Dionysus abandoned the swift and fierce thrusting of his sword, opting instead to swing it like an axe.
The air whistled with a "whoosh" sound as if it were being torn apart.
"Die, human!"
Facing Dionysus's overhead strike, Ryou tilted his head slightly, completely disregarding the sword as he aimed a punch at Dionysus's head.
Splat!
Blood and flesh flew as the blade cut deeply into his body, turning the silver sword completely crimson.
Under Dionysus's unmatched strength, the blade sliced down and severed Ryou's left arm entirely!
Bang!
Ryou's fist connected squarely with the center of Dionysus's face. Several teeth flew out instantly, and Dionysus's face caved in significantly, golden divine blood flowing non-stop from his nose.
This clash between man and god immediately resembled a life-and-death struggle between beasts, describable only as brutal.
Completely disregarding their injuries, they focused solely on killing each other!
Dionysus's brain was heavily impacted, and even with a god's body, he couldn't help but feel dizzy.
He shook his head while retreating.
Ryou's expression was ice-cold as if it wasn't his arm that had been cut off. He immediately stepped forward, grabbed Dionysus's hair with his remaining right hand, pulled down, and simultaneously kneed upwards.
Another vicious knee strike hit the center of Dionysus's face.
The god's head was thrown back by the immense force.
Golden divine blood drew a beautiful arc in the air.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ryou pressed his advantage, grabbing Dionysus's hair again and repeating the earlier motion.
After five consecutive knee strikes, Dionysus seemed completely dazed, offering no resistance.
Just as he prepared for the sixth strike, Dionysus suddenly raised both hands in front of his face.
Ryou's knee struck his palms.
Realizing something was wrong, Ryou immediately tried to change his move, but Dionysus was a step ahead. He pushed off with both feet and headbutted forward fiercely.
The hard skull collided with the soft abdomen.
Ryou instantly felt as if his internal organs were about to be squeezed out. He hunched over and retreated.
The man and god continued fighting like street thugs, without technique or dignity.
Every punch connected with flesh, every sword strike sprayed blood.
Like two beasts locked in a life-or-death struggle, they kept tearing at each other's flesh.
By this time, the battle in the Hanging Garden had essentially ended.
The contracted heroic spirits under Ryou's command had paused their work and were watching from the sidelines.
The women had different reactions to their bloody fighting style.
Scathach's face remained expressionless, displaying the demeanor of an iron-blooded queen.
Medea Lily, the most timid, was so frightened that she covered her eyes, but the terrible sounds still reached her ears. Unable to bear it, she finally hid behind Atalanta.
Atalanta was still in her darkened state. Watching the flying blood, she unconsciously licked her lips, her eyes showing desire.
Ishtar, always eager for excitement, used boredom as an excuse and flew away on her heavenly boat.
Semiramis's face no longer held its usual mocking smile. Her expression was extremely serious as she watched the blood-soaked figure in the arena. For a moment, she seemed to see another figure in him. Back then, she had been young and in her prime, while he was already an old general who had been through countless bloody battles...
Finally, Jeanne d'Arc couldn't watch anymore.
However, as soon as she took a step forward, a crimson magic spear immediately blocked her path.
"Lady Scathach?"
"Now is not the time for your kindness. Stay back and watch quietly," Scathach said coldly.
"But this serves no training purpose! They're just trying to kill each other!" Jeanne argued. She had a point, as the man and god were now using every method to kill each other, employing any means to tear a piece of flesh from their opponent.
Scathach shook her head.
"Combat experience, skills, techniques, physical qualities—these can all be trained. But there's one thing that can't be trained no matter what, and that's the will to never surrender in the face of any strong enemy."
Scathach looked directly into Jeanne's eyes and said with utmost sincerity, "This duel is very important for Master. If he can't succeed here, I will advise him to completely give up on warrior training."
The usually taciturn Shishou explained in such detail for the first time. She knew very well how stubborn the French saint could be.
If she didn't explain clearly, Jeanne would interfere in the duel. At that point, Scathach would have no choice but to confront her.
To be honest, Scathach quite liked straightforward female warriors like Jeanne, and it would be best to avoid becoming enemies.
Jeanne hesitated for a moment, her face showing a trace of unwillingness, but she finally agreed with Scathach's suggestion.
