"So you actually chose chains to deal with me… how hilarious."
The sudden voice made the three of them freeze for a heartbeat before snapping their gazes toward the sound.
In the drifting smoke, Kingu stood there completely unscathed, head lowered, muttering as if to himself.
His smooth green hair slid over a pristine white robe—so clean that not a speck of dirt could be found on it, as though the battle from moments ago had never even happened.
"?!"
The one most shocked was Anna. She could feel a kind of mournful shriek coming from the chains themselves, like they were about to lose their hold.
"Not good!"
Having survived countless deadly situations, Ritsuka was the first to sense danger—but by the time she shouted, it was already too late.
"How ridiculous. You're nothing but third-rate Servants!"
Pure white lightning flared around Kingu's body—clear signs he was activating his Noble Phantasm.
Golden whirlpools opened in the air around them. At a glance, there were more than twenty.
The next instant—
—Clatter!
A storm of chains erupted from those portals, sealing off every route of escape.
Before they could even move, a chain whipped past with a sharp snap, pulled taut, and locked them in place.
In the blink of an eye—so fast it felt like it hadn't even taken a full second—the three of them were completely restrained, bound in midair with their limbs spread apart.
It made the fight from before feel like a joke.
And among the three, Anna's situation was by far the worst.
She was suspended in the air in a full spread-eagle position, her body pinned by unyielding chains.
The strong links bit into her wrists and ankles. Her legs—wrapped tightly in white stockings—were pressed inward where the chains cinched down, leaving shallow indentations.
Her bones seemed to groan under the pressure.
Pain pulsed through her limbs, forcing her to grit her teeth—yet no matter what she did, she couldn't break free.
Worse, the chains kept tightening, and even breathing began to feel difficult.
This was the Noble Phantasm that once belonged to Enkidu—a weapon possessing the property of "binding the divine," capable of restraining even the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna.
The higher the target's Divinity, the stronger the chains became.
For Anna—who was the young form of the goddess Medusa—it was the worst possible matchup.
And yet, even then, her eyes still burned with stubborn defiance.
To Kingu, that defiance only looked laughable.
"Pathetic. Do you really think this level of resistance can stand against me?"
With a casual exertion of force, the chains that had bound Kingu snapped apart, dissolving into scattered flecks of golden light.
The mockery was excessive, but he wasn't wrong.
With Anna as she was now, she simply couldn't win.
Even Gorgon would likely be pushed onto the back foot in a fight against him.
However…
That was only true if Anna was the only one in the equation.
"Oh? That's a pretty big mouth you've got."
A voice came from all directions at once, echoing through the forest.
"Who's there?!"
Kingu scanned the surroundings sharply, but he couldn't find the source.
Then a sudden pain stabbed into his waist.
—Thk!
The tip of a strange, spiral-patterned blade slowly pierced out through his abdomen.
A shock of pain, and the warm trickle of blood sliding down to dye his clothing red, made one thing unmistakably clear—
He'd been stabbed.
"Damn it!"
Kingu clenched his teeth, forced himself forward in a leap, and yanked free of the blade as he moved.
At the same time, he swung his arm back.
—Wham!
Dozens of chains fell from the sky, pinning the ground where he'd been a moment before.
But it was useless.
There was nothing there.
"Who are you?! Show yourself!"
Blood seeped steadily from the wound, quickly soaking his clothing.
Confusion—and a creeping fear—flooded his chest.
What kind of weapon could injure him like this?
And more importantly…
Under normal circumstances, as long as his feet touched the earth, an injury this small should have healed almost instantly.
But even now there was no sign of recovery—no, it was recovering, but painfully slowly.
What was going on?!
Kingu's expression turned into the very definition of bewildered disbelief.
"Hmm? You're not dead? That's… odd…"
The voice sounded again from behind him.
Kingu spun around violently—
—and saw a man standing atop the Chains of Heaven.
