"You're here."
Seated on the throne of the underworld, Ereshkigal spoke calmly.
"…"
Orpheus emerged slowly from the shadows of the underworld, silent as ever.
"You shouldn't have come."
Ereshkigal shook her head and sighed.
"…"
The silence persisted.
"Since you're here, you must have made the necessary preparations, right?"
Ereshkigal offered a seductive smile.
"…"
Orpheus remained silent.
With an awkward cough, Ereshkigal rose from her throne.
"My goal is to obtain the Holy Grail of Uruk and then imprison all humans on Earth in the underworld, making them my property. This is the choice of the goddess Ereshkigal. For the first time, the decision rests solely with me. But your goal is different. You chose to protect humans. It seems our conflict was inevitable."
Ereshkigal's demeanor shifted to one of relief as she continued.
Orpheus still did not respond.
Ereshkigal's smile faded as she drew her special weapon.
"You're not going to speak? It seems there's nothing left to say. I won't show mercy, even to you… Let me introduce myself one last time. I am Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld, the goddess who guards the silence of death and is sacrificed by the gods. This hatred, this pain…"
A chilling aura of death enveloped Ereshkigal, her expression more solemn than ever.
"Let you taste it too!"
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Kingu awkwardly leapt away, evading the blow from the axe blade and the Sword of War. Despite his efforts, an arrow of light pierced his shoulder.
Nevertheless, Kingu quickly swung his sword, fending off Hercules and Altera's pursuit and retreating a few steps.
At that moment, the wound on his left shoulder burned with a blue flame, clashing with the golden energy. This made it difficult for Kingu to recover effectively.
"This is troublesome…"
Kingu laughed suddenly.
Normally, a mere "old human" injuring him would have angered him, but at that moment, he felt no such emotion.
The surge of immense magical power had significantly boosted Altera's strength and attributes, while Arjuna's support had greatly improved in both potency and frequency.
Hercules nearly made Kingu curse.
Although Hercules's strength hadn't increased much, his twelve lives had been fully restored. It felt like starting over from scratch after a computer crash during a boss fight. Even if you're stronger than the boss, it's still shocking.
Furthermore, although Kingu could defeat Hercules, handling three opponents at once was not so simple.
Kingu had initially planned to eliminate the mindless Hercules quickly and then deal with Altera, but now that seemed impossible.
Twelve lives might seem few, but when they belong to a giant who once fought gods at his prime, it's a headache. Moreover, while the number of resurrections was restored, the previous deaths were not reset, making some attacks still ineffective. Thus, Kingu was disinclined to engage Hercules again.
Let's deal with Altera first.
At that moment, Kingu's expression was calm, devoid of arrogance, anger, or sarcasm.
If anyone from Uruk saw her now, they'd likely be stunned.
Kingu's demeanor was almost identical to Enkidu's.
Unaware of her own abnormality, Kingu crouched down as an arrow of light whizzed over her head.
She didn't even realize that while her mother was about to confront Chaldea, she had no intention of assisting.
Then, golden light began to flash in Kingu's emerald-green eyes.
"It's unacceptable to be beaten like this. I'll have to be more serious…"
The ground began to tremble.
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"We've finally entered the Gorgon's temple…"
In the space filled with strange 'cocoons,' Mash frowned.
The atmosphere was nothing like the sacred ambiance one would expect from a temple.
Ritsuka also frowned, though for a different reason. Despite disliking the environment, her sensitivity to the ominous aura wasn't as acute since she wasn't a Servant.
The issue was with this singularity...
Everything had gone smoothly. Under the soldiers' cover, they had easily reached the temple without alerting many monsters. The soldiers maintained a tight formation with minimal casualties.
On Merlin's side, although the ordinary Dingir couldn't throw the huge Axe of Marduk across such a distance, they didn't know what tricks Ophis had used... In any case, with the power of the Axe of Marduk, they managed to reduce Gorgon's divinity.
Jeanne's recent explanation confirmed that the goddess was Gorgon. Everyone in Chaldea felt like they were behind on the singularity's progress...
The information that should have been gathered earlier was only now coming to light.
It felt as if things were moving too quickly.
They had barely adjusted to Uruk's environment before encountering goddesses, two in a row, with no time to rest. After handling one, they were immediately faced with the next.
In retrospect, there was almost no exploration in this singularity. Everything was orchestrated by Ophis from the start. Apart from Kingu's initial diversion, no enemies specifically targeted them.
It was all going too smoothly.
"I hope nothing goes wrong…"
Ritsuka sighed.
Had she become a masochist after the previous difficult singularities? She felt uneasy when things were too smooth.
Anyway, she had heard that Ophis was dealing with the final goddess personally. If they could handle the current goddess and things went well on Ophis's side, it should all be over soon.
"Let's go…"
Ritsuka steadied herself and led her Servants toward the source of the immense magical energy that even a novice magician like her could detect.
The three battlefields were just beginning!