Chapter 194: Miracle. (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 194: Miracle. (4)
When he first appeared, no one judged him to be dangerous.
He was suppressing his aura so thoroughly, and he approached them with such a friendly, genial smile.
“Leave the women and all you males get lost. Then I’ll let you live. See how merciful I am?”
That was why, the moment those atrocious first words left his mouth, most people lost interest in him, maintaining only the barest minimum of caution.
To them, he felt like nothing more than a slightly frivolous non-awakened person with no detectable aura.
Only two people on the scene remained on high alert.
Cathy, who had reached a level where she could judge an opponent by something other than their aura, and Ban Gi-san, who could perceive an opponent’s nature through a rather unique talent.
Despite the man’s frivolous and swaggering posture, which seemed full of openings, Cathy noticed there was no gap for her to exploit. Meanwhile, Ban Gi-san’s unique intuition told him that despite being a picky eater, the man possessed an absurd level of strength.
However.
Being able to perceive it and being able to respond to it were two entirely different things.
“Hmm, nice. That’s a look of proper caution. Right, soft women are fine, but they really need that haughty flavor.”
The man appeared before them in an instant and slowly reached out his hand.
The moment Cathy dodged his touch, he burst into a fit of giggles.
“Why so surprised? I was just joking. Smile. If I were serious, you wouldn’t have even been able to dodge, you know? It was a sign of my favor, in its own way.”
He wasn’t wrong.
She hadn’t been able to track his movement with her eyes as he approached.
The others, seeing this, finally realized he was something dangerous, but they couldn’t move recklessly.
This was because the man’s playful expression had turned ice-cold in a single heartbeat, even before they could show any hostility.
“…But I’m pretty sure I warned you male bastards to get lost. Why are you still hanging around? No, you’re actually glaring at me? Are you all insane?”
His attitude suggested it was only natural for his words to be obeyed. Faced with such arrogance, the cadets finally drew their weapons and directed their hostility toward him.
“Ha…”
He let out a sigh of disbelief.
“Right, humans are always like this. Even when you give them a chance and show consideration, they don’t realize it’s consideration until they’ve been beaten to a pulp.”
Clicking his tongue without even bothering to gauge his opponents’ level, he released his suppressed aura as if he had been waiting for this exact situation.
And once he released that aura, not a single person could move an inch.
It felt as if a bone-chilling pressure was weighing down on them from above, threatening to force them to their knees.
The moment they realized this phenomenon was caused by the mana being emitted from a single person, their grips on their weapons tightened instinctively, and deep tension clouded their faces.
“Huh? Was it not enough? No one’s trembling and begging for their lives? Usually, people faint or kneel. You guys are pretty good, aren’t you?”
He tilted his head, seemingly surprised by their reaction.
“But does that change anything?”
As he reached out with a relaxed air, the surroundings darkened, and thunderclouds pregnant with lightning gathered in the sky.
“I’m asking if mere humans can withstand the wrath of a god.”
The moment he snapped his fingers, red lightning struck, blanketing the entire area.
“Remember this well. <αστραπή Astrape>. It is the name of the divine punishment delivered by the greatest god in heaven.”
The man, who had been cackling like a madman while raining down lightning, added with a sneering smirk:
“If you can manage to remember it, that is.”
The surroundings were turned into a shambles by the repeated strikes of lightning. He waited for the dust to settle so he could leisurely observe those who must have fallen.
“…Oh, now this is a real surprise.”
However, what came out of his mouth after the dust settled was an exclamation mixed with doubt.
It was true he had held back a bit because it would be troublesome if the women got hurt, but he hadn’t expected any of the males to still be standing after taking a direct hit from his lightning.
The muscular man who had managed to block the lightning finally looked up.
* * *
“Whew.”
Ban Gi-san.
Having endured three strikes of red lightning with his body, he accepted a simple fact.
This guy, despite being a picky eater, possessed power greater than his own.
