As Carl’s laughing burrowed its way into Gilgamesh’s mind, he scrambled to think of some way, any way to turn that absolute disregard into despair. If he killed Carl before that, then the boy’s laughter would haunt him forever and that simply couldn’t happen, he knew no matter what he did after would be temporary at best.

To him, when Carl told him to enjoy the victory, he was wrong,

To Gilgamesh, victory was absolute and unquestionable, it meant your enemy was broken and dead.

Whilst Carl had simply been trying to trick him into draining enough divinity for his body to recover from the strain of containing it, he had pulled an old trick out of his sleeve and won without even meaning to.

“Hey, “Giggly-Grumbles”. Have fun facing Margo after this, you just ruined his game.”

‘That’s it, Margo. He wasted time beating the villains because he couldn’t beat Margo himself. If I do what he couldn’t, better yet if I drain Margo’s power and make it my own, still I need to prepare…’ As the ill-conceived thought began to build momentum, he replied to Carl’s laughter with his own.

He then tore open a portal and disappeared, leaving Carl completely bewildered as he looked from one way to the other before pulling himself free off the wall.

“Okay?… Well, that should be enough draining for now, I feel like I got hit by a rampaging Klaire but I can heal up now.”

Carl opened up a portal of his own and stepped through, greeted by his war weary friends and family who dog-piled him immediately.

When he finally managed to get a word in edgeways, he explained the general situation as fast as possible, then apologised to everyone for the trouble he had caused ever since reading the book.

He then tried to restore the crowns and Samael, but failed.

He tried several times, certain he had more than enough divinity still and it was recovering so fast regardless it would be long before he needed to stick the blades back in or find someway to expel it.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t bring them back, he must have drained every ounce of them from me, I can’t even take on my demon-form.”

“Oh no! What about Lillim!?” Kyubi came to the horrible realisation first, if he couldn’t recover what Gilgamesh had taken, the woman who claimed the lion’s share of the credit for making him the hero would be lost forever.

Carl immediately opened a portal, but everyone stopped him and asked where he even planned to go, making him freeze and slap his cheeks when he realised they were right.

“First of all, you need to rest, so come with me. I was fighting that Eckro guy you mentioned for what felt like years in there, so it’s the perfect place to rest since I was only in there thirty seconds to everyone outside.”

Kyubi dragged him off to get him to rest, it would also let him allow his body to acclimate to his own power whilst the others actually figured out where they needed to go.

The moment Carl and Kyubi disappeared, they stopped hiding their relief as they got to work discussing how to find Gilgamesh and also how to deal with him in a way that would ensure it was the last time.

“Hey, Mum.You know how we narrowed down who the traitor was? What if we were wrong? What if there was some other reason I couldn’t see Ishtar? I also can’t find Margo.”

“Why did you even try without talking!?”

“I didn’t, promise. I just realised, that I couldn’t see them on Pluto either, but as quick as it all happened, Ishtar didn’t get there until later and I didn’t go at all. I think it was because even future me couldn’t see where they were to get there properly.”

Klaire thought about it for a second, then turned to Raziel as she bit the nail of her thumb.

“Raziel, if you use your brother as a relay, do you think you can stop anything he looks at from seeing him?”

Raziel thought for a second, then had an idea and dragged Tiamutael off at top speed before they blinked back in front of the others a couple of minutes later.

“Good news and bad news, Mum…” Raziel went on to explain that it worked which they knew because even Illerion didn’t sense the full weight of his gaze, then explained that they immediately searched after but the situation was bad.

“…Ishtar, Margo and Gilgamesh are stuck in a three-way battle, it’s weird though, Ishtar and Gilgamesh feel almost exactly the same as Dad. With how much presence he puts out now, it will be hard to find them if Dad’s in the same realm.”

“Also, I can’t see them at all. which means that I can’t send anyone there or pull anyone out.” When Tiamutael finished, Carl and Kyubi finally emerged and as they all turned to look at him, they burst into laughter.

Carl’s aura was incredible, controlled, refined and stable.

His body had matured slightly as well, his shoulders broader and body more muscular as a whole thanks to immortality forcibly optimising it as long as he had nutrition, which Kyubi had been creating with divinity and and feeding him via aura.

The others hadn’t seen any of that though, because the first thing they saw was how she had also been shaving and grooming him, all except his jawline and sideburns so his face was surrounded in a wiry frame of his dark ginger hair that was crossed by another thin line that started at his nose and went down to where his jaw met his neck.

“Okay, not sure what all that’s about, but I’m going to assume you’re just happy I’m healthy.” His voice was raspy from non-use, but recovered even as he used it, but they could tell it had definitely gotten deeper.

