The entry into a new world was like nothing I had ever imagined, sure, some depictions of going "out" in a white light tunnel are hardly anything reliable to compare them to, but I have no shame in admitting it was breathtakingly beautiful, the ever-changing colors of the veil that divides the void and the world was hypnotic the flow of energy coming and going to the world, and then the crossing of what should be the endless dimensional gap, to be a short trip compared to the everlasting time it took to just pass through the veil.
the sensation was weird enough, it was like being suspended in jello but at the same time a rapid fall without breaks, like re-entering the atmosphere at a high speed should have been, and to give some credit to the analogy I was burning in flames already, not normal flames though, but violet flames that were forming my body; and from the flames came the bone, muscle, skin, and were like burning to death but backward.
It would have been the greatest experience to begin a new life, the beauty, the excitement of discovery, were it not for the soul-searing pain, PAIN like never before I have felt, the reforming of tissue was too much to bear, the muscle shredding and growing, the coming on line of every nerve in the limbs, it stung to the point I could have passed and lost what remained of my sanity in that instant; if not because of my time in the void, compartmentalizing and giving some order to my mind changed something and it was wrong as I was not supposed to be that way, but that last thought was something I came to on the latter days for at the moment I could but barely push back the ludicrous amount of pain, enough not to kill my mind, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
As a soul gaining a body in the crossing I got a glimpse of it, of the complexity of all of the forces that made my new reality in that world and I could for the briefest of moments understand them, there was an intrinsic connection to the strings that bounded the moving complexity of it all, the unchanging mechanics of the layers of the world, the film like phase that separates them, to "see" as a soul without the limitations of a living body was an enlightening but short experience.
And it came to an end when my body was complete, the ground was approaching fast, and right before getting squashed like a plushie against a moving train, the last membrane of the veil phased out and got dropped from something like 20cm in into the dust, reddish dry dust on the hard ground, and so I came to a conclusion, there is a reason why truck-sama send the soul to be reborn when isekaid instead of holding a living body, or at least why the entry is always forgotten.
It FUCKING HURTS, I barely made it, after hundreds of thousands of years in the void, luckily for me, I was the last one remaining, and also for the unfortunates lost, because otherwise, a whiny teenager without mental fortitude would get the sanity taken by the pain, damn hippies wouldn´t have made it through.
As I took my first deep breath of air, I screamed with the full strength of my soul, all of my dreams, all of my pain, and got the deepest feeling that I got into the most cohesive thought that I could muster.
"FUCK YOU ISHTAR, GIL-CHAN BEST WAIFU EVER YA HEAR"
and thus I collapsed from exhaustion of being 'birthed' into the world.
the sun was rising on the horizon when I came to, after who knows how long I remained unconscious.
It might have been seen as a cliché, but the meeting with a higher level entity was no joke, my body was catching up with my mind, and there were too many things all at once, for the first thing was fear, bearing the full hate of a goddess from the outer realms was frightening, as if my every being was conditioned to be afraid of them, of her, and I could not stop the shaking of my body.
the other thing that came to me, was anger, anger at the utter contempt she had for us, even after our death and the erasure of maybe millions, of all ages, she was not satisfied and had to make a "special case".
The final thing that hit, was arousal, as a soul, I could endure it and in the bravado of the confrontation it was suppressed I had more important things to worry about, or it was a purely bodily reaction, but even in her flat glory, ishtar was a beauty that called all my primal reactions, and the arousal was like an imprint she left in my consciousness, were she less of a bitch and had I been less than scared out of my mind, I might had been converted to worship her like a simp then and there, and the realization scared me even more, to be made into a simp without will of my own, decision without a descition to, just because of her being a goddess of beauty and fertility, was no better than being a slave, no matter how gorgeous she was, and her long ...
'shitt, mental corruption is a thing'
Among the first things I found out about my surroundings was, that I was inside of some ruins, in a basement of sorts with a few holes in the walls and the floor above me, the old brick walls wasted by time and eroded from the elements and some sand covering the floor, with that, I set to find something to cover my naked self because to the second greedy goddess of poverty and debt, there could not have a better idea than to send me terminator style, completely naked to crash in the middle of nowhere.
