The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon

“Gasp… Huff…”

“Hooo…”

The muscular body of a man reminiscent of a Greek statue and the alluring, tan-skinned body of a woman that any man would drool over were busily exploring each other, repeatedly coming together and parting.
I had long since discarded the cloth garment that had been hindering me, and Atalanta was also only wearing a simple cloth garment, soaked with sweat, her tan skin tantalizingly shimmering beneath it.

“What’s this? Are you already tired?”

“Hngh.. Hnngh!!”

Atalanta, panting heavily from my relentless attacks, gathered all her strength and charged at me again, but I skillfully caught her and pushed her back.

-Thud!

“Euk!!”

Unable to control the momentum, she flew backward from my counter, landing hard on the ground, far from where I stood.
We were both standing atop the wooden pillars I had personally set up.

“If you get tired or lose focus even a little, you always rush in. You still haven’t fixed that?”

“Ugh… but–”

“But what? Why do you think I went through the trouble of setting up these wooden pillars to make a training ground?”

Humans instinctively fear when their bodies or feet are off the ground, and this training ground was designed to use that instinct to naturally master foot techniques by moving on high wooden pillars.
The Supreme Fighting Demon taught me on stone pillars that seemed almost as high as a small hill.
Even though I was in a spiritual state, the floating sensation that made my spine tingle and the shock of falling and hitting the ground were still dizzying enough to cause phantom pain.
I desperately fought against the Supreme Fighting Demon on the stone pillar, mastering the footwork and demonic arts.
Following this example, I also spared no effort to help Atalanta quickly and surely learn the footwork of the demonic arts.

“When I trained, the pillars were so high you couldn’t even see the ground. Anyway, you lose points.”

“Damn it…”

While I stood firmly on the wooden pillar without a scratch, Atalanta had already fallen several times, with her body bearing the marks of every rough landing.
On top of the high wooden pillars, a fierce martial arts duel unfolded.
Anyone would be astonished by such a harsh and dangerous training method, but it was a training method with definite accomplishments.

“Tsk… You still tend to rush into melee combat? Can’t you fix that temper?”

“I can’t help it! My body–”

“Shut up!”

In an instant, Atalanta was startled by my changed voice and looked up, but I was no longer where she was looking.

“One more thing, what’s the rule when fighting?”

It’s not over until one of us is dead.

I launched a kick aimed at her head, faster and heavier than the one she had delivered to the iron man earlier.

“Ugh!”

Sensing the attack, Atalanta quickly raised her guard, but I mentally noted another deduction.

“Instead of blocking, you should dive in.”

The strength of the Supreme Fighting Demon Technique lies in its external attack style, which charges in and seizes the opponent’s vital points first, regardless of the situation or posture.
Using her specialty, the Pankration joint lock, she must confuse the opponent with fierce attacks strong enough to reverse the flow of qi and induce qi deviation, or to catch up with the very reaction of trying to raise qi.
Attack is the best defense; even when receiving an attack, persistently charging forward and dragging the goddess of victory away from the opponent is the essence of the Supreme Fighting Demon Technique.
From the moment she fell to the ground and tried to block my attack defensively, her Supreme Fighting Demon Technique had already lost its momentum and weakened.

-Whack!

“Kyaaaah!”

As expected, Atalanta, who took the kick aimed at her side head-on, was knocked out and rolled several times on the ground.
When she staggered to her feet, her arm was twisted at a strange angle, as if broken.

“Ugh… it hurts…”

“I can listen to all your regrets and anger later. But not now.”

Atalanta was not yet dead, and I was not in a state where I couldn’t move due to inner demons or injuries.
The Supreme Fighting Demon.
A grand master revered by the entire martial world, a master among masters, and a demonic figure who led a hundred thousand demonic warriors and was regarded as the closest to achieving the dream of conquering the martial world in the history of the Demonic Cult.
She didn’t just steal a glimpse of his ultimate technique over the shoulder; she stole the essence of his enlightenment and fled, so mastering it was not merely a goal but an obligation for her.

“Even if you gathered all the humans in Greece, they wouldn’t outnumber the martial artists who would want to learn even a single move of the martial arts you just displayed. Understand?”

The pinnacle of the Twelve Divine Demons’ techniques, the ultimate technique of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s grand master, was like that.
A miracle created by the combination of an extremely low probability and a talent unseen in ages, comparable to the history accumulated by major sects over decades.
I carved this into my soul and spirit at a time when I could neither live nor die and when that miracle revealed itself to the world once more.
I bore the faith of an overwhelming number of believers who would dismiss the likes of the Supreme God Zeus, and ascended to the throne of a living god.

I competed with mighty martial artists, comparable to the Titans spoken of by the temple priests, flattening mountains and drying rivers to erase them from maps.

“So get up, if you sit down crying like some ordinary girl just because your arm is broken, I will never forgive you.”

