Nurturing Humanity

Obstacles in the Way of Civilization

First, you killed your son and now you want to kill me?

The expression on Xu Zhi’s face was somewhat complicated and surprised, but he quickly calmed down. Gilgamesh’s actions seemed to be extremely daring, but justifiably so.

He looked at Gilgamesh, known as the Hero King, who had been on the verge of death once before and who had killed his beloved son with his own hands after gaining a second chance at life. Right now, in the face of his impending death for the second time, he was actually swinging his sword at Xu Zhi, the one who had given him the Three Treasures of Civilization.

Perhaps from the beginning, Xu Zhi should have anticipated what it would mean for him to choose, out of a bunch of trembling bugapes, the one brave young bugape who dared shout at and question a massive ten-thousand-foot tall giant.

Gilgamesh had no fear, so it was only natural that he would attack Xu Zhi.

This was simply his nature.

His expression calm, Xu Zhi said, “Gilgamesh, I’m warning you one last time. Please stop these atrocities. It is barbaric and is not how civilized beings should behave. Your next actions will cost you dearly. You will pay the world’s heaviest price!”

“No price can be heavier than death!”

Gilgamesh slowly opened his bright red eyes. It was as if he had returned to his younger days as he showed the long-lost burning passion and madness of his youth once again, and said, “Just like how I went to slay Finba, the giant beast, back then with a death wish, today, I will slay the Great Beast of Wisdom, steal his civilization, seize his power, and achieve a true sense of immortality.”

“I will lead my people and challenge you!”

With his rippling muscles and snow-white skin, Gilgamesh looked like a god straight out of Norse mythology, and he gave a strong, loud roar.

“This is the first clash of civilizations! An intelligent civilization, challenging the one and only Great Beast of Wisdom… Great Beast of Wisdom, you may have once guided our civilization, but now you are standing in our way.”

Gilgamesh raised his sword high, with the fierce wind blowing wildly through his messy hair, rampant and unrestrained.

“I will use the power of the nation!”

Dong!

Dong! Dong!!

The dull and distant sound of stone bells slowly rang out, and all of Uruk City jumped into action. There was a bustle of activities.

The entire city’s hundreds of thousands of assembled troops surged out and formed orderly, battle arrays.

Xu Zhi looked at this scene and sighed. “This has been planned a long time ago, and I was unaware of it. More than a decade ago, Gilgamesh had prepared himself to take on the Great Beast of Wisdom, and he had turned the entire population into his army of soldiers… Today, he just wanted to draw me out and had already decided to bring his army of soldiers out to kill me if I did not agree to his terms.”

Gilgamesh was both courageous and resourceful, and from this perspective, he was indeed a great tyrant worthy of admiration.

...

The Mesopotamian Plains, the great city of Ur Plains.

Ishtar stood calmly before the palace. Even though she was extremely far away, she could still see the towering giant that was standing next to the Uruk Kingdom. Its obscured face was radiating a snow-white holy glow that pierced through the clouds.

“How magnificent and gigantic this perfect lifeform is.”

Ishtar was in awe, but then her pupils narrowed slightly, and she said, “It’s time to make my move now. If it was not to find help, how would someone so autocratic and tyrannical like Gilgamesh, His Majesty, hand the precious blood of power to someone else? Right from the beginning, he was looking for other helpers for this very moment.”

Clack-clack!

With a slight leap, she mounted an Alla beast, put on a black felt hat, and wielded her weapon, a black stone hammer made from the skeletal bones of a beast.

“Mother! Granny! Grandmother!”

On the plains, countless men and women seemed somehow hesitant to speak.

“Zarn, is he still alive?” Ishtar suddenly turned around to ask.

A young man, with a bitter expression, said, “Granny, Father has collapsed and bedridden, he is about to die of old age…”

“My son, wait for me. I, Ishtar, the King of the Savanna, will return with what is needed to extend your life!”

There was a flash of sorrow in Ishtar’s eyes as she looked at the towering giant in the distance. With unmatched longing, she said, “I am not Gilgamesh, who could kill his son with his own hands. I cannot bear the thought of my son and grandson dying before my eyes, one after the other. I must get more of the Blood of Power, or even the blood of the Great Beast of Wisdom. That will probably be the Blood of Immortality…”

“To battle!”

