Now That's What I Call a Surprise!

"Scum, do you have any last words?"

"Well... actually, I think there's a deep misunderstanding between us."

The cool morning breeze caressed my face, making me feel exceptionally refreshed, and the first rays of sunlight warmed me. If possible, this spot is excellent; it's truly a perfect place to watch the sunrise and enjoy sunbathing. If a white Rovey chair could be set up right there, facing the rising sun, the scene would be even better.

However, although he was indeed enjoying the first rays of sunlight on the mountaintop in the early morning, for Rovey, it was by no means a pleasant experience, and he felt no sense of relaxation.

Splash!...

Feeling the dozens of layers of restraints binding his body, from his fingers to his toes, completely and utterly bound in a cold, solid state, and glancing at Tiamat still sitting on him, looking at him with curiosity as he was bound like a Kingu, and at Kingu who had just appeared, still swinging the chains and asking for his last words, the scene was undeniably bizarre.

"The misunderstanding you're referring to, is it that you pinned me to a tree last time we met, and then pinned your mother to the ground this time?"

"Aaaa?!"

"Wait a minute... Don't misunderstand, I didn't have any designs on this clay figure. What I did last time was clearly to prevent you from doing anything reckless, so I tied your hands. After all, you came here with the intention of killing me the moment we met. And this time, it looks like your mother is the one pressing down on me, right?"

"——"

Kingu coldly recalled for a moment, then seemed to remember how troublesome the enemy was. Soon, the golden chains that were originally binding Rovey tightened their grip several more times, leaving Rovey somewhat puzzled.

And there stood Kingu, staring intently at him, his eyes gleaming with a terrifying crimson light. Rovey had no doubt that Kingu could use Karna's True Hero technique to kill with his eyes at any moment, roasting him alive.

"So these are your last words?" Kingu asked coldly.

"No way! Who would say something like that as their last words? And are you completely incapable of listening to anything I say? Did you just ignore my reply?"

"No, no matter what happens, your answer is completely irrelevant to me. On the contrary, not having you is the most important thing to me."

Kingu made no attempt to hide the truth.

Rovey: "Are you going to kill me today?"

"That's right, I must kill you, you parasite who dares to seduce my mother."

"Aaaaa?"

Tiamat, still sitting on the body, reluctantly stopped her instinctive urge to reproduce and create harmony because of Kingu's appearance. Instead, she blinked her strange eyes with star patterns and looked at the strange way the two were communicating with a puzzled expression.

This seemingly adorable but somewhat naive mother, while a genuine Beast of the Return, spends most of her time sleeping or glancing at the vast human population. Coupled with the erosion of her life during her long period of sealing, she has zero experience venturing outside, virtually no common sense, and her understanding of how humans interact normally is completely nonexistent. Therefore, when Kingu suddenly bound Rovey before her, Tiamat not only didn't stop him, but even praised him:

"Aaaaa".

"What do you mean, 'To add a new member to the family, Kingu has to work hard too'?! Your kid is clearly here to kill me, holy crap—!!"

"Don't take off my clothes yet! This is the middle of nowhere, and it's not appropriate to do this in front of a child. Kingu, stop her!"

Before Rovey could finish complaining, Tiamat, with her straightforward and earnest personality, immediately got to work, clearly indicating that she genuinely wanted to have another child.

"Mother--!!"

Seeing this, Kingu, who had been unable to find an opportunity to attack Tiamat because she was on Rovey, shouted anxiously and then raised his hand to retract the chains to prevent himself from seeing anything he shouldn't have in the wild today.

The thought of your own mother being with a despicable piece of trash is worse than killing her.

At that moment, Rovey pushed Tiamat away to prevent her from continuing her reckless behavior.

"Aaaa".

Tiamat, though somewhat disappointed by being pushed away, quickly became overjoyed to see her child so soon after coming out. She then realized that Kingu's visit wasn't just a casual passing by or a visit to someone, so she hugged him and began asking what Kingu 'd been up to lately and if he'd missed her.

"Of course! Life without you is torture for me; I miss you every moment!"

"It's nothing, nothing, not at all. I just happened to sense your presence while wandering the plains, so I came straight here to check on you. I'm really happy to see you here again, Mother."

"Aaaa?"

"... Please rest assured, Mother. Of course, I am not dissatisfied with what happened before. I will obey your orders unconditionally. However, right now, I feel that I need to take care of some trouble first."

Her demeanor was completely different from any other time. When facing Tiamat, Kingu was a sensible and obedient child, without any dissatisfaction or backtalk. But when she turned to look at Rovey, the expression on her face immediately returned to its original look. "I'll fucking kill you today!"

—The frequency of face-changing is seamless, and the control of facial expressions is comparable to that of a hero from Sichuan. It is truly a face-changing performance without losing a bean.

"Remnants of other pantheons."

Kingu voice, "I know you are probably related to the Demon God Pillars. And your power is ridiculously strong. You come from another pantheon, but you insist on getting involved in Mesopotamia. Although I don't know what your purpose is, I think everything can go back to normal if I kill you."

