Chapter 282
At the top of Uruk's Divine Tower.
Kingu, his chest covered in bloodstains, sat slumped on the stone ledge at the edge of the highest floor, gazing at the lifeless Uruk below.
"I'm such an idiot..."
He buried his head deep in his arms.
"Why did I come to a place like this?"
Yeah...
Why?
After losing the Holy Grail and the magical energy sustaining him, this body had begun weakening bit by bit.
It was originally a broken weapon that had only been restarted through the Holy Grail.
Now that both the Grail and the magical energy it provided were gone, even the Chains of Heaven, capable of binding gods, had begun falling silent.
While drifting in and out of consciousness, he had acted purely on instinct.
When he finally came to his senses, he found himself atop Uruk's Divine Tower, having somehow traveled all the way from the Persian Gulf frontlines.
Was it this body's instinct?
Probably.
After all, the current Uruk was a city that Enkidu and Gilgamesh had developed and brought prosperity to together...
It was also the place he cherished most.
But that wasn't his attachment.
It wasn't Kingu's destination.
He should have been willing to give everything for Mother...
Yet what he received was betrayal.
Those so-called new humans who spoke like people...
No.
Those monsters.
They had stabbed him in the back without the slightest hesitation.
Mother...
Is this really the new humanity you wanted to create?
Kingu was lost.
Suddenly, he recalled what that person had once told him.
Tiamat loved watching her children and was unwilling to return. The one in the sea now was merely a being completely dominated by beastly instincts.
So...
Was she right after all?
Ha.
I suppose so.
The only reason I made it back alive from the frontlines was because she let me through, wasn't it?
After all, how could a heavily injured me possibly pass through the defense line formed by her dependents?
"Get up already, you spineless fool!"
A disgusted voice suddenly sounded beside him.
Kingu raised his head and looked behind him.
Gilgamesh was walking over with a cold expression.
"Disappear immediately. This king will not hold you accountable."
As he spoke, Gilgamesh walked up before him and looked down.
"What? Can't stand up?"
"So this is the one hailed as the greatest masterpiece of the gods?"
"What are you so smug about?!"
Kingu was instantly enraged.
He jumped to his feet and lunged at Gilgamesh—
Only to stumble halfway and collapse onto the ground.
Turning around, he saw that his right foot had already detached from his body.
The little magical energy he had left was no longer enough to support the weapon's continued operation.
"Damn it!"
He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
"You actually had to see me like this!"
Even Kingu himself failed to realize it.
There wasn't much hatred in his words.
What filled them more was his unwillingness to face himself.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Rolling over, he pounded the ground with his fist.
"Damn it!"
Kingu cried out miserably, wishing he could die right then and there.
Looking at the most pathetic state of the familiar stranger before him, Gilgamesh turned his head slightly away, unwilling to continue watching.
Then a flash of golden light appeared.
A golden chalice rolled across the ground, tumbling to a stop before Kingu.
The moment he touched Uruk's Great Grail, Kingu instinctively absorbed it into his body.
Golden magical energy instantly flooded him.
His severed foot reattached itself automatically.
The wound that had pierced through his chest healed within a few breaths.
The Chains of Heaven rapidly returned to their peak condition.
As expected of the gods' most prized weapon.
"What do you mean by this?!"
Kingu froze for two seconds before springing to his feet and grabbing Gilgamesh by the collar.
"I am your enemy!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
"I'm not your Enkidu! Not Enkidu..."
"I'm not Enkidu!!!"
Kingu was a contradictory person.
From the moment he was born, he had existed to devote himself entirely to Tiamat.
As a weapon, he was meant to crush every obstacle standing in the way of the Beast's return.
He understood that mission clearly.
Yet at the same time, all of Enkidu's memories engraved within the Chains of Heaven had been opened to him without reservation.
Between those two identities, he naturally leaned toward Kingu's duty.
But Enkidu's memories had exerted an immense influence on him.
The only reason it wasn't even stronger was because Enkidu had died too early and left behind too few memories.
Otherwise, just look at Fu Hua next door. She had practically washed away the Herrscher of Sentience itself with fifty thousand years of memories and obsessions before Little Senti was finally born.
If Enkidu had lived longer, those memories alone could have turned the blank-sheet Kingu into Enkidu 2.0.
Though honestly, there wasn't much difference already.
