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[Chat]:
[Revelation]: I finally understand why everyone says Gilgamesh is handsome
[Three_Words]: handsome. overbearing. seeking death. (self-preservation dog head)
[Feelings_Emerging]: Mom I think I'm a little in love with this foul-mouthed man
[Chloe_Watch]: I wish I could see Chloe's face right now. she finally backstabs her teammate and then can't even absorb the reward
[Practical]: whether she survives at all is a separate question
[Noticing_Something]: wait. I just realized. Red side has been fighting itself this entire match.
[Don't_Say_It]: don't say it
[The_King_Permits]: "the King permits" — is this the domineering aura of the oldest king alive
[Complaint]: why didn't he finish her off while he was at it
[Reassessing]: ...is Gilgamesh a little tsundere? unexpectedly?
[Response]: have some Ea for saying that
[Counter]: can I choose which part to receive?
[Moving_On]: Gilgamesh you absolute legend I'm giving you the entire allocation I had saved for Achilles
[Astolfo_Mention]: what about Astolfo's share?
[Please_Don't]: please don't insult us. we have standards. only Professor is a celestial being.
[Conclusion]: I'm starting to feel the charm here. if only the mouth weren't—
[Counter]: the mouth IS the charm. especially when you put yourself in Little Cat's position. my brain does something.
[Observation]: everyone in this stream is a talent. each one uniquely gifted.
The one who'd thrown those swords was Gilgamesh.
As one of the representatives of "playing music at full health, going completely feral at low health" — and without Enkidu present to give him a reason to actually try — Gilgamesh had spent the FA Chapter in a state of comprehensive laziness. Watching battles from altitude, drinking wine on his throne, observing the various humans and Heroic Spirits below him with the detached interest of someone at a theater who hadn't decided yet if the play was worth his continued attention.
He'd watched the entire Dian Wei and Iskandar exchange.
Genuine admiration was the honest description for what he'd felt. A loyal man fighting past the point of death because his master was in danger. A king charging into an army of ten thousand without hesitation. These were the kinds of things that earned Gilgamesh's attention, whether he acknowledged it or not.
He'd also watched Chloe's ambush.
Hadn't intervened. Wasn't his problem.
But then—
A bit displeased.
There wasn't a more complex explanation than that. Something about the specific nature of the betrayal, the ambush of a retreating opponent who'd fought honestly, the calculation behind it — it sat wrong. Not wrong enough to consider it a crisis. Wrong enough to justify throwing two swords.
So he'd thrown two swords.
The Gate of Babylon required no wind-up and no justification. One blade for Iskandar — ensuring he dissolved cleanly rather than being absorbed and converted — and two more for Marie Alter because she was still standing there and he remained displeased.
The explosions settled. The smoke spread across the plain.
Gilgamesh turned back to Little Cat, who had been watching the whole exchange with the restless energy of someone who desperately wanted to ask something but wasn't sure if asking was survivable.
He rested his chin in his hand with the air of a man who had completed his entertainment for the moment.
"Say what you want. The King permits it."
Little Cat processed her options carefully.
"Dad — were you displeased because they used a sneak attack? Because that's an insult to kings?"
"Idiot!" The word carried no real heat. "Those are clowns who presume to call themselves kings. There is only one King in heaven and on earth, and that is I! The squabbling of mongrels is beneath my notice. But to bore and annoy the King with their squabbling — that is their offense."
Something had shifted without either of them noticing.
He'd called her an idiot. She hadn't flinched. She'd asked a follow-up question.
He'd answered it.
Neither of them remarked on this development.
Gilgamesh, Max noted privately, had gradually become accustomed to the address "Dad" the same way a person becomes accustomed to a persistent sound — not acknowledging it, not correcting it, simply continuing to operate in its presence until operating without it would feel like something was missing.
Little Cat, for her part, had stopped performing extreme submission and started just... talking to him. The gap between "survival strategy" and "actual comfort" had closed at some point in the last two hours without a formal announcement.
Compared to Heroic Spirits who said one thing and meant another, Gilgamesh was straightforwardly sincere. The arrogance was real. The contempt was real. The praise, when it came, was also real. You always knew exactly where you stood.
