Leonidas's Noble Phantasm
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the same moment Leonidas and Ushiwakamaru scaled the wall, the Dingir atop the wall were finally fired by the soldiers operating them.
However, Gorgon simply folded her wings protectively before her. When the continuous bombardment crashed into those golden wings, it failed to tear away even a single feather.
Following that, dozens of purple magic cannons erupted from the mouths of her snake hair. The Light Pillars leveled buildings and shattered defensive works along their path, leaving one horrific gash after another upon the towering wall, even directly destroying several Dingir.
"Are you all right, my Lord!" Ushiwakamaru drew her katana, throwing herself in front of Mash and Fujimaru Ritsuka, who were affected by the Mystic Eyes.
"That is..." Leonidas looked at the giant serpent god in the distance, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"She calls herself the Goddess of Demonic Beasts, Tiamat," Fujimaru Ritsuka said. "Her Saint Graph is unequivocally god-class, and she harbors a bone-deep hatred toward humanity."
"Tiamat, is it?" Looking at that snake hair, Leonidas hesitated to speak.
In truth, looking at this form, he immediately thought of the demonic beast Gorgon from his own homeland. However, Gorgon did not possess the authority to produce demonic beasts, whereas the one across from them clearly claimed all the demonic beasts ravaging Mesopotamia over these years as her children.
So, it probably really wasn't her.
"Every last one of you humans must be slaughtered!" Gorgon looked at the Heroic Spirits upon the wall. "Even if only a single child remains, they must be slaughtered! No matter how stubbornly you resist, it's all an exercise in futility!"
"No, we cannot fight her here," Leonidas said, looking at her colossal size and the immense fractures the magic cannons left upon the wall. "The Northern Wall cannot withstand the devastation of a battle with her. If we truly fight here, even if we manage to repel her by some miracle, the wall won't survive such a clash."
The Northern Wall was constructed to hold back demonic beasts. Expecting a wall from this era to possess the strength to withstand a goddess... was asking a bit too much.
"Alright! We'll head down right now!"
With a few leaps and bounds, Ushiwakamaru landed on the ground ahead while holding Fujimaru Ritsuka, with Mash following closely behind.
"I need to reorganize the morale of these soldiers. I will be right there!" Leonidas knew very well that his strength did not lie in facing someone head-on; his legend was centered more around commanding an army.
As long as he organized the soldiers, the might of the Dingir atop the wall would far surpass his own maximum output.
"That size..." Ushiwakamaru clicked her tongue as she looked at the mountain-like giant demon god before her. "This is going to be incredibly difficult to handle."
"Leave the backup to me!" Fujimaru Ritsuka placed her hand on Ushiwakamaru's shoulder, casting a Reinforcement Magecraft upon her. "Mash, be ready to deploy your Noble Phantasm at any moment! Keep an eye on Enkidu's movements!"
"Yes, Senpai!" Mash raised her Great Shield, standing ready in full formation.
The pressure was absolutely immense...
Ushiwakamaru looked up at the giant demon god, and then at Enkidu, who was standing to the side with arms crossed and a face full of impatience. She couldn't defeat either of them, and now she had to face both head-on...
She knew that her only winning chance right now was to stall. She had to stall until Leonidas reorganized the soldiers and activated the remaining Dingir on the wall to come to her aid.
But that would only slightly alleviate the pressure. It would be very difficult for the three of them—herself, Leonidas, and Mash—to hold back those two.
What awful luck. Anna just happened to be out on another mission today, Tomoe Gozen was patrolling the western wall, and Merlin was as mysterious as ever, with no one knowing what he was up to...
Hopefully, they would arrive to support them soon. Alas, Uruk's defensive forces were truly stretched thin. If only Amakusa Shirou Tokisada and Fuuma Kotarou hadn't been killed while exploring the southern rainforest in the early stages.
While the pressure on Ushiwakamaru's side was bursting through the roof, Kingu on the other side appeared aloof, though his internal pressure was not a single bit less than theirs.
Mainly, he was truly panicking. In Ushiwakamaru's eyes, Uruk was teetering in the wind, but in his eyes, it was full of elite forces and powerful generals, alright?
They just weren't on this side at the moment.
Take that white-haired woman alone... Kingu had absolutely no confidence in blocking that exaggerated sword strike of hers. He even felt that without the Holy Grail, even if the Gorgon before him faced that strike, she would be directly minced into snake soup.
