"Another five gods?"
In the Netherworld, seeing Ryuga return again, Pandora was completely dumbfounded.
She'd seen ruthless people, but never anyone this ruthless.
Counting up, Ryuga had come to this world for less than two days, yet the gods he'd killed were one short of double digits.
In terms of god-killing numbers, even looking through all history, he belonged to the highest tier—and this was just over one day's achievement.
Comparing Authority numbers, there was no need for comparison.
Marquis Voban had accumulated for hundreds of years and only possessed eight Authorities. Before slaying these five Heretic Gods, Ryuga's Authority count already exceeded ten.
Adding these five gods, with his characteristic of completely obtaining all Heretic Gods' Authorities, Ryuga's Authority count would reach over twenty.
In thousands of years, no existence had surpassed him.
"Mm."
Ryuga nodded calmly.
"This number should be sufficient for initial research. Begin the ritual!"
"Research? Divine cores again?"
Pandora was stunned, handing Ryuga the divine tool Circle of Usurpation.
To seize gods' Authorities, this steel-attribute divine tool was the most crucial key.
Remembering Ryuga's previous self-harming research methods, she couldn't help worrying:
"This time you won't hurt yourself again, right? Mommy would be heartbroken to see that!"
"Don't worry, I won't."
After receiving the divine tool, Ryuga shook his head and activated the technique.
The steel divine tool immediately displayed strong plundering properties, completely absorbing the gods' power and transferring all divine cores to Ryuga.
Vulcan's [Olympian Forge], war god's [Light Sword], dragon-slaying hero's [Steel Protection], saint's [Thou Art Dragon], wine god's [Divine Madness]...
Authorities Doni had seen or hadn't seen poured into Ryuga's body one after another.
Ryuga had long anticipated these Authorities' effects, so he wasn't eager to experience them now.
Compared to Authorities, he was more concerned with the rules of divine cores embedding into his own power. Thus, through spiritual vision, he began observing his own changes.
Previously mentioned, human energy fields could be divided into seven layers.
Respectively: etheric body, emotional body, mental body, astral body, etheric template body, celestial body, and causal body.
Of these, the first three were considered energy bodies associated with the physical body, the latter three were template bodies for the first three, sometimes considered the soul.
The astral body in between, also called the stellar body, was the bridge connecting energy and soul.
Adding the physical body as flesh, this was humanity's complete structure.
Heretic Gods' construction differed from human construction. As energy life forms, they didn't possess physical bodies.
What appeared to be bodily structure was actually etheric bodies constructed from divine power.
If divine power was existence that could interfere with all things in the world and determine matter's direction of movement, then divine cores were templates determining divine power's operational methods.
That is, divine core structure itself corresponded to humanity's etheric template body.
This had long been verified.
Under Ryuga's observation, as the ritual proceeded, divine core power flowed backward from the etheric body, finally stopping at his etheric template body.
Other existing divine cores also rested at this position, like downloaded software on a phone, available for Ryuga's use at will.
This didn't surprise Ryuga.
When researching the Greater Grail in the TYPE-MOON world, he had already determined that whether gods' divine cores or Servants' spiritual cores, they were all types of etheric template bodies, regulating energy flow methods within life forms.
Now, his energy field fluctuations stopped at the etheric template body, meaning divine cores' internal composition wasn't related to the most mysterious celestial and causal bodies afterward.
"That is, to research divine cores, the focus is the first four layers... no, it should be just the fourth layer—the astral body!"
The first three layers could all be controlled or influenced through human actions themselves. Only the astral body couldn't—as the bridge connecting body and soul, it couldn't be directly interfered with by humans themselves.
Considering interference was mutual.
If the etheric template body used the astral body to interfere with the etheric body, then through the astral body, the etheric template body could necessarily be interfered with.
The key to divine core formation might lie here!
Previously, Ryuga had observed that divine cores' internal cores possessed some mysterious material structure that could serve as templates for constructing divine cores.
This structure's mysterious function was precisely the bridge communicating mythology and matter.
The two structures had such strong similarity that Ryuga had to speculate this mysterious structure was related to the so-called astral body.
Perhaps there existed some fundamental particle in the world—tentatively named stellar particles.
Precisely these particles permeated mythology and divine cores.
After confirming his hypothesis, once all Authorities finished transferring, Ryuga immediately began research.
To research divine cores, the simplest method was creating a divine core from scratch.
"My dear child, what are you doing?"
Seeing Ryuga produce [Olympian Forge], Pandora was somewhat puzzled.
"Forging divine core weapons."
Ryuga didn't hide anything.
"Vulcan's Authority is sufficient to forge divine artifacts. If I can completely master this technique, I'll be able to grasp divine core forging, possibly even reaching the level of creating gods."
Elevating ordinary life to gods had always been the privilege of divine group leaders, representing ultimate mastery of divine essence.
Though divine core weapons had less presence than gods themselves, they could still influence divine authority distribution and change gods' ruling structures. The ugly Vulcan had climbed to the twelve chief gods' position relying on this technology.
In Europe, people often viewed Vulcan as a symbol of power.
If Ryuga could master divine core forging methods, his previously mastered conceptual armaments could undergo comprehensive upgrades, becoming divine core armaments.
