That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

Ultimately, Kingu chose to follow rational thought and "cooperate" with Hall, the human who claimed to want to resurrect his mother Tiamat.

"Humph."

Jingu snorted coldly, his light purple eyes fixed on Hall, and he raised a contemptuous smile: "You're lucky this time. You said your goal is the same as mine, to resurrect Mother. I'll spare your life for now because of that. But if I find out you're up to any tricks, I'll let you taste the feeling of your body and soul being devoured by nothingness."

After saying that, his body transformed into a golden light and disappeared.

"Whoo~"

Hall's mind and body relaxed instantly, and he slumped to the ground, panting heavily, letting the icy, bone-chilling river waves surge past him.

"I'm so lucky to have survived. It's really unpleasant to feel like I'm at the mercy of others."

"However, thanks to Jingu's cooperation, we have finally made progress."

Hall had been observing Jingu with his magic eye, so he naturally noticed the murderous intent hidden deep within his eyes.

The Mystic Eyes released the resonance state and sensed the body's condition, which was terrible. The magical power stored in the magic circuits had been drained by the Mystic Eyes, and Xiao Yuan's life force was as fragile as a piece of paper.

The magic flowing from the Star Cup continuously replenished Xiao Yuan's losses. Hall used this magic to draw a row of primordial runes on the ground to accelerate the recovery of magic and prevent attacks from unexpected enemies.

After doing all that, Hall casually remarked, "It's about time we came out."

The only sound on the quiet riverbank was the flowing water, but in front of Hall, a black-haired girl with her arms crossed slowly floated down.

She was still the same as Hall remembered, dressed in an outfit even more shameful than that of the Naked King of Uruk. In any case, from a modern perspective, it was a gaudy swimsuit. Her snow-white arms and legs were adorned with gold ornaments, and her feet were unadorned with shoes. She habitually maintained an air of superiority.

Beside the black-haired goddess was the Heavenly Bow Maana, a giant bow with a blue base and decorated with gold.

"Hello, Goddess Venus," Hall said calmly, waving in greeting.

Ishtar tilted her head, her crimson eyes fixed on Hall, her eyes narrowing slightly, revealing a hint of amusement: "I really do run into you everywhere, Hall. You are that... yes, the stalker, the goddess's (my) stalker."

Do you have any memories related to me?

Ishtar raised her delicate chin: "Nonsense, the one standing in front of you is not the me who participated in the Holy Grail War. That time it was just possession and summoning, and the scale was reduced to the level that conforms to the Holy Grail War. With complete divinity, I can easily view the memories of different worlds."

"Why are you here?" Hall asked, puzzled.

"Because someone called me."

"..."

“In this era, simply calling out the name of a goddess can make one known.”

Hall suddenly realized: "It's those fugitives. But they actually dare to seek your protection in this situation."

“What, do you have a problem with that? As long as humans offer sacrifices, I will listen to their prayers and help them fulfill them. That’s called a contractual relationship.” Ishtar tossed her jet-black hair.

"And then pocket all their treasure?" Hall quipped.

"It's better than becoming food for monsters, isn't it?"

"You're a goddess."

"Hmph, it is because of my goddess that humans should offer me their lives, jewels, and everything else."

"By the way, if Jingu had tried to kill me just now, would you have saved me?"

"Of course."

Hall felt a warmth in his heart; this crazy goddess did have some conscience after all.

Ishtar's eyes lit up as she thought of the bright future, and she said with a smile, "Because you look very wealthy, you can definitely pay the price. If we take you hostage, that gold pika might be willing to pay one-tenth of the treasure's wealth."

Foreword retracted.

"Since you like gems so much, how about I pay you to hire you?"

Ishtar's gaze lingered on Hall for a moment: "While you are indeed very wealthy and generous, I refuse!"

"why?"

Ishtar replied in a serious tone: "There are still many fat sheep in this world... cough cough! Humans need the goddess's 'help,' I won't give up the whole forest for one tree."

"Are you a demon?" Hall couldn't help but ask.

Ishtar leaned down in front of Hall, poked his forehead hard, and scolded, "What is this? Is it wrong to ask for a little bit of return? You used to keep shouting about equal exchange, and I had a hard time too. I need gems to cast spells and build temples. I clearly earned so many gems and money before, but they just mysteriously 'disappeared'."

"You've just used it all up, haven't you?"

"So verbose!"

Hall stood up from the ground and drew runes to evaporate the moisture from his clothes. "Since you're here, how about I hitch a ride? Just take me to the North Wall."

Ishtar generously extended her hand: "Travel fare."

"For the sake of our friendship."

“Even if God Annu wants to ride the Sky Ship, he needs to pay the fare. That’s my principle.”

Your principle is simply greed, isn't it?

Hall patted his pocket and reluctantly took out a high-quality ruby ​​he had embezzled from the Royal Treasury, tossing it to her.

Ishtar happily accepted the ruby, examining it in the sunlight. Her red eyes sparkled: "The quality is excellent, just as bright and beautiful as my eyes. Alright, you can come on now. Even ordinary gods are not qualified to ride the Sky Ship. I'm only letting you on because it's you."

