Pyrrhic Victory
Long ago, in the last days before the Flood... (1)
Utnapishtim fell on his face, understanding WHO was talking to him from the other side of the wicker rack. And the god Enki gave him orders which he did not think for a moment to disobey.
"Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu:
Destroy your house, build a boat!
Give up your possessions, seek your life!
Give up your business, and keep your breath alive!
On board the boat takes the seed of all living things;
This boat you will build_
its dimensions will be tailor-made."
Aided by the inhabitants of Shuruppak, and stimulated by the advice of the god Enki, Utnapishtim built an ark in just seven days, taking on board all the animals and the craftsmen who helped with the construction (2).
Responding to Shamash's orders, the cataclysm began at the twilight of the seventh day with an earthquake, which was followed by an "eruption bouquet".
Utnapishtim "sealed all the openings" before entrusting the helm to "Puzur-Amurri, the Boatman".
The storm arrived at the first light of dawn. The thunder was terrifying, and the sky was completely black. The wind tore the buildings. The darkness "changed into obscurity all that was light" and the "vast earth broke like a common pot".
The south wind blew for six days and six nights.
On the seventh day, the storm appeased and the world appeared under the sun as a vast open sea.
"I (Utnapishtim talking) was watching the weather.
Immobility had settled in.
And all of humanity had become clay again."
In the sky, a flying ship flew over what had been Sumer and Akkad.
Huge and circular, it was surmounted by a conical roof (3).
Inside, the gods were crowded, they were soaked by the rain and the huge cabin smelled of wet dog stink (4). Several Annunaki (minor gods) had opened a trap and were now looking at the world after the Flood.
The Land of Two Rivers was no more than an immense sea of mud of a uniform brownish color.
One of the minor gods went down the ladder to report what he had seen to the Igigi (major gods).
Consternation spread among their ranks. They had voted the Flood unanimously (only Enki had remorse afterward), but after six days tossed in their flying ships, crammed with thousands of Annunaki, demons, and all the spirits that served them, the gods were too exhausted and dirty to let anger and arrogance guide their actions. They finally understood the horror of their actions.
In the sudden silence of this normally boisterous assembly, the first sound was female sobs.
Surprised, Ereshkigal turned to the origin of the sound.
Ishtar was crying.
The goddess wiped her red eyes and trembled, her shoulders shaken by sorrow.
"What have we done? What have we done? We have destroyed everything we have created... Do you realize that we have to create a replacement for the Blackheads People (humans) and we will only create creatures that are more imperfect?" (5)
All the gods turned to her. Surprised and... uncomfortable. In fact, they had ordered the wiping of the whole of humanity in a moment of anger. Once calm had returned, everyone on their own had finally recognized the absurdity of this decision... but they were gods...they refused to lose face and recognize their wrongs. The assembly of the gods had continued to prepare the Flood; waiting for the courageous one who would propose to cancel the process. They would have joined him then... but none of them wanted to be the first to yield.
But none of them wanted to appear 'weak' and the decision was applied to the end in its criminal absurdity.
Of all the gods, Ereshkigal was the most surprised. She had always thought that her older sister was a balloon swollen with arrogance... and now she was crying over the destroyed wonders. Of their entire family, she had been the first to admit that she had been wrong...
Except that Ere did not know that another god had recognized that he was wrong long before Ishtar. Enki had even worked to repair the divine fault.
A voice rose up.
"I smell the smoke of sacrifice. Someone makes a libation to the gods".
The Igigi climbed onto the deck of the ship, joining the Annunaki who had just shouted. And they saw smoke rising near the Mont of Salvation (the biblical peaks of the Ararat).
It was Utnapishtim who thanked the gods for saving his Ark.
But as everyone watched this miracle (humans had survived!), Ereshkigal continued to watch her sister. The Queen of Kur wondered if she misjudged Ishtar.
Campioneverse, 2014
It was a huge cave with dried mud ground. The irregular walls were made of dark rock. From place to place, oblong cages - made of black metal- were placed in niches carved into the walls. Inside the cages, white spheres shone dimly, the only source of light within Kur, the Sumerian Netherworld, the Stays of Ash and Darkness.
A cry of pain resounded under the vaults of the cave.
Surrounded by bluish electric arcs, Rama tried to get up and stumbled, falling to his knees... gasping.
Pulled out of her melancholic memories... antediluvian memories (literally)... by the cry of pain, Ereshkigal turned to her guest.
She was furious that he attacked her sister.
