30 Departing; Echoes of the Second Act

'Does he love me? Does he actually love me?'

'Once I got past those stupid emotions, I could see the truth. I was hiding behind them, and avoiding what was truly difficult for me to accept. I love him, regardless of how he feels about my family. I don't care about that. He loves me, more than anyone, but I have always chosen them over him.

'And for what? For wealth and status? For the power I once exercised over the mortals of our world? Those things are meaningless. My family constantly went out of their way to wrong Gilgamesh- how could I have been stupid enough to stand with them?'

'Sigh. Never again. I don't care if I am stripped of my power. I don't care if my family regards me the same as they do Gilgamesh.'

'I care only about him. I will spend the entirety of my lifespan making it up to him.'

'As for what he did... I won't let that matter go! I will ask him why. I will!'

'I promise, I will!'

|Ishtar's Thoughts As She Soaks In The Bath|

"Are you finished in there? I could really use a warm bath right now." Gilgamesh stood outside the door to the bathroom, calling out to Ishtar who was inside.

"Ah- Uh- I'll be out in a minute!"

Sighing, he moved away from the door and leaned against the wall. He could hear the water splashing from inside, and heard wet footsteps as she hurried out. He heard her walk away again, likely cause she forgot to grab her towel, then she came back and opened the door.

A bit of steam came out with her, and when Gilgamesh saw her he quickly averted his gaze.

Ishtar saw this and pouted, then asked if she was that disgusting to look at.

"On the contrary. You are incredibly appealing to the eyes, and that is precisely why I cannot look at you. After all, I'm still only eleven years old! What kind of example would we be setting if I gawked at you before I became an adult?"

Ishtar's jaw fell open, and she began battling with both reason and common sense.

Finally, she gave up and just said, "But you're trillions of years old!"

Gilgamesh violently shook his head, "Not in this body, I'm not. Begone, begone!"

He kept his eyes closed and blind-walked to the door, then stepped inside and shut it. After a while, Ishtar even heard him lock it.

She did not move for quite a while, unable to believe what had happened. Some thoughts resurfaced, and she sighed, "If I'm that appealing to the eyes, then why did you sleep with all those mortal women?"

She said it more to herself, but it was still loud enough that Gilgamesh, if he was close enough, could still hear from inside the bathroom.

Unluckily for her, he was.

He unlocked the door and opened it in a swift motion, and stepped out to look at her with an odd expression.

"I ask myself that question from time to time. I did it after Enkidu passed. I lost my best friend, and I needed you then more than ever. Yet, you stood with your family and left me there, alone. My mind in that moment was, perhaps, in an even worse state than it was when I destroyed my spirit."

"I got petty, and I chose to spite you by sleeping with those women. I-"

Gilgamesh realized that he had not been looking Ishtar in the eyes, and he cleared his throat and adjusted his sight. When he found her eyes again, he fought a bit to get the words out.

"I'm sorry, Inanna. I should have handled my emotions better then."

Ishtar teared up, wanting to offer her own words. However, Gilgamesh shut and locked the door again, so she did not get the chance. She did not know that, on the other side, he was leaning against the door and breathing heavily. If she had said something, he would have clearly heard her.

She chose to walk away instead, leaving those words for another time.

Later that day, Ishtar introduced Gilgamesh to the magic of television. It was a holographic screen that depicted fantastical scenes, tinged with the power of drama. Gilgamesh became hooked on a particular thriller titled 'From,' and he forced Ishtar to binge it with him.

She had not yet lost her divine aspect, so creating things like this were simple matters.

"How is it that you were able to come to this world? You said it rejected Anu, but it did not reject you when you brought me here?"

Ishtar thought about it as she lay in bed. Gilgamesh was laid atop her, and she played with his black and white hair. The holographic screen hovered on the wall at the end of the room, showing the credits of that series' final episode.

"I don't know, actually. I banished the Light of Heaven so that the gods of this world wouldn't notice me entering it, since I can't suppress father's aura, but that was it. I didn't do anything special."

"Hmm..." Gilgamesh snuggled deeper into her, "What if the world knew that you were planning to abandon Heaven? You did say that it's special. Could it be that special?"

"It could be..." Isthar didn't sound sure, but she could not be. There were too many unknowns.

"Ah well. I'll find everything out eventually." Gilgamesh got comfortable once again, then ceased his movement.

"When are you going to leave?" She sounded hesitant to ask, and she cursed herself for being so pitiful.

"You aren't coming with me?"

Ishtar gasped.

"I thought- With my power, wouldn't it be counterproductive?"

