216. The girl's name is Rhea.
216. The girl's name is Rhea.
[Advent──Apostle of Cronus]
"....Keuk!"
It was the first Advent he'd used since the Ares Guild.
Since he'd already experienced it once, there wasn't much rejection, but there was an oddly uncomfortable feeling.
As an analogy, should he say it felt like forcing water into a glass until it overflowed?
He could feel power being wasted and leaking out from various parts of his body.
'So this means I'm still not ready.'
On the outside, it seemed he had almost returned to his former appearance, but there were still many empty spaces.
For now, if he consciously focused, he could feel the holes disappearing, but plugging one made another leak out.
However, trying to consciously block his entire body felt like a water balloon filled to the brim.
A pressure that made him worry if he kept taking in water like this, he might just burst.
Ultimately, it seemed he had to accept a certain amount of waste in order to endure as himself.
"Still, it's way better than last time."
He hadn't paid attention before because he'd used it so frantically, but now that it was his second time, he could definitely feel it.
That thing where an aura surges around the body when Protagonists awaken?
That was just power leaking out because they couldn't control it.
That's why his whole body shrank, he turned into a shota, and became baby Chrono going goo-goo ga-ga.
'Anyway, now I need to look for it.'
A monochrome space.
Wrapping his entire body in 'Time,' he walked, stirring time.
He wasn't sure if 'walking' was the right expression, but anyway, he walked.
"Nothing visible around."
There was nothing. A monochrome space.
It just felt like swimming through heavy, ashen water.
It felt like thalassophobia and claustrophobia were hitting him at the same time.
'Perfect place to drive someone mad if they stay too long.'
He took a moment to breathe and focused 'Time' into both eyes.
"[Present Sight]"
Eyes that gaze upon 'Time.'
Through this, he would capture the 'Time' of 'that bastard' somewhere.
He slowly opened both eyes and looked around.
000000000000000
000000000000000
000000000000000
000000000000000
000000000000000
"....Ah?"
Nothing was visible.
To be precise, only the fact that 'it was not visible' was visible.
'What kind of bullshit is that.'
Even as he said it, it was hard for him to understand.
But that was literally what it meant.
Not visible, was visible.
Stop. Time had stopped. If the concept of 'stop' were visible to the eye, wouldn't it feel like this?
"Ugh.... Urgh...!"
A sudden surge of disgust.
He forced it down past his throat and looked around.
000000000000000
000200000000000
000006000000000
000000080000000
000000000010000
".........."
Amidst the countless 'stops,' it was the only trace that was 'playing.'
Thin and slender, like a thread, it connected to his house and stretched far away.
'It's this.'
He knew it intuitively.
If he followed this line, 'that bastard' would appear.
He immediately turned his steps to follow the line and ran──no──tried...?
".....Shit."
He ran. He tried to run.
But the moment he tried to actually run, something strongly held him back.
A strange and unfamiliar sensation. A sensation as if someone was speaking to him.
To dispel the persistent sense of disharmony, he relieved his anxiety by scratching his head with the handle of Squite.
─Pajik!
"Kyaak?! Kk... Uhh?"
A sudden, tingling pain hit him.
As he rubbed the back of his numb head with the back of his hand, Squite kept vibrating its body.
"....What is it."
It looked like it had nothing to say.
The real issue here was how the hell he could understand what a tool was saying.
"If you have something to say, say it with words. Huh?"
─Uung... Uuuung!!
Squite kept vibrating, going uung uung.
Going uung uung isn't cute at all, so if you're not gonna talk, how about just shutting up?
He was already feeling impatient because 'Time' kept leaking out of his body more and more, so what on earth did this bastard want to say?
─Uung... Uuuung~~
"...With you? Cut it?"
The line where time was connected.
He felt as if he was being pulled toward that line.
So he asked, just in case.
─Uuuung!
"Yeah?"
Squite shook its body even more violently.
Actually, getting an immediate answer was basically like brute-force trial and error, but when it came to 'Time,' Squite probably knew better.
As Squite wanted, he slashed toward the 'line' of time with Squite.
─Seugak!
"Oh!"
A cool sensation at his fingertips.
He admired the pleasant feeling of cutting for just a moment.
─Seuuuuung...!
"Uh, uhh? Uhhhh!!"
He was being sucked in.
He was being strongly sucked into something.
The direction, the location, was probably where this 'line' began.
"You...!"
─Uuuung!
He could tell instinctively.
That if he followed this pull, at the end, 'that bastard' would appear.
"I thought you were just a son of a bitch with no strengths who only hit me in the back of the head!"
─......?
"But you're a bastard who delivers when it counts?"
─.....;;;
Squite was wavering, not knowing whether to be pleased or not.
Calling it praise for now, he stroked Squite's blade once and threw his body into the force that was pulling him.
And so
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"....Chrono."
He was finally able to face 'Rhea' after a long time.
