Battle for Babylonia: Another continuation (259)

Benkei – if, of course, it was really him, and not just an actor who had long ago become fossilized in his role, was undoubtedly an outstand

Benkei – if, of course, it was really him, and not just an actor who had long ago become fossilized in his role, was undoubtedly an outstanding Servant. So much so that even an actor merely imitating his powers was himself an outstanding Servant thanks to his ‘role’, one chosen as atonement for his own sins.

But the simple truth of the situation was that ‘being a strong Servant’ was completely insufficient for battling someone like Arthur. The stolen blade had momentarily interrupted the absorption process of her essence, her battle with Tiamat within her own body, but it didn't stop the ‘monster’ that Arthur had become. The monster she had become the moment she activated her Noble Phantasm – everything else was merely the consequence of that action.

Therefore, when Benkei merely pulled Arthur's blade toward himself, he was already dead.

Instantly, several drops of Tiamat's Black Sea rose toward Benkei's dead body, seeking to absorb and alter his own body, but they were too late. The unthinking Arthur's hand had pierced into his body and sank into his heart and closed with the iron jaws of a steel trap. With an explosion of blood, Benkei’s heart was turned into pulps. And with her other hand, Arthur gripped back her sword, and tore it away from Benkei’s hands, so fast and with such force that, Benkei’s fingers, still gripping the hilt, cracked and split along the seams of muscles and tendons.

Just yet another giblet to be added to the pile.

However, despite all the brutality heaped upon him, Benkei could only smile, as he had achieved his goal. For a moment, Arthur had broken her contact with Tiamat; for a moment, Arthur was stronger than Tiamat's influence, even if only due to her hatred.

A moment was enough.

“Vendredi Treize!” Jacques de Molay's voice reached Arthur without leaving any impression in her mind, however the subsequent sensations couldn't be ignored even by Arthur.

The essence of Jacques de Molay's Noble Phantasm wasn't some unequivocal effect. Unlike the ‘crystallized miracle’ of other Servants’ Noble Phantasm, Jacques' own was neither an ancient artifact that found a new form affected by human history, nor is it formed by a legendary event from her life, nothing like that.

Because the Jacques in this Singularity, was herself, and she wasn't the real Jacques.

Jacques de Molay, the last Master of the Templar Order, was his own Servant, with his own personality, beliefs, and Noble Phantasms, while this Jacques was simply a creation based on Jacques de Molay. A facsimile of all the worst prejudices and accusations of witchcraft and occultism, all the accusations of pure evil and all fears of common folk laid on the real Jacques. All gathered in a single form, to open a path to an Outer God.

Through the form called ‘Jacques de Molay’ a path was opened to a much more real evil – Shub-Niggurath.

Rather than an artifact, or a crystallization of a single moment, Jacques' Noble Phantasm simply slightly lifted the thin veil over this connection called ‘Servant’ and the Outer God, allowing Shub-Niggurath to momentarily extend her hand into this world.

As the words slipped through her mouth, Arthur instantly froze – in the battle between Servant and the mother of all Life for control, a third force suddenly appeared. Foreign to both entities, Servant and Beast alike, it intervened in the ongoing conflict, and made both sides pause, assessing this new threat.

This momentary pause was enough for Jacques as she rushed forward, and grabbed Arthur's body, pulling her away from Tiamat’s grasping Black Sea, who had frozen as well. Even for a Beast, the presence of an Outer Being, a Foreigner, was alien.

Only, the reaction had nothing to do with Jacques de Molay or Shub-Niggurath.

***

“Hmm, this is surprising.” Ainz noted as he teleported again, but this time simple teleportation wasn't enough. Tiamat couldn't perfectly predict Ainz's destination, but her Black Sea stretched infinitely in her mind, so she could afford to strike upward everywhere at once.

However, Ainz possessed phenomenal experience not only in battle tactics, but also in adapting to others' tactics and creating his own counter-tactics on the spot. And, so the moment he felt even a drop of Tiamat's Black Sea touch his feet, he used another trick from his arsenal.

