The bombardment from the Gate of Babylon continued, while moonlight streamed down endlessly from high above. This time, Anu intended to withstand it all and blast them apart.
The Chief God's scepter radiated dazzling light, streams of solidified True Aether slicing through everything around it.
Anu was furious beyond measure. Even if he harmed his allies, he would kill the man before him.
"Has that old bastard gone insane?"
Ishtar had never seen her father so crazed. Facing a frenzied Anu, Fujimaru Kyoya would certainly gain no advantage.
"There."
Although First Before First was a talent that could conceal his attack intent, it could not make Fujimaru Kyoya vanish outright. As long as he existed, he resonated with the world—and Anu could find him.
[Your injuries worsen, leaving you unable to evade this attack.]
The blazing light pierced straight through Fujimaru Kyoya. Accompanied by wild laughter, it seemed as though everything had been settled.
[You knew that you had bought enough time.]
"It is my victory. After killing you, I will deal with Gilgamesh—"
"Old bastard, where is my hand?"
Fujimaru Kyoya interrupted Anu, pointing at his severed arm. Where had the hand that had been cut off gone?
"Your hand? You... bastard."
Anu looked at Fujimaru Kyoya's empty arm. Earlier, someone else had also had an arm severed, and that person's arm was connected to Fujimaru Kyoya's missing hand.
"Gilgamesh?"
"Of course. Otherwise, why would I provoke you with words and blind you with Lime?"
Fujimaru Kyoya laughed even more wildly. Just as Anu prepared to end his life, a terrifying pressure descended.
Gilgamesh appeared behind Fujimaru Kyoya with Enuma Elish in hand, and the arm that had originally been blown to ashes had somehow reappeared.
No, it was not his arm. It was Fujimaru Kyoya's.
Gilgamesh had actually attached Fujimaru Kyoya's arm to himself.
"Are you surprised, mongrel? As this king's substitute, as this king's younger brother, can this king not use his arm?"
Gilgamesh and Fujimaru Kyoya had been born as Heaven's Wedges of the same model. This was perhaps the greatest mistake Anu had ever made.
Can We Reconcile?
Enkidu was dead. Gilgamesh had clearly been prepared for this, so why did his heart ache? Where did this anger come from?
Gilgamesh had been extraordinary from the moment he was born into this world. His lofty self-regard allowed him to treat humans and gods alike. To Gilgamesh, the only criterion for judging others was the soul.
Enkidu was the second person he had encountered with a noble soul. Even though Enkidu was merely a tool created by the Gods, he had still been willing to befriend him. As for the first...
A blazing beam of Ether flashed past, severing an arm and dropping it before Gilgamesh.
"What nerve."
With only a severed arm before him, Gilgamesh understood its meaning. Though he and Fujimaru Kyoya were both Heaven's Wedges, each possessed their own strengths.
Fujimaru Kyoya had formidable martial skill, as well as the ability to conceal his attack intent. In a one-on-one battle, Gilgamesh might not have been his match. But against so many gods, Fujimaru Kyoya's badly injured body would be of no use at all.
This was Gilgamesh's battlefield.
The Chains of Heaven seemed to respond, placing the severed arm against Gilgamesh's wound. Then they rummaged through the Gate of Babylon and finally found a bottle of Elixir, pouring it over the wound. At once, the arm that had once belonged to someone else began to take root on Gilgamesh's body.
"Are you rejecting this king?"
Pain. Pain so intense that even Gilgamesh could barely endure it. He could feel the arm rejecting him.
Fujimaru Kyoya had intended for Gilgamesh to attach his arm and restore his peak combat strength, but his body contained more than just his own will.
It also contained the will of the people—of those he had harmed.
"Tyrant, you still want to borrow our strength? Aren't you invincible?"
"Did you ever think this day would come when you harmed us?"
"We cannot help the one who once persecuted us."
