Chapter 636: Divine Death Guard, Pre Battle Preparations!
The moment the purple crystal appeared, Gaino flashed into view and landed on Ryuunosuke's shoulder.
Then he swallowed the crystal in one clean motion.
"Captain, the energy sources match," Gaino said immediately. "If we raise it to the next stage, it becomes a Heart of Eternity."
"But the energy inside this purple crystal is different from the Eternal Hearts we collected before."
"Different?" Ryuunosuke frowned. "Doesn't every Heart of Eternity carry its own power?"
White meant destruction.
Green meant life.
The others each had their own origins.
So why was Gaino stressing this point?
"No, Captain," Gaino said, shaking his head. "The Eternal Hearts I fused with all had fixed origins."
"Destruction. Creation. Life. Talent. Soul."
"But this purple one doesn't have a single fixed origin. It exists in a free floating state."
"Inside the different special attributes… there's change."
After saying that, Gaino went quiet.
Even he could not explain it properly.
"A property of change…"
Ryuunosuke held out his hand. "Spit it out."
Gaino immediately coughed and returned the purple crystal to his palm.
Ryuunosuke stared at it, then pushed his senses to the limit. He even strengthened his spirit with enhancement type energy.
At the same time, he unlocked the Voice of All Things.
"Time… space… wind… thunder…"
One attribute after another flashed through his perception.
Just like Gaino said, it was not one energy. It was many, shifting and unstable, cycling through different natures.
"Hm?"
Then Ryuunosuke caught something even stranger.
The aura inside the crystal was being slowly drawn toward the Key of the Gods in his hand.
That constantly shifting energy was being absorbed by the stone key, little by little.
If Ryuunosuke had not forced his senses open and listened to the Voice of all things, he never would have noticed.
"The Death Guard?"
At the same time, the crystal sent another message into his awareness.
The monster he had killed was called a God Death Guard.
He understood each word separately, but together they felt wrong, like a contradiction that was not meant to exist.
"Absorbable?" Ryuunosuke glanced at Gaino.
"Then absorb it."
He placed the purple crystal directly against the Key of the Gods.
In the next instant, the massive energy inside the crystal was swallowed by that plain stone key.
More importantly, after absorbing it, the key returned to its original simple state.
No glow.
No visible change.
Nothing.
"Captain," Gaino said, eyes narrowing, "could the Key of the Gods need to absorb enough crystal energy before it can unlock the secrets here?"
"Maybe," Ryuunosuke replied.
"That's the most likely answer right now, and even listening to the Voice of all things can't interpret it."
"Or rather, it refuses to be probed."
"But since it reacts to these crystals, we'll test it."
The plan was clear.
The problem was execution.
That God Death Guard from earlier had been unbelievably strong.
Even among the official squad captains, not many could take its hits head on without paying a price.
Ryuunosuke looked at the leaders one by one.
"Najenda. Chrollo. Yahiko. Meliodas."
"How confident are you if you have to face that monster head on?"
Even though he knew their strength, this was something they had to judge themselves.
Meliodas shrugged, relaxed as ever.
"We're fine."
"We can have a squad act as bait."
"With Merlin's infinite magic, my attacks and Escanor's attacks…"
"With support, dealing with it is simple."
After all, they were the Seven Deadly Sins.
Their original world had been higher level than this sea. After arriving here and having their power reshaped and strengthened, they had enough to handle a Death Guard.
Yahiko squinted, confidence plain on his face.
"We're fine too."
"With Jigokudo's help, we can hammer these things down."
"And those monsters have nowhere to hide in front of the Rinnegan."
Their single target burst was not always the scariest, but their teamwork was brutal, especially with Jigokudo acting like an invincible glitch.
Najenda nodded as well.
"We're fine."
"With Life Essence, we can force a second release battle, and Mine has her ultimate attack."
"If we're not surrounded, a solo kill is possible."
That left only the Phantom Troupe.
Chrollo rubbed his forehead, looking helpless.
"Captain… if we fight at full power, we might affect everyone else."
"Our maximum output can kill these monsters, yes."
"But…"
He did not need to finish.
Feitan. Uvogin.
Those two could lose control in the middle of a fight.
And while the island was not small, if they unleashed everything, it could sink in minutes.
That was why Chrollo sounded so frustrated.
"Then it's decided," Ryuunosuke said.
"You stay here and keep watch. Feed us location information."
Then he turned toward Kobayashi.
"Kobayashi, can you switch to the Phantom Troupe for this battle?"
"We still need a dragon maid so we can face it alone."
Kobayashi raised her hand immediately. "Fine."
"We do need a dragon maid."
"Dragon maid…" Ryuunosuke muttered, then opened his system panel.
"Let me see…"
"Is Elma okay?"
He scanned the options.
He had watched Dragon Maid before, but aside from Tohru who cooked her own tail, Kanna who ate anything, and Kobayashi herself, he was not deeply familiar with the others.
Still, looking at the profile and abilities, Elma was a good pick.
Some of her skills would be useful right now.
"Elma?" Kobayashi waved her hand.
"Whatever. It's a pain, but I can accept it."
"Good."
Ryuunosuke smiled slightly.
"Come on, Elma."
He spent 20,000 reputation points without hesitation.
As the points drained, a magic circle formed in front of him.
Around the beach, the crew could not help reacting.
"No matter how many times I watch it, the captain's recruiting method is still insane."
"We went through the same thing back then."
"Sigh… I was honestly confused when I got recruited."
"But I'm not complaining. This trip has been worth it."
Their voices overlapped, half awe, half resignation.
They had only arrived in this world not long ago themselves.
That method had been just as incomprehensible then.
Even now, nobody truly understood how Ryuunosuke could breach the world barrier and pull people through.
Even if you watched it happen, you still would not understand what you were seeing.
.....
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