Quetzalcoatl was a Goddess who inherently loved humanity.
However, her love wasn't romantic love between a man and a woman, nor was it the unconditional, protective love a parent holds for a child. It was simply a profound, divine fondness for the human species as a whole, and a deep-seated desire to guide them toward a better future.
Among all the deities currently manifested in this Singularity, Quetzalcoatl's "Divinity" was undeniably the most potent and pure. Unlike Ereshkigal, Ishtar, or Jaguar Man—who were all pseudo-Servants heavily influenced by the human vessels they possessed—she had been summoned as a direct, unadulterated facet of her true mythological self.
Therefore, the intense fondness she felt for Takumi wasn't truly rooted in human romantic desire. She simply saw an incredibly exceptional, beautiful, and endearingly earnest human being, and instinctively wanted to keep him by her side, watching over him forever.
But how could one reasonably justify staying by another person's side indefinitely?
The most logical answer Quetzalcoatl could formulate was: become his lover.
"Waaah, did Big Sister just get completely, utterly rejected?"
Having made the proposal on a whim, Quetzalcoatl immediately slapped on an exaggerated mask of heartbreak, pretending to wipe away fake tears.
Takumi cast a helpless glance at the dramatically overacting Goddess and chose not to dignify the performance with a response.
"Alright, alright! Let's try a different question then: Takumi, do you genuinely like Big Sister?"
Realizing Takumi truly didn't harbor any romantic intentions toward her, Quetzalcoatl gracefully pivoted, asking the question with a different kind of hopeful anticipation.
"If we're strictly talking about a non-romantic context... of course I do."
Honestly, who wouldn't like an incredibly reliable, fiercely passionate, slightly clumsy Goddess who genuinely loved humanity and acted like an aggressively supportive older sister?
If an ordinary person knew they had a literal Chief God constantly watching over them with such absolute, unyielding fondness, they would probably wake up laughing in their sleep every single night!
Sensing the genuine warmth and appreciation in Takumi's response through the Heart of Fire, Quetzalcoatl felt a profound, bittersweet longing. She genuinely wished she could travel back in time and miraculously appear beside Takumi at the very beginning of his journey. She wanted to accompany him, intervene precisely when he was in danger, comfort him when he was trapped in despair, and act as a true, absolute Guardian Deity for him.
If I had done that, surely this beautiful youth wouldn't have rejected me so easily, right?
Hehe... he might have even become my most devout, loyal believer!
But alas, the young man before her had already grown entirely too strong. He was arguably even more powerful than she was. Even without her divine intervention, he was perfectly capable of navigating countless insurmountable crises unscathed. In comparison, she was the one acting entirely too selfish and willful...
"Then that is more than enough for me~!"
Snapping out of her slightly melancholic daydream, Quetzalcoatl looked at Takumi, who was still smoothly carrying her through the wind. A brilliantly radiant, completely genuine smile bloomed across her face.
Who said the only valid reason to stay by someone's side forever is romance? That's far too narrow-minded!
"Alright, let's table the idle chatter for now. Tiamat hasn't stopped moving."
Takumi said, immediately shifting his absolute focus back to the apocalyptic threat.
Far below and slightly ahead of them, Tiamat—whose massive burn wounds were still rapidly regenerating, and who was now missing one of her primary horns—once again braced her colossal arms against the earth. Accompanied by another deafening "Aaaaaahhhhh!" the sprawling lake of magma—having lost the active heat source of the Piedra del Sol—was rapidly violently swallowed and extinguished by the aggressively churning black Chaos Tide. With the buoyant, physical support of the [Sea of Life] returning beneath her, Tiamat slowly began to push her towering upper body upright.
"Even though I channeled my absolute maximum output into that strike and successfully crippled her 'wings'... I get the distinct, horrifying feeling that something fundamentally bizarre is happening to her physical structure right now..."
Turning her head to stare at the slowly rising Tiamat, a trace of profound dread flickered in Quetzalcoatl's eyes.
Through her divine perception, she could clearly sense the magical energy within Tiamat's colossal body surging and churning with unimaginable violence. It was operating in a manner entirely distinct from anything she had displayed thus far, clearly indicating she was preparing something catastrophic.
Right at that moment, an incredibly excited, cheerful voice suddenly echoed from above.
"Who cares if she's changing?! Striking while the enemy is transforming is the most basic rule of combat, isn't it?!"
"Besides, I've been holding this in for entirely too long!"
The two of them snapped their heads up. To their absolute shock, Ishtar—riding atop Maanna—had somehow closed the massive distance and was currently hovering directly above Tiamat. Astonishingly, she had already begun channeling the absolute maximum output of her Noble Phantasm mid-sentence!
