The Infinite Dragon God Cannot Find Silence

"They clearly did things that were detrimental to you, like summoning 'us'?"

“They have violated the law of the king, and it is I, as the king, who should punish them. On the contrary, they have obeyed the commandments of God, and it is without reason for you, as God, to kill them.”

Orpheus calmly answered Ereshkigal's question.

"Honestly, even so, to suddenly call out like that, they're really impatient, aren't they?"

“I believe this is a more efficient approach.”

Orpheus's already somewhat gloomy expression darkened even further.

"Perhaps the love I borrow is not as strong as the faith of the gods, but as long as I have enough strength, that's enough."

With a burning gaze fixed on Ereshkigal, Orpheus's voice was filled with suppressed rage.

"Only the victor has the right to speak, so you are not allowed to deny Enkidu's 'love'."

"Oh, that's really domineering, although I feel your reasons go beyond that."

Ereshkigal spoke casually, a large, oddly shaped cleaver appearing in his hand. He swung it to deflect a magic cannon shot fired by Orpheus, then leaped backward to avoid five consecutive attacks.

Even if we don't talk about these things...

Leaping from the ruins of the priestess's quarters, the magic circle behind Orpheus dissipated, replaced by dozens of golden ripples from which weapons gleamed coldly.

One weapon after another, all of them powerful enough to directly harm even gods.

“As a god of Sumer, you collude with outward gods and turn around to attack your own people; as the city god of Kuta, you slaughter the people of Kuta. For these things, let me use my royal authority to condemn you.”

"Yes, this sin is so heavy that even I, who committed it, cannot judge it."

To Orpheus's surprise, Ereshkigal responded in this way. Although his expression did not change much, one could inexplicably sense a certain solemnity.

"Even so, welcoming all humanity and all souls into the underworld and taking them into the realm of the dead—this is the meaning of my existence, my destiny. Therefore, I have no regrets and no self-reproach in fulfilling this responsibility without reservation!"

As he made this announcement, a black mist, symbolizing death, began to permeate Ereshkigal's surroundings, and he pointed his weapon at Orpheus.

"If you want to stop me, then come! Destroy my power, my divinity, and my very existence! Denying the gods as evil, denying the evil of the gods—this has always been the way of humankind, the way I have endured and borne for thousands and tens of thousands of years, and which I have regarded as good!"

Just as Ereshkigal said at the beginning.

The gods are unreasonable and merciless.

Therefore, when people are intellectually deficient, they can attribute all the unreasonableness, the lack of compassion, and the lack of understanding to the gods, and live their lives in a carefree manner.

This is tragic, but from another perspective, it can also be considered a form of happiness.

"Is this what you think...?"

Orpheus said in a low voice, then shook his head.

"It may be a rather gentle approach, but it's too arrogant."

With a gentle wave of his hand, dozens of weapons instantly enveloped the location where Ereshkigal was.

Ereshkigal remained calm, skillfully wielding his strangely shaped weapon to deflect all weapons that would directly hit him, then letting all the weapons create layer upon layer of massive explosions around him.

The reason why the weapon fired from Orpheus's Treasure exploded like that was because of the magic power inherent in the Treasure itself, not because the weapon itself was shattered. This level of magic dispersion was simply not enough to harm Ereshkigal, who possessed god-level magic resistance.

He easily withstood a wave of attacks, but the next second, Ereshkigal's eyes widened.

A huge golden spear was hovering beside Orpheus.

The spear was engraved with mysterious runes, constantly radiating a strong divine aura. The power it contained was not overwhelming, but it was inexplicably difficult to resist.

Ereshkigal knew that it was the power of fate.

"To try to deny the resilience and intellectual development of humanity by your own power, and even to presume to take on the humble, sinful, and ignorant aspects of humanity, is too arrogant of you, your gods."

"Catch the golden spear," Orpheus said.

"Then, let this 'God's Declaration' pierce through you along with your arrogance."

Orpheus thought to himself with a touch of self-mockery, "I've really rambled on for no reason."

Is it a bad habit that I don't know when I picked up, or is it an involuntary feeling that comes from when I'm with the other person?

However, she had no interest in investigating it.

That body wasn't the other person's real body at all, but the fact that the other person appeared so brazenly in front of her, even if it was just a consciousness, was enough for Orpheus to lock onto her.

There's no need to know the exact location of her physical body. With just this gun in my hand, even without aiming, I can pierce through her body in the underworld across the river of fate!

