Son of the Hero King

Chapter 730: Price?

The silence that followed Asura’s death was heavy and sombre. A deep, unsettling dissonance hung in the air.

Deus’ form shimmered in multicolored lights, both seen and unseen. He knew that his mission was now accomplished, yet He did not know what He should do now.

An all-devouring, all-consuming darkness covered his body, and the impulse to erase everything in existence and non-existence alike continued to rise within him. The Beginning and the End continued to clash. The Origin and Nihility started to twist and go out of Balance. As there was already a Beginning, should it not be right for Him to bring an End to it all now?

Innumerable eyes moved erratically, analyzing and decomposing thousands of laws. The fabric of reality seemed so flimsy in front of the knowledge only He possessed in this universe. One thought from Him and—

{Sol, it’s time to wake up.} Adam spoke, his tone without any emotions, yet it was like magic.

His thought halted. His innumerable eyes closed. His power receded. His form shrank until all that was left of Him was none other than Sol himself.

The king of humanity and the emperor of all dragons was back, albeit in quite a difficult and headache-inducing situation of his own creation.

* * *

The sky above, torn and twisted by the divine battle, showed no signs of healing. Space itself shimmered in an unnatural hue. Where Deus had stood, even the wind seemed hesitant to return.

This was a wound in Sol’s Dimension. A wound that would not heal easily, as it was caused by the direct bombardment of the power of the End.

Sol hovered above the void. Cracks had formed across his arms, chest, and jawline. Light seeped from them in pulses, as if they were trying to break away from his body.

Every breath he drew felt like swallowing gravel. The air resisted him, mana bucked and twisted around him, and his bones throbbed with something deeper than pain. It was excruciating.

Asura was gone. Not just dead— erased from existence itself. His body, his will, his divinity... consumed by Deus, Sol’s Avatar.

However, Sol was not able to devour his power cleanly. The residual power of the fallen god was simply too much for the current him. This was different from when he devoured Hypnos’ clone. Back then, that clone had already spent nearly all of its divine energy fighting Camelia and subsequently with Ambrosia. This was why Sol had been able to devour it so easily.

However, it was a vastly different circumstance this time around.

He had devoured a demigod whole, not just that, a demigod who had access to his divinity.

Asura’s essence churned within him like a second heart, heavy and hostile against the devourer of its previous owner. It refused to settle, refused to submit. It clawed and raged, a final echo of the god of struggle unwilling to be erased.

The immensity of Sol’s soul had been able to overwhelm and suppress it within him. However, his body was unable to house it within. The rejection came as swiftly as the westerly wind.

That divinity was now trying to fuse with Sol’s own, however, he rejected such a notion. The law engraved on this divinity did not belong to him. This was not his path. If he absorbed it, the Divinity of Struggle would overpower his nascent divinity of Balance. If he lost Balance, the power of Origin and End would start clashing in his body and bring him to a Fate no different from what happened to Adam, the God King of this universe himself.

This divinity was completely worthless to Sol.

As if the predicament were not enough already. All the memories of Asura were trying to overwhelm him. Had Sol not already gotten experience with Adam, his mind and personality would have been completely overwhelmed by now.

But more than anything, the true problem was his own Avatar… Deus.

“Shit!” Sol growled. This was the very reason he had been hesitant in using his Avatar. The amount of power he could wield was unparalleled, but in exchange, he was simply unable to control the power and danger it brought with it. It would indiscriminately affect everyone who looked at it.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Deus also represented what could be considered to be his ideal self. In that form, the amount of information and knowledge that would be drawn to him was absolutely immense. Too much information for a mortal like Sol to withstand.

My soul and body are still not strong enough to handle my avatar. He thought. It was ridiculous. His body was powerful enough to match some weaker demigods in terms of pure power, and his soul was powerful enough to make even some mighty demigods feel true fear and yet it was not strong enough to control the power of his Name? Not powerful enough to wield his Truth?

His fingers trembled. It was unclear if that was due to pain, his overwhelming emotions, or something else entirely. His vision blurred at the edges. Golden static filled his ears.

“Sol!”

