Chapter 4

The great tree stood regal and majestic, a grand pillar stretching into the sky. Each branch was thick yet smooth, unfettered by the shackles of time, and its mighty roots were visible even from above the ground. Leaves of bone-like ivory adorned every bough, glinting in the midday sun. At the base of its trunk the being sat, and in the face of its beauty it found itself wanting.

A clod of clay and mud lay underneath the shadow of the tree, formless and unmoving.

It could not witness the beauty of the great tree, nor comprehend it. For it was lowly dirt, unsightly and purposeless.

It did not always have to be so.

A gentle hand cupped the clod of mud, and with painstaking precision gave it shape, breathing into it life, thought and purpose. The owner of the hands worked tirelessly for a single day and a single night, until at long last the mud gained consciousness.

The clod stared into the eyes of its creator, and beheld a kind smile upon gentle countenance. The clod was curious, for it had sat unthinking for millenia, and reached out a hand towards her.

Fingers intertwined, and the mud felt warmth for the first time.

Countless sensations assaulted its mind in that moment, each one more unique and different than the last. Sight, sound, smell, touch; every sense blended together into a nebulae of whirling colour, and the clod experienced it all in a single moment of time. The mud drew it's new features into a familiar shape, a poor mimicry of it's mothers face.

She laughed in mirth, green tresses flicking every which way. The clod observed, and let loose a bark of its own, though it lacked any of the former's grace. The warmth was a certain warmth that exuded from his mysterious creator, and the clod found that it quite enjoyed the sensation.

The woman drew something from beside her, and placed it upon a crown made of clay, a simple wreath of daisies. She opened her mouth, and sounds poured from her throat, tinkling and musical. Though the mud knew not of speech and words, the meanings of the sound reverberated deep within it's being.

"I name thee Enkidu, firstborn of the earth."

///

A mighty exclamation echoed through the night, sending birds flapping away from their nests. There, within a moonlit clearing, lay the source of the noise.

Two figures stood, two pairs of eyes locked in stalemate.

"A king is above such petty concepts as 'good' and 'evil' mongrel, and you would do well to remember that! I suppose I cannot begrudge a lowly peon such as yourself for your flawed understanding, so I will forgive you just this once."

Enkidu tilted his head in confusion. He wasn't too sure what the golden lady was talking about, but it sounded rather similar to one of those dreaded 'villainous monologues' he had read so much about. He tried to think of some sort of quip he could make in response, but his mind was devoid of any ideas.

'How did all those main characters make it look so easy?!'

Instead he focused inwardly, pushing a ball of familiar energy from his body to form tendrils that reached out to the world around him. His eyes glowed bright, and the forest responded to his summons.

A great rumble, like the crack of thunder, sounded from beneath their feet, before mighty roots erupted from the ground. Gilgamesh tsked in annoyance, before swinging her sword in a wide arc, but for each tentacle severed two more took their place. She noticed, almost in disbelief, that she was losing ground.

'Such an insult could not stand!'

With a cry and a flash, her sword dematerialised, and from the shimmering gold she retrieved a new weapon. Two twisted lengths of ancient metal, intertwined within each other in a helix pattern painted burnished bronze. She grabbed at it from the middle, and leaped into the air, roots still hot on her heels.

She speared downwards, the tip of the weapon crackling with crimson-coloured lightning. It cleaved through the wooden roots with ease, and before Enkidu could react, she rocketed diagonally towards him, pushing off from the air as if it was a wall.

For her to pull out such a weapon... Gilgamesh realised that her temper had gotten the best of her

'No matter. Once I turn the boy to ashes, and destroy this accursed forest, there will be none the wiser!'

A great oaken shield formed, attempting to interrupt Gilgamesh's charge, but her weapon pierced straight through without issue. The tip of the spear had nearly gouged out the boy's eye.

The boy stared at the wicked tip, and he mused upon the strange shape of the offending armament. His observation did not distract him though, as he erected another wall in front of him.

'That was way too close!'

