"Anunnu, Gil, you're both still here..."
In the darkness, only Anunnu's sobs and whimpers could be heard.
Upon hearing Enkidu's voice, Gilgamesh's body went limp involuntarily, and he sank onto a stool.
It felt as though his brain had been struck again and again by a heavy hammer.
Why had things turned out like this?
Gilgamesh had always thought he already held the gods in the lowest possible regard, yet he had never imagined they could be even more vile than he thought.
They had sent down the Bull of Heaven, a calamity to all humanity. If the three of them did not kill it, the entire land would be plunged into misery. But after they killed the Bull of Heaven—
The gods had even more reason to kill Anunnu and Enkidu.
If they did not kill the Bull of Heaven, it would kill them.
And if they killed the Bull of Heaven, the gods would have a reason to kill Anunnu and Enkidu.
Gilgamesh clenched his fists.
Gods.
Gods!
Gods of the Anunnaki!
Veins bulged across his face.
Yet his hands suddenly loosened again.
He might be prone to arrogance, but he was not unaware of his own limits.
He could build countless Divine Authority Seals upon Uruk's walls, fire every treasure in the Gate of Babylon—save for the Key of Heaven, Chains of Heaven, and Ea—as artillery shells, and then, with the support of the Chains of Heaven and the Key of Heaven, along with Ea's firepower, wage a war in which he staked everything.
But it would be meaningless.
The whole of Mesopotamia had been built by the gods. As merely the king of a single city-state, he could not shake the entire Anunnaki Divine Realm. If he truly tried, the only outcome awaiting Gilgamesh would be