9 Babylon (7): Battle - Part 2 (END).
Sorry for the delay; I was correcting and finishing the end of the arc, both for the Devas' story and Hunter's, which has already concluded in (P)(A)(T).
Well, as always, for those who want to support me, there are three extra chapters on (P)(A)(T), both for the Devas' and Hunter's stories.
If not, I still appreciate you reading my story; I'm glad you enjoyed it enough for that.
Well, having said that, have a good night and enjoy the read!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
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POV: Enkidu.
I could practically feel Gugalanna's anger radiating from the bull in waves, with the storm surrounding the beast becoming even more ferocious, somehow more uncontrollable.
Gugalanna wasn't just angry; he was utterly and completely enraged.
It happened moments after Inanna cried for help, calling on the bull to assist her in battle, moments after I restrained the bull's hoof, helping the Hunter...
At that moment, I found myself reflecting on whether such assistance was truly necessary.
... Moments after Inanna invoked the great morning star, moments after the image was dismantled, and thereby, Inanna was forced to return to the heavens.
I wasn't foolish enough to think that the Hunter had won the battle because, from the start, it was never a battle.
It was a hunt, and the Hunter hunted Inanna, and for some reason that I was unaware of, perhaps a whim of the being, which even after all this time, I still underestimated, Inanna was not killed.
Nevertheless, the bull, the goddess's familiar, sensed his owner being sealed back in the heavens, the goddess's anguish, the pain echoing.
Gugalanna ignored the chains that bound him, somehow managing to move, even though restrained, his divinity bursting forth like liquid fury, ignoring Gilgamesh and EA, causing my friend's face to contort in anger at the bull's disregard.
To say that Gugalanna ran would be incorrect; he simply appeared above the Hunter, even hundreds of kilometers away, his mouth open in a furious scream that turned into a condensed fire attack.
Simultaneously, the storm surrounding the bull reacted to its creator's fury, all the lightning converging as one towards the Hunter, who looked up at the bull from the ground.
I didn't need tests to know that each lightning bolt could destroy even a Saint Graph, and the fire spewing from the bull's mouth could sweep through Uruk, along with the rivers that surrounded it.
In response to the bull's attack, the Hunter didn't retaliate but instead vanished, shimmering into a thin silver mist, with threads of blood-red.
"I will allow this insolence, but do not dare touch my treasures without my permission again," Gilgamesh said irritably, more with the recent events, with Gugalanna ignoring him, than real anger at who he was addressing...
The Hunter, who had appeared standing by my side on Vimana.
He moved as fast as the bull...
"Forgive my lack of manners, King Gilgamesh." The Hunter's voice was flat, emotionless, yet polite.
He had just literally destroyed Inanna in battle, the goddess of war, yet he showed no pride or arrogance for such an accomplishment.
Never in all my existence had I seen someone as polite as the Hunter, yet at the same time, so apathetic, inhuman.
"Do you still have the strength, Hunter?" Gilgamesh said without taking his eyes off Gugalanna, who snarled, looking at us from a distance, realizing he had missed his target.
Interestingly, this time, the way Gilgamesh addressed the Hunter seemed almost like a name, not a profession.
The Hunter understood Gilgamesh's real question: "Will you fight with us?"
I couldn't help the slight smile that appeared on my face, causing a scowl on my best friend's face.
Gilgamesh was proud, arrogant, often petty, but he was a good king.
He knew that with just the two of us, as much as we could win, destroying the bull would heavily damage all of Mesopotamia, causing disasters across the land.
Something that could be partially avoided if the Hunter, someone who had just toyed with the goddess of war, helped us in the battle.
Still, Gilgamesh didn't ask for help; it was beneath him, such a question.
"A group hunt?" The Hunter sang, for the first time, with an emotion in his voice, a slight nostalgia. "I haven't had one since Father Gascoigne."
I didn't ask who he was talking about, nor did it seem like he was really talking to us, just talking to himself, reliving an old memory.
Before Gugalanna attacked us, the Hunter finally answered the King's question.
"Yes, Gilgamesh..." The Hunter said the King's name for the first time, acknowledging how Gilgamesh had addressed him earlier. "...I still have the strength for another hunt."
He didn't even seem tired...
As a signal, at the end of the Hunter's words, Gugalanna roared again, appearing above Vimana, which quickly flew away at the king's command, dodging the bull's attack.
