I played with Lethe's hair as she rested on my chest, lying down over me on her sofa. Titania was sleeping atop Lethe.
"It's like we already have a kid."
Oh my god. I was spiraling out of control!
"Aren't you being hasty?"
I tightened my hold around her and pushed my head into her neck.
"It's just been so long."
"Five years…"
I sighed.
"It was five years for you, a thousand for me."
Lethe snapped back.
"What?"
I grabbed her waist tight.
"There are some things that most people should never know. I'll be telling you all of it."
And so I began. From the moment we had dived into the sanctuary, the lackluster fight and the encounter with the King of the Outer Gods.
Then to my presence on Earth. The meeting with Miss Clayton and Charlotte, and eventually the Invasion Navy.
How I fought like an idiot, what was I even thinking back then? That I am some protagonist of some kind? How foolish was it to blame yourself and think you can protect everyone without having the strength to do so?
Then, I told her about the one who did posses the strength. The World's Strongest, my mentor, friend, brother, Eugene Hall.
How he had kidnapped the Invasion Navy and brought them all to that place which was practically his spatial dimension.
Then, sitting up, I told both her and Titania about the revelation he had given me. The fact that everything that was happening was the world experiencing it a second time, and that some people had become more used to the authority and could work in different ways than the last round.
"Was I…"
I shook my head.
Lethe only existed in this timeline, not in the previous one. She accepted it rather readily.
I then began about the hellish training routine. Both Titania and Lethe were completely stunned by what Eugene and I had pulled in a thousand years. It was a highly calculated usage of every second for a whole thousand years.
No one was as efficient as us.
Without sleeping, eating, or doing anything else, all we had done was train and train some more.
I told her about the conversations I had with Eugene, the help he readily gave me and the change I experienced after giving up magic, ki and demonic energy for cataclysm.
The fight with the Invasion Navy, and then three hundred years of battle with my life on the line against Eugene.
"Wait, wait, I don't understand how that works."
"How what works?" I asked.
"That authority thing of yours—"
"It's very similar to the Outer Gods' concepts—"
"No, not that part. The scaling."
I grinned and whispered in her ears. "It's exactly as you hear it."
"Explain—"
"Nope."
I continued with the rest of the story. There wasn't much left, I met the King of the Outer Gods again, was blown away and fell into some random world. Slept for three days straight and the next thing I knew Noa was tripping over me.
***
"And that brings us to now."
Lethe was back on my chest and was forcing me to kiss her head. It was a win-win.
"So your problem currently is that people would be collaborating with the Outer Gods?"
"You tell me, you're the leader here."
Lethe smirked.
"There are a few, quite a few nutcases. I have the Dark Moon keeping watching over it."
A sigh of relief left me. The Dark Moon as still active.
Thinking of it now, there was little reason to worry about it. Even if I wasn't around, glasses wouldn't be able to take power as long as Lady Dark Moon was still around.
"Great, I'll avoid coming out in the public for now and take on the mantle of Lord Dark Moon. And I'll gather those nutcases under me and kill them in a go."
"The same thing Albert was planning to do, it might be easier since no one knows you."
I nodded.
I could pretend to be someone who already knew the Outer Gods.
"It would be impossible to recognize you anyway for most people. You've changed too much."
"Is that so? You picked me out in a jiffy."
"It's only natural," Lethe shrugged. She then looked down and brought my hand off from her stomach and to her lips.
"The Outer Gods… are strong, aren't they? Strong enough to destroy the world before."
"They are. Very strong."
"Why… can't we make a deal with them then? That Eugene Hall of yours did it, even if it was to trick them, why can't you?"
I sighed.
"You make deals with equals. We are not their equals." Another sigh left me. "The ones with power have no reason to listen to the ones without. Their goals are different, we are to them as ants are to us."
Lethe looked away.
"The ones who are strong don't make deals with the weak, they show mercy. If the Worlds Alliance approaches the Outer Gods, it won't be a deal, but them showing mercy."
"Can't you?" she asked. "If not the Worlds Alliance, can't you make a deal with them?"
I shook my head.
"I can't make a deal with them."
"Why not? Aren't you their equal?"
"I can show them mercy."
Lethe looked at me and smirked.
It was then her door was knocked on. I sat up straight and got ready to hide.
"So much for being the strongest," Lethe groaned. "Who is it?"
Hey. Ouch.
"Lady Lethe, it is I, Anamis."
Lethe turned toward me and gestured at me to hide after all. I stood near the wall and killed my presence completely, even more than before.
I could have used the sealing on stuff like this, but that was impossible now that all of my authority went in keeping the ten levels back.
As the door opened, Lethe did not let the person inside.
"Is something the matter, Anamis?"
"Mamon has called for all of us. His devices have picked up some kind of extreme power like with the Outer Gods."
Oh…?
"We think there might be an infiltrator."
I tried to spread my senses around. If there was an infiltrator, it would be best to handle it right away—Oh.
Oh.
I… was the infiltrator.
Right.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