ENDLESS MYTH : Surpassing The Gods.

LITTLE PARADISE

Artemis appeared from a tree and looked at her fallen foe with complicated emotions as she calmed her breathing and tried to stop her bleeding. It was really close, just a few seconds later and it would be her that would have lost. No, if she didn't have her power as a dryad, he would have managed to win in his last attempt. Right now, she was spent, even a trainee could beat her. Still, she neared him and took his badge.

Some people may think that since she respected him she shouldn't take his points, they would be wrong. For someone as prideful as him, it was already shameful to lose after all that boasting. If she also spared his points he would be all but thankful to her.

After taking the points, she faced the two before her. Frankly, if they decided to attack her she would lose. Even in her best state, she might not necessarily win against Natalie, right now though she had no chance. She decided to ask them

"What will you do?"

Natalie seemed to think a little, but Sol didn't even bother answering before boldly walking toward her and taking the badge that belonged to her from her hands. After that, he began to walk to where the beasts she previously killed were. He said as he walked

"I really want to attack you while you're down and eliminate you. Sadly, I have more pressing matters. So I will just take your points"

"You'll regret letting me go today. You're my prey, sooner or later I will hunt you down"

Artemis was furious. Such disregard was basically an insult toward her. She didn't mind that he took the points. She could easily collect enough to pass the test once she recovered. What bothered her is how he did it.

Sol stopped walking, he turned slowly his face toward her. A smile on his face.

"I don't know why you seem so obsessed with me and frankly I don't care. Ten minutes ago I might really have been nothing more than a prey. Sadly, it's you who missed your chance. It's too soon to say who will be the prey and who will be the hunter"

After that, he continued his road with no care in the world. Natalie looked at the two of them with a smile before tossing a potion to Artemis.

"Take this, it's a recovery potion. It should be enough to put you at least in battle state."

After that she made she neared Emilio and touched him on the head. The moment she did it, he raised himself and began to walk in the same direction as Sol, followed by Natalie.

But even as he walked, one would see that he was completely devoid of expression, it was like he was sleepwalking. Artemis had the creep as she saw this. She took the potion and disappeared after getting in contact with a three.

This was how, the first meeting before the four of them ended. It was the first of many that would follow.

----

The fight between the other team members and the four nightmare beasts finally ended. It was a chaotic fight. The reason it lasted so long was that on one hand, ferocious beast really couldn't be underestimated. On the other end, the cooperation between the six of them was awful.

Sometimes they even created more problems by themselves. What more, since each of them wanted to point, kill steal was to be expected. No one wanted to have his hard work stolen, so they were even more cautious.

In the end, the Rodriguez brothers only managed to kill steal one. Feng and Alex also one with Knud and Skuld having two.

They weren't necessarily stronger than the other four, but as they were originally trained to become valkyrie and Viking, they were used to such chaotic fights.

Now that the fight ended. They looked at the Legend ranked ferocious beast. He succ.u.mbed to his wound a few minutes ago. It was like something made him unable to heal and it could only slowly die. The six of them were silent, they didn't dare to approach it since the first one to do might be targeted by the others.

Just as they were deciding what to do, they heard footsteps. The first one to appear was Sol, followed by Natalie and a sleepwalking Emilio.

The Rodriguez brothers made a fuss at first, but after having the situation roughly explained to them, they calmed themselves.

Sol didn't care about the core, so he only took half of the meat. Eating powerful beasts was the best way to have a powerful body. Since he didn't need the core and took all the points of Artemis, he only negotiated for some meat before deciding to go back to their refuge with his teammates. He didn't want to be present when Emilio woke up. The moment he began to walk back though, he heard Natalie speaking to him.

"Sol Heracles, I hope that we will be able to really work together next time"

Sol simply waved his hands without looking back. He didn't want to work with this girl ever again, but he couldn't say that to her face either.

Natalie watched him leave with a small smile on her face. She could see that he didn't really like her. Sadly for him, he didn't have much a choice. She looked up, her smile gone from her face. She knew that danger was coming. She only hoped that she wouldn't become a collateral victim.

After calming her emotions, she liberated Emilio from her puppet technique and went away with her teammates. Like Sol, she didn't want to be near when Emilio woke up

----

Sol was walking in silence with Alex and Feng beside him. He was thinking about the concepts in general. He was sure that his idea would bring him great power, but he also had to take the risk into account.

The road from Trainee to greater spirit was called cultivation by most. But it wasn't exactly so. The best word would be evolution.

Once someone reached the myth rank or more precisely entered the spirit realm, he cessed to be truly human. Strength, speed, longevity, etc. Everything would change at the most fundamental level. But how one could tread this road? Normally by observing and understanding different parts of the world.

The first step for all Aether users was learning an Ars. Only by being able to use an Ars anyway anywhere can one become a hero.

