The Extra Can't be A Hero

Aluria's arrival marked the beginning of the end of Thalassa's rampage. The instant her presence revealed itself to the world, the sea god's wrath turned away from Amon and Leon. It shrieked and thrashed, unable to endure the humiliation that a lesser being like Aluria had stripped away its divinity.

Deep down, Thalassa knew the battle was lost. The truth gnawed at its ancient mind, but drowned in agony and rage, it abandoned reason and descended into madness. With a final, blind fury, the beast hurled itself at Aluria's radiant figure—unaware that every struggle only hastened its own demise.

[Drowned god…]

Aluria's voice rang out, as sacred as it was merciless. Thalassa, known to the natives as the drowned god, had long drenched the world in terror. To shatter its seal, it unleashed waves of corrupted mana, birthing the mermen and spreading ruin across the once-peaceful sanctuary known as the Veil.

[You haunted me all my life… I hated you. And yet… I can't help but pity you.]

For all the pain it had wrought, Aluria understood that Thalassa was nothing more than a pitiful relic. Shackled for millennia, forced to exist while the world passed it by, it had no kin, no love, no place in this age.

It was simply… a lonely creature whose time had ended.

[So I shall give you release. Drowned god… rest now.]

Raising her hand, Aluria touched Thalassa's massive snout. The sky-whale's body unraveled at her command—flesh dissolving into dust, mana dispersing into the air. Slowly, inevitably, the being once feared as the drowned god, the ocean's divinity, the ancient beast that had once served the Titans… ceased to exist.

It had become… one with nature once more.

"... Is it over?"

Leon posed the question cautiously.

It felt surreal. Just a few minutes before, Thalassa was a foe that everyone except Amon feared. It had endless amounts of mana, an indestructible body, and it was a mysterious ancient being who had an untold number of hidden cards.

Yet, the monster had just been beaten… by his mom as well.

For Lucas, it was doubly as unbelievable. The sealed god, the one responsible for separating his family and forcing his seclusion, had just been defeated. All without a single injury to any of his loved ones. Heck, they were far better than ever before.

His wife had become the new Ocean Goddess, bathing in new divine dominance. His son was now the Hero who fell a God, and the insights he gained from the battle weren't few. As for himself? Free from all stress, Lucas could feel his lost strength consolidating. His mana was steady, and with a new purpose in mind, his broken body was gradually healing.

Once he settled himself, Lucas was confident that he would reach a new level. One that he'd long given up on.

And all of this… was due to that one man floating down with his son.

'Amon Solaris… You actually delivered on your promise.'

Just months ago, Lucas had given up on life. He'd travelled to Espandavale to visit Amon, not as a plea of help to save him from his plight, but rather, to request Amon to take care of his son. For the sake of his family, he was willing to throw his life away.

But now, he had everything in his hands.

"It's over…"

Lucas smiled as he watched his wife and son come together in embrace, his lips stretched out to each ear.

"We can go home now."

***

Though Thalassa had been vanquished, the scars of its fury still clung to the battlefield. The valley that had once been a sanctuary of tranquility now lay in ruins, its cliffs fractured into jagged shards, boulders scattered like the bones of giants. Uprooted trees sprawled across the ground, their roots jutting into the air like twisted limbs.

What had once been a verdant paradise was reduced to a graveyard of splintered earth and broken life. Above, thunderclouds churned in defiance, spitting lightning into the horizon as if the storm itself refused to die. The very air pressed down upon the survivors, thick with mana so dense it shimmered faintly to the eye and burned in the lungs.

Remaining here for long was suffocating; leaving it untended would be disastrous.

Within weeks, the corrupted energy would fester, birthing mana-maddened beasts that would spill beyond the Veil and threaten humankind.

Knowing this, Amon and Yue did not depart immediately. They remained, standing amidst the devastation, shoulders squared beneath the storm. Their task was clear: restore balance to this broken land, cleanse the lingering corruption, and ensure that Thalassa's grave did not become a breeding ground for the next calamity.

"You're really working me to the bone, Amon! First, you ask me to give birth to a Goddess, and now you're making me play clean-up?! As the co-founder of Eldorin, I demand overtime compensation!"

"... since when did overtime matter to people like us?"

