The "Thaumaturgic of the Sword of Victory," the first mythological Thaumaturgic Su Mo ever created, centered around Verethragna's god-slaying sword, coalescing the power of the Zoroastrian cosmology.
Back when Su Mo first completed this Thaumaturgic and integrated his other powers into it, ordinary Heretic Gods were no longer his match.
If they couldn't meet specific conditions, they didn't even have the right to stand before him.
Now, that scene was repeating itself.
As Su Mo's mastery of mythological power and his understanding of cosmology deepened, and as the radiance of his royal authority grew more complete, forget mere fourth-digit innate gods and buddhas.
Even three-digit beings, if they failed the corresponding judgment, could not stand firm before him.
Over two million soldiers from the angelic legion fell like rain, completely neutralized as they crashed to the ground.
The lightning and fire that had wreathed them vanished, leaving them with less strength than an ordinary human.
It wasn't just them. The moment he laid eyes on the Sword of Victory, even Metatron, the Scribe of Heaven, instantly lost all power to resist.
The first judgment of the Sword of Victory: those who cannot match the speedster are defeated.
This rule originally corresponded to divine speed. Because Su Mo's own speed and attacks had reached that domain, in the world of Campione!, anyone who hadn't reached it was unqualified to fight him.
In that world, "divine speed" was a level slightly below the speed of light, somewhere between one-tenth and one-third.
But now, after defeating the Asura King, Su Mo's speed had already reached the Sixth Cosmic Velocity.
That was the ultimate speed of the cosmos, a speed that could even surpass light.
Therefore, for the current Su Mo, anyone who could not reach the Sixth Cosmic Velocity was unworthy to stand before him.
The Scribe of Heaven, more skilled in strategy than combat, was instantly defeated.
However, in the moment of his defeat, he perceived the essence of Su Mo's power.
"Be careful! It's the Cosmic Truth of Zoroastrianism!"
With those words, he plummeted from the clouds just like all the other ordinary angels, crashing to the earth.
Seeing Metatron's undignified fall, his colleagues among the seven angels before the throne should have offered aid, or at least tried to save his face.
But at that moment, not a single angel did so.
It wasn't because they were on bad terms, but because they had their own problems to deal with.
"The Cosmic Truth of Zoroastrianism... so what?"
The short-tempered archangel Remiel asked anxiously.
As the Angel of God's Mercy, the King of Souls awaiting the Day of Resurrection, his duty in the Church was to guide human souls to the Last Judgment.
As the angel who presided over thunder and illusion, Remiel, much like his fallen counterpart in the Campione! world, had mastered the domain of divine speed. In Little Garden, the limit of speed was the Sixth Cosmic Velocity.
Thus, he was naturally immune to the first judgment.
Unfortunately, he didn't know that.
Because the moment the first judgment descended, the others unfolded simultaneously.
Another judgment of the Sword of Victory: those without an Authority of defense are defeated.
Unlike in the world of Campione!, here, lacking a defensive authority meant being unable to withstand a full-power blow from a three-digit being.
And it was quite clear that Remiel did not possess such a comprehensive authority.
Thus, the second of the seven angels before the throne, Remiel, also plummeted from the sky, completely neutralized.
Falling with him were all the other archangels who had failed the judgment.
Though all three-digit beings in the Almighty Domain were of equal spiritual rank, their authorities differed.
Before Su Mo, even a top-tier three-digit combat specialist could be easily eliminated if their domain coverage wasn't complete and they had weaknesses, let alone angels whose primary role wasn't combat.
And so, a spectacle almost unprecedented in the history of Little Garden unfolded.
The archangels of the Almighty Domain fell from the clouds like dumplings into boiling water.
"Aaaah! Aaaaaah! This is it! This is what I wanted to see!"
Witnessing the magnificent sight of the heavenly host falling from the sky, the Storyteller clutched his head, his voice filled with a delirious, moved ecstasy.
As a poet, what could be more moving than to witness a myth—no, a poem even more brilliant than myth—come to life before his very eyes?!
"I thought I'd have to rely on a true Demon Lord to see this! To think it would be the hero, Lord Su Mo, who would grant my wish! Hahahaha! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
He was moved to tears, showing none of the composure he'd maintained while being tortured.
If it weren't for the lingering hope he held for that other Demon Lord, he felt he might have defected on the spot.
Damn it! The emotion this hero evokes is stronger than any Demon Lord I've ever seen! Have I gone mad, or has the world?!
While the Storyteller's heart was in turmoil, the Church was experiencing utter panic.
Before the Sword of Victory, Raguel, the Friend of God; Uriel, the Fire of God; Raphael, the Medicine of God... one archangel after another fell from the sky.
In the blink of an eye, all the archangels outside the seven before the throne were annihilated, crashing to the ground, completely powerless.
Even the highest-ranking among them, the seven before the throne, withered away in a matter of breaths.
In the end, even the herald angel, Gabriel, the Strength of God, collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
Only the Vice-Commander of Heaven, the God-like Michael, remained standing in the clouds.
"How is this possible?!"
On the ground, the immobilized Gabriel clenched her fist with the last of her strength, her eyes fixed on the sky in disbelief.
A single blow had all but routed the entire Church.
How could such a level of power exist in the world?
If their opponent were a two-digit being in the Full-Authority Domain, it would be one thing. Someone in the Full-Authority Domain could indeed match, and even crush, an entire pantheon.
But those in the Full-Authority Domain could not easily take the stage. Their opponent couldn't be a two-digit being.
