As Gilgamesh relaxed, the giant spark faded along with the last of the memories he had displayed.
Marshall and Sylvia were still trying to piece together the things they had seen, but were completely blown away by the fact that the person they had seen in those memories was the same Gilgamesh they knew.
"So," Azure closed her eyes and swallowed, "everything that's happening is a result of 'Anu' wanting to kill you?"
Verdant cleared his throat, "Actually, I think it's more than just him wanting to kill him."
Crimson nodded, "If that were all 'Anu' wanted, he would not have gone through the trouble of trying to keep Gi- uh- you, trapped in Hell. He must have wanted you to stay there for a reason."
Gilgamesh nodded, and subconsciously looked to Ishtar. She shook her head, and he sighed. She had no idea why her father had insisted on preventing Gilgamesh from reincarnating, just more guesses.
"It could be that he wanted to keep that power in one place; he probably doesn't see G-Gi-- you, as anything more than storage. To him, you're just a locked box waiting to be opened."
Gilgamesh smirked, "I thought the same, but the truth is that Anu had the chance to drain my spirit and reclaim the power when he first killed me. Whatever it was that he wanted to prevent me from ruining, it didn't require the power."
Ishtar's eyes lit up and she leaned forward.
"I don't think he even wants to reclaim the power anymore."
Her words evoked many 'hm's and intrigued glances.
"He told my siblings and I that a great threat to our existence was going to come from beyond one day, and that without the power Gilgamesh stole, we would not be able to stop it. I have no doubt that my father does indeed value the power sealed away within Gilgamesh, but I do not think it is what he truly needs from him."
Crimson, Verdant and Azure instantly fell into thought. Gilgamesh himself had already gone down this train of thought in his mind, and was waiting to see if Ishtar would arrive at a different conclusion than he did.
"When he tried to kill me, my father mentioned something about 'natures,' and what Verdant said made me think about that some more. What if he wanted the very natures that Gilgamesh now possess?"
"What if that's why he's spent so long trying to traverse the void of the World Beyond Heaven's Door?"
Verdant frowned, "But He did not always possess those natures, did he? Could Anu have known that He would acquire those natures? How?"
"He does command the Laws and Powers of Heaven. Maybe that allowed him to see something," Crimson added, seeming thoughtful.
As Gilgamesh listened, his own thoughts came to him to remind him of all the things he had experienced since coming to this world, and of Anu's initial obsession with it. A theory came to him, and he gasped.
"He knows the truth..."
It was just a murmur, so his voice was lost in the sound of their discussion, but Verdant heard him clearly, as though Gilgamesh were speaking into his ear.
"What about Game Masters," Azure looked around at each of her siblings, then finally at Crimson.
"Well," Violet sniffled, "you were the closest to Father. Do you know anything about Game Masters?"
Crimson shook his head, "Nothing useful, just old myths and legends. I heard that the Game Masters predate the Angels, and that they didn't actually possess a system, but were able to manipulate the system at will."
"That doesn't help," Gold sighed.
"Not at all," Azure added.
While they were speaking, Marshall felt something on the wind, and his head snapped in a random direction before he could even think about what he was doing. His eyes searched for something his brain was assuring him was there, but he could see nothing but the landscape as it always was.
Surrounded by smaller trees in every direction, this massive clearing was perhaps the hardest place to remain hidden. If something was coming for them, they would see it a mile away.
Unless...
Marshall's unease grew, and his sister soon felt the change in him. His pupils constricted and he broke out into a cold sweat, all the while his breathing quickened.
Sylvia noticed how hard it became for Marshall to sit still, and tried to put a hand on his shoulder and speak to him, thinking it would calm him down.
Instead, he was startled by it, and jumped up from his seat, eying Sylvia as if she had just attacked him.
This alerted the others, and they all looked over at him strangely. Gilgamesh instantly frowned, and both him and Ishtar let their spirits out to see if they could sense anything amiss.
'He's terrified of something,' Gilgamesh noted.
"No... No, no, no..." Marshall stepped away from his sister and kept looking around him, searching for something that was not there.
"It's coming. It's coming." His body was already drenched in sweat, and at some point his shoulder started bleeding despite the fact that the wound had not reopened.
"What's wrong with him," Verdant was already approaching, a swirl of greenish energy already present in his hand.
"I don't know," Sylvia answered. "Marshall, please try to calm down."
"Calm? How can you be calm? Did you not hear me? It's coming! It. Is. Coming!"
"What is coming, Marshall?" Sylvia tried her best, but she could not console him. He refused to let her touch him, and would only walk further away as his eyes scanned the horizon.
