Prache was wounded in his battle with Grauzer. Moreover, he had broken the taboo set by the “Primordial God,” inflicting internal injuries as well.
In other words, he wasn’t in perfect condition.
‘If I get hit by another one of those attacks in this state, I can’t guarantee victory.’
Far from victory, he might even suffer another severe wound and have to retreat once again. The mere thought of being beaten by mere humans haunted him.
Hanelope spread her divinity like wings.
“Do you think a mere human like you can defeat me?”
Prache tried to intimidate her on purpose. But Hanelope was completely unfazed and glared at him with an even colder expression.
“I don’t think ‘you’ can defeat ‘me’ at this moment.”
Hanelope was resolute—firm and unwavering. She was ready to sacrifice her life to bring down Prache.
Prache gritted his teeth in frustration. He knew that he was cornered.
Then, suddenly, an idea struck him.
“‘At this moment,’ you say?”
Prache was trapped where time and space had intertwined. But if he could escape ‘this moment,’ he could break free from the trap.
Instead of untangling the twisted threads, he could simply start again from the beginning. It was something Prache had done many times before.
‘I’ll just turn back time once again.’
He wanted to return to a point before Hanelope was born. This time, he would eliminate Laura before Hanelope could even come into existence.
“Hah- hahaha…”
Prache had found a way to escape his predicament.
“Thanks for giving me the clue, Hanelope!”
Hanelope continued to stare coldly at Prache, unaware of what he was plotting.
Laughing maniacally, Prache stretched his arms toward the sky and blue divine energy shot up from his hands like lightning.
The divine power gathered in the air, forming the shape of an hourglass.
When Prache flipped his hands, the hourglass turned over. Time was rewinding. But at that very moment, the hourglass shattered in mid-air. Prache’s body also began to split and crack, as if he were being torn apart.
“W- Why is this happeni…?”
Prache looked in disbelief at his body as it cracked and splintered. Blue divine energy leaked out from the broken gaps, gradually making them crumble into dust.
The “Divinity of the God” was disintegrating.
“This… this can’t be happening. Why…?” Prache realized he was dying.
It made no sense. How could a supreme god like him be destroyed so easily?
As he cried out in agony, his gaze landed on Hanelope. She looked back at him with calm, cold eyes, as if she had expected this all along.
“Did you really think there would be no punishment when you broke the taboo set by the ‘Primordial God’?”
“Punishment? All I did was defy a dead god, and you think something like that would still exist?”
“Did Grauzer never tell you?”
“What…?”
“Every time you used forbidden powers, your divinity crumbled bit by bit. That’s why your recovery was so slow. But you didn’t notice, and you recklessly broke the taboo two more times. Your weakened divinity couldn’t withstand the strain any longer.”
Prache turned his gaze to Grauzer.
The god, once in tatters, was slowly regaining form as Prache’s divine essence disintegrated.
‘That wretched b*stard… He was annoyingly lucky. Always acting like a know it all.’
Prache was unaware of the truth. Because Grauzer was the god of mercilessness. He knew how pitiful the end would be for those ignorant of the truth. Thus Grauzer had enacted his revenge by keeping Prache in ignorance.
That was his brutal form of vengeance.
Prache trembled with rage, understanding what had transpired. But with his divinity constantly seeping out, there was nothing he could do.
He could only watch helplessly as Hanelope destroyed the remnants of his once-proud form.
“Araaagh!”
With a short, pitiful scream, Prache was completely obliterated.
The one who had dreamed of becoming the sole god met his end in vain.
‘Is it finally over?’
Hanelope’s resolute expression softened, and a tired sigh escaped her.
Even though Prache had been on the brink of destruction, it was still an overwhelming task for a human to annihilate a god.
She was on the verge of collapsing.
At that moment, a small light flickered in the spot where Prache had been destroyed. The light quickly began to expand in size. Prache’s remnants were about to cause an explosion.
Hanelope hurriedly spread her divine energy to protect Grauzer and Hart. But there wasn’t enough power left to protect herself.
Hanelope curled into a ball. Just then, black smoke slithered toward her from somewhere, swirling around her body.
The smoke took on the shape of a person, wrapping itself tightly around Hanelope, shielding her from harm.
Boom!
A massive explosion engulfed Grauzer’s temple. And soon the temple began to crumble.
***
A translucent white curtain fluttered in the breeze flowing through an open window, imitating the wings of a butterfly.
Beneath the graceful shadows cast by the curtain, Hart sat on a sofa, wearing the happiest smile in the world.
Though this was a library, he wasn’t focusing on any books, but on the woman resting her head on his lap.
He had read countless books, but none were as interesting as the expression on Laura’s face when she furrowed her brow and flipped through pages with a serious look.
