Chapter 40: Tiamat
"Tiamat... she has finally arrived."
At this moment, Merlin's body had already begun to turn transparent, looking as if it were about to vanish.
"You must hurry back to Uruk! Although she has awakened, she has not yet begun to act. Even though total annihilation is inevitable, there are still measures that can be taken..."
Merlin said to them.
"Tell King Gilgamesh this: The Beast of Delusion that devours human history, the source of life, the mother of origins—one of the 'Seven Evils of Humanity,' the Beast of Original Sin (BEAST)—which could originally only be countered by seven Servants of the Grand class, has awakened!"
"Merlin!" Gudako called out, watching Merlin's form disappear just like that.
"Don't worry, this is not his original body, so he will not die," Shirou said to her.
"I see..." Gudako understood immediately.
At the same time, Da Vinci's voice came through the communicator.
"An unidentified magical energy reaction has been detected in the Persian Gulf. Each individual's magical energy signature is higher than that of a Lahmu, and the number..."
Da Vinci paused, her voice becoming somewhat stunned.
"The number exceeds one hundred million...! And it is continuing to multiply... About 100,000 have already climbed onto land, and 20,000 of those are heading toward Uruk. Although their speeds vary, the first wave will arrive in just a few hours!"
"What should we do? We might not make it back to Uruk in time...!" Gudako said, feeling anxious.
Shirou, while gazing in the direction where Tiamat appeared, spoke up: "I will take you there. Ishtar, you don't need to come; go and call Quetzalcoatl to return with you."
Hearing this, Ishtar nodded.
"Understood!"
Immediately, her figure flew away rapidly on her great bow.
Although Shirou had previously destroyed that bow of hers, it was an effortless task for him to create another one.
"Then, let us go as well," Shirou said to Anna, Gudako, and Mashu beside him.
"Right!" the three answered in unison.
Then, a brilliant glow of magical power enveloped the three of them.
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At this moment, the city of Uruk was in utter chaos.
"What on earth are these things?!?"
Seeing the monsters that had appeared suddenly, the crowd began to flee in terror.
The magical beasts created by Tiamat each possessed the terrifying power to crush humans with ease.
And these "cute" little things were currently opening their mouths wide, mimicking human language while slicing open human bodies to observe them.
"No! Don't come over here!"
A woman wearing a veil, chased by a monster, fled in a panic, but there was no way her speed could match the monster's, and she was quickly overtaken.
"No... don't...!"
The woman fell to the ground, her hands pushing against her weak body to retreat backward.
The monster fast approaching her, its mouth continuously opening and closing, uttered a heart-wrenching phrase: "No... no!"
It was learning the words that had escaped the woman's lips in her fear.
Seeing this horrifying scene, the woman's expression turned vacant, a hoarse sound emerged from her throat, and her body went limp as if it had lost all strength.
Suddenly, a sword darted down from the sky, piercing the monster's body.
Then, the monster let out a shriek that sounded incredibly similar to a human's.
"Ah——!!!"
Watching the monster disintegrate instantly upon the detonation of that sword, Siduri was so shocked by this scene that she couldn't speak, only standing with her mouth half-open, staring at the barrage of Noble Phantasms pouring down on the city like a rainstorm, completely dumbfounded.
Such scenes were continuously playing out throughout Uruk.
At the same time, a gateway to another world appeared in mid-air, and a massive divine beast boar rushed out from it, trampling and crushing those monsters with ease across the open area outside Uruk.
"This should suffice."
Considering the narrowness of the city and the density of the crowd, Shirou did not use any Noble Phantasms above A-rank.
However, even that was more than enough.
Without wasting more time, after resolving the disturbances within Uruk, Shirou headed to the grand hall at the top of the ziggurat.
Gudako immediately relayed Merlin's words to Gilgamesh, then asked:
"King Gilgamesh, what are the Evils of Humanity?"
Upon hearing this question, Gilgamesh looked at Gudako with some surprise.
"I assumed that after experiencing the previous six Singularities, you would already know... The so-called Evils of Humanity are, as the name implies, the blemishes of humanity, referring to various disasters that destroy mankind."
"The more humanity develops, the stronger they become, like cancer eating away at the body from within society. But you must remember, the Evils of Humanity do not refer to the evil that destroys humanity, but rather the evil destroyed by humanity!"
"In short, these seven types of disasters born from human bestiality are the BEAST class! And the one the Mage King awakened is this beast."
Ishtar, listening to Gilgamesh's words, suddenly interrupted.
"Wait, the one they awakened is Mother, right? This situation should be caused by the goddess Tiamat, shouldn't it?"
"The goddess Tiamat I am speaking of is the BEAST!" Gilgamesh stated. "In other words, the opponent we must challenge is a genuine divine body of the primordial world, but I fear she has not yet fully awakened, is that correct, Chaldea?"
Hearing this, Gudako raised her wrist and looked at the communicator.
Da Vinci's answer came through immediately.
"Yes, as for the spirit origin reaction that exists as a hostile force, there is only that organism; there hasn't appeared a reaction similar to a divine body yet. Also... Romani?"
Roman's voice cut over Da Vinci's.
"There's no time, I'll give you the conclusion: that organism is composed of divine mud, an individual that does not exist in the life system tree as we know it. Because it is a life form from
the Age of Gods, there is a vast difference between us and them, starting from the magic circuits! You can consider them the mass-produced version of Enkidu!"
"What is their name?" Gilgamesh asked.
Roman answered immediately.
"The children of the goddess Tiamat—Lahmu!"
"Siduri... no, Head Priestess, the name of this creature is Lahmu. Issue the order immediately!" Gilgamesh commanded.
"Wait..." Gudako suddenly noticed something amiss. "King! Where did Ms. Siduri go?"
"..." Gilgamesh's expression changed, he frowned, and then looked at Shirou. "Shiro Orihara, you are the only variable in this world, perhaps you can turn the tide of the battle... You who cannot see the future, can you lend this King a hand?"
"I refuse."
Shirou's answer caused Gilgamesh's pupils to shrink, then he sighed and said:
"If that is so... perhaps it is fate..."
But at this moment, a voice came again.
"Fate, or whatever, is just something to be cut through."
Saying this, Shirou's gaze swept toward Gudako, Mashu, and Anna, who were looking at him.
"Let's go."
"Right!" the three answered immediately.
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