Chapter 354: Gilgamesh: Freeeeedom—!!!
"Uwah!"
A flash of light burst forth, and Illya, Chloe, and Bazett tumbled back into the real world in a most miserable state.
Chloe and Bazett slumped against the wall, gasping for air, while Illya simply collapsed onto the floor, unable to even move.
"W-We… escaped…?"
Illya's trembling voice sounded as if she was questioning her own sanity.
What happened in those final moments had been far too terrifying—it felt like something torn straight out of a nightmare.
Rin, who had followed Miyu out early and had been pacing anxiously ever since, immediately rushed forward the moment she spotted Illya. She grabbed Illya by the shoulders and shook her so hard her teeth practically rattled.
"Illya, you idiot!" Rin shouted. "You tried to bolt right when Miyu was about to leave the Mirror World! And thanks to that, Chloe and you got dragged out together!"
Even as she scolded her, Rin's hands were carefully checking Illya for injuries. Only after confirming she was unharmed did she finally let out a long, relieved breath.
"Thank goodness you didn't get seriously hurt. If something had happened to you…"
"I'm sorry…" Illya lowered her head, apologizing in a tiny voice.
Luvia, ever more thorough than Rin, noticed something Rin didn't—Illya had no injuries, but her complexion was unnaturally pale.
"So… we can't exactly call this 'safe and sound,' can we?" Luvia asked gently. "What happened back there?"
At that question, the expressions of the three who had stayed in the Mirror World until the very end tightened all at once.
Just remembering that final scene made their hearts clench with fear.
After their opponent launched his attack, the ground of the Mirror World split open into a bottomless abyss, swallowing everything like an avalanche.
But that was only the opening act of the catastrophe.
It wasn't just the earth—cracks raced upward, splitting even the heavens.
Space twisted.
The atmosphere churned.
A reverse-whirling storm dragged every last thing toward the edge of nothingness.
Even Bazett, who had witnessed all manner of magecraft while serving as an Enforcer, was struck speechless by the sight.
The sword that brought that calamity didn't pierce only the land—it cut through the very Mirror World itself, space included.
Its attack could no longer be judged by accuracy or destructive power.
The ground, the sky, even magical energy—anything dependent on the cut-open space—was consumed by the vortex leading into the void and erased completely.
The sky fell.
The earth shattered.
Everything returned to nothingness.
And in that endless darkness, only one thing shone—a sword blazing with radiant light.
It was the light that heralds a newborn world.
The star that cleaves open creation.
The end of the old world, and the birth of the new.
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"Master, you're really biased, you know."
"Huh?"
Hearing the Empress's indignant complaint, Shinji tilted his head in confusion.
"You made Gilgamesh, that tyrant, ridiculously strong. So why did you make me—the final boss of the movie—so weak?"
"Weak? You?"
Shinji stared at her. Anyone who saw that airborne fortress—practically a flying Howl's Moving Castle—would never call her weak.
"The garden is just a garden!"
The Empress puffed her cheeks in frustration. "I want my actual self to be stronger too!"
Gilgamesh's physical abilities might fall short compared to a swordmaster like Saber, but his snap-and-fire Noble Phantasm style was the very definition of cool and overpowering.
In contrast, Semiramis's personal combat ability… left something to be desired.
Sure, her fighting style—standing still and spamming skills—was similar to his in some ways. But compared to Gilgamesh's dazzling barrage of treasures, her attacks felt… rather plain.
As for her ultimate move, the Hanging Gardens looked way more impressive than Gilgamesh's Ea, which was "just" a sword.
But in the end, both were just giant lasers.
And while Ea split the world itself in an earth-shattering spectacle, the Gardens were… well, just a really big cannon blast.
Seeing things this way, Semiramis realized with growing irritation that, at best, she was just a "mini-Gilgamesh."
The more she thought about the fact that she was "below" Gilgamesh in power, the more her pride prickled.
Why should I be the "Little King of Heroes"? Assyria conquered Babylon, thank you very much!
"Semiramis, relax. No one's going to think you're a discount version of Gilgamesh. You're a woman—that alone makes you completely different."
"Because this one is far more pleasing to the eye than that half-naked man?" she asked with a sly smile.
"No. Because you can't milk money from female fans like he can. They won't even compare you two. Totally different leagues."
"…"
For a moment, Semiramis seriously considered slipping something into her Master's drink.
Not much—just enough to make him spend all of New Year's Day communing with the toilet bowl.
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On the screen, Bazett slowly got to her feet after putting her thoughts in order.
Compared to the younger girls, she had recovered far more quickly. Once her initial shock faded, she immediately resumed analyzing the enemy.
"There are two things we can confirm right now."
