Standing atop her celestial vessel, Maanna, Ishtar gazed coldly down at the mortals below. Ten thumb-sized jewels had appeared in her hand at some point, each glowing with ominous power.
"I expected modern humans to be dumb," she said, voice dripping with disdain. "But to think even the so-called Heroic Spirits are no more than idiots."
"You receive the honor of gazing upon a goddess… and not only do you fail to recognize my name, but you also dare insult me to my face!"
To begin with, Ishtar had always had a hot temper. Even after merging with a young Rin Tohsaka, whose presence had softened her a little, Ishtar remained far from reasonable. If Iskandar's taunt could've made Rin angry, then Ishtar would naturally go ballistic. So now, having locked onto the crowd of Masters and Servants below, the furious goddess threw all ten jewels high into the air.
"Let's see how you like this taste of divine punishment!"
With those words, the dazzling gems erupted in a cascade of blinding light.
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
Each gem exploded into a beam of destructive energy. While not quite as powerful as Lancer's earlier laser attack, they were close. And worse… she was throwing more.
Wave after wave of magical bombardment rained from above. Dozens of blasts lit up the battlefield. Even Servants would struggle to block them all—Masters had no chance. Lancer, targeted by several beams, used his superior martial skill to intercept and slice through them one by one. The attacks weren't a serious threat to him.
Rider, shielding Waver behind him, slashed the light projectiles with his sword. But because it had been his words that provoked Ishtar, she seemed to be especially angry with him. He was getting hit with the brunt of it.
Without Gordius Wheel, his chariot, Rider was struggling to fend off so many beams.
He was a strong warrior, but his finesse was nowhere near that of Saber or Lancer. While not incapable of defending himself, unleashing his trump card against this kind of tantrum seemed excessive and wasteful.
Just as he was about to make that difficult choice and tap into his final reserves—
Su Mo intervened. With a casual wave, he sent out a single slash skyward. The sword energy cleaved through the rain of descending jewels, destroying both the gems and their accompanying beams in a sweeping arc.
And it didn't stop there. After erasing the attacks heading toward himself and Rider alike, the residual force of Su Mo's strike continued its path straight toward the furious goddess in the sky—Ishtar.
"Thanks a bunch!" Seeing the crisis averted, Rider offered Su Mo a hearty thanks.
"No need," Su Mo replied with a shake of his head. "You were trying to help my Saber earlier too. Consider it a favor returned." As he said that, he glanced up at the goddess hovering above them. "Besides, I don't exactly have a favorable impression of a goddess who throws area-of-effect attacks at random."
If you wanted to target Rider, then go ahead—why drag me into it? Su Mo had plenty of complaints about Ishtar's actions. Just how self-centered did she have to be to fire indiscriminately at all the Servants below?
Rider, overhearing that, gave a slight shake of his head. "Even if I hadn't jumped in, I doubt Saber would've been in any real danger." After witnessing Su Mo effortlessly deflect Lancer's lethal strike and casually shatter dozens of Ishtar's gemstone beams with a single sword swing, only a fool would think this boy was an ordinary Master.
At that moment, Su Mo's sword slash was already heading toward Ishtar. It wasn't a full-power attack—not enough to injure a goddess of Venus. But it was enough to provoke her.
"You dare raise your sword against a goddess?!" Ishtar demanded, brows furrowed in fury. Yet as her eyes properly landed on Su Mo's face, her tone inexplicably softened. This boy… he's actually kind of good-looking.
To a goddess of beauty, appearance came with privileges. And the moment Ishtar took a good look at him, her wrath dipped ever so slightly. In fact, she began to feel a sliver of goodwill. But Su Mo, on the receiving end of this sudden attention, looked at her with no such fondness—instead, he flatly snapped, "Are you stupid or something?"
"You're going to blast everyone just because one person mocked you? What, do you really think you can defeat all the Servants here just because you're Ishtar?"
The words landed with the force of a slap. Ishtar, who had just begun to warm up to him, visibly froze. He… just called me stupid? Not even my father has ever spoken to me like that!
"You bastard—!"
Ishtar was just about to blow up when Su Mo's next words hit her like a lightning bolt. He said her name. Immediately, her expression changed. Her figure vanished from the sky, and in the blink of an eye, she reappeared directly in front of Su Mo, eyes wide with genuine delight.
