"Cough… impossible," Gilgamesh rasped, gritting his teeth.
"Why not?" Kaguya leaned down with a playful smile. "At the end of the day, it's because you're simply not good enough."
"Damn you," Gilgamesh seethed, his eyes aflame with fury, though he was too injured to do anything but glare at her.
In truth, Gilgamesh was indeed powerful—or rather, his Gate of Babylon and the Ea sword were formidable. Ea excelled at destroying pseudo-realities and bounded fields, but Kaguya's Dimensions was not a mere bounded field; it was a tangible reality. Against a true, physical space, Ea's anti-world properties weren't nearly as effective.
But the real factor had been Kaguya's sudden surge in power. Caught off-guard, Gilgamesh was overwhelmed and quickly defeated, much to his misfortune. Had he been better prepared, he might have lasted a few more rounds—but only just a few.
"Looks like it's time for you to go home," Kaguya said, patting him on the head, smiling sweetly. "The world is a dangerous place."
"You… how dare you insult me like this! Unforgivable!" Gilgamesh spat, attempting to push himself up, though his injuries prevented him from moving.
"Is that so? Well, I'll apologize then," she replied, making a casual gesture without the slightest sincerity, standing up and turning to leave. "See you around, great King of Heroes."
"Damn… damn it!"
Just then, a golden chain whipped out from behind, shooting straight for Kaguya's neck—the Enkidu, Gilgamesh's divine chains.
The chain was mere inches from her when Kaguya smirked, muttering a few words.
"Slow down."
At her command, the world seemed to decelerate in an instant. The wisps of wind, the floating dust, and the approaching golden chain all moved in slow motion, as if submerged in molasses. She could have had a snack and tea while she waited—it would still have made no difference.
Time control was truly convenient.
Kaguya strolled leisurely to the chain, plucked it from the air, and then moved over to Gilgamesh, her expression mischievous.
After making sure everything was in place, she snapped her fingers with a quiet snap, and time resumed its normal flow.
"What?!"
Gilgamesh's face was frozen in shock as he found himself completely bound by his own Enkidu. For a moment, he'd seen a faint blur, but in the blink of an eye, he was wrapped up like a trussed turkey.
What… what happened?
"So? How does it feel to be restrained by your own chains?" Kaguya asked, smiling.
"You—cough…"
Gilgamesh tried to respond, but a painful cough interrupted him, blood spilling from his lips. Although Enkidu wouldn't normally affect its own wielder, his current, weakened state meant that even a simple chain could bind him.
"Seems like that's the end of it." Kaguya gave him a final glance before snapping her fingers.
With a shimmer, the world around them shifted, and they reappeared inside the Tohsaka family mansion. Kaguya looked around; Rin Tohsaka, Sakura, and the others had vanished, and Tohsaka Tokiomi's body was nowhere to be found. It seemed they had left.
Even though Tokiomi hadn't escaped his fate, Rin and the others seemed to have met a much kinder outcome than in the original story. Tohsaka Aoi and Sakura, in particular, had been spared horrific fates. In the original tale, one was left mentally broken, and the other was turned into a vessel for cursed worms. One could say Kaguya had done quite a good deed here.
"Ah, that's right," Kaguya said, glancing toward a dark corner. "I nearly forgot about one little rat. Enjoying the show, Kirei Kotomine? Though, did you buy a ticket?"
A cross-armed Kirei Kotomine suddenly whipped out four daggers between his fingers, hurling them like lightning toward Kaguya—his weapons, the Black Keys.
"Are you even aiming?"
Kirei's eyes widened, and he spun around only to find Kaguya, silver hair gleaming, standing right behind him.
"How…?" Kirei muttered in disbelief. No matter how fast one was, even they would leave a residual image. But Kaguya had seemingly appeared behind him in an instant, as if defying the very laws of movement.
But there was no time to contemplate. With a deft motion, Kirei produced another set of four Black Keys and lunged forward with blinding speed.
"Too slow," Kaguya whispered softly.
She appeared before him, her fist colliding with his abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Kirei's body was sent crashing into the wall like a cannonball, leaving a massive hole in the ornate mansion wall.
In reality, Kirei's agility was quite formidable, as proven in his battle against Kiritsugu Emiya. Kiritsugu had needed to double his own speed to keep pace with Kirei, later using quadruple acceleration and his origin bullet to win.
But to Kaguya, speed was now irrelevant. With her time control ability, unless her opponent moved at light speed or beyond, she could always gain the upper hand before they even completed their attack.
Kirei slid from the wall and slumped to his knees, wiping the blood from his mouth, staring at Kaguya in disbelief. He'd fought her before, and while she'd been strong, he never imagined she'd reach this level of power. Now, facing her, he felt utterly helpless—she hadn't even moved before he'd been struck down.
