Hermes, the god of commerce and thieves.
In the future storyline, it was this first god to return to the mortal world who reopened the path between the divine realm and the human world.
After the gods returned to the mortal world, believers rose up everywhere.
Like grasslands reborn beneath endless ashes, they dug out the faith they had hidden away and once again prayed for the return of their gods.
Although believers differed from one another, gods were the same. There were differences between them as well.
Don't be fooled into thinking Hermes counted as a god.
Clearly, as the deity who protected commerce and thieves, he did not possess much combat ability.
After all, he was merely the divine messenger who guided the gods.
If this god had truly arrived in the human world ahead of time...
Viktor thought about it for a moment.
If he fought this god, it wouldn't be a one-sided battle.
At the very least, he definitely wouldn't suffer at the other's hands.
But the problem was that Viktor currently had no way to temporarily keep any god from leaving.
Even a god like Hermes, who didn't seem to have much fighting power, was still troublesome to deal with as long as he carried the title of "god."
Because of their unique mechanics, gods as individual bosses were difficult to fight.
Even if he could barely handle one, if the other side had no intention of fighting to the death, then once the other party returned to the heavens, Viktor could only watch Hermes leave.
Still, he found it somewhat surprising.
If Leopold really was Hermes, why had he appeared here ahead of time?
According to Duke Levi's description, this god had clearly been traveling the human world under the name Leopold long ago.
With all the gods having left the world, why was he able to remain in the human world alone?
These all belonged to story content outside the game, things players had never been able to explore.
"Forget it. As long as he doesn't mess with me."
Viktor had not the slightest reverence for the gods of this world.
It wasn't that he disrespected gods, he just truly had no interest in revering these old things he had beaten countless times.
At that moment, Vega raised her head and glanced at Viktor.
"You seemed to think of a pretty interesting name just now."
"Was it Hermes?"
Like before, there were differences even among gods.
A wicked god like Vega, who had never even appeared in the game and was mentioned only briefly in the background lore, was what Viktor feared the most.
Because he had never fought her.
Fortunately, she was on his side.
"You don't know him?"
Viktor silently spoke with Vega in his mind.
The crow closed its deep black eye once more, lightly shook its feathers, and gracefully lay down.
"There's no need for me to remember the names of gods who only know how to steal."
True enough.
They were already busy playing with commerce and protecting thieves, so what was the point of remembering him?
Even the Goddess of Justice's name hadn't left much of an impression on Vega at first.
Still, after thinking carefully, Viktor felt that he should notify the Mage Council first.
After all, they were the ones least willing to see the gods return.
But for now, he should finish the matter at hand.
"I understand."
"When you go back tonight, you can mention this to your father."
Viktor stood up. Those mysterious, profound eyes looked confidently at Erika.
Like a giant rock in the ocean, he remained unmoved.
"I'll handle everything."
Hearing those words, Erika sat blankly in her chair.
She felt waves of beating coming from the left side of her chest, clear and distinct.
A feeling of reassurance rose from her heart and gradually spread throughout her body along her limbs.
Only after Viktor had turned away for quite some time did Erika come back to herself and hurriedly say, "I-I understand. I'll pass your words on to my father."
She pursed her lips, glanced to the side with wandering eyes, and replied to Viktor in a stuttering voice, "I... I'll be leaving first."
Erika quickly stood up and walked to the teleportation array in one corner of the space.
At the same time, she activated the magic within her body and awakened the formation beneath her feet.
Blue waves surged, crashing into the surrounding space and flowing back toward the center, engulfing Erika's body.
In the blink of an eye, the raging waves calmed, and Erika disappeared from the place.
After confirming Erika had completely left, Viktor looked toward Henny in the distance.
"It seems you have something you want to tell me as well?"
Seeing Erika leave, Henny finally returned to Viktor's side.
With Erika present earlier, some things obviously couldn't be said in front of her.
Her expression was somewhat serious as she spoke, "Professor, I have some clues regarding what you mentioned before."
That night, Viktor had brought up Saphiroth.
After all, he had called Saphiroth back specifically so she could come into contact with Henny.
