?


    I was miserable. Being forced to relive the trauma of my childhood over and over was mind-numbingly painful. It was to the point where I could no longer shed tears of sadness, anger, or resentment because I had seen it so many times. My heart hurt yet my head refused to give in to such weakness any longer.


    And in between that break of a day or two, where I sat in an endless web of baby blue and ck memories, a figure appeared. After what seemed to be months, that asshole had finally revealed himself after watching me suffer.


    Long baby blue hair, with shimmering golden stars for eyes, made his entire presence pop. He had the body and voice of a kid but acted like some deranged adult whose sanity had slipped long ago. He wore a set of mage robes that slung heavily across his entire body, making it look more like a pile of nkets rather than actual clothing.


    "You bastard… leaving me here saying its for the best. You''re going to destroy my mind… who do you think you are toying with me like this? I''ll kill you one day… all of us will."


    "Who am I? Sweetie, you already know who I am… Juzil, The Demon Lord of Illusions."


    …


    (Orion POV)


    "Geez… you need a haircut."


    "I''m almost finished. I can''t lose concentration now."


    "Don''t you think you''ve been going on for long enough? The time dtion in my thrown world is a hundred to one. In those fifty years, you gave yourself, in reality, you have five hundred."


    "Yeah, and I''ve already used up three hundred of them… I can''t stop now. I have to keep the momentum going."


    "Dude… you''re more than powerful enough now," Satan smirked.


    As my muscles rippled with energy and my sweat practically evaporated from my skin, the demon helped me up from the ny-ninth step. Slowly, he looked upwards, meeting eyes with the massive serpent watching from above. His poisonous breath filled my lungs, regenerating me with a new sense of vigor which when applied to the rest of my body, allowed me to get up onto the one-hundredth step.


    My bones began to crumble into ash, so I pushed a wave of mana through my body, immediately negating the pressure. My muscles then strained, yet with the rushing mana washing entirely through my body, I was saved.


    "You''re going to enter thest stage… die and I''ll torture you back when you''re revived in hell."


    Suddenly, my entire surroundings turned ck. I felt the presence of something powerful in the distance quickly approaching me, so I summoned my spear and deflected the red and ck sword attempting to pierce my throat.


    Ting


    It flung away, losing all momentum and ttering against the solid ck ground. Multiple sharp bursts of killing intent soon followed after, creating a myriad of showering ck and red swords that outssed that previous flimsy attack. It was coordinated and aimed for pretty much every vital imaginable.


    "I know you''re there, Father."


    BOOOM


    A single step, shook the atmosphere, causing the showering attacks to freeze mid-air. They trembled at the presence of the god, the Olympian, my father, who had just arrived. His vanta ck eyes were hollow and lifeless, serving as a cheap imitation for the man that I hated… yet, just seeing his face was enough to make my blood boil.


    "[Heaven Splitter]."


    VWOOOOM


    There was hardly a sound that came from my spear. The eye at the very meeting of my de and handle squirmed, straining until bloodshot as it ripped through the air. Countless mana particles phased into a red glow as they enveloped everyst bit of my weapon, and…


    "*gasp*... *gasp*... *gasp*..."


    Ares, or at least what was supposed to be Ares gasped as my de shed aceration so deep that it exposed his lungs. Of course, his flesh began to regenerate with the golden blood sprouting out like flowers, serving asrger telets that stopped the instantaneous gushing of blood.


    "Normally, that would have been by limit, but I''m much better now… [Heaven Splitter] x100."


    In just a split second, the man''s body burst into chunks of flesh. The golden blood pooled beneath each severed chunk, gurgling with regenerating properties. It was pouring whateverst bits of energy it could use into piecing its body back together, yet… it was over.


    [HP: 500/500 | IP: 140800] - Non Human


    "Ichor power is pretty overpowered… even after all of that I still have one hundred thousand left… that''s more than enough for another couple hundred swings."


    Just like how I was able to increase my stamina through strenuous activities, it was the same application for ichor power. Through strenuous activities like meditating and circtingrge quantities of mana through my body or the innate pressure built up into each step, I was able to push this stat past its limits.


    As the world around me crumbled, I stepped up onto the podium of marble supporting towering obsidian pirs. It looked to be more of a temple than a pce as the very front waspletely open, the only thing preventing too much natural light from getting in being the gargantuan blocks of obsidian.


    [You havepleted the first half of the Hidden Quest: Stairs of ???]


    I was confused as to what this meant. I had never experienced a quest where there was a first and second half and the fact that this was with a hidden quest made it even more difficult to understand. Yet, when a cold voice beckoned for my presence beyond the darkness of the temple''s guts, I knew just what I had to do.


    "Come inside, my child. I must speak to you about something," Its slimy and greasy tone called for me. I would have immediately declined and ignored such a request if it wasn''t for the fact that a massive amount of pressure poured out from in between each pir, causing the atmosphere to instantly swirl with humidity.