"Alright, enough." Gilgamesh cut off Ishtar's self-introdu with a disdainful snort. "I thought the little girl would summon someoeresting, but instead it's just a useless goddess like you."

  "What? Yant idiot, Gilgamesh!" Ishtar leaped down from the Sky Boat Maanna, her finger pointed acgly at him. "I desded here to put ao you! So prepare yourself!"

  Gilgamesh merely sneered in response. With a casual wave, the Enkidu s flew out from his treasury, binding Ishtar in pce almost instantly.

  "Ugh! Could you not use that cursed thing!" Ishtar struggled in vain against the s, jumping in frustration. There was little she could do—Enkidu was designed specifically to restrain divine beings, and the stronger her divinity, the more unbreakable it became.

  "And why have you shown up in such a strange form?" Gilgamesh observed her critically, a mix of curiosity and amusement. "Your personality seems… different. If it were the old you, I'd already be dealing with that idiot bull you love to summon."

  Ishtar scowled, huffing. "None of your business why I'm like this!"

  Standing nearby, little Rin was utterly bewildered. She'd initially been thrilled to summon a goddess, she even shared Ishtar's face! But her joy was short-lived, ay crashed in as she watched Ishtar being easily subdued.

  In truth, if they'd been in an open battlefield, Ishtar would not have been captured so easily. Even with Gilgamesh's s, a direct fight between them would've been far more chaotid destructive. But Ishtar, harb Rin's sciousness, had no wish to level the Tohsaka family's home. So she held back, choosing not to unleash her full strength within the fines of the estate.

  If she had fought seriously, the Bull of Heaven alone would have likely reduced the pce to rubble.

  "A Pseudo-Servant," Tohsaka Tokiomi murmured, quickly assessing the situation. He'd done his researmon Gilgamesh and had entered the cept of a Pseudo-Servant, a human host possessed by a heroic spirit. He hadn't anticipated that his own daughter would serve as a vessel for one, especially not a goddess.

  But any initial pride he might have felt was quickly repced by ay. He knew all too well about the tensioween Gilgamesh and Ishtar in their myths. If these two started fighting here, there would be nothi of the house.

  And so, the atmosphere iohsaka household grew tense, as the two a rivals simmered in an uneasy truce.

  ---

  The day…

  ---

  [Ding! The question-answering session will begin in ten minutes. Please be prepared.]

  [Ding! New members "Red Hare," "The Sed," and "Goddess Venus" have joihe group chat.]

  ---

  Red Hare: "Oh, Master, is this the chat group you mentioned?"

  Chihiro: "Yes, this is it. I'll show you how to use it…"

  Waver: "Right, we all know about Red Hare, but who's this 'Goddess Venus'?"

  Goddess Venus: "Hahaha! I am Ishtar, the goddess of beauty who rules over Venus. Show proper respect, mortals, ahe blessings of the goddess."

  Chihiro paused in the middle of expining the group features to Red Hare, thrown off by the message. Ishtar's here? How did this goddess end up joining the chat? The group usually only admitted partits in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Did this mean someone had summoned Ishtar as a Servant?

  If that were the case, the most likely didate was Rin Tohsaka. But… didn't she only receive a broreasure chest? That shouldn't be enough to draowerful entity like Ishtar.

  "Chihiro, do you know this 'Goddess Venus'?" Zhang Jiao asked, sensing his panion's surprise.

  "Yes," Chihiro replied, refog. "Ishtar is the goddess of beauty, war, and harvest in Mesopotamian mythology."

  He quickly summarized Ishtar's background for Zhang Jiao.

  "Hahaha, so she's Gilgamesh's eternal rival?" Zhang Jiao ughed heartily. "That's pretty amusing."

  Chihiro, however, didn't find it all that funny. If Ishtar really was serving as Rin's Servant, then she and Gilgamesh would be uhe same roof. The fact that they hadn't already destroyed each other meant they must have reached some sort of agreement.

  Except… No, that doesn't seem likely, Chihiro thought. Gilgamesh wasn't the type to iate, and Ishtar rideful as he was. There had to be another reason they weren't fighting ht.

  As it turned out, Chihiro's guess was only half-correct. Gilgamesh and Ishtar had not e to any mutual uanding. Instead, they had been temporarily restrained by Tohsaka Tokiomi's intervention. Ishtar had relutly agreed not to escate things for the sake of Rin's father. Only then did Gilgamesh withdraw the Enkidu s and allow her to leave.

  To avoid future cshes, Tokiomi arranged for Rin, her mother Aoi, and Ishtar to relocate to a nearby hotel. He khat while the goddess and the King of Heroes had promised to coexist peacefully, keeping them uhe same roof was inviting disaster.

  In truth, Tokiomi had already sidered moving his wife and daughter out for their safety. Serving Gilgamesh was an exhausting responsibility, and the King's uable moods left his household in stant tension. But he hadn't dared move Aoi and Rin out of Fuyuki due to the lingering threat of Zouken Matou. Now, with Ishtar's presehat threat was mitigated, and his family could find temporary refuge.

  ---

  Keh: "A goddess? You're an actual deity?"

  Goddess Venus: "Of course! I am a true goddess."

  Keh: "But how… how could a god bee a partit in the Holy Grail War?"

  Keh's rea was uandable. He'd studied the meics of the Holy Grail War and k was desigo summon heroic spirits, humans who had attained legend. Gods, by their very nature, were supposed to be above such matters.

  In fact, the Holy Grail had never summoned deities before for two main reasons. The first was choice: heroes who answered the call of the Grail typically had lingering desires rets. They were willing to fight to achieve something. Gods, however, rarely held such human aspirations and saw little point in peting for the Grail.

  The sed reason was bance. Gods wielded tremendous power; their presence alone would break the delicate equilibrium of the Holy Grail War.