"They've vanished…"
Just like Tony, numerous eyes from the Netherworld were also fixed on the scene.
Thanks to Testarossa's secret blockade, those observers lost their visual feed the moment Damien and the others surrounded Zeus. It was like a television screen cutting out its signal—no one knew what had happened afterward.
Zeus. Lucifer. Lilith. Two god-kings and one chief god-level powerhouse clashing in battle. Who had come out on top?
It wasn't until Tony made his descent that the watchers reluctantly pulled back their gazes, wary of drawing trouble from the hotheaded brute through spirit vision.
"You got here pretty fast, sword boy!"
A storm-like gust swept through as an elderly man in a black trench coat materialized before Tony.
"Oh!"
Spotting the newcomer, Tony grinned in greeting. "Long time no see, old-timer!"
"Hmph!"
Marquis Voban fixed Tony with a cold stare, clearly irritated by the overly familiar tone.
He hadn't forgotten how Tony had snatched that Heretic God right out from under him.
"Haha! Even though I didn't find any Heretic Gods, running into you isn't half bad either, old man!"
A fierce battle spirit surged from Tony. To him, it didn't matter whether his opponent was a Heretic God or a Campione.
As for Marquis Voban, he wasn't about to ignore the provocation from these arrogant young upstarts who didn't know their limits.
It was his duty to teach these ignorant whelps the vast gulf between them.
BOOM!!!
With no pointless words, the two Campiones clashed violently high above Athens.
Afterward, they tore across the entire Mediterranean. The sheer destructive force they unleashed along the way once again reminded the world of the terror wielded by the Demon Kings of the Earth.
"Hm?"
On the other side, Damien sensed a ripple of magical energy from behind. "What's going on?"
"It's Tony and Marquis Voban. They've reached Athens and started fighting."
"Heh…"
Given those two's personalities, Damien wasn't surprised in the slightest that they'd come to blows.
"Well, it's got nothing to do with us."
Damien instructed his projection to keep going while his main body returned to the Demon Lord Council Chamber with Testarossa.
Inside, Hinata remained seated with her eyes closed in meditation.
A crowd had gathered around her. Even Rimuru, Artoria, and Yustisa had taken time out from their duties to watch Hinata's livestream.
"How's it looking?"
"No progress whatsoever."
As soon as Damien entered, Egwepon bounced over excitedly.
"No progress?"
Damien was mildly surprised. From what he knew, Hinata had solid initiative. "Did something happen?"
"Hinata zeroed in on the Child of Destiny in that world—the boy named Kusanagi Godou."
Rimuru logged out of the stream and gave Damien a quick rundown of everything that had happened on Hinata's side while he was away.
Half a day had passed since Hinata arrived in Japan.
Leveraging her strength as a top-tier knight and spellcaster, she had located Kusanagi Godou with ease.
At this point in the timeline, the boy's grandfather had only recently passed away, and the Prometheus Grimoire had just fallen into his hands.
"And then?"
"What did Hinata do?"
"She originally planned to just monitor him, but Luminas thought that was too much hassle and suggested hypnotizing him directly."
"Oh?"
Damien knew Hinata well enough—she wasn't the type to get hung up on sentimentality. For the sake of completing the mission, she had no qualms about using whatever means necessary.
Sure enough, she went along with it.
She cast the spell, put Kusanagi Godou under hypnosis, and questioned him.
"Did she learn anything?"
"Nothing."
Rimuru shook her head. "We got zilch. The kid's just an ordinary person with zero knowledge of the mystical side."
"Really?"
Damien thought for a moment. "I have my doubts about that."
"Huh?"
Rimuru looked puzzled. She had been watching the whole time Hinata controlled Godou and hadn't spotted anything off about him.
"Is there something more going on here?"
"Were we all fooled?"
"Impossible."
Rimuru quickly dismissed the idea. "Even though Hinata's projection there can only exert top-tier strength, hypnotizing an ordinary human shouldn't be an issue. Besides, at least six True Demon Lords were gathered around her during the process. That's the equivalent of six Heretic Gods monitoring one person at once in the Campione world. One person might slip up, but six?"
"I don't know for sure," Damien admitted. He had no concrete evidence, just a gut feeling. "Viel still hasn't fully taken control of the Campione universe, so we can't pull direct intel from there yet. Still, based on the clues I have, I refuse to believe Kusanagi Godou is completely clean."
"How so?"
Rimuru knew Damien wasn't the type to make baseless accusations or target someone without reason. If he said there was a problem with Godou, there probably was.
"After locating the kid, did you manage to get any information on the Prometheus Grimoire?"
"We already secured the tablet."
As it turned out, after failing to extract more mystical-side details from Godou, Hinata had switched focus to tracking down the divine artifact. Damien had already briefed her beforehand that Godou's grandfather had left him the stone tablet, so acquiring it had been straightforward.
[Prometheus Grimoire]
Description: The flame and wisdom that empowered the hero Prometheus. This tome allows one to unleash blue flames to steal Authorities and wield divine powers.
"A divine tool capable of stealing the Authorities of Heretic Gods."
It was hard to imagine something like this ending up in an ordinary person's hands.
Of course, for the Grimoire to activate, it first required a period of contact with a god to establish a connection. Only then could it steal their power.
Moreover, it wasn't something just anyone could use. The same artifact would react differently depending on the wielder.
Take the Prometheus Grimoire, for example. Without the proper aptitude, even holding the tablet wouldn't reveal its true function, let alone awaken it.
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