Chapter 542 End Of Heroism



"To think vermin like you would have the gall to approach the heart of Mastorn..." The old man said with a burning anger, "...I, Godfrey, the first Argonaut, will see to it that you're all wiped from the face of Gaia."

It wasn't so much the proclamation of malice that shook the four that squared off against the mysterious assailant, but the title that fell from his lips.

"'The First Argonaut'?!"

–The same thought simultaneously ran through each of their minds.

Before any further thoughts could occur, the white-bearded elder, Godfrey, moved his hand simply with his palm facing the grass below.

FWOOM.

"--!"

A massive pressure shot down, causing the air to hiss and whistle under a rapid, immense force. It didn't seem to be targeting him or Iris, yet, at least; he could see it as the space above Tristan and Brahmi curved around, being displaced before it crashed down.

Tristan managed to evade it, but Brahmi failed to react fast enough, having to raise her arms to guard against the unseen force.

"Ghh...!" Brahmi winced.

It stopped against her hands: the invisible force. The soil beneath the muscular woman's feet immediately caved in under the exuded power, causing Brahmi to grit her teeth as veins pressed against her skin.

The shape of it was hard to make out, but by the edges of the contorted space, it seemed to bear the shape of a massive palm that stretched an acre in size.

"Brahmi!" Iris called out worriedly.

Though the azure-haired woman tried to run over to help, he caught his wife by her arm, stopping her.

"Ren...!"

"You'll just get yourself killed!" He told her, "...Let's change our focus."

Iris looked at him for a moment before finding that he was looking at the old man who manifested the unseen palm, "...Oh. I see what you mean–take him out and we'll free her!"

"Bingo," he smirked.

Though he wore a smile for confidence, it was nothing more than a brittle facade as he felt his body quivering with the scorching pain still thriving inside of his eye.

There didn't need to be any words exchanged; the married two knew what to do. Iris supported him with long-range projectiles of light while he closed in with his speed.

"Grah...!" Brahmi continued to groan out.

The ground was rumbling beneath the force emitted from the massive palm; it vibrated, bruising and crushing the skin on the woman's palms as she used all of her strength to keep it from flattening her.

"Brahmi!...Dammit!" Tristan grunted.

Supporting fire came from the gun-wielding mage, who shot a burst fire towards Godfrey, who was now on the receiving end of massive arrows of light and explosive rounds.

"Oh?" Godfrey only smiled as if entertained.

While keeping his right hand held down to control the crushing palm, the First Argonaut moved with the agility of a youthful man; spinning around and ducking beneath the incoming projectiles. He moved with utmost finesse, not wasting any movement in his swift maneuvers.

Still, this allowed Ren to close in as he shrouded the length of his blade in darkness, finding himself within range of Godfrey now.

"Come on then, lad! Cut me down!" Godfrey challenged him with a grin as his lengthy beard flowed in the wind.

As he prepared to swing his blade, seeing the impervious confidence spread across Godfrey's smile, he changed his approach as he used a shadow step multiple times in succession.

"Raijin: Critical Impact...!"

The moment he used the burst of teleportation spells followed by Raijin, he felt the sickness churn in his body as his limbs grew as dense as lead and his head a slight as a feather.

Damn it, even just this is taking a toll...?! He realized.

He opted to follow through, using utmost speed and precision in his swing as the black lightning manifested itself across Belus. Swung towards the old Argonaut's neck, it neared it before–FWOOM.

Despite moving with speed that mimicked lightning, Godfrey was simply faster: the old man had jutted his left palm forward, pressing it towards Ren's abdomen but not directly touching it.

"Divine Repel!" Godfrey invoked.

It was as if a shock wave emitted from a nuclear blast had been born right in front of his stomach; he was blasted back with such force that the cloth on his torso was torn to shreds.

"Ren...!!!" Iris screamed out.

Before he knew it, he was dozens of meters in the air and climbing–rapidly, he found himself knocked back by the almighty force.

"Brgh...!" He vomited up blood.

