Chapter 88: You Are the Challenger
Because after witnessing the radiance of [Excalibur], Gilgamesh had automatically come to regard Saber as his bride—his newest treasure. And given Gilgamesh's attitude toward his treasures, one would assume he wouldn't allow Saber to be harmed...
At first, that was what Emiya Shirou thought. He figured Gilgamesh would be against Saber taking the field and getting hurt.
But then he recalled Gilgamesh's attitude toward Saber in his past-life memories. It was a stance where it didn't matter whether Saber acknowledged him or not; Gilgamesh simply intended to beat her until she did.
Suppressing the words he originally intended to say, Shirou immediately changed his script. Using the projected [Pseudo-Anubis] in his hand, he batted away the Noble Phantasms flying toward them.
"Didn't I tell you? I won't let you lay a hand on Saber... No!
Though I never had the intention to begin with, seeing you attack Saber without a moment's hesitation makes me realize: I will absolutely never hand Saber over to you! Absolutely!"
——Trace on!!
Likely because of their previous encounter where he was nearly one-shot by Bazett's [Fragarach], Gilgamesh—though still arrogant and refusing to lower himself to use his full power (such as continuing to seal [Sha Naqba Imuru], which he considered a "cheat" that would ruin the fun)—was now displaying a different level of intensity.
The golden ripples blotting out the sky behind him and the Noble Phantasms constantly emerging from the [Gate of Babylon] proved that, while maintaining his Kingly pride, Gilgamesh was taking this seriously. He did not reduce the scale of the Gate just because Shirou wasn't a Servant.
Ordinarily, under such high-intensity, dense saturation fire, even the powerful stats of the evolved [Pseudo-Anubis] would struggle. It would be nearly impossible for Shirou to intercept every single projectile from this torrential rain of treasures without missing a single one. It would be even harder to do as he swore: to intercept the attacks meant for Saber as well.
But that would only be the case if Shirou only had [Anubis].
Shirou never relied solely on [Anubis]—or rather, not just [Pseudo-Anubis]—but on his Projection Magecraft!
Are Gilgamesh's treasures too numerous for one person to intercept? Does Shirou lack the mana to sustain a wide-area projection to cancel out Gilgamesh's volley at a 1:1 scale?
Then he would simply project more "people." He would have them grip [Pseudo-Anubis] and strike down every single one of Gilgamesh's treasures!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
From a perspective invisible to Gilgamesh, Shirou was doing exactly that—using multiple projections of his Stand and [Anubis] to knock down every single one of Gilgamesh's attacks.
He spoke to Gilgamesh, and to Saber: "Saber, I leave the task of blocking Kotomine Kirei to you. After all, unlike other Servants, Gilgamesh isn't 'powerful' to me. He is the one who is the challenger."
"Truly astonishing, mongrel. To think this King would be provoked by you lot time and time again!"
Compared to Saber—who remained calm and, upon seeing Shirou's response, turned her blade toward Kotomine Kirei with total trust that Shirou would keep his word—Gilgamesh was a different story. He was practically laughing with rage at Shirou's words.
"Do not joke with this King, you filthy faker!"
The [Gate of Babylon] expanded again. This time, they weren't ordinary swords or spears. Having seen the raw power [Anubis] granted Shirou, Gilgamesh pulled out heavy weaponry from his treasury.
Did Shirou have the gall to talk back to him just because of high stats? Then he should try using those stats to cut down these treasures that symbolized the planet's horizon and sea level—Noble Phantasms that, in their respective myths, were symbols of pure power and magnitude!
'Good. The plan is a success.
No matter which version of Gilgamesh it is, as long as he possesses the consciousness of the young King, he is inevitably easy to provoke. And he's arrogant enough to disdain using his full strength or his [Clarivoyance] and [Sha Naqba Imuru] to see through an enemy's ruse.'
Of course, this was also because Gilgamesh was too much of a "cheat" himself.
Even Gilgamesh didn't know exactly how many treasures were in his Gate. Even with past-life memories, Shirou could only recognize a few that had appeared in the original works, like the mountain-splitting [Ig-Alima: Green Field Cutting Through the Thousand Mountains]. Or the one that didn't even need its True Name released to incinerate Shirou's Reality Marble in Prisma Illya into a sea of fire: [Sul-Sagana: The Horizon of Dawn that Purifies the Seas].
Dividing heaven and earth, and burning the oceans. Against a "stat monster," he responded with Noble Phantasms of even higher stats. Gilgamesh's tactic wasn't wrong.
However, the direction of Gilgamesh's attack had shifted. Under Shirou's repeated provocations, Gilgamesh—who would have normally blanketed both Shirou and Saber in his fire—aimed this entire round of attacks solely at Emiya Shirou!
——Is this distance enough?
He did not retreat. On the contrary, facing those oppressive, heavy Noble Phantasms, Shirou actively accelerated toward Gilgamesh.
He only had one chance. Gilgamesh's attacks were like DIO's throwing knives; once the quantity reached a certain point, even Shirou couldn't guarantee safety.
Even if Shirou was confident in protecting himself using [Anubis]'s stats and [The World]'s time stop, he couldn't guarantee Saber's safety nearby.
But now that Gilgamesh had concentrated all his attention on Shirou...
——This distance is enough!
Every action had been a preparation for this single strike. Shirou called out the True Name of the Stand he had long since projected:
"[THE WORLD]!!"
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