"You call that a hand axe?"
Staring at the towering "hand axe" that pierced the clouds, he couldn't help muttering to himself—though it was only a complaint.
Taking it, at least, wouldn't be difficult.
With a bit of gravity sorcery to reinforce his grip, he could probably haul it away like a casual trophy… and if that still wasn't enough, there was always the option of shouldering the thing himself.
What neither side mentioned, from beginning to end, was the "peeper."
In his mind, that voyeur was already dead beneath his arrow—after all, he hadn't felt that faint, lingering gaze even once since then.
As for Gilgamesh, he simply didn't want to deal with the matter.
Merlin was scum and an unrepentant creep, yes, but in a situation like this, having one more combatant was better than having one less.
Besides, the spying had been done with Gilgamesh's tacit approval.
And the Tarnished had fired at Uruk, too—call it even, and move on.
But just as he closed the chat interface, a faint sound rose from the trees around him.
Rustle—rustle—
Leaves brushing against leaves.
He lifted his head and caught a shadow skimming across the canopy, moving through the forest like a fish through water. Then a voice rang out from every direction at once.
"Oh? Another guest? How many is that today—two? Three? Ah, whatever. If I can't count, I won't count!"
Before the last word finished, something dropped from above with a heavy thud—an orange-yellow figure landing with theatrical flair.
"Ta-da! The Leopard Person makes a dazzling entrance, meow!"
The moment the strange creature introduced itself, a spear of crimson lightning shot straight at its face.
"Waaah—!!"
It screamed like a horror-struck child and barely dodged the lightning spear by a hair.
"That was dangerous, meow! What are you doing, meow?! Why would you attack out of nowhere, meow?! That's not honorable, meow!"
Then the Leopard Person stole a glance at the destruction behind it—and its spine went cold.
Oh no, oh no… if Kukulkan finds out, I'm totally getting beaten again, meow…
Crimson lightning crackled across the area, chewing through trees with casual cruelty.
The lush forest had already been plowed into a straight corridor, heat and numb, prickling static rolling over the air to remind it that this wasn't a dream.
"Tch. Missed."
The Tarnished narrowed his eyes, studying the bizarre creature in front of him.
If it was human, it certainly didn't act like one—calling itself a "Leopard Person," while wearing what looked like a tiger mascot outfit, complete with a ridiculous hood and that unbearable verbal tic.
It was almost offensive to the senses.
Wore a tiger, claimed leopard. Wonderful.
Yet despite the absurdity, his instincts—honed over countless cycles of slaughtering Radagon and the Elden Beast—told him something else.
This thing was a god.
The aura was faint, but it was there.
Still… it didn't feel like the "Forest Goddess" Gilgamesh mentioned.
So what was it, then?
A god of comedy?
"You miserable bastard! Do you have any idea what happens when you destroy a forest that took so long to build?! Kukulkan is really going to kill me, meow!"
Tears welled in the Leopard Person's eyes as it wailed about its tragic future, showing not a shred of divine dignity.
It looked less like a god and more like an exploited laborer, and the Tarnished's eye twitched hard enough to hurt.
"…This is a god?"
But from the way it spoke, that "Kukulkan" had to be the goddess entrenched here.
"Hmm? What did you say?! Fine! I've decided—I'm going to kill you!"
The sobbing stopped instantly.
With a sharp motion, the Leopard Person yanked something into existence—an odd polearm.
By shape, it should have been a naginata, except the top had been fitted with something like a plush claw—like a toy crane's grabber.
That weapon, combined with its clownish theatrics, made the Tarnished's gaze turn steadily colder.
"Whatever. I don't care what it is. I'll just kill it."
He pushed off the ground.
His body burst forward like a shot, the air detonating behind him.
"This war of light and darkness across a thousand years begins he—pwaah!"
The Leopard Person didn't even finish its dramatic line.
One punch sent it flying like an arrow, tearing straight through the forest.
A monstrous pressure wave flattened trees along the way, carving another corridor in its wake.
Whatever "divine majesty" it had tried to conjure was smashed into dust with that single blow.
The Leopard Person slammed headfirst into the ground, plowing a trench before crashing into the base of the temple, leaving behind a cracked, human-shaped crater.
"You shameless, dishonorable bastard! Couldn't you at least let me finish my lines, meow?! I worked hard to come up with those cool lines! And you broke the temple too! Kukulkan is going to get mad and kill me, meow!"
Still whining, it crawled out of the crater and shook itself, dust falling from its outfit in pathetic little puffs.
"Tch. That didn't kill it?"
The Tarnished emerged from the corridor, staring at the Leopard Person like it was an unpleasant stain that refused to wash out.
A creature this chatty and this durable—he'd never met one in all his long life.
"Meow-hah-hah-hah! Of course! How could something that pathetic possibly hurt the mighty Leopard Person? That didn't hurt at all—one bit—"
"…"
Could you at least wipe that about-to-cry expression off your face before you say "it didn't hurt"?
You have absolutely zero credibility.
"Enough. I'll just kill it. Looking at it is annoying."
With a tired sigh, he drew the sword that had once belonged to the Gloam-Eyed Queen—the great blade made for hunting gods.
Its spiral-edged steel drank the sunlight and returned it as a cold, black gleam.
The Leopard Person didn't seem especially strong, but it was still a god, more or less.
It shouldn't be an insult to this weapon.
"Hey—hey—hey! Don't pull out something that scary, meow! What do you mean 'kill'?! I'm a Servant, but if I get killed, I still die, okay?!"
The moment it saw the greatsword, the Leopard Person's fur stood on end, as if it had glimpsed something truly horrifying.
That blade carried a chill that clawed at the soul.
It felt no less terrifying than Quetzalcoatl's pressure.
Which was only natural.
This was the weapon the Gloam-Eyed Queen used to hunt Outer Gods—who knew how many deities had fallen to its edge?
He didn't bother responding to the Leopard Person's frantic babble.
He simply advanced, step by step.
Yet the instant his boots crossed into the land before the temple, he paused.
The magic saturating this place was on an entirely different level from the forest behind him.
If that earlier woodland had been a thin fog, then this was a sea—vast, deep, bottomless.
Even so, it wasn't enough to stop him.
More importantly, he felt something else.
A powerful presence—above.
He lifted his head.
At the very top of the temple, near where Marduk's hand axe was embedded, a woman stood with the sunlight at her back.
A silhouette.
A figure carved out of glare and shadow.
He stared at her, felt the pressure rolling down like a physical weight, nearly solid with authority—
—and his lips curled into a smile.
A smile full of hunger.
A smile full of war.
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