?
"Mother?"
"Yes, my dear?"
"What happens when you die?"
Mother stopped brushing her child's hair for a moment. "Why do you ask, my dear?"
"Weeelll." The child started. "There was that doggy that we saw before that drowned in the mud , remember? And I was just wondering what happened to it now."
Mother smiled softly. "Well, it is simple, isn't it my dear?"
"What do you mean, Mother?" The child asked curiously.
"The doggy didn't die." Mother said, so clearly and concisely that of course it was true.
"Really?" The child asked hopefully.
"Really." Mother confirmed. "See? She's just over there, with her friends." She said as she pointed with her right hand.
The child looked over, and saw that she was correct. There was the dog, though it looked like it had been playing around in the mud along with many other dogs much like it. They were eating something on the ground that the child could not see from the perch on Mother's lap beyond flashes of white and red and black.
The child's face lit up. "Doggies! Hi doggies!" They called out to the dogs, waving eagerly.
One of the dogs, the one closest to Mother and child, looked up and turned its head to look at them, turning red eyes towards them.
As the child stared excitedly at the dog, they noted that it was holding something in its mouth, no doubt part of whatever it had been eating. Whatever it was, it was straight and had dangly bits on either end, so it could have even just been a toy or a flayed stick, but the child couldn't quite make out more detail than that.
"Come here, come here doggy!" The child called.
The dog continued to stare, it's head turning to the side in confusion. The child continued to coo at the dog they found so cute.
Mother chuckled, before beckoning the dog forth with her right hand. "Come here, 'doggy'."
The dog came over obediently, leaving the others still feasting and playing in the mud behind.
The child was delighted as the dog approached and bowed its head for the child to pet, and pet they did.
"Who's a good doggy? You're a good doggy! What a good doggy!" The child cooed as they pet the dog, ignoring the mud getting on their hands from touching the dog's head.
The dog sat on its haunches, happily being pet. It was an odd and gangly dog, it's back legs much longer than its front, it's bloody and muddy paws more like hands, it's head particularly round and person shaped, and even wearing clothes, however little the amount. Really, if it weren't for the fact that she was so obviously a dog in mannerism one would think the dog were instead some kind of samurai, but that was truly a ridiculous notion.
The child then realised the dog was still holding whatever it was holding. "What have you got there, doggy? What have you got?"
The dog looked up briefly, before dropping its prize, and the child finally got a better look at it.
They had to stare for a moment, brow furrowed in focus before they realised what it was.
It was an arm.
Or at least, the half of the forearm attached to the wrist, as well as the hand itself, but even then it had been torn asunder, a bare facsimile of an arm made of strips of wracked flesh and shattered bone just barely attached by fragments of muscle and ligament, the whole thing covered in a mixture of blood and mud that contributed to the difficulty in recognising it.
The hand, however, was relatively intact, or at least the side with the thumb and first two fingers was, enough to tell it was a left hand. The pinky and ring fingers were hanging loosely on bloody threadbare ligaments and still oozing blood from the gaps.
As the child began to realise this, they felt Mother's hand cover their eyes. "My dear, you should not see such things." Mother said softly. "Go fetch, 'doggy'." She said, and there was a woosh of something moving through the air, and the dog running to follow.
Though as it ran to follow the arm, the child could swear they heard a familiar clanging of metal on metal.
When Mother's hand was moved from the child's eyes, the arm and dog were gone, and the dogs eating in the distance seemed more distant.
"Why did the doggy have to go, Mother?" The child asked, disappointed and saddened.
"Sometimes things must go, my child." Mother said enigmatically, yet Mother said it so it had to be true. "That is the way of the world."
"Well, that's stupid." The child pouted as they crossed their arms.
"Why don't you play with your toys for a while, dear?" Mother suggested as she resumed singing and brushing the child's hair.
"Okay, Mother." The child said, opening the box that was suddenly before them and sorting through the many, many, many dolls within.
First, the child took out a doll with long, long green hair and wearing white, before noting the red hole in its chest and setting it aside with a shake of the head.
Next was a white-haired doll with blue and pink and white on its clothing like flowers, but the child set that one aside as well upon seeing the red running down from its mouth, still dripping.
Then there was a doll wearing gold and black, with long black hair in two big pigtails. Absently, the child tugged at the doll's clothing before setting it aside, too.
Another doll was removed, this one with short golden hair and red pants, set aside carefully next to the green-haired doll so that they sat against each other.
More and more dolls were set aside as the child searched for what seemed to be a small group they wanted.
A tiger, a blonde with feathery clothes, a large purple snake, a nobu, a purple cow, a fiery chicken, a doll with golden spikes for hands, a banana, and a purple-haired doll with blue clothes which was set on top of the pigtailed one, were all set aside.
Eventually, the child had assembled the dolls they were apparently looking for.
Notably, these dolls seemed to be both better made and more worn by time. They included a pale lavender haired doll with glasses, a pink-haired doll with mostly black dress and a white mantle, and an odd looking white cat.
Joining those three were two more of the newer looking dolls.
One was a blonde doll with green clothes, that seemed a bit bigger than the others, and the other was a purple-haired doll wearing black.
