Chapter 78: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned~.

Not giving the dog time to fully pull himself from the rubble, I unleashed a vicious kick to his ribs, breaking them along with the sound barrier and sending him tumbling ass overhead for kilometres deep into the city. I cared not for the statue of secrecy these wanna-be mages had set up, but they would painfully learn that today.

Ignoring the flying sack of shit for now, I blitzed my way towards their archer. Not even bothering to bat away the few arrows, letting my bloodlust aura handle it, I arrived seconds later in front of him.

"Shit!" The man, Emiya, yelled as he quickly summoned twin daggers in an attempt to parry my vertical sword swing.

His eyes widened to a comical degree when my beloved Excalibur Morgan cut through them as if they were simply air. To his credit, however, he managed to back-peddle just enough so the tip of my sword only grazed his shirt.

He was, however, utterly unprepared for what I had in store for him next, "Bombarda Maxima!"

I pushed as much mana as I could into the spell, and the results did not disappoint. A colossal explosion roared out in front me of, the impact point being dead centre of Emiya's chest. What was left of the man was sent in various directions at impressive speeds.

Not willing to take any chances with him though, I teleported myself a short distance away from his flying head and cut it an innumerable number of times as it sailed past me.

I took a moment to enjoy the result of my previous spell and looked at what was left of the block around me. The explosion was so large, it took out nearly two streets worth of buildings.

Shaking off the small smile that threatened to form, I looked towards Barghest. This time, I let a smile form as I watched her beautiful swordplay as she pressured the little assassin servant, 'Jack the Ripper if I recall correctly.'

Stepping on the red stain that used to be Emiya, I cratered the ground as I rushed to help Barghest. Appearing next to them in less than a heartbeat, I felt my foot crush Jack's ribs into dust which was followed up by a sword thrust to her heart by Barghest. She was already turning into motes of white light when Barghest was withdrawing her sword.

Noticing her arched eyebrow at me, I gave her a sly smile and said, "What? Couples that slay together stay together."

She barked a laugh and shook her head at me, causing me to smile. Sadly, our little moment was interrupted by a familiar-sounding scoff.

As we turned to him, Gilgamesh said, "Two mongrels already gone. Good help has always been so hard to find. Well, mongrels are as mongrels do after all."

With a smirk, thousands and thousands of golden portals shimmered into existence around him and weapons of all kinds slowly poked out, "Well, no matter. I alone am enough to deal with you."

I simply returned the smirk while I pointed at him and said, "Took the words right out of my mouth, dog. CRUCIO."

Several red-black coloured streams of magic raced from my finger, remanence of several lightning strikes, and slammed into Gilgamesh's chest. The effect of the spell was instantaneous as all the golden portals vanished and the man fell to a single knee.

Veins spread around his neck as he tried to resist the pain, resist screaming out. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little impressed, but then again this WAS Gilgamesh. I wouldn't be surprised if his pride was more than enough to prevent a large portion of the spell. However impressive his resistance to it is though, it is not enough to prevent him from being disabled and effectively paralyzed.

I casually sashayed my way over to his kneeling form with a cruel smirk on my lips. As my form towered over him, I sneered and said, "How much effort is it taking to resist this one curse? This one single action of mine?"

I chuckled darkly as I raised my sword above and behind me, pointing it at his heart. Just as I was about to stab him my instincts flared and I turned to catch a mighty axe made of stone with a reinforced hand. The ground cratered deeply around me, the force of the attack pushing Gilgamesh away and causing me to lose focus just long enough to break the spell over him.

As I was going to taunt the foolish servant, my eyes widened when a painfully familiar sword struck my right side. Even though my aura easily stopped the attack, I was struck dumbfounded. I turned wide-eyed at the secondary attacker, and what I saw not only renewed my fury but amplified it to a height it's only been at once before.

Barghest had tried to stab me, but I was not paying any attention to that. What was all consuming, however, was the pure pain on her face, and the tears streaming down it.

Rivers of phantom blood rushed around me for kilometres, dying the air a deep red, rapidly corroding everything it touched, and killing every human submerged in my aura. Their hearts simply stopped from the pure primal fear they were feeling. If not for the limits placed on me, a large part of this planet would be a barren husk as a result.

Seeing her tears, seeing the pain at being forced to attack me with command seals. It created a rage in me that only someone hurting Tearwyn would be able to produce before meeting her.

Such was my anger and rage that even the berserker, Heracles, was forced down to his knees. The world around us bubbled and sizzled, slowly yet steadily, destroyed by my overflowing emotions. I had no control over my power anymore, no control over what I was feeling. Yet I didn't want control. No, what I wanted right now was to obliterate the cause of my love, My Barghest, to be in pain.

Despite my rage and fury, I gave a warm smile to Barghest and said, "I'll free you. Remember, I'll come for you. Wait for me, My Barghest."

Instead of answering, she shed more tears and raised her sword high to strike. I walked over to the kneeling Heracles and grabbed him by his large neck, lifting him. I ignored my aura flaring to life behind me to protect me from Barghest's slashes as I said, "You're coming with me. I have use for you."

