It was Valerie's reflexes and instinct that barely saved her. The moment the priest grabbed his sword, he became fast, very fast, comparable to a high-class demon. His hand blurred, and his sword shot toward her.
If she hadn't gone through the brief training with Gilgamesh, the sword would have been able to take her down, but fortunately for her, that brief training was only minor for Gilgamesh, not for her, so it worked at least a little and saved her. The energy prepared in her hand exploded and caused a small blast that pushed her body back and allowed her to avoid the swing that was meant to cut her chest, but it was still fast enough to destroy her clothes.
The priest showed a slight surprise when he saw the vampire dodge the attack; however, the surprise was instantly crushed, and he moved again.
Meanwhile, Valerie had been sent backward due to the explosion and crashed into the furniture, but she immediately rolled away, just in time to avoid the priest's next strike that cut the floor.
As she pushed her body away, Valerie simultaneously created two blood spears and threw them at the man. However, the man struck and destroyed them as if they were glass before moving again with even faster speed.
'Oh, so that's it…'
Valerie knew she was going to die now; that man was too fast for her. While she could see him, her body couldn't react fast enough; she was already aware of this due to her training with Gilgamesh. She didn't know how this man could move so fast, maybe because of his sword? But that didn't matter anymore because she was ready now.
'Gilgamesh… thank you…' she thought as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
"Valerie-chan!"
*FLASH!* *CLANG*
The sound of Asia's scream and steel clashing with steel made Valerie instantly open her eyes again, and a look of horror appeared on her face at what she saw.
In front of her was Mordred with Clarent in her hands, and she had blocked the exorcist's sword.
"What…" the priest murmured, surprised to see a girl suddenly appear through a magic circle and able to block his attack.
"I never imagined an exorcist would come to a demon city…" Mordred said with a smile, seeing the priest's strength, which, while not very high compared to Servants, was something to consider.
The priest's eyes widened at the girl's strength as he was pushed back. He stumbled a few steps before managing to balance himself, but by the time he did, the girl was already in front of him, her sword spinning in her hand and swinging it at him.
He had to move to dodge a punch the girl threw in his direction, strong enough to send him crashing into the furniture.
Mordred quickly grabbed Clarent and lunged at the priest, who gripped his sword and, at a speed imperceptible to normal eyes, disappeared.
Unfortunately for the priest, Mordred was not normal. Moving her greenish eyes, she was able to grab the priest's legs when he moved behind her while quickly kicking the ground, reaching the ceiling above, and kicking it to catapult herself and deliver an axe-like blow to Mordred's back. However, the daughter of King Arthur quickly moved Clarent to intercept the priest's sword.
Sparks and a small explosion appeared as the two warriors clashed, the furniture in the area they were in was blown away as if a grenade had just been thrown in the room, while the floor cracked and scattered in all directions.
As they faced each other, there seemed to be a brief pause, as the two warriors assessed their opponent's skills while their swords ground against each other.
The priest was pretty good, Mordred admitted that. His strength was probably rank D or E by Servant standards, but what he had most was by far his speed and sword technique. But of course, if Mordred were at her 100%, she could destroy the priest easily, but that wasn't the case, after all, she had been training in the dungeon for over 12 hours, not to mention still having some remnants of Gilgamesh's Bararaq Saiqa.
Meanwhile, the priest showed a stoic face on the outside, while he was quite surprised inwardly at the girl's skill. She wasn't just fast enough to match someone wielding Excalibur Rapidly, but also strong enough to withstand the entire attack. And her skills with her sword might even be better than most of his students. Could this girl be a supernatural being? No, she was clearly human; he could feel the aura radiating from her was completely human, but how could she be so strong if that was the case?
After time resumed, Mordred pushed the priest away, and the Church man landed while skidding on the ground. Shortly after, he kicked the ground again and made a quick thrusting attack against Mordred.
Mordred quickly raised her sword and defended against the priest's, which ended up leaving him slightly open. Taking advantage of this, Mordred moved Clarent to attack the priest, who managed to kick the ground to avoid being cut.
Both prepared to go at each other but stopped when they felt a great magical power envelop the area.
Looking at the door, Mordred and the priest saw Enkidu, Sebas, and Gilgamesh standing there, looking at them.
And they weren't happy, if Gilgamesh's look meant anything.
Then it came in waves of power through Gilgamesh's crimson eyes.
It was like an animal cornered by its predator. The overwhelming fear and the feeling of being close to death were enough to make the prey act in desperation, attacking its predator with everything it had.
The priest felt this way. That's why his hand and body moved. It was his primal instinct and nature that made him move like this, recognizing the boy in front of him as his predator.
Due to the fear the priest felt, he reacted; out of pure instinct, he lunged toward Gilgamesh with his Excalibur fragment.
