His figure reflected in her eyes, and for the first time the notion of a Heretic God feltdifferent to her.
Group-chat was in an uproar
Marcille: What was that just now?!
Mai Sakurajima:That power looks like the Authority Rei Ao snatched from that War God last time.
Frieren: Yesthe White Horsebut far stronger than when the war god used it.
Miko Yotsuya: Heh-heh, Rei Ao-nii never disappoints.
Enju Aihara: Waaah, he's so cool!
Mio Akiyama: G-gulpHe evaporated the sea Am I hallucinating?
Mio's fingertips still hovered over her bass.
In the live-feed, the Solar White Horse had boiled the sea into a blinding mist, and even the streamed image seemed to radiate heat.
As the Light-Music Club's bassist she was used to soothing emotions with melody, yet her thundering pulse now shattered every rhythm.
.
Light-Music Club room
"Miowhat's wrong?"
Yui Hirasawa poked her head over, cat-like eyes full of worry.
"You've been staring blanklyis it another weird ghost?"
Ritsu Tainaka plopped her chin on Mio's desk, cheeks squished in complaint.
"Yeah, Mio, if Grandpa Rei Ao's bothering you, tell uswe're worried!"
Tsumugi Kotobuki set down her teacup, voice warm and soothing.
"Ritsu, don't scare her. Mio, if something troubles you, share it; we'll figure it out together."
The three clustered by the club-room coffee table, watching Mio.
Afternoon sunlight sliced through the blinds, striping the floor; the guitar gleamed softly; fresh milk-tea fragrance drifteda scene as ordinary as ever.
Yet the sky-blotting Solar White Horse kept replaying in Mio's mind. She clenched her fists.
Chat messages still streamed byastonished faces, calm debatebut what shook her most was Rei Ao's casual wave that erased the flames.
That was no human power; it was a god's Authority, enough to rewrite natural law.
"Do youbelieve a human could summon the sun?"
Mio's voice quavered. She looked at her three friends.
"Like a mythic godcalling the sun down, boiling the sea, even changing the color of the sky."
Yui tilted her head, twirling a hair tip in thought.
"Summon the sun? Like focusing light with a magnifying glass? But that only lights a fire If the real sun came down, wouldn't Earth burn up?"
"Impossible!" Ritsu waved her hand, ponytail bobbing.
"Mio, too much manga again? Even movie super-heroes just throw lightning. Summoning the sun? Not even Ultraman can do that!"
~~~
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Chapter 730: The Fear of the Spectators...
Kotobuki Tsumugi's hand, halfway to her lips with a teacup, paused.
Seeing the rare confusion in Mio's eyes, she said softly:
"Things like thatshould exist only in legends and stories.
Like the Greek sun-god Apollo, or Amaterasu in Japanese myth.
However amazing humans become, we can't touch the realm of the gods."
"I know"
Mio Akiyama forced a wry smile.
Just minutes ago she, too, had thought "Gods" and "Heretic Gods" were pure fiction.
Yet the livestream in the group had felt painfully realRei Ao's rainbow eyes, the Solar White Horse's flames, Marquis Voban's Fenrir disintegrating in despair
Every detail was etched on her retinas.
And she could tell no one.
How could she explain she had joined a chat group that links countless other worldsone with an esper who fires electricity, a girl who once saw evil spirits, and a group owner who can summon the sun at will?
They would only assume she'd hallucinated from fright.
"I know it sounds odd," Mio muttered, lowering her head so her bangs hid trembling lashes.
"Maybe I'm just over-tired from practice and letting my mind wander."
"Told you so!"
Ritsu Tainaka smacked the table.
"I knew the club workload was killing us! It's all Yui's fault for making us run 'Fuwa Fuwa Time' a hundred times!"
"Hey! That's because the chorus is suuuper catchy!"
Yui Hirasawa protested, hugging her guitar and scooting up to Mio.
"Mio, let's play something easy! When we're done you won't think weird thoughts anymore!"
Tsumugi passed Mio a cup of warm milk tea.
"Have a drink firsttry not to overthink."
Warmth spread from Mio's fingers to her heart as she watched Yui fumbling with strings, Ritsu clapping noisily, and Mugi smiling while sorting sheet music.
Maybe keeping this secret isn't so bad, she thought.
At least on this guitar-scented, milk-tea afternoon she could still share an undisturbed daily life with her friends.
