I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 380: Enkidu, Just How Much Do You Hate This King?
Unlike the Fate/Apocrypha of this world, in the original version, Jeanne and her group went after the Hanging Gardens by hijacking several passenger planes.
It certainly looked impressive, but at the end of the day, how could civilian aircraft ever compare to fighter jets?
The reason for this change was the same as mentioned before—to make the battle scenes more visually exciting.
In Shinji's version, by the time of the final battle, there weren't many Servants left. There simply wasn't the same luxury as in Higashide's version, where clashes between numerous Servants could be used to spice up the plot.
Since the number of Servants had decreased, it became necessary to replace them with other things capable of causing explosions, namely, fighter jets.
From a narrative standpoint, too, if they could "borrow" planes at all, then fighter jets were far more suitable than passenger planes for breaking through the Hanging Gardens' defenses, whether in terms of firepower, maneuverability, or speed.
Of course, this was also because, in Higashide's version, the passenger planes mainly served as airborne platforms for Servants to fight on.
Here, though, Shinji's fighter jets were genuinely meant to participate in an all-out aerial offense and defense.
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On the silver screen of the sky, battered by blade-like, icy winds, the holy banner in the blonde girl's hands snapped violently.
Mounted atop a swift eagle, Jeanne d'Arc stared straight ahead, dignified and fearless.
Interfered with by the immense magical energy of the Hanging Gardens, the two fighter jets beside her slowed more and more the closer they drew to the aerial fortress.
Even so, the wind pressure felt while standing on an aircraft like this was enough that any ordinary human would be blown straight into the jet engines.
Yet Mordred and Astolfo both planted their feet firmly in the middle of the planes, magical energy pooling in their legs to keep them steady.
The only one whose body still fell squarely within human limits was Kairi Sisigou. He obediently wore a pilot suit and sat in the cockpit.
Naturally, Sisigou wasn't actually flying the jet himself. Precision controls like that were left to his Servant.
"Even though we still can't see the castle, that massive magical energy has started moving. Looks like they've noticed us," Mordred relayed to the others through magecraft.
"I'll handle the defense, so I'll leave the attack to you all!"
Jeanne was well aware that her role in this aerial battle was simply to wave her flag and draw every single attack toward herself.
To put it bluntly, she would use magecraft and Noble Phantasms to unleash a massive 'Hey, over here, you bastards!' taunt on all enemy fire, creating an opening for Mordred and Astolfo.
Just as Jeanne tightened her grip on the already-cracked flagpole, their eyes finally caught sight of the structure hidden among the clouds—
The Aerial Garden of Vanity.
"I see it!"
"Me too! Man, no matter how many times I look at it, that thing's amazing!"
"…Indeed."
Jeanne wholeheartedly agreed with Astolfo's admiration.
If she had to describe the Hanging Gardens in a single sentence, it would be this: a gigantic birdcage gleaming with golden radiance.
Seeing something like that flying through the sky could only be described as fantastical.
But now was hardly the time to marvel at its beauty.
The moment the castle entered their field of vision, it launched its attack.
Jet-black plates over twenty meters long—Tiamtum Umu—deployed around the Gardens and opened fire on them.
Facing the ferocious barrage, Jeanne's expression hardened. Gripping the holy banner in one hand, she shouted at the top of her lungs:
"Amakusa Shirou—!!"
Her furious cry was not answered by Amakusa himself.
Instead, the one who "picked up the call" was his Servant—Semiramis.
"Stop yelling already. You sound like a resentful woman who's been dumped by a man."
Semiramis's voice, dripping with malicious amusement, echoed painfully in Jeanne's mind through forced telepathy.
"Master is busy right now, using the Greater Grail to 'save' humanity. If you don't hurry, he'll finish the job before you even get here."
"…Is Shirou really serious about this?"
More importantly, she had just been given critical information.
"…Is he truly planning to save humanity?"
The Empress burst into mocking laughter at Jeanne's question.
"What Master wants to do is none of my business as his Servant, is it? All I care about right now is killing you, the one getting in Master's way!"
In the next instant, several of the massive floating gun platforms flared with blinding light.
An overwhelming torrent of magical energy roared as it surged forward, screaming through the air as it attacked Jeanne atop her swift eagle.
"Hey, Empress."
Watching the vented, almost spiteful barrage on the giant screen, Mordred poked the Empress sitting beside her.
"…You're actually mad, aren't you?"
"If you mean my acting, then of course." Semiramis nodded vigorously. "Daring to question Lord Amakusa's plan to save the world—of course a woman like that needs to be taught a proper lesson."
Mordred leaned in and muttered by her ear, "Isn't it really because you're both in the same movie, but Jeanne has way more scenes with Amakusa than you do? You got jealous, didn't you?"
Semiramis covered her face with one hand.
