SON OF THE HERO KING

Reflecting the light of the suns, two figures encased in a shining silver metal hovered domineeringly above everyone.

<<Combined Form: Silver Knight>>

When Rio and her companion revealed their strongest form, the atmosphere around them completely changed.

Even though the two of them were quite powerful, they could only be considered as middle tier in terms of power separately. Rio’s control over metal itself was quite limited, only allowing her to create simple constructs.

But, thankfully for her, her metal had the attribute to absorb mana in different forms. She could also send back the mana accumulated and mix it with her own to make it even stronger. This was why, when she became a Duke, she focused her domain on increasing the amount of metal she could control.

The current fusion was the result of years of training over shape manipulation and element alteration. The result of this fusion wasn’t as simple as 1+1=2.

Because of their years of comradeship and the synergy between their skills, when the two of them fused their skills, the result increased their power in an exponential manner rather than a linear one.

[White, what do you think?]

[Troublesome, this kid’s body is abnormal. Even a direct attack from your sword only gave him shallow wounds when it should have cut his arms in two. His intent is also powerful enough to affect our minds, albeit only for a short time. It is extremely troublesome.]

Even though the fact that Sol could somewhat match them was quite impressive, neither of the two seemed particularly surprised. They had lived quite a long time, and they had heard of the inherent advantage divine beasts had. Even though this one was just a hybrid.

[The two mana attacks I sent did not hurt him at all, but my sword did. This means that he is relatively weaker to pure physical attacks rather than magical.]

[Indeed. So, what’s the plan?]

On the back of her friend, Rio’s eyes narrowed before she whispered, her voice devoid of emotion,

[Let’s go for phase 2]

[...What about your subordinates?]

[Irrelevant.]

[Understood.]

----

Meanwhile, on the ground.

“Do you want my help?”

Keeping his gaze on the enemy, Sol answered quite curtly,

“Don’t disturb me.”

Right now, he felt as if the doors of the Duke realm were beckoning him, but he was still unable to push them open. Every time he was about to have an idea of his Truth, it would suddenly elude him.

This feeling felt as if a woman was spreading her legs and waiting for him, but his little friend refused to respond. Saying that it was frustrating was an understatement.

Isis pouted at having her goodwill rejected and shrugged.

“Well, I guess you are ready to receive quite a beating. It is not like it matters. Bleuh!”

Sticking her tongue at him, she began to walk away. Since his previous sound wave attack had incapacitated so many people, she believed that this battlefield had nothing to do with her.

She had briefly entertained the thought of absorbing the soul of the departed but discarded it. After all, those slavers did not conform to the principle of her Zone.

‘I can’t summon the minion and I don’t want to use the big ones for such a battle. It would be an insult to them.’

Thinking so, she shook her head and stopped,

“Sol.”

“Hum….”

“I just have one question — Why do you still act as if you were human?”

After those words, Isis completely vanished from the battlefield.

---

‘Why do I act as if I was human?’

Sol repeated this sentence in his mind and frowned.

He hated this kind of cryptic line. If you had something to say, you should have just said it. Why was there a need to act like some kind of hermit sage?

Of course, he understood that if he just received the answer, he wouldn’t be able to realize it properly. But this didn’t stop him from hating it.

Before he could muse longer over the meaning behind her words, the loud call of the bird made him snap back to reality.

In the sky, White unruffled his long wings. His shadow covered the plain as if hiding the suns from them.

<<Wind Blades>>

Be it because of his instincts or because he was prepared, Sol moved out of the way before the attack was even finished.

At the place, he stood previously, a deep trench was opened.

Behind him, he could hear the cry of pain of a bunch of soldiers that had been unable to escape in time.

He spared them a short glance, but seeing the men cut in two, from head to toe as they burst open and showed their innards, he wisely decided to continue running.

What followed could only be called a death race.

No matter where Sol tried to escape, blades of pure condensed winds mixed with sharp shards of metal followed behind him.

Even though he sometimes managed to avoid them, he wasn't always lucky.