“[Delay Teleportation], [Grand Master’s Floating Mine], [Object Teleportation].”

In an instant, as fast as Ainz could cast, he teleported to the side, but when the tentacles of the Black Sea rose upward towards the spatial disturbance, they encountered only an ethereal clump of flesh and pure mana. Which immediately exploded in bright light, and searing heat, burning away all around it.

Only a second later, when the white light finally faded, leaving behind a perfect sphere of empty space that trembled finely at the edges, each tentacle striving to flee from the source of stinging light, Ainz appeared in its center. With a light satisfied hmph, he surveyed the effect of his spells.

This trick of his was simple at its core, but required great experience in execution to actually make work. One needs to properly calculate the timing of sending the mine to the target and then the teleportation following it, to avoid getting caught in the floating mine's blast radius himself.

If everything works as it should, the caster should teleport in a threat-free area, and the opponent would be on the back foot after the unexpected explosion.

Not wasting any time, Ainz instantly sent several ice spells at Tiamat herself, after which he dashed to the side midair, dodging Tiamat's counterattack, her Black Sea turned into spears. Considering his resistance to piercing attacks, he could have just tanked them, but Ainz preferred not to trade even a single point of his health with an opponent until he was absolutely certain of its necessity.

Especially since his opponent seems still fresh.

Tiamat, despite the explosion and ice spells, didn't look wounded, at least not to any significant degree that Ainz could discern while dodging attacks. That is, aside from the cut horn. It only made the idea of trading HP with her, undesirable, to say the least.

In fact, it irritated Ainz slightly.

He already didn't like going into battle without a clear and unambiguous victory plan before even seeing the opponent. Considering that Tiamat was also the first opponent, besides that mage, who could survive a considerable portion of Ainz's spells and arsenal – he was most displeased. Of course, he could simply rely on his ability to simply defeat an opponent through his vast resources and arsenal. Especially his stash of Cash Items.

But, such things were a measure of last resort, to say the least. Relying on finite resources, using brute force to win; it went against his very nature and all the plans he had ever made.

However, Ainz didn't have complete knowledge, or all the necessary information about Tiamat to simply devise a plan against her, and so was forced to fight her in the most barbaric way of all. And judging by how Tiamat had calmly survived several clashes so far with nothing to show for it, his battle plan didn't deserve a hundred points out of a hundred, as Ainz usually expected. There’s no such thing as a perfect plan, after all.

But, Ainz was reaching the limit of just brute forcing it.

With each clash, Tiamat was gradually growing in her own combat mastery, at least against Ainz, so far. It was difficult to estimate what Tiamat's actual durability and health pool were, but at the very least, she had enough to learn how to counter Ainz; even if she had to trade each lesson for a portion of her own HP.

~Battle…~

Ainz realized only after a second that the voice wasn’t him speaking, nor was it some product of his imagination. At that moment, Tiamat's Black Sea hadn't attacked him, and the unknown stimulus wasn't the sound of enemy attacks hitting him, but a voice forming into a specific word filled with meaning.

Ainz stopped, then looked up at Tiamat, as if trying to determine whether he had imagined it, or if Tiamat had indeed, for the first time ever, spoken.

However, Tiamat, rather than speaking again, simply stared at Ainz, and for the first time in their battle, her cloudy eyes were actually fixed at him. For the first time, Tiamat's unseeing pupils were not looking past him, but actually at him, concentrating on his figure. Behind her pupils lay not sleepy incomprehension or the half-doze of a person distracted by their own thoughts, but understanding. Awareness.

And intelligence.

“I want to fight…” Tiamat spoke slowly, uncertainly, like a person waking from a long restless sleep, as if she was tasting the words. As if waking from a long sleep, Tiamat was forming thoughts again.

Ainz was unsure if it’s a good thing.

As Tiamat's gaze focused on Ainz again, a movement from the side attracted Ainz’s attention, the Black Sea was moving again.

