Have you ever fought a three-metre-tall woman who was as tall as she was wide and twice as long? No? Good for you!
You wouldn’t want to. Were Hessian any saner right now, he would have agreed as well. But sadly, he wasn’t.
“Raaaaaa!” The Scorpion Woman swept with her tail through the debris and thrashed Hessian into a nearby pillar. A rib snapped. Hessian collapsed to the ground with thick blood dripping forth between his teeth.
“The poison, argh,” Hessian barfed the viscous blood into his hand and couldn’t move away from the Scorpion Woman’s next attack.
She held up both of her sickle swords—the veins in her robust arms almost bursting from her grip. Swinging down, Hessian thought about intercepting them, but there was no way with his numb arms.
But Bjorn could as he jumped in between and firmly caught the monster’s arms in his large hands. “Woah, quite strong, aren’t you?” Bjorn laughed as he said, "I would love to get to know you."
The Scorpion Woman scowled at Bjorn. She didn’t notice how Nertha snuck behind the pillar and shot a pair of barbed arrows directly at the Scorpion Woman’s exposed side. Staggering sideways from the attack, Bjorn held onto her and directed her fall to a pile of shark rocks.
“Thanks for the assist, Nertha, you’re the best!” Bjorn gave her a thumbs up as he wrestled the Scorpion Woman.
Nertha sneered at him and hurried over to Hessian. “On any other day, I would curse at Bjorn’s debauched mind, but he’s the only one to stand up to an enemy of her stature.”
Bringing Hessian to the safety of the others, Nertha analysed the scene. The Scorpion People remained idle, but wouldn’t for long. The Reiszer couldn’t defeat their numbers or the Scorpion Woman.
This quest was doomed. She alone was enough to defeat them all. They had to run and save themselves.
“Nertha,” she heard Hessian’s raspy voice as he held on to her. When he drew his face closer to her, she hoped it would be for something pleasant, but his crazed eyes scared her. “‘Where wolf’s ears are, Wolf’s teeth are near.’”
She recalled him saying that phrase before when she sat next to him one night back at the slave camps. He was muttering those words to himself like a mantra, but she didn’t know what they meant.
“‘Don’t waste your time looking back. You are not going that way. Instead, fight your foes in the field, or be burnt in your house.’” Hessian gave Nertha a crooked smile and pushed her away. “We have come this far. We’ll not back down.”
“Hessian, stop, this is madness!” Nertha bagged and grabbed his arm, feeling the bone crack from the slightest touch. “You might die. Please, this isn’t worth it.”
“It’s worth it,” spoke the voice of Hessian’s mother when she held the boy in his arms—right before she was gone forever. “It’s always worth fighting your fate. You’re so close. Don’t hide your fangs, bare them.”
Bringing out the lion brooch, he stared at the golden face and remembered Kiur. He hated that boy and swore to meet him again, fighting.
“Get your weapons ready.” Hessian’s grip on his sword tightened so much that the old leather came loose. He rested his axe and sword against his shoulders and exhaled sharply. “Vanquish the target!”
Hessian pounced right after the Scorpion Woman, who was still in a mid-brawl with Bjorn. Stunned, she looked towards the charging Reiszer and readied her front claws.
“Lovis, Nertha, distraction, now!” barked Hessian, using Bjorn’s back to leap at her face.
Nertha targeted her view with her bow, and Lovis snuck up from above by scrambling around the pillars. Bjorn would hold her in place, Nertha would target her vital parts, Lovis would aim at her neck, and the others would work as a diversion to keep her occupied.
All that was left was for Hessian to prove his aim and use his sharp blades to cut her throat, though despite his ambition—the plan was too foolhardy.
The bandages on the Scorpion Woman’s face came off.
Her scarred, dark skin and hair were marred with dirt and blood, but her eyes shone in a poisonous green. Sticking out her red tongue, a black symbol was tattooed on the surface and glowing intensively.
“UDUG 𒌜!”
The poison reactivated inside Hessian’s blood—writhing in pain and holding his body with his veins bulging out.
“Raaaaa…” the Scorpion Woman drawled as others hugged their bodies in agony. The air grew stale and burned into their lungs. “Na–na–naaame, Ka-ra.”
