Chapter 44: White Stallion (Patreon)

Rumble—

The last remnants of thunder faded. Verethragna emerged from the dissipating lightning storm, sparks crawling over his body like restless serpents. He had used the Goat authority to nullify Haru’s lightning—but the god of war looked undeniably disheveled and dust-covered from the onslaught.

Not charred, but grimy and battered in a way a god rarely experienced.

Still, he steadied himself quickly.

“Not bad. Then try this ability of mine!”

“I am the strongest, the one who seizes all victories!
I shall thwart all enemies!
Therefore—I shall break every foe standing in my path!”

Having endured a sea of lightning, Verethragna had no intention of remaining passive. His figure blur—then vanished—reappearing as a raging torrent of divine wind.

A tornado erupted.

A berserk gale that spiraled into a towering vortex reaching sky and earth, swallowing Haru whole.

Since lightning did nothing, authorities such as Youth and Goat were meaningless.

Thus he unleashed Strong Wind, one of his most devastating incarnations.

This was the storm that could shred divine beasts.

A wind sharp enough to tear apart everything it touched.

A tempest that reshaped the very battlefield.

The already ruined plain—flattened first by Haru and Melqart—was churned, broken, and carved apart once more.

But this tornado did not merely lift debris.

It dragged everything inward—soil, stone, shattered trees—and tore them apart violently.

And at the heart of the chaos—

Haru stood, cursed energy roaring around him, enduring the tearing force of the divine wind.

“Strong Wind, huh…”

The entire tornado was Verethragna’s manifested authority; his divine body drifted in and out of the vortex like a spirit woven into the storm.

Naturally—Haru had no reason to sit still.

He lifted his hand. His voice sliced through the whirlwind.

Whoosh—

A second tornado erupted instantly, spiraling upward to meet the first.

Two titanic storms collided.
Winds clashed.
Lightning flared.
A sky-tearing cacophony of destruction roared.

For a moment, the battlefield resembled an apocalyptic disaster made manifest.

Then—

The storms canceled each other out.

As the winds died, Verethragna reformed into his youthful figure. He frowned, calculating his next move—

But Haru vanished from sight.

He reappeared instantly, right before Verethragna, palm surging with the phantom of a roaring dragon.

A terrifying strike—sharp enough to pierce even divine defenses—shot toward the god.

Verethragna’s pupils contracted. He swung his golden blade to meet it.

Haru’s martial arts were no less than a god’s. Verethragna, undefeated God of War, master of the sword, had once toyed with Erica using only a tree branch—

But now, facing Haru, he was serious.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Swords flashed. Palms collided. Fists tore through the air.
The shockwaves alone blasted open trenches and cratered the land.

Despite their much smaller bodies compared to Melqart’s colossal form, the ferocity of this battle far surpassed that earlier clash.

And unlike before, Haru now met Verethragna without burning himself empty in a single burst.

Their powers were evenly matched—divinity versus God-Slayer.

The exchange continued until Haru completed the entire “Flying Dragon Twelve Divine Palms,” growing more fluid, more precise, more attuned with each movement.

Then—he switched.

His palm became claw.

A dragon’s talon lashed forward to seize Verethragna.

The god’s instincts screamed.

He instantly vanished, reappearing elsewhere with blinding speed—the authority of Phoenix accelerating him to extreme levels.

But—

“What—!?”

Haru was already there.

Even Phoenix’s near-teleportation couldn't shake him. Haru’s speed climbed relentlessly, matching and surpassing Verethragna’s.

Startled, the god activated every acceleration he possessed:

Bull.
Camel.

Both authorities surged into his body, pumping monstrous strength and divine kicking power through his limbs.

He blitzed across the sky like streaks of divine light—yet Haru remained glued to him.

BAM—!

With Haru as the center point, Verethragna flashed from angle to angle, and every time—

Haru was already there.

Their collision shockwaves pulverized the ruined terrain further.

Despite his divine enhancements, Verethragna found himself pushed, pressured, overwhelmed.

He drew on nearly every incarnation—
Strong Wind, Goat, Youth, Phoenix, Bull, Camel—
Only a few remained unused.
He had even drawn upon the Sword of Wisdom.

He was at a disadvantage.

Slap!

And then—he failed to dodge.

Haru’s claw grazed him—just barely.

At that instant, danger exploded in Verethragna’s heart. He slapped Haru’s hand away on instinct—

Pfft—

Blood burst from his mouth.

He froze.

The witches watching from afar gasped.

From their perspective, Haru had merely brushed him. And yet—

The god’s aura dropped sharply. By a full tenth.

Others might not understand, but Verethragna knew.

One of his incarnations—
one of his authorities—
was gone.

'Impossible…!'

“For victory, O undying sun—come swiftly before me!
O spiritual horse with swift hooves, bring the halo of your master!”

Panicked but experienced, Verethragna didn’t hesitate. He created distance, then invoked a hidden sun.

The authority of the White Stallion—his solar incarnation—awakened.

A golden radiance bloomed on the horizon.

A second sun rose.

The dark clouds dispersed.
The land glowed rose-gold.
The ruins and blasted forest basked in blinding light.

Then—

A divine whinny split the heavens.

A blazing phantom warhorse descended from the sky, its hooves wreathed in billowing white flames.

The temperature skyrocketed.

Locust corpses charred black.
Leftover rainwater hissed into steam.
The air warped and shimmered.
The entire basin smoked under the heat.

No one could doubt the horror contained in the approaching White Stallion.

In a flash, it locked onto Haru and dove.

BOOM—!

A solar flare erupted.

The White Stallion’s attack was exactly that:
a white solar eruption, a sun-born flame unleashed upon earth.

A spear of white fire lanced across the sky, carrying heat measured in tens of thousands of degrees, empowered even further by divine authority.

The basin turned into a sea of white flames—a blazing meteor crater of annihilation.

The White Stallion punishes great sinners.
Its flames fall upon the wicked.

“……”

Verethragna watched Haru take the attack head-on.

No evasion.
No defense.
He simply accepted the solar flares directly.

And Verethragna, having felt the terrifying danger from Haru earlier, never once considered that this would kill him.

Because Haru’s aura did not disappear.

It merely weakened and then surged upward again.

Then,

At the center of the blistering white flames, at the point of highest temperature, something changed.