"Hinata found a good location for a divine descent in Japan. They even have a ready-made shrine maiden to officiate the ritual."
"Really?"
Damien looked out over the endless golden desert as he descended from the sky and landed on a skyscraper rooftop. "What's the miko's name?"
While Hinata kept the Japanese authorities busy with polite conversation, Damien had finally crossed the Mediterranean and reached Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
"Mariya Yuri."
Damien split his attention between the two bodies—one conversing with Rimuru, the other exploring Cairo.
"Ah, her."
He had a vague impression of the Hime-Miko. If he remembered correctly, she had something of a saintly personality.
Not the manipulative kind—Mariya Yuri wasn't a green-tea girl.
Her issue was that she sometimes failed to recognize the limits of her own power.
It was like seeing someone in trouble and stepping in to help even when you lacked the ability to do so.
Some people would call that kindness.
Damien agreed.
But what if helping came at the cost of putting yourself—or your family and friends—in danger?
That was how he evaluated Mariya Yuri.
In a similar situation he would always protect himself and those he cared about first.
He would never gamble their safety just to feel good about himself.
More accurately, as long as his own people were safe, Damien could do whatever he wanted with a clear conscience.
Good and evil had never mattered to him.
The only thing that did was the people he considered his own.
"Should we try to bring her into the Monster Kingdom?"
Rimuru didn't dislike Mariya Yuri.
If anything, people with high senses of justice tended to attract one another.
What Damien saw as a flaw was precisely what drew Rimuru and the others to her.
Damien didn't argue.
At the very least Mariya Yuri wasn't the kind of person who would turn on them. She did have the qualifications to join.
"Let Hinata try making contact," Damien decided, then instructed Viel. "After all, once we return to Japan we'll need her spirit vision to help summon Luminas and the rest."
A summoning ritual carried risks for the miko performing it.
If they were going to ask for help, it would be too cold-hearted not to offer something in return.
"Of course!"
Damien added, "If Hinata finds their worldviews don't match, then we'll drop it."
They could try, but there was no need to force it.
The Monster Kingdom already had plenty of talent. While Mariya Yuri was one of the original heroines, she didn't particularly stand out among them.
Damien personally preferred Liliana.
"Lord Damien."
Through their familiar contract, Testarossa reported, "Black has gone to scout, but it will take a little more time."
"No problem."
Damien had no intention of lingering in Cairo. If his subordinate was working hard, he wasn't about to lounge in a hotel.
"Let's move. We'll head straight into the real-world desert and explore the pyramids and oases."
Egypt's Netherworld divine realms couldn't be completely detached from the material world.
According to Viel's calculations, the most likely anchor points left by the Egyptian gods were the ancient temples and famous historical sites from the pharaonic era.
Luxor Temple, the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, the pyramid complex…
The desert was vast, but Damien was no longer an ordinary human.
A Campione's physique meant he could traverse the whole of Egypt in a very short time without food, drink, or rest.
"I'll head out too."
Seeing Damien ready to move, Testarossa naturally wouldn't stay idle.
She and Diablo worked in tandem with him, searching the Netherworld for forbidden zones and marking their corresponding locations in the real world through magical links.
It sounded simple, but it was actually a massive undertaking.
The Netherworld was far larger than the material plane.
And the Egyptian gods' divine realms weren't as numerous as Damien had imagined.
The Netherworld existed in the gap between life and death.
Most of the gods' domains lay within the Realm of the Dead—the true resting place of myth.
Only Heretic Gods like the Old Man (Susanoo), who had descended and then hidden themselves in the Netherworld, were likely to leave behind actual divine realms there.
Divine Ancestors were another possibility.
Those ancient earth-mother goddesses, defeated by steel hero-gods, had reincarnated as beings known as Divine Ancestors after death.
Divine Ancestors were transcendent beings who surpassed humanity. Their power and souls fell short of the gods', but their spirit vision was exceptionally high and they could weave magic as naturally as breathing.
They bore the Dragon-Snake Seal. When released, they could temporarily regain their original earth-mother form at the cost of their eternal life—a double-edged sword.
Reincarnation took centuries, and they retained no memories of their previous lives as goddesses.
Honestly, Divine Ancestors wouldn't help Damien much in analyzing the roots of a divine system.
Killing one granted no Authorities.
Still…
Finding one wouldn't be a bad thing.
Divine Ancestors were far superior ritual officiants compared to ordinary miko or priests.
Having a Divine Ancestor—especially one tied to the local culture—conduct the summoning for the Egyptian gods would dramatically increase the chances of a successful Heretic God descent.
"Found it!!"
Roughly half a day later, good news arrived from Diablo.
Black had successfully located a forbidden zone inside Egypt's Netherworld!
That meant a Heretic God—or possibly a Divine Ancestor—had to be hiding there.
"Where?!"
Without hesitation, Damien headed for the real-world location most likely connected to the forbidden zone.
The result was exactly as the three of them had expected.
The moment Damien stepped into a certain oasis, Diablo tore open the seal of the forbidden zone in the Netherworld and forced his way inside.
"Who goes there?!"
BOOM!!
Without warning, a pair of enormous hands formed from storm and sand lunged toward Diablo.
"Hah. Is that all?"
Diablo sneered, feeling he had been underestimated.
In the next instant the sand and storm froze, allowing him to see clearly the appearance of the being that lived in seclusion here.
^^^
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