I am the Only Son of Nyx

Heracles was known to be one of the strongest heroes who were descendants of Zeus.

Birthed with the physical strength to kill even the Divine Beasts sent by Hera, the Goddess of Marriage, and completing the Twelve Labours that ascended him to Olympus. His power and feats are legendary.

Only Perseus and a few others could be compared to the might of Heracles.

A Supernal who inherited his bloodline is among one of the strongest in the Hero category.

Blessed with an indomitable physique that was far superior compared to other normal Supernals. Flesh as tough as cured hide, abnormally strong muscles, and unbreakable bones of steel. In a head-on battle of pure strength, a Supernal of Heracles could match or even surpass most Supernals carrying the bloodline of high-rated Divine Beasts.

Losing in a direct confrontation against another Supernal of the same rank is impossible.

Or at least, that’s what the students had in mind.

But the moment Kai’s fist drilled into the bald student’s stomach, and blood sprayed from his mouth—that illusion in their minds shattered. None could believe what they were seeing. For them, it felt like watching a miracle done by the Gods.

Even the grey-masked Angel and Layra were completely stunned at the sight.

Both knew that Kai was strong, but this exceeded their expectations.

Kai straightened his posture.

His back was now as straight as an arrow.

Even as the bald student crumpled until his chin rested on Kai’s shoulder, the time remained completely still. Kai didn’t react or move away. He simply stood there—sweeping his ice-cold gaze across the crowd of students.

And with a gentle push, the bald student toppled backward and fell out of bounds.

Kai pivoted and walked aside before addressing the crowd.

"I heard news that you branded High Angel Layra—as an embarrassment for your academy... Because what? Because she lost to me? A Lesser Angel? Many times, I’ve heard Angels, and also High Angels, look down on me, saying that I’m nothing because I’m a Lesser Angel."

He stopped and turned to face the crowd again.

Despite his torn shirt, his presence was dominating. Haughty.

Like the sky looking down at the surface.

"Many of them believed that they were superior and stronger than me, as you view yourselves superior and stronger than me. A High Angel of Chimera from the Caer Zarrow did. A High Angel of Cerberus did. A High Angel of Hydra did. Dozens of Angels did. Even an academy professor did."

Kai pointed at the ground. "And all of them are now five feet under."

Silence stretched in the area.

Students who were still in the dormitory began to come out—and see what the commotion was about and heard Kai’s words. More students arrived. From a dozen students to at the very least forty of them.

He turned, walked to where he was before the attack, and then faced the crowd again.

"Who among you still thinks they are superior and stronger than me? Step forward then. Show me that you’re different from those who came before you." Kai tilted his head a little, seeing no movements from the crowd. "On the contrary, you can choose to admit that if you were in my Blood Rite... You’ll either follow me as a loyal dog would, or die."

The words struck like a match in a room full of kindling.

The gathered students burned with a collective rage—that spread from face to face, mind to mind, body to body—igniting eyes and curling fists. The audacity of this Lesser Angel knows no bounds.

He had spoken down to them, dismissed them, and looked at them in a matter of seconds.

As if they were beneath him.

Not to mention, he had done this in their own territory.

Words were no longer enough. Mild beatings were no longer enough. This insult—could only be washed clean with blood, and the unspoken agreement rippled through the crowd like an electric current.

They would kill him for this.

They would make an example out of him.

So that no student would dare to act brazenly in their own territory.

A student with long, straight blue hair stepped into the arena first. A roar tore from his throat as he charged in. His body exuded mana in visible waves, and water erupted from the ground in response, a column of liquid force that slammed into Kai’s waist with strong impact.

The water crashed, and the ground trembled, but Kai stood his ground.

He didn’t move an inch.

His arm snapped upward, and an uppercut met the blue-haired student’s chin with the sound of breaking stone. The jaw shattered. The student’s eyes rolled back—and his body went limp before it hit the ground.

Knocked unconscious mid-air.

Another student surged forward before the first had finished falling.

Three bees materialized above him, with each one the size of a fist and glowing with a lustrous white colour of his mana. They fired forward like bullets. Their wings screamed through the air, aiming straight at Kai’s chest.

Kai’s hands moved.

Three parries with his flat palms, deflecting the bees out of the way.

He then dashed, hand shot forward and closed around the student’s face hard.

Decisively, Kai turned, pivoted, and hurled the student out of the arena like discarded trash. The body crashed into the crowd, toppling students in a domino of limbs and shouts, and the crowd’s rage deepened into something feral.

They came at once.

