"That's enough! He'll die if you keep hitting him!"
Seeing that Gilgamesh had been pounding Thor for quite a while with no sign of stopping, Loki finally couldn't help but intervene.
Given an excuse to stop, Gilgamesh naturally went along with it. He let out a cold snort and walked away, leaving Thor groaning on the ground.
The moment Gilgamesh turned his back, Loki hurried over to help Thor up. After checking him over and confirming that he was mostly unharmed, he let out a breath of relief—only to start complaining a heartbeat later.
"Why did you even bother with him? You know he's unreasonable. Why go looking for trouble?"
Thor's expression immediately soured. "Have you forgotten the time you used to scare him by turning into a snake? He chased you across half the realm and beat you senseless."
At the memory, Loki couldn't help but smile. When they were children, Thor adored snakes and would sometimes transform into one just to give Gilgamesh a fright. After succeeding once, he grew bolder—until he used a real snake to scare him.
He had never expected Gilgamesh to crush the snake on the spot, then chase him down without a hint of hesitation.
Remembering Gilgamesh's blank expression and the look in his eyes—as if Loki were nothing but a fool—Loki's own expression grew complicated. He kept sneaking glances at Gilgamesh.
Seeing the man already sitting cross-legged on the beach again, calm as ever, Loki felt a strange unease.
"Do you think… he's never known fear since he was a child?"
"Maybe," Thor admitted after a pause. Thinking back, it did seem true. Gilgamesh was always calm, always expressionless.
When Thor first stepped onto a battlefield, he had been terrified, unable to even look at the severed limbs scattered around. But Gilgamesh had already been slaughtering frost trolls without blinking.
Even though they were brothers to him, neither of them had ever truly reached the depths of his heart.
"Don't think about it anymore. Let's just hurry up and open the coconut. I'm dying of thirst!"
Thor urged, dragging Loki to another shaded spot. The two of them began trying to crack open a coconut.
But after working for a long time, drenched in sweat, they had accomplished absolutely nothing.
Loki shook his head, exasperated. "You're always so arrogant and full of yourself, but you can't even crack a coconut."
"If you're so great, then you do it!"
Thor snapped back, equally frustrated. He was already unbearably thirsty, and the heat only made it worse. Without the coconut, he would have to drink raw water—and as a mortal right now, that would probably leave him vomiting and sick.
"How about… you go ask Gilgamesh for help?" Loki suggested while fanning himself.
But Thor had just been beaten to a pulp. There was no way he was doing that. He swore immediately, "You go! I'd rather die of thirst—or be roasted alive—than ask him again!"
Two hours later...
"Gilgamesh… could you…"
Under the blazing sun, Thor—face swollen, chest bare, and completely miserable—dragged over a coconut.
Gilgamesh, disturbed yet again, opened his eyes impatiently. When he saw Thor, his expression darkened even further.
"What is it now? Didn't I tell you two to go somewhere else?"
"No… I just…" Thor licked his dry, cracked lips, looking utterly defeated. "I wanted you to help me open a coconut."
"You two idiots can't even handle something this simple?" Gilgamesh shot a glare at Loki, who was hiding far behind him. He was about to tell them to get lost—but then his eyes fell on Thor's and Loki's pale faces, clearly dehydrated and overheated.
For some reason—even he didn't know why—he sighed, reached out, and took the coconut. With a light flick of his finger, the shell split with a clean crack.
"Take it. And don't bother me with such trivial things next time."
Even he didn't notice how his tone had softened.
Unfortunately, Thor—completely oblivious to such details—took the coconut and happily turned to leave.
In the days that followed, the two continued living on the island, leading a primitive life. They learned to make fire by friction, set up various traps for hunting, yet their harvest remained meager. Sometimes, they would go hungry for three days straight.
Whenever the other needed something simple, Gilgamesh would offer assistance without hesitation.
Gradually, the relationship between the three brothers improved, and Gilgamesh's attitude began to change in subtle, imperceptible ways.
One day, a storm raged across the sea. Dark clouds smothered the sky as lightning and thunder roared, followed by a torrential downpour.
Gilgamesh sat cross-legged alone on the beach, the rising seawater already reaching his knees, yet he remained still—as if he couldn't feel it at all.
On the surface, he looked like a motionless stone statue, devoid of any vitality. But within, his inner universe blazed brilliantly, having already touched the gates of Amala consciousness.
"This feeling… my body is changing, my soul is changing…"
It was like the rhythm of nature itself, yet also like the overwhelming grandeur of a cosmic explosion.
Gilgamesh felt his soul and body being transformed from the inside out, reshaped by the microcosm.
In a trance, he seemed to see the microscopic world—the bonds between atoms—and his soul consciousness could even manipulate and recombine them, bringing matter into creation or destruction.
Like a true god, capable of miracles or annihilation in an instant.
At the same time, he sensed an independent space connected to him—his King's Treasury.
In the darkness, countless divine weapons and treasures floated like stars, silently awaiting his call.
With just a moment of focus, he could know their true names, their histories—everything about them.
It was as though his vision had pierced back through time itself, witnessing each treasure's birth within the river of ages.
This was a sign of his soul evolving toward true godhood… though Gilgamesh was completely unaware of it.
He saw Ea at a glance and could even observe its atomic structure with perfect microscopic clarity.
With just a thought, he understood that he could create another Ea from sheer will alone.
This was the authority of the "Will of God"—to bring into existence whatever he imagined, only to erase it a moment later.
Meanwhile, his body underwent a tremendous transformation. His microcosm seemed to fuse with every cell, turning him into a true energy body.
If he wished, he could transform into a void particle, merging with the universe and becoming omnipresent.
He could communicate across millions of light-years, or solidify his physical form in any corner of existence.
He could possess, seize, and assimilate…
as though he had truly reached the realm of a god—omnipotent and boundless.
But when he looked outward—beyond the universe itself—Gilgamesh's expression changed instantly…
Visit patreon.com/ShiroTL for more chapters.