Chapter 50: Gods, Where Do You Go?
Whether it was Gilgamesh, Enkidu, or Rowe, all three now carried the concept of humanity that had just awakened and fused within them.
At this moment, no matter what their true natures were, no matter how their bodies had been made, they could stand in for every person living on this land.
Because they were the Kings of Uruk.
Because the people had placed their hopes in them.
And that invisible concept, here and now, became power.
"Welcome my arrival, Bull of Heaven!"
An arrogant laugh rang out. Golden ripples shimmered, and the star ship wreathed in emerald light flashed into existence before the golden bull. The King of Uruk faced the terrifying heavenly pet and slowly opened his mouth.
What answered him was a deep, furious hum.
Gugalanna's golden hooves smashed the earth again and again, roaring as if to split the plains.
The Bull was afraid.
And furious.
But with the Underworld's mistress pressing it down, even the strongest divine beast could not break free. On top of that, the Gate of Babylon fully unfolded behind Gilgamesh, wrapping the Bull of Heaven in tens of thousands of glittering apertures.
Later generations would call the Babylonian treasury a symbol of the Hero King gathering all treasures under heaven and earth.
In truth, it was also, in a certain sense, the manifestation of the Wedge of Heaven itself.
Anything that entered its reach could be seized, collected, and made the King's property.
That was Gilgamesh's dominance.
And his vastness.
And now, those countless gates would not only restrain the Bull of Heaven. They would seize its fury, the power pouring out of its rage, and even the energy birthed from its collision with the Underworld, then gather it all into Gilgamesh's hands.
"Gil has already begun, so I must not be late."
To the west, a plain white robe fluttered in the storm wind.
Enkidu brushed a strand of emerald green hair from her cheek and raised her eyes to the lush, verdant Cedar Forest before her. It was still pinned beneath the golden star, but inside it countless scarlet eyes spun like a whirlpool. The instant she approached, every one of them locked onto her.
A sight that would have turned any ordinary person to stone.
Enkidu only smiled.
"Humbaba, we meet again."
"Mud doll… you dare come again?"
A clear voice echoed through the forest, angry, annoyed, and faintly bewildered.
"Do you still want to seal me? You cannot. I am fully manifested now. My power is no longer something you can compare to."
"I know."
Enkidu's red lips parted gently, moist and shining.
"But I still must come, Humbaba. For my friend, for Rowe, I must come."
The maiden of clay lifted her delicate face toward those countless eyes.
"Sorry, Humbaba."
Her expression turned solemn.
Her robe billowed. The earth trembled. In an instant, as if shoots bursting from soil, endless Chains of Heaven erupted from the ground and spread in every direction, sealing the Cedar Forest from all sides.
Humbaba fell silent.
He did not resist.
He did not even rage.
He only stared at Enkidu.
Unlike Gugalanna, long domesticated by the gods, Humbaba possessed a fierce selfhood. As the King of Demonic Beasts, he had once regarded Enkidu, who lived beside him in the old days, as kin.
Even when she had no fixed form, only a cluster of divine mud acting on instinct.
Even when she had no self, only a raw consciousness no clearer than a wild beast.
That time was not this time.
But Humbaba's demonic nature was stubbornness made flesh. He could not truly turn his claws against Enkidu.
And even if he wanted to, he could not move under the golden star and the chains.
More importantly, Enkidu had no intention of killing him.
She showed mercy, unlike the original myth.
So Humbaba only sighed.
"It seems you have found the meaning of your existence."
The meaning of existence.
"Rowe is the meaning of my existence."
Enkidu answered with a bright smile, her face blooming with a radiance that no weapon should ever have possessed.
Her beauty was almost painful.
Her smile was met by another soft sigh.
"You have gone astray, weapon of the gods, Divine Construct of the gods."
Humbaba's voice was quiet now, like wind slipping across mountain stone.
"You have fallen for the Rowe you speak of. That is human emotion. A weapon has no need of it."
Love.
Enkidu paused.
Stunned.
Then she saw it.
