Armored Ascension!
Looking at the sea of flowers filling the sky, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash exchanged glances before joyfully shouting out that name.
"Merlin!"
"Yo, just barely made it."
The Magus of Flowers descended from the sky in white robes, gently landing amidst the flower field covering the Underworld.
"Since the Black Mud is a sea that nurtures life, replacing it with harmless life was a complete success!"
"Wait, Merlin?"
Doctor couldn't hold back anymore.
"How are you here? Were you summoned again?"
"No, no, that's impossible. Who in Uruk is still capable of performing a summoning now?"
"Don't worry. I am the genuine Merlin himself, authentic in every way."
Merlin smiled.
"I rushed all the way here from Avalon."
"Rushed here?"
Fujimaru Ritsuka froze, while the surrounding flower petals gradually dissipated.
"That's right. I hate sad farewells the most."
Merlin smiled.
"Even if I have to use my final breath, I refuse to say goodbye through death."
"So this time, I've decided to violate my own principles. After all, I can't disgrace my title as the Magus of Flowers."
"It's great that you made it."
Fujimaru Ritsuka let out a sigh of relief.
That meant their side had gained another combatant.
"The decline in the Underworld's output has stopped."
Ereshkigal also relaxed.
"Thanks to you replacing the Black Mud with flowers. Otherwise, the Underworld really would've been completely corrupted. Is this truly Mother's power? It's far beyond what I imagined."
Boom!
At that moment, Tiamat moved once more.
"Those are... wings?"
Fujimaru Ritsuka stared in shock at the gigantic pair of wings gradually forming.
"Is she planning to fly again?"
"She was pushed this far and still..."
Ereshkigal gritted her teeth.
"Unbelievable."
"The hatred and sorrow of being discarded because she was unnecessary to Human History."
Merlin gazed at Tiamat's enormous dragon body.
"And the joy of replacing Earth's ecosystem after being abandoned, becoming the Mother of All once more..."
"Her nature alone determines her Class. Goddess of Creation is merely a false title."
"She is the greatest catastrophe ever rejected by Human History, abandoned by humanity itself. One of the Seven Evils of Humanity. The Beast that possesses the Principle of Regression."
"Beast II!"
"She's preparing to take flight!"
Feeling the emptiness of her depleted Magical Energy, Ishtar shouted:
"We have to find a way to stop her!"
Doctor from Chaldea added:
"If she returns to the surface, the Underworld's defense mechanisms will become useless, and we'll lose our greatest weapon!"
"And worst of all, she'll return to her invincible state where she cannot die!"
"Fujimaru, Mash."
Merlin turned toward the two.
"Without a doubt, your journey through this Singularity has been the most difficult one. And Beast is also the strongest enemy you've faced so far."
"Through the sacrifices of the goddesses and Uruk, she was restrained and cast into the Underworld."
"The road here was filled with hardships. Everyone exhausted every possible means to reach this point."
"But it still isn't enough!"
Looking at Tiamat approaching step by step and shaking the earth itself, Merlin raised his head.
"She still doesn't understand fear. She knows no natural enemy. Nor does she know that the source of her death is neither King Gilgamesh nor the Holy Grail of King of Magic."
"And the one who summoned him was you, Fujimaru Ritsuka."
Merlin looked toward the highest point of the Underworld.
"The enemy is an Evil of Humanity, Beast II. The conditions for his appearance upon this land have already matured!"
"The world weapon capable of opposing a Beast of the Counter Force!"
"A Grand Servant!"
"So all your battles had meaning. Come now. Raise your eyes to the heavens, O Primordial Sea!"
"Your reaper stands there!"
At the heights of the Underworld, the Old Man of the Mountain, disguised as Ziusudra, rested both hands upon his great sword and lowered his gaze.
"Without death, there is no life. Through death, life is attained."
"The eternity you speak of is not movement. It is slumber."
"Calamity Beast, Evil born from humanity!"
"The love that longs for Regression itself is the very foundation that rejects you!"
His voice was low and solemn.
"Though you are a goddess who has fallen into Beasthood, as the Mother of Genesis, I must still announce my name."
"From the depths of dark valleys, from obscure death itself, I come rushing forth."
"Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-i Sabbah!"
He raised his great sword high overhead.
"By the decree of destiny, I shall strip away your wings."
"And your immortality!"
Blue flames began to burn upon his body.
The Old Man of the Mountain leaped from the summit of the Underworld.
His great sword descended toward Tiamat.
