Chapter 266: Pfft

Obviously, the Ice Arrow lodged in Gilgamesh's noble part, under everyone's incredulous gaze, suddenly shattered on its own, turning into sparkling specks that faded away.

Just as everyone thought this absurd farce would end awkwardly in this manner—

Pfft.

A light sound rang, unusually clear in the silent dock.

A small spray of bright red liquid burst from an almost invisible spot on Gilgamesh's Golden Armor, shooting out sharply, tracing a brief arc in the air, with a few Clack sounds, landing on the clean cement ground a short distance away, leaving a few glaring red stains.

The scene fell into dead silence again.

This time, the silence was no longer just awkward; it also carried a suffocating feeling.

Rider's booming laugh got stuck in his throat, turning into a strange Hoho sound; he desperately covered his mouth, his whole face flushed red, his shoulders shaking like a winnowing sieve.

Weber had completely buried his face in Rider's cloak, exposing only two reddened ears, his body trembling slightly.

Saber maintained a blank expression with astonishing willpower, but a flicker of almost uncontainable turbulence flashed deep within her emerald eyes; she quickly lowered her eyelids, staring at her sword tip.

Lancer abruptly turned, back to Gilgamesh, his shoulders beginning to suspiciously rise.

Ailisi Feier blinked in confusion, then seemed to understand something, her fair cheeks flushing slightly, quietly averting her gaze.

Black Tower's eyes narrowed slightly, looking at the few drops of blood on the ground, then at the Gilgamesh frozen midair as if petrified; the curve at the corner of his mouth, a mere 0.1-pixel, seemed to lift again… by 0.5 pixels.

And Gilgamesh himself…

Time seemed to freeze on him.

He slowly lowered his head, glancing at the few fresh, warm drops of his own blood on the ground.

Then he raised his head again, his scarlet eyes blankly sweeping over the twisted, suppressed smiles of the people below.

His handsome face, originally flushed with Rage and heated with shame, now bore a hue indescribable in words, like a tipped palette: red tinged with purple, purple laced with cyan, the blue veins at his temples writhing like earthworms, throbbing.

(Spit... spitting out?)

(The King's... blood?)

(There... spouted out?)

An unprecedented emotion erupted in his chest like a volcano!

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa—！！！！！！！"

A roar more mournful, more ferocious, more hysterical than any before burst from deep within Gilgamesh's throat!

The sound no longer resembled a human roar, but rather the howl of some ancient beast on the brink of total madness!

The golden ripples behind him surged wildly outward!

Previously only a few hundred, now instantly spiked to several hundred, even thousands!

Dense Golden Ripple almost covered the entire dock's night sky, like an inverted golden sea!

Countless Noble Phantasms of varied shapes protruded half their bodies from the ripples—swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, and forks—each emitting a heart‑pounding magical radiance, buzzing and trembling like an enraged swarm of bees, ready to strike!

The terrifying pressure made Rider instinctively step back half a pace, the joking look on his face gone, replaced by solemnity.

Saber and Lancer instantly entered the highest alert state!

"Miscellaneous Cultivation! Miscellaneous Cultivation! Miscellaneous Cultivation—!!!"

Gilgamesh's scarlet eyes seemed about to bleed, burning with madness that would consume everything, "The King wants you dead! All of you! Along with this city! This era! All turned to ash! The King will erase all this disgrace! From its root! Completely erase it!!!"

The King's Treasure's brilliance illuminated half the sky, and the rain of world‑shattering Noble Phantasms seemed about to pour down indiscriminately, engulfing the dock and everything beyond!

However, just at the moment when disaster hung by a thread, as if the end of the world were about to descend—

Gilgamesh's raging figure suddenly halted!

As if a pause button had been pressed. The frantic expression on his face froze, then turned into an even more twisted, ultimate suppression!

He abruptly twisted his head, his scarlet eyes staring hard toward a direction in Winterwood City—toward the Tohsaka Residence, his eyes nearly spitting actual flame!

"Shi Chen—!!! You damned, overstepping fool—!!! How dare you... dare to use a Command Spell...!!!"

His roar was filled with incredulous Rage and the humiliation of being bound.

Clearly, it was his Master, Yuanban Shichen, seeing the situation spiral out of control (the Noble Phantasm's brilliance nearly lighting up all of Winterwood City), forced to employ the Command Spell's coercive power, ordering him to retreat at once.

Although Gilgamesh has extremely high resistance to the Command Spell, this was nevertheless the Master's absolute command, especially the first Command Spell's coercive force being the strongest; even with great unwillingness, he could not fully defy it.

"You wait for The King... Shi Chen... The King will absolutely make you pay... the most painful price!!!"

Amid a venomously low growl, Gilgamesh's figure, together with the suffocating golden ripples of the "King's Treasure" that filled the sky, vanished swiftly as if erased by an eraser.

Only the few glaring drops of blood on the ground proved that what had just occurred was not an illusion.

The dock fell silent again, with only the night wind and the sound of waves.

Rider let out a long sigh, wiping nonexistent cold sweat: "Whew... that was truly dangerous. That glittering guy, when he goes mad, is really frightening."

He glanced at the blood on the ground, almost burst into laughter, but held it back.

Weber poked his head out of the cloak, his face pale, still shaken: "C—almost got finished... the Master of the Yuanban Family, actually... decisive?"

Saber and Lancer also dropped their combat stances, but their expressions were not relaxed.

They knew that tonight was only the beginning; the terror and grudge of that blond Archer were likely far beyond imagination.

Black Tower slightly furrowed his brow.

His violet‑black eyes looked toward the direction Gilgamesh had stared at before vanishing—Tohsaka Residence.

In that instant, at the Shana when Archer was forcibly recalled by the Command Spell and his emotions surged, she keenly caught a faint, yet highly concerning, aura.

That magic system, not belonging to this world, carried an unpleasant scent.

(Oh?)

(Besides me and that trash‑flipping silly girl, are there other "Otherworldly Visitors"?)

(Seems... still hidden there? Interesting.)

A playful curve lifted at the corner of her mouth.

Compared to the clash of these "native Heroic Spirits" before her, an unknown, possibly equally cosmic counterpart clearly piqued her interest more.

The boring farce is over.

Black Tower withdrew its gaze, looked at the few who remained at the dock, and its tone returned to its usual indifference, "Consider yourselves lucky. *cough* I'm in a decent mood today, so I'll let you off for now."

After speaking, she ignored Rider's slightly stunned expression and Saber's and Lancer's complicated gazes, turned and said briefly to the still‑unaware A Xing: "Let's go."

A Xing nodded and followed silently.

The two figures quickly vanished into the shadows of the containers.

From atop a distant container, Chang Ye Yue also looked toward the direction of the Tohsaka Residence.

She too sensed the fleeting abnormal fluctuation; though not as clear as Black Tower's perception, it was enough to raise her guard.

(An aura not of this world… what could it be?)

She pulled the still‑covering‑her‑face, shy San Yue Qi and said, "Xiaosanyue, we should find another spot. This place… is a bit too lively."

"Eh? Where… where are we going?" San Yue Qi hadn't fully recovered from the shock of "hitting that strange place."

"We're going to visit… the home of another 'protagonist' tonight."

Chang Ye Yue said cryptically, holding the Black Umbrella, and, with San Yue Qi, quietly left the harbor.