Daughter of the Gods (Gilgamesh x Reader)

Chapter Forty-Eight: Misfire

The inside of the temple was dark. Only a few torches were lit. There were only a few people inside the ritual chamber: the woman and her father, and the elders. The rest of the robed men were standing guard outside.

There was a stone bed in the middle of the room atop a raised platform. On it, there was a mold of a human body that the queen lay naked inside. All around it, there were carvings of ancient letters and symbols.

On both ends of the bed, there were bowls of fresh fruits and jars of wine and juice. They served as additional offerings to the goddess.

Overhead, the ceiling was decorated with rough woven fabric made from twisted yarn. The elders were dressed in clothes that they'd once worn. They wore headdresses with clothes that covered their hair down to the small of their backs.

These were clothes that once symbolized their position in society. They once played an important role in conducting rituals for they were intermediaries between the human world and the divine realm.

They knelt on the ground, in front of the stone bed. Only one of them, the old lady at the center, had her hands up in the air. The rest of them were on their knees and arms.

"Lord of fertility, lady ruler of the heavens," the old woman at the center spoke. "One who roars like a lion. Grant us your glimmer."

"O bright rising, Torch of Heaven and Earth, remember!" The chanting continued. "We do not desire thy body, we do not desire thy Soul. We do desire both, for both we offer thee."

The old lady's voice becomes louder with every passing sentence. Along with it, the carvings on the stone bed began to light up. The golden light intensified the hopes of the former priests and priestesses.

At the corner of the chamber, the woman and her father's eyes widened in shock, mirroring the reactions of the elders who raised their heads in disbelief. It was the first time the goddess ever showed a bit of response to their calls.

"Why?" The woman thought as she gripped the pillar she held on to tighter. "Why has it never worked for me?"

"In the name of the covenant sworn between thee and the race of men, I call to thee! Hearken and remember! Of the pleasures of the flesh, of the pleasures of the soul." The light glowed ever brighter.

The next chant was spoken by all of the elders. Together in sync, they said, "Ishtar, Queen of Night, open thy gate to us! The gate to thy soul. Ishtar, Lady of the Battle, open thy gate! The gate of thy body. Ishtar, Sword of the People, open thy gate to us!"

All of a sudden, the queen's eyes snapped open. You abruptly sat up as a small fragment of memory rushed back to your mind.

You remembered how you were suddenly half awake by the disturbances in your chamber's bounded field. That's all you could remember before being put back to sleep beyond your will.

You were in an unfamiliar chamber that sure didn't feel like it was in the ziggurat. Your head snapped sideways to see unfamiliar people kneeling down on the floor. Their reactions were just as shocked as you were.

In the heads of the elder, they were wondering if the goddess had already taken over your body. However, the dimming lights on the stone bed said otherwise.

"W-who are you?" you asked. You meant for it to sound authoritative but it came out as merely a whisper. "Where am I?" 

The people in the room soon came to their senses and realized that you have awakened just before Ishtar was able to take over your body.

"Seize the queen!" one of the elders shouted. Before you knew it, two people from the back of the room suddenly rushed to your side, pinning you down on the bed.

You yelped in pain as you felt your back forcibly slammed down on the hard bed. One person held your hands and the other, your ankles.

"W-what? Let me go!" You said as you did your best to struggle against their grip.

"Hurry! Redo the ritual, we'll hold her in place!" One of your holders said. "Where is the flower?!" He asked the person who held your feet.

You were unable to hear the other person's answer and all of a sudden, those two burst into a screaming argument. Then came the chanting of the elders alongside their shoutings.

You couldn't pay attention to any of what they were saying as fear and panic flooded into your system. You continued struggling to get out of their hold but your efforts were futile. Not long after, the carvings on the bed once again gleamed.

"Stop!" You screamed. So many voices were adding up to your panic and as soon as the carvings lit up, you slowly felt your vision turning white.

You sealed your eyes shut in an attempt to prevent the white light from overtaking your vision. To no avail, it did not disappear even after you've closed your eyes. It was a force beyond your control.

With all the courage you could muster, you made one last effort to fight back. "I said stop!" You screamed. Along with it, you felt your magic circuits activate.

Black flames emerged from your body. Its heat was incomparable to any other flame that existed in this world. The grip on your wrists and ankle was removed, and the hands of your captors burnt from the intensity of your power.

Tears streamed down your face. The earlier light blinding your vision was nowhere to be seen.  The flame you emitted crawled from the stone bed and unto the walls and floors.

Screams. There were screams everywhere and they flooded your ears just as much as they did so earlier. Only this time, they were screams of terror.

You weakly sat up, trying to comprehend what was happening. You looked around and saw the elders running around in fear. Robed men rushed into the chamber to help them out. But rather than accept the help, they insisted on staying.

They struggled to get out of the robed men's grips just like how you struggled earlier.  Slowly, you brought your legs over the edge of the bed. You pushed yourself off and stood. The black flame that surrounded you grew bigger as your consciousness became clearer.

The screams were tuned down as you looked at the faces of each elder in the room. You knew them, each of them. You shared a meal with these people at the ziggurat before.

You took a step forward. Black flames emitted from every step you took, each one burning hotter than the last. You couldn't stop it even if you tried to. Not once were you able to control these flames. 

You didn't know what to do. The chamber, the people, and your mind were all in utter chaos.