These five were all set on the child's own lap as they picked up the purple-haired one and began brushing its hair, all the while humming in tune with Mother's gentle song.
And so they sat in contentment for a long moment.
The child went about brushing the hair of all of the five, including the strange cat, before once again picking up the purple-haired doll and hugging it before staring at it and smiling at how cute it looked.
But then the purple-haired doll the child was holding started glowing.
At first, the child thought nothing of it, but then as the glow intensified, bits of the doll began flaking off in pieces. "No no no, why is this happening?" The child asked.
Mother did not answer.
The doll continued to flake away, falling to pieces, bloody pieces in the child's hands. "No!" The child screamed.
Then, they noticed that all of the other dolls were doing much the same, glowing and shredding themselves to pieces. "No, no no no no no! Please no! Don't leave me!"
The dolls did not listen as they continued to come apart at the seams and reveal the bone beneath, leaking blood as they did.
"Mother, make it stop!" The child screamed.
Mother continued to sing.
While her song did not change, it no longer felt comforting to the child.
The child could do naught but watch as all of the dolls, including the many many many dolls still in the chest all did the same, no matter how hard she tried to put them back together.
"Why? Please, make it stop!" The child screamed as the dolls all fell apart.
In the distance, the sound of the dogs eating in the mud grew louder and less distant.
Joining the onslaught of noise came the clattering of teeth, over and over and over again, grinding and grinding and grinding against each other like stones on stones on stones on stones on stones.
Then laughter. Horrible, grating laughter of one voice, then a thousand, then a thousand thousands, more and more and more and more.
Then words joined the endless cacophony.
"It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "Save…" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" "It's funny!" 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The voices, the monsters, the Lahmu, surrounded the child in a sea of bodies, ripping and tearing away at the flesh. One came away with an arm, another with an eye, another with a leg, severing the connective tissue with swift bites and quick stabs from their blade like arms.
And yet, they did not die.
They always seemed to have more body to be torn asunder, more flesh to be picked away and ground and consumed and removed and torn and shattered and ripped and shredded.
They looked to Mother for salvation, for help, for anything, and could not see her beyond a glimpse of two large horns curling up into the distance, nor hear her beyond the singing.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The child could do nothing but scream in agony.
The scream was indistinguishable from Mother's singing.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
xxx
December 15
Andy shot to consciousness much like a bullet to the temple: quickly, and violently, jolting and only preventing himself from sitting up thanks to the weight on his chest.
His heart was pounding in his chest and his head felt like he'd been punched by a goddess as he took stock of the room around him, and the bed in which he laid.
To one side, lay Mash.
To the other, Astolfo.
Snuggled atop him was Paul.
They were still in the bedroom in the embassy, laying in bed precisely as Andy had remembered it, though they were now all beginning to stir from his own sudden awakening.
It was the middle of the night. Not even the next morning.
He let out a sigh of relief at that, before raising a hand to gently stroke Paul's cheek.
And then froze when instead a blade like limb stabbed into her face.
Paul immediately screamed in pain as the limb pierced her cheek, a wet, gurgling scream as it tore through her throat as well.
The sound shocked Astolfo and Mash awake and stumbling out of the bed, staring at Andy with weapons raised.
Andy looked down at his other hand, his right hand, and it was still a hand as it should be, but it was the same purplish colour as the blade that was attached to his other side.
"Why?" Paul gurgled through the blood pooling in her airways and around the blade, her body already fading to spirit particles.
"No, no, no no no I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I can fix it, let me fix it." Andy begged as he removed the blade from Paul's face and attempted to heal her with his more human hand.
Only for the hand to be slapped away by Paul, a look of disgust and hatred in her eyes.
"Don't...touch...me...monster." Were her last words before she faded entirely, leaving Andy in the bed, covered in blood, and Mash and Astolfo staring down in shock.
"Kouhai? Azzy? I dont… I don't understand? What's...what's happening?" Andy said, staring down at his body, a patchwork mess of human and Lahmu. The left arm was already turned into a deadly blade, and the legs had already begun to atrophy, with one already extended into the long thin tendril the Lahmu walked on.
His skin was mottled with purple, his chest already beginning to morph and twist, and as he looked down, he could see his mouth was already much larger than it should have been, and his nose had disappeared.
"Shh, shh, it's alright S-senpai. Everything's alright." Mash reassured shakily, stroking Andy's cheek, and turning his head towards her. "Everything's going to be just fine."
Mash gripped Andy's still human hand tightly as she spoke.
"Really?" Andy asked hopefully.
"Really." Mash said, tears running down her cheeks. "Everything's going to be just fine, Senpai. I promise."
"I love you, Kouhai."
"I-" Mash choked back a sob.
And then Astolfo's sword flashed down, and removed Andy's head from his shoulders.
In Andy's last few fleeting moments of awareness, he watched as Mash broke down sobbing over his own detached body, Astolfo doing his best to comfort her.
And so, Andrew Murphy died as he lived.
A monster, and a murderer.
