Welcome to Uruk City (B)

[AN]

[Another chap for our Golden nudist cast off AUO! Cheers to his misfortune and may YUETSU guide your way.

I may or may not explain SCPs, but if you want more info about a specific one, please conduct your own research on the SCP wiki. This is the age of the Internet!

That being said, thanks for the reviews, comments, memes, and enjoy!]

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Babylonia was not known as a quiet city, even in the dead of night. People gathered in taverns and around campfires with their family, friends, and loved ones, while women dressed in scant clothing called out to men in a saccharine tone.

It was everything except silence, yet it was right now. Complete silence, if one didn't include the characteristic noise of a bone snapping.

CRACK.

The morbid sound echoed in the dark streets of Uruk. A drunkard and his friends lifted their heads and then started giggling in their alcohol-induced stupor.

"Some stupid fella broke their own noses?"

"Nah, must've been some poor sod who got kicked out by a whore."

"Gahahahaha!"

The men's raucous laughter rang out in the empty streets as they wobbled and swayed with tottering steps, barely staggering onwards as they headed for their next destination; a whore house they favored.

If they were only a little more alert, or even slightly sober, they would have realized how silent the streets had become, and the faint popping and squashing of something wet. Unluckily for them, they weren't in a state capable of clear thought, if any.

Thus, it was inevitable that what was lurking behind them struck out.

"What the-"

Those were the last words the drunkards managed to utter before their heads hit the ground.

CRACK.

CRACK.

CRACK.

Three consecutive sharp snaps, three bodies thudding against the ground in tandem like falling dominos, and then there was silence.

Dark liquid sunk into the sand, creating soggy red patches of dirt. The torches illuminating the sides of the roads flickered out as something flew past. A brown, inhuman blur.

CRACK.

At the end of the road, more sounds continued to echo in the dark. There were no screams. To be specific, there wasn't any time for the victims to scream. By the time they tried to turn around, their heads had already done the job for them.

Or rather, it made the heads turn. Either way, death seemed to be the fate of the unassuming Babylonian citizens. And death, it did bring.

Unmoving bodies littered the insides of houses and streets as their numbers piled by the second. Everywhere one went, there were countless numbers of mangled corpses, with faces contorted in horror, their spines twisted at an unnatural angle, and their empty eyes aimed directly behind their backs.

Uruk has fallen to a mute monstrosity the likes no one has ever encountered. One so lethal, so quick, and so effective, that the army was wiped out in a matter of minutes despite their numerical advantage, which was also now non-existent.

CRACK.

And just like that, another hundred lives were silently snuffed out.

CRACK.

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Abruptly, a pair of crimson eyes opened wide in a throne room that oversaw the city.

The king jumped to his feet, his fist clenched so tightly that it trembled. With his fist contorted in righteous fury, the great king slammed his fist at a stone pillar with a barbaric roar, pulverizing it with a single strike.

"How dare a mere monster infiltrate my kingdom, my city, and hunt down my citizens, my people under my protection, on my watch!?"

King Gilgamesh was livid, and while he would never admit it, also afraid.

Afraid of the unknown monsters that had so easily massacred his people and were still committing genocide, without giving him the slightest time to retaliate or order them to reorganize. Afraid that his glorious reign might come to an end. Afraid that he might not be able to save his people in their time of need.

Clicking his tongue in irritation, the golden king snapped his fingers and took out a vial from his temporal Gate of Babylon. It was one of the ancient herbs that gave the drinker temporary immunity to the eyes. This included dehydration, allergens, and gas. It also meant that he wouldn't need to blink for the next seven hours.

He had already figured out the monster's weakness by gazing at it from afar. The monsters could not move when under constant monitoring. It didn't matter which eye was trained upon them, for it only needed one eye to maintain the monster in its frozen state. That being said...

"Send out an order and blast those horns! I want every man, woman, and child in this city to move in groups of four at all times, with every person facing a different direction! I also want every person to alternate between using his right and left eye! Make it very clear not to blink with both eyes under any circumstances!"

