The Tablet of Destinies
Just then, far in the distance, a colossal beast with the head of a lion and the body of a man came soaring through the sky.
It was Ugallu, the storm-calling beast.
Even from afar, Ugallu's sheer size was staggering. It dwarfed any ordinary temple, and beside it Ninurta looked like an ant next to an elephant. And yet, for all that bulk, the creature was remarkably fast. Worst of all, its mere approach summoned a raging tempest of thunder and lightning.
The storm was so violent that even the ranks of the gods struggled to withstand it. If the gods themselves could barely endure it, mortals stood no chance at all. That was why a denser throng of corpse-monsters clustered around Ugallu than anywhere else — no doubt the remains of humans the beast had already slain.
Fortunately, Ninurta could command the wind as well. Though his power fell far short of Ugallu's, he did what he could to offset the storm and give the other soldiers a chance to hold their ground.
Before long, the corpse-monsters crashed into the soldiers' lines. The troops had been inclined to dismiss the creatures as mere constructs of human corpses — but the force of the impact was far greater than expected.
BOOM.
"What kind of strength is this?"
"Hold the formation!!"
"Do not fall back!"
The soldiers braced their massive shields against the enemy and thrust spears through the gaps. When the gods drove their spears home, the weapons punched clean through the corpse-monsters. The creatures may have been fashioned from human remains, and their hides had grown tough as steel in death — yet the raw strength of the gods surpassed even that.
Still, the corpse-monsters were no easy prey. Limbs torn away, flanks and chests ripped open, they kept moving all the same. They crumpled the shields, bit and clawed at the soldiers behind them, and pressed relentlessly forward.
"Burning them would be far more effective."
Nanna hurled the crescent-moon boat he had been riding into the sky. It spun at tremendous speed until it shone like a full moon. The moonlight that poured from within was nothing like the gentle radiance of before. A pillar of light swept through the ranks of the dead, and in an instant the creatures melted away like mud.
The forces under Nanna's command loosed arrows as well, striking the enemy from the rear.
While the soldiers and Nanna held the corpse hordes at bay below, Ninurta faced Ugallu in the open sky. Unlike Inanna, Ninurta was hopelessly outmatched in sheer size and power, so a direct frontal clash was out of the question. Instead he used the wings on his back to exploit his superior mobility, hunting Ugallu's blind spots and loosing arrow after arrow.
BOOM.
Each time an arrow struck the beast's body, a thunderous report rang out. The shafts ignored the barrier of wind Ugallu wore and the toughness of its hide alike, shattering bone and muscle beneath.
"Don't rush it! Keep pressing him steadily, just like this!"
"I know!"
Sharur, the staff that possessed a will of its own, supported him from the side.
Ugallu let out a deafening roar. Ninurta relentlessly targeted the beast's joints and vital points, and from Ugallu's perspective, a creature no better than a fly was darting about in a frenzy, stacking damage that could no longer be ignored. Rage was inevitable.
Where is the other one?
Even so, Ninurta remained vigilant for the second beast, as any skilled hunter would. Its movement toward this battlefield had been confirmed only moments earlier, so it was surely lying in wait somewhere out of sight.
Sure enough, just as Ninurta expected, a monster that had been hiding underground revealed itself. From the very heart of the gods' rear formation, a beast with the body of a scorpion and the upper torso of a woman erupted from the earth.
It was Girtablulu.
What might once have been a beautiful woman's form was now a half-rotting upper body, repulsive beyond description. Before anyone could so much as react, the creature cracked its tail like a whip and tore dozens of gods apart in a single sweep.
"Everyone, take to the air! Scatter!"
At Nanna's command, the soldiers launched themselves into the sky. But Girtablulu was not the only thing that had come up from the ground. The corpse-monsters under its command surged upward as well, pursuing the gods as they fled into the air.
They were called corpse-monsters for convenience, but these were entirely different beings, forged from human remains as raw material. Though they had no wings like the gods, they rose into the sky all the same and attacked.
What followed was a slaughter.
Nanna wheeled about and loosed moonlight at the scorpion-beast, but unlike the other monsters, it did not melt. Its durability was that formidable.
"Kh—!"
If the rear collapsed now, the entire situation would turn against them. Judging as much, Ninurta hastily loosed an arrow charged with lightning at the scorpion-beast. Girtablulu tried to block with its tail, but Ninurta's arrow shattered the scorpion's tail and burst through the creature's torso.
"Behind you, Lord Ninurta!!"
Sharur cried out in alarm. Ninurta spun around at once.