*****************
'A miscalculation.'
She had already looked down on Chrono's skills.
Lately, it seemed he had grown stronger by borrowing divine authority and receiving advice from Hestia, but still, he was only human.
She thought he could never reach her as long as he hadn't reached the 'Divine Realm.'
"Squite... So it's your power."
─Uuuung...!
The fellow faintly radiating divine power in Chrono's hand.
Unable to contain himself as if the divine power he'd tasted after a long time was very pleasant, he was a troublesome one, just as always.
'Anyway, this has become troublesome.'
Originally, such an encounter should not have been possible.
Even if Chrono could walk the gaps of time, it should have been impossible for him to arrive at where she was.
The gap of time was something close yet never easily narrowed.
Even if he could pinpoint her location, unless he had awakened to 'Time,' he should have collapsed, struggling in the 'gap' that would last a lifetime.
But──to think he would intervene in 'Time' using Squite's power, that was truly an unknown variable even for her.
"It seems you are quite fond of him. You look much happier than when you were by that Cronus's side."
─Uuuung....
"Ha! That's even more ridiculous. A mere creation daring to choose its master?"
─.....Uuuung!
Squite spoke.
That Cronus had already fallen into ruin.
That he had rotted away with the flow of time, with the flow of years.
That there was no sense in keeping as a master one who was ultimately buried by his own power at his end.
Rather than rotting away together in the hands of one slowly decaying, it would be held in the hands of a newly born successor.
Truly, Squite's behavior, so far removed from loyalty and trust, seemed to show the vessel of Cronus.
"Amusing. Even his own creation rejects that being."
Ridiculous.
Beyond ridiculous, it was amusing.
Just how far did he intend to fall?
She was dying to see the face of that bastard, who looked down from the sky as if he were king.
"............"
"Hmm? Ah, I apologize. It was never my intention to ignore you."
Chrono wore a blank expression.
Rhea lightly apologized and continued.
"So, what is the reason you have come here? Why have you come seeking me, using even your 'Advent,' twisting your unripe body even as it remains half-formed, into a half-god?"
"...You asking because you really don't know?"
"I truly do not know."
Sincerely.
With all her heart.
Rhea could not understand what was troubling Chrono.
"Do you wish to leave this world? If so, accept my gift."
"....Rhea."
"It is a gift I obtained by investing my own time and my own body. A 'reward' prepared solely for you, thinking solely of you."
".............."
A look that seemed to say, 'Let's hear it for now.'
Rhea slowly approached Chrono.
"By chance, did it not please you? I thought it would suit your tastes."
"Tastes or whatever, I told you I don't want to embrace a woman I have no heart for?"
"That woman is a child I saved and rescued with my own hands. The disposal of a child saved by a god's hand simply follows the god's will."
"....Tch."
Chrono clicked his tongue.
Finally, Chrono asked.
"You, what is your identity?"
"....You doubt my identity?"
"Well, of course I do."
Because
"You... look exactly like a bastard I fucking hate."
"Hate, you say. That wounds me a little."
"...Though you seem strangely different in weird ways."
Was that right? Was it not?
No... Actually, she was exactly the same, wasn't she?
Chrono clicked his tongue several times, contemplating, and finally pointed Squite and asked.
...
..
.
"You──by any chance, are you Cronus?"
".....Ha?"
Cronus.
Me? Cronus?
"What... nonsense....."
"No matter how I look at it, that seems to be the case."
"............."
Endure it.
He's a human.
A foolish and lacking human.
Idiots and morons who raise their voices as if they became kings while the deity's seat was empty.
So endure it. Endure and be patient.
And simply ask questions suited to the level of those creatures.
"Why... do you think so?"
"No. Honestly, just look."
You can handle time, too.
You communicate with Squite.
On top of that, your actions, your personality, even your appearance is similar.
"And on top of that, doing this kind of fucking bullshit, no matter how you look at it, you're that bastard..."
"Ah."
A feeling as if something snapped, ppajik.
"Thi──"
"Thi?"
And then
"──You fool who wouldn't be punished enough even if I ripped you to death!!!"
"Ugh?!!"
She pulled at 'Time.'
'Time' was, Put another way, 'Space.'
As long as one couldn't handle 'Space,' they were absolute under the domain of 'Time.'
─Kwadeudeuk!
"───Cough...?!"
She pulled 'Time' and pulled 'Space.'
Outwardly, it was a simple straight punch.
But the destructive force caused by time compressed to its limit was absolute.
"Kkureuk?! Kk... Gghuuhp...!"
"Listen well, you fool."
Chrono fell to his knees, spewing his insides from the attack that had happened in an instant.
Rhea sat on Chrono's back and spoke.
"My name is Rhea."
The wife of that son of a bitch you spoke of,
and the goddess who detests that bastard more than anyone else.
.....As a side note
─Uuung?
Squite finally thought the deity had gone mad.