— — — — — —
In the Underworld, Within the Progenitor Palace—
Led by Grayfia, Ryo stepped into the palace, a world washed entirely in white.
Algol loved white, especially the kind that reflected light. That way, no matter where she stood, she could always admire her own beautiful appearance from every corner of the room.
As a result, the palace's dominant color was white. Pure white. Almost transparent white.
Fortunately, the Underworld's sky was purple, and the palace was covered by magical barriers. Otherwise, with all that glare, Ryo suspected anyone living here would need a pair of dark sunglasses every day.
After crossing the excessively long corridor of the main hall, Grayfia guided him around the palace and into the rear section. This was Algol's actual living area.
As for her laboratory, it was underground.
They entered a subterranean passage and walked for over a hundred meters before Ryo finally saw Algol in a massive underground chamber bathed in white.
She wore a white restraint suit, her body wrapped in binding straps.
Her youthful, flawless face was unchanged, but much of her seductive aura was gone. At a glance, Ryo could tell something was different.
His eyes settled on the restraints, and he raised an eyebrow, "Suppressors?"
Algol tugged casually at one of the straps. "If I want to meet you, these are absolutely necessary."
She let go.
The restraint snapped tight against her body with a sharp smack.
Honestly, Ryo thought it looked strangely provocative.
"The Little Garden Center's detection abilities are really that ridiculous?" he complained as he walked over.
Grayfia kept her head lowered, following quietly behind them, ready at any moment to serve or act as an assistant.
"That thing may not be that intelligent, but it's still a pain to deal with." Algol sighed and led him farther across the snowy-white floor.
As they moved, countless pieces of equipment gradually materialized in the empty space around them: nutrient pods, laboratory tables, and various devices Ryo couldn't immediately identify.
When they passed by, the equipment faded away again, vanishing into thin air.
"We're here."
Algol stopped.
Ahead of them, more than a dozen cylindrical nutrient tanks slowly emerged from the air.
Inside each tank floated a human figure submerged in orange liquid, dressed in blue-and-white striped prison uniforms. Their eyes were closed as they drifted silently in suspension.
Ryo spotted Sae Toujou among them.
He also recognized Natsume Minagawa and Shigune Nanadaru from the files Hanezu Himejima had given him. They were the other two shadow figures, now restored to their original appearances under Algol's care.
"The test subjects you provided are actually pretty interesting," Algol remarked. "I've spent most of my time researching the corruption of gods. Humans haven't been my area of expertise."
She stopped before one particular tank.
Inside floated a skeletal figure.
Looking down, Ryo noticed a white label attached to the base, [Specimen No. 17: Hades]
He blinked.
"Wasn't Hades in Ajuka's custody?"
"How should I explain this..." Algol rubbed her forehead. "Let's just call it a clone."
Ryo's mouth twitched. "And you're not worried that Little Garden's Hades will find out?"
"Not really."
Algol didn't seem worried in the slightest. "If the ritual succeeds, I'll probably offend him sooner or later regardless. Worst case, I'll apologize afterward. He's easy to get along with."
Then she turned and fixed her gemstone-like eyes on him.
"More importantly..."
"Are you prepared to make an enemy of all the gods, Ryo Yagami?"
"..."
Ryo fell silent.
If Algol's experiment succeeded, every god in the High School DxD world would fall and become part of the demonic race.
It wouldn't directly affect the gods of Little Garden, but it would create a new possibility of corruption for them as well.
In other words, this was a direct and public provocation against all the gods of Little Garden.
Could he really withstand the consequences?
After a long pause, Ryo sighed. "Everything has a price. The higher you want to climb, the more you'll have to pay."
At this point, there was no turning back for him. Either he climbed to the very top and stood above everyone else, or someone else would step on him.
Little Garden's Gift Games tried to narrow the gap between the strong and the weak, but the world remained cruel.
"When you return to Little Garden, you can publicly distance yourself from me." A faint smile appeared on Algol's lips. "At least that way, even that bitch Athena won't rush to cut ties with you."
So she was giving him permission to play both sides.
Ryo glanced at her.
For someone who'd been sealed away for so long, she seemed to have gotten smarter.
"With an opportunity like this, isn't it enough to push you into the two-digit ranks?"
"Of course not."
The answer came without hesitation.
Ryo's expression stiffened.
If this wasn't enough to let Algol reach that realm, then things were more troublesome than he'd hoped.
"Though reaching something close to that level..." Algol said, holding up two fingers. "There's a little bit of hope."
Ryo immediately felt a headache coming on.
"By 'a little bit,' do you mean a little bit or an absurd amount? I need actual numbers."
Algol rolled her eyes. "If something like that could be measured precisely, there wouldn't be so many gods stuck at the lower end of the three-digit ranks."
She folded her arms and continued, "To put it bluntly, any three-digit existence could leave Little Garden and enter an outside universe and be worshipped as God. An omnipotent creator."
"But a two-digit existence..."
She paused.
"...is someone even a God would call God."
"The God of gods."
Ryo had no argument with that.
How many three-digit beings existed in Little Garden? Not quite a thousand, but close.
And how many two-digit beings were there? Only seventeen.
Seventeen out of a thousand. A success rate of 1.7%.
At first glance, that actually sounded surprisingly high.
But the reality was very different. The number of two-digit beings had steadily increased throughout history. The number of three-digit beings, however, was far greater than a mere thousand.
Some had died. Some had their positions devoured. Some left Little Garden in search of opportunities in the Unobserved Regions. Others were sealed away. Some even committed suicide and reincarnated.
Add everything together, and the total had long surpassed a mere thousand.
Yet among all those countless figures, only seventeen stood at the summit, gazing down upon the gods themselves. The brutality of that reality was difficult for ordinary people to comprehend.
At that moment, Algol shook her head and sighed. "I've only found the faintest hint of a path toward that realm. Even if I corrupt every god in this world, I'd have at most a thirty percent chance of moving half a step forward."
"Half a step?"
Ryo repeated the phrase.
Then he looked at Algol.
She puffed out her not-particularly-impressive chest, chin raised high, obviously waiting for praise.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"A three-digit rule-breaker existence...?"
"Ahem."
Algol coughed.
Though she was half a head shorter than Ryo, she somehow managed to look down on him from above.
With all the dignity of a queen addressing a subject, she declared, "From now on, you may call me Queen Algol."
Ryo: "..."
.
.
.