"I, Quetzalcoatl, am an open and forthright sun goddess! A mere mortal body, looked at a few times, won't lose a chunk of flesh!"
With that, as if to prove her resolve, she began boldly stripping off her clothing.
That green priestess garb, full of exotic flair, soon slid to the floor.
Then came the gold-and-feather ornaments, heavy with divine aura...
Soon a healthy, powerful, faintly glowing bronze body, perfect as an ancient Greek statue, was revealed before Seiji Fujiwara without the slightest reservation.
She was like a "sun" stripped of every shell, in its purest form.
Scorching, dazzling, brimming with life.
"There... there! Master!"
Quetzalcoatl planted both hands on her hips and forced her chest out, trying to mask her inner bashfulness and tension with a devil-may-care posture.
"Hurry... hurry up and begin your purification!"
"Very good."
Seiji nodded with satisfaction.
He walked slowly up to her, reached out, and pressed both hands onto her smooth, warm shoulders.
"Relax. Don't resist my power."
His voice carried a hypnotic kind of magic.
"What comes next might feel a little... strange."
With that, his hands, having temporarily acquired "sun goddess power," began to glow with a soft green light full of the breath of life.
The vast life energy, converted through the "Holy Grail" and blended with Medea's Age of Gods healing arts, flowed like a warm stream, slowly pouring into Quetzalcoatl's perfect, divine body.
The warmth poured lower. It gathered. It pushed into her from behind, and it was not a hand.
"...Mm!"
The sound got out before she could stop it. He had pushed his cock into her in one slow stroke, the green energy flooding in ahead of it, and she could not tell the magic from the man. Her huge bronze body, built to throw mountains, locked up stiff.
This... this is the purification?
She had braced for a scrubbing. A burn. The cold scrape of another god's power in her guts. Not this. Not the slow drag out and the harder shove back in. Not the heat the energy lit up in every nerve it crossed. It felt good. That was the problem. It felt better than five hundred years of fighting ever had.
"Relax," he said behind her ear, working into her, in no hurry at all. "You're fighting it. Let the power do its job."
"I'm... I'm not f-fighting any..." It would have sounded brave if a thrust hadn't punched the breath out of the middle of it.
Her claws raked the stone. Sweat ran down her bronze skin and caught the green glow. Her tits swung with every drive of his hips, nipples gone hard and aching in the cold air. The proud sun goddess who had sworn this was just taking her clothes off, what's the big deal, heard herself make a high cracked sound she had never made before.
His thumb found her clit like the energy had shown it the way. Her hips bucked. She hated that they bucked.
He fucked her on her hands and knees on the temple floor, long and deep, and the goddess of the sun took it, and told herself it was just the purification feeling good.
Seiji, meanwhile, had thrown his full attention into this precise "surgery."
His consciousness followed his own magic, sinking into the deepest part of Quetzalcoatl's Saint Graph.
Soon, he "saw" the so-called "curse."
It was a pitch-black mass of "divine blood," reeking of hatred and vengeance, writhing endlessly like a living thing. Like a vicious, barbed serpent, it coiled tightly around the sun-hot divine core of Quetzalcoatl, constantly injecting into it the malicious concept: "the moment you help humans, wrestling will vanish."
What a crude and direct way to curse someone, Seiji thought. Though precisely because of that, it's all the easier to tamper with.
He didn't immediately use his own power to forcibly purge this mass of "divine blood."
Doing so would lift the curse, yes, but it would also instantly alert the curse's source: Gorgon.
What he intended was something more delicate, more insidious.
He split off a portion of the green life energy and, like slowly boiling a frog, gently wrapped it around that wary mass of "divine blood," soothing it, numbing it, making it believe this was nothing more than a normal fluctuation of Quetzalcoatl's own divine power.
Then he gathered his most core magic, reinforced by the concept of "Absolute Authority," into an invisible "probe" billions of times finer than a strand of hair, and soundlessly drove it into the heart of that mass of "divine blood"!
[System Command: Initiating backdoor program implantation!]
[Target: Gorgon's cursed divine blood.]
[Implant code: Absolute Authority concept brand, latent type.]
It was like a top-tier hacker who, without damaging the existing firewall, slips a "trojan virus" disguised as a normal data packet through a tiny exploit, quietly planting it into the core of the enemy's system.
This "trojan" would stay dormant under normal conditions.
