Chapter 5 - Caster vs Golden Boy

Chapter 5 – Caster vs golden boy

Medea woke up on a good note today. She got up, made her bed, cleaned her room, got dressed and started her work. For lunch, Ciel prepared a hot pot, and they had a lovely time eating it. At this point, she didn't even question it.

There was next to no business as usual. As usual, Rimuru was sleeping over the desk, and Ciel was holed up in her potion-making? And Medea was just there, existing. That was until a rare sight occurred.

Ciel, for some reason, came out and gave her a list of things to buy.

"Hey, could you get these for me?"

"Oh, sure."

"Cheers. Come back soon!"

And she went back to the kitchen. She was quite surprised but thankful since she actually had something to do now. It was only after she exited the café that she looked at the list.

(I'm sorry, what is this list? Strawberries, peanuts, caviar, a concave lens, a lightbulb and a football. How do they relate to each other? Forget it, they should all be available at the convenience store.)

...

As she left, Ciel simply looked back at the door, and sighed. She didn't want to do this but she had no other choice. Because she didn't want to expose their powers for now, they have to rely on Medea. She knew that a certain gold boy was coming in this direction, and his path happened to cross not far from the convenience store.

She did not, under any circumstance, want that gold guy to come here since he would probably piss off his master, and her as well.

It was a selfish decision, but she was fine with it. Ciel was not a goody-two-shoes protagonist like person. The only being she respects and loves is her master, and she will do anything he wants. Although she acts strict or cheeky with him, in the end all she is doing is for the good of her master. If it benefits him, she will do it, no matter how cruel it may seem. Of course, if it upsets her master, then such an act will be unforgivable.

(This will be a gamble. There are two ways it will end. Either Medea is killed by golden boy. Most likely but she can still be revived. Or, Medea powers up during the fight and kills golden boy. Then, she will be of even more use to darling. Both outcomes are tolerable, although I would prefer the latter.

Now, everything just depends on her.)

...

"Oho, a mere servant dares to get in my way?"

Instantly, a sword is fired off at Medea, but is blocked by the barrier surrounding her.

"Oh? Interesting. You actually managed to block one of my swords."

Medea was shocked to say the least. She was caught off guard and just happened to meet one of the strongest heroes on her way to the store.

But she was more shocked by the fact that her barrier was still intact. After all, the noble phantasm that Gilgamesh fired had a piercing quirk. She deduced that it must've been her master's pure and abundant mana that gave her such a boost in strength.

"You have some of my respect now. To have a barrier that can defend against a piercing noble phantasm, the magic must be very advanced. You must be Caster, Witch of Betrayal Medea from the age of gods right? Don't even think about escaping, I have put a warding barrier around us, so feel free to go all out." Gilgamesh started laughing.

Medea didn't say a word, she simply clicked her tongue and started firing bolts of light at Gilgamesh.

"Rho Aias". It was all blocked, but Medea kept on firing.

"An impressive amount of mana. No wonder I can't use clairvoyance, your master is something else, to be able to block my skills while supplying you with so much mana."

Then he started attacking.

Each sword was met by a bolt of light, but unfortunately she was getting overwhelmed. As Gilgamesh started to increase the speed and rate at which he fired the noble phantasms, Medea struggled more and more, until she could do nothing but strengthen her barrier and tank the hits.

However, even this had limits. Although she had a pretty much endless supply of mana, it could not do anything about this situation.

But Medea also had her cards to play as well. Her skill [Genius] allowed her to calculate and adapt to any situation. Even as she's being bombarded by swords, she's analysing them and adding resistance properties to the barrier.

Slowly but surely, she became less and less affected, and begun a counterattack of her own.

Suddenly, her barrier was broken and her left shoulder was pierced by a pole. Blood splattered over her clothes and she spat out some blood.

"Urgh."

She was shocked.

"Haha, you performed very well, so I'll allow you to know what happened. All the noble phantasms you defended against were C and B-tier. I simply chucked an A-tier in and you are defenceless against it. You danced well mongrel, so I will give you a swift end." He said as a golden portal opened behind him.

An ominous looking spear appeared.

"This spear has no name but was able to knock two lives off berserker. You know what this means right? It kills you in two different ways. Consider this my gift to you. Be honoured, haha." He then started laughing and the spear was thrown forward.

Having no time to react, Medea's heart was completely destroyed, as well as all her lungs and then some sort of toxin was released, slowly killing every cell in her body.

It was so powerful, the pole completely drilled a hole through her and continued into the ground, going a good 12m deep before stopping.

Suddenly losing her strength, she collapsed onto her knees, with her back bent forward and looking down.

(Is this where I die? I'm sorry Rimuru and Ciel, I wasn't able to get back.)

She thought to herself as her consciousness faded away.

...

(NO! I refuse.) A look of determination appeared on her face as she forced herself to stay conscious.

If it was the old Medea, she would've accepted her fate and died, but now was different. She had somewhere to belong to, and people waiting for her to get back.

And...

