Chapter 195: Last Battle Together

The monster landed on the mountain near them and crushed it under its feet. 

The monster was five times the size of a normal adult human in height, It had two enormous wings, larger than its body, and trees were getting tossed around with its flapping.

It had a lion-like face, but it had a beak instead of a mouth, and it had dozens of small eyes all over its face.

It had two long fangs coming from below its beak, and they were going straight up and merging with its horns on the head.

It had six legs and one tail that was split into two edges. Its claws were long and sharp, and the monster used them to crush the mountain.

Its skin was hard scale, but it had furs on the joint area.

"I have slain many magical monsters but never seen one like this," Pavel remarked.

"Why is it here?!" Rosemary shouted, "I thought Zeus said he would take care of them."

"He probably missed this one because he was more focused on the other monsters," Rhea answered.

"This one is probably the weakest monster for him," Sophia added.

Pavel conjured his weapon— ax in his hand and prepared himself to fight.

"I will take care of it," he declared and turned to Rhea, then said with a gentle smile on his face: "Can you back me up for the one last time?"

Rhea smiled bitterly at Pavel and nodded: "Yeah."

"I will help too!" Rosemary asserted

"No. You protect Arnold and Sophia," Rhea ordered and rushed to Pavel.

Rosemary placed her hand on the ground and created an oval-shaped sand igloo around Sophia, Arnold, and herself.

Pavel and Rhea closed their distance from the monster and glanced at each other.

"This will be our last battle together," Pavel uttered with a wry smile on his face.

"Indeed," Rhea nodded in response.

"Let's go wrap this up." 

Pavel dashed at the monster, but Rhea, however, pushed Pavel and pinned him on the ground.

"What are you—"

She placed her hand on the ground, and Pavel's hands and legs were tied with sand shackles.

"Rhea! Stop this nonsense," Pavel uttered, extremely confused.

Rhea paid no attention to Pavel's words and laid down beside him. She got on top of him and kissed him on the lips.

Then, she pressed her breasts on his chest and kept kissing intensely. As they were kissing passionately, the monster started running towards them with its six legs.

Pavel tried to break the shackles and push Rhea on the side, but Rhea wasn't letting him move. She kept kissing him as though nothing else mattered in the world.

However, just as the monster was about to stomp on them, Pavel broke the shackles and dodged by jumping to the side with Rhea.

Pavel pushed Rhea against the tree and yelled at her: "Are you out of your mind?!"

"Maybe I am?" Rhea replied with a dry grin and dead eyes.

"What is wrong with you?!" 

Rhea wrapped her arms around Pavel's neck and answered, "If I can't live with you, then I will die with you."

"Rhea! Snap out of it." Pavel pushed Rhea back and placed his hands on her shoulders before continuing, "My time has come. You have to let go of me and move on."

"How can you say that! I can't move on! We have been together for millions of years! There is no way I can forget about you!" Rhea shouted on top of her lungs.

Pavel hugged Rhea and rubbed his hand on her back, saying, "It's okay. You will still have Rosemary and others with you so that you won't feel lonely."

"But I want you too!"

Even though they were millions of years old, Rhea was acting like a spoiled child who was in a rebellious phase. But anyone would have done the same if they were in Rhea's place.

Losing a loved one and knowing when you might lose them hits differently than losing loved ones in an accident. One might think either of them is worse than one of them, as one knew when they were going to lose someone, they would get a chance to say goodbye to them, but saying that last goodbye would be soul-breaking.

"There is Zeus too. You can travel with him," Pavel suggested.

"What… are…" Rhea started stuttering.

"You loved him before you fell in love with me, right? Now you have a second chance—"

"Don't!" Rhea shouted and slapped her hand on Pavel's lips: "Don't you dare finish that sentence."

After a brief pause, Rhea uttered, "It is true that I was indeed in love with Zeus, but he rejected me, and I was sad about that. But when I fell in love with you, I realized that the love I have for you was different from the love I felt for Zeus."

"It was like… like a… platonic love. Like a sister loves her brother." Rhea looked into Pavel's eyes and continued, "You know that us sorceresses can only fall in love with one person in their entire life, right?"

Pavel quietly nodded in response.

"So the fact that I fell in love with you proves that I wasn't in love with Zeus. I have only loved you for my entire life, and I will always be in love with you for the rest of my life."

She hugged Pavel and added, "Even if you are not with me."

Pavel patted Rhea and said with a wide smile on his face: "This always irked me that you were in love with someone else before me, but now that you have cleared this up, I can disappear with no worries."

He kissed Rhea and scoffed slightly as his voice began to break: "To be honest, I don't want you to move on or forget about me."

They bumped their foreheads together and stayed like that for a while until the monster made its presence known by shattering the mountain near them.

"Let's give it our all in our last battle together."