Abrisius blankly watched Ircadeon’s hand tricks. The form of Seianes falling into the underworld. The expression it made looked terrible.
“You can be happy in the underworld with the one you love.”
Ircadeon’s whisper tempted Abrisius. The thought ‘Perhaps it could be that way?’ briefly crossed his mind. However, as soon as the face of the unhappy-looking Seianes flashed before his eyes, he immediately erased that thought from his mind.
A terrible suggestion.
Seianes was a god of the surface. Moreover, he was the god who ruled the earth, which had the greatest influence. To drop such a Seianes into the underworld.
“Then what about Seianes’s happiness? There’s no way Seianes would be happy in the underworld.”
Abrisius’s shout echoed across the contaminated earth.
Seianes was the god who ruled the earth of the surface—even if he stayed in the underworld with Abrisius, there was no way he would be happy. Because in the underworld there were no flowers he loved, no trees, no verdant earth where springs flowed.
Only cold and damp darkness existed.
There was no way Seianes could be happy in such a place.
“Rather, only Seianes would suffer more…… He—!”
“Think only of yourself, Abrisius.”
Abrisius’s cry didn’t reach Ircadeon at all. With a face that couldn’t understand, he tilted his head.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
As if something displeased him, his fingers tapped Abrisius’s eyes with a somewhat irritated air.
“No? You’re actually hoping for it, aren’t you?”
Ircadeon, who looked into Abrisius’s deep inner self, sneered.
To say such things when the uncontrollable Power of Desire must be dominating his mind. Of course, Ircadeon didn’t know the true desire Abrisius wanted. He had no intention of knowing either.
But the certain fact was that the Power of Desire Abrisius possessed had moved.
So that Abrisius could fulfill his love, desire would have seen countless possibilities. And among them, it would have induced Abrisius to open up his desires to Ircadeon.
To fulfill the ‘love’ he desperately wanted.
Ircadeon had also made a contract with Amina, and until now while that contract was maintained, he knew well the results that Amina’s power showed. Among various variables, the power to make the subject’s desperately desired wish come true.
That was Amina’s power.
Following the movement of desire within him, Ircadeon created his child Abrisius. That was the means to fulfill his old desire for ‘revenge’ that the desire Amina had planted told him about.
And that desire he still hadn’t fulfilled was still making a path toward revenge within him.
Ircadeon couldn’t know how Abrisius’s desire was inciting him.
But what was certain was that Abrisius was faithful to his desire. And that desire had opened the gate leading to the underworld and was inciting him to tell Ircadeon the desire he held.
To grant Abrisius’s desire.
“You want to be with Seianes even if it means committing such an act.”
“No, that’s not it.”
With eyes filled with the Power of Desire, Ircadeon looked into Abrisius’s eyes. At the same time, the same Power of Desire rippled within Abrisius’s pupils as well. The same power received from one being collided.
If there was a difference, Ircadeon, already faithful to desire, was unwavering, but Abrisius, still unable to find his way, was wavering.
“Think only of yourself, Abrisius.”
Ircadeon’s hand that had been tapping Abrisius’s eyes completely covered both his eyes.
In the darkened vision, all that could be heard was Ircadeon’s voice.
“Put your happiness before his happiness, Abrisius. Do you think you and he can be together if things continue like this? I told you. Henelion will notice your existence. And…….”
In the darkened vision, the moment Ircadeon had shown him earlier like a puppet show replayed. In Ircadeon’s hand, smoke began to take shape like before. But unlike before when he looked unhappy, the form of Seianes was smiling in his hand.
“Do you want to lose Seianes? Is his sadness important? Or is being separated from him more important?”
As soon as the words ended, the illusion of Seianes smiled toward Abrisius.
[I love you, I love you just for your existence.]
He whispered love to Abrisius every day. Just by his very existence, he showed unconditional love.
[I will gladly forgive and love you. Whatever path you take, even if it makes me unhappy, I will be with you.]
His words that whispered he would love him in any situation.
That night when everything collapsed at those sincere words. Abrisius accepted his love for Seianes. That he would never, ever be separated. No, that he couldn’t be separated.
Completely consumed by the love he gave, he didn’t want to lose him like this.
A voice mixed with laughter was heard. The Seianes in the illusion ensnared Abrisius. Like a coiled snake, he embraced Abrisius as if wrapping around his entire body. An alluring voice echoed in his ears.
—You just need to love me. That’s natural. Because it’s the same as the reason you exist.
The desire within him whispered, borrowing Seianes’s form. He wanted to shout that it wasn’t true, but his mouth wouldn’t open.