"Exactly. Just looking at the screen time, outsiders might even think that that braid-wearing country girl and Amakusa—"
"—Hey! Mordred! What are you making me say?!"
"Ehehe!"
Mordred burst into the giggle of someone whose prank had succeeded, ducking her head to avoid the Empress's swat.
She had to dodge. Who knew whether the spikes on the back of Semiramis's elegant gloves were coated in poison or not?
If her skin got pierced and she had to be carried off for treatment, her reputation would be completely ruined.
But there was no way the Empress was letting this teasing brat off so easily. After missing her hit, she simply spread her arms, clearly aiming for Mordred's ponytail instead.
"Hey! That's totally against the rules!"
"Shut up, you little brat!"
…
Whether in reality or on the silver screen, the Empress had clearly become extremely busy.
Boom!
Like a meteor streaking through the dark night, a beam fired from the Tiamtum Umu shot straight toward Jeanne.
As part of the aerial fortress's anti-air defense system, the Tiamtum Umu's beam possessed a level of Mystery that modern weapons could never hope to resist.
With the material strength of an F-15 fighter jet, even being grazed by that beam would result in parts of the airframe being instantly vaporized.
Semiramis knew full well that a single Saint was not worth worrying about.
The real threats—the ones capable of overturning the battlefield—were the two extra troublemakers.
Astolfo, with his numerous Noble Phantasms.
Mordred, whose destructive beam rivaled an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm.
If those two coordinated with Jeanne, a sudden reversal was far from impossible.
That was why, even though she hated Jeanne enough to want her dead on the spot, the Empress chose the more tactically valuable targets—
Mordred and Astolfo.
"Don't even think about it!"
Jeanne immediately activated her Noble Phantasm, "Luminosité Eternelle — God is Here With Me."
A golden sphere of light completely enveloped her and her eagle.
And then, with a piercing cry of the eagle, the sphere of light slammed head-on into the beam fired by the Tiamtum Umu.
When Jeanne activated her Noble Phantasm, she could not move.
If that was the case, then all she had to do was make the floor beneath her move instead.
By doing so, the greatest weakness of "Luminosité Eternelle"—its immobility—was effectively erased.
All that remained was a simple question: how long could Jeanne continue to wave the flag in her hands?
"Hmph. Childish tricks."
Semiramis scoffed as she continued to command the black plates, firing one out-of-spec beam after another.
As the Empress's so-called "guaranteed victory" Noble Phantasm, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was on a completely different level from mass-produced Noble Phantasms.
Even the Tiamtum Umu's basic shots—mere standard attacks within the air-defense system—each carried power on the level of Anti-Army Noble Phantasms.
And yet, every single one of those devastating attacks was deflected by Jeanne's banner.
On the battlefield where the Saint waved her flag, the word defeat did not exist!
The fluttering fleur-de-lis banner was never a simple Noble Phantasm.
It was the crystallization of faith, the embodiment of the beliefs of countless soldiers who had once fought and bled upon the soil of France.
To shatter that unbreakable faith, there was only one way—
Overwhelm it with power beyond what the banner could endure, and destroy it completely.
The Empress, however, was not fully aware of the specifics of Jeanne's Noble Phantasm.
She did not know that the golden sphere of light possessed a so-called defensive limit.
Seeing that her successive attacks still failed to make a dent in that rapidly moving "yellow ball" in the sky, the Empress finally snapped.
Don't be fooled by the fact that she called her Noble Phantasm the Aerial Garden of Vanity—that "vanity" was, to a large extent, nothing more than self-deprecation on her part.
If it were truly a vain garden, how could she possibly boast about its invincibility at every turn?
And yet now, that supposedly invincible aerial fortress couldn't even deal with a mere French country girl. How was she supposed to swallow that humiliation?!
After all, this garden—vain in name only—was a symbol of her dignity itself.
"Damn it…! This is infuriating!!"
As Semiramis screamed hysterically over the open channel, Jeanne seized the opening created by her opponent's shaken composure.
"Rider! Saber! Attack!"
"OK!"
"Coming right up!"
The missile launchers mounted beneath the fighter jets' wings unleashed a continuous stream of fiery trails toward the massive black plates ahead.
Empowered by Servant skills and magical energy, missiles far exceeding the F-15's standard payload limits were fired off in one go by the two knights.
In an instant, the sky was filled with contrails.
At the same time, both fighter jets pulled sharply upward. Their engines flared with brilliant light, and in a burst of acceleration they broke free from the canons effective firing range.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of orange-red fireworks blossomed across the sky, accompanied by the deafening shriek of stone being torn apart.
Several canons on the front line were blown to pieces under the assault of humanity's modern weapons.
With their magical support severed, the shattered fragments fell from the sky, crashing into the ocean and breaking apart completely.
But Jeanne's side wasn't finished yet.
