SON OF THE HERO KING

When Sol finally opened his eyes, he could feel slight chills. Even though he had been playing around at first, in the end, he had really fallen asleep.

Though, he had to keep a sliver of consciousness in order to avoid being taken off guard.

Still laying with his back on the ground, he gazed at the dark sky with an entranced expression,

“Beautiful.”

He couldn't help but exclaim in shock at the sight that greeted him.

Currently, night had fallen, and the three overbearing suns were replaced by six large silver moons, so close that he felt like he could see very crevice on them.

Aside from the moons, he could see no other stars in the sky despite how clear it was.

This prompted him to ask himself if he was even on a planet currently.

Watching this starless sky, he felt like he was being sucked into the depths of space. He couldn’t help but feel so small and helpless.

“Now that I think about it, this is really the first time I am alone.”

If not for the near freezing cold, it would have been quite romantic.

The only saving grace was that the cold seemed to have far less effects on him than the heat.

This was something worth knowing.

In a way, he was briefly tempted to stand up and walk. If he explored during the night and slept during the day, he was sure that it could work.

But, he immediately squashed this thought.

‘I am tired of having to prove myself.’

Before falling asleep, he had clearly felt that someone was spying on him. Since he was used to Medea doing so in the tower, it wasn’t hard for him to catch on that.

What’s more, the portal and coordinates had been opened by the goddesses themselves after promising to do so in a contract.

Since it was so, only a goddess or perhaps the one this dimension belonged to could change the coordinates.

This meant that once again, he was being tested. Once again, he had to prove something to someone he cared nothing of.

It was tiring.

The fact that after this he would once again be tested by the dragons to become their so called prince was akin to adding insult to injury.

His eyes shifted to the side when he felt a few presences running toward him.

From the dust that was rising far in the horizon he could imagine that they were quite fast and large. He could already feel animosity in the air. Clearly, whatever was coming was not friendly.

Inwardly though, he couldn’t help but scoff.

He had been sleeping for all day and a great part of the night but he met no one, but just as soon as he woke up, he was being attacked?

Of course he could not rule out the possibility of those beasts being nocturnal and him being on their roads being just bad luck.

He wondered if he should just act shamelessly and lay down without trying to fight but he discarded the notion.

It was one thing to lay down without moving, but he couldn’t gamble with his life. What’s more,

“I really want to punch something.”

Standing up, he twirled his shoulders and finally managed to see what was comings toward him,

‘...Sonic the hedgehog?’

He tilted his head in confusion at the sight of what looked like five blue cannon balls filled with spikes rolling towards him.

Shaking his head to chase away the confusion, Sol finally spoke, his voice amplified with mana and intent.

“If you come closer, I will consider you as enemies.”

Sol knew that it was impossible to expect all races he found in other dimensions to be able to understand him.

But the intent behind his words was something of a universal language.

He did not wish to kill others simply because they did not look like him or because they could not understand each other. Normally, even if those beings rushing toward him were unable to hear, they should have understood the message.

Seeing that much less stopping, they accelerated toward him and that the killing intent they emitted grew stronger, Sol’s eyes finally grew colder.

“I did warn you guys.”

His iris changed into slit and the color of his eyes became a mix of black and gold. His form changed as he grew a few centimeters taller and became more muscular. The tone of his skin also changed from a fair white to a more tanned tone.

Finally, two golden horns made out purely of energy grew on his forehead.

<<Dragon force: First Step>>

Without waiting for them to reach him, Sol rushed at them at full speed, his eyes glowing with barely concealed battle thirst.

----

Back in the palace, the two Phoenixes were observing the fight with surprise.

The monster that had been sent was a type of mad-beast known as Tapir.

They had their back covered in a sort of super armor made out of rock and spikes while the front of their body was rather soft and flexible.

Thanks to this, they could easily roll on themselves and use their armor as a way of combining both attack and defense.

Mad beasts were beasts that, after being exposed to a great concentration of mana, suffered from mutation that affected their sanity.

In her dimension, the Tapirs, while not at the top of the food chain, were still quite powerful.

