A mouthful of black powder poured into Rodos’s mouth.
“COUGH!”
Rodos coughed reflexively, but immediately clamped both hands over his mouth.
His reflexes were as quick as one would expect from a former Great Warrior.
It was precious.
It was a sacred relic that the Frost Mountain Goat Tribe had struggled to protect.
He could not afford to spill even a single grain of powder.
GULP, GULP.
Rodos drank the water from the glass bottle.
The horn powder went down his throat with the water, leaving a bitter taste behind.
Feeling the Horn of the Divine Beast enter his body, Rodos immediately sat down on the floor.
The real ordeal began now.
‘This makes me nervous.’
Rodos took a deep breath.
The moment the horn began to be absorbed into his body, everything would change.
He had to prepare himself.
He had gone through an exceedingly harsh ordeal in the past as well.
‘People called me insane back then.’
Everyone in the North knew that the Horn of the Divine Beast contained an abundance of Life Force.
‘If one grinds the Horn of the Frostwind Divine Beast into powder and consumes it, one shall obtain its Life Force.’
It was an oral tradition passed down from ancient times.
Everyone knew the tale, but no one had ever managed to prove it.
Because everyone who had tried had died.
The Life Force contained within the Horn of the Divine Beast was far too immense for a mere human to contain.
Rodos knew that very well.
If he failed to withstand its overwhelming Life Force, a horrific death awaited him.
And yet Rodos was smiling.
Before he became the Great Warrior, he had once suffered a fatal wound after fighting an unknown, formidable opponent, an injury so severe that even his regenerative ability could not heal it.
At the time, Rodos had asked the Frost Mountain Goat Tribe for help and managed to obtain a fragment of the Divine Beast’s horn so that he could heal his wounds.
The moment he ground the fragment into powder and swallowed it, an overwhelming force struck his body, nearly causing him to lose consciousness.
But he endured, clenching his fists so hard that they bled.
He had instinctively known that the moment he lost consciousness, he would die.
Once he survived that first crisis, Rodos was able to encounter the Divine Beast.
The Divine Beast within the illusion radiated an overwhelming presence, and Rodos endured even that.
Only after enduring until he stood at death’s door did he obtain a regenerative ability far more powerful than that of other warriors of the North.
He had passed the Divine Beast’s trial.
‘I was lucky.’
His formidable physique as the Great Warrior had made that stroke of luck possible.
But with his current body, he could not expect the same fortunate outcome.
That was precisely why Rodos smiled as he assumed a meditative posture.
What kind of life had he lived until now?
The very reason he had managed to rise to the position of Great Warrior was that he had boldly attempted things others would never dare to try and succeeded.
‘I can do this.’
Rodos was confident.
This was not merely a reckless or audacious challenge.
There were things he had realized while training this body, which had once been on the verge of death.
With the experience of his previous life and the power he had acquired in the present, he believed he could succeed.
“!”
Rodos felt a powerful energy beginning to spread outward from his chest.
It was the power of the Divine Beast.
An immense Life Force began to pour forth.
Compared to the size of the horn, the amount of powder Rodos had made was insignificant, but even that was enough.
THUMP!
At that moment, his heart gave a tremendous beat.
Rodos frowned and concentrated even harder.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
His heart pounded with such force that it could not even be compared to its normal rhythm.
It was almost as though it were desperately struggling to survive.
At the same time, an agonizing pain that seemed to squeeze his chest struck Rodos.
‘I have to endure it through sheer grit.’
Rodos held both hands together over his dantian and did not move a muscle.
If his posture collapsed here, even greater pain would follow.
The Life Force, now fully manifesting itself, engulfed Rodos.
Trapped within his body, it began to thrash about as though desperately searching for an exit.
Heat like that of standing over a pit of fire spread throughout his entire body.
The Life Force was overwhelmingly intense.
Rather than the freshness of life, scorching heat was a more fitting description.
Rodos felt an unbearable burning sensation.
“Hoo.”
Instead of groaning, Rodos released a long breath.
He had prepared himself for this, but the pain was even greater than he remembered.
It was fortunate that his wounds were healing, but the burning agony was even worse than being struck by magic.
Meanwhile, the violent pounding of his heart made his head spin, and nausea churned in his stomach.
There was truly not a single part of his body that did not hurt, but he had to endure it.
He had only passed the first stage.
If he gave up now, his heart would burst and he would die.
Although he had become the Young Master of a prestigious family of mages, he still wanted his life to end in the North.
He could not die in this desolate family of mages while the beautiful mountain ranges of the North still awaited him.
There were still so many things he had yet to accomplish.
With so much left to do, what dignity would remain for a former Great Warrior if he died simply because he could not endure a little pain?
For now, he had to grit his teeth and survive.
At that moment, a deep, resonant voice echoed through Rodos’s mind.
“Who is the one who has taken hold of my power?”
It was the voice of the Frostwind Divine Beast.
Rodos forced himself to ignore the pain and opened his eyes.
A cliff that seemed to soar all the way to the heavens stood before him.
‘A trial.’
It was the same as before.
Back then, he had also encountered the Divine Beast within an illusion.
“So you are another misguided one who could not master his greed. I am grateful for the kindness your people have shown me, but there are boundaries that must not be crossed.”
At the summit, an enormous mountain goat looked down at Rodos with golden eyes.
Rodos grimaced from the pain as he looked up at the Divine Beast.
“The pain you feel is the product of your own greed. One who does not know his place has coveted power beyond what he can contain, and thus you suffer.”
The Divine Beast sneered.
