140. Fall to the Ground.
140. Fall to the Ground.
The main god did not look back on the past.
For in those steps, not even an inch of error existed.
Thus, Cronus never once turned back the past.
Even if there were times she glimpsed the past,
even if there were times she experienced the past of others,
at the very least, she had never harbored regret over her own will nor entertained the thought of 'wanting to go back.'
Because──no error existed in the will of the heavens.
"Urp....uurrp...retching...!"
So she ignored it.
So she disparaged it.
All things had to exist beneath the will of the main god, beneath the will of the heavens.
All things under the sky had to be placed beneath her feet.
Therefore, they held no worth to know, no need to understand, not even an element to empathize with.
Thus, Cronus could not understand, even in her final moment of falling.
".....Rhea..."
Why she had betrayed her.
Why she had raised the curse that would kill her.
Even the reason she nurtured that curse while evading her eyes to the very end—
Cronus understood not a single thing.
She had never even considered understanding it, merely thinking this too was a trial to reclaim the heavenly throne.
Just as when she had once struck down Uranus, her own father,
this time too she believed it was a trial for her return to the heavens.
"Rhea...Re,ah......!"
It was a thing of coincidence.
A destiny never decided, never placed before her.
Peeping into someone's past, experiencing it,
and among those countless pasts──sharing the history of Rhea, her own wife, as well.
Originally, it was a history that should not have existed for Cronus. An impossible history.
But thanks to a single word from Chrono, thanks to a single action of the hero, a new history was born.
"She...she did all of this...!"
A history where Cronus experienced her own history, Rhea's history.
Going round and round, finally manifesting as a single result.
"──U....guh-ghaak....!"
Dry heaves.
Her head spun and her breath grew faint.
At the same time, with the self-loathing welling up in her chest, with the mind that considered herself a sinner—
"It...couldn't be helped...I say it couldn't be helped!"
—Cronus naturally began to defend herself.
"Gaia did it! My own mother cursed me! The being I believed and believed in, the one I thought I would trust unquestioningly for eternity, betrayed me! If I...If I hadn't been cursed first, none of this would have ever happened!"
[Really?]
"Urk...?!"
A familiar voice.
An unforgettable voice.
And, a voice she now thought she had thrown away.
"Re...ah......?"
[What a pitiful sight, Cronus. Have you still not come to your senses?]
"Rhea...I, I never meant to do such a thing──"
[──It's ugly. Cronus.]
"Ugh...!"
It was Rhea.
Rhea had appeared.
The Rhea who should not have existed, appeared before her.
[You know now, don't you? I wouldn't know about the old days, but you're dodging it even while knowing?]
"...I am...I am the victim. There is no fault in my will!"
[Really?]
".......I..."
It couldn't be helped.
It couldn't have not been so.
"I...simply did my best..."
The youngest among the siblings.
Weak, weak, the weakest child among them.
Thus, she always did her best, gave her ultimate best, and at that end, the weakest could become the blade that topples the strongest.
That was Cronus's life.
Cronus's will.
The ambition that she would never die, never be broken—
that though she was born as the weakest, she would one day strike down the heavens.
And
[You must have been afraid. Afraid of sharing the position you barely obtained with your siblings.]
"I felt fear?"
[You must have been terrified that if you dared share your power, they would come to slit your throat just as you had done.]
"No! I...I could never feel such worthless emotions──"
[──But you did, didn't you? Our cute youngest little tyke?]
"I am!"
I am....
[I can understand Uranus's coercion.]
[But sending your siblings to Tartarus out of fear they might take your power,]
[and what's more, a monster who even feared her own children and shoved them into her belly.]
[....Truly, it's just as Gaia said.]
Cronus
You have inherited Uranus's blood more thickly than anyone else.
"....Who are you."
[You should already know who I am, though?]
"No, no. You are not 'Rhea.'"
Because
The Rhea Cronus knew...
"Would never...call Gaia just 'Gaia.'"
[Hmm, good reasoning. But even this is all what you wished for, you know?]
".....You are...."
[That's right.]
Rhea
No, the something fashioned in 'Rhea's form' spoke.
