"Boom!"
An indescribable aura spread naturally from Akuto's body, radiating outward into the surrounding area and very quickly covering the whole of Sicily.
This was... the aura of a Campione!
The instant Akuto's presence spread out, a sudden disturbance appeared on the distant horizon.
A darkness deeper than the Black Wind Sea itself was rushing toward the shore at astonishing speed. An ominous buzzing howled through the air, as if ten thousand wings were beating at once.
As that darkness drew closer and closer, Erica and Liliana finally saw its true form. It was a vast swarm of countless locusts, packed together into an enormous black cloud.
"Locusts? No, these aren't ordinary locusts. These are... locusts from the underworld!"
Liliana immediately entered Spirit Vision.
A mysterious light shone within the silver-haired girl's blue eyes, as if she were gazing upon sights invisible to ordinary people.
Through Spirit Vision, she saw more than just the mythological battle unfolding here.
A war god wielding a golden sword clashed fiercely against a god-king brandishing a giant sickle. Every collision shook heaven and earth. In the end, the war god's avatar was destroyed, while Melqart was also heavily wounded. To recover, he retreated to his own domain and concealed himself within the shadows.
Liliana came back to herself, her voice turning grave.
"These locusts are messengers of the underworld."
"Melqart is not only a god of storms and the sky, but also a god who rules the underworld. The appearance of these underworld locusts proves that Melqart has at least already emerged from his dormant state."
Akuto looked toward Melqart's divine presence with approval, while also considering how best to deal with it.
"Just as I expected. Melqart's divinity really is quite complex. To truly understand Melqart, you have to trace him back to the ancient deity recorded in the Assyrian King List."
Looking at the oncoming swarm, Akuto calmly explained,
"As an incarnation of Baal, Melqart is, in essence, a god born from the desert and the wilderness. He is both the scorching sun and the nourishing rain, a unity of contradictions: a storm god."
"In the Old Testament, Baal is often described as a god worshipped by pagans. But in truth, he was one of the most revered gods in the ancient Canaanite world."
"More than that, when nomadic peoples conquered agricultural peoples, Melqart also became associated with Moloch, the one who defeated the deity symbolizing the earth and the sea. That is why he simultaneously possesses the divinities of the sky, the underworld, and a chthonic god."
At that point, Akuto frowned slightly.
"The reason I put it that way is because the god-king Melqart possesses the divinity of Baal, and Baal is the foremost of the seventy-two demon gods, an enemy of the God of the Bible."
Erica and Liliana both looked at Akuto with somewhat complicated expressions.
The pressure and challenge facing them now were unlike anything they had ever experienced before.
Just thinking about how, if they used a Biblical system of power, Akuto would respond to it and their spiritual force would likely be greatly amplified made their feelings turn subtle.
Because they had never imagined that the Holy Son would also be the sort to dabble in all kinds of extraordinary systems. Nor had they ever imagined they themselves would one day stand as his companions.
Akuto naturally noticed the subtle change in their expressions, but he said nothing and merely kept smiling as he looked ahead.
"He's here."
Just as Akuto said, the locusts had already gathered above the shoreline into a huge, twisted human face. Empty eye sockets stared down at the three of them.
"Campione..."
Because the god-king Melqart had been sleeping to recover over the past several days, he was not very familiar with the situation outside. He directly judged Akuto, who was blatantly releasing the aura of a Campione, to be one.
Though after using the power of the Usurpation Bloodline to obtain a god's complete Authority, Akuto really had become a Campione in the strictest sense.
But clearly, beyond that identity, Akuto himself was what Melqart should have been paying attention to.
...
Akuto stepped forward, sea wind stirring his clothes.
"God-king Melqart, I want your Authority."
"It isn't doing you much good where it is anyway. Instead of dying together with Verethragna again, you might as well hand it over to me."
"Don't worry. I'll grant Verethragna a clean death in your place."
In Akuto's eyes, Melqart really was fairly weak.
After all, for a god-king to get blasted into a dispersed state by a single White Horse strike from a newly empowered Saya was honestly rather unimpressive.
Just look at others in similar situations. Other divine beings equally restrained by the White Horse had endured far more.
...
Although Akuto was telling the truth, Melqart was an arrogant god. There was no way he would accept such open humiliation.
What was more, he had no idea Akuto was actually telling the truth.
In the next instant, the giant face formed from locusts twisted into a savage expression.
"Arrogant fool! In that case, old man or not, I shall crush you before I deal with that god! Campione, I will show you the price of your insolence!"
With that furious roar, the locust face Melqart had formed exploded apart.
