"Black."
"I know."
Diablo understood the situation. If Set decided to run with everything he had, even he and Testarossa together couldn't guarantee they would catch him.
It couldn't be helped. Set wasn't a freshly descended Heretic God.
After centuries, the restraints and frenzy of his original descent had worn away.
Just as the Old Man had said, he had long since "graduated" from being a Heretic God.
Set was the same.
The bindings of myth had been eroded over hundreds of years until almost nothing remained.
Treating him like the war god or god of slaughter from the legends would be a grave mistake.
"Are we still going to fight?"
"To be honest, I'd rather talk."
See? Even though he was the villain of Egyptian mythology, Set was calmly negotiating with them.
The earlier display of dignity had simply been because he hadn't known their strength.
After one bout, Set's eyes had cleared considerably.
He knew fighting Diablo brought no benefit.
Now that Testarossa had joined, the risk of defeat and flight was even higher.
Rather than that, it was better to talk peacefully and find out what the pair actually wanted from him.
"Are you truly the god Set?"
"People change. Gods do too."
"You can't expect me to remain exactly as I was in the myths forever, can you?"
If Heretic Gods stayed exactly as described in myth, what would be the point of not conforming?
"..."
The two didn't answer immediately. They simply watched Set in silence.
"Really?"
What looked like contemplation was actually a conversation with Damien. "Set may not be a Divine Ancestor with an earth-mother's spirit vision, but his position in Egyptian mythology is very special. We can use that."
In Egyptian myth, the major villains were Apophis, who swallowed the world, and Set, who murdered Osiris.
From that alone, Set clearly held no loyalty to Egyptian mythology.
"You're a god of Egyptian myth, correct?"
"I did have myths connected to it once."
"In ancient times they gave me the name Set."
"Additionally, I am the earth god Geb, the underworld god Anubis…"
This was the style of the Campione world—one deity could hold multiple identities because myths shifted and changed over time.
"Then do you know of any divine tools that can summon Heretic Gods?"
"You…"
Set frowned. He wasn't stupid. After their hints he had already guessed their goal. "You want to create Campiones?"
"Not create—strengthen!"
"!!!"
The single word nearly fried Set's brain.
Strengthen?
What did that mean?
Set activated his spirit vision.
The next moment his pupils shook violently.
What he saw was a Campione.
A Campione stood right there in the great desert, waiting for his descent!
"You're actually helping a Demon King?"
"Have you gone mad?"
Set couldn't understand what these two gods from another world were doing.
Cooperating with a Campione to help him seize Authorities?
"That has nothing to do with you."
Testarossa spoke coldly. "You now have two choices. One: we keep our eyes on you and send you back to myth."
"Two: find a scapegoat."
"..."
Set stared at them in disbelief.
"What exactly do you want me to do?"
In the end Set had no choice but to compromise.
The two options were really only one.
He couldn't risk a fight here. It would shatter his divine realm.
Once exposed outside the forbidden zone, Damien would lock onto his presence instantly.
Campiones were the mortal enemies of Heretic Gods.
When they met, one had to fall.
In other words, once Damien locked onto him, Set would be unable to escape through the Netherworld's transfer.
Unless Damien chose to let him go, it would be a fight to the death!
"Summon the gods of Egypt!"
"Turn them into Heretic Gods!"
Their demand didn't surprise Set.
So… which would it be?
Should he summon other Heretic Gods to feed Damien and get these three plagues to leave as quickly as possible?
Or fight to the bitter end?
"Whom do you wish to summon?"
"Osiris!"
"You must be joking!"
Set's face twisted with rage. "He is my beloved kin, my own brother!"
Ah, yes—his own brother.
The kind of brother you'd happily tear limb from limb.
"So?"
Hearing Set's reaction, Damien half-expected him to suddenly demand extra payment.
"I want a contract with you!"
"I help you, and afterward you absolutely must not trouble me again!"
The location of a divine realm wasn't fixed.
Set had already decided that once Damien's group left, he would move his realm's anchor to a place no one could find.
Then he would hide inside it until the Last King slaughtered every Campione of this era.
As for taking revenge on Diablo and Testarossa…
Forget it.
They were helping him kill Osiris again.
He should be thanking them.
"Fine."
Damien didn't care whether Set lived or died.
Set's Authorities overlapped with those of Poseidon and Zeus, so killing him wouldn't yield anything useful.
On the other hand, using Set to lure out several more major Egyptian gods was an excellent bargain.
Damien had no problem letting the old Heretic God off the hook.
The advantage of veteran Heretic Gods was that they could be reasoned with.
Set was no exception.
Of course, the main reason was that the visitors were simply too strong for him to fight.
If some random mortal had shown up talking nonsense, Set would have taught them exactly what the wrath of the desert god felt like.
"But do you actually possess the means to summon Osiris?"
"I do."
Set produced a wooden box from nowhere.
Inside was not just any relic—it was the one part of Osiris's dismembered body that Isis had never recovered: the male organ.
For any other god, Set wouldn't have been confident.
But for Osiris…
To reclaim his own essence, Osiris would definitely answer the summons.
^^^
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