Finis Chaldea

Sukuna had always been the type to thrive on the horror in others' faces. When Ishtar finally looked down and took note of her physical changes, her expression was absolutely incredible to witness. For one to be so vain that these simple approaches took them to such a normally life-ending state of mind was almost perfect. There was but a single thing missing from this scene. Sadly, that meant Sukuna would soon have to restore Ishtar's ability to speak. First and foremost, he witnessed the sheer glee of Ereshkigal. He couldn't blame her for that. She was a Creator who enjoyed creating, much like her foremothers and forefathers.

There was but a single known way to acquire adamantite that could be manipulated like thread. The only viable method was for it to be created by a Destroyer's energy pressurizing an already flexible material, without overdoing it and stiffening the whole structure. Either way, the adamantite was in Ereshkigal's possession, and she easily wove them into a cape of fair size. She thought of showing the end-product to her mother, strangely enough. Creators were odd. Regardless, the obsidian sheen of her new cape proved her ability to manipulate the ancient and fabled Ore of Destruction. "Better work than I expected," Sukuna commented before averting his attention once more... at least half of it, anyway.

Ishtar's fear was palpable, but incomplete. If she didn't want to be picked apart piece by piece, she should be able to make that clear. Crying and shaking only made Sukuna laugh with unrivaled hysteria. He didn't even seem to realize the same thing Ereshkigal did within Ishtar; he was far too busy laughing just as loudly as Ishtar screamed─ perhaps louder. "KEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA!! What's the matter, brat? Don't worry, I wouldn't take out your eye unless there was nothing left for you to see. Maybe the skin then! I did say I'd put your insides on the outside for all that garbage you keep spewing." Once Sukuna finished sharing this clause, he utilized a curse to reshape Ishtar's soul, specifically around her face. Doing so would result in her body following suit, filling in her jaw with new bones and restoring the structure of her jaw. Meanwhile, he was watching those teeth/fangs reach their maximum density and size, thinking it was about time to pluck them from her chest. "Those are almost ready. I thought they'd be a nice ornament on the cape."

Ereshkigal knew she was being observed. Unlike people like Ishtar who were lazy beyond belief, Ereshkigal formerly known as Kur, always tried to be good at what she did. She looked for critiques of her works as she tried them out. She'd developed something that looked like a strange habit and that was showing her work to those older than her as she made her great works. Each of her siblings (Ishtar aside) had creative works she liked and as such she often found herself showing them anything random she made that she thought they could appreciate. The same was true of her mother as well... She was always very excited when she made something new and now as no exception. For his part in this Sukuna seemed to be watching her and after she'd finished he said something. It was better than he'd expected. Ereshkigal had her eyes widen and her face flush. That seemed like a pretty great compliment when one considered this man had seen works of the previous world. "I... well..." she seemed to be thinking of the right response. "Thanks..." she managed turning her eyes away from him.

So easily embarrassed was Ereshkigal, that she'd still revert to rather childish behavior. The exact opposite of the 'self-assured' Ishtar whose confidence outweighed her usefulness by a great deal. Here and now, Sukuna was laughing at the woman and she was too busy being terrified by what might happen to her to notice that Ereshkigal had started staring directly at her now as well. She couldn't be as disparaging towards her youngest sibling as she wanted to be but one good thing did come of this other interaction. Sukuna reserved her ability to talk... did that mean he didn't like looking at her face while it was astray. Did that mean she'd suffered enough of this 'punishment' and he was now going to turn his attention back to Kur? Still... he was saying something about skinning her alive because of his earlier promise? All of this over the fact that she referred to herself as glorious? "I... I... I didn't spew garbage. it is a fact. You can't punish me for being honest. You've had your fun now, right? You'll now make it clear you don't want her and restore me... the rest was just teasing right? You can't take from me just to give to Ku-" she was begging and horrified but it still wasn't as far down as she could fall. Obviously, Sukuna just took a bit of offense to how she referred to herself and all of this was just to teach her a lesson. He'd restore her fully and stop taunting her soon, obviously! He'd given her back the jaw Kur had taken so obviously he didn't intend to leave her that way!

