SHK CH 381 (Patreon)

After staying for a few more seconds in Camelia’s warm embrace, Sol gently tapped his beautiful lover on the arm, signaling to her that it was time to end this union.

“I am good now.”

Camelia hesitated slightly, wondering if she should tell him that it was fine to depend on her a bit more, but finally, let go of him as he wanted and asked, “What exactly happened? Tell me…”

“Not much, I guess.”

He explained what transpired in the spiritual domain when he met with the goddesses to Camelia without missing a detail.

“This…”

“Don’t make such a face. Honestly, I already anticipated that something like this would happen. So while I am kind of upset, I am not very much surprised.”

By now, Sol had learned that anything bad that could happen would most likely happen to him. One had to learn how to roll with the punches.

But he was no punching bag that would let things slide without retaliating with all his might…

“What will you do now?”

He grunted. “I have absolutely no idea.”

He shook his head before approaching the magical circle and crouched down as he observed it with a difficult expression on his face.

“Rather, it would actually be accurate to say that I have too many ideas. So much so that it would be no different than having no ideas at all. So, I don’t know which of them will realistically work in our current situation.”

Sol had thought of asking Sheherezade for help before the meeting but he had decided against it. She had nearly died when she helped him survive against Ymir and that was despite her having the help of Skuld and Verdandi.

Now that she was alone, he didn’t want to put her in such a dangerous situation. After all, her power was in no way omnipotent.

“Don’t be reckless, Sol. Even though they can act childishly, there is no denying the power and authority they hold.”

“Oh. I know, do not worry about that. I do not know why Invidia antagonized me so. But it’s clear that she does not care about Lilith herself. What she wants is simply to force me to go against her in the open.”

Sol was clear-headed enough to see the trap that the goddess of Envy had placed for him. The sad thing though was that, even though it was such an obvious trap, there was not much he could do against it without becoming enemies with the goddesses.

He quite hated this situation. It would have been one thing if he didn’t even have the option nor the power to act. But even though he had the power to do so, he could not go past the wall that was the goddesses without risking too much.

“Sol perhaps… No, forget it.”

He gave a bitter smile as he swept his hair, “I can guess what you are thinking… Do you think I should let go?”

“Sorry…”

“No. You do not have to apologize. Perhaps I am indeed wrong or perhaps I am just wasting my time.”

How many times did he have this discussion with himself?

Why fight so much for someone who did not even want to live? Someone who had basically given up?

“But… Is there anyone who can truly watch their loved ones die even though they could save them? If there is, I wish I could become as cold-blooded as them.”

He chuckled. There was nothing honorable about suicide. There were so many people who wished to live but still died helplessly.

“Lilith has so many things. She has a beautiful daughter. Friends who care for her and people who respect her and what? She doesn’t mind dying simply because my father died?”

“Not even Arachne fell so low.”

“For Lilith… Mars is more than a man she loves. I do not even know if the feeling she has for him can be called love at this point.”

Camelia gave her own insight, “Lilith was literally created to serve Mars and bear the perfect creation Neptune wished to bring forth. She sees herself as nothing more than a weapon to serve him and now that her master died, I guess she lost her purpose in life.”

Sol nodded in understanding, “Well, all of this doesn’t really matter now. I am just a little selfish brat acting like he knows it all. But I don’t care. I want it all. I am greedy, lustful, and selfish. She may have given up on her life, but I did not. At the very least—”

He closed his eyes, “—At the very least if she really wants to die. I refuse it to be for a stupid reason like wishing to follow my father. I guess I am petty and jealous as well, huh?”

Sol wanted to stay self-aware of who he was and why he acted. He never acted out of pure selflessness but simply out of absolute selfishness. He wished to reach a happy end and for that, he needed to keep all his loved ones alive.

‘Hah, I really feel like an ass.’

“Well. I need to go to the castle. I want to discuss with Pandora and set the terms of our alliance.”

He needed to know just how far Invidia would intervene.

The first thing to investigate was just why that goddess targeted him. He had no interaction with her and he only had ties to Luxuria, Castitas, and Superbia. [1]

“Tell me, how much exactly do you know about the goddesses?”

“Sadly not much. I only know a few rules. Everything is a game for them after all.”

He grunted. He wondered if he could use his wish to go past the veto.

Or perhaps he could simply keep Lilith in his dimension?

So many ideas, and so many possibilities.

He groaned and closed his eyes in order to activate his Divine Eye.

As a duke, what he could do with this power was very limited compared to the power he had when he was using the powers of that divinity. But it did not matter. He was not trying to change fate or anything as grand as that.

The fact of the matter was that he could still save Lilith. It was just a decision between choosing to antagonize the goddesses or not. The Fate of Lilith was not sealed. There were still opportunities for her to come out of the bind that was her demise.

So as long as there existed a probability to find a solution that would satisfy everyone, he would find it.