With his weakened reinforcement due to his unknown fever, the attack had a drastic impact on his body as his internal organs were bludgeoned from the shock wave.

As his ascent felt as if it was nearing the clouds by now, he could see it through his enhanced vision: Godfrey moved his hand again, invoking that unequaled palm into existence.

It seemed Brahmi had managed to escape the pressure of the right palm, which had been relinquished by Ren's assault, resulting in the three Outlanders on the ground to rush Godfrey, but to no avail.

The next one came: "Divine Plummet."

It was only felt for a moment before it came; such an intense wind pressed against his back before a massive force slammed against him, sending him plummeting down to the ground like a fallen meteor.

"--Ren!" Iris cried out before an angered expression came over, "Helios: Band!"

A ring of fire was summoned around Godfrey while an array of magically-born bullets shot towards him, with Brahmi's fist soon nearing him.

Yet, all it took was a single clap of the First Argonaut's hands: "Divine Separation."

A shock wave propelled outward that caused the air to vibrate with such intensity that the soil began to tear apart; everybody was harshly knocked back.

It was nothing like he'd ever faced; the scope of the elder Argonaut's power was on a different level.

As he hit the ground, more blood was coughed from his body as it spat out onto the cracked soil, finding his body shaking as he picked himself up. The sickness flowing through his body did nothing to help as just keeping a steady flow of reinforcement was a challenge.

...What kind of magic is this? He thought, It's like he's manipulating giant, invisible hands. But, the force they produce–it's monstrous. Is it his innate ability?

Either way–it was do-or-die. As he witnessed not just his comrades being blown back, landing harshly against the ground, but his wife being damaged by the attack, all bets were off.

"Tristan! Brahmi!--Iris is hurt! Look after her!" He yelled out, stripping the tattered cloth from his chest.

Nearly failing to stand, now covered in bruises, Brahmi contested his words, "Huh!? And what about you?!"

"I'm going in," he said, "Sorry to say this, but you're just going to get in my way with what I'm about to do."

"Urgh, you–!"

Before Brahmi could step forward, she was stopped as Tristan grabbed her arm. The look the stoic man gave her was clear.

"...Listen to him. Knowing Ren, he's got something reckless up his sleeve," Tristan told her.

"Gah..." Brahmi sighed out, going to Iris' side, "...When did that brat get so bossy?"

The First Argonaut didn't seem to take them seriously as a sort of threat in the slightest; he let them talk and scheme as he massaged his beard between his fingers with an immovable grin.

Readying himself, Ren focused through a calming breath, though his blood ran as hot as manga in his veins; it took a true exertion of energy to push out one-hundred percent of his reinforcement, but he brought it out. The ground quaked beneath his boots as a shadowy aura enveloped him. This time, he opted to sheath his blade, instead clutching his fists shut.

"Ready, lad?" Godfrey asked.

He didn't reply, instead answering as he took a single step forward which closed the distance between him and the elder within a moment.

"Araphel: God Crusher."

It was a spell differing from his usual. Manifesting itself in a dense force of darkness around his gauntlets, the reinforced mana solidified and took the shape of massive, bludgeoning gauntlets wrapped in astral chains.

"Oh?" Godfrey watched.

As he reared his fist back, swinging it forward, the wind howled before he slammed the massive, abyssal gauntlet towards Godfrey's head.

Displaying that agility unfit for an old man, the Argonaut bounced away from the path of the fist, which slammed against the air with such force that the wind vibrated, cracking the soil in its path.

It was monstrous power; such blatant force was the opposite of the scheming darkness known for his affinity–the aftermath of the missed blow peeled the grass from the dirt.

"Far too slow–"

Though as Godfrey confidently said such, beginning to move one of his hands, the white-haired, eyepatch-wearing man was in front of him again; it was a shadow step executed with utmost precision and speed.

Bzzt.

That black lightning; it wrapped around the gauntlet which was being pulled back and aimed for Godfrey.

"Raijin: Critical Impact."

