Generally speaking, the power of gods was simply too terrifying. They could easily cause catastrophic damage to the mortal world.
That was why gods who descended to the Lower World sealed away their divine power and reduced themselves to the level of ordinary people.
However, Rowan had just vanished and appeared behind them in an instant.
That was obviously not something an ordinary person could accomplish.
No—
even a high-Level adventurer might not be capable of such a feat.
Thus, Ais and Riveria instinctively assumed that Rowan had never sealed away his divine power.
And if a powerful God of Death unleashed even a casual attack, he could potentially reduce the entire Labyrinth City of Orario to ashes.
Both women immediately realized that things had become extremely serious.
Unfortunately, this was a complete misunderstanding.
Rowan was not a god from this world in the first place.
He did not possess this world's divine power at all.
He had Devil Fruit abilities.
He had chakra.
He had magical power.
But divine power?
He had none whatsoever.
That was why neither Loki nor Hestia had sensed any divine power from Rowan. They had simply assumed that, like every other god who descended to the Lower World, he had sealed it away.
Who could have imagined that Rowan simply did not possess such a thing?
What he had instead were Devil Fruit powers, chakra, magic, and all sorts of other abilities.
Seeing Ais and Riveria staring at him as though facing a mortal enemy, Rowan immediately understood that the two women had misunderstood the situation.
However, he had no intention of explaining.
Instead, he asked,
"Why are you two following me?"
Riveria took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
Without making it obvious, she pulled Ais behind herself protectively, then bowed respectfully toward Rowan.
"Please forgive us, Lord God. We did not intentionally follow you."
"Our goddess suddenly remembered something and asked us to come inform you."
At a time like this, the best option was naturally to hide behind someone important.
And Loki was about as impressive a shield as one could ask for.
"Oh? What does Loki want with me?"
"She wishes to invite you to dinner."
Riveria began lying through her teeth.
Rowan instantly saw through her little trick and smiled.
"You seem to have forgotten something."
"Children of the mortal races cannot deceive gods."
Riveria's heart skipped a beat.
She silently cursed herself.
She had been so nervous that she had actually forgotten something so basic.
Strictly speaking, it was not that mortals were incapable of lying in front of gods.
Rather, their lies simply could not deceive them.
Even after sealing away their divine power, gods could still effortlessly see through mortal lies.
As time passed, very few people dared lie in front of a god.
After all, deceiving a deity was hardly a wise decision.
If one accidentally angered them, the consequences would far outweigh any possible benefit.
"We were…"
Ais, who had been standing behind Riveria, noticed the slight trembling of Riveria's body and attempted to tell Rowan the truth.
But before she could finish, Riveria quickly covered her mouth.
"Leave this to me."
Riveria gave her a look that clearly said, Don't say anything. I'll handle this.
Ais hesitated briefly before finally closing her mouth.
Riveria took another breath and said,
"My apologies, Lord God. I lied just now. Please forgive me."
Rowan gave a faint hum.
"I'm a god. Do you really think I'm going to hold a petty grudge against one elf?"
"Judging by your behavior, Loki probably sent you here to spy on me, didn't she?"
Riveria's expression stiffened slightly before she smiled bitterly.
"As expected of a god."
Rowan remained unmoved.
"So what exactly is Loki trying to do?"
If Riveria could not give him a proper explanation today, then she should not blame him for giving the two women a small punishment.
Seeing Rowan pressing the issue, Riveria knew the situation had become troublesome.
But as a member of the Loki Familia, she could not betray Loki either.
She could only lower her head again.
"I'm terribly sorry, Lord God. I cannot tell you."
"You can't tell me?"
Rowan looked at Riveria with an amused smile.
"That's correct."
Riveria lowered her head even further.
Rowan snorted lightly.
"Fine. If you don't want to say it, I won't force you."
"But I'll still give you a small punishment."
"Relax. It won't kill you."
"At worst, it'll just make things inconvenient for a while."
With that, Rowan snapped his fingers and activated Shape Magic.
In an instant, Riveria rapidly shrank until she was no larger than the palm of a hand.
Riveria: "???"
Ais: "!!!"
Both women were completely dumbfounded.
Riveria stared in disbelief at the now-gigantic Ais.
Never before had she thought Ais could look so enormous.
She was even more terrifying than a giant.
As for Ais, she had never seen Riveria looking so tiny before.
She was only palm-sized.
Far too miniature.
And far too cute.
The shrunken Riveria's adorableness was practically illegal.
"You'll return to normal after one week," Rowan told Riveria.
"Until then, stay like this."
With that, he turned around and left.
Ais watched Rowan's retreating figure before crouching down and carefully lifting Riveria into her hands.
Then she sprinted toward Loki's location.
