Chapter 323: Goddess Ishtar (1)
—
Perhaps he should have seen this coming?
Neji was rather convinced it was Kimi who ended up in this world—but it turned out to be Ryuko. Not that it was a bad thing, of course. He was happy to have found Ryukyu so early, so unexpectedly. The point now was, he needed to be quick in saving her; for more reasons than one.
After wandering through his memories for a moment, Neji recalled the point that seemed to answer the question—Why didn't Ryuko recognize him?
Goddess Rhongomyniad was a version of Artoria Pendragon from a Parallel World where the Knight Bedivere never returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake.
Because returning Excalibur was supposed to kill Artoria, and Bedivere didn't return it, she never truly died. Artoria was not able to die when she was fated to die, and as a result, she became a wandering ghost who jumped across timelines, while keeping onto the Holy Lance.
For 1500 years, Artoria held onto the Holy Lance and transformed into what she was now. The Goddess Rhongomyniad. She had changed from Artoria into a complete Divine Spirit in the process.
This version of her is different on the inside compared to the normal Lancer Artoria; where even though she possesses the same appearance as Lancer Artoria, this person who was Goddess Rhongomyniad was essentially a different person.
If Neji's guess was right, the slow process of Artoria becoming Rhongomyniad was where Ryuko came into this world. Ryuko Tatsuma replaced Artoria simultaneously as when she was turning into Rhongomyniad.
That would make sense as to why she didn't recognize Neji, just as how she didn't recognize Bedivere in the canon timeline at first. However, Bedivere did make her remember who he was at last—so it shouldn't be impossible for Neji to make her remember her true self, too.
This discovery was insane and made Neji's goals clear. However, his previous plan wasn't discarded—he was still going to gather the Goddesses. Then he would bring them to attack Camelot.
All that he would do under a month before the next Holy Selection was to start.
Neji will get his girl back to what she was, no matter what.
* * *
"Guards, summon Siduri." Neji slumped down on his throne as he yelled loudly.
In the throne room, Sisty stood beside the throne, while on the front the people from Jerusalem kneeled. Salia and her son were amongst them, keeping their heads low.
Rushd peeked up a little from his spot to find Neji resting his right cheek on his curled-up fist. Gulping, Rushd lowered his gaze again.
"My King, you call-" Siduri entered the hall and paused, looking at the people first, and then at Neji, at last locking eyes with Sisty. "…Apologies. What is happening?"
"I went to Jerusalem, as you saw earlier," Neji said without batting an eye, and his current expression was dark enough for Siduri to recall the King from before. "These people were dying there, and as a kind King and God, I decided to bring them here. Take care of them, especially that woman with a child."
Neji pointed a finger at Salia and Rushd, making them flinch a little, which only worked to make him hold back a sigh. He didn't like coming off scary without intending to.
"But my King," Siduri walked forward and looked at him with a nervous expression. "Uruk… isn't in a good situation at the moment. The monsters destroyed our crops. There are around thirty people here. We don't have the living quarters and food available for them."
Neji frowned. Food could be taken care of—he had a lot of them in his inventory, but what about living quarters? Actually, even food will run out at this rate—he didn't have an unlimited supply of it.
"Master," Sisty suddenly leaned over to whisper. "Do you recall? You have taken Isshiki's Dōjutsu."
To the people here, it might not click instantly, but Neji blinked in pleasant surprise.
Using this Dōjutsu, after shrinking a target using [Sukunahikona], Isshiki could use [Daikokuten], which let him store any of his shrunken targets into a pocket timeless dimension, which he could summon at full size at any given time.
That in itself wasn't a big deal, the big deal was, Isshiki tended to make regular usage of this technique, manifesting replacements of destroyed furnishings and other items, like a table, food and drink, and even lit candles. Yes, so a half-eaten apple could be put into this dimension, and when taken out, the apple will be full again.
"…Unlimited Food Hack." Neji smiled and pulled Sisty's face for a sudden kiss, startling Siduri who was on the side. "Thanks for the idea."
