For various reasons, such as the difficulty of describing certain things, the length of each chapter, and ensuring you understand what I'm trying to achieve, I decided to simplify and shorten both fights.
Before starting this chapter, I had planned for about 5 or 6 chapters of combat, both Gilgamesh vs. Dante and Shirou and Rider vs. Kirei, but I realized it doesn't have to be that way.
The clearest example is that if I do about 5 or 6 chapters, the excitement of the fight is lost due to the long gaps between reading and waiting. Therefore, the idea is to do this in 2 or, at most, 3 chapters. I hope you understand my decision, which, from my point of view, is the most coherent and feasible.
Well, without further ado, let's begin the chapter.
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Shortly after Dante, not quite "intentionally," killed Saber, Gilgamesh aimed his weapons at him, but our protagonist wasn't paying attention to that; he was focused on other things.
[Congratulations, you have defeated Artoria, the King of Knights; you have earned 2,000,000,000,000 LP].
'Wait, I hadn't actually defeated Saber before; I saw her get up from the ground when I hit her, but that doesn't count as a defeat. Only when I killed her counted. No wonder the system didn't go off,' Dante thought, but he couldn't continue with his mental ramblings as dozens of swords flew at top speed toward him.
To count as a defeat, the defeated individual must also feel defeated in their mind, and knowing Saber's great will, even though Dante was close to killing her, she didn't give up. Therefore, she wasn't defeated when she got up and was ready to continue fighting.
Dante, using his AT, blocked most of the swords, but each clash caused the rifle to shatter further until only fragments remained on the ground.
Seeing his recently modified weapon, Dante wanted to complain, but several golden swords prevented him from speaking.
Clicking his tongue, Dante took several steps back, creating distance between himself and Gilgamesh.
"Hmm, what's wrong? Are you going to keep running away after what you did?" Gilgamesh demanded, glaring at Dante.
Dante simply looked up and smiled.
"Well, then I'll stop running and just stay put," he said mockingly, pulling out a cigar and a lighter.
"Tsch, I didn't know that after firing that shot, your intelligence would drop to zero, to the point where you'd be mocking your king. I'll show you what it's like to die under a thousand swords," Gilgamesh declared. He raised his hand, and more golden portals appeared behind him.
Dante simply lit his cigar, further enraging the king of heroes, who furiously launched several golden swords at full speed toward Dante. But against all odds, our protagonist summoned a multicolored sword unlike any Gilgamesh had ever seen.
With a single movement, he was launched into the sky, and the single sword transformed into eleven swords that, with incredible speed and precision, deflected all the swords launched from the Gate of Babylon.
While the eleven multicolored swords defended Dante, he simply stood there, savoring the taste of his cigar.
Gilgamesh's gunfire paused as he stared at the eleven Blades of Doubt, ready to be placed in a line across Dante's back.
"What's wrong, are you out of bullets?" Dante asked, looking at his opponent.
"Entity, what kind of weapon is that? It's not in my Gate of Babylon. Your giant sword, even your god-slayer sword, is in my treasury, but not that one," Gilgamesh questioned.
"This weapon is called the Terraprism, and it's not in your treasury because it's not part of pan-human history. This weapon has never been seen, and this is the first time it's been glimpsed in use. As you know, during my days among the gods, I was a great creator of armaments, and some of these never saw the light of day; this is one of them," Dante explained.
Obviously, this was a lie; The Terraprism is a weapon that was purchased for approximately 1,500,000,000,000 LP in the system store and is a weapon from the video game Terraria. Now, with what I earned from defeating Saber, I'm left with a profit of 500,000,000,000 LP.
...
Shirou and Rider walked through the caves, scanning their surroundings for any surprise attacks, only to reach a large area where they saw Kirei, already transformed, with his back to them.
"Just the two of you, that's fine with me," said the man, no longer quite a man. His body had been modified not to withstand the power of the Grail, but to express and use it as efficiently as possible.
"Trance on," Shirou was heard saying.
Suddenly, Shirou flew toward Kirei, Kanshou and Bakuya in hand, but his attack was interrupted by several black and red lines that appeared between them.
"So eager to lose, I thought we'd have a little talk before you suffered at my hands," said Kirei with a calm smile.
"There's nothing to talk about with someone like you," Shirou replied.
Kirie sank to the ground, disappearing as he dodged a sneak attack from Rider with his spear.
Anticipating Kirei's reaction, Rider narrowed his eyes, suspicious, before turning to face the man pointing his fist at them both.
With a single punch, a burst of corrupted magical energy shot out at high speed.
The two dodged the attack with a leap, but Rider, looking up at the ceiling, saw several lines of Holy Grail corruption hurtling toward him.
