In the Name of Order
Vishnu?
That Vishnu — one of the Trimurti?
No. That isn't what matters right now.
Caught in the raging torrent of spacetime, Sunya had to fight with everything he had simply to hold himself together. He knew it by instinct. If the world were an unfinished book of colossal scale, what Vishnu was doing now was the equivalent of erasing the existence called Sunya from its pages entirely.
As his being faded, so did his memories. The person he was — the very self he had been — was on the verge of being wiped clean from the world.
Hold on! You have to keep going! Before you vanish completely!!
Sunya pressed forward. He dragged his heavy feet and advanced without stopping. At some point he could no longer remember why he needed to reach the past. Even so, he moved on pure reflex.
Don't give up. If you stop now, everything ends. You can't quit here!!
One step. Two steps…
And a short while later, Sunya's form vanished completely into a fissure in time. He had succeeded in reaching the past, just as he had hoped — though not, precisely, the era he had intended.
"……"
Vishnu stared blankly at the place where Sunya had disappeared. Even though he had failed to achieve his purpose, not a flicker of emotion showed in his eyes. Fate itself had been twisted by Chaos's meddling, and still not the slightest emotional disturbance could be read from him. In the language of the twenty-first century, the word that fit him best would have been robotic.
"……Almost like Apsu."
Watching him, Enki recalled a certain being he had once disposed of. Apsu — the primordial god, true father of the gods, who had stood alongside his wife Tiamat. Even among divinities, there had been nothing human about him. Enki had sometimes doubted whether the creature had possessed emotions at all. Why Apsu had gone so far as to forge the Tablet of Destinies and try to slaughter his own descendants was something Enki still did not understand. It had been an ancient affair, yet the impression and atmosphere he had faintly sensed from that being lingered in the memory of the god of wisdom.
"Our origins are the same. Similarity is inevitable."
Vishnu spoke. He looked precisely toward the place where Enki and Inanna stood. Naturally the two of them were startled — but having already experienced Kali's case once before, they did not panic overmuch.
"……You can see us too?"
Inanna asked.
"I can."
"Are you the same sort as Kali or Tiamat?"
This time it was Enki who asked.
"The question is vague."
"I mean — are you another form of her that exists in a different world?"
"No."
"Then how?"
"It is simple. My rank and presence are overwhelmingly high enough that I can interfere even within a record such as this."
"……What exactly are you?"
Vishnu sat down with a soft thud and opened the book once more. His manner suggested complete disinterest in them — and yet he answered Enki's question all the same.
"I am one who executes the Will of Order. I stand at the opposite pole from incarnations of Chaos such as the Kali or Tiamat you have seen."
"Just now you said you and Apsu share the same root. What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means that Apsu of Kienkingir was, like me, a being who spoke for the Will of Order."
"I've been wondering this for a while — why do you answer everything we ask with the absolute truth?"
Inanna put the question. To her, Vishnu's computer-like readiness to answer without the slightest hesitation felt alien.
"Because that is my nature. I know all things — and at the same time, I have no choice but to answer whatever is asked of me."
With a soft rustle, Vishnu turned a page as he spoke. His dismissive attitude irritated Inanna a little, but Enki, undeterred, decided to ask the thing he had been curious about from the start.
"Then I'll keep going. This Will of Order and Will of Chaos you keep talking about — what are they, exactly?"
"Though I call them wills, they are the two most primordial properties that form the foundation of the universe."
Vishnu explained. Trace the cause of any cause far enough back, and you inevitably arrive at the answer because that is simply how it is. That is the fundamental cause — the law that constitutes the world, and the property that seeks to flow according to that law. Chaos is different. It has no frame, is irregular, unfixed, and seeks to shatter the law. In other words, the Will of Order is the property that tries to impose a fixed frame and form upon the disordered, while the Will of Chaos is the property that tries to tear down those frames and laws. At the root of the universe, these contradictory natures coexist.
"And among the gods, there are those born with an especially strong affinity for Order or Chaos. Such beings possess a rank far higher than others — and to gods and humans alike, they tend to feel distinctly alien."
