Chapter 499: [Vol.4] Quest 372.7- Forgo Your Strength, Paradise Needs It’s Gardner

Soon after he left the master bedroom of the Moonlight Tower, Elysium arrived at his mortal tomb.

Tap!

Tap!

He walked inside it and held out his hand.

“A nice tomb. I didn't get a good look before.” He held his hand out, and green, cloud-shaped flowers filled the coffin. “This is not your resting place. I will bury you myself, my mortal self.”

He closed the casket and sealed the doors of the tomb.

Walking down the path to the end, he saw they didn’t add his time in the Kaios Desert.

“That needs to be correct.”

He then disappears again.

 

He then appeared where the Black Dragon was slain.

“…” He looks on as several adventures were still dismantling the dragon in its humanoid form.

“Come on!! We have been at it for—”

“You all may leave now.”

“Huh? Who said—!?” The dwarf turned to see him.

The dwarf and, subsequently all the other adventures looked at Elysium not with fear but with unreasoned trust and faith. They looked at him with more reverence than their own gods.

“Take this.” His veil then spits out a mountain of gold coins. “This will do you better than trying to take something you are unable to.”

“Uhh…” The dwarf looked at the other adventures and shrugged. “Can you give us more?”

The dwarf feared he would get smited for his greed.

“Hold out your hands.” Elysium was a bit impressed that this dwarf had the balls to say that. “All of you.”

The dwarf and every other adventurer held out their hands.

Swish~

Elysium's veil went over all of them, and a massive magic stone was in their hands. The quality was apparent to all of them.

“!!!” All of their eyes widen.

“There. Ask again and you will know the price for those who are too greedy.”

Elysium barely even glared at the dwarf before his attitude quickly changed.

“Alright boys!! Pack it up! We’re going home!!" The dwarf shouted.

They all quickly got their stuff and got going.

Elysium looks at the body and finds it decomposing slowly. The smell alone is horrible.

"It seems the flame has slowly turned you close to an actual animal. No matter. You will be put to work, Black Dragon.”

He held out his hand, and his shadow swallowed the whole body.

Once it was fully swallowed, Elysium created the story of Cirrus’ time in the desert on the scale of the Black Dragon, and with a motion of his hand, it disappeared.

The scale then reappeared at the front of the path to Cirrus’ tomb.

“Hm. I’ve been getting better and teleporting.”

He disappeared again.

 

Elysium then reappeared before the first floor of the Dungeon.

Walking down the set of stairs, he enters the first floor, where he places his hand on the wall and closes his eyes.

“… I am sorry, Typhon. Maquia has taken you over.”

Rumble~

The floor slightly rumbles.

“I know. But the promise you made long ago with the gods has changed with the current change in developments. For one, your niece has usurped your power.”

Rumble~!

“Do not get mad at me for stating the obvious. Don’t you wish to finally sleep? To rest knowing that your children, the Xeno, who was a scream for help, will be fine even after you're gone? I will assure you that their existence will continue. So, shall we undergo a new promise? For our children?”

Rumble~

“Thank you.”

They went over the finer details of it all and established the conditions for the new promise to be made.

“Thank you again, Typhon.”

Elysium then vanishes again.

 

He reappeared at the beach where Cirrus left.

“Hm… I should keep things listed so I don’t go back and forth.”

"You are enjoying your newfound powers in Elysia, huh?” Proanthos said inside of him.

“I am a bit scattered brain at the moment.”

He walked down the seashore and knelt. He phased through the sand and then held his arm out.

“There. Got you.”

In his hands was a locket with a roughed-up charm tied to it. It had washed ashore and hidden under the sands.

“A bit dinged up, but nothing that can’t be fixed." Elysium stares at it for a second and sighs. “…” he says nothing as he stores it.

He disappeared again on the beach to find the foot-shaped spots where life grew, the footsteps of spring left behind by Cirrus.

“Spring-licked feet, huh? Do you think it was a subconscious thing why I have that?” He asked Proanthos.

"A god's appearance and abilities take whatever form you wish, be it of your thoughts, your attributes, or even your subconscious. Albeit you are probably the first god who has their manifestation take such forms because you had a subconscious.”

“Hm… I see. Is that also why I can change my appearance more easily than the other gods?”

Elysium began to follow the footprints left behind.

“Have we not had this discussion before? I swear we have in our eons in heaven traveling through the Conceptual Rings."

“Probably. We could have also just forgotten it. I took a few hits from Asura, Sun Wukong, and Shiva. God, those three are scary to fight.”

"You can’t complain about Asura or Sun Wukong; you were staying and learning from them both. Shiva is the one who found you and wished to fight you.”

“You know she wished to train me in destruction and creation. Albeit in a more hands-on approach.”

“Hah! I doubt it. Even a good chunk of the Indian Pantheon got in on it, and it turned into a giant mosh pit of fighting.”

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“It’s fine. No one got killed.”

“Barley. Krishna had to step in and tell Vishnu and Brahma.”