"That's right. You merely use his body."
Gilgamesh raised his head, trying not to look at that familiar yet unfamiliar face.
"Then why—"
Kingu blurted out.
But the next moment, Gilgamesh grabbed his wrist.
"But!"
He loudly interrupted Kingu's question.
"You are still someone under this king's protection... no, someone this king holds dear."
"What did you say?"
Kingu looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Must this king really spell it out for you, you fool?"
Gilgamesh looked directly at him.
"Even if your heart is different and your soul is different, your body is still the one and only Chains of Heaven of this land."
"Of course, that guy always insisted he was merely a weapon. If we go by his logic, then it's only natural for this king to care about you as well."
Gilgamesh released his hand and turned toward the slowly rising sun.
"After all, that was the weapon I trusted most in the past."
"You can be considered the successor model."
"So what's wrong with favoring you?"
After saying that, he turned and walked away.
"The world's about to end anyway. Just live however you want."
Kingu couldn't help calling out.
"Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"Still don't understand?"
Without even turning around, Gilgamesh replied:
"It means forgetting Mother and your origins and doing what you truly want to do."
"Just like he and I did in the past."
With the sun at his back, Kingu watched Gilgamesh's figure gradually disappear from the top of the Divine Tower.
"Why say something like that now...?"
"I don't even have a free self to choose with..."
But he was destined never to receive an answer.
A long time later, Kingu turned toward the rising sun and looked down at Uruk.
The city that had once bustled with life now stood completely empty.
"Uruk..."
Scene after scene surfaced in his mind.
They did not belong to him.
They belonged to Enkidu's memories.
In those memories, they built cities together.
Hunted invading Witchbeasts together.
Celebrated together.
Cried together.
Stayed awake celebrating until dawn together...
Those aren't mine...
Kingu repeated those words to himself over and over.
Yet his hand moved uncontrollably toward his chest.
Divine Construct weapons did not possess the weakness known as a heart.
And yet he could feel it.
Within his chest surged an emotion he could neither understand nor suppress.
"Uruk..."
"Those legs are far too slender to support such an enormous body."
The strategy meeting against Tiamat was underway.
"We can confirm that Goddess Tiamat can only move while standing upon the black mud."
Gilgamesh looked at the projected data displayed on Mash's shield.
"This king and Chaldea both agree with this hypothesis."
"Simply put,"
The Doctor explained,
"that black mud acts as the sliding track Tiamat uses for movement. As long as we remove the black mud, even temporarily, we can stop her advance."
"Chaldea is currently researching how to turn the black mud back into seawater, but progress is minimal..."
"If it's only a matter of removing the black mud..."
The big sister from South America looked excited.
"My Noble Phantasm should be capable of doing that."
"Oh, right! That thing!"
Jaguar Man's eyes lit up.
"That thing! That thing!"
"Hm?"
Ritsuka looked confused.
"What thing?"
"The Piedra del Sol on the Eridu Altar."
Quetzalcoatl replied.
"Fortunately, that battle ended early. Otherwise you would've smashed it."
"Then the black mud is your responsibility."
Gilgamesh nodded.
"But there are still the Lahmus."
Ishtar frowned.
"I conducted reconnaissance this morning. The skies above the Persian Gulf are packed with flying Lahmus like the ones we saw yesterday."
"There are at least several hundred thousand of them, and new flying variants are constantly being born."
"We'd have to fend off the Lahmus while continuously supplying magical energy and staying near Mother under even greater danger."
"Yes, it's extremely dangerous."
Quetzalcoatl nodded.
"But we don't have a choice, do we?"
Fujimaru Ritsuka took a deep breath.
"Let's do it!"
"As for the Lahmus... I'll shamelessly go hug Big Sister Kiana's leg and borrow some troops! I've been eyeing that majestic dragon of hers for a long time!"
"So, Big Sister Kiana..."
At the Persian Gulf frontline, before the Throne of the Sky, Fujimaru Ritsuka tightly hugged Xia Yu's leg.
"Please! Just lend me some troops!"
"If you want troops, I'll definitely give them to you."
Xia Yu put on a troubled expression.
"I can assign Templar-class units or even Honkai Emperors to you."
"But you're asking for Benares!"
"That's my beloved family member and my best sister!"
"Just think of it as a hire fee, okay?!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka gritted her teeth.
