Ishtar's Rebellion (Continued)

Reminded of this, Rin Tohsaka suddenly remembered what Rovey, and her eyes widened in disbelief. She hurriedly asked, "She and I are enemies, and what can she possibly do to help me?"

Rin Tohsaka still refused to believe it.

In her eyes, Luvia was always inferior to her, looked down on her, and was only picking fights out of jealousy.

Ishtar someone even she couldn't handle using Command Seal, so what could Luvia possibly do? She was now more inclined to believe that Luvia was just there to laugh at her.

Seeing through Rin Tohsaka's thoughts at a glance, Rovey shook his head helplessly. He was about to explain, but unlike Rin Tohsaka, Ereshkigal was floating to the side, quickly noticed something was wrong.

"Human? No, this is the aura of a god..."

Ereshkigal stared intently at Luvia's face, then stroked her chin and examined her closely.

As the Queen of the Mesopotamia, she was extremely familiar with souls and divine auras, and naturally wouldn't be so easily deceived by appearances as Rin Tohsaka. Her eyes were fixed intently on Luvia at this moment.

She sensed an extremely pure and powerful aura emanating from Luvia. Such a divine aura could never be possessed by a human. Even the most powerful demigod, Gilgamesh, would not possess such pure divine power. Therefore, the matter was quite clear.

"Which pantheon are you a deity from? Are you also possessed by another girl, like us?"

Ereshkigal asked Luvia.

"What an amazing sense of smell, Lord Ereshkigal, the King of the Underworld of Mesopotamia! You recognized me at a glance."

After Ereshkigal saw through the truth at a glance, Astraea, who was possessing Luvia, nodded slightly and a smile appeared on her face.

Then, she politely introduced herself to Ereshkigal.

"I am Astraea Olympian Pantheon, or rather, the Greek Pantheon, the goddess of justice and scales, righteousness and judgment."

As she spoke, she summoned her divine artifact, the Scales, and a golden short sword.

When she introduced herself, Ereshkigal's expression turned to surprise.

She exclaimed in surprise, "I never imagined that, besides Ishtar and me, there would be other gods who could be summoned by such a ritual, and even possessed by them."

"And another thing... you actually know me?"

"Yes, I know you."

In response to Ereshkigal's question, Astraea replied with utmost politeness, "Mr. Rovey explained your current situation to me and briefly mentioned some things about you, so I have a general understanding of your character. You are truly a great being, almost like Hades. Therefore, I should pay my respects to you. I was summoned here to help you resolve your predicament."

"Is that so...? That's wonderful!"

Upon hearing Astraea's words, Rin Tohsaka's eyes immediately lit up. However, seeing Astraea wearing Luvia's face, striking such a sacred pose, and appearing extremely proper and approachable, Rin couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

She hadn't expected that she wasn't the only one to draw such a powerful card as the goddess; Luvia had drawn the same one. Moreover, the other's goddess seemed very approachable, far superior to her own Ishtar.

This made her envious.

However, compared to Rin Tohsaka's current complex emotions, Ereshkigal felt a little puzzled.

She carefully examined Astraea, feeling her power. After repeated scrutiny, she finally confirmed that Astraea was indeed a benevolent goddess, possessing a similar ability to justice as her brother Shamash. As the ruler of the Scales, she was a righteous goddess, far superior to herself, a dark goddess. This made Ereshkigal feel a pang of envy.

But despite her envy, Ereshkigal still had some questions about the matter.

She looked at Astraea and asked, "Ishtar and I were summoned because of our connection with Rovey and our compatibility with Ishtar, but what about you? As the guardian of Libra, why are you here? You have no reason to respond to the summons, and what is your class? Shouldn't you be a Ruler?"

"I'm curious about that too."

At this moment, Luvia, who was the body she was possessing, suddenly spoke up, "I was just standing on the summoning circle when she appeared out of nowhere, and even seriously discussed with me the proper terms for borrowing my body, without any warning whatsoever. As for her class, it's even more outrageous..."

"It's Berserker."

"Berserker!"

Upon hearing this class, Ereshkigal was momentarily stunned.

