With the discussion about their feelings and their respective choices and beliefs coming to a close, Sol decided to close down his dimension, bringing both of them back to the real world.
“Your dimension is really an amazing power of yours. I can't even put into words how astonished I am that such a broken thing exists.”
Kiyohime commented, envy lacing her tone. In this world, one needed to know that “privacy” was merely a very nice-sounding word.
With seers, demigods, and goddesses walking around the face of this universe, it was very hard to keep secrets. However, Sol was an exception in that regard. He had the means to ward against those mighty beings' eavesdropping.
“Indeed.”
Sol was happy with his dimension and now that he had become a Duke, there was so much more he could do and needed to experiment with.
“I already said, no training for you for now. You need to rest and recuperate. So, don't even think about training, got it?”
“Yes madam!”
———
After drying themselves up and changing into their clothes, a simple silver armor over a white shirt and skirt for Kiyohime and a black shirt with tight pants for Sol, the two of them moved in the direction of Tartarus.
Once again, Sol's dimension proved to be invaluable as he simply twisted the distance between them and Tartarus. If he could create a near-infinite amount of distance between two points, he could also, of course, reduce it into zero.
This made him realize again how much of a cheat his dimension was. After all, if he remembered well, Lilin’s Zone had the same effect.
By reducing the distance between her and her opponent to zero, she could make the greatest use of her Immortal slaying art.
This was what zones were for.
A base. The foundations of a multi storied tower. The goal of a zone was to enhance all the natural abilities of the user and allow them to reach the greatest height of their inherent potential. In some rare and unique cases, zones are even the precursor to enhancing the user's potential to greater heights.
In this way, Sol chuckled blankly at how absurd his own zone was. In the first place, even calling it a zone was absurd in itself.
“We are here.”
It took a few jumps as Sol couldn’t exactly pinpoint the coordinates, but it was still far faster than using the White Pearl to reach this place.
Having arrived at their destination, finally, Kiyohime opened the gate.
———
“The atmosphere of this place is as shitty as I remembered it to be.”
“See! The kid gets it.”
The moment Sol entered, he couldn’t help but comment, a frown etched in his face, as he felt his skin crawl because of the aura of chaos filling the depths of Tartarus.
Anubis, who had been laying down on a bed made of stone-hard rock, sprang up the moment he heard those words, causing Kiyohime to facepalm herself.
“Stop this meaningless chatter.”
““Yes Madam!””
Both Sol and Anubis replied at the same time, causing them to laugh out loud and leaving Kiyohime speechless once again, watching their troublesome antics.
She had expected many things, but never for the life of her did she think that Sol and Anubis would hit it off so easily. Anubis might appear friendly, but this was just a facade of a monster whose cruelty knew no limits.
He wasn’t gentle or outspoken because he was humble.
It was simply the fact that, in his eyes, all beings were equal in front of death. Be it an ant or even a goddess.
As such, he treated everyone in the same polite way. Equality was his go to word, after all.
He was a fair man. And he did everything fairly.
However, since he treated everyone equally, it also meant that there was no one he particularly liked or cared about.
There were only scantily few exceptions to this rule and now, it seemed that Sol had just managed to become a part of that small circle.
Shelving the astonishing thought aside, Kiyohime focused on the matter at hand.
“So Sol, now that we are here, what are you going to do?”
“To be honest…” Sol hesitated slightly before shrugging nonchalantly, “I need someone to experiment on my new powers.”
The events of a week ago had left Sol with many new powers but with them came a new set of problems. The foremost of them being his unfamiliarity with them, and the variety and applications of those powers.
His powers weren’t something simple like a huge and beautiful explosion. It was more along the lines of a complex mathematical problem that needed much thought before coming up with a solution.
He had used those powers while being under the boost that elevated him to a demigod. But just how much could he bring forth of those powers as a Duke?
What was his current limit and could he break that limit somehow?
A power that wasn’t well understood was just a liability. A bomb ready to explode at the worst possible moment.
Furthermore… There was another power. Something he needed to test as soon as possible.
But there was a problem.
On whom could he use those powers?
The answer was simple.
Tartarus was the most ideal place.
“After I finish with that woman… I will enter the last circle of Hell.”
