You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

……

"Hello, Lady Luculazia, but may I ask why you wish to see me?"

"Hmm...it's quite an important matter."

In a strangely decorated boudoir, a scantily clad, languidly dressed witch pulls out what appears to be a stone slab from under her pillow.

"I was initially very happy to have this item recovered, but it might cause some trouble. I don't want to implicate the grandson of an acquaintance, nor do I want to keep it in my own hands—so I'll just hand it over to you, the Council of Wise Men."

"Ugh?"

Alice tilted her head, clearly not understanding what she meant.

After the witch explained, the blonde girl finally understood what had happened.

This stone tablet was something Luculachia obtained by chance when she was young. Although it looks unremarkable, it is actually a very powerful magic book.

After using the power of the stone tablet to quell a supernatural event, the witch gave the tablet to her lover at the time... or perhaps she forgot to take it back; in any case, she was quite unreliable in her youth.

Decades passed without incident, but a few days ago a young Japanese man found her with the stone slab, saying he was returning it to her as instructed by his grandfather. Honestly, she was quite happy; after all, it meant someone still remembered her after all these decades… well, that's not important.

Such a high-level magic book could very well attract some ominous beings, so it was originally intended to be sealed away.

But at that moment, she inadvertently entered a state of spiritual vision by touching the stone slab, and saw some "divine essence" that was gradually becoming active. She judged that there might be disobedient gods appearing, so she wanted to get rid of this hot potato.

“I no longer care about this stone slab. I originally planned to give it to the descendant of my old acquaintance so that he could take it back to Japan, but do you know what I saw in my spiritual vision?”

"Japan?"

Alice was taken aback when she heard about the island nation again.

Having heard about this place repeatedly over the past two days, she subconsciously felt that it was not a mere coincidence.

"What do you see?"

“Britain… On the territory of your Council of Sages, an exceptionally bright light descends, and it will somehow intersect with this stone tablet—I suspect it is the disobedient god drawn to the tablet!”

No, although there was indeed a divine presence, the main reason was probably not this stone tablet—Alice's expression was strange.

"So you're going to hand this stone slab over to us?"

"Well... only you guys know how to handle this situation, I can't do anything about it."

Your best option is to offer it to a god-slayer, such as the Italian leader, the Sword King, or your old nemesis, the Black Prince. He wouldn't refuse, as it's his favorite kind of thing.

"Is this... an ancient magic book?"

Alice looked at the stone slab in surprise.

The witch smiled lazily: "That's right, and this is a divine item among magic books—'The Prometheus Manual'!"

……

Meanwhile, in the Netherworld of the Far East, a burly old man who was pouring wine into a large bowl suddenly stopped, raised his head thoughtfully, and looked surprised.

"The course of fate... has changed? Something... something beyond calculation..."

Chapter 359 The Polite Lord Aizen.

On the private plane bound for Japan, Iori had just woken up from his sleep. He was half-reclined on a comfortable sofa, leisurely observing the sea of ​​clouds slowly passing by below through the window.

Just then, a waiter brought over a silver tray with an old stone slab placed on a soft velvet cushion, which seemed out of place with the surrounding environment.

Calling it a "book" seems a bit of a stretch, but it is indeed a divine text with thousands of years of history, and it also carries extremely magical power, making it a priceless treasure in the eyes of magicians.

"Is this the Prometheus Manual?"

Iori withdrew her gaze and looked at the stone slab, picking it up with great interest and examining it repeatedly.

After all, it was a treasure that appeared in the original work, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it changed the original protagonist's life. Although Iori wasn't very clear about the specific details (the anime was quite simplistic), he still had some impression of something so important.

Iori then asked Alice, "Was it given to you by a witch?"

"Lady Luculazia may have an eccentric personality and live in seclusion, but she is indeed a rare great witch in the world. In fact, she is my senior."

In this world, priestesses and witches are essentially the same thing, only the specific emphasis and the different names used in the East and West are different.

Alice truthfully replied, "She saw many worrying things through her spiritual vision, and not wanting to get involved, she gave me this grimoire. Normally, the Council of Sages would have sealed it away, but now..."

