Chapter 107 - Twice.
The blue clear sky was greeted by a spectacular show of golden and red that dyed the whole air with their colors. Everyone who looked at the sky was surprised and some couldn't believe it.
Two meteorites showers cut through the sky and left numerous rays of light across the horizon. The two sides drew a magnificent scene in the blue that could rival the true meteors showers.
The mana was stirred over the whole country, which made it hard to look at the show clearly as the two sides met.
The thunderous roars filled the whole horizon as it turned into a sea of flames and stirred the mana further.
Thousands of Noble Phantasms, magecraft, laser beams, and bullets were clashing like meteorites showers. An explosion after another kept echoing in the calm sky showing the huge battle aftermath. Although it should be called a war by now.
The heavy fire from Leo was still going against Gilgamesh treasury as both sides looked at the sea of flames in the middle without moving. Several stray shots passed through the attacks and hit their sides, which broke some of Gilgamesh's portals and hit Leo's ships in their shield to slow them down.
Although they seemed to block the attacks, they were aiming directly at each other, but because of that, they ended up clashing in the air as the mana filled the air because of explosions.
Glancing at his portals getting destroyed, Gilgamesh lifted his arm before activating the Gate of Babylon remotely. A giant gate appeared above Leo and as lightning and electricity were flashing from it.
Sensing the breath of divinity, Leo calmly looked up to see the gate that was about to drop the heaven thunder on his head. Honestly, he was still impressed by the Gate of Babylon of Gilgamesh.
Before he came to this world, he thought it was just a treasury, but in fact, it's an inseparable part of history.
As long as it was created, there's a treasure about it, this line describes this treasury perfectly.
Not only it contains Noble Phantasms and items, but even ready to use spells and attacks are actually stored there. Gilgamesh wasn't exaggerating when he said that his knowledge, which is his Clairvoyance, Sha Naqba Imuru, can't see the true limit for it.
"However, if you're planning to surpass the serpent of wisdom with this, then you're very wrong…" Leo's eyes flickered with a bright gleam before the sides of ships opened and showed a couple of hidden cannons.
Gilgamesh opened more portals around the ships without caring about his mana consumption. The gate shone with different thunder-based magecraft from the Age of Gods before they shot from all directions. The ships were focusing on the frontal attack, so these attacks came very suddenly.
However, the side cannons were charging with blue and red mana before they shot several beams in the air. Like having a mind of their own, the beams became arcs in the air and crushed the magecrafts.
They almost became homing laser beams before tearing down all the gate in the surrounding and moving towards the giant gate.
The gate shot the heaven thunder as the golden lightning fell down like a monster roaring in the sky. The beams did an arc and circled around the thunder before they attacked it from all directions.
*BOOOOOM!!!*
Another ear-splitting explosion filled the air before the flames and sparks from it filled all the surrounding, especially around Leo and his fleet.
Gilgamesh frowned while looking at the flames. Despite having his clairvoyance, he couldn't see Leo under the flames.
Suddenly, he widened his eyes slightly before the ship under his feet glowed. In a glimpse of a second, the ship turned into a flash and appeared far away from the previous location.
Several shots and beams passed the previous place before they lost their power and exploded mid-air.
Looking at his previous location, Gilgamesh saw Leo with his green lines web and fleet floating behind it. Each one of the ships had a weird looking blue magic-circle with a pink glow under them.
"Spatial jump mechanism is 0.33145 second late. Applying Palkia's concept to the magecraft formula lowered the stress on the energy source, but the trajectory needed to be re-calculated" Leo looked at his hand as it showed a blue-pink magic-circle.
This is the spatial jump system of the ships, which isn't their strong point, to be honest. Leo had to augment it with Palkia's concept to fight a quick battle, but he still needed to re-calculate the values and trajectories each time he used it, even if that is simple for him.
"Anyway…" Leo pointed at Gilgamesh as all the magic-circles started glowing before he said "... Bang"
With a blue-pink glow, Leo and his fleet turned into light particles and disappeared from their place. Gilgamesh, who saw this, waved with his hand before several gates appeared all around the ship of light.
At this moment, different ships appeared in all directions around Gilgamesh while aiming at him with all their guns. However, Gilgamesh already saw this as his gates were glowing with an intense light.
Like a machine gun, the gates shot numerous attacks and weapons at the battleships, however, they were blocked by the heavy heavy fire from the cannons.