To deprive her of immortality.
To bestow upon her the concept of death.
Yet Tiamat, who should have desperately resisted in the face of such mortal danger, showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Wait, that's not right..."
Merlin froze.
Then he thought of a possibility.
He suddenly turned around.
Sure enough, that person was no longer where she had been.
"Ritsuka, Mash."
Merlin immediately understood.
His staff lightly tapped the ground as he winked at them.
"Get ready. We're moving in!"
Nearby, Quetzalcoatl felt a strange sensation spreading through her body and blinked as well.
Meanwhile, high in the sky, between Tiamat and the Old Man of the Mountain, Xia Yu drew the Blazing Hope.
"With this flame, I shall cut through all things!"
In an instant, endless flames forced the Old Man of the Mountain back to the summit of the Underworld.
"So we've finally reached this point."
Xia Yu did not continue her attack.
Instead, she turned toward the dragon-form Tiamat behind her.
"I've come."
A trace of confusion flashed through the Beast's violent eyes.
But she made no move.
Seeing this, Xia Yu shouted:
"Ereshkigal!"
"I've been ready for a long time!"
Ereshkigal swung her Lance.
Twelve Rune Pillars emerged from the void of the Underworld, surrounding Tiamat completely.
"As the Mother of Genesis... perhaps I can take that position myself!"
As she spoke, Xia Yu activated all twelve Rune Pillars.
At the same time, she pushed the Tiamat Divinity within her body to its absolute limit.
This was the true nature of her very first reward.
Armored Ascension!
[Armored Ascension - One-time Spell Card]
"A legendary Magus from Faerûn paid an enormous price to obtain this path to godhood from the world of The Elder Scrolls through a mysterious existence for unknown reasons. After a hundred years of painstaking research, he transformed it into a legendary spell usable in Faerûn."
"The requirements are harsh. The cost is immense."
"But if one fulfills the prerequisites, it can drag a lofty god from their Divine Throne and elevate you in their place."
"And the conditions are to wear the god's name, walk the path they once walked, establish a connection through the faith of their believers, slowly approach them, understand them, and ultimately replace them!"
Now, all conditions had been fulfilled.
It was time to drag Tiamat down from her throne.
Armored Ascension, activate!
[First Question — Have you walked her path?]
Of course.
Tiamat created life and gave birth to an entire ecosystem.
That was the origin of her Divine Authority.
Meanwhile, Xia Yu had once created millions of Honkai Beasts within this world.
Though incomparable to Tiamat's achievement, it was still creation on a world-changing scale.
She too had walked this path.
[Second Question — Do you possess her name?]
Naturally.
Xia Yu manifested the Divine Power of Tiamat she had seized from Gorgon.
Below, the two goddesses wore solemn expressions as they jointly acknowledged her.
At this moment, possessing Tiamat's Divine Power and acknowledged by all the remaining gods of Mesopotamia (which was now only two), Xia Yu had inherited her Divine Name.
[Third Question — Do you possess her power? Her authority?]
The Potnia Theron Authority stolen from Gorgon was itself the strongest proof of Tiamat's power as the Mother Goddess of Creation.
[Divine Miracle — Passed]
[Divine Name — Passed]
[Divine Authority — Passed]
A colossal magic circle occupied nearly every inch of the sky within the subterranean Underworld.
Tiamat's body was firmly bound at its center.
Her Beast instincts sensed danger and began struggling frantically.
Yet under the restraints of such a grand ritual, no matter how hard she fought, she could not break free.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. This ritual is something else."
Merlin quietly led Fujimaru Ritsuka, Mash, and the big sister goddess into a corner of the Underworld.
"It's really something else..."
"Then should we attack?"
Mash asked nervously.
Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed.
"Attack? Help whom?"
"Help Big Sister Kiana? Mash, did you forget what happened in the Great Hollow?"
"Help Tiamat? She wouldn't appreciate it. We might save her only to get beaten up by both of them afterward..."
"Do everything you can to destroy the ritual!"
Suddenly, Merlin spoke.
"Then we really won't get beaten up by both sides?"
Ritsuka looked at him suspiciously.
"That's not my opinion. It's from the one above."
Merlin shrugged.
"Relax. Even if Tiamat gets released in the end, someone will clean up the mess."
The Counter Force had probably already completed its preparations.
As long as there was even the slightest possibility, they'd be lining up to descend.
"Focus your attacks on those Rune Pillars."
Quetzalcoatl suggested.
