Rewinding time slightly to about ten-odd minutes prior.
To a transmigrator without any local intelligence network, tracking down a rogue magus running amok within a city as massive as Snowfield would normally seem like an impossible challenge.
However, while Li Xiang’s impression of the name Flat Escardos was confined strictly to the novels and manga he had read in his past life, it didn’t hinder him from solving this little predicament with absolute ease.
The explanation was simple: his exploits as Gilgamesh had taken him to countless locations, and the sheer volume of treasures he had amassed was staggering.
It was so vast that even Li Xiang himself couldn’t keep track of how many bizarre, logic-defying trinkets were tucked away behind those golden ripples.
Just moments ago, he had merely issued a search command to the Gate of Babylon.
Following a momentary flicker of golden light, a tracker capable of locking onto the wavelengths of biological entities dropped into his palm.
Drawing from his memories, Li Xiang sketched out Flat’s blonde hair and innocent, carefree face in his mind, then cross-referenced it with the leyline fluctuations of Snowfield.
The Noble Phantasm immediately doxxed the location of the Clock Tower’s prodigy on the spot.
And that was how this encounter in the quiet alleyway came to be.
The watch resting on Flat’s wrist was currently erupting with a high-pitched hum, its hands pointed rigidly at Li Xiang.
Yet, in the face of this hostile alarm, Li Xiang remained exceptionally relaxed.
Keeping his hands slid casually into his pockets, he strolled right up to Flat with a leisurely stride, a harmless smile plastered across his face.
“Relax, I bear no ill will toward you two.”
Li Xiang came to a halt, his casual tone resembling a neighbor offering a greeting on the street.
“If I truly wanted to, that lance of mine would have pinned both of you to the wall before either of you could even process what was happening.”
It wasn’t an empty boast.
Jack could clearly sense that even though the black-haired youth before them had completely suppressed his magical energy, the faint, passive pressure radiating off him carried the undeniable capability to instantly slaughter them both.
“Come on, Jack, don’t be so overly paranoid.”
To Jack’s surprise, Flat displayed absolutely no wariness whatsoever despite facing such a hazardous entity.
He extended a finger to gently soothe the vibrating watch, his clear green eyes shimmering with a different kind of spark.
“Because he’s speaking the absolute truth.
My intuition tells me he doesn’t have a single bad intention toward us.”
After spectating last night’s apocalyptic battle, being able to stand on the street and hold a casual conversation with one of the combatants was, to Flat, an incredibly satisfying and novel experience.
Nevertheless, his brilliantly sharp mind was still filled with questions.
“But why did you specifically come out to find me, mister?
Have we met somewhere before?”
Li Xiang looked at the pure, borderline-clueless teenager before him, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward.
“Why?
Because your survival happens to dictate the preservation of all humanity—and honestly, the continuation of this entire planet.”
Li Xiang delivered a terrifying reality in a half-joking manner.
But because his expression didn’t look like a lie in the slightest, the sheer contrast completely bewildered Flat, who could only tilt his head and emit a confused, “Huh?”
“There’s nothing to ‘huh’ about.
I’m just here to prevent some brainless idiot from assassination attempts for some incomprehensible agenda, which would unleash a catastrophe that even I would find a massive headache to clean up.”
As Li Xiang spoke, he was aggressively roasting the mastermind in his head.
The brainless idiot he was referring to was naturally none other than Faldeus, one of the puppet masters behind this False Holy Grail War.
The mere thought of Faldeus’s actions in the original timeline struck Li Xiang as completely farcical.
The man kept preaching about degrading the Third Magic into a widely distributable magecraft for the sake of maintaining America’s stability and dominance.
But what did he actually end up achieving?
Look at his temporary ally, the ancient hag Francesca.
Though Miss Francesca constantly spoke of causing chaos, she hadn’t actually triggered any irreversible, cataclysmic disasters so far in this Holy Grail War.
In contrast, consider our self-proclaimed rational gentleman, Mr.
Faldeus.
He had started off by sending operatives to assassinate Heracles’s Master—the mafia boss—with the intent of forcing the Servant out of the war.
He completely failed to anticipate that the Master genuinely loved and respected his boss.
This blunder sent the Master into an absolute frenzy, swearing to unleash an apocalyptic script to exact vengeance on society.
But even that wasn’t the peak of his absurdity.
Later in the narrative, just as the Pale Rider incident was barely being contained with great effort, Mr.
Faldeus had a sudden stroke of genius and brainlessly ordered a sniper to assassinate Flat on the spot.
He had absolutely no inkling of what a terrifying taboo a seemingly eccentric youth like Flat truly was.
Flat’s death immediately shattered the seal on the monstrosity lurking inside him known as “Thia.” That was a New Primate!
An existence that instantly dragged the scale of the Holy Grail War into a hyper-gravity tier that threatened the entire biosphere of the planet.
Simply because of his self-righteous sniper shot, Enkidu ultimately had to step in to wipe his mess for him.
One could only say that a villain’s meticulously calculated schemes can’t even hold a candle to the sheer scale of disaster triggered by a fool’s sudden impulse.
To prevent such a clichéd and irritating plotline from unfolding—and to guarantee that Thia, a ticking time bomb capable of leveling the American continent, wouldn’t pop out to interrupt his upcoming dining experience—Li Xiang decided he absolutely had to give this boy a layer of insurance.
“Take it, consider it a meeting gift.”
Li Xiang gently tapped the charm radiating a gentle magical pulse against Flat’s chest.
A flash of golden light sparked and vanished instantly as the charm dissolved into an invisible magical circuit, integrating directly into Flat’s body.
This was a divine protection that granted Protection from Arrows alongside a decent modification to his Luck parameter.
With this buff active, Flat was essentially wearing an absolute bulletproof vest.
It was practically impossible for him to randomly get his head blown off by a sniper bullet flying out from the shadows anymore.
And in the absence of such a physical, instantaneous fatal strike, Flat naturally wouldn’t trigger a bodily death, thereby keeping Thia—the entity capable of inciting global panic—safely locked away.
The crisis was thus quietly neutralized before it could even manifest.
Following his friendly interaction with this golden older brother, Flat walked away fully satisfied, having gained a precious friendship.
Meanwhile, Ereshkigal, who had witnessed the entire sequence through their spiritual bond, wore a warm yet helpless smile.
“Goodness…
despite claiming you find it troublesome and just want to hurry up and enjoy the thrill of battle, you still can’t bear to see others suffer.
You just can’t help making friends and looking after people, can you?”
The Goddess of Death sighed softly.
She knew her husband inside out.
No matter how immense his power grew, Gilgamesh’s core appreciation for purity and kindness would never change.
That was precisely why she loved him so deeply.
Back on the physical streets, just as Li Xiang waved his hand to bid Flat farewell, his movements suddenly locked.
Li Xiang slowly raised his head, casting his gaze toward the distant skyline of Snowfield.
Over there, a blinding torrent of dark-red energy suddenly ignited across the sky.
Like a blade ripping through the celestial canopy, it tore forward with a piercing shriek, launching a lethal sniper strike toward a target far in the distance.
That was an attack belonging to the True Archer—Alcides, the hero who had discarded his divinity and plunged into the abyss of vengeance.
Staring at that dark-red beam slicing through the night sky, the gentle, friendly smile on Li Xiang’s face vanished without a trace.
In its place emerged an expression of raw, fanatical exhilaration.
The beacon of war had been officially lit.
“It seems the prey has leaped out on its own without requiring me to hunt for it.”
Li Xiang took his first step toward the trajectory of that crimson torrent, his tone laced with an impatient madness:
“Well then,”
“Time to dig in!”