Chapter 129: Pathways

Hubris got up in a panic. Looking at how calm the monkey King was, he had to talk himself down.

"Well, help him, what are you doing!" He demanded.

"He'll be fine. He doesn't need help, this is a normal path for those creating energy veins, he won't die."

He decided to trust him. He had no reason to lie anyway, if he wanted them dead he could've done it with a snap of a finger. Unless he was a sick individual who enjoyed playing with his food before eating. He shook his head, as if to physically shake off the thought.

"Then, what happened?" He sat down and listened attentively.

"When your father ascended to the throne, was around the same time I ascended to godhood. That's why we've never met, me and you, otherwise, I'm your uncle.

"Anyway, that's also around the time they started poisoning him, subtly enough so that even their King wouldn't notice anything. Of course the subtleness made it so the poison worked extremely slow. But they were not looking to kill him with it, just weaken him.

"When you were born, it complicated everything. Of course by this time, I could only watch from afar..." He trailed off and paused.

Despite being a god, that's supposed to be unfeeling, this one memory did a number on him. It was the first ever incident, when he had to watch the person he loved the most in this world suffer, without being able to help. Back then, he even renounced being a god because he wanted to get down there and cause havoc but that was obviously rejected.

If he had to fix one regret he had in life, if he could go back. He wouldn't have looked for the fruit that made him a god, he would've stayed by his friends side because then, he would have been able to protect him and his offspring.

All this feeling of despair and regret happened in a span of a second but to a god that could very well be an eternity. Despite how quick he was to compose himself, Hubris felt it. He saw it. The sadness he carried because he had lost something precious.

"Are you—"

The monkey King stopped him from finishing the sentence by raising his hand. He hated how he could've shown his nephew his pitiful side. He stilled his very cold heart, he owed it to Hubris to at least tell him the truth about this.

"It had been a lot of years since the poisoning when you were born. I was sure you'd die, because of that poison you were born weak, I'm surprised you were able to go against heaven's fate and became an ancient beast, something not even your father achieved.

Hubris was now worried, he'd grown close and attached to this strange man, he hoped he didn't use his other half of life energy just to get them here. That would've been a waste he thought, he could've lived his whole life without knowing the whole story.

"Don't worry about me, I'm not going to vanish any time soon. We plan to go on a trip with your father, rumour has it there's a mysterious medicine for my condition.

"Though it's never been found. But if anyone can find it, it's your father and I. If it were up to your father, he wouldn't want you to avenge him but he gets the sense of how stubborn you are."

"Of course I'll avenge him. I decided this even before we met you. The story only strengthened my weak resolve. I also have my master by my side, we've been through thick and thin together, nothing can deter us."

The monkey King nodded. He'd seen first hand of their loyalty to each other. It was unwavering and the most beautiful thing to watch, it reminded of himself and his friend.

Kiro had heard everything while creating his energy veins. He turned around sobbing hard, he couldn't believe how far the devs went with creating Hubris and his backstory. It was too real and it was too sad.

"Who's cutting onions here." He complained, attempting to wipe the tears but more just came pouring out.

Since he was pretending not to be, the beings in the room pretended he wasn't either. The monkey King instead focused on his energy veins, they were perfectly made, he had no complaints.

"You're kind of impressive kid. Well, I'd toss you aside if you weren't at least this good."

Kiro simply shook his head, he didn't understand why he didn't just compliment him normally.

"You guys have a war to start. You can get the hell out of my space."

"Uh, you gave this to me."

He thought back, "I did, didn't I. I'll still need it for another 18 months."

Kiro gave him a whatever look and started using his pathways to store Kaos.