A Mad Scramble

As Gilgamesh's consciousness floated in darkness, it was called out to by the finger within his sea of energy.

Opening his mind's eyes, Gilgamesh saw his inherent nature and frowned.

"You knew?" He asked it.

The finger moved to write, but paused for a moment before it seemed to heave a forlorn sigh.

"I did not know everything, but I did know that there were consequences. During the process of making yourself your own inherent nature, when my consciousness was only just beginning to develop, I could feel the changes."

"I could feel your potential falling."

Gilgamesh grit his teeth and his short fingernails pressed into his palm relentlessly.

So it was more or less true.

He, himself, although incredibly power and capable of demanding authority...

Had foresaken the right to call himself Gilgamesh!

He was merely himself, but he no longer knew who that was supposed to be.

. . .

Even so...

Gilgamesh could only see the image of Little Feather, being taken away as he lay on the floor, powerless, passing out.

He saw their short time together, and relived the emotions that clawed at his heart's stubborn coldness.

He was all but forced to love that little girl, and a small part of him wondered if it was because she was using her own power to ensure he did.

Even if that was the case, he did not care.

She was his little sister. She mattered more to him than anyone else in the world.

She had idolized him to the point that she subconsciously- or otherwise- lowered her own standing in order to feel worthy of being his little sister.

In reality, he was the one that needed to make himself feel worthy of being her big brother.

Gilgamesh's silence was not disturbed by the finger. It also knew what he was thinking and feeling, as it was doing the same.

Since it knew what was on Gilgamesh's mind, it said, "If you use my power in conjunction with your Old Power, it should be possible for you to override an extremely powerful soul, and absorb its essence."

"I believe that may further strengthen and restore me. Although you can never again be the 'Absolute Authority,' your power will steadily rise beyond your current limits."

"You may just become an overflowing well of soul power. I cannot know what damages it will cause, but-"

Gilfamesh himself finished the finger's sentence, "But for Ateah, any price is worth it."

Without wasting any more time, Gilgamesh forced himself awake and watched as his consciousness left the finger and his sea of energy behind.

When he opened his eyes, he was staring at the face of a giant ghost's face in the sky, silently wailing.

However, as he blinked, he noticed something pitch black streaking across the sky.

Focusing on it, he saw that it was a man in a huge midnight coat that fell long behind him, flying through the air.

As he moved forward, strips of the coat would fly off and scatter in the wind, creating a storm of black 'leaves.'

That man was heading right for Gilgamesh.

"Despair, of the First Book! It's about time we had a rematch, isn't it?"

Gilgamesh sat up and frowned. He could vaguely recall a memory where he had fought against someone called 'Despair.'

However, he was not interested in a fight.

Gilgamesh's true energy mobilized as his cultivation attempted to solidify its foundation.

In an instant, the sky was rent and the very borders of Reality within the Page groaned as the concepts keeping them functional started to fall apart.

In a matter of instants, everything within the Page started coming to ruin.

Despair looked around in abhorrent shock.

"You! You're about to murder quintillions of people! I thought you desired conquest!"

Gilgamesh sucked his teeth as spatial tears burn open, sending shards of fragmanted space in every direction.

The sky darkened and brightened with consistent flashing, as the ghostly face above began to scatter.

Entire galaxies had already turned to dust.

Gilgamesh's ever-glowing red eyes narrowed in hatred, but though he was looking at Despair his anger was not directed at him.

It was directed elsewhere.

"Murdering quintillions?"

"Look into my eyes."

"Do I look like I care?"

With a final push, the Page could no longer withstand the pressure of Gilgamesh's cultivation and was utterly destroyed. Everything on it was deleted, leaving nothing behind but negative space.

As Gilgamesh stood in a world of blankess, watching as every existential concept faded away to oblivion, he saw the passageway appear.

He hastily left for the next Page, and history was quick to repeat itself.

Destroying the contents of entire Pages, regardless of who or what was in it, Gilgamesh pressed forward with a single, clear goal in mind.

He found it strange that he hadn't come across Wyg or Law, but he pressed forward nonetheless.

A few individuals would appear, claiming to be of different Books, but that was of no consequence to him.

However, that changed when Gilgamesh reached the first of the Middle Pages.

As he entered a fae world of mystical entities, dwelling in a mass of scattered stars, he saw the earth below him, as if it were made of pure space.

Looking around at this world, he saw six figures surrounding him, staring death toward him.

The moment he arrived, they appeared to confront him.

"So the Demon of the First Book has now come to plague the Second?" A man sneered.

"Let him come then. He will fall." A woman scoffed.

Gilgamesh treated them like bags of air, and mobilized his cultivation.

However, it did not have the same effect. His foundation actually solidified, and he began to take his first steps toward breaking through to the Establishment stage.

Realizing this, he prepared himself for a fight while also forcing his sea of energy to begin solidifying.

Sparks flew in the air as shockwaves ravaged the entire world, sending destructive forces out toward the greater galaxy.

The existential concepts were far stronger here. More resilient.

Gilgamesh could not easily destroy them.

Even so, he did not let up. His true energy and the natures within it were all brought out to their fullest extent, and his inherent nature expressed itself without holding back.

Gilgamesh slaughtered his way to the top of that Page, and found the Domain Lord.

By then, he had managed to step into the First Level of the Establishment stage. Even as he entered the Domain of Lawlessness, a tribulation was above him, following him closely.

Banishing the tribulation with a single glance, Gilgamesh faced off against a being with no set form. It looked like a large piece of cloth, torn and ripped and messy.

With no words, Gilgamesh attacked, cutting loose from the get-go.

"Let There Be... Gilgamesh!!!"

Even as nothing but the raw power of his inherent nature ravaged the Page, Lawlessness withstood it.

Gilgamesh could feel his energy dip a little, and felt his consciousness waver, yet he abandoned all sense of self-preservation and struck again.

This time, he managed to kill Lawlessness.

Wasting no time, he recovered his true energy and continued cultivating. He further solidifed and crystallized his sea of energy, wanting to go all the way to his limit.

Just then, there was a sudden rip like the tearing of paper, louder than heavenly thunder.

A doorway opened, more perfect and complete than a breach, and Gilgamesh looked up to see beings standing on the other side.

Thousands of them.

At the forefront were five powerful individuals, exuding mighty auras the likes of which Gilgamesh had never felt before.

These were beings closer to the top of the Books; they were extremely powerful.

One of the five leaders descended.

"Fearless, of the Third Book." A silver haired woman drew her sword and put a hand over her heart, muttering some things.

"Hero, of the Fourth Book." Said a short haired muscular man, dressed in red and blue with a cape flapping behind him.

"War, of the Second Book."

"King, of the First Book."

"Shadow, of the Fourth Book."

As they stepped through the doorway, their individual factions followed behind them.

Almost five thousand individuals stood before Gilgamesh, standing between him and the sky.

"Surrender now, and await death," Fearless said with closed eyes.

Gilgamesh eyed them all with amusement, and suddenly waved his hand.

In conjuction with his inherent nature, the morphed version of the Old Power acted, and hundreds of soul fragments materialized before Gilgamesh.

These were collected from all the Domain Lords and other powerful beings he had faced off against.

'Let's see if this works,'

As he thought this, his enemies were just beginning to wonder what he was doing.

Just then, from the doorway behind them, a voice shouted across time and space, filling- perhaps- all of the Book.

"Stop him! Do not let him do whatever it is that he's about to do!"

That voice, however, was too late.

Gilgamesh used the Old Power to grind those souls down to pure essential dust, and sprinkled all of that ethereal dust... into his red eyes!