07 - [Skill Issues]
"Checkmate."
Abel frowned as he gazed down at the the chess board before him.
On his side, were the black pieces, now few in number as most of his soldiers had been devoured by the enemy side.
"This is the 4th time you've lost, are you still so persistent, black dog?" Gilgamesh smirked as he crossed his arms and leaned back against his comfortable golden chair, the man was so extravagant that Abel was sure only gold and Enkidu has ever been graced by his Divine ass cheeks.
"I don't get it, I literally invented this game, how are you better than me!?" Abel shouted as he slammed his cup of wine on the table, shaking it a little as he furrowed his brows in frustration.
"I believe the mongrels of this age call it a...skill issue." Gilgamesh said with a smug smile on that inhumanly handsome face of his, which had completely recovered from Abel's previous beating, courtesy of a healing-type Noble Phantasm he had inside his Treasury.
Although his face had recovered, the King had utterly ignored the notion of healing the rest of his body as his armour was now visibly cracked and stained with Divine blood, let alone the sorry state of his internals.
"Skill issue, my cock! I know you're cheating, it must be that damned Clairvoyance of yours!" Abel viciously accused as he downed his cup of wine. It was Osmanthus Wine, the most delicious type of wine found in the Age of Gods.
Of course, not that Abel would actually know the taste.
Every liquid just tasted like water to him, except for blood, which tasted like stronger water.
"You think of me as such a cheat?" Gilgamesh said with a fake offended look as he gazed at the cup of wine being wasted down his friend's throat.
He smirked.
That wasn't Osmanthus Wine, it was just the coloured piss of an Age of Gods donkey, not that Abel would be able to tell as he wouldn't use his Mystic Eyes on such a trivial thing.
Gilgamesh felt truly lucky today, he hadn't had such entertainment in a long while, so he might as well take advantage.
"Cheat? I'll tell you who's a cheat!" Abel responded with a devious smirk as he threw away the golden chalice filled donkey piss, the cup instantly vanishing into golden particles as Gilgamesh retrived it back into his Treasury.
Gilgamesh frowned at that statement, it usually never ended good for all parties involved when the marked man acted like this—
"Your mother, I slept with her, more than once." Were Abel's brief words, a silly smile dancing on his lips as if he was one Santa's innocent Elves.
The King paused.
"...Which...which one...?" He didn't deny the validity of Abel's statement.
Saber was very fond of telling the truth, much to the dismay of literally everyone else.
"Which one? What are you talking about? You only have one..." Abel stated confused.
"Ah, so it's my Mother Goddess." Gilgamesh sighed with genuine relief as he leaned back, "Well, if its her, then I don't care even if she lays with a dog..." He muttered passingly.
"But that wouldn't that make you a half-breed mongrel? Hm, you already are one, you know." Abel said, intending to provoke the King of Heroes.
"Mongrel? Hah! Hahahaha!" Gilgamesh laughed wildly at that statement.
"I'd rather be called a mongrel then be an actual dog." He responded with a snort.
"But...mongrels are dogs..." Abel replied, a deadpan expression on his face as he looked down again at the chessboard.
"Indeed, but that's not the case if its me." Gilgamesh concluded as if that wasn't even a question.
"Fair enough." Abel shrugged, scratching his back as he did so.
-CLANG
He then calmy pulled out a sword that had been sticking out his upper back, the blade crashing against the platform as he returned his gaze back to the chess board.
"Another game...?" He asked, scratching his chin with the one hand he still had, the other one having been dismantled by one of Gil's Phantasms.
"Of course." The King replied as he snapped his broken fingers back to place and resumed their game.
The Chains of Heaven tighetened across every portion of Abel's body as he moved a knight from its position, the horse-shaped piece acting as the vanguard.
He wasn't Divine, so the conceptual weight of the Chains remained mortal, and with his Strength, Abel could easily just yank it of with little effort.
But he didn't want to, these Chains felt a bit sentimental to him as it reminded the marked man of a long dead friend...
Not that he could actually feel anything close to 'sentiments' anymore. Abel suppossed, he just wanted to be a little human sometimes and Enkidu reminded him of that fact.
"Why does your Master have children locked up down his basement?" Abel asked, his head tilted to side, "It reminds me a bit of Saint Jeanne's time where they regularly did that, but it doesn't seem to be popular in this age." He smirked as he moved another piece.
Gilgamesh shrugged, "It's unnecessary." He said, moving a piece with a frown.
"I can persist even without such meaningless sacrifices, but it does allow me to use my most valuable treasures." He said, before pausing and looking around.
Yeah, considering the thousands of shattered swords, spears, and axes that littered the surroundings, most of that energy was already depleted.
"Its disgusting to my eyes, but I don't need to look." The King uttered. "On the other hand, that mongrel, Kirei Kotomine is one of your kind." He said, gazing into Abel's silver eyes.
"What do you mean? He's clearly human." Abel responded somewhat confused.
"I didn't mean it that way," Gil said as he waved a hand. "My Summoner is much like you, a wild dog that can only feel joy when inflicting suffering." The King stated.
