Chapter 182: Once Again (1)
Step step-
With a laid-back smile, Hades walked up to him lazily.
Gaionia.
The face he wanted to see so badly was not as special as he had imagined. Apart from the enchanting blond hair and golden eyes, he looked just like humans.
The closer he got, the more closely he could see Gaionia’s face. Though his face showed indifference, he could clearly sense the emotion surging beyond that.
“Hah…” Hades felt like laughing out loud.
What should that emotion be called? Sadness? Despair?
At least it wasn’t the kind of eyes of the mastermind behind all this tragedy should be showing.
When he was close enough to see his eerie vertical slits of golden irises, Hades picked up his sword he was dragging behind as he was walking up slowly, and charged right away.
Swoosh-!
With a big arc, the well sharpened sword slammed down on Gaionia’s head.
Clank-!
Gaionia blocked Hades’ attack by raising his arm in an instant. His eyes skimmed over Hades indifferently.
‘Is that his main body?’
In an instant his forearm had changed to a solid skin. His skin with golden scales over it was as solid as armor.
‘I wonder if I can even pierce through it.’
Hades flew back and landed from the rebound of the impact and winced as if he found it bothersome.
A single swing made the arm holding the sword numb.
Though he expected so, it went without saying; he wasn’t a being to be trifled with.
It was already so difficult to even leave a mark on the partly altered main body’s skin, so he was worried about how he should be fighting once Gaionia brought out his true self.
‘Still.’
There was no other way.
Killing him, to drive a sword into his heart and crush it.
That was the only way…
[So we meet a second time.]
“What?”
Gaionia, who stood still as he watched Hades, opened his mouth for the first time. That was an odd thing he asked.
Hades snapped back, annoyed. “What are you yapping about?”
[Despite all the efforts my children made to save you, you are back to square one…]
“…”
[Do you really think this is the right thing to do for the sake of Genus? To fight me, her father, who created her, raised her and loved her above all others?]
“Love? I don’t know when the meaning of love as I know it has changed so much.”
Hades snorted and mocked him, yet Gaionia’s face did not change.
He tilted his lips as if it’s a shame and sighed.
[Irresponsible child. Have you truly made the same choice, not knowing just how sad Genus was after you had parted?]
Hades’ eyes narrowed.
He could have just ignored his voice from eroding his mind, but he couldn’t understand why it bothered him so much.
Second time.
The same choice.
These were all words he could not understand.
[You will end up dying yet again. But it will not end. Procreathor will recreate this world for the sake of Genus dozens, hundreds of times all over again.]
“…”
[And Genus will try to die for you dozens, hundreds times over.]
“…”
[But being the fool you are, you will stand before me once again.]
“Stop talking bulls…”
Hades was about to change at Gaionia once again, then halted. It was because of Aisha who suddenly appeared beside Gaionia, as if she dropped down from the sky.
“Aisha?”
Surprised, Hades reached his hand toward Aisha, but could not touch her. It was an illusion. A familiar site inside of the Louvremont castle.
Looking slightly tired, Aisha seemed happy. There was a child wrapped in small cloth in her arms.
[Can you imagine just how painful it would have been? Despite knowing she was fated to kill her child, Genus shed tears of joy at his birth.]
“What do you…”
[Can’t you see? It’s your child. The one you left behind without even showing your face to even once.]
At that moment, Hades stumbled from shock. Aisha inside the illusion Gaionia was showing him was certainly not Genus from another life in another body. It was Aisha who had become the mistress of house Louvremont in Hades’ absence and the child in her arms was…
“This must be your specialty, making humans go weak this way. I’m sorry but I’ve heard too many of your infamy. I won’t go down that easily.”
Hades laughed, forcing his gaze away from Aisha intentionally. Even as he looked at Hades trying to be unphased, Gaionia did not change his expression at all.
He continued with indifference in his voice.
[Everything was your choice. Coming to Orcus despite Genus trying to hold you back and asking you to stay, ending up leaving only a fragment of you on her. You ended up gifting her with another never-ending fetter of curse.]
Though he tried to shake it off as nothing, Hades was confused. If the illusion shown by Gaionia really was the sight of Aisha left alone after he was gone, if this was the future to some…
‘A child?’
No way.
‘Inside Aisha I’ve left behind?’
[Do you regret it?]
“Shut up.”
[Though you have made a wrong choice, there were multiple chances for you to turn back. But not once did you make the choice they wanted. Have your choices truly made Genus happy? Do you truly think so?]
The illusion changed. It was a shabby cottage that was almost falling apart.
A little younger looking version of himself was there.
‘It’s… the past this time?’
Hades knew what this place was. It was Obituth, the place where he had met Abel and Genus who asked for protection for him.
-Thank you for your help. I owe you my life. I will make sure to compensate you properly.
-No, no need for you to repay me.
Up until this part, Hades could accurately remember what happened.
Even down to how Genus looked, with her face not visible under the thick robe.
But the next scene was different.
