The fall of a god-Selfless Demon Blade

Once, on the shore, Bai Mo had studied the stone tablet Great Saber had left behind. He could not yet use its final two moves, Peerless Demon Blade and Selfless Demon Blade. Executing a move required not only understanding it, but also knowing the intricacies of how its power operated. Without enough power, it could not be done. He already knew all the other moves of Avici Hell Blade by heart, but not those two.

Peerless Demon Blade required at least 250,000 horsepower of magnetic field rotation. Selfless Demon Blade required its user to comprehend the selfless realm, the ultimate realm of a blade wielder, burning their own life force for power to unleash terrifying destructive force. It also required at least 500,000 horsepower of magnetic field rotation to execute. Once unleashed, it could all but slaughter an opponent at the same realm in single combat, and even fight opponents above that realm.

Of course, that assumed the opponent was not some kind of freak.

Unable to use either move then, Bai Mo could only stare helplessly, but he soon found another approach.

Imagination. Back then, the Great Blade Martial God had simulated a battle with the War God of Destruction through imagination. Could I simulate using these two moves through imagination too?

My electric current push isn't improving anyway. Might as well try.

Bai Mo began thinking, imagining, within his own space. Hmm... roughly 250,000 horsepower, then follow the method of circulating power-hiss, I don't know what magnetic field rotation feels like.

Forget it. Whatever. I'll just try thinking my way through the simulation.

Then Bai Mo began practicing in his imagined space. For the first time in ages, he felt himself improving. That feeling was wonderful.

One slash after another. From then on, Bai Mo trained through imagination while facing the stone tablet.

Great Saber said little either, but unlike before, he stayed nearby and watched after Bai Mo began this training.

Finally, one day, Bai Mo rose and swung his blade. With nothing but electric current push, his swordsmanship actually carried a hint of Peerless Demon Blade.

At last, he began attempting Selfless Demon Blade within his imagined space. But this time was different. After countless attempts, when he finally succeeded in practicing the move and was just about to deliver the first slash, Bai Mo seemed to black out.

When he woke, he found himself in the little cabin he had built, lying on the blade blank.

"Master? What happened to me?"

He saw the Great Blade Martial God standing nearby, his expression unchanged, but something seemed different in his eyes.

"Don't try that again. Lie on the blade blank today. Don't go anywhere."

The memory ended there.

Zeus's lightning struck again. Bai Mo still remained in this world. Looks like the system needs a little more time to transport me. Still, this seems even better.

That gives me time to savor the pleasure of slaughtering this so-called god before me.

Is the lightning here? Heh, can that stop me? Right, if this power were expressed through magnetic field rotation, it should amount to 250,000 horsepower.

"Hahaha, Poseidon, why do you need someone else to save you? Where did that attitude of yours go?"

Bai Mo placed the blade blank at his waist, then took a reverse grip. Then he stopped moving, as though waiting for the lightning to strike. What was going on? Was this guy's head fucking full of shit?

No, he wanted to try-to try using this power. Then lightning struck Bai Mo's body once again. Could Bai Mo harness it?

In an instant, flesh shattered and turned to charcoal. Surely he was dead now, right...?

Poseidon began praying. In his present situation, all he could do was pray. Pray for his enemy to fall, to die.

Magnetic field rotation-Cellular Regeneration.

That uncanny power appeared again. Under the assault of "I am the thunder that rends the stars," Bai Mo had not died. He began driving the surrounding power once more.

Poseidon, you should be proud. Bai Mo's lips moved slightly. The next moment, his flesh began burning. His lips split, his scalp tore, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. No blood flowed. Had the lightning charred it all?

No. Fire appeared on his wounds. Fiercely blazing fire.

He drove the lightning, concentrating it. His heart hammered wildly. His mind had never felt so cool, so happy. Now Bai Mo felt his life fading, burning, rapidly being consumed.

But so what? A person's life is so long, yet so short. Life is something to be spent!

My own 250,000 horsepower, plus Zeus's lightning. Absorb, strengthen, rotate. It's so hard to control, but...

I can do it, with my mind as it is now, with this feeling.

I absolutely can.

"All gods, attack now! Are you asleep?"

Zeus's roar resounded across the sky. Countless attacks surged in from every direction, and the king of the underworld's chains burst from the earth again. Realizing that his power had little effect on Bai Mo and was even being used against him, Zeus immediately unleashed everything he could.

Who between heaven and earth could withstand the combined, all-out onslaught of these gods? Anyone facing this would have to suffer bitter defeat.

