-----
“Why am I in here?! What happened?!”
Kevin has been trapped inside a nightmare, fighting against Bael’s powers for only a couple of minutes, but to him, it felt like an eternity.
Every second felt like days, and minutes were like months; it felt like he had been fighting against the darkness for years, even...
“Will this ever end? This felt like endless torture."
Each time the darkness was going to consume his soul, a brilliant light would emerge from his eyes, protecting him.
However, each time the light is activated, it becomes weaker the next time. He knew that if he abused this power too much, it would run out and he would be consumed completely.
So he had to fight back. Materializing a spear of light, he continued repelling the darkness, surprising even Bael with his sheer willpower.
“I cannot die here... No matter what!”
As he fought against the darkness, memories of his life began coursing through his mind. Of his big sister and how she saved him from the catastrophe several years ago, when the First Awakening began.
And how, since then, she has been protecting him and doing her best to raise him when both of their parents died in those chaotic days...
He always felt frustrated because his sister was doing everything for him, while he thought of himself as a good-for-nothing who couldn’t even fight on his own.
Because of that, he kept honing his skills; every day, he grabbed a spear and never let it go.
Eventually, as he lamented how he couldn’t grow and how he could never awaken to gain skills, a brilliant light descended from the skies, illuminating one of his eyes.
“You’re a hero in the making, someone who has a brilliant future ahead. I shall bless you and follow your journey closely. You have the radiance and perseverance of a king.”
He didn’t understand back then where these words were coming from or who said them, but the next day, as he practiced his Spearmanship, Mana flowed through every one of his movements.
His attacks became blindingly fast, and a shining light surged from his whole body. And above all, whenever he fully concentrates, one of his eyes should become gold, giving him the ability to sense the entire world around him being extremely slow while he becomes as fast as his perception of time.
“I-I awakened?!”
Later on, it was revealed he was sponsored by a Great Constellation by the Constellation Oracle within the Hunter Association, which could identify the names of the Constellations sponsoring people to some extent.
It was nobody else than Odin, the King of the Aesir Gods—an incredible constellation like nothing else!
“But why?”
However, even as he celebrated and embraced his power, Kevin always felt undeserving of Odin’s blessings. He always thought of himself as someone who was talentless, and no matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t achieve anything.
Being suddenly gifted power out of nowhere felt wrong to him. It felt like he didn’t deserve it and that there could have been a better recipient out there for such strength.
Despite him growing stronger and debuting as a hunter, he always felt inferior to others, even with his talents.
Teens his age didn’t approach him either; because of his big sister, they felt intimidated and would not even say a word to him.
He had no friends, only his sister.
Until he met them,.
Anna and Baihe changed his life little by little, even though they had only met for a couple of months. It was rather enlightening to him.
To have friends, to laugh, to share time with them, and for them to count on him as well!
But above all, those girls imprinted on him something he had never really developed on his own confidence in his own strength!
For some reason, Anna was always confident he could handle any challenges and would often leave him in several pickles, barely letting him handle them.
But it also made him realize she was relying on him and that he was someone important!
Meanwhile, Baihe, although rude sometimes, was also someone who relied on his strength and also someone who annoyed him and joked with him.
“Why do you not give up, child?” The voice of Bael resonated through his mind. “You’re nothing but a little ant, someone undeserving of the powers Odin has granted you. Even you admit, deep down, that you’re nothing compared to your sister!”
“Yeah, maybe I think like that...” Kevin laughed, his body covered with many wounds within this Mind Realm, his spear of light covered with countless cracks. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting… Because there are friends out there waiting for me!”
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Kevin attacked the Nightmarish Manifestation of Bael, piercing his body several times as Bael constantly attempted to regenerate.
“URGH…! Y-You! I can’t believe you’re resisting my Nightmare Curse with sheer willpower! It doesn’t make any sense!” Bael complained. “Just let go of your body; I’ll use it as my new VESSEL!”
A gigantic black claw reached Kevin, and his eyes shone brightly, the divine radiance of Odin emerging from within them.
“I might be a coward deep down, I might have shit self-esteem, and I might even lack confidence in myself too…!” Kevin started crying blood as he overused his powers. “But they believe in me… I can’t bring myself to disappoint my friends! RAAAAHHH!!!”
With a scream that reverberated across the Mind Realm of Bael’s creation, his spear grew in size several times, its power suddenly replicating a fragment of Odin’s Legendary Weapon…
“{Celestial Spear of Oblivion: Gungnir}!”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
CRASH!!!