For thousands of years, the Goddess of the Netherworld had believed she hated Ishtar... but the truth was that she was jealous. The Mistress of Heaven had received everything... she was loved by all and free. When Ishtar came down to the Underworld, Ere had let jealousy guide her actions. She had tortured and then killed her older sister before hijacking her Divine Authorities... However, this stolen power does not make her freer than before.
Centuries later, long after the gods had forced Ere to release the Goddess of Venus, Ritsuka Fujimaru's arrival allowed her to understand who Ishtar was.
If the Queen of Heaven was loved by all the gods it is because... because she loved them all. Ishtar, the incarnation of all women, loved as a mother, as a sister, as a daughter, she was the incarnation of love.
And if Ishtar had come down in the Netherworld, it was an act of love, to free Ereshkigal from her prison.
But the Fist Prisoner of Kur thought that Ishtar's words were only a cruel mockery. And Ere let jealousy and anger drive her to hurt the only person who ever loved her.
Now that she knew the truth... Ere was filled with shame.
She had treated her sister badly; it was a debt that she had to pay...
And Rama was a good opportunity to start servicing her debt.
Ereshkigal, Queen of Irkalla, turned to her... guest.
"Surprised to have lost your Invulnerability, King Who Rule at World's End?"
The Lady of the Great Mountain smiled... a surprisingly sweet smile.
"Shema (listen), you are in my kingdom, the kingdom of death... here all Authorities making mortals and gods invincible cease to have an effect... "
Ere nodded as she remembered the final fight of the Seventh Singularity: Babylonia, at the time Ritsuka Fujimaru - the Master of Chaldea- had also used this property of Kur to defeat the invincible Tiamat.
"O Rama, you are in the realm of weakness, loneliness, sorrow, and remorse. Only my power prevails in the realm of eternal death. Enkidu, Gilgamesh... the most powerful mortals, I have defeated them... Humbaba, the guardian demon of the cedar forests... I have his soul in a cage... Even the gods are subject to the inevitable death. Dumuzil, the god of shepherds is now the shepherd of souls in my Underworld... Ishtar and Enki were even my guests... before the assembly of the gods decided to return them to the world of the living. Oh... now that I think about it ... I also have your brother's soul in one of these cages."
With her red spear, the Mistress of Irkalla made a gesture encompassing all the black metal prisons that surrounded them.
The remainder of Lakshmana's defeat exacerbated the anger of the Strongest Steel, he sought to rise up, but again bluish flashes came from the ground, enveloping it with sparks and his cry of pain sounded endlessly under the stone vaults. The god fell to his knees, smoking... cruelly burned...
"You say you are the champion of Destiny, O Rama the Exalted? Then submit to my will! I am the Inexorable! The Great Queen, sovereign of the Ultimate Kingdom, the one who stands at the end of all roads, the one who devours all that was born and lived... Death draped in its black mantle of Oblivion and Sorrow!"
Exhausted, Rama knelt down, his eyes searching the darkness in search of a way out... thinking only of flight. He raised his head discovering a spot of light far above him... that was the opening through which he had fallen!
He jumped on the wall, jumped again about ten meters high, and clung to the wall before jumping higher...
But a dozen red spears - replicas of Meslamtae, an Authority of Nergal that Ereshkigal had usurped - materialized above Rama.
The Strongest Steel fell violently on the dried mud floor, wounded by the spears.
"Do you already want to leave, O Rama? It's not very polite... I usually keep my guests a little longer... for eternity, actually."
Leaning over the chasm that had suddenly opened into the ground to engulf Rama, Erica Blandelli jumped back, instinctively brandishing Cuore di Leone. For the third time, a cry of pain expressing intolerable torture rose from the abyss leading to... Kur.
The Diavolo Rosso swallows, a drop of icy sweat sliding along her temple.
"Remind me never to upset Ereshkigal... "
Shivering, she turned away from the abyss to look at the other members of Goudou's harem. Envious, Erika first spoke to Liliana Kranjčar. The Fairy Knight held the head of their deceased king on her lap and stroked his forehead, waiting... for a miracle.
"No improvement?"
"He is still dead," replied the Croatian girl. "But the contrary would be surprising, it took him time to come back after his previous deaths."
As Ereshkigal had just recalled, death was the final destiny of every living being. To live was to walk hand in hand with death, on a road leading to its kingdom. But some beings had the power to escape death... the Persian Warlord Verethragna was one of them. One of his Ten Incarnations gave him the power to come back to life...
About to question Yuri Mariya about the state of Ishtar, whom the pretty Hime-Miko was healing... the Italian Knight was startled, her supernatural senses informing her that something unexpected was about to happen.
