Chapter 95
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Revived Myth
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The one thing I demanded when Heracles entrusted me with the oath of the River Styx was simple.
Charge at me with killing intent, but do everything in your power not to die.
In other words, I'd come at him with killing intent too, so he had to match it.
"What?"
At the same moment, I felt the oaths engraved in both our hearts slowly activate, exerting their coercive force.
An intangible energy rose around Heracles like a heat haze.
An oath bound by the goddess of the deep abyss, older and more powerful than the gods' divinity, was never made lightly.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Timing like this doesn't wait for half-assed prep. No matter how intense, I need to skip a few stages fast."
The one surefire way to grow stronger quickly.
Life-or-death battles with powerful, dangerous foes—that was it.
"Tch... You'll regret this?"
"You'd better make me. I don't wanna die before graduation."
Even gods who broke a River Styx oath fell into a deathlike slumber under the goddess's curse for ages, while mortals' souls plummeted to Tartarus.
Heracles had no choice anyway.
Though he seemed flustered at first, he soon steadied his expression, assumed the stance I'd taught him, and aimed his fist at me.
"So I can go all out, no holding back?"
"Hold back, and you die."
"Can't do that."
"I'd be grateful if you died in my place."
"Bullshit!"
-Boom!
Like a massive cannon shell, Heracles charged in a perfect tackle stance.
His enormous arms crossed in an X, guarding his face solidly beneath.
All that relentless training and beatings had paid off—a flawless tackle guard.
"Zeeeeus!!!"
"Ngh...!"
Normally, I'd dodge and counter in a head-on clash like this.
But even as I shuddered at his momentum, I braced myself and met the impact.
-Kwang!
"Grahhh!!!"
"...!!"
It felt like getting rammed by a wild boar—no, an elephant.
Overwhelming power from that giant frame, incredible speed, pinpoint accuracy in the body slam.
Heracles and I were flung off the cliff in an instant, soaring through the air.
-Whiiing!
A dizzying sense of weightlessness enveloped us.
But before that even registered, we both spotted the openings—fists and kicks flying at each other.
-Pang! Pwoong! Bang!
Dozens of exchanges erupted midair in a flash.
Grabbing his massive fist—like it could split logs—with both hands and spinning into a kick; that kick blocked by a pot-lid-sized palm trying to grab and hurl me back.
Every clash tore the air and shook our ears with explosions.
A razor-thin duel where the slightest lapse or error meant instant death.
And its abrupt end came courtesy of the rapidly approaching ground.
-Kwang!
Our palms met in midair.
A dizzying shock like hammering metal surged up my arms; as we reeled back, the lesser heroes gazing down at me in stunned slow-motion flashed by overhead.
-Thud!
-Pwooom!!
I rolled with the impact, flipping neatly to land on my feet.
Heracles, meanwhile, rocketed straight into the sea's center, kicking up a massive tidal wave.
"Whoaaa!"
"What the hell is this now?!"
"Everyone evacuate! Evacuate!"
"Evacuate? Hold the formation now! Didn't you hear me?!"
The lesser heroes who'd been closing in to surround me scattered in panic from the wall of water.
Jason and Theseus dashed about trying to contain the chaos.
But I had no time for that.
"Damn, you've grown."
-Fwoooom!
A colossal wave aimed squarely at me, whipped up by Heracles.
Beneath it, the great hero charged with lightning crackling over his body, eyes locked on me.
-Kuhwaaa!!
Pure demonic energy, not divine demonic qi since no divinity was mixed in.
If my divine power was the pitch-black night of the new moon, demonic qi was utter jet-black devouring all impurities.
Fierce, wild—the most savage energy that could swallow even its user if they weren't careful.
That was demonic qi.
I'd mastered divine power as much as I could, so now it was time to hone the demonic qi from the demonic arts I'd resumed alongside the Ghostless Heart Art.
And my target? Heracles, who looked ready to awaken his own divine power any moment.
"Asura Reverse Heaven Art."
