Enki’s eyes flashed as he looked thoughtfully towards the East and West of the Babylonian Divine Era.
Marduk nodded and said,
"Tell them that I agree to their invasion. As long as they have the ability, they can take Babylon’s land!"
Anu and Enlil exchanged a glance, and a malicious smile appeared on their faces.
This was a plan to use a borrowed knife to kill.
Utilizing external forces to clear out the unruly livestock within.
When the critical moment came, they would step in as saviors to clean up the mess, maintaining the dignity of the deities and rebuilding faith at the same time, achieving everything in one stroke.
Seeing that the Three Pillar Gods understood his intention, Marduk decisively said,
"Since you all have no objections, let’s proceed this way."
The Three Pillar Gods nodded in agreement, then successively walked out of the Temple to execute the next steps per the agreement.
Days later, in the Netherworld.
The departed souls of Uruk City were not yet settled when a massive influx of new faces surged into this underground Land of the Dead.
Upon inquiry, Aile and others quickly learned the reasons behind this.
After Uruk City suffered Enlil’s Divine Punishment, a group of Elamites from the East exploited the opportunity, besieging Uruk City and its dependent city-states, sweeping away all resistance with strong military force, leaving the Uru Region completely fallen to the enemy;
On the other hand, Babylon fared worse, subjected to successive assaults by two mysterious forces.
One was the Hittites, who easily breached Babylon City with a powerful army and superb iron weaponry, demolishing numerous temples and looting considerable treasures.
The other, claiming to be Chaldeans, belonged to the Shemitic Clan from the West, taking advantage of the distraction in Babylon to launch a surprise attack from behind, successfully occupying Babylon and replacing the original royalty, thereby establishing the New Babylon Kingdom, also called the Caldean Kingdom.
Recently, these newly reported souls in the Netherworld were the unfortunate victims of the two battles.
Aile and others even spotted the shades of two Judges of the Underworld, Hammurabi and Urnammu, and their descendants among them.
Evidently, after the cities fell and the kingdoms were lost, they weren’t spared either.
"This isn’t right, I can understand why Uruk City fell, as it had just been ravaged by Enlil and had no defensive capacity left. But why did Babylon City fall too? Didn’t you seek help from Marduk?" Aile was full of confusion.
"We did, but the gods did not respond..." Hammurabi said with a bitter face.
The Babylon Prince standing behind him indignantly complained, "The gods abandoned us!"
Were they planning to reshuffle the deck directly? It truly matched their usual violent style.
Luo En frowned and asked,
"What about the Moon Goddess Sin and the Sun God Utu? Are they not around either?"
At this moment, two rays of galloping starlight ripped through the darkness of the Netherworld.
An elder with white hair and a white beard and a burly man with whiskered cheeks each drove their silver and gold chariots into the great hall.
It was the Moon Goddess Sin and the Sun God Utu in person.
"Sorry, Marduk and Enlil invited us to a banquet, so we had to attend and only just now escaped."
Their faces were grim, and they called out the names of the two Great Gods with no previous respect or reverence in their words.
Evidently, the fall of Uruk City and the subjugation of Babylon City finally made them realize that even with constant yielding and compromise, no mercy could be won.
Thus, they chose to no longer remain hidden and decided to convene in the Netherworld for a strategy discussion.
"Are there any updates from Uruk and Nineveh?"
"Of course, they’ve been defended! With me, plus Gilgamesh and Semiramis assisting, how could those small fries possibly breach?"
Ishtar, commanding the Heavenly Ship Maanna, arrived with familiar faces Gilgamesh and Semiramis onboard.
Although the two kings still had the scent of blood from the great battle lingering around them, they and their nations were preserved.
The outcomes for Uruk City and Babylon City’s starkly contrasted with this.
Seeing this situation, the Moon Goddess Sin and the Sun God Utu were finally infuriated, their voices now carrying a cold edge:
"Didn’t expect that our constant concessions only made them take a mile. Given this, let them see who is worthy of sowing their faith on Babylon’s land!"
"Their arrogance is too much, count us in!"
Luo En, with righteous indignation, stepped forward and immediately issued orders to Semiramis and Gilgamesh,
"You are to integrate the troops within seven days, reclaim lost land, and drive those outsiders out of Babylon and Uruk!"
"That’s too generous!"
"Three days are enough!"
The two kings proudly replied, displaying a spirit that matched the deities.