Join my Patreon to be 30 chapters ahead of the webnovel releases:
patreon.com/ZeroMoney
I would appreciate your help if you could join my Patreon and support me because it would keep me motivated.
For every 5 Patreon memberships I receive, I'll release 15 chapters all at once. Your support means a lot to me.
******
True to form, upon hearing George's words, Gilgamesh's expression immediately transformed.
"Surrender? It has been a very long time since anyone has dared speak such a word to this King.
Very good. You are quite impressive. You have successfully captured my attention.
I have decided that I will now personally enjoy playing with you and your Saber!"
In an instant, the modern-style jacket Gilgamesh was wearing vanished, replaced by a dazzling suit of golden armor that glittered under the light.
Paired with his golden hair, the entire effect he gave off was one of incomparable magnificence and noble grandeur.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I just love rich people."
George tapped his right foot lightly on the ground.
"Mirror Dimension!"
Other Servants might possess two or three Noble Phantasms at most. Gilgamesh had an entire treasury full of them. In George's eyes, this made him unequivocally the wealthiest Servant of all.
And robbing rich people was infinitely more entertaining than robbing poor ones.
"What boring spatial magic. Allow me to show you what true power is, and what it means to be a true king!"
Gilgamesh was entirely unconcerned about being transported to a different space. In the past, he had been pulled into the Ionioi Hetairoi (Army of the King), the inherent bounded field of Iskandar, the King of Conquerors.
Even when facing that king's tens of thousands of troops, he had been able to shatter that world with a single sword.
This place, by comparison, was merely a mirrored inherent bounded field. It was even less of a concern.
One after another, golden, shimmering spatial ripples appeared in the air behind Gilgamesh. From within those ripples, a vast array of different weapons emerged.
Not a single one of these weapons was an ordinary item. Every last one was a Noble Phantasm with a unique ability, all of which he had collected during his reign.
He was born at the tail end of the Age of Gods, possessing a bloodline of two-thirds god and one-third human.
He was the "wedge" created by the gods of that time for the purpose of restraining humanity.
A child born from the union of a goddess and a human emperor, he was meant to rule over all mortals, to rule all of humanity's heroes, and thus achieve the goal of keeping humanity in check.
For this reason, he was also known as the "King of Heroes."
His greatest hobby was the collection of all treasures. He had built a colossal treasury, the "Golden Capital," and had swept nearly every Noble Phantasm of that era into his collection.
After becoming a Heroic Spirit, he gained the ability to connect to his treasury at will, allowing him to withdraw its contents at any time.
But as a king, he despised wielding Noble Phantasms for close-quarters combat; he felt such crude behavior violated his royal dignity.
More often than not, he would simply stand in one place, mocking his enemies while launching the various Noble Phantasms from his treasury at them like a hail of bullets.
Launching powerful Noble Phantasms as single-use projectiles was a tactic that was naturally devastating, and it also had an extremely low magical energy cost.
This was because this style of combat only consumed the magical energy required to open the connection to his treasury; the attacks themselves relied entirely on the power of the Noble Phantasms.
This was also the very reason he had been summoned into the Archer class.
"Come on, then! Unleash them all!"
George took two steps forward and spread his arms wide, a massive smile covering his face.
Secretly, he had already opened an entrance to his personal small world directly in front of his body.
At this same moment, Artoria, standing behind George, wore an expression of utter frustration.
The instant Gilgamesh had donned his golden armor, she too had drawn the Sword of Promised Victory (Excalibur), preparing to step forward and engage him in battle.
But as a result, George had actually sent her a telepathic message, telling her to stand still and not move. He informed her that he would be the one to handle Gilgamesh.
Although she was certainly wary of Gilgamesh, as an honorable knight and as the Servant summoned by a Master, she felt she should be the one charging to the front lines to fight.
But now, her Master was telling her to stand in the back while he ran up to do the fighting himself.
