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Translator: adomman
Editor: Snorri
Amon shook his head very frankly. “I don’t know you, I’ve only seen the snake staff in your hand in the mural in a shrine. The god Dumuzid painted on that mural is nothing like you in person, he looked very ugly, but the snake staff looked the same.”
Dumuzid slowly approached, pointing his snake staff at Amon, and said: “Since you recognize me and still dare to talk like this, do you know who I am?”
Amon continued to shake his head: “Before, I did not know clearly and used to think that you were a god, but later on I learned that you were just a demigod who achieved the ninth level, a divine emissary that belonged to the Anunnaki divine clan, but still was not sure what is it that you did and only knew that you were once the husband of Goddess Mourrin. We have no dealings with each other, so why are you looking for me?”
Dumuzid barked in anger: “You still have the face to mention Mourrin in front of me! We haven’t dealt with each other, but that doesn’t mean there’s no hatred between you and me. If you want to blame her then blame her, it’s all Mourrin’s fault!”
Amon kept shaking his head as he said: “I have nothing to blame Mourrin for, I just left Mourrin’s divine palace and I haven’t heard that she caused any trouble.”
The resentment in Dumuzid’s eyes intensified and he said angrily: “You came out of the Mourrin’s divine palace? Do you know where I came out from?”
Amon finally nodded. “I know, you came out from Kella’s Underworld, congratulations on your successful escape. Last time your sister Geshtinanna even came to me in order to rescue you, it seems that she really managed to get you out!”
When Amon mentioned the name Geshtinanna, Dumuzid, as if provoked by something, shouted angrily: “You are the one who caused her to suffer in the Underworld!” He waved the bamboo staff in his hand and countless shadows of light and dusty mist appeared in the air, which quickly coalesced into a hundred-foot-long giant snake that lunged at Amon with its mouth wide open.
Before the giant snake came close, the air was filled with a bloody breath mixed with a strange dark fragrance. The breath was poisonous and could make one fall into a daze. Amon had been on guard since a long time ago, and an invisible spatial force blocked the poisonous breath attack.
He waved his hand and brandished the Eye of Sealing from thin air before swinging it forward fiercely, and a huge cross-shaped longsword appeared in mid-air and cut into the snake’s body. The surrounding space seemed to shrink and collapse toward a point, a force that pushed everything toward the middle, and the cross-shaped longsword and the giant snake were crushed and annihilated at the same time as if disappearing into the collapsed space.
Dumuzid was also pulled forward by the force of space contraction, his hair whipping about while his robe flapped wildly. He gripped his bamboo staff and stabilized his body in mid-air, looking both elegant and majestic. However, he immediately cursed and hurriedly shook the bamboo staff again. The snake sculpture on the staff suddenly became alive, and transformed into a flying snake with a rapidly expanding body, and shot straight towards Amon with a biting attack. This time it was not an illusion conjured by magic, but a truly existing spiritual snake!
On the other hand, the moment the space collapsed, Amon’s body was also pulled forward, but he flew forward along with the momentum, piercing through the shattered light. When he emerged, he swung his fist at Dumuzid’s face.
As a divine emissary of the Anunnaki divine clan for many years, Dumuzid had never encountered a fight like this. Amon did not act like a noble god beyond mortals at all, but fought as though in a street brawl on earth! Luckily, Dumuzid reacted quickly and struck out with his bamboo staff which he had refined for many years and was now connected with his mind.
If Amon got bitten by the snake, even if the soul is strong, his fleshly body would be paralyzed momentarily, and he would fall directly from the clouds. If he got entangled by the snake, then the soul’s power would also be imprisoned, and he would be captured alive by Dumuzid. If it had been any other god in Amon’s place, nobody would choose to fight in close quarters but instead back off and use other means to continue the fight.
But Amon did not dodge at all, and the moment the spirit snake flew out he had arrived. Switching his fist into an open palm wrapped with golden light, he turned his punch into a grabbing motion. The edge of his palm nearly grazed the snake’s fangs and was just a hair short of being bitten as he managed to grip the snake’s head, and he forcibly closed the snake’s jaws together while his other hand grabbed the snake’s body.
