"Your name is Lan Ze, is it?" Gilgamesh paused. "Why would you know that the Creation Mother Goddess is going to descend in the end?"
Lan Ze had already thought of his answer. "My teacher is Scathach, and the wisdom of the Land of Shadows can see the future as well."
"Scathach?" Gilgamesh leaned against the throne and fell into deep thought for a moment, a look of sudden realization crossing his face.
"Oh, you mean that old... teacher from the Land of Shadows?"
Lan Ze nodded slightly. "The Beast Goddess outside right now is a fake. Furthermore, once she dies, the sleeping Tiamat will be awakened, and she will destroy Humanity's Order at that time."
"Wait, I've never heard of anything like this?!" Ereshkigal's little face was covered in shock. "That mother will destroy Humanity's Order?!"
"The Beast Goddess is linked to Tiamat..." Gilgamesh muttered to himself. His fingers gently tapped the armrest of his chair, and he frowned, seemingly pondering a plan.
"King, we might as well stall for as much time as possible first, and during this period, find the thread connecting the Beast Goddess and Tiamat... and figure out a way to cut it without disturbing Tiamat."
Gilgamesh shook his head. "Once the thread connecting 'Mother' and the Beast Goddess is severed, 'Mother' will inevitably be jolted awake from her nightmare."
Merlin smiled. "So at this time, we need to let her continue having a pleasant dream."
Gilgamesh shook his head and said, "With your illusionism, making her return to slumber immediately after she is jolted awake is practically impossible."
"My illusionism indeed cannot soothe Tiamat after she awakens... let alone calm her down, because she will resist my illusionism at that time."
Merlin did not deny it. A mysterious smile hung on his face as he looked in Lan Ze's direction.
"However... I feel there is someone who can do a good job with the soothing work."
"Hand Lan Ze over to Tiamat, and let him do the soothing work... As for the things outside, we can just handle them."
"I will send you into Tiamat's dreamscape."
After Merlin finished speaking, for some reason, his body shivered inexplicably.
He rubbed his arms with both hands, feeling a chill.
"What's wrong?" Gilgamesh's brows raised slightly, noticing Merlin's abnormality.
"Nothing, nothing. I just don't know why I've felt so cold ever since just now." Merlin waved his hand with a smile.
His Clairvoyance could see the present, and likewise, he also had very strong instincts... Such instincts were ethereal, yet always accurate.
Just now, after proposing to offer Lan Ze as a sacrifice, he had inexplicably felt an unspeakable chill.
Yet he could not say precisely why.
"Good thing, then. If you collapse now, this king will have to re-summon a Heroic Spirit, which will waste quite a bit of time," Gilgamesh said.
"I'm really fine, don't worry, King." Merlin smiled slightly, staring into Lan Ze's eyes. "Even if I really do collapse, it doesn't matter. These are all necessary sacrifices."
"So why are you looking at me while saying things like that, as if I'm the one about to offer myself up?!" Lan Ze let out a sigh.
"Besides, I feel like Mother is quite normal."
He didn't know why, upon hearing the name Tiamat, it seemed every single person had a shadow cast over their face.
Though the other party was indeed a beast, she still retained her own rationality within the dreamscape, and she looked very normal as well.
She looked good, spoke very pleasantly, even sang while going "Aaa", and was gentle and lovely—virtually embodying every single virtue a woman ought to have.
...And her heart of a mother was very large.
As expected, the Creation Mother Goddess simply had to possess a mother's heart capable of encompassing all things!
As long as she did not revive, anything was fine.
Looking at Lan Ze's calm expression, however, Merlin wore a helpless smile.
No matter what, Tiamat was still the mother of those gods; feeling awe toward her was a very normal thing.
Instead, an old lech like Lan Ze was rare to see.
Because she looked pretty, he wasn't afraid of Mother of All.
However, this was also a good thing. After all, there was no need to go around in circles trying to persuade Lan Ze; they could send him straight to Tiamat instead.
"First off," Ereshkigal raised her head to look at Merlin, warning him sternly, "you must bring the Divine Messenger back to me later."
"If anything happens to him, I will switch over to the Goddess Alliance's faction without the slightest hesitation."
Merlin nodded earnestly. "Please rest assured, Goddess, I will guarantee Mr. Lan Ze's safety."
