Chapter 315: To Kill Death

"And then," Akasha said with a light chuckle as he looked at Melvin and Calyx. "There were two."

The back of the Mountain had gone quiet after the others had departed.

Melvin stood in the grass, arms resting at his sides, his long black hair still. The black blades in his white eyes locked on Akasha, holding her gaze long enough for the conflict within him to be unmistakable.

Then he turned his head toward Calyx, took in the new body, the tattoos, the diamond-black eyes, and let the air out of his chest.

"Master," he said. "As we are now. Are we strong enough to kill Death?"

To kill Death—that was the path both Melvin and Calyx needed to take to achieve their goals.

Calyx wanted to become the true embodiment of Death, claim the crown of that title, and seek revenge for being made a fool.

Melvin, on the other hand, had been slowly working to correct his situation.

With the Loria gone, his focus shifted entirely to his family.

He had once tried asking Akashi for answers, but now those answers were clear.

Unlike Amber, who had essentially reincarnated, or the Ancestors of Harlan, who found themselves in the Abyss, Melvin’s family was trapped in Limbo.

In a manner of speaking, the Abyss was the front yard of Death’s domain, while Limbo was the inside of their house—making their journey all the more perilous.

Yet, what would it truly take to kill something that embodied Death itself?

Akasha’s gaze went up to the void that now held a total of fifteen stars, belonging to everyone he had evolved.

’I have no fucking idea,’ he thought, realizing that "Death" was someone who stood above even multiversal power.

If that were true, then Melvin and Calyx were definitely not in any position to challenge Death.

Hearing his thoughts, Luna’s mouth twitched as she shook her head, while Yume pressed her fingers to her lips.

Akashi burst out laughing, and she did not do him the courtesy of pretending.

"Well.... you will die," she said plainly, glancing from Melvin to Calyx and back.

"Within Pantheos, there is a group of beings widely considered Forbidden..."

She went on to explain that whether it was an entire race of individuals or just a single being, anyone deemed forbidden was exactly that—truly and completely forbidden.

Some races might be born from two concepts that should never coexist, like life and Death, while others might emerge with boundless divinity.

And then there were beings such as Luna, and in this case, Death.

Beyond the obvious power over Death itself, this being quite literally existed wherever Death was present.

Past, present, or future—it made no difference.

Imagine saying the word "Death" at any point in your life and having it actually manifest right then and there.

Something like that could make a person die before they even had the chance to gain power.

The same was true for Luna and Akasha; to embody an idea meant to exist anywhere and everywhere that concept existed.

As Akashi finished explaining that they essentially stood no chance, Melvin went silent.

’Forbidden, huh?’

However, unlike usual, the cold around him did not spike. It just sat there while he turned the word Forbidden over internally.

Right now, he couldn’t say he was exactly disappointed, but the thought of his parents and sister suffering somewhere while he continued to live weighed heavily on him.

That was the whole reason he’d pulled Calyx into Dream Land in the first place—she had claimed to be Death itself, and to him, that sounded like a doorway to bringing his family back.

Yet even now, after hearing he wasn’t strong enough, he felt a tangled mess of emotions, leaving him deeply conflicted.

"Melvin," Akasha said finally, "You don’t have to rush it."

As he spoke, Melvin’s gaze gradually met Akasha’s gray, leaf-patterned eyes.

"You should at least have an empire waiting for your family, right?" Akasha asked with a smile, confident that reviving Melvin’s family was only a matter of time.

Though they might not be strong enough at this moment, it should be evident that this weakness was only temporary.

Akasha watched the math happen on his disciple’s face and did not hurry it.

’Family... did he perhaps witness their deaths?’ Calyx wondered, her eyes narrowing. Much like Melvin had been drawn to her for a specific reason, the same seemed true in reverse.

Even now, she could sense the heavy, suffocating aura of Death radiating from him—almost as if he had grasped the Divine Authority itself.

But she knew that wasn’t the case; if it were, she would have been certain of it.

No, what clung to him was different—an aura born from experience, from facing Death over and over again, from living through it far too many times.

She could never have imagined that Melvin hadn’t just encountered Death, but had always been the one to deliver it.

"Right," Melvin said at last, snapping her out of her reverie.

He paused again, his gaze locking on Akasha’s eyes, his swords unmoving, his voice dropping lower.

"Mind if I hang with you for a while?"

Akasha raised an eyebrow as he regarded his first disciple.

Ever since Melvin had left the mountain for the first time, his path had been, well, challenging in certain respects.

And... that meant they didn’t spend time together as often as they had when Melvin was younger, making these moments all the more uncommon and meaningful.

"Hmmm, I don’t mind," Akasha said, tilting his head toward the portal.

"Just go through it, and you’ll understand once you’re on the other side."

Melvin held the look a second longer, nodded, and began walking. Calyx followed, black eyes fixed on the portal.

"Oh," Akasha said as they approached, just a pace from the threshold. "Melvin"

At the sound of his voice, Melvin stopped, and Calyx stopped beside him.

"She is not a member of the Pantheon," he said, casually pointing at Calyx.

"Once she leaves... she won’t remember anything about this place. So, unless you decide she’s good... then—"

Akasha let his words trail off as the meaning was clear.

He wasn’t being rude; he just wanted Melvin to understand that she was his responsibility.

Akasha pointed at her with two fingers, casually enough that what she said beneath them sounded anything but casual.

Melvin looked at her, at the portal, at Akasha, and nodded once.

"Alright."