On a satellite near Mars—
A gigantic winged beast lay sprawled across the ground, folding its enormous wings outward until they spread across both sides like an extravagant, if rather unattractive, "carpet."
Mata and Shiva were sitting on top of it, watching the show below and occasionally offering their commentary.
"Shamash is here. Makes sense, I suppose. After so many of his subordinates were wiped out, it's only natural he'd have a grudge against the Ouroboros. Still, I didn't expect even someone with his temperament to finally lose his patience."
"Oh, Baphomet? Why has that old demon crawled out again? Does he think that now Algol has returned, all the demon fossils can finally start throwing their weight around again? But why is he trying to make things difficult for Ouroboros?"
After muttering to herself for a while, Mata finally focused her attention on Amun-Ra.
Even Mata herself found this particular sun god difficult to understand.
Shamash's objective was obvious enough. There was nothing particularly strange about it. She could even make a decent guess at Baphomet's goal.
But this Egyptian sun god?
She just couldn't make sense of it.
Yes, Vishnu's Spirit Rank also symbolized the sun. In fact, one of his incarnations had even established a secret Community called the "Sun Avatara," which later served as the foundation for the original Ouroboros.
But Amun-Ra was different!
Sure, he hadn't exactly lost out in the struggle for the Egyptian supreme god position. But Vishnu's Spirit Rank wasn't exactly something a mere Three-Digit could compete for!
His opponents were all Two-Digits. How was a Three-Digit supposed to win against them?
"Strange. This is really strange."
While Mata muttered to herself, Shiva simply lay lazily on her side atop the "carpet," her expression utterly indifferent.
"Stop wondering about it. Instead of standing there muttering to yourself, you should focus on making sure things over there don't get exposed."
"Over there..." Mata gave an awkward little laugh.
She obviously knew what Shiva meant. In fact, their operation against Kalki could itself be considered a form of indirect support for that side.
"Even though we haven't received any news, Indra and Brahma should already be carrying out the plan. It's just..." Mata hesitated before saying somewhat awkwardly, "I don't know whether Ryo can successfully draw everyone's attention."
She turned her head toward Shiva. "Speaking of which, why are you so sure Ryo will cooperate with us perfectly?"
Under the original plan, she and Shiva were supposed to serve as bait, with the goal of attracting as much attention from the upper-level gods and buddhas as possible, especially the Ouroboros.
But once they confirmed that Ryo had impersonated Kalki, Shiva suddenly sent her a message and changed the plan.
Instead, they would let Ryo act freely and continue the operation with him as the central pivot.
Mata had executed the revised plan perfectly during the mission, but afterward, she had been left with a stomach full of unanswered questions.
Now, Shiva lazily replied, "Have you forgotten?"
"Forgotten what?" Mata asked in surprise.
Shiva's voice became faint and distant. "On the surface, the only things publicly associated with Ryo Yagami are Spirit Rank that supposedly targets the gods and the fact that he observed a world where the gods are anomalies that consume humans."
"But what about everything happening behind the scenes?"
"The changes brought about by the Second World War. The Spirit Rank of the King of End. The Godslayer War that's currently underway. Algol's advancement. Or the fact that our Heavenly Army and Ouroboros have now openly turned against each other."
"Not once have we been able to trace any of those events directly back to Ryo Yagami."
"But does that really mean he left behind very little evidence?"
"Once might be coincidence. Even twice, perhaps."
"But after the third, fourth, and fifth time, you have to admit one thing."
"What?" Mata asked curiously.
Shiva casually pointed toward the figure in the distant starry sky. "That man is a walking disaster!"
Mata froze.
She really wanted to complain about that description.
But after thinking about it carefully... Shiva's description was weirdly accurate.
Ever since Ryo had arrived in the Little Garden, there had been no shortage of major incidents. Five or six of them had happened in the span of barely a year.
Whether Ryo had actually been involved in all of them was another question.
But at that frequency, he certainly qualified as a "walking disaster."
Come to think of it, this guy really did have the makings of a Problem Human of Arcadia.
After all, who was the last person this much of a walking disaster?
Oh, right.... Canaria.
As Mata stared at the figure floating in space, she gradually began to see the silhouette of a short-haired woman with golden hair superimposed over him.
When it came to causing trouble, he really was cut from the same cloth as her.
_ _ _
In outer space—
The enormous sun distorted the surrounding space as it ruthlessly bore down on Ryo.
The immense mass of the sun, combined with the terrifying energy accumulated through nuclear fusion in its core, distorted spacetime and created a gravitational collapse.
That phenomenon directly destabilized the surrounding space.
Trying to escape through the boundary and make a long-distance jump under these conditions was practically impossible.
With Amun-Ra taking things seriously and personally descending in his true form, Ryo's relatively shallow mastery of spatial manipulation had little chance of resisting.
But...
Why should he run?
Ryo smiled and raised his hands, pressing his palms together as he faced the sun that was sealing off everything around him and crushing down from above. "Using a sun against me? Oh boy!"
Creating planets and then destroying them to unleash power comparable to a cosmic explosion was a fundamental ability possessed by anyone who had mastered the Seventh Sense.
So to Ryo, a sun was nothing more than a toy.
"Looks like I need to show His Excellency Amun what I'm really capable of."
A purple-black sphere of light formed in Ryo's hands.
He raised both hands and directly met the enormous sun head-on.
A tiny figure and a colossal sun collided upon the stage known as the starry sky.
Bzzzz...
An invisible vibration spread outward.
To everyone who noticed what was happening, the sun formed from Amun's divine authority suddenly trembled.
Then, without warning, it began to contract.
"What?"
Amun-Ra exclaimed in surprise.
Things weren't going according to plan.
Instead of crushing "Kalki" the moment it touched him, the sun had begun shrinking.
And it was shrinking at an astonishing speed.
By the time Amun had recovered from his shock, the enormous sun had already contracted to the size of a ping-pong ball.
Ryo held it casually in one hand.
The sun was wrapped in purple-black radiance, casting an eerie light across his face.
He smiled at Amun. "Be careful. Maximum Precaution...!"
One of the signature techniques of Wyvern Rhadamanthys, one of the 3 Judges of the Underworld.
A terrifying technique derived from the foundation of a cosmic black hole.
And now, before the eyes of the gods, it bared its fangs.
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