Ryo silently stared at the letter.
Just earlier, while they were walking down the corridor, he'd been thinking that Ouroboros should be making a move soon.
And now the letter had then arrived.
Ryo shook his head speechlessly, broke the wax seal, and pulled out the letter inside.
The black wax began to burn silently the moment it was torn open.
Then pale-blue motes of light appeared across the envelope in Ryo's hand.
There were countless tiny specks, densely packed together, carrying some sort of probing power. They seemed to be verifying Ryo's identity.
Ryo paused and looked at the blue lights but made no attempt to resist the inspection.
Soon, the motes confirmed his divine nature. Then, like soldiers forming ranks, they lined up in midair and arranged themselves into a sentence.
{Tomorrow, 9:00 PM. Outer Gate 7177. Tulip Building, rooftop. Heracles.}
"Heracles..."
Ryo thought of the mighty hero he'd met in the Campione world while investigating the King of the End's Spirit Rank.
It had been during that investigation that Heracles found the opportunity to elevate his Authority of Strength. As a result, he owed Ryo a favor.
'I remember him saying he'd trade information about Taurus for it. Did he find something?'
Or perhaps...
Ryo clearly remembered the emblem on the letter's wax seal.
It had been the symbol of Ouroboros.
Heracles is a member of Ouroboros too?
Just how many undercover agents are there in this organization? Don't tell me Krishna is the only person in Ouroboros who's actually loyal to the organization.
Are you sure Krishna's real name isn't Gin?
While Ryo was silently making fun of the situation, the envelope in his hand began to crumble after being read. It turned into fine white sand, which quickly scattered and vanished.
"What's wrong? You look pretty strange." Natsuki Minamiya appeared beside Ryo through spatial teleportation and looked at him curiously.
Ryo shook his head. "Nothing. Just an invitation to meet from someone I know. Looks like I'll have to make a trip tomorrow."
As he spoke, he paused and turned toward Kurousagi in the living room.
After thinking about it, he decided not to mention Ouroboros. His intuition told him there wasn't much danger involved this time.
And for a four-digit Gold Saint currently advancing toward the rule-breaker rank, Ryo's intuition was, in some respects, practically equivalent to prophecy.
Of course, that assumed an existence like Krishna wasn't actively interfering with his senses.
But if Krishna really did that, Algol, who shared part of Ryo's Spirit Rank, would immediately notice and counteract it.
So the risk probably really was low.
'Maybe it really is about Taurus...' Ryo narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
"A letter from someone you know doesn't usually leave you looking like that," Natsuki muttered under her breath.
"But if you don't want to talk about it, I'm not interested in prying. Now that the letter's been delivered, I should be going." As she spoke, ripples spread through the air behind her.
"So soon?" Ryo looked at her in surprise. "You're not staying for lunch?"
"No. If you've got the time, come visit me on Itogami Island instead. It's only a matter of stepping through a door." With that, Natsuki lightly jumped backward and disappeared into the rippling space behind her.
Ryo helplessly shrugged and muttered, "If I really came all the way to Itogami Island to see you, eating would be the last thing on my mind."
Seeing Natsuki leave, Kurousagi walked over and asked curiously, "Ryo, Natsuki came to see you because...?"
"She was delivering a letter for a friend..." Ryo explained briefly, then added, "I'll be heading out tomorrow night, so I'll have to trouble you with watching the place again."
"Okay! I may not be as capable as Lady Athena or Lady Algol, but I'll do my best!"
Ryo couldn't help chuckling at the sight of the energetic Kurousagi.
...
..
The following day, Outer Gate 7177— Tulip Building—
Using his newly elevated Authority of Destruction to erase all traces of his own presence and effectively conceal himself, Ryo arrived at the base of the building and looked up at the twenty-three-story tower before him.
After studying it for a moment, he entered the building and took the elevator to the twenty-third floor.
He stepped out, walked down the corridor, and knocked on the only wooden door on that floor.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
A calm, steady voice came from inside.
Ryo recognized Heracles immediately.
After a brief pause, he turned the handle and entered.
The moment he stepped inside, he was greeted by rows upon rows of enormous bookshelves.
Each one stood six meters tall and was packed with books of every kind, creating what looked like an endless sea of literature.
At the far end of the shelves, directly across from the entrance, stood a large desk.
Behind it sat a massive figure, built like a giant, wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes.
Ryo raised an eyebrow at the sight.
Heracles removed his glasses and smiled. "Surprised? A man like me reads books."
"A little."
Ryo nodded, closed the door, and walked toward the desk.
There was a high-backed chair in front of it, clearly prepared for him.
Once Ryo sat down, Heracles leaned back against his chair and looked toward the towering bookshelves. "In a sense, these aren't really books."
As he spoke, he handed the book he'd been holding to Ryo. "You've heard of recording stones, right? The kind of stone-type Gift that can completely record events and let you experience them as though you were actually there. These books are recordings made with that."
Ryo accepted the book and opened it.
The moment he flipped to the title page, an image appeared in his mind.
A man with long cyan hair and an exaggerated, flamboyant smile was fighting a gigantic purple beast.
The beast would sometimes transform into a bolt of lightning and launch itself forward in a blur. Other times, it would spew torrents of lightning that melted through entire mountain ranges. Every movement it made was accompanied by thunder, as though it were the very master of lightning itself.
Yet the flamboyantly smiling man never lost that smile.
With light, almost casual steps, he moved according to some profound and mysterious footwork, always slipping out of the way at precisely the right moment and evading the beast's terrifying attacks.
The battle looked less like a fight and more like a circus animal trainer toying with a lion.
They fought for roughly fifteen seconds, an eternity even to four-digit beings capable of fighting at the speed of light.
Finally, the cyan-haired man suddenly stopped.
He reached out toward the lightning beast and made a grabbing motion at empty air.
In an instant, the beast froze in midair.
Its body, which had been moving with the speed of lightning, suddenly became completely motionless, like a spring cicada trapped inside amber.
The next second, the beast silently vanished.
Then, where the cyan-haired man stood, his body suddenly began to transform.
His arms stretched and became forelegs. A tail extended from his spine, while purple scales rapidly spread across his body.
Before long, a creature resembling the purple beast that had just disappeared stood in his place.
The vision ended abruptly.
After watching it, Ryo looked up at Heracles. "Stealing?"
He was trying to identify the nature of the power that flamboyant man had used. It felt strangely familiar, almost identical to the "Theft" Authority Hermes had once displayed.
"That's right." Heracles nodded and explained, "The man in the recording is Loki."
"The Norse god of theft?" Ryo's expression turned strange.
"Yes." Heracles confirmed it, then added, "He's also the special envoy Ouroboros sent this time. This recording shows him stealing a nearly pure-blooded Yasha in the West Area, taking almost everything that made it what it was."
The moment Ryo heard the name Loki, he froze.
Then...
"Caw!"
A raven's cry suddenly echoed through the study.
Black feathers drifted gently down from the air, gathering together atop the desk.
They formed a one-eyed raven, with only its left eye.
The one-eyed raven stood on the desk, glanced at Heracles, and then spoke in a human voice. "You did something unnecessary, Heracles."
After saying that, it let out a series of caws that sounded almost like laughter. Then it narrowed its single eye and stared directly at Ryo. "But this works too. Saves me the trouble of introducing myself."
The raven lifted its chin proudly. "That's right. I'm Loki!"
Ryo: "..."
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