It was surprising enough that the man had pierced through Ban Gi-san’s talent—which boasted near-invincible defense against damage dealt by those who were picky eaters or wasted food—but seeing as the man didn’t even look tired after launching such an attack, it seemed there was no delay between his strikes. Logically speaking, there was no chance of victory.
The man’s frivolous attitude was, in the end, the leisure afforded by an overwhelming difference in power.
“No one step forward. No, run while I hold him back.”
That was why he had to stand in the way.
Because it was certain that the others would crumble the moment that lightning touched them.
To think that before even entering the dungeon, their lives would be threatened by something other than the dungeon itself.
“Haha, run? You’re saying some funny things.”
But the man, as if the very idea of them escaping was pathetic, created a cage of lightning to seal off the perimeter.
“Who said I’d let you go? You still haven’t snapped out of it. Shall I tell you again? The one standing before you is a god. If you dare to reject a god’s favor, you must receive the appropriate punishment. Oh, and don’t worry, I have no intention of hurting the women as long as they stay quiet.”
Facing the villain who was leaking a base laughter, Ban Gi-san suddenly thought of a certain man.
“You’re different.”
“…Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“I mean that even among villains, there’s a world of difference. I know a villain much stronger than you.”
It felt as if there was an unbridgeable gap between the masked man, who spoke of clear goals even while possessing transcendent power, and the youth before him, who moved merely according to his desires.
“Hey, who are you calling a villain, you bastard? I told you, I’m a god. I’m a being on a different dimension from you, and I’m certainly not a vill—”
“A god? Or maybe just an idiot? Ah, seeing as there are so many vegetables you can’t eat, I guess that fits. I suppose gods these days can’t even eat carrots and bell peppers?”
As he threw out the light provocation, the sneer abruptly vanished from the man’s face.
“…Are you insane? Or do you just want to die? If so, you should have asked nicely.”
Ban Gi-san had no intention of talking further. Whether the man was truly a god or a villain, the fact remained that he was a being stronger than himself. He couldn’t afford to mess around or take it easy as he usually did.
Cladding his entire body in mana, he charged toward the enemy.
“Then I would have killed you a little less painfully.”
Red lightning struck down from the sky once again.
* * *
And the man pierced by the lightning charged at him with a shout.
Of course, it wasn’t an all-out attack, but usually, most people would lose their lives without being able to offer any resistance to the first strike.
Since the man had already blocked several of them with his body, he had to acknowledge the man before him, even if he didn’t show it.
This guy was of a similar breed to himself. A beast in human skin—no, a monster.
The fist the monster swung certainly looked heavy.
If it landed, even he wouldn’t be able to stand up easily.
But if that man was a monster, he was a god.
The moment he underwent Thunder Transformation, the world slowed down, and the monster’s movements, which had felt somewhat fast, seemed to come to a standstill.
Thunder God Zeus.
The sight of a monster daring to try and catch him—whose true form was lightning and light itself—was almost pitiful.
I’ll make it quick and easy for you instead.
He gripped condensed lightning in his hand.
The true lightning of myth, on a different level from the bolts he had dropped from the sky, became a spear that pierced through everything and flew toward the man.
If he fired the lightning directly into the heart like this, it would be over. It was a certain-kill strike that no living creature, even a monster, could ever withstand.
However, just before he could thrust the lightning into the man’s heart, a peculiar light surrounding the man’s body pushed the lightning away, causing his aim to slip slightly.
The moment his Thunder Transformation ended, the world returned to its original speed, and the aftershocks of his movement belatedly swept through the area.
“Hmm?”
Wondering what had happened, he looked over to see an annoying-looking male running toward the monster.
“Are you alright…!?”
“I told you not to step in. It’s dangerous. This isn’t something you can handle.”
It seemed that guy was responsible. He couldn’t have followed his movements while he was in Thunder Transformation, so did the power he had used earlier finally take effect?
A power that could even twist his lightning.
I don’t like it.
Thus, he raised his lightning to deal with the one wielding that arrogant power this time, but a thrust enveloped in lightning qi flew in as if to interfere.
“…Is that all you can do with lightning?”