There had always been humans who were unsatisfied with the gifts it bestowed upon them and reached for what was forbidden.
“If you relinquish your greed even now, I shall spare your life.”
The Divine Beast’s eyes flashed.
A wave of power swept through Rodos.
At the same moment, an excruciating agony so intense that even breathing became difficult struck him.
“!”
Rodos collapsed before he realized what was happening.
The burning sensation and chest pain from moments ago could not even compare to this agony.
Rodos clenched his fists and forced himself back to his feet.
Simply enduring it was not the answer.
‘I’ll fight.’
Rodos straightened his shoulders and calmly looked up at the Divine Beast.
The pain was worse than before, but he could withstand it.
Perhaps it was because his fighting spirit had ignited at the prospect of battle.
‘As expected, fighting gives me strength.’
Warriors of the North truly needed an opponent to fight.
Rodos himself was a warrior to the bone.
“Interesting. This should be pain no mere human could possibly endure.”
The Divine Beast could not conceal its surprise.
Rather than writhing in agony, the human stood upright and stared directly at it.
“Merely bravado.”
Having noticed something, the Divine Beast sneered.
Rodos’s heart was pounding as though it might burst at any moment.
A frail human could not endure such a condition for long.
“Your life will soon depart from you. I shall reap it myself.”
The Divine Beast descended the cliff.
The slope was nearly vertical, yet the Divine Beast moved with astonishing lightness and landed before Rodos.
“I sense an immense Life Force within you. It is far too much power for a single human to contain.”
Even with the Divine Beast standing directly before him, Rodos remained calm.
‘It looks exactly the same as before.’
Unlike the other people of the North, Rodos knew something about the Divine Beast.
The mountain goat before him did not help humans out of pure goodwill.
It remained beside humanity because it desired to obtain even more Life Force.
Therefore, taking some of its Life Force for himself was hardly a problem.
After all, some of the Life Force within it must have originally belonged to the people of the North.
Rodos assumed a fighting stance.
“Hah? You intend to fight me? It has been a long time since I last encountered such an insane human.”
The Divine Beast’s eyes widened.
Over the course of thousands of years, only a handful of humans had ever behaved this way.
“There is no rule saying I cannot fight you.”
“So it was you. Your body is different, so I did not recognize you at first.”
The Divine Beast realized who the human before it was.
Compared to the body he had possessed back then, his current body was much smaller, but the soul within it unmistakably belonged to the same man.
“How foolish. You intend to challenge me with a body weaker than the one you possessed in the past?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Rodos clenched his fists.
Unfortunately, he did not have his axes.
But he still had the weapons of his bare hands.
They were weapons granted to every human and the fairest weapons of all.
A true warrior did not fear fighting barehanded.
‘I’ll finish this quickly.’
Rodos charged forward.
Even at this very moment, the Life Force was eating away at him amid the agony.
The longer this dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would become.
“Disappear!”
The Divine Beast’s eyes flashed as it rammed its head toward Rodos.
Its two enormous inward-curving horns hurtled toward his chest.
An attack that would leave not even his bones intact was rapidly approaching.
Rodos lowered his head.
He knew perfectly well how the Divine Beast attacked.
The two horns failed to touch Rodos and swept harmlessly past him.
‘He dodged?’
The Divine Beast’s eyes shone even brighter as it turned its body.
A powerful Life Force burst outward as it charged once more.
‘Now.’
Rodos gathered Aether.
Aether, which composed the world itself, existed everywhere.
Even within a world of illusion.
Both of Rodos’s hands shone white.
CLAMP!
Rodos seized the horns of the charging Divine Beast.
He smiled.
Now that he could manipulate Aether freely, it seemed he would be able to deal with the Divine Beast more easily than he had in his previous life.
“Let go!”
The Divine Beast began thrashing wildly.
Rodos climbed onto its back and refused to release the horns clutched tightly in his hands.
“You wretched human!”
The Divine Beast thrashed even more violently.
A mere human had climbed onto its back.
Never before had it suffered such indignity.
CLAMP!
The more violently it struggled, the tighter Rodos held on with his glowing white hands.
His hands, reinforced by Aether, were so firm that no force could pry them loose.
“I said, let go!”
The Divine Beast began racing wildly across the cliffs.
It bounded up and down the sheer cliffs at speeds beyond anything a human could imagine, desperately trying to throw Rodos off.
‘This is it.’
Rodos merely smiled brightly in satisfaction.
He had actually succeeded in doing something he had only ever imagined before.
If he tried to defeat the Divine Beast outright, his heart would burst before he could succeed.
Wounds meant nothing to a Divine Beast that was Life Force itself.
“Very well! I shall give you my power! Now release my horns!”
It was a declaration of surrender.
But Rodos merely tightened his grip on the horns.
The Divine Beast continued to thrash about afterward, but Rodos never fell.
Eventually, the Divine Beast began to slow.
At last, panting heavily, it spoke.
“Take it and begone. I hope never to see you again….”
With that genuine declaration of surrender, a brilliant radiance spread from the Divine Beast’s eyes and swallowed Rodos.
At that moment, every trace of pain tormenting him vanished.
Rodos opened his eyes.
A star-filled night sky was visible through the window.
He was back in his room.
He slowly rose and stood before the mirror.
His body, which had been covered in burns only moments before, was now completely unblemished, as though none of it had ever happened.
The power of the Divine Beast had completely regenerated Rodos’s body.
‘Success.’
Rodos could feel the powerful Life Force that had now fully taken root within his body.
He was pleased.
From now on, he would be able to fight with even less regard for his own safety.