"well that could have come worst, at least my balls are still, ... physically,...there"
It took some time looking around but there was a little water deposit near some collapsed walls nearby, and a ragged piece of cloth buried beneath the sand inside of another building, sand that flooded the entire building and the streets to some point, and added to the age of the place, this place was abandoned long, long ago, but it could be seen still, the former massive walls form the perimeter, the distribution of the buildings, this place, used to be a city, a dead city that survived in a dessert of some sort, thanks to the everlasting effort of the walls, another thing to the list of marvels from the last couple... days? weeks? I lost the sense of time in the entry, since the moment of my death in reality.
Despite it all, the city emanated a certain feeling of warmth, of a welcome, as if this place knew ... as if it was waiting, and yeah, it feels as if it resonated to that fuck you to ishtar, it was insane but the feeling was just right.
"I better get something to eat, think about the crazy and the damned latter"
the day was expended finding everything I could in the ruins, finding a couple of lizards running along, some coopery or bronze old tools here and there, and clay tablets everywhere, this was the first clue, for you see~~, clay tablets written in sumerian were a very indicative sign of the place
'damn the mind corruption ishtar, I refuse to think of that manner of speech as cute,' i cursed under my breath
but it was a sign that I was in the middle of nothing if dxd geography was like the one on earth, being lost and alone in mesopotamia was not a joke.
"at least we don´t have to install some damn antennas this time around"
talking to myself and remembering the old days of ww3, when were dispatched to israel to help with technical issues in their offensive efforts, the jews were a practical pain in the ass to deal with; too many secrets among secrets, and tight among themselves as a knot, stubborn people but strong people, they endured what the rest of the region could not.
ww3 was brutal, short, and devastating, after germany occupied poland (again) in retaliation to russia reclamation of ukraine, all hell was loose, china took on the arabs, and then israel with turkey took on the chinese, the place was such a mess that after, only a no-man land remained in must of the formerly populated areas, and whatever communication the region had before, was lost then, alongside any type of government or law.
I was not the middle-aged man that came to the region in the midst of war last time around, I was a skinny boy with light brown, copperish skin, instead of my milk pale white, and had black hair instead of my shiny bald head, where I was reddish blonde some years before my death.
The last time I was in the region, we were annoyed with HQ for sending us far from home in a suicidal mission given the state of the conflict, but now, I was afraid, alone, and with a lot of things to unpack, and as soon as a tarantula was found for diner, I broke down like a dam and cried till sunset.
So many were lost in the void, just so the ego of a pretty monster could be satiated, their soul dissolved, no afterlife for them, no second chances, and there was the fact of my death also, I died in the line, without regret for that, but my family was left behind, old friends and would miss my children, that´s a given, and then to come to this place were demons angels, gods, and everything between existed and predated on us.
Having back a body made things harder to understand and my memory was fading in some details, at least fading in comparison to have it all in the tips of thought, my memory was incomplete now, and emotions were normalizing or coming as close to normal as they could get.
there was the nagging feeling that some things have changed forever inside of me, that I was not right, besides the mind pollution i got
the meeting with ishtar was an eye opener, she was closer to the bitch of the mythos than to the anime version, and if that was anything to go by, this world is screwed, I was a little scared at the thought of what else could really be lurking, what were devils really like? are the gods like the bitch-star?
As reality came crushing down, and despair took me, there was a pulse, something warm and calming from the ruins at the center of the city, it was like a wave of light, a soft embrace that rebounded on the city walls and came back, it was comforting as a children lullaby that sang in the back of the wind, my curiosity prevailed over the shock but not over tiredness and so plans were made.
