The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion-Chapter 283: Damian Vs Greek Gods - 2

"What do you mean by he is your true love, Aphrodite?" Hera asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why don’t you ask the Norse goddess of love here?" Aphrodite shrugged, trying to divert the explanation toward Freya, who shot her fellow goddess of love an annoyed look.

All the goddesses turned their attention to the Norse goddess, silently urging her to speak.

"It’s as she said. My darling is the true love of the five goddesses of love... me, Aphrodite, the Celestial Qilin Goddess of Love Avaline, Hathor of the Egyptian pantheon, and Áine of the Celtic pantheon. It’s that simple. Don’t ask how, why, or when. Even if you do ask, I’m not in the mood to talk about it," Freya said flatly before returning to ruffling Little Eden’s hair.

The goddesses sighed.

They knew they would never get answers from either Freya or Aphrodite unless those two chose to speak of it themselves.

Their gazes shifted to the pink-haired Greek goddess of love.

Aphrodite had always been strange, but now she was acting even more unusually.

Her eyes had turned into pink, heart-shaped pupils, and her figure was surrounded by a neon pink aura.

"She’s acting stronger than you, Freya," Lilith said with a small chuckle.

"I wouldn’t say stronger," Grace corrected. "More like stranger than Freya."

"Well, her divine concept of love is more obsessive, chaotic, and extreme," Freya explained calmly.

"Mine is gentler, focused on warmth, comfort, and heartfelt affection. Although we are both goddesses of love and the core of our concepts is the same, we each rule over different aspects of love. That is why it affects us differently."

BOOM!

Another explosion of light erupted, drawing the attention of the goddesses.

The Greek gods and goddesses watched in horror, while Damian’s women merely observed as if they were watching an anime, something to pass the time.

It was as though the battle to the death between the God King Zeus and their husband was nothing of concern, as if they already knew Damian would emerge victorious.

The blast sent waves of overwhelming pressure in every direction as Zeus launched himself at Damian, transforming into the embodiment of divine lightning itself.

He struck Damian with terrifying power.

Upon impact, a blinding divine light exploded outward, annihilating everything within sight.

When the light faded, Damian still stood in the same place as before.

Smoke rose from his body, and burn marks covered his skin.

Strangely, there was no blood spilling from his wounds.

That was because Damian had become too powerful, possessing such an overwhelming amount of energy that his very being had transformed into something unimaginable.

What flowed through his veins was no longer blood.

It was energy itself.

Pure.

Untainted.

The most powerful form of energy in existence.

Even when his wounds opened, they healed instantly.

Yet if someone could stop time and observe those wounds before they closed, they would see a golden layer of energy beneath his skin.

Though his outer appearance remained human, everything within him was nothing but pure, condensed energy.

Damian was already on the verge of transcending into something more than a mere vessel his body could contain.

If he wanted, with a single wave of his hand, he could have crushed Zeus like a meatball.

But Damian hadn’t had a good fight since he killed the Norse gods.

He wanted to have some fun with Zeus and his loyal sons.

That was why Damian didn’t use anything special, no battle forms, no abilities.

He concluded that his base form would be more than enough to overpower all of these gods.

"Is that all you got Zeus? Disappointing. I expected more," Damian said, shaking his head in disapproval.

"Allow me to show you what my lightning can do."

A sadistic grin formed on Damian’s face, and in the next instant, the power of the Law of Lightning exploded from his body.

In the following moment, he transformed into an embodiment of lightning itself, but unlike Zeus, he was true lightning.

Golden, silver, black, red, and purple lightning merged together in perfect harmony.

A form of lightning more unimaginably powerful than anything ever seen before took shape, born from vast powers, energies, and abilities within him, carrying the capacity to destroy anything.

Zeus’s lightning-made eyes widened.

His body, instincts, and every single aspect of his existence screamed that he could not avoid what was coming.

He immediately tried to move as his perception of time seemed to stop, but in truth, he was simply moving extremely fast.

Even then, he couldn’t see where his opponent was.

