— — — — — —
"?!"
The instant the sword brushed close to his chest, Indra reacted.
With a single thought, the world around him froze and slowed. Everything shifted into a languid crawl.
Even if the sword moved as fast as light, that wasn't enough to threaten an old veteran of the three-digit ranks. Light speed was fast, yes, but far from impossible to dodge.
After all, there were always a handful of beings with Boundary Gifts capable of interfering with spacetime and tampering with light-speed attacks.
But for someone in the three-digit tier, there were better methods.
Authority.
More specifically, briefly redefining the laws of physics.
That was exactly what Indra had done.
He rewrote time itself, reducing its flow to one-tenth of normal.
With that change, an attack that should travel 150,000 kilometers per second slowed to fifteen thousand. The difference was obvious, and it gave him the sliver of space he needed to evade.
Just as he twisted his body aside—
The swordquivered slightly.
A sharp, brittle crack rang through the frozen world, like glass shattering.
In that instant, the sword tore open a gap in the time flow he had redefined. Within that narrow corridor, time snapped back to normal.
Authority interference… A rule-breaker? Indra was surprised, but not the least bit panicked.
Anyone bold enough to attack the Deva King would need the strength of a four-digit rule-breaker at minimum. If they didn't, that would be the real shock.
But from what he could tell, the hidden enemy had merely cut open a slit in the altered time flow to launch a sneak attack. Their grasp of authority clearly wasn't as deep as his.
And that told him quite a lot.
'Not one of the old three-digit monsters. Those fossils know tricks like this won't work on me.'
'And not an experienced rule-breaker either. I know all the veterans who specialize in "cutting" authorities. It's not them.'
'So… someone from the new generation?'
The thrust hadn't even arrived yet.
But through his authority, Indra had already locked onto the future.
A microsecond later, he would barely avoid the ambush.
Yet at that exact moment—
Indra's expression suddenly changed.
A young generation rule-breaker. Skilled in cutting-type authorities. Expert with blades. And carrying a personal grudge against him.
Stack those conditions together…
There was only one possible person.
'Oh hell.No way…'
'Don't tell me it's really that girl?'
The calm mask on Indra's face shattered instantly.
After narrowly dodging the attack, he didn't counterattack.
Instead, he glanced toward Ryo.
What met his eyes was a look full of pity… and undisguised contempt.
'Damn it. It really is her!'
Indra cursed inwardly.
And then the sword hiding in the void appeared again before him, its razor-sharp aura carrying the conviction to sever anything in its path.
This time, Indra was stuck.
If he dodged, he'd provoke that girl into an even worse tantrum.
If he didn't dodge…
Well, getting his heart stabbed wouldn't kill him.
But it would hurt like hell.
And purging the lingering authority from a wound like that took time. He'd probably end up weakened for a while.
As the commander of the Heavenly Army, Indra had enemies everywhere, both in the open and in the shadows. If he fell into a weakened state, there was a small but very real chance he might actually die.
After all, he wasn't here with an avatar. This was his true body, even if it was currently in a mortal descent form.
A serious injury could absolutely cost him his life. And the Heavenly Army, the warrior gods responsible for upholding Little Garden's rules, couldn't exactly function without an old veteran like him holding the fort.
So for the sake of duty—and his own survival—
He had to dodge.
But… could he?
After a moment's hesitation, Indra gritted his teeth.
'To hell with it. I'm betting you don't actually have the guts to stab.'
With that thought, he simply spread his arms and stopped resisting altogether.
The sudden change stunned everyone present who was capable of reacting.
Hidden in the shadows and nearly pinpointing the attacker's position, Uesugi Kenshin was completely dumbfounded.
"Has this guy lost his mind from all that womanizing?"
If Indra just held out a little longer, she could follow the trail and catch the assassin, landing a decisive blow. There was no way he didn't know that.
They, the Twelve Deva Generals, had fought side by side for years. They trusted each other's combat instincts completely.
A mistake like this should've been impossible.
So why had he suddenly given up resisting? What was she supposed to do now?
Kenshin cursed under her breath.
And decided to just ignore him.
At worst that attack would just injure the old pervert a bit. Maybe leave him weak for a while. It wouldn't kill him.
But someone daring to assassinate the leader of the Heavenly Army—the head of the Twelve Devas—that was a heinous crime.
The culprit had to be captured... Or killed.
In a flash, Kenshin followed the trajectory of the attack, plunging straight into the boundary zone and locking onto the assassin's position, ready to strike.
Then—
She froze.
The thin sword that had been aimed squarely at Indra's chest suddenly dipped downward at the last second.
'The assassin… stopped?'
Kenshin stared in shock.
Even Ryo looked surprised.
'I knew my sweet daughter still cared about her dad…'
The smile just starting to form on Indra's face froze.
Because that plunging sword light wasn't avoiding him.
It carried the same unstoppable will to sever everything—
Straight toward his "family maker".
For a split second, Ryo seemed to imagine someone holding a slender sword, stabbing a cucumber clean through… and then snapping it in half down the middle.
Instinctively, he clamped his legs together.
Meanwhile, the smile on Indra's face twisted grotesquely.
"Uh…"
Even Kenshin, who had been ready to strike, stopped.
Abandoning the assassination just to do that…
Could the attacker be one of those poor souls wearing a green hat?
"Uh…"
Even if the assassin had committed the grave crime of attacking the Heavenly Army's leader… this situation was awkward.
Because technically, both sides had broken the law.
Little Garden had some moral codes written directly into legislation.
For example, you're not allowed to seduce respectable married women.
And Indra... well, everyone knew what he'd been up to.
Eighty percent of this Deva King's time in the Upper Layers was already spent sitting in Heavenly Army jail cells.
The charge?
Adulter.
In that moment—
When the sword snapped "the cucumber"—
Under circumstances nobody expected—
The attacker who had landed the blow didn't flee into the distance.
Instead, she openly revealed herself.
A young girl appeared in the air: long snow-white hair, a sleek black combat outfit, and a pair of white oni horns sprouting from her head.
She glanced at Indra's lower half, raised two fingers like scissors, and cheekily made a snipping gesture.
Seeing her true form, Uesugi Kenshin covered her face in helplessness.
Then, a second later, she suddenly realized something and hurriedly covered her ears.
Right afterward—
A thunderous roar shook the heavens.
"YOU UNFILIAL DAUGHTER—!!"
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