How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

"Huh? You signed a contract after only meeting him? You trust him that much?"

"Because Mr. Yuwatari just saved Mashu and me!" Although she wasn't as assertive back then as she is now, Fujimaru Ritsuka still said it with confidence.

"But that could also be a tactic he used to gain your trust!"

"Ah... I understand that all too well..."

Because of Ereshkigal's words, which reminded her of Kingu's sudden sneak attack, Fujimaru Ritsuka immediately nodded in agreement, feeling a sense of shared experience.

Ereshkigal: "???"

Why does she feel like this human is acting weird?

This specifically refers to the brain.

"However, Mr. Yudo and I were companions who fell from the same height, and that alone is enough for me to believe him!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka found a new point of argument to debate with Ereshkigal, and halfway through her speech, she clapped her hands as if she had remembered something.

"Oh right, so if you think about it, Miss Ishtar, you're just like us, a fellow sufferer who fell from the sky!"

She was referring to the time when she first met Ishtar, and how she acted as a cushion for her when she fell from the sky.

However, Ereshkigal clearly had no memory of this incident, and at this moment, completely bewildered, she could only give Fujimaru Ritsuka a smile that she herself did not know the meaning of.

Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't seem to care and turned the conversation back to Yuuto.

"I remember Mr. Yudo and Miss Ishtar know each other, right? How did you two meet?"

"Me? My situation is actually even simpler."

Along with Fujimaru Ritsuka, Yuuto slowly recounted his experience of asking Ishtar for directions.

Hearing the kind and amiable Ishtar he spoke of, Ereshkigal couldn't help but shiver, then looked at Yudo with pity.

Poor guy, how did he go blind at such a young age?

After that, Fujimaru Ritsuka told some more stories about her experiences in the previous singularities, but eventually, as the sky began to lighten in the distance, she succumbed to drowsiness and fell asleep.

Ereshkigal, who had been listening intently to her stories all night, hesitated for a moment before handing the blanket he was wrapped in to Yuuto so that he could cover Fujimaru Ritsuka with it.

Then, Ereshkigal looked at the faintly brightening horizon in the distance. Knowing that Ishtar was about to wake up, she stood up to go back to her room, but Yuwatari, who had covered his Master's belly, suddenly stopped her.

"Wait a moment."

"Hmm? Is there anything else? If so, speak quickly, this goddess's time is very precious!"

Ereshkigal stopped and turned back to look at Yudu in confusion. After a night of practice, she was now behaving quite convincingly as Ishtar.

Although it was still some time before dawn, she was worried about something unexpected happening and didn't plan to stay there any longer.

"I have another question I want to ask you..."

Yudu stood up and looked at Ereshkigal, then opened his mouth and asked.

"What...is your reason for joining the Three Goddesses Alliance?"

Chapter 75 This is the Age of Gods

"So? What exactly happened last night?"

Inside the house, Ishtar sat with her arms crossed on Maana, who was floating in mid-air, her legs crossed, and one hand supporting her chin as she asked Yuuto and Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had just woken up and was rubbing her sleepy eyes.

It is noon now.

Ishtar had come to Yudo in the morning to ask about the results of the test last night, wanting to know if Ereshkigal was sharing a body with her.

However, since Fujimaru Ritsuka hadn't woken up yet, and Yuuto also wanted to catch up on his sleep, he simply nodded to her, confirming the conclusion that Ereshkigal was sharing the same body with her, and then said that he would tell her the details after they woke up.

In other words, Ishtar's personality has become more gentle than before after being influenced by the body she possessed. Otherwise, why would she have been waiting quietly at their respective room doors until now?

After regaining some composure, the two recounted the events of the previous night to Ishtar.

Of course, Yudo did ask the last question, but Ereshkigal managed to brush it off with a rather Ishtar-esque answer like, "There was no reason, I just wanted to join."

"Damn it, not only did they steal my body, but they also pretended to be me..."

After hearing about what 'herself' had done last night, Ishtar gritted her teeth in a vicious rage. If she could turn into a kettle full of water right now, the water inside would probably be boiling over by her anger.

