"I'm sorry, Ariel, I am. It's what I had to do to pass Noah's test, I swear. If I hadn't agreed I wouldn't have passed, I had to take that gamble." James said, and it seemed to hurt Ariel even more.
"I don't care, I have no intention to lose another child of mine, not again," Ariel said it was obvious that these words stabbed James' heart.
James didn't think he would be so sad on such a beautiful day, he thought Ariel would be happy for him.
"Look James, I didn't join you to go through the pain of having a child again. I didn't want to watch you from afar and watch you go and kill yourself and regret it, so I joined you. You may be cruel, but you're also a very kind and innocent child, and you forget that. The Tower is full of cruel, disloyal and disgusting people.
You can be sure, that even the demons are better than most angels, that's how stupid this tower is." Ariel said and continued without even giving James a chance to speak:
"I've told you many times that I consider you my son, and I don't want what happened to my daughter to happen to you. You're strong, you're even strong enough to fight me at my full power right now and kill me, but you're not a god, you're not a creator, and you can die, James."
"Ariel...." James could only bring himself to say the name of the sad old woman in front of him.
"You gave me not only a reason to live but also Miracle who I can love like a granddaughter and Nemesis who I can love like a daughter even though she's way way older than me, strangely Nemesis treats me like I'm your mum, well technically I could say that. How can I face them if you go and die? How can I face them when I'm the one who should be there for you?"
James took a deep breath as Ariel finished, he seemed to know what she was going to say, but he refused to speak. Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
He pulled a cloth from his inventory, wiped Ariel's tears away, then smiled and said, "Both you Ariel...and Nyx, I have two mother figures in my life. I have met many people and made many family members, but I must have forgotten...how those around me cared for me.
Forgive me, I will do things like this again in the future, there will be events like this, but you all will not leave my mind for a second so I will always come back, I promise." James said.
When Ariel heard these words, the sadness on her face began to disappear and then she hugged James, saying, "This...is acceptable."
Everything seemed awkward between the two of them for a few minutes after that, James trying hard not to laugh and shaking his head slowly up and down.
Amid all this awkwardness, the doors to the parlour suddenly opened and Theseus walked in.
James and Ariel suddenly turned to each other and a small laugh broke out between them, Theseus smiled awkwardly and asked, "I can't look that funny, why are my two best friends laughing at me?"
"It's not because of you Theseus, I'm glad you're here, I really am glad that you're here." Ariel said, and although she didn't quite believe it, Theseus shook his head and said, "I came at your request James, I heard you had something to tell me."
James shook his head when he realised that the two had finished talking and then said, "I was going to ask you to find me as much poison as you can find on the 5th floor, and since I haven't seen you face to face in a long time, I wished we could meet and have dinner."
Theseus seemed surprised by what he heard, he did not know why someone like James wanted poison. It seems Poseidon had not informed his followers like Moros.
"Poison Master," Ariel said, pointing to James with her head, a mixture of concern and anger evident on Theseus' face.
"Have you gone mad? How could you even try to do something like this?!" Theseus shouted, he had the same reaction Ariel had.
"Don't even try Theseus, I went through the same thing before you came, thanks to Noah the examiner." Ariel said and with those words, Theseus moved his head to the right in a strange way and said "If you say so Ariel." and sat down on the floor.
James got up from the throne and went down the stairs and sat down opposite Theseus, took out a few pieces of food put them on the cloth he had put on the floor and signalled Ariel to come.
Ariel had become close friends with Theseus during the battle of the 5th floor and the pair were among the closest to James, which meant that the three friends were reunited after some time.
Conversations and laughter echoed through the huge hall and the trio enjoyed the fun, while in the empty hall of Olympus, other conversations were taking place.
-----
"I don't know who they are, but we're sure they're on the move, they're somehow managing to bring the Fallen Gods out of the forgotten time," Gaia said suddenly, as all the titans seemed to have gathered and entered into a meeting.
"Yeah, and we can't even find out who they are!" Coeus muttered.
"This is ridiculous! I've scanned the entire tower from top to bottom, the first floor and even the tutorial floor, nothing!" shouted Hyperion.
"We know what they're up to, we shouldn't leave him alone, are we sure Theseus will be enough?" asked Phoebe.
"I don't know, it's obvious they're after James' destiny, they've managed to move the fifth floor, which he'll come back to in a heartbeat, and the ninth floor, which he has to pass through. The person Nyx killed was one of them, what was his race?" Theia said with great curiosity.
Eyes turned to Nyx with that question, each one of them had to watch this great woman, the strongest of them all, with curious eyes.
"He was human."