Chapter 152 – Pheidippides vs. Ares

Bzzzzzzzzzz—

A circular halo of light illuminated beneath the feet of the Divine Spirits gathered in the arena.

Following that, a compass-like needle appeared inside the circle and began to rotate.

[Choose your desired opponent.]

The will of the Sun Constellation, resonating once more, informed them of what they must do.

“Luke Meyer—! Your opponent is me!”

The first to choose an opponent was Park Jincheol.

Not wanting to miss the chance to avenge his previous defeat, he pointed at Luke Meyer without a moment’s hesitation.

Click.

The needle rotating beneath his feet also stopped spinning, pointing at Luke Meyer.

However, Luke Meyer ignored Park Jincheol, focusing solely on Pheidippides.

More precisely, on the consciousness of Lee Hanseong dwelling within him.

“I did think something like this might happen someday, but I never imagined it would come so soon. For a mere 1-Star Spirit to now covet the position of Apostle and come this far… truly astonishing.”

As the Sun Apostle acting on behalf of the Constellation’s will, Luke Meyer was fully aware of all the instances where Lee Hanseong had altered Pheidippides’ history within the Sun Constellation’s records.

It was simply because Pheidippides’ Promotion benefited the Constellation, and though he wished to interfere, he was prevented by the Constellation’s will.

He was not unaware that Lee Hanseong was nurturing his contracted Spirit to become the Constellation’s Apostle.

Wasn’t it precisely because he sensed Lee Hanseong as a threat to the Apostle position that he had hindered his Awakening from 5-Star onward and had come to deal with him immediately upon his return from the Otherworld?

“But you’ve made a mistake. You should have waited a bit longer before baring your fangs.”

Initially, Luke Meyer had also felt irritated about being forced down from the Apostle position due to the stars contaminated by Chaos, but he soon realized this was conversely an opportunity to deal with the contamination and changed his mindset.

If it hadn’t been revealed now, he would have only realized it after far more stars had been contaminated.

Rather, if he could use this Apostle Decisive Battle to once again dye the contaminated stars with his own Causality, he could completely eradicate the Chaos contamination that had seeped into the Sun Constellation.

Thus, his plan was to first deal with Pheidippides, the origin of the contamination.

Click.

The needle beneath Luke Meyer’s feet fixed itself, pointing toward Pheidippides.

However, for a duel to be established, both sides must choose each other as opponents.

Pheidippides had no intention of fighting Luke Meyer from the start.

Instead, he looked toward the opponent who had been grating on his nerves since arriving here.

Zzzt, zzzt.

The war gods of Sparta and Athens—Ares and Athena.

Part of the reverence constituting Pheidippides’ Divinity originated from Ares and Athena.

Moreover, perhaps because he had once impersonated an oracle using Six Harmonies Communication during his mortal days, Ares’ gaze upon him was far from favorable.

Naturally, they too had already designated Pheidippides as their opponent.

“Ares. Now, I shall surpass thee.”

As Pheidippides pointed at Ares, a line formed connecting the circles beneath the two Divine Spirits.

Clang! Clangclangclang!

Besides them, lines formed as duels were established between other Divine Spirits who had mutually chosen each other.

Conversely, those whose choices did not match were denied the chance to duel and were pushed back to the spectator seats.

Even among those whose duels were established, those whose turn came later were temporarily pushed to the waiting area below the spectator seats.

Thus, only Pheidippides and Ares, whose duel was established first, remained in the arena.

[Begin the first duel.]

Whoom!

No sooner had the Sun Constellation’s will commanded than the first duel of the Apostle Decisive Battle commenced.

* * *

Flicker.

The moment the duel began, the arena momentarily darkened before brightening again.

Before Pheidippides could even grasp the nature of that change.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

A crimson surge of blood energy erupted around Ares.

As if a berserk state or a [Wrath]-type Authority had been unleashed, his physical abilities amplified severalfold.

It was Ares’ Stigma, 《Wrath of Ares》.

Whoosh!

Leaving a red streak in the air, Ares’ Divine Form shot forward, closing the distance to right before Pheidippides’ nose in an instant.

Step.

Pheidippides activated Space-Time Step, now a Stigma, stepping through the Void Space to distance himself from Ares.

“I shall not permit escape.”

“……!”

No, that was the intention, but he couldn’t enter the Void Space.

