Multiverse: Ragnarok's Beginning - The Hero King's Path

When the hole in the ceiling realigned into concentric circles, the moonlight pouring down fell vertically onto the magic circle on the ground.

At that moment, it was exactly midnight, zero hour.

In that instant, Brunhilde's entire body tensed, her eyes wide open.

Her pupils contracted, and an expression of utter disbelief spread across her face.

The magic circle seemed to absorb and gather all the moonlight from the entire palace, dimming the surrounding light while the circle itself emitted a silver glow.

And King Solomon, standing within the magic circle, had luminous patterns emerging on his body—patterns spreading across his entire form, giving off a deeply mysterious impression.

These patterns appeared to be forcibly squeezing into his skin; she could see his body trembling slightly, cold sweat continuously beading on his face.

This scene was strikingly similar to the process of ascending to godhood.

One difference, however, was that the ritual for divine ascension took place during the day, at high noon when the sun hung highest.

"Sister Brunhilde, this—!"

By now, Goll had clearly sensed something, her voice trembling with disbelief.

"Is he trying to become a god?"

Too—too absurd, utterly impossible.

"No, that's not it."

To become a god, the energy focused into the magic circle would easily reduce a human to ashes.

That's why King Solomon borrowed the power of moonlight.

And moonlight, though appearing as light shining from the moon to Earth, in fact, these rays do not originate from the moon—they actually come from sunlight.

Sunlight strikes the moon, scatters, and reflects to form moonlight, which is far weaker than direct sunlight.

The ritual before them seemed to be nearing its end; the light of the magic circle was gradually fading, and the patterns on King Solomon's body appeared to be vanishing as well.

No, the patterns on King Solomon weren't disappearing—they were seeping into his body, becoming invisible.

Judging by his state, he no longer seemed uncomfortable; instead, he looked somewhat pleased. Had the experiment succeeded?

The next second, he raised one hand before his eyes, forming a gesture as if holding something.

What was he looking at in his hand? His palm was empty, holding nothing.

No, something appeared—light seemed to gradually gather in his hand, and specks of light began to emerge.

From a few specks, they multiplied into hundreds, then turned red-hot, like a cluster of sparks gathered together, until finally, with a whoosh, a flame appeared in his hand.

The next second, the flame gradually vanished, reverting to specks of light, which then merged together, shifting toward transparency—a twisting sphere of water.

Again, as before, the water sphere turned back into specks of light, which then formed a vortex—a flowing current of air, wind!

"Sister Brunhilde, this—is this Magic?"

Goll's eyes widened, her expression stiff.

In truth, she knew this wasn't Magic, but it was too unbelievable; she didn't want to face reality.

"Yes, it's Magic."

Huh? Even her sister said that—was she also unable to face reality?

"It's Magic that can manifest reality, Magic that can kill."

At this follow-up, Goll's mouth fell open.

"Then—then isn't that Sorcery?"

Yes, that was Sorcery. She had to accept reality.

A mere human had mastered Sorcery, touching the Divine Realm with a mortal body.

This was even more absurd and outrageous than the deeds of a certain god widely known in the Heavenly Realm.

That god was also the one Goll admired and worshipped most—her idol, as human fans would say.

The Nemean Lion, the hellhound Cerberus—such terrifying monsters, he subdued them all with his bare hands.

He broke through the twelve extremely harsh, so-called "impossible" labors of the underworld, forging a legend, and thus ascended from a demigod to a god truly recognized by the pantheon, becoming one of them.

He was a god who never exuded divine arrogance, and he doted on her like a little sister.

That god was the mighty hero of Greek mythology—Hercules.

In fact, at this Valhalla Conference, Hercules had been delayed by other matters and couldn't make it; otherwise, he would certainly have voted against it, because he, like Sister Brunhilde, was close to humanity.

Now, before Goll's very eyes, this man had created a feat even more outrageous than Hercules.

A mortal body rivaling the gods!

Wait—!

Goll thought of a possibility.

"This—could it be that this was granted by that god?"

Brunhilde did not respond to Goll's words; in truth, she also suspected as much, because it was just too absurd.

So Brunhilde rewound the historical footage.

As the images rolled back, they also saw King Solomon continuously testing this formation, conducting quite a few human experiments—all on convicted criminals.

"Ugh—!"

Goll covered her mouth, stifling a scream, because what she saw was a horrifying image that made her scalp crawl.

What kind of horrifying image was that? It was the sight of failed test subjects, most of whom ended up exploding like balloons, their bodies bursting apart.

That ruled out one of Goll's possibilities, then.

Looking at it this way, it was clearly King Solomon himself who had figured it out through his own Wisdom.

Of course, Brunhilde didn't believe it was all Solomon's own discovery. He might have seen the formation for ascending to godhood through some channel, then researched and adapted it into a version suitable for humans.

Even though it wasn't created from nothing but rather studied by borrowing from something else, it was still absurdly beyond the pale.

The gods had always believed that humans could never touch the truth of the universe. Even the gods themselves had never created a formation that would let humans reach the truth of the Universal Substrate.

For a human to become a god, the usual way was either for a god and a human to conceive a demigod with divine blood, or for the human to consume God's Blood—only then could they access the supernatural.

