"Where's the Titan?" Standing on the empty platform, Aeolos looked around in confusion but saw nothing. Soon, however, an intense spatial disturbance rippled before him. A towering giant tore through the space in front of Aeolos and appeared.
With the giant's arrival, a wave of golden blood energy spread out, carrying a suffocating pressure.
"This is a real Titan, not a spiritual imprint!" Aeolos' expression grew serious as he gazed at the imposing black-haired, golden-eyed giant. As a member of the Synapse Empire, he couldn't possibly not recognize a Titan. Even though he had never seen one, Titan myths were widely spread throughout the empire. Everyone knew about them.
"They can summon a real Titan?" Aeolos' thoughts raced. "This goes beyond mere influence. The hand pushing me forward must be closely tied to the Titan race!"
Before Aeolos could think further, the Titan, who had been summoned by a spiritual message and transported here, glanced at him and frowned.
"So, you're the one challenging me today? Why are you so weak?"
"I…" Aeolos opened his mouth to say something but, standing before the towering Titan enveloped in vigorous blood energy, he found himself at a loss for words.
The Titan called him weak, and Aeolos had no rebuttal. From the stories passed down, Titans were known to be invincible in their ranks. Only Titans could defeat Titans.
"What a waste of time!" The young Titan, lured here by some unknown force, glanced over Aeolos and seemed to notice something. He scoffed dismissively.
"Can you temporarily unlock the shackles?"
"What shackles?" Aeolos immediately caught on to the key phrase, his expression tightening.
"Tch!" The young Titan didn't answer. Instead, lightning chains appeared across his body, then fused into him. Instantly, the Titan's aura began to drop rapidly, his overwhelming blood energy receding, and his enormous frame shrunk quickly.
"Not going to answer?" Aeolos frowned as the Titan, now sealing his own power, seemed unwilling to explain. The Titan had already drawn his weapon.
"Now you're ready to fight me!" said the Titan, whose size had now shrunk to match Aeolos'. Without giving Aeolos another chance to speak, the Titan gripped a large sword and advanced toward him.
With each step the Titan took, a tremendous pressure, different from the blood energy earlier, weighed down on Aeolos. His eyes grew more serious, and he buried his questions deep within.
Boom! Without further words, Aeolos drew his sword, and both he and the self-sealed Titan disappeared from their spots. Their swords clashed, and a shockwave spread out from the impact.
...
"You're… not bad." The Titan looked down at Aeolos, who lay panting on the ground, and nodded slightly.
"That counts as 'not bad'?" Aeolos, lying on the ground in tattered clothes, asked with a gloomy tone. Shallow cuts marked his forehead, throat, neck, and chest—barely grazing his skin.
These wounds had been left by the Titan, each precisely cutting his vital points. In a real battle, each of these strikes would have been fatal.
"Of course, it's not bad. How old are you now?" Despite having thoroughly dominated Aeolos throughout their sparring session, the Titan didn't underestimate him.
"I'm twenty-one," Aeolos replied, feeling dejected after being completely crushed by the Titan's superior skills.
"Twenty-one? Do you know how old I am? I'm almost sixty. At your age, a Titan would barely be able to swing a weapon! For you to perform this well is already impressive."
"Twenty-one may be young for Titans, but I'm not a Titan!" Aeolos half-tested, half-sighed, still believing that he was just a human with a special bloodline.
The self-sealed Titan chuckled but didn't respond. He simply vanished.
As soon as the Titan disappeared, a powerful spatial force enveloped Aeolos, pulling him out of the arena designed for Titans.
...
"It's almost time for you to break into the Soul Intent level, my son. You'll face Titan after Titan, and during those battles, you'll finally realize your non-human identity!" Muria, the towering emperor in the grand palace, spoke softly, filled with anticipation for his son.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the palace, a blonde, horned little dragon girl squatted at a door, racking her brain on how to break the seals on it. In the radiant, holy realm of the Seraphim, a small girl with long hair and ten pure white wings flirted with a dignified seraph. And in the Titan lands, a petite girl, wearing armor and wielding a hammer, smashed it into the chin of a similarly small Titan.
Blood crackling with lightning sprayed from the Titan's mouth along with shattered teeth. As the Titan crumpled to the ground, he tried to stand, but the girl—Katya—stepped forward mercilessly and stomped on his chest.
Crack! A clear, sharp sound of bone breaking echoed as the Titan's chest visibly caved in. Despite this grievous injury, the Titan showed no signs of weakness.
"Do you yield?" Katya asked coldly, hammer in hand, her foot firmly planted on the other Titan's chest.
"I…" The downed Titan raised his head, trying to maintain his pride, but when he met Katya's gaze and saw her raise the hammer again, his resolve wavered.
"I yield!" he said through gritted teeth. Though humiliated, there was no point in arguing—he had been utterly defeated.
"Hand it over!" Katya demanded.
"Here!" The defeated Titan, pained, reluctantly pulled out a fist-sized lump of refined gold and handed it to her.
"Good." Katya took the gold, then scanned the area. "Who else wants to fight? I'll bet this refined gold!"
"I'll take you on!" A fierce-looking female Titan strode confidently toward her.
...
"Another Titan's Trial Token." Aeolos looked at the item he had just obtained from the labyrinth, his expression calm. He had grown used to it by now—he had lost count of how many Titan Trial Tokens he had collected over the years.
"This might as well be called the 'Titan Beating Token!'" Aeolos joked bitterly. Each time he was transported for these supposedly fair duels with Titans, it felt more like receiving a thorough beating.
Of course, these "beatings" came with benefits. Aeolos' combat skills improved rapidly, and his cultivation reached the peak of the Gold level. He was preparing to break into the Soul Intent level.
With a self-deprecating laugh, Aeolos crushed the token, and the familiar spatial power enveloped him once more.
"You're Aeolos, right?" A Titan, who had thoroughly beaten Aeolos, asked before leaving.
"Yes!" Aeolos, still lying on the ground, his mind replaying the recent fight, perked up and quickly responded.
"With your current abilities, you should be able to sense your own soul by now."
"Yes," Aeolos nodded. After sensing his soul, he immediately noticed something strange, as if his soul was being bound by something.
"Get ready to break through to the Soul Intent level. And remember to prepare elemental crystals, as many as you can!" With that advice, the Titan disappeared, leaving Aeolos no chance to ask more questions.
"How many elemental crystals do I need to prepare?" Aeolos asked in vain—the Titan had already vanished.
...
"This is the place prepared for my breakthrough? Father, you've truly thought of everything. Whatever I need, you've already arranged for it."
Deep in another labyrinth, after defeating the final lord monster, Aeolos found the treasure it had been guarding—a massive elemental pool brimming with pure elemental power.
"A pool connected to the Elemental Plane. What a grand gesture!" Aeolos hesitated for a moment, then jumped in. Although it seemed everything had been planned for him, everything he gained was beneficial.
Rumble—
The moment Aeolos entered the pool, the nearly tangible elemental energy within began pouring into his body, as if a massive black hole had appeared inside him, devouring the elemental power.
The surging flow of elements created a roaring sound, and as the immense elemental power flooded into him, Aeolos' body began to grow larger...
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