— — — — — —
A purple glow flared to life. And Ares retreated at once.
But Hermes, who had clearly planned for this, made his move instantly and stole the "position" of Ares.
Their places in midair flipped in an instant, directions swapped as if someone had casually turned the world upside down.
Hermes had never trusted a single word Ares said. In fact, he usually assumed the opposite of whatever came out of Ares's mouth.
Ares claimed Ryo's attack was a wide-area saturation bombardment. Hermes immediately concluded the next move would be the exact opposite: a single-target, personal, guaranteed-kill strike.
That was why Ares's sudden retreat set off every alarm bell in his head.
For example, Ares using him, Hermes, as a human shield. Block Ryo's attack, then sneak in a counterstrike while Hermes took the hit.
That kind of thing was classic Ares.
His so-called Authority of War claimed to "share damage," but whenever a truly lethal attack showed up, Ares always shoved one of his war legion members into the line of fire instead.
Hermes had zero interest in becoming Ares's shield. If anything, he wanted Ares standing in front of him.
So the moment the danger appeared, he stole the distance between himself and Ares and completely swapped their positions.
No matter whether Ryo went for a single-target kill or a massive AOE, with Ares taking point, Hermes would have time to react.
What he didn't know was that Ryo's opening move was neither of the two he'd guessed.
...
Praesepe Underworld Waves—Sekishiki Meikai Ha—the signature technique of Gold Saint Cancer Deathmask.
Purple light flickered.
Ares and Hermes both froze at the same time, as if they'd been petrified. Their thoughts stalled, cognition slowing to a crawl.
At that moment, Asura's figure vanished without warning. In her place appeared an enormous greatsword, so massive it looked like it could split space itself apart.
The blade trembled, as though held by an invisible giant, then came crashing straight down toward Ares.
Perhaps because of the lingering resentment from being interrupted earlier, Asura, having transformed into the sword, attacked "Ares" without hesitation.
The greatsword fell, and the gray, muted world seemed to welcome its first ray of light since creation.
By then, Hermes had carried out his plan, and he and Ares had already switched places.
And in that instant—
The moment Hermes felt that absolute concept of "severing," his mind nearly went blank.
He never imagined Asura would target Ares. Or rather, he hadn't paid Asura any attention at all.
Just some oni-type hybrid with white horns, standing next to Ryo. One look and you could tell she wasn't anything special.
That had been Hermes's judgment. He'd written Asura off entirely, tagged her as weak.
But now…
Holy shit. This woman is a four-digit freak?!
Hermes was almost stunned stupid.
He moved at lightning speed, using the Authority of Theft to steal his own fate of being struck, then dumped it straight onto Ares.
At the same time, Ares, who knew perfectly well his "dear brother" would absolutely screw him over, activated his Authority of War without hesitation. Through the connection of the Twelve Olympians, he forcibly linked Hermes into the battlefield of war.
The greatsword came down.
The severing force was diverted, and Asura noticed immediately.
She tried to re-lock onto her target, only to realize in shock that Hermes and Ares were now linked. Attacking Hermes meant attacking Ares as well.
For a moment, even the Queen of the Asura Race was dumbfounded.
Hit one person, and both feel it?
There's a deal like this?
At that point, Asura couldn't even be bothered to retarget. The karmic fire blade that severed all things and incinerated sin slashed straight down at Hermes.
"Holy shit!"
With a scream, Hermes was split cleanly in two on the spot.
Not just his body. His divinity, his spirit rank, even his Authority were all briefly severed.
On the other side, Ares shared the damage, but what he took was an attack from the karmic flames of condemnation.
As a god with a cruel divinity and spirit rank to begin with, colliding with Asura Fire caused the sins of war to backfire violently.
They split the damage evenly, yet both took critical hits right where it hurt the most.
If you tried to explain it with math, it was like saying 2 ÷ 2 = 4. A completely broken equation.
As the karmic flames burned him, Ares suddenly remembered something.
The current Queen of the Asura Race also possessed the Authority of "Good Luck." She could stockpile failures in ordinary times, then release them all at once at a critical moment to achieve success far beyond the norm.
Combined with the Asura race's Authority of Severance, this chain of effects made anyone who fought her suffer horribly, often taking devastating damage right at the start.
And just now, if he hadn't tried to be clever and link Hermes through war, he might not have been hurt at all. After all, Hermes's move to redirect the attack would have failed.
Realizing this, even someone with the patience of a saint would lose it. And Ares had never been patient.
He cut the link instantly and roared in rage, "Damn you! Hermes, you turtle bastard! Am I your father or something? You got nothing better to do than stab me in the back?!"
But Hermes didn't have time to yell back.
At that moment, he realized he'd already fallen into Ryo Yagami's trap.
One half of the spirit rank that had been severed by Asura was now in Ryo's hands.
Hermes grit his teeth, forcibly enduring the agony of his shattered spirit rank, and looked at Ryo with naked panic.
"Hey, hey, let's talk this out. Don't do anything crazy!"
Ryo's gaze was cold. In his right hand, gripping the spirit rank, pale blue flames ignited.
Praesepe Demonic Blue Flames (Sekishiki Kisōen)
An ultimate art that used the soul as fuel to unleash explosive power, the signature move of Gold Saint Cancer Manigoldo.
In Little Garden, souls were basically housed within one's spirit rank. The soul Ryo had drawn out with the Underworld Waves naturally existed in the form of a spirit rank.
Spirit Rank, as a ranking of life, was practically the origin of both soul and flesh in Little Garden. It was fundamental power.
Facing Hermes, who had screwed him over before, Ryo didn't hesitate in the slightest. He burned the spirit rank in his hand and let the Demonic Blue Flames bloom.
Whoom—whoom—whoom!
Clusters of pale blue ghostfire ignited across the game field. Fueled by Hermes's spirit rank, the flames spread like starfire across the sky in an instant.
Ryo's eyes sharpened.
The ghostly flames immediately shifted shape, transforming into enormous, spectral blue wolves.
Their essence was Hermes's spirit rank, burned by Ryo's cosmos into ghostfire that incinerated both matter and soul.
Inspired by the wolf pack of Coyote Starrk, the Primera Espada, Ryo hastily modified the technique, manifesting the flames as a pack of wolves and granting them autonomous pursuit.
And because of that—
In the blink of an eye, Hermes and Ares were surrounded by millions of blue wolves.
Every single one was born from the burning of Hermes's spirit rank. Each carried the force of one of Ryo's strikes.
"AAAAAGH—!"
As his spirit rank burned, Hermes clutched his head and screamed.
The pain of having his very essence consumed crushed his thoughts. His eyes bulged, bloodshot, hands clawing at his skull as he shrieked nonstop, utterly unable to think straight.
That shrill, duck-like wail made Ares's scalp crawl. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, and he nearly lost control of himself on the spot.
.
.
.