None of us asked what the plan was; it wasn't necessary.
Frankly, with our current group, I was almost certain that we could fight with almost any being.
~ Fate/The Hunter and His Doll ~
POV: Third person.
As Vimana soared, disregarding space, evading the bull's attacks, whether they be its strikes, fire breath, or lightning, the three atop the ship remained unchanged, such speed not affecting them in the least.
While the ship hovered over the bull, near the storm that surrounded it, without warning, the Hunter dove, descending into the cumulonimbus, amidst the lightning.
Enkidu followed, leaping behind him even before the Hunter's entire body disappeared into the clouds.
Gilgamesh did not do the same but instead flew over the bull, still seated on Vimana, the Gates of Babylon relentlessly firing weapons that could sweep through entire blocks, cities—weapons that barely scratched the bull when colliding with its massive body.
Within the storm, Enkidu defended against the lightning using the Chains of Heaven, the few that struck him almost unable to harm the god-created being, leaving only minor burns.
The Hunter did not have the same problem; his body gained momentum, disappearing and reappearing behind one of the bull's front knees.
With a strike from the Saw Cleaver, a weapon that shouldn't even scratch Gugalanna's bones, either due to size or material, he tore the bull's front knee, the impact forcing the beast to kneel, stumbling without the support of the right leg.
Enkidu wasted no time; even before the bull could scream, be it from anger or pain, the Chains of Heaven circled the entire bull, gagging the beast, immobilizing it on the ground, preventing it from moving an inch.
While Enkidu frowned from the effort of holding Gugalanna in place, the Hunter moved again, propelling himself to another front leg of the bull and repeating the strike, forcing Gugalanna to kneel completely, compelled to the ground by the lack of support and Enkidu pulling him down.
"GILGAMESH!" shouted the king's best friend.
Enkidu knew he couldn't hold the beast for much longer, even wounded as he was, somehow unable to regenerate the damage inflicted by the Hunter, Gugalanna was still unstoppable, even more so now in his rage.
Not even the Chains of Heaven could keep the beast still for long.
No more words needed; the king of heroes raised his hand to the heavens, holding EA aloft, as if challenging the gods.
The Gates of Babylon accelerated, firing at an even greater speed, turning the sky above Gugalanna into a bullfighting arena with hundreds, thousands of Noble Phantasms being fired per second.
Sensing the danger from the weapon in the king's hand, feeling the winds of creation emanating as EA's cylinders spun at abnormal speeds, Gugalanna roared in fury.
Even more so when he sensed the danger coming from the small creature below him. Gugalanna knew that if he didn't move, he would be destroyed there, in one way or another.
If not for the Sword of Rupture in the king's hands, it would be the being that destroyed his knees, running towards his core.
If the Hunter reached him, Gugalanna knew he would be dead; his connection with Ishtar/Inanna told him that.
Fueled by his rage and the will to live, the bull, even restrained by Enkidu, roared, forcing his divinity against the Chains of Heaven that only tightened them further, reacting to his escape attempt.
As a last resort, Gugalanna directed his attack not at one of the three but at the ground beneath him, striking it with everything he had.
The earth below the bull collapsed from the force of the impact, unable to withstand the damage from the lightning coming from the storm, let alone the headbutt Gugalanna had given to the ground.
The force of the impact was enough to momentarily destabilize Vimana in the sky and throw Enkidu away, momentarily loosening the chains that held him.
Gugalanna wasted no time and broke free from the Chains of Heaven, crossing kilometers, even with his two front legs broken.
Or at least he tried, as before the bull could run, a faint whistle echoed throughout the battlefield.
The sound, logically, shouldn't have been heard; it wasn't loud enough, and even if it were, it would be drowned out by the noise of Enkidu's chains, the winds from EA, or the storm surrounding Gugalanna.
None of it mattered, not to the Madaras Whistle.
Before Gugalanna could take the first step, a massive serpent emerged from the ground, not from the earth but from a portal, linked to another dimension, coiling around the bull's hind leg, biting it.
The size difference was significant, the snake's entire body covering and coiling around just one leg of the bull, but it was enough to momentarily paralyze Gugalanna.
Somehow, the snake's venom also managed to affect the bull, an alien energy empowering the poison that, in any other situation, wouldn't even be able to hurt Gugalanna, further immobilizing him than the snake's grip.
