Chapter 46: The Priest's Admonition
Even seated in the Celestial Realm, unable to manifest his Main Body in the human world, Anu was not helpless.
Using the methods he had planted before casting down the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba, the King of the Gods could still raise the scepter in his hand and force their descent to accelerate, hastening their manifestation until they would be complete within a single day.
He was about to do exactly that.
Then a voice cut across the firmament.
"Great King Anu, there is something that must be reported to you."
Anu turned his gaze toward the speaker. It was not a god, but one of the envoys who served the heavens, beings shaped from mortal priests who had devoted themselves to the gods in life and ascended after death. Their nature was no longer human, but they had not become gods either. They were useful precisely because they stood in between.
"It is from the Divine Attendant Temple in Uruk," the envoy said, bowing low. "A reply has arrived."
Anu paused. After a heartbeat, he lowered the scepter.
"How did they reply?"
Back when Gilgamesh, Rowe, and Enkidu had joined hands in open defiance within the Demonic Beast Forest, the gods had already sent an oracle to their priests below. The command had been simple.
Become the gods' insiders within Uruk. Prepare to break Uruk's defenses from within when the time came.
Until now, no clear answer had returned.
The gods were not surprised. The priests of the human world were attendants, yes, but they were still human. Their station was not like these ascended envoys who had shed mortality and stood closer to divinity. Different positions meant different sightlines. It was also why the priests had agreed to Gilgamesh's request earlier, pretending to pray so he could buy time.
Still, the gods had hoped.
If the priests sided with heaven, the gods could cast a curse directly from above. A curse powerful enough to kill one of the three, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, or Rowe, without dirtying their hands further.
They needed that efficiency.
Not for Uruk alone, but for what was coming next.
Another god spoke, voice tense beneath its grandeur.
"How did they reply? If the priests agree, we can preserve more of our power for Mother."
"We can delay no longer. The fluctuations in the Imaginary Number Space are growing clearer by the day. Our Mother, Tiamat, whom we expelled, draws closer. We do not have much time."
At the name, fear flickered across faces that had not known fear in ages.
The primordial sea. The salty chaos that birthed them and then was betrayed by them. If Tiamat returned with hatred intact, no god who remembered the old myths could stay calm.
This was the true reason they had always left a sliver of hope for Gilgamesh.
They wanted to avoid turning on him if they could. They wanted to avoid spending power unnecessarily.
They wanted every weapon intact for Tiamat.
"The priests of the human world pray to the gods."
The envoy's voice drifted across the celestial heights. Because he was neither god nor mortal, his eyes could see straight through the layers of reality into the world below. Through his sight, the gods saw Uruk's Divine Attendant Temple, and the priests gathered within.
"Pray to the celestial gods we honor…"
A deep, ancient chant echoed through the Pantheon. Priests in linen robes raised their hands.
"Great gods. The world was formed by your impetus, and humanity grew under your protection. You are the embodiment of all phenomena, the manifestation of the void."
Praise, as always. Perhaps even more pious than before.
The gods waited, silent, almost expectant.
Then the chant continued.
"However, great gods, what we also wish to say is this."
"The world has stabilized, and humanity will continue to grow. Just as parents cannot keep a child locked at home forever, we are grateful for your grace, and our past faith has never been false."
"But humanity must ultimately walk its own path. You should not restrain us. Perhaps you believe the world belongs only to you, yet it also belongs to us."
"Gods, you have no right to stop humanity from moving forward."
Crack.
The armrest of a divine throne shattered.
They refused.
Just like Rowe had openly contradicted Gilgamesh in that same temple, the priests had wrestled with their loyalty and fear. But now, they spoke clearly to Anu and the heavens.
As humans.
As subjects of Uruk.
It was unprecedented. Servants of the gods in the human world had rejected the gods' will outright.
Rumble.
Lightning tore the air of the Celestial Realm. Wrath surged.
"In the name of Anu, King of the Gods and Lord of Heaven, I command the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba on earth."
"Destroy Uruk at all costs."
Down below, in the temple, the priests laughed.
Not mockery. Not madness.
The laughter of old men who had already made their peace with the end.
Tears streamed down their wrinkled faces.
Rowe had dared to refute a king.
What did they have to fear now?
A thousand years of hardship meant nothing compared to death.
…
"Hmph haha. Those old fellows may be advanced in age, but they possess a spirit worthy of this King's admiration."
The moment Rowe, Gilgamesh, and Enkidu returned to the Royal Capital, the echo of the priests' admonition reached them. Gilgamesh's laughter rang through the corridors, half pride, half battle hunger.
Rowe blinked, then smiled as well.
Those old gentlemen had chosen.
No, it was more than them.
It was Uruk as a whole. It was humanity across the plain, looking at the gods' oppression and making its judgment from a human standpoint.
On the road back, Gilgamesh had already told Rowe what had happened while he was absent.
Only three days had passed.
Yet in those three days, the young King of Uruk had fused the strength of every city state and nation on the Mesopotamian Plain into a single body.
He moved the people to the Royal Capital's vicinity.
He raised the Great Wall of Uruk in the wilderness to block the demonic beast tide.
He commanded the young to take up arms by choice, not by chain.
He ordered those who believed in gods to keep their faith, but never forget the fact that they were human.
Because everyone understood one truth.
The gods had once cupped yellow earth to nurture humanity.
That grace deserved remembrance.
But grace was not meant to become a muzzle.
"This King is the sole ruler of heaven and earth. Achieving this is but a trifle," Gilgamesh declared, swelling with pride as if the walls had risen because his ego needed somewhere to lean.
Rowe glanced at him.
"Speaking of which, has your Gate of Babylon grown stronger?"
Gilgamesh's grin sharpened.
"Hmph haha. This King possesses all things. Is it not natural that every treasure passing through my friend's hands returns to my collection?"
In other words, Enkidu had brought him more relics, enough to fill out the treasury further.
Rowe looked at Enkidu.
"Mm." Enkidu nodded calmly. "The treasures in the Gate of Babylon, I took from Humbaba's collection."
"I thought you might find them useful."
The divine weapon said it without a shred of guilt, leaving Gilgamesh there like an expensive vase someone forgot to dust.
Rowe choked, then asked anyway.
"Is there a sword with a three stage spiral?"
"A sword?" Both Gilgamesh and Enkidu paused at once.
Enkidu searched her memory, then shook her head.
None.
So in Rowe's impression, Gilgamesh's strongest Noble Phantasm, the Sword of Rupture, the blade that could cleave heaven and earth, still had not appeared.
The three reached the front of the Royal Palace Hall. Before they crossed the threshold, a clear voice rang from within.
"King, Rowe, Enkidu."
Siduri, veil fluttering lightly, descended from beside the throne. She came down the steps with measured grace until she stood before them.
"Adjutant Siduri," Rowe greeted politely.
Enkidu smiled and nodded.
Together, the three passed through the hall's gate, climbed the stairs, and took their respective places.
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