To become a king and a magician

29. Ishtar descends to the underworld

Before me stood a pure white temple.

Natsukawa Tora, his eyes fixed on the building before him, knew exactly where he was.

Endgame Singularity, Grand Temple of Time, Solomon.

The decisive battleground he will surely reach in the future.

Why did I come here?

Such a question arose in Xia Chuanhu's mind, and at the same time, a figure sitting upright on the seemingly pure and flawless throne in the distance made Xia Chuanhu's expression slightly serious.

King Solomon.

Or rather, Goetia, who possessed his remains.

Soon I will face the greatest enemy I have fought against in the past twenty years.

The day of the final battle with it is almost here. After waiting for ten years, this second round of the battle must be completed no matter what, for that will be the true end of everything for him.

“Keep waiting on that throne, Goetia.”

Natsukawa Tora reached out and gripped the figure sitting on the throne tightly.

“I…no, we will defeat you soon.”

"It won't be long."

The moment after that declaration ended, Natsukawa Torato's consciousness fell silent once more.

————————————————————————————————————

Inside an uninhabited house in Kusa.

Opening his eyes in the glow of the setting sun, Natsukawa Tora sat up from the mud bed, rubbing his head: "What happened to me...?"

"Are you awake?"

Merlin, sitting by the window, turned and smiled, "You fell into a deep sleep as soon as you got the Tablet of Destiny. Was your consciousness affected by the [future] recorded on it?"

Heavenly Mandate Clay Tablet.

Xia Chuanhu looked at the mud slab he was holding in his arms.

Right, he remembered that after he parted ways with Merlin, he spent about two hours finding the Tablet of Destiny in Kusa City, after which he seemed to immediately faint.

The inscription on the clay tablet was not in a script that Natsukawa Torato could understand. Even for someone who had mastered three or four languages, understanding the Sumerian script of this period was far beyond his capabilities.

"This is a record of the future that Gilgamesh foresaw. Did I accidentally synchronize my consciousness with it?"

"More or less," Merlin nodded. "What did you see?"

"Goetia is now sitting on the Grand Temple of Time, smugly awaiting the success of its plan."

As he spoke, Natsukawa Torama tossed the Destiny Tablet to Merlin and got off the bed: "Take this with you. It's getting late. I'll take you back to Uruk, and then I'll go to the Underworld to see if I can handle Ereshkigal's matter. After that, I'll go to the Persian Gulf to complete the water quality survey mission—you can report to Gilgamesh like this."

"You're really busy. I'm thinking of asking if you're taking on too much work by yourself, but I'm happy to have some free time because of this, so I'll leave it to you."

With a smile, Merlin decisively stepped into the spatial passage manifested by Natsukawa Torato. At the other end of the passage was the outskirts of Uruk, less than 300 meters from the city walls. Because Uruk was protected by a barrier and could not be directly teleported into, this was the only way to get there.

Gilgamesh had given them three days, but now it was dusk on the second day after they set off, which meant that almost a day and a half had passed.

"Is there a day and a half left? The trip to the Persian Gulf should only take half a day, which means..."

One day was given to Natsukawa Tora to go to the underworld to deal with Ereshkigal's matter.

(I remember there was an underground passage leading to the underworld in a certain building in Kusa City... Or should we just do what Ishtar did and blast a big hole in the ground that leads directly to the underworld?)

Xia Chuanhu hesitated as he looked at the ground beneath his feet after coming outside.

And at that very moment—

"Swish swish swish swish——————!"

Numerous sounds of air being torn apart came from the distant sky.

It was a magic shot from someone, Natsukawa Torato could sense it.

Turning to face the incoming barrage of magic bullets, he raised his hand and conjured a layer of ice to block them all. Then, Xia Chuanhu's gaze fell on the person who had attacked him: "Generally speaking, is it possible to launch an attack without saying a word?"

"Tch, failed, huh...?"

As Ishtar, riding on Maana, descended to a low altitude above Natsukawa Torato, she muttered to herself: "It was just a simple greeting. For an impudent trespasser who entered my territory without a word, a little punishment is necessary, isn't it? Besides, since it's you, I don't care if I attack with all my might, right?"

(If it weren't for me, I would have really died on the spot.)

Xia Chuanhu silently complained to himself.

"So, you came all the way down from Mount Aibif just to say hello to me?"

"How could that be? I just saw you on my way back from a walk and stopped by to say hello." Ishtar waved her hand dismissively. "But you, you were fighting that sun god in the forest a few days ago, and now you've come here to fight me. Are you planning to fight me?"

Because the battle between Natsukawa Torato and Quetzal was so intense, the goddesses in Mesopotamia were all aware of it to some extent, and they all realized one thing—an enemy who could rival them had appeared.

Natsukawa Tora smiled: "What if I said yes?"

"Bang------!"

A beam of magic shot out from Maanna's cannon in an instant, and was then slapped away by Natsukawa Tiger and sent flying to the horizon.

Ishtar sighed softly, "I thought it would work. Your reaction is really outrageous. But now you know, right? If you really want to fight me, I won't hold back just because you have some connection with this body."

(After that, he won spectacularly and then used his winning power to order him to write off all his debts!)

