Now This Is Beautiful. Splendid.
Silence.
The soldiers stand still. The scene before them was perplexing. Their enemy had stood. Lord Hercules never lost a battle after launching an attack on his foe.
However, contrary to their expectations, this guy stood up and acted as if nothing ever happened. He even countered and was able to bring their leader to his knees in a single attack. Mind you, his guard was up full force.
Activating his divinity once again, Hercules enters a battle stance. Horus, in response, charges up [Daybreak].
Instinctively, Horus knows how to activate this upgraded version of [Sunrise]. By holding his hand in a cupping motion, the energy inside Horus surfaces. The activation of this ability is a bit different than the other time he had used it.
Instead of gathering the surrounding solar energy, the power is generated from his new authority, [Incandescent Luminosity]. By generating the inner energy from his authority that is acquired passively, he can power up most things he can think of.
A blistering heat so hot, it begins to melt the surrounding stone wall in a radius of 25 meters into a molten glass-like gooey substance. The blistering heat reaches a scorching temperature of 1500°C.
The soldiers caught in its heat began to smoke. Their leather armor caught on fire as the metal swords and shields in their hands turned molten. Their skin burning and charring black. All except one soldier who sensed the increasing heat. He'd jumped down the wall, sliding along it using his sword to slow his fall.
Even breathing is a terrible labor for them. At this point, these soldiers are essentially being cooked alive within a matter of seconds.
Strangled screaming began to sound from along a 50-meter radius, the heat reaching that far.
Even the soldiers on the ground behind the wall could feel the heat and began to sweat buckets. If not for their armor, you'd think they were in a sauna.
At full power, the temperature of reached a whopping 3000°C. A ball of light the size of a marble at the center, smaller and bigger tendrils of light begin to waft off of it and disperse into the air.
Plasma-like bursts from it as reaches the size of handball.
Shifting his gaze from the ball of energy to Hercules, Horus benignly says, " Let this be the final thing you see and feel in this world; a beautiful Sunrise."
With that being said, he leaps forward with in his hand as he launches it into Hercules' abdomen. Much too fast for Hercules to react, the energy ball then propels him through the castle wall, high into the air, and off into the distance.
Coincidentally, this reminds Horus of two scenes from two different animé. A human releasing a ball of magic in the appearance of the sun. And a Grey alien flinging some buff chick into the air where he then faces away from her before an explosion occurs.
'Damn. Am I in an animé? Why are my moves so anime-like? Is it going—' Horus thinks, a bit skeptical, but is soon cut off as an ear-piercing explosion sounds far from above.
Looking out at the distance, Horus smirks, then, laughs heartily as embers fall from the sky.
"Now this is beautiful. Splendid," Horus says aloud in between laughs. Horus then looks at the burnt soldiers.
"God, this smell is awful. I need to temper my senses. I don't know how the cannibals even like the smell. It smells worse than a dead person. Speaking of death, the zombie virus will occur in the future. I'll have to prevent that," Horus says as he observes the distant horizon where Hercules is falling.
The skies surrounding the entire capital of Morocco changed from a vibrant blue to a deep yellow-orange. The deep yellow-orange shines through dark-gray clouds that blanket the skyline as well.
All 100 miles of the sky is covered in ash while embers fall slowly to the ground below.
Not wasting any more time, Horus called the ash and embers falling from the sky to himself and condensed them into a black ball of swirling mass of ash and light using his sky divinity.
The soldiers who'd witnessed Hercules getting one-shotted all fell to their knees. Losing all hope of winning the battle against a literal god. Albeit a young god.
"No, Lord Hercules couldn't lose just like that! He's the strongest in the world," a soldier cries with tears in his eyes. The thought of Hercules's death struck fear into every soldier's mind who're on the ground.
With this proclamation, other soldiers began to also feel the loss of hope. Their leader's strong back no longer protects them.
