Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 72. Straight shivering
Prometheus: “You stand before us. In our home, spouting how you’ll hurt us. We are gods of destruction, we are the world's savior, and you are nothing but a drunkard.”
Lincoln begins laughing in the face of these devils while standing in hell. The portal surges behind him, closing extremely slowly. He looks at Gray, Rosemary, Soku, and Edward, feeling worthless in comparison. Constant thoughts about what or how he could have done better, if he hadn’t wasted his time, if he had gone against Gordons' rules earlier, anything. He rubs his thick brown hair back, scratches his scruffy beard, rubs the cloth covering the left side of his face, and drinks the last bit of whisky in his gourd.
Lincoln: “Y’know, I could never grow a full beard. Hell, even my son has a better beard than me.”
Lazarus walks past Prometheus, feeling aggravated at Lincoln's words.
Lazarus: “Could you take this any less seriously? The whole world builds you up as an unbeatable foe, though we heard you struggled against the puppet Musashi. His body was much weaker than it was when we killed him, and yet you had to release him from our control to defeat him. That is utter ridiculousness. You are not the world's strongest man, you are a failure.”
Smolder walks up to Lincoln staring him in his eyes. His burnt face was so unrecognizable that no one had been able to identify who he was, but finally, a connection was made. Lincoln drops his gourd, causing it to shatter on the ground. He takes a step back, unable to accept what he’s seeing.
Lincoln: “That’s…impossible…you’re dead? You died!?”
Smolder: “Hello…father…It’s so like you to boast about Leo, and ignore anything I’ve accomplished. You even wore that damn symbol on that cloth as well as your armor, those idiotic Red arrows, who wanted strange Athens history. And now, Athens itself is gone. If only you could have helped.”
Smolder, now revealed to be Bearuguard, sends Lincoln's mind spiraling. His son, the child he feels he failed, the boy he feels he neglected, and the king who was thought dead to the lava flowing through his streets, is standing right in front of him. His chard voice burned and his blistered body and more muscular build caused him to look like a completely different person. But his eyes, the way he speaks, as well as the way he carries himself are all the same, being what allowed Lincoln to reveal the strange man's identity to be his son.
Beauregard: “Now…you caused my fall, but it led to rise. This is pure grace, my real family, people who care for me. And I will take pleasure in watching you fall.”
Lincoln becomes distracted, looking down at his armor. Thick black armor with the Red Arrows crest still on it, being the same armor he wore in the raid for Walgonia. While he’s distracted, Prometheus slides his foot back, causing the entire platform to shift. Spike forms from the stone, jolting toward Lincoln. Lincoln, easily dodges, about to attack, but the platform folds and forms into large arms with spikes on the end.
Lincoln falls through the air, watching as Gray and the others do the same.
Prometheus: “Smolder!”
Beauregard: “Call me Beauregard, and I’m on it.”
Beauregard places his hand on the ground, letting bits of the large arms turn to lava, keeping it coursing through it. Prometheus splits them into various smaller rock formations, acting like the tentacles of an octopus. While falling through the air, he claps his hands four times with a space in the middle and proceeds to kick at the air.
He jumps mid-air, gathering everyone, then through the other side of the portal, in Constal, Dema stops covering Peter and Lisa, diving through the crack in space. He attempts to put them on her, but the pillars reach him. He easily jumps onto them, sliding across. He proceeds to jump between them, while Dema effortlessly dives and ducks around them. Suddenly, a mix of lava and spikes protrude from the pillars, barely missing Lincoln. He then speeds up, leaping toward Prometheus and the others, creating a boom behind him. He then tosses everyone into the air, letting Dema catch them. For some reason, Prometheus caused the ground to become smooth around where Rosemary's body was lying, letting it seep into the ground to funnel somewhere else in the castle,
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Severus: “Ahh… beautiful creature…A SHAME I HAVE TO KILL IT!”
Serverus’ weak body grows in size, turning into a hulking monster. The seven-foot beast’s body drops to the ground, standing on all fours. His new form is much more monstrous, looking less like the snake he was before and more like a mutated man with green skin, sharp teeth, white eyes, and a long wet tongue dripping with saliva. When Lincoln reaches them all, he’s forced back by Lazarus. While constantly swiping his soul snatching scythe at him, all he can do is block the attack. This sends him flying back, with the long twisting pillars heading right for him. He uses them to stand on, but it also gives Lazarus a place to stand on again.
Lazarus waves his hand, causing Prometheus to let the pillar stay still. Severus also backs down, turning back into his base form, a bit saddened he was forced to stop. Lazarus holds out his scythe, flowing with a blue aura. Lincoln focuses his senses, listening to what sounds like horrified screaming coming from the inside of the scythe. Then, he turns his attention to his face. A deer skull with pure black eyes pulls in all of his attention. While he’s stuck in this unmoving state, Lazarus moves in, attempting to kill the world's strongest man. Lincoln snaps out of it, vanishing from Lazarus’ sight. Then, what sounds similar to gunshots is heard, as large blasts of wind hit Lazarus’ sides. His repeated barrage of strikes all around his body, destroying the small and narrow ground they had. This sends him into a free fall while Lincoln jumps toward the others. Lazarus holds his scythe close, then with a sudden change in the temperature, causing it to fall even more, black snow is created. Lazarus then creates ice below him, sliding across it to catch up to Lincoln.
