"O one who has broken free of fate! This is my true form! At the height of my power, I shall grant you the final end of defeat!"
Verethragna's voice crashed down like thunder, carrying a god's absolute arrogance and his unshakable obsession with victory.
In the next instant, Verethragna's body turned into a streak of golden light and appeared before Akuto in a flash. His fist, containing the monstrous strength of the Bull and the divine speed of the Phoenix, tore through the air and came crashing down.
Akuto's gaze remained calm. He did not even summon the Boosted Gear.
He merely shifted slightly to the side and raised his right hand, covered in the nearly transparent Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura, to meet the blow. The motion looked slow, but it was precise beyond belief.
Boom!!!
A dull, suffocating explosion rang out, the kind of sound that seemed capable of stopping a heart.
The violent shockwave of divine power spread outward in a ring, flattening the landscape for several kilometers around them in an instant.
And yet, Verethragna's punch, powerful enough to shatter both earth and space, was caught steadily in Akuto's single palm.
"What?!"
A trace of disbelief flashed through Verethragna's golden eyes.
In the briefest instant, Verethragna pushed off with both feet and drove the Phoenix Authority to its absolute limit.
The War God's figure became a sky full of golden afterimages. Fists, kicks, elbows, and knees rained down in a storm of attacks. Every strike fused the power of at least two incarnations and was enough to slay an ordinary Demon King with ease.
But in the face of such an onslaught, Akuto stood like a reef in a raging sea.
His steps shifted slightly, his body weaving through a tiny space with perfect precision. His hands, wrapped in Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura, blocked, parried, redirected, and deflected with effortless simplicity. Every movement was smooth and clean, without even the slightest wasted motion.
No matter how savage or how fast Verethragna's attacks became, they could not break through that layer of aura, which looked thin, yet was in truth utterly indestructible.
"Only with your body and that strange energy?!"
The more Verethragna fought, the more alarmed he became. He could tell that Akuto was not using any Authority or divine weapon. He was simply using his body to carry that strange energy, and with it he was neutralizing the full force of attacks born from the fusion of all ten incarnations. The toughness of Akuto's body and the level of his energy had already gone beyond Verethragna's understanding.
It could only be said that Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura, fused from battle aura, senjutsu power, and underworld power, was simply too absurdly advanced for Verethragna.
It was not as though he had never seen anything similar. Among the immortals of the East, there were indeed some who could fuse senjutsu power and battle aura.
But this power of reincarnation, born from the fusion of senjutsu power and underworld power, was something he had never encountered before.
After all, a god's source was too powerful and too pure. There was simply no way for a god to achieve a fusion like Akuto's between senjutsu power and underworld power.
...
After failing to break through for so long, a flash of understanding passed through Verethragna's eyes. He abruptly retreated, golden light gathering in his hand and forming into a magnificent, imposing golden sword.
The Warrior incarnation activated.
"With my victorious words of power, I bestow upon you the quality of death!"
"Language is light. Words of power are light! Therefore, O light, O divine words, become my sword, become my blade!"
"The source of your power, the inheritance of your myth, none shall escape beneath my sword!"
Verethragna raised the golden sword high, his divine words echoing through heaven and earth as he tried to drag Akuto into the Netherworld Battlefield unique to the Warrior Authority, where wisdom and words of power could sever the source of an opponent's strength.
The golden radiance of the sword enveloped Akuto, and space trembled slightly.
Yet the scene Verethragna expected, the connection to the Netherworld and the reading of his opponent's information, never appeared.
To his shock, the words of power carried by the Golden Sword vanished like stones sinking into the sea. The moment they touched Akuto's existence, they failed to capture any myth, legend, or source information related to him within the Netherworld.
"This... is impossible!"
Verethragna's pupils contracted sharply. Even a foreign god would leave some trace of information in the Netherworld so long as it manifested in this world.
Unless...
Seeing the realization flash through Verethragna's eyes, Akuto's lips curled into a knowing smile.
"So you noticed, Verethragna. There is no information about me in the Netherworld."
"Because I do not belong to this world's mythological system to begin with. My source lies beyond this world."
Akuto stepped forward, and Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura rose around him like white flames.
"A visitor from another world. And more than that... one who has transcended fate and the world itself."
Verethragna finally understood that the Golden Sword had not failed because his Authority was lacking. It had failed because Akuto himself stood completely outside the river of fate of this world.
That revelation overturned everything, and it filled the War God of Victory with an excitement he had never known before.
"Man from another world! Your very existence is the greatest challenge I could ever face!"
Rather than becoming discouraged, Verethragna's fighting spirit only burned hotter. Since he could not rely on the Warrior Authority to gain an advantage, then he would crush Akuto with absolute power instead.
After all, Akuto had not displayed any overwhelming, crushing superiority in their clash. That could only mean their strength was on the same level.
And in a battle between equals, the one who would claim victory would surely be him.
"All evil things shall fear me! Those with power, those who are unjust, none shall defeat me. I am the strongest, the one who drives away every obstacle!"
Fusion: Goat and Golden Sword.