"Although, unlike you, the mongrel doesn't seem to miss being human since his mind had always been deviant." Gilgamesh said as he looked down at the board, "You can't judge humans for their inborn flaws as that is what makes them human, is that not one of your teaching?"
Abel had a foul expression as he heard that.
"Please, don't ever remind me of my preaching days..." He said, cringing heavily like a Millenial exposed for their emo-goth phase.
He had once tried to emulate the Saviour, proclaiming himself the Prince of this World's Future...
Of course, such things never end good. Luckily for Abel, he never needed to be hung up in a cross unlike that man.
"You won." Gilgamesh suddenly said as the enemy chess pieces were perfectly aligned to checkmate his king in 5 different manners. "What changed?" He asked with raised eyebrows.
"I had help." Abel said with a silly little grin.
"Help? From Daemons?" Gilgamesh furrowed his eyebrows as he said those words.
"No, from your mother." Abel said with a deadpan, "Course, its them! Who else, dumb-ass?"
"I thought you brought your dogs to live in that realm with you." Gilgamesh asked curiously, "Could they not advice?"
"Do you think they can?" Came a response.
"No." The King said, amused.
"Exactly, all they can do is bark and fuck. Even the pretty one is no use against your divinely fortunate ass." Abel said with some frustration as his cape seem to rustle at the statement, offended by its own master's words.
The pair of looked down at the chess board once more.
"I'm getting bored, this shit's only fun when I'm losing." Abel said as he got up from his stool as he gripped tightly upon the Chains of Heaven.
'Sorry, Enkidu. But you're not really Enkidu, anyway. You'd the same if a sword named Habil was stabbing you in the heart.' The Marked Man considered with a smile painted on his lips.
To those who do not possess Divinity, the Chains of Heaven were no different from a particularly strong modern age Mystic Code.
-CLANG-SHATTER!
Perhaps such a weapon made in his friend's image would have worked against Adam, the Reflection of the Divine, but against his mortal son?
A meagre thing in the powerful hands of an Edenite Prince who used to wrestle with Dragons to pass time in his childhood.
The metallic pieces of imitation Enkidu shattered easily upon the marked man's grip as the shrapnel rained down on the platform, shaking its floating foundations.
"Let us resume our battle then..." Gilgamesh smirked as he jumped down from his throne.
The initiation of phase 2 was evident as Gilgamesh decided to vanish his own armour back into the gates before taking out a pair of blade all to recognizable to the Saber.
"Tch, brat." Abel smirked with primal glee as he watched Gilgamesh blatantly cheating.
Well, he wasn't, but Abel sure felt he was. They had agreed to not use both of their respective world-ender swords, Azi Dahaka and Ea.
Suffice to say, Abel had completely forgotten that Gilgamesh possessed another set of weapons that could even challenge Ea's tyrannical reign.
Shoddy memory is a real danger when you have experienced as much bullshit as Abel has, perhaps only Cain could best him in being a dementia patient.
Those two golden blades, together they mad up a bow, Abel knew.
The Bow the triggered the great flood, could it be? Of course, it was.
The Sword of the End, Enki!
"Huzzah!" Abel shouted, "An Archer wielding a bow, Actually Satan would be nonplussed!" Although he said those words, Enki was actually still in dual-blade form.
"Enough of your ramblings, old hound!" Gilgamesh shouted as a few strands of golden locks covered his forehead, the King's hair losing their mystical hairspray as they went down.
Good for him, the guy looks better that way.
"You have taken the immortality beset to you for granted! The same immortality I spent all of being to search for, only to lose to a witless seprent." Gilgamesh said with conviction, although he didn't look actually mad.
"Sounds like what you described to me earlier, really...what was it again? Ah, yes, skill issue." Was Abel's calm response.
"For this crime against the one true King, you will know what it means to gaze at death, old man!" A wild grin was etched into the King's facial features.
"...Nah, death is a hot girl, brat. I'd have courted life instead if it looked anything like your ass—" A weave.
Weave, weave, shit, that hit! Weave, weave.
Even the Wyald and thd Wyrm would be impressed at Abel's current weaving game as he left even the Weaver in the dust, dodging every strike from Gilgamesh.
Not with speed, mind you, Abel's speed was faster than Gil's, but no to the point where he could easily pull off a stunt like this.
No, it was his flawless dodging technique.
Now that Gilgamesh would't hold back, Abel didn't hesitate to stop pretending to be weak and stupid, finally utilizing his tens of thousands of years of pointless combat experience.
Again, only Cain could compare. Ashwatthama is young, Scathach even younger.
That's not mentioning ths goddamned Kaleidoscope Vampire—Abel really needed to start destroying those annoying agh bloodsuckers, they're really shitting on his and Cain's legacy, it's crazy.
Until then...
Abel smiled as he pulled out a black blade from his cape, a genuine smile that almost looked human.
Its time to destroy this kid's future and past, Saber wondered if he should start by messing up his face again or shoving a halbeard up his cheeks.
Both seem like good options right now.
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A/N: Sorry for late post, had exams and shit, final tests too, lmao.