Before Gilgamesh could respond, the ship came to a halt.
Eridu—arrived.
"Roar!"
Authority—Judgment Day!
A furious dragon's roar erupted from an unknown source. The world itself seemed provoked, turning into a hostile foe.
Storms surged across the water's surface, currents splitting the air like blades. Lightning crashed again and again, striking down like countless swords against the defensive barriers of the three Noah's Arks.
Even the night sky tore apart as crimson meteors, trailing long flames, plummeted toward the earth. Their searing heat boiled the waters, raising thick layers of white mist while the flood raged violently.
Hearts pounded wildly. Under the crushing pressure, no one could stop their bodies from trembling. Before the Father of Genesis's judgment, all living things could only crawl in repentance, awaiting the godlike wrath to descend.
"Aaaaaa!"
In the next instant, the Mother Goddess Tiamat's high, resonant chant echoed as her four feet struck the ground.
The entire world was stripped of color and emotion. Gray-white light patterns spread outward, forcing the raging floodwaters to retreat. Wind pillars shattered. Thunderclouds vanished.
Meteors from above crumbled into dust the moment they touched the gray-white light, scattering in the air. The ground split apart, and a massive rift caused the Temple of Ea ahead to collapse entirely.
From the depths of the abyss rose a thick, red-black miasma—viscous, foul, like filthy sludge.
Nega-Genesis!
It was Tiamat's unique authority to renew the world, erasing all creations born of the old era until nothing remained but the new. Even if Apsu had achieved complete [Domination] and [Command] over the world through its land and waters, it meant nothing before this overwhelming force.
The so-called "authority" of the Father God, who ruled all under tyranny, paled against the Mother Goddess's great work of remaking the world.
"Ere!"
Seeing the moment was right, Samael bellowed.
The Earth's Mistress straightened, solemn, and spun her spear before driving its tip into the ground.
"A vast sea in the heavens...and a prison upon the land... My heel is the wrath of Kur itself! Appear, O scorching shrine! Reflect upon your behavior! Kur Kigal Irkalla—Bellows of Kur that Tramples Ekur!"
The earth shook violently. The abyss surged upward. The red-black miasma, roaring and thrashing, was wrenched from the depths along with the soil entangled around it, rising into the range covered by the Nega-Genesis barrier.
But even then, Apsu—Father of Creation—refused to die quietly. Gathering his divine essence into the shape of a dragon-beast, he howled and fought madly.
"Ishtar!"
Samael pointed coldly, his expression grim.
"Got it! After all the care I've received from Father, it's only fair I repay the favor!"
The vengeful Mistress of Heaven beamed, steering the Boat of Heaven upward.
"Maanna, open the gate! Bind the concept of Venus—From the great heavens to the great earth, strike down! An Gal Ta Ki Gal Šè—Kindling of Venus that Shakes the Mountains!"
My Mount Ebih Shrine! My Uruk! My Maanna that was almost wrecked! And my compensation for emotional damage! Pay with your life, Father!
Ishtar's body arched in an exaggerated curve. The Boat of Heaven, Maanna, was drawn to its utmost, then released—launching a massive beam of light that tore through the black dragon-shaped miasma, blasting it into countless fragments.
"Aaaaaa!"
The Mother Goddess Tiamat immediately opened her mouth in a resounding chant. From beneath her, the black Sea of Life surged upward, swiftly capturing and enveloping every shred of Apsu's divinity.
"Roar..."
The Father of Genesis thrashed violently, struggling with all his might to break free from the Sea of Life's corrosion and reshaping. Yet the surging Chaos Tide pressed in with unyielding force, drowning him completely.
When the torrent finally receded, a blood-red and black dragon-beast with a fierce, twisted form stood solidified—a complete life form. Its once-liquid divine essence had condensed into a heart, beating within its chest.
Apsu's pupils contracted sharply. As one of Mesopotamia's two great creator gods, no one understood better than him how terrifying Tiamat truly was.
His divinity had been completely covered and assimilated by her Sea of Life. That meant once he had risen from it, reborn, it would be utterly impossible to stand against the creator who had given this body life.
Fear flashed in Apsu's eyes. He turned at once, beating his wings in an attempt to flee.
But a distant, haunting song drifted from behind. A beam of green and red mana swept across the sky.
The world-ending dragon had only begun to ascend when it was cleaved in two at the waist, its heart split cleanly apart.
Red and black blood, mingled with dissipating divinity, sprayed through the air, splattering across Tiamat's scales and feathers.
Too cruel. Far too cruel...
Samael swallowed hard as he stared at Apsu's lifeless remains, which were already breaking apart into dust. His throat bobbed again, and when his gaze shifted toward Tiamat, there was a faint trace of unease in it.
In the ancient serpent's memory, the Mother Goddess had always been gentle and compassionate, possessing all the qualities of a devoted wife. But now he could clearly sense an unfamiliar fury—an agitation—coming from the other end of the thread connecting them.
It seemed that something Apsu had done had truly enraged the Mother of Genesis.
Just as a certain disloyal son with questionable motives was about to approach and soothe the slightly agitated Mother Goddess, her jewel-like form suddenly stiffened, a sharp cry tearing from her throat.
The ground exploded. The black tide surging beneath Tiamat erupted upward, blasting the three Noah's Arks thousands of meters away.
At the same time, the mental thread linking Samael to her shook violently. A short, urgent shriek burst within his mind.
"Run!"
The resonance in his consciousness instantly unraveled the distorted sound.
The Mother Goddess is in danger!
Samael's expression changed drastically. Without a moment's hesitation, he transformed into a wyvern, bursting from Noah's Ark and hurling himself toward the figure before the massive rift.
Buzz!
Before he could get close, a vast and desolate resonance descended from above. The sky dimmed abruptly, and the endless Milky Way seemed to overturn and spiral.
A crushing pressure bore down, as if his body now weighed thousands of tons, driving him straight into the ground and gouging a cone-shaped crater several meters deep.
When he finally forced his head up, Samael saw it—on Tiamat's emerald scales and wings, strange golden threads had appeared.
They resonated with the light of the stars, tightening bit by bit, embedding themselves into her flesh and bone. Her pained cries traveled along those anchoring lines and stabbed directly into the ancient serpent's mind.
Wait! Those golden threads... they're blood!
Apsu's blood—mingled with his divine essence and the Root!
It's a trap! A trap laid for the Mother Goddess!
The realization thundered through Samael's mind, a terrible thought taking root and growing wildly.
At that same moment, countless stars fell from the depths of the universe, intertwining at a single point before condensing into a golden figure. In his left hand he held an ancient clay tablet, and in his right, a battle axe.
The giant looked down with cold contempt. The thunder in his gaze was solemn and merciless, the wrath of a godlike prison bearing down upon them.