— — — — — —
After stabbing Mithras one last time, Ryo followed up with a punch that shattered the god's entire body down to its atoms.
Once it was done, he turned his head to the right. The elegant woman who had been standing there was already gone.
"She left?" Ryo blinked in surprise, then quickly lowered his posture and dashed across the street toward a nearby alley, leaping into the shadow cast by a streetlamp.
Inside the darkness, his eyes met Leticia's.
Leticia didn't waste a second. The shadows around writhed and twisted, unfolding into shifting, monochrome scenes.
She was using her authority over shadows to move them.
Before even a full second passed, she reached up and grabbed Black Rabbit, who had just dropped down from above, "We're crossing gates."
Traveling between gates (layers) in Little Garden was never a simple matter.
Here, each gate was restricted by spatial controls.
Even if two gates were numerically adjacent, it was impossible to reach the next one simply by walking. Sometimes, if you walked far enough south, you might inexplicably end up at the northern edge again.
To travel to another gate, you had to use a Boundary Gate, or rely on a four-digit class being with boundary authority to perform a Cross-Gate Rite.
These rules were set by the Golden Queen Who Governs the Boundaries, Queen Halloween.
And aside from Boundary Gates and beings who possessed boundary spirit-rank, the Knights of the Little Garden also had the right to cross gates using their shadow authority.
This was because, in the early days, the Garden Knights had sworn loyalty to the Queen of Boundaries.
At that time, the one who signed the oath was the then-leader of the Knights, Leticia, and Queen Halloween herself.
---
The three of them crossed the gates without hesitation and returned all the way to the outskirts of their City, to [No Name]'s headquarters.
The living room was dim. Leticia stepped out from the shadows and flipped a light switch.
Warm white light filled the room.
Seeing it, Ryo exhaled deeply, walked to the sofa in two quick strides, and collapsed into it in a starfish sprawl.
At the same moment, Black Rabbit suddenly leapt on top of him and began sniffing him all over.
"Good, good. I don't smell any wounds."
"You're heavy!" Ryo grabbed her and shoved her onto the adjacent sofa. She landed with a soft thud.
Black Rabbit puffed up in annoyance. "That's so mean! I was worried about you!"
Ryo closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, then called, "Leticia."
Leticia glanced at him, then used a nail to slice her wrist and squeeze out several drops of blood.
The droplets floated upward, turning into multiple indistinct, blood-winged angels that spread around the room, forming a protective barrier.
This was anti-eavesdropping and anti-tracking measures.
Once she confirmed they were safe, Leticia spoke. "You can talk now."
Only then did Black Rabbit calm down enough to ask. "What exactly happened? I felt the power of the Main God."
"Main God" referred to Deva Indra.
He was a god worshiped by moon rabbits and one of the ancestors of their bloodline.
Black Rabbit's simulated divinity, Spear of Indra, was a projection created from Indra's weapon.
And moments ago, the real Spear of Indra had appeared in the sky above Demon City.
"So it really was the Deva King. And the Queen acted too." Leticia's expression was subtle as she said, "I'm sorry I didn't help you in time."
In truth, when Mithras grabbed Ryo, Leticia was already in the nearby alley, prepared to intervene.
Judging from that opponent's strength, she believed she could hold him off long enough for Ryo to escape. Together, they likely could have fled.
But in that instant, Leticia was paralyzed.
Queen Halloween didn't seem to want her to interfere.
It was as if the queen intentionally prevented Leticia from helping, forcing Ryo to owe her a favor, while simultaneously revealing her presence to intimidate Mithras.
It practically felt deliberate.
Leticia remembered the look Queen Halloween gave Ryo before disappearing: an amused smile. Then the look she gave Leticia: a warning.
Which meant Leticia could only claim she failed to help in time.
After all, this was a warning from the queen.
"You're kidding. The Queen came?" Black Rabbit's voice trembled. "We just wanted to get the flag back!"
She grabbed her hair in frustration, then, still shaken, asked. "What exactly did you run into? And those three letters, what were they for?!"
Ryo took a deep breath and admitted, with lingering fear. "I ran into Mithras."
Black Rabbit's eyelid twitched violently. Her jaw dropped. "M-Mithras? That Mithras? King of the Persian pantheon?!"
"So it was a god-king," Leticia spoke calmly. "You should check your spirit rank. Make sure he didn't leave anything behind."
She paused, then added. "Mithras excels in 'contracts.' He deceives with words, then binds you without you realizing it. His favorite tactic is infiltrating a person's spirit rank to convert enemies into allies, even servants."
Ryo's lips twitched. He closed his eyes, examined himself, and a moment later, said with a strange expression. "Any remaining power was already erased."
He could feel the scent of Omega on his spirit rank.
Only now did he realize Omega had intervened.
Black Rabbit grabbed his shoulder. "Still, we should have Lady Shiroyasha check you later."
"That can wait." Ryo frowned and looked at her. "Black Rabbit, you're sure the god who acted earlier was your Main God?"
"Who else would it be?" she replied, confused.
Ryo was silent for a moment, then said. "Bring me the backup letters I gave you."
"Oh!" Black Rabbit immediately pulled thirty envelopes from her Gift Card.
Each of the three letters had ten backups.
Ryo took three sets and opened them.
The first was addressed to the Queen of Boundaries, Queen Halloween.
Message: {Information on the location of the Sun Authority: Draco, in exchange for one intervention.}
The second was addressed to the Goddess of the End, Omega.
The message was extremely short: {Save me.}
Ryo opened the third and looked at the recipient's name.
— Siddhartha Gautama or better known as The Buddha.
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