Verethragna clenched his left hand, and violent lightning surged forth from the Goat incarnation. But rather than attacking directly, all of that power was poured into the Golden Sword in his right hand.
In an instant, the Golden Sword became a super-electromagnetic cannon wreathed in hundreds of millions of volts of lightning. A blinding torrent of lightning, faster than thought itself, blasted toward Akuto.
Akuto neither dodged nor retreated. His right fist, wrapped in dense Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura, shot forward like a falling meteor.
Fist and lightning cannon collided. There was no world-shaking explosion, only the shrill scream of electricity and the hissing sound of energy being annihilated.
The super-electromagnetic cannon, powerful enough to vaporize all of Europe, was smashed apart by Akuto's single punch. Stray currents leaped around his body, but none could penetrate even the slightest bit.
As for the immense repulsive force that came with the super-electromagnetic cannon, enough to blast Sun Wukong off the planet...
In front of Akuto's Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura and the holy spear, it might as well have not existed at all.
...
"This still isn't over!"
Verethragna let out a cold snort and changed tactics again.
"O Mithra, lord of the radiant sun, praised one! In order to conquer all enemies, grant unto me, the strongest, a thousand lights and a thousand swords!"
White Horse and Golden Sword: Thousand Lights, Thousand Swords.
Verethragna's body merged into sunlight. The supreme solar flames of the White Horse granted the Golden Sword light-speed movement and slashes.
In a flash, countless golden swords formed from pure light, each edge wrapped in the power to sever through words of power, attacked from every direction and every angle of space and time like a curtain of rain. Every single sword was enough to slay an ordinary Heretic God.
Akuto lowered his stance slightly, and Heavenly Wheel Battle Aura erupted outward, forming a continuously flowing white aura barrier around his body.
Clang, clang, clang!!!
Dense metallic impacts rang through the sky like a torrential storm.
Countless light swords crashed against the barrier, bursting into brilliant sparks, yet all they could do was send ripples across its surface. None could break through that seemingly thin defense.
Akuto even strolled calmly within the barrage, using his hands like blades to shatter the more viciously angled swords with perfect precision.
Without understanding Akuto's true nature, any Authority related to the Golden Sword dealt extremely little damage to him.
...
Verethragna had clearly realized that as well, and he quickly gave up the idea of using Thousand Lights, Thousand Swords to pin Akuto down or wear him down.
"Then... what about pure physical force!"
"If I am the one whose sharp fangs none can approach, then I shall obey my lord's words and deliver the hammer of ruin to those who betray their vows!"
"O evil ones, fear the power that I possess! I shall deliver curses and retribution unto you!"
Roarrr!
Screeeech!
Boar and Phoenix: Divine Speed Charge.
Seeing that ranged attacks were ineffective, Verethragna fused the savage brute force of the Boar with the extreme speed of the Phoenix.
He transformed into a gigantic golden boar, mountain-sized, wrapped in green hurricane winds, and charged with a horrifying speed that tore space apart. The crushing pressure of destruction descended upon Akuto like an entire continent bearing down on him.
A sharp light flashed through Akuto's eyes. This time, he did not block head-on.
With a light step, he activated the spatial affinity granted by the Divine Incarnation Vāmana, and his body shifted like a phantom at the very last moment.
At the same time, his right leg, wrapped in battle aura, swept out like a war axe and smashed hard into the golden boar's flank.
Boommmm!!!
The golden boar was sent flying sideways by that terrifying kick.
Aside from the manor protected by defensive spells, everything else in the area was as fragile as paper.
The huge body of the Boar incarnation smashed through several mountains, tore open the sea, and made the earth roll like waves. Verethragna reappeared in a miserable state, a trace of golden divine blood spilling from the corner of his lips.
"So physical methods are useless against him too...?"
"All evildoers, fear my power! I now gain the grandeur of ten mountains, the strength of a hundred rivers, and the force of a thousand camels! What rises from my mighty form is the fierce mark of the camel!"
Camel and Goat: Lightning Trample.
Verethragna combined the monstrous strength of the Camel and the lightning of the Goat into both legs.
The Persian boy War God leaped high into the air, both feet wrapped in destructive lightning. Like a hammer of divine punishment, he stomped downward with the force to crush stars themselves.
At last, Akuto raised his head, and a trace of seriousness flashed through his eyes.
Both of his fists were covered in white battle aura refined to the absolute limit as he struck upward at the same time. There was no flourish, no technique, only the purest possible release of power.
Doooong!!!!
It was like two stars colliding. Blinding white light and lightning swallowed everything.
When the light finally faded, Verethragna had been blasted back into the sky even faster than before, while the ground beneath Akuto's feet had sunk only a few meters, leaving behind a perfect circular crater.
"Impossible... Even with fused Authorities, I cannot move you in the slightest?!"
Verethragna steadied himself midair, his divine body trembling faintly. His eyes were filled with shock, and with a hint of frustration he could barely conceal.
The power of his ten incarnations, fused together into a force great enough to sweep through the divine realm, seemed utterly pale and powerless before Akuto's strange battle aura.
(End of Chapter)
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