Chapter 1077: Chapter 1077

A chilling, flesh-tearing sound echoed through the space. There wasn’t even a single proper scream, but what unfolded before his eyes was a gruesome massacre.

A girl, having just pulled her hand out of a man's chest, staggered as she clutched her head with her blood-soaked hands.

“Ah. Aaargh!!” She twisted in agony, tears of blood streaming from her eyes.

Davey wondered if the girl was Perserque, overwhelmed by her power going berserk in the past.

Unfortunately, all he could do was watch. Even if he saved her now, nothing would change. If anything, stepping in could create a gap in the timeline and introduce an unexpected variable.

Even so, watching the scene made him feel like shit.

“That goddamned Thanatos.” He cursed Thanatos, the root cause of it all. Of course, it was actually Ares’s wife who had pulled the trigger, but that didn’t make Thanatos innocent.

He could feel the massive amount of power enveloping her memories. Controlling the faint glow at his fingertips, he began reshaping the seal on her memories before reinforcing it even further. The seal’s original structure had been created and designed by Goddess Freyja, but thanks to Odin, tweaking it slightly wasn’t too difficult. On top of that, someone outside was helping him as well.

Davey wondered if it was Goddess Freyja. He still didn’t know the true source of her power, or how she kept performing miracles so casually, but at the very least, there had to be a reason she was following him. Of course, talking nonsense about going on a date in front of Perserque was clearly just her way of messing with him—he would bet his life on it.

A dying figure nearby reached out and grabbed Perserque by the leg. He couldn’t speak, but from the way his lips moved, Davey could tell what he was trying to say: Why? Davey knew that one word must’ve left a deep scar on Perserque’s psyche, plunging her into intense trauma and stress.

The rampage of the blood-eyed, maddened Perserque only came to a halt when a beautiful woman, holding a staff, sacrificed her own life. Davey had lost count of how many times he’d witnessed the same scene repeat. For an ordinary human, being exposed to such overwhelming grief and pain over and over would be enough to break them, becoming a core part of their self-identity.

Of course, that extreme trauma was uniquely and most deeply affecting Perserque. The original plan had been to reinforce the seal even further before locking the memory away again, but Davey changed his mind. When the spell neared completion, the memory began to fade from the backlash of the sealing process.

“I can only imagine how painful a memory this is.” Knowing how severe its existence was, Davey couldn’t bring himself to simply seal it away and call it good. “This memory no longer serves a purpose.”

He didn’t want her to ever be tied to it again.

“It’ll take a bit longer, but...” Davey summoned the authority of Predatory Assimilation.

He thought he heard someone, but he ignored them. “That memory. I’ll devour it for you.”

The authority of Predatory Assimilation began consuming the manifested trauma.

Goddess Freyja, who had been silently watching Davey, suddenly opened her eyes.

“Something’s wrong. He’s doing something inside her mind!” Odin shouted out.

Davey was violently thrown back after a massive shockwave erupted. “Owwww.”

Odin rushed over to him and immediately began mercilessly kicking him in the shin.

“Gaaah?! What the hell, woman? Have you lost your mind?!”

“Die! Just die, you bastard! Who told you to go off script like that?!” she screamed at him.

Davey, still writhing on the floor, let out a pained laugh. “Hah. That hurts! Ahahaha!”

“Y-You crazy son of a... What the hell did you even do?!”

“I devoured it. Completely.”

Odin flinched. “D-Devoured it? The trauma?!”

Odin grabbed his cheeks with one hand and made a grave face. “Hey! Look me in the eyes! Look at me!”

“Ugh. Cut it out already; my head won’t stop pounding.”

“You lunatic! Do you even realize what happens when you recklessly devour a grudge that’s been festering for thousands of years?!”

Normally, the authority of Predatory Assimilation absorbed traits, special powers, or raw strength and either assimilated or discarded them. It was even capable of devouring offensive magic, as long as it was within a controllable range.

“Well... Are you really okay?” she probed.

If he were the type to collapse from something like that, he would've broken down back in the Red Void.

“Still, it was kinda disgusting.” He winced and pushed himself to his feet, sighing, “I should be okay after some rest.”