But when the battleships wanted to aim at Gilgamesh, the light of the ship turned into a flash and appeared on top of a battleship.
Before it had a chance of a reaction, the Noble Phantasms fell down like rain and drowned the battleship.
*BOOOM!!!*
Sparks and electricity flashed on top of the ship before it got overwhelmed by the Noble Phantasms and exploded. The ship turned into a curtain of flames as its energy core left several energy waves in the air.
At that moment, several ships teleported around Gilgamesh and surrounded him in their attack range.
The bullets and shells filled the area around Gilgamesh in an instant. He glanced at these attacks before he turned into a flash of light and disappeared. However, it wasn't easy.
Like locking him down, the battleships kept teleporting next to Gilgamesh and keeping up with the ship of light's speed, which made him frown.
All of Gilgamesh's gates started shooting without mercy as the battleship did the same. The flash of light crossed a huge distance towards the sky in moments and the particles of light followed it as they appeared from place to place.
Wherever they appeared, a lot of explosions filled the space as the battlefield changed place to a very huge height.
On the ground, Archer looked at the light trail and the explosions that kept following it until they disappeared from the limits of his vision.
"Like they had to show off their big guns… Can someone be this bored?" Archer shook his head while looking at the flames and explosions disappearing in the sky.
"I don't know and I don't wanna know either" Rin also shook her head. Even if she couldn't see what Archer saw because of his eyesight, she can hear the loud impacts from here.
"Are you fine?" Ritsuka couldn't help but ask Nero, who was looking at the sky without a word.
"Umu, I'm fine" Nero shook her head before smiling at Ritsuka.
"I see…" Ritsuka didn't ask more even if she noticed that something had changed.
They were looking at Gilgamesh and Leo taking the battle towards the sky as they lost all the vision on them, except the constant explosions.
It was weird because they had a feeling that these two were just throwing stuff at each other to see who was the best.
"Fou?" Suddenly, Fou, who was in Ritsuka's arm, raised his head as his ears were twitching.
Looking at the direction of the mountain, Fou's nose shook for a moment before he jumped from Ritsuka's arms.
"Fou, what happened?" Ritsuka looked at Fou jumping on the ground, which attracted the attention of everyone here.
With quick steps, Fou sprinted forward before he looked at Ritsuka and signaled her to follow.
"He wants us to follow?" Rin lifted her eyebrow before she said " Good, let's go, Archer"
"Yes…" Archer nodded before he stopped and looked at Rin with a weird look. He said " You're going to follow him?"
"Of course, he looks like a very high-level familiar, and from what I saw, he doesn't seem to be simple" Rin felt her reasoning was correct, which made Archer speechless.
She isn't wrong, but this didn't stop Archer from sighing and covering his face{ This isn't just a familiar, he's a killing machine made to hunt humans}
"I agreed!" Nero nodded while looking at the weird fluffy creature that sent the same waves as Leo.
"It decided then, let's go before we lose him" Ritsuka said before they went after Fou, who deliberately lowered his speed for them.
Archer looked at everyone following the killing machine as he sighed at his current life before following.
Meanwhile, in the sky, the chase already reached more than 30km above the earth before it slowed down. It would have taken a shorter time if they didn't fly in a completely chaotic way.
All that was behind them, except the huge number of explosions, was broken Noble Phantasms, Battleships, and shells, which turned into light particles and disappeared.
Gilgamesh looked at the earth below before he glanced to his side to see Leo, who was just teleporting quickly. He opened his gates and aimed at him immediately.
Leo's main ship cannons were activated before they fired down all Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms or the gates that didn't shoot yet.
Suddenly, a ship teleported in front of Gilgamesh as all its cannons were charging with a huge amount of mana, however, before it shot, Gilgamesh just used EA to blast through it with his ship.
*BOOOM!!!*
The battleship turned into a curtain of flames and smoke in Gilgamesh's face, but they didn't pass his ship protection as he just went through it.
Despite going at this speed, Gilgamesh was able to see clearly, which made him widen his eyes when he saw what was behind the smoke.
"FIRE!!!" Leo, on his main ship, was aiming all his cannons at Gilgamesh as the heavy fire filled all the surrounding in the instant.
Gilgamesh looked at the rain of bullets rushing towards him before his activated Gate of Babylon and flying forward.
*BOOM!!!* *BOOM!!* *BOOM!!*
Speeding through the explosions, Gilgamesh reached Leo before he raised the roaring EA. The green lines around Leo tried to stop him, but a golden light from Gilgamesh knocked them away briefly, which allowed him to advance.
