Bang!
A soft impact rang out, and Fenris felt an itch on his leg.
It was like being frantically clawed at by a half-grown kitten. He lowered his head slightly and saw a small black panther clinging to his calf with great difficulty.
Because his body was constantly radiating that power of devouring and destruction, Bast's own strength was being eroded by it, pouring uncontrollably into Fenris like a broken dam flooding into him.
"You're basically a bandit!"
"You barged into my divine realm and stole my stuff. Do you have any sense of reason at all?"
"Give me back my power!"
"Give it back..."
Before long, as every bit of divine power in her body was drained away, the force behind Bast's swiping paw grew weaker and weaker.
"So this is the power of a god?"
As that divine energy entered his body, Fenris felt a warm current flow through him. It was nearly identical to the sensation of swallowing the Heart-Shaped Herb, only vaster and far purer.
Watching Bast finally lose all strength and fall from his leg, Fenris casually reached out with his right claw and precisely caught the back of her neck, lifting her up.
"The dignity of a god must not be defiled!"
"Let me go!"
"Let go!"
The moment she realized she had been lifted by a giant claw, Bast began struggling on instinct.
But her weak resistance only made it clearer just how pointless it was. Fenris's claw did not move in the slightest. In the next instant, Bast found herself staring into a pair of cold eyes glowing with violet light, her own reflection clearly mirrored within them.
"You... let go..."
The moment their eyes met, Bast felt a chill run down her spine.
The beast's body radiated a terrifying heat, but the gaze in its eyes was colder than ice. Her sharp rebuke died in her throat before she could finish it.
It felt as if those enormous claws only needed to twitch slightly for the beast's power of destruction to crush her completely.
After living for so many ages, Bast was once again feeling the threat of death for the first time in a very long time. She shuddered violently, and an ingratiating smile immediately appeared on her dark feline face.
"I really wasn't trying to attack you just now..."
Seeing that Fenris still gave no reaction at all, Bast's smile froze. Almost pleading now, she hurried to explain, "It was just that your aura was too tempting. I got curious, that's all..."
"Really!"
"I swear it!"
Bast gazed pitifully into Fenris's eyes, sincerity and pleading written all over her face.
"If there was even a single lie in what I just said, then let me lose all my faith forever and be reduced to nothing but ash!"
A moment later, she still received no response. Just as Bast was sinking fully into despair, a huge force suddenly struck her without warning.
Bang!
Before Bast could even react, she had already been flung away, her body crashing heavily onto the ground.
"What a weak god."
Fenris glanced casually at the Panther Goddess sprawled on the ground, limp and powerless, then swept his eyes over the surrounding space.
The once vast and boundless land had, at some point, become riddled with devastation. Even the stars overhead had dimmed dramatically.
"Time to go."
This place was, after all, Bast's divine realm, a manifestation of her own divine power.
Sensing that the Titan Encyclopedia had once again gone still, Fenris reluctantly savored that intoxicating sense of power one last time. Then, with a thought, his colossal body began shrinking rapidly.
With the giant beast no longer blotting everything out, the dim starlight poured down once more. In the distance, Bast suddenly felt her vision brighten, and a handsome man reappeared before her eyes.
She watched as that man gave her a smile full of unreadable meaning, then vanished from the realm without warning.
Once again, the divine realm fell into complete silence.
...
Everything had changed, and yet somehow, everything felt exactly the same.
When Fenris opened his eyes again, the bright, almost blinding light overhead came back into view. The familiar surroundings around him made him slowly let out a breath.
That overwhelming sensation of power, the kind that could destroy heaven and earth with the lift of a hand, was gone without a trace. In its place came an abrupt sense of emptiness and loss.
Thankfully, the divine power that had belonged to the Panther Goddess still remained inside him. A surging warm current filled every corner of his body, circulating endlessly and bringing with it an indescribable sense of fullness.
Meanwhile, the atomic furnace within him was running at full speed, racing to assimilate that power.
But without the support of the divine realm, Fenris's current strength alone would still need quite a long time to completely refine all that divine energy.
In other words, for a good stretch of the future, his power would enter a period of rapid expansion, right up until every last trace of the Panther Goddess's power had been fully assimilated and exhausted.
"So this is basically a direct admission ticket to godhood?"
Recalling the power the Panther Goddess had displayed, Fenris could not help blinking.
If this had happened before, having such an ocean of divine power inside him would probably have made him pass out from excitement.
But now...
"It's only so-so, I guess."
It was easy to grow used to luxury, and hard to go back afterward.
Fenris gave a low chuckle and sat up, though the delight on his face was impossible to hide.
"Fenris, how was it?"
Not far away, seeing that he had finally come back to himself, Jean hurried over and asked with concern written all over her face.
"I definitely gained a lot."
Fenris nodded with a smile.
"I didn't expect that even with your level of strength, you'd still benefit this much from the Heart-Shaped Herb."
Jean looked him over in surprise.
Seeing that his emotions were steady, that there were no abnormalities in his body other than his temperature having risen a little more, and that he had not lost control emotionally the way Logan had, Jean finally relaxed. She waved toward the people outside. "Who's next? Come in."
"Me!"
It seemed he had finally done enough mental preparation. Once he got the signal, Tony gritted his teeth and at last stepped forward first.
"Wait a second."
Seeing Tony's attempt at calm, Fenris suddenly spoke up and stopped him. "Tony, not yet."
"Why?"
Tony froze.
Now that he had finally worked up the nerve, why was Fenris stopping him instead?
"Tony's too weak. He's not suited to taking the Heart-Shaped Herb right now."
Thinking of the devastated state Bast's divine realm was currently in, Fenris lowered his voice.
Now he had really offended the Panther Goddess badly.
Yes, she had been the one to test him and strike first, but the fact remained that he had nearly destroyed her divine realm and almost wiped out the accumulation of countless ages in the process.
Now they were basically preparing to send an entire group to ask her for blessings and power. Who knew whether, in a fit of anger, she might do something extreme?
"For everyone else to safely take the Heart-Shaped Herb afterward, someone strong enough has to go and 'persuade' her first..."
Fenris kept turning the thought over in his mind.
"Fenris?"
Jean waved a hand in front of his eyes. "What are you thinking about?"
"I was thinking..."
Fenris had barely gotten halfway through the sentence when his previously distant gaze suddenly locked directly onto Jean.
"Huh?"
(End of Chapter)
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