Odin let out a heavy sigh as well. “I knew you were insane, but this is next level. Don’t you dare use that characteristic again. Got it?”

She made it clear that it was a power that should only be used under the most extreme circumstances. However, that was unrelated to their real problem.

“But... why hasn’t she woken up yet?” Odin asked while looking at Perserque.

Davey also looked at her. “Before I pulled out, she was still wandering through her consciousness in search of someone.”

Ares’s hand twitched when he heard that information. “You could’ve at least said something to her.”

Ares lowered his head, unable to stop his trembling hands. Still gripping Perserque’s hand tightly, he continued speaking, “I wanted her to resent me. But at the same time, I didn’t.”

She had lost control and gone berserk against her will, unintentionally becoming a Demon King that ultimately had to be cut down by her own father. In many ways, she had been killed by her own family. Understanding that, Ares had always assumed she’d hate him for it.

“I say she’ll always hate me if I try to show my face, but I was honestly just scared.”

Odin dismissed the magic and clicked her tongue. “Foolish.”

“Yeah. It was foolish of me, for sure,” he said calmly, his head still lowered as he chewed his lip. “If by any chance... even the slightest chance, Perserque were to hate me, to look at me with fear or resentment?” He had been terrified of seeing even a single look like that from her.

“I didn’t have the courage. I said it was fine, and that I wanted to see her, but that fear never went away.” After a brief silence, Ares managed to continue what he was saying. “I was afraid.”

The Demon King and the Sword God were supposed to kill each other. In that tragic past, both longed for one another—yet both were consumed by fear. Perserque had been terrified that her father would hate her for becoming a Demon King and killing countless humans. Ares was afraid of seeing hatred in his daughter’s eyes, despised for being the one who ultimately killed her.

“That’s probably not it,” Davey said as he groaned, clutching his shin and struggling to stand straight. “When Perserque found out she could have a child, the first person she wanted to see was you.”

“How about you say something to her? When someone’s lost and wandering, the least you can do is be a lighthouse for them.”

Ares looked at the unconscious Perserque with trembling eyes. Just as he was about to say something, a sound made his eyes widen instead.

Despite his fear of seeing her again was a baseless trauma, he hadn’t been able to face her.

“I...” he spoke slowly. At the same time, a pure and gentle energy began to radiate from his entire body, resonating with Perserque’s own.

“I really...” Hearing his voice, her fingers twitched. “I missed you, my beloved daughter.”

Finally hearing those words from him, a single tear rolled down her cheeks. She slowly opened her eyes, her crimson pupils locking directly onto her father. “Father.”

Ares trembled from head to toe.

Davey and Odin, who stood behind him, couldn’t see it, but his eyes were bloodshot and on the verge of overflowing with tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” At last, he broke down, burying his face into her hand.

Seeing him like that, Perserque’s lips began to weakly tremble before she slowly gave a smile.

He hadn’t even been able to attend his daughter’s wedding. He’d never even been able to properly call out to her, never knowing what would be the right thing to say.

In that moment, Perserque had mustered up courage, just like him.

“Dad...” She let out a soft sob as she looked at Ares and reached out her hand.

She then gently ran her fingers through his hair as he quietly wept. Slowly sitting up and helping him to his feet, she then pulled him into a warm embrace. “I missed you... Dad.”

Odin, watching the reunion between father and daughter, clicked her tongue briefly and turned away. “What a tearjerker.”

Even as she said that, she drew out all the power sustaining her presence and transferred it into Ares instead, her manifestation dispersing completely. By leaving early, she had drastically increased the time Ares could remain by his daughter’s side.

Seeing her fade away, Davey gently tugged on Goddess Freyja’s arm .“We should give them some space.”

[Don’t you ever do something like that again.]

“Yeah, yeah, I understand.”

The two had finally been reunited after millennia apart. They had clearly been holding in a lot of things to say, as Ares managed to hold on for several more hours before being reverse-summoned back to the Saint Sanctuary.

The sudden disturbance had caused chaos throughout the territory, but Davey quickly dispatched guards and officials to handle the damage recovery and treat the injured.

After Ares left, Perserque shut herself away in her room and didn’t say a word.

