Was that the true form of the goddess Ereshkigal...?
Staring at the enormous skeletal spirit before him, Shirou could not help narrowing his eyes.
Just as I thought!
The moment he entered Kutha, he had sensed that something was wrong.
By projecting the "Gram Sight," he had observed traces of activity left by the undead lingering throughout the city.
The "Gram Sight" allowed its bearer to perceive another layer of the world. The highest-ranking Gram Sight could even detect lies.
Lower-ranking Gram Sights instead possessed powerful spiritual perception, allowing their bearers to see supernatural phenomena invisible to ordinary people.
For example, they might catch faint glimpses of ghosts while passing through a cemetery. That made someone with this ability particularly well suited to working as a gravekeeper.
Shirou had noticed that something invisible to the human eye had made Kutha its lair.
Considering the rumors that Kutha had been destroyed overnight and that all its citizens had vanished, Shirou had thought of the Queen of the Gallû Spirits, ruler of the Underworld.
Just like the goddess Ishtar, she must have descended into this era!
"..."
Shirou swallowed.
He had prepared himself after hearing that the Queen of the Underworld possessed an appearance terrifying enough to silence crying Sumerian children, but...
Siduri-san!
Didn't you say that most Mesopotamian gods had golden hair, red eyes, and otherworldly beauty?
Didn't you say Ereshkigal was a majestic Queen of the Underworld?
She had gone far beyond human form. This was a little too majestic, wasn't it?
At the same time, he noticed that Ereshkigal's arrival had not only caused the temperature he felt to plummet, but had also created something resembling a gravitational field.
Shirou recalled what he had been told on the surface. Within the Underworld, Ereshkigal was absolute and invincible.
It did not matter whether one was human or a Divine Spirit.
The more powerful a being was, the weaker they became upon entering the Underworld. Neither the living nor the dead could defy Ereshkigal.
Both Gilgamesh and Merlin had overlooked her...
Besides the Three Goddess Alliance, a fourth goddess had descended upon Mesopotamia.
He needed to bring this information back to Uruk as soon as possible.
"Human, I am impressed that you managed to notice my presence."
The gigantic skeletal spirit spoke in a solemn, heavy voice.
A chilling sense of foreboding filled the air. It felt as though the temperature dropped with every syllable the goddess uttered.
Shirou drew upon every polite expression he had ever learned before replying.
"Yes. I noticed someone watching me in Kutha. Honored Goddess, you've been observing me all this time, haven't you?"
The Queen of the Gallû Spirits answered in an utterly frigid tone.
"A worm who dares enter my realm without an offering can atone only with death."
"I did bring an offering."
"...?"
Ereshkigal's voice wavered violently.
"Y-You... Ahem. What did you say?"
It was hardly surprising that the Goddess of the Underworld reacted that way.
Had Shirou known beforehand that he would be visiting the terrifying and majestic Ereshkigal, he would certainly have done everything possible to observe the proper courtesies, just as Enkidu had in the myths.
However...
Now that the Age of Gods had ended, Shirou could not possibly have known that Ereshkigal still existed.
Even Merlin and Gilgamesh, who possessed the highest-ranking Clairvoyance, had failed to notice her.
The Sage who surveyed the surface of the earth, the present, and the King who perceived destiny, the future, had both been completely unaware of Ereshkigal's descent.
There was no way Shirou could have known.
He had merely accepted Gilgamesh's commission and entered the Underworld to investigate Enkidu's remains.
Why would he have brought an offering for a goddess who was supposed to have vanished long ago?
In fact, Ereshkigal had never received an offering from anyone.
How could the Goddess of Death, whom everyone avoided at all costs, possibly receive offerings and worship from those on the surface?
It had to be a lie intended to curry favor with her.
Anyone capable of sensing my presence immediately after entering Kutha must surely be a cunning human.
The goddess declared, "Do not think your honeyed words will deceive me."
"No, I'm telling the truth! I really did bring an offering!"
Shirou reached inside his clothes and produced the offering he had prepared, a small cloth bag.
"..."
The Mistress of the Underworld froze.
She had expected the red-haired boy to produce gold, silver, treasures, or jeweled ornaments. Instead, he presented her with an unremarkable bag.
Ghostly blue flames flared within the skull's pitch-black eye sockets.
"Y-You... You dare mock me...!"
Feeling as though the goddess's fury might freeze him into an ice sculpture, Shirou hurriedly explained.
"These are flower seeds I received from the women at the flower shop where I helped out in Uruk!"
"I brought them as a specialty from the surface to offer to you, Goddess Ereshkigal!"
Before arriving in Kutha, Shirou truly had not known that Ereshkigal had appeared in Mesopotamia.
He had believed he would be visiting a realm of death abandoned by its mistress.
Even so, Shirou, who held death in reverence, had prepared a suitable offering.
Presenting tribute and condolences to a goddess who no longer existed was the only thing a foreigner like him could do.
"...!"
A gust of wind swept through the underground realm.
Perhaps this was what people meant by an eerie, ghostly wind.
As though sensing their mistress's emotional turmoil, the souls imprisoned within the Spear Cages began trembling as well.
