New Toy?

STILL IN THE AIR,

Horus observes the view below as he waits for the smoke to clear. He had used over 50% of his strength in that last attack.

'That should do it. I guess this arc is over. What a disappointment. To let your guard down at the end of a fight is asking to be defeated. Who says that you killed me? You can only blame yourself,' Horus thinks to himself as the smoke is taking longer than expected to clear.

Not waiting any longer, Horus uses his Expanse authority to clear the smoke.

"WHAT THE HELL. ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Horus shouts, flabbergasted at the sight before him.

Hercules is still intact. Well, intact is an overstatement. The current Hercules is nothing but bones and a bit of flesh. That bit of flesh is his brain.

His eye sockets are hollow. Only a red light as big as a marble shines in them.

"How the hell is he still alive? This should not be possible! <Final Prominence> should have been at least 1500°C."

Horus was not even close. The temperature that his ultimate reached was a whopping 2500°C. That's almost half of the temperature of the sun which is 5740°C.

One may be wondering how does Horus know that Hercules survived.

Earlier, when Horus had semi-awakened, his whole being received a qualitative leap including his soul.

That includes his divinities which evolved into authorities but were more so affected by his evolution authority. They now have some autonomy.

His <Divine Sense> changed from an active skill to a passive skill.

His evolution divinity, now an authority called <Adaptation>, sensed that his actively using <Divine Sense> during battle could lead to his death due to him not being aware of his opponent's state of being.

So, as a result, it relayed its concerns to Horus's soul which then synced to his brain, system, and the virus to create a sort of subconscious use of this active skill that will remain active after initial use.

In this case, Horus is now aware when finally activating <Divine Sense> for the first time after semi-awakening.

Focusing on Hercules's mostly skeletal figure, Horus can now detect signs of life. Or more accurately, Hercules's life energy. The stronger a being is, the larger and more dense their life energy is.

As for Hercules, his life energy is near depleted but is quickly filling up.

After completely incinerating everything in a 5-mile radius, Hercules suffered a huge defeat. His men were reduced to ashes, leaving nothing behind. Not even their weapons remained; just molten black heaps.

Everything is gone except a green crystal where the old man Archimedes used to be.

Tiny root-like tendrils begin to shoot their way out of Hercules's body and connect all over his skeleton.

When all of that was completed, it then started forming the heart where new blood is then created which gave way to muscles being formed.

Next, his lungs ballooned outward as if they were deflated.

In a matter of about 5 minutes, Hercules has fully healed while still sitting on his knees, head bowed.

As if gaining consciousness, Hercules gets up and looks around himself, he's shocked that everything we destroyed.

"Archimedes?! Call out to me, my love. Please, just answer me," Hercules calls out, hoping to receive a sign that he has been heard.

As if having a life of its own, the crystal floats in the air in front of Hercules's forehead.

"Huh? This… Archimedes, is this you? Isn't this the crystal from over thirty years ago? How are you inside of it?" Suddenly, it begins to shine a cyan-green light that then merges into his brain.

In the next moment, Hercules's whole figure is completely covered in that light. Then, unexpectedly, a ball of dark energy converged on Hercules. The only indication that points to him still being there is the places where the light did not shine.

This left Hercules looking like a black and white comic book themed-man similar to how a certain anime character appears sometimes saying, "Never fear. For I am here!"

However, this wasn't all that will happen. His body begins to grow even larger than his 10ft frame. His growth doesn't stop until he's about 13ft.

His black hair changes from a dark brown to blonde with a greenish tint to it. That wasn't all as his hair grew out to a spiky length of 3ft. His eyes are now nothing but whites, only sclera.

When the light fades, what stands before any observer's eyes is a new being.

Golden, plate-like armor adorns his upper body while a black material so tight on Hercules's body, one would think it was a second skin that girded his lower body.

The person who saw all of this transpire was none other than Horus himself.

Watching the crystal float on its own and cover Hercules in its light, Horus had an ominous feeling deep within his gut.

