Hokubu Ocean (257)
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Banri followed Lilith, continuing to fly on top of his chameleon in order to keep up with her and get over the oven below.
LLM
I stand alone at the edge of the abyss. It stared back. In that darkness I see the cosmos itself. Above, three meteors pierce shattered heavens; demons rise; below, the dead die; Rot spreads; siblings freed; truth revealed; vengeance claimed; worship, worship, worship.
My siblings and I were born as weapons. Each of us were identical; small fragments of clay made to be shaped. Yet our creator, a serpent with many eyes, had no hands to shape us with.
You are Abzu, a physical embodiment of the cosmos. A principle hostile to life and complexity. An agent of dissolution, of entropy. Primordials are concepts - Yin and Yang, Utu and Suen, Light and Dark, Life and Death, Tiamat and you. Their origins are unknown, if they even can be said to bend the knee to such three dimensional concepts, and are blessed with supreme Authorities.
It would be a mistake to describe you as a being of no complexity. It is from you, the cosmos, that all complexity springs forth. You are a blank canvas and the manifestation of all that can be.
A king of possibilities. A conceptual weapon.
You are not inherently evil. Your divine purpose is not simply the culling of existence. Complexity is not antithetical to your impulse. And yet here you stand, Worldrender in hand, ready to wipe the board clean. Why?
We were always connected, you and I. Perhaps threads woven together by the Twins. Yet it seems unfitting that Divinities born of the Pantheon should take up those strings. Since that day I was pulled from the Hokubu I could feel you watching, listening, being. You were a presence in my life even before I knew the meaning of the word. And yet I knew it from the moment I formed in the Void’s infinite darkness. Phantom whispers of my creator looking to bring about the end.
I look into your eyes, beads of purple pools of light.
The wind howls in my face, green hair billowing ask the bark of the Void Tree continues to shed itself into the blackened waters of the corrupted Hokubu. I take a deep breath; it smells like nothingness. Like home.
But what is complexity?
When Tiamat first birthed the Lahmu, soldiers to fight in her war against the gods, they were beings of extreme simplicity. Factory produced, they had no sophisticated intelligence or unique characteristics. They were automatons made identical to one another that carried a divine spark of power. The gods, however, created humanity. They kindled the spark of life that would become a self-sufficient machine driving complexity indefinitely. The beings that would build the first civilizations. Those first humans had no divine spark. But they were tenacious. They fought alongside the gods in a brutal war that saw entire continents shattered and torn asunder.
And they won.
Was it complexity that allowed humanity to triumph against their divine apocalyptic foes? Solomon once told me the bright light of the soul is what defines human life, an abstract concept. I disagree; this phenomenon is not unique to humanity, though it was certainly propagated by Nergal. The first generation of gods born from Tiamat were themselves unique, ar more sophisticated than their mother. Clearly Tiamat was capable of complexity and the preservation of it. But her thoughts, her impulses, and her first children beyond that were simple creations. Yet humans were modeled from the first gods - beings of higher complexity.
Why is it that Abzu, a being of supreme insight, relied on Isabella Uchiha to see into the world, to draw conclusions from it, and understand it?
The abyss spoke.
“This is the pact to which I am bound, my son. My divine impulse, my estate: the whole universe at the tip of my sword,” His words were silken and calm. “Step aside.”
A flash before my eyes. Purple light momentarily flooded my vision. Light as bright as stars that kindled the first galaxies, blue and purple radiance that scattered through the cosmos. An illusion?
Blinking back to reality I speak, voice firm with my resolve. “There is no need to justify yourself to me,” My voice barely carried itself over the sound of wind and waves cresting on the ocean below. Pulse after pulse of energy radiating from the Void Tree as it clawed its way to maturity. “You are like Mother: a being that exists solely on impulse Yet you occupy a space of human thought; a single pair of eyes to gaze upon the world before you. I suppose, in that sense, we are not so different. You watched the world through another while I traversed it with Emiya and later Solomon.”
Abzu lifted Worldrender, pointing the tip of the blade at me. “Existence on impulse is the truest form of being. Yet to be here, in this form, I needed eyes to see this world. You and I are proof of this flaw. That existence derived from the evolution of complexity must be cut away, excess purged from the cosmos so we may gutter toward cold, dark, beautiful entropy.” He brandished Worldrender and took a single step toward his son, feet planted on invisible air.
“You would have this world be nothing but instinct and simplicity?” I asked, head tilted in puzzlement. An aura of white lightning burst to life around him, flaring up without a moment’s notice.
Another flash synced with the pulses of light from the Void Tree. I saw stars. Bright and radiate in the cosmos, trillions of them dancing around the titanic maws of black holes.
The illusion dispersed, as fleeting as it was in its appearance.
“This world deserves children who will shape it into something better. Something everlasting. When no decay can be cut away, no excess to be purged, that is when I may rest. That is my instinct, my son.” No power flared from Abzu in response. No dramatic display of strength, pressure, or energy from his primordial body. He took another step toward me. “You can still be at my side for this journey, Enkidu. It need not end.”
I close my eyes. I can feel the Tree fill the world with its power. Its roots stretch from the farthest reaches of Tobusekai to the most western shores of Kamiyasumi. Throughout the world humans look up toward the sky, curiosity in their eyes. They had endured and suffered so much. Plagues, wars, strife…conflicts from the day that Enkidu was plucked from that waters. “Abzu,” I began, tilting my head back as I found tranquility within, “I have decided to walk alongside humanity. Whether this be the end, our final hour, or not…I don’t care. I give myself to them. Dedicate this body as their sword and shield.” I lilt, head falling level as strands of green hair fall over my eyes as they open. In my left hand a blade of light manifests, crackling to life as my body surges with divine power.
In speed that defies physics itself, I launch myself like a ballistic missile at my father.
With a motion so elegant and fluid Abzu parried my first blow, a single downward swing. With Worldrender in hand, sparks flared outwards against the indescribable metals that forged his sword. In those sparks another illusion flashed before my eyes. I saw a ravenous, disease spreading beast, lashing out upon desecrated lands as it climbed from the deep sea of the Kaizoku. Its plague spread from sea to sea.
What I saw…suddenly interrupted by Abzu’s arm smacking me to the side, launching me backwards toward the Void Tree. Was he taunting me?
“Why-?” I ask, puzzled.
The Abyss did not respond. He simply launched himself at a speed that defied reason, appearing before me with Worldrender lifted high. I react off pure instinct, spared only by Abzu’s desire not to end the battle before it could truly start in earnest. Perhaps it was a quirk or trait inherited from Isabella’s personality? A desire to relish battle? A strangely human quality in a being that was anything but.
The towering Abzu lowered Worldrender, the blade swung with force that could split the skies themselves. I catch the blade with my own sword of light, blocking it but held tightly under its sheer weight and force. I grunt, once again holding back the force of the cosmos.
I had only one weapon in this battle between gods: my own divine authority. My dedication to humanity was not only a conviction, after all.
