Flying Rin's Face

"Boom!"

A dull roar sounded, and somewhere in the Mount Epiph range, the raised earth exploded.

Hoo! After breaking free from the Underworld's border and climbing for an entire night, I finally reached the surface!

Covered in dirt and looking rather disheveled, Samael emerged from the bottomless tunnel, greedily breathing the surface air, every cell in his body cheering.

And as he looked around, the majestic, undulating silhouette of the Mount Epiph range came into view, striking him to the core and bringing a deep sense of shock.

In the Mesopotamian world, Mount Epiph was once the highest spiritual peak of Sumer, possessing a special significance connecting heaven and earth.

Its existence was even more ancient than some gods.

Therefore, even Sky God Anu, one of the Three Pillars, maintained a certain respect for it.

Fertility, grace, beauty, and majesty had all been its synonyms.

However, the divine aura that once enveloped Mount Epiph had long since vanished. Nearly half of the mountain range had even suffered collapse and subsidence to varying degrees.

Unexpected desolation and barrenness had become the current backdrop of Mount Epiph.

The reason for this was naturally some lawless goddess who, displeased with Father God Anu's excessive admiration for a mere inanimate object, had brought all her weapons to cause trouble for Mount Epiph.

In the end, this pampered goddess, who had barged into this spiritual peak, won the final victory. Standing on the summit, she plunged her divine spear into the heart of the mountain, annihilating that ancient existence.

Deprived of the mountain's spirit for sustenance, the ravaged Mount Epiph had devolved into its current miserable state.

Of course, as Samael reminisced about this history, his heart held not resentment or blame, but overwhelming gratitude.

After all, his ability to bring Shamhat with him and escape the Underworld to the surface without a hitch this time was thanks to that goddess's rampage.

Mount Epiph was the pillar of heaven and earth, possessing not only the function of connection but also the authority of suppression and sealing.

Beneath its sprawling mountain belly lay another important gateway to the entire Underworld.

If the sacred spirit of Mount Epiph were still present, it would have served as a strong and secure chain separating the Underworld from the human world.

Under such circumstances, let alone a minor figure like Samael, a Silver ranker, even Ishtar, who had once broken into the Underworld, could not have escaped through this route.

But fortunately, a certain arrogant goddess, on a whim, found a pretext to vent Father God Anu's anger by taking care of the unfortunate sacred spirit of Mount Epiph.

Thus, Mount Epiph, its divine aura erased, was no longer capable of acting as the guardian of the Underworld.

And the self-proclaimed invincible Ishtar had thus embarked on a path to the Underworld to seek trouble.

This rift, containing many hidden secrets, had thus become Samael's shortcut back to the surface.

However, even calling it a shortcut, the journey through it was fraught with peril.

Dense swarms of rampaging Garuda Spirits, death qi as thick as a tangible substance, intricate and complex routes, and the malevolent souls of ancient undead...

Any one of these would have been a fatal disaster for a fugitive.

Yet, Samael, this snake, was best at hiding and lurking, his own aura already capable of synchronizing perfectly with that of the Underworld's undead.

However, his and Shamhat's escape owed something to luck.

After slightly calming his excited emotions, the ancient serpent glanced back at the deep, dark tunnel, a hint of lingering attachment in his gaze. He couldn't help but smack his lips, quite regretfully.

"Actually, I suddenly feel that being a snake before was pretty good..."

"Forget it, you should remain human!"

Shamhat, inside the Soul Cage, rolled her eyes upon hearing the scoundrel's reluctant rambling.

After briefly indulging in his feelings, Samael picked up a few nearby rocks and filled in the outer edges of the pit.

Although he had dug a hole between the Underworld and Mount Epiph, the undead below would basically only inhabit environments with dense death qi.

Theoretically, there was a high probability they wouldn't emerge from this tunnel to harm the surface.

If any accident did occur, he, the culprit, would have already fled with Shamhat, his accomplice.

Besides, this place was now the territory of the Sky Goddess Ishtar. Even if a few ghosts appeared, she could eliminate them in an instant.

As for any psychological burden or compensation for damages...

Heh, it was Ishtar who killed the sacred spirit of Mount Epiph, creating a loophole in the barrier between the Underworld and the surface, thus causing this mess. He certainly wasn't going to take the blame.

"Before anyone notices this commotion, let's go!"

The Soul Cage hanging at his waist swayed slightly, and Shamhat, his accomplice, urged him on.

The two accomplices, leaving a mess behind, tacitly reached an agreement.

Then, Samael decisively shouldered his pack and sneakily moved towards the foothills.

However, after only a few steps, a sharp explosion echoed through the thin air around the peak, and the surrounding ether formed terrifying tides of magical power.

Samael, guilty of his actions, felt his blood run cold. His serpentine pupils constricted as he looked up at the sky.

Something was approaching at high speed!

Even more critically, that thing seemed to be coming for him!

"We're done for! We're going to collide! Hurry and get out of the way!"

In an instant, breaking through layers of clouds, the rapidly expanding dark shadow saw the guy at the landing spot and yelled wildly, baring its fangs in mid-air.

"Damn, damn! Dodge left!"

Samael instinctively shifted his body to the side, trying to avoid the collision.

However, as soon as he turned left, the dark shadow in mid-air made a similar turning motion almost simultaneously.

"Damn it! I'll go right, then!"

The man forcefully crushed the rock beneath his feet, using the leverage to leap in the opposite direction.

But just like in a car crash, where both parties dodge simultaneously, the rapidly falling figure also shifted direction without exception.

As a result, with their reactions mirroring each other, neither of them managed to prevent the crash.

"Boom!"

Amidst the dull thud, two figures, intertwined, kicked up a cloud of dust. Using the residual force of the impact, they skidded for several tens of meters.

"Hiss... That hurts... This is terrible."

A beautiful woman, dressed in a Sumerian robe woven with white and gold, and wearing a black and gold coronet, touched her throbbing forehead and lifted her upper body.

At the same time, her legs, splayed on the ground as a pivot point, instinctively tightened.

"It's... it's broken, it's broken! Let go!"

However, a pained groan came from beneath her hips. A hand weakly patted the thigh of the offending female driver.

Huh? It seems... there's someone underneath?!

Her chaotic thoughts finally connected with the memory that had just gone offline. The clumsy, beautiful woman shrieked and hastily jumped away.

A moment later, the unlucky man who had been used as a cushion rubbed his neck, twisting his dislocated cervical vertebrae. The crisp cracking sound of his bones made one's teeth ache.

As his unfocused eyes returned to normal, Samael looked at the familiar face before him, one hand on her hip, her expression hesitant. His mouth twitched slightly.

It really was her, Ishtar, the Sky Goddess, Ereshkigal's twin sister.

And in a distant future, this face would belong to a young lady named Rin Tohsaka from Fuyuki City's Tohsaka family. Samael knew this all too well.

So, if he had to give the recent collision a name.

It should be called— Flying Rin's Face?