"…That's basically the situation."
At the top floor of the Babel Tower, Freya sat on her luxurious throne by the floor-to-ceiling window, legs crossed, listening to Renjiro (Aether) report real-time intelligence about the border defense line.
It had been over half an hour since that curious neutral god had barged into the tent uninvited, causing a chain of incidents.
Since it wasn't wartime, there was no concern over excessive magic consumption, so Renjiro (Aether) had simply left the dungeon using the teleport anchor, while also acting as a sort of human telegraph via the mental link he maintained with Lumine.
Honestly… if the overall situation weren't so severe, Freya would have been grinning ear to ear by now.
Artemis!
Freya wasn't exactly from the same "hometown," but the goddess's nickname, super anti-romance agent, was famous.
After all, the Virgin Goddess really had nothing but friction with Aphrodite, the Beauty Goddess.
Although Freya had a good-natured personality (laugh~), she generally avoided conflicts with other gods… well, unless she had to resolve them permanently… cough cough.
In short, that Artemis, who once enforced rules like "no familia member may hold hands with the opposite sex,"…
"Heh~ Back when she didn't get along with Aphrodite, who would've thought… she'd end up doing the same thing as her?"
Freya muttered.
What did Aphrodite do?
Cough cough, nothing much, just dated Hephaestus for a while.
Yeah, a goddess ended up becoming another goddess's girlfriend… try saying that three times fast.
As mentioned before, the red-haired big sister with the eyepatch, who had hosted that blue-ribbon otaku goddess for three months, was actually Aphrodite's husband.
And she got cheated on by that scatterbrained "wife"… cough cough, over.
Right now…
"Hey, sis, Barbara is a very innocent girl. When you tease Goddess Artemis, don't drag her along too, okay?"
At least she was a friend who had awakened her true consciousness, so Renjiro (Aether) sighed in helplessness.
Hearing this…
"Oh?"
Freya squinted.
"So you're implying that I'm not innocent?"
Damn, why ask a question that could get me killed?
Can one ever just relax and have fun?
Thankfully, Renjiro knew how to defuse this.
He immediately stood at attention and shouted:
"Report! I believe Miss Xi'er is the cutest in the world!"
Freya said nothing.
After a moment, the beautiful goddess tilted her head, obscuring her face from Renjiro.
A long pause…
"Hmm. The situation's urgent; let's get to business."
Regaining her composure, Freya proactively changed the topic.
"Based on the intel you just gave me, Artemis believes that genshin summoned by Lumine, named Barbara, is actually her sought-after 'Orion', the only one capable of defeating Antares and saving the entire lower world?"
"Uh… yes."
At this point, Freya already knew how difficult the Secret Realm Scorpio was to deal with.
In the past half-hour, Artemis had already shared the truth with everyone present.
So Renjiro, with the advantage of being forewarned, passed along the same information to Freya.
Now…
"Antares… who would've thought this 'ancient monster' would cause such trouble?"
A devourer of gods, capable of absorbing all life energy and bending it to its will, bypassing heavenly laws to wield divine power (Arcanum)…
Honestly, if the Moon God's true form hadn't been resisting its devouring, the danger level of this Secret Realm Scorpio would be even higher than that of the legendary One-Eyed Black Dragon.
Otherwise, Artemis wouldn't have summoned the Arrow of Orion from the heavens.
Technically, it was a rule-breaking move.
But now…
"The trouble doesn't stop there."
Renjiro sighed helplessly.
"According to Artemis, only someone with a pure and flawless soul can wield this 'legendary spear.'"
"But Barbara…"
Unfortunately, she couldn't fight at all.
Yes, the Barbara who had awakened her true consciousness had no combat talent whatsoever.
Back on Earth, she'd be the type of soft girl who couldn't even throw a shot put over a meter without a miracle.
Even Renjiro's personal melee skills would be multiple times superior.
This Hydro Archon's mediocre combat talent rivaled that of a clumsy, flat-footed fox.
At least as a praying priest, she liked spicy food (which even helped her maintain her voice, practically miraculous), but there was no way she could just transform into a "battle priest" and execute a lethal martial arts combo.
And if you temporarily let her true consciousness sleep, letting Renjiro's clone control her… sorry, soul purity fails, and the Arrow of Orion is unusable.
Honestly…
"Being bluntly told by a divine weapon that my soul isn't pure really hurts."
Renjiro thought bitterly.
So the available solutions were limited:
"First, raise Barbara's Archon level to Lv.40, giving her Adventurer strength comparable to Blessing Lv.4 at the extremes of extremes."
"Then, as quickly as possible, teach her how to throw a javelin… sigh~"
Seriously, what kind of mess is this?
"Antares appeared earlier than expected. Even if we wanted to switch to that red-eyed rabbit boy… we don't even know where he is. And even if we did, he's just a regular human without any Divine Blessing."
Previously, Renjiro had missed some key information in the rescued village, and now he sighed at the heavens.
"One step at a time."
Though Freya didn't know Renjiro's inner thoughts, seeing his frustration, she offered comfort:
"If the current plan fails, you still have two 'emergency measures' you can use, right?"
"Mm."
She was right.
The remaining two options…
One: using the Primordial Being Fourth Magic, Renjiro himself becomes the Arrow of Orion to strike Antares.
But against the Secret Realm Scorpio, the danger level was too high.
The other: rely on the recently awakened special skill as a last resort.
To use it effectively…
"Looks like I'll have to ask Zhongli for a crash course in hand-to-hand combat for a while."
Renjiro (Aether) thought grimly.
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