— — — — — —
Ryo stepped forward.
Swish—
A sharp whistle cut the air. A clean, one-centimeter-deep gash opened across his right arm. Blood welled up instantly.
At the same time, every material drifting in front of him drew together with a howl of wind.
The first to change was the Gamanium.
Its golden, bloodlike form glowed orange, as if burning. Bit by bit it evaporated into a drifting gold mist.
Whoosh.
The mist spread out, wrapping Ryo Yagami, Shiroyasha and all the materials—Orichalcum, Stardust Sand, everything—in a shimmering veil.
For a moment, Ryo felt as if another consciousness had awakened inside him.
It was warm like the sun, yet icy like winter, with a flicker of resistance and a trace of irritation.
Byakuya… The name surfaced in his mind.
And then, beneath the room's lights, his shadow stirred.
A hazy silhouette rose from it—a woman in dark clothing, silver hair falling in smooth strands, her face blurred. She drifted upward and then dissolved into the golden mist.
Byakuya's spirit was being transferred into the Gamanium. Ryo understood instantly.
At the same time, both blocks of Orichalcum began to tremble.
Like something trapped inside was trying to break free, cracks split across their crystalline surfaces.
The moment they cracked, the room filled with a sharp gust.
Wind roared as the Orichalcum split further, the fractures widening like hungry mouths that sucked the golden mist into their depths.
With two soft pops, the blocks burst apart.
From within spilled a golden, formless jelly. It pulsed and wobbled, inching slowly but determinedly toward its counterpart. The two blobs merged, then crept toward the Stardust and began swallowing the glittering sand.
Throughout this process, Ryo could clearly feel a wave of annoyance.
It radiated from the golden jelly… from Byakuya.
Why is she cursing me? Ryo could only wonder, and the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
Just then, a phantom rose behind him.
A noble figure holding a golden spear in one hand and a shield bearing the head of a serpent-haired woman in the other. Majestic and beautiful, the embodiment of victory and wisdom.
A soft hum rang out.
Inside the glass bottle, the bright red drop of blood—holding what looked like a miniature cosmos—began to boil.
A golden, warm and exalted Cosmo surged from within. It resonated with the phantom figure, releasing vast waves of power.
The force was so overwhelming that even Shiroyasha, who had been observing with amusement, instinctively stepped back again and again, making space.
At the same time, a gentle silver-white glow enveloped Ryo.
His Cosmo was burning steadily, climbing toward its limit.
And as Athena's golden Cosmo rose, Ryo's own Cosmo inevitably took on a faint golden tint.
He wasn't surprised.
For any Saint, Athena's Cosmo was like an external buff hard-installed into their soul.
Once their own Cosmo burned and matched Athena's wavelength, resonance followed.
And resonance meant explosive growth.
"This feels like when Leo supported me, except Athena's resonance is stronger. She's even repairing my injuries…" Ryo kept control, refusing to let his wounds close.
His blood, infused with Sixth Sense Cosmo, pooled across the floor and stained the golden jelly.
It slowly crawled toward Athena's divine blood, dragging itself through Ryo's blood yet rejecting every drop. A faint sense of disgust seeped out along with it.
"Little brat. If your mother weren't here, I'd smack you flat…" Ryo's mouth twitched, but he continued burning his Cosmo.
Under Athena's resonance, his lost blood wasn't decreasing. It was increasing. Faster and faster. Even his bone marrow was shifting, turning golden.
In that moment, the crawling jelly, the silver-white-and-gold Cosmo swelling around Ryo, and Athena's healing Cosmo all fell into a delicate equilibrium.
"If I don't reach the Seventh Sense, I won't be able to break it…" Ryo realized the truth and fell silent.
He was still burning Leo's Cosmo, stable and efficient, with no true loss. Even the blood he shed was immediately replaced by Athena's power.
"You can turtle all you want, but the final step is always a gamble…" Ryo sighed inwardly, then for the first time actively ignited his own Cosmo—ignited his own lifespan.
A sharp crack resounded.
His Cosmo flared upward, silver and gold intertwined. Like a rising pillar of flame, it swallowed his entire body.
His skin began to crack. Tiny fissures spread everywhere across his surface like shattered porcelain.
He felt like a watermelon stuffed full of sesame seeds, like his whole body was seconds from bursting under the pressure.
But a warm radiance bloomed above.
Athena's blood shone brilliantly and poured its light over him, sealing the cracks, binding his breaking body back together. And through this fierce burn, the gold within his Cosmo increased.
For the first time, the golden glow outshone the silver.
His awareness blurred. He saw scenes like the birth of the universe. He saw the essence of his own soul. He saw the countless motes of light that formed his body.
He understood something. Or maybe he understood nothing.
When he came back to himself—
A massive golden lion lay lazily before him, watching him with gleaming yellow eyes full of curiosity.
Ryo's own Cosmo now glowed with pure gold.
A power unlike anything he had ever felt coursed through him.
Far above, beyond the chamber, in the starry sky of Little Garden, the fifty-two stars of Leo shone brighter than ever.
"The Seventh Sense…" Ryo murmured inwardly.
The true cosmoenergy.
The ultimate Miraculosity, the power that creates the universe. True Cosmos.
"At last…" He closed his eyes.
The golden lion exploded into shards of radiant armor that flew toward him, piece by piece attaching to his body.
It was Ryo's own God Cloth.
The first Ars Magna was born in Little Garden.
.
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