Chapter 175: My Son Is Too Strong (2)

“Damn you, son...”

I reached out for my holy sword. There was no time to pull it out, so I blocked Uburka the Muscle Pig’s fist with the scabbard. Our auras clashed fiercely.

Booooom!

“

Oh

?” Uburka muttered.

I deliberately took advantage of the impact and put some distance between Uburka and me. The space gave me time to grip my sword properly and take a stance so that I could deal with the muscle pig properly.

“Good. Very good!” Uburka smiled, his cheerfulness evident. “You’re quite slender, but you have quite dense muscles. Did you add the weight of your soul to your physical weight?”

“I only grow functional muscles, you rude bastard!”

“

Ugor?

Functional muscles? What are those?”

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“They’re magical muscles that keep you slender but have the potential to infinitely increase your physical strength! Functional muscles are the essential quality of a master martial artist! Muscles that show off are nothing but a symbol of an amateur!”

“Kekerukker, you have quite a bark...” Uburka muttered.

He looked bewildered, so much that his breathing slowed for a moment. People’s brains tended to freeze when faced with too much bullshit, and Uburka was not immune to this effect. Making use of this moment of confusion, I lunged at him.

“

Hmm

?”

Uburka’s red eyes widened. He was much bigger than an average Terra, meaning he was easier to hit. I wrapped aura around the scabbard and swung it like a club.

“I’m sorry, child! I’ll be gentle!”

Uburka grinned. “

Ugor.

”

He looked down at me as I charged into his arms. Without a word, he simply watched me head for his torso with my sheathed sword. No attempt to twist around or use his arms to block was made.

Claaaaaang!

An impossible sound rang out. It wasn’t a

thump

or a

slash

, but a

clang

. My hands felt numb as if I had hit a piece of metal.

“Do you have an Indestructible Body?”

“My body is made up of muscles,” Uburka laughed, showing his fangs. “I was born with albinism. When I was exposed to sunlight, it stung my skin. My eyesight was also bad, so I had a hard time living. It was impossible for me to apply mud under the hot, blazing sun. Being unable to enjoy ordinary aspects of life brought me endless agony, until I had a realization one day!”

Uburka spread open his arms. “If I cover myself with aura, then my issues simply disappear!”

Holy...

“From that day on, I devoted myself to aura training. First, I practiced coating aura all over my skin, even if I could only do it for one second! Eventually I could keep it up for two seconds, then three. I eventually managed to maintain my aura for a minute, which quickly turned into three. When I achieved using my aura for more than an hour, that’s when I became an adult. By the time I could do it for more than a day, I became the council’s chairman. For me, an innate deficiency was only a minor obstacle!”

The hobgoblin assumed the posture of a bodybuilder, his biceps popping out. If I had eaten greasy food, I would have gagged. Watching this strange display made my brain hurt.

“I even trained my bones so my aura can seep into my muscles! When my muscles are torn, my aura helps them regenerate. The regenerated muscles then absorb aura much more easily. By tearing and regenerating my muscles over and over again, I gained the ultimate muscles!”

Uburka’s left and right pecs popped one after another. Amazing. My mind was taking significant hits even though he wasn’t physically attacking me. This hobgoblin was probably on the same level as an Absolute-Tier martial artist.

“Now, I can control every muscle at will, from the thinnest to the thickest! Muscles and aura! Aura and muscles! This is the muscle path that I created!”

He managed to make bullshit sound so sophisticated.

“I don’t know why, but no one can do this except me. Poor things! It’s simple if you think of it like reassembling your entire body from head to toe when you use your aura.”

“

Huh

? Hey, wait a minute... Isn’t that more like metamorphosis—”

The first Terra to be given the title of Metamorphosed Muscle Pig yelled, “You, who may be my father! You are stronger than I thought! Very good! It’s been a while since I met someone I can hit without holding back. Don’t just use your scabbard. Attack me with all you’ve got!”

“Wow, I’m really not the person to be calling you out but, seriously, is combat the only thing you ever think about...?”

“Mind is body! Will is strength! Knowledge is flesh!”

The muscles that were shifting like bubbling magma were growing bigger. It felt as if I was watching the maw of a volcano on the verge of eruption. They kept getting bigger and bigger.

