In this Second Chance at Life, where I can see skills as clear as day, everything feels like a breeze. And to make it even better, I’m spending my days joyfully with my First Love. - Chapter 55

In the dark depths where no light could reach, Poseidon gripped a trident forged from ocean currents. Despite his supposedly low agility, his attacks came at blinding speed. To counter them, I quickly solidified the mana enveloping my body and activated Mana Armor.

Even so, a sharp pain pierced my side.

“Gah… cough, guhah…”

The pain forced precious air from my lungs, a critical resource in these deep waters.

Although I tried to heal myself with Auto Recovery and Super Regeneration, the immense water pressure and the ocean’s hostility forced saltwater into my wound, worsening it. The sea itself worked against me, threatening to rip the injury open even further.

Without my Mental Resistance and Damage Reduction, that one wound alone would have been fatal.

One hit had drained 30% of my HP, and the oppressive sea made it impossible for my HP to regenerate properly.

As I deflected Poseidon’s follow-up attack by slamming him with a burst of mana, I redirected the mana from my Mana Armor and began carefully weaving it into my muscle fibers.

This was my ultimate combat mode—one I had refined ever since my first fight against my own clone: Demon Puppet Mode.

Just as Poseidon had fused his mana with his strength, I converted my own overwhelming mana reserves into raw physical power. Using Presence Detection, I tracked Poseidon’s movements.

There! I narrowly dodged the trident’s relentless assault and used the opening to deliver a powerful punch to Poseidon’s midsection.

“Guh… For a human, that was… surprisingly heavy.”

Despite my full-strength blow, Poseidon merely rubbed his abdomen lightly, as if brushing off an itch. It was clear my attack hadn’t done much.

Even with all my power, a punch imbued with 10 sextillion units of mana wasn’t enough to deal significant damage. The water resistance and the sheer mass of the sea worked against me, reducing the impact.

I released a surge of outward mana and kicked off the ocean floor.

The sea retaliated with immense currents, trying to drag me down with its crushing mass. But even in the deepest parts of this region—the Japan Trench, at most 8 kilometers deep—escaping the ocean with my mana was trivial.

The problem was that if I took my eyes off Poseidon, even for a moment, he would use that time to sink Japan beneath the waves.

In that case, I decided, I’d bring him up with me.

I advanced toward Poseidon, closing the distance and slipping into his range.

Beneath us, I began constructing an enormous pillar of mana, one that would carry us from the ocean floor to the surface. The pillar grew rapidly, pushing us upward with incredible force.

As I struck Poseidon’s stomach repeatedly, driving him upward, the water currents intensified, trying to push me back down. But those same currents only increased the pressure on Poseidon as he was forced against the rising pillar.

Without the resistance of those currents, ascending would have been much easier, but I pressed on.

With repeated blows, I propelled Poseidon and myself out of the ocean. We emerged several hundred kilometers off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, directly above the Japan Trench.

I launched Poseidon into the air, suspending him on a platform of my mana.

The moment I reached land, free from the ocean’s hostility, my injuries began to heal rapidly. My HP, which had been reduced to half, started regenerating. My breathing remained labored, likely from oxygen deprivation and the toll it had taken on my body.

Then, Poseidon roared in confusion.

“What is this!? The ocean is silent! Why does it no longer answer me!?”

“I’ve covered every ocean on this planet with a barrier far stronger than orichalcum—created entirely from my mana.”

“Grr… You absurd man! Yasushi Sashima, even the Supreme God could not achieve such a feat! Just how much mana do you possess!?”

“Roughly 10 sextillion units. Plus, I have numerous skills that enhance mana efficiency.”

Thanks to those skills, my effective mana reserves were far greater.

The mana required to encase the entire planet’s oceans in a barrier strong enough to withstand three full-power attacks from me only cost 100 quintillion units—less than 1% of my total mana.

“Poseidon, you are indeed a formidable opponent.”

He had genuinely pushed me to my limits, reducing my HP by half. The threat of the ocean and the terror of the deep were very real.

Moreover, I had never encountered another being so meticulously trained, with such perfectly honed muscles.

“To be honest, defeating a warrior as powerful as you with my own hands feels like a terrible waste. I don’t know why the gods have suddenly decided to impose trials upon humanity, but I ask this: if you swear never to repeat something like this rampage or harm humanity again, I will—”

I stopped mid-sentence as Poseidon interrupted me.