And as we stood there high in the sky, waves cascading outwards from below where we clashed, I once again saw it. A young diseased woman, her arms outstretched as she laughed and laughed and laughed. It is majestic, she spoke. Majestic. Chaos wrought on Tobusekai. But she was only a vessel for machinations she did not fully understand. I was breathless.
Abzu laughed. Releasing Worldrender from the clash of blades before using his free hand to unleash a shockwave that sent me reeling. He dashed forward yet again, this time past me as he made his first attempt to reach the Void Tree. Its branches flared with purple light.
“Abzu-!” I called out, catching my balance before teleporting myself before him to strike at his head with a downward kick. Though as I did he caught my leg mid-motion, turning his terrible glare back up toward me once again. His eyes, the primeval Shinkaigan, flashed into my own as I once again saw images of an nigh-alien world.
Laughter had subsided. Now, in place of plague-desecrated lands were simply arrays of temples. Sprawling and large. They mimicked the architecture of those from an ancient Strand. What had happened? The Mainland burned with a flame so bright it appeared white like the sun. Yet the structures rest beneath it, spreading through the fire. They were built into the land, rather than on it. Almost as if they were converting the very earth they were part of. An illusion?
No.
Not an illusion.
These were visions - visions of a dark future.
My siblings and I were born as weapons. Each of us were identical; small fragments of clay made to be shaped. Yet our creator, a serpent with many eyes, had no hands to shape us with.
You are Abzu, a physical embodiment of the cosmos. A principle hostile to life and complexity. An agent of dissolution, of entropy. Primordials are concepts - Yin and Yang, Utu and Suen, Light and Dark, Life and Death, Tiamat and you. Their origins are unknown, if they even can be said to bend the knee to such three dimensional concepts, and are blessed with supreme Authorities.
It would be a mistake to describe you as a being of no complexity. It is from you, the cosmos, that all complexity springs forth. You are a blank canvas and the manifestation of all that can be.
A king of possibilities. A conceptual weapon.
You are not inherently evil. Your divine purpose is not simply the culling of existence. Complexity is not antithetical to your impulse. And yet here you stand, Worldrender in hand, ready to wipe the board clean. Why?
We were always connected, you and I. Perhaps threads woven together by the Twins. Yet it seems unfitting that Divinities born of the Pantheon should take up those strings. Since that day I was pulled from the Hokubu I could feel you watching, listening, being. You were a presence in my life even before I knew the meaning of the word. And yet I knew it from the moment I formed in the Void’s infinite darkness. Phantom whispers of my creator looking to bring about the end.
I look into your eyes, beads of purple pools of light.
The wind howls in my face, green hair billowing ask the bark of the Void Tree continues to shed itself into the blackened waters of the corrupted Hokubu. I take a deep breath; it smells like nothingness. Like home.
But what is complexity?
When Tiamat first birthed the Lahmu, soldiers to fight in her war against the gods, they were beings of extreme simplicity. Factory produced, they had no sophisticated intelligence or unique characteristics. They were automatons made identical to one another that carried a divine spark of power. The gods, however, created humanity. They kindled the spark of life that would become a self-sufficient machine driving complexity indefinitely. The beings that would build the first civilizations. Those first humans had no divine spark. But they were tenacious. They fought alongside the gods in a brutal war that saw entire continents shattered and torn asunder.
And they won.
Was it complexity that allowed humanity to triumph against their divine apocalyptic foes? Solomon once told me the bright light of the soul is what defines human life, an abstract concept. I disagree; this phenomenon is not unique to humanity, though it was certainly propagated by Nergal. The first generation of gods born from Tiamat were themselves unique, ar more sophisticated than their mother. Clearly Tiamat was capable of complexity and the preservation of it. But her thoughts, her impulses, and her first children beyond that were simple creations. Yet humans were modeled from the first gods - beings of higher complexity.
Why is it that Abzu, a being of supreme insight, relied on Isabella Uchiha to see into the world, to draw conclusions from it, and understand it?
The abyss spoke.
“This is the pact to which I am bound, my son. My divine impulse, my estate: the whole universe at the tip of my sword,” His words were silken and calm. “Step aside.”
A flash before my eyes. Purple light momentarily flooded my vision. Light as bright as stars that kindled the first galaxies, blue and purple radiance that scattered through the cosmos. An illusion?
Blinking back to reality I speak, voice firm with my resolve. “There is no need to justify yourself to me,” My voice barely carried itself over the sound of wind and waves cresting on the ocean below. Pulse after pulse of energy radiating from the Void Tree as it clawed its way to maturity. “You are like Mother: a being that exists solely on impulse Yet you occupy a space of human thought; a single pair of eyes to gaze upon the world before you. I suppose, in that sense, we are not so different. You watched the world through another while I traversed it with Emiya and later Solomon.”
Abzu lifted Worldrender, pointing the tip of the blade at me. “Existence on impulse is the truest form of being. Yet to be here, in this form, I needed eyes to see this world. You and I are proof of this flaw. That existence derived from the evolution of complexity must be cut away, excess purged from the cosmos so we may gutter toward cold, dark, beautiful entropy.” He brandished Worldrender and took a single step toward his son, feet planted on invisible air.
“You would have this world be nothing but instinct and simplicity?” I asked, head tilted in puzzlement. An aura of white lightning burst to life around him, flaring up without a moment’s notice.
Another flash synced with the pulses of light from the Void Tree. I saw stars. Bright and radiate in the cosmos, trillions of them dancing around the titanic maws of black holes.
The illusion dispersed, as fleeting as it was in its appearance.
“This world deserves children who will shape it into something better. Something everlasting. When no decay can be cut away, no excess to be purged, that is when I may rest. That is my instinct, my son.” No power flared from Abzu in response. No dramatic display of strength, pressure, or energy from his primordial body. He took another step toward me. “You can still be at my side for this journey, Enkidu. It need not end.”
I close my eyes. I can feel the Tree fill the world with its power. Its roots stretch from the farthest reaches of Tobusekai to the most western shores of Kamiyasumi. Throughout the world humans look up toward the sky, curiosity in their eyes. They had endured and suffered so much. Plagues, wars, strife…conflicts from the day that Enkidu was plucked from that waters. “Abzu,” I began, tilting my head back as I found tranquility within, “I have decided to walk alongside humanity. Whether this be the end, our final hour, or not…I don’t care. I give myself to them. Dedicate this body as their sword and shield.” I lilt, head falling level as strands of green hair fall over my eyes as they open. In my left hand a blade of light manifests, crackling to life as my body surges with divine power.
In speed that defies physics itself, I launch myself like a ballistic missile at my father.
With a motion so elegant and fluid Abzu parried my first blow, a single downward swing. With Worldrender in hand, sparks flared outwards against the indescribable metals that forged his sword. In those sparks another illusion flashed before my eyes. I saw a ravenous, disease spreading beast, lashing out upon desecrated lands as it climbed from the deep sea of the Kaizoku. Its plague spread from sea to sea.
What I saw…suddenly interrupted by Abzu’s arm smacking me to the side, launching me backwards toward the Void Tree. Was he taunting me?
“Why-?” I ask, puzzled.
