Chapter 810: Resolving Past Issues. 2
"... Erased...?"
"Yes, erased, deleted, ceasing to exist, whatever term you see fit."
Violet fell silent. When she was about to say something, she heard Aphrodite's words.
"Victor is correct, Violet."
Violet looked at The Goddess of Beauty.
"In all the Pantheons I've been to, no one dared to abuse Time, and those who did were completely erased by their Pantheon's own Gods or The Primordial Entities. Time is a Concept exclusive to Primordial Entities, because only these Beings that exist outside of The System can use this Power without disrupting all of Creation or The Balance."
"And even among The Primordial Entities, only two of them can use this Power to its fullest extent."
"Negativity, responsible for everything Negative in Creation."
"And Positivity, responsible for everything Positive in Creation."
"These two Beings that were once one exist in a state of semi-consciousness. Yet, even without being fully conscious, their Powers encompass the entire Cosmos."
"... Interesting, this is the first time I'm hearing this." Victor smiled. He just instinctively felt that something would go wrong if he tampered with Time, he didn't know of the finer details. However, it seemed his instincts were correct.
"The Norse may be behind in some things, but they are an intelligent people, especially Mimir, the wisest among them, the one who records everything."
"... Right... Don't use that Power... Mm, got it. I won't use it." Violet spoke extremely seriously.
Victor and Aphrodite looked at Violet and sighed a bit, they could tell she would use that Power if necessary.
"I predict that dealing with our children will be annoying, because I have a feeling they will inherit that ability too." Victor mused.
"And with your two unique personalities, they'll be like a fused version of both of you."
"Ugh." Victor simply squirmed.
Violet blushed a bit as she saw them openly discussing this topic. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to have children right now, I'm too young."
"Hmm... That's true, I'm also too young." Victor nodded. Even though he had memories of various Beings significantly older than him, physically speaking, he was only around 700 to 800 years old, relatively young for Vampires, and especially so for Dragons.
For a Dragon, he was still a child. Although, due to his status as a Progenitor, he didn't suffer from the typical drawbacks of his 'child' status. He was a child, yet had the body of an Adult Dragon like Zaladrac.
Persephone felt sour seeing them discussing their rosy future in front of her. 'Just kill me already and get it over with, how annoying.'
"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" Agnes pointed out with a narrowed look.
Seeing everyone's attention on her, Agnes looked at Persephone.
"Despite my Husband's words, I haven't forgiven you."
"I'm not telling you to forgive her, Agnes. Don't put words in my mouth. I specifically said that I didn't care."
"Shut it!" Agnes snapped.
"Women." Victor huffed while rolling his eyes.
"Hey, being irrational is part of our identity, and it gets even worse when you have a Husband like you." Aphrodite chimed in.
"Mm, so it's my fault, huh..." Victor said. "Still, I don't like your tone. I'll punish you later." He said with a gleam in his eye.
"Darling... How about me?" Violet slithered closer to Victor like a snake.
"What? You didn't do anything wrong as far as I remember."
"I used that Power without permission, right? I should be punished."
Victor displayed a small smile. "Hmm, that wasn't a mistake, more like a lack of awareness, an impulsive action. You're not guilty."
"No, No! I'm completely guilty! You need to punish me for being a bad girl."
Trying not to get too excited by Victor's words, Agnes looked back at Persephone while trying to ignore her daughter's flirtatious words.
Flames appeared in front of Agnes, and Fafnir's blade appeared.
"Hmm?" For a moment, Agnes looked at the blade confused, the blade felt much more docile than usual.
Agnes looked at Victor, and saw his crimson-violet eyes gleaming slightly.
"Fafnir, huh..." Victor touched his chin as he thought of something, then he smiled.
Victor raised his finger and with a sweeping gesture, the blade left Agnes' hand and appeared in front of him.
"Victor? What are you doing?"
"Just watch."
Victor blew on the blade, and the next moment, the entire blade was covered in Violet Flames.
"Fafnir, my daughter. You know your job, right?"
The flames flickered playfully, and the next moment, the sword returned to Agnes.
The moment Agnes held the sword, she felt a more comfortable, feminine feeling coming from the blade. "... Did you just change my sword's gender?"
"Humpf, I won't let you walk around with a male Dragon in your hand even if he's in Soul Form." Victor huffed.
"...." They didn't know what to say when they saw Victor jealous of a sword.
'Well, that's my Vic.' Violet laughed when she saw behavior that was very much expected from him.
To be honest, she was quite worried about Victor's recent evolution. He suddenly seemed so 'above' everyone, as if nothing could catch his attention. But fortunately, that was just her imagination.
'No matter how much he changes, he'll always be my Darling.'
"... Can you guys stop chatting and just kill me already?" Persephone spoke with a neutral yet frustrated and impatient tone.
The scene in front of her was worse than having a blade in her heart.
"... You... You're so annoying. Why are you giving up so easily? You're not following the script." Agnes growled.
"I'd already accepted that someday I'd die for my sins." Persephone spoke neutrally.
"Cause and Effect. Law of action and reaction. When you harm someone, they will definitely retaliate, and if that person is stronger than me, I will definitely die."