The Scorpion Woman suddenly spoke, twirling with her sickle swords in her hands and stomping the ground with her scorpion legs. Her tail shuddered, and she clacked with her claws and teeth.
“Intruders, y-your kin! Pun-pun-pun,” Kara had trouble pronouncing with her tongue and grated her teeth. “Pun–ish–me–nt b–y t-he S-sun. T-t-trial failed. C-clea–n–sing of th–hose never meant to belong.”
Nertha and the other Reiszer took a cautionary step back. “Did she say cleansing? I don’t like this.”
Hessian couldn’t react. He held his side and had trouble breathing with all the poison coursing through his damaged body.
Bjorn was the first to predict her incoming attack on him. “Nertha, get the others out of here before—”
Too late, the Scorpion woman swung with her tail. Bjorn crashed against a pillar, bringing the ceiling to a late collapse. Lovis had to grapple Hessian out of the way before the debris crushed him.
Hessian looked back and saw Kara ripping through two of his comrades with her massive claws and piercing another with her tail—right through her abdomen and out of her back.
“Nertha!” Hessian couldn’t scream her name and grit his teeth as the other Scorpion People began their assault on them. It would be a massacre.
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One that Hessian knew he could have prevented.
—✷—
CH. GILGAMESH HAS TO STAND IN A CORNER
“Ouuuuch?”
Correction, Gilgamesh was NOT knocked out cold.
“What was that for?” he rubbed the back of his head, joining the headache club.
“Have you recently looked at yourself in the mirror?” queried Lotte sharply.
“No?” he paused bewildered. “Where does this come from?” Gilgamesh rubbed his head and narrowed his eyes. “And what are you two doing?”
“I would like to know that, too.” Neti looked up at Lotte, who cradled Neti protectively in her arms and pressed her head against Lotte’s chest. “Not that I complain, but… I’ll be quiet now.”
Neti was the head of security in the underworld of Irkalla. Appointed several millennia ago by the Great Earth Mother Ereshkigal to guard the gates between the realm of the dead and the living.
Yet she was being protected here and embraced by an unstable soul, and Neti didn’t feel like moving away from her—at least, until the show was over.
“You look like a wolf in sheep’s clothing!” Lotte shouted and pointed her finger at Gilgamesh, who was more than baffled.
“A wolf in– WHAT!?” Gilgamesh stood up abruptly, closed the distance and towered before them. “Do you even have the slightest idea what you are saying?”
“Oh, this will not end well,” thought Neti, staring up at the upset eyes of the former God King. “Messing with a judge won’t end well-”
Neti was then pulled even closer to Lotte’s chest. She thought it was because the girl was afraid, but Neti was mistaken. Hearing the strong heartbeat of her heart made the head of security feel at ease.
A bit too much when Lotte was petting Neti’s hair, though she didn’t have the heart to say it.
“Do you even have the slightest idea of what you were just doing?”
“I-” Gilgamesh was confused. “Is that a trick question? I feel like this is a trick question. I tried to save your life!”
“Ever heard of temperance?”
“Temperance- what is going on!?” Gilgamesh ruffled his hair in bewilderment at the conversation. A vein popped on his forehead when Neti gave him a snide look.
“She begged you to stop, didn’t she?” asked Lotte. “You ripped off her hood. She didn’t want you to expose her face, but you still did it. This is no way to treat anyone, especially a woman!”
“Ah.” Realising what the topic was about, Neti instinctively covered her face in an attempt to hide her six eyes.
She was too embarrassed to show them in front of anyone since she didn’t find them attractive or comfortable to look at—opting to hide her face before everyone and herself.
After Gilgamesh ripped off her hood, Neti wished to disappear. But when Lotte defended her from his behaviour, she forgot about her concerns.
“Ah, damn it,” Gilgamesh cursed and scratched his head. He felt bad seeing Neti curling up into a ball in Lotte’s arm. “Don’t make me prick at my conscience… I did enough of that already. What do you want me to do?”
“Go into a corner!”
“Huh?” Gilgamesh looked at her astonished. Was he, a judge and deity, just said to stand in a corner!? Neti clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from giggling. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“I am!” Lotte pointed at a nearby boulder. “Go, think about what you did!”
