Three more days passed and on that particular morning, a commotion swept through the island.
Leo had created dozens of massive snake phantom and let them hide in the sea as a sort of detection array for him in case the Heretic God dared to sneak over and it did.
Clytius was trying to sneak over the sea and got caught by one of the patrolling snakes which caused all snakes to simultaneously gang up on him but failed to harm him because of its ability. Clytius can only be harmed by god or demigod. If harmed by anything else, it would rapidly regenerate his wound.
So, after his attempt to sneak in failed. It tries to escape and try again another time but Leo wouldn't let it escape that easily.
Leo immediately prepares himself to fight.
———
Around 7 am, Leo and Liliana are taking a ride on one of his snake's heads, heading toward Clytius.
"Stay here Liliana and don't even try to interfere unless I tell you so." Leo said, which received a reluctant nod from the knight before he jumped off the snake to land on the water.
Leo looks at his front where a giant almost 8 meters tall is wrestling with the snake phantoms larger than himself but isn't losing at all. His arrival is immediately noticed by Clytius who stops for a moment to glance at Leo.
"You finally came, Godslayer!" Clytius said as he punched a snake phantom and then proceeded to open his mouth and take a big bite of the snake, ripping a small chunk of its body.
The bite looks like a small scratch only when considering the snake phantom's size. But that's not all to it. Once Clytius took a big bite, mana started to leak out from the snake phantom which was writhing in pain before it fell apart because its mana were sucked away.
Clytius repeated it a few more times before he eliminated all the snake phantoms.
"To use mana before me is foolish. You should know that, Godslayer." Clytius laughed proudly, thinking that was Leo's best move.
In Clytius' perspective, the snake phantoms are indeed a formidable magic. If it wasn't for his invulnerability against Magic, he would have long been defeated. Unfortunately for him, that's not even Leo's best moves. It wasn't even a magic he used often to be part of his main skillset.
"A silent type, huh." Clytius said disappointedly. "Fine then, let's not delay it any longer. Today, I will regain my victory and overwrite my defeat!" Clytius leaned his body forward into a running position before he sprinted towards Leo, leaving an explosion of water due to the force he displaced with his step.
Foolishly, the god thought Leo was a magic user because he had Hecate's authority.
"Come and answer my call, Futsu no Mitama!" Leo chanted and out of nowhere, a thunderbolt struck down from the sky at Leo's hand and turned into a white and yellow katana.
Even though Clytius' main weakness is fire according to his myth, thunder should work too because after Gigantomachy, most giants gain a conceptual weakness against Zeus who wields lightning.
Leo stabs the blade into the sea and releases a powerful lightning that spreads through the seawater and is manipulated with Electrokinesis to aim at Clytius alone.
"Argh!" The giant howled in pain from the electrocution and left stunned.
Leo vanished into a silvery white mist and flicker all the way to Clytius before he slashed the blade to cut off its tendon, causing it to fall to the ground.
Unfortunately for Clytius, Leo has plenty of experience fighting against enemies larger than him and the most effective strategy is alway to capitalize on the weak point such as his Achilles tendons. He even memorized which muscle to cut to cripple a humanoid target's movement. Which he did, by following up with another few slash to carve out his calf muscles and seared the wound to slow the regeneration.
"I really wonder why people always think bigger is better? It just makes your weakness easier to be targeted." Leo said while warily and slowly walked closer to Clytius' head. "Is that all you can do?"
"If so, I would be very disappointed." Leo said genuinely.
He spends days training and improving himself just because of Clytius only to end up with this fight that honestly looks more like bullying than a proper fight.
"Insolent humans! I am a giant! I will not be defeated that eas-"
*Slash*
"You would be delusional if you think I will stand here and wait for you to make a comeback." Leo deadpanned as Quickened to move and slashed open the giant's throat, bathing him with divine blood.
"He's dead…" Leo couldn't believe it. 'This has to be a trick right? He must have another secret move right?' Leo said in denial but the Blood Echoes flowing into him said otherwise.
The battle truly ended… and was very anticlimactic.
'No, why am I feeling dissatisfied that the battle isn't exciting?' Leo noticed and became incredibly alarmed. If this is the old him, he should be happy that the fight ended faster.
'The Campione transformation is more dangerous than I thought.' Leo said as he felt his impulse is getting more out of control just like during his first spar with Voban. He easily gets swept over by the adrenaline.
"This… isn't good." Leo said and dreaded the day he succumbed to his Beasthood. Thankfully his high Insight as a Great One give him a lot of resistance to Beasthood but resistance isn't immunity and the possibility isn't zero.
"Milord! Congratulations, you slayed the Heretic God!" Liliana arrived with flight to congratulate Leo but Leo didn't feel an ounce of joy at all and ordered her to take care of the clean up as he left hastily with a heavy turmoil brewing in his mind.
Unsure why Leo looked depressed instead of happy, Liliana could only nod and carry out her order.
———
In the pure white space.
Leo arrived there after successfully reaching the beach house and lay down on a bed. He woke up here after feeling drowsy as usual.
"Welcome back, Leo!" The little girl with purple twintail hop around happily as she embraces Leo.
"What with the heavy face? Are you not happy to see Mama?" Pandora asked with a sad tone.
However, Leo isn't paying attention to her. He was looking at her status.
[Name: Pandora
Conquest Rating:★★★★★★
Race: True God
Gender: Female
Age: Ageless
Personality: Motherly, Cheerful, Affectionate
Affection: 500/1000 (Adore)
Likes: Meeting her children, Called as Mom
Dislike: Cannot meet her children
Current Thoughts: She is sad thinking you are unhappy to meet her.]
Leo focused on her race which mentioned True God. True God is also God right?
'What if I just kill her and take the Usurpation authority from her? Wouldn't I become even stronger that way?' Leo suddenly thinks and notice her Current Thought changed.
[Current Thoughts: She can feel killing intent from you and is very afraid but still worried about what possessed you all of the sudden.]
'Possessed? What nonsense she is t-' Leo's mind suddenly halted. 'No, why am I thinking about this!' He quickly shakes his head and he can feel clarity returned to his mind. He would never think of killing Pandora. Something is wrong with his head.
"Leo? Leo? Are you alright? Mama is worried. Say something to me." Pandora still hadn't retreated from him and instead tried her best to comfort him despite after he was entertaining the thought of killing her for her power.
"I am… sorry. My head isn't right just now." Leo snapped out of his thoughts and sat down on the floor to match her eye level.
"It's alright. Come, rest on Mama's lap. Maybe it can help." Pandora excitedly gets into position and offers her lap for Leo.
Leo didn't reject the offer. He felt guilty after what he had done to her in his mind. He rested his head on her soft thighs despite her legs not having much thickness to act as cushion.
It felt relaxing and he could feel the darkness in his head recede. He lay there and heard Pandora humming to an unknown tune while gently caressing his hair.
"Rest well my beloved son." Pandora whispers before Leo drifts off to Dreamland.
'Wait! I am already sleeping when entering this white space. How can I fall asleep again after that?' Leo thought but his drowsy mind didn't let the thought linger much before he fell asleep to the tune hummed by Pandora.
—————
(It's a shorter chapter because the next part cannot mix with this chapter or the title need to be changed.)
If you readers feel generous or want to appreciate my work and effort, feel free to tip me here.
https://ko-fi.com/lazy_kat_aoi