"...I need to borrow something else from you."
"Borrow... borrow what?" Ishtar blinked her watery eyes with a touch of curiosity.
"Borrow your divinity for a bit."
In Seiji's eyes glittered the cold light of a scientist about to dissect a rare specimen.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt you."
With his other hand, he gently stroked Ishtar's smooth, flowing hair, his voice so tender it could practically drip.
"I'm only a little curious about the inner structure of a creature like a god."
"I need to collect some samples to refine my database."
"As long as you cooperate obediently, I promise tonight's reward will be far more generous than you imagine."
"Divi... divinity?"
Hearing the word, Ishtar instinctively felt a thread of fear rising from the depths of her soul.
Divinity, for a god, was like the human heart, the fundamental core of one's existence. Any manipulation of divinity carried enormous risk, and the slightest misstep could shatter it, leading to complete annihilation.
But...
When she saw Seiji's eyes, calm yet brimming with an absolute, brooks-no-defiance control.
When she thought that if she refused, she might lose everything before her, might even lose that tempting "reward" of his...
That thread of fear was soon utterly drowned by a stronger emotion called "desire."
"...O... okay, Master..."
Almost without any struggle, like a hypnotized, most obedient doll, she nodded sweetly.
"As long as... as long as it's what Master wants, I'm... willing to do anything..."
"Good."
A satisfied smile appeared on Seiji's face at the test subject's "high degree of cooperation."
He wasted no more words and pressed his hand directly against Ishtar's flat, warm belly. That was precisely where the core of her divinity resided.
[System Command: Initiating Divine Structure Analysis Program!]
[Analysis Target: Venus Goddess Ishtar (Divinity Integrity 95%)]
[Establishing data connection... Connection successful!]
[Beginning first-layer Saint Graph scan...]
A vast yet exquisitely fine torrent of information, carrying Seiji's "Absolute Authority" concept, surged into Ishtar's body in an instant!
"Mngah!"
Ishtar's body jerked, and she let out a complicated moan full of pain and... a strange pleasure.
She felt as if her soul had been pierced through completely, from the inside out, by countless invisible, cold probes!
Every one of her secrets, every weakness, the deepest "code" that made up her existence, was peeled back layer by layer, mercilessly, before that man, analyzed, recorded!
This feeling of having everything about herself laid bare before her "master," holding nothing back...
It filled her with unprecedented fear and shame.
And it also gave rise to a sick, extreme excitement of being utterly "possessed"!
[Outer Saint Graph structure analysis complete...]
[Delving into the second layer, the divine authority circuits...]
[Core authorities detected: Sky, Venus, Harvest, War, Beauty...]
[Conducting focused sampling on the authority of Beauty... Sampling successful!]
[Congratulations, Host! Successfully extracted and analyzed core concept: Charm! Host's permanent ability Divine Body has been upgraded to Divine Body: Charm (C+)!]
[Ability Description: Your body will produce a continuous, divinity-level charm effect on all intelligent lifeforms! Your every word and action will more easily earn the goodwill and trust of others!]
A strange warm current, carrying a trace of sweet fragrance, melded into Seiji's body.
He felt as if his body had undergone some wondrous, indescribable change.
His every glance, his every smile, seemed to take on a more lethal "killing power."
"Not bad, not bad. What a useful material library."
Seiji nodded with satisfaction, then, without hesitation, pushed his consciousness deeper toward the very core of Ishtar's divinity!
What he wanted was not merely these surface-level "authorities."
What he wanted was the deepest, most fundamental "logic of creation" that constituted a being called a "god"!
[Attempting to break through the divine core barrier... Warning! High-intensity divine rejection reaction detected!]
[Forcing breakthrough! Using Host's infinite Grail magical energy to perform rule-level information override!]
"Aaaaaah!"
Ishtar could no longer hold herself upright. Her legs gave out and she collapsed into Seiji's arms, letting out a shrill scream full of pleasure, like a toy played to its breaking point!
Her consciousness had been completely swept away by that domineering, unreasonable torrent of information from her master.
In her world, all that remained was a pure "white," filled with that man's presence.
And just as Seiji was treating Ishtar as a high-grade "experimental material," performing a cruel yet efficient "dissection."
An uninvited guest quietly descended.
"...Sister?"
A voice, full of confusion and worry, carrying a trace of undisguised loneliness and... envy, ethereal, suddenly rang out from the shadows of the golden palace.
That voice seemed to come from another world.
Ethereal, faint, carrying a trace of cold gloom from years never seeing the light of day.
Seiji's movement, deep in his exploration of Ishtar's divine core, paused slightly.
He slowly raised his head and turned his gaze toward the direction of the voice.
There, beneath the shadow of one of the palace's enormous golden pillars.
A beautiful girl, looking almost exactly like Ishtar, stood quietly.
She likewise had long twintails dark as the night.