A vortex of purple light formed in the air, just above the scorched ground still smoking. Although it was a two-dimensional structure, when one looks at this vortex from the front, one can see that this spiral formed a swirling energy corridor.
Ena Seishuuuin frowned, recognizing the phenomenon.
"Faerie corridor!"
This tunnel extending between the dimensions was a way to travel from world to world. It was also a moving means used by some gods and Campiones that could use this Authority. But, as its name indicated, it was first of all a power specific to the Faeries.
By the way...
They suddenly appeared, tiny creatures the size of a thumb, some had butterfly wings, others dragonfly wings. Faeries! The flying creatures were enveloped in light (will-o'-the-wisp green, blue, white, golden, or red fire) and it was difficult to discern their silhouettes... but a few steps away, one could see they all looked like adorable teenage girls.
After gathering in a swarm around their leader, the latter gave her instructions in a chirpy voice and in an incomprehensible language, with shouts of joy and laughter, the fairies scattered in all directions.
Their goal?
Fragments made of shiny metal resistant enough to survive John Pluto Smith's holocaust.
Those who had found one of these fragments returned to the portal by describing loops of joy and leaving behind trails of fairy dust.
And out of the portal came a duet, first a Spriggan, a husky humanoid, three feet tall, with wild, dark brown hair and ruddy complexion.
He advanced with a determined and arrogant air, like all those who had a mission and did not tolerate any interruption.
In his hand, he held the reins of a donkey. The quadruped was harnessed with a sidesaddle. Both legs were on the same side, a beautiful woman was sitting on the saddle. Her long hair was black, smooth, and shiny. Her eyes were the color of the sky, too big for her to be human... besides, she had pointed ears. Her blue dress was fashionable in Europe in the fifteenth century, a cotardia whose long sleeves touched almost the ground.
Excited, the faeries who brought back shiny metal fragments gathered around the beautiful lady... their queen.
The latter stretched out her hand and the pieces of shiny metal assembled above her palm... to reform John Pluto Smith's mask in the form of a puzzle. It had missing pieces (probably completely destroyed), the green glass of the lenses hiding his eyes had disappeared as well as the two 'antennae' above the metal helmet.
Nevertheless, the fairy lady seemed satisfied.
"Great job!"
About to turn around, the Fairy Queen stopped to listen to a faerie Silver Bell speaking in a singing voice that sounded like bells.
"How? Lead me to him then!"
And guided by the Silver Bell, the Spriggan led the Queen's mount to... the place where Shirou lay, still passed out. The redhead was still holding Excalibur's scabbard against him.
"You were right, this object is of fairy origin," said the queen, congratulating the Silver Bell.
The beautiful elf seemed to think.
"This object heals the wounds of this young man... so he is protected by the fairies. We cannot leave him here on the battlefield. Let's bring him back to Arcadia"
About to give an order to the fairies, she was interrupted by Erica.
The latter made an elegant bow, lifting the bottom of her red dress (stained and torn, unfortunately).
"My apologies, Your Majesty, but the young man you speak of is our friend and we cannot let you go with him."
Until then, the fairies had not interacted with the two Campiones present, or with their allies, Lancelot or Guinevere. They had focused on their mission. The Spriggan frowned.
"Insolent, by what right do you contradict Titania, the Queen of Fairies?"
Again, the Diavolo Rosso bowed.
"Please forgive my presumption. I am Erica Blandelli, knight of the Copper-Black Cross order. As rude as I may seem, my words will not change. Shirou Emiya is my friend and my duty is to protect him."
About to respond violently, the Spriggan was overtaken by Titania.
"Your devotion to your friends is praiseworthy, Lady Blandelli. Nonetheless, you seem to be mistaken about the aim of our intervention... we are members of the Seelie Court (6). We used to help mortals... especially heroes... Since this young man is already protected by fairies, we have no other objective than to honor the pact that binds Shirou Emiya to the manufacturer of the scabbard. Don't you know that the members of the Seelie Court have a habit of helping each other?"
With her free hand, Titania showed Smith's mask still floating above her palm.
Erica nodded, remembering that Smith killed Oberon, King of the Faeries, and that the Campione became king of the fairies after that. Suddenly, the Italian Knight understood the meaning of the faerie's presence.
"Your Majesty... you mean John Pluto Smith is not dead?"
"No, indeed, but without his mask he is prisoner of his faery domain, unable to get out."
In a black void floated a gold disc as wide as the deck of a highway bridge.
