Chapter 637: Ms. Familiar, Please Get in the Car
Chaos Sea.
The stars are hidden, the length of time is difficult to measure, the dimension of space is imperceptible, and everything is vast and boundless.
The raging chaos storm constantly tears and twists everything into irregular clumps of matter.
The closer you get to the depths, the more instability the sea becomes, with unpredictable spatial turbulence and chaotic waves rolling in.
However, in this harsh environment where ordinary life can hardly survive, a fully enclosed warship flashing with magical light patterns is sailing steadily against the turbulent waves.
Inside the cabin, the wooden boards that were protected by layers of defensive spells and gods' blessings creaked, and the fluorite that illuminated the ship's hull cast a flickering light as the ship swayed.
It seems that because she has returned to the familiar ocean environment, Tiamat's [self-degeneration] has been alleviated.
She woke up from her coma shortly into the voyage.
Smelling the aroma of the food and looking at her attentive "beloved son", Tiamat, whose consciousness was still in chaos, was invited to sit at the table and taste the snacks, food and drinks carefully prepared for her.
Loen accompanied him with a smile, secretly gathering intelligence through indirect communication and questioning.
Under the catalysis and paralysis of alcohol, Tiamat seemed to have forgotten the betrayal and pain she had suffered in her homeland, and began to tell some news about the Babylonian Age of Gods.
At the beginning of creation, the authority of origin belonged to the mother goddess Tiamat and the father god Apsu.
But with the fall of Apsu and the defeat of Tiamat, this powerful divine power was naturally successfully grasped by the victor, the "King of Kings" Marduk.
Because his status is above all the gods of Babylon, he is also given the title of "God of Gods".
Below him were the three god-kings who were the pillars of Babylonian power.
That is, Anu, the god of the sky, Enki, the god of the earth and waters, and Enlil, the lord of air and spirit.
The Three Pillar God System?
Loen was lost in thought, and couldn't help but think of another age of gods that was extremely similar to Babylon - Egypt.
There are nine pillar gods in ancient Egyptian mythology, but there are still three who created and supported the world: Nut, the goddess of the sky, Geb, the god of the earth, and Shu, the god of the air, supporting them in the middle.
In addition, Tiamat mentioned something that concerned him.
To the west of the Babylonian Age of Gods, there seems to be another Age of Gods of the same magnitude, called Canaan, with the Jordan River as its source, and also a similar three-pillar system of gods.
The origin god is El, the Supreme Being. His wife is Asherah, the Queen of Heaven, who is in charge of fertility and reproduction.
The two had three sons, namely Baal, the god of thunder and storms, Yam, the god of the sea, and Mot, the god of the underworld, who were in charge of the sky, the ocean, and the underworld respectively.
As gods that were close to each other, Canaan and Babylon had intermittent exchanges during their development.
These include both friendly and unfriendly ones.
Therefore, Tiamat suspected that the reason her children rebelled was probably because of the instigation of their old neighbor Canaan.
As Lorne listened, he thought to himself.
Canaan?
The legendary promised land?
It seems that the prophet Moses, the ancestor of the Israelites, led his enslaved people from Egypt across the Red Sea to the promised land on the banks of the Jordan River and laid down roots.
Egypt, Canaan, Babylon...
If it is not a coincidence, there may be certain cultural mappings and influences among these three ages of gods, and the relationship may be even closer than that between the Celts and the Nordics.
In this case, he would most likely face two or even three gods of origin, and the danger of infiltrating the Babylonian Age of Gods would increase significantly.
Sure enough, it’s better to be careful.
If you hadn't asked a few more questions and found out some details, you would probably have fallen flat on your face if you had just swaggered into someone else's territory and turned the table over.
In addition, if I remember correctly, both El, the supreme being of Canaan, and Marduk, the king of kings in the Babylonian Age of Gods, seemed to be strong competitors for "God".
Two competitors in a row?
Don’t worry, wait until we get ashore and play with them first.
