"Let go."
Annanu struck Nanshe on the head with his other hand.
"Ow!"
Nanshe winced in pain. Annanu had not eased his suppression of her divinity, so even that light tap hurt enough to make her instinctively release her grip.
"I won't repeat myself. I'm a creature incapable of feeling romantic love for other beings. That so-called 'liking you' was only my selfish refusal to see you entirely as a god. That's all. Don't overthink it."
Rubbing his wrist, Annanu's expression turned somewhat disdainful.
Nanshe gritted her teeth.
She did not care whether Annanu was merely being stubborn, because she had genuinely considered the question he had raised.
As though deflated, she let out a long sigh, then sank into the water, leaving only half her head exposed.
Annanu was completely bewildered.
What was this woman doing?
"...Your ending won't be a good one. But you succeeded, Annanu."
After a long while, Nanshe finally raised her head above the water and spoke to Annanu.
Annanu stayed silent. At some point, he had taken out the Key of Heaven again and resumed fishing, line after line.
Yet the corner of his mouth carried the faintest smile.
Succeeded... had he?
Everyone knew their ending would not be good. Annanu no longer knew how to judge Utu, his so-called "father god."
Utu had created them, given them immense power, made them define themselves as weapons and tools—yet he had also given them enough potential to develop their own sentience, even wisdom, through all manner of coincidences.
But once a tool possessed wisdom, was it truly still a tool?
Moreover, though Annanu and Enkidu were indeed powerful, that power was only relative.
They truly possessed the strength to kill most gods, but they could not stand against the entire Anunnaki. Under such circumstances, Annanu