The moment the woman who was tending to Hades took off her robe and gave a small smile,
“Is that…”
Hades was surprised. The woman in the robe whom he couldn’t recall the face of as if his memory had been fogged…
…Turned out to be her, Aisha.
-I missed you.
-…what?
-I am not going to let you remember anyways, so I might as well say all I want to say now.
-…
-Don’t die for my sake. You will be happy this time. Now that I’ve found out the only way how.
Aisha smiled sadly as she continued.
-I didn’t get to say I love you, but I’m glad I got a chance to say it at least like this. I love you. I’m sure there is no way I would not fall for you, no matter how we look; no matter where we meet.
Aisha cried her heart out before Hades of the ‘past,’ who merely kept his silence in bafflement, not sure what was going on.
-Once is plenty for you to give up your life for me. It’s my turn now. I wish for you to be happy.
Finishing my words. Aisha added as she locked eyes with Hades.
-Don’t remember me. Not my face now, not this moment, not our bond. Just be happy. Forever.
He could easily assume that those weren’t just words, but her ability to mind control; her powers as a dark elementalist.
‘Genus,’ a woman he had definitely met at Obituth.
There had to be a reason why Hades could not recall her face identical to Aisha’s.
After that, it was just as he remembered.
Aisha left the mysterious boy, Abel under his care, and requested to kill anyone who says they recall their past life.
Knowing that the one who does not believe in god could kill her.
Only through her death, Abel would avoid death…
Only through her death, Hades would not set off to Orcus in order to go against Gaionia.
‘What in the world is this situation? Is it the future I’ve just seen? No, before that, what are the chances of the illusion that this had shown me being the actual truth?’
He was confused. Was it not Abel, who was the soul of the child caught up in fetters of punishment with Aisha?
Then why did Gaionia say even the child who is to be born anew in the future is fated to die in her hands?
No, before all that… Was the figure of Aisha left alone in the Louvremont from the future?
‘If not, could there be…. something I don’t remember…’
“Shoot,” a curse erupted from his mouth.
He did not know where to undo the tangled string to understand. He could almost grasp it but he never did.
[Go back.]
“…”
[If you die, Genus will be sad. But if you live, that child would have a hope for life.]
“Shut up.”
Hades cut through Gaionia’s words with a vicious expression.
Despite being the one who had created all the tragedies, it was absurd to see him with a saddened expression. Perhaps Aisha’s words about how Gaionia had ‘loved his children’ may be true.
But the problem was that it was not understandable in Human’s standard.
[Genus will still be agonized from her fate to kill her child, but will still not end her own life.]
“…”
[Because you are alive.]
“…”
[So live. So that she may be happy without being obsessive over her child.]
“You really are a lizard talking nothing but absurd nonsense. I knew you weren’t human but a beast but do you have to be this stupid as well?”
[…]
“If you could only undo that tasteless curse on her, Aisha would never have been unfortunate in the first place.”
Hades simply could not understand why he had to tell him something so obvious.
But Gaionia shook his head sternly.
[They are beings that saddened my children. They are being punished as they should be.]
“What?”
Finding his words odd for some reason, Hades winced. So what Gaionia meant was that…
“You mean the ones you despise are Aisha’s child and the Grand priest’s lover? That It’s not your children being ‘punished’?”
[…]
The silence indicated agreement. Hades gave out a hollow laugh.
“Incredible. Then you must have had no guilt towards your loving children up to this point. Since it’s not your children who are getting punished according to your standards.”
[I am a being who loves my children more than any other. Even if they betray me and break my heart, I have no intention of putting them in pain.]
“I have met many dumbasses in my life, but…”
Hades’ face as he raised his sword once more, no longer had a trace of even an absurd smile left on it.
“…You take the cake here.”
[…]
“Think about it with that idiotic head of yours.”
[…]
“Just think about why your beloved children think that they’re the ones being punished, contrary to what you think.”
After those words, Hades ran full speed to charge at Gaionia once again.
Clash-!
The sword striking from the top once more drove down on Gaionia.
This time, Gaionia’s arm had changed its form in a shape similar to a sharp sword.
Unlike before, Hades didn’t back away and stood his ground, pouring his strength into the arms holding the sword.
‘Shoot, he is powerful.’
Just because he was in human form didn’t mean he had human strength.
Though he was pushing through with full force in his two arms, Gaionia merely defended against him with one arm. Hades gritted his teeth to keep his stance.
[Will you only give up when I show you your limits?]
Gaionia raised his free left arm.
In an instant, his left hand became like a sharp dagger, flying towards Hades’ shoulder.
‘Shoot!’
As he was thinking he would be wounded without a choice at the speed of the attack,
Shiiiek-!
An arrow flew out of nowhere and dug between Hades and Gaionia.
An attack that accurately aimed at Gaionia’s elbow.
Hades did not miss a beat and backed away. Gaionia looked down at the arrow nailed to his elbow indifferently and his gaze looked far behind Hades.
At the same time, Hades hastily looked for someone as well.
Where they turned to look stood Azar, smiling as he pulled his bow once more.
“My lord, were you trying to hog all the fun of this interesting lizard hunt all by yourself?”