Of course, while Rovi had deliberately wanted to annoy Gilgamesh to satisfy his own twisted sense of fun, what he said had not been false.
At first, he truly had not known that the "beast" descending from the heavens had gone awry. He had merely been returning from a city-state he had just visited as an envoy, passing through the eastern plains of Uruk, when he sensed something unusual.
Since he had sensed an anomaly, Rovi naturally could not remain indifferent—
Wherever there was danger, there he was.
The greater the danger, the more eager Rovi became. How could he possibly miss such a fine opportunity?
Whether he could die successfully or not was another matter.
But adhering to his principle of never letting even the slightest opportunity slip away, he headed toward where the Bull of Heaven was.
A short while later.
East of Uruk.
Near the banks of the Euphrates River, one of Mesopotamia's two mother rivers.
Rovi stepped across the parched earth and jagged rocks, seeing at a glance the endless wasteland ahead.
The cracked ground was crisscrossed with countless ravines, like the surface of shattered pottery tiles, deep and sprawling, forming a scene of overwhelming impact.
His steps paused.
It had to be said—
As the strongest divine beast, the Bull of Heaven's impact upon the present world was undoubtedly immense.
Much like the concept of gods.
A divine beast was not necessarily a gentle or benevolent creature. Gods were manifestations of nature, phenomena given human form through mankind's faith.
Divine beasts were the same.
The Bull of Heaven was the embodiment of natural disasters. It represented drought, storms, and sandstorms.
Naturally, its formation would bring about such effects.
After all, according to what Gilgamesh had said earlier, divine beasts, like gods, required a vessel in order to descend into the present world.
Gods had once directly gathered the aether in the atmosphere to fashion bodies for themselves.
Now, with "aether" in the atmosphere growing increasingly scarce, only "possession" remained as a path.
And setting aside the scale of their power, divine beasts were fundamentally similar to gods, though they stood one rank lower.
Thus, the Bull of Heaven could still shape a body from the aether in the atmosphere, carrying its essence and manifesting into the world.
The concepts leaking out during this process would naturally create corresponding phenomena.
"All things live and die." Seeing Rovi stop, the old man who had been standing at his side spoke in a low voice, still aged and deep. "Beneath the grandeur of the stars and cosmos, life has always been fleeting."
"You need not dwell on it—"
Ziusudra, who had been following him ever since that "assassination," said so.
"You say that where there is life, there is death." Rovi withdrew his gaze and looked at Ziusudra. "Then will you die?"
"How about we have a fight?"
He could not openly say he wanted to be sent to his death.
So Rovi could only put it that way.
"This old man does not kill those whose destined hour has yet to come, nor those without a destiny at all." Ziusudra's expression remained calm.
"You're afraid you can't beat me, aren't you? It's fine, old man. I'll go easy on you!"
A basic, but effective, provocation.
Though it was unlikely to work, Rovi had spent all this time trying to "anger" Ziusudra.
Trying to make him kill him.
If the Grand Assassin made a move, even Ereshkigal likely could not exempt him from the consequences of death.
If he could duel such a man and die by his hand, it would be enough to leave his name in history.
Unfortunately, this old man had lived for so long. How could he possibly fall for it?
Whether insults or provocation.
Ziusudra ignored it all completely.
"Hahaha, it's good for young people to have spirit! But this old man truly is old. I can't beat young people like you anymore." The old man frankly admitted, "Besides, this old man does not actually know how to fight at all."
He couldn't fight, only kill, was that it...? Rovi glanced sideways, not particularly surprised by this failure.
"If you won't fight, then teach me your assassination techniques..."
Then he could teach them to someone else.
And have someone else kill him.
"You have no talent for it." Ziusudra still refused.
Rovi sighed and stopped insisting, turning to look ahead.
As expected, he could only hope the Bull of Heaven would be more capable...
But honestly, Rovi was not in a particularly good mood right now.
On his way here, he had seen many bones and corpses. Mottled remains lay piled upon the ground, buried amid the dry sand.
Among them were animal bones and human remains.
Natural disasters had always been terrifying.
A thousand miles of scorched land and heaps of corpses were nothing unusual.
Perhaps seeing it before would have felt like nothing much.
But after seeing it for real, no one could feel very good about it.
Because it was horrifying to behold.
And because of the empathy one had as a human.
What Ziusudra had said earlier, that Rovi need not dwell on it, was precisely because of this.
To an old man accustomed to life and death, it truly was not something worth dwelling on.
But Rovi felt he had reason to stop this disaster from continuing, though that had been his purpose for remaining here in the first place—
"There's a sound ahead." The old man's deep voice rang out. His footsteps abruptly stopped, and his aged face beneath the black cloak lifted as his eyes looked ahead.
The sky was clear and blue, while yellow sand stretched endlessly.
The sunlight was so fierce it made one's heart tremble.
Following Ziusudra's gaze, Rovi immediately saw what he meant.
They were people.
A group of people fleeing in panic.
Though they were far away, with Rovi's current physique, he could still clearly see their shriveled, severely dehydrated bodies and faces as sallow as barren earth.
Behind them were surging currents of air, roaring winds, and a phenomenon that continuously trampled the earth.
The whirling storm tore at all things with pale fury, swallowing every trace of moisture within it.
Wherever it passed, the land shriveled in an instant.
Life, too, would dry up and die.
"The Bull of Heaven?" Rovi recognized it at once. That storm was the Bull of Heaven, not yet fully manifested.
It had only the form of an unfinished storm.
Yet like a crazed beast, it chased after that group of people, tearing and crushing its way toward them.
Someone fell.
Someone wailed.
Their bodies visibly grew more and more shriveled.
Because the closer they got,
The more moisture was devoured—
"So I'm being underestimated..." Rovi tugged at the corner of his mouth and looked at Ziusudra beside him.
"Old man, want to step in?" he asked.
Ziusudra shook his head. "This old man has not heard the bell of that divine beast's destiny."
Until its destined hour came, he would not draw his sword.
"Then don't interfere with me." Rovi was satisfied.
No matter what, Ziusudra kept his word.
He let out a breath, patted his plain white robe, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the image of the burning Key of Heaven emerged deep within his black pupils.
Ziusudra remained where he was.
He watched Rovi spread his hands, welcoming the oncoming rampaging storm and meeting the trampling of the unformed divine beast.
This was for the sake of "seeking death."
To a certain extent, it was also to vent the frustration Rovi had accumulated along the way.
Those who possessed great power had always stood above others.
That was an extremely real truth.
It was also a limitation of the age.
But Rovi was unhappy, and that was that.
He was unhappy that inhuman things could judge all living beings according to their own whims.
He was unhappy with their lofty attitude of treating all things as toys.
You gods who cast the Bull of Heaven into reality, did you think... only you possessed this kind of power!?
He raised a hand. The gale tore at his robe as invisible "gates" opened at once.
They fell into his palm.
Gathering into brilliant streams of light.
"...You insignificant trash dare trample this land as you please?"
"Who—"
"Gave you the courage!?"
A merciless taunt.
Rovi stepped forward.
A thunderous boom echoed in an instant.
The fleeing victims of disaster instinctively looked back.
Then they saw an unbelievable sight, one they had never witnessed in all their lives.
Brilliant streams of light, like enormous gates, blocked the wildly howling storm. A figure floated above them, arms spread wide.
With a body of flesh and blood, he stood like a great wall, colliding with the manifesting natural disaster—
Head-on!
Before you continue