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[Crossover] Ch 217: The One and Only True God
🕑 Added 2025-08-25 20:21:10 +0000 UTC— — — — — —
The streets of Milan
In the small park beside a church, Ryo sat on a wooden bench. Beside him, surprisingly, was Athena—who just moments ago had intended to leave.
"With your strength, I doubt you actually need me," she said.
Her petite figure swung her legs idly above the ground, but her tone carried clear suspicion.
Athena didn't really understand the full scope of Ryo's power. What she did know, however, was the divine aura blazing from him—the blessing of victory from the Little Garden's Athena. She could feel it vividly, like a beacon cutting through the dark, pointing her toward a path.
If that power weren't tied to "Athena" herself, she might have been overjoyed, even envious. After all, it meant there was a higher road—an existence beyond the queen of gods she had once been.
But the world doesn't hand out perfect answers. The road now revealed a death sentence: the threat of another Athena, stronger, inevitable.
Athena felt despair gnawing at her. The opponent was simply too overwhelming. Even what little wisdom she had left urged her not to fight, but to run. And she didn't even meet that Athena, just the so-called fake saint.
Until now, she didn't know how Ryo was alive: the blessing of Victory running riot within him should by all rights have been destructive, unstable. Yet some strange force wrapped him like armor, filtering out the danger and leaving only its benefits.
Athena couldn't tell what it was, but it meant this man—this false Saint Seiya—could face the authority of the being she feared most right now. And when he'd asked her to stay, she had caught the faintest glimmer of hope.
Ryo leaned forward, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers, and grinned. "First off, we should probably figure out what each of us actually wants."
"I agree." Athena nodded without hesitation.
If he wanted to be open about intentions, that was to her advantage.
Seeing her easy agreement, Ryo relaxed a little. "Then… would the lady care to go first?"
"Me?" She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Very well. What do you want to know?"
"What's your goal?" Ryo asked bluntly. "Or maybe—what's your ideal right now?"
"…"
She blinked at him, slightly surprised by the question, then answered evenly: "To reclaim my snake and my wisdom, and return to being the Trinity Queen."
Ryo rubbed his temple inwardly.
He really didn't want to stir up trouble here. But if this was the Campione! world—the place where gods played cloak-and-dagger with their incarnations—then his choices were limited.
He could only pray the Little Garden's Athena wouldn't kill him if she ever learned he was the one responsible for observing this world. He could already imagine her coldly declaring, 'Good. Then it's war.'
Best to lie low. Here. For now.
Out loud, though, he let a strange, almost mocking tone slip: "That's all?"
Athena wasn't offended. Reclaiming her snake and wisdom wasn't impossible; the snake she could retrieve on her own, and the wisdom was only troublesome because she'd just lost it.
But no plan ever survives the world's cruelty. She sighed softly. "After that, it will be a matter of avoiding the one who gave you that blessing."
There could only be one Athena.
That much was certain after sensing the Authority of Victory burning inside Ryo. If she did nothing, she would be devoured by her stronger counterpart.
And this time it wouldn't be some mock game like Zeus swallowing Metis. No—this would be annihilation, absolute and final.
She had no intention of waiting for death, but the gap in strength was crushing. Just a blessing had been enough to tear away her own divinity, forcing it to defect. What would happen if she faced that Athena directly? She could barely imagine it. Perhaps just seeing the other would erase her entirely.
"To run from the goddess of war and wisdom, then?" Ryo mused, his tone full of meaning.
He was piecing it together.
A being of two digits had to collapse its existence into one, binding all its possibilities into a single truth.
Knowing the Little Garden Athena, Ryo found it hard to believe she wasn't aiming for that throne.
If so, the girl beside him was destined for tragedy. To be hunted and swallowed by herself.
It was a despair he could almost taste.
"I think I can help with that," he said at last, eyes narrowing with a sly smile.
Athena turned slowly, studying his profile. "It seems the bond between a Saint and his goddess isn't very harmonious?"
"I told you—I'm only a fake Saint Seiya." Ryo chuckled, giving no more explanation.
A true Saint Seiya would be pledged to Sasha, perhaps, or Saori Kido at the very least. A reincarnation of the goddess Athena in the Saint Seiya universe.
"..."
Athena frowned and asked: "Then tell me—what do you seek?"
Ryo's smile curved sharper. His gaze drifted past her, to the church glowing solemnly under the streetlights. His voice carried a dangerous playfulness. "Don't you think the Church has monopolized far too much faith?"
Athena tilted her head, but her eyes narrowed. "The remnant of wisdom tells me that isn't your true purpose."
"Maybe not," Ryo admitted smoothly. "But I can still profit from it."
Athena's lips curved into a smile. "To crush the Cross, then? I like that. The steel heroes have always been my enemies. Toppling their faith would be… delightful."
Ryo whistled. Right out of the gate she wanted to exterminate the cross. This Athena was bolder than the one back home. He barely kept his composure in front of her.
And that made Ryo remember something about the Cross… their faith didn't seem as solid as they claimed. After all, the one they called Jesus in Little Garden—rumors said that name was just the Greek version, not his real name, not the man who actually spread Christianity. Imposter? Who knows?
That thought made Ryo wonder what the so-called Cross pantheon really was. And why should he help other pantheons defeat it?
"Athena," Ryo smirked.
Then, he leaned in, voice low and conspiratorial. "Isn't just the Cross a bit small, though? What about the Twelve Olympians, the Norse pantheon, the Celts, the Zoroastrians, the Ennead of Egypt… even Takamagahara in the east?"
"Don't you think there are too many gods cluttering the world?"
Athena's eyes widened slightly. "You mean…"
Ryo's grin turned wicked, his words sliding out like honey and venom both.
The whisper of Satan himself.
"Tell me, Lady Athena—how would it sound if, before the title of Trinity Queen, you added one more? The One and Only True God."
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