The meeting with Ishtar was an eye opener, she was closer to the bitch of the mythos than to the anime version, and if that was anything to go by, this world is screwed, I was a little appalled at the thought of what else could really be lurking, what were devils really like? are the gods in here like the bitch-star?
As reality came crushing down, and despair took me, there was a pulse, something warm and calming from the ruins at the center of the city, a wave of soft bronze light undulating over sand as if the surface of a pond was disturbed, a soft embrace that rebounded on the city walls and came back, it was comforting as a children lullaby that sang in the back of the wind, my curiosity prevailed over the shock but not over tiredness and so plans were made.
"For tomorrow, that is the plan, yes... tomorrow, for now, ... I need some rest, maybe tanya was into something calling that bastard as being X"
When morning came it was not so enthusiastically, there was no pollution in the air, no need for a gas mask or anti-radiation suit...yet, the sky was clear, but the lack of breakfast was a down, not to mention that wandering with the now and then human remain scattered made wonders for the psyche.
All the nice stuff that Vet therapist tells us to keep away from… wonderful.
The walk to the center of the city was uneventful, just the wind and scorching sun to keep me company, a little bit of careful skimping the rocks and obstacles, barefoot exploration required attention to details, after all, the city was massive for ruins as ancient as this must have been, and well too preserved also, in my last life I had seen some ancient things, but they were in way worst state than this, something else other than dessert weather must be at play, or I am a moron overthinking and this was made by hippies on a drunken night and that is why the horrible state.
They did something the like in the middle of New York to get a roof for some refugees, it was a disaster, as a rule, hippies cannot build.
the ruins nearing the city center were something like a palace or temple of some sort, smaller for sure than the veritable pyramid of rabble at the dead center but still, filled with sand and debris of the partially collapsed walls, with some remains of color here and there, statues of strange figures saturating the floor instead of pedestals, there were even more clay tablets in some rooms, and near what can be called still living a pond, a white marble flooring kept the water from draining still, it was a rectangular shape almost the size of a basketball court and near a feet in depth, by the grace of forces beyond the mundane and perhaps the chance of fate there was still a functioning roof in the shape or a series of domes supported in white pillars, and there at the center of it all, connected to the rest of the world by a narrow walt, was a single pillar of stone, 4 meters high, with far too many letters to be a decoration, especially considering the letters were in gold and the reflection they gave with the sunlight made for a ghostly, almost sacred aura surrounding the pillar.
It was rooted in the water, humming on a rhythmical tone, waves of smooth golden light washing from it into the walls surrounding the pond, they dissipated the further they came, and were not for my mind corruption having been confirmed I would have sworn that voices were coming from the walls.
Golden things left behind in a place like this, in the middle of the dessert were normally not a good sign, especially now that curses are something real to care about, so I left the place for now ...that water is my lifeline for the foreseeable future and the less I mess with things from the dead the better.
I continued to explore the building, finding a small lizard for breakfast, though I am in what could be guessed as an 8yrs old body, and doubt of my prowess in hunting the little lizard is well placed, is not good to underestimate a child´s resourcefulness, especially with enough rocks to throw at you, so breakfast was meager, a roasted lizard over some dried grass and pieces of a palm wood that survived in the yard of a nearby house, luckily there were some pieces of flintstone here and there, so, fire although small, was enough to eat and abate the coldness of the incoming night.
The complex of connected buildings was what I could identify as a temple, there were men with wings on the walls, bulls, eagles, lions, and golden scriptures everywhere, it was a strange sight, with regal bronze lines on some parts, and smaller pylons scattered and pointing to the central pond, just like the rest of the city was when I first explored, just that these ones seemed better preserved than those in the outer city, who were only 3feet tall, these kept most of the golden and silvery writing on them.
Beautifully decorated pylons with writing all over them, on a geometrical pattern... aiming to the temple, and then some more going form the temple to the main ziggurat… I am not as dense as not to notice there must be a use for a network of them, but what for?
There were fragments of things, cups of clay, some tools of stone and others of bronze with very delicate craftsmanship, others, rugged and worn by use rather than the time and erosion, the contrast was ... strange and it brought some questions as why were they so close by, things that belonged to prominent and poor people nearby, from what could be a worn measurement instrument and tools for wood crafting to something a priest would use for bonking, an overly decorated rod of gold.
After a while of exploring and questioning the strangely good state of the city, for there was way too much in terms of items, gold, and things in general scattered all around, as if the city was empty in an instant, all signs of life suddenly gone and started falling apart with time, it made no sense, some skeletons on the buildings were posterior to Babylonian times, there was even a roman in there with full rusted segmetnata (roman, classic plate armor), a shame, without surviving shoes.
"Call to ordinance, she said, OP ability SHE SAID"
A few days into the exploring I had tried to awaken my powers, magic, anything I could, before my supply of critters ran out, to realize I was indeed as magicless as I was bald before the Boston fiasco.
'Did she even realize that there was more to war than combat? I mean, no combat things and tools leave a menu of things yet, I would kill for MRE right now and they are not for combat unless you get imaginative with the plastic bag and my imagination is that of a cricket'
there was some frustration in the realization that the useless, beautiful, idiot, had made such a blunder and that exploding that was beyond my means ... damn you mind corruption.
I continued to explore the area until the time came for the back of the temple, running into the dessert without equipment and water was not amongst my priorities, a new top place in the record of "cause of death: death by stupid" did not appeal to me, for now... that may change if I were to suddenly start praying to bitch-star.