[Because you are a selfish brat who wishes to be condemned, yet hates to be hated.]
"....I see. So that's it."
You are a 'being' I created.
A fake shaped from Rhea's history and manifested before my eyes.
And the reason I created that fake...
[You want me to curse you? I didn't know a main god would have that kind of taste?]
"....No."
[Or do you want me to love you? But seeing as my body remains as it was despite that, guess you still have a conscience?]
"No, no."
[Ah, no. You probably have no conscience left by now...belated guilt? No, Cronus is not a god who would ever feel anything like 'guilt.']
"............."
[Then──right. Are you planning to send me to Chrono, that child? Are you about to repeat your sins again?]
"Shut up."
[................]
"..............."
[...You were sincere at first, and now you want me to curse you. Cronus, aren't you living your life far too selfishly?]
"Shut up....."
Please...
Please, stop it now....
[Cronus, you who pity yourself and curse the world, who even while being cast down to the ground, still cared only for the heavens.]
[When the very ground beneath your feet curses you, how could you ever ascend to the sky?]
".......So, are you saying that I am wishing for this, too?"
Cronus asked the 'husk' before her eyes.
At this, the husk smiled.
But it was an unnatural smile, like paper tearing.
[You are wishing for it.]
[For me to be embraced in Chrono's arms in your stead.]
[For you to look at me, happy in Chrono's arms, and blame yourself.]
[For the child born from my embrace to drag you down to the bottom of Tartarus once more.]
"No."
[And then, yes.]
[You'll say it again.]
[That you were betrayed. That you were betrayed again and it's over.]
[After that, you'll curse me, curse Chrono.]
[And finally, you'll comfort yourself, saying you yourself have done nothing wrong...]
"No...I, I would never ever....."
Ugly.
It was so ugly it was hard to keep her eyes open.
At the same time, the husk did not disappear. Because──Cronus was wishing for it.
Like a child longing for its mother's bosom before a trial it could not endure,
before a fear it could not handle,
deep in Cronus's heart, the emotion that she could never be 'together with Rhea' was engraved.
The limits of one who had lived her entire life as a main god, as a male god.
The limits of the 'weak' who could only lean on someone, only move forward when someone supported her.
Thus, when someone believed in her and supported her, she commanded the heavens,
but the moment she was abandoned, she fell to the ground, a 'damnably weak being.'
[You want to keep living in the pretense of being 'righteous' forever, don't you?]
[All the while, knowing that you yourself are not.]
"Get lost. I said, get out of my sight!"
She denied it.
She denied the emotions, the sincerity.
She denied the self she had denied in order to always maintain the pretense of being righteous.
[Now you can't even bring yourself to use that tiresome 'I' anymore, can you?]
[Right. That's it, Cronus. You are exactly that kind of god.]
[Unable to do anything yourself,]
[ultimately leaning on others with all your might,]
[and then strutting around as if it were your own──a low, despicable, weakling youngest child.]
"Uh....Aah! Aaaaaahhh!!!"
She fled.
Where to?
Anywhere.
To a corner of the temple.
To the wall of a pillar.
Into a shabby, worn-out storeroom.
Behind a box piled thick with dust.
[She runs away. She catches her breath. She finds rest beneath a dust pit.]
[...Doesn't it remind you of the old days, Cronus?]
[Everyone has the right to reminisce about childhood, so I won't say anything in particular.]
"K-huuk....?!"
But the shadow followed her forever.
Her karma, her history, the time she had left behind—she could not sever it.
The continuity of time.
The connectivity of karma.
And, just as destiny itself does,
[Exactly the sight befitting your station.]
[It's like watching a small, frail rat hiding beneath a gutter, filled with nothing but greed.]
".............."
She closed her eyes.
She blocked her ears.
An act that could no longer even be called that of a god.
Yet, at the same time, if one asked if it was natural, it was an act terribly obvious.
Because
before a trial one cannot bear, the weak will always avert their eyes.
And the one who faced such an unbearable trial
[Chrono.]
[The hero who doesn't just defy destiny but shatters it.]
[Right. That child alone is the answer. That child alone is the light, the hope, the only way you can keep living.]