Loen made up his mind and continued chatting with Tiamat, and learned some information about the faith of the Babylonian Age of Gods from the Mother Goddess of Creation.
In the Babylonian Age of the Gods, humans were born from the corpses of old gods, born with original sin, and were created as slaves to please the gods. They were responsible for laboring and working for the gods, and their status was not high.
However, these tenacious lives still continue to multiply and thrive on the earth, creating a brilliant civilization, and often sacrifice their daily harvests to the gods, hoping to wash away their [original sin].
Gradually, the Babylonian gods discovered the power of faith. By performing miracles and passing on bloodlines, they guided the demigods with divine blood to lead humans to establish city-states and temples in the Mesopotamian region in order to develop the worship of the gods.
Wherever there are people, there is the world; wherever there are interests, there are disputes.
Even gods are no exception.
Therefore, the city-states of Babylon were similar to those of Greece, with each city having its own patron god.
For example, the religious center of Marduk, the king of kings, was in Babylon.
The patron city of the god Anu is Uruk. Gilgamesh, the tyrant of Uruk who is in power today, is Anu's grandson by blood.
The patron city of Enki, the god of the earth and water, is Eridu. According to Sumerian legend, Eridu is the first city in the world. Their creation myth says: "In the beginning, there was nothing in the world; then there was a city - Eridu." The Sumerians believed that Eridu was their earliest settlement in the Mesopotamian plain. Even the beginning of the Sumerian King List states: "The kingship descended from the sky and landed in Eridu."
The city of Nippur was the territory of Enlil, the lord of spirit and air. They called Enlil "the great mountain", "the lord of fate", "the lord of abundance", etc., and regarded him as the most powerful of the Babylonian gods.
From these small details, we can see that although Marduk has mastered the power of the origin god, the three pillar gods under him are not completely convinced.
In addition, the city of Kusa, which worshipped Ereshkigal, the god of the underworld, the city of Ur, which worshipped Sin, the moon god, and the cities of Kish and Susa, which worshipped Utu, the sun god, also developed well.
In order to enhance the reputation and status of their own city's patron saint, these city-states in the Mesopotamian region fought each other frequently, and the intensity of the battles was no less than that of the Trojan War in Greece.
And with fear, bloodshed and sacrifice, which distinguish you, us and them, our faith will become stronger.
Therefore, the Babylonian gods were happy to see this happen.
After a long fight, Uruk became the current winner.
This, of course, is thanks to the legendary tyrant Gilgamesh of Uruk, who was one-third human and two-thirds god, and his close friend Enkidu.
One of them was a powerful descendant of gods with the blood of the God King, and the other was a divine weapon created by the gods with all their efforts. When they joined forces, the second-level descendants of gods in the other city-states were naturally no match for them. They were defeated by this combination one after another and acknowledged Uruk's position as the leader.
Loen wrote down everything he heard on parchment and analyzed and organized it in his mind so that after he got ashore, he could play the role of a Sumerian well and would not be easily exposed.
At this moment, after drinking several jars of secret wine and using up her limited energy, Tiamat's eyes gradually became blurred.
Feeling sleepy, she instinctively wanted to snuggle into that familiar and warm embrace and take a nap.
But she obviously forgot her identity as the goddess of creation and the pair of huge emerald green horns on her head.
"boom!"
A dull roar echoed, and the fluorite embedded in the cabin that served as a light source shook violently.
“Ahem…”
Accompanied by a violent cough, Loen felt as if several of his ribs were broken, and a taste of rust filled his mouth.
"Mother Goddess, please don't rush at me so hard next time. It could kill someone..."
Luo En, who brought himself into the "Golden Solid", reminded with resentment while trying to pull his limbs out from the bottom of the cabin to regulate the disrupted breath in his body.
However, Tiamat was already extremely drunk at this moment, and her mind was in a state of confusion. Apart from her maternal instinct to coax her child to a good sleep, she could not hear any other sounds from the outside world.