Although it seemed that Ereshkigal hadn't done anything outrageous last night, the fact that the other party was impersonating him was already unbearable for Ishtar.

She wanted to cause trouble for him, but Ereshkigal spent all his time in the underworld. Even though the underworld and the earth were connected during the Age of Gods, she was reluctant to go down to the underworld to find him.

Moreover, in the underworld, where all heroic spirits or divinity are rendered powerless, provoking Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld, once is enough; doing it a second time would make her seem foolish.

As if recalling her embarrassing experience in the underworld last time, Ishtar couldn't help but shudder.

……

"I see... The mistress of the underworld?"

Inside the Divine Tower, after confirming the matter, Yuwatari and Fujimaru Ritsuka told Gilgamesh about it.

Gilgamesh put down the clay tablet in his hand, rested his chin on his hand, and asked Siduri, who was standing on the lower level of the throne.

"Siduri, I remember that Ereshkigal is the guardian deity of Kusa City, isn't he?"

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Siduri nodded, then added, “But Kusa City is now within the sphere of influence of the goddess Ishtar.”

Upon hearing this, everyone's gazes immediately turned to Ishtar, who was floating in mid-air aboard Maana.

Ishtar: ?

Why are you looking at her?

So what if Kusa City is within her sphere of influence?

Is it not possible?

Gilgamesh ignored Ishtar, who was baring her teeth at the group, and continued speaking to herself.

"Kusa City was destroyed without warning after the Three Goddess Alliance appeared."

Mashu: "Destroyed?"

“Ah, one day, communication with Kusa City was suddenly cut off.” Gilgamesh rested his arms on the armrests of his throne, his hands crossed in front of him.

"When Leonidas and his team arrived at the scene, they found only silence. There was no blood, no sign of struggle, and all the citizens of the city seemed to be asleep, lifeless..."

Hearing this eerie description, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mashu felt a chill run down their spines and instinctively shrank back.

"The cause of this situation was originally unknown, but now that I think about it..."

Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes, not saying what he was going to say, but everyone already understood what he meant.

Fujimaru Ritsuka: "Goddess Ereshkigal..."

As she whispered Ereshkigal's name, Fujimaru Ritsuka found it hard to believe that the girl who had been quietly listening to her stories the night before, like an ordinary human girl, had actually slaughtered the entire city's inhabitants.

Fujimaru Ritsuka remained silent, but Yuuto spoke up at that moment, asking Gilgamesh, "So what about those remains? Were they all preserved?"

Upon hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked up at Yuuto with some confusion.

What good is it to preserve the body when the person is already dead?

Should we hold a grand funeral for them?

However, Gilgamesh curled the corners of his mouth when he heard Yuwatari's question.

"Heh, who do you think I am? Kusa City has a population of 900. This number can be easily accommodated simply by opening the basement of the Divine Tower!"

"In that case, we'll leave the underworld to us."

Seeing that Yuuto and Gilgamesh were exchanging cryptic messages, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked around and realized that among the people present, only she, Mash, and Siduri seemed to be unaware of what was going on.

So she approached Merlin, who was standing nearby, and asked him what the two men meant by what they were saying.

"Ah, well..." Merlin smiled, "You should already know that the Mesopotamian lands of the Age of Gods were connected to the Underworld, right?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded.

"So this means that as long as you find this connection point, you can enter and exit the underworld through it, and as we all know, the underworld is where the souls of humans go after they die."

"Then all we need to do is go to the underworld and release the souls of the dead..."

"So they can... come back to life?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash stared in surprise, catching up on the second half of Merlin's unfinished sentence.

"This...this can really be done? Resurrection from the dead...is this what the Age of Gods is all about?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka felt that she might now understand why those magicians revered the Age of Gods so much...

However, now that she knew those who had died could be saved, Fujimaru Ritsuka did not intend to delay any longer. She felt that she had rested well and was ready to set off for the underworld at any time.

"Don't rush off yet, I have another task for you..."

Gilgamesh spoke up, temporarily stopping Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was eager to set off. He picked up the clay tablet that was set aside and casually added another task for them, as if he were chatting with them.