Two from the front, two from the left, and another from the right.

No restrictions in this challenge meant no rules for the challengers, and they intended to fully drown Kai in numbers. Three of them drew weapons as they moved—two swords and a pair of daggers.

Each blade glinted coldly under the moonlight.

And then, the air abruptly shifted. All of them noticed it.

Kai moved like a phantom. His body was a blur of dark intent that slipped through their formation before their eyes could track it. He reached the two on his left first. One punch cracked a skull; the impact reverberated up his arm as the student’s head snapped sideways.

He avoided a slash and tangled his other hand around the other student’s nape.

With a violent yank, he pulled the other student’s nose into his forehead, crushing cartilage and sending a spray of blood into the moonlight. The student reeled backward, hands clutching her ruined face, crimson steamed between her fingers.

Everything happened so fast.

And Kai’s movements were decisive, like he was used to this.

The other three students were only now turning, their weapons still rising, and their eyes still trying to find Kai. But they were too slow. Far too slow—as Kai already took two of them out of the battle, leaving only three.

And three at the same time were far easier to manage than five.

Once their eyes settled on Kai, icy fingers gripped their hearts.

Kai’s back was facing them, and his abyssal black eyes looked at them from over his shoulder. Blood smeared his face, and more sluiced down his arms. He was a Lesser Angel—but at this moment, he looked like the incarnation of Hades.

Or perhaps, an incarnation of a worse deity.

Meanwhile, not too far away.

The walk back to the dormitory stretched between Namira and Aaran in complete, unbroken silence. Neither spoke. The events earlier were still unspooling in their minds, over and over again without stop.

The distance from the Golden Forest to the dormitory was not far.

They had walked it hundreds of times.

But tonight, it felt endless, as though the path had stretched by the gravity of their thoughts.

Perhaps it was the weight of what had happened.

Perhaps it was the fact that the dormitory was built beside the main building, requiring one to trace a long, gradual ascent. Regardless, time moved strangely for them, and the world all around them felt muffled and distant.

Then, a pair of students ran past them.

"Come on, quick! Our honour is on the line!"

"What the heck is happening? What do you mean our honour is on the line?"

Namira and Aaran exchanged a confused look, and when the distant commotion reached their ears—shouts, the ring of metal, the wet percussion of flesh meeting flesh—both of them could not help but frown and began to jog.

Soon, the slope levelled out, and the dormitory came into view.

Outside the fence, a battle raged.

Students were clustered in a loose ring, bodies already strewn across the ground—and more were charging into the center. Namira squinted, trying to make sense of the chaos, the crowd, and the students on the ground in pain.

"Kill that fucking Lesser Angel!"

"Attack him at the same time!"

Almost instantly, Namira’s mind clicked.

Aaran also realized the same a breath later.

It was Kai.

Both of them squeezed through the crowd and saw a few students lying beaten on the ground, scattered around the arena like broken dolls. The rest were trying to gang up on a single man at the center—Kai.

Two, three, five students at the same time.

But Kai was holding his own. No. He wasn’t holding his own. He was dominating.

He moved like a blurry phantom through the moonlight. Parry. Counterattack. Strike. Each motion flowed into the next without pause, without hesitation, without a single wasted breath as he dealt with multiple students at once.

He wielded no weapon, and didn’t even use any Legacy Skill or Imprint.

Just his bare hands and his physical strength, while the other students threw everything.

Everything they had at him.

And still, he was winning.

Kai twisted his torso, coiled the power of his hips into a single rotation, and drove his fist into the face of a female student. The punch broke her face brutally, and her eyes went blank. But Kai’s body did not stop.

His hand shot forward in the same motion, fingers eager to close around her throat.

A lethal finishing blow of a predator.

But his hand halted mid-track. It hovered there for a fraction of a second, and then pulled.

The killing blow wasn’t delivered as the student dropped to the ground, alive, and Kai turned to face the next challenger.

’He’s impossibly strong. And he seemed to also hold himself back from exerting everything he had.’ Namira watched; her breath caught in her throat. She watched him do it again and again like his hands were restrained.

Every successful attack was followed by a finishing strike.

A stomp aimed at a downed skull, an elbow toward a collapsed spine, and a clawed hand that reached for a throat. But every single time, Kai’s limb stopped at the last possible second. The instinct to kill was there, and yet he caged it.

His restraint was impeccable, almost inhuman.

’Just in a few months, he already far surpassed his previous self. Already adapted to battle.’

Namira clenched her fists.

’As expected, his potential surpassed even High Angels.’