Plugging his spear into the ground, he managed to shift his body to avoid the attack, but it appeared not only from the ceiling but also from the floor and walls.
Shirou lunged again, intending to slice Kirei in half, but a giant shadow familiar intervened, striking Shirou and sending him crashing into the wall.
Kirei turned his gaze to Rider, who was dodging all the lines with relative ease, slowly closing the distance.
"Go," Kirei said, causing more relatives, called "hollows," to appear and try to surround Rider.
Kirei's intention was to corrupt Rider and then use her as another familiar to help him torment Rin and Dante.
What he didn't expect was that they had something to counter him.
Shirou, now recovered, ran toward Rider while summoning a particular gem sword.
"Here it comes," Shirou declared, lunging toward the weapon.
Rider caught it in mid-air and, as if she knew what to do, slashed through the air, momentarily opening space and unleashing a massive burst of ether at the shadow, destroying it instantly.
With superhuman flexibility and instinct, Rider dodged every attack and countered with the gem sword, destroying all the shadows; but if it were a hydra, as soon as she destroyed one, two more would appear.
Kirei frowned at this, and just as he was about to move, he summoned several corrupted black keys to stop Shirou's attack.
As the weapons clashed, a surge of air was created, diverting to the sides as Kirei briefly grounded himself.
He looked at the weapon Shirou was holding, a sword-axe, but it was different from the Berserker's; this one was better designed, resembling a true sword-axe.
"You didn't have this power a few days ago. Tell me, what did you do?" Kirei asked, exerting force to counter Shirou.
"I didn't think you cared enough about other people to know what they've done in their lives," Shirou mocked, but Kirei remained unaffected.
"Trance on," Shirou declared, momentarily closing his eyes and then opening them. "I see, so that's how they're used," he said, summoning several black keys and firing them at Kirei, who threw Shirou back to deflect the attack with his own.
"Well, let's see how good you are in battle, priest of dubious origin," Shirou challenged Kirei.
"Heh, I see this confrontation wasn't a matter of chance but rather predestined. Shirou Emiya, well, I didn't have the chance to kill the father, but I do have the chance to crush the son," Kirei replied with a lunatic look as more black keys appeared behind him.
...
Several swords flew toward Dante, intercepting his movements. In response, he used the Fusion Sword to block everything thrown at him and went straight to where Gilgamesh stood.
The Terraprism might be able to block Gilgamesh's attacks, but this is only effective when Dante is stationary and the weapons aren't very powerful. Otherwise, he'll have to use his own swords to do it himself.
Dante had only one goal: to touch his opponent. If he succeeded, he could use his magic to freeze Gilgamesh to the ground, unable to move. But there was a catch: Gilgamesh knew it.
In a blur of speed, Dante reached within a few meters of Gilgamesh, but he couldn't go any further, as thousands of swords, spears, axes, and chains surrounded him.
Using the kami-e, he managed to dodge most of the projectiles, but Enkidu was able to entangle himself in his arm, throwing him away from Gilgamesh and crashing to the ground.
Dante, on the ground, tried to free himself from the chains, but every effort he made only made the chain wrap more tightly around his arm.
"Ignorant fool, these chains cannot be untied by anyone, not even someone like you," Gilgamesh boasted, ready to attack Dante.
But to his misfortune, the Terraprisms placed their blades in the holes of the chains and, spinning in the opposite direction to the other sword, managed to break the chains, giving Dante the opportunity to create some distance.
"I cannot dislocate them, but that doesn't mean I can't break them," Dante replied.
In the UWB route, Heracles did not free himself from the chains but broke them while trying to kill Gilgamesh, but unfortunately for him, Gilgamesh reacted first, killing him first; otherwise, perhaps the king of heroes would have died before even facing Shirou.
"I see," Gilgamesh said, staring at the ground, then looking at Dante with red eyes. "You want to die in the most horrific way possible, spawn of the gods."
The King of Heroes' contained fury was palpable, and Dante had a bad feeling about it. He summoned SPB (Scythe of Pure Bone) to try and sever Gilgamesh's soul, since it only needed one cut to do so, and knowing the King of Heroes could continue fighting with fatal attacks, it was perhaps the best option.
"I won't give you the chance," Gilgamesh declared, summoning a special key.
Dante immediately realized what he was going to do, so, using his speed, Haki, and magic circuits, he sped towards Gilgamesh to kill him, but an endless barrage of high-level weapons rained down upon him.
Given this, and since the Terraprism lacked the capacity to encompass all of this, I had to personally deflect the most powerful weapons aimed at him, making his advance much slower and more complicated.
Several tubes closed in the sky, visible to everyone.