Xxx
December 15
Andy shot to consciousness much like a bullet to the temple: quickly, and violently, jolting and only preventing herself from sitting up thanks to the weight on her chest.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and her head felt like she'd been punched by a goddess as she took stock of the room around her, and the bed in which she laid.
To one side, lay Mash.
To the other, Astolfo.
Snuggled atop her was Paul.
They were still in the bedroom in the embassy, laying in bed precisely as Andy had remembered it, though they were now all beginning to stir from her own sudden awakening.
It was the middle of the night. Not even the next morning.
Andy let out a sigh of relief, reaching up to gently stroke Paul's face, before freezing.
Slowly, as if time itself had pulled itself to a crawl, her eyes dragged downwards towards her arm.
Her shoulder was fine—still human flesh.
Her elbow was fine—still human flesh.
Her forearm-
Andy shot out of the bed, not caring if she disturbed it's other occupants as she crashed to the floor and began clawing at her left arm with her right hand, ignoring the startled sounds of the others as she desperately tried to remove the thing, the infection from her body.
So desperate was she that she shifted into her demon form so as to better remove the whole damn arm, to rid herself of the evil that now clung to her left hand.
Astolfo and Mash and Paul, all alarmed and worried, grabbed one of her other arms to stop her from doing it, asking, begging her to stop or explain.
But then.
In a fit of mania, in an act parallelling what had happened earlier that same day, Andy bit her own arm off.
Once she was free of it, of the muddied limb , she began to once again breathe.
Andy took several shaky breaths as the others watched in silent shock, leaning back against the wall as she stared at the thing on the ground.
The arm that had formerly been hers.
It had no hand.
But instead a purplish point.
Sharp as a blade.
The colour did not spread very far up the forearm, but...
She had to be certain.
She checked every inch of herself, aided by how she had slept wearing just a tank top and a pair of shorts, and much to her relief Andy found no more of the infection that had plagued her in her sleep.
In a daze more befitting a dream than the waking nightmare she had awoken to, Andy stood, ignoring the worrying of her partners and of her still-not-officially-adopted-child, and announced: "I am going for a walk."
And then walked out of the embassy.
Swiftly, as they began to follow her, her walk became a jog, and then a run, and then a full-on sprint, running like her life depended on it.
Andy did not know where she was.
Andy did not know where she was going.
She just knew she had to run.
She had to run.
Otherwise…
Andy ran.
And ran.
And ran.
And ran.
And ran.
And ran.
And ran.
She had to be moving a mile a minute at least, and her mind was racing alongside her.
Her lungs were burning.
Her head was pounding.
She was alive.
But at what cost?
How much had she left behind?
How much had she lost to get here?
She was no longer human. That was a privilege she had revoked, no matter how desperately she wished she hadn't sometimes. So, what was she? A demon? No, she wasn't that either, not really.
She was, undeniably, something between: neither, yet both at the same time.
Did she even still have the right to the name her parents had given her?
Could she even consider them her parents, when she had been reborn twice over in a world where they -and she- didn't exist?
What kind of person was she, that she chose to do this, one way or the other?
She did not know.
So she ran.
She ran so that the pain of her lungs could drown out the pain in her side.
She ran so that the pain in her legs would squash down the bile in her throat.
She ran so that the pain in her circuits would burn out the pain in her heart.
She ran.
xxx
December 16
Andy's breath was ragged as she collapsed on top of the Ziggurat, falling out of demon mode as she ran out of mana.
She wasn't sure how she had made it up there, but she had, and now she was staring up at the moon that was going to dip below the horizon in an hour or two. She just knew that she ran until her feet bled and then another hour after that.
"Well, aren't we both a sight for sore eyes," Spoke the condescending voice of Kingu. Andy turned her head, and she saw that he was sitting against one of the stone pillars that worked as the Ziggurat's crown, his body still a doughnut and bleeding, though very slowly.
"...Why are you here?" Andy asked through ragged breaths.
"...I don't actually know, this place means nothing to me, but it means a lot to this body. It has so many memories, it is here they made their first friend, and a vow was made. What about you? Why are you here?" He asked.
"...Your 'siblings' were spreading," Andy said, motioning to her missing arm that had by now clotted over but was still very much so not there. "I had to… I had to get away from it." She said shakily.
"The fuck you talking about?" Kingu asked with a confused face.
"I-I've been plagued with visions. Nightmares, really. About your mother. About the mud that she spreads." Andy explained, staring at her existing hand but more staring through it. "Yesterday, I got infected by those things you called your siblings, and the dreams got worse. And then…" She took a shaky breath, before looking up at Kingu. "I woke up with a Lahmu arm. I was becoming one. I had to- I had to get rid of it. I can't-I couldn't-I won't become one of those, do you understand me? I won't become a monster, I'm not a monster, I swear I'm not a monster!"
"...The conversion only happens if the body is killed being pierced through the heart. You humans must really be faulty if you get scared so easil- gargh!" He coughed, and Andy saw his left arm crumble into nothingness. "But you're still better than me, better than them. For at least you have something, I have nothing, I am nothing. I was abandoned by my creator by those I thought family, betrayed and hunted. I thought I had a place in this world, but I didn't. I am just a fake, that should have shut down hours ago," He said with closed eyes.