"Uh, who is this, my King?" Siduri asked, but Neji and Sisty both ignored her.
Sisty said, "Don't thank me yet, I have more. I was running some complex Codes in the background, the purpose was to see if I can merge Gate of Babylon and Isshiki's Dōjutsu with Inventory. You know, if that worked you would be able to pull things out of inventory from the Gate, or anywhere your eyes can see. You can even take out things into different sizes."
"…Did the simulation work?"
"It did!"
"Great!"
[Ding! Sisty requests permission to merge the 'Gate of Babylon' and 'Atom-Eyes' with 'Inventory'!]
[Y/N]
Neji kissed her again and clicked [Y] without hesitation and felt a 'twist' to his gamer senses; the merge was done just like that.
Sisty cleared her throat. "Let me explain how this works now. All the things that are inside the Gate of Babylon will show up on the Inventory Page.
-There, you can take them out using the usual old way, or you can summon a golden portal and take things out from there. If that's not what you want, you can just simply summon them out of thin air, anywhere your eyes reach, a perk that comes from the Dōjutsu.
-At the same time, you can also now simply walk into the 'Inventory' by opening a golden portal, though if you do so the frozen time inside the Inventory wouldn't be frozen for that particular duration.
-I know you already know, but do note, you can't use the Atom-Eyes Dōjutsu in the normal way anymore. Since it was extracted from within Jogan and used to merge here. In exchange though, you can put any broken, eaten things inside the Inventory, and when you take it out—it will be all fixed. Additionally, anything you put inside, you can take them out in any size you wish for—not just shrunk, but enlarged too." She finished her long speech, releasing a soft breath out.
It was a loss to not be able to use the Shrink Power normally, but Neji didn't regret that at all. His fighting style was entirely different compared to Isshiki, so such an ability was more useful like this. In the worst-case scenario where he would need the ability, he could always just Fuse with Kurai, and then he will be able to access the exact ability from the Kama that Kurai now had.
At this very moment though, food was the most needed thing. With this, he could make unlimited food in seconds.
"What are you guys even saying?" Siduri asked from the side, and Neji just patted her shoulder and walked down his throne.
"I will explain later, Siduri." Neji stopped one stair above the floor. He raised his hand and waved, and immediately bags of rice, meat, and packet of veggies filled the floor.
The crowd from Jerusalem looked stunned, their eyes wide as they were witnessing something that could be considered divine. The next scene shocked them more.
Neji waved his hand gently, initiating simple slashes of mana that cut all the bags in half in an instant. With another wave of his hand, golden portals opened up under each of the half-packets and they all fell down. With a final wave of Neji's hand, the bags teleported back to where they were just now—but now, there were 2x what they were last time.
"Ah…"
"Our God!"
"This is a miracle!"
The people shuddered in awe from their knees, and Siduri too stared at the scene with wide eyes.
Neji kept waving his hand a bunch more times, and a few minutes later, the 50 bags of rice had become 5000, the same for the 50 bags of meat and veggies. Moreover, all those bags were ten times larger than their original size.
Yes, Uruk suddenly had enough food to feed tens of thousands. Indeed, could there be any problem at all, as long as the new King was present?
* * *
In the meantime, Omni-Neji-2 who was accompanying Chaldea to meet Ishtar was finally on the peak of Mt Ebih.
The journey was swift and fast, with casual chattering along the way. However, the three girls from Chaldea were currently a little uncomfortable due to Neji's sour expression. He was fine until now, but because of the recent incident in Jerusalem, his expression had turned pretty dark.
In silence, the group of four stood under a temple located at the peak of the mountain. It had a tall staircase leading upward, however; the team didn't need to climb the stairs—no, the Goddess had come down to meet them by herself.
[Ishtar – Goddess of Lust – Mid Tier 12]
Sitting on her Boat of Heaven, Ishtar hid her surprise with an unamused expression as she ignored the three girls and only looked at Neji.
"Gilgamesh," Goddess Ishtar said. "Get out of here before I get mad."
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