But, instead of attacking Ainz, it headed towards Tiamat instead.

***

Fear was a natural reaction of any living organism; in fact, reaction to external stimuli was written into the genetic code of any living being. Reaction to pain was the main barrier differentiating a living thing from a dead one, and overcoming pain was considered a triumph over one's own nature.

Fear was absolute for all, from the smallest of bacteria to the grandest of gods.

But ‘desire’ was more than just emotion, instinct, or unconditioned response. Desire implied an ability to set goals; the ability to imagine a continuation of actions. Intelligence.

The desire to fight was more than a soul's impulse. It was a sign, a symbol of something more.

A symbol of Tiamat's awakening.

For the first time in their entire battle, the wandering gaze of the mother of all life stopped; and behind the cloudy veil appeared a spark of understanding. Self-awareness – the ability for self-reflection and assessment of one's own state.

And the murky black slime, embracing Tiamat's legs like a dress, suddenly trembled, then stretched toward her body, rising upward.

“It's begun…” Gilgamesh spoke to no one but himself. Finally, the Primordial Mother has awakened.

“Magical core regression confirmed.” Merlin looked at the scene before him and for the first time allowed himself an expression, something between admiration and horror simultaneously.

“Remarkable… Even I never thought I'd see something like this, up close.”

Tiamat was the source of all living things. The first bacterium in the universe first appeared from Tiamat; the first god was born from Tiamat, even the first hero was raised from Tiamat's blood.

Tiamat's previous form was the form of ‘Humanity’. The form that Tiamat took at the moment of her creation of all that exists on this earth, but it was merely a ‘costume’, or perhaps ‘container’ would be the more fitting word, for Tiamat herself.

Just as ‘Servant’ was ultimately just a convenient denominator, a vessel that contained a part of a ‘Heroic Spirit’, just so was ‘Tiamat’ that they were fighting. A mere vessel that only contains a part of her true self.

Until now, that is.

The Black Sea poured covered Tiamat’s form, streaming into the wounds inflicted on her giant form, not to heal her, but to flow into her very veins. It was a change similar to what had been tormenting Arthur just moments ago. The Black Sea was beginning to merge with her.

However, where Arthur resisted this, Tiamat met the change with open arms.

One could call what was happening an ‘evolution’, but it was such only from humanity's perspective. ‘Evolution’ as understood by humans, meant a striving for perfection, to become more than what you are now and before. An understanding born because the human form was imperfect in itself.

There was always the possibility to improve and perfect the human form.

But therein lay the problem with such an understanding; Tiamat was already perfect, an ‘Evolution’ had no meaning for her. On the contrary, for Tiamat, striving for ‘perfection’ was in fact for her to ‘regress’ instead. Rather than change, she would return to her own past form.

To her state as the source of all living things in the world.

Reality itself began to slowly melt around Tiamat, the fabric of the world returning to the ideal world of the past; Tiamat returning to the absolute perfection of the first being in the world, was something the current reality could not tolerate. A black hole of magic that warped all immutable laws of physics, since Tiamat existed long before the very first of them was formed.

Of course, the Servants would not just sit still and let it happen.

“Xiuhcoatl!” Quetzalcoatl's voice reached Tiamat's ears a moment later, as did the flames that followed it.

The fire that once burned Quetzalcoatl's main temple to prevent Tezcatlipoca from seizing Quetzalcoatl's treasures. The fire was created as the perfect weapon against anyone wishing to ‘take treasure for themselves’. A destructive power that could burn even a God's ‘place of power’.

The Black Sea that was climbing over Tiamat instantly ignited and was turned to ash, the fire burning both the ‘divine essence’ hidden within it and the ‘tool for gaining power’.

The wave of flame covered Tiamat’s form completely, striving in every possible way to devour as much of Tiamat as it could and prevent her from returning to her ‘form of perfection’. But, Quetzalcoatl herself had no intention of stopping there.