And a moment later opened them when he felt something warm and wet on his face. "What are you even doing?" He asked after opening his eyes and seeing Andy bleeding onto him.
"I don't have any healing on me, so take my mana you bastard," Andy said, tiredly yet forcefully as she attempted a socially distant mana transfer from above him.
"You're an idiot, the both of you are," Came Gilgamesh's voice.
"This isn't what it looks like, I swear."
"If you stop, I'll forget about this aneurysm inducing act of stupid. So what are the two of you doing up here acting like a pair of teenagers that just discovered that the universe is a cold and unfeeling place that doesn't care?" Gilgamesh asked with massively raised eyebrows.
"I went for a night jog and just ended up here." Andy lied. "And I was trying to stop this idiot from dying."
"I see that, now about your arm? I swear you were only missing your hand the last time I saw you, and you, you need to stand up as well, can't have your corpse decorating the place," Gilgamesh said.
"It was infected. I had to remove it." Andy repeated, though she did stop trying to forcefully transfer her non-existent mana into the faker who didn't want it.
Kingu just stayed silent, but he did look away from Gilgamesh.
"Well come to think of it, I have had these two things sitting around in my treasury, and never got a time to use them. And it feels silly to throw them away so you can have it," Gilgamesh said as he pulled out his Grail and threw it Kingu's body that quickly absorbed it. "And for you," Gil added and he threw a prosthetic arm at Andy. "This should serve as a replacement for the time being."
Andy looked at the arm blankly before pressing the end to her shoulder, not knowing what else to do with it, and like magic, it simply sealed to her flesh (painfully, but she had been feeling much worse pain that night) as she could feel it connecting to her frayed nerves and slotting itself into the part of her brain that registered her left arm.
A moment later, she flexed her fingers, causing a strange clicking noise as they moved like she thought they should, the arm responding to her commands like any arm, despite being made of wood and gold from the looks of it. "Thanks, Gil." She said raspily, her throat hurting from the deadening sprint around Uruk she had taken.
"Why-why are you doing this? I am your enemy? I was made by Tiamat?" Kingu spoke as he shakily stood back up. "I am not your Enkidu! I'm just a doll, with a different heart inside…"
"That's right. You're not Enkidu. You're someone else using a stolen body. But even so, you are still worthy of my protection-No, my friendship," Gil said, and Kingu's face became one of shock. "Do I have to spell it out, you hopeless fool! Even if your heart and soul are different, that body of yours is the one and only Chain of the Heavens on Earth. Humph. Once, someone insisted they were a weapon to the very end. But if I had taken them at their word, then it's only natural for me to care for you. After all, you're the successor to the weapon I trusted the most! What's wrong with me favouring you?" Gilgamesh asked. "It's the end of the world Kingu. Do as you will."
"Wait… I don't understand. What do you…"
"I'm telling you that, no matter who your mother is or how you were born, simply do the things you really want to do. Like we once did. You said you have nothing? That's laughable. You still have your freedom. You can shut down your heart later," Gil said. "Now go the both of you, you have things to do and you Andy have lovers to return to and apologise."
"You're not the boss of me," Andy said, before immediately passing out from a combination of blood loss, mana exhaustion, and plain exhaustion-exhaustion.
"...I can't believe humanity is being saved by this idiot."
Xxx
"Senpai are you alright now?" Mash asked as she stood by Andy's bedside a large cup of water in her hands.
Andy, immediately upon waking up, looked at her left arm before doing anything else. When she saw metal and wood instead of flesh or muddied skin, she let out a sigh of relief and focused on Mash. "I-" her answer was cut off by coughing, so she drank the water with Mash's help. "Thank you, Mash." She said instead of answering.
"It's fine Senpai," She said as she hugged her.
Andy hugged her back, and to her pleasant surprise, the new arm worked like a normal arm, despite lacking sensory input.
Andy just held Mash in the hug for a long, long moment.
"Senpai what happened?" Mash after the hug ended, which felt like an eternity to Andy.
"I…" Andy started, looking down at her hands. "...Do you remember, a week ago, when I said I had a weird dream?"
"I do Senpai," Mash replied.
"It… it wasn't the only one," Andy said. "Even when I used Tamamo's talismans. Every night, I've been seeing the sea of mud and someone I had thought of as… In the dreams, I thought of her as 'Mother'." She took a shuddering breath. "It...it was not my mother."
"Maybe it was Tiamat reaching out, you do have a habit of having wandering and prophetic dreams," Mash said. "Perhaps due to your own 'motherly' nature, you just connected with her a bit. Or maybe she was trying to warn you, cause when I saw her on the sea before, the restraints on her didn't look like they had been forced but rather self-placed."
"Maybe. Maybe." Andy said, still staring at her hands. "But then. Yesterday happened." She took another shuddering breath as a few tears fell down into her hands. She noted she couldn't feel the ones on her left. "And- And then-" She kept cutting herself off. "What did… what did last night look like, from your perspective, Mash?"
