Chapter 163

It was humiliating for him.

Even though he had not used his full power, even though he had not recovered from the injuries incurred during the battle with the Dragon King, the fact that he had lost to a mere demon was unforgivable. It made his blood boil and wounded his self-esteem.

I’m the strongest. I should be the strongest.

Yet what was this...this pitiful state that he was in? He had lost to Ruphas and even lost to Aries. He had even lost to some unknown person. Being strong was his pride and the meaning of his existence. Therefore, he would not let it end like this. He relied on the slight scent that had been left behind to track down his enemy and now, he once again stood before Sol.

“Stand up. I’m not done with you yet.”

“Of course.”

In response to Leon’s provocation, Sol stood up with an expression as if he had been holding back. But his expression became clouded in the next moment. When he got up, his legs were shaking as if he was about to collapse. It seemed that one blow was enough to result in his current condition.

“Oh—!”

Leon swung his steel-like arm as Sol raised his arms to guard at the last second, but the latter was still blown away. As his arms creaked, Sol once again strongly recognized the danger in facing such ridiculous attack power head-on.

He had never been hit directly in the previous battles. He had always been able to evade or defend against everything. He should have confirmed that their powers were even back then…but it seemed that there was a difference in strength even when their powers were even.

The first hit to his head was indeed a serious blow. As a result, he couldn’t move his legs satisfactorily. But Sol didn’t blame the surprise attack. There was no cowardice in battle. It was either kill or be killed. Only those who did not understand the true nature of battles would call others cowards or despicable. The damage he incurred was his own fault on the battlefield. It was a price he had to pay. Sol understood that.

As he was blown away, he quickly activated divine magic to buff himself. Meanwhile, Leon’s angry attacks continued unabated, forcefully shaving off Sol’s endurance with every blow despite his guard.

It was so terrible that his defending arms seemed to be getting sc.r.a.ped…No, they were actually being sc.r.a.ped. Each time he received an attack, his bones creaked and his skin cracked. With Leon’s power, there was little difference between a direct hit and a glancing blow. If the hit landed, it was as if a vital spot had been struck.

If the opponent attempted to guard with his arms, Leon would destroy his arms and rob him of his attack power. If the opponent attempted to guard with his legs, he would crush his legs and rob him of his mobility.

Among the Twelve Stars, Leon alone had neither unique skills nor pretentious special abilities. But why was he still called the strongest? It was because he was just simply that strong.

Not yet…Not yet…Just a little more…

While enduring the onslaught of such a wild beast, Sol buffed himself further and waited for a chance to counterattack. He patiently waited to recover from the initial damage so that he could move his legs freely. It was daunting in a battle of this level where every second was like several minutes. It felt like a bitter road that would last forever.

However, Sol enjoyed his disadvantaged situation. He found joy in struggling in a fight. He wasn’t really a pervert who would find pleasure in pain. What he wished for was a responsive battle. No, maybe he was a weirdo after all, specifically the kind of weirdo called a battle junkie.

Three more seconds…two seconds…one second…

One second would normally pa.s.s in the blink of an eye. But within that second, Leon would be able to slaughter most enemies, mutilating their original forms. Despite being subject to his attacks, Sol concentrated on defending without losing his composure.

…Zero!

The instant that the damage was recovered and his legs regained their mobility, Sol evaded Leon’s punch. His strengthened fist struck Leon’s cheek, sending the latter’s huge body flying backwards.

However, Leon was surprised only momentarily. He immediately directed his strength into his legs, stopping after flying only five meters backwards. Sol pursued quickly with a kick to Leon’s face. But Leon threw an uppercut as he staggered, sending Sol flying.

Sol rolled in mid-air to kill his momentum and activated arcane magic the instant he landed on the ground. The roles of attacker and defender were reversed. This time, it was Sol’s turn to attack aggressively, putting the pressure on Leon. But Leon lowered his guard for some unknown reason and charged straight into the arcane magic.

“!”

“It’s lukewarm! Your lame magic!”

Leon closed in quickly and unleashed a powerful uppercut. After being struck in the chin, Sol made several revolutions before falling head first onto the ground. Leon quickly jumped after him and attempted to trample him. Sol avoided it at the last moment by rolling on the ground. The trample ended up digging into the ground, forming a huge crater.