He saw nothing more than a small speck of lightning, on the verge of vanishing from the space his opponent had occupied.

He sensed an unknown danger approaching, and it came too suddenly.

Even he, moving at divine speed, couldn’t react fast enough.

He felt lightning strike him, and from that lightning, a fist emerged, piercing him directly through the solar plexus.

The impact was even greater than the attack Zeus himself had unleashed earlier.

Space itself seemed to crack apart, releasing a thunderous sound so immense that it caused reality to tremble.

The pressure was so overwhelming that a dome of energy erupted outward, annihilating everything within its range.

When the effects of the attack finally faded, everyone saw the result of what had occurred.

At the center of the destroyed and scorched land stood Damian, lifting Zeus by the neck.

Zeus had reverted to his base god form after taking too much damage and losing too much energy.

His entire body was covered in golden blood flowing from countless open wounds that refused to heal or regenerate, as though something was disrupting the very nature of his existence.

Those watching could see golden, silver, black, red, and purple lightning still clinging to Zeus’s body, as if it were devouring the god-king from within.

"I didn’t even use my full strength, you know, and I’m still in my base form, by the way. And yet you couldn’t even keep up with my speed, and you fell to a single punch," Damian sneered, glancing at Zeus’s solar plexus.

There was a gaping hole where golden blood poured endlessly, and yet the god-king was still alive, filled with agonizing vigor.

"If you weren’t a god possessing such a powerful body, you would have been annihilated. Nothing, not even ashes, would have remained. But now that I think about it, that wouldn’t be a good thing for you, would it?"

Damian tightened his grip around the God King’s neck before hurling him to the ground.

A grin formed on Damian’s face as he raised his right hand and extended his index finger.

Within seconds, a black flame with white accents, like a fusion of light and darkness, manifested at his fingertip and released an eerie, unsettling sound.

"T-That flame... it can’t be..."

"I’m sure of it. It’s the Sacred Flames of Torment," Deimos, the God of Terror, said with a shocked expression as he recognized the flame Damian wielded.

[Sacred Flames of Torment]

It was said to be an undying divine flame that could not be extinguished by anyone or anything.

This flame was unique.

It could only burn beings with souls, typically any living being, but it did not reduce them to ashes.

Instead, it inflicted all the pain and suffering of being burned alive.

The suffering itself became the fuel that allowed the flame to burn endlessly.

Because it never truly consumed its target, the torment would continue for eternity.

The victim would never grow numb, never adapt, never find relief.

Once afflicted, there would be nothing but pain until the flame was somehow extinguished.

It was easily one of the most dangerous forms of fire to exist in the universe.

Although the gods had never encountered it personally, they possessed knowledge of its existence.

Yet no one knew how it could be created or found.

Damian had conjured only a fingertip-sized portion of the [Sacred Flames of Torment], but even that was more than enough to burn everyone present.

He flicked his finger.

A tiny speck of the flame landed on Zeus, and in the next instant, it spread violently, engulfing his entire body.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH!"

Zeus screamed at the top of his lungs, but that only made things worse.

The flames seeped into his open mouth and spread throughout his body from the inside.

"That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a god or a being with absolute dominion over flames. It won’t work. All you’ll do is make it worse," Damian stated coldly. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

He doubted Zeus could hear or comprehend any of it amidst the overwhelming pain, screams, and torment.

Losing interest, Damian narrowed his eyes and turned his attention elsewhere.

His gaze settled on Ares, who stood frozen alongside his brothers, as if their very souls had been petrified.

Before Ares could react, Damian vanished, then appeared directly in front of him.

"Yo—"

Before he could utter another word, a warm yet dreadful sensation spread across his divine body.

His eyes widened as he saw Damian standing before him, gripping both of his arms, golden blood dripping from where they had been torn away.

"I-It can’t be..." Ares murmured.

In the next second, all his strength vanished, as though he had been reduced to a mere mortal.

Then came the pain.

Unquenchable agony assaulted his senses.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"