"I'm honored. Where shall I sit?"

“Come on up.” Ishtar extended her right hand to Hall.

After she grabbed him, Hall was pulled into the air, his body seemingly defying gravity and floating beside her.

The Sky Bow Maanna quickly took flight, rising to a height of several thousand meters, offering a panoramic view of the entire Mesopotamian plain.

The monsters moved across the plain like ants, and the previously inaccessible northern wall was now fully visible, with a clear view of Uruk city and its magnificent palace further behind.

Ishtar smiled and said, "I haven't told you yet, have I? Welcome to the world I live in. What are your thoughts?"

"Nothing much, except that the Great Source hasn't dried up yet."

“It would be too boring to just take you back to the North Wall like this, and it doesn’t match the value of the gems you paid. I am a just goddess, so is there anywhere you’d like to go? Or how about I take you on a tour? You can go wherever you want.”

Where to go? The most urgent thing is to find a safe place to replenish magic and heal the body.

This woman hasn't completely lost her conscience yet.

Sensing Ishtar's goodwill, Hall thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Then please find a place with abundant magic."

"set off!"

The heavenly bow carrying the two people suddenly streaked across the sky with golden light.

······

A few minutes later, the golden light flew to a majestic and towering mountain. The mountain's height and steepness were completely unlike anything in reality. The mountainside was already shrouded in mist, resembling a fairyland.

Before the bow had even landed, something on the mountain peak flashed with a blinding golden light. Hall squinted and couldn't help but ask, "What's that flashing thing?"

"What did you say?"

"Glittering with gold."

“Ah, you’ll see when we get there,” Ishtar replied proudly.

The Sky Bow landed in front of the wide plaza on the mountaintop. Just as Ishtar had said, Hall now knew what the shimmering golden thing was and where he was.

Legend has it that Mount Ebifu is a sacred mountain that even the gods revere!

The glittering golden structure before me is the temple built by Ishtar. Its architectural style is about 80% similar to the palace in Uruk. It should be said that the palace in Uruk was originally used to worship the city god Ishtar.

The biggest difference between this temple and that uniquely styled palace is that the outer walls of this temple are decorated with a large amount of gold, as if it were forcibly plastered on the walls to highlight the noble status, but it failed to turn vulgarity into magnificence, making the whole palace look unusually tacky.

That was fine, but what Hall found most incomprehensible was that there were two golden lucky cats placed at the entrance of the stairs, which took the meaning of the term "nouveau riche" to the extreme.

Hall stared in disbelief: "Now I know where all the money you made went."

Ishtar stood with her hands on her hips, her pretty face full of pride and self-satisfaction: "Pretty good, isn't it? My proud temple. Only a temple as magnificent and splendid as this is worthy of being called the goddess of goddesses, namely me, the goddess of Venus."

"Ishtar, you should send me back."

Ishtar reached out and pinched Hall's face hard, scolding, "What kind of attitude is this! I only brought you here out of kindness, do you even know where you are?"

"Your home."

“Indeed, this is my home. I am the only deity qualified to live here. This is Mount Ebif, the heart of Uruk, the place with the highest concentration of ether and the highest magical power of the spiritual veins!”

"Did you design this temple?"

"Of course!"

"Would you like to hear my thoughts?"

Ishtar, hands on her hips, said with great pride, "It doesn't matter, praise and sing the praises of the goddess of beauty to your heart's content."

"Vulgar, wasteful, meaningless, and deeply disappointing."

"Stop! Stop! Stop! What did you just say?"

My impressions of your home.

"..."

"Hmph, there really are such people, mortals who can't even comprehend the slightest bit of beauty." Ishtar sighed, rubbing her forehead in exasperation, looking utterly self-satisfied.

Leaving aside Ishtar's architectural taste, Mount Ebif is indeed the center of the spiritual veins in the surrounding area, similar to the Great Hollow Underground in Fuyuki City, and the magical power flowing through the ley lines is hundreds or thousands of times that of Fuyuki City's spiritual veins.

Even in the Age of Gods, this concentration of magic power was quite exaggerated.

"Fine, I'll borrow your place for a bit." Hall touched the ground with both hands, activating the transmutation technique to alter the flow of the spiritual veins of Mount Ebif. The surging magical power converged towards the transmutation circle, and the blue light emitted by the transmutation technique became even more dazzling.

呲味~

Body Transformation!

Blue lightning spread across Hall's body, using the perfect android body as a data template to reshape it through alchemy.

With the help of the spiritual veins of Mount Ebifu, the entire process was completed in less than a minute.

Ishtar, standing by, put one hand on her hip, her eyes turning from crimson to gold, revealing a cold and disdainful look. This indicated that she was getting serious and using divine power. In this process, the human side would be suppressed, while the divine side would be amplified.

The goddess Venus frowned and asked, "What's going on? Your soul's nature is not human at all."

Hall smiled and said, "As expected, you felt it too; that was the power of the Star Cup."

"Star Cup?"

“That’s right. Power that doesn’t belong to this world can be seen as an upgraded version of Uruk’s Big Cup. If I want, I can reshape the planet’s environment right now.”