Chapter 351: Gilgamesh: Behold, mongrels—this is what a Grand-Class Servant looks like!
Gilgamesh—also known as Goldie, King of Heroes, the Golden Sparkle—this king who stands at the crossroads of ancient Babylonian myth and history occupies an irreplaceable throne in the Nasuverse.
Thanks to Kinoko Nasu's very obvious favoritism, this Heroic Spirit was blessed with two utterly broken Noble Phantasms: Gate of Babylon and Ea.
How should one describe these two Noble Phantasms?
The simplest and most accurate comparison: artillery-style carpet bombing and tactical nuclear strike.
The first grants Gilgamesh nearly limitless firepower. The second allows him to tear apart almost any defense—Reality Marbles included—making it one of the most overwhelmingly destructive Noble Phantasms in existence.
With these two modes of attack, Gilgamesh was basically born to be a final boss.
As for Golden Rule, Clairvoyance, and all those other traits? Mere cosmetic add-ons—flavor text to make the character even more absurdly majestic.
A handsome appearance, overwhelming strength, dazzling attacks, an arrogant personality, and that perpetual look of divine contempt—these ingredients forged Gilgamesh, the unrivaled king who looks down on all. Ever since his debut in the first Fate/Stay Night film, his popularity has been sky-high.
But one question has always lurked in the minds of Fate fans—we all know Gilgamesh is strong… but how strong is he, exactly?
There's always been this weird fog surrounding his power level.
Unlike Heracles, whose strength is obvious—even without Noble Phantasms, he has near-top-tier physical stats and twelve lives making him a monster among Servants.
Gilgamesh, though? On paper, he seems to be the perfect counter to all Heroic Spirits.
He easily crushes King of Conquerors with his army of treasures, and even the god-bodied Heracles folded before him like wet paper.
But then you look at his three defeats, and things get… comical.
He gets parried by Artoria.
Ambushed by a human using a Reality Marble.
And chugged by the Black Grail like a shot of cheap liquor.
To his fans, these are all "plot contrivances"—moments where King Gil was merely "careless."
But detractors argue:
If Gilgamesh loses whenever he's careless… then couldn't even Hassan of the Hundred Faces kill him as long as he zones out for two seconds?
How can someone like that be called "the strongest"?
And to casual viewers, Gilgamesh is just a stepping stone—he shows up, deletes the enemies the protagonists can't handle, then gets defeated because the plot says so.
A walking story beat waiting to be knocked down by the heroes.
So everyone wanted to see Gilgamesh go all out—to unleash his full firepower, no holding back.
Fans wanted to watch their king ascend and silence the haters. Haters wanted a proper spectacle, because if you're going to mock the guy, you want him flashy when he crashes.
And in Fate/Kaleid Liner Magical Illya, the audience finally witnessed what a fully-unleashed Gilgamesh truly looks like.
First came the presence.
Because of the peculiar nature of card-form Servants, their mana can manifest as black mist.
Saber only had a thin layer around her like a shield.
But Gilgamesh? He filled the entire mirrored space with black fog.
His mere presence towered far above every other card Servant.
Just standing there, he made Illya and the others tremble.
"Don't let it get to you!"
Seeing her comrades nearly collapse from fear, Luvia hurriedly barked out encouragement.
"No matter what the enemy looks like, what we need to do doesn't change!"
The dense black mana mist was terrifying—able to serve as both spear and shield, a nightmare in physical form.
But Luvia had expected as much.
"Mark—!"
She tossed several gemstones inscribed with magic formulas.
"Jörmungandr's Maw!!"
The gems burst into a magic circle at the Servant's feet, binding him on the spot.
Seeing the dark Servant frozen stiff, Rin let out a confident grin—and immediately raised a flag.
"Caught him cleanly! Miyu! Illya! Start charging—put everything you've got into it for twenty seconds!"
Not just the two magical girls—Rin Tohsaka herself poured a massive number of gemstones into the array, turning them into components of a gigantic mana cannon. One shot, all or nothing.
The tactic was simple, but brutally effective. Even Bazett, who normally stood as their rival, gave a nod of approval.
"Using an attraction-compression capture array to pin the enemy in one place… buying time to amass mana. A turret strategy, huh?"
"Exactly! Mjölnir of Destruction!"
Rin nodded with full confidence, raising her chin proudly.
"This is the ultimate line of mana acceleration! You'd better not get in our way!"
The words had barely left her mouth when a blinding white beam erupted from the magic circle and blasted straight toward the dark Servant.
"Ahh, yes. Magical girls really are all about firing giant cannons~"
Watching the screen light up, Shinji nodded in complete satisfaction.
"It's practically tradition~"
A few otaku-leaning Servants grumbled in unison:
"What kind of tradition is that?! That's just your personal kink, Master!"
In this world, the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha had only just begun airing this October. The whole "magical girls solve problems with lasers" lore hadn't yet become legendary.
So in the realm of light-cannon supremacy, most people still thought first of Arturia from Fate/stay night.
Shinji hadn't unleashed FGO upon the world yet, so Arturia only had her Alter variation in the public consciousness.
But once every possible version of Arturia eventually shows up—especially Arturia Lancer with her motherly physics—there's no doubt the title of Queen of Beam Spam would fall squarely on her royal shoulders.
After all, she is the world's most famous light-cannon user.
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On the screen, wherever the beam passed, the ground was completely obliterated—proof of how monstrous that single attack was.
