Early the next morning.
Adam and Neith arrived at a dilapidated ruin. They brought plenty of food, a tent, and various supplies, suggesting they planned to stay away for some time.
His special powers necessitated these preparations.
"Is this place suitable? It's just ruins." Adam asked, confused by the historical atmosphere surrounding them.
Logically, shouldn't such a place be a protected historical site? How could they allow him to destroy it?
Neith provided the answer.
She smiled and explained, "Yes, these are ruins, but not an important historical site. More importantly, they're scheduled for demolition and will be incorporated into the city planning as a new residential area. So no matter how you damage it, everything will be leveled eventually."
After hearing this, Adam sighed slightly and instinctively quipped, "You're not using me as free labor, are you?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake.
The timing was poor — he hadn't yet fully transitioned into his new identity, and his instinctive sarcasm would surely frighten the woman.
Sure enough, Neith responded with panicked fear, "No, no, no! How could that be! Neith would never let the King do such degrading work! If you don't like it, we can go somewhere else!"
She was so anxious that her voice trembled with the hint of sobs. She nearly knelt to apologize before Adam stopped her.
"No, it's fine. Moving elsewhere would be too much trouble. Since you say this place is suitable, let's stay here. Besides, destroying things will help me better understand my powers."
Adam decided to remain. After all, he was only conducting basic experiments on his powers; the location wasn't important. Since they didn't mind, he wouldn't be overly polite about it either.
Closing his eyes, he connected with the power in his mind.
Enormous Magical Power (Mana)... no, it should be called Divine Power instead. All the Magical Power in his body had transformed and strengthened into higher-level Divine Power — an ability unique to the Campione.
Suddenly! A phantasmal sun materialized behind Adam's head, casting a faint glow upon his cheeks. Under this illumination, illusory patterns projected onto the disk.
His power was special indeed, granting him twelve different abilities!
1 - Sacred Scarab (Reset)
2 - Baboon (Magic Power)
3 - Falcon (Wind)
4 - Lion (Strength)
5 - Sacred Serpent (Earth)
6 - Hawk (Perception)
7 - Phoenix (Sun)
8 - Crocodile (Devouring)
9 - Lotus (Water)
10 - Ankh Symbol (Protection)
11 - Cattle Herder (Resurrection)
12 - Goat (Netherworld)
Plus the sky ships "Mandjet" and "Mesektet".
Just in terms of quantity, it was already extraordinary. For his first God-slaying, he had obtained even more powers than Godō Kusanagi!
He had far more than the other Campiones as well!
Ra was unimaginably powerful. If not for lowering his Divine Rank to escape his constraints, as the Creator God, he could have destroyed Adam instantly.
Sun God versus Creator God — the difference between these two was profound.
No wonder he referred to himself as "Sun God Ra" in his chant, and no wonder he said Adam's body was most suitable for him. He had lowered his Divine Rank to escape, ultimately planning to occupy Adam's body and gradually restore his Divine Rank, thereby becoming "Creator God Ra" once again.
Pandora had mentioned he was a special God; this was clearly what she meant.
How should one describe it? Like the biblical Job losing everything at once?
No, Ra was even more unfortunate than Job. At least Job eventually had everything restored.
Lowering his Divine Rank from "Creator God" to "Sun God" was one thing, but then having all his painstakingly accumulated Divine Power stolen, and possibly never being able to manifest from mythology again — wasn't that truly miserable?
If not for Ra's desperation after waiting 10 years making him too eager and clouding his judgment, Adam might never have succeeded in slaying the God, even with Pandora's help and his own luck.
But! Just as protagonist Godō's multiple powers had limitations, Adam's powers also had constraints.
Moreover, his limitations were more troublesome than the other "MC". Unlike that character who faced enemies with different powers, Adam was even more unique!
His powers changed with time!
Although in today's scientifically advanced society, everyone knows the Earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis, mythology portrayed Earth differently.
Ancient people viewed Earth as the center of the universe, with the sun following a fixed path in the sky — rising from the east every morning, moving westward throughout the day, and rising again from the east the next day.
Adam's powers would change with the sun's movement. From the "Sacred Scarab" at 6 AM to the "Goat" at 6 PM, his abilities would shift every hour.
But unlike Godō, Adam could use his powers an unlimited number of times within each timeframe!
This aspect left him unsatisfied. After risking his life to slay a God, he ended up with powers that, while diverse and powerful, had a major drawback — the time limit.
Once the time passed, he couldn't use the power anymore — how could anyone find that acceptable?
It's not like an all-you-can-eat buffet where you're satisfied after eating your fill. Enemies won't wait for your power to reach the moment it can counter them.
