"Hm?"
Inside the royal hall of the Divine Tower, Gilgamesh, who had been working through the night on various affairs without rest, suddenly looked up.
"What's wrong, Your Majesty?"
Siduri, who was sorting through clay tablets and preparing to report the next matter, exclaimed in surprise at this.
But Gilgamesh didn't immediately answer Siduri's question. Instead, he stared beyond the Divine Tower, looking in the direction of the east gate.
After a moment of silence, Gilgamesh had no choice but to admit:
"It seems that Merlin's barrier has been breached. The east gate has completely fallen."
Gilgamesh's words caused Siduri's expression to change drastically.
At the same time, the sounds of commotion began to rise outside.
"The east gate has been breached!"
"Undead monsters have invaded Uruk!"
"Hurry! Prepare for battle!"
The panicked voices of soldiers preparing for combat rang out one after another.
"Your Majesty!"
Siduri also reacted, turning to Gilgamesh in alarm.
"Don't panic. It's merely one gate being breached. Don't throw the army into disarray," Gilgamesh said, unexpectedly calm. "Siduri, quickly give the order—have the shrine maidens bring out all the weapons we sent for consecration earlier and equip the soldiers with them. Otherwise, ordinary humans will find it hard to harm the undead."
"Yes!" Siduri immediately calmed down but still asked in surprise, "So Your Majesty had already made preparations?"
"Just a precaution," Gilgamesh snorted. "Since the existence of the underworld has been confirmed and Ereshkigal is likely to manifest in this world, there was always a high chance that Uruk would have to fight undead-type monsters. Preparations at this level are nothing but the basics."
As he spoke, Gilgamesh stood up.
"Now, spread the word. Have all citizens seal their doors and windows, and under no circumstances should they leak the breath of the living. Most undead monsters are mindless puppets. As long as they don't detect the presence of the living, they typically won't enter buildings."
"Every soldier must be armed with weapons enchanted by magic. Form a line near the east gate and contain the enemy in the eastern section. Then drive them out step by step."
"Remember—don't let the enemy reach the south gate. That area is still engaged in battle with the Goddess of the Jungle. If undead monsters pour through the south, Ushiwakamaru and Benkei's units will be caught in a pincer attack and ambushed from behind, potentially causing the southern front to collapse."
"Don't panic. The Uruk of today is no longer the Uruk of before. We have plenty of soldiers and strength. A bunch of undead rabble pose no threat to Uruk."
Gilgamesh's firm and measured orders helped Siduri fully regain her composure.
She immediately accepted the command and went off to carry it out.
Only Gilgamesh remained, sitting alone on his throne, gazing in the direction of the east gate.
"Never thought that Merlin's flower field would actually be breached one day… and it seems the barrier protecting Uruk was nullified as well. No—more like it was erased. As if the heart was pierced in an instant, dealt an instant-death blow, and imbued with death itself. This power… surely isn't one of the Goddess of the Underworld's authorities?"
Gilgamesh murmured to himself.
He understood very well—it could not have been caused by Ereshkigal.
Because Ereshkigal was unable to leave the underworld.
Therefore, the force that brought about this result was likely a power on par with that of a death god or underworld deity.
And now, someone possessing such power had appeared in Uruk.
"A troublesome opponent. I hope those guys can handle it."
Gilgamesh's voice echoed in the royal hall, slowly fading away.
In this moment, Uruk's silence was shattered.
From the east gate, countless undead monsters—previously entranced by the flower barrier—flooded into the city like a plague of locusts.
Uruk's soldiers rushed in formation from all directions, sealing off the paths from the east gate to the rest of the city and forming a defensive line, clashing in fierce battle with the undead monsters.
Not only the soldiers—Rozen's familiars, stationed within Uruk, also sprang into action, pouring toward the east gate.
Thus began a war between the living and the dead within the fortress city of Uruk, plunging the night into utter chaos.
Rozen and his group were also fighting.
Initially, they only needed to deal with the Garula spirits, but with the breach of the east gate and the full invasion of the undead army, all manner of monsters began to appear.
Most numerous among them were the skeleton soldiers.
They swarmed like locusts or ants—individuals were weak, even less powerful than an average human, but their sheer numbers overwhelmed and surrounded Rozen's group.
In addition, there were all kinds of undead, wraiths, ghosts, vengeful spirits, and even ghouls. Any undead-type creature imaginable was now likely to appear.
"Yah!"
"Haa!"
Mash and Anna charged the front lines, one swinging her shield, the other her scythe, cutting down undead monsters one by one, standing as a wall before Rozen.
Rozen himself stood guard before Merlin.
"Order!"
As Rozen activated a Fire Talisman, surging flames erupted and incinerated the oncoming skeletons and undead.
"You okay, Merlin!?"
As he launched talisman attacks, Rozen called to the man behind him.
"It was only the barrier that was broken—it shouldn't have been able to affect me physically," Merlin shook his head, wiped the blood from his mouth, and gave a bitter smile.
"But I have no idea who or what broke the barrier. The power not only erased the barrier—it also wiped out the mana I used to maintain it in an instant. The backlash from the suddenly disrupted mana flow caused internal damage."
As a Magician, Rozen could see it clearly.
And precisely because he could, he was deeply shocked.
"To erase both mana and the barrier at once—what kind of power is this…?"
Could it be something akin to the Demon Purging Assault Spear Mark Seven, which cancels out all manner of barriers and nullifies mana?
But if it were that, both the maintained mana and the flowing mana should've been erased. Why would only the latter remain and backfire?
This phenomenon was like a corpse being kicked back at you after someone was instantly killed—utterly incomprehensible.
While Rozen was puzzling over it—
"Don't overthink it. It's not that impressive of a power. At most, it just kills things that used to exist. Anyone can do that, right?"
At the sound of that voice, the battlefield abruptly fell silent.
"Who's there…!?"
Mash and Anna both tensed.
"It's here!"
Merlin also looked up.
"..."
Rozen turned his gaze in the direction of the voice.
There, a girl utterly out of place in this world was slowly approaching.