"Gilgamesh!!!"
At this moment, in a high-end villa district northwest of Fuyuki New City Station, furious roars echoed from a villa bearing the boldly written name "Tohsaka" on its plaque.
"Ahahaha! So it really is you, it really is you! I was wondering—every time I saw her, I felt a sense of déjà vu!"
Inside the magus workshop, Gilgamesh stared at the golden radiance blooming atop the composite summoning ritual circle. Especially as the familiar Saint Graph reaction on Rin Tohsaka grew increasingly obvious, a radiant smile immediately spread across his face.
Meeting those vividly colored eyes, Gilgamesh burst into laughter. "Hahaha! As expected—this poor, clumsy, unreliable air really is exactly the same as yours, you foolish woman!"
"You're the fool!"
"Gilgamesh, you bastard! You damned liar! How dare you deceive a goddess—and freeload off me on top of that?!"
It was still Rin Tohsaka's pretty face, her long black hair smooth and tied into twin tails with black ribbons. However, atop her head now sat a crown-like headpiece made of multiple elongated diamond shapes, and her blue eyes had turned crimson.
Her red casual homewear had also changed into a revealing and thin outfit composed of white cloth strips and golden pieces.
Around her slender neck hung a golden choker. Below it, her fair, smooth shoulders were exposed, along with her elegant back, slim waist, and flat abdomen—completely bare.
But at this moment, she had no intention of showing off her beautiful body.
Standing atop the indigo-colored, intricately gilded, exquisitely shaped great bow Maanna, "Rin Tohsaka" pointed straight at Gilgamesh in fury.
Dazzling magical energy instantly gathered at the goddess' fingertips. Buzz—!
"Ishtar, wait—!"
Seeing this, Gilgamesh's expression stiffened. Without thinking, golden ripples appeared as he instinctively summoned various defensive Noble Phantasms, throwing them out to shield the composite summoning circle.
"I've had enough!!"
Boom—!
A burst of golden light erupted, instantly generating a shockwave like a sonic boom.
Broken concrete, shattered flooring, and debris blasted outward in all directions, blowing a massive hole straight through the beautifully maintained villa belonging to the Tohsaka family.
Like a gas explosion, shards of glass cascaded down with a crash, while dust surged through the room. If not for the repulsion barrier set around the villa to drive away bystanders, the local police would have already rushed over.
"Cough, cough... you—idiot goddess! You fool!!"
Cutting through the smoke, even Gilgamesh—who had fought alongside Ishtar not long ago in the Seventh Singularity—was thoroughly exasperated.
He had been careless. This foolish woman changed her mood faster than flipping a switch—attacking the moment they met, and inside her own house no less. Damn it!
For some reason, whenever it involved Ishtar, whether as the Wise King or the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh always found it hard to restrain himself. The string called rationality became especially fragile in front of this goddess.
Fortunately, the magic circle was unharmed.
His crimson eyes seemed to burn with fire as Gilgamesh suddenly raised his voice. "You fool—always so reckless and careless!?"
"Is your brain filled entirely with mud from the Age of Gods and lumps of gold?! This composite summoning circle is extremely complicated! Can't you see the timing?! The foreign god is about to invade!"
"We're short on troops and manpower—are you planning to face that otherworldly divine king alone?! I'm starting to suspect you're actually a spy sent by the enemy!"
"You're the spy! Why do you think I'm so angry? Isn't it because you're a lying cheat?! Don't you know that?!"
Carrying resentment, Ishtar—floating in midair—calmed down slightly after Gilgamesh's scolding. A trace of embarrassment appeared on her face as she subconsciously prepared to descend and apologize.
But then she paused.
Why was I angry just now... what was I going to do again...
Oh right.
This bastard Gilgamesh broke his promise first—he actually dared to withhold her payment!
He withheld her money—Ishtar's money!!!
No wonder Ishtar was so furious. Back in the Seventh Singularity, Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, why had she joined Gilgamesh's side and betrayed the Three Goddess Alliance?
Was it for righteousness? For humanity?
No, no, no—it was for money! Ishtar had defected purely for the two-tenths share of treasure promised from Gilgamesh's treasury!
