"Aaaaaaaah—!!"
John seemed to shatter the world.
Along with the fragments of that illusion.
He had truly experienced the sensation of death just now, and he didn't know why he had been resurrected so bizarrely.
Even though he had been smashed into pieces.
It was as if the world itself had denied the event, forcibly throwing him out of the predetermined "death."
When he saw Alcides again.
He only saw the other party's frozen appearance.
At that moment, without any need for extra thought, John understood that he only needed to think about one thing.
—Kill this villain! Protect the city!
—Stop him from slaughtering children!
At this moment, John, a mere mortal, transformed as if he were a heroic spirit, and he charged towards Alcides at the speed of sound with a desperate fighting spirit.
In desperation, Alcides could only barely twist his body.
Avoiding the blade from piercing his vitals.
Even though John unleashed such a fierce momentum, to Alcides, it was still like an ant.
In an instant, John crashed into his chest.
Alcides only felt a slight impact on his side, as if someone had bumped him with their elbow.
It was only to that extent.
In fact, Alcides possessed the Noble Phantasm [Twelve Labors].
Noble Phantasms of insufficient rank couldn't even tickle him.
The Hydra Dagger had only barely reached the level of being able to injure him, and the strength of his body was still there.
The prosthetic limb's blade broke off at the base.
John was also affected by the reaction force generated by the impact, and he was sent flying several meters away before crashing to the ground.
Even a strike at the speed of sound.
The Hydra Dagger could only break through his defense.
It was impossible to take his life by force alone.
But as long as the blade pierced his flesh, that was enough, the Hydra's poison could take effect.
It was an extremely pure curse of deadly poison.
The venom that had once driven Alcides to suicide flowed into his body once again.
"Good, that's how it has to be fought, it can only be fought like this!"
Moran watched the scene and let out a heartfelt exclamation.
Of course, he was also clear about one thing.
It was unrealistic to try to kill Alcides with snake venom, even though he had added a lot of his own "private goods" to the Hydra Dagger.
"However, at least it can put a lot of pressure on your Spirit Core, it's already quite good that those little guys can achieve this result."
Moran said faintly, stroking his chin.
He had added more than one type of poison to the dagger.
If it were only snake venom.
Alcides could probably suppress it with All the World's Evil, so he added more than just one type of poison.
Not just the Hydra.
There was also the Uruk monster, Muš?uššu's poison of ten thousand deaths, which could make the poisoned person repeatedly experience various deaths until their soul decayed and disappeared.
And the scorpion venom that had once stabbed the three-star archer, Orion.
That dagger gathered the most potent poisons of many magical beasts in the world.
The reason why Moran's poison didn't come in handy much in the past was because of the enemies, the gods he fought were not afraid of poison at all.
But for humans, any one of these poisons was quite deadly.
Now, Alcides was enduring these poisons.
Even with the Twelve Labors.
It would be enough for him to have a hard time enduring it.
Even if he used one life as a sacrifice to negate death.
The poison would still take root in Alcides' Spirit Core, the poison would never dissipate because of resurrection.
Of course, Moran didn't think it was despicable.
Ever since he and Alcides met.
The two had already begun to compete.
Back in Uruk, when Moran sparred with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, they emphasized a "no holds barred" approach.
If you got schemed against, it was because you were too weak.
There were no rules in a life-or-death game.
In the end, Moran hadn't even shown himself yet, and he had already erased two of Alcides' lives.
Scheming was also an indispensable part of combat.
Moran was willing to call it "small stakes for big gains."
Using pre-war deployments to inflict the greatest possible damage on the enemy at the smallest cost.
If this wasn't an efficient tactic, then what was?
However, this also required the efforts of Noel and John, as well as the police.
Human courage is a paean to life, and none can be missing.
Even when facing an avenger like a god of death descending, it's not as if they can't do anything.
Once people have something they want to protect, they become incredibly strong.
It wasn't just the battle on Alcides' side that was coming to an end.
The same was true for Gilgamesh and Richard.
Using a dragon made of manipulated Noble Phantasms to trample his opponent, Gilgamesh kept Richard from raising his head.
He could only constantly evade the bombardment of Noble Phantasms.
Even if he was slightly grazed by that golden dragon, he would only end up seriously injured.
If Richard didn't possess the Swiftness skill.
He would probably have already lost.
The difference in strength was still so obvious.
Even though Richard had struggled until now.
He was still unable to defeat Gilgamesh, at most he could only add some scars to the other's armor.
Other than that, there was nothing.
"Boy, remember this lesson well, King commands."
Gilgamesh held a sword in his hand.
He was like a judge looking down from above, placing the sharp blade against Richard's neck.
Clearly, the victor of this battle was Gilgamesh.
Richard's luxurious, noble-like armor had become tattered, and even its radiance had dimmed.
Even though he was defeated, he didn't show a unsightly appearance.
Instead, he revealed a peaceful smile.
The only thing Richard felt guilty and remorseful about was not completing the previous king's mission, and suffering defeat in this first battle.
For this, he could only atone with his death.
As a king, he would never beg for mercy from the enemy, Richard still wore the dignity of Britain on his face.
Seeing such Richard.
Gilgamesh's expression didn't change.
However, he had never intended to kill Richard from the beginning.
The situation has progressed to this point.
It's just that he wanted Richard to fully understand the obvious differences between himself and that Moran guy.
–Killing is out of the question.
However, he wants to deprive Richard of his combat ability and eliminate this kid from the Holy Grail War.
After all, these were the rules of the game he initially proposed.
Gilgamesh will naturally abide by them.
"My judgment upon you is–"
The King of Gold raised his sword and spoke the words of judgment.
However, he didn't finish the sentence.
A dazzling beam of light, like the aurora, came swiftly, and Gilgamesh's eyes widened instantly.
In an instant, the aurora and gold collided.
The two rays of light were mutually negated.