"ENUMA ELISH!!" Announcing the real name of the Noble Phantasm, Gilgamesh waved forwards as EA shot a huge red lighting storm that was ripping the world apart.
The rules, laws, concepts, reality, everything was getting severed by EA's power before it rushed towards Leo.
"OI! Are you trying to make me lose my job?!" Leo snapped at this red storm before he raised his lance.
"Rhongomyniad!!!" Waving the spinning lance, Leo stabbed forward as a huge dark lightning storm rushed forward.
*BAAAAAAAAMMM!!!*
The two hurricanes clashed again in the sky, however, this clash was more intense as the shockwaves rushed everywhere and made the area completely distorted before they crumbled into sparks of mana.
Gilgamesh blasted through the mana sparks as he turned into a flash of light. It took him an instant to reach Leo and attacked with EA. Unlike the last time, the sword was still charging, but Gilgamesh didn't stop as he sent the mana and waved.
Leo lifted his eyebrow before he blocked with his Rhongomyniad. However, unlike the last time, EA wasn't charged enough, so Leo attacked with his physical strength and knocked Gilgamesh away.
Strangely, Gilgamesh didn't resist as he moved backward with his ship before his mana increased.
Golden gates appeared around Leo as they shot all they could from magecraft before Leo's main ship reacted and shot them down.
Explosions filled the area again before Gilgamesh rushed again, however, this time, Leo saw something that made him teleport away.
In his last position, some hidden portals shot golden chains before they lost power and disappeared.
"How many times do you need to understand that I'm not a part of the clay club, so keep that chain away from me!!" Leo's eyebrow twitched while looking at chains in Gilgamesh's hands.
Unlike the true Enkidu, who probably can stop him for a short time, this chain can't stop him for a moment. However, this wasn't the real problem.
The moment when Leo saw this chain, he had a very uncomfortable and disgusted feeling when imagining it on his body, especially after Gilgamesh's earlier words. He will just say no and will probably activate his Noble Phantasm if that chain was 3 meters away from him.
"....." Gilgamesh didn't answer as his eyes were glowing red and burning with anger.
"Hey, I know you're angry, but calling everyone mongrel while you're one is ridiculous!" Leo couldn't help but say that out loud.
"Nonsense! The king's words are law and only me is allowed to call mongrels, mongrels! You mongrel!" Gilgamesh was boiling from anger as his Gate of Babylon, EA, and Enkidu were flashing with mana.
"Heh" Leo chuckled at this amount of mongrels' words, which made Gilgamesh's anger reach a new high before gates appeared around him.
However, they were instantly destroyed by Leo's main ship, quick magecraft guns. However, the light flashed again as Gilgamesh and his ship turned into a meteor towards Leo.
"But I guess this is approaching an end" Leo said while looking at Gilgamesh's remaining mana. Using the spatial jump, Leo made a distance with the flash of light before shooting his homing laser beams.
Gilgamesh kept using EA and charging it this whole battle to stop Leo's attacks, so although he still has a considerable amount of mana and can use Gate of Babylon's items, he can't keep going forever because his chance to win will become less and less.
"Hmph!" Gilgamesh knew that very well, but he just stared at Leo coldly while piloting the ship. The flash of light crossed the sky as the beams weren't able to reach it at all before losing their power.
Halting in mid-air, Gilgamesh did a surprising turn in the air before he shot several Noble Phantasms at Leo.
"I guess this is it" Leo shrugged his shoulders at Gilgamesh's actions before he raised Rhongomyniad that was releasing its authority all this time.
The main battleship cannons shot all the Noble Phantasms before they tried to lock Gilgamesh, however, he disappeared again at it left while aiming with EA.
"Yet, this is a serious question from me to you, who saw the same. What did it look like for you?" Leo's words made Gilgamesh lift his eyebrow before he said " Are you an idiot to ask this question? Or it's more ridiculous for a being without original sin, to carry all those sins on his shoulders. "
".... We're all idiots, one way or another" Leo nodded like he got his answer before ripples of energy were released from Rhongomyniad. With those ripples, the area stability and sturdiness started changing to reach a higher state that made Gilgamesh slightly surprised.
"This is a sight to behold, a Beast making sure the world stays safe" Gilgamesh grinned at this sight before looking at Leo raising his lance up high.