But when everything in the Seventh Singularity ended—the Goddess of Magical Beasts Gorgon and the primordial mother goddess Tiamat were defeated one after another, Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash completed the restoration and returned to Chaldea, and the commission was concluded...
When Ishtar went to claim her payment, that golden show-off Gilgamesh ran away—he blatantly skipped out on his debt!!
As a Heroic Spirit, Gilgamesh chose to disappear on his own (to dodge the debt), leaving Ishtar with no way to pursue it.
But this experience—basically working for a black-hearted boss for free—was something Ishtar would never forget. Grinding her teeth, she swore she would never let that golden idiot off the hook!
"That's my money! My treasure!!"
Ishtar glared fiercely at Gilgamesh, her meaning crystal clear—if he didn't give the goddess an explanation today, this wouldn't end.
"Money... treasure?"
At this moment, Ritsuka Fujimaru suddenly reacted and slapped his hand. "Gilgamesh, you mean that promise of two-tenths of your treasury to recruit Ishtar...?"
"Uh..."
Now it was Gilgamesh's turn to choke. He glanced at Ritsuka Fujimaru—he couldn't very well admit he had skipped out on the payment...
No, wait. How could I, the King, possibly run from a debt?!
It must have been a discrepancy between goods and value—yes, Ishtar must have been the one committing fraud!
"Foolish woman, do you think I recruited you for nothing? And yet you actually managed to lose something as massive as the Divine Beast, the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna! You were the one who broke the contract first. Tell me—how am I supposed to pay you?"
"Besides, the deposit I gave you was already more than what a poor goddess like you could earn from offerings in a lifetime."
Sigh—tragically, Ishtar could have almost any desire fulfilled, yet she seemed fated to never possess the Golden Rule.
"Uh, w-well... e-even without the Bull of Heaven, I still contributed, right...?"
Immediately, Ishtar began stammering, retreating with rings spinning in her eyes.
"Contribution?!"
"Hmph. You've got some merit, I suppose. That's enough, Ishtar. I'm not in the mood to play around with you right now. Time is tight—Ritsuka, Romani, continue the analysis and proceed with the summoning!"
With a dismissive wave telling her to go play elsewhere, Ishtar still wanted to argue, but she didn't want to hear Gilgamesh bring up the deposit again.
If she simply backed down like this, it would tarnish a goddess' dignity... she hesitated.
At that moment—"Tohsaka?"
Hearing the call from beside her, Ishtar immediately seized the opportunity to step down from the situation and quickly ended the argument. She hurriedly flew toward Emiya Shirou, who was walking over.
"Ara, Emiya-kun," Ishtar spoke first.
"Ah... yeah..."
Looking at the 'Rin Tohsaka' before him, Shirou Emiya hesitated. To him, a familiar classmate and comrade had suddenly turned into a goddess.
The shock was overwhelming.
"Relax. This goddess is Rin Tohsaka, and Rin Tohsaka is me. I'm the one in control right now—roughly seven to three, I'd say—but it's basically the same thing. Don't worry about it."
"Ah, okay..."
Nearby, watching the 'Rin Tohsaka' whose personality didn't seem all that different, Waver fell into thought for a moment.
"But the 'Bull of Heaven,' Gugalanna, mentioned by the King of Heroes..."
"A truly unbelievable goddess—Ishtar... the Mesopotamian goddess of beauty, harvest, and war. Said to be the most doted-on among the gods."
As a participant in the previous Holy Grail War, Waver possessed extensive knowledge of mythologies from around the world. Of course, he knew Ishtar's name well.
In myth, she had a love-hate relationship with Gilgamesh and had pushed him into desperate situations multiple times. Her fame was undeniable.
"Still, I didn't expect Ishtar and the King of Heroes to actually have such a... decent relationship."
"However, if it's that divine weapon of calamity from myth—the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna—then according to legend, it possessed the power to ravage Sumer and drink the Tigris River dry! It could become a trump card against the foreign god!"
"Probably..."
Jeanne nodded hesitantly. With Selene being summoned through this kind of possession, many of her abilities should be restricted. Her Ultimate Teigu likely couldn't be used.
"Ruler, did you notice something?" Waver asked with concern upon sensing Jeanne's contemplation.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Jeanne decided to be honest.
