Battle for Babylonia: And yet another continuation (262)

Enuma Elish, ‘when on high’ when translated to the still living and preserved languages, were the first two words beginning the epic of world creation according to Sumerian legends. The oldest of cosmogonic myths explaining the structure of the universe and the birth of all gods and all people in the world. It was one of the most ancient legends preserved in human history, first describing the story of the ‘before’ of these ancient times, the story of the birth of everything.

And the story of the struggle against Tiamat.

Enuma Elish was more often associated with Gilgamesh, the most ancient of humanity's heroes, but in reality such a recognition was unfair, considering that he did not possess such a Noble Phantasm. Enuma Elish, the ‘story of world creation’, belonged to Enkidu.

Born from clay, similar to that on which the myth of world creation was first recorded, Enkidu was woven from divine power and authority over all elements of nature and metaphysics, whose creation was described in this world. In other words, he was the true bearer of ‘Enuma Elish’.

Born as a golden chain, Enkidu was destined to shackle Gilgamesh, a chain that was supposed to return humanity to the cradle of gods.

Concerned by the twilight of their powers, the coming of the Age of Humanity, the gods sought an opportunity to halt their fall into powerlessness and the separation of the world of magic and the world of humans. Gilgamesh was created for this plan, a scion of the King of Uruk, Lugalbanda, and the goddess Rimat-Ninsun.

But the pawn had acted against the gods and declared itself king, and so Enkidu was created to return it under control, to prevent what later became known as the ‘twilight of the Age of Gods’.

However, descending to earth, Enkidu encountered Gilgamesh and learned a simple truth that any human knew, but which all gods simultaneously could not understand.

Eventually, all children outgrow the cradle and leave it to explore the world on their own two feet.

Perhaps they still had many falls ahead, perhaps gratitude to their parents remained in their hearts, but the flow of time could not be stopped. No one could forever remain a child, forever under the influence and control of their parents.

Therefore, Enkidu too rebelled against the divine…

But still, preserved within himself what the gods had given him – Enuma Elish, the chain that binds the world. The chain that was supposed to bind Gilgamesh and bring him to heel, a chain representing the creation myth, of creating order from chaos, the goal to forever bind two disparate worlds again. It was also the thing that had brought order over the unceasing, chaotic world of Tiamat’s.

Were there any better conditions to manifest such a Noble Phantasm than now?

Golden chains unceasingly pierced Tiamat's body from within, one after another, more and more appearing every time one of them broke. The instantly regenerating flesh of the primordial mother continued to break them, but instead of giving up, the chains seem to only grew stronger in response, even more persistently growing in the place where they had just been broken again.

Enkidu's Enuma Elish was created as a perfect mechanism for connecting one world with another, to unite two disparate parts into a single whole. Of course, the gods knew that there would always be some incredible force that would oppose it, and that, even they were not omnipotent, they, after all, could not subjugate Gilgamesh with their powers. It was only through the most generous of interpretations that they managed to ‘defeat’ Tiamat. 

That was why each of the gods gave a part of their powers to Enkidu.

However, the true source of Enkidu's powers became neither one of the gods nor all of them at once. Instead, it was through the interweaving of these small, disparate powers that wove the basis of Enkidu himself, that became in itself a chain that wove Enkidu's nature into something greater than gods.

Into the world itself.

Enkidu's source of power turned him into a part of the Counter Force and vice versa; the desire of the world itself to survive, which Gilgamesh did not possess fully, however much he directed it forward. A world that is now under threat from Tiamat.

Therefore, when Tiamat broke the chains, she was not just fighting Enkidu, she was fighting the entire world. And when the world was under threat, it only directed more and more of its forces into battle against Tiamat, feeding the infinitely growing chain that sought to absorb and bind Tiamat. 

Even if this ‘binding’ included breaking her into pieces.

So now, Tiamat found herself involved in a struggle against the entire world, against its past and future, against the world's very desire for continued existence, against the infinite source of all magic and humanity’s ever-expanding desire.

