The moment she realized the other party's identity, Erica understood that the so-called divine beast boar was not an isolated existence.
The deity before them was either the divine beast boar's master or its enemy.
And regardless of which possibility it was, it didn't really matter.
Because the very existence of a Heretic God was the greatest disaster in this world.
The worldview of deities differed vastly from mortals, and encountering such a level of existence meant one could never leave safely.
Having just escaped the divine beast, they now encountered the Heretic God itself.
Already having had her pride crushed by the divine beast boar, Erica no longer harbored thoughts of overestimating herself and challenging a deity.
But she also didn't flee.
Instead, she tried her best to straighten her back and stand beside Ryuga.
She understood deeply that even among second-tier beings, Ryuga's strength far exceeded hers.
She had given what warning she could. What followed was not something a supporting character with inferior wisdom and strength could interfere with.
She believed that with Ryuga's wisdom, he would surely be able to control the situation.
In the chat group, hearing Erica's words, everyone was struck as if by lightning.
[Tohsaka Rin: "A-A-A Heretic God?!"]
[Madoka: "Th-This is the deity that Erica-oneesama mentioned before, right?"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Right, if Erica isn't mistaken, this should be a third-tier existence, a terrifying being capable of destroying nations!"]
Young Rin's expression was serious.
In her understanding, deity-level combat power belonged to the thoroughly invincible category.
Except for Magicians, probably no existence could match them.
[Kanae: "Does this mean there might be conflict with the deity..."]
She couldn't help but pray for Ryuga and Erica in her heart.
Even knowing that life was unpredictable, no one had expected such dramatic ups and downs.
Having just dealt with one crisis, they now encountered the greatest disaster of the Campione world.
Seeing a third-tier existence for the first time, even having personally witnessed Ryuga instantly kill a divine beast, they couldn't help but worry for Ryuga.
Deity-level combat power was basically dominant-tier strength in any world.
After the previous events, they didn't think Ryuga was already helpless, but they also didn't believe this was a hurdle that could be easily overcome.
Ryuga-sama, could he handle such a crisis?
The crowd's worries clearly didn't reach Ryuga at all.
Without any guarded movements, without any tense expressions.
Even after hearing Erica's warning and seeing her slightly trembling body, he still asked with an incredibly casual tone, as if encountering an acquaintance on a street corner.
"What makes one a god?"
Seeing his calm and composed demeanor, the youth who had quietly appeared before them grinned, showing an excited smile.
"Interesting!"
The youth looked with great interest at this man whose confidence he couldn't fathom.
"Worthy of one who could defeat my incarnation. Even knowing my identity, you can maintain such composure—you have great talent as a warrior!"
Being praised so by a Heretic God, if it were an ordinary person, they would probably be overjoyed already.
But Ryuga was not. Even divine praise couldn't excite him in the slightest. He simply repeated with a calm tone.
"You can refuse to answer, but don't ignore the question, Verethragna! This is basic etiquette."
Even facing a Heretic God, he still used an equal tone, making the chat group members sweat bullets for him.
Having such a firm attitude toward a deity—wasn't he afraid of making the other party angry?
Erica on the side didn't notice Ryuga's tone issue. Her attention was completely captured by the name Ryuga casually spoke.
[Erica: "Verethragna, the war god of Zoroastrianism?"]
[Erica: "Speaking of which, Verethragna did have myths of incarnating as a boar, and as a guardian of light, he would indeed appear as a youth. This seems to match."]
[Erica: "Truly worthy of Ryuga-sama, to see through a Heretic God's true identity at a glance!"]
Knowing the identity was always better than not knowing when dealing with opponents.
Hearing Ryuga's question, the young war god Verethragna's eyes lit up even more.
"To recognize my name at a glance—it seems you also have the qualifications of a sage. I didn't expect this era to have such an outstanding hero. It seems I came down at the right time!"
The Heretic God's gentle attitude made everyone slightly relieved.
But Ryuga's next action made their hearts rise to their throats completely.
"The uncommunicative type?"
Saying this softly, Ryuga directly reached for his sword hilt.
"Seems like we can only communicate this way!"
As a human, his thinking was more direct than the Heretic God's—ready to fight at the slightest disagreement.
Seeing this, before Erica could decide whether to step forward and dissuade him, the young deity had already stepped back, defusing the hostility.