"And suddenly, I miss just the screams..." Ereshkigal said still appraising this new cape of hers. It was a good work, she was certain of this, but Ishtar's return to speech didn't contain enough... penance for Ereskigal to be satisfied by it. No. Apparently, something about the restoration of her jaw had led her to believe the situation was turning in her favor once more. She also kept talking down to a man who'd ruined her physically but that was all fine so long as he'd restore her... or at least that is what Ereshkigal took from it.

A simple offering of thanks came from Ereshkigal. Well, it wasn't so simple in actuality. It was best to call it an acknowledgement of her existing embarrassment, which Sukuna rather enjoyed. This, too, was a form of torture that he didn't even have to put forth effort for. It was far from the most exciting, but had a very nice exchange rate for value of investment.

Ishtar's ability to speak was restored with her new jawbone. As anyone who knew of this goddess could/would expect, she didn't waste a single moment before blabbering away. Much to Sukuna's chagrin, his hopes were trampled upon just as quickly. Ishtar didn't beg for life, limb or freedom. No, she argued against his earlier assertion, she made demands, and she made obvious her belief that this was all some test or ploy. Sukuna couldn't even think of anything to say. All he could think to do, was slit his own wrist with one nail. That same wrist bled as one could expect, but the blood oozing from his wound was far darker than anything normal. Sukuna flung his blood at Ishtar. Upon contact, a floral pattern would spread across the goddess' skin, and the effects of Sukuna's blood would begin to erode her body. Her skin would suffer quickly, but it wouldn't stop there. If left alone for a few hours or so, only bone would remain on even a goddess' body. Sukuna wondered if this was another type of pain she misconceived as pleasure. "I'll take from you just to take from you. I don't need excuses or reasons~" he said in a seemingly happy fashion.

Ereshkigal missed when Ishtar only had screams to offer. Sukuna, on the other hand, missed something else. One thing was satisfying about Ishtar's ability to speak again, and it was something caused by Ereshkigal. "I missed the tongue-biting. I'm getting some of what I want. Fucking brat should be begging like they normally do, though." Ever so casually, Sukuna called forth the bones lodged in Ishtar's breasts... whatever was left of them. With her decaying flesh, he gathered things would be even easier... especially with those sharp, jagged teeth emerging point-first on their way to Ereshkigal. "It still counts as insides being on the outside if insides are all you have, right?" he asked rhetorically, pure amusement in his visage.

Whatever enjoyment Sukuna took from the embarrassment of Ereshkigal, she wouldn't deny him. She didn't really get his whole torture schtick, but if it was his nature, denying it would only be bad for him. She was fine with how he was for the most part, so long as his urges were properly pointed in directions where it was useful. Perhaps this was the real balance to be found between Creators and Destroyers.

A point of imbalance however was the attitude of Ishtar. Upon getting back her ability to speak, she immediately went back to her own self-centered version of reality. Strangely it didn't seem to register to Ishtar that her speech was problematic. According to Sukuna, he would take from Ishtar because he could, he didn't need a reason. and such words were only spoken after he slit his own wrists and flung blood at her. Of course the initial sensation of this, wasn't negative but she could feel her skin shriveling and decaying in the moment and it was immediately horrifying. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" a scream escaped her after a few moments. Would she beg though? Time would tell.

