Babylon (8): After the battle and dream.

In the (P)(A)(T), the Babylon arc will conclude in the next chapter, so if you want to read three chapters ahead, both in the Devas' and the Hunter's story, or just want to support me, you can go there; it costs only 2 dollars.

If not, I still appreciate you reading my story, thank you very much!

Well, this time, a good afternoon to everyone and happy reading!

(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori

[...]---[...]

POV: Doll.

After the battle against the bull, which I later learned from Miss Siduri was named Gugalanna, the Good Hunter returned to Uruk, accompanied by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

The Good Hunter, as always, was immaculate; his appearance clean, without a single grain of dust on his clothes or skin.

He seemed to have just taken a walk, not gone on a hunt.

Unlike the Good Hunter, King Gilgamesh and Enkidu appeared tired, not exhausted, but it was clear that the last attack had taken its toll.

Still, the two presented a strong front, with Enkidu looking at the Good Hunter as if seeing him for the first time.

Gilgamesh just walked normally. After descending from the strange vessel they were on, the king had a scowl on his face and seemed offended by something of which I had no knowledge.

When the residents of Uruk finally realized that the three had returned, they began to applaud, excited and joyful for the victory over the beast.

"KING GILGAMESH! KING GILGAMESH!"

"ENKIDU! ENKIDU!"

The cheers seemed to only deepen Gilgamesh's scowl, who snorted in displeasure.

As the three approached, I ignored the cheers and went to the Good Hunter.

"Welcome back, Good Hunter," I greeted, placing my hands in front of my body, as I always did, with a bow. "Did you have a good hunt?" I asked curiously.

It was the first time I had seen the Good Hunter hunt a truly worthy prey, not just mindless beasts.

Gugalanna was the largest beast I had ever seen; its power could not be underestimated, so much so that I had nothing to compare the bull's presence to.

Any other beast fell short of such a comparison, and as strong as Gugalanna was, it still paled in comparison to those whom the Good Hunter called relatives.

They were not prey; they were Nightmares.

As for comparing him to the Good Hunter, that never crossed my mind for a moment.

Prey was not worthy of being compared to a predator, a hunter.

To the Good Hunter.

"It was a good hunt," he simply replied, his voice calm as always, but somehow, I knew he was in a good mood.

I'm glad he had fun.

The words of the Good Hunter seemed to leave Miss Siduri, who was welcoming the king and his friend, incredulous for some reason; her eyebrows raising and her mouth forming an "O."

Still, it was only for a moment before she regained her composure and returned to normal.

Enkidu seemed to find her reaction amusing, with a slight smile on his face.

Gilgamesh, on the other hand, remained serious, with a furrowed brow.

"Siduri, organize the city; I have an announcement to make," the king's voice echoed, serious as he commanded.

"I ask that you not do that, Gilgamesh," the Good Hunter said before Miss Siduri could respond to the order.

"Hunter..." The Good Hunter's request seemed to make the king even more offended, and his scowl grew larger, his brow furrowed. "Do you take me for someone who needs to steal accomplishments from others?"

Ah... This was expected.

Gilgamesh, like me, must have realized that what killed the beast was not his combined strike with Enkidu but the Good Hunter.

Hearing his subjects chanting his name and that of his best friend, when the one who delivered the real final blow to the beast was the Good Hunter, who seemed to go unnoticed, must have irritated him.

I may not have interacted much with the king, almost nothing, actually, compared to Enkidu and Miss Siduri, but one thing I was sure of.

Gilgamesh was someone proud, to say the least; he would never accept something like this.

"No, I do not." The Good Hunter's response was a simple affirmation, with no change in his tone.

"Then why such a request?" Gilgamesh asked, staring at the Good Hunter, who did not look away, remaining unchanged.

Why not let him tell everyone the merits the Good Hunter had in this hunt?

"I am a transient figure in Uruk; I do not hunt for glory or recognition. Let it be so." Hunters hunted to keep Yharnam safe, killing the beasts.

Or at least, it was like that before everyone went mad or died in battle. Few actually managed to retire somehow.

Everyone except the Good Hunter, who put an end to the hunt and yet, in no moment since I've known him, has he ever boasted, never rejoiced.

The Good Hunter hunted; maybe before, he treated hunting as a job, like Gehrman, a duty.

No more, I knew that in everything that composed my existence.

For the Good Hunter to hunt, it was not a job, it was not a duty.

It was a fact.

This was something that somehow saddened me, knowing that the Good Hunter had lost so much, suffered so much.

