Apollo the Sun God, Osiris god of the underworld and harvest, Fengbo·Yushi·Leigong, the war god Horatius Cocles, the earth mother goddess Inanna, Zhurong the fire god, the battle goddess Kali, and the demon Baphomet.
A full eight Heretic Gods were annihilated in an instant, with not one surviving.
What seemed unimaginable and unacceptable to Marquis Voban appeared perfectly ordinary to Ryuga.
Not to mention him - aside from the newly joined Lancelot and Guinevere showing some surprise, Artoria, Erica and the others had already become accustomed to Ryuga's god-slaying speed.
Just eight divine lords? What was there to make such a fuss about?
For Ryuga, obtaining the complete divine authorities of eight Heretic Gods and dozens of different powers no longer felt like much of a gain.
Not only that, he was even somewhat dissatisfied with this god-slaying operation.
"I thought Heretic Gods would each fight individually and wouldn't care about mere humans coveting the divine realm. How could these gods be so cowardly, deliberately hiding the coordinates of their divine realms after returning to myth?"
Ryuga felt he might have overestimated the arrogance of Heretic Gods.
Clearly, Verethragna had been quite welcoming when he visited the divine realm, so he thought the attitude of Heretic Gods toward humans was unchangeable.
He hadn't expected other gods to completely lack such magnanimity - not only were they unwelcoming to his visits, they even closed their doors and ran far away, afraid of being found by him.
Could such cowardly behavior really be called divine?
Hearing Ryuga's words, Guinevere and Lancelot exchanged glances, barely able to suppress their urge to complain.
The gods are indeed all arrogant, but you have to look at what you've done!
Among those present, only Erica dared to voice gentle criticism.
"Master, I think any Heretic God, after witnessing your power, would be unable to maintain that natural arrogance."
"You might not have noticed, but gods like Apollo and the demon Baphomet have been traumatized by you... With the dominance you've displayed, it would be strange if they weren't afraid."
Actually, Erica felt those Heretic Gods weren't afraid of Ryuga storming through the divine realm - even with Ryuga's previous displays of strength, taking on an entire divine realm alone shouldn't be possible.
What those Heretic Gods feared was probably being tracked down by Ryuga and then beaten up in front of all the gods in the divine realm.
Even gods, even demons, care about their dignity.
"Is that so?"
Ryuga pondered for two seconds.
"It seems I need to be more careful in the future. When fishing, I can't scare the gods too much."
The humble Ryuga quickly absorbed this lesson and planned to improve in the future.
Hearing this, the others exchanged glances but had nothing to complain about.
In this world, probably only Ryuga could say such things.
Usually it was gods who caused human panic - only in front of Ryuga would the gods themselves be the ones panicking.
If this were said elsewhere, probably no one would believe it.
After summarizing the experience, the problem still remained.
"To completely determine the location of the divine realm, it would be best to prevent the gods from being too nervous next time. However, this method relies quite a bit on luck. It would be ideal if I could find a willing divine traitor to guide me from within the divine realm."
Ryuga mused thoughtfully.
The divine realm existed outside the multiverse of the Campione world, located in the void and constantly shifting without fixed coordinates - it was truly difficult to enter without accurate coordinates.
Since following behind Heretic Gods wasn't very effective, it would be better to find an insider-like existence to coordinate from within the divine realm. This way, he could completely lock down the divine realm's position, making it useless for other gods to try to interfere.
The question was, where could he find such a divine traitor?
After thinking for two seconds, Ryuga suddenly remembered a candidate.
"Speaking of which, Erica, how is the collection of divine tools I asked you to gather earlier?"
Ryuga suddenly asked.
"Reporting to Master, we have currently only located three divine tools."
Erica immediately replied.
"The Pillar of Hera is located in an underground temple in Naples. Because it's needed to suppress the spiritual veins, it cannot be removed for now."
"Another divine tool is the Gorgoneion retrieved from the Calabrian coast. It was originally intended to be submitted to the Sword King for protection, but after Master defeated the Sword King, we confiscated this divine tool. It's currently at headquarters awaiting your inspection."
"As for the third divine tool, it's the Vajra of Great Mighty Virtue King, which was part of Marquis Voban's collection and is now stored in his castle. Since Marquis Voban has been defeated, I've already sent word to the Eastern European magic associations to present all of Master's spoils of war. Once they verify this news, they should deliver everything soon."
