"[Sky Lord] controlling sky, storms, and thunder, [Raging Sea] controlling oceans and voyages, [Life and Death Cycle] controlling harvest and desolation, [Underworld Legion] controlling the underworld."
"Wow, gaining four authorities at once! This is something other children wouldn't even dare to dream of. Ryuga-chan, you've struck it rich!"
In the Netherworld, the purple twin-tailed girl raised both hands high, cheering to express her joy, looking even happier than Ryuga himself.
If she hadn't been stopped several times before, with her personality, she might have secretly snuck over to hug him.
Facing information he already knew immediately, Ryuga found it hard to feel excited.
"Melqart's divine core is quite complex. If he had descended under the name Baal, the authorities he possessed would probably be even more numerous."
Like the relationship between Servants and Heroic Spirits, when gods descend to become Heretic Gods, they match with different divine cores due to different catalysts, manifested externally as differences in divine names.
Under this mechanism, even if the same deity descended twice, they would manifest in different forms.
Melqart was the main god worshipped by the Semitic peoples. As a typical sky god, he later even had tendencies toward becoming a monotheistic god like Odin and Zeus. At the same time, he was also the prototype of Saint George, with many aliases such as Beelzebub and Baal.
The current four authorities were definitely not his limit.
"That's true, but wouldn't that also make him much harder to deal with?"
Saying this, Pandora suddenly patted her own head.
"Oh! I almost forgot - for you, ordinary Heretic Gods aren't a problem."
When other Campiones hunted gods, Pandora still had to worry about safety issues, but with Ryuga, there was no need to worry at all.
Or rather, the ones who needed to worry should be the Heretic Gods.
During the previous authority stripping ritual, Pandora had tried to chat with the God King Melqart, but unexpectedly, this naturally arrogant God King remained completely silent, seeming to have been traumatized by Ryuga.
Looking at his condition, he probably wouldn't descend again in the future.
Hopefully, she hadn't left him with psychological trauma.
"These four authorities are quite rich in effects. However, compared to the authorities, I think these divine weapons are more important."
After investigating the scope of the authorities' power, Ryuga turned his gaze to the two clubs before him.
Yagrush (The Chaser) and Aymur (The Driver).
Ryuga merely raised his hand slightly, and the two divine weapons obediently circled behind his back.
After obtaining Melqart's divine core, these two divine weapons naturally became Ryuga's possessions.
Unlike authority-type weapons like the Golden Sword that required the master to provide power, these divine weapons didn't need Ryuga to provide divine power - they could accumulate power themselves, and Ryuga only needed to control them.
"Eh? Why do you say that?"
Pandora tilted her head, somewhat puzzled.
"Although they're quite powerful, divine weapons and authorities generally don't differ much, right?"
Both were powers based on divine cores - one was controlled by oneself, the other was entrusted to divine artifacts. There wasn't a clear advantage or disadvantage.
"Generally, that's true, but this weapon is different."
Ryuga shook his head, turning his gaze to Aymur.
"Melqart once used this weapon to split Verethragna into ten incarnations. That means this divine weapon has the power to harmlessly disassemble divine cores!"
"So?"
Pandora still didn't quite understand.
This ability was rare, but its usefulness seemed limited, right?
"So it's very suitable for research."
As a weapon, Aymur's characteristics were obviously somewhat useless.
Despite being able to shatter Verethragna's divine core, it couldn't kill him, giving the opponent a chance to reorganize his divine core - truly superfluous.
But if it wasn't treated as a weapon but as experimental equipment like a surgical knife, this weapon's properties became very useful.
Disassembling divine cores without causing any damage - it was like a surgical knife with built-in safety guarantees.
"Research... Ryuga-chan, you really do like exploring this knowledge. Even the wisdom gods I know don't have as much curiosity as you."
Through several interactions and observations, Pandora had gained a general understanding of Ryuga's style of action.
After hearing this, she wasn't particularly surprised, just slightly sighed.
"Knowledge is the ladder of human progress."
Ryuga replied in a calm tone.
"Of course, the same applies to gods."
"If you had spent these years not on voyeurism but on researching the structure of gods and mythology, perhaps you could have completed your revenge against the Steel Gods yourself without needing Campiones."
Right off the bat, a bowl of bitter medicine.
"Stop lecturing, stop lecturing! Spare me! I really can't do that kind of thing!"
Hearing this, Pandora immediately hugged her head and shook it violently, as if she'd been subjected to a tightening curse.
As a former member of the Earth Mother Goddesses, Pandora was definitely not poor in mythological techniques - otherwise, she couldn't have created the Pandora Dark Sacrifice.
But compared to Ryuga, she was far behind.
To this day, Pandora still couldn't understand how Ryuga managed to pull off operations that even Verethragna himself couldn't do when he had just obtained the authority.
Using purely a newly acquired authority to instantly kill a God King-level Heretic God was an extremely explosive operation no matter what era it was placed in.
So she decided not to listen to Ryuga's sermon and immediately changed the subject.
"By the way, do you know what the 'true power' that Verethragna mentioned before is?"
"Mm."
Ryuga nodded lightly.
Although this battle was a one-sided instant kill, he still obtained the information he wanted.
"Tell me! You can tell me, right?"
Pandora immediately showed curious eyes.
She was also very curious about what gift Verethragna could leave for Ryuga.
"What he spoke of, rather than power, is more like the correct way to use power, or perhaps - the essence of the War God's divine core."
Ryuga had no intention of hiding this information.
Because even if others knew, it wouldn't mean anything.
"The essence of the War God's divine core?" Pandora indeed didn't quite understand.
"Which incarnation among the ten do you think is the core of this authority?"
Ryuga didn't answer her question but posed another question instead.
"Eh?"
Pandora immediately fell into thought.
To be continued...