— — — — — —
Asherah got the message from Ryo. It was time for Leviathan.
Her childish face twisted and changed as silver-white scales crept across her skin. Her legs fused together into a serpent's tail, while her arms sank into her torso, becoming part of a massive serpent body.
Moments later, a colossal serpentine dragon, over fifty meters long, floated in the sky, letting out an earth-shaking roar.
On the ground below, the silver-haired goddess was chanting the words of night:
"In the true name of Pallas Athena, I command: O night, descend! Drive away the blessing of the sun and snuff out the fire of Prometheus!"
In the blink of an eye, darkness spread, swallowing the shrine.
Humans, already panicked by the serpentine dragon's appearance, collapsed into slumber one after another.
Hisss~~~
Snakes slithered out and dragged their limp bodies deep underground.
Athena, wielding the authority of night, had forcibly removed the humans from the battlefield.
When she was done, she turned her head slightly, gazing into the distance.
There, a woman with olive-brown skin with black hair, wrapped in white cloth and robes, was staring back at her in shock with her blue eyes.
"Eh? A Heretic God protecting humans?"
"Just removing obstacles," Athena replied coldly. Her slit pupils, serpentine and sharp, locked onto the newcomer.
"So, you must be the Mysterious Queen of Caves."
Having roamed the world alongside Ryo, Athena had encountered nearly every Campione alive.
The only one she hadn't met until now was Madame Aisha, the so-called Mysterious Queen of Caves.
So when she saw an unfamiliar Campione, recognition was immediate.
Aisha clapped her hands together as realization dawned. "Ah! You must be Athena, the goddess who works with my Onee-sama!"
Looking around the now-empty shrine, she patted her chest in relief.
"Wow, a kind god for once. That's a pleasant surprise! I was worried I'd have to move all those people myself."
But Athena frowned, sensing the lingering divine resentment clinging to Aisha.
"So it was you who killed my incarnation—Ishtar?"
At those words, Aisha froze, instinctively taking a few steps back.
"W-wait! That wasn't really my fault, you know… circumstances beyond my control. If you'll accept it, I can apologize—"
She didn't even finish before Athena suddenly lifted her head, staring at the sky.
"They're here!"
A flash of golden lightning split the heavens.
A short, broad-shouldered monkey clad in chainmail appeared, laughing loudly.
"Leviathan, eh? Haha! That gets my blood pumping!"
"Fine then! Before the Campione arrives, let me have some fun with you first!"
With a booming voice, he raised his golden staff, Ru Yi Bang, and shouted:
"Grow!"
The staff swelled in size instantly, stretching into something the size of a skyscraper.
Asherah was dumbfounded.
"Fall!"
The massive weapon came crashing down. With a mournful shriek, she was smashed into the mountainside.
The ground split and trembled, homes collapsing under the shock.
By the time Ryo arrived, the Monkey King was laughing uproariously, bringing his staff down again and again on Leviathan.
Asherah writhed and wailed, but no matter how she twisted, she couldn't escape the crushing blows.
...
Elsewhere, Aisha and Athena were caught up in a brawl with none other than Vaisravana, the God of the Deep Sands, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Or rather, Aisha was the one suffering most—flailing and stumbling in the crossfire between Athena and the monk.
"I-I'm not good at fighting!" she wailed.
Her cry was followed by a gust of wind colder than the Arctic.
In an instant, everything within ten kilometers froze solid, the mountains turning into permafrost.
Forced back by the attack, Athena and Vaisravana leapt away into the sky.
Seizing the moment, Ryo reached down and plucked Asherah out under the Monkey King's staff with one hand, while brushing away the icy gale with the other. His expression twisted into something between disbelief and annoyance as he glanced at the stumbling Aisha below.
"Why does that troublemaker have to show up now of all times?"
Athena, pausing beside him, spoke stiffly. "She claims she sensed us and came to save people."
Aisha, looking up at Ryo, blinked in surprise.
"Eh? You're the new little brother? Wait, no—Onee-sama said you're her fiancé, so that makes you… my brother-in-law?"
She tilted her head, muttering, "Ugh, this family tree is way too confusing."
