"He is here too!"
Crom Cruach's aura flared with violent intensity as a predatory excitement filled his mind.
The name glowing on the holographic notification was one of the most intriguing he had encountered during his long periods of isolation and training in the human world. A young man who, around three years ago, shook the entire Devil World with his attack on the Underworld, practically destroying the future generation of Evil Pieces.
Though Crom Cruach personally held no interest in the astronomical bounty placed on the young man's head by the Devils, the prospect of a battle was a different matter entirely. He lived for the thrill of the struggle, and the rumors surrounding the young Zayyn Illya Kovalenko were interesting to say the least.
They spoke of a man possessing a flame capable of consuming anything in its wake. In the world of dragons, there was no greater provocation than the rumor of a flame stronger than their own flaming draconic breath.
'And he also killed Azi Dahaka. Huhuhu,' Crom Cruach thought, his lips curling into a sharp smirk.
He turned his heterochromatic eyes back down toward the man crouching on the scorched sand.
Anubis looked broken as his breathing heavy and ragged.
"But… I suppose I will be searching for him after killing you for good, Anubis. Though, I will give you credit, you are stronger than I expected," Crom Cruach remarked, his tone casual, as if he were not speaking about the imminent execution of a legendary Egyptian God of Death.
Anubis stared back at the humanoid dragon with narrowed, hateful eyes.
His mind racing as he evaluated his dwindling options. His Divine Form had been pushed to its absolute limit, and his Death Charade, had failed to find a single opening in the dragon's overwhelming power.
The power gap was a chasm he could not leap across in his current state.
'I can't fight him alone. I need to retreat,' Anubis thought. He began to slowly and subtly channel the remnants of his divine energy, preparing a desperate teleportation.
But before he could trigger the spell, a heavy thumping sound vibrated through the dunes behind him.
From the shimmering heat haze, thousands of black lions enveloped in shimmering golden auras appeared, moving with the discipline of a well-trained army. Leading the charge, floating at an incredible speed with majestic golden wings spread wide, was a massive black lioness.
Seated atop the beast was a woman of mesmerizing beauty.
She possessed striking, luminous blue eyes and pale brown skin that stood in sharp contrast to her elegant, flowing white hair. Her outfit was regal and form-fitting, adorned with gold accents, intricate chains, and sacred symbols that evoked the ancient majesty of Egyptian royalty.
Crom Cruach watched the incoming tide of divine beasts with an amused smile.
"An army of Divine Beasts? Hoo~ Interesting," he muttered. His gaze locked onto the woman leading the pride, sensing the divine authority she radiated.
Anubis widened his eyes as the lioness skidded to a halt beside him.
'Bastet! Why is she coming here?' he thought, his frustration warring with a sense of relief he refused to acknowledge.
The Goddess of Protection, Bastet, looked down at the wounded Anubis.
Her face was a mask of fury as she scolded him, though her eyes remained fixed on the floating humanoid dragon above them.
"Bastet, didn't I tell you not to come here!" Anubis growled.
"Shut up! Do you want me to just let you die in vain?" Bastet snapped back. Her voice was sharp, though there was warmth behind it, as she acted as a shield between Anubis and the dragon.
Anubis gritted his teeth, his pride stinging. He forced himself to regain his composure as he looked up at her.
"If you really want to persuade me again to join that bastard Ra, don't even waste your time. I will bring down Aten by myself even without associating myself with someone that had betrayed his own people for power," Anubis said, his voice dripping with mockery.
"I will face him and Aten, and sit on the Golden Throne myself."
"You dumbass!" Bastet shouted, casting a quick, exasperated glance at him. "That's what Aten really wants us to do, to fight between ourselves and kill each other!"
"So be it. I bet Osiris and Isis also didn't care about that bastard's offers. So why wouldn't I do the same? If Aten really wants us to kill each other, then that's the only way," Anubis said as he slowly rose to his feet, using his staff to steady his shaking legs.
"Unless Ra would let me be the one who sat at the Throne, if not, then just forget about it."
Bastet narrowed her eyes, the golden light of her aura pulsing with her irritation. She clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Tsk! Fine..., but I still won't let you die."
Crom Cruach, seeing that he was now faced with some of the most prominent gods of the Ancient Egyptian Faction, felt his own aura flare more violently with excitement.
