After five days of intensive, cram-style education—
Ryo stood beside the World-Crossing Gate, his head buzzing and his mouth sore and twitching as he reflected on the experience.
"This is killing me…" Rubbing his head, Ryo muttered with a thoroughly miserable expression.
The past few days of Athena's instruction had been some of the most painful days of his life.
Rubbing the space between his eyebrows, Ryo pushed himself away from the World-Crossing Gate and walked toward its center.
The gate was enormous. Its entire surface was a deep azure blue, decorated with silver patterns. Ancient and weathered, it stood on the open plain like the entrance to some abandoned temple.
No one would have guessed that this was the gate the gods of Little Garden used to anchor other worlds and travel between dimensions.
Even more outrageous, however, was how much the gate consumed.
"Every single use of this thing costs enough to buy a True Authority..." Ryo muttered, feeling that the price was a little steep. Then again, perhaps it only seemed expensive to him because, unlike everyone else in the Little Garden, he had never had to pay a price for it.
Traveling through worlds via the Dimensional Forum was free unless you specifically requested a destination. All you needed was for someone in one of the worlds the Forum had discovered to invite you. You could even earn points from the trip. In Ryo's eyes, that was practically getting a free ride.
Of course, opportunities like that were exceedingly rare. The Forum basically found one person in another world every three to six months.
Ryo had been in Little Garden for only about ten months. And so far, he had established contact with only two worlds: Demon Slayer, where Kanae lived, and Bleach, where Aizen was.
As for Campione, Strike the Blood, and High School DxD, Ryo had essentially paid points to search for those worlds himself.
So, he had at most two months before the Forum began actively searching for a fourth world for free.
"Most importantly, the Dimensional Forum always sends me to a period when an 'era is changing.' It's the perfect time—just before the plot begins to take shape." Ryo sighed.
It was only after checking the Forum records that he had discovered the keyword behind the Forum's world transfers.
An era change.
In Little Garden, that was essentially a transitional period in history. It was the ideal time for the Little Garden Central Core to observe another world, and in many cases, practically the only period when observation was possible.
Take Aishelia, for example.
She had finally managed to locate the world of Shakugan no Shana. And what happened?
She ended up in an ancient era, not long after the Crimson Realm had first been born. Back then, forget observing anything. There were barely any living beings around at all.
And that was the normal situation when exploring other worlds.
When you encountered a period like that, there was nothing to do but slowly grind away until you at least made your investment back.
Of course, some people did manage to endure until the proper era arrived. But the amount of time they had to spend was astronomical.
If those same people had spent that time working hard in Little Garden, their income would almost certainly have far exceeded whatever they could earn by wasting years on observation.
That was why, after the dawn era of Little Garden had passed, the various communities specializing in exploration of other worlds had found life increasingly difficult. The ones still holding on were basically being supported by major factions, powerful organizations that understood how valuable this work would be to Little Garden's future.
And those were precisely the people the Ouroboros targeted.
Ryo understood the games being played between the two sides perfectly well.
He also knew that, based on the time Aishelia had returned, if he simply headed for the Crimson Realm without doing anything else, he would probably arrive in an extremely early era as well.
According to Aishelia's report, the normal time difference between Little Garden and the Crimson Realm was roughly one to thirty.
That was already a considerable gap.
But between the Crimson Realm's birth and the modern era Ryo knew of, the difference was probably several thousand, perhaps even tens of thousands, of years.
Ryo couldn't afford to wait that long.
"So I still have to spend points…"
Ryo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
It wasn't easy saving money.
He opened the Forum and looked at his balance: 381,500 points.
After thinking for a moment, he submitted a request to the Forum.
"Lock onto the historical transition period of the Crimson Realm. I want a time ratio of one to seven hundred and twenty, meaning one day here equals two years there. How many points will that cost?"
[Answer: 1,500 points.]
"Did you calculate that specifically to mess with the last digits of my balance?" Ryo asked.
[Actual expenditure: 1,328.141592… points. Rounded up to 1,500 points.]
Ryo's mouth twitched.
He briefly had the urge to strangle the Forum to death.
This stupid thing really does love money.
"Whatever. Spend it. I've got plenty of points right now."
Ryo waved his hand dismissively.
There were still more than a million points sitting with Algol. With the Tricksters around, was he ever going to run out of points?
And if he really did run short, he could always go find a few unlucky God Kings and make a little money off them.
So Ryo made an unusually extravagant gesture and spent a full 1,500 points.
That was what Ryo himself believed, anyway.
In reality, he merely sighed, adjusted a number in the forum records, and spent only 1,330 points.
Thinking about it, Ryo sighed again. "Being frugal really is ingrained in me."
[1,330 points have been consumed. Holder, please make contact with the World-Crossing Gate. World traversal will now commence.]
Hearing that, Ryo took a large step forward and entered the World-Crossing Gate.
A faint azure glow illuminated the gate. Then the surrounding space began to distort.
At the very center of that distortion, Ryo's figure gradually disappeared, as though someone were erasing him with a rubber.
He was cast into a timeless zone, allowing him to spend several days outside the universe before emerging at the desired point in the timeline.
...
..
Crimson World, Crimson Realm—
Ryo stood upon a stretch of dry, crimson rock.
He raised his head toward the crimson sky, staring at the red clouds overhead with a frown.
"So this is the Crimson Realm… A world without even oxygen…" As Ryo spoke, white flames tinged with blue flickered in and out of his nose and mouth.
"Hm... Power of Existence?"
Ryo raised a hand and caught one of the tiny sparks between his fingers, carefully sensing it.
"A physical manifestation of the concept of existence…"
Aishelia's report had actually mentioned this.
Ryo had paid attention to that part. Most of her report, however, had focused on the way the Authorities were created. Ryo understood that Aishelia had meant well, so naturally, he couldn't complain.
Yeah, what he actually needed most was information about the Crimson Realm's structure, its network of factions, and its various secrets. But, honestly, Aishelia probably didn't know much about those things.
She had arrived far too early, long before any of that information had even come into existence.
There was nothing to be done about that.
"According to Aishelia, the Crimson Realm grants everything that is born within it a 'True Name,' much like how a Spirit Rank is granted in Little Garden."
"And when she first arrived, the Crimson Realm rejected her. It took her nearly thirty years to successfully integrate herself into the world's system."
As Ryo spoke, a snow-white flame appeared in his hand.
It was a blazing white flame, the color of the sun.
It was also Aishelia's gift to him, the identity that would allow him to integrate himself into the Crimson Realm.
"Guess I owe her one."
Ryo shook his head and guided his own power into the snow-white flame.
Not long afterward, a vibration spread outward from Ryo.
It was something only the Crimson Gods of the Crimson Realm could perceive. A hymn of divine welcome.
Suddenly, every Crimson Denizen vaguely received the same message: The Crimson Realm's Second Pillar, 「The Unfading Sun」, has awakened!
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