"You mean..."
The white-haired Incubus, cloaked in the shadows of the lamplight, spoke in a low, measured tone, his eyes flickering quietly.
Samael glanced around. Half his face lay shrouded in darkness, the other half caught in the glow, casting shifting shadows across his expression, which held a deep, layered meaning.
"Marduk's Axe going missing was just a coincidence..."
"The warning about the Mandate of Heaven being erased from the cylinder seal was also a coincidence..."
"Then the disappearance of Enkidu's body, Kingu's revival, the Rift in the Sky opening..."
"The summoning of foreign allies tied to the Three Goddess Alliance, the dragon rising from the black tide..."
"Are all of these just 'coincidences' too?"
...
Ishtar and Ana, slower on the uptake, exchanged confused glances. Though puzzled, they furrowed their brows and racked their brains trying to piece things together.
Meanwhile, Merlin withdrew into the deeper shadows, a trace of insight glimmering in his eyes.
Quetzalcoatl smiled faintly as she looked toward the youth beneath the lamplight. In her eyes flickered approval, quiet unease, and a deep fear of the answer forming in her mind.
Samael slowly raised his head. A faint, sardonic grin tugged at his lips, his voice laced with mockery.
"If we replaced the word 'coincidence' with something else—wouldn't everything suddenly make sense?"
"...Fate!"
Ishtar snapped her head up. Her reaction was the most intense.
"You're saying Marduk's Axe was—"
"How is that even possible?!"
Samael looked upward, expression darkening further. His words came slowly, dripping with biting irony.
"The will of the gods is the will of Heaven."
"The gods are the Mandate of Heaven."
As the others stood stunned, the ancient serpent picked up the clay tablet etched with the seal's imprint. Tapping it lightly, he sneered.
"I gave them too much credit."
"So this is what it means to uphold the so-called Mandate of Heaven? Not just turning a blind eye—but actively making things worse."
His increasingly sharp words sent a heavy pall over the room. Everyone's expressions grew tense, the air thick with dread.
Though they hadn't yet seen the full picture hidden within the fog, even this sliver of truth left the goddesses rattled. The weight bearing down on them grew heavier with every word, and a chill crept into their hearts.
"Merlin! Contact King Gilgamesh immediately. Tell him the plan has changed—we might have a serious problem!"
As the tension peaked, Samael's face turned solemn. He tossed the tablet onto the table and issued the order.
"Give me thirty minutes!"
Usually elusive and fond of slacking off, the Magus of Flowers uncharacteristically nodded with gravity. He set to work right away, building the ritual to link with the Divine Tower in the royal palace.
"Ana, Ishtar, Jaguar Warrior—you're in charge of rounding up the prisoners still held in Eridu."
"Since we no longer have Marduk's Axe, let's at least use pterosaurs to send them home."
"And get every man in Ur and Eridu who still has the will to fight—transfer them all to Uruk."
"We're short on people. Very short, got it?"
The three goddesses nodded instinctively. Somewhere along the way, they had already begun to treat this sharp, willful human—the one who'd even forced Kukulkan to concede—as the core of their operation. They moved swiftly to carry out his commands.
Bang!
Inside the Mayan pyramid's hidden chamber, Samael slammed a fist against the stone wall, his face contorted in rage and cold fury.
So that's the Mandate of Heaven? What a goddamn joke.
A hastily formed Three Goddess Alliance wasn't so terrifying—not once you understood their weaknesses and had a counter-strategy.
But if what stood behind them was the so-called Mandate of Heaven, upheld by the gods themselves—then this wasn't some game anymore.
If the Mandate of Heaven was the foundation for the gods' existence as "administrators," then to correct a wayward fate, they would do anything.
Even—step into the fray themselves.
If the threat was just the three goddesses—each with exploitable flaws and treatable as high-level world event bosses—there was still hope.
But if what he was up against was a pack of GMs who could ban his account on a whim?
Then what the hell was the point? Might as well lie down and quit now.
