Son of the Hero King

Chapter 728: DEUS (1)

Sol’s declaration echoed into the air.

Asura tensed. His four arms shifted into a guarded stance, his instincts warning him far before his mind could make sense of the situation.

Sol stepped forward, not leaving him much time to think anyway.

With each step, faint cracks spread beneath his feet as the space subtly warped under the pressure of his energy. The colors in his iridescent eyes shifted in slow, steady waves— unnatural yet deathly calm.

Asura narrowed his gaze. “You held back until now, I see.”

The sheer weight of his aura made every breath in his surroundings feel that much heavier.

Sol did not grace the former god with an answer.

The space between them vanished. Twisting and bridging distance was an effortless task for the current Sol.

In the next instant, Sol appeared before Asura, fist pulled back. The motion was sharp and efficient, with no wasted flourish.

A sharp detonation rang out through the cracked and twisted space. Asura’s body shot backward through the air, carving a line through the clouds. He righted himself quickly, feet skimming across the thin air, like a car skidding across the asphalt, to stop his momentum.

The mountain peak below cracked, small chunks of stone breaking loose and falling into the mist.

Asura flexed his fingers, shoulders rising and falling with controlled breath.

Sol hovered quietly across from him, his aura steady, no longer flaring wildly.

“Get up,” Sol said flatly. “I’m not finished.”

Asura's brow furrowed as he felt a power several magnitudes higher than what Sol had shown him earlier. A name was an increase in all stats, but this was way out of bounds for anything that the usage of a True Name should be able to bring to the table.

I was not able to react?

He pondered briefly before realizing what had happened. Sol did not move fast enough to surpass his perception. He simply and quite literally erased the space that existed between them.

This was impressive. Truly so.

However,

“That’s too weak still,” Asura muttered to himself.

“Huh?”

“This power, I mean. There is no way something like this could completely erase my brother's clone or make him fear you.” Asura was hot-headed, brash, and battle-hungry. A literal muscle for brains as they say. However, when it came to combat, his mind was able to analyze everything far faster than his brothers and sisters. He was a genius of battle.

As he was now, he was far weaker than Hypnos. Mostly because of his concept and his fighting style. Even as a god, he had never been all that good at handling conceptual powers to his advantage.

He simply needed to punch hard, and if something did not go down with the first blow, all he had to do was punch harder, even if it meant surpassing the limits of his power.

Still, it was important for them to ascertain what kind of power Sol had.

“Heh, if you are so curious, why don’t you force me?” Sol smirked.

“Now, you are speaking my language.” Asura returned the grin with an amount of bloodthirst that could make anyone keel over. Not Sol though.

The two gazed at each other in silence for a few moments that seemed to stretch on eternally.

Asura lunged first… There was no hesitation nor any feints in his attack. His crimson body shot forward, arms clenched tight into fists aimed straight for Sol’s chest. Sol shifted slightly— a subtle ripple in the air around him distorting Asura’s charge. The punch passed harmlessly through empty space.

Sol reappeared on the side, foot swinging sharply to strike Asura’s ribs. The Oni twisted, taking the hit with a grunt and spinning with a set of open palms aimed at Sol’s head. Sol tilted back just enough to avoid the consecutive barrage of blows, the force slicing through the dense clouds and sending fragments of mist scattering.

The air cracked sharply with every exchange. Sol’s calm, measured strikes, enhanced by imperceptible manipulations of space, met Asura’s wild, aggressive attacks, each one stronger than the last. The sky darkened as their fight pushed upward, scattering the clouds and literally shredding the atmosphere as if it were minced meat.

As he was now, Sol was perfectly integrated with the power of his Divine Eye— Akasha. He could quite literally see and predict all the moves Asura would make, and his body could react instantly, following his vision.

The only limitation to this power was his own mind. When fighting against people like Lilith and Wukong, the number of possibilities was too extreme for him to properly judge. But Asura, while extremely skilled, had a much more straightforward fighting skill.

Asura grinned as his skin darkened to a deeper shade of red. “This is it... Finally!”

Sol’s eyes narrowed. He raised his hand.

⟪ Boundaries of Space-Time -::- Rewind ⟫

A faint clock appeared briefly around Sol’s arm as the bruises and cracks on his scales mended themselves instantly. He could have simply waited for his natural healing to do the trick, but he wanted to show Asura how utterly useless any of his attacks were before Sol’s otherworldly powers.