Exploring on low energy was tiresome, too much to cover and too many bodies everywhere, some Persian excursion came at a point, and there were remains of Egyptians as well if the kopesh was any indication, soldiers in groups and a very low amount of civilian corpses so far, meant the city was attacked and this were posterior expeditions given the different ages, metal and gear scattered around mostly the entry to what should have been the commercial zone and the bodies of this poachers were basically non existent in the temple zone.
And then, there was the horror of a large collection of corpses in a single yard, surrounded by the lesser buildings at the back of the main temple, maybe it was because of the recent things that occurred, or something related to the time in the void, but the despair, the fear, the pain, all that linger in this place, I felt them as if a scar on reality itself was made, and that left me without breath, small skeletons, or parts of them, that had survived till now, were put on a pile intertwined with what were adult skeletons and filling the gaps was sand brought by the wind, there were possibly thousands upon thousands left to pile above one another.
This city was ransacked and the population sacrificed, for this crude way of handling bodies was not normal, this was a humiliation above a tragedy, to drop the remains in the back of the temple and left them to rot, there were too many to conceal by the fine sand, so this large yard in the back was filled with sorrow that time could not wash away, the lamentations of the dead.
I took my time searching for what I could use during the rest of the morning, waiting for the sun to drop; and decided to make something for this after lunch was secured, I could be empathic to the dead but I needed to find a way not to burry myself with them in the attempt to give a burial.
This place may had been devoid of humanity but life still ran among the rocks and debris, even there were some patches of green around, it was now home to many lizards, scarabs and some spiders, so lunch was a challenge but doable, for some days I waited to the sun to drop so I could occupy myself in this endeavor, to give them peace; Realistically I could not burry one by one with my body and resources limitations, the best way was to put the remains together along with all others I could move from the nearby blocks, bringing those who belonged to the soldiers and civilians to the burial place, and slowly with the help of the moonlight, cover them in the sand of the desert and placing some rocks to keep the wind from disturbing them, making a mastaba of sorts, to give them all the dignity I could.
There were some bronze tools and pieces of arrows just beneath the sand, some swords and spears in the streets, the wood was long gone in some cases but the tip remained, sometimes still inside the skeleton it had extinguished, and it came evident that either this place was partially preserved by magic or I was sent a couple of dozens of centuries before canon.
A small prayer to the dead, if shit-star was real, and Adonai's protection spared me the full wrath of the useless, then he IS real, somewhere, outside in the outer realms, and so the solemn silence of the last couple of days of hard work was broken with a prayer for these souls to find a way to peace, away from the useless and so their sorrow can be put to rest with their remains.
"I just hope no archeologist learn from this or they will lynch me with a spoon for it"
The city walls began to hum in a tone of sadness, a slow progression of rhythms, maybe a song to put its children to sleep for the last time, the pulse was again coming from the center pillar on the temple, but this time stronger than the welcoming, and continuously increasing, it was in a sense, calling me, it was a feeling of beckoning and so, against better judgement or common sense, I went.
The pylons in my way were gaining small golden and bronze light in their writing, there was even more silvery light awakening in the most remote of houses, veins of humming light joining the anthem of the city walls, faring their last goodbyes, this ruin was coming back to life unlike its inhabitants, and if this activated some sort of late city defenses.
"Crap, the roman… now what did I do?"
The humming was now coming from the flooring of the streets, the collapsed buildings in a sad orange, the old dilapidated towers glowing a fiery oxide red.
And so, this was the moment, I knew this was the time for the most powerful secret technique of the core, and the joestar family, I pulled strength in my legs and ran for cover like a maniac, never retreat, just relocate yourself, back to the pillar, ten miles every morning prepare you for anything, hurrah.
Everything was lighting up and getting hotter, the even stones in the ground and the sand burned to the touch, stones that were... beginning to levitate from the roads were now a thing, as the floating sand going upwards in a brown mist going towards the blackened sky, when I made it to the pond that had been my lifeline this week, the sand had all but disappeared from the streets and debris removed, there were echoes of whispers resounding all around, filling the air in a soft voice of the most ancient of languages.
And naturally, my feet and legs were a mess of cuts and burns, so much for the careful walking I did the previous days.
Reaching cover in the temple, the pillar was glowing with a regal almost holly light, washing in waves as storm hitting the surface of the ocean, and the water was burning with small green flames dancing in circles around the central pillar, the walls and roof of the temple were restoring themselves, time being driven back all across the city, the beating heart was running again and from beneath the sand veritable rivers of gold came to the walls to form patterns and letters as it returned to the glory days of old, little did I know that this phenomenon was occurring in all mayor cities of Mesopotamia, and soon, clapping could be heard from the pillar, a loud clapping of hands and light footsteps that came to the burning water, there was sudden silence, no more voices or echoes, the entire creation stopped to listen in rapt attention, and there, it stood the vise of a giant of a man.
A blonde tall man, easily over 2 meters tall, with a powerful body build, sun-kissed skin, vibrant red eyes that seemed like they could pierce all creation, He walked to the edge of the pond with the confidence that the world belonged to him, and maybe it did, a long time ago.
The red tattooed lines that embraced his naked torso in vertical patterns, and the ever-present smirk on his face gave away who this man was, that, and the golden armor covering his legs, they were strong indications, that before me, was the king of heroes, in all his golden, bearded? glory.
"I welcome you to the heart of the city of Uruk, lost soul that came from the further beyond, and rejoice young one, for I Gilgamesh, have come to greet you, now name yourself for you stand before your king"
announced the king, with a thunderous voice filled with authority and power, THIS was the man, the legend, the myth.