Darkness, chaos, emptiness, vagueness...
All sorts of indescribable sensations surged in from every direction, stripping Ian's consciousness away from his physical form.
An inexplicable force tugged at him, pulling his spirit upward like a puppet on strings—rising through the clouds, crossing the fierce winds, and finally breaking through the Dimensional Barrier.
After passing through a faint, almost intangible membrane, the glowing silhouette—shaped like his former self—seemed to drift within a boundless sea of blue and white light.
Looking around, he saw numerous bubbles of varying brightness and hues floating faintly in different areas.
Yet, the surrounding mist of colorful light and obscure, mysterious ripples only added to the uncertainty. Any force that tried to observe could only glimpse a tiny corner of this vast domain.
Countless chaotic streams of matter collided and churned, forming layers of dark tides and whirlpools that created natural barriers between them.
Behind the light-form silhouette, invisible threads bound him to a massive, multicolored bubble shaped like a giant egg.
Through its nearly transparent shell, one could faintly make out mountains and rivers, the sun, moon, and stars, the vast fertile plains between the two rivers, and the resplendent city-states of Sumer.
Clearly, a world was being nurtured and growing within.
A World Egg?
Suspended in this boundless ocean of light, the silhouette murmured and suddenly understood.
This was the legendary Imaginary Numbers Sea—outside the wall of the world!
I remember... I was banished by the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, using Ea, wasn't I?
But before Ian could make sense of it all, the Imaginary Numbers Sea nurturing the World Egg began to churn with unrest.
In just a few breaths, the thread tethering him to the Babylonian civilization behind him snapped.
Immediately, his human-shaped light-form began flickering like a candle in the wind, swaying in the surge of chaotic information.
As the faint light of reason was about to be swallowed and dissolved, a high, ethereal song rang out, piercing through the sea fog and weaving a thread of light.
"Ah… ah~~"
This song… so familiar, so beautiful...
Like… a lullaby… so soothing…
Each call drew his nearly lost soul toward a warm, comforting embrace.
From deep within the Imaginary Numbers Sea, a figure rose, pale fingers gently cupping the fragile light in her hands. Using her own body as a shield, she resisted the rising tides of darkness, her instinct to protect made manifest.
Then, crimson star-like eyes looked down. In their cross-shaped gleam, she gazed at the tiny light resting in her palm.
How majestic.
How divine.
How tender.
It was like returning to the womb—overwhelmed by a profound sense of security and belonging. The flickering soul gradually calmed, compelled by an instinctive reverence and longing to draw close.
And as clarity returned, Ian began to piece together the fragmented images drifting in the imaginary tides. Gradually, he recalled how he had descended to Uruk and become the ancient serpent.
The Imaginary Numbers Sea was the original chaos—from [nothingness], it birthed [new life], only to be rejected by the very world it helped create.
He, too, came from another dimension. Not accepted by this world, he was cast out as an anomaly—discarded into the Imaginary Numbers Sea to be digested and erased.
Yet by chance, before his sense of self was extinguished, Ian encountered a being of overwhelming majesty drifting within this sea.
Tiamat—the primordial mother of the ancient Babylonian civilization!
Her powers had been stripped away, used to give birth to this new World Egg. In doing so, she lost the foundation of her own "existence" and became a drifting wraith in the Imaginary Numbers Sea.
With reason gone, all that remained was her motherly instinct—to return to the child born from her.
But the World Egg, now fully formed, no longer needed her. Nor could the stable reality accept her presence. Even the outer self-defense mechanisms safeguarding the Babylonian civilization treated her as a threat.
Without an anchor of information, Tiamat couldn't break through the thin wall of the world. She could only drift aimlessly in the Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
She lamented, mourned, her heart filled with the sorrow of being unwanted.
Then came the arrival of a soul from beyond the realm—awakening the primal maternal instinct of the Goddess of Beginning. She tenderly sheltered this weak and insignificant existence, rediscovering the joy of motherhood.
Yet, even under Tiamat's protection, the child could not withstand the tides of the Imaginary Sea.
In the end, driven by instinct, the goddess used her accumulated divine authority to send the fading soul to the place she had long yearned to return to.
As the Mother of Beasts, the only vessel Tiamat could grant Ian was that of a "Beast."
By chance, an ancient serpent that had devoured King Gilgamesh's Herb of Immortality was undergoing a rebirth, its consciousness shattered and reformed.
Ian seized the opportunity and was reborn through it, becoming a "free man" of Uruk.
However, the fusion of the two consciousnesses left him no chance to escape after committing misdeeds—and he was soon caught red-handed by Gilgamesh.
After much hardship, Ian desperately schemed to survive and narrowly avoided being turned into snake stew.
But when Gilgamesh tore the world apart using Ea and exiled him, he also hurled Ian's unstable soul back into the Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
Once again, in a moment of crisis, the Mother of Genesis who had once given him life saved him anew.
Tiamat...
The flickering soul in her palm looked up at her prismatic, cross-shaped eyes and murmured without thinking.
But deep within those eyes was only chaos and void—no visible trace of emotion.
Still, as the chaotic waves surged once more, her fingers curled even tighter around him, the urge to protect flaring instinctively.
No… Mother Goddess...
A sharp sorrow surged in Ian's chest. He reached out, wanting to touch once more the mighty being who had protected him twice, who had given him life.
But as wisps of gray mist seeped through his fingers into Tiamat's palm, the Goddess of Beginning rose up from the Imaginary Sea and let out a piercing scream.
"Ah—ah—!"
The terrifying divine authority shattered the raging tides of Imaginary Numbers, ripping apart the endless fog stretching beyond comprehension.
Amid the parting mists, the outline of a World Egg slowly took shape, cradling the essence of ancient Babylonian civilization.
A previously severed link reformed, like a thread spinning anew. It gathered and extended from that space, intertwining with Ian's consciousness.
Then, after a brief pause, Tiamat opened her ten fingers and let the tiny soul be drawn back into the World Egg.
As her towering figure was gradually swallowed by the tides and mists of the Imaginary Sea, Ian held his outstretched hand rigid, lips parted, a knot of sorrow tangled in his heart.
But before this tiny, fragile being could cry out his grief and indignation, his consciousness began to plummet, pulled downward by the thread.
A strong sensation of falling overcame him.
It felt like only a second—and yet like an entire century.
His senses returned. Numbness gave way to clarity.
"Still alive? That's wonderful!"
"The Underworld finally has life! Even if it's just a tiny one!"
In the dim and empty hall, a golden-haired goddess wearing a crown held up the newly awakened creature, her brilliant eyes blinking excitedly.
Then, as if realizing her outburst,
She coughed lightly, forcefully composing herself. With one hand on her waist, she pointed to the snake within the Spear-Cage and declared with solemnity:
"Listen well, little one of the earth. I am Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Netherworld. You now have the honor of becoming a citizen of the Underworld!"
"So, you must behave!"
The Underworld now truly held life. Perhaps… this was a good beginning.
The goddess curiously ran her fingertips along the snake's cool, smooth scales, the corners of her lips lifting in quiet delight.