Nothing But Sustenance

With the restoration of the hand, Gilgamesh's aura was forever changed.

The slight hint of gold it had acquired become full, appearing as the perfect blend of red and gold.

Both colors melded together in the misty aura, and seemed to flow as if suspended in water. The red expanded outward, while the gold stuck closer to Gilgamesh.

When Gilgamesh looked down at War's spear in his neck, he frowned. Expressing his dissatisfaction with being stabbed like this was all it took.

War's spear crumpled up like paper, removing itself from Gilgamesh's neck and War's grip.

Then, it folded in on itself until it ceased to exist.

War was stunned to a state of shocked calm.

Fearless gulped, finally experiencing true fear. This event caused her inherent nature to implode, and her soul was almost instantly annihalited.

Her eyes bled as her face drained of color before she started falling to the floor. Gilgamesh caught her by stabbing two fingers into her eyes, and prepared to extract her essential soul-- or whatever was left of it.

Hero roared something unintelligible; it was clear that he was already broken.

As for the close to five thousand people...

They had been fodderized. They were simply too weak.

Whomever among them was still alive would soon not be.

Hero and War were desperate to save Fearless, and they charged recklessly.

With the power of a Hand of his inherent nature, Gilgamesh's power saw a qualitative change.

He could easily annihalte these two.

"Unhand her!" Hero shouted as his fist collided with Gilgamesh's face.

"This fight has only just begun, Demon!" War roared, and his aura manifested as a collection of weapons, hovering around him.

Gilgamesh snorted coldly.

"You are both nothing, but at least you have decent souls. Give them to me."

Hero's fist crashed into Gilgamesh's face.

The bones in his hand shattered, as though he had collided with an unbreakable object.

War's aura was instantly cowed, and the weapons were reduced to fragments before vanishing.

They were both helpless in the face of Gilgamesh's regal aura. They could do nothing but present themselves to him on their knees.

After reaping Fearless' soul, he took Hero's and War's.

Gilgamesh looked around at the dead Domain and shook his head.

"This is still not enough."

With that, he gathered his energy and forced his inherent nature to further evolve the true energy natures in his sea of energy.

Subconsciously, he alienated the Omniscient Author from this process.

After what Enkidu said, he no longer felt like relying on the Omniscient Author. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He refused to believe he had let something someone else did affect him... but it was the truth.

After going through another evolution, the Obscure Spark and Old Power were then forcibly conjoined to create an even faster energy gathering method.

Using the gathered energy, Gilgamesh completed further solidifications of his energy, slowly moving towards a fully crystallized sea of energy.

At the same time, his inherent nature was constantly outputting as much aura as it possibly could. His black hairs were bathed in gold light, and his tiny red pupils gave him the impression of a fiend.

Even as he felt his soul ache, he did not let up.

His cultivation speed rose, and his sea of energy further neared complete crystallization.

It was not long before he reached the Peak of the Establishment stage, and looked upon the countless crystal fragments of energy within him.

Those fragments were all part of a larger whole, but appeared to be missing something to hold them all together.

No matter how hard Gilgamesh tried, he could not force those fragments together and complete his Establishment.

"If the next stage is called Expansion, maybe I need to..."

Thus, instead of trying to force them together, he decided to focus on making each of those fragments bigger.

The instant he did so, he triggered a tribulation of surrender.

Gilgamesh gave the Second Book of Existence a mocking laugh.

"I don't accept your surrender! I'll erase the contents of this Page and many others after it!"

His cultivation base was pushed, and the Page was put under intense strain. Unable to support the existence of letters and words, the Page erased them all in order to focus all of it's energy on resisting Gilgamesh.

Although it was able to protect the Page itself, the Book could only do so by sacrificing everything on that Page.

Then, Gilgamesh tore a hole into the Negative Space and left for a new Page.

Upon entering that new page, he was immediately met with resistance.

"The Bookkeeper demands the head of this 'Demon of the First Book!' We shall deliver!"

A group of thousands led by several power individuals descended, and Gilgamesh was engaged in another battle.