The spirit snake and Dumuzid’s senses were as one, the moment it was grabbed, Dumuzid’s face turned pale, and he hurriedly channeled his magical power. The spirit snake’s reaction was extremely fast, when the head and neck were caught at the same time, its tail whipped around and wrapped around Amon’s body, preparing to strangle him. Dumuzid wanted to capture Amon alive at first but did not expect the situation to become so dangerous in an instant, so he decided to try to kill Amon instead.
Amon was even faster than the spirit snake, and with a clench of his hands he made a forceful twist, producing a series of crunching sounds, and the spirit snake exploded in a turquoise light. Amon’s outer garments instantly turned into ash, while his serpent scale armor was scorched and damaged in many places. After the spirit snake was destroyed by Amon, it reverted back into the snake sculpture on Dumuzid’s bamboo staff. However, as Dumuzid had spent years refining it, his spiritual power was greatly damaged and he nearly lost control of his body in the air.
But the impact on Amon was much greater than on Dumuzid, who was damaged due to his mind’s connection to the spirit snake, while the snake had wrapped around Amon’s body and exploded. Both the power of elemental summoning and spatial shifting were shattered into a sea of chaos. Amon could no longer control his body to continue flying and he would fall heavily to the ground.
Dumuzid was obviously well aware of this, and even as his face turned pale, he smiled in contempt and waved his staff, getting ready to capture the falling Amon. However, before he could raise his staff, he shouted in great surprise and held his staff tightly with both hands before pushing it forward. It turned out that in the same moment that Amon suffered a huge impact and became unable to use flying magic, he actually lifted his leg and delivered a powerful kick towards Dumuzid’s chest.
Although this series of events was complicated, it all happened in the blink of an eye. After the huge impact from the explosion of the snake made Amon instantly lose control, his body continued flying forward due to inertia. The golden light on both hands was shattered and both his arms were numb and sore, but he twisted his waist and raised his foot to deliver a kick before he was about to fall.
Dumuzid was nearly shocked out of his wits, how could there be a god that fought like this! Was the man in front of him the God Amon on the altar in Salem or a wild ruffian in the marketplace? In his moment of shock, he did not manage to cast any powerful magic and only used his innate great strength to hold the staff to block.
“Bang”, with a muffled sound, Amon kicked right in the middle of the bamboo staff. The force of this kick could even shatter a city gate, but the bamboo staff was incredibly tough, and even though there was a violent tremor, it remained intact. Amon used the force to perform a roll and was thrown into the sky by the force of the rebound. Dumuzid’s body trembled and flew downwards, flittering unsteadily several times, sometimes fast like a shadow, sometimes freezing momentarily in the air. After going through such a cycle a few times, he ended up standing on the slope below.
Dumuzid was kicked down by Amon, and fortunately, he had been kicked in the air. Since there was no support in the air, he did not have to completely rely on his body to resist the kick. Dumuzid stood still after landing, his clothes still tidy, looking much calmer than Amon. Waving his bamboo staff towards the sky, he started gathering his magical power once again. He wanted to attack the falling Amon from the ground, and if Amon was able to regain the ability to fly in this instant, the smart thing to do should be to run away.
But Amon didn’t even waste his power to control his body. After he made a roll and was bounced high into the air, he started falling down like a stone. In mid-air, as countless turquoise smoke and fog filled the air and was about to condense into a snake shadow to entangle him, Dumuzid’s expression suddenly changed again, because he now saw Amon’s movements.
Amon turned around in the air, as he traced a parabolic path in his descent, and had taken out a bow. Just as he reached the ground, the bow was drawn fully. From all sides came the sound of thousands of bulls roaring, and a soul-shattering force locked Dumuzid in place. Amon did not care where he fell, and only focused on gathering all his power while locking his sight on Dumuzid. In his hands, it was Gilgamesh’s divine bow that was drawn!
Amon landed in a cloud of smoke and dust, causing a huge rock beneath him to collapse halfway. The countless illusory snakes had taken shape in mid-air, and Dumuzid could now attack Amon with a wave of his staff, but doing so would mean that he would have to take on Amon’s arrow forcibly.