Victor nodded internally. It was because he knew the truth of these words that he always strove to become stronger; he didn't want to be on the losing side.
"Not to mention..." Persephone sighed. "I regret the things I did to Adonis."
The Underworld Goddess looked at Aphrodite. "Despite being irritating to admit, I should have followed Aphrodite's advice and let him go. But because of my arrogance, I caused harm to the one person I truly felt Love for."
She loved Hades? Yes, but... She was forced to love him; it's a love born from abduction, Stockholm syndrome at its finest. But with Adonis, it was all natural; the two situations were completely different.
"Regret..." Agnes spat. "Regret doesn't change what you've done."
"I know, and I'm not shying away from my responsibility."
"So, you can kill me, just keep my children away from that blade." Persephone said as she pointed to Fafnir's blade.
Agnes gritted her teeth, and the area around them started getting hotter.
Violet looked neutrally at Persephone; her hatred still burned within her, but Persephone's reaction was turning out to be extremely disappointing for her. She wanted more of a reaction, more hatred; she wanted the pleasure of killing her.
Persephone genuinely wanting to die by Agnes' blade had the opposite effect of what the two Snow Clan women wanted.
It was not satisfying; they wouldn't accept such an ending.
Aphrodite looked at Persephone with sad eyes. 'She's given up on everything, huh...' This reaction wasn't incomprehensible to the Goddess of Beauty.
After Hestia, perhaps Persephone was the Goddess she knew the most. She not only lost the man she once felt love and affection for, but she was also betrayed by her ex-husband. And even after gaining something on her own effort, and focusing her efforts on her work as a Queen, she had to watch as that Power was easily taken away from her by the same man she once loved in the past and in the present.'
Looking at Persephone's depressed state now, Aphrodite wondered if she would've ended up like this had she made the wrong decision in the past.
'I guess not... Probably, I wouldn't be with Victor, but I wouldn't be in this state.' The reason for this thought was that unlike Persephone, Aphrodite had always been strong.
An incident of a stronger God kidnapping her and locking her in a filthy place like The Underworld would never have happened.
'Strength, huh...' Aphrodite began to understand more why Victor was so obsessed with it.
Only the strongest were truly free.
"Why are you saying that!? You're sounding like I'm the villain in this story!" Agnes exploded.
"It's all your fault! I had to spend over a millennium taking care of a sick man because of your stupid obsession! I hate you! I hate this place, I hate the Gods!"
"This whole place is a factory pumping out arrogant Beings who think they're above everyone and can do whatever they want!"
"...What a hypocrite."
"Huh!?"
"Agnes Snow, I'm not absolving myself of blame regarding Adonis." Persephone continued speaking.
"This whole place is a factory pumping out arrogant Beings who think they're above everyone and can do whatever they want." Persephone repeated Agnes' words in a neutral tone.
"You said that, and because of those words, I'm calling you a hypocrite."
"You yourself are an ancient hedonist, Agnes. You slaughtered innocents, drank the blood of countless helpless victims, burned entire villages; you did whatever you wanted because you're a Vampire who was born 'strong'."
"Am I wrong?"
"....."
"Yes, the Gods are spoiled children who think they're above everyone else, I don't deny that. I think that way too. But the reason this mindset was born in the first place is because... WE ARE STRONG."
"And that gives us the right to do whatever we want. Morals? Rules? Justice? None of that matters to those who are strong."
"You are strong, so you are justice. That's how the Supernatural World works."
"And you, born from a long line of Noble Vampires who are naturally stronger than most, you shared the same attitude as us."
"Am I wrong?"
Once again, Agnes couldn't say anything.
"Mortals like to point fingers at the Gods a lot, but they don't realize that they are also a reflection of the Gods themselves."
"In their immense arrogance for thinking they are different, Mortals connected to the Supernatural repeat the same atrocities as the Gods and don't even realize it. They kill, exploit, and harm the innocent; they snuff out the lives of the weak for their own whims."
"And yet, even after committing acts similar to that of the Gods, I don't see anyone pointing fingers at them."
As a Ruler, she had seen situations like this countless times; in the end, she realized that Mortals weren't so different from Gods.
Aphrodite fully agreed with Persephone's thoughts; she'd also grown tired of seeing Mortals acting like Gods throughout her long life.
"This situation is the same. I'm not doing anything, I dare not do anything, because a dreadful existence is sitting right over there, and I know that any hostile action I take, I'll disappear from existence without even knowing what killed me."
Persephone looked at Victor.
"Victor is the justice here; we're only having this conversation because of him. If it were up to me... I would just hold onto the memories of Adonis in my heart and focus on my work as a Queen until eventually millions of years pass and I forget those feelings; after all, Time heals everything."
It was not that Persephone had given up and was willingly sacrificing her life; it was because she had no other choice.
She was the weak one here, so she was at the mercy of the strong, and understanding this very well was why she accepted her fate.
Working as the Ruler, seeing various memories from countless Beings' perspectives, Persephone had matured completely as both a Queen and a woman.
In the end, she acquired the mindset that in this world... Being weak is a sin.
Weakness disgusted her, and because of that, she felt disgusted with herself now for being so powerless. As a Queen, she had no choice but to remain silent and let her 'judgment' take place.