"That you were hurting and that we didn't know what to do. It was our fault, we just ignored that you were hurting after we got back, and this was our fault," Mash said as she placed her hand on the prosthetic.
"No, no no no Mash it's my fault, or it's Tiamat's fault, or the Lahmu's fault, or something, but it's not- it's not your fault," Andy said, holding Mash's hand with her new one, intertwining her fingers like they normally did, a bit clumsier than before, but still doing it. "It's not- It's not your fault. You did everything you cou-could to protect me like you alw- always have. My dutiful shield. My trusty Kouhai. My wondrous Mash." Andy was very much so crying as she spoke.
"No, no I haven't Senpai, I have failed you a lot in almost every fight so far, even with all of Galahad's power at my disposal, I can't keep up with the enemies we are encountering," Mash apologised.
"What are- what are you talking about? I've literally lost count of how many times you've saved my life and the lives of the people around us. This- this happened because I- I was stupid enough to rush ahead and get in- in- infected by that damn mud . But it wasn't your f- fault." Andy said, the Mom Friend Override kicking in with ironic timing.
"You weren't stupid Senpai, it was the best move we could have made at the time," Mash said in response.
"But I still- I was still- it didn't work, Mash, it didn't work, and then I- I was- you saw it, right? You saw it? You saw it? You saw it?"
"Ssshhh, it's okay, it's okay, it didn't happen, it didn't happen it was just a nightmare, and the silky responded, you didn't change," She said.
"But- but you didn't- you didn't see it," Andy said deliriously. "I saw it. I saw it happen right before I woke up. The- the only diffe- difference was that it hadn't spread as much, it was spreading it w-was growing it was infecting and I almost- I al- I-" It was around this point Andy broke down sobbing, and ceased trying to justify or explain anything.
And Mash just held her close and held her tight. Andy barely even noticed when Astolfo came in and did the same.
Xxx
"You feeling better, bro?" Ritsuka asked as they all now stood in Gil's Throne Room around noon that day.
"No."
"Well, it's better than feeling nothing or being dead," He said, trying to be a bit uplifting but failing rather horribly.
"...You need to level up your talking skill dude," Andy said with a small grin as she very very lightly punched him on the arm with her right hand.
"Yeah, I don't know how to deal with the Trauma Lahmas," He punned.
"I- I hate that pun on a visceral level. I just want you to know that if you were anyone but you, it would have earned you a punch in the face, Ritz." Andy said, looking much more alert and present than she had been a few moments prior.
"Glad to know that it worked, though I think his majesty wants to speak now," Ritsuka said.
"Glad to see that you have all… somewhat recovered from yesterday, though before we develop a plan of attack on Tiamat. Captain a briefing on the populace?" Gilgamesh asked.
"Yes, my King! Currently, there are 306 citizens left in Uruk. Of those, 212 are soldiers, and the rest are civilians. Initially, the citizens refused to evacuate, but after the King spoke to them, they agreed to evacuate to the Northern Wall. Of the citizens who already escaped to the Northern Wall, there are 157 survivors. With the Lahmu continuing to harass when they can, there are now 38 surviving soldiers on the Wall. Altogether, there are five hundred and one humans left alive in Sumer," The Captain of the Guard reported.
"Only 501? That report has to be a mistake, right?" Mash asked.
"No it is pretty accurate, between the Lahmu attacks, and the sea encroachment, the first dynasty of Uruk has fallen," Gilgamesh said.
"501 is a pretty good number, all things considered, you know?" Andy said, for some reason trying to see the bright side. "I mean, that's more than three times the amount you need for a stable breeding population, and enough that your culture will probably still be preserved. Considering the alternative of annihilation, and considering everything that's been thrown at your people, it's a downright miraculous survival of Uruk's people."
"It is, I am very proud of them, and you're right, the survival of our culture is the most important thing even if the kingdom goes into decline as long as our way of life survives, people will follow in our footsteps," Gilgamesh said. "Now regarding the Lahmu, we have noticed they have split into two groups, one stops on the spot and turns into a sphere as soon as the sun sets, and the others go back to Tiamat and guard her. So, Romani Archaman. You've had a day. I presume you have finished with your analysis of Tiamat?"
"Yeah, I have. Here is full discretion of her Saint Graph and Spirit Origin," Roman said as a hologram of Tiamat's large body appeared in front of them.
"I see. This is good work. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Hummmmmm… Curse it! There is nothing in here about her weaknesses! Are you on her side or something?" Gilgamesh asked.
"Believe me, I wanted to write at least one possible method of attack! But the report is accurate! She's just perfect, with no physical or mythical shortcomings. We're not a match for her!"
"When you say that with tears in your eyes, I suppose I can't be too hard on you, good work Romani. But we can't lose control of our emotions here. Well, Jaguar Warrior? What is your take on Tiamat? Can your animal instincts tell us something we can't see?" Gilgamesh asked.
"Well, I can tell you that she is actually too heavy to properly move and support her own weight, so she is using the Mud she is creating to travel," Jaguar Warrior said. "And I can tell she will arrive at Uruk in about three days."
