Chapter 249
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 249
Chapter Title: Sky-Shattering Single Fist
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-Crunch!
Two fists gathered to their utmost limit, screaming in delight.
-Crack, craaack...!
Two legs planted firmly, crushing the earth like a mountain.
The crackle of sparks was utterly heartwarming.
The scent of the wind sweeping by felt newly welcoming.
“This fresh earth smell brings back fond memories.”
For the first time since coming to this world, I could face a welcoming memory.
“Fist against fist. Strength against strength.”
The warrior who had displayed the most overwhelming divine might with the purest strength in my lifetime.
It was as if the hearty laughter of that bold hero, who shattered mountains with a single fist and cleaved the three rivers of the underworld in a single horn, rode on the breeze.
“Today, you will witness it.”
“Haha...”
At my words, Antaios smiled faintly, revealing his anticipation.
Even without me saying it, he had probably intuited what he would see today.
“There was once a man.”
A peerless fighter whom all warriors, righteous or demonic, had no choice but to admire.
Even the Three Sovereign Demons, who had attained godlike power, had shown him respect.
There existed a demonic god of martial arts who had transcended to the pinnacle with nothing but his two fists.
“Hoo...”
“One who yearned solely for pure strength, never succumbing to petty tricks or divine ultimate arts, walking alone and supreme until he achieved the unprecedented—where qi followed the heart, not the other way around! A revolutionary warrior!”
A true demon who proved that will could pierce the world, command the spirit, and ultimately conquer even heaven's mandate.
“The Ultimate Fist Demon. The one who reached the pinnacle of martial arts.”
Yet in the Heavenly Demon Divine Church, he was called differently: the demon who had reached the extreme and shattered even the heavens.
As I lost myself in memories of that great feat and the awe-inspiring prowess of that one man, the sudden quiet around me pulled me back to reality.
“...You started the first clash. This time, it's mine.”
“Haha, I might've interrupted... Come on!”
Despite his boiling spirit, beyond my coldly sharpened vision, Antaios raised his guard with a tense laugh.
His aura was solid and flawless, like a fortress wall rising up.
However, the technique I was about to unleash was the ultimate masterpiece that the Martial God—who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts and was revered for shattering the heavens—perfected at the end of his life, never passed to anyone or anywhere.
“Heaven-Shattering Fighting Demon Art, First Stance.”
That single fist made the great earth tremble in fear.
This was the Earth-Shaking Fist.
-Boom!
“Krhaaaap!”
With the explosive sound of kicking off the ground, the surroundings blurred past.
From deep in my lungs erupted something—laughter or a shout, I couldn't tell.
But it didn't matter what it was.
This was a memory from long ago, the one and only recollection from my long years that made me smile.
Revived after so long, every cell in my body, every muscle, my demonic energy and divine power—all were cheering and surging in response.
“?!”
Before Antaios, who had raised his guard tightly even without blinking, could react, I appeared before him, and the heaven-shattering fist crashed onto his blue fortress wall.
-Boom!
“Kuhk!”
Just as I had been pushed back by his blow, Antaios let out a scream and flew backward from the earth-shaking fist.
-Scraaape!
Yet his blue legs, firmly rooted to the ground, didn't buckle; they carved long scars into the earth but held firm.
His trembling arms from the impact still rigidly protected his head and vital points, maintaining his defensive stance.
“Hoo...”
I'd thought he wasn't one to take lightly, but even a casual jab like this was the final ultimate technique of the Ultimate Fist Demon, one of the Twelve Divine Demons.
To block it unscathed...
“You make me even more delighted.”
“Haha... Yes, it's got a bit of spice. Is that all?”
“Haha, hardly.”
The sacred flames still burned high, and the night sky, laden with sea breeze, had much further to flow.
“I want to run to the end with you today.”
“Hahaha! Even if I die today, no regrets!”
By now, Antaios, I, and everyone gathered in this arena had realized one thing.
Today's challenger was not me—it was Antaios, and I was the one who had accepted his challenge and taken my place here.