When Saphiroth appeared before Henny, she was extremely surprised.
Though she didn't understand why the wings behind Saphiroth had disappeared,
that was a good thing. At least Henny no longer had to worry about Saphiroth continuing to be viewed with strange looks.
And Viktor had explained it to her.
"Saphiroth isn't human."
Saphiroth's body contained the genes of many monsters, which allowed her to use the instinctive abilities of those monsters.
In other words, their "skills."
Most importantly, Saphiroth had achieved this through devouring various magical beasts.
Hearing that, Henny was completely stunned.
Rather, anyone who heard such a thing would find it unbelievable.
Growing stronger by eating magical beasts and obtaining their abilities?
Wasn't that somewhat against biology?
In the end, Professor Viktor's request completely troubled Henny.
"I need you to help me find out why Saphiroth's body can merge with monster genes."
Although he had tried to reproduce this phenomenon before, through surgery performed by Vega, he had made the cat girl Vanilla merge with the genes of the "Hidden Corpse."
But that had relied on the power of an evil god.
Meanwhile, Saphiroth had accomplished it simply by eating.
Just what principle lay behind this ability that completely violated biology?
That was what Viktor had always been curious about.
Of course, not only Viktor, even Henny herself had never seen anything like this.
If eating magical beasts allowed people to obtain their abilities, the world's magical beasts would probably have gone extinct long ago.
Driven by her curiosity and because it was Professor Viktor's request, Henny naturally devoted all her efforts to it.
And from that effort, a new result was born.
Henny spoke to Viktor with great seriousness, "Using only basic fusion cannot fully merge the blood of two magical beasts. In fact, they can only remain separated."
"Whether they share the same attribute or not, fusion is impossible."
However...
Thinking of her research results, Henny hurriedly added, "When I drew blood from Mr. Crocodile and the others, I discovered that the power among demons could fuse with each other."
Perhaps it was because demons all shared the same origin.
And Henny continued her report, "Most importantly, I tried mixing the blood of two different magical beasts with demon 'blood.'"
"In the end, they successfully merged together."
Hearing Henny's words, Viktor began thinking.
At first, he had only wanted to give Henny something to do.
But in the end, Henny had actually discovered something. That was something he hadn't expected.
And after considering the traits of demons, Viktor found it quite reasonable.
The reason demons could grant power to others was because they fundamentally cared nothing about compatibility.
Using desire and emotions as a medium, they could directly transmit their own power to their hosts.
They had always accepted anything without discrimination, such as Leighton of Wrath.
He could consume anger produced by any living creature and turn it into his own power.
Perhaps this overflowing and boundless inclusiveness was the reason.
As Viktor thought about it, he slightly raised an eyebrow.
Just earlier, they had mentioned that the reason Saphiroth could absorb such a large number of magical beast genes was mainly because of "eating."
At that moment, he had an idea.
The Rayser family might have used the power of demons to create a human genetic weapon like Saphiroth.
Of course, the Rayser family itself had no ability to control demons.
However, their family head was no ordinary person.
'Leopold...'
With the conclusion basically settled, Viktor nodded to Henny and praised her, "You've done very well."
"You may continue your research and make sure to uncover everything."
As soon as he finished speaking, Viktor's figure gradually turned into waves of azure ripples.
Like water stirred by a gentle breeze, he slowly shattered apart in the garden and rose into the sky.
As he disappeared, his calm voice echoed through the air, "This space will remain for a long time. You may continue resting here."
"There's no need to close the door when you leave. This place will disappear on its own after the last person leaves."
Henny nodded and watched Viktor slowly depart as he transformed into a sky full of blue.
Only after the last blue spark vanished did a small red crocodile drag its long tail out from Henny's shoulder.
"So, what do you think? Are we about to get a new companion again?"
"Not necessarily, but this gave me some ideas."
Viktor could think of it, and naturally Henny could as well.
She turned around and looked at Saphiroth behind her.
Saphiroth looked slightly confused and was earnestly rubbing a fireball between her hands.
Behind Henny, four fox tails quietly stood upright as she muttered softly, "Three more to go."