If he could discern stellar particle construction and laws from this, Ryuga would completely grasp divine core essence, possibly even mass-producing gods.
"Oh, do you need mommy's help?"
Pandora seemed to understand, then asked.
"Not for now, but... shouldn't you change your self-address?"
Ryuga shook his head, then casually reminded.
"Self-address?"
Miss Pandora tilted her head with confused eyes.
"Don't like this address? Then I'll change it—how about 'darling'?"
Hearing the girl's deliberately ambiguous tone, Ryuga shook his head again.
"I meant your self-reference should change."
Saying this, seeing she didn't understand, he reminded:
"Roman mythology's Vulcan and Greek mythology's Hephaestus are the same divine core. In mythology, Hephaestus was the god who created the witch Pandora."
"By this relationship, with the divine core I now possess, you should call me father."
Ryuga said this originally just to counter Pandora's usual self-reference, without additional meaning.
Unexpectedly, hearing this, the goddess before him didn't hesitate at all, directly calling out in a rather childish voice:
"Daddy~"
With a mischievous smile at the corner of her mouth, the twin-tailed goddess's eyes flowed, showing no embarrassment.
"How about it? Does little Ryuga like mommy calling this?"
Worthy of being a witch from Greek mythology—when abandoning moral principles, she had no ethical burden at all.
Sardinia Port.
After waiting about two to three hours, Erica finally felt familiar spatial fluctuations.
She immediately perked up, looking toward Ryuga returning from the Netherworld.
"Erica, I'm giving you a task."
Just returning to the present world, Ryuga spoke thus.
"What task?"
"Declare war on all Campiones."
Ryuga's tone was completely calm, but his words stunned everyone.
What did he say?
"Does Master intend to capture other Campiones and use them to summon Heretic Gods?"
Recalling previous events, after being stunned for a moment, Erica immediately understood Ryuga's thinking.
Since existing divine summoning rituals required beings with karma to Heretic Gods as catalysts.
Campiones were undoubtedly the best ritual materials.
Ordinary divine tools could at most summon two or three related gods. Each Campione was filled with karmic bonds to Heretic Gods.
Using them to summon Heretic Gods was like fishing with the most delicious bait—a sure catch every time.
"Correct."
"Uh, Ryuga-sama, please allow me to advise. I know your strength is powerful—even ten ordinary Heretic Gods might not be your match—but declaring war on all Campiones at once, isn't that somewhat exaggerated?"
Erica chose her words carefully, her tone slightly nervous.
"Based on current intelligence, other Campiones' total Authority count reaches over thirty. Rather than summoning thirty-plus Heretic Gods at once, wouldn't taking them one by one be safer?"
Quantitative change led to qualitative change. Five Heretic Gods united could burn continents flat. If thirty-plus Heretic Gods appeared together, that formation would truly be world-ending.
Even knowing Ryuga could definitely handle it, this idea was too crazy.
Any carelessness could destroy nations with battle aftermath.
Hearing Erica's advice, Ryuga shook his head.
"You're overthinking. Not to mention current earth spiritual veins can't support so many Heretic Gods descending, even if they could, this situation couldn't occur."
The Mediterranean plus Sardinia's spiritual veins couldn't withstand five-plus gods. Other places, even if stronger, couldn't be much stronger.
"Forgive this subordinate's dullness. Please enlighten me, Master."
Erica could understand the first sentence but not the second.
Why couldn't it occur?
"Have you ever seen Campiones acting in groups?"
Ryuga immediately asked back.
"...This subordinate understands!"
Previously concerned, once Ryuga pointed it out, Erica immediately showed realization.
Right! Except for Ryuga-sama, Campiones were basically all self-centered idiots. Even hearing provocations, they definitely wouldn't swarm together.
Therefore, no need for extra worry.
Seeing Erica no longer worried, Ryuga leisurely added:
"Moreover, even if extreme situations occurred with dozens of Heretic Gods descending, it wouldn't amount to much upheaval."
Even without insights from forging divine cores, Ryuga wasn't afraid of divine group power.
Because—
"Mythological technique power grows continuously with possessed divine core strength. Heretic Gods who can resist the Sword of Victory are now very few."
Previously mentioned, mythological technique construction was based on divine cores.
The original Sword of Victory technique only included Verethragna and Melqart's divine cores. So when facing Dionysus and Vulcan before, they had chances to escape judgment.
But now, after stacking seven Heretic Gods' divine cores and reconstructing, the Sword of Victory technique's judgment conditions became several times stricter.
If using current technique effects, none of the previous five Heretic Gods could escape.
This was a highly growth-oriented technique.
"Yes!"
Erica completely relaxed.
If Ryuga said very few, then it really was very few.
Even if thirty-plus Heretic Gods truly appeared together, those who could survive Ryuga-sama's single strike probably wouldn't exceed two.
To be continued…
Guys, I apologize for late updates. We are at new gas extracting well for work and as an HSE Officer I have to be available for work 7 days a week so my schedule is very tight, still I try my best to post as much as I can(been tl'ing 6 fics simultaneously). So, I would really appreciate it if you guys will be patient with me. Thank you everyone nonetheless!
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