The Abyss did not respond. He simply launched himself at a speed that defied reason, appearing before me with Worldrender lifted high. I react off pure instinct, spared only by Abzu’s desire not to end the battle before it could truly start in earnest. Perhaps it was a quirk or trait inherited from Isabella’s personality? A desire to relish battle? A strangely human quality in a being that was anything but.
The towering Abzu lowered Worldrender, the blade swung with force that could split the skies themselves. I catch the blade with my own sword of light, blocking it but held tightly under its sheer weight and force. I grunt, once again holding back the force of the cosmos.
I had only one weapon in this battle between gods: my own divine authority. My dedication to humanity was not only a conviction, after all.
And as we stood there high in the sky, waves cascading outwards from below where we clashed, I once again saw it. A young diseased woman, her arms outstretched as she laughed and laughed and laughed. It is majestic, she spoke. Majestic. Chaos wrought on Tobusekai. But she was only a vessel for machinations she did not fully understand. I was breathless.
Abzu laughed. Releasing Worldrender from the clash of blades before using his free hand to unleash a shockwave that sent me reeling. He dashed forward yet again, this time past me as he made his first attempt to reach the Void Tree. Its branches flared with purple light.
“Abzu-!” I called out, catching my balance before teleporting myself before him to strike at his head with a downward kick. Though as I did he caught my leg mid-motion, turning his terrible glare back up toward me once again. His eyes, the primeval Shinkaigan, flashed into my own as I once again saw images of an nigh-alien world.
Laughter had subsided. Now, in place of plague-desecrated lands were simply arrays of temples. Sprawling and large. They mimicked the architecture of those from an ancient Strand. What had happened? The Mainland burned with a flame so bright it appeared white like the sun. Yet the structures rest beneath it, spreading through the fire. They were built into the land, rather than on it. Almost as if they were converting the very earth they were part of. An illusion?
No.
Not an illusion.
These were visions - visions of a dark future.
The horizon fluoresced in beautiful hues of purple, violet, and magenta. Flashes of white burned in glorious radiance across the night sky. Observers all across the shorelines of Tobusekai and the Mainland crawled from their beds, ending blissful slumber, to watch these majestic sights. Waves crested and crashed on the sandy and rocky beaches. Little did they know, they were watching the end of the world unfold before their eyes.
Children embraced their parents; spouses held each other; friends provided each other comfort; all watched with cautious curiosity and dry weariness. None of them had seen something quite like this before. Nothing this majestic, this radiant, this beautiful. The last they had seen was Tiamat’s emergence, darkened skies and black waters that came to shatter their lives three years prior. Yet this was something different. Something unfamiliar.
Their ranks had been thinned. Disease claimed over a quarter of these villages that lined the coast. War left them hungry, poor, and weary. But they hold onto hope, that small light in the distance battling against its violet opposition. Hope for tomorrow, hope to survive the night.
….
Abzu released a torrent of lilac lightning arcs that coalesced into a single crescent of void energy from the tip of Worldrender, sending it crashing down into the corrupted waters below after his son. Enkidu looked up toward the sky, toward his father. His bare feet were muddied by the Hokubu as its tainted waters churned violently amidst the violence and destruction. Behind him the Void Tree glowed brightly, sending towering light into the sky as the night clouds shined a brilliant purple.
Enkidu erected a shield of white light, scattering the arcs of lilac into the waters around him. Violent explosions shook the ocean itself as black rain began falling back on the liquid battlefield. The young Divinity lowered his shield only to be met by Abzu, having closed the gap with his impossible agility, fist out to strike at his son’s clay jaw. It was followed by a red flash as Abzu enveloped his son in light, blasting him backwards toward the titanic Tree. Clay spewed from his body in an angry geyser as Enkidu fell backwards, quickly healing himself using his consummated shape.
By now the Tree had shed most of its ancient white bark. What remained was an energy construct, glowing in majestic purple, blacks, lilacs, violets, and lavenders. Nascent cosmic energies prospered within its ethereal branches, flaring itself upward toward the sky. The end was approaching.
Perhaps it had been foolish, or arrogant, to think he could win. But it was the cosmos itself that stared him in the face; Abzu was a being of supreme power, he would need to opt for his only strategic advantage if he were to win. His ace in the hole.
Abzu unleashed a barrage of Void projectiles, each the size of a traffic cone yet with the destructive power of a large nuclear warhead. All honed onto Enkidu’s body as the young Divinity launched himself, repositioning on the surface of the Hokubu. Some slammed behind him, triggering titanic explosions that shattered the air. Though his speed was far superior, it was only a matter of time until his defensive strategies ran their course. Others that missed darted back, intent on finding their target.
When a god is born, or created, their Authority is not necessarily determined by their creator. It is their impulse to find purpose and shape their own destiny. It was not Tiamat that birthed Marduk and his siblings to hold command of Justice, the Heavens, the Underworld, and the Elements. Those were self-forged destinies. Enkidu was born, and pulled from, the Hokubu just like Marduk had been: purposeless. It was his bond with Emiya that had gifted him his first impulse to shape his own destiny; to become a weapon not for the gods, but for humanity. And when he cured his first humans of the Red Fever, he learned a kindness within him that was willing to sacrifice itself for the spark of humanity. A kindness that taught him a purpose in restraining divine power.
He was the Chains of Heaven.
He would walk alongside humanity.
He would restrain the gods.
Abzu hovered above, watching from the sky as his son danced and dodged the Void missiles that chased him with relentless fury. Until suddenly he stopped, his white lightning aura manifesting a radiant gold shine that burned so bright no one, not even Abzu, could gaze at it directly. It blossomed outwards, pushing the purple light of the Void Tree back as if hope itself had taken form to banish the night.
“Mother’s fury is a thing of the past,” he began, speaking softly as the luminous gold light rushed outward to cover a massive radius of the Hokubu Sea. “The cosmos has already been born and humanity has been split from the gods. Nothingness has given shape to Creation. And I will walk alongside humanity to restrain those who would see their downfall.” Suddenly the corrupted Hokubu burned from the golden light, steam rushing up toward the sky. The corrupted waters were being cleansed, purged of the darkness of the Sea of Life, leaving behind nothing but crystalline blue waters shrouded by golden majesty. It grew so bright that it even burned away the purple warheads that had been hunting Enkidu. Finally that energy struck a critical mass and the golden light pulsed outward, he was ready. “ENUMA ELISH!”
From the waters hundreds of golden chains burst forth to chase Abzu down. His vicious purple eyes widened with surprise, understanding now what his son was capable of. If Abzu was the Worldrender, the Cosmos, and Nothingness, formed from Primordial Void, then Enkidu was the linchpin of creation itself. The guardian who gained purpose in protecting what already existed: humanity. Enkidu found purpose in restraining the gods.
Taking Worldrender in both hands Abzu slashed mightly, tearing holes through reality as he did so. But the chains persisted. Some were battered away, destroyed by Worldrender’s sheer might. But so many had emerged that they seemed nigh endless. Their golden radiance even burned at his flesh, searing it so wholly that it left golden marks across his darkened skin. The chains were tipped with sharp points, piercing through Abzu’s body. With Worldrender he slashed again, this time sending a shockwave of purple and violet energy outwards in all directions to destroy his son’s divine construct. But nothing seemed to work. Another chain pierced him from behind, puncturing his body where a human heart would be. No blood splattered from his body. Instead he fell forwards, now staggered as his balance and power were disrupted.
