Chapter 56 – The Manifestation of Hachiman Hikigaya and the Undying Horus
The moment the thunder spear left his hand, Hikigaya felt a surge of hunger well up within his body.
This weapon, granted through Athena's divine manifestation, was even more terrifying than he had imagined.
A divine manifestation—"Epiphany"—was the delegation of divine authority.
In Greek mythology, when a deity manifested through someone, that individual would gain a portion of the god's power—specifically, the part that most represented that god's authority.
As the epiphany of Zeus, Athena had obtained Zeus's thunderbolt—the symbol of the king of the gods.
And when Hikigaya became Athena's epiphany, he also obtained that power.
But until just moments ago, he had never truly understood how vastly different the power he gained was from what he had expected.
For both Zeus and Athena, thunder was not part of their inherent divine nature. To them, it was merely a weapon, like a sword or spear is to a human warrior.
But precisely because of that, its power was extraordinary—viscerally embodying the majesty of the King of the Gods.
So when Hikigaya hurled the thunderbolt like Zeus, even he—the one who cast it—felt his heart tremble from its terrifying might.
At first, he couldn't understand why such a fearsome force had seemed so mundane when wielded by Athena herself—perhaps even less impressive than what the old man Voban had shown.
But soon, Hikigaya realized the reason: the thunder's power was now rebounding against his own body.
It wasn't causing him direct harm, but rather, it was suppressing his divine abilities.
The portion of his divine authority related to life was completely suppressed.
For the time being, he couldn't exert even a fraction of its usual power—especially the powers he had stolen from Kuafu and Osiris.
Those were now completely sealed off, rendered utterly unusable.
However, the price of that suppression brought forth the magnificent spectacle now unfolding before him.
The sea of fire in the sky was split open.
Even though Horus was a sky god and a divine king, his dominion over the heavens now amounted to nothing.
All obstacles were cleaved like paper before a blade—pathetically defenseless.
Meanwhile, the power of the thunderbolt continued to rise, the thunder growing louder, and its brilliant light surpassing the flames Horus had created in the sky.
The fiery sea forged by Horus was utterly shattered by this force.
And in the final moment, the thunder spear pierced straight through Horus's chest.
After penetrating his body, it shot into the last intact portion of the firestorm behind him—shattering that as if it were fragile glass.
The greatest sky god of ancient Egypt, the god of kingship and war, had adopted his most defensive form—the childlike appearance—yet was still swallowed by the light of destruction.
A large portion of his chest—skin and flesh—was obliterated by the attack.
His head and limbs were barely held together by a few scraps of skin.
The divine blood and flesh of his main body had been completely annihilated by the thunder's power.
This thunderbolt, born of a foreign god, had trampled upon the dignity of this ancient divine king with brutal finality.
And only after this did the thunder's power begin to fade. As the shattered sea of fire dissipated, so too did the lightning from the sky.
But for Hikigaya, the horrifying state of Horus was deeply unsettling.
And then, an even more terrifying sight unfolded within the curtain of thunder and fire above.
From the severed neck and limbs of Horus—and even from the empty husk of his divine skin—bright red fleshy sprouts began to grow.
They grew with terrifying speed, looking for all the world like a horde of insects frantically bursting forth.
From the fleshy sprouts, bones quickly began to form.
Hikigaya's eyes widened as he watched the worm-like growths pile up, connect, and then cover themselves.
He refused to acknowledge this as "healing." Absolutely not.
This—this could be called healing?! Then what's the point of resurrection!?
"Godslayer…"
Amidst the grotesque sounds of flesh and bone regenerating, Horus's still-intact head spoke. His voice pierced the heavens and reached Hikigaya, snapping him out of his stunned state.
"Your luck… is truly unfortunate."
As he said this, most of Horus's body had already regenerated—though his skin had yet to regrow, and his exposed form remained a bloody red mess.
"I've been watching you. You've been fighting so hard—from my brother, to that savage foreign god-king. None of them were easy battles. Though we are enemies, I recognize your valor."
His skin finally regrew.
Horus returned completely to his chiseled, childlike form, but did not immediately attack again.
Instead, he observed Hikigaya with a curious gaze, as if examining a rare specimen, and continued,
"That last move truly surprised me. The epiphany of one of my kin… You're quite a remarkable Godslayer. Since ancient times, there have been people like you tangled with us gods. But this… this is a first. You are strong indeed."
"And now you're giving a whole speech? How bored are you?" Hikigaya responded coldly to the divine praise, unimpressed.
His sharp eyes saw that Horus was not in any better shape than he was.
Even for a god, the power over life wasn't so easy to wield. If it were, all those mother goddesses would be invincible.