“Quetzalcoatl!”

A moment later, a huge beast appeared beside the goddess. It was a strange creature by the world's standards; hunched on four limbs, its arms ended in enormous extended leathery wings, protruding like two disproportionate sickles to the sides. It possessed a head with huge golden eyes and vertical pupils, ending in a long sharp beak, inside which, against all other creatures with beaks, lay rows of sharp teeth.

Quetzalcoatl, not the god, but a huge lizard, the ‘feathered serpent’ of legends, a pterodactyl from the times of long-gone. The only direct connection between the two same-named beings were purely in their name, though there are more esoteric connections

When the bones of the ancient creature were first discovered, none of the scientists doubted that they had finally found a worthy bearer of this ancient god’s name. Surely, they had found the reason for all legends about dragons and serpents covering the sky with their wings, right? If there existed a more worthy candidate for the title of ‘lord of the skies’, then humanity would probably never discover it.

The perfect beast for the name ‘lord of winds’ and ‘feathered serpent’.

Jumping onto the beast's back and completely disregarding the objections of physical laws, Quetzalcoatl instantly took flight on the quetzalcoatl. The beast then accelerated so fast, that even modern fighter jets pale in comparison; heading forward, toward the wave of flame that strove with all its might to devour Tiamat.

Victory, however, was much harder to achieve.

Before Quetzalcoatl on her soaring beast could even reach Tiamat, the raging flame suddenly jerked, then extinguished, consumed by an upward wave of the Black Sea.

Nevertheless, the fight continues on.

“Wandering Tales of Shan-O! First Technique – Eye of Shiva!” Ushiwakamaru's voice merged into one extended moment, and suddenly both Ushiwakamaru and Quetzalcoatl switched places.

Ushiwakamaru possessed, formally speaking, only one Noble Phantasm. Borne from the legends of her wandering, that unexpectedly gained new life and new form after she became a Servant. However, the fact that her Noble Phantasm was not an ability or weapon, but the legends themselves meant that at any moment she could use any of her six legends, six secret techniques, to manifest them in reality.

Of course, the price for possessing, what might as well be six Noble Phantasms, was that none of these techniques was a real Noble Phantasm. They lacked the power, they lacked mystery, and they lacked that little something that would make them the true final weapon that could simultaneously change the course of battle; turning a losing battle into a final overwhelming victory.

On the other hand? There were six of them.

The first secret technique, Eye of Shiva. A technique that embodied Ushiwakamaru’s mastery of tactics, it allowed, at any moment, the ‘replay’ of any previous move, or the changing of the location of any soldier on the battlefield. In other words, Quetzalcoatl hadn't teleported away, moving Ushiwakamaru to her place; it would be more accurate to say that Ushiwakamaru had, from the very beginning, had headed against Tiamat on the summoned quetzalcoatl.

“Second technique – Usumidori!” Another technique, representing perfect blade mastery, struck at the rising Black Sea, cutting it apart; it still didn't make Tiamat stop.

“Third Technique – Benkei!” The legend of Benkei, who fought to the end and died standing, scaring his enemy enough that pursuers didn't dare approach him even after his death. It became the basis of Ushiwakamaru's third Technique, a defense allowing one to survive any strike.

Any strike except Tiamat's.

The monstrous clawed paw didn't belong to a human, or to the Tiamat she had been just moments ago. Covered in writhing black flesh, composed of the infinite deluge of the Black Sea compressed into a single organism that merged with Tiamat's body in preparation for her regression into her original form. It was much larger than Tiamat's arm before this moment. Tiamat herself was a giant being, towering over Gilgamesh's titanic walls, but her new form easily made her previous form look practically insignificant.

One clawed paw became a living mountain against the backdrop of which, discerning Ushiwakamaru herself, was impossible. And though its movement could be called only glacial relative to its size, for inhabitants of the ‘normal’ world its actions seemed lightning-fast.

