— — — — — —
"This fluctuation...?"
Suzaku sensed that something was off. More accurately, it was the vermilion bird beast residing within her that noticed it first and alerted her.
"Shh."
Ryo raised a finger to his lips, signaling for silence.
Understanding immediately, Suzaku stopped what she was doing and motioned with her eyes for Akeno to take the other two away.
Once Akeno led Asia and Valerie into the neighboring room to rest, Ryo gave Suzaku another quiet warning glance before finally accepting Indra's communication.
A screen suddenly appeared before him, displaying Indra in his monk's robes and prayer beads.
"Loki, the information you provided last time was excellent. Angra Mainyu was full of praise for your research. He even said he'd very much like to meet the genius dragon creator himself."
The moment the connection opened, Indra let out a sinister chuckle, clearly in a very good mood.
Beside Ryo, Suzaku couldn't help glancing at him when she heard the name "Loki."
Ryo's face remained expressionless, but if one looked closely, a faint smile could be seen tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Let's skip the meeting. I'm still operating within the territory controlled by the Three Factions. It's not exactly a good time for that."
'Not just inside their territory. I'm practically the heart of it,' Ryo added silently.
"I see. Gathering intelligence, then? You've worked hard. Being watched by both Ophis and Yagami must be quite stressful."
Whatever Indra had imagined in his head, the things coming out of his mouth were definitely putting Ryo's acting skills to the test.
Ryo exaggerated the smile on his face just enough to fit Loki's established personality—a man who hated being praised.
"Indra, if you're contacting me now, I assume something important has come up?"
"Loki, if it weren't important, I wouldn't bother calling a scheming bastard like you." Indra grinned. "Did you know? Odin wants to have a talk with Ryo Yagami."
"Hm?" Ryo raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
"Odin?"
Then he clenched his teeth and put on a look of resentment. "He actually..."
The reaction fit Loki's anger at Odin perfectly. If anything, it was a little overacted.
Indra noticed nothing unusual and merely sneered. "Don't forget, Greece is finished. Among the European mythological factions, only the Celtic gods in Britain and your Norse pantheon are left. The Celtics have already begun to decline with age, and their influence is nowhere near what it once was. The only force still capable of resisting the three factions is Norse mythology."
"And the Norse gods are far too close to Heaven's system and far too far from us. Even though I extended an olive branch, Odin doesn't dare gamble on it. Heaven is nearby. Mount Sumeru is far away."
"The Norse gods, huh..." Ryo narrowed his eyes, doing his best to sound calm while memories of the Norse Gods of Little Garden surfaced in his mind.
Honestly, they had it rough.
Thousands of years ago, both the Norse and Celtic pantheons had thrown their support behind the Dystopia Demon Lord, one of the two strongest Demon Lords in Little Garden's history and ruler of the West Area.
In fairness, they had chosen an incredibly powerful backer. The Dystopia Demon Lord had withstood the assault of Heaven's army, survived against all odds, and seized a full quarter of Little Garden's lower layers.
Under normal circumstances, a Demon Lord of that caliber might still be defeated eventually, but the odds were slim. Back then, many gods had already lost hope of ever bringing him down and had settled into passive resistance.
Then a certain woman was born.
That woman was the founder of Arcadia.
A disciple of both the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, and Queen Halloween. Strong ties with the Deva King Indra.
The woman who had taken Ryo in. The woman known as the "Poet"—Canaria.
Born in the West Area under the Dystopia Demon Lord's control, she gathered Arcadia's first generation of members, a group that was little more than a collection of nobodies, and challenged the Demon Lord head-on.
Against all expectations, she fought him to a standstill and ultimately brought about his downfall in the West Area.
The aftermath was devastating for the Norse gods. The divine factions conducted a reckoning, stripping the Norse pantheon of its standing among the gods and forcibly causing the loss of its greatest treasure, Another Cosmology.
As if that weren't enough, the gods added the concept of Ragnarok to Norse mythology and spread it throughout every universe under Little Garden's jurisdiction.
From that point on, the Norse gods were burdened with a destiny of inevitable destruction. Even survival became a form of suffering.
The Celts had it even worse.
The gods dealt with them most harshly, or rather, Queen Halloween despised traitors to the extreme.
Large portions of Celtic scriptures and historical records were erased from history itself. They became a nameless pantheon that seemed to have existed once, yet survived only through scattered fragments and obscure references.
Had that not happened, Athena would never have dared to kill Loki openly and seize his Spirit Rank for herself. After all, a god without backing or strength was little different from a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
And handing Loki's Spirit Rank to Ryo could conveniently be explained away as one of Arcadia's old war trophies. Nobody knew exactly what treasures were hidden in Arcadia's vaults.
Even though Ryo knew the place was mostly filled with junk, his rise to power had convinced most of Little Garden that Canaria must have left behind some incredible secret treasure.
No matter how often Kurousagi denied it, people would always ask: "If Canaria didn't leave any treasure behind, then how did Ryo become a four-digit rule-breaker?"
And Kurousagi could never answer that.
Back to the topic, when Ryo heard the names "Norse mythology" and "Odin," he couldn't help but feel a trace of sympathy.
The Odin of Little Garden was apparently still alive and actively trying to atone. Every few days he'd be bowing and apologizing again, hoping to be accepted back into civilized divine society.
The results weren't exactly impressive.
In fact, Ryo strongly suspected that the real Odin had died long ago and that the current one was merely a stand-in. The old monsters of Little Garden loved pulling tricks like that far too much for him not to be suspicious.
"So how does Odin plan to negotiate with the Three Factions?"
Ryo might have felt a little sympathy for the Norse gods, but when profit was involved, he'd still take a bite.
Negotiation was good.
And people willing to negotiate were the best kind of targets. Perfect pigs waiting for slaughter.
"Who knows?" Indra laughed mockingly. "Most likely he'll humiliate himself and beg for peace."
"Oh? Is that so?"
An amused smile appeared on Ryo's face.
"Then what kind of negotiations do you want, Indra?"
Hearing that, Indra clapped his hands and grinned. "As expected of Loki. You understood what I was getting at immediately."
'No, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Please reveal your plan like a proper villain,' Ryo thought, exasperated.
"Loki, just as you guessed, I intend for you to 'help' Odin negotiate. At the very least, he needs to sign a peace treaty with that Ryo Yagami. Even a humiliating one will do."
At this point, a mischievous look appeared in Indra's eyes.
"Loki, I'm planning to place you among the upper ranks of the Three Factions."
He paused before declaring proudly, "You will become our highest-ranking spy within the Three Factions."
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