Chapter 225
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 225
Chapter Title: Cocytus's Warning - 2
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Iran Rock
Egg hitting a rock.
That was probably referring to me clashing head-on with Poseidon.
One exchange.
Just a single exchange.
Yet in that one clash, I was forced into pure defense, having to draw out the full power of my three dantians.
And even that wasn't enough to fully block it—my clothes were instantly reduced to rags, both inside and out.
Thank goodness I'd brought nectar-mixed recovery pills. Otherwise, that single exchange earlier would have plunged me straight into qi deviation.
I'd barely managed to prevent the damage from spreading to my newly awakened divine dantian and the new channels, and I'd recovered somewhat.
But if my body, already shaken once, collided again with that monstrous true force...
'Still. I can't back down!! Damn it!'
Any man has moments where he can't retreat, no matter the situation.
Even if it ends in death, there are times he absolutely cannot yield.
The duel between me and the Aloadae had been a clash between kings of the Royal Guard, a war between nations.
But now, the situation had completely changed.
Their guardian god, who had stepped in to protect the Aloadae on the brink of death.
And me, who had become the guardian deity of the new nation of heroes about to be established.
Though I was still just a minor divinity who hadn't fully shed his humanity, while Poseidon was an ancient god who had ruled the seas for an unimaginably long time.
The gap between us was like heaven and earth, incomparable.
But that's exactly why I couldn't retreat.
If I backed down here just because of the difference in hierarchy and power, there really would be no future left to think about afterward.
'And above all....'
Simply put.
I didn't want to back down.
What could I do?
It was just too much fun.
"Kuhuhu!"
My heart pounded like it was about to burst.
Blood surged madly through the barely mended meridians of my ragged body.
My head was on the verge of exploding from calculating thousands of possibilities in the blink of an eye.
My lungs burned bitterly with every ragged breath, as if needles were mixed in the air.
Really.
For the first time in ages, my whole body tingled with the thrill of being alive.
-Kaang!
"Kuh! Kuhuh, kuahaha!!"
[This bastard!]
Once more, I barely deflected the trident's true force and soared through the air.
As expected of Sea King Poseidon.
It was the overwhelming authority befitting the ruler of earthquakes.
However, there was something even in my previous life that countless people mistook when they saw me.
I wasn't primarily about overwhelming force or domineering might—my strengths lay in exquisite technique and deflection.
Because none of the twelve masters who taught me were beings I could overpower with raw strength.
I'd seen countless times what happened if you couldn't deflect: you'd be better off dead.
-Shaaak!
In the midst of my dizzying, spinning vision and the sudden reversal of my sense of balance.
While tumbling aimlessly like a leaf in the wind, my instincts extended the sword tip—and I felt a subtle feedback.
Very small, very faint.
A mere scratch, like a cat's claw on skin.
But it was unmistakably the sensation of a blade cutting flesh.
-Kwaduduk!
Twisting my body mid-air and extending my leg, the earth screamed as it rushed up to meet me like a magnet.
Stabilizing my dizzying vision, I looked up to see Poseidon standing there in stunned disbelief.
[...Huh?]
The blue-skinned god touched his face with his hand.
Staining that hand wasn't human red blood, but the gods' ichor, gleaming ecstatically like molten gold.
The immortal ichor soaked the blue god's palm.
In that first exchange where my entire body had been reduced to rags.
And now, the second exchange ended with my small score.
[Ha! Hahaha!!]
"Kuhuh, kuahaha!"
Poseidon stared blankly at his hand.
I felt like blood might surge from my throat at any moment.
The strongest god of this era and the youngest god of this era burst into laughter in perfect unison.
I don't know why.
I was just glad that once again, my life's great feat had touched a heavenly disaster.
Or maybe I laughed because this precarious, spine-chilling brawl was simply enjoyable.
And perhaps Poseidon, who had ruled boringly for eons, felt much the same.
That was my only thought.
I rose again, from a mere human facing a calamity to a god facing another god.
Poseidon gripped his spear anew, from an executioner punishing rebels to a lord confronting a heaven-defier.
[Now then. Cocytus's boundary stands before us.]
"...Indeed."
One more exchange ahead.
Step into that one, and I'd cross another irreversible river.
A hellish duel that ends only when one of us completely falls or dies.
But there was no reason to refuse.
