Beast! She's Still So Young!

"Good morning, Anna..."

The next day, Ancient Snake pushed open the doors and windows, greeting Anna, who had also walked out of her room, amicably.

"Mm, good morning, Samael..."

After spending some time together, the purple-haired loli had let down her guard a little, finally daring to look directly at her new companion and responding softly.

Then, the little girl seemed to remember something. Her fingers intertwined, and she mumbled, "Last night..."

"The unleavened bread was very delicious, thank you..."

The man smiled knowingly, reached out, and gently stroked Anna's little head. As he leaned his face closer with a smile, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"As a reward, I'm covering breakfast today. What do you want to eat?"

"Butter cake!"

The purple-haired loli raised her little face in surprise, her desires spilling out.

"The stove isn't lit yet, so it's a bit difficult..."

"Is that not okay?"

The man rubbed his chin, his brow furrowing slightly. Anna couldn't help but feel dejected, drooping her little head in frustration.

"Well, I was going to say, I'm busy enough in the kitchen by myself. If you want to eat it, you'll have to come and lend a hand."

"And this time, there's none for Merlin. You can eat as much as you want! I'll make sure you're full!"

However, the difficulty on Ancient Snake's face turned into a hint of teasing. He flicked Anna's smooth forehead with his right index finger.

The purple-haired loli cried out in pain, clutching her forehead and stepping back slightly.

After a moment of understanding Samael's teasing and promise, Anna's eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously and, in the process, dragged the source of all evil, Merlin, out for a good thrashing.

"Mm!"

"No Merlin!"

An hour and a half later, the two figures arrived at the Royal Divine Tower at the appointed time to gather.

The White Dream Demon, who had been waiting there early, looked at Samael and Anna walking with their bulging bellies in a peculiar manner from a distance. His expression was a little strange, and he approached them with an exaggerated reaction.

"Anna, what's wrong, Anna? Who turned you into this?!"

"It was Samael! It's the result of our combined efforts!"

The purple-haired loli, completely oblivious to the dream demon's linguistic trap, proudly lifted her chin, revealing a face with a trace of white cream still lingering.

"Beast! She's so young, how could you do this to her!"

The Great Sage, with his penchant for drama, clutched his chest with his left hand and pointed at Anna's round, distended belly with his right, his face filled with grief and indignation.

Samael's face darkened. His fingers itched. He now understood a truth: this White Dream Demon, who enjoyed stirring up trouble and observing people's emotional reactions, was truly asking for a beating.

"If you dare to keep talking nonsense, do you believe I'll immediately explain the meaning of your words just now?"

Ancient Snake stepped forward, facing Merlin's ear, and whispered menacingly.

It didn't matter that he couldn't defeat this immortal dream demon; he could just let Anna handle it! If necessary, next time he'd add some mead to the butter cake, activate this goddess's young form, and chop this bastard to death!

Feeling an inexplicable chill on his neck, Merlin chuckled dryly and retreated slightly. He was quite wary of the "Harpal" in Anna's hand, a divine artifact that could sever immortality. It would be too unfair to be stabbed to death just for a few teasing remarks born of bad taste.

"Alright, let's get down to business. We'll go and meet King Gilgamesh now."

The Flower Mage, finally getting serious, immediately changed the subject and led the way. Anna, unaware of the sinister intentions of the two adults just now, dazedly followed Samael's footsteps.

Ancient Snake habitually observed his surroundings, taking in the silhouette of the entire Royal Divine Tower. He recalled his teacher Shamhat's introduction to Uruk and fell into thought.

In reality, the power structure of the entire city-state nation was roughly divided into three parts: the Royal Divine Tower, the sacrificial grounds, and the priestess quarters.

Firstly, the Royal Divine Tower represented the divinely bestowed supreme royal authority. It was the living quarters and administrative office of the Heroic King Gilgamesh, from which most decrees were issued.

Secondly, the priestess quarters were a symbol of divine authority, housing a group of people who listened to heaven's will and conveyed divine decrees. In some cities, the words of these priestesses and divine officials held even more authority than laws and royal power. Because they occupied the divine name, they wielded immense power. Over time, this led to corruption and depravity. According to Shamhat's complaints, each temple controlled a staggering amount of resources. They were swimming in wealth yet still insatiable, repeatedly attempting to usurp royal power with divine authority. Those priestesses and divine officials who spoke of "revering the gods" were almost all adept at squeezing the populace dry. Of course, in the face of an autocratic ruler like Gilgamesh, any priestesses and divine officials who were too ambitious had basically been dealt with. Under his forceful and domineering subjugation, even if the priestess quarters in various cities harbored some hidden agendas, they could only conceal them secretly, not daring to openly confront royal authority.

Even so, the triple storm that swept across Mesopotamia indirectly exposed the malicious intentions harbored by these priestesses and temple officials.

When the triple storm first arose, the priestesses of the Shrine and the officials of the temples lost the protection of the gods, and the effectiveness of divine arts was greatly reduced.

Rumors began to spread in some regions that King Gilgamesh had angered the gods and brought disaster upon them.

Many city-states in the north, supported by the Shrine, turned to the alliance of the Three Goddesses, seeking atonement and denouncing the "foolish tyrant."

Unfortunately for them, they encountered the unreasonable beast goddess Gorgon.

Livestock that foolishly try to reason with the gods will only meet one fate: to be slaughtered prematurely.

Therefore, all the collaborators who flocked to the northern cities to "joyfully welcome the Imperial Army" were thrown into the Temple of Blood by Gorgon and became nourishment for the creation of demonic beasts.

It is said that upon hearing this news, Gilgamesh laughed uncontrollably, often bringing up this case to reopen the old wounds of those priestesses and officials.

Furthermore, the Heroic King used these leverage points to force temples and Shrines everywhere to donate, almost draining the little treasuries of these vampires dry.

Otherwise, where would Gilgamesh have gotten so much spare cash to build the Absolute Demonic Beast Front and establish the Treasury of Babylon?

However, having been at the top for too long, these priestesses and officials fell to the bottom and simply couldn't accept reality or put themselves in the right position.

Thus, a group of officials and priestesses, led by the Uruk Shrine, secretly began conducting summonings and spiritual descents.

After several rounds of agonizingly large sacrifices, only a certain greedy goddess responded, out of consideration for the gemstones.

This was the patron deity of Uruk, the Mistress of Heaven—Ishtar.

The Shrine originally intended to use the descent of a true god to curb the Heroic King's arrogance.

Unfortunately, their luck ran out. During the spiritual descent, the deities summoned by the Shrine were actually two in one, with two sides.

That is, Ishtar and Ereshkigal, who were each other's public face and hidden aspect.

After several rounds of setbacks, their hastily assembled offerings and personnel were simply insufficient to support the descent of two Sovereigns.

As a result, the chief priestess presiding over the summoning ritual was directly and inexplicably drained of her life force and died suddenly.

The remaining priestesses and officials also fell into weakness and unconsciousness, leading to chaos at the scene.

To make matters worse, no one even had time to cast suppression and binding spells on Ishtar. The goddess, who merged through self-initiation, ultimately refused to honor the agreement and simply fled.

With this series of events, the Shrine truly hit rock bottom.

The bodyguard they hired after emptying their coffers not only failed to keep their end of the bargain but also cost their boss her life.

Thus, this became another laughable anecdote to please Gilgamesh, causing the pleasure-seeker to clutch his abs in pain several times.