Chapter 298: Persephone, The Queen Of The Underworld. 2
Adonis… The first time I saw him was when I was walking in the woods. I remember at the time, I was a little sad because I was getting bored of being in The Underworld.
My husband, Hades, who was also my uncle, was a very possessive man, he didn't like me leaving The Underworld.
And I can't blame him. After all, the Gods who didn't live in The Underworld had a huge prejudice against Hades, a prejudice that originated because of Zeus' paranoia.
Zeus didn't like The Underworld, he didn't like Hades. He was very paranoid about a possible betrayal by Hades. After all, he was the guardian of Tartarus. If Hades so desired, he could cause another giant war again.
A war that would dethrone Zeus. Because of that, Zeus isolated Hades, and used every available resource to do so.
This was not the first time that Zeus acted irrationally. After all, he was the King of the pampered, he was the very definition of irrationality.
Zeus suffered from a curse he inherited from his father.
A curse passed from grandfather to father, and from father to son.
Like his father Kronos, Zeus became obsessed with prophecies.
A prophecy that said someone related to him would dethrone him in the future.
Because of this prophecy made by Gaia, Zeus went crazy... Well, it was not like he was sane from the start.
He began to abuse his authority, and destroy any possible chance for what he considered 'rebellion' to form.
If Zeus couldn't control someone, he would eliminate them, if he somehow couldn't control that being, as in Hades' case, he would isolate them.
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He even asked me to spy on Hades, something I gladly agreed to do after meeting Adonis.
The most handsome human male. It was a shame that that bitch Aphrodite got there first, but now that I saw this man, I wasn't going to let him go.
Adonis was everything I wanted in a man, handsome, gentle, docile, and kind…but mostly handsome.
He was the complete opposite of Hades, Adonis was a man I desired.
Ironically, the Goddess of Thots wanted him too, she went so far as to even bless the man with more beauty.
The once handsome man became irresistible with Aphrodite's blessing.
Looking at this man, I couldn't stand it, I wanted him for me, just for me.
'Am I betraying Hades?'
'So what?'
Betrayals and schemes were common on Olympus.
And it's not like I like Hades. After all, I was kidnapped and forced to marry him. As I was naive at the time, I thought I loved him, but when I looked at Adonis, I realized that I was just fooling myself all this time.
Since we both didn't want to fight, Aphrodite and I made a deal.
We would share Adonis' time.
In the morning it would be Aphrodite, and in the evening it would be me.
Sometimes the times would be reversed, and I would have Adonis in the morning, and Aphrodite would have Adonis at night.
It was annoying having to share Adonis with that bitch, but it wasn't that bad...
Everything was going fine until a whore showed up and kidnapped him for herself.
Agnes Snow, heiress of the Snow Clan, a woman well known for being a hedonist who did whatever she liked.
It would be an understatement to say how irritated Aphrodite and I were at this woman's action.
But unfortunately, at the time, we weren't able to get close to Adonis for a month.
... Well, at least that's what Aphrodite thinks.
From the moment I found Adonis, I cursed him to death. The moment his life would come to an end, his soul would forever be mine...
No matter how long it took, no matter if he ran away, he would come back to me.
No one could escape the Goddess of The Underworld...
'Yes... No one can run away from me...'
But against all my expectations, Adonis achieved a feat no one could anticipate...
An ultimate move.
He sacrificed his soul to be absorbed by another being...
And in doing so, he was saved from the clutches of the Goddess of The Underworld.
Looking at the man in front of her, Persephone could feel her curse, this man was cursed.
But unlike Adonis, this kind of curse would not harm this man.
She understood immediately when she saw that gigantic being behind him.
Alucard...
This man... He wasn't normal...
She felt like she was facing Hades himself, someone who had so many souls at his disposal to use. Wrong, not even Hades himself could keep so many souls inside his body without going mad.
The soul was a set of information that stored everything in the life of the being.
By having several souls within himself, this man was literally the amalgamation of the lives of thousands of beings.
He was alone... But he was accompanied by a legion...
'How did he not go crazy?' She would understand if this man were a God of Death like Thanatos, but… He wasn't.
And she finally understood something.
A killing curse would not work on someone who cannot die.
This man was literally courting death, he had made death his bitch.
A man who walked between life and death.
He enjoyed the benefits of life, and ignored the penalties of death, and in a way, he enjoyed the benefits of death as well.
'A curse of that level won't work...' She accepted the sad reality.
But even if she understood that, she couldn't help but feel something.
... Anger.
Her multi-millennium obsession just disappeared because of this man, how can she not be pissed off?
A miasma began to come out of the woman's body:
"You will pay for this..." Endless darkness and heavy killing intent began to leak from the woman's body.
"Adonis is mine... You are mine... No one can escape the Goddess-."
Slap.
She touched her face in shock, she looked at the man.
"I will pay for this?" Victor looked into the Goddess's black eyes.
Slap.
"I am yours?" He looked at the woman as if he were looking at garbage, it was a look of disdain, a look of hatred.
"You Greek Gods are always like that."
"Always demanding something from us, always treating us like their cattle."
"I don't belong to you, Persephone."
"...." She opened her eyes in shock, she was shocked that she couldn't react to the man's hand, she was shocked by the man's expression.
She could feel that this man in front of her was Adonis himself.
But she knew this was just a deception made by her curse, Adonis was gone.
He died... And his soul was in that man's body.
She needed to kill him and take Adonis' soul for herself.
Yes, she needed to do this...
But...
Why couldn't she exercise her authority in this place!?
This was to be the domain of his curse!
She should have supreme authority here!
'Even though he's powerful, he was still a mortal, there was no way his soul could be so big as to influence-...'