Currently, in terms of combat ability, Erica could be said to be nearly at the bottom among Ryuga's followers, only slightly better than Guinevere.
However, in terms of domestic administration, she remained Ryuga's chief administrator.
In this aspect, Artoria and Lancelot combined couldn't compare to her.
The moment Marquis Voban was defeated, Erica had already set her sights on his assets, planning to absorb all the Eastern European magic association forces in one go.
If this continued, by the time Ryuga dealt with all the Campione, he might actually achieve the feat of conquering the world.
"Well done."
Even Ryuga had to praise Erica's dedication.
"The other two aren't urgent. I need the Gorgoneion now."
"Yes!"
Though she remained calm on the surface, Erica was already cheering inside at receiving praise.
Under the power of spatial transfer, the group quickly returned to the headquarters of the Copper Black Cross.
Erica soon located the sealed Gorgoneion and handed it to Ryuga.
"Master, are you planning to use this divine tool to summon a Heretic God?"
Erica asked curiously.
"Yes, this god might be able to meet my requirements."
Ryuga nodded.
In the original work, if there was anyone most likely to become a divine traitor, it would only be that trinity goddess.
Looking at the state of the Gorgoneion, this goddess seemed to have already awakened, just hadn't found this place yet.
In that case, there was no need to use a divine summoning ritual - he just needed to activate the Gorgoneion's spiritual essence and let her come over herself.
Thinking this, Ryuga immediately activated the divine tool.
He waited quietly for the goddess to descend.
While waiting, the chat group gradually became lively.
[Tohsaka Rin: "Sigh, after Sakura left, both father and mother seem very depressed. They haven't left the house for a week."]
[Kanae: "After all, in their view, Sakura is gone..."]
[Madoka: "Is Rin-nee-san feeling bad for mom and dad?"]
Hearing Rin's complaint, both tried to comfort her.
In their view, Rin must be feeling terrible right now.
Knowing her sister was fine but unable to tell her parents, only able to watch them grieve.
For a young child, this must be very torturous, right?
However, what they didn't expect was...
[Tohsaka Rin: "Feel bad for mom and dad? Why? I can barely feel bad for myself!"]
[Kanae: "?"]
[Erica: "?"]
[Madoka: "?"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "You don't know - father has gone crazy now, saying I'm the Tohsaka family's only hope and wants to teach me magic knowledge early. He's teaching me magic even during meal times!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "I'm just an elementary school student! Now to study magic, I've already learned geometry up to high school level!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "I don't even get enough sleep at night, let alone time to chat!"]
Tohsaka Rin vented her grievances indignantly.
These past days had been pure suffering for her.
[Madoka: "Ah, no wonder Rin-nee-san has been coming out less lately. So you've been busy studying."]
The time flow in each world isn't fixed - it generally adjusts automatically based on how frequently group members check the chat group.
On Madoka's side, only two or three days had passed.
[Kanae: "That sounds tough."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Wuu wuu~ I'm exhausted, feels like my head's going to explode!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "How can I possibly learn all this stuff!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "I hereby pray, hoping Ryuga-sama can lend me some brains."]
[Kanae: "I hereby pray, hoping Ryuga-sama can lend me some brains."]
[Erica: "I hereby pray, hoping Ryuga-sama can lend me some brains."]
[Madoka: "You sisters all seem to be under a lot of pressure!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Eh? Erica? How do you have time to come out? Not busy anymore?"]
[Madoka: "That's right! Come to think of it, Erica-nee-san hasn't been coming out these past couple days either!"]
[Erica: "It's alright, indeed not as busy as before."]
[Erica: "Though there are still some small matters to handle, just waiting for now."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Small matters?"]
[Madoka: "Is it a task from Ryuga-sama?"]
[Erica: "Mm."]
[Erica: "Just dealing with a Heretic God, you should all have seen this before."]
After asking for Ryuga's opinion, Erica casually opened the livestream.
Before seeing the livestream footage, everyone fell silent at Erica's words.
[Kanae: "..."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "..."]
[Madoka: "Small matter... Erica-nee-san's tone makes it sound like dealing with roadside weeds."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "We've all seen god-slaying scenes and know it's not a problem for Ryuga-sama. But I remember Erica was also very reverent toward gods at first."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "What changed you, making you think god-slaying is a small matter?"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Was it Ryuga-sama?"]
[Madoka: "I don't think there's any question about that."]
[Kanae: "+1"]
To be continued...