[FGO]: 6

"Amazons! What's going on here!"

Goddess Ishtar, interrupted at a critical moment, was instantly furious.

Soon, the sound of chaotic footsteps approached. An Amazon, her arm dripping with blood, staggered into the chamber.

"Bad news, mistress! The Freya Familia has broken through!"

"What!?" Ishtar was both shocked and enraged. "How dare she!?"

"It's true. Lady Lija has already led people to stop them, but the Freya Familia is too powerful. Lady Lija can barely hold them off. Please, mistress, leave here with me quickly!" the Amazon spoke anxiously.

As if to confirm her words, the sounds of battle outside the chamber grew more intense, clearly moving closer.

"Damn it! That bitch Freya!" Ishtar pounded her fist on the bed.

But there was nothing she could do. Since this was an underground coliseum, it naturally belonged to the darker, unsanctioned activities.

Since Uranus led the Guild to take over Orario, the city's public order had greatly improved, causing the dark forces to shrink significantly. Slave trading and other such activities could no longer be conducted openly, and the bloody and cruel practice of pitting ordinary people against monsters in combat was strictly prohibited. Celebrations gradually shifted to featuring powerful adventurers fighting monsters.

Ishtar's actions this time were essentially a test, a boundary-pushing move. Unfortunately, Freya, one of Orario's "Twin Kings," acted swiftly and decisively like a thunderbolt. With the Guild backing her, she had every reason and justification to make her actions convincing.

If things escalated, it would be detrimental to Ishtar herself, so she was destined to suffer in silence.

"Ishtar, since you seem to have something urgent, we'll be on our way..." Aphrodite said cautiously, pulling Amaterasu's hand.

Their Familias were even weaker than Ishtar's and naturally dared not get involved.

So, under Ishtar's near-murderous gaze, the two goddesses hastily fled.

"Two unreliable bitches! They want to share the benefits but run faster than rabbits when trouble arises!" Ishtar gritted her teeth as the two goddesses disappeared.

"Mistress, please make a quick decision!" the Amazon urged again.

"We're leaving!" Ishtar decisively commanded.

To have developed her Familia to this extent, even controlling the dark side of the Pleasure Quarter, Goddess Ishtar naturally had the qualities of a hero. She immediately decided to abandon the underground coliseum, which had cost her countless funds and effort.

As for the man, Ryou, who had recently stirred her heart, she abandoned him without hesitation.

However, this moment presented Ryou with a rare opportunity.

"I was thinking about how to escape from here, but I didn't expect the opportunity to come so soon! Goddess Freya, I owe you one!"

Looking at Ishtar's departing figure without a backward glance, Ryou couldn't help but feel a surge of joy. At the same time, a sense of gratitude toward the goddess Freya, whom he had never met, rose in his heart.

Ryou quickly took out a purple-quality magic ring from his storage space and put it on his finger.

This magic ring was called "Shadow of Stealth." It could reduce the wearer's presence, allow three uses of a stealth skill per day, and increase agility by one point.

With the ring on, Ryou immediately felt his body lighten, and an invisible "veil" seemed to envelop him.

He pulled up the system's equipment exchange panel and quickly browsed through it.

When his eyes fell on a certain item, they lit up, and he immediately redeemed it.

It was a thin mask, almost like a facial mask. Its quality was purple, and it had cost him a full twenty thousand energy points.

Moreover, this mask didn't enhance any attributes.

However, Ryou felt that this was exactly what he needed at the moment. This magic mask, called "Deceiver's Mask," was modeled after the Noble Phantasm of the Round Table Knight Lancelot, and could change the wearer's appearance at will!

Only those with significantly higher magic power than him could see through his disguise.

Based on the original work, Ryou estimated that he was currently at the level of a Lv2 adventurer. To see through his disguise, one would need to be at least Lv5.

Reaching Lv5, and being a magic user at that, was rare in all of Orario!

After all, the mage profession required both money and talent—not everyone could become one.

Next, Ryou redeemed a pair of blue gauntlets. Yes, gauntlets.

