"It's... it's done..."
Medea's face carried a trace of fatigue, but more than that, the ultimate excitement and satisfaction of having completed a masterpiece for the ages!
"Very well done."
Seiji nodded with satisfaction.
This temple was not merely an ornate structure.
It was, in itself, a massive "magical energy furnace"! One that could ceaselessly draw energy from the surrounding Spiritual Veins, and even from the stars, to supply their use.
It was the pitch-black war banner that Seiji had planted on this Age of Gods land, proclaiming his arrival!
"Th... that..."
Ur-Nun's voice came trembling from the side.
He and his thirty soldiers had watched this "miracle" through from start to finish, in full.
Their worldview had been crushed, ruthlessly and repeatedly, countless times over.
First the divine beast slain in an instant, then the goddess frightened into flight, and finally, the corpse of the divine beast used on the spot to build a temple more magnificent than any shrine in the city of Uruk!
This... this was no longer within the realm of what they could comprehend.
If earlier they had still harbored a sliver of doubt about Seiji calling himself a "god," then now...
In their hearts, Seiji had become a true "god," one even more powerful and unfathomable than the goddess Ishtar!
"Gr... great deity!"
Ur-Nun scrambled and crawled to prostrate himself at Seiji's feet, kissing the ground beneath them in the most humble, reverent posture.
"Please... please forgive our ignorance and offense!"
"We... we are willing to serve you! We are willing to become your most loyal believers! We only beg that you... as you said, guide us down a path to escape the fate of death!"
The other soldiers came to their senses as well, scrambling over one another to kneel and offer their most devout faith to this newborn "deity."
[Power of faith detected...]
[Converting to pure magical energy... conversion efficiency: extremely high.]
In Seiji's mind, the system's notification sounded once more.
He could feel a faint but extremely pure energy flowing from these soldiers into his body.
"See, this is faith."
A meaningful smile appeared on Seiji's face.
"What a cheap, and what a useful thing it is."
He lowered his head, looked at Ur-Nun prostrate at his feet, and spoke slowly in a tone full of holiness and majesty:
"Rise, my lost lambs."
"Your devotion, I have received."
"From this day forward, you are the first batch of priests under my throne."
"Return to the city of Uruk."
"Go and spread my gospel to those who, like you, are filled with confusion and fear about the future."
"Tell them..."
"In this Temple of the Equivalent Exchange of All Things, there is no empty salvation, nor any promise of an afterlife."
"There is only the fairest of bargains."
"Whether it be powerful strength, advanced technology, or knowledge enough to multiply crop yields a hundredfold..."
"As long as they can pay a sufficient price..."
"...everything can be exchanged."
...
Meanwhile, in the temple district of the city of Uruk.
Ishtar, having fled back in disgrace, was furiously smashing things in her own temple, beside herself with rage.
"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!"
"That damned black-haired man! That damned black armor!"
"This goddess will kill him for certain! I'll grind his bones to ash!"
Ornate golden goblets and gem-studded plates were hurled to the ground without the slightest mercy, shattering to pieces.
Her priests all knelt on the floor, trembling, not daring to so much as breathe loudly.
The death of the Bull of Heaven was an enormous loss to her!
But what she found even harder to accept was that feeling of being seen through completely, from start to finish, and then ruthlessly crushed by absolute power...
The humiliation!
"That's right! Gilgamesh! That damned golden glittery one!"
Ishtar's eyes lit up as if she'd thought of something.
"That man appeared in Uruk's territory. There's no way that golden glittery one doesn't know about it!"
"I'll go tell him! I'll have him send out all of Uruk's armies to crush that blasphemer!"
"Yes! That's what I'll do!"
She immediately prepared to storm off to Gilgamesh's palace.
But the moment she stepped out of her own temple, she saw a sight that left her dumbstruck.
There, on the once-empty plain outside the city of Uruk.
A massive, entirely pitch-black "pyramid," radiating an ominous aura, stood proudly.
At the apex of the pyramid burned a flame she knew all too well, the green thunder-fire that belonged to the Bull of Heaven.
"Wha... what is that..."