It wasn't just amplified in power; his gauntlets were shrouded in the aspect of the nebulous sparks, granting them potent speed that punched through the air like electricity cannonballs.

Godfrey backpedaled with that smile still kept across his lips, though he didn't let up.

The chains that originated from the gauntlets wrapped around his biceps, squeezing tightly as more mana was forced from his body, feeding directly into the brutal gloves as more power oozed from them.

As he slammed one of the gauntlets into the ground, cracks stretched in multiple directions through the soil before it split, unleashing a volatile explosion as dirt flew in all directions. It had missed Godfrey, but the wizened Argonaut laughed out.

"It's quite rare to see a dark-user fight with their fists!" Godfrey said jovially, "You remind me of Young Avdima–ah, what a shame it was to lose such a talented soul."

It was a one-sided conversation as Ren considered his relentless pursuit while the astral chains continued siphoning the mana from his body; the black steel pressed against his bare biceps as his veins were visibly blackened.

...I knew it–'God Crusher' is still too dangerous...! It's difficult to control! He thought.

Massive shock waves followed each of his blows, though Godfrey evaded them with his hands behind his back.

Supporting him, a burst of bullets sailed in, perfectly avoiding Ren and traveling straight towards the confident elder.

"Enough of that."

Godfrey casually caught one of the bullets between his fingers before staring at it. In front of the man's onyx eyes, the bullet relinquished its form into a flash of blinding light.

"Ghh..." Godfrey flinched.

In that moment, Ren slammed one of the dreadful gauntlets against the First Argonaut's chest with a colossal impact birthing itself; the wind spiraled and exploded, knocking Godfrey back.

Just then, the chains demanded further mana, drawing from his already feverish body as he dropped to a knee, gritting his teeth in pain.

"Ren!"

The others rushed over, with Iris placing her hands above the gauntlets and manifesting a quick release of holy light.

"Dispel: Darkness!"

It seemed to be a spell tailored for handling this issue as it dissolved the gauntlets and the mana-siphoning chains, freeing Ren from their hold as he huffed.

"Are you alright...?" Iris asked, caressing his cheek.

Brahmi stood in front of the two with her fists raised, cracking his knuckles, "That geezer got you pretty good earlier. Now, stop hoggin' the spotlight and leave this to your seniors, kid!"

All he could do was look up as he coughed out, tasting blood in his mouth, "...Right."

A smirk came from Brahmi before she headed into battle, following Tristan who already confronted Godfrey.

To nobody's surprise, the old man was hardly phased by the previous blow, though it had torn through his abdominal cloth to reveal a light bruise on his toned six-pack.

"...Why did he show up now?" He muttered, picking himself up as Iris aided him.

Iris looked at him, "I was wondering that, too...Do you think they figured out our mission? But, that begs the question...how?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter right now. We have to worry about living–" he said, straightening himself out.

It was just as he said that; it happened.

FWOOM.

The overpowering vibration of the air manifested in an instant, slamming down in the clearing just in front of the two.

"...Huh..." Iris let out in shock.

It took him a moment to process what had just happened as his ears rang; the invisible palm had once again imprinted its mighty presence into the world, flattening an acre of land and those caught in its reach.

As the dust cleared, it was painfully clear; both the hot-headed woman and the gun-toting man were flattened in the caved-in section. Their limbs were contorted and their bodies squashed as blood dyed the smoothed soil.

"Tristan...! Brahmi...!!!" He screamed out.

Godfrey was standing in front of the flattened chunk of land with an unmoved look in his dreadful gaze.

"Disappointing. The Outlanders have been touted as a threat to Mastorn, yet this is what they have to offer?" Godfrey berated the fallen, "Pathetic. Weaklings deserved to be trampled under the feet of the mighty."

"Th-they...!" Iris stammered out in disbelief.

Spreading his hands out, Godfrey looked forward with a steel-like intensity in his eyes; burning with a primordial resolve, etched into his abyssal pupils. Then, it was seen; the two hands that commanded the cataclysmic force in their wake. They mimicked the position of Godfrey's hands like projections of his body.