The quetzalcoatl was crushed instantly as if it were merely a paper crane caught in a storm; and Ushiwakamaru's flesh, even when supported with her Noble Phantasm, trembled with strain, her very bones grinded unceasingly ready to snap in the next second.

"Fourth Technique – Dan-no-Ura!" This time, it was the legend of Ushiwakamaru's agility and skill. The legend of how she had leaped across eight boats to traverse the straits, leaping from boat to boat as platforms, a feat no human could accomplish, amplified manifold by her becoming a Servant.

A second later, Tiamat's paw dispersed Ushiwakamaru's figure, but instead of a bloody rain, there was nothing there, as Tiamat had only struck a mirage created from the sheer speed that Ushiwakamaru was moving at.

Ushiwakamaru's figure then appeared on Tiamat's paw, as she then leaped forward, onto Tiamat’s wrist, then immediately on her elbow. Ushiwakamaru's speed was such that a dozen of her seemed to exist simultaneously, each a mirage left in the air by the imperfection of human perception of such speeds. As if the mind couldn't register her position changes in space.

A moment later, Ushiwakamaru finally felt her feet make full contact with Tiamat's shoulder, and instantly the viscous flesh of the mother of all mothers rushed upward, seeking to absorb and subjugate this new vessel.

"Fifth technique – Hoemaru!" The blade in Ushiwakamaru's hands emitted a piercing howl at the edge of hearing, like a wave of force, it struck in all directions, sweeping away the droplets of the Black Sea, exposing Tiamat's flesh.

"Sixth technique – Kikenjo!" The sixth technique was the last in Ushiwakamaru's arsenal, and the strongest. Using all the power of her legend, about her skill, her victories, loyal followers, her legendary blade and honed training, Ushiwakamaru could deliver a final blow, cutting through all of Tiamat's armor with the goal not to win. Not to deprive Tiamat of an arm, or even wound her, but with the goal of making the Beast feel that victory wasn't guaranteed to her, merely by right of being the primordial mother.

Ushiwakamaru's blade made a cut, and flesh parted more precisely and easily than under the scalpel of a surgeon. The cut was so fine that the flesh itself seemed to not realize that it had been cut. Blood didn't gush out and the Black Sea still climbing upward, or the one dispersed by Ushiwakamaru, didn't panic sensing the wound.

But Tiamat certainly felt this strike; and found out that she didn’t like the feeling.

Tiamat's reaction, her arm jerking in response to the pain, was so sudden and so forceful that Ushiwakamaru nearly lost her footing. Furthermore, just from inertia alone, Ushiwakamaru’s blade, lodged in Tiamat’s shoulder, moved, cutting even more of the Mother of All Living Things’ flesh. But, when compared to Tiamat’s sheer size, it wasn’t even a paper cut; it was more like a pinprick. A pain that immediately disappears after a moment.

Such was the result of Ushiwakamaru's entire attack, her full strength.

Instantly, the Black Sea covered the wounded flesh, and the wound was immediately healed. It was as if all of Ushiwakamaru’s efforts had never happened at all.

Tiamat's entire arm was restored completely.

But Ushiwakamaru’s goal was achieved. For a moment, not even a millisecond, for an immeasurably small interval of time, Tiamat felt the effect of an attack against herself. A wound was dealt on her true body.

Her desire for battle was met, and turned against her. Beyond thoughts of battle, she was gifted a thought of something greater – of defeat.

Of death.

The most unnatural thought for the source of all life, and yet paramount to all other living things.

The thought of the inevitability of her death.

The Black Sea rushed upward again, but this time not to absorb Ushiwakamaru. Tiamat now finally understood the stakes of battle. Understood a possible outcome of her fight.

Maternal love, the desire to possess all life, the desire to absorb, correct and give birth anew, disappeared.

No, Tiamat no longer wished to change her children.

She wished to destroy them.

Therefore, the black viscous slime struck upward at Ushiwakamaru with the desire not to dig into her body and change her, but to pulverize, annihilate, and erase her body into dust and bloody scraps.