"That last hit hurt, didn't it?" Hikigaya opened both palms, heat radiating from them once more. Wind swirled around him intensely, accompanied by ominous cracking sounds of air bursting. "Let's move on to round two."
"So impatient… I actually wanted to chat a bit," Horus sneered, and his form began to change.
Like a shadow being stretched and distorted, his childlike form vanished—replaced by a muscular figure with the body of a man and the head of a falcon.
A golden flame burned above his head, shaped like a solar disk.
"Changing forms again? You're really annoying." With a roar, Hikigaya bent at the waist and knees, then used Pencak Silat's footwork to appear below and to the left of Horus.
He sprang upward, aiming to grab Horus's exposed joint from below.
"Trying to brawl?" Horus twisted his body sideways. In an instant, they were face to face. "Don't forget—I'm also a god of war. And I'm still stronger than Set."
In the next moment, their fingers clashed—Horus countered Hikigaya's grappling strike.
A gust of wind burst from Horus's palm, diverting most of Hikigaya's heat to the sides.
Hikigaya instantly transformed his attack: palm strikes, punches, and knife-hand chops. Techniques he had learned from the Nine Fists of Yomi were unleashed in full, his strikes accompanied by searing heat that could melt steel into liquid.
Horus laughed as he countered in kind.
His eyes flickered—and once he saw a martial move from Hikigaya, he mirrored it exactly.
As time passed, he replicated nearly every technique Hikigaya used.
Throughout the battle, Horus continuously emitted cold air to counter Hikigaya's heat.
Alternating between heat and cold, god and man clashed and spun in mid-air again and again. The surrounding air exploded in shockwaves, tearing through the clouds around them.
During all of this, the golden solar disk atop Horus's head grew ever brighter.
At the same time, Hikigaya felt the suppression on his divine powers—caused by the thunderbolt—slowly beginning to lift.
Their powers were rising together, and it seemed neither one recovered faster than the other.
Whoever could strike next with a decisive, powerful attack would likely gain the upper hand in this round of battle.
After dodging another of Horus's vicious lunges, Hikigaya happened to catch a glimpse of the ground below.
He realized that in the course of their battle, they had long since left Aswan far behind—the city was nowhere in sight.
Now, they were high in the air above a desert.
The Nile River could still be seen in the distance, though its waters appeared thin and shallow.
There was no trace of Aswan here, nor any human settlements.
"…That's enough. Time to really cut loose."
Having made up his mind, Hikigaya saw Horus charging at him once again. But instead of meeting him head-on—
He turned and dived straight toward the ground.
Chapter 57: Hikigaya Hachiman Just Wanted to Roll a Rice Ball
The scorching sand during the day had turned icy cold by the dead of night.
Since ancient times, deserts have been feared by people. But to Hikigaya, such land felt oddly familiar.
As he stepped into this Egyptian desert, an unprecedented tranquility filled his heart. He could feel a different kind of "power"—not Magic—flowing from the desert into his body.
Although it wasn't Magic, it significantly accelerated the recovery of his authority. Then, from above, he heard the voice of Horus.
"Set, is this your choice?"
Looking up, Hiki Gaya saw Horus descending slowly from the sky.
The wings on His back seemed to melt into the night, subtly creating the illusion that the entire sky was part of His plumage.
However, that eeriness ended the moment His feet touched the desert.
As soon as He made contact, His wings vanished. The flames that once crowned His head had completely disappeared, replaced by a radiant, disc-shaped divine halo.
Horus glanced back at the Nile River not far behind Him, then looked around at the desolation, skillfully twisting His bird head into a mocking expression.
"Standing on the earth, you think you can defeat Me? That's an amusing idea."
He stood there, full of openings, seemingly disinterested. But that was merely an illusion—excitement clearly shone in His eagle eyes.
"Even if that guy gave you the power to speak face-to-face with gods, you're still human," Horus said, once again managing to contort His avian face into a scornful sneer. "Humans cannot defeat us. Under divine judgment, annihilation is your fate. Accept it."
As He spoke, His power began to unfold—He looked completely recovered.
Starting at His feet, the sand began to recombine into moist soil, sprouting green buds and clothing the land in vegetation. The light from the solar disc on His head accelerated the growth process.
The desert began transforming into its ancient, glorious form—grasslands and savannas.
This was once the fertile cradle of the pyramid civilizations.
The regulated rainfall of the Upper Nile created swamps and streams throughout the region. Now, that water-rich landscape was being rebuilt on both sides of the Nile.
Hikigaya could identify trees like sycamore, fig, tamarisk, willow, and persea.