"How?" Gilgamesh's voice sounded muffled, but that was because he had buried it in Ishtar's stomach. "Do you think I'll need your help every step of the way or something?"

Ishtar mumbled a bit, but found herself again after a while.

"But, you're essentially a mortal. Your spirit. the way it was. is lost to you forever. You may be a demigod, but you have none of the power of one. All I can offer is the sword you stole from that god."

Gilgamesh shifted, "You kept it?"

"Of course I did. You won it, fair and square. Even Heaven's Edict agrees that it belongs to you now."

Once the idea set in, Gilgamesh looked into Ishtar's face, beaming. "That's great! With that sword, I won't need your help at all, so you can come with me if you want to."

Ishtar was taken aback. Gilgamesh sounded... excited?

"We'll travel this world together, and we'll learn everything that Anu couldn't, together."

He continued on like this for a while, and Ishtar only listened and giggled. As for why Gilgamesh was suddenly acting this way with her, she assumed that it was due to the fact that he felt freer to express himself and his true feeling toward her.

This was only partly true. After his spirit was eradicated, Gilgamesh lost some of his accumulated maturity. He was more of a child now than he had ever been, but that was all that changed. His mind was closer to that of an eleven year old boy, while still retaining its Gilgamesh-ness.

While the lovers engaged in their planning for the future, another matter was unfolding in that world. Far, far away from them- a distance of about a natural galaxy, to be exact- an unknown god was meditating in a dark room.

His spirit teetered between metaphysical and corporeal; he was trying to attain perfect physicality, but the final step was eluding him yet. It was far too dark to make out much of him, but what was clear was his large beard and huge arms, as well as his wildly overgrown hair.

He stirred in his meditation, and when he finally exhaled for the first time in a long time, it came out as a black-gold, glittering mist. He opened his mouth, and his jaw cracked relentlessly; it had been seized up for so long that even his godly body reacted this way.

"So that is what exists beyond the door... Heaven's name... Is it Anu?"

That god moved other parts of his body and created more cracking sounds. He stood up in the darkness, and exhaled yet another cloud of black-gold mist that further illuminated the space he was in.

Just barely, his torso was exposed with dozens of scars, varying in size.

"If Heaven's name is Anu... Then is Gilgamesh the name of Hell?"

It was unclear what had been revealed to him during his meditation, but the workings of Heaven's Edict were all-encompassing and ever-present. It alone would put things in place to ensure that the wager made between Gilgamesh and Gods would play out as it should.

Even if the Gods weren't aware, and even if they had already given up, Heaven's Edict would not let the matter rest. Such was a deal sworn on its honor.

Such was the Law of Anu.

...

"Are you prepared?"

Gilgamesh stood at the exit of the cave, where the waterfall separated them from the outside. Through the rushing water, he could vaguely see the image of a bright and lively horizon, and it filled him with anticipation.

"Of course I am. I don't need to carry anything with me put this pouch. Just incase I lose my powers, it has everything I need! Times ten!" Ishtar was showing off her magical pouch to Gilgamesh, but he merely looked at it and nodded, "Very nice."

She pouted, but was not seriously bothered. She created a string and tied the pouch with it, then hung it around her neck, stuffing it under her clothes.

Gilgamesh was dressed in red and gold, with similar clothes to his training clothes from his time at House Dramaour, with the sword attached to a holster on his back.

He chose this outfit because it reminded him of his new parents, and his promise to make it back to them. He wanted to rely on his own power to see them again, so the memory of them would only motivate him to keep growing stronger.

"Let's go. This world better prepare itself..."

He stuck his arm through the waterfall and watched as it cut the water, then he stepped through, and emerged into a forest. The sound of rushing water filled the environment, and a number of deer were currently drinking water without a care.

These deer were massive. So huge, in fact, that they could easily trample upon any building in the world today. The pool itself was as large as a lake, and the trees were far taller than skyscrapers. Gilgamesh knew that super-worlds were all insanely different, and that their laws were all different, but this was still a lot to take in.

"The laws here seem to enable these creatures to grow to incredible sizes. Even if a beast from our world were to come here, it would be an ant compared to these. Of course, it would easily be able to tear them apart, but the size difference would still be shocking." Ishtar gave her evaluation, and Gilgamesh nodded with his signature smirk.

"Prepare yourself for me, and do not disappoint. I am coming for everything you have to offer."

Gilgamesh spoke those words aloud to himself and Ishtar, but they were intended for the very world he was about to journey into. It was, perhaps, the largest world of all, and by far the strangest.

As for how far he would go in this life, the possibilities were endless. He had been given a properly new start, and he would not repeat past mistakes.

This time, he would win.