Son of the Hero King

Chapter 771

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she whispered, her voice a trembling note edging the lines between sorrow and ecstasy. “No matter how many lies they weave, truth always burns brighter than the darkness of deception.”

The dream shuddered violently as she spoke. Hypnos’ world began to fracture as the seams of illusion could no longer contain her awakening, her Truth. The sound of the dream cracking was like the groan of a collapsing universe— deep, endless, final, void, lonely…

Then, from beyond the burning horizon of the shattering void, a deep voice echoed with almighty presence. The master of the realm was about to speak…

“You shouldn’t have remembered.”

Hypnos appeared— or at least his dream avatar did. Draped in layers of twilight silk, his eyes glimmered like twin crescent moons. The serene expression he always wore was gone, replaced by strain and disbelief at the smoldering woman before him.

Ambrosia turned her head ever so slightly, her golden flames still pouring from her body, devouring everything they touched as she acknowledged Hypnos’ presence.

“Hypnos,” she said in a calm, leveled tone, her thoughts and emotions not leaking. “Your dreams are beautiful lies. I’ve lived through enough of them. They cannot contain me.”

“You can’t wake up,” he hissed, hands trembling as tendrils of divine energy surged around him like iridescent waves. “This world is sealed. You’re too deep. Even if you burn this dream, I simply have to create a new one.”

“You are right. If I were alone, this realm might have truly trapped me. But you are aware of the implications, right? The more power you use to keep me trapped, the more likely the other two will leave as well. In the first place…” Ambrosia scoffed, letting the first trace of emotion leak into her voice— utter contempt, “I doubt you even managed to keep that crazy woman trapped in your weave. I guess I have to thank her. Without her, it would have taken a much longer time for me to free myself.”

Hypnos' expression contorted at her taunt, hitting right at his sore spot. She was right, oh, so right. He was unable to even trap Echidna; instead, she was devouring the realm with her abyssal powers.

“From your expression, I guess I was right. Hah, so now choose. Pointlessly try and miserably fail to keep me trapped and waste energy on two crazy women, or focus all your powers on Anubis.”

The choice Hypnos made was self-evident.

* * *

『 Reality – Gluttony Foss 』

The air tore apart with a burst of radiant gold, flames licking and devouring reality as they blasted apart and consumed everything in their path. Hypnos staggered, coughing golden blood as cracks spread across his divine body. His connection to the Dream Realm shattered like glass, and the illusion collapsed partially.

From the rift behind him, Ambrosia emerged— eyes burning like molten gold, her aura a crown of molten brilliance that lit the battlefield brighter than the very sun that loomed above all the Mortal Realm.

Euphoria turned her head mid-clash, her expression faltering dangerously for the first time. “What—?”

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Ambrosia’s flames coiled upward like a divine banner before striking down at the Goddess of Love and Hate.

Lilith, who was prepared to go on the offensive, adjusted her sword and smirked at the scene, “Took you long enough.” The fight had not been easy for her— a newly ascended demigod without any proper foundations or her territory. Though Euphoria was not a combat goddess, she was still a goddess through and through. That made her extremely elusive and difficult to combat. Even just striking her properly was a chore and a half, not to mention those strikes actually connecting. It was a nightmare.

Ambrosia wiped molten red blood from her lips and whispered in a dangerously low tone, “Sorry. I got caught up in a beautiful lie.” She had not escaped unscathed from her little escapade. Brute forcing her way out of the dreams had also left her wounded, her insides twisting from the strain. However, it was a price well worth paying when the alternative was her losing most of her powers.

Then her eyes locked on Euphoria, and her voice lost emotion as she muttered,

“But now I remember the truth.”

The ground began to melt beneath her feet as her aura flared like a thousand exploding suns. ⦗Genesis Flames⦘— her signature spell, symbolizing the first element she had ever learned in her path of all-magic— Fire. They represented the start of a new story. A new beginning, and once again, they would serve her for the battle ahead.

