Chapter 173: Man-To-Kid

"There it is! Short-tempered and hot-blooded. Just like your father. Although you have your mother's eyes," the man asserted.

"Stop talking about them!"

The man lowered his head and uttered, "Do you hate your parents, kid?"

"..."

"I am sure you would have thought, 'Only if I was born into another family. Only if I was born into a normal family. Only if I was born as a human.' — at least once. Am I right?"

"You are wrong!" Nero shouted aloud. Never had I thought of that, and I would never think of that, ever."

"Well said." The man clapped. "You couldn't have gotten any better parents than them. You may, or others may hate them, or call them stupid for who they were, but…"

The man sighed and shook his head.

"Do you know, they could have loved a better and happier life if it weren't for you. The day the world and the god found out that your mother was pregnant and 'you' were in her womb; that day, their life turned hell— quite literally."

"..."

"They had to keep running away, they had to hide, they had to fight, then had to beg, they had to starve, they… had to cry." The man's voice started breaking. "They had to… die. All because of you. Everything that happened to them was because of you."

"The night your parents were attacked, they had a chance to leave you behind and run away, but your father stayed behind to hold off the enemies. 

"And she… your mother had to take you somewhere safe where she was killed brutally." The man turned to Nero and asked, "But you already know that, right, Zeus?"

"...."

"Now tell me, kid. Do you hate being born as their child? Do you hate your parents? Do you hate your existence?"

"Right now…" Nero exhaled sharply and finally opened his mouth to utter, "I only hate you."

"Not surprised. If you want to fight me, then go ahead. Come and kill me, and I won't even try to fight back," the man uttered nonchalantly.

"Before I kill you, tell me one thing." After a brief pause, Nero uttered, "If you were my parent's friend, then why didn't you save them? Where were you when my father died?! And why didn't you save him when he was fighting against hundreds of gods? Where were you when my mother died?! And why didn't you save her when she was chopped into pieces and was fed to the hounds?! Where in the hell were you when they needed you?!"

The man stared at Nero for a brief moment and let out a big sigh: "I said I was their friend, not a babysitter."

"Pavel," Nero glanced at Pavel from the corner of his eyes: "Go sit in the corner and don't move."

"But I can fight alongside—"

Pavel tried to say something, but Nero interrupted him by saying, "Or I will kill you."

Nero's eyes weren't joking.

Pavel sat in the corner of the chamber and closed his eyes.

Nero, however, closed his fist as his fingers cracked one by one.

Then, he dashed at the man and swung his fist to punch him, but before Nero's fist could touch the man, he disappeared.

Nero instantly activated his God's eyes and scanned the area, but he couldn't see or even sense the man.

"You coward!" Nero yelled. "What happened to 'If you want to fight me, then go ahead. Come and kill me, and I won't even try to fight back.'? Why did you run away?"

"Oi Oi. I would have died if that punch had hit me," the man's voice sounded in the chamber as he appeared on the opposite side of Nero.

Without wasting a second, Nero dashed at the man, but he disappeared again.

'He is not making himself invisible or hiding his presence; he is disappearing into nothing as though he doesn't exist. He is warping himself into another dimension.'

Nero furrowed his brows and wondered, 'Just who is he?'

"If you keep running and hiding like that, then this is going to continue for years," Nero announced. "And unfortunately, I don't have time to play with you. So how about we have a man-to-man fight?"

"What do you mean by a 'man to man' fight? You are still a kid and far from being a man who your father once was," the man's voice echoed in the chamber, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"And besides, your one hit can literally wipe me out of existence," he added.

"But…" The man appeared near the door of the chamber and uttered, "I agree with you. Let's have a fight— man to a kid."

Nero gathered his mana in his palm and focused on it. The air around his palm was sucked in as it formed a blue-colored ball. The ball grew bigger and bigger— to double the size of a normal human, and it shrunk.

The mana in the ball became concentrated, and it changed its color to red as it began to emit a black hue.

Then, he threw the ball at the man, but the man dodged.

'Heh!' Nero smirked inwardly.

Nero already knew that the man would dodge his attack, so he purposely threw it to distract him.

When the man dodged, Nero dashed at him and punched him in the chest.

"Tch!"

However, the man dodged as though he knew what Nero was thinking, although Nero still managed to land a critical hit on him.

'I did feel his ribs cracking and his muscles rupturing by my punch.'

The man was sent flying deep into the labyrinth, stumbling on his feet and colliding with the walls.

Nero flew to the man and fired a concentrated mana-ball at the man, then fired another one, and another and another. He kept firing the concentrated mana-ball one after another and didn't give him a chance to do anything.

The walls shattered one after another, the triggered traps and monsters, only to be obliterated by Nero's attacks.

His mana-balls were eating everything on their way.

The man was having a hard time dodging. Some of Nero's mana-balls hit him, but he stayed on his word and didn't disappear or hide.