After leaving that defiant declaration of challenge behind, Li Xiang completely vanished from the scarred and battered district.
For him, the Holy Grail War had only just raised its curtains, and the true climax was still a long way off.
Since this was a grand banquet, he naturally intended to savor every single dish flavored with the thrill of “battle.”
Indeed, Li Xiang was just that sort of pure individual.
He viewed fighting against the strong as a thoroughly delightful experience, akin to enjoying a world-class gourmet meal.
In his eyes, the intense exchange of firepower with Gilgamesh just now could only be considered a savory “appetizer.”
The purpose of an appetizer was to thoroughly awaken the taste buds and arouse one’s hunger for combat.
The other encounters awaiting him later in this Holy Grail War were the actual main courses—the much more substantial and delicious feasts he had been looking forward to.
As for the assassins hiding in the dark who loved playing cheap tricks, or those magi harboring sinister designs, they were merely the equivalent of post-meal desserts to him, just right for cleansing the palate.
“I’m really looking forward to it—fighting them.”
Li Xiang flipped through a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills in his hand, his tone overflowing with amusement.
This was modern currency he had just obtained by taking a small gold coin from the Gate of Babylon and exchanging it at an early-opening underground pawnshop on the outskirts of the city.
By this time, Li Xiang had already deactivated the “Gilgamesh” state that clad him in heavy Uruk battle armor and twin greatswords, returning to the original appearance he possessed before transmigrating.
If a pedestrian were to pass by right now, or if another magus were observing him through a familiar, they would find it absolutely impossible to connect this young man to the warrior who had just suppressed the King of Heroes on the main thoroughfare.
The current Li Xiang was just an ordinary youth with short black hair.
Perhaps because he had died young from a terminal illness in his past life, his current face inevitably retained some traces of that time.
His complexion looked slightly pale and exhausted, and his build wasn’t as robust and imposing as it was when he wore the armor; instead, he looked somewhat frail.
A light breeze rustled his slightly messy black hair.
Paired with his eyes, which always carried a faint, ambiguous smile, he looked entirely like a melancholy and quiet poet.
However, this was merely a superficial disguise.
The massive spiritual foundation and power brought by Gilgamesh’s Personality had not diminished in the slightest.
That breaking-the-scale tier of magical energy, his connection to the Gate of Babylon, and the combat instincts honed through countless life-and-death struggles remained perfectly sealed within him.
With a single thought, he could transform back into that all-shattering god of war within a tenth of a second.
Furthermore, besides this power, he had another, warmer force that brought him immense peace of mind, watching over him.
As Li Xiang strolled leisurely along the stone path of a park, a faint ripple suddenly stirred in the depths of his mind.
Immediately after, a familiar female voice—carrying a slightly chilly aura, yet dripping with deep, genuine concern—rang directly in his consciousness.
『Honestly…
you absolute idiot, you went reckless again just now, didn’t you?!』
The voice sounded as though it belonged to someone long accustomed to a high and mighty position of authority, but right now, it carried the exact tone of a wife nagging her husband:
『I felt it all!
You actually called upon the deathly aura of the Underworld in the mortal realm without any restraint!
Even though you have my blessing and won’t be eroded by it, you’re still exactly the same as you were back in Uruk!
Once a fight gets to your head, you just love smashing and hacking everywhere!
Making such a huge racket in the middle of the night is incredibly terrifying, okay!
What if you ended up hurting yourself?』
Listening to the rapid-fire scolding in his head, Li Xiang didn’t find it irritating at all; instead, his heart felt incredibly warm.
He could almost see the blonde girl in her black gown sitting in her cold underground temple, her face flushing red as she stomped her feet, anxiously observing his status through some divine authority.
“Alright, alright, I get it, Eresh.
I’ll definitely be careful next time.”
Standing in the morning light, Li Xiang raised his hand and scratched the back of his head with some embarrassment, laughing heartily.