Gilgamesh, upon hearing the Good Hunter's words, seemed to understand something; the king's eyes shining with a raw power, something akin to Insight, before he sighed, not from fatigue but acceptance, something that surprised both Enkidu and Miss Siduri.

"I will accept your request..." Gilgamesh said after a few seconds. "Still, today is a day that deserves to be remembered."

Before anyone could ask what such a statement meant, the king spoke again, his voice this time amplified by his magical energy.

"Today, Uruk was attacked..." Gilgamesh did not introduce himself; everyone in Uruk recognized the king's voice. "Attacked by a divine beast..." The king said nothing about the goddess, as, for the Uruks, only Gugalanna had attacked the city.

The hunt for the goddess lasted a short time, was swift and far from the city, where none of the residents could see.

"Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, tried to destroy Uruk..." The king's voice was charismatic; all who had been shouting before were now silent, listening to the king's words without interruption.

"And failed!" Gilgamesh raised his tone, his voice echoing throughout Uruk.

"Uruk remains untouched, still standing!..." The city had suffered no damage; its surroundings, yes, but the city walls didn't even have a single scratch.

"Let this day be remembered!..." Gilgamesh raised his tone even more. "Let it be remembered as the day we hunted a beast, a creature!..."

A part of me had already understood where this was going.

Enkidu and Miss Siduri had also understood; both with amused smiles on their faces, Enkidu seeming like he was holding back a laugh.

The Good Hunter was the only one unchanged, not because he didn't understand, but because it seemed like he was waiting to see if Gilgamesh would actually go through with it.

"Today, I, Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, declare, let this day be remembered as the day of the hunt!..."

Upon hearing these words, the Good Hunter's eyes gleamed with something I hadn't seen in a long time.

...The Good Hunter's eyes gleamed with a barely contained amusement.

"To make it memorable, I will name this day: 'Hunter's Day!'" Gilgamesh shouted, making all the residents of Uruk celebrate, shouting again.

Enkidu, at this point, couldn't contain himself and started laughing, the same happened with Siduri.

Maybe, just maybe, I let out a small laugh, something light, amusing.

What a strange feeling...

"I will accept your request..." Gilgamesh repeated the words. "But I am still the king, still the one who decides." He had a smile that somehow contained equal amounts of sarcasm and amusement.

"Do you accept this reward, Hunter?" Gilgamesh asked, laughing.

To my delight, warming my chest, the Good Hunter laughed.

It was a deep, low, and raspy sound that seemed to echo through the air, lasted only briefly, maybe less than a moment, but it was enough to fill me with a joy I hadn't thought possible before.

"You win, Gilgamesh." The Good Hunter's voice sounded lighter. "I will accept this reward."

Few in Uruk really knew the Good Hunter; he didn't interact with many Uruks.

But I'm sure everyone would remember this day, that this day would be marked in history, even if few knew that the name was "dedicated" to someone, an act of pettiness by King Gilgamesh, for the Good Hunter having "stolen" his prey.

 ~ Fate/The Hunter and His Doll ~

POV: Enkidu.

The following week was eventful, with the entire city focused on rebuilding the fields that had been scorched by Gugalanna's breath and destroyed by its stomps.

That, of course, came after the celebration Gilgamesh had organized.

Hunter's Day. I still found it amusing whenever I thought about it; my friend could be petty when he wanted to.

It was good that he and the Hunter were getting along, in a way, fostering camaraderie between them so that after I died, Gilgamesh wouldn't be alone...

"You look pale," my friend stated.

I knew I couldn't hide it for long, but Gilgamesh noticing my weakened state almost instantly was something I didn't wish for, even if it was somewhat expected.

"I'm fine, just remnants of battle fatigue." It was a lie; I knew it, and Gilgamesh knew it.

I was dying, a punishment for disobeying the gods, for killing a divine beast.

A punishment I would gladly accept because, unlike my friend, who was someone of real value, with free will since the beginning of his existence... I was just one of the many weapons in the king's treasure.

Before I could say anything more, I felt my legs give way, breaking back into the clay I had been made from.

Even before I could fall to the ground, before my body descended a few inches, Gilgamesh was by my side, supporting me.

My friend had a worried face, a distressed look, realizing the reason, why I was like this.

The king's treasure opened beside him, Gilgamesh quickly reaching into the golden portal, only to withdraw his hand with a small glass bottle.

"Drink—"

"It won't work." I stopped my friend from speaking, holding his hand that held the potion. "Nothing will work." I was made by the gods, and just as they had given me life, they could take it away.