Before long, the two returned to the Loki Familia's headquarters, Twilight Manor, and found Loki, who had just returned.
"Huh? Ais, why are you back?"
"Didn't I tell you two to go check out that God of Death?"
"Where's Riveria?"
Ais carefully opened her palm.
Riveria stood inside it.
Loki: "???"
She stared blankly at the tiny Riveria in Ais's hand.
"Wait. Am I seeing things?"
"Why does this tiny little thing look so much like Riveria?"
Riveria helplessly looked up at the gigantic Loki and sighed.
"Loki. It's me."
Loki immediately jumped backward as though the Riveria standing in Ais's palm were some terrifying monster.
She had to admit—
she had genuinely been frightened.
"Riveria?"
"It's me."
Loki cautiously stepped closer and leaned toward Ais's hand.
She stared at the palm-sized Riveria from the left.
Then the right.
From above.
From below.
From the front.
From behind…
The veins on Riveria's forehead began bulging.
Even someone as patient as her became furious at Loki's expression, which made her look like she was examining some fascinating new toy.
Riveria raised her staff and smashed it directly into Loki's eyelid.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! That hurts! That really hurts!"
Loki immediately collapsed to the ground and rolled around in pain.
Although Riveria had become smaller and her physical strength had decreased accordingly, the eyes were still among the most vulnerable parts of the body.
With her divine power sealed, Loki was not much different from an ordinary person.
Naturally, she could not endure such a blow very well.
Fortunately, the recovery ability of gods was extraordinary.
Before long, Loki recovered.
She rubbed her swollen eye, climbed back to her feet, and stared at Riveria and Ais.
"What the hell happened?"
"Why is Riveria so tiny?"
Riveria replied,
"The God of Death discovered us."
Loki gave a small hum.
Riveria continued,
"He doesn't seem to have sealed his divine power."
"After discovering us, he punished me by turning me into this."
"Impossible."
Loki instinctively rejected the idea.
The Labyrinth City of Orario was a playground for the gods.
No one was allowed to destroy that arrangement.
If any god violated the rules by unsealing their divine power and using it, they would immediately be forcibly returned to Heaven.
There were no exceptions.
That was why no god dared openly use divine power in Orario.
This was not something anyone joked about.
If the God of Death had genuinely used divine power to shrink Riveria, he would already have been forcibly returned to Heaven.
Riveria said,
"But this is what happened."
Loki carefully examined Riveria for a while before noticing something.
"It wasn't divine power."
"It was magic."
"Magic?"
Riveria froze.
She herself was a master of magic.
Not only was she a top-tier Level 6 adventurer, but she was also known as the Nine Hell.
Ordinary adventurers could only possess up to three spells.
Riveria, however, could use three categories of magic—attack, defense, and healing—with three different tiers in each category.
That gave her a total of nine spells, which she could even chain together through concurrent chanting.
That was precisely the origin of her title, Nine Hell.
Yet even she had failed to recognize what Rowan used as magic.
"That's right."
Loki nodded confidently.
"It's magic."
"And extremely strange magic at that."
"No wonder that guy wasn't sent back to Heaven."
"So he actually learned magic."
"What an unusual bastard."
Why did gods seal away their divine power after descending to the Lower World?
Partly because their own power was far too great.
And partly because they wanted to experience the lives of ordinary mortals.
Therefore, after sealing their divine power, gods generally did not deliberately learn things like mortal magic.
But could gods learn magic?
Of course they could.
They simply saw no need.
After descending, they could establish Familias and let their children handle the pressures of everyday life.
Even gods who failed to establish successful Familias could simply work ordinary jobs.
Besides, gods were forbidden from entering the Dungeon.
So learning magic was practically useless to them.
Yet under these circumstances, a god had suddenly appeared who had not only learned magic—
but was frighteningly skilled at using it.
Naturally, that made Loki curious.
What exactly did this guy learn magic for?
Could he genuinely be planning to cause some huge incident?
Loki's eyes flickered.
Her curiosity toward Rowan became even stronger.
However, before worrying about that, the first thing she needed to do was remove the spell and return Riveria to her normal size.
Although Loki was known as the God of Lies and Mischief, she was actually an exceptionally skilled shapeshifter and magician.
Back in Heaven, she had used magic to pull off countless pranks.
Her magical accomplishments were anything but shallow.
She might not compare with Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, but ordinary gods could not hope to match her.
However, after thoroughly examining the magic affecting Riveria, Loki discovered something astonishing.
She did not recognize it.
Well—
it was not exactly that she failed to recognize it as magic.
Rather, the magic affecting Riveria was fundamentally different from every kind of magic Loki knew.
There was almost no connection between them at all.
~~~
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