'What the… are these guys his disciples? Why are they this dispirited? Could he be their life and blood in battle?' Horus thinks as a look of disappointment appears on his face.
'Oh, well, time to end this.'
As Horus pointed the ash ball at soldiers, the ball flew out at incredible speed. An explosion occurs 4 microseconds later. Following the clearance of smoke, Horus is surprised to see the silhouette of a man.
Then, to his dismay, Hercules is standing where the ball made contact with his arms crossed, effectively blocking the attack.
"Eh? You survived?"
The scene was something Horus had not anticipated. He's 70% stronger than Hercules and yet, this guy managed to survive a full-powered [Daybreak]? Even if it's just the affects, the ball was still 800°F.
Someone has to be playing a joke on him.
'How the hell did he survive? I know this is Earth-616, but he is not supposed to be this strong.'
As the smoke cleared, Horus sees that the previous damage had done was not small at all.
The spaulders on his shoulders are nowhere to be seen. And his helmet is long gone. The exposed flesh of his body was burned so badly, some bones can be seen.
In the other places, his body had healed quite a bit but not all the way. His head is an example. Hercules's face and physique are grotesque images of muscles and bones.
The rows of teeth on his jaws could be seen as there were no lips to cover them. Holes where cheeks should be exposed a tongue. All in all, Hercules currently resembles a cross between a certain colossal Titan and brawler Titan from a no-named anime.
Uncrossing his arms, Hercules grimaces as his forearms slowly heal while it stitches the skin back together.
The damage from should have killed Hercules and yet he's still breathing. Albeit barely.
Taking a closer inspection of Hercules, Horus manages to find out exactly why he was able to survive.
The power radiating off of Hercules is quickly rising with each passing second. Thinking back a bit before he threw , he remembers Hercules's divinity being much weaker than his current self.
So, what is the reason why he is getting stronger this fast?
Appearing in a trance-like state for a second, a series of images and calculative formulas suddenly appears in Horus's mind. The POV changes as it flows into his ear and down the canal as it passes vessels until it shows his brain pulsating.
As if in a eureka moment, Horus snaps out of his trance and snaps his fingers.
"Brain blast!"
This trance was a hyper-quantification calculation sequence comparable to a supercomputer with a computing system of 1 teraflop which is equal to 1 trillion calculations a second.
It doesn't take a genius to understand that Horus made an exuberant amount of possible reasons why Hercules is steadily growing stronger in under a second.
Shifting back to reality, Horus addresses Hercules, "So, you've managed to awaken your divinity. I've never heard of a Demigod awakening a divinity. I must say, you're quite talented.
Nonetheless, no matter how talented you are, your head will fall before my feet. Your divinity, if that's what you call would call it, is an adaptive type isn't it? The longer you fight, the stronger you get. Am I right?"
Not able to make any real facial expressions, Hercules is shocked that Horus was able to deduce the functions of his divinity. Not even his father guessed his divinity right off the bat.
Horus guessing his divinity dumps his plan of long-term fighting down the drain. With no other choice but to fight the hard way, Hercules strengthens his resolve.
As the seconds ticked by, the wounds covering Hercules's body are 93% healed. Feeling more like himself as the moments go by, he points at Horus.
"Today, black man, is the day I will put you in your place and be crowned as a new god of Olympus," Hercules says, a triumphant gleam in his eyes.
"Your death…
Will fuel my success."
Still pointing at Horus, Hercules gathers his divinity and empowers himself. The lines begin to form an outline around his hands.
Soon, thick metal gloves made of unknown material appear in place of the white lines. These are Hercules's famed gauntlets, the Nemean Cestus.
With a speed he is not used to, Hercules rushes in front of Horus and unleashes a fast punch that blows right by Horus as he failed to hit his target. The force of the punch was so great, everything behind Horus was obliterated in a 50ft radius.
Meanwhile, Horus just stands there untouched. A sort of thin barrier passively surrounds him which is a testament to his power as the air pressure split when coming into contact with him.
