Listen while reading: Successor of Niten Ichiryu

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“This is…”

Akhenaten was engulfed in the flames of Ra as he fell from the skies.

Anubis had been torn to pieces and melted away.

Such a powerful Mechanical God, a treasure of his country with an incommensurable price.

It had been utterly destroyed…

“Merneith…”

He glanced at the giant and imposing Ra above the skies, and memories flashed through his mind.

His mother, a very strict woman since he was born, was always ordering Akhenaten what he had to do and how he had to do it.

“Akhenaten! Never forget that you’re a prince of this Empire! Act like one no matter what!”

“Yes mother.”

“Akhenaten! Why are you playing with children?! You’re a prince! Come here; your lessons about mechanics are about to begin.”

“Yes… mother.”

“Akhenaten! Don’t get too close to your siblings. They’re all snakes and vultures, waiting to betray you and then take advantage of your misery…”

“U-Understood, mother.”

“Merneith, that child… Akhenaten! You better take care of her... Do you understand? Make her feel miserable. Rub on her face that her mother died as much as you can.”

“Yes… mother… but why?”

“Why, you ask?! Seriously, at this age, you’re asking why! Because she’s unworthy! Only the two of us are worthy of Ra, right?! Who does she think she is? Asking to be given Ra back now that it is MINE!”

“But…”

“No buts! That damned woman… Poisoning her was so hard! But she finally succumbed, stupid bitch. Now her robot is mine, but her damn child… Hah! So exasperating. I wish I could just poison her, but if I go ahead, my husband might grow too suspicious.”

“Y-You did…?!”

“What? Did you think that the drink you offered her that I gave you was just a little bit of wine? My son, you helped me do it, so you’re also an accomplice… Don’t worry! Your mother will always protect you.”

“Yes… mother…”

Akhenaten burned; the pain was so strong it dulled his mind. Yet even now, he felt a lot of emotions, frustration, anger, sadness, sorrow… regret.

“What have I been doing… with my life…”

Darkness engulfed the Egyptian Prince as the sands beneath Merneith were decorated with the countless pieces of Anubis scattered everywhere.

“It’s done…” Merneith sighed in relief. “It’s- Huh?!”

RUMBLE!

The deserts trembled once more as the giant golden pyramid collapsed on the sands, quickly having its force field destroyed and its propulsors crushed. The enormous flying vehicle had no option but to collapse on the burning sands.

CRAAASH!

The beautifully bright golden pyramid gleamed brightly beneath the sunlight, countless cracks spreading through it, yet its destruction stopped at that.

It was such a huge piece of technology that it would take even more efforts to tear it apart, and well, that was never their intention.

The Divine Machines coming from the pyramid stopped emerging, as whatever internal structure the pyramid had was quickly and forcefully stopped.

“Hahh… That was tougher than I imagined; just how many tons was this thing?”

Nicholas stood above the giant pyramid with a proud smile, glancing at the giant thing he had thrown down from the skies, something he could have never done before.

“At least over six million tons,” said Yanisse. “Phew…”

“Hate to break it to you, but we’re not done yet!” said John. “Look, there’s still a few dozen of those mechs going around; they’re stronger than S-Rank monsters too!”

“Right! We have to take them down!” Francisco said.

“Alright then, let’s divide and conquer!” Nicholas roared.

The four Hunters jumped into action, leaping from building to building. The huge machines, which were between ten and twenty meters tall and made of golden, silver, and black metals, resembling pharaohs encased in their tombs or ferocious jackals made of metal, quickly noticed the approaching foes.

“𓏏𓉔𓅂 𓃀𓄿𓂋𓃀𓄿𓂋𓇋𓄿𓈖𓋴𓄎”

“𓈎𓇋𓃭𓃭 𓏏𓉔𓅂𓅓𓄎”

“𓂧𓅱𓈖𓂕𓏏 𓃭𓅂𓏏 𓏏𓉔𓅂𓅓 𓎼𓅂𓏏 𓎢𓃭𓅱𓋴𓅂𓂋𓄎”

Speaking words the Hunters couldn’t understand, but that were actually the now-forgotten Ancient Egyptian Language, the pilots controlling the Divine Machines quickly attacked back.

