“I am familiar with the name of Semiramis,” Doctor Mephisto said, in a voice as solemn and ethereal as the mood of this temple. He could have pronounced himself her husband in the same breath, and no one would have thought it strange.
“However, that is the name of the storied queen of the Babylonian king, she who ruled all of Assyria. For her he built the Hanging Gardens many millennia ago. Ah, and so now the ancient legend appears before us.”
The mask nodded. “It is as you say. Semiramis was that legendary queen, and was my wife. Her body is entombed in the waters of her beloved Euphrates. Even now she slumbers there unblemished.”
“I had heard of an enormous structure constructed in an oasis alongside the Euphrates. It drew water from the river and purified it in order to preserve the cells of a human body from decay. Here are the last vestiges of that water, I suppose.”
“You suppose correctly. Buried beneath two thousand years of sandstorms, even the stone foundations are nowhere to be seen. It is now stored beneath this palace. Here is all the water left in the pool.”
Mephisto looked quietly at the man in the golden mask. “Only one man would call Semiramis his wife and Babylon Palace his home. You are that famous suzerain?”
“I am.” The monarchal mask answered with a dignified bow. “I am Nebuchadnezzar II.”
Sayaka was astounded. This was Nebuchadnezzar II, who twenty-five hundred years ago ruled the Middle Eastern kingdom of Babylonia. That fantastical personage was standing right before her.
“Semiramis reigned over ancient Assyria, which should have been Babylonia’s sworn enemy. That being the case, asserting that the Hanging Gardens were built to assuage the ennui of a princess from a mountain kingdom was a fiction.”
“Worthless sentimentalism,” the mask answered Mephisto. “The queen of the abundant kingdom of Assyria would wish for nothing of the sort. A woman raised in the mountains comes to live in the deserts of Babylon; seeing her pining for the hills and rivers of her birth, the kind-hearted Nebuchadnezzar plants a giant garden in a corner of the capital brimming with water and greenery. Ha! Do you think in a world full of heroes, warriors and champions, where kingdoms were brought down and built up in the blink of an eye, that such nonsense would be tolerated for a moment? Nobody knows, then or now, why this great garden was built.”
“Hoh. Then instruct us.” Mephisto’s eyes brimmed with a fierce light, unusual in its intensity even for him.
However, the answer would not be forthcoming.
“All is as Semiramis wished. Her desires then, her dreams now—best to hear them from her mouth.”
He turned to her. Sayaka felt like he’d dropped a cold ball of ice down the back of her collar. The green glow of the electronic lens, infused with a loathing that death could not extinguish, was like the fires of hell.
“The body of Semiramis lies there, but her soul resides in another woman, inside the girl called Sayaka Rama. The cunning of that damned Doctor Faustus, to seal up the queen of hell inside such a heavenly beauty.”
“Hoh,” said Doctor Mephisto. The name of this new doctor had obviously touched a chord, in an altogether intriguing manner. He was enjoying this strange and perilous situation all the more. For he was the Demon Physician. “Sayaka-chan,” he said.
“Yes,” Sayaka said hopefully.
“You said this man showed you a dream. Does it live on in your memories?”
Sayaka blanched and nodded. The terrifying memories had not expunged her courage and resolve.
And to such a woman, the beautiful physician dared to say, “Would you object to reliving them?”
Sayaka’s eyes went wide in silent surprise. She could feel the mask’s consternation as well.
“The restoration of ancient times requires a certain kind of elixir. Formulating it with this medical technology is not easy, and the amount necessary to produce a useful outcome has yet to be confirmed for her.”
“It does exist in my hospital.” Doctor Mephisto’s words seemed to encase this grand temple in ice.
“What are you saying?”
“I completed it before setting out, in order to dispose of the monster known as Ogdora. Well, well. Shall we return not only to the rise and fall of ancient Babylon, but to the moment of her lunar birth as well?”
Flinging back the cape, his white hand produced a small vial. What struck Sayaka more than that though, was the smile that creased the lips of the Demon Physician. The evil smile that captivated a scholar of the Middle Ages must have appeared no different than now.
The handsome man of great learning who brought the gospel of life to so many in that enchanted city—and on this endless and eerie sacred ground, the mysterious doctor commanding that memories of terror and horror return to this sinless girl. Was Doctor Mephisto a child of god or servant of the devil?
He thrust the vial out in front of Sayaka. “Will you partake?”
His voice was as cool and soft and terrifying as ever. Sayaka took the vial of dark green liquid. She wasn’t responding unmindfully to Mephisto’s desires. She understood that they had to get to the heart of the matter here and now.
After the memory restoration treatment at the World Federation Government Information Bureau, Chief Yamashina had told her that the procedure failed. When she asked, Kyoya said the same thing.
It was a lie. Chief Yamashina and Kyoya couldn’t fool her. She was beset by the worry that what she couldn’t tell herself had been rekindled inside of her. That must have been why Chief Yamashina dispatched the bodyguards.
Along with what the woman in the coffee shop said—I have been with you always—what did that mean? An infinite state of unease reached out to her from a bottomless pit and wrapped around her like a spider’s web. She wished to sweep it all into the clean light of day, and so agreed to take the drug.