Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and this is a little side project of mine that I'm mainly doing to get back into writing. For those who are wondering about my other story, Fate Strange Fate, I'm going to force myself to update it next week, the new chapter for it is half done already anyway, so don't worry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fate or any other part of the nasuverse that may come up, if I did, I wouldn't be writing this.


Chapter 1: Of A New Life

Reflecting on the past is something usually only reserved for those who are at the end of their lives, for those who are aware that their end is approaching but have the time to look back and assess their existence. They search through memories and relive decisions in an effort to determine whether their life was the best one they could have had. Some find peace in this, realizing that despite their many shortcomings their life was a content one, worthy to be proud of and be remembered. Others develop regrets as they sift through memories, agonizing over what could have been. It's not uncommon for them to futilely wish for a second chance, no matter how unrealistic that would be. This sort of thinking can be construed as pointless with good reason all things considered, but it's not uncommon in those who near their end.

Which is why it's strange to see it in someone seemingly so young.

"Why am I here?"

A small voice rung out in the night, barely audible over the sound of other people talking merrily around them. The person wondering aloud walked away from the crowd with their head hung low until they reached a more secluded spot by the edge of the building. Taking in the area around them, they can see that the other party-goers were all occupied with the festivities in the main temple complex for the time being. Using the opportunity they sat down on the edge of the temple with their feet dangling over the steep mountainside. their eyes focused on a collection of lights in the distance, surrounded by rocky drylands as far as the eye could see. It was undoubtably a settlement of sorts, however instead of the usual brick and concrete making up the various buildings, they could only make out sandstone and clay, moreover the lights seemed to be produced by torches, rather than electric lamps.

"Why was I born again? And why in Fate of all places?" The person wondered. There was no doubt about it, he could clearly remember dying. It was an unpleasant experience and he would have no trouble recalling it for the rest of his second life.

Which would be a rather long one, possibly infinitely longer than the previous one.

The reason for that was rather simple and tied into his second assumption. The people he just left behind happened to be gods, well, Divine Spirits inhabiting mortal bodies to be more accurate. When he asked about it, he was told that all gods lost their original bodies when something called Sefar wreaked havoc on the world some five thousand years ago. The settlement in the distance happened to be one of the first human towns in Mesopotamia with a large ziggurat in its center, though he hesitated to call it a city since it didn't have walls of any sort, it was simply not time for that yet.

Now, he wasn't a god himself, but he wasn't human either, rather he was something else entirely. Suffice to say that he wasn't immortal like gods, but eternal life was another matter.

Anyone would be well within their rights to be overjoyed at this, eternal youth was something humanity craved all their existence after all, and yet this newly reincarnated soul seemed distraught instead as its golden eyes stared distantly into the night.

"Pointless." A pale hand grabbed a loose shard from the tiled floor and flicked it away. Apathetic eyes watched as the object soared through the dark sky until it impacted the side of a nearby mountain with the force of an airstrike. All that power and for what?

What was the point of giving a second life to someone as worthless as him?

There was no other way to put it, he was a failure and he knew it. Looking back, even as a human he was nothing more than that. At the time of his death he was just about to graduate from university and start living for himself, only for his life to be ripped away before he could even achieve anything of substance.

More than twenty years of existence with nothing to show for it, what else would you call that other than worthless?

At first he blamed the world for its unfairness, how could he have hoped to do anything when it all ended so suddenly without any warning? He reasoned to himself, but then he realized something else that put an end to any sort of tantrum he might have undergone.

In all his life, there wasn't single thing he wanted to do, nothing he found passion in. He had friends and loved ones, sure, but they all felt distant and not through a fault of their own. Looking back on his life it felt like he was just going through the motions of living, doing what was expected of him and nothing more. He couldn't recall any dreams, ambitions or simple hopes of his own that would have driven him forward.

He had no goal in life at all, nor any will to move forward, he realized then and all his anger melted away only to be replaced with a discontented sense of confusion.

Whatever transpired to have him reincarnate into this world of all places surely had a reason, right? Or was it some random machination of nature?

"That's a woeful expression to see on someone so young," another voice called out, making the figure turn around and brush away a lock of raven hair from their face to see better. After getting a better look, they were greeted with a middle-aged man garbed in a splendid white tunic and a myriad of jewelry slowly approaching them.