But when she sneaked another glance at the chat window, Rei Ao's avatar glowed quietlysilently reminding her that the sun-summoning group owner and his kaleidoscopic worlds were real.
Mio Akiyama was no longer just a high-school girl who worried about broken strings.
The sunlight outside looked as bright as ever, yet she knew something beyond her sight had already changed.
On the coast
One single Authority wiped out the eldest Heretic God, Marquis Voban?!
Erica stared at Rei Ao's back against the sea, eyes brimming with worship and love.
Her king had once again ended a crisis with overwhelming powerand had come for her.
I must be the happiest woman alive!
While Erica was all excitement and Tohka merely smiled, Ai Hayasaka, Kaguya Shinomiya, and Julis were far less composed.
Kaguya's nails dug into the soft leather of her purse, a fine sweat beading on the surface.
When the White Horse's molten-gold flames plated the sea, dizziness and suffocation washed over hernot the tension of business strategy, but the primal fear of seeing the rules of reality torn open.
At the instant the flames rose she thought she would go blind; sun-bright afterimages leapt across her pupils.
"Milady!"
Hayasaka's voice quivered. Even she, despite joining the group earlier, could not stay calm before such annihilation.
"Ai-chan"
Kaguya's knees buckled; the two girls clung to each other for support.
She had once handled her father's pistolits cold form already terrifyingbut the White Horse of living flame had pulverized the very word rules with brutish ease.
Julis was just as stunned. The pride of the Witch of the Resplendent Flames was gone from her eyes; she merely murmured at the clear sky,
"So gods really do exist in this world"
Liliana's silver hair wrapped around her fingers, tugged painfully by the sea wind.
She stared at the spot where Voban had vanished, Fenrir cries still echoing in her ears.
She had tried to draw Marquis Voban into the Bronze-Black Cross and had often watched him rip space with his Authoritiesthe very totems of her order's faith.
Yet now, as the Solar Horse's light devoured everything, a childhood memory surfaced: the Book of Revelation. The true apocalypse is not darkness blanketing the world, but light itself wielded as a weapon.
"The Devil King" Liliana's voice fell to tatters.
She saw Rei Ao supporting Athena as they descended step by step from the skylike a god cradling his spoil of war.
Voban's lifelong quest to become a supreme Heretic God had been reduced to child's play in this man's hands.
Her palm brushed the oracle dagger at her waist; its rune inlays were dim, as though mocking her devotion.
Kaguya drew a deep breath of sea-salt air, forcing calm.
She noticed not a single drop of water on Rei Ao's polished shoeshis ease beyond physics frightened her more than the flames.
"Power like this" her voice rasped like sandpaper, "if turned on human society"
Rei Ao tilted his head, rainbow pupils reflecting her taut brow.
"Shinomiya-san, we live in the same world. There's no need to worryI have no intention of destroying the place I call home."
His voice was mild, yet it erased a portion of Kaguya's fear, as surely as he had erased those world-shaking flames.
~~~
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Chapter 731: There are no eternal enemiesonly people worth my attention
"My king, you're incredible!"
Erica's voice trembled with excitement as she declared her admiration for Rei Ao.
Leaning against a reef, Liliana listened to Erica's hushed words of devotion and felt a chill run through her.
The death of Marquis Voban was no endingit was the cruel beginning of something new.
When a stronger King appears, followers like her turn to dust with the old one.
A sea-shell rolled to her feet. Its jagged edge looked just like her worldviewsplintered beyond repair.
Rei Ao's eyes rested on her.
"You"
Liliana's reply quaverednot from fear, but from the shock of seeing her faith collapse.
In those rainbow-hued eyes she read no victor's arrogance, only an almost detached calmand that unsettled her even more.
Rei Ao stepped closerunhurried steps, an aura so dense the air itself seemed to thicken.
His voice reached her clearly:
"Voban is dead. The master you served is gone.
Now I ask: will you swear fealty to mebecome my sword, my shield, my knight?"
The question cracked in Liliana's mind like thunder.
Swear fealty?
To the enemy who slew the king she should have followed?
She jerked her head uphumiliation, anger, confusion flashing in her eyes.
"Why?
II was your enemy. Why would you choose me?"
To her, the man before her was so powerful he had no need for a failed subordinate's loyalty.
Rei Ao only gave an indifferent shrug, a barely noticeable curve at the corner of his lips.