It wasn't something that could be resisted or cured, only delayed, and even that, for a short time... Gilgamesh knew that.

I thought I could endure more than a week... I was wrong...

The king's worried look deepened, an emotion I never thought I'd see on his face slowly appearing...

...Despair...

Gilgamesh didn't shout, didn't even move, but his treasure did.

The Gate of Babylon momentarily closed as another opened, this time towards the window.

Before anything could be fired from the king's treasure, the Hunter and the Doll appeared in the palace halls, the eyes of the former gleaming with what I had discovered to be Insight, with the Doll explaining the basics to me.

"Help him." Gilgamesh spoke the moment the two appeared.

It might have sounded like an order to anyone not close to the king, with those few being only me, Siduri, Hunter, and Doll.

So, all three of us knew it wasn't an order but a plea for help, something surprising for the king to do, which made one part of me joyful and another saddened.

I didn't like seeing my dear friend lower himself like this, for Gilgamesh, asking for help was something he would never think of doing, but he had done it for me.

I wasn't sure if I deserved such an act...

The Hunter approached quickly, not hesitating.

"Lay him down." A bed emerged from the king's treasure, Gilgamesh placing me on it moments later.

"Don't you dare give up." Gilgamesh ordered me, seeing my body cracking even more.

I would fight to the end, which seemed close, but if my friend had ordered me not to give up, I would prolong that end as much as I could.

"What do I need to do?..." My voice was weak, something that somewhat annoyed me.

It seems I had picked up more from Gilgamesh than I thought.

"I don't have much precision..." The Hunter spoke, not answering my question. "Not here, not in this form, but in another place, yes." He raised his arm, placing his hand on my forehead.

"As for what you need to do, Enkidu..." I felt my vision darken, whether it was because my body was finally giving in, me returning to clay, or the influence of the Hunter, I didn't know.

"Just close your eyes, sleep..." The Hunter's voice seemed distant, the sight of my friend, Gilgamesh, holding my hand beside the bed, blurred...

"Just dream..."

Then, my mind blanked out for a moment, only to open my eyes again and find myself not lying on the bed, in the palace, not in Uruk...

I looked slowly upwards, to the pale moon shining high in the sky, much closer than it should be.

...Not on Earth.

I... didn't know where I was, I couldn't feel my connection to nature, even though I was in a garden... a garden full of white flowers I didn't recognize... full of tombs...

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" The Hunter's voice echoed, coming from behind me.

When I turned to look at him, I realized that my body was whole again, somehow no longer broken.

He was sitting in a wheelchair, next to a large tree.

Hunter still had the same appearance and clothes, but somehow seemed... different, his existence less real, yet more present at the same time.

For some reason, he seemed to be something fake, simultaneously real, as if it wasn't the real him there, just an illusion...

Real and unreal, like a...

"Dream?" I murmured. "Is this a dream?"

"Yes," Hunter replied, slowly rising from the chair. "A long and ancient nightmare..." He murmured, looking at the chair before turning around.

"But it doesn't matter, come, I will purge this curse..." Hunter approached, placing his hand on my shoulder.

The moment he touched me, I felt the entire extent of my being observed by something... Great...

It was as if everything in this place was watching me, from the flowers, the ground, the moon...

I felt small, more than that, and somehow, I realized that Hunter was the one watching me.

What are you really, Hunter?...

Then the feeling disappeared, as if it never existed, Hunter's hand no longer touching my shoulder, but holding something bright, an energy pulsating desperately, as if trying to escape from whoever held it.

Divinity, the curse that corroded my existence, the order that made me return to the clay.

Hunter looked at the energy in his hand before closing it slowly, causing the energy to wither and disappear, something I knew shouldn't happen... Not with something divine.

"What are you?" I asked Hunter.

It was a question I had avoided asking, and Gilgamesh probably didn't even bother to ask, but at that moment, I couldn't help but ask.

"Just a hunter..." He replied, his voice floating, seeming to echo throughout this place, this dream...

"I am waking up..." I instinctively knew this fact, my vision blurring.

"Will I remember this place?..." This conversation?...

For some reason, I felt I had to ask that, didn't know why.

Hunter turned, sitting back in the chair, resting, a posture leaning forward, looking at the flowers.

Before my vision darkened, his voice echoed one last time, answering me.

"As much as a dream..."

[...]---[...]

Well, I hope you enjoyed it. I liked how this chapter unfolded. There should be around 2/3 more chapters in Babylon before Hunter and Doll resume their travels.

With that said, good afternoon and enjoy your reading.