(Regalzeva's image)
— — — — — —
Inside the starship—
The Evil Evie God Regalzeva sat upon his throne, watching the feed displayed by the ship's detection systems.
Staring at the enormous multi-headed beast on the screen, he couldn't help sounding surprised.
"So this is the Dragon God Melvazoa mentioned? It certainly looks... unique."
Looking at the Emperor Beast's body, overflowing with violent, chaotic power, Regalzeva shook his head. "A form like this is completely unsuitable for a new combat weapon. All those heads serve no obvious purpose. They're just wasting biological energy."
He paused, "Still, it's a reasonably powerful lifeform. Capture it, collect its data, and transmit everything back to the homeland. It can serve as reference material for our next generation of mechanical lifeforms."
"Lord Regalzeva." Haz knelt on the floor and quietly said. "This lifeform that appeared suddenly doesn't seem to be Great Red shown in our records."
"Oh?" Regalzeva blinked in surprise before smiling slightly. "Then we've stumbled upon an unexpected prize. It seems my luck is rather good today."
A lifeform on the level of a Dragon God would qualify as a major combat asset even in the ExE world. Acquiring an extra one was never a bad thing.
With that thought, he immediately gave an order. "Bring the ship closer and capture that strange multi-headed creature."
"Yes, sir!"
The crew responded in unison through synthesized voices and began maneuvering the vessel.
While they worked, Regalzeva sat quietly in his chair, tapping a finger against the armrest.
His expression gradually became thoughtful.
Strange... where exactly is that sense of danger coming from? It's been nagging at me ever since we arrived.
...
..
At the foot of Mount Meru—
Noticing the starship approaching, Creator spoke up. "Ryo. If things truly become impossible, find an opportunity to bring the Holy Spear to the Sea of Life ahead of time. As long as I can revive, I still have contingency measures within the Heaven's system. We may yet be able to stop them."
"I haven't even started fighting yet, and you're already talking like we've lost." Ryo rolled up his sleeves and shot her an irritated look. "Just stay here and wait. I'll deal with Trihexa first. Then I'll clean up the Evies."
As he spoke, he glanced up at the starship overhead and nodded approvingly. "That ship actually looks pretty nice. Quite beautiful, really."
'Don't tell me you're already thinking about stealing it...' Creator muttered inwardly before speaking again. "This isn't the time to act on impulse. I know you're powerful, but we know far too little about our enemies. We don't know how many there are, what abilities they possess, or what hidden trump cards they may have. So the safest course is observation."
After a brief pause, she continued, "I'll go up first and probe their strength. You stay behind and observe..."
"Enough already." Ryo waved her off.
"I'm only here with a projection, sister." Ryo looked at her speechlessly.
"..."
Creator fell silent.
Beneath the veil of holy light, her eyes seemed to study Ryo with an increasingly strange expression. "Then where is your real body?"
"Still in Kyoto," Ryo answered honestly.
The Creator God's voice became noticeably more incredulous. "A projection... defeated Shiva and the others?"
Mount Meru wasn't particularly large. Her senses could easily encompass the entire mountain, so she was well aware of Ryo's earlier accomplishments.
But a projection that possessed, at most, a fraction of the original's power had defeated Shiva?
"Got a problem with that?" Ryo raised an eyebrow playfully.
"Not at all." She shook her head. Then, in a surprisingly cautious tone, she asked, "How many projections can you create? If it's more than thirty, I suggest we surround and attack the Evies together..."
"Enough. Seriously." Ryo finally understood how Shiroyasha must have felt whenever she looked at him.
So this was what true survival experts were like.
Thirty projections with cosmo close to Seventh-Sense level?
What do you think my name is? Uzumaki Naruto? Should I start every battle with Shadow Clones?
"Projections, incarnations, clones—whatever you name them—aren't very useful in large numbers. No matter how strong you make them, they're still fundamentally the same: just temporary copies." He casually explained, cutting off the idea before it could go any further.
Just then, Great Red suddenly spoke, "Wait. Something's happening. They don't seem to be targeting us. Oh, their target appears to be... Trihexa."
"Huh?"
Ryo froze for a moment.
Someone was trying to steal his prey?
Turning his attention toward the sky, he immediately spotted two giant humanoid machines emerging from the starship and moving toward Trihexa.
A grin spread across his face.
"Now that's interesting." His smile turned cold. "They're trying to snatch food right off my plate."
The moment the words left his mouth, his expression shifted.
He abruptly turned and looked toward the ruined altar nearby.
There, a colossal figure tall enough to blot out the sunlight stepped through rippling space, accompanied by a mechanical servant.
His gaze locked onto Ryo. His expression was serious.
"So that's it." Regalzeva stared at Ryo, surprise evident in his voice. "You're the source of that sense of danger. I never expected to find a higher lifeform like you in this world."
As a mechanical lifeform, all five of Regalzeva's eyes functioned as the latest life-detection systems developed by the ExE world.
The moment he looked at Ryo, streams of observational data flooded into his processing core.
A preliminary analysis was enough for him to begin grasping Ryo's current state.
"Physical durability comparable to the strongest starship alloy. Life-energy output exceeding even that of the Etoulde known as the Holy Mother Goddess. And the composition of this body..."
He narrowed his eyes, "Are you some kind of energy-based lifeform? Or merely a temporary body constructed entirely from energy?"
"I'm very curious about what exactly you are. Would you tell me your name?"
"Ryo Yagami," Ryo answered without hesitation while observing Regalzeva with equal curiosity.
A truly mechanical lifeform.
This was the first time he had ever encountered one.
After hearing the answer, Regalzeva glanced sideways at Haz and spoke in a deep voice. "Haz. Your intelligence was incorrect."
He looked back at Ryo. "This world harbors unknown transcendent beings."
.
.
.