Verdant came up on Sylvia and cast a reassuring glance her way, "Let me."
He walked up to Marshall and the swirl of energy in his hand settled into a calm glow. He aimed his palm toward Marshall, and the green glow leapt from his hand and slowly approached the back of Marshall's head.
"Something's scaring him from within. He's more terrified than I've ever seen someone be."
Hearing Crimson's analysis, Gilgamesh turned to him and said, "What do you know of the Mireling's master. I'm assuming it's some kind of beast?"
Gold nodded and Silver was about to speak up, but she looked to Crimson first. When he nodded, she answered.
"The thing is, all we have are suspicions too. The Mireling's master was never actually seen, only felt."
"Who felt it? What did it feel like?" Gilgamesh pressed.
"I don't know what it felt like, but it was our ...mother... that sensed it all those years ago. Her nature was ...special. She was the one that said it was most likely a beast, and not a person, controlling them."
"She died?"
Silver and Gold nodded, while the rest had their heads held low.
"You think that's what's causing Marshall's reaction," Crimson deduced.
"Given that the wound the Mireling gave him is bleeding, I can only assume so. You all saw my memories, so you know what to expect. Don't just rely on your spirits to fight them; use your senses."
Marshall suddenly went silent, his body facing the direction that their group had come from. Then, after a few seconds, he looking in the opposite direction, then another and another.
"It's here... No..." His wide eyes immediately found Sylvia, and he bit down on his lower lip as indignation swelled in his expression. "No!"
Instantly, he drew his sword and stood at Sylvia's side. His breath came slowly but heavily, as if it dragged in his throat on the way up, and a large amount of saliva flew out of his mouth along with it.
Judging by his stance and aura, he was already prepared for battle.
"Ready men!" Gold commanded, and his nearby soldiers all responded accordingly.
"You heard him," Black said, "be ready!"
Those of them that still had soldiers readied them, and ordered them to converge on the campfire's location. Soon, all was still again, and only the wind could break the silence.
Gilgamesh, Ishtar and all those with powerful spirits could feel nothing. Gilgamesh felt around in his mind for a way to get a better grasp of the situation, and a method came to him subconsciously, reminding him of the fact that he already possessed certain knowledge.
It was an application of the Obscure Spark that he had only just realized he could perform.
Violet sparks blitzed to life in his eyes, and he looked around at their surroundings with an all-new kind of vision.
The instant he did this, he saw numerous objects slowly coming into view. At first, there were only a few dozen, scattered in every direction. He could not see the shape of their bodies, but instead saw the spark of life within their souls.
Those were lifeforms, and judging by their abilities to become completely undetectable, he knew they were mirelings.
However, as he looked around more and more and his new vision adjusted, he realized that the number of sparks he could see was growing steadily.
At first, there were just a few dozen more. Then a few hundred, then a few thousand. Before long, he was able to see the true number of mirelings surrounding them, and it shocked him.
In each direction, they were surrounded by more than three thousand mirelings, meaning there were at least twelve thousand of them in total.
When Gilgamesh told the others what he could see, they were scared to believe him.
Crimson also attempted to do the same thing, but his mastery of the Obscure Spark could not compare at all to Gilgamesh's. He could just barely see the sparks of life, and even then he could not see that many.
Gilgamesh brought out Samael, and Ishtar summoned all the energy she could muster. Crimson's eyes lit up with both reddish-violet sparks and powerful flames, while a whimsical green fire appeared in Verdant's eyes.
Azure's body was instantly covered in a frosty blueish-white aura, and blue orbs took shape in her hands, each of them containing a miniature ocean of water that crashed. Gold and Silver came together, and their auras meshed together to create the image of two Gold and Silver Wyrms, before settling onto their weapons and armor.
Gold's gauntlets came to life, and Silver's armor, shield and sword did the same; gold and silver flames burned in their eyes.
Violet's energy was slowly released, but contained within a space just around her. It touched the grass beneath her feet, and instantly killed it, leaving nothing but the earth, which was also being affected.
Black stood with her men, and pulled her mask up over her face. As a shadowy fire blazed in her eyes, her body slowly lost its shape and became obscured in that shadow, which her men replicated, albeit with less efficiency.
They were, all of them, prepared for battle.
Sylvia's bow was in hand, and her aura was also at its height. Marshall would glance back at her ever so often, and she wondered how he had been able to sense them coming. She saw the blood soaking into his clothes near where his wound was, and worried that her brother had not yet overcome the effects of the poison.
Gilgamesh nodded and took a deep breath.
"They're on the move."