— — — — — —
Mount Meru—
"I see."
"I understand the situation. I'll arrange some manpower to help, but don't get your hopes up."
With that, Indra ended the call with Cao Cao. Rising from his seat, he walked to the window and gazed out over the scenery of Mount Meru below, his brow furrowing.
"The Holy Spear contains the will of the Creator God. That much I knew. But it can actually bring him back to life?"
"And Ryo Yagami is searching for traces of the Mother Goddess? Could this be the same Mother Goddess I know? The one from another world?"
A look of regret crossed his face.
"Unfortunately, the God of Breasts said she barely interacted with the Mother Goddess. All she knows is that the Creator God once worked with the Mother Goddess. She doesn't know any details."
After mulling it over, Indra let out a long sigh.
"My scouts report that Great Red has apparently taken up residence at Yasaka Shrine. Ophis was one thing, but now even Great Red? Is Ryo Yagami some kind of dragon whisperer? Why are those two Dragon Gods so friendly toward him?"
The clash he had expected between Great Red and Ryo had never happened. Instead, he had lost Ladon and Azi Dahaka. Cao Cao had been crippled... The losses were so severe that thinking about them made Indra's heart ache.
He had not even had a chance to use his Dragon Army.
Ladon and Azi Dahaka had practically been handed over for free. Cao Cao, one of his strongest subordinates, was gone. Worst of all, the crucial Samael had never even appeared.
"Ever since I started working with Rizevim, my luck has been absolute garbage!"
Grumbling, Indra dumped all the blame onto Rizevim.
Honestly, he was starting to regret taking in the descendant of the original Lucifer.
By accepting Rizevim, he had effectively made an enemy of the current Devil establishment. It was practically an open declaration of war.
If he had refused, he could have continued stirring up trouble from the shadows, playing both sides. Instead, he had publicly picked a camp. The problem was that the Apocalyptic Beast, Trihexa, was simply too tempting.
In order to obtain that level of power, he had agreed to Rizevim's proposal: to unite the opposing pantheons against the Three Factions and help place him on the Devil's throne.
Now, however, it was obvious that goal was impossible.
Ryo. Ophis. Great Red. And now Creator.
Indra weighed the situation carefully and came to a startling conclusion.
Maybe... Maybe surrendering wasn't such a bad option.
The problem was that he couldn't just say that out loud. At Mount Meru, there were currently four major forces gathered: the Hindu Trimurti, the chief gods of Ancient Babylon, Angra Mainyu of the Zoroastrian pantheon, and the lone wolf Rizevim.
With all of them involved, there was no way he could simply quit.
At this point, Indra was basically being roasted over an open fire.
The title of "Heavenly Emperor" and commander of the Alliance was slowly marching him toward the execution block.
"No wonder Shiva never fought for the leadership position. He even provoked me into taking it. So he was preparing an escape route from the very beginning…"
Indra cursed under his breath.
Back then, he had accepted the position simply because he wanted to one-up Shiva.
Now look where that had gotten him.
"Four Dragon God-class beings... there's no stopping that."
Indra felt completely trapped.
How had everything gone so wrong? He had schemed and plotted for months, yet Ryo's faction had only grown stronger at an absurd rate.
It had not even been a full month.
Four Dragon God-class powerhouses. Then there were top-tier fighters like Sirzechs and Ajuka.
Even Loki and Fenrir, whom Indra himself had practically delivered into Ryo's hands.
And if he really thought about it... Great Red had also been his contribution.
So too was the Creator God's revival.
After all, if he hadn't ordered Cao Cao to carry out that mission, Creator would never have had the chance to revive.
Which meant...
"..."
Indra slowly turned toward a full-length mirror nearby. Looking at the figure reflected within it, a sudden realization struck him.
"The traitor was me all along?"
He stared at his reflection in silence for a while.
Then his eyes narrowed. "There's only one option left. I need outside help."
The enemy was overwhelmingly stronger. There was no way he could hold them off.
If he wanted to survive, he had only one path remaining.
With that thought, Indra turned and entered a hidden passageway within the room.
The tunnel led deep underground to a subterranean chamber.
There, he stopped before an altar. Without a word, he placed twelve different kinds of milk upon it and began chanting a sacred scripture.
As the chant echoed through the chamber, a warped, twisted crack suddenly tore open above the altar.
A voice, neither male nor female, emerged from within.
"Indra, what do you want with me?"
Indra got straight to the point, "God of Breasts, I need your help."
The being he was speaking to was a powerful figure from the ExE World, one who claimed to be the God of Breasts.
Possibly a Dragon God-class existence.
More importantly, her personality was fairly straightforward.
In Indra's eyes, that made her the perfect person to manipulate.
"You want my help against the reformed three factions?"
There was a strange note in the God of Breasts' voice.
Indra noticed it, but he showed no embarrassment. Instead, he asked directly, "I assume you've already heard about Ryo Yagami?"
"A little."
The God of Breasts' answer was deliberately vague. After all, there was no way she could admit she knew nothing.
Indra narrowed his eyes. Then he sighed, "There's just one thing I want to know. Is Ryo one of yours?"
"A Dragon God-class powerhouse appears out of nowhere and suddenly unites three factions. No matter how you look at it, that doesn't make sense. So I've been wondering these past few days. Could Ryo be one of the Gods from your side?"
"Ryo Yagami?"
The God of Breasts knew little about Ryo himself, but she knew plenty about Dragon God-class beings in the DxD world.
Back when Creator was still alive, every Dragon God-level existence had been documented. Her side naturally possessed detailed records. Even those with the potential to reach that level were accounted for.
A completely unknown Dragon God-class powerhouse appearing out of nowhere? It was entirely possible that he was an infiltrator sent by the Evil Gods of the Evies.
After all, the Evie faction had used that kind of tactic before, planting powerful agents inside enemy worlds to sabotage them from within.
If Great Red had not been guarding the dimensional gap, they would have already sent people into the DxD world long ago.
"I don't know which Evil God, if any, might be behind Ryo." The God of Breasts chose her words carefully. "But yes, it's certainly possible."
Then she asked, "So, what are you thinking?"
A smile slowly spread across Indra's face, "How about we set a trap?"
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.
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