Chapter 449: My Father Was My Hero
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“Your friends shouldn’t have trusted a stupid brat like you so much! Now they’ve given me all the time I need to kill you while they fight Lucifer instead!”
Morax laughed viciously as the sphere hurtled downward. Song glanced up at it, his eyes weeping blood from the damage they had suffered.
The sphere descended slowly toward him… Once it struck, he doubted he would survive.
“A-Aahh…”
He felt utterly powerless. His powers were extraordinary, yet without the reaction speed to use them properly or the experience to wield them correctly, they were useless.
“I’m going to die…?”
Tears streamed from his eyes, mixing with the blood.
“But I promised Mom that… I…!”
Song had yet to fully understand what his powers were or how they worked.
Manipulating matter and everything else was mentally exhausting.
And right now, even if he willed it, his power refused to respond.
It had simply stopped working.
“A-Ahh… Haaah…”
As another tear slid down his cheek while he watched the sphere descend, despair gripped him completely.
“Song.”
“Ugh…”
“Song!”
“Ah!”
Just as he was about to lose consciousness, with the heat of the demonic blazing sphere drawing closer, a voice echoed within his mind.
“That voice…?”
Song’s eyes widened. Suddenly, he saw something, a large silhouette formed of swirling black clouds, almost nonexistent, nearly transparent.
Yet he could faintly see it. He could feel it.
This silhouette had…
It had his appearance.
His shape.
The shape of his father.
“Song… Is this how you’re going down, my son?”
“Uuh… Is it… really you, Dad?”
“Remember, my son.”
“R-Remember… what…?”
“Remember everything I’ve taught you.”
Everything he had taught him.
In that moment, Song’s eyes widened as his memories surged forth, becoming clearer, almost lifelike.
Those weeks he had spent learning how to manipulate souls, seal them, and even combine them.
Those days he had spent mastering martial arts and fighting techniques with his dad.
The smile his father always wore when they practiced together.
Even when he was cranky, always reprimanding him and correcting his posture or technique.
His father wasn’t the best out there, Song knew that.
He wasn’t claiming his father was the greatest in the world.
He was sure some kid out there had a better father.
His dad had many problems, mostly with himself—his past, his doctrine, his life, his sins, and his regrets.
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Song knew his father was a sorrowful man who, despite his strong demeanor, was broken deep inside.
But he also knew that whenever Song was with his old dad, the cranky old crow would smile.
And he was always genuinely happy to be with his dear son.
A Heavenly Demon?
A monster who had killed countless men?
The most wanted criminal in the world?
A ruthless monster?
To Song, his dad could never be those things, even though he knew those facts were true.
To him, his dad was…
His hero.
“Why? Why aren’t you teaching me your techniques, Dad? We still have time! I could learn the Cursed Dark Seals and get super strong!”
“No…”
“B-But why does Anna have them and not me?! Is… Is Anna better than me?!”
“That’s not it, you idiot!”
He remembered.
That one time when his father had refused to teach him his strongest technique.
Back then, Song had been stubborn, desperate to learn it so he could inherit his father’s legacy.
But his father had always rejected him.
“T-Then why?!”
“…”
His father glared at Song, his furious eyes carrying a deep sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Song…”
And then his father hugged him tightly.
“But I can’t… Not you… I don’t want to curse you. I don’t want you to carry this burden! Anna is different—she comes from another world. She’s not you! You’re… much different, in a good way.”
“B-But…”
“She’s not better than you. Nobody can compare to my son.”
“Dad…”
“The Cursed Seals are not compatible with you because you have a pure heart. You haven’t suffered what I have, and I hope you never will.”
“…”
“Despite everything I went through… I always knew that if I ever had a son or a daughter, I would do everything I could to ensure their lives would be full of happiness.”
“Father…”
“That they would never go through hunger, that they would never endure the pain of losing loved ones… That they would live in a world of peace.”