Ever since he had smashed a Minotaur's head with a single punch, He realized he had awakened a peculiar taste—fist-to-flesh combat, smashing heads!

These gauntlets cost him another ten thousand energy points, leaving him with just a handful of points.

Ryou put the mask on his face, and it instantly transformed into a puddle of soft mud, morphing according to his will.

A minute later, he looked at the mirror and nodded in satisfaction.

The face in the mirror was extremely ordinary, to the extent that you'd lose track of it in a crowd in no time.

For him, who wanted to hide his identity, this was perfect.

Soon, Ryou was stealthily moving through the coliseum like a ghost, deliberately avoiding the direction from which the loud sounds of battle were coming—the obvious focus of the Freya Familia's attack.

As he passed the entrance to the prison, he couldn't help but show a thoughtful expression, then changed direction towards the prison.

His purpose in going to the prison was to release the slaves in the cells. Ryou did this not out of a sense of altruism but simply to create chaos. Whether the slaves could escape or not was no longer his concern.

Although he inherited the Noble Phantasm "Crying Warmonger," he was not Spartacus and couldn't lead a group of slaves to overthrow the Roman Empire's army.

Ryou entered the prison. Under the gazes of slaves who were either pleading, curious, or numb, he smashed open the prison door with a single punch.

"You are free now, go," Ryou said, then started to smash open another cell door.

As the first slave cautiously stepped out, the ones sitting in their cells gradually began to move.

By the time he opened the last cell door, the slaves surged towards the entrance of the prison, like a tide. Their eyes no longer held only despair and numbness but were now filled with longing and hope for freedom!

Every slave who passed by Ryou looked at him with gratitude.

Though he wasn't aiming to be a hero, standing up for the weak against the strong felt surprisingly good...

Rebel, a thought suddenly arose in Ryou's mind.

As this thought surfaced, Ryou suddenly felt a stirring from within his body, from something called "Crying Warmonger." Using this Noble Phantasm now felt smoother and more natural.

At the same time, the system sent a message.

However, there was no time to delve into it because a figure suddenly appeared at the prison entrance...

...

Ottar, who had originally been calm and indifferent, suddenly changed his expression. Despite being the strongest on the surface in Orario, he hadn't even noticed how the other person had appeared. The gap in their strengths was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.

Before he could react, he felt a tremendous force hit his abdomen, and he was sent flying uncontrollably, crashing through five or six buildings before landing in a pile of rubble.

"Who are you?" Freya, who had been infatuated, suddenly turned pale with fright.

In the moonlight, a purple-black figure stood gracefully—it was the long-absent Scáthach.

The cold and proud Queen of the Shadow Land slightly raised her right foot, clearly indicating that the so-called strongest warrior of Orario had been kicked away by her without any resistance.

Faced with Freya's question, Scáthach only gave her a cold glance before looking cautiously in another direction.

Yet, even that single glance made Freya feel an overwhelming sense of menace as if a god-slaying spear was pressed against her neck.

From Scáthach, Freya sensed the aura of a mortal enemy of the gods—someone who had slain countless deities, drenched in divine blood, and cursed by many gods—a true god-slayer.

"You! You! You!" Freya trembled uncontrollably. In her millions of years of existence, this was the first time she felt death so close!

Heaven help her, she was merely the goddess of love and beauty. Though she led the Valkyries to guide the Einherjar, that only symbolized her excellent leadership. There were no myths extolling her warrior prowess.

Now, facing Scáthach, a super-killer with countless god-slaying deeds, not collapsing to the ground was already her limit.

Crash!

Ottar suddenly pushed away the rubble on top of him, limping and covered in wounds, he stood protectively in front of Freya.

Seeing Ottar's loyalty, a trace of admiration flashed in Scáthach's eyes, but it was fleeting.

Neither Freya, the vase-like goddess, nor Ottar, the so-called strongest who was inferior to her worst disciple, mattered to Scáthach.

Her blood-red eyes remained vigilant, fixed on an empty rooftop.

"Hehe~ It seems quite a few people have taken an interest in that child," a mysterious voice suddenly said.