"First: although we don't know who that Servant actually is, his class is Archer."
"Second…"
Bazett's expression darkened. "No matter what we do, we cannot win."
Admitting she had no options was humiliation for a fighter like Bazett.
But unwilling as she was to say it, reality was reality.
A fight you can't win is a fight you can't win. No tactic could bridge a gap of that magnitude.
"Our job now isn't to retrieve the card—it's to find another solution."
With that, Bazett headed toward the basement staircase, fully giving up on the idea of fighting the enemy again.
After struggling with herself, Luvia realized Bazett was right.
"…Fine, I agree."
She dusted her golden hair lightly. "Honestly, I really don't want to face him a second time."
Rin still wanted to at least put up a token resistance.
"I mean, sure, but leaving him alone is also a problem."
Fuyuki City was her territory—she couldn't just let that black-clad terror wander around unchecked.
"Either way, we need to inform the Association—"
Things had reached the point where hiding the situation was impossible.
If trouble was coming whether she stuck her neck out or not, Rin felt it was better to just call for heavy support.
However—
Behind them, from the formerly empty ground, came a cracking sound.
Crack
Without warning, the floor split open.
No—that wasn't the floor.
It was the space in which the floor existed.
They had been too careless. Or perhaps simply too young.
They thought that escaping to the real world meant they were safe. But they had failed to consider one thing—
Their enemy could come to their world as well.
The previous Card Servants couldn't do that because they lacked the power to tear open space.
But Ea—the Sword of Rupture—was the blade that split heaven from earth. A specialized anti-world Noble Phantasm.
Forget the Mirror World, it could shatter even a Reality Marble like it was wet paper.
And for the King of Heroes, it wasn't even about needing Miyu as a Grail.
Even if Illya and the others were completely unrelated bystanders, he would never simply let them go.
They barged into his domain.
Kicked down his door.
Picked a fight with him.
And he was supposed to just let them walk away?
What was he, a public restroom? Where one could come and go as they pleased?
For the Grail, for the pride of the King, for the glory of Uruk—Gilgamesh would seek them out himself.
CRACK!
Before the girls' widening eyes, the space before them shattered, leaving behind a gaping hole.
Through it poked a black-haired head, grinning wickedly at them.
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"Fuck!"
Even though he'd seen this scene many times, Fujita still flinched in terror.
Not just Fujita—the more timid magi among the staff also shuddered in unison.
Matou Shinji's little shot was clearly a homage to Kubrick's The Shining, but compared to the original, Gilgamesh's sudden head-through-the-wall had way more impact.
It wasn't that Shinji's directing skill surpassed Kubrick—hardly.
It was simply that modern equipment and effects gave his version a far more intense punch.
Whatever the case, Shinji did intend the shot to startle the audience, and anyone without jump-scare immunity definitely yelped a little.
But that was all. Shinji wasn't shooting a horror film.
This was just a small tribute to the glory days of Tsuburaya's spooky tokusatsu productions.
After all, a Tsuburaya tokusatsu without any horror elements just felt wrong—like eating curry with no meat: technically acceptable, but emotionally unacceptable.
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If the audience only flinched at Gilgamesh's jump scare, then Illya on the screen was genuinely frozen solid in terror.
She couldn't move.
Not even a single step.
The enemy had shattered the Mirror World and appeared right in front of her—
That was the simple truth.
But Illya's brain utterly refused to process it.
While everyone else stood petrified, only Luvia acted.
Smack
Her white-gloved hand slammed against the wall.
"Zeichen—!"
(Signature—!)
A magical circuit glimmered across the white wall, and the gemstones embedded within it all activated in unison.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A chain of explosions roared through the underground space—the entire facility blossomed into a kaleidoscope of explosive "art."
Destroying the underground structure—that was Luvia's final trump card.
Whether she originally devised this as insurance against a certain black-haired twin-tailed girl was unclear, but right now, it was the only solution she could see.
This Card? I don't want it anymore.
Just bury it under a few tons of concrete!
To her credit, when it came to planning, Luvia far outperformed Rin, whose nerves tended to snap at the worst possible moments.
Unfortunately, no matter how thorough Luvia's calculations were, she had only accounted for one thing:
The enemy was strong.
But Gilgamesh's biggest problem wasn't simply that he was strong—he was complete.
Trying to bury him ninety meters underground?
No problem. His Majesty had transportation.
The corrupted black Ark burst upward from the collapsing passageway, tearing through the debris as it shot toward the sky.
At that moment—as the vessel broke through every barrier and soared triumphantly into the night—Gilgamesh let out a laugh so aristocratic and metallic it sounded like a count exercising with dumbbells.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! I AM FREEEEE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
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