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"The Order of End is an organization led by the Vampire King, also known as The Blood."
Kato Magatoki had no idea what exactly Ryo wanted to know, so she decided to lay everything out.
"According to LCO intel, the first Fourth Primogenitor created was the Vampire King. Because of that, he also possesses twelve familiars just like the Fourth Primogenitor."
"Huh?"
Ryo raised an eyebrow. That was new to him.
The Vampire King had twelve familiars like the Fourth Primogenitor?
"Are they also the Zodiac Familiars?" he asked.
"No."
Kato shook her head.
"I've only seen the Vampire King summon a familiar once, and it didn't have anything to do with zodiac symbolism."
At that, Ryo's momentary eagerness evaporated.
If they weren't Zodiac Familiars, they were useless to him. Forcing absorption would just taint his symbolic purity.
The zodiac could tolerate adding Ophiuchus as a thirteenth sign, since the Little Garden itself had Ophiuchus, but random off-theme familiars were nothing but a waste of power.
The only reason Ryo could keep all twelve Avrora clones obedient—and even get the original Cyrora to listen to him—was because he was willing to feed them his "blood."
The blood of a Seventh Sense Saint Seiya, even given in drops once or twice a year, had absurdly high quality and power.
At this point, Ryo wasn't even sure he could properly create a true Blood Servant anymore.
Those brats were so spoiled by his blood that they probably wouldn't even look twice at anything under a five-digit tier.
Seeing Ryo lose interest and go blank-faced, Kato instantly understood how he was thinking.
To survive—and also out of spite toward the Vampire King who set her up against Ryo—she quickly added. "The Vampire King's greatest secret is that he, or rather he and the members of the Order of End, are not people of this era."
"Oh?" Ryo widened his eyes in mild surprise. "Did they come from the past or from the future?"
If it was the past, he wasn't worried. The future was where things got troublesome.
He also finally understood why he couldn't locate the Vampire King anywhere on this planet earlier.
The guy wasn't even from this era. Of course there was nothing to find.
"He claims he came from the future," Kato said, pointedly using the word "claims," with a trace of ridicule.
"But I suspect it's more likely a parallel world situation, or some kind of dimensional transfer. True time travel is extremely difficult. I doubt even the so-called gods could do it."
There were only a few beings Ryo dared to guess could manipulate time. At most, Chronos from the Saint Seiya. Everyone else stayed firmly on the maybe list.
Even among two-digit gods, he'd never heard of "Time" being someone's primary Principle. And considering how absurdly complex the Little Garden was, even if someone could manipulate time, nobody would risk messing with the timeline.
Too many big shots around. Nobody wanted to get slapped.
As for the Vampire King claiming time travel, that reminded Ryo of Akatsuki Kojou's daughters, Reina and Moegi.
In the original story, Reina really did travel back twenty years by Moegi and caused chaos.
But actual time travel... even a Seventh Sense Saint like Ryo couldn't do that. Meanwhile a little vampire girl used a spell and Itogami's leyline as a battery to pull it off.
The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded.
Ryo let out an internal sigh and asked. "So how did the Vampire King travel through time? Even if it's only parallel worlds, he'd need a prepared domain and a power source."
Kato took a deep breath before answering.
"The Prison Barrier. The Order of End controls a Prison Barrier."
"???"
Ryo stared blankly for a second, then realization dawned. His expression turned odd.
"There are other Prison Barriers besides Natsuki's?"
"Yes."
Kato nodded with a bitter smile. "There are actually many Prison Barriers in this world. Witches from certain families can easily learn the technique. As long as they're willing and the conditions allow, they can create a Prison Barrier."
She sighed. "In the beginning, the Prison Barriers were built to detain members of the Order of End and prevent them from escaping this era."
Ryo stayed silent for a moment, then said quietly, "Natsuki doesn't know about this."
If Natsuki knew, she would have told him. She wasn't the type to hide critical intel.
"She's too strong," Kato said, meaningfully.
"From ancient times until now, I've never seen a witch stronger than Natsuki Minamiya. Not even the Witch of Notaria."
Her expression turned amused.
"Natsuki's guardian demon, the Rain Gold, is so powerful that its mere existence destabilizes space when it unleashes its full strength. The Japanese government fears her, yet desperately wants to use her. Naturally, they won't let her know too much."
A guardian demon that destabilizes space just by existing? Ryo made a strange face.
That guy was practically licking his boots the moment Ryo offered a path to becoming a pure-blood demon...
Though that was because of Algol.
The Demon Star who embodied the concept of Demonhood itself. To demons, she was basically a god. Kneeling to her wasn't shameful at all.
"So each Prison Barrier contains imprisoned Order of End members, and the Order of End knows this, seized control of one, and turned it into a base so the Vampire King can move freely through time?"
Kato smiled slightly. "Exactly. From the perspective of the major powers, the Prison Barriers are the most terrifying containment sites for Order of End members. None of them ever imagined the Vampire King would hide inside one for years."
Ryo couldn't help laughing. "So when the Vampire King had you seize Onrai Island, he was planning to build a secondary base?"
Using a fictional world as a stronghold. Not bad.
"Yes," Kato said.
Ryo then gave her a long look and said, "So that means the space-time technique they use for travel should be somewhere around here, right?"
.
.
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