Chapter 165
Ever since he was born, he never thought that he would lose.
His life had been colored with victories without even having to struggle for them.
To Leon, all other creatures were simply weaklings. Even when he saw them using skills, he never thought that he himself would ever use them. After all, they were just self-defense techniques used by weaklings to scratch at his feet in order to compensate for the difference in their abilities…They were just pointless things.
The humanoids used swords. They had neither fangs nor claws, so they had to use subst.i.tutes to slash at their opponents. But he didn’t need them.
The humanoids wore armor. Since they didn’t have tough bodies, they wanted fake armor in order to better withstand attacks. But he didn’t need them.
In the end, combat equipment were merely subst.i.tutes. From Leon’s perspective, processing the fangs and bones of magical beasts into weapons and armors was nothing more than using the body parts of small fries to make junk for even weaker people.
The same logic applied to skills. Skills that increase strength, skills that increase power, skills that increase damage… How stupid. These skills couldn’t even compare to a single attack of his. Were they not just something to trick children with?
Therefore, the existence of Ruphas was difficult for Leon to understand. She should have just been a weak humanoid. She was just a small ent.i.ty with neither fangs nor claws. However, her power easily surpa.s.sed his own.
He was humiliatingly defeated and then captured. He had lost count of how many times he had bared his teeth in resistance. But every time, he was easily dealt with and brushed aside. She just left him to his own accord. Worse yet, she had even said, “Are there really owners who get angry because they were bitten by their own cats?” …Stop messing around!
To his chagrin, he challenged her many times…and lost many times. And every time, she would say, “Leon, your power is certainly strong. But swinging around blindly in the dark would only waste your strength and your amazing talent. You should learn to use a bit more finesse.”
Stop messing about!
He remembered yelling back in response.
I’m strong. I’m a powerful individual. I don’t need the tricks of weaklings.
But Ruphas said to the ferocious Leon:
“The tricks of weaklings, huh? I see. But Leon, if I were to encounter an enemy who surpa.s.ses me, between you and the weaklings who had these tricks…For example, if I were to choose between you and Aries, I would choose Aries without hesitation. I wouldn’t even bring you along in the first place.”
This was plainly a humiliation. She was implying that he was lower than Aries, even lower than the weakest magical beast.
“You won’t understand if it’s just words, right? Bring it on. I’ll fight with you. I’ve currently suppressed my level to 1000. In terms of status, yours should be much higher than mine. But let me make a prediction…Even as you are now, I’ll still win this fight.”
Stop looking down on me, he had thought.
He vividly remembered responding to Ruphas’ provocation and attacking her in anger. Then, a light tap with her fist had brought him down. Although it was vague, he could still somewhat remember his chin shaking. He had no memories of what had happened after that. When he came to, he was staring at the sky.
Judging from the pain he had felt throughout his entire body, there was no doubt that he had been crushed. He had finally learnt how powerful the tricks of the weaklings that he had looked down upon were.
♌
What Megrez and the others had said was the truth.
From the perspective of Sei and his party, the battle between Leon and Sol was like a battle between G.o.ds. Since the scale and values were so different, it was impossible for them to determine who was winning. They could only see them moving around at high speed. However, even people like them had some feelings about where the scale of victory was leaning towards.
And in reality, it wasn’t merely the tilting of the scale. It was already a dead rubber…Since Leon’s const.i.tution was high, the battle was still ongoing, but nevertheless, the victor had already been decided.
Sol’s punch sent Leon’s huge body flying into the air. The former jumped up after him and kicked him back down. Leon immediately got up and fired a destructive light from his mouth, but just as he perceived that Sol had evaded it, the latter grabbed his tail and threw him away.
“Megrez-sama, this is bad! We should provide some sort of support…”
“We can’t. When they’re fighting at that speed, we’re likely to hit Leon if we provide improper fire support. No, before that, if we provide a.s.sistance to the Lion King, who’s like the embodiment of pride, he would attack us instead.”