"That is good knowledge, so we know of a way to intercept her now and at least slow her," Gilgamesh said.
"Why exactly is she heading straight for Uruk?" Ritsuka asked. "I thought she would go for Mt. Ebih to get at Ishtar first since she is technically one of her 'divine children' who betrayed her."
"Because vengeance on her divine children is not her goal. Her goal is the destruction of the humans that rejected her, and from her perspective, humans and the land is one single life-form, and Uruk and Gilgamesh is the symbol of that life-form, the heart of it all. And she is utterly driven to destroy it by her primordial instincts," Quetzalcoatl explained.
"Yeah, Tiamat's enemy is civilisation, if Mt. Ebih, and I went poof, civilisation would still exist and continue to reject her. But if this golden dummy and Uruk got annihilated Mesopotamian civilisation would vanish," Ishtar said.
"Yes, if you wish to protect human history, you need to defeat Tiamat, but no attack can seemingly harm her. But I do not know why she is invincible," Gilgamesh wondered.
"Oh, on that point, I do have a theory," Roman interjected. "Tiamat… Actually, I believe all of the Beasts have individual differences. Of all of them, Tiamat's inborn nature is to never experience death. No matter what she does, death will never find her. Ishtar destroying Tiamat's brain out at the sea more or less proved the theory."
"So she regenerated after she died. Isn't that just resurrection?" Gilgamesh asked.
"No, it's different. It's more like retrogression than regeneration. I know this might sound absurd, but stay with me: Tiamat is the mother of all life in existence. The very fact that we're alive proves her existence. That's why there's no way to destroy her. It's paradoxical, but as long as life continues to exist on land. Tiamat, Beast, will never die. She is the beginning and the end. The only way she could be affected by the normal laws of physics, and be harmed, is as the last thing on the world to die," Roman explained.
"But if all life has to die before she can be harmed then she wins!" Mash shouted.
"Yeah, that is why I had to report her as invincible," Roman stated.
"Wait, I have an idea how to beat her now," Ritsuka said with a big smile on his and Andy saw the lightbulb over his head.
"Oh thank god, you shonen'd up a solution," Andy said in relief, since she, sure as hell couldn't think of anything that was actually possible at the moment. "Please share with the class."
"Her immortality is her weakness, if she continues to live as long as life is a thing where she currently is, how about we just place her somewhere, where there is no life?" He said as he pointed a finger down.
"...You are a genius, Ritz."
"Yes, I know no need to state the obvious."
"Wait, that could really work well, because doesn't Kur strip gods of their authorities too? We could use that to basically empower Ereshkigal and weaken Tiamat at the same time, right?" Andy said, suddenly enthusiastic.
"It would," Gilgamesh said, he held out his hand and snapped his fingers, and out his gate on the ground rose a mirror, and with another snap of his fingers, the blank surface changed to show Ereshkigal complaining loudly.
"Ah there are way too many souls, what I wouldn't give for some extra help!" She shouted into the underworld's emptiness.
"Hi Ereshkigal!" Andy greeted excitedly, waving with her right arm towards the mirror. "I think we may have a solution to many of our problems."
"Ah, Andy! What do you want, and Gilgamesh you shouldn't call someone out of the blue," Ereshkigal chastised the golden King who just rolled his eyes.
"Well, we just figured out how to get you some peace and quiet and how to deal with Tiamat, and making you stronger in the process, but uhh, it kind of involves throwing Tiamat down there with you," Andy explained.
Ereshkigal blinked once, blinked twice, and then thrice. "EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed in shock. "What do you mean you want to drop her down here."
"You know how you could strip Ishtar of her authorities?" Andy asked. "We were hoping to do that to Tiamat, which would give you Tiamat's authorities while making Tiamat weaker, which is a straight-up win-win."
"Yes, that is your purpose, Queen of Kur, open up the Gates of the Underworld beneath Uruk so that she might be plunged directly into the depths of the earth and bound. That is my order as King," Gilgamesh told her.
"Geez, so you want me to move to Kur directly beneath Uruk, you do know that covering the entirety of Uruk with a hole of death is a massive undertaking? Like that would take about ten years to do," Ereshkigal said.
"We don't have that amount of time," Gilgamesh scowled.
"Yeah, but I might have been plotting something since I manifested, so just give me four days to do it," She cheekily laughed.
"Brilliant but you and I are going to have a talk about this later," Gilgamesh said in response.
"But even then that is one day too much, Tiamat arrives in three," Quetzalcoatl said.
"Well, that is your problem to figure out, I have to be fully focused on moving Kur now," Ereshkigal said as the mirror went blank.
"Yeah, we need to delay Tiamat by one day at minimum," Roman said.
"Fear not I already have a strategy to accomplish that," Gilgamesh said. "Ishtar you finally get the chance to be useful."
"Uh me?" She asked.
"Hahahahaha, look at you acting all humble when we all know about that ace up your non-existent sleeves," Gilgamesh laughed.
"Oh right Gugalanna," Ritsuka said as he slammed his fist into his palm.