Strike while the iron is hot. This is a principle everyone understands.
However, the main event that followed made Adam satisfied. He unconsciously touched his lips as he recalled the loli girl who called herself "Mom".
Anesidora's Gift.
Pandora, in Greek mythology, was the first woman made from clay by Hephaestus, given to mankind as punishment for Prometheus's theft of fire — the first woman given to humans.
The Gods bestowed upon her all sorts of things — possessions, language, benefits — making her a perfect woman.
Thus, she came to have another name: Anesidora, meaning "She Who Sends Up Gifts".
And Anesidora's Gift was the self-preservation ability that she gave to Adam.
The effect was quite simple: Ignore limitations, can fully activate all powers, lasting for one time unit (2 hours).
Super exaggerated!
Divine Ranks differ drastically from one another. Just like Godō's power is completely useless against the higher-ranked Perseus.
Although the Ra that Adam slew had lowered his Divine Rank to Sun God, his power was still at the level of a Creator God!
Though he had been complaining about the significant limitations, getting 12 Creator God-level powers at once made him willing to accept even greater restrictions.
It was certainly better than those unfortunate ones whose powers weren't particularly impressive, required sacrifices, and couldn't be used again for 7 days after activation.
What kind of Campione was that?
Right, Annie Charlton (John Pluto Smith), I'm talking about you!
Power〚Metamorphosis〛. Although she was known as the Netherworld Queen and possessed the powerful abilities exclusive to Campiones, Annie Charlton could only transform into various forms by offering sacrifices. Worse yet, she couldn't use a power again for 7 days after activation. These limitations made her one of the weaker veteran Campiones.
Even Salvatore Doni, the 6th-ranked King of Swords with only three powers, could defeat her because his ability to cut through all existence ignored everything in its path.
Pandora's gift truly solved Adam's biggest concern.
For such a blessing, he would gladly kiss her, hug her, act spoiled, and accept her help.
Who wouldn't adore such a Mom? He'd take a dozen!
"Since we still have some time, let's test out the powers." Adam drew the Immortal's Edge from his waist and, without hesitation, cut off his own arm.
The severed limb fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere. Without immediate treatment, he might die from blood loss.
This sudden action terrified Neith, who stood nearby, her face turning pale.
"What—what are you doing... my King!" She frantically rummaged through their supplies and pulled out a first aid kit, then rushed toward Adam to bandage his wound.
Adam stopped her with a calm gesture, "No, it's not necessary, Neith."
"But—but...!"
"It's fine, I did this intentionally."
Meeting her confused and worried gaze, Adam activated his First Power.
◈ The Duat Sovereign ⫸ Sacred Scarab: Reset ◈
Hum—
With a flash of light, the fallen arm disappeared, reattaching itself to Adam's upper arm. Even the blood splattered on the ground vanished.
If not for the torn sleeve, one would think he had never been injured!
"So… so powerful...!"
"Oh, so this is what power feels like. It's a bit beyond my expectations."
The Sacred Scarab is based on the myth of the sun rising from the east every day — something unchanging regardless of what happens in the world — thus evolving into the power called 〔Reset〕.
Specifically: At 6 AM every day, he can restore his state to a self-defined time point, unlimited times!
He cut off his arm again, activated reset again, and repeated the experiment dozens of times. He even cast various curse spells on himself, yet all were reset to his initial state.
Adam could finally confirm that during this time period, he truly could reset his state without limitations.
This could serve as an unexpected trump card, couldn't it?
His mind began to race with possibilities.
Imagine fighting an enemy who was about to defeat him. Then suddenly, he resets his state to peak condition — wouldn't that make the enemy collapse?
Just thinking about it was amusing.
Finally, he made a small cut on his arm, bandaged it simply, and left it alone. After all, he still had more powers to experiment with.
He needed to test whether he truly couldn't use powers from previous time periods after time had passed, as well as Pandora's life-saving gift,〚Anesidora's Gift〛. These two abilities still required experimentation.
Next would be experiments with the other powers.
✧✧✧
T/N: Below is the author's explanation for the MC's Authority.
The author originally designed 24 powers but reduced them to 12 (plus two golden sun ships as mounts) after realizing many had overlapping effects. Of these 12 powers, 10 are ancient Egyptian sacred totems symbolically connected to Ra.
The Cattle Herder power references how Egyptians saw themselves as cattle raised by Ra, while the Goat power relates to Ra's goat-headed form when sailing the underworld river after sunset.
The author notes that Ra exists as a trinity (Atum in morning, Ra at noon, Paimon in evening), which influenced the character's three distinct speech patterns throughout the story.
That's it and happy reading! (-‿◦)
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