The spear pierced through Bael’s Will within the Nightmare Manifestation, and his last scapegoat from obtaining a second vessel was destroyed as Kevin’s rising strength disintegrated him!
“UUAAARRGGHHHH…!”
FLAAASH!
Divine golden light covered the entire Mind Realm, as Kevin saw the light slowly purify and heal his Mind and Body, his eyes looking into the skies, slowly opening to him.
“You did well, my Incarnation…”
And the whisper of Odin echoed within his mind as he finally opened his eyes to the real world. He found himself resting on the floor, with Dan Baihe and Anna talking about something, while his wounds were fully healed.
“I knew you would come for me, haha…” He smiled, giggling dumbly.
“Huh?! What are you talking about? We just happened to stumble upon you.” Baihe said it rudely.
“Come on, he just woke up, don’t be so rude…” Anna sighed. “Are you alright, Naruto?”
“Can you stop calling me like that?!”
Kevin quickly remembered that they were annoying as hell.
.
.
.
(Anna’s POV)
Ding!
[The weakened soul of a Death Apostle has been sealed within the {Purgatory}!]
[The powerful Demonic Soul has lost all its abilities to exert its true powers inside.]
[It has now been marked with the {Prisoner of the Purgatory} Stigma.]
[This Demon Soul now belongs to you to use.]
[You have accumulated enough Skill Proficiency, the [Divine Demon-Sealing Purgatory Realm (SS): Lv1] Skill has Leveled Up!]
[The Duration and Effects of the Skill’s Abilities have increased.]
[The Cosmic Throne {One Eyed King of the Aesir} is forever thankful to you for having saved the life of his incarnation.]
[He has rewarded your heroic deeds with [Fruit of Awakening (S+ Rank)] x1 and [Asgard’s Divine Orichalcum Ingot (SS+ Rank)] x1!]
[The Cosmic Throne {Heroic Thunder Hammer} is amazed by your incredible feats!]
[He has generously rewarded you for slaying two demons with the [Hero] Title!]
The moment I managed to finally seal Bael for good, I received several notifications, one of which included two very happy constellations and their very useful and incredible rewards.
Well, now I’m pretty sure Thor never gave his incarnation the Hero Title, maybe because he never did the same feats I did? Hector seemed quite cowardly now that I think about it…
Above all, Odin gave me some pretty precious items too. A Fruit of Awakening this early seems incredible, and that orichalcum ingot is priceless!
I don’t even know if Hilda could process it at her current Blacksmith Stage, but maybe if I combine Samariel’s Smithy with her talents... Maybe.
After all, Samariel’s Smithy Flames are both Celestial and Demonic, and you can only process these Divine Metals with Celestial Flames.
Although Odin was very thankful for me having saved his little son, Thor’s gift is actually much more useful right now.
Although it might sound plain, the Hero Title is very strong.
-----
[Hero]
A Title bestowed on someone recognized as a Hero by the Gods themselves. You’ve achieved feats no mortal could ever achieve on their own, giving you a Legendary Title.
Your recognition by the Gods goes far and wide across the Nebulas, all Constellations are now watching you attentively. What Epic will you build across your heroic Journey?
Effects: +500 to All Stats, increases based on your feats. Grants access to the {Hero’s Unyielding Will} and {Hero’s Epic Tale} Abilities.
{Hero’s Unyielding Will}: Whenever your HP reaches 0, you heal 25% of your Max HP and gain the {Invincible} Status for 30 Seconds, where you cannot take any damage. Cooldown: 24 Hours.
{Hero’s Epic Tale}: Causality Penalties are Halved.
-----
Indeed, not only a whopping +500 to all stats, but I also get an instant revive every day, with invincibility added to it?!
And above all, halved Causality Penalties… I could barely do much because of the annoying Causality stopping me, such as when I robbed the Egyptian gods' Tomb, for example.
But now that they’re permanently halved, I can do much more bold things… Well, sealing the Apostles of Death was already bold, but because they aren’t Constellations yet, it was partially approved.
However, it would have been another story if they were Constellations I was trying to seal...
Nonetheless, these bonuses are way too good, but I have to be careful not to waste Hero’s Unyielding Will too easily.
As I started biting the apple, I went to check how everyone was, ignoring Bael’s screams of frustration inside the Purgatory.
“Hahh… I can’t believe I just helped you seal Bael. And now I’m a sword too.” Aim sighed, feeling like he had lost his life’s purpose.
[“You’re not half bad as one! You compliment Anna’s Lightning Powers really well, hahaha!”]
Gram was bullying him, which was good.
