Looking at Higashino Kanade lying face-down on the ground, Ishtar walked over with a smile. A terrifying, darkened aura seeped from behind her, making her seem like a demon wearing human skin.
"You actually dared humiliate me like that yesterday. Today, I'm definitely going to make you pay. Should I cover your face in graffiti? Or strip you naked and hang you from the city gates?"
As Ishtar drew closer, her nose suddenly began to itch.
"Ah—ah—achoo—"
After an enormous sneeze, Ishtar's black twin tails turned golden blonde. Her outfit, which had barely consisted of a few scraps of cloth, became a conservative black dress, and her entire demeanor turned imposing and serious.
Clang, clang, clang—
The Goddess of the Earth, Ereshkigal, had arrived!
"Higashino Kanade..."
Ereshkigal looked at the figure on the ground with complicated eyes, filled with both love and resentment. Love and hate intertwined—that perfectly described how she felt now.
Why had Ishtar suddenly turned into Ereshkigal? To explain that, one had to start with the structure of their mythological system.
Ishtar was the Goddess of the Sky in mythology, and corresponding to the sky was the earth. Wherever Ishtar appeared, Ereshkigal, the Goddess of the Earth, would inevitably appear as well.
The priest who had attempted to summon Ishtar had not been killed by the summoned Ishtar. Rather, he had summoned both Ishtar and Ereshkigal, two goddesses, at once, and had died of exhaustion after having all his Mana drained away.
Because the two goddesses of heaven and earth shared Tohsaka Rin's body, Ereshkigal could use that body to move around on the surface at night. As for that trash goddess Ishtar, she had yet to discover that her body was being shared.
With a wave of Ereshkigal's hand, an enormous golden spear materialized in her