Chapter 905: Ch 904: A Word of Advice

"Looks like you're in a pretty rough spot."

At the sound of the man's voice, Kalki looked up and saw two people coming through the doorway.

One had black hair and black eyes, wore a plain jacket, and had a faint smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. It was Ryo Yagami, who had clearly only just arrived on Mars.

The other one actually surprised Kalki.

"Rin?" Kalki stared at Rin, baffled. Why was she here?

This was supposed to be one of Arcadia's secret prisons. Wasn't bringing her here a security risk?

Rin took one look at Kalki, hands shackled, slumped limply on the floor, and her heart sank. "Are you okay?"

She rushed over and checked him for injuries. When she found none, she let out a breath of relief, but she still complained, "How could they treat you like this? Don't they have any sense of how to treat a prisoner?"

Ryo rolled his eyes. "Come on, think about it. Your brother's a high-value prisoner. If this were the Heavenly Army, they'd have driven chains through your collarbone by now."

Rin glared at him like a lioness guarding her cub.

Ryo just shrugged and let it go. Worry makes people irrational. It was the same with Kurousagi whenever she found out he was off on some adventure.

Then he noticed Kalki hadn't taken his eyes off him, and he raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem surprised to see me."

"Pisces, isn't it?" Kalki said flatly. "I knew you wouldn't let this go before they hand me over to the Heavenly Army to be executed."

"You know exactly where you stand, huh?" Ryo said, half amused, half impressed.

Rin gave Kalki a strange look. "Why would you think that?"

"I..." Before Kalki could answer, Mithras's voice cut in inside his head, sounding like he'd given up on the boy entirely.

|"Idiot! Those old coots wouldn't execute you even if they executed me. Aren't you being a little too pessimistic about your future?"|

"Hm?" Ryo suddenly narrowed his eyes and stared hard at Kalki. "That soul fluctuation..."

Kalki's pupils contracted. 'Mystery-san,' he thought nervously, 'I think he's noticed you.'

"..."

Mithras was quiet for a moment. Then he used his spiritual power to vibrate the air and speak aloud. "Who would've thought you'd be skilled in the concept of the soul!"

Hearing that familiar, aged voice, Ryo's gaze sharpened. Then he smiled. "I wondered why Ouroboros higher-ups were so on edge. So you've been living inside Kalki all this time."

He drew out the old man's name with a playful lilt. "Mithras."

"Heh." Mithras gave a mocking laugh. "As if you didn't already know."

"You deliberately used the King of End's Spirit Rank while impersonating Kalki, just to let the Two Digits know I existed, didn't you?"

"I'll give you credit. You got past the Cross Pantheon's blockade, got word to Krishna, and even talked her into letting you pose as Kalki and expose the whole thing in public."

"I don't know how Ouroboros came to allow this kind of infighting, but I have to admit, that move checkmated me, and everyone standing behind me too."

Ryo paused and fell silent.

Only now did everything click into place for him.

Mithras had been parasitizing Kalki. Ryo had impersonated Kalki and used the King of End's power, which got Kalki examined. Krishna then discovered Mithras' presence, suspected the Cross of betraying the alliance, and decided to send Kalki to Buddha for purification, conveniently knocking out a rival in the process...

It all connected.

Ryo had suspected Mithras might be hiding in Kalki, but he never imagined the old man would actually dare. Wasn't he afraid of being hunted down by the Two Digits?

After a moment, he said in an odd tone, "You probably won't believe this, but impersonating Kalki was my own idea. Nobody put me up to it."

Whatever happened, Ryo couldn't let it be confirmed that he'd schemed against the Two Digits. He had no interest in asking for trouble.

"Sure, it happened under the Two Digits' noses, but it really was just a spur-of-the-moment thing."

Unlike what Mithras had assumed, Ryo hadn't had any help from Krishna. He'd pulled off the convincing impersonation by combining the thief identity of his Hermes avatar with the King of End's spirit rank. Not even the Two Digits had seen that coming, because they had no idea Ryo had a machine god of Hermes in the first place.

When he finished, Mithras fell into a deep silence.

He had already made peace with a heroic death, and now this kid was telling him it was all a misunderstanding? That he'd just been collateral damage?

Who could accept that?

"Sir? Hello?" Kalki, ever kindhearted, called out anxiously a few times.

It took a while before Mithras recovered enough to sigh. "You damn scoundrel. This old man has really been done in by you this time."

Ryo hadn't warned Krishna. He'd accidentally exposed everything, right in front of several of the Two Digits. Even his true self, the Lord of Cross, probably hadn't seen that coming.

Knowing Krishna as he did, Mithras figured the Cross had taken a heavy loss already and would be getting a warning on top of it. And the warning would be...

He paused, then asked, "So are you here to send Kalki to Sanzen?"

"You figured it out?" Ryo said, surprised.

Kalki and Rin both turned to look at him in shock.

Sanzen? As in, to the Buddha's house?

They exchanged a glance, and their eyes lit up with relief. Compared to the nightmare of being locked up by the Heavenly Army, this was a far better outcome. Everyone in the Little Garden knew the Buddhist Pantheon put the most weight on kindness.

They might mock Buddhism's so-called mercy, the way it whitewashed sinners, but when it was their own turn to benefit... well, that was great news, wasn't it?

At the very least, Kalki wouldn't end up in a terrible situation. With his special status, he might even be recruited. And because of the Buddhist faction's nature, the one person who posed the greatest threat to Kalki, the Buddha himself, would turn a blind eye.

In a way, it was the best result they could hope for right now. At least, that was what Kalki and Rin thought.

But for Mithras, it wasn't so friendly. "Heh. Of course. That's exactly the kind of thing Krishna would do."

Setting the wolf on the tiger was Krishna's favorite trick. Back then, he'd brought in Queen Halloween to meddle in the Sun Authority, using it to prepare for Kalki's birth.

Now he was setting the Buddha against the Lord of Cross, or using the Lord's actions to tie Buddha's hands. It was classic Krishna. It was just this poor, feeble old man who had to suffer for it.

"Haah... I doubt this old man is getting out of this one."

Ryo only smiled. Now that he knew Mithras was inside Kalki, there was no way he'd let him slip away.

"Well, kid, it looks like this old man's luck has run out." Mithras chuckled, then spoke to Kalki in a tone heavy with meaning. "In return for letting me recover by absorbing your power, I'll give you a word of advice."

Kalki blinked, then settled in to listen.

And Mithras, his voice weighted with complicated feeling, said, "Beware of Yavoth."

(YHVH)

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