"Yeah, it is the mightiest Divine Beast in all of Sumer, the Bull of Heaven, I think even we Indian's have few beasts that can match the creature that serves you," Parvati said in compliment.
"Yeah, it would be extra effective against the Sea of Life, as it can make any source of 'water' run dry like the Tigris River," Quetzalcoatl said.
"Oh don't act like that Gugalanna isn't all that great," Ishtar said.
"Now's not the time to be humble, Ishtar, this is like the perfect time to drop the bovine hammer," Andy said, as all the others began to chant Gugalanna's name.
"What is the matter, Ishtar? I thought we would all have headaches by now from your screeching laughter by now? Listening to you brag about how great he is, even though he wasn't yours, to begin with," Gilgamesh said.
"I don't have it."
"Huh?" Gilgamesh said in shock. "Did you just?"
"Right. I don't have Gugalanna," Ishtar said and that everyone besides Ibaraki stopped chanting.
Resulting in "huh?" from everyone.
"I don't have it! I lost it! I lost it somewhere!" She cried as she grabbed Ritsuka's collar and began to shake him.
"Y-you lost," He said, but his tone immediately fizzled out as he seemed to remember something. "Even back then, you had already lost…"
"I searched through all of Mesopotamia, but I can't find hide nor hair of Gugalanna!" She cried as she continued to shake Ritsuka. And Ibaraki was finally silenced by Raikou punching her into the wall.
"Y-you stupid, useless, bratty goddess!" Gilgamesh shouted. "Why did we even bother recruiting you! If I had the ability to change you out for mother I would do it immediately, at least she would provide food for us!"
Andy raised a hand. "Permission to exert the contract, your Highness?"
"Yes."
Andy did not grin as she approached the goddess, grabbed Ishtar's waistband, and in one mighty tug pulled them up over her head and stuck to the goddess's forehead. "I feel bad for Rin sharing a body with you at this point, because you are literally the worst."
Xxx
"Now then, we need another plan of attack," Gilgamesh said after he had returned to his throne, and after he had also forced Ishtar to hold a clay table that read "Useless Goddess." courtesy of Ritsuka who had written it in Kanji in such a way it could also be read as "Worst Goddess." "We must now find another way to delay her."
"Would making a big hole or several of them serve to slow her down? Since she's too heavy to move on her own, and would have to fill up the hole to get past it or around it which would take some time?" Andy suggested.
"No, those would be filled by the Mud in an instant," Semiramis said.
"Damn. Uh, what about if we strategically placed Cedars from the Cedar Forest to slow her down? Like, embed them in the ground pointed at her, so she has to go over or move them or something?" Andy continued to brainstorm.
"They were used to make a barrier that is currently pushing the Mud around Uruk, we appreciate the effort you made to harvest all of it Bunyan," Gil praised the small giant who beamed at the praise.
"Well, as we know Tiamat is using the Mud, the Chaos Tide as rails to walk on," Quetzalcoatl said. "While I can't do the entire ocean like Bull of Heaven could, I can still use my Noble Phantasm to clear a large enough perimeter to stop Tiamat in her tracks."
"How long do you think that would delay her for?" Andy asked. "And could you do it multiple times or is this a one-and-done deal?"
"It will probably be a one-and-deal, as there is a high chance it could result in my death, but I can not act now. I need to gather enough magical energy to keep it going long enough so on the morn of the third day. I will halt her for long enough for Ereshkigal to do her thing," The Mesoamerican Goddess said.
"Oh thank God, we have a useful goddess or two on our side," Andy said in relief.
"Yeah, you have Ritsuka to thank for that. If he had broken the sunstone, I would not have been able to use it," She said with a smile. "Though I am going to need your help to do it, as I need the Lahmu kept off me."
"I've learned my lesson about getting close, so yeah we could all probably stem the tide for you," Andy said, not planning on ever being within a hundred feet of a Lahmu unarmored and out of demon mode ever again.
"Well, if you're going to do that, I am also going with you when you're going," Ibaraki said as she leaned on her bone sword.
"I thought that you would continue to be a leeching bug? What is with the change?" Raikou asked the Oni.
"Your other family member has basically become an Oni, so that makes her my issue to deal with Raikou, not yours," She responded.
"...If you so wish."
"So that's the third day, right? What do we do in the meantime, protect the civilians and such? Prepare? Bully Ishtar?" Andy asked.
"You can do all three," Gilgamesh said in response. "But tonight I wish to have a talk with you and Kyrielight."
"Would you like to join us for dinner before that talk?" Andy asked.
"No, I have duties to attend to," He replied. "See me when the moon rises."
"We shall see you then, King."
Xxx
"...and so, I, uh, wanted to apologise for what happened last night." Andy finished explaining everything as best she could, not looking at Paul or Mash or Astolfo. "I, um. Didn't mean to scare any of you like that."
"It's okay Miss Andy, Mash explained it well," Paul said.
"Eh, not the worst thing one of the people I know have done, there was that one time Ogier stuck it Morgana, and as they say don't stick it in a crazy fairy lady," Also said.
"I… I'm just… I'm sorry." Andy apologised once more, floundering for words.
