— After a few seconds —
Exhaling deeply, Memphis steeled her gaze and locked eyes with her ever-so-graceful mother. "You are my mother," she said.
"Yes, that is correct," replied Mikaela, her smile as dazzling as always. "I am the one who gave birth to you. And though I don't deserve the title, from this day forward, I shall do everything in my power to make it up to you. If you want or require something, just name it, and it shall be done."
Memphis unblinkingly stared at her. "Anything?" she asked.
"...Then there's this guy. He took care of me and gave me a home and family after… father passed away. Can you bring him up here to safety? Away from those things?"
Mikaela's eyes squinted slightly as her gold-crossed pupils increased in luminosity. "His name?" she asked.
"It's… It's Cassius."
Mikaela—who was in the process of utilizing her Eyes of Divinity—almost immediately stopped in her tracks. She looked at her confused daughter with a new level of seriousness. "His name… Say his full name…"
Although puzzled, Memphis said, "His name is Cassius—Cassius Steele."
"...It's as I figured," Mikaela said with a sigh, fully deactivating the mystical abilities of her eyes. "What you requested is impossible. Ask for something else—anything else."
Memphis's irises flashed in bewilderment. "Just a second ago—before you learned his name—you didn't seem the least bit opposed to fulfilling the request. Why did saying his name change things? What made you react like that—"
"That boy—his origins are not so simple," Mikaela said, the reflection in her gaze reminiscent of a shameless man who knew not when to relent. "But you can rest assured; if he's anything like that man, then he'll get by just fine without my assistance. Fret not, dear daughter."
Memphis opened her mouth to say something but held back in the end. She turned her head down, appearing if not the slightest bit disappointed. Sure, she wanted him safe; she really, really wanted him to be safe. But just as passionately, she yearned to see him again.
And if not now, then when…? Would she ever see him again…?
Noticing the troubled state her daughter was in, Mikaela delicately shook her head before saying, "You have feelings for that boy, don't you?"
"W… What!? No!" Memphis's cheeks flushed a dark shade of crimson as she twirled the ends of her hair strands in embarrassment. "W-What gave you that assumption?!"
Mikaela softly chuckled. "You need not be shy with me, my dear daughter," she said, amused. "I may not have ever experienced that sort of love myself, but I have been around since the beginning of time. I know precisely what you're thinking. But I must warn you; that bloodline is not something you wish to involve yourself in. That boy's father… He's not a good man…"
She could still vividly recall that flirtatious pimp bastard flaunting his stuff around the higher Floors of the Heavenly Kingdom like he owned the place. Without a care in the world for anyone or anything's authority, he vulgarly hit on numerous eye-catching female Angels. It was only because of the female Angels' willingness to accept him that she and the other Archangels hadn't kicked him out of Heaven right away.
However, even if that man had acted out of line, it was highly unlikely they would've been capable of doing anything to stop him…
Possibly only the All-Father would be able to do something like that.
A tired breath of air escaped Mikaela's perfectly pursed red lips. She then returned her focus to her daughter. "The bottom line is that this Cassius Steele is likely not a good fit for you. Promiscuous lechery runs in his blood."
Memphis didn't really understand what her mother was trying to say. Sure, Cassius had a few… a lot of infatuated women around him, but it wasn't like he did anything of that nature with them. At least as far as she was aware!
"I think you're wrong, Mother."
"!?!?" Mikaela was too overjoyed to hear her daughter refer to her by such a name to even realize how serious she was when she said what she did.
"Sure, sure," said Mikaela, her face all smiles. "Well, regardless of that boy's private ongoings, you'll surely see him again. Those of his lineage are not prone to staying in one place for too long. It's possible that, even at this very moment, that boy is off on some epic adventure through undiscovered lands."
Memphis pressed the doubt button.
She knew her Cassius, and he was not one to do anything dangerous. In fact, in all the time they spent together, he rarely even left the house, and when he did come back from Gates and whatnot, he not once had even a scratch on him.
There was simply no way he was doing anything dangerous if he always came back unharmed, right?
A black, shadowy figure smashed through hard, slick walls one after the next as he was being slung around by the limitlessly long, spiky tentacles of freakish Peak Rank 3 Nightmares. The Nightmares took the form of a mixture between a kraken and a dragon, and they floated off the ground. Each one of these monstrous behemoths hovered in every observable direction.
'How many days now…?' Cold, emotionless thoughts echoed in the grievously wounded ping pong's head as he died time and time again. '10 days? 20? 40…?'
Cassius had no idea just how long he had been down in the Boundless Gorge—endlessly battling and endlessly descending—the monotony knew no end.
He only knew pain and suffering…
Yet, every so often, his pain and suffering would be temporarily soothed with the feeling of gaining more power.
More and more power—that was all he could think about—that was the only thing driving him forward.
10,000 meters… 20,000 meters… 40,000 meters… 65,000 meters…
Cassius had descended so far into the Boundless Gorge and slaughtered so many hundreds of thousands—millions of Nightmares. The exact amount was incalculable.
And now—surrounded on all sides by 8 [Dark Kraken Dragons]—each equivalent to the SS++ Rank—Cassius felt that he might just meet his end for real.
'Good,' he thought. 'It's finally over…'