Whether Gilgamesh, Enkidu, or Rovi, all three of them bore the concept of "humanity" that had just been awakened and unified.
At this moment, no matter what their true identities were, no matter how their bodies had been constructed, they could represent the people living upon this land.
Because they were all kings of Uruk.
Because the people placed their hopes upon them.
The intangible concept would now transform into real power.
"Welcome this king's descent, Bull of Heaven!" Amid wild laughter and glittering golden ripples, the Starship that shone with emerald light arrived before the golden bull in an instant. Facing that enormous and terrifying pet of Heaven, the golden king slowly opened his mouth.
What greeted him was the Bull of Heaven's deep hum, along with the thunderous crashes of its golden hooves battering the ground below.
Gugalanna was afraid, and it was enraged.
But even the strongest divine beast found it difficult to break free before the power of the chief god of the underworld.
And then—the fully unveiled gates of the Treasury of Babylon surrounded it, wrapped round and round by thousands upon thousands of dazzling ripples.
In the ancient myths of later ages, the Treasury of Babylon was seen as the symbol of the original King of Heroes Gilgamesh gathering all things under heaven and on earth.
But in truth, this was also, to a certain extent, a manifestation of him as Heaven's Chain.
Anything could be gathered into his hands, naturally becoming something that belonged to all.
This was the king's tyranny, and also a ruler's breadth.
And now, the opened gates of the Treasury claimed for themselves the Bull of Heaven's rage, the power it unleashed through that rage, and the energy produced by its collision with the underworld!
"Gil has already begun, so... I need to hurry as well." To the west, a Pure White Robe billowed.
Enkidu brushed aside the emerald-green hair by her cheek, raised her eyes, and looked toward the lush cedar forest before her, suppressed beneath the golden star.
Within it, countless scarlet eyes turned. The instant Enkidu arrived, they all fixed upon her—
It was a sight enough to make any ordinary person tremble in fear.
But Enkidu merely smiled.
"Humbaba, we meet again." She spoke.
"Clay doll... you dare come again!?" A clear voice echoed out, filled with fury, irritation, and something inexplicable. "Do you still want to seal me away? You can't do it. I have fully manifested now. My power is beyond anything you can match."
"I know, but I still have to come, Humbaba." Enkidu spoke, her vermilion lips moist and faintly gleaming. "For my friend... for Rovi, I have to come."
The Divine Construct raised her exquisite face and looked straight at those countless scarlet eyes.
"I'm sorry—Humbaba." Enkidu's expression was earnest and solemn. Her Pure White Robe swept up in an instant, and the ground shook. Like sprouts bursting through the earth, endless chains broke through the surface and rose up, sealing the cedar forest completely from every direction.
Humbaba fell silent.
She neither resisted nor, strangely enough, remained angry. She simply stared fixedly at Enkidu before her.
Unlike the Bull of Heaven, which had long been tamed, Humbaba—regarded by the gods as "wild and untamable"—possessed a strong sense of self.
As the King of Monsters, she had always regarded Enkidu, with whom she had once lived, as family.
Even though Enkidu had possessed no concrete form then, merely a cluster of willful "mud" carrying the gods' power; even though she had possessed no self then, only a muddled consciousness as pure as that of an ordinary beast.
That time was different from now.
But as the King of Monsters, Humbaba's monstrosity itself was a symbol of stubbornness.
So she could not truly lay a hand on Enkidu.
—Though suppressed by the golden star, she could not act at all anyway.
And it seemed that
Enkidu did not intend to kill her.
In the end, there was still some affection left between them, unlike in the original myth.
So now, she merely sighed. "It seems you have found the meaning of your existence..."
The meaning of existence?
"Rovi is the meaning of my existence." Enkidu answered with a smile, her exquisite face blooming like a flower.
Her beauty was at its fullest, the aura of a young girl stronger than ever.
Her—or rather, her—smile drew out another soft sigh.
"You really have broken... weapon made by the gods, Divine Construct."
Humbaba spoke softly, her voice like a gentle breeze brushing over mountains. "You have fallen in love with the Rovi you speak of—human emotion, something a weapon has no need for."
In love...?
Enkidu froze for a moment.
