“No. Don’t go! H-how are you escaping the cage?!”
With a clank, the cage I was trapped in shook.
It felt as if my brain was shaking along with the cage.
In reality, as a spiritual body without a physical form, I shouldn't have felt any sensation, but I kept feeling phantom pain.
At first, it felt as if my entire body was being torn apart.
But now, even that pain was fading away.
It was only natural, as the soul that now constituted me was being shattered into tiny pieces.
“This is my Underworld! Without my permission, no soul can escape. None!”
Ereshkigal shrieked as she watched my soul pierce through the ceiling of the Underworld and vanish.
No matter how she reached out, my soul could not be caught.
Like a madwoman, she gestured at the empty air before shaking the cage I was in once more.
Her once-beautiful voice had long since become cracked and hoarse, turning into an unpleasant noise.
“Stop it, Marduk. Please…! You said you would stay with me, didn't you? Why are you breaking your promise? Why?!”
Ereshkigal can hear the words of souls.
But I said nothing to her.
The words she wanted to hear, and the words she didn't want to hear. I said neither.
“Say something. Please?”
Conversation is a window for communication.
To converse with another means, at the very least, to think of them as an individual.
So, did Ereshkigal want to converse with me?
I could not, for the life of me, be certain of that.
Ereshkigal had deceived me.
She had turned my body into a monster and made a toy of my soul.
The barrier, prepared diligently for a year, made it impossible for her to even offer the excuse that it was all just a momentary mistake.
The terrible sense of betrayal put a lock on my mouth.
Seeing Ereshkigal's disheveled hair and swollen face, I felt not a shred of pity.
“I don’t want this. I don’t. I wanted to make the Underworld a beautiful place with you….”
Her tears soaked the ground. Moisture formed on the sturdy bars of my cage.
“I hate being alone. I hate this gloomy Underworld. Why am I the only one who has to rot in a place like this? Why?”
The mistress of the Underworld lamented her pitiful fate.
Whether she worked diligently or not, Ereshkigal was fated to remain in the Underworld for all her life.
Her other half, Ishtar of the Heavens, did not work diligently and, on the contrary, made a hobby of tormenting humans.
Fine. That could be. Ereshkigal didn’t mind.
After all, she had her pride as the mistress of the Underworld. She was different from the hooligan of the surface world.
She never doubted that Ishtar would receive a great punishment one day.
Then, when she heard the news that Ishtar had proposed to Gilgamesh and been soundly rejected, she was truly delighted.
When Ishtar audaciously invaded the Underworld, Ereshkigal was so preoccupied with how she should ruin her that she could hardly fight properly.
She bound Ishtar, who had fearlessly picked a fight, in the Underworld, and finally, for the first time, set foot on the surface.
It was a long-held dream. All the living, breathing things of the surface were new to her.
The blue sky, the green forests, the sunset, and humans.
If it had been only that, Ereshkigal would have been satisfied and returned to the Underworld.
She would have been able to return to her duties as the mistress of the Underworld with pride.
But she had met him.
-Today is day one.
He was a living god. The merciless slaughterer and god of war who coveted the sun god's seat, Marduk.
But he was so very kind.
Contrary to the expectation that he would have a heinous appearance, he was handsome and gentle.
He didn’t get angry at her gloomy self, nor did he tell her to get lost, saying the aura of the Underworld was bad luck.
Ah. If a god like this were to stay by my side forever, how happy would I be?
-Uhm… yes. I'll be in your care.
To be satisfied with him being her first friend, she had already fallen too deep.
Ereshkigal's derailment was all but inevitable.
She left Ishtar imprisoned in the Underworld and followed only Marduk.
But he was popular. There were too many rivals for her to have him all to herself.
She had no choice but to eliminate them.
If they wouldn't give up, she would simply take him. That was the natural way of thinking.
Surprisingly, the gods of the heavens supported Ereshkigal.
They, who wished to eliminate Marduk, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh, made a deal with Ereshkigal, with Marduk's soul as the price.
Only a single step remained until the completion of Ereshkigal's dream.
“But… and yet….”
The Beast had awakened, and his soul, which she had longed for so dearly, was on the verge of disappearing completely.
Ereshkigal collapsed to the ground.
She hugged the cage that held the last remaining speck of my soul to her chest, as if it were a precious baby.
My consciousness, too, was now fading.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.”
No. That is not love.
Love is something more….
Pfft. Ereshkigal scoffed.
“You really are clever. Like someone who knows everything in the world.”
Did I say that aloud without thinking?
Ereshkigal’s lifeless eyes stared at me.
“You, who knows so much about love, are making everyone miserable.”
My vision blurred.
The last remaining part of ‘me’ also began its escape.
“Me, and Gilgamesh, and Enkidu….”
I could not deny her words.
She continued to follow my ascending soul with her eyes.
“………Still, I won’t curse you. I don’t want to resemble Ishtar in this, too.”
Everything in the world turned white.
My consciousness sank away.
Where would I go now?
Now, I could think of nothing at all.
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