Chapter 267: It's Just Sudden Death, It's Not Like He Can't Be Revived
"I just went to deliver some blueprints..."
Siduri's face was filled with self-reproach as she said, "By the time I returned, the King had already entered his eternal sleep upon the Throne."
"How is that poss..." Mash spoke up in disbelief, but before she could finish, she was cut off by Merlin.
"That's impossible!" Agitated, he walked quickly toward the Ziggurat's Council Chamber, murmuring to himself, "He is a man who saw into the future and took the initiative to become a magus. To avoid dying on the battlefield, he has always commanded from the Throne!"
"This was his promise to me!"
Merlin was panicking big time right now. 'No, wait, if you, the Uruk weightlifting champion, just kick the bucket like this, doesn't that mean it's my turn to shoulder this awful mess?'
'Who else can I count on? That Solomon over in Chaldea who gave up everything?'
"Merlin..." Seeing how agitated he was, even Ana, who usually loved to mock Merlin the most, was somewhat moved. She hadn't expected the friendship between the two to run so deep.
"I don't believe it!" Merlin was truly desperate as he burst straight into the Council Chamber. "How could King Gilgamesh die like this!"
Then, he ended up locking eyes with Xia Yu, who was sitting beside Gilgamesh's corpse, taking small sips of soup.
"Yo, you guys are back," Xia Yu gave them a warm smile and held up a hand to greet them.
"Wait, Big Sister Kiana, you..." Fujimaru Ritsuka's pupils shrank at the sight. 'Sister, you didn't actually finish off King Gilgamesh, did you?'
"Sigh, Ritsuka," looking at her expression, Xia Yu sighed and put on a helpless look. "In the end, I failed to live up to your entrustment."
"Entrustment?" Hearing this, Quetzalcoatl began to get excited. "Hmm? King Gilgamesh is dead on his throne, yet you're still so leisurely, and there's an entrustment? Big Sister feels like she's about to watch a grand drama unfold right before her eyes!"
"What should I do? I'm so excited! Are the two heroes of salvation about to break their ties in front of me for the sake of their respective worlds?"
"Can we just skip the dialogue and start fighting directly!"
Hearing this, a sharp gleam flashed in Ishtar's eyes nearby, and she began to adjust her positioning so she could launch a backstab at any moment!
"Ritsuka," Merlin also turned his head to look at Fujimaru Ritsuka, "the entrustment she mentioned is..."
"If I'm guessing correctly, it should be that bowl of chicken soup," Fujimaru Ritsuka's mouth twitched. Where did all this grand drama come from!
"I really just saw that King Gilgamesh had been overworking himself lately, so I asked Big Sister Kiana to make him something nice to nourish his body!"
"That's why I said I failed you," Xia Yu winked at Fujimaru Ritsuka upon hearing this. "This guy's mouth was truly stubborn. He refused to take a single sip even if it killed him. See, now he can't even become a well-fed ghost. Sigh, walking the path to the afterlife on an empty stomach, how pitiful..."
"Oh, right, this place isn't under Acheron's jurisdiction, so never mind."
"So King Gilgamesh's cause of death is actually..." Mash looked at Siduri to the side.
"It's death from overwork," before the latter could speak, Xia Yu answered her question first. "Sigh, even though I warned him so many times, he still didn't pay any attention. See, now he's done for."
"Death from overwork?" Hearing this, the Doctor far away in Chaldea couldn't sit still. "This is simply too absurd!"
"Dying from excessive overwork, this is something I can't just ignore either!"
"Keep it up, Romani," behind him, Da Vinci rested her hands on her hips and teased, "if you don't find a way to deny this, your life will be in grave danger too."
After all, as the current leader of Chaldea, his workload was not small at all.
"Besides, if someone could die from just this level of strain!" the Doctor was still trying hard to deny it. "He should have died countless times by now!"
"Oh, from what this Chaldean Doctor is saying..." Xia Yu smiled faintly upon hearing this and said, "Do you think there's a hidden story behind his death?"
"That wouldn't be good. After all, I was the only one here before he died. Mhm, looking at it this way, I'm highly suspect. That's what you're thinking, isn't it, Solom—"
"I'm sorry!!!" Before that name could be spoken, the Doctor had already smoothly clapped his hands together and said, "I was just instinctively denying the phenomenon of death from overwork, not accusing anyone of being the culprit!"
