Chapter 756: Destiny, Authority, and Responsibility
"You're awake, Anna?"
When Anna opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the smiling face of a white-haired young man. "The surgery was a success! Starting today, you can wear pretty little dresses and compete with those bitches for men!"
With a whoosh, the Serpent-Hunting Scythe pressed against Sakatsuki's neck. It took Anna only a moment to process the situation. She glared at this despicable man with icy eyes. "Let go of me."
"Calm down, calm down. Violence isn't the answer," Sakatsuki chuckled awkwardly, reluctantly setting the little girl down.
Seriously, she was so adorable when she was asleep...
"Where am I now?" After eliminating the biggest threat, Anna withdrew her Noble Phantasm, her eyes filled with confusion. "I remember Tomoe Gozen saying something, and then Tiamat, she just... she just..."
As her memories resurfaced, Anna's voice faltered. She suddenly turned to Sakatsuki. "Just who is Tiamat?!"
That darkness, terrifying enough to make Servants tremble—could it really have been unleashed by the mere head of a clinic?
And those ancient, distant cries and songs she heard in her unconscious state...
"You already have the answer in your heart, Anna," Sakatsuki said calmly, gazing at her. "After all, 'you' met Her long before any of us did."
Anna gritted her teeth, too agitated to even react to Sakatsuki's choice of words. "You're insane, bringing Her to Uruk! If She reverts to her true form, Uruk will be annihilated in an instant—no need for demonic beasts to attack!"
"But nothing happened, didn't it?" Sakatsuki countered. "If left undisturbed, She wouldn't even manifest that form."
"Even so—" Anna tried to argue, but the young man waved her off, changing the subject. "Alright, I'll handle things here. Little Anna, you should go help Fujimaru."
"Fujimaru? What happened?"
"You didn't sense it?" Sakatsuki smirked. "It seems your other self has caused quite a disaster."
My other self?
Could it be—?!
Anna felt as if all her secrets had been laid bare. She gasped for breath but had no time to press Sakatsuki further. Instead, she pulled up her hood and sprinted down the street, following the resonance between them, vanishing into the distance.
"Well, that's all I can do for you, Fujimaru. Hope you can pull off a Happy End over there..." Sakatsuki watched Anna disappear, then turned his gaze to the two figures inside the clinic, rubbing his temples. "After all, I've got the world's most dangerous mother here with me."
"Lord Sakatsuki!" Tomoe Gozen's voice was desperate as she spotted him, her usually valiant face on the verge of tears. "I—I think I said the wrong thing again..."
"It's not your fault," Sakatsuki said, stepping forward. "This was bound to happen sooner or later."
He moved to embrace the girl beside him, but Tiamat only pushed him away, weeping silently to herself.
"It's no use, Lord Sakatsuki," Tomoe Gozen said from the side. "I've already tried earlier—Lady Tiamat won't let anyone touch her right now."
Sakatsuki didn't give up, repeating the motion again and again, only for Tiamat to push him away each time. Finally, the young man frowned: "I'm going to get angry."
This time, little Tiamat didn't refuse, and Sakatsuki took a step back, merely holding her hand. Warmth flowed into her cold fingers, yet even so, Tiamat remained unmoved, only sensing the presence of this child of hers, her heart filled with sorrow.
One day, he too would leave her behind—
At this thought, Tiamat's vision blurred. Sakatsuki had already understood the full context upon arriving. Sensing the shift in her emotions, he tightened his grip on her hand and spoke softly but firmly: "Don't worry, I won't abandon you."
"But... why?" Tiamat asked. "Why must all of you leave me behind?"
"Because children grow up. Sooner or later, they will spread their wings and fly."
"But then... you'll get hurt, or even die... If only you'd leave these things to me."
The reason she sought to destroy the world ultimately stemmed from that heart that wished to protect all her children.
Sakatsuki gently stroked Tiamat's flowing hair, about to speak when suddenly, emerald light flickered in his eyes.
Enkidu had arrived.
"A long time ago, I learned this truth—humans are creatures who stand upon the earth yet love to gaze at the stars." The clay puppet smiled gently, born of solid earth yet free as the eternal wind. "They never stop chasing, even when all before them is satisfaction enough. They stubbornly reach for the moon."
"The blessings of gods are too vast for us, yet also too small. Our nature won't allow us to remain stagnant because of faith."
"I... just... wanted you all... to live better lives..."
"That's enough." Enkidu bent down and kissed the goddess's forehead. "Your love is more than enough, Mother. The road ahead should be left for humanity to walk alone."
"But—but!" The goddess lifted bewildered eyes, like a lost child adrift in this world. "What about me? Where should I go? If a mother is no longer a mother, then where... where can I go?"
This fragile question left even Enkidu speechless. Indeed, if the world was complete, then the Primordial Mother Goddess who birthed it would have no purpose left.
Beyond nurturing new worlds and creating new life, what other way could a Mother Goddess seek happiness?
"Then bless us. Watch over us and bless our journey." The curtain was pushed aside as a certain king—who never could resist meddling—arrived after handling all urgent matters. "Since ancient times, haven't all mothers passed on life this way?"
"Blessing... Is that all it takes?" Tiamat murmured to herself. What every human mother accepted and prepared for felt alien and terrifying to the noble goddess.
The Age of Gods—when heaven and earth were new, in the dawn of creation—the first to be born were not humans, but the gods themselves.
The gods walk upon the high heavens—they are the thunder, the sun, the moon, the wine, the arts, the punishment, the war, the fertility, the hunt, the harvest...
They are the primordial manifestations of all things.
Yet the sun cannot become the moon, nor can thunder transform into wine. The treasures born from the arts cannot be obtained through the hunt.
This is the limitation of the gods—or rather... their divine mandate and duty.
They are destined to spend their entire existence fulfilling their divine mandate. To gain followers, they must propagate the authority they possess, and in turn, faith reinforces their duty and mandate. Hence, there exists a hierarchy of chief gods, major gods, and lesser gods.
Unlike humans, who are free to choose anything and may abandon their choices without consequence, if a god forsakes their divine mandate, they become like a horse with broken legs or a scorpion with a severed tail—utterly stripped of their ability to survive. They will remain so until another god assumes their mandate, and their very existence fades from the world.
For Tiamat, for the primordial Mother Goddess—this divine mandate is the joy of being the mother of all things.
She must continue to create, to give birth to new life endlessly. Only then can she feel the happiness of being both a mother and a goddess.
Otherwise, there is only boundless emptiness.
But the world is finite. Life, dividing like cancer cells, would collapse all ecosystems. Thus, the gods of Mesopotamia united to seal the Mother of Creation in the Sea of Nothingness, the abyss of endless depths.
This is the fundamental conflict between Tiamat and the beings of the present world. To sustain the world's operation is to demand the Mother Goddess relinquish her happiness, yet if she chooses to follow her divine mandate, the world will be ravaged in an endless cycle.
Now, Sakatsuki, Fujimaru, and Uruk must persuade Tiamat to abandon her authority over creation.
This is no different from persuading Tiamat to die.
"This isn't like you, Master. Are you hesitating?" Within the young man's body, two consciousnesses conversed. "All you need to do is kill Mother."
"...You truly are a high-performance weapon, despite caring so deeply for Tiamat."
"But that doesn't stop me from killing her as a weapon. After all, this is the duty for which I was summoned."
"Duty... Indeed, it's not just the gods who bear a 'divine mandate.'"
After a brief silence, someone spoke softly.
"I wonder how Fujimaru is doing..."