But obviously, the subtext written all over his tone was: I know I was wrong, but I’ll do it again next time.
This was one of his unique privileges.
Because he had crossed the boundary of life and death, wedded the Mistress of the Underworld, and engraved an absolute bond into the very depths of his soul, he could bypass the restrictions of space to communicate with his wife through his thoughts at any moment.
And speaking of the origin of all this, he still had to thank the system ability he obtained when he first transmigrated.
“Thinking back, that was truly a magnificent story…”
Li Xiang walked over to a park bench and sat down, looking up at the sky which was as clear as a fresh wash.
His thoughts gradually drifted back to a day ago—to the thrilling memories of when he had just arrived in this world.
One day ago.
The wilderness on the outskirts of Snowfield City.
Having just woken up in this unfamiliar world, Li Xiang’s brain was still digesting a massive influx of information regarding the “Nasuverse,” the “Holy Grail War,” and the “System Activation.” Resting quietly right by his foot was the golden key discarded by the original Gilgamesh—the Key of the King’s Law.
“So, as long as I make contact with this item and extract the possibilities contained within it, I can obtain the power to change the status quo and do what I want to do, right?”
Li Xiang had directed this question to the system in his mind.
After receiving the system’s mechanical but affirmative reply, he didn’t hesitate for a second.
He bent down, gripped the golden key tightly in his palm, and silently chanted the command to initiate the Personality Extraction.
Accompanied by a blinding flash of light brilliant enough to obscure one’s vision, the system’s notification tone boomed deep within his consciousness, announcing that he had successfully obtained Gilgamesh’s Personality.
However, the system immediately followed up with strict, limiting conditions.
The Personality initially obtained was merely an empty shell.
He could only utilize its basic strength; the truly powerful authorities and Noble Phantasms remained locked.
To fully claim this power as his own, he had to actively detach his consciousness, plunge into that illusory space-time, and personally experience the story corresponding to that Personality.
『Warning: While the Personality Simulation takes only an instant in the flow of time in the mortal realm, it lasts for an incredibly long duration within the consciousness space.
If the Host’s willpower fails to endure the hardships of the plot during the simulation, or if the Host loses his sense of self under the washing of conceptual data, the Host’s soul will be completely assimilated by the possibility projected by the Personality.
You will cease to be Li Xiang, and will instead become a genuine Gilgamesh from one of the infinite parallel worlds.』
This was an absolute gamble of life and death.
The stakes were his independent will, which he had only just managed to regain through rebirth.
Yet, faced with such a terrifying warning, Li Xiang, standing in the wilderness, merely let out a light chuckle.
“Come on, I’m someone who has already genuinely died once.”
In his past life, he had spent countless days and nights confined to a hospital bed.
Though his life was short, he had experienced all the beautiful things he could, passing away without a shred of resentment.
For someone who had already stared into the abyss of death and accepted it with a smile, what challenge was there left to fear?
Since he had already died once anyway, the worst-case scenario was simply dying again, or turning into someone else.
What did it matter?
“Bring it on, System!
Let me experience it!”
Li Xiang made his choice without a single shred of hesitation.
The moment he confirmed it, the surrounding wilderness, the night sky, and the cold wind of Snowfield City instantly collapsed into countless shimmering data streams and golden light particles.
Li Xiang felt his consciousness being violently dragged by an irresistible, massive vortex, plunging into a place completely different from reality.
He didn’t know how much time had passed—perhaps thousands of years, or perhaps merely a single split second.
When Li Xiang finally regained awareness and slowly opened his eyes, he found that the surrounding scenery had shifted from a barren wilderness cave to a setting filled with massive stone pillars in the ancient Babylonian style, walls covered in cuneiform script, and exquisitely beautiful golden drapes.
He looked down and saw a pair of hands belonging to a young child.
Right now, he was the heir to the throne of ancient Uruk, the perfect crystallization of two-thirds god and one-third human—the child Gilgamesh.