"After all, as the person handling the vast majority of matters in Chaldea, my workload isn't small either. I ask Young Lady Kiana to please stay her hand. For the sake of me being a pitiful corporate slave, please let me off!"
"But is that really alright?" Hearing this, Xia Yu raised her head and said deeply, "Do you really think you can hide it for a lifetime? This is the Seventh Singularity after all!"
"...Ahahaha, Young Lady Kiana, what are you talking about," a complex expression flashed across the Doctor's face, and then he let out a laugh. "Why can't I understand?"
"Forget it, suit yourself," Xia Yu shook her head upon hearing this, then looked toward Siduri. "So, Chief Official, how do you find this chicken soup..."
"This chicken soup is simply too delicious," Siduri said with great discernment. "To be honest, it is truly unfortunate that the King didn't get to taste it."
"Eh, in other words, we aren't going to fight," seeing this, Quetzalcoatl sighed. She walked straight forward and sat down beside Xia Yu. "Then give me a bowl, I haven't had breakfast yet either."
"Hey, why are you making yourself so at home?" Seeing this, Ishtar walked up with a highly unfriendly face and sat directly next to Xia Yu. "This is my servant!"
"Is that so?" Quetzalcoatl smiled, throwing a provocative glance her way. "Why do I feel... her heart belongs elsewhere?"
Hearing this, Ishtar subconsciously thought of her own sister, and her mood grew even worse.
"Come, come, come, everyone gets some," watching Quetzalcoatl find various ways to provoke Ishtar simply because her hands were itching for a fight, Xia Yu helplessly structured several pairs of bowls and chopsticks.
"Since Gilgamesh doesn't have the fortune to enjoy this, let's share it among ourselves."
"Um, sigh, actually it's my fault," watching the gradually stiffening atmosphere, Merlin had to step forward to smooth things over. "I was the one who lost my composure first."
"Um... Lady Siduri," he looked toward Siduri, "after we left, were there any abnormalities in Uruk?"
"Abnormalities?" Siduri thought deeply upon hearing this, then said uncertainly, "Come to think of it, there have been quite a few reports claiming that many incidents of death from wasting away have occurred within Uruk."
"Death from wasting away?" Ishtar asked subconsciously.
"Yes," Siduri nodded. "Although I was thrown into disarray by the King's passing, the number of such reports I received is indeed highly abnormal."
"It's as if the entirety of Uruk has been enveloped by the breath of death."
"Mhm, mhm," Quetzalcoatl rubbed her chin upon hearing this and said, "This is far too unusual. It must be the handiwork of the Three Goddess Alliance!"
"Hey, hey... aren't you one of the Three Goddesses too..." Ishtar looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"Um... rather than that..." Mash suddenly interrupted them. Holding a bowl of chicken soup uneasily, she looked at the people gathered around, and then at Gilgamesh's sleeping corpse upon the throne...
"Is it really alright for us to be like this?"
"Oh, true," Xia Yu pondered for two seconds at the sight, then clapped her hands. "It really is a bit disrespectful to the deceased."
Then, she directly constructed an incense burner, placed it on the desk where Gilgamesh handled political affairs, lit three sticks of incense, and ladled a bowl of chicken soup to set beside it.
"Hopefully he can receive it down below. At least he won't have to be a starving ghost."
"Um..." Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't hold it in either. "Big Sister Kiana, there's no need to be so..."
"Tsk, what do you mean no need," Xia Yu rolled her eyes at her and said righteously, "Is it wrong of me to keep him from becoming a starving ghost? Besides, it's just sudden death, it's not like he can't be revived."
"What?! Revived?" Hearing this, the eyes of the entire group lit up.
"Why are you all so surprised?" Xia Yu blinked, then reached out to poke Fujimaru Ritsuka's forehead. "I recall telling you, right? The Age of Gods is very magical. What does a mere resurrection amount to?"
"Look at how Ishtar and Quetzalcoatl aren't in a hurry, learn more from them!"
"So he can actually be revived..." Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash exchanged a glance, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Wait, Merlin, why are you also so..." Ritsuka seemed to have noticed a crucial point.
"Ha, well, about that..." Merlin scratched his face. "Ahe, I forgot!"
'As expected of the unreliable Merlin!' Ana looked at him with disdain.
