Son of the Hero King

Chapter 734: Sacrifice

Anubis immediately started his story in a lighthearted tone. It was hard to see him being flustered about anything.

“I came here with my wife for the sole goal of spending some much-needed quality time with our daughter. While entering and leaving the Mortal Realm is not a problem for me, I am beholden to certain rules if I wish to keep a semi-cordial relationship with the goddesses at a minimum.”

Anubis did not fear the goddesses. As someone who could be considered a false god more or less, he could match any of them for a short time.

But only one of them at a time. That was the catch of that argument.

There were 14 such goddesses, and then there was their mother above them like a silent guardian. Becoming enemies with them was not the smartest thing in the universe, as one would expect.

“Anyway. I came all happy and excited after being away from home for so long. So imagine my surprise when I was welcomed with the tears and snot of my daughter begging me to inspect your soul and make sure you were alright. I was bewildered enough, then. But as if it wasn’t enough, I nearly went blind and mad trying to look too deeply into the soul of a King rank brat. Man, that was so darn humiliating, gosh…”

Anubis gave Sol a reprimanding look, and the perpetrator could only respond with a sheepish smile.

“I am sorry.” Sol could not stop himself from wincing.

“Don’t. It was my fault for the most part. One of the first lessons I learned on my road to necromancy was to never underestimate the value of souls. I should have been doubly careful when it came to a freak like you.”

“So you ended up calling me a freak, after all.”

“Excuse me. Blindness and Madness much? I mean, have you seen your soul? It is ugly enough to make a grown man cry, and I am downplaying what I witnessed.”

“Ouch. You didn’t have to go that far now, did you?” Sol clutched his chest. He felt like Anubis had been throwing arrows at his fragile heart with his barbed words.

Worse was, he could not really deny his allegations or come up with any words to oppose them. Sol’s soul was not something mortal could carelessly meddle with. Not even one who could call himself a god, for the most part.

Looking at his soul indirectly or when it was inactivated was already quite dangerous unless Sol made sure not to hurt them.

However, when he actually used his soul offensively like he did when activating his Name, then all bets were off.

It was an indiscriminate power he could not use when fighting alongside his allies. Much like how he could not bring people below the King rank in his dimension in the past.

“Anyway. Though your soul is a monstrosity, I, thankfully, had no ill will against you, and you seemed to unconsciously recognize me. So I was not deemed an enemy. This stopped the worst from happening. Worst, as in me destroying your soul, because there is no way I am letting myself get mad. Then I would have had to flee the mortal realm because of the dozens of powerful women who would come for my life.” He wiped his non-existent sweat as if greatly relieved, but Sol did not miss the indirect warning.

“Don’t worry. I am not so arrogant that I think it’s a surefire win-all trick that would work on everyone.” Sol nodded in understanding.

In the truest sense, the reveal of Sol’s soul was not an attack in itself. All it did was to expose those who witnessed his soul to an extremely large amount of information and even the truth of the universe, so to speak.

This effect was enough to bring madness to lesser beings and stun more powerful ones. But against beings who were close to the Truth themselves, the effect would be less impressive.

Of course, Anubis himself did not know about the Origin and the End. So he might be underestimating just how dangerous that attack was. But, as much as he liked Anubis, there was no need to share information about his power with someone who was not completely under his wing.

The two smiled at each other. There was a calculating feel to their smiles, but neither of them held any ill will against the other. It was the simple reality that secrets were only ever secret when they were not shared.

“So, what happened next?” Sol asked.

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“Nothing much, really… Your soul was not truly wounded. If I had to use the right word, I would say that it was overstuffed and was suffering from indigestion. Isis was quite vague, but she explained what you did. But even that was not enough to alleviate all the burden. Something must have happened. But I suppose you won’t tell me what.”

Sol just kept smiling at him, squinting his eyes to tell the false god more than what any words could. He had no intention to talk about Adam to Anubis. Not now, at least.

“Thought so.” Anubis merely smiled understandingly at Sol’s silence. “Well. I will start with the good news first since you seem to be worried about this. Congratulation. You will soon have six demigods under you.”

“Oh?” Sol raised an eyebrow.

“The witches are all in seclusion. I believe they are basically on the door of becoming Demigods themselves. All they need now is to create a territory and ascend.” Anubis laughed.

“The Monkey brat already started creating his territory, and it seems like that woman who is sharper than a sword could have started as well. But she said she couldn’t start before watching your wedding. In fact, the same goes for the witches. They are in secluded meditation to control their realms and seal the excess power you gifted them. Once they are ready. They plan to use that energy to push themselves instantly into the next realm.”

Even as he said this, Anubis could only shake his head in disbelief. A force with six demigods. This was unheard of outside of the goddesses and a few independent forces.

Those six were different from the riff-raff fake demigods who attacked the Dragon Realm back then. They were genuine Demigods who all commanded absurdly powerful concepts.

Even if they fought outside their territory, they would still be a force to be wary of, and from what he understood, they all planned to create their territory inside of Sol’s dimension.

Even with all the knowledge Anubis had accumulated throughout his long existence, he did not know such a thing to be possible before now. The dimension of the Dimensional Mages should have been too unstable to accommodate a Demigod’s territory. Not even Tiamat could do such a thing. All she managed to do was to somehow fuse her dimension— the Sea of Stars, with her Demigod Territory.

