“Then, It’s time for you to know about your second trial.”
Hearing those words, Sol found that he wasn’t as stressed as he thought he would have been.
This was the price he had to pay to keep Camelia alive while enjoying as many benefits as possible.
“Do you remember, back then in order to save Camelia, you should have lost everything? But, in exchange for completing three tasks we would accord the three wishes at the same time, your and Camelia’s life became linked. One life for another life. If you die, she also dies.”
“I remember.”
Sol nodded. How could he forget something so important? If that day he had lacked resolve, even the slightest bit, the result would have been very much different.
“Her first wish was for you to form a contract with an S ranked beast, more precisely a Phoenix. Her second wish was for your bloodline to be refined. Finally, the third wish was for you to have permanent access to the Astral realm.”
Luxuria chuckled,
“Your first trial was nothing particularly grand. We just increased the amount of pain you should have felt during the growth of your core. What’s more, we made sure that you inherited the chaos attribute of Tiamat. Thanks to it, your body basically possesses a high resistance toward all kinds of magic.”
“What would have happened if I failed?”
“You would have died and Camelia would have followed you.”
“...”
“What? Are you dissatisfied?”
“Would it change anything if I was?”
“No, pretty much nothing. As you are now, you do not have the strength to flip the chessboard.”
“So I am perfectly happy. Your grace illuminates the sun and makes me feel ashamed at my pettiness.”
“...You have become quite sassy recently, haven't you?”
“Learning that you unconsciously flirted with death will do that.”
“Heh, I am liking you more and more. You have grown beautifully in the short time we haven’t met. That is why mortals are so fascinating. A few months or a few years are enough for them to become completely different people.”
“Technically, I am not mortal. I am pretty sure I can live a few thousand years.”
“Come tell me that when you can live until the end of time and more than anything, when you stop laying down with witches.”
Sol gave an awkward laugh. Indeed, compared to a goddess, his life span was just a joke. It didn’t help that he kept lowering it.
“Before you ask – no, I will not help in stopping the curse. I have promised Asmodeus to not interfere in how he handled them. If you wish to change the destiny of the witches, then try convincing him.”
“I see.”
“Now then, for your second trial, you will have to win the approval of the dragons and officially become recognized as their prince.”
Sol pinched his eyebrows in annoyance. The words of the goddess were simply too much to take.
Raising his hand, he asked just to be sure,
“So, my trial is to make an entire race of beings known for their pride to bow for me in respect and accept me as the second-highest authority?!”
“Perfectly summarized.”
He could only shake his head speechlessly at the shamelessness of the goddesses.
Sol frowned, “But technically, am I not already the prince?”
Luxuria laughed, the sound of her laugh was so beautiful that Sol felt as if his mind was cloudy. He could feel as if nothing in the world mattered anymore.
‘Snap out of it!’
Biting his lips, he managed to wake up from the trance he had been pulled in.
He couldn't understand why he suddenly lost control like this. Last time, he had clearly been able to have an entire conversation with her with no problem.
Of course, it was possible that it had been because she had gone easy on him.
“Heh, your mind became stronger."
Those words proved his suspicion. Clearly it wasn't just about looking at the face.
The simple fact of facing a god as a mortal should be something impossible for a mortal. So, the goddess most likely controlled her own presence to avoid destroying his mind and had released a part of the control to test him.
Seemingly satisfied with the result, Luxuria waved her hand,
"Coming back to the main topic, all dragons are descendants of Tiamat. Be it second or third generations. Even the four Dragon kings are not really considered as superior to the other dragons in terms of status.”
She let out a small chuckle, “Superbia did a really good job with the dragons. Their pride does not allow them to accept being ruled by someone simply because of their identities.
The reason why your mother was considered as the princess was simply that she earned it. As such, your identity as Blaze’s son will not help you. In fact...I am pretty sure it will make things more difficult.”
A mischievous smile formed on her face as she said this. Of course, Sol could not see it, but he could feel the teasing undertone in her voice.
“Is it because I will be the one to beat?”
He was the son of the previous princess. He was a chaos dragon. He was also blessed.
For anyone wishing to receive the title of prince, Sol was without a doubt an obstacle.
“Oh, there’s that. There is also the fact that your mother traumatized pretty much all the dragons and many of the other divine beasts. Hahaha! It was really a sight to behold.”
Sol gave a bitter smile,
‘The difficulty went from hell mode to Insane.’
Now though wasn’t the time. He could feel the surroundings were getting blurry. It seemed that the goddess was done with him.
That’s why he needed to ask.
“What is your goal?”
“You will naturally get the answer when you reach the necessary level.”
“And what is that level?”
“Become a demi-god.”
After those words, Sol could only close his eyes as a blinding white light filled his surroundings.
When he opened his eyes, Sol found himself back in his bedroom.
Closing his eyes, he only thought about one thing.
He wished to sleep.
After that day, the training intensity of Sol more than doubled.
One problem stumped Sol, it was something he had always been curious about and would most likely soon receive an answer to.
His dimension was the mirror dimension.
From what he had gathered, it should cover the entire mortal world or at the very least a great part of it.
At the very least, he had tried to walk out of the capital while in his dimension and succeeded without any problem.