"Then let us go revive King Gilgamesh right now!" Mash was bursting with fighting spirit.
"What's the rush," Xia Yu immediately pressed her back down. "Sit down and eat first. Even if we set out now, he won't make it back in time for breakfast after reviving anyway, and dinner will probably be a stretch too."
"So how exactly do we revive King Gilgamesh?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked toward the two goddesses beside her, full of anticipation.
"Mhm, first we have to figure out exactly who took his soul," Quetzalcoatl nodded. "If it's in the current Uruk, there can definitely only be one person."
"One of the Three Goddess Alliance, the Mistress of the Underworld, Ereshkigal."
"As I thought..." Ishtar curled her lip. It was that woman!
She glanced at Xia Yu. Tsk, what was so good about that gloomy woman anyway!
"Ereshkigal?" Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash exchanged a look, entirely perplexed.
Quetzalcoatl nodded. "What currently fills the entirety of Uruk is precisely Ereshkigal's scent of death."
"The Gallu Spirits under her command will seize the souls of those who lose their physical strength. Presumably, King Gilgamesh's soul was also taken to the Underworld by a Gallu Spirit."
"Wait!" Mash finally couldn't hold back anymore. "Shouldn't the Three Goddess Alliance consist of Gorgon, Miss Quetzalcoatl, and Miss Ishtar?"
"Me?" Ishtar pointed at herself, her face full of confusion. "I'm not. Didn't I tell you guys?"
"What?" Mash was entirely shocked.
Seeing this, Quetzalcoatl said in confusion, "The members of the Three Goddess Alliance are Gorgon, myself, and Ereshkigal."
"As I thought..." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at Ishtar. The goddess from that night must have been that Ereshkigal.
And then... she looked at Big Sister Kiana, who was propping up her chin and watching everyone's discussion with great interest. Did the two of them share a deep relationship?
Perhaps she could use this to her advantage?
"It seems you all got it wrong," Quetzalcoatl shook her head.
"Ereshkigal... what kind of goddess is she?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at her wristband. "Doctor?"
"Mhm, I've already pulled up the data over here," the Doctor said as he looked at the files. "To think it would be her, the Mistress of the Underworld."
"But the one who still retains Sumerian divinity in this era," Mash recalled the information everyone had collected previously, "wasn't it only Miss Ishtar?"
"Mhm, in Sumerian mythology, Ishtar is the Mistress of Heaven," the Doctor said, looking at the data. "In contrast, Ereshkigal is the Mistress of the Underworld..."
"So that's how it is," Merlin nodded upon hearing this.
"What do you mean?" Ishtar still hadn't figured it out.
Merlin pointed at her and said, "It means you."
"Ha?" Ishtar had a completely blank face.
"When you were summoned, Ereshkigal was simultaneously summoned alongside you," Merlin explained. "You were summoned by the priestesses, right?"
"Back then, the chief official who completed the summoning died. I'm afraid she was killed by Ereshkigal."
"I see," the Doctor also spoke up. "Ishtar, as the goddess of harvest, can be said to be the Earth Mother Goddess representing humanity. In contrast, Ereshkigal, who represents human death, is the mother goddess of fear."
Da Vinci added, "These two are two sides of the same coin. It can be said that both possess the exact same divinity."
"Wait, meaning that fellow can use this body of mine to act?" Ishtar held her chest, and then suddenly thought of something, slowly turning her head to look at Xia Yu.
"Yes indeed," Xia Yu nodded.
"So the reason you stayed by my side was also because..." Ishtar looked utterly devastated.
"Uh, didn't you kidnap me?" Xia Yu blinked.
"You really have the nerve to say that!" Grinding her teeth, Ishtar went behind her and locked her in a sleeper hold. "In any case, you actually... actually... aaaaah!"
"Go die for a bit as penance to the goddess!"
"Alright," Xia Yu said with a smile, "then I'll go look for Ereshkigal right now!"
"What? Doesn't that just benefit you!" Ishtar subconsciously let go, then grabbed her collar again in frustration. "You actually hid this from me for so long!"
"Then as an apology," Xia Yu reached out and stuffed something into her arms, "in this Singularity, it belongs to you."
"Wait, what is this..." Ishtar caught it subconsciously, and then her eyes instantly went blank.
"How could you have..."
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