In a landscape completely filled with snow and ice, a man possessing striking features walked with a leisurely gait, humming lightly.
If anyone were to see him, they would wonder if his head was alright. After all, in a place where the temperature was so low that even boiling water would freeze, the man only wore a pair of shorts, sandals on his feet, and a shirt with floral patterns that was unbuttoned.
The man looked to be middle-aged, with blonde and frizzy hair, golden irises in his eyes, and a goatee adorning his face.
No matter how one observed him, be it his attire or his appearance, he looked like nothing but a surfer that regularly visited the beach.
Unbothered by the snowstorm, the man continued to walk with a smile on his face until he reached the summit of the mountain.
He put away the frivolous smile on his face and kneeled down on one knee with respect.
“Dear Mistress, to what I owe the pleasure of your visit in my humble territory?”
Standing at the summit of the mountain was a woman wearing a rather revealing white robe that was also unbecoming of such cold weather.
“It has been a while since we saw each other…Asmodeus.”
Her face, hidden by a veil, made it impossible to see her expression. Even so, her voice was light and gentle.
As for the man kneeling in the snow, he was Asmodeus, the Divine Beast of Lust as well as the first and oldest divine beast.
“Yes. Thanks to the authority you have bestowed upon me, I have been able to interact with the Dreamscape and send human souls from alternative dimensions to that place[1].”
“Hum…It’s surprising that this experiment worked. Then again it doesn’t matter now. I have too much riding on the current bet. If I fail…”
Asmodeus looked at the woman who created him and couldn’t help but worry.
“Is it really worth it, my lady?”
“...What do you mean?”
“I have observed the boy, and I admit that he is rather talented, but it isn’t like he did anything incredible with the said talent.”
Asmodeus was not lying or acting out of spite against Sol. He had lived for so long he could not even remember how old he was. But over his long and seemingly endless life, he had seen countless so-called matchless geniuses that were secretly fostered by the goddesses.
Even so, all of them fell short of the expected results, and now, only his mistress was still trying to create someone who could become a god.
“You also believe that only mother can create a god?”
Though there were no fluctuations in her voice, Asmodeus could feel the disappointment in it. He didn’t know what to say.
“*Sigh* It's fine. After all, it’s indeed true that what I am doing is more of a gamble than anything else.``
The start of her plan went as far as the creation of the Lustburg. She observed the flow of Fate and altered the future, all this to enter the streams of time that had the highest possibility for her plan to succeed.
Furthermore, she did not hesitate to introduce a great number of variables to give herself more opening. But by doing so, she also enlarged the streams, thereby increasing the chances of failure.
Of course, not everything was perfect. In her initial plan, Sol should have awakened as a Duke during the attack on Lustburg by the Wings of Freedom. This would have resulted in increasing his chances during the fight to become a Dragon Prince.
Unfortunately, because of Nihil’s intervention, the fight in Lustburg had come to an end faster than it should have.
Although she had to admit that the result she got, in the end, wasn’t bad. After all…
‘He shouldn’t have awakened the War Form before becoming a King.’
She couldn’t help but feel giddy and worried.
Giddy because Sol was already way more powerful than what she initially anticipated and this would continue to snowball, and worried because he was slowly leaving her grasp. It was becoming harder to affect his future. If she forced impossible things to happen, the backslash from Fate would be too much.
“I apologize for doubting you. But…There is one little problem…”
“What is it?”
All those thoughts had flashed in her head in less than an instant, and as such, she was not distracted when she heard his words. Still, a twinge of unease flashed in her mind. A premonition of sorts.
“It’s about my daughter. She…”
Luxuria frowned, Asmodeus only had two children and out of them, only one was a woman.
The premonition of Luxuria was verified at the end of his word.
“I cannot feel her future anymore.”
“Impossible…”
She murmured before immediately diving into the vast flow of time.
Her perspective shifted and suddenly it was like she was standing in one road that advanced in front of her before branching into two possibilities.
Two became four.
Four became sixteen.
Again and again, until there were so many possibilities that it was normally impossible to even discarnate them anymore.
In that nigh-infinite amount of possibilities, Luxuria searched again and again, but no matter what she did, she could not directly look at the future of Asmodeus’ daughter.
In the end, she opened her eyes and they flashed with a cold light.
This phenomenon was not foreign to Luxuria. This was what happened when one became something that could not be understood by the system. A bug of sorts, or as they called them, Singularities.
Even so, it was impossible for one to suddenly become a singularity. This could only mean that something else happened.
At this thought, one name directly flashed in her mind and she looked down at the kneeling Asmodeus.
“It seems like your mate is creating problems for me once again.”
All Asmodeus could do was give a bitter smile.
[1]: This touches on the plot of another of my works. Crazy Girls. But don’t worry. Asmodeus only appears in the first chapter there. So reading Crazy girls is not important.
(AN: I have been pretty cryptic in this chapter. Giving hints for future and past events without outright stating everything. Though for some other. Some of my hints are painfully obvious. This chapter was commissioned by Skoll. It should have been a special chapter but I know that some of you guys skip special chapters. Something that couldn't happen here since it's a very important chapter.)