"Lord Ishum?" The first person asked once the man came to a stop beside them. Even if he was currently sitting down, the difference in their heights was clear as day. That wasn't strange per se, seeing as how he seemed to possess the body of a six-year old child at the moment. In any other case, the old soul would have protested this vessel, thinking it was demeaning. But now, he couldn't bring himself to care… it was fitting in a way, he certainly felt like a lost child in that moment.

"Enki, what are you doing here all alone? This gathering is for you and your siblings after all." The now named Enki sighed and shook his head distractedly. The older man-, god, crossed his arms and frowned lightly. "Is something the matter? Are you not enjoying yourself?"

"I don't feel like I belong, that's all," he shrugged and found his gaze wondering towards the human settlement. How could he? They were gods and he was human. despite their surface similarities there were stark differences in their very nature, no matter what he was now. Ishum followed his gaze and made an understanding sound.

"Would you feel more comfortable among the humans?" He asked, slightly confused and curious. "They are nothing but our servants, what could they offer you that we can't?"

There was a beat of silence before Enki spoke up.

"What if I told you… I was once one of those "servants" as you call them?" He decided to voice his thoughts and concerns. What was the worst that could happen? The gods would decide that a late human was unworthy to represent them and kill him? He already died once. Banish them? His life was eternal and there were plenty of other pantheons around. Ostracize him? He could hardly care about himself in the first place, much less others.

The god's eyebrows shot up at the admission before adapting a more considering look. "I knew there was something different about you that none of your siblings shared. On the way here you were looking around in confusion rather than curiosity and you were surprised to meet the other gods unlike everyone else. So you are saying that you were a human once before?" Upon receiving a nod he continued. "Intriguing, a human soul in a vessel like yours, it's unprecedented," he trailed off thoughtfully.

"Now that you know, what are you going to do?" Enki lazily looked up at the god, waiting for a verdict. Ishum met his stare easily and answered.

"I will continue to observe and fulfill my role as before, I suppose. Not that this revelation will change anything." The smaller figure frowned lightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you aware of how you were created?" Ishum asked in response, making Enki shake his head in denial.

Created, made, crafted, constructed…

"Clay, gold and blood," the god stated simply.

A Divine Construct.

He had figured it out not long after being "born", hence the lack of reaction at the perceived news. His existence was akin to Enkidu's more than anything else, if he remembered correctly, though he hadn't yet figured out what he was supposed to embody.

"The first two is something shared by all seven of you, but the last ingredient is unique to each of you. Each of you received a donation of blood from a particular god to strengthen you, can you guess who was yours?" He pondered for a moment before realizing something.

"Enki… Was my patron Ea?" The reincarnate asked aloud, earning a satisfied smile from the deity. Ea was the god of water among other things in Mesopotamian mythology and also the king of the gods before Marduk took his place.

"That's right, even though he is gone now, we were able to recover some blood from his remains and give it to you. To honor him we named you after him," Ishum explained patiently. "As a result of his blood flowing through your veins, you also inherited a fragment of his authority. Look." The god urged him to turn his gaze upwards. Upon doing so Enki was greeted with the clear night sky and the sea of stars shining up above.

"It's beautiful," he noted. Constellations and individual stars represented various deities as their true form resided in the heavens, only their mortal hosts were present in the world. With most of them participating in the festivities, the sky was positively alive. Stars were twinkling, comets were racing with each other as they travelled from horizon to horizon and constellations burned as they tried to outshine each other. With not a single cloud in the sky and little to no light pollution whatsoever, the scene looked positively breathtaking. Ishum placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed at a particular star in the southern sky. For some reason the moment he laid eyes upon it they felt something resonate in his core.

"Do you see that star? It belongs to you," he declared out loud, though Enki was still too enraptured by the star to face him. The star also seemed to take note of their presence and began blinking with a warm light. "Do you know what it means?"

"No… I don't," Enki shook his head and finally turned to look at the god.

"It means that you have my trust. It doesn't matter what or who you were before, what matters is what you are now. And that star means that you're one of us," he stated with enough conviction for Enki to momentarily doubt that it came from the son of the god of war.

Enki blinked before he faced the god with a self-deprecating smile. "I'm grateful for your trust, but I'm not sure I'm worthy of being one of you." Being part of a pantheon in any capacity entailed certain responsibilities, none of which he felt being worthy or deserving enough for.

"And why would you believe that?" Ishum hummed, expression once again curious.