“If I defeat you, all this land becomes mine? Then, if you survive this night... you might just claim an immense gift.”
“T-That sounds mighty tempting!”
No more words.
My excitement was at its peak, my fighting spirit piercing the heavens.
All that remained was to dance with life and death to my heart's content after so long.
“Hraaaap!”
“Kraaaak!”
Overwhelming force against overwhelming force, audacity against audacity.
The precarious dance, unpredictable even a step ahead, had only just begun.
“Huh?”
The first to notice something different was Nesneria, the sea goddess—not Dianes.
Because she had watched Dianes longer and knew him better than anyone.
She realized the Dianes rising below was utterly different from before.
“He's changed.”
“Pardon?”
Tingga, Antaios's wife sitting beside her, turned at Nesneria's absentminded mutter.
“It's nothing.”
As if it were nothing.
Though she brushed it off, the Dianes readjusting his stance below was at the height of exhilaration, more fired up than ever in her eyes.
Always leisurely, hands behind his back as if on a stroll, never stepping more than half a pace—Dianes evoked the image of a noble kingdom's prince.
Did he know that his innate elegance and that mysterious charm he tried to hide had unwittingly enchanted every woman in Pasos, leading Nesneria to play the fool in love?
And that relaxed demeanor was the same on battlefields and in fights—whether repelling assassins targeting her in Pasos or laying out Poseidon's soldiers to rescue her from her foolish big sister's palace.
Dianes's posture, who had never widened his stride, had changed dramatically.
Two legs planted wide like a mountain.
His left arm aimed at Antaios like an arrowhead ready to fly, his right fist clenched tight, snarling like a beast in the grass.
His thick black hair surging with an intangible aura, and below it, a pair of black eyes gleaming like ferocious beasts.
Dianes seemed infinitely small and slender compared to Antaios.
Yet now, a heavy pressure crushed all directions, as if this vast arena lay in the palm of his hand.
And then the savage charge began.
Like a war god lost in battle, fighting and fighting with nothing but ferocious joy flashing in his eyes, Dianes relentlessly exchanged fists with Antaios.
Long ago, when Poseidon and Amphitrite showed her the annex built for her, they had displayed a black volcano on the verge of eruption.
Even in her young heart, Nesneria had sensed something massive was coming, clutching her fist tight in her sister's embrace.
The volcano had roared massively, unleashing its fury before her.
Dianes now seemed just like that volcano, surging and boiling.
-Gulp.
'Dianes... What in the world are you...?'
How much more would he startle her?
How much more would he make her heart race?
First, with a pathos unlike any boy's, drawing her into darkness.
Then, with audacity and turmoil unlike any hero's, captivating her.
And as a lover, with passion that soaked her through and a subtly coercive side, she had matched him in indulgence.
She had thought she knew all there was to this man called Dianes, yet here he revealed yet another face.
“Hng...♡”
On nights after fierce battles with Poseidon—especially the more intense the fight—the fiercer Dianes claimed her.
He had pinned and bound the innocent princess, ignorant even of a noble's semen, until just thinking of him or seeing him soaked her utterly.
And above all, the tenderness in lightly laughing off the heavy oracle that weighed on her, saying instead to await the child who would surpass him.
“Um, Tingga?”
“Y-Yes?!”
“...Never mind.”
Nesneria, about to request a quiet room for the night ahead, quietly closed her mouth at Tingga's rapt gaze below.
“Yes, now's the time to watch.”
She was as enchanted by Dianes as her rivals who craved him were many.
That red-haired Atalanta, who had formally tied herself to Dianes; Eris, claiming to be his sister and clinging persistently.
And what of Nemesis, the cold judge whose face flushed red?
To claim superiority among such rivals, she needed to know Dianes the man even a little more.
And for Nesneria, that was nothing but pure delight.
“I wonder... what you'll show me this time?”
*Lick.*
Wetting her lips lightly, Nesneria once more immersed herself in the hero's clash with the giant.