Haedon opened his eyes and breathed out. The sheer pressure in his breath caused cracks in the asteroid he was sitting on.
Most of his injuries remained. Without his healing potions, his natural regeneration worked very slowly against the injuries he got in the turbulent space.
'I almost died...' Abyss Emperor was a very experienced warrior but he still felt his heart palpitate when he recalled the hazardous journey from the unstable space gate.
It's solely the fault of Varian and Enigma that the space altars were destroyed. If they didn't touch those altars, then Haedon would've come here at his full strength. As a Rank 2 Celestial.
"And I could've brought them here, saved them. They could've been alive." Haedon's eyes blazed with fury even as they turned wet in grief. "You killed them, Varian. You will pay for it. You and everyone you know."
It was less of a statement than it was a promise to his dead family.
Haedon had never met Varian. But now, he hated him more than even the Zions. If only the man named Varian didn't exist...
"Arghhh!" Haedon roared like a wounded beast.
The sonic waves from his shout blasted the asteroids into pieces and shoved hundreds of asteroids away.
The image of his wife smiling at him before she went off to her death and the scene of his daughter killed brutally played like an endless loop.
Abyss Emperor's breath grew ragged. He had the urge to cry. To wail like a child. To complain about how unfair everything was.
But he didn't do it. He couldn't. Ever since he became the Emperor, he never complained no matter how hard it got.
Even now, with his empire in ashes and his family gone forever, he wouldn't complain.
'My daughter wouldn't like to see such a weak father. She thinks I am a great warrior. I should act like one. For her. Only for her.'
He sniffed back his tears and straightened his back.
A few minutes later, Julius appeared. His wounds mostly healed and his aura was much stabler than earlier.
But something was off.
Julius' face was terrible. He was incredibly pale, paler than a man who witnessed the most horrible sight ever.
And those eyes, there were tears in his eyes. He's weeping and grieving.
"What have you done to me?" Julius asked in a voice on the verge of a breakdown.
After the slate exploded, Julius felt like a void in his mind was suddenly filled.
The emotions he couldn't feel for years came back flooding him.
The guilt for every crime he committed, the shame for every unjust he did, the burden for every life he chose not to save...
It crushed his heart and smashed it into pieces.
Julius felt suffocated and scared. His own mind wasn't his for years. Someone was messing with him and he didn't even notice.
"Why did you let me do such horrible things? I helped your kind in killing a billion people on Pluto just to get this artifact?" Julius looked at the Demon Sword in disgust.
Haedon calmed down as his enemy's emotional state grew turbulent.
Yes, many years ago, he devised a plan to easily get the six artifacts. Let a human sovereign collect them. When the time came, abyssals would expose the sovereign and spark a civil war. Humans would destroy themselves and abyssals would get the legacy for a low cost.
It's a long-term plan, the last but guaranteed strategy.
Unfortunately, this long-term plan had to be abandoned for a quicker one with Fairies growing increasingly aggressive and pushing his people to war.
But it didn't matter now.
"You are a horrible person, Julius," Haedon said with disgust, knowing exactly the impact it'd have on an emotionally unstable Julius. "You let your own people die. You killed billions on Neptune. You murdered your own colleagues."
"No." Julius took a step back and his eyes grew frantic. "It wasn't me. It was you, you messed with my head."
"The slate acts slowly. You had time to act when you started doing those lawless things. Yet you didn't." Haedon continued to push.
It was a half-lie. The slate was one of the key artifacts of abyssals. It'd slowly corrupt a person as long as they stayed within its reach.
The very first thing it'd do was mask all introspection. When a person stopped questioning if his actions were just or not, then it's easy to brainwash him to do terrible things.
"I am not a monster." Julius clenched his fists and glared at Haedon. But his tone was uncertain, his eyes were filled with guilt and his mind was overwhelmed with the faces of the people he killed.
So many...so many.
"I am not a monster. I didn't want to do it!" Julius yelled and a scarlet light enveloped him.
"You did. You monster." Haedon emphasized the last word and it was the last straw.
"No!" Julius pounced on Haedon like a rabid dog and punched out. Haedon responded with a punch of his own.
The space stilled for a moment before a tsunami of scarlet and golden light drowned everything.
Haedon rubbed his bloodied fists and sighed inwardly.
Despite his better rank, Julius recovered more strength than him. If Julius was right in the head, he'd have no chance.
Thankfully, with the destruction of the slate as well as Julius' celestial rank strength, he's able to realize that he was manipulated in the past.
And that messed up his mind enough to give Haedon a chance.
"I didn't want to kill them! I hate you! I hate myself!" Julius cried out as he launched a flurry of attacks.
Haedon was pushed back constantly but he remained calm and protected his vitals.
Soon, Julius was panting. With his indiscriminate use of energy, fatigue was building up. On the other hand, except for some minor injuries, Haedon remained fine.
Julius was slowly calming down.
"You don't have a right to live, Julius." Haedon pushed him again. "You are the biggest traitor to mankind."
"Shut up!" Julius rushed at him once again and continued the fight.
The fight proceeded as Haedon directed and after a few minutes, Julius' exertion finally caught up to him.
Then, Haedon who preserved his strength began an offensive.
The battle dynamics were reversed in an instant.
