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Hades and his daughters glanced at the scene from afar, as they stepped out of the formation and slowly walked towards them.
"What an unbelievable guy, dad… He really did give his Life to her… Wow," Melinoe said.
"He really loves his twin sister after all~" Giggled Makaria.
"Hm, a sincere and genuine love for a family member that means the world to you… I understand it well, sometimes, we're driven by our own love to do sacrifices." Hades smiled lightly. "Even if it's sad, it is what allows our loved ones to continue living."
"Dad…" Melinoe glanced at her father. "Like when you… When you died in that fight?"
"I knew the risks and gambled my life to earn time," Hades sighed. "I knew the variables, and there wasn't any other option that would've let my son live longer. I had to do it for Zagreus."
"But even then… That was so reckless! What if you never had this plan of the phylactery?!" Asked Melinoe. "Y-You're an idiot sometimes, dad!"
"M-Melinoe! Don't say that to your father! Apologize right now!" Makaria reprimanded Melinoe, as Hades sighed, looking down.
"I'm sorry…" Hades said. "It is just what I had to do, and I would've done it for all of you as well… For each one of you. I wouldn't even hesitate for a second to give my life to save yours. That is how I am… because I love you more than myself."
"D-Don't say it like that, it just makes me feel bad…" Melinoe sighed. "I love you too dad! I really do… Sniff…" The girl ended hugging Hades tightly.
"I do as well…" Makaria nodded. "Thank you for your sacrifice, father… Thanks to that, the mission was a success, and the foes were vanquished… I even heard Genesis managed to refine the entire Skyfall Realm, so she has grown stronger."
"Is that so…" Hades nodded. "That's… I suppose it's good, better than the enemies getting stronger. Genesis is… well, I cannot consider her someone good. But right now she's doing good by worrying about her world, and as a result, its people. For once in her life, she's truly worrying about everyone now, perhaps through these trials, she has also changed a bit, she has become more caring of the world she had been neglecting."
"Really?" Melinoe wondered. "I thought she was our Supreme Authority in this world so…"
"Well, she technically is but…" Muttered Hades. "I guess she wasn't quite as good before. She committed a lot of mistakes herself too. Although she wea also the victim of other schemes and malice. But she also holds great malice within her. She is truly the embodiment of duality. There might be conflicting emotions within her soul, and even now, I cannot properly grasp what could be in her mind all the time. Sometimes she is friendly, other times cold and calculative. Sometimes she celebrates and is happy like any of us, other times, she is too serious about anything."
"S-She shifts a lot, huh?" Makaria wondered. "I just hope she becomes nicer…"
"She better does, if she doesn't want more of her allies to betray her and leave the world…" Hades smirked lightly. "Perhaps that Kireina, Flora, Aura, Lucifer, and the System Master all left provoked a great shock to her… Our strongest Supremes completely gone; anybody would be shocked. The world is now much more defenseless, and she's partially at fault for that, because she was unable to truly give them a reason to stay due to her attitude. I hope she changes. That she realizes her mistakes and works towards improving our world."
"Me too!" Melinoe nodded. "Let's go see the monkeys!"
The family gathered around Hanshuan and Henshian as they talked about many things, the twins kept constantly discussing, as Henshian was rather upset her brother did what he did, but they couldn't really hate each other either.
At the end, Hades invited them to a meal using the food that his wife raised here, they had even livestock and huge gardens with vegetables, all of high divine quality.
They enjoyed a meal together, finally relaxing… Hanshuan felt slightly bothered he could barely taste anything, but Hades and the other Undead Gods gave him something special, Undead Food.
"W-What is this?"
It was a huge roasted steak, but it was purple and with a will-o-wisp on top.
"Undead cannot taste most flavors… that is, from normal food," A Skeleton God said.
"But we can taste things such as Phantasmal, Soul, and Shadow Elemental Materials. Which we turn into food!" Said a Zombie God.
"That is a Zombie Minotaur Phantom Beast Steak! Try it boy!" Said a Ghoul God.
"Uh…" Hanshuan looked at the thing and felt slightly disgusted, it had a weird smell too.
However, he didn't really have other choices or chances right now, so he went for it, taking a big piece and eating it.
"Hmm… It's… cold… But… Uh… Huh! Wait a second this isn't too bad! Oh wow."
He felt stronger flavors than with normal food, delicious, sweet flavors, meaty ones, and some new unique flavors to these meals.
"We can enjoy our types of meals, although they can't compare to the food of the living, it's better than just tasteless stuff…"
"Yeah, so cheer up boy."
"Life, or death, it's not so bad."
"Especially when you've got great friends at your side, right boys?"
"Hehehehe! That's right!"
The Zombie God, the Skeleton God, and the Ghoul God laughed, hugging each other shoulders and celebrating while drinking Undead booze.
Despite their existences being so cold and often times dark, they tried to see the "good side" of it, that things only were as bad as you wanted them to be.
As long as you weren't alone, as long as you had friends or family at your side…
"…Thanks."
Hanshuan nodded, as he enjoyed the meal.
He understood, yeah.
It was dark and strange, so cold too.
But even in this darkness and in this coldness.
There was some fire within their souls that would bring them some warmth.
As he sat by his sister's side and felt her warm and cheerful aura, Hanshuan couldn't help but smile.
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Author's Note: And with this the Genesis War Arc ends, we'll go back to Frank and Kireina now, and we might revisit Genesis later on to see what has happened, because things are nowhere near done in here.