He had a flash of hesitation, but Amon did not hesitate. When the bowstring was loosened, dozens of shadows were released from the bow, emitting a sound that resembled rolling waves. However, the arrow he shot was not on the bowstring, and a sharp whistle appeared from mid-air as a cross-shaped longsword shot straight towards Dumuzid.
It was the Eye of Sealing that Amon had shot from the bow. After exploding together with the giant snake it had turned back into an ordinary longsword and dropped from the sky. Amon drew his bow while falling, its power guiding the Eye of Sealing falling from the sky, and when Amon landed, it was just in time to shoot it.
Dumuzid could not care about attacking Amon anymore, and with a wave of his staff, the illusory snakes instantly burst into countless blue lights winding towards the Eye of Sealing. With a sharp roar, the Eye of Sealing pierced through the curtain of light, but its speed was decreased as a result, and Dumuzid took advantage of this opportunity to roll backward, his body turning into a golden snake as he took flight.
The golden snake scampered up against the treetops and flew away, Dumuzid fled!
As an emissary of the Anunnaki divine clan, Dumuzid had long achieved the ninth level, and his magical power was definitely not weak at all, and the means available at his disposal were definitely superior, while his snake staff could also be considered an incredible artifact. But he made a very fatal mistake today, for he simply did not understand his opponent Amon. He had been in the Underworld for too long to fully understand the changes that have occurred outside, and even if he knew some of those changes, he probably wouldn’t have bothered to learn more about Amon, a mere mortal.
In his mind, Amon was just a lowly Duc miner, and although he had a high level of achievement, it had only been a few years, so how could he compare with a high and mighty god like Dumuzid? He thought he could subdue Amon as soon as he showed up, and without the protection of Goddess Mourrin, Amon would be easily captured.
Instead, Amon was not afraid at all, not only that, but he was also dreadfully calm. Amon looked at Dumuzid even like watching a street performer playing his trade, and when he started fighting he did not fumble at all. Amon also ignored how Dumuzid fought or how the gods are used to fighting and completely fought according to his own way.
Although Amon was not afraid of Dumuzid, he fought as though he was in a life and death situation on the battlefield, even resorting to using something like a flying kick!
There was one thing that Dumuzid would never expect, and it was that although Amon was only a young man in his early twenties, he had the same state of mind as the cat goddess Bastet due to his experience in her spiritual imprint. At first, Dumuzid felt anger, then surprise, and after that, he felt hatred, and finally fear. For Amon to fire the Eye of Sealing at such a close distance using Gilgamesh’s divine bow was too frightening!
If hit, even if Dumuzid did not die, he would have been seriously injured. Even if his attack could have seriously wounded Amon in return, what was the point? Amon’s life was not as important as his own safety, and he could never fight in such a manner. In this case, it was better to escape, since he could still use other means to deal with Amon!
As the golden snake turned into a blue light and flew away, the Eye of Sealing pierced a curtain of light and stuck in the place where Dumuzid just stood but was quickly pulled up by a hand. When Amon saw Dumuzid escaping, he rushed forward with a stomp of his feet, hurriedly retrieving the sword as he flew to the sky, shouting: “Dumuzid, stop! We haven’t finished talking yet. Who made Geshtinanna suffer in the Underworld? Tell me clearly!”
Dumuzid obviously would not listen to him and continued to fly away as Amon tenaciously gave chase. After chasing for an unknown period of time, the mountains gradually grew low, and he was approaching the edge of the Syah Plateau. A huge mountain range appeared in the distance, which is the last barrier to cross before reaching the Plains of Duc. The mountains were high and rocky, and down below grew a lush jungle, while the mountainsides were covered with numerous large and small cracks and caves.
Dumuzid suddenly accelerated towards one of the mountainsides, he was probably panicking and wanted to hide within this huge mountain range. If Amon was not careful and did not lock onto his position, it would be almost impossible to find him in such a place.
Amon flew downwards and was about to lunge towards the mountainside, but he suddenly stopped moving. He should have accelerated to keep a firm eye on Dumuzid, but instead, he stopped and watched Dumuzid disappear beyond the range of detection. After chasing for so long, it seemed surprising for him to stop so suddenly.
