There were many questions they wanted answers to, and since neither Sol nor Anubis wished to stay longer inside the dreary world of Tartarus, it was decided to leave the job of interrogating Leo in Kiyohime's experienced hands.
Of course, before leaving the damned place, Anubis was quite clear about the fact that she should come clean by giving out the whole truth without hesitation or any lies mixed with the truth.
Because if she were to lie right now, he would definitely know and once he saw that she lied, he would make sure to never let her off.
From how her face visibly paled from that statement of his, it was evident that Anubis's naked threat had been quite effective on the fragile-minded lioness.
This was one of the very few advantages of being the one everyone feared. There was no one who would underestimate you and your words.
Sol and Anubis were now slowly traveling, in the air— flying all the way, toward the island where Sol was supposed to take rest and recuperate.
Sol could have used his dimension, but he opted not to in this situation.
For starters, he could already feel Anubis' gaze on him and instantly understood that Anubis wanted to talk with him. Their journey back to his resting place is the greatest occasion for the talk.
Another reason, and it was really plain and simple at that, was that he did not wish for a powerhouse of the caliber of Anubis to step inside his dimension.
Anubis had been able to steal and take control of a part of the Afterlife from the literal goddesses. It was an entire realm as big as or perhaps even bigger than the entirety of the Astral Realm— home to the Divine Beasts.
Sol had only met Anubis three times till now. There was simply no way he would give him his trust so easily.
Once burned, twice shy— went the proverb, and they often had the uncanny characteristics of happening more often than you could ever give them credit for.
It wasn’t a problem of trustworthiness but simply of maintaining once cautiousness. Because, at the end of the day, just because he was technically the husband of his daughter did not mean that Anubis would treat him like his own son.
Neither did the fact that they were both Reincarnators coming from the same world meant that they would become good friends and comrades.
Sol had only lived for less than two decades in this world and he already had a hard time remembering what it was like to think and act at the same pace as a human.
His current body and mind were simply too different from his pre-reincarnation self.
Then what about Anubis?
The man was not even reborn as a human but a bonafide demon. That was a red flag severe enough for most people to do everything to avoid that.
Furthermore, Anubis had lived for thousands of years, much much longer than he could imagine living and experiencing. He was around long before even the creation of Lustburg.
His mind couldn’t be further than what humans could actually imagine.
“You seem rather preoccupied?”
As if guessing what he was ruminating on, Anubis calmly remarked. But to his slight surprise, instead of being flustered, Sol simply shrugged and spoke his thoughts out loud.
“I am trying to ascertain just how much I should actually trust you.”
“Oh? I am surprised you are so forthright about your doubts regarding me.”
“Heh, why bother lying to you? You can see the truth, right? Isn't that what you said to Leo? I have seen Isis using her powers of judgment. Even if your powers would be different from hers, which I doubt it is, it shouldn’t be too different.”
Sol had nothing to hide, well he did but it didn't matter anyways, and so he did not bother lying in front of someone who could easily tell a lie from the truth.
This was nothing more than a waste of both of their time.
“Hahaha…”
Anubis exploded in a fit of boisterous laughter, before a mysterious light glinted in his eyes, “You…I really like you. My daughter really doesn't disappoint. She chose an interesting partner.”
This was the first time in a long while Anubis had been so surprised.
When was the last time someone managed to make him genuinely laugh outside of his family?
‘Then again, I think I can say for sure that Sol is family now.’
Sol wasn’t wrong in being wary of Anubis.
Anubis was not a hero. Much less a good man. How could someone with hundreds of thousands of undead under his command be called good? Unless the providence of the world twisted it wouldn't happen.p
He was simply someone who acted with only his best interest at heart.
He was a selfish man and he did not even have an ounce of goodwill for people he had no care about.
The only reason he had yet to join the side of Chaos was simply because there were no benefits and only troubles at that side.
He did not wish to stand against his wife and did not wish to see his daughter live in a world under the command of Chaos.
That was all.
Out of two evils, he chooses the lesser one, simply because it garnered him more profit.
“By the way… Can you tell me what exactly you did there?”
Anubis was talking about Leo and her sudden change of heart. It had been weirdly abrupt but at the same time, it wasn’t as if she was mind manipulated.
Sol mused a little on how to answer before touching his forehead, “Hmm, how should I explain it? I simply affected her causality?”
Seeing how Anubis was giving him a weird look, Sol sighed and expanded on his explanation, “It’s hard to explain, even for me. Basically, as you have seen with Nihil, my power allows me to mold causality in a certain way to my benefit.”
Sol moved his hand and suddenly, the wind began to stir in a strange way.
“You should know Sheherazade. I don’t know if it’s because of the Norns sister and her but my power has many similarities to them. You know that quote, right? The one about how the butterfly effect? My power is not much different. Many little changes can result in a big and meaningful change. On earth, the first world war began from a simple event or a string of events that spurred the end result. I did the same.”
Sol proceeded to explain as clearly and concisely as he thought it to be possible.
Initially, his plan had been to put Leo in his dimension and inverse her feelings. But there were a few problems with that.
Firstly, just because their feelings were inverted, it didn’t change who they were, fundamentally. The change was proportional to how they hated or loved him initially.
Like how Milia who loved him more than anyone began to hate him more than anyone.
The change from 100 to -100 was great.
But what if a person did not particularly hate or love him?
As such, he decided to try something else.
He slightly opened his 'Eye of Akasha' and was able to see the different strings tying her to this world.
Then, he simply “thinned” the strings tying her to the Wings, and strengthened the string tying her to her mother.
Those changes were extremely small in a way. But the result was self-evident.
As Sol explained the way he obtained a swift confession out of Leo, Anubis’s eyes couldn’t help but change when he thought about all the things possible with this power.
If Sol had such a power on earth, he could easily become the greatest scientist alive or anything else he so wished. By simply nudging Fate a little he could easily find answers to all the theories or the problems that plagued the world and solve them.
Not only that, there were so many applications possible that it was simply mind-boggling.
Even if Sol was limited now by the extent of his powers, what would happen once he became a demigod?
In a way what Sol obtained was no different from near omnipotence.
‘What the hell. This is supposed to be a simple Zone!?’
Anubis' nearly short-circuited at that thought.
(AN: I promised If I received some gifts and I honor my promise. Thanks to Killer-raze for gifting me a Dragon. Which mean 2 . I will post the first bonus chapter in about two hours and the second one two hours later.)
