"...I... lost?"
She muttered to herself, as if still dreaming.
Just now, in the instant Seiji had grabbed her from behind.
She'd instinctively tried to resist.
But she'd discovered, to her despair, that the "sun god's power" erupting from him, in both "quality" and "quantity," was far above her own!
It was as though he were the true, the only "sun god."
And she was nothing but a clumsy "counterfeit," one whose very core power had been stolen away.
Before that absolute suppression of power, the godly-domain wrestling skill she took such pride in had no room to be used at all.
She'd been beaten, thoroughly and completely, by her own most prized "Lucha Libre," in a crushing manner she couldn't begin to comprehend.
"The match is decided."
Seiji's voice rang calmly in her ear.
He slowly released his hold on the Feathered Serpent and stood, looking down from above at this goddess sprawled on the ground, as if she'd lost all her strength.
"So then, as promised."
"From now on, you, your body and your soul, all of it is mine."
"..."
The Feathered Serpent fell silent.
She slowly climbed up from the ground and brushed off the dust clinging to her.
Then she lifted her head and looked at Seiji with an extremely complicated gaze, mixing defeat, reluctance, curiosity, and a trace of "excitement" she herself hadn't noticed.
"...What in the world are you, anyway?"
She asked the question once again.
"A collector."
Seiji smiled and answered.
The "sun god's power" on him receded like a tide, returning him to the look of an ordinary, harmless-seeming young man with black hair and black eyes.
"A collector who specializes in collecting beautiful, powerful goddesses, like you."
The Feathered Serpent looked at him for a long, long while.
In the end, as if resigning herself to fate, she let out a long sigh.
Then, on her face, a smile bloomed once more, brighter, more radiant, and more full of vitality than before!
"Aaah, honestly! I lost! Lost completely and utterly! I'm beaten fair and square!"
She raised both hands and rubbed her face hard, as if trying to scrub away every bit of the negative emotion from moments ago.
"All right! All right!"
"I, Quetzalcoatl, have always been one to keep my word!"
"From now on, I'm your thing! Master!"
Just like that, frankly and openly, she acknowledged her own "ownership"!
She'd even gone and used the title "Master" of her own accord!
This crisp, clean attitude of "admitting defeat" actually left even Seiji feeling slightly caught off guard.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! Core target Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, successfully conquered!]
[Target has been transformed into a brand-new form: Rider Samba/Santa (exclusive to Seiji Fujiwara)!]
[Conquest progress: 100% (fully complete)]
[Processing rewards...]
[Settlement complete! Congratulations, Host, on receiving the final reward, the permanent ability Divine Body (Rank C)!]
[Ability description: The Host's body gains divine-particle reconstruction, greatly raising physical strength and magical affinity! It also produces a 30% damage reduction against all divine attacks of non-countering attributes! You can now engage in unarmed melee with certain lower-tier deities!]
A warm, powerful force melted instantly into every limb and bone of Seiji's body!
He felt as though his body had been replaced with a tougher, stronger shell forged from divine metal!
"Good."
Seiji clenched his fist in satisfaction, feeling that explosive power inside him.
Then he looked at the beautiful sun goddess before him, who had already stepped into her "new role" of her own accord.
"So then, as my subordinate, you should know what to do next, right?"
"Of course, Master!"
The Feathered Serpent immediately snapped to attention and gave Seiji an enthusiastic military salute brimming with South American flair!
"Is it time to go drag that gloomy woman Gorgon over here, so you can turn her into a collectible too?"
"No rush." Seiji shook his head. "Before that, you'll first need to help me deal with a small problem."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the temple walls, looking toward the city of Uruk.
"That curse on you, right?"
"I already have a plan to purify it, but if I can get your cooperation, the process will be more efficient."
What he intended to do wasn't simply "remove" the curse.
What he intended to do was, in the process of removing the curse, "alter" the portion of "divine coordinates" that Gorgon had left inside the Feathered Serpent's body!
He wanted to use the Feathered Serpent as a "springboard" to silently plant a "backdoor program" of his own inside Gorgon as well!
"No problem, Master!"
At his words, excited light burst from the Feathered Serpent's eyes!
The moment she thought of that disgusting curse soon being removed, she couldn't help wanting to throw a hot-blooded round of Lucha Libre right away to celebrate!
"So, Master, what preparations do we need to make?"
"It's simple."
A genial smile appeared on Seiji's face.
"First, you need to take off all of your clothes."
"...Huh?"
"...Huh?"
For the first time, that pretty face of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, which always wore a hearty smile, went blank and petrified for a full several seconds.
Those golden eyes, bright as the sun, blinked, then blinked again, as if doubting whether the battle just now had been so fierce that her auditory nerves had overloaded and she was hearing things.
Take off... take off all her clothes?
"You... what did you say, Master?" she asked again, somewhat uncertain, a small note of fluster in her voice that she herself hadn't noticed.
"I said, take off all your clothes."
Seiji's answer was calm and firm, without the slightest hint of a joke. His gaze was clear and frank, like a meticulous lead surgeon preparing for a precise operation, issuing pre-op instructions to his assistant.
"The curse on you was caused by Gorgon using her divine blood to directly contaminate the core of your Saint Graph. It's like a kind of divine virus with its own self-awareness, clinging to your soul."
As he explained, he gestured for the Feathered Serpent to follow him to the edge of the enormous crater that had just been smashed into the center of the temple.
"What I need to do is inject my power, the green runes you saw, directly into your Saint Graph, to scan, kill, and rewrite this virus."
"During this process, any external matter, especially clothing imbued with your own divinity, will become a kind of interference, affecting the precision of my operation."
"To put it simply," he summarized, "to ensure the operation's success rate reaches 100%, I need an absolutely sterile operating environment, completely sealed off from the outside."
"So, stripping bare is the most direct and the most efficient choice."
His explanation sounded so perfectly reasonable, full of the rigor of scientific and magecraft theory, leaving not the slightest flaw to be found.
But...
Why... did it always feel like something was off?!
The Feathered Serpent looked at Seiji's perfectly straight face, then looked down at the green priestess garb of South American flair on her body, which hadn't been all that much fabric to begin with, and for a moment fell into a violent inner struggle.
Going by her frank, bold personality, and the uninhibited style of a South American deity, stripping bare in front of a "Master" she absolutely trusted seemed... not really like such a big deal either.
What's more, it was to remove that damned curse that had plagued her for so long!
But...
Why was her heart pounding so fast?
Why was her face so hot?
"What? You don't want to?" Seiji watched her adorable look, cheeks flushed red, eyes wandering, a trace of amused interest flashing in his eyes, though he kept his tone deliberately flat. "If you find it inconvenient, then never mind. After all, this curse only means you can't play wrestling. It doesn't seem to have much of an effect on you anyway."
"Who... who said I didn't want to!"
That sentence struck the Feathered Serpent's sore spot dead-on!
"It's just taking off my clothes, isn't it?! What's the big deal!"
She thrust out her ample chest and forced a bold smile of "I don't care in the slightest" onto her face!
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