"Your bull?"
"Your bull's so precious, huh?"
"Your bull nearly leveled my Kutha. Should I be asking you for compensation?"
"And if you keep stalling, you won't even be able to save Uruk!"
You money-grubbing maniac! Ereshkigal was fuming, wishing she could crack open Ishtar's head.
"I let Gugalanna go ages ago! That bull has nothing to do with me!"
Ishtar retaliated hard, blasting Gugalanna back several steps. Her expression turned cold as she pointed an accusing finger, voice full of righteous fury.
"I knew something was off with you, you wicked beast!"
"You dared to ride a flood in and try to drown Uruk?"
"You've been hiding all this time—no way you haven't been up to more shady things."
As she fired off the accusations, Ishtar blasted the ground, making Gugalanna stumble. Its front hoof slipped into the abyss.
But the Divine Beast quickly broke free, manipulating the terrain with its power.
Gritting her teeth, Ishtar threw out a handful of high-grade gemstones, detonating them all over her former property. Even while launching the assault, she kept trying to distance herself from the one who'd caused such devastating economic damage.
"Speak! Was it you who collapsed most of Mount Ebih and unleashed the black tide at the South Gate?!"
"Moo…"
"And my temple..."
"Wait—my temple?!"
Suddenly, everything clicked. A flash of insight lit up her mind, linking all the pieces together.
As the one who conquered Mount Ebih, she'd been granted a share of its authority. That's how she came to possess the Noble Phantasm An Gal Ta Ki Gal Šè: Kindling of Venus that Shook the Mountains—the conceptual fusion of Venus and the legend of the "Destroyer of Mount Ebih."
Which meant the temple she'd built at the summit served as the Thaumaturgical Foundation that stabilized the entire mountain.
She'd always wondered—how had the spirit of Mount Ebih, which should have perished, managed to break its seal and destroy her temple without any warning?
Now she knew the answer.
It wasn't the Demon Boar possessed by the mountain spirit that brought down her temple—
It was Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven!
If all of this was deliberate, then the three prior impact events from Mount Ebih suddenly made perfect sense.
Smashing her temple destabilized the mountain, making it useless as a pillar to suppress the underworld.
And once that happened, Apsu, sealed deep beneath the abyss, would be free to break loose and awaken sooner.
Those evil spirits that clawed their way out of the rifts—those corrupted beasts and wild boars—they were all signs!
And she hadn't seen it at all! She'd blamed them instead!
Ishtar's eyes burned with fury as she recalled the shattered gems scattered everywhere. Grinding her teeth, she hurled the rest of her stash beneath Gugalanna's hooves, detonating them and forcing the beast to sink deeper.
The second impact had struck when Apsu awakened beneath the Cedar Forest. Mount Ebih collapsed, and a black tide erupted from within—flanking Uruk from both sides!
And now, the third impact was underway. That damn bull, bringing a flood in tow, was once again here to destroy Uruk!
It really was you, Gugalanna! You ungrateful traitor!
Fueled by the sting of financial loss, Ishtar pieced everything together. Her eyes bloodshot with rage, she soared into the sky, summoned a black vortex, and loaded the concept of Venus into her arsenal.
"Open the gates!"
"From the great heavens to the great earth! Also known as—the Destroyer of Mount Ebih!"
A light arrow, hundreds of meters wide, steadily formed in the air. As the War Goddess raised her hand and brought it down, a surging tide of Ether crashed onto the ground where Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, stood.
The air violently compressed, then erupted in a deafening blast. A towering mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
"Moo!"
Gugalanna, eyes glowing crimson, let out a mournful bellow as he was swallowed by the encroaching darkness.
"That's for touching my temple! And smashing my collection!"
Looking down at the culprit slowly sinking into the underworld, Ishtar sneered coldly. After venting her rage, she felt thoroughly refreshed.
"Well, that's a wrap. The bull's yours now—soup, barbecue, do what you like."
The goddess stretched lazily, pleased with herself like a cat after a good grooming.
"And as for the cost of defending Kutha... I guess, for old times' sake, I won't charge you—"
Smirking to herself, Ishtar gracefully turned around with the support of Maanna.
But just as she was about to show off her generosity to Ereshkigal, her gaze swept over the massive hollow left by the collapse behind her... and the giant waves now surging across the chasm, barreling toward Uruk.
Her smile froze.
"Uh… maybe we can still save Uruk..."
"Emergency! I'm outta here!"
She let out an awkward laugh and leapt back onto Maanna. With a surge of mana, the Boat of Heaven became a streak of brilliant light and carried the architect of Kutha's destruction fleeing from the scene at high speed.
"I—SH—TAR!"
A furious roar erupted from the pitch-black abyss, shaking the sky and tearing apart the storm clouds above.
"Moo!"
Just as the Goddess of the Underworld relaxed for a moment, a deep thunderous bellow rumbled from below.
A strange tremor instantly spread out from the earth.
Authority—Turbulent Euphrates!
With Gugalanna's interference, the Euphrates River surged wildly, merging with the mountain torrents and rushing toward Uruk in a devastating tidal wave.
Damn it!
Ereshkigal's face turned pale. Her eyes darted between Gugalanna in the abyss and the Euphrates roaring toward Uruk. Her mind was in chaos.
After a tense moment, she clenched her jaw and turned sharply.
...
At Uruk's south gate, the guards stared in terror at the massive waves sweeping across the reed plains. Their courage nearly collapsed as they scrambled to trigger the Magecraft warning.
"The Euphrates has breached! Maximum alert!"
The shrill alarm echoed through Uruk, plunging the city into chaos.
What's going on? Could even Ere and Ishtar fail to stop this flood?
Samael's face twisted in panic. With Ana in tow, he rushed to the south gate.
The waves had already advanced dozens of miles. He fired a slanted light arrow, but it only split the water for a few dozen meters before fizzling out.
It's over... no mana left!
With dizziness clouding her mind, Ishtar collapsed atop Maanna. She watched the flood continue to surge forward with hardly any reduction and turned pale.
Luckily, the terrain ahead of Uruk began to rise. Layers of hills and mountains tried to block the flood's advance.
Ereshkigal had arrived!
On the city wall, Samael's heart pounded. His hands clenched so tightly they nearly shattered the stone beneath them.
But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the mountains and trenches that had held back nearly 70% of the flood were gradually smashed down and filled in.
The still-mighty flood surged across the plains just a hundred meters from the walls. The towering waves were now higher than the city itself.
At that critical moment, the shriek of a Quetzalcoatlus rang out overhead.
In an instant, the sky howled with wind. A massive stone inscribed with a star calendar came crashing down, embedding itself halfway into the earth just before the south gate with a piercing explosion.
The waves about to crash into the city walls recoiled and scattered, as crimson light spread from the surface of the stone. Drained of their force, the waves slumped like a body with its spine ripped out, then slowly began retreating back toward the river.
The Solar Calendar Stone... Quetzalcoatl!
As he stared at Uruk—so close to falling in his hands—Samael's chest tightened, and tears welled up in his eyes.
...
(50 Chapters Ahead)
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