[After the Seclusion]
"Hahahaha!"
In a corner of the grand and expanded Tegea Palace, a massive roar erupted from the training hall exclusively for the Great Hero, a space designed by Dianes himself.
The protagonist of that roar was none other than Heracles.
The son of Zeus, the Great Hero of prophecy. The hero of peerless strength, acknowledged by all as having no equal, had finally emerged after nearly a month of seclusion.
"Haa! I thought I was going to die of boredom. But I did it!"
Even as he squinted at the sunlight he hadn't seen in so long, Heracles smiled with pride, looking down at the tattered papyrus scrolls in his hands.
"I finally pulled it off! It was so difficult that even Athena would have wept, and Ares would have thrown his hands up in frustration. But I did it!!"
The two scrolls Dianes had left behind. Heracles had secretly envied how Iason and Atalanta had shown off such strange and mysterious divine power and prowess after being taught martial arts by him. Of course, with his innate divine power and awakened aura, surpassing them wasn't exactly a difficult task. But even to Heracles' eyes, the martial arts Dianes taught and his friends demonstrated were all incredibly profound and superior.
As someone born with physical capabilities several times that of an ordinary demigod, Heracles knew better than anyone—perhaps even better than the practitioners themselves—just how fluid and sharp the sword Iason wielded was, and how profound the punches and kicks Atalanta unleashed were.
Perfect balance. Perfect flow.
The swords of Iason and the Phesacaines flowed as sharply and bitingly as the cold winds along the banks of the Cocytus River, while the brutal fist and foot techniques Atalanta displayed showed a flexible balance that would never falter, even if he were to charge at her.
What did this mean? It meant that when it came to martial arts, Dianes possessed knowledge and foresight that surpassed even his mentor, Chiron. For a hero who had to build a legacy, these realizations inside that black-haired head were things he had to obtain by any means necessary!
It was enough to make his mouth water. He had set aside his pride and followed Dianes around, trying to catch a glimpse of even a fragment of those arts. And as if to reward his dedication, before Dianes suddenly departed, he had left him two secret manuals. Their titles were so magnificent and poetic that Heracles couldn't help but be in awe.
It had to be true, for no one could create such profound secret arts otherwise. In reality, Dianes had simply translated his own realizations, perspective, and experiences as the greatest of his era into these terms, and he had been too lazy to worry about the details of the titles, so he had translated them roughly. Unexpectedly, it had resonated deeply with Greek sensibilities.
"Kuh... They say everyone from the elderly farmers to the young children among the Hyperboreans are excellent poets. Even the names of their martial arts are so stylish!"
But it wasn't just the names that were impressive.
In the past, Heracles' aura could be described as "forceful" at best, or "ignorant and crude" at worst—he relied solely on his massive capacity and just blasted it out. Well, according to the Greek perception that "strength equals good," Heracles' aura boasted a very exhilarating and masculine charm. However, from the perspective of a martial artist, the problem was that it was simply too excessive—so much so that even Chiron shook his head and Dianes agonized over it. The aura's momentum, once unleashed, was like a raging thunderstorm that was impossible to control, which was quite a headache for Heracles.
And the aura control method Dianes had brought—the secret art he called Shin-gong—solved his dilemma in one fell swoop.
The Sumi-Cheonwang-Shin-gong (Heavenly King Divine Art of Mount Sumeru) of the Hwangbo Clan. It was the exclusive secret of the Hwangbo Clan, a divine art that inherited the secrets of the long-destroyed Mount Tai Sect. As a divine art that supported the peerless force of the Hwangbo Clan's techniques, it boasted the weight and solidity of Mount Tai. Furthermore, having been refined by a peerless martial artist who had ascended to the rank of the greatest under heaven, the Sumi-Cheonwang-Shin-gong in Heracles' hands had reached a realm that even the Hwangbo Clan had never dared to dream of.
Heracles, who had thickly inherited the blood of Zeus, the wielder of lightning, could now easily digest and perfectly control his own massive, wild aura.
They were truly martial arts meant for Heracles.
"I don't know where Mount Sumeru is, but it must be a place where gods gather, comparable to Olympus."
-Vwooom!
He raised his fist, as large as a cauldron lid, high into the sky and drew up his aura according to the divine art. His Dantian, located near his lower abdomen, twitched, and a transparent aura bloomed elegantly from his hand.
If his old aura had been a rough, burning, and flickering lightning bolt, the aura now swirling around his hand resembled a formless power. It was a transparent lightning aura—pure and lethal, capable of transforming into a bolt of lightning or a spear at any moment according to his will.
"Hup!"
