"The corpse of the Sun Demon." Ben said with a shaky voice as he read the writing on the stone table.
The writing explained that the corpse of the Sun Demon is lying inside the coffin. It is explained that this demon was the only one of his kind who held the power of the sun. It was the same as Escanor, the only dragon who held the power of the sun.
The Sun Demon went by the name of Midas and he was also known as 'The Dark Sun'. The epithet didn't mean his sun power was dark, but it was rather due to his personality. Midas was known to be very evil, having taken millions of lives.
He was born 800 years ago in the era of dragons. Nothing was feared by Midas, even the powerful dragons. He killed a lot of dragons too, showing that he was a very powerful individual.
Like other strong demons, Midas had a couple disguises. But the most famous were his human and demonic forms. As a human, Midas was a tall muscular man with blond hair.
While as a demon, Midas was bigger and taller at 3 meters in height. His skin was black with long blonde hair extending from his head to his hips that lit up with a red fire on it's ends. He also had a pair of wings made out of golden fire. Golden fire also lit up on his chest, hands and feet.
Midas didn't side with anyone, even his own kind. He was a lone wolf that didn't care about anyone and only cared about fighting. He wasn't someone who liked killing others, he just liked battling to the death, a battle maniac.
For many years, Midas challenged many strong individuals. Dragons, human mages, demons, beasts and other strong creatures. He had many losses, but he won more often.
If he won, he would kill his opponents, but if he lost, he would escape. Midas likes to win and kill his opponent, but he doesn't want to die. If he dies, he won't be able to fight again.
That caused the dragons to call him a coward, but he could care less about that. Dragons are always putting their pride above their lives. But Midas is a demon, a being who doesn't care about pride. Life is more important to him.
Still, even though he loved his life, Midas also made mistakes that endangered his life. One of these mistakes was fatal and it was the one that cost him his life. 500 years ago, he challenged the one and only Escanor, the Sun Dragon.
"Oh, it's the first time I've found a record of Escanor that didn't come from A.I Chip." Ben said excitedly.
Midas had known about Escanor since he was born. Escanor was always his target and goal. He trained hard and fought many strong opponents to get stronger because he wanted to defeat Escanor.
500 years ago, he thought he was strong enough to defeat Escanor. So he went to challenge the ancient Dragon God to a battle. Escanor accepted and they fought for 3 days and 3 nights without rest on a island.
Their battle caused a lot of destruction and erased the island from the map forever. They seemed to be evenly matched in those 3 days, but then it changed. Escanor never used his full power from the beginning, while Midas was always serious.
After 3 days of battle, Escanor decided to end it and unleashed his full power. Midas was pushed back and finally, he was killed after struggling for hours.
He could escape, but he chose to stay. It was the first time he chose to fight to his last breath. If he ran away during the fight, then he won't have another goal in life and that is worse than death.
Escanor knew this and he respected Midas' decision to fight until the bitter end. So Escanor erected this grave to honor Midas as the same Sun Power wielder. The writing on the tablet was also written by Escanor, so Ben was shocked once again.
"Wait! It's a grave, right? But why isn't the coffin buried underground?" Ben asked.
The coffin was actually buried under the stone table, but someone had dug it up and put it on the stone table. But the grave had a defense mechanism set up by Escanor himself to prevent anyone from misusing Midas' corpse.
If the coffin was taken out for any reason, the defense mechanism would be triggered. That defense mechanism was the one that burned the Dark Valley. It killed whoever it was that removed the coffin.
Ben didn't know that because there was no record of it here. He had searched through the skeletons here but didn't find any clues. It wasn't that big a deal, so he ignored it and focused on the coffin again.
"So, what should I do now?" Ben asked, scratching the back of his head.
There was nothing there to indicate what he should do next. He walked around the coffin on the stone table to find a clue but had no luck.
"It seems the only way to find a clue is to open the coffin and look inside. I hope there isn't another defense mechanism that will be triggered when I open the lid." Ben said warily.
Ben braced himself and approached the coffin slowly. He took a deep breath and prepared himself before opening the lid. Then after he opened the lid, he heard a crackling sound from the coffin.
"Fuck!" Ben exclaimed with a panicked tone.
Golden fire suddenly came out of the coffin and engulfed a wide area around the coffin. Ben was pushed back a few meters and rolled on the ground. He was inside the golden fire that was shaped like a giant dome if viewed from outside.
"ARGH! HOT!" Ben shouted in pain.
It was surprising to see Ben suffer from the heat. This can only mean that the temperature of the golden fire's heat is higher than his body's tolerance which is very high already. Other people would instantly die, but Ben can still hold on.
Ben covered his body with his own golden fire by assuming Sun Mode. It reduced the damage he took, but it still felt hot. His clothes which have high resistance to heat were burned to ashes.
But suddenly, a moment after Ben activated his Sun Mode, something changed. His body suddenly got used to the heat of the surrounding golden fire. He also felt his golden fire strengthened in every aspect.
Ben didn't know what happened and he was speechless when the surrounding golden fire was absorbed by his golden fire. They fuse and Ben's golden fire kept being strengthened.
"What the hell happened?" Ben asked with a dumbfound expression.
[Detecting similarity of host's fire and the other fire. The similarity in every aspect reaches 99.9%
Conclusion. It is the Sun Dragon Escanor's fire that he saved here as a defense mechanism.]
"WHAT?! REALLY?!" Ben yelled in surprise.
A.I Chip confirmed it and Ben was both happy and excited. He can't see Escanor himself, but he can at least see and feel a glimpse of Escanor's power now. Not only that, but his power was increased by Escanor's golden fire.
"Even if I won't get anything else after this, I will be satisfied. I can feel that all my magic has been strengthened." Ben said excitedly.
He can feel that his heat limit had increased from 4000 degrees Celsius to 5000 degrees Celsius. It's approaching the temperature of the sun's surface, which was around 5500 to 6000 degrees Celsius.
He then approached the coffin once again. Ben looked inside and saw Midas' corpse. Midas was in his human form when he died, so he wasn't too big.
"Hmm, what should I do now?" Ben asked.
[Suggestion: Eat him so you can gain his power.]
Ben paused after hearing that.
"Huh? What the fuck are you talking about?" He demanded.