Lilith’s sword rose beside her, its edge humming with killing intent fit to slay a god. Euphoria’s pink-gold aura flickered with unease at the sudden turn of the whole circumstance. The situation was becoming far more dangerous than she had ever anticipated. Even with her calculations as a newly ascended god, she had never imagined getting tangled in such a dangerous scenario.

The goddess of Love and Hatred now stood before two Demigods. Each with a burning will to destroy and obliterate her very existence.

Euphoria immediately understood that the situation was going from bad to the worst possible for her. For some reason, Lilith seemed to be particularly resistant to her mental interference.

This already put her in quite a precarious position, but now that Ambrosia had escaped Hypnos’ clutches and joined the battle, her chances of victory dwindled even further. Ambrosia was somewhat at the cusp of becoming a False God from the information she had. The swordswoman she was facing could not even hold a candle before the experienced demigod.

The divinity of the Witch was already incredibly thick, and her mastery of spells and concepts made her someone far trickier to deal with than the one-trick pony that the swordswoman was.

Since she also followed the path of omniscience, she also had a higher resistance to mental interference than most.

The only solace in this situation was that the chances for a Rule of Three, like it was with Sol, to form now were greatly diminished.

“I can feel the gears in your brain churning incredibly fast, even from here, goddess. Not so sure of victory anymore, are you?” On her right, Lilith approached nonchalantly, the swords she she conjured vanished abruptly… only her true sword, still resting inside the scabbard – created by Theresa for her – was placed on her shoulder.

This sword was the best she had ever owned. Thanks to its origin, it was close to a divine weapon and had many interesting perks.

“Of course she is. They did not expect much resistance from us, and now they are paying the price.” Ambrosia said nonchalantly as she approached from the left. Her steps were graceful as she stepped in the air. In her right hand, she held a staff nearly as tall as her, and in her left, she held the Book of Akasha— her avatar.

The staff she was holding was in itself nothing particularly special. The materials were obviously rare, but not legendary. What truly made this staff special was that it was created for the sole purpose of accelerating and processing her spells to their utmost limit, dangerously lowering the casting time to seconds at most for the lengthiest spells.

Processing speed was necessary when you had more than one thousand spells at your disposal.

“I hope you are ready.”Ambrosia finished, and the two attacked simultaneously. Lilith rushed in lightning speed while hundreds of spells winked into existence behind Ambrosia, and hundreds more started dotting all around them.

“Come.” Euphoria exhaled slowly, her divine presence deepening until even the fabric of reality began to sway. The ripples of her concept spread outward— Love and Hatred, intertwined and absolute. It wasn’t just emotion. It was a Law. One of the many Laws that held the very fabric of reality and governed it.

｢ All Encompassing Love ｣

The very world itself began to love her.

Every atom, every flicker of light, every mote of dust bent in devotion to her will. The molten earth hardened beneath her feet to keep her from harm; the wind curved lovingly around her form instead of tearing through it. The elements themselves worshipped her existence.

Even Fate, silent and impartial, tilted its scales ever so slightly— tiny coincidences shifting to her favor. A misstep from Lilith’s stance, a delayed flicker of flame from Ambrosia’s spell, an errant gust that pushed a killing blow a finger’s width off course.

It was… Insidious. Beautiful. Terrifying.

Lilith’s blade carved forward. Yet when it neared Euphoria’s throat, the air itself refused to cooperate. For an instant, even the God-Slaying Sword hesitated.

The sword wavered as if guilt-stricken, its edge trembling.

Euphoria’s lips curved. “See, little mortal? The universe itself cannot bear to harm me. Even your blade—”

Her words broke off as her eyes widened. The tremor that ran through her aura was subtle, but unmistakable.

The sword hesitated indeed… But it did not stop. It never stopped. A slash cleaved clean through her defensive veil and grazed her cheek, drawing her divine blood.

“So gods can bleed tooo, I see?”