Chapter 31: Doing Great Things, Seeking Great Death
Ishtar left the house with a stunned look she could not quite smooth away.
She had truly not expected it.
Even with the gods pressing down so openly and so brutally, neither Gilgamesh, nor Rowe, nor even that divine clay doll showed the slightest tremor of fear.
Were they not afraid?
Before, their recklessness had at least been aimed at gods who could still be mocked from a distance, or at the fading authority of heaven that could be shaken with clever tricks. Now was different.
The Bull of Heaven and Humbaba were not arguments you could shout at. They were the two extremes of power on the Mesopotamian plain. The strongest divine beast, the strongest demonic beast. If the gods could still interfere with the present world in any way at all, this was the harshest way they could choose.
Even as a incarnation descended by possession, even as the Mistress of Heaven's pillar made human, Ishtar felt dread just imagining the pair arriving together.
Outside, on streets drenched in daylight, her steps slowed.
She turned and looked back.
Bare feet shifted uneasily beneath the long crimson coat that now seemed like armor she had put on too late.
For some reason, she hoped Gilgamesh and the others would win.
Maybe it was Rowe's strangeness, that stubborn brightness that refused to bend. Maybe it was the humanity she had inherited from Tohsaka Rin, a humanity that recoiled at the thought of scorched fields and cities stacked with corpses.
"I hope they can endure it," she murmured.
Then she clenched her jaw.
"I should still tell that Goddess of the Underworld…"
With that decision, Ishtar Rin left Uruk entirely.
Inside the house, after she was gone, silence pooled like still water.
No one spoke. On the surface, they looked like men and gods weighing a disaster. In truth, Rowe's mind was already wandering down a very different road.
How do I die well?
Should he challenge the Bull of Heaven alone? Throw himself at Humbaba first, when even Enkidu would hesitate?
Or should he push his Key of Heaven nature to its limit and seek a collapse in the very act of becoming something inhuman?
While he calculated, a soft pressure wrapped around his hand.
Enkidu had reached out, slender fingers closing over his palm.
Rowe blinked back to himself.
She was close now, closer than he remembered her being. Her emerald eyes held a calm light like a night sky full of quiet stars. Her lips parted as if she were trying to find the right shape of reassurance.
Enkidu?
What are you planning?
Rowe's thoughts scattered for a heartbeat. His gaze dipped, almost by habit, and for a brief instant he caught the suggestion of her figure beneath the cloud white robe. Graceful and startlingly pure. A beauty that carried no calculation, only a strange peace.
"Rowe, it is alright. Do not worry." Enkidu held both his hands, steady and warm. "We will win."
She looked straight at him.
"No matter what happens, I will stand with you."
"Because we are friends, are we not?"
Friends do not usually say that while holding you like a promise and leaning in like a prayer, Rowe thought dryly.
But Enkidu was still new to the world. She had no reason to suspect the shape of Rowe's heart. In her mind, he was simply worried about the gods' methods. She was trying to soothe him in the clearest way she knew.
Before Rowe could answer, Gilgamesh's laughter rolled across the room.
"Hmph hahahaha. Exactly."
He sat back with arms crossed, golden hair framing eyes sharp enough to carve stone.
"As one who once fought beside this King, I grant you the right to stand alongside me, and to be called my friend." His voice was proud, absolute. "Naturally, this King will not allow anyone to harm the friends of this King."
Then he snapped his head toward the doorway.
"Siduri."
"Present, Your Majesty."
The reply came instantly.
Siduri stepped in, face half veiled by a light scarf, long gown swaying as she moved with practiced composure. After a full day of rest, the fatigue that had nearly crushed her earlier had softened into something manageable.
Gilgamesh lifted a hand.
"Tell them what preparations this King has already ordered."
"Yes."
Siduri bowed slightly, then spoke in her clear, measured tone.
"By His Majesty's command, scouts have been dispatched to the east and west."
"According to His Majesty's judgment, if the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba manifest, they will do so at these two points."
"The east is the land of sunrise, where divine revelation first touches the earth. The west is the land of sunset, the border that faces death."
"As the strongest divine beast and strongest demonic beast, either one must absorb atmospheric aether at the most suitable sites to forge a body that can sustain activity in the present world. East and west are precisely those sites."
"Once either appears, scouts will report immediately."
She inhaled lightly.
"At the same time…"
"At the same time," Gilgamesh cut in, taking over as if he could not resist hearing himself say it, "this King has also sent men to the temples. Those priests will deliver my will to their gods. I am considering their so called advice."
"Those old, foolish relics will believe it. They will slow the power supporting the beasts' manifestation."
He smirked.
"And we gain more time, correct?"
"Indeed," Enkidu said smoothly, following the logic without hesitation. "We prepare further before they arrive."
Gilgamesh nodded toward her with satisfied approval.
"Worthy of the title of friend."
Then he continued, voice turning colder.
"The Bull of Heaven and Humbaba are of equal caliber. But in terms of difficulty, the wild Humbaba, whom the gods have locked away in the darkest heights of the Cedar Forest, is far more troublesome than the Bull."
"So my plan is simple. We deal with the Bull of Heaven first, then turn to Humbaba. Easy first, hard second."
His fingers tapped once on the arm of his chair.
"Even I dislike admitting it, but facing two calamities at once, even a King such as myself and you who stand beside me will find them difficult."
"So I will also draw in and divide the gods to gain assistance."
He gave a short laugh that carried teeth.
"They have never been united."
Shamash, his grandfather, stood against Anu.
The All Knowing Goddess who was his mother in this life was another axis entirely.
Gilgamesh's thinking was clear. His direction was sound. If he stopped acting like a tantrum with a crown, he really was a king made for a nation.
Rowe listened, and the words slid past him like water.
Not because he doubted Gilgamesh's plan, but because the plan was not what he wanted.
Gilgamesh believed they still had time.
Gilgamesh believed victory was possible with preparation and alliances.
Rowe had learned something else from every failure to die so far.
To seek a great death, you must first do a great deed.
And now he knew another truth even more sharply.
With Ereshkigal's blessing on him, the Underworld no longer eroded his body. Normal ways of courting death might stop working entirely.
So his goal could not remain at defeating the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba.
His goal had to become larger.
If the gods wanted to decide his fate with beasts, then perhaps the beasts could be used to decide the gods' fate instead.
This had been impossible before. Even with the three of them, dragging heaven down had been only a provocation.
But if the entire Mesopotamian plain united, if every city, every tribe, every surviving remnant of this civilization gathered under one desperate will, then the weight would change.
The Bull of Heaven and Humbaba were a crisis that could burn everything.
Humans of this era would unite in front of such ruin.
And when they did, the crisis could be turned into a lever.
Rowe's mind sketched it out in a single breath.
He would use the Key of Heaven as a gate.
The Chains of Heaven as the rope that anchored Above to Below.
The wedge of heaven as the path.
He would call on the Underworld through Ereshkigal.
He would call on the human world through fear, rage, and survival.
He would complete what they had left unfinished.
He would truly shake divine authority.
He would drag the gods down into the dust.
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