Chapter 444: Aiolos in Despair

Ambrose had never imagined he would see Aiolos like this.

A missing arm? Aiolos could grow a new head from a stump. Why didn't he kill himself and come back whole?

But something was clearly wrong.

Ambrose could sense that the Crown of Madness-like effect that had stained Aiolos's soul was gone, but his soul was not whole. It was as though a piece had been removed.

Ambrose looked at the lobster-girl standing beside him, who bore a striking resemblance to the Ragetide Kingdom's princess. "You gave her part of your soul?"

Aiolos looked exhausted to his bones. "Old friend, I... let me rest for a moment... I'll explain everything..."

He didn't finish the sentence before passing out.

The lobster-girl caught him with quick hands. She was agile, but there was something off about her—beyond instinctively protecting Aiolos, everything about her was blank and mechanical. Even her expression was vacant.

Ambrose could see immediately that her soul was severely damaged. If Aiolos's soul had a piece missing, this girl's soul was barely there. The fact that she was alive at all qualified as a miracle.

"Interesting."

He opened his private space and sent them both inside. The moment they entered, he used his temporal stasis to freeze both of them in place.

"Well. Does this count as fulfilling the prophecy, walking into my trap and getting caught by my temporal stasis?" he said to himself, as he walked over to Aiolos and tried to read his soul.

The moment he made contact, Aiolos's body shattered completely.

Not even the temporal stasis could stop the collapse, and it wasn't just Aiolos. The lobster-girl's carapace cracked apart as well, flesh and shell breaking open as though something had exploded from inside.

Then came the regeneration. Aiolos grew back, but his arm did not. The lobster-girl regenerated too, crying out in sharp pain.

The temporal stasis had failed. Ambrose reimposed it immediately, but the effect held Aiolos for only a few seconds before the cycle began again.

Aiolos gasped for breath. "What did you do to me?"

Ambrose didn't answer the question. He just said, with genuine interest: "Remarkable. The divine blessing is strong enough to break through temporal stasis, but it requires a death first. Normally, temporal stasis makes dying impossible, but your soul is so severely damaged that even the lightest contact causes it to collapse, triggering automatic regeneration.

"Aiolos, what in the world happened to you?"

The question made Aiolos look away. "I was deceived," he said. "All of it was a lie."

"I see," Ambrose said. The last time Aiolos had shown up shouting that he'd been deceived, he had immediately attacked. Ambrose genuinely did not know what to say.

But Aiolos didn't notice the awkwardness. He was already speaking, working through the memory.

"Blobdilpulp deceived me. She turned me into her weapon and used me to lead the kouto into the fight for this sea..."

When Aiolos had prayed to Thanos that first time and received no answer, he had done so under Blobdilpulp's influence. The deranged goddess had used her divine power to exploit Aiolos's spiritual vulnerability, planting a curse that prevented clear thought and kept him in a sustained state of anger and irrationality.

The kouto had gained a formidable commander. The early results had even been reasonably good: the kouto had secured more ground than they might have otherwise.

But when Aiolos ran into Ambrose again, he tasted real defeat.

Later, when word came that the lobster-girl Ariel had been attacked, Aiolos had broken off mid-battle to return to her. He had arrived too late.

The physical damage was significant, but the worse injury was to her soul.

The attacking shagin had somehow obtained a small quantity of ixiray blood and used it as a weapon during the fight. The girl's soul had been severely wounded.

"I brought Ariel straight to Blobdilpulp and begged for her help. She said she would heal her, but it was a lie from beginning to end. She had no intention of helping Ariel. She was going to fabricate a replacement to deceive me."

At the time, Aiolos had been stunned. The lobster-girl was wearing the sea-conch he had given her; through it, he had seen everything happening to her.

He had watched Blobdilpulp casually grab two lobsters and a kouto, and use their flesh to construct a perfect copy of her. Then she had simply sent the copy to Aiolos.

Through the conch's connection, Aiolos had watched the whole sequence of events. His real Ariel had been discarded, left barely alive somewhere in the ocean.

Perhaps not personally killing the lobster-girl had been Blobdilpulp's last shred of practical judgment, but it had also given Aiolos the chance to find his "real" beloved.

But the spiritual damage was killing her. Aiolos had no idea how to treat it.

Watching his Ariel fade, Aiolos had thought about his own permanent regeneration and done something extraordinarily reckless. He had tried to tear apart his own soul and pack the pieces into the broken, barely-coherent soul of the lobster-girl.

