Chapter 68: Prison under the sea

<Infinity Abyss, present time>

The blue light reflects on the surface of a room encased inside a glass hexagon prism. There are no concrete walls, only glass that lets the woman look outwards at the blue view. The light projects the ripples of the water that surrounds the hexagon prism on her figure.

Her green eyes fill in melancholy and loneliness as she looks at the moving currents outside her prison. She has been trapped here for so long that she has already lost track of time. She feels like her soul has fallen into an eternal sleep inside her, preventing her from feeling any emotions. 

At a distance, a whale swims slowly on the water. 

'The guardian of records,' the woman thinks as she looks at the only existence that accompanied her for thousands of years while she is trapped in this isolated place.

She turns around, but her toes accidentally kick on the tiles that have risen up from the plants that have started to grow from underneath. She slumps down to hold on to her toe that throbs in pain.

She only knows that a long time has passed because her room has not been maintained. Like the risen tile that she has kicked, many other tiles in her room have also lifted. Plants grow underneath them and climb up the glass walls.

Looking at her bare feet, she sighs, 'Some shoes would be nice…' 

She stands up, and her green eyes begin to glow in gold. Widening her eyes in shock, she spreads a smile for the first time in a while. 

'Seems like today is different for me,' she thinks as she stands back up. 

Fate has finally started to move for her. There might be a chance for her to leave this prison.

The currents start to move rapidly and violently around the glass hexagon prism. A guest has arrived for the first time in thousands of years.

The woman's coppery wavy hair drops off her shoulders as she turns towards the smoke that starts forming without a fire. The smoke clouds together, forming a child-like figure, then it dispurses. A little girl lands on the uneven floor.

"Ah!! Geez! I almost twisted my ankle!" The little girl stumbles a couple of steps to the side to balance herself.

"Yue," the woman calls the little girl.

Yue smiles at Phanes, but her eyes are cold as ice.

"How have you been, Phanes?"

"What could happen here? There is nothing to do. You guys don't even bother giving me books after trapping me here. But you… a lot seems to have happened to you."

"Ah, this?" Yue turns in a circle, showing her current small body.

"I can barely sense your presence, Yue. What have you done?"

"Me? What else but getting busy for my master?"

"Yue… Why have you sacrificed so much of your essence? You know that is our life energy."

"I don't need to hear that from you, Phanes."

Phanes smiles, 'Right… How hypocritical of her!'

"Stop with your endless meddling with the mortal world, Phanes. You are supposed to be dead, but my master has been merciful towards you," says Yue while her smile fades from her lips.

"There is no difference between being dead or alive in my situation. Plus, your master is not keeping me alive because she is compassionate. She is searching for my essence reserves," Phanes remarks.

"For the greater good, don't you think you should at least donate that to her?"

"Greater good?" Phanes's shoulder shakes as she lets out laughs that echo in the room.

"What greater good are you talking about? Just because she managed to become the queen of gods by imprisoning me?" 

Yue frowns at her words. She hates it when anyone talks bad about her master. 

"Stop what you are trying to do! Everything is getting more twisted because you have decided to hide your essence in a world! Don't you know that Erebus's child has been suffering because of you?"

"Child? What child?" That word stabs into Phanes's heart.

"Oh! You didn't know? Erebus has a child… hehehe… He thinks you are dead… well, everyone thinks you are dead!"

Tears stream from Phanes's eyes. Despite the fact that Yue accomplishes what she intends to do when spewing such words, her heart shakes as she realizes what she has said.

"Are you happy now, Yue? If you don't have anything else better to do here, just leave." 

"Let those mortals back into their right time, Phanes. The gods are starting to panic!"

"You don't care about that, Yue… Stop acting all righteous."

"Give up, Phanes. You are never getting out of this place. After all, this place is specially made for you."

"That is what you are wrong, Yue. I will not fall just because of these kinds of things… I will take back what should be mine."

"You think my master will not touch you just because of your petty powers?"

Phanes smirks and says, "Yes. Exactly because of that, she cannot touch my life."

"How arrogant of you, Phanes…"

Yue looks at Phanes's tears flowing down her eyes. Those eyes that she has always been jealous of are dimmer than the ones she remembers. 

Yue turns around to leave. Her eyes narrow with complicated feelings, and Phanes senses the differences in her aura. 

'What am I thinking about?' Yue mocks at herself, 'I should not even be here…'

Yue's heart has been heavy ever since Kyrie and Ian entered into the statue and has not come out. Seeing her master's anger, her heart cannot stop shaking. Her thoughts plague with worry for those two, but she knows that she should not do that. She should not become empathetic towards those tools that are just for her master's use.

"You seem to have changed, Yue. Did something finally enter into your heart that is hard to yank off? Hehe… Even you have to experience these kinds of things…"

"You are mistaken, Phanes. I only care about my master."

Yue doesn't want to stay here anymore. Her weaknesses are being seen through by this goddess. However, it is not that surprising since they know each other for such a long time. 

Yue turns into smoke. Even though she has left for a while, Phanes doesn't take her eyes off from the place that Yue disappeared. The Yue she knew has changed in ways that were not in her prediction.

"That kid…" Phanes murmurs, "somehow can enter into our hearts so easily." In the sea of her memory, a young man of silver hair is smiling and talking to another young man whose eyes are more profound than the blue sea that surrounds her.

Phanes uses the back of her hand to wipe her tears that have accumulated on her chin. 

"So much for all you have told me, Erebus. You have promised me eternity, yet the first news I have of you for such a long time is that you have moved on. Am I also dead to you in your heart?"