It was evident who was going to win. Therefore, Gants suggested that they should provide support, but Megrez rejected the idea. Leon was definitely not their ally. He was merely an enemy of the enemy.
If they interfered, he would erase them first. They couldn’t interfere without getting in the way anyway. While they were talking, the battle had progressed further. Leon finally collapsed on the ground.
“It’s over, Lion King. It’s been fun.”
Sol accelerated in order to deal the finishing blow. He was aiming for the neck…No matter how powerful the Lion King might be, he would not be able to live after being decapitated. He concentrated all of his mana into his knife-hand and swung it down.
However, a small shadow intercepted it from the sky above and caught Sol’s knife-hand with both hands. His rainbow-colored hair swayed and, with a beauty that could be mistaken for a girl, he stared intently straight at Sol.
“Tsk. You…are Aries of the Twelve Stars!?”
“Yah—!”
Sol was caught off guard by the sudden intrusion as Aries, enshrouded in flames, kicked him into the air and jumped after him. Sol immediately spun in mid-air to recover his stance and fired arcane magic at Aries.
However, Aries changed his trajectory by spewing fire from his hands and went around to flank Sol. And this time, he released a flame in order to accelerate himself using the recoil and kicked at Sol.
Although Sol quickly guarded against it, the blow wasn’t light. Sol’s body swiftly descended and crashed into the ground, but the momentum did not stop there. While plowing through the ground, Sol collided with a mountain, penetrated it, and flew out from the other side.
But Sol was the avatar of the Sun Ouroboros. An attack of this level wouldn’t be enough to finish him. He forcibly stopped his body using his leg muscles and met Aries, who was charging in upfront.
However, in the next moment, he felt a chill down his spine and he jumped away from that spot. At the same time, a goat demon bearing a huge scythe emerged from the ground.
“He evaded, huh? …He has good intuition.”
“Aigokeros!?”
“It’s not just them, okay?”
“!”
The place Sol had retreated to was also unsafe. At the same time as Sol heard her voice, Karkinos’ kick sank into his cheek and sent him flying. His body was then caught by an extensible concealed weapon that imitated a scorpion’s tail. Scorpius slammed Sol into the ground, while Aquarius’ water pitcher turned towards him.
“Absolute Zero!”
The chill of Absolute Zero, which could freeze all substances, was directed towards Sol and struck him. The fact that Sol didn’t die from this was already praiseworthy. He jumped and forcibly escaped from the prison of chill, but it was hard to say whether he was actually safe now.
As if he had been waiting for this, Aries’ fist sent Sol flying. The Argonaut who was steering the Argo, Avior of the Carina constellation, chased after him. Despite being a skeleton, he was a heroic spirit. He was an ent.i.ty which made no sense whatsoever. He opened his mouth and concentrated all of his mana there.
—And unleashed it.
The mana, which had been compressed to its limit, became a destructive aurora that flew in a straight line and swallowed Sol. The torrent continued to plow through the ground, eventually flying off into s.p.a.ce. It coincidentally landed on the moon and created a huge mushroom cloud.
And it still didn’t stop. Fire, fire, fire, and—fire.
Magic bullets shot from Avior’s mouth one after another, creating columns of smoke that reached the sky.
But Sol was still alive. He stood with his arms crossed and smoke rising from his body. However, it was not over yet. Pisces laughed as he grabbed Sol’s head from behind.
“Prostrate, you peasant.”
Sol’s head hit the ground.
Refrain from raising your head high. For I, the son of the G.o.ddess, am here. A mere son of an ouroboros has no right to stand beside such a supreme being.
His words were truly arrogant, but he truly had the power to back up his arrogance. Despite having fallen, Sol quickly shook off Pisces’ grip and created some distance between them. What he saw then was a scene filled with hopelessness.
