Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

The golden blade of light, spanning a length of 380,000 kilometers, heralded the end of the battle.

Volume 8, Mesopotamian Absolute Monster Front: Chapter 337 Recording the Past, Present, and Future

This was an absolutely earth-shattering battle.

Like a catastrophe, the terrifying force that swept across the entire continent caused unimaginable weather phenomena to erupt in the skies above the forests south of Uruk. Countless clouds were pierced through, and things like light suddenly shot into space. Such a terrifying phenomenon was enough to be recorded in history.

The people of Ur watched all of this with trepidation.

They watched from behind the city as the entire battle between the gods and humans unfolded. Logically, such a powerful attack should have been enough to raze the entire city of Ur to the ground, yet not a single building in Ur was destroyed as a result of the battle.

Everyone was unharmed.

And in the very center of the battlefield, near that temple altar.

A crater with a radius of tens of meters was formed there.

Yan Ming stood steadily in place, separated the two swords that had been merged together, put them away, and slowly walked towards the interior of the huge pit.

A figure was lying there.

Her entire body was charred black, but she still survived the earth-shattering clash of power and fell from a height of one thousand meters.

"Oh dear... I lost, I lost."

Quetzal slowly rose from the pit, as if he were breathing blue smoke.

She twisted her waist, making cracking sounds from within. No wonder she's a goddess; she can still survive like that.

"I originally just wanted to test your strength, little brother, but it's gotten to this point without me even realizing it... Hmm~ And being able to catch a kick from your big sister with all her might, that's something no human could do, right?"

Unlike Quetzal, Yan Ming stared directly at her.

"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly looking at me like that? Are you trying to make me shy?"

"You have no reason to fight me."

"Oh dear...?" Quetzal looked at Yan Ming with a puzzled expression.

Why would you ask that?

“I could tell when we were fighting that you didn’t intend to harm innocent people. You would subconsciously suppress your power so as not to affect the people in Ur City. And you were fighting those monsters just now to protect them, right?”

Even without Yan Ming controlling time to rewind, Quetzal still consciously controlled his output so as not to affect the people around him, or even the surrounding environment.

This alone shows that Quetzalcoatl did not actually intend to harm the innocent.

If that's the case, then why did she choose to fight Yan Ming?

"Now that you've confirmed the Three Goddess Alliance, I need to confirm your own situation."

Quetzal continued with a grin.

"But now it seems that big sister's worries were completely unnecessary. After all, you can even defeat someone like me, so Gorgon should be no problem either!"

"That's why you fought me."

"Of course—I myself really want to have a fierce battle with a young man like you, so in a way it's a win-win situation!"

However, even though Quetzal said that, Yan Ming still felt that she hadn't used all her strength.

Despite having combined his two ultimate techniques and overloaded his power, Yan Ming still sensed that Quetzal was holding back some of his strength.

The goddess before us, though a member of the Three Goddess Alliance along with Ereshkigal, is clearly fundamentally different from her.

…It seems there are indeed powerful beings in this world.

"So what are you planning to do next?"

Yan Ming stared at the other person and continued to ask.

“I have already confirmed Ereshkigal’s situation, and now I have confirmed yours. Someone like you would never do something like exterminating humanity. So what do you plan to do next?”

"Well, big sister still needs to verify some other things, but at least we've already verified your strength."

"I see..." Yan Ming understood Quetzal's meaning in an instant.

She wanted to stay here to explore the will of Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others... that is, to test the strength of the Chaldea people.

However, compared to these…

"I have another question to ask you."

He walked directly to the mountain of corpses piled up by countless monsters.

"Do you know when and how these monsters appeared?"

"This is also a question that I, as the older sister, need to think about."

Quetzal's smile vanished.

"About a week ago, monsters like these suddenly appeared in the forest. Some of them were animals that originally lived in this forest, some were magical beasts that came here from outside... and some were even pterosaurs that I summoned."

"You mean even the creatures you summon with your Noble Phantasm will be turned into this?"

"...The specific reason is unknown, and once it becomes like this, even the pterosaurs I summoned have broken away from my Noble Phantasm and completely become these uncontrollable monsters."

Just like the evil spirits in the underworld last time, it was the same thing that demons did.

'We must find the demon hiding in this world as soon as possible and resolve this problem quickly, otherwise it will be disastrous if it threatens Uruk or other innocent cities.'

"Oh dear, I think it's about time you went back to where you originally were."

"…What?"

Yan Ming immediately looked at the other person.