"I see. I understand. Then one more question. Why did Apsu try to destroy us?"
"Is it not obvious?"
Vishnu raised his head. Dark, bottomless eyes took them in. Enki felt, uncomfortably, that the gaze reminded him of his own father.
"You gods are beings who have strayed from principle and providence. Chaos wearing the mask of Order. There is no reason for you to exist in this world."
In that instant, just as it had with Sunya moments before, the torrent of spacetime crashed over Inanna and Enki.
"Th-this is…"
Before either of them could do a thing, Inanna's consciousness cut out.
When she opened her eyes again, Inanna found herself back in her own palace in Kienkingir.
"Just like that?"
Inanna was thrown into confusion.
"My lady."
"Ninshubur?"
At the familiar voice she turned — and there behind her stood her faithful attendant, Ninshubur.
"What the hell is going on?"
Inanna spoke to her, but Ninshubur did not register her presence. She ignored Inanna as though the goddess were neither visible nor real, and walked straight through her. Inanna flinched for a moment — then understood soon enough. She was still wandering inside an illusion. As proof, she could not even grasp the walls of her own palace. And more than that: a short distance away, she could see her younger self standing with her back to Ninshubur.
"Are you truly going to bring down Mount Ebih?"
"Yeah. That's the plan."
"……Have you received Lord An's permission? To topple a mountain of that size, one would think a permit would be required…"
"I'll handle it myself. Stay out of it."
Yes. She remembered. This had happened. Watching the scene, Inanna could call up the memory of her past.
"This is… my past?"
At first she thought so — but it was not. The young Inanna of the illusion climbed Mount Ebih, yet never met Sunya there.
"Why? Why isn't Sunya here?"
Leaving Inanna's question unanswered, the Inanna of the illusion ultimately achieved what she had set out to do. Just as planned, she hurled her spear and brought Mount Ebih crashing down. Golden spears wreathed in crimson flame rained from the sky and shattered the high, vast, and sacred mountain. Countless humans fell to their knees in terror of her transcendent, overwhelming power, scrambling to revere and praise her.
The illusion continued after that. Some time later, the Inanna of the vision departed for the underworld with Utu's help and ate the Fruit of Knowledge there — not to understand her feelings for Sunya, but simply because she resented being treated like a child by everyone around her. Time passed, and in the end she gave in to her mother's relentless pressure and agreed to marry. She summoned suitors to her palace. The final two remaining were Enkimdu, god of agriculture, and Dumuzi, god of shepherds.
"If Enkimdu offers you flour, then I shall offer Lady Inanna black sheep and white sheep! Instead of beer, I will give you rich milk. I may not be able to present soft bread — but sweet cheese I can serve you as much as you desire!"
And Dumuzi repeated the same speech Inanna had once heard, stressing every benefit he could provide.
"None of that matters even a little."
Watching the scene, Inanna shook her head. But her counterpart in the illusion apparently thought otherwise. The goddess of love and war in the vision, swayed by Utu's persuasion and Dumuzi's persistence, ultimately chose the shepherd.
By then Inanna understood. What she was watching was the fate she would originally have lived — the life in which she never met Sunya.
"Huh. Looking at it like this is kind of fascinating."
She had already entered Sunya once and known the truth of it, but seeing it with her own eyes still stirred a strange new feeling.
"But I'm not exactly satisfied."
There was no Sunya there — and none of the beautiful children she had borne in pain existed either. She had no idea what the Inanna of the illusion might be thinking, but not for a moment did she feel envious of that life.
"Looking at it this way, Sunya's really is absurdly huge."
Dumuzi was small down there, too. In truth it was an ordinary size — objectively it might even have counted as large — but even so, it could not begin to compare with Sunya's. And yet the Inanna of the illusion seemed perfectly content, which left her feeling oddly unsettled.
"So this is what they call reverse culture shock."
Well. As long as she was happy, fine.
Had she stopped watching there, it would have been curious enough, but she could have accepted it without much thought. The life of the Inanna in the illusion that unfolded afterward, however, was far from desirable.