"This is my 'God Decree': make no mistake, this is not the work of an innate ability, but a system of magic crafted by my own, two hands," Godfrey explained, "It's a combination of true wind and space, only possible by my hands."

It seemed unbeatable; such a power was simply unavoidable in its otherworldly speed and strength; each hand emitting vibrations that caused the grass in the valley to sway intensely.

"Ren, can you still...?"

"Yeah...I'm good to–"

As he assured Iris, beginning to glance over at her, his heart dropped at the sensation of pressure shifting near him.

Godfrey squeezed his fist with a look of utter malice in his eyes, "--Silence."

The word came as a final command as without warning, Iris' entire complexion shifted to a red before the unseen force squeezed in around her, crushing the woman with such instantaneous force that her body was bundled up into a minuscule sphere.

Blood didn't even escape the crushing containment of the God Decree.

"...Iris...?"

It had happened so fast that it almost felt like a hallucination to him. Though he questioned if it was an illusion or reality, the rage bubbling up from his gut swirled so swiftly that it didn't matter.

A dense aura of mana gave off from him as he stood, frozen and in shock; the aura took the form of a shade around him, enveloping the field in a darkness similar to an isolated dusk.

It was something he'd tried to keep restrained these passing years.

"...Iris..."

Godfrey stood in the same spot, watching the man, "I take it she was your lover? A shame. A man should be strong enough to protect his woman."

"Iris...! Iris! Iris! Iris!"

A switch was flipped in his mind; the sickness began to shift into something else entirely. A voice resonated in his mind, echoing from that accursed eye placed in his socket.

[Ren.] [My beloved.] [Accept it.]

"Iris. Iris. Iris."

[Accept my warmth.] [Accept my protection.] [Accept my love.]

"Iris...!"

[Take it.] [Take it.] [Take it.] [My love.]

Just then, he relinquished it; every fiber of his being that was spent suppressing the darkness within the eye gifted to him by the maddened Marquis had welcomed it now.

Godfrey's eye twitched as the wizened veteran watched as a massive gathering of shadows spiraled around the Outlander.

This density...I've only ever felt this much mana from Young Avdima. What is this, exactly? Godfrey questioned, stroking his beard.

As the shadows revealed the man enveloped in them once again, the snow-white hair he possessed had been turned to a vantablack; black tattoos ran across his body, seeming to shift with every breathing moment. Beyond that, it seemed his physique had bulkened to some degree.

The eyepatch was gone, the seal vanquished.

It was on full-display; the abhorrent, black eye, etched with malevolence unbound.

What was summoned in his anguish was his innate ability though "Heaven-Earth Disconnect" was not what sprouted.

The enlightenment that should've manifested was instead tainted, altered and corrupted into the adverse: "Asura Connect."

That's right. I'm an avenger; everything slips through my fingers. Everything I ever care for is taken from me. All I can do is destroy everything, he thought.

Godfrey finally made his move as he attempted the same move he pulled to slay the enraged man's wife, squeezing his fist with the proper invocation: "Divine Compression."

As the clenched hand forged of contorted space and wind wrapped around Ren, squeezing with an otherworldly pressure–he failed to break.

"...What?" Godfrey looked on in surprise.

To the First Argonaut, it was a sight he wasn't used to: in the grip of the colossal, unseen hand, Ren was fighting against it as he began to overpower it with darkness exuding from him like a hellbent maelstrom.

The abyssal-haired man, silent and steady in his demeanor, flexed his body and pushed his arms outward, summoning a tsunami of darkness that freed him from the hand.

I see, Godfrey thought, it's not just mana quantity. This one has surpassed Young Avdima. A dark-user capable of that? Count this old man blessed to see such talent twice in a lifetime.

There was an unnerving, unnatural silence about Ren; his eyes had lost all life and care as his dark hair swayed in the wind caused by his own aura.

