Chapter 24: Shin Akira: Kingu, Call Me Big Brother and Let Me Hear It!
The surface of the deep blue sea suddenly erupted.
A dark shadow burst through the water's threshold, soaring into the open air. Seven days had passed since he was last above the waves, and as Akira drew in his first breath of fresh air, it felt as though he had been separated from the world for an entire lifetime.
By all rights, as the inheritor of the Enkidu template, he should have stood firmly on the side of humanity. That was how things were supposed to go.
But plans rarely survive reality.
Without even realizing it, he had somehow become the child of Tiamat. It was a development he hadn't seen coming even in his wildest dreams.
Yet, it had happened. And more importantly, for him, this turn of events brought nothing but benefits without a single drawback.
"I suppose I owe this all to Mother. If not for her, I might have run into some serious trouble," Akira murmured softly.
In the palm of his hand, several Commandments hovered in the air. They manifested as purple spheres, each intricately decorated with unique, shifting patterns.
This was his newest acquisition: the Demon King: Ten Commandments.
A Commandment was a fragment of power created by the Demon King, the progenitor of the Demon Clan, who had divided half of his strength into ten pieces. These pieces functioned as special curses, each imbued with his own divine will.
Anyone who managed to absorb all ten Commandments would technically become the new Demon King—but there was a catch. At that exact moment, the original Demon King's will would completely seize control of the host's body.
Akira suspected the reason the inheritance template had bestowed the full set upon him was that Meliodas had once absorbed all ten, leading to his body being briefly hijacked by the Demon King.
However, a strange stroke of luck had intervened.
At the very moment Akira obtained the Commandments, he was resting within Tiamat's womb, enveloped by the Chaos Tide. The second the Demon King's lingering will tried to assert itself, it was instantly "erased."
No—it was more accurate to say that the will within the Commandments had been "infected." Now, that ancient authority had been overwritten, becoming Akira's own will.
Throughout the entire process, Akira hadn't lifted a finger. It had all fallen into his lap. It made him realize why so many people aspired to be "the protected ones." While it might not sound particularly honorable, the reality of it felt incredibly good.
If not for this experience, even if he had boosted his synchronization rate by absorbing the power of the Holy Grail from Kingu, his progress would have slowed down significantly afterward. Not to mention the massive risk he would have faced the moment he acquired the Ten Commandments.
But now, those worries had vanished. He could simply lie back and reap the rewards.
With a fluid motion, Akira tossed nine of the Commandments into the air.
From the surface of the sea below, clusters of black mud from the Chaos Tide rose to meet them. Each glob of darkness wrapped itself around a Commandment, acting as a catalyst. Moments later, nine figures resembling gods of war stood tall upon the water.
"My Lord, we thank you for granting us this rebirth..."
"Rise, General Ikazuki," Akira commanded.
"Understood, My Lord."
General Ikazuki—the commander of the Shadowkhan and the leader of the Shadow Knight Corps—bowed his head. Beside him stood eight other figures, the generals of the other eight Shadowkhan clans.
When Akira had first inherited the King of the Shadowkhan template, he discovered that the souls of these nine generals were slumbering deep within the Shadow Realm. However, he had never awakened them. They were true souls, not masks; they weren't something that could be brought back just by someone putting on a piece of wood.
This time, by a stroke of fate, he used the Commandments as their cores and the black mud of Tiamat as their vessels. The nine Shadow Generals had returned to the world, and their strength had increased manifold compared to their past lives. With a Commandment at their center and the power of the Chaos Tide as their form, each of them now possessed a level of power that could not be underestimated.
Of the ten Commandments, nine were used to sustain the Generals. Akira kept the final one for himself. After all, the specific utility of a Commandment was often too good to pass up.
The Commandment of Love.
This was the same power Meliodas held back when he led the Ten Commandments. In its presence, anyone who harbored hatred in their heart would lose the ability to inflict harm on others. Three thousand years ago, on the battlefields of the Holy War in the world of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas had used this power alongside his abyss-like darkness to carve out a terrifying reputation.
"Stand down for now. I will summon you when you are needed."
"As you command, My Lord."
Led by General Ikazuki, the nine Shadow Generals knelt on one knee upon the waves. In an instant, the clear sea was stained by a patch of Chaos Tide, and the nine figures sank into the primordial mud, vanishing from sight.
As a "Child of Tiamat," Akira had absorbed a portion of the Chaos Tide's essence during his "birth." Because of this, he now wielded the power to corrupt and blacken any living being or Heroic Spirit. However, while Tiamat could expand the Tide until it swallowed the entire world, the power Akira controlled was, at most, the equivalent of a single river.
"How is this possible... that is Mother's authority. How can you possibly..."
Suddenly, a voice that seemed to shake the very soul rang out from the side.
Akira turned his head.
Standing there was none other than Kingu, whom Akira had defeated and buried in the earth a week prior.
Although Kingu had lost a massive amount of magical energy, the Holy Grail was the highest grade of magical crystal. It hadn't taken long for him to recover, and naturally, Kingu had awakened. Upon waking, he realized Akira had vanished from Mesopotamia. He had searched everywhere but found nothing.
Today, sensing a surge of "Mother's" power, he had rushed to the scene, fearing something had gone wrong. By pure coincidence, he had arrived just in time to witness Akira manipulating the Chaos Tide.
This wasn't just a spell or a technique. This was Tiamat's Authority. A primordial power that even the gods could not grasp, let alone learn.
"Yo, long time no see, Kingu. Or should I say... my little brother? Come on, try calling me 'Big Brother' just once."
"You... I am not Enkidu. I have no relation to you—"
The word "relation" died in Kingu's throat. He froze, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief.
The power of chaos. A pressure on par with a Demon God. And that unmistakable aura originating from "Mother."
The evidence was undeniable. Akira was a child of Tiamat, the Mother of Creation. And unlike himself, Akira was a true child.
In essence, Kingu was merely a puppet crafted from Enkidu's corpse. His entire purpose for existing was for "Mother" and nothing else. Yet, the gap between them was like the distance between heaven and earth.
Kingu called himself her child, but in reality, he shared almost no biological or spiritual connection with Tiamat. Akira was different. He was a legitimate son.
In Kingu's eyes, Akira's standing was now peerless—a being of supreme nobility.
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