"Why have you joined forces with the Three Goddess Alliance!? Do you intend to renounce your vow to protect Uruk's civilization and its people!?"
Gilgamesh's loud question echoed through the empty palace, his anger plain for anyone to see.
"Is that all you wished to ask?"
Ereshkigal's expression remained utterly unchanged. "My duty has not shifted in the slightest. I am the one entrusted with the Netherworld, its mistress. Gathering the souls of humanity into the underworld is my fate and my purpose. Given that, what have I done wrong?"
As she spoke, she raised the long spear in her hand, pointing it at Gilgamesh. "I feel no regret for my actions! Rather, it is you who should be prepared, if you dare to stand in my way!"
"You've already left us no path of retreat, what's this 'be prepared' nonsense!" Ishtar retorted.
Gilgamesh's face darkened. Her words held no hesitation, and her actions were recognized by the World itself. This also meant his own royal authority had lost its effectiveness against her.
"If that is the case, then there is no need to hold a trial for your crimes! Simply relinquish your head! Your defeat itself shall be the judgment for your deeds!"
Though he shouted these words with great force, no sooner had he finished than Gilgamesh pulled Amber protectively in front of himself.
There was no helping it.
If his authority was useless, then he, being among the dead, could do little against Ereshkigal. It wasn't that he was completely useless in a fight, but if even the Phoenix couldn't handle her, adding him to the fray wouldn't make a difference.
Amber felt a wave of internal exasperation, but she still took two steps forward.
"Gladly. I will cast aside all reproach and pierce every last one of you with my spear!" Ereshkigal paid Gilgamesh's threats no mind.
In her view, victory was already assured. As long as she remained within the Netherworld, nothing could harm her. His words were just so much wind in her ears.
However, she still had words for the one she considered her friend.
"Before we begin, I have questions for you." Ereshkigal shifted her gaze onto the living.
"Throughout the long, endless years, I have remained here, managing the souls of the dead. I have known no personal happiness, joy, sorrow, or anything like friends. All I could do was gaze upon my other half, soaring freely through the heavens."
"Do you also intend to condemn me? Even now, would you claim that gathering souls is a sin?"
"Will no one ever praise me, who has always fulfilled my duties alone?"
In that moment, she did not seem like a goddess.
The fragility on her face was a far cry from her earlier boasts of killing them all.
Yet, both Ritsuka and Amber could see it clearly—she genuinely intended to kill them, and she also genuinely yearned for their praise for her efforts.
Amber fell silent.
"I cannot praise you for that." Ritsuka's expression showed no change in response to Ereshkigal's words. "That is... your duty."
"Eh...?"
Having never possessed friends, she held an infinite longing for them. It was only natural, then, to hope that the object of that longing would reciprocate in equal measure.
But the answer she received was completely unlike what she had imagined.
"Don't understand, you fool? Even this Master knows better than to praise someone for merely doing what is expected." Gilgamesh interpreted, his face impassive.
"You may lament your duty, or you may abandon it to seek another path."
"However, to disparage an obligation you have neither shirked nor ceased to fulfill—that is an evil, even if you are the one doing it."
"To offer praise for that suffering would be nothing but an insult to you, who has continued to fulfill her duty."
"—How utterly arrogant!" Ereshkigal's expression did not improve in the slightest; instead, obvious anger surfaced. She then turned her gaze to Amber, who had remained silent. "Is that what you think as well!?"
This scene felt strangely familiar...
Amber's feelings were actually quite complicated, because she wanted to praise the other.
For Amber, merely staying alive required her to exert every ounce of her strength. Doing things one found arduous, even if there was no objective cause for complaint, surely made the desire for encouragement normal, didn't it?
No matter how logically sound the reasoning, the burden on one's heart could still be enough to drive a person mad.
"I think... you've done very well..." Amber's words seemed to make the very air grow still.
All eyes fell upon her. Amber took a deep breath and continued, "A cook has a cook's work, a doctor has a doctor's work. Having chosen your work, to then complain about it is certainly not good, and it's also... weak."
The expectation on Ereshkigal's face instantly twisted into something unpleasant.
"However—"
Before Ereshkigal's anger could erupt, Amber spoke first, "However... I think... there's nothing wrong with being weak either. The strong have their place, and the weak have theirs."
Ereshkigal: "This is..."
They were the words she herself had once said to Amber and Ritsuka.
But soon, her expression darkened once more. "Even if you understand, you still won't approve of my methods, will you?"
"..." The silence was unquestionably an affirmation.
Gilgamesh and Ritsuka averted their gazes from Amber.
Gilgamesh: 'I see. This one is far more sentimental than I imagined...'
Ritsuka: 'As I thought, the Celestial is not a cold or unfeeling person. Faced with friends and comrades, her heart is incredibly soft. Even knowing the other is in the wrong, she still offers understanding and acknowledgment.'
"If you don't approve of my methods, then don't say you understand me!" Vast crimson lightning flickered within the palace, instantly gathering an immeasurable amount of magical energy.
Tears welled in Ereshkigal's eyes. "Sing of your agony in the depths of the Netherworld! Let me see how you intend to correct my so-called sins! If you have no intention of becoming my dead [possessions], then don't you dare try to understand me!"
"It seems a battle is unavoidable."
Gilgamesh retreated further back. Ishtar retreated even farther, even using Gilgamesh as a shield.
"A sky without light, land without brightness, earth without flowers—this place has nothing!"
The golden long spear in Ereshkigal's hand began to glow.
The Netherworld applied its statistical corrections to her at maximum speed. The lightning, once the width of two people, had already converged around the spear in her hand in the blink of an eye, dyeing it in alternating red and white.
Unstable magical energy was compressed together to its limit. Everyone felt their bodies sink as if into a swamp, movement becoming difficult within this space saturated with mana.
'Master...'
'I have opened it for you. The gate to the Imaginary Space.' Fu Hua's voice held no particular inflection. She did not disapprove of Amber's actions. Rather... she appreciated them.
Just like how she herself had acted on emotion in the end, fully aware of the Herrscher of the Void's danger.
'If words cannot make her understand, then let this strike serve as the explanation.' Amber closed her eyes. An endless supply of Imaginary Energy was hers to command.
"The Divine, the pinnacle of change, wondrously acting upon all things, cannot be defined by form."
What must be severed, what must not be severed, the precise force required—she understood it all with inexplicable clarity.
"Taixu Sword Qi — Sword God."
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.