Naturally, Ryuga was unaware of Jibril's challenge to battle.
Even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared too much about it.
On Sardinia, the Trinity goddess Athena commanded nine massive Hydras along with countless divine beasts to launch an attack against Ryuga.
At the same time, Athena's pitch-black pupils transformed into owl-like vertical slits, emitting a faint radiance under the shroud of the domain of night.
Immense pressure surged toward Ryuga as the Petrification Magic Eyes that originally belonged to Medusa activated, the authority that could turn all things to stone operating at full power.
As an authority, the Petrification Magic Eyes could also affect Campiones, but due to the inherent strong magic resistance that Campiones possessed, it would take effect more slowly compared to other targets.
Therefore, Athena primarily targeted the petrification at Ryuga's lower body, preparing to restrict his movement and then have her summoned divine beasts deliver the damage.
It had to be said that Athena did have considerable experience in battle.
Unfortunately, the enemy she encountered was Ryuga.
"Steel one, vanquish evil and manifest righteousness."
With this extremely brief spirit word, he activated the mythological technique [Sword Codex].
The attributes unique to the Steel Hero God covered Ryuga's entire body, providing him with defense that exceeded the [Steel Protection] level while also granting him sacred demon-breaking properties.
Thus, the威压 of the Petrification Magic Eyes crumbled without attack, unable to affect Ryuga in the slightest.
Next, looking at the many magical creatures that Athena had enhanced to temporarily rival Heretic Gods, Ryuga simply lightly stomped the ground once. Invisible sword qi instantly swept across the entire battlefield, crushing all the divine beasts to powder in an instant.
"Dragon-snakes are powerless against steel. As an Earth Mother Goddess, you should understand this matter most clearly."
Ryuga looked toward Athena with a casual tone, not moving his feet even half a step.
Most Steel Heroes had made their names by slaying dragon-snakes, so the steel attribute had special restraining effects against dragon-snakes and most magical creatures.
In terms of special attacks against dragon-snakes, the divine cores of gods like Saint George, Lancelot, Siegfried, and Melqart who had dragon-slaying legends provided considerable bonuses. Trying to use these divine beasts to deal with [Sword Codex] was undoubtedly miscalculating.
"Detestable steel... how do you have so many authorities?"
Seeing that flash of sword light, Athena showed an expression of shock, somewhat doubting her own eyes.
She clearly felt that the sword light just now, which could easily crush dragon-snakes, combined the authorities of over six deities.
The opponent was clearly just a Campione, yet displayed steel attributes even stronger than those Steel Hero Gods, even reaching a level close to the source of steel, capable of becoming a candidate for the Last King.
Wasn't he a newly born Campione? Why could he be strong to this extent?
"Just encountered a few more Heretic Gods than usual."
Ryuga casually replied, and a platinum-colored longsword suddenly appeared in his hand.
"Let's end the probing here. Now it's time to finish the battle and discuss the matter of advancing to the divine realm."
As he said this, he raised the sword in his hand.
"Probing?"
Hearing Ryuga say this, Athena was first stunned. Who was probing with you? I was seriously going all out!
Before she could voice these words, she saw the sword blade in Ryuga's hand and sensed an extremely dangerous aura within it.
"Salvation Divine Blade?!"
"Boom!"
The moment she recognized this divine tool, several Salvation Divine Thunderbolts burst forth from the platinum-colored sword blade.
Caught off guard, Athena only had time to use the dark divine power that shrouded all of Sardinia to create a shield, barely withstanding this strike that could easily slay Campiones, then used Aegis to block the second strike.
Then, she was completely hit by the third Salvation Divine Thunder that followed closely behind, falling directly onto the beach.
The Trinity goddess Athena officially declared defeat.
"Compared to [Sword Codex], [Sword of Victory] is indeed more suitable for bullying weaklings."
Looking at the result before him, Ryuga thought thus.
Just like Erica's previous thoughts, Ryuga had never considered Athena as an opponent, regardless of whether she was in trinity form or not.
The reason he didn't use the Victory Sword technique for an instant kill was merely to test the new mythological technique.
If Athena had been willing to bring out her trump card from the bottom of her box, using the Earth Mother Goddess's wisdom [Black Blade], Ryuga might have been willing to give her a bit more performance opportunity.
Unfortunately, Athena's trump card required advance preparation to use. Although its power was immense, it wasn't suitable for encounter battles.
As the Goddess of Wisdom, she naturally wouldn't use such troublesome power in this battle.
Therefore, after briefly testing the effects of [Sword Codex], Ryuga immediately ended the battle.
From when he made his move to achieving victory, less than ten seconds had passed.
Only after victory did he have time to look at the content in the chat group.
