A time for bad news

General Torious maintained his kind expression and said: “I have no idea what you might be referring to.”

Seth smiled and looked at the small house behind the old man, one of the few proper houses in the low-class area.

“So if I were to go in there, I wouldn’t happen to find a young woman now, would I? We also both know that you can’t stop me.”

Torious’s eyes became sharp as he said: “Go on then. I can’t stop you, but some doors are better left unopened.”

Seth nodded and sat up, heading straight for the door behind the man. When his hand touched the handle, the general lifted a cane he had nearby, blocking Seth’s path.

“Turn around while you still can.”

Seth shook his head and pushed past, entering the house. It only had a single room, and a tarp was placed right in the center. Closing the door behind him, Seth walked up to the tarp and sat next to it.

“You can show yourself. I didn’t come bearing any ill will.” Said Seth, but nothing changed; the room remained just as silent as before.

Seth smiled and lifted his hand. Slowly his creation energy started extending to create a small flower. Half of its petals were pure white, while the other half were black.

“This is for you.” Said Seth, extending the flower towards the tarp, but once more, nothing.

As Seth started thinking of other ways to make her show up, the flower started tugging against his hand.

Seth released it from his hold, and it floated upwards.

Seth observed the flower as a pale hand slowly appeared, holding onto it. More of the body of a young and ashen-skinned woman revealed itself.

If someone were to see the woman in front of them, they would probably be horrified. Everything about her was beautiful, from her white and black hair to her pale-gray lips, small nose, perky breasts, and ashen-white skin.

What was horrifying were her eyes, or to be more exact, lack off. Both her eyes sockets only contained an empty dark-red void.

“Thank you.” A soft voice left her lips as she tried to smell the flower, only for her brows to frown in disappointment. “It has no smell.” She said next, tilting her head to the side and moving to face Seth.

“But does that make it any less beautiful?” asked Seth, making the woman turn to look again at the flower.

She eventually shook her head as she continued to admire the flower.

Seth created another one and moved it to the girl’s head, placing it in her soft hair. “Because something or someone is different, that doesn’t make it any less.”

The girl nodded, moving her hand to gently touch the flower in her hair before saying again: “Thank you.”

Just as the girl thanked Seth for the second time, General Torious pushed open the door, supporting himself with his cane while holding a steel sword in his free hand.

“Father?” asked the girl, moving her head to face the general.

General Torious smiled towards her, and his hand trembled on his sword. “Are you alright, sweetie?”

The girl nodded, showing the small flower to him: “I received a flower, father. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Torious slowly entered the house and closed the door before smiling at his daughter. “That it is, Meg.” He then closed his eyes and said: “Can you leave father and this friend here to speak alone?”

The little girl nodded and turned to face Seth: “Can I keep it?”

Seth nodded: “It was a gift, wasn’t it? Once you return to that dark place, tell him someone is looking to make a deal.”

A smile appeared on her face, and she nodded as she disappeared again.

Once she was gone, Torious allowed himself to slide across the door, his eyes turning red as he said: “What do you want?”

Seth shook his head and sighed: “I already got what I came from.”

Clenching his fists, Torious said: “It’s not her fault she’s like this. Please don’t hurt her. She’s not….”

Seth nodded and said: “I know it isn’t. It’s your fault, isn’t it?”

Torious body shook, and he lowered his head. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know she would pay the price.”

Seth sighed and said: “That doesn’t matter right now. Let her go, Torious. The more she stays here, the worse it will get. She has only lost her eyes, but if you keep denying what she is now… it will only get worse.”

Torious looked up at Seth: “What do you mean?”

“She’s not your daughter anymore. Your daughter died a long time ago. Now she’s not…sigh.”

Seth stood up and dusted his knees before walking towards the door as the man started crying.

“In the future, change will come to this place, but until then, you need to keep these poor people alive. Move out of the way.”

Seeing that Torious continued crying like he was not hearing Seth, he sighed again and muttered: “Whatever.” before teleporting away.

Once he was out of the city again, he said out loud: “Raven. I want to speak to you.”

< He’s reacted.>

“Let me meet Noth. I need to speak to it.”

Seth waited patiently on the small hill. Eventually, a wind ruffled Seth’s hair, and a raven materialized above him.

“That is impossible, seat of destruction. You will never leave that place alive.”

“That is my problem. Open the path before I force my way inside. That would only worsen the seal.”

A blade made out of wind passed right by Seth’s face, cutting a small wound on his cheek. “Don’t make me, seat of destruction. Even if you release your divinity, I wonder how long you can use it until it breaks your feeble soul.”

“I wonder if my soul breaks first or Augur comes looking for you. Don’t make empty threats and open the path, old fool.” Said Seth with a laugh, ignoring the blood leaking down his cheek.

Raven remained silent for a long time before finally speaking again: “Fine. I was only warning you since Panther seems to like you. If you’re going to be a prick, go and seek death.”

He swung his wings, and a mighty wind revved around Seth. After forming a small tornado around Seth, the raven continued swearing under its breath until the strong winds completely covered Seth.

Seth ignored the winds revolving around him and waited patiently. When it finally calmed down, he was in a serene place, floating in what looked like thin air.

Right in front of him was a massive dark-red entity, tendrils growing out of its slimy body and extending as far as Seth’s eyes could see.