Yet that man's outfit only made the situation even more confusing.
He wore a black coat that fell past his knees. Under it, he had something like a magician's long robe.
A staff rested in his left hand.
And in his right, he carried a massive greatsword with a bizarre design.
At the sword's tip, fresh blood still dripped, drop by slow drop.
"You… you're with them?!"
"With them?"
The Tarnished tilted his head, genuinely puzzled.
The "them" Kingu mentioned clearly wasn't the girls hanging in the air.
So… did he mean other reincarnators?
The Tarnished considered it for only a moment before discarding the thought entirely.
Guessing didn't matter.
This bastard wasn't going to tell him anything anyway.
He turned, raised the God-Slaying Greatsword, and strode toward the nearest hooded girl to free her.
Kingu let out a cold snort.
"Hmph. You think you can cut the Chains of Heaven? Don't be ridic—what?!"
—Clang!
Before he could even finish speaking, the descending blade sliced through the chain cleanly and effortlessly.
Kingu stared at the severed links as if reality had just betrayed him.
…The Chains of Heaven.
Cut… just like that?
At the same time, Anna—now limp from the sudden loss of restraint—fell.
The Tarnished caught her in his arms.
Meanwhile, Mash Kyrielight and Ritsuka Fujimaru were also freed, rescued by the Mimic Tear, who had acted without wasting a single second.
"…Th-thank you."
The hooded girl in his arms murmured softly, then tugged her hood lower as if trying to hide something.
But the Tarnished didn't notice her condition at all.
The moment his boots touched the ground, he set her carefully to the side.
"Hm? Sorry—what did you say? I didn't quite catch that."
He smiled brightly as he looked at the refined young man clutching his wound.
…Young man, right?
The Tarnished glanced, very briefly, at the flatness of Kingu's chest, and decided that yes—definitely a guy.
"Hmph. I'll let you off this time."
Kingu regained his composure and quickly assessed the situation.
Outnumbered.
No hostages.
Severely wounded.
He forced out a threat and turned to leave.
"You're leaving? Quetzal—!"
"YES. Leave it to big sister."
That strange verbal habit rang out from behind them.
A shadow flashed past, brushing the air as it closed the distance to Kingu at terrifying speed.
"Wha—?!"
Kingu's pupils contracted the instant he saw the attacker clearly.
Quetzalcoatl?
Why was she here?!
But he didn't have time to think.
The "big sister" gave him none.
A whip-like kick, wrapped in violent wind pressure, slammed straight toward his face.
—BOOM!
The forest shook as if the earth itself had been struck.
"S-so strong…"
Ritsuka swallowed hard, eyes igniting with awe.
Someday, she swore, she would find a Servant like that and bring them back to Chaldea!
…Though Mash was pretty great too, honestly.
Then her gaze drifted to the two figures who looked like twins—so alike they seemed carved from the same mold—and confusion twisted her face.
Were they Servants too?
…Then why did they look exactly the same?
At the same time—
Kingu, sent flying, forced himself to endure the agony screaming through his body.
Watching Quetzalcoatl charge again, his eyes turned heavy with caution.
With injuries this severe, he couldn't take on the Feathered Serpent God.
Retreat was the only rational choice.
But what he never expected—
was that one of the Three Goddess Alliance had been turned.
At the moment the next strike arrived, Kingu used the momentum of his backward flight, tapped his toe lightly against the ground, and accelerated again—instantly slipping out of Quetzalcoatl's range and vanishing into the forest.
As the green-haired youth's back disappeared into the trees, the Tarnished made no move to chase.
He wasn't good at pursuit, and he wasn't especially interested in finishing the job.
He only let out a quiet, contemptuous snort.
"Heh. 'Can't cut it'…? Don't make me laugh."
Even setting aside the fact that this blade could slay gods—
this was a true god-slaying weapon forged by old Master Hewg, at the cost of his very life.
Did he really think it was just a fancy title?
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