There had never been a method that allowed a human to touch those things with their physical body alone. Not that they hadn't tried, but the result was always the human dying on the spot.

So didn't this mean that King Solomon's Wisdom surpassed that of the gods?

P.S.: It won't simulate everything before the opening. After King Solomon, one more and then it starts.

Chapter 023: Is He Dominating Demons?

How interesting, how incredibly interesting!

She had run into another monster again.

Just by the fact that he had touched something like this, he was qualified to be one of the thirteen who would decide humanity's fate.

Of course, Brunhilde still needed to observe carefully.

She had to determine what the Supreme Four Pillars were up to, what scheme they were hatching.

The timeline was readjusted back to the point where King Solomon had successfully touched the Divine Realm.

Although King Solomon had now touched the Universal Substrate and seemed capable of using what was called magic, he was still far from actually casting true magic.

For now, he had only touched the basics. He still had to figure out on his own how to convert and release magic in various forms, rather than just forming a fireball in his hand. He needed to make use of it, to learn how to shape flames into all kinds of attacks.

How to ricochet, how to compress, how to explode—all of that required him to research and create on his own.

By the way, could demigods like them, who had never entered a god's magic formation to be elevated to true gods, not use magic? Of course not.

Demigods like them could certainly use magic, but there was still a gap between their magic and that of true gods.

True gods could draw upon the Universal Substrate, the power of the Root, to unleash magic of an entirely different dimension.

The King Solomon before them now had apparently touched the Substrate as well, but that didn't mean he could unleash power on the same level as a god.

The limitation existed because he was human, while gods were gods. The difference in physical strength between the two was enormous, so how much power magic could unleash largely depended on how much power the body could withstand.

They continued watching. King Solomon seemed to have grown bored with the changes in his hand and just went back to sleep?

Then, after half a month of intermittent observation, King Solomon had successfully created true magic.

Even though these spells seemed very basic to Brunhilde, that was because she and her kind had learned directly from existing magical knowledge. King Solomon, on the other hand, was different—he had researched it all on his own.

"Ah-ha~!"

That was the sound of Goll yawning. Although they had observed intermittently over half a month, not watching every single second, the total time still added up to over a hundred hours.

They fast-forwarded half a year to see if there were any major changes.

It was daytime now. King Solomon was busy with various affairs as usual, just like any other day. Come nightfall, he would probably be back to creating magic again.

They arrived at the great hall where King Solomon was discussing matters with his ministers. Deputy officers from the twelve administrative districts were reporting to King Solomon on the recent situation in each district.

"That concludes the current state of the Sixth Administrative District, Your Majesty."

The deputy officer of the Sixth Administrative District, having finished his report, wore a pained expression on his face.

According to his report, the Sixth Administrative District had been attacked again by wandering tribes along the border, resulting in heavy losses. They needed sufficient material and funds from the capital to rebuild and to prevent those detestable wandering tribes from crossing the border for sneak attacks.

So, after hearing the report, King Solomon showed neither sorrow nor anger. He merely let out a sigh.

"Is that so? Then how much do you think you need?"

After King Solomon said this, the deputy officer of the Sixth Administrative District named a figure that made the other deputy officers frown slightly.

Seeing this, Brunhilde planned to skip ahead.

At the same time, she withdrew the look of disgust she had been directing at the Sixth Administrative District's deputy officer.

This guy could fool others, but he couldn't fool her eyes. That deputy officer was lying.

The amount was probably inflated on purpose, intending to embezzle a good chunk of it.

However, just as she was about to look away and fast-forward, something suddenly bizarre happened.

"Aaaaaah...!"

Accompanied by a sharp scream of agony, the deputy officer's right ear fell to the floor.

It was truly bizarre—how could an ear just fall off for no reason?

It looked as if it had been abruptly sliced off by an invisible sharp blade.

Had King Solomon used a wind blade to cut off the deputy administrator's ear?

But Brunhilde hadn't seen the King make any move to cast magic at all; he sat naturally in his throne.

"Yakos, lying is not good, you know?"

Faced with this scene, King Solomon instead narrowed his eyes and let out a slightly amused voice.

This meant that the deputy administrator named Yakos losing his ear was definitely connected to King Solomon.

But how had he done it?

"Your Majesty, what—no, I don't understand what you mean. I can—Aaaaah!"

Another scream rang out. This time, it was the fingers of his right hand, crushed into pulp without any warning by something invisible.

"So, can you explain clearly what the Sixth Administrative District is up to? Yakos."

"Your Majesty, this—I don't understand—Aaaaahhh!"

That was a heart-wrenching scream, so agonizing that everyone in the hall couldn't bear to watch.

This time, one eyeball burst out directly, while half his face was torn off by an unseen force.

At this moment, no matter how dense the others were, they could understand that the deputy administrator's strange affliction was connected to their King.

In that instant, their King became extraordinarily mysterious.

"Next time, your heart will be ripped out, Yakos."

King Solomon narrowed his eyes and revealed a faint smile, which made the screaming Yakos instantly drop to his knees.

"I'll talk, I'll talk..."