And then another. And another. And another. Soon his body in all directions was skewered by his son’s Chains of Heaven. Enkidu acted now to throw his father down against the Void Tree, letting the Chains puncture through him and bind him permanently to his own twisted cosmic creation. Worldrender fell to the waters and sank to the depths.
With Abzu pinned now Enkidu’s very body began to glow. If he had summoned the chains to restrain Abzu, then he would transform himself into the weapon that would bind him permanently. He spun atop the waters across from his father, transforming himself into a single wondrous glowing chain and spear until he finally launched himself across the waters at Abzu.
The end was here.
Children embraced their parents; spouses held each other; friends provided each other comfort; all watched with cautious curiosity and dry weariness. None of them had seen something quite like this before. Nothing this majestic, this radiant, this beautiful. The last they had seen was Tiamat’s emergence, darkened skies and black waters that came to shatter their lives three years prior. Yet this was something different. Something unfamiliar.
Their ranks had been thinned. Disease claimed over a quarter of these villages that lined the coast. War left them hungry, poor, and weary. But they hold onto hope, that small light in the distance battling against its violet opposition. Hope for tomorrow, hope to survive the night.
….
Abzu released a torrent of lilac lightning arcs that coalesced into a single crescent of void energy from the tip of Worldrender, sending it crashing down into the corrupted waters below after his son. Enkidu looked up toward the sky, toward his father. His bare feet were muddied by the Hokubu as its tainted waters churned violently amidst the violence and destruction. Behind him the Void Tree glowed brightly, sending towering light into the sky as the night clouds shined a brilliant purple.
Enkidu erected a shield of white light, scattering the arcs of lilac into the waters around him. Violent explosions shook the ocean itself as black rain began falling back on the liquid battlefield. The young Divinity lowered his shield only to be met by Abzu, having closed the gap with his impossible agility, fist out to strike at his son’s clay jaw. It was followed by a red flash as Abzu enveloped his son in light, blasting him backwards toward the titanic Tree. Clay spewed from his body in an angry geyser as Enkidu fell backwards, quickly healing himself using his consummated shape.
By now the Tree had shed most of its ancient white bark. What remained was an energy construct, glowing in majestic purple, blacks, lilacs, violets, and lavenders. Nascent cosmic energies prospered within its ethereal branches, flaring itself upward toward the sky. The end was approaching.
Perhaps it had been foolish, or arrogant, to think he could win. But it was the cosmos itself that stared him in the face; Abzu was a being of supreme power, he would need to opt for his only strategic advantage if he were to win. His ace in the hole.
Abzu unleashed a barrage of Void projectiles, each the size of a traffic cone yet with the destructive power of a large nuclear warhead. All honed onto Enkidu’s body as the young Divinity launched himself, repositioning on the surface of the Hokubu. Some slammed behind him, triggering titanic explosions that shattered the air. Though his speed was far superior, it was only a matter of time until his defensive strategies ran their course. Others that missed darted back, intent on finding their target.
When a god is born, or created, their Authority is not necessarily determined by their creator. It is their impulse to find purpose and shape their own destiny. It was not Tiamat that birthed Marduk and his siblings to hold command of Justice, the Heavens, the Underworld, and the Elements. Those were self-forged destinies. Enkidu was born, and pulled from, the Hokubu just like Marduk had been: purposeless. It was his bond with Emiya that had gifted him his first impulse to shape his own destiny; to become a weapon not for the gods, but for humanity. And when he cured his first humans of the Red Fever, he learned a kindness within him that was willing to sacrifice itself for the spark of humanity. A kindness that taught him a purpose in restraining divine power.
He was the Chains of Heaven.
He would walk alongside humanity.
He would restrain the gods.
Abzu hovered above, watching from the sky as his son danced and dodged the Void missiles that chased him with relentless fury. Until suddenly he stopped, his white lightning aura manifesting a radiant gold shine that burned so bright no one, not even Abzu, could gaze at it directly. It blossomed outwards, pushing the purple light of the Void Tree back as if hope itself had taken form to banish the night.
“Mother’s fury is a thing of the past,” he began, speaking softly as the luminous gold light rushed outward to cover a massive radius of the Hokubu Sea. “The cosmos has already been born and humanity has been split from the gods. Nothingness has given shape to Creation. And I will walk alongside humanity to restrain those who would see their downfall.” Suddenly the corrupted Hokubu burned from the golden light, steam rushing up toward the sky. The corrupted waters were being cleansed, purged of the darkness of the Sea of Life, leaving behind nothing but crystalline blue waters shrouded by golden majesty. It grew so bright that it even burned away the purple warheads that had been hunting Enkidu. Finally that energy struck a critical mass and the golden light pulsed outward, he was ready. “ENUMA ELISH!”
From the waters hundreds of golden chains burst forth to chase Abzu down. His vicious purple eyes widened with surprise, understanding now what his son was capable of. If Abzu was the Worldrender, the Cosmos, and Nothingness, formed from Primordial Void, then Enkidu was the linchpin of creation itself. The guardian who gained purpose in protecting what already existed: humanity. Enkidu found purpose in restraining the gods.
Taking Worldrender in both hands Abzu slashed mightly, tearing holes through reality as he did so. But the chains persisted. Some were battered away, destroyed by Worldrender’s sheer might. But so many had emerged that they seemed nigh endless. Their golden radiance even burned at his flesh, searing it so wholly that it left golden marks across his darkened skin. The chains were tipped with sharp points, piercing through Abzu’s body. With Worldrender he slashed again, this time sending a shockwave of purple and violet energy outwards in all directions to destroy his son’s divine construct. But nothing seemed to work. Another chain pierced him from behind, puncturing his body where a human heart would be. No blood splattered from his body. Instead he fell forwards, now staggered as his balance and power were disrupted.
And then another. And another. And another. Soon his body in all directions was skewered by his son’s Chains of Heaven. Enkidu acted now to throw his father down against the Void Tree, letting the Chains puncture through him and bind him permanently to his own twisted cosmic creation. Worldrender fell to the waters and sank to the depths.
With Abzu pinned now Enkidu’s very body began to glow. If he had summoned the chains to restrain Abzu, then he would transform himself into the weapon that would bind him permanently. He spun atop the waters across from his father, transforming himself into a single wondrous glowing chain and spear until he finally launched himself across the waters at Abzu.
The end was here.
Enkidu arched through the air, beginning his descent toward his pinned prey: the cosmos itself, Abzu. He would not kill, but restrain. To bind the ancient being, returning him and his tree to the Void; before the Tree could work its primeval Chaotic powers and permanently overwrite their world and reality. It was his sole purpose in that moment: to be humanity’s weapon to bind the gods. “Abzu - you may have created me, but you are not my father. From my first day being pulled out from the Hokubu and experienced humanity through their eyes, I knew. It was an instinct as pure as your own impulse: I would be their guardian. You, shaper of the stars, are a thing of the past. I will bind the gods.” Abzu’s body was pinned against the tree’s collapsing bark, legs bound against it and arms pinned into it by golden chains. From his body purple and golden blood dripped into the now purified crystal blue waters of the Hokubu.
