Chapter 610: The Choice
"What does that do?" Ja.n.u.s asked the Chaos, wondering what he was talking about.
" It"s the Fragment of Rebirth," Chaos explained.
"Rebirth? Isn"t that a taboo?" Ja.n.u.s asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"It"s only a taboo because the consequences of failure are frightening. Your entire soul is destroyed if you fail in rebirth. That"s why it"s been dubbed as a Taboo," Chaos answered, sighing.
"Still, that doesn"t change the fact that no one has been able to do it successfully. A person will have to be crazy to even attempt something like this! It"s much better to die while fighting than suffering the consequences of a failed rebirth attempt," Ja.n.u.s let out, refusing to agree to this plan. "You can"t do it!"
"You don"t understand. This is a good way to go out. Also, it"s not true that no person has succeeded in it. There has been one person. The G.o.ddess of Rebirth who gained her t.i.tle after being successful," Chaos explained.
"That was millions of years ago. You know as well as I do that her second rebirth attempt was a failure as well. It"s clear that her first attempt was nothing but good luck, which she didn"t have the second time. Tens of G.o.ds have tried it since then, none of them succeeding in it!" Ja.n.u.s firmly stated. "So don"t even think about it."
"You can either fight against the other G.o.ds with me standing by your side, or you escape. But in no circ.u.mstances am I supporting you in this crazy mission," he straight away pointed out.
"It doesn"t matter if you support me or not. This is what I"m going to do. Because I"m not running away. You can either watch me be killed, or you can take the risk with rebirth. Just know that rebirth will be pretty helpful if we succeeded," Chaos said, not ready to take a refusal.
"Why are you so stubborn!"
"Because I can be," Chaos let out, smiling.
"Moreover, there"s one more important reason," he further stated.
"What reason?" Ja.n.u.s inquired, confused. He wondered what other reason could there be?
"First, this will remove all the restrictions from me. I will be free of the Heavenly Oath that I took on Father"s commands. That oath was for not using my powers that he saw in this lifetime. But if I go through rebirth, it"ll count as another lifetime. I would be entirely free when I return, with no restriction," Chaos explained to Ja.n.u.s.
" And lastly, because I need time. The fragments need more time to gain their full strength since they"re only recently made. I might as well enjoy a good sleep while I have the time. In any case, I also want to experience fighting all the G.o.ds. Let"s see how strong they actually are."
"That"s certainly a reason, but that doesn"t solve the main problem! It"s that reincarnation is impossible to complete. Even the G.o.ddess of Reincarnation died while attempting it. How can you even think about doing it?" Ja.n.u.s asked, not dropping the topic.
"I have faith in it," Chaos calmly said, glancing at the white fragment. "Also, I made it using the remains of the G.o.ddess of Reincarnation. It"ll give me her protection even if she is dead. That certainly increases my chance of success."
The screen disappeared, not showing anything.
Ryder glanced at Chaos, wondering what happened next.
"Why did you stop? I want to see what happened next!"
" I think you can guess that already. I convinced Ja.n.u.s, who agreed right away. And we went along with the plan. The war came next, and he stabbed me as you already saw. It was all according to the plan," Chaos answered.
"I used the fragment of rebirth to send my soul through reincarnation with my Divinity. Even I didn"t know where and when I was going to be born when it happened," he continued. "That place turned out to be earth."
He snapped his fingers, making an illusory throne appear in front of him, on which he sat down comfortably.
"You mean, you were born on earth, as me?" Ryder asked, overwhelmed by what he was hearing.
"Exactly. Since my soul was sleeping, you couldn"t access my memories. You... Or should I say that I lived a completely different life, unaware of the reality. And here we are now, I"ve completely awakened," Chaos explained.
"So I am just a personality of a G.o.d?" Ryder asked, not knowing what to say. "Is that why Ja.n.u.s was helping me? That makes complete sense now."
Taking a deep breath, he asked, "What will happen to me now that you"re up? Am I going to disappear forever?"
"You"re wrong. You"re not just a personality. You"re much more..." Chaos said, sighing.
"What will happen to me now? Can you tell me the truth? Will you take over my body? And I"ll disappear? Or will you give my body back to me, and you"ll get a different body?" Ryder inquired, frowning.
Chaos didn"t answer this time. He simply kept glancing at Ryder.
"Tell me, what do you want to happen?" He asked, noticing the heavy heartbeat of Ryder.
"I just... Don"t want to disappear. I want to live... I don"t want to die. Please don"t erase me?"
There was sadness in the voice of Ryder, mixed with a dread for the future. He wasn"t even sure if he could ever earth again after what had happened here. Was he really going to die?
Chaos took a deep breath. "That"s not the answer to my question. Tell me, what exactly do you want to happen? I want to hear your desires. Do you want to merge with me? Or do you want to live a separate life?"
" Just know, you won"t get this body back in any case. It"s the only one that can support my soul"s Divine Strength after absorbing all the Divinity from other G.o.d-sons. So tell me, which of the two choices do you select? Do you want to merge with me? Or do you want to live a separate life?"
....
"There it is!" After a long search, Ja.n.u.s actually found the Fragment that guy was looking for. It was one of the two fragments he was looking for, which was being kept in the safe of some businessman it seemed.
After taking the first fragments, Ja.n.u.s disappeared, not even bothering to close the safe.
He appeared in a different place where the second fragment was supposedly hiding.
Appearing here, he couldn"t help but smile wryly as he saw another crowded place. This place was just as crowded as the last one, if not more.
"One more search," he let out, smiling wryly. He began the search.
Just as Ja.n.u.s was searching for the Fragment, he sensed something. There was a powerful presence.
No, there wasn"t one powerful presence, but there were many. And it seemed like all these presence were behind him. He was able to guess what was happening.
He slowly turned back.
"You"re all here as well? Why?" Ja.n.u.s asked, seemingly surprised.
Seven G.o.ds were standing before him. Even though they were here, no civilian could see them.
"Tell us where our sons are," the G.o.ddess of Destiny said, staring at Ja.n.u.s.
"Your sons? I was here to find the Lord of s.p.a.ce, not your sons... Unless I misunderstood the mission, which I don"t think I did. So I wonder why you"re asking me about your sons?" Ja.n.u.s inquired, ignorantly.
" We came here to see our sons, and they are mostly missing except for one. And we found your aura in one of those places. You certainly went there. Tell us, where are they?!" The G.o.ddess of Destiny asked. " It"s not the time to play around! Tell us where they are this instant!"
"I don"t know where they are. As for how my aura got there, that"s not hard to explain. Since I"m searching for the Lord of s.p.a.ce, the first thing I did was check near your sons to see if he approached any of them. That"s why you saw my aura there," Ja.n.u.s explained, still not taking the blame.
"You can ask the one who is alive if I met him or not. I"m sure he"ll tell you the truth. Just like I met him, I met others as well," he further said.
"Then where did our sons go! We can find none of them!" The Lord of War yelled, furious.
"How would I know? I haven"t been able to find the Lord of s.p.a.ce yet. I didn"t have time to babysit your kids," Ja.n.u.s casually replied, not backing off.
"Ah, wait! I think I have an idea!" He suddenly exclaimed. "I know where they might be!"
"Where are they? Tell!" the Lord of War inquired.
" The only person who could do it is the Lord of s.p.a.ce. There"s a good chance that he"s keeping them in a different s.p.a.ce. That should be why you can"t feel his aura! Nothing else can explain this!"