As soon as Gilgamesh saw the infinite expanse of space, he ceased the constant ignition of his lifeforce and instantly lost consciousness. Even though he was no longer awake, his body convulsed and released a torrential amount of blood.
He coughed blood up from his mouth and nose, his eyes bled nonstop and his flesh tore, releasing even more blood. His hairs that had originally been black and white became grey and brittle- a lot of it even fell off of his head.
There was no spirit left to protect Gilgamesh from the harshness of outer space, so his bodily fluids had already begun to boil. His muscles expanded, constricting the flow of what little blood he had left. As for the blood he had lost, it had long vanished from sight. He had already began to lose all the air within his lungs, and he was steadily on his way to begin losing the vaporized water within.
Gilgamesh was lucky his body was that of a demigod's, or else he would have died in a few minutes. It took longer than that for Ishtar to deal with her complex emotions.
Her manifestation stood there in the emptiness and watched Gilgamesh suffer. She could not derive any pleasure from the sight, and the more she watched the more she felt like she had to step in.
She had never derived pleasure from his misfortune. Her motives were not at all like those of her siblings.
She resented Gilgamesh, and wanted nothing more than to make him pay for what he had done to her kin in his past life, yet her goals were still not the same as her siblings.
She wrestled with the feelings in her heart, feeling conflicted. Without her siblings or Father here to tell her what to feel, think and do, she was left asking herself those questions. What should she feel? What should she think?
What would she do?
Lost in her reverie, Gilgamesh was slowly dying. Was this not the result she had wanted for years? Seeing Gilgamesh like this should have made her feel some sense of accomplishment, but there was no such feeling in her heart.
As a matter of fact, her heart ached for him. Ishtar gasped, only now realizing that Gilgamesh was quite literally dead. Before his spirit could leave him, she mobilized the Spirit of Heaven's power, restoring him to life and healing all his physical injuries. She could not restore his spirit as Enki had done for Ku.
Firstly, doing so without appropriate reason would be a direct violation of Heaven's Edict, even if she didn't use the Spirit of Heaven to do it. She was a god of the World Beyond Heaven's Door- she simply could not do such a thing without facing severe repercussions.
Secondly, even if she lost her mind and tried to do it, Gilgamesh's spirit was the antithesis to Anu's spirit. Trying to heal it, even with her own, would do more harm than good. Gilgamesh was not the only being that desired to overthrow Heaven, but he was likely the only being with a spirit that was not of Heaven.
This was why they had been glad that one side effect of the seal was that it limited his spirit.
Ishtar brought Gilgamesh over to her massive spiritual body, and she looked at his sleeping face with unfocused eyes. Her physical self, back on her home world, was going through a monumental emotional dilemma.
Memories of events from over ten trillion years ago, in that moment, resurfaced in her mind. It was unknown what she was thinking about, but she subconsciously brought Gilgamesh closer to her bosom as she reminisced.
Gilgamesh slept soundly in the embrace of her spirit; Ishtar had chosen to protect him from certain death.
She remembered everything about the life Gilgamesh had led. She had watched him grow from a child to the man all gods had come to fear, and though she had developed a deep hatred for him after the things he had done- especially to her family- she could not find it in herself to harm him now.
Her heart was touched, but she did not want to feel the way she did.
She wanted to hate Gilgamesh completely. She wanted to desire his demise more than anything, even more so than any of her siblings, but she couldn't.
The worst part was that she was she didn't know why.
Was it because their whole purpose in life had now been cast aside? No, she had always had her own personal feelings regarding the matter of Gilgamesh. It would not be inaccurate to say that Ishtar treated her Father's goal as a secondary objective.
Ishtar could not understand it. If not for that reason, then what other reason could she have for not treating Gilgamesh this way? Why not just cast him aside on some random world and leave him in the hands of whatever god ruled it?
Not knowing infuriated her. She felt like she was separate from her own self, and it was beginning to drive her mad. She raged in her mind, and shrugged off all the warm emotions. She withdrew her spirit from around Gilgamesh's body, and the instant she did so he began to suffer.
However, Gilgamesh stirred in his sleep. Something was happening to him beside what was already taking place- something inside. Ishtar was preparing herself to go home, but a lingering thought arose.
'I can still see the morning star in your eyes.'
She heard a man's voice in her head, and as she focused on the memory she became lost in it.
As for Gilgamesh, his body contorted and weak spiritual fluctuations began to escape from it. Those fluctuations tried to surround his body, like an auto-defense mechanism that had been restored after Ishtar healed his body.
However, his spirit was far too weak and unstable to even create a protective barrier around him. On the contrary, it attempting to protect him was only doing more damage. Gilgamesh should not be using his spirit at all until it dropped to a more stable level. Doing so could cause his very being to be extinguished, erasing him from reality forever.