Her utter lack of hesitation and brutal pragmatism left Takumi and Quetzalcoatl staring in genuine, slightly terrified awe.
—What an incredibly filial, devoted daughter!
Ishtar, of course, couldn't hear their internal commentary. Regardless, she was already entirely committed, pushing her Spirit Origin to its absolute limit to fully deploy her ultimate attack.
VMMMM—WHIRRRR!
Accompanied by a deep, space-warping hum, a colossal, elliptical portal tore open in the sky above her, revealing a breathtaking expanse of a starlit cosmos within. From the depths of this portal, the conceptual manifestation of the planet Venus slowly began to descend. The sky, which had only just darkened from the previous explosion, was instantly bathed in a blinding, majestic golden radiance.
Once the conceptual Venus had descended to the optimal altitude, Ishtar forcefully hurled the targeting instrument in her hand directly into the massive celestial body. Following a series of ear-splitting, atmospheric booms, the summoned conceptual planet violently contorted and compressed inward, ultimately condensing into an unimaginably dense, blindingly bright sphere of golden light that perfectly slotted into the firing chamber of her Boat of Heaven, Maanna.
A wildly excited, completely feral grin stretched across Ishtar's face. She formed a finger gun with her hand, aiming squarely at the colossal Tiamat below. Following her lead, Maanna instantly adjusted its targeting reticle to match.
"Every now and then, a Goddess has to flex her true, absolute power! Therefore—CRUSH THEM! [An Gal Tā Ki Gal Šè (Mountain-Shaking Star of Venus)]!"
She fired.
If the newly spawned Lahmu frantically clawing their way out of the Chaos Tide below possessed the cognitive capacity to comprehend human profanity, they would likely be screaming the most vile, creative curses imaginable right now as they stared up at the impending, apocalyptic bombardment.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
Yet another cataclysmic wave of light pollution and a truly deafening, heaven-rending explosion instantly engulfed the battlefield. A second, equally massive mushroom cloud violently pierced the cloud layer, establishing absolute dominance over the scorched earth.
Waiting with bated breath for the suffocating smoke and dust to finally clear, Ishtar peered down at the crater. Seeing that Tiamat had been forcefully driven back down onto her knees, and that her remaining primary horn had been completely obliterated by the blast, Ishtar threw her hands in the air and cheered ecstatically:
"YAAHOO~! Now everyone can finally bear witness to my absolute, terrifying power! At the end of the day, it was just 'Mother's' horn! If I actually get serious, shattering it is child's play!"
Ishtar planted one hand proudly on her hip and threw the other up in a V-for-Victory sign, basking in her own glory.
If she weren't trying to maintain her dignified image as a Goddess, she genuinely would have started doing triumphant barrel rolls in mid-air!
"Okay, you broke her horn. And then what?"
Flying up next to the celebrating Ishtar, Takumi kept his eyes dead-locked onto the rapidly shifting anomaly occurring below, unable to stop himself from asking the completely blunt question.
"What do you mean 'And then what?!' Isn't it completely obvious?! We just beat 'Mother' to a pulp! Without her horns, her movement speed toward Uruk is going to be drastically reduced!"
Ishtar shot Takumi a look of profound confusion, tilting her chin up proudly.
Unable to watch this display of absolute, blind ignorance any longer, Quetzalcoatl reached out, grabbed Ishtar by the cheeks, and forcefully wrenched her head so she was staring directly at Tiamat.
The exact second Ishtar's completely bewildered gaze landed on the colossal anomaly, her pupils violently constricted to the size of pinpricks.
"Ehhhh—?!!! W-What the heck is THAT?!!"
Ishtar shrieked in absolute, voice-cracking terror. She frantically clutched her head, her toes curling inward in sheer panic.
Down below, under the violent, churning influence of the Chaos Tide, the highly corrosive black mud was rapidly surging upward, aggressively clinging to and encasing the entirety of Tiamat's colossal divine body. In less than two seconds, Tiamat had been completely transformed into a towering, formless pillar of black sludge.
But the horrifying transformation didn't stop there. Blinding, malevolent rays of purplish-red light began to violently pierce through the hardened black shell from within. The colossal mass beneath the mud began to rapidly expand, mutate, and distort grotesquely. Finally...
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!"
That deeply familiar, apocalyptic roar echoed from beneath the hardened mud shell. Exactly like a horrific, demonic chick violently hatching from an egg, accompanied by the deafening sound of shattering conceptual armor and blinding bursts of purple-red light, an entirely new, heavily modified Tiamat burst forth into the world.