Nicholas encased himself in armor made of black metal, quickly tanking three machine attacks at once. Giant blades made of glowing gold encompassed lightning, spears imbued with blazing fire, and punches zapping with thunder hit him constantly.

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CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

“Hahah! You guys sure are strong…!”

He noticed that the metal protecting him was rapidly being bent before their attacks, and cracks began spreading across his metallic skin.

Recalling how he almost died against those monstrously strong dinosaurs and the cavemen back then, it was clear that the invaders of these parallel earths were on another level entirely.

However, he was different now.

“For my two little girls... So they wouldn’t end up without a dad; I had to get stronger, you know?!”

His black metal suddenly started glowing red, and fiery heat began rising from his heart, spreading through the rest of his body. His Martial Core overflowed with large quantities of Ki, spreading across his body.

“Metal alone can’t do shit,” he said. “Fire, however, once merged with metal, now that can do a lot!”

BAAAM!

Against all odds and expectations, the pilots, who believed this metal man would eventually fall, were suddenly shocked. An explosive punch emerged from his fists, blowing away one of the machines and shattering their heads and weapons.

CRASH!

The machine fell to the floor, half of its body burning and covered in flames that continued to melt the metal it was made of!

“𓅃𓉔𓄿𓏏𓃇𓄎”

“𓇋𓅓𓊪𓅱𓋴𓋴𓇋𓃀𓃭𓅂𓄎”

Completely shocked by what they saw, the pilots seemed full of disbelief, glancing back at Nicholas to notice his black, metallic body had changed. His chest, right above his head, had changed, completely becoming red and orange in color, as if the very metal of his body was boiling.

This fiery red color spread through the rest of his body, forming large veins of molten metal that empowered his entire body, at the same time as his head gained spiky fiery horns, making him resemble a demon.

“This is the evolution of my abilities through cultivation,” the man smiled, taking out his sunglasses to reveal his fiery red eyes. “I took some inspiration from our ancestors, the cavemen people that wielded flames… {Molten Metal Man}”

Flames surged from his hands as his melting metal shaped constantly and took the form of giant blades covered with flames. A man who was already considered the toughest in the world had now let go of his defensive powers, exchanging them for pure, explosive offense.

“By burning my own metallic body and making my body boil, I generate a tremendous quantity of heat and explosive power that grants me a tremendous boost in both strength and speed! But I guess you don’t even understand what I’m saying, huh?”

FLASH!

So Nicholas decided to just show them, jumping towards the closest Divine Machine and swinging his leg downward. An explosive attack of flames and molten metal erupted from the machine, quickly melting and burning its armor and seeping into its circuits.

BOOOM!

The attacks he unleashed were like explosions. Each attack tore apart a piece of his mechanical foe. The Divine Machines tried to retreat, readying plasma cannons and firing them at him.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

However, Nicholas evaded them as they came, rapidly jumping from a building and then rushing down, kicking one of them and destroying their head and torso, revealing the pilot inside.

“Uuuaaaggh!”

The man screamed before flames engulfed him, and he died on the spot. A huge explosion quickly engulfed Nicholas, whose hands grabbed the burning mech and threw it towards the other.

BOOOM!

“𓃀𓄿𓋴𓏏𓄿𓂋𓂧𓄎 𓂧𓇋𓅂𓄎”

The third Divine Machine quickly punched the burning machine thrown at him away, swiftly advancing towards Nicholas while firing beams of concentrated electric energies.

Nicholas rapidly evaded them, using his enhanced speed and swiftness to quickly reach the Divine Machine and then…

“This is it, chump!”

BAAAMMM!!!

A huge punch reached the machine, unleashing an explosion of flames and molten metal, engulfing the entire robot. The mechanical construction fell apart as Nicholas saw the pilot gruesomely die inside.

“To think the invaders of our world would be humans now,” he sighed. “Monsters weren’t enough; now we have to face humanity from other parallel timelines.”

As Nicholas pondered that, Yanisse, John, and Francisco finished off the rest of the Divine Machines.

“{Void Bullet}”

Yanisse carefreely fired hundreds of bullets made of small void accumulations, piercing through the bodies of the Divine Machines and then making them explode into pieces.