"Well, I won't deny that I'm very weird, even among the Beasts. But what is so good about being normal?" Leo shook his head before smiling while looking at the earth beneath him and saying " I saw a lot of different scenes and people, but I've to say that what left it mark in this history is those who broke the normal situation to achieve something"
"Slaying dragons, discovering the unknown, and even defying gods" Leo looked at Gilgamesh before he said "Those were all out of the ordinary, bizarre, and weird for the people around them, even impossible"
"For me, normal is tasteless and boring. No one can guess what's going on in my mind, even if there was a book about it" Leo laughed at this because it made a funny scene in his head.
"Hmph! Aren't you full of yourself, Morning Star?" Gilgamesh just shrugged off those words, even if they made sense in this vision.
"Maybe, I am. After all, I'm a prideful angel" Leo shrugged his shoulders and stabbed the surface of the ship with the lance.
A bright light appeared in the surrounding before the lance recovered to its holy form and started rotating. Tusk appeared behind Leo as the spin speed increased further, but there was something off about him because he was shining slightly.
"Again with this" Gilgamesh lifted his eyebrow while looking at Rhongomyniad releasing it authority of the anchor of reality that stabilizes the world. However, EA in his hand was shining as its power was charging.
"Well, it isn't all that important" Leo shrugged before closing his eyes as the ships, except the main one, turned into light particles and flew with the spin. The area suddenly became filled with green light particles.
Made In Hell also sank into Leo's shadow as Leo stood on top of the main ship with his lance stabbing its surface.
"You know, humanity isn't all that bad, even if I want to deny it. There's a lot of good and wonderful people, but in the end… This doesn't matter for a Beast!" Leo snapped his eyes open as his necklace opened up and all the main ship shone with a bright light.
The whole ship started to lose in normal form and transform into something else, especially at the front as it got bigger.
"We are only here to show the worst in humanity and become the enemy they need to defeat!" the intense light became stronger before Leo twisted the lance on top of the ship.
He didn't know when a halo appeared above Leo's head and black wings were wide open on his back. However, he didn't waste time as EA shone with a bright light before he raised it up high.
"Even if most of us didn't want to admit it, we're here to be a trial that they need to pass…" Leo said those words calmly before the main ship showed it true form. Its colors became red and golden as its front had a dragon head. It literally became a mechanical dragon-type battleship.
Gilgamesh glanced at the new ship before he grinned like seeing something funny and said " Ignorance as a sin and regrets as a goal. Even this king has to admit that it's a magnificent sight…"
Gilgamesh's eyes, after this confrontation, were able to see the sin and goal that Leo carries in his existence. The meaning behind his 'garden' and those Ten Crowns, which are just a gift and a curse.
Honestly, those Ten Crowns don't have a single battle ability in Gilgamesh's eyes, they are only something that achieved the impossible by using the humanity illusions, which was giving the original sin to an angel.
"FUHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Gilgamesh laughed before he raised EA as the storm grew larger and started to distort the world around it.
For Gilgamesh, an angel like Leo, is free from all sins, even if he fell. However, he still carries those sins on himself while manifesting as the Beast that represents the ignorance of humanity.
"Yeah, it doesn't matter anymore…" Leo said before he looked at Gilgamesh charging EA.
Besides being someone similar, Leo hadn't had a reason to go all out in this bullet hell battle. Maybe one full power Rhongomyniad without giving him a chance will do the trick, but he still played this game, which he had to admit that was interesting.
{I feel like I failed as a Beast, not like I care, of course. But I guess it's not all that bad} Leo smiled slightly before he twisted the handle of Rhongomyniad again.
Honestly, Leo still having his emotions and thoughts, even with all that he saw in his Origin, is an impossible feat. To still feel like a human, even if there's a lot of species that have the same feelings, but people like to call these feelings humanity, so just be it.
"There's no use to wait, Tusk, just do it" Leo sighed before his expression became serious. The ship under him opened its front as the dragon's head was wide open.
Energy and mana started gathering inside the mouth as it looked like the dragon was sucking the air around.
At this moment, Tusk looked at Leo, who nodded at him before a bright light filled him. In a few seconds, Tusk changed his shape from a small flying stand to a stand that has a more distinctly human shape.
It had arms and small feet that had nails on them while his shoulders had a star mark. This is Tusk act 3. He immediately became transparent before melting into the ship.
At the dragon's mouth, the absorption speed of mana increased to a ridiculous degree before it started to form a black point. A singularity was made just by the pure speed of the spin, which is a use of Tusk act 3 ability, spatial wormholes.