Lilith’s voice carried through the pressure. Her voice helped him gather his wits, even if it was slight.

He could see her now. And Wukong. Watching him from afar. But not for long.

“D-Don’t c-come!” He struggled to push out those words, realizing a few moments later that even if they wanted to come, it would be impossible at the moment.

They simply could not approach him. The very world itself seemed to be trying to push Sol away from it.

Even in this state, Sol was able to think enough to deduce that this was more akin to a defense system of the world. The will of the world trying its absolute best to drive away the Harbinger of the End.

Something cracked along his ribs. Blood spilled in a glowing arc, humming with unstable divinity.

Whispers clawed at the back of his mind. A mixture of polluted information that seemed intent on bringing him to the abyss, chipping slowly at his soul until it accomplished its goal or Sol perished whole.

“I’m still Sol,” he muttered. “I’m Sol Dragon Luxuria…”

Sol continued to repeat those words like a mantra. To keep holding on to the thread of his slipping sanity. To fight against the onslaught of memories tearing at his soul.

It was helpful.

His sense of self was too powerful to just get erased by Asura’s remains. However, that in no way meant that the current scenario was easy for him to overcome.

The remains of Asura, still roiling within him, were not about to go down without duking it out with him one last time.

His knees buckled.

Screams bellowed out of his lungs.

Sparks of the Light of Destruction burst from his body at random, uncontrolled, undirected. They struck the ruined battlefield in quick succession. He tried to pull it back, to lock it down within him.

But the surge came all at once.

His body collapsed.

He hit the ground like a fallen star, tearing open the already-ruined terrain. A crater widened around him. Smoke and debris rose into the air.

He was losing control of his own energy. His mana vein was breaking down, and his core was working on overdrive, trying to expel the energy out of his body.

This was the first time anything even close to this had happened to him, and he knew that if he did not regain control over his body fast enough, he would cause extensive damage to his own dimension.

{It seems like you have reached your limits. Perhaps you may have eyed things bigger than you could ever stomach.}

If you do not plan to help, then shut up, please. Sol berated Adam inwardly, but he also did not beg Adam for help.

He was in this current situation because he annihilated Asura, and his Name devoured the fallen god. Sol was not so shameless that he would ask for Adam’s help now.

He gritted his teeth, his eyes bleeding. This, too, was within his expectations, as dangerous as his current situation may be.

Eating all by himself was not in his style.

I will share the power.

Adjusting himself, he focused once again within, solely on the power he had obtained by staking his very existence.

Deus. A Name born from his desire to become almighty and based on the Concept of the Beginning and the End. A power bringing Balance to it all.

This power of his was not created alone. It was born thanks to eight concepts. Eight people.

Medea. Persephone. Kali. Freya. The four witches who represented the Beginning.

Milia. Setsuna. Lilin. Isis. The four contracts that represented the power of the End.

Yet, it was just not limited to them alone.

“Lilith. Wukong.”

The two looked at each other and approached him. The power of the End was still a glaring threat to their lives, but the two could feel that this was an opportunity they could not miss.

Surely with those ten, it would be enough?

{You really are crazy.}

Adam laughed boisterously.

{Still, this alone won’t be enough. You are underestimating the divine essence of Struggle. If they inadvertently absorb this divinity, their path will forever be tainted.}

* * *

Inside Sol’s mindscape, the ghost of the past sighed and entered the gate. His thoughts were complicated as he gazed at a book resting inside Sol’s soul.

A book that had yet to open or respond fully.

He did not have his Pen and so could not use the book fully, but as it was now, it did not matter.

He could simply use his own existence to bring out its true potential. After all, Adam was Origin itself.

{Seems like I will have to fall asleep after this.}

He was not dissatisfied. He had already lived long enough. Now he only had one goal left.

Bringing his finger to his lips, he bit until blood was drawn. Golden blood started dripping on the page of the book as Adam wrote.

[Once upon a time…There was a god born from strife, battle, and struggle.]

It was the start of a new story, and he was the author of that story.

“Watch and learn, Sol. This is how you use the power of Origin.”

This was the power to rewrite reality itself.