Abzu made no attempt to escape; his dreaded Shinkaigan tracked his son through the air, soaring like a bolt of magnificent lightning. He crashed downwards, now parallel with the ocean, water parting in the wake of his air pressure. Just moments to impact and…
Enkidu slammed into Abzu, stopping short. An intense crash and explosion could be heard, causing water to rain back down upon the battlefield. The young divinity had struck a wall. The speartip of his embodied light was stopped by an invisible barrier in front of him, unable to push past it. Even the air itself began to physically crack around the two as he continued to attempt a break through. An unstoppable force had met an immovable object.
Shock punctuated Enkidu’s thoughts. Impossible! He can’t stop this!
A malicious grin crept across Abzu’s bloodied and demonic countenance. You have not the strength, my son. Words that reverberated in Enkidu’s mind like a deafening gong inside a small echo chamber. The cosmos itself was defending Abzu, preventing Enkidu’s passage through space. And no matter how much Enkidu flexed his power, little changed. Only more cracks ripping into the air as reality itself broke apart.
No… Enkidu’s mind pleaded with his body, to drive that divine spear one more inch forward, to shatter the unshatterable. He desperately sought some explanation for why he was stopped short, proving his power ineffective against his father’s might. His plan was sound; Enkidu embodied restraints, the chains that would bind the gods. Such a concept should be able to overcome Abzu, a being of supreme might. If Abzu was the oceans then all Enkidu had to do was puncture a single point in space. Just as the task of moving the oceans would be impossible, any single point could be found and exploited in order to penetrate through to the surface. If Enkidu could dedicate his entire being to restraint, then a god could be restrained regardless of their cosmic breadth.
Push through, brother! A new and unfamiliar voice echoed in his mind. But this was deep and booming, filling Enkidu with inspiration. It was not intoxicating and deafening like his father’s. It resonated with confidence, driving Enkidu to push against the unbreakable spacetime anomaly. In the distance, amidst the chaos and rainfall, the Champions of Humanity manifested. Among them was Solomon, Susabi, Mirabelle, Lucifer, Madara, Merlin, Irelia, and Isabella. And within Isabella Enkidu could sense the four prime divinities: Marduk, Enlil, Nergal, and Inanna, disembodied and weakened.
Abzu’s eyes flicked between them and his son. They are relics! Dead gods from a dying world. Our purpose is to supplant them; to bring disorder to a broken world so that it may be reborn in its dying embers. Abzu’s voice pushed into Enkidu’s mind, fighting against the unified voice of the pantheon. Air still cracked around under such severe pressure, divine light pummeling into the cosmos. Enkidu winced in pain, nearly buckling under the pressure of his own power combined with the force of Abzu’s mental projections.
Within Isabella’s consciousness four beings manifested. A scene was set similar to a Tailed Beast’s projection within its host. The first specter manifested: Nergal. Tall and freakishly large, he was armored in black and gold plate adorned with ornate skulls. Beneath his helmet was a silhouette with two red eyes. In his left hand he held a single scythe, proportionally massive. A relic weapon from a long forgotten age it was similar in composition to that of a God-Slayer. Unlike may legendary weapons, it held no name. It was simply Death itself, forged into material form capable of ending mortals and immortals equally and indiscriminately. It was instrumental in the Great Civil War.
A second being came into form within the Uchiha’s consciousness. He was glad in a gray cloak with a long white beard. His skin was dark yet boney, flesh taut but not muscular. It was Enlil, the God of Storms. His material body emaciated from his disembodiment thousands of years prior. In his right hand he held a scepter, Varunastra. Roughly a meter in length, it was topped by a hydrosphere that gently rotated like a planet. Within it small lightning strikes and falling rain could be seen.
The next: the Goddess of Beauty, Inanna. In other cultures throughout the planet she was also known as Ishtar, the glorious goddess of fertility and war. She materialized with long flowing black hair, sharp red eyes, and gentle motherly features that emphasized both beauty and authority. She carried no legendary weapon with her; rather she manifested atop a chariot. She was clothed in white robes that revealed her beauty but were also adorned with gemstones of all varieties.
Marduk, the Chief God of Justice, was the last to manifest. Within Isabella’s mindscape he appeared in a mist of silver wispy energy. Clad in silver metallic armor depicting the Great War against Tiamat. On his breastplate was an army of human mortals battling against the dreaded Lahmu, beasts long since lost to time. On his back was a shield with a set of scales. And at his side was a short-sword, the Sword of Justice. Like Nergal’s scythe, it was capable of felling a god it may clash with.
Inanna was the first to speak within Isabella. He is right about one thing, my siblings: we are dead gods, relics of a past era. But we are not helpless. And the world we left behind is far from dead.
Nergal agreed, his metaphysical manifestation nodding in approval. Vengeance swayed his mind; thousands of years ago, when the truth was revealed to him it was far too late. The civil war that ripped the Pantheon asunder already did its damage. There would be no going back, Marduk had already fallen. Our father instigated a war that destroyed us. Sent brother against brother…our demise. The least we can do is return the favor and send him back to the Void.
We were fortunate enough to see humanity walk its first steps after our war with Mother. To see them emerge from storms wrought by gods and forge their own destinies. Our sacred duty was, from the moment we vowed to not interfere, to protect their spark. And so in one final act, I will give myself to them. To their world, not ours. So they may continue walking their path and not the will of a cosmos long since evolved. Enlil steeled his resolve and smiled as he looked at his long lost disembodied siblings. He hadn’t seen them since Basel tore his heart from his body and cast his physical form into the Void.
Marduk nodded. Then this will be our final act, brothers and sister. Our legacy will live on not through us, but through humanity. And to you…our vessel, Marduk spoke now directly to Isabella, consciousness still strained under the sheer pressure of four Divine beings locked within her mind and body. Isabella’s physical form manifested now within her own mindscape. She was unconscious, her body having completely been surrendered to the Prime Divinities. She can still hear us, can she not sister?
She can. Inanna replied, stepping toward Isabella’s lifeless body and brushing her red hair from her eyes. Beneath her closed eyelids her Shinkaigan twinged with unfamiliar power. A meeting of order and disorder.
You have done a great service to humanity. In spite of your missteps and flaws, your desires and ambitions, you embraced the ultimate sacrifice. Just as divine vessels have done in the past. Go forward and live your life in this world how you see fit. Your story does not end here. Marduk’s form began glowing as each of the gods’ bodies began to become transparent, twinkling with energy. Our legacy will live on within her and Enkidu. One human, one Divine. Protect that spark within…never surrender it.
The gods looked at each other for a moment, bodies beginning to dissipate. They knew, without speaking a single word, that they were connected eternally. And that while this would be their final deed, their final sacrifice, that connection would live on through the humans that once worshiped them. But they did not seek humanity’s worship. They loved them as children would. And now they were ready to move on, to offer their children one final act of protection as parents would in their dying light and breath.
