Outer Gate 3345, Thousand Eyes Headquarters.
Shiroyasha happily counted the Divine Artifact Authorities and Powers she'd just acquired.
As for Aslan, he quietly read the information shared by Krishna.
"God Slayer War! A massive-scale Gift Game? This efficiency is truly astonishing. It's only been a short while, yet the game rules are already finalized."
Aslan was stunned by the report. If this task had been left to him to negotiate, only Two-Digits and the largest pantheons might have given him the time of day.
Mid-tier, small, and micro pantheons wouldn't necessarily even let him through the door—let alone discuss something as critical as the King of the End.
Only Krishna and Ouroboros possessed that kind of influence.
He'd always hated tedious, drawn-out complications.
As he muttered this, Aslan continued flipping through the Gift Game details and the participant list on the following pages.
[Gift Game: God Slayer War!]
[Participants: God Slayers! Or Stray Gods]
[Participation Qualifications:
1. A god who dispatches a Stray God incarnation.
2. A God Slayer! Who kills a Stray God under fair conditions.]
[Game Overview: Gods who defy mythology send down Stray incarnations, bring calamity, and seize merits and faith. The Foolish God-Slayer slays the Stray God, acquires Divine Authorities, becomes the Devil King, and rules the earth. And the final Savior shall annihilate everything.]
[Loss Condition: Death. (God Slayers! May prepare resurrection methods in advance but will lose one Divine Authority; Stray Gods will lose their incarnation.)]
[Victory Condition: Survive until the war's end and defeat the King of the End.]
[The winner shall bear the destiny and responsibilities bestowed by the gods and become the new King of the End.]
[Oath: By honor and banner, we hereby swear to abide by the above rules and conduct this game fairly.]
[Signatories: Heavenly Army, Thousand Eyes, Greek Pantheon, Egyptian Pantheon, Halloween Queen, Cross Pantheon, Buddhist Gate… [Sealed]]
Aslan had nothing to say about this.
In short, to him, this "God Slayer War" was nothing more than a battle over Authorities and faith.
After all, faith in the Lower Layers was tightly monopolized by the Upper Layer's major pantheons, causing deep resentment among many mid- and small-sized pantheons. This war gave them a chance to reclaim that faith.
Participating as a Stray God offered additional benefits—they could seize the opportunity to absorb a powerful God-Spirit specifically formed by the God Slayer! World's initial faith.
As for needing another God-Spirit later? That could always be negotiated through interests. Losing a God-Spirit didn't necessarily mean certain death.
And God Slayers were even simpler to explain: each time they killed a Stray God, they gained one Divine Authority.
This was clearly an Authority-hunting arena.
He just didn't know how many old-timers wouldn't resist the temptation to descend as humans or incarnate as Stray Gods.
Aslan knew one thing for sure: with this pact signed, Little Garden was about to get very, very noisy.
However, all this applied only to those unqualified to directly compete for the King of the End title.
Aslan flipped another page. This one was reserved for internal personnel like himself—the hidden participation agreement.
[God Slayers and Stray Gods may not use Host Master Authority. Doing so constitutes voluntary forfeiture of participation rights and an admission of defeat.]
[Furthermore, the identity of the King of the End has been confirmed: Arthur. However, Arthur is currently asleep and will not awaken as Savior to purge those causing chaos unless the damage reaches catastrophic levels.]
[The King of the End's power equals the combined strength of all participating Stray Gods and God Slayers.]
[Any Stray God with Steel attributes qualifies to become King of the End. And any God Slayer who slays the King of the End may claim the King of the End's destiny.]
This was a Battle Royale. Only the last one standing could become the King of the End.
Of course, eliminated participants would still receive compensation: God Slayers kept their Divine Authorities, and Stray Gods retained the faith they'd gathered—both serving as consolation Gifts.
Yet one detail genuinely surprised Aslan: this Arthur's position was far too advantageous. He only needed to defeat the remaining Stray Gods and God Slayers at the very end to win.
He couldn't help but wonder—what price had the Halloween Queen paid for this? Or were they simply trying to stabilize the situation?
Of course, there was another possibility: perhaps they assumed this "new" Arthur was weak and easily defeated. As long as only one participant remained at the end…
In a balanced-power scenario, they were confident they could crush him themselves.
"Heh… underestimated, huh."
Aslan chuckled softly and kept flipping through the document. The first page outlined the Gift Game, the second revealed hidden rules, and the third listed participants—more precisely, entry order.
The earliest entrants were inevitably mid/small pantheons, rogue God Slayers, or subordinates of major pantheons.
They likely didn't even know about the hidden agreement—they were just there to warm up the battlefield.
Next came the Kings of Gods from major pantheons. This was the truly critical phase for entry timing. Earlier entry naturally conferred greater advantage.
Of course, under unspoken mutual understanding, stronger Kings of Gods would deliberately enter later.
Take Indra, for example—Aslan saw his scheduled entry time was nearly at the war's end, precisely when he'd be immediately surrounded upon arrival.