Seeing the expression on Ishtar's face that seemed to be pondering something, Natsukawa Torama smiled and said, "I'm just here to look for something because of Gilgamesh's request. I just found it and had it sent back. Also, I'm planning to go to the Underworld next."

"Huh?"

Ishtar paused for a moment: "You're going to the underworld?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong... What are you doing in the underworld, a living being? Are you having suicidal thoughts? You're an elf, you can't die, right? Even if you die, a new you will immediately appear."

Xia Chuanhu laughed and said, "It's nothing, just going to deal with the Three Goddess Alliance. We don't need to worry about Quetzal Koyatl's attacks anymore. As long as we deal with Ereshkigal's side, we won't have to worry about the two pillars of the Three Goddess Alliance anymore, and we can focus on fighting the Beast Goddess."

"Wait—wait, wait, wait! What did you just say?!"

Ishtar immediately flew to Natsukawa Torata's side, getting right up to his face and demanding, "Who did you just say you were going to take care of?! Who?!"

“Ereshkigal... Oh right, you don’t know that yet?”

Natsukawa Tiger briefly explained the conclusions he and Merlin had reached to Ishtar.

A chain of goddesses summoning each other, the shared divinity of two beings who are one inside and out...

After hearing this, Ishtar's face turned pale, then purple, then white, and then she sighed heavily as if she couldn't bear it anymore: "Haa~~~~ Really, I didn't expect this to happen... She was also summoned to the real world or something, there really can't be worse news than this."

"No, what's worse is that she actually became a member of the Three Goddess Alliance. What was she thinking, that idiot? Hey, Natsukawa, if you're going to the Underworld, I'll go with you."

The sudden suggestion surprised Xia Chuanhu slightly: "You also want to go to the Underworld? Why?"

"It's nothing, just a sudden whim. Besides, if what you said is true, and Ereshkigal is likely to use my body from time to time, then I'll have to settle accounts with her."

"She dares to misuse my body; I can't let her go without teaching her a lesson."

30. You can always trust Tiger's aesthetic sense.

As mentioned many times before, in the Age of Gods, the Underworld was actually located underground in a physical sense; one could reach the Underworld simply by digging downwards.

Within the city of Kusa, there also exists a path leading to the underworld.

Natsukawa Torara originally planned to go to the underworld through that passage, but Ishtar, who was traveling with him, thought it was too troublesome, so in the end—

"Can't you just stop acting so recklessly?"

In a dimly lit space, Natsukawa Tiger slowly descended to the ground on the wind, looking helplessly at Ishtar, who was also flying down.

Yes, just like before, Ishtar simply opened a hole in the ground and forcibly entered the underworld with Natsukawa Torato.

"What does it matter? It'll be faster this way, won't it?" Ishtar laughed. "You're quite strange. You're incredibly strong, but you can also do some very proper things sometimes."

"Because I'm constantly told not to act recklessly, because if I did, the world order would be thrown into chaos."

For example, the moon might fill the sky, and a hundred ghosts might roam at night... Such a situation is not impossible. Considering the need to conceal the mysterious and maintain the stability of the world, Natsukawa Tora has always been urged by his lovely adopted sister not to do anything reckless.

Grey is quite strict in this regard.

Upon landing, Natsukawa Torama looked at the underground space he was in: "Is this the underworld?"

The surrounding area is all rock walls.

The temperature is quite low.

There was no light around, only light sources like will-o'-the-wisps floating up and down.

Xia Chuanhu stood on the ground, which resembled a stone bridge, with cliffs on both sides. The bottom of the cliffs was unfathomable, and nothing could be seen, but an unusually cold aura surged up from it.

Not far away, there are countless stone pillars, as if supporting the ground above, so as to create space for the underworld so that it will not be submerged.

This is a dark and lifeless world of death.

After carefully sensing the atmosphere of the underworld, Natsukawa Torama said, "Ishtar, I now understand why you said that my coming down here would be suicide. The environment here is indeed quite unfriendly to the living."

The underworld is the realm of the dead, filled with an incredibly dense aura of death. For the living, it is a deadly poison; most people would die from weakness after only a short time in this place.

Only a deity like Ishtar, who is also a pseudo-Servant, and a spirit like Natsukawa Torata could move freely within this place. But even though it was said to be free, Natsukawa Torata could indeed feel that his condition had weakened, as if he had been given a weakness buff.

(Does the underworld itself exert a suppressive influence on the living?)

This is an ironclad rule of the underworld, which even Natsukawa Torato cannot violate.

"In that case..."

The clothes on Xia Chuanhu's body began to emit a dim, gray glow, before transforming into a magnificent gown with black as the main color, giving off a crow-like impression.

Ishtar frowned: "What is this?"

"It's a smokescreen. Since the underworld suppresses the living, all I need to do is make the underworld perceive me as a dead person. This outfit can constantly exude the aura of the dead, disguising me as a real dead person, so the rules of the underworld won't apply to me."

This is also a form of self-transformation.

However, this kind of trick can only work against the mechanisms of the underworld itself, and it probably won't work on Ereshkigal, since mechanisms are static, but gods are dynamic.