She abruptly slapped to the Alla beast beneath her, and with the courage and boldness of a savannah savage, she set out with an army of her finest savage cavalry following in her lead.

“History will remember this great moment. Year 175 of the Sumer Dynasty, the Sumerians will slay the Great Beast of Wisdom and return to drink the Blood of Immortality!!!”

...

The holy tree near the royal capital.

This colossal ancient tree that once pierced straight through the clouds to reach the sky was where the Test of the Three Treasures of Civilization was carried out, and it had been deserted for a long time. But right now, the Great Forest City of Enkidu had settled down on this tree as it flourished with great prosperity.

At the Supreme Treehouse, on the outer balcony built on a tree branch, Enkidu was standing with the aid of his wooden crutches as he quietly gazed at the shocking scene of the terrifying giant who pierced through the clouds in the distance. Several disciples were quietly standing behind him.

“Teacher, it’s time to go. We should keep the promise we made to the king…” Someone whispered a soft reminder behind him.

“No, we will defy His Majesty’s decree. We, from the Great Forest City of Enkidu, will choose to do nothing.” Enkidu sighed. Even looking at the royal city from such a far distance, the mighty aura of the terrifying giant was still so overwhelming that he felt suffocated.

“Are you afraid, Teacher?” a straightforward disciple asked, unable to help himself. “Three great kingdoms, the three most powerful kings of Sumer working together, even the legendary Great Beast of Wisdom may not necessarily be able to…”

“No, this is not fear. I do not fear death, but I fear throwing away something more important than life,” Enkidu said softly. “My civilization and my wisdom are the reasons why I am unable to kill like a brutal beast and simply slay the Great Beast of Wisdom, who has given us our civilization and saved our race. Without grace and morality, we would be no different from the wild beasts… My disciples, tell me! Are we now to be reduced to mere savages?

His disciples went silent.

Their teacher was one of the three most powerful leaders of the three kingdoms, the great Forest King who had drunk the Blood of Power and survived, but…

“I defied the decree in going to war. I have sinned beyond forgiveness, so cut off my head.”

Enkidu looked at Utnapishtim, his most trusted disciple.

“If His Majesty, the king, wins, take my head to the palace. I am guilty of defying his decree. Given His Majesty’s autocratic tyranny, I will be a goner anyway. This is solely my decision, so ask His Majesty to spare our city…”

“If the Great Beast of Wisdom wins, then take my head and give it to the Great Beast of Wisdom and beg this great giant for forgiveness. Let the Great Beast of Wisdom know that there are still true inheritors of civilization, and we are not purely barbaric. Beg him to spare our race from complete extermination and leave our race with a glimmer of hope for survival.”

“Teacher…”

Next to him, Utnapishtim, was silent as he looked at this great wise Sumerian.

“Kill me.” Enkidu stood on the outer balcony of the Supreme Treehouse. He was completely at ease as he spread both arms wide open.

After a moment of silence, forced by the situation at hand, blood was spilled.

Poof!

Utnapishtim cut of Enkidu’s head.

The King of the Forest, Enkidu, one of the most powerful heroes of the Sumerian civilization, died without a fight.

Utnapishtim looked at the calm, familiar face of his beloved teacher and silently wrapped the head up in animal skin parchment. He suddenly felt a pang of grief in his heart, very vaguely, and he knew that something incomparably important in his life was slowly shattering into pieces.

...

The sky was shaking.

“Everyone, shoot!”

Countless dark red arrows and spears pierced through the densely packed clouds in the sky like sharp spikes. All were aimed at the terrifying Great Beast of Wisdom.

The earth howled and quavered.

The elite soldiers were like ants as they rushed towards the soles of his shoes. Countless buildings and stone houses within the city crumbled and collapsed, one after the other. It was as if they were toy fortresses built from wooden blocks that were collapsing continuously.

Civilians and women were frantically scurrying as they fled. Sounds of screaming, wailing, frenzied growling, roars of death cries, explosions, animals’ growls, and wild laughter intermingled.

The most powerful Uruk Kingdom was completely reduced to a bloody battlefield.