“W-what? Child...?” I asked.

Eventually, Uburka became enormous. Without exaggeration, he was as big as a hill. I was just an unnoticeable dot in his shadow.

“Didn’t you become too big...?”

He didn’t actually get bigger physically. It was his aura that transformed and made him look like the pilot of a giant mecha. In other words, the “mecha” was made entirely of aura!

“

Phew.

”

Uburka took a simple step, but the earth vibrated in response.

I felt like Thumbelina because I had to look up at Uburka. “You’re formidable. Can you become smaller again? Dad is getting a little scared...”

“This is my true self!” Uburka roared. “From my knuckles to my punches, everything moves according to my will! You who call yourself the White Lion, my fist will pierce your heart!”

“Hey, hey! I told you I’m your father! Kinda! This is immoral!”

“Good. If I have to become immoral to seize victory, then I will gladly do that!” Uburka yelled confidently.

A fist the size of a house fell toward my head, casting a shadow all around me.

Motherfucking Aura Arts Giant Style.

Form Zero:

Crushing Fist.

The name couldn’t have been any worse than that!

“What is up with that name?” I grumbled.

“The value of a martial art style is proven not by its name but by its power!”

He certainly had a point. At the cost of a cool name, Uburka gained a very high amount of destructive power.

The ground was split apart in one blow. The second attack ground the dirt into fine dust. Upon the third strike, the bedrock was revealed, but Uburka continued to slam his fists into the ground without stopping, eventually shattering even the bedrock. Because the heated aura ground the soil, a lot of the soil melted into mud, which splashed onto my face, making me look like a mouse that stuck its head out of a sewage drain on a rainy day.

“Hot, hot, hot!” I screamed while dodging Uburka’s waves of attacks. “You savage bastard! The whole world will lament about your savageness.

Ah

, I really didn’t raise you guys like this!”

—Cut the bullshit, Zombie. I don’t think you can go easy on them because you’re the one who raised them,

the Guardian commented while I was busy dodging incoming attacks by omni-directional tap dancing[1].

Like he said, fight with all you got. Even in gangho, parents and children split up and fight each other occasionally. There is also a crackhead sect that makes parricide their tradition.

I unsheathed my sword. “Damn it! I don’t recognize you guys anymore!”

“I’ve been like this for a long time!”

“Do you really think you should be proud of that?!”

I drew up my aura. What I pictured in my head were fires and a certain underground torture chamber in a mansion.

A child in chains stretches his hand. His hand is the waving fire.

The grudge from that premature death and the fire heated up my heart in an instant. These emotions would become blurry if left to time, but I materialized the scenery of the mansion’s underground floor, expressing it through my aura.

My shadow is the basement’s shade. My fire is the child’s hand.

I didn’t bury myself in emotions or get caught up in the scenery. Fire was not one to care about people and their lives; it’s only craving was to become big enough to engulf the whole world. Thus, the tip of my sword became someone’s fingertip, and my sword turned into our shared scream.

New Demonic Heaven Arts.

First Form:

Fireblaze.

Burn.

“

Hahahaha

! I see!”

My aura moved through the shadow like a snake, binding my opponent’s giant aura-manifested wrist. But my fire and shadow were tougher, hotter, and stronger.

“I’m sure of it now!”

After I cut off the giant left wrist, Uburka swung his right arm to shake me off. Was he trying to put some distance between us? He probably needed some time to reorganize his stance.

I got closer and ducked to avoid the incoming punch. The moment the giant right fist swung in the air, I captured the giant’s right fist with my fire and shadow. One, two, three dozens of aura strands held down the giant’s arm, which went up in flames.

“There’s no doubt about it! You’re Kekerukker!”

Uburka tried to restore the giant arm. I guess he still had enough aura left. In that case, all I had to do was cut off the giant’s limbs faster than Uburka could restore them with his aura.

“Have you descended on this land for the sake of my species after six hundred years of dormancy?”

I cut down the giant’s left foot before the left arm sprouted back, the right foot before the left foot grew back, and once more the left arm just before the right one regenerated. Slowly but surely, I was cutting down the giant.

“You’re nothing short of your legends! No, allow me to correct myself! The legends didn’t do you justice!”