Seeing Yan Ming's expression, Quetzal burst out laughing.

"That means you should go back to Uruk, little brother."

boom--!!

A violent impact suddenly came from a distant area beyond the forest.

And this direction... is Uruk.

Clearly, the city had been attacked in some way, precisely during the time Yan Ming was away.

Yan Ming stood still, gazing into the direction of Uruk, while Quetzal spoke casually.

"You'd better hurry over there, especially if the one who made the move this time is the Beast Goddess—"

“I don’t need to worry, because someone will stop her in Uruk.”

His words startled Quetzal once again.

Because when Yan Ming said this, his words were full of confidence; he was very certain of what he was saying.

This surprised Quetzal, because in her understanding, Uruk shouldn't yet have the means to fight against a powerful enemy...

"Could it be that you're talking about King Gilgamesh?"

“Gilgamesh? You’re mistaken.”

A whoosh—the aurora curtain unfolded directly in front of Yan Ming.

He left this reply at the very last moment before leaving.

"I'm talking about the things that happened to some of my companions."

--------------------------

"what happened?"

Gates and Woz were strolling together through the streets of Uruk when at one point he saw Woz suddenly stop.

"...No, it's nothing."

Woz tapped the book slightly with his finger, squinted his eyes, and then chuckled casually.

"I just sensed a distortion in spacetime. It seems my Demon King is fighting someone and using the power of Zi-O II."

"Zi-O is fighting someone else...? Is this really okay?"

"Of course, you can tell by looking at the sky in the distance, Mr. Gates."

Following Wozniak's gaze, Gates discovered a very strange phenomenon.

In the far, far sky, several strange clouds seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, spreading upwards.

A moment later... an overwhelming golden beam of light exploded out from there, shooting straight up into the clouds.

"Whoa! What's that?!"

"It looks so amazing... Could this also be a miracle performed by King Gilgamesh?"

"No, no, it looks more like it was made by the goddess of Venus."

"You mean the goddess Ishtar? Didn't she abandon us...?"

"I heard that she seems to have returned not long ago. Look at that powerful light, it actually shot straight up into the sky. Only a god could do something like that!"

"What you said... seems to make a lot of sense."

Other people on the streets of Uruk also noticed this, and they exclaimed and discussed it, with different opinions flowing back and forth in the crowd.

Only Wozniak and Gates immediately recognized what was going on.

"This should be Zi-O's second-stage ultimate attack, that guy..."

"That's right, and it seems that my Demon King has won. However, the opponent must also be a strong one who can fight him, otherwise my Demon King would not have been able to raise his power to this level."

"Then let's hurry up and go support him!"

"Don't worry, Geiz-kun. Since the power of Zi-O 3rd generation didn't call for us, it proves that this is nothing at all."

After hearing Wozniak's explanation, Gates suddenly realized that it did make some sense.

Then, Gates' expression turned somewhat speechless.

"So... are we really just going to wander around the streets like this all day?"

To be honest, he's boring.

It has been some time since Yan Ming left. Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others went to complete the tasks assigned to them by Gilgamesh. However, the king had already said that he would not arrange any actions for Gates and Woz, which left the two of them with nothing to do and extremely bored.

However, Wozniak had an expression that said he knew everything.

"We won't be idle for a while."

"Huh? You actually have the nerve to say something like that? Tell me then, what else could we possibly be doing here—"

Boom—!

Before he could even finish speaking, Gates felt the ground shake.

"Varied…?"

"See, this means we've been hired."

Wozniak and Gates looked into the distance. On the street directly opposite, countless fully armed soldiers were marching toward the city gate.

The two of them rushed over and asked one of the soldiers for directions.

"Excuse me! What exactly happened?"

"...Outside the city gate, a large number of magical beasts suddenly attacked this side."

The soldier spoke sternly, while gripping his weapon tightly.

"There's no time to lose. Please take refuge as soon as possible. Lord Leonidas I and Lord Benkei have already joined the battle. We must go and support them immediately!"

So the soldiers left one after another, and almost everyone in sight moved toward the city gate.

The remaining soldiers were mostly responsible for evacuating civilians and restoring order and calming emotions.

Gates and Wozniak stood in the middle of the street, watching this scene unfold.

"Hey, Woz."

"I understand without you saying it, Mr. Gates."

Since that's the case—Gates simply rolled up his sleeves and was about to head towards the city gate when—

Woz stopped him directly.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you hurry up and help those soldiers?"