“{Glistening Starlight}!”

John imbued light into his very body and released the brightest shine of light possible, burning through his foes and then piercing them with his spear.

“{Elemental Storm}!”

And Francisco playfully destroyed many more with storms of countless elemental spells. Unlike Anubis with their Dark Matter Veil, these foes could not easily defend themselves.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Bing Xue nodded from afar, noticing how her sect was able to take care of everything on their own, mostly. This was just a test, a test to see if it was possible to leave Earth’s protection to her disciples, even if the invaders were fearful monsters beyond any known strength level.

“It seems to be a success!” she nodded with a pleased smile. “Now, that Pyramid over there… I really want to explore it.”

She glanced down, noticing a dying Egyptian prince, with half his body gone and the rest almost completely calcinated. Someone as cruel as him would have surely deserved death.

Yet Bing Xue was rather merciful; glancing down at him with a slight smile and then touching his burning body, a washing wave of golden light rapidly healed all his wounds.

“Ahh… Hahhh…!”

The young prince gasped for air, suddenly realizing he was somehow alive, despite everything. He noticed Bing Xue by his side, and...

“M-Merneith?!”

“It’s true! Your healing abilities are incredible, Bing Xue,” said Merneith. “Perhaps comparable to little Sara!”

“I would say they’re better, but little Sara has greater potential.” Bing Xue smiled. “Now… Akhenaten, was your name?”

“W-What’s happening?! D-Didn’t I die?!”

Akhenaten was completely confused, unable to believe what had happened. A second ago, he was sure he was burning, and he died!

“You almost died, but I managed to heal you in time,” Bing Xue said. “You should be grateful to your sister, actually. She was the one who had the mercy to let you live. She asked me to heal you.”

“I-Is that so…” Akhenaten groaned in pain. “Ugh… Why did you do this, Merneith? Didn’t I deserve death anyway? For what I did… you were justified in letting me burn to death.”

“Even then…” Merneith sighed. “I’m quite the soft lady, you see! Once in my childhood, you and I were rather close, weren’t we? It was a brief moment; it barely lasted a year, but… I still remember it. When you were much nicer to me. I wanted to ask you if… Was that all fake? Another pretend game, like with Father? Did you always see me as the annoyance you said I was?”

“M-Merneith…”

Akhenaten looked down, his long white hair covering most of his face, as his golden eyes glistened with memories of the past and also of what he had now become.

“I did once see you as my sister, but… Well, isn’t it obvious? Our family, since we’re children, that it teaches us to not grow closer to one another. At any moment, a sibling could kill us…” muttered Akhenaten, clenching his fists. “This is all… what my mother taught me. And I’ve been doing as she said since then! What else… What else did you expect me to do?! You’re… you’re the one who decided to have control over your own life, and… that’s where I felt so jealous of you. Maybe… maybe I wanted the same thing.”

“Brother…” Merneith felt a bit moved by his words, but remembering all the awful things he did and the words he said, it was hard for her to even forgive him. “I see… Starting now, you’ll repent! To make up for all you’ve done, you’re going to help me… and Bing Xue! Anubis is not completely destroyed. Mechanical Gods can recover as long as their pieces are put together and then feed a lot of materials for their nanomachine structure to reform with new mass.”

“What?!” Akhenaten didn’t believe her words. “After everything I did, you’re giving me a second chance?! But why!”

“Because… I don’t want to kill my family like your mother did,” she said. “I won’t do what my family wants me to do. I bet killing you must have been your father’s plan or something. I’ll go against that. You’re my brother, not my sworn enemy…”

“Merneith… You’re just too soft, huh?” Akhenaten sighed as he started crying. “Thank you... for continuing to be yourself. Even when all of us changed…”

“Hmph! Save your crocodile tears for another person; I am not believing them!” Merneith said angrily. “Anyways! Let’s go. Bing Xue, you wanted to check that pyramid and learn more about us, right? Akhenaten will open the way for us.”

“Very well!” Bing Xue smiled. “Work hard, boy. If you dare betray us, your fate might be worse than death.”

With a gentle smile, Bing Xue delivered incredibly cold words.

“U-Understood…”

The prince couldn’t do much other than accept such terms.

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