Chapter 24: Shendu the Miracle

Within Glory of the Ancient Demon, the heart-shaking Reality Marble, Shendu remained hunched low. The jagged scar across his back was enough to strike terror into anyone who beheld it. From the sky, hundreds of weapons from the Gate of Babylon rained down in a relentless, lethal downpour.

The King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, possessed an arsenal that was truly near-infinite.

Lancer, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, backed away slowly to avoid being caught in the crossfire. But the moment his heel touched the ground, his pupils shrank. His face contorted in shock.

"Impossible!"

Before his eyes, Shendu's hunched frame slowly straightened. That horrific wound was closing at a speed visible to the naked eye. No, it wasn't just healing. It was as if the injury was being erased from existence.

"Impossible... it can't be!" Diarmuid stammered, staring at the short yellow spear in his hand.

Gáe Buidhe was still there. He was still alive. The curse that prevented wounds from mending should still be active. Unless one of those two conditions changed, the Caster's wounds should have been permanent!

In the distance, even the King of Conquerors, Iskandar, looked on with a grim expression.

"Wasn't it said that the wounds from that spear cannot be healed? Then what is Caster doing?" Waver whispered, stunned.

"Is it regeneration? But even regeneration should be suppressed by Lancer's Noble Phantasm..." Iskandar scratched his head, completely baffled.

The wound was vanishing from Shendu's body in the exact reverse order of how it was inflicted. This wasn't biological regeneration, and it certainly wasn't healing magecraft. This was something else, an absolute erasure on the level of cosmic rules.

From his vantage point, Zoran's eyes crinkled with a faint smile. "A noble horse can cast out all external influences."

The Noble Phantasm-grade Horse Talisman possessed the power to expel any and all negative states or injuries inflicted upon Shendu. Quite clearly, its conceptual hierarchy far exceeded that of the Golden Rose of Mortality.

Diarmuid's hand trembled against the grip of his spear. Shendu stood tall once more, his rising shadow reflected in Lancer's eyes like a waking nightmare.

Simultaneously, the thousand blades falling from the sky finally reached their mark. With the boost from the Rabbit Talisman gone, Shendu didn't even bother to dodge. He allowed the weapons to impale his massive frame.

In a single instant, he was turned into a pincushion, his body pinned firmly into the ground like a condemned sinner.

The same thought echoed in everyone's minds: Surely, he's dead this time.

The abilities Shendu had displayed were beyond comprehension. He was a decathlete of combat, possessing speed, strength, and an absolute self-recovery ability. He was a walking miracle.

"This guy... he's a monster!" Waver cried out from the chariot.

Gilgamesh held Ea in his hand, looking down composedly at the impaled Shendu. With the Sword of Rupture in his grasp, his confidence was absolute. This unnamed King was undoubtedly the most troublesome opponent of this Holy Grail War. But now, with his body riddled by the Gate of Babylon, "injury" was no longer a sufficient word for his condition. His body was a ruin. No matter how powerful a physical form one possessed, healing from this was a fantasy.

But Shendu merely lowered his head and reached out.

He stood up abruptly, causing the thousand blades to tear his flesh even further, yet he acted as if he felt nothing. A surge of titanic power erupted from his core, shattering the weapons impaling him into stardust-like fragments.

"I... AM UNDYING!!!"

His raspy roar swept across the realm, evil and intimidating, like a rising hurricane. He slammed a foot down, and the earth shattered and cracked. The fissures chased outward like dragons and serpents rising from the soil.

In an instant, he had returned to his peak, a perfect, unblemished form!

As long as this demon remained within his Reality Marble, as long as that ancient glory shone upon him, the Noble Phantasm-grade powers of the Dog and Horse Talismans would function without interruption.

This was a continuous passive aura granted by the Glory of the Ancient Demon. Perhaps he wasn't immortal in every sense, but for now, any injury he sustained failed to reach the threshold of his destruction. It was the ultimate combo of Talismans, a perfect synergy.

Golden light descended from the heavens and pooled in his eyes, blindingly bright, like two miniature suns. Shendu tilted his head slightly.

Thick golden beams of heat swept across the battlefield.

Diarmuid snapped out of his shock, crossing his two spears in a defensive stance. Iskandar maneuvered his chariot, the Gordius Wheel, with masterful skill to dodge the sweeping incineration.

The final destination of Shendu's gaze, however, was Gilgamesh.

The massive energy surged toward him, the power of the Noble Phantasm-grade Pig Talisman, possessing overwhelming piercing capability.

Opposite him, Gilgamesh's brow lowered. He usually disdained defense; in his eyes, an enemy merely managing to stop his attack was a high honor. But the Caster before him had earned the right to be taken seriously.

"A demon? Or a King of Demons? Nameless King, regardless of your identity, you have won my respect."

His golden-armored arm reached out. From the treasury that held every weapon under the sun, a shield slowly emerged and settled before him.

"Rho Aias," he commanded in a low voice.

Seven layers of beautiful, iridescent defensive barriers instantly unfurled, standing between him and the golden heat. This was the shield used by the hero Ajax during the Trojan War, theoretically capable of stopping Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasms. And the shield Gilgamesh drew now was the true, original prototype!

The brilliant barriers stood in succession, seven complete layers of defense. At that exact moment, the golden beam from Shendu's eyes slammed into the outermost layer.

The violent pressure swept away everything in their vicinity, peeling the very earth from the ground. Amidst the roar, the first layer shattered. The golden light didn't dim in the slightest, surging forward with ferocious momentum.

Then the second layer fell. Then the third.

In a mere half-second, four layers had disintegrated into sparks. The golden beam was already grinding against the fifth layer; total penetration was only a matter of time.

But in that moment, Gilgamesh raised the ultimate scarlet-veined Noble Phantasm. This was the Anti-World weapon capable of destroying all things.

He cried out, his voice soaring, "It is over... Awaken, Ea! A stage worthy of you has been prepared!"

In his hand, the Sword of Rupture began to spin violently, an unstoppable force coiling around his arm.

Suddenly, heaven and earth shifted.

He pointed the weapon forward and roared:

"Behold! Enuma Elish: The Star of Creation that Splits Heaven and Earth!"

In that heartbeat, the instant before the Pig Talisman could fully breach Rho Aias, a power capable of unmaking the world detonated.

The Reality Marble, Glory of the Ancient Demon, began to shudder uncontrollably.