Strongest Demigod System

"You need to learn how to exalt your own Divine nature above the nature of your Essence. Stop treating it like a master that holds the power of divinity over you. Instead, treat it as a living, breathing entity that needs to be tamed. Force its movement, take away its freedom. Make it work for you, not the other way around. Do you understand me?"

Cleopatra clenched her hand into a fist and turned to give Azrael a hard look.

Azrael simply stared at Cleopatra in shock for a few seconds.

The way Cleopatra explained his actions to him hit far too close to home, almost like he was making a mistake that every other demigod had made in the past.

It was true that Azrael was trying to treat his Essence like a friend.

He always made sure that he never pushed it beyond the limits of what it could do, and he treated it like a partner who needed to be cared for and guided gently.

Even when he was fighting Jahosabeth, he was still trying to make sure he never pushed his Essence to do more than he thought it was capable of.

Was force the necessary tool?

Rather than guiding it with care, should he be forcing it with authority?

Azrael decided that he was going to try out Cleopatra's method and see if it worked.

After all, his own method hadn't given him any form of progress, so trying out something new wouldn't hurt.

Azrael nodded to Cleopatra and thanked her, and Cleopatra smiled before her car stopped in front of the combat facility where the first years were going to be having their class.

"Go on now, you don't want to be late. Oh, and Azrael, yesterday Maddison seemed to be really affected by what happened. Is she feeling better now?"

Azrael blinked in surprise before giving Cleopatra a small smile.

"Yeah, she was just a little out of it. She's a lot better now."

Cleopatra smiled.

"Well, tell her to come see me on Monday then. There's something I'd like to talk to her about. Woman to woman."

Azrael grit his teeth and tried his best to keep his smile in place so Cleopatra wouldn't see how much that one statement affected him.

He then answered easily.

"Of course. I'll let her know."

Cleopatra thanked him and he got out of the car and watched as it drove away.

Azrael cursed.

'What the fuck could Cleopatra possibly want with Maddison?'

…

[The Combat Facility]

"Give me a push-up for every second that you were late! Go!"

Scar was not happy!

When Azrael entered the facility, he saw Scar standing in a large empty hall with multiple students in front of him. He was frowning while holding a pocket watch in one hand and shouting at them to get down on their hands and start doing push-ups!

Surprisingly, most of the students from A Class were late. There were only about ten of them standing off to the side, and Azrael guessed that they were the ones who arrived on time.

Jane and Gerald were both part of those who came early, and Azrael saw Gerald giving him a mocking smile when he started doing push-ups as well.

The punishment continued well into the hour, and when the students were getting to two thousand push-ups, Scar finally came forward and told them all to stop with a frown.

Azrael wasn't even breathing heavily as he stood up and dusted his hands off.

He had been in the gravity chamber doing hundreds of push-ups with weight on his back for a while now, so this was nothing to him.

But some of the other students, who had lower mortal stats, were sweating slightly.

Scar looked them over with narrowed eyes.

"Let this be the last time you ever come late to any of our training exercises. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Scar!"

The students echoed, and Scar told all of them to get out of there and change into their training clothes.

The students moved quickly, and the few students who didn't have to do any push-ups casually made fun of those who did, laughing at the situation.

They changed into their clothes and came back to the training facility. The training outfit was a blue full-body one-piece with the Divine Academy symbol over the chest. The outfit came all the way up their necks, leaving only their heads exposed, and Azrael couldn't help but think they looked like video game characters.

The other students must've also thought the same since they were murmuring amongst themselves and looking each other over. Some of the boys couldn't keep their eyes from trailing over the backside of some of the girls.

Azrael's eyes glanced over at Jane's behind and he shook his head and turned away. He couldn't blame the boys for staring. The skintight outfit did amazing things to a woman's figure.

"Shut up, you rascals."

Scar came to stand in front of the students with a clipboard held in his hand, and all of them went silent immediately.

Scar brought up the clipboard and began to list out five names at a time.

As he listed them out, he would point to the side and tell the students to gather together there, and before long, the entire class had been sorted into groups of five.

Scar then spoke.

"The first name called in each group is the group leader. Come forward for your group kits."

Some men rolled in two large trolleys from the side. Inside the trolleys were backpacks, and the group leaders came forward and grabbed five backpacks at a time.

Scar then gave the students their instructions.

"The backpacks with you have been fitted with everything you will need for the next two days. In those two days, you and your group members will be required to pass through the examination grounds and arrive at your final destination. Retrieving the treasure inside the chest at your final destination will mark the end of the exam. Any questions?"

A few students raised their hands.

"None? That's good."

Scar completely ignored them.

He turned downward to write something on his clipboard before he spoke again.

"In the right side of your backpack, you'll see a mini recorder. Turn it on so it can register your identity."

The students all did as they were told and brought out their mini-recorders.

The mini recorder was a new technology that was specifically created for the tests. It was a tiny, flat metal disk that could be worn over the chest to record whatever the wearer saw.

In this case, the mini recorder was going to be used to record the actions of the students. It was extremely durable and wouldn't break even when faced with the harsh conditions of battle that the students would be in.

"Ensure that your recorder is not damaged, or points will be deducted. Kill everything that is not human, and try your hardest not to die. I don't want to have to fill out the paperwork for that, especially after last year's mess."

Scar eyed the students when he saw that they were all done turning on their mini recorders. Some of them looked startled by the fact that they could die, but Scar didn't care. They came here to kill, so it was only normal that they could lose their life as well.

The mini recorder beeped with a green light once it got a good look at the student's face, and then they wore it over the badge on their chest.

Scar brought out a gas mask from behind him and put it on.

"Good luck, killers."

Phsssss~

A gas was suddenly filtered into the room from holes in the floor, and Azrael's eyes widened as he realized it was a sleeping drug.

He turned to Scar, and Scar gave him a nod before the world began to turn dark at the edges, and he finally blacked out.

…

The next time Azrael woke up, he felt sand under his cheek.

Azrael's eyes slowly opened as bright light assaulted his senses, and he raised himself off the sandy ground gently.

Azrael looked around, and he saw that he was in the middle of a vast desert. There were sand dunes stretched as far as the eye could see, and the heat was unbearable.

The backpack Scar handed out was lying beside him, and the mini recorder beeped with a rhythmic sound on his chest.

Azrael's mind went back to the instructions Scar gave them, and he remembered that they were meant to go around with their group members.

...but where were the others?

Azrael couldn't see anyone, no matter how far he looked.

Azrael's hand suddenly brushed up against something, and he turned in surprise to see a katana lying on the ground beside him. The katana looked identical to the ones the school gave him whenever he was fighting in the arena, but rather than the holographic forgery, this one was real.

Azrael couldn't waste time moping, so he quickly got off the ground and strapped his katana to his waist.

He then grabbed his backpack and looked around calmly.

This was the first test.

Which direction was he going to move in?

Scar hadn't said anything about what coordinates they had to go in, but Azrael knew that the first thing he had to do was to find his other teammates.

To do that, they all needed to be moving in a similar direction, or they would never meet.

'Wait… the backpack.'

Azrael remembered Scar's words about everything being inside the bag, and he knelt and opened it to see that Scar had been right. Inside the backpack was a small rolled-up blanket, a single change of clothes, a bottle without any water in it, some food, and a map.

Azrael took the map and laid it out on the ground. There was a single dot on the western part of the map, and Azrael guessed that this was where he was dropped.

There was a large circle located on the other end of the map, and Azrael's eyes narrowed.

Was that where the final destination was?