189 Aqua

With Uruk still a short distance away, Merlin, Roy, Ana, and the Chaldea duo—forming a ragtag pilgrimage crew—were finally nearing their destination.

Normally, after wandering so long without finding the Tablet of Destinies, Merlin wouldn't dare return to Uruk empty-handed.

Having worked under Gilgamesh for ages, he'd sussed out the king's nature—far stricter than Artoria, with zero tolerance for slackers. Mess up or loaf around in his presence, and a scolding or punishment was inevitable.

If Merlin slunk back to Uruk and admitted to Gilgamesh he'd failed to find the tablet again, it'd be suicidal—like begging the king to vent his wrath on him.

He wasn't that dumb. Two fates awaited him if he did: a tongue-lashing followed by another eviction to scour Mesopotamia, or getting dumped on the Beast Front with a mountain of overtime, squeezing out his last drops of labor.

Neither appealed to him.

So, after fruitless searching, Merlin had loafed around the plains, tracking Roy instead. The tablet Gilgamesh tasked him with? Long forgotten.

And he was damn glad he'd done it.

Not only had he stumbled upon a lone Servant, Ana, in the forest, but he'd also teamed up with his pal Roy to take down the Beast Front's biggest threat—the fake Enkidu—bringing back Gilgamesh's dear friend's body.

With all these wins, even without the tablet, Gilgamesh surely wouldn't fuss too much.

He could strut into Uruk with his head high, no more jumping at shadows.

Maybe his stellar performance would even earn Gilgamesh's praise, sparing him overtime—who knows?

"Heh heh heh…"

Merlin's sleazy chuckle drew a blank stare from Ana and a swift kick to his backside from Roy.

"Idiot, wipe that creepy grin off your face."

"Fou~!"

Seeing Merlin get booted, Fou, perched on Roy's head, yipped gleefully.

"Ow! Roy, what the!"

Tumbled by the kick, Merlin's eyes widened, ready to complain, but he clammed up fast.

"Feel that?"

Suddenly, Merlin and Roy's expressions shifted. They glanced skyward, sensing something, then shouted to the group.

"Get out of the way!!"

Whoosh!!

No sooner had they spoken than a piercing sonic boom split the air, accompanied by a voice from nowhere.

"You down there, move it! Don't block my path, you nuisances!!"

"Huh?"

"Senpai, watch out!!"

The airborne object zipped at supersonic speed.

Luckily, everyone but Ritsuka was far from ordinary. Heeding Roy's warning, they dodged as something hurtled toward them.

Roy yanked Ritsuka aside, sparing her from a certain useless goddess's crash-landing, unlike the original tale.

The plummeting figure, thanks to Roy's tug, missed Ritsuka, face-planting into the ground with perfect precision—an intimate meet-and-greet with Mother Earth.

"Ow… ouch, ouch…"

As the dust settled, a dark-haired figure—having free-fallen from the sky—lay sprawled in an absurdly humiliating pose, stars swirling in her eyes.

Without Ritsuka as a cushion, the hard landing left Ishtar teary-eyed.

"Ow, ow… that sucked! It's all that damn Gilgamesh's fault—Maanna went haywire again…"

"Good thing I'm a goddess—takes more than that to hurt me, or I'd be toast…"

Brushing off dirt, Ishtar muttered to herself, clambering from the rubble. She blamed Gilgamesh entirely for her crash while marveling at her divine resilience keeping her unscathed.

The onlookers who'd witnessed it all fell silent.

"…"

Who's this half-dressed, face-planting, mumbling moron?

Roman, watching the crash unfold via Chaldea's feed, piped up with a warning.

"Be careful, Ritsuka! Her crash was… hard to judge, but don't underestimate her. She's radiating divine power—a legit divine spirit with mana levels off the charts!!"

"What? This crash-landing girl's a goddess?"

Ritsuka and Mash gaped in shock.

Roy, though, wasn't surprised.

No shock there—it was Ishtar, as expected.

Who else in the Seventh Singularity could zip across Mesopotamia's skies at Mach speed, only to flop down in such a spectacularly dumb way?

Spotting Ishtar in Rin Tohsaka's form, Roy felt a twinge of exasperation. He hadn't expected to meet her outside Uruk.

Especially not like this.