The Argo floated in the sky above and numerous heroic spirits looked down from its decks. On the ground were the Tyrannical Twelve Stars, excluding the Bull and the Scales. The fairy siblings were nowhere in sight…but they were probably somewhere in the ship. The ship couldn’t possibly have come without them.
Even Terra, the son of the Demon King, stood with his sword ready, keeping Sol surrounded.
No matter how he looked at the situation, there was no chance of winning. There couldn’t possibly be any chance of winning. However, Sol’s fearless smile didn’t falter despite this. He was still holding back. He was confident that he could escape from here. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have acted to lure them out.
“I see…Certainly, I was the one who had lured you out, but I wasn’t expecting everyone to show up. Hahaha. This is rather convenient.”
I’ve succeeded in luring them out. In that case, “that” should handle smoothly afterwards. It should be fine if I just retreat now as soon as possible.
Thinking this, Sol spoke in his mind to his absent comrade—Dina.
I’ve played my part. Quickly, open the X-Gate so I can leave this place.
But the response that Sol received was…silence.
No reply came back. There was no reaction at all.
Impossible. This shouldn’t be happening.
There was a connection between the G.o.ddess’ avatar and an ouroboros’ avatar that simply couldn’t be broken. After all, she was the representative of the G.o.ddess in the world and a switch to activate all of the ouroboroses during an emergency, thereby announcing the end of the world. She was the ultimate weapon.
It was impossible that an ouroboros’ avatar could not contact her. In other words, the telepathic message had been intentionally ignored.
………
…I see. Is that it?
Sol suddenly started to laugh.
Oh, I see. Is that it? That’s it, isn’t it?
It was obvious when he thought about it. It should have been easy to notice. It was strange to think that he was the only one who had acquired a sense of self. She was no longer a puppet.
If that was true, everything would make sense. That would explain all of the developments that had seemed so convenient for Ruphas and her group up until now. That would explain why the Twelve Stars were gathered together once more, resulting in such a troublesome situation.
—How fascinating!
Sol realized that there was no way to save himself. He understood that this would be the place where he died. But there was no anger in him. There was no resentment. Instead, he wanted to praise her for successfully deceiving everyone up until now. He wanted to say that her act was impressive.
Sol took a liking to the strong. Be it power or wisdom, it was inevitable that he took a liking to people who exceeded his imagination. This was because it would be boring if the world was exactly as the G.o.ddess and her representative wanted it to be.
Therefore, Sol laughed. Instead of being angry at her deception, he accepted that it was due to his incompetence that he didn’t notice it. He wanted to celebrate her cunningness that lured him to this dead end.
Never mind that things didn’t develop in the way that they were expected to. Never mind that things weren’t following the script. After all, what was so interesting about that third-rate comedy?
“Fine, Dina. Then I’ll meet my end here. But I won’t simply do whatever you want. …A companion. Even if it’s just one person, I’ll bring along a companion with me to h.e.l.l.”
There was no way to retreat. There was no way to advance either. By all means, if his last opponents were to be the Tyrannical Twelve Stars, they would not be lacking as opponents.
However, unexpectedly, it was Leon who stood alone before the fierce Sol. He had changed from his lion form into his humanoid form. He violently knocked away Virgo, who was trying to heal him.
“Don’t do unnecessary things, you dregs. He’s my prey.”
“Huh? Don’t sing your own praises, okay? You were about to lose earlier.”
“…Tsk. Well, I can’t deny it…I can’t win if I remain like this.”
Unexpectedly, Leon mildly acknowledged Scorpius’ ridicule. He cracked the joints of his neck and spat out the blood in his mouth. Then, he sighed heavily and scratched his head.
“Can’t be helped…I don’t like following Ruphas, but…using tricks, huh?”
Leon defenselessly approached Sol with his arms down. Despite being uncomfortable about his demeanor, Sol stepped forward and aimed for his chin. However, Leon lightly knocked his attack away and quickly returned an elbow strike to his chin. His head shaken, Sol fell in a sitting position as Leon looked down at him.