"I'll hold off Ereshkigal. As for Ishtar... tch, she's already gone to find King Hassan."
"I was hoping she'd use up the Bull of Heaven first."
Merlin sighed.
"I didn't expect Kiana's Dependents to be so effective. They actually held back the Black Tide and the Lahmu for so long."
"The Bull of Heaven never exited the stage during the battle against Tiamat. That puts far more pressure on us."
"With the Bull of Heaven's assistance, even King Hassan won't be able to break through her blockade anytime soon."
Quetzalcoatl's fighting spirit surged.
"As for me, although Ereshkigal has spent her entire life in the Underworld and has virtually no combat experience, this is still her home turf. Her strength is no joke."
Despite her words, her eyes only shone brighter.
Clearly, she was thoroughly enjoying herself.
"So breaking through the Rune Pillars is up to you two!"
"Right!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash exchanged glances before nodding.
"Good thing Ereshkigal didn't revoke our flight privileges. Otherwise, we wouldn't even know how to reach those Rune Pillars in the sky."
"Of course."
At that moment, Xia Yu's voice descended from above.
"I have to give you some means of resistance."
"Otherwise, wouldn't all of this be far too boring?"
"Oh, and one more thing. Although Tiamat is many times stronger than Gorgon, you only have ten minutes."
"After ten minutes, I'll seize everything she possesses!"
"Do your best, Ritsuka. I'm rooting for you!"
"But I'm not rooting for myself!"
While shouting that, Fujimaru Ritsuka took flight using the Underworld Authority.
"But there's no choice! We have to give it everything we've got, Mash!"
"Yes, Senpai!"
Their figures shot toward the heavens.
At the pinnacle of the Underworld, they unleashed their Noble Phantasm.
[Lord Camelot]
The Noble Phantasm possessed by the Heroic Spirit Galahad.
The ultimate defense formed from the White City, the heart of Camelot, and the Round Table where the Knights of the Round Table once gathered.
Its strength corresponds directly to the user's will.
As long as the heart does not yield, the walls shall never fall.
Of course, it also has a special application.
For example, dropping an entire fortress onto an enemy's face from the sky.
After all, this was one of the few large-scale offensive techniques Mash possessed.
You couldn't exactly expect a Great Shield user to have many powerful attack methods.
"Well, well. Mash is actually pretty capable."
Even Ishtar didn't dare underestimate King Hassan.
She directly summoned the Bull of Heaven, whose enormous body blocked the path between him and Tiamat.
"Goddess Ishtar."
King Hassan's voice was low.
"Do you truly intend to aid an outsider in seizing Divine Authority?"
"Hah. Easy for you to say."
Ishtar rolled her eyes.
"But how did the world of Mesopotamia end up like this in the first place?"
"If the Counter Force is so stingy that it won't even send a few Grands, then don't complain about how things turn out."
She understood the truth.
What Kiana sought to seize was never Mother's Divine Authority.
It was the curse imposed by Human History.
The identity of Beast itself.
If not for that imposed curse, Mother wouldn't have become what she was today.
Well...
The Mesopotamian pantheon also deserved a huge share of the blame.
Though King Hassan was powerful, even he could not immediately break through the strongest divine beast of Mesopotamia.
Below, Ereshkigal avoided direct confrontation with Quetzalcoatl entirely.
From beginning to end, she relied solely on Underworld Authority to suppress her opponent.
At least she knew how to avoid her own weaknesses.
"Can't you be more straightforward? How about a proper fistfight?"
The big sister dodged another spear thrust and looked at Ereshkigal resentfully.
"No!"
Ereshkigal's cowardice was completely justified.
"You're South America's Chief God! Without Authority, I can't beat you!"
What a joke.
Fight that battle maniac in close combat?
Ereshkigal knew herself far too well.
She would lose horribly.
Only here in the Underworld could she hold her own.
Outside, she probably wouldn't last more than a few exchanges.
Forget Quetzalcoatl.
Even Ishtar could beat her up.
There was no helping it.
That's just what happens when you're a shut-in.
She had lived for ages but gained almost no combat experience.
Sure, Ishtar was constantly embarrassing herself, but despite all the trouble she caused, she always survived.
Aside from having powerful backing, her combat experience was absolutely first-rate.
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me! But for faster responses, please notify me on my discord server instead (link is in my profile). Thanks!
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!
Members of my [email protected]/quickinquickout can read advanced chapters on quick-tl(dot)com—and even customize translated terms to match their preferred names and terminology!