The battle raged for a long time, and the once-prosperous district had now been entirely reduced to a cratered, uneven expanse of scorched earth.
Instead of being pushed back by the Noble Phantasms, Li Xiang relied on his extraordinary physical conditioning and peerless martial artistry to forcefully carve a path straight through Gilgamesh’s dense, overlapping net of firepower.
With a heavy, dull thud, Li Xiang stepped hard onto the hood of the elongated luxury limousine, which was already riddled with holes.
At that exact microsecond, the lance in his hand—radiating a bone-chilling aura of death—tore through the sound barrier at terrifying speed, thrusting straight toward Gilgamesh, who stood atop the car roof.
It was unavoidable and inescapable.
Faced with this sudden, explosive assault, Gilgamesh was forced to draw a broad battleaxe from the golden ripples behind him, desperately bringing it up to block Li Xiang’s momentum-heavy strike.
The moment the weapons clashed, a terrifying, circular shockwave blasted outward with the two of them at the epicenter.
A wave of agonizing pain surged through Gilgamesh’s arms as if his very bones were being shattered, forcing him to leap down from his high perch atop the car.
He slid backward across the pavement for several meters before barely managing to stabilize his stance.
To be forcefully knocked down from high above into the dirt, forcing an arrogant king to stand on equal footing and look across at his opponent…
this near-humiliating turn of events triggered a torrent of unprecedented fury within Gilgamesh.
“You damned wild monkey, do not push your luck!” Gilgamesh roared through gritted teeth.
He casually tossed aside the battleaxe, which had already become pitted and corroded by the Underworld’s deathly energy, and drew a pair of scimitars from the Gate of Babylon, slashing forward to meet the rushing Li Xiang.
Over the course of the next dozens of rounds of high-speed melee exchanges, Gilgamesh came to recognize a stark reality: the man before him was a terrifying warrior.
Li Xiang’s martial foundation was exceptionally profound.
He genuinely loved the act of fighting, and in the heat of a life-and-death clash, he could perfectly immerse his mind and body into the sheer ecstasy of dancing on a razor’s edge.
Even if one set aside the Gate of Babylon and that death-infused lance, Li Xiang’s prowess based strictly on physical conditioning and close-quarters technique placed him comfortably above the vast majority of first-rate Heroic Spirits.
He was an incomparably formidable opponent.
Yet, just as Gilgamesh prepared to unleash one of his true trump cards, Li Xiang, who had been maintaining a fierce offensive, suddenly executed an anomalous maneuver.
With a deft flick of his wrist, Li Xiang twirled his lance into a beautiful arc in mid-air.
Utilizing the counter-force of the movement, he leapt backward, actively opening up a wide distance between them.
Then, under the vigilant glares of Gilgamesh and Tine, Li Xiang flipped his wrist again.
The dark-crimson lance dissolved into golden spiritual particles, returning to the void of his treasury.
He was stopping?
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes slightly, his grip on the twin scimitars remaining perfectly taut.
He stared coldly at the man, attempting to see through whatever scheme he was concocting.
“Whoa, don’t look at me like that.” Li Xiang pointed toward the distant skyline, his tone as relaxed as if he had just finished a casual morning jog.
“Time’s just about up.
The sun is rising.”
Gilgamesh glanced in the direction of his finger.
Sure enough, without either of them realizing it, a pale, faint sliver of dawn was slowly bleeding into the horizon, carrying a hint of morning warmth.
“According to the secrecy protocols of the Holy Grail War, large-scale magical combat isn’t permitted during the day, right?” Li Xiang patted the dust off his armor, presenting his reason for a ceasefire with absolute conviction.
“I don’t personally care all that much, but dropping meteors on the road in broad daylight and disrupting ordinary people trying to eat their breakfast?
Now that would be lacking in class.”
Hearing this rationale for halting the battle, Gilgamesh’s mouth twitched violently.
What kind of nonsense was this?
Stopping a death match halfway through simply because “dawn broke and it might disrupt people’s breakfast”?
However, before Gilgamesh could voice his mockery, Li Xiang made another move that defied all comprehension.
Golden ripples shimmered once more behind Li Xiang’s back, but the items he withdrew this time were uniquely shaped ancient implements and gemstones that radiated a gentle, soothing luminescence.
Li Xiang casually tossed the artifacts into the air.
Accompanied by a soft wave of magical energy, the shattered asphalt road, the collapsed streetlamps, and the incinerated green belts actually began to repair and restructure themselves at a pace visible to the naked eye.
He was…
fixing the road?
Watching Li Xiang utilize Noble Phantasms to restore the surrounding environment, the sheer sense of absurdity in Gilgamesh’s eyes reached its absolute peak.
“What ridiculous idiocy are you performing?” Gilgamesh finally snapped, unable to contain himself.
