Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
This was the first encounter between Enkidu and King Gilgamesh.
He was a weapon forged by the gods, created to admonish King Gilgamesh who had not fulfilled his duties. The gods crafted him with the ability to change his form at will, using their divine clay techniques.
Though a puppet made by the gods, he was also an avatar of the earth in harmony with nature. To him, the earth was like his mother.
Destroying the forest was akin to scarring his mother's body.
This greatly displeased Enkidu.
What irked him even more was that this man bore an uncanny resemblance to his target.
With hair as dazzling as gold, eyes as crimson as a venomous snake, and a visage as handsome as the finest creation of the gods, he donned golden armor. His mere presence exuded a disdainful aura that seemed to look down upon the world.
"Is that so? You're King Gilgamesh?"
Enkidu landed on the ground, his expression growing increasingly fierce, his emerald eyes revealing a cold murderous intent.
"Turning against the very purpose for which the gods created you, even raising a rebellion against them, your mother, the goddess Ninsun, laments in the heavens every day. How defiant you are!"
"Hmph, nothing but a puppet designed by the gods, a tool that moves at their behest. I suppose you can't comprehend the will of an individual."
Xu Zong watched the green figure descend from the sky, initially silent, but then spoke with a mocking tone.
"I am a weapon of the gods, unlike you, I do not need a will."
Enkidu replied coldly, showing no sign of anger.
"That's laughable. You're just a tool. What right do you have to judge my stance, which is endowed with will?"
Xu Zong curled his lips, further taunting.
"You're right, so I just need to defeat you."
Enkidu nodded in agreement, magical power surging from his feet, swirling around him as a breeze, causing his white robe to flutter, and then he unleashed it with ferocious force.
"Buzz!"
In an instant, weapons formed from the earth surged from beneath his feet, swarming towards Xu Zong.
"Speaking of defeating me, yet you use my tactics!"
Xu Zong's lips quirked up as golden ripples opened in response, from which countless dazzling treasures emerged, shooting out like arrows, striking each earthen weapon with precision.
"Boom boom boom—!!"
A series of continuous explosions echoed across the clearing, creating shockwaves that surged in all directions, while the sky was filled with fireworks as spectacular as missile explosions.
"This is my own battle technique!"
Enkidu's expression was as cold as that of an assassin.
As the earthen weapons collided with the golden ones, he shifted all his power to speed and took a step forward. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Xu Zong, thrusting a hand-knife straight at his face.
Xu Zong looked impassively at the approaching Enkidu, his expression revealing no joy, anger, or panic.
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, Enkidu's vision blurred, and his hand-knife passed through King Gilgamesh's body as if through air.
He had just steadied himself when alarm bells rang in his head. A long leg appeared from the side, kicking fiercely towards his waist with the force of an exploding atmosphere.
Enkidu's expression shifted slightly, and without hesitation, he shifted all his power to strength, then brought down his elbow with a fierce hammer blow, colliding with the leg!
"Clang!"
After the collision, Enkidu staggered back several steps.
Xu Zong, however, didn't move an inch and instead pressed the attack, stepping forward with his right elbow raised, smashing it down towards Enkidu's chest.
"Boom!"
The air exploded with a bang, and the green figure uncontrollably flew backward, crashing into the distant ground.
But as if unaffected, he rolled with the momentum, dissipating the force, and knelt on the ground facing Xu Zong, his eyes shining with astonishment.
"Worthy of being a weapon of the gods, as long as you stand on the earth, you can draw upon its strength. Unless you are destroyed in one blow, you cannot be defeated."
Xu Zong clapped his hands, praising aloud.
"Did you just use spatial transfer?"
Enkidu looked at him gravely.
"I wasn't informed that King Gilgamesh could use magic!"
In this era, all sorcery could be considered magic, which, although conceptually similar to the later Five Great Spells, was not the same thing.
"If the gods knew my strength, then I would have failed miserably!"
Xu Zong sneered.
The original Golden Spark had no interest in learning any sorcery, despite having the Clairvoyant Eye that could witness the birth and learning process of any sorcery in the world, but he refused to learn.
Xu Zong was different from the Golden Spark. After transmigrating into him, he immediately established the Treasury of the King and used the Clairvoyant Eye to observe the sorceries that had emerged throughout history.
