Chapter 739: Seraphs, Prophecy
Zeus POV
The planet was quiet except for the rustle of orange grass swaying under a strange violet wind.
Purple trees reached into a sky dimly lit by three pale suns, their shadows stretching far across the plains.
Zeus stood alone.
His gaze was fixed on the haze that thickened in front of him.
From the haze, a figure emerged.
His body was clad in smoke, shifting and curling with every movement.
The man walked with a strange calm, as though the alien land belonged to him.
Zeus didn’t move.
Instead, he unfolded his [World].
Within newly created domain, no elemental could eavesdrop on them.
"Zeus, my friend. It’s been a long time since we met." The man laughed, the sound echoing strangely inside the smoke that wrapped around him.
Zeus said nothing.
"Why the long face? Are you not happy to see me?" the man tilted his head.
Still, Zeus remained silent.
His expression was firm, and his eyes were sharp and heavy like a storm waiting to break.
"Come now," the man continued, smoke shifting as if mocking the air itself. "Cheer up. I’ve brought good news."
At last, Zeus spoke. His voice carried no warmth. "What is it? I don’t think there’s a need for me to reincarnate now."
"Of course there isn’t." The man chuckled softly, as though the whole matter was trivial.
Zeus’ gaze did not waver, but the silence between them stretched.
The man seemed to enjoy it, as if silence itself gave him room to breathe.
Zeus, just like Kane, could reincarnate into past or future as he was a Seraph.
Quite a few people from the Age of Gods on Earth had become Seraphs.
It was a technology Aphrodite—the clone of the Witch of Lust—had created.
It was meant to preserve their world.
Through it, chosen ones —Seraphs— could reincarnate while slipping past the judgment of the Underworld.
The design was simple in theory.
If danger loomed in one era, the Seraph would abandon it, reincarnate into the past, and spend centuries training to face what was coming.
Or, they would travel into the future, pluck secrets and techniques from the future before reincarnating again into the past to improve their era rapidly.
The idea was novel, and almost miraculous.
But the flaw had always been clear.
No one could predict when or where a Seraph would reincarnate.
They might awaken on a weak planet, one where growth was impossible.
Or worse, they might reincarnate into future, then might not be able to return to their own time period through another reincarnation.
Some Seraphs grew mad after centuries of fractured lives.
Their sanity was eroded by too many deaths and rebirths.
Zeus and Kane had never feared the madness.
Their minds were far stronger than most, forged beyond the usual limits of gods or mortals.
Yet even they could not solve the problem of reincarnation’s time period and location control.
Not until they met him.
The man hidden in smokes.
He had called himself "I."
It was he who had given Zeus coordinates and timestamps.
If Zeus and Kane died at those exact points, they would reincarnate exactly where he promised.
It was how Zeus and Kane had managed to shape their paths, reaching the peak of Stage 6.
Now, "I" leaned closer, smoke curling like a whisper around Zeus’ shoulders.
"Well, the good news is..." I dragged his words, and then spoke slowly. "I found the Devil of Cruelty."
Zeus’ face hardened.
His eyes narrowed.
"How do you know about the Devil of Cruelty?"
"You know me, Zeus," the man laughed. "There’s nothing I don’t know. Even the fact that you killed the gods of your world because you wanted to stop the birth—"
"What do you mean you found the Devil of Cruelty?" Zeus cut him off.
"It’s as I said."
The smoke curled thicker, his form almost dissolving into mist.
"Although you killed all the gods, the Devil of Cruelty was still born."
"That’s not possible," Zeus said.
"It should not be possible, no," the man replied, chuckling softly. "The prophecy was clear. The Devil of Cruelty would be born from a god who lived during the Age of Gods on your planet. You thought to erase the possibility by killing all of them, and their children. But..."
He paused, his voice slipping into amusement again.
"Are you sure you killed every last one? Every god, and every child?"
Zeus didn’t answer.
A few Gods were Seraphs but that didn’t matter. The children born in their next life could not be the Devil of Cruelty, only from the first original life.
That’s why Zeus killed them all.
"There was one God you couldn’t touch, wasn’t there?"
Zeus’ expression darkened.
Lightning flashed overhead, rumbling through the sealed [World].
The trees swayed violently under the force of it, though none of it broke the barrier.
"It can’t be him," Zeus said firmly.
"It is his child," the man replied without hesitation. "The son of Hades. The Devil of Cruelty, whose birth you tried to prevent by killing all your friends."
Zeus shook his head. "Hades is not one of the gods from the Age of Gods. He’s much older. His child cannot be the one from the prophecy."
"It’s your choice whether you believe me. But with the current state of the universe, you should already have an idea of whether I’m wrong or not."
The man shrugged, smoke dispersing and gathering again in lazy waves.
Zeus’ hand tightened at his side.
He thought of Kane.
With his ability to hear the whispers of the elementals, Kane already knew the truth.
The Heavenbreaker, the Nameless Death—Neo Hargraves, the one who came from Earth—was the son of Hades.
If he truly was the Devil of Cruelty from the prophecy...
"The Alliance tortured him. He has returned for revenge. His ascension to the mantle of Devil of Cruelty has begun. Whether you want to stop him or not... I’ll leave that choice to you."
With that, the man dissolved completely.
The smoke thinned, then vanished into the air as though he had never been there at all.
The field of orange grass swayed again under the pale suns, the wind passing freely now that the [World] had been lifted.
Zeus remained standing among the purple trees.
...
Percival’s POV
Arthur sat in the training room of the ship, sweat dripping down his neck as he swung his sword through another set of movements.
The room was bare except for the glowing lines on the floor that tracked his steps and corrected his form.
The spaceship given to them by Neo, modeled after Kevin’s spaceship, had everything they needed.
It was smooth, reliable, and for now, it was their home as they traveled through the dark stretch of space toward their destination.
Amelia was tucked away in her personal room, quiet as always when she wanted to prepare.
She preferred silence before dangerous mission.
Felix and Percival had taken seats in the cockpit.
"So," Felix said, tapping at the controls while sneaking a glance at Percival, "what’s your Class level now?"
"Almost forty-nine," Percival answered.
"What!?" Felix spun in his chair, eyes wide. "You’re almost at the Fifth Class advancement already? That doesn’t even make sense. I’m only level twenty-two! How are you so far ahead?"