Was Li Zihan Tiamat's child?
The answer was not entirely clear.
Li Zihan was indeed a person from the Type-Moon world, but his body had been fused with a Herrscher core, undergone the rebirth ritual of a God-Slayer, and received the divinity of a Sun God. It was difficult to say if he was truly Tiamat's child.
However, after obtaining Tiamat's divinity from the composite god, Gorgon, it was a different story entirely.
Just as Lugh and Surya would see him as their child due to his possessing their respective divinities, Li Zihan, now possessing the divinity of Tiamat, was undoubtedly her closest child.
And that angel from a foreign land was raising a butcher's knife to her child, about to murder him right before her very eyes.
Without a doubt, this was something Tiamat could never tolerate.
He's finally out, thought the boy. Protected by Kavacha and Kundala and the entire underworld, he appeared silently beside Tiamat, gazing into the distance with her.
"Lord Azrael, is it really alright to launch a sneak attack on someone like that?" the boy said cheerfully, speaking the Grand Assassin's name as a god.
The Angel of Death—Azrael.
According to Islamic legend, Allah originally sent four angels—Mikail, Jibril, Azrael, and Israfil (i.e., Michael, Gabriel, Samael, and Raphael)—to create humanity. Azrael was the first to succeed and was thus granted the authority to record the life and death of mortals.
Azrael writes the names of all people in the world on the leaves of the Tree of Life behind God's throne. When a person is about to die, the leaf bearing their name withers and falls. When Azrael picks it up and reads the name, that person will die forty days later.
The idiom "the Wings of Azrael" means that death is imminent.
This was also why the Old Man of the Mountain appeared to be a cut above Orion, Gilgamesh, and Merlin. The founder of the Hassan sect was not a Heroic Spirit born from the sublimation of a human; he was the archangel who would blow the second trumpet on the Day of Judgment.
"Azrael, are you trying to prevent Mother's return?"
The boy, who did not fear Azrael but was wary of the "concept" his Grand title could bestow upon a target once sacrificed, stretched out his hand.
The underworld began to heat up.
As the current master of the underworld, Li Zihan could easily mobilize all the power of this land, launching a continuous attack equivalent in heat to Ishtar's Noble Phantasm, An Gal Ta Kigal She.
But even knowing that he would suffer the most severe punishment of the Sumerian pantheon if he remained, the assassin showed no signs of retreat. He simply stared at the Beast of Regression and the new master of the underworld before him.
After a long moment, he sheathed his sword.
He did not intend to fight.
The Type-Moon world has a spirit evocation ritual known as Heroic Spirit summoning. When a great calamity that obstructs or even terminates the development of the world of primates appears, seven Heroic Spirits standing at the pinnacle of their seven classes will manifest to subjugate the calamity—the Beast.
The primordial mother goddess named Tiamat was the Second Beast—the Beast of Regression.
A complete Beast was a monster that required all seven Grand Servants to subjugate. And now, he was the only Grand Servant standing here.
Clearly, this was a battle with no chance of victory.
What was supposed to be a seven-on-one affair had suddenly become a one-on-one duel, and his opponent even had a crowd-control support with a home-field advantage. If a real fight broke out, only defeat awaited him.
Azrael did not fear defeat. But he did not wish to be ended so meaninglessly.
"New master of the underworld, what are your intentions?" the Angel of Death, who had descended in the guise of the Old Man of the Mountain, slowly asked the boy who had guided the primordial mother goddess here.
After a brief period of observation, he had realized that this boy, who had forsaken the brilliance of the sun to become a god of the underworld, was the true center of this incident.
"I promised Ritsuka I would save the Human Order in her place," the boy, who had proposed to take her place in saving humanity when he confessed to Fujimaru Ritsuka, said with a light chuckle.
"But subjugating the Beast of Pity is a bit beyond my capabilities."
"So naturally, I thought of Mother. I brought her back to this world to ask for her protection over humanity."
Summoning the Second Beast to subjugate the First Beast?
The face of the Angel of Death, hidden behind a skull mask, was impossible to read, but the will-o'-the-wisps in his eye sockets burned ever more fiercely.
"The Beast of Calamity is an evil born of humanity. That loving kindness that yearns for regression is destined to bring disaster upon the mortal world."
"Mother's authority of 'existence is calamity' will be sealed by me."
The boy, wielder of the war god Verethragna's ten incarnations and capable of materializing a golden sword that was both the strongest shield and the strongest sword against a god through sheer knowledge, smiled.
He had long since committed the myths of the Angel of Death Azrael and the tales of the Old Man of the Mountain to memory. Without needing to chant a single word, the incarnation of the war god Verethragna bared its fangs.
"Like this."
It was as if the world had suddenly changed.
Sunlight rose in the dark and gloomy underworld.
Like the brilliant luster of gold illuminated by the sun, a radiant golden light blanketed the world.
And the source of all that light was a sword.
A sword of wisdom that could cleave divinity and tear apart Authority.
Danger!
This was a danger visible to the naked eye.
Without any explanation, Azrael understood.
That was the most evil of armaments, capable of tearing apart and trampling the glory of gods, angels, and heroes.
"Shall we fight?"
The boy, who knew he would be victorious in battle but was still wary of the Grand title sacrifice, issued his final ultimatum to the Angel of Death.
This battle was already meaningless.
Azrael, who had also seen the final outcome, shook his head.
Like a puff of smoke dispersing, the Angel of Death vanished from the underworld.
"My child, you should not have let him go."
The creator goddess, who had long since developed a killing intent towards Azrael, turned her head and spoke to her child, her voice cold.
But upon seeing him, the gaze of the primordial mother goddess, who had always loved her children and made loving them her very meaning, gradually softened.
"Mother, there is no need for us to risk being harmed by a Grand Servant's sacrifice to hunt down an angel."
The boy, whose mission had never included hunting down the Angel of Death, knelt before the primordial mother goddess.
"I have already found a way for you to coexist with this world."
"Now, please, amidst the cheers of your children, return to your throne as the Mother of All Things."