— — — — — —
The Next Day…
"Huh?"
Ryo frowned at the scroll in his hands. "You're saying Athena basically gave you permission to escape?"
"Eight or nine times out of ten."
Inside the scroll, Algol was combing her hair, her tone edged with irritation.
"That ugly woman strutted in here last time like she owned the place. The second she opened her mouth, I knew exactly what she was up to."
Crude phrasing aside, Ryo believed her.
There's an old saying: your greatest enemy knows you best.
After all, they're always thinking about how to screw you over. That kind of obsession breeds insight. You start noticing things—secrets, habits, tells—that others miss.
Algol and Athena were exactly that kind of rivals.
At this point, they could practically read each other's minds.
So Ryo didn't doubt her judgment.
"So she probably figured out you were on my side?"
"Please. The way she kept hinting at things, it was obvious she wanted me to come running to you."
Algol rolled her eyes. "'Algol, I'll let one of your avatars out for some fresh air.' 'Have you been in touch with Ryo Yagami lately?' She thought I wouldn't catch the subtext?"
Letting out one avatar? As if that was any different from letting her go entirely.
The seal suppressing Algol wasn't particularly strong. If even a single avatar slipped free, she could break out completely.
There was no way Athena didn't know that.
"And you still came to me?" Ryo looked at her strangely.
"You knew she was pushing you in my direction, and you followed through?"
That didn't sound like Algol at all.
Wasn't she the infamous Princess Contrarian? The type who, if you told her to go east, would tear down the road out of spite? Since when did she play along with Athena?
"Well, at first I didn't want to," Algol admitted, lifting her chin arrogantly. "If Athena says 'go,' and I actually go, doesn't that make me look pathetic?"
"But then?"
"You offered too much."
She broke into a sheepish grin. "A shot at becoming a Two-Digit. So what if Athena looks down on me? Once I succeed, she'll be the jealous one. For the sake of that glorious slap in the face, I can swallow a little pride."
Ryo's mouth twitched.
So that was it?
He'd thought she had some grand strategic insight. Turns out his sales pitch had simply been too good.
Though to be fair, it wasn't entirely empty promises.
As Ryo processed that, another thought nagged at him. He looked at Algol's sly grin and asked, "If Athena isn't chasing you, why are you hiding inside that scroll?"
Algol paused, then said lightly,
"I told you at the start, didn't I? If I stay in here, even the Little Garden's Central Authority can't detect me for now."
Ryo's expression changed.
"You're guarding against the Central Authority?"
That surprised him.
Why bother? That old bureaucrat had gotten fleeced by his Dimension Forum and hadn't even complained. What threat did it pose?
Then it hit him.
His pupils shrank.
"Figured it out?" Algol beamed, looking pleased with herself. "A spiritual shift like becoming the Demon Primogenitor… the longer I can hide it from the gods, the better."
Ryo sighed.
He had masked his observation of the world of Strike the Blood using the Dimension Forum, keeping it hidden from the Little Garden's gods. But the parallel world Algol altered…
"You sealed off the entire world?" he asked. "Slowed its data exchange with the Central Authority?"
In simple terms, she'd artificially throttled the Central Authority's observation speed—keeping it perpetually on the brink of completing its survey and triggering changes in human history.
A delay tactic.
Algol blinked, surprised he'd deduced it so quickly.
Well, damn. She'd underestimated him.
You don't guess something like that unless you've done similar things yourself.
"Pretty underhanded, huh?" she teased. "Now guess where this scroll came from."
"You ripped a parallel world out of Strike the Blood and stuffed it into the scroll."
Ryo's eyelids twitched.
Even a parallel world was still a universe.
And she compressed one into a painting?
So this was the power of a Three-Digit?
Or was Algol just built different?
"You really are annoyingly sharp," Algol muttered. "But even I can't forcibly snatch a fully observed universe from the Central Core."
"So I exploited a bug."
"A bug?" Ryo raised a brow.
"That's right."
She lifted her chin proudly.
"Another Cosmology, or as many prefer to call it, Star Map Creation. I used that technique."
"First, I built a skeletal framework of a universe. Then I forcefully condensed an existing one into this demonic scroll, letting it serve as the star map for my evolving cosmology."
"You wouldn't understand the technical details. Just think of it like this: I laid down the foundation, then hauled someone else's empty house over and claimed it as my own."
"I see."
That, at least, made sense.
Still—stealing a universe right from under the Central Core's nose…
Algol really was a demon.
This wasn't just pulling teeth from a tiger. It was hauling the tiger's house away.
Fortunately, it was only a relatively significant parallel world. Without Ryo's interference, the Central Core wouldn't have gotten much out of it anyway.
At worst, it lost a small slice of meat from a bigger cut.
And eventually, Algol would lift her restrictions. In the long run, the Central Core wouldn't even lose out.
Ryo shook his head and sighed. "You Three-Digits really do come up with the wildest schemes."
"Oh, please," Algol shot back, crossing her arms with a smirk. "Wild compared to what you did? You turned the avatars of two major Greek gods into Machine Gods. The nerve."
"And on top of helping me become the Demon Primogenitor, aren't you worried about getting hunted down by all the gods of Little Garden?"
Ryo smiled faintly.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"You think a mere Four-Digit like me could secure a Two-Digit opportunity for you? No one would buy that. If I had that kind of ability, why wouldn't I make myself a Two-Digit first?"
"Oh?" Algol gave him a look that clearly said, 'Go on. I'm listening.'
Ryo didn't rise to it. He simply smiled wider.
"Besides… who can prove I ever went to another world?"
"Since the day before yesterday, I've been right here in this underground prison, diligently modifying the Greek Gods."
As he finished speaking, the cosmos that had been restraining the prison suddenly contracted, collapsing into a streak of light that shot into his brow.
The God Cloth stationed here to maintain security returned to him.
As it sank into his forehead, Ryo said calmly, "My Cosmo has been permeating this entire prison the whole time."
"Damn it!" Algol blurted. "You set up an alibi?!"
Ryo tilted his chin slightly, laughter in his voice.
"Who can prove I wasn't here?"
Then he strode into the depths of the prison.
.
.
.