He looked at Li Xiang as if looking at an utter fool, his voice freezing cold.
“To serve as a battlefield for a King is the ultimate honor for this land!
Are you actually harboring guilt over destroying a worthless street?
Do you honestly believe those peasants, scraping by like insects, will feel any gratitude for such pointless sentimentality?”
Faced with Gilgamesh’s interrogation, Li Xiang merely replied in a calm, soft voice:
“You’re right.
In terms of power and lifespan, the modern populace certainly doesn’t compare to you or me.” Li Xiang did not dispute Gilgamesh’s premise, but he drew a completely opposite conclusion.
“But precisely because of that, I don’t hold it against them.
I know that human strength is finite.”
“Because I am a King.
At least, during the span of time that belonged to me, I bore that title.
Therefore, I will protect them.
Not out of pity, and certainly not to seek their gratitude, but simply because…”
Li Xiang turned his head, his tone matter-of-fact:
“Does an adult need a special reason to protect a child?”
Upon hearing those words, Gilgamesh fell completely silent.
After a long pause, he shook his head with utter disdain.
“Foolish beyond measure.
It seems a vast, unbridgeable chasm truly exists between our perspectives.”
Though his words remained harsh, Gilgamesh did not initiate another attack.
He acknowledged the stranger’s strength, but he thoroughly rejected his ideology.
Since dawn had broken, there was indeed no further purpose in continuing this absurd initial clash.
However, just as Gilgamesh was about to step into the vehicle to depart, Li Xiang’s voice rang out again.
“Hey, catch!”
Gilgamesh instinctively turned around as the sound of something cutting through the air rushed toward him.
He snapped his hand out, firmly catching a golden object that had flown toward him in a neat arc.
Opening his palm to inspect the item, Gilgamesh’s pupils instantly constricted to the size of needle pins.
It was an ancient, exquisitely ornate golden key.
It was the very catalyst used to unlock his Gate of Babylon—the one he had carelessly thrown away the previous night out of sheer boredom with this Holy Grail War!
“Don’t go throwing your things around next time, other me.”
Li Xiang locked his hands behind his head.
He spoke with an air of complete casualness, as if he had merely picked up a stranger’s dropped wallet on the street and naturally handed it back to its rightful owner.
Staring at the Key of the King’s Law in his palm, a piercing, bone-chilling dread suddenly surged up from the base of Gilgamesh’s spine.
The man before him was another version of himself.
Since the stranger could present this key so casually, it meant he naturally possessed the administrative authority to utilize it.
If, during their intense melee exchange just moments ago, Li Xiang had suddenly used this key to forcibly lock down and revoke Gilgamesh’s access to his treasury…
Then the Gate of Babylon would have instantly gone dark.
Stripped of his overwhelming bombardment capability, and left to rely solely on a physical vessel lacking defensive Noble Phantasms against a lance-wielding warrior at the absolute peak of martial perfection…
The consequences would have been unthinkable.
Let alone fighting to a draw—it would have been a stroke of miraculous luck if Gilgamesh hadn’t been impaled through his spiritual core and completely erased on the spot.
This bastard was holding a literal account-deleting, instant-kill trump card from the very beginning?!
Immediately following the wave of lingering dread was a volcanic eruption of fury and profound humiliation.
“You arrogant mongrel…
You held an absolute advantage yet refused to use it!
Do you believe this King unworthy of your trump cards, or are you using this disgusting method to display pity?!”
Faced with Gilgamesh’s furious interrogation, Li Xiang shook his head without a shred of hesitation.
“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t pity you in the slightest.”
Li Xiang’s gaze became incredibly sharp and pure—the look of a true warrior, a seeker of the martial path who hungered for the ultimate battle.
“If I were hunting mindless magical beasts in the wilderness, I wouldn’t hesitate to use traps, poisons, or any underhanded advantage to put them down.”
“But on a pure battlefield like this, ending a fight by relying on cheap administrative tricks is just far too boring.”
Li Xiang bared his teeth, flashing a confident, sweeping smile.
“Rather than ending a match instantly with a key, I much prefer using blades and fists for a solid, bone-crushing, soul-stirring brawl.”
“Besides, the prey I came to challenge in this war isn’t just limited to you.”
Li Xiang tilted his head slightly, his eyes burning with boundless anticipation for what was to come:
“I fully intend to challenge our dearest friend as well.
Just think about it—if we can bring the two of you together on this twisted battlefield…
and I get to engage in a massive group brawl against both the ‘Wedge of Heaven’ and the ‘Chain of Heaven’ simultaneously?
What a magnificent development that would be!”
“Just the thought of it makes me shiver with excitement.
You should know exactly how incredible that would feel, right?
My other self.”