Chapter 171 Acceptance?
All of the Pantheon members were now awake, even including Tetra, as the time limit on the spell that Sloth used on him had just been used up.
"You!" At the instant that she became awake, Myth immediately tried attacking Alex, but she was unable to do anything as Alex used his power nullification to nullify the abilities of the Pantheon members, excluding Tetra.
Since Tetra"s ability cannot be suppressed by Miden"s power, Alex just decided to do something to prevent him from using his power.
While Tetra was still sleeping earlier, Alex told Queen Mother to place some extremely lethal plants all around Tetra.
Alex specifically requested for plants that can kill numerous people in close contact.
It took Queen Mother several minutes to do it, and once it they were created, Alex immediately used them on Tetra"s sleeping body.
Just to make sure that these plants will be really lethal, Alex added his Major Destruction Aura, Minor Destruction Aura, Wrath Counter, Power Enhancement, and The Weak Serve the Strong spells on these plants.
The combination of all these Abyss Spells had turned the already lethal plants into much more lethal and deadly plants.
At this point, this plants were so lethal that only powerful people can survive against them.
However, because of the invincibility effect of Alex"s sleeping spell earlier, these plants were unable to damage Tetra while he was still asleep.
But once Tetra had woken up, these plants started to attack him immediately.
At that point Tetra was left with no choice but to withstand these extremely lethal plants by using his power constantly.
Alex also covered the besieged Tetra with billions of Gravity Waves, which forced Tetra to use more power to defend himself.
These offensive measures had basically Tetra trapped again.
But to make sure that Tetra will be really unable to do anything now, Alex used one more technique to effectively stop him.
Under the eyes of everyone in the room, Alex approached the Legacy of Tartaros, and once he was in front of it, he placed his hand on above it, effectively drawing a worried expression on Tetra"s face.
Just the mere gesture of what Alex was doing was already enough to send a message to Tetra.
If Tetra tries anything with his power now, that is if he can, Alex will do something to the Legacy that Tetra might regret.
Of course Alex will not do anything to harm the Legacy, he"s just bluffing right now to force Tetra to stop in his tracks.
All in all, the combination of physical and psychological measure has reduced Tetra into a glowering spectator.
"…."
Once Alex had finished doing these measures, he let out a smile as he gave a businessman-like look to the Pantheon.
"Well, as you can see, I was just about to take the Legacy away…" Alex said, which elicited a twitch from Tetra. "And since Andrew Collins here helped me out, I told him that I will give him the freedom to do what he wants with you all…"
Naturally, none of the Pantheon was happy with what he said.
"Shut up! Who do you think are you to say those things, huh?" Myth hotly said as she struggled to move against her bonds. "We were just heroes doing our best for this world! Who are you do judge us, huh?"
"That guy right there is the one who should be like this!" Myth shouted as she pointed her hand at Andrew Collins. "He was the one who brought the dangerous Monster King into this world! The things that he did for everyone is way less than us, and I don"t think they"re even enough to offset all the damages that Monster King did!"
"…" Andrew Collins could only look down after hearing what Myth said.
"See, even this guy thinks that I am right!" Myth shouted out to Alex as she looked at him with burning eyes. "Come one, Eldritch, you can still change your mind this time! Just raise your hand and just capture him! You can do the world a better service if you did that!"
"Sorry, but I do not care about the problems between you all." Alex said as he let out a sigh. "I"m actually a little tired of dealing with world-level stuff already, so I just wanted to end the situation right now through the least taxing way as possible… And in my opinion, letting this man decide on what to do with you is the best way here…"
"Are you f**ki- Tetra! Can"t you do something here?" Myth asked her vice-leader, who was still perfectly trapped by Alex.
"I"m trying my best here to stay alive… So I can"t really do anything to attack now…" Tetra replied wearily, making his other teammates look pale.
The only exception to that was Foresight, who was now sporting a blank expression on her face.
"…" As Tetra continued struggling against his deadly constraints, Alex gave the struggling Pantheon a shake of his head.
He looked back at Andrew Collins who was now sweating profusely.
It seems liked the coldness of this room was not that effective enough to placate the clearly nervous Andrew Collins.
"What are you still thinking? Say what you want now…" Alex said, hiding the exasperation in his voice.
Alex knew that at the moment that Alina keeps the Legacy of Tartaros in her Storage, he, Alina, and Queen Mother will be brought away to their new world.
Once that happens, it will be unknown when they can go back.
So before Alex could let that happen, he has to sort out the mess that he made with the Pantheon.
Maybe doing that will give Alex a good Grade for this mission.
**********
Alex observed Andrew Collins more as he saw that the man was about to make his move.
At the moment that Andrew Collins was about to start to talk, someone behind him interrupted him.
"Hey, my deadbeat father. Make sure that you make the right choice here. You already f**ked up a lot by this point… so please don"t do anything stupid now!"
The one who said these worlds was Lauren, who broke out of Queen Mother"s hug.
Even if she still looked p.i.s.sed at her father, there was also some edge in her eyes, as if she was expecting her father to do what she thinks was right here.
"Deadbeat father, I know that you"re angry to them… But please don"t let yourself get consumed by that anger. You"re much better than that!"
To the surprise of everyone, they saw Lauren suddenly lunging towards her father, performing a perfect face slap with her right hand.
"Piak!" Andrew Collins" right cheek immediately went red as he staggered from the force of Lauren"s slap.
"…" Everyone in the room went silent from what they saw, excluding Alex who gave Lauren an impressed nod.
