— — — — — —
Ryo shot Great Red a glare.
Outnumbered as he was, Great Red had no intention of pushing things any further.
After all, he only had one living planet, while the ones threatening to blow it up numbered two. As the God of Dreams, he needed living beings to continue dreaming—and that required a world still alive.
Seeing that reaction, Ryo knew the red dragon still wasn't convinced.
He wasn't submitting in his heart, only in circumstances. Still, that wasn't what concerned him right now.
"Red, what kind of strength does the other world have?"
Great Red thought for a moment before answering. "There are two who aren't much weaker than me. With terrain advantages, I can barely defeat them."
"One more whom I can only fight to a draw, even with every advantage available."
"As for the remaining three... they're far stronger than I am."
He paused briefly. "Though I've only met one of those strongest three. Using the terrain and exploiting the limitations of the world passage, I can at least keep that one from crossing over."
Ryo immediately began calculating.
Two ordinary four-digits? One mid-tier? …Or maybe four mid-tier ones?
The strongest of them should be somewhere in the upper range of the four-digit class—possibly even close to top-tier. Probably not quite there, though. If they were, even Great Red wouldn't be able to stop them at all, not even with the advantage of fighting on his home turf.
According to what he knew, the force invading the DxD world in the original story wasn't even their full strength. It was only the machine race from ExE.
That meant the number of four-digit powerhouses on their side almost certainly exceeded ten.
That wasn't a number a single world could normally produce.
Even among worlds under Little Garden's jurisdiction, producing three four-digit beings was already impressive.
Five was generally the limit.
Take the DxD world itself.
The Creator God. Great Red. Ophis. Trihexa.
That was four. And that already qualified as one of the highest-tier worlds.
'Which means EXE must already be interacting with other universes.'
Without access to external resources, there was simply no way they could nurture so many powerful beings.
Inter-universal travel technology wasn't rare in Little Garden.
In fact, the earliest form of Little Garden itself had been founded by major powers that already ruled multiple universes.
Indra, for example, had long ago become a three-digit God-King overseeing countless worlds.
Little Garden itself had been created through cooperation between numerous trans-universal factions, including powers led by figures like Indra.
Shiroyasha liked to describe Little Garden as a playground where gods could indulge themselves. But historically, it had begun as an observation universe jointly established by various three-digit God-Kings seeking further advancement.
So ExE is probably a rapidly developing pantheon. Not yet a full divine conglomerate, but already a fledgling multiversal civilization.
In Little Garden's classification, any faction capable of traversing universes, establishing colonies, and producing four-digit beings was considered a lower-tier multiversal civilization.
One three-digit God-King elevated a civilization to middle-tier. Nine or more God-Kings made it upper-tier.
"Hmm..."
"... A colonizing civilization?"
A playful smile appeared on Ryo's face.
Now things were getting interesting.
The DxD world was destined to be observed by him eventually and brought under Little Garden's jurisdiction.
But ExE wasn't connected to Little Garden.
Which meant it was a world completely unknown to the Little Garden System. A world whose coordinates couldn't even be determined.
In other words... the perfect secret base.
Ryo's heart skipped a beat.
The pressure he lived under was immense. After all, he was dealing with the gods of Little Garden. No amount of caution ever felt excessive.
Now, suddenly, a hidden base had fallen into his lap. A place the Little Garden Center couldn't detect. A place accessible only through the DxD world.
How could he not be tempted?
'Decision made. I'll invade it.'
'As long as they don't have any three-digits, they can't stop me.'
'And I don't need to observe the place. I will just march in and conquer it directly.'
The more he thought about it, the more satisfied he became.
Turning toward Great Red, he spoke in a tone that sounded disturbingly like a friendly uncle trying to lure a child into a van.
"Since you're unwilling to accept that condition, let's modify it."
"How?" Great Red looked genuinely curious.
"The original condition stands—you return ownership of the Dimensional Gap to Ophis. However, I'll add an exchange." Ryo narrowed his eyes. "I'll deal with the invasion problem for you. In return, you swear loyalty to me. How about it? I'll show you a way to grow stronger, and you won't have to worry about anything else."
"This..." Great Red hesitated.
Before he could answer, Ryo smiled. "Of course, you're free to refuse."
"But if you do... I'll simply make your corpse swear loyalty instead."
The moment he said the word corpse, a thick wave of malice surfaced beneath his smile.
He wasn't even releasing it intentionally. Yet the mere existence of that killing intent nearly crushed Great Red.
It felt as though an entire star had landed on his shoulders.
His expression changed instantly. His breathing became ragged. His legs buckled and sank into the solid earth with a crack as he struggled against the overwhelming pressure.
"You...!"
Only now did he truly glimpse what lay beneath Ryo's carefully controlled exterior.
Strong. Absurdly strong.
At the very least, he stood on the same level as the strongest of ExE's Three Evil Gods. Possibly even above them.
"This should be enough, right?" Ryo flexed his fingers as he estimated how much pressure he had allowed to leak out. "How does that compare to ExE's Gods?"
Great Red swallowed.
What kind of world did this guy crawl out of?Did another universe even stronger than ExE set its sights on my world?
"So, do you accept my condition?" Ryo smiled warmly.
The way he looked at Great Red made it seem as though he were staring at a giant treasure.
No. A planet made of solid gold wouldn't be worth as much as a pure-blood dragon.
Great Red remained silent for a long moment.
He felt miserable.
Agreeing willingly and being forced into agreement were two entirely different things.
But standing before a monster that surpassed anything he had ever known, he had no room left to negotiate.
'Seriously, how did this guy even get here? If he'd appeared on the other side of the Dimensional Gap, I could have used the terrain to stop him.'
'But now...'
Eventually, he let out a long sigh.
"I accept."
The words left his mouth heavily.
For countless years he had defended the world from invaders. And in the end, someone from another world had still succeeded.
The realization left a bitter ache in his chest.
"Excellent." Ryo smiled happily. "Then we'll leave the second condition open for now. We can discuss it after I decide what I want."
He hadn't forgotten. That had only been the first condition. And technically, it was Ophis' condition.
Protecting the DxD world and driving off its enemies could have counted as the second option, since he would get Great Red to join Arcadia. But as long as the red dragon didn't bring it up, neither would he.
In fact, Ryo already had some very different ideas about how to use that second condition.
Ideas involving convincing this somewhat dim-witted dragon to give birth to a few dragon descendants for Arcadia.
By that point, even if Ryo tried to chase him away, he probably wouldn't want to leave. At the very least, he'd stay long enough to fight for custody.
For the growth and prosperity of Arcadia, Ryo was willing to be shameless and trick this honest dragon.
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