"...This is terrible."
The goddess murmured.
After a long silence, the enormous Queen of the Gallû Spirits demanded furiously, "Look upon this realm! A sky without light, ground without radiance, and soil without flowers!"
"There is nothing here. This is an underground wasteland without sunlight or life, containing nothing but the silence of death!"
"Flower seeds... What possible meaning could there be in offering me such a thing?!"
"..."
Only then did Shirou realize that he had stepped on a landmine.
As an offering to the Queen of the Underworld, flower seeds were an absolutely terrible choice.
"...I'm sorry."
Shirou lowered his head, overcome with guilt.
For some reason, he suddenly remembered something Tohsaka had once said.
He really was an idiot who understood nothing about a woman's heart.
At this point, he would accept his fate even if she killed him.
"I will not kill you. I will take away your freedom."
The skeletal Mistress of the Underworld spoke coldly.
"I shall imprison both your body and soul beneath the earth and keep you at my side forever."
"...I see."
Shirou nodded, calmly accepting Ereshkigal's judgment.
...
"Follow me."
After the gigantic Gallû Spirit spoke those words, Shirou, resigned to his fate, followed her.
They crossed one desolate underground plain after another, all nearly identical, then passed through seven magnificent gates.
At last, the human and the goddess arrived at a new and expansive plain.
Unlike the graveyard, this plain was not filled with Spear Cages imprisoning souls. It was simply empty.
There were only rocks and frigid air seeping from the cracks, making it a wasteland of death in every sense.
"Honored Goddess, what is this place?"
Shirou looked up at the skeletal goddess, who stood more than twenty times his height.
"Have you never heard the tale of that foolish Goddess of Heaven?"
"Beyond the seven gates lies the palace of the Goddess Ereshkigal."
"So this is the palace of the Underworld... Um, but this is just an ordinary wasteland."
Shirou looked around in bewilderment.
The palace of the ruler of the Underworld, at least as he imagined it, should have been reasonably magnificent, even if it could not compare to the palace of a God of the Heavens.
He had imagined an imposing black castle, a towering gate more than twenty meters tall, and a three-headed hound chained beside it.
"If this counts as a palace, it seems a little too..."
"What were you expecting? This is the Underworld."
Ereshkigal spoke indifferently.
"Nothing beautiful exists here."
"To think you intended to plant flower seeds in a world like this. I would dearly like to know what goes on inside your head."
"..."
Unable to think of any reply, Shirou remained silent.
Ereshkigal seemed to have vented enough of her frustration. She gave a small snort.
"You will remain here."
"Do not wander around. The Gallû Spirits roaming the Underworld will attack any living creature that still possesses a body."
"Only within my palace can you be considered truly safe."
"Remember this. Your body, mind, soul, and freedom all belong to me."
"You are not permitted to consider taking your own life. Do you understand?"
After watching Shirou nod obediently, the skeletal goddess turned to leave.
At that moment, his voice came from behind her.
"Where should I go if I want to find you?"
"What?"
"I'll stay here and behave, but surely it's all right if I come and talk to you occasionally?"
"Talk... to me?"
Shirou said, "There's nothing in this palace. Even I'll want someone to talk to every once in a while, just to pass the time."
"Would you mind keeping me company whenever you're free?"
The boy's matter-of-fact attitude left Ereshkigal completely dumbfounded.
"You have quite some nerve, making such an outrageous request."
"After talking to you, I realized that you're a very reasonable goddess. You aren't nearly as frightening as the rumors made you sound."
Shirou honestly expressed his thoughts.
After committing such a severe diplomatic blunder, he would have had no complaints even if the goddess had ground his bones to dust.
Had a certain tyrant of Uruk encountered a similar situation, Shirou suspected the guards would already have dragged him away and beheaded him.
"Not nearly as frightening? You have some nerve saying that."
The skeletal goddess studied Shirou's face.
"Are you not afraid of my appearance?"
Shirou replied, "I was certainly startled at first, but it's really not that bad. Actually..."
"Actually, what?"
The red-haired boy scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"This might sound a little presumptuous, but for some reason, I feel a strange sense of familiarity with you."
"...Mm."
The air around Ereshkigal shook violently, and she turned her skeletal head away.
"What a strange human... F-Fine, do as you please! I don't care what you do anymore!"
"Hmph. If you want to find me, come to the coordinates directly beneath Kutha..."
"I will always be waiting on the Spear Cage Plain where we first met!"
The moment she finished speaking, the skeletal goddess flew away in a panic, almost as though she were fleeing for her life.
"So she's willing to wait for me."
Shirou stared blankly at the goddess's retreating figure.
He had not mentioned that sense of familiarity merely to flatter her.
He truly felt an intense sense of familiarity toward the terrifying-looking Queen of the Dead.
She was awkward yet intelligent, gloomy yet stubborn. Somehow, he could not help worrying about her.
"...Phew."
Shirou released a long breath.
Once Ereshkigal left, the surroundings felt slightly warmer.
Even so, this so-called palace was completely empty and utterly unsuitable for human habitation.