"...When all is said and done, as long as Tiamat doesn't awaken, he cannot possibly encounter danger."
"In other words, as long as we keep Gorgon under control, everything will be OK," Merlin continued.
Ereshkigal fell silent for a moment. "This will have to rely on yourselves alone; I cannot help you defeat Gorgon."
"Because of the League of the Three Goddesses, I cannot attack any of them."
Long before meeting Lan Ze, Ereshkigal had already formed an alliance with the other two goddesses. Because of the contract, she could not attack the other two goddesses.
"It's fine. You not standing on the opposing faction's side is already a huge help," Lan Ze said immediately.
Merlin smiled and nodded. "Not bad, not bad. Goddess just needs to wait for our good news."
"Speaking of which, although she is the Goddess of the Underworld, deep down she is quite kind-hearted," Merlin went on to praise.
"Yeah, and she's pretty too," Lan Ze immediately added.
A faint blush crept across Ereshkigal's cheeks. Unable to withstand the one-two punch of praise from the two of them, she buried her little face and let out a whimpering cry of distress. Then, the very next moment, as if her soul had left her body or something, she suddenly went completely still.
The next instant, Lan Ze clearly saw that Ereshkigal's temperament had visibly changed.
Clearly it was an ethereal sort of thing, yet he distinctly sensed this shift.
...He didn't even need to think to know that she had handed control of her body over to Ishtar.
Sure enough, the moment Ishtar opened her eyes, Lan Ze immediately realized that Ereshkigal had returned to the Underworld, and that the body was now controlled by Ishtar.
She turned her gaze to Lan Ze, a look of bewilderment in her eyes.
"Goddess, you're back," Lan Ze greeted her politely.
"Are you planning on going back to that goddess again?" Ishtar finally snapped to her senses. She wasn't about to be fooled, staring at Lan Ze with gloomy eyes.
"I haven't re-signed a contract with the Goddess of the Underworld," Lan Ze shook his head.
"Then do you want to re-sign a contract with me?" Ishtar's eyes lit up slightly.
Lan Ze felt somewhat troubled.
I'm about to go find Mother of All right now. If she finds out that the child who had just licked himself clean and gotten her scent on him had been snatched away by someone else again, I wonder if she'd get angry.
Seeing this, Merlin smiled immediately. "Lady Ishtar."
Ishtar glanced at Merlin and muttered, "It's you, fellow."
Merlin said with a smile, "Goddess, the purpose of our trip is to save Humanity's Order and protect this realm. Surely a kind-hearted and beautiful goddess like yourself can understand."
Kind-hearted and beautiful... A blush touched Ishtar's cheeks, but she wasn't happy. "Stop trying to fool me with words like that. If you want my help, bring out all the tributes, and then make that Golden Flash apologize to me!"
"No, I also think you are beautiful and kind-hearted," Lan Ze picked up the thread. "And think about it, after saving Tiamat, Uruk will return to its former peace. By then, King Gilgamesh will surely reward us... and the gems won't be few in number either."
"By then, I will give all the gems I obtain to you."
Ishtar was somewhat tempted, but felt that nodding just like that would make her lose face. She let out a soft huff. "How do I know whether you're lying or not?"
"Regardless of whether the contract exists or not, I am still your Divine Messenger. Naturally, I will prioritize you in everything," Lan Ze said sincerely.
"By then, I will also hand over all the gems I acquire for you to keep safe," Merlin followed up closely.
Under the gazes of the two, Ishtar huffed and hawed for a moment, before finally crossing her arms, blushing, and turning her face away. "Re—really, there's no helping you two. But everything you just said was just a verbal promise anyway; the one who makes the final decision is still that guy, right?!"
She turned her head to glance at Gilgamesh, who sat high upon his throne.
"Once it is done, this king has his own rewards to bestow. As for how they wish to dispose of them, it has nothing to do with this king," Gilgamesh's voice echoed through the hall.
Lan Ze and Merlin exchanged a look, smiling with tacit understanding.
Cooperating with smart people was truly comfortable.
After descending into the world using a human body as a vessel, Ishtar possessed a coexistence of arrogance and bashfulness. Sometimes she couldn't bring herself to lower her pride, and an arrogant existence like Gilgamesh could never lower his head to Ishtar either, which meant certain matters required someone a bit more slick to handle.