I gave Barghest one more soft look of affection before we both vanished. We appeared outside of a castle, in what seemed to be a garden. Instantly, however, everything was subjected to my overflowing bloodlust and started to wither and melt. A little scream drew my eyes downward and onto the source. I frowned as Berserker burst into small white lights, signalling that the little girl in front of me had died from my aura alone, and was indeed Illyasviel.

My anger only raised when I realized because of the limiters I couldn't see her soul, and thus it was out of my grasp to torture. With pure unadulterated rage, I screamed, "EXCALIBUR!!!!!!!!" and plunged my sword into the ground.

For one singular second, it seemed as if the world held its breath in anticipation of what was about to happen as everything went silent around me. All colour drained for kilometres around me from the world, leaving it to look like a negative photograph.

There was no sound. No flashy explosion, no spectacular light show. Everything went from a negative photograph to simply... nothing. I alone was floating above a new, albeit empty, lake.

And yet my rage was unquelled and was still raging freely. I turned my head to where I felt Gilgamesh, and narrowed my eyes, 'He will have to do as a vent. I should ask Mother Lilith after this for that little bitches soul when I get back. No one gets off so easily after doing such an act. No one.'

Another teleport later, and I was in front of Gilgamesh swinging a devastating haymaker at his face. He only had time to widen his eyes before my fist connected, sending him flying once again. I did not let him fly for long, however, as I was already slamming my first into his chest and crushing him into the cement below.

I graced him with a cold stare as he groaned while pulling himself out of the remains of the road. My voice vibrated with the hate and rage I was overflowing with as I said, "The bitch died much too easy, and far too soon to calm my rage. How unfortunate for you, Gilgamesh, that you are so hardy. But I will gladly accept your tribute to quell my rage."

He finally stood up and casually spit out some blood as he asked, "And what exactly is my tribute, hmm?"

With a sneer, I answered, "Your life."

He barked a laugh as he rolled his neck, giving it a nice crack, before he said, "A mongrel version you may be, but you are still Artoria. Come then. Try and lay claim to the tribute you seek."

For my answer, I was already in front of him with a vicious kick flying towards his face. My eyes widened ever so slightly when I saw him smirk as he ducked under my attack, successively dodging it for the first time.

Following through from my failed kick, I spun around with a fist aimed at his heart. Again he surprised me as he countered with a fist of his own, as they connected the kinetic energy released ruptured the ground for several metres around us.

With a frown I tried again, but this time I teleported behind him first. Yet again, he not only was able to react but also counter. He grabbed my arm, flung me over himself and slammed me into the ground, deepening the crater even more.

He laughed mockingly as he leaned over me and said, "What? Is this not going to plan? My tribute is waiting patiently for you to claim it after all."

My retort died in my throat when I noticed small blue flecks in his eyes. With a raised eyebrow I thought, 'That's new. Those were not there before, and I've never seen something like that before...'

Gilgamesh smirked at me and said, "Cat got your tongue?"

I narrowed my eyes and said, "No, but I will cut yours out!"

I teleported out of the indent shaped like myself and appeared behind him swinging my sword at his neck. Yet again, however, he managed to dodge out of the way within a hairs breath.

With that self-same infuriating smirk on his lips, he taunted, "Oh, getting serious, are we? About time you stopped wasting mine. Come, let me teach you why this version of yourself is nothing but a mongrel when compared to the true you."

After his taunt, a single golden portal rippled to his left while a handle poked out of it. He reached with his right hand and pulled out his most powerful sword: Ea.

He flourished his sword a few times before he smiled at me and said, "Our dance has come to an end. The next time we meet Artoria, I hope it is your true self that stares defiantly back at me."

I simply sneered at him and replied, "How sad it is for you to fail to realize how large of a shadow my sword now casts, and that yours can only simply shiver in its cold embrace."

He returned the sneer and said, "Boast as much as you want, but even your sword is nothing but a shade of its true self. A trash weapon for a mongrel. Fitting."

He raised his weapon and began his chant, "Judgment is upon you.

Behold the crushing might of my Sword of Rupture. Behold Enuma Elish!!"

I wasted no time in following suit, "Peel back the veil of r̴e̸a̷l̶i̴t̶y̵. Close the curtain on e̵x̶i̸s̴t̸e̵n̸c̷e̴ and sink everything into N̴̨̨̛̼̲̝̪̟̘̈́̍̌̍͛̑͆͝Ù̵̢͎͉̩͎̤̫͕̠̠̊͝L̴̡͈̪͇̯̯̱̙̽̐̕̕͜L̴͕͐̐. Let c̷r̶e̷a̷t̸i̴o̸n̵ weep as it unravels before us. Ȇ̸̮x̵̡̎c̷̮̀ä̸̲́l̸̻͗i̴̩͗b̵̗̀u̸̜̐r̷͐͜ ̶̫͆M̴̗͋ȍ̴̠r̴͖̾ǵ̵͖ǎ̵̦n̴̮͠!"

[author] I will be the bastion on this day of fools, and provide real sustenance~! Hehe, hope you enjoyed the non-April fools chapter![/author]