathach or Heracles in time.
The teen grit his teeth and snapped his second eye open, green and red lightning sparking off of him and striking the metallic ground around him. And then silently, moving as if it was truly alive, the metal of his 'territory' rose and encompassed him completely. His surroundings turned to darkness, his last view being the sight of the gigantic chain breaking through the swirling crimson winds of the mystery weapon and striking Gilgamesh.
XXXxxxXXX
The fallout of the clashing Enuma Elish's was something that could barely be described in words. The kind of explosion that teetered on continent erasing if it had been given the proper build up, which luckily it hadn't.
If not for Scathach's three-line Primordial Rune barrier, the city of Fuyuki would have been, at least mostly, wiped off the map of Japan. Anything within the city caught inside it would have been vaporized instantly and anything outside that immediate point would have been thrown hundreds, potentially even thousands of meters in the opposite direction.
As it was, it was a miracle that Shirou, Scathach, and Heracles even managed to survive it. The two Servants were hidden behind a smaller, secondary barrier of Scathach's making, and the teenager was surrounded in an essentially superimposed territory of his own Reality Marble. The fate of the two attackers was something impossible to discover without the aftermath first dying down, not that Scathach particularly cared at that moment as she weathered the destructive forces of history's first two heroes.
Heracles placed a hand on her shoulder and shouted something, she could tell based on the way that his neck flexed, and his mouth moved, but she couldn't hear anything. Her hearing was essentially cut out entirely thanks to the overwhelming bass of the Noble Phantasm clash.
And then it ended as fast as it had begun. The chunks of earth fell to the ground like meteors and her barrier cracked and nearly shattered entirely but still holding.
"It's…over." Scathach panted, watching the metal sphere of Shirou's defense strike the ground and shatter into chunks of earth as the spell unraveled entirely.
XXXxxxXXX
Shirou practically gasped for air as his metallic defense crumbled to dirt around him, the teen's eyes widened and his face flushed from the heat produced by his magic circuits. His breathing came out in small clouds of condensation and sweat forming over every exposed part of his skin and far more underneath his now mostly ruined clothing.
But he couldn't stop now, he needed to know how Gilgamesh was doing. He needed to know if the man had made it out of the attack somehow.
Pushing himself onto his very, very fatigued legs he started to move closer to the epicenter of the clash. The dust in the air not only clouded his vision but also irritated his lungs and causing him to cough harshly in his fist.
A plain katana appeared in his grip with an aggravated growl, and he swung it in the direction he was travelling. An explosion of air and energy seemingly sliced through the thick dust as the blade in his hand shattered to pieces before finally turning to motes of prana. The explosion of his Sword Breaker had cleared the dust just enough to see Gilgamesh and Enkidu, his mismatched eyes widening in almost-horror as he registered what he was seeing.
Gilgamesh was covered in sweat, dirt, and blood as he desperately tried to block or counter the surprisingly slow but still powerful swings of Enkidu. Ea held in his left hand as he swiped and stumbled this way and that. The reason for that became clear as he turned slightly, allowing Shirou to see the blood pouring out of the hole in his torso where his right arm used to be.
Almost all of his resplendent golden armour had been shattered, leaving him only with his left gauntlet that even then was half missing, and his left greave. His defenses shattered and his own life-force continued to coat his body with each and every action he made to try and avoid being struck directly by the clay behemoth that slowed with each continuing second.
Yet behind him, the ground began to morph and ripple, a panicked look overcoming Shirou's features as he tried to rush forward even as swords began to materialize in the air over his shoulders.
"GILGAMESH!"
The singular chain shot up from the ground, avoiding stabbing through the back of Gil's head as he tilted it to the side, only for it to curl around his left shoulder, wrap forward across his abdomen and loop back around to merge with itself on his back. Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, had finally been caught by the binding chains of Enkidu.
However, he refused to let that mean that he'd go down without a fight. The King unleashed a guttural roar as he leaned forward as much as he could in the grip of the chain and thrust Ea forward at the charging Berserker. The three segments rotated three entire cycles each before the Berserker threw themselves onto it to try and get to Gilgamesh.
For Ea, who had to spin all three segments hundreds- thousands- of times to fully charge for an Enuma Elish, three full rotations weren't much at all. But against the continually weakening Berserker that had no Master to supply them with prana and the strike aimed precisely at the core of their being, it was barely enough. The gigantic, hardened clay hands of the Servant shattered like poorly fired pottery right before they could grab his neck.
Only to be replaced with much smaller, human hands.
Following the shattering of the hand, the entire clay monstrosity of the Mesopotamian Gods fell apart like a breakaway prop, yet somehow, someway, the form of Enkidu that Gil knew best came out of it. Even as their form started to crumble away into golden lights.
