IBHJ Chapter 853

Shirou scowled. "What do you know about me?" He swept the spear horizontally, using his immense magical energy to shove Gilgamesh back.

"Your personality has changed quite a bit too," Gilgamesh remarked with a smirk. He tightened his grip on the swords, then lunged at Shirou again, giving him no time to recover.

Artoria, wielding Excalibur, moved to pursue Gilgamesh, but Heracles intercepted her with a burst of speed.

"Get out of my way, Heracles!" she released the Invisible Air, releasing the seal hiding Excalibur, turning it into a ferocious tornado. Wind roared around the blade as she thrust it towards Heracles.

Hammer of the Wind King!

Danger! Heracles instinctively raised his axe to block.

Boom! The Hammer of the Wind King shattered Heracles' stone axe, piercing his abdomen and drawing blood.

"Grrrooooaaarrrr!!"

The wound only fueled Heracles' rage. He roared, a primal fury radiating from him, and his massive axe swung down at her.

She glanced at Gilgamesh closing in on Shirou, her heart pounding with anxiety. She knew his Noble Phantasm and skills had been sealed by Abigail, leaving him incredibly vulnerable.

How could she let her king be harmed? Desperation gripped her as she faced Heracles. "Move!" she snarled, eyes flashing with a lioness's fury. Instead of dodging Heracles' devastating blow, she unleashed her own torrent of magical energy, slashing back with ferocious force.

"Clang!!"

A deafening metallic roar erupted in the darkness.

Nero struggled to her feet, still unsteady as she saw Sasaki Kojirou rapidly approaching. She tightened her grip on her sword, ready for a fight.

Tch! Shirou clicked his tongue in frustration as Gilgamesh charged towards him. This Gilgamesh was far too fast, moving like a Saber or Lancer, leaving him no time to form Mud Arms. But he had another plan.

A light flickered in his eyes as he made his decision.

Rumble, rumble!

The entire Tokyo Tower began to shake, vibrating violently like a boiling pot, knocking everyone off balance.

"What's happening?" Gray crouched low, struggling to keep her balance as the tower shook.

Gilgamesh, however, remained unaffected. He continued his relentless charge towards Shirou like a bolt of black lightning.

Shirou clenched his fist.

Boom!

Tokyo Tower exploded. Steel beams and debris were launched into the air as he used his black mud to demolish the tower's foundation. This was a trap he had set, but now he was forced to use it.

He had no other choice. This Gilgamesh's close-combat skills were far superior to the one in Chaldea, rivaling even Scathach's.

Shirou stood on a falling chunk of debris, the cold wind whipping his hair around his face. Gilgamesh leaped from another piece of wreckage, brandishing his swords as he continued his pursuit.

Faced with the relentless Gilgamesh, Shirou abandoned his unreliable Noble Phantasms. He reached out his hand, black mud flowing into his palm, forming a sleek spear.

"Gray, back me up!" he yelled.

On the crumbling platform, Gray steadied herself, nodding. "Got it."

[Hint: ...You rolled 64, Command Spell successfully activated!]

Seeing the successful dice roll, Gray sighed with relief. She raised her hand, the Command Spell glowing, and shouted, "By my Command Spell, I order you to achieve victory, Eternal King!"

As the Command Spell faded, Shirou felt his vision sharpen and his strength surge.

At that moment, Golden ripples shimmered around Gilgamesh, and a barrage of gleaming Noble Phantasms shot towards him.

Bab-ilu!

Unlike the Gate of Babylon, these Noble Phantasms could be deployed while in motion.

Shirou flicked his wrist, the mud spear deflecting the incoming weapons with a series of metallic clangs.

Gilgamesh used the distraction to his advantage, his footwork a blur as he hopped across the falling debris. He appeared before Shirou in a flash, golden twin blades glinting dangerously as he aimed for Shirou's head.

Danger!