Amon frowned as if in thought, and suddenly turned around and waved his sword, as if cutting a tunnel through space. His body disappeared from his current location, and he instantly appeared hundreds of feet away in a blurring of light waves. In the place where he disappeared fell a scroll which activated in the next moment, and an invisible power sprang forth.
Amon gave up the pursuit and suddenly left the place where he stood while also activating a supreme scroll. This series of actions was simply inexplicable, and he had not discovered any danger thus far. The most precious scroll that Amon had ever owned was of course Tiamat’s Wrath, and of the three scrolls that Nero left, the other two were Space Turbulence and Message Annihilation.
With those two scrolls and the rib of Osiris, Amon was able to escape from the Underworld of Kella. It was difficult to find a master scroll maker like Nero, and although Amon later possessed many more scrolls, he could never find one that could compete with Space Turbulence or Message Annihilation.
What he activated at this moment was a supreme message magic scroll, called the Eye of Nullifying, which could nullify all kinds of camouflage and disguises from using message magic in an instant, while causing the flow of magical energy to become turbulent in this area of space, making it difficult to detect each other. This was a very precious scroll, and although its effect could not be compared with Message Annihilation, it was the best message magic scroll Amon currently had.
Since the battle with the Uruk Legion, Amon had not used any scrolls again and even gave most of the scrolls he had to his disciples, leaving only a few for himself. On one hand, it was because he had not encountered any more life and death struggles, and on the other hand, after achieving the eighth level of the power of origin, scrolls had become less and less useful to him.
The advantage of scrolls was that you could cast various magical spells without consuming your own magical power, but it took time to activate the scroll and also required the user to control the range and direction of the scroll’s attack. This time is extremely short, but for the world’s top experts, often enough to determine victory and defeat or life and death.
For example, in the face of an opponent like Enkidu, it is simply too late to use the scroll in the heat of battle. Even if one managed to activate the scroll, with Enkidu’s reaction and speed, he could still react in time to avoid the scroll’s attack range. After all, a scroll’s attack was an instantaneous magic that could not be controlled as the user wished. And there was also a downside to using scrolls with a very powerful attack, and it is that it was difficult to distinguish between the enemy and allies when used in close range.
But today Amon suddenly used a scroll again, and the range of the attack was where he just stood, and he had used such a precious scroll simply for taking a “look”. He felt that something was not quite right, and suddenly realized the possibility that Dumuzid was deliberately trying to lure him to this place while pretending to escape.
If that fierce battle a while ago was just a general spar, obviously Dumuzid lost. But if it was a fight to the death, Dumuzid had not lost the power to fight back, and with his strength, he could continue to fight with Amon. He might have chosen to escape because he was frightened by Amon, or it could be that he was not willing to fight to the death, but if so, he should have disappeared as fast as possible, but Dumuzid did not.
Amon was not superior to Dumuzid in many aspects, at least Dumuzid was able to fly quite fast, much faster than a shuttle. He turned into a golden snake before transforming into a blue light and flew away, and even Amon’s Eye of Sealing could not hit him. If he maintained this speed, Amon would have been unable to catch up with him. But Dumuzid slowed down just enough to be within the range of Amon’s detection magic, allowing him to continue chasing.
It was possible that Dumuzid was tired, or that his instantaneous flight was just an explosive kind of skill, similar to a person’s short-distance sprinting. But when they approached this mountain range, Dumuzid suddenly accelerated in the air again and headed directly to the mountainside, this meant that Dumuzid could have gone faster just now.
If Dumuzid really wanted to run for his life, he would have escaped Amon’s tracking long ago, why would he delay until now before accelerating, to the point where he nearly couldn’t get away! To his surprise, Amon immediately thought of a possibility. Dumuzid was extremely confident in his speed that he was certain Amon would not be able to catch up with him halfway, so he had deliberately led Amon to a place that was prepared in advance.
Whether or not the possibility exists, Amon’s mind was made up, so he immediately stopped chasing, and shifted his position before throwing out a scroll of Eye of Nullifying. He never held back when it came to using scrolls, and regardless of whether there was an ambush, or where the ambush was, it was better to first make sure that his vicinity was safe.
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