Enkidu tried to make distance, but he had lost sight of his assailant behind his wooden creations. The snap of a twig to his left was all that warned him, before the lance lunged forward with peerless speed.

The boy ducked low, avoiding the attack, before turning quickly to observe his opponent. She was crouched low, red eyes gleaming like a demon in the gloom. Her cheeks were flushed slightly red, whether from anger, exertion or something else he did not know.

Without warning, she pounced.

Nothing he summoned could halt her advance this time, only delay it, as the golden king cut through everything with furor. Wood splintered and cracked, sending puffs of sawdust into the air.

'Time to try something new.'

Instead of focusing his will into the trees around him, he called instead upon the earth. Enkidu slammed a palm into the ground, fingers splayed, and from the soft mud something emerged. Unnatural arms and legs gripped the loamy dirt, pulling up a body formed of craggy rock. A stone giant revealed itself, 14 feet tall and with arms as thick as tree trunks. Each step rattled the ground as the golem strode towards its creator.

The construct offered out a gnarled hand, the gesture strangely gentle for one its size, and Enkidu gripped it firmly as he was hoisted onto its back.

Gilgamesh paused slightly in her rampage, beholding the towering figure, and her heartbeat sped up.

'Not in fear', she realised. 'But in anticipation.'

She readied her weapon once more, holding the shaft with both hands, crackling energy coalescing at its drill-like tip. A heavy fist slammed into the ground, but she had already leaped to the side.

The battle had begun in earnest.

The giant was slow, cumbersome and easy to dodge, but with every impact it created a shockwave of force that threatened to unbalance her footing. Every strike of her lance blew chunks of stone outwards, but they were quickly replaced in mere moments. It seemed that, for once, she was at an impasse, for neither could truly hurt the other.

Green hair poked up from behind the golem's featureless face, and that traitorous feeling pierced her breast once more.

"Give up villain, I have the high ground! Ha Ha Ha!"

Gilgamesh grit her teeth in animalistic anger, knuckles tightening around the haft of her weapon.

'When was the last time she had been mocked so brazenly?' A blanket of rage clouded her mind, and a bloodthirsty smile stretched her perfect features.

'I will NOT allow this humiliation to go on any longer than this!'

Dark clouds started to form above her head, rumbling with the fury of the sky. The blond-haired woman held her lance aloft with one hand, the other loose at her side, as she channelled vast amounts of prana into the weapon. The air around them began to hum with barely suppressed power, as her opponent's eyes seemed to widen in shock.

'An enormous weapon of great power and prestige, forged in the molten heart of Mt. Gelmir.'

'A lance infused with the power of an elder Dragon.'

With a flash, a great bolt of lightning fell from the heavens. It struck the weapon with earth-shattering force, and baleful crimson light emanated outwards from its visage. The treasure became enveloped in a crackling, bursting red energy, leaking magic like a broken faucet.

'Although just a fragment of the original, it still retained vestiges of its previous power.'

Gilgamesh gripped tight, slightly shifting the weapon over her shoulder like a javelin. Ruby lips parted in savage glee, blood pulsing in her temples. Muscles tensed in anticipation before she threw the lance forward, intoning its name in exultation.

'The ancient lightning blade that started the war between both dragons and men.'

It flew straight and true, faster than thought, and Enkidu could do naught but watch in dreadful realisation.

"Bolt of Gransax!"

///

One foot after the other, Sariel walked towards the sounds of battle. Her body ached in painful protest, making her double over in harsh, hacking coughs every so often. She looked at her hands, and saw they were flecked with blood.

'What are you doing, you idiot? Safety is the other way!' The logical, rational part of her brain cried out in worry.

Sadly, Its warning went completely unheeded, stamped out through pure grit and determination. Each step caused her lungs to burn in agony, but she continued on with almost zealous fervour. She shuffled through the brush almost zombie-like, Sariel noting absently that she felt more like a passenger in her own body.

Tears and mucus dribbled from her face in equal amounts, for the rabbit was not used to pain, but she pushed onwards in spite of it.