Rin Tohsaka was completely bewildered. She looked at Astraea, who was able to coexist peacefully with Luvia and showed no signs of losing her rationality during their conversation, and felt as if she had been deceived.

After all, aren't Berserkers a bunch of madmen who have lost their minds and only know how to fight and act on instinct? This goddess doesn't look like a Berserker at all.

"On this point, I am indeed a Berserker. As for why I am a Berserker, it's probably because there are already suitable candidates for my class. However, it's not hard to explain why I can maintain my rationality. I am the God of Libra, the God of Fairness, and I inherently possess the ability to keep my mind clear at all times to ensure fair judgments. It is this ability that helps me counteract the evaporation of my rationality."

Astraea pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Although I may still lose control of my emotions and have a fit when I encounter things I can't accept, I can still maintain normal communication and actions, so you don't need to worry."

"As for why I answered the summons, I found it strange at first. As the God of Justice, I shouldn't be affecting the human world, but I had a premonition that there was something I needed to do in this Holy Grail War, that I had a mission to participate in it. As for the reason—I roughly knew when Mr. Rovey mentioned Ishtar."

"Ah...?"

Ereshkigal blinked.

"..."

Rin Tohsaka immediately covered her face.

She couldn't help but wonder what kind of being she had summoned that could compel the goddesses of justice from other pantheons to personally come out and restrain her.

In fact, this was not surprising to Rovey at all.

After all, Gilgamesh had written several tablets full of words, and even poems, all to fiercely denounce Ishtar.

This is why Ishtar's reputation became extremely poor in later generations.

Now all you need to do is go online and look up Ishtar's existence, and you'll see Gilgamesh's records of all the stupid things Ishtar did, as well as the insults he hurled at her.

As for the advantages...

Rovey knew it all too well.

He was so familiar with Gilgamesh that Rovey clearly remembered what Gilgamesh had said.

Praise for Ishtar?

What should we praise her for?

Should we praise her greed or her ignorance?

Even if I make sarcastic remarks to her, she'll take it as praise. If I were to actually compliment her, she'd definitely take it even more seriously. Besides, I wouldn't do something so pointless. I'd rather use that energy to insult her a few more times and teach her a lesson.

While there were many personal reasons that led to Gilgamesh's history being filled with his own opinions, Rovey had to admit that praising Ishtar was indeed very difficult. This resulted in almost none of Ishtar's merits being recorded, only a series of dark chapters. If Ishtar knew about this, she would surely be so devastated that she would summon the Bull of Heaven to launch a world-destroying campaign to cover up her dark history.

"I see. You were summoned here to restrain Ishtar, which means you are actually Counter Force chosen by the Counter Force to prevent Ishtar from running amok, right?"

Ereshkigal immediately understood.

At the same time, she couldn't help but complain, "Just how bad is Ishtar's reputation that the Counter Force would go so far as to summon goddesses from other pantheons to deal with her?"

Rovey: "Anyway, it's definitely more outrageous than you imagine."

However, compared to all that, Rin Tohsaka felt as if she had seen a savior. She hurriedly grasped Astraea's hand and asked, "Will you help me subdue her?!"

"Yes, Mr. Rovey asked me to help keep her in check."

Astraea said, "However, I will not attack her first. I will only intervene when she makes a mistake, because a battle between two goddesses is far too dangerous for humans. But rest assured, child, I will definitely save you."

She then gently stroked Rin Tohsaka's head, softly comforting her, "I won't let you get into danger."

Such a touch, such gentleness, almost made the utterly miserable Rin Tohsaka cry.

Let's see what a goddess is!

This is truly a goddess! Astraea, you are so gentle!

At the same time, she felt even worse because of the imbalance.

What makes Luvia so capable of summoning a goddess like that?

Why does he have to suffer like that?!

Although there were goddesses like Ereshkigal, they were completely dominated by Ishtar, which was entirely her torment.

But as much as she envied her, she now hoped even more that Astraea could help her solve her problem.

Astraea considered this. Although she couldn't fight Ishtar in a human city, given Ishtar's personality, she was bound to cause trouble. Therefore...