But her hair color was even deeper than Ishtar's, even closer to a "void"-like pitch-black.
She wore an ornate spirit garment in a Gothic Lolita style, dominated by black.
Those eyes, ruby-red like Ishtar's, held no pride or vitality.
Instead, they carried an eternal "deathly stillness" and "loneliness," as if they had seen through every parting of the living and the dead.
A cold aura from the Underworld, one that warned the living to keep away, surrounded her entire being.
She was like a beautiful, deadly spider lily blooming on the far shore of the Yellow Springs.
[Warning! High-tier divine reaction detected!]
[Target identity recognition... Comparing against database...]
[Match successful! Target: Mistress of the Underworld, Ereshkigal!]
[Note: One of the Three Goddess Alliance, Ishtar's sister (two sides of one being), harbors extremely complex emotions of "rivalry" and "envy" toward her sister.]
"Oh? Speak of the devil."
An interested smile appeared on Seiji's face, the smile of a hunter watching a second quarry deliver itself to his door.
He did not, because of his opponent's sudden appearance, release Ishtar, who still lay limp in his arms, eyes glazed, mouth still letting out meaningless moans.
Quite the opposite.
He deliberately, in front of this "sister-in-law," reached out and with a posture full of possessiveness gently caressed Ishtar's trembling body, grown abnormally sensitive from having her divinity invaded.
"...What... what did you do to my sister?!"
Ereshkigal stared at the "shocking" scene before her.
Watching her once supremely proud, supremely powerful sister now wearing, in a strange man's arms, like a thoroughly broken "doll," an expression of "submission" and "pleasure" she had never seen before.
Her heart, long frozen iron-hard by aeons of loneliness, clenched hard, beyond her control!
A complex emotion she herself couldn't articulate, mingling "anger," "jealousy," and a trace of inexplicable "envy," surged up in her in an instant!
"What did I do?"
Seiji laughed at that.
He lowered his head and, in a posture close to "showing off," planted a light kiss on Ishtar's smooth forehead.
Then he raised his head and answered Ereshkigal in a tone full of "provocation":
"As you can see."
"I'm just giving this not-very-obedient little pet of mine a bit of training."
"You... you shameless man!"
For the first time, that pretty face of Ereshkigal's, always expressionless, flushed with a lovely red born of shame and indignation!
"Let... let my sister go right now!"
"She is the great Venus Goddess! Not a pet you can defile as you please!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
A more wicked curve tugged at the corner of Seiji's mouth.
Far from letting go, he hugged Ishtar even tighter.
He even deliberately drew from her a sweeter, more enticing moan.
"But why do I get the feeling that she herself seems... to be quite enjoying the process?"
"You... you...!"
Ereshkigal was so furious she couldn't even finish her words!
She was the mistress of the Underworld.
She was accustomed to judging all things with rules and death.
She had never met a man like Seiji, impervious, brazen, brimming with vile tastes!
A vast, cold divine power of the Underworld, full of the aura of death and decay, began to spread from her body beyond her control!
The temperature of the entire golden palace plunged to freezing in an instant!
A thin layer of black frost even condensed across those walls of gold!
"Looks like you have quite a problem with my methods of training, hm?"
Seiji felt that malice-laden divine power, yet the smile on his face remained as light and unbothered as ever.
"In that case..."
A cold "killing intent," devoid of the slightest feeling, flashed through his eyes.
"...then you can just stay here forever, alongside your sister, and be my pet too."
With that, the silent King of Knights beside him, Saber Alter, that most perfect killing machine, slowly raised the ominous demonic sword in her hand.
A pure "darkness," enough to freeze the soul, began to gather frantically along the blade!
"Wait!"
In the instant before a battle that could raze this magnificent golden palace to the ground was about to erupt.
Ereshkigal suddenly spoke up and stopped it all.
She forcibly suppressed her nearly rampaging divine power.
She understood clearly.
With her current strength, there was no way she could be a match for this mysterious man before her, who could easily defeat the King of Heroes and command two powerful "Servants" at the same time.
A head-on clash had only one outcome: like her useless sister, being treated as a "trophy" and collected away.
So...
She could only choose to solve the problem in the way she was best at.
With the rules of the Underworld.
"...I acknowledge your strength."
She looked at Seiji, and through those ruby eyes, still as dead water, flashed a trace of resolve.
"But this is the world of the living, my sister's home turf."
"Here, I am indeed no match for you."
"However..."
The corner of her mouth lifted into a cold, confident curve belonging to the "Goddess of the Underworld."
"...do you dare accept my invitation?"
"Come to my world, come to that absolute Underworld ruled by me, and have a fair showdown with me?"
"There, any power of the living world will be suppressed to its limit."
"There, I am the only rule!"
"There, I will make you pay the most agonizing price for everything you did to my sister today!"
Toward Seiji she issued a "letter of challenge" from the "Underworld," full of the aura of death, impossible to refuse!