Chapter 41: The Fictional Being
The land beyond the city of Uruk had already been eroded by a sea of blood, with countless 'Lahmu' crawling out from scarlet 'eggs.'
In that instant, the divine beast boars roaming the land would stomp them into pieces.
Under this defensive line established by Shirou, the range of the contamination was never able to breach the city of Uruk.
Shirou stood on the "Vimana" with Gudako and Mash, looking down from the high heavens at the scarlet land continuously being stained below.
"Siduri has already been rescued." Shirou had located Siduri within the city of Uruk below.
"That's wonderful!" The three of them breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Then, everyone turned their gaze toward the scarlet ground spreading endlessly outside the city of Uruk.
"This is definitely the greatest crisis we have encountered so far..." Gudako said, looking at Mash.
Mash nodded in agreement.
"Indeed. An enemy as powerful as Tiamat is the trickiest we have faced yet. King Gilgamesh also said that it would take at least the seven Grand Servants gathered together to contend with her. Relying only on us..."
"Does Shirou have a way to deal with her?" Anna asked at this moment.
Hearing Anna's question, Shirou raised his hand, extending his index finger and thumb, leaving a gap of a few centimeters between them.
"It's alright, I happen to be just a little bit stronger than her."
"If that's the case, does that mean we have a chance!?" Gudako said with surprise.
At this moment, Mash, who had been watching below, suddenly noticed something.
"Look over there!"
Everyone followed Mash's gaze and discovered the figure of Enkidu in a city outside Uruk.
At this very moment, upon seeing the 'Lahmu' gathering humans together to play with and massacre them, Enkidu scolded them with displeasure.
"Why are you gathering the old humans? You are worse than the old humans—no, even worse than demonic beasts... To think that such flawed products are my brethren; it is truly pathetic!"
Saying this, Enkidu turned around to look at the black dragon descending while flapping its wings, as well as Shirou and the others on the dragon's back.
"Forget it. I will take command from here on out; all of you follow my orders!"
"Enkidu, you are not a child of the goddess Tiamat. King Gilgamesh checked in the Underworld previously, and Enkidu's remains are gone. You are just a fictional being created using Enkidu's remains and the Holy Grail!" Gudako spoke out.
Enkidu was quite disdainful of this statement.
"Boring! Regardless, I am still the child of the goddess Tiamat; that will not change—"
Before his words could finish, his body was pierced by a 'Lahmu.'
"Why—!?"
The 'Lahmu' looked at Enkidu's expression of disbelief and issued harsh, grating laughter one after another.
"Hahahaha!!!! That look on your face, it's just too hilarious!"
"This is play! To torment, to toy with, to kill humans—it is just too much fun! You are nothing more than a toy meant to amuse us!"
The 'Lahmu' laughed as they spoke, completely ignoring Enkidu, whose expression had turned to one of shock and rage, instead mocking him loudly.
The 'Lahmu' that had pierced Enkidu's body emitted an excited shriek.
"Power... it's power! My power has increased like never before! I am invincible! Woo-hoo~!"
Then, its body contorted like an alien, becoming even larger with a pair of wings extending from its back.
"Hahahaha! Now I am invincible!"
Having obtained the power of the Holy Grail inside Enkidu's body, that 'Lahmu' immediately became the king among the 'Lahmu.'
It shrieked with excitement, waving its scythe-like claws, intending to kill Enkidu directly.
Just then, a spear-type Noble Phantasm descended from the sky, piercing the 'Lahmu's' body.
BOOM—!!!
The violent shockwave caused the surrounding 'Lahmu' to be annihilated by that force, and the 'Lahmu' further away, seeing this scene, were seized with panic.
"So scary, so scary!!!"
"Run away!"
"I don't want to die here!!"
"Nigerundayo!" (Run away!)
Seeing that the strongest among their companions had been so easily wiped out in seconds, the remaining 'Lahmu' screamed like humans, fleeing in terror.
Enkidu crawled up at this moment, looking at Shirou and the others who were overlooking everything from high above on the Vimana.
"You guys..."
Enkidu's expression was quite complex.
He had intended to lead those he considered 'new humans' to declare war on the others, but who would have thought that he would end up being backstabbed by those very creatures.
"Your ideals have been shattered. What do you intend to do next, Enkidu?"
Shirou asked as he raised his hand and took the Holy Grail into his possession.
"So this is the seventh Holy Grail."
Shirou examined the golden cup and then handed it to Gudako.
"O-Orihara-senpai... are you really just giving it to me like this?"
Thinking of how little she had seemingly done along the way, holding this Holy Grail made her face burn with shame.
"This Grail is of no use to me; what the Holy Grail can do, I can also do."
Shirou smiled at Gudako: "And a cup that is of no use to me is of great use to you. This might as well be the best bonus gift."
Hearing this, Gudako was so moved she was almost in tears, and she excitedly opened her arms to give Shirou a big hug.
"Thank you, Orihara-senpai!"
Shirou nodded and turned his gaze to the center of the sea, which was covered in endless blood-red.
The figure of the 'Mother Goddess of Creation,' Tiamat, was emerging from there.
Tiamat, the Goddess of Creation.
"I gave birth to many lives, and I was once loved by all living things, but my children used me as a stepping stone and left me behind. I wanted to love them always, wanted them to remain by my side forever... Could it be that my love... was all a mistake?"
One of the creator gods in Mesopotamian mythology.
The mother's womb, abandoned immediately after the creation of the world.
She was used as the soil to nurture life.
But once the Earth's environment stabilized and the ecosystem was established, she was treated as a useless object and exiled to the 'Sea of Life' in the imaginary number world.
"Since the ecosystem has been established, she, who randomly designed life, is no longer needed..."
These were the words of the gods who saw her as an obstacle during the process of life forms attaining intelligence compatible with this planet.
And now, that figure—beautiful yet filled with unspeakable sorrow—was lingering there.
Her ice-blue hair was deeper blue than the sea, her jet-black horns symbolizing the Earth were gracefully curved, and her pinkish-purple pupils held cross-shaped stars, as if gazing into ten thousand seas of stars.
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