As if rising from a long ephemeral dream, Sol slowly opened his eyes slowly, the light of the stars entering his eyes,
“Darling!”
Only to be greeted with the feeling of colliding with a literal cannonball as Skuld threw herself at him the moment he opened his eyes.
“Skuld… Is that you?”
Sol opened his quivering eyes and nearly gasped aloud when he felt the frail and weak girl cuddled in his arms.
Even though Skuld had the looks of a little girl in her toddler years, as a King-ranked Titan, she was obviously far from being merely a little girl.
Now though, looking at her gray streaks of hair and the once childish face now looking slightly wrinkled in some places, covered in dried patches of blood, he couldn’t help but wonder just what the hell had happened here.
“Hehehe…it's nothing important. This is just the backslash from using my powers. It will be alright. Don't worry.”
Sol looked down at her frail form before finally gazing at his surroundings, trying to assess the situation.
He could see Sheherazade lying flat on the ground and gasping for air on one side. Her current life force seemed perilously weak, like a candle flickering under the whims of a blowing wind, ready to vanish at any given second.
Meanwhile, Verdandi, who seemed to have come out of it better than the other three, also had a completely withered hand now hanging off her shoulder. He could see the threads between her fingers slowly dissipate and immediately understood what had transpired when he was passed out.
The last thing Sol remembered before fully losing consciousness was Ymir entering his mind-sea just as he was about to break through.
From the looks of it, the only reason he came out of that ordeal alive was thanks to the sacrifice of these wonderful companions of his.
Standing up with Skuld still cradled in his arms in a princess carry, Sol finally looked down at the pool that was now void of any blood inside.
“Darling… How do you feel now?”
Despite her current critical condition, it was clear that the most important thing for Skuld was still the well-being of Sol.
Even if it was at the price of her own.
In a way, Skuld was both the most selfless and selfish being he had ever met in his entire life.
“How do I feel?”
Sol repeated her question absentmindedly before he finally realized all the changes his body had gone through.
When he finally focused on himself, he was so shocked that he couldn’t even speak… He was simply left utterly speechless…
Ever since he awakened, Sol had always wondered about certain things…
For instance…
What would it feel like to become a Duke?
Of course, after a while, this interest waned for the most part. There was no helping it, actually, as he could already crush beings on the Duke level before even being close to becoming one himself.
If that were to be the case, then what use could there be in advancing to subsequent levels? At most he was simply looking forward to his growth because it could act as a boost to the mastery of his dimension.
But now, Sol understood that his mindset had been too narrow all along.
Or rather, he received so many boosts, stacked one after the other in a ridiculous fashion, in order to become a Duke that the final result had simply been astonishing, to say the least… One could even call it mind-numbing, at least that's what he felt.
The world in his eyes seemed to have changed completely. As if an illusive and intangible veil was taken away from reality, allowing him to finally see everything, and perceive every single detail for what it truly was.
His thinking speed greatly increased to the point that he wondered if he was now equal to or perhaps greater than a supercomputer.
Even when breathing, his attunement with mana itself, and the amount of mana he could hold in one go had increased to outlandish proportions, simply incomparable to his previous attainments.
Of course, all of these were, at the end of the day, just normal increases brought by a change in life order due to his increase in level.
Feeling the truly important changes that had occurred in him, a smile crept on his lips as he exhaled out loud and spoke in a tone full of jubilation.
“I have never felt better, in the entirety of my life, as I do now. It's surreal…”
Slowly walking up to the sprawled-out Sheherazade, he carefully lifted her up by using a hand made out of finely controlled mana, and finally reached the exhausted Verdandi.
“Thank you guys…for everything.”
His expression was as complicated as the feelings that were brimming inside his turbulent mind.
Skuld aside, neither Verdandi nor Sheherazade needed to suffer so much for him. He truly had no direct relationships with them. Not in the least. Though, now that he thought about it, he could think of himself as being friends with the little fairy.
“Sol?”
“Now…You can rest comfortably… I will take care of everything else.”
He planted a gentle kiss full of love and care on Skuld's forehead and placed her down next to the still-exhausted Verdandi.
In the next moment, a golden flame filled the place with an incandescent and soothing light, which made the three of them moan out in pleasure as their bodies were being slowly rejuvenated.
Sheherazade was the first to open her eyes wide into full circles. She had stayed silent until now because she really had no more strength left in her to even utter the slightest words. She was even sure that she might die soon at this rate.
But now, all the life force she had lost in trying to fight against the almighty Fate was coming back to her as if all her weakness till now was an illusion all along.
Even better still, since she had used her powers in order to face a literal goddess, her powers of wish seemed ready to evolve to the next stage. She could feel that, in a few days, she would be able to know her True Name and take the first step towards becoming a King rank.
“Now, just sleep. When you wake up, everything will be resolved. I will put an end to everything.”
Skuld fought back her looming urge to sleep and forget about everything for the desperate chance at staying awake. But, even though she was suddenly healed from all her injuries and ailments, her loss of life force still impacted her to her very soul which made it difficult for her to remain awake.
Now that she knew that Sol was alright, her mind couldn’t help but slowly drift into the realms of sleep.
“Thanks for keeping a lookout for them.”
Sol turned around and was greeted by the sight of someone that he hadn’t met since coming out of Tartarus.
Nabu.
She was the same as she had always been. Though right now, she had one cat sitting on her shoulder.
Sekhmet.
“It’s alright. We were left as a backup in case someone tried to infiltrate this place.”
Behind Nabu was a trail of myriad bodies completely frozen and encased in blocks of ice. From their features, it could be discerned that they were mainly hybrid dragons.
Sol wasn’t surprised that there were rebels among the dragons. Tiamat was a powerful ruler who could inspire fear and respect in her people, but he doubted that she could inspire a high degree of loyalty with how distanced she was from the dragons.
Though he was still surprised that they dared to come to the 9th level.
More than anything, however, he was feeling a great sense of relief. If those two hadn’t been here, with how weak Skuld and the rest had become, the end result wouldn’t have been pretty.
“You… You have become… Strong… Truly strong…”
Nabu muttered while observing Sol.
The Sol she remembered was dangerous but now…it felt like she was watching a deep abyss with no signs of its depths.
Sitting lazily on her shoulder, Sekhmet nodded to her words, and also to the unspoken thoughts of her mind. She really wondered just what kind of monster Sol had now become.
“Heh…Well. I will leave everything here to you. Please take care of them for me.”
Sekhmet opened her eyes wide at Sol's sudden remark, “What do you mean? The only fight still ongoing should be the one between the demigods...Wait… Don’t tell me?”
She gasped when she saw the lopsided smirk of confidence adorning Sol's handsome face.
Then, without answering anything, Sol levitated up into the air.
“Do not worry… I do not know why, but as I am now… Even if it’s only for an extremely short while, I don't think that I will lose to anyone, nay, I'm fully sure no one can defeat me…”
A grey portal immediately opened above him. This was without a doubt a dimensional portal created by Sol's powers.
Something both Nabu and Sekhmet knew that he was unable to create until now.
Still, they were left speechless at the ludicrous idea of a Duke mixing in the fight between the nigh-almighty Demigods.
Just what the hell could he do there?
They would be given the reply to that thought soon enough…
