North District, the outer gates of 7777, inside an underwater cavern—
Whoosh!
Pale flames burned inside the cavern, illuminating the surrounding dark-green rocks.
Clang!
Indra set down his weapon and found a rock to sit on. He removed his helmet, revealing a handsome, heroic face with just a hint of weariness.
"Man, I haven't been this exhausted in ages."
As he complained, members of the Heavenly Army, all dressed in archaic armor, moved silently through the cavern, using spatial Gifts to transport supplies one load at a time.
In the pale glow of the fire, Indra removed his gauntlets, then his greaves, finally walking around barefoot.
At that moment, a figure emerged from deeper inside the cavern and approached him.
"Indra, this isn't the time to relax."
The mature woman, dressed in a feathered robe with her hair tied up, spoke in a stern, scolding tone.
"Give me a break, Raka. I'm not exactly young anymore. After all that exercise today, my back is killing me!" Indra rubbed his lower back as he complained to Rākṣasa Rakshasa.
Rakshasa watched his antics with an indifferent expression and calmly said, "Then I'll increase your workload by twenty percent."
Indra's face immediately turned black.
Before he could say anything, another figure approached.
"Indra, so you really were slacking off." Brahma walked over in a plain white robe and said matter-of-factly, "But never mind. Things are basically over."
Then he added, "Well, if nothing unexpected happens."
Indra raised an eyebrow. "Shiva and Mata are finished too?"
As far as he remembered, those two had gone after the little Savior.
And according to the usual script, Ouroboros should have put up a fierce resistance before being "forced" to retreat and "having no choice" but to hand Kalki over to them.
That process shouldn't have been quick.
Brahma closed his eyes and calmly replied, "Perhaps. Although I feel that things aren't going quite the way they should, the outcome seems to be favorable. You'd better confirm it yourself, though."
Indra immediately developed a massive headache. "Is this another one of those feelings from your damn precognition? Can't you just explain things properly for once? Every time, I have to gather information and figure out what you're talking about. It's annoying as hell."
In Little Garden, prophetic authorities were among the most heavily restricted.
Compared to the lower layers, where even something as simple as Laplace Little Demon could accurately predict the future, upper layers were practically a graveyard for anyone specializing in prophecy.
There were just too many variables and too many sources of interference.
And even if a prophecy succeeded, you could still end up angering some major figure and getting yourself killed.
That was why prophetic talents were genuinely rare. Most of them had already died.
And Brahma, the Creation Deva, was one of the few monsters who had survived.
As a Three-Digit possessing a prophetic authority, his predictions were extraordinarily accurate.
There was just one infuriating problem.
He made you gather the information yourself and guess the answer.
Unless you figured it out, he absolutely refused to tell you what his prophecy actually meant.
According to Brahma, that was simply the virtue of a prophet.
"Virtue my ass. I have to waste money buying intelligence from Thousand Eyes every damn day because of you. And since I'm the leader, I can't exactly submit a ridiculous amount for reimbursement."
Still grumbling, Indra pulled out the intelligence report he had received through Thousand Eyes' targeted teleportation service.
He had previously commissioned intelligence on Kalki. Whenever new information became available, Thousand Eyes' intelligence department would use a specialized Gift item to transmit it directly to him.
That channel was under the special protection of the Twin Goddesses, so there was no need to worry about the information being leaked.
Indra opened the intelligence scroll and read through it.
And the more he read, the stranger his expression became.
"Using a destruction authority, with an extremely high quality of divine power. There's a possibility that an unknown Three-Digit from one of the three strongest species impersonated Kalki?"
"Ouroboros actually pulled something like this? Weren't they supposed to give us an explanation? This is their idea of an explanation?"
"Hmph. They explicitly promised to hand Kalki over to me for judgment, and now they're pulling a stunt like this? Saying one thing and doing another. Do they have no shame at all?"
Brahma and Rakshasa stared expressionlessly at Indra.