“But you…”
“I know I’m the Heavenly Demon, but this is… my dream. It has always been like that—a childish dream, isn’t it?”
“No…”
Song looked at his father as he opened his bleeding eyes.
“It’s not a stupid dream, Father!”
His aura surged with immense power as the memories of his father fueled Song’s resolve even further.
His power responded to that resolve.
Indeed!
What he needed to wield it wasn’t experience—he needed unyielding resolve.
The power of Heaven and Earth, of the Child Blessed by the Heavenly Dao.
This power would simply not respond to those who had fallen into despair or given up!
Song slowly stood up.
“My dad… he wanted a better world…!”
“HUH?!”
Morax glared at Song in disbelief as he saw him rise.
“He wanted to improve the world despite everything he’d done…!”
He gripped his fists tightly as tears continued to fall.
“He promised me I’d never go through the same pain he did… He was not a demon… Dad was…”
“He was my hero!”
Song screamed to the skies.
RUMBLE!
And the skies responded. The entire Domain of Lucifer began crumbling, cracks spreading everywhere!
Crack, crack…
CRASH!
“W-What?!”
Morax gasped in disbelief as he saw Song’s willpower manifest into reality as true power.
This concentrated power began to crystallize within his heart.
Song’s body grew revitalized; his wounds slowly began to heal.
“He promised I wouldn’t go through the same things, but even then… He died… He left us all behind…”
As he continued crying, Song’s power kept manifesting, finding its own identity.
“I must carry my father’s dream, his legacy… I must win; I must live! And I must… make a peaceful world—the world he always wanted to see one day!!!”
Song cried out as his entire body overflowed with light and darkness, merging into ethereal flames of blue, gold, and black.
And then, his power fully crystallized into a Heart.
FLASH!
“W-What is this?!”
RUMBLE!
The giant sphere that Morax had created began trembling as the demon’s eyes widened in utter disbelief.
BOOOMMM!!!
His entire demonic spell shattered as the Demon General saw a giant fist emerge from the destruction of that sun-like magic construct.
“I-IMPOSSIBLE!”
Morax couldn’t believe his eyes. That fist was Song’s Battle Aura, emerging as a giant, bird-like god.
It was a white crow with four giant wings and two massive arms, its fists blazing with immense amounts of strange, ethereal flames.
“I get it now… I lacked willpower, and I lacked a dream, a purpose… This power doesn’t simply respond to just anyone, even those blessed by it like me…” Song realized. “I need a purpose; I need to work toward something greater than simply getting stronger. To protect Bestia, to make a world of peace. Like… like Dad wanted…”
Indeed.
What Song had lacked this entire time was willpower.
And so, his willpower became true strength, crystallizing within his own heart.
And much like his mother, his father, and even his sister…
Song created his own Heavenly Arts.
Forging his own heart.
The {Heroic Will Heart}.
Song saw his father—or his presence—smile as he nodded.
“Well done, Song. I never doubted you, not for one second, my son.”
“Dad…”
Song saw his father’s faint presence as he shed a tear.
“Now focus. The battle is not over.”
“Yes!”
He felt his father right behind him, his hand resting on his shoulder.
“I’ll guide you. One last time.”
“I-I’ll do my best, Father!”
“Follow my footsteps.”
And then, father and son rushed forward as Morax, furious, flew toward Song with his blazing wings, his four scythes overflowing with so much heat they began to blaze with black flames.
“{Abyssal Soul-Consuming Infernal Black Flames}!”
His entire body suddenly grew ten times larger, merging with his Demonic Battle Aura to create a gigantic monstrosity of black flames!
As he reached Song, the young man furrowed his feathered eyebrows.
“{Heroic Heart of Will Arts}!”
Song finally felt it.
Everything flowed together, converging at the tips of his hands.
As he moved toward his foe, and as his father showed him the way, his memories of his dad, his mother, Anna, and everyone else manifested.
“{Unyielding Resolve}!”
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