"Why, hmm?
Because I want a knight with a pleasant faceand you seem to fit. As for 'enemies'"
He paused; confidence blazed in those prismatic pupils.
"There are no eternal enemiesonly people worth my attention.
I'm strong enough to control everythingyour loyalty included.
So answer: yes, or no."
Blunt to the point of tyrannyyet the deep steadiness behind the words slammed into Liliana's heart.
She held his gaze, felt the power that seemed able to crush the world, and was shaken to the core.
Voban had been strong and domineeringbut his rule was laced with destruction.
Rei Ao's dominance rode on absolute strength and an ease that suggested mastery over all creation.
That strengththat self-assurancedrew her with an almost irresistible pull.
The Bronze-Black Cross faced a foggy future.
The man before her stood like an unshakable mountain, offering a new and surer anchor.
Liliana drew a deep breath; the confusion on her face melted into resolve.
She gripped her sword, stepped forward, and dropped to one knee, proud head bowed.
"I, Liliana Kranjar, hereby swear: from this day on, with my sword, my heart, my very being, I shall serve the King.
I will follow your will and guard your glory until the end of my life.
Heaven and earth bear witness!"
The solemn pledge made everyone present pause.
Erica's eyes flashed.
A flicker of possessiveness stirred, but she simply stepped to Rei Ao's side.
Her gaze on Liliana held a subtle warning, though her tone remained polite:
"Liliana, welcome under the King's banner.
But listen wellthe King is mineis all of ours.
If you betray him, even to the world's end I'll hunt you down and show you the price of treachery."
Liliana met her stare, expression earnest.
"My oath is weightier than Mount Everest.
Even if the Bronze-Black Cross should betray the King, I, Liliana, would take my life first in atonement."
Her iron resolve surprised Julis, Tohka, Ai Hayasaka, and Kaguya alikeespecially Kaguya, long accustomed to seeing loyalty traded for advantage.
Rei Ao nodded, satisfied.
Dispensing with flowery words, he extended a hand.
"Rise.
From now on, this is your new starting point."
Then he turned to Erica and the other chat-group members, speaking casually:
"All rightnothing more to do here.
Feel free to look around and get your bearings; I have a matter to attend to."
"Understood, my king," Erica answered at once.
Julis and Tohka exchanged a glance and nodded.
Ai Hayasaka responded crisply, "As you wish, Rei Ao-sama."
Liliana rose and waited for instructions.
"You stay with Erica," Rei Ao told her. "She'll show you what to do."
"Yes, Rei Ao-sama."
With his orders given, Rei Ao lingered no longer.
His figure shimmeredand vanished into the air, as though he had never been there at all.
~~~
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Chapter 732: Visiting Pandora and breaking her free...
Rei Ao's silhouette vanished from the material world.
The very next instant he found himself in a dim, ash-gray realm where even time appeared to have come to a haltthe Netherworld.
Familiar with this place, he strode confidently through the swirling mist and soon reached a comparatively "bright" zone.
There, a colossal altar of interwoven runes and chains rose from the gloom.
At its center sat a woman in an ornate gown, beauty so otherworldly it bordered on the demonic.
Her long hair was a deep violet, and her eyes as fathomless as a star-strewn skyPandora.
Just then Pandora was idly flicking several crystal orbs that floated before her, as though observing something.
When Rei Ao's presence drew near, she did not even turn around. In a voice tinged with languor and reproach she said,
"Oh? Isn't this my willful 'child'? What brings you to visit your mother?"
"Or did you just kill another of Mother's 'children' and feel like boasting about it?"
The "children" she spoke of were the Campionesgod-slayers.
Marquis Voban had been one of them.
Rei Ao stopped at the foot of the altar.
His iridescent pupils regarded Pandora's back impassively.
"Boast? I've no interest in that.
"Voban annoyed me, so I killed him. Perfectly normal."
Pandora finally turned, a faint, ambiguous smile on her lips.
"Normal, is it?
"Heh, to a Campione, killing a fellow god-slayer may indeed be 'normal.'
"But you aren't like them. Youdon't belong to this world at all, nor to my 'rules.'"
Her words carried insightand resignation.
Rei Ao's power had long since slipped beyond her control, even beyond the logic of this universe.
"Not of this worldso what?" Rei Ao countered.
"I'm here, I see, and I do as I please.
"For example, right now I have a question for you."
