Chapter 892: I Am the Challenger! The Authority of the Gods
"It is over... Sardinia is finished..."
Erica's voice was barely a whisper, instantly swallowed by the howling gales. Her grip on her rapier trembled, the cold metal slipping against her sweaty palm. She had not missed a single word exchanged between the monsters hovering above.
Melqart's terrifying, storm-laden presence was bad enough, but Verethragna had fully restored his divine authority. And then there was the woman. Luo Hao. The mere sound of that self-introduction made the blood freeze in Erica's veins.
Luo Hao. The Martial Arts King.
She never expected a Campione to descend upon this island, let alone the tyrannical Demon King of the East. It was painfully clear that the Martial Arts King intended to wage war against two Heretic Gods simultaneously. Knowing the egocentric, disaster-walking nature of the Demon Kings, this battle would inevitably disregard the island entirely. The clash of three supreme beings would generate shockwaves more than sufficient to wipe Sardinia off the map.
Erica closed her eyes, a suffocating despair crushing her chest.
However.
A moment later, her eyes snapped open, wide and dumbfounded.
Because the two aggressive, battle-ready God Kings were completely overwhelmed by the Martial Arts King in a single, breathless encounter.
"Hmph. You are merely ant-like prey. It seems I need to make you realize your place in the mud."
The clamor of these supposed deities truly irritated Luo Hao. She found them incredibly noisy.
She brought her delicate hands together. A soft, singular clap echoed, cutting through the roaring tempest with absolute clarity.
"Arhat," she whispered.
The atmosphere instantly solidified. The howling winds died. The air grew heavy, pressing down on the island like a physical weight. Melqart and Verethragna felt their divine hearts skip a beat; every instinct screamed that something incomprehensibly dangerous had just manifested.
Behind Luo Hao, the sky fractured with golden light. A majestic, ethereal phantom of a Buddhist Arhat materialized, its colossal form piercing through the heavens and rooting into the earth. Before this towering manifestation of martial enlightenment, Melqart's apocalyptic storm looked like a gentle summer breeze.
Luo Hao stared down at the two gods, her dark eyes devoid of any emotion.
"Now then. Which of you will come to die first?"
Silence blanketed the sky.
"Ha... haha..."
Verethragna's shoulders began to shake. A low chuckle escaped his lips, building into a full, self-deprecating laugh.
"Hahaha... it turns out a passionate, evenly matched battle was merely my own wishful thinking." He looked up, his golden eyes locked onto the towering Arhat. "Oh, Godslayer! Your world-destroying power makes even my immortal body tremble involuntarily!"
Facing the golden phantom behind her, Verethragna clearly realized his own insignificance. Her power completely shattered the boundaries of his imagination. At the same time, he finally understood the definition of 'prey' that Luo Hao had used. Compared to her, his current self was indeed nothing more than weak game destined for the slaughter.
"But how could I surrender without a fight~"
The golden wheel of incarnations rotated behind him. Verethragna's aura erupted, burning away his previous hesitation.
"In that case, let me be the challenger!"
His voice boomed across the heavens, reciting the ancient words of power.
"I am the strongest, the one who holds all victories! Whether human or demon—I am the one who crushes the hostility of all enemies, and I shall strike down any foe that stands before me!"
Verethragna, pushing his divine power and incantations to their absolute limits, charged directly at Luo Hao like a falling meteor.
"Hmph! This old man knows no fear! Come, let us fight!"
Melqart roared, his massive hands gripping his two divine clubs with bone-crushing force. Thunder and storm violently condensed, transforming into raw, destructive power around his muscular frame. Wind, rain, and lightning answered his call.
"By the true name of this old man, Melqart, I call upon Baal Hadad! O storm, come swiftly at the call of the cloud-riding warrior!"
Trailing a wake of absolute destruction, the King of Gods charged at Luo Hao from the opposite flank.
Down below, Erica looked up, her breath catching in her throat.
A white horse composed of blinding, scorching flames galloped across the heavens, threatening to incinerate the earth. Alongside it, a lightning storm capable of tearing continents apart swept forward.
Yet Luo Hao's expression remained as calm as an undisturbed lake. Facing the simultaneous, full-powered ultimate attacks of two Heretic Gods, she did not even blink.
"Heh. You have some backbone."
Luo Hao rarely offered compliments, but she allowed them this one. Then, she lightly raised her right hand, formed a flat palm, and pushed forward.
The colossal Arhat phantom mirrored her movement, extending a massive golden palm that blotted out the sun.