“Then kill me, Yasushi Sashima. You are as strong, noble, and gentlemanly as any god. For that reason, I cannot lie to you. I cannot make a false oath.”

Poseidon’s voice grew heavier as he continued.

“This trial of the gods is a decree from the Supreme God. We gods are bound by our very nature to act as arbiters of this world, to correct its distortions. Humanity, and you—Yasushi Sashima, the greatest of those distortions—must be eliminated.

No matter my personal feelings, the principles of the gods are etched into the core of our existence.”

In other words, Poseidon couldn’t disobey the Supreme God’s orders. If I didn’t kill him, he would continue to try to destroy humanity.

And yet, I still didn’t want to kill him.

“In that case… in that case, why don’t you become my tamed beast? If you do, I might be able to spare your life…”

“Hmph, you’re a man far too soft for someone of your strength. Guh…!?”

In the blink of an eye, a deafening thunderclap echoed, accompanied by a blinding flash of light that burned into my retinas. Poseidon staggered as a golden spear pierced through his chest.

“Hmph, my failure of a brother. To think you were swayed by those filthy humans,” sneered a voice from above.

“Zeus…”

“So, this is the human called Yasushi Sashima,” Zeus said, turning his gaze toward me. “Not only did you single-handedly annihilate the army of monsters we sent as a trial of the gods, but you also slaughtered all 128 gods we dispatched.”

Slaughtered gods? Me?

I froze for a moment, confused by Zeus’s claim. Then it hit me—it must be about my clones.

Caught up in my fight with Poseidon, I had completely forgotten. I activated Parallel Thought Integration and synced with the information from my clones, whose updates I had blocked to focus on this battle.

The data flooded in.

Across the world, my clones and Ichika’s slaughter machines had destroyed the 128 gods and their army of one billion monsters.

Most gods, even those on the level of upper-class gods, didn’t stand a chance. My clones, usually in groups of ten, or machines in units of 100, overwhelmed and defeated them before they could properly fight back.

As for the weaker, lower-class gods? My clones had taken them down with a single blow.

Even with all that, the information made one thing abundantly clear: Poseidon’s strength was in a league of its own.

His stats were astronomical, his techniques flawless, and his mastery over the ocean unparalleled.

Even if all 127 other gods combined their power, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. Poseidon was not just strong; he was noble, a true warrior.

And honestly, no other man could rival that extraordinary physique of his—not even among the gods.

Zeus, however, was a different story. He lacked the raw physical power of Poseidon—his strength stat was nearly ten times lower—but his mana exceeded Poseidon’s by more than tenfold.

Moreover, his agility stat was in the quintillions, surpassing anything I had seen before.

On paper, Zeus’s overall stats dwarfed Poseidon’s.

But…

He didn’t have Poseidon’s honed muscles or noble spirit.

And more importantly, despite his impressive stats, he felt like a weaker version of me.

Sure, his strength, stamina, and agility were all higher than mine, but when enhanced by the 10x to 100x multiplier from my mana infusion, my final numbers far surpassed his.

Most of all, Zeus’s lack of honor disgusted me. To strike down Poseidon—who had fought valiantly—without warning was an act unworthy of a god.

I didn’t even feel like engaging him in a direct battle.

After confirming that the worldwide stampede and the 128 gods had been neutralized, I commanded all 1,000 of my clones scattered across the globe to converge on my location. At the same time, I summoned 10,000 slaughter machine dolls to the battlefield.

“Now, it’s time for the beatdown,” I declared.

“What?! Stop! I am— I am the king of the 128 gods! Wait, no, stop—!” Zeus’s protests were cut short as I immobilized him with an overwhelming surge of mana.

Frozen in place, Zeus could do nothing as 10,000 slaughter machines and my 1,000 clones pummeled him relentlessly.

I vaguely heard him shouting something at the beginning, but after a minute, he went silent. Three minutes later, his body dissolved into glowing particles and vanished.

Apparently, even though Zeus was the king of the gods, he wasn’t the Supreme God.

Well, that made sense. If someone like Poseidon couldn’t defy the Supreme God, there was no way that being would be this weak.

Still, the problem was that the victory fanfare signaling the completion of the Trial of the Gods hadn’t sounded yet.

Something was still unresolved.

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