Soft, warm arms wrapped around Gilgamesh as Ea plunged out the back of Enkidu's torso; green hair filled the king's vision, and the smell of clay and cedar wood filled his nose. The man's resplendent red eyes widened in pure shock as Enkidu hugged him with as much warmth and emotion as they could with the precious few seconds they had left.
"That was a good fight, Gil. Next time I'll try to talk a little more, ok?"
Gil's eyes seemed to shine wetly as the soft voice of Enkidu hit his ears once more after so many years, Ea tumbling from his weak fingertips as he smiled.
"I look forward to it, Enkidu. Until next time."
And with the sound of soft, angelic laughter the Berserker-class Servant disappeared entirely, ruffling Gil's matted hair in a soft breeze. His gaze was unmoving as he basked in the brief moment that he'd finally gotten to share with his friend, right before the world around him began to blur. A singular drop striking the upturned earth beneath his feet.
"Gilgamesh!" Shirou ran forward and barely managed to catch the incarnated Servant before he struck the ground, a harsh, heaving laugh bubbling from the man's lips as he realized what was happening.
"So, this is my time, hm?" Shirou's eyes widened as the meaning behind his words hit him, the teen not knowing what to say.
"You- You're- can't you do something?"
"Not this time. My role in this chapter of the story has come to an end, I realize that now. And there's no one I'd rather be taken out by than Enkidu."
"I can't…believe this…"
"Besides…you need this going forward, what I'm about to gift you. It's what is needed for the best possible future for you and your people." Gilgamesh muttered, his eyes looking up at Shirou almost unblinkingly.
"I can't just- Can't you use the medicine you used on Sakura?"
"I could, perhaps. But I'm not needed, you are. Now look up….Keep your gaze on the distance…Do not-" Gilgamesh coughed harshly, blood dribbling down his chin now. "D-Do not look away."
"I-" Shirou looked like he wanted to argue before letting out a shaky exhale and letting his mismatched eyes stare into the distance instead of at the dying king cradled against his side.
Slowly, one by one and with seemingly great pain to the dying man, golden portals began to open. Items of the king's treasury began to fall out of the portals like rain, the teen unable to stop himself from scanning and recording them as his eyes caught sight of them.
"I thought I'd live past this….I thought I'd-" Gilgamesh coughed harshly again. "Be around until…the end."
"You still can be." Shirou spoke, though his gaze never wavered from the distance.
Now, Shirou's words felt hollow even to himself.
"My time…is over. My lands…..are gone. My legacy…is all that will remain."
"Your legacy?"
"You. Your lands. Your own people. The treasury I am now gifting you."
Shirou was silent for a moment before a hollow chuckle broke his silence.
"Since when were you such a giver?"
"It's…a learned skill." Gilgamesh laughed painfully.
"Always improving, huh?" Shirou asked sardonically, his lips pressing thin together.
"Y-You can't improve….on perfection. Heh-" Gilgamesh coughed up some more blood. "I have…more to say but you have time for…one question. M-Make it….count."
Shirou licked his dry lips as he watched the emptying treasury of Gilgamesh. The teen wondered what kind of question was appropriate, what kind of question was worthy of such a moment. He didn't want to waste it on something inane or useless, he wanted it to mean something.
And then it hit him, the perfect question. A laugh bubbled from what seemed like the very center of his being as he realized what he would ask.
"You seem like….y-you've got your question…" Gilgamesh noted with as much brevity as he could manage.
"Heh. Yeah, I do….Hey Gil, if you had a kid what kind of parent would you be?"
The result was instant, a guffaw leaving the dying king that left him wheezing and coughing blood but smiling as if he had just struck down Ishtar himself.
"HAH! I-I should have…known."
Gilgamesh was only silent for a second before he spoke.
"O-Once upon a time I said…the perfect..parent. T-That answer was pure hubris. M-My answer is this….I-I'd be a terrible parent by myself…" Gilgamesh admitted, still smiling as if he wasn't bleeding out. "I-I'd be entirely…too harsh. I'd push my child….too much and t-too far. W-Without others like….Enkidu or Siduri…I-I'd have no softer balance. I-I would g-give that child the world however…I-I would teach them a-all that I could…H-How to work for their o-own…riches. Their own…power."
A coughing fit hit Gilgamesh so hard that his raining treasury cut out for a moment before quickly continuing.
"I-I would be a parent….t-that could not s-succeed by myself. B-But I would do everything….t-to make them a child….that surpassed me."
"You know. I like that answer a lot more than your first one."
"I-I'd hope so. I have grown since then….Now, do not…speak. S-So that I may…say what is needed before my…passing."