"Go and retrieve the Tablet of Destiny. It records the future I saw during meditation. It was recorded in Kusa City during my return from the Underworld to Uruk..."

Merlin's lips twitched, and the entire nightmare seemed somewhat helpless.

"So that clay tablet wasn't even in the western forest at all..."

Ignoring Merlin's veiled complaints, Gilgamesh turned to face the crowd with a serious expression.

"This is the king's decree. Go to the underworld immediately to rescue the souls of the citizens of Kusa who are trapped there, and retrieve the Destiny Tablet of Kusa!"

Chapter Seventy-Six: The City Connected to the Underworld

Kusa is located northeast of Uruk.

If you want to get there, it will take about a day to walk there, and you will have to cross a plain made up of a lot of reeds.

If you continue traveling further northeast, you will arrive at the foot of a mountain called Mount Ebif, where the temple of Ishtar is located.

It was precisely because her temple was located in this place that Ishtar included the city of Kusa as part of her territory.

Of course, there might also be a hint of revenge in this, a desire to secretly seize Ereshkigal's territory while she was away.

However, all of that is in the past. If she had known back then that Ereshkigal had also been summoned, she would never have gone near Kusa no matter what.

It wasn't that she was afraid of Ereshkigal; she just felt that the underworld didn't suit her beautiful image. Besides, for a woman like her, the mistress of heaven, to be so fixated on a place like the underworld would seem petty...

In the sky, Yuwatari, taking advantage of the EX-level riding ability that allows him to create roads anywhere at will, drove his D-Wheel carrying Fujimaru Ritsuka, Anna, and Merlin, who was strapped to the back of the D-Wheel, all the way at high speed.

Along the way, he would occasionally nod to Maanna, who was riding beside him, and at this moment he was stubbornly explaining to them that he was not afraid of Ishtar of Ereshkigal.

As always, Mash relied on her physical abilities as a Demi-Servant, grabbing the iron chain Anna used to bind Merlin and gag him, which was also attached to her behind her.

Unfortunately, there's simply not enough seating in the D-Wheel, and Ishtar, being a goddess, wouldn't allow just anyone to ride on her Maana, so this tradition just has to continue.

It's even foreseeable that whenever there's a need to use the D-Wheel for travel, Mash and Anna will likely be inseparable.

Thanks to the advantage of aerial routes that allow them to ignore most terrain factors, and the high speed of flight, Yudu and his group arrived in the airspace near Kusa City in just half a day.

Something's wrong with this city.

As they gazed at Kusa City from the air, they couldn't help but think this way.

It was a city where even now, before the sun had set, not a single ray of sunlight could be seen penetrating. A gloomy atmosphere enveloped the entire city, and at this moment, Kusa City was as conspicuous as a black dot on a white sheet of paper in their eyes.

"Alright, this is Kusa City."

Yu Du and his group landed in front of the city gate of Kusa City. Merlin, who had been untied, couldn't wait to speak after the chains that had gagged him were removed.

However, even without him saying it, others can see that.

"Just as King Gilgamesh said, senior, I can't sense a single trace of human presence in this city..."

With Fou perched on her shoulder, Mashu looked solemnly at the silent city before her.

Before Fujimaru Ritsuka could speak, the wristband on her wrist beeped, connecting her to Chaldea.

Dr. Roman searched the area thoroughly, but he didn't see a single person, nor even a single monster. The monsters didn't seem to have any intention of invading this uninhabited city.

They seemed to be terrified of the city, lingering within a radius of several kilometers around Kusa.

If it were before, they might not have known why this was happening.

But now that they know of the existence of Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld, and that the entrance to the underworld is in Kusa City, it becomes obvious what these monsters are afraid of.

"Alright, let's leave the lamenting for later. Before it gets dark, let's get into the city as quickly as possible!" You Du led the way into Kusa City, speaking to the others without turning back.

"Otherwise, who knows what kind of ghostly things might pop out of this city that's connected to the underworld at night..."

Well, because it's connected to the underworld, only ghosts really know, and what comes out are indeed all ghostly things.