But it gave Seiji the highest privilege to monitor Gorgon's divinity at any time, and even, at the critical moment, to remotely "detonate" it!
[Concept brand implanted successfully!]
[Now rewriting the curse's rules using the host's power...]
Having planted the "backdoor," Seiji finally turned to dealing with the curse itself.
He didn't "destroy" it.
He "altered" it.
He preserved the curse's outer shell, but changed its most central "judgment condition," from...
"The moment you dare to lend aid to humans, your beloved wrestling (Lucha Libre) will vanish from this world forever."
...into...
"The moment you dare to disobey Seiji Fujiwara's command, your beloved wrestling (Lucha Libre) will vanish from this world forever."
A perfect "collar of enslavement," absolutely advantageous to him alone.
Only after all this did he slowly withdraw his power from inside Quetzalcoatl's body.
"...Haah..."
Quetzalcoatl let out a long, scorching breath and slowly opened her slightly dazed golden eyes.
She felt as if her whole being had just soaked three days and three nights in the warmest, most comfortable hot spring, so light she might float away.
That cold, gloomy aura that had lurked for years in the depths of her Saint Graph, leaving her stifled and irritable, had vanished without a trace!
In its place was a sense of absolute "freedom," body and soul united as never before!
"My... my curse..."
She felt over her own body, hardly daring to believe it.
Then she tried, silently, to summon the thought "go help the humans of Uruk."
In the past, the instant that thought appeared, the vicious curse would flare up at once, sending a jolt of palpitations through her.
But now...
Nothing happened!
"It's really... it's really lifted!"
An indescribable rush of euphoria surged into her heart!
So thrilled that she forgot she was still completely naked, she flung her arms wide and, like an ardent great bird, swept Seiji into a tight embrace!
"Wonderful! Master! You're absolutely wonderful!"
"I can feel it! I can feel it! My Lucha Libre soul is blazing away!!!"
Feeling the soft body in his arms, full of startling heat and resilience, and the two startlingly soft mounds pressed tight against his chest, Seiji let a gentle, all-according-to-plan smile spread across his face.
He patted Quetzalcoatl's smooth back lightly and, in a tone brimming with concern, said slowly:
"Don't celebrate too soon."
"The curse is lifted, true. But Gorgon will notice something's wrong before long."
"Before you've fully become my shape..."
"We still have a great deal of preparation to do."
Just as Seiji successfully brought the sun goddess to heel and set about arranging his next move...
Atop the towering Ziggurat of Uruk, that immense temple-tower piercing the clouds, the symbol of supreme kingship.
The King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, sat alone upon his magnificent throne of gold and lapis lazuli, looking down over the prosperous realm that belonged to him.
His face no longer held the arrogance and amusement he'd worn back in Fuyuki City.
In their place was a near-"divine," utterly emotionless "rationality" and "majesty."
Ever since he returned from the Underworld and saw with his own eyes humanity's "end."
This most ancient of kings had cast off the sentiment of being a "hero" and become a cold "ruling machine," existing to safeguard humanity, to lead it to victory in the "battle of parting" that was destined to come.
Those ruby-like eyes, like the finest observation instrument, watched calmly the abrupt, pitch-black "pyramid" that had appeared outside the city.
At his side stood a silver-haired woman in white priestess garb, gentle in bearing, yet with a trace of worry on her face.
It was Siduri, the high priestess of Uruk and one of the King of Heroes' most trusted "subjects."
"My King." Siduri's voice carried a hint of concern. "About that man outside the city who calls himself a god... are we truly going to do nothing?"
"From the patrols' reports and the feedback from the people within the city, the power he's shown has, indeed... already exceeded our understanding."
"And the doctrine of exchange he preaches is eroding the people's trust in us at a... terrifying speed."
"If this continues, I'm afraid..."
"It's of no concern."
Gilgamesh's voice, calm and majestic, cut off Siduri's words.
"A mere false god of unknown origin can stir up no storms."
His tone was filled with absolute confidence.
But inwardly, he was far from as calm as the surface suggested.
In fact, from the very first second Seiji descended upon this land, he had already observed the man's existence through his "Clairvoyance," which could see through the future.
Yet he could not see through him.
In Gilgamesh's "vision of the future," the black-haired man's existence was like a vast, pitch-black "void."
He could not see the man's past, nor his future.
