Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power - Chapter 331

Chapter 331: Chapter 331: Price
Chapter 331 – Price

Luminary and Mahina were walking barefoot on the floor.

The sound of their footsteps was silent against the golden-furred carpet, their breathing even more silent, almost nonexistent, making one wonder if they even needed to breathe to stay alive.

They had reached such a level that such a mundane task was no longer required, yet there was a peculiar comfort in those mundane gestures.

Walking barefoot on the ground was one of the things Luminary loved to do, as it was something his own father always made him do when he was young, when his father was still…alive.

Yet, that was something Mahina couldn’t still quite understand.

“I never understood this tradition of yours,” Mahina said as she looked calmly with her moon-shaped eyes around the room they were in.

Like any room of Asterion, it was painted in gold from the walls to the floor. On the ceiling was the symbol of Asterion alongside a massive painting of the first Emperor, Vesper Asterion — The Knower of Stars.

The room was oval in shape, large enough to hold hundreds of beings easily, and the walls were riddled with portraits. And for some strange reason, all the portraits were men. There was not a single woman in that place.

Even though these portraits showed the different emperors who had ruled the Celestial Empire since the beginning of its creation.

After minutes of walking, Luminary finally stopped at a particular portrait, one showing a man bearing an eerie resemblance to him. At the base of the portrait was a name: Apollo Luminary Asterion.

His father.

He watched the portrait in silence for a couple of seconds, then finally, “My father used to make me walk barefoot every time he saw me having multiple creeping thoughts in my mind.”

Mahina listened, finding it rare to see her husband speak about his relationship with his father. He never liked to talk about it, always having an expression of pain at the simple act of remembering him.

“He told me that walking with my bare feet on the ground would help keep me grounded, reminding me that even though I am the Heir, even though I am the Sun…”

He slowly turned his head toward Mahina and smiled softly, “…I am still a human, shaped from earth and clay, and to earth I will return. And he taught me that even suns burn, so I must have something, or someone, to anchor me when their heat becomes too much.”

Mahina gave a soft smile, “A wise man, doubtlessly,” she praised while looking at the portrait, then, “and am I not grounding you, dear husband?”

“You?” Luminary chuckled, “You are causing me problems, Mahina.”

Mahina’s lips twitched. Her husband never hid his feelings. He truly had no tact, but maybe that was exactly why she loved him.

As someone who found it difficult to voice everything flickering inside her mind, being in Luminary’s company was refreshing.

Yet…

“Why did you bring me here?” she finally asked. “I was about to go out.”

She had felt something strange related to Smith. Something she felt she needed to check, as a bad feeling was rising inside her heart. But Luminary caught her at that moment, dragging her here.

“Do you know the reason why I named my daughter Sora?” Luminary ignored her question and asked his own.

“I do not,” Mahina answered, seemingly used to this with him. “But allow me to guess. Your father, I suppose?”

Luminary nodded, “Indeed,” he said. “My father always wished to have a daughter so he could name her Sora.”

“For what reason?” Mahina wondered. “Have there been any Sora in the Asterion lineage?”

“I saw none,” Luminary shook his head, “in fact, the time before my father came to power seemed void, lacking many details except just one thing.”

“The Mad Sun Emperor?” Mahina guessed.

“Yes,” he nodded, “that’s the only thing we have from that time. I was curious, you see, so I asked my father about it.”

A wry smile touched his lips, “He told me there are chapters of history that should stay buried, because uncovering them harms more than it helps.”

Mahina allowed herself a faint smile. “That moment when knowledge stops being power… and becomes a curse instead.”

Luminary mirrored her smile and nodded. “Curious, isn’t it? My father was a great man. Nothing about him resembled an Asterion, as if he’d been raised far from them. And that made him the worst Asterion Emperor who ever ruled.”

He grinned. “Yet he was the greatest emperor this empire has ever known.”

“Greater than Vesper Asterion?” Mahina asked, incredulous.

“I daresay, far greater than him,” he said shamelessly, then shifted his body to face his wife fully. “But emperor aside, he was the greatest father. After all, no Asterion would have allowed me to marry a Moonborn with the only condition being that I become emperor myself.”

“And do you know what that means, Mahina?” he asked.

Mahina shook her head, “Enlighten me, husband.”

Luminary took a step forward, closing the distance between them. He leaned his head forward and whispered in her left ear,

“It means I hold dear everything my father held dear. And my father loved Sora for some reason, so I named my daughter after her while not even knowing who she was.”

Mahina raised an eyebrow, smiling, understanding where her husband was going.

“You are not playing fair, Husband,” she whispered back, wrapping her arms around his neck sensually.

“You started it, wife. Don’t think I am not noticing your attention toward the Tycoon’s Merchant lately,” he murmured. “Today, wife, you will be with me.”

“What if, lovely husband, I’ve already grown tired of your scent and of looking at you for today?”

