Chapter 234: Gugalanna
Kingu looked at the triumphant Ishtar in the sky and unconsciously clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
'Damn it! One day...'
He really wanted to rush out and kill this stupid woman Ishtar right now, but reason ultimately stopped him from doing so.
It wasn't that he couldn't beat her. The main issue was that Uruk still hadn't realized the existence of Ereshkigal among the Three Goddess Alliance, and still regarded Ishtar, their former guardian deity, as one of the Three Goddesses.
And this idiot Ishtar had never clarified things either, somehow ending up taking the blame herself...
If he went out and fought her now... sure, he'd feel satisfied, but the impact on the bigger picture would be huge.
Although the Three Goddess Alliance all had their own agendas, now still wasn't the time to completely tear things apart. For the sake of the greater plan, Kingu could only endure it.
And then he watched as Ishtar killed the Scorpion Demon he had painstakingly managed to hatch again, before casually starting to pick through its corpse.
Unable to hold back any longer, he slammed a fist into the nearby tree, causing the dozens-of-meters-tall trunk to crash to the ground.
Too much! This is too much!!!
This was the Scorpion Demon he had worked so hard to gather resources and recreate!
If not for...
Kingu glared at Ishtar in the sky, his eyes practically spewing fire!
Just wait. Once my grand plan succeeds, I'll grind your bones to dust!
Right as he was secretly cursing her, Ishtar suddenly turned to look his way.
The falling tree had still alerted her.
"Oh? You are..." Looking at the figure in the distant forest, Ishtar raised an eyebrow. "Enkidu?"
"No, you're not Enkidu. Your eyes are wrong!" She quickly overturned her own conclusion. "I don't like that guy either, but he wouldn't show an expression like yours."
"So you're the fake causing such a stir these past years? Tsk, you really do look alike... no, not alike... huh? Isn't this the Chains of Heaven?"
Ishtar said in shock, "So you stole his body?"
As she spoke, a delighted grin spread across her face.
"Tsk tsk tsk, if that golden idiot finds out his old friend's body is being desecrated like this..."
Her tone was filled with schadenfreude.
After all, Gilgamesh and Enkidu had both been her sworn enemies.
"Heh." Knowing he could no longer hide, Kingu looked up at Ishtar and sneered. "Old-model Ishtar... full of flaws. Vain, arrogant, self-important, recklessly acting without considering consequences..."
"An outdated model like you deserved to be eliminated."
As one of Tiamat's children, Kingu naturally felt superior when facing these remnants of the old age.
"Hah?!" Instantly enraged, Ishtar fired several magic bullets at him. "You bastard really dare say that!"
"Who are you calling outdated?!"
Kingu didn't respond. Instead, he immediately began retreating at high speed.
But once Ishtar got fired up, she directly rode Maanna and stuck tightly to his back through the air, occasionally firing magic bullets and forcing Kingu to dodge all over the place.
Now it was Kingu's turn to regret things. Why hadn't he endured it a little longer...
Getting tangled up with this crazy woman was definitely not a good thing.
Shaking off her pursuit was far too difficult. He knew Maanna's performance well enough—there was no way he could outrun it.
So he could only dive into the forest, but Ishtar had always loved causing large-scale destruction. The moment she saw him enter the woods, she simply blew the entire forest apart along with him!
In the age before Christ, Ishtar experienced the joy of playing whack-a-mole.
But Kingu was practically dying of frustration.
Thus, one chased while the other fled, until they completely left Uruk's defensive range.
"You woman!" Once they reached a place beyond Uruk's ability to detect, Kingu finally let loose.
Turning around, dozens of chains shot into the sky, all aimed directly at Ishtar above.
Seeing this, Ishtar instinctively shrank back. After dodging several chains, she immediately maneuvered Maanna to the side, avoiding the deadly constriction of the Chains of Heaven.
Although the Chains of Heaven had anti-divine properties, they still had to hit first. Even though Ishtar wasn't in her original body, her instincts from battling Enkidu back then had been perfectly inherited.
Combined with Maanna's speed, Kingu found himself unable to do anything to her for a time.
Thinking back to the humiliation of being chased the whole way here, he completely lost his temper. Hundreds of flashes of golden light erupted into existence.
Today, he absolutely had to teach Ishtar a brutal lesson.
And Ishtar was furious too. Being provoked to this extent by a counterfeit...
