Novel Full Chapter 682: Warmth, Cold, Pain
Chapter 682: Warmth, Cold, Pain
When she moved toward him, Hades didn’t react with anger or defense.
He simply set down the document he’d been reading and spoke in an even tone.
“If you’re done, you should leave. I’m busy.”
Before she could speak again, he snapped his fingers.
The room vanished.
She was standing in an unfamiliar forest.
The anger didn’t leave.
It churned inside her, but the tears wouldn’t stop either.
She tried to force herself back to Hades’ palace, to demand the truth again, but her body wouldn’t move.
Her knees gave out.
She hit the ground and stayed there, trembling.
Her physical condition had been deteriorating for a century, but now, with her mental strength collapsing as well, her body felt like it could no longer carry her.
Even then, she clawed at the ground and tried to push herself up.
’He promised me he’d stay with me forever.’
’He definitely reincarnated into the 10th Eon.’
Maybe there had been a problem.
Maybe it was taking longer this time because the Eon had changed.
There had to be an explanation.
With shaking hands, she reached for the dagger at her waist. She pressed it to her chest, her limbs trembling from the effort, and took her life.
..
When she opened her eyes again, her memories were intact. She waited for ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself again.
..
She regained her memories, and waited ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
..
She regained her memories, and waited ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
…
She regained her memories, and waited ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years.
He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come.
She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself.
She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself. She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself. She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself. She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself. She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself. She regained her memories, and waited ten years. He didn’t come. She killed herself.
At some point, she knew.
She knew he was gone.
That he would never return.
But she kept killing herself.
Because maybe—just maybe—he would find her in the next reincarnation.
Maybe she had been born somewhere too isolated to track.
Maybe something else had gone wrong.
The reasons were fragile, almost absurd, but she held on to them.
If she stopped, it would be the same as admitting he had truly died.
Conflicting thoughts rose into her mind.
’I just need to reincarnate into the Ninth Eon.’
She knew it was impossible.
The 9th Eon was gone.
Not even the Witch of Time could send her there.
But she didn’t stop.
She couldn’t.
Eventually, her body and soul weakened to the point where she could no longer lift the dagger.
She couldn’t even stand.
All she could do was lie in bed, unable to move.
The weight of her own body had become too much to bear.
The tears still came.
“I-It hurts… hic… so… please… come back…”
“Come… back and… hic… console me… like you always do…”
Time lost meaning.
She stopped trying to keep track of it.
The knowledge that another day had passed without him was too heavy to bear.
It was easier not to know at all.
“I… I’ll never complain about training again… I won’t steal the cookies you make… hic… just come back…”
“…Please…”
She clung to her memories, desperate to hold on to their warmth.
But recalling them tore her apart.
Remembering his voice, his presence, it was almost unbearable.
It hurt to know that warmth was gone.
But somehow, staying in a world where that warmth had disappeared hurt even more.
She stopped going outside.
She stayed in her room, hiding in the dark.
Even if she reincarnated into a poor family, she would find a dark, empty place and live there until she died.
Seeing new places reminded her of him.
Each sight pulled at the memory of a time when they had travelled worlds together, and each reminder opened the wound again.
The darkness and cold were easier.
When her body shivered, the physical pain dulled the ache in her chest, if only slightly.
A thousand years passed.
She stopped hoping.
Her body lived, but her mind had fallen into a state where it no longer reached for anything.
Ten thousand years passed.
One day, an owl landed on the windowsill.
It tilted its head, studying her with unblinking eyes.
Once, Moraine had been strikingly beautiful.
Her beauty had been the sort that drew eyes no matter where she went.
Now, her hair was dry and tangled.
Her lips were cracked and bleeding.
Her skin was pale and stretched thin over bone.
Her cheeks had hollowed in.
Her frame was no more than a shadow of what it had been.
As the owl watched her, a panda climbed the wall from outside, pulling itself up until it reached the window.
It glanced at her, then looked away, biting its lip.
“It’s always painful to watch a Witch who’s lost her loved one,” the owl said.
Moraine didn’t react to the strange animals.
Her eyes barely moved.
The owl fluttered inside, landing beside her.
“Moraine.”
She remained motionless.
“I’m Vornaz, the Demon of Ruin. This is one of my different manifestations—”
“Contract…. W-with me…”
Her voice cracked, but the words came out without hesitation.
She tried to push herself up, but her body failed her.
She fell back against the bed.
Even so, she reached out her hand toward the owl.
“…C-contract…”
The syllables were weak, but clear.
The owl looked at her for a long moment.
Pain flickered in its eyes.
Demons might’ve been created to cause havoc and destruction, but they stopped caring about it long ago after several Eons went by.
For Vornaz, who had spent countless years beside ’him’ and Moraine, watching her like this was no different from watching her daughter breaking apart.
It sighed, then hopped closer.
Lowering its head, it stabbed its beak into her finger, drawing blood.
It licked the blood away, and its form began to shift.
Feathers gave way to steel.
The owl transformed into a sword.
It was the same sword that had always been at ’his’ side.
Moraine ignored the pain in her hand, and the weakness in her limbs.
She tried to wrap her fingers around the hilt, and with effort, she activated its Authority.
“S-search for… him….”
The Authority activated.
She felt it moving.
And…
There was nothing.
The result was clear.
He was not in this Eon.
He had truly died in the 9th Eon.
Her hand fell away from the sword.
Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.