Chapter 109 - Safe! For Now, That Is.

"Okay, explain from the top. Because I honestly don't understand what could have possibly led you to that conclusion."

"No no no dad, this is the part where you reject her outright not listen to her reasoning."

Arthur tried to get Hades on his side but-

""Be quiet for a second Arthur.""

-it was already too late.

"So it goes like this...."

Cattleya told Hades about the warning she gave Arthur after he fought Owen and about how Arthur fought the Valkyrie, who was an actual legendary realm, though she has no idea how Arthur was able to bring her down to the grandmaster stage and finish her off.

When she was done telling Hades everything, he simply nodded in understanding and spoke up.

"It's Ai-."

"Dad!!"

And he was interrupted by Arthur.

When he was just born, Cattleya decided that she didn't want Arthur to feel like he had some sort of great burden on his shoulders (the prophecy about him ending the gods), neither did she want to hold some sort of leverage over him.

The 'leverage' in this case, was the closest thing to his soul, his true name.

There are some special puppetry or control magic that make use of someone's true name to activate. 

The true name or any being was the closest thing to their soul, touching their true name meant touching their soul. 

This was why most beings carefully protected their true names from being fully known. At most, their parents would know their true name, as they are usually the ones to give it. However, this was only while they were a lower existence.

In other words, when a being reached the demigod realm, their true name changed and the new true name is known by that being alone and no one else.

As a member of the royal family of the Hell universe, she was privy to a lot of information about the kind of powerful beings that existed in universal sea.

Beings with a myriad of special abilities that had various effects. 

'There could be someone who could have a mind or memory reading ability that may just work on me without me even realizing.

If that person is one that either wants to use Arthur for their own goals or is his enemy, me knowing his true name would be simply delivering him to them on a silver platter.'

As such she suggested to Hades that neither of them, know Arthur's true name.

In other words, although Cattleya and Hades both decided on the name 'Arthurius', Cattleya had no knowledge of Arthur's middle name 'Aidoneus'.

Similarly, Hades had no knowledge of the Cattleya and Arthur's full Last name, 'Vaughnheim'.

'However, I'm questioning that decision now.'

Recently, it was safe to say that Cattleya had been loosing sleep due to her worry for Arthur. The problems his overwhelming amount of energy has caused and could potentially cause were the sources of her worries.

'And that negative energy, that thing is the bane of divinity, if it gets out that Arthur has something like that, the gods would begin taking action again.

Arthur's far too weak to defend himself now, so we have to prevent a situation where he needs to defend himself in the first place.

After all, we can't protect him forever.'

As such, she decided to deal with the source of the problem, in this case; his energy.

So in order to seal Arthur's energy with his true name like she said he would, she had to ask Hades what his middle name was.

That brings us to the current situation of Arthur stopping Hades from casually revealing the last bit of his true name to Cattleya.

"Arthurius...."

Arthur felt cold sweat all over his body due to Cattleya's glare. 

'Ah! She's pissed, but I can't back down here!'

While he tried to psych himself up to defend his true name from being found out by his mother, Hades had already succeeded in coaxing her to give it up-

"Just give him a last chance, if he pulls something crazy again, I'd do it myself."

-for now, that is.

'Ah shit! Dad's on board with her, I'm doomed!'

It seemed like he'd have to give up on fighting anyone or anything for the next few months, at least until sealing his energy away is off the table.

"Ah, I forgot to give that to mom, gotta go."

Cattleya suddenly remembered something and stood up from the couch, waltzing out of the room without even putting her shoes back on.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

After Arthur's strange countdown, the door opened again to reveal Cattleya who had been pushed back into the room by Belphegor, so she could wear her shoes.

"Walking around barefoot is not what a princess should be doing."

He walked into the room as he said those words, noticing Arthur and Hades, he gave his greetings.

"Gooday to you Sir Hades, Gooday to you your highness."

The two nodded while looking at Cattleya who jumped towards Belphegor in an attempt to hug him. Like usual, he caught her mid air and placed her on the ground with ease.

"I'm too tired to walk, carry me!"

"I do not recall high tier deities to have such little stamina."

"That's different, I'm just lazy. Carry me uncle Bel."

"Laziness is not a virtue a princess should have, also my name is Belphegor not Bel."

"What's the difference?"

With such small talk, the two left the room under the complicated gazes of Hades and Arthur.

"Seeing my own mother act like that is not a sight I want to see at all."

"What's weird is how you knew Belphegor was gonna send her back."

"He always pops up at times like this, expected him to do the same."

Arthur replied and walked over to the couch and sat down beside Hades.

'How should I say this now?'

"Just ask."

"Huh?"

"You want to ask something you don't want your mother knowing about right?"

"How do you...?"

Arthur was completely nonplussed as Hades was able to predict what he was about to do so easily.

He was thinking on how he was going to phrase the question he planned to ask, or rather, the request he had.

Hades just chuckled at Arthur's surprised face and said.

"Although i can't predict your thought process the way Cattleya does but I can at least tell when my son wants to request something of me."

Realizing he had been seen through, Arthur just decided to go straight to the point.

"I need Kronos' Blood."

"You need what now?"

This time, it was Hades' turn to be shocked. He could not understand why in hell Arthur would need Kronos' Blood.

"I want to use ancestral regression to make myself stronger. The lowest the spell considers as an 'ancestor' is a grandfather."

"Thus you need Kronos' blood huh?"

"Exactly."

Hades sighed in exasperation, he knew the reason Arthur wanted to get stronger faster, even going as far as to use ancestral regression.

'Damned Zeus, why is he thinking of starting a war over something that can be solved easily.'

He believed it was because Arthur did not want to he useless in the incoming war that was 50% because of his very existence, but Arthur had other thoughts.

'I have to make myself stronger so I can avoid that 'future'.'

He wanted to get stronger at a faster rate, in order to increase his chances of avoiding the 'future' he saw.

Normally, casting the ancestral regression spell as quite a big deal, but at this point, neither Hades nor Arthur were considering that at all.

"Fine, but we have to put that on hold, at least until I can bring you to Olympus safely."

"Huh? You can't just get it and bring it over here?"

"Doing that would require me to loosen some of the bindings on Kronos, can't have that happening."

Arthur knew that Kronos was sealed within Olympus and kept at the deepest part of Tartarus, however he didn't expect that even getting his blood out would not be possible.

"Guess I'd have to put that plan on hold Huh?"

"You most certainly have to."

What Hades believed to be the reason Arthur wanted to get stronger, was the very reason Arthur could not acquire the things necessary for that, in this case; Kronos' blood.

"Why don't you ask Diablo?"

"I planned to use both at once."

"That has a higher chance or failure. You know that right?"

Arthur stood up and walked over to the door before replying.

"I know, and that's precisely why I'd do it, after all, certain 'futures' must he avoided."

With those words, he left the room, leaving Hades who was pondering on the true meaning of Arthur's words.

◇　◇　◇

A purple haired man was laying on a couch, his eyes were closed and he seemed to be asleep.

The room he was in was furnished quite scantily, besides the couch he was on and the small stool beside it, there was nothing else, not even curtains on the windows.

The door opened and another man walked in, he dropped on one knee and spoke.

"Lord, it is ready."

The purple haired man finally opened his eyes and stared at the one kneeling by the door.

He stood up from the couch and stretched his arms out before walking out of the room, into the hallway outside it.

The kneeling man, also stood up and followed behind his purple haired Lord in silence.

After a few moments, he finally asked.

"Lord, are you sure 'it' is there?"