He lifted a finger, aimed at a leaf on a tree about fifty paces away, and focused. His vision sharpened instantly, making the distant leaf appear as if it were right in front of him, and a small burst of aura shot from his fingertip, precisely targeting the leaf's veins.
-Crackle!
"Nice!"
The tree and the branches were all perfectly fine, but the leaf alone had been precisely pulverized into dust. It was the result of perfect balance and concentration—the Jeong-Gi-Sin (Essence, Energy, and Spirit) emphasized repeatedly in the secret arts—which would have been impossible for the Heracles of the past.
"Hehehehe..."
Heracles had a somewhat simple side. He possessed the tenacity to push until he succeeded if he acknowledged and was convinced of something, along with the strength to make it possible. Even for such a Heracles, practicing the circulation of aura using the secret art Dianes had left behind was a massive hurdle.
Setting aside the martial arts that came with it, Heracles had to sweat blood just to fully understand the secret art called the "Breath of the Heavenly King." He had become so immersed in the Cheonwang-Shin-gong that he forgot about food, sleep, and even his usual lust for women.
The only task Dianes had given him before leaving: to circulate the aura within his body through every nook and cranny and return it to the Dantian. He had thrown himself into training with the mindset that he would understand what it meant once he actually tried it, regardless of the theory.
For the first week, he had read the secret manual patiently, engraving every character into his mind. From the second week, he had poured all his efforts into creating a vessel called the Dantian below his navel, following the secret art he had memorized. By the third week, he could feel the aura that had been scattered throughout his body slowly filling his Dantian, and he became aware of the existence of the aura blooming everywhere.
And the fourth week. At the end of a month of training, Heracles succeeded in circulating the aura from his Dantian from head to toe and connecting it back to the Dantian.
"Amazing. Truly amazing...!"
His aura had originally been spread densely throughout his body, almost comparable to his blood. He had once wondered if anything would change by moving that aura along the body's meridians, but as soon as he finished one cycle, such doubts vanished like dew.
When he practiced martial arts to clear his head, his bones and muscles, which used to ache after a thousand swings, remained steady even after five thousand. His stomach, which used to growl with hunger, fell silent instantly, and his entire body surged with vitality even though he hadn't eaten or drunk anything. Furthermore, every time the aura wrapped around his body, his mind cleared and his body felt light, making him feel incredibly refreshed.
The body of a Great Hero, born perfect. Intense strength and physical ability almost comparable to a god. Because of that, the mortal flesh, which was bound to stand out, had been a limitation. Even though Heracles was born with the fate of a Great Hero, he was born with a partially mortal body. The limitations of the flesh, which had been very faint but still caused Heracles discomfort, were now fading—if only a little, just a tiny bit.
The burden of the flesh was disappearing, and pure power was taking its place. In short, Heracles could tell he was becoming closer to a god.
Like his father Zeus, like his brothers Ares, Apollo, and Athena, his body was becoming pure and powerful.
"Hehehehe...!"
He knew it too. He had only taken his first step. But as he vaguely realized where the end of that step would lead, Heracles couldn't stop laughing. He trembled with the joy surging through his entire body.
-Grrr-rumble!
"Oops. I should fill my stomach first."
His stomach, which had only been moistened by the spring water in the training hall for nearly a month, was churning.
"I wonder if Dianes has returned?"
Even though he had only taken his first step, Heracles still had many questions. Should he ask this first? Should he ask that first? As he pondered and moved his feet, a strange vibration tickled the soles of his feet.
"...What is this?"
Was Uncle Poseidon performing divine work in this distant land? Just as he was about to brush it off as nothing, he realized that the aura felt between the vibrations was quite familiar.
"Atalanta?"
In current Greece, Atalanta was the only one besides Dianes and Heracles who had awakened her aura. But Atalanta, of all people, using her aura to cause such vibrations?
"Did those crazy twins invade again?"
Heracles, who had naturally learned the Gyeongsin-gong (Lightness Art) while practicing Dianes's secret arts, kicked off the ground. He instantly vaulted over the palace roof and headed toward the source of the vibrations.
"Uh...?"
The place he landed was a massive Colosseum that he didn't remember being built. Heracles, who had landed on top of it, couldn't help but doubt his eyes, which had become clearer than ever before.
"Kwahahaha! What are you doing, Thespios!!"
"Uwaaaah!"
-Uwaaaa!!
In the center of it all was Atalanta swinging a naval anchor connected by chains, and a familiar man desperately running around to avoid it.
"Isn't that supposed to be my role...?"
Heracles shook his head, wondering why the world seemed to be turning upside down.