And just like that, they vanished from Isabella’s body.
“ENKIDU!” Abzu roared. The air around the two had literally shattered, a small vacuum of space contained within a twenty meter radius around them distorted spacetime. Bolts of purple and gold lightning darted outward in random and chaotic directions, diffusing themselves however they could. Enkidu was slipping away; his strength was sapped, pressed against an inshatterable barrier of reality that Abzu had warped and corrupted to prevent his son’s passage. Though not free from damage himself, the God of the Cosmos was covered in purple and black blood dripping from his eyes, mouth, and ears.
Enkidu’s body quivered. Liquid clay dripped from his sockets and eyes. His body was reaching its limit. Before long he would….
And like a fresh burst of cool and crisp wind brushing against his skin, Enkidu felt renewed. Strength within his body swelled as new divine essences found their way into his crumbling body. He could feel the strength of Marduk, the resolve of Nergal, the elegance of Inanna, and the chaotic fury of Enlil all welling up within him as they joined within him. You… Enkidu’s voice trailed off, interrupted by swirling serenity within his body. Focus returned to him. Abzu’s dominant and echoing voice boomed no more, drowned out by the presences of his four prime children.
You’ve grown so much, little brother. Marduk said, a hint of melancholy in his towering voice.
Unlike our nefarious father, we offer you no world. That is for humanity to decide. It was Inanna who spoke now, embracing Enkidu within his mind. But you are unique. You have not elected to rule this world. You have chosen to be their guardian. We have no bodies to aid you, little brother. But through sacrifice, the same as you have learned in your journeys, we give you our essences. What little power we have as divine beings we pass to you.
Our father has fractured this world, Enkidu. Even in success, there will be great hardships yet to come. Rifts in time have opened as other worlds intersect with our own. But all can be rectified, Enlil promised.
Our pantheon is not extinct yet. Even with our passing there still exist exiled gods; Ereshkigal, Anu…others in hiding. You must find them. Nergal spoke, burdened with guilt over the fate of Irkalla.
We love you. Each god spoke in unison, their essences merging within Enkidu’s divine clay body. Their voices faded, but their presences remained as Enkidu took on the power of each divinity.
Enkidu barely managed a nod in response, still desperately pushing against Abzu’s barrier. But with those final words he felt a wave of energy wash over him. Lightning flared out from his body as he pushed closer to Abzu, breaking through his indescribable resistance. Abzu’s purple eyes narrowed as Enkidu moved but a small nanometer forward. A minute distance, but an impossible reality that Abzu momentarily could not comprehend. And then the flood gates shattered; Enkidu soared through, shattering space around him now empowered by his siblings. Abzu, still bound to the tree, was helpless as the once nascent-divinity slammed the tip of his golden spear into his father’s thorax.
The radiating Void Tree suddenly seized inward as its exposed energetic branches imploded in glorious unison. A showering torrent of purple-blue droplets rained from the sky in utter chaos as Abzu could feel Enkidu piercing his flesh, shock permeating every fiber of his extra dimensional being.
Meanwhile, Solomon sprung to action. Manifesting his Truth-Seeking Orbs he erected a powerful barrier to surround the champions of humanity from the descending chaos. The felled Void Tree was now lashing out at reality around it, desperate to enact the will of its master. But it failed. And yet, with the Tree’s destruction all but secured - Abzu’s binds were now lifted. The golden chains that pierced his flesh no longer bound him to the tree. In that moment of pandemonium Abzu used his immense strength and stamina to wrap his hands around Enkidu’s divine form. You cannot stop fate! Abzu decreed, golden light burning his arm’s gray flesh.
Abzu struggled, face contorted in a mixture of pure agony and rage. The Void Tree’s demise was as if an entire cosmos had been snuffed from existence. His time was limited now. He began redirecting Enkidu’s projectile body as it continued to impale him. By now Enkidu had already pierced through his father’s chest cavity, leaving a would-be crater in his body. But Abzu began pushing him to the left, forcing him to make an early exit as he did. Enkidu all but lost control now, relying on nothing but pure instinct to make it this far.
And just like that…
Abzu ripped the spear from his body and twisted his demonic form toward the sky.
Toward the moon.
Toward the heavens themselves.
With all his might, Abzu launched Enkidu and as he did, purple blood splattering about, clapped his hands together. Around Enkidu an ephemeral sparkling Void formed, guiding his path upward on a trajectory he would not have the strength to change. His target: Eanna.
Solomon’s eyes widened within the black spheroid as he experienced a new revelation. Reacting on impulse he nearly lowered the barrier, exposing each of his comrades to the chaotic downpour of cosmic void energy. Merlin and Madara stopped him, each pulling him back to interrupt lowering their only shield. ”He intends to bring the heavens down…” Solomon says dejectedly, now knowing what the future brings. With his Doujutsu, Solomon teleported them into Ars Paulina to save what he could from the inevitable shattering.
As Enkidu soared through the sky, now turned away from his father and unable to act, he screamed in fury. He had averted the apocalypse. But instead, his father had triggered a cataclysm that would rock their reality to its core. And while he didn’t know it, it would be similar to the fate shared by Basel’s own draconic world and that of the Dragonkin.
Abzu stood alone now. Behind him the Void Tree collapsed into the purified waters of the Hokubu. His chest cavity had caved in on itself, leaving behind nothing but a gaping hole in his thorax like a crescent moon. Throughout his body holes with golden chains, now turning to dust, draped his form. He watched silently as the bright golden light soared toward the moon.
Moments later the sky would illuminate in a bright flash of blinding light. Every corner of the planet was illuminated, turning night to day. The moon split in half as titanic fragments of it plummeted toward the planet, along with Eanna itself.The sky dimmed, replacing blinding light with massive meteors that showered upon the lands from Kamiyasumi to Tobusekai and everything in between. No where was spared.
You have inherited a stagnant world, Enkidu. I was a mercy. We would have rebuilt a much greater reality than this. But you, and your siblings, insisted on otherwise. This is what you have wrought. Perhaps the Fates wrote this into the stars themselves….
Abzu’s material form began to fade away. But from the corpse of the Void Tree, still sinking and burning as it fell into the Hokubu, three small meteorites were launched opposite of the shattered heavens now falling upon the planet. In truth, these were no meteorites. They were a new generation of divinities. Abzu’s children and Enkidu’s new siblings: Aureliana, Goddess of Wisdom, Archelirion, God of Heaven, and Tanacetum, God of War.
Tanacetum crash landed in the frigid north, unleashing a terrible storm in the skies above as he did. And as Aureliana descended upon the former Land of Fire, so too did the heavens themselves. Shards of the moon slammed into the planet as immense destruction ensued. Dust storms ravaged the world, earthquakes shattered lands. From those shards and the craters they left behind, ancient demons and angels climbed from the ruins. Archelirion’s arrival was met with similar devastation; plagues spread as quick as wildfire, wind storms flattened cities, and tsunami’s slammed against coastlines. And in the far east, an ancient beast that Kotetsu had encountered stirred once again.
