The idea of not fighting or competing, of being indifferent to fame and fortune? That was all nonsense. For any deity, unless they were in a state of absolute hopelessness and had chosen to give up, who would not want to fight as long as there was even a glimmer of hope? Who would not want to step into a higher realm?
Now, Riku had placed the opportunity right before her eyes. It all depended on whether Saori was willing to fight for it.
"Phew..." Saori exhaled a long breath. She did not answer immediately, but a smile bloomed on her cold, peerless face. She raised her hand, and her snow-white index finger descended.
A chess piece landed on the sand table.
On that previously empty sand table, beside the piece representing the "King," a second piece appeared.
What did this piece represent?
The Stars!
"Riku." Saori looked at the two pieces and suddenly smiled. "You are not from this universe, are you?"
"No."
"What I mean is, you do not come from this universe, nor from any parallel universe, but from beyond the universe itself?"
Riku maintained a faint smile. He was not at all surprised that Saori knew about other parallel universes. He had done his own research. Aside from "The Earth," which was an extremely special remnant of the final mythological lands, other mythologies existed in different universes. As for why the final "Earth," which could be called the core of the multiverse, had fallen into the hands of the Greek Pantheon? Riku did not know, and he did not care to find out. It was not a major concern anyway.
For powerful beings, even those who were not gods, crossing between universes was possible. The multiverse was divided into a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. The real trouble was never crossing the horizontal axis, but crossing the vertical axis of time. Traversing time was the true challenge.
"Therefore," Riku did not give Saori a direct answer, but instead said, "War, Victory, and Wisdom are the Authorities you currently master. If you want to incorporate 'The Stars,' it would be best if you discarded all of them."
Riku was not being an alarmist. The Authorities nurtured by the [Longhuang Universe], aside from those he had temporarily nurtured with "Universe Energy" for Alice and Rhinedottir, only consisted of the Authority of "Stars." To truly master an Authority, it was best to start from the beginning.
However, was this something Saori could actually do? To discard everything she currently possessed and start completely from scratch? Even if the future was more glorious, not everyone could abandon their current status. Could someone who currently possessed ten million discard it all to gamble for a future of a billion, ten billion, or even more?
Furthermore, this was a long process. One mistake, and she might perish on the path. This was the problem laid out before Saori.
"I know what must be done." Saori brushed back her purple hair. Her cold, beautiful face now wore a smile that was both natural and proud.
She was not some weak, fragile goddess who got kidnapped every day and waited to be rescued. Quite the opposite. She had plenty of strength and means. In the Age of Myth, Athena, the Goddess of War, Victory, and Wisdom, had carved out her path through actual slaughter.
"That is enough then." Riku handed the Authority over to Saori and then added, "I will help you with the arrangements and preparations. However, I actually feel that it is not suitable to jump out into the open right now."
Saori nodded. "I understand. Zeus is targeting Hades, and I am also targeting Hades. What he wants is the Underworld Authority in Hades' hands, while what I want are the 108 Heavenly and Earthly Demon Stars in his possession."
"Take this as well." Riku casually tossed the "Cosmic Core" to Saori. "Once you have made your choice, absorb this Cosmic Core. I assume you know what this is?"
"So that is how it is!" Saori put away the Cosmic Core, her smile widening. "I see. A legend that was only thought to exist in myths actually exists in reality."
"In myths?" Riku gave her a strange look.
Saori smiled and said, "Riku, I do not know how you did it, but I must tell you that your experience is like a dream. Not just anyone can achieve it. Creating a universe is not hard, even I could do it, but that would not be a true universe. People have tried what you have experienced, but the final result is always the same: failure and death."
"..." Riku remained silent, his brow furrowing.
In his view, the difficult part was crossing the Crystal Wall Sea, but now it seemed the truly difficult part was absorbing the "Seed of the Universe." That was the most shocking and unbelievable part of the whole thing. To be honest, he had not considered this before; he had thought anyone could do it.
"Hehehe..." Alice teased with a squinting smile. "Darling! As expected, you really are the most special one. You did not believe it when Rhinedottir said it before."
Previously, Rhinedottir seemed to have considered this point, feeling that it would not be so easy. At that time, Riku's thought was simply that Rhinedottir did not understand the full picture. But Saori would definitely not joke about such a thing.
"Rhinedottir..." Saori murmured the name.
Alice suddenly stood up, walked quickly to Saori's side, and grabbed her arm. What kind of over-familiarity was this?
Clearly, while Saori certainly had the ability to adapt her speech to whoever she was talking to, she had not expected to encounter such a "socially terrifying" person.
In just a few words, at least according to Alice, they were family now. She even asked if she should arrange some time for Saori. She suggested they could even lie together when the time came.
Best sisters share a blanket!
Saori: "???"
She truly felt that she was a bit outmatched by Alice. In reality, there were very few people who could actually handle Alice's personality.
Riku watched the scene and shook his head with a chuckle. In a sense, his Great Witch Alice's personality was indeed perfect for breaking the ice.