As if by a Taboo, the entire arena blocked his retreat.

It was Ares’ other Stigma, 《Arena of Ares》.

‘It’s a Domain! The brief darkness at the beginning was Ares’ Domain being deployed!’

No sooner had Lee Hanseong realized the existence of the Domain hindering his movement than—

Swipe!

Ares’ divine sword shallowly sliced Pheidippides’ forearm.

It wasn’t a major wound, but that wasn’t the issue.

The blood seeping from the wound was drawn by a strange attraction, adhering to Ares’ skin.

Along with it, Ares’ blood energy grew slightly stronger.

‘When I’m wounded, Ares grows stronger!’

Swish!

Ares’ sword, now faster, surged toward Pheidippides’ neck.

Knowing Space-Time Step was blocked, he attempted to evade this time by deploying Stigmas derived from Shrinking Earth and Eight Gates Evasion.

Stigma 《Nine Palaces Transformation》.

Shifffft!

With Pheidippides’ position as the center, the space perceived through the principles of the Nine Palaces, augmented by the eight trigrams’ directions, scrambled like a Rubik’s cube, increasing the distance between him and Ares.

It was an ability not of moving oneself, but of moving space itself to create a labyrinth.

However, Ares merely grinned before the chaotically shifting space.

“Entertaining! Let’s see you dodge this too.”

The next moment, blood energy concentrated on Ares’ sword.

An energy surpassing the level of Gang Qi, reaching that of a Divine Artifact, was compressed into the sword as it was swung.

Whoooooosh!

Immediately after, the entire arena was dyed a vivid crimson.

‘At this rate, even the space itself… will shatter! I can’t dodge this.’

“I know. If I can’t dodge, I must block.”

The next moment, while activating Nine Palaces Transformation through Yang Will Divine Art, Pheidippides deployed an additional Stigma.

Stigma 《Six Harmonies Return Formation》, derived from Six Harmonies Communication and No Retreat in Battle!

Uuuuuuum—!

The Myth Skill that expanded the effect of No Retreat in Battle, originally applied to himself, into a Domain through Six Harmonies Communication was precisely Six Harmonies Return Formation.

While active, the Six Harmonies—the four directions of heaven and earth—return to truth and gain Immutability.

Crackle crackle crackle!

Thanks to this, Ares’ blood-light, which had been advancing while shattering space, was blocked, unable to approach further.

“So. You think you’ve blocked it?”

Though the wave of blood-light and the spatial barrier were in opposition, he couldn’t rest easy.

Authority was the right to wield a fragment of truth, a part of Providence.

The Immutability gained through Six Harmonies Return Formation likely couldn’t remain intact when clashing with an Authority.

Sure enough.

“This too is war. The more you resist, the stronger I become.”

Zzzzzzzzzz!

With each clash between the blood-light and space, Ares’ [War] Authority intensified, amplifying its power.

Creak— Creakcreak!

Cracks appeared in the space again.

Not yet shattered completely, but it was clear they would soon collapse.

In response, Pheidippides also drew out his final Stigma.

The fifth Myth, created by integrating unique Skills based on the Identity of the World Tree.

Stigma 《Water Form Taiji Diagram》.

Shifffft!

The spatial labyrinth created by Nine Palaces Transformation formed a single Taiji Diagram.

Layers of Reverse Worlds, copies of that Taiji Diagram, stacked upon each other, repeatedly branching to form a tree-like Water Form Diagram.

It was similar to the Triple Eastern Heaven within the Eastern Heaven of the Three Divine Mountains or the branching of Parallel Worlds brought by the Authority of Dream Chaos.

Countless Reverse Worlds formed a multi-layered structure like matryoshka dolls, a system where even if one space was destroyed, another would endlessly replace it.

“Kuhaha. Your intent to hold out through sheer numbers is truly admirable. I’m curious to see just how far you can last.”

Crash—! Crash—! Crash—!

Ares’ divine sword grew increasingly stronger, shattering the spatial barriers, but the number of newly created spatial barriers far exceeded those being destroyed.

Of course, as the War Authority also grew more powerful with each clash, the speed of destruction was gradually accelerating as well.

‘Now.’

“Indeed. This should be enough accumulated space.”

The true value of Water Form Taiji Diagram was not simply trapping the opponent.