One will after another flooded Gilgamesh's mind. Blood burst from the arm that had just been attached. If he could not subdue these wills, even the finest Elixir could not attach this arm.
"A bunch of fools. You have no idea what this king has seen. You—"
"But you truly did hurt them, didn't you?"
Fujimaru Kyoya's voice came through. This place was where the people's will converged, so it was only natural for his voice to appear here.
"The people are ignorant, which is why they need a king's guidance. Kings possess the world and hold Authority. That is our right, and that right also gives us corresponding duties."
Rights and duties were twins. If one was absent, the other would inevitably become something malformed.
If the previous Gilgamesh had achieved a balance between the two, then the current Gilgamesh was completely unbalanced.
Yet this imbalance was deliberate on Gilgamesh's part. He was not inherently a bastard, because a true bastard would never think of himself as one.
"Are you saying this king was wrong?"
Gilgamesh looked at Fujimaru Kyoya's phantom, standing alongside the people within the Mental Space. He had deliberately created this level of public sentiment, yet now he felt a trace of unwillingness.
Before he knew it, he was alone.
"Gil was never alone. No matter whom you opposed, I was always by your side."
A voice echoed in Gilgamesh's ears. It was Enkidu's voice.
"I was always with you. No matter what choice you made, Gil, you no longer need to hide the kindness in your heart."
Enkidu's phantom embraced Gilgamesh from behind.
Gilgamesh had acknowledged Enkidu because Enkidu possessed a pure soul. Enkidu, meanwhile, had recognized Gilgamesh because he could see through every disguise and find the kindness hidden beneath his pride.
"Kindness? This king is not kind. This king and the one standing there are both selfish bastards."
Gilgamesh came before Fujimaru Kyoya's phantom. He could sense the other man's heart, and at its core remained "selfishness."
"You opposed this king because you did not wish to hear cries of suffering. You joined hands with this king because you did not want the Gods to lord themselves over others. Your self is mixed within the people's will. You are both a king guiding all beings and a puppet of all beings."
Gilgamesh stated Fujimaru Kyoya's true condition: absolute "selflessness" born from absolute "selfishness."
"If you can do it, then this king has no reason not to."
Gilgamesh scattered Fujimaru Kyoya's phantom with one blow. He looked at the wills of the people, and a single glance from him made their hearts tremble. The Gilgamesh of old had finally returned.
"This king does not need your understanding. Wrong has already been done. This king will make it up to you in the future, but right now, this king needs your strength. Hand it over."
Gilgamesh still refused to explain himself. After all, the people did not need to understand a king's affairs so clearly. They only needed to feel them.
"Give this king your strength, and this king can give you a better future. In that future, no inexplicable gods will demand protection money from us, nor will arbitrary kings oppress you. This is this king's promise, and the guarantee of it all is..."
Gilgamesh pointed to himself.
"These are words spoken by this king himself. This is this king's... Gilgamesh's promise."
Gilgamesh's promise.
Everyone Gilgamesh had persecuted had once been his subject. They understood this king's brutality, and they understood his pride even more.
Once he spoke something, he would fulfill it even if it killed him.
"Fucking arm, attach yourself to this king already."
Gilgamesh poured his consciousness into the arm that did not belong to him. Under the Elixir's effects, it finally... attached.
A suffocating pressure descended, one that even gods feared.
After attaching the arm, Gilgamesh was actually three times stronger than before. No... five times.
"So this is what you feel?"
The sudden surge of power did not make Gilgamesh arrogant. Instead, he silently felt the power within that arm.
The arm's existence seemed to connect him to the hearts of all people. The joys, anger, sorrows, and pleasures of those far away churned within his heart.
Endless power flowed from it. With such strength, how could Gilgamesh have fallen into a disadvantage in his previous battle?
He was here.
In an instant, a dark-faced Gilgamesh appeared before Anu. That immense pressure startled Anu.
"Gilgamesh, can we reconcile?"
