I've never heard of a king dying from overwork before.
Even Radagon, who worked nonstop all day like a puppet—not to mention Mari—never died of overwork.
Hmm. Since they have the same body, shouldn't he be the one more likely to die from it?
Anyway.
Apparently, Ereshkigal, Ishtar's other half, had caused a wasting plague in Kutha and Uruk, taking not only the residents but Gilgamesh as well.
That startled me.
I thought he had actually died from overwork.
Ereshkigal was said to borrow Ishtar's body at night because she was her other half. No wonder she kept greeting me every night out of nowhere even though I'd already met her.
I forcibly dragged along an unwilling Ishtar and arrived in Kutha. Then she suddenly flew into the sky, gathered mana on the level of a Noble Phantasm, and prepared to fire it at me. This woman...
[Nice Words.]
"Of course we have to blow away the ground, make an air hole, and enter if we're going to the Underworld! But before that, you! You've been looking at me with those pitying eyes, and then you dragged me all the way here!"
That damned goddess!
[Use nice words.]
"I'll punish you for insulting a goddess while I'm at it, and open a path to the Underworld!"
I used Endure and Sanctuary, equipped my Bastard Sword and Barricade Shield, then cast Golden Vow and Golden Lightning Fortification to block it with everything I had.
Even as I held it back, my feet slid and the ground collapsed beneath us. Mash, Ritsuka, and I all fell. I kicked away the debris, caught the two of them, slung one over each arm, and landed. After setting them down, I jumped at the descending Ishtar, grabbed her, and slammed her into the floor.
"You won't get hurt anyway! Can't you just take the hit?"
Had this damned goddess lost her mind?
And besides, what was I supposed to do about the fact that it still pissed me off?
[Nice... Hmm, I'll let this one slide.]
"Please stop, junior! You're going to kill Ishtar!"
"Saber! I'm fine now, so stop!"
I kept using Determination and repeatedly drove the grappling techniques Hoarah Loux used into Ishtar. I nearly tore open her chest too, but they kept stopping me, and I barely held back.
Here in Uruk, the place people go when they die is called the Underworld, and it lies underground. I had thought it had always remained beneath the earth, but apparently it vanished from underground and drifted far away after the Age of Gods ended. As for me, when I die, I go to the Erdtree and revive.
After some brief chatter, we eventually reached the seven gates Ishtar had mentioned. We braced ourselves to solve their riddles, only to be asked through Words of Power who was more beautiful, Ishtar or Ereshkigal.
"Huh?"
"Wait! That's not what you said before!"
"This is an incredibly difficult question!"
?
What were they talking about? They were two halves of the same person, so wouldn't they look alike?
Or not? Was Ereshkigal in a male body like Radagon because she was Ishtar's other half?
No, when she greeted me last time, she seemed perfectly natural, so she had to be female.
Then why were they grabbing me with such terrifying expressions?
I couldn't speak anyway, so they should ask Ritsuka or Mash.
They probably weren't asking me in the first place.
"There's no need to hesitate over the answer, righttttttt?"
What was there to hesitate about?
They would look the same anyway.
I looked at Ritsuka and Mash, asking them to answer quickly. Instead, the two of them stared straight at me. Why were they looking at me?! Panicking, I quickly pointed at Ishtar. Brimming with confidence, she walked up to the gate.
Ishtar said something to the gate, then froze. At that moment, lightning struck her and electrocuted her. Ah, I should have taken that. It would have charged me up.
"Ishtar!"
[That's not that kind of thing. You need to study that sort of thing too.]
Ah, damn it.
[Nice words.]
I pointed at the gate, and it opened, declaring that I had the correct answer. Why me of all people?
As we advanced, it gave us nothing but strange riddles. Every time Ishtar passed through a gate, her divinity diminished and her body shrank. I got my revenge by grabbing the tiny Ishtar and shaking her back and forth. Then, along the way, we encountered Gilgamesh. So this was where the king who died of overwork had ended up.
But this king claimed that he had deliberately allowed himself to be captured and brought here, dressing up the fact that he had been hiding somewhere and doing nothing.
Yet when he said it, it somehow sounded true.
No, I was already starting to believe it myself.
Gilgamesh said we needed Ereshkigal's permission to leave, so we headed toward her palace while taking turns playing with the shrunken Ishtar.
On the way, Gilgamesh explained Ereshkigal to us. She guarded this place every day, and here in the Underworld, she was the strongest and the absolute ruler.
Hmm. For an absolute ruler, I had personally seen—or rather, been—the kind who exercised absolute authority and ruined everything in the end...
Could I really trust that?
"That's a sad story. I was able to feel things through meeting new people and experiencing a new world, but it's sad that she never had that chance..."
"Mash..."
...
I should talk with Mash sometime.
If I could speak, that was.