If this were the past, she could've summoned Gugalanna and crushed him outright!
Back then, it had taken both Enkidu and Gilgamesh fighting together with everything they had just to defeat Gugalanna. The Bull of Heaven's power was no joke.
If my bull were here... a mere counterfeit would've never had the chance to act so arrogantly in front of me!
She had never been particularly good-tempered to begin with. The reason she'd been so tolerant toward Kiana was largely because of Ereshkigal.
And so, the two of them grew increasingly frustrated, the flames of battle escalating until they completely lost themselves and began fighting with killing intent!
Meanwhile, while the two battled fiercely, Xia Yu had already prepared a huge table full of dishes, humming cheerfully as she arranged them.
Oh right, she wasn't in the temple. She was at the Heroic Spirit stronghold in Uruk, where she'd stayed for a few days before.
"Your Excellency!" The moment Tomoe Gozen entered the room, she smelled the irresistibly delicious aroma. But more exciting than the smell was seeing her benefactor actually cooking while wearing an apron!
"Have you finally returned?" Tomoe Gozen looked like she was about to cry.
After all, she was a traditional warrior. Her savior had been taken away by a goddess, yet she had been unable to rescue her for the sake of the bigger picture...
That guilt had gnawed at her heart like a venomous snake this entire time.
Although her companions had all tried to comfort her, saying Lady Kiana seemed to be enjoying herself, Tomoe Gozen didn't think that justified doing nothing.
But if she really had gone... and something happened, leading to Uruk's destruction, she wouldn't have been able to bear that responsibility either.
These past days, she had spent every moment trapped in this contradiction.
How should one put it? She really was an incredibly awkward person...
"Why are you making such a miserable face?" Hearing her voice, Xia Yu turned around and noticed the faint tears in Tomoe Gozen's eyes. Setting down the soup pot in her hands, she walked over. "Have you been suffering these days?"
"No... It's just that I watched my benefactor suffer humiliation while I could do nothing..." Tomoe Gozen said with a look like she deserved death. "As a warrior, facing such disgrace, I can't even commit seppuku..."
If she died and humanity's final defensive line fell... she'd become a sinner against all Humanity.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Xia Yu immediately realized she'd fallen into a mental dead end. "When was I ever humiliated?"
"You were taken away by Goddess Ishtar..." Tomoe Gozen said tearfully.
"Are you serious?" Xia Yu laughed helplessly, grabbing Tomoe Gozen's hand and dragging her toward the kitchen. "Come on, help wash the vegetables."
Tomoe Gozen instinctively began washing the vegetables.
Watching her movements, Xia Yu said, "No seriously, do you actually think I was suffering humiliation in Ishtar's temple?"
"Didn't Merlin and the others explain it to you? You've seen my strength too, right? Do you honestly think Ishtar can beat me?"
"No, they did try to persuade me," Tomoe Gozen lowered her head to look at the vegetables in her hands. "I just can't get past it emotionally..."
Ah, the awkwardness unique to warriors, huh.
"You know, sometimes the greatest hunters appear in the form of prey," Xia Yu said as she lifted Tomoe Gozen's chin with one hand.
"Ishtar is very fun. I stayed by her side willingly."
"Don't rush to deny it. I'm not lying to you," she said with a grin. "Don't you think Ishtar's personality is adorable?"
"Ah... this..." Looking at Kiana's exquisitely beautiful face right in front of her, Tomoe Gozen's brain completely shut down. "I wouldn't dare speak improperly about a goddess..."
"How is that improper?" Xia Yu shook her head and let go of her. "Actually, you're pretty cute too, you know?"
"Ah? Me? That's not okay!" Tomoe Gozen nearly jumped on the spot.
She still couldn't quite accept girls getting all affectionate with each other.
But this was also her lifesaving benefactor...
"Relax, I have no intention of exploiting your gratitude," Xia Yu laughed at her conflicted expression. "I'm just clarifying my sexual orientation."
"And besides, my heart belongs to Lady Ereshkigal. Staying by Ishtar's side is just for other reasons. Tomoe Gozen, don't think I'm some perfectly righteous person just because I saved you."
"I have my own little schemes and my own plans, so you don't need to agonize over me so much. Saving you was just a convenient thing to do."
