Chapter 815: An Echo of the Past. 3
"I see... That... If it's like that, then it makes more sense... Now, I understand why you gave up so easily," Violet sighed.
In a way, Adonis was also similar to Victor. When it came to caring for his Family, he would do anything to protect them, even if it meant sacrificing himself for them.
"Did Victor know about this future?"
"No, he didn't."
"Why not? Did he forget?"
"No, I just didn't give him that memory. Just like I didn't give him the memories of me raising you since childhood. After all, he's your Husband. It would be strange if he looked at you as his daughter, right?"
Violet shuddered at the thought of Victor treating her as his daughter.
Like Ruby, she had various fetishes she enjoyed exploring with Victor, but the Daddy-daughter play wasn't among those fetishes.
"Why didn't you talk about this future? Wouldn't it have been easier to avoid?" Agnes asked.
"... Mother, do you not recall what Darling said when he scolded me?" Violet responded.
"...Oh..." Agnes opened her eyes to the realization.
"If Victor received the memories of visions of a terrible future, he would do everything to avoid it, and consequently, it would bring him even closer to that future."
"Dealing with Time is frustratingly complex. Now I understand why he warned me so much about not using this ability." Violet sighed.
"That was a warning that was reinforced by me as well," Adonis spoke seriously.
"DO NOT mess with Time. Despite having this ability, I did not abuse it. Because the more you abuse that ability-"
"-the more likely The Universe will find ways to fuck you up." Violet completed her father's words. "I understand that now, no need to repeat it."
"Language." Adonis scolded her.
"Hmph." Violet snorted.
"... So, you're saying you sacrificed yourself to give strength to Victor..." Agnes suddenly spoke.
Adonis looked at Agnes and shook his head. "No. I didn't do it for that reason alone."
"... Eh?"
"It was also my only choice."
"I was dying, Agnes. Don't forget that I only had a few months left to live, and if I died, what would have happened to my Soul?"
"...." The two women from The Snow Clan looked at Persephone.
"Exactly. Because of that, my decision wasn't some noble sacrifice or anything like that. It was simply a decision made by someone who had no other option."
"The truth is, I had no hope for myself. So, I decided to gamble. And by making that bet, I was also denying Persephone the 'pleasure' of having my Soul."
"In this way, I killed two birds with one stone: my Soul would be free, and I would bet on a new variable to prevent that dreadful future. And after seeing Victor's memories, I realized I won that bet."
"... Do you hate me, Adonis?" Persephone asked.
"Yes," Adonis replied in a neutral tone.
Persephone's expression didn't change; she expected this. She would be foolish to expect anything different.
"But I hate myself even more."
Persephone, Agnes, and Violet raised their eyebrows at Adonis's words.
"I hate myself for being weak. I hated myself for being weak in front of both of you. And that humiliation? I will carry it with me until the day I die."
Agnes opened her eyes in shock.
"What? Did you think I just forgot what you did to me, Agnes?"
"...Yes...?"
"So, you don't know the pride of a man."
"I hated you, I hated Aphrodite, and I hated Persephone."
Agnes was completely shocked, as was Violet. The Heiress of The Snow Clan didn't expect to hear those words from her father.
"And above all, I hated myself for being so weak."
"Do you know what I felt when I saw Victor, someone who hadn't even been a Noble Vampire for a year, confront Agnes on equal footing without fear?"
"Envy," he said very seriously. "If I had that potential, if I had Power, things would have been different in the past."
"But unfortunately, due to my congenital problem, I was born with a weak body, and by lying with a Goddess, I acquired some strange Power that further drained my vitality."
"My body never had the opportunity to reach its maximum potential."
"Ironically, my situation was somewhat similar to Victor's. I had the intelligence, the cunning, but I didn't have the Power."
"In the face of an oppressive and unmatched Power, any plan becomes useless."
"Look at the example right before you. The entire Greek Pantheon was on their knees because of one man. All those worthless Gods are in their proper place."
Perhaps because he was already dead, Adonis no longer saw the need to hide his feelings behind a facade, so he let out everything he had held back for so long.
Who liked being used and being powerless? Who liked being exploited? Who liked being trapped with crazy women stronger than you, unable to do anything?
There were many strange Beings out there who might enjoy that, but Adonis definitely wasn't one of them.
He was a proud man who hid that pride because he wasn't strong enough.
Being weak in the Supernatural World was a sin, and Adonis felt that clearly. After all, he was born in Greece, the personal playground of the Greek Gods.
And you didn't even need to be an intelligent historian to know how the Gods exploited Humans in Greece; they were practically their playthings.
And could the Humans do anything about it?
Of course not, because they were weak.
Because of that, Adonis envied Victor and his potential.
"I understand..." Violet closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her emotions. Then she spoke, "Now I understand why my Husband's obsession with getting stronger grew even more after he merged with you, Father."
"He inherited those feelings, feelings he already had, but became even stronger thanks to you."
"Only the strong have the right to speak, my daughter. That's the cruel truth of this world, which is why WE must be the strongest."
"The one who stands above all so that no one under our protection will suffer."
Adonis looked at Victor and felt the 'connection' he had with him. Even if he was an Echo of The Past, a Record in The Akashic Records, that Record was still connected to the current present. Therefore, he could feel it clearly; he could feel the 'Power' contained in that 'small' body.