"I understand. If danger arises..."
"I will stop it before that happens," Scathach said decisively.
The two resumed watching the battle.
In the arena, the two seemed to have reached the final stage, seeking an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to their opponent.
Dionysus's handsome face was completely disfigured, his beautiful hair that could have been in a shampoo commercial was burned off, and one eye had been forcibly gouged out by Ryou. He now stared intently at him with his remaining eye.
Being at a disadvantage, Ryou was naturally more severely injured. Besides his severed left arm, his chest was crisscrossed with wounds deep enough to expose bone. Looking closely, one could see his beating heart through the gaps between his ribs. Blood gushed out like floodgates had been opened, quickly forming a small pool at his feet. Ryou likewise stared unblinkingly at his opponent.
They were like two mortally wounded beasts, circling each other, looking for a chance to deliver the fatal blow.
"Huff... huff... I must say, you humans are indeed troublesome, but that's all! No matter how hard humans try, they are ultimately the most inferior race! Just like mud on the ground! Let me show you the unbridgeable gap between humans and gods!"
As he spoke, silver divine power surged out from Dionysus's body. Even with Semiramis using all her strength to suppress it, she couldn't hold it back, watching helplessly as his aura steadily rose.
Finally, Dionysus's aura crossed a major threshold.
Previously, he was equivalent to an epic-level heroic spirit with average B-rank attributes. Now, he was at the level of a mythical-level heroic spirit with average A-rank attributes.
Ryou responded to Dionysus's boast with a cold smile. He directly mobilized the power of the Revenge State he had been accumulating.
This mysterious power was indeed strong!
Ryou could feel that this power was far stronger than mana, even stronger than Dionysus's divine power.
However, when this power coursed through his body, he felt a pain that seemed to burn even his soul.
The revenge state hurts both the target and the user.
A dark red mysterious power flowed along his blood vessels throughout his body, finally gathering in his right fist according to his will.
The tension in the arena seemed to affect the watching women as well.
Medea unconsciously grabbed Atalanta's tail.
Atalanta's cat eyes narrowed to slits.
Semiramis instinctively folded her arms across her chest.
Jeanne clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and began to pray silently.
Even Scathach couldn't help but grip her magic spear tightly, her muscles tensed, ready for action.
Without any warning, both sides launched their attacks simultaneously.
"Die, lowly human!"
"That's my line! Die, lowly god!"
Boom!
The silver-glowing rapier and the dark red fist collided violently. At the point of impact, the surrounding space is distorted and then shattered like glass.
The rapier and fist were locked in a stalemate for just a few seconds.
Crack!
A faint sound rang out. To Dionysus's horror, the divine artifact in his hand—forged from rare celestial metals by the God of Blacksmiths—began to shatter, inch by inch.
Then, Ryou's fist, its force undiminished, smashed into Dionysus's face.
Impossible! I, a god, actually... lost to a human!? This thought barely had time to form in Dionysus's consciousness before everything went dark.
His head exploded from Ryou's punch, red and white matter blooming behind him in a fan shape. Ryou slowly straightened up, while Dionysus fell to the ground with a thud.
"Looks like I won, Mr. God who looked down on humans," Ryou said plainly.
...
The war that had swept through the entire labyrinth city of Orario had finally come to an end. Though the war only occurred in one city, making its scope insignificant in the grand scheme of the world, its impact resonated globally.
The dungeon, with its vast array of monsters that allowed adventurers to level up rapidly, was completely occupied by one organization. That organization's name was—Chaldea!
Yes, Gudako Hotel had officially changed its name to Chaldea.
Semiramis, always looking to make big news, directly used the hanging gardens to broadcast the change. In an instant, people near Orario were shocked, and the surviving gods were furious. She once again helped Ryou attract a huge wave of hatred. Ryou was certain that if this were a game, his infamy among the gods would have solidified into a blood feud.
This war completely reshuffled the world order on a global scale. Many Familia and even the patron gods behind them perished, and countless forces reorganized. Apart from the biggest winner, Gudako Hotel,—oh, now it can be called Chaldea—there were some other factions that gained significantly by deliberately preserving their strength.
