The Gods of Mesopotamia

'What are gods? What is Heaven? What is Gilgamesh?'

'Today, I saw the Face of Heaven. It spoke, and it's words echoed in all the world. The earth shook under its might, and all peoples were reminded of how small they truly are.'

'I once thought that the Twelve were the epitome of might and power, standing at the peak of all there is in the Great Void.'

'I no longer feel the Twelve. They are, all of them, gone from me. Their spirits are as if eradicated. I can only guess that it is because of this 'Gilgamesh' that conversed with the Face of Heaven.'

'Just what is Gilgamesh. I heard their voice. They sound young, like a child- but how could a child speak to the Face of Heaven that way? With such authority in the voice, disregarding Heaven's own authority. How can this be?'

'My Twelve-Head, before the might of those two figures, is nothing. Without the Twelve, we are nothing. I am lost, but the worst has not come yet.'

'Gilgamesh has attacked the Face of Heaven. All the world trembles at the sound of Heaven's cries.'

'What will become of this world?'

|Thoughts of Mother Superior, Seha Helal Barakat, As She Stares At The Sky|

The red light coming from Gilgamesh filled the void once again, bearing down on Anu with careless abandon. Gilgamesh forced all of his power out of him, uncaring of the damage it might cause his incomplete spirit.

Anu bellowed, rage and indignation clear in his voice.

As the red light poured out of Gilgamesh, it assimilated something from the natural void, an aspect of Infinity. Anu was in control of such things, but his control had been wrested by Gilgamesh.

The reason Gilgamesh was able to do this was quite simple. Anu existed in a constant state of multi-tasking. His spirit was divided amongst all things, seeing to and maintaining the order of everything, everywhere. It was quite literally omnipresent.

It was thanks to that fact that Gilgamesh was able to take control over this one aspect, and recreate the magic Anu had used. If all of Anu's spirit had been focused on that one aspect, or perhaps more than half of his spirit, then Gilgamesh would have had no chance.

Luckily, Anu could not do this. To do so would require him to relax his control over something else, and that would then cause chaos to erupt across all realities. A simple thing like that.

Anu's head-shaped spirit, under the pressure of the 'Infinity Exposure' magic, was contorted and writhing, slowly being crushed. Gilgamesh, utilizing his new title as 'God' of the world below, tapped into the source of all magic- which was essentially endless. As long as his spirit held out, he could continue suppressing Anu this way.

Seeing his enemy in such a state filled Gilgamesh with joy, and his laughter filled all the world.

"AHAHAHA!"

Undisguised hatred flashed in Anu's eyes as he struggled to resist, but he was unable to in the end.

"Look at you, Anu! 'God of Heaven', 'Divine Ruler of All Things.' You are nothing to me! Your world will perish! Everything you value, I will destroy! This is my curse on you!"

The emotions that lay in Gilgamesh's spirit, unable to be roused for countless years, were finally coming back up to the surface. His care for self-preservation vanished as he slowly reentered a state he himself was not aware of.

His spirit's power, which was already being overdrawn, was called upon in an even more fierce way. Not only was he planning on increasing the energy output of the 'Infinity Exposure,' he was also about to use even more of the lightning he had used earlier.

Standing tall and proud above the spherical world, his body tiny in comparison to the vast void, yet not at all insignificant, Gilgamesh raised his hand and extended a single palm.

"Recreate Magic! Recreate Magic! Recreate Magic!"

Three bolts of lightning, each stronger and more violent than the last, were shot out of his palm. They each struck Anu's spirit, tearing three new holes in the giant head and causing him to cry out yet again.

As for Gilgamesh, the image of his spirit blurred for a moment, indicating the damage he had just done to himself. Down below, his physical self was bleeding from the nose and the eyes, but still very much alive and willing to continue fighting.

Anu's gaze was frightening to look at, but it only gave Gilgamesh immense pleasure to see. He could tell that Anu wished to hurl all manner of curses at him, and it only served to better his mood.

"Do not be angry, Anu. I am not unjust. I will ensure that all your children join you in death. One day, I shall strike them all down, and I will enjoy it. Very, very much."

Gilgamesh prepared himself once more to strike with even more lightning, but before he could do that, the void was torn in five different places.

Five new beams of divine light arrived from the source, and immediately thwarted Gilgamesh's actions. Following a sound like paper being sliced by a sharp blade, the red light of Gilgamesh's recreated spell was eradicated. On top of that, five powerful spirits sent out an almost unbearable pressure onto him that threatened to knock him unconscious.

His spirit wavered; they almost succeeded.

Eyes narrowed, Gilgamesh stared at the new figures that appeared in spirit form. They were far smaller than Anu, but still huge compared to Gilgamesh, and they were all shaped like complete bodies. Thanks to this, Gilgamesh immediately recognized all of them.

"Good to see you all, Enki, Enlil, Marduk, Ishtar and Nanna." Gilgamesh smirked, as if all this was still within his expectations.

"It has never been good to see you, Gilgamesh," Ishtar all but spat the words at him. Her spirit was naught but a transparent figure, but it was quite an explosive one. There was a hint of something in her voice that was more than just hatred, but only Gilgamesh could tell.

"Father, we should kill him. With all our spirits combined, we could destroy him once and for all." Out of all the new arrivals, the one with the mightiest of bodies spoke up, turning to look at Anu for just a moment. His spirit appeared with a staff in hand, but it was not a physical object either. It was a part of his spirit; an extension of himself.