"Do you want to get beaten up again?"

Seeing that this guy seemed to have forgotten the pain of his past mistakes and completely ignored the scene of him crying when he first met him, Rovey felt that Kingu was obviously somewhat inexplicably confident.

"You think you can beat me?"

"That's right. Although I am no match for you, I will not give up on this matter. I don't know what you did to Mother, nor do I know how you influenced the mind of the Mother of Beasts, but one thing I am sure of is that your existence is a complete poison to Mother."

Kingu and firm voice was once again transmitted through a special power.

Although she had almost realized that Rovey's power was stronger than when they first met, and that even if she continued to challenge him, the final result would likely still be a crushing defeat, the thought of what he had done to her mother—that he had denied her own significance and twisted her mother's will—was still compelling.

Kingu knew that this guy was like poison to his mother, and if he was allowed to continue living, he would eventually harm her.

So no matter the outcome, she will fight for her mother.

"Poison, huh... You idiot, even after seeing the person in person, the one you've been thinking about day and night, you still came to such a ridiculous answer, didn't you? You're incredibly stupid."

Kingu: "What?"

"The so-called poison you speak of is nothing more than wishful thinking and a figment of your imagination. Although you claim to be Tiamat's most outstanding child and the most perfect human form of the new century, your way of thinking proves nothing more than that of a child who never grew up. You have no goals or purposes of your own, and even your most basic thinking is given to you by others. Your very existence is nothingness."

As his strength and cultivation level increased, some memories that had been gradually forgotten became clearer, and he gradually recalled the story of Kingu.

Despite Kingu's current self-proclaimed status as a new human, deserving to replace the old humans and become the new rulers of the world, her fate is sealed. Later in the story, she releases Tiamat and continues to proclaim herself the most perfect creation of her mother and the representative of the new era of humanity. Kingu is ambushed by the new life forms, "Lahmu," spawned by the awakened and rampaging Tiamat. If it weren't for Siduri, who, despite being assimilated, still possesses a Kingu heart and at the last moment mistakes Enkidu, saving her with her life, Kingu would have long since perished among the so-called new humans.

But throughout it all, Kingu was filled with endless doubts. She had no idea why her mother had abandoned her, nor why the Lahmu, who were also "new humans," would attack her. In the end, Kingu, who had barely escaped with her life, lost all sense of purpose.

It can be said that their experiences with Tiamat were very similar, but if we had to point out a difference, it would be that they met each other at different times, and therefore their philosophies were completely different.

What Rovey encountered was Tiamat, who still retained some rationality, genuinely loved humanity, and could be awakened by him, and who tried to communicate with Tiamat. She was Kingu's true mother. They walked through each other's lives, became each other's understanders, and became an indispensable part of each other.

However, what Kingu encountered was the Beast, who had been completely consumed by bestiality and had lost her intellect and love. She had no consciousness, no love, and was unable to provide the right guidance. She only longed to return to her true self and could not tell Kingu the right answer, which led to the tragedy.

Kingu born without ever experiencing love; instead, she was forced to fight—to fight for her mother and to fight for revenge. In the end, she was killed by the Sumerian gods and never had the chance to see her mother again, even after her resurrection.

Therefore, love was an utterly foreign concept to her. Having never experienced it, how could she possibly understand it? Or rather, that's precisely why she was like this now—a cold, empty shell. Even though she had met her real mother, she still felt out of place, because she still didn't understand what love was.

"Nonsense! What right do you, a mere outsider who took advantage of the situation, have to judge my worth, or my love for my mother?!"

"Aaaa!"

Kingu roared and quickly reached out to grab Rovey's neck, intending to slam him to the ground. However, Rovey anticipated this and raised his left hand to open her palm, then punched her to the ground. Jacob's Limbs's fighting skills left Kingu with no chance to resist, and she was defeated in close combat. Tiamat, seeing this, shouted anxiously, trying to stop the fight between the two.

"Cough cough... Damn it, you're even stronger than the last time we met! What kind of monster are you?!"

"But, but—you simply don't understand! You have never been qualified to judge me. I have been working tirelessly to bring Mother back, to cleanse the world of all its filth, and to punish those who betrayed Mother! And all of this has been completely disrupted simply because of you, simply because of you, an outsider who knows nothing, a complete idiot! What do you understand about my efforts?!"

Even with Rovey pinning him to the ground, Kingu still couldn't resist asking questions.

"Have you ever considered that these aren't her, not Tiamat's, true thoughts?!"

Faced with Kingu's sophistry, Rovey showed no sympathy or empathy, but instead bluntly retorted with a question.

"Are you sure what you just said Tiamat's idea, or just your wishful thinking?"

During their time in the Imaginary Numbers World, although their environment consisted only of a dark ocean where time itself was chaotic and everything was deathly silent, Tiamat was still able to listen happily to the story of the future as Rovey narrated it. In her expectant eyes, Tiamat felt as if she had personally walked through an ideal world without gods, an extremely ordinary world, but one that was built by humankind.