Furthermore, Uruk didn't just have her; there was also Gilgamesh, someone who could fight him to a standstill, and an Ishtar who, though ostensibly not on Uruk's side, continuously protected the people of Uruk with her actions.
Her Bull of Heaven was no pushover either.
Counting it all up, Kingu felt that relying on Gorgon to crush Uruk was an absolute fantasy, which was why he had been planning these past few days to contact the other two goddesses for a joint assault.
Of course, Ereshkigal couldn't really be counted on. Though she could claim to be invincible within the Underworld, she unfortunately couldn't leave her home field. She merely continuously harvested the souls of the Uruk people, acting as a support of sorts.
However, the two goddesses in the south would be absolute boons. Especially Quetzalcoatl; as an aspect of the supreme South American god Kuku, her combat power was absolutely top-tier. It could be said that if Kingu didn't have the backing of Tiamat sleeping in the Persian Gulf, she would most likely be the ultimate victor of this competition among the three goddesses.
A goddess this strong should have a winning chance against that terrifying white-haired woman.
The Jaguar Man under her command was no slouch either; letting her sweep through the other Heroic Spirits would be more than enough.
Then, Gorgon would face Ishtar, while he himself would face Gilgamesh.
As for Ereshkigal?
Forget it, don't count on her, since she couldn't leave the Underworld.
Even with this setup, their combat power would barely balance out, and there were still major loopholes—primarily on Gorgon's end. Kingu wasn't worried about her facing Ishtar; he was worried the latter wouldn't play fair and would deploy Gugalanna!
Once that weak link was shattered, the battlefield would instantly lose its balance. An Ishtar with free hands could provide support anywhere, completely thwarting the Three Goddess Alliance.
Although Gorgon's exit would startle Tiamat in the Persian Gulf, causing her to fully awaken and destroy this world, that was not the future Kingu was plotting for.
Because in his plan, the enemies included not just Uruk, but the other goddesses as well. Therefore, Gorgon had to be utilized to her fullest extent; at the very least, it would only be worth it if she traded pieces with Ishtar, who controlled Gugalanna, the strongest divine beast of the Mesopotamian Pantheon.
Otherwise, if Mother awoke prematurely, the remaining goddesses would inevitably unite with Uruk upon seeing this threat. Don't think Kingu didn't know about their half-hearted approaches during combat.
When that time came, Mother would have to face the retaliation of the entire Singularity's forces—Quetzalcoatl, Ereshkigal, Ishtar, Jaguar Man, four goddesses plus Uruk's Gilgamesh, that troublesome magus Merlin, and that terrifying white-haired woman...
That sword strike from that day was definitely not her strongest move. Kingu feared her the most; every other person had more or less corresponding information regarding their background, but that person's origins were completely impossible to ascertain.
Heaven knew what kind of bizarre moves she could pull out in the end.
With so many powerhouses, even though Kingu had absolute confidence in Mother, he also knew that Pan-Human History would inevitably launch a terrifying retaliatory strike to save itself under such circumstances. Who was to say a Grand Servant wouldn't suddenly pop out from some random corner!
Without calculating, it seemed fine, but once calculated, the pressure was simply explosive!
Thus, Kingu's face grew uglier and uglier. He had merely been plotting the matter of uniting with Quetzalcoatl, but when he wasn't paying attention, Gorgon had run out on her own.
And she had appeared at Uruk!
If she was directly decapitated by someone and Mother woke up early... she would have to face the Mesopotamia All-Star lineup!
Consequently, before the Northern Wall of Uruk, the pressure on both contending sides was pulled to the absolute maximum. Only Gorgon foolishly felt that the advantage was hers.
Several snake hairs lunged toward the agile warrior, who nimbly dodged them, using a single slash to give one snake hair a middle-part starting from its crown.
However, aside from an immense amount of bleeding, it had no effect whatsoever. After all, to Gorgon, the snake hair really was no different from regular hair; if you sever one, she could just send ten more.
In this manner, amidst the sky-blotting snake hair, Ushiwakamaru's movements became increasingly difficult, until there was no longer any room left to maneuver. She was directly struck by a snake hair's tail-swipe (or head-swipe?) and sent flying, crashing against the wall of Uruk.
"Miss Ushiwakamaru!" Mash saw this and grew anxious, but she couldn't provide any support because that Enkidu was staring dead at her. If she made even the slightest movement, the opponent's attack would arrive in the next instant.
At the critical moment, Leonidas finally finished organizing the army and appeared from the gateway of the wall, shielding Ushiwakamaru behind him.
