Chapter 192

Chapter 192. Underwater Battle, Round Two (7)

A sea breeze that was not just refreshing, but downright chilly.

In stark contrast, a blazing fire heated the skin.

“Haaah......”

In the midst of it all, Anagin closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

'So it actually worked?'

The moment right after he rubbed his palms together and ignited a flame.

Although he pretended otherwise, Anagin had been a little surprised inside.

After all, he hadn't been completely certain it would produce real fire.

As he'd grown accustomed to the blessing bestowed by the subordinate woman, he'd developed a strong feeling that he might be able to use it. Even so, he wasn't one hundred percent convinced.

Then why did he act like he was about to put on a grand show?

It was nothing special. He just wanted to give it a shot.

You know how on some days, you just feel so good that you're more confident than usual and want to make a big fuss?

This was exactly one of those moments.

He'd just received the subordinate woman's blessing, his body was overflowing with power, and he'd even gained a mysterious new ability.

So, driven by nothing more than a feeling that it would work, he rubbed his palms together to create fire.

Even if it failed, he wouldn't really lose anything...

At worst, it'd just be a little embarrassing. And it wasn't like looking foolish in front of the fisherman mage would matter.

So he gave it a shot with the mindset of nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And to his surprise, it worked on the first try.

The flames of Tramachus that had tormented Anagin had been reborn in his own hands as a tool.

The moment he created the fire, Anagin spread it in every direction.

After watching Tramachus manipulate flames so many times, it wasn't particularly difficult.

As Anagin's will flowed into the fire, it spread rapidly, as though trying to prove its worth, burning away every single one of the fisherman mage's clones as if melting them.

That wasn't all.

Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble.........

The sea touched by the flames began to boil violently.

Sssssssssss━━!

An enormous amount of steam shot high into the sky.

It looked like a scene straight out of hell.

Amid that inferno, Anagin stared at a single spot.

A moment later, he extinguished the flames.

Incidentally, putting them out wasn't difficult either.

He'd watched Tramachus extinguish his flames countless times, and he also had experience calming the fire burning within his own chest.

He simply applied what he'd learned.

As the flames died down according to Anagin's will, the scorching air they had created mixed with the cool sea breeze.

Standing in the middle of it all, Anagin let out another sigh, as though all the strength had drained from his body.

In reality, though, he wasn't exhausted at all.

If anything, he felt more energized than ever.

As long as his body remained in contact with the sea, it felt as though the ocean itself was filling him with vitality.

Even so, the reason he sighed as though drained was that, once the battle ended, his head had finally cooled.

This blessing was undoubtedly an incredibly convenient and powerful force.

But at the same time, it suddenly struck him just how dangerous it was.

It felt as though the blessing possessed a will of its own and influenced its owner.

Feeling excited immediately after receiving the subordinate woman's blessing was one thing.

But the flames had been completely unexpected.

They had produced far more destructive power than he'd intended.

It wasn't that Anagin was the sort of person who feared causing collateral damage.

But that only applied when it was the result of his own will.

This was different.

As his thoughts reached that point, a sense of danger suddenly washed over him, followed by disappointment in himself.

Whether it was magic, a blessing, or Energy, they were all ultimately just tools.

But what had just happened was no different from being controlled by the tool itself.

Like an idiot.

Feeling mentally exhausted by the realization, Anagin reminded himself to be more careful.

He'd coveted the blessing because he believed it would help him become a god—

Not because he wanted to become its puppet.

'Rather than simply telling myself to be careful... I should probably learn more about blessings......'

Anagin began forming a concrete plan.

After all, true resolve could only be exercised after proper preparation and planning.

Once some time had passed and he judged that he'd calmed down, Anagin slowly opened his eyes again.

Then he shifted his gaze toward the place he'd been watching ever since spreading the flames.

“Huff...... Huff......”

It was none other than the fisherman mage.

Having hidden beneath the surface together with his countless clones, he'd been caught in the flames Anagin unleashed.

His entire body had been roasted, and he was barely clinging to life.