"Yeah, go ahead, Gil." Shirou muttered, finally coming to terms with the fact that even though there were ways to save the golden king, this was how he'd rather go out.
"Very well…I, Gilgamesh, King of Sumer-"
XXXxxxXXX
Scathach walked through the thick dust slowly, Heracles trailing behind her as they both breathed heavily and kept their heads on swivels in case something else decided to jump out and strike at them.
Except, luckily, nothing did. The two of them navigated through the heavy dust cloud until they broke into an area that seemed devoid of it. Golden portals open in the sky and drop weapons onto the empty and scarred ground. Yet with each second the weapons dropped slower, and the portals grew fewer in number.
Slowly her gaze slid over, seeing the bleeding out, basically already a dead form of Gilgamesh held against Shirou as he kept his eyes practically glued to the portals and what they dropped. A wet shininess in his eyes despite no actual tears. The last few words, barely above a whisper in volume, only just able to make it into the ears of the two Servants.
"-ntil we meet again….I-In the white….H-halls of Ch..al…de….a."
"…Goodbye, my King."
The last breath of life left Gilgamesh's body. His eyes went blank and hazy as any lingering tension in his muscles gave out entirely. And in the somber silence of the First Heroes last breath, tears fell onto his bare, cooling, chest.
XXXxxxXXX
TWO YEARS.
I've waited almost 24 entire goddamn months for this chapter to release. For those of who you do not remember. Gil made his debut in this fic in chapter 4, i've had his death planned since chapter 2. I've watched as I somehow turned a man destined for death into a fan-favourite and now his time has come to an end. On one hand i'm pretty sad that i've had to hurt many of you like this. On the other hand i'm very happy and proud of myself that i managed to do something like this.
When i had first started writing stories, creating a character and developing him like i've done with Gilgamesh would have been entirely impossible. So this is, in a very morbid sort of way, a visible progression meter of my growth as a writer.
Yes, I did also create the recurring question of "what kind of parent would you be?" specifically for this scene as well.
Also, there is no omake or side story for this chapter because I feel like it would take away from the emotional impact that i was aiming for with the end of this chapter and everything that happened in it.
But moving on from my morbid jubilee, my life continues to turn and things are going pretty ok currently. I passed my university class and only have one left. I'm currently renewing my passport with hopes to travel oversea's sometime in September. And many, many games that i'm excited for have been showing off trailers and upcoming features and i'm going to go broke trying to get all of them, i just know it.
That's really all i have to say- Oh! No there's one more thing.
Yes. There is a FGO sequel planned to this fanfic. Those in my discord server have already been privy to this information for a while now, but i'm planning for there to be a sequel fic set in FGO. Though that's still a loooooong ways off yet.
Speaking of my discord, you should come join.
Discord code: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
Victor Ebone: You're welcome.
NotSpecialDude: Siduri does not dwell within Gil's GoB so no they haven't met her yet. And also i want you to know that one of my beta's lost his shit at "unga bunga the war" so you get a cookie.
Kamori I'm The Infinity: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter so much!
AngelicWisdom: Yeah that music choice fits.
TheSlySage: You aren't the only one apparently XD
Draegoon: Neither did I, my dude.
Ariadne Venegas: According to historians they were…roommates. Definitely roommates, that's what the ancient texts say.
King of Uruk: There's a couple things that held his hand from destroying everything there, his mellowness being just one of them.
Greyfox2: Thank you!
superpierce: I've definitely enjoyed Hunter x Hunter so far. And i can definitely tell when it goes off the rails from the typical shounen archetypes, its pretty refreshing.
AnimeFan13579: He just wants to show off his pretty blade goddammit.
rc48177: Look, the only person who hates Ishtar more than Gilgamesh is Enkidu so that checks out.
codywhite162: …Still can't wait to see what happens next after this chap? x3
SentinelSlice: this specific form of Enkidu actually has a pretty small, but still present, "anti-gilgamesh" ability considering that he was built specifically to fight and beat Gilgamesh.
Adro-Sama:You can get the ability of Kuro-chan out of my cold dead corpse.
AlphaMP(Guest): God, this chapter must have hurt, huh?
Zukafew119: Yeah, Illya's not going in the harem. Also fun fact about Gilgamesh's declaration, that's actually a vaguely meta-joke I made because of the name of this chapter XD And you don't need to worry about my deskchair anymore for it has arrived and its actually very nice, but it was quite expensive as an offset of that. I can't wait to read your reactions to this chapter and i'll see you probably close to the release of chapter 30 XD
END OF REVIEW REPLIES
All of you have a good morning, evening, night and know that watching the JJK drama unfold week after week is the best entertainment i've had in years.