He slammed his spear directly into the ground, and one by one, the blue silhouettes of soldiers slowly materialized behind him.
"That is..." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at those soldiers dressed in the exact same attire as Leonidas.
"Leave the rest to me," Leonidas looked at the giant serpent god before him. "The sacrifices of Lord Ushiwakamaru and the soldiers will absolutely not be in vain!"
"Furthermore, we won't be getting any reinforcements. The west is currently sustaining a massive attack from demonic beasts. Not long ago, Miss Anna and Lord Musashibou went over to support Tomoe Gozen. It has been confirmed that those demonic beasts are the Children of Tiamat and are not enemies that are easily dealt with."
"What?!" Hearing this news, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash exchanged a glance; the situation was far too dire.
High in the air, Kingu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. That was naturally his handiwork. After discovering that Gorgon had left, he instantly knew her objective, which was why he arranged for the other hatched Children of Tiamat to harass other sectors, doing his best to disperse Uruk's forces.
"As for you!" Leonidas looked toward the giant serpent god before him, heavily planting his spear into the ground.
"MOΛΩN ΛABE! (Come and take them!)"
"MOΛΩN ΛABE! (Come and take them!)" ×300!
He shouted in unison with the three hundred warriors behind him, just as he had once said to that overbearing Persian king at Thermopylae!
Then, three hundred spears were raised high by the soldiers behind him, and thrown!
A rain of spears flew toward the giant serpent god, who had no choice but to raise her serpentine tail high to block before her.
"What use can a bunch of small-fry troops possibly be!" Gorgon's voice carried irritation. Perhaps she hadn't noticed it herself, but faced with this familiar Greek-style assault, her emotions were growing increasingly volatile.
"Advance, my friends," Leonidas did not answer, merely raising his shield as the soldiers behind him gathered one after another, locking their shields tightly together.
"Condense our souls here!"
Thermopylae Enomotia!
This summoned the three hundred Spartan soldiers who participated together in the Battle of Thermopylae.
Rather than an offensive, it deployed a terrifying power in terms of defense.
Because it instantaneously reproduced a historical fact, it could be activated even after an opponent's attack, protecting not only Leonidas himself but the Master along with him.
Originally, the three hundred individuals each possessed endurance parameters from C to E-rank. The more people who withstood the attack, the more the counterattack damage increased after the assault concluded.
This was the exact materialization of the legend of Leonidas I leading three hundred Spartan soldiers to block a Persian army of two hundred thousand at Thermopylae.
Faced with the demand for "earth and water" from the Persian King Xerxes I of the Achaemenid Empire—which meant surrendering all rights to the territory and its harvests, effectively a demand for unconditional surrender.
He did not choose to compromise like the other city-states, but organized a resistance together with Athens.
In that war, facing absolute disadvantage without a shred of hesitation, Leonidas led a total elite force of three00 men to deploy a military formation within the valley of Thermopylae, known as the "Hot Gates," fighting to the bitter end for three days against a Persian army whose total numbers were claimed to be in the hundreds of thousands.
However, due to a traitor, the Spartan army's formation was breached from the rear, resulting in the annihilation of the entire force, save for Aristodemos, who had withdrawn from the army due to blindness.
It was said that when the Spartan soldiers of that time lost their weapons, they used their bare hands and teeth to continue resisting.
Although Leonidas's spear ultimately failed to reach Xerxes, during the three days won by him and his 300 subordinates, the Greek allied forces completed their preparations to repel the Persian army. These mere three hundred men and their king unequivocally saved the Greek world.
It was said that upon the graves of the three hundred Spartan soldiers, the following words by the poet Simonides were inscribed: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
Upon seeing that familiar Spartan phalanx, Gorgon fell into an absolute rage. Countless red-and-black beams poured forth from the mouths of the snake hair behind her head, declaring her wrath upon that golden wall of shields.
"Turn to stone, all of you!"
Along with this furious roar, not only the magic cannons but even those petrifying Mystic Eyes began to operate at full capacity.
Seeing this from the side, Kingu smacked his own forehead.
'Great. I went through the trouble of giving you the name of Tiamat as a cover, but you aren't even trying to act the part anymore.'
'Saying "Turn to stone, all of you"... once those words leave your mouth, who wouldn't figure out your identity!'
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T/N: Sorry for the long hiatus. There are now enough chapters in raw to start regular updates again. I'll also be going back previous chapters to fix mistranslations, thanks.
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Shilling time!
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