Party of Three

There was a loud knock on the gate of Wyg's residence.

He was inside cultivating, so a servant came in and gently got his attention.

"Oh? Gilgamesh is here?"

Wyg got up and rushed outside, only to see Gilgamesh in his courtyard waiting for him.

Off to the side, a cluster of Wyg's servant girls were quietly chatting and casting glances in Gilgamesh's direction, then giggling.

"Sect Brother Gilgamesh, what a surprise!"

Wyg approached while adjusting his glasses, and suddenly went in for a hug.

Gilgamesh sidestepped him while quickly kicking him in the lower back.

"Aiya!" Wyg stumbled a bit before arresting his momentum.

He looked back at Gilgamesh with a heavily aggrieved and pained expression.

Gilgamesh shook his head, "Don't hug me, I'm not heaven."

"Aww..." He sighed, disappointedly.

"I'm going to go destroy a temple- might even kill some people too. Come with me." Gilgamesh all but ordered as he folded his arms.

Wyg was instantly energized, and told Gilgamesh that he just needed to gather some things and would meet him at the Forest-Gate.

Gilgamesh left and headed over to Law's abode, which was not too far away from his own.

He noticed that the gate had been blown apart and never fixed, plus there seemed to be no servants present.

When he walked into the courtyard, Law was just coming out of his house. Upon seeing Gilgamesh, he immediately smiled and ran over to him.

"I know that look," He laughed, "You're going to stir up some trouble."

Law put a hand on Gilgamesh's shoulder and flashed a blinding smile, giving him a solid thumb's up. "Count me in!"

Just like that, Gilgamesh had secured his party for the mission.

He didn't seem all too surprised that it had all come together so smoothly, as he was already expecting it to.

Walking back to his home to prepare some food and clothes for the journey, Gilgamesh pondered a few things.

"100,000 cycles worth of true energy that's capped at the Peak of the Condensation stage. It doesn't seem impressive, but the excessive refinement has actually steadily increased the quality of my energy."

"Not only that, but my meridians themselves are anomalous. They convert the energy of heaven and earth into higher quality true energy at an insane rate."

"What was it that the Omniscient Author said about my body? Sapling God? Fiendgod?"

As he mentioned these terms that he did not understand, the Omniscient Author's nature acted and provided him with the information.

Upon learning that there were grades- or types- of bodies that were obscenely powerful from the moment of birth, he broke out into a coldsweat.

"You're telling me that a newborn can possess the ability to grasp a galaxy in it's tiny hands? Is that even fair!?"

Although Gilgamesh was expressing his dissatisfaction with what he had learned, there was no one listening.

One quick look was all it took for him to see the Omniscient Author trying to stab itself with the tip of its own quill.

It would pierce the page, creating a hole in the paper that would then proceed to heal once the quill was removed. At some point, it chose to just leave the quill in, and appeared to sigh depressingly.

Gilgamesh's face twitched, and he decided not to look into his sea of energy again.

Eventually, he returned to his home and gathered some things, while also asking the servants to prepare some food and water for him.

He told them he would be leaving for a little while, and not to push themselves too hard; the house was completely clean and there was little to do anyway.

After leaving a note with them for Little Feather, Gilgamesh made his way to the Forest-Gate.

...

Somewhere within the Forest-Gate Guardians' Society.

The spiritual form of a white crane descended from above the clouds, landing near a nondescript cabin, isolated atop a mountain. Overlooking the valley, albeit shrouded in every air of mystery, an elderly man sat on the floor just outside the cabin.

A cup of hot, fragrant jasmine tea was in his hands, and he sipped it slowly. His eyes held in them a profound nature, and his face expressed the vicissitudes of a long and hard life.

Once the white crane landed, it shifted into the form of a young woman: Sister Rose.

The old man did not need to look behind him; he sensed her silent approach and casually sipped his tea.

"You went to see him?"

Sister Rose approached the old man before sitting next to him. He smiled when she did and waved his hand, generating another cup of tea.

He was not wearing a void ring.

"I did," Sister Rose smiled as she reminisced, but it slowly went away. "He truly remembers nothing."

