After making a friend, Ereshkigal returned to her tent and rolled around for a long time before finally drifting into a sweet sleep.
The next day, Ishtar logged back in, completely unaware of what had happened the night before. She only assumed she had slept especially deeply.
The people who knew the truth all nodded inwardly. Yes, this was much more like Ishtar. There was a huge difference between her and Ereshkigal.
Ishtar felt that the way Koji and the others were looking at her was a little strange, but she could not figure out why, so she did not ask.
She still had not realized that Ereshkigal had logged into her account last night.
...
With Ishtar joining the party, the feathered-serpent goddess Quetzalcoatl was invited along as well. They decided it with wrestling. Koji was covered from head to toe in blessings, and this was the first time Quetzalcoatl had ever run into an opponent this absurdly overpowered. She simply could not win.
"I have to say, that really is surprising."
Gilgamesh sounded amazed. Was there some kind of buy one get one free promotion going on now? Not only had the idiotic goddess Ishtar joined them, even Quetzalcoatl had ended up on their side.
"Well, nothing to do about it. A loss is a loss~" Quetzalcoatl shrugged. She had lost fair and square, so naturally she had nothing to complain about.
For a human to possess this many blessings was simply outrageous.
Especially some of those blessings. They were so unreasonable that even she, a goddess, felt helpless against them.
"He is one from beyond the heavens. If you lost to him, it does not really shame the gods," Gilgamesh said with a light chuckle.
To be honest, he felt that even if he drew Ea, he still would not be able to deal with Koji.
"Goldie, I can come help, sure, but you are paying me, right?" Ishtar said.
If it were not for Mother, she never would have come here.
"Of course. No problem."
Gilgamesh agreed without hesitation. After all, the one who got to define the terms was him. Ishtar, on the other hand, was stunned. Gilgamesh had agreed that easily? That was genuinely generous.
Koji and Lumine, who knew how this story went, both shook their heads. This goddess really was no match for the Wise King when it came to brains.
Still, that kind of thing had nothing to do with them.
...
"Shenhe, are these herbs really that tasty?"
Lumine looked at Shenhe, who was standing there sampling medicinal herbs, and spoke in exasperation. She could not stand that bitter herbal taste.
"The herbs here have a rather unique flavor. They're fine, I suppose, but I still prefer the herbs from Teyvat," Shenhe said after carefully savoring them and offering her honest opinion.
Even though she was not as old as Lumine, after taking Cloud Retainer as her master, she had often eaten medicinal herbs gathered in the mountains and forests during her years of training, so she had long since gotten used to that taste.
"Shenhe, I have a question. During all those years you spent training, you probably didn't get to eat much fish or meat, right?" Lumine asked, glancing at Shenhe's chest. It was enough to make anyone drool.
Shenhe thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "It's not that I never ate any. I just ate it very rarely."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You ate so little and still ended up with that figure." Lumine smacked her lips, completely unable to understand it.
Could Shenhe's body really just be the result of naturally superior genes?
"I don't know." Shenhe lowered her head for a look. She could not see her toes. Truly, that was the sort of beauty mortals would call peerless.
She did not care all that much about her figure, nor did she think it was anything worth showing off.
"Lumine, we came out without even telling Koji. Won't he worry?" Eula asked.
"What's there to tell him? Do you really think anyone can hurt us?" Lumine rolled her eyes.
It was not as if she were some child who needed an adult watching over her. Besides, Koji had given them so many blessings that even dying was impossible for them now. They could revive infinitely.
It was no exaggeration to say that even if they went swimming in a black hole, they would probably still be fine.
"Is that so?"
A man in a white robe with green hair suddenly appeared.
"Kingu?" Lumine raised a brow. She had just said nobody could hurt them, and now someone had come over wanting to test that claim.
"You know who I am? Then I can let you leave even less," Kingu said with a cold sneer.
They had practically walked right up to him. If he did not deal with them now, he would never live it down.
Kingu could not be bothered wasting words. The Chains of Heaven exploded forth in an instant, shooting out like spears, trying to skewer them like kebabs.
Bang, bang, bang...
"?"
The calm expression on Kingu's face vanished, replaced with astonishment.
Every single Chain of Heaven had failed to hit them, and Lumine and the others had not even moved. It was as though the Chains of Heaven themselves were automatically avoiding them.
Blessing of Arrow Avoidance: Allows the user to evade the enemy's arrow-type attacks.
Blessing of First Encounter: If the attack is visible, the opponent's first attack is guaranteed to miss.
Blessing of Reappearance: If the attack is visible, the opponent's second and all subsequent attacks are also guaranteed to miss.
The Chains of Heaven were also launched like arrows, so naturally they fell within the range of those blessings.
Just these few blessings alone were enough to place them in an innately unbeatable position. Anyone who wanted to hurt them first had to figure out how to deal with those blessings.
"Kingu, your aim looks pretty bad," Lumine said with a disappointed expression.
Dark veins immediately popped up on Kingu's forehead, and an even colder killing intent poured from his body.
Clatter, clatter—
This time, dozens of chains shot out. He refused to believe they could dodge this too.
Sure enough, the universal law of "if there's smoke, there's no damage" kicked in. There was a huge cloud of dust, but once it dispersed, the girls were still standing exactly where they had been, and every single Chain of Heaven had avoided them.
The ground around them was a complete mess, but not one of them had so much as a scratch.
"That's impossible!" Kingu's eyes widened.
How could they dodge even such a dense barrage? How was that possible? It made no sense at all!
The scene in front of him dealt him a shock beyond words. It was as if he had seen a ghost.
"There's nothing impossible about it. Since you can't hit us, we're leaving," Lumine said, waving her hand as the group simply turned and walked away.
A sneak attack should have worked, but there was a voice in Kingu's heart telling him that even if he kept attacking, he still would not be able to hit them. All he could do was watch helplessly as they left.
On this day, Kingu's confidence suffered a terrible blow. His all-conquering Chains of Heaven had proven completely useless against a few women.
What kind of sorcery was this? How could it have such an effect?
"So this is what blessings feel like. Using them myself really is great," Lumine said with a grin.
Elemental power? Compared to this, it was downright powerless. Blessings were better. They could do practically anything.
"Doing absolutely nothing and just waiting for the enemy's attack to come is actually pretty thrilling," Eula said, pressing a hand to her chest. Even though she knew they would be fine, that did not mean the feeling of tension was not there.
"If we went back and mocked him a little more, do you think Kingu would explode from anger?" Lumine's eyes shifted as she came up with the idea.
"Uh, isn't that a bit too much?"
Eula felt like Lumine was some kind of devil. Kingu had already looked like he was on the verge of erupting. If Lumine went and taunted him to his face now, Kingu would probably lose his mind.
They did not have any grudge against him, did they? Was there really any need to go that far?
(End of Chapter)
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