Ishtar's mouth slowly fell open into an "O."
In her mind, the words that man had spoken to her before leaving surfaced beyond her control.
"...you have already been added by me to the collection list."
An inexplicable chill shot up her spine straight to the crown of her head.
This fellow...
This fellow had actually...
Actually made her divine beast into... a building?!
And had built it, brazenly, right across from her own temple?!
This was a provocation!
A naked, ultimate provocation!
But for some reason...
Looking at that eerie, magnificent, oppressive black temple.
Apart from rage, an emotion she herself was unwilling to admit also rose uncontrollably in Ishtar's heart...
An emotion called "fear."
Seiji's new temple, like a massive black tumor, grew brazenly upon the body of the Uruk city-state. Its very existence was a public execution of the old system of divine authority.
In the span of a single night, the news that "a new god has appeared outside the city, who slew the goddess Ishtar's Bull of Heaven with a single strike and built a temple from its corpse" spread as if on wings throughout every street and alley of Uruk.
At first, most people didn't believe it.
They mocked those spreading the news, thinking they'd had too much barley ale and were talking nonsense.
What was the Bull of Heaven? A calamity out of myth and legend! What was the goddess Ishtar? The guardian deity who had sheltered Uruk for centuries!
How could she possibly be slain, just like that?
But as more and more people, including the most honest and simple farmers, the shrewdest merchants, and even some low-ranking priests of the city, climbed onto the city walls out of curiosity or skepticism, and laid eyes on that black pyramid standing upon the plain, radiating an ominous and majestic aura...
All their skepticism turned into uncontrollable shock and uproar.
"Heavens! That... what is that?!"
"It wasn't there yesterday! It really sprang up overnight!"
"Look at that green flame at the top of the tower... I can feel it, that's... that's the aura of the divine beast Gugalanna! Only, it's become very faint and... full of resentment!"
"The goddess Ishtar... was really defeated?"
Panic, unease, curiosity, awe...
All manner of complex emotions, like fermenting mash, quickly spread throughout the city of Uruk.
And Ur-Nun and his thirty "newly appointed priests" became the center of this storm.
After returning to the city, they did not immediately proclaim the new god's doctrine with great fanfare.
Instead, following Seiji's instructions, they started with their most familiar and trusted relatives, friends, and neighbors, "sharing" their "experience of the miracle."
"You should have seen it! That Lord merely stood there, and the goddess Ishtar's divine might had no effect on him at all!"
"One stroke! Truly just one stroke! The Bull of Heaven, as large as a mountain, was pierced clean through!"
"And that Lord even said he knows our future! He said that as long as we have faith in him and conduct a bargain with him, we can escape the fate of death!"
This vivid, "between acquaintances" word-of-mouth spread was far more persuasive and provocative than any official proclamation.
More importantly, the "transactional faith" Seiji proposed held a fatal allure for these Uruk people, who lived in the late Age of Gods and were full of unease and despair.
When they prayed to the old gods and offered sacrifices, what they received was often an ambiguous oracle and uncertain protection.
But this new god offered a completely different promise: "equivalent exchange."
You offer faith, I bestow power.
You offer loyalty, I impart knowledge.
Simple, direct, efficient.
To the pragmatic Sumerians, this was, quite simply, an irresistible "gospel"!
And so, more and more people began to secretly go, by night, evading the eyes and ears of the city garrison, to that pitch-black temple outside the city, wanting to see this new "god" with their own eyes, wanting to test whether the so-called "bargain" was real or false.
...
Inside the "Temple of the Equivalent Exchange of All Things."
Unlike its oppressive, ominous exterior, the temple's interior had been arranged by Medea's magecraft to be simple and full of order. There were no ornate idols, nor any bloody altars.
There was only a massive black stone counter, like the teller's counter of a modern bank.
Seiji, like a nine-to-five office worker, sat leisurely behind the counter, a cup of steaming herbal tea that Medea had just brewed set before him.
Kneeling before him was a thin, gaunt-faced man.
The man was an ordinary farmer in the city of Uruk. His wife had caught an incurable plague spreading through the army and was on the brink of death. He had prayed to every god, to no avail.
