Among the countless people, Seianes quietly watched the High Priest clamoring that Cairens must be offered.
Even at this point, Seianes was watching the execution ceremony without any emotion.
‘What will happen to his father if that child dies?’
Just vaguely harboring doubts.
His father had given birth to countless demigod brothers and sisters to ‘birth’ a hero.
They each created numerous tales of valor with their respective talents, and the stories became myths that created faith.
Cairens was one of them. No, he was the most special among them.
‘Fated to defeat Ircadeon.’
The hero of the gods that Henelion had brought into being after creating countless demigods. That was Cairens. But how could that child be standing on the altar?
Even if it wasn’t his father, there was no way Zeyaom would have given such a revelation.
For the sake of the future as well, Cairens absolutely had to live.
And yet that woman called the High Priest before his eyes was eagerly spouting off to the people as if she herself had become the great World Tree. He slowly looked at the high priests of other temples standing with relics near the central altar.
Relics from various temples caught his eye—Lipia, god of the hearth, Callisipe, goddess of the moon…… and so on.
‘Did all of them seek consent from the gods they serve and conduct this ceremony?’
He had been indifferent to divine realm affairs lately so he couldn’t know for sure, but in his opinion, this was clearly an arbitrary move by the temples.
‘They don’t think the gods they serve don’t know, do they?’
If it came to it, there might be a situation where he would have to step in, but he had no particular intention of moving.
Even if not him, someone else would step forward.
There was no reason for him to move. Especially when there must already be much talk from above about him not properly caring for this land these days. Was there a need to move around and draw attention?
“……Is Abrisius perhaps here?”
Even if it was like finding a needle in a haystack with so many people, this would still be better than wandering around places where he still couldn’t feel the child’s aura.
With people gathered in one place, it might be better for searching—it was with this thought that he was looking for the child.
“Abrisius……?”
That playfully clear voice that always called him. Light swirled in eyes that had been lifeless, and Seianes whipped his head around.
“Ah…….”
His frozen heart began to beat again.
Whatever had happened while he hadn’t seen him, the child before his eyes had a different appearance than before.
The red eyes that were a symbol of the underworld had changed to black, and he couldn’t feel any of the Underground Energy he had originally possessed.
If Abrisius hadn’t been standing in the middle of the central altar, Seianes would have had an even harder time finding him than he did now.
To that extent, the power he had before, his aura—everything had changed. As if someone had intentionally intervened to change it.
Nevertheless, he recognized the child before his eyes at once.
That child is my child, Abrisius.
“……The god said the youngest and most precious life in Atlante, right? But is that really Cairens’s own life?”
Watching Abrisius shouting before the people, he couldn’t help but doubt his own ears.
“So watch carefully. What I transform into. And who you truly must offer to the angry gods.”
Simultaneously with those words, Abrisius transformed into a deer. When he felt the black aura suppressing the red power, he instantly recognized whose power this was.
‘Amina.’
The oldest soul in this world after Chaos. Who could dare defy him, whom even death cannot stop?
Only then did he realize that Abrisius had met Amina at some point. And because of that, his inability to notice Abrisius’s aura was also possible due to his intervention.
As the scattered puzzle pieces fit together, he finally realized why he hadn’t been able to find Abrisius.
Seianes, who had even thought of the worst-case scenarios—that Abrisius had died, been abducted to the underworld, or died, which was why he couldn’t feel his aura—was relieved. And simultaneously felt deep anger.
“Why on earth.”
Why did you leave me and meet Amina?
Why on earth did you leave me?
Amina doesn’t lend his power to just anyone. Just as Ircadeon made a contract with Amina for power, he only lent his power to those with whom he made a contract.
Even young beings were no exception to this.
Abrisius received Amina’s power, hid his own power, and left him.
Amina’s power covered Seianes’s eyes, preventing him from finding him. If so, the answer was simple.
Abrisius made a contract with Amina and left Seianes.
The moment he realized this fact, uncontrollable anger surged like waves inside Seianes.
‘Why on earth?’
Countless question marks floated in his mind.
While searching for Abrisius all this time, he had constantly thought about what words he should say to Abrisius when they met again.
When the child first disappeared, he just thought he had to scold him, and thought it was deserved for daring to go outside on his own.
But when he couldn’t find the child no matter how much he searched, he would cry out, begging him to please appear before him, that he wouldn’t scold him.
Later, even those emotions faded, and he just wandered the world with only the thought that he had to find Abrisius. He thought nothing else mattered as long as he was somewhere.
But now that the child had appeared before his eyes, he wanted to ask.
Why on earth did you leave me?
Throughout the eternal ages, I have never loved anything except you—I raised you while devoting all my love to you.
Abrisius, I deceived your father and brothers for you, and poured all my devotion into you while even enduring your disgusting origins and roots.
‘And yet, what were you lacking that you left me? While looking like that.’
He quietly watched Abrisius, who had become a deer and performed a miracle.
Though he should immediately embrace the child before his eyes and leave this terrible place, more than that, the child was too infuriating.
He recalled how his heart had ached for the past several months after being dared to leave. Just thinking about it still made his insides burn and hurt.
‘And yet you dare to reveal yourself to save someone else. While spouting such absurd sophistry that you should be offered.’
Though Cairens was special, there was no reason for Abrisius to protect him. So why was he trying to protect that child even while throwing away his own life?
He glared at Cairens behind Abrisius. Far from stopping Abrisius, who was trying to sacrifice himself for him, his appearance of standing still like a mute who had eaten honey was ugly and cowardly.
“…….”
Displeasure rose to an indescribable degree.
He dared to receive my child’s protection while doing nothing like that? Even knowing it was unreasonable, once the anger boiled up, it didn’t easily subside.
‘When I was searching for you, you didn’t even appear. Do you even know how much I suffered while missing you, how I spent each day struggling while looking for you? No, before that, did you even think of me for a single day?’
What was relief when he first found the child turned to anger, then to terrible jealousy.
What was the reason for running away, why did he know that child, why didn’t he appear when he was searching so desperately for him, what happened with that child during this time that made him protect that child even while exchanging his own life?
He was curious, it grated on him, and he was simultaneously furiously angry to a terrible degree.
‘Why are you protecting that child? I searched the entire world to find you, but you…….’
He didn’t seem to have missed him at all. His insides twisted, and he was irritated.
Though it’s natural for children to leave their parents’ shadow, Abrisius was still young, and Seianes had never thought, even in dreams, that the child would leave him.
‘I thought you would miss me too. But you didn’t.’
To think that while he was gone, he stood before people like that and even protected a newly made friend. His mouth tasted bitter at the appearance of the child who had suddenly grown during the time he hadn’t seen him.
Why did he meet Amina, hide his power and identity and stay here—he had many things he wanted to ask, but he decided to quietly watch the situation.
It was both a sense of betrayal and anger toward the child who seemed not to need him, but it was also a kind of spite. Perhaps it was even terrible jealousy.
It was also to find out what on earth had happened while he didn’t know.
“I am the youngest and most precious life in this city, and of divine bloodline. I match Zeyaom’s revelation perfectly. After my body is offered as a sacrifice, it will reach the divine realm where the gods reside. I will go there and tell the gods. To stop this calamity.”
Thus, in the form of an old man, he silently watched the play the child was showing.
Just as he had suffered while searching for the child all this time, the child could suffer a little too. It was an action born from the wicked heart hoping the child would regret leaving him and the faint expectation that he might seek him out from the edge of a cliff.
