Chapter 914: Ch 913: Pisces Sun Authority

Arcadia Headquarters—

Athena, dressed in a black-and-white maid outfit with her hair pinned up like a married woman's, quietly ran a wooden comb through the purple hair of the woman seated in front of her.

At the vanity, Algol was smoothing lotion over her face. She sounded genuinely surprised. "He actually turned down Krishna's offer?"

"Probably doesn't want to hand anyone a lever against him," Athena said evenly.

Everyone has a weakness, and Ryo was no exception.

But if he gave in to Krishna's terms, his weakness would be marked as "Arcadia's former members," and he'd never get a moment's peace again.

Arcadia had lost so many former members. Two taken today to make him bend, three tomorrow, and four the day after. What could Ryo do then?

Probably nothing. Every move he made would come with his hands tied.

Never overestimate the decency of the gods. They don't share anything like morality.

So to guard against that, Ryo couldn't compromise here. Even if the two former members died this time, he had to show a savage, uncompromising face on this matter.

Only that way would more of the ones who'd been taken away make it out alive.

"That guy really goes to a lot of trouble..." Algol pursed her lips, visibly annoyed.

To Algol, nothing about Arcadia mattered. Ryo was the only thing she really cared about.

She'd been born a powerful Star Spirit before becoming a Mesopotamian goddess, and had nearly become the Holy Mother of the Cross pantheon. Even at its peak, Arcadia wouldn't have ranked as a third-rate power to her. And yet the man she had stayed behind in the lower layers for cared more about Arcadia than about her.

"Don't dwell on it," Athena said, seeing right through her. "Give him enough years, and he'll learn to let go."

"Ha. That's rich, coming from you." Algol let out a mocking laugh. Athena, who'd lain low for countless years over the grudge between Metis and Zeus, had the nerve to talk about "letting go"?

The jab slid right off Athena. She didn't even log it as a grudge, the way she usually would. There was no point anymore.

Ever since Algol became a rule-breaker, keeping score had become meaningless.

Seeing Athena calm as a breeze over a mountain ridge, Algol clicked her tongue, a little sour.

"Where's Ryo right now?"

"Down in the basement, preparing something," Athena said. She paused. "Something to do with Pisces, I think."

"Oh..." Algol's expression turned a little odd.

She'd heard about it from Ryo himself. The "Cloth" that supposedly let him use Cosmo the way it was meant to be used.

And he was taking that thing into battle? Wasn't he afraid of showing his hand and getting targeted for it?

Thinking that over, Algol hesitated, then asked Athena, "Think I should lend a hand?"

Athena didn't reply and instead said, "Egypt's already stirring up trouble for me."

"Tch, Krishna really moves fast!" Algol smacked her lips, looking put out.

The trouble with Ouroboros was that they had too many authorities and too many resources, so every major pantheon had potential members of theirs buried inside it.

The moment they decided to push, they could influence a pantheon from a dozen angles and, through that, sway the decisions of the gods as a whole.

Even when Indra had hit them hard once, that hadn't changed. Even if he'd dug out Ouroboros's very foundations, as long as those two-digits were still standing, Ouroboros could drag on, however badly off it got.

"What about the monkey's side?" Algol asked.

"The Buddhists have already sent people down," Athena said, combing through Algol's silky hair.

"And Shiroyasha? Oh, she's the easiest one to go after, isn't she." Algol pursed her lips again, then said flatly, "That leaves Leticia, who's still in her spirit-rank transformation, and Artemis, who I don't trust."

"Ha. In the end, it's still just him going in alone." She sighed at that and stood up. "Forget it, I'm done with the hair!"

Athena put the comb away and asked, a little surprised, "Where are you going?"

"To have tea with Krishna," Algol said, rolling her arms with a cold snort. "Did she really think my man was someone she could just push around?"

"Two-digit gods fighting each other is forbidden by the Little Garden central core," Athena said mildly.

Then she paused. "Instead of that, you could open a Trickster branch inside Ouroboros."

Algol's steps stopped. She turned to look at Athena, sat back down, and grinned. "Oh? Go on, tell me more!"

...

..

Beneath Arcadia - Inside the underground shelter

Ryo watched calmly as the two golden carp in his hands darted about, then slowly sank into his palm one bit at a time.

Faintly, an invisible golden suit of armor began to take shape on his body.

"Two months, huh... Byakuya, can't you go any faster?"

Receiving the information relayed by the Cloth, Ryo muttered to himself.

In the end, all he could do was sigh.

By Ryo's reckoning, two Sun Authorities should be enough to strengthen the God Cloth, or rather his Another Cosmology Cosmo, even further.

Just as Kalki's "Avatāra" could draw out the potential within a Sun Authority and gain the abilities of the corresponding high-ranking being, his Cosmo could probably pick up the traits of the Gold Saint belonging to the matching "constellation."

And he could guess, more or less, what Pisces would bring.

After all, what Pisces Saints are best known for is their deadly roses and toxins.

...A poison so deadly that even the gods of the Saint Seiya world couldn't endure it.

It was the ability Ryo had figured was the worst fit for himself, and also the one most likely to deliver absolute deterrence in the current situation.

And then there was the Cloth's consciousness, Byakuya, the once-Zanpakuto made from a fragment of Shiroyasha's divinity. That girl had told him it would take two more months before the Cloth awakened any further...

"Guess I'm just not cut out for the slow, grind-it-out path of hard training."

Muttering, Ryo opened the Dimensional Forum and said coolly, "How much?"

[Spend 10,000 points to absorb the power of the Pisces Sun Authority?]

"Yes!"

.

.

.