Lincoln pays no mind to this, attacking Prometheus head-on. He puts his full strength into the punches, using the dragon's spirit to push it even further. He’s fought someone from the Sect with a similar ability, but Prometheus is far better. As long as mana exists so will Prometheus. His ability to instantly kill who he touches as well as the ability to transfigure things infused with mana, which is everything, seems to make him an unbeatable opponent. But even with this in mind, Lincoln says “You’re weak” just as he hits him with a hard strike to the face. This decimates his head along with the surrounding area. The top of the castle is shattered, collapsing in on itself. Prometheus' head instantly regenerates, so before it can touch Lincoln's hand, Lincoln once again vanishes from sight. Because he’s so strong, simply swinging his fist at something creates a small amount of wind pressure between his fist and his target, exploding on impact. With this buffer, all of Lincoln's attacks are safe to use without the fear of being turned into a bloody puddle.
Since Prometheus realizes this as well, with a foot still on the ground, he turns the entire roof of the castle against Lincoln. The ground forces Lincoln into the air, pushing him into the way of more spike trails flying right at him. He kicks at the air, easily destroying them, but a barrage of smaller spikes is sent right after. He looks down, watching Julius, Beauregard, Yoru, and Ganga run away, leaving the others to fight.
Lincoln {This is rough. If I get touched by two of 'em’, I die. And the other can infect me with poison or turn me to stone. I don’t think I can win this fight, but I can do some damage, mortality wound them so they’d lose any bit of chance in another.}
Prometheus creates a set of stairs for Lazarus to run on, catching up to the mid-air Lincoln. He leaps toward him, so Lincoln kicks at the air, blasting both of them back. Lazarus creates a wall of ice behind him, abruptly stopping him, and quickly uses it to catch back up to him. He continues to create walls of ice to bounce off of as well as dodge with, but Lincoln remains in control. Though another volley of spikes is sent toward Lincoln, while Severus turns back into that monstrous beast. Lincoln spins around, stopping the spikes, but Lazarus slices through the attack, getting right up to Lincoln. Lincoln claps his hands, but Lazarus slices through it again and gets right up to Lincoln.
To save himself, he dodges the attack, hits Lazarus’ arm with his forearm, and then punches his forearm to force the scythe out of his hand. Lazarus does end up dropping the scythe, though he can still hit Lincoln with his bare hands. His cold body begins to hurt Lincoln, getting worse when Lazarus grabs onto Lincoln's skin to turn it into ice. Lincoln bashes Lazarus' face in, over and over, even using the dragon's fist to do some serious damage. Though, now in free fall, Prometheus sends a large hand made of stone to grab Lincoln. Right before it reaches him, he pulls back his arm, using the dragon's fist once more to destroy the large arm. He hits it right as it touches him, causing all of the force from his attack to seep into the stone arm, causing it to explode from the inside.
As it shatters, the beastly Severus leaps from the large broken bits, lunging at Lincoln. Lincoln reacts quickly, using his left arm to punch him away. This causes him great pain, because unbeknownst to him, Lazarus had given the limb frostbite, freezing the inside.
Now because of how the OD works, it will not let mana form inside of the body if it isn’t your own, though if you’re able to directly overpower one's OD with your own while touching the person, it may be possible. In this case, it was proven possible, though luckily his body is strong enough to resist it, his OD is far too weak, and if he’s put in the situation again, he may be frozen from the inside. As Severus falls to the ground, Lincoln decides it’s time to land, so he launches himself toward him by kicking off of the air, grabbing onto him, and slamming him into the ground.
This creates a small crater in the ground, but Severus stays conscious. He swipes at Lincoln while also trying to bite him, but Lincoln effortlessly grabs his large arm, ripping it off. He then goes to rip the beast's head off but is entranced by his glowing green eyes. His skin begins to feel rough, his muscles stiff, and his mind faint, but his will prevails, allowing him to bash the monster's face in.
He hears a scream behind him and is forced to move out of the way, due to Prometheus’s sudden appearance. Prometheus slides down the face of the castle with an enraged look on his face, gritting his mangled yellow teeth. Once Lincoln gets his distance, he looks around the area, trying to think of anything to do. Then he looks at the crack in the sky, noticing that Dema had left with the others. With the crack almost fully closed, he’s met with the choice to either fight as much as he can until the last second or leave now. He does the most Lincoln thing he can, by laughing, grinning, and entering the dragon's spirit. His mana awakens throughout his body, causing a bit of pain along with it.
Lincoln: “Alright…Now I’m awake.”
A single sentence, four words, force every thought in Prometheus' body to feel one thing. He didn’t feel it against Kioshi, Musashi, or anyone else he’d ever faced in his long, long life. Every cell in his body trembles, as he feels true fear for the first time. Because now, the beast is awake.
End of Chapter seventy-two