He grinned wildly with his fangs glinting in the harsh sun.
"Bring it on!"
***
Miles away from the brewing storm of the gods, Jay stood in the middle of a silent, wind-swept dune, staring at the small black cat that had introduced itself as MiuMiu.
"The Game of Gods? What kind of joke is this?" Jay asked. His voice was flat, showing no sign of the confusion he felt internally.
He searched the cat's feline eyes for any hint of deception.
"This is not a joke-Miu," the cat replied, its tail twitching with a bored rhythm.
Jay decided to ignore the creature for a moment.
He then tilted his head back, his left eye glowing with the golden X of Avesta as he scanned the sky. What looked like a vast blue expanse was actually an intricate barrier field constructed of countless divine runes.
'Which also means that all of this is caused by someone that has divine energy, a god. And this scale... It's impossible for me to even try to reconstruct it using Avesta,' Jay thought.
"So, let me give you a beginner instructi-" MiuMiu started.
Jay continued to ignore the cat as a large spatial rift suddenly tore open behind him.
And from the darkness of the tear, a gigantic crimson dragon emerged, its scales shimmering like obsidian with crimson flames enveloping its body. Its wings unfurled, releasing a blast of crimson fire that instantly superheated the surrounding air.
"Miu!" MiuMiu's bored eyes suddenly widened at the sight of the Crimson Dragon.
It was Draghignazzo.
The nasty, sneering dragon let out a low, vibrating rumble as it looked at Jay, its reptilian eyes narrowing in absolute obedience.
"Long time no see," Jay said softly. He stepped forward and placed a hand on the dragon's massive snout.
Draghignazzo huffed, a plume of smoke and heat rolling over Jay, a gesture of acknowledgement from the dragon.
Staying at the Temple of Solomon had required Jay to keep Draghignazzo in his pocket dimension for nearly two years. While two years was but a heartbeat to a creature that had been sealed for centuries, Jay still felt a little bad for keeping the dragon caged with nothing to do.
"Maybe I should constantly let you out... and fly around with Lavi," Jay said, his expression softening for a fleeting second as he patted the dragon's scales.
"Where are you wanting to go-Miu!" MiuMiu cried out, bobbing in the air.
Jay ignored the question and leaped onto Draghignazzo's back, settling between the massive spinal plates. He then glanced down at MiuMiu, as if considering something.
"Oh yeah, I need information from you."
A dark purple portal suddenly manifested around the floating cat.
"Miu?"
KRIIIING
In a flash of movement, an obsidian chain slithered out of the portal like a serpent as it coiled around the little black cat, instantly locking its limbs and torso in a metallic grip.
"Miu! What are you doing-Miu!? Let me go!?" MiuMiu's bored expression vanished, replaced by a look of sheer panic.
It thrashed and shook, trying to slip out of the Chain of Envy, but the Calcabrina only tightened in response to the cat's struggle.
Jay ignored the cat's muffled screams as he focused his will.
And with a single thought, Draghignazzo flapped his massive wings, creating a sandstorm that obscured everything for a moment before the dragon shot upward.
They moved like a crimson shooting star, piercing through the layers of heat toward the ceiling of the world.
As they gained altitude, Jay looked toward the horizon. The landscape was a dunes of endless sand.
"This place looks like Egypt, but somehow different..."
Once they were high enough, Jay spotted a landmark.
In the far distance, a towering obelisk pierced the sky, its peak higher than any skyscraper in the modern world. And even further away, perhaps hundreds of miles across the desert, his Avesta picked up the faint, clashing signatures of power.
One was unmistakably draconic, while two others radiated divine aura.
"There is a fight... Is that what this cat means by the game of gods? A literal fight between gods?" Jay muttered.
He decided to push the thought aside for now. His priority was to find a way out of this cage and locate Lavinia, Kuroka, and Glenda.
Eventually, they reached the apex of the sky, stopping just before the barrier field.
The Fake Sky.
"As expected… This is otherworldly. It is almost comparable to the complexity of the God of the Bible's construct for the Temple of Solomon, or perhaps even more complex," Jay whispered. Avesta worked overtime, perceiving billions of runes intertwined in a connection so seamless that it appeared inseparable.
