The hope that had just risen was snuffed out once more, and Ishtar's lovely face twisted again.
Anger, irritation, embarrassment... all sorts of emotions she had never possessed churned within her.
It had to be said that, for "Ishtar," this was an unprecedented experience.
The gods of Mesopotamia were deities manifested from nature.
In essence, they were all emotionless planetary phenomena. It was only the faith of living beings that had granted them a superficial intellect.
But the surface was ultimately just the surface, a fabricated appearance.
A god's essence was, more or less, imbued with a certain coldness.
That was also an expression of "divinity."
Yet now, Ishtar was genuinely experiencing inner turmoil.
This feeling...
It was too embarrassing, aaah—
Watching the goddess before him, who looked as though she were about to twist into the famous future painting The Scream, Rovi rubbed his forehead.
Then he saw Ishtar suddenly calm down.
"No!" As though she had realized something, the humanized goddess clenched her right hand into a fist and heavily struck her left palm, wearing an enlightened expression. "You were deliberately saying the opposite, weren't you?"
"I heard that quite a few people are like that—the more they care about something, the more they perversely act as though they dislike it!"
"Oho? Who would've thought... you're quite the tsundere, aren't you?"
Ishtar covered her face, revealing an inexplicable smile as she let out a strange "ho ho ho" cackle.
She looked exactly like a creepy old witch.
Rovi: "..."
He had long known that Ishtar, who believed she had already figured out "humanity," would never admit defeat.
Though he had to admit that desperately finding excuses for one's own failure was, to some extent, very human indeed.
It also made this goddess seem rather lively and adorable.
But since she had no intention of killing him, Rovi had no need to keep playing along with her.
He could only return disappointed...
"Hmph hmph hmph, not saying anything now? Did I guess right?" Ishtar became increasingly high-spirited, as though victory were already in her grasp. "I knew it—after all, I'm the Venus Goddess, and I even have a Goddess of the Underworld for a sister who commands the dead. Things like inner beauty are nothing to this goddess!"
She began listing her "glories."
But Rovi's raised foot suddenly froze, and he sharply turned to look at her.
Ishtar was still smiling.
Yet under his gaze, she gradually felt a chill creep into her heart. Her expression stiffened, and the corners of her lifted lips changed from a smile into silent twitching.
"Y-you... what are you looking at? You rude mortal!"
The goddess's face flushed slightly.
"You just said Goddess of the Underworld, didn't you?" Rovi spoke in a low voice.
"S-so what if I did?" Ishtar suppressed the embarrassment rising again within her and raised her voice as though to conceal it. "You were once a Priest of the Gods, weren't you? You don't even know that?"
Rovi did know.
Ishtar was the daughter of Anu, the youngest and most beloved among the gods.
But in truth, she had a sister very similar to her: Ereshkigal, who could also be called Ereshkigal.
Of course, though they were sisters, Ereshkigal was vastly different from the willful Ishtar, who raced freely across both heaven and earth.
Ereshkigal was the ruler of the underworld, the place where the souls of living beings rested after death. She dwelled beneath the earth, where there was forever only cold and silence, often gazing alone at the firelight of the human world above. She longed for that firelight, yet could not leave because of her duty as Goddess of the Underworld.
Yes, under normal circumstances, Ereshkigal could not touch the human world.
That had been the case since ancient times.
According to myths recorded in later ages, and according to the records of the gods that Rovi had observed when he was a priest, the Goddess of the Underworld herself was a forgotten "chief god" of the underworld.
Even Ishtar, who was closest to her in terms of their relationship, rarely mentioned her in daily life.
Yet now, perhaps influenced by the humanity of the vessel possessing her, this Venus Goddess had blurted it out.
And that reminded Rovi—
He still had a chance.
Ishtar never mentioned Ereshkigal not because she did not care, much less because she disliked her. On the contrary, Ishtar cared deeply about Ereshkigal. Because they had similar origins but vastly different circumstances, she held complicated feelings in her heart, which was why the goddess had always remained silent about her.
They were sisters, after all.
Goddesses born from the same source, born from the same body.
They cared about each other immensely.
That was why she never mentioned her, never allowed outsiders to mention her, and most certainly would not allow... anyone else to offend her!
Rovi smiled.
"What? What's with that smile? It's kind of... disgusting..." Ishtar wore a look of disgust, but the blush on her face became even more obvious.
Could this guy... really have fallen for her?
The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became.
The more she thought about it, the more she anticipated it.
The more she thought about it... the more afraid she became...
"I finally understand why I care so much about you." Rovi opened his mouth and lied without batting an eye.
When did I ever care? You insulted me the moment we met. Is that what you call caring?
Ishtar's eyes widened.
Then she heard Rovi's scalp-numbing voice.
"Hmph hahahaha..."
Hey, hey, hey, that's an imitation of Gilgamesh, isn't it?
Ignoring the wildly twisting shifts in Ishtar's emotions, Rovi's actions were actually not difficult to understand.
He wanted to express his "feelings" to the goddess before him.
To express that he...
"Held even greater admiration for your sister, Ereshkigal!"
Crack—
Her silver teeth clenched, and it sounded as though something had shattered.
Ishtar's crimson eyes widened.
This was far from a declaration of love, yet it was still akin to a confession... except it was not directed at her, but at her sister.
Ishtar would be angry, wouldn't she?
Even if she was not angry, it did not matter.
As goddesses born from the same source, Ishtar and Ereshkigal shared some inexplicable connection.
Perhaps that connection had originally vanished as the Age of Gods gradually declined.
But if Rovi remembered correctly... earlier, he had gathered the threefold power of Heaven's Chain, Heaven's Key, and Heaven's Lock into one, and shaken the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Man.
The boundaries between the three realms had wavered, so there was a strong possibility that connection had been restored.
If he said it for Ishtar to hear... Goddess Ereshkigal might hear it too, and perhaps become curious.
After all, throughout the long years, even when the Goddess of the Underworld was mentioned, she had only ever been feared and cursed. No one had ever praised her, much less admired her.
But under normal circumstances, Ereshkigal would not leave the underworld.
So the most likely outcome was... that she would make him enter the underworld.
Entering the underworld meant dying.
For the Goddess of the Underworld, making a living being die was easy. Even the "Heaven's Key" was no exception.
At that point, if he simply remained in the underworld long enough, he would naturally ascend to the Throne of Heroes.
And if Ereshkigal did not do that—then that was fine too.
It was only an attempt, after all.
Rovi had never thought it would definitely succeed.
But if it succeeded... he would become a man who died after "confessing" to a goddess.
That would be unprecedented, wouldn't it?
And from now on, he would have one more reason to go to the underworld.
Two birds with one stone. Plan complete!
Rovi's smile grew even brighter.
He—
"Admired your sister."
Those words echoed through the deep alley as the sunset gradually fell and crimson leaves blanketed the ground, and they also rippled beside Ishtar's ears.
They shocked the Venus Goddess.
And they shocked the Underworld Goddess even more.
"What... was that voice?" In the deepest part of the underworld, Goddess Ereshkigal raised her head and looked toward a fractured mark that had appeared above her earlier, at the faint light from a corner of the human world.
A voice came through that crack.
Faint, yet clear.
It stirred her heart.
Before you continue