"Come."
Arthur stretched out his hand as he spoke, and his sword flew into his grasp. Without hesitation, he poured that same ominous silver energy into the blade and drove it into the man's stomach.
"Gugh!"
The man coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"I just want to live my life quietly."
*PUK!!!
"ARRRRGGGHHHH!!"
Arthur spoke again as he yanked the sword out and stabbed the man once more, eliciting another scream.
"I don't want any business with the gods."
*PUK!!!
"AHHHHHHH!!"
"Yet you bastards keep coming to try and kill me!"
*PUK!!!
"GRAUGHAAAAKAHHHH!"
The man's agonised scream echoed through the forest, shaking even the hidden monsters into retreat as fear crawled up their spines at whatever was behind such a wail.
Just then, a loud flapping sound echoed, and Arthur turned his gaze upward to see a winged woman descending.
Her skin was smooth and fair, her facial features refined. Piercing red eyes sat beneath delicate eyebrows, a small and well-shaped nose above lips held in a slightly downturned line.
Five pairs of jet-black, bat-like wings folded behind her back, and dull silver hair flowed down over her shoulders.
She stared at the half-dead man lying before him and sighed before speaking.
"Just put him out of his misery already."
*B-BANG!
Without a word, Arthur shot the man twice in the head, ending his life instantly. He handed the gun back to Layla, then turned to the silver-haired woman who had just arrived.
"If you were here, Mum, why didn't you just kill them?"
Arthur's mother chuckled softly before replying,
"It's part of your training."
Arthur rolled his eyes at her words and looked down at the corpse in front of him. He waved his hand, and with a bright flash of light, his sword vanished.
Then, without warning, he allowed himself to fall backwards toward Layla, who was standing behind him.
"Huh? Ah!"
Layla quickly caught him and was just about to ask why he did that when a loud roar cut her off.
**ROARRRRR!!!!
All three turned in the direction of the sound and saw a basilisk much larger and clearly far stronger than the one Arthur and Layla had fought earlier.
"Looks like it's pissed we killed its kid."
The giant basilisk was massive enough to easily tower over the forest's tallest trees. It narrowed its eyes at Arthur and Layla and charged toward them, an angry expression seemingly on its face.
"You can read a basilisk's facial expression?" Layla asked with an arched brow.
"Nope, just saying."
As Arthur responded, his mother glanced at the enormous creature pushing through the sea of trees, then raised a finger into the air.
With a flick, a bolt of deep red energy shot out, heading straight for the basilisk's forehead.
Its speed was beyond perception.
Arthur and Layla didn't see a thing.
The red bolt pierced the basilisk's forehead effortlessly, killing it in an instant. A second later, its entire body was engulfed in crimson light and reduced to ash.
From beginning to end, everything took no more than three seconds.
To Arthur and Layla, it looked as though Arthur's mother had simply raised her hand, and the basilisk vanished in a burst of light.
"That thing was a Transcendent."
Arthur finally spoke after a few seconds of silence.
His mother lowered her hand and tilted her head slightly before asking,
"So?"
Arthur sighed, choosing to ignore the fact that his mother had just casually erased a creature powerful enough to flatten an entire continent without breaking a sweat.
He gestured toward the corpse on the ground and asked, "Why do these demigod assassins keep showing up anyway? They're so weak."
She shrugged, retracting her wings as she replied,
"No idea. They've been trying for fourteen years with nothing to show for it. You'd think they'd have given up by now, but the gods really are annoyingly persistent.
Then again, if you didn't go around beating up half-step Epics, maybe they would have."
Arthur chuckled and straightened up, stretching his legs as he glanced at her again.
"The prophecy… it came a few months before I was born, right? After you and Dad already did the 'deed'?"
His mother raised an eyebrow at him, then flicked his forehead and answered,
"Yes. Why?"
Rubbing his forehead, Arthur shot her a mildly indignant look and said,
"I heard there was a huge commotion. What actually happened? I never really got the full story."
Arthur's mother walked over to the corpses lying behind the shattered trees and picked them up before responding.
"You were right about the commotion.
As for what happened, I don't know everything, but I can tell you most of it. Your father filled me in on what happened on his end."
A shadow suddenly loomed over the trio, but Arthur ignored it and spoke.
"Tell me what happened."
"Alright, but let's head back first," she replied, gesturing toward the massive craft hovering above them in the sky.
Arthur gave a small nod, spread his wings, and took off toward it.
Layla sighed before doing the same, while Arthur's mother simply leapt upward and landed in the craft with ease.
Once she touched down on the open hangar platform, she tossed the corpses toward the uniformed men standing with their heads bowed.
"Send them to forensics."
""Yes, Your Highness.""
She then turned to Arthur, who had just landed and was folding away his wings, before speaking.
"So, the prophecy, huh? It all started on that fateful day, fourteen years ago."
And with that, she began recounting the circumstances surrounding his birth—
The birth of the prophesied Child of Destruction, who could potentially bring an end to the gods.