“That’s so sweet,” Illyna murmured, her sour face slightly red. Ever since hearing what had happened, she’d kept repeating how happy she was for them.“When you have the chance to see someone, you have to make the most of it.”

Having lost her mother when she was young, her older brother later having been murdered, she understood all too well how precious it was to meet someone dear once again.

Davey nodded at her question while swiftly reviewing the territory’s damage report documents. “Yeah. She’s good now.”

Perserque had become able to have children without any worries. He grumbled a little about how troublesome it had been to make it all happen, though he couldn’t help but smile.

“You worked really hard. I didn’t realize you’d gone that far for her.”

He smirked, “Jealous?”

“Of course I’m jealous,” she said while giggling. Even though she claimed to be jealous, her face didn’t show any real dissatisfaction. “More importantly, what in the world was that thing earlier?”

“Yeah, despite having seen it firsthand, I'm still not sure what exactly it was either.”

Turning his gaze toward the window, Davey looked up at the dark night sky where three moons hung. Syras, Cryas, and the third moon Thanatos that Davey had created himself. Basking in the peaceful moonlit night, the rift eruption that had happened during the day felt like a complete lie; everything was eerily calm.

“The royal family sent a letter asking about that too!” Aeria piped in from the side. “Sister Illyna sent them a report, describing an apparent black hole, but that thing seemed far more severe than any black hole I’ve ever heard of.”

It had been too bizarre to be called a simple black hole.

“A natural phenomenon,” Davey murmured, prompting Illyna to tilt her head. He reassured her, “I don’t know the details either, but the chances of it happening again are probably pretty low.”

It needed to be monitored and investigated further, but Davey suspected the rift to be a side effect of Goddess Freyja purifying the Arbute Kingdom without erasing it outright as fate intended. The aftermath of an entire nation surviving when it should’ve disappeared overnight would definitely be significant.

Illyna let out a sigh. “If it hadn’t been for Rho Aias, we would’ve been in real trouble.”

“Since she stepped in, we shouldn’t have to worry about a recurrence.”

If it had simply been suppressed, he would’ve had to immediately reinforce the barriers for extra assurance of safety. Fortunately, once Rho Aias got involved, it didn’t matter whether it was a natural phenomenon or whatever else. That was simply the kind of existence she was.

“Just how strong is she, anyway? I remember seeing her back when you were training, but still am not sure,” Illyna wondered.

“I don’t know either.”

It was honestly impossible to accurately assess her strength.

“Still, if I know anything at all, it’s that without Hercules, there’s no one in the entire Saint Sanctuary who can overpower her.”

She was extremely gentle by nature, but once she snapped, there would be no one left who could stop her.

“You can't beat her either?”

“If I was dead set on erasing her, there are ways, but even then I'd have to be ready to get wrecked too.”

Illyna shivered in response. “Yeah, definitely not someone I ever want to mess with.”

“Right? Even the crazy hero punks in the Hall never cross the line.”

‘The moment they did, they'd be staring straight into hell.’

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Davey set the documents down, completely unaware of who had come.

“Huh. It's already time? Guess we’ll get going,” Illyna said.

“Huh? Going where? We haven't seen each other in forever!” Aeria whined.

“Come on, we know when we’re not wanted.” Illyna stuck her tongue out playfully with a bright smile.

Behind her, Aeria also giggled shyly and waved her hand. “Sweet dreams, Davey.”

“Aeria, how about we open a bottle of wine tonight?”

Watching the two of them eagerly leave with their ears practically twitching, Davey couldn't help but wonder who the hell would ever come by at such an hour.

Knowing Illyna, he had expected her to pounce on him, especially considering how late in the night it was.

Yet she didn’t, and he understood why the moment the door opened.

“Per? You’re not supposed to be moving around yet,” he said as he stood up. He knew she’d still be feeling the aftereffects, including weakness in her body.

The moment Davey tried to move toward her, she promptly flicked off the small robe she was wearing and strode straight toward him.

“Uh.” Seeing her outfit, Davey instinctively pinched his nose to stop any blood that might shoot out. “Whoa, hold up!”

