SON OF THE HERO KING

After Sol left the premises and both Skuld and Verdandi were sent away, Tiamat began to reflect on everything she learned today.

“Have I been in too much of a hurry?”

She couldn’t help but ask herself seriously. Initially, her plan had been to thoroughly train Sol in all possible ways so that he became ready both physically and mentally.

This mainly stemmed from her foresight about his future that would be filled with blood and death.

‘Well, I guess I wasn’t exactly wrong.’

She chuckled bitterly.

The more time passed the worse the rush became. Even though she should have known that patience was necessary for all great undertakings.

However, there was something that still bothered her.

‘Nothing like that happened in the future I have seen.’

There were infinite numbers of possible futures, so seeing even hundreds of them was indeed not enough.

Furthermore, in most of those futures, she did see the Wing of Freedom attacking. But generally, it was only two of them accompanied by some giants. Nothing complicated.

Finally, their target wasn’t Sol, but Isis, and in none of those futures did Ymir act.

Tiamat could feel that she was at a crossroads. How she decided to act now would change everything.

The first road was to simply believe in herself and refuse to believe the Titan Skuld.

The second one was to believe in Skuld and act accordingly.

The third road was to simply give up bringing Sol to the Duke level. In the first place the transition to Duke wasn’t hard and with Sol’s talent, she was sure that Sol could still become very powerful.

[…Zzz…mat…Tiam…]

‘Oh.’

Hearing the intermittent sound in her mind, Tiamat remembered that she had completely cut her connection with the goddesses the moment Skuld screamed ‘Darling’ for the first time.

She was happy she did because she couldn’t even imagine what would happen if those goddesses knew about what happened.

[Tiamat!]

“No need to scream in my head, I can hear you.”

[….Explain.]

“What do you mean?”

[Luxuria is going crazy. She is screaming that something has changed and she wants to know what.]

“Heh…”

[I am not joking this time. She is really about to explode. If you don’t give her some explanation she will…]

“She will? She will what?”

Tiamat’s eyes narrowed in a fit of cold and silent anger. Today had been a day where she had to repress her anger many times.

She was tired, angry, and confused. Now she was being threatened?

[…]

“Finish your sentences, please. What will she do…mother?”

The word mother was uttered with such a disdain and disregard that it felt like nails scratching on metal.

"Let me remind you something. You may have created us, but we are not your slaves. Never ever threaten me again.”

[…I see. It seems like reaching your current level made your head swell and transformed your pride into arrogance. I think it’s time to remind you that no matter how powerful —a false god will always be a fake.]

This time another voice intervened in the discussion. It was a voice Tiamat rarely heard but still knew very well.

‘Luxuria.’

Silence fell between them as Tiamat stood up. Blazing determination shone in her eyes as her form changed until the beautiful woman was replaced by a gigantic Dragon.

Under the might she radiated, the whole world seemed to quake.

‘Finally!’

ROOAARRR!!!

The sea stirred, tempest roared and the stars in the sky shone so much more brightly that they became blinding.

All of this happened in but an instant before Tiamat vanished from her palace to reach the depth of a realm few ever stepped in.

The Divine Realm.

——

Two days later, Sol could be seen sitting near Tiamat’s throne while he meditated.

Initially, he had planned to openly discuss with Bastet, but since Tiamat mysteriously vanished after causing so many world-ending phenomena, he decided to wait.

What he did during those two days was meditate on exploring his Mirror Dimension or the Reverse World as his Future self said.

Unfortunately, he came out empty and found nothing particularly new. He couldn’t find Skuld to discuss either as it seemed that Tiamat had imprisoned them in another space before leaving.

“I guess I won’t be able to do much more without first becoming a Duke first. Perhaps I should change my way of thinking?”

Sol muttered while keeping his position.

The creation of a Zone mainly depended on external factors such as way of thinking, memories, and possible inheritance.

All of this would culminate into one truth. The ultimate truth for the one using the Zone.

In terms of inheritance, while he couldn’t say to have understood everything Tiamat said, he slowly grasped what her zone was about and its underlying power of it.

