After taking a good bath to clean himself up, Sol entered the bedroom and turned to talk to Kiyohime but he was interrupted by her sudden query.
“…Why are you still naked?”
Kiyohime blushed again when she saw Sol coming out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but training pants, showing his well-toned and muscular body.
In the past, Sol had been a little more scrawny, but all those transformations and evolution gave him the body of a true Greek god— He was the epitome of perfection.
Something that didn’t leave Kiyohime completely indifferent. Of course, he was having his own share of fun just teasing her.
Sol always loved seeing the hardened warriors like Kiyohime, and the other women he was in a relationship with, act like shy maidens. There was something adorable and exhilarating about it.
“Well, let’s just say that I am giving you a show.”
He smiled, before taking a chair and sitting in front of her— face-to-face.
Calming down, Kiyohime released a strained sigh.
"So. Why were you training rather than resting and recuperating?"
She had been successful in steering the discussion back to its track and intended to keep it there no matter what.
"Hahaha. Sorry, sorry." Sol scratched his head awkwardly, "It's just that… I was becoming rather restless. Staying in bed really isn't my forte.”
Sol knew that he was “slightly” becoming a total battle junky. The thrill of fighting and winning was a rush he relished a “little” and in order to never lose, he needed to become stronger.
Hence, training, training, and lastly…training….
“As for what I was doing…"
Sol mused a little, "Well when I faced Surtr and Nihil's last attack, let's say that I got some sort of enlightenment?"
It was hard to explain what he really felt at that moment.
"Well, to keep it short, I got some slightly crazy ideas and since I have a nearly immortal body now, I thought I might as well try them out."
The contract with Isis was without a doubt one of the best decisions he had ever made. He could now try so many things and he didn’t even have to fear the idea of death. In fact, even if he did die, he would come back to life the next moment.
If it wasn’t because the number of uses of Nirvana was limited, Sol would have decided to abuse this feature without any shame or restraint.
Of course, nothing was absolute. Not even the so-called immortality of the phoenix. But at least, if a random divine beast was hard to kill, a phoenix was indescribably hard to kill, to the point of being nearly impossible…
Sol wasn’t really a phoenix now. But he had some advantages.
‘Humans are truly bugged in this world.’
As long as a human had the right amount of CP and the right connections, then he was destined to be a powerhouse of unprecedented proportions.
Sadly, most humans could never even hope of having the CP necessary to make a contract with an S-rank being.
Kiyohime frowned slightly, wondering whether she should ask more questions about this particular subject. It felt ominous to her. Even though she had participated in Sol's training and had shared a bed with him, it didn’t mean that suddenly she had the right to know all of his secrets.
Even more so, since it might involve some of his trump cards. Even now, Kiyohime did not really have a good picture of Sol’s Zone. Tiamat had been tight-lipped about it, so specific information about it was really hard to come by.
Still, she needed to know, in order to avoid him creating any unintentional troubles in the territory.
Sol simply had too many dangerous abilities that needed at least some sort of monitoring.
“What exactly were you trying to do?”
“Hmmm… I guess it should be easier to show you?”
Sol stood up and took a few steps back. Then, after taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists.
Kiyohime focused on Sol silently, curious about just what kind of marvel he would show her.
“Ignition.”
The moment Sol muttered those words, Kiyohime's eyes opened wide in absolute astonishment as she felt the energy in Sol completely go berserk.
A red hue formed on his skin, as his heart and core went into a frenzy.
It didn’t take long for his energy level to jump straight to the roof, giving the illusion that he was like a monstrous beast waiting to awaken. The temperature in the room rose sharply, reaching staggering levels.
If this had been a normal house, everything would have already been doused on a scorching fire. Thankfully, the house was coated with magic protection runes.
“This…”
“I call this <<Overdrive>>”.
Sol smiled, this was a special move based on his usual technique <<Mana Burst>> alongside the ability to manipulate holy fire, which he had obtained from his contract with Isis.