The four women who were finishing assembling the seals watched this with a mixture of astonishment and terror.
"This is bad. It's best to finish this as soon as possible," Touko said, observing the scene.
Something shiny fell onto one of them, landing in Gilgamesh's hand as the other red tubes gradually disappeared.
"Awaken, Ea," Gilgamesh declared, causing space to warp and the world's first sword prototype, the Ea Rupture Blade, to appear in his hand. "I hope you're in a good mood, as we have a cockroach that's rather difficult to kill, so I decided to bring you here so you could witness your full magnificence."
That was the truth, but only partially, since he knew what that scythe was and what it did, wielding it with Dante; one mistake and he could end up in dire straits. Therefore, he decided to draw upon his most powerful heroic treasure to repel his opponent should he get too close.
Dante quickly reached his enemy, and the moment he attempted to attack, Ea's cycles spun at full speed, unleashing a compressed void attack brimming with rotational energy toward him.
Our protagonist tried to repel it but couldn't and was thrown back several meters.
"Release Ea," Gilgamesh said; now he fired the same attack, but this time it shot straight out from the tip of the air, directly toward Dante.
Dante had no time to dodge, attacking head-on.
Despite using Armament Haki, Dante was still thrown back, suffering severe damage and burns.
After spinning on the ground for several meters, Dante managed to stop, immediately getting to his feet and summoning his scythe again for support.
"What a stupid weapon; it's just compressed air and it's that powerful," Dante complained, getting into a fighting stance, watching as he faced Gilgamesh's entire arsenal, ready to attack. But even though it's compressed air, Ea's attack isn't as simple as it seems.
...
Shirou and Kirei were locked in a dance of weapons, moving and dodging each other's attacks with pinpoint precision, while Rider darted from side to side, dodging and destroying the hollows that relentlessly pursued her.
All the while, Rider watched intently as the two battled.
Shirou tried to destroy Kirei's black keys, but being reinforced with mana and the Holy Grail mud, they were more resistant, though their primary power was significantly weakened. However, this didn't diminish their ability to cut and pierce their enemies.
The close-quarters combat was very evenly matched; under normal circumstances, Kirei was a more skilled fighter and closer to winning any fight, and now, with the Grail mud, his strength had increased.
But thanks to Dante's training, Shirou had reached a peak in both power and skill, dexterity, Haki, and modifications. He manages to match Kirei in combat, at least for a time, since he doesn't have infinite mana to sustain him, so he can't engage in a battle of attrition. Therefore, he must eliminate his opponent as quickly as possible.
Sadly, his Haki skills didn't allow him time to awaken Conqueror's Haki or reach an advanced level; he only reached the intermediate level. His greatest advantage was perhaps his ability to see the future for about three seconds, but even that wasn't enough to penetrate Kirei's defenses, and Rider already had a suspicion as to why.
Summoning his spear, he fired it at Kirei, shattering the floor and causing him to lose his balance, creating an opportunity to attack both of them.
"Nine Live Blade Works," Shirou declared, delivering nine blows in quick succession, destroying a large portion of Kirei's body.
This opened the door for Rider to appear at full speed behind him with the gem sword, but since Kirei's body was no longer human, he was able to react. Turning around, he kicked Rider, sending her flying backward. To her dismay, she threw the weapon forward, where it was caught by Shirou.
Kirei turned to try and kill Shirou, but Shirou had already attacked.
A blast of ether from different parallel universes struck him head-on, obliterating his body and leaving him standing before Shirou.
Seeing this, Shirou breathed a sigh of relief, but his mind wasn't quite there; something told him there was more to it, and he was right.
Applause erupted from the darkness, only to reveal another Kirei slowly walking towards the crowd, clapping with a disgusting smile.
"Magnificent, I must commend you for being able to defeat one of my clones," he mocked.
"No wonder he could dodge sneak attacks with such precision; he was being controlled by someone else," Rider concluded, removing the cloak that Kirei had contaminated and walking to Shirou's side.
"Exactly, good intuition, but if you can handle one clone, perhaps you can handle two or three, or even hundreds of them," Kirei said, and thousands of Kirei clones began to appear from within the walls, surrounding the two. "Or more familiars," he added; with that, more holes began to open up all around them.
"I don't like this," Shirou commented upon seeing this.
"There's no other way," Rider declared, smiling and summoning a banner. "Those who fell to the enemy's grasp, return to serve me and bring me victory; I, the reincarnation of Bishamonten, command you. Bishamonten's War Banner."
The banner unfurled, revealing a divine radiance, and behind Rider and Shirou appeared a formation of Echigo soldiers, ready to follow their commander.
At that moment, Shirou felt his body grow stronger than it already was.