Then, deep within the forest encircled by Heaven's Lock, vines twisted and spread, slowly condensing into an illusory, hazy, graceful figure. She glanced at Enkidu from afar, then turned and vanished.
"Remember to return my freedom afterward."
Her final words echoed.
Everything obstructing the spread of Heaven's Lock vanished in an instant.
The Divine Construct—the girl—broke into a smile.
"If it's love, then it's love!"
If she was broken, then she was broken.
If being broken meant she could stay with Rovi... then that was not so bad.
She stretched out her hand and took control of the forest. At that moment, she also grasped the power of this conflict between heaven and earth.
"It has begun."
In Uruk, the people looked up. They did not know exactly what the three "kings" of Uruk were doing, but they could sense that, because of them, the world-ending disaster seemed to have stopped.
The kings had begun their counterattack.
Before the royal palace of the Uruk City-State, the only remaining Rovi raised his eyes and gazed into the distance.
The shadow of Heaven's Key flickered in his eyes.
Within his body, the powers of Heaven's Chain and Heaven's Lock intertwined.
Just as before.
But this time, where Gilgamesh stood was a "world"—with the Bull of Heaven as its sky, the underworld invading the present world as its earth, and himself as the "human" standing between heaven and earth.
Where Enkidu stood was also a "world"—Humbaba's cedar forest as its earth, the falling golden star as its sky, and Enkidu herself as its human.
These were worlds of concepts.
Three layers overlapped,
and the power they brought Rovi far surpassed what it had been before.
With a resonant hum, golden ripples formed above Rovi's head. The Treasury of Babylon, representing Gilgamesh's power, appeared in tandem, and countless chains extended from it—this was the manifestation of Heaven's Lock.
Almost at the same time, in the underworld, the Heaven's Key hidden at Ereshkigal's heart also bloomed with brilliant radiance.
Heaven's Lock spread toward the four corners.
It stretched toward the sky.
It used the human world where Rovi stood as its platform, and the underworld where Ereshkigal stood as its foundation.
Like flowers blooming in the blink of an eye,
layer upon layer of splendor covered the entire sky in an instant.
Similar to before, yet countless times greater in scale.
Rovi stood at the heart of the "flower," his entire body shrouded in light. He seemed to transform into a "key" himself, soaring into the sky alongside the blooming creation.
His long robe billowed, his black hair streaming behind him.
The faint light in the gods' descending gazes gathered. They were all somewhat astonished by this sudden change.
He had actually turned the "beast" they had used to attack into his own aid...
Yet they still did not believe Rovi could shake the plane upon which they existed.
The illusory heavenly realm.
Originating above the Mesopotamian dimension, floating beyond the world itself within the imaginary space of the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, even if it could be touched, it could never be shaken.
So they were merely startled,
yet remained calm.
Calmly watching the man soar into the heavens.
Calmly watching his eyes look toward them.
That calm lasted only an instant.
They saw Rovi raise his hand and point upward, and heard his voice. "God, where do you go?"
"Where do you go?"
"Where do you go?"
The ethereal words echoed through the silent void.
The gods' expressions changed at once.
This voice had not been observed through their "eyes."
Instead, it rang directly beside their ears.
"No, that's not right... They do not intend to break into the heavenly realm, nor do they intend to touch it..." Anu's solemn, ancient face turned cold to the extreme.
Beneath his pale beard, his hawk-like eyes looked once more toward the human world.
From Gilgamesh and Enkidu, he saw the concept of a "world."
And from Rovi, he also saw the concept of a world.
Enkidu was the earth, Gilgamesh was the sky.
Rovi was the "world" of humanity.
Three layers, three worlds overlapping.
Together, they formed... a gigantic ritual!
Anu was filled with horror. "He is forcibly making the heavenly realm descend upon the human world!"
Making the heavenly realm descend upon the human world.
Just like Ishtar Rin, influenced by the vessel of "Rin Tohsaka."
This had been Rovi's original plan.
His robe swept out, and he spread both hands. Heaven's Lock, spreading and blooming, grew even more unrestrained.
What he sought was to bring gods down as humans—
For this step,
he would change the heavens and replace the earth!
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