Because desire craved love so much it couldn’t be denied.
‘Ah.’
This feeling. This familiar feeling. Elation began to rise from the depths of his chest. A sensation of floating while strangely losing strength.
The sensation of regaining a forgotten instinct. The dirty and ugly desire that had been buried deep for so long squirmed and moved.
“Love me.”
Abrisius whispered toward the Seianes in the illusion.
I’m afraid you’ll leave me, and I’m afraid you’ll abandon me. Don’t leave me. Stay by my side forever.
Abrisius grabbed the body of Seianes that was binding him. Worried he might run away, just like that, he covered Seianes’s lips.
—Haah…….
A hot sigh flowed out through their mouths.
Carefully, as if eating precious fruit, Abrisius’s lips explored inside Seianes’s mouth.
“Aaah, haut……. Seianes, Sei, Seianes…….”
The memory of the short and intense kiss from reality came to mind. Unlike the real Seianes who had rejected him, the Seianes in the illusion was devouring Abrisius terribly.
As he had wanted, the two were entangled and finally becoming one.
“Haah—!”
When their lips parted, thick saliva connected like threads. Seianes’s lips, holding all of Abrisius’s traces, shone transparently.
—Do you want to have me, Abrisius?
“Enough that I don’t want anyone to take you away.”
He truly loved him. He loved Seianes, and loved him again. He loved him so much that he would go mad without him.
—Yes, that’s right. You love me. And if you love me, if you don’t want to be separated from me, choose, Abrisius.
Before he knew it, his body was coiled around Abrisius like a snake.
—Now, Abrisius. If you love me, don’t refuse.
Fruit was held in his hand. Then he brought the cold and luscious golden fruit to Abrisius’s lips.
—If you eat this, you can be freed from suffering. You won’t lose me. You can make me, who says I don’t love you, yours.
You don’t have to lose him.
The love he never received even once in his previous life. Afraid of losing that love, he ran away from Seianes. But if he goes to the underworld with him, the story changes. If he confines him so he can’t leave his side…….
“We can live happily ever after for a long, long time.”
—Yes, that’s right, that’s exactly it.
The Power of Desire squirmed as if it had found the answer. Reason, completely consumed by desire, no longer functioned. More than Seianes suffering, Abrisius couldn’t bear the situation of losing him more.
“Yes, Abrisius. You should live happily ever after with Seianes for a long, long time.”
Ircadeon’s voice, as if encouraging Abrisius who was gradually being consumed by desire and falling, was heard.
A creepy smile was drawn on the lips of Ircadeon, who was covering Abrisius’s eyes.
Abrisius’s fall, which wasn’t described in the novel.
Perhaps the Abrisius in the original story also fell for Ircadeon’s trick in this way.
A vague speculation that perhaps that’s why he violated Seianes was drawn in Abrisius’s mind.
But enough to willingly fall for his words.
—Be with me. Abrisius.
Because the proposal he offered was so sweet.
“Yes.”
Abrisius decided to gladly accept this proposal.
“I’ll gladly bear your suffering and resentment. If it means you and I can be together, gladly. Even if you no longer love me, I’ll love you that much.”
Abrisius took a bite of the golden fruit. Along with the crunching sound of chewing, fruit juice flowed down his lips.
“Ha, hahahaha……hahaha.”
A sense of futility, loss leaked out. Abrisius, who realized all his deepest shame, began to laugh. He couldn’t control the pouring laughter.
“Hahahahahaha.”
Serves you right, Abrisius. To make the same choice when you ran away saying you wouldn’t become like the Abrisius in the original story.
Laughing loudly for a while, he mocked his own foolishness.
Foolish Abrisius, you ultimately took Ircadeon’s hand. But why was there no regret at all?
“I’m different.”
As if waiting, Ircadeon’s hand that had been blocking Abrisius’s eyes was slowly withdrawn.
As Ircadeon’s hand was removed, the illusion also disappeared. The darkness lifted, and bright moonlight pierced Abrisius’s eyes. A bright red light seeped into Abrisius’s pupils and repeatedly disappeared.
Breaking through the old seal, the power that had been sleeping inside opened its eyes.
But Amina’s power was meticulous. It split and scattered within him, burrowing into his blood vessels. So that no one could easily notice the underground power. It coiled around his entire body.
The underground power that had been suppressed by Amina completely revealed itself and transformed into a strange form.
“Whether it’s the original story or fate, I’ll twist all of those things and love Seianes.”
“Yes, that’s your desire.”
Ircadeon’s satisfied voice quietly scattered into the dark night sky.
