Chapter 466
King Uruk nodded and said.
"The commander who now rules over the Magical Beast in the north is a scorpion-man Magical Beast who calls Kitabir the Sage —go and bring his head back to me."
"My lord, please reconsider! The enemy is the leader of hundreds of thousands of Magical Beasts. How is this any different from sending Shirou to his death?"
Siduri was stunned when she heard this, and was about to plead for mercy when Gilgamesh stopped her.
The King of Heroes narrowed his cunning, deep red eyes.
"Shirou, if it's you, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
The boy met the provocative gaze head-on and replied dismissively.
"Of course I will complete the mission. You've been talking too much nonsense, King Gilgamesh."
"To be honest, I was a little scared."
What do you mean?
On her way back to the dormitory, Siduri seemed to be deep in thought.
"This is the first time I've seen a king like that, who would harbor antagonistic feelings towards others and deliberately provoke them."
That's quite an achievement! It means that Shirou has been made a rival by the King!
This kind of thing never happened again after Enkidu's death.
My guess was right, you really are special... Did something happen between you and the King?
"Comparing me to that king's close friend is an exaggeration. If Gilgamesh heard that, I'd be charged with disrespect and sentenced to death."
"That's true, hehe... Shirou, please keep this a secret from the King."
Shirou scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat troubled, but managed to get away with it.
After the Fourth Holy Grail War, he also read the Epic of Gilgamesh out of personal interest and learned about the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
King of Heroes Gilgamesh, was a hybrid of human and god.
In his childhood, he was approachable and humble, a wise and sensible man. However, in his youth, he displayed the opposite traits and became a tyrant that left people helpless.
He amassed the nation's treasures, demanded more prosperity from the people than necessary, and regarded the gods as "past beings" and abandoned them.
To admonish such a king, the gods created a clay figure named Enkidu.
Enkidu and King Gilgamesh are said to have fought a fierce battle for three days and three nights in front of the temple in Uruk, but neither could gain the upper hand.
From that time on, King Gilgamesh regarded Enkidu as his only friend.
The king has somewhat curbed his tyranny so far, and although he is still feared by the City of Uruk, he continues to rule the country.
After that, King Gilgamesh and his best friend embarked on an adventure, where he accomplished many great feats as a hero.
Together with Enkidu, he killed Humbaba, the Magical Beast guarding the White Cedar Forest, and brought back the scarce, high-quality timber for the people.
However, this achievement led to him being targeted by a goddess with a wicked temperament.
Rare things, beautiful things, things that are praised by people.
A certain goddess, purely out of interest, really wanted to possess these kinds of things.
Inanna, the daughter of Anu and known as the goddess of goddesses, also known as Ishtar, wooed King Gilgamesh.
The most beautiful goddess in the world confessed her love to the King of Heroes.
However, King Gilgamesh refused.
After all, he knew the extent of the neglect and abuse that Ishtar's husband Dumuzi, had suffered.
For Ishtar, this was probably the first blow she had ever suffered since birth.
She was pampered from a young age, and both her father, Anu, and Enki, the god of the abyss, bestowed upon Ishtar mountains of treasures.
She, in all her life, was dumped by a man... and a human at that!
An angry Ishtar went to Anu to complain.
So, the doting god Anu bestowed upon his daughter something extraordinary.
That is the strongest divine beast capable of destroying the world, the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna.
With this divine beast, Ishtar intends to destroy Uruk.
After months of rampaging, this bull, which destroyed crops, drained rivers, and commanded wind and rain, was finally defeated by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
As a result, Uruk was saved, but Enkidu incurred the wrath of the gods for Death God and was killed.
Enkidu was originally a weapon created by the gods; in modern terms, it was like having its power source cut off.
King Gilgamesh, devastated by the loss of his only friend, began to realize the meaning of "death."
Even an existence like Enkidu could not avoid "death," so is "death" something that cannot be overcome?
From then on, King Gilgamesh began his quest for immortality.
He reached the ends of the earth, plunged into the abyss, and there obtained the Herb of Immortality, but it was stolen by a serpent.
When he returned to the ground and took a bath, the snake seized the opportunity and swallowed the herb.
Snakes thus gained the ability to shed their skin, while humans have forever lost the chance for immortality.
In the Fourth Holy Grail War, the catalyst prepared by the Tohsaka Family was the molted skin of that snake.
Having lost his chance at immortality Gilgamesh returned to Uruk, but Uruk had long since fallen into ruin due to the King's disappearance.
