Gilgamesh completely lost it.
For the second time, time halted completely. Gilgamesh's world was, once again, crumbling. A bolt of terrifying black lightning was tearing through the sky, heading directly for his parents.
He wondered without end as to what he could possibly do to stop it, but no solution came.
What more could he do? His body was already as powerful as it could be, given the seal on his spirit. All the memories he could unlock had been unlocked and restored- he was essentially just as knowledgeable as his past self had been. The only memories he could not regain were those that were sealed along with his spirit.
The only new power he had gained was Neutral Magic, but he had already abused his spirit as much as he could. To use it to fuel powerful magic yet again would probably take more than he could give.
The seal was simply too limiting.
'This...'
In the stillness of his mind, Gilgamesh's memories of his almost twelve years in this world revisited him. He had been lucky enough to find family again- to feel love again. He had promised them the world, and had delivered on his promise, yet things had still ended up this way.
'This ...fucking...'
He was once again on the cusp of losing those he loved more than life itself.
'THIS ...FUCKING...!'
He was once again going to lose to Heaven. He was once again going to lose to Anu.
'THIS FUCKING SEAL...!!!'
He refused to lose again. Heaven had taken everything once, and sealed the rest away. He refused to lose to them again. His anger found a fuse, and set the stage for an explosion of emotions that Gilgamesh had never felt to such an insane extent. All of that emotion was directed inward, and it needed to find an outlet.
"RELEASE ME!!!"
Yet, what outlet could it find within him... except his spirit itself. As soon as his mind found that victim, it let everything out at once. Gilgamesh opened his mouth and screamed to the sky, his voice alone threatening to undo the stability of the entire planet's spatial laws. The lightning bolt was instantly eradicated, and his parents were safe again.
But, Gilgamesh did not care about that.
The organs in his throat were destroyed after such a display, but Gilgamesh could not even be bothered with that. The pain did not exist to him, all that he knew was that his spirit was sealed, and he hated that more than anything.
The golden light on Gilgamesh's body that had become dim was undergoing a change. Not only was it getting brighter with each second, the golden color was morphing into something that more closely resembled a faded jade color, and it only continued to get more and more blue as time passed.
Once it had become fully blue, the intensity of the light was already equal to what it had been when he was at full power.
Yet, the changes did not stop there. The aura on his body continued to change, darkening until it was a very dark violet. Closest to his body, the glow lost all brightness, becoming entirely black. As for the outer layer, it remained purple, albeit a very dark shade of the color.
All of this happened in less time than it would take for a god like Enki to think, but this was more than enough time for the current Gilgamesh to turn the tides of the battle once more.
The sword hung low in his left hand, while he stretched his right hand out. He was physically incapable of speaking now, so he relied on his spirit to cast the spell for him.
"Recreate Magic." Hundreds of fireballs all burning with blue fire materialized, and without warning he launched them at Ku. The god saw his end coming, and did not even offer up any resistance.
Gilgamesh's voice reverberated around the entire world, and eventually reached Enki and the others.
Ishtar immediately shivered when she felt that aura, and Nanna's expression darkened. Enki was simply shocked, more so than he had ever been in his life.
"He..." Ishtar started, but disbelief rendered her mute.
"He damaged the seal..." Enki said the words they had been thinking, but were too scared to say. Saying those words meant that they had to admit the truth to themselves, but they were far too terrified to do that.
Gilgamesh had damaged the seal?
They knew just how hard they had all worked, especially their Father, to ensure that Gilgamesh would never be able to so much as scratch that seal- yet he had damaged it?
They would have never even dreamed that such a thing could be possible, but it had, undoubtedly, happened.
They did not know just how badly the seal was damaged, but judging by what they were seeing, it appeared to have weakened significantly.
They watched the events following the seal being damaged unfold, and were taken aback, recalling the days that Gilgamesh had defied them with his fully powered spirit.
"Do you think he's also released some of ...that power?" Nanna asked this, but was afraid to know the answer.
"Impossible. Even if he damaged the limiter on his spirit, that power is the very core of the seal. It cannot be damaged. I refuse to believe it." Ishtar was the one saying this, but she didn't sound so confident now."
"She's right, Nanna," Enki concluded.
"The seal was not intended to limit his spirit or hinder him from recovering his memories, those were just side effects. Even though he has damaged the seal, it has not weakened. He seems to have just barely weakened the side effects. He may recover his spirit if he manages to damage the seal further, but that power will forever remain sealed."
Ishtar and Nanna knew that Enki knew better than they did, and so they breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, Enki suddenly released a shriek, worrying them once again.
"What is it, brother?"
"Use your words, Enki, your words!"
Enki raised a shivering finger, and pointed directly at Gilgamesh from outer space.
"It's not the s-s-seal that he weakened..."
Nanna and Ishtar froze, unable to understand what this meant. At first they waited for Enki to finish his statement, but he simply looked at them. They could see something in his eyes that they had not seen in a very, very long time.
Not just uncertainty, but fear.
"Enki... you're scaring me..." Ishtar's voice quivered.
Nanna could not even find words.
"Father... please..."