After hearing the "sales pitch" from his neighbor, one of Ur-Nun's soldiers, he had come here in secret, with the mindset of trying anything when all hope seemed lost.
"Gr... great deity..." The man's voice trembled with fear and agitation. "I beg you, save my wife! I... I'm willing to offer everything I have! My ox, my fields, even my life!"
"Your ox and your fields are of no use to me. And your life is too cheap to even mention."
Seiji's voice was calm and cold, without the slightest trace of the compassion a "god" ought to have.
This instead gave the man a strange sense of "reassurance."
Because it sounded very much like a "bargain."
"However..." Seiji's tone shifted. "Your soul still holds that little bit of value."
He extended a finger, and at its tip lit a faint, gentle green glow.
It was a tiny "rune of life," formed from his "Holy Grail" magical energy mixed with Medea's Age of Gods healing arts.
"This is a rune of god. Dissolve it in water and have your wife drink it, and it will be enough to cleanse every focus of illness in her body."
Seiji gently pushed the rune across to the man.
The man's breathing turned rapid in an instant!
"And the price?" he asked, trembling.
"The price is..." A smile as kindly as a demon's appeared on Seiji's face. "From this moment on, a part of your soul will be forever branded with my mark."
"You will become my most devout believer, and your joys and sorrows, your faith and loyalty, will all become nourishment to feed me."
"Are you willing to conduct this bargain?"
There was not the slightest hesitation.
"I'm willing! I'm willing!"
The man, as though grabbing the last straw that could save his life, kowtowed frantically to Seiji, then, carefully, with trembling hands, cupped that tiny green rune that carried all his hope, and as if it were a priceless treasure, tucked it tightly against his chest and departed full of gratitude.
Watching the man's departing figure, the corners of Seiji's mouth curved into a satisfied arc.
He knew a "seed" had been planted.
Soon, when that dying woman miraculously recovered before everyone's eyes, this seed would take root, sprout, and spread wildly throughout the entire city of Uruk at a viral, geometrically multiplying rate!
All he had to do was sit here, like a patient fisherman, waiting for the fish that, out of despair, would take the bait of their own accord.
"Master, you truly are... a born deity."
At his side, Medea, watching Seiji's smooth, masterful manipulation of human hearts, had eyes full of awe and infatuation.
In her view, Seiji's behavioral pattern resembled a true "god" more than any Olympian deity she had ever known.
Cold, rational, treating all living things as straw dogs, and yet able, in passing, to grant them gifts they couldn't refuse.
"No, Medea, you're wrong."
Seiji shook his head and corrected her.
"A god is a pitiful creature that needs something as unstable as faith to maintain its own existence."
"And I..."
His eyes glittered with a deeper, more possessive ambition.
"...am here to devour gods."
"Faith is nothing more than the cheapest bait I use to fish."
It was at that moment.
A languid, alluring voice drifted in from the temple's entrance.
"Oh? What big words from such a newly arrived little god."
Seiji lifted his head.
A seductive woman with a tall figure, wearing a revealing green priestess garb, with long hair the dark green of seaweed, was leaning against the temple entrance, sizing him up with great interest.
A trace of playful amusement was on her face.
But from her body radiated a vast aura of divinity that made even Medea look twice.
[Warning! High-tier divinity reaction detected!]
[Target identity recognition... comparing against database...]
[Match successful! Target: the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl (Good)!]
[Note: one of the Three Goddess Alliance, hostile to Ishtar and Ereshkigal.]
"Someone from the Three Goddess Alliance?"
Seiji raised an eyebrow slightly, his expression turning intrigued.
He'd assumed the first to come knocking would be that impatient Gilgamesh.
He hadn't expected it would be the "BOSS" of the hostile camp, delivering herself to his door.
"It seems this little temple of mine really is quite lively."
He rose from behind the counter and gave this "guest" who had come from afar a textbook welcome smile, full of a businesslike air.
"Welcome, beautiful lady, to the Temple of the Equivalent Exchange of All Things."
"May I ask what you'd like to come and bargain for today?"