"Um… are you okay?"

Ritsuka, concerned after seeing Ishtar's fall, spoke up.

She'd had her own nasty drop not long ago—she could relate.

"Huh? Who're you…?"

Ishtar whirled at Ritsuka's voice, realizing she wasn't alone.

Facing Roy and the crew, she froze briefly.

"Crap, they saw that humiliating crash? Total misstep—didn't think humans would still roam the plains like this. What now? Silence them? No, no—that'd just scream petty rage…"

As Ishtar mulled over hiding her flop, Ritsuka and Mash stared, dumbfounded.

Is it fine to blurt out something that creepy in front of us?

Roy, meanwhile, sighed at Ishtar's fusion with Rin's knack for embarrassment.

"Wait! I crashed here because I sensed a massive mana source. I flew too fast, and Maanna lost control…"

After a moment's thought, Ishtar pieced together what happened.

Kicked out by that jerk Gilgamesh, she'd aimed for her temple. Mid-flight, she'd picked up a huge mana signature.

Thinking it was her long-lost Gugalanna, she'd veered Maanna toward it.

The result? Flying too fast, the sudden turn threw Maanna off balance, and she'd plummeted.

Now she locked eyes with the group, the air thick with awkwardness.

She desperately wanted to bury her crash fiasco—something she'd flubbed countless times—but bigger fish fried her mind: where was her missing Gugalanna?

Her nose twitched, red eyes scanning Roy and crew. They landed on Roy, and something clicked.

Her eyes lit up. She lunged, grabbed his shoulders, and demanded, "Where is it?!"

"Where's what?"

Roy blinked, puzzled, as did the others.

No clue what she meant.

"You know—the big, amazing thing! It's on you, right? That insane mana—it's gotta be it. Give it back—it's mine!!"

Too proud to admit in front of strangers she'd lost Gugalanna, gift from the sky god Anu, Ishtar latched onto Roy like some Aqua clone, convinced he had it. She clutched his collar, shaking him, demanding its return.

She didn't realize the mana she sensed wasn't Gugalanna—it was the Grail Tezcatlipoca had just retrieved.

Roy hadn't pegged this Aqua-tier goddess for mistaking her own bull's mana.

"Stop shaking me, Ishtar. I don't have what you're after."

After a good jostling, Roy broke free, patted her shoulder, and raised a hand to calm her.

"Huh? No way! Don't lie! Sneaky human, that mana level you're packing—it's gotta be…"

Ishtar wasn't fazed that Roy knew her.

In her narcissistic world, every Mesopotamian knew her—the Venus-ruling, beauty-blessed jewel of the gods. It'd be weirder if they didn't.

"Hand it over, human! Or I'll…"

Shaking Roy harder, her voice rose, but his unflinching stance stoked her impatience.

Ishtar never doubted herself—she just assumed Roy was hiding her treasure, refusing to cough it up.

"A mere human dares touch a god's prize? Such insolence—I'll punish…"

"Punish, my foot."

As Ishtar's agitation peaked, golden eyes flaring, Roy—tugged like a ragdoll—rapped her head lightly.

Before she could strike, he unleashed his own mana, forcing her back a few steps.

"Cool it, Ishtar. Let me finish—I didn't take your treasure."

"?"

The sheer scale of Roy's mana stunned Ishtar. She gawked at the overwhelming force, blurting, "Are you even human?"

"Human, yeah—just a special one. And I really didn't take your stuff."

"I see—so that's how you swiped my treasure. Not bad, human."

Predictably, Ishtar's Rin-inherited knack for dropping the ball kicked in, glossing over Roy's crucial denial.

"…Are you selectively deaf? Ignoring the important parts?"

Roy, exasperated, couldn't help but snap, "What are you, some Aqua knockoff?!"

"Aqua? What's that?"

Ishtar tilted her head, clueless.

"Haha, Aqua means 'idiot,' you know~" Merlin, the otaku who'd binged anime in Avalon, chipped in helpfully.

"Idiot? You dare insult me?! Human! Besides that damn Goldie, you're the first to trash-talk me to my face!!"

Clearly not the sharpest tool, Ishtar flared up, waving a hand. Maanna, her heavenly bow, swooped down from the sky, hovering beside her.

___

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