Standing in the middle was Goudou Kusanagi. The young Campione had his eyes closed and although he was standing, he seemed asleep.
My eyelids quivered as he heard voices that were waking him up.
According to their level of intelligence, the Ten Avatars of Verethragna spoke, grumbled, or rambled... but all were worried, angry, and eager to act.
"Our King is in danger."
"We must help him!"
"Groooink!"
Then a quieter voice was heard.
"Leave this to me, I will save our King!"
The ten medallions surrounding the central medallion began to turn and, with a click, one of the gold discs came to rest in a high position.
It was the Ram's Incarnation.
The Ram offers miraculous powers of recovery that allow Goudou to resurrect himself from the dead, and recover from his injuries in the process.
A few hundred meters below, inside Irkalla.
Rama touched a steel medallion attached to his throat. Next to him appeared a huge and magnificent golden cup.
The Sangreal.
Absorbing the power of several Mother Goddesses, the Strongest Steel turned to Ereshkigal. In his hand, the Sword of the Divine Salvation began to radiate blinding platinum light.
The goddess of the dead stiffened. She held Dilibat and Meslamtaea. From the first spear came blue lightning, and long red electric discharges emanated from the second weapon, energy discharges struck the walls around the goddess, inexorably growing in power.
On the surface, the ground suddenly began to shake.
Hakuno - who followed the battles in the Netherworld thanks to the holographic screens created by the Regalia- was the first to react.
"Go away! All! May those who can walk bear the wounded!"
Then through the opening communicating with Kur, came out a beam of platinum-colored light, and red or blue lightening. Obviously, the edge of the opening immediately began to disintegrate, widening the chasm. All around, deep cracks formed and widened rapidly as the ground trembled more and more violently. Moreover, the ground was sinking, probably because caverns had collapsed far below the ground.
While Liliana was already lifting Goudou, she saw his wounds close and the Campione opened his eyes. Standing up, he looked at the chaos spreading around him with eyes full of amazement and fright.
Unwilling to waste time explaining the situation, the Croatian knight took Goudou by the hip and flew away with him, enveloped in blue light.
Even Titania lost her composure. Jumping to the ground, she ran towards the Faerie Corridor.
"Take Shirou Emiya with you and flee!"
The runaway fairies just had time to cross the gate as large portions of the ground rose to release a flood of light and electric shocks.
The explosion that followed was not as powerful as that caused by Smith's Fire Incarnation... but was powerful enough to open a crater a kilometer in diameter in the ground.
Rama the Invincible no longer deserved his nickname...
The Heretic God could only stand by an effort of will. Never... never had he emerged from a fight in such a lamentable state.
Leaning for a moment on his sword, the Strongest Steel grimaced in pain. His clothes were ashes and his whole body was just one wound. His left arm had disappeared below the elbow.
Nevertheless, he smiled.
Once again, he had the victor...
Painfully, he advanced towards Ereshkigal. The Goddess of Kur had been thrown several hundred meters away. Even though she was injured and her clothes were burned, she was in better shape than the Strongest Steel. On the other hand, she remained inert, unable to move. In fact, Ere had exhausted all her magical energy in her last attack. Despite this, the Mistress of the Netherworld was unable to counterbalance the power of several Mother Goddesses that Rama had absorbed.
Arrived near the Mistress of the Netherworld Rama raised Excalibur and...
"Clang!"
The sword ricocheted against a raised shield.
Lancelot had just intervened.
The King of the End was so exhausted that it took him a few seconds to figure out what had just happened. His eyes widened in amazement.
"Traitor!"
The mouth of the Queen of the Amazons twisted in a grimace reflecting great moral pain, but she slowly shook her head. When she spoke, her voice reflected bitterness.
"Have you lost your mind, Rama? This knight is the traitor? Yes, there was a betrayal... YOU BETRAYED ME!"
She cried out these last words.
Unconsciously, Rama retreated by one step, his burned face briefly reflecting hesitation. The Amazon did not give him time to respond. She had a lot to say...
"This Humble Knight served you faithfully for 1,500 years. You were my king, my role model... and now look at you! You were about to attack a defeated enemy, while she lay on the ground, unable to defend herself..." Lancelot pointed to Rama, her beautiful voice vibrating with anger. "This... THING... is the mighty honorable Knight-King to which I have paid tribute!? You became what you were fighting..."
There was a moment of silence and then...
"Go away! If you stay, I'll kill you!"
Fury replaced the indecision on the face of the King of the End, his fingers squeezing Excalibur's handle.
