The Extra Can't be A Hero

While Amon and Yue worked to clear the battlefield, Aluria and Lucas focused entirely on stabilising their son's turbulent mana. Absorbing Thalassa's essence to strengthen his own body was a bold, brilliant gamble.

Not only would it weaken the leviathan, but it also offered Leon the chance to shatter the bottleneck that had long restrained him—elevating him from a mere human bearing the Golden Dragon Progenitor's bloodline into something far greater: a hybrid of Dragon and Titan.

With even a trace of divinity woven into that fusion, his very existence was evolving into a form unseen in all of living memory.

But such transcendence came at a perilous cost.

The vast energies raging inside him clashed violently, each struggling for dominance. His body was a vessel stretched to its limit, swollen with power so unstable that the slightest imbalance could reduce him to nothing more than scattered fragments, like a balloon bursting under unbearable strain.

Only Aluria and Lucas's guiding hands kept disaster at bay. Their mastery and vigilance shielded him from the brink of mana deviation, for without them, Leon's soul itself would have been torn apart, shredded beyond repair.

"Leon, don't give in! You can do this!"

Aluria's forehead was now covered with sweat as her hands were plastered on her son's weighty back. As the new Ocean Goddess, her control over hydro mana was unparalleled, making her the best person to regulate Thalassa's mana within Leon. Any excess energy that couldn't be converted into Leon's mana was either used to nourish his body, seeping into his bones and remaking his muscles or absorbed into Aluria's own mana core.

But that wasn't all. Leon was someone with dual affinities, and his solar mana had to be equal to his hydro mana, else his body would crumble under the pressure of his own mana.

That's where his father, Lucas Solaris, was forced to act.

Channelling solar mana like his life depended on it, Lucas held his son's head with a gentle touch.

They had to succeed, even if it meant costing their own lives. That was the measure of a parent who was willing to give their entire world for their child.

And Leon didn't want to disappoint.

Slowly, he harmonised all of the energies within his soul into a melting pot, one that continued to grow stronger each time Leon circulated his energies. The pressure was immense, and it felt like his body was about to be ripped in two at any given moment, but Leon didn't give in.

With his senses sharpened to their peak, Leon could feel every corner of his soul as though it were laid bare before him. Instinct guided him; he knew exactly what needed to be done to strengthen and reshape it.

Mana surged through his veins like molten fire, unmaking and remaking his body with each pulse. Above him blazed five colossal suns, radiant and overwhelming, accompanied by twenty smaller satellites orbiting like sparks of light. Their brilliance bathed his soulscape, each sun exuding a domineering force that pressed down upon his very being.

Yet beneath their radiance stretched a bottomless lake at the foundation of his soul, overflowing with torrents of water mana.

For all their might, the suns could not steady the imbalance. Their fiery dominance clashed against the endless tide, unable to contain the flood of hydro mana that threatened to drown his soul from within.

"Leon!"

Naturally, Aluria and Lucas could feel the imbalance clearly. Aluria wrapped her arms around the waist of her child, desperately trying to absorb as much hydro mana as she could. Meanwhile, Lucas forcibly poured more solar mana into his son's body, blood trickling down his lips as he did so.

One of his seven suns gradually lost its light, but Lucas didn't care all that much. All he wished for, was his son's safety.

Fortunately, he didn't have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

[Your parents care about you dearly, Leon…]

Idrytis Solaris's voice echoed within the depths of Leon's soul, as if beckoning Leon to awaken. Alas, all of his mental focus was concentrated on keeping his soul from tearing apart, and the Hero failed to see the Solaris Founder's mana encroaching on him.

But Idrytis wasn't the only mana source that awakened.

[For the sake of our successor, don't you think we should act?]

[...]

From the shadows stepped a devastatingly fierce woman, her very bearing radiating unshakable confidence. Midnight-black hair flowed down her shoulders in smooth waves, framing a body sculpted by battle—broad-shouldered, powerful, yet effortlessly graceful.

She towered above all others, her stature dwarfing both men and women alike. Yet her imposing height did nothing to diminish her femininity; if anything, it magnified it.

She was less a woman, more a war goddess incarnate, beauty and strength seamlessly entwined. Her golden eyes, sharp and slitted like a predator's, glimmered with silent intensity as she fixed her gaze on the boy before her.

Leon sat in deep meditation, his soul trembling on the brink of collapse under the crushing weight of imbalanced mana. And still, under that piercing gaze, the scene felt as if judgment itself had descended.

Before Leon, there were two wielders of the Holy Sword, Ascalon.

One was the Solaris Founder. A legendary being who ended the Great Dragon War, heralding the beginning of the Age of Man. His exploits were so staggering that most people likened them to myths. Yet, there was one person who surpassed him.

The woman who ended the Great Demon War almost single-handedly. A divine Knight so peerless that her only comparison wasn't with other powerhouses of her time, but with the Goddess Hyades herself. A woman who sat at the right hand of the Goddess, and the one who was considered the most powerful human of all time.

The Solaris Saint—Agios Solaris.

[Old man, you're just bored with waiting for his growth, aren't you?]

[Agios, that boy isn't like you. You carved your own path—reshaping your body through sheer instinct, and even finding your way to the Goddess's sanctuary on your own. I was never there to guide you. Even though a fragment of my soul resides within Ascalon, I never truly served as your mentor, not as I was meant to.]

[Hah… Ascalon really has a nasty function.]

The Solaris Saint sighed while brooding over the Solaris Founder's words.

All previous wielders of Ascalon, after their passing, would seal a portion of their soul within the holy blade. They would remain forever within the blessed blade and only come out to guide future owners of Ascalon. That was why Idrytis and Agios's souls remained within Ascalon, even though it had been centuries since their deaths.

[What shall we do?]

[I'm not asking you to do anything too crazy… just, look after the kid while I'm away.]

[Old man, you can't be serious…]

As souls bound to Ascalon, Agios could read Idrytis's thoughts as if they were an open book. So, even without communicating, she knew what the Solaris Founder intended to do.

[If the owner of Ascalon dies here, we won't be able to see the light of day for a few hundred years. The least I could do is save him now.]

[... You could fall asleep until the next recharge.]

[Bahahahaha, so be it! It's the elderly's job to guide the new generation onto the right path.]

[...]

Agios remained silent. Although they had arguments in the past, Agios had a deep respect for the Solaris Founder. He was, after all, the epitome of the word 'Hero'. In many ways, she was lacking when compared to the legendary figure, so seeing him intent on leaving so early… placed a bitter pill in her mouth.

[... I'll help you, that way you won't sleep for too long.]

[Oh my, the young Agios has turned kind after all these years?]

[I lived till a hundred before I died, you old fart.]

Agios slapped the burly hand away and walked in front of Leon's trembling soul. Without so much of a gesture, both the Solaris Founder and Saint interlocked their fingers and pressed their palms against Leon's chest.

Nine blazing suns burst forth from the Solaris Founder's body, flooding the heavens with brilliance until the empty sky became a blinding field of white. From Ascalon poured endless torrents of solar mana, an abundance so vast it defied comprehension in the modern era, streaming endlessly into Leon's battered soul.

Yet the Founder was not the only one to lend his power.

The Solaris Saint too revealed her light.

Unlike the Founder's nine radiant orbs, Agios summoned only a single sun. But in its singularity lay unmatched supremacy. Her sun was not golden, but pure white—an incandescent core so potent it seemed capable of melting worlds with its presence alone. Its gravity pulled all else into orbit, an anchor of cosmic might that eclipsed the Founder's nine combined.

Together, these two boundless sources poured their strength into Leon. The solar deficiency that had left his soul unstable was eradicated, replaced by perfect equilibrium.

Solar fire and oceanic tides pulsed in unison, harmonising until a breathtaking vision bloomed within his inner world. A serene lake spread wide, its still waters reflecting six suns that blazed brilliantly overhead. Yet no matter how fiercely they burned, their heat did not consume the seas.

Instead, lake and suns coexisted in balance, each nourishing the other.

Around the six great stars, six smaller satellites kindled into being, orbiting like jewels in a celestial crown. Leon's vessel—once a wreck teetering on collapse—was healing, reforged by the abundance of balanced mana. And as his soul settled into harmony, one truth became undeniable: it was only a matter of time before Leon would awaken anew.

The first Knight to embody a dragon-titan bloodline, sustained by a soul infused with both solar and hydro divinity.

In that moment, Leon had transcended every level known to mankind.

[Bahahaha, as expected from our successor! A perfected being! I would have never fathomed this in my prime!]

[... he barely passes.]

[You and your absurd standards!]

The Solaris Founder continued to laugh as his body gradually phased out of existence. Since his soul was locked within Ascalon, it wasn't going to be a true death. As long as more solar mana was being poured into Ascalon, Idrytis would awaken one day in the future. But still, it would be a while before the Solaris Founder would meet Leon again.

[Do you have a message you want me to pass?]

[Heh, the little girl has grown more perceptive after her death?]

[Old man, stop joking. You barely have enough time left.]

[Oh my… You're right.]

Even though the Solaris Founder was slowly losing his light from overexerting himself, his smile remained radiant. Staring at the sleeping Leon, he only said this one thing:

[Tell him… I want to see the face of my grandchild when I awaken!]

[...]

In the end, the Solaris Founder disappeared, leaving the Solaris Saint blank-faced as she stared blankly at the young man who was the cause of all this ruckus.

[Don't disappoint us… Hero.]