— — — — — —
Watching Zeus' counterpart become his, Ryo couldn't help laughing.
"So that old bastard really thought I was one of Hermes' incarnations. Is he planning to get something for nothing?"
Chuckling to himself, Ryo accepted the auction house's delivery and immediately got up to leave.
...
At the same time, back in Bubble Room 12, Ryo patted Kurousagi on the shoulder. "All right, it's time for us to go. What's coming next isn't something we're meant to get involved in."
The remaining auction would simply be ordinary black-market trading. Vishnu's counterpart would be saved for the finale, so there was no reason for Ryo to stick around and provoke those terrifying higher-ups any further.
He turned to Shiroyasha, "You staying, or are you coming with us?"
She waved him off. "You go ahead. I've got a few old acquaintances to catch up with."
Ryo nodded.
With that, he took Kurousagi's hand and stepped through the teleportation gate inside the bubble.
..
Meanwhile, the mind-clone disguised as Hermes, carrying Zeus' counterpart, was randomly teleported to a narrow alley in another city of Outer Gate 7752.
The city wasn't far from Elm City. Less than five thousand kilometers away in a straight line. For any four-digit, that was practically next door.
After checking his surroundings, Ryo let out a cold laugh. "Heh. Of all places, the random teleport drops me here. The Ori Guild isn't even trying to hide it anymore."
"...Or was this Zeus' doing?"
As he spoke, he used Leticia's Shadow Authority to transfer the Gift Card carrying Zeus' counterpart to his real body.
The Hermes clone itself remained where it was, quietly waiting for Zeus to arrive.
Before long, a wave of psychic perception swept across him.
"Here he comes."
A thousand kilometers away. Purple lightning flashed through the pitch-black depths of the sea, racing toward Ryo's location at incredible speed.
Then... a tiny golden flame appeared.
The instant it was born, it expanded explosively.
Golden fire ignited the surrounding seawater, turning vast stretches of the dark ocean into a blazing sea of flames.
In only a few breaths, the fire completely surrounded the approaching lightning.
The next moment, Zeus' furious roar echoed from within the inferno. "Amun!"
A deep chuckle answered him, "Zeus... stay awhile. I've wanted your Lightning Authority for a very long time."
"Amun, the Godslayer War isn't at the stage where I'm supposed to enter." Zeus' voice gradually calmed. He clearly had no desire to clash with Amun here.
Amun's low laughter came again, "Since you've already come... you might as well stay."
The battle erupted beneath the sea.
Purple lightning and golden flames each claimed half of the ocean, colliding endlessly beneath the black waters.
Even standing inside the distant city, Ryo could still feel the heat of the flames and see flashes of violet lightning illuminating the horizon.
"So it's begun." Watching everything unfold, Ryo smiled knowingly. "Zeus really descended into the Lower Layers as a Heretic God."
"He was obviously planning to pull something behind the scenes. No wonder someone was waiting to ambush him... Unfortunately, that was only his incarnation."
According to the Godslayer Treaty, Zeus wasn't supposed to enter until the number of competitors had dropped below two hundred.
So instead, he'd descended early under the identity of a Heretic God.
He had clearly intended to interfere.
It was only natural that Amun, one of Egypt's Great Ennead, had seized the opportunity to attack.
And Ryo could sense plenty of other hidden presences lurking throughout the deep sea. Wolves waiting to reap the rewards after the fight.
His eyes flickered.
In the end, he abandoned the idea of killing this incarnation of Zeus.
It simply wasn't worth it. This wasn't Zeus' official entry into the tournament yet, so killing this Heretic God wouldn't accomplish much.
Besides, there were too many predators watching.
Throwing himself into a pack of wolves for an incarnation? Not happening.
Before any of the hidden observers shifted their attention toward him, Ryo voluntarily dispersed his mind-clone.
The next instant, several psychic senses swept over the area.
"He ran? What a pity..."
Accompanied by disappointed murmurs, the hidden ambushers all turned their attention back toward Zeus.
With the fake "Hermes" gone, Zeus immediately lost all desire to continue fighting. He began retreating while battling, searching for an opening to escape.
But none of that had anything more to do with Ryo anymore.
...
..
Outer Gate 7777—
Ryo and Kurousagi appeared hand in hand.
Before they had even fully stabilized after teleporting, a familiar figure materialized before them... Lakshmi.
Kurousagi froze. Then her expression changed dramatically.
"...So you're one of the surviving Moon Rabbits?" Lakshmi looked at Kurousagi with mild surprise before a faint smile crossed her face. "Interesting. It seems Indra treasures you greatly if he entrusted that to you."
The Moon Authority, second only to the Sun Authority in status.
The moment Lakshmi saw Kurousagi, she immediately recognized the Gift she carried. That alone surprised her.
But she hadn't come here for Kurousagi.
Seeing Lakshmi, Ryo frowned, "Does this black market have any security at all?"
His mind-clone had been set up by Zeus. Now his real body had been intercepted by Lakshmi.
The auction's teleportation system was starting to look laughably unsafe.
Lakshmi rolled her eyes. "You make it sound like I'm here to attack you. Relax. I didn't arrange this. We just happened to run into each other."
Ryo gave her a sidelong glance.
His expression made it perfectly clear that he didn't believe a word of it.
A coincidence?
More likely she'd used some kind of divination again to predict exactly where he'd appear.
Being tracked over and over like this was starting to make Ryo question his own anti-divination abilities.
But that didn't make sense. The Leo Sun Authority was with him.
Unless a two-digit existence personally intervened, no divination should have been capable of locating him.
His eyes narrowed, "Who's helping you?"
Lakshmi's smile immediately became playful. "So you figured it out."
Then she turned her head, "Looks like I won the bet."
"Hmph. How boring."
A clear, childish voice sounded nearby.
Ryo's expression changed. Only then did he realize that someone had been standing beside Lakshmi the entire time.
A tiny girl.
She had two golden dragon horns growing from her forehead, long white hair, purple eyes, and a beautiful yet youthful face.
That appearance...
Ryo's heart skipped a beat as he realized who she was.
One of the seventeen two-digit existences. The World Dragon, Kurma.
(image)
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