Deep in the forest bound by chains, where vines tangled and spread, a vague and graceful figure slowly coalesced. It cast one distant glance at Enkidu, then turned and vanished into the green dark.
"Remember to return my freedom later."
The last words lingered.
The obstacles to the Chains of Heaven dissolved at once.
The mud doll of the gods, the maiden, smiled even more brightly.
"If it is love, then let it be love."
If I am broken, then let me be broken.
If being broken means I can stay with Rowe, then that is not so bad.
She reached out.
She took control of the Cedar Forest.
And at the same time, she grasped the power born from this clash of heaven and earth.
"It has begun."
Inside Uruk, everyone looked up. They did not know what the three Kings were doing, but they could feel it. With their presence, the world ending catastrophe had stopped in its tracks.
The King had begun the counterattack.
Before the main hall of the royal palace, Rowe, the one who remained, lifted his eyes toward the distance.
The shadow of the Key of Heaven shimmered within his pupils.
Inside his body, the power of the Wedge of Heaven and the Chains of Heaven intertwined, just as before.
But this time, the places where Gilgamesh and Enkidu stood had become complete conceptual worlds.
Where Gilgamesh stood was a world.
The Bull of Heaven was the sky.
The invading Underworld was the earth.
Gilgamesh himself was the human wedge between them.
Where Enkidu stood was also a world.
Humbaba's Cedar Forest was the earth.
The falling golden star was the sky.
Enkidu herself was the human in the middle.
They were conceptual worlds.
Three layers stacked upon three layers.
They poured into Rowe a power far beyond what he had commanded last time.
A resonant hum spread across the air.
Golden ripples blossomed above Rowe's head. The Gate of Babylon, representing Gilgamesh, unfolded in perfect sync. And from within those gates, countless chains extended, the manifestation of the Chains of Heaven.
Almost at the same moment, deep in the Underworld, Ereshkigal's heart flared. The Key of Heaven that Rowe had planted within her bloomed in brilliant light.
The Chains of Heaven spread to the four corners.
They stretched toward the sky.
Using the human world, where Rowe stood, as the platform.
Using the Underworld, where Ereshkigal sat, as the foundation.
Like a flower opening all at once, petals of prosperity unfurled to cover the heavens.
It was similar to last time, yet infinitely larger in scale.
Rowe stood at the heart of that flower, wrapped in radiance, as if he himself had become a key. He rose into the sky with the blooming entity.
His robe roared in the wind.
His black hair streamed behind him.
The faint lights of the gods' gazes gathered. Even they were startled by the sudden transformation.
To use the beasts they had sent as stepping stones.
However, they still did not believe Rowe could shake the plane where they existed.
The illusory heaven.
A virtual space above Mesopotamia's dimension, floating outside the world in Imaginary Number Space.
Even if it could be touched, it could not be moved.
So the gods were astonished.
But calm.
They watched the man soar upward.
They watched his eyes look back at them.
That calmness lasted only a heartbeat.
Rowe raised his hand and pointed upward.
He spoke.
"Gods, where do you go?"
"Where do you go?"
"Go?"
The echo rippled through a silent void.
The gods' faces changed.
This voice had not traveled through their eyes.
They heard it directly.
In their ears.
"No. That is wrong. They do not intend to break into heaven. They do not intend to touch it at all."
Anu's ancient face turned ice cold. Beneath his gray beard, hawk like eyes snapped down toward the human world again.
He saw the concept of world on Gilgamesh.
He saw the concept of world on Enkidu.
And he saw it on Rowe.
Enkidu as earth.
Gilgamesh as sky.
Rowe as humanity's world.
Three worlds superimposed.
A colossal ritual built layer by layer.
Horror flooded the Sky God's heart.
"He is forcibly making the Heavens rely on the Human World."
Making the Heavens rely on the Human World.
Just like Ishtar Rin had been influenced by the vessel Tohsaka Rin.
This had always been Rowe's plan.
He flung his robe wide, spreading both hands.
The Chains of Heaven blossoming in the sky grew even more rampant, even more unrestrained.
What he was doing was dragging a god down.
Turning heaven into humanity.
For this final step, he would change heaven and earth.
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