After looping around, Mordred and Astolfo brought their jets back into the battlefield.
Though every missile had been spent, a fighter jet's armament didn't end there.
Tongues of flame flickered in the night sky as the muzzles of the mounted Gatling cannons erupted, pouring ammunition into the remaining canons overhead.
Under the cover provided by Jeanne and her eagle, Mordred and Astolfo enjoyed themselves to the fullest, cutting loose with the fighter jets.
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"So cool!"
Watching the two fighter jets fire without restraint on the big screen, Enkidu couldn't help but whistle.
With a Master famously nicknamed the Avatar of Explosions around, it was only natural that Enkidu—part of the all-purpose trio that frequented the set alongside Archer and Shinji Matou—had been heavily influenced by Shinji.
In Enkidu's eyes, the way Mordred and Astolfo pushed a fighter jet's firepower to its limits was pure spectacle—violent, exhilarating, and right up his alley.
"Modern firearms really aren't something to underestimate," Enkidu said, his eyes sparkling with childlike excitement.
"Hmph. Flashy nonsense."
Seated beside him, Gilgamesh let out a disdainful snort.
In the King of Heroes' view, despite how intense the two jets looked on screen, the actual effective damage they dealt was extremely limited.
Aside from the initial missile barrage, the subsequent cannon fire didn't inflict any real damage on the canons swirling through the sky, it served little more than suppression and interference.
The true damage came from the sword waves Mordred unleashed with her knightly blade during those openings. That was currently Jeanne's team's greatest source of firepower.
Of course, it wasn't that modern weapons were all bark and no bite.
It was simply that the Empress's Hanging Gardens were reinforced by Mystery, greatly reducing the destructive power of modern arms.
Otherwise, that earlier missile salvo alone would've been enough to blast the top clean off a mountain.
From that perspective, Gilgamesh actually found Shinji's depiction fairly convincing, at the very least, it wasn't nonsense pulled out of thin air.
Which only made it harder for him to understand his close friend's attitude.
What was there to admire about something so useless?
"Now, now, Gil, you can't say it like that," Enkidu wagged a finger.
"The missiles and machine guns only look weak in the movie because they lack the Mystery that Noble Phantasms possess."
"Exactly. Which is why they're just flashy toys. They can't possibly compare to my treasures," Gilgamesh replied irritably.
Enkidu muttered under his breath, "…What if I modified those two fighter jets?"
"What did you say?"
"If my calculations aren't wrong," Enkidu said calmly, "I should be able to modify fighter jets so that they rival Medusa's Pegasus in speed and agility. Each missile they carry would possess the power of a B-rank Anti-Army Noble Phantasm, every machine-gun round would be equivalent to a C-rank Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm, and they'd be able to curve their attacks in defiance of physical laws—a super ultra Noble Phantasm…"
"And on top of that, they could be mass-produced."
"...Enkidu," Gilgamesh said, his mouth hanging slightly open as he stared at him,
"are you planning to start a world war?"
"How could that be?" Enkidu chuckled casually.
"…That's good."
Gilgamesh secretly let out a sigh of relief. He really didn't want to see his best friend slapped onto the global wanted list under the title of terrorist.
Whether anyone could actually catch Enkidu was another matter, but being wanted alone would already be humiliating enough for a Heroic Spirit.
Unfortunately, Enkidu's next words made Gilgamesh's heart nearly stop.
"I'm just planning to try them out on you next time we fight, Gil."
"…Eh?"
Gilgamesh's lips twitched violently.
If it were just a single jet like that, he wouldn't be worried. He'd just spend a few more Noble Phantasms and be done with it.
But mass production…
Gilgamesh knew his friend wasn't one to boast. If Enkidu said it could be mass-produced, then it absolutely could be.
"Enkidu… just how much do you hate this king?"
"I don't. I just want to beat you."
"..."
Gilgamesh ran a quick calculation in his head. Against the absurd firepower of Enkidu's hypothetical modified weapons, his standard arsenal would almost certainly lose badly.
As for using Ea or the full might of the Gate of Babylon—bringing that out in what was supposed to be a sparring match would mean he'd already lost from the start.
"Enkidu, isn't using fighter jets a bit too much? Leaving aside how hard it is to get real ones, if something like that were discovered by outsiders, it'd be a huge headache for Shinji," Gilgamesh said hastily.
He really didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the other Heroic Spirits.
After thinking for a moment, Enkidu nodded.
"Then I'll just modify cheap, practical mortars instead. Those are easier to mass-produce."
"..."
Looking at Enkidu's smiling face, Gilgamesh reached a single, unavoidable conclusion.
His friend wasn't going to stop until he'd beaten him flat.
Damn that infuriating male competitiveness!!!
In his agitation, Gilgamesh snapped the armrest of his seat clean off.
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