The timing is so coincidental, it might be related to your present world. We dare not act rashly, please give us your instructions, Lord Aizen.

“Well done, you were honest with me enough – that deserves encouragement.”

Iori was quite satisfied with the attitude of the Council of Sages, and after nodding slightly, she casually tossed the stone slab in her hand back into the tray.

"But it's not related to me, it's about other disobedient gods... Of course, it's still very useful, you can take it and study it first."

"……Um?"

Alice exclaimed in surprise, "Us? Aren't you going to keep them yourself?"

"In the end, it's just a prop for playing tricks."

Iori shook her head. "I will use it when needed, but I am also very interested in the information recorded on it. You can analyze it and I will review it."

"Yes...we understand."

Alice nodded earnestly, secretly thrilled at the opportunity.

Gods are transcendent beings; magic and weapons are meaningless before them. Only power of the same level can affect them, namely, divine spells or divine artifacts—which, as the name suggests, are used by gods or weapons and tools imbued with divine power.

"Divine artifacts" are unusable by humans, since there is an insurmountable barrier between humans and gods.

But as the saying goes, nothing is absolute; there are always some strange and unusual things that can break the rules, such as this "Prometheus Manual".

As the name suggests, this thing is related to the "prophet Prometheus," and its power comes from the legend of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods.

By activating this magic book, one can steal a portion of the target's divine power!

In other words, this is a grimoire that can be used against disobedient gods. And for some reason, perhaps because the act of "stealing fire" itself is a way of sharing the privileges of the gods with humans, the barrier to using this grimoire is not high. Even ordinary people can use it as long as they are willing to risk it!

Considering its characteristic of being "usable by humans," the Prometheus Tablets are far more valuable than other divine artifacts—at least in the eyes of magicians!

Even if humans could decipher the textual information, they still wouldn't be able to use the corresponding spells and would have to rely on the grimoire. However, the very fact that they could access the "wisdom of the gods" was enough to make magicians who pursued knowledge feel that their lives had been worthwhile.

In addition, Alice was also a little puzzled—Iori didn't seem to care about the stone slab.

Why doesn't Iori react to the fact that he possesses the ability to "steal divine power," a trait that would anger the gods? Even if he doesn't use it himself, he could seal it away to prevent it from being used by others!

Little did she know that Iori himself possessed a similar ability. The [Usurper of Greed] was in no way inferior to the stone tablet in terms of functionality. With his current strength, even a god of disobedience would fall victim to it.

If you have this ability, why do you need to rely on external things?

Perhaps they could be combined to steal from the enemy twice in a single battle?

Using this kind of "first impression kill" skill repeatedly seems a bit too disrespectful to the opponent... Hmm?

Before Alice could take the stone slab away, Iori had an idea. She stretched out a finger and gently tapped it.

hum~

A faint golden ripple flashed, and the stone slab shone brightly for a moment as if it had been coated with a divine light, but it quickly subsided and returned to its original state, though one could still faintly sense the powerful energy fluctuations within.

Alice blinked. "Did you infuse it with magical power?"

—In this world, magic power, divine power, and so on are collectively referred to as "cursed power".

Iori remained silent, gazing thoughtfully at the stone slab. After a moment, he shook his head slightly, casually flicked his wrist, and golden light flashed as the injected magical power flowed back into his body.

"This item may have a causal relationship with an unknown deity, and sooner or later it will attract some interesting fellows... I take back what I said earlier, it's not entirely useless, at least it's quite suitable as bait."

He suddenly realized that since the stone slab's ability was to steal divine power, it must also have the characteristic of absorbing and storing curse power. So he tried it out, and sure enough, he found some clues when the curse power flowed through it.

This stone slab contains remnants of divine power that was once stolen!

The key to the protagonist's becoming a god-slayer in the original story was that he used the Prometheus Codex to obtain the power of a god's incarnation, giving him the opportunity to gamble against the disobedient gods.

When watching anime, you don't need to think too much; just know that the author gave his favorite character a power-up. But Iori is facing a real world where everything has its own internal logic.

Why was it that the male protagonist happened to encounter the arrival of the rebellious god just when he had the stone tablet in his hand?

