"It's fine. Don't worry about it. You can leave now. I am a bit tired, and I'll rest. Thanks for coming," Ryder lazily said as he stepped back inside the house and closed the door. He couldn't be bothered to deal with the two.
He waited inside the house for some time to make sure that these people had left. After about ten minutes of silence, he opened the door to check if they had left.
Finding the path clear, he realized that they had gone. He closed the door behind him and started walking towards the other end of the Royal City.
The place where he needed to do Rale's mission was opposite to the direction where he came from. If it weren't that way, he would have gone to that place first instead of coming here.
Unfortunately, Royal City fell in the middle of his destination, where he was going to find the next orb and where he came from.
…
"Strange. The time… It feels a bit too unrestricted. What happened? Did the Lord of Time stop handling time?"
In a dark place, a woman was sitting in the darkness. The place had no light. There was no flow of time in this place either.
"It could only be when he died. No, it can't be. How can the Lord of Time die? Is this my misconception? I should ask Janus. He also has some relation to time. If he feels the same, then something really big has happened."
The woman stood up and took a step forward, submerging into the wall as she disappeared.
In a different place, she appeared only to find a dark barrier before her.
"Huh? Domains?" Frowning, she gazed at two different colors of domes in front of her.
"One of these belongs to Janus, as for the other… Goddess of Life and Death?" Her frown deepened only as she thought about it.
"Why are these two meeting? Moreover, why are they using their domain? What could be so secretive?"
"Could it be that Lord of Time really…? The Goddess of Life and Death is here. That would explain it," she muttered as she took a step forward while raising her hand in the sky.
A massive clock appeared in the sky from which another Domain spread out, making it a triple domain zone. Even though this didn't allow her to step inside Janus's Domain while staying unnoticed, it was done to give Janus information about her arrival.
…
Near the pond, Janus and the Goddess of Life and Death were still talking when the two of them saw the third Domain.
"This girl… I should've thought about it. She has relation to time as well. Of course, she would feel something odd." Janus frowned at the sight of the new domain as he knew what this implied.
"What do you want to do? I can't lie to hide the information about the Lord of Time. As the Goddess of Life, it's my responsibility to tell her that the Lord of Time is dead if she asks me," the Goddess of Life and Death said softly.
"I know. If you lie and she goes to check up on him, the suspicion will fall on you," Janus let out as he frowned. "Whatever. Just do as I tell you."
…
The woman had just cast a third Domain. She expected Janus to remove his domain instantly after realizing that she was here. Surprisingly though, Janus was slower than she expected.
Janus and the Goddess of Life only removed the domain after around five minutes.
"Goddess of Change, welcome. I must say, I was expecting you," Janus told the woman who reached near him.
"So you feel it too? Time is a bit too unrestricted. Did something happen to Lord Cronos?" the newly arrived woman asked Janus.
" I felt the same. I was about to go to the Goddess of Life to consult her about the Lord of Time. Surprisingly, she came even before that," Janus said calmly.
"I do have some bad news, though. According to the Goddess of Life, she can't feel the presence of the Lord of Time," Janus added.
"So he's dead? How could he die? He's eternal! He's one of the strongest gods. Did the Lord of Space attack them? Or was it someone else just as strong?" the woman asked, stunned. " Something so big happened, and instead of telling everyone, you're here talking in secret?!"
"Calm down, Hiori. Don't talk bad about Lord Cronos. Do you think he could be killed? No! He's eternal!" Janus insisted as he squinted his eyes.
"But you said his presence was gone!" Hiori thundered at Janus. Was he mocking her? First, he said he's gone, and when she repeated, he was berating her?
"His presence has disappeared. But that doesn't mean the Lord of Time is dead. There are more reasons for something like this to happen," the Goddess of Life and Death chimed in.
"Like what?" Hiori asked.
"It could also be possible that he gave up his divinity and went to the mortal plane to live a silent life," the Goddess of Life replied.
"What? You're saying he decided to give up his immortal life so he could be a mortal and die a natural death? What nonsense is this?" Hiori rolled her eyes.
"At first, I thought that it was impossible as well. But this makes more sense than him dying, doesn't it?" Janus told Hiori.
"He had never been the same after the Last Great War. He went into seclusion because he started hating this place. Maybe isolation changed, and he felt that living itself was a pain for him? Maybe he wanted to see how mortals lived and died? In any case, we aren't anyone to call any decision of his stupid," he added.
"This…"
Hiori found herself at a loss for words. He was right; this did make more sense than him dying.
"In any case, you need to tell others. We need to investigate. If he was killed, there must be battle scars all over his seclusion realm. I can't sit at peace without knowing the truth.
"Alright. But do you even know where his seclusion place is? Because no one other than him or the Lord of Space knows where it is," Janus said. "As for the seclusion place of Lord of Space, that's an even bigger mystery."
"And if you want to use your powers to find that place, you need to have strength at least comparable to the Lord of Space and the ability to find that place. There were only three people who had the ability and the strength to find the spaces created by the Lord of Space," the Goddess of Life and Death explained.
"We'll go to them. Tell me who they are," Hiori insisted.
The Goddess of Life answered, "Those three were, the Lord of Time, the Lord of Space himself. And…"
"And my brother… Who died in the last great war." Janus finished her sentence as he gazed back at the pond.
"This… One of these three is already missing. The second one is already in seclusion. As for the third, he's dead. So we have no way to find that space," Janus answered casually.
"Also, why do you even want to find it?" He asked, frowning. "Do you not have trust in Lord Cronos? Let him live his life as he pleases. Stop doubting him. He can't be killed. And if you make trouble for him and we find out that he's actually given up his Divinity, he'll be really upset for us exposing this."
"You're not wrong, but still…this…I…"
"Don't worry. Just have faith in the Lord of Time and stop thinking. Even if he gave up his Divinity, that's for him to decide. We're no one to judge. So stop worrying and go back," Janus said as he patted Hiori's shoulder.
"Yeah, I'll take my leave as well." The goddess of life and death also disappeared.
"Janus, he would really be safe, right?" Hiori asked Janus, concerned.
"Don't worry. No one can kill him. Your father will be safe," Janus said calmly. Even though he lied straight to her face, Hiori didn't notice as she nodded.
Turning back, she disappeared as well.
After Hiori left, Janus finally breathed a sigh of relief.
'Sigh, this thing could've become messy. It's good that she's a bit naive,' Janus thought as he walked back to the pond.
"Now that it's over, and no one else seems to have known anything, I can finally contact him again. I should prepare to have Luke's powers transferred to him. Controlling everything from here will be a bit tough, though," he mumbled as he sat near the pond again, wondering what Ryder was doing.
Looking down, he saw Ryder leaving the Royal City of the Death Domain. He had reached the barrier where he used the torch-like object to make a hole, allowing him to leave the Royal City.