The shattered face merged back into the surging swarm as the berserk cloud of locusts began to descend.
Originally, hidden within the clouds, Melqart had intended to let Akuto wait a little longer. Once he had fully recovered, and once Verethragna had mostly recovered as well, he would not have minded a divine battle with all three parties present.
But since this Campione insisted on challenging him now, then Melqart did not mind teaching Akuto a lesson in the might of a god-king.
"Whoosh!"
"Bzzzzzz!"
Tiny black figures shot up from the ground and began circling wildly in the gale.
The cloud darker than storm clouds was not some ordinary dark mass condensed by Melqart's sky authority.
It was... locusts.
If the swarm from before had merely been enough to form a giant face, then now its scale multiplied geometrically.
Massive numbers of black locusts poured up from the earth in a frenzy.
These messengers from the underworld did not merely devour living things. They even eroded magical power itself. Wherever they passed, even the ocean waves seemed to lose their vitality.
The black swarm resembled a living storm cloud, its wings producing an ear-grating hum. Wherever it passed, the plants along the shore instantly withered. Even the weeds seemed to be stained a dead gray.
Erica had already drawn Heart of the Lion. The crimson magic sword shone brilliantly, and excitement blazed across her face despite the peril of battle.
"It seems we won't need to go looking for him. His Majesty the god-king has come to greet us himself."
The sea wind rolled through the air, heavy and suffocatingly still. Liliana swiftly set up a defensive barrier as both she and Erica prepared for Melqart's attack.
"Oh?"
A faintly excited smile curled Akuto's lips.
"Akuto-sama, please be careful," Liliana said softly.
Even though she knew Akuto would be perfectly fine, as his knight, she still warned him by instinct.
"Gods really do never treat Erica and Liliana as actual threats, do they? Ignoring everyone but me this completely..."
Akuto raised an eyebrow.
From the look of it, Melqart had directly ignored Erica and Liliana and regarded only him as the enemy.
Granted, the Campione-like aura he was releasing was so powerful that it had already reached a level capable of suppressing ordinary Heretic Gods. But even so, to completely dismiss the two girls beside him like this...
Gods really were arrogant creatures.
"At any rate, let's keep Erica and Liliana on standby for now and draw Melqart out first," Akuto said with a quiet sigh.
If Melqart kept hiding among altar ruins and locust swarms, that would only drag things out. Unless Akuto made a move himself, the god-king clearly had no intention of stepping out properly.
So in the next moment, Akuto slowly opened his mouth and spoke.
"In the name of the Queen of the Underworld's divine attendant, I command you here and now..."
A powerful wave of magical force spread outward from Akuto's body.
The black swarm of locusts suddenly froze in midair the instant it touched that power, then dropped one after another into the sea.
The face made of locusts revealed a stunned expression.
"Impossible! Campione, you can command the messengers of the underworld?"
Hearing that, Akuto smiled and continued walking forward.
"So your underworld authority doesn't work on me, Melqart."
"I wonder how your other Authorities compare. Sky god? Storm god? Or perhaps... the power of the dragon?"
The instant Melqart heard the provocation in Akuto's tone, an enraged roar rolled out from the clouds above.
"Hmph! Insolent fool!"
"If you wish to witness my divine might, then as you please, Campione!"
The swarm of locusts suddenly scattered, and the clouds overhead began churning violently.
Lightning raced through the clouds. The sea grew even more violent.
A colossal bolt of lightning crashed down, aimed directly at where Akuto stood. But Akuto merely raised a hand, and the lightning condensed in his palm into a shining sphere of electricity.
"So this is the authority of the sky... not bad at all," Akuto remarked as he casually played with the electric sphere in his hand.
Melqart's Authority could only be described as fairly decent.
The Authority of the Sky was one of the most offensively powerful Authorities. It was usually held by extremely powerful deities of heaven and fire, figures such as Agni or Indra in other mythological systems.
Even without a perfect counter relationship, the Authority of the Sky could overwhelm almost any situation through sheer destructive force and terrifying speed.
Unfortunately, Melqart himself was still too weak in his current condition.
Normally, a Heretic God stood somewhere around the level of a being beyond an ordinary king-tier powerhouse. Only chief gods or the strongest deities among them could reach the level of a true chief god.
As a Heretic God, Melqart could once still be counted among chief gods even after his defeat to Verethragna.
But now, after suffering repeated defeats and severe injuries, Melqart was far from his peak.
Without a high-ranking sky authority above that level, even if Akuto used no special abilities and made no attempt to defend himself, Melqart's lightning still could not break through the protection of Akuto's fighting spirit alone.
(End of Chapter)
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