---o---
"Whoosh—!!!"
At some point unknown to observers, fierce gales and torrential rain began to batter this land, manifesting phenomena no less severe than a category ten typhoon.
Yet, amidst such a hostile environment, the Warlord displaying the posture of a God-King and the young boy suspended in mid-air continued their standoff with composed expressions. They paid no heed to the terrible weather or the driving storm, remaining as immovable as mountains, the aura radiating from their bodies far more terrifying than the tempest itself.
"I am Verethragna! I am the Victor! Victory is always within my grasp!"
Uttering this arrogant declaration that seemed capable of shaking the heavens and earth, the God of Victory named Verethragna laughed, his face filled with wild madness.
The laughter was deafening, the expanding sound waves even blasting away the surrounding wind and rain.
"Now, let me see just how brave of a warrior the beast of slaughter doted upon by Surya truly is."
The instant he murmured those words, Verethragna abruptly vanished, and a magnificent golden bull appeared in the position the Warlord had occupied.
This bull possessed a physique that the word 'magnificent' failed to capture.
The largest known animal to have ever lived on Earth—the blue whale—has a body length of only a little over thirty meters. This bull, however, stood thirty meters tall!
"MuWooooooooh!!!"
The golden bull, possessing beautiful horns, charged forward. At the same time, it let out a ferocious roar.
Although the Warlord Verethragna had revealed his aspect as a God-King, he still possessed the power to seize victory by transforming into his 'Ten Incarnations.'
As a probing attack, he activated his fifth incarnation as the Warlord—The Bull.
"You don't actually think I'm going to wrestle you like a lunatic, do you?"
The boy, who could instantly gain an overwhelming advantage simply by activating his Authority as a Herrscher, narrowed his eyes.
Theoretically, what he should do is drive Verethragna, who held the identity of Śakra (Indra), into a desperate corner with maximum speed, thereby drawing out the King of the End who was likely spying on this location.
Then, he would drag him into his Reality Marble. With the absolute advantage of the terrain, he would join forces with his allies to dispose of that stubborn God-King.
However—
He was really quite unhappy right now.
Much like how Mash would suddenly become extremely terrifying upon encountering Lancelot, a demonic sword emerged in the hand of the boy who had inherited Karna's Spirit Origin and Surya's divinity.
It was the armament of the Celtic God-King, possessing a sharpness capable of tearing through even the Sunwheel Armor.
But—
This demonic sword was merely a vessel for another force.
"Swear it here. I allow nothing to exist that I cannot sever."
As the magnificent bull came charging in, the Authority of another God-Slayer spilled from his lips.
The boy's arm turned into silver-white metal, and in synchronization, massive cursed magical energy wrapped around the weapon.
The armament of the God-King was viciously stabbed into the ground.
The demonic sword plunged into the earth. As the cursed energy poured in, the sword's radiance erupted in an instant.
As if fearing the scar of the blade, the earth began to self-destruct.
—It was a sword technique that drew out the death of the earth and steel.
It was not a slash directed at a person, but a massive attack that indiscriminately shattered the sky and the earth together.
If one is the strongest swordsman in the world, it stands to reason that one should naturally be able to split the sky and slice open the earth.
With such conviction, the King of Swords—who absolutely permitted the existence of nothing he could not cut—could, in the later stages of his power, even drag asteroids down from outer space and alter continental plates in a single breath.
Li Zihan, having usurped the Authority of the King of Swords, naturally shared this belief in the power he had stolen from his compatriot.
Therefore—
Shatter for me.
Under its master's will, the earth completely transformed into a carrier for the sword energy. Boundless sword qi erupted, executing its master's will.
It was terrifying.
Just seeing the rampaging sword light gave birth to an incredibly intense premonition of death.
BOOM—!
Centered on the point where the demonic sword was inserted, hundreds of sword scars seemed to come alive. They began to leap and run, instantly slicing apart everything in the vicinity.
The ground, carved with countless sword scars, became a gruesome sight. The earth for a radius of several hundred meters was filled with deep, dark fissures blowing cold wind, while the many skyscrapers that had been severed crumbled into debris and fell.
It wasn't just being smashed.
Tiny fragments—shredded to the size of pebbles—were pulverized into sparsity. Objects of rock and metal structure collapsed one after another, turning into fine powder.
The Authority of the King of Swords cuts through all!
A single strike that sliced the city into fragments.
If one were to take such an attack, even the absurdly sturdy physical body of a god would be cut in two or chopped into scattered pieces and finished off.
However—
As long as one isn't hit, there is no issue.
"Nuada's Silver Hand? I have committed it to memory."
The voice of the Warlord, who hadn't expected to corner the Child of the Prophet with the Bull incarnation from the start, carried a hint of mockery.
A silver metal arm. Among the many mythologies, the only god with such a characteristic is the first God-King of the Celtic pantheon.
Verethragna is a warrior who possesses the Authority to seal the divinity of his enemies. When the knowledge of an enemy's Authority is grasped by him, that Authority is not far from being disabled.
