In the next second, Musashi drew her katana and slashed at Ryou with such speed that he could barely follow her movements.
"!!!"
Almost instinctively, he used a technique to catch the blade with his bare hands, gripping Musashi's two katanas with his palms.
However, a smile appeared on Musashi's face.
Ryou immediately felt a searing pain spread from his palms where he gripped the blades.
A dense, blood-red energy flowed from the katanas, creeping up his hands with a clear intent to spread further.
Where his gauntlets made contact with the blades, a terrible sizzling sound, like metal corroding from acid, rang out.
Fortunately, his gauntlets, Apocalypse, had reached B-rank, absorbing most of the damage. Otherwise, if he had tried to catch Musashi's katanas with his bare hands, they would have been instantly corroded by this strange energy.
"Ryou, be careful! This is an energy similar to malice!"
Being a holy servant, Jeanne was naturally sensitive to dark energies, and she immediately warned him.
"I know! But stop just standing there and watching! Come help me!"
Ryou shouted, struggling to defend against Musashi's relentless strikes.
Perhaps due to her corrupted state, Musashi, who originally had a Strength rank of B—lower than Ryou's A- Strength—was now overpowering him in this contest of force.
As the blades pressed closer and closer, he couldn't help but cry out for Jeanne's assistance.
"Eh~ but this whole situation is your fault to begin with. It would be nice if you learned a lesson from this."
Jeanne, smiling sweetly, showed no intention of helping.
Ryou nearly stumbled on the spot.
In such a dangerous situation, and you're teasing me!?
You're not the real Jeanne, are you!? You've been swapped with Jalter, haven't you!?
Jeanne's thoughts, however, were quite different: 'Let's see if you ignore me again, Ryou!'
Jeanne was still holding a bit of a grudge over Ryou's behavior the previous night.
It just goes to show—when it comes to matters of the heart, even a saint is not immune to occasional petty thoughts.
Ryou had no idea that all of this was due to a small grudge from the saint.
Musashi, however, seemed to grow tired of the deadlock.
Suddenly, she let go of the sword hilts.
With the force gone, Ryou—who had been struggling to hold his ground—stumbled forward.
At that moment, Musashi had already drawn her other two katanas and slashed at him again.
Gritting his teeth, Ryou activated the time acceleration ability of Apocalypse.
In an instant, the world seemed to slow down in his eyes.
He easily dodged Musashi's twin blades and grabbed her wrists, twisting them so that the sword tips pointed downward, forcing the katanas into the ground.
Time returned to normal.
Ryou's sudden fivefold speed increase caught Musashi off guard, and she found herself restrained.
She tried to pull her katanas free, but his grip was like iron, holding her wrists tightly.
The wrists are a key point for controlling the hands, and now that Musashi's wrists were restrained, even though her Strength was higher than his, she couldn't exert any force. For now, the two were locked in a stalemate.
This was exactly the situation he had hoped for.
He quickly spoke, trying to explain.
"Calm down for a second and let me explain…"
But before he could finish, Musashi interrupted him forcefully.
"Explain what?! You vile, despicable scoundrel!"
Musashi struggled fiercely as she cursed at him.
Ryou could only show a helpless expression.
I only tricked you twice! It's not like I did anything to you—why do you hate me this much?
If I were despicable, I would've xxoo'd you already!
Other people who "picked up girls" at least got to enjoy a romantic encounter. But in his case, he hadn't done anything and had only gotten into trouble.
At that moment, Musashi suddenly used a self-taught self-defense technique—a vicious kick aimed between his legs!
So ruthless!?
Ryou was taken aback and had no choice but to retreat.
Musashi immediately seized the opportunity, shaking her wrists free from his grip and pulling her katanas from the ground.
Just when Ryou thought she would press the attack, Musashi suddenly leaped backward, instantly disengaging from the fight.
"Not going to fight anymore?"
Ryou tentatively asked.
Musashi responded with a cold, sharp smile.
Ryou's heart skipped a beat.
A strong sense of foreboding welled up inside him.
Suddenly, an overwhelming blood-red aura of malice erupted from Musashi's body.
Behind her, a towering giant figure appeared.
It had a snake's tail, a human upper body, four arms, and a terrifyingly ferocious face.
It was as if the Asura King had been reborn.
A massive amount of blood-red and dark energy coalesced into a thick fog that enveloped the four-armed giant.
