Gil-kun and the Betrayal

"What do you think you're doing, moron? Why are you seeking to harm me?"

"I don't want to hurt you, Goldie. That's why I need you to go away from here. Go away, and I won't have to hurt you."

"You idiot, were you scheming this since the beginning, to aid this mongrel?"

"NO! No, I never would stab you in the back... you don't understand... I... I have to obey my mother... she told me to get rid of you... but... but I managed to persuade her to let you go unharmed. So please... just go... we'll part our ways here... both OK and happy... and everything will be fine, no?"

"You think this is what we should do?"

"Yes, please... it's what we must do... please..."

She pleged as her eyes started getting teary.

"Red Emperor, over the period of the past days, you have often clashed with me and my ideals and I have, for better or worse, conceded you many privileges that in normal times I would never grant my most loyal servant. So if you think you can go your own way before repaying every single debt you own me... you are dead wrong, Red Empereror."

"No, Goldie... save yourself... please... just go..."

Nero kept begging, when a new voice appeared.

"Do you have things under control, Nero? You're not hesitating, my son, are you? They are refusing to leave, right?"

A woman stood next to Cortés with a dreadful grin on her face. Nero turned towards her with a slight tremor in her arms.

"N-No, Mother, I'm not hesitating... he was just about to leave..."

"That's false, I have no intention of leaving this place."

"S-Shut it, Goldie! Just go away!"

"You see, my son? He just wants to stay here to harm you, to harm your mother, to harm everything you hold dear. So what's it going to be, Nero?"

Agrippina taunted her own offspring. Gilgamesh could now see tears running freely from Nero's cheeks as she turned towards him once again.

"I'm truly sorry, Goldie."

"Wait, you f-"

Gilgamesh tried to say, but he had to dodge a swing from Nero's sword. He distanced himself from her as the golden soldiers began another charge, while the archers released a new barrage of arrows. He contrasted these attempts with his Gate of Babylon, but before he could divert his attention to the couple standing atop of the temple, he was forced to dodge another attack from Nero, whose blade then started glowing from a surge of mana that she unleashed, missing him by a margin and cutting up a platoon of robots.

"You fool! You think doing this will help you?"

"You don't understand... without Mother... I'm nothing..."

Nero mumbled as her tears were now approaching her chin and swelling her whole face. A powerful force seemed to descend from the sky. It was the giant who had joined in the attack against the King of Heroes.

Gilgamesh evaded the powerful strike, and summoned a sword in his hand. He then placed it with the tip facing the ground and, as the army of El Dorado seeked a direct confrontation once more, he stabbed the earth itself, and the soldiers who came near him were immediately bisected. He then unleashed a powerful flurry of Noble Phantasms in all directions, before enemy forces could attack him again.

He moved his focus back on Nero, who was advancing towards him quickly, though admittedly not at her full speed, as he sent a long spear to meet the tip of her sword, throwing it off balance. He then personally launched a couple of long-ranged weapons, who hit Nero's shoulder and the ground near her with their handles. However, this was not enough to stop her, and Gilgamesh was forced to stop her attack with his own hands, wielding a high-ranking axe.

And so their confrontation continued, as he danced through the fine line of always preventing to be swarmed and overwhelmed by attacking first, and used the Gate of Babylon to limit Nero's movements and making her attack patterns predictable, even though she had started adapting to his fighting style through her Imperial Privilege.

"Why? Although she's getting better at dodging, I can still predict where and when she's going to strike. Furthermore, I chose this weapon precisely because it outranges her own. So why, why can't I injure her in any way? Why am I incapable of hurting her? Could it be perhaps... that this is a limit... imposed by my unconscious desire... of not wanting to harm her?"

He pondered for a second, however, the battle required all of his attention, so he tried working around whatever was stopping him from winning like he had always done. At one point, since they both were in a state of unsureness due to another swing from the giant's sword, he found himself with the opportunity to land a clear blow on her, however, for some unknown reason he couldn't explain, he completely missed his target.

On the other hand, he could tell that Nero's swing were also somewhat sloppy, though he wasn't sure if that was on purpose or merely an effect of her eyes being completely overrun by her tears.

"What... is... this? This... burning feeling... ravaging my heart... this desire to seek violence, to witness distruction... to obtain revenge... but not towards her... but towards those... who forced her into this state... why should I care? Why does my soul ache so much at this sight? Why do my muscles tense up with such force when I think of those people who are watching us from above?"

"The plan seems to be working fine."

"Yeah, I knew that good-for-nothing wouldn't be able to go all the way, but now we have the King of Heroes in a vulnerable position."

"Indeed, that's all we needed. In that sense, your offspring is proving herself a most useful tool, even distracting that guy mentally. Now, answer me: have you done as I told you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

"Ah yes, of course. I laced all the weapons of my troops with poison created by me, my most powerful. If he gets hit, he's going to feel it."

"Good, very good, then I think it's time to use it."

"Are you already going to use your last resort?"

"RIght now, it's a stalemate. If I play this card right, we can be in the lead, and then win the war of attrition. All I need, is the perfect moment to strike..."

There were three main reasons why Hernan Cortés was able to conquer the Aztec Empire. Firstly, the help from other local populations. Secondly, the might and advancement of his troops.

And finally... the diseases they brought to the New World.

SARAMPION DESTRUCTOR

Although Gilgamesh knew of the workings of the original Noble Phantasm, the conditions and the application of this ability where altered when Cortés had acquired control over the city of El Dorado. He could impart it on everything that had stayed in his territory for too long, he had just been waiting for the perfect time. And the perfect time had just arrived.

Suddenly, a flat red rash appeared all over Gilgamesh's body, his breathing worsened immediately, his temperature skyrocketed and he felt the unstoppable need to throw up. He bent down with his upper body, vomiting a good volume of blood with such force that even some blood vessels in his eyes ruptured.

As luck would have it, this sudden unexpected event happened right when Nero was swinging her sword enhanced with Mana Burst towards him, hitting him fair and square in the abdominal area, which was thankfully covered by his armour which broke down, allowing the blade to at least partially cut him and fracturing a couple of his ribs from the impact.

Additionally, one of the many arrows shot during those moments lodged in his shoulder, near the base of his neck. The sharp pain of the arrow entering his flesh was quickly followed by an even greater pain as some kind of poison spread through his all body, as he could feel his veins pulsating in excruciating agony and his muscles getting immobilised, blood running down his nose and mouth. 

The giant soldier saw an opportunity and unleashed his own blow which, even though it did not make direct contact with the King due to him already being knocked back by Nero's attack, it was still powerful enough to blast him even further away with its shockwave.

"Goldie... no... stop... please... stop... Gil... no more... stop..."

Nero whispered these words over and over as the sight of her injured friend broke her down even more, so much so that her legs trembled, seemingly ready to give out.

"Please... stop this... Gilgamesh... please..."

She looked at him once more, directly in the eyes.

Three separate armies, the combined might of three, no, five Heroic Spirits, days of spying, a studied betrayal, a giant, the most wicked of diseases and the most powerful of poisons, and this pathetic and dreadful sight.

This was everything that it took...

for the King of Heroes to become serious.