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Sanieve was an ouroboros. More specifically, he was an avatar with the powers of an ouroboros. He’d gone against the Goddess’s wishes in the past and committed a purge, resulting in Alovenus taking his title and power. Having had his mana taken from him, Sanieve had lost his strength, falling lower than the level of the Seven Luminaries.
There was no way for him to recover from this, and he could do nothing but slowly rot—or that was how it should have been. All this was only because he’d lost his mana. If he were to regain his mana, he could easily recover his power. However, if he were to try to gather enough mana to reconstruct the power of an ouroboros, then even someone as careless as the Goddess would notice the discrepancy, and he would be found. That was why he was stuck. There was truly no recourse.
However, a method for him to regain his former glory did exist through the properties of a golden apple, the forbidden fruit that the Goddess should have stripped humanity of in the past. The fruit, which held a massive amount of mana, allowed Sanieve to quickly revive his body. His powers as an agent of divinity and his strength as an ouroboros returned with every bite.
Even with his strength completely returned, however, there were too many monstrously strong beings in Mizgarz. There were the Devil King, the Goddess’s current avatar, the Demon Lord, the Fairy Princess, the King of the Ocean, the Lion King, and the rest of the Imperial Thirteen Heavenly Stars. Not to mention the Wise King, the Sky King, the Vampire Princess, and all the heroes of two hundred years ago. Most of all: the Black-Winged Conqueror.
Sanieve was not so arrogant as to believe that he could take all of them on and win. Not even he, who had the strength of two ouroboroses, could defeat all of those figures head-on. So, Sanieve took Virgo and disappeared from Mizgarz.
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That day, Japan—or rather, Earth—was covered in dark clouds. These clouds traversed continents, making it almost look like the stars themselves had started to orbit at great speed as the swirling something blocked out the sunlight, trapping the Earth in darkness. At first, people only thought that today’s weather was terrible. They eventually realized that something abnormal was going on, however, and when the representatives of each country looked at the images relayed to them by their artificial satellites, they collapsed in fear.
There was an insanely large snake—or rather, dragon—swirling around the Earth, covering it. There was no way for them to hide this information, no matter how great each country was at such a thing. This unprecedented news spread throughout the world like lightning, shaking people to their core.
Of course, humanity retaliated against this threat. Armies all over the world mobilized, forming a united front and launching their fighters. They slammed all the firepower they could into the dragon, and they even unsealed their nuclear weapons. However, none of it worked. No matter what they did, the dragon remained, totally unmoved as it ensconced the Earth.
Nobody knew exactly what was going on. The situation far outstripped their comprehension, and to anyone’s knowledge, it was physically impossible for anything this large to exist. Only a small number of people accurately understood the situation.
“What...the hell is that...?”
Sei looked up at the sky, staring dazedly at this impossible situation. He knew what it was; it was an ouroboros, something which he’d seen a year ago in the final fight for Mizgarz. It was also a monster among monsters, one which, even if everything in the world turned upside down, he would still not be able to win against. What confused him was the question of why one was in this dimension, surrounding Earth.
Wasn’t it all supposed to be over? Alovenus, who was the source of it all, had been defeated, and the conflict should have been over. Even then, not even Alovenus would do something like involving Earth in her problems.
“Sei, my B O O O O Y!”
“Karkinos!”
The man from another world ran to Sei, who knew of his circumstances. It seemed Karkinos hadn’t expected this situation either, as his expression betrayed his panic and impatience.
“What is going on?!”
“How should I know?! That’s an ouroboros, isn’t it?!” Sei asked.
“Y E S! But...it is different from the ouroboroses that W E fought...” Karkinos said, trailing off. “In the first place, there’s no way Miss Lufas would allow this.”
The ouroboroses were arbitrators who moved on the Goddess’s orders. However, the Goddess was now under Lufas’s command. There was no way she would allow something as reckless as this. That meant there were only two possibilities left. Either the Goddess had ignored Lufas and gone on another rampage, or this ouroboros had ignored the Goddess. Either way, there could be no worse situation.
If the ouroboros had appeared over Mizgarz, there would have been no problem. Lufas would have quickly suppressed it with ease, and though it may have taken some time to fully resolve the situation, the people of that world were used to such strange occurrences. However, this was Earth, not some fantasy world. The people of this world were not equipped to deal with such a ridiculous situation, nor could they understand and adapt to it. On top of that, no matter what weapons they brought to bear, they would not be able to defeat the ouroboros.
Right now, Karkinos was the only one present who might have been able to deal with the ouroboros, but it would be too hard a prospect on his own.
“At any rate, we should wait and see what happens first,” Karkinos suggested. “Miss Lufas and the others should notice what’s going on soon. If we wait for them to counterattack...”
“That will not be possible,” an unfamiliar male voice said, interrupting.
The owner of the voice boasted clearly unreal beauty, and there was no way he was Japanese. He also held Virgo—who was in a deep sleep—in his arms.
“Virgo!”
The moment he saw that, Sei jumped forth as if someone had lit a fire under him. However, Sei’s hand never reached his target, as he was stopped and repelled by an invisible wall. He was thrown away so powerfully that he crashed into a nearby parked car, toppling it with his momentum. When he finally stopped and managed to get up, Sei was unsteady on his feet.
“So you are Minamijuuji...Sei?”
“Ghh... Th-That’s right. Who are you? What are you planning to do with Virgo?!”
“Hmm...”
Sanieve looked at Sei appraisingly for a moment before sighing in what seemed like utter disappointment.
“The color of your soul is somewhat white...but you are very average. Nothing about you stands out. I cannot understand why you are so beloved by Virgo.”
“Answer my question!” Sei yelled.
“I will not do anything. She is important to me too. I promise I will treat her courteously,” Sanieve said as he stroked Virgo’s hair lovingly. “I only came here to hand you a declaration.”
“What...?”
“I will be taking Virgo. You are not worthy of her.”
What Sanieve said dyed Sei’s expression with anger. Of course it would. Some unknown man had just shown up, holding the girl he loved, and declared that he would be taking her. Even Sei, with his mild and normally peaceful demeanor, would rise to violence over something like that.
“Quite the one-sided conversation for someone who just dropped in out of nowhere. I don’t know you. Just who do you think you are?” Karkinos asked.
“Your level...” Sanieve said after a pause. “I surmise you are one of the Imperial Thirteen Heavenly Stars?”
“Oh? So you’ve heard of M E. But it’s not fair that you know me, and I don’t know you. Would you do me the favor of introducing yourself?” Karkinos asked, trying to mask it as a joke.