Chapter 296: In the void
The handsome man returned from his outing and was greeted by the scarred man. In his hand was the severed head of a woman, which he tossed onto the ground.
"Bad breakup?" The scarred man asked
"One of the last followers of Nemean. She preached his existence to her followers, and so I killed her for it. God or mortal, I will eliminate every trace of Nemean."
"Oh, so she’s a goddess. I see. And you said one of the last followers of Nemean. Does this mean you’ve managed to eliminate everyone who swore their loyalty to him?" The scarred man picked up the head and started eating it.
"That’s right. I destroyed her planet as well. Now, almost everyone associated with Nemean is dead, and this leaves those people on this planet. Has anything happened while I was away?"
The scarred man finished eating the head of the goddess and wiped his mouth. "Yeah, actually. A huge spike in Nemean’s energy occurred not too long ago. I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t able to see where this spike happened, but it was huge, like massive."
The handsome man nodded. "They’re on to us. I know this for certain now. That was a warning. A warning for us to stay away. It seems like all of them want nothing to do with the outer universe."
"I agree." The scarred man belched. "This is a clear act of dominance from their end. They want us to know about the power they possess and are challenging us, posing it as a warning. The energy spike was significantly more powerful than us combined."
"How powerful are we talking?"
"We wouldn’t stand a chance."
"I see. We’ll take things slow then. The moment one of them is isolated, we’ll take them out one by one. Keep an eye on things so we can know when to strike."
"Understood. I have my harpies surveying the world, and they will alert me when they find anything. Everyone who is even remotely related to Nemean will pay."
"And after we kill him, we’ll claim the universe as our own."
---
Over in the void where Leo watches over the ultra-mega-whatever verse, he sighed out of boredom. Trillions upon trillions of screens were displayed, showing the events of everything going on in the infinite verse, and he sighed again.
"I’m so bored!" His eyes were fixated on one screen, the screen of the planet Kai was on.
"When is he going to call me again? It’s fun when he calls me. I could just go see him, but then it will look as if I want to talk to him, and I don’t want it to seem that way. Kai will definitely make fun of me."
"You’re his father, I don’t know why you’re acting as if you can’t just talk to him normally."
"What do you want?" Leo already knew that someone was coming to meet him. He could see everything after all.
"Is that any way to talk to your lovely wife?" The woman draped her arms over his shoulders and kissed Leo on the cheek.
"How’s our son?"
"Good." He responded without any emotion.
"Do you hate me that much?" She conjured up a chair and sat down, summoning a bag of popcorn with nacho seasoning. Leo had her addicted to this food.
"Uhh, yeah. You tried to stop me from killing our children, who were trying to take over the...fucking everything!"
The woman threw the bag of popcorn on Leo’s face. "They were our KIDS, Leo! What parent would slaughter all of their children just because of a disagreement?!"
"Here we go about this disagreement bullshit again. Even after a billion years, you still cry about that day." He started eating the popcorn his wife threw at him.
"I will never forget what you did, nor will I forgive you, but I can’t stop loving you."
"Aren’t you mad at me for taking Kai?"
"Of course I am! You stole him from my womb, kept him in hibernation for a billion years, then put him into the woman of a mortal and had her raise him! Now he’s off in some other world, mind controlling a woman, and calling ANOTHER woman mother will also have her carry his child! He’s my only living child, and you won’t even allow me to see him!"
"Do you think I’m stupid?" Leo turned around and started looking at the screens again. "I know you want to use him against me."
"No, I want to get to meet my son and tell him how much of a bastard his father is. You even stripped him of his divinity and told him a lie about how he was conceived."
"Cassie, he’s doing fine right now and doesn’t need you interfering in his life. I’ve watched over him for years, and I will continue to do so until he’s ready to learn more of the truth."
Cassie scoffed. "What a nice way to say you don’t want me ’poisoning’ his mind."
"Want me to say that I don’t want you poisoning his mind?"
"No."
"Alright then. I allowed you to watch his life anyway, be grateful."
"Greatful? I’m a fucking Primordial! The first being in existence after you! I helped you shape everything there is, made the divine hierarchy, and even bore you heirs to take our place when we want to wind down and relax. I helped you create fucking mortals, but I’m ungrateful because I can’t see my son? My only living child?!"
"..."
"What? No answer? Did the truth finally set in your thick skull?"
"Cassie, you betrayed my trust. Our children locked you in the void. You nearly died. Only I can survive there. You may be a Primordial deity, but even you can’t withstand the Progenitor forces of the universe without my aid. I saved your life."
"At the cost of our children."
"The same children who were going to destroy everything we worked so hard to create for billions of years! They were going to kill you! The other primordials, your brothers and sisters, had to go into hibernation for millions of years because they were exposed to Progenitor energy for too long!"
Cassie didn’t have a response to this claim. It was the truth, and she never wanted to admit it. Her siblings were severely injured by the hands of her children, and if it wasn’t for Leo, they would have died.
"But our children. You didn’t have to kill them."
Leo sighed, then took another look at the screen. He saw Kai boarding his ship, trying to give out commands even though he didn’t understand how sailing works. He thought back to the times when he and Kai shared bro moments and the times when they just talked to each other without the presence of a greater purpose.
"Look at Kai. He’s mortal right now, sure, but he’s happy. He doesn’t care about ruling the universe. He doesn’t care about having the power to shape worlds to his image. He doesn’t even care about his siblings. He just wants to live his best life."
Cassie growled. "He was meant for so much more!"
"How much more, Cassie? How much?"