Standing here like this, the new divine church, the new nation—all of it faded away.
It felt like I'd chugged an entire barrel of liquor; the moment was simply too exhilarating.
I could die like this.
That was how content I felt.
[No thoughts of stopping? End it and retreat. If you do now, no one will dare belittle your feat. If only those children return alive, neither you nor your followers will suffer any harm afterward.]
"Ah~ What're you saying?"
[It's a shame. It's been thousands of years since my blood was last drawn—too regrettable to crush you so soon.]
His face screamed that his hands were itching like mad.
Yet now he spouts such lukewarm nonsense.
"Brother. You're smiling right now too."
[....!]
Poseidon wasn't just a lord who reigned and lorded from on high.
Not merely a king overlooking from his lofty throne.
He was a warrior who had endlessly fought in the fathomless depths where waves crashed and all manner of things rampaged.
That's why I called him the Pirate King.
[Kuhuhu. Yes, that's the spirit. Don't worry. Even if you die today and turn to a handful of dust, I'll pull you from the Styx and let you dwell eternally in the deep seas.]
"Haha! That's mighty generous of you."
I laughed off the sea god's mercy and regripped my sword.
'The final exchange.'
I had to settle it in that one.
Spinning my lightly gripped sword into a reverse hold, I extended my straight arm to aim at Poseidon.
'Tch, if I'd known it'd come to this, I should've held back some strength against those young punks.'
It was a shame.
Not the self-excuse of losing due to no reserves left.
But that this dizzying battle would end so soon, even if just a little longer.
This fight that made my heart race for the first time in ages, reminding me I was alive and breathing—it ending early was what I regretted.
[Great warrior. In honor of you, Triaina shall claim your breath. Your flesh may perish, but your soul shall reign eternally in the deep oceans!]
-Kurrrung!
A colossal wave of unstoppable vibrations surged around the trident in the sea god's hand, rippling like a tsunami.
[Nine Serenities Eight Frozen Sutra.]
-Kwaaaung!
At the tip of the eight cold hells' extremity, the newly dawning eight frosts' inferno settled on my sword tip like frost, chilling even the soul.
The reverse-held sword drew back like a bowstring, the trident raised high to heaven, its tip aimed.
The final exchange.
The irreversible step.
Yet my heart before him was strangely serene.
Ah, right.
Maybe.
This could be what I'd truly been searching for all along.
Such a thought flitted across my sword tip.
The moment the serene sword and vibrating spear were about to clash again.
A golden radiance intervened between them.
[Aegis!!]
If Poseidon's trident was an earthquake itself, the golden shield that appeared evoked an impregnable fortress wall.
It blocked Poseidon's spear as if absorbing every attack, halting my thrust sword as well.
And simultaneously, a beautiful goddess descended from the heavens.
Her steel-silver hair whipping as she arrived, she stood between us with a stern voice.
[Both of you, cease this battle!]
"Ah, Athena?"
The goddess of war, Olympus's judge Athena.
Her intervention was something even I hadn't anticipated.
[Athena! This is no place for you to interfere!]
"Lord Poseidon. Calm yourself. I have come to fulfill my divine duty."
[What!]
Fierce light exploded from Poseidon's eyes as he pressed his Triaina against Athena's Aegis.
But Athena calmly raised a palm-sized stone tablet in her other hand.
"Th-that is...!"
"....?"
What could that small tablet be, to make even Poseidon change color and withdraw his spear?
Regardless of my small question, Athena declared firmly like a judge executing verdict.
"Your sons, the Aloadae, have crossed the irreversible river by Cocytus's decree.
And thus, without any coercion, they willingly engaged in war."
"Kuhm..."
"However, successive Cocytus decrees threaten to disrupt the laws. As executor of Olympus and Greece's order, I intervene to mediate. Both of you, sheathe your blades."
Honestly, I thought Poseidon wouldn't back down so easily.
He was in the heat of it, and I knew how much he cherished his blood kin.
Yet astonishingly, Poseidon fully withdrew his spear aimed at the Aegis and stepped back.
"...?!"
"Dianes. My Archon. The law is solemn. Upholding it is my divine duty. Sheathe your sword. Today's war is your victory."
Chewing on the familiar complexity in those spirited eyes, I had no choice but to withdraw my sword as well.