Just as Ryan expected, Hephaestus couldn't move so fast to dodge those arrows, so he moved his hammer to protect himself. Ryan counted on that, and thanks to it, the hammer of mithril broke, and then the head fell. However, Ryan picked it by teleporting, and then he stored it in his spatial storage.

"This entire plan of yours was just to get the hammer?" Hephaestus asked.

​​

"I just want more mithril, that is all," Ryan said. "Still, I heard that your weapons are made of mithril, but yours seems different. It can't be compared to Poseidon's or Thanatos', why?"

"Why should I answer that?" Hephaestus asked.

"Well, it can't hurt to ask," Ryan shrugged. "I imagined that you were the one who forged their weapons, but I guess I was wrong."

"You weren't wrong, I did forge their weapons," Hephaestus replied.

Ryan couldn't help but think that Hephaestus was working with Tyr just to have a near-infinite supply of mithril to play with. That was probably why he wasn't bothered when Ryan broke his hammer. Still, what would be the secret to his forging when his own weapon was like the other Greek gods?

In the end, Ryan didn't have time to come up with an answer. Hephaestus made the cable of his weapon disappear, and then he pointed his right hand toward Ryan. He didn't like that… he thought that Hephaestus was a pure melee fighter, but it looked like he assumed too much. Suddenly, that whole region began to change. The temperature began to rise so much that even Ryan began to have a hard time breathing. Ryan saw everything vibrating around him due to the heat, and his nose began to bleed… that was a level of heat even higher than when Ryan fought in that world filled with volcanoes.

Congratulations! The skill Heat Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Heat Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Heat Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

…

"Oh, shit… come to think of it, he is the Greek god of fire," Ryan thought.

Even before he received Femradiel's power, Ryan never liked fire. Maybe because its tone would make him remember a certain someone. Either way, now he disliked it even more due to his ice dragon powers. Unfortunately, not even Frost Armor was helping him with that spell.

Ryan decided to attack while Hephaestus was busy controlling the spell. Still, he soon moved his hand, and the spell stayed active. That was bad… really bad. Hephaestus charged toward Ryan again, and this time, he didn't have time to react… Hephaestus was faster than before, it didn't make any sense, but he was.

The air left Ryan's lungs upon impact, and he felt most bones of his body turning into dust even before the impact could make him move away from Hephaestus. Ultimately, Ryan only stopped when he hit the ground and created a massive crater. The first thing he did when he finally could control his body again was spat a huge amount of blood, and then he used Full-Heal, but despite that, his body was almost completely destroyed, and it would take a while for his bones to be mended.

Just like before, Hephaestus tried to crush Ryan's head by stepping on him, but he quickly teleported to high into the sky. Despite moving away from Hephaestus and gaining a distance of forty kilometers, the heat wasn't letting up. From that height, Ryan confirmed that his spell was even crazier than he had imagined. It was affecting everything around Hephaestus in a massive range of forty kilometers wide, and as far as Ryan could see, it worked upward until the end of the atmosphere of that world. Could Thanatos or Poseidon have done something similar?

Hephaestus quickly approached Ryan again, and he could only teleport away from the enemy since he didn't know what to do. That was Ryan hated facing enemies he didn't know a single thing off because he didn't have countermeasures, and coming up within the heat of the battle was complicated, to say the least.

Even without teleporting, Hephaestus was faster than Ryan in that space. He could cover thirty kilometers near instantly. So, Ryan had to Teleport a lot, and his supply of mana was quickly ending. While he could eat some mithril, it wasn't the answer that he needed.

"The range of this spell is a problem, just like the fact that it moves around his body…" Ryan furrowed his eyebrows.

Considering Hephaestus' speed, Ryan couldn't escape since his own range of Teleport was based on what his eyes could see or the places he had been. To move to places he had been, he had to concentrate for a short while and envision the place, but he couldn't do that now thanks to that heat and the mad bull chasing him like there was no tomorrow.

At that point in time, Ryan could only come up with a single way to fight Hephaestus: let the anger control his body. According to Femradiel, he could fight on par even against Thanatos while the corruption was controlling his mind. The problem was what would happen later. It was a bit risky, but Ryan had another idea…

Ryan tried to shallow some mithril, but then Hephaestus increased his speed to catch him off guard. That actually worked, and then Ryan's body was hit against Hephaestus' chest. However, this time, Hephaestus was forced to stop after a few moments. While Ryan's body was rolling on the ground, almost completely destroyed, Hephaestus found his chest bleeding, a sharp pain coming from there. It almost reached his heart, but even though it didn't kill him, the Mithril Sword of Suffering caused critical damage to his body, and his spell weakened thanks to it.

"Shit… what a fucking monster," Ryan muttered in pain while he was trying to get up. "Not even that worked."

The sword was supposed to cause more damage according to the enemy's endurance. Still, even at pinpoint range, it didn't pierce Hephaestus' heart.