But, before Tiamat could enact her will, Tomoe Gozen had arrived, and before Ushiwakamaru could even say anything, Tomoe had grabbed her by the shoulder and thrown her off Tiamat. A fall from such height would certainly result in severe injuries; but it wouldn't kill Ushiwakamaru, unlike a collision with Tiamat's black slime.

However, the primordial mother didn't care which opponent stood against her at this moment.

They all had to be destroyed.

The black slime congealed into a single spear-like tendril and pierced Tomoe's body in multiple places simultaneously. The wave that captured her legs immediately crushed them into bloody pulp, grinding meat, bones, and nerves into a single substance.

However, Tomoe had accepted her mortality long before encountering Tiamat. At the moment when she couldn't sacrifice herself, when her only weakness became the cause of her eternal shame, she had already decided to give up her life.

To save an ally's life, strike at the enemy and sacrifice herself?

Well, for Tomoe, the third part of this proposal in this case wasn't payment for the first two, but a third goal that Tomoe herself could fulfill.

"Namah Samantavajranam Ham!" With her death, Tomoe activated her Noble Phantasm.

Usually it was a Noble Phantasm of Tomoe that didn't require an activation and was active at all moments. The flame bursting from her hands and forward with each of her attacks was the manifestation of this Noble Phantasm, if it could be called such at all. In its action, this Phantasm didn't differ from a skill like Mana Burst that many Servants possessed, the ability to use mana for self-enhancement, acceleration or movement, spending it to create or absorb impacts.

However, the source of such power, unlike the other Servants, wasn't her magical skills, inhuman nature or legends about their actions.

The source of such power was Tomoe's insurmountable desire to prove to herself and the entire world around her that she was capable of fighting. Her unquenchable desire to prove to herself that she could still do one right thing in her life and die for a great mission.

And dying while trying to save the world seemed to her an almost suitable replacement for her desire to die beside her husband in battle.

Therefore, as she activated it, instantly, every particle of mana in her body ignited in a chain reaction. A fiery tornado burst outward, burning the black slime striking at her and even burning away Tiamat’s regrown flesh.

The flame's strike was as incredible as it was short-lived, a second that finally cleared the veil of the Black Sea around Tiamat and finally revealed her figure to the world.

First appeared Tiamat's face; a face distorted by rage and bestial fury, in which not a single human feature could be discerned. A mouth opened so wide that the lower jaw seemed torn off, barely hanging on tendons and muscles strained to their limit. Millions of teeth, ranging from human molars to draconic teeth the size of an adult human. Curved horns extending backward from her temples, lost in the shadow cast by a pair of enormous wings, covered in scales, feathers and pulsing red blood vessels. Meanwhile, the mighty tail of the world serpent, stretching back for kilometers, extended behind her, each movement of which swept mountains from their places and carved new riverbeds for mighty rivers. Supporting all these were four enormous clawed paws ending in sharp blades larger than houses.

And yet, even with such frightening visage, the transformation was not yet complete. The flesh of the primordial mother was effusively changing every second, as if it was striving to merge with itself into a single lump of primal flesh and birth something new.

Something for which the universe itself had not yet created a suitable habitat.

No physics could sustain such a body, gravity would, should have crushed it. The limbs couldn't support the weight, the size meant that even just breathing, or spreading blood, oxygen throughout the body was impossible. Even simple atmospheric pressure would have been deadly to the organism.

But such considerations weren't necessary, not for Tiamat as she is now.

Tiamat's complete regression to her perfect form was complete, the laws of physics were officially swept off the table by Tiamat's very primordial essence. The world officially ceased to follow ‘objective reality’, the idea of it was forgotten.

Tiamat, the source of all existence, returned to this world to reshape it anew, at her discretion.

And looking at this figure, Gilgamesh smiled. "So, the real battle has finally begun."

After all, the only reason Gilgamesh would be able to take pride in defeating Tiamat, was if she was at her full power.