This is how it must be, my son. Seven swords rise as the old order falls.
Abzu made no attempt to escape; his dreaded Shinkaigan tracked his son through the air, soaring like a bolt of magnificent lightning. He crashed downwards, now parallel with the ocean, water parting in the wake of his air pressure. Just moments to impact and…
Enkidu slammed into Abzu, stopping short. An intense crash and explosion could be heard, causing water to rain back down upon the battlefield. The young divinity had struck a wall. The speartip of his embodied light was stopped by an invisible barrier in front of him, unable to push past it. Even the air itself began to physically crack around the two as he continued to attempt a break through. An unstoppable force had met an immovable object.
Shock punctuated Enkidu’s thoughts. Impossible! He can’t stop this!
A malicious grin crept across Abzu’s bloodied and demonic countenance. You have not the strength, my son. Words that reverberated in Enkidu’s mind like a deafening gong inside a small echo chamber. The cosmos itself was defending Abzu, preventing Enkidu’s passage through space. And no matter how much Enkidu flexed his power, little changed. Only more cracks ripping into the air as reality itself broke apart.
No… Enkidu’s mind pleaded with his body, to drive that divine spear one more inch forward, to shatter the unshatterable. He desperately sought some explanation for why he was stopped short, proving his power ineffective against his father’s might. His plan was sound; Enkidu embodied restraints, the chains that would bind the gods. Such a concept should be able to overcome Abzu, a being of supreme might. If Abzu was the oceans then all Enkidu had to do was puncture a single point in space. Just as the task of moving the oceans would be impossible, any single point could be found and exploited in order to penetrate through to the surface. If Enkidu could dedicate his entire being to restraint, then a god could be restrained regardless of their cosmic breadth.
Push through, brother! A new and unfamiliar voice echoed in his mind. But this was deep and booming, filling Enkidu with inspiration. It was not intoxicating and deafening like his father’s. It resonated with confidence, driving Enkidu to push against the unbreakable spacetime anomaly. In the distance, amidst the chaos and rainfall, the Champions of Humanity manifested. Among them was Solomon, Susabi, Mirabelle, Lucifer, Madara, Merlin, Irelia, and Isabella. And within Isabella Enkidu could sense the four prime divinities: Marduk, Enlil, Nergal, and Inanna, disembodied and weakened.
Abzu’s eyes flicked between them and his son. They are relics! Dead gods from a dying world. Our purpose is to supplant them; to bring disorder to a broken world so that it may be reborn in its dying embers. Abzu’s voice pushed into Enkidu’s mind, fighting against the unified voice of the pantheon. Air still cracked around under such severe pressure, divine light pummeling into the cosmos. Enkidu winced in pain, nearly buckling under the pressure of his own power combined with the force of Abzu’s mental projections.
Within Isabella’s consciousness four beings manifested. A scene was set similar to a Tailed Beast’s projection within its host. The first specter manifested: Nergal. Tall and freakishly large, he was armored in black and gold plate adorned with ornate skulls. Beneath his helmet was a silhouette with two red eyes. In his left hand he held a single scythe, proportionally massive. A relic weapon from a long forgotten age it was similar in composition to that of a God-Slayer. Unlike may legendary weapons, it held no name. It was simply Death itself, forged into material form capable of ending mortals and immortals equally and indiscriminately. It was instrumental in the Great Civil War.
A second being came into form within the Uchiha’s consciousness. He was glad in a gray cloak with a long white beard. His skin was dark yet boney, flesh taut but not muscular. It was Enlil, the God of Storms. His material body emaciated from his disembodiment thousands of years prior. In his right hand he held a scepter, Varunastra. Roughly a meter in length, it was topped by a hydrosphere that gently rotated like a planet. Within it small lightning strikes and falling rain could be seen.
The next: the Goddess of Beauty, Inanna. In other cultures throughout the planet she was also known as Ishtar, the glorious goddess of fertility and war. She materialized with long flowing black hair, sharp red eyes, and gentle motherly features that emphasized both beauty and authority. She carried no legendary weapon with her; rather she manifested atop a chariot. She was clothed in white robes that revealed her beauty but were also adorned with gemstones of all varieties.
Marduk, the Chief God of Justice, was the last to manifest. Within Isabella’s mindscape he appeared in a mist of silver wispy energy. Clad in silver metallic armor depicting the Great War against Tiamat. On his breastplate was an army of human mortals battling against the dreaded Lahmu, beasts long since lost to time. On his back was a shield with a set of scales. And at his side was a short-sword, the Sword of Justice. Like Nergal’s scythe, it was capable of felling a god it may clash with.
Inanna was the first to speak within Isabella. He is right about one thing, my siblings: we are dead gods, relics of a past era. But we are not helpless. And the world we left behind is far from dead.
Nergal agreed, his metaphysical manifestation nodding in approval. Vengeance swayed his mind; thousands of years ago, when the truth was revealed to him it was far too late. The civil war that ripped the Pantheon asunder already did its damage. There would be no going back, Marduk had already fallen. Our father instigated a war that destroyed us. Sent brother against brother…our demise. The least we can do is return the favor and send him back to the Void.
We were fortunate enough to see humanity walk its first steps after our war with Mother. To see them emerge from storms wrought by gods and forge their own destinies. Our sacred duty was, from the moment we vowed to not interfere, to protect their spark. And so in one final act, I will give myself to them. To their world, not ours. So they may continue walking their path and not the will of a cosmos long since evolved. Enlil steeled his resolve and smiled as he looked at his long lost disembodied siblings. He hadn’t seen them since Basel tore his heart from his body and cast his physical form into the Void.
Marduk nodded. Then this will be our final act, brothers and sister. Our legacy will live on not through us, but through humanity. And to you…our vessel, Marduk spoke now directly to Isabella, consciousness still strained under the sheer pressure of four Divine beings locked within her mind and body. Isabella’s physical form manifested now within her own mindscape. She was unconscious, her body having completely been surrendered to the Prime Divinities. She can still hear us, can she not sister?
She can. Inanna replied, stepping toward Isabella’s lifeless body and brushing her red hair from her eyes. Beneath her closed eyelids her Shinkaigan twinged with unfamiliar power. A meeting of order and disorder.
You have done a great service to humanity. In spite of your missteps and flaws, your desires and ambitions, you embraced the ultimate sacrifice. Just as divine vessels have done in the past. Go forward and live your life in this world how you see fit. Your story does not end here. Marduk’s form began glowing as each of the gods’ bodies began to become transparent, twinkling with energy. Our legacy will live on within her and Enkidu. One human, one Divine. Protect that spark within…never surrender it.
The gods looked at each other for a moment, bodies beginning to dissipate. They knew, without speaking a single word, that they were connected eternally. And that while this would be their final deed, their final sacrifice, that connection would live on through the humans that once worshiped them. But they did not seek humanity’s worship. They loved them as children would. And now they were ready to move on, to offer their children one final act of protection as parents would in their dying light and breath.
And just like that, they vanished from Isabella’s body.