Just voicing the name set my whole body’s demonic qi roiling, trying to devour me.
The strongest demon lord in Demonic Cult history, who dared challenge the Heavenly Demon realm alone.
Leader of the Twelve Divine Demons, who united twelve demon lords to forge a demonic realm in the Three Paths of Reincarnation rivaling Yama King himself.
True Demon, Asura Demon Lord.
Among the distinctly individualistic Twelve Divine Demons, the strongest, most vicious—the worst master was still a towering wall to me, a figure even I revered after reaching the Heavenly Demon realm.
And this damned mythic world forced me to draw that ferocious true demonic art.
-Kugagaga!
Through my blackened vision, I clearly saw Heracles leaping across the waves, tidal surge in tow.
As expected of the great hero destined for the lofty, mighty divinity of Strength and Heroes.
Charging at my still-terrifying Reverse Heaven Art without a trace of fear in his eyes.
Just burning with fighting spirit, as if to say, Is that all you've got? Let's clash for real.
Then I had a duty to meet him head-on.
From time immemorial, facing heroes was the asura's obligation, wasn't it?
With a satisfied grin, I slowly unleashed the demonic qi cloaking my body.
"Roaring Wave."
It appeared so abruptly, it felt unreal.
A lightning-charged tidal wave poised to devour the land.
Opposing it, a jet-black abyss evoking defiant Tartarus.
Their training hadn't been in vain; those who'd escaped the shore before the wave hit halted far off, transfixed by the overwhelming spectacle.
Until moments ago, it had been just Heracles—and Dianes, who'd fallen with him.
The lesser heroes, fired up to take us both at once, could only gape at the mythic scene unfolding.
"No way..."
"H-ha...haha. Insane."
Had the gods' wrath descended?
The tidal wave surging to swallow Hero's Grove entire, and the abyss surpassing it that even gods would fear—all stood mesmerized, heads craned upward.
The winged twins sired by the north wind.
The Artemis-worshipping hunters.
The two women rushing to worry for their lovers.
The half-human half-beast and nymphs drawn by the commotion beyond the barrier.
The bard with his lyre.
The Theban commander rallying the lesser heroes.
Even the brilliant strategist blinded by jealousy.
All lumped together as frail mortals witnessing calamity, eyes fixed on the colossal clash.
The two forces—swift yet languid in their mutual charge—drew inexorably closer.
And collided.
-!!
Some later recalled it as two monsters roaring in fury.
Others chronicled it as the light and darkness birthed when the primordial egg shattered.
Still others shuddered, claiming the Titanomachy reborn—the war of Zeus and Cronus.
No one dared voice what sound it made; some even weakly dismissed it as illusion.
Yet none blamed them.
How easily could one believe that those reenacting this majestic myth's fragment...
Were two extraordinary lesser heroes they'd shared meals and wine with?
But the myth didn't end with one clash.
-Rumble!
The massive wave that should've shattered and scattered on impact howled defiance against the abyss.
Absorbing it, the abyss shoved back viciously, crushing down.
In rebellion, the wave's colossal force lifted the abyss like Atlas shouldering the heavens.
-Kuwaaaak!
-Rooooar!
As all stared spellbound at the spectacle...
A few experts focused intently on the figures battling fiercely below.
At the heart of the colliding titans.
Two silhouettes darting 'twixt earth, sea, and sky had long surpassed human limits.
"Zeeeeus!!!"
The giant hero chanting the supreme god's name, wielding supreme lightning in his grip.
Each swing of radiant bolts shook the air, surging waves skyward.
"Kuhahaha!!"
The black demon laughing throatily as if scorning gods, wielding pitch-black authority.
Like Hekatonkheires reborn, his twelve arms made the abyss writhe and the earth groan.
"...Cronos, my god."
The half-human half-beast sage couldn't close his mouth, chills racing down his spine.
A long-forgotten war—even hazy to him—from ancient times...
The war with the giant Titans shaking earth and grasping sky seemed reborn right before his sacred grove.