Her previously slender, disproportionate legs had been completely restructured into massive, highly aerodynamic bio-magical rocket thrusters. Two colossal, fin-like structures had sprouted from her waist, clearly designed to flawlessly manipulate atmospheric currents and perfectly stabilize her massive frame during high-speed flight. Furthermore, a pair of utterly gargantuan, sky-blotting "Wings of the Firmament" had unfurled from her back. Not only was every single feather on these wings over a meter long, but they all gleamed with a terrifying, indestructible metallic luster. As for her head, the massive, structural horns they had spent two ultimate Noble Phantasms trying to destroy had been completely discarded, replaced by a much smaller, purely decorative pair.
—[Self-Modification (EX)]!
As the Mother Goddess of Creation, and fundamentally possessing the conceptual blueprint of an interstellar biological mothership, Tiamat could utilize the absolute Authority of [Self-Modification] to instantly, flawlessly reshape, adapt, and forcefully evolve her physical vessel and Spirit Origin to perfectly counter any threat!
Having undergone this radical self-modification, not only had Tiamat completely negated the damage inflicted by the previous two catastrophic assaults, but she had actually successfully evolved a vastly superior, hyper-mobile physical structure!
Furthermore, following this cascade of rapid evolution, the Lahmu spawning from the black mud below underwent a horrifying, simultaneous mutation. Their physical bodies swelled massively. Their spear-like claws grew significantly sharper and sprouted vicious, serrated barbs. The wing structures on their backs became vastly more complex and aerodynamic... And these were just the standard mass-produced variants!
"What in the actual hell are those horrific things...?"
Having finally arrived on the scene riding their Quetzalcoatlus, Ushiwakamaru stared down at an entirely different, highly specialized variant of Lahmu squirming out of the mud, muttering in absolute, horrified disbelief. Beside her, Jaguar Man—who was desperately trying to maintain her "cool, silent master" persona—couldn't help but let her eyes glaze over in sheer terror. She kept frantically glancing back and forth between the new Lahmu variant and the charred, disintegrating corpse of the Gorgon/Baal/Kingu amalgamation Takumi had killed moments ago.
These new variants were covered head-to-toe in grotesque, violently twitching eyeballs that pulsed with faint, purplish-red light. Furthermore, they had sprouted two massive, spiked, tail-like chains from their backs—
Aside from using a Lahmu as the base chassis, these things are literally just miniaturized versions of that horrific three-in-one amalgamation!
"The Lahmu can actually mutate into something like that?!"
Seeing these terrifying, hyper-specialized variants, Ishtar felt a terrifying chill run down her spine, her scalp tingling with dread.
"What do we do now?"
Watching the heavily upgraded Tiamat violently beat her massive wings, generating localized hurricanes as she prepared to achieve sustained flight, everyone instinctively turned their eyes toward Takumi.
The two absolute strongest, most devastating Noble Phantasms at their disposal had literally accomplished nothing. To say they had exhausted their ultimate trump cards was an understatement. There was absolutely no point in anyone else using their Noble Phantasms now; they couldn't possibly surpass the sheer firepower of the previous two, and it was highly likely they wouldn't even be able to breach her new, upgraded defenses.
"Should I send you back to Uruk first?"
Takumi looked down at Quetzalcoatl, who was still resting securely in his arms.
This wasn't some cliché anime scenario where holding a girl magically doubled his combat power. Trying to engage in a hyper-speed, apocalyptic deathmatch while holding someone was a massive handicap.
"No need~! I made sure to preserve a tiny fraction of my Divinity. While my offensive capabilities are severely diminished, I am more than capable of protecting myself!"
Quetzalcoatl smiled brightly at Takumi, showing no signs of fear.
Hearing this, Takumi didn't waste any time arguing. With a flick of his wrist, he rapidly inscribed a summoning Rune, instantly manifesting a familiar, slightly trembling Wyvern for Quetzalcoatl to ride. (The Quetzalcoatlus she had originally been riding had been completely incinerated by the ambient heat of her own Noble Phantasm.)
Completely ignoring the summoned Wyvern—which was currently shivering in absolute terror at the sheer scale of the apocalyptic entities surrounding it—Takumi, his hands finally free, instantly re-summoned his flag and sword.
WHOOSH—WHOOSH—WHOOSH!!!
Tiamat violently beat her colossal Wings of the Firmament. Hurricane-force winds instantly materialized, the deafening howl of the gales completely drowning out all other sound. Driven by the sheer kinetic force of her wings and the massive thrust generated by the bio-magical thrusters in her legs, within the brief span of their conversation, Tiamat had fully, steadily ascended into the sky.
