I WAS The Rank–1 Hero-Chapter 68: To The Human Continent [4]

Emotions are strange. They control us more than we control them.

A single feeling can shape the course of our entire life.

Fear makes people hesitate.

Anger makes them reckless.

Love blinds them, and despair crushes them.

Yet, without emotions, humans are nothing but empty shells.

People believe they understand their own emotions, but do they really? If they did, they wouldn’t be controlled by them. Instead, they would use them.

Happiness fades. Sadness lingers. Hope can be shattered in an instant. No matter how strong a person is, emotions will always find a way to break them.

But emotions aren’t the enemy. They are a weapon—one that can be sharpened and wielded. A person who can control their emotions can control themselves. And a person who can control themselves… can control everything.

Perhaps that’s why emotions are feared. Because once someone understands how to manipulate them—their own and others’—they become something terrifying.

A man driven by madness is dangerous. But a man who controls his madness? That’s unstoppable.

’Alright,’ Sera whispered, ’Brace yourself.’

’Alright, no time to turn back.’

I feel it the moment Sera activates her skill.

A powerful force surges inside me like a huge tornado crashing into a building. And I can feel it within me.

It was not fear, it was not even rage—it was power.

My heart pounded in my chest, not from anxiety, but from excitement.

The rush of dopamine flooded my mind, making everything sharper, clearer, faster. Every doubt, every hesitation— all gone.

Confidence fills every fiber of my body. Every movement, every decision, every calculation— they were perfect. My instincts too aligned with my logic, creating a flawless blend of intuition and intellect inside me.

With my Ruler’s Skill still active, I could feel the effects amplifying.

The moment Sera’s [Madness Manipulation] skill took effect.

I am no longer just thinking— I’m processing every possible outcomes of it, as if my mind has become a supercomputer running at infinite speed.

I narrowed my eyes, before shifting my focus to a purple screen which appeared in front of my eyes.

Fate’s Interface.

———「Child of Ylthea」———

★Mental Barrier: 67 [↑ 18% temporary]

★Intelligence: 99 [↑ 32% temporary]

★Essence Capacity: 87

★Stamina: 78

★Agility: 88

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My intelligence had risen up way too high, it’s almost touching the threshold.

I could feel it—the clarity, the sheer speed at which my mind processed information now. It’s was as if, my brain was reconstructed into something else.

Sera’s skill was extraordinary.

[Madness Manipulation]— The major skill of Authority Holder of Emotions, a power that could distort minds, overwhelm emotions, and push someone to the very edge of sanity.

But instead of making me lose control, she had refined it, focusing all that raw mental instability into something precise.

It was all thanks to Sera that this skill didn’t turn me into a madman, otherwise in the midst of this battle, you would find me laughing like crazy.

She had boosted my intelligence, temporarily enhancing my ability to analyze and predict.

I took a deep breath.

Sighhhh…

Slowly opening my eyes, I could now visualizing everything, in front of my eyes everything became a series of moving equations. Every movement, every attack, every flicker of energy—all variables in a vast, ever-changing calculation.

But I wasn’t interested in Hope or the Faceless Nathalia’s fight.

I had a different goal.

The Real Nathalia.

The Faceless Nathalia wasn’t the true enemy. She was just a construction of someone’s dream into reality, an extension of the real body. The original Nathalia, who was somewhere nearby, dreaming all this nightmare into existence.

I needed to find her.

I still remembered what Goddess Ylthea had told me.

You are very weak, considering the other Authority Holders.

It’s a painful truth.

Even with my skills, I couldn’t hope to overpower an opponent like Nathalia.

Well… Not directly. That was Hope’s job. And from the looks of it, he was almost done.

His relentless assault continued. Again and again, his katana carved wound after wound throughout her body.

Each cut tore the Faceless Nathalia apart.

One time her squishy insides floated out, another time her she simply dodged all the attack.

Hope’s strategy was taking shape. Despite being standing in a still position and accepting all the attacks— she snow started dodging them.

She was getting nervous now.

Her form should have collapsed long ago, yet she kept on regenerating. Her faceless, featureless body showed no signs of pain.

No screams.

No fear.

No hesitation.

Nothing.

Maybe because she had no mouth to cry out. No eyes to show her despair.