Did this guy even realize where they were? This was a secret warehouse belonging to Ouroboros in the lower layers!
When Indra had negotiated with Ouroboros earlier, he hadn't exactly announced that he was going to launch an attack on their warehouse, had he?
There was a limit to how shameless someone could be when accusing the other side of being shameless.
Unfortunately, as longtime colleagues, both Brahma and Rakshasa knew Indra very well.
This was simply the kind of man he was.
He knew perfectly well that he was shameless, but he would never admit it. Just like when he slept with married women, he always insisted that he was merely "helping women in need."
After ranting for a while, Indra narrowed his eyes at the report and muttered, "Shiva and Mata were blocked by two Three-Digit combatants, leaving them with no choice but to let the infiltrators, Amun-Ra and the others, attack Kalki?"
"And according to Thousand Eyes' intelligence, they seem to have concluded that the opponents' Spirit Ranks were 'Hermes' and 'Veleslana'?"
Veleslana?
Indra's mouth twitched violently.
Wasn't that his old alias?
How exactly did the dignified commander of the Heavenly Army become a subordinate of Ouroboros?
Were they deliberately trying to insult him?
"Who could have done it? Someone capable of matching Veleslana's identity without revealing themselves..." Indra thought for a moment. "Oh, Hercules?"
Brahma gave a slight nod of approval.
"Oh? So it was that kid!" After getting confirmation from Brahma, a dangerous gleam appeared in Indra's eyes.
So Hercules had decided to cause him trouble too?
Fine.
He'd give the kid something to think about.
"As for the other one... Hermes..." Indra thought about it for a moment before giving up. "Forget it. Let's just say Hermes did it."
Hermes, huh?
Perfect.
Once that little punk resurrected, he would use this incident to settle the score with him.
Indra refused to believe the idiot would dare resist.
Then he'd force him to introduce a few of Zeus's secret lovers...
'Zeus, bro, it's not that I, Indra, want to go against you. It's just that your wives are far too charming. Seeing them left alone for so long without their husbands around is simply unbearable. What else could I do? I must help them.'
'Heh heh heh heh!'
Watching Indra's sinister grin, Rakshasa discreetly took several steps backward.
Brahma was silent for a moment. Then he sighed.
For the sake of his friend's happiness, he decided to do his part.
He sent a message to the former Asura Queen.
'My friend, I'm doing this for your own good.'
As Brahma predicted exactly when and where Indra would eventually spend the night, then sent all that information to Sachi, he felt quite pleased with himself.
Meanwhile, Indra continued studying the report on the fake Kalki, his brow furrowing in thought.
Kalki was actually quite important.
He might only be a pawn of Ouroboros's higher-ups, but in a sense, everything Ouroboros had done over the years had been laying the groundwork for this little one's birth.
So they still needed to capture him.
And whoever had impersonated Kalki was the key.
After all, Ouroboros couldn't afford to expose its members.
Every one of them possessed a legitimate identity. Once any of those identities were exposed as belonging to an Ouroboros member, the Heavenly Army would have grounds to launch an official campaign against them, even to wipe them out entirely.
So if they could capture the true identity of the person who had impersonated Kalki, they'd have leverage. They could use that person's identity to force Ouroboros to reveal where the real Kalki was hiding.
But one of the three strongest species... A member of Ouroboros... And someone proficient in the authority of destruction...
The more Indra thought about it, the more he couldn't help looking toward Brahma.
He knew perfectly well that this guy definitely knew something.
Brahma sighed when he noticed his friend's gaze. "I can't say."
Right.
Indra understood immediately.
The person's identity was likely tied to one of the Two-Digit powerhouses, which meant the risks involved were enormous.
If Brahma revealed the information carelessly, those Two-Digit beings might trace the connection back to him and retaliate.
So Indra could only figure it out himself.
Then who could it be...?
Indra narrowed his eyes.
.
.
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