"You seemed to have missed your mark. Here, let me show you how it's done," immediately after saying that, Horus throws a simple punch containing 30% of his full power which then directly hits Hercules dead-center in his solar plexus.
The effect this punch has on Hercules is not small at all. The muscles where his solar plexus is located are now mangled and dented.
Barely moving, mouth agape with drool flowing from the left corner of his lips, a shocked expression is apparent on Hercules' face. Right now, he resembles a certain red-haired alien from planet Namek.
About a minute later, Hercules is finally able to regain a bit of control over his body and falls over.
Wheezing and coughing loudly while hunched over on the ground, Hercules looks at Horus.
"W-what the… hell… was that?!" he asks, perplexed, talking through gasping breaths.
"Eh? What do you mean by "what was that"? It was just 30% of my power and you're already struggling this much? Come on. Show me your true strength," Horus replies, with a bit of disappointment.
Seeing Hercules as a way to train himself, especially knowing his divinity, Horus did not want to let this mid-tier training arc go to waste.
Raising his foot, Horus begins to apply pressure onto Hercules's back.
Then, to his un-surprise, Hercules discharges some type of force from Nemean Cestus beneath Horus's foot that pushes him a bit off balance which then allows Hercules to escape from underneath Horus's foot.
Not letting his only chance of attack escape, Hercules Sparta kicks Horus in the chest. This launches him back at a speed of about 100mph. Jumping forward at an astonishing pace, Hercules then grabs Horus's left foot and drags him along the ground.
After a quick round of dragging, Hercules and Horus were fast approaching a mountain ahead of them. At about 90m, Hercules hurls Horus as hard as he could into the base of the mountain.
Upon impact, Horus's beaked mouth opens wide as the air is knocked from his lungs and spittle flies from it.
"OOOPH!!!"
Rocks are flung outward from the place of Horus's landing. A giant human-shaped hole is seen as Horus is inside of it, seemingly dazed.
A split second after Horus makes an impact with the mountain, Hercules is there. He then wraps his giant hand around Horus's face and proceeds to scrape it against the side of the mountain as though he's trying to get the last bit of salsa on his chip.
Stopping for a split second, Hercules kicks Horus in the chest twice.
"For a second back there, I thought I would have died to your attacks. Now, seeing the pitiful state you're in, you are nothing. I got to say, you are quite powerful for someone of your age. But, alas, you were bound to fail. For I am the Mighty Hercules."
After stating this, Hercules does a Hulk Hogan pose.
At this point, Horus's thoughts are on a different matter.
'I wonder what would happen if I use my space divinity with the light divinity. Will it make a star collapsing in on itself or would that just be a black hole?' Horus wonders as he rubs his beaked chin with his thumb and index fingers.
'I'll try that on him later. Let's get busy.'
Looking up, Horus sees a flash as Hercules releases a discharge of energy that pushes him further inside.
Increasing his power even more, Hercules begins to pummel Horus into the mountain. The ground quakes at every blow that lands on Horus. Cracks begin to web out as Horus and Hercules are now in the middle of the mountain.
Huge boulders fall from far above. The top of the mountain explodes as Hercules blasts from it. Landing beside the opening, Hercules folds his arms.
A strange scene occurs. He unfolds his arms and leaves the Nemean Cestus between them. With his hands outstretched and facing the hole, he begins charging up an attack. A loud humming noise going up many octaves sound aloud.
~BEEP-BEEP. HUMMM~
He keeps charging and 12 seconds later, he screams, "Burn in Hell. HAAAAAAA." Simultaneously, a bright flash of red light shoots from both his hands down into the opening of the hole.
Soon, the hole begins to shine a bright red as well. The entrance cracks under the pressure of the energy blasts. In the distance east of his position, a beam of light bursts from the ground. The light beam soon becomes hundreds as it wasn't the only one to burst from the ground.