The principle was simple. He was literally burning up the mana inside his own body.
If a normal person used this, that person would simply be destroying his own body after completely drying up all his power.
But it was different for Sol.
Not only was Sol’s body unmatched because of all the transformations he went through, but his control and understanding of mana also reached a new level he would have never thought to be possible.
This new level of control was possible thanks to his divine eyes. Though he could not use the full power of that weapon now that he was just a Duke, it was still a great support to him.
<<Overdrive>> had no limits. The stronger he became, the better it would turn out.
That technique wouldn’t stop until he decided otherwise either, simply because he was constantly absorbing mana thanks to his Dragon Core.
Furthermore, any wounds he received would immediately be healed by the holy flames themselves.
Thanks to all those little details, he could use it in conjunction with his War form for even better results.
That technique was inspired by the SuperNova that Surtr launched at him. Of course, this understanding was also mixed with his memory of some super monkey with golden hair that he would rather not name.
“Pretty Impressive.”
Kiyohime acknowledged his technique calmly. She had seen techniques with more intricacies than this one on many occasions but what made this technique so perfect was because of how simple it was.
Absolute and pure brutality. The only role of this was to boost Sol's natural power to explosive levels so that he could deal even more devastating damages.
Furthermore, because of all the conditions necessary to use it, one could say that only Sol and a few masochists could use this technique.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Kiyohime asked and Sol winced, “It hurts like hell.”
He was basically burning his own body from the inside out continuously while healing himself at the same time. How could it be painless?
But Sol knew that this was a small price to pay.
“This is still just the starting point. The technique is still a little impractical in a real fight. But it should be alright.”
“You truly are…” Kiyohime sighed, completely speechless at the way he was talking. But she did not insist or try to stop him anymore.
“I won’t stop you from training this technique. But, you should take a short break. You have been high-strung since you came to the Astral Realm. Fights after fights. Training after training. If you continue like this, you might snap. A period of rest is mandatory and I will hear no talk-back.”
“...Meditating and intent training at least?”
Kiyohime facepalmed but at the same time sighed inwardly in despondence.
Just how much weight and pressure were on his shoulder that he could not even accept to rest without thinking of training?
Just how stressed was his mind?
Kiyohime felt a little sad at this thought.
This was the price of success and talent.
The more talented you were, the greater the expectations and the heavier the stress you would eventually have.
What about Sol?
From what she understood, Sol went from fighting a Duke to facing actual goddesses— all of that in the span of less than half a year.
In fact, if one took away all the time acceleration, all those events only happened in the span of a few weeks.
This would be enough to make even the most battle-hardened warrior reach his or her mental limits.
‘What should I do?’
Kiyohime looked up at Sol as an idea flashed through her mind, causing her to blush furiously.
She tried to chase the idea away but, like a worm burrowing in a fruit, it refused to leave her.
She fidgeted a little. Wondering if she would really go through with this daring idea. Her brain nearly went into overdrive as hundreds of rather raunchy images filled her mind and the more she tried to fight them, the raunchier they became.
‘How shameless! Just what the hell I am thinking?’
After denial, came anger. After all, she really shouldn’t have such thoughts at the moment. She should be focused on more important matters like rebuilding the territory.
But, when she realized that those ideas of hers wouldn’t leave her mind, Kiyohime was beginning to rationalize that…perhaps, this was not such a bad idea?
‘Indeed. I am just trying to help him relax.’
There was nothing bad about this, right? She was just trying to help. This was for his own good.
When she thought of this, she hung her head in depression.
‘Just what the hell am I thinking?’
“Sigh….”
In the end, Kiyohime was forced to realize,
‘I should stop making excuses.’
Why was she even hesitating so much? It had already happened once. What was the big deal if it happened again?
‘Very well.’
“Sol, I…”
Kiyohime could not finish her sentence as she was swept off in Sol's arms, and then silenced with a passionate kiss.
Some people did not know the meaning of the word hesitation after all.