"This body cannot withstand the loads." The thought flashed through Enkidu's mind, mixing with Kingu's mind, while an infinite stream of energy passed through his body, colliding with an equally infinite stream of energy in Tiamat. 

Like an unstoppable weapon colliding with an indestructible shield. "I am falling apart…"

It was quite the thought for someone that had already been destroyed to the smallest bits, Enkidu's body was destroyed to its smallest parts, but Tiamat still could not absorb him. Because he was not a ‘living’ being at all in the first place, even Solomon's intervention could not change that.

Therefore, from the smallest remains of Divine Clay that made up Enkidu’s ‘real’ self, stuck inside Tiamat, continued their existence. It was this small part of Enkidu that was destroying themselves in the effort to pump energy into an attack that could match Tiamat.

The vessel cannot hold, but so is Tiamat, suffering greatly from this titanic effort.

Who would emerge victorious from this confrontation? It was difficult to predict, one was carrying behind him the will of the entire World, of Humanity, desiring only the continuation of its existence. On the other side is the primordial mother, more a concept than a living being, taking physical form simply to destroy all.

It was difficult to estimate who would overcome who in this battle. However, resolving this question would require time, perhaps even long enough that the Universe ceases to exist.

Alas, the balance could not hold.

Enkidu's body could not withstand being the conduit for long, each moment Enkidu gives another part of himself, each moment attempting to give this world more than was possible. Through Enkidu courses more power than all the gods could give combined.

For these small remnants of his life, burning his body to the smallest particles, Enkidu ascended above all deities that had their hands in creating him, wielding power that could crush all humanity in the blink of an eye. For these mere moments, Enkidu was the supreme deity, directing all the power the world could give.

"Gilgamesh…" Near his end, Enkidu's mind split again for a moment before Enkidu finally suppressed Kingu, his longing for his friend palpable. Now, possessing the support of the entire world behind him, the fact that he had no eyes did not prevent him from seeing his friend. As memories of all their adventures, reflected in the infinite chronicle of the world itself, played in his mind, it washed away the remnants of magic that Solomon had wrought upon his mind and nature. 

Kingu was no more, leaving Enkidu behind. In his last moments, Enkidu could finally see his friends as clearly as before.

"I'm sorry that I must leave you again so soon, friend… But I know that this time you will not need to grieve my death. Rejoice, for I leave the world not as a divine puppet, but as a deity above all deities. Not by the whim of the heavenly gods, but by my own decision. After all, wasn't it this will to make one's own decisions that once made me your friend?"

Tiamat resisted, the ever-growing golden tree that pierced her body, only provoked Tiamat to spend more and more strength opposing it, destroying Enkidu part by part. But even as his end came, he only smiled watching this, completely unbothered by how his time gradually expired.

"Ten seconds. That's all I can give you as my farewell gift." For a moment, the memory of Ainz, the strange being that had touched his mind in his journey to Tiamat, made Enkidu shake his head, chuckling. 

"I hope you have a plan that relies on these ten seconds. Otherwise, I might get a bit mad…?"

***

"Humanity betrayed you, hmm?" Descending to the ground once more, Ainz thoughtfully examined Tiamat, simultaneously buying time to restore his own mana, and trying to determine how effective Tiamat's regeneration compared to his DPS. Concluding that the only path to victory was by continuing to deal damage to prevent Tiamat from concentrating on her regeneration efforts, even if slightly. 

Ainz spread his hands to the sides, simultaneously launching ten magic arrows at Tiamat, even as he continued speaking. "What do you mean?"

[Magic Arrows] were one of the weakest attack spells Ainz knew, not only in his arsenal, but in all of YGGDRASIL. However, they had the excellent homing properties, so when Tiamat tried to dodge them sideways, the arrows that unexpectedly changed their flight trajectory became an unpleasant surprise for her. 

Even so, she continued speaking, for, in the first time in her existence, someone was listening.

"Betrayal. I gave them life. Isn't that the essence of a mother, to give life to her children?"