Then, in each of the giant's four hands, a massive katana, each over ten meters long, appeared.
As this demonic figure fully manifested, Musashi's aura surged dramatically.
"Six Realms Five Rings - The Divine Figure of Kurikara!"
Musashi let out a fierce shout as she swung her twin blades in his direction.
The Divine Figure of Kurikara behind her mirrored her action, lifting its massive swords and slashing down at him.
Even before the blades arrived, the fierce wind from the strike stung Ryou's face.
At this point, Jeanne seemed to realize she had gone too far with her teasing and quickly activated her Noble Phantasm.
"Luminosité Eternelle!"
Jeanne raised her holy flag, and golden light immediately formed a barrier around her and Ryou.
The faint sound of trumpets echoed in the sky, and angelic wings glowing with white light gently wafted down.
The colossal katanas struck the barrier, producing a piercing screech, like an electric saw cutting through steel.
A fierce clash erupted where the holy golden energy met the dark, blood-red energy.
But in the end, the seemingly thin golden barrier held firm, while the Divine Figure of Kurikara eventually ran out of energy, letting out a roar filled with unwillingness before dissipating into countless fragments of light.
Standing behind Jeanne, Ryou didn't have any particular reaction.
After their adventure in the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress world, Jeanne had gone from being the Saint of Orleans to the Savior of the World. With the massive boost in faith energy, Jeanne's Saint Graph had broken through its limits, reaching an entirely new level.
All of her attributes had increased by a full rank, and even her two Noble Phantasms had seen terrifying upgrades.
Take her defensive Noble Phantasm Luminosité Eternelle, for example—its rank had risen from A to a level beyond EX, reaching the status of a divine artifact.
In terms of pure defensive power, it probably surpassed even the EX-ranked Avalon.
If Avalon placed its wielder in an idealized utopia, then Jeanne's Luminosité Eternelle placed the entire area of effect into a heavenly realm.
One had the backing of the Fairy Queen, while the other was supported by none other than God Himself.
Which was stronger? The answer was obvious.
After Jeanne used her Noble Phantasm to block the attack, Ryou stopped holding back and directly activated Time Pause, knocking Musashi unconscious.
He then had Medea prepare a large batch of potions designed to lower attributes and weaken a person, and he force-fed them to Musashi.
Although Medea-chan looked at him as if he were no different from those scumbags who drug people at bars, she still obediently prepared the potions.
Next, perhaps out of guilt, Jeanne took on the task of persuading Musashi herself. Having personally experienced Jeanne's barrage of words, Ryou felt reassured. Given Jeanne's preaching (nagging) skills, she would surely be able to convince Musashi to let go of her hatred.
...
And so, after a fierce battle, Ryou finally had a moment to rest.
However, just as he was about to reach the door of his room, an unexpected figure appeared there.
Outside the window was the brilliant, endless starry sky, and inside, leaning against the windowsill in the hallway, was Scathach, dressed in a purple evening gown.
The starry sky looked like an illusion, and the beauty before him was like a painting—especially with her posture, Scathach's perfect and voluptuous body was fully displayed to his eyes.
Noticing Ryou's arrival, she turned her head to look at him with a serene expression.
Bewitched by her allure, he quickly coughed twice to regain his composure.
"Ahem! Shishou, did you need me for something?"
Scathach didn't speak; she just stared at him with her crimson eyes, making him feel a chill down his spine.
"Not bad, you didn't slack off," she said suddenly, her voice calm.
Before Ryou could respond, she tossed two shimmering, rainbow-colored gems toward him.
Instinctively, he caught the gems, but in the next second, he nearly threw them away.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You have obtained two World Sources! Would you like to absorb them? Warning: These World Sources were forcibly extracted, and absorbing them will cause irreversible damage to the respective worlds.]
Ryou's eyes almost popped out of his head.
Is this even possible!?
He quickly looked up the consequences of forcibly absorbing a World Source, and the system provided a detailed explanation.
In short, if a World Source was not voluntarily offered by the world's consciousness, forcibly extracting it would cause irreversible damage to that world.
The most direct effect would be a significant drop in the world's overall energy, turning a high-magic world into a low-magic one. For example, in the Toaru Majutsu no Index world, if Ryou forcibly absorbed the World Source, the world would lose its Magic Gods and Saints. At the same time, magicians and espers would be heavily suppressed. Magicians might only be able to conjure a small flame, and even the strongest espers, like the Level 5s, would be reduced to bending spoons at best.