This was the last Noble Phantasm yet to be revealed, Bishamonten's War Banner, which summoned a banner that, as the name suggests, summoned a personal army, in addition to increasing the strength of all allies and lowering the enemy's morale.
"Attack without holding back!" Rider exclaimed, urging the Echigo army to charge the enemy without restraint. "You take care of the familiars; I'll disarm the clones so the real one can emerge."
With that, a divine light flooded the area, dazzling everything and enveloping Rider. Once it subsided, everyone could sense the presence of a being of godlike rank.
Rider, drawing his katana, aimed at Kirei; he frowned at the sight.
The god Bishamoente had entered the fray.
...
Dante had switched from the SPB to the Murasama, a weapon better suited to destroying the artillery Gilgamesh was launching.
The King of Heroes, for his part, was growing bored and tired of waiting for the four women to create the delimited field.
He looked ahead to see several energy blasts traveling in his direction; he simply opened a portal and, using the Gram prototype as a normal sword, managed to block the attack.
"You disappoint me, entity. I expected more from you, but you only run and hide like a rat. However, I give you credit for being one of those who were able to force me to use my full Gate of Babylon, so bringing your death before me is the greatest honor," Gilgamesh said, raising Ea.
Dante looked at this and knew what was coming. He was deliberately stalling, since, using his Haki, he knew the others were almost ready with the delimited field. He just had to withstand the next attack and that would be it, but knowing what was coming, he wasn't sure if he could do it.
"The earth shatters and nothingness celebrates creation; it is my sword that cleaves the world," Gilgamesh began. Dante enveloped Murasama in advanced-level Haki and stomped his foot, creating a giant crater in the ground so that Conqueror's Haki could surround the entire area but concentrate on the swords. "The mortar of the stars, the hell of the heavens, is the end of the eve of creation, Enuma Elish."
From Ea came an attack of compressed and intertwined wind that was capable of distorting space itself.
Dante, in response, launched his sword attack at the powerful one.
"Final Slash, Crimson Moon," and with a slash, a black energy attack coated in advanced Conqueror's Haki swept through.
The two attacks collided, creating immense pressure and expelling air and energy in all directions.
Touko, Alice, Rin, and Aoko, almost ready, had to stop to avoid being blown into the air.
To Dante's horror, the Enuma Elish far surpassed the Crimson Moon, destroying the attack and bringing the full force of Gilgamesh's attack crashing down on him.
With no other option, Dante used his katana for defense, using it to withstand Ea's full force.
The moment the Enuma Elish collided with Murasama, Dante felt an unpleasant, primal pressure descend upon him. He used all his strength to resist, but his body was beginning to give way. His hands felt as if they were evaporating, and he gripped the sword even tighter.
But he watched in shock as the Murasama began to crack, little by little.
"Hold on," he begged his sword, but it could hold on no longer, and suddenly it broke, leaving Dante face-to-face with what remained of the Enuma elish.
A large explosion erupted where Dante had been, and to Gilgamesh's dismay, it was smaller than it should have been.
This was due to the energy lost from the attack on the Crimson Moon and the Mursasama, resulting in a less destructive, but no less effective, final product.
Once the explosion and smoke cleared, Dante was seen severely wounded, bleeding from various parts of his body, with one hand badly damaged and the hilt of his katana broken.
Usually, when I attack with Enuma Elish, it's dodged, blocked, or countered, but you're the first to face it head-on and, above all, survive. You deserve my praise, you stupid creature; "Watching that was quite entertaining," Gilgamesh remarked upon seeing Dante's condition.
"For a moment I thought I'd lose, but a dose of reality never hurt anyone," Dante replied, taking a step forward, ignoring the pain.
Once he was out of the crater, Dante summoned the SPB and aimed at Gilgamesh.
"Let's start the second round," he declared.
"What are you—?" Gilgamesh was about to speak about Dante's stupidity in wanting to continue fighting in his condition, but he stopped short, remembering something he'd overlooked when launching that attack.
A layer appeared throughout the forest, enveloping them.
Dante quickly touched the ground as his hand was enveloped in darkness and black wings sprouted from his back.
"Devour everything, earthly void," Dante said, and darkness began to envelop the entire ground, including Gilgamesh's feet.
The moment this happened, the king of the heroes felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into an infinite void. Using Enkidu, he pulled himself out and landed on the newly summoned vimana.
"I may be wounded, but that doesn't mean I can't use my full power," Dante declared, rising into the sky and reaching the same level as Gilgamesh.
A pillar of darkness descended to the ground, blocking out the daylight and leaving the king of heroes unable to stand on the ground or very high in the air.
"Now it's my turn to fight with all my might."