The Infinite Dragon God Cannot Find Silence

Orpheus paused for a moment, then swung the End Sword at the bull's head.

"Moo────!!!"

Thus, with the final mournful cry of the divine ox, humanity took its first step toward truly breaking free from the shackles of the gods.

Chapter 22 The Decline of the Age of Gods

Slaying the Bull of Heaven is not a difficult task.

If you have weapons that can break through defenses, and your opponent's skills and intelligence are rubbish, then even if your opponent is very strong, as long as they are not overwhelming, you can easily defeat them once you seize the opportunity.

Not to mention the Heavenly Lock that counters the Divine Bull.

For Orpheus and Enkidu, the divine bull was never a problem; the real issue was merely the aftermath.

After defeating the divine bull, Orpheus and his companion returned to the top of the hill.

"Ha... I didn't expect you guys to actually kill that guy."

There, Ishtar waited for the two with her hands behind her back, a seductive smile on her face.

However, this move had no effect on Orpheus or Enkidu. Orpheus still didn't even glance at the other, while Enkidu rarely showed a hostile expression.

"why?"

Seeing that Enkidu was getting a little agitated, Orpheus tugged at his clothes as a reminder, then looked at Ishtar and asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

Ishtar touched her lips with her hand and winked at Orpheus.

"Because it's fun?"

"Just because it's fun, you, a standard deity, did you do something that could very well cause great harm to yourself?"

"what!"

Ishtar scoffed at Enkidu's somewhat confrontational words.

"Don't tell such jokes. The age of gods is nearing its end, and the age of mankind is about to begin. You know this, I know this, that three-nothing wedge over there knows this, and the old gods know this too. All those old guys are doing now is just prolonging their lives. As far as I'm concerned, I might as well take advantage of the last bit of time to have some fun."

"Just for fun, you caused such a terrible disaster in Uruk?"

Enkidu frowned and continued to argue.

Orpheus gave Enkidu a strange look. Enkidu had become somewhat agitated after encountering Ishtar.

Orpheus believed that Ishtar did not release the sacred bull for fun.

...at least not 100%.

"Well, isn't that what gods are like? Being fickle is one of our characteristics, isn't it?"

Ishtar remained there, smugly pleased with herself, but she also spoke the truth of the gods.

Some gods are like her, existing without hesitation and doing whatever they please, even at the cost of accelerating the extinction of their own kind, for their own pleasure and purpose.

"You... um..."

Enkidu was somewhat dissatisfied, but suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground, seemingly in great pain.

"It seems the mechanism of the Gods' Curse has already taken effect."

Ishtar gave a wicked smile, then suddenly jumped behind Orpheus, put her head on his shoulder, and stroked his other cheek.

"This spell wasn't cast after Enkidu's rebellion; it was pre-set. Any act of disobeying one's duty would trigger the curse. So, how about it? The person you're watching is about to die because of my 'playing around,' huh? Won't you hate me?"

Despite such teasing, Orpheus remained unmoved by his eternally unchanging icy expression.

"Tch...how boring."

Although somewhat unwilling, Ishtar gave up on teasing Orpheus.

Otherwise, if Enki couldn't stand it anymore and used a curse to slap her with a human child bound to the gods, she would be in an awkward situation.

However, to Ishtar's surprise, Orpheus suddenly turned to look at her.

"Ishtar, does she love humans?"

That's right, that's the conclusion Orpheus reached.

This explains Enkidu's inexplicable excitement upon seeing Ishtar; otherwise, it would be easy to see that if the Heavenly Bull truly unleashed its full power, altering the terrain near Uruk or even destroying the entire Mesopotamia would not be difficult.

Ishtar... probably loved humans too, right?

With the gods' last moments, they forced Orpheus to make a choice, and then paved the way for humanity's future.

However, what Ishtar loves is 'humanity' as a whole, not individual humans, so she doesn't care about the death of a few humans.

In this respect, Enkidu was actually quite similar.

"what?"

Ishtar was clearly unable to keep up with Orpheus's strange thought process of going straight to the result because he was too lazy to sort out the process, and did not react immediately.

