"Mandate of Heaven? Ha!"
"In the end, you're afraid!"
"You fear not only the Mother Goddess Tiamat, but also the humans you created, and even Gilgamesh, who embodies part of the power of the Tablet of Destinies!"
"Even with the Tablet of Destinies in your grasp, all you did was take advantage of others' weakness, relying on every possible edge to defeat a goddess, Heroic Spirits, and kingship whose strength wasn't even thirty percent!"
"What right do you have to stand here and speak to us about this so-called Mandate of Heaven?"
At that moment, Samael turned toward the King of Kings, glaring at him with disdain, and spat a mouthful of muddy saliva.
"Silence! I am the god of all gods! The King of Kings!"
"The Mandate of Heaven belongs to me!"
Marduk's face shifted from pale to livid under the sting of humiliation. His grip on the Tablet of Destinies tightened until his knuckles cracked. The hands clenched hard around his axe loosened involuntarily when his gaze met those fierce, cross-shaped pupils, leaving him with nothing but a roar of rage.
"To hell with your Mandate of Heaven!"
Overcome with fury, Samael turned back toward the figures standing silently behind him.
Among them were goddesses, demigods, weapons, Heroic Spirits, humans, and even beasts of calamity born from fallen divinity.
Though the so-called Mandate of Heaven pressed down upon them, not one bent the knee. None surrendered.
One after another, they stepped forward, throwing in all their strength, staking their very lives to test the limits of Marduk's command over destiny!
The King of Kings, drunk on arrogance, perhaps did not even notice.
At first, when plotting against the Goddess Tiamat, his movements had indeed been effortless.
But after suppressing the resistance of goddess, Heroic Spirits, and kingship time and again, the strain began to show.
When he sought to strike first and execute the Mother Goddess, he could only rely on the peculiar properties of his axe.
From the start, when the ancient serpent brushed against the threads of destiny, it had sensed its own resistance to that power.
Thus, waiting for the chance to seize control of the Tablet of Destinies from Marduk's hands was their only hope of victory!
Samael's reckless clash against Marduk's axe was not merely defiance—it was a test, to see how much strength the so-called King of Kings still had left, and to collapse before the Mother Goddess, feigning death.
If Marduk truly reached his limits, then to claim absolute victory he would surely come in person, wrench the axe free, and finish the job—displaying his valor and yet another triumph before his enemy.
That might be the moment Samael could seize, crawling out from beneath his armor of flesh to disrupt Marduk's control over the Tablet of Destinies.
At worst, he would struggle to the very end and perish alongside the Mother Goddess.
But in the end, it was humanity's selfless, suicidal charge that became the final straw, breaking through the myth woven by destiny itself.
Even javelins that barely pierced, even stones thrown by mortal hands, struck him, shaming him.
And before Samael could even act, the old man Ziusudra, who had hidden among the survivors, kept his word and appeared at the perfect place, at the perfect moment!
Thus, the Grand Assassin who had slipped in unseen raised his blade, while the rebellious serpent, brimming with venomous malice, bared his fangs. Together, they unleashed the thunderous strike they had long prepared.
The only pity was that Marduk remained the supreme god of Mesopotamia, who had fused the divinity of origin and destiny into one.
Even with all wagers laid down, even with Ziusudra's surprise attack, they could not truly wound his core.
Not even Samael could tear the Tablet of Destinies from his grip.
Yet in desperation, instinctively biting down, he managed to chew away a third of the tablet—an unexpected delight that marred its completeness.
And this time, it was not only the goddess who fought.
Heroic Spirits, kingship, humans, and Magical Beasts—all threw everything into the struggle, seizing at last a single thread of hope to break destiny's chains.
This was no hymn reserved for the Divine Spirits.
It was a song for all who refuse to yield.
"Authority is not the gods' exclusive right. Human will can also forge its own fate!"
"The future of this world belongs to humanity! The gods will fade into nothing more than passing clouds!"
The ancient serpent declared with pride, countless images flashing through his mind, stirring his thoughts.
The steam age that set iron in motion, the electrical revolution that lit up the night, the great voyages that redefined the world…
One after another, star pioneers carved their names into history, breaking the shackles of divine will with each stride, building a civilization that belonged to mankind alone.
The will of the gods was never the ruler of destiny!
"Arrogant! Insolent!"
Marduk gripped his battle axe with grim resolve, his gaze dark as he spread his arms wide.
"Even if I must summon the gods and raise a new divine war, I will wipe you rebels out completely!"
In that instant, light from the Holy Grail flared upon the chest of the King of Kings, while clouds split apart in the heavens, spiraling into a vortex that pierced sky and earth.
Samael, however, only snorted, not even bothering to look up.
"Ha, a divine war? If heaven and earth are unbound, the primordial divinity of the Mother of Genesis will return in full. When that happens, you'll be facing her in her complete form!"
"And besides—without the Tablet of Destinies, even if you've absorbed nearly all the power of the Babylonian gods, are you truly confident you can defeat the Mother Goddess?"
Marduk's body trembled. The ritual broke off at once, his expression frozen in shock.
"You…"
Samael's eyes gleamed darkly as he grinned.
"You claimed you were only one step away from omniscience and omnipotence, from returning all existence to the complete One—missing only the Mother Goddess as the last piece of the puzzle, wasn't it?"
"So, Anu of the heavens, Ea of the earth, Enlil of the spirit… they were all you?"
"Their divinity was assimilated and absorbed long ago, wasn't it?"
"Just like Huwawa, the Bull of Heaven, and Ea's water beast…"
"Authority—[Domination]?"
Marduk's pupils shrank violently, horror flooding him. Within his body, the Holy Grail shuddered and fell silent.
Could this be what it meant for the King of Kings, the God of Gods?
A trinity—omniscient and omnipotent! The ambition was monstrous.
He sought to turn all of Mesopotamia, every last thing, into nourishment for his ascent to the supreme point of existence!
Merlin, Gilgamesh, the five goddesses, and the others who grasped the weight of these words were shaken to the core, their faces growing numb.
Ishtar and Ereshkigal felt a chill seize their spines, finally understanding why the gods had stayed indifferent in this disaster, why only the two of them had escaped assimilation.
The truth was that even if Marduk separated the Mother Goddess's divinity from her bestial nature, he could not absorb that final piece.
If the divine war truly began, it would be a battle to the death—and even Marduk had no certainty of victory.
While the others remained stunned, Samael looked toward the trembling earth, bent down, picked up a pebble, tossed it into his palm, and grinned brightly.
"Actually, the reason I've said all this is just to tell you…"
Marduk, trapped by circumstance, heard once again the voice that had stirred his emotions, and instinctively looked up at the ancient serpent with a shadowed, wary gaze.
"I'm not usually this talkative…"
What?
Marduk's breath caught, his expression stiff with disbelief.
Samael flicked the pebble away, pointed behind him, and his lips curled into a crooked smile.
"Oh, right. I'm waiting for the tsunami. What are you waiting for?"
The tremors beneath their feet grew stronger. Marduk's eyes followed the rolling white line advancing from the distance, his face twisting in horror.
He nearly coughed up blood.
Damn it!
...
(50 Chapters Ahead)
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