"for tomorrow, that is the plan, yes... tomorrow, for now, ... I need some rest, maybe tanya was into something calling that bastard as being X"
morning came not so enthusiastically, there was no pollution in the air, no need for a gas mask or anti-radiation suit...yet, the sky was clear, but the lack of breakfast was a down, not to mention that wandering in a destroyed city, with the now and then human remain scattered made wonders for the psyche.
the walk to the center was uneventful, just the wind and scorching sun to keep company, a little bit of careful skimping the rocks and obstacles, barefoot exploration required attention to detail, after all, the city was massive for ruins as ancient as this must have been, and well too preserved also, in my last life I had seen some ancient things, but they were in way worst state than this, something else other than dessert weather must be at play, or I am a moron overthinking and this was made by hippies on a drunken night and that is why the horrible state;
they did something the like in the middle of new york to get a roof for some refugees, it was a disaster, as a rule, hippies can not build.
the ruins at the center were something like a palace or temple of some sort, filled with sand and debris of the partially collapsed walls, with some remains of color on the walls, and statues, there were even more broken clay tablets, and near what can be called a pond of sorts, a white marble flooring in a circular fashion, almost the size of a basketball court in one of the segments that had a functioning roof above, was a pillar of stone with far too many letters to be a decoration, especially considering the letters were in gold and the reflection they give with the sunlight, gave a ghostly, almost sacred aura surrounding the pillar.
golden things left behind in a place like this in the middle of the dessert were normally not a good sign, especially now that curses are something real to care about, so I left the place for now, ...that water is my lifeline for the foreseeable future.
I continued to explore the building finding a small lizard for breakfast, though I am in what could be guessed as an 8yrs old child´s body, and doubt of my prowess in hunting the little lizard is well placed, is not good to underestimate a child´s resourcefulness, especially with enough rocks to throw at you (pieces of the walls and roof were my ammunition you damn lizard), so breakfast was meager, a roasted lizard over some dried grass and pieces of a palm that survived in the yard of a nearby house, luckily there were some pieces of flintstone here and there, so, fire although small, it was enough.
the complex of connected buildings was identified as a temple, there were men with wings on the walls, bulls, eagles, lions, and golden scriptures everywhere, and was a strange sight, with regal bronze lines on some parts, and smaller pylons scattered, just like the rest of the city was when I first explored just that these ones seemed better days, keeping most of the golden and silvery writing on them.
beautifully decorated pylons with writing all over them, on a geometrical pattern... I am not as dense as not to notice there must be an obvious use for them, but what for?
There were fragments of things, cups of clay, some tools of stone and others of bronze with very delicate craftsmanship, others, rugged and worn by use rather than the time and erosion the contrast was ... strange and it brought some questions as why were they so close by, things that belonged to prominent and poor people nearby, to what could be a worn measurement instrument and tools for wood crafting.
after a while of exploring and questioning the strangely good state of the city, there was way too much in terms of items, gold, and things in general scattered all around, as if the city was empty in an instant, all signs of life suddenly gone and started falling appar with time, it made no sense, some skeletons on the buildings were posterior, there was even a roman in there with full and rusted segmetnata (roman, classic plate armor) and all, a shame without surviving shoes.
"call to ordinance, she said, OP ability SHE SAID"
a few days into the exploring I tried to awaken my powers, magic, anything I could, before my supply of critters ran out, to realize I was indeed as magicless as I was bald before the boston fiasco.
'did she even realize that there was more to war than combat? I mean, no combat things and tools, I would kill for MRE right now and they are not for combat unless you get imaginative with the plastic bag and my imagination is that of a cricket'
there was some frustration to realize the useless, beautiful idiot, had made such a blunder and that exploding that was beyond my means ... damn you mind corruption.
I continued to explore the area until the time came for the back of the temple, running to the dessert was not amongst my priorities, a new top place in the record of "cause of death: death by stupid" did not appeal, for now ..., things may change if I were to suddenly start praying to bitch-star.