Defeat? Bai Mo thought. Heh, defeat?

"Fuck you! You think you can stop me? Come and try! I'll show you that everything you have is useless!"

Flames engulfed Bai Mo as his demon blade slashed upward!

"The final victory will belong only to me and my-Selfless Demon Blade!"

500,000 horsepower-Selfless Demon Blade.

The world seemed to stop. In an instant, one slash severed Dahai, and one slash cleaved the sky. The light dispersed.

Bai Mo had vanished, leaving only Poseidon.

His head had been severed with a single slash.

Gods and humans alike stared blankly at the sight.

Today, they had all borne witness to a myth.

"Heavens, what on earth has happened to this world?"

Jason murmured, a chill running down his spine, as though his entire worldview had shattered.

The soldiers of Colchis all fell to their knees. Cold sweat soaked the armor of these strong, valiant soldiers.

"We actually fought a monster like that..."

"I'm actually alive. We're fucking alive, holy shit."

Aeëtes was equally stunned. Everything that had happened far surpassed this widely experienced king's imagination. In every age of the world, in every mythology, heroes existed. Today, however, they had witnessed the only one of his kind.

Throughout countless histories, there had been no shortage of dragon slayers and conquerors of cities, but there was only one godslayer.

Within another space, Bai Mo was falling toward somewhere-somewhere he should have gone long ago. The twenty-first century, Fuyuki City.

"This ground... ah, I think I've seen it in the manga. It looks like the alternate-dimensional space where Zhutian and Feili fought. So that's it. System, this is how you transport me between worlds."

"Mm. Whatever the case, it worked in the end."

Yes, it was over. The story of Greece, the story of Bai Ermo, ended here. Looking around him, Bai Mo felt a little nostalgic. He missed Jason, missed everyone aboard the Argo. Ah, I'd made a promise to Atalanta too. Looks like I'll have to break it. The Garment of the Hawk got ruined as well.

I've really let Circe down, and so many others. I'd hoped to help Heracles avoid becoming the gods' pawn, but I didn't manage that either.

What about Hylas? I wonder how he's doing.

Jason... he should become king, right? Nothing's holding him back anymore. The gods shouldn't make trouble for him.

Medea, sigh, that woman owes me a lot. She didn't murder her family this time. I wonder whether she'll still end up branded a wicked witch.

The past drifted by like smoke. Bai Mo gradually sank into his memories, while the magnetic field power within his body slowly receded.

The 500,000 horsepower had been forcibly added in the first place. No, even reaching 250,000 horsepower had been an enormous leap. He had done all this with an unstable realm, and now Bai Mo was struggling to stabilize it. The process was extremely dangerous. One misstep might cost him everything he had gained. Moreover, he was gravely injured now. If he divided his attention to use Cellular Regeneration...

His condition might grow even worse.

Bai Mo's magnetic field power was like a statue that should have been painstakingly carved, but in this brief time, he had taken a great blade and broad axe to it, hacking and smashing wildly until he had produced something that barely met the standard.

Something like that could easily shatter once activated.

Bai Mo did everything he could to stabilize his realm while quickly drinking his last bottle of medicine.

Countless fragments swept past him. One slipped by that seemed to show Circe crying.

Sigh. Only a sigh.

But if Bai Mo were asked whether he regretted it? No.

There's no point clinging to the past. Perhaps I could have done better, but regretting established facts won't help. Life always has its regrets, because they're part of living too.

It's time to look to the future.

His heart gradually grew peaceful.

Life stretches on, an endless night; what can I seek when no hand is in sight?

No hope ahead, the road seems done; within the thunderclouds, one chance to live.

Flames scorch the heavens, the phoenix is reborn; the eagle sheds its feathers and soars again.

Today I swing my blade at the unyielding void, breaking through the heavens to seek freedom.

As clarity swept through his heart, his previously wavering realm gradually stabilized.

Once-in the training space.

Great Saber watched Bai Mo simulate using Selfless Demon Blade through imagination. He had been trying for almost three months, but this time, Great Saber had a feeling. Bai Mo... might succeed.

Drip. Something fell into the water. It was neither sweat nor blood, but... fire.

Hiss! Tiny flames fell into the seawater, raising clouds of steam. These were no ordinary flames, but flames that burned life force.

The Great Blade Martial God immediately intervened to stop Bai Mo from continuing. Then Bai Mo fell unconscious.

"Great Saber, what are you doing? Why stop him?"

A man's voice sounded. How ill-timed.