Asura’s expression flickered with surprise, but rather than showing disappointment, he grew wild with excitement. “You bastard... You really are something.”

The battle-crazed Oni charged again. This time, Sol met him head-on.

Asura’s arms blurred, fists pounding from multiple angles. Sol deflected, redirected, and then struck back with sharp, surgically precise counters.

Still, Asura only grew faster. The more blood flowed from the shallow cuts Sol inflicted, the more Asura’s strength climbed.

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Sol grimaced at the scene. “So that’s your trick...”

Asura laughed. “The more you break me, the stronger I get!”

Sol stepped back. “Then let’s test that, shall we?”

Asura’s power seemed very similar to Kaiser, the young Dragon that Sol fought back in the Astral Realm. He could also become stronger the more hits he received. However, Asura was on a whole another caliber altogether compared to the young Duke.

⟪ Famine -::- All Devouring Beast ⟫

The air warped violently. A gaping black maw opened behind Asura, lined with jagged teeth and countless unblinking eyes. It lunged with terrifying speed. This was the attack that had taken down Hypnos’ Avatar when the man had tried to use self-destruct to escape.

Asura barely twisted away as rows of teeth snapped at him. The beast chased relentlessly, tearing through clouds, mountains, and even space itself, swallowing chunks of the broken mountain as it pursued.

The Oni danced between the snapping jaws, delivering punishing blows into the dark mass. Each strike sent out deep reverberations but failed to stop its advance.

The ground below ceased to exist. What was once a towering peak was now a hollowed scar.

Asura's fists struck again and again, arms slick with his own blood. His expression twisted into raw exhilaration.

“COME ON! IS THAT ALL?!”

The beast caught his leg. Teeth dug in deep. Asura roared, muscles bulging as he pulled against the crushing bite. The strain painted fresh blood across the sky.

Sol hovered above, watching in silence, hand raised to control the all-devouring construct.

Asura’s arms locked onto the jagged edges of the maw. His grin widening like a deranged lunatic.

“YOU WON’T EAT ME!”

With a guttural cry, Asura heaved with everything he had. The beast’s form buckled. One last pull, and the dark mass split apart in a violent surge, scattering into fragments that dissolved into the air.

Asura staggered, chest heaving, body drenched in blood from head to toe. His crimson skin darkened further, his form seeming to radiate intense and uncontrollable heat. Two more hands sprouted out of his body, drenched in his blood.

Six swords materialized before him, hovering in the air. Without a word, he caught them in each of his now fully extended six arms.

His grin was sharp and feral. “Let’s go, golden boy.”

He should have been weakened with all his blood lost and such a terrifying wound, and yet it looked like he was ready to ask for more.

With an explosive surge, the distance between them vanished. Sol’s Eye of Akasha traced every muscle shift, and angle of his blades, predicting every path that they could trace. However, knowing did not mean having the ability to stop them. Asura’s speed had reached a level where Sol’s body simply could not respond in time.

A blade slashed from the right. Sol twisted, spatial boundaries flickering to adjust, only for a second sword to bite into his shoulder. Blood splattered across the drifting clouds.

Four more blades followed in rapid succession from impossible angles. Sol bent, weaved, and even folded the air to accommodate his movements, but it was barely enough for him to minimize the damage. Cuts scored his arms and side. The speed gap widened with every passing breath.

A knee smashed into Sol’s chest, driving the air out of his lungs. A fist followed immediately, connecting with his jaw and hurling him backward through the open sky.

Sol flipped midair and steadied himself, wiping the trail of blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. His gaze locked on Asura, calm yet bone-chillingly cold.

Asura was already before him once more.

The mountains below collapsed under the shockwaves of their movements. Towering peaks shattered and tumbled into the clouds like falling spears. The sky churned, air currents splitting violently with every impact.

Sol sidestepped one blade, caught a second between two fingers, and twisted, intending to snap the weapon. Asura simply let go, slamming a fifth blade deep into Sol’s side. Sol staggered, the blow nearly piercing through his hardened scales.

Coughing, Sol grabbed Asura’s wrist and hurled him downward with raw force.

The Oni crashed through layers of stone and cloud, vanishing for a moment in a storm of debris. When the dust cleared, Asura hovered effortlessly, his chest heaving, blood dripping from dozens of wounds. His grin even wider than before, a maniacal light in his eyes that could make one’s screen crawl with disgust and fear.