"How presumptuous," Kaguya approached slowly, her head slightly raised as she looked down at Kotomine Kirei with a cold smile. "Did you really think that, as a mere human, you could challenge me? You've grossly overestimated yourself, Kirei."
Kirei coughed twice, his breaths shallow as he forced himself back up. "It's not over yet. Isn't it a bit premature to be so confident?"
"Oh?" Kaguya smirked. "Do you believe a dead fish can still flip itself over?"
"If I kill Saber and the remaining Masters, I'll obtain the Holy Grail and finally unlock the answers I've sought all my life." Wiping the blood from his mouth, Kirei's gaze hardened. "Why do you stand in my way? Why must you obstruct me?"
"Saber has died?" Kaguya raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised at the number of events she'd missed in her absence.
"He dared to challenge the King of Heroes, so defeat was only inevitable," Kirei replied, determination flaring in his eyes. "As for the Holy Grail, I will claim it, even without the King of Heroes's help."
"Just you?" Kaguya replied, unimpressed. "You, a mere mortal without a Servant, against me? How laughable."
Without another word, Kirei shifted into a Bajiquan stance. As one of the most formidable martial artists in the Fate universe, his Bajiquan skills ranked among the best, matched only by the likes of the nameless priest and Bazett. But without raw strength, even the finest martial techniques were meaningless—as was demonstrated by that same priest, who was crushed by Archer when left powerless.
As Kirei lunged, Kaguya's lips curled with contempt, her voice calm as she muttered, "Slow down."
Instantly, Kirei's movements slowed, like a swimmer fighting against thick mud. Kaguya strolled over, reaching forward in a blur, her hand stabbing into his chest. No blood spilled, thanks to her frozen time field keeping it suspended within his body.
With a casual flick of her wrist, Kaguya dispelled her control over time, and the crimson spray erupted in full force from Kirei's chest, painting the ground in a vivid red and filling the air with a sharp, metallic scent.
"You… how…" Kirei's wide eyes fixed on Kaguya, clutching his gaping wound, as blood trickled through his fingers.
"That's right," Kaguya replied nonchalantly. "I can manipulate time. Your skills are meaningless against me. You'd best accept your fate and die."
She observed him coldly, reminded of the days when soldiers thought they could stand against foreign cannons with nothing but flesh and fists. No matter how skilled a martial artist, no one could withstand bullets or cannonballs. The same rule applied here: against the power to control time, all he could do was await his end.
With a dull thud, Kirei's body slumped into the spreading pool of his own blood, his eyes slowly losing their spark. He lay still.
"Overconfident fool," Kaguya muttered.
What was once a fearsome opponent now lay dead. In the end, Kirei's skills were only daunting to ordinary humans; for a true powerhouse, he was no more than a mortal.
However, in using her time-manipulation ability during the fight, Kaguya had noticed some limitations. She could maintain the effect for about ten seconds at most. There also appeared to be a "cooldown period," during which the ability couldn't be reused—almost like the recharge time of a skill in a game.
What a rip-off. It felt like buying something marked "free," only to later find hidden fees.
Even with its duration limits, however, Mirror Flower, Water Moon's time control remained powerful; after all, ending a life often required only a moment. Another advantage of this ability was its low energy consumption. Unlike her other techniques, which drained her mana rapidly, time manipulation barely affected her reserves.
With this battle over, Gilgamesh had fallen, Kirei was dead, and the King of Conquerors had met his end as well. All that remained were Kiritsugu Emiya and Saber.
The Holy Grail War had already dwindled to its last players; almost every Master and Servant had either died or withdrawn from the competition.
As she considered this, another thought surfaced in Kaguya's mind: her mission in this world.
Thinking back, the system's assignment had been vague—something about achieving victory in the Holy Grail War. But what, exactly, did that entail? Claiming the Holy Grail? Killing all the other Masters and Servants? Summoning the Greater Grail?
Right then, a long-awaited, metallic voice echoed in her mind.
"Your mission is to destroy the mana system powering the Greater Holy Grail beneath Ryuudou Temple. Eliminate the Greater Grail to end the Holy Grail War."
"What?" Kaguya froze, her eyes wide. "So, you're telling me all I have to do is break some magic system down there?"
"Correct," the system replied in its emotionless monotone.
"Wait a minute," Kaguya's eyebrows shot up. "You're telling me I didn't need to participate in this whole Holy Grail War nonsense? No Servant fights, no duels? Just dismantle the system?"
"Correct. Eliminating other Masters and Servants was not required."
"I've been completely scammed!"
"You may say that."
"You… you're unbelievable!"