"Do I need to explain my actions to you?"

"Oh my, look at you. What's wrong? Had such a miserable childhood that you're pinning your hopes for family on this kid now? Great Saber, as I recall, you were very opposed to letting this kid grow back then. Where did that fellow with all his righteous words go?"

Bai Wunan sat down. The sand and stones beneath his feet naturally became a glass recliner. His left hand circled, and the glass formed a whirlpool between his fingers like seawater.

"No magnetic field power exists in this world, and that kid didn't have the right environment when he transformed either. But that treasure of yours absorbed the power he trained, then formed a magnetic field environment around him that allowed a breakthrough, while suppressing the breakthrough of his realm. Finally, through turbocharging, it allowed him to break through in that world..."

Bai Wunan flicked a fingertip, shooting a glass bead toward Dahai. Inside that tiny glass bead was a whirlpool, and as it shot out, even the surrounding space distorted.

The Great Blade Martial God extended a finger. An invisible blade sliced the glass bead apart, and the erupting power formed a wall of air, as though it would split the entire world in two.

"What a gentle Great Blade Martial God. Fuck, why didn't I have a master like you back then? Even my family's Sea Tiger Exploding Fist was something I had to risk my life to obtain~"

"Bai Wunan, if you want to act like a prick, fuck off home and do it. I'm not in the mood to reminisce."

"Oh dear, so cold. And here I'd thought we counted as friends. Fine, fine, I'll disappear, along with those original intentions of yours."

Bai Wunan's figure gradually faded, but his voice still echoed there.

"You don't think that damned thing just picked someone off the street at random, do you? He has no desire for power in his heart and lacks the will to dominate. But a calm sea often hides power, and your actions will only draw that power out ahead of time."

In the distance, Dahai surged with towering waves. Bearing the murderous air of clashing weapons and charging warhorses, they swept toward the land, seeking to swallow and crush every living thing upon it.

Great Saber did not move. With a single thought, he stopped Dahai.

Bai Wunan had left. Having lost its master, the throne-like chair turned back into sand, like a puppy abandoned by its owner. No trace of Bai Wunan remained in the cabin. Only a sentence echoed within it.

"The dead shouldn't interfere too much with the world. Who said that back then? Hee, looking at it now, accepting that thing's proposal was quite interesting. Seeing you like this alone made it worthwhile."

Only the Great Blade Martial God remained. What should I do? For the sake of another world, should I root out the problem now?

Great Saber stood motionless. Time slowly passed, and the sleeper blearily opened his eyes.

"Master? What happened to me?"

He saw the Great Blade Martial God standing nearby, his expression unchanged, but something seemed different in his eyes.

Sigh, Great Saber, you sentimental fool.

"Don't try that again. Lie on the blade blank today. Don't go anywhere."

Leaving those words behind, Great Saber turned and left.

Within the alternate-dimensional space, Bai Mo fell quietly, feeling the changes in his body and the mysteries of magnetic field rotation. It had stabilized. Nothing unexpected had happened this time. Thanks to Great Saber's training, his foundations were solid, and after the last of Zeus's power dispersed, his own 250,000 horsepower remained.

At 250,000 horsepower, present-day human civilization essentially had no way to kill Bai Mo anymore.

"Right, why were you so sure Zeus would intervene?"

The system's puzzled voice sounded. If Zeus had not acted then, it would all have been over.

"If you're asking why... because I know that part of the mythology, I suppose. Look, Zeus survived by hiding to avoid being swallowed by Cronus. A god who survived that way wouldn't feel at ease unless he personally killed me, someone considered the person of prophecy."

Bai Mo explained, but the system's thoughts were quite different.

That's not right. The Greek gods of this world are cosmic starships. How could that be...? Could it... just be luck?

The system did not want to tell Bai Mo this information. Bai Mo already knew it was hiding certain things, and knowing this would serve no purpose anyway. Mm, let's just call it good luck.

"Anyway, it actually worked. I'd thought Magnetic Field Addition and Subtraction was some incomprehensible nonsense. I didn't expect it to actually let me use Selfless Demon Blade."

"I suggest you stop trying things like that. The selfless realm already burns through your life, and your unstable selfless realm burned through a fifth of your lifespan outright."

"Huh? It cost that much?"

"What did you think...? Besides, Magnetic Field Addition and Subtraction is only somewhat useful below 500,000 horsepower. Still... you're really hard to kill. A normal person would've died long ago. Should I call you extraordinarily gifted, or something else...?"