Chapter 161
‘This would be a piece of cake if Azar was here,’ Hades thought as he winced and struggled to find the tip of the endlessly tall tree.
He never thought that there would be a day when he missed Azar’s ability.
‘Ah.’
At that instant, something struck Hades’ mind. There were potions he got from Roxa thinking they might be useful.
Of course, the quite convenient potion of ‘teleportation’ of wind element was one of the first ones he picked up.
Hades hesitated.
The abilities unleashed through potions weren’t his, so there was a time limit.
He had no idea as to what kind of obstacles stood in his way to Gaionia. Would he need to use that potion for children who had nothing to do with him?
According to his cold-headed nature with no one to match, this was a no-brainer.
But he was weakened uncharacteristically.
‘Genus’ grave’ they called it.
He felt bad for Aisha who should have no idea such a place even exists. if she found out that children who hadn’t done anything particularly wrong were living eternity under this blazing sun to take care of her corpse from drying out…
‘I’ll kill him.’
‘I’ll really kill him, that deranged lizard.’
“Look, so I just need to go up and pick that apple or pear or whatever?” Hades asked and Atlas opened his eyes in shock.
“How would you go up there? Are you a wind elementalist?”
“I’m not, but I can use the ability for a short time.”
Slipping his hand into his inner pocket, he felt a few vials clanking against each other.
Looking inside, Hades took out one of the blue vials and opened it.
“Wow, you are a man of many talents.”
“Though the talent isn’t mine. Anyways, that’s all you guys need, right?”
“No, don’t bother wasting energy. You won’t be able to pick it even if you go up.”
“What?”
“Haha…”
Atlas laughed sheepishly and gave out a sigh.
“Only a child can pluck it.”
“Crap.”
Hades spat out a curse at once.
The children gathered around him flinched.
“We are fine. Don’t you worry about us and head on to Mundus.”
There was no other way. The wind elementalist may teleport not only himself but other beings too, but the momentary power of the potion would only allow him to move himself alone.
Hades thought it over, then waved in one of the taller and bigger of the children to approach.
“Hey kid, come here.”
The child stepped closer hesitantly and Hades shoved the vial to him.
“You, drink this and…”
“No, that child cannot do it. He will die,” Atlas interrupted once again.
“What now! Why! Why would he die?!” Hades shouted in irritation and Atlas drew back his neck like a turtle and muttered quietly.
“There is a magical snake beast up there called Anguis. He is there to guard the apple against being picked.”
“What? Geez…” Hades looked up at the sky helplessly.
He could understand what the ‘real’ punishment was for these children.
Torture of hope. That was it.
They hope that they will grow up one day. But they could never grow up.
They hope they would be able to pick fruit one day. But even if they reach through up to the sky they are destined to be eaten up by a snake.
This was not a matter Hades could help them to begin with.
Hades continued to laugh out loud helplessly and Atlas gave a small whisper.
“Er, I know this is too much for me to ask but if you are intending on helping us…”
Is there a way?
Hades turned to look at Atlas with his eyes sharp
“Could you just slay Anguis for us? Then I will climb up to pick the apple.”
“How are you going to do that? There is only one vial of potion. There would be nothing left after I spend it.”
Atlas smiled at Hades’ instant answer.
“I am a wind elementalist.”
“What?”
“All the children here arrived before they were able to awaken their mana, but I am an exception. Heh heh…”
“Why only you?”
“That’s why I am stuck like this. Because I am the only being that can go up there…”
Ah.
Hades once again gave out a dry laugh.
Even this was the hope torture.
A wind elementalist capable of teleportation would be able to pick the apple from that tall tree without an issue.
But there was only one reason why he could not.
“If I let go of this, all these children would die. If Mundus collapses, they will all be crushed.”
So the child who could make it up to the sky was trapped in a circumstance where he could not move.
‘I’m really going to kill that lizard,’ Hades thought.
Hades spoke through gnashed teeth as he stared at Atlas.
“You could have… tried to make it out alone.”
“Come now… killing all these children just so that I can survive alone?”
Looking at Atlas’ bitter smile, Hades suddenly recalled Abel.
Hades continued with a long sigh.
“Then what are you saying we do? After I slay that magical beast…”
“Could you please hold up Mundus, just long enough for me to go pick that apple safe and sound? Though it may not look it, it’s not all that heavy. No, maybe it kind of is…”
“Sure. I’ll do it.”
“Huh?”
“What are you so surprised about?”
“Y-you can say no if you want to. It is really too much to ask…”
“It’s fine. So I need to slay the snake first?”
“Y-yes…”
“Wait here.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Hades took a swig of the potion.
Wind element mana surged through his body. Hades unleashed that foreign mana without a moment to lose.
His altitude rose in an instant and he could see the top of the tree with thick leaves.
Thick branches and freshly wiggling leaves.