And then there was the horror of a large collection of corpses in a single yard, surrounded by the lesser buildings at the back of the main temple, maybe it was because of the recent things that occurred, or something related to the time in the void but the despair, the fear, the pain, it all linger in this place, I felt them as if a scar on reality itself was made, and that left me without breath, small skeletons, or parts of them, that had survived till now, were put on a pile intertwined with what were adult skeletons and filling the gaps was sand brought by the wind, there were possibly thousands upon thousands left to pile above one another.
this city was ransacked, for this crude way of handling bodies was not normal, this was a humiliation above a tragedy, to drop the remains in the back of the temple and left them to rot, there were too many to conceal by the fine sand, so this large yard in the back was filled with sorrow that time could not wash away, the lamentations of the dead.
I took my time searching for what I could use in the rest of the morning, waiting for the sun to drop; and decided to make something for this after lunch was secured, I could be empathic to the dead but I needed to find a way not to burry myself with them in the attempt to give a burial.
this place had many lizards and some centipedes, so lunch was a challenge but doable, for some days I waited to the sun so I could occupy myself in this endeavor, to give them peace; realistically I could not burry one by one, and with my body and resources limitations, the best way was to put the remains together along with all others I could move from the nearby blocks, and slowly with the help of the moonlight, cover them in the sand of the desert, making a mastaba of sorts, to give them all the dignity I could.
There were some bronze tools and pieces of arrows just beneath the sand, some swords and spears in the streets, the wood was long gone but the tip remained, and either this place was partially preserved by magic or I was sent a couple of dozens of centuries before canon.
A small prayer to the dead, if shit-star was real, and adonai´s protection spared me the full wrath of the useless, then he IS real, somewhere, outside in the outer realms, and so the solemn silence of the last couple of days of hard work was broken with a prayer for these souls to find a way to peace, away from the useless and so their sorrow can be put to rest with their remains.
"I just hope no archeologist learn from this or they will linch me with a spoon for it"
The city walls began to hum and the pulse was again from the center pillar on the temple, but this time stronger and continuously increasing, it was in a sense, calling me, it was a feeling of beckoning and so, I went.
the pylons in my way were gaining small golden and bronze light in them and there were even more silvery light awakening in the most remote houses, this ruin was coming back to life, and if this activated some sort of late city defenses,...
"crap.. the roman..., now what did I do?"
the humming was now coming from the ground, the collapsed buildings, the old dilapidated towers glowing a fiery oxide red.
and so this was the moment, I knew this was the time for the most powerful secret technique of the core, and the joestar family, I pulled strength in my legs and ran for cover like a maniac back to the pillar, ten miles every morning prepare you for anything hurrah.
everything was lighting up and getting hotter so it burned to walk shoeless in the sand and stones that were... beginning to levitate from the roads, when I made it to the pond that had been my lifeline the sand had all but disappeared from the streets and debris removed by levitation there were echoes of whispers resounding all around, filling the air in a soft hymn in the most ancient of languages.
And naturally, my feet were a mess of cuts and burns, so much for the careful walking, I did the previous days.
the pillar was glowing with a regal almost holly light washing in waves and the water was burning with small green flames, the walls and roof of the temple were restoring themselves and from beneath the sand veritable rivers of gold came to the walls to form patterns and letters as it returned to the glory days of old, and soon clapping could be heard from the pillar, a loud clapping of hands and light footsteps that came to the burning water, there it stood the vise of a giant of a man.
A blonde tall man, easily over 2 meters, with a powerful body build, sun-kissed skin, vibrant red eyes that seemed like they could pierce all creation, walked to the edge of the pond with the confidence that the world belonged to him, and maybe it did, a long time ago.
the red lines that embraced his naked torso in vertical patterns and the ever-present smirk on his face gave away who this man was, that and the golden armor covering his legs were strong indications, that before me, was the king of heroes, in all his golden, bearded? glory.
"I welcome you to the heart of the city of Uruk, lost soul that came from the further beyond, and rejoice young one, for I gilgamesh, king greater than any king, have come to greet you, now name yourself for you stand before your king"
announced the king, with a thunderous voice filled with authority and power, THIS was the man, the legend, the myth.