Among them was the Loki Familia. After the two goddesses escaped, they announced an alliance representing two major pantheons and also brought in the Takamagahara pantheon represented by Amaterasu. Of course, the true nature of the relationship between the three goddesses is known only to themselves. The three pantheons formed a large but loose alliance.
Other pantheons were not to be outdone, forming alliances one after another. Meanwhile, the Guild, severely weakened by this campaign, officially announced its dissolution. Ouranus simply tore off his disguise completely, directly merging the Guild into the loose alliance formed by Athena, Loki, and Amaterasu. For a time, alliances sprang up across the land, and the world turned a new page in history.
But this still didn't solve the fundamental problem. Except for Orario's underground labyrinth, there were only a few rare places where monsters would spawn, and the total quantity and quality of monsters in the entire world combined couldn't compare to the original underground labyrinth of Orario. The previously open underground labyrinth, where adventurers could enter at will, now shocked adventurers as they found that monsters available for leveling up had become a scarce species.
The most crucial point was that, except for Orario's underground labyrinth, no place produced floor bosses. Levels 1 and 2 were manageable, but beyond that, without participating in floor boss fights, it was impossible to achieve the feat of leveling up. In other words, adventurers were doomed to remain low-level for life.
This became rather awkward.
Some forces banded together, joining large races like elves, merfolk, and beastmen to jointly pressure Chaldea. They threatened to completely cut off all trade with the hanging gardens unless Ryou opened the underground labyrinth. Ryou couldn't be bothered to give a damn about these self-inflated fools. The hanging gardens had a complete ecosystem. As long as the population didn't exceed a certain limit, it could be completely self-sufficient. The area of the gardens could easily support a hundred thousand people. Currently, the residents of the hanging gardens include the Freya Familia and their families, and the original Gudako Hotel staff and their families, adding up to less than two thousand people in total.
Due to Ryou's grand gestures, the hanging gardens had now become an independent small kingdom floating in the sky. Ryou originally thought these guys would protest a bit, issue warnings, and settle down if ignored, much like countries on Earth. Unexpectedly, these arrogant fools directly organized an air force, having some adventurers ride flying mounts like griffins and dragon eagles to raid the hanging gardens, hoping to establish a landing point.
Ryou immediately ordered Semiramis to annihilate this fantasy version of an air force en route, achieving a deterrent effect. Semiramis, finding controlling the hanging gardens too boring, directly treated this air battle like a real-time strategy game. Her method was simple: she activated all the gargoyles. The Air Force, formed at great expense by the various factions, became a joke, torn to pieces by millions of gargoyles before even approaching the hanging gardens' airspace.
Ryou wasn't one to take a beating without fighting back, so he directly had Ishtar take action. Regardless of distance, it was one concentrated Venus beam. As a result, the elven capital, the gathering place of the beastmen chieftains, and the underwater city of the sea races were all struck by golden light pillars descending from the sky.
On the same day, at the same moment, the leaders of several major races—the Elven Queen, the Great Beastman Chieftain, the Mermaid Queen—all perished simultaneously. A large crater suddenly appeared in the center of these major racial powers' capitals, serving as a conspicuous reminder to the world of the consequences of offending the Chaldea organization.
Not to mention the damage this global map attack caused to several major racial powers, the sudden death of leaders would undoubtedly incite overt and covert struggles for power. The world's major powers, including several human kingdoms observing in secret, hoping to reap the benefits as bystanders, and various divine alliances, were all frightened out of their wits by this move.
But Ryou knew that the world would never lack rebels. Killing could only instill temporary fear; it couldn't sustain rule for long. What he wanted was stability, so he didn't mind throwing out some benefits for these jackals to fight over. After all, he only needed to ensure that he was the one throwing meat from outside the fence.
So Ryou issued a statement: except for forces hostile to Chaldea, the hanging gardens would accept a fixed number of adventurers each week, allowing them to enter the dungeon, then rotate weekly. The number was strictly limited by him to 200 people, and qualifications were auctioned off. Moreover, Chaldea would directly take one-third of the gains obtained after entering the dungeon.
If this were Earth, people would certainly find this familiar. This was hunger marketing + monopoly + price gouging. The underground labyrinth was the only one of its kind with no alternatives. If you wanted to fight monsters and level up, you had to hand over the money!