The golden light of the setting sun pierced through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled patterns on the youth's body. A trace of gold still lingered in Seiya's eyes. He looked at the Great Knight before him—Erica, now kneeling on one knee, did not raise her head, but the knuckles of the hand that had held a sword for thirteen years trembled slightly.
She awaited Seiya's response. The witch's premonition, for once, flared up in this moment. She sensed that this would be the turning point of her destiny.
"A king? But I have no intention of becoming a king," Seiya said softly.
"I'm not talking about a king. He who slays the gods of heaven and seizes the supreme divine power they hold is the ultimate ruler—a Campione!" Erica explained hurriedly.
A Godslayer is a hegemon, a demon king, a supreme being that no one on earth can defy.
In Erica's view, if there was anyone on earth who could once again slay the gods of heaven and seize their supreme divine power, it could only be the man before her.
Whether it was the Eastern systems of esoteric arts masters, martial heroes, or onmyoji, or the native systems of magicians, knights, and witches, all of them had their own limits.
Take her own knightly system for example. There were apprentices, formal knights, Great Knights, and Knights of the Holy Grail (Paladins).
A Paladin, upon completing their rituals, could destroy an area of over ten thousand square kilometers. It was rumored that Eastern martial heroes could part rivers, divide lands, move mountains, and fill seas. In the spirit world, there were even living Buddhas and immortals who had cultivated to the point of immortality. But these were already the limits of humanity. Only a very few peerless geniuses possessed strength that exceeded these bounds.
And people with that kind of talent were even rarer than Godslayers. Her own uncle, the Grand Master of her order, Paolo Blandelli, possessed the strength to destroy a city with a single blow and rival several divine beasts. But even he did not have the talent to become a Godslayer.
The last person to possess both such transcendent strength and talent was the Martial Arts Alliance Leader of the Eastern Continent, the Martial Empress Luo Hao, who had attained the realm of Nirvana and stood at the pinnacle of martial arts before slaying a god.
And she was perhaps the most supremely talented king among all the outstanding heroes of the past thousand years.
But from what Erica had witnessed during this time, she believed that the youth before her possessed an even greater kingly aura, one that commanded her submission even more than the legendary Luo Hao.
Although Seiya had not deliberately awakened psychic abilities like mind-reading when he awakened his Cosmo, he could more or less grasp her thoughts from her expression.
"I will fight the war god Verethragna again, but not to become a demon king who dominates the people of the earth. It is because they are trying to destroy this beautiful world. My meeting with the God King Melqart was also to confirm his true intentions."
"I am a Saint, a warrior who protects the Earth and humanity." Seiya looked at the young woman before him and, with sincerity, spoke his initial, and current, thoughts.
"If a Heretic God who defies myth attempts to destroy the mortal world, then I will kill him. If a Godslayer who ravages the earth appears, I will defeat him as well. I stand here because this world needs a Saint."
When peace is lost on Earth, this group of Saints will appear to uphold justice. The world may have changed, but Seiya felt that this wish should not.
Be it gods, demon kings, humans, or fairies, this world needs a Saint. So, I am here.
Faintly, the sound of a girl's laughter seemed to carry on the wind.
If not for the push of fate, there could not have been a more perfect moment. At this instant, birds flew in flocks towards the sky, and a dark-green aurora appeared in the blue-toned night.
—The aura of a god, of a Heretic God, once again began to sprout on this island isolated in the Mediterranean.
Whether they were witches, magicians, knights, or ordinary tourists and residents, everyone looked up at the western sky at that moment.
To the ordinary residents, it was a slight tremor of the earth, an aurora at the edge of the sky caused by an earthquake. There were even tourists taking pictures and residents clasping their hands in prayer.
But to those of the hidden world, like knights and magicians, it was a towering, colossal god, commanding the wind and rain. With a stretch of his hand, he turned the thunder and storm at the horizon into weapons, using the heavens and the earth as his stage, brazenly announcing his arrival to the world.
At this moment, in San Teodoro to the east, the white-robed youth who had been chasing the Phoenix simultaneously looked up at the aurora on the horizon.
Then, a booming laugh that didn't match his form erupted from him. "Hahahaha! To think you would be the first to return to your complete form! It seems the God King can no longer hold back. To issue a challenge to me with such grand momentum, I must respond to Him swiftly!"
As the golden sword in his palm transformed into a weapon that could cleave through divinity, the final Phoenix avatar was also absorbed back into His body.
The god of victory, the god of justice, the god of guidance, the god of sovereignty, the god of fertility, the god of combat, the god of righteousness, the god of protection, the god of incarnation.
Nine of the ten aspects were now fully mastered. The war god Verethragna drew his golden sword. "By my Authority, let justice manifest in the world! This spell is powerful and eloquent! Because it is powerful, it is ever-victorious! Because it is powerful, it can heal all things! Swiftly deliver me to the stage that befits me!"
A giant phoenix once again spread its wings behind him. An indigo-blue radiance enveloped the war god, and he instantly crossed the distance over mountains and seas to arrive at the battlefield.
In the forest, Erica finally looked up and gazed at the youth before her.
"The God War has begun. What do we do?"
Would Seiya fulfill the bold claim he made earlier and head to the mythological battlefield, or did he have other plans?
It was a simple choice. Just as Seiya was about to say so, he suddenly felt a call from his soul.
It was a message from the spirit world, familiar yet strange. And the vessel that received the message was, surprisingly, the Pegasus Cloth he had just obtained.
Seiya immediately thought of the wind avatar he had acquired with the Prometheus Grimoire, and the bronze stone box that had appeared with him according to Erica. An answer quickly formed in his mind.
"Victory is certain. Wait here for a moment," Seiya said.
The Cloth, surrounded by a blue radiance, instantly clad his body. In the next moment, he transformed into a gust of clear wind that crossed the boundary between the spirit and mortal worlds, appearing in a forest.
This was a spirit-world zone. An owl circled overhead, and a giant scaled serpent stared at the newcomer with its red tongue flickering. But neither the wisdom of the sky nor the darkness of the earth blocked the path of this favored one.
At the end of this path was a spring. And standing before the steaming hot spring was a girl wearing a cat-ear knit hat.
—Finally, the system's notification sound arrived, fashionably late.
_____
Greetings! ✨ Walnut here with another translation! Saint Seiya united by their strength!
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