"Now that you"re back with us, please, remember who were your real priorities!" Lauren shouted out as she gritted her teeth. "You were my father, and I wish that the one that will come back to us was the same father that we used to have…"
"…" Andrew Collins went silent after hearing what his daughter said, as he duly ignored his reddened right cheek, which looked h.e.l.la painful already.
"Finally, Lauren decided to express her true feelings now." Alex thought to himself as he shook his head. "Now, let"s see where Andrew Collins goes from here…"
The mentioned guy was now busy clutching his head, as if there was a large mental turmoil inside him.
Alex could somehow understand why Andrew Collins was like this now.
Earlier, Andrew Collins seemed to have already made up his decision on what to do with the Pantheon.
But the sudden interruption of Lauren had obviously shaken him up, and now Andrew Collins seems to be affected by that.
Everyone went silent as they watched the silent conflict that the man was going through.
"…"
It was only after exactly 90 seconds that Andrew Collins" body relaxed.
He lowered his hands as he let out a sigh.
With just one look to his face, Alex realized that this time, Andrew Collins had already reached his "real decision".
Andrew Collins took one, long, serious look towards his defiant daughter before looking back to the Pantheon.
Andrew Collins" eyes were as calm as a placid lake as his eyes roved on all of them.
Tensions in the room went high as Andrew Collins slowly opened his mouth.
"Just… let them all go." Andrew Collins said with a slight weariness, as if what he said took something out of him.
But there was also some slight tinge of relief in his voice, as if he just removed a heavy burden on his back.
"…Why do you always say the most cliché choice here?" Alex replied as he let out a sigh.
Behind him, he could hear Lauren letting out a sigh of relief, as if she was happy with what her father did.
"Are you really sure that you want to keep them alive?" Alex asked Andrew Collins directly as he stared at him. "They might get back at you after this…"
"They won"t do it." Andrew Collins replied as he shook his head. "They only kept me captive because of the Legacy of Tartaros. If you take it away, there is no way for them to be wary of me."
Andrew Collins then started walking all around his creation as he caressed it a little.
"I… may have been a great Builder before, but right now, I have a different thing that I must rebuild." Andrew Collins said as he glanced hesitantly as his daughter. "Compared to my family, all of this… are just nothing but junk."
"But it was the Pantheon who removed your memories…" Alex said, as he wanted to understand Andrew Collins" thought processes more. "Are you just going to let them off like this?"
"I sure am." Andrew Collins replied as he gave Alex a resolute look. "Yeah, they might have gone overboard with hiding my memories, but I now know that it is not their fault that they wiped my memories. It was mine, actually."
"Huh? How could that be your fault?" Alex asked as he felt confused with what the man just said. "Did you…"
"When I touched the Legacy of Tartaros earlier, a video message suddenly appeared inside my mind." Andrew Collins said as he took a deep breath. "That message was made by me years ago, just before my memory was wiped."
"You had something like that placed there? Why the f.u.c.k did you not tell us!" Myth shouted out in exasperation as she glared daggers at Andrew Collins. "Don"t tell me that video message told you some things that you shouldn"t have known?"
"…."
Andrew Collins continued talking, as he seemed to ignored Myth yapping behind him.
"In that video message, the Past Me told me that it was actually him who proposed to have my memories wiped. The Past Me… was extremely guilty with everything that happened with the Legacy of Tartaros. He told me that he wanted his memories wiped so that he can live a new life away from… all of this mess."
"…"
"At first, I do not want to acknowledge what the Past Me said. New life? Where the h.e.l.l could I get that?" Andrew Collins said these words morosely as he shook his head. "So, even with that message form the Past Me, I actually still wanted to exact "revenge" against the Pantheon, even though it was actually the Past Me that did all of this to me."
"…"
"But my clouded mind was freed when Lauren showed me the truth." Andrew Collins said as he gave his daughter a grateful look. "When she slapped me, I… I realized that I already have what the Past Me have wanted all along. And that thing wa a family… They"re what I only have now, and I should"ve did my best to be with them."
The man then hugged himself tightly as he seemed to be trying to console himself. "Once I reached that point, I knew what I have to do next."
"…."
"…."
"I do not know what should I feel about that message." Alex finally said as he absorbed Andrew Collins" explanation. "So it"s the Past You that actually made you like this? Hmm, now I can"t fault you for being this soft against the Pantheon. It seems like they were only following the request of the Past You…"
"Hmph, even without his request, I would still have his memory wiped!" Myth replied angrily, although her eyes were not looking at Andrew Collins at all. "Andrew was a big a**hole before, so he deserves all this s**t that he has gone through!"
"On the second thought, can I have Myth beaten up?" Andrew Collins said as he let out a sigh. "I can"t have someone running of her mouth when I just saved her life."
"Oh, do you want it to happen now? My tentacles are all ready to have their fun! Just say the word, and I will tentacle my way on Myth!" Right on cue, the tentacles on Alex"s back all rose to the air, creeping menacingly to the tied-up Myth.
"No!!"
"I"m just joking… Just… let them be." Andrew Collins hastily said as the first tentacle wrapped itself on Myth"s foot. "This had already gone too long already, so let"s just get this done with."
"Aww, but I was just getting to the good part!"
"…."
***************
Even though Alex could somehow understand Andrew Collins" reasoning, there were still some things that were confusing him.
And that is the fact that even though what happened to Andrew Collins was planned by him, there were still some things that the Pantheon did that were too much to him.
Like them forcing Andrew Collins to leave his family for 5 years. Was that really needed?
"…" As he had these thoughts in his head, Alex could not help but look at Foresight, who was still looking on with a blank look on her face.
But with Alex"s FED Manipulation, Alex could feel a certain kind of feeling inside Foresight right now.
And that feeling was Immense Satisfaction.