The "Kind and Simple" Outsiders

As night fell, the stars dimmed, and the clamor gradually subsided. The Uruk embassy, its lights extinguished, also fell silent.

In the pitch-black room, Samael sat by the window on the balcony, a carving knife in hand, patiently working on a clay tablet. His furrowed brow seemed to hold an unresolvable doubt and gravity.

This was because, after a day of gathering information, both openly and covertly, he had discovered discrepancies between reality and his memories.

First, due to the Hole of Heaven, pierced by the Demon God King Goetia to burn the roots of human existence, Tiamat, resisting instinct, had sealed it. Consequently, the Chaldea staff, whose mission was to repair Human Order, were also isolated outside the World Bubble of Mesopotamia and had not arrived as expected.

Perhaps, if things continued like this, that mysterious organization might be absent altogether.

There would be no Outsiders, no saviors.

Then, the mission to deal with Mesopotamia's Third Storm would naturally fall entirely upon the shoulders of the Sumerians themselves.

Everything would be decided by them, for their own future.

While this deviation had a significant impact, Samael had anticipated it, and it was currently within acceptable limits.

Furthermore, fortune and misfortune are intertwined. Without the true Tiamat, who would undergo ecological extinction through regression, and with the Three Goddesses' alliance largely composed of ineffectual second-rate figures, the difficulty of overcoming this crisis had lessened. Everything, for now, was under control.

But the next deviation was rather significant.

Second, after Heroic King Gilgamesh returned from Uruk, he had not, as per established history, fully awakened the magical talent within his bloodline to become a master of magic.

In other words, he seemed to have seen a different destiny.

The current situation was unclear, and Samael did not know if he had been exposed.

Third, because the Wise King had not chosen the path of abandoning his combat talent and transforming into a transcendent spellcaster of the era, the historical event of him personally summoning the Seven Classes of heroic spirits to jointly defend Uruk had also deviated.

According to the legends and discussions among the citizens, under the siege of the Three Goddesses, King Gilgamesh was unable to divide his attention.

To better defend the nation, this Heroic King generously provided resources from his treasury and gathered Priests and Astrology Platform mages to draw up magical arrays.

Subsequently, the witch's residence, which had once successfully summoned the Great Goddess Ishtar, accepted the commission to perform a grand summoning ritual, hoping to call upon powerful individuals from other lands for assistance.

Ultimately, only two "Outsiders" who had drifted there appeared at the altar, accepting Uruk's conscription to serve the King.

One was the court mage Merlin, who commanded the Astrology Platform, and the other was Leonidas I, the Gate Guardian of the Absolute Demonic Beast Front.

These were all kind and simple Outsiders willing to help Uruk.

Indeed, the Seven Classes, which represented humanity's mystical power system in his memory, had only seen two appear.

The other "Outsiders" who filled the Seven Classes in his memory were not present.

Of course, Anna, who was found by the White Nightmare Demon in the northern Fir Forest, could be considered one.

As for the Scorpion General Kitablu, the commander of the beast army during the early stages of the Babylonia defense war, who should have perished along with the "foreign" Archer Tomoe Gozen, he was personally dealt with by King Gilgamesh.

Things had become somewhat different.

Samael stroked his chin with one hand, his right palm resting on the back of the clay tablet as he frowned and carved the reorganized relationship diagram.

Furthermore, as far as he knew, two of the Three Goddesses who had made a pact to destroy Uruk and dominate this land were also outsiders who had drifted here.

One was the Maya World divine spirit manifestation, Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent God, who had already encroached upon Edessa by spreading a proliferating rainforest from the south.

The other was the Greek World divine spirit manifestation, Gorgon, who occupied the Fir Forest, established the Temple of Blood, usurped part of Tiamat's authority, and mass-produced demonic beasts.

And the final hidden pillar was naturally the native Mesopotamian Goddess, the Mistress of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, who, while appearing to spread plague to Uruk, was actually collecting human souls and protecting them.

Through his experience and perception of survival in the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, he vaguely sensed that more than one World Bubble was floating in the "void."

These fruits born from the Age of Gods that nurtured human civilization were gradually ripening and descending towards the real surface.

In this process, the convergence of civilizations and the interconnection of various concepts also led to divine spirits from different World Bubbles projecting parts of their existence onto other lands.

The faiths that revered them, and some even took root and sprouted in other lands, occupying significant influence.

For example, the widely known name of the Egyptian God of Death, "Anubis," was actually a Greek expression.

Although He was born in the ancient Egyptian Age of Gods, during the subsequent Ptolemaic Kingdom period, Anubis's image merged with the Greek God Hephaestus to become "Hermanubis."

The center of this cult was in Cynopolis, a name that meant "City of Dogs."

According to the sixth book of Apuleius's The Golden Ass, the worship of this deity continued into the Roman World, lasting at least until the second century.

Therefore, the projection of divine spirits, the so-called divine spirit manifestations, was not necessarily limited to a specific era or World Bubble.

If their faith expanded, if they encountered difficulties, or for other reasons, they could, under certain conditions, project their existence into a new world through the Sea of Imaginary Numbers and continue to take root.

Gorgon, who had usurped part of Tiamat's authority, was originally called the "Gorgon Sisters," with their names being the eldest Stheno, the second eldest Euryale, and the youngest Medusa.

As native gods, they were very unfortunate. To escape the rejection and persecution in mainland Greece, they drifted to an intangible island to reside.

However, even so, heroes who conquered them were endless, seeking to use their lives to showcase their might and please the gods.

Under duress, the youngest but most promising third sister, Medusa, devoured her two elder sisters and transformed into Gorgon, killing the heroes who came to conquer them.

This was the tragic fate of that impostor Tiamat.

And as Mesopotamia's world presented an opening, this hatred for humans was exploited by the Demon God King Goetia and the Child of the Creator God, Kingu.

Through divine spirit manifestation and conceptual fusion, they assisted the summoned Gorgon in occupying part of Tiamat's authority, creating the Beast Goddess who vowed revenge on humanity.

Similarly, perhaps the future desired by the persecuted Gorgon was the annihilation of humanity and a return to living on this land.

However, regrettably, she was most likely a tool used and discarded by those behind the scenes to achieve their objectives.

As for the Feathered Serpent God, it seems that because the Mayan Second Sun Era, which she ruled, had already ended, and the World Bubble was undergoing drastic changes, Quetzalcoatl, having been banished, had to leave to search for a place to root her faith.

In summary, from the perspective of the Demon God King Goetia, this war was about destroying the foundations of human civilization and restarting the world.

From the viewpoint of the Three Goddesses, it appeared to be a struggle for the right to dominate faith.

If they destroyed the current people of Uruk and ushered in a new era through their own will, their evil deeds could be seen as achievements in developing faith and displaying military might.

So, who says these [Outsiders] are kind and simple?