— — — — — —
"Forgive..." Kurousagi's expression twitched strangely.
She had the weird feeling Ryo had just glanced at her. Probably her imagination.
But seriously, after everything that happened with Greece, they could still be forgiven?
Was Athena (the golden-haired one) supposed to mediate for them? Then what about that letter she secretly burned to her patron god Indra asking him to intervene… was that pointless now?
'Forgive…' Leticia couldn't help feeling a bit of pity when she heard the word.
She was certain Ryo only said it with thick, dripping malice.
"How long?" Athena didn't dwell on it and directly asked the key question.
"Around one day," Ryo estimated.
Technically his debut Gift Game was still ongoing, with a twelve-day time limit.
But in case some genius cracked the "Bleach" plot earlier, he only gave himself a day.
Within two days, no one should reasonably solve it. He actually calculated about four days as the minimum. And based on the time difference between Strike the Blood's world and Little Garden, he had roughly a hundred days over there—about three months.
He planned to solve everything within one month over there, which translated to about thirty hours here in Little Garden.
"Thirty hours at most," Ryo said. "You guys handle things on the Gift Game side. Byakuya will keep the fictional world stable."
Everyone here knew Byakuya existed; what they didn't know was what she could actually do, let alone that she had become a Cloth spirit instead of a Zanpakutō.
Funny enough, the person who knew the most about Ryo wasn't any of them— it was Shiroyasha over at Thousand Eyes' base.
"..."
Athena fell quiet for a moment, clearly communicating with someone. Finally she said softly, "I will have the Athena of Little Garden cooperate with me. We can secure five days for you. So take your time."
Off to the side, Leticia tugged Kurousagi's sleeve.
'See? That's what you should be doing. A proper wife provides support like this. Get it?'
'Your man is being stolen right in front of you, Kurousagi.'
"Lady Leticia? Why did you pull me?"
Kurousagi stared at her, confused. Leticia froze for a heartbeat, then facepalmed. "Sorry. I just accidentally tugged you."
"Oh, no need to apologize~"
Leticia stared at the smiling, clueless rabbit and quietly died inside. She turned back toward Ryo with a hollow look.
Ryo chuckled, then said, "I set up some defenses in the basement. If Zeus attacks, you can hide down there."
He paused, then continued seriously. "I'm heading to the world where Pemptos and others were born. There's a target that may require their power, so I have to take them with me. Which means they can't stay behind to stabilize things here."
The ten avatars embodying the Zodiac—Pemptos and the others Ryo brought—were already strong enough to qualify as four-digits.
He originally planned to leave them with Leticia as insurance, but given how critical The Cleansing was to his plan, and their link to that system, he had no choice but to bring them along.
"Someone thinks rather little of us…"
Leticia, herself a four-digit and a Sun Authority holder, sighed and shot Ryo a mild glare. "Feels like your brain got bitten by a rabbit if you're being this dumb right now."
Athena, already holding a divine Authority and also classed as a four-digit, laughed helplessly.
"Huh? Why a rabbit bite?" Kurousagi blinked. She was also a born four-digit deity and held Indra's authority artifact.
Ryo froze, then laughed. "My bad, my bad."
He almost forgot that if these three snapped, even a four-digit irregular (freak) would have a hard time suppressing them.
Athena the non-irregular, Leticia with Sun Authority, and Kurousagi with Indra's pseudo-divine artifact plus Moon Authority? Anyone below irregular level had no right to get in their way.
"I was being biased," Ryo said with a wry smile.
Leticia didn't give him a hard time. She just chuckled. "Relax. We can protect our home just fine."
"Don't underestimate us," Athena murmured, then glanced at him and smiled. "Come back early."
"Yeah." Ryo nodded, glanced at Kurousagi, waved, and headed back down.
He had only taken a few steps when Kurousagi's voice echoed after him. "Have a safe trip back!"
Ryo stopped, turned, and shouted back, "Then have rabbit hotpot ready and keep it warm for me!"
"Ryo!"
Her indignant shout trailed down the corridor.
Before it faded, Ryo had already vanished into the lower levels and stopped before the underground door. "At my age and still setting death flags…"
He smirked to himself, then pulled up the Dimensional Forum and typed into the system's designated Q&A thread. "Forum, if I want to convert Ares and Hermes into Machine Gods while preserving most of their combat power, is it better to go to FGO TYPE-MOON or Strike the Blood?"
He had his Cleansing plan, but if there was something easier, he would happily swap.
[Answer: Neither of those worlds is suitable.]
"?" Ryo blinked. He was about to ask "Which world then?" but remembered the forum's annoying paywall nature. He paused, then typed. "How many points?"
[The holder may pay 200,000 points through the forum to perfectly convert a main god into a machine god, strengthen their base stats, and grant a high evolution ceiling. View details?]
Ryo glanced at his current points.
The number "31,000" stabbed him right in the eyes.
.
.
.