Ishtar was not the type to be good at lying, especially not in front of Su Mo. The invisible psychological pressure made her afraid to deceive her Father God.
So, she had no choice but to act spoiled using Rin Tohsaka's body, sugarcoating her own actions while throwing others under the bus.
"It's not like I can do anything about Mother God suddenly deciding to destroy the world! And that goldie wanted my help but refused to get on his knees and kowtow properly! That idiot Eresh doesn't treat me like her big sister at all, either! She's been bullying me just because she has the home-field advantage in the underworld."
"Father God, I'm the one being bullied here! You have to help your dearest daughter!"
By the end of her spiel, Ishtar felt thoroughly wronged, whining and making demands of Su Mo.
From her perspective, what she said was perfectly reasonable. Even in Rin's judgment, Ishtar probably wasn't lying much, just framing things to her own advantage.
However, one fatal flaw made the twin-tailed girl unable to resist retorting.
"Ishtar, do you really think you're the type to just swallow your grievances and not fight back when you're bullied?"
Ishtar's story would have been a flawless script if it weren't for the fact that it completely clashed with her character. With her personality, there was no way she was the type to let others walk all over her.
"...I-I think I am."
Rendered speechless by Rin's comment, Ishtar still stubbornly held her ground. Then, blinking her eyes, she tilted her head back and continued to hug Su Mo, rubbing against him.
"Father God, you have to help me! Eresh and that goldie are one thing, but I really can't handle Mother. In this entire world, you're probably the only one qualified to stop her!"
Her words were a mix of a spoiled plea and genuine worry, and she even seemed a little scared.
Clearly, this "Mother God" was an existence that even Ishtar, the Mistress of Heaven, felt was absolutely impossible to deal with.
"Ishtar, your 'Mother God'... you don't mean the Primordial Mother Goddess, Tiamat?"
Rin quickly caught on, her eyes widening. "What's going on? What do you mean the Primordial Mother Goddess wants to destroy the world?"
Was it finally their turn to face a world-ending crisis?
"You don't have to worry about your time. Mother is in the Age of Gods. Even if she destroys the world, it'll only be the world of that era," Ishtar said, offering a rare moment of comfort upon seeing Rin's panic.
"You mean it won't affect the modern era?"
Rin's heart relaxed.
The Age of Gods was far too distant. A disaster that occurred in B.C. couldn't possibly last until the present day.
Just as she was thinking that—
"No!" Ishtar shook her head. "If Human History is severed in the Age of Gods, it will mean total extinction. All subsequent eras will disappear, including the modern one."
"Then why did you say not to worry?!"
"Because Father God is here!" Ishtar said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Father God can definitely stop Mother. And even if he doesn't want to, the modern era will just be pruned. You and the others won't experience some doomsday scenario; you'll just have never existed in the first place."
"Isn't that just as bad?!" the twin-tailed girl shot back, exasperated.
No matter how you spun it, if the Age of Gods was destroyed, the modern era would be destroyed along with it!
"So what's really going on... Lord Su Mo, you're not actually thinking of ignoring this, are you?"
After her retort, Rin looked at Su Mo nervously. At this moment, she and Ishtar were perfectly in sync, both terrified the world would be destroyed.
"Of course not," Su Mo said with a shake of his head. "Human History is the foundation of my power, and you are my friend. Though things would probably be fine even if I did nothing, since you're both asking, I have no reason to refuse."
"Besides, dealing with Tiamat was something I promised Gilgamesh I'd do. I don't intend to go back on my word."
Hearing this, Rin blinked, only then remembering. "Oh, right! I think that did come up during the Holy Grail War!"
Ishtar, on the other hand, puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction. "What's a promise to that sparkly gold bastard compared to a promise to me? Father God, you mustn't listen to his slander."
Su Mo tapped Ishtar on the head, then looked at Rin.
"In that case, I'm heading to the Age of Gods now, to the timeline where Tiamat is invading. Do you want to come along?"
"Me? Yes, yes! Of course I do!"
Rin was stunned for a second before nodding enthusiastically. Going to the Age of Gods wasn't the important part; what mattered was that agreeing meant she could stick close to Lord Su Mo. This was a rare opportunity.
"You... interrupting my precious father-daughter time with Father God... But fine, I guess I can keep borrowing your body..." Ishtar grumbled at first, but then managed to convince herself.
Seeing that both had agreed, Su Mo stood up.
Ishtar, who had been sitting in his lap in Rin's body, instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck as he rose, dangling from him. In the next instant, the scenery around them shifted from Rin's room to a vast, green plain.
A wave of True Aether washed over them, and the faith directed at her as a goddess amplified Ishtar's divinity. The sudden change made her feel as if she had returned home.
"Uruk?! We're back already! Father God, you're so strong!"
The goddess was stunned for a moment before it dawned on her that Su Mo's power seemed to have grown countless times stronger since they last met.
He could switch between timelines and world lines so casually that even she, a goddess, couldn't perceive how he did it. And just moments ago, he had effortlessly summoned her consciousness into Rin's body.
This display of power had already far surpassed that of an ordinary King of Gods.
Looking at it this way, maybe even the current Mother God wouldn't be much trouble for him.
To Rin, Ishtar's astonishment was just the ignorance of a frog in a well, not worth mentioning. This goddess is clearly inexperienced if she's shocked by something of this level. Lord Su Mo's power is far greater than this.
With that thought, even in the completely unfamiliar Age of Gods, Rin felt no fear at Su Mo's side. She looked around with great curiosity, soon spotting a pasture nearby and a city in the distance.
"Is that Uruk?" Rin blinked, her eyes clearly seeing the ancient, crude city walls built of mud and rock.
"That's right! That's the city that worships me!" Ishtar puffed out her slender chest with pride.
"It doesn't look very big..." Rin commented dryly.
"What do you know?! This is the Age of Gods! This is already quite impressive for the Age of Gods, okay?!" Ishtar corrected Rin's opinion with a huff.
Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly turned her head, looking in the direction opposite of Uruk.
"The aura of Demonic Beasts... Are those things attacking again?" The goddess frowned slightly.
"Are there that many Demonic Beasts in the Age of Gods? And they're huge!"
Rin also saw the creatures, which were several meters tall. Although their magical energy fluctuations weren't very strong, their sheer size alone gave them the combat power of at least Tier 1, comparable to a Grand Knight like the early-days Erica.
There were over a thousand of these beasts, and their collective charge was like an entire army.
Though with Rin's current strength, she could easily handle these beasts even without Ishtar's help, the scale of the horde was still a bit much. If this was the norm in the Age of Gods, just how strong did humanity have to be to establish a civilization in such an environment?
"Normally, there aren't, of course. But there have been a lot since Mother started trying to destroy the world," Ishtar explained, then raised her right hand, pointing her index finger at the swarm.
"Even if this is Mother's wrath, it has no place running wild in front of Father God—"
She was about to use her divine power to annihilate all the beasts in one go. The Demonic Beasts also sensed the goddess's threat, but instead of being intimidated by her divine might, they bared their fangs, as if enraged by her power.
Just then, not far behind Ishtar, a young woman's voice suddenly called out.
"Senpai! Someone's trapped! I'm going ahead to provide support!"
"I'm counting on you, Mash!"
A few seconds later, a purple-haired girl holding a shield appeared before them. To Ishtar's utter bewilderment, she took a stance in front of her and Su Mo, protecting them with her shield.
"You two, get out of here! We'll handle these Demonic Beasts!"
The girl named Mash turned her head and shouted at them with a determined expression.