Moreover—
Unlike that fellow Kusanagi Godou, who perennially used a castrated version of the Ten Incarnations, Verethragna could repeatedly use the Golden Sword of Words.
To be able to discern the foundation of the enemy's trump card-level Authority with just the first probe was undoubtedly an extremely delightful matter.
However, before sealing this guy's Authority, he had to deal with other matters first.
Feeling the terrifying sword qi attacking from below, the Warlord, who had returned to human form, called upon the gale.
In an instant, the air rioted and turned gloomy. The whipping storm instantly shredded all the free-falling debris above into dust invisible to the naked eye, which was then swept away into the distance by a roll of the wind, leaving the sky clean.
Incarnation: The Wind.
In the next moment, his entire person transformed into a majestic eagle, soaring straight up like the Roc of mythology.
Looking down from above, a longbow appeared in his hands—a bow possessing the exact same aura as the Victory Bow Li Zihan had gifted to Stargazer.
It was the Divine Bow of Victory, created by the divine architect Vishvakarman upon the order of the Great God Shiva.
That longbow, which could ignore destruction at the level of a Beast Master's Noble Phantasm and increase the future potential of its arrows by dozens of times, had two previous masters before falling into Karna's hands.
One was Karna's teacher—Parashurama (Rama with the Axe), who had exterminated the Kshatriya warrior caste seventeen times.
Going back further, it was the Lord of Devas—Indra!
The God-King named Indra had once used this bow to defeat the Asura King with whom he had warred for a thousand years.
The Warlord laughed loudly, seemingly forgetting the mission Mithra had entrusted to him.
This was only logical. After deciding to restore his aspect as a God-King, Verethragna had absolutely no need to bow his head to Mithra, nor any need to obey his commands.
"Satisfy me! Give me a slaughter capable of quelling the battle intent within my body!"
The bellicose Warlord drew the longbow.
He closed his eyes, and then, endless thunder transformed into an arrow, adhering to the longbow.
Imagine the sight of a lightning arrow shot with the God-King's full power, magnified dozens of times over.
The arrow, capable of shattering gods, left the longbow. Unlike the magnificent atmosphere when the bow was drawn, there was no sound, only the resolve to kill.
Just like the God-Slaying Spear (Vasavi Shakti), the arrow, whose essence was Indra's Thunder, could even erase concepts from the world!
Without a doubt, the Indra's Thunder used by Verethragna was a bug-level power, comparable to the Severed Hand of Silver!
If hit by Indra's Thunder magnified dozens of times, even high-magic-resistance characters like God-Slayers and Gods would die!
But, as long as defensive measures are used in advance, one wouldn't die on the spot, right?
The boy, who had absolutely no intention of dodging Indra's Thunder magnified ten times by the Victory Bow, felt the Herrscher of Reason core within his body begin to spin.
[Target Analysis — Sunwheel Armor]
[Understanding — Reconstruction]
"O Maiden Megaira, O Avenger Tisiphone, O Endless Alecto! Return the curse and execute vengeance! Now is the time for revenge!"
A spell chant that caused Verethragna's expression to change drastically spilled from the boy's lips.
The Goddesses of Vengeance.
The Authority usurped by the Black Prince from the Furies (Erinyes)—Megaira, Tisiphone, and Alecto—of Greek mythology.
It summons the three sisters of vengeance to form a "Vengeance Field." The three goddesses reflect the attacks and curses performed before them back to the attacker, according to Alexander's (now Li Zihan's) instructions.
It is not a simple reflection; it is an ability that returns the inflicted damage.
Summoning requires a certain amount of meditation time and ritual. The basic usage is to summon them to one's side beforehand or set them as a trap in advance.
Furthermore, the goddesses can copy the opponent's skills and weapons to use directly.
If the enemy's attack cannot exceed the tolerance limit of the three Furies, then what greets him next will be the suffering of his own Authority's power, followed by being hunted down by three goddesses who have copied his power and techniques.
Damn it!
Verethragna, realizing the problem the moment he heard the names of those three goddesses, felt his expression warp.
He wanted to change the direction of the thunder, but it was already too late.
Three goddesses, with black wings growing from their backs and their bodies shining with the radiance of the Sunwheel Armor, manifested on the left, right, and back of the boy who had stolen the Authority from the Black Prince, spreading their respective black wings.
The Maiden Megaira, the Avenger Tisiphone, and the Endless Alecto.
Every strand of the goddesses' hair was a 'venomous snake.' They were the goddesses who judged criminals and presided over vengeance—
All destruction, attacks, and strikes performed before the three goddesses would be returned to the perpetrator.
Those spread black wings effortlessly bounced back the Indra's Thunder that had failed to slaughter them.
The thunder, magnified ten times by the Victory Bow, shot straight up towards the sky, turning into a pillar of lightning that reached the clouds, seemingly tearing the entire sky apart.
A magnificent funeral of lightning swallowed the locked-on Warlord.
Author's Note:
PS: I suddenly realized that the Authorities of God-Slayers are all so bugged...
tl note: yes. there are 2 chapter 41