Seeing him panic, she gave him an alluring smile. She then pushed him onto the bed next to the desk and climbed on top of him, her crimson eyes shimmering seductively. Shimmering under the moonlight, her eyes curved in a way that was impossibly tempting.

Davey realized at that moment that there was no apparent difference between him now and the way Goddess Freyja had been when she got a nosebleed.

“Are you out of your mind? You came all the way here looking like that?”

She was wearing nothing but a pure white dress shirt and lingerie underneath. It was one of his shirts from his time on Earth, so oversized for her figure that its sleeves almost completely covered her hands.

Even though it was late at night, he knew there’d still be maids patrolling the halls.

“No one's coming near here tonight. Illyna already ordered them to stay away.”

Davey stared at her, utterly stunned.

“Davey. It’s really okay now, right?”

“Uh, yeah? Yeah, it is, but uh.”

She leaned down closer with an intoxicating smile.

“Thank you, for letting me see my father again. And... I love you, Davey. I really wanted to say that first.”

Hearing that, he felt his face flush red, his facial muscles moving on their own. It was the same feeling he'd had when he first married Perserque, having been nervous as hell about spending their first night together. Her presence was more bewitching than ever. With the way her eyes gleamed and the slight upward curve of her lips, it felt like she was taking control of his very soul.

Lying beneath her, Davey was too stunned to do anything as she reached out and lightly toyed with the buttons of his shirt.

“Tonight, I won’t let you sleep.”

Davey finally understood why Illyna and Aeria had cleared out of the room earlier.

Seeing Perserque curl her hand slightly and smile seductively like a cat, he could feel his rationality reaching its limit.

‘She’s testing me to the extreme.’

“I don’t usually turn down a feast once it’s set out, but this time? Are you sure you can handle it?”

“Come at me as hard as you like.”

The moment Davey moved to act on her invitation, Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon suddenly burst into the room.

Davey reflexively snatched up the bed sheet, wrapping it around Perserque. Fully aware of her rather revealing outfit, Perserque was just as flustered, quickly blinking and clutching the sheet tightly around herself.

“R-Red Ribbon? Blue Ribbon? What are you two doing here?” Forcing an awkward smile, he watched as the two kids glanced at each other and then beamed brightly before launching themselves into their arms.

“I wanna sleep with Daddy too!”

“B-Blue Ribbon wants to sleep with Mommy too!”

The two were acting far more clingy than usual, and he figured it was probably the lingering sense of loss from when their soul contract had temporarily broken during his trip to the past.

“Haah.” Davey let out a hollow laugh and turned to look at Perserque.

Perserque, who had been staring quietly at the two, made a gentle, warm smile. “Red Ribbon. Blue Ribbon.”

The twins tilted their heads at the same time, and her smile brightened even more.

“If you two go nap beside Rinne tonight, I'll make a special treat for you tomorrow.”

Their eyes began to tremble wildly.

“That's right. A cake made with lots of cream puffs. The one you’re usually not allowed to eat.”

“C-Cakeyyyy!” Red Ribbon’s eyes widened, and even her speech started to slur. She was practically drooling.

“B-But I wanna sleep with Daddy and get the treat too,” Blue Ribbon sadly muttered.

The two of them agonized over it like it was the decision of a lifetime.

Finally, after a deep and serious deliberation, they sprang up and zipped right out of the room. “G-Good night, Mommy and Daddy!”

“Pfft. Looks like you’re no match for a treat.”

Davey felt oddly offended. “So much for raising daughters, eh?” Google seaʀᴄh novel·fiɾe·net

At the spire of the lord’s manor, a woman stood quietly, watching Davey and Perserque from afar as they talked. She slowly closed her eyes before she stretched her hand out into the air. Soft particles of light began to gather, gradually condensing into her palm. Face expressionless, she compressed the light before gently sending the glowing cluster toward Perserque.

She watched silently as the light sneakily merged into Perserque without a sound. After confirming it had indeed seeped into her, she rose to her feet.

Just like that, she disappeared as if she had never been there at all. In the spot where she had vanished, a small notebook fell with a piece of paper oddly sticking out.

[May the Blessing of the Primordial be with you.]