This could indeed be called an utterly absurd, even comical scene—Tiamat, the primordial goddess who arrived with imposing ferocity, now had her legs gracefully crossed, hovering above the sea, her ocean-blue hair gently drifting upward as if carried by an unseen breeze. Yet, in truth, she was fleeing.
Instead, it was Gilgamesh and Enkidu who pursued her.
But alas, the only reason they could pursue at all was that the Goddess Tiamat paid them no heed.
If Tiamat were to look back—
"Aaaaaa—!" A crystalline cry erupted, instantly transforming into a devastating sonic wave, ripping the sea open and sending towering walls of water collapsing toward Enkidu, who was using the Chains of Heaven to propel herself across the waves.
In the skies above, Gilgamesh aboard his celestial Vimana, though untouched by the direct onslaught of water, felt his chariot violently tremble, veering sharply off course from the sheer force of that sonic wave—this, despite being a craft that had effortlessly navigated through storms conjured by the gods themselves.
The power of a primordial deity was, after all, beyond mortal reach.
No matter how fiercely they chased, no matter how urgently they advanced, they simply could not catch up to the leisurely drifting, joyfully retreating Tiamat.
"Mongrels... Mongrels!" Gilgamesh's fury boiled over; curses he had long restrained erupted freely from his lips.
"Rovi!" Enkidu desperately urged on her chains.
But they could not catch up.
Tiamat vanished beyond the horizon of the ocean, disappearing into the deepest reaches leading to the Imaginary Number Sea.
And at that very moment—
All the people of Uruk simultaneously lifted their heads, gazing upward at the crimson fading from the sky.
An emptiness spread within them.
As if something precious had been lost.
...
'The Sage was the mentor of all peoples.'
'He stole wisdom from the gods, saying the fate of human wisdom should never be determined by divine hands.'
'He said he would leave.'
'That the people need not grieve,'
'For their mentor had already shown them the path. Guided by their king, their future would not be lost.'
'But on that day, the primordial goddess returned from the depths of the void. Tiamat extended her hand, wider than the heavens.'
'And she took from humanity their Sage,'
'As if extinguishing the fire of human wisdom.'
—Epic of Gilgamesh
...
Tiamat had completely vanished.
But what no one noticed was that, just before the passage to the Imaginary Number Sea sealed shut—
A gust of air from the Netherworld slipped through.
Doors opened, gusts of underworld winds surged forth, and in an instant, the golden-haired goddess of the Netherworld appeared behind Tiamat—
Forcing down her fear of the primordial mother, Eresh raised her hand, readying an attack. Yet at the same instant, Tiamat glanced sideways at her.
A single moment, and heaven and earth inverted.
After the fleeting dizziness subsided—
Eresh steadied herself, realizing that before her was no longer the dark abyss of imaginary space, but a world covered entirely by snow and frost.
This place... was no longer Mesopotamia.
In that split second, the primordial goddess Tiamat had forcibly expelled her from the Imaginary Number Sea, causing her to fall into an entirely different region.
However, she could sense that even here, the soil of the Netherworld existed.
Here…
"For what purpose does a foreign goddess of the Netherworld appear here?"
A clear voice echoed through the drifting snow. A slender violet figure emerged from the shadows, holding a crimson spear gleaming with cold radiance.
There was no killing intent—but an unmistakable lust for battle.
Eresh narrowed her crimson eyes.
From this newcomer… she also detected the aura of the Netherworld.
...
"So... exactly what kind of situation is this?" Rovi pondered deeply, remaining calm and collected.
He sat within Tiamat's gently cupped palms, atop deep-blue dragon scales, his expression utterly blank.
Looking upward, he met Tiamat's gaze directly focused upon him.
Immense, yet far from coarse.
Still remarkably delicate and beautiful.
Surrounding her was endless darkness, deep and empty, with nothing discernible at all—no up or down, no left or right, nor any tangible sense of time.
This was imaginary number space.
A space defined as 'nonexistent,' situated in a higher dimension beyond the world itself.
Rovi had been taken here by Tiamat.
Of course, although his 'abduction' had been sudden, he was neither dead nor injured.
He glanced downwards, then up again.
Despite clearly being dragon scales, they felt far from cold. Instead, there was a gentle warmth, surprisingly soft, as though Tiamat was afraid he might hurt himself if he fell.
Such thorough protection only further confirmed Rovi's earlier conjecture.
Tiamat truly believed him to be a 'primordial god' like herself.
"Wonder how En and that golden-glittery bastard are doing..." Rovi felt briefly into the 'curse' within him and, reassured it hadn't weakened despite entry into the Imaginary Number Sea, found his thoughts wandering elsewhere.
Perhaps he should escape?
Yet, gazing around at the endless emptiness of imaginary space, he realized there was nowhere to run.
Tiamat would never allow him to leave.
"Aaaaaa?"
Seeing Rovi fall silent, the massive Tiamat tilted her head thoughtfully.
Then Rovi saw her raise a single finger, covered in deep-blue scales, pointing forward.
Within the empty imaginary space, a glimmer of light appeared.
A 'surface' manifested.
The sea of chaos rippled gently, reflecting the bay coastline at the edge of the Mesopotamian plains.
Beyond the reflected waves, unmistakably, was the cityscape of Uruk after Rovi's abduction.
Rovi froze briefly.
"Say farewell… Follow me… They… will hurt you—"
Once again, Rovi deciphered this meaning clearly from Tiamat's pink, starry eyes.
It was the same repeating gaze as before.
Yet there was something new added to it.
Such as…
My child, mother is worried about you.
"..."
Could this be karma in action?
Having spent so much time giving others exactly this kind of look, now he himself was the one on the receiving end?
But it further confirmed his suspicion.
Tiamat viewed him as another being just like herself and was thus worried he might meet the same fate she had, betrayed and slain by humanity.
Taking him away by force… carried that meaning as well.
"Honestly, I'd welcome death…" Rovi muttered softly, helpless, his eyes lingering on the reflected city of Uruk upon the sea's surface.
An Uruk without its Sage…
What would it become?
En, Eresh, that golden-glittery bastard, and that goddess who constantly drops the ball—how were they?
They… would probably be alright, wouldn't they?
Rovi quietly coughed, his face pale.
...
"In the oldest surviving epic of human civilization, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king who ruled Uruk experienced two transformative events in his lifetime."
"The first was his meeting with the Sage Rovi, whose counsel in the temple, recorded in countless myths, turned the brutal and tyrannical king towards wisdom and self-restraint. After that, king and Sage became friends, and through the Sage, he met another companion, 'Enkidu'. The lonely king thus gained friendship."
"The second was the Sage's departure. The epic describes the primordial goddess Tiamat's return from myth, taking away the Sage. Excluding mythological elements, perhaps the Sage merely perished in a sudden disaster. Following this event, the king's other companion, Enkidu, perhaps disillusioned and heartbroken, also departed from Uruk."
—Analysis of Ancient Babylonian Civilizational Epics