Then, if he entered the mirror dimension while in the Astral world. What would happen?
It was something worth pondering and the possible implications made his heart beat furiously.
Aside from this, he had finally tried to test the divine weapon and the result had been quite disastrous.
Disastrous as in he nearly blew up.
After some tests with Theresa, it seemed that he needed to at least reach the level of Duke and use the weapons in conjunction with his zone. Only then could he unleash the power of the weapon.
Clearly, this was a weapon that would grow with him and slowly acclimate to his power as his level increased.
Of course, Theresa told him that he could simply ask for divine power from Luxuria and fill his weapon with it, but Sol refused.
For one, after his last discussion with the goddess, he did not believe that she would simply hand him divine power out of the goodness of her heart. He owed her enough and did not wish to have a fourth or fifth trial added to the list. He wasn't Heracles.
Aside from training and filing paperwork, Sol had finally proceeded with the punishment of the traitors.
In order to reach the maximum coverage, he used the same system that was used during his coming-of-age ceremony and even used the coliseum as the venue of the execution.
After reciting the reasons as to why they were punished and some deep speech, all the criminals were executed without even having the right to utter their last words.
What really touched Sol during this event was how vicious a group of people controlled by their emotions could become.
He also did not hesitate to hang up Leonard and Loki Gorfard’s bodies as a way for them to vent their feelings and a warning to the other nobles.
While he did not wish to become like the bloodthirsty queen, Venus, he did not wish to be underestimated either.
As for the exile of Gerald, Sol did not participate.
He had been sent to the battlefield by the black knights in the open and some members of the Crown’s shadow.
To avoid the high possibility of him being captured and tortured by the wings of freedom then spilling all the secrets he knew, Sol asked Ambrosia to completely wipe out all memories that could potentially hurt the kingdom if revealed.
After all, if Envilya came to learn what the origins of Lilith and Lilin were, another war would be upon them.
Speaking of Envilya, Sol had thought seriously about Lilin’s wishe to receive training from a true succubus.
The best answer he reached was to use the crown’s shadow to release some rumors, such as Lilith’s mother being a half-blood succubus.
Thankfully, while rare, Succubus existed in Lustburg. From what Aria told him, there were many succubi working for her in the red light district.
While the succubi in this world did not need to have sex to absorb life force, absorbing it through fluid such as sperm or blood was the easiest way.
The high-ranked succubi, the night hag, could even absorb life energy through the dreams of their victims.
Finally, the highest ranked succubi were called Nightmare. It was said that they could even alter reality through the power of dream and kill people in their dreams.
Thankfully, the number of Nightmares was incredibly low.
Sol honestly believed that learning about the different sub-races in Envilya and Wratharis was a true pain.
But this did not matter. If they managed to convince an envoy from Envilya to come, it would help in strengthening the relationship and open the way for possible cooperation.
Since he had decided to deal with Lilin’s training, he had decided to do the same for both Setsuna and Nuwa.
For Nuwa, Milia had proposed to take over for her. In a way, Nuwa was already Milia’s student since she taught her how to be a maid.
For Setsuna, it was a little more complicated. Setsuna was a sword user, but also a magical being. The only one who could reliably help Setsuna was Lilith.
But it was a question as to whether she could reliably train someone in her current state. Still, Sol had asked Lilith and even though she was reluctant, she still accepted in the end. As for her magic studies, Ambrosia had been weirdly interested in training Setsuna.
As for Nuwa, she had no magic in itself. She simply had one innate ability, a rather terrifying one.
Devouring.
It seemed that whatever she ate was converted into pure mana and fused with her body, thereby reinforcing it.
This was a very scary power. In a way, Nuwa’s growth had no limit. All she had to do was to eat to become the ultimate tank. She did not even need to train. It was no wonder she could already resist the attack of a Duke with only a basic mastery of Reinforcement.
This explained why her body was already so strong even though she never trained.
After learning about this skill, Sol could only feel giddy in anticipation, as he wondered two things.
One, what would happen if Nuwa regularly devoured his blood?
Two, would he be able to obtain that power after forming a contract with her?
Milia also had a part of the power of devouring through the use of her shadow. But from what she told him, her aspect was way weaker.
The empowerment she got from devouring things could only last for a short time. What’s more, there was a limit to the amount she could eat in one go.
Sometimes, Sol felt that he could simply ditch everything and live the life of a kept man without having to worry about anything.
All the women surrounding him were simply too impressive and full of cheat.
Well technically, he did live like that since he was young.
Thankfully, or perhaps regretfully? He didn’t simply wish to be taken care of.
Like this, days passed idly. Training, working, eating, going on date, fucking.
Those were very fulfilling days.
Then finally the day he had been waiting for came.
The day he would enter the Astral realm.
(AN: Well, this chapter is the last chapter of vol 6 without counting the special chapter that will follow of course. Initially, Vol 6 should have been called Phoenix, but I decided to have some little character development and some foreshadowing for the war. This volume will be special because it won’t have any interludes. Sol’s past life has no relevance to the plot–yet. Though the mysterious way he died does. This point won’t appear soon. Anyway. Next few chapters will be some little Special chapters. Then it will be the start of Vol 7: THE PHOENIX.)