Because this stone slab had already been used, it became associated with the rebellious gods. Some of the gods associated with it have returned to mythology, while others still roam the mortal realm... This thing itself easily attracts the attention of the gods!

It wasn't a rare occurrence for the male protagonist in the original story to encounter a rebellious god while holding this stone tablet; however, who he encountered depended on luck.

What's truly strange is that this extremely rare item has such a low barrier to entry that even ordinary people without any professional training can trigger it...

It can be understood that the stone slab itself has a corresponding mechanism, and it was originally created for human use... It should be related to the great god "Prometheus", after all, according to mythological records, he is one of the few gods who considers human beings.

In other words, the original protagonist, Kusanagi Godou, was indeed incredibly lucky to have obtained such a highly targeted item.

However, aside from luck, he wasn't very good at other things, which often left him bewildered even after becoming a god-slayer.

This also made him a target for various forces to court, from European magic societies to local religious groups in Japan...

Speaking of Japan, that place is a hidden gem in this worldview, not only with cunning old foxes like Susanoo, but also the sealed Monkey King, and all sorts of strange and wonderful characters.

It's not surprising, after all, it's a light novel, and it would be illogical for Japanese settings to be too simple.

"【Prometheus Manual】...I got something like this as soon as I left the house. Am I just lucky?"

Iori muttered to herself.

The stone tablet that should have belonged to the male protagonist in the original story has now fallen into his hands through other channels, which means that the flow of fate has changed, and the original plot will definitely deviate significantly.

Could this be the work of the goddess of fate?

After all, even if the goddess doesn't directly interfere in the mortal world, it would be easy for her to get the witches to trigger their spiritual visions a few times, thereby involving Iori in these matters and creating more causal relationships between him and this world!

Iori isn't the protagonist of a gentle light novel, so he won't be easily manipulated. His displeasure stems simply from his dislike of such petty actions.

But then again, fate is fate. This Prometheus Slab itself has not been tampered with, and its abilities are quite practical. It definitely deserves to be in Iori's private collection.

"Since you trust the Council of Wise Men so much..."

Alice pondered for a moment, then quickly realized and said, "If you're comfortable with this, I'll keep this magic book safe."

She was with Iori as a maid or secretary, essentially keeping it safe for him. However, because the stone tablet itself had a certain attraction to disobedient gods, she put herself in danger.

Iori glanced at her in surprise, probably not expecting her to be so aware.

"Unlike your frail body, you have a heart that is much stronger than most people's."

"……Well!"

Upon hearing Iori's words, Alice was taken aback. "You know?"

“I could tell from the very beginning.”

Iori leaned back on the sofa, calmly scrutinizing the blonde girl: "The you who usually appears in front of people, are you not a flesh and blood body, but a clone like a spirit?"

"As expected of Lord Aizen."

Alice said admiringly, "Strictly speaking, what I have should be called a 'phantom body,' which can also be called plasma in the world of magic."

To put it simply, it's a soul clone created through telepathy; the real me is still asleep in my London home.

After saying this, the White Priestess paused and bowed her head to apologize to Iori.

"It's not that I'm disrespectful to you, it's just that my body can't support me moving around outside for too long, so it's always been like this."

"Although she possesses unparalleled talent as a shrine maiden (witch), her body is weaker than that of an ordinary person. This must be the price she has to pay."

Iori looked Alice up and down and had to admit that the "ghost body" was very realistic; it was almost impossible to see anything unusual with the naked eye.

"It's a bit cruel for a young girl in the prime of her life."

"Lord Aizen need not feel sorry for me. Although my body is bound, I can still use my mental clones to experience the outside world."

Alice was used to hearing similar things, and her response was quite fluent: "And it's also thanks to this that I can quickly travel back and forth—"

"You seem quite content."

Iori pouted: "Then forget it, it seems you don't need it."

"Ok?"

Alice paused, then asked, "What are you referring to?"

"A healthy body."

Iori smiled slightly at the astonished Alice: "If you have fulfilled your duties well, then as your superior, I will naturally give you the reward you deserve... Judging from your expression, do you not like this? Then let's change it."

"No, Lord Aizen! That's not how it is!"

Alice took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, but she couldn't help but get excited when she spoke.