Samael rested his forehead against the cold stone, hoping the chill would help clear his head a bit.
Actually… there was still one more thing he hadn't told them.
He, this ancient serpent, had stolen the Herb of Immortality from Gilgamesh and sabotaged the wise king's path to eternal life.
That, too, was probably part of the so-called "Mandate of Heaven."
As far as he knew, the reason the King of Heroes hadn't taken the Herb of Immortality right away was because he intended to bring that power of eternal life back to his city-state.
If he had succeeded, humanity might have undergone a true evolutionary leap.
But at that pivotal moment, a reckless serpent ruined everything Gilgamesh had worked for.
Then came the formation of the Rift in the Sky, Demon King Goetia's attempt to burn away human history, the theft of Enkidu's body, the "invitations" extended to Gorgon and Kukulkan, and the creation of the Three Goddess Alliance—meant to wipe out humanity.
If events had continued as originally written, the Mother Goddess Tiamat would have followed her instinct to "return," entered the world of Mesopotamia, and risen from the black tide of the Persian Gulf.
In that case, Marduk's Axe, conveniently placed in Eridu, along with the cylinder seal that foretold the arrival of the Mother of Origins—these would have served as final contingency weapons to oppose Tiamat.
The humans who might have gained immortality? All gone.
The surface of the world, wiped clean. Every being that dared challenge divine authority, erased.
The Mother Goddess Tiamat, who had long remained outside the World Egg, would be gravely wounded and ultimately defeated by wave after wave of sacrificial humanity.
And in the end, those who followed the Mandate of Heaven would emerge as the unquestioned victors.
Now, as he pieced everything together, Samael realized just how tightly woven this scheme truly was—and how deeply he was caught within it. The more he thought, the more it chilled him to the bone.
He took a deep breath and lightly slapped his cheeks, using the sting to clear his mind. With narrowed serpent eyes, he murmured quietly:
"Mother Goddess, you've been hinting at this all along, haven't you?"
"If it wasn't about Marduk's Axe, then what in that cursed place—Eridu—could make even you so wary?"
Just as Samael tried to connect with the Goddess Tiamat to ask her about some unspoken truth, Merlin's voice came from outside, relieved.
"It's done!"
The ancient serpent sighed, frustrated at being interrupted, and pushed aside his thoughts for the moment, walking to the stone table in the main hall.
Outside, the seasoned eastern gate guard Tim was coordinating movements. The four goddesses had temporarily set aside the prisoner transfer and gathered inside the Mayan pyramid.
With a flick of Merlin's wand, soft, dreamlike pink ripples spread outward. Layer upon layer of magic circles glowed to life.
The mirror-like projection floating above the stone table lit up, showing a corner of the Divine Tower in the royal palace.
Sensing the surge of mana, High Priestess Siduri stepped into view.
"Siduri, we have urgent news for King Gilgamesh!"
The moment the connection stabilized, Samael called out, his voice firm.
But after a long, heavy silence, Siduri slowly looked up. Her eyes were tinged red, her face steeped in grief. Yet she forced herself to remain composed, her voice calm but resolute.
"Everyone... the king passed away last night from exhaustion."
"Furthermore, dozens of people in Uruk have begun exhibiting similar symptoms. I fear the plague from Kutha has already spread here."
"To prevent panic, I've been hiding the news and doing everything I can to maintain order."
"But all arrangements and decisions require the king's authority. I won't be able to keep this up for long."
The slim high priestess bit her lower lip, her face solemn.
"If possible, I beg you—return within two days. That's the absolute limit I can manage."
Outside the Divine Tower, the sounds of rising unrest filtered through. As her words faded, the magic array blinked out, leaving those within the Mayan pyramid staring at one another in stunned silence.
Surviving overwork, only to die of exhaustion?
And now the Kutha plague was spreading across the city?
Samael's face had gone pale. A crushing helplessness took root in his chest.
That feeling of being ground beneath the wheel of fate—relentless, unstoppable—left his thoughts frayed and his heart weary.
...
(50 Chapters Ahead)
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