The fight had been going on for more than two hours. Danilo had already destroyed four squads.
Now they were attacking three at the same time, obviously taking advantage of their numerical superiority and trying to win through exhaustion.
The drops in the arena were scattered beside their respective corpses. There were many drops on the ground, powerful items everywhere.
Danilo stored the Sky Slayer and decided to fight using only his fists. The enemies' speed was far inferior to his; even those at Count level were twice as slow and could barely keep up. Most of the time, Danilo used his feet, hands, knees, and elbows.
A gigantic fist came toward him. He dodged, and the blow hit the ground, cracking the arena. Danilo grabbed the arm, which was almost the size of his own body, and threw it backward, knocking down dozens of monsters.
He advanced at full speed toward one of the wolves and punched it in the face with tremendous force, knocking it down instantly.
A sonic attack hit him. Aside from slight discomfort in his ears, nothing happened. Earlier, he had been distracted by a sonic impact and had not been affected by any form of control—only briefly distracted.
But upon feeling the fast impact of that sonic attack, he realized something clearly: in that arena, distraction was synonymous with death.
Fighting was liberating, but not using any active skills was exhausting. Hiding one's strength was an intelligent strategy, and the fatigue he felt now was the price to pay.
After some more time passed, of the three groups that had attacked together, only two gorillas remained.
The survivors were obviously afraid, but they were in a situation where fear was unacceptable. Under such circumstances, action was required regardless of everything.
The two began to retreat. Suddenly, the gorilla closest to Danilo felt a push on its back and was unintentionally shoved toward him. It had been pushed by the other one, who was trying to flee.
The one that was pushed realized there was no escape. It beat its own chest and roared, trying to gather courage, then struck the ground.
Danilo jumped immediately. He had already expected a long-range attack. This ability was called Earthquake, and he had prepared himself by jumping. The ground split open.
The gorilla picked up nearby rocks and began hurling them at Danilo.
The stones flew at a terrifying speed, making dodging extremely difficult. The Sky Slayer transformed into a shield.
"These gorillas are incredibly annoying," he thought as he charged forcefully toward the gorilla throwing massive stones. If any of those rocks hit him directly, they would surely take away half of his life.
When he got within about two meters of the gorilla, the creature's skin turned gray—it had entered petrification mode. Without a doubt, it had used the skill Stone Skin.
The gorilla's eyes were filled with rage, but behind them, terror and helplessness were impossible to hide.
It raised its arms to strike the ground and use Earthquake once more, but Danilo was faster. The Sky Slayer in his hand left its shield form and transformed into a spear. Before the gorilla's arms could fall, the spear pierced its mouth—opened by its roar of courage—and went straight through, exiting the back of its head.
Danilo watched the corpse fall and, for a moment, felt pity. He knew that this was the fate of every weak being in the world. Especially now, with the Celestial Dominion, everyone ran the risk of being devoured, and those who were careless would be swallowed whole.
Danilo pulled the spear out and hurled it with force. The gorilla that had earlier pushed its companion was already close to reaching the nearest squad.
It wanted to regroup and perhaps, together with the others, kill that monster of the human race.
"Damn it! Since when are humans this terrifying? If I didn't know better, I'd think I was dealing with someone at king or emperor level."
But no.
It was just a normal human.
A damn normal human.
"Could it be that he has the blood of some super-divine lineage? Because if not, this makes no sense. No sense at all. This is absurd."
As it was about to reach them, it felt relief. It just needed to regroup. It thought that together with the others, perhaps they would find a way out…
Everything went dark.
The other gorillas were terrified. Seven squads had already fallen; only three remained. If things continued as they had, it was only a matter of time before they all died.
The mission that should have been simple for them—but impossible for others—was proving that it was, in fact, truly possible.
They had seen their companions be killed and felt fear. They did not judge the gorilla that had pushed the other to save itself. But the most terrifying sight was seeing that same gorilla, full of hope, have its head pierced by the spear.
When it finally reached its companions, its face was still marked by a fleeting hope before dying with the spear embedded in its skull.
The crowd watching was in complete uproar.
