In the early morning, a resplendent dawn painted the eastern sky, and the air was veiled in a gossamer mist.
In his room, the young man whose eyes mirrored the color of the sun opened them.
A day or two had passed since he slew the Heretical Surya.
During their battle, Surya had not attempted to escape the lock-on of Vasavi Shakti. Instead, he chose to unleash his own Authority, seeking to block the God-Slaying Spear of the Divine King Indra.
As a deity as ancient as Indra, Surya was fully aware that the spear's power was great enough to blast Indra himself into oblivion. Once targeted, it was a path to certain death.
Yet, he faced it head-on.
Unsurprisingly, his Authority failed to stop the spear—a fate that, once locked, could only be escaped by killing its wielder.
And so, Surya died.
Upon completing the god-slaying, Li Zihan was drawn into the Astral Plane for the rebirth ritual where he received two gifts: the Authority "Fire-Thief" and the divinity of Surya.
To be honest, even Pandora, who presided over the ritual, was stunned.
The God-Slaying ritual was only supposed to grant the God-Slayer constitution and Authorities.
Yet, Li Zihan had obtained divinity.
Divinity on par with a chief god, no less.
Frankly, Li Zihan suspected it was no longer accurate to call himself human.
After all…
In his original legend, Karna was destined to ascend to the heavens after death and merge with his father to become the sun god. Thus, his divinity and Surya's fused together with perfect, natural synergy.
The divinity was so dense it had condensed into a Divine Core.
Considering Surya's status in Hindu mythology, this Divine Core was that of a chief god.
Can a human who possesses a Divine Core truly be called human?
From a purely material standpoint, Li Zihan felt he had little in common with humanity. Yet, from an idealistic one, he still felt human. Since this delved into the realm of philosophy, he contemplated it for a full thirty seconds, concluded it was a problem he was unlikely to solve, and promptly abandoned the line of thought.
Then there was the Authority from Prometheus: Fire-Thief.
Its effect was identical to the Prometheus Tablet that Kusanagi Godou used to slay gods—it could steal a portion of a god's power and seal it away. The only difference was that the upper limit of Fire-Thief was vastly superior to that of the so-called divine artifact.
Li Zihan had tested it on Kusanagi Godou, and the result was phenomenal. He stripped away the entire Authority of [The Persian Warlord].
Then, as a matter of course, Li Zihan killed him.
It was a necessary, calculated move.
The Three-God-Garment he sought required a trinity of divinities: Creation, Balance, and Destruction.
He now had the divinity of Creation. Surya was born from the body of the creator god Brahma, and the Divine Core formed from his fusion with Karna naturally fulfilled this condition.
The divinity of Destruction remained an unknown.
But the divinity of Balance was easy to find. The King of the End in this world, Rama, was the seventh avatar of Vishnu from the Hindu Trimurti; he undoubtedly possessed it. As the greatest hero of Indian mythology, Luo Aotian's status was in no way inferior to the sun god Surya's. And to face him, the Fire-Thief Authority was absolutely essential.
However, Fire-Thief could only store one Authority at a time. To acquire a new one, the old one had to be returned. Li Zihan was counting on Fire-Thief to deal with that slacking prince, the Heretical Rama, which meant he couldn't keep [The Persian Warlord] stored indefinitely.
So, he experimented. He tried to see if by killing Kusanagi Godou, he could make the Authority lose its vessel and recognize him as its new master.
The experiment was a success.
The Authority of [The Persian Warlord] became his, and the storage slot for Fire-Thief was freed up.
Next, I should probably invite Fu Hua—the African Chieftain who's been hunting for a Heretical God for a week without any luck—to slay the Sage Ape King. Then I can head to Shenzhou, stir up some trouble, and snatch Luo Hao's Authority, the young man mused, realizing he no longer needed to hunt down every God of Steel just to obtain a power of plunder.
The Ultimate Freeloader's Art. That's what Fire-Thief was.
Snatch any Authority he coveted, then eliminate the original owner to claim it permanently. The same logic would apply if someone else did the killing for him.
"Prometheus really is a generous one," he sighed, already putting his father's gift to its most malicious use.
Come to think of it, if he were to snatch an Authority similar to the Ring of Usurpation from a God of Steel, wouldn't that mean killing one monster would net him three drops? One from Fire-Thief, one from the Steel Authority itself, and one from the God-Slaying ritual.
Li Zihan sank into contemplation.
He felt as though he had stumbled upon a truly extraordinary method for leveling up.
So thinking, he decided to get up and put his theories into practice.
But—
As he lifted the blanket, he froze.
A small, soft form was nestled against him. The gentle, even rhythm of her breathing seemed to tap against his heart, coaxing it to beat in time with hers.
Never mind. I'll let Seele sleep a while longer.
The young man, who had slipped into Seele's room the previous night and carried her to his own bed, carefully pulled the blanket back over her.
Last night, upon noticing that the number of girls surrounding a certain scumbag had increased yet again, Miss Seele had become a little jealous. Goaded on by Black Seele, she had intended to leverage the Herrscher of Death's regenerative abilities to drain him completely, leaving him with no energy for any mischief.
The final result…
Let's just say that cleaning the room afterward was so troublesome that his only recourse was to use time magic to rewind it to its previous state.
Despite his gentle movements, the girl stirred.
She opened her eyes—gorgeous, wine-red orbs that held a bewitching blend of seduction and innocence.
She sat up. The blanket slid from her back, and her delicate waist and skin, so pale it seemed to shimmer, were suddenly exposed to the air. The enchanting curve of her chest—which had escaped her foster mother Cocolia's Stand,「Oppai Drain」, through quantumization—her slender waist, and the mysterious regions beyond were all laid bare before the young man's gaze.
Honestly, even though he had intimately familiarized himself with this body last night, seeing it again in the morning light… well, it was a little embarrassing to admit, but he was instantly aroused.
"Already in heat so early in the morning, Scumbag Big Brother?"
The girl, who could clearly feel the rising heat against her backside, blushed faintly. She shot him a look of mock disdain.
"It can't be helped. You're simply too beautiful."
Caught in the act, the young man felt not a shred of awkwardness, smoothly returning her compliment.
"Even if you praise me like that, Scumbag Big Brother, I'm not going to help you satisfy your urges at this hour," Black Seele said, her tone sharp with playful admonishment. Glancing at the clock and seeing it was nearly breakfast time, she blinked, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
"Mei-jie will be calling us for breakfast any minute. I don't think you'd want her to walk in on us doing that, would you?"
"There's simply not enough time," she cooed.
"In that case," he murmured, his voice a low rumble as he leaned in closer, "we'll just have to stretch time a bit, won't we?"
And with that, the young man who was a master of time manipulation pulled the girl—a perfect paradox of innocence and allure—into his embrace.
---o---
Author's Note:
PS: I just remembered, this book is for practicing romance scenes, not for practicing fight scenes.