"So, boss, what's our next task?"
Aslan asked respectfully, not even pausing to absorb the Divinity in his hand.
After all, Shiroyasha was right beside him—absorbing the Divinity wasn't a priority. His boss's orders came first.
"Hmm..."
Shiroyasha glanced toward the former Arcadia headquarters, now the ruined base of No-Name.
Then she looked at the trembling children hiding in the underground shelter, and Kurousagi standing bravely in front of them.
Kurousagi was desperately trying to protect the children with her weak powers.
"How about you join the current No-Name? Help take care of these kids?"
Though Shiroyasha longed to speak the name "Arcadia" according to Little Garden's rules, the Arcadia banner had been seized during the Demon Lord's attack, so they had lost their name.
Even Shiroyasha couldn't utter "Arcadia"—she could only refer to them as No-Name instead.
As for accepting Aslan, it had only been a fleeting impulse. If she hadn't taken him in, he might have been claimed by her—Queen Halloween.
Better to have him as her subordinate than become that woman's asset.
At the time, she hadn't really thought much about what Aslan would actually do.
After all, she had even abandoned her former follower, the Water God Shirayukihime, to live alone at the edge of the world.
Expecting her to look after others? Don't be ridiculous—just not killing them was already generous.
"Understood, boss!"
Aslan remained extremely cautious, playing the role of someone who had just arrived in Little Garden and knew nothing.
He didn't mention Shiroyasha's name, because doing so would only deepen suspicion.
How could someone who just arrived possibly know a figure as prominent as Shiroyasha?
Though his acting was still clumsy, Shiroyasha wasn't a particularly suspicious person.
So he managed to deceive her—and even obtained a Divinity through his abilities.
In Little Garden, a Divinity was essentially the highest-tier Gift an ordinary person could receive.
Once bestowed with a Divinity, one could instantly ascend to the highest level of their race or equipment.
Take his Planeswalker ability, for example. Previously, Aslan needed extensive time gathering power just to travel between worlds.
But now, he could freely traverse dimensions. Even lower-tier spatial manipulation abilities were now within his grasp—albeit still somewhat awkward.
The same went for his Magic card creation ability. Before, he could only make property cards.
Now, he could confidently say he could freely create spell cards, land cards, or sorcerer cards.
As the highest-tier Gift, a Divinity didn't just grant power—it also conferred mastery over abilities and enhanced cognitive processing.
Knowledge about Planeswalkers that once seemed incomprehensible was now fully internalized.
So how strong was he now? Without exaggeration, he could now destroy an entire city with a single attack.
At this moment, within Little Garden's ranking system, he had instantly risen to the level of a Five-Digit God.
Though among Five-Digit beings, Aslan was likely still at the very bottom.
One could say that acknowledging Shiroyasha as his boss was well worth it. Shiroyasha was incredibly generous.
"Alright, I have business to attend to, so I'm leaving. If anyone asks about your identity, just say you're a new follower I summoned."
After seeing Aslan finish absorbing the Divinity, Shiroyasha hurried off.
She had many matters to handle, especially clues regarding the Demon Lord who had just attacked and nearly wiped out Arcadia.
Who could have destroyed Arcadia overnight? Only a handful of beings across all of Little Garden were capable of such a feat.
And most troubling of all—there were absolutely no traces left at the Arcadia base?
She'd have to interrogate them one by one! See if she could uncover any leads!
"Yes, boss Shiroyasha!"
After Aslan saluted, he finally felt a deep sense of relief.
From now on, he had an identity—and a powerful boss!
If only Shiroyasha hadn't just left and if he hadn't been so unfamiliar with Little Garden, he would've burst out laughing!
Turns out, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
Then, Aslan slowly walked around the ruins of Arcadia, heading toward the only building still intact.
But seeing the land ravaged by the unknown Demon Lord, Aslan grew increasingly shocked.
Even the residual energy left in the soil was enough to kill him a hundred times over.
The intensity of that battle was unimaginable.
Yet even Arcadia—so powerful, with hundreds of Four-Digit executives—was destroyed in a single night.
What if it had been him caught in that disaster?
Could he have survived? And even if he could—then what?
Think about Shiroyasha: the invincible Two-Digit Demon Lord, the Final Trial of humanity (Heliocentrism), the Primordial Star Spirit.
No one in Little Garden could match her.
But now? Wasn't she reduced to something like a mascot?
Surviving merely as a Full-Level Ruler in the Lower District.
From this lesson, Aslan discarded the arrogance of being a time traveler and the "I can do anything" mentality he'd just gained.
After all, though Aslan could now wield power in the Lower District, fundamentally, he was just someone Shiroyasha could easily create in vast numbers.
In the Upper District, he might not even be better than cannon fodder.
Five-Digit? Honestly, Aslan was just one of the 100,000 heavenly soldiers surrounding Sun Wukong—and even now, he wasn't sure he could defeat that heavenly army.
What was there to boast about?
After adjusting his mindset, Aslan approached the last remaining intact building in the No-Name base.
Could this be the final act of mercy from the Demon Lord who attacked Arcadia?
Though the Demon Lord had the power to kill everyone and completely destroy Arcadia, in the end, he still spared these children.
And most of Arcadia's executives were either exiled to the outer world or captured as slaves.
The number of actual fatalities turned out to be surprisingly low.
One could only say that relationships in Little Garden were too complicated—so convoluted that even Aslan, who knew the story's plot, struggled to grasp all the intricacies.
But if something couldn't be understood, there was no point overthinking it.
"Is anyone inside?"
Aslan gently knocked on the entrance to the underground room where Kurousagi and the remaining Arcadia children were hiding.