Royal Palace, Great Hall.
If you asked how long it would take to dig from here to the Underworld, Ishtar's answer would be: one night is enough.
However, she did have another option: go to the City of Kutha, a place teeming with undead, where Guinevere had recovered half of the Tablet of Destinies.
Then, tomorrow morning, Ishtar could blast a hole straight through to the Underworld.
As for why tomorrow morning, the answer was that Ishtar was about to fall asleep.
In Ishtar's own words, there was a problem with her Pseudo-Servant summoning: at night, she was overcome by an irresistible sleepiness.
Since either way would take a full night, Guinevere and the others decided against going to Kutha. They would have Mash use her 'dinner table' to dig diligently, treating it as tonight's training.
"Mmm, it smells so good..."
The "Useless Goddess" sign still hung around Ishtar's neck, but she was no longer sitting upright, instead enjoying fruit served by Siduri and the other priestesses.
As for Guinevere, she was grilling again, the culprit behind Mash's exclamation about the delicious aroma.
In the center of the Great Hall, Camelot's 'dinner table' was moonlighting as a shovel, digging up dozens of pounds of earth with each scoop. With midnight still hours away, Ritsuka used all three of her Command Spells for the day to replenish Mash's stamina.
At the same time, she wouldn't let Mash dig alone.
"Guinevere, please stop fanning the smell over here. We'll come eat after we finish this stage of our work."
While Mash dug, Ritsuka helped carry away the earth she tossed up, also assisting the regular soldiers in constructing a device similar to a well windlass.
Once Mash dug deep enough, she wouldn't be able to throw the earth directly to the surface.
Digging, grilling, eating fruit, and Fou, who had curled into a ball and fallen asleep not far from the barbecue pit.
This scene continued until sunset, when a subtle change occurred in the fruit-eating Ishtar.
It was a momentary lapse of consciousness, her body slumping as if dead for an instant, but the change truly lasted only a moment...
'Ishtar' continued eating fruit, the aura of death also well concealed.
Guinevere knew that Ereshkigal-chan was a lonely child. Because the Underworld must have a ruler, and no other god was willing to go, the newly born Ereshkigal-chan was cast into the Underworld to become its Mistress.
As compensation for having this burden forced upon her, Ereshkigal-chan was absolutely invincible within the Underworld against undead or gods; only the living could harm her.
In other words, Guinevere's promise to Ishtar was indeed a lie. As a Heroic Spirit, she would be no match for Ereshkigal-chan in the Underworld.
Meanwhile, Merlin had insisted on Mash and Ritsuka accompanying them because they were both living humans, and against living opponents, Ereshkigal-chan wasn't particularly strong.
But regardless, since their arrival in the Underworld was delayed by a night, Guinevere wanted to have a proper chat with Ereshkigal-chan.
"Good evening, Ishtar. The meat's grilled. Want some barbecue?"
An unexpected greeting, an unexpected smile. Ereshkigal-chan had actually been peeking at the mortal world from the Underworld, using Ishtar's eyes and ears to learn about the Guinevere that Ishtar knew.
The elder of the body they shared? Was Guinevere's barbecue really that delicious?
Ereshkigal-chan recalled something, and as she stood up, she bumped into the 'Useless Goddess' sign.
She paused, fell silent for a moment, then after a scornful chuckle, she casually removed the sign.
She refused to bear the same title of 'Useless' as Ishtar.
But as she did so, she realized that Guinevere's earlier "Good evening" meant she had already noticed the change in the soul inhabiting the body.
"A Grand Saber, are you? Quite perceptive. No wonder you could kill Gorgon three times."
Ishtar's hair color changed from black to gold. But after taking just two stern steps toward Guinevere, she abruptly covered her face, turned away, and pulled a skull mask from nowhere to put on.
Since her birth, Ereshkigal-chan could count the number of living beings she'd spoken to on one hand. Only now did she realize she had some social anxiety, feeling too shy to speak closely with others under the name Ereshkigal.
However, Guinevere didn't mock her social anxiety, merely picking up the thread of her comment about Gorgon.
"So you knew she wasn't Tiamat?"
"I am, after all, the local Mistress of the Underworld. How could I not know what the Genesis Mother Goddess Tiamat looks like? Even if I didn't, she certainly wouldn't be a four-winged, bronze-clawed, petrifying-eyed serpent god."
"She's the only one who doesn't know she's Gorgon."
Did Gorgon really not know she was Gorgon? After their last encounter, Guinevere believed she should have known.
And her insistence on using the name Tiamat instead of Gorgon was likely also because she herself hated the name Gorgon.
Through their battle and her unhesitating "modifications" to her own body, Guinevere sensed her revulsion toward her serpent god form.
To put it one way, she might accept the taller, more mature Rider-class Medusa form.
To put it another way, the appearance she most desired was likely to be the same height as her two sisters, just like Anna.
"No, that's not it. Judging by how she specifically targeted Anna, she must have known who she was the moment she saw her."
As Guinevere expected, Mash and Ritsuka finished the first stage of their digging at that moment.
It was Ritsuka who spoke as she walked over, forcing Ereshkigal-chan to lean closer to Guinevere, whom she had already grown somewhat "familiar" with.
But Ritsuka's scrutinizing gaze wasn't as heavy as Guinevere's; at least it didn't make her feel as if she were being licked.
So, Ereshkigal-chan grabbed a roasted Magical Beast leg and quickly retreated to the fruit pile on the other side of the great hall.
Half the great hall was a construction site, while the other half was protected by a basic Magecraft Guinevere had cast to block the dust.
Whether it was the barbecue stall, the fruit stall, or the spot where the King of Heroes still sat on his throne, for whom Guinevere had specially burned paper money and offered tributes...
None of these areas were troubled by the dust.
"Speaking of which, is this considered a pre-funeral feast? Won't Gilgamesh be angry when he finds out? Ereshkigal-chan, do you think he's angry?"
She had appeared because it was a rare chance for her to see the world outside the Underworld. She was willing to stay and talk with Guinevere and the others because she knew they would soon arrive in the Underworld, and she was curious about Chaldea's Master and Servant, as well as Guinevere, her elder in body.
At that moment, faced with Guinevere's question, Ereshkigal was so blissfully absorbed that she didn't hear a word.
She lived in the Underworld, after all. How could a place like that possibly have such warm, incredibly delicious roasted Magical Beast legs!
Gilgamesh? Who cared about that bastard King who wandered all over the Underworld but never left!
He had just walked the path from the Underworld back to the real world not long ago.
"Yes, this King is very angry."
See? Without them having to do anything, Gilgamesh's voice rang out from the deep Underworld beneath everyone's feet.
"But Guinevere, this King must thank you. Not only did you repel the Goddess of Magical Beasts, you also successfully 'conquered' Ishtar and Ereshkigal!"
The voice still came from the Underworld, but the word "conquered" in his speech made Ereshkigal-chan's nerves snap. She vanished without another word.
A few seconds later, just as Guinevere noticed the roasted Magical Beast leg had also disappeared, the collapsed Ereshkigal-chan shot back up and shouted:
"I, Ereshkigal, Mistress of the Underworld, will not be 'conquered' as easily as that incompetent fool!
Gilgamesh, was it? You can go reflect in a cage!"
It seems Ereshkigal-chan has been influenced by her body's personality as well.