He raised his hand as a dark sphere conjured above his palm; its manifestation gathered a bountiful serving of abyssal energy as the ground began to rumble.

It was condensed greatly with sorrow. In the depths of the sphere sat a void pulled from the deepest, darkest sections of his being. After a moment of reeling it in, he pointed the sphere towards the First Argonaut.

"Oh," Godfrey said, "I see how it is! Divine Shield!"

Preparing for the counterattack launched by the grief-sunken man, the First Argonaut held his hand out in front of him, placing the unseen palm between him and the incoming release of malevolent energy.

The ensuing wave of darkness filled the valley, carving through the soil and wilting the surrounding grass. It was boundless in its destruction; the scope of it swallowed the green fields in a tide of shadows.

"I see! I see!" Godfrey yelled, holding his unseen shield in front of him against the tsunami of darkness, "--You're an interesting one, indeed!"

Around the First Argonaut was nothing but a sea of the abyss; darkness that swirled and destroyed everything in its path.

By the time the hand-waved nature disaster came to an end, a mist of darkness occupied the area. It was all gone: the luscious, green fields in the valley. All of the grass has been turned lifeless and erased, scorching the soil and leaving it black.

Standing in the desolated valley, surrounded by dead fields, he was surrounded by the abyssal torrent while looking upward with those lifeless, black eyes. The pale blue sky in its soft existence reminded him of her; it was quiet, kind, and benevolent in its gentle form.

"...Iris..."

Everything was lost.

The entire reason he fought, suffered, and continued to walk the world was taken from him.

For the fractured man, only held together by tape as fragile as the lives of those around him, he had reached the breaking point.

Godfrey squinted at him, "I've been awfully careless. I see now that you must be dealt with swiftly."

Following those words, the First Argonaut manifested a tremendous force around himself that caused the air to curve around himself in a viscous aura.

That which laid beneath the soil was uprooted; the massive force dug up roots, soil, and rock as a rotation of unseen energy surrounded the First Argonaut, who levitated in the air.

This one's fangs might just yet reach Mastorn, Godfrey thought, that is–unless I deal with him right here!

With a swipe of his hand, Godfrey invoked a tremendous force that slammed downward from the heavens; its weight smothered the withered grass before it reached the surface, only to crush a large portion of the valley.

It was a devastating impact, one of such scale that a small town would've been cleanly wiped off the map.

"--Rest in the soil of Gaia," Godfrey muttered.

As the particles of soil scattered, a propulsion of air cleared the obscurants, revealing the black-haired young man picking himself up, with not a scratch inlaid on his skin.

Ren's eyes carried the same hollowness to them; unmoved even by the cataclysmic force that rained down on him before as he shrugged it off.

Godfrey was perplexed, "...This child..."

"Everything! You took everything!" Ren yelled out as the overwhelming aura around him carried his voice, causing it to boom throughout the valley as the grass swayed, "--Godfrey!"

Nothing was held back; it was all let loose–there was nothing restraining the anguished man as tears trailed down his cheeks and he raced across the torn fields for the Argonaut responsible for his aching heart.

As he got within striking distance of Godfrey, he squeezed the handle of his blade enough that it felt as though he'd shatter it, slashing it aggressively as the wrinkled Argonaut avoided it with a sidestep.

"--Impressive," Godfrey noted, watching the trail of destruction that followed the sword's edge.

A line of burning darkness had cut through the field in a perfect, straight path, charring the soil and carving through it a good meter.

Even if the world should crumble away, Ren Nakamura would not mind. To him, his world had already been destroyed.

'This is my vow. I will bring the world down–I'll end this never ending cycle of misery at last,' he decided.

Burning through his sorrowful soul, this vow manifested itself through a vast sea of darkness that extended from the man's feet like an ocean born from the depths of an unreachable abyss. Everything was consumed; the entirety of the once flourishing, verdant region was swallowed up in this wave of abyssal wrath.

Staying within what seemed like the safety of the wind, the old, but not withered Argonaut watched from above as the land was consumed by spiteful darkness.