Ishtar jumped in fright, and hurriedly sent her spirit back to him, encasing him in its protection. She had not even given it a second thought, and reflecting on this made her realize that she had only been foolishly rejecting what she felt.
She never hated Gilgamesh, even for the things he had done to her and her family. But she was hurt, and as she expended more mental energy to think about it, she understood why.
It was not that she had not known the reason, but she had chosen to deny it all in the first place. She denied that Gilgamesh had hurt her- she denied what she felt for him, and what she was feeling now.
In that moment, everything became clear.
Ishtar laughed, but she also became sad. Tears even began falling from her spiritual manifestation; her physical self was, perhaps, bawling its eyes out.
Ishtar took Gilgamesh's body and brought it to her massive hand, where she cradled it. She treated him like a delicate thing- like a newborn.
"None of it matters anymore. None of it. I don't care about the power and I don't care about your enmity with my family. I am done with all of it."
She called the Light of Heaven to her, and also summoned the Spirit of Heaven. Just like that, all trace of them was gone. In all the void, darkness returned as the Light of Heaven withdrew. This realm was dead, and no god would ever again give it life.
The world Gilgamesh left behind would function under unchanged laws. Until such a time as he was able to return, nothing would change. The world would simply heal from its wounds, and return to its usual state.
Logan and Angelica's hearts would always yearn for their son's return, but as time passed their lives would regain a sense of normalcy. They were left on an almost empty world, with no hope of ever reclaiming what they had lost.
Within this stretch of the universe, silence would reign for many, many years.
. . . . . . . . . . .
The Light of Heaven traversed the entire universe in a matter of milliseconds, even though it stopped occasionally for Ishtar to evaluate a number of worlds. Once she was certain that there was not a single suitable world, she urged the Light of Heaven to pierce the veil between realities, and forcefully entered an entirely new universe.
She flitted across multiple realities in such a way, until she'd finally found a world that, in her eyes, was perfect.
This was a complex super-world, which was the term used for the highest-tier worlds. Such worlds were governed by the strictest of laws, and housed some of the most powerful beings across universes. It would not be a stretch to claim that these worlds were, in terms of overall power, second only to the world beyond Heaven's Door.
Ishtar descended onto the world after banishing the Light of Heaven, then reigned in her aura completely. Her manifestation shrunk to the size of a regular human as a result, and her golden glow vanished almost completely.
Not even the gods of this world would be able to detect her if she so chose, and thus she was able to bring Gilgamesh into the world unnoticed.
Using her perception, she scoured the world to find a suitable location. A single island in this world was larger than the entire lowest world was, yet her perception was potent enough to encompass the entire planet. After a few seconds, she decided on where she would go.
Carefully cradling Gilgamesh in her arms, Ishtar traversed the space in an instant. She had chosen a rich and fertile continent, teeming with wildlife and only just beginning to be settled by the forces of an unknown conqueror, but Ishtar did not mind this. The matters of mortals did not concern her, her own objective was most important.
She found a remote area some distance away from the southern coast, and prepared a place for Gilgamesh and herself to stay.
Just beyond the large pool of a massive waterfall, there was a rocky mountain face with numerous large crevices, and a wide cave entrance. Ishtar carved out a large space within the mountain's interior, and began to alter it to suit her.
She did not waste a single breath; with her thoughts she urged the Spirit of Heaven to reshape the organic and inorganic matter, turning stone into materials of entirely different make-ups. She created furniture of the finest quality, walls and flooring, light sources and even a fireplace.
Ishtar created a living space that conformed to the vision in her mind, and when she was satisfied she reigned in the power and set Gilgamesh down on the bed. Fast asleep, and in the body of a child, Ishtar could not fight the adoration she felt when she looked at him.
"I never thought you, of all people, could be so cute."
She giggled and left the bedroom, slowly closing the door behind her, but stopping once it was open just a bit. Once she stepped out of the room, her eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips together tightly, even biting down on them from the inside of her mouth.
'If this is how it must be, then I shall make my own sacrifice. I won't let pride rule my heart anymore- I can't. I will pour my heart out in full, sincerely, and if I am rejected then so be it. I am still a god; I can stomach such a thing.'
Ishtar looked back at Gilgamesh's sleeping figure through the tiny space, and that bolstered her resolution. Her spirit wavered, then its golden glow intensified once more. She shut the door, then vanished into space.
As for what she was about to do, no one could possibly see it coming. Not the Gods of Mesopotamia, not the Divine Ruler, not Gilgamesh- and, funnily enough, not even Ishtar herself.
Yet, in her heart, this was the only path forward.