The giant hand collided with the apocalyptic flames and the roaring storm. Anyone watching would have braced for an devastating shockwave, a struggle of epic proportions.
But reality was incredibly stark.
The white horse of absolute victory was extinguished silently, snuffed out like a mere candle flicker. The lightning storm failed to tear anything apart; instead, it was swatted away and dispersed into harmless sparks with a single, casual motion.
One palm settled the universe.
Caught in the overwhelming pressure of that strike, Melqart and Verethragna were instantly pulverized. Their divine bodies turned to ash, dissipating into the wind under the crushing weight of her martial perfection.
When Luo Hao gracefully withdrew her hand, the golden Arhat faded away.
The figures of the two Heretic Gods were completely gone. The dark clouds and raging storms that had threatened to sink Sardinia vanished, replaced by warm, gentle sunlight filtering down from a clear blue sky.
Kusanagi Godou, who had been scared senseless on the ground, swallowed hard. His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the grass.
Erica fell to her knees, murmuring in absolute disbelief. "Two Heretic Gods... died..."
In just the blink of an eye, two supreme beings who had instilled terror across the mythological world were casually annihilated. She had never witnessed such a terrifying, logic-defying sight. Even among the legendary Godslayers, she had never heard of such a one-sided slaughter.
However, this was merely child's play for the current Luo Hao. To view her through the narrow lens of this world's Campiones would be a massive insult to the power Ren had bestowed upon her.
[Doomsday Chat Group]
[Misaka Mikoto: "Emmm, I told you. Such an ugly god couldn't possibly be that powerful."]
[Bronya: "Appearance shouldn't be a direct metric for combat strength, should it?"]
[March 7th: "I think it's just that Sister Luo Hao is way too overpowered, not that they were weak!"]
[Tendou Kisara: "No difference in the end."]
[Ren: "Appearance has nothing to do with strength, but I think I might be the sole exception to that rule."]
[Chito: "Mmm-hmm, Brother Ren is both incredibly handsome and super powerful!"]
[Misaka Mikoto: "Narcissist."]
[Ren: "Are you getting bolder, or are you just itching for trouble? Do you want me to come over and relieve that itch for you?"]
[Misaka Mikoto: "Hmph, bring it on! Do you even dare?!"]
[Nami: "? Why do I get the feeling Mikoto is deliberately provoking Ren so he'll... do her?"]
[Shokuhou Misaki: "You don't need to feel it, that's exactly what she's doing. She's a little hussy."]
[Misaka Mikoto: "Sho! Ku! Hou! Mi! Sa! Ki!"]
[Kasumi: "Um, did the gods really just die like that?"]
[Silver Wolf: "Correction, they are Heretic Gods, not true gods."]
[Kasumi: "Oh, oh! Although I don't quite understand the lore, I get the result!"]
[Erza: "I remember reading that killing a Heretic God allows the slayer to gain the authority of a god."]
[Tushan Honghong: "But last time Sister Luo Hao killed the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, she didn't seem to gain any divine authority."]
[Sylvia: "Yes, I remember she didn't get anything either."]
[Ren: "It's not that she didn't get it, it's that Luo Hao actively refused the transfer."]
[Luo Hao: "Correct. I already possess the new, superior power given to me by Ren, so I found the divine authority redundant and rejected it."]
[Saeko Busujima: "I see. Put that way, it makes perfect sense."]
[Exusiai: "Hehe, after all, Ren's power is absolutely amazing!"]
[Ren: "Am I amazing?"]
[Exusiai: "Mmm-hmm, amazing! Amazing in all aspects!"]
[Ch'en: "You guys... stop driving the conversation into the gutter at every opportunity!"]
[Ais: "The authority of a god... is it very powerful?"]
To Ais, gods were majestic, untouchable existences. Well, at least a small portion of them were.
[Aqua: "Hmph, what god's authority? It's nowhere near as powerful as the direct blessing of this beautiful goddess!"]
[Tingyun: "Although from our current perspective it might not seem overly powerful, to the ordinary people of that world, it is literal divine power."]
[Emma: "Actually, the process of gaining an authority is quite curious, ku."]
[Kasumi: "Indeed, I want to see it!"]
[Luo Hao: "Since that is the case, let us take a look."]
Standing amidst the quiet ruins of the battlefield, Luo Hao closed her eyes. This time, she did not raise her mental defenses. She completely relaxed her consciousness, no longer refusing the strange, ethereal communication reaching out to her from the Netherworld.
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