"And then they rebelled." Ainz teleported to the side while testing a lower-rank spell to avoid the huge clawed paw that crashed into his previous location. 

"And then they sealed you in the abyss?"

"Yes, Marduk, one of my most ambitious children." Tiamat's monstrous form and face were, in the real world, incapable of expressing any human emotions. But in her mind the rules and foundations of the world were most malleable to her whims, and therefore Ainz could see that a smile had appeared on Tiamat's face, expressing an emotion something between pride for her child and embarrassment for his actions. Like a parent not understanding whether to scold their child for walls covered in poetry or praise him for excellent style and creative thinking.

"Marduk, hmm?" Ainz quickly ran through his memory, recalling if there was anyone like that in YGGDRASIL, before remembering how Tabula called the thunderer of Akkad from Eternal Babylon ‘Marduk without the title’. 

He once again had to thank his friend for the ability to continue his conversation with Tiamat, he, of course, also sent another dozen magic arrows while talking. 

"The thunderer?"

"Oh, you've met him?" Tiamat dodged much earlier this time, moving farther aside, but she still couldn't dodge the magic arrows, the sparkling projectiles leaving wounds on her body, monstrous tears for any Servant, barely visible scratches for Tiamat herself. 

"Yes, he rose to prominence after imprisoning me… And my soul hurts… I was his mother, the one who gave all living things life, breathed the primordial breath into the figures of the first gods… And yet they all betrayed me."

"They feared you." The third time Ainz fired his [Magic Arrows], they mostly passed to the side of Tiamat, she was learning quickly and now threw herself sideways at the last moment, sharply changing her course. As she dodged, she opened her mouth and exhaled at Ainz a breath of viscous, almost liquid black smoke that Ainz didn't want to risk taking upon himself, dodging. 

"You were too powerful for their understanding."

"Isn't that the role of a mother?" Tiamat, seeing Ainz's movements, memorized them and exhaled the black smoke again, trying to cover as much area as possible with her breath. Ainz, of course, dodged it. 

"I was infinitely powerful and infinitely loving to them; I also gave life to them and everything that surrounded them. Nothing was alive before me, only I existed, I gave life to everything, from beasts in the forest, to the fishes in the sea, the birds in the sky and the insects underground. I gave them all life, I birthed everything on this earth… Isn't that what a mother is, who infinitely gives birth again and again?"

"The role of a Mother, hmm…" Ainz once again fired his [Magic Arrows], but this time it was not even a near miss anymore, Tiamat had completely dodged them all, finally mastering this attack of Ainz. 

Ainz himself, however, was too immersed in his own memories for a moment to care.

He didn't remember his mother very well, she died so long ago when he was too young that his mind seemed to have lost the memories of her face and voice from his mind. He remembered the events and remembered her words, but he couldn't recall the appearance of his mother. The warmth and the love he felt for his mother was crystal clear, along with the longing he felt, but he couldn't tie these feelings to any specific figure. 

Therefore, he couldn't judge what a ‘mother’ is, as something physical he was personally familiar with and had an opinion about based on specific facts. Rather, only about a concept he had personally experienced.

"I cannot speak definitively about it, but it's not enough just to give birth to be a mother." Ainz sighed, shaking his head. 

"Maybe I'm wrong in my personal judgment, but I always thought that a mother is one who loves. Who nurtures. One who protects."

"Protect them from what?" Tiamat stopped before moving her only wing aside, as if gesturing to point towards the rest of the world, her other wing still looking pitiful, still slowly regrowing. 

"When I created all living things, there was nothing from which gods and humans needed to be protected from, only from each other… But how can I choose which of my children is more worthy of life than another!?"

An emotion of vexation flashed on her face.

"The hare that runs from the wolf, the wolf that devours the hare, the worm that devours the corpse, the bacteria that grows inside the worm, the trees taking nourishment from the sun, and the hare eating grass. All is living. All are my children. Can I see the difference between them?" 