Suddenly, a mass of 'black mud' appeared at that location, and from it emerged a goddess with enormous dragon horns, silently materializing.

The moment the dragon-horned goddess appeared, two blood-red magic spears appeared silently in Scáthach's hands, their tips pointed directly at the dragon-horned goddess.

"Indeed, given that child's talent alone, it's comparable to that of ancient heroes—truly a... hero's egg," the dragon-horned goddess said, seemingly unfazed by Scáthach's undisguised hostility.

"He is a warrior chosen by me, Scáthach. If you don't want to die by my magic spear, don't meddle, Mother of Saltwater," Scáthach said coldly.

This mysterious dragon-horned goddess was none other than Tiamat, one of the creation deities from Mesopotamian mythology, symbolizing saltwater!

No wonder even the haughty goddess Ishtar behaved so respectfully in her presence.

In this world of Orario, where gods coexisted, Primordial deities held the highest status.

Even though the gods had sealed their divine powers by mutual agreement, these primordial beings could easily bypass such restrictions and wield their powers without being expelled from the mortal realm.

To put it simply, if Orario were like a massive online game, the gods would be like the programmers, while the Primordial deities would be akin to project managers with higher-level permissions.

Powerful and enigmatic.

"Don't be hasty, Queen of the Shadow Land. I believe we might not be enemies..." Tiamat said calmly and with a smile, despite Scáthach's unmerciful threat. "After such a long time, it's rare for anything to capture my attention, but that child has deeply intrigued me!"

"Indeed, regardless of our ultimate goals, our positions are aligned in wanting that child to grow stronger. Am I right, Queen of the Shadow Land?"

Though Scáthach remained silent, Tiamat knew this signified her tacit agreement, giving Tiamat more confidence in persuading her.

"So, why don't we join forces? As for the end, let the child decide—between you, me, or someone else!"

"What is your goal?" Scáthach seemed unmoved.

"Possibility! I want to see that child's potential! Whether he reaches the divine realm with a mortal body, or beyond! I want to see the immense potential within that child come to fruition!"

Tiamat's eyes sparkled with extraordinary fervor, not the pursuit of knowledge of a mad scientist, but a relentless obsession that had waited for hundreds or thousands of years, just for that moment of brilliant splendor.

"Remember what you said today. If you break your word, I, Scáthach, swear as the Queen of the Shadow Land, I will take your life!"

As Scáthach spoke, the magic spears in her hands turned into red light and dissipated into the air, indicating her agreement with Tiamat's proposal to join forces and witness, even catalyze, Ryou's growth.

As for the possibility of Tiamat lying, Scáthach was not worried at all.

Gods might conceal the truth, but they do not lie. At their level, they even disdain concealment.

As for Freya and Ottar, standing nearby, both Scáthach and Tiamat treated them as if they were invisible.

Orario's 'Twin Kings'? The strongest familia? The ultimate weapon?

These titles held no significance in their eyes.

After reaching an agreement, the figures of the two powerhouses disappeared into the night.

Ottar's face displayed a strong sense of humiliation and unwillingness. So this was how powerless he, the 'strongest,' truly was.

"Hehe~ Haha~ Hahahaha!"

Freya, who had been standing there in a daze, suddenly began to giggle, then laugh louder and louder, finally breaking into unrestrained, manic laughter.

At that moment, her violet eyes were filled with endless madness.

"What about the Mother of Saltwater, the Primordial!? What about the Queen of the Shadow Land, the God-Slayer!? That child, that child alone! I must have him!! If you want my life, I'll gladly give it to you!!!"

Neither Tiamat nor Scáthach regarded Freya, the vase-like goddess, as significant.

However, they forgot that even a vase can be extremely terrifying when it goes mad.

Moreover, this goddess Freya was no ordinary lunatic. In mythology, she could search the entire world crying for her lost husband, and she could also do unspeakable things with four dwarves just for a golden necklace.

Putting everything else aside, her determination to achieve her goals was chillingly horrifying.

As Ryou left the gladiator arena, the entire labyrinth city began to stir...

PS: MC almost gang(Goddess) r***!