[Acquiring extra skill [Determined]. Successful]

She didn't want to die and leave this life.

[Acquiring extra skill [Loved]. Successful]

She wanted to live.

[Acquiring extra skill [Reversal]. Successful]

[Merge skills [Ancient Magic], [Determined], [Loved] and [Reversal]?]

Huh? She was confused by the voices in her head. Before she could even think of whether to accept or not, another different mechanical-like voice sounded in her head.

Merge.

[Merging skills. Successful. Successfully acquired unique skill [Magic of the Gods]]...

[Unknown force detected. Forcefully merging unique skill [Magic of the Gods] with [Genius], successful. Successfully acquired unique skill [Skill Nemesis]].

...

Gilgamesh stared at her lifeless body and simply continued walking. The body would start to disappear anyway.

(Wait, disappear?) He looked back, only to find her still surviving and struggling.

"I have to admire your courage, to still continue to live despite having half your body destroyed. Commendable effort."

But then something didn't feel right.

Gilgamesh then looked at her, eyes wide open, as she began to heal visible to the naked eye.

The blood started to flow back into her wounds, and inside her body, her heart and other organs started to reconstruct themselves. A few seconds later and her body was completely healed.

"You evolved after fighting me. You are getting more and more interesting." He smiled and prepared ten A-rank swords. He then shot all ten at once towards Medea. But she just simply stood there.

(Is she underestimating me?) An unpleasant expression appeared on the King of Hero's face.

However, contrary to his expressions, the swords simply made contact with Medea's body, and was absorbed. And instantly, they were fired back at him.

(What! How dare you use my own weapons against me?)

He used Rho Aias again and blocked them all, but after he just simply stared at her.

"I gained a new skill." She started to speak.

"So?"

"It's called [Skill Nemesis]. Apparently, there is a value to everyone, called the EP value. The higher the value, the stronger the person should be. My skill works in a way that I can see if I'm above or below a person's value. If I'm below them, then all their skills won't work on me. If I'm above them, then not only will their skills not work, but I will be able to copy and store that skill, and use it for my own.

The amount of skills I can copy depends on the difference of our EP value."

"Ohh? Your telling me this?"

"Yes."

"How arrogant! Don't think you won just because you got a better skill!" Gilgamesh got serious, and a weird, drill shaped sword came out of a portal.

This was EA, the sword of rupture. Legend says it was used to split the heavens and the earth, and it was also the most powerful noble phantasm in the Gate of Babylon. He rarely even used this weapon because there was always no need to, but he had to now.

He found the new Medea dangerous, and a threat.

"I shall perform this final blow as a parting gift to you-"

However, Medea wasn't afraid, she just stood there unmoving.

"-I will tell you of the beginning. Heaven and Earth split,-".

She wasn't scared, in fact she was anticipating it.

"-nothingness congratulated creation, my Sword of Rupture cleaved the world-"

This was all according to her plan. The reason she revealed what her abilities were, were to get Gilgamesh to use his strongest attack. He would be cautious and use a sure-kill method.

"Mortar of the stars, heaven's hell is the eve of creation celebration-"

Then why, was she unafraid? It was simple.

"-now you shall die and be silent...-"

Because she saw the difference in EP value between them. And she was confident that she would be able to copy any attack he sends her way. Why?-

"Enuma Elish!" An invisible wave of time and space was brought forward and aimed at Medea from all infinite angles. Everything became a blur for her.

-Because,

Gilgamesh – Unique skill [Gate of Babylon]. EP value: 1754901 (+9999999 Enuma Elish)

Medea – Unique skill [Skill Nemesis]. EP value: 807651 (+ ∞ Rimuru's soul corridor)

She had faith in her master.

Hey, author here. Normally I don't really include author comments but I wish to address something.

Yes, this world has the same skill system as the cardinal world. I will also upscale the power of ultimate skills.

Yes, I know Medea's power is OP and with Rimuru it seems undefeatable.

But you have to realise that ultimate skills are way beyond that of unique skills.

Yes, Medea can copy any skill below the ultimate class, but she still needs Rimuru to do it. She was lucky that she had a soul corridor to Rimuru, otherwise she would be cooked after Gilgamesh's attack.

If it were anyone who had an extremely low EP value then they would have to be really careful.

I also made Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon a unique skill because even though EA can cut anything and everything, it pales in comparison to ultimate skills.

I mean, ultimate skills are at the very least universal level, whilst golden boy's is merely planetary level, maybe solar system, but that's the furthest it could go.

Same goes for Medea's skill. But just so you know, [Gate of Babylon] and [Skill Nemesis] are as op the unique skills will get.

But just think about it. If I were to say, the weakest ultimate skill would probably be [Magic Lord Necronomicon] wielded by Adalmann in canon. And that skill contains every single possible magic spell ever existed.

When I say it has everything, it was everything. Doesn't mean that Adalmann can use it all, but the power is there and with it, Medea would probably be one shotted.

So that's the explanation, if you get mad, stay mad.

Thanks for reading this book!

Author-san out!