Free Web NovelChapter 264: Chapter 264 Melifilia’s Purpose_1
The heavy dungeon door opened before Aiden as he grasped the lantern and stepped boldly into the cell.
Melifilia was awake today, staring straight at him.
"Oh my, today’s expression is quite... serious," Melifilia flashed her usual teasing smile, "One might think you’re here to catch a cheater."
"Do you want to play a game?" Aiden asked.
"I’d like to, but it seems you’re not in the mood," Melifilia smiled.
"I don’t mind. We can talk as usual while we play," Aiden replied indifferently.
Aiden indeed had no inclination to play board games with the goddess before him, but from the moment he entered, he realized that Melifilia had anticipated the purpose of his visit.
Seeing her demeanor, Aiden understood that his impatience would be futile. Before the composed goddess, any attempt to question her angrily would only look ridiculous.
Melifilia’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, then she squinted them with pleasure, "I quite like that attitude of yours."
"So, what shall we play?"
"The usual," Melifilia used her telekinesis to bring out the set of flying chess they often played.
Aiden sat down at the table and set up the pieces alongside Melifilia.
"What do you want to ask?"
"You once told me that you had grown tired of the worship of the Blood Moon Cult and so you abandoned them... but in reality, it was ’Mr. Blood Robe’ who betrayed you, wasn’t it?" Aiden rolled the dice as he spoke.
With his first roll, he scored six points.
"My, you’re quite lucky today!" Melifilia first commented on Aiden’s roll, then she slowly answered his question, "It seems you already know about the other conditions of the ’Hatred’ Divine Power?"
"Did you ever use him as your pawn, making him help you seize the ’Hatred’ Divine Power?" Aiden pressed on.
According to the information provided by the Reaper’s proxy, Melifilia had once bestowed her blessing upon Mr. Blood Robe.
The Reaper’s proxy gained Divine Power through killing, acting on the will of the Reaper. Kael received immortality from the Progenitor, as the Progenitor needed him to do her bidding.
Thus, Mr. Blood Robe was likely Melifilia’s "proxy" back then, having seized the ’Hatred’ Divine Power from the ’Revenge Sanctuary’ presumably under Melifilia’s orders. Seizing power from a ruler without the push from another ruler was probably as hard as reaching the heavens.
"Well done, you haven’t disappointed me," Melifilia beamed with a gratified smile, "He was a pawn of considerable quality. I instructed him to seize the ’Hatred’ Divine Power to hold it for me—because ’I’ wasn’t able to absorb the ’Hatred’ Divine Power directly. And yet, that man chose to betray me without hesitation and monopolize the power for himself. Truly, it was a great disappointment."
Finally, it was Melifilia’s turn. She rolled the dice and also got six points.
Disappointment?" Aiden picked up the dice, looked up at Melifilia, and suddenly let out a cold laugh, "Stop joking."
"What?"
"You, a deity capable of reading minds, how could you not foresee his betrayal?" Aiden calmly replied, "It must be quite difficult for a mere mortal to deceive you, isn’t it?"
"What do you mean by that?" Melifilia asked with interest.
"His betrayal was actually within your expectations, wasn’t it?" Aiden, while gazing at the chessboard, moved a piece as he spoke.
"Then why would I do that?" Melifilia inquired, her tone not so much questioning as proposing a riddle. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Instead of replying directly, Aiden countered with a question of his own, "Tell me first, if a person fulfills the conditions for the ascension ritual before obtaining the Divine Decrees and the corresponding unique authority, in that case... "
"He will be recognized by the authority the moment he masters the Divine Decrees and gains the sole authority," Melifilia answered before he finished the question, "Just as you think, the order of completing the ritual conditions and obtaining the authority doesn’t matter, even if... it’s done unintentionally." freewebnoveℓ.com
"So, your purpose is to cultivate an ’enemy’ and to execute a ’revenge’ that belongs to you in advance, before getting hold of the authority?"
Aiden cast the dice again as he spoke, this time getting a six—he could choose to launch the next piece into play, or move the piece that had come out six spaces forward, and on the sixth space in front of that piece was precisely where Melifilia’s piece stood.
"Oh dear, you’ve caught me," Melifilia watched, wide-eyed, as Aiden sent her piece back to start, exactly reaching a square of his color to "fly" forward, and then moved forward four more spaces with the additional roll of the dice.
She picked up the dice with psychokinesis and threw, but only rolled a one, missing her turn in vain.
"But the question is..." Aiden, holding the dice, looked straight into Melifilia’s eyes, "why didn’t you personally finish him off?"
"And what’s your take on that?" Melifilia tilted her head.
"I’m saying, you couldn’t possibly be thinking of... using me as the springboard for that ’betrayal’ ritual, could you?" Aiden furrowed his brow.
The situation today could very well be said to be crafted by Melifilia’s very hands.
The man in the blood-red attire who killed the previous Aiden, the ’hatred’ authority he held, was obtained for him by Melifilia; his act of betrayal was long anticipated by her.
Thereafter, she led the heresy tribunal to dismantle the Blood Moon Cult and also secretly reached some sort of "agreement" with the former Aiden.
It was probably her actions that made the man in blood-red mark "Aiden Galahad" as his enemy.
Then, she placed a safeguard on Aiden, preventing the man in blood-red from killing "Aiden Galahad."
After realizing his situation, Aiden had no choice but to rely on Melifilia and strive towards acquiring Divine Power, in order to secure a means of protecting himself from the man in blood-red’s "revenge."
During this process, Melifilia could choose a time to commit a "betrayal" against him.
But upon hearing his response, Melifilia shook her head with a sense of regret instead of the previous satisfaction and approval, "How can you doubt me so? My feelings for you are—"
"Don’t give me that nonsense no ghost would believe, I get goosebumps," Aiden interrupted her before she could finish.
"Hopelessly unromantic," Melifilia muttered under her breath, then gave Aiden a meaningful smile, "But surely, you don’t really believe I would need to do that, right?"