And her constant exclamations, “Haah!” “Oh dear!” “What now?!”
Even while reading a single book, Laura displayed the full range of life’s emotions— joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
Unable to hold back a chuckle, Hart let out a small laugh, which caused Laura to immediately glance at him with sharp eyes.
She could be charged with Lèse-majesté but Hart found those pink eyes of hers nothing but endearing.
Hart pressed a finger on her furrowed brow trying to smoothen it out.
The softened expression she made reminded him of someone.
‘Who could it resemble?’
As he pondered, Laura spoke. “Your Highness, how long are you going to keep looking at me?”
“Is that a problem?”
“It’s almost time for dinner. You barely touched your lunch. At this rate, I’ll be labeled the culprit who starved the prince to death.”
“I can’t let that be.”
Hart extended his hand toward Laura. She took it, allowing him to help her to her feet.
“Let’s have dinner together in my chambers tonight.”
“No can do. Think of all the eyes watching us! Besides, that veal we had earlier was truly delightful.”
“Why are you refusing? Have you forgotten, you were so taken with the strawberry crumble that you got it all over your cheeks.”
The conversation felt oddly strange.
Laura looked at Hart with a somewhat sad smile.
“If we have dinner together today, the new chamberlain will spread the news far and wide. And it eventually will reach His Majesty’s ears.”
Hart’s expression suddenly turned cold.
“So… that’s why you left.”
The pleasant summer breeze and the drowsy sunlight vanished.
This wasn’t reality.
It was a memory from a long time ago.
“Laura…”
Hart reached out to touch Laura’s cheek. It was soft and warm. How could this be an illusion?
‘Even if it isn’t real, I don’t care.’
He wanted to stay with her a little longer. If possible, forever.
Reading his thoughts, Laura gently stroked her stomach and said, “It’s not yet time for you to come here, Your Highness. I’ll be waiting for you, so please protect our child.”
Hart felt his heart trembling with pain. However, when he remembered who the “our child” she mentioned was, Hart could only nod.
“I will protect her. We’ll meet again… for sure.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Laura kissed him lightly on the lips, and with that, Hart opened his eyes.
Around him, debris from the collapsing ceiling was falling. The space he was in was crumbling.
“!”
Hart got up to find Hanelope unconscious.
“Hanelope!”
He scooped up his precious daughter and looked around. But there was no way out—only the surrounding darkness, collapsing in on itself.
Then, a man appeared with black hair and black eyes.
Hart had never seen him before, yet his presence felt oddly familiar.
“I’ll open the road for you. Head that way.”
Hart turned to look in the direction the man pointed, and there, a passage had suddenly appeared.
At the end of the passage, a bright light was pouring in. Just as he was about to move, he saw someone collapsed nearby.
It was Brantley.
“You don’t need to worry about him. Just go,” said the man— Grauzer.
Hart stared at the fallen Brantley for a moment before speaking.
“I’m taking him with me.”
“You can’t. He’s my reincarnation.”
“Reincarnation?”
“Yes. I left him here to protect Kochs for eons.”
Hart narrowed his eyes and stared at Grauzer. His instincts told him this man was a god.
‘So Brantley is this god’s avatar…’
“Taking him with you will only cause you trouble. He’s just as stubborn as I am. As soon as the seal was broken and his body recovered, he separated from me and acted on his own to save Hanelope.”
“…”
“But now that everything has returned to its rightful order, this fragment of mine— this boy— will be reabsorbed into me.”
That meant Brantley would disappear from this world.
Brantley Eisen was an annoying brat. But when he was around, Hanelope was always happy.
He was someone who never cared for his own well-being and always thought of Hanelope first, doing everything to save her.
‘He may not be like a son to me, but I can’t just leave him here.’
Hanelope would be more devastated than anyone if he were gone.
“What are you waiting for? This place is about to collapse. We have to leave this space,” Grauzer urged Hart.
“He’s coming with me.”
“I told you that’s not possible.”
“Brantley may be your avatar, but he’s also human. You’ve said it yourself that he has protected Kochs for eons. Don’t you think it’s time to set him free?”
“What did you say?” Grauzer looked utterly baffled. “You speak as though I’m some cruel master, but that’s not it at all. He is me, and I am him, so—”
“He is Brantley. Brantley Eisen. The boy Hanelope cares for.”
At those words, Grauzer was rendered speechless. He was staring blankly at Brantley.
Hart thought to himself, ‘Unlike me, Hanelope should live with the one she loves.’
Though she had never said it, the love in her pink eyes was always obvious whenever she looked at Brantley. And Hart was very familiar with such a gaze.
‘Because Laura once looked at me the same way.’
So no matter how much of a nuisance he might be, Hart had to save Brantley and bring him along.
