"O Beast. Do you see?"
Humbaba looked up at the sky.
A woman who appeared, clad in golden armor. It was the intruder from before.
He tried to seize and kill her at once, but alas, the woman was beyond the barrier.
Instead, Humbaba scratched the barrier with his claws.
The body, filled with causeless resentment, continuously craved someone's blood.
Revenge. Endless anger and resentment were all that constituted Humbaba.
"How pathetic. To have eyes yet see nothing, to have a mouth yet be satisfied by no delicacy. Truly a failure of the gods."
Humbaba could not properly understand her words.
However, he perceived clearly enough that she was insulting him.
"■■———■■■———."
"I cannot hear you. Raise your head a little higher. How far must I look down upon you?"
The beast stomped its foot. The ground trembled.
It was somewhat agitated. Realizing the preparations were complete, Gilgamesh lowered Vimana's altitude slightly.
Still with the barrier between them, Gilgamesh approached to be right in front of the beast's nose.
The sickening stench of filth wafted from it.
"Discard those seven auras."
"■■■——?"
"Are you mocking me? Then… what about this?"
Humbaba's eyes, which had been pressed down by masses of fat, widened.
A baby was cradled in Gilgamesh's arms.
With green eyes,
incomparable to any treasure, more precious than anything else——
"■■——!!!!"
Humbaba roared.
It was a tremendous roar that tore the air and burst the eardrums of all living creatures nearby.
A wrathful fury was directed at Gilgamesh.
She had expected it, but the intensity of the emotion was greater than anticipated, and she flinched for a moment.
But she soon returned to the demeanor of the King of Heroes.
"Is that so? Even in that state, you recognize your own child?"
Gilgamesh hugged the baby as if it were precious.
In her hand was a small dagger.
A common knife used for peeling fruit.
But it was a weapon sufficient to turn a newborn into a cold corpse.
"■■■■…."
"Do not, do not raise your voice. My patience is not as plentiful as my treasury."
She placed the dagger against the baby's neck.
With even the slightest pressure, the fragile skin would surely be rent like tofu, and blood would gush like a fountain.
The beast's ferocity diminished. No, it sank to the very ground.
What would happen to that baby?
It was so terrified that it trembled in fear.
Here, Gilgamesh scoffed as planned.
Because it wasn't genuine, it was a little awkward, but not noticeably so.
"Puhahaha! What a sight! To see that beast bow its head so wretchedly!"
The plan was all too successful.
The plan to threaten the beast with its own baby—a child so precious it had yet to be named—had already achieved its preliminary results.
'Enkidu. What a truly perfect form.'
Using her Clairvoyance, Gilgamesh had looked into Marduk's past life.
She had perfectly recorded everything about the baby the beast and the Pope had, including its face, hands, feet, form, and scent.
Based on that record, Enkidu transformed.
The perfect shape-shifting of the gods' weapon could replicate a newborn even with its eyes closed.
To anyone's eyes, it was a perfect baby.
And one that was perfectly identical to the beast's child.
'So perfect, it is a truly vile sight.'
Behold. Even the monster before her failed to see through it.
Of course, if the beast had been in a normal state, it would not have failed to recognize the deception.
But the situation now was far too unique.
It had abandoned its name, lost its reason, and transformed into a monster.
It would be forever impossible to grasp the truth with clouded eyes.
"■■■■———."
Humbaba wailed, having forgotten even its mission.
As if it were its own treasure, it continued to call for the baby desperately.
Is this what they call paternal love?
Gilgamesh felt a slight twinge of jealousy.
'You rejected me, yet the child you made with that woman is so precious to you?'
No. That is a vile jealousy, Gilgamesh rebuked herself.
This is nothing more than slaying a monster. I will not allow other personal feelings to interfere.
Renewing her resolve once more, Gilgamesh spoke to the beast.
"Discard your auras."
"■■...…."
The monster lowered its head.
The brilliant seven-colored auras slowly lost their color.
The saturation faded. As they lost their color, Humbaba's body became noticeably gaunt.
The auras, which had both strengthened Humbaba and forcibly maintained its body's balance, completely vanished.
The monster's body began to gradually disintegrate.