And when it struck the dark Servant, it triggered a violent explosion that swallowed the battlefield in smoke and dust.
Seeing the direct hit, Illya beamed.
"Great! We did it!!"
"It's way too early for that!!"
Rin knew well the ancient law of anime combat: "big smoke means no damage." Seeing the smoke cloud that thick, she immediately triggered her backup plan.
"Chloe!!"
"I know!"
Chloe didn't know what was happening inside the smoke—but she could feel that the presence within had not vanished at all.
Sight didn't matter. An Archer was someone who could hit their target even without it.
Chloe nocked a golden sword onto her bowstring—drawing it back and aiming at the unseen enemy.
This wasn't the spiral sword she often used.
This was a far higher-grade Noble Phantasm—
The holy sword, Excalibur.
"Chloe—fire!!"
At Rin's shout, Chloe unleashed the arrow.
Broken Phantasm—using the very concept of a Noble Phantasm as an explosive payload—the ultimate technique of Emiya-style projection.
And this time, Chloe had used the strongest Noble Phantasm she could possibly project. Her strongest attack. Her final trump card.
And that was exactly why she alone, in that moment, understood a simple terrifying truth—
Their enemy's strength was far beyond anything they had imagined.
Just as a two-dimensional ant could never comprehend how a human could casually squash it from above, all their strategies, all their planning—it was meaningless.
Because their opponent's power was simply outside the bounds of their common sense.
When the smoke finally cleared, what appeared before Illya and the others was…
A shield.
A massive, fortress-like shield.
A wall that had turned every one of their attacks into nothing.
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"Tch."
In the real world, Arturia clicked her tongue the moment she saw Chloe fire her holy sword.
"What's wrong? Upset because someone used a cheap knockoff of your sword?" Gilgamesh nodded sympathetically. "I understand the feeling. I too have suffered much at the hands of the Projection Association."
"I don't mind people using my sword." Arturia jabbed an elbow sharply into his ribs. "What annoys me is—using my sword to make you look stronger. That makes it sound like I'm weaker than you!"
"But that's simply the truth, isn't it? If it weren't for the demands of the script, there's no universe where I would lose to you, you country bumpkin."
"Country—!? You're the country bumpkin!!"
Feeling thoroughly underestimated, Arturia snapped back with full indignation.
"Hoho~ Your Britain is so poor it's nothing but weeds and rocks. If that's not countryside, what is it?"
Gilgamesh lifted his chin with royal arrogance.
Arturia shot back without hesitation.
"And your Uruk wasn't built out of stones too? If we're comparing land size, you're even more like a village chief than I am!"
Arguments between Heroic Spirits were never limited to words. Within seconds, both Gilgamesh and Arturia had drawn their weapons.
"You got a problem with countryside girls?"
Jeanne, self-proclaimed rural maiden, joined the fray the moment she sensed her identity being insulted. These people actually dared to treat "rural" as an insult? Absolutely unacceptable.
"Shinji, aren't you going to stop them?"
Seeing tensions escalating, Rin glanced at their Master.
"It's fine. If they really start fighting, they'll take it outside," Shinji replied casually. "Just think of it as early New Year fireworks."
And sure enough, as if to prove his point, the bickering Heroic Spirits shoved and taunted each other all the way toward the exit—clearly intending to settle things with a proper brawl.
"…Let's hope they only look like fireworks…"
Rin muttered with a dark expression.
As for why this year's fireworks were beam-shaped? Rin simply accepted it as a special Fuyuki City tradition.
Meanwhile, compared to the upcoming real-world fireworks, the TV screen had grown strangely quiet.
Illya and the others had temporarily run out of ways to unleash "art"—that is, explosions.
"A… shield?!"
Illya couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Where did that come from? No—more importantly…"
Fear crept across Rin's face.
Their strongest combined attack had been blocked.
Even if the enemy only had this single shield, they could still advance behind it and crush them with impunity.
Rin didn't yet know what kind of Servant they were facing—but she knew one thing for certain:
This battle had just become impossible.
"Retreat!!"
Luvia reacted even faster—immediately calling GG.
"Operation failed! We fall back and formulate a new strategy!"
Their "Yellow Turban Rebel" had already used her first-turn sacrifice and burned through all allied heals.
If they couldn't kill the boss now, what else was there to do but surrender?
However… one woman disagreed.
"If you're finished—"
Bazett stepped toward the enemy still wreathed in smoke.
"—then it's my turn!"
The words were barely spoken before she launched forward, charging straight toward the Servant behind the massive shield.
"She's going in alone? She's really going to dive into the enemy formation by herself?!"
Illya and the others were stunned.
Illya recovered first, turning to Miyu with urgency.
"Miyu! Get everyone out of here! I'm going to help Bazett-san!"
They still hadn't seen the enemy's true form—but Illya was sure of one thing:
Any Servant who could block their strongest bombardment was absolutely terrifying.
Illya's kind heart couldn't bear the thought of letting Bazett walk into certain death. She prepared to support her.
But Chloe grabbed her hand—shaking her head slowly.
"It's useless. We're already too late."
Bazett had already vaulted past the shield, fist raised as she prepared to strike the Servant behind it.
"That woman…"
Chloe stared at Bazett's airborne figure and pronounced her fate:
"She's dead."
The sound of wind being torn apart rang out—and countless treasures, shining with razor-sharp brilliance, pierced straight through Bazett's body.
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