"Use your head, Enlil. If we tried, we would only knock him unconscious. Our physicality cannot leave Heaven's Door, so we cannot have any direct effect on that which is physical." These words were spoken by Enki, slowly and calmly.

Once the suppression vanished, Anu repaired the damage to his spirit and was back in perfect condition. He stared down at Gilgamesh, then at his five children, and frowned.

"None of it matters. That which was stolen will be reclaimed; Gilgamesh's fate is sealed. I shall choose twelve new gods to act on my behalf, and with my authority. They can affect the physical world in any way they wish. They will handle the cursed one."

Hearing this, Gilgamesh took a step forward, "Oh? You think a dozen lesser gods are enough for me?"

"You have not seen the worlds I have built with Father's blessing, Gilgamesh." This time, it was Marduk who spoke up. Of all the siblings, his aura was the most kingly.

"You have been gone from the Living Plane for more than ten trillion years. In that time, our creations have accomplished far greater things than you ever had."

"Granted, all of Gilgamesh's time was spent fighting against us," Enki said, sounding just as calm and collected.

"Whose side are you even on?" Ishtar was annoyed at Enki's remark, but no one paid her any heed. They were used to her being this way whenever Gilgamesh was involved, and did not question it. After all, they knew that she had an additional grudge against him.

"All Enki is saying is that we cannot judge solely on accomplishments. Did you forget how Father was forced to reweave time, fate and destiny just so Gilgamesh would never possess fortune?" Nanna, the one that wore a crescent on his head, said this with a scoff.

"Regardless, the new gods are young and still in touch with physicality. They are not yet able to journey beyond Heaven's Door, and thus they must deal with Gilgamesh in our stead. Only when he is brought before us at the Door can we strip his spirit of its power." Marduk glared at Enki as he said this, yet his brother did not remain silent.

"That is easier said than done. Father may be severely handicapped, but he is still the Divine Ruler. Yet, if we had not stepped in just now, Gilgamesh would have killed him."

"Tch!" Marduk turned his face away from his brother.

Ishtar was enraged again, "Why are you always like this? Will you be the next to betray us for Gilgamesh the way Shamash did?"

Enki shook his head, "Of course not, I am simply acting as a realist in this situation so that we do not underestimate the cursed one's strength."

As they bickered, Anu and Gilgamesh never once looked away from each other. Their spirits were locked in a non-existent battle that would last until one of them was killed by the other. Before that day came, this battle would never end.

Gilgamesh addressed them all, but still his eyes never left Anu.

"Send your gods, then. They will not stop me. With the spirits I have consumed, my physical self is now able to traverse the void. The further I travel, and the more gods I kill, the closer I will come to breaking your curse. That will be the day I break through Heaven's Door, and come to destroy you all."

Despite how much they hated and despised Gilgamesh, the gods knew better than to disregard his words. When Gilgamesh made a promise, he would always keep it. They had tried many times to stop him from fulfilling his promises, but they had always failed.

Even without fortune, Gilgamesh had managed this.

"Do not misunderstand me, mortal." For the first time since his arrival, Enki's tone was wrathful, and disgustedly so. His spirit released a kind of energy that, for a moment, inspired fear in his siblings.

"You have only one advantage, and it is the power that you have stolen. Even if you will never remember what that power is, it still serves you well."

Gilgamesh was confused by this, but he quickly deduced that it was a part of the memories that were still suppressed- the ones he could not regain no matter how hard he tried. He knew now that the curse placed upon him was the cause of this, and now he had gained a little insight into the reason why.

Enki continued, "However, I have not forgotten your final assault. I cannot forget how my intelligence was called into question because of you."

Gilgamesh smirked. He remembered very well how he had dealt with Enki in the distant past. By striking him first, without warning, he had immobilized their best strategist before the battle had even begun.

"I will personally see to the detachment of gods that will be sent for you, and shall guide them accordingly. Be warned, mortal, for I shall not hold anything back."

"Your fear of my mind caused you to strike from the shadows, and now I will rain down the full might of that mind onto you. I shall not even need twelve gods."

Gilgamesh raised a brow, "Then, would you consider a wager?"

As soon as the word 'wager' was uttered, Enlil, Nanna, Ishtar and Marduk tensed up and quickly shouted, "No!"

Anu then looked to Enki and shook his head. "Heaven's Edict is absolute. If you choose to make this bet, you cannot renege, no matter what. I can only say that, if you are sure of yourself, then do what you want to."

Meanwhile, the others were panicking. To them, it sounded like Anu was giving Enki the okay to make a bet with Gilgamesh. They could not allow this!

"Father, you must forbid it! A wager with Gilgamesh? It must not be done!"

"Ishtar is right, Father. If Enki does this, he will doom himself and all of us with him."

The four of them stood together on this point, united and unshakeable. Enki heard their words, and reason came back to him. When he looked at Gilgamesh, and saw that smirk, he was no longer goaded.

"It's fine if you don't want to. Not everyone can be as brave as Ashur and Serua were..." Gilgamesh spoke in a taunting manner, intending to piss them off.

When they heard this, the gods seemed to have forgotten every word of protest that they had just uttered. Hearing Gilgamesh mention the names of two of their siblings that he had killed, and in such a tone, drove them over the edge.

Gilgamesh's spirit was once again battered by five powerful energies, and his physical self spat out a large mouthful of blood, alarming those around him.

Fires of rage burned in all of their eyes, and not only Enki, but the four others spoke the same words.

"We agree to a wager. What are the terms?"