The old man sighed. "Life seldoms turns out the way we want it to. The closest of friends can one day seek to slaughter one another, and the most star-crossed of lovers may one day hate each other."

Sister Rose nodded, and she became melancholic. "I know now, though, that he has not changed. He is still my Gilgamesh, and I am still his Andromeda."

When she said this, she suddenly gasped.

The old man smiled and chuckled, "So you finally let something slip? Andromeda must be your true name."

"I apologize, Mister Yew. Please disregard that name-- if anyone asks, you never heard it."

The old man nodded with a knowing smile, and sipped his tea.

"I suppose Gilgamesh knows this, and he also knows what you really look like. You didn't masquerade as Sister Rose when you snuck off to see him before, did you?"

Sister Rose- or perhaps I should call her- Andromeda, looked down into her tea with a slight blush on her face. "Of course not. I chose to trust him with my secrets, and he chose to trust me with his."

Mister Yew nodded, but he frowned slightly. "So is it that you believe he can shoulder the weight of those secrets?"

Andromeda slowly let out a breath, "It doesn't matter what I believe. Gilgamesh believes that there is not a single thing in this world that can triumph against him."

"And I believe in him."

Mister Yew slowly nodded. He suddenly thought of something and said, "You never did tell me how you managed to fall for him."

Andromeda tensed and the blush of her face intensified. She raised her hand defensively, immediately flustered.

"Well, you see-- It's a whole thing, and-- Can we just not?"

Mister Yew guffawed at the sight of her behavior, and she pouted with folded arms, looking off to the side at the valley below them.

As silence slowly returned, Mister Yew took a sip of his tea. That was when he heard Andromeda's soft voice.

"I was interested in him because of his unwavering confidence... and my obsessive-compulsive desire to figure him out drove me to watch him everyday..."

"But when I saw his relationship with the little girl- the way his pure love for her never ceased, even though he was put at a disadvantage because of it."

Andromeda looked to the distant moons in the starry sky, and her eyes glistened with their light as the wind blew in from the valley below, shaking the trees and scattering leaves.

In that instant, Mister Yew felt like he saw a glimpse of the person behind the mask: The real Andromeda.

"I fell for his heart. That was how I knew I wanted him to be mine, and I wanted to be his."

Mister Yew nodded dazedly, and Andromeda cleared her throat and stood up, downing all the tea in one go.

"Now then, I need to do one last thing before I leave."

Mister Yew took a sip, "You know about the Holy Shaman's plot?"

"I do," Andromeda smirked, "but I'm not worried about that."

She looked to the sky again, but this time her eyes seemed unfocused, as though she were looking beyond just the sky that could be seen.

Mister Yew noted this, but remained silent.

"I need to ensure..."

She suddenly laughed.

"I need to ensure that they don't go easy on my Gilgamesh."

Mister Yew also lightly chuckled, but he could not hide the traces of worry on his face.

"I just hope that, in the worst case scenario, this old man can do what must be done."

Andromeda smiled warmly at him. "I never thought I'd hear you say those words. Where's the haughty Old Patriarch that I know?"

"I fear he's long been tamed." Mister Yew chuckled.

Andromeda shifted her form once again, becoming the white crane.

The Old Patriarch looked at her and sighed emotionally, 'This Andromeda... She really has perfectly copied my inherent nature.'

'Just what kind of being is she?'

Meanwhile, at the Forest-Gate.

Gilgamesh met up with Wyg and Law, who both sized each other up the instant they saw one another.

Gilgamesh grinned and extended both hands, "Heaven-Fucker meets Outer Disciple Law, what a historic moment."

Wyg instantly flared up, and Law put two and two together before he said, "I knew there was something off about him!"

They eventually walked past the Forest-Gate and departed from the sect, venturing further and further away from the valley.

Their distination lay not too far off into the distant, and they would reach it soon.

Wyg was excited to get to see Gilgamesh in action, and hoped that he would spur on another tribulation.

Law was overjoyed at the chance to accompany Gilgamesh on a trip and stir up some more trouble. There was little else in the world he loved.

Gilgamesh's expression was steady, and faint, almost unnoticeable traces of omniscience flashed in his eyes as they traveled.

In the end, he just smirked.