Chapter 585: The Price of Revenge (II)

"If you accept my power and use it to take revenge, every life you take and every terrible thing you do will still be weighed by the heavens," the Moon Goddess explained. "My blessing can give you strength, but it cannot erase the consequences of your actions."

Rose lowered her gaze. "And what will happen to me?"

"When this life ends, your soul will pay the price." The Moon Goddess did not try to soften her words. "You may have to live through a hundred painful reincarnations. You may be born into lives filled with suffering, lose the people you love again and again, or spend lifetime after lifetime paying for what you choose to do in this one."

A hundred lives.

Rose should have been terrified. Instead, she found herself strangely calm.

What was another hundred painful lives when this one had already taught her what it felt like to lose everything?

"So even after everything they did to me, the heavens will punish me if I fight back?" Rose asked with a bitter laugh.

"The heavens do not judge pain the way you want them to," the Moon Goddess replied. "What was done to you will carry its own weight, just as what you choose to do will carry yours."

Rose hated that answer.

It sounded exactly like something a God would say.

She quietly asked, "Then why?" Rose looked toward the moon again. "Why would you give me this chance if you already know what it will cost me?"

There was no gratitude in her voice, only suspicion.

"You said you don’t want my devotion, so what do you want?"

This time, the Moon Goddess did not avoid the question. "Because helping you will also benefit me."

Rose’s lips slowly curved into a humorless smile.

Of course.

There it was.

The Moon Goddess continued, "There are things I cannot do with my own hands, just as there are Gods I cannot act against directly. You are not bound by the same rules that bind me."

Rose immediately understood. "So you want to use me."

"I am giving you a choice."

She clicked her tongue. "Don’t make it sound kinder than it is."

Rose’s voice remained low, but the bitterness behind it was unmistakable.

"You want something from them, and you need someone else to do what you cannot." She looked down at Edmund again. "You found a woman who has already lost everything and decided she would make the perfect weapon."

The Moon Goddess did not deny it and that alone told Rose everything she needed to know.

A small laugh escaped her lips. How foolish she had been to think this Goddess might be different.

The fifteen Gods inside the Holy Temple wanted her devotion. The Cardinal used their names to control her. Now another Goddess had appeared because she needed Rose to do something for her.

In the end, Gods were Gods.

They only reached their hands toward mortals when they wanted something.

Rose no longer believed the Moon Goddess had come because she pitied her. Perhaps there was some truth in what she had said, but Rose was certain that kindness was not the only reason she was here.

The Moon Goddess wanted to use her to get rid of the Gods she could not touch herself.

Rose understood that clearly and strangely, she no longer cared.

Her family were gone, so there was nothing left for Rose to protect.

There was nothing left for the heavens to threaten her with.

Even if she had to suffer through a hundred lives after this one, those lives belonged to a future Rose she did not know yet.

Right now, she only cared about one thing.

Rose slowly lifted her head. "All right."

For the first time, the Moon Goddess sounded surprised. "You understand what I just told you?"

"I do."

"You may regret this choice for a hundred lifetimes."

"Then let me regret it." There was no hesitation in Rose’s voice.

She looked at the moon with tears still staining her cheeks, but the emptiness that had filled her eyes since Edmund’s death was slowly disappearing.

"I don’t trust you," Rose said. "I don’t believe you came here because you care about me, and I know you’re planning to use me for whatever you cannot do yourself."

She paused before gently closing the wooden box. "But if what you want and what I want happen to be the same thing, then use me."

Rose rested both hands over the lid. "And I’ll use you too."

For a moment, the Moon Goddess said nothing. Then, a soft laugh filled the room. "Very well."

The silver moonlight pouring through the window suddenly became brighter. Rose narrowed her eyes as it spread across the room, covering the walls, the floor, and eventually her entire body.

"Then I will give you my blessing."

Before Rose could respond, the silver light gathered around her chest and sank into her body.

Rose gasped as a strange warmth immediately spread through her, starting from her heart before rushing through every part of her body.

It was nothing like the holy power she had used as the Saintess. That power had always felt gentle and warm, but this one felt deeper, almost as if something had reached directly into her soul and awakened a part of her that had always been sleeping.

Rose gripped the edge of the wooden box as the feeling became stronger.

"You will understand how to use it when you wake," the Moon Goddess said.

Rose barely heard her. Her eyelids suddenly became heavy, and the room began to blur around her.

She tried to fight against the exhaustion for a moment, but then her gaze fell upon the box one last time.

She placed her hand on the surface of the wooden box, whispering, "Wait for me a little longer."

Then she closed her eyes. When Rose opened them again, morning sunlight was already streaming through the narrow window.

For several seconds, she remained completely still.

She remembered everything that had happened the night before, but there was no fear or confusion on her face. Instead, she could feel something new inside her. It was as natural as moving her own hands, even though no one had taught her how to use it.

Rose slowly sat up and looked toward the wooden box. "Please forgive me, for I am about to commit many sins."