'How anticlimactic.'

Looking at the completely incapacitated fisherman mage, Anagin couldn't help but feel hollow.

He'd expected their battle to end in a far more spectacular fashion.

Like it had with Periphetes.

Or Pigmenes...

Instead, the fight had ended in a way he never could have imagined.

The fisherman mage had frozen for a moment after seeing the flames Anagin created.

That brief hesitation was enough for the fire to engulf him.

He'd desperately dived into the sea to extinguish the flames.

But he failed.

Because the fire continued burning even underwater.

Unable to put out the flames no matter what he did, the fisherman mage suffered terribly.

Then, the moment he tried absorbing the sea's energy to restore his body...

It was over.

By then, Anagin's flames had already boiled the surrounding sea.

Instead of drawing in the sea's power, the fisherman mage absorbed the intense heat instead—

And was cooked alive.

Only after seeing that did Anagin extinguish the flames.

Once again...

It all felt incredibly anticlimactic.

Of course, that didn't make the battle meaningless.

Quite the opposite.

There was a lot to learn from it.

'Relying too much on a blessing really screws you over.'

That was Anagin's conclusion.

Whenever things turned bad, the fisherman mage always hid beneath the sea or relied on the ocean's power to heal himself.

In the end, he'd trusted his blessing too much and wound up like this.

A blessing was undoubtedly powerful and convenient.

But now it seemed that depending on it too heavily only turned it into a weakness.

And it also seemed that a blessing wasn't simply better because it possessed greater firepower.

When Tramachus' flames boiled the surrounding sea, even the fisherman mage's mermaid power had been completely neutralized.

What mattered more was how and when it was used.

None of those realizations were bad for Anagin.

Just as he'd originally intended, he could continue treating blessings as nothing more than useful tools.

If anything, it served as a valuable warning.

It seemed he shouldn't end things with the subordinate woman just yet.

At the very least, he needed to ask her everything he wanted to know about blessings first.

It was an incredibly calculating...

And frankly trashy way of thinking...

'As long as I keep my promises, that should be enough, right?'

Stretching out his hand toward the severely burned fisherman mage, Anagin grabbed him by the hair.

He remained on guard in case the man recovered.

But there wasn't the slightest sign of it.

Dragging the fisherman mage behind him, Anagin walked over to the subordinate woman.

“Hey.”

“......”

Even though he'd gone out of his way to greet them, no one answered.

They simply stared at him with strange expressions.

It wasn't hostility.

Nor dissatisfaction.

There wasn't any reason for that.

Rather, they looked like they had countless questions they wanted to ask.

But Anagin had a feeling that if they started talking now, it'd only turn into a long, pointless conversation.

So he ignored it and got straight to the point.

This was the most urgent matter anyway.

“I caught the fisherman mage.”

Anagin practically tossed the barely breathing fisherman mage, whose entire body was covered in burns, onto the ground in front of the subordinate woman.

Come to think of it, they were technically half-siblings.

It did occur to him that this might be a little too immoral.

But he decided not to dwell on it.

The relationship between the fisherman mage and the subordinate woman was far too twisted for that to matter.

Besides, he hadn't dragged him over just to show him off.

“The power of your younger sisters is inside his stomach. Can you take it out?”

Anagin explained what he'd discovered during the battle.

The cluster of light that had almost come out together with the vomit when he'd punched the fisherman mage in the stomach.

That had undoubtedly been the mermaids' power.

Anagin had considered punching him again—or simply cutting open his stomach to retrieve it.

But he'd quickly abandoned the idea.

Unless it was during combat, that would only be taking an unnecessary risk.

Who knew?

The mermaids' power might be damaged.

After Anagin explained his reasoning, the subordinate woman and Horse-head nodded in understanding.

He'd expected them to scoff and say something annoying like, "Do you really think divine power is that fragile?"

So their reaction was a little surprising.

Have they finally matured?

“What are you thinking about?”

The subordinate woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously, as though she'd read his mind.

“Nothing. So, can you take it out?”

