Facing Annan’s calm counter-question, the grey deity said nothing.
He just sighed deeply.
That other face of his, always changing, finally began to show sorrow, just like his other face that seed to be perpetually weeping.
The next mont, the deity riddled with cracks finally crumbled apart.
Like grey petals, or perhaps moths.
The fragnts that detached from His body floated in the still air, forming a vast tornado... blowing towards the distant skyline.
And below it stood a young man with white hair and a body full of cracks, rooted to the spot.
He seed especially frail.
If one observed closely, this was how he looked before he took on the mantle of "Eternal Duke."
This was a nightmare world constructed from the desires of many.
This probably ant that...
Midas’s deepest wish now was to not beco the "Eternal Duke" all those years ago.
"...Can I talk to Elle?"
The white-haired young man opened and then closed his mouth, taking a long while to finally speak in a low voice.
Elle blinked.
He didn’t respond imdiately but asked in his heart,
"What do you think, Elle?"
"Let say goodbye to him," Elle said softly.
Upon hearing this, Annan closed his eyes without a word.
The body he had never before relinquished...
...was now returned to Elle by Annan as he deactivated his ritual.
His consciousness was instantly kicked back to the outside world—then Annan, without a word, re-entered the nightmare through the perspective of the spectating players.
But this ti, what he focused on... was another world viewed from a different perspective.
...Huh?
Annan realized that, from the perspective of the Longjing tea side... he couldn’t see the rainbow brilliance spurting from the many wounds on young Midas’s body. Midas’s injuries appeared like voids, swallowing the surrounding light, as dark as a starless night sky.
Or rather, he simply couldn’t see the rainbow light representative of Elle’s side—though the grey light belonging to the skeletal nobility was clear to see.
What was this chanism?
"The Record of Wrongdoings..."
Midas repeated the na, his lips slightly curling upward.
He wanted to sneer but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to smile.
"...Have you committed any sins?"
In the end, he asked, "Angelo... no, even Elle—what sins do you bear?
"If you were sinless from the start, how can one speak of atonent? You’re but an infant, born less than half a year ago, inheriting a girl’s mories... Can soone like you wield ’The Record of Wrongdoings’?"
After Annan left.
There was a clear change in Elle’s deanor.
She was no longer that nonchalant girl with the deanor of a queen, her gaze unwavering and full of an authoritative aura. She beca sowhat nervous... her eyes darted around and her fingers fidgeted.
But faced with Midas’s pressing interrogation.
She was not the slightest bit timid.
"Yes, I must atone."
These were the first words of Elle Angelo after she reclaid her body.
Her voice was much quieter than when Annan was in control.
But the willpower in her words made them so credible.
"Just now, I’ve made up my mind—my remaining life will be one of atonent."
"What sins are you atoning for? What sins do you have?"
"The sins I’m atoning for are your sins," Elle said softly.
"My... father."
That word, father, left the white-haired young man stunned in place.
But Elle—or rather Angelo—grew bolder instead.
As she spoke, she grew more courageous, and her eyes shone brighter:
"No matter what, you are still my father... Angelo’s father. Even if you don’t want to acknowledge , even if you just want my body... you are still my father. You gave life.
"My mother is Elle, my life and mories are inherited from ’Elle’. I am another flower blooming on the branch nad Elle. I certainly rember Elle’s hatred for you... I also know that my birth was rely the beginning of a tragedy, nothing but a complete mistake.
"But I think, since my birth was already a mistake... my life must not be wrong again.
"I once thought, what harm would there be in offering my body to you. But Annan said... I am not the inheritor of soone’s dreams, nor the executor of another’s will. The child nad Elle is dead... I am not a child, I must pay the price for my choices.
"It was then that I realized... after you beca the God of Betrayal, you would surely make mistake after mistake. I am the beginning of the tragedy, but not its end, you will replicate all the curses, pain, hatred, and nightmares you experienced onto others...
"If I give up resisting. That would be my retribution—it’s the price I pay for making the wrong choice."
Elle’s voice, for the first ti, beca forceful.
It was a voice entirely different from that of Annan... Her right hand clenched tightly in front of her chest, and her pupils shimred with light.
And the expression of the young Midas beca extrely complex.
He opened his mouth, but no sound ca out.
Eventually he still closed his mouth in silence, waiting for Elle to continue.
"A father’s debt, paid by his son—yes, no one forced , no one directed . This is the burden I chose to take up willingly. I simply think... the tragedy that happened to must not be repeated in soone else.
"I will inherit the truth of ’betrayal’, atoning for all the sins you, Father, have committed. I will watch over this world, hoping that the tragedies that happened to you and —will never happen again."
Elle looked directly at Midas, speaking resolutely, "I will sever the chain of these tragedies."
Through the eyes of the Dragon Well tea, Annan, too, sighed deeply.
So people, after suffering themselves, want to see others suffer just as they did... this is understandable.
But there are others, who having suffered, wish for no one else to suffer again.
This may be the greatest difference between Midas and Elle Angelo...
Under Midas’s gaze, under the gaze of everyone present.
Elle Angelo recited a brand-new oath, word by word:
"I shall have compassion for all beings, care for the weak;
"I shall be just and impartial, strictly adhere to the law;
"In my heart, I shall always cherish justice and love;
"I will be the one to dispel the most suffering, and also the one to create the greatest happiness..."
It was only at that mont—Midas’s pupils suddenly constricted.
His face showed astonishnt, shock, and sadness.
—That was the oath he had made and forsaken in the past.
This oath had already beco the force of Curse Binding, deeply entwined in his bloodline. Only when he beca a deity did he cover it with the power of the Holy Decree.
And now... Elle Angelo had picked up this curse from the bloodline, turning it into a Holy Decree.
—What you failed to do in the past, I will do.
In her pupils, these words were expressed unmistakably.
Even Midas was shaken by that resolute will.
She would gain the deity’s body, like the eternal fla, never again to burn out. This perhaps would be her greatest difference from the forr Eternal Duke.
Elle continued to chant.
Conveying this demanding Holy Decree to everyone present.
It was only then that Midas sighed deeply.
He closed his eyes slowly, as if resting.
—In truth, he still had one last backstab up his sleeve.
The curse of killing all his progeny with his own hands had long been entwined in the depths of his soul... If he gave up reincarnation, he could use this curse, relying on their soul connection, to execute Elle forcibly here.
At that mont, he would be reborn sowhere in the world together with Elle. The twins of good and evil would once again contend for the qualification of the ’Redemption Record’...
But he ultimately chose to give it up.
Perhaps he rembered the weight of his father’s sword.
Perhaps he felt that the warmth of the setting sun shouldn’t be so cold.
Or perhaps it was just a nearly five-hundred-year-late... renewed legacy of the forr ’Eternal Duke’.
"...To ensure that certain things are rembered, people can always die a bit more."
He murmured in his heart, closing his eyes.
In the mont he discarded the qualification, the world shattered.
And the last sentence of Angelo’s Holy Decree still echoed in the air:
"I will do my utmost—"
—Till death does liberate.
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