Return of the S-class Young Master

I Am No Hero

THIRD FLOOR – SUZAKO

Heat. This was the first thought that came into Cielo’s mind as soon as he stepped out from the portal. The blood that drenched him immediately dried up the moment he entered the third floor of the dungeon.

Beneath his feet was a surface made of granite. Every meter away from him, there was a wide stream of magma. One wrong move and he would surely be torched to his death.

Like what happened to the second floor, the portal vanished which connected him to the second floor. In order to come out from this hellhole, he had to ‘find’ the portal which was obviously missing. Compared to the other two floors, there were no evident signs of the gleaming portal.

Red and black. Red magma and black stony surface. These surrounded Cielo. Sweat trickled down his chin and nape as he leaped from one stony surface to another.

“Where are you? Are you too afraid after witnessing what happened to your neighbors?” Cielo provoked the third floor’s boss which was still yet to be known.

His words were answered by the bubbling sound of the magma streaming down like a river of molten fire. Cielo moved forward.

Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to an hour. No monster and no boss appeared. Instead, the fog from the steam started to subside, revealing a glimpse of the vast area that belonged to the third floor of a B-level dungeon.

Canyons towered before Cielo from all sides. In between the entrance of the canyons, the stony surface—which he used to transfer from one place to another in order to move—was reduced to mere palm-sized ones as the stream of magma became a river of molten liquid.

Wiping his sweat away, a pair of bright blue eyes gleamed, replacing the black dull ones he was using for the past hour.

“Come out. Come out. Wherever you are!”

A map-like vision ensued.

From time to time, the map that Cielo was seeing turned blurry as the seconds passed by.

Not a minute passed by and Cielo had to close his eyes. Standing in the middle of the river of magma, Cielo opened his eyes once more. This time, he focused his search on the farthest part of the canyons.

Cielo immediately zoomed in on the place. As seconds passed, his eyes started to throb. Gritting his teeth, his sclera started to turn red as his pupil and iris dimmed into a dark blue color. This was the God’s Eyes reaching its limit, no, this was his body reaching its limit from overly using the God’s Eyes.

“Got you.”

Seemingly hearing his words, a shadow was shown from the map, moving in his direction at a fast pace. The flapping of the enormous pairs of wings resounded even when there was yet a silhouette to be seen.

Cielo immediately withdrew the God’s Eyes. Closing his eyes, he knew there was a fierce battle coming his way. The aura he felt just by looking at the monster through God’s Eyes was enormously deadly.

‘I need to rest my eyes as much as I can,’ Cielo thought. He knew he was in a tight position. No matter how omnipotent the God’s Eyes were, there was a limit to his human body. And no matter how much he wanted to surpass his limits, he knew deep down that he could not rush it or his body would not be usable—just like his paralyzed state from his first timeline.

With his eyes closed, Cielo heard the flapping of the wings followed by the turbulent wind that surrounded him as he stood at the center of the river of magma.

Screech!

His skin dried up followed by the burning sensation that crawled within him. It was at this moment that he opened his eyes. Gone were the dim blue eyes, replaced by a pair of bright cerulean ones that gleamed without any hint of discrepancy. Having been able to rest for a couple of minutes had proven to help his body.

“What took you so long?” He leaped to the stone in front of him, inching himself closer to the hovering four-wings phoenix before him. “Break.”

The exact moment he uttered the death command ‘break’, the monster bird opened his third eye situated in between its two eyes. It released an ear-shattering screech, throwing Cielo away from his spot.

Screech!

“Insolent human! You dare covet the God’s Eyes!”

No blood. No lump of flesh. No pile of bones. The death command was negated for the first time!

Cielo was pinned on the nearest canyon. He only fell to the ground, barely missing the river of magma by a foot, when the phoenix finally released its screech and spoke. Wounds littered his body as he slumped on the scorching surface.

“H-How?” Cielo trembled as he stood again.