“You’re tougher than I thought you’d be!” Asura called up, voice rasping, wild energy crackling from his frame.

Sol did not answer. He descended sharply, preparing a strike, but Asura intercepted him mid-fall. All six blades moved as one, weaving a vicious cyclone of steel. Sol was forced to pull back, unable to break through the storm of blades.

Each swing came for him…

Faster.

Stronger.

Heavier.

Sol felt the limits of his body creeping up fast. Every micro-adjustment of space, every slowed moment of time, only bought him mere fractions of a second at best. Asura’s brutal momentum just could not be fully stopped with his current levels of power.

“Faster!” Asura roared, veins bulging, crimson skin darkening deeper as his blood loss fed into his maddening strength. His power spiraled to a higher plane, his form radiating unbearable heat.

Sol exhaled, steady, measured, as his golden eyes narrowed.

I still can’t outmatch him physically. Should I use the power of the End now?

He briefly considered but dismissed the notion. Asura was different from the people he had massacred a few moments ago. If he used the powers of End, he needed it to be one sharp blow that could instantly stop the fight whole.

Then should he utilize the true extent of his Concept and True Name? This was something worth considering if he had no other way, but as it was, he did not need to suffer needlessly.

It’s too bad.

Ideally, he wanted to end this fight alone, but it was clear that he would be unable to do that comfortably or without showing some of the cards that needed to remain hidden.

Since it had come to this,

“Lilith, Wukong.” Immediately, two sharp auras exploded, and Sol manipulated the distance to immediately bring them into Asura’s vicinity, as close as he could possibly position them.

“Hahaha! I knew you were not alone!” Asura's laugh continued even as the auras of Wukong and Lilith made themselves known.

From his left, a sword so sharp it could cut through existence itself. From his right, a staff so heavy it could sink the very concept of existence.

He had information about those two Singularities and knew that it would be difficult for him to win against either of them. Blocking their attack would only give him an instant.

But so what?

“Since we are in your dimension, I guess I can safely go all out.”

Time seemed to stop; the sword and the staff stopped a few inches away from him.

“I am Asura. The demigod of Struggle and Combat.” He laughed out loud, unperturbed by what was happening. “Using my divine authority, I hereby declare… None may intervene in this sacred combat.”

Space started unraveling. Wukong and Lilith were immediately pushed away by an irresistible force while Sol and Asura were brought closer.

He was nothing but a demigod. He had yet to reclaim his Divine Throne and yet… This was a Law that could not be overturned. Not even by someone like Lilith or Wukong. Not even by the goddesses themselves.

This was his concept, his power, the Rule that defined his very existence.

“HAHAHA!!! LET’S FIGHT TO OUR DEATH, YOUNG KING!”

It had been eons since the last time he had used the full extent of his power. The last time he did was in his fight against Adam, and he had lost miserably.

He did not know why his Father had spared him that day, killing him without the power of the End. Nor did it matter.

Why think about Father now?

He guffawed at the thought. Why think about his mad, dead Father? He had a fight to enjoy now.

Meanwhile, Sol, feeling himself trapped, simply released a sigh. He had underestimated those guys.

The Law of Struggle, not unlike that of Secrecy that belonged to Dawn, was a power that suppressed nearly everything.

It was a concept, a part of existence itself, and defined the bounds of reality. Very few things topped that. Sol could feel it. Even if he tried to modify the distance or erase the space between them, it was impossible to include Lilith or Wukong in this fight.

It was also impossible for him to leave.

A divine power.

“Divine, huh.”

Until now, Sol had been hesitant in fully using the power of his True Name. He feared it would kill the humanity in himself and bring him on a path he could not walk away from.

But now, since he had no other choice, he simply had to embrace it.

Placing his hands together, Sol muttered in a voice only he could hear.

“To become a god is to become emotionless.”

The light in his eyes vanished.

“To become absolute is to become one with the world.”

His presence grew fainter. As if he could vanish at any moment.

“To become an absolute god is…… to erase the boundary between existence and nothingness.”

The last words left Sol’s lips like a final judgment.

His form seemed to blur, no longer fully anchored to the physical world. The very fabric of space and time around him twisted subtly, responding not to force but to his will.

It seemed like it was time to show Asura why his name was Deus.