22 Chapter 22 - Holding grudges

There was an enormous silence in the huge hall that was filled with either Gods, Goddesses or their respective Familia Members as they looked at the screen.

Laurens stood in front of a headless body as he cleaned his sword the blood with a nonchalant expression as if nothing happened.

He didn't glance at the corpse a second time before walking towards the exit of the castle, leaving the cold bodies of the Apollo Familia behind as he decided to pick up Hestia at the Hall before going home.

Inside the Gathering Hall, Apollo could barely believe what happened before screaming at Hermes,

"WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT HERMES?! WHY DIDN'T YOU USE YOUR DIVINITY?!"

Hermes looked at the screen with a dumbfounded expression as he looked at his own hands, he definitely used his Divinity to stop the kid's movements, yet he had only looked at him and continued.

He wasn't stupid enough to think that Apollo would take that seriously and merely shrug it off as an excuse.

All the other people inside the Hall also looked at him with a curious expression, he was allowed to use his Divinity when War Games were being held so why didn't he use it?

"Humph! He deserved it anyway! How dare he try to touch my husband!" Hestia hmphed and pouted her cheeks with her arms over each other.

After a dozen seconds, Hestia noticed something wrong and opened her eyes with a curious expression and noticed that everyone was looking at her with a dumbfounded expression.

*CRACK*

A sound of something breaking was heard through the Hall which sent them back to reality as they looked at Freya, who had wine over her hands yet still had an elegant smile.

"Hestia, your husband?" Demeter asked with a smile on her face.

Hestia blushed and noticed what she just said. However, she still held a strong gaze and said, "Yes, husband"

"I see, our little Hestia finally got hooked up huh" Demeter laughed as she hugged Hestia while letting her ample breasts rest on Hestia's head.

Loki looked at Hestia in scorn while Ais held a complicated gaze as she put a hand on top of her chest.

'It hurts?' Ais held her head sideways with a confused expression and shrugged it off.

"But Hes, does he know about.....pregnancy?" Demeter hesitantly asked.

"I told him, but it seems like he avoids the question for some reason...." Hestia said before shrugging, "Besides, he can just have more women. It happened in Tenkai, why not here?"

"You surely are straightforward..... It was extremely rare in Tenkai, yet you don't care about sharing your man with others?" Demeter asked with a smile yet not quite a smile.

Hestia shuddered and looked at Demeter with her chin held high, "Nope, but they have to be judged by me!"

"Then how about me?" Demeter grinned and asked, but before Hestia could even scream at her, everyone's gaze was attracted to the entrance where Laurens casually came walking in.

Laurens didn't even look at anyone else before walking towards Hestia who completely ignored what Demeter said before diving in Laurens' chest and hugged his wide frame.

"You really did it! You really did it!" Hestia laughed but Laurens could feel her worry she held throughout the War Game.

"I'm fine right? Let's go home" Laurens smiled as he held her with a warm smile, some Goddesses couldn't help but feel a warm feeling inside their chest despite knowing of his previous actions.

"Wait!" Apollo came running at Laurens with a look that made him look like a drug addict before swinging his fist towards Laurens.

Laurens didn't do anything and let Apollo's fist hit his face, Apollo withdrew his hand and screamed in pain as Laurens merely stood there with a cold gaze.

"Stop being annoying and f*ck off, trash" Laurens coldly said before grabbing Hestia's hand and walking away.

Apollo snarled with an enraged expression before yelling, "Do you think this was the end of it! Just wait until Hestia returns to Tenkai! You will regre-"

Before Apollo could finish his sentence, he noticed Laurens stopping and turn around while looking him straight into his eyes, his eyes were shining in a golden light as he slowly walked back to Apollo, who felt cold sweat on the back of his back.

The people there strangely didn't notice a thing yet Apollo looked at Laurens like he just saw death itself, but he was a God!

Laurens gave a warm smile as he stood in front of Apollo with a hand held forward and grabbed Apollo's hand by force and said, "It was a nice War Game"

Apollo looked at Laurens with clear hatred once more and didn't notice a small mark on his palm that quickly disappeared without anyone noticing.

Laurens ignored everyone else and just walked out with Hestia, completely letting Hermes take the blame for killing Clio.

Hestia kept clinging onto Laurens as they walked home, the sun was already rising and the War Game took a good 8 hours.

However, that was still the shortest War Game in history!

"Are you tired?" Hestia asked in concern.

"No, they were just some ignorant brats that don't know about strategy" Laurens smiled and hugged Hestia closer to his body.

"Still....." Hestia wanted to continue but Laurens interrupted her and said, "Where do you want to live now? Since the Heart Mansion is ours now"

Hestia gave a decisive look and said, "We'll stay at the church for now, you just rebuilt it and it is the place we met"

Laurens smiled and patted her head, "This should be enough to allow me to reach Level 2 right?"

Hestia nodded her head and closed her eyes as she enjoyed the feeling, the War Game would be good enough to let him Level 3 and not just Level 2 if he wanted to.