All the same, apparently the return of Ishtar's jaw had been accompanied by the return of her tongue biting behavior. "It's amazing to me that she's done it so many times and still hasn't realized why. I am sure small animals would have already learned to take a different path by now..." Ereskigal stated. She was amused by the tongue biting, she'd decided it after all as a way to keep the green haired goddess from constantly saying her name in such a derogatory way. Still, Ishtar was listening after that initial scream, and though she didn't fully process what was being said by Kur, Sukuna seemed to expect begging from her. And now her chest was being ripped open large teeth being pulled from her center. Her body was shredded and more screams came from her, along with begging though not fully to the extent that one like Sukuna would want. "No. No. No. I'm supposed to be most beautiful. Stop making me uglier than Ku-" she said once again biting her tongue. She was getting even more scared by the moment though, what if Kur ended up way better than her. That was something her psyche couldn't handle. But it wasn't as deeply emotional as it might have been. Perhaps because she couldn't really see how gross she looked in a moment like this, maybe because she was still holding out hope that Sukuna was only testing her. She'd jumped through the mental hoop that obviously she had to be made worse than Kur. Kur was a jealous individual, always wanting things that belonged to Ishtar, including this new demon that should join her. "I'm surprised that tongue is still attached to her mouth... " she said watching as more of Ishtar's flesh decayed away. The woman did always have an interesting bone structure. She'd be worth it for someone like Ereshkigal to stare at soon enough. "What is that?" she asked pointing past flesh of Ishtar towards that power which had been catching her attention since the goddess started more earnestly showing fear.

Ah, that was the sort of scream Sukuna was hoping for. Hearing ishtar's wailing while she didn't have a jawbone was lovely, but it could never be the same as a proper scream when it came to expressing terror. "Ahhh! That's so much better! It's been so long since I've heard something like that, and it's still the best hearing it with my own ears!" Sukuna rambled. The best thing of all was having a physical body to enjoy these things with.

It was a fact that Ishtar's brain left much to be desired. Lesser creatures knew better than she, who continued to speak a name that constantly resulted in the immediate biting of her tongue. "That's my favorite part. I like when dumb decisions like that are made. Suffering can sometimes be better when someone is the cause for their own," Sukuna asserted. He enjoyed his time spent watching Ishtar decay bit by bit, though it seemed Ishtar didn't appreciate the changes so much. Of course, this came from a perspective of believing she was ever superior to the pink-haired goddess. "I didn't make you anything. You were uglier when you showed up; you just had more meat to knock around," he clarified. With current information at Sukuna's disposal, he determined that Ishtar wouldn't have even been fun to torment sexually. He couldn't imagine trying what he'd attempted with the former Kur on Ishtar, especially as the latter would have been praising herself more than suffering any of his torment. How she focused so much on herself in general, was baffling. Ah, but speaking of focusing on Ishtar, Ereshkigal seemed to be doing so after wondering how the woman's tongue remained attached. Something was inside Ishtar's chest, and Ereshkigal couldn't identify it. Sukuna could, but he knew of things this world had yet to see and fully acknowledge. "Eh? Oh, that. That's the start of her Source. It looks like she's started suffering enough to wake it up. I'm not sure how it's supposed to work; you'll have to ask somebody else about that. I just know getting rid of that Core thing and some suffering can usually do the trick."

According to Sukuna hearing things with his own ears, feeling them with his own body, and other such sensory things were good. Ereshkigal could understand this. She often found herself exploring mortal planes and hanging out around people. But that was a bit different for her, she'd been outcast from Celestia aside from a few 'important' meetings for quite a while. So, doing things for herself and meeting with people when she could was always a fun idea to her. "I understand that. It sucks being alone for too long, and not being able to be yourself..." Ereshkigal said with a great deal of understanding. She was sort of glad this man could find happiness in things he enjoyed without destroying too much at the same time.

Moving on from that thought, Ishtar was suffering in a manner she never thought she would. Her flesh melting away and the kinds of insults Sukuna had to give were nothing like what she was used to or prepared for as far as abuse was concerned. If a man wanted to be rough with her and beat her up, that was always fine. Those same men couldn't deny their desire for her. Here and now this man was basically saying she was only a brief moment of distraction from something far more entertaining and that entertainment was Kur, of all people. The girl had been the runt of the litter a little thing with such fake innocence and kindness that Ishtar was often disgusted by her. And now they were talking about her, she was sure... and she didn't really understand it. "You can't mean that... you can't actually think I'm not the most amazing," she whined now. All the while it should obviously be her getting her way. Even as she screamed in pain. "Hm, I guess I can understand that. I still don't think she gets it though..." Ereshkigal said of Ishtar's constant bite based debacle. "You can't be like this. Your innocent act looks even more fake when you let bad things happen to me, Ku-" another bite to the tongue. Ah, that was her angle. She planned to appeal to the better graces of someone like the Death Goddess and try to spark an argument between her and Sukuna. That would work right?