“You keep running around…Whatever, I’ll just have to hit you with something that you can’t avoid. I wasn’t really serious last time…This time, I won’t hold back.”

Leon shook his hair as his muscles expanded.

Badump.

As the sound of his heartbeat seemed to echo in the atmosphere, Leon transformed. Abandoning his human form, the Lion King, the strongest magical beast, appeared before Sol. His intimidating presence caused Sei and the others on Levia to gulp. Friedrich even trembled and crouched down.

“I—It appeared…”

“He was so scary when he was an enemy, but as an ally, n.o.body seems more reliable. Although, if we go over there, we won’t even register as existences in his eyes, much less as an enemy or an ally.”

Sei muttered nervously, while Gants sweated and spoke as if he was convinced of his victory. Although they had only been bystanders during the battle between Leon and Aries, Leon’s strength could still be felt in the atmosphere. After all, Leon’s strength was guaranteed when he was able to gain the upper hand even while battling several members of the Twelve Stars.

Although this just happened coincidentally, he was an ally for now…or rather, he was an enemy of the enemy. In the first place, they couldn’t imagine how he could possibly lose.

However, unlike the hero’s party who felt that Leon would win, the expressions of Megrez and the others were stern. As they watched, Sol happily caught the edge of Leon’s mouth. At that moment, there was an overwhelming surge of divine power from him. This was something Megrez and the others were familiar with…It was the mistake of their past.

“Not good… At this rate, the Lion King is going to lose.”

“Eh!?”

Sei couldn’t believe the despairing words that came out of Megrez’s mouth. At least, his expression seemed to be saying so. He had personally witnessed Leon’s strength with his own eyes. Although Leon had eventually lost, he was overwhelming enough to fight against several members of the Twelve Stars at the same time. He just couldn’t believe that the Lion King could possibly lose.

“The one called Sol is borrowing power from the G.o.ddess. The same thing happened two hundred years ago when we fought Ruphas.”

Leon was the strongest magical beast. There was no mistake. However, he was only at the pinnacle of the power ranking created by the G.o.ddess. He couldn’t go beyond the pinnacle in the way Ruphas and Benetnash could.

Furthermore, the ouroboroses were actually above him in the power ranking. He was far from being the strongest. Therefore, if the G.o.ddess gave Sol enough power to go beyond the ranking…there was no chance that Leon could win from the very beginning.

Leon was so powerful that he didn’t need unique skills. He could overwhelm others with his own strength. Conversely, it implied that he didn’t have any way to triumph over those who were stronger than himself. In other words, his strength could only win over those who were weaker than himself.

♌

“Speaking of which, I just remembered.”

Aries spoke casually on the Argo, which was heading towards Svalinn. After hearing what Pollux had said, he remembered something.

“Previously, Dina-san said this before…”

Aries began by mentioning what Dina had said during the fight against Leon. At that time, Dina was speaking as if she was the G.o.ddess herself instead of merely reading the thoughts of the G.o.ddess. Now, he understood the reason for that.

She was the avatar of the G.o.ddess, therefore her thoughts were the closest to those of the G.o.ddess herself. Dina and the G.o.ddess basically had the same thought processes.

Of course, there might be differences due to the environment in which she was born and raised as well as her interpersonal relationships. Aries and the others did not know this, but there were actually differences. Despite this, they still shared a common root.

Dina was aware of this, thus she could read the thoughts of the G.o.ddess by examining her own thoughts.

If it were me, then I’d do this. If it were me, this would be my next move.

Those kinds of thoughts directly equated to the thoughts of the G.o.ddess.

As a result, she could gain a leg up on the G.o.ddess. And this Dina had told Aries back then.

—That guy doesn’t deserve to win. A deserving person is one who doesn’t bring shame to the name of the hero, a brave child who is nurtured to become the protagonist of the story…Therefore, technically, it’s fine even if Leon-sama loses.

Dina had said that.

Leon was the type of man that the G.o.ddess hated most. Leon thought that it was only natural for him to be blessed and he felt no grat.i.tude. It was only natural for the G.o.ddess to hate such foolish people.