While killing her is impossible, at least it can keep her quiet for a while...

"Shoot her—"

"So, according to you, who should take responsibility?"

Ereshkigal's sudden roar startled Orpheus.

Quite coincidentally, the barrier that Uruk had just established suddenly trembled several times, causing Orpheus, whose attention was actually mostly focused on Uruk, to subconsciously shift all his attention to it in that instant.

"Chance!"

Ereshkigal was not distracted and immediately seized the opportunity, quickly flying up.

"whispering sound……"

Orpheus quickly regained her senses, ignoring the sudden, curse-like malice she felt. She tried to retreat, her toes barely touching the ground, while several chains sprang out from the golden ripples. But Ereshkigal was faster than her.

No matter what, I'm going to drag you into the underworld!

Puff!

"Ugh!?"

And so, to Orpheus's somewhat astonishment, Ereshkigal, in his desperation and seemingly no longer caring about his image, pierced Orpheus with his weapon, then tackled him to the ground, lowered his head, and, under Orpheus's increasingly eerie gaze, sealed Orpheus's lips with his own.

Chapter 48 Prisoners

Lips were pried open, tongues were entangled, and saliva mingled together.

Before Orpheus could savor the somewhat strange sensation, he felt an endless stream of immense divine power flowing into his body through their saliva and the weapon piercing his body.

Without much thought, Orpheus recognized the power.

That is the power of God called death.

Knowing that pure death would have very limited effect on Orpheus, Ereshkigal chose to 'induce' her to die.

First, make her want to die, then make her believe that she is really dead, and finally her body will die along with her mind.

Orpheus wouldn't care if the body died, but once the soul dies, the body is useless even if it lives.

Being kissed while simultaneously embracing the temptation of death gave Orpheus a rather strange feeling, and her eyes began to become somewhat hazy.

The two remained entangled in this position, with Ereshkigal pressing down on Orpheus, for several dozen seconds.

Orpheus did not struggle, nor did he use the energy within his body to resist the endless stream of deaths.

At first, Ereshkigal thought that Orpheus was unable to resist due to the influence of his death power, so he didn't think much of it and kept sending death power into Orpheus's body. But later, he felt that something was wrong.

Death, which had been unimpeded, began to be resisted... but the opponent was not the energy of Orpheus, but the power of 'life', which was completely opposite to the nature of death.

'impossible!'

Ereshkigal's eyes widened in disbelief.

She was almost 100% certain that the original Orpheus was unable to use this power. This power, so incompatible with her own, was something she could easily detect even if the other party had only used it once.

She had never felt this way with the original Orpheus.

Does the other party have any special methods of concealment?

Or is it……

An answer that even Ereshkigal found hard to believe flashed through his mind.

While Ereshkigal was thinking, she naturally stopped moving because she was too shocked. Orpheus, who was underneath her, gave her a strange look and then casually pushed her away.

"you you……"

After being pushed aside, Ereshkigal finally realized what was happening.

"You...you transformed my death into life!?"

Although the answer was quite outrageous, it just wouldn't leave Ereshkigal's mind.

Is that really the case?

If that's the case... then that's blatant cheating!

Puff!

A familiar sound suddenly reached Ereshkigal's ears.

She looked down, somewhat bewildered.

The weapon that had been plunged into Orpheus's chest was now embedded in her abdomen, while Orpheus, still holding the weapon, tilted his head and looked at her.

"you……"

Ereshkigal opened his mouth, about to speak, but saw a fist growing larger and larger in his eyes.

boom!

Hmm, that experience just now seemed a bit too stimulating for you. Thinking about it now still makes me a little excited, like raising a daughter for a long time...

"pray."

【Um? 】

"Shut up."

【Yes! 】

After glancing at Ereshkigal, who had fainted on the ground, Orpheus casually found an open space and sat down.

Ereshkigal was right; in the heat of the moment, she had indeed used her innate abilities to transform Ereshkigal's 'death' into 'life'.

The principle is not complicated. Whether it is induced death or direct death, the essence is the same: 'death'. But for the ouroboros, death is almost equivalent to rebirth. So once you grasp the knack, there is almost no difficulty in such a transformation.

Of course, this is mainly because Ereshkigal could not control the flow of energy into Orpheus under those circumstances; he could only let it run its course and could not imbue Death with too much aggression.

After all, it's similar to the principle of replenishing mana, except that Ereshkigal had Orpheus replenish not pure magic power but the divine power of death.