With a loud sigh, Gilgamesh shuffled away to his boulder. Neti stared curiously after him and then at Lotte, who let go of her.
“I’m very sorry about this. He shouldn’t have done that.”
Neti blinked at Lotte rhythmically with her golden eyes. Carefully examining the soul
“You are strange.” Neti cocked her head to the side, staring at her with half her eyes. “What exactly are you- No,” Neti gripped Lotte’s shoulders and stared into her essence, “who are you?”.
As a chthonic deity, Neti could peer into the souls of mortals. Not in the same capacity as the judges or the Queen could, but Neti knew mortals well. She had witnessed the most grotesque sins, the most radiating innocence, and people walking the line between good and evil. She also saw those devoid of everything.
Whatever she saw at Lotte made her hands go soft and drop to her side.
“What was that?” Neti wondered, feeling her eyes water from the experience and the hurt in her heart.
“Don’t cry, it’s alright. He won’t hurt you again!” Lotte reached out to Neti and embraced her again, holding her tight and rubbing her back. “It’s ok, it’s alright.”
Neti felt trapped. Emotionally and physically because what she saw was too much, too painful. She didn’t want to be the one to be embraced, but couldn’t deal with whatever emotions whirled inside her.
Some of which Lotte had no recollection of.
“How long am I supposed to do this?” Gilgamesh whined, bored at staring at the rock.
Lotte crossed her arms at the former king. “Have you learned your lesson?”
“Yes, I did!”
“Will you apologise?”
“Yes, oh my gods, please, I am sorry! Can we drop this farce already!?”
“Hmm.” Lotte furrowed her brows at him.
“Seriously? STILL!?” Gilgamesh complained.
Lotte leaned over to Neti. “What do you say? Should we accept his apology?”
Neti drew circles into the ground with her silver spear. She still hadn’t processed what she had experienced through Lotte, and it nagged at her being. It was hard to meet Lotte’s eyes, but Neti needed to know something. “Why exactly are you two here?” she asked.
“Authority of the Queen,” Gilgamesh replied. “We are making some rounds so she can determine her situation before I cast her judgment.”
Curiosity flaked Neti’s face. Her eyes opened wide. “The queen?” she looked up to Lotte. “The queen gave you her blessing?”
Confusion formed on Lotte’s face. She didn’t understand her position, either.
“But she’s an interloper, a trespasser!” Agitation seeped from Neti’s words. “We don’t allow those. Only the dead can remain here. How did she bypass the security systems and Geshtinanna’s record-keeping?”
“Besides,” thought Neti. “Not even gods can trespass.”
The grin on Gilgamesh's visage as he glanced back infuriated Neti. “Obviously our dear Geshtinanna makes it off the record. That is, until her situation is resolved. How she bypassed the security? Well, that is on you, Neti, our dear head of security.”
“A-a-are you saying it’s my fault!?” Neti clasped her head and let out a frustrated cry. She needed a moment to calm down. “I’ll get to the bottom of this. I refuse to let this slide. Where are you headed now?”
Gilgamesh shrugged. “Taking a walk? Avoiding your thorough security inspections?”
Neti’s face momentarily flushed red, but she shook it off and turned to Lotte, who was quietly standing nearby. “It’s your fate. Tell me, what do you remember of your life?”
“I—” Lotte’s face went blank. Her eyes glossed over as if in a trance. Neti didn’t know what was happening. Even Gilgamesh got out of his corner.
“Hey, what’s with her?”
“Don’t ask me!” Gilgamesh shook Lotte. “She’s out of it. I think she—”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember much,” Lotte suddenly replied, as if nothing had happened. “My memories are hazy. I only remember fractions. The last thing I remember is that I was with a friend… hey, why did you leave your corner!”
Lotte shouted at Gilgamesh, who laughed at her outburst with Neti sighing in relief.
“Never mind that you said you don’t know why you died, no?” asked Gilgamesh.
“I… no.” Lotte shook her head. “I don’t know why I am here or how I ended up in this place. It… scares me.” Lotte clasped the hem of her clothes. “The scariest part is that I don’t know whether I’m alive or dead. I’m terrified.”
Neti stabbed the ground with her spear. “I know of a place, or rather, a person, who might help.” Neti held Lotte’s hand, intertwining it in hers. “Lemme help you.”