By using the spin, Tusk can make a point of infinite rotation on surfaces, even if it isn't true infinite because they disappear after a while. However, Leo can make it anywhere, even on his palm.
Everything was getting sucked into the singularity. The dragon's mouth seemed to contain a galaxy of seven colors distorting the space around it.
"This is just a greeting to someone who saw the same, nothing more" Leo raised his hand as the dragon was almost ready to launch its attack.
This attack isn't just a beam of mana, but it is something that even has some of Leo's authority of Forsaken Eden, Rhongomyniad's authority, and power of flaws. Using the power of Rhongomyniad as the anchor between the reality and illusions with Leo's authority, a bullet was made to be able to pierce through both.
However, he probably won't say that he only used this because he doesn't want to attack Gilgamesh with his lance. After all, he feels weird and disgusted about it.
"Very well" At this moment, Gilgamesh stopped his usual arrogant look while channeling most of his mana towards EA. Even if he feels that he won't be able to stop the next attack, he'll never surrender or admit it.
There aren't a lot of words to say about this because they understand perfectly, even without talking. They are both who saw the farthest end of the world and moved forward despite that.
Gilgamesh, who gave up immortality after his journey and could not understand the appeal of an undying body, didn't care about death nor feared it because he saw the future.
The future he is able to see for humanity is that of human knowledge continues to expand until they will be able to see even light from millions of years away. Though it would take such a long time that his body will have long rotted, it was an exhilarating sight for him.
So, as long as his legend remains, he'll always be there. His duty would be fulfilled as long as a hero, humanity's most ancient tale, was passed down through the ages.
Leo also saw the same, even if the ending kept repeating itself. Humanity, one day, will pass everything and come face to face with its destiny to break the impossible again and reach beyond the planet.
However, before that, he'll be the test, the barrier, and the last dam for them to affirm their way.
So, for the two of them, who experienced almost everything. They will keep experiencing death as many times as necessary, reviving again and again, and observing until the end of the world and the day when humanity reaches beyond the garden.
The planet for Gilgamesh and Forsaken Eden for Leo, just to reach the end of the sky and strike its final note. For this, the King of Heroes and Beast of Babylon doesn't find any meaning to do anything.
This is funny because they both believed that the world is their reality and doesn't need another one, so this most likely the reason they don't have a reality marble.
Well, Leo was also locked once in a place similar to a reality marble, so he doesn't like them at all.
The seven colors galaxy and the red storm are charging to their maximum power while both sides raised their weapons. It's like a clash that will shake the world is about to happen.
However, suddenly, a weird wave of energy passed this place. Most of the people won't recognize it, but they can feel it easily, especially Leo.
{Age of God's textures? Who is the madman that wants to rewrite reality now?'} Leo had a weird expression on his face before he smelled something. It was like well cooked, even slightly burned… No, it was a completely burned thing.
"Oh, it's humanity burned into crips and charcoal…" Leo nodded because he felt it was the correct guess before he stopped in his place. The small galaxy became more intense like it was angry.
An awkward silence filled the place, which made Gilgamesh, who felt the Age of God's textures lift his eyebrow.
Without looking at Goldy, Leo's dragon ship did a 110-degree turn to the right and a 60-degree turn down before he screamed " FIRE!!!!"
*BOOOOOOM!!!!*
The small galaxy exploded as a seven-colored bream rushed like a supernova across the sky.
Everyone in the city, be it, Archer or Merlin, saw the beam cross the sky and all the city before it landed on top of the reality marble in Fuyuki city.
However, there wasn't an explosion. Like something that doesn't exist, the beam passed through the reality marble and entered it easily before silence filled the place.
Despite that, the faint earthquake and the speed of the Age of God's textures slowed down, which didn't give them a good feeling at all.
Leo, who shot his attack at a different target, looked at the bewildered Gilgamesh that even his EA slowed down.
"You!" Leo pointed at Gilgamesh with his lance before he said " I'll deal with you later!"
Leaving those words, Leo's wings flickered before he disappeared from that place, leaving Gilgamesh starting at the dragon ship with EA slowing down.
"I'm the dragonzord! I came from a far, far place between galaxies to say that mongrels mean th-…" The ship's voice system didn't continue his recorded speech because Gilgamesh crushed directly with the Gate of Babylon.
"YOU MONGREL!!!!" Angry screams filled the sky as the king of heroes was ignored… Twice.