Every time she thought to stop and rest, to lay down her weary head and give in to the sweet whisperings of unconsciousness, her mind conjured vivid images of green hair and soft fingers.

'You haven't even known him for a week! Just turn around and flee while you still can!"

The sounds of battle seemed to stop abruptly, before a loud crack echoed throughout the forest, the scent of ozone following quickly after. Sariel urged her legs to move faster, but they had run out of strength, and she collapsed to her knees. Darkness crawled into the edges of her vision as she stared, heartbroken, into the sky.

The moon hung over her, staring back, and a nostalgic feeling suffused her body.

Silver light beamed down upon her, and Sariel the rabbit felt a surge of vitality in her bones. With this second wind granted, she hauled herself upright on shaking knees, and began the journey anew.

She was almost there, she could feel it!

With a final surge of strength she hauled her body upon a hewn chunk of stone, and witnessed destruction. Felled trees, the ground upturned in great furrows, and in the middle of it all sat that same gold-clad woman, lightly panting and holding a strange weapon. Despite this, her face was triumphant.

Sariel looked to her left, and within a mountainous pile of rubble lay Enkidu. Her throat constricted, breath choked in her throat with grief at the sight of his fallen form. Her entire body shook with unconcealed anguish as she stared at his peacefully smiling face…

…And the giant hole that pierced his stomach

///

He attempted to raise his hands to move aside the fallen stone, but they did not respond. He tried to move his legs, to get up and fight once more, but they didn't respond. He tried to crane his neck, to observe the damage done, but his body didn't respond.

He was paralysed, unable even to blink.

Enkidu stared at the sky, the moon and the stars, and lamented his loathsome existence. When the time was right for him to act, to be a friend, he had failed. Failed to repay Sariel for her kindness, and Diana for her reassuring presence. He tried once more to move, pushing his entire being just to move a single inch.

Nothing

He wailed in sorrow within his mind, for he would perish completely ignorant of the world. A million questions left unanswered, a million answers unobtained, a million opportunities to reach the heavens denied from his grasp.

The golden woman was saying something, though he didn't care to make it out. Laughing, mocking or gloating, he knew not which.

He supposed he deserved it

What could one as lowly as him do to one that shined so bright? What resistance could he offer up in the face of such power? He should just lie down and accept his fate.

'After all, all I know is that I know nothing at all'

Wait….

There was something wrong with that thought.

As soon as he realised this, in that split-second of insight, something within him stirred.

His flesh writhed and pulsed

Within the depths of his subconscious, a lock clicked, and a door swung open. A thought long forgotten filled his mind, and Enkidu remembered.

'Ah… how could I forget?'

Chains clanged together in the night, a single sapling striving towards the endless beyond.

'It seems I knew one thing after all.'

A finger twitched with life, and his hands curled to fists. A smile bloomed on his face.

'The immutable facet of my being.'

Waves of power exploded from his form, sending shockwaves of magical energy high into the atmosphere. His opponent snapped her head towards him in shock, but it was too late.

My body is made from mud and clay

Warmth emanated outwards from the hole in his body, and it closed shut in an instant.

Enkidu clambered out from the fallen stone, eyes glowing bright, and beheld his opponent's suprised expression. He felt free, freer than he had ever been in his life. It was as if a part of his identity, long lost within the ocean of his mind, had suddenly burst to the surface.

Primal energy coursed within his veins, and Enkidu was complete.

'Is this who I've been all this time?'

He inspected his arm, and under his gaze it seemed to shimmer with unearthly luminescence. The strange feeling within his flesh returned, but this time he embraced it, allowing it to suffuse his being. His limb shifted, and from the base of his wrist the tip of a blade emerged.

It was enough

Enkidu hurtled forwards, intent on piercing the golden king. Green hair whipped around him as he dashed forward, and in the wake of his bare feet all manner of life grew. Gilgamesh drew her lance up to block the strike, and was nearly blown backwards from the force of the blow. Yet, the boy did not stop, slashing forward relentlessly in an unending barrage.

