Seeing Mavuika and the others looking somewhat surprised, with expressions of incomprehension flashing across their faces, Rios added: "As I said earlier, when Mavuika obtains divine power, she becomes the new Pyro Archon."
"Before I emerged from the Abyss, Mavuika had already gained divine power."
"So, she is now Natlan's Pyro Archon."
Hearing Rios's explanation, the group became even more puzzled.
"No, that doesn't seem right?" Paimon said, "Didn't you come out perfectly fine? But why was Mavuika still able to receive divine power from the Gnosis?"
Mavuika also said: "Right, at that time, I thought you had met with misfortune in the battle and was preparing for combat."
"But unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, you emerged from the Sacred Flame—what exactly is going on here?"
Faced with the group's questions, Rios paused, then said: "Oh, that? Actually, it was just a trick on my part."
"I smoothly resolved the Abyss, and after coming out, I thought about whether to scare you all a bit, so I transferred the divine power back to Mavuika."
Rios said with a smile: "From your reactions at the time, it seems I did a pretty good job."
"Where was it good!" Paimon, floating in the air, stomped her feet in anger, "We were all scared to death by you."
Mavuika also said with a wry smile: "Rios, you really know how to give us surprises."
Rios merely smiled and did not reply.
In truth, he had originally been thinking, when facing the final monster, whether to pretend to be overwhelmed.
Then call over the Traveler and Mavuika, wait until they were locked in fierce combat with the monster, and have himself jump out from afar to deliver a finishing blow—maximizing the dramatic flair and earning a ton of emotional value in the process.
But in the end, he didn't do that, because it felt a bit too malicious.
Scaring Mualani and the others a little wouldn't be an issue, but making them worry for hours on end about his life or death made Rios feel like the approach wasn't quite right.
So, when facing the monster, he decisively eliminated it without giving it any chance.
Who knows if players will ever get to experience this domain in the future.
When he finished off that monster and was preparing to exit the Abyss, Rios suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
He felt he could give everyone a slight scare and pocket some extra emotional value, so he transferred the divine power back to Mavuika.
But of course, he couldn't tell anyone about this; he could only pass it off as his own prank.
"Since the Traveler's questions are all answered, I'll go wander elsewhere."
With that said, without even waiting for the Traveler and the others to respond, Rios turned and left.
Paimon blinked her eyes, sensing something off, and looked at Mavuika, saying in surprise: "Mavuika, you're just letting him leave like that?"
"Since Rios didn't fall in the battle with the Abyss, then what he said earlier definitely doesn't count; he should still be the one serving as Pyro Archon."
"No need." Mavuika replied with a serious expression, "After becoming a god, Rios bore a great deal of pressure."
"Whether it was suspending the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame or spending vast sums to upgrade our weapons, he faced a lot of criticism."
"Now that he's chosen to pass the position of Pyro Archon to me, it's probably because the threat of the Abyss has been lifted, and he can finally set down the heavy burden on his shoulders."
"So that means Mavuika is the Pyro Archon from now on?" Paimon tilted her head, "Then do we have to call you Lord Pyro Archon in the future?"
Mavuika smiled, then said: "Given our relationship, there's no need for such formal titles."
"You can just call me Mavuika."
After the banquet ended, the people who had fought through the entire night all chose to rest in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
Rios also had a rare moment of leisure and came alone to the spectator seats in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, gazing at the Sacred Flame in the distance.
Although his time as Pyro Archon had been short, handing the position over to someone else brought him an indescribable sense of relief.
It was as if he had quit a 007 job—his heart filled only with the excitement of embracing a new life, without any pain of dereliction of duty.
At that moment, the system's voice rang out.
[Host, hello.]
[You will be implemented into the gacha in version 5.2.]
[Please begin designing your character.]
In the original work, the Pyro Archon wouldn't enter the gacha until at least 5.3, but because Rios's efficiency was too high, counterattacking the Abyss on the very day of the monster invasion.
As a result, the plots for 5.2 and 5.3 were all rushed through in 5.1, so the timing for the Pyro Archon's inclusion in the gacha was also advanced somewhat from the original.
Rios happened to have nothing to do and immediately wanted to design his skills and mechanics on the spot.
But when he opened the design interface, he discovered that in addition to designing the character, he could also set two new artifact sets.
"It seems Natlan's version has three artifact domains too." Rios remarked with a sigh.
Without a doubt, one of these two artifact sets was for him, while the other was unknown for whom.
He looked more closely and found that the system also had a reminder: based on his design, the system would also adjust Mavuika's design.
Seeing this, Rios said with a smile: "Doesn't that mean if I design myself as an on-field main DPS, Mavuika will turn into a pure support?"
"And if I do the opposite and become the support, Mavuika will become a pure main DPS?"
Mavuika's original design allowed her to apply off-field Pyro while aiding other characters' damage output with the Brave Heart set and her own talents.
Moreover, she had extremely powerful burst capabilities; even with a full team of zero constellations and no signature weapon, she could deal nearly a million damage in one rotation.
This was still with support utility taking up space in her kit; if made into a pure main DPS, her damage would be even more explosive.
"Speaking of which, I can design two artifact sets—could one of them be for Mavuika?" Rios's interest was piqued.
If that were truly the case, he'd have to put some thought into how to design them.
From his understanding, he should first design his own skills, then make adjustments based on his mechanics.
Only after that could he design the artifacts according to the two characters' mechanics, and these artifacts had to be usable by at least two characters.
Even the most specialized artifact set, the Deep Gallery's Finale, could actually be made to work on Mavuika besides Sigewinne, though the power would be far inferior to the Obsidian set.
"In any case, I should first set up my own skills."
Rios pondered for a moment, then filled in the following information.
Name: Rios
Weapon: Bow
Element: Pyro