But it didn’t matter.

Hope knew exactly what he was doing.

He didn’t need to kill her.

He needed to destroy the very concept of her existence.

Let the creator feels the fear through her own creation.

Cut. Tear. Shatter.

A Dreamer’s Perfection… Destroyed.

I could see it now.

Every time she regenerated, she came back slightly weaker, slightly less defined than before.

The perfect image in Nathalia’s mind was beginning to crack.

This realization sent a small, cryptic smile onto my face.

’Even dreams can be tainted.’ Sera spoke.

Correct.

And Hope was proving that.

Still, I couldn’t afford to watch this shit forever.

I already had plans A through plan H lined up in my mind. If one failed, I’d move on to the next.

Because if Hope couldn’t finish this… and nothing seemed to work—then with this, I would do it by myself, whose probability seems to be almost zero.

Now, I needed to find her.

I activated another one of my skill.

[Elemental View]

This skill once allowed me to sense everything in the radius of 50 K.Ms, but. Now, after Ylthea’s blessing, its effects seemed to have evolved entirely.

_______________________

★〘Elemental View〙 [A-rank]

«Omniscient Perception: Can see, hear, and smell everything within a 100 km radius»

«Spatial Projection: Generates a 3D projection of a selected area, displaying real-time movements»

«Absolute Tracking: Pinpoints the exact location of one or multiple targets, regardless of obstacles or concealment»

«Foe & Ally Differentiation: Instantly mark between enemies, and allies»

«Elemental Resonance: Detects and analyzes elemental energies, revealing barriers, or illusions»

__________________________

After reading my skills ability, both my eyes went wide open.

"T-This is insane…" My voice was both quiet and surprised.

Just a short while ago, this skill only allowed me to sense my surroundings within a 50 km radius. But now, after receiving Goddess Ylthea’s blessing, its effects had evolved into something entirely new.

Now, not only could I sense and track enemies, but I could also distinguish them from allies with absolute certainty.

I clenched my fist, feeling the rush of power flow through me.

"Just from a single blessing… this is the result?" I whispered.

For a moment, I felt excited.

All my skills got tremendous growth, and on top of that it didn’t even have a side effect.

But then, a nagging thought crept into my mind—

’Was this truly a gift without consequences?’

Every power came at a price. Nothing in this world was free.

As if responding to my doubts, Sera’s voice echoed in my mind.

’It’s what you get as a reward for taking the responsibilities of gods.’

"..."

Responsibilities, huh?

For what?

Recreating Olympus?

’Yeah, sure… Not happening.’

I sighed deeply, pushing that thoughts away for now.

I turned my focus back to my newly enhanced skill—[Elemental View].

The moment I activated it, my vision distorted for a brief second before rapidly expanding.

A flood of information surged into my head as an intricate pattern of web of energy signatures, movements, and even faint scents appeared before me.

’T-This is insane!’

I was awestruck.

The forest around me was no longer just trees and shadows—it was a map, a detailed projection of every living and non-living thing within a 100 km radius.

Thousands of trees, various animals, and monsters appeared in my vision, each outlined with their unique energy. The clarity was rather insane.

I could hear the faint rustling of leaves, the distant howling of goblins, and even the heartbeat of a deer hiding behind a bush. The skill had truly evolved beyond my expectations.

But I didn’t have time to be amazed. I had a task to finish.

I shifted my focus to somewhere else, filtering through out the overwhelming amount of information.

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Nathalia’s real body—had to be somewhere.

I narrowed my search to less crowded, more concealed locations.

Not here.

Not this one either.

No… not this.

Then, after a few minutes of scanning, I found it.

A fortress.

Unlike anything else in the Demon Continent, this structure was pristine white, standing in stark contrast to the darkness surrounding it. A large garden spread vastly around it, filled with blood-red roses and vines with green thorns. It was beautiful…

A place like this…

This had to be it.

I had finally found her.

I began Plan A.

It was rather simple—

Our main objective was to get out of this continent.

If I somehow got my hands on the teleportation artifact they used to mass teleport us here, then…

We could all escape the Demon Continent without having to fight an Authority Holder directly.

But there was a huge problem.

I didn’t know what the artifact was or where it was located.

End of Chapter.