Ryo's mouth twitched. "What a headache."
He shifted his gaze toward the Monkey King and Vaisravana.
"Later, try to draw Vaisravana away. If possible, take Aisha with you."
Athena nodded solemnly.
"I know what's at stake." She narrowed her eyes at the Monkey King.
"Be careful. Leviathan's awakening has stirred his divine nature of steel. He's preparing the conditions to invoke the great ritual of Old Covenant."
"I know." Ryo gave a small nod, eyes turning toward the Monkey King.
...
At that moment, Sun Wukong scratched his cheek, frowning slightly. "Oops. Guess I got carried away. Nearly forgot—you can't beat a snake without asking its master first."
"Big Bro, we're outnumbered," Vaisravana muttered. "Should we call more brothers here?"
"That won't do," Sun Wukong shook his head. "If we summon more, I won't have the energy to trigger the Covenant Ritual."
He glanced down at Aisha, then at Athena.
"Lil Bro, I'll need you to tie down that Campione and that Goddess."
Vaisravana's face went slack.
"Wait—what? There's still Leviathan rampaging here. You're leaving me with that mess?"
"Relax. I already beat Levi half to death for you. That's why."
Wukong chuckled, grinning.
"Even if that Mother Earth Goddess revives her, it'll take at least twenty minutes. More than enough time for me to complete the ritual. Once I've dealt with my true enemy, I'll come back and help you."
"…Fine." Vaisravana sighed and reluctantly hefted his monk's spade.
Meanwhile, Wukong somersaulted into the sky, landing on a yellow cloud. Casting a glance at Ryo, he smirked.
"This place isn't right. Follow me."
He flipped again, turning into a bolt of golden lightning.
Ryo exchanged a brief look with Athena, saw the reassurance in her eyes, then released Asherah and silently gave chase.
The two darted away, leaving the frozen land behind, until they came to a forest. After widening the gap between them, both finally stopped.
Wukong landed on a cliff, surprised to see Ryo already there waiting.
"Heh, you run even faster than a golden-winged roc."
"I'll take that as a compliment… barely."
Silver light shimmered faintly around Ryo's body. He narrowed his eyes at the Monkey King.
"So? Aren't you going to use the Covenant Ritual?"
Wukong laughed, stamping his foot on the cliff's edge.
"Ha! So you plan to steal a glance at it, eh? Fine then. I'll let you witness it!"
His booming voice echoed as he chanted the ancient words:
"O gods, O world! By the ancient pact, grant me your power!"
The air shook with a surge of divine force so overwhelming it defied imagination.
At the same time, Wukong doubled over with a roar of pain.
"Damn—hurts like hell!"
His energy swelled a hundred, a thousand, then thousands of times over, visible to the naked eye.
Behind him, a figure woven entirely of golden threads began to take shape, floating in the air and embedding lines of power into his body.
"This—! The gods are granting me so much power?! Weird, they never loved me!"
Struggling through the agony, Wukong straightened, eyes blazing.
He looked at Ryo, stunned. "You bastard… just how many gods have you killed?! Why does everyone hate you?"
"Oh?" Ryo tilted his head, then caught on. His gaze fell on the golden-thread figure behind Wukong.
"That aura… so it's the backlash of myth itself. Looks like my moves weren't that well hidden. Still, good thing I stuck around — I had a hunch watching this ritual would pay off."
Wukong's eyes widened at Ryo. "Wait—you're not a Godslayer?!"
His golden eyes, now pushed to their absolute limits, pierced through Ryo's disguise at last.
He saw the abyssal energy Ryo had wrested from the planet, the countless fragments of divine authority he had torn from fallen gods.
And he heard the echoes of those gods—dying in slumber, their unwilling cries of rage and despair.
The revelation filled Wukong with fury… and exhilaration.
"So that's it! A foreign demon from beyond the world!"
He threw back his head and laughed wildly. "Good! Then today, I, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, will bring true justice!"
He hefted the Ru Yi Bang, now so heavy with divine power it was like a continent in itself.
"I carry the wrath of all gods—and today, I'll smash you in their name!"
With a final roar, he swung the massive staff down toward Ryo.
.
.
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