Hestia and Artemis returned to the Tower of Desires and Medusa emerged from their shadows, "Thank you for the hard work, Hestia-sama, Artemis-sama."
"Is this really enough? I think they may require more assistance. It's Deities we're talking about here, after all.", asked Artemis as the three of them continued walking.
While adjusting her glasses, Medusa replied with a smile, "It's alright. The main purpose of releasing such information to them is so that they wouldn't do anything that could endanger themselves. At this point of time, there's virtually nothing they could do so their focus would still go to the Dungeon in an attempt to strengthen themselves."
Artemis thinks about it for a moment before nodding, "That's true. While they believe that a God is capable of using their powers, they'll only expect that it'll still be at the level of a high leveled child."
Hestia looked towards her curiously and asked, "Why is that? Shouldn't they also consider the worst case of a God fully manifesting their Divinity?"
Artemis shook her head, "It might cross their minds but they'll immediately brush it off and opt to a more believable conclusion. Since you never really went out of your temple, you might not know that something similar had already happened in the past. A certain Deity used a special ritual to disguise himself as a mortal and was able to unlock a portion of his strength to match that of a Level 6 child. For years to come, he would dive into the Dungeon without any problem and enjoy himself. Many had tried to ask him how he did it but he returned to Heaven without revealing anything to anyone. Of course, others have also tried replicating his feat but none were successful."
"After some more time without anyone being able to do the same thing, it was suspected that it was actually a Unique Skill of his child and the price of it was him returning to Heaven when his child died. However, that didn't discourage those who wanted to try it too so Ouranos at that time spoke up and banned any research about this since he deemed it too dangerous. And soon enough, those who had the same belief as him reinforced this. After all, they don't want another Deity being devoured by the Dungeon because of this."
Medusa was curious about the devoured Deity but didn't ask about it because she has a feeling that she won't be getting any worthwhile answer, "It's a well-documented case from long ago and it should be the first thing that pops out of their mind. Nevertheless, it's still very concerning for them since they don't know if they were able to unlock the secrets to this unlocked Divine Power. If there are ten Deities collaborating, it would also mean that there are ten more strong mercenaries that could tip the balance of power in the area. Not to mention the special properties of Divine Power that makes it even more dangerous than Magic."
Hestia crossed her arms and nodded in understanding, "I see... But is it the same case this time around?"
Artemis doesn't know the answer to this and looked at Medusa.
"That could be the case but according to Kuroka-san's initial estimations after factoring various variables, it might be a Deity using his children as an array of vessels to fully descend to the Lower World without being recognized by the Dungeon."
It was supposed to be a shocking and disturbing revelation but Hestia and Artemis only looked at each other before turning back to her and the former asking with a wry smile, "And you're hoping for that, am I right?"
Medusa smiled and nodded, "Yes."
They reached the doors leading to the living room and as soon as they opened it, they saw Medusa's sisters watching one of the recorded matches of the Azazel Cup while gleefully munching on some sweets and cheering loudly, "Oh~ Welcome back~" Stheno greeted.
The three came over but their eyes were glued to the screen, watching the man in crimson armor blasting several islands into oblivion with just a single attack, "It's really hard to believe when you said that they're your peers." Hestia commented.
"Well, seeing this made me understand everyone's sudden spike in motivation." Artemis sat down and joined the Gorgon sisters, "And the fact that you're hoping for a Deity's descent must be because they wanted to take one on."
Medusa chuckled and replied, "They're the most effective opponent if they want to cross their limits, no?"
Hestia also sat down while letting out an exasperated voice, "There's no stopping you lot. I'll support all of you all the way through, though."
"Thank you very much~"
.
.
.
It has been ten days ever since Kisuke disappeared and his teammates were all waiting for his return within the Belial manor.
Though not everyone is really ready to fight in the Azazel Cup, namely, Nyx and Seekvaira who both are trembling like newborn babies while lying face down.
"Looks like you won't be able to join the next match either, huh.", muttered Athena.
A bit disturbed, Tiamat added, "That's understandable. I'm actually surprised that they're still in their right state of mind after going through that. Though that might probably be thanks to the drug he gave you. What was it called again? 'Dragon Pride'? He really created something inconceivable." Even as a Dragon herself, she just couldn't watch their training without shuddering.
Before starting, Kisuke sealed their Divine and Demonic powers so that they'll only be able to fight purely through the power of their bodies, which was quite frankly, very weak.
Since Kisuke deemed that the dummies that tormented Genshirou's group wouldn't be enough and his healing hot spring was further improved, he decided on random projectiles that contained all sorts of aura to shoot at random times while they fought the dummies. This, of course, resulted in them almost dying instantaneously several times.
"...How weird... I remember my heart being pierced multiple times... How am I still alive?" Seekvaira muttered with a blank expression and dead eyes.
"It's really weird... I recall my throat being sliced open countless times... Wait... My eyes were also cut multiple times... Am I really seeing the world as it is or this is all just my imagination?" Nyx also murmured with a similar expression.
Genshirou, on the other hand, while remaining quiet, is also shaking, 'Is it because they are a lot stronger compared to us before? That's way harsher than what we've been through! I'm glad I only got half of my bones broken and blinded a few times!'
"Geez. It wasn't really that bad, was it? You've learned how to read auras in the shortest amount of time possible, so all is good." All of a sudden, Kisuke's voice resounded beside them, which startled both Tiamat and Athena, causing their aura to flare up since they couldn't feel his presence until he had spoken.
"How are you doing that?" asked Tiamat since she was very confident in her detection skills.
Kisuke just smirked at her and said, "Trade secret~!"
Editors:
28th00: Brutally efficient training. Kisuke is now even more of an assassin. Or is he just pulling an Aizen? Too strong to sense? Ophis is like that too.
Goyya: Something similar to pulling an Aizen.