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[Crossover] Ch 134: Saving Cyrora
🕑 Added 2025-07-07 21:04:38 +0000 UTC— — — — — —
Cyrora's eyes flew wide open, her breath catching sharply in her throat—not from pain, but from sheer rage at Ryo.
She was furious enough to bounce back from the edge of death.
He had just personally cut her down—and now he was casually asking her not to die?
The absolute disdain in his voice, the way he treated her like a bug he'd stepped on without meaning to… it was unbearable.
Humiliating, beyond words.
"Y-You—" she gasped, trying to force out one last retort.
But before she could finish, Avrora suddenly stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and began absorbing her soul into her own body—cutting her off completely.
Ryo, who had been silently watching this unfold, stood up and shook his head.
"Pointless," he said. "I didn't hold back when I struck her down."
"She took a blow empowered by my cosmos... and from a Zanpakutō, no less. Without her own cosmos to defend herself, there's no surviving that."
He sighed and added quietly, "Let it go. If you keep this up, it's only going to drag you down with her."
Avrora didn't respond. She just stood there like a doll—blank, quiet, almost lifeless.
"…It's already affecting her," Ryo muttered, scratching his head in frustration.
Cosmos was powerful—extremely powerful—but its ability to break down matter on an atomic level made it nearly impossible to reverse. Not even healing could keep up.
Sure, Saint Seiya fighters could use their cosmos to recover from wounds or how else did those Gold Saints survive getting nuked every other fight?
But there was a catch.
Ryo hadn't figured out the healing technique in Sasha's notes yet.
That… was a problem.
With no better idea, he pulled up the forum and fired off a message: "How do I save Cyrora? Just give me the easiest method."
[Answer: Use the Little Garden-style Familiar Contract. It allows the summoned party to borrow divine gifts such as Cosmos, and shields them from Cosmos-inflicted damage.]
Ryo sighed.
Of course it was that.
He glanced at Avrora and said seriously, "If you want to live, both of you, don't reject this contract."
As he spoke, he began drawing a contract circle on the ground.
Thank goodness Leticia had taught him some general magic theory—or else he'd never be able to use this obscure spell. In no time, glowing blue patterns spread beneath Avrora's feet, wrapping around her like she was standing in the middle of a glowing ocean.
Then Ryo plucked a strand of his own hair and tossed it into the circle.
Buzz!
The entire array flared to life. The intricate symbols shrank, crawling up Avrora's body like living veins, and finally sank beneath her skin.
"Nggh…" Avrora let out a soft grunt as the magic took hold.
She immediately felt it—that strange, subtle connection between her and Ryo.
Ryo stepped forward and gently placed a hand on her head, scanning her condition. After a moment, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Good. You've already started borrowing my cosmos. You'll live."
Now reassured, Ryo opened the forum and began complaining: "Wait, wasn't I binding Avrora? Why is the system registering it as Cyrora again?!"
[Answer: During the invitation phase, Avrora chose to remain silent and entered a dormant state. Cyrora answered in her place, which the system registered as a transfer of ownership.]
"…Are you kidding me?" Ryo blinked. "That counts?!"
Then he cursed under his breath, "Damn system is brain-dead."
He used to think the Little Garden's Core AI was dumb, but now the dimensional forum had officially joined the "stupid systems" list in his mind.
Meanwhile, Avrora, whose head was still under Ryo's hand, mumbled nervously: "Y-You… take your hellish claws off me…"
Hellish claws? Ryo blinked and looked at his hand, baffled.
Avrora shrank back slightly, like a threatened cat. "Evil demon! Don't think I'll ever submit to you!"
Ryo's eye twitched. He raised one finger and tapped her forehead with a pulse of spiritual energy—bam—injecting some modern language into her brain.
One of many cosmos-based applications.
The Virgo Saints loved using this kind of cerebral rewiring trick.
After a moment, Avrora winced and rubbed her forehead. Then, tears gathering in her eyes, she said: "I'll never give in to you, you… scoundrel. You can force my body, but not my heart..."
"…Huh?" She froze, blinking. "Wait. Why did I just say that? That sounded… weird."
Ryo let out a long sigh. "Your previous way of talking was weirder. Like a wannabe anime villain from 2005."
"Anime villain?" Avrora tilted her head, clearly confused.
"I'll explain later," Ryo muttered. No way was he wasting time giving her a crash course on modern speech right now.
"How are you feeling now?" he asked. "How damaged is your soul?"
Avrora puffed up her cheeks like a pouting kid, clearly not in the mood to cooperate.
Ryo groaned. "I'm trying to help you."
Avrora nodded slowly, showing she understood: "Cyrora says she refuses to talk to you. Also, she wants me to call you a huge jerk."
"…"
Ryo opened his mouth, then closed it again. After a beat of silence, he said flatly: "If we don't fix the damage to your soul soon, you'll die."
At that, Avrora blinked and moved her lips slightly—like she was silently relaying a message.
A few seconds later, she said: "Cyrora says she needs your blood."
"Yeah, that's not happening."
Ryo rolled his eyes and snorted. "What, she planning to suck my blood and read my memories while she's at it? She's not strong enough to pull that off, but nice try."
Avrora's cheeks puffed up again, and she barked out: "Cyrora told me to be mean to you!"
"Pfft." Ryo chuckled. "Anything else?"
Avrora went quiet for a moment, then said: "The shadow. Cyrora wants to sleep inside your shadow to recover her strength."
"She also wants you to help collect her 'familiar beasts.' She says your powers are now intertwined."
Ryo scratched his head. "That's the shared-gift contract. But all I'm sharing is my cosmos. Just a tiny part."
The contract he used was a familiar-type pact—linked through the soul. Even though Cyrora technically didn't have a soulframe of her own, by touching Ryo's, the bond formed.
Now she could tap into his cosmos to heal herself… and in return, Ryo gained full access to her power as the Fourth Primogenitor.
That was the nature of this kind of contract. The master could offer whatever blessings they wanted, but the servant had to share everything. Extremely one-sided.
No wonder so many people in the Little Garden tried to enslave demon lords this way.
"Sleeping in my shadow and feeding off my life force—fine. As for the familiars…"
Ryo summoned the Azure Ice Princess and paused.
The Fourth Primogenitor's twelve familiars were based on the zodiac, each with bizarre and powerful abilities.
Funny enough, the Gold Saints from the Saint Seiya universe also drew power from the twelve Zodiac signs.
That gave him an idea.
A slow smile crept onto Ryo's face.
"…Alright. I'll help you gather your familiars."
Avrora smiled in relief, then yawned suddenly. "Okay... I'll leave it to you."
And just like that, she faded into Ryo's shadow—one of the inherent abilities of her artificially made vampire body.
Ryo watched her disappear, then extended his hand and summoned Pisces, the Bewitching Princess of Azure Ice—calling forth her Familiar once again.
A siren mermaid appeared behind him, her ethereal beauty matched only by the terrifying aura that poured out of her distorted, otherworldly form.
Layer upon layer of frost spread out across the tomb. Just as the ice reached its peak, a loud crack echoed—and the tomb's sealed gate vanished.
Inside the tomb, Ryo turned toward the sound.
Standing in the doorway, a few stunned figures stared at him in open shock.
"…The Fourth Primogenitor has awakened?!"
.
.
.