She opened her eyes in shock once more.
'He contains hundreds of thousands of souls living inside his soul... It was obvious that his soul was no longer the soul of an ordinary mortal.'
She looked at the being behind the sun, and realized that that being was the representation of his soul.
'What is he... What is this being?'
He was not a God, she was 100% sure of that.
He wasn't a demon either.
'To whom did Adonis offer his soul!?'
"Are you surprised?" She heard a voice in her ear.
She quickly jumped back.
'When did he appear there?'
"I bet you're surprised." Victor cracked his neck a little.
"..."
"How can he influence this place?"
"Wasn't this supposed to be the domain of my curse?"
"What is this being?"
"To whom did Adonis offer his soul?" He flashed a small smile that showed off his sharp teeth.
"... Can you read my mind?
"..." Victor's smile only grew.
And that was enough of an answer for Persephone to understand that he could.
But could he actually read her mind?
The answer was no...
But he could predict her thoughts.
'Ah~, my dear Persephone, you are so predictable.' During all the humiliation that passed, Adonis did his best to understand the personalities of the two Goddesses.
Before, for Victor, Aphrodite was like a riddle he couldn't solve.
But by absorbing Adonis, he had completed this riddle called Aphrodite, and could understand her, and even to some extent predict the woman's actions.
The same applied to Persephone.
The years that Adonis suffered at the hands of the Goddesses were not in vain.
Gulp.
'I need to get out of here, I need more information.'
What were the things the Gods feared most? Powerful beings who reign supreme since the beginning of time?
What did they fear most?
The unknown...
... Ironically, the answer to that question was the answer for all beings existing in this world.
Humans feared the unknown, angels feared the unknown, demons, Gods, Yōkai, vampires.
All beings shared this fear in common.
For Persephone, this being in front of her was something incomprehensible. After all, she never cared about the outside world, she was obsessed with Adonis , thus, completely forgot to socialize.
And that was something Victor wanted to keep, he wanted the Goddess to have a pre-established prejudice that he was 'strong'.
So that in the future, even if she found out his identity as a vampire count, she wouldn't mess with him until he was prepared enough.
He was still a long way from facing a God like Persephone, even if not a God related to battle, she was still a Goddess, her very energy extremely capable of harming Vampires.
And he knew he couldn't kill her even if he wanted to. How do you kill someone who lives in The Underworld which was basically 'hell'?
Gods don't die normally, he needed a special weapon to erase her 'existence'.
So the only answer he came up with to buy time was… Fear.
After all, fear was a good tool to keep someone in control.
Because of that, he put on this whole 'show'.
And to make the situation even better, Persephone was isolated. Few knew of her obsession with Adonis, the only one who should know about it is Aphrodite.
Even the biggest Simp in the world couldn't forgive a betrayal, right...? Well that only applied to normal people.
Unfortunately, Gods were not normal people, they have lived so long that their own brains had remained fried for a long time.
Because of this, the conclusion that Victor came to with the information that Adonis had was,l
Hades knew of his wife's betrayal, but even so, he ignored it.
But... Would Hades help his wife with her little problem? A problem related to her lover?
Even though he was the biggest Simp in the world, he was still the King of The Underworld, he needed to have some pride, right?
Victor was betting on it.
Just as Persephone was about to disappear, she felt someone holding her leg.
And she saw that the corpses scattered on the floor began to grab at her..
"Why the hurry?" He started walking slowly towards Persephone.
"You just arrived, let's get to know each other better." His smile slowly grew, a smile that showed all of his sharp teeth.
"!!!" Persephone's entire existence shook, she couldn't let him touch her, if that man touched her, something terrible would happen!
"Don't come near me!"
Fushhhhhhhhhh.
An explosion of dark power took place, the corpses flew in pieces everywhere around, and the world around them began to shake.
'...As expected of a Goddess...'
Although not as big as my soul, the quality of her soul is far superior.
Victor won in 'quantity', but as a Goddess, she won in 'quality'.
If Victor's soul was like molded steel.
The soul of a God was like a cut diamond.
The difference in quality was quite visible at this point.
But even if he knew that, even if he was feeling the small effects of Persephone's power blast, he didn't show it.
When fighting an enemy stronger than you, you must not show weakness.
The teachings of a man who had to use his weak body to survive were very helpful.
And joining these teachings with the teachings of Scathach,
'Use everything around you so, when you are fighting a stronger enemy, the terrain is your greatest ally.'
Victor became relentless.
"I'm going to get out of here, and it's not you who's going to stop me." She growled with visible hostility, her whole atmosphere changed, and she became more dignified.
"... That's a shame." Victor's eyes slowly turned violet.
"I wanted to talk to you, I want to get to know more about the woman known as Persephone."
Persephone narrowed her eyes: "...You say that after clearly showing hostility towards me?"
"If I didn't do that, you wouldn't respect me."
"..."
"You Gods always think you're the center of the universe... It's irritating to talk to someone like that."
"...." Persephone continued to watch Victor suspiciously.
"In fact, it was because of that, that Adonis hated you." He flashed a small smile.
Victor knew the fear tactic wouldn't work forever, because of that, he was already planning to do other things.
If fear didn't work, use curiosity.
If curiosity didn't work, use respect.
There were several tools he could use.
He wanted Persephone's fear, and… Information.
Information about the Greek Gods, their strength, where they resided, anything that was useful.
And what was a better source of information than a Goddess from the same Pantheon herself?
"...Stop your lies, Adonis could never hate me, after all, I gave him everything."
'Oh...? She's more composed, I need to step back a little, and make her let her guard down.' A wicked little smile grew on Victor's face.
"You're right, Adonis could never hate you..."