"You—you know who I am?! You recognized my name?!" Ishtar beamed with joy.
In Uruk, she had been worshipped by thousands—her name known to every man, woman, and child. It had never crossed her mind that she could be unrecognized. But after being summoned to this Grail War, she found herself in an era where belief in gods had all but vanished.
No devout followers. No shrines. Not even recognition.
Even this body's "father," Tohsaka Tokiomi, though he put on a show of reverence, was barely convinced she was the real deal. As a goddess, Ishtar could see it clearly—he thought she was just a Servant borrowing a divine name.
The other Servants? Even worse. She had expected at least one of them to know her name after all the clues she'd dropped. But no—nothing but blank stares. Her earlier fury hadn't just been because of Rider's remarks. A large part of it had been humiliation—rage that no one recognized her.
She was the Queen of Heaven! The beloved daughter of Anu, chief of the gods! The goddess of beauty, harvest, and war! And yet, she had been reduced to a nobody. It was this fury, and this wounded pride, that had driven her to punish every Master and Servant indiscriminately. Punishment for failing to recognize her divine presence.
But now… finally… someone spoke her name. Ishtar instantly cast aside her earlier grudge. She leaned in close to Su Mo, eyes sparkling with admiration.
"I didn't expect to find a devoted follower in such a godless age," she said cheerfully. "After thousands of years, someone still remembers the goddess's beauty… you've moved me beyond words!"
"Yes, I am the Queen of Heaven—Ishtar herself! The most beautiful goddess in the world!"
After declaring her title with pride, Ishtar looked at Su Mo with gleaming eyes, expecting him to burst into grateful tears, to kneel and praise her, to worship her like the divine being she was.
But…
All she got in return was a flat, indifferent: "Oh."
He didn't even blink. That was it. Just an offhand "Oh."
"You—what kind of attitude is that?!" Ishtar exploded.
"I'm a goddess! The divine being you're supposed to worship! Where's your reverence? Where's your prayer of gratitude for receiving my attention?!" In her mind, she'd already made an enormous concession—if he just showed her a little respect, she would bestow a goddess's blessings upon him. Back in Uruk, she hadn't even offered such promises to her high priests. Yet this boy showed nothing but a blank stare. In fact, his expression was starting to shift… into something worse. A look that said: Are you out of your mind? And Su Mo said it plainly.
"Are you mentally okay?" The words were so sharp that Ishtar physically staggered back, clutching her chest as though she'd been stabbed.
"You—you—!"
Her twin-tails quivered with rage. The goddess's temper reached its limit.
"I knew it! People of this era really are hopeless! Not only do you all fail to recognize a goddess, you insult her! And the one person who does recognize me—he treats me like this?!"
"I'm done! I've had enough!"
Her golden eyes locked on Su Mo with burning fury. She forced herself to take one last deep breath to calm down, though it did little to lower her rage.
"If you sincerely repent—if you get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness—then maybe I'll overlook this insult."
"But if you continue down this path… don't blame me for what happens next." Her voice dropped in tone, full of divine authority.
"When this Holy Grail War ends, I'll take you back with me—to my era. I'll show you what it really means to bask in the glory of a goddess."
"From that day on, you'll be mine." Apparently, Ishtar, who found Su Mo's appearance quite pleasing, had no intention of killing him or punishing him harshly. But if he continued to act so disrespectful?
She would just kidnap him—drag him back to Uruk and keep him.
Forever.
Letting him live among her faithful—slowly soaking in the goddess's radiance—Ishtar believed that in time, Su Mo would be forced to truly recognize her greatness as the Queen of Heaven. And once he had no one else to rely on, he'd inevitably turn to her.
Eventually, he'd become her most loyal follower.
Hahaha!
Just imagining it made Ishtar secretly hope he'd refuse her offer outright. After all, this boy wasn't just good-looking—his strength was also impressive. If someone like him was on her side… with his capabilities, maybe—just maybe—he could even defeat that golden show-off. He could even become the King of Uruk, perhaps. And if she was his goddess and queen? Then wouldn't she, Ishtar, become the one and only supreme goddess of Uruk? Now that was a tempting thought. With such sudden ambitions bubbling in her mind, Ishtar actually began to look forward to being rejected.