Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest
Chapter 472: The First Heartbreak 5

Chapter 472: The First Heartbreak 5

"You let me die once," Enkidu continued, his voice now soft and intimate and more terrible than any roar. "You let the gods take me while you stood helpless, watching like a child who had lost his favorite toy. And now you think pretty words and tears can undo what your weakness caused?"

The pressure increased until Gilgamesh felt something crack in his chest—not ribs this time, but something deeper, something that had to do with the will to continue fighting. His vision began to gray at the edges as his lungs fought for air that wouldn’t come.

But in that moment of ultimate darkness, when defeat seemed not just possible but inevitable, Gilgamesh’s hand found the grip of his axe where it had fallen beside him. The familiar weight of it reminded him of something more important than victory or defeat.

This was not about winning a battle. This was about saving a soul.

With effort that felt like lifting mountains, Gilgamesh rolled onto his side and brought the axe up in a defensive position. Blood ran freely from his wounds, painting his golden weapon crimson, but his grip was steady. His voice, when he spoke, was roughened by damage to his throat but unbroken in its resolve.

"If love is weakness," he said, each word a conscious effort that sent new fire through his damaged ribs, "then I choose to be weak. If sentiment is poison, then I drink deep and call it wine. But I will not let Marduk’s corruption claim you completely, my brother. Not while breath remains in my body."

The axe rose, no longer defensive but purposeful. Its golden head caught the hellish light and transformed it into something divine—the authority of kingship made manifest, but more than that, the will of someone who had learned that love was stronger than power, that friendship was more lasting than divine favor. The cuneiform inscriptions along its length pulsed with each heartbeat, each symbol a law he had carved into reality not through force but through the simple, terrible choice to care more about another’s soul than his own survival.

Enkidu lunged forward again, moving like a force of nature unleashed. But this time, Gilgamesh did not merely defend. The axe swept in a perfect arc, not to wound but to redirect, its edge trailing luminous script that wrote itself across the air in letters of pure light—words in the first language, the tongue that had named the world when it was young and gods walked among mortals as equals rather than masters.

Where the ancient words touched Enkidu’s aura of divine corruption, they sizzled and sparked like oil meeting flame. For the first time since the battle began, it was Enkidu who staggered backwards, his expression shifting from savage confidence to something approaching surprise.

"Binding of the First Law," Gilgamesh intoned, his voice resonating with harmonics that made the volcanic ground beneath them tremble. "As I bound the Bull of Heaven, as I chained the cedars of Lebanon to serve Uruk’s glory—so do I bind you, brother, not in malice but in love."

The golden threads of light that spun from his axe’s edge were not chains of imprisonment but connections of remembrance—each strand woven from shared memories, from laughter echoing through cedar forests, from quiet conversations beneath stars that had watched civilisations rise and fall. They wrapped around Enkidu’s limbs like gossamer that became steel through the strength of absolute devotion.

But Marduk’s power fought back with divine fury, golden divinity crackling along Enkidu’s form as he strained against the bonds. The wild man’s eyes blazed with cosmic fire as he tore at the luminous threads, threatening to shatter even Gilgamesh’s kingly authority.

"Not enough," Gilgamesh whispered, and with fluid grace, he released the axe. It spun through the air, embedding itself in volcanic stone with a resonance that rang like the world’s first bell, and his hand closed instead around his staff—the Rod of Heaven and Earth, carved from the World Tree itself.

The staff blazed to life with elemental fury. At its crown, light gathered like a newborn star, while along its length, the essence of earth itself—every grain of sand, every mountain peak, every root system—answered to his call. This was deeper magic than divine favor or borrowed power; this was the fundamental authority of the first king, the one who had taught humanity to build walls against chaos, to plant gardens in wilderness, to transform the raw clay of existence into something beautiful and lasting.

"I call upon the compact between heaven and earth," Gilgamesh declared, raising the staff until its radiance threw shadows across the battlefield. "Upon the covenant written in stone when gods were young and mortals dared to dream. By light that pierces darkness, by earth that cradles all life—I bind what has been scattered, I heal what has been broken."

The staff struck the ground with the sound of continents settling, and reality responded like a symphony orchestra awaiting its conductor’s baton. Light erupted from the point of impact—not the harsh glare of battle, but the gentle radiance of dawn breaking over well-tended fields, of hearth fires welcoming travellers home, of love that endures beyond death itself.

Simultaneously, the earth beneath Enkidu’s feet softened and flowed like honey, not to trap but to embrace. Stone became clay, clay became gentle hands that rose from the soil to steady rather than restrain. These were not the crude earthworks of battle magic—this was the very ground remembering its first shaping, when Enkidu himself had been formed from its essence by divine hands.

The wild man found himself sinking into a cradle, held by the same earth that had birthed him, surrounded by light that spoke in the voice of friendship itself. The golden corruption of Marduk’s influence flickered and wavered like flames in wind, the divine power finding no purchase against bonds forged from unbreakable affection.

"Remember," Gilgamesh whispered, his voice somehow carrying across the distance between them despite the chaos of surrounding battles. "Remember the first time we met, when you were wild and free, when you challenged me not from malice but from joy. Remember the cedar forest, where we slew monsters together and laughed at death itself. Remember what it felt like to choose your own path, to be more than any god’s tool."