"Boom!!!"
The gloomy sky suddenly erupted with deafening thunder that shook the sea to its very depths. Wave after wave surged forth, violently crashing against the sandy shore.
The seawater churned, a powerful Wind raged, and Yu and the small altar in the middle of the sea were like rootless floating seaweed, as if the wrath of heaven and sea could overturn them at any moment.
Yet Yu merely stood calmly upon the altar.
If someone looked more carefully, they would notice that Wind was circling around the young man, gently lifting him and preventing the trembling of the altar from affecting him.
"Oh? Quite a commotion, isn't it?"
Yu murmured, narrowing his eyes.
He had not expected that the altar in this place would be able to directly summon the Heretic God Melqart.
Originally, he had planned to borrow a few people from Italy and then summon several Tomies from the materialized Moon Authority.
Now things had turned out even better.
The need for sacrificial souls for the summoning had been directly removed.
He simply did not know where this triangular magic circle and altar had come from.
If they had been preserved since ancient times like the Box of Gluttony, Yu did not believe it.
After all, as a divine artifact, the Box of Gluttony could exist for a very long time.
But!
The sea crystal altar beneath his feet could not.
When Yu first discovered that this altar was used to summon Melqart, he had used Cut Break to inspect the sea crystal altar beneath his feet.
Cut Break could not only be used to observe living beings.
Yu could also see those lines when using it on inanimate objects, although there were not many of them.
From the perspective of Cut Break, the altar he stood upon was merely ordinary sea crystal.
And this sea crystal altar had come into existence only a few thousand years ago!
A few thousand years ago, Yu did not believe that anyone possessed the power to summon a Heretic God.
If such a person had existed, then why was there not a single record of God Slayers left in world history?
Even those monsters whose lifespans often lasted thousands of years knew nothing about God Slayers.
However, Yu's assumption was somewhat too confident.
What if everything in the present world had been carefully altered by some unknown existence?
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Just as Yu was thinking about this, a dark blue bolt of lightning suddenly descended from the sky and struck the Box of Gluttony heavily, from which purple cursed energy and mist were constantly emerging.
"Hmm? Is it coming?"
Sensing that something was wrong, Yu stopped thinking and looked toward the Box of Gluttony on the altar.
After being struck by lightning, the Box of Gluttony seemed as if it had learned its lesson.
It became much more obedient and no longer released cursed energy or dark purple mist outward.
The cursed energy and mist that had previously emerged were drawn by the lightning and fell into the sea.
In an instant, the sea that had been raging moments ago became calm.
Immediately afterward, dense fog began spreading across the ocean's surface.
The fog spread at an astonishing speed and, within mere moments, surrounded the altar upon which Yu stood.
"Ho? Interesting."
Noticing that the surrounding fog was consciously trying to envelop and devour him, Yu smiled.
His aura suddenly surged.
Wind roared and directly dispersed the fog attempting to approach him.
However, as soon as the fog was scattered, it returned in waves.
In the end, it was stopped by the Wind wall Yu had created around the altar.
"I say, since you've already arrived, why not come out and show yourself?"
Yu naturally noticed the unusual behavior of the fog.
But he did not pay much attention to it.
His beautiful gem-like purple eyes stared straight ahead.
His voice was light, but within this eerie environment, accompanied by endless thunder, it carried very, very far!
When Yu's voice faded, the surroundings became completely silent for a brief moment.
But immediately afterward, the ground began to tremble.
The sounds of the surging sea could be heard, accompanied by dull impacts of heavy objects striking the ground.
"Boom! Boom!"
At first hearing, they sounded like footsteps.
And they were getting closer and closer.
Very soon, an enormous mountain-like silhouette emerged from the dense fog.
As it approached, Yu finally saw clearly what was hidden behind that gigantic shadow.
The owner of that enormous silhouette was a blue giant several hundred meters tall, covered in bronze armor!
The giant's face was stern.
His thick beard was connected to his hair, making him look like a powerful old man.
But Yu knew that giant was precisely the Heretic God he had been searching for.
The supreme god of Phoenician mythology.
Also known as Gluttony.
The holder of the title Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies.
Baal!
Also known as Melqart!
Speaking of which, Melqart and the authority of the Eastern War God probably had a certain connection.
Rather than saying Melqart was connected to the authority of the Eastern War God, it would be more accurate to say that this fellow had a very close relationship with Verethragna.
After all, both of them were celebrated in their respective mythologies as "Dragon-Slaying Heroes."
They had even left their own mythologies and fought a divine battle in the present world to determine who was the strongest god.
Although that divine battle ultimately produced no victor, Yu believed that Melqart was still somewhat stronger than Verethragna.
Although both were "Dragon-Slaying Heroes," Verethragna had originally been only a wandering god.
Later, he gained Mithra's recognition, became his close associate, and the war god who protected the Monarchy.
"Human, was it you who summoned this old man?"
Melqart's blue eyes, each as large as an automobile, looked toward Yu.
His voice was deep and powerful like the sound of an enormous bell.
"Yes."
Faced with this mountain-like supreme god, there was neither fear nor hesitation in Yu's eyes.
What he wanted now was to see just how powerful this supreme god of Phoenician mythology truly was.
"Hmm... It has been a long time. You really are exactly the same as when I first saw you."
After a brief moment of thought, Melqart straightened his posture and muttered.
His voice, filled with divine power, sounded like ordinary muttering to Yu.
As for the second part of his sentence, it dispersed under the influence of divine power, so Yu could not hear it at all.
"Oh, God Slayer, cursed, hated, and yet adored by the gods! You summoned this old man, surely because of his authority, correct?"
Raising his hands, Melqart assumed a strange posture resembling surrender.
As his divine voice echoed out, fierce Wind howled and thunder roared.
Then the raging Wind and thunder gathered in Melqart's hands, transforming into Chaser and Exile.
"I need your authority to save someone."
Seeing that Melqart intended to act so readily, Yu had no intention of delaying any longer.
The moment his words fell, Joyeuse appeared in his hand.
"Die!!!"
Melqart suddenly attacked.
With a roar, the two divine artifacts in his hands overlapped one another as they came crashing down toward Yu.
"Boom!!!"
Accompanied by a deafening explosion, Chaser and Exile smashed downward heavily, shattering the altar and shaking the very earth itself!