Chapter 902: Ch 901: It's All Athena

Ouroboros also wants Kalki delivered into the Buddha's hands?

Wait. If that was the case, Ryo could actually narrow down who had sent the order.

Krishna, Matsya, or Kurma. It had to be one of those three.

They were all rivals competing for Vishnu's Spirit Rank, and only someone who knew their competition inside and out would make a move like this.

And if he narrowed it down further, based on who Loki would address with that tone of reverence...

Kurma seemed unlikely. From what Ryo remembered of the original story, the personality didn't fit. As for Matsya, he barely showed his face at all. According to Algol, that one had chosen to withdraw from the world entirely, given the peculiar nature of his Spirit Rank.

So that left... Krishna? He'd been assigned under Krishna? And Krishna wanted Kalki delivered to Buddha of all people?

'Sounds like something's seriously gone wrong with Kalki,' Ryo thought, mulling it over for a moment before speaking.

"What's the reason?"

Or more precisely, what was in it for him.

Under the original terms, impersonating Kalki alone was already worth Taurus as compensation. Now they were tacking on an extra task, which obviously meant a second payout was in order.

Ryo wasn't the type to work for free with nothing to show for it.

Loki didn't seem surprised by the question, though it did shoot him a look of disgust. "You're really something else, you know that? One Sun Authority isn't even enough to satisfy you."

Ryo's expression didn't so much as twitch. The criticism rolled right off him.

Surviving in Little Garden meant shamelessness was basic survival skill number one. He was still just an amateur compared to some of the operators running around this place.

Compared to what the real bigwigs pulled, he was strictly small-time.

"Whatever. There's already a backup plan for this anyway. If your demands give anyone a headache, that's the higher-ups' problem, not mine." The raven shook its head, then added, sounding a little envious, "Must be nice having backing like that. You can make all sorts of outrageous demands and get away with it. If it were me, tch."

Loki let out a jealous little huff, then fixed Ryo with a long, meaningful look. "The exact words were: 'If Taurus doesn't cut it, I can write to Halloween and have her swap it for something else.'"

Ryo suddenly went quiet.

That was, genuinely, an enormous offer.

Once he got his hands on Taurus and unlocked the restrictions on his Cloth, he could then trade Taurus for another Sun Authority, which would let him unlock yet another one.

And this was Krishna personally offering to write the letter.

In a sense, that was worth one favor from a two-digit existence, which was worth far more than any gift.

But it was also a probe.

Krishna was testing exactly how many Sun Authorities Ryo would need to fully unlock his Another Cosmology.

Bluntly put, she was trying to estimate the ceiling of Ryo's potential.

'The Sun Authorities I've shown so far are Leo and Taurus, and Kalki should have already reported my interest in Pisces. Add this new one, and that's four Sun Authorities total.'

'An Another Cosmology requiring that many already puts it above the vast majority of divine pantheons out there.'

Ryo narrowed his eyes, tapping a finger lightly on the table as he ran the numbers.

'Krishna, or Ouroboros as a whole, will definitely assume I'm hiding something. But their estimate probably won't run too high, maybe half again at most, likely less. So the most likely guess on their end is that I need six to eight Sun Authorities. That's already an absurd number. An Another Cosmology requiring that many would rank just below Kalki's "Avatāra" itself.'

'Which means I can still keep four to six authorities hidden. That's more than enough to send Ouroboros into a decisive miscalculation. After all, nobody's going to guess that my Cosmo actually needs all twelve zodiac Sun Authorities, let alone that it can even accommodate a thirteenth for Ophiuchus. Little Garden has never seen an Another Cosmology this ridiculous.'

The thought settled something in him. Ryo kept his expression flat and said to Loki, "Deal."

Counting this new arrangement, he'd end up with two Sun Authorities from this exchange alone. Add that to Kalki's promised unlock of Pisces, Leticia's Ophiuchus, and his own existing Leo...

By the time this whole operation wrapped up, Ryo figured he'd have five Sun Authorities unlocked. That was already closing in on half of the full set of thirteen.

The kind of power boost that would bring was honestly beyond his ability to estimate.

But if he had to guess, it might push him close to, or even past, a breakthrough into the Eighth Sense.

Seeing how readily Ryo agreed, Loki couldn't help but look a little wary. "Your Another Cosmology is getting a bit ridiculous, you know that?"

He added, almost as an afterthought, "Athena really lives up to her reputation."

The comment seemed to come out of nowhere, but Ryo understood exactly what he meant.

In the eyes of Little Garden's upper echelon of gods, his Another Cosmology was "actually" Athena's handiwork.

Ryo had no intention of correcting that impression. If anything, he gave it a hearty thumbs up.

Who was going to argue that the zodiac constellations weren't Athena's creation? Who was going to claim the Saint Cloths weren't Athena's masterwork?

Ask either of those questions in the world of Saint Seiya, and the answer would always come back to Athena. So Ryo admitting as much was only reasonable. Logical, even. Practically law.

So yeah. Blame it all on Athena. Couldn't go wrong there.

Ryo thought this with some private amusement, while out loud he pressed Loki further. "What's the timeline?"

He meant the timeline for the handover of Kalki.

This actually didn't interfere with the plan he and Shiroyasha already had in motion.

All he had to do was shift the handover from "Ryo delivers Kalki" to "Shiroyasha delivers Kalki," and that would indirectly let Ouroboros in on Shiroyasha's intentions. Of course, that would require Shiroyasha to work a little harder spreading the word in secret on her end.

But for the moment, their overall plan hadn't changed much. It had simply shifted from "Ryo betrays Ouroboros and hands over Kalki" to "Ryo follows Ouroboros's orders and hands over Kalki."

'Just means I can't go too hard hitting Ouroboros's bases going forward. We're all "family" now, after all.'

'So... maybe I should just impersonate Shiva instead? It'd be a waste not to use the identity Ouroboros handed me, wouldn't it? And Rudra really does have a similar aura to Shiva. I just need to perfect the details.'

Ryo was already scheming away in his head, with thoroughly bad intentions, when Loki, still perched on the meeting table, answered his earlier question. "The sooner, the better!"

"Got it."

Ryo let out a breath.

Looked like he'd be making another trip up to Mars to visit his brother-in-law. But before that, he needed to have a chat with Algol and Athena, and give Kurousagi a heads up too.

"Well, handover's done, so I'll be heading out." Before Loki left, though, it gave Ryo one last meaningful look. "You'd better be careful how you use the 'Loki' Spirit Rank, understand?"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Ryo raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry. Whenever I do something rotten, I'll make sure to pin it on this mask."

"Ohh~ Now that, I am genuinely looking forward to~" Loki, ever the type to enjoy a good show even if the fire eventually reached its own head, cackled with delight.

"Honestly, I hope you cause the biggest mess possible. Not like I'm planning to clean up after you anyway, hahaha~"

With that, it flapped its wings, and amid a ripple in the unseen fabric of the world, vanished into the boundary layer.

Ryo watched the whole thing in silence. After a long moment, he stood up and left the underground meeting room.

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