However, they could not resist his inherent nature.

Their souls were reduced to soul dust, and Gilgamesh continued to feed his inherent nature.

Page after Page after Page.

"Gilgamesh! Do you remember me!? You once wrought untold havoc in my Page, and tortured billions of my servants! I will have my revenge!"

Nightmare of the First Book, and his million-strong army.

All reduced to soul dust.

"So a little mortal with a damaged soul thinks he has what it takes to challenge the elite of the Fourth Book!? Don't make me laugh!"

Terror, Chaos and Eternity of the Fourth Book...

Soul dust.

"Fuck off! The Dragonblood Legion serves the pinnacle of power, the Great Master of the Nine Stars! You cannot even dream of standing against us!"

The Dragonblood Legion, and their 'Great Master of Nine Stars,' served as further nourishment for Gilgamesh's inherent nature.

The further he progressed, however, the tougher the battle became.

Although he was constantly using the soul dust to fuel his inherent nature's recovery, he was slowly reaching the limit.

He would, very soon, exhaust his current potential and be unable to restore his inherent nature further.

At that point, the only thing he would accomplish by absorbing soul dust was filling himself with raw soul power, which was incredibly dangerous.

It was true that his inherent nature would be able to supress that soul power and prevent it from doing damage.

But, the more soul power he absorbed, the less suppression his inherent nature would be able to provide.

The worst part was, without continuously absorbing raw soul power, he would not be able to keep up with the steadily increasing strength of his opponents.

It was the only way for him to remedy the situation with his potential.

It was- once again- a crazed, suicidal attempt at saving someone important to him.

Gilgamesh was resolved to lose everything if it meant Ateah could live.

His Little Feather could not die at the hands of the Bright Speck or Enkidu.

He would not allow it.

Gilgamesh blazed a trail of unending destruction through the Middle Pages, and eventually got to the Early Pages.

That was when he entered the Domain of Destruction, and met Law again.

Gilgamesh was not surprised to find out that Law already knew what was happening.

"What's the situation like," He asked Law, who was marvelling at Gilgamesh's appearance.

"All Books of Existence have been summoned, as well as the Bookkeepers of the Third and Fourth. I think you know what happened to the First Bookeeper."

Gilgamesh smirked.

He had been getting a steady flow of memories ever since he started restoring his inherent nature.

It was not hard to deduce what Law was referring to.

"Defiance was summoned by the Second Bookkeeper in order to help them set up something called the 'Four Book Formation.' I was not allowed to know what that is, though."

Gilgamesh nodded, "They likely have a way of slowing me down, if not halting my progress altogether."

"That seems likely," Law frowned. "I believe the Bright Speck itself may be involved."

Gilgamesh furrowed his brows.

"I was told to report your eventual arrival to my Page, but the Bright Speck would normally already know."

"So it must be focused on something else," Gilgamesh mused.

Law just nodded, his expression turning grave.

"This Four Book Formation is going to be troublesome, but just that."

Gilgamesh cracked his neck. His smirk deepened as excitement overcame him, along with a hint of disdainful ridicule.

"A little trouble can easily be handled."

With that, Gilgamesh mobilized his cultivation base and firmly stepped into the Expansion stage.

Once he did that, he got to work forcing each of the fragments of his crystallized energy to grow.

However, they were not merely growing, but actually releasing the energy contained within their cores.

That energy, once released, would gather on the surface of the crystals and proceed to solidify, making it seem as though the crystals were growing.

Slowly, but surely, each of them would expand until they touched each other, perfectly filling the space between them like a jigsaw.

Gilgamesh sped through yet another stage of cultivation, and got to the peak.

Once again, his power rose and he accidentally summoned a tribulation of surrender.

Law gathered his aura and stepped forward.

"I command ten billion Destroyers, all of them powerful enough to decimate any Middle Page. They can, at least, help you clear a path."

He extended his hand, and a broken silver sword took form, glinting and glittering.

"Activate this sword with your power, and use it to cut a portal in space-time. Once you do so, myself and my Destroyers will join you."