Enki himself did not even know what he was saying at this point. He had even started to curse the brain that allowed him to come the conclusion that he had come to. For the first time in his life, he was regretting being as intelligent as he was.
PAK!
"Enki! What is it!?"
Ishtar had slapped Enki across the face, causing the latter's eyes to widen as he came back to his senses.
"Ishtar, Nanna, don't you see!?"
"No!" They shouted in unison.
"I was wrong. We were wrong. So wrong- very wrong- so very, very wrong."
Enki was pacing in the void now, and his eyes only looked crazier and crazier. Despite the fact that this was spiritual manifestation, his physical reactions were still coming across clearly.
"He hasn't weakened the seal- he hasn't damaged the seal. It's his spirit. He damaged his spirit. He broke his spirit. It's been severed, but not weakened, and that made it seem like the seal wasn't working, when in reality he had just ripped pieces of his sealed spirit out. But, if he does that without damaging the seal, then the seal is going to react accordingly."
Enki was clearly losing it. He had already run the scenarios through his head dozens of times, meanwhile Ishtar and Nanna were still trying to figure out what was going on.
"The seal's prime directive is to lock away the stolen power... The seal's prime directive is to lock it away so Gilgamesh can never use it... Limiting the spirit was merely a side effect. Limiting the memory was just a side effect. Gilgamesh damaging his spirit in order to free it from the seal doesn't mean he's gotten stronger."
By now, Ishtar and Nanna were beginning to understand, and they were horrified at the thought. They also understood how their father's seal worked, though not as clearly as Enki did. Enki had been present when the seal was first being drafted- he knew everything about what it was and what it had to become in order to be used against Gilgamesh.
"Gilgamesh has truly gone mad. He would never do such a thing otherwise," Ishtar said this because she had a very clear understanding of Gilgamesh's personality, more so than many others.
Enki finally finished his assessment, once he realized that they had caught up to him.
"He is sacrificing his spirit by transforming it into pure lifeforce, all for a temporary boost of strength. The moment he ceases to burn his lifeforce will be the very moment he loses all of his accumulated power."
"Permanently."
To the average god, this would sound like a good thing. Their enemy was inevitably going to lose all his power, he would no longer be a threat to them. They could very easily manipulate events and destroy him.
But.
What had their purpose been? Was it ever to simply kill Gilgamesh? No.
It was to expend all the power of his spirit without damaging it. This was all so they could reclaim the power he had stolen, and the lifeforce he had gained by killing so many of their kin.
Gilgamesh had sacrificed that life force, and by ripping his spirit out from under the seal, thus damaging it and its connection to that power, he had sacrificed ever touching that power again. It was no longer tethered to his spirit, it was simply an object locked under an unbreakable seal.
A seal that was unbreakable to all, even the ones who had created it.
There was no way for them to recover the stolen power now. Absorbing Gilgamesh's spirit would no longer work. The power was lost to everyone, thanks to Gilgamesh's sacrifice.
If they killed him, then it would disappear completely- no one could say where it would end up once he died. At least, if he remained alive, they would know where it was- not that knowing this did them any good.
"Is this it? The end?" Nanna whispered his first words in quite a while.
"If we cannot regain that power, then there is nothing else we can do. Father's seclusion will end, and if he is not successful in his breakthrough, then there is no other way we can possibly stop what's coming."
Enki looked to his siblings and shook his head.
"It may be too early to say, but I suppose this is goodbye. Whichever of you chooses to remain here can take control of Father's spirit. Do whatever you wish to Gilgamesh once he's finished."
The heavenly light branched off and took Enki away with it. Nanna also vanished soon after, leaving Ishtar alone in the silence of the void. When she looked down at the world again, she saw the field burning with blue flames.
Gilgamesh had taken his parents, Maxwell and Volsung away from there, afraid they would be harmed by the fire.
He teleported away with them, the aura on his body still surging. He could not stop until he had left again; he did not want his parents to know about the damage he was causing himself.
Maxwell and Volsung fell unconscious once they were able to relax, but Logan and Angelica merely looked to Gilgamesh with sadness, regret and frustration.
He looked at his parents, using every ounce of his willpower to keep the aura going strong. He did not care that he was wasting valuable lifeforce; he would not let his parents see him in the horrible state that he would end up in if he stopped.
Angelica's heart ached. In her mind, all she could see was the image of Gilgamesh's entire left side being reduced to ash. Even though it had healed on its own once he started burning away his spirit, the image would not fade.
She fell forward and embraced him, already crying.
"It shouldn't have been like this..." Logan cried into his son's shoulder, and Angelica cried into his chest. To her, it felt like she was clinging to his chest the same way it had been before. Her son did not feel... whole.
Gilgamesh looked at them, and suddenly felt the urge to cough up blood. He suppressed it, but could not hold it back for long.
"I'm sorry for breaking my promise. I won't ever break any of my promises again." Tears of blood fell from his eyes, each landing on one of his parents.
One dropped into Logan's hair, the other dropped onto Angelica's hair.
"Goodbye, Mother. Goodbye, Father. I will find you again."
After speaking those words, he was gone. Had he stayed a single moment longer with them, then all of his accumulated injuries would have crossed the threshold.