"Miu! What are you trying to do!?" MiuMiu screamed from within his chains, watching Jay reach out toward the barrier.
Meanwhile, Jay simply whispered.
"True Cross."
FWUOOOM
A burst of black flame erupted from Jay's hand, slamming into the barrier like a flamethrower. The Incinerate Anthem, a fire imbued with Absolute Nonexistence, did its work, reducing the divine runes to ash in an instant.
And within seconds, a hole one kilometer wide had been carved into the sky.
"Miu! How are you able to break that!?" MiuMiu's jaw dropped in pure shock.
However, Jay's eyes widened when he did not see the myriad colors of the Dimensional Gap that he had expected. Beyond the hole, another layer of the barrier field manifested, followed by another, stretching into an infinite depth of divine constructs.
"It wasn't that easy, huh..." Jay muttered.
He could burn through the barriers with ease, but it was not a sustainable strategy. He had no way of knowing how many layers existed. Attempting to brute-force his way out would likely drain his energy long before he reached the end of the multi-layered divine barrier field.
Jay sighed and retracted the black flames as he looked at the sky with a new sense of wary respect.
'How strong is the guy that constructed this place?'
He contemplated his situation for a long moment before turning his gaze to the shivering, terrified MiuMiu.
"I guess I should hear your explanation about all of this, huh?" Jay said.
MiuMiu, still staring at gigantic hole in the divine sky, nodded hesitantly.
"M-miuuuu."
***
They then descended back to the desert sands as the heat rising to meet them. Draghignazzo landed with a heavy thud, his weight causing the sand to ripple.
"So, what exactly is all of this? And where are we right now?" Jay asked as he sat down on a smooth rock beside the seated dragon's head.
Draghignazzo's reptilian eyes remained fixed on the floating black cat, a low growl vibrating in his chest, as if he were about to eat him at any moment. MiuMiu gulped nervously, his eyes darting between the black-haired man and the crimson dragon.
"M-miu! The Game of Gods is basically a game that is orchestrated by the current Chief-God of the Ancient Egyptian Faction, The One True God of Heliopolis, The Supreme God Aten, to find the worthy inheritor of the Sun Disk and the Golden Throne-Miu," MiuMiu explained, his voice trembling.
"The Sun Disk and the Golden Throne?"
"Basically, it is a set of divine artifact that allows its possessor to become a chief god of the Ancient Egyptian Faction and grants absolute authority over Heliopolis and the entire land of Egypt-Miu," MiuMiu said.
Jay raised his brows, unimpressed.
"That sounds like a lot of work. Why would they even be fighting for something like this?"
"Miu! Because the Sun Disk itself will grant you an insane amount of power-Miu. The power of the sun itself."
Jay did not press for more details about the Disk or the Golden Throne, as he had no interest in ruling over this foreign land nor to win this game. He also suspected that the cat was intentionally being vague or hiding the artifact's true nature.
"Then, how does this Game work?"
"Miu! The Game mechanism is really simple, you just need to collect enough points to be able to challenge Aten and defeat him."
"Points?" Jay raised his eyebrows.
"Miu! There are various types of Points that a player has. For your case, there are two points. The first one is Player Points, which is how many points that you, a player, have collected throughout the game. The amount of points you need to collect to be able to challenge Aten is 100,000 Player Points-Miu..."
"100,000 points, huh..." Jay muttered.
"So, the other one is?"
"Another type of points is Kill Points, which is how many points another player will get from killing you-Miu!" MiuMiu said.
He then added quickly,
"And after challenging and defeating him, you will gain full rights to the Sun Disk and the Golden Throne, thereby becoming the rightful ruler, the Supreme God of the Ancient Egyptian Faction, miu."
Jay fell silent after hearing MiuMiu's words, the implications weighing on his mind.
'A game for gods to kill each other… This Aten guy must be some insane lunatic,' Jay thought.
He then looked at MiuMiu again.
"So, how many Player Points do I have now?"
"Zero-Miu," MiuMiu said.
"I see... Then, how about my Killing Points?"
"67,000 Killing Points-Miu."
The moment the words left the cat's mouth, a terrifying pressure descended upon the dune. MiuMiu was instantly slammed into the sand by a weight that felt like a falling mountain. His small body was pinned, the obsidian chains rattling against the ground.
