— — — — — —
The torrent of light swallowed Zeus whole. And in that instant, thunder roared.
Sound came before light.
The laws of physics twisted on the spot.
Only after the peal of thunder exploded through the sky did golden lightning spear forward, ripping through the flood of radiance and driving straight at Ryo.
In an instant, dense white crystals erupted across Ryo's body, layering over him like countless mirrored walls.
His own defensive counter technique, brought to life.
The lightning seemed to sense the trouble. It pulled back abruptly and reformed at a distance into a figure.
Waves of white hair. Azure eyes. A white robe.
Zeus, King of the Greek Gods.
A flash of violet flickered across his body. When he fully reappeared, thirteen star-points glowed from head to toe, forming the shape of a tailless scorpion across his frame.
"Wretched rat!"
Zeus roared. A river of stars gathered in his palm and condensed into a spear of lightning.
Being ambushed and poisoned back to back had clearly disgusted him.
Across from him, Ryo let out a cold laugh. "If I were you, I wouldn't be doing any cardio right now."
"What?"
Zeus's eyes widened.
Then it hit.
An indescribable pain surged through him. From flesh. From soul. From his very divinity. It crashed into his consciousness like a tidal wave.
"AAAAAA—!"
His scream tore through Olympus.
Among the Gold Saints, Scorpio's Scarlet Needle stood alongside Pisces' Royal Demon Rose as the two great poison techniques. Both were tailor-made to torment enemies with immense durability and overwhelming vitality.
But Scarlet Needle, Antares, was crueler.
One strike was enough to infect the target with Scorpio's venom and unleash pain beyond imagination. Even gods in the Saint Seiya world had struggled to endure it. It wasn't just an attack. It was torture made manifest.
And that was only the beginning.
After fifteen strikes, the venom would detonate outright.
A guaranteed kill in fifteen hits.
Most Scorpio Saints liked to fire one needle at a time, either out of twisted mercy or to savor their opponent's suffering.
Ryo didn't bother with that.
He fired fifteen Scarlet Needles in under a second. No theatrics. No mercy. He clearly intended to end Zeus on the spot.
If not for the uncertainty of the detonation's success rate, he might have simply stacked more, trying to let the pain itself kill Zeus.
Unfortunately, Zeus's instincts were razor sharp. He sensed something was wrong and dodged at the last second. Thirteen needles hit. Two missed.
He endured agony beyond reason, but avoided the full fifteen-hit detonation. That bought him a sliver of breathing room.
But Ryo had no intention of giving it to him.
Before Zeus could even clutch his chest and howl, Ryo's arms dissolved into pure light.
Hundreds of millions of lightspeed punches erupted at once, converging into the shape of a golden lion that lunged forward to bite.
Meteor Fist.
A faint hum rippled through space.
The Garden's central system had detected power exceeding the match's limit. In an instant, the surrounding area transformed into a Gift Game arena, forcibly capping their output.
Ryo had anticipated this.
Without hesitation, both arms and legs turned to light.
At its core, Meteor Fist compressed lightspeed strikes into a single, devastating blow meant to pulverize the enemy's body. Most Gold Saints, for style points, limited themselves to cool strikes.
But Ryo wasn't fighting for style.
He used all four limbs. In fact, he favored kicks.
If you're going to slap someone in the face, might as well stomp on it.
Well... he didn't need to say it. The watching gods could read his intent plainly.
Everyone knew he meant to use Zeus as a stepping stone.
Nobody expected him to literally step on him.
Absolutely unhinged.
Wracked by pain and caught mid-attack, Zeus made a brutal decision.
His body collapsed.
It dissolved into formless clouds, spreading like mist.
Meteor Fist struck true, but Zeus expanded his mass through vaporization, allowing parts of himself to be shredded by the cosmos-fueled assault.
Minor injury in exchange for time.
He was buying seconds to suppress the venom.
Freezing air began gathering in Ryo's palm. The first Gold technique he had ever mastered flickered into existence.
Aurora Execution.
Absolute zero condensed into radiant polar light.
But before it could fire, Zeus's roar burst outward as pure will.
"Don't you dare!"
The world rang.
Ryo's soul and skull vibrated violently. It felt like countless people were beating drums inside his head. With the resonance came a surge of primal terror.
The sound seemed to come from within. From his bloodline. From his genes. From humanity's ancient instinct to fear thunder.
He froze for a fraction of a second.
And that was all Zeus needed.
Suppressing Scorpio's venom by unknown means, he raised the Thunderbolt, ready to throw—
"Ugh—!"
Suddenly Zeus coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
He stared in disbelief.
"Hydra venom? You coated your fists with poison too?!"
For the first time in his long life, Zeus encountered someone this ruthless.
The venom of the Hydra, the same toxin that even Heracles had struggled to endure. Ryo had smeared it over his own fists, endured its torment from the start, and used it to strike Zeus while he was dispersed as mist.
This lunatic had poisoned himself just to poison his opponent.
What kind of madman did I pick a fight with?
Ryo snapped out of the fear, forcibly suppressing his instincts. His gaze turned icy.
Meteor Fist formed again, and under a storm of lightspeed punches, it slammed into Zeus.
"Pointless. Hydra venom is nothing. I can purge it in a second—AHHHHHHH!"
The taunt collapsed into a shriek.
"It's the Scorpion Demoness's poison!"
Sun Wukong's voice rang out in shock from the void.
In Journey to the West, the Scorpion Demoness had once stung even the Buddha, forcing him to cry out in pain. Its toxicity wasn't the deadliest, but in terms of sheer agony, it was second to none.
"Don't look at me. I already digested that scorpion ages ago. No idea where Ryo got the venom." The Rooster Sun Lord sighed helplessly.
That scorpion had offended the Buddha. There was no way he could've let it live.
"Bastard!"
Half his body blown apart by three Galaxian Explosions, overwhelmed by layered toxins and relentless pain, Zeus finally snapped.
Golden divine armor manifested around him. The Aegis shield locked onto his left arm. A short sword appeared in his left hand, the Thunderbolt in his right. Winged golden boots formed at his feet. A white cloud gathered beneath him. A halo of wisdom flared behind his head.
Behind his back, sovereign-class artifacts shimmered faintly in the void, ready to descend.
Brilliant seven-colored divine light engulfed him. The spirits of the awakened artifacts were unleashing their power.
The glare was so intense Ryo had to squint.
"Die!"
Zeus roared and moved—
A hand landed lightly on his shoulder, gripping his arm.
"Brother, don't be so impulsive."
Indra smiled as he restrained Zeus.
In that instant, Ryo struck again.
For the first time, he burned his cosmos to the limit. A dazzling river of stars wrapped around him.
Maximum output.
Galaxian Explosion.
He intended to kill Zeus outright while Indra held him in place.
"Hmph."
An annoyed snort echoed.
Ryo's attack vanished without a trace.
Arms suddenly looped around his neck from behind, locking him under an armpit in a brutal chokehold.
"You trying to piss me to death?"
He recognized Shiroyasha's voice immediately.
Ryo went still.
Head lowered, caught in the hold, hidden from everyone's sight—
The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward.
.
.
.