When Gilgamesh woke the next day, it was already noon, Ishtar had left to bring lunch for him, and they ate together in his room before leaving to get cleaned up and meet the others.
Everyone noticed that the air around Ishtar was a lot different that usual, and Gilgamesh's parents all gave him a look. Under their piercing gazes, he could only smile wryly and try to act normal.
They spent their days much the same. They would eat together, go out and explore together, and have as much fun as they could. Gilgamesh and Ishtar had went out to find Marshall and Sylvia, who Gilgamesh had placed in his world along with their family.
He did the same with the Wyrm Lords, but had also taken the effort to ensure that their matters would remain isolated from the rest of the world. Their father was their business.
His methods were so perfect that they did not even realize they had been brought to an all new world. To them, nothing had changed. When Gilgamesh approached them and told them of what happened, they found it hard to believe at first until he showed them around.
He took them to visit his family, and they all got to know each other. Crimson, Volsung, Gold and Maximus hit it off, and ended up sparring with each other almost every day.
Verdant and Ninsun actually found that they had a lot to discuss, and actually shared a number of theories. Ishtar and the girls hung around Logan, Angelica and the mansion staff, learning more and more about Gilgamesh from the moment he was born to now.
There were even some spiritual photographs that Gilgamesh had not even known about, recorded on specialized crystals.
Aside from that, Azure, Violet, Black and Silver were also able to learn more about cooking. They had never actually cooked before, and had always relied on their own servants and the inventories of their systems, so they never ran out of food.
Time passed quickly like this, and Gilgamesh soon felt as though something was closing in on him. He knew his time was short, but he had never thought it would be this short. In his mind, he felt as though he had at least a year, but that was no longer the case.
When he inspected it with the Omniscient Author, he realized that there was an indirect influence on the realm's deterioration, speeding it up. When he checked again, he realized that there was less than a day before the realm collapsed, and he was forcefully returned to the real world.
When he found this out, he gathered all his friends and family, and broke the news to them.
"What? I thought you said you would be around for a year. What happened?" Angelica asked, already sounding pained.
"I thought so too, but some external force has shortened the time immensely. Now, I'm not even sure I will be around in a few hours."
Collective gasps rang out amongst his family, and the others all became solemn.
"Can't we come with you? Why do you have to face this unknown world on your own?" Ninsun asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
"You all are of this realm. You aren't meant to exist there. Your best chance of survival is to stay here, on this planet. It is tied to my soul, and since I am fateless, this world should be exempt from fate's effects. The Divine Ones can no more affect it than they can affect me, so you should all be safe."
Hearing this, Logan shook his head, "What about you? Will you be safe? You may be all-powerful here, but out there you'll be far weaker. At that point, the Divine Ones will be the least of your worries."
Ninsun and Angelica looked to Logan and nodded, agreeing with his words.
"That is precisely why I would rather you all stay here. Even if I could bring you with me, I would only be putting you all in more danger. Don't worry about me, I know I will surviv-"
"You don't know that! You can't know that!"
Ishtar could hold her emotions in no more. She ran over to Gilgamesh a grabbed him by his clothes, crying as she spoke in a loud voice.
"You'll be entering a world where everything you know will be different. You'll have no experience, none of this kind of power, and- worst of all- you'll be all alone!"
"There's no way you can know that you'll survive. At least if we're together, we can stand side by side and fight with you. We can triumph together, lose together, suffer together and die together! Can't you see that's what we want!?"
Gilgamesh heard Ishtar's words in his heart, and they pained him. Even so, he knew that he simply could not allow himself to give in. If he did, he knew that he would be consigning them all to death.
It was a feeling that he had felt ever since he had made the connection between his soul and the world he had created.
"I know, Inanna... I know. But do not forget, before I stood at the peak of this world, I was merely a boy, knowing nothing. I had no experience, no power, and I was forced to be all alone. Even so, I overcame everything and everyone. Did I not?"
Ishtar did not stop crying into his chest; she could not answer his question.
"Yes," Ninsun answered, "but you have to remember that your path here was laid out by the Divine Ones, who wished to build you up so they could use you."
"Now that they know they cannot," Angelica stepped forward, taking both Logan's and Ninsun's hands, "you have become their enemies. We have all become their enemies."
"So, you have to make us a promise." Logan smiled, a bitterness on his face as well as in his heart.
"What promise," Gilgamesh sniffled, already knowing what was coming.
"Promise me that, no matter what, you will value your life more than ours. You will prioritize your survival above all else, and will stop at nothing to continue living... for us."
Gilgamesh smiled, but shook his head.
"If you all die, there will be no reason for me to continue living. So, instead, I will promise you this."
In that moment, a boundless and matchless power seemed to break free from every corner of reality. Above them in the sky, innumerable explosions rang out as the void was split and rent, like torn fabric.
The realm was coming undone faster than Gilgamesh expected.
As the terrifying spatial and temporal explosions only increased, an impossibly complex and mystical barrier appeared around Gilgamesh's creations, protecting them since he himself was unharmed.
When this happened, there was a grating sound that echoed throughout the entire space, like the angered roar of existence itself, pissed that it could not destroy Gilgamesh's world and all that he had created.
When Gilgamesh sensed this, he sighed in relief. However, his body was already beginning to be pulled.
When he looked to his family and friends again, he could not help but smirk. He brushed Ishtar's hair with his hand, and opened his mouth to speak. When he did so, his silver eyes glowed of their own accord, and the true energy in his body spiked.
"This is my promise, regardless of where I am, or who I face."
While he spoke, Gilgamesh felt himself being pulled into the air; he could not stop it. Raising his voice, he coated himself in all five natures of true energy, making himself appear indescribably powerful and unfathomable.
"No mortal, no monster, no demigod, no god-- not even the Divine Ones themselves can ever cause any hardship to befall you. I am Gilgamesh, and I make you this promise."
"I will make a place for you all in that world, and take you out of here when the time is right. Wait for me."
After that, something unexpected started to happen.
As Gilgamesh was pulled further and further away, his body and features began to change.
His hair grew much longer, and was now almost entirely black, except for some small traces of white. His eyes lost their silver glow, and started to give off a reddish glow instead, reminding Ninsun and Ishtar of how his eyes had once been.
His body grew until he resembled a young man about seventeen or eighteen years, and even his clothes changed until they reverted to the Outer Disciple robes of the Forest-Gate Guardians Society.
Gilgamesh himself was shocked by the changes, but before he could take himself in more, he was pulled with more ferocity than ever before. The force pulling him shattered space, and he was gone.
He was now truly gone.
They looked at the empty space that he once filled, and found themselves longing for his return despite him having only just left.
Each of them had their own kind of reaction, and in the end they slowly departed. The only ones to remain were Logan, Angelica, Ninsun and Ishtar.
They would stand there for a while yet, each of them thinking similar thoughts, remembering what Gilgamesh had promised them before he left.
All their worry and fear, though not subsided, seemed to lessen the more they thought back to his promise. In the end, they knew that there was nothing they could do but live on and wait.
Live on, wait, and pray that Gilgamesh would be okay.
Unfortunately, none of them had any way of knowing what kind of danger was waiting for Gilgamesh on the outside. He had underestimated just how much protection he had been granted due to being valued as a pawn by the Divine Ones.
In that mystic realm, nothing could have possibly gone wrong for him in the end. There was nothing standing in his way, because all such obstacles had been skillfully removed by the forces aiding him.
Now, he would have no such privilege.