Dire words poured from the lips of the malignant Argonaut as his long beard swayed in the abyssal winds, "Ren Nakamura, I see it now. You're a monster that needs to be dealt with, should this world not crumble away. An unchained beast like you–it's my job as an Argonaut to protect the world from heinous villains such as yourself."

With a single raise of the eldest Argonaut's hand, the clouds parted, moving away in the shape of a colossal hand that imprinted itself in the heavens.

The abyssal-hearted man looked up as his ears popped with the arrival of a pressure unlike any other; it was as if the sky itself was falling down on top of him.

Godfrey wore a twisted, but excited smile as he shouted out, letting his booming voice be carried through the sky, "Be crushed, otherworldly insect!"

["The Right Hand of The Almighty"]

In the face of what felt like a boundless weight crushing down on the entire region, Ren stood firmly before shooting his fist up as a burst of genuine darkness erupted from his palm.

'Twist it and give it shape. This is the manifestation of my pain; the suffering I've endured–it won't stay shackled anymore,' Ren thought.

It was nothing he'd ever called upon before, but as the invocation rolled off of his tongue, it felt as natural as breathing; it was the extension of destruction he yearned for, feeling as though it manifested from deep within himself.

"Rise And Burn Into This World: Depravus Titan."

The abyssal invocation poured from the man's lips as the godly force descended upon him, causing the boundless darkness that spawned from the depths of his being to be reshaped into something greater.

Before the unseen hand of mountainous might could crush him, the strands of shadows were interwoven, given mass, imbued with meaning–"Destroy, Annihilate, and Burn it all"--allowing a colossal construct of an abyssal skeleton to form around Ren.

From the sky, the wizened Argonaut gathered a sense of what he faced, witnessing the enormous skeleton, born of sable bones and wrapped in abundant, wicked darkness.

'This goes beyond anything possible. I sense an endless well within that boy–a chasm of darkness that's never ending, infinite in the hatred he can spew out with a single wave of his hand. It's different than an awakening spurred by anguish; something else is connected to this boy–something wicked beyond any other level. Why, just why...' Godfrey began to think.

The abyssal skeleton guarded the black-haired young man, stretching far-and-wide as it placed its own hands up, stopping the downfall of the unseen, mountainous hand that had descended upon the valley.

Godfrey witnessed it as his fingers shook with an emotion the old man had not experienced in countless years. His expression was one of shock before suddenly–it twisted into a childlike smile, seeped in complete deprivation of one's rationale.

'...Why am I so excited? After all of these dull, meaningless years without a challenge, have I finally found a worthy foe? Somebody I can dance with until my bones ache and my flesh peels?' Godfrey realized.

The snow-haired, first Argonaut expelled his words with force from the sky, "How wonderful, Ren Nakamura! Let us destroy to our heart's content–until one of us falls into Hell!"

For the world of Gaia, its inherent inequality was in full display. In that valley, swallowed in the sorrow of the lonesome man, the two figures stood against one another with enough power in their hands to alter the very fate of the ground they walked upon.

One man clenched his teeth in soul-etched rage, and one man smiled with excitement lost in countless decades.

Both were equally insane; a unison and clash of two beings that despised each other so passionately, that the worse was brought out of both.

As a result, the world found the absolute worst case scenario in two opponents that should've never collided.

"This is it! You will help me reach it, Ren Nakamura! Help this old soul find salvation from his boredom!" Godfrey howled into the clouds.

From above, the snow-haired, wizened Argonaut rapidly swung his fists, commanding countless, colossal fists to conjure through the sky, raining down upon the region. It was a storm of knuckles, decimating entire mountain ranges, crushing them into powder as if they were mere pebbles being pulverized.

'For a long time, I've wondered if my life was a positive or a negative for this world. If I helped more than I hurt. If I saved more than I destroyed. But, why does any of that matter? Why should I care? This world that has done nothing but torment me, take away everything I care about, never letting me just be content–it can turn to ash for all I care. I'm done with it. You win,' the anguished man thought.