“Sol…”
“Not now of course… Like you said, I need to rest. But… Once I rest, before leaving, I need to use this opportunity.”
Kiyohime bit her lips— worry evident in her eyes.
The 7th Circle of Hell in Tartarus was no playground. It was where powerful King rank Titans, Giants, and Traitors were held prisoners. Was Sol powerful enough to fight a King?
She did not think so. But she was sure that he was strong enough that he wouldn’t be killed either.
Perhaps once he reached the peak of the Duke rank he would be able to kill the King-ranked beings? Kiyohime did not know if it was possible but then again, Sol had always been the one to do the impossible.
Because of all this, she could only stay silent.
Sol was no stupid child. He still lacked experience, but he should be smart enough to know his limit.
“I will be alright. Do not worry.”
“Well, you can do as you like. I cannot stop you after all.”
‘Oh!? Ohoho!? What am I seeing here!?’
Anubis who had been standing aside and observing the interaction between the two dragons opened his eyes wide in surprise as realization dawned upon him.
While he wasn’t particularly close to Kiyohime in general, he did know about her, as well as her past relationship with Nent, and from what Isis told him, Nent was also in a relationship with the boy.
In fact, the boy was the reason that Nent went partially back to how she used to be, before the change that happened due to the incident 700 years ago.
More importantly, he knew that Nent and Kiyohime were once lovers.
‘Atta boy!!’
He couldn’t help but laugh inwardly and at the same time worry for his daughter.
‘I wonder if my baby daughter will get bullied by this bunch.’
Anubis didn’t care one bit that Sol had a harem. This was pretty normal in his opinion. People should be free to do whatever they want as long as they don't hurt anybody.
As long as the women in his harem entered while knowing there were other women, what right did he have to judge them?
It wasn’t as if Sol lied or forced them to love him. In the first place, could he even force them?
The problem was, Harems weren’t the friendliest of places. He began to wonder if he should perhaps prepare something for his daughter just in case she could express her dominance from the start.
Like this, each of them deep in their own thoughts, the three of them walked up until they reached Leo who was now sitting on a rock while confused about her destiny.
She did not even try to escape because escape was useless.
She knew very well that there was no way out for her. Now that she was in Tartarus and with Anubis present, it was game over.
When Sol, Anubis, and Kiyohime finally came to her, Leo’s eyes narrowed.
Sol Dragona Luxuria. The one she needed to capture in order to save her mother.
He was also one of the main causes of their plan being completely destroyed.
[Zone: Deus Ex Machina.]
Leo did not hear Sol mutter those words but in an instant, thousands of thoughts went past in her mind.
Indeed.
What was her goal?
Saving Echidna from her seal. Leo did not believe in Chaos nor did she even believe in Order. Her faith went to her one and only creator.
Echidna Gula.
But there was no one who could help her unseal Echidna. The only one who could help her reach her goal were the Wings of Freedom.
Freedom? All of this was simply bullshit. She was perfectly happy serving her ruler.
She held absolutely no loyalties for them.
Why then was she resisting so much?
Why did she have to be tortured for a cause she did not believe in?
Worse, since Anubis was present, she might even die and become an undead. This means she couldn’t even take her life, lest she would lose hold over the peace of death.
In front of Anubis, death was not a release.
She simply wanted her mother back.
Then… Why did she have to resist?
When Sol finally stopped in front of her, Leo looked up with a defeated smile.
“No need to dirty your hands. I promise you I will tell you everything. All I ask for is a swift death and not being changed into an undead.”
Sol gave an eerie smile, completely unsurprised by her abrupt statements.
“Tell me everything you know then.”
My goal is to reach Top 25. Gotta go all out. I know we can do it guys.
Bonus for Gifts:
A Car = 1 bonus chapter
A Dragon= 2 BC
A Castle= 6 BC (spread over a week, otherwise I would die.)
Bonus for Priv unlock
1K unlock= 1 Bonus chapter
3K= 2 BC
5K= 4BC (Spread over four days)
15K= 8 BC (Spread over a week, otherwise I would die)
Bonus for Golden Tickets
500 GT= 1 Bonus chapter
1500 GT= 2