“I can try.”

She answered cautiously, apparently unable to guarantee success.

Anagin wanted to tease her by saying, 'Aren't there way too many things a god can't do?'

But he exercised remarkable self-restraint.

After all, this victory was practically thanks to her help.

If she hadn't appeared and offered him her blessing...

Things could've become quite dangerous.

So instead of teasing her, he encouraged her.

“Don't be too nervous. If it doesn't work, I'll just punch him in the gut until he pukes it out.”

“......”

The subordinate woman looked genuinely surprised by Anagin's encouragement.

So did Horse-head and Sphinx.

Their expressions practically screamed, "You actually know how to say something thoughtful?"

“I'm going out of my way to be considerate here. What's with those looks?”

Anagin openly showed his disappointment.

Even so, the subordinate woman neither apologized nor thanked him.

She merely chuckled softly before extending her hand toward the fisherman mage.

She was trying to extract the power of her younger sisters that he'd swallowed.

Meanwhile, Anagin kept watch over their surroundings.

Experience had taught him that this was exactly when troublemakers liked to appear.

Then again, people were always at their most careless when success was right in front of them.

Besides, they hadn't defeated every enemy yet.

This was no time to let their guard down.

'The ugly one.'

Although Anagin's attention was focused on the fisherman mage, he hadn't forgotten about the ugly one.

The creature that had lunged at him with her jaws wide open, trying to devour him—

Only to be blasted far away by one of Anagin's punches.

She had been injured, but not killed instantly.

She was almost certainly hiding somewhere, waiting for another opportunity.

'But... I can't sense her?'

Anagin searched the surrounding sea through the ocean itself.

The ugly one was nowhere nearby.

That can't be right.

Just as suspicion began creeping into his mind—

“What...?!”

A flash of light suddenly burst from the fisherman mage's body.

At the same time, the subordinate woman's startled voice rang out.

Sensing something was wrong, Anagin quickly turned around.

Sure enough, the cluster of light emerging from the fisherman mage's body was shaking violently.

It was obvious at a glance that it had slipped out of control.

“What is it?”

Anagin asked.

Sphinx answered immediately.

“Someone is trying to steal the mermaids' power!”

Someone...

Meaning someone other than the fisherman mage.

Judging by the urgency in Sphinx's voice, it wasn't an easy opponent.

Anagin already had a rough idea who it was.

It had to be the "Him" the ugly one had mentioned.

"If you fail this job, He will reclaim that power! So do it properly!"

The very person the ugly one had invoked while threatening the fisherman mage.

Anagin hadn't forgotten.

He'd merely pushed the matter aside while they were fighting.

He was curious about what kind of person this was.

After all, anyone capable of stealing divine power from a god had to be someone extraordinary.

“Still... this isn't happening.”

Anagin grabbed the escaping cluster of light before it could slip away from the subordinate woman's grasp.

“......!”

The subordinate woman stared at him in shock.

Ignoring her reaction, Anagin finished his sentence.

"Since I defeated him, then everything he had belongs to me now.”

* * *

The power of the subordinate woman's younger sisters tried to escape her grasp.

Anagin reached out and grabbed it himself.

He was the one who had defeated the fisherman mage. There was no way he was going to let some random bastard steal his spoils.

To everyone's surprise, the cluster of light that had been trying to break free immediately settled down the moment it entered Anagin's hand.

He then handed it back to the subordinate woman.

'......'

The subordinate woman stared at Anagin with wide eyes.

As if no matter how many times she witnessed it, she'd never get used to it.

It wasn't hard to guess why.

Anagin wasn't an idiot.

She was probably wondering how an ordinary human had managed to seize divine power.

Truth be told, Anagin was curious himself.

Even by his own standards, it was pretty strange.

Still, he didn't dwell on it for long.

It wasn't his style to obsess over something he couldn't figure out no matter how much he thought about it.

So he settled on an explanation that made enough sense.

Just like he'd fed Orpheus' curse to Pigmenes as food, or summoned Tramachus' flames as his own...