As soon as he entered, he saw strange boasting.
[Tohsaka Rin: "See that? Ordinary Heretic Gods can't even withstand one move from Ryuga-sama!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "@Jibril, so, Ryuga-sama is the strongest."]
Like a child supporting her idol, young Rin had ignited her fighting spirit in a strange place.
[Jibril: "Hmph! Do you think that would be difficult for me?"]
As a proud Flügel, she actually didn't quite understand the exchange between the two, neither knowing how Ryuga had crushed those divine beasts nor why Athena had been defeated so quickly in the end.
However, not understanding didn't matter.
She only needed to confirm that the energy scale Athena used was far smaller than her own.
In the Game Life world, adaptability to the spirit corridor determined an individual's upper limit for storing elven quantity, which was the upper limit of energy scale.
And the upper limit of energy scale often determined an individual's strength.
It could be said that the more energy reserves one had, the stronger the individual became, with other factors having minimal influence on the difference.
Therefore, even beings as strong as the Flügel, as the sixth-ranked species in adaptability, had to act in groups to hunt Giant or Dragonia species.
Under this habit, she naturally looked down on the gods of the Campione world.
With energy in their bodies not even one-tenth of her own, what qualification did they have to be mentioned in the same breath as herself?
[Tohsaka Rin: "..."]
Young Rin was speechless. No matter how much she disliked this arrogant fellow, she had to admit that there was a qualitative difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4.
What Ryuga could do would certainly not be difficult for this Tier 4 powerhouse.
Just then, seeing a newcomer join and browsing through the chat logs, Ryuga finally took action.
He didn't use many words, simply replying to Jibril's challenge.
[Ryuga: "Fine."]
[Group member Ryuga has sent an invitation to group member Jibril]
Without any hesitation, he immediately chose to agree.
Seeing Ryuga's decisive attitude, everyone in the group was somewhat stunned.
[Tohsaka Rin: "Wait, Ryuga-sama, she's Tier 4!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Even if you agree to a duel, there's no need to be so urgent. You could completely wait another two days to raise your strength before saying anything!"]
Rin became anxious. Her belief that Ryuga would certainly be able to defeat Jibril was built on Ryuga's absurdly fast strengthening speed.
Ryuga, who could leap from Tier 0 to Tier 3 in one day, should be able to reach Tier 4 given a week's time.
Under equal level conditions, Rin believed Ryuga could beat up this arrogant Flügel.
But she hadn't expected Ryuga to be so impulsive, not giving himself any time to grow stronger and directly wanting to fight Jibril.
Wasn't this approach a bit too risky?
[Madoka: "Ryuga-nii, you just finished fighting, don't you need to rest?"]
[Kanae: "Yes!"]
Both also held the same concerns.
No matter how arrogant the opponent was, shouldn't he endure for two days?
[Jibril: "I'm not the type who doesn't understand fairness, I can wait for you to recover your condition!"]
Believing she possessed a crushing advantage, she naturally wasn't in any hurry.
Tier 4 fighting Tier 3, how could a flying dragon lose when riding face?
Facing everyone's concern, Ryuga in the livestream shook his head with incomparable calm.
"No matter."
[Tohsaka Rin: "Ryuga-sama... I believe in you!"]
Rin had originally wanted to say more, but after hearing Ryuga's consistently calm tone, she inexplicably felt a solid confidence.
Thinking carefully, Ryuga-sama was definitely not the type to get hot-headed and reckless due to others' provocations.
Since he chose to agree to the duel, that meant he certainly had confidence in certain victory.
Therefore, they also didn't need to doubt, they just needed to believe in Ryuga.
Seeing Ryuga's attitude, others also expressed their positions one after another.
[Jibril: "In that case, then I'll come over!"]
[Jibril: "First time going to another world, I'm actually a bit nervous! After the battle ends, remember to properly show me around your world."]
Her words were filled with confidence in certain victory, as if she hadn't considered the possibility of defeat at all.
Facing this attitude, Ryuga wasn't surprised.
After looking around, he suddenly changed his mind.
"Wait!"
[Jibril: "What, changed your mind? Still don't dare fight me?"]
She tried to use provocation.
Because according to the chat group's rules, if Ryuga didn't actively invite her, she really couldn't do anything and could only rage impotently.
"No."
Ryuga shook his head lightly.
"I just think this place isn't suitable as a battlefield."
On a Tier 4 battlefield, even continents might shatter.
If they fought here, what might sink wouldn't just be Sardinia - all of Southern Europe might be completely destroyed.
Even as the king revered by magical associations, Ryuga had the duty to protect them.
Therefore—
"I thought of a suitable place."
Ryuga looked toward the horizon.
To be continued...