Thus, he not only mastered the King's Treasure early on but also learned many powerful sorceries from history.
Take the spatial transfer just now, for example, it was the Divine Footwork of later generations, allowing one to instantly reach any desired location, a secret technique of Peperoncino from the Hidden Ones, who could even traverse the Singularities on his own!
"Facing me as your opponent, you'd better be prepared to make an enemy of the gods!"
A defiant smile spread across Xu Zong's face.
He reached out, and a stone tablet book appeared from the Treasury of the King. The neatly carved tablet, inscribed with numerous magical scripts, began to emit astonishing magical fluctuations as magical power flowed into it, as if he was manipulating the great source of magic before him.
"Buzz!"
Suddenly, the sky seemed to be draped with a curtain, obscuring the sun. The previously warm sun disappeared in an instant, and the entire sky darkened.
Numerous geometric patterns emerged in the sky, with golden lines connecting them all into a magical array that covered the entire sky.
"Stars, Cosmos, Gods, Animus, Antrum, Unbirth, Anima, Animusphere—"
A long chant echoed from the sky.
Enkidu's expression changed, and he hurriedly looked up.
Behind the magical array that covered the sky, streaks of light flickered incessantly. As the lights grew, and the moment they imprinted in Enkidu's eyes, his expression turned extremely fierce.
Those descending lights were clearly massive meteors!
"That king, truly!"
Enkidu took a deep breath, gathering the earth's power into himself, his body radiating a dazzling golden light, then shot into the sky, trailing a comet-like tail, soaring towards the heavens!
"Boom—!"
A sun-like radiance burst forth, enveloping much of the Mesopotamian plains in its light, and a thunderous roar deafened the ears.
The golden light, like an arrow piercing the void, shot through the falling meteors in an instant, and then targeted the second, the third…
After destroying the fifth one, the golden radiance weakened, and Enkidu's aura visibly diminished.
"Run out of power, have you?"
Xu Zong flashed beside Enkidu.
He reached out and caught the falling Enkidu, speaking with a pleased tone.
"Your power comes from the earth. Once you leave it, facing attacks like meteors, your strength will quickly deplete. Now, you're far from my match."
Enkidu looked at the Golden King close at hand, speechless.
Indeed, his power was exhausted, and unable to return to the ground, he was no longer a match for King Gilgamesh.
"The earth is about to be destroyed."
Enkidu's gaze shifted from the Golden King and looked towards the rapidly falling meteors in the distance, his eyes filled with sorrow.
With so many meteors falling, the entire Mesopotamian plain would face earthquakes, even tsunamis, and this civilization could not survive such an impact.
"Boom!"
In the blink of an eye, several crimson shockwaves burst forth, crashing into the distant meteors. The opposing rotations of the shockwaves formed pseudo-spatial faults, pulverizing the meteors to dust!
Enkidu was momentarily stunned.
"I'm no fool. I wouldn't destroy the prosperity I've created with my own hands."
Xu Zong put away his sword, and the depleted magical power within him quickly recovered.
"…Destroy me then."
Enkidu breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly genuinely happy for the lives on the earth, then closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate.
"Not interested."
Xu Zong curled his lip and let go of Enkidu.
His body fell to the ground, his depleted strength quickly replenished by the earth, his condition swiftly returning to its peak. But he looked up at the Golden King in the sky with astonishment.
"Why not kill me?"
"You dying like this would be a waste."
Xu Zong stood in the air, looking down at the green clay figure.
"I welcome you to challenge me anytime, but I won't accept a challenge from a tool. One day, if you can come to Uruk of your own will, then I will defeat you again!"
With that, Xu Zong disappeared from mid-air before Enkidu could react.
Enkidu stood still for a long time before coming back to his senses.
"My own will…"
He flew straight up into the clouds, to the abode of the gods, the resplendent palace complex, also known as the heavens.
"You failed?"
Enlil, the god wielding great authority in this generation, received Enkidu.
"Even you couldn't defeat that rebellious king. The foolish goddess Ishtar has been defending him before the father god, and I have my difficulties here… No choice, then. Let's start over!"
Enlil looked down through the clouds at the city-state of Uruk on the earth, his eyes flickering with malice.
"Unleash the Great Flood, and submerge the surface!"