Chapter 1266. Two Goddesses Will Hunt Me the Moment I Leave

Chapter 1266: 1266. Two Goddesses Will Hunt Me the Moment I Leave

Lustia nodded slowly, a predator acknowledging the skill of another predator. The flames behind her eyes flickered and danced with something approaching genuine approval.

It was a rare, unsettling thing to witness a goddess, a being who viewed mortals as one might view ants, looking genuinely pleased with a mortal’s design for slaughter.

Rex felt a strange, unwelcome prickle of something resembling pride at her reaction, but he immediately shoved it down into the cold recesses of his mind. He had no room for validation; he only had room for results.

"It is a masterful plan, Rex," she said, her voice dropping to a velvet whisper that seemed to echo in the hollow spaces of his chest. "But do not mistake strategy for safety."

"You must understand what walking away from Aethelgard truly means."

She leaned forward, her face pressing closer to the silvered surface of the mirror until her golden eyes dominated his vision. "Within these walls, shielded by the very foundation you now command, you are a ghost."

"You are a myth... You are as hidden as any being can be in this world."

"But once you cross those borders, the illusion shatters... You will be stepping out of the shadows and into a spotlight that burns."

Her expression darkened, the playful teasing replaced by something grim and prophetic. "You will be exposed."

"Every remnant of the Apostle network in every kingdom will sense your approach like blood in the water."

"Every god who has been watching Kaeleth’s fall with hungry interest will turn their gaze toward you... And there are two in particular who will not merely watch; they will hunt."

She raised a single finger, the motion slow and deliberate. "First, the Goddess of Life."

"She has just watched her chosen Apostle die; she felt his final heartbeat, and she heard every word of his surrender."

"She saw what you did to him, and she heard the words you spoke to him in that sacred domain."

"To her, you are not just a conqueror; you are a desecrator."

The air in the bathroom seemed to grow colder, the divine pressure from the mirror intensifying.

"And then," Lustia continued, her voice carrying a sharp edge of warning, "there is the Goddess of Justice."

"She is a creature of order and retribution."

"Right now, she still has Xavier Xenworth’s file open on her desk—a file in a state of divine transition, suspended in the void, waiting for someone with enough power and enough audacity to finally read it properly."

"She is looking for someone to blame for the chaos, Rex... And your name is written in the margins."

Rex didn’t blink. His jaw remained set, his eyes fixed on hers with a defiance that would have broken a lesser man.

"I know."

"Then you also know that you cannot leave loose ends," Lustia snapped, her patience fraying like a worn rope. "Nothing unfinished can be left behind you when you march across Erosyne."

"Every unresolved grudge in Aethelgard, every untied thread, every enemy you left breathing in a cell—those are not just problems."

"They are hooks... Someone will find them."

"Someone will pull on them, and when you are halfway across the continent, they will use those threads to drag you back down into the dirt."

"If you leave with something unresolved, it will not just be waiting for you when you return; it will be waiting to strike when you are most distracted, most vulnerable."

Rex let out a short, humorless sound that might have been a laugh if there had been any joy behind it. A slow, cruel smile spread across his face, the smile of a man who had already counted the bodies he needed to pile up before his departure.

"I’m well aware of the consequences of mercy," Rex said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register. "That’s why I’ve already identified the two people I need to finish before I set foot outside these walls."

Lustia’s eyebrows arched. Her lips curled into a knowing, hungry smile.

"Let me guess... The ghosts that haunt your thoughts."

Rex’s eyes turned to ice. The names felt like weapons in his mouth.

"Helena," he said, each syllable dripping with venom. "And Evelyn."

Rex pushed himself off the marble basin, the sudden movement sending a ripple through the stagnant air. He began to pace the narrow strip of polished stone between the clawfoot tub and the frost-rimmed window.

His bare feet made soft, wet slapping sounds against the cold marble, a rhythmic, hypnotic sound that grounded him. It was an old habit from his previous life, a relic of a man who had learned that movement was the only way to prevent thoughts from stagnating into indecision.

"Neither of them is at maximum capacity," Rex said, his voice echoing off the stone walls as he turned, his muscular frame cutting sharp shadows in the dim light. "Helena’s last reading was sixty-three out of a hundred."

"Evelyn’s was thirty-one... Leaving them at those levels is like leaving a wound half stitched; it might stop bleeding for now, but it will fester."

He stopped mid-stride, staring at his own reflection, not the one in the mirror, but the one in his mind’s eye. "Helena is the linchpin."

"She is the matriarch of the Starlight bloodline, the gravity that holds Lily, Diana, Elliot, and Elizabeth in orbit."

"As far as that family is concerned, she is the foundation that remains while Valentina manages the Academy."

"If Helena isn’t mine... if she isn’t completely broken and remade to serve my interests, then the Starlight household is nothing more than an open door waiting for an enemy to walk through."

His jaw tightened, a muscle jumping visibly beneath his tan skin. "And then there’s Evelyn."

His frown deepened, genuine irritation bleeding through his usual composure. "Evelyn is a different kind of problem."

"She’s the only person in this entire city who hasn’t been blinded by my shadow... She watched what happened in that corridor."

"She saw how Xerollion moved, how the violence flowed, and she drew the one connection I cannot afford: she thought of me."

"She has no proof; I made sure of that by scrubbing every trace of my involvement, but suspicion is a seed."

"Plant it in fertile soil, leave it undisturbed for three months, and it will grow into a forest of rebellion that I won’t have time to burn down once I’m in Valdric."

’I need to break her spirit before she can form a conviction,’ he thought grimly. ’I need to make her complicit in my crimes so thoroughly that she can never speak the truth without destroying herself.’

"Very reasonable," Lustia said. Her voice had taken on a purr of approval, almost fond. "You always finish what you start, Rex."

"You don’t believe in half measures or mercy."

"It is one of the things I find most... intoxicating about you."

She paused, her eyes shifting to the side with the subtle, knowing glance of a woman who held a secret she was dying to share. The air in the bathroom grew charged again, the tension ratcheting up as she savored the silence.

"I have some news that may prove useful to your... housekeeping," she whispered.

She let the pause stretch, deliberately cruel, forcing him to hang on every syllable.

"Helena returns tomorrow."

Rex froze mid-step. The pacing stopped, and the world seemed to hold its breath.

"She and Leonidas," Lustia continued, her smirk widening as she watched his reaction. "They finished their mission faster than Valentina estimated."

"They are already on the road, approximately one day’s journey from the gates, and they are utterly oblivious to the carnage that has unfolded here."

"They think Aethelgard is still the same city they left."

A low chuckle escaped her lips, unrepentant and cold. "No one has reached them to warn them."

"The couriers Valentina sent out to intercept them? I gave them a little... divine nudge at the border."

"They turned back, confused and terrified, believing the roads ahead were cursed."

"I thought it would be far more interesting to let them arrive expecting a homecoming and finding instead... a new reality."

She leaned closer to the glass, her molten eyes blazing with sadistic delight. "You have until dawn to decide exactly how you intend to welcome them home, Rex."

"Will you greet them as their conqueror, or will you make them part of your collection before the sun rises?"