There was a kind of safety in that.
"So, Dad — what do we do next? Rush down and finish them?"
"How dare you question the King's intentions, you presumptuous doll!" He straightened, offended. "You've made progress, I'll grant you that. My evaluation is still 'idiot,' but the gap is narrowing." A pause, during which he appeared to reach a decision. "This was merely entertainment. The King has no further interest in watching them. Whether they live or die is none of my concern." He reached into the Gate of Babylon and produced something. "Here. Take this."
Little Cat looked at it.
A ball. Colorful, lightweight, the kind of thing associated with juggling acts and circus performance. It was also very faintly glowing white, in a way that suggested it was significantly more than a ball.
"This is..."
"A clown's prop. Since you are my jester — try harder to please the King." He leaned back on his throne with the air of someone settling in for a performance. "How did it go. Ah, right. Keep the music playing, keep the dance going. If you fail to juggle it properly, I'll throw you into the ring of fire."
"No! Dad!"
[Chat]:
[SCREAMING]: LITTLE CAT SCREAMED DAD AT GILGAMESH
[Worldview_Breaking]: I came from Chloe's stream. I switched screens because Max cut to this. I was not prepared for this.
[Question]: is this still Gilgamesh? this is not how Gilgamesh opens.
[The_Ball]: why is the ball glowing. is that a Noble Phantasm. is he giving her a Noble Phantasm to juggle with.
[Little_Cat_Training]: what has Little Cat been trained into over the last two hours
[Answer]: someone who argues with Gilgamesh and calls him Dad and somehow survives both
[Max_Comment]: Max just scratched his nose and said "I told you, Gilgamesh is actually easy to get along with"
[Silence_After_That]:
[Long_Silence]:
[Someone]: ...Cambridge.
Gilgamesh departed — not urgently, not with any particular destination declared, simply moving off at the pace of someone who had seen enough of this segment and was ready for the next one.
The smoke on the plain dissipated.
What remained in the middle of it was moving.
Black char and structural damage, riddled with holes from the Gate of Babylon's follow-up strikes — and underneath that, something pushing outward from the inside. Red flesh crawling across the surface of the damage, filling in gaps, rebuilding with the patient efficiency of a process that had done this before and knew the pattern. A few seconds. Then Marie Alter stood in the center of the scorched circle, looking exactly as she had before the bombardment.
Not weakened. Not reduced. The regeneration had simply run.
The skill responsible was called My Love, Eternal.
The name was the key to the mechanic. Marie's obsessive love for her child — the love that had persisted through everything, that hadn't diminished when everything else had been stripped away — had crystallized in the Alter version into something structural rather than emotional. An active defensive field that could be extended to others. Pseudo-immortality. Self-regeneration significant enough to absorb a direct A-rank Noble Phantasm strike and recover within seconds.
Chloe had, incidentally, been covered by this defense during Gilgamesh's attack.
Marie Alter had not done this out of any desire to protect Chloe.
She had done it because her revenge wasn't finished yet, and until she found a sufficient source of magical energy, Chloe remained technically useful as a mana supply. Practicality, not sentiment.
The curses came back, right on schedule.
"Beast!" Chloe's voice from behind her, sharp and incredulous. "We're teammates! Why would you — !"
Marie Alter didn't turn around.
"Beast, beast." She repeated it back without inflection, as if cataloguing an insult for later reference. "We are clearly teammates."
The plain stretched out ahead of her, scorched and quiet.
She began walking.
[Chat]:
[Marie_Status]: she just regenerated completely from A-rank Noble Phantasm bombardment
[Skill_Explained]: My Love, Eternal — love-turned-obsession-turned-defensive-field. covers herself and anyone she designates. pseudo-immortality included.
[Chloe_Survived_Because]: Chloe survived Gilgamesh's strike because Marie Alter chose to cover her. not out of kindness. out of the need for a mana supply.
[Chloe_Yelling_At_Her]: Chloe is currently yelling at the person who just kept her alive
[Accurate_Read]: Chloe has zero Command Seals, no Iskandar, and is now following a regenerating Avenger who has already decided to eat her last
[King_Hassan_Still]: old man. bell. please.
[End of Chapter 175]
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