The answer that was on the tip of his tongue, like a stone thrown into a deep pool, sent ripples through his heart. But just as the thought
The answer that was on the tip of his tongue, like a stone thrown into a deep pool, sent ripples through his heart. But just as the thought was about to become clear—
Athena's cool fingers, with an indescribable gentleness and power, lightly touched his temples.
A deep, irresistible sense of tranquility, along with the gentle kneading of her fingertips, flowed into his consciousness like a tide, quickly dispelling all distracting thoughts and tense nerves.
That unformed idea, like a thin mist melted by the moonlight, quietly dissipated.
"Sleep for now." Athena's voice seemed to come from a distant sky, carrying a magic that soothed the heart. "Until you become a true God-slaying Pegasus, this humble one will always be by your side."
At this moment, in another room, Stella let out an imperceptible sigh.
"Even someone as wise as Athena... can she not see through a problem that even I can understand?" The love goddess rested her chin on her left hand, pouting as she looked at the bright moon outside the window. "Love, though noble, is also base. It is truly a cruel thing."
The moment you obtain something, you are destined to one day lose it. There is not a single person who would desperately prolong their own suffering just to pursue it.
But Stella suddenly thought that this was a common ailment among many of her brothers and sisters. No matter how wise and divinely martial they usually were, when it came to matters concerning themselves, they could not see clearly.
The boot-shaped peninsula of mainland Italy, and the island of Sardinia floating to the west. Between the two lies a vast sea, but generally speaking, this is considered the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The ships that come here are mostly ferries, filled with vessels that travel to various ports like Genoa, Naples, Palermo, and Cagliari. There are also many cruising yachts. And because the marine resources are very rich, there are of course fishing boats. If you cast your nets in the waters near Sardinia before the sun comes out in the morning, you will find all sorts of fish mixed in. But mixed in with a school of growing bluefin tuna was a person.
...It's unknown how long he had been drifting in the turbulent Tyrrhenian Sea, finally being washed from Naples to here. If you want to call that creature, who is still full of energy, a human, that's fine too.
This golden-haired youth had been caught in a net used to catch bluefin tuna and had climbed up on his own. Then he had arbitrarily sat on the fishing boat and said to the dumbfounded fishermen:
"Ahoy! I thought I was really going to die this time... Hey, friends! Since I'm up here, you just need to tell me where the nearest land is. Don't ask me why I appeared from a fishing net, why I can speak human language, or if I'm a fish demon. I'm the King of Swords of the European magical world, Doni! You just have to get me to mainland Italy, and the King's Steward, Andrea, will give you... What? The last guy who said that claimed to be Qin Shi Huang? I'm really not a liar! And stop screaming 'monster'!"
But soon, the golden-haired youth, the King of Swords, Doni, felt his body fill with power. This was the prelude to a Godslayer's instinct being triggered. And the monster the fishermen were screaming about in terror was not him, but the thing that had appeared behind him.
A creature that existed only in myth. A body as magnificent as a great whale, a neck as long as a dragon's. Four petal-like gills swelled around its face.
A creature that could be called the highest order of divine beast even among divine beasts. If successfully summoned, it would be the mother goddess from ancient Babylonian mythology, Tiamat. Her body was covered in sharp scales, and she was now manifesting her angry true form, roaring at a dark shadow in the distance.
With Doni's eyesight, he could naturally make out the paralyzed women on a platform in the sea. They were either European witches, Far Eastern Hime-Miko, or esoteric masters from the Eastern Continent. If nothing unexpected happened, it was they who had summoned Tiamat.
But this giant sea dragon was still not the final goal. The old Demon King who commanded these witches, his ultimate goal was to use the sea dragon Tiamat before him as a sacrifice to summon a true earth mother goddess. Of course, summoning the god-king Marduk was also acceptable to him.
"What a grand gesture, old wolf king," the King of Swords, Doni, whistled.
A Godslayer who could command so many top-tier witches—in the whole world, it was probably only Marquis Voban. And he was also the Demon King most enthusiastic about making Heretic Gods descend. And this aged wolf king was now staring with sharp eyes at the sea dragon before him. He slowly raised his hand, and the light of the sky shone brightly above his head.
"I hereby declare that all living things are equal. There is no distinction between sinner or saint, the mediocre or the hero, the pure child or their mother. All are treated equally as fodder for the flames. Witness now the moment of the birth of the fiery purgatory, the kingdom of fire!"
The Authority—The Condemner of Karmic Fire. An authority of annihilating inferno usurped from the fire god of the Eastern Continent, Zhurong. The clouds in the sky instantly began to roll. But what surged forth after the rolling was not a storm and lightning, but crimson flames. In this moment, it was as if heaven and earth had been inverted. Orange-red magma flowed in the sky, seemingly slow but rapidly spreading over the entire sea. When its power was fully nurtured, the lava in the sky would pour down, turning this ocean into a purgatorial sea of fire.
And how long would it take to be nurtured?
Right now!
"Shining brightly, brilliantly illuminating—"
"Supreme Red Emperor, Fire Official of the Three Pneumas; True Lord of the Flame Emperor, exorcise and purify!"
As a Demon King of the earth, Marquis Voban chanted the incantation of the sacred fire. He looked up at the sky, his green eyes seeming to reflect a meteor shower of flames falling from the heavens.
The firelight illuminated the dark sky, and also illuminated the earth below. This old wolf king's Authority had a very strong personal color. Meteor flames rained down from the crimson sky, and the sea dragon Tiamat, which had been roaring at the sky, also pushed its own Authority, countless ocean current vortexes meeting the falling meteors in the sky. But it was useless. It was all the fate of impending death.
But in the next instant, a streak of heavenly light sliced through Tiamat's head, and then, in a few hundredths of a second, shattered its spiritual core, which was on the verge of becoming equivalent to a divinity.
"Salvatore Doni!" Marquis Voban glared furiously at the youth standing on the fishing boat in the distance. He had been wary from the very beginning of this junior who had stolen his prey before.
"It wasn't me! It really wasn't me!" The King of Swords, Doni, raised his hands to show his innocence. Although, if the old wolf king had really summoned the Heretic Tiamat, he might not have been able to resist the impulse. But right now, it really wasn't him.
The old wolf king had no time to find the cause. Although the sea dragon Tiamat had died prematurely, he could just use its corpse as a sacrifice to summon a god. This was a secret rite he had been preparing for years... but soon he discovered that all of Tiamat's essence and Authority had been plundered completely.
Divine speed.
Whether it was the old wolf king Voban or the young King of Swords Doni, this word flashed through their minds at this moment. Only a top-tier warrior who possessed the Authority of divine speed, and perhaps even a skill similar to a mind's eye, could have beheaded Tiamat and destroyed its spiritual core in that split second.
But a sliver of doubt arose in the old wolf king Voban's mind. How was it possible to plunder its essence so cleanly?
"This, I think I might know," the King of Swords, Doni, said, raising his hand.
He suddenly remembered the Heretic God who had ambushed him, the hero-god who had ultimately knocked him into the deep sea during their battle. Perhaps he possessed a relevant Authority.
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