CHAPTER 187: CHAPTER 187: THE GODS

Chapter 187 – The gods

Kaden revived back.

In front of him was Alea, waiting for his answer in eagerness after asking when she would be beautiful. He didn’t respond immediately, he stayed there silent, his eyes closed as thoughts couldn’t help but pour down on his mind relentlessly.

Alea noticed and stayed silent.

Kaden couldn’t help but feel unnerved every time he revived back in time. Because even if it was not impactful or even dear to him, he still experienced some things with Alea before she killed him. Feelings were exchanged. But all of that... gone.

Like it never happened.

Like it never mattered.

At that moment, he wondered what he would do if he didn’t have any choice but to revive before he met Asael. Would he accept and risk that Asael would not know him and die inside that dungeon alone and forgotten? Or would he still go again in that dungeon, relive the same things to forge the same friendship they now hold?

Kaden’s body subtly shuddered at these thoughts.

The first option was dreadful to even think about, but the second one... it was harrowingly painful. Because Kaden knows that if he does that, their friendship won’t be the same as now.

After all, knowing Asael, Kaden would act—instinctively—in such a way that his friend could do anything except love him. And that wouldn’t be genuine... that wouldn’t be worthy of what they had built through death and corruption.

’I hope something like this never happens. No... hoping is the refuge of the weak and the poor.’

I am neither of them. So...

’I will make sure it won’t.’ He decided firmly, determined to do all he could to avoid this fate.

Finishing his thoughts, he finally focused back on the silent but squirming Alea in front of him. He tilted his head in puzzlement,

"Why are you squirming like a worm trapped in muddy water?" he asked, making Alea’s face flush with a furious shade of rose, her embarrassment clear.

"I... I..." she tried to speak but couldn’t bring herself to continue her words. But Kaden’s eyes were still fixed on her, his gaze clearly saying: Girl, you will talk today.

Biting her lip — and the gods knew how much Kaden had to rein in every muscle and cell in his body to stop himself from gagging at this heretical sight — Alea finally spoke, her voice low and laced with shyness.

"I... I want to go to the toilet?" she said, as if asking a question or rather a permission.

Kaden went blank for a moment, then a thought — one he didn’t ask for — emerged in his mind. And this time, he couldn’t stop his body from quivering in horror. But he reined it in, and with a strained expression,

"Alea, aren’t you a grandmaster? You know what... please don’t answer. Just do whatever you want, and while you are at it, search around the whole forest and even at the entrance and kill — you heard me, I said KILL — anyone you meet with one strike and bring them to me."

Then, to make her more motivated:

"The more you kill and bring to me, the more beautiful you’ll be." He added.

"Understood, Harvester!!" Alea chirped with a cheerful voice as she disappeared, her face bearing a wide, happy smile that could haunt a grown man for years.

Now alone, Kaden flung his head back, looked at the ceiling with a blank expression, then muttered lifelessly,

"A weird-talking knight that eats swords and a weird ungodly hybrid obsessed with beauty..."

"Great... just great..."

His budding organization was clearly a damn farce.

...

Fokay – Empire of The Damned.

Asael was not able to control himself once he heard the news about his daughter.

How could he?

He had spent years in that hellish dungeon, grinding his teeth through countless hardships and difficulties all for his daughter, all to make amends with her and finally play his role as a father properly.

Without forgetting the years he spent concocting the apologies he would give her, and gods knew how much time it took for a deadhead like him to write something touching. But he did it and not only that, he also got an uncle for her.

Everything was in place, he just needed to deliver them. But no...

The world seemed hellbent on making things difficult for him, but he was having none of that bullshit anymore.

He snapped.

Rose Drought was his ex-compagne, but also the princess of the empire he resided in. To find her, it was easy... Asael simply went to the Hollow Castle.

Not with politeness, not with respect, but with the fury of the gods burning inside him like molten lava. He destroyed the gate with an avalanche of morbid shadow and incapacitated all the guards that came to him with ease. But at the end, he was captured by the combined efforts of two Grandmasters.

And now... Asael was in the underground prison of the Hollow Castle, shackled like a lowly criminal, pitifully waiting for the Empress’s decree to die.

"Why did you do that?" a voice echoed through the dark, cold place, with weathered and cracking walls, dried blood on them and the rocky ground.

The voice was cold and unfeeling, talking like she was just doing something mandatory.

It was Rose Drought, The Princess of The Damned.

She was talking to the shackled Asael, who was lying on the cold floor, looking blankly at the ceiling, his clothes torn in all places and filled with dried blood—his own and the guards’.

He didn’t respond at first, but after a couple of seconds, he turned his head mechanically to Rose, locking his murderous black eyes into her red ones.

Rose was, without any doubt, a beauty of her own.

Her face was an art in itself, with symmetrical proportions that bordered on the impossible. A sharp but small nose perfect for her face, added with rosy lips that could make water sweeter than old wine. Her head was framed with hair that looked like red silks woven together in an astonishing fashion.

She was an unfair beauty...one Asael fell for, but also one Asael came to loathe with all the fibers of his being.

"Where... is my daughter?" he asked, his voice cold and murderous.

If Kaden was here, he would never believe this guy was Asael. He was just too different... too murderous.

"It’s not only your daughter, she is mine too." She answered coolly, not minding Asael’s look at all.

"Daughter?"

"You dare to call her your daughter after abandoning her and leaving her with me?" Asael snarled as he approached instantly the bars of the prison, making the underground echo with the clacking sound of the chains binding him.

He grabbed the bars of the prison so tightly that his knuckles turned bone white, and the black veins in his arms bulged and slithered like a living serpent trying to escape its own biting.

"Don’t you dare call her your daughter again. You are nothing to her. You are nothing to us." He growled like a demon that escaped from Hell.

Rose chuckled lifelessly. "You are saying that... but didn’t you abandon Valentine for your search of power? And look at you now... still at Master rank. Albeit a stronger one."

She approached, her red eyes looking at Asael coldly.

"You shouldn’t have come here, Asael... you shouldn’t have. Now, because of you... my own shackles have not only been doubled in size but also in dreadfulness." She said, and for a moment her voice wavered a bit, but she immediately caught herself back.

Asael didn’t understand her words, and honestly, he couldn’t care less. What he wanted was—

"Where is my daughter, Rose? If you’re keeping her from me, I swear to all the gods—unholy or not—that this empire will be devoured by shadows the moment I get out of here," Asael said, his body trembling with rage and his eyes glowing with such madness that Rose instinctively took half a step back.

She stayed silent for a while, staring into Asael’s maddened gaze, her insides churning with buried pain.

But still, she turned away. And as she walked back, her voice echoed behind her...

"And the gods know I’ll be there to stop you... even if it costs me my life," she said before disappearing.

Because I have to...

—End of Chapter 187—