"I understand that nobody is perfect," Tomoe Gozen looked up at her and said hesitantly, "it's just... I still can't really accept..."
At this point, even the tips of her ears had turned red.
Girls being affectionate with each other and all that...
"That's totally fine." Xia Yu smiled cheerfully. "You make it sound like I saved you because I had ulterior motives."
"If you really want to repay me, then protect the people of Chaldea properly for me. They're very, very important friends of mine."
She had to give Tomoe Gozen something to focus on, otherwise this sense of indebtedness would keep shackling her heart.
Xia Yu really couldn't help it either. Back then, she'd genuinely only saved her on a whim...
She wasn't the sort of scumbag who'd exploit favors to emotionally manipulate people.
"As for now, your mission is to help me wash the vegetables first," Xia Yu said with a grin. "This is my first meal welcoming Chaldea as friends-of-friends, so we absolutely can't mess it up."
"Understood! I'll definitely do it properly!" Finally relieved, Tomoe Gozen began seriously washing the vegetables.
"Oh ho, who would've thought you're such a romantic?" At that moment, an arrogant voice suddenly came from the doorway. "Though I'm curious who exactly this 'Ere' you keep mentioning is."
Gilgamesh wore an extremely malicious grin. Although it was only a nickname, from those two syllables and the fact this woman had been constantly clinging to Ishtar, he'd already guessed who she meant.
"Kiana, say... if Ishtar found out..."
"You don't want your Ziggurat anymore?" Xia Yu had already noticed his arrival long ago. "You're the King of Uruk, yet you love eavesdropping this much?"
"This is This King's Dominion. This King's land!" Gilgamesh said as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "Wherever This King appears is entirely justified!"
"Then have you finished your work?" Xia Yu stabbed directly at his sore spot again. "Found a solution for the flooding of the Tigris River? Killed off all those Demonic Beasts sneaking in to destroy farmland? Captured the guy running around murdering people in Enkidu's body?"
Gilgamesh's face instantly stiffened.
"Work can never truly be finished," he declared as he strode in and sat down heavily at the table. "And right now, my most important task is monitoring you, Enemy of Civilization!"
"Heh. If you're here to freeload a meal, just say so. Why make it sound so grand?" Xia Yu rolled her eyes. "And Enemy of Civilization? Aren't you worried I might poison you?"
"You're not the sort of person who would do something so petty," Gilgamesh replied leisurely. "And poison? What doesn't exist within my treasury?"
"How could This King fear mere poison?"
"Heh." Xia Yu nearly laughed at that. The Gate of Babylon?
Tsk. Last time, that golden idiot had decisively cut his losses and escaped, so she'd only managed to plunder seventy or eighty percent of his treasures...
Thinking of that, she looked at Gilgamesh regretfully.
Why did he have to be Wise King Gilgamesh?
Makes it hard to make a move.
If it had been chuuni Gilgamesh instead, she'd have already gone up and looted the remaining few tenths too.
Even though she said nothing, Gilgamesh still sensed something off about the way she was looking at him.
Yet he couldn't figure out exactly what felt wrong.
Just as he was about to speak, he saw Kiana suddenly pause in surprise, set down what she was doing, and walk out of the house.
She glanced at the sky before returning.
While Gilgamesh was still completely confused, he suddenly sensed an extremely familiar aura.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue irritably. "What did that useless goddess mess up this time? She even brought out Gugalanna?"
A few minutes earlier, Ishtar had made one careless mistake and gotten her ankle caught by Kingu's Chains of Heaven, completely falling into a disadvantageous position.
Looking at the tightly bound goddess before him, Kingu revealed an excited grin.
Good! You've finally fallen into my hands!
To reach this moment, he'd intentionally exposed a massive opening, nearly letting half his body get blasted apart by Ishtar's magic bullets. But the results were worth it.
This stupid woman had finally taken the bait.
"You bastard!" Ishtar struggled desperately against the chains. "How dare you offend a goddess!"
"A goddess?" Kingu's eyes were filled with savage delight. "An outdated model like you still dares call yourself—"
Before he could finish speaking, both of them simultaneously sensed a certain presence and looked up together.
They saw an enormous hoof descending from the heavens, stomping Kingu straight into the ground in one strike.
"This is... Gugalanna!!!"
Ishtar was completely stunned. She never imagined the bull she'd searched for so long would suddenly appear before her just like this!
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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