The spaces accumulated into the Water Form Diagram, and even the Fragments of shattered spaces, were all like a powder keg ready to explode for Pheidippides.

In sync with Lee Hanseong’s signal, a Reversal was added to the Stigmas Pheidippides had deployed so far.

Space-Time Step Reversal, Spatiotemporal Theft.

He seized the entire massive multi-layered spatial structure created by Water Form Taiji Diagram.

Yang Will Divine Art Reversal, Dual Polar Annihilation.

Nine Palaces Transformation Reversal, Nine Palaces Shatter Heaven.

Six Harmonies Return Formation Reversal, Six Harmonies Return to Annihilation.

And then, the spaces divided by the two extremes and the nine and six directions were simultaneously converged and collided into a single point, triggering a spatial explosion.

Ares’ complexion turned pale as he sensed it.

“…What?!”

The power of a spatial explosion was proportional to the number of stacked spaces.

“Ultimate Technique! World-Destroying Cataclysm!”

A force of Annihilation capable of shattering even the heavens engulfed Ares.

Yet, amidst the overwhelming explosion that could annihilate even a Divine Spirit, Ares forced a grin.

“Kuhahahaha!”

The madness of war had blown away the fear of death.

Swishswishswishswishswishswishswishswishswish!!!!

Ares swung his sword at speeds invisible to the eye, confronting the cataclysm.

Pheidippides, startled by his momentum, twitched his eyebrows.

“Surely he’s not going to block it…?”

‘No, the power was calculated anticipating even that level of resistance. Ares dies here.’

Lee Hanseong reassured the worried Pheidippides.

No matter how much Ares resisted, there was a limit.

Swish— Swishswish— Swishswishswish—!

As Lee Hanseong calculated, spatial storms that the sword strikes couldn’t block began to appear.

Blood lines etched across Ares’ entire body.

But as the blood flowing from them covered Ares’ skin, the speed of his sword strikes grew faster and faster.

It seemed he grew stronger by making either the enemy or himself bleed.

“Did you calculate that too…?”

Looking at Ares, now completely drenched in blood, Pheidippides asked in an uneasy voice.

The World-Destroying Cataclysm he had just unleashed was a technique that consumed his capabilities as a World Tree. If this were blocked, he would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

‘I anticipated that too. But the amplification rate is higher than I thought. It’ll be close.’

“Is there anything more we can do now?”

‘You know we can’t do anything until the explosion subsides. If you interfere, it would only offset the explosion’s power. Focus on recovery for now. Even if we defeat Ares here, there will be another duel.’

“Hmm. Right.”

Having said that, Pheidippides no longer looked at Ares, focusing entirely on recovering the World Tree capabilities consumed by the explosion.

It was sufficient to leave monitoring Ares to Lee Hanseong.

Rooting himself in the Sun Authority held within and absorbing Starlight.

Uuuuuuum—

As the absorption rate increased, so did his Grasp over the Sun Authority.

While Pheidippides devoted himself to recovery.

Gradually, Ares too reached his limit.

“Kkh… Haa… Kkhhuuk….”

His sword strikes slowed, his wounds deepened, and the explosive pressure, once in equilibrium, began pushing into the sphere of his sword strikes.

Thud.

“…I’ve lost.”

And finally, the moment Ares’ movements ceased.

The delayed explosion erupted centered on Ares.

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Within the explosion emitting darkness and cold instead of light and heat.

Ares’ Divinity faded.

But the next moment.

Whoosh!

Pheidippides was transferred to the spectator seats.

And Ares, whose presence had vanished, also appeared perfectly intact in the spectator seats.

The only difference was that the circular halo of light that had existed beneath his feet had disappeared.

[Victor. Pheidippides.]

Amidst the Sun Constellation’s will mechanically announcing Pheidippides’ victory.

‘Huh? This…’

Lee Hanseong realized that the Fragment of Sun Authority Ares had held within had been added to Pheidippides.

Proportionally, the brightness of the circular halo beneath Pheidippides’ feet also increased.

It seemed the brightness of the circle beneath one’s feet represented their Grasp over the Sun Authority.

[Begin the second duel.]

Shifting his gaze to the arena at the Sun Constellation’s continued will, the participants of the second duel came into view.

Thunderbolt Sword Dice Ten and the former Sun Apostle, Ra-Horakhty.