"Sorry, sorry, don't be so hasty! I just don't understand how to answer your question, since this body itself is divine!"
Though saying sorry, judging from his leisurely attitude, his concession was probably just due to momentary interest and basic etiquette.
This wasn't strange—no Heretic God would fear a mere human.
Even if this human had just slain a divine beast, in a Heretic God's view, it was just child's play.
Fortunately, Ryuga didn't care about this either.
Hearing this answer, he continued questioning.
"How do you confirm that you are a god?"
Vague feelings naturally couldn't serve as evidence. There must be some decisive structural difference between deities and non-deities.
"Do you want to research the existential structure of deities?"
Verethragna quickly realized Ryuga's intent.
"Correct."
Ryuga didn't hide his intentions.
"Hahaha! What an arrogant idea—I really don't know if you're a sage or a fool!"
Saying this, Verethragna's face showed a slightly excited smile, clearly having his interest piqued as well.
"Without that little girl saying so, divine power is definitely the wrong answer. For deities, there's as much of that stuff in heaven and earth as you want."
"If you're asking me, my answer is—Divine Core."
"Divine Core is the key to confirming gods as gods. Deities who lose their Divine Core will be degraded, possibly even losing their very selves directly."
On this point, Verethragna, who had just had his Divine Core scattered and lost his sense of self once, had great authority to speak.
Regardless of which world, Divine Cores were closely related to or even inseparably bound to deities.
Therefore, Verethragna felt his answer was without problems and almost impossible to refute.
However, standing before him was Ryuga.
"You made the same mistake. Campiones also possess Divine Cores corresponding to their Authorities, but they are not gods."
Ryuga easily provided a counterexample.
The Authorities that Campiones mastered also existed in the form of Divine Cores within their bodies.
If using a more fitting term, they should be called Divine Core holders.
"Then I don't know."
After thinking for two seconds, Verethragna chose to give up.
As an expert at god-slaying, Divine Core was the best answer he could think of.
"Setting aside the special case of Campiones for now, how much do you understand about Divine Cores as a deity?"
Ryuga didn't continue pressing, turning the topic toward Divine Cores.
Hearing this, Verethragna showed a cheerful smile.
"If you ask about techniques for severing Divine Cores, I know plenty."
"What if I ask about the physical or mystical structure of Divine Cores?"
"Completely clueless!"
This answer was decisive, without any hesitation.
Hearing this, Ryuga expressed confusion.
"As a deity, don't you have any desire to understand your own structure?"
"Would humans research how their own brains think?"
Verethragna countered with a question.
"Of course they would. The human brain roughly consists of three layers: the reptilian brain, emotional brain, and rational brain, controlling instinct, emotion, and logical thought respectively... And these three brain layers are all structures evolved for survival and reproduction."
Ryuga provided simple education.
"..."
Verethragna was momentarily speechless.
"Humans of this era are truly strange—isn't this denying the existence of free will?"
"No! This is exploring the boundaries of free will. Rather, what's truly strange should be you gods, right?"
Ryuga showed slightly incomprehensible eyes.
"No matter how weak humans are, over thousands of years they've gradually evolved to industrial society. Yet you gods, aside from mythological transitions, have made no progress in these thousands of years."
"With such powerful strength, such transcendent life forms, such nearly infinite lifespans, why do you never explore your own existence? Don't you even have basic curiosity?"
Reaching this point, Ryuga took a slight breath, then voiced his greatest question.
"Do you gods never think at all?"
"..."
At these words, Verethragna fell completely silent.
He wanted to say something to defend divine dignity, but with words on his lips, he didn't know what to say.
Even he himself was now somewhat doubting his divine life.
Could it be that all gods were really idiots?
On the other side of the chat group, seeing even the legendary deity rendered speechless by Ryuga's questions.
The group members not only didn't gloat, but felt sympathy.
[Tohsaka Rin: "So it's not just us—even legendary deities are like monkeys in Ryuga-sama's eyes!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Suddenly feeling psychologically balanced."]
[Kanae: "Psychologically balanced +1."]
[Madoka: "Psychologically balanced +1."]
[Madoka: "Actually, big brother treats us much better than he treats the deity."]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Indeed!"]
[Tohsaka Rin: "Grateful."]
[Kanae: "Grateful."]
[Erica: "Grateful."]
To be continued...
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