"Don't look at me with those eyes!"
The temple trembled with the fury of their clash. Castorice's scythe was a whirlwind of silver, carving relentless arcs through the air and presenting the Gorgon with a formidable problem.
A deity of this caliber couldn't be slain by mere touch, but the attribute of death itself could accumulate.
With each contact Castorice made, the very concept of mortality condensed upon the Gorgon, weaving a fragility into her divine existence that hadn't been there before.
Just as the Gorgon gathered her power, her baleful Mystic Eyes seeking to turn Castorice to stone, Ana reacted.
Her own Mystic Eyes flared to life, a counterwave of power that slammed into the Gorgon's, the two forces canceling each other out in a silent, violent discharge.
Stripped of her potent petrifying gaze, the Gorgon, while still immensely powerful, was no longer invincible.
"You monster! Die, die, just die!"the Gorgon shrieked, clutching at her eyes in agony. The clashing of their Mystic Eyes had ravaged her mind, and now, rationality seemed to have deserted her completely.
The serpentine locks of her hair thrashed wildly, countless beams of searing light erupting from their mouths to scour the surroundings.
She had abandoned all precision, lashing out indiscriminately.
"If I were without a Master, I might still fear you," Ana declared, her voice steady as she deftly swung her own scythe, shearing through the attacking serpentine tendrils. "But now... with Castorice's aid, I will not lose!"
'My, Ana is bursting with energy,' Merlin mused, unable to hide his astonishment. 'I hadn't realized your reserves were so profound, Castorice.'
It was truly staggering. A Servant's manifested strength was intrinsically tied to their Master.
A weak Master meant a weakened Servant, no matter their legendary prowess.
You can't cook without rice, and a soldier can't fight on an empty stomach.
But the magical energy flowing from Castorice was on an entirely different, almost absurd, level.
This was the reason Ana had been pressuring the Gorgon relentlessly since the battle began, forcing the monstrous goddess onto the defensive.
Without this advantage, even bereft of her Blood Fortress's amplification, the Gorgon's raw power would have already inflicted devastating casualties.
This was what they called a 'super-effective day,' where a single advantage could overturn the heavens. Without Ana, their fight would have been far more arduous.
"Damnable... irritating insects! How can this be...?" The Gorgon snarled as Castorice's scythe traced fresh wounds across her body, each cut further leaching the life from her.
Seizing the opening, Ana pressed forward, her scythe a blur of motion that pulverized every serpentine obstacle in her path.
With a powerful leap, she launched herself through the air, aiming straight for the Gorgon's chest.
Her weapon rose, poised for a decisive strike.
But in that exact instant, a single serpent-hair mouth gaped open, and a beam of light, impossibly fast, shot forth. This was a blow the Gorgon had been preparing all along.
"So fast...!" Ana's eyes widened. There was no blocking it, no dodging.
Yet, in the very same breath, Castorice was there, materializing at her flank. Her scythe swept out, unleashing a massive blade of pure light that met the attack head-on, dissolving it into harmless motes.
"Go, Ana! Do what you know is right!" Castorice's voice was soft, but firm, from behind her.
"I am Tiamat, the Primordial Goddess! I cannot be defeated by the likes of you!"the Gorgon roared, her face a mask of savage fury.
"No. You are the monstrous goddess of the shapeless island. The hero-slayer. That is you, Gorgon." Ana's gaze was unwavering. "Your vengeance was never meant to leave that island."
With those words, Ana put all her strength into a single, definitive thrust, driving her scythe deep into the Gorgon's chest.
For a moment, time seemed to freeze. Then, cracks spiderwebbed across the Gorgon's form, and the very foundation of her spiritual core began to shatter.
"Walk with me into the underworld... Our shared sorrows, even if we cannot cast them aside... they should not have birthed a demon of vengeance..."
"That scythe of yours..." The Gorgon gasped, feeling her power disintegrating from within, her eyes wide with stunned realization.
"This is the very reason I was summoned to this land," Ana stated.
Her weapon was the Harpe, the Slayer of the Immortal. The Gorgon's vaunted immortality meant nothing before its edge. The moment Ana's blow landed, the outcome was sealed.
The temple began to crumble around them. A great fissure opened where the Gorgon had fallen. Without her power to sustain it, the structure could no longer hold.
"My journey ends here," Ana said, turning to Castorice with a gentle smile as she felt her own spiritual core beginning to dissolve. "The road ahead is yours to walk now."
She and the Gorgon were two sides of the same coin. With the Gorgon's death, her own existence was forfeit.
"Just rest for a little while," Castorice replied with a quiet nod. "We will meet again one day."
Ana simply took this as a comforting kindness.
At that moment, Quetzalcoatl arrived at the Blood Fortress, dragging a thoroughly bound Kingu behind her.
"My, oh my! Looks like the party's over already! And here I was, hoping to lend a hand. I even went and used my full strength for the first time in ages to beat this guy!" Quetzalcoatl chirped, gesturing with her captive.
"You... you've defeated Mother?" Kingu stammered, staring at the scene in disbelief.
"Naturally," Castorice said, stepping calmly before Kingu.
"And your end comes here as well. I will not permit you to continue existing in this world, not after the atrocities you have committed using Enkidu's body."
"Hmph. The victor is king, the loser, a bandit. So it has always been," Kingu sneered. "But... are you sure you shouldn't be more concerned about your mage friend over there?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Merlin let out a pained grunt, blood trickling from his lips, his vibrant spirit instantly withering.
"So, this was your true scheme all along," Merlin coughed, a wry smile on his face. "To think I would be outdone in deception..."
The form Merlin had used since arriving in this world was merely a shadow, a familiar.
His true body, his Saint Graph, was deep beneath the sea, using his illusions to maintain the seal on Tiamat, keeping the primordial goddess in her slumber.
But he had miscalculated. The Gorgon's Authority, the 'Womb of All Beasts,' was not mere replication, but synchronization.
The instant the Gorgon died, the shock of that death, the raw sensation of mortality, had traveled through that link. It had jolted the slumbering Tiamat completely awake.
And Merlin's true body, the one holding the seal, had been instantly crushed into nothingness the moment the Gorgon fell.
"Don't worry, Merlin. I'm sorry I kept this from you, but I have a way," Castorice said, her voice filled with apology as she looked at his fading form.
"Is that so? In that case, I leave it in your hands, Castorice," Merlin replied, an expression of understanding dawning on his face before his body dissolved into a shower of petals.
"That's Mother we're talking about! Do you truly have a way to handle this, Castorice?" Ishtar interjected, her usual composure shattered.
As one of Tiamat's children, she knew all too well the sheer, unimaginable terror the primordial goddess represented.
"Yes. If my guess is correct, then there is still a way," Castorice affirmed with a nod.
In the very next heartbeat, without the slightest warning, her hand shot forward, piercing straight into Kingu's abdomen.
When she withdrew it, she held a single, radiant object: the Holy Grail, shimmering with golden light.
Stripped of the Grail's protection, the vessel of Enkidu could no longer resist the touch of death.
The moment Castorice made contact, all life fled the body, and its spiritual core vanished into motes of light.
Castorice was not like the heroes of old tales, waiting for a villain's redemption. She had neither the time nor the desire to gamble. The moment Kingu had slaughtered those innocent people, his fate had been sealed.
"We must return to Uruk. Now. Or we'll be too late," Castorice urged, turning from the dissolving form of her enemy.
Even now, Tiamat's children, the Lahmu, were surely crawling from the sea. If they didn't hurry, those monsters would soon be running rampant through the city streets.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.