"…I don't even know what I want to do, much less come to terms with my new existence…" Enki confessed, pulling his legs close to his chest. "I don't even feel human anymore, if that makes any sense, rather I feel like something less than even that," he added lowly. It was ironic considering that he was supposed be something much more than a human.

"Hmm, so you're saying that the root of your problems is that you simply have no purpose, is that it?" He guessed, intently watching the smaller soul for any reaction. Enki's face scrunched up in distaste and he reluctantly nodded. Ishum hummed at that.

"Have you been told why exactly you were made?" Again, he denied this, the circumstances of his creation was still largely a mystery.

"As you were told earlier, after the battle against the White Titan a shift had occurred in the world with the destruction of our physical bodies. It didn't take long for us to notice that it was getting harder and harder for us to manifest ourselves in the real world, it's come to the point where we require a mortal host to spend any meaningful amount of time here," Ishum examined the hands of his host with a serious expression. "It's a difficult thing to accept, but our kind is in decline."

He shook his head and returned his focus on Enki. "We've of course tried different methods of stopping this trend, one of which you see before you," he gestured towards the ziggurat in the middle of the human settlement. "Our king, Marduk, uses his authority and strength to act as an anchor that stops the situation from getting worse, he is the fulcrum of the world."

"Unfortunately, it's just a temporary measure at best. The king is getting older and weaker as time goes on with him fulfilling his role and we are being reduced to just shadows of our former selves. This is where you and your siblings come in." Enki's expression changed to show a little more interest.

"You were created to be the weapons of my father, Lord Erra," he declared resolutely, making Enki tilt his head to the side.

"Erra…? As in the god of war?" He asked in wonder. He studied literature in university so he was somewhat familiar with the more obscure mythological figures, though he had to admit that ancient Mesopotamian wasn't his strong suit. Another name for him would be Nergal as he learned later, but that was just because of the world they lived in. With every mythology being at least somewhat real, some deities became amalgamations if they shared too much authority and legend.

"Yes, among some other things. You see, with his power diminished he intends to compensate by wielding you seven," Ishum elaborated with a nod. "Looking at you and your siblings, I have no doubt he would be successful in doing so."

Enki looked down at his own white tunic distractedly, restoring the power of a god to their fullest extent, to that before the invasion? If his knowledge of this world was correct, that would indeed be extraordinary.

Still, to give that much power to a war god of all things…

"What would be required of me then?" He asked at last, returning their attention to the god before them.

"Your task would be, should you accept it, to serve as my father's weapon, his retainer, our servant and representative," Ishum said with an air of complete seriousness befitting a god capable of erasing entire regions overnight by themselves. Enki however, latched onto a particular word of his.

"I'm getting a choice?" He blinked in confusion.

"Of course, willing subservience is worth infinitely more than enforced obedience," the lesser god of war confirmed, his face then twisted into a frown. "I'm not going to deceive you; there will be times when you will be treated as nothing more than a mindless tool, when you will spill blood of all variety for reasons beyond you. For as long as you live, you will be expected to carry out any and all orders we make of you," he let out a sigh. "In exchange I'm willing to give something that you seem to sorely lack; a purpose. By agreeing to serve my father, you shall become a part of the Heavens until you come to find a purpose of your own. This is the offer of your gods, are you willing to accept it?" Ishum extended a hand towards Enki.

Enki stared unblinking at the appendage with a hesitant expression for several seconds until a small smile blossomed on his face.

"Yeah, I'd like that," He said, accepting the hand. Ishum likewise smiled in satisfaction and hoisted Enki up to their feet.

"Then from this point your name shall be Enki, first of the Sibitti. From now on carry yourself with the pride befitting of one of our retainers." Ishum clasped his other hand over Enki's own and looked encouragingly at the raven-headed child. Enki found himself smiling earnestly at the god. Who knows, maybe he would find what he was looking for during his service? The two broke off and Enki found his gaze wandering back to the lone star he felt a connection with. It was much dimmer than the other constellations representing the various deities, but it still blinked at him with all the splendor it could muster.

"Let's return to the others now, we should present you to Lord Marduk. Knowing him he might take a personal interest in your education…"


For those who are wondering if this will be an original story in the Age of Gods, the answer is yes and no. The first half will take place there and our protagonist's legend will mainly consist of two specific legends with my own take on them, plus a few others will also be briefly skimmed over. After that, I have an outline planned for Apocrypha and Stay Night, but we'll see which one gets more support/how I'll feel about them.

Until next time!