MMMS 110

This wasn’t just a battle anymore—it had become a war.

Three against thirty thousand. And after more than thirty grueling minutes, they’d only managed to cut down less than two thousand.

The tide never stopped. The enemy forces, now numbering twenty-eight thousand, pressed in like a storm without end, forcing Ryuuto, Morgan, and Artoria into a constant, desperate struggle. There was no chance to breathe. No opportunity to retreat. Only more steel, more hooves, more killing.

Among them, Artoria bore the heaviest burden. Wave after wave of divine-weapon cavalry and long-range javelin squads surged at her without pause, forcing her to stay on the defensive. There was no opening to unleash her Noble Phantasm a second time. Worse still, the holy lance—piercing, precise, built for single-point destruction—was poorly suited for dealing with such massive, swarming numbers.

Against Ionian Hetairoi, a Lancer was the wrong class for the job.

If she still had the Hammer of the Wind King as Saber, she could have swept through the charging cavalry like grass beneath a blade.

But this class was specialized—efficient against fortresses, not hordes.

"Master..." she muttered, cutting through another wave. "Don’t tell me this Reality Marble doesn’t have a time limit?"

"If Rider were relying only on his own magical energy, it should’ve collapsed after twenty minutes," Ryuuto replied, a dozen black tendrils lashing out from behind him as they dragged enemy squads into the void. "But if a magus is backing him with Command Spells and a ton of mana... well, that’s a different story. And Archer clearly pulled something on his end too."

His voice was serious. Should he use Ea?

In a straight duel with Iskandar, he wouldn’t have hesitated. But this wasn’t that.

Gilgamesh’s treasury was bottomless. If Ryuuto summoned Ea here—if he risked drawing it only for Gilgamesh to snatch it away again—it would be a disaster. Not just for him, but for the entire battlefield.

Not far from Ryuuto, Morgan danced through a storm of mana-infused arrows, twisting midair as she unleashed a barrage of shimmering cannon blasts. The air around her cracked with magical force as her voice reached him, not aloud, but directly into his mind.

‘Master. What exactly are you hesitating for?’

Her tone was calm, but the irritation came through loud and clear.

From where she stood, it looked like he was still playing around.

"...Uh." Ryuuto froze mid-strike.

Because she was right. He was holding back.

If he used everything—if he really tapped into his full strength—there’d be no hiding it. His identity as a Beast would be revealed in full. Morgan already knew. But the other two? They didn’t.

Irisviel might not care. She was a homunculus, built for war and loyalty. But Artoria...

That woman—upright, righteous, everything a proper king should be—had placed her faith in him. What would she think when she learned that the Master she'd entrusted herself to was a Beast of calamity?

And worse—why did he care?

The thought gnawed at him. Was he really that petty? That weak? Afraid of being hated by her at a time like this?

The answer came, uninvited and undeniable: yes.

“Master.”

Artoria’s voice snapped him out of the haze.

“After this battle,” she said calmly, “let’s go on a date. I want to visit the aquarium.”

He blinked. “Wh—what…?”

A cannon blast thundered from Morgan’s side, launching a hundred enemies into the sky. “Hey! What kind of timing is that!? You can’t just go sneaking off with him! If there’s a d-date, I’m coming too!”

Ryuuto said. “Why now?”

Artoria offered him a small, rare smile. Not the cold expression of a king or the stern face of a warrior—but something softer. “Seeing your fighting style… even the octopi I usually hate seem kind of cute.”

“...”

He didn’t laugh. Not right away. But he clenched his teeth and grinned.

“…Yeah. Got it. It’s a promise.”

He paused, then looked between them both.

“After the date, let’s stay out all night. All three of us.”

The words came out lighthearted—but his power surged to the surface like a tidal wave.

And the moment he made that decision, the entire battlefield shifted.

Just like that, the largest-scale Holy Grail "War" in history came to an end.

…

Somewhere amid the chaos, the battlefield went still.

At some point, without realizing it, the soldiers had formed a wide circle—cleared by instinct alone. None dared step forward. Even the most hardened veterans, men who’d trampled over entire nations, hesitated at the presence of the two figures standing in the center.

Ryuuto and Gilgamesh faced each other, no more than ten meters apart.

Neither moved. The space between them thrummed like a drawn bow, waiting to snap. Mana radiated from both of them, thick enough to press down on the lungs. Even the sand seemed to still, caught between breaths.

Gilgamesh tilted his head slightly, lips curling. "Hoh... your expression’s changed. Don’t tell me you’re finally getting serious?"

His golden armor gleamed under the sun, but it was his eyes—those blood-red eyes, sharp and arrogant—that betrayed his anticipation. This moment... he'd waited too long for it.

"Such a pitiful showing, that earlier mess." His voice was calm, but the disdain was clear. "If I didn’t know who you truly were, I’d have mistaken you for just another mongrel scrambling in the dust."

Ryuuto didn’t respond right away. He brushed sand off his pants with lazy indifference, gaze still locked on the king before him.

"You think you understand me?" he murmured. "You really don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have shown up with just this small army."

That earned a dry chuckle.

"Ha!" Gilgamesh barked a joyless laugh. "If I were facing your full strength... that would be another matter. But the you standing here now isn’t worth the effort. The carelessness I showed last time..." He narrowed his eyes. "There won’t be a repeat."

He stepped forward—just once.

In that single motion, he shed the pretense of a ruler looking down from on high. This was no longer a king judging a subject. This was a warrior issuing a challenge.

"Come then, Beast. If you don’t want to die here, draw that sword."

It was the opposite of their last encounter. Back then, Ryuuto had been the one pushing Gilgamesh to take him seriously by using Ea. This time, it was Gilgamesh making the same demand.