So, Loen once again felt the depth and greatness of maternal love. His whole head was stuffed into a soft ocean, and he continued to sink into the deepest part that was both dark and warm.
To be honest, he had tried to resist.
But as we all know, snakes and monsters have a special skill called "death coil".
Tiamat, a hybrid of dragon and snake, was obviously also proficient in this. She used her hands, feet and tail to lock a cub that wanted to escape tightly in her arms.
After struggling several times in vain, Lorne could only resign himself to lying down in that dark, warm and soft place - feeling both pain and happiness.
~~
I don’t know how much time passed, on the Sea of Chaos.
A ray of sunlight shines through the gray mist and projects onto the turbid, surging water, bringing a little natural light.
In the cabin of the Argo, Lorne suddenly pulled his head out of the warm and dark trench and looked outside the ship.
The turbulent chaotic storm had quietly stopped, and the turbid sea surface was now like a flowing sapphire, gleaming with tiny golden lights under the faint sunlight. A hazy mist gently enveloped the sea, and the sea water was a soft blue-gray color, with extremely high visibility.
After Loen's divine will passed through a world wall composed of the power of laws, he vaguely saw the undulating mountains and hills, the bright sun, moon and stars, the vast fertile land of the two rivers, and the ancient Sumerian-style city-states standing on the earth.
The Age of the Babylonian Gods has arrived!
There was a gleam in Luo En's eyes and he sat up in the cabin.
Tiamat seemed to sense the breath of her homeland and woke up from her deep sleep. She subconsciously walked to the deck and reached out to the transparent wall of the world that lay in front of her home.
But as soon as it came into contact with it, a kind of tearing pain came like a landslide or tsunami.
Tiamat groaned and stumbled back.
The lower abdomen, which had been gradually healing, was torn apart again by the horrible giant axe, and golden-red divine blood flowed out from it.
Lorne's face changed, and he rushed to the deck, pulled Tiamat back, and used his divine power to stop her bleeding and heal her.
But within just a few seconds, Tiamat's aura weakened by several times, her divinity degraded, her body shrunk from an adult woman to a young girl, and her eyes became more confused and chaotic.
Is this a restriction that will be triggered if you get close to the Age of Babylonian Gods?
So insidious!
Lorne spat, probably understanding the crux of the matter.
In order to prevent the creation goddess from making a comeback and taking revenge on them, the Babylonian gods not only took away Tiamat's core, but also planted a curse in her body that was counteracting the Babylonian gods.
Now, there is some trouble.
Lorne frowned, a hint of gloom flashing in his eyes.
If they could not pass through the world wall and sneak into the Babylonian Age of Gods, it would be difficult to retrieve the divine core for Tiamat and rebuild her divine body.
Do we really have to break in?
Just when Lorne was having a headache, Tiamat in his arms struggled to get up.
She looked through the world wall, as if sensing something, towards a place on the east bank of the Tigris River, and murmured:
"Calling, someone is calling my...God's name."
~~
at the same time.
In a luxurious palace somewhere, a graceful figure sat in front of a dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror.
The woman in the mirror was very beautiful, wearing a gorgeous black and purple robe with golden patterns on the hem, like a galaxy flowing in the night. Her long black hair fell to her waist like a waterfall, with snake-shaped gold ornaments wrapped around her hair, and her dark red eyes exuded a breathtaking majesty. Her pale porcelain skin formed a sharp contrast with the dark clothes, her slender fingers wore rings inlaid with gemstones, and her nails were dyed dark purple. The dark golden crown on her head was divided into three layers, engraved with venomous snakes, thorns and cuneiform characters.
As the crown rotated independently and slowly, tiny shadows were cast, covering the beautiful face.
It's like putting a lid on a delicious dish to prevent the heat and flavor from escaping, waiting for the day when it will be opened and tasted.
This is the privilege of the victor.