Tiamat spread her arms to the sides, and Ainz teleported aside needlessly this time, her movement wasn't preparation for an attack, but a simple gesture from Tiamat's own annoyance, spreading her arms as if trying to embrace the entire world around her. 

"I gave life to all living things, but I am not a living thing myself. I am the source of life, the primordial mother who loves the whole world, I am a concept more than a living being. I am the immutable truth of this world because I love all humans, just as I love all beasts and all the other creatures of this world."

"Gravity does not choose those who will be free from its embrace. It does not cease being the force of attraction because colliding objects do not wish to be together. Feelings are alien to the laws of the universe." Tiamat moved her hands much further before sharply clapping them together, bringing forth a force that could topple buildings and mountains. 

It was clear that the topic bothered her greatly.

"So why can't I be the mother of all living things?!"

"Because…" Ainz began to speak before stopping himself, unsure of what answer to give. 

Indeed, why?

Because she didn't play favorites among her children? Because the birth process looked different for her than for humans? Because she belonged to another species? Because she was strong? Because she was too old? Because she was a primordial being?

All these ideas were true from some point of view, but not from the point of view of Tiamat's true question. All these reasons seemed to lack depth, as if they were only a small part of a final conclusion that Tiamat herself could not realize, let alone answer. And answering this question fell on Ainz's shoulders, to grasp the final meaning of the question and ask it of Tiamat, because the right question contained half the answer within itself.

Ainz spent several more precious seconds, unimaginable in a heated fight, pondering Tiamat's words before coming to a simple and expected, but no more joyful, conclusion. He didn't understand exactly how he could address Tiamat's question. 

Not in the sense that he didn't understand it or couldn't object to it, but in the sense that all his objections somehow simply didn't fit into the question posed to him. And therefore, instead of answering it, Ainz chose a tactic that had repeatedly helped him in such hopeless moments before; change the topic of discussion.

"If you're merely an immutable truth, one of the constants of this world, then how could Humanity betray you?" As Ainz posed the question, he thought for a moment whether he should attack Tiamat again, taking advantage of her immobility, before concluding that such actions could provoke her to respond instead. And judging by the fact that Tiamat's flesh regenerated quite slowly, he shouldn't do it. 

Especially considering the fact that his mana were replenishing quite quickly during his conversation, perhaps it was best to keep talking for now rather than simply continuing to attack. "Have people who rose into the air betrayed gravity? Is it possible to betray gravity? If it's merely an insensate law, how can it have an opinion about people using airplanes to fly in the air?"

"An airplane doesn't seal gravity in another world…" Tiamat said slowly, while her form shuddered, but from Ainz's point of view, it wasn't the beginning of another attack, merely an outpouring of emotions from Tiamat. 

"An airplane rising into the air is still subject to its laws."

"And the gods who sealed you are still living," Ainz shook his head. "The fact that they sealed you is just as much a consequence of their life as any other. To breathe, to live, to protect themselves, they simply acted as they always acted, as living people act. A wolf hunts a hare, but the hare knows nothing about natural selection, complex food chains, and the natural circulation of energy in nature. It simply runs from the wolf, trying it hardest to preserve its life - such is the nature of all living things. They strive to survive; the gods simply proved intelligent enough to fear more dangerous things than approaching fangs."

"I know…" Tiamat's answer made Ainz blink, which reflected on his skeletal form only as a brief dimming of the crimson lights in his eyes. "And I bear them no ill will for it."

Tiamat's unexpected answer knocked Ainz so off balance that his [Emotion Suppression] had to activate independently to save his mind from overheating and the contents of his skull, whatever was actually there, brain or not, from boiling.

"But what about the pain you felt from humanity's betrayal?" Ainz's mind was so disturbed by the conversation's turn in an unexpected direction that he couldn't help the comment that escaped against his own will.

"I never said my pain comes from this fact…?" Tiamat's answer, accompanied by a tilt of her head that would look cute on any other, was such a surprise to Ainz that he involuntarily opened his mouth, then forcefully shut it. Internally, he started furiously reviewing all the past dialogue he had with Tiamat, before forcefully exhaling and bowing his head in defeat. 