In that case, her preference should be just the opposite—a person who would not take blessings for granted and would walk by himself despite being weak. Surely, that was what the G.o.ddess loved. That was why Dina supported a weakling like Aries.

After hearing that, Virgo covered her mouth with her hand and shouted.

“Then…the matter about Sei-kun…”

“Probably, I think. If what Dina-san said was correct, I think Sei-kun would be the type of man that the G.o.ddess would like.”

♈

“—In other words, you’re saying that the next target of the G.o.ddess is the youth named Sei?”

Benet, Dina, and I were currently in a restaurant, discussing the next moves of the G.o.ddess over a light snack. At my feet, there were several bags filled with food, games, and daily necessities from this world that I had stocked up on from various shops.

By the way, the shop we were currently in was called Ayirezias, which was a restaurant that specialized in Italian cuisine. It offered high-quality products despite its low prices. I used to frequent this shop…Oh, no. My avatar did. I had never been here myself.

How complicated…I understood that these memories were just implanted and I had never actually experienced any of it. Now, the memories that were lost in the sealed s.p.a.ce had been properly restored. But it was still rather confusing.

Well, my avatar was still me. I was completely different now, but the roots were still the same. In other words, my tastes were still the same, along with the shops that I preferred…That’s what it meant.

“Yes, if what I’m thinking is correct. As you know, I’m already independent from the G.o.ddess-sama. Even so, our fundamental selves are the same. In other words, I have the same preferences as the G.o.ddess. I will also physiologically reject whatever the G.o.ddess hates. For example, take Leon-sama and Aries-sama. Both the G.o.ddess and I have a good impression of Aries-sama, but we both hate Leon-sama.”

“…I think Leon’s self-centered willfulness is pretty cute.”

“Ruphas-sama, you just think of Leon-sama as nothing more than an oversized cat, don’t you…?”

Apparently, the G.o.ddess and I did not have the same taste in animals. A person who loved cats would understand. For some reason, cats seemed cute when they behaved selfishly. Of course, the cats were being kept as pets, but they did not know that. They acted as if they were number one and were the masters instead. But that too was cute.

Leon was like that to me. I should say this now. The reason I captured Leon instead of killing him like I did the Dragon King was because I liked cats. It was often said that lions were scary, but if one were to look closely at their faces, they were actually quite cute.

…By the way, my avatar (I) also had a cat. Its name was Fahl. It was a cute, self-centered cat.

“Well, anyway. As a hero, that Sei-kun is certainly the kind of human talent that the G.o.ddess would want. However, he seems to be going on a completely different route than what I had thought.”

“How so?”

“Let’s see…At first, I considered letting him lose his will to fight and make him retire. Therefore, I set up an encounter for Orm and Ruphas-sama in front of Sei-kun, but unfortunately, that didn’t work.”

Dina must be referring to the time when I fought the Demon King. Indeed, now that I thought about it, that battle was the result of Dina’s impressive manipulation.

For the Demon King, it was to verify my return as well as to test my power at that moment in time. For Dina, it was to preemptively break the hero who might become troublesome in the future. Now that I knew that they were working together right from the start, I could only say, “They got me.”

“But he didn’t break. On the contrary, starting from the conversation Ruphas-sama had with Orm, he proceeded to search for the truth and eventually chose to ally with Ruphas-sama. This was a happy miscalculation for me, but it’d be an unbelievable mistake for the G.o.ddess-sama.”

During the conversation, the doria was brought before Benet. The dish’s name was “I-really-don’t-know-what’s-so-Milanese-about-this doria”. She scooped it with a spoon, brought it to her eye level, squinted at it, and said,

“Basically, both of you made a miscalculation. Even if the roots are the same, you don’t have to be as useless as her.”

“Please don’t say that…Even I hate my carelessness sometimes. This is all because of the G.o.ddess-sama.”

Apparently, even Dina herself was concerned about how useless her true form was. Perhaps the G.o.ddess was unexpectedly concerned about this too?

…I thought so. I got the feeling that she was quite mentally fragile when she was possessing Pollux.