In this Holy Grail War, although she had some prior acquaintance with Selene, it was undoubtedly Selene who had broken the rules. From her conversations with the people of Chaldea, Jeanne had become certain that Selene's actions now posed a threat to humanity.
And since they had already clashed directly, joining the opposing side and revealing information about Selene could not be considered a betrayal of her role. On the contrary, it was entirely in line with the duties of a Ruler.
"Master, I know the Servant on the other side—the one who devoured the Saint Graphs of Gorgon and Tiamat."
"What?!" Waver spun around instantly.
"Jeanne, you know her? Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Just as he was about to inform Jeanne that her summoning ritual was ready, Ritsuka Fujimaru was overjoyed upon hearing this.
"Could we possibly persuade—"
"Ritsuka, abandon such unrealistic fantasies."
Before Jeanne could answer, Gilgamesh—who had also come over after hearing the commotion—spoke decisively.
"Once a being of that level makes a promise, they will never break it!"
"Yes."
Jeanne nodded. "I don't know much about Selene. She... cannot be considered a benevolent deity in the conventional sense, nor is she purely an evil god."
"In Romania, during the Holy Grail War of seven versus seven, I encountered her while serving as Ruler as well..."
"..."
"In the end, the result of that war was clear. Even with figures like Karna—the son of the sun god—the great hero Achilles, the legendary huntress Atalanta, the traitorous knight Mordred, and the Assyrian queen Semiramis—heroes who would guarantee victory in most Holy Grail Wars..."
"The 'Red' faction was still completely annihilated by the 'Black' faction, the Yggdmillennia family, who held Selene as their trump card."
"And after securing the final victory for her Master, she withdrew by self-dismantling, as if she had simply grown bored."
As Jeanne finished recounting her story, silence fell over the room.
"Yes... according to the information from Gilgamesh's Sha Naqba Imuru, Selene... while that name belongs to the Greek goddess of the full moon, this one is entirely different. In foreign mythology, she possesses many benevolent aspects—even nurturing all things with compassion."
"Yet she also has a terrifying side—war, slaughter, destruction, the abyss... even among chief deities, such authorities would only be fragments of her power."
On the sky-blue screen, Da Vinci—rapidly analyzing and compiling the data uploaded by Gilgamesh—rested her chin in her hand and spoke seriously.
"At the same time, she is a goddess of the earth, the sky, the sea, the sun, and the stars... This is absurd. A genuine singular creator god, a supreme deity who governs all cosmic dimensions. With so many domains, the authority she holds—her true form—is beyond our imagination."
Looking at the complex records displayed on the monitor, Romani's expression fluctuated as he spoke with frustration.
The more one understood, the more terrifying she became. This level of existence far surpassed even the so-called Grand Caster Solomon.
"Moreover, she has a rather unpleasant personality," Gilgamesh added.
"Last time was a transaction. This time is also a transaction. Most likely, she simply treats Solomon's incineration of humanity as a game—a grand firework display for her amusement."
Based on his understanding of pleasure and of gods, Gilgamesh made this judgment.
"Fortunately, due to the limitations of a Servant's Saint Graph, this is not her true body—likely just a fragment recorded in the world. Even if powerful, she shouldn't exceed Tiamat by much."
"Just like last time—we simply need to prepare more contingencies and allies!"
As he spoke, Gilgamesh glanced at Ishtar, who was still chatting closely with the red-haired boy. Suddenly recalling something critical, he shouted:
"Ishtar!"
"Ah—y-yes?!"
Ishtar jolted in surprise.
"Don't tell me that this time, right after being summoned, you've already lost it again."
As Gilgamesh spoke in a flat, emotionless tone, those around who understood the implication fell silent.
Last time, Ishtar's blunder had nearly gotten them all killed.
"Y-you... what kind of look is that?!"
Feeling insulted, Ishtar flushed red with anger and shouted.
"This time, of course I didn't lose it—"
Before she could finish, the entire villa suddenly shook violently.
What now?
Everyone turned in unison toward the large figure outside the hole in the wall.
What kind of creature is that? Why does it have four jaws?
"ROAR—! In the name of Selene, the Sangheili hereby declare war upon you!"