Purity.
Within an endlessly white space, Tony's consciousness drifted into a world of pure white after he entered his deathlike suspended state.
"Ah... back here again."
"It's been a long time since anyone managed to beat me into this kind of state in the middle of a fight."
"In any case, until I take my own strength to the next level, I'd better stay away from those people for a while."
"He actually has two sun-related Authorities, and he can even fuse them together. That guy Akuto... isn't he a little too broken?"
"Didn't he only recently become a Campione? I know about the war god Verethragna, but that other sun god was..."
"And on top of that, the earth mother goddess who created the dragon vein barrier. In other words... in that short span of time, he already slew three gods. Just now, was he in the middle of slaying a fourth one?"
Now that he had entered a false-death state and broken free from the effects of the Mad God's Wine, Tony could finally use that not particularly brilliant brain of his to think through what had happened.
"Never mind the Campione side of things for now. I don't plan on settling accounts with him anytime soon anyway."
"But what the hell is this about Saint Raphael's man? Is that guy really together with Saint Raphael?"
[That's right. Saint Raphael is indeed mine now.]
Suddenly, a man's voice rang out in Tony's mind.
"Holy crap! Akuto?!"
Tony recognized the owner of that voice immediately and jumped to his feet on the spot.
It was only natural. It was not as if he had never entered a false-death state before, but Akuto was the first person ever to chat with him after he had fallen into one.
Vmmm.
Crystalline motes of light gathered together and formed the shape of a young man.
"What are you here for? Don't tell me you're really just bored enough to come chat with me." Tony raised an eyebrow.
[Of course not. I'm dealing with something more important right now. Talking to you is just incidental.]
[I simply felt that if I was going to take something from you, I should at least let you know first. After all, no matter how you look at it... I am your grandmaster, aren't I?]
The next instant, before Tony could even react, Akuto reached out and placed his hand in front of Tony's forehead.
Vmmm.
Wrapped in countless motes of light, a massive stream of information flooded into Tony's mind.
[Another world. The goddess of fate. The destiny of a Campione. Becoming a Campione because one possesses the destiny of a Campione... stripping away the Seed of Fate...]
A few seconds later, Akuto lowered his hand.
Tony remained frozen in place. After a long silence, he suddenly threw his head back and burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha! So that's how it is. Even something like a Campione slaying a god is actually the product of fate manipulating things from behind the scenes?"
"Good. If that's the case, then I don't want that worthless crap anyway!"
Tony's decision was exactly what Akuto had expected.
Really, it could only be said that every Campione was an existence of extreme self-will. Otherwise, they never would have become Campiones in the first place.
And people like that, people with such overwhelming egos, could never tolerate the idea that their fate had been influenced by some other being all this time.
"Passing that coffin over to Saint Raphael? Sure, why not. I'll just count it as my tuition for joining under her."
"Come to think of it, the last time I lost my memory, she was the one who fought me and helped me recover it."
Tony truly did not care much whether he was a Campione or not. What he craved was battle, and only battle.
[Tony, I admire you, and I understand you very well.]
[And precisely because I understand you so well, I know that even without this so-called inborn destiny of a Campione, you would still keep moving forward.]
[I'm looking forward to your future. So even if you lose the fate and status of a Campione, you still need to keep working hard.]
[If one day you reach the level of a true acquired Campione through your own efforts, I will accept your challenge again.]
Akuto genuinely liked Tony quite a bit. Tony was the kind of hidden gem who was easy to guide and an ideal experimental subject.
Akuto felt that if he wanted to fully unravel the mystery of a Campione's fate, he absolutely could not do it without Tony's help.
Not just this time. In the future as well.
The reason Akuto had not taken all of Tony's Authorities in one go was because he believed Tony still had enormous room to develop.
...
"Of course I'll keep moving forward. It's not like I'd sink into despair just because I lost some inborn Campione fate I never asked for in the first place."
"Now that I know about this, even if you hadn't taken it from me yourself, I would've found a way to get rid of the stuff binding me anyway."
"But... what exactly do you mean by a true acquired Campione?" Tony was clearly interested in the term Akuto had used.
Seeing Tony take the bait, Akuto continued at an unhurried pace.
[If you want to understand what a true acquired Campione is, then you first need to understand the difference between an inborn Campione and an acquired Campione.]
[An inborn Campione is someone like you, Tony. Someone born with the fate of a Campione, who then completes the miracle of godslaying at a certain destined moment and thus becomes a being possessing the fate of a Campione.]