Also, Fou did not even try to come near me anymore. At first he had tried to approach, but after running behind Mash that one time, he never came close again.
We finally reached the last gate and prepared to hear its riddle.
"Ha! There's no need to hear it! The answer is me!"
Gilgamesh answered, and the gate silently opened. This king really was made entirely of narcissism.
We passed through the final gate and reached the palace. The temperature plummeted as we entered, frosting the breath of everyone in the group. Then a gigantic Gugalanna, formed from skulls and bones, appeared before us.
"Fear me, pray to me, and despair, humans. I am the administrator of death, the mistress of the Underworld, the trampler of sacred peaks, and one of the Three Goddess Alliance: Ereshkigal."
?
She hadn't stalled us at all those gates just so she could say that, had she?
The instant I had that thought, countless chunks of earth flew at me. I drew my Bastard Sword and cut every last one apart.
"...You seem to be having irreverent thoughts."
The two halves really were alike.
"You just had another irreverent thought, didn't you?"
No, had they learned mind reading? Mari could read my thoughts from the beginning, but these two couldn't.
"Your thoughts are always obvious. You have no respect for goddesses at all."
Try living under Mari's thumb.
Then see whether you develop any or not.
[I'm only doing this for you, though? Well, there is a little personal desire mixed in.]
That may be true, but my feelings were separate.
[Really? Then shall we increase today's studying so I can feel better too? Maybe we'll advance all the way to meteorites?]
I'm sorry, Goddess.
Ishtar kicked down at me from above. I grabbed her by the head and flung her into the palace.
As Ereshkigal and Ritsuka spoke, Ritsuka tried to persuade her to send the dead Gilgamesh back to the surface and protect Uruk together with us. But Ereshkigal refused, saying this was the first choice she had ever made for herself. The battle began.
"And another thing!"
?
"Ritsuka wasn't alone to begin with, but I thought you and I were alike! Yet you went and made friends in no time! I'm truly disappointed in you!"
She openly launched her first attack at me, sending enormous masses of earth flying one after another. Me again? Was this because of my luck too? As I thought that, Mash protected Ritsuka from the fragments while I cut through them and charged Ereshkigal.
But I wasn't supposed to kill this one either, right?
Ah, since falling into this other world, I hadn't been able to properly kill anything, so I couldn't collect any runes either.
Still, Mari had been busy lately, and my friends followed that policy too, so it was fine.
In that case...
I glanced at Mash beside me. She understood at once, swung her shield as if to strike me with it, and I used it as a foothold to reach Ereshkigal. I brought down Storm Assault, but she caught it with her spear. As we struggled against each other, I cast Royal Knight's Resolve and Golden Vow, then concentrated the lightning spear charged within my body into my arm.
"Something like this...?!"
At that moment, her spear split and shattered. As it broke, she let go of it and struck me away with both hands. Ishtar and Gilgamesh covered me from behind, buying time, while Mash caught my flying body and helped me back to my feet.
"As always, you exceed my expectations. Very well! This Gilgamesh shall lend you a little of his strength!"
"Hah, you're pretty good for an ordinary guy! I'll help a little too!"
"Saber! Hold on a little longer. I'll heal you soon!"
"Junior, pull yourself together. The battle is not over yet!"
Ow, my head was ringing.
Still, it wasn't a bad feeling.
Was this the first time I had overcome a trial together with others like this?
This wasn't bad either.
I activated Beast's Vitality and recovered under Ritsuka's healing. Mash guarded us, batting away every incoming attack with her shield.
"...Am I wrong? Was I wrong for gathering souls and striving in this empty Underworld? Is there sin in me?"
"...Ereshkigal. If I understood you here, if I praised you, that would only wound your pride. So I cannot praise you."
"Then... if that is so! If I can be neither understood nor praised, Ritsuka, I'll kill you and Saber too! And I'll kill everyone! I'll create a land of death where no one dies and no one can defeat anyone!"
"Don't lie, Ereshkigal! You only want to protect humanity and make friends! Command Spell! Mash, protect Ereshkigal's existence! Her choice! Her will!"
"Yes!"
Was I finally going to see it?
The Noble Phantasm fitting for the Shielder class.
I'll see my senior's full strength.
"This is our home, which heals every wound and every resentment. Manifest! Lord Camelot!"
The attack Ereshkigal had gathered with the full strength of the Underworld's strongest, and my senior's Noble Phantasm fully unleashed after being enhanced by one Command Spell, clashed head-on. In the end, my senior won.
I knew this would happen.
For someone called the strongest, I had not seen anything particularly impressive.
Right, Mari?
[.......]
Why weren't you saying anything?
You were surprised too when you defeated the Dragonlord.
This was why you couldn't try to solve everything through logic alone.
[.......If you keep babbling, I'll take that as permission to increase your studies even further. Shall we advance all the way to meteorites?]
No...
That's all I meant, Goddess...
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