Son of the Hero King-Chapter 708: Talk with Luxuria

When Sol opened his eyes and found himself lying in the middle of a field of grass and flowers, he immediately understood that he was inside a dream. More precisely, he was in a mindscape that did not belong to him. In this universe, the only beings left that could pull him into a mindscape without his volition were the goddesses.

This was not the first time such thing happened and he was already used to the phenomenon by now. He only wondered which one called him this time.

“Most likely the Goddess of Pride or Humility.” He mused out loud and observed the place. However, it did not take long for a shadow of confusion to shade his features.

Unlike the Theater of Domination belonging to Ira, the empty throne of Invidia, or Gula and Temperatia’s conference room. The place he found himself in felt more like it would belong to Castitas. Even the aura he felt was similar to such a degree that he could not ignore it.

“Don’t tell me…” His words were interrupted by a gentle laugh from behind him.

“It seems like your skills have improved tremendously. For you to immediately understand where you are.”

The voice was something Sol could never forget. He could recognize her voice no matter the time. No matter the plane.

“Luxuria.” He muttered and turned around, now facing his Patron Goddess. The Goddess of Lust.

“Hi! You thought you would meet my sisters, but it's me! Luxuria!” She giggled like a schoolgirl with her hand behind her back and approached a completely bemused Sol.

“Oh? Did I use the wrong expression?” Luxuria asked, curious. “This is a reference to one of those things you seem to miss from your old world. I thought you would appreciate it. Didn’t you say you wish you had more people to exchange jokes with?”

His lips twitched. She was indeed telling the truth. Sol did not have many people he could call friends in this world outside of Kali. Be it because of all his relationships or simply because of his mentality and position. He only had subordinates or lovers for the most part.

Still, “Are you really Luxuria?” Sol could not help but voice his uncertainty at seeing the goddess.

Sol had met Luxuria a few times. The goddesses were childish and naive in many ways. But Luxuria was still at another level compared to them all when it came to power. Her mere presence had always been commanding. She was the oldest and strongest goddess after all.

“Heh. So I wasn’t wrong. I thought something was weird but until now I couldn’t fully figure out just what it was.” Luxuria slightly adjusted her veil, causing Sol to look at her. He still could not see her visage. But whereas he would be writhing on the ground, filled with uncontrollable lust or struggle to keep control, now he felt nothing. Not even the simple pressure that he should be feeling for being in front of a higher-ranked being.

“You…” Luxuria started, her words filled with unconcealed joy. “You gave birth to a different divinity, right? No, not just that. Even your Blessing is fading bit by bit.”

Sol's eyes became cold. What he considered as one of the possibly bad scenarios was realizing itself in front of him. But he was not shaken. This was still far from the worst scenario he had envisaged. In fact, if he played his card right, this might actually become one of the best possible scenarios. High risk, high reward after all.

As such he sighed, “How did you manage to come to that conclusion?”

“Interesting. I thought you would deny it. Where is the silver-tongued Sol? No argument like when you said Lilith was an undead?” Luxuria asked, genuinely curious.

“Why should I lie to my greatest backer?”

“Ahahah. Here it is. That sweet tongue of yours. One that managed to seduce women through the mortal realm and the Astral realm. If you believe this will work on me then— you are absolutely right!!” She laughed again.

“... Are you sure that everything is alright?” He was seriously starting to wonder if the one he was facing was indeed Luxuria or a ploy by the other goddesses.

“Am I alright? You are asking if I am really alright?” Luxuria giggled but soon doubled over and started laughing as if she was hearing the most amusing joke of her life.

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She skipped leisurely, twirling and dancing, her bare feet gliding on the ground in a beautiful dance filled with nothing but pure joy and laughter.

When she stopped, she was directly in front of Sol, the distance separating them, was nothing more than a mere inch.

“Tell me, Sol. Could you even understand how long I have waited for this day? How much causality and divinity I had to sacrifice? What kind of risks I took by bringing souls from beyond the wall?”

While he still couldn’t see her face from behind the veil, at this distance, he could perceive the light from her golden eyes. She was giving him a gaze filled with equal parts madness and happiness. A gaze that made chills run down his spine.

“For eons, I planned. Even when I could not see beyond, I plotted. Trusting in my instincts, I waited. Despite all this, I still did not fully have confidence in the results. The chances of success were overwhelmingly low. I failed again and again. But FINALLY! Finally, I have found the answer to my despair.”

“You seem like a crazy woman.” Sol took a step back but Luxuria simply giggled louder at his actions. “I am sure by now, you must be used to such madness. Otherwise, you would not surround yourself with such women.”

Sol could offer no retort to that statement, she had him there. The girls he had around him could be described in many words. But sane wasn’t really one of them.