I continued hacking away at the giant.

“Awesome!

Ugor!

You’re so awesome! Rather than strengthening yourself, you chose to carry others’ legacies with you!”

I buried the giant in the blazing grave he had dug himself earlier while trying to strike me.

“I didn’t know aura, the fire of one’s soul, can be used this way!”

Like a sheet of paper, the giant was being devoured by fire, getting smaller and smaller. Since the giant’s aura was also red, it looked as if an inferno was consuming a small flame.

A thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Is it really necessary to separate the two?

Uburka became strong enough to extend his arms and legs using aura. Aura expands oneself. As for me, I copied someone’s screams and brought them into this world.

My red aura continued burning.

Is there any reason both shouldn’t be done at the same time?

A spark crackled in my brain.

I’m trying to copy Teacher’s Demonic Heaven Arts and apply it to mine. But is there really a need for me to scream by myself? I can carry all the karma and draw on all the resentment on my own. But should I really do that?

I kept considering the principles of aura utilization.

No.

Finally, I found the solution.

Anyone can become fire.

I said, “Uburka, do something for me.”

“

Ugor?

”

Should I tell him what the underground mansion looks like? No.

“Think of Slimepolis, the dark underground city,” I told him.

He needed something he was familiar with.

“Six hundred years ago, you lived in pits dug in the ground. About thirteen Terras huddled together in a pit every day. Among them, there were some young Terras. Those children had never seen the sun, felt the rain on their skin, or been able to apply mud to their skin to their hearts’ content.”

Uburka, the strongest warrior in the history of Terras, watched me as I cornered him.

“Think of those children. A few fish were distributed to every pit every morning and evening. That was all they could eat. The mothers carefully grilled the minnows, which had very little meat. Can you imagine that for me?”

“I can.”

“The narrow pits became thick with acrid smoke. The mothers gurgled and the children coughed. But they couldn’t leave that place. The Shellmount guards had their tentacles perked up while watching them. Can you think of the smoke in the cramped pits and the coughing of feeble parents and their children?”

“I can.”

I parried the giant’s fist with my sword. “A young Terra reached for a fish that wasn’t yet fully cooked. The mother slapped her child’s hand away, even grabbing their wrist to stop them. In fact, the possibility of getting slapped was always there, but those children kept reaching for uncooked fish whenever they got the chance because they were hungry. If their mothers stopped them, they would have whined or even cried.”

“

Hmm.

”

“In the end, the parents had no choice but to give the fish to their children as soon as they were slightly cooked. The children ate them up before looking at the fish on the grill, silently asking for more.”

I struck away the giant’s wrist with the hilt of my sword, leaving Uburka vulnerable. I used this opening to my advantage and swung my sword again. The giant was growing smaller.

“Think of the children’s gazes and hands. Imagine how the mother looked at her child when she grabbed their hand to stop them. Picture all the smoke paths of the pits. I know you can do it.”

“

Ugor.

”

“Capture them in your heart.”

The giant swung its fist. I dodged and even altered the direction of the punch.

“Imitate them. Scream.”

The giant turned.

“Your species knows how to sing their sorrows using fire. A flame is nothing more than a simple fire, but you can read its emotions by looking at the angle at which it swirls, rises, and rekindles. Aura is no different. You have a symbol for the sky. You perform Cavefire at funerals. Why wouldn’t you be able to capture the sky or sadness with aura? Embrace them in your heart.”

The giant dropped to one knee. I hit its shin to help it regain his balance, making it stand up. The giant’s fist swing turned into a straight punch.

“Howl.”

Fire blazed from the giant’s fist, splitting in five different directions. The five blazing strands, each one resembling the tongue of a snake, also divided into five more strands. Now, there were twenty-five in total.

Uburka looked down at his fist. Some flames were softer, others not so much. None of them resembled Uburka’s usual movements. Although the attack was still at a rudimentary level, it certainly resembled the Demonic Heaven Arts.

I nodded. “Not bad. As expected from the most gifted genius of all times. That’s how you do it, my child.”

Uburka said, “Papa... You’re too strong.”

1. The author seems to be making a reference to the Omni-Directional Gear used in Attack on Titan? ☜