He saw the formation of marshes and streams, and even lotus flowers—once a symbol of Upper Egypt—emerging from the water.
Thousands of years of human damage to this land were being effortlessly erased by divine power.
And this revitalized land began to feed back into the god who healed it.
Just like how the desert nourished Hikigaya, the power of life and earth was making Horus's solar disc shine even brighter.
Although it was truly impressive, Hikigaya felt like this guy had forgotten something.
"Hey!" Hikigaya suddenly shouted.
That annoyed Horus, who had just been enjoying His performance so much that His bird eyes were nearly squinting from satisfaction.
"Do not disturb Me," He chided with a serious face. "I am healing this land. Can you not hear the earth spirits singing?"
Oh wow! So dedicated, almost moved to tears… not! If He was really that dedicated, why was He even here in the first place?
As a response, Hikigaya gently kicked the ground. A desiccated force spread out from that kick.
At a visible pace, the grass withered, moisture evaporated, the earth turned to stone, then crumbled apart. A path of yellow sand formed in the blink of an eye, stretching from Hikigaya's feet all the way to Horus.
"This is blasphemy—you do realize that, right?" Horus's expression twisted as He looked at the yellow scar amidst the green. "Far worse than stealing My brethren's power."
His face was like someone who had just cleaned their room only to find a turd on the bed—shaped like a gold dog head at that. That look of disgust was practically intoxicating.
"Ehh? You seem really unhappy?" Hikigaya grinned shamelessly. "But it's your own fault for zoning out in the middle of a fight."
"Hmph. It seems all the power you've stolen from My kin has made you forget something important." Horus's expression had now evolved to the stage where someone smeared that turd on His face—His gaze was practically unhinged.
"That last strike of yours—can't do it again, right? Strong as it was, you're still just a human. Not fit to manifest divine miracles." He stepped toward Hikigaya.
With each step, His aura grew more terrifying, as if some monstrous force was gestating within Him.
Hikigaya wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but Horus did seem more muscular than before. As he was thinking that, Horus casually threw a punch from a distance.
The punch alone created a storm. The newly grown vegetation was the first to suffer—ripped out and hurled along with the storm straight toward Hikigaya. And all of that happened in an instant.
"What the hell?" Hikigaya was stunned, but his body reacted swiftly.
He drew his hands across his chest, and a burst of light erupted from his body, shielding him and surging into the storm. As phantom silhouettes of trees and leaves appeared, the storm dissipated.
Still, Hikigaya was a little shaken—because that storm wasn't divine power at all.
It was just wind pressure from the punch. Horus's fist had suddenly become something truly terrifying.
"No matter what weird tricks you're pulling, it doesn't matter. You're not the only one who can do an area-of-effect attack!"
Feeling bullied, Hikigaya stepped forward in return.
The ground that had just been healed began to tremble. Faster than before, the earth shattered, moisture drained, and all of Horus's restoration was undone, returning to endless yellow sand.
And that was just the beginning. The desert kept trembling, then began to flow.
Finally, a deep power from beneath the earth surged upward. Gravel lifted off the ground, and with a thunderous roar, a sand tsunami nearly a hundred meters high rose up—rushing toward Horus and the Nile behind Him.
Originally, he had planned to roll a rice ball, but plans never keep up with changes. So, a sandstorm burial would have to do. Getting to copy some flashy manga move was actually pretty satisfying.
"You want to sever the river like Set once did? I won't let you succeed."
Facing the sky-high sandstorm, Horus clearly didn't understand the poetic flair in Hikigaya's heart. He shouted, then began to run.
Then, to Hikigaya's disbelief, Horus charged the oncoming sand tsunami and began punching it.
Not just once or twice. So many times that Hikigaya didn't even bother to count.
He simply saw Horus, at godspeed, unleash a flurry of punches with no technique—just brute force, forming a storm of fists.
And just like that, the hundred-meter sand wave was blasted apart before Hikigaya's eyes.
Not merely shattered—it was pulverized beyond visibility. Hikigaya had no idea what it even turned into.
"Antaeus?!" he suddenly remembered.
Back in Egypt's Second Dynasty, the Church of Horus had absorbed the cult of an ancient war god.
That unlucky guy was later worshiped as a manifestation of Horus.
In Greek mythology, he was known as Antaeus—said to be invincible as long as he stood on the ground, until someone picked him up and strangled him midair.
No wonder Horus suddenly went full One Punch Man style. Well, knowing the weakness makes things easier.
Lifting him into the air or whatever… yeah, no thanks. That'd be disgusting.
Though he wasn't sure if it was his imagination again, Hikigaya felt like he could hear the voices of the Yukinoshita sisters and that clown Hazazi in the distance.