"Mongrel, do you think you are worthy of reconciling with this king?"
Gilgamesh raised his hand and actually used Enuma Elish as a club, smashing it down toward Anu's crown.
As Long as We Can Reach That Place
Strong. Stronger than Fujimaru Kyoya.
After the two joined forces against the gods, they began expanding their territory. Yet Fujimaru Kyoya was clearly not the sort of king with an appetite for conquest.
Ur had initially been no more than a single city. His people had always been fewer than Gilgamesh's. Now, with this arm serving as a receiver, Gilgamesh could feel the hearts of all their people. Naturally, this power was stronger than Fujimaru Kyoya's.
Gilgamesh used Enuma Elish as a club, but unfortunately, he did not possess an ability like First Before First. Otherwise, Anu's crown would not have survived.
Even so, Gilgamesh sent Anu flying with one strike.
"How is my arm? Useful?"
"Hmph. It is merely usable."
Gilgamesh stubbornly said so. After all, this arm was practically a receiver for the people's will. With it, Gilgamesh's strength had multiplied several times over. He now possessed enough power to suppress everything, but...
"Gods are difficult to kill. Even you find their Immortality troublesome, don't you?"
"Killing a few would not be difficult. But since you already have a plan, say it sooner."
Even while they spoke, Gilgamesh was still detonating his treasures. Though he had prepared himself mentally, watching treasure after treasure Self-Destruct before his eyes still made his heart ache and his hands tremble.
"Let's cripple them first."
With Gilgamesh diverting the power of the people's will, Fujimaru Kyoya's power immediately plummeted. Yet it was still sufficient for guerrilla warfare. With his interference, the Self-Destruction of the Gate of Babylon, and the binding of the Chains of Heaven, most of the gods soon lost their freedom. Then...
"Behold EA."
Enuma Elish appeared in Gilgamesh's hand. With the Gate of Babylon supplying Mana at full force, this divine sword from before the creation of heaven and earth began to display its true power.
The power of Enuma Elish fully unfolded. It was no longer a sword, but an enormous millstone.
Divided into upper, middle, and lower segments, Gilgamesh poured Mana into it, and the three "millstones" began rotating in different directions. Then space... tore apart.
It was simply not power of this world. That immense force, like swirling nebulae, ripped through the Gods. Their wails rose without end. Even Anu and the Bull of Heaven were gravely wounded by this strike.
No one had imagined that Gilgamesh possessed such power.
No, he had always possessed this power. This was Enuma Elish's true might. It was only that the previous Gilgamesh lacked the strength and state of mind to wield it.
Now, with the king's heart and the people's heart as one, and the Mana of the Gate of Babylon gathered at a single point, Enuma Elish finally displayed its world-creating might.
"Impossible. You actually... actually..."
Anu could not believe it. Gilgamesh had actually mastered Enuma Elish completely. Had he known this earlier, he would have waited until Gilgamesh died of old age before acting.
"Impossible. You could not have endured for so long. Those who hold power cannot accept power leaving their hands. Even one second would be ten thousand years of torment to you."
Fujimaru Kyoya mocked him from the side.
Victory was now assured. Under Enuma Elish's overwhelming might, the Gods stood no chance. Yet the only problem was the gods' Immortality.
Completely destroying them would be difficult even with Gilgamesh wielding Enuma Elish. Sealing them was also impossible, as there were too many of them. So there was only...
"Come here."
A voice entered the Gods' ears, and they immediately felt as though they had been granted amnesty. It was the voice of Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Underworld.
That was right. As long as they hid in the Underworld under Ereshkigal's protection, even Gilgamesh could not destroy or seal them.
Once Gilgamesh died, they could return to the earth once more.
The gates of the Underworld opened. Even if they had to crawl, the grievously injured Gods would enter and receive Ereshkigal's protection.
"Ereshkigal, truly worthy of being my own daughter."
Before you continue