Tiamat is a highly contradictory being. As the Mother of Origins, her instinct is the most unacceptable thing for humanity: a return to the origin, rewriting the carbon-based order and bringing about a new cycle and change in the biosphere. Yet, despite possessing such instincts and powers, her greatest hidden desire is—

You can lie lazily on the beach, watching your children grow up, just like a human being, living with the world you love, until you fall asleep forever.

This is everything that Rovey realized when he and she exchanged feelings and emotions, and it is precisely because of this that he felt that fate was unfair.

It's the cruelest joke in the world that she, such a dutiful mother, possesses such power.

Even Gilgamesh, who usually called gods "misfits" and despised everything, used a respectful title when referring to Tiamat.

Even Merlin, Merry, and even King Hassan had to maintain a certain level of respect when facing Tiamat.

Although they lamented, they could only make the most helpless choice, since no one is immortal. For the sake of the human world, even if it was hard to bear, they had to send Tiamat into a complete slumber.

However, this time, Rovey's intrusion has added a new possibility to the situation that originally required killing him.

"If you're still clinging to your delusions, then why not go and ask your mother yourself? You couldn't contact her before, so you went your own way. Now, why not listen to her true thoughts before making any moves? A child going through a rebellious phase can really hurt their mother."

"Hmph—I don't need you to teach me!"

Kingu clenched his fist, and hundreds of earthen weapons materialized on the ground, like a volley from Gilgamesh's Babylon Treasury, poised to fire, all aimed at Rovey's position.

"Want to fight again? Guess whether your weapon is faster, or if I punch you in the chest and make you cry faster?"

Rovey raised his fist and aimed it at Kingu's face.

"..."

After a few seconds of standoff, Kingu released his grip and was the first to give up.

Seeing that the guy had finally matured, Rovey lowered his fist.

"If you still don't understand, then learn from Tiamat, step into human towns yourself, abandon your pathetic pride, and understand what humans are and the difference between them and your so-called new humans."

In short, after saying a few cool words, Rovey released Kingu and then got up to walk towards Tiamat. He figured that as long as the guy didn't do anything rash, there wouldn't be any problems afterwards.

However, when he let go, Rovey still asked her for the Holy Grail inside his body.

Kingu neither agreed nor refused, because at this moment she wanted to stay by her mother's side more than anything else.

As for what she is actually pursuing?

From beginning to end, there was only his mother.

——

So...

"Mother, would you like me to massage your shoulders?"

"Aaaa..."

"I see. It's alright, leave it to me. What are you all looking at over there? Now that you've had the honor of seeing Mother, why don't you hurry up and kneel down to pay your respects? Mother is the greatest goddess!"

"Aaaa, aaa."

"Fine, since you won't accept their worship, then forget it. After all, they're just lowly foreign creatures."

"???"

Something's not right, absolutely not right.

Especially for the well-traveled and knowledgeable Merry, seeing the scene before her eyes left her with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.

"Lily, what's wrong? Did I hallucinate because you knocked me unconscious yesterday? I think I saw some incredible guy."

Black Lancer Artoria didn't answer her question, "..."

After all, she found everything before her even more unbelievable than Merry did.

Last night, she spent a lot of effort successfully knocking out Merry, then hid her body under the bed. With a nervous heart, she sat by the bed waiting for Rovey to come back, but she waited all night and no one came. It wasn't until the early morning that she changed her clothes and came out to ask Anna where she had seen Rovey last night.

Upon hearing that he was with Ishtar, Black Lancer Artoria's eyes sharpened, and she longed to draw her gun and skewer that useless goddess. However, remembering that the other person was Ishtar, and that he had returned looking utterly dejected, clearly nothing had happened, the heavy weight in her heart quickly lifted. After all, that was Ishtar.

Although she is indeed good-looking, her personality and actions are enough to make people hesitate. After all, no one would be attracted to a creature like Aqua, right?

Things were progressing quite normally up to this point; at most, he had waited all night for nothing, and Rovey had talked with Ishtar all night.

Since we failed this time, we can just wait for next time. There's plenty of time in the future, and there will be opportunities everywhere after we return to Uruk.

However--

Looking at the green figure that had returned with him, and Tiamat whose attributes clearly overlapped with his own, Black Lancer Artoria fell into deep thought.

With her large breasts and dragon horns, and being a manifestation of Evils of Humanity, she was inherently dark. Recalling the classic quote, "Men all love darkness," Black Lancer Artoria felt her position was being seriously challenged.

Moreover, when facing Tiamat, the dragon factor within her inexplicably tempted her to get closer to Tiamat, or rather, to call her "Mom."

After all, Tiamat was the first dragon, and in terms of bloodline, calling her "mother" seemed quite fitting. However, she was a god, not Sumerian god, so she suppressed the shameful impulse.

Black Lancer Artoria is concerned about now is what exactly is going on with the obviously unusual relationship between her and Rovey.

"——"

However, compared to Black Lancer Artoria, who was not very clear about the situation, Merry was more concerned about was - how exactly did she get out?

Filled with endless curiosity, Merry wrapped her arms around Rovey's neck and then cautiously asked him what he had done.