"Whoosh—!"
Alcides backhandedly grabbed a Noble Phantasm, treating it as a javelin, and viciously hurled it back towards the Vimana in the sky.
The javelin tore through the air, surging upward against the current at a speed no less than that of a fired Noble Phantasm.
A giant shield emerged from a ripple behind Gilgamesh, its surface carved with a lion's head relief.
The javelin smashed into the face of the shield, exploding into a ball of fire.
"Heh."
A cold sneer came from the smoke and dust.
It was Alcides.
The smoke and dust around him were scattered by a blast of magical energy, revealing his completely unharmed figure.
From beneath the pelt came a low, hoarse voice:
"The King of Heroes... is nothing more than this."
He raised his longbow. This time, five arrows materialized on the bowstring simultaneously.
At the tips of the arrows, pitch-black mud squirmed, exuding an ominous aura.
"Since that is the case—then be killed by me right here and now!!!"
He released the bowstring.
The moment the five arrows left the string, they split apart.
A sky full of blood-red light blotted out everything.
Half shot towards the Vimana in the air, while the other half shot towards Olga Marie and Hippolyta.
"Oh?" Olga Marie raised an eyebrow. "Finally remembered me?"
She raised her left hand. "Too bad you're too slow."
"Hum."
The air vibrated.
The speed of those blood-red arrows hurtling towards her plummeted.
Hundreds, thousands of arrows hovered in mid-air, less than three meters away from her palm.
At the tips of the arrows, the pitch-black mud squirmed frantically, trying to break free from the restraint.
But it was useless.
Olga Marie clenched her palm.
"Crack."
All the arrows shattered at the exact same time.
They turned into dark red motes of light and dissipated into the air.
It wasn't until this moment that the other half of the arrows, shot towards the Vimana, finally reached the hull.
"Boring."
Gilgamesh's crimson pupils were full of weariness.
"A mongrel who only knows how to dodge and block doesn't even have the qualifications to make this King take things slightly seriously."
He raised his hand, and the golden ripples behind him expanded once more.
This time, the number of ripples doubled again.
"Then all of you can just die."
"Boom boom boom boom boom—!!!"
The density of the rain of Noble Phantasms increased drastically.
Every single Noble Phantasm locked onto a specific target, bombing down from different angles, with different trajectories, and at different speeds.
Hippolyta's expression changed.
Before she even had time to think, her body acted first.
"Kyllion! Full power!"
The warhorse let out a long neigh, its four hooves shattering the rock wall as it galloped wildly across the cliff face.
Behind them, dozens of Noble Phantasms pursued relentlessly, every impact leaving a deep crater in the rock face.
Hippolyta leaned low over the horse's back, her longbow constantly vibrating as she fired arrow after arrow, trying to intercept them.
But the difference in numbers was too great.
"Squelch!"
A javelin grazed her left shoulder, tearing through her leather armor and sending blood splattering.
Hippolyta gave a muffled groan, but her movements didn't pause in the slightest.
She fired a backhand arrow, deflecting the javelin, while Kyllion leaped up simultaneously, jumping from one broken cliff to the other side.
But right at the moment she leaped—
"Hum."
The air vibrated.
Three longswords, arranged in a triangular formation, sealed off all her routes of evasion.
Hippolyta's pupils shrank sharply.
'I can't dodge!'
Just in the nick of time—
"Bang!"
A ray of light blasted from the side, striking the three longswords.
Hippolyta blanked for a moment and turned to look.
Olga Marie was withdrawing her hand, her tone flat:
"Don't misunderstand, I just don't want the actors exiting the stage halfway through the play."
Hippolyta: "..."
She gritted her teeth, said nothing, and simply controlled the warhorse, continuing to evade.
Right at this moment, Alcides moved.
He no longer stood in place, but began to move.
He moved so fast that he left behind a dark red afterimage.
He charged up one side of the rock wall, sprinting wildly on the vertical cliff face, his longbow constantly vibrating as arrow after arrow was shot towards the Vimana in the sky.
But this time, the trajectory of the arrows changed.
They were no longer straight lines.
Instead, they were arcs.
Curving, twisting, turning in the air as if they had a life of their own, striking towards Gilgamesh from all angles.
"Petty tricks."
Gilgamesh sneered. From the golden ripples behind him emerged even more Noble Phantasms, accurately intercepting every single arrow.
But Alcides' goal was never to land a hit.
It was to get close.
He sprinted and leaped across the rock face, every footfall shattering a piece of rock.
He was getting closer and closer to the Vimana.
Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters!
But just as he was about to arrive—
"Hey."
A voice rang out.
It was Olga Marie.
She sighed.
"I'm already getting a little tired of this farce."
She said.
"This farce should come to an end."
She raised her arms, her toes slowly leaving the ground as she floated into mid-air, looking down at the canyon below and everyone within it.
Then, she smiled.
"It's time."
"Be engulfed—for me!"
The moment the last word fell.
"Boom—!!!"
Water.
Endless seawater.
It formed a giant wave at least a hundred meters high beneath her feet.
"What—?!"
Hippolyta's pupils shrank sharply.
The Kyllion beneath her let out a terrified neigh, rearing up on its hind legs, and fled the range of the giant wave at its fastest speed.
"How is this possible... this is the Gobi Desert! Where did a sea come from—?!"
"It's magical energy."
Flat's voice came from beside Olga Marie.
He was swept up by magical energy, floating beside Olga Marie.
"She forcibly aggregated, compressed, and qualitatively altered all the water molecules in the atmosphere, along with the water-attribute magical energy from the leylines... and then released it all in an instant... This magical energy manipulation precision, this elemental conversion efficiency... Ahh, I really want to learn it!"
"Shut up," Olga Marie said.
"Oh."
After taking shape, the giant wave did not fall immediately.
Instead, it hovered in mid-air, like an inverted sea.
The sunlight was blocked, plunging the canyon into shadow.
Only the crests of the waves were still reflecting a blinding white light.