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7:30 PM
A luxury suite in a chain hotel.
Fresh out of the shower, Ryo stepped from the bathroom, towel drying his hair. In the room, Athena lounged waiting while Liliana brewed tea for her.
Ryo crossed to the table, lifted his cup of black tea, and smiled at Athena. "You don't look very pleased."
Athena's face stayed composed, almost expressionless. "Pluto escaped."
Ryo let out a soft laugh. He reached out to smooth the cat-eared knit cap on Athena's silver hair. "Is that not how it should be? If we never intended to kill her, isn't an escape a good thing?"
"She escaped within the plan," Athena sighed, curling up on the sofa and hugging her knees. "I acted and still failed to stop her."
"You didn't let Pemptos help," Ryo said casually between sips. "Annie is still a Campione. It's not surprising you couldn't hold her."
Athena's voice carried a hint of disappointment. "The powers I've absorbed lately don't seem to have grown much. So it's as Wisdom said: we can only wait for the Little Garden's observation, right?"
She sounded downcast about her lack of gains. Compared to the Little Garden's 'other self,' Athena's power was weaker, so slow growth wasn't good for her.
"In theory, yes." Ryo set his cup down and explained calmly. "A nonconforming god hopes to grow, but that's almost impossible. Once myth binds you and you gain exalted immortality, myth also sets a ceiling for you. Until you become the One and Only True God and formally alter the myth, your power won't rise much."
Athena nodded. "Wisdom confirmed that. It's the right answer, but it's frustrating."
She gave a small wave. In the blink of an eye, Asherah—bound in black chains—appeared on the floor, thrown into the room and laid flat. She struggled immediately, but it did nothing but rattle the chains against the floor.
Ryo, now wearing a robe and still drying his hair, walked over to tower above Asherah. "So this is our first meeting, is it? Divine Ancestor cast down from Leviathan's fall, Asherah."
Asherah, flat on her back, stared at him with wide, vicious eyes. "So it's you. The Campione allied with Athena."
"You think I'm a Campione?" Ryo scoffed. "Your brain really is as useless as the rumors say."
As he spoke, Ryo let go of the disguise the Circle of Usurpation had lent him. Exalted divinity surged outward. The force was so intense the two-hundred-square-meter suite briefly transformed into a makeshift temple.
Asherah's glare slowly lost its ferocity and turned into something more complex. "Athena, you really shared everything with him."
Not conquered, not broken, but bonded to a human by the status of a goddess. Asherah had not been able to understand that before. She'd assumed Athena had been driven mad by myth's backlash. Now she glimpsed something else. The exalted victory felt like a form of power similar to authority but of a wholly different order. And that force carried a heavy Athena scent.
All of it forced Asherah to rethink things.
Athena, still hugging her knees, met Asherah's gaze calmly. "I did not lie. You simply refused to believe."
Words are worthless until you see proof. That was why Athena had chosen to bind Asherah first rather than try to talk. Athena knew that once Asherah met Ryo, her attitude would change drastically.
Asherah, quick to quip, shot back. "If you split your power like that, what happens if this man betrays you? You'll never really be whole again."
The relationship between Mother Earth and Steel Hero was tangled. In early myth, the Steel Hero had even been worshipped as Mother Earth's son. Later, the child turned on the Mother and slaughtered her. Athena herself had been struck down in a manner that mirrored such betrayals. Myths granted gifts only to be twisted and taken. Humans wove those stories, guided by the Steel Hero, who then seized power by manipulating the narrative.
Ryo's case was different. What he and Athena had created was deeper. If Ryo chose to betray her, he could take everything: name, power, being. Athena wouldn't just lose godhood; she might vanish entirely, replaced by a new Athena embodied by Ryo.
That possibility shocked Asherah. Such an utterly lawless trust left someone who had been betrayed before at a loss.
Athena shook her head slightly. "Before I did this, I had already steeled myself."
Asherah sneered. She pushed herself up off the floor and sized Ryo. "Now I'm curious about your plan. You didn't go through all this for nothing, right?"
"The One and Only True God," Ryo said with a smile. He spoke the six words plainly.
"I promised Athena I would make her the only god in this world."
Asherah's eyes flashed, then wavered.
Agreeing to that meant she could never reclaim her exalted position as Mother Earth. But the restriction applied to all gods. They would feel the sufferings she had endured over the years, perhaps even worse. The thought made Asherah break into raucous laughter.
"This is delicious. So all gods will taste my torment too?" she hummed.
Once fallen to Divine Ancestor status, they wander the world, sometimes hunted by superior mages or god-slayers. In ancient times, some were forced to bear children in humiliation. Such suffering birthed legends of witches. Now, the gods—or those Steel Heroes—would have to go through it themselves.
Asherah spat out vicious lines. "Those ugly prodigals should be trampled under five-hundred-pound women and used as breeding beasts day and night!"
Ryo's face shifted slightly. A chill ran through him. Asherah's hatred of male gods skewed extreme.
Asherah, eyes rimmed with red, fixed Ryo with a gaze overflowing with spite. "If you can do that, I'll help you. I'll be your animal, your tool—whatever you want."
"I can promise only one thing," she said. "They will die horribly."
Ryo smiled. "Deal."
Bound by chains, Asherah broke into a twisted, almost sweet grin.
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