".....!"
She sought hope.
She searched for opportunity, wandered seeking somewhere to lean on, but
[...But then, didn't you go and kick even that opportunity away?]
"............"
Opportunity belongs to those who prepare.
To a mere ghost who hadn't even prepared and was bound by the past,
[Even the one opportunity given to you, was from another world, not of this earth.]
[The one existence in the whole world that still hasn't abandoned you, even if the world abandons you.]
[The world is truly heartless; a lifeline appeared to save you, abandoned even by the earth....]
[...You really are, still you after all.]
".........."
Opportunity was never seized.
[....Hmm? Ah, isn't that right, Cronus?]
[It can't be. It mustn't be.]
[But if that's truly the case...]
".......I,"
But that was only the 'general case' at best.
"I will go back. Again."
Cronus was the god who governed time.
Even a main god who had fallen to the ground, the dignity as a main god still held.
"If I can go back, if only I can go back again──!"
Thus──would it not be possible, just once?
If she cast away all her dignity,
burned up all her soul,
broke her will, set the divine throne aflame, and erased even her own temple.
"O Time!"
It didn't even have to be a long time.
Just half a year, no, just one year—if she could only go back,
then things would be different from now.
Unlike now,
she would give everything to Chrono.
And after that, from then on....
[I'm sorry, but that won't happen, Cronus.]
".....What?"
Time did not turn back.
Despite having resolved to burn her entire soul──time would not follow her will.
Why
Why.
Why...?
[No, actually, I guess it's not something to apologize for, is it?]
"..............."
The husk knew.
The past knew.
Something Cronus, who had only ever looked at herself in the present and future, could never know.
[Your soul, your dignity, your authority and power...at this moment, they aren't solely yours, are they?]
"......Ah."
Chrono.
The child with whom she swore an oath on the River Styx and shared her power.
And the child to whom she granted 'dignity' directly upon the soul, so it could never be reclaimed.
Therefore
[You are selfish to the very end, Cronus.]
[And]
[Consistently stupid.]
"Aaaah......."
Cronus felt it.
The sensation of her power as a main god, her dignity as a main god, disappearing.
[The main god does not regret.]
[The main god does not make mistakes.]
[The main god does not turn back.]
[So──how is it now?]
Cronus's power.
Cronus's dignity.
The 'power of the soul' that allowed Cronus to exist as Cronus—
[Everything was said by you, Cronus.]
"No, don't...don't do it...I couldn't, couldn't even go back...!"
It fell.
Her dignity, her dignity as a soul, fell.
Thus──the 'dignity' as a 'main god' also fell.
And so
['Time' is a power that only a main god can handle.]
[It cannot be granted to a mere 'ordinary god' of low dignity.]
The power vanished.
[Also, this place is the 'Temple of the Main God.']
[It must not be granted to a mere ordinary god.]
The position vanished.
[Still, it's fortunate. There is an existence who will inherit your dignity.]
[Your power, your existence, all of you—it will all be inherited by that child.]
[It might take a bit of time...but since he's the hero, won't it work out somehow?]
What was duly given went to the one meant to receive it.
[And you now...have no name, no position left either.]
[But don't worry.]
[After all, 'I' am 'your' 'husk,' aren't I?]
And what remained for the one who had lost all that was gained in vain—
[Congratulations, 'Rhea.']
"Ah....uh, ah....Aaaah.....!"
—was only the husk of herself left behind in the past.
Only the regrets of the past, the failures of the past, became herself.
[I will curse every moment of yours, every time of yours♬]
".............."
The main god who once commanded the heavens
was reduced to a frail woman and was banished.
As a side note,
"Sure enough, my instincts as a thief told me, didn't they?"
".......?"
at that moment, just as she was about to be banished to the underworld,
one main god accepted Cronus, accepted 'Rhea.'
"I figured something totally awesome would be lying around here...as expected of me!"
".....You are..."
The main god grinned and picked up 'Rhea' in his hand, saying:
"I was agonizing over what to fill the inside with, but this will work just fine!"
Hermes promptly smiled broadly at the thought of the recipient's reaction to the gift.