‘Come on.’

Faint threads began to appear all around him.

<<Zone: Deus Ex Machina>>

The power to make the impossible possible. The power to change reality in the way that suited him. The absolute authority to change Fate as he wished.

‘I just need a little hint.’

“Camelia, I will move now. I will come back tonight.”

He did not wait for Camelia to answer and moved into his dimension in order to have even more power and greater clarity. Only when those three skills were used together could he reach his maximum potential. It was still too soon to use the remaining divinity inside him.

In the achromatic world of his dimension, Sol felt like he was nearly all-powerful. He longed for the day he would be able to manipulate this dimension as he wished like Tiamat.

‘I need more power.’

His core opened at the maximum capacity and absorbed as much mana as possible for his current body. His mind was moving in overdrive, filtering all the information he was receiving from the threads of destiny.

But no matter what he did, no matter which threads he chose, he always felt like something was missing.

‘Perhaps I should ask Sheherazade to boost me up a little.’

She could in no way move a goddess but her power had a great synergy with his. This would perhaps be the best solution.

It was when he was about to finally give up that a thread caught his attention.

It was a thread so small, so intangible that it was basically invisible. So weak he felt like he could sever it now even though he was only using the power of a Duke.

But more than anything— It was a thread tinged in gold.

‘What?’

Only goddesses were represented in gold. But no matter how he looked at it, this thread did not seem to belong to a goddess.

‘What is going on?’

He was intrigued and at the same time, something was telling him that this was a lifeline he could not let go of.

As such, he began to follow this thread. He had nothing to lose and he wanted to see where this would lead him rather than giving up now. He felt like this would lead him to an unexpected discovery that could probably turn the tides in his favor.

Still in his dimension, he walked slowly. Going out of the basement where Camelia was, walking past a group of nuns who were giggling and laughing happily as they gossiped about the happening of the church and their everyday lives, ignoring the believers who were kneeling down in worship as they prayed goddesses who in reality had no care nor love for them, he only stopped when he entered a chapel that stood far apart, isolated from everything else.

There, one young girl around Sol's age was kneeling in prayer with her back to him.

At her back was a large multicolored window. The light of the sun seeping through it shone on her, giving her the appearance of a true saint.

Though he was observing her from his dimension, Sol had to admit that it was a breathtaking view.

‘Why is this thread connected to her?’

He may have only seen her once, but it was easy to recognize her. She was none other than Aurora, the granddaughter of Gerald and the new Holy Daughter of Castitas.

“I have been waiting for this moment for so long.”

Sol was quite surprised to hear her suddenly murmuring those words. After all, from her perspective, she should be currently alone.

This was why he was all the more surprised when she stood up and directly looked in his direction.

“Should we talk in private? Ares told me a little about the power of that place. Do not worry. I will not be affected.”

The smile on her face was so beautiful that it seemed eerie but the twinkle of joy in her eyes was evident.

Sol was forced to admit it.

That girl was able to see him or at least feel his presence, even though he was currently standing in another dimension.

He had indeed used this place to interrogate Ares once during the attack on Lustburg. This place had an absolute effect of inverting the feelings of all those below the King rank once they entered.

The girl was not even a Duke. How could she be so sure?

He hesitated a little bit but, feeling the confidence in her voice, he decided to gamble. At worse he would just subdue her.

“Oh my. What a dreary place.”

He was quite incredulous to realize that she showed no obvious changes once she was pulled into his dimension.

By now, he would be absolutely crazy if he still believed she was just a normal girl.

“Who are you?”

As if feeling the edge in his voice, Aurora tilted her head in confusion.

“Why does everyone always ask me this?”

A bright smile formed on her face, “I am Aurora. But—”

The smile slowly left her face as all the emotions she was showing were now replaced with a face so apathetic that Sol had to wonder if she was the same person or not. Her aura changed, her tone became deep, and her eyes began to show a golden luster that held within them a power that he could only ever feel from the almighty goddesses themselves, “I guess you can also call me Dawn?” [1]

[1]: Aurora is the name of the Goddess of Dawn in Roman Mythology. In Greek myth, she is the Daughter of Hyperion the Sun Titan and the Sister of Sol the god of the sun. I wonder how many made the connection.

Aurora is also the name of the sleeping beauty who was woken up by the kiss of a prince. In the family-friendly version at least. The Original version is pretty sick. In the true version, Aurora was raped in her sleep by a King and got pregnant, and gave birth to twins. Then she woke up and the dude managed to make her fall for him. He has a wife who is basically evil. The evil queen gets burned to death after failing to kill the children. Then rapey dude marries Aurora and they live happily after. Ngl, That shit is basically one of the first CEO-type novels. It’s funny when you realize this was written in 1330 and nearly 700 years later the same kind of story is still being written.)

I hope you guys liked this chapter.