65: third

The system's highest-level red alert blared:

[Warning! Encountered Boss: Ereshkigal!]

[Environment extremely deteriorated: Cold of the Underworld (all members lose 5% of max HP per second), Cost natural recovery speed reduced by 80%!]

[Boss Mechanic: Super-Giant. Occupies a 3x3 grid at the rear, immune to all control effects, releases a screen-clearing instant-kill Noble Phantasm attack every 60 seconds!]

Looking at that thick health bar that almost overflowed the screen, along with the despair-inducing HP drain and Cost recovery mechanics, the players in A-Dai's livestream, who were just cracking jokes, instantly felt their scalps go numb.

"Holy crap! Is this a balance nightmare?! 5% HP loss, 80% reduced Cost recovery? How are we supposed to deploy Servants?!"

"A screen-wide instant kill every 60 seconds?! How the hell are we supposed to fight this? Old Thief Gu is definitely gatekeeping and trolling the players on purpose!"

A-Dai panicked too. Her fingers clicked frantically on the tactical map, but she found that her initial Cost wasn't even enough to deploy a single main DPS.

"Are we... really going to get wiped here?"

Just as everyone fell into despair and Ereshkigal raised her spear-blade to launch the first wave of devastating strikes, a system notification suddenly chimed:

[Ding! Detected that the player perfectly answered all questions from the First to the Sixth Gates...]

"Hum—"

A series of golden lights suddenly descended from the sky, landing right on top of Ereshkigal's head.

Under the gaze of millions of confused eyes across the internet, rows of massive debuff icons lit up frantically above the head of the invincible Mistress of the Underworld:

[Because she doesn't want to hurt the living person who praised her, Ereshkigal's attack power is reduced by 50%!]

[Because she is feeling shy and her limbs have gone weak, Ereshkigal's defense is reduced by 50%!]

[Because she is secretly opening a back door for the player, the 'Cold of the Underworld' environmental effect is forcibly removed, and our Cost recovery speed is increased by 100%!]

[Because she hopes the player can stay and chat with her after the battle, all our Servants gain 'Battle Continuation' (retain 1 HP when receiving fatal damage)!]

...

The invincible boss Ereshkigal, who looked like she was about to destroy the world just a moment ago, was directly nerfed from an epic demon king to a non-threatening, squishy slime under the effect of these six stacked tsundere debuffs!

The entire internet fell into a dead silence once again.

After a brief silence, the bullet chat exploded into unprecedented, frantic laughter!

"Hahahaha, damn! What kind of '50% defense reduction' is that?!"

"I'm dying! Did she drink ten pounds of fake booze? She gave herself a full set of armor break and weakness debuffs?!"

"Waifu Ereshkigal: 'While I'm shouting about roasting you on my spear, I'll secretly give you a health-lock cheat and cripple my own skills!'"

"Oh my god, little sister, you're just too kind!"

A-Dai looked at the instantly filled Cost bar and the cleared negative environment, so moved she almost cried. "All Servants, attack! Don't let her kindness go to waste!"

Thanks to Ereshkigal's epic throwing of the match, this boss fight, which should have been the most desperate suffering since moving to the Seventh Singularity, instantly turned into a one-sided (or perhaps two-sided?) carnival.

Mash stood firmly on the main path. Since Ereshkigal's attack power was halved, the attacks that should have instantly killed the front line only made a crisp 'clink' against her shield.

And A-Dai's favorite Servants, Euryale and Artoria Lily, finally escaped the fate of 'scraping' damage due to Ereshkigal's defense being slashed in half, dealing tons of damage.

"Humans, don't get ahead of yourselves! Taste the true wrath of the Underworld!"

Seeing her health bar plummeting, Ereshkigal in mid-air finally got anxious.

Her face was so red it looked like it could drip blood. To salvage her dignity as a Goddess of Death, she suddenly thrust the spear-blade in her hand into the ground.

[Warning! Boss is charging final Noble Phantasm: Kur Kigal Irkalla!]

Boom!

The ground of the entire tactical map shattered with a roar. Crimson underworld death-light erupted from the ground like a volcanic eruption, instantly swallowing every tile on the battlefield!

This was an absolute screen-clearing skill that ignored defense and evasion!

However, when that world-destroying light faded, an astonishing scene appeared.

All our Servants on the battlefield, including Mash who was tanking at the very front, had their health bars stop at a critical '1' point.

That [Hopes the player stays to chat] health-lock buff had forcefully saved everyone's lives!

"Ugh... How can this be..."

As A-Dai's final wave of attacks landed, Ereshkigal's seemingly endless health bar was completely emptied.

This high-and-mighty Mistress of the Underworld slumped in front of her throne like a wronged little girl.

The massive spear-blade fell to the side. She hugged her knees, buried her face in her arms, and let out an unwilling mumble tinged with a bit of a sob.

"Even though I'm the goddess who governs death... even though I wanted to drive you back with the cruelest trials... why just couldn't I bring myself to do it..."

With the battle won, the bone cage trapping Gilgamesh also dissipated into points of light.

The Hero King walked out slowly holding a goblet, a mocking smirk curling on his lips as he looked at the Goddess of the Underworld slumped on the ground:

"Hmph, fool. To be tricked by a few words from these mongrels into abandoning even a deity's bottom line... your so-called iron laws of the Underworld are softer than the mud of Uruk."

"Shut up! You idiot king who died from overwork!"

Ereshkigal snapped her head up, shouting at Gilgamesh with red eyes, then looked at A-Dai with a bit of fluster. "You... you've won. Take Gilgamesh's soul and go. The Underworld... the Underworld doesn't care if you stay anyway!"

"That won't do, Little Sister Ereshkigal."

A-Dai closed the tactical panel and stepped forward, gently taking the cold hand of the tsundere goddess.

"The Three Goddess Alliance hasn't been completely dismantled yet, and there are still so many terrifying enemies on the surface. Without the help of the strongest Goddess of Death, we will surely lose. Are you willing... to protect this world with us?"

Ereshkigal was stunned.

She looked into A-Dai's sincere eyes, and although she couldn't see them, there were countless phantom bullet chats in the livestream frantically spamming 'Waifu, come with me.'

That divine heart, which had beaten in loneliness for thousands of years in this dark underground, felt as if it had been struck hard by a ray of sunlight.

"Really... I just can't do anything with you cunning humans..."

Ereshkigal turned her head away, suppressing the urge to smile, and gave a tsundere cold snort:

"Since you're begging me so much, I suppose this goddess can reluctantly lend you a bit of power. But we have a deal: once the Monster Mother Goddess is defeated, you must tell me more stories about the flowers on the surface!"

[System Notification: Ereshkigal has officially joined our faction!]