Ereshkigal for her part in this managed to keep her eyes focused and ignored Ishtar for the better part of a few moments. Sukuna was saying something about a Source. That was a term from the old world, about the base of people's existences. Birth created sources, in olden times, but now cores were more for the world. It meant that when the order of things was decided, that similar feeling to her own was an aspect originally designed to be part of Ishtar. "Oh? so she's actually suffering? That's good. I don't like it though... that feeling feels like me. And she already pushed this job on to me, and I already told her she couldn't take it back after I did all the work and created it. I definitely can't leave her with it," this was Ereshkigal's thoughts about the matter. She couldn't imagine someone like Ishtar being able to walk into death as she pleased, Nor did she want to have to deal with any backlash from this woman later. If she could guarantee she'd never evolve that sort of power... she could be properly happy.

Loneliness and lack of ability to be oneself may have been things these two had in common, at least in some regard. Sukuna likely suffered these things less than Ereshkigal, but that was neither here nor there. What was here, was the disbelief of Ishtar. She thought herself so incredible, so high above others, while she really only had visual appeal above most. Now, the number of individuals she didn't have visual appeal over had officially and unquestionably been increased by one. "I can think that. So can anyone who sees someone more amazing. That's how things work, moron," he chided. By all means, Sukuna continued to have an overall pleasant time. Every opportunity he had to put Ishtar down was one he jumped at, even while having no personal reason to do so. Of course, this was simply how he'd always been.

Among the green-haired one's many attempts at saving herself, she took a shot at creating animosity between Sukuna and Ereshkigal. If she wanted to appeal to the Goddess of Death's better graces, perhaps she should have tried that before she received mana from the Demon Lord of Obscenity... if not several millennia before that. Suffering did strange things to people. In fact, someone as stupid as Ishtar only appeared even less intelligent as a result of desperation. As for Ishtar's Source being semi-active and discoverable to Ereshkigal, the pink-haired goddess disliked how very familiar that Source felt. He supposed it did resemble what Ereshkigal had become, though not so much what he'd seen in her budding Source. "I don't like it either. Death's got too much potential, and she'd waste it all. So, what then? I could destroy her Source like I did that other one~"

There was a profound life lesson being uttered by Sukuna and Ereshkigal heard it and her eyes widened just a little. It was such a small sentence but it had a lot of meaning behind it. People were allowed to find whatever they wanted to amazing and it didn't have to include Ishtar. Normal people learned such lessons as children, but Ishtar didn't even register this as something that should apply to her. She was the best thing in the world, no one was allowed to be better than her. Where did he get that idea? Was it one of those old world ideas? Besides that why did he get to chide her like this? "That doesn't make sense. It's all about me..." she nearly cried. And what was this. "Do you hear him? You can't ignore me Ku-" another bite to her tongue. She was quite wrong though, Ereshkigal could definitely ignore Ishtar, and she happened to know that being ignored was one of the things that annoyed the other goddess the most. As for the appeal to Ereshkigal's good graces, such a thing simply wouldn't work, not after the long list of atrocities that Ishtar had perpetrated against her younger sister.