That day was, and would undoubtedly remain, the most incredible day in the history of the Hero Arena.
Stories like the one they had just witnessed were a rare phenomenon—something that probably only happens once in a lifetime.
At Danilo's House
"Her shoulders were dislocated." Micaela's cold voice was heard.
She approached Selma, pushed the others aside, and with her Holy Light–attribute mana began massaging her shoulders. Gradually, Selma's grimace of pain was replaced by relief.
At that moment, the four eldest children looked for the first time at the three women who were now their father's wives.
They felt complicated emotions.
They realized that, just as Suzeth had said earlier, the women must have been created by the Wish Stone.
Their father had truly wasted a Wish Stone to create women. But since they were perfect, no one judged him. Then they looked at the beautiful blonde woman, who was obviously pregnant, and their hearts sank.
After Selma was treated by Micaela, the other children stared at the three women. All were beautiful, each in her own way. Each exuded her own aura of greatness.
Although all of them were beautiful, there was something about them that suggested danger. No one knew what it was. Even the twins conveyed that feeling to their older siblings.
Lesliana looked at the six children for a while, and then a sudden understanding dawned on her.
As she looked at the children—of whom the oldest was older than herself—she realized: they were all siblings.
One of them called the Big Bad Wolf "dad," despite having weak blood ties to him, but was obviously a blood sibling of the Big Bad Wolf's children.
She remembered that a few months earlier, the Big Bad Wolf had said he had memories of a past life, and in that past life, he had been born in a world completely different from Azeroth.
There was no magic. Instead, development was driven by science.
Azeroth was more powerful, but less technologically advanced.
Perhaps because they relied too much on magic, while the people of Earth were limited by their short life expectancy and depended on something called science for a better future.
In that world, he was married and had six children.
Life was good, and they lived at a peaceful pace, until one day they discovered that everything was a façade.
His wife had only stayed with him because his brother did not want commitments, did not want responsibilities, and wanted to live freely. So they deceived him and made him believe the greatest and cruelest lie.
They made him believe he had a family, when in reality, that family belonged to his brother. And the saddest part was that everyone knew—parents, siblings, the entire immediate family, even the children.
After hearing that, she became extremely furious.
That kind of behavior was heresy in Azeroth; both she, Daniel, and the children would have been sent to the pyre.
There was no such thing as innocence there. All participants in the wrongdoing were punished, even those who covered it up.
Her gaze turned cold as she stared at the three eldest, and everyone noticed.
"Are you the children of my husband's brother?" Lesliana asked, addressing Danilo as her husband for the first time.
Seeing her expression change to coldness, masking disgust, they became apprehensive.
For Lesliana, there were many questions whose answers would be revealed later.
If this was her husband's past life, why had they returned to her? Had she not died? How did they return instead of moving on to another future life?
"Isn't it an extraordinary amount of audacity to dare return after everything you did? You know, back in Azeroth, where we come from, people like you would be burned in public squares before crowds that would look at you with contempt—both you and your parents and relatives."
"Now leave my husband's house," she said with a coldness capable of freezing bones, as the air in the house warmed and her eyes shone gold.
The children were stunned by the hatred of the pregnant woman toward them. After all, they had never met her. So where had it come from?
Then she uttered the words: "You are the children of my husband's brother."
That phrase—"children of my husband's brother"—coming from the pregnant woman of the group, revealed important information.
She was already the father's wife.
He had wasted a Wish Stone on her. She knew the story of their lives and was pregnant with the one who was supposed to be the father's child.
Ashamed, they—who had only wanted to see him to confirm that he was well—were forced to leave.
After all, they had no qualifications to stay there.
"When my husband told me his story, I was extremely outraged and disgusted by you," said Lesliana, her voice calm and cold. "I still cannot believe how cruel and ungrateful people can be. You showed me that not everyone who looks human truly is—some are monsters in disguise."
Her words made them tremble.
"I will do nothing to you out of consideration for the love my husband once had for you. But I promised myself that if I ever had the opportunity to see your mother, I would kill her."
She took a deep breath.
"So let me make this very clear: when I see your mother, I swear I will kill her."