But when the sword was a centimeter from Gilgamesh's head, it stopped.
The priest's eyes widened as he felt his body being chained and immobilized while Enkidu had his hand raised.
Gilgamesh simply placed his hand around the priest's neck and began to squeeze.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you right now…" Gilgamesh said, staring with his crimson eyes at the priest, who at that moment felt a fear he had never felt before.
"Wait, wait!"
Gilgamesh blinked as Asia suddenly appeared between him and the priest, the girl's expression quite distressed.
"P-please, no more fighting!" Asia said with a sad face. "C-can't we just talk about this?" She asked, turning to the priest. "Valerie-chan said the priest is here to take me back to the Church, right? S-so wouldn't it be better if we talked about this first?"
Gilgamesh's and everyone's eyes showed slight surprise at the information that the Church wanted Asia back. Of all things, they never thought this would be the reason the priest came here.
"Depends…" said Gilgamesh.
"I'm willing to talk and would have done so in the first place, but seeing this priest who blatantly attacked…" He let that sink in for the man, who showed signs of some regret on his face before it was replaced by a calm look.
"I apologize for that," the priest grumbled and lowered his sword to show he no longer wanted to fight. "If this can be resolved peacefully, I'm also willing to talk about it so there's no violence," he said, and Gilgamesh noticed the man's tone was sincere and honest.
In a swift motion, the chains binding him disappeared, and the priest sheathed his Excalibur.
Looking around at the destroyed house, Gilgamesh gave Mordred a look, who averted her eyes.
Sighing, Gilgamesh raised his right hand, where a small blue sphere with various symbols around it appeared.
"Time Magic: Temporal Regression," Gilgamesh whispered as he cast the [Time Magic] spell.
Slowly, everything around began to change until it returned to its original form, leaving everyone in shock.
Gilgamesh sat on the sofa in front of him with Enkidu and Valerie sitting together, and Mordred and Asia on the sofa beside him, while Sebas stood behind Gilgamesh. The priest also sat on the sofa in front of Gilgamesh.
Looking closely at the priest's face, Gilgamesh remembered who he was.
"It's been a long time, Ewald Cristaldi," Gilgamesh said with narrowed eyes.
The priest, setting aside his feelings, also recognized who was in front of him.
"Yes, it's been a long time, [Paladin] Gilgamesh," the priest said, looking at Gilgamesh.
The tension in the room was immense, so much so that it could almost be cut with a knife.
Of all the things that could happen, this was not expected.
Gilgamesh never imagined that the Church would send someone to retrieve Asia.
After all, although Asia had her title as [Holy Maiden], that wasn't very uncommon; after all, that title is given to those with healing talents, whether through lineage or Sacred Gear, so there must be hundreds of them.
And Gilgamesh didn't imagine they'd send someone like Ewald Cristaldi.
This man is a legend; he has no Sacred Gear or lineage, only his great affinity with holy swords and his talents with them, and even so, he was able to defeat an Ultimate-Class demon alone, someone considered equal to Vasco Strada.
A good demonstration of his power is in the novel, where he was able to fight and defeat Yuuto Kiba, Xenovia, Griselda Quarta, Sona, Irina, and Dulio alone.
He was able to defeat Xenovia, who wielded Durandal and Ascalon, Griselda, considered one of the strongest female exorcists, Sona, and Irina, with Irina being a reincarnated Angel, and even Dulio, considered the strongest exorcist who possessed the Longinus [Zenith Tempest] in the novel.
Gilgamesh knew Ewald Cristaldi from his time in the Church; although they couldn't be considered friends, they went on a few missions together, though few since Gilgamesh preferred to work alone.
Ewald Cristaldi also had his own thoughts about Gilgamesh.
It was a great surprise for the Church at that time when the Seraph Gabriel appeared with a [Longinus Sacred Gear] user who was also a descendant of the King of Heroes.
He had been very happy with someone like that joining the Church's side.
And over time, Ewald Cristaldi saw Gilgamesh's frightening development in the Church; in just a few months, he had become one of the few to be a High-Class Exorcist.
Ewald Cristaldi still remembered the surprise he felt when he found out that Gilgamesh had defeated Vasco Strada.
Surprise is an understatement; someone so young being able to defeat the man known as the Pinnacle of Humanity without even using a [Sacred Gear].
He became, in a short time, the greatest exorcist to ever exist.
But Ewald Cristaldi also remembered how Gilgamesh was within the Church; he was someone who didn't care about making friends and lived isolated. There were few people he talked to and who got close to him.
Gilgamesh had a good relationship with Griselda Quarta because she helped him train; the female exorcist even saw Gilgamesh as her son. He also had a great friendship with Xenovia Quarta and Irina Shidou, Griselda's disciples.
And also with Siegfried and Jeanne, who were his group in the Church, but who became traitors shortly before Gilgamesh left.