A Power capable of easily fueling two or three planets… The Dragon Heart of The Blood Dragon Progenitor pulsed and sent Energy throughout its surroundings, filling the whole place with vitality, and it did so passively.
If The Heart of a normal Dragon was already powerful, what about The Heart of their Progenitor? What about a Progenitor nurtured by a World Tree? The Energy level was off the charts.
"And I can clearly say that he has nearly reached this state. Only the most powerful Beings in Existence can handle him now."
"... It seems like I never fully understood you, Adonis," Agnes spoke after a long moment of silence. She had been taking her time to digest the torrent of honest words from her ex-husband.
"That's because you were always the 'strong' one in the relationship, Agnes. You've always been on the dominant side, so you could never understand me. And even if you tried, it would be superficial. After all, I was good at hiding what I felt, as that was my only defense to please the 'Gods'," Adonis spat out the last word with disgust.
"I understand..." Agnes could only say that.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't hurt by what she heard, but it would also be a lie if she didn't admit that somewhere in her heart, she had expected this.
It happened rarely, but from time to time, Adonis had his 'lapses' and would have affairs with other women. A fact Agnes knew all too well; even Vlad's former wife had fallen for his charms and ended up in his bed.
Even some female members of The Snow Clan who no longer existed due to Agnes's intervention had succumbed to him.
As good as Adonis was at concealing his emotions, the mind would eventually falter and need to 'relax.' He wasn't a robot, and there was a limit to how much someone could endure.
In Adonis's case, the limit was around 200 to 600 years, sometimes more, depending on the era and the issues.
Adding up to a total of three recorded cases by Agnes.
'A proud man, huh...' She wouldn't lie and say she never thought about it, but she always brushed it aside, thinking her ex-husband's personality was 'gentler' than regular men.
But now that she thought about it, she realized how foolish she had been. How could he not have a strong personality, being a man of such great beauty, astuteness, and someone even Goddesses favored?
'It seems I was too blinded by love, huh... I should have locked him in the basement. If I knew this, then he wouldn't have to complain.' Agnes stopped her train of thought, shaking her head from side to side.
Only now did she realize that she and Persephone weren't so different after all. The only difference between them was their methods, but the essence was the same.
'What if this situation happened with Victor?' She tried to imagine it, and only the image of Victor putting both of them in their place flashed through her mind. Unlike her ex-husband, he wasn't 'weak.'
'I understand... This is what he meant by envy.' The realization dawned on Agnes.
A realization similar to what Persephone was going through.
Honestly, she had come here to talk with Adonis, but she had come without any expectations. After all, in everyone's minds, she was already the 'villain' of the whole situation. She also thought she had done something wrong, so she hadn't complained much, but Adonis's honest admission slightly shifted her perspective.
'I see...' Persephone sighed and looked at Aphrodite.
Suddenly, a phrase from Aphrodite appeared in her mind.
"You should learn to listen more, Persephone. I know I also fail to follow this advice, but if you listen more, you'll understand more. That's something I learned over the course of my journeys."
At the time, Persephone had only scoffed and treated Aphrodite with disdain, but now she realized she hadn't been wrong. If she had tried talking with Adonis, if she had lifted her Curse and hadn't been too dominant, maybe things would have been different.
Persephone sighed again, looked at Adonis, and spoke.
"Adonis Snow."
"Hmm?"
"Since a few things have happened recently in my life, I've always wanted to say this to you."
"I'm sorry."
"....." Genuine disbelief appeared on Adonis's face.
"I know it might sound insincere, but it's the truth. I genuinely regret my actions. I should have stopped acting like a spoiled child and should have handled things like an adult."
"You don't like me? Okay, bye. And then, I would have followed my fate."
"I was supposed to do that. I was supposed to value myself more. But instead, I acted like a child and pursued something impossible, thus hurting you to the point of pushing you into a corner."
Adonis's face twisted slightly but soon returned to his neutral state. To Adonis, it felt like she was apologizing for chasing after him and implying she should have valued herself more and sought something better than him.
Yes, he knew she didn't mean it that way, but it seemed that way, and it was quite unpleasant to hear.
"The only way I could redeem myself was to bring you back to life, but unfortunately, your Soul no longer exists. So, I can only say these words that might sound insincere."
"But even if they sound insincere, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize."
"Apologies won't change anything," Adonis spoke neutrally.
"I know. After all, the situation has passed the point of no return. So, nobody can have a happy ending," Persephone said, then turned towards Victor and spoke:
"I'll just have to live with the fact that I was a spoiled and insensitive woman in the past and take this situation as a lesson to not repeat it in the future."
The three Snows looked at the Goddess walking away with strange expressions on their faces. Even Adonis's own eyebrows were furrowing deeply.
"Why did that kind of feel like she just dumped him?" Violet said.
"I felt the same... Although I understand what she meant," Agnes said.
"She's quite clumsy in her own way," Violet added.
"Mm."
At this moment, Adonis didn't know how to react. For the first time in a long time, he was COMPLETELY caught off guard; he hadn't expected this level of maturity from Persephone.
In fact, associating Gods with MATURITY seemed downright odd and alien.
'What just happened?' Adonis was genuinely confused. He understood what happened, but at the same time, he didn't understand, and he also couldn't accept it.
'Ugh, why am I thinking so much? I'll disappear any minute anyway.' He huffed internally.