In that case, how could he so easily defeat them, the Church, which stood at the pinnacle of Little Garden's pantheons?
Not even a Cosmic Truth could accomplish such a feat!
Indra and Michael both possessed top-tier Cosmic Truths, but even they couldn't achieve something as horrifying as what Su Mo had just done.
It completely subverted the rules of Little Garden!
"What is this?"
As the angel who ruled over hell, her strength was second only to Michael's. She had thought this would be her chance to shine, but instead, she had been swept away like a common soldier.
What was going on?
While the archangels were reeling in confusion, Metatron, the Scribe of Heaven, who had been the first to fall, spoke slowly from within the rubble.
"An ordinary Cosmic Truth might not be able to do this. But the Cosmic Truth of Zoroastrianism is different."
Though it was too late to mention it now, it was all he could do.
Hearing his words, the archangels paused, finally understanding what Metatron had tried to warn them about.
It was common knowledge that the concept of omniscience and omnipotence was the most restricted in Little Garden.
Under the existing rules, the monotheistic cosmology of the Church was the most limited power.
Conversely, the cosmology best suited for Little Garden was the dualism of Zoroastrianism.
When the true nature of the world was yet undefined, it was the dualistic view of good and evil that separated heaven and earth, gave birth to yin and yang, and defined good and evil.
This most ancient of cosmologies, formed by satisfying the lowest common denominator of worldviews, was innately compatible with the structure of Little Garden and was greatly amplified by it.
In a sense, the central theme of Little Garden—the conflict between heroes and Demon Lords, between humanity and the Last Embryo—was a product of the influence of this dualism.
Therefore, the power wielded by the Zoroastrian cosmology was particularly strong in Little Garden.
"In the past, the Zoroastrian war god Verethragna could take on an entire pantheon with his Cosmic Truth alone. If the Zoroastrian Another Cosmology could be used at full power, it might even be able to match the combined might of all the pantheons in Little Garden."
A flicker of fear appeared in Metatron's eyes as he voiced a theory that even those in the Almighty Domain might not dare to believe.
Though Zoroastrianism had fallen, those in the know understood that at its peak, it was a pantheon that could have taken on all of Little Garden.
It was absolutely not to be underestimated!
If Su Mo was using the strongest weapon in the current meta, it was only natural that he could achieve such an unprecedented result.
For the archangels, Metatron's words were horrifying but not incomprehensible.
Many of them were from later generations and had not witnessed the peak of Zoroastrianism, but they had heard of Verethragna's terrifying feats and knew of the special nature of the Zoroastrian cosmology.
But even so, there was still something they couldn't understand.
"Even for the Zoroastrian Cosmic Truth, isn't this too exaggerated?" Gabriel asked.
"When Verethragna challenged the gods back then, he wasn't nearly this terrifying!"
They're both the Zoroastrian Cosmic Truth, both the Sword of Verethragna. Why is yours so much stronger than the original?
Faced with this question, even the knowledgeable Metatron was stunned.
Recalling the blinding brilliance Su Mo had just displayed, and the spiritual halo that shimmered behind the golden sword, he took a deep breath and arrived at an unbelievable, yet only possible, answer.
"What if the Cosmic Truth he has mastered has surpassed Verethragna himself, and is even approaching the level of a Another Cosmology?"
"...Surpassed the original, approaching a Another Cosmology?!"
At these words, all the archangels fell silent.
Was that even possible?
A Cosmic Truth was just one part of a complete cosmology. A Another Cosmology was the external manifestation of that cosmology in the form of a weapon.
One could say that a Another Cosmology contained the complete cosmology of a pantheon, the concept necessary to construct an entire world. In terms of the mass and conceptual weight it contained, nothing in the world could surpass it. It was the ultimate treasure of a pantheon.
And now, Metatron was suggesting that the Cosmic Truth in Su Mo's hands had grown to a point where it was approaching the level of a cosmology?
Didn't that mean that Su Mo, using the power of Verethragna, was approaching the Good Progenitor, the authority of the supreme good god Ahura Mazda, the power of the head of a pantheon?
The idea was as laughable as an angel being able to cultivate their way to the position of a god.
It was a conclusion so horrifying that one's first instinct upon hearing it was to laugh it off.
But at that moment, no one laughed. No one questioned it.
Recalling the invincible divine light Su Mo had just displayed, they all had to suspect that Metatron's theory was very likely correct.
If nothing else, at least Gabriel could see it.
The radiance of royal authority emanating from the Sword of Victory that Su Mo wielded was definitely not the power of the guardian god Verethragna, the recipient of the Gift, but the power of the supreme good god Ahura Mazda, the giver of the Gift.
And if he had mastered the Cosmic Truth to such a degree...
Then Michael...
"He's still standing?"
Just as Gabriel's thoughts began to race, a vaguely familiar voice appeared silently behind her, sending a chill down her spine.
"You! What are you doing?"
The moment she heard Su Mo's voice, she instinctively tried to flee, but she didn't even have the strength to fight, let alone anything else.
She could only be at Su Mo's mercy.
The other angels heard the commotion and turned to glare at him.
Under their hateful gazes, Su Mo unhurriedly took out Gabriel's Gift Card and transferred all the transferable Gifts to himself.
"Good, it's all here."
After getting what he wanted, Su Mo tossed the Gift Card back onto Gabriel's body, then looked up at the last remaining angel in the clouds.
He muttered to himself with great interest.
"With Michael's divinity, he shouldn't have been able to escape the judgment of the Sword of Victory. What's going on?"