"Buzz!"
At that moment, the tremor of space echoed through the air like the vibration of the atmosphere, entering everyone's ears.
"Hah!"
Without a second thought, Enkidu pushed his power to its maximum limit, causing one golden ripple after another to shimmer in the space around him.
From within those ripples, chains shaped like wedge-tipped spears emerged as if surfacing from water. In the next instant, they all shot outward, transforming into sharp lances that violently stabbed toward the goddess in the sky.
"Wha…!?"
Ishtar, the goddess, finally reacted. Her eyes widened as she abruptly braked mid-air. Then, like accelerating to her limit, she shot upward and narrowly avoided the incoming chains.
However, the chains seemed to possess a will of their own. After missing their target, they immediately twisted midair and homed in on Ishtar again, behaving like tracking missiles or enchanted arrows.
Seeing this, Ishtar finally snapped back to her senses.
And once she did—she was furious.
"You dare ambush me!? Who are you!?"
Her anger exploded, but her hands moved with practiced speed.
She extended her right arm, bracing it with her left, as if holding the barrel of a sniper rifle. Her palm formed a gun-like shape, taking a firing stance as she aimed at the incoming chains.
In the next instant, golden flashes of light gathered at her palm, and with a motion like pulling the trigger, blasts of light were fired at the chains.
"Boom!"
One chain was blasted away by a flash.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…!"
Flash after flash followed, blasting back each of the chains as they approached.
After clearing the assault, Ishtar turned and faced Enkidu, her gun-shaped palm now pointed directly at him, trembling with righteous fury.
But when her eyes fell upon Enkidu, she froze in surprise.
"You…?"
Ishtar looked genuinely dumbfounded.
"It's me," Enkidu replied calmly. "I'm afraid this is where you take your leave, Ishtar."
As he spoke, he raised his hand high. Around him, golden ripples bloomed, and beams of golden light emerged from within.
These lights took the form of weapons seemingly sculpted from earthen clay.
This was the battle style of Mesopotamia's divine weapons—born of the earth and nature, capable of summoning a myriad of arms and freely shifting their form. As living Noble Phantasms, everything around and within Enkidu could become a weapon.
More importantly, Enkidu could unleash his true ability—the Chains of Heaven.
Those chains from earlier, capable of binding even gods, were an attack from the Chains of Heaven. The greater the target's divinity, the harder it became to break free.
Now, Enkidu, acting fully in his capacity as a living weapon, launched countless golden projectiles toward Ishtar.
"Wait—!"
Ishtar tried to shout something, but was immediately overwhelmed by a rain of incoming fire, cutting her off.
Enraged, she let out an angry cry.
"I don't care who you are! You dare attack me—then don't blame me!"
With that declaration, Ishtar unleashed an immense surge of divine aura, no longer holding back.
"Maanna!"
With a call of her name, the divine boat floating beside her instantly transformed into its bow form, swirling around to float before her.
She didn't even need to draw the string. Around the divine bow Maanna, torrents of thick mana converged, forming arrow-like bolts. With a wave of her hand, she launched them forward in a barrage.
"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"
In an instant, golden beams and brilliant flashes clashed midair, erupting in metallic collisions. The entire sky lit up in radiant gold, as if countless meteors were streaking across in dazzling arcs.
"I'm not done yet!"
Enkidu didn't relent. He unleashed even more mana, causing additional chains of the Chains of Heaven to surge forth from the golden ripples.
"Are you serious…!?"
Faced with this relentless assault, Ishtar dared not be careless. Clenching her teeth in frustration, she chose to retreat.
But that was exactly the opening Enkidu had been waiting for.
"Lord Rozen!"
Enkidu shouted.
At that cue, a figure cloaked in shimmering, fiery particles shot out from the mountain behind Enkidu, ascending with astonishing speed to hover above him.
Who else could it be but Rozen?
"Order!"
Without pause, Rozen threw out one talisman after another. His movements were fluid, perfectly practiced, the talismans streaking through the air like beams of light as they formed a formation.
Ishtar, having narrowly dodged the Chains of Heaven, flew directly into the formation.
"What—!?"
Ishtar's eyes widened in alarm.
But it was already too late to be surprised.
"Anti-Magic Barrier, activate."
Rozen formed a hand seal and unleashed the power of the array. Each talisman flared to life, forming a barrier that trapped Ishtar within.
This was Rozen's original technique—an anti-magic barrier capable of sealing mana flow within it, nullifying all magic and mystic arts:
Ishtar could feel her mana freeze in place, unable to flow or respond.
"You've got to be kidding me…?"
Her expression turned pale.
Clearly, she had already foreseen her fate.
"Shhhk…!"
The Chains of Heaven streaked through the air like golden serpents, encircling Ishtar again and again.
She was tightly bound by the divine chains, tied up from head to toe like a cocoon.
"Uwaah!"
With a pained cry, the goddess plummeted from the sky, crashing violently into the ground.
"Boom!"
The impact kicked up clouds of dust as the earth cracked beneath her.
Upon closer inspection, Ishtar had landed headfirst, smashing a crater into the ground.
"That hurt…!"
With teary eyes, she slowly and pitifully lifted herself up—only for a massive bump to have already formed on her head.
And still, she failed to notice that someone had appeared behind her.
"Sorry, but you should lie down a little longer."
With that, Rozen delivered a clean karate chop to her head.
"Bonk!"
"Ahhhp!"
Struck square on her bump, Ishtar let out a strange yelp, her eyes rolling back as she collapsed stiffly to the ground.
And just like that, the Goddess of Venus was effortlessly subdued.
This incident was destined to be the most humiliating moment of her entire manifestation in the modern world.