Chapter 394
Erietta.
A name filled with the contradictions of childhood pain and the strange tremor of love from Xavier was now tied to the most horrifying danger.
The Bathee family, servants of the Gods, a sadistic ritualistic agenda.
That information was no longer mere gossip or speculation.
It had been spoken with dreadful certainty by someone who seemed to know.
All curiosity about Theo and Aldraya, every urge to leave, every noise in his head, vanished in an instant.
The world narrowed into a single point.
That information.
The countdown had begun.
"…."
Theo's voice hung in the air like a vibrating steel wire, severing every illusion of peace the night had held.
Ilux froze completely, no longer poised to step away, but like a statue forcibly planted into the damp earth.
His entire nervous system, which had just shifted into retreat mode, now suffered a violent electric shock that locked every muscle and every joint.
His usually guarded expression turned utterly blank, like a windowpane reflecting darkness without content.
There was no blink, no twitch, not even a noticeable breath.
He simply stood there, half-hidden by shadow, storing that explosive information within a skull that suddenly felt hollow.
Ten minutes is not a short time to remain in such a state.
Ten minutes is a silence that feels eternal, where every second falls heavily like droplets of water from stalactites in the deepest cave.
In that absolute quiet, neither Ilux nor Xavier sent thoughts or questions to one another.
There was no space for it.
The horrifying new reality was being processed, filtered through two layers of consciousness, both equally shaken.
Until finally Ilux's eyelids began to blink.
Not a quick, ordinary blink, but an extremely slow movement, like a heavy curtain being lowered and raised again with effort.
That blink broke the trance, returning awareness to his stiff body, his feet growing cold, and the night air now piercing to the bone.
"Outrageous."
The shock was not mere surprise, but an earthquake at the ocean floor of their shared consciousness.
The information that left Theo's mouth was so wild, so extreme, that Ilux's reason and Xavier's instinct both rejected it as hyperbole, an exaggerated dark joke.
Ilux's rational mind searched for loopholes.
Perhaps this was part of Theo's strange game, or perhaps Aldraya was involved in some training scenario.
Xavier, with wisdom shaped by witnessing countless deceptions, also doubted the absolute truth of such a blunt declaration spoken in an open garden.
Yet those two keywords, like twin blades, pierced through all doubt.
The Bathee family and the Gods.
That combination was no joke or exaggeration in their world.
It was an equation that directly connected to the highest fanaticism, ancient ritualism, and merciless cruelty.
If the Bathee name was mentioned in the context of devotion to the Gods, then every word that followed—captivity, offering, Inverted Crucifixion—was no longer rhetoric, but a cold and dreadful field report.
Their logic, which had been attempting denial, suddenly reversed into fatal recognition.
The reality grew even more tangible, more personal, when placed beside the figure of Erietta.
Not merely "a girl," but Erietta with her long green hair, seventeen years old, carrying the full complexity of pain and love attached to her name within them.
The thought that the Bathee family—with all their resources and dark connections—could be so insane, so fanatical, as to bind her to a ritual post and offer her as a sacrifice, was a barbarity beyond ordinary cruelty.
This was no longer about revenge or simple political conflict.
This was madness sanctified by religion, making it a hundred times more dangerous and urgent.
'I… am grateful.'
Raaaahh!
'I pray—my most honest prayer—that Erietta dies on that crucifixion post. And if reincarnation is cruel, let her repeat that death again and again.'
"Ilux—enough! You are crossing the line."
'I don't care. What she did to me is enough to erase all mercy.'
"Erietta must not die!"
Haaaah!!
"Listen to me carefully."
'Why? In whose name?'
"In the name of Myra Astrielle. Because she is the reincarnation of that soul."
The sting of shock slowly receded, leaving space for a deeper and darker reaction to surface.
Within their trembling inner silence, Ilux and Xavier's responses began to separate, forming two opposing emotional poles, equally intense.
Ilux drew a breath.
Not a short, panicked one, but a long, deep, calculated inhale.
The cold night air filled his lungs as if to freeze something inside his chest.
That breath was not panic, but expulsion.
Within that long exhale lay a bitter gratitude.
Gratitude because at last there seemed to be an absolute exit from his most complicated inner conflict.
More than that, it was his greatest prayer, a cruel hope cast into the universe.
He prayed, with every fiber of his being, that Erietta would truly die on that crucifixion post.
Not merely die once, but endure the same cycle of death repeatedly across her reincarnations, so she would eternally feel the pain and helplessness she had once spread through the orphanage corridors.
It was eternal retribution, a curse far crueler than a single death.
But before that dark prayer could fully crystallize within his consciousness, a fury tore through their inner space.
Xavier exploded.
Not merely offended, but consumed by blazing anger, deeply insulted by Ilux's wish.
The ancient soul roared from within, his voice echoing with furious authority and unbearable sorrow inside Ilux's mind.
That outburst was a harsh slap, a warning that was at once his most secret confession.
Xavier reminded him, with desperate intensity, that Erietta must not die.
Must not.
Because behind the long green hair and seventeen-year-old form resided the soul of Myra Astrielle.
The name vibrated with undeniable love and loss.
Myra Astrielle, the woman with short dark gray hair, the wife who had walked beside him for thousands of years, the lost half of his soul.
Erietta's death would not merely be the death of a former tormentor, but the second annihilation of his eternal love—a loss even a soul as strong as Xavier could not endure twice.
'I am sick of this, Xavier. This concept of reincarnation—of all of it—is too forced.'
Fhooooh!
'Myra Astrielle cannot possibly live in Erietta Bathee's body. And it is even more absurd that she would search for your soul all the way to this world. That is not truth. That is hallucination.'
Fhhh!
'Your longing for your dead wife. It is mere coincidence that Erietta shares similar characteristics, and you are connecting dots that should never be connected.'
Hussssh!
'I've had enough of hearing nonsense about fate and old souls. From now on, I will not listen to anything you say. Because I refuse to let my life's direction be determined by the delusion of the most severe schizophrenic.'
The decision manifested in a sharp physical motion.
Ilux turned his body and began to walk, no longer with cautious stalking steps, but with swift, resolute strides to distance himself.
To be continued…