If anyone else were watching, they would probably assume she was the Master, and George was the Heroic Spirit who had been summoned.
"You gravely overestimate yourself!"
Gilgamesh waved his hand. A torrent of sabers, spears, swords, and halberds—all manner of weapons carrying immense energy—shot toward George like a storm of blades and rain.
An ordinary enemy, even if they managed to block the first few attacks, would be instantly turned into a porcupine by the dense, unceasing barrage of Noble Phantasms that followed.
Even if someone possessed an incredibly powerful shield, it would eventually be blasted to smithereens by the countless treasures.
He had already summoned his golden throne and taken a seat, preparing to leisurely enjoy the sight of George being perforated.
But in the very next second, he shot right back up from his golden throne.
"How can this be!"
It was because every single Noble Phantasm he had fired, upon reaching a distance of roughly one meter from George, simply vanished into thin air.
And George just stood there, completely and utterly unharmed.
"Is it more spatial magic?"
Observing closely, Gilgamesh finally noticed an invisible spatial rift hanging in the air directly in front of George. It was precisely that rift that was swallowing every Noble Phantasm he launched.
George had been able to transport them all into this Mirror Dimension, which proved he was highly skilled in spatial magic. Using that same magic to divert his attacking Noble Phantasms was, Gilgamesh had to admit, a very clever method of defense.
"Hmph. Nothing but petty tricks."
With another wave of his hand, the Noble Phantasms that were originally shooting straight immediately changed their trajectories in mid-air. They began to curve, shooting at George from all directions—above, below, and from both sides.
For him, changing the firing vector of his treasures merely required the consumption of a little more magical energy.
"It seems you really have collected quite a few Noble Phantasms."
Seeing that he had already absorbed several hundred weapons, yet Gilgamesh still had a seemingly endless supply firing out, the smile on George's face grew even wider.
"All of you, get in here!"
His mutant ability activated. Those Noble Phantasms that had altered their flight paths, just as they were about to strike his body, suddenly and unnaturally veered off course once again, being redirected straight into the entrance of his small world.
Unlike the Sword of Promised Victory or Avalon, the Noble Phantasms Gilgamesh was currently firing, while certainly not weak, had not yet reached the level of power where they operated on fundamental laws.
Therefore, they could still be influenced by his ability.
Furthermore, Gilgamesh wasn't expending much magical energy to begin with. He was just opening the gates of his treasury and firing, without exerting any fine-tuned control over the weapons.
"Insolence! How dare you manipulate my treasures!"
Seeing the Noble Phantasms he had fired being affected and having their direction changed by some unknown magic from George, Gilgamesh felt he had been profoundly insulted. He immediately flew into a rage.
He despised it when anyone touched his property—that even included the Noble Phantasms he was actively throwing to kill someone.
"Then let us see just how many you can possibly control!"
In an instant, the entire sky was filled with a dense mass of shimmering spatial ripples. Countless Noble Phantasms shot forth like a torrential downpour.
In any case, he believed, the Noble Phantasms he fired could all be retrieved via the Chains of Heaven (Enkidu). Even if he shot them all, they would be replenished immediately. He had no need to worry about the quantity.
He was certain that for a mere magus, whether it was opening a special dimension or manipulating Noble Phantasms, neither task could be easy.
The moment his opponent couldn't keep up, the moment he made even the slightest mistake, he would be turned into a porcupine by the barrage.
However, what he had never anticipated was that after a full ten minutes of non-stop firing, his opponent remained completely unharmed, having successfully swallowed every single Noble Phantasm into that special dimension.
What he anticipated even less was that his Golden Capital, his treasury, had actually... run out of Noble Phantasms to fire!
"How can this be? Could it be... that the Noble Phantasms I fired were not retrieved by the Chains of Heaven?"
"Are you all out? In that case, this battle should be about over."
George, seeing that his opponent could no longer fire any more Noble Phantasms, casually waved his hand, closing the entrance to his small world.
(End of Chapter)