Amon laughed as he carried a boulder away, allowing Yue to cast her recovery magic. Both of them were among the wealthiest individuals on the planet. They didn't need conventional things like a working salary. Even in Eldorin, they only received a low base salary, nothing more.

"Tch, my husband really knows how to abuse his wife! I need to find a lawyer and draw up a real employment contract."

"And what would be the benefits?"

"Well, of course… we will have to copulate once a day! No, make it twice! Overtime is paid by copulations per instance!"

"Yes, yes."

Amon toned out Yue's delusions and continued on the clean-up work. While the clean-up was substantial, using Yue's spirits, there wasn't much that Amon needed to do. On occasion, he would carry rocks and move trees around, but that's about it. This gave him the luxury of observing the reunited family.

Contrary to what one might expect, the family of three was not weeping from the reunion. Instead, the scene was solemn and still. Leon sat cross-legged in a lotus position while Aluria stood over him, both with eyes shut, their forms radiating streams of mana that poured from their very pores like cascading light.

Even Lucas stood close by, his presence steady and silent, his solar mana flowing outward in quiet support as mother and son undertook the arduous task.

During the clash with Thalassa, Leon had devoured a torrent of mana from the ancient beast, swelling his reserves far beyond what his body was prepared to endure. Left unchecked, the sheer weight of that energy would have torn his vessel apart from within.

Aluria intervened, guiding and regulating the flow of his power, weaving it into his frame so that his body could adapt and grow stronger rather than collapse. Lucas remained as a stabiliser, a reservoir of solar mana ready to balance the ocean of hydro mana flooding Leon's core.

Bit by bit, Aluria's divinity reshaped him. His body was being reforged in the crucible of mana, tempered like steel under divine hands. It was no longer a question of if—only a matter of when.

Soon, Leon would awaken into something beyond what he had been before.

"As the protagonist, he should get stronger quicker…"

Amon mused in delight. He'd anticipated Leon's growth to be quick, but with Aluria's ascension into the new Ocean's Goddess, it was practically accelerated.

Leon wasn't just the Solaris Hero, but he was also the son of the Ocean Goddess now. Two polar opposite powers, merged harmoniously into one. Amon was curious to the point of elation, questioning what the man would evolve into once he succeeded in this trial.

"How is Aluria?"

"Hmmm? What do you mean?"

"Was there any issue with her ascension?"

Yue paused and gave Amon a thoughtful look. It wasn't until she had had her fill that she sighed and explained.

"I'm not sure what impression you're under, but Aluria isn't a goddess just yet. At best, she's a demigod with the potential to become a goddess."

"Is that so?"

"Hah, did you think becoming a god was that easy? Her vessel alone can't handle the power of the Ocean's Divinity. I had to disperse over ninety percent of the divinity for her to absorb whatever's left into her soul."

"So… that's only ten percent of Thalassa's original divinity?"

Amon pointed at Aluria's mystical state, completely at a loss for words on what to say. The way the world revolved around her, the way all mana bent at her feet, and even something as simple as her otherworldly appearance… it all pointed to Aluria being divine.

Yet, that was only ten percent?

"That's right."

"Wow… If we awakened Thalassa with its divinity intact."

"Yeah, I had no idea what you were thinking." Yue sighed and tapped her future husband's neck. "Betting on the Holy Sword was a good choice, but you shouldn't be too overly reliant on it and Leon. If Leon failed to sever Thalassa's divinity, we'd be screwed."

"... sorry."

Amon had to admit that he had underestimated the task this time. He'd believed that if Leon could have handled Thalassa in [Bright], he would have done the same, just a little easier. But in battles against the divine… nothing was for sure.

"But don't worry, we won't have to fight any divines anytime soon."

Knowing the future, Amon said with absolute confidence. After the Second Calamity, there weren't any future divines they had to fight. Even the Titans, the original owners of divinity, had their powers stripped away during their war against the Dragons.

So even if they all revived, they would be nothing more than giant punching bags, much like how Thalassa was after it lost its divinity.

"..."

At Amon's words, Yue simply stared in silence. If Amon had been a little more focused, he would have sensed the murky colour that was festering within the ethereal beauty's ruby eyes. An emotion that he'd never seen Yue express before…

Rage.