Gilgamesh tried to parry each hit, but for every successful attempt her grip on the haft of her weapon began to weaken until, with one final mighty exertion, one of her most mighty relics went spinning from her hands.

A hundred emotions passed over her face. Rage, anger, disbelief, shock. Her mouth hung open, for she could scarcely believe it.

'He…disarmed me?'

A hysterical laugh bubbled within her throat, and she let it free with uproarious volume.

Enkidu eyed her, wary of the king's next move, but Gilgamesh made no attempt at re–engaging, instead simply content bask in mirth.

She stopped after almost a whole minute, but her lips were still twisted in a demented grin. She had realised her folly, and as she stared into the bewildered expression on the boy's face she realised the object of her quest had been infront of her this entire time.

For his existence held the stench of power, and his body was that of a weapon. That enticing scent was almost completely overwhelming now, and Gilgamesh exulted in the feeling.

She had to have him

"Come forward, O great treasure! Let us do battle!"

From behind her formed a hundred golden-tinted portals, each armed and primed with the greatest relics known to mankind. Arms crossed in haughty superiority, she uttered the name of her strongest attack.

"GATE OF BABYLON!"

A wave of bladed instruments flew towards the green-haired boy, yet he neither paused nor faltered. He met the screaming barrage head on, weaving through what he could, and with every piece of his flesh sheared off more grew to take its place. He did not stumble, for to stop meant destruction.

With but a single thought and a pulse of power, every lacerated piece of his body littering the forest floor morphed and twisted, growing into entirely new creations. A Stag charged forwards with reckless abandon, a bear roared in animal fury and a panther stalked from the shadows.

For every blade shot from golden depths, a construct of mud matched it. Jagged claws struck Gilgamesh from the back, making her stumble forwards into the dirt. She spun away from the follow up attack, but she could not predict Enkidu's blazing approach as he landed a bladed fist into her armoured stomach.

The golden king coughed blood, skidding backwards, before responding in kind. She grabbed a nameless knife from shimmering air before launching it into his shoulder. It exploded in fiery conflagration, obliterating half of his body in an instant.

The wound regenerated once again, this time noticeably slower, but Gilgamesh found herself completely uncaring.

Her face was bruised and beaten, her stomach bloody, and yet no feeling of outrage came. Gilgamesh's heart beat within her ears like a war drum, blood singing in her veins at the promise of violence, and that warm feeling from before encapsulated her soul. She stared into his perfect face, almost spellbound.

She had never felt so ALIVE

They locked blades with a shower of sparks, foreheads pressed forwards almost intimately in a mockery of a lover's embrace. His aroma tickled her nose with sweet fragrance, and she bore witness to glowing eyes and an unfathomable smile.

The king of heroes' cheeks blossomed red under the moonlight.

///

'What…what was going on?'

Sariel was very very scared. And tired, and worried, and fucking confused; but mainly scared.

Two figures clashed and separated in the blink of an eye.

The air was filled with the screeching of bared blades, and the rabbit-woman realised how out of her depths she really was. Sat wounded upon a rock, she could do naught but watch the ongoing destruction.

A flash, an explosion of light, and two grinning faces engaged once more.

She recalled Enkidu, her first friend, lying dead upon the ground. And then he hadn't been. Sariel did not know the specifics, nor did she care for them, but someway, somehow, he had risen from the dead.

'People don't just do that!'

And now he was fighting against that golden monster of a woman, as if nothing had fuckin' happened!

She attempted to pinch the bridge of her nose to alleviate the coming headache, but her arms did not move from their places, limp at her sides.

Both warriors shouted in unison, a wave of wailing metal meeting the stomping charge of beasts.

Sariel had never felt more useless

She sat and watched, for it was all she could do.

Sariel vowed she would grow stronger, as she bore witness to a battle that seemed to shake the foundations of reality.

It felt as if the world was being born and destroyed in an endless cycle.

///

He didn't know how long he had been fighting, but he was almost spent. The light of dawn washed over their makeshift arena, illuminating a battlefield that looked as if it had been ravaged by a hundred battles.