"You really are a madman," Ambrose said. "Most people couldn't tear their own soul apart if they tried."

It was like trying to lift yourself off the ground by grabbing your own hair: impossible. The Flight spell was required.

The vast majority of people couldn't even perceive their own soul, let alone physically manipulate it. The fact that Aiolos could do this was a testament to the divine blessing he carried.

He had torn his soul barehanded and shoved the pieces into the lobster-girl's body.

The regeneration appeared to be anchored to his soul's state. Now that part of his soul had merged with the lobster-girl, Aiolos would be permanently missing an arm. The soul that governed it was no longer entirely his own.

Now, if Aiolos died, the lobster-girl would die with him. And if he regenerated, she came back too.

The crude violence of the method had apparently disrupted Blobdilpulp's Crown of Madness effect as well. The deranged goddess probably hadn't imagined anyone could be crazier than she was.

Every effect Ambrose had woven with the Loom of Fate had now resolved: the madness lifted, the betrayal, and then the fall into Ambrose's extradimensional space. All of it had been fulfilled, but not in a way he would ever have conceived.

Ambrose mulled things over for a moment, then asked, "You came to me because you want me to save her?"

Aiolos looked ashamed. "I know everything from before was my fault. You're the first friend I made, and the only one who hasn't ever lied to me. I can't ask for forgiveness, but please, save her!"

Ambrose warned, "You know very well that this Ariel was just another of Blobdilpulp's creations. From the very beginning, she was the wrong Ariel. Blobdilpulp created her and commanded her to mislead you."

Aiolos nodded frantically. "I know. I understand. Please save her anyway."

After the Crown of Madness-like effect was dispelled, Aiolos regained the ability for rational thought. He could think for himself; he was simply a newborn who lacked the context for everything he was seeing. After all this time, he had finally learned more of the world.

The lobster-girl Ariel by his side was a fake created by Blobdilpulp. That was the truth.

But the time the two of them had spent together hadn't been a lie. Aiolos felt as though he had found a true lover.

Regardless of the circumstances, he cherished their relationship.

Thanos had given up on him. Blobdilpulp had tricked him. Aiolos had nothing left to call his own except the lobster-girl Ariel.

Ambrose hadn't expected the fool to assume such responsibilities, but it was all still rather foolish. Why hold on to a fake relationship?

"Why should I help you? Give me a reason."

The two of them weren't strangers, exactly, but they were barely connected. Aiolos had walked into Ambrose's vicinity on his own. Ambrose had dealt with him fairly, without openly scheming against him.

And then the young man, under Blobdilpulp's influence, had attacked him. There was no reasonable logic by which Ambrose owed him anything.

"I know I was wrong," Aiolos said quickly. "I don't expect forgiveness. But I can trade you some information. Please, save her."

"What information?"

"Blobdilpulp is working with the shagin goddess Sekkora. They're plotting against you and against your friend. Their plan is to wait until she ascends to godhood, then tear her apart and consume her."

Ambrose smiled. "I already know that."

Aiolos stopped cold. "You do?"

"They didn't even try to hide it." Ambrose explained the matter of the invitation.

Perhaps these deities assumed mortals were entirely ignorant of how divine power worked. But Ambrose had, somewhat fortunately, received instruction from Leyla on the underlying principles, and had been able to see through the scheme at a glance.

Aiolos hadn't imagined any of this. The one piece of intelligence he had to offer was already useless.

He sat in silence for a long time. Then, finally, he begged again, "I have nothing left to give. But please save her. I'll do anything, whatever you ask! She's the only one, from the day I was born, who has ever truly cared for me. Please."

Under normal circumstances, Ambrose would already be calculating how to turn this young man into a productive employee, someone who could make the conquest of the Sea of Volcanoes easier.

This time, he gave up on all that. There was a far more pressing question he had in mind. "Answer me one question. I'll consider helping you then."

"Of course. Ask me anything!"

Aiolos grabbed the lifeline without hesitation. He would do absolutely anything at this point.

"Which deity sent you to the mortal world?"

Aiolos hesitated for a moment. Then he said: "I was created by my father-god, Thanos. I am his son. He sent me here."

"Thanos..." Ambrose said. "That madman."

He had barely finished the words before a peal of thunder rolled through the air.

Both Aiolos and Ambrose heard it. Then came a furious, imperious voice: "Aiolos. You have disappointed me beyond measure."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.