The woman in front of the dressing table sneered, propped up her smooth chin with one hand, leaned back in the chair, narrowed her narrow eyes, and looked at the pomegranate flowers in the vase that were gradually losing their color and withering, and she couldn't help but be a little absent-minded.
From youth to prosperity, from prosperity to decline, and finally to withering and silence, just like the love that people talk about.
The man who loved her not long ago was a skinny old man, an old general of this country.
Like most marriages, the other party was attracted by her beauty, offered a betrothal gift, and her fosterer betrothed her to the other party.
Fortunately, the old man was decent, and perhaps because he was too old and no longer had the desire to indulge, he did not force her to do anything, and told her that she only needed to see him off to the end. He also smiled and said that the dances and songs she learned to please men could be sung and danced to her heart's content whenever she liked.
This should be a kind of peaceful love.
However, when an old lion harvests a tasty kill, the ending is extremely sad.
Because he has already lost the ability to protect his prey, and this will bring disaster upon himself.
So, the young king of the country snatched her from the old man in the name of love at first sight, saying that he wanted to marry her as his concubine.
The young king once said with a smile that it would be fun to surrender himself and then watch his expression twisted with regret.
This should be a kind of fanatical love.
However, before the woman could give in and collapse, the old lion, whose prey had been taken away, could not bear the humiliation and committed suicide prematurely.
This forced the young king to postpone his meal and clean up the mess left by the old man first.
But by tonight, the young lion would probably return to the palace and eat her prey.
From now on, she will waste the rest of her life in a wandering life amidst the competition and abuses of men.
What a boring fate.
The woman shook her head listlessly, walked to the bed, lifted the quilt, bit the tip of her index finger, and outlined the last stroke of a magic circle on the bed.
I have to say, she is very good at studying.
In addition to skills such as dancing, singing, makeup, and cooking to please men, she also mastered some ancient magic by reading some fragments.
"Bashimu, the winged serpent, the beloved son of the mother goddess Tiamat, the most venomous poison in the world. With blood as a medium and name as a sacrifice, I ask your spirit to descend here and gnaw at my enemies."
Accompanied by a low chant, the woman cut her palm with a hairpin, clenched her bleeding fist, and stood in the center of the magic circle, offering her only and most precious sacrifice for this summoning.
Become a plaything for men to fight over? And then die without any dignity?
If this is her future fate, then she would rather associate with those abominable monsters and let her future have a magnificent ending.
Of course, if she had to find a reason to do so.
Maybe it was because her first husband, the old man, was quite nice to her...
If you avenge the other party, you are even.
As her blood and vitality continued to drain away, the woman felt dizzy.
Looking at the magic circle diagram that had not moved for a long time, a hint of doubt appeared in her eyes.
It doesn't make sense. How could it consume so much energy just by summoning the spirits of the Eleven Demonic Beasts to act as familiars?
Bang bang bang bang!
The gems in the dressing table and jewelry box shattered one by one, and the precious plants in the house withered and died. A large amount of forcibly converted magic power poured into the magic circle, reflecting a deep black and red color.
The woman's face changed drastically.
No, the magic circle is out of control!
Out of instinct, the woman subconsciously wanted to erase the magic circle on the bed and interrupt the summoning ceremony.
However, it was too late.
A man and a woman used this as a door, crossed the endless darkness and chaos, and forced their way into the house.
“Boom!”
A fierce storm of magic power gushed out from the out-of-control magic array, sweeping across the entire hall in an instant.
After a long while of recovering, the woman staggered to her feet from the mess.
She glanced at the mark of the contract that appeared on the back of her hand, and felt the constraints contained therein, and suddenly felt like crying but had no tears.
I want to find a familiar, not be one!
At this moment, a gentle but unquestionable voice echoed in her ears:
"Where is this? What's your name?"
"Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, my name is Semiramis."
The woman blurted out, looking resentfully and depressedly at the man and woman who suddenly appeared in her room.
(End of this chapter)
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