"Big Sister Kiana, whatever you want, just name it! Even if I have to climb mountains of blades or plunge into seas of fire in the future, I'll get it for you!"
"Really?"
Xia Yu asked with interest.
"Really!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka swore solemnly.
"I swear on my own honor and Chaldea's honor!"
"Alright then. I'll reluctantly trust you this once."
Xia Yu gently patted her head.
"I'll lend Benares to you."
"As for what I want... I haven't decided yet."
She spoke meaningfully.
"We'll talk about it next time we meet."
Fujimaru Ritsuka immediately felt her scalp go numb.
She had the distinct feeling she had just dug herself a massive hole.
But there was no time to worry about the future.
"I knew Big Sister Kiana would agree!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka hugged her arm and shook it repeatedly.
"You'll always be my good big sister!"
"Alright, enough."
Xia Yu summoned Benares and handed her over.
"Go. Carry out your plan."
Fujimaru Ritsuka climbed onto Benares's back and immediately began looking down on the Quetzalcoatlus she had been riding earlier.
Now this was a real dragon.
Look at this spacious back.
Look at this power!
"You actually managed to talk her into lending it?"
Ishtar landed excitedly on Benares's back.
"Now that's impressive."
"Of course. Kiana will always be my big sister."
Fujimaru Ritsuka puffed out her chest proudly.
"What's wrong with a big sister assigning a personal bodyguard to her little sister?"
"With this dragon's help, breaking through to Tiamat shouldn't be a problem."
Even Quetzalcoatl started looking down on her own Quetzalcoatlus and jumped directly onto Benares's back.
"Look! The first wave is coming!"
Everyone looked up.
A dense swarm of flying Lahmus was sweeping toward them like a constantly shifting black cloud.
But in the next moment, a white-and-purple tide erupted from the earth below.
Countless Chariot-class Honkai Beasts, accompanied by Templar-class units and even Honkai Emperors, soared into the sky.
They formed a white torrent and smashed directly into the black cloud of flying Lahmus.
In an instant, countless corpses rained from the sky.
Some were Chariot-class Honkai Beasts casually swatted to death.
Others were Lahmus that had been focused down and carved into Meat Lumps before falling from the air.
"Now this looks like a proper mythological war."
As a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, Benares currently had no equivalent opponent among the Lahmus.
Naturally, she charged ahead as a streak of light, drilling straight through the Lahmu formation.
A massive hole was torn through the black cloud.
The Honkai Beasts behind her immediately surged through the opening and attacked from within, utterly shattering the assault.
"This is so easy..."
Mash held up her shield.
She hadn't managed to earn a single achievement so far.
The main reason was that Benares was simply too fast and too powerful.
No Lahmu could stop her.
Every wave of attacks ahead served merely as speed bumps.
To truly fight her—and perhaps even defeat her—it would take at least six or seven god-level Lahmus.
Something like the eleven divine Lahmus that had chased Ishtar around the Underworld in the original story.
Being summoned as a Servant was already a nerf for a deity like Ishtar.
Facing that many divine-level opponents at once...
She had been beaten quite badly.
Although Benares was a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, she was nowhere near veterans like Chiyou, who had developed for tens of thousands of years.
Nor could she compare to Sirin's genuine dragon at six-core strength.
Fighting three or four divine-level enemies simultaneously was already pushing her limits.
But the Lahmus currently lacked any divine-level units.
Perhaps because Tiamat had been bitten once and learned her lesson.
After experiencing the betrayal caused by hatching the gods, her instincts prevented her from producing divine-level Lahmus unless she faced a genuinely fatal threat.
Even in the original story, she only revived divine-level Lahmus in the Underworld after sensing that her life was truly endangered.
As a result, Benares now rampaged across the battlefield with unstoppable momentum.
She could charge through the Lahmu hordes again and again.
Every organized assault they launched was scattered to pieces by her.
She was powerful, but compared to Tiamat, she was still insignificant.
Therefore, she was judged to be non-threatening.
Quite miraculously, they had managed to exploit a loophole in a Beast's instincts.
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me! But for faster responses, please notify me on my discord server instead (link is in my profile). Thanks!
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!
Members of my [email protected]/quickinquickout can read advanced chapters on quick-tl(dot)com—and even customize translated terms to match their preferred names and terminology!