The entity started wriggling in response to Seth’s presence, and a vast void appeared in its center. Next, tentacles started extending out of it, aiming directly at Seth, but before they could get too far, an air blade materialized out of nowhere, cutting the tentacles into shreds.

“Calm down, Noth. I came to negotiate.” Said Seth, floating softly closer to the colossal entity in front of him.

“Who?” an old voice resounded through the strange space, but tentacles never stopped flying towards Seth.

“I am the God of Destruction. Don’t act like you don’t know who I am.” Replied Seth, letting some of the presence of his divinity leak out.

The entity started wriggling like crazy, with even more tentacles attacking Seth as the voice came again: “Speak.”.

Wind blades once more cut the tentacles before they could get close to Seth.

“Serve me, and I swear on my divinity that I’ll free you from this prison.”

As soon as Seth’s words resounded, the entire space around him shook, but Seth ignored it.

“Impossible.”

Seth smiled and went even closer to the entity. Now he was so close that the wind blades didn’t have time to react, and the first tentacle hit Seth right in the chest. It didn’t pass through his body but instead started to extend slowly above it like it was consuming Seth’s body.

Seth ignored the process as he spoke again: “I came here, didn’t I? I claimed a crown, didn’t I? Nothing is impossible for me. I know you always wanted it, Noth. Your energy shows it. Are you going to keep playing the fool? “

As the tentacle covered most of Seth’s waist, Seth released his divinity for a tenth of a second, cleansing his body as he continued to wait.

“What for?”

“I’m taking this world for myself, and you no longer will have a place in it. You felt it in those flowers, didn’t you? Once I claim the seat of creation, I’ll hand you the seat of destruction. This way, once I cleanse the world of your kind, you can still survive.”

Seth kept repelling tentacles one after another until the entity started splitting down the middle. Out of the entity’s body, a circlet started floating toward Seth.

Its outer shell kept fading in and out of existence, and the vortex at its center kept wriggling like it was trying to move in multiple directions simultaneously.

A serious look appeared on Seth’s face as he watched the blades of wind hitting the circlet continuously to no avail.

“Agree.”

The voice resounded again, and Seth extended his right hand forward. The circlet started decreasing in size and headed straight toward Seth’s hand.

The tentacles that were previously attacking Seth and extending out of the ranges of the entity started to dry up as well, one by one.

When the circlet reached right in front of Seth’s hand, Seth’s eyes turned sharp. His divinity erupted out of his body, and his seal was released completely.

A spike made of destruction energy rushed off Seth’s palm, hitting one of the sides of the spinning circlet.

“ARGH”

A pained voice resounded throughout the space and another destruction spike extended from the vortex in the center of the circlet.

Seth barely managed to shift his body to the side, avoiding it before it pierced his destruction source through the middle as he sealed his divinity and teleported away.

He covered the hole in his chest using his perfect body control, and blood started flowing through the corner of his mouth, but he was smiling as he watched the circlet getting absorbed inside the entity again.

“BROKEN.”

“BROKEN.”

“WILL.”

“THRONE”

Seth wiped the blood from his mouth and said with a loud laugh: “Greedy fool. There’s no pact yet. My will is my own.”

“Enjoy waiting for my return in this prison. The next time we meet, it will spell your end.”

“ARRGGHHH.”

A roar resounded throughout the space as the entity started pushing forward, trying to chase after Seth, but as soon as its body moved, a bubble made out of air appeared around it, forcing it back. Wind blades also started cutting the dried-up tentacles extending outwards before the entity could support them.

Seth ignored its struggle as he said: “Old man, take me out. I’m done here.”

Wind blades started flowing around Seth, and a new tornado formed. When the tornado disappeared, Seth was back on the hill next to Noth’s capital city.

Falling onto his back, he winced in pain while laughing out loud.

“You might even be dumber than I initially believed.” Raven’s voice resounded next to Seth.

“It worked, didn’t it? Its reach is nothing like before, and it will take him at least 500 years to get back to where he was before I injured it.” Said Seth, not minding Raven’s words.

“But the others will find out about it. What point is there in injuring yourself like that to decrease the corruption on my core.”

“I’ll tell you since you did me a favor. Once the war is over, I’ll take over Oath, Wrath, Loss, Sorrow, Curse, Noth, and maybe even Hope if I’m lucky.”

“With the others, I can still rule over the kingdoms even under their influence, at least until I grow stronger, but Noth and the blood race had to go.”

“You must have seen that girl. Your prison would have lasted what? 100 years? 200 if lucky?”

Raven lowered his bird head before asking: “What about the sins?”

“Noth was a destruction will amalgamation, and I knew my chances were high, but for the sins… I still don’t know. In the end, I’ll probably have them run wild some more.”

“You should come and meet Augur. If he allows Panther - “

“No. Panther’s core is already in shambles, and she keeps leaking lifespan. If she strengthens the seal, it might backfire on her and make things even worse.”

“You’re not gods, Raven. Your lifespan keeps getting sapped away by them. Augur’s choice was the correct one.”

Raven sighed and said: “My time is running low, seat of destruction, but I have a word of warning for you since you did me a favor this time as well.”

Seth opened his eyes and finally looked at the Raven.

“Kronos is looking for who messed with time. It is you, isn’t it?”