"By the way, what was the thing you put onto Apollo's palm?" Hestia asked curiously while Laurens looked at her with a surprised expression.

"You noticed that?"

"Mmm, when you turned back towards Apollo, your body started acting weird and our connection told me how much you want to.....rip him apart" Hestia hesitantly asked and hugged him closer.

"I see, don't worry about it.... I just gave him a present" Laurens smiled and pulled her towards their home with a relaxed pace.

***

"They dare kick me out! This is all his fault! HIS FAULT!" Apollo looked back at Orario in anger as he was already a few kilometers away.

"I swear when that bitch goes back to Tenkai, we will see who has the last laugh!" Apollo said with a crazed expression as he suddenly felt a power rising from his chest and he looked at his hands in horror as a blue aura surrounded him.

"Why?! Why is my Divinity protecting me?! NO! NOO!" Apollo felt his vision warp as a huge golden pillar rose to the sky that even people in Orario could see, not that many were awake but some adventurers like Bell would already be on their way.

"A God is going back?"

"What happened? Why is a God going up? Was he bored here?"

"What God is it?"

This news would shock Orario even more when they got the news of who was responsible for letting a God rage quit from the mortal world.

What nobody would expect though, was that Apollo didn't go back to Tenkai willingly and neither would he ever reach it.

***

"W...where is this?" Apollo opened his eyes and saw a huge palace in front of him with a few servants running around but it was extremely empty besides that.

"Aaah, it seems that he can still hold grudges to the extreme after 10.000 years" An enchanting voice ran through the whole territory.

Apollo saw everything disappear as he was getting surrounded by a white light as he felt his vision warp once more.

As Apollo could finally see normally once more, he finalyl saw the person responsible for warping his vision.

She had extremely pale skin with long curled blond hair, her blood red eyes seemed to be shining as she looked at Apollo with a small smile while holding her arms crossed.

"I see, that mark says enough.... Why does Laurens want you dead?" Iris asked with her same small smile.

"L...Laurens?? You know him?!" Apollo asked in rage as he tried using his Divinity, but soon an enormous pain assaulted his body which made him scream in agony.

"Naturally I know of him, he is my husband after all.... And a Half-God I created.... fufu, it hasn't even been a month and he has already killing Gods huh" Iris had an excited expression on her face as she noticed Apollo looking at her with sweat rolling down his face because of the pain.

"A....a Half-God?! Does he have a Divinity?!" Apollo said through gritted teeth.

"Ofcourse, the Divinity of Fate" Iris nonchalantly said.

"Y....you crazy bitch! DO YOU KNOW WHAT MONSTER YOU HAVE CREATED?! What will happen if they find out about ascension and he reaches it! Your decision will turn the entire Tenkai upside down!" Apollo roared in rage but soon feel back onto his face as he cried out in pain.

"Naturally I know, he knows too" Iris said with a smile, she suddenly stopped talking as the place started rumbling, she looked up and a huge amount of power flowed out of her and formed a figure behind her.

The figure formed was completely made out of a white light that gave off a warm feeling, a warm feeling for anyone besides Apollo at the moment.

The figure stood 3 meter tall as it slightly opened its mouth, "It's been a while, Iris"

Iris sweetly smiled but restrained from touching him, she knew that this figure was merely a mark of his Divinity he left on her if anything happened or if he needed anything done.

"It has only been a week, it seems you already got a second wife though" Iris said as she smiled, "Who is it?"

"Hestia" Laurens truthfully replied which made Iris nod her head.

"I guess I was worried for nothing, anyway, what do you want to do with him?"

"Simple, Divinity's aren't invincible" The figure held a small smile as its hand pointed upward as a huge oppressive aura overflowed.

Apollo didn't manage to do anything before his own Divinity already tried to avoid the oppressive aura, a huge sun that was bigger than Orario appeared with a huge golden bow, both of the figures attempted to remove the oppressive aura, just to get a disdainful look from the figure, who's divinity slowly appeared behind it.

A huge white see-through clock with a weird language inscribed into it appeared, the clock was so big that the sun and bow looked like an infant.

The clock itself gave off such a huge amount of Aura that the sun and bow already started showing cracks as it came under the clock's pressure.

"T....the people in Tenkai won't let you get away with this!" Apollo threatened as he felt his body breaking down and the pain started increasing once more.

"Aahhh.... You foolish creature...." The huge figure sighed in disappointment and continued, "Even if they don't accept it, I will make them accept it"

Apollo's slowly started turning into dust as his Divinity died down, although Laurens would like to torture him some more, the mark had other purposes as to torture a waste of space.

"You have to go so fast?" Iris asked with a bitter smile.

"I wish I could talk a bit longer, but my human body is under a lot of pressure every time I use the mark. If I reached half of my current strength out there, I wouldn't even survive" The figure replied with a bitter smile to which Iris nodded,

"That's why you kept your Divinity limited.... Please be careful" Iris showed a concerned expression as she touched the side of the figure who slowly disappeared with a smile on its face.

"I never thought I would think that 3 years is a lot of time....." Iris bitterly smiled and disappeared.