Nevertheless, Gugalanna wasn't the greatest and strongest beast in Sumeria for nothing; his title was well-deserved. The paralysis lasted not even a second before the bull shattered the snake that held him into an ethereal mist, crushing it along with the space around it.
Unfortunately for the bull, that one second was more than enough for Enkidu to stabilize in the air, focusing and restraining the bull from the sky again. The Chains of Heaven, combined with the strange venom and the alien energy, were enough to keep Gugalanna in place.
A place the bull knew he couldn't escape, not a second time.
Then, Enkidu and Gilgamesh began to chant, channeling the maximum power into their strikes, holding nothing back against such an opponent.
Gugalanna was someone worthy of respect, a being, the first being that forced Gilgamesh and Enkidu to give their all in a battle that wasn't against each other.
"I will tell you of the beginning…"
The king's voice echoed, everyone, even Uruk, listening to it in the heavens.
"Heaven and Earth split."
Following his best friend, Enkidu joined him, chanting simultaneously as his body glowed in golden light.
"I will awaken the breath of the planet..."
The planet reacted to the words, nature pulsating with True Ether, aiding one of Gaia's favorite children.
As one, they continued.
"Nothingness congratulated Creation... and my sword cleaved the world."
A statement of a fact carved into reality, coming from the first hero, a king.
Who rebelled against the gods.
The King of Heroes. Gilgamesh.
"For I walk with humanity."
A declaration of an act of rebellion, from a being created to obey the gods, helping humanity.
The Chains of Heaven, used not by, but against the heavens.
Enkidu.
"Mortar of the stars...heaven's hell is the eve of creation's celebration!"
As the winds of creation tore through the world, the pulsing energy of Enkidu restored him.
Gugalanna tried to break free, struggling, attacking, forcing his divine energy into the chains to try to overwhelm them.
None of it worked, yet he tried, even though he knew...
It didn't matter anymore...
"Therefore..."
Enkidu knew he would be punished, punished for going against the heavens. The gods wouldn't dare try anything with Gilgamesh, but he, as a creation of the divine, could not disobey their orders.
Not a second time, but it didn't matter; still, he would continue.
For his best friend, Uruk, and all the humans within it, he would fight against the heavens, even if it meant death...
"Now you shall die and be silent..."
As one, they finished.
A whisper, at the same time, a scream.
A declaration.
"Enuma Elish!"
With these words, this declaration, Gilgamesh pointed EA at the bull, unleashing an attack that consumed the world.
Simultaneously, Enkidu transformed, returning to his true form, a chain, the chain of the heavens, and circled the king's attack, reconstructing the world as it pierced through.
The storm around Gugalanna resisted for less than an instant before being dissipated by the winds of creation, also commanded to be dispersed by the world.
The bull's body, made of divine metal, indestructible, or it should have been if not for its somehow damaged knees, endured longer than the storm.
The metal composing Gugalanna resisted, using its divinity as support, the bull alone withstood the attack that should have destroyed the world...
... Until it stopped resisting, finally giving in.
The people of Uruk watched from a distance, from the protected walls of the city, the beauty, power, and glory of their ruler's and his friend's attack, shattering the celestial bull.
Fools, they celebrated, unaware of the truth.
Fools, they rejoiced, shouting the names of the king and his friend as their saviors.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Fools, they didn't know, no one but three beings knew the truth, the real truth.
Gugalanna was a force of nature, more than that, practically indestructible, if not for. The bull wouldn't yield so easily, even with such an attack, it would stand as a pillar, unbroken.
It would resist, and the clash of such an attack against such resistance would dismantle the fields around Uruk, causing famine.
Rivers would be thrown into the air, causing a flood on the land, the storm that followed would cover the world, preventing the sun's light from touching the earth for a long seven years.
Fools... They... No one can see...
Only Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Doll could feel, not see, why the bull yielded...
Fools... They... None of them would know.
That death came to Gugalanna, not by the Sword of Rupture, not by the Chains of Heaven...
Fools... They... Would never know...
They would never know that Gugalanna died, his Divine Core pierced, destroyed, shattered... dismantled... by a single and simple attack, an attack that ignored all the bull's defenses...
... A Visceral Attack.
Fools... All... Treated the bull as a predator...
"Prey Slaughtered."
... When it was always prey.
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Well, finally, the battle comes to an end.
Without any comments from me, I just hope you enjoyed it.