Shirou horizontally blocked with his spear, parrying Gilgamesh's two swords. Then two normal-sized Black Arms grew from his back, each wielding a mud spear, thrusting at Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh grunted in surprise, raising his right hand to parry the attack of two Black Arms with Enki, his twin golden blades.

At that moment, black mud surged from Shirou's chest, and another Black Arm erupted, this one wielding a mud spear that thrust towards Gilgamesh.

But Gilgamesh's instincts were extraordinarily sharp. The moment the mud moved, he shifted his weight, leaping onto a nearby shard of debris and narrowly avoiding the spear.

"You've started playing with mud too, brat!" Gilgamesh said, a hint of exasperation in his voice as he looked at Shirou, who now had three Black Arms.

Shirou retracted the chest arm and summoned six more from his back, each wielding a different weapon – spears, swords, shields. He stood on the falling debris like a modern-day, eight-armed Nezha.

"You seem to know a lot about me," he remarked.

"Of course," Gilgamesh replied. "You were my Master, after all. The only Master I ever acknowledged who could wield my power."

Shirou's eyes narrowed, his gaze falling on the single Command Spell on the back of his right hand. He looked up, frowning at Gilgamesh. "No. It's not you. The Servant bound to this Command Spell isn't you. I don't feel any connection to you."

"That's to be expected, seeing as I've been defeated and reduced to such a pitiful state."

"If you've been defeated, then why are you smiling?"

"Why indeed? I'm not sure myself, but seeing you reminds me of Enkidu. A king is like the sun, noble and bright. There's no need to hide my joy, Master. That holy sword user must have felt the same."

"Don't change the subject, the Servant I contracted isn't you."

"No. I was your initial Servant, while the one contracted by that Command Spell is your second Servant."

Hearing this, he couldn't help but be stunned. "The initial Servant...?"

"Ahahaha...! Since you've become a king again, I won't hold back. This battle is the true war of kings. Master, go and die!"

Gilgamesh charged towards him, a wide grin on his face.

Shirou took a deep breath as he watched Gilgamesh approach. "No matter who it is, I won't be defeated!"

He kicked off the ground, his body blurring into a silver streak as he met Gilgamesh's charge head-on.

Boom! Boom!

Shattered steel and debris rained down like a torrential downpour. Amidst the chaos, Shirou and Gilgamesh clashed, a whirlwind of swords and spears striking at blinding speed.

Gilgamesh outmatched Shirou in skill, but years of training with Scathach had honed Shirou's spearmanship, even if he was still far from her level. Shirou's superior magical energy and eight arms against Gilgamesh's two made their close-quarters combat surprisingly even.

Blades flashed, metal sang.

Boom! Boom!

Each thunderous clash sent shockwaves of mana rippling out, pulverizing the falling debris into dust.

"So strong...!" Gray watched in awe.

She had thought Gilgamesh and Shirou were Heroic Spirits who excelled at bombarding enemies using Noble Phantasms and Skills from a distance, but now she saw their close-combat abilities were also outstanding.

This Gilgamesh's close-combat skills were nearly on par with Scathach's, and Shirou's abundant magical energy, combined with his six-armed spear technique, turned their clash into a battle of epic proportions.

Artoria watched the fierce exchange, a wave of relief washing over her.

Her king had faced insurmountable odds before. Even with his Noble Phantasms sealed, defeat was not an option for him.

With renewed determination, she launched a fierce attack on Heracles.

As a Saber-class Servant, she couldn't unleash her full potential as the King of Knights. But with the king watching her back, she would not fall.

Boom!

The final thunderous impact sent both Shirou and Gilgamesh flying, landing on massive chunks of falling debris.

With a thud, after over ten seconds of intense combat, they hit the ground from the top of the 333-meter Tokyo Tower. The boulders beneath them shattered, forming massive craters.

Shirou stood his ground, glaring at the fully-armed Gilgamesh across the debris field, ignoring the fragments of Tokyo Tower raining down around them.

Gilgamesh swung Enki, his vicious sword winds pulverizing any debris that dared to obstruct his view of Shirou.