"■̷̡̳͍̤̗̙̠̺̙̮̩͔̟̬̲̭̰͇̙̞͉̪̬̝̦̘͌̿̐̏͐̐̐■̶̨̠̖̳͎͇͕͇̬̖̲̪̬̪̭̭̺̭̏̈́̋̂̅͛̂͋̀͘͜ͅͅͅ■̸̡̧̛̬̙̪͔͙̹͓͈͕̭͕͚̝̓̋̓͛̕͝ͅ■̴̝̗͌̀́̀͋̿͌͛̿͊͘̚■̵͕̘͔͔̭͉̣̖̝͙̫̈̈̐̈́̿̄͛̈́͂̃̆́͛̔̇́̀̑̍̅̕͝͝͝■̷̬͒̐͑̆̔̒́̂̎̌͊̎̒͗́͗̕̚͘̚͝͝͝—̴̡̹̣̦̫̥̲̪̪̹̭̙̮͍̖̝͇̱̬̮̼̬̦̌̑̂̈́̈̍̎͐̓͂̌̄̽́́̏̊̑̓̾͆̒̔̄̍̕͜͜͜͝ͅ—̷̛̣͙̀̂̀̌̅̂̀͑̉̔͆͆͐͒̒̅͋̀͠͠—̴̢̧̢̱̬̳̜̙̲̳͈͍̣̹͙͖͇̤̤͎͇͚̺̝̲̞̍̑͛͗̑̒̉̒̀̀̏̀͑͌̔̎̈́̂̆͜͝ͅͅ!"
An unearthly scream struck Gilgamesh's eardrums.
A noise that made her grimace instinctively. Gilgamesh glared at the monster until the very end.
Chunks of flesh fell to the ground, one by one.
The beast that had walked on all fours completely melted down like sticky mud.
"Is it over?"
Silence.
Gilgamesh relaxed her guard.
The thing, which was emitting a blackish aura, was no longer moving.
The situation was over.
Just as Gilgamesh was about to tell Enkidu to release his transformation.
Puk.
A tentacle pierced through Gilgamesh's armor as if it were tofu, creating a massive hole in her chest.
Blood trickled from the corner of Gilgamesh's mouth.
"What…?"
It was a lapse in concentration for the briefest of moments.
Gilgamesh had not even taken off her armor, nor had she exposed the vulnerable joints.
All she had done was to try and put down Enkidu, who was transformed into a baby.
"Don't tell me you were waiting for the moment the baby was no longer in line with my chest?!"
Humbaba had been waiting for that single moment.
The baby's safety and Gilgamesh's death.
It had been constantly aiming for that fleeting gap to catch two birds with one stone.
Gilgamesh staggered back.
An indescribable pain surged through the large, gaping hole in her chest.
No matter how mighty Gilgamesh was, she could not live without a heart.
She shouted fiercely at the lump of mud that was once a monster.
"The barrier… how did you pierce it! There's no way those cowards from the heavens were involved. How on earth…?!"
The barrier that bound Humbaba.
That barrier was still perfectly intact.
It was still in effect.
But it only served to restrain the guardian.
"■■■———!!!!"
There is no barrier that can contain a manifested Evil of Humanity.
Realizing the situation, Gilgamesh was dumbfounded.
This was Humbaba, nothing more than an empty shell. Such a thing as being reborn as a true Beast now should not be happening.
A soul must be present, and it must also be incomplete.
If a complete soul were to return, the monster would become a Beast and regain its senses.
Therefore, what was needed was a part of a soul that only possessed the qualifications of a Beast.
A tiny amount, no more than a spoonful, was needed,
and that had just been inserted by someone.
"Don't spout such convenient nonsense! No matter how they were toyed with, a divinity is a divinity! Do you think a soul can be treated like a toy?!"
Gilgamesh abruptly fell silent.
A soul split into pieces. She recalled the curse she had laid upon the one she had created.
A curse laid by none other than herself.
She burst into laughter.
"Ha… haha… hahahaha!"
It was fate.
Gilgamesh steeled her heart once more.
She cast away the lingering attachment she had held onto until now.
"Very well. I shall use my full power to exterminate you. I will cage every piece of your soul and display it in my treasury for all eternity."
Gilgamesh immediately killed the baby.
She grabbed the neck and torso with her hands and tore them apart.
It was not Enkidu's death. The real Enkidu's body was hidden, and what was destroyed was merely a portion of clay.
But the monster was enraged.
The black mud began to take the form of a beast.
The first thing it created was sharp claws.
It created a weapon to tear apart the one before it, the one who had murdered its child.
"■■■■———!!!!"
"Rage, o Beast. Let your reason be clouded."
Gilgamesh drew a sword from her treasury.
A strange weapon that could hardly be called a sword, with three interlocking cylinders rotating.
"Cry out, Ea."
Red lightning radiated endlessly with her at its center.
The heavens and the earth began to tremble.
===========================
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