Take Lan Ze, for instance, or Merlin.
"Then without further ado, let's rest for a bit and set off immediately, Mr. Lan Ze," Merlin smiled. "You just need to soothe Tiamat well. Leave the matters outside to us."
"Wait, didn't you say King Gilgamesh had something he wanted to see me about?" Lan Ze suddenly remembered this matter.
"Ah, it was I who suggested the king summon you to the King's Hall to see him," Merlin smiled.
Lan Ze: "..."
He suddenly wanted to plant a fist right onto Merlin's handsome, smiling face.
Inside the dreamscape.
Unlike the last time Lan Ze came, this time, guided by Merlin, they walked along a pitch-black path where nothing surrounded them save the sound of their two sets of footsteps.
Feels like this dreamscape has changed somehow... Lan Ze muttered to himself inwardly.
He remembered that the last time he entered the dreamscape, Tiamat had been the very first thing he laid eyes on. Yet this time, the surrounding environment looked exceptionally deep and terrifying, as if it couldn't be easily reached.
"Be careful, this dreamscape is dangerous," Merlin warned in a low voice.
He could sense the terrifying magical energy present within this dreamscape—a surging magical energy simply akin to heaven and earth, pressing down on people so hard they could barely breathe.
"Very dangerous...?" Lan Ze repeated, somewhat bewildered.
Aside from the surrounding environment being a bit dark, it didn't feel particularly dangerous at all.
"The magical energy in this dreamscape is from the Age of Gods. Because a massive amount of dense magical energy exists right in the air, ordinary people find even breathing somewhat difficult," Merlin explained. "If you feel any symptoms of difficulty breathing, remember to tell me—"
As he reached this point, he turned his head to look, only to see the young man beside him without a flushed face or a short breath, looking lively and bouncing, as though completely unaffected by this dense magical energy.
He was stunned.
"What is it?" Lan Ze asked.
"No... I feel like you might be a bit beyond my expectations," Merlin said somewhat unexpectedly.
His Clairvoyance could discern a person's future potential, but right now, he couldn't quite read Lan Ze.
He was able to adapt to an environment from the Age of Gods where the air was extremely thin yet magical energy was extraordinarily dense?
However, now was not the time to be thinking about such things...
Merlin took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and said with a smile, "Let's try not to make too much noise, to avoid disturbing Tiamat."
Lan Ze was slightly startled. "Weren't you the one who brought me into her dreamscape specifically to find her and soothe her?"
"That's right," Merlin said. "But one must always be careful in all things. After all, she is the Creation Mother Goddess... Who knows, she might be resting right now, and if we disturb her, it might provoke her anger."
"Besides, right now she isn't merely the Creation Mother Goddess; a beast's rationality is sometimes beyond its own control," Merlin paused, then continued, "Even though she still retains her own rationality within the dreamscape, we still need to minimize actions that might stimulate her and provoke her anger."
Seeing that Lan Ze still didn't quite understand, Merlin explained further, "It's just like when an ordinary person is sleeping soundly, and you suddenly wake them up—at that moment, the other person is going to have bedhead temper, aren't they?"
Lan Ze grew thoughtful.
"I see."
Just then, Merlin suddenly picked up his staff, staring vigilantly at the surroundings.
"Careful, something is approaching!"
Inside Tiamat's dreamscape, it was not entirely devoid of danger. Just as Tiamat had been able to casually mold Lahmu last time, this dreamscape also contained the "children" she had previously molded out of boredom when she had nothing to do.
The atmosphere suddenly grew somewhat tense.
Under Merlin's vigilant actions, Lan Ze couldn't help but tense up a bit himself.
They hadn't encountered any crisis the last time they came here, so why on earth was it this time...
"Careful, it's coming!" Merlin abruptly whipped his head around and drew his staff... underneath which was a sword.
He slashed outward with a strike, but it seemed to crash against something hard, sending a numbing vibration straight up Merlin's arm.
The pitch-black creature reached out a hand to grab Lan Ze. Only then did Merlin react, turning his head sharply to grab the young man beside him, but it was still a step too late.
Almost the very next instant, Lan Ze, who had been following right beside Merlin just a moment ago, had already vanished from his field of vision.
Before you continue