"Oh? Ask away."
Pandora eyed him with interest, eager to learn the aim of the being who even she found troublesome.
Locking eyes with her, Rei Ao's tone was utterly calm, yet brooked no refusal.
"Pandora, you've been imprisoned here a long time, haven't you?
"Trapped in the Netherworld, unable to leavedon't you find it dull?"
Pandora's gaze sharpened, her smile fading.
"What are you getting at?"
"I'm saying"Rei Ao paused, then enunciated each word"come with me.
"Be mine. Leave this place, cast off the chains that bind you, and see the wider world outside."
"Go with you?"
Pandora chuckled as though she had heard something absurd.
"Do you know what you're proposing?
"I am part of the Netherworld itself; my being is woven into this realm's laws.
"These seals are the shackles of the worldmy fate. How could I possibly depart?
"Not even Campiones can break them and take me away."
Rei Ao's iridescent eyes flashed.
"Can't break them? That's because they're too weak. Are you comparing me with them?"
He took a step forward, letting his aura seep out.
It was a force far beyond Campione's authoritypower that belonged to him alone, drawn from a higher dimension.
Even the slightest leak made the Netherworld tremble.
The surrounding mist churned violently; the runes beneath Pandora flickered erratically.
"You"
Pandora's ease vanished, replaced by shock and disbelief.
She could feel the terror of Rei Ao's powerenough to overturn everything she knew.
Ignoring her astonishment, Rei Ao continued, "You say the seals hold you fast.
"To me, seals are chains meant for the weak.
"For me, nothing is unbreakable."
With that he raised a hand.
No incantation, no elaborate spell.
He merely extended a finger and tapped the gigantic runic chains that bound Pandorachains embodying the very laws of the world.
Clang!
A crystalline crack rang out.
Chains deemed indestructible even to Campione authority shattered like brittle glass the moment his fingertip touched them.
One. Two. Three More and more.
Rei Ao's finger was a reaper's scythe; wherever it passed, the seals that had imprisoned Pandora for countless ages splintered and dissolved into motes of light.
Pandora's eyes widened, lips parted in stunned disbelief.
She could feel the crushing weight that had bound her for eons growing lighteran unfamiliar prelude to freedom.
"Thisthis is impossible"
Her voice trembled.
"These are the world's seals"
Rei Ao withdrew his hand, voice still even yet irresistibly firm.
"Nothing is impossible.
"I told youI can break every seal and take you away. Do you believe me now?"
Before the "One-and-Only God," the laws of the world were playthings.
Pandora stared at him, a tempest raging inside.
To leave the Netherworld and see the outside She had dreamed of it countless times, each hope quenched by cruel reality.
But now, this man had shown herin almost playful fashionthat it could be done.
The lure of freedom was overwhelming.
Even Pandora, mistress of the Netherworld, could not resist.
Her eyes shimmered with complex emotions: shock, doubt, yearningand a trace of hesitation.
For she knew that what lay before her was nothing less than Pandora's Box itself.
Rei Ao did not press her. He simply waited, patient and supremely confident
confident that he could persuade her,
or failing that,
carry her out all the same.
~~~
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(Bonus Chapter) Chapter 733: Destroying the Netherworld!
The Netherworld's drifting mists ebbed and flowed between the two of them, as though time itself had frozen.
Inside Pandora a struggle unlike any she had ever faced was reaching its climax.
Rei Ao simply waited.
Smashing the physical seals was only step one; the true "unsealing" still required the goddess's own will.
For a soul that yearned for freedom, this might be the only chance in all her countless ages.
Pandora remained silent.
She gazed at Rei Aoan existence that did not belong to this world, who had barged in with overwhelming force and overturned everything she thought she knew about Campiones, about Heretic Gods, even about the very laws of the cosmos.
His power was unfathomable.
His confidence bordered on tyrannical, yet carried an irresistible persuasiveness.
At length she drew a deep breath, as though sealing a monumental decision, and a complicated yet radiant smile finally appeared on her face.
"Very well. I will go with you."
"Excellent," Rei Ao replied, visibly pleased. "But before we leave, you must come with me to another part of the Netherworld."
"Hmm?" Pandora frowned in curiosity.
With a casual wave Rei Ao parted the mist ahead, revealing a corridor that led deeper into the gloom. Together they stepped through.