In other words, it would be a complete victory for the science side.
The kind of grand achievement that Academy City's principal dreamed of accomplishing could be done by Ryou with just the flick of a finger. Without the troublesome magicians, there would be no chance for the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth world wars to occur.
Similarly, if he forcibly absorbed the World Source from the One Piece world, the effects of Devil Fruits, Haki, and even the Navy's Six Powers would all disappear. Wars in that world would once again be fought primarily with battleships, and individual strength would no longer determine the outcome of battles.
It sounded rather tragic.
But what did that have to do with him?
As they say, "When force is outlawed, heroes become criminals."
Without high-level combat power, individual strength could no longer dominate the battlefield, and these two worlds would be forced to move toward peace, just like the real world.
After learning about the consequences of absorbing the World Sources, Ryou didn't hesitate to choose to forcibly absorb.
Stopping disputes—that's a good deed, right? Looks like both worlds owe me a Nobel Peace Prize, Ryou thought to himself with satisfaction as he pressed the confirmation button.
The two rainbow-colored orbs immediately merged into his body.
Ryou instantly felt an enormous and seemingly endless energy slowly spreading throughout his body. All of his basic attributes, including luck, skyrocketed by 10 points. Additionally, a new entry appeared at the bottom of his attribute panel.
Ryou opened the system panel to check—
[Name: Nguyen Ryou]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None]
[Level: Mythical Heroic Spirit]
[Basic Attributes:]
[Strength: 67.6 (A+)]
[Agility: 68.5 (A+)]
[Endurance: 69.3 (A+)]
[Mana: 61.6 (A+)
(For reference: The average attribute for a normal human, except for Mana, is 10. Anything below 10 is F-, and anything above 15 but below 20 is E-. Attributes continue to scale accordingly.)]
[Luck: ??? +25]
[Class Skills: Item Construction (D-level, 42%), Magic Resistance (EX)]
[Personal Skills: Advanced Melee Weapon Mastery (14%), Advanced Unarmed Combat Mastery (86%), Mana Burst (B-level, 14%), Primordial Runes (B-level, 10%), World Ruer (EX-level, high mana consumption), Flight, Adverse Environment Adaptability, Language Proficiency, True Godlike Body, Shave (D-level, 53%)]
[Noble Phantasms:
Reversal War God (True) (EX)
Brahmastra (B)
Apocalypse (B-level, 3%)
Machine Gun Blow (?)]
[Power of the World Source: Sea Master, World Separation]
Through the system's introduction, Ryou learned the terrifying nature of this new skill called Power of the World Source.
Aside from the high energy cost, its only drawback, Power of the World Source could be used in any world, and its effects were absolute.
For example, the skill Sea Master could forcibly summon an ocean even in a world without one. In worlds with vast oceans, like One Piece or Kantai Collection, the effects would be greatly amplified. When this skill is activated, Ryou would essentially become a god who controls the seas, able to summon waves, create tsunamis, and manipulate ocean currents at will. All ocean-related powers would be at his disposal.
As for World Separation, it wasn't some imitation of a certain ninja's ultimate jutsu. It was an even more terrifying ability. This skill could forcibly separate Ryou and his chosen target from the world, placing them in a unique extradimensional space. In this space, aside from their physical abilities, all world-specific powers would be nullified.
For example, if a Magic God from the Toaru world remained after the World Source was taken, they might be able to produce only a small flame. If Ryou used World Separation on them, all of their abilities would disappear, reducing them to weaklings who could be defeated with a single finger.
After absorbing the World Sources from these two worlds, all of his basic attributes had reached A+ rank, just a step away from breaking into the EX level. Unless someone's physical strength was already overwhelmingly powerful, anyone hit by World Separation would be nothing but a plaything for him.
However, Ryou also noticed that as his basic attributes approached 70 points, nearing the EX-level threshold, it became increasingly difficult to increase them further. The Reversal War God (True) Noble Phantasm's attribute-boosting effect was already becoming less noticeable. Now, the only way for him to quickly increase his basic attributes was to absorb the World Sources of different worlds.
As Ryou began plotting to acquire other World Sources, the worlds of Toaru and One Piece, which had been forcibly drained of their World Sources, underwent earth-shattering changes.