These demonic arts were my history and my second life. Based on the advancements of the Twelve Demons, I perfected the Heavenly Demon King’s Landing to reach where I am now.
I had decided to live leisurely, accepting everything else with ease, but I could never compromise when it came to martial arts.

-Crack!

The sound of wood splitting echoed from behind.
It was the sound of the wooden pillars splitting, unable to withstand the impact of my earlier step.

“…!!”

Atalanta’s crimson eyes darted between me and the wooden pillars behind me as if she had forgotten the pain in her arm, seemingly shocked.

Atalanta’s arm was broken, and though it was to teach her a lesson, today’s training ended as I half-destroyed the wooden pillar training ground.

Though she hadn’t lost consciousness, Atalanta collapsed and lay limp, as if she had given her all.
Covered in dirt and blood, with her broken arm hanging limply, she looked like a warrior who had fallen on the battlefield—or a novice who had completed a brutal martial arts initiation. Satisfied with the results, I picked her up.

“Ugh… I couldn’t land a single hit today either…”

“Hey, do you not remember how you pushed yourself to the limit last time? I actually got to visit the River Styx for the first time in ages because of you.”

“Ugh, that was only possible because you accepted everything. But still, I made you sweat quite a bit, didn’t I?”

Atalanta proudly wiped the sweat off my chest with her hand.

“Indeed, honestly, you should be proud.”

During our first encounter, I had beaten her without breaking a sweat.
But now, Atalanta, whose Supreme Fighting Demon Technique had matured considerably, had reached a point where she could keep me busy, even if she couldn’t inflict wounds.

“You still have some bad habits, but you’d be ready for real combat right now.”

I laid her down under the large oak tree shade that we always used as our resting place, and I began to point out one by one the bad habits or mistakes I had seen in her today, while gently touching her body.

“Heut! I-it tickles!”

“Stay still.”

Her neck and shoulders were tight with tension, and her back and shoulder blades had borne the brunt of multiple powerful strikes. And, of course, I couldn’t ignore the ample chest that had distracted me even in the heat of battle.

“Heung… Ha-eut!”

As I traced each part with my fingertips, I used the divine power I learned from Nemesis to heal serious wounds and activate muscles that would recover and grow.
Maybe it was the sense of recovery or the close distance, but Atalanta looked at me with a mix of relief and something else.
Honestly, the sudden transformation of the female warrior nestling quietly in my arms, with the small well on her chest stained with dirt and sweat, almost stirred my heart for a moment.

“Ow… Ah, ouch! It hurts!”

But when I poked the broken bone in her arm, that strange mood vanished, and Atalanta started whining with tears in her eyes.

“Of course, it hurts. If it didn’t, I’d be worried. The real danger comes when you don’t feel the pain. In that case, I’d have to drag Asclepius over here.”

“…Sigh. Ouch! Go slower!”

Honestly, I was a young man in my prime, and Atalanta was a stunningly beautiful woman, with a raw, wild allure that could make any man weak.
When such a beauty openly seduces me, it’s only natural that blood would rush to my loins.
However, now was not the time to engage in Greek-style romance; it was the moment to reflect on today’s training.

“I know what you want, and I want it too. But not now. We’ve just had a perfect sparring session and recovery, so we need to review it while it’s still fresh.”

“Fine… Fine! I get it!”

True to Atalanta’s passionate nature, she looked at me with eyes full of resentment as I suppressed her heated emotions.
Yet, when I mentioned today’s sparring, her eyes changed, and she returned to the stance of a warrior.
I, too, felt a mix of regret and pride.

“Look. Right now, like you, I’m not using my internal energy or divine power. But the wooden pillar I stepped on is shattered, while the one you stepped on is intact, right?”

“Is it because you’re stronger?”

“No, honestly, if we only consider the physical body, you really have a perfect one too. But…”

How long had we been facing each other, replaying the sparring?
Only after Apollo’s chariot had descended a bit could we finally conclude today’s training.

“The important thing is calmness and control. A rampaging beast kills people, but…?”

“A trained warrior catches the beast.”

“That’s right.”

As expected of Atalanta, a renowned female hero in Greece, she understood my teachings and criticisms with clarity and nodded energetically.
Indeed, seeing a disciple who absorbs everything given is satisfying.
Just as I was about to declare the end of training with satisfaction, Atalanta dashed towards me like an arrow.

“Chup!”

“Eup?!”

A moist sensation suddenly covered my lips.
The intense scent of a woman piercing my nostrils and the enchanting ruby-red eyes sparkling before me.
Just as I taught her today, with a warrior-like precision and sudden physical onslaught, I had no choice but to surrender my body.

-Slur… slurp!

“Ha… haah!”

As if to savor the reward for her rigorous training, Atalanta’s sweet tongue invaded my mouth, and her breath, as if to reclaim every bit of mine.
With a gaze that seemed to say she could no longer endure her thirst, I laughed helplessly and willingly passed my breath to her.

The scorching sunlight and the cool shade of the trees providing relief.
It was a perfect moment for a light kiss between a man and a woman, intoxicated by each other’s scent.