“Hey, how are you two doing?” I wondered, finding Dimitri sighing in relief as he was healed. He hadn’t stood up yet, though; he wanted to rest for a while.
“I’m fine, lass, thanks for saving my ass.” He sighed in relief. “I… I just want to sit down and relax for, like, a whole week now. Ugh…”
“Sadly for you, this is not over.” I lamented. “But you can rest for a bit before we depart again. I made sure to heal you as much as we could, but your arm can’t be easily recovered, sadly.”
“This is but a scratch; don’t worry about me,” Dimitri said, tapping his cowboy hat and covering his eyes to take a nap.
Seriously, this guy is really on another level; his mentality must be strong enough to take things so easily. He's—ah, he’s snoring already?! Wow, he truly fell asleep!
“Let him be, he has fought enough,” Sara said. “More importantly, Kevin is not waking up yet... I am worried.”
“Kevin?” I asked, taking a look at him; he was fast asleep. “Nah, he’s waking up at any time now... He’s good.” I smiled.
I saw into his dream through my Divine Eyes of Truth, and he was already beating the nightmare. Bael tried to make him his second vessel, the bastard.
Well, my Naruto here has a will of steel, so he just beat him down, and now...
“I knew you would come for me, haha.” He slowly opened his eyes, and that was the first weird thing he ever said.
“Huh?! What are you talking about? We just happened to stumble upon you.” Baihe said rudely that, although she seemed happy, he was alright.
She looked quite devastated when she saw him unconscious, and she thought he had died.
“Come on, he just woke up, don’t be so rude…” I sighed. “Are you alright, Naruto?”
As I asked him this question, his face quickly distorted with annoyance.
“Can you stop calling me like that?!”
Yep, the same Kevin as always. And he looked pristine! He was very lucky that Bael didn’t cut him into pieces, and Dimitri protected his life really well.
“Well, good morning, sunshine; get up; we’re moving,” I ordered him, giving him my hand. “Come on!”
"Ugh, I can’t even take a damn break!” Kevin complained, grabbing my hand and smiling as he stood back up, like new. “Alright, what do we do now? Where’s that bastard?”
“He’s there,” I said, opening a portal to Purgatory.
“LET ME GO!”
A little black knight puppet was crying, glancing at Kevin.
“Huh?! I-is that... Bael?! What did you even do?!”
Naturally, he couldn’t even understand what happened.
“Long story short, I sealed him with a new skill." I shrugged. “Hector is dead, by the way.”
“EH?! Urgh… One of us has already died?! Ah! And Dimitri—he’s dead?!”
Kevin finally remembered his savior, only to find him on the floor, unmoving and cold.
“N-No…”
He kneeled in front of him, tears flowing from his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Dimitri! I was so weak. I couldn’t-”
“Ppfff…”
Baihe couldn’t contain herself and started laughing.
“W-Why are you laughing?! You’re terrible!”
Henrietta’s little brother was shocked we were taking this so carefreely.
“Hey kid, I’m not dead. But you owe me a beer and a burger, and maybe a few thousand bucks—no, a few hundred thousand; I saved your ass.” Suddenly, Dimitri finally spoke, lifting his hat to reveal his sharp eyes.
“H-Dimitri!” Kevin cleansed his tears. “S-So you were taking a nap?”
“Yeah, so what?! I’m tired!” Dimitri cried. “I had to carry your stupid ass all around the damn place while being chased by a psychotic demon! You damn brat! Now that I remember, I wanted to kick your ass once you woke up!”
Dimitri started kicking Kevin’s legs. Dimitri is hilarious as always. He has such untapped potential in the novel. But he’s an incredible man all around, completely different than the other idiot he came with.
“OUCH! Argh! Please forgive me…!” Kevin cried as Dimitri kicked his ass.
“You damn brat! Look, I lost a damn arm because I had to protect you! You better pay insurance of… one million! Yeah!” Dimitri was also quite the bastard.
“I-I don’t know if I have that much saved, but I could ask my sister.” Kevin was falling for his threat.
“Heheh, yeah, ask her; I’m sure she’ll repay my kindness.” The cowboy was shady as always.
“Anyways, enough of your banter; we’re moving,” I said, looking into the distance. “I can sense a presence nearby and a big demon to beat down; hurry!”
I led my group through the endless corridors, riding Snow and Violet and moving as fast as we could. It didn’t take too long for signs of battle to emerge.
Several rooms shattered, pieces of debris hanging out from the destroyed floor, and the smell of demonic energy everywhere.
And blood—human blood—splattered through the corridors.
“Shit…!”
-----