'M-m-miu!'
The cat looked up through the dust and saw Jay's face. It remained indifferent, but his dark hazel eyes were devoid of any warmth as he stared blankly into its feline gaze.
"That's more than half the amount needed... Are you trying to make me the main target?" Jay asked, his voice a terrifying whisper.
"M-miu, it's not Miu that is in charge of the game's system! Please don't kill Miu!" MiuMiu squealed, its eyes squeezed shut as it struggled against the crushing killing intent.
After a few tense seconds, the pressure subsided.
Jay leaned back, allowing MiuMiu to breathe and move again.
"And where is this place? And why is there a divine barrier field surrounding it?"
"T-this place is Heliopolis-Miu. And the barrier you were just trying to destroy is the barrier field that is constructing it and making it overlap with the Egypt in the human world," MiuMiu answered, shivering as he floated back up.
"I see... Then why am I here? And why can't I teleport to the outside world?"
"MiuMiu doesn't know exactly how the player invitation works, but that's probably because you were in Egypt before you came here... so the Game system included you as a player-Miu. And for your other question, that's because during the game, the access to the outside world from Heliopolis is completely blocked by the Supreme God Aten until the game is over, or until someone inherits the Disk and the Throne."
"And if there is no one able to do that?" Jay asked.
"Then, he will kill every single player until no one is left... which is another game over."
Jay's expression did not flicker as he looked out over the desert. There were many questions that needed to be answered.
'Why was Aten going this far just for someone to inherit his power?... That's bizzare.' He thought.
Since brute-forcing the barrier was out of the question for now, at least until he knew exactly how many layers formed Heliopolis, his options were limited. Other than participating in this game, he could try to find Aten and kill him outright without collecting any points. However, he still had no idea of the scale of power he was dealing with.
'And where are Lavinia, Kuroka, and Glenda? Are they here too?' That was the question that weighed on him the most. If they were trapped in this game, his approach would have to change completely, as he needed to find them first.
As he sat in thought, his Domain of His Own picked up two distinct presences entering his range.
"Hm... People?"
He tracked them as they approached. One of the two signatures was strong but ordinary compared to the other, which radiated intense divine aura.
'A god... No, a goddess?'
Jay stood up and turned to face the direction of the newcomers. From behind a jagged stone spire, two women appeared.
The first was a beautiful young woman with long, straight silver hair and aqua-colored eyes, appearing to be in her late teens. She was wearing a form of battle attire that resembled an armor.
Beside her was an exceptionally beautiful woman with long, wavy pink hair and striking blue eyes. She possessed an incredibly voluptuous figure with enormous breasts that seemed to defy the practical constraints of her attire. She radiated a playful, airy divinity that felt oddly out of place in this wasteland.
"Hm... Those outfits," Jay muttered.
They weren't Egyptian.
'I thought only Egyptian gods… No, I am here, so it should not be too surprising for people from other parts of the world to be here.'
The two women approached him with a lack of caution that surprised Jay.
They walked across the sand as if they were tourists in a park, seemingly unaware that everyone in this domain was supposed to be on each others throat.
When they were only a few dozen meters away, the pink-haired woman spoke up, her voice melodic and bright.
"Ah! Finally, we met another person~ Huff, I'm already tired of walking."
"Freya-sama, I told you not to approach a random person in this place, especially one with a dragon. We need to retreat!" the silver-haired woman hissed. She was far more cautious than her companion.
Jay's Avesta could see her already channeling mana into her fingertips, preparing to activate a defensive spell at the first sign of hostility.
"Ma ma~ Rose-chan, he seems like a friendly boy. Let's just talk with him, okay?" the pink-haired woman, Freya, answered with a carefree giggle.
She stepped closer and gave Jay a slight, elegant bow.
"I'm sorry for bothering you, but we are a little bit lost here. Can we talk with you a bit?"
Jay simply raised an eyebrow. He remained silent, letting the awkwardness of the encounter stretch out.
Seeing no immediate response, Freya tilted her head, a realization dawning on her face.
"Ah~ My apologies! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Freya, and this is my bodyguard Rossweisse. Nice to meet you!"