“We are really… But, have you got a mirror?” They had all been taken by surprise so badly that it was all they could think about.

“No, he doesn’t and no one is to give him one, this is his penance for everything and I think I did a good job.” Kyubi was determined to make it last as long as possible, but Carl was still more concerned with the bigger issue as he walked over to his snickering son.

“Tiamutael, can you show me where he is?” He looked to his family for some kind of help, but then explained that he couldn’t without Raziel’s help, so the two joined senses before adding Carl to the circuit.

“Like I just said to Mum though-“

“Don’t worry, Kiddo. Sleep is key to growing big and strong.” Carl winked as the two looked at him, but then they burst into laughter again. With that, Carl stood and said he was heading out, but declared if he was about to fight the most important fight in history with a scrawled on face he was going to be furious.

He then borrowed Raziel’s sensory abilities and linked the others so they could watch it through his eyes and then pulled Space from thin air and healed them, thanking him for buying enough time for him earlier and apologising for wasting it.

Then he disappeared and everyone saw him arrive on a world covered in a thick layer of glass that reflected the sun blazing over head and crackled and popped beneath their feet.

At that point Ishtar was off to one side trying to heal herself, Gilgamesh’s body was covered in deep craters oozing blood that looked like some inky-black ichor and Margo had a firm grip on his wrists and had been about to headbutt him before Carl appeared and he burst into laughter.

Before any of the three saw him move however, he cleared the distance and smashed them both into the ground. “I’ll deal with you in a moment, Margo.”

As Carl turned to Gilgamesh, the fallen hero began scrambling backwards in fear and frustration. “No! How!? You were impaled! Twice! With divinity draining blades! Even that ancient witch can barely heal herself after a few stabbings!

Even Margo! Even Margo said it hurt!”

Carl followed him, ready to recover the stolen essence of the crowns, but then he opened a portal and at the same time Ishtar made a move on Margo.

As Carl turned to tell her to stop where she was though, he saw that the exit of the portal was directly in front of her and his hands preparing to drain her of what power she had and assimilate the essence of a legendary healer in an effort to expand his options.

It was shockingly well timed given his frantic state of mind, even as power as he was, Ishtar was so weak that he could drain her completely in as little time as it took Carl to drain him, on top of that the sleek glass surface of the world made instantly stopping impossible at the speed they were moving at.

Carl had managed to get around it by creating a platform under each foot just above the glass, but Ishtar was too badly weakened and too focused on stopping Margo to perform an aura technique requiring such finesse.

Then that one appeared and stomped a foot into the glass to anchor himself and stop Ishtar.

“Gilgamesh, I have watched you take enough from my family across the countless iterations.

Dad, end it and permanently, or I will.”

“Kiddo, you took my advice the other day to heart in the worst way,..” Carl grabbed Gilgamesh and pulled him away from the portal before clicking his fingers, doing with that simple gesture what he once needed the unrestrained power and guidance of the highest law to achieve.

The planet was cut off, no portal could be opened and none of them could externalise their divinity, then called a timeout to talk to Tiamutael as he took back the essence of the crowns and forced Gilgamesh to return to his original form.

“What do you mean? Every time you drag this out, he escapes and we end up mourning someone. This time it was Levi and Ishtar.”

“Right and how many times have you explained that? Tiamutael, the you here and now is direct but always stays quiet too long. You’re the opposite of him and the same damn kind of communication stunted as me. This needs to end here and now?”

Tiamutael was looking more than a little gripey about being scolded like a toddler, but he couldn’t actually argue the source material of the lecture. One thing he never really got the hang was communicating and back in his own time it was because his siblings and love always seemed to know what he was thinking anyway.

He had taken their understanding for granted and as a result he failed to grow out of some of his bad habits, when the time came for him come back in time he was honestly torn, he was engaged and had a child on the way.

He would arrive back no later than he left, but he would be a thousands of years older, knew exactly the kind of stuff he would experience and ultimately the only reason he was able to go through with it is because he wanted to rewrite certain bits and earn the right to say he truly did everything he could to make the world perfect for his child.

It just so happened that to do everything one can was a subjective and relative phrase and the power he possessed made that an immensely greater task.

Carl could see his own self-doubts and bubbling away inside his son and looked away only to ensure he had drained every trace of essence out of Gilgamesh before dropping him and placing his hands on Tiamutael’s shoulders.

“Don’t do the whole beating yourself up thing you seem to have got from me. I’m your dad, just talk to me and I’ll listen, alright?”

Tiamutael looked over at Gilgamesh. “…We don’t know how he did it in my time, but he keeps coming back. You kill him every time before he can do any damage, but one. He killed Ishtar at a time when the wound cut the deepest and you blame yourself and disappear.