"It's okay we all have our low points, and you're just a normal person, and I am crazy, so I don't have one, I just keep going and never hit bottom," Astolfo said. "But I know you hit yours so when we get back to Chaldea, and before we take the fight to the fish, we're going to have lots of adult fun."
"I...I think I might just want to cuddle and stuff when the time comes. I don't really know right now." Andy said.
"Okay."
"Just… okay? That's it?" Andy asked.
"Yep, because we know that you didn't mean to do it, nightmares are nightmares, and we can do nothing to stop them," Mash said.
"Yeah, though you have to pamper us now, as we had to clean up your arm," Bunyan said.
Andy winced. "Sorry."
Xxx
"You came right on time," Gilgamesh said as Andy and Mash entered the Throne Room, and Andy felt a punch to gut due to the lack of Siduri's presence that was normally there.
"Of course. I hate being late." Andy said, having actually thought they were a minute or two early.
"I just wanted to ask you both the same question in privacy," Gilgamesh said.
"...Being?" Andy asked with trepidation. Thinking about it, Gilgamesh hadn't talked to them not in the midst of war-planning or combat-talk since the observatory trip.
"Do you think yourself responsible for what has happened? That all this death and destruction is your fault because you failed to prevent Tiamat's return?" He asked.
"I do a bit, if we had been a bit faster, had not been as hasty, this would not have happened, that it is our fault only five hundred people made it," Mash said.
"I mean, yeah honestly of course I do. If I had used the M.E.S.S. smarter and actually used my damn armour and stuff we'd probably already be done by now since I wouldn't have…" Andy's words slowed to a crawl. "I… I don't think it's my fault she's existing, but it's my fault she has the Grail."
"Then I am happy to tell you that you're wrong, nothing you could have done would have prevented Tiamat from rising, it was an inevitability so do not feel guilt or sadness but joy. Mash, you said it was your fault that only five hundred made it? If so, then rejoice in that failure as the future I saw left me as the only one still in Uruk at this point. Your actions did not cause five hundred to remain, it saved five hundred people," Gilgamesh said. "Congratulations you two and your friends have saved Sumer from destruction."
"You- you can see the future, right? The younger yous never really explained, but did your vision update now that we're here or something?" Andy asked, since unlike the child or teen forms the living Gil seemed amenable enough to not be super fucking cryptic in regards to the ability.
"No, it was the vision I got before the Era became a Singularity, and with Human History burned I am blind to the events that will occur, but I can still see the true nature of things, and peer into a person's 'narration' as both Enkidu and Siduri has described it as," Gilgamesh said in reply.
"And what does my 'narration' say, perchance?" Andy asked, now curious to the workings of Gilgamesh's future sight.
"You're a self-loathing person that is no longer sure of their own identity, but will do anything to live as you are the Survivor," He said in response. "Please do not heap your personal problems onto me."
"Okay first of all rude, and second of all-" Andy stopped when she realised he...hadn't exactly lied there. "...I have never attempted to do such a thing with my problems."
"You asked me to look, and that is heaping in my opinion, now do you and Kyrielight feel a little better."
"No, not in the slightest," Andy said. "You just pointed out my insecurities out loud in front of my partner, I am, in fact, feeling worse."
"... I am actually feeling better now," Mash said in a shy voice.
"Thought she was already privy to those things?" Gil asked in reply.
"To be honest, I was barely privy to part of that!" Andy said. "I don't want to, as you said, heap my problems on people! Do you think I've actually had the time to stop and think about what I'm dealing with? I've barely had enough time to breathe! I feel like I'm one bad impact from tearing my own lim-oh wait! I'm literally on knife's edge right now goldilocks, this is the most stressful time of my life, of course, I'm not going to tell people!"
"But you are now, and I think she would appreciate it if you did it more," He said in reply.
"I would Senpai, you don't have to keep it bubbled up, me, Astolfo, Da Vinci, and the Doctor, are ready to listen," Mash said.
"But we don't have the time!" Andy insisted. "The countdown is ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking down towards doomsday! We have like two weeks until the end of the world, and we're still here dealing with fucking Tiamat instead of the other eldritch horror -oh god, Slutoman's probably a beast too isn't he, that bastard- whose been planning all this and playing with us since day 1! And now we have 2 days till one of the biggest fights ever, which I'm certain is going to be topped by literally every single subsequent fight in the following 24 hours alone, not even mentioning what's going to happen once we actually get Tiamat into Kur! This-this-this is- I- can't, I can't, I just- It's too much, it's way too much, and I can still hear it why are they laughing, it isn't funny, it isn't fucking funny-"
"Senpai!" Mash shouted, and she immediately hugged Andy to bring her out of the downward spiral she was on.
"It's not funny; it's not funny; it's not funny; it's not funny; it's not funny-" Andy repeated on a loop, barely responding to Mash's touch.
"SENPAI!" She shouted, and the next move she made was kissing her on the lips.
That actually managed to snap Andy out of it, to some degree anyway, as she at least began hugging Mash back.
"Take it to your room would you," Gilgamesh said, breaking the atmosphere.
"...Have a good night, king," Andy said, following his advice.