Seeing this, Aslan gently picked up his teacup, took a small sip, and continued reading, piecing together the full picture of the upcoming God Slayer War.
"Pfff—"
Aslan couldn't help it—he spat out a mouthful of tea, splashing Shiroyasha.
"What's wrong with you?"
Shiroyasha, too absorbed in counting her spoils to dodge, got drenched and glared at him furiously.
If not for the fact she'd just extorted a fortune from that old man, she'd have lost patience long ago and taken action.
Even though Aslan was her most loyal subordinate, she wouldn't hesitate.
"Uh-uh… sorry. This intel just made me choke."
Aslan coughed twice, then took several deep breaths to calm himself.
Shiroyasha waved a hand dismissively, grabbed a towel to dry herself, and leaned toward Aslan curiously.
"What intel shocked you this much?"
She casually took his teacup, sipped it, accepted the document Aslan handed her, and began reading.
"The Holy Son, Jesus, will descend as a human tomorrow, incarnating as a God Slayer to participate in the God Slayer War!…"
"Pff!!!"
Shiroyasha also couldn't hold it in—she spat out her mouthful of tea.
"What the hell?! The Holy Son is joining too?!"
Shiroyasha was utterly dumbfounded. She rubbed her eyes and carefully reread the report.
After checking it back and forth several times, the message remained unchanged.
"Aslan, pinch me quick—I suspect I'm still dreaming."
Shiroyasha spoke with existential doubt.
Aslan, of course, didn't refuse—he immediately pinched Shiroyasha's cheek hard.
"Hey! I said pinch me, not pinch my cheek!"
Shiroyasha rolled her eyes in annoyance and quickly refocused on the document.
"But seriously—where's the Holy Son's dignity? Does this guy have zero shame left?"
"Participating in the God Slayer War as a Two-Digit… and being the first to descend."
Shiroyasha truly hadn't expected this. Not even Aslan had foreseen it.
He'd only meant to trick other Three-Digits. Who knew the Holy Son would shamelessly jump in like this?
What did He stand to gain? A Two-Digit being, bored enough to compete for a chance to… become Two-Digit again?
Couldn't He just use this opportunity to perfect His Trinity God-Spirit?
"Could it be… His Holy Son God-Spirit is genuinely destabilized?"
Aslan immediately considered one possibility—he dared not imagine his own historical narrative attacks had been that effective.
"…Impossible, right? He's a Two-Digit."
Shiroyasha's lips twitched as she spoke, sounding skeptical.
She herself was a Two-Digit. No one understood better than her the power and nature of Two-Digits. Under the influence of Truth, time, causality, and fate were mere toys to them.
A mere rumor-based assault— at most, it was just the observation in certain parallel worlds that Judas killed Jesus and replaced Him.
That didn't even qualify as a Historical Transition Period… How could it possibly shake a Two-Digit's God-Spirit?
It should be noted that the Holy Son's God-Spirit was built upon His merit of founding Christianity across countless worlds—a sect with two billion adherents in the modern era.
And having already reached Two-Digit status, He was, to a certain degree, an existence standing on equal footing with Little Garden's Central Core. Even the Central Core couldn't interfere with another's God-Spirit. He had long since become a self-sufficient, noble entity independent of Little Garden.
It'd be like saying Yugong moved Mount Buzhou—an absurdly abstract analogy.
"But… the probability isn't zero, is it?"
Aslan's gaze lingered on Shiroyasha for a moment before he spoke. There was a perfect example right in front of him.
"Boss, weren't you cast below the horizon because the Geocentric Theory was rejected, causing your God-Spirit to continuously shrink?"
The words left his mouth…
*WHACK!*
A fan smacked Aslan squarely on the head.
"You're usually smart—why are you being stupid now?"
Shiroyasha said irritably.
"What I lost was merely the qualification to demonstrate that power within Little Garden. Aside from a few defeats, my God-Spirit has never been weakened!"
"Outside this universe or when activating Host Master Authority, I'm still the undefeated White Night Demon Lord!"
Aslan clutched his head in pain and nodded.
"But then… what about the Holy Son? What's His situation?"
Aslan looked at her, confused.
But when he lifted his head, he saw the same bewilderment reflected in Shiroyasha's eyes. She blinked her innocent, wide eyes.
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"
Shiroyasha spread her hands, signaling she had no idea. She was indeed a Two-Digit—but she'd never mingled in Two-Digit circles.
How many years had she been sealed? She didn't even know when the Holy Son had ascended to Two-Digit status.
Two-Digit existences could easily block and scramble their own information. And due to the principle that "anything spoken will be known," their intel was nearly impossible to leak.
Even Thousand Eyes could only suspect—based on current data—that certain beings were Two-Digits.
Though such suspicions were almost as good as solid proof, they remained suspicions precisely because they couldn't be verified.
There was even a joke in Thousand Eyes' database: the probability that Indra—the former Supreme Deity of Hinduism—was a Two-Digit ranked highest of all.
In the end, Indra himself bought that intel… just to keep it from spreading.