The second step was learning a concept. The first concept one would choose was extremely important since it would link all new concepts.

The third step was transforming the concept into law. There were two ways to do so. Either by concentrating on a single concept and bring it to the level of law or by learning many concepts and fuse them in a law.

The fourth step was transforming law into... Well, this is way too soon to speak in more detail about the following steps. So let go back to the concepts.

Concepts, in general, could be classified into stronger and weaker ones. Even if one used the same law, depending on the concept the tow grasped to reach it, their levels of compréhension would be different.

An example would be the law of [TIME]. Under it, there is [ACCELERATION]; [INSTANT] [ETERNITY]; [SLOW]; [FAST], [REWIND] and many other. If we had to put them in rank, [INSTANT]; [ETERNITY ] ; [REWIND] are superior levels. [ACCELERATION] is mid-level and the last two are low levels.

Of course, everything is relative. [SLOW] might be a low-level concept, but that only when comparing to the other concepts under the law of [TIME]. Outside of that, it's still a pretty powerful and tricky concept.

Sol took a breath and stopped thinking about all that for the times being. He momentarily put all his attention on his teammates and said.

"So, how was it. The final result isn't bad. Don't you think so?"

"Not bad... Not bad my a.s.s. Do you know how much I was... We were worried about you when you went away alone with those two ? " shouted Alex, her tanned cheeks reddening a little, either from anger towards him or from embarrassment toward her slip of tongue. she nearly covered her mouth. She was truly a little cute acting like that.

Sol wasn't dense, but he acted like he didn't heard her slip of words and didn't see her action. From his point of view, her affection was nothing more than puppy love born from the feeling of being helped by a handsome boy and the suspended Bridge effects. It would go away soon after they left the island.

Feng, being who he was, tried to help her out of embarrassment and dispel the awkward atmosphere that was forming by adding on the side,

"She is right. We were worried sick. I didn't understand why you followed the two of them like that. At least explain a little what happened "

Sol had a sheepish smile on his face as he heard that. This might be him covering Alex, but it was also clear that Feng had his own complaints. He sighed and said

"Firstly I had some measure of protection. Even if I couldn't win, I could at least flee. Secondly, I had to. What I saw here allowed me to think of a path that I had forgotten. Finally, I didn't want to put the two of you in a situation of danger."

"I understand. I understand that you are stronger than us. I understand that you don't need our help. But aren't we friends? You should have more confidence in us"

(Friends?) could they really call themselves friends? When do you even know if two people became friends? Such a thought was presently a waste of time. He didn't need friends right now. He needed enough power to not be sweep off by whatever plan his father concocted.

His first mind began to explain what happened in more detail and tried to appease them while his second mind began to think of again of the concepts.

The path he had forgotten. Since concepts could be classified, the same could be said for the law. But between all those laws, there are some who cannot be clearly ranked. He knew fourteen of them. The laws of seven deadly sins and the laws of seven heavenly virtues.

The seven deadly sins were, [LUXURIA], [GULA], [AVARITA], [ACEDIA], [IRA], [INVIDIA] and [SUPERBIA]. L.u.s.t, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

The seven heavenly virtues were, [CASITAS] , [TEMPERANTIA] , [CARITAS] , [INDUSTRIA] , [PATIENTIA] , [HUMANITAS] , [HUMILITAS]. Chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.

One didn't need to be a genius to see that each sin had an opposed virtue.

Three characteristics made those law specials. The first one being that those who wielded them could use many powerful laws at the same time without directly studying them. For example, someone who walked far enough in the path of [ACEDIA] or sloth could eventually manipulate some part of time and space law as well as someone who truly learned [TIME] or [SPACE] . Anyone who understands a concept related to a sin law or virtue law would be seen as a future powerhouse.

After seeing the fight between Emilio and Artemis, he saw one truth. Energy. With enough energy, one can change a losing situation in a winning one. With enough energy, one can fight and use as many abilities as he wants.

The only reason Artemis struggled so much was because of a lack of energy. If Emilio fought her at her peak, then he would have lost before even being able to use Assimilation. Energy alone wasn't enough of course.

The mental must also be powerful enough to correctly use the law. From all the law he knew, there were only two who could give him a nearly unlimited amount of energy while recovering his mental power. One of each side. Any of those two would make him strong.

Sadly, such power didn't come without the drawback. Those drawbacks were what made him hesitate a little.

(AN: My idea of the way to use deadly sins and virtues was inspired from the many novel, manga and anime where such a thing was mentioned but mainly from the Manga TRINITY SEVEN and a novel called THE LAZY KING. it's was a great novel by the way. At first, I even wanted my mc to be like the lord of sloth, but since I made him into a close combat fighter, that would have clashed with the personality needed for it. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter.)