While Gilgamesh had clairvoyance which granted him the ability to discern heavily concealed truths with a single glance, as well as obtain limited visions of the near future and glimpses of parallel worlds, it did not give him a panorama view, and it certainly did not give him omnipotence.

Thus, if he did not keep constant vigilance, there was the very real possibility of the monstrosity sneaking behind his back at that absurd velocity. Even a lightning bolt would have traveled slower than those things.

And that was not to mention the most contributing factor to his growing migraine.

"How is this possible...!?"

It was the horrifying fact that he could not see through the truth or the origins of the sculpture monstrosities. It was the first time something such as this has happened except that one time when the gods had obscured his vision on purpose when he tried to discern their weaknesses.

Even then, he was still able to skim through some tightly guarded secrets. This time, however, he could see literally nothing. No visions, no glimpses, nothing.

This was practically infuriating for Gilgamesh since he had such high pride and self-esteem, and it also dealt a great blow to his confidence.

He ground his teeth in frustration and paced across the throne room with his eyes glued on the city. His fingers twitched as ripples of gold warped the space behind his back, producing a volley of anti-divinity and anti-immortal weapons.

The golden streaks illuminated the night sky like shooting stars as they rained down on the monsters immobilized under the king's cold gaze and shattered them like clay pots.

As the dust cleared, hundreds of broken sculptures lay on the streets and inside houses, as the hundreds of giant craters indicated the onslaught the king had brought to his city's protection.

Gilgamesh's eyes twitched as he slightly altered the direction of his head, and then snapped back into place after a mere second.

"Tch...as expected..."

By then, all that was left of the previously destroyed sculptures were the empty craters that dotted the city. The sculptures were already gone, and most likely, completely healed and good as new.

It was already the tenth time this had happened, and Gilgamesh was starting to dread what that indicated.

"High possibility that while anti-divinity and anti-immortality weapons provide a better chance at destroying their bodies, it is impossible to stop their regeneration or resuscitation. Grinding them to dust does not work. Binding them with weapons containing sealing properties has also proved to be ineffective...Hah, what a true pest this murderous clay doll proved to be...!"

Gilgamesh suddenly stopped and rubbed his chin, his brow tightly furrowed in suspicion.

"The pesky gods are unusually silent. Normally, they would have already gathered in the heavens, if not to help the people in plight but to gloat as the unfortunate people danced to their shallow amusement. It is as if something of concern is stopping them from taking a direct course of action...", the king mused.

"I have a most unpleasant premonition about this turn of events...what in the hells are those blasted good for nothings up to...?"

Another crack resounded in the city. And this time, the sound was getting nearer.

Gilgamesh swore.

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While the king was busy securing his city, somewhere up in the high mountains, a great corpse armed with golden chains shook the ground as it fell.

The muddy body disintegrated as it crumbled into countless pieces of divine rock and soil, bombarding the trees with the ferocity of the golden king's weapons.

Alas, it was all for naught, since the artificial life that the humungous body had once harbored was now long snuffed out.

The terrifying silhouette of a reptilian creature reared its head and tore apart what remained of his adversaries' corpses with unrelenting ferocity, its great maws opening and closing as it brutally bit down again and again on the motionless body of the giant.

Finally, after making sure the enemy wasn't going to rise once more, the reptilian abomination directed its sea of golden eyes at the walls of Uruk which towered in the distance, and hissed in unmasked ridicule.

'As if those meager slabs of stone can stop that...thing...', the creature growled in equal measures of unbridled hatred and fear.

'Insolence!'

All of a sudden, the darkness was ablaze with streams of crimson light that burned into the sides of its exposed ribcage.

"Red Right Hand Team-00A1 engaging anomaly. SCP-682, surrender now. You are surrounded by heavy fire."

Those sly humans...they must have waited for that giant to wear down my body...

SCP-682 grinned.

On second thought, it might be more...preferable to have an appetizer before the main dish.

The anomaly did what it did best.

With an ear-splitting howl that traveled hundreds of miles, SCP-682 caused carnage.