Spears, swords, axes; every weapon imaginable littered the ground, each stuck into the ground like a swathe of metallic reeds.

The boy attempted to craft another weapon, but halfway through the process his magical energy fizzled, and what came out was nothing but a misshapen mess.

'It seems my fists will suffice'

He stared forward at his opponent, and he exhaled a small sigh of satisfaction. At least she looked almost as awful as he felt.

Face streaked with blood and dirt, her once proud visage was marred with detritus. She walked with a limp, one leg sporting a horrid puncture wound, and her once regal posture was now hunched.

Her expression painted a different picture.

Gilgamesh's eyes gleamed with joy, and her smile seemed to spit her face. She was biting her lips hard enough to draw beads of crimson, and her cheeks were adorned with a pretty red blush.

She looked more like a maiden in love than anything else.

The golden king let out a strange sounding groan, and it invoked a strange roiling feeling within his gut.

He didn't know what it was, but he wished to hear it again

Enkidu drew his hand backwards in a sloppy fist, and staggered forward one final time. A golden portal formed behind her, and the boy tensed in anticipation of an attack.

Nothing emerged.

The King of Heroes reached into space, grabbing at something that wasn't there. She blinked in shock, turning her head slowly to look at empty air.

'I'm…out?'

Her entire treasury, the culmination of her entire life's works, had run dry? Maybe yesterday she would have been furious, snapping and snarling in rage.

That was the Gilgamesh of the past.

Now, she felt nothing but happiness. Happiness at finding a worthy opponent, happiness at coming across such a divine treasure, at experiencing the joys of battle once more.

She locked eyes with her opponent, and the will to fight left her.

'For this great service… you shall be repaid, my dear Enkidu.'

As the boy got closer and closer, he began to slow down until he was just a few metres away. H cocked an eyebrow in confusion, as his foe made no move to attack.

"Hey…are you done? Is this a surrender?"

She barked a laugh.

"I'm not surrendering, you fool. There is simply no point in continuing this battle. This fight can only end in the death of one of us, Enkidu. It would not do to deprive this world of ones such as ourselves!"

The boy gazed forward, and took in rays of orange light illuminating golden locks of hair. With her so close, he finally realised something.

'If Sariel felt like the moon, this woman was eerily reminiscent of the sun.'

Seeing his opponent no longer wanted to fight, Enkidu collapsed onto his back. The gold-clad woman mirrored his actions immediately after.

A thought came to him, staring up into the sky, as he frowned.

"Hey…you asked what my name was, but I still don't know yours. That's kinda rude, y'know!"

"Hah! It seems I have been remiss in my duties as king. You may call me Gilgamesh, King of Heroes!"

How she could inject so much arrogance into her voice whilst she lay spread-eagle on the floor was something he wanted to learn how to do. It could wait though.

He had more important matters to attend to

A miniature ghost rabbit popped into existence above his head, trying to dissuade him from his current course of action. After a second, he realised it was his rational mind.

Odd, why does it look strangely like Sariel?

Enkidu recalled something he had read together back in that wooden house that seemed almost lifetimes ago. Something about 'Drag-so balls' and 'Saiyans', he wasn't too sure. He was a bit fuzzy on the details, but he remembered distinctly about how the main villain had later become the main character's best friend.

The boy was no fool, of course. Despite his naivete, he knew enough to be able to distinguish fact from fiction, most of the time anyways. He knew that in the real world everything didn't work out like you wanted it to.

Yet, whilst his mind told him one thing, his body sung another tune. Something about this Gilgamesh invoked within him warm, happy feelings. He felt safe, quite strange since they had both been trying to kill each other only seconds prior. The boy nodded his head in resolution.

He knew what he had to do

He got up, and with shaky steps trudged forward until he loomed over the king's prone form.

His smile could only be called blinding.

Enkidu extended a hand out, and the King of Heroes regarded it for a second, before slowly grasping it with with her own.

A pact was formed that would shake the universe.

"Let's be friends!"