"I suppose… No, you didn't."

However, even in this case, Ainz simply couldn't leave this train of thought without an answer. "Then, your question… About why did humanity betray you…"

Tiamat looked at Ainz again, as if returning once more to seek an answer to the question she had been forever unable to obtain. "Why does it hurt me so much when humanity rejects their mother? Why does my mind tear itself apart when I remember the blow dealt by Marduk? Why do I feel so sick to my soul when I remember that all the gods sealed me in the Abyss? Why was it a betrayal?"

Ainz held a long pause, gathering the fragments of his thoughts in his head, before coming to the only paradoxical but seemingly most plausible conclusion of all. "Wait, so what bothers you is that… It was called a 'betrayal'?"

"It was a betrayal, there’s no changing that." Tiamat enunciated slowly, as her eyes dimmed, lost in the past. 

"I remember the pity and pain in my children's eyes when they sealed me. I remember the fear and regret when they bound me. I remember how they doubted, and how their expressions firmed when they made the decision, only stumbling at the last second. How each of them kept doubts about my fate in their souls. How they convinced themselves that they had no choice. Through each of my children I saw how their pain passed from them to their sons, to their daughters and to their descendants. How the pain grew in their minds, becoming an integral part of their lives, and how it became their regret. Why?"

Ainz, having nearly twisted his neck from the sharp turn of the conversation, could do nothing more than squeeze out in shock. "So your pain… Comes from their pain?"

Tiamat, hearing Ainz’s conclusion, seemed to ponder for a moment, an action that looked extremely strange given her monstrous form, before slowly nodding her head. "I suppose… It is so."

Ainz blinked once, then a second and third time, as if trying to comprehend the mind-bending information that he had found out. "So you're not bothered by the betrayal, but by… The fact that humanity reproaches itself for it?"

"Humanity called it betrayal, while I never held ill will for what happened," Tiamat's voice was calm, it was detached, and yet filled in a strange manner of maternal love. "But the pain that humanity experiences… That is what I can never forgive them for."

In a strange way, Ainz returned to the idea of exactly how Merlin had prevented Tiamat from awakening and exactly how he had placed her in a state of restless sleep. Of the two Medusas, sealed in eternity, one killing the other…

When Ainz separated them, the simple idea that the younger Medusa decided to destroy the monster she herself was once meant to become, was painted in a different light at the end. Especially the last thing he remembered of it, when the younger Medusa unexpectedly spoke about how the Gorgon always regretted her monstrous form and didn't actually wish to become a monster.

Perhaps Merlin's plan, his actions, went significantly deeper than simply keeping Tiamat asleep. To seal Gorgon in eternal limbo, not fully consumed, perhaps there was another parallel to be found there, one that is relevant to his current situation with Tiamat, hidden from the passive observer? 

A monster who couldn't forgive herself, captured and killed by one who actually knew about her suffering, who sympathized with her most of all, and therefore couldn't simply let her go to her own death? Perhaps he was seeing the entire crux of the problem wrongly? 

What if the central link wasn't the Gorgon, pierced constantly by the young Medusa's blade, but young Medusa herself? And the one who truly continued to suffer, transmitting her pain to Tiamat, not allowing her to calm down, and not letting her sleep, wasn't the Gorgon, but the younger Medusa instead…

The realization strangely made Ainz want to twist his lips in a smirk, acknowledging the simple truth that all inhabitants of this world knew.

As usual, everything was Merlin's fault.

"Then… Why did you awaken now? To destroy humanity… If that truly is your goal." All thoughts of fighting Tiamat were already forgotten, now all Ainz wanted was to unravel the mystery, and continue his talk with Tiamat, to understand her motivation. 

"If what bothers you isn't the pain you felt from the betrayal, but that which your children feel for it, then why try to destroy them?"

"I'm not trying to destroy them," Tiamat's answer was as simple as it was difficult for Ainz himself to understand. 

"Only to absorb them and remake them."