The evolution authority reacted violently to this new development. It wanted to terminate this threat as soon as possible.

Not seeing any other choice, Horus activates <Quantification> to try and figure out the best use of destroying Hercules once and for all. Finding one, Horus uses his newly created skill, <Stellar Incubation>.

This ultimate was created by fusing the Expanse authority and Incandescent Luminosity authority.

Horus was able to make a black hole capable of not only drawing in anything but also trapping and destroying anything in its radius with a temperature close to that of the sun.

Holding the black hole above his head with both hands, Horus then condenses it to the size of a basketball and throws it with all his might in Hercules's direction.

The ball then crushed its way down onto Hercules's figure, completely engulfing him.

Within a matter of seconds, the ball disperses. A thin line of green light appears too fast for Horus to catch.

By the time the flash passed him, the hulking figure of Hercules is already behind him.

Not even turning around, Horus summons, then throws a blade in front of him. As if hitting a liquid, the space where the blade hit sends ripples throughout a 2m radius.

~DING~

A certain ding sounds aloud from behind. Confused, there's no way Horus made a mistake and sent his blade somewhere else. That sounded like metal on metal.

Then, as if being sucked into the portal, Hercules is pulled through it by a strong force.

The strong force reveals itself to be Hercules in all his green glory.

Hercules just stands there, menacingly looking down at Horus with one hand wrapped around the chains.

"Hey, uh— did you get taller by any chance? You seem a bi—"

Horus never gets to finish his sentence as Hercules pulls him in towards himself.

With a swift swipe, Hercules has Horus hanging by the neck, squeezing tightly.

"You took everything from me. However, by Zeus, I have merged with my lover and together, we will end you. Then, before you die, I will destroy this "Wakanda" you spoke of.

Everyone will you know and love will watch as I rip you limb from limb. After that—" Hercules tilts his head as if listening to someone speak.

"Hahahahaha what a sweet idea. Toy with the men you say, love? His father? Not the father? Hahahahaha. Oh, HIM!! Yes, I shall do it with all my heart, love…

He will become my new toy," Hercules says with a manic in his eyes as he's looking at Horus with a hint of lust.

"Uh, yeah. No. I'm not with all that fruity sh*t," taking that as his cue, Horus transforms into bird form and then dives downward, shifting back to humanoid form.

Landing on the ground with a metallic thud, Horus looks up to see Hercules's giant frame hurling straight for him.

"Where do you think you're going, toy?"

Hercules slams down with a punch aimed at Horus's face. Quickly jumping back, he avoids the punch.

A giant crater forms from the impact, sending rocks and dust flying everywhere.

Not giving up, Hercules continues his barrage of punches until Horus finds his opening.

Dodging two swift punches from Hercules, Horus throws a thunderous right jab that sends stops Hercules's momentum. Then, he follows up with a double kick to his abdomen.

Not done, Horus flings a right roundhouse kick but Hercules dodges it by a hair's width. However, that kick was a feint as Horus then delivers a devastating left-side kick to Hercules that sends him reeling towards the mountains and away from the capital.

As the fight continues, the surroundings become littered with craters as their clashes are too much for the earth to take.

Separating, Hercules and Horus size each other up a split second before Hercules glows green.

Accelerating 20% faster than normal, Hercules begins another round with a mighty punch. Horus tanks the punch with one of his own. Rising, they take their fight into the air.

Speeding things up, they start fighting at subsonic speeds.

They reappear only to clash again. Horus throws a right jab that Hercules counters with a left jab of his own that pushes Horus further up in altitude after he blocks it. Countering, Horus does a hammer strike that hurls Hercules back to the surface, landing on his feet.

Jumping high into the sky, Hercules throws a right punch but is blocked by Horus. All in one smooth motion, Hercules latches onto Horus and vaults behind him.

Horus sees this as Hercules delivers a back fist to his left temple. Horus flies out at break-neck speeds.