King of Steel

Prologue

Excerpt from the Italian mage Alberto Ricardo's Book, Demon King, 19th Century.

......To those who accomplished this formidable feat, I grant them the title of Campione – a Godslayer – .

Among all virtuous readers, some will probably believe that I over-exaggerate with that title and frown, while others will think that I am making undue fuss over it.

However, I want to emphasize it, once again.

Campione – Godslayer – is the supreme ruler.

Since he can kill a celestial being, he can therefore call on the highly divine powers held by the gods.

Campione – Godslayer – is a lord.

Since the power to kill a deity is in their hands, they therefore have the power to dominate the mortals on Earth.

Campione – Godslayer – is a devil.

Therefore of the entire humanity living on earth, those who have the power to oppose them do not exist!

Excerpt from the Letter of Cardinal Antonio Tebes, Addressed to the Vatican, Early 20th Century.

For the purpose of going against Providence, playing with the demonic knowledge of mages, he received the title of King from them.

Concerning the name that you were hearing more or less.

Campione – Godslayer – is Epimetheus's illegitimate child. The devil.

Unfortunately, we mortals cannot fight against them.

The ones who can fight against them, are his fellow Campiones, Our Heavenly Father's angels, and the taboo pagan gods......

Excerpt from Japanese Reports Concerning the Verification of the new Campione, Beginning of the 21st Century.

In Sumerian mythology, Gilgamesh was the last King of the first dynasty of Uruk, born from the union between the Sumerian deities Rimat-Ninsun and Lugalbanda. The main protagonist of the eponymous epic together with Enkidu.

At a young age, he was a wise man rooted in reason and a lover of people, but during his adolescence he developed a totally antipode character. He became an uncontrollable tyrant, rebelling against the Sumerian gods and hating humanity.

In spite of this, the Sumerian gods Anu and Aruru created Enkidu from a piece of earth. They threw him on Earth for the sole purpose of keeping Gilgamesh at bay. Enkidu observed the young Gilgamesh, but he failed to understand the need to punish a lovable and ideal king, who was praised and revered by his subjects.

However, as time passed, Enkidu was forced to admit that the gods had been right as he watched the boy become a young man. Practicing absolutism, oppression, duress, levies, and the utmost decadence from self-interest, the people of the kingdom lamented the change.

Gilgamesh met Enkidu, who immediately declared that he would reprimed the king and correct his arrogance. They entered a battle that lasted several days and nights. But the final result was unexpected. Gilgamesh and Enkidu became friends and together they accomplished many feats including the defeat of Humbaba, the guardian of forest and the beast of gods.

Gilgamesh became the richest and greatest king on Earth, gaining all the treasures of mankind. The goddess Ishtar, infatuated with him, proposed marriage to him, but he rejected her because he knew that she was a witch who was unfaithful, cruel, and the corruptor of all men. She became angry, feeling that he had insulted her, and went to her father, the god Anu, for revenge. She begged him to unleash the Bull of Heaven.

Working together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeated him after tying the beast with the Chains of Heaven, making the dark clouds that covered the world vanish and saving the earth from the flood. Ishtar's reputation was again destroyed, and her fury did not subside. She asked that they be put to death for the sin of having killed a beast of gods. Her request was granted, and Enkidu was unable to challenge the divine decree, returning to clay.

For the first time in his life, Gilgamesh felt terror at death. After an even longer journey than his lifetime, Gilgamesh managed to obtain the herb of immortality. He was overwhelmed by a sense of fulfilment and joy. He had managed to defeat the death that had also taken Enkidu.

It was then that his carelessness caused him to snatch it away by a serpent that crawled through the wilderness. The snake was attracted by the smell of grass, and although Gilgamesh emerged from the spring in panic, it was too late. The snake ran away with the grass.

The serpent acquired the property of shedding, having been the restoration of youth instead of immortality, and all that remained was the skin of it. So King Gilgamesh realized that immortality was not necessary to his duty.

He returned to Uruk, but then returned underground to retrieve the grass once more to complete his collection. Although he was still severe, he ruled Uruk quietly, entrusting it to the next king before going to his eternal rest without telling where the grass was.

[Report on Eighth Campione], Compilation of the Greenwich assembly.

There is no record about the Eighth Campione before his appearance in Cornwall where he killed the heretic god Gilgamesh. Every kind of research to find out more details has proved fruitless. We do not know his name or his age or his origins. Probably, this is due to the fact that he grew up in an isolated environment, away from the world for some particular reasons.

Unlike the seventh Campione, he seems to have a good knowledge of heretic gods, or at least the one he killed. Besides, he certainly knows how to use magic. Because of the lack of information, we don't know where or who trained the Eighth Campione.

According to what our agent (who was in the vicinity at the time of the battle) reported, the Eighth Campione seems to specialize in creating constructs in the form of weapons. However, this may be inaccurate since both the Campione and the heretic god disappeared from the sight of our agent for about ten minutes, only to reappear when the god died.

From what is reported, it seems that the new Campione recited a poem, almost certainly the Chant of a magic whose effect and mechanics are unknown to us. The most likely hypothesis is that it is some kind of space-time magic that led to the defeat of the heretic God.

It is fair to assume that the authority that the Eighth Campione has usurped is attributable to the myth of Gilgamesh. According to the myth, King Gilgamesh came into possession of all the treasures of the ancient world. We do not know, however, whether he has limitations such as the Seventh Campione, or the full extent of the authority, making him the most dangerous and unpredictable of the eight Demon Kings.

However, everyone, do not forget.

Even if his authorities were sealed, the fact that he defeated a heretic god by relying only on his own strength remains. Regardless of the fact that he was once one of us, now he's a devil who towers over us. We are nothing but pale imitations of a campione.

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Thanks for reading! 

I decided to reorganise and re-publish the crossover with Campione. I would like to point out that I am going to use the Light Novel for this book.

Gilgamesh's Authorities:

- All the Treasures of the World (derived from the Gate of Babylon): allows the access to the vault and the treasures contained inside.

- King's Rule (derived from the myth of Gilgamesh who rebels against the gods): drastically weakens the power of the authorities (physical empowerment and other boosts such as Poison Resistance are excluded).