The fact that it was based on her dimension was one of the reasons Tiamat had chosen to share it with him since he also had a dimension.

So the inheritance was no problem.

What then was his Truth? Sol thought to himself.

Bipolarity. Action and Reaction.

People said that there was no such thing as a world of only black and white and Sol thought the same but in a different way.

The world was a spectrum where black and white were the ultimate ends.

All…

*Whoosh*

Sol’s train of thought was interrupted when a circular portal opened in the middle of the throne room.

There could only be one person who could enter here in such a way.

“Oh…Sol, you are here.”

As he thought, the one who stepped out of the portal was indeed Tiamat but…

“What happened!?”

Sol stood up hurriedly and rushed towards Tiamat, worry evident in his eyes.

Tiamat was surprised at his outburst at first, but once she looked down on herself, she immediately understood.

The current Tiamat had none of her usual poise.

Her body was covered in blood and wounds. One of her arms was hanging and her eye that was usually hidden behind an eyepatch was closed but had tears of blood streaming from it.

While it was clear that none of the wounds were particularly deep, the simple fact that Tiamat herself was wounded was astonishing.

“Ah, This? Don’t worry about it. The more dangerous wounds already healed.”

“Your wounds were even worse!?”

Understandingly, her words did nothing to abate Sol’s worries and in fact only increased them.

Tiamat was powerful.

This was a simple reality. In the same way that life and death coexisted or that people needed the energy to sustain themselves.

Who could wound Tiamat so much?

‘Don’t tell me, she was attacked?’

As if understanding his worries, Tiamat stretched her blood-free hand towards him and ruffled his hair gently.

“Once again don’t worry. For people at my level, physical wounds alone are far from enough to really affect us.”

“*Sigh* I understand. At least tell me what happened.”

Sol did not push away her hand but continued to inspect her condition. His actions warmed Tiamat’s heart after all, it had been forever since anyone was worried about her.

“I fought Luxuria.”

“Wha—-“

“Well. Saying that we fought is a stretch since we only traded blows in the physical plane.”

Physical wounds could easily be healed but it was different for wounds inflicted through conceptual attacks.

“What about the result?”

Since he saw that Tiamat was indeed alright, Sol asked quietly while observing Tiamat’s expression.

“It was a tie.”

Tiamat gave a bitter smile. Sol watched her with his mouth open wide causing her to chortle in amusement.

“What makes you so surprised. I am a false god, you know? The fight might have gone differently if we fought with our concept but in the physical plane, I am not inferior to any of them.”

Pride and confidence literally seemed to ooze from all of her. Even though she seemed to be in such a sorry state, Sol could say that she was truly at her most beautiful today.

More than anything, when the thought that Tiamat was able to fight against a goddess without losing settled in, it was like something finally clicked in him.

Gods weren’t all that special.

“Sol…? Are you alright?”

Tiamat frowned a little as she felt the atmosphere slowly change.

Sol stayed silent for a short while before finally raising his head and smiling at Tiamat.

“I have never been better. Thank you.”

“You…You realized something?”

“Indeed. You made a deep fear that had settled in my heart vanish from it.”

What was a goddess?

For Sol who had personally met and whose life had always been manipulated by the goddesses, they were like supreme beings that could crush and toy with everything in this world.

The first meeting between them had ended with him groveling and begging for the life of his loved one before being tied into some forced debt. As if it wasn’t enough, he had been nearly mind–whipped just for taking a look at them.

This had clearly set the tone of their relationship and it was clearly not one between equals.

Ever since then, even though he refused to admit it, a feeling of dread was born in his heart.

He lived in a world where his existence could be erased at any moment and where his destiny had already been decided from the start.

He could only console himself by thinking about he had a pretty good life but this did not take away the bitterness of his reality.

But now?

Now he was ready.

He still feared them, for he was still not even a Duke.

He still respected them, for everything he had was thanks to their machinations.

But he no longer saw them as insurmountable mountains.

And that alone…made all the difference.

“Shall we talk with my cat now? This is the last missing piece of the puzzle. I think I am ready now to take the next step.”