But Lancelot replied with a predator smile.
"You want to fight?"
She raised her shield, then her spear.
"Have you forgotten? My Oplon is indestructible, even your sword cannot break it. As for my weapon, it can pierce anything... even your 'indestructible' body. Go away" she repeated. "In your current state, you have no chance against me. You are lucky. I refuse to behave like you, to follow the road you took... this road that led you to be the shadow of the Great King that I had sworn to serve. Yes, you are only a shadow... a despicable traitor, without honor, a coward who attacks those who cannot defend themselves."
Furious, humiliated... but perhaps also ashamed, Rama called his Vinama, and then turned to Lancelot.
"It's not over, you'll pay for this!"
Lancelot smiled, amused... she had spent enough time writing the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table with Guinevere to recognize the repartee of a defeated villain who announced his return in the next volume of a bad novel.
"Rest well Rama, heal yourself, and prepares yourself well... because this knight will make you pay for your betrayal. My worst enemies never dare to treat me like you did! So wait for me and tremble. That's what cowards like you usually do until the vigilante comes to avenge the death of the innocent."
As the Vinama accelerated and disappeared eastward, Lancelot turned back towards Guinevere. The Witch Queen had listened silently without intervening... she would have had nothing to add to what the Queen of the Amazons said, feeling exactly the same.
"Can you cure Ereshkigal?"
Guinevere nodded without saying a word and knelt near the Queen of Irkalla.
There was a moment of silence then Lancelot spit on the ground and started again several times.
"I feel like I have bitten into a rotten fruit... I have a bad taste in my mouth and want to vomit."
Thoughtfully, she looked at the helicopters heading towards the battlefield. These rescue choppers had the military livery of the Italian army and were marked with a red cross.
"I wonder... has he always been like this? You think... you think we've been wrong about him all along...or... or he changed without us noticing?"
She would have said something else, but a noise interrupted her... turning to Guinevere, she saw that the adorable teenager was crying.
A brief moment Lancelot stood motionless, blinking.
It must be said that the peerless knight was not... how to say it? ... Let's say that her intelligence was only focused on the art of war. The queen of the Amazons had completely forgotten that Rama/ Arthur was the husband of Gwenhyvar... the previous incarnation of Guinevere!
And Rama had boarded the Vinama without having looked once towards Guinevere, without having spoken to her... for him, she simply did not exist.
Even Athena and Alexander Gascoigne (her enemies!) had the tact to hide from Guinevere the true nature of 'King Arthur'... But Lancelot was sincere and passionate, she said what she thought, and did what she said, never thinking far ahead. Although she loved Guinevere very much, The Queen of the Amazons had a simple and uncomplicated personality, and... tact was not among her qualities.
Taking the Witch of Brittany in her arms, Lancelot hugged her gently against her chest while lulling her with tenderness.
"Oh, my poor little sister. I'm so sorry."
Note: For those who are wondering, the fairies (And Titania) do not know Tracing. They believe Excalibur's scabbard is genuine. They therefore believe that the scabbard was offered to Shirou by some friendly unknown fairy. There is no point in wasting your time pointing out an inconsistency that does not exist. I'd rather prevent diseases than cure them. I know my readers...
(1) The following account is inspired by a translation of the Akkadian version of the Flood myth. The texts in italics are quotations. Utnapishtim (his name in Akkadian, Ziusudra in Sumerian) is the name of Noah in this account predating the Jewish Bible by several millennia.
(2) In the Akkadian version of the Flood, some of the inhabitants of Shuruppak survive. This version of the Flood myth avoids embarrassing questions relating to 'consanguinity'.
(3) The text clearly states that the Mesopotamian gods fled the Flood aboard a flying ship. So I did some research on the Akkadian ships... Not being sailors, they built leather ships sewn on a wooden frame a bit like Irish curraghs. These vessels were round (actually rather oval, but without a well-defined bow or stern) and covered with a kind of tent roof to protect the crew from the rain. So I imagine this thing flying and... oh... a Flying Saucer!? It amused me a lot because if you type 'Annunaki' on any search engine you end up with pages and pages of conspiracy theories about aliens.
(4) This detail is in the original work!
(5) A fundamental characteristic of the Mesopotamian gods is their inability to do better than their first success. Therefore Mesopotamian mythology is fundamentally pessimistic. Every crisis ends with the world rebuilt more imperfect, inexorably impoverishing until the world returns to the state of Primeval Chaos.
(6) The nice fairies, the opposite faction is the Unseelie Court.