“Foolish, human! How can you use as holy as the God’s Eyes without knowing the simple rules of its limitation? Ha! That old bastard is really naïve to think he can teach you this way. He is only inflating your ego!”

Cielo bit his lower lip, fully knowing how right his enemy was. He was too confident with the God’s Eyes. But the longer he used it, the harder it was for him to maintain it.

The higher the floor, the stronger the boss. The strain in his eyes was already felt by Cielo. He did not know if the death command failed because he was overusing the God’s Eyes or it was because his opponent knew the weakness of the God’s Eyes. The way the three-eyed phoenix spoke, Cielo reckoned that it knew pretty well about the properties of the God’s Eyes.

“I don’t care about anything. I only care about becoming strong. Rito can use me as much as he wants, heck, he can take my body after I lay carnage on my enemies.” Vile words spewed from Cielo’s lips. A glint of malediction gleamed beneath his flickering blue eyes.

“Foolish indeed! How did you even defeat my friends down there?” The phoenix landed on the other canyon, facing Cielo directly.

Though it did not show any intention of attacking him right away, Cielo hated the fact that he was reminded of how Cael toyed with him before his death.

Staggering as he leaped forward, landing at the center of the river of magma once again, he grinned even when his body was littered with wounds. “You want to know?” Cielo scoffed. “I destroyed their hope and stabbed them in the back.”

“You are not worthy of the holy relic! Once I kill you, I will have to pluck your eyes out! You are undeserving of such a gift! I do not know what that bastard sees in you!”

The flow of the magma around him became turbulent as the heat in the air became suffocating, drying up his lungs. Coughing up blood, the grin on Cielo’s lips did not diminish as the God’s Eyes were withdrawn a moment ago.

The phoenix continued its rant. Three beastly eyes gleamed with wrath. “The God’s Eyes are the eyes of the god, the creator of heaven and earth! Someone as vile and vindictive as you is not deserving of such a holy relic! The God’s Eyes need a hero, not a villain like you. You are nothing—”

A burst of laughter cut the words of the fuming phoenix. “Hero? Villain? Bullshit!” Bellowing from his uncontrolled laughter, Cielo continued his outburst with a tone of mockery and disdain. “Screw your god! Your hero can lick my ass goodbye for all I care, but I will never let go of this God’s Eyes—”

Cielo caressed the corners of his closed eyes. “With these eyes you deemed I am unworthy of, these eyes that your god once possessed, these eyes that your god used to watch over me and my family without a care for our sufferings, I will use this to plunder and conquer the world that once trampled over me!”

The phoenix screeched in anger from Cielo’s words. It spread its four wings before diving down and racing toward him. It opened its fairly large beak, making way for a tornado of bright red flames that was meant to reduce Cielo into cinders.

“Fool,” whispered Cielo under his breath.

Screech!

Blinded by anger, the three-eyed phoenix dashed toward Cielo. Complacent with the fact that it knew about the weakness of the God’s Eyes, it screamed. “I will turn you into a pile of ash, foolish human! I have been defeated by the God’s Eyes many times, there is no way that a human like you can defeat me with that!”

Fifteen meters from impact, Cielo leaped to his right side, catching the phoenix by surprise. Fueled by the force of diving down, the four wings of the phoenix flapped against the momentum it had set itself.

Dodging the phoenix and the tornado of flames altogether, Cielo leaped back in time when the gigantic red bird was in his previous spot. As if the time had stood still, Cielo screamed, his pent-up emotions breaking out. “Die!”

Realization dawned upon the phoenix’s eyes as it turned to its side. Before it could snatch Cielo by its beak, the flame bird’s body started to disintegrate into dust. Starting from its claws, beaks, and wings, the phoenix watched himself die helplessly. “Y-You cunning human! How could you fight like this? You have no honor!”

“Honor? There is no honor among villains. And I am no hero.” A pair of deadly blue eyes glared down at the phoenix, relishing the view of the bird’s dying seconds. “Remember this well, the time of gods is long over and the era of villains has just barely begun.”