[An acquired Campione, meanwhile, is someone who first accumulates fate and status through various means, then obtains Authority through me.]
[As for a true acquired Campione, that is either an inborn Campione or an acquired Campione who, through their own effort, completely integrates the light of the soul with the laws of the world and creates their own Authority.]
[Once you become a true acquired Campione, even if your Authority is stripped away, you can still rely on your own power to wield strength no weaker than Authority itself, perhaps even beyond it.]
[The move you just saw, the one I used to stop your Rending Silver Arm, was a so-called acquired Authority.]
[You can think of it this way: Authority is a sharp sword, and a Campione is the swordsman who wields it. No matter how skilled the swordsman is, once he loses the sword in his hand, his combat ability naturally plummets.]
[But an acquired Campione is not only a swordsman, but also a smith. Even if they lose the weapon in their hand, they can still forge a suitable one out of nothing.]
[And because it's a weapon they forged themselves, their control over it is naturally at the highest possible level. After all, when Campiones slay gods, the Authorities they obtain are taken from those gods. In theory, they receive one that matches them reasonably well, but in the end, it can never be a perfect fit.]
"I see..."
Akuto's analogy was so vivid that even someone as dense as Tony could grasp it immediately.
"So a true acquired Campione is basically a fusion of god and Campione. Or rather, an existence that walks the path of becoming a god through the body of a Campione..."
A complicated emotion arose in Tony's heart.
He had once arrogantly believed that after becoming a Campione, no one alive had the right to teach him. Not even Luo Hao, peerless in martial skill, was qualified to educate him.
And yet now, Akuto, this "cheap grandmaster," had truly taught him something and pointed out the road ahead.
Tony knew perfectly well that all of this rested on Akuto's desire to seize the fate of Campiones and strengthen his own camp. But Akuto's guidance was real, and the road he pointed to was undeniably viable.
After all, Akuto had already demonstrated it with his own body. How could Tony not believe him?
[In any case, Tony, I'm looking forward to your future. Don't disappoint me.]
After leaving behind that meaningful line, Akuto disappeared from Tony's mind.
...
Akuto truly was looking forward to Tony's future.
He believed that the more extraordinary a person's willpower was, the more fiercely they would struggle onward against the fate of a Campione.
And if that happened... then the fate of a Campione, which should have been harvested only once, could be harvested twice, or even several times.
Of course Akuto wanted Tony to grow as quickly as possible.
After all, what owner of a pig farm wouldn't want the pigs in his farm to grow fat and plump?
And as for leeks, the more times you could harvest them, the better.
...
"Tony! Tony!"
Through the haze, Tony heard a familiar man's voice.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a middle-aged man with a beard. This man, Andrea, could probably be counted as one of the very few "acquaintances" Tony had in this world.
As for the other Campiones?
The others were all rivals, obviously.
"Whew... good thing you're okay."
Andrea let out a long breath of relief. If Tony had kept lying there without waking up, then Andrea might actually have had to use healing magic on him.
If it had really come to that, Andrea felt he might as well smash himself to death with a brick.
"What happened while I was in false death?" Tony asked from where he was still sprawled on the ground.
Looking at Tony, who was still lying there like a corpse, Andrea sighed and said, "While you were in false death, the new king, Akuto, came over to you and pulled something out of your body."
"After that, Lady Saint Raphael descended, and the new king directly injected the entire thing into her body."
Hearing that, Tony immediately pushed himself up from the ground. He really did feel different from before.
His muscles ached, his head felt heavy, and his spell power was exhausted, but at the same time, he felt a lightness and freedom unlike anything he had ever experienced.
"Hm... this airport..."
Looking around, Tony was astonished to find that the airport he was standing in had actually been restored to its previous condition.
"Let's go, Andrea."
Since he had already lost completely, Tony had no intention of staying any longer.
"Go where?" Andrea quickly gathered himself and asked.
"Hahahaha... no idea."
"I just want to find a place and train properly for a while," Tony replied with one hand over his head, laughing.
Andrea: "..."
Andrea was speechless. He truly wanted to haul off and punch Tony square in the head.
...
Meanwhile, on Akuto's side.
After defeating Melqart and Tony one after another, Akuto began handling the aftermath.
First, he absorbed Melqart's Authority, which had already been collected and stored inside the Modified Usurpation Disc.
Then he grafted the Campione destiny he had obtained from Tony onto Saint Raphael.
Both experiments were highly successful.
(End of Chapter)
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