Ugallu was already bringing a dagger down upon him. It was called a dagger, but from Ninurta's perspective it might as well have been a mountain falling from the sky. Deciding it was already too late to dodge, Ninurta swung Sharur and deflected the blade. He failed to fully bleed off the impact, however, and was hurled away, slamming into the ground.
"Guh—!"
He had landed badly. His arm and leg joints snapped; his neck twisted a full turn and broke. As a god, Ninurta would not die from injuries of this degree — but recovering enough to move again would take time.
Ugallu did not waste the opening. It opened its jaws toward Ninurta, and lightning began to gather between its fangs. Once the charge was complete, it would unleash the blast — and Ninurta was still in the middle of healing.
"Damn it!"
That was when Nanna moved. Surprisingly, there was no hesitation. As he ran, the words of his son-in-law rose unbidden in his mind.
People who have no room left in their hearts go blind to immediate gain and stop thinking of the days ahead. Even when that isn't the case, they fail to master a moment's impulse and drive themselves to the very edge of the cliff.
He could not quite recall the circumstances under which Sunya had said such a thing. What mattered was this: if Ninurta died here, the question of succession would become irrelevant — they would first have to worry about winning the war at all. And even setting that aside, Nanna had no desire to let a half-brother die simply so he might grasp a little more power.
Too slow!
The sky-boat Inanna usually rode was far too slow. By the time he reached Ninurta, the god would already be dead at Ugallu's hands.
Faster. I need to be faster!!
In that extremity, Nanna's desperate will and his divinity surged together. His body began to change. Wings burst from his back; his legs transformed into those of a lion; his fangs grew sharp and long. Nanna had become a winged lion — the beast that should by rights have been called Anzû — and he streaked toward Ninurta at tremendous speed.
In the instant before Ugallu's lightning could fall, he snatched Ninurta away.
"L-Lord Nanna? That form of yours — what on earth…"
"I don't know either. More importantly — have you finished recovering?"
Having at last healed every injury, Ninurta readied himself once more. He had expended a great deal of strength, however, and was thoroughly exhausted.
"First we need to deal with that flying lion-head somehow. Do you have a plan?"
Nanna asked. Ninurta simply stared at him.
"…Not me. I mean that mangy, half-dead lion head over there."
"Ah. Yes. I understood."
Ahem. Ninurta cleared his throat and laid out the plan.
"We cannot overpower Ugallu with our authorities alone. But we are far faster. Lord Nanna and I will disorient him, and then I will drive Sharur into his skull."
"Aren't you being a little rough with me? It hurt terribly when I collided with that giant hunk of metal earlier, you know."
Ninurta ignored Sharur entirely.
And so Nanna, transformed into a winged beast, and Ninurta, staff in hand, punched through the storm and attacked Ugallu. Nanna's claws, steeped in moonlight, tore the beast's hide open with ease, while Ninurta's arrows pierced bone and flesh. Ugallu raged, swinging its dagger and thrashing its arms, but the two gods were far swifter.
The sight of two rivals who should have been fighting over the Tablet of Destinies instead joining forces to drive back a common foe would have struck anyone who knew the circumstances as deeply strange.
Ugallu flailed uselessly, its attention snagged for a brief moment by Nanna — and in that instant, Ninurta climbed higher and drove Sharur into the crown of the beast's enormous head.
Ugallu made a confused sound. Given its colossal size, a thorn as small as Sharur should have done nothing of consequence. But Sharur was no thorn. It was a lightning rod.
"This ends it!!"
Ninurta poured every last ounce of his power into a bolt of lightning. The fierce current raced down Sharur, bored into Ugallu's skull, and set its brain ablaze. The beast's eyes rolled wildly. Then its brain, unable to withstand the voltage, exploded — and the massive body lost all strength, crashing to the earth and sending a quake through the ground.
Before long, Ugallu's corpse crumbled gradually to ash and vanished.
"…Thank you for your help. Without you, Lord Nanna, I would certainly have died."
"Oh, well…"
When Ninurta offered his belated gratitude, Nanna felt a peculiar mix of emotions. Hearing such words from someone he had regarded as a rival made it all the stranger.
"…We don't have time for this. We should hurry and reinforce the other units."
"Yes. But still…"
Ninurta looked back. Even with the great beast fallen, the corpse-monsters and the god-soldiers were still locked in a desperate melee. If anything, the monsters' greater numbers were overwhelming the troops.
"We'll have to deal with those first."
Ninurta and Nanna set to work clearing the monsters at once. As they steadily cut down the creatures' numbers, Nanna found his thoughts drifting to his son.
That boy Ishkur… he's still so young. I hope he's all right.