“The attribute of the weapon I happen to use is lightning, but I don’t recall being obsessed with it.”
“Sigh, now even these insignificant things…”
The moment he tried to use Thunder Transformation to show them the difference in their status, a chilling slash grazed his neck as if aiming for that brief opening.
Right, they weren’t bad for humans.
They were all quite impressive for their age, but that was all.
In the end, they were geniuses who hadn’t surpassed the human realm—inferior beings who couldn’t even be compared to him, a god by birth.
They were just insects he could easily crush to death if he could just keep his distance and use Thunder Transformation.
Yet, as if determined not to let him do so, the boy with the golden spear and the boy wielding the strange light clung to him.
“Whenever you use that technique where you suddenly disappear, you always come to a stop to use it, don’t you? I was half-doubting when that guy suddenly said that, but seeing as you can’t use it even when pushed like this, I guess he hit the mark.”
“…Huh?”
He had only shown it a few times, and they had already seen through it?
“So what if you did?”
Even if Thunder Transformation was impossible, he had plenty of other means of attack.
Red lightning formed in the sky and plummeted toward the targets.
“Uwaaaaaa…!”
But this, too, was neutralized.
It was because the muscular man, who had recovered in that short interval, had voluntarily charged toward the lightning.
He wondered if the man was just incredibly tough with high natural regeneration, but then he felt the aura of healing. There was a healer among the women.
“…I was going to go easy on you, but you keep rushing toward your deaths.”
There was no limit to the number of lightning bolts he could drop with Astrape, as long as his mana allowed.
“Let’s see if you can endure this as well.”
The blackened sky turned crimson, and spears of red lightning began to pour down like rain.
It was a sight that made one wonder if this was truly divine punishment, but surprisingly, they even managed to overcome this.
While the beast-like man blocked the lightning by relying on the healing power for a brief moment, the blonde woman took a stance and looked up at the sky.
“Haa…!”
The fist she swung with a shout let out a sonic boom and struck the thunderclouds in the sky.
The clouds dispersed as the shockwave imbued with mana tore a massive hole in the sky.
“…Scattering thunderclouds with a shockwave?”
It wasn’t theoretically impossible, but how many superhumans could actually perform such a feat?
Even after that, they stubbornly endured his attacks, and whenever he tried to do something, they rushed in to strike at the slightest opening.
“Whew…”
He was getting annoyed.
He wasn’t a battle maniac who particularly enjoyed fighting, nor was he of a kind enough temperament to overlook low-ranking beings acting up.
“I was being careful in my own way because I didn’t want the women to get hurt, but seeing you resist so desperately must mean there’s no need for that, right?”
You keep crawling back because you have hope.
Then, showing you that even that hope is futile must be the mercy a god can bestow.
You don’t understand.
What it means to make an enemy of light and lightning.
A calamity, a terror—a god reigns because they are a mighty existence that humans can never overcome.
You’ve grown arrogant because you blocked Astrape; now, try enduring Keraunos.
Just before the heroes’ strikes could reach him, his body turned blue, and blue lightning radiated out around him.
A blue-silver thunderbolt, far more intense than the red lightning, swept over the heroes.
“Did you dare to think you had seized victory against a god? Did you have fun thinking you could win?”
No, to be precise, it should have swept over them.
He waited for the dust to settle, ready to sneer at the charred corpses, but the scene that met his eyes was entirely different from what he had expected.
“…There’s no one here?”
There were no charred corpses; in fact, not even a shadow of a person remained.
“What? Where did they all go?”
* * *
“Did I do it right?”
The black-haired child looked at him, tilting its head as if to confirm if it had done well.
“Yes, thank you. Though, if possible, I would have been even more grateful if you had appeared in a slightly more… dignified form.”
“I don’t really understand what you mean.”
“…No, never mind. You did a great job.”
“Then praise me, Dad.”
“…Should we maybe think about that title a bit more?”
I’m truly grateful that you saved our kids, but if you do that, it’s going to be quite troublesome for me in many ways, you know…?