Maybe he could simply take control of the powers belonging to opponents he had defeated.

Because I'm just that awesome.

Having no desire to think or talk about it any further, Anagin asked the subordinate woman if she shouldn't hurry to her younger sisters.

She nodded.

Right, the fundamental reason for doing all this was because of her younger sisters, so she needed to get to them quickly.

'...Do you want to come too?'

She asked if he wanted to accompany her while she returned her younger sisters' power.

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Anagin answered without hesitation.

'No.'

“Can I ask why?”

While waiting beside the subordinate woman, Sphinx spoke up.

Once again, Anagin answered firmly.

“No.”

Rejecting other people's questions and requests was practically a hobby of his.

However, Sphinx had long since grown accustomed to talking with Anagin.

Ignoring his answer entirely, she simply asked anyway.

“Why are you staying here instead of going with her?”

“The Barbaroi Cult is still around. Leaving them alone would just be heartless, don't you think? I didn't expect you to be so cold. You should reflect on yourself.”

As Anagin answered with complete nonsense, Sphinx narrowed her eyes and glared at him.

Only then did Anagin give her a serious answer.

“Saving her younger sisters is her accomplishment. If I butt in, it'll just make things awkward.”

That was the real reason Anagin wasn't going with the subordinate woman to the end.

The credit for rescuing those younger sisters—who had withered into little more than skin and bones—belonged entirely to her.

If Anagin went along, she'd have to introduce him.

Then she'd have to explain who he was and everything he'd done.

It wasn't a huge deal.

But if possible, he wanted the subordinate woman to enjoy all of that herself.

After all, she was the one who had suffered the most because of this whole ordeal.

“Besides, it'd be kind of a pain to awkwardly stand around in the middle of all that.”

“Aww, you're actually pretty considerate.”

“I said it'd be a pain. Why? Did you want to see it?”

Then again, Sphinx probably did.

She was curious enough to call herself a scholar rather than a mage.

Sphinx didn't even bother denying it.

“I am a little curious.”

“Hm... Think it'd look pathetic if I went now?”

Resting his chin on his hand, Anagin seriously considered it.

Sphinx immediately told him it was far too late for that and to forget it.

With that, the matter was settled.

While the subordinate woman finished her business, Anagin busied himself with other things.

First, he retrieved the Beast Devourer he'd dropped into the sea.

Using the blessing, he searched the surrounding waters and quickly located it, then manipulated the current to bring it back before him.

“Should I... open this later instead?”

Anagin looked at the Interspatial Ring he'd taken as loot.

It had belonged to the fisherman mage, who had died after losing the mermaids' power.

Sphinx had been the one to remind him to take it.

It was a magical tool far more valuable than an Interspatial Bag, storing items by opening a magical storage space.

“Mages usually carry all sorts of things. It'll be better if you set aside some time and open it later.”

In other words, it wasn't something he should casually inspect whenever he had a spare moment.

Anagin agreed with Sphinx's advice.

Almost as if to prove her right, the subordinate woman returned just then.

“Oh, what a pleasant surprise. I thought you'd finish what you came to do and leave without a word.”

Anagin joked as usual.

But the subordinate woman wasn't acting like her usual self.

He'd expected her to glare at him with annoyed eyes.

Instead, she looked serious.

Almost... worried.

He was about to ask what was wrong.

But she spoke first.

“Where are you going now?”

“Who knows? Probably the Ruin.”

There was a high chance the remaining members of the Barbaroi Cult were there.

Ugly one might be there too.

If she was, Anagin intended to hunt her down.

After all, he'd originally come here to kill her with the Beast Devourer.

“Don't go.”

"All of a sudden?"

“I think the Barbaroi Cult's leader is there.”

“The what?”

Hearing the unfamiliar title for the first time, Anagin asked as if fed up.

Sphinx answered for her.

“The supreme leader of the Barbaroi Cult—the one above the priests, bishops, and archbishops who oversee its various sects.”

“You... knew that much about the Barbaroi Cult?”