Besides, the boy had great respect for Vasco Strada and always helped the former strongest exorcist, in addition to his great relationship with the Seraph Gabriel, which was no secret to anyone that she liked Gilgamesh a bit too much.
Everyone was very surprised when Gilgamesh left the Church, although he said he would help if they needed him. Ewald Cristaldi couldn't help but feel betrayed.
When Ewald Cristaldi came to the city, at Vasco Strada's request to retrieve Asia, he had no idea that Gilgamesh lived here; he only knew that Asia lived with a vampire, or rather, a Dhampir.
It was truly terrifying to see Gilgamesh here, especially with these people by his side.
Ewald Cristaldi could feel their power emanating in waves; it was so great that it was overwhelming and even hard to breathe.
Scanning them, Ewald Cristaldi began to analyze each one.
First, the Dhampir he almost killed. Ewald Cristaldi could feel her power leaking, and that power would be comparable to an Ultimate-Class demon. Ewald Cristaldi doubted he could defeat the Dhampir in a fair fight; after all, he had only caught her by surprise, since Ewald Cristaldi only had one of his Excalibur fragments, normally possessing three of them, so the story would be different.
Then his gaze shifted to the girl with the sword he had fought. Ewald Cristaldi couldn't help but sweat at the power emanating from her; it was so great, perhaps greater than a Maou-Class Demon, and it seemed the girl wasn't at 100%. Given the strength she displayed, he didn't doubt she could even break his Excalibur fragment if she wanted.
But his gaze froze when he looked at the last three.
Looking at Enkidu, not that he knew his name, he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. The power emanating from the Weapon of the Gods was immense, but it didn't seem crushing, rather gentle and controlled, like nature itself. But Ewald Cristaldi was certain that this man's (or woman's, he wasn't sure) power was as great as a God-Class being.
The older man standing behind Gilgamesh was no different. While the green-haired being's power was calm and gentle like nature, the older man's was crushing, as if destruction itself stood there. Ewald Cristaldi swore he saw a massive being, resembling a dragon, behind the man, and the energy emanating from him was certainly that of a God-Class being. The aura seemed so destructive that it would make even Sirzechs Lucifer seem weak.
When his gaze stopped on Gilgamesh, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. The demigod's power was dozens of times greater than the last time they saw each other. If at fifteen years old and without a Sacred Gear he could defeat Vasco Strada, Ewald didn't want to imagine his power level with Sacred Gears now; perhaps he had even entered the Top 10 Strongest Existences.
Ewald Cristaldi knew one thing.
He couldn't win this battle; fighting them would be the same as inviting death.
And seeing how they reacted when he threatened one of them, it wouldn't end well.
Gilgamesh also looked at Ewald Cristaldi, or rather, at the sword in his hands.
One of the Excalibur fragments.
That weapon didn't even deserve to be called Excalibur; hell, it didn't even deserve to be in the same space as the real one.
The famous sword of Arturia Pendragon reduced to this.
If it were placed in the category of Noble Phantasms, that sword would only be a D-rank Noble Phantasm! It's true that it would be C-rank if it hit a devil and was wielded by a suitable user, perhaps someone like Ewald, but in the hands of a mere exorcist? I could break it with my bare hand.
It's true that the Excalibur in this world wasn't forged by the Lady of the Lake and also wasn't a crystallized phenomenon, using humanity's wishes as a basis. Instead, it was forged by the God of the Bible, by the hand of the God thought to be the creator of humans. I thought that would at least be enough to count as a substitute.
However, when it was broken and God was dead, no one could reforge it. According to the story I got about this sword from the Church, Heaven and the Church wanted to reforge the sword through alchemy but failed. The sword couldn't be recreated by them. So they made seven pieces, but in the end, it was still incomplete, and the swords were nothing more than pale imitations.
Yes, they had some unique powers and were probably quite dangerous, but only to demons, and also, the sword was fragile.
"Thank you, Asia-chan," Mordred said beside Gilgamesh as Asia healed her with her Sacred Gear.
Asia only smiled gently at Mordred.
"You're rusty, Mordred, not being able to beat him," Gilgamesh said with a mocking smile.
Mordred only stuck out her tongue at Gilgamesh and said:
"I wasn't at my 100%," said the Knight of Betrayal.
Gilgamesh smiled and nodded, after all, what Mordred said was true.
Mordred still wasn't back to her best form due to having some remnants of Bararaq Saiqa in her body, and in the fight with Ewald Cristaldi, she couldn't use her armor or her Mana Burst to limit the damage, which is surprising coming from Mordred, but even so, she managed to hold her own well.
Of course, if we consider physical attributes, Mordred was far superior to the priest, but in technique, Ewald Cristaldi was better, after all, Mordred fought more on instinct.
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