***
BACK AT THE WALL,
The soldiers left alive quickly got up on the walls, watching things transpire. Though they couldn't see from that distance, they sure could feel and hear the power emanating from the fight.
Then, to their dismay, a flash of red light shines so bright it clashes with the blue sky. The two colors clash on the horizon. The older man with the beard from earlier could be seen running along the wall toward the telescope. However, the young soldier from last time was also there.
"Out of the way, brat," the older soldier says while shoving the kid aside.
Through the telescope, he sees the silhouette of Hercules atop the mountain. Then, realizes where the red light is coming from and smiles. What's more, is that he knows what this move is. As the oldest soldier under Hercules's command, he's privy to information and sights revolving around Hercules.
The first and last time he had seen him use that move was when he was a recruit sent to be Hercules's guide. However, upon getting to his location, he's met with brain-rattling, heart-crushing pressure. Hercules was in the middle of a battle with a green, black-spotted, humanoid insect monster.
That was when he has seen him charge up the move and ultimately kill it. The only thing left of it was some sort of crystal gem which he still has kept to this day around his neck.
Hercules later revealed to him that move was his ultimate attack. .
Now, that the old soldier knows Hercules used his most powerful move, he was overjoyed. So much so that he grabbed the young soldier and hugged him hollering, "We're saved, men. Lord Hercules has won!"
The other soldiers look a bit skeptical as they had seen the condition Hercules was in.
Who says their leader won? He was beaten so badly that all of his skin was burned off. They couldn't even recognize him. A lot of the young soldiers vomited after seeing that gory sight.
One of the braver soldiers spoke up, "But, Sir, we saw Lord Hercules get beaten up. His flesh was seared from his bones. How can you be certain he has gained victory?"
Another soldier with a bucket on his head chimes in, "Yeah, are you certain, captain? You aren't so scared that you've become delusional, right?"
Taking a moment to look around, he sees that the majority of his men aren't as thrilled as he is. Anger wells up inside him as their belief in Hercules isn't as sitting as he thought it would be.
Not knowing how he got there, the old soldier smacks the second soldier in the head.
"Idiots! Do you think I would rejoice if I'm not sure? Listen and let me open your dog ears. The red light in the distance is Lord Hercules's ultimate move, .
I had personally seen him use it. He completely decimated the surrounding area while keeping the blast radius at a minimum. The ground and dirt all turned into charcoal due to the immensity of the heat," the old soldier replies, a proud look on his face as he sees the astonishment on their faces.
With this said, they all began to celebrate. A battle they thought ending inevitably with their defeat. Death is their only escape.
With a ground-shaking, "THUMP", Hercules lands in the front hole of the castle wall.
The smiles on the soldiers' faces immediately deaden. They all turn around to see…
"LORD HERCULES!"
The old soldier shouts ahead. Hercules smiles at the man who shouted.
"It is I. Glad to see you're still alive, old friend," Hercules says back to the old soldier known as Archimedes.
"Yes, Lord Hercules. I never gave up hope that you would emerge victorious. I was jus—" The old soldier is cut off because the air is sucked clean from his lungs.
Not just his, but everyone present could not breathe. Suddenly, a giant shadow is cast down from above them.
Looking up, they see Horus floating high above surrounded by the sun's glow.
Flying a bit towards them, he turns himself upright and raises his left index finger above his head. A speck of orange light enlarges to about the size of a large house. This is one of Horus's newly created ultimate moves.
The clouds above are quickly evaporated as the heat is too much for them to still exist.
"You thought you could defeat me? A God of— never mind that. This is your end. Die a good death…," Horus says as he flings the gigantic sun down to earth.
"".
{A/N: Just look up Escanor Final Prominence on YouTube. The ultimate is so cool.}
As the humungous energy ball neared closer, all the soldiers began to turn to ash. Upon touching the ground, completely engulfs the entire army at the castle wall. Everyone ceases to exist.
"Looks like my work here is done. Well,
Not quite."