Chapter 188: Hell Zone

"Master… Zeus…"

Zeus looked at Arnold's damaged and broken body and then furrowed his brows at the monster.

He tossed a shiny golden crystal to Arnold and uttered: "It is filled with Sophi's divine angelic powers. It will heal your ruptured muscles and broken bones. It has no value; It is priceless."

After a brief pause, he continued, "Eat it. I will play with this monster for a while."

Zeus turned to the monster and twisted its hands upside down. Then, he punched it to the sky and jumped in the air. Then, he kicked the monster and slammed it to the tallest mountain.

When the monster collided with the mountain, it began cracking. However, Zeus warped to the monster with the speed of light and buried the monster into the mountain.

The cracks grew wider, and the mountain eventually shattered into pieces.

However, nothing had happened to the monster; It had received no damage.

Zeus lowered his gaze and uttered with a disdainful look on his face: "Rest in pain."

He raised his hand in the air and asserted: "Come forth, Surtr— the abominable sword."

Zeus' hand and everything around him burned to ashes. The trees turned into soot, and the mountains melted.

It was a hell zone.

Zeus only summoned Surtr for a second, and everything around him was obliterated.

He casually patted his hand, and the fire from his hand disappeared; however, his clothes were burned, so he conjured new clothes around his body.

When Zeus went back to Arnold, he found him standing on the edge of the cliff.

"You don't plan to jump from here, do you?" Zeus asked jokingly.

"You always end up saving me when I am in trouble," Arnold muttered.

"That's not true. I just came here to defeat the monster, not to save you," Zeus remarked.

"It's still the same. In the end, you did save my life. I am already so indebted to you for teaching me martial arts, and I still—"

"Come on!" Zeus groaned as he patted on Arnold's shoulder and uttered, "We are friends, aren't we?" 

"We are?!" Arnold exclaimed.

"Of course. Why else do you think I would—" Zeus stopped when he heard footsteps from behind.

He looked back to see Rosemary standing there with her gaze fixated on the ground.

"Rosemary!" Arnold rushed to Rosemary. "I am glad you are alright."

Zeus furrowed his brows and uttered, "I take that back. We are not friends."

"What, why?!"

Zeus pointed his gaze at Rosemary and said, "Someone who is acquainted with her can't be my friend."

"You know her?!" Arnold asked.

"Yeah." Zeus nodded. "She is a bitch."

"But she saved my life," Arnold informed.

Zeus raised his brows and uttered, "There is no way this selfish, arrogant bitch can save someone's life."

"But she did!" Arnold argued. "You can ask her."

SIGH!

Zeus let out a deep sigh as though he was sighing in disbelief, then uttered in a disdainful tone: "So she hasn't told you, huh?"

"Told me what?" Arnold asked with a curious and anxious look on his face.

"The blizzard and the monster just now; this bitch was behind everything."

Arnold turned to Rosemary with a pale face: "Is that true?"

Rosemary averted her gaze and nodded: "I just wanted to create more snow, but I messed up, and it turned into a blizzard."

"And what about the monster?" 

"Alchemy needs an equivalent exchange, so I used a monkey who was about to die. But I messed up, and it turned into a monster. And my life force was used in exchange," Rosemary answered honestly.

"Is that why you look like a little girl?"

Rosemary quietly nodded and stood in silence.

SIGH!

Zeus sighed and smacked his hand on Rosemary's head.

"You two are quite similar. You both want to become strong and powerful, but you keep looking for an easy way."

Zeus scoffed and continued, "There is no shortcut to being strong. Take any weapon as an example; first, you need to melt it, mend it, and carefully shape it to forge it."

"And if you skip all that, then even if the weapon looks the same or maybe even more beautiful, it will break on impact."

After a brief pause, he added, "And if you use someone's weapon, then you won't be able to use it. Even if you somehow use it, you won't be able to master it. You won't be able to use the sharp edge of the weapon; you will have to use it using its sheath."

Zeus was referring to his powers and how he needed to control his powers even though he was powerful.

Suddenly, the ground was covered in the shadow of a man with wings.

"I dealt with the blizzard, and there were no casualties," he uttered.

Zeus' face twitched as he looked up and yelled, "Get down, you bastard Lucifer, or I will pluck your wings!"

—— 

'Since then, I mastered my abilities… to protect what I hold dear…'

Arnold forced his body down the spear as it covered the spear with his blood. Then, he swung his sword and cleaved the hand of the guard.

The spear fell to the ground, and so did Arnold.

'Muscles contracting technique.'

The muscle contracting technique was a method that allowed the user to make their body hard as a rock by contracting their muscles using the breath technique.

Arnold pulled out the spear from his stomach. He grabbed the spear from the edge and swung it around at the guards with all the strength he had left in his body.

The guards were caught off-guard, and the spear ended up cleaving them all in half.

"I did… it…"

Arnold couldn't stand on his feet and fell to the ground; but, he still didn't give up.

"I… can't… die…"

He crawled and dragged his body to the throne room's door.

"I have… to… kill… Bo...ris…"

The throne room's door opened automatically, which surprised Arnold.

His eyes were filled with blood and tears, so he couldn't see clearly. However, what he saw looked like someone standing in the middle of the hall with a head on their hand.

"Yo Arnold! You are on the ground again, eh?"