"Their Mind, that's the cause of their suffering… If they were deprived of their thinking mind, if the hare didn't know why it has to run from the wolf, then it would never experience the pain leaving its hungry pups behind to save its life," Tiamat shifted her gaze, as if looking into the void above Ainz's head, high above his head, considering her height, looking at the world outside this strange space. 

"I will absorb this world, and will recreate it again. This time, I won't allow a single beast to retain their consciousness. All my children will hear my song and will not experience any pain in their lives…"

"Isn't that what so many so-called enlightened humans strived for? To live a life of bliss without pain and fear of death. Where there's no mind, there's no place for suffering to fester." Tiamat's gaze was once again directed at Ainz. 

"Will you be able to look at my children and know that they suffer because of you? Because of me? Because I couldn't take away their pain when I should have?"

"But didn't you want to fight?" Ainz thoughtfully raised a finger to his own chin, then tapped it a couple of times, pondering the problem that arose before him.

"A dozen or two lost children, the price is one that I would pay, the sin I will forever carry with me. But what are a few sacrifices, even when I would forever hate myself for it, for the salvation of all life? When I create humanity again, I won't allow such horror to ever happen again," Tiamat slowly shook her head. 

"I became a Beast so as not to allow suffering anymore. For I am the primordial mother - and my love for humanity is infinite."

"Hmm," Ainz briefly hummed, finally comprehending the problem before him, even as he tried his best to find some way to continue the dialogue, to lead it in any direction except the one it seemed to be heading. Towards the necessity of destroying Tiamat completely.

And even excluding the fact that absolutely all of Ainz's own allies had repeatedly told him that this was a bad idea, and that it went against his initial plan not to kill Tiamat, he might be forced to do it. And Ainz hated it completely, since he didn't like acting in violation of his own plans.

Plus, killing Tiamat, after Ainz himself found out that her motivation was to ‘rid humanity of suffering’, albeit in an extremely strange way, tastes like ash in his mouth.

A mother who wishes the best for their children but commits such wrong actions to reach it…

It was with that one last realization that everything clicks into place.

After contemplating it deeply, finally, Ainz managed to grasp the contradiction he had been searching for so long, allowing him to ask a simple question. 

"Tiamat, you said that you love humanity?"

"Of course," Tiamat answered immediately before spreading into a smile that looked maternal even on her monstrous face. "How can I not love them when I gave birth to them? How can a mother not love her child?"

"But… Not long ago you said that you are a law of nature that cannot be betrayed, didn't you?" 

Ainz's mind had grasped the contradiction. "How can a law of nature love if it cannot be betrayed?"

Ainz's question caught Tiamat off guard before she shook her head, her huge horns followed her, cutting through the air. "That's why I became Beast II. I could never have risen against humanity if I were myself, to remain as Tiamat. My Love wouldn't have let me do it," Tiamat spread her arms again and all the enormous flesh, her monstrous form, shuddered, going in waves as if it weren't her body but millions of tiny living beings making up her body. 

"That's why I became a Beast. As a Beast, I can do this; having become a monster, I can destroy humanity, and as Tiamat, I can recreate it anew."

"I wasn't forcibly transformed into a Beast, the world gave me a choice," Tiamat answered, looking at Ainz. "And I have made it.” 

“If I become a monster, I can absorb humanity again. Its pain, suffering and fears, turning all into one, and I can recreate it again. Pure, free from suffering." Tiamat looked at Ainz as if she was pronouncing the final verdict.

"And if not? If humanity refuses this again? If it fights, if it achieves victory?" Ainz felt that the time for dialogue had come to an end and prepared a spell for both attack and his emergency retreat.

"Then let it be so. Let them kill Beast II. The Absolute Evil of Humanity. Let them destroy the monster that wished to destroy them," Tiamat raised a huge clawed paw before letting it fall, as inexorable as a mountain falling on the head of a human. 

"Let them rejoice in their victory. Let them erect temples in honor of destroying the mad monster."

"And let them feel no pain, destroying me again," And with these last words and a smile, Tiamat rushed forward.