“That would wound me deeply,” he retorted. “And do you know what happens when a Sun is wounded deeply?”

His smile turned wide and maniac.

“Everything burns, Mahina.”

Mahina fell silent, then slowly placed her head on his chest, “You win this time.”

Luminary hugged her back.

“I always do, sly wife.”

“I hope your precious daughter will be the same,” she snickered, “yet I have no hope for that.”

“Stop favoring Sirius. Is it because he is named after one of your greatest ancestors?”

“Aren’t you the same? Favoring Sora because of a name whose origin you can’t even trace?” Mahina exhaled slowly.

“That’s dangerous, husband. Names never come without cost. They bring a burden… a blessing… or a curse.”

Luminary sighed wearily, “I know well enough. But what’s done is done. And for now, I have seen nothing unusual about Sora.”

Mahina hugged him tighter, falling silent. After a couple of minutes in that position,

“Believe me, husband, I will do anything to make sure our family stays together. No throne will rob me of this warmth.” Her voice carried the tone Luminary recognized very well on her.

A tone that said nothing would stop her.

Not even the gods.

Luminary only smiled,

“I know,” he whispered.

“I know, Mahina.”

…

In another place, inside a dungeon owned by The Harvester, Anthropologist, Abomination and Smith were standing in a circle, looking at the still-melting body of Dain.

“It’s temporary,” Anthropologist said, frowning, “the fairy will soon wake up, and it will stop at nothing to make Dain pay. I cannot always use my method. So we need a way to solve this issue.”

“Yet the only way out of this is for Dain to absorb the mythic artifact and make it his.”

“That seems rather hard to achieve, right?” Abomination added with a dry smile.

Smith, meanwhile, only bit her lips tightly, fear gnawing at her bones, fear of her fate now that she had betrayed Mahina, but also fear for her friend.

Mahina could kill her without doubt, especially with the slave mark she had on her.

And the more time passed with her acting freely, the more anxious Smith felt. And that anxiousness made her blurt out something she never thought she would ever again.

Something she had sworn to never mention, to never even think about.

But fear had a nasty way of ripping away composure in the most disgusting manner.

“I can help him,” Smith murmured, her voice shaking. “But… but I need your help to save my life.”

“I want you to save me from death, from the cruelty of the Empress.”

Anthropologist and Abomination looked at her, staring deep into her frightened eyes, then slowly they nodded.

“Dain is very dear to our leader, so help him and you shall never regret it,” Anthropologist said, then, “but how could you help him?”

Smith took a deep breath and stepped forward toward Dain. Instantly, her whole aura changed, becoming deep and unfathomable and immeasurably hot.

The air of the dungeon began to shimmer and twist upon itself.

“I am Nihilia Ra Smith of the Smith’s Family, descendant of the Divine Architect,” she growled, her demeanor shifting like a flipped switch.

She now stood beside Dain’s shoulder. Next, she raised her right hand high toward the sky, causing a colossal hammer the size of a mountain to appear in her grasp.

The hammer was riddled with golden molten runes, its very presence causing space to crack. Smith’s arm twisted like a nest of slithering snakes, deep black veins pulsing under her skin.

Anthropologist and Abomination took a step back in shock.

Nihilia continued, her voice echoing all around, a voice like clashing steel plates,

“I forge everything.”

She raised the hammer even higher.

“Even people.”

And the hammer fell.

CLANK—!

…

Darklore — Waverith.

“Can her eye be healed?” Garros, King Progeny, asked the healer beside him, his crimson eyes locked on the sleeping Daela on the bed.

Serena was sitting beside her head, caressing Daela with a loving and proud smile, though a hint of pain edged that smile.

“I am sorry, King Progeny,” the healer — an old woman with pink hair and green eyes — said, “her right eye will no longer work or see except when she uses a skill, I assume,from the power that forced it shut. She will remain borgne until the end of her life.”

Her voice was tinged with sadness, but Garros only nodded. Next, the healer exited the room, leaving the mother and father facing their daughter.

After a moment, Garros smiled, “Weird,” he said, “she is reminding me of my aunt Scarlet Warborn.”

Serena laughed softly, “My daughter is more beautiful, and certainly more talented.”

“Of course!” Garros suppressed his loud laugh, “I have the best children!”

He then walked toward the other side of the bed, sat silently, reached out his calloused hand and gently brushed the right borgne eye of Daela.

He smiled once more.

“I am proud of you, Daela. Ah, and yes…”

Garros’s smile turned strained and forlorn.

“Sorry for making you grow up alone,” he whispered, thinking Daela didn’t hear him and yet…

“It’s fine,” Daela suddenly said, voice even, her left crimson eye flickering open,

“But I miss my little brother.”

Garros and Serena fell silent, then they rolled their eyes in exasperation before bursting into laughter.

Daela truly only cared about her younger brother.

Only him.

Only…

“Where is Kaden?”

—End of Chapter 331—