I create a world of finite somethings

So, posted this on the dare thread. As I said there, I feel like this actually might get turned into a full-on oneshot that tries to reconcile arrogant-ass Gil of Fateverse with what he was supposed to have learned in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Anyway, this was what fulfilled the dare, though, of two heavy-hitters in Nasuverse having some kind of conversation.



Humanity will end this world.

Gilgamesh pondered the words of the glowing existence. It was merely a side-trip, a distraction to his journey, having traveled far and wide seeking the very ends of this world. He had espied the creature and its lair from far above, a sight unseen and unlike anything else he had come across. The crystal spires and prismatic lattice of energy that had formed around it was both beautiful and, if he were the type to be so affected, probably terrifying to the naked eye. Something about it screamed “otherworld” as it jutted out from angles both unnatural and yet absolutely not made by man or beast. When he had landed the Vimana to explore—and stretch his legs—he had found the entity at its center, the creature that had somehow learned to speak.

Though “speak” was not the exact function. It hummed words formed from a source of resonance within the entity, clearly an origin that was not intended for communication to begin with. The King of Uruk felt that, had he been something else, such as the Bull of Heaven, the creature would have rumbled like a beast instead.

Having traveled long and far with no company but himself, even Gilgamesh felt the need for some kind of outside contact. Occasionally boredom would plague his heels as he wandered from place to place and amusement as he found it along the way would eventually grow wearisome. Still, this creature apparently had a one-track mind and had not deviated from that single line of communication since he had approached. With no hostile intent from the world’s King, it seemed only willing to express why it was here and what it was going to do. Humanity will end this world, it kept saying, the promised time will come.

“Your concept of humanity must be seriously lacking, then, creature from the stars,” Gilgamesh said, almost laughing when the being had first reached out to him. “Humanity is weak and frail.”

Humanity is a louder voice than this entire existence. Though no natural Gaian-born creations existed within the borders of the crystalline lattice, “this” seemed to still be referring to the world. Only the death-throes of this existence will ever come louder than humanity.

Gilgamesh sneered. He sneered at the image of the masses and their voices, so tiny and insignificant, chittering louder than the marvels of the world. Though bored of one thing or another as he traveled, he never once set his eyes upon something for the first time and thought it to be less than marvelous. The tides of the southern seas at summertime dusk, the call of birds on islands so verdant that they turned the waters around them green, the fire and smoke spewing from mountains larger than even mighty Uruk. Though his people were a delight as well, they were limited in number. Nor did many of them truly have aspirations he deemed “beautiful.” Only those with such dreams could he even consider loud enough to compare, voices that could shout “I am here!” that he must turn and listen to like the waves of the beach or the echoes of the mountains.

Nor could any of them match the voice of the greatest to have ever walked among them. “Even the greatest of humanity fell to mortality. Even the loudest, mightiest of them—and even he was more of this world than of humanity. Your concepts are weak, lacking. I should think you might try looking around with those things you consider eyes if you wish to understand. I would allow it.”

Humanity is powerful. It will come.

The image of his brother, the one he loved cursing the circumstances of his demise settled in Gilgamesh’s mind and he could take it no longer. “If that is all you have to say, then my time here is over. Your ramblings tire these ears of mine and your ugliness is an eyesore.” He discarded the boots he had been wearing as he stepped onto the Vimana again, feeling like they were now somehow tainted by the alien ignorance.

He wanted the irritating “words” to be gone by the time the prismatic valley was out of sight, but they lingered in his mind for the long, long distances he flew.