Although Shirou did not need to eat after entering the Underworld, he still needed sleep.
First, he would have to build himself somewhere to live.
He could hardly lie down and sleep in the middle of the wasteland.
While he was at it, he might as well build a temple for Ereshkigal-sama too.
All right. Time to get started.
"Territory Creation."
This was one of the few abilities Shirou possessed as a Magus that ranked above average.
In his previous life, he had learned civil engineering Magecraft from Aesc the Savior.
That knowledge was supplemented by his experience in this life repairing, remodeling, and maintaining the Amamiya residence.
Shirou was extremely confident in his construction skills.
When considering his future after high school, he had even seriously contemplated joining the Fujimura Group or Asagami Construction and becoming a proud construction worker.
Well... it seemed he no longer had a future.
Shirou moved his limbs, which had gone numb after his fall into the Underworld, and began making the preliminary preparations for Territory Creation.
"Come to think of it..."
As he bent down, Shirou felt the weight of that object against his chest.
He took out the item that had initially angered the goddess.
The small, unremarkable cloth bag was filled with seeds from flowers that grew throughout Mesopotamia.
"...All right."
Shirou clasped the flower seeds in his hand and made an important decision.
...
It happened after his consciousness sank into the abyss.
The boy faintly heard a distant voice, as though glimpsing a hazy scene.
"Where...?"
"Where... am I...?"
A soul wandering through the realm of the dead sobbed sorrowfully.
"It's so dark..."
"It's... so dark here..."
"It's so cold..."
"So cold..."
"There's... nothing here..."
Shirou felt profoundly helpless as those pleas grew weaker, flickering like a candle in the wind.
The reason was simple.
He was the very soul crying out for help.
More precisely, Shirou's consciousness had flowed into the soul of an unknown human.
Was this what they called possession?
It was like what had happened with Jeanne and Leticia.
Shirou drifted alongside the nameless human soul, waiting for an unknown end to arrive.
"Ah, there you are. I found you."
A young girl's voice reached his ears.
Ah... Her voice was as warm as sunlight piercing the pitch-black depths, Shirou thought.
"Are you all right? Can you hold on a little longer?"
A blonde girl in a red robe appeared within the dark world, illuminating everything around her.
Shirou could not make out the face beneath her hood, yet she felt overwhelmingly familiar and dear to him. He could not tear his gaze away.
The blonde girl crouched in front of the soul Shirou possessed and murmured, "This does happen from time to time. Instead of reaching the square, a soul falls into the wilderness."
"Good thing I decided to patrol the area, just in case... Otherwise, I might never have found this lost soul."
The girl carefully cupped Shirou in both hands and smiled.
"Hehe, you might as well accept your fate. Now that you've fallen into the Underworld, you belong to me."
"Since I, the great Mistress of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, have come for you, you no longer have any freedom... W-Wait, you're already about to disappear?!"
The blonde girl let out a panicked scream.
"Wait, wait! Hold on!"
"I went too far just now. I was only trying to frighten you a little! Don't give up so easily!"
You're the one who needs to be gentler! Not everyone can shrug off your threats like I can! Shirou could not help retorting inwardly.
"...Phew. It's finally stabilized."
"The color of the soul has settled too... It looks like this was a human child."
Once the soul had recovered a little vitality, the blonde girl wiped the sweat from her brow.
"The cause of death was... strangulation?"
"According to the records of the deceased... I see. You were killed through violence inflicted by a family member."
The blonde girl lowered her beautiful, slender eyelashes.
"...I don't understand anything you're trying to say."
"But now that you've come here, you can rest easy. I will keep you safe."
A Spear Cage appeared beside the girl, and she placed the human soul inside as gently as possible.
"I may not be able to heal your wounds, but no matter how cold a soul becomes, it will never disappear as long as it remains within this Spear Cage."
"You may preserve your sense of self for as long as you wish. Once you have no regrets left, you may return to the Abyss."
"If your life on the surface was filled with suffering, then you should at least be allowed to spend your time here in peace."
After closing the Spear Cage, the blonde girl wore a firm, resolute expression.
"I am Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Underworld and commander of the Gallû Spirits who lay the dead to rest."
"I swear upon this name that you shall be granted everlasting peace."
"Though this place is terribly cold, I only hope this dream of yours will have meaning."
"Ah..."
As his consciousness faded, Shirou heard the soul he possessed whisper.
"It feels... a little warmer now..."
...
When Shirou opened his eyes, he was greeted by the dark sky beneath the earth, a sight he still found unfamiliar.
Had he dreamed of something after falling asleep yesterday...?
Shirou shook his head and rose from his makeshift bed.
He looked around.
After more than ten hours of work the previous day, his little house in the Underworld had begun to take shape.
At this rate, it would take less than three days before he no longer had to sleep out in the wasteland.
A faint sense of pride rose within him as he admired his progress.
"Now then..."
He could simply continue the work he had left unfinished the night before.
However, considering how long he might be staying here, Shirou decided that he should balance work with rest and take proper care of his mental health.
"All right. Today, I'll go have a chat with Goddess-sama."