In that case, it would be better to draw the other side's target to yourself.

So she made a request to Ereshkigal and Rin Tohsaka: could they stay at her place for the night, so that she could attract Ishtar when Ishtar woke up in the morning?

Rin Tohsaka naturally had no objection to this.

As for Ereshkigal, she actually really wanted to chat with Rovey, but when she heard that Rovey was going along, she immediately agreed.

After all, with Rovey by his side and the chance to see Ishtar get her comeuppance, he couldn't miss out on such a good opportunity.

So it was almost the next day.

When Ishtar awoke on the grass outside and all the ghost money around her had vanished, she, as expected, was consumed by rage.

Meanwhile, at that very moment, Rovey was in the mansion playing chess with Astraea while waiting for the time to come.

It was around 8 a. m.

"They've arrived."

Rovey released the chess piece, and the chessboard in front of him began to shake violently.

The next moment--

Boom!!

A golden beam of light, as expected, pierced the dome of the mansion.

Astraea narrowed her eyes.

"I only dozed off for a little while, I really didn't expect this..."

Ishtar sat on Maanna, staring at Astraea below with a displeased expression.

"A god dares to build his temple near me? Are you provoking me?!"

"..."

Seeing this situation, Rovey was not surprised at all.

After all, this was something that was expected long ago, something that was bound to happen.

Only...

He still couldn't quite contain himself when he saw Ishtar barge directly into Astraea's temple.

This guy's stupidity is truly beyond my imagination. Knowing full well that the other party is also a god, he barges into a god's temple—what's the difference between that and Magus breaking into another Magus's workshop? In terms of the environment, he'll be severely disadvantaged.

Even a god-king wouldn't do something so foolish.

For example, An, the king of the Sumerian gods, never dared to enter the Underworld of Ereshkigal to redeem Ishtar alone; he always had to be accompanied by a large group of gods. This was because even the king of gods would suffer greatly in the realms of other gods.

And Ishtar, looking so fresh and beautiful, just walked right in.

Upon witnessing this scene, aside from Rovey's speechlessness, Astraea was also unable to hold back her emotions.

She looked up and frowned as she gazed at Maanna, that scantily clad, arrogant, and utterly rude figure.

"What chaos this is... This is no ordinary chaotic deity; we must strike hard."

She sighed inwardly and murmured to herself.

After a moment, it seemed that he had finally made up his mind or calmed down.

Astraea raised her head again, then gave Ishtar a benevolent smile. She then reached out and tore a slit in her obviously expensive blue dress, revealing her beautiful, white legs.

"It seems you've become so lawless in your own pantheon that you're used to it. I don't know how your parents disciplined you to raise a chaotic goddess like you, so different from Lord Ereshkigal, but..."

"I won't let you mess around. I'm ready to teach you a lesson!"

After saying that, Astraea's body was once again engulfed in blazing magical power, clearly indicating that she had immediately entered a state of battle.

"Huh? You dare to lecture me? Even Grandpa Enki wouldn't say such a thing to me. How dare you, a wild god from elsewhere, not only build such a temple near me, but also show such disrespect to me, the great Ishtar. Shouldn't I be the one teaching you a lesson?"

Ishtar showed no mercy and also mobilized her own magic.

Rovey stood up, making room for the two of them to move around. Then he raised his hand and added a layer of enhanced defense to the temple, making it even more solid, to prevent the two's battle from affecting Fuyuki City.

Finally, he found a sofa, sat down, and raised his hand in greeting.

"You guys fight your battle, don't worry about me. With me here, no matter how intense the fight gets, it won't hurt anyone else. You can fight with peace of mind."

Upon hearing this, Astraea breathed a sigh of relief and then gave Rovey a grateful look.

Thank you, I won't let you down.

"Watch closely, Mr. Rovey, I'm going to defeat Rin Tohsaka and that damn goddess together!"

This time it was Luvia spoke.

Having achieved oneness with Astraea, she was now eager to try it out.

"Yes, good luck. We're counting on you to save Fuyuki City."