King Gilgamesh reflected on his own willful and reckless actions, worked hard to revive Uruk, and from then on never went out on adventures again, fulfilling his duties as king for the rest of his life.
The above is the content of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but it does not represent the whole truth, just as the Tale of the Heike does not say that Ushiwakamaru was a girl.
But one thing is certain: all the tragedies stemmed from the capricious and willful goddess Ishtar.
During these ten days, Shirou did not see her in person, but he heard a lot of rumors about her.
The goddess, seated high in the sky, laughed heartily as she launched an indiscriminate saturation attack on the ground.
The earth cracked, and even the Magical Beast under the goddess's command were ravaged.
People were trembling with fear at the sight; this was no urban god of Uruk, but clearly the embodiment of tyranny.
Back at the dormitory, Shirou prepared a sumptuous dinner and bid a brief farewell to his companions.
"Please give our regards to Lord Leonidas."
"Yes, I will."
"And Tomoe Gozen too, that woman always forces herself... I'll leave it to you, Shirou."
Taking advantage of the darkness while the Magical Beast were dormant, the boy embarked on a solo journey to the northern fortress.
Unbeknownst to him, a beautiful, furtive figure also left Uruk with him.
"Alright~ This time I must create the perfect scene for my first meeting with Shirou to improve his impression of me!"
The goddess was completely unaware that her image in Shirou's heart had already plummeted to rock bottom.
Volume 7: Chapter 304 Tomoe Gozen Goes to Her Death, Shirou Rushes to the Head
"..."
It felt like falling into the deep sea.
The concepts of time and space cease to exist, and the sense of distance and weightlessness leaves one feeling utterly bewildered.
Shirou's body was unable to move, and his consciousness was hazy; he could only stare wide-eyed and listen intently.
"Don't want--"
"Don't go--"
The boy heard an incredibly gentle female voice.
Accompanied by the sound of the tide at the end, which came from afar, it sounded like a song, plaintive and sorrowful.
"Don't--"
"Don't leave--"
"And it's going to come from beside me again--"
Don't leave me again--
What's this...?
"Come back soon—come back—come back to my side again—"
"Again--Again--"
Never again—never again—
"Love" me
"Who are you..."
Shirou struggled to make a sound, but just then a sophisticated male voice rang out.
"... This is Original Sin. This is humanity's Original Sin."
"That's what the Magecraft said."
"There are many kinds of sin. Deceiving others, framing others, being jealous of others, and taking lives."
"These are all evils that only humans can bear. These are all poisons that only affect humans."
"However, this is the oldest of all evils. Original Sin II: the evil of leaving and abandoning Paradise."
"But..."
Life originated in the sea. The primordial Nammu. The goddess of Origin Nammu.
"To humankind, the goddess is the ocean. The sound of the waves will become a call, recording in detail your sins."
"Look back. Never forget."
"This voice is your Original Sin. Its name is your salvation."
Its name is --
"Aa, aa--aaaaaaaaaaa--"
Shirou can't do anything.
Unable to respond to the other person's calls, nor able to hold them close.
I just feel extremely, extremely sad.
In the northern part of City of Uruk stands a massive fortress that exudes a strong presence.
It was built using the building materials from the dismantling of the ruined city of Babylon by King Gilgamesh and his forces when the Magical Beast were engulfing the northern kingdoms.
Above the city walls are a large number of defensive weapons and facilities modified from weapons taken from the "Gate of Babylon".
That's what people call it now.
Humanity's hope, the world's greatest and last bastion, Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia.
The sturdy, thick, loess-colored outer walls stretched endlessly across the desolate land, separating the city from hordes of tens of thousands of Magical Beasts.
Each of these Magical Beast possesses combat power comparable to that of the Phantasmal Beast from the Age of Gods, and there are dozens of times more of these monsters in the north.
However, this army of Magical Beast, powerful enough to ravage the entire human world, was held back by the city walls for months.
The Magical Beast launch attacks of varying sizes every morning, only returning to the forest to rest at night.
Such a high intensity, which should have been an almost hopeless gap in combat strength, could not have been sustained by the fortification of the Demonic Beast Front and the tenacity of the defending soldiers alone.
The reason they were able to achieve this was entirely due to the existence of that man.
One of the many Servant summoned by Gilgamesh, Lancer, King of Sparta, Leonidas I.
It is widely known in history for the Battle of Thermopylae, in which three hundred men fought against Persia army of one hundred thousand.