What Sol and the others planned to do was simply a feat of mythical proportions.

The future will be interesting. Anubis thought to himself briefly before continuing.

He lifted three fingers. “Setsuna, Lilin, Milia, was it? Those three women you signed a contract with are already on the verge of becoming King. This is honestly impressive. Less so than demigod hood though.” He chuckled, “Admittedly, in terms of power and mana, they are already superior to most beginners in the King realm. All they lack is a spark of realization. Which shouldn’t be hard with their talents and connection to your soul.”

Anubis scratched his chin, “In fact, I believe that cow woman should have already become a King. Your current situation simply affected her mental state.”

Sol clenched his fist. A smile spread on his face. He was glad to know that his decision to share the power had not been wrong.

“What about Isis?”

“Well…” An awkward look flashed in Anubis’ eyes. “She should have become a King long ago, as you know, and I thought she had found her way and accepted using the concept of Death. But it seems like seeing me made her hesitate once more. Quite the peculiar situation, I would say.”

Sol sighed, but he said nothing. Isis was extremely talented. More so than him in a certain sense. After all, she reached her current level without some powerful ritual or the soul of the universe's creator.

But what held back was that one of her greatest talents was the same as her father's.

Death.

To become a King with the concept of Death would mean that Anubis and Isis would become adversaries for the right to become a god.

There was no way Isis would make this decision lightly.

“I wonder how you even convinced her to focus on that concept. But I am happy you did.”

Sol was surprised. “You are not mad?”

Anubis did not know about his plan to create a new universe. There was no way he would know that he had found a way for two Deaths to coexist. From his perspective, Sol was forcing the father and daughter pair to become enemies.

“Of course. Godhood is a treacherous path filled with uncertainty. But I am not yet so blinded by power that I would sacrifice my daughter's happiness for power. This would be putting the cart before the horse.”

Anubis chuckled.

“Of course…” His eyes held a cold light. “If you had done so and manipulated my daughter for your selfish goal, we would not be having such a pleasant conversation. You understand, right?”

Anubis' aura filled the room with its oppressive might. Thanks to Sol's newly developed sense, he was able to see the thousands of souls screaming and squirming inside this power.

All those souls were chained down by a cloaked grim reaper holding a gigantic scythe, and said scythe was close to Sol’s throat.

“Haha… So you can see it. Truly a what a wonderful young man full of talent.”

Sol gazed impassively at the incarnation of Death itself, and he realized that all of Isis’ worries had been for naught.

Anubis’ power was far beyond what many imagined, and his understanding of Death was profound enough to make him pause.

In this very moment, one thought was all Anubis needed to end his life, or at least this would have been the case if Sol was just a normal King.

Sol ignored the incarnation of the Grim Reaper and gazed quietly at Anubis. All the emotions he had been showing slowly vanished, leaving nothing but a dry and indifferent husk.

“I do not like being threatened. Even if it’s by my beloved father-in-law.” He gave a smile void of any warmth.

No aura emanated from him, but this made him all the more dangerous. For a brief moment, Anubis felt a small chill go down his spine, as if he was being stared down by something far greater than himself. Far greater than anything he could even begin to comprehend.

This was an absolute being.

The smile on Anubis’ face grew larger. Feeling the vastness of the universe gazing at him, he felt no fear. Only exhilaration.

For a brief instant, a voice muttered in his ears. To swing down his scythe and steal Sol’s soul.

By doing so, the gate of Godhood would certainly open for him.

But Anubis scoffed. Not even entertaining the notion.

Reaching his goal in such a way would be worthless. It would be nothing but the admission of his own inferiority.

“Splendid. Entrusting you with my daughter was not the wrong choice, it seems.” Anubis was the first to back down.

“Trust me. Soon you will realize that this was in fact the best decision you ever made.” Warmth returned to Sol’s eyes as he too relaxed.

“Is that so?” Anubis nodded. “Though from what I noticed. It seems like you're truly becoming less and less human. How much of your emotions do you still have?”

“...” Sol answered with silence, and he looked down. His gaze covered the entire tower, and with this, he could observe all the people he cared for. The reasons that pushed him to such extremes.

If it were to protect them—

“Idiot.”

Sol’s thoughts were interrupted by a light bonk on his head by Anubis.

“Your power grew, but it seems like your mindset became a little twisted. Are you not putting your own cart before the horses?”

“...” Sol’s eyes dimmed. “I have no choice. The enemies we are facing will only grow stronger. Sacrifices are necessary.”

“So you chose to sacrifice yourself, huh? Man, you think you are some tragic shōnen hero or something?”

“Anubis.” There was a quiet warning in Sol’s voice.

“At least you can still feel anger. So you aren’t too far gone yet.” Anubis chuckled, unbothered.

“Well. In the end, this is the path that you must walk. Just make sure you do not regret your decision. Don’t you think it would be quite the shame if you felt nothing on the day of your wedding?”

He gave a compassionate smile and stood up. He had nothing more to say. Sol was young, but he would learn with experience.

Hopefully. By then, it would not be too late for him.