The only reason we can come back, is because you killed the embodiment of Infinity and merged with the time-stream to change it, but even for you that isn’t a quick process and before it finishes time becomes malleable.

Mums missed you so much that they could barely smile, but they were too scared you’d hate them if they stopped you, so we decided we’d come back and try to make it so you never needed to go.”

Carl flicked Tiamutael’s forehead and told him he knew what to do. He then told Tiamutael to call over his future Raziel if he could, which he did and made Carl nearly have a heart attack.

If anyone tried telling Carl that time changed someone more, he’d argue that to the day he died from that day on.

Raziel grew into an angel of unparalleled beauty, her body of solid light forged into one of flawless physical perfection and on top of that, the moment she saw his reaction she laughed with all the confidence of well-adjusted socialite rather than the typical conservative aloofness.

“Okay, I’d rather not know what happened, my father-brain can’t handle it. Sweetie, can you and your brother do what you did to find this place for me, but specifically to find Gilgamesh.”

The two of them looked at each other, then down to the normalised Gilgamesh smashing his hand into the glassy floor, making Carl tell them not to get snarky and to trust him.

“…I don’t get it, how are there so many of him?”

“Hey, if I’m going to maintain any dignity as a father talking to my kids from the future let me have some secrets…” Carl walked over to Gilgamesh and grabbed him again before telling Tiamutael to pull over all the “body parts”.

The phrasing of the request had confused them, but they had done as asked before looking about with revulsion at the dozens upon dozens of discarded limbs, then Carl told them to make sure they find all of them in Thingness, Nothingness and every realm around and between.

When they had finished, dozens had become hundreds, then Carl asked Raziel to destroy his sense of resistance.

“Gilgamesh, sorry, I changed my mind and don’t want you coming back…” Carl drained all the scattered limbs of everything they contained until the had simply ceased to exist. “…Nonexistence, huh. You know, if you keep coming back because I kill you, then what if I don’t?

Tiamutael, what do you think would happen if we didn’t kill him, but sent him to play with the Outer-gods?”

Tiamutael shuddered in a way only one who had seen them at some point and seen them in a way that hadn’t even been possible for Carl when he faced them. “I think that’s certainly one way to solve the problem, but maybe a bit too sadistic.”

“Hey, Nonexistence. Come take this guy out of our hands please, tell the children to enjoy their new toy and play indoors… Forever.”

They didn’t receive a response, Gilgamesh simply disappeared, then Carl, Ishtar and Margo suddenly felt like their brains lagged and they missed something.

“Well Dad, I see your point. Looks like everything’s good, I’ll make sure to remember the lesson, but you could have done it yourself so why ask us to do it?”

“It’s a Dad’s job to help with homework, not do it for them. If I did it myself, it would have made a paradox, so I needed Raziel here to neutralise that. This was a fight you kids chose to take on, I won’t stop you from fighting for what you believe in, I only ask that you lean on me when you don’t know what to do.

Now, you won, get back to your own time and tell Illerion I said “hi” you psycho magnet.”

Raziel burst into laughter whilst Tiamutael punched Carl into the ground. “Focus on your own fight… She mellowed out a lot.”

“Of course Dad figured you out!” Raziel grabbed Tiamutael and pulled him out of phase with the present, leaving Carl to stand and face Margo and Ishtar.

They stared at him in silence whilst he gathered his thoughts, waiting to see what decision he came to. “I hate you both. Sis had to save me and neither of you were there. She asked me to try and get on with you, but I don’t know if I can.

Margo, the games over okay. Samael told me everything, you really did have the best intentions and you played your part perfectly. Now I want you to figure out how to play at being a dad so well.

Ishtar, you said you wanted to be a mother at least once, but you fucked it up this time round… Go and activate your system shut down device again. Then why don’t you figure out what a mother even is before you try again?”

The words were detatched, neither of them was under any illusion as to what Carl was saying. He was telling them that he didn’t consider them to be his parents and yet he was telling them that the door was closed but not locked.

As they stared dumbly at their son, not sure how to act or what to do, Carl recreated the crowns and Lillim immediately took a swing at Samael.

“I’m queen now, that’s all…”

Carl burst into laughter and went to fall back, but Lillim grabbed him and embraced him as his grandmother. “…I am so very proud of you, Carl. You had us worried there for a second but I had faith. All that’s left to do now is rebuild and enjoy the life you fought so very hard for…” Suddenly Lillim clocked his facial hair and punched him just as she had Samael.

“….I take it all back. I was dead and you decided to play the jester and grow out that god awful facial hair. Pull yourself together you brat.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep