The Strongest Hero is Regressing

Prologue: To A Supposed End

"GET OUT OF THE WAY ALEA!"

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I saw the Deity charge toward her.

Alea, in a flash, dodges the Deity as she gets back up her feet.

"Alea, are you alright?" I say in a worried tone.

"...Do you take me for a weakling?" said Alea.

"Seems like you're fine enough if you're that smug." I say in a half worried tone.

Suddenly, the Deity speaks. "My my, getting distracted are we?", seemingly mocking us as he releases a strike toward us once again.

"Rin, cast your barrier spell on everyone." I said in a quiet tone.

As Rin, the most knowledgeable person, decided to grant us our shields, we rushed toward the Deity, Seemingly ready to end this battle once and for all.

"Alea, Rin, Gor, and Alicia... This might be the very last battle we will all experience together as a team."

The look on my party members was filled with fear, anger, and yet, their eyes were enough to tell me that they were just as brave and courageous to walk alongside me in my journey and to its very end.

"Everyone, hold the Deity in place for as long as possible. If you guys manage to do that... we might just become victorious." and thus, their eyes seem to be more determined than ever before.

As minutes go by, my party is barely holding on. But alas, I charge up every last bit of my mana aiming for a killing blow to end the millions of suffering caused by this damn God.

"Do you think I'd let you simply kill me just like that?" the Deity laughs, taunting us once again.

"And do you think I'd let you keep killing people? To keep destroying our cities?" I said in an angry tone.

The Deity laughs, and despite the restriction he was put in he still manages to laugh like an absolute maniac.

"I am Vandrecht Varvail Secillion, and to be killed by mere mortals is just ultimately disgusting!" said the Deity.

I always had the mana pool larger than anyone else, they said it was a miracle that a human is able to store such an amount of mana inside them. So with that gift and my will, I'll release the strongest skill I know right to that Deity's face.

As my team barely holds on to keeping Vandrecht restricted, I gather magic around my core and in those around me, creating a pressure enough to paralyze anyone who dares to rival it.

I gather my mana, by the second it gets even more intense, the Deity's look seems to take aback.

"I have to end this now, I can't waste any more time..." I said in a definite tone.

I take a deep breath as I exert all of my concentration and mana, slowly building up an almost Godlike technique towards the Deity. "The First Division, control over Space... Second Division, Unrivaled Magic... And Lastly, Authority, Numen."

"All in one... ARTORIA!" I breathe heavily, releasing a skill known to be near impossible. And yet...

The Deity seemed to acknowledge the attack, and this time, it wasn't a look of mockery but fear. Although in those fearful eyes... Why can I still feel like I haven't won at all?

Then, as I released my skill, the Deity released a skill of his own. But it wasn't pointed towards my skill Artoria, but towards me...

As my skill hit the Deity, he stood there lifeless, I am sure he was dead but... something felt odd.

"ENN! ENN!" screamed Alicia and Alea. Why were they screaming? What was happening?

Suddenly, an instant feeling overtook me, I felt confused, not knowing what had just happened.

As I slowly started to fall over to the ground, I saw the Deity. He looked like didn't perish by my skill, but instead died out of mana loss...? Then suddenly, there I was... seemingly to have fallen to the ground.

A wave of darkness fills my consciousness, it's like I could hear voices... am I going crazy?

"Ah... for a human to best me like that. You aren't normal are you, mortal? Beings like you are put to such waste, you might as well just die." Vandrecht laughs. "Even if this world doesn't acknowledge me anymore my will shall go on. A mortal like you... is bound to die."

Suddenly falling into slumber, two hours passed by.

After a while, I woke up remembering what that Deity said, "What did he mean by that? Bound to death?"I sigh, still exhausted from my fight with the Deity. "It might be important to look into that but the fatigue is too much for me as of now."

I decided to open my eyes only to see my team worried and waiting for me to wake up. Only for Alicia to spot me seemingly lost in thought.

"Enn! I am so glad you're okay." said Alicia.

And with Alicia suddenly raising her voice like that, the others noticed as well.

"Glad you aren't beaten up too much," said Gor. "That skill of yours is terrifying."

Alicia looks at Gor with a tense face,"Come on Gor! Enn is injured, enough with jokes!"

"How is everyone?" I said, "What happened after I collapsed?"

"You see, that damn Deity did something to you." said Alea. "We saw him slowly perish before your Artoria hit him, then we just saw you get hit with something I can't explain..."

I look at Alea, then I look at Rin's direction to seek answers. "Rin, do you have any idea what the Deity did to me?"

Rin hesitantly nods, "I think I know what happened, that Deity seemed like he sacrificed the energy he had left for that skill that hit you, and as for that "thing" that hit you... I am positive it looked like a curse."

"C-Curse? Are you serious?" I said worryingly. "Just what did that Deity do to me?"

Rin looks with uneasiness, "That I do not know, but you can relax a little. As strong as you are, I don't even know if anything would work on you at this point..

I sigh in relief as I continue to assess what happened, "We really did it everyone, thanks to everyone's hard work we were able to– "

And just like that my team got close to me and hugged me, seemingly relieved. "Everyone, this will be my last order for all of you. I want you all to travel with me back to our city and there we will officially finish this long journey, but for tonight I want you all to get the rest you deserve. I'll take watch for tonight, forgive me for being selfish and being the one to take care of all of you for the last time."

During that night, I couldn't stop thinking about how the Deity Vandrecht died only to put a curse on me. To put it into perspective, Deities are essentially Gods that live alongside us keeping a hidden profile, Deities are stronger than all of the races combined, even against the rarest of each of the races in this world, nothing could compete to a deity, assuming it was a one on one.

As for Vandrecht, people from all over the world know him as the "Deity of Deities" because of his extreme ego that fully supports his strength as well, people basically treated Vandrecht as the Strongest being known to Deities and this world. And for him to die just because of casting a single curse...

The silence of the night eventually took its toll on me, and in the end, I accepted my fate as I eventually fell asleep.

By the time the sun rose, we left the barren lands as we traveled to our home city, Aratana.