After that, they landed on a clearing near the city.
There was a humongous gate that led to the city's first section. They approached the entrance and the guards stopped them, "What is your purpose in the sacred city, Yunanites?"
Hermes coughed and took out his serpentine staff.
'I haven't seen that staff of his in a while....' Alex remarked.
"I'm Hermes, from the Olympian pantheon. We wish to alert our presence to Sir Marduk."
The guards looked at each other, then the serpentine staff, and one of them said, "Lord, follow me."
The two went through the entrance and Alex heard the other guard say, "What do members of the cult of Alexander want with our city again?"
'Strange....' Alex frowned.
The guard that was leading them said, "I apologize you Lords have to pass through the slave neighborhood, the direct path to the holy Ishtar Gate is near."
Hermes said, "Has any recent catastrophe hit the city and the Euphrates? The situation seems worse than it was a few decades ago."
In fact, as Alex looked around, he could see many people on the ground.
They all shared a common physical attribute, that being that they were so skinny their bones were overly visible.
Alex felt his head hurt when he saw the starvation and a person was even drinking what seemed to be sewer water.
The guard, hearing Hermes' comment, sighed and said, "The whims of the gods have brought great misfortune to Babylon."
After that, he led them to a small brick building.
There was no decoration at all in the insides, and only a trapdoor stood out.
The guard opened the trapdoor and stated, "This will lead you to a tunnel that stops at the City of the Greats, and from there, you can enter through the Ishtar Gate to visit our Lords."
Hermes gave the man a blessing and the two entered the trapdoor.
After going down a staircase, they found themselves in a wide tunnel.
The walls were decorated with blue bricks and torches lit up the entire tunnel.
They continued straight through the tunnel and found another staircase leading up, which they climbed before reaching a trapdoor reminiscent of the one from earlier.
Alex opened the trapdoor and the outside was a simple brick house like the one in the first part of the city.
This part, however, was nothing like the one they were formerly in.
Large houses replaced the slum-like buildings and the people here didn't seem as unhappy and hopeless.
No one had an emaciated physique and everyone was going about their day while the food was ample and wasted.
Alex frowned at the extreme inequality that was present within the confines of one city.
Hermes sensed his feelings and informed him, "I'm as surprised as you are. The city of slaves was never a prosperous neighborhood, but it wasn't as severely destitute as it is now."
'Inequality like this never hints at good rulers...' Alex wasn't looking forward to meeting these gods.
They walked and walked around the prosperous inner city until they found a gigantic blue gate surrounded by tall forts.
The gate was constructed of blue glazed bricks and murals depicting tigers, lions, and bulls covered it.
An inscription on top of the gate wrote, "Ishtar Gate, the entryway to the Kingdom of the Gods on Earth."
"This is our destination," Hermes spoke.
Alex was familiar with the Ishtar Gate, but it was his first time seeing it, and it definitely looked very majestic and beautiful.
Nonetheless, after the scenes of poverty and starvation from earlier, the contrast between the prosperity that this gate symbolized and the former was distasteful to Alex.
There were numerous guards around the gate, and as Hermes and Alex approached it, the guards surrounded them with their swords pointed at their heads.
Hermes showed them the Caduceus, the serpentine staff, and declared, "I have come under the jurisdiction of Olympus."
The guards retreated their weapons and started pushing the gate open.
Beyond the gate was an extremely astonishing scene.
There was a lush garden with rivers and waterfalls flowing everywhere.
In the center of the garden, a very tall staircase led to a beige palace, from which flowed water into the rivers.
It was an idyllic scene and reminded Alex of Elysium, if not for the lack of a Sun in the latter.
'Are these the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?' Alex appropriated the scene he was currently observing to a famous myth from Earth.
Hermes said, "Let's move fast."
They entered the garden and then climbed the staircase.
The entrance to the palace was not guarded, and only servants roamed about. Hermes and Alex navigated through countless corridors and stopped at a spacious hall.
The hall had a large throne in the center of it, in which a man sat.
He had dark skin and piercing black eyes. His hair reached into his shoulder along with a voluminous black beard.
He wore a golden hat on his hand and a bird-like creature sat next to him.
Countless servants were fanning him, though he had a deep frown.
"That's Marduk," Hermes whispered to Alex.
'Marduk' took notice of their presence and swiftly stood up. The bird creature alongside him whistles in a threatening tone.
"You are...a member of the cult of Olympus." The man spoke in a deep and nervous voice.
Hermes nodded and remarked, "I have only come to report our passage through the territories, but it does seem that affairs are not going well?"
'That's an understatement.' Alex thought.
Marduk's eyes twitched and he sighed.
"Ever since the conquests of Alexander, misfortune after misfortune has hit us."
Alex felt a bit surprised to hear Alexander mentioned again.
Marduk continued, "The Parthians have introduced the cult of Mithra and Alexander introduced your cult. The two have only gained popularity while ours has been declining."
"We share power equally among us, and when affairs are prosperous, all is fine. But when our power reserves started to plummet, Enlil suspected me of hoarding power to myself and went to Assur in the north, where people already worshipped him as the head god."
"He took with him Ea and Ishtar. And Ea cut off the flow of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to our territories downstream, causing a water crisis. Shamash, the only major companion I have left, burned their crops with the sun."
Alex didn't understand too much, because of the unfamiliar names.
Hermes whispered to him, "Enlil is their god of the wind. Ea is the god of water and Ishtar is their goddess for war and love."
He nodded and processed all of the information Marduk told them.
However, the more he heard, the more furious he got.
'A conflict is fine, but from what I've seen, all of these conflicts only affect the mortals, and are but a petty skirmish to them.' Alex remembered how the outer part of the city seemed whereas this place looked like lush heaven.
He spoke up, "Greetings, Marduk. I am Alex, God of Humanity. I understand your fights with your companions, but does it have to affect the innocent mortal bystanders?"
Marduk seemed confused by his words and said, "Come again?"
"You rule this place. I'm sure you have seen how starved and ill some of your residents are."