Legacy & War (Battle of Nippur)

[Proto Man]

There was a flash of light.

The wave of heat and energy chewed through the surrounding buildings, reducing the sandstone, brick, and wood constructions to ash and scorched rubble in one blinding moment of fire and desolation.

When the lights faded away, Proto Mouse found himself standing at the center of a devastated city block. Smoldering heaps served as now-dead pyres to mark the resting place of what had once probably been some sort of small market. From the sky, tiny feather-like flakes of black ash drifted to the earth while others were twirled around in the gentle breeze that blew through Nippur.

How many people had made their lifeblood selling merchandise on the blackened street beneath the rodent’s metal-encased feet?

Down the street, there was something that shifted among the rubble.

Was it wrong that Proto Mouse felt something akin to relief as he watched the broken man unearth himself from the pile of bomb-blackened sandstone?

Gilgamesh, leaning heavily on the strange sword he used in battle, forced himself into a standing position as the cybernetic mouse strode across the warzone toward him. It took the gilded monarch a moment to shake away the concussion. Once his vision had cleared, he scowled at the approaching warrior. “…f-f-fuh-fucking mongrel.” A light started to build in the barrel of the Proto Buster. “You can’t kill your betters.” He added with a sneer that revealed a blood-filled maw and a handful of missing teeth.

“I’m not you, Gilgamesh,” Proto Mouse whispered as the light amassed within the weapon. “I don’t murder people. I just try and do what I can to make this a better place.”

At that, the man grinned and shook his head. “And that’s why you’ll never be more than the rest of the chattel that inhabits this place. You’re spineless. You don’t understand what is necessary to survive. To thrive.” The bloody sneer grew wider. “You’ll never be more than gutter trash. Go back to that city of yours and wallow in the sewers with the rest of the human filth.”

Proto Mouse returned the smile as he lifted his weapon. “I’d rather be spineless than whatever you may be, and I’d rather wallow with the human filth than ever lower myself to what you are.”

“I’ve had enough pauper philosophy for one afternoon,” Gilgamesh said before spitting at the cyborg’s feet.

“Never forget that it was this pauper who booted you from your golden throne, asshole.”

“Fuck you, Mouse.”

Proto Mouse felt the emotion drain from his face as he lined up his shot. “Banishment Buster!”

There was a split-second flash of an emotion—fear?—on Gilgamesh’s mangled countenance before the beam of energy crashed against his chest and vanished into him. A beat later, the monarch, grinding together his remaining teeth, dropped to his knees and dug his fingers into the ground. He managed to lift his eyes to meet Proto Mouse’s gaze one final time before his body crumbled into ash and slipped free of the Omniverse.

Walking forward to the final site of the fallen king, Proto Mouse stooped down and picked up the sword from the ground.

-1 Banishment Circle
+1 Ea

Gilgamesh = Banished