Unlike the dried-up land, the tree taken care of by little children was full of life.
Hades landed precisely on the solid branch and looked around sharply.
‘It’s red?’
Since this was a tree looked after its whole life, he thought there would be enough fruit for everyone…
but there was just one and it wasn’t even the ‘golden’ apple Atlas mentioned either.
Looking at the morish red apple, Hades was wincing when he gave out a sudden exclamation.
Through the wide leaves protecting like a fortress, there was indeed a golden apple Atlas mentioned.
It was when he carelessly reached out his hand towards it.
Shiiiick-!
There was a blood-chilling sound of a legless reptile crawling at a fast speed.
In an instant, a snake’s wide-open mouth filled Hades’ field of vision.
With its teeth stretched out and dripping filthy yellow venom, the magical snake beast charged as if it was about to chew off Hades’ head and…
[Kiyaaaa!]
…stopped right before hades’ nose and started to blaze up, screaming in agony.
Burning a few branches and leaves surrounding it, the magical snake beast turned into a pile of ashes in an instant and scattered below.
“That surprised me.”
Hade muttered in a voice that didn’t seem to be surprised at all. He then once again reached out for the golden apple.
Pzzt-!
“Ah shoot…”
He was hoping for a maybe but it was as he had expected.
Just as Atlas had said, it seemed that it could only be touched by a child. Hades couldn’t even lay a finger on the apple.
Though it was a shame. he had to leave the rest to Atlas.
In an instant, Hades landed back on the ground once again. Everyone including Atlas was looking at him with a look of disbelief.
“Y-you’re back already?”
“Yes. It’s just one snake, right?”
“Yes, i-it is. But really?”
“I said yeah, have you only been deceived all your life? But I also saw a red apple up there too by the way.”
“Yes, what we need to eat is the red apple.”
“But there’s only one of it.”
“So we must pick the golden apple. If we plant the golden apple on this land, we would have as many red apples as the number of children on this land.”
“Aha, I see.”
Hades nodded showing that he understood. he then threw aside the sword in his hand like it was nothing.
Looking at Hades posing to hold up Mundus in his place right away, Atlas asked hesitating.
“A-are you… really going to carry it in my place?”
“How many times are you going to ask?”
Hades stood his ground behind Atlas and reached out both his arms to hold up Mundus steadily.
Noticing that he has lifted up Mundus properly, Atlas slowly put his hands away.
The moment his hands were gone, the weight of Mundus fell entirely onto Hades.
“Hm.”
Hades’ mouth snapped shut.
Mundus’ weight was maximum weight just enough for the carrier to manage.
He knew that and was prepared for what was to come, but it was still a baffling amount of weight.
But he couldn’t show how tiring this was.
Atlas, a mere ten-year-old boy had been holding this up for a time too long to even understand.
“Are you alright?”
“Sure…”
“I-I’ll hurry back. But I haven’t used my ability in forever, so I won’t be able to return as fast as you, uncle. I would have to move a few times up the tree…”
“Uncle…what? You think I look like an uncle?”
“Huh, what?!”
Since he looked around the same age as Abel, calling his uncle would actually be rather appropriate, but…
It wasn’t the most pleasant of names to be called.
Hiding his struggle off his face as best as possible, Hades spoke.
“Call me bro. And You can be casual about how you talk. Didn’t you like here for quite some time anyways?”
“Ah…”
Atlas stood looking dumbfounded for a while then gave a smile.
“Okay, bro! Thank you so much! I’ll be right back!”
“You said you haven’t used your ability in a while. Don’t force yourself to hurry and slip for nothing, make a slow and safe trip.”
It was uncharacteristically caring of him.
Atlas was approaching the tree, then turned around to look back at Hades and gave a little smirk.
“Th-thank you so much, bro, I am so glad someone as nice as you came.”
Atlas’s innocent-looking smile reminded him of Abel.
Though he was doing something that took quite a lot of strength out of him, Hades spoke as he smiled back as if this was nothing.
“Sure, go on now.”
Atlas had left and children gathered around Hades chirping away.
“Do we all get to be grown-ups now? Wow, finally?”
“Thank you.”
It was good to see children smiling, each in their happiness.
Hades decided on boasting of this grand accomplishment to Aisha when he return home safe and sound.
If it was her, she would probably tear up and give him a kiss for such a good job he has done.
Thinking that, he felt like he couldn’t feel the fatigue anymore.
“Come here Sinya! A super strong grown-up has come to help us!”
At that moment, the gathered children split apart and someone ran through from the distance.
An adorable-looking little girl with her hair braided into two arrived before Hades looking somewhat desperate for some reason, being led by another child, taken by her hand.
It was a child who was rather grown compared to other children.
Looking at Hades holding up Mundus in Atlas’ place, the girl called Sinya collapsed to the ground right away.
“Oh no…”
For some reason the child’s eyes were full of despair. Hades was puzzled.