— — — — — —
Algol's taunt drew no reaction from the monks across the street.
"Heh. What a bunch of useless idiots. Can't even trade insults."
She laughed mockingly, but her eyes had grown serious.
Five Three-Digit Buddhist powerhouses. Even for Algol, that was no small pressure.
The lower layers of Little Garden always came with a cap on how much power you could unleash. When everyone's upper limit was locked down, numbers became a huge advantage.
If this were the upper layers, Algol was confident she could crush them with one hand.
But here in the lower layers? That wasn't guaranteed.
But if she did move up to the upper layers, she'd almost certainly be facing a full-blown siege.
No helping it. Too many ugly bastards up there…
As Algol finished speaking, an elderly monk with a white beard stepped forward from the group. He wore a crimson kasaya and brought his palms together in greeting.
"Amitabha. Lady Algol, we have no intention of becoming your enemy."
"We came here for only one matter. Please sign your name on the Godslayer War Treaty."
"If you do so, we will naturally leave."
"Oh? That sounds nice."
Algol dug a finger in her ear and looked at them with blatant disdain.
"Well, since you're all so sincere…"
She deliberately stretched out the sentence. The monks' eyes lit up with faint hope.
"Then her tone suddenly shifted. 'Then have Shakyamuni come and talk to me himself. If he begged me, I'd agree."
"Blasphemous demon!"
Behind the old monk, a younger monk slammed his staff hard against the ground. "Filthy heretic. How dare you speak so insolently of the Buddha?!"
Algol blinked at him in surprise, then burst out laughing. "Wow. Another Buddhist disciple who treats Shakyamuni as his god. Tsk!"
She tilted her head, smirking. "Kid, haven't you ever heard Shakyamuni say it himself? Worshipping him as a god isn't the path to liberation. Sigh~ The Buddha will be disappointed."
Her words instantly drew furious expressions from two other monks.
"Impudent demon! Twisting the Buddha's teachings!"
As they shouted, the old monk leading them instead showed a sorrowful look.
Algol glanced down at him and shook her head. "Little monk, your disciples aren't very good. Maybe they're talented when it comes to grasping authority, but their understanding of Buddhist doctrine…"
She shrugged. "Honestly, mine might be better."
The moment she said that, the younger monks' faces twisted with rage. They looked ready to pull out their ritual weapons and fight her to the death.
"Amitabha…"
The old monk sighed. "This is indeed my failure as a teacher."
"Master!"
"Grandmaster! Why are you even talking to this demonic heretic?"
"Great-Grandmaster, if she refuses to sign, then we'll force her!"
Hearing that, Algol blew a strand of hair off her forehead and sneered. "So that's how it is. You Buddhists never intended to negotiate in the first place."
"Oh, right. Almost forgot. Shakyamuni doesn't represent the entire Buddhism. Aside from his direct disciples, there probably aren't many truly orthodox Buddhists left in that lineage."
Her gaze swept across them, flickering with mockery. "Just look at your faces. Anyone who didn't know better might think you were disciples of Mara Papiyas, the Demon King."
Hearing that, the old monk finally lost his composure. "Lady Algol, why must you mock us so cruelly?"
Mara Papiyas had been a renowned figure who converted to Buddhism in the Dawn Era. But his misunderstandings of Buddhist teachings had often led disciples astray.
For Algol to say his disciples resembled Mara's followers… that was a strike straight at the heart.
She was accusing him of poor understanding of Buddhism—of misleading his students.
"What's wrong? Dropping the act already?"
Algol snorted, golden slit pupils flashing like a serpent's. "You're only half-baked yourself, pretending to be a true buddha. Don't make me laugh my teeth out."
She tilted her head, grin turning savage. "If you want to fight, then fight. If you want to move, then move. Show me the spirit of Mara's disciples."
"The Buddhist path cannot be insulted. I advise Your Ladyship to reconsider."
The white-bearded monk drew out his staff and slammed it heavily against the ground.
"Then come on. Let's see who walks out of here alive today." Algol's grin widened into something feral.
In the next instant, thick black smoke swallowed the entire outer gate district.
"Watch out for poison smoke!"
The old monk had barely shouted the warning when, in the very next second, he coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of black blood.
"A bunch of idiots. I've been poisoning you this whole time and you didn't even notice. You've brought shame to the demon path."
Algol opened her petrifying eyes, shaking her head in disappointment. "You're hopeless."
"Infuriating!"
The young monk could no longer hold back. His body flashed with light as he revealed his golden buddha body.
The next moment—
A colossal golden Buddha, ten thousand meters tall, erupted into existence. A golden dragon coiled around its right arm as it swung down toward Algol in a furious strike.
"Brother, I'll assist you!"
With another roar, a towering Eight-Armed Wisdom King avatar appeared, joining the dragon-wreathed buddha as they attacked Algol together.
In an instant, the Outer Gate 1028, spanning billions of square kilometers, was split between surging black smoke and blazing golden light.
The two forces collided and tore at each other across the battlefield.
At the same time, countless gazes from the upper layers turned downward.
They watched the clash unfolding in the lower layers.
— — —
Outer Gate 3345, Thousand Eyes' compound corridor—
"So it has started."
Ryo sat on the edge of the veranda with a cup of hot tea in his hands. His consciousness stretched across countless gates as he watched the distant battlefield.
Beside him sat Shiroyasha—currently shrunk down into a loli-sized body. She scratched her foot and chugged a bottle of soda with visible irritation.
"That vain idiot dropped such a bombshell on me before leaving. Seriously, she's unbelievable."
"Before leaving?" Ryo raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"
"You think I'm stupid?!"
Shiroyasha squinted at him with mismatched eyes and said flatly,
"She said enough that I could guess what you two are planning."
"That narcissist finally found her own path. Instead of hiding somewhere to advance quietly, she shows herself in public. Obviously she's planning a cicada shedding its shell trick."
She snorted. "Don't tell me you really sold her information for just one Limit-Authority. Selling out a Three-Digit who might break into Two-Digit? You'd make that kind of losing deal?"
"If you ask me, you two already planned an escape. Most likely you'll run off to some external universe, maybe even another world, and buy yourselves time."
Ryo fell silent.
He hadn't expected that Algol's short conversation with Shiroyasha would reveal so much.
If even Shiroyasha—who had been toyed with by the gods countless times—could deduce this much, then the truly powerful figures watching from above would certainly see even further.
'Looks like I really underestimated people before. '
Ryo shook his head slightly and gave a self-deprecating smile.
Then his expression turned confident again.
Still… it wasn't too late to fix that.
One day, he would stand on the same level as those supreme beings and test his strength against them.
"Wait—what's that?!"
Shiroyasha suddenly jumped to her feet, staring at the battlefield with wide eyes. Her expression filled with shock.
Besides her, Ryo was also shocked.
.
.
.