“Well. I can understand why you may be feeling off-put by my reaction. Do forgive me. Realizing that one of my goals is merely at my fingertip, I could not lose but lose myself in joy.”

She cleared her throat. “Let’s resume our discussion. Long story short your Blessing is vanishing and soon you will not be able to hide it. It’s impossible to disguise as a Blessed. Even for someone special like you.”

Sol did not argue with her regarding that. The Blessed System was akin to one of the natural laws of this world. This was not something he could go against as he was now.

Luxuria was right. It was still possible to hide it for now because he was still partially Blessed. But as his divinity continued to grow, his Blessing would proportionally decrease until there was nothing left

“For you to bring this up means that you might have a solution. But why? Do you not know what it means for me to fully attain divinity?”

“I do.” Luxuria nodded.

“Yet you continue to support me?”

“Indeed.” She still smiled.

“Why? You know my abilities more than anyone else. You ought to be even more worried about me than Invidia.”

“You are wrong on one thing.” Luxuria raised a finger. “I do know your power and prowess more than any other goddesses and it’s exactly because I know you so well that I know I have nothing to worry about.”

“.... What the hell are you talking about?”

“The Sol I know is a kind boy who would never hurt people who helped him and I dare to say, there are no goddesses who gave you more support than me. Not even my sisters who started joining your side later on.”

Slowly, she reverted to the Luxuria he knew. Mysterious, calm with a hint of teasing. This was an appearance and personality he was much more used to.

“You praise me too much. But is everything really alright? To put your life in the hand of Fate and my whims?”

“People change. But I know that you will never change, Sol. For you are no mere humans. You are my chosen. My Blessed. The one who will free us from our eternal cage and allow us to once again step into the wider universe.”

As she spoke, the world started to tremble, as if she was uttering words of Taboo that could never be mentioned. Not even the goddesses had the authority to go against the very laws that governed the world itself.

Luxuria caressed his cheek, not caring for the mindscape that seemed to be crumbling apart. “You are not surprised. As I thought, you already knew.” Her eyes became emotional as she gazed deep into his. Words formed on her lips but in the end, she swallowed them and took her distance from him.

“Do you remember your last trial?” She asked and Sol nodded while observing the changes in the dream world. Cracks were forming everywhere, colors were fading and the light in the sky vanished and was replaced by deep darkness. The dream world was breaking.

“I asked you to conquer the Mortal realm and as of now, only a few obstacles stand in front of you. Once you win and become the Emperor of the Mortal Realm, I will keep my promise. I will also allow you to step into the Divine Realm.”

Sol’s eyes twinkled but soon his heart calmed down. Those promises did not mean much now that he decided to go beyond simply conquering the Mortal Realm.

“My promise will hold even if your actions do not stop at conquest.” She gave him a meaningful look, making sure that he understood she was not blind to his actions. Luxuria was not bluffing when she said that she knew more about him than any other goddesses of this Universe.

“In the meantime, I will send you more divinity to help you hide the decline of your Blessed status. It should be enough to last you until you put your plans into action.”

“... How much do you actually know.”

“I have observed you since even before the time you were born. I understand you and from that understanding came knowledge about your possible actions. Unlike me who is content putting my survival in your hands, you will not do as you're told without gaining more advantage, and the only way for you to not be swayed by our whims is to do the same thing Anubis did.”

She grinned and slowly inched away from him bit by bit, her gaze leaving him. “I believe in you, Sol. But more importantly, I believe in my own judgment. I am sure you will not disappoint me.”

“You might regret making this decision, you know?” Sol said. He knew it was stupid of him to talk like this and that he should just shut up. But the more goodwill someone gave him, the less he wanted to deceive them.

The goddess did understand him very well. She understood him the most in this realm, he really had to admit that.

“I already have too many regrets. One more will not be enough to faze me.” Luxuria was nonpulsed and soon golden gate appeared in front of her.

In the dream world, only a small patch of grass remained under their feet as everything started absolving into nothingness.

“Sol… I have one last question before leaving. I hope you will answer me sincerely in the light of all the help I have given to you.”

She did not turn around as she asked this, as if she did not wish Sol to see her visage, even if it was veiled.

“Ask away.”

“My question is simple really… Who are you?” Her voice trembled slightly, filled with hope and hesitation.

It was indeed a simple question. But one filled with layers of meaning. In this very instant, Sol understood that Luxuria knew about Adam or had an inkling at the very least.

Still, this did not change the answer he would give. No matter who asked him or how many times this topic would be brought up in the future, he would always have the same answer.

“I am Sol. Be it in the distant past or the ever-shifting future, I will always be Sol. No matter what.”

“I see,” Luxuria said no more and stepped beyond the gate. The dream world completely collapsed.