Chapter 592: The Cure: Eden [2]

"Let me get down first... I need to sit before I can explain properly," Elsa protested, her arms still wrapped around Damian’s neck.

Damian nodded and gently lowered her to the floor. Elsa straightened her dress before returning to the sofa, where she reached for her goblet and filled it with wine. Without hesitation, she gulped everything down in one go, leaving Damian staring at her in surprise.

The woman who had maintained her royal composure throughout their conversation now looked like someone desperately trying to gather the courage to reveal something she had kept buried for thousands of years. The weight she had carried for so long was finally catching up with her.

Only after refilling her goblet did she return her attention to Damian.

"Lazarus is the personification of Greed so he believed Abode belonged him.. but no demon clan, not even dragons are stupid enough to enough to fight a war for Abode... So he turned to the mining groups, gave them a clan, turned them into nobility, gave them incentives to dedicate more people, time and effort into mining Gildreachs resources. That is why Gildreach Vault has no real military force," Elsa explained.

Damian frowned and walked over to the bed, sitting on its edge as he considered her words. He took a deep drag of his cigar and released another plume of purple smoke into the air before asking,

"And what did this wealth achieve?" Damian asked.

"If patriotism and a shared goal cannot move people. The next thing that can move people is greed!" Abel said, his small black body hovering beside the sofa.

Elsa nodded firmly. "The money was used to hire mercenaries and equip them with the best of weapons in the realm. On repeated expeditions, Lazarus invaded that planet and tried to wrestle Eden from her hands o the surpeme deity only to be met with compete defeat... His greed became an obsession and when he could not get what he obsessed over, he ran mad and began reaching everything else without restraint."

Damian listened without interrupting. The explanation gave him a clearer picture of Lazarus’s reign, but it also revealed something far more troubling. The former Prince of Greed had not simply accumulated wealth for its own sake.

He had built an entire economic machine to finance a war against the Supreme Deity, repeatedly pouring resources into an ambition that had brought him nothing but defeat. Every failed expedition had seemingly driven him further into obsession until the man Elsa once knew had disappeared beneath the weight of his own inheritance.

There was sadness in Elsa’s voice, and for the first time, Damian felt that she was genuinely mourning the passing of her husband rather than simply explaining the history of Gildreach. Her fingers tightened around the goblet as she looked down at the wine, her expression becoming increasingly strained.

"I’m sorry but this may sound offensive to you as my financee. But before my ex husband lost his mind to his desire for Abode, he was an excellent husband to me and someone I deeply loved. He was not the weak minded and weak willed man you killed... What you liked was the husk of a man who had died 3000 years ago." Elsa said passionately, tears running down her eyes.

There was anger in her gaze, but it was not directed at Damian. She was angry at what had happened to Lazarus, at the obsession that had consumed him and at the countless years she had spent watching the man she loved destroy himself in pursuit of something he could never obtain.

The tears running down her cheeks carried the grief of someone who had lost her husband long before his actual death, someone who had been forced to watch his body continue living after the person she loved was already gone.

A cold breeze poured into the room, and silence settled over the chamber. Damian leaned back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, his eyes following the intricate patterns of the expensive chandeliers scattered above him. The cigar between his fingers continued to burn, sending thin trails of purple smoke toward the ceiling. For a while, he said nothing, allowing Elsa’s words to settle.

Then he finally spoke.

"You brought up the story of Eden to lure me into the same war that drove your ex mad."

Elsa’s expression faltered. The passion in her face began to fade as she realized what her explanation had revealed. She had intended to show Damian the possibility of healing his soul and obtaining immortality, but in doing so, she had also told him that the fruit he desperately needed could only be obtained from the Supreme Deity.

"That’s why I came here personally. She’s trying to use you to avenge the death of her husband," Abyss said coldly.

Elsa’s eyes widened, and she immediately turned toward Damian.

"I... I believe you can win. My husband doesn’t have the abyss, lust and greed Inheritance but you do..." she said quickly, her voice carrying an urgency that had not been there before.

Damian sat up. His eyes were empty and lifeless, and the sight made Elsa shudder. She recognized that expression. It was the same look she had seen on his face when he stared at Lazarus during their final battle, the gaze of a man who had already made his decision and no longer cared what anyone thought about it.

"Sire I apologize if there are any misunderstanding!" Elsa bowed immediately.

Damian did not react to her apology. He rose to his feet, his towering frame casting a shadow over the room as he extinguished the cigar between his fingers.

"It’s alright. I was the fool to think there could be any form of genuine affection in political alliances." Damian shrugged off her apology.

Elsa’s face snapped up in horror. "Sire!"

Damian raised one hand, signaling her to stop. He had no intention of arguing over whether she had deliberately tried to manipulate him or whether her grief had simply clouded her judgment. Either way, he had learned what he needed to know. Their marriage was a political alliance, and he had been foolish to expect that such an arrangement would come without hidden motives.

"I’ll seize Abode from the hands of the supreme deity as soon as I gain sufficient strength, so that your husband’s soul can finally rest in peace. You have nothing to worry about," Damian assured her.

Damian’s Fox Pendant shone brightly, releasing a pulse of power that filled the room. A stone gate bearing a fox motif appeared out of thin air, its surface covered in ancient markings.

Before Elsa could process the sudden manifestation, Damian’s enormous body began dividing into two. A second version of him emerged from the original, gradually taking shape until a much weaker clone stood beside him, possessing only one percent of his power.

Elsa stared at the clone, then turned toward Damian. She had believed that, despite their difficult conversation, they would at least spend some time together before he left. Instead, he was already preparing to depart, and the ease with which he created a replacement made it clear that he had no intention of delaying his plans for her sake.

Elsa hurried forward and blocked his path. "I didn’t mean it like that," she said quickly. "You are just as important to me..."

"And you are sending him to a place that killed your husband... Please," Abel sneered.

Elsa’s face tightened, but she had no immediate answer. She had not intended to make Damian feel like a replacement for Lazarus, nor had she expected him to interpret her explanation as a deliberate attempt to manipulate him. Yet she could not deny that she had hoped he would pursue the fruit, and she knew that her motives were not entirely free of selfishness.

Damian simply patted her hair and walked past her. The gesture was gentle, but it carried the finality of a conversation he had already decided to end.

"My clone will help you with administrative issues. The clans I have put in place will handle the logistics and military of the state... If I’m needed to step in at any point I will step in personally. I’ll see you later," Damian said while walking toward the room door.

Elsa remained where she was, watching him leave with an expression she could not quite settle.

Damian continued down the corridor, intending to collect the God vein crystals from Lareth before leaving for Velmora.