Eclexis (3)
Right after Aster finished speaking.
Clang!
Two of the Gods drew their weapons.
One held a spear, the other a sword.
Their thoughts were the same. No, almost all the Gods shared a similar thought.
‘This guy is dangerous.’
With machine-like expressions, they charged at Aster.
Aster stared at them with a dazed look.
Unlike Frondier, Aster wasn't immune to Eclexis. Rather, he seemed to be even more susceptible.
It wasn't that Aster was enduring it, he was simply not resisting.
‘So this is the heart of a God…’
Aster lightly leaped back.
“Ah, Aster!”
He flew through the air, away from Ludovic.
In that instant, the spear and sword flew at him from both sides. The trajectory of their attacks blocked his escape route, taking into account the difference in their weapons' reach. It was a clean, coordinated attack.
Aster brought his sword before him.
And took a single step forward.
Thud!
“!”
The sword clashed against Aster's, while the spear pierced the empty space where Aster had been standing.
‘He blocked the attack by taking a single step forward with his sword.’
That single movement had been enough to thwart the combined assault of the sword and spear.
Ludovic observed Aster from a detached perspective.
It was astonishing enough that Aster was walking through the air, but something else shocked Ludovic even more.
‘What kind of defense is that?’
No, was that even a defense in the first place?
“You bastard!”
The God's sword flew horizontally.
Aster simply moved his sword along the trajectory of the incoming blade.
Swoosh!
The God’s sword followed the path of Aster's, only to cut through the empty air behind him.
Whoosh!
This time, the spear aimed for Aster’s back.
The spearhead, which should have pierced him right through the center.
“?!”
Missed.
‘Just now…’
Aster's posture remained almost unchanged. He hadn't shifted into an evasive or defensive stance.
He had simply moved his position while maintaining the same posture.
‘Iaijutsu Step!’
A Iaijutsu Step without assuming a middle guard stance. Moreover, he used it for defense rather than offense.
“How dare you try such clumsy tricks!”
The eyes of the God wielding the spear blazed with fury.
But just then.
“Wait!”
The God with the sword stopped him. His face was etched with bewilderment.
“We need to retreat!”
“What?”
“When I crossed blades with him just now…”
Unlike his comrade with the spear, the God with the sword had clashed with Aster twice.
He wasn't sure at first, but the second time confirmed his suspicions.
“My divine power, it’s been stolen.”
“!”
The other God reacted sharply to his words. In a iaijutsu, both of them distanced themselves from Aster.
“Stolen?”
“You mean the Eclexis?”
The other Gods murmured in astonishment.
Aster’s expression remained dazed, almost innocent.
‘…The hearts of Gods are so diverse and agonizing.’
Aster raised his hand. The Eclexis he had received flowed above it.
Ludovic witnessed this sight.
‘…Stolen?’
Ludovic felt a sense of dissonance with the expression the God had used.
From what he could see, Aster hadn't stolen anything.
‘It’s like he simply received what was poured into him.’
Like water flowing from high to low.
The Gods had poured their Eclexis into Aster, and he had simply received it.
Like a vessel.
They mistook it for theft because they felt no resistance whatsoever.
Aster looked around.
‘To think that the hearts of Gods are so similar to humans.’
Aster had experienced disappointment with the Gods before.
When Baldur had meddled in his relationship with Frondier, or when Apollo had taken over Ludovic’s body.
However, Aster couldn’t bring himself to doubt the Gods themselves.
Aster, stubborn, righteous, inflexible, and naive.
‘Eclexis.’
Aster could feel the Eclexis circulating within him.
He clearly recognized the unknown power they spoke of.
And he realized one more thing.
‘Maybe I…’
—Maybe I don't have any Eclexis at all.
Something deep inside him felt no need, no desire, to resist the power the Gods had unleashed.
Perhaps the reason Aster could accept the Gods' Eclexis was...
Because he was empty.
“…Hehe.”
That would be fine too.
Now, little by little, he is beginning to understand the gods.
“…What was that battle just now?”
Poseidon was captivated by a strange feeling.
More unsettling than Aster stealing the Eclexis was…
‘It’s like he was handling children.’
The Gods couldn’t fully utilize their power in their current state, possessing borrowed bodies as they were.
However, the vessels they possessed were undoubtedly powerful individuals in their own right, and the swordsmanship and various weapon skills the Gods had mastered were at their peak. Yet, Aster had handled the combined assault of these Gods as if he were simply pacifying children.
‘Aster, what have you become…?’
Since the Manggot War, Ludovic had come to understand how each of the Manggot had dispersed.
From the Manggot’s perspective, there was only one way to defeat Aster.
Aster had no exploitable weaknesses. To defeat him, one had to be overwhelmingly stronger.
But now, it had gone beyond that.
‘Is it impossible to surpass Aster in swordsmanship?’
Ludovic found himself thinking such a thing.
After receiving the Eclexis, Aster gave off that impression.
“Great Poseidon.”
Aster addressed Poseidon.
“Will you allow me to pass?”
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