Chapter 45: Hachiman Happily Creates Life
Hachiman no longer cared about what would happen between the two Horuses. In the darkness, his body emitted light as he flew north.
The aftereffects of the Sera volcano eruption were already showing their power. Tens of millions of tons of magma being expelled from the crust carried a vast amount of volcanic material into the sky. This would bring several days of darkness and lower temperatures to the Aegean Sea and its surroundings, including Lower Egypt.
This was also the sixth plague that the Bible describes God bringing upon the Egyptians.
Compared to the Cretan civilization, which would be severely damaged by the tsunami, and Sera, which would be directly buried by volcanic debris flows, the Egyptians were comparatively lucky.
Hachiman could finally perform the last task he wanted to accomplish before leaving this era—just as Nuwa molded humans from clay in ancient times, today he would create a girl from light.
Just joking. In reality, Mariya Hikari, transformed into light by Horus, was what he intended to work with.
Using the immense power of the Sera volcano, Hachiman, having easily defeated Horus, used the "sun god arrows" that plundered all abundance to extract this girl from Horus's body—but it was only light.
Yes, a girl named Hikari(Hikari means Light in Japanese) became literal light. This seemed perfectly reasonable.
Volcanic material floating in the clouds dispersed quickly. Soon after Hachiman left Sera Island, most of the sunlight was already blocked, and a dark canopy covered both land and sea, resembling the lightless underworld of myth.
Looking down, Hachiman saw the ocean churning into massive waves. By this time, the northern coast of Crete should already have been struck by the tsunami.
Such a geological disaster, even in a modern state three thousand years later, would be difficult to resist.
However, this opened a new perspective for Hachiman on how to more effectively use the powers of Set and Poseidon in the future.
He swiftly traversed the dim sky until he saw the outline of the land—the Balkan Peninsula of this era.
The strongest people on this continent were not yet the ancient Greeks, but the Mycenaeans.
Compared to Crete, which was close to Sera, the Mycenaeans had a much stronger capacity to withstand this disaster—they were, after all, a civilization rooted in the mainland.
The volcano had ended Crete's golden age. Without the Cretans suppressing them, Mycenaean civilization would now prosper.
Hachiman landed on the coast. Behind him, waves over ten meters high indicated the approaching tsunami.
But first, he saw a group of panicked Mycenaeans.
Unlike later eras, different civilizations and peoples had distinctive clothing styles. If Minoan attire differed greatly from classical Greek clothing, the Mycenaeans already showed the beginnings of Greek "chitons," the origin of Greek domestic dress.
These Mycenaeans were clearly unprepared for the incoming tsunami, which also helped Hachiman confirm his location. Their territory lay northeast of the Peloponnesus, between what would become Athens and Sparta.
After establishing his position, Hachiman ignored the Mycenaeans. He faced the tsunami, raised his hand, and struck.
Not because he cared about them, but the tsunami had arrived the moment he landed, showing no respect and interfering with his civilized style.
The towering wave was split in two by his strike. The force driving it was mostly nullified. By the time it reached the shore, its power had diminished to a level humans could withstand. The once-thundering ocean had calmed considerably.
Hachiman nodded in satisfaction and strode onward.
He entered a forest deep in the mainland and found a suitable spot. Then, he began preparing to mold the girl—well, prepare Mariya Hikari's light.
Whether Sun Wukong or Horus, both could easily transform humans into light, demonstrating their profound mastery over the essence of life.
For a god-slayer with control over natural forces, this technique was not unfamiliar. The difference was that a god-slayer changed their own body essence, not someone else's.
Unlike natural forms such as wind, rain, or lightning, the form of light was both powerful and fragile. For a human, it allowed complete exertion of power but meant that their life force was entirely unprotected. In Mariya Hikari's case, her power in this form manifested like a game-style "XX aura."
Her abilities, rare among shrine maidens, could neutralize curses. In theory, a god-slayer's cursed-power-based ability could also be nullified, but given the enormous amount involved, whether it was neutralized or not didn't matter—but the effect still existed, which was troublesome.
In combat, Hachiman didn't care; he could prevent opponents from living normally. But for saving someone, the nullifying aura was obstructive.
Hachiman first cleared a flat area with wind, then killed all life on the ground with death power, baked the land dry with heat, and sat down.
A proper workspace had to be clean to work joyfully.
He opened his palms, and streams of light overflowed, gradually forming a sphere before him.
This was the life essence of Mariya Hikari.
Hachiman's task was to reverse it with his cursed power, restoring her to human form.
Feeling the change in her essence, he output a trace of cursed power. Sure enough—it was nullified.
Hachiman remained calm and gradually increased the output.
In this era, precision control of power and cursed energy made Voban the absolute master. Hachiman was far behind but had long realized its importance and trained continuously.
Compared to when he first became a god-slayer, Hachiman's micro-control over power had reached a new level.
About half an hour later, he touched the critical point of the light. The amount was small, but sufficient for him to alter her essence.
Now he could output freely.
Hachiman's ability to change body essence stemmed from celestial phenomena and the "Shooting Sun / Daily Sun" powers. Only the latter could encompass light. The Sun God arrows plundered all abundance, and light was among the targets, granting Hachiman the ability to transform into light.
As he released cursed power beyond Mariya Hikari's critical point—without harming her life—his body radiated sunlight. Two different lights intertwined.
Being the first time, Hachiman had to simultaneously manipulate her life-light to ensure her body essence transformed smoothly.
A faint humanoid silhouette of light began to take shape…
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting