"That should be enough overall. Did you understand? Do you need mama to explain again?"
After patiently finishing her explanation, watching Ryuga who appeared to be thinking, Pandora blinked and asked.
Ryuga silently shook his head, indicating it wasn't necessary.
Seeing him looking like he was pondering some difficult problem, Pandora thought Ryuga hadn't completely understood at first, so she immediately spoke comfortingly:
"It's normal not to understand immediately! After all, this is a technique that even took me over a thousand years to construct and several thousand years to optimize. It's not that easy to understand."
"Moreover, constructing this technique requires the vast wisdom of extremely excellent Earth Mother Goddesses. Truly capable of accomplishing this feat is only me alone. Without this knowledge base, understanding slowly is very normal!"
Though she knew Ryuga had used a massive array of techniques to overwhelm Verethragna, those techniques were ultimately only Sanctuary-level magic, still far inferior to divine power.
Additionally, Pandora didn't know how long it had taken Ryuga to master so much Sanctuary-level magic.
So she inevitably misjudged Ryuga's capabilities.
"Anyway, mama is always here. If you need help, you can come find mama anytime! I can keep teaching until you learn!"
Saying this, Pandora patted her chest, her eyes shining.
Obviously, her real purpose was to have Ryuga visit her more often.
This was her most studious child, and also the only one who could always remember her.
A few seconds after Pandora finished speaking, Ryuga finally awakened from his contemplation. Seeing the girl's expectant eyes, he shook his head.
"No need. I've already learned it."
"It's no trouble, I'm always free... wait, what did you say?"
Pandora, who thought Ryuga was trying to politely decline, was stunned, somewhat disbelieving her own ears.
How could he have learned it so quickly!
Though she hadn't held anything back, many implementation details had been omitted from the overall explanation. Even she herself might not be able to fully learn just from hearing this much. Ryuga learned it all from one listen?
"I said I've already learned it."
Ryuga repeated this sentence and casually explained:
"I was just thinking whether there was a way to optimize this technique."
"Optimize?"
Pandora was stunned again.
She had already been optimizing for thousands of years and felt this technique had no room for further optimization.
Ryuga had only seen this technique for the first time, and after just one listen, he understood it completely—but now he was talking about optimization?
"That's right."
Ryuga nodded with a calm expression.
"I want to remove the limitation of only obtaining one Authority at a time."
Besides rare oddities like Verethragna, most Heretic Gods had multiple Authorities they could use, yet Campiones could often only obtain one Authority after defeating them, and couldn't even choose which one.
Though Authorities were still granted based on compatibility, so basically no Campione would hate their Authority.
For children, this kind of multiple-choice scenario might have its own appeal.
But Ryuga was an adult—he wanted them all.
As the victor, being unable to receive all the spoils of the defeated—was this reasonable?
Hearing Ryuga's idea, Pandora immediately held her forehead, looking at Ryuga with caring eyes.
What impossible daydream was this child having?
"Don't think about it! I've researched this for two thousand years—this limitation cannot be removed!"
The girl waved her hand, advising Ryuga not to waste energy on this.
As the mother who created Campiones, Pandora's position was naturally bound to the Campiones.
God knows how she had endured these years, watching her children die one by one at the hands of Heretic Gods.
If she could really remove the limitation and give her children cheat-like advantages, she would have done so long ago.
Since she hadn't, the reason was naturally singular.
"It simply can't be done!"
Pandora stared directly into Ryuga's eyes, emphasizing this point again.
She knew Ryuga was skilled at weaving techniques, so she was somewhat worried he might go down the wrong path.
It didn't matter if she wasted thousands of years on futile attempts, but Campiones often couldn't live for thousands of years—she couldn't let Ryuga waste time on such impossible things.
Through Pandora's gaze, Ryuga knew she was saying this purely out of concern, but he still shook his head.
"What I mean is, I've already completed it."
"Huh?"
Looking at the reweaved technique in Ryuga's hands and the Ring of Usurpation whose control had been switched over in an instant, Pandora was completely dumbfounded.
What had Ryuga just said?
No! Wait! What were the rules of the technique in his hands?
"This is impossible!"
Though she said this, Pandora's heart had already wavered. Ryuga's method of deploying techniques was a completely new approach she had never considered—maybe it really was possible to remove the limitation!
"When Steel Hero Gods originally usurped Earth Mother Goddesses' Authority, there was no numerical limitation either. Since the prototype was like this, there's no reason why Campiones usurping Authority should necessarily have numerical restrictions."
Seeing Pandora's wavering expression, Ryuga spoke with composed confidence.
"The theory is correct, but actually removing the limitation on Authority numbers would make it impossible to maintain stability!"
Pandora analyzed the technique while voicing her doubts.
"To expand a technique specifically targeting Earth Mother Goddesses to cover the entire pantheon, numerical adjustments should be necessary!"
"Your approach is wrong."
Ryuga shook his head.
"Forcibly expanding the scope of application naturally requires paying a price, but using mirror analysis can circumvent this point."
"The paradigm of Steel Hero Gods replacing Earth Mother Goddesses can indeed help usurp Authority, but couldn't the succession of Civilization Gods replacing Traditional Tribal Gods also achieve this?"
"There's such an operation?!"
Pandora felt like she had opened the door to a new world.
At this moment, she had already verified Ryuga's technique theory. Though she hadn't completely understood it yet, she could already confirm that this was indeed a method capable of removing the technique's limitations.
After confirming this, recalling what she had said earlier, Pandora suddenly felt very embarrassed.
She had confidently declared something impossible, yet he had solved it in just a few minutes.
So was this child really human?
How did he seem even more outrageous than gods?
To be continued…