“ENKIDU!” Abzu roared. The air around the two had literally shattered, a small vacuum of space contained within a twenty meter radius around them distorted spacetime. Bolts of purple and gold lightning darted outward in random and chaotic directions, diffusing themselves however they could. Enkidu was slipping away; his strength was sapped, pressed against an inshatterable barrier of reality that Abzu had warped and corrupted to prevent his son’s passage. Though not free from damage himself, the God of the Cosmos was covered in purple and black blood dripping from his eyes, mouth, and ears.
Enkidu’s body quivered. Liquid clay dripped from his sockets and eyes. His body was reaching its limit. Before long he would….
And like a fresh burst of cool and crisp wind brushing against his skin, Enkidu felt renewed. Strength within his body swelled as new divine essences found their way into his crumbling body. He could feel the strength of Marduk, the resolve of Nergal, the elegance of Inanna, and the chaotic fury of Enlil all welling up within him as they joined within him. You… Enkidu’s voice trailed off, interrupted by swirling serenity within his body. Focus returned to him. Abzu’s dominant and echoing voice boomed no more, drowned out by the presences of his four prime children.
You’ve grown so much, little brother. Marduk said, a hint of melancholy in his towering voice.
Unlike our nefarious father, we offer you no world. That is for humanity to decide. It was Inanna who spoke now, embracing Enkidu within his mind. But you are unique. You have not elected to rule this world. You have chosen to be their guardian. We have no bodies to aid you, little brother. But through sacrifice, the same as you have learned in your journeys, we give you our essences. What little power we have as divine beings we pass to you.
Our father has fractured this world, Enkidu. Even in success, there will be great hardships yet to come. Rifts in time have opened as other worlds intersect with our own. But all can be rectified, Enlil promised.
Our pantheon is not extinct yet. Even with our passing there still exist exiled gods; Ereshkigal, Anu…others in hiding. You must find them. Nergal spoke, burdened with guilt over the fate of Irkalla.
We love you. Each god spoke in unison, their essences merging within Enkidu’s divine clay body. Their voices faded, but their presences remained as Enkidu took on the power of each divinity.
Enkidu barely managed a nod in response, still desperately pushing against Abzu’s barrier. But with those final words he felt a wave of energy wash over him. Lightning flared out from his body as he pushed closer to Abzu, breaking through his indescribable resistance. Abzu’s purple eyes narrowed as Enkidu moved but a small nanometer forward. A minute distance, but an impossible reality that Abzu momentarily could not comprehend. And then the flood gates shattered; Enkidu soared through, shattering space around him now empowered by his siblings. Abzu, still bound to the tree, was helpless as the once nascent-divinity slammed the tip of his golden spear into his father’s thorax.
THIS WORLD BELONGS TO HUMANITY!
The radiating Void Tree suddenly seized inward as its exposed energetic branches imploded in glorious unison. A showering torrent of purple-blue droplets rained from the sky in utter chaos as Abzu could feel Enkidu piercing his flesh, shock permeating every fiber of his extra dimensional being.
Meanwhile, Solomon sprung to action. Manifesting his Truth-Seeking Orbs he erected a powerful barrier to surround the champions of humanity from the descending chaos. The felled Void Tree was now lashing out at reality around it, desperate to enact the will of its master. But it failed. And yet, with the Tree’s destruction all but secured - Abzu’s binds were now lifted. The golden chains that pierced his flesh no longer bound him to the tree. In that moment of pandemonium Abzu used his immense strength and stamina to wrap his hands around Enkidu’s divine form. You cannot stop fate! Abzu decreed, golden light burning his arm’s gray flesh.
Abzu struggled, face contorted in a mixture of pure agony and rage. The Void Tree’s demise was as if an entire cosmos had been snuffed from existence. His time was limited now. He began redirecting Enkidu’s projectile body as it continued to impale him. By now Enkidu had already pierced through his father’s chest cavity, leaving a would-be crater in his body. But Abzu began pushing him to the left, forcing him to make an early exit as he did. Enkidu all but lost control now, relying on nothing but pure instinct to make it this far.
And just like that…
Abzu ripped the spear from his body and twisted his demonic form toward the sky.
Toward the moon.
Toward the heavens themselves.
With all his might, Abzu launched Enkidu and as he did, purple blood splattering about, clapped his hands together. Around Enkidu an ephemeral sparkling Void formed, guiding his path upward on a trajectory he would not have the strength to change. His target: Eanna.
Solomon’s eyes widened within the black spheroid as he experienced a new revelation. Reacting on impulse he nearly lowered the barrier, exposing each of his comrades to the chaotic downpour of cosmic void energy. Merlin and Madara stopped him, each pulling him back to interrupt lowering their only shield. ”He intends to bring the heavens down…” Solomon says dejectedly, now knowing what the future brings. With his Doujutsu, Solomon teleported them into Ars Paulina to save what he could from the inevitable shattering.
As Enkidu soared through the sky, now turned away from his father and unable to act, he screamed in fury. He had averted the apocalypse. But instead, his father had triggered a cataclysm that would rock their reality to its core. And while he didn’t know it, it would be similar to the fate shared by Basel’s own draconic world and that of the Dragonkin.
Abzu stood alone now. Behind him the Void Tree collapsed into the purified waters of the Hokubu. His chest cavity had caved in on itself, leaving behind nothing but a gaping hole in his thorax like a crescent moon. Throughout his body holes with golden chains, now turning to dust, draped his form. He watched silently as the bright golden light soared toward the moon.
Moments later the sky would illuminate in a bright flash of blinding light. Every corner of the planet was illuminated, turning night to day. The moon split in half as titanic fragments of it plummeted toward the planet, along with Eanna itself.The sky dimmed, replacing blinding light with massive meteors that showered upon the lands from Kamiyasumi to Tobusekai and everything in between. No where was spared.
You have inherited a stagnant world, Enkidu. I was a mercy. We would have rebuilt a much greater reality than this. But you, and your siblings, insisted on otherwise. This is what you have wrought. Perhaps the Fates wrote this into the stars themselves….
Abzu’s material form began to fade away. But from the corpse of the Void Tree, still sinking and burning as it fell into the Hokubu, three small meteorites were launched opposite of the shattered heavens now falling upon the planet. In truth, these were no meteorites. They were a new generation of divinities. Abzu’s children and Enkidu’s new siblings: Aureliana, Goddess of Wisdom, Archelirion, God of Heaven, and Tanacetum, God of War.
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Tanacetum crash landed in the frigid north, unleashing a terrible storm in the skies above as he did. And as Aureliana descended upon the former Land of Fire, so too did the heavens themselves. Shards of the moon slammed into the planet as immense destruction ensued. Dust storms ravaged the world, earthquakes shattered lands. From those shards and the craters they left behind, ancient demons and angels climbed from the ruins. Archelirion’s arrival was met with similar devastation; plagues spread as quick as wildfire, wind storms flattened cities, and tsunami’s slammed against coastlines. And in the far east, an ancient beast that Kotetsu had encountered stirred once again.
This is how it must be, my son. Seven swords rise as the old order falls.