The scenery changed: the uniform gray gave way to broken shrine ruins and warped runic lightning.
"This is Susanoo's 'cage,'" Rei Ao explained. "A Heretic God also bound by the Netherworld. Sealed long ago by human heroes, he retained consciousness and some of his power here."
Before his words faded, a bolt of savage lightning detonated in front of them.
Violet-black arcs coalesced into the form of an old man brandishing a brilliantly gleaming long-swordthe legendary Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.
Its point leveled at Rei Ao and Pandora, the newcomer's thunderous voice boomed:
"Pandora, you dare bring an outsider into my domain? And youwho are you?"
Susanoo's eyes fixed on Rei Ao, brimming with hostility and caution; even this ancient deity could sense the power that dwarfed any god-slayer's.
Rei Ao, however, looked utterly unruffled, almost languid, meeting Susanoo's glare without a shred of awe.
"Susanoo, is it? A Heretic God who's scraped together a shred of freedom dares to bark at me?"
"You know me?" Susanoo faltered.
"I know far more than you imagine," Rei Ao answered, his voice echoing through the Netherworld with a strange, compelling force. "Everything you hold dear is a worthless parlor game in my eyes."
Arrogant to the extremeyet something about it rang terrifyingly true, and Susanoo's expression grew grim.
"Enough nonsense!"
With a roar the storm-god swung his blade.
Kusanagi sliced through the void, leaving a rift of blinding light.
Rei Ao barely reacted. He merely raised his hand and spread his fingers.
Boom!
A power vastly grander and more domineering than the sword erupted from his palma pure, higher-dimensional energy devoid of element yet able to erase all forms.
The sword's lightning met that energy and vaporized like frost under the sun.
Susanoo watched in horror as his proud divine weaponhimself a steel-edge Heretic Godproved so fragile before the stranger.
"Impossible!"
He tried to withdraw, but it was too late. Rei Ao's push unleashed an invisible tsunami.
Susanoo's form shuddered; the armor of power around him shattered, his body turning translucent.
Kusanagi wailed, spiderwebbed with cracks, then exploded into glittering dust.
"Whoare you?" Despair choked Susanoo's voice as he felt his divine core crushed.
"I'm merely removing a few uncertainties from this world," Rei Ao said coollyand Susanoo was erased, leaving not a trace.
Rumble!
Almost simultaneously, the entire Netherworld convulsed.
Ash-gray clouds boiled, rune-chains snapped, and spatial rifts spidered everywhere, flashing with glimpses of the living world beyond.
"This is bad!" Pandora's face paled. "With Susanoo dead and the earlier seals broken, the Netherworld's balance is wreckedit's collapsing!"
Rei Ao remained unconcerned, casting a glance at the disintegrating realm. "All the better. Time to leave."
He seized Pandora's wristhis hand warm and steady, filling her with reassurance.
"Let's go."
Together they stepped into the crumbling space, leaving behind the collapsing Netherworld and the shattered foundations of the Campione order.
Meanwhile, above the islands of Japan
The atmosphere was even more forbidding than the Netherworld's fall.
A bizarre thundercloud hung motionless over the archipelago's center, lightning flickering within.
This was no ordinary storm.
Its source was a woman in a slender cheongsam, posture straight as a spear. Her beauty was regal, wreathed in unassailable dignity.
Falcon-sharp phoenix eyes scanned the city below, now in turmoil from an unseen disturbance.
She was Luo Haoalso called Luo Cuilian: Campione, Grandmaster of the Martial Realm, Hierarch of the Holy Cult of the Five Mountains, Wulin King of Jiangnan, sovereign atop all martial paths.
For more than two centuries this martial prodigy had stood as a living emblem of power and authorityascending not by the usual Campione rite, but by defeating a Heretic God with mere mortal flesh through peerless martial arts.
Each god she slew bestowed a new authority, rendering her strength unfathomable.
Even among Campiones, Luo Hao was a terrifying figure on par with the late Marquis Voban of Eastern Europea storm in human form.
~~~
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Chapter 734: Finally Meet Luo Hao
At this moment she descended upon Japan, with a single purpose-to slay the Heretic God sealed here, the Monkey King.
The Monkey King's true identity is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong.