He could only see countless "possibilities" tangling, collapsing, and recombining madly around the man.
It was as if a highly skilled "player" had suddenly burst into a "game world" whose script was already written, and his every move generated a furious "butterfly effect," throwing the once-certain "future" into murky chaos.
This feeling gave Gilgamesh a hint of long-absent "displeasure."
He did not like this sense of things "slipping from his grasp."
What was more...
He narrowed those ruby-like eyes.
He had also sensed, upon that man, an aura that felt both familiar and utterly loathsome to him, an aura belonging to the "Holy Grail."
"Convey my command."
Gilgamesh rose slowly from his throne.
"Gather every priest and noble in the city below the Ziggurat."
"Also..."
He turned his head toward the mysterious figure who had stood all this while in the shadows, as if merged with the darkness itself.
"...you go too, Kingu."
"Go and meet this guest of ours, who's come from afar."
"Let's see just what trick he means to play."
...
Half an hour later.
Before the gates of the "Temple of the Equivalent Exchange of All Things" arrived a group of the most "honored" guests the temple had seen since its founding.
At their head were Siduri, the high priestess of Uruk, and the priest "Kingu," a beautiful, androgynous figure with long, seaweed-dark green hair.
Nearly every priest, noble, and great merchant of note in Uruk had gathered here.
Every face bore a complicated expression.
There was curiosity, wariness, disdain, and also... an undisguisable awe before an unknown power.
"This is... the temple of that false god?"
"What an ominous aura! It's like the very gates of the Underworld!"
"Hmph, putting on airs and playing at divinity! Just wait, I'll expose his fraud to his face!"
The crowd murmured among themselves.
Siduri stepped forward and called out toward the great closed temple gates, formed of black divine bone:
"Siduri, high priestess of Uruk, comes by order of the great King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, to call upon the master of this temple!"
"I ask that you show yourself, sir!"
Her voice, carried by magic, reached clearly into the temple.
Creak...
The heavy gates swung slowly open of their own accord.
A dim passage leading into the depths of the temple appeared before them all.
Seiji's calm, gentle voice drifted leisurely from the far end of the passage.
"Please, come in, guests of Uruk."
"I've been awaiting you here for some time."
Siduri and Kingu exchanged a glance, then took the lead, stepping into the temple.
The priests and nobles behind them had no choice but to steel themselves and follow.
When they passed through that dim passage and reached the temple's great hall, every one of them sucked in a sharp breath.
There, at the very center of the hall.
That legendary black-haired "false god" sat at leisure upon a magnificent throne wrought from unknown white bone.
To his left stood the terrifying King of Knights in pitch-black armor, who had crippled the Bull of Heaven with a single stroke.
To his right stood the sun goddess who had just "defected," who had once protected Uruk... Quetzalcoatl!
And the mysterious purple-haired woman from before, along with the witch in the purple cloak, flanked the throne on either side like loyal guards.
The visual impact and oppressive force of this lineup left everyone present feeling smothered!
Especially when they saw that Quetzalcoatl, who was meant to be Uruk's guardian deity, was now serving that man with her own hands, presenting him a steaming cup of tea like a docile handmaiden...
They felt their very faith was about to collapse!
"You... Quetzalcoatl! You traitor!" A hot-tempered noble couldn't help but point at her and shout in fury. "You actually... you actually threw in your lot with a false god of unknown origin?!"
"Oh-ho?" At his words, Quetzalcoatl turned her head toward the noble and gave a dazzling smile that brimmed with danger. "You can eat whatever you like, little one, but you'd best not say whatever you like."
"I didn't throw in my lot with anyone."
She turned, spread her arms, and proclaimed loudly to everyone in a tone full of pride and delight:
"I have simply found someone stronger, more interesting, and more worthy of my offering up everything than that king of yours, who hides at the top of his tower and won't dare set foot outside..."
"...a new Master, that's all!"
The words detonated like a heavy bomb in the midst of the crowd!
Seiji watched this fine spectacle unfold, smiling all the while.
Only when every gaze had refocused on him did he slowly rise from his throne and address the green-haired priest who had stayed silent this whole time:
"A pleasure to meet you, Lord Kingu."
"Or rather..."
The corner of his mouth curled into a malicious arc that made the other's face change in an instant.
"...perhaps I should call you..."
"...Enkidu?"
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