In fact, two or three would be enough to fight equally with an inexperienced Duke.

Gabriel could feel clearly that Sol did not seem to have a Zone. With their current number, she had only been interested in how long he could last before she would save him.

But from what she was seeing, it was clear that she had been severely underestimating the prince.

"Huh… He seems pretty angry."

Nepthys winced as she watched the prince tear off the arm of one of those tapirs before slapping away another one with the arm previously torn off.

She winced even more when he took the dazed tapir by the leg before swinging him against the ground again and again until all that was left was basically meat paste.

It was hard to reconcile such a brutal sight with the previous shameless prince.

Gabriel made a bitter smile, how could she miss his murmur when she was observing him so closely?

It seemed that her curiosity and enthusiasm for heroes had gotten the better of her, and most likely damaged her future relationship with him.

She had some inkling about the plan of the twin sister of her goddess, and If Luxuria succeeded, Sol would definitely become one of her bosses, or at the very least her equal.

The most important was that he would also most likely, become her son-in-law.

"Do you think I should stop this fight?"

"No."

Nepthys was adamant.

"I do not know what triggered him, but it isn't important. Now that he is fighting and releasing his pent up stress, he would most likely explode if we suddenly go and stop his fight."

Everyone had their own pride. Since it seemed that their test had already angered Sol, suddenly stopping when he was winning would be like a slap. It would be basically like saying, “We can do whatever we want to you.”

This wasn’t really the best way to begin a relationship.

After all, even if Sol didn’t form a contract with her daughter, all the phoenixes were either her sisters or nieces, he would still be a member of their family.

She knew very well what it felt like to be ostracized. Pretty much all phoenixes hated her.

This was also why, despite her reluctance, she wished for Isis to contract with Sol. She knew that her daughter was unhappy here. She had all but one friend, and it wasn’t even a phoenix.

Looking at the prince fighting, or rather utterly destroying those beasts, she decided that rather than testing him or whatnot, she would leave him and her daughter to discuss and pass time for a short while.

Back then, Nepthys had refused to heed her mother and fled with Anubis to explore the world. Even now, despite the way she was being hated for it, she had absolutely no regret.

----

Back to the desert, Sol fought with an excited smile on his face.

In all his life, it was the first time he could really go all out without any form of worries nor restraint.

Be it against the gladiators, Setsuna, or even during the fight with the vampire, one way or another there was always something that stopped him from showing his more savage side.

Right here, right now though, there was no such thing.

Letting out an animalistic roar, he stepped on the head of one of those monsters, crushing it and the ground beneath it at the same time.

A mix of blue blood and dark matter splashed on him, but he did not care.

Sol knew that he could have finished the fight more cleanly if he had used a big technique like dragon breath.

But he did not wish to. He loved this kind of brawl. No technique, no skill, just a pure and unadulterated fight filled with blood and gore.

He was so excited that he turned to search for the next target only to have cold water dosed on him once he saw that nothing else was standing.

All around him, dismembered corpses littered the grounds. The beautiful and pristine white side was now covered in blood, guts, organs and meat paste.

What happened just now was not a fight, but a one sided slaughter.

Looking at this spectacle, the wild smile on his face slowly vanished and the rational part of his mind took once again control and dispersed his transformation, thereby returning to his normal form.

In the end, he could only let a bitter smile,

“If Lilith or the others saw me, they would really tear my ears off.”

All his training revolved around the use of skills and techniques to kill in the more efficient way while putting his body in the least danger possible.

But he wondered if such a style really suited him.

The main reasons why Lilith and the others emphasized techniques was because of the innate difference between humans and other magical beings.

But what about him?

Closing his eyes, he sighed.

When he opened his eyes, he stood in what looked like a palace while two women with surprisingly similar features were observing him.

Showing no signs of surprise, he gave a refreshing smile as he said,

“Hello, forgive me for the unsightly display, I was a little, tet’s say — stressed.”

The contrast between his boyish, gentle smile and his body covered in blood and flesh was quite a sight to behold.