As the incarnation of the monkey and protector of dragons, he had been bound by the proudest curse of the Tendai esoteric monks. Using the accumulated sacred power of shrines across the land, they fettered him with the might of Tsh Daigongen. Even if he broke out and rampaged, he would always be dragged back to this place to be sealed again.
Why does Luo Hao want him dead?
Because in her eyes Sun Wukong is clearly a hero of her own country, yet he is being kept as a plaything by the Yamato peoplean unforgivable sin.
To know of such a being and leave him would tarnish her name.
For ages she has awaited the hour of judgment.
A hundred years ago she encountered him, tried to shatter the seal, and blew up both him and the surrounding shrines time and again.
But she failed to charge into the Nether Corridor, and the attempt came to nothing.
Now she has come again.
Sensing the strange turbulence in the Netherworld, she struck directly, broke the seal, and freed the Monkey King.
Once more connected to the earth as a Heretic God, the Monkey King went mad.
"ROAR!!"
A bellow that shook heaven and earth rolled in from the direction of Mt. Fuji.
The ground convulsed violently.
Countless arcane runes surfaced on the mountain's face, only to splinter inch by inch beneath a savage force!
Pink cherry-blossom petals whirled eerily against the wind, gathering into a towering tornado.
From its heart strode a giant ape tens of meters tall, pelted in golden fur and wielding an enormous cudgelthe unsealed Monkey King!
His eyes burned crimson.
Returned to the state of disobedience, nothing remained in him but madness.
"ROOOAR!!!"
The instant he appeared he smashed the cudgel into the earth.
"BOOOOM!"
A vast dent opened in Fuji's mid-slope, rock shards spraying in all directions.
Below, sirens screamed through the city; people fell into terror and scattered.
"ROOOAR!!!"
The Monkey King's voice was like thunder.
Yet the reply was a voice even colder.
"So noisy."
Luo Hao stood upon the clouds.
Phoenix eyes narrowed, she watched the raging giant ape below.
Not a trace of fearonly an icy killing intent.
She slowly raised a hand; mysterious golden patterns rippled across her bodymanifestations of her Authorities.
"Monkey King, the debt of centuries ends today."
Before the words had faded, Luo Hao dove like an arrow loosed from the string!
She used no ornate sorceryonly pure martial might, leaving an afterimage in the sky.
Each step warped the very air.
"Roar!"
The Monkey King swept the cudgel sideways, whipping up a wall of debris and a solid gale.
But Luo Hao's fist was faster!
"Shatter!"
With a dull report the world itself seemed to pause.
Her fist struck the air wall; no cataclysmic blast sounded, only a flawlessly condensed force that pierced through and slammed onto the giant cudgel!
"CRAAACK!"
The weapon that looked indestructible sprouted a hair-fine fracture beneath her punch!
"Hmphfalse Great Sage."
Luo Hao snorted.
"ROAR!"
The Monkey King howled in pain, stunned that this frail-seeming human woman wielded such terrifying strength.
He wrenched back the cudgel and raked at her with clawed fingers keen enough to tear the air.
Man and god clashed above Japan, shaking the heavens.
Luo Hao's movements were phantasmalfists and kicks interweaving into an airtight net, every blow landing on the deity's weak points with a ring like clashing metal.
The Monkey King answered with sheer mass and berserk divinity; each swing of his arm made mountains tremble and earth split.
Where his power reached, buildings collapsed, ground fissured.
The battle blazed white-hot.
Luo Hao's Authority "Vajra" granted her peerless destructive power
while "Garuda" endowed her with speed beyond reason.
She flickered through the air like scarlet lightning, carving fresh wounds across the deity's body.
His blood ran golden; wherever it fell, raging flames erupted, scarring the land.
Just as their powers peaked, dyeing the sky a weave of scarlet and gold
The very heart of the battlefield warped violently!
A searing white light tore the chaotic energies apart, and two figuresRei Ao and Pandoraappeared.
"Hmm?"
Alert in an instant, Luo Hao flashed back dozens of meters, phoenix eyes locking on the strangers, murderous intent fixed on Rei Ao, a man radiating danger.
At the same moment Pandora recognized Luo Hao.
Tugging Rei Ao's sleeve, she whispered, "She's one of my 'children'a very strong one. You're not thinking of"
She feared he might once again kill one of her "children."
Hearing the words "Campione," Luo Hao's gaze sharpened still further.