Then────

"What are you talking about? This is completely nonsensical!"

Ishtar jumped three meters away, waving her hands repeatedly with a disgusted expression.

"I just wanted to see how long these foolish humans could survive without the protection of the gods, don't get me wrong!"

After her usual moment of arrogance, she calmed down, sighed, and looked toward Uruk.

"However, indeed, humans who only obey the will of the gods are too boring... Wouldn't it be quite interesting to witness humans walking alone? With the end of the Age of Gods, human affairs will have no connection with the gods anymore. For me, this is the best drama."

Ishtar glanced at Enkidu, who was almost able to stand up and could barely withstand the pain of the curse, then turned around and waved.

"You're going to be the lead actor from now on, right? The king who has lost his role as the prologue, whether his performance will be a magnificent epic or a clown farce depends on how you portray it. Don't disappoint me."

As she spoke, Ishtar's figure grew fainter and fainter, until she had turned into golden specks of light and disappeared by the time she finished speaking.

...She was genuinely afraid, afraid that Enkidu might suddenly jump up and unleash an Enima. After all, she was a god, not a regular archer. If she were to fight Enkidu at such close range, she would only be able to get completely dominated.

Gods are a race that follows their own hearts, and Ishtar was no exception, so she left just like that.

"By the way, call me Ishtar next time we meet. I prefer that name, my adorable little Orpheus~~"

Only that sentence lingered in the air.

Watching Ishtar disappear like that, Enkidu, who was holding his breath, had no way to vent his anger and could only slump down helplessly again.

"Enkidu".

Orpheus completely ignored Ishtar's last words and knelt down in front of Enkidu. Although he remained expressionless, concern could be seen in his eyes.

"Ah... just as I expected."

After Ishtar left, Enkidu's previously somewhat violent demeanor completely disappeared, and he put on a gentle smile again, completely unconcerned about the curse on him.

"I must look pretty pathetic right now, right? But my pathetic state is just like that of a god, who can only resort to such a ridiculous and meaningless way to fight against the betrayal of humanity..."

At this point, Enkidu shook his head.

"No, maybe... they've given up too?"

Since you're giving up, should you simply sever the 'lock' of the connection?

Although gods are proud, they are not stupid; some trends are ultimately beyond redemption.

After countless struggles, Orpheus's decision became the final straw, and the god chose to give up.

Anyway, the stronger ones among them won't die; they'll just be essentially under house arrest. As for the weaker ones... who cares about them?

Perhaps because of humanity's betrayal, the angry gods will unleash their fury in the near future, and that will be the challenge Orpheus will have to face next.

But that was just a final outburst. No matter the outcome, the gods will lose their right to intervene in this world.

The age of gods has begun to decline.

Chapter 23 Independent Existence

"Enkidu, shall we go back first?"

At this moment, Orpheus had no interest in the affairs of the gods. He was only looking at Enkidu with concern and was about to pull her back to Uruk when Enkidu grabbed his hand instead.

Although Enkidu had almost no power left, Orpheus still stopped.

"No need, I'll just stay here."

Enkidu looked down at Uruk below the hill, seemingly with a sense of melancholy.

"Compared to that palace that is nothing but ostentatious, I still hope to see this beautiful world a few more times before I die."

Orpheus paused for a moment, then finally sat down next to Enkidu.

"Hey, Orpheus."

After a long silence, Enkidu spoke again.

"Actually, I'm a little unwilling to accept this."

Orpheus didn't respond for a long time, so Enkidu continued speaking.

"I love... I've always loved this world."

He simply lay down and stretched his hand out to the sky.

"This world is truly beautiful... Everything on the land where I was born, the sky that is so far away, the mysterious sea... everything is so beautiful... and the animals, the people... so I really feel a little resentful..."

"Enkidu, do you regret it?"

"Do you regret it...?"

Enkidu lowered his hands and shook his head.

"No, I won't regret it. That's what I decided from the very beginning."

Because it's a lock?

Suddenly, Orpheus spoke up and asked.

"Hmm... Orpheus noticed."