So began the discussion between Ereshkigal and Sukuna. Ereshkigal claimed not to like the similarity between the Source in Ishtar and the power she possessed. Of course, it seemed that Sukuna also knew this and saw her issue. He made the claim that death had too many potentials to be wasted on someone like Ishtar. Ishtar kept up enough with the conversation to hear the bit about her source being destroyed and her eyes went wide. "No. Isn't that what you did that killed that other one. I don't wanna die like that! She didn't come back or can't Ku-" she didn't get to finish pleading before she'd bitten her tongue again which was generally amusing. Of course, that was hilarious to Ereshkigal. "Oh? She paid attention to that one? Though I don't think I want her source destroyed..." claimed Ereshkigal. This of course, made Ishtar perk up, perhaps she could still manipulate Kur yet. And the pause made her feel like there was some emotional drivel coming. But... "If it has as much potential as you think... I'd rather figure out how to take it from her before she's destroyed. After all, she's always yelling about me taking things from her, I figure I should actually do it... especially since she's always accusing me of it," she said. Ishtar went from excited with her eyes wide and the light fell from her eyes. Was she serious? Would she really let a demon erase her? She had to do something before that happened, but what? In watching such a moment there was pure delight in the face of Ereshkigal and that vibrating feeling in her chest seemed to reach fever pitch. Even her body had started glowing a bit harder... oh? What did that mean?

"Right. It's all about you. That's the whole point. I should be focused more on you," Sukuna agreed. From the looks of things, he firmly believed everything he so recently said. He should be focusing on Ishtar. This entire ordeal should be about her, dealing with her in a more direct fashion. Ishtar could have what she wanted, though she certainly wouldn't be glad to have it by the end of this day. "So, making sure you have the worst time possible is the main focus from now on! It'll be wonderful!"

The message about Sukuna's singular kill of the day (so far) was taken by Ishtar as if she understood the destruction of Sources. How strange. She showed no knowledge of actual important information prior to this point, but here she was now... cowering before a permanent death. Her reluctance to perish for eternity was all the more reason for Sukuna to eliminate her Source, but luckily for Ishtar, Ereshkigal spoke out against the destruction. "Why save it? She's not going to use it," he argued prior to Ereshkigal sharing additional thoughts. Sukuna knew nothing about Sources being syphoned off by another entity for their own sake, at least not in such a meticulous fashion as what Ereshkigal implied. "That sounds like a lot to deal with. There was Source Magic ages ago, but nobody ever did that much with it. If you think you can try, by all means. Failure would just kill her anyway, and even a damaged source is more painful than a thousand deaths. You might want to finish your own before trying something like that. Besides, I'm sick of this thumping thing, and I'm pretty sure it's your fault."

The words of Sukuna made Ishtar's heart soar. "I am glad you understand. Being reasonable is the best course of action!" that was what Ishtar had to say. So he did understand! That was what she was waiting for, all his attention should be focused on her, and now that he was on board all that was left was getting rid of Kur. Of course, while she had this idea in her head, Ereshkigal knew better. She knew for a fact whatever utterance this man had coming for her afterwards was very negative, and she was rewarded. He aimed to give Ishtar the worst time possible. Ishtar wasn't expecting this, and looked immediately sullen, "Wait, what? That's not wonderful, you can't!" she managed. Meanwhile, Ereshkigal managed to only just stifle a chuckle. "Chehe~" she couldn't help it after all. It was funny watching Ishtar fail to realize when she should be quiet.

It seemed that Sukuna didn't necessarily understand completely why Ereshkigal wanted to keep Ishtar alive for a bit while she tried to separate the green haired goddess from a power she'd never truly understand. But her point was eventually made, it seemed that Sukuna was a man far older than Ereshkigal. She'd take his advice into consideration before doing anything in particular. He claimed that Source Magic used to be a thing, but wasn't really any longer. He said that even when it was, no one had attempted the sort of thing she was talking about and he said she should finish her own Source before she moved on to trying to do something to someone else. He explained how very painful such a thing would be if she failed and why it was fine to him if she attempted it regardless. Sukuna for his part in this, also lightly blamed Ereshkigal for the feeling in his chest. "Eh? You can hardly blame me for that... you're the one who woke it up!" she huffed childishly. If she was being honest, her own chest didn't feel particularly comfortable, "It feels like something is spinning in my chest right now, but like in opposite directions. You have an active Source right, but yours doesn't normally feel like anything, right?" she said explaining the feeling. It wasn't painful to her but she also couldn't feel pain right now. This was a complicated issue, if she could get to know and understand Sukuna's body a bit better, she could likely figure out how to calm her own Source down enough to do everything she wanted to do.