“Hey, just now…”
“Hmm. It’s a skill. Technical Guard…It prevents an opponent’s attack and reduces the damage taken. It’s a skill that’s taught by our master, but this is the first time I’ve seen him using it.”
That was a defensive skill that Leon had never been seen using. Aries was surprised by that, so Aigokeros calmly explained it to him.
Sol stood up and threw a punch, but Leon dodged it with the evasive skill, Abandonment. This was a skill that increased the user’s evasion rate. It was not like Leon to use something like this.
Leon unleashed the double-strike skill, Double Blow, and slammed his fist into Sol’s stomach, blowing him away. The attack was made carefully. Unlike his usual big and forceful swings, it was small and compact.
“Leon can actually fight like this…”
“To begin with, his combat talent was unquestioned. Even if he didn’t have any unique skills, he’s still strong when he gets serious, okay? That guy…makes me sick.”
Scorpius responded with disinterest at Aries’ astonishment. After all, Leon didn’t need such pretentious skills. Rather, he hadn’t needed skills at all. Up until now, he had been engaging in violence solely using his high status. Basically, he had just been using basic attacks. He would still use some skills such as Roar, but those were just novice skills with a wide area of attack.
Yes, he was strong without skills. He stood in the position as the strongest of the Twelve Stars without using any skills. So what would happen if he used skills to the fullest? …That was what the current scene would answer.
But he had never tried to use them. He had thought that it would be his loss if he used the skills that Ruphas taught him. After all, those small tricks (skills) were just the results of the tearful struggles of weaklings. He would have to throw away his pride to use them.
But now, he had let go of it all. He admitted that he couldn’t defeat Sol in his current condition.
“Interesting…Yes, it should be like this! This is what makes fighting worth it!”
Sol clenched his fist and happily charged at Leon. Leon charged in response and their fists collided upfront. But this wasn’t just a simple collision. A lot of skills were activated in that instant and there were multiple feints all over.
They crossed fists and kicks at a speed that was too fast for the eye. Only the sounds of collisions were heard. Unlike the flashy attacks and defenses earlier, they had changed to using plain attacks.
…Well, it was questionable if they could be considered plain since the shockwaves were enough to blow things in the surroundings away. But when compared to the earlier battle, the scale had certainly gone down significantly.
However, the power contained in these attacks were several times that of the previous ones. Their power was not diffused meaninglessly, but rather concentrated into a single point.
Their strengths were almost equal. If Sol were to be boosted by the G.o.ddess, he would still win. But Sol had already taken considerable damage, while Leon had an enormously strong const.i.tution.
Sol’s fist sank into Leon’s stomach and the sound of breaking bones was heard. Meanwhile, Leon’s fist smashed into Sol, shattering his jaw and making it impossible for him to clench his teeth. Their fists collided and crushed each other, while their legs crossed and broke each other.
“Oh—!”
Leon howled.
I’m the strongest. I can’t lose. I don’t have time to be stumbling in a place like this. There are walls that I need to overcome. I can’t lose to someone like you or my soul would cry.
“Wah—!”
Sol howled.
Yes, this is what I’m looking for. There’s nothing interesting about a world where everything happens as one expects. I want something that is beyond what I can think of.
Being able to find such an opponent in this miniature garden of the G.o.ddess caused him to shout with delight. Their abilities were almost equal. In that case, victory would be decided by the strength of their wills.
On one hand, there was one who looked ahead and greedily sought out victory. On the other hand, there was one who was satisfied with the battle itself. The difference between them became evident in the weight of their fists.
They struck each other for only several tens of seconds, but they personally experienced it as a fierce battle that lasted for several hours.
Eventually, it was the white-haired man who fell in the end.
—At the same time, in Helheim…
The heroic spirits who had accompanied Libra were lying on the ground. Their entire bodies were covered in wounds and they vanished into light particles.
Furthermore, Libra and Taurus were pointing their weapons at each other.