Chapter 159

"So any clues? " Artoria asked as she looked at Morgana and Merlin.

"No, from both of our analyses, there was no magic involved. " Merlin uttered these words while putting away her staff.

"So it is either our thief came and took out the souls physically, or he used a sacred gear, " Morgana said.

"Well, if it is a sacred gear, it should be a Longinus class or something closer for them to be able to get deep here unnoticed, " Artoria said, frowning.

"Well, I think I found out about our thief. " Suddenly, Roxanne walked towards them with Luciana in tow.

"So it was a sacred gear after all, huh? " Merlin uttered these words as she glanced at Roxanne. Earlier, Roxanne and Luciana went to the 7th heaven to look through the records of any sacred gear being active here.

"Yes, according to Alaya's records, the sacred gear Dimension Lost was used in this place just a few days ago, " Roxanne said as she handed Morgana a printed copy of the Dimension Lost's past records of activities.

Every sacred gear is connected through the Heaven's system 'ALAYA'. Every time a sacred gear is in use, the system database saves a record of its action and location. In the past, no one had enough authority to dive through those records. The archangels only had enough authority to see whether a sacred gear had appeared in the world or not.

But now with Roxanne's authority, she could even disable the sacred gear if needed, much less review the past logs.

"This is definitely Idra's work, right? " Morgana said so, as she did after a while.

"Yeah, it's definitely Indra. " Roxanne nodded in agreement. Neither Georg nor Cao Cao had a need for souls. And with their mentality of human supremacy, they would definitely not use human souls.

"As far as the intelligence reports go, the Hero Faction is currently in the process of solidifying their power for an upcoming fight. They are probably intending to open a Dragon Gate to summon Scarlet. " Roxanne said with disdain.

As someone who had fought with Scarlet, she knew how strong that girl was. Unlike Ophis, who liked to brute force through everything, Scarlet knew how to fight properly. So even if those stupid guys really managed to summon her, she would most likely just make them feel their worst nightmares and break them completely. Or she could just put them into a deep sleep where they would never wake up.

Thinking about it now, Scarlet is like the natural enemy of those heroes. The more ambitious one is, the more difficult it is to win against Scarlet, as she could just literally make them go into an eternal dream where they would be able to fulfill all their ambitions.

And people rarely like to accept the cruel reality. So even if they somehow knew it was a dream, they would not be able to wake up from the temptation.

"But why would Indra steal souls from the Land of Shadows? " Artoria asked.

"Well, I could think of a few. " Roxanne thought about it for a while and answered, " For one, it should be revenge against Master Scáthach. I heard Shiva literally beat him black and blue after the warning I gave him. "

"Oh yeah, you did threaten him with Lady Kali. " Morgana nodded, remembering the past event.

"Secondly, it may be because he wants to cause enough chaos so he would be able to do his preparations more smoothly for the war with Shiva. " Roxanne said, remembering the reports on how Indra was calling back his vanguard troops. This is clearly not normal since Indra was too hot-blooded to know the term strategic retreat.

"And thirdly, it is because he needs them as a bargaining chip. I'm sure my dear brother would be interested in some souls for his experiments. " Roxanne said with a cold voice.

Rizevim is becoming a bit of a pain in the ass lately. So she was really considering finishing him off. The only reason she isn't rushing forward is because he still needs to unite the supernatural community.

Although the supernatural society would become peaceful, each faction has too many grudges and debts. But a short, stable peace is something she could achieve with Rizevim acting as the big villain.

This is also Shadow Garden's goal. They would use their connections to ensure the stability of the supernatural world for as long as possible.

"So how are we going to solve this? No matter what, we can't accuse Indra without any evidence," Artoria said.

"Well, we could always kidnap him and dump his corpse at some random sea, " Morgana said with a smile and a bit of eagerness.

"Well, calm down everyone, let's think this through calmly. Violence is not always the answer, " Merlin said with cold sweat running down her back.

"Well, as much as I want to do the same, Merlin is right, Morgana; we really can't kidnap Indra without any solid evidence. No matter what, we have to give Shiva and the Hindu pantheon some face. " Roxanne said with a sigh. She was very tempted to follow Morgana's idea, but Luciana beside her was pinching her arms, so she decided to drop the idea for now.

"So what are we going to do anyway? " Morgana asked with annoyance.

"Well, although we can't point fingers at Indra directly. We could always use other methods to get back at him," Roxanne said with a grin.

…..

The world was enveloped in darkness, having not seen the light of the sun in a very long time. There was a five-story house that could be considered luxurious in Japanese medieval times. Although this house was very old in history, there was no sign of it. This is because it belongs to a very special being.

This being is the mother creation goddess of Japan. The one who controls the Yomi, the Shinto underworld, is Izanami-no-Mikoto or Izanami for short.

Usually, Izanami would be busy in her virtual life either trash-talking some noobs or grinding for some grand treasure, but today was an exception. Today was their annual death god get-together.

Although the real date should have been more than another 4 months later, everyone decided to come today since one of their friends requested an emergency meeting.

Unlike their pantheon leaders, who valued reputation and only had friendships due to politics, these death gods consider each other best friends and family.

After all, most pantheons dislike their death gods, so they are isolated. So due to this common loneliness, these death gods got along with each other very well.

"Sorry about the sudden notice, Izanami. Because of me, you guys had to go through a lot of trouble, " Azrael said with an apologetic expression as she helped Izanami prepare the venue.

"Oh, don't worry too much about it, Azrael. For us, it isn't that much trouble. After all, we are usually free anyway. " Izanami spoke with a smile that concealed her bitterness.

Azrael could only smile helplessly at this. She knew the reason why most of the death gods are idle is because they are mostly forbidden or isolated from the whole pantheon. So apart from their respective duties of watching over their respective underworlds, they don't have anything better to do.

Just as the atmosphere was about to get more depressing, there was a sudden doorbell sound.

"Oh, it seems our guests have already arrived. " Izanami had a smile as she went to open the door.

"Well, I hope I'm not late, " a rather shy voice said as she looked at Izanami with nervousness.

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