As for the others, those able to run had long since fled away with everything they could. But as for those who had been incapacitated by his previous sound attack, all they could do was scream and curse at him and their callous leaders.

For Sol, it was the first time in his life he was surrounded by so much death.

Even during the attack on Lustburg, he was not present during the massacre orchestrated by Lilith.

The metallic odor of blood filled the air amidst the cries of pain and misery. Life and death, hope and despair coexisted as everyone fought for their survival.

In this atmosphere, rather than fear and trepidation, all Sol felt was nothing more than a deep and primal joy.

Even though his body was covered in deep wounds and his clothes were in tatters.

Even though he was facing an enemy that outclassed him.

Even though it seemed that there was no hope for him.

Sol could not help but think that he had never felt so alive in this world.

Unbeknownst to him, his lips split into a wild grin while his eyes shone with a deep luster of blood lust.

Currently, he wasn't thinking about trying to reach the Duke rank, nor was he thinking about the fact that he was in no mortal danger.

All his thoughts focused on this single instance, this single moment of pure joy.

'More! I need far more.'

His movements became sharper, his defense better. He began to waste less energy. It was as if until now, he had been living in a foggy state, but that fog was slowly being lifted.

Taking the sword of one of the dead enemies on the ground, he suddenly stopped running and lifted the sword high above his head. A veritable torrent of golden mana filled the sword to the brim, so much that it began to crack.

<<Mana burst>>

One of the simplest and roughest forms of technique. A total absence of shape or elemental manipulation. This attack just consisted of pumping as much mana as possible through a weapon into a single attack.

For a human and in fact, even for most magical beings, this kind of technique was nothing more than a pure waste of mana.

But, the thing Sol lacked the least was mana. After all, thanks to his core, the only thing that limited him was his output.

'Why am I only realizing it now?'

The moment he swung the sword down, it was as if a curtain of light fell and separated everything into two.

The targets of the attack, Rio and White, though impressed, did not even try to avoid the attack and watched as it was absorbed by their silver armor.

Despite the fact that his attack had been completely useless in appearance, a smirk formed on Sol’s face.

He clearly remembered the start of the fight. Be it for his dragon roar or ‘Sheherazade’ attack, Rio had to use different swords to absorb them. Clearly, there was a limit to how much she could absorb.

Of course, doing so meant he was opening himself to a powerful counter. If she simply accumulated a few of his attacks before sending all of them back with a single burst, he would be in quite the difficult situation.

But, so what?

“Hahaha! Let’s see just how high my resistance really is.”

---

From that moment on, the fight between the two took a completely different appearance. Sol, who was initially careful in his way of using mana, simply let go of all such feelings of caution.

Be it reinforcement, intent, or materialization, he used everything as he wished whenever he wished. As a result, be it his strength, speed, defense, and all his attack, all his stats were growing nonstop.

The three of them had long left the surroundings of the encampment and were wreaking havoc everywhere they passed through. Light-filled the sky, tempest roared, and the earth rumbled.

[We are reaching our limit.]

[I know.]

Even though Rio answered curtly, it was impossible to hide the shiver in her voice.

She had always known about how feared and revered divine beasts were. But only now did she understand just how broken they really were.

Be it her or White, the two of them were two experienced Duke. In this fight, they had all the possible advantages, but even so, they were the ones getting tired.

She had never felt so disgusted and helpless during a fight. Be it resistance, pure defense, or regeneration in health and mana, Sol could only be seen as a pure monster.

What’s more, maintaining the silver knight mode ate up their reserve of mana rapidly and the continuous wind attacks did not help. Even though she could store the mana from the attack she received, she could not use them to replenish her own mana.

Even so, they still had one last card to play,

[How much before saturation?]

[5%]

[Then, this is enough.]

Until now, they had only absorbed each and every mana burst from Sol. The armor was already showing cracks here and there because of how high the strain was. But that did not matter.

They were waiting -- waiting for the exact moment they could pour every one of the hybrid's attacks back at him.