Furthermore, the expansion of the [Sea of Life] did not halt simply because Tiamat had taken flight. The massive, newly evolved swarm of Lahmu that had just spawned immediately followed their "Mother," launching themselves into the sky with terrifying speed.
"I'm going to see if I can physically hack her back down to the ground. You guys hold the line against the swarm."
The moment the words left his mouth, the fully armed Takumi vanished from his position.
***
CLANG—! THUD!
The deafening, resonant sound of a colossal bell being struck violently echoed silently across the battlefield.
Having rapidly accumulated an immense amount of kinetic energy, Takumi swung the [Sword of the Heart] with absolute, maximum force directly at the root of one of Tiamat's massive wings. The blade sank deep into the unimaginably dense, divine bone structure, carving a perfectly smooth, flawless cross-section. Halfway through the cut, the blade encountered something impossibly hard and snagged for a fraction of a microsecond. But immediately after, overcoming the resistance, it cleaved cleanly through the rest of the joint and erupted from the other side.
A blinding flash of pristine sword light erupted, and one of the colossal Wings of the Firmament—massive enough to blot out the sky—slowly, heavily slid off its owner's back.
Before the severed wing had even fully detached, another terrifying, horizon-spanning arc of sword light violently tore through the root of the other wing.
Replicating his exact technique, Takumi delivered a second, flawless strike. The two newly evolved, mountain-sized wings completely detached from Tiamat's back. Yielding to gravity, they plummeted toward the earth, the sheer air resistance causing them to emit a terrifying, roaring howl as they fell.
"Aaaaaahhhhh!"
Because the amputation had been executed so cleanly and with such blinding speed, Tiamat's agonizing shriek of pain was once again significantly delayed.
"So... those massive wings were actually completely useless?"
Having successfully severed both wings, Takumi paused in confusion. Tiamat merely wobbled slightly in mid-air before perfectly stabilizing herself, entirely reliant on the immense thrust from her leg thrusters and the aerodynamic stabilization provided by the fin-like structures on her waist.
Seeing this, Takumi, feeling a profound sense of absurdity, immediately shifted his crosshairs to the two actual flight-sustaining structures.
He had to admit, fighting an impossibly massive, mountain-sized enemy like Tiamat was functionally identical to attacking a stationary target dummy. Her attacks were far too slow to ever hit him; she was essentially just standing there, forced to passively endure his relentless butchery.
Under these specific circumstances, if it weren't for the fact that Tiamat possessed such an absurd, reality-breaking level of absolute Immortality and physical defense, Takumi would have already reduced her to a billion perfectly cubed, microscopic chunks of flesh long ago.
Casually dodging a barrage of furious Star-Eye beams, Takumi instantly transformed back into a god-like blur of kinetic energy, weaving relentlessly between the two structures actively keeping Tiamat airborne.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
An endless, deafening cacophony of metal clashing against divine flesh erupted. In a mere matter of seconds, Takumi subjected the two critical flight structures to an uncountable number of hyper-speed, maximum-output sword strikes. Riddled with thousands of deep, intersecting ravines, and with massive, structural chunks of flesh raining down like meteors, the thrusters completely catastrophically failed.
With her two primary means of generating lift utterly annihilated, Tiamat—who had only just managed to ascend—was once again violently captured by gravity, plummeting heavily back down toward the earth.
"This should at least keep her grounded for a while, right?"
Watching Tiamat crash back into the Chaos Tide, Takumi muttered to himself.
Unlike the two purely decorative wings he had severed earlier, these vital structural thrusters had been unimaginably, horrifyingly durable. Systematically dismantling them had actually cost Takumi a significant amount of stamina and focus.
Just as Takumi tentatively assumed Tiamat would remain grounded for a short while, the absolute worst-case scenario unfolded before his eyes.
The moment Tiamat's colossal form crashed back into the black sea, the corrosive mud instantly surged violently, completely engulfing her battered body once more. It was blatantly, terrifyingly obvious: she was initiating [Self-Modification] again!
Seeing this, Takumi furrowed his brow deeply.
She instantly begins regenerating and evolving the second I finish hacking her apart?! If she can just endlessly spam this ability, isn't everything I'm doing completely, utterly futile?
Looking down at the [Sword of the Heart] resting in his hand, Takumi made a quick, decisive calculation. He would attempt one final, absolute maximum-output assault. If he still couldn't inflict any meaningful, lasting conceptual damage... he would immediately call for a full tactical retreat.