“Hmm… Was Krishna ever a god? I have been poking and prodding my memories of my first mortal life, and I feel like he was a demigod. Almost 100% he was.”

“Does it matter? Just like how Callisto is a demigod, she too will eventually shed her mortality and ascend, just like her father.”

“I would prefer if she kept her humanity.”

“I know. It pains you, but—”

“It is her choice. That is what matters. That is what Cirrus gave her—the choice to pick whatever path she seeks. Even if her nature will lead her down that same or even similar road, she is the captain of her fate.”

"And so too will you lay to rest the old captain who once captained that ship you're sailing in.”

“Yeah… I am. By the way, that fight with the Indian Patheon was nothing compared to the other stuff we got ourselves into.”

“I rather forget those events. Slaanesh’s domain still lingers in my mind—the horrors and depravity. Ugh. The only reason I don’t have you seal them away is to ensure nothing like that happens.”

“Yeah, but it was fun when we, along with Khorne, went on a little campaign that led to a massive brawl between those four gods; hell, I think a fifth one showed up!”

“Ah yes, the Festival of Hell… That was a sight to see.”

“Yeah… too bad stuff happened. They had to end it to take care of some business within their Conceptual Ring.”

“I’m surprised Khorne stopped. Albeit he was the last to stop, but yeah. They all had their nice parts to them. Say, do you think it was a good idea to gift those four gods what you gave them?”

Elysium shrugs.

“About as good as the gifts I gave to the other gods on my travels. Besides, they gave me gifts as well, albeit some gifts I had to purify and even then kept in specialized containers.”

 

As he walked, the land began to change; the sand changed to solid earth, where life grew with even more vigor.

Tap~

Tap~

With each step he took, land formed beneath him to make a sizable path where only flowers and grass grew.

Tap~

Tap~

Elysium kept walking right where Cirrus passed before the sea carried his body to its depths.

A massive chunk of the seashore was modified and molded so easily, like clay, to make this long bridge of earth that leads to only one thing.

Elysium held his hand. A large patch of earth formed.

“May you rest, Cirrus Zephyr. Hmm!!” From the air, a skeleton formed.

Layer after layer of bodily functions was added in, and soon enough, he made a body of his mortal life, scars and all. He then dressed him in his funeral attire.

The earth opens itself to receive this body.

Elysium gently puts the body in and, with his own hands, buries him. He kneels and buries his old life.

Shift~ Shift~

“To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses and flowers waving above one’s head along with the soothing crashing of the sea against the shore,” Elysium spoke softly as if to lull the body into an even deeper slumber.

Shift~ Shift~

“And listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and to have no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”

Shift~ Shift~

"My and everyone else’s love is always with you, a love that is stronger than death and time.”

Before he is fully covered, Elysium puts the locket and charm firmly in his hand.

“… Goodbye.” Elysium allows himself to shed tears. “Drip~ Drip~” His tears nourish the earth, and the earth, in response, covers the area with lilies that will never wilt.

He kneels there, finding it harder and harder to put the last patch of earth on his mortal body.

“… Come on.” He said to himself, struggling. “Come on… do it. You have worked through this countless lifetimes to separate yourself from your mortal self; you have a job to do, and you..."

He stays there for minutes, working and building up the resolve he thought he had to move on from his old self. Looking at his face, surrounded by dirt, breaks his heart more than he imagined.

“… Fuck.” He holds his palm up and another charm and locket form.

The only difference between the copy and the original was that the copy was in perfect condition.

Elysium digs through the soil and takes back the old charm and locket, giving him instead the copy.

“Do not judge me.”

"I am not,” Proanthos spoke softly. “They are the reason you became the greater sum of all your alternative selves. They are the reason you threw away an easy path where the only thing you had to do was obey the gods, and everything would have turned out fine for you. Instead, you picked a pathway that was way, way, way worse and came out of it better. You left with a heart—will, greater than many. Besides, he still lives inside you; the roots Cirrus laid are well preserved, so make sure you protect those precious to him.”

“…Yeah. This is my price for stealing from him.”

The last thread between Elysium and Cirrus remained. The charm and locket contain the life, work, suffering, love, and bonds inherent to the original Cirrus.

Shift~

He fully buries Cirrus, and a sense of peace washes over him.

“Haa~” He holds the locket and charms it preciously. He only did one thing to it: made it so it could never degrade with time. It will remain with him to the very end.

Elysium gets back on his feet, and his veil swipes across the area to leave behind a scale of the Black Dragon to serve as the tombstone. Engraved on it, it reads:

“Here lies Cirrus Zephyr, son of Nephele Kutaisi. A loving husband, father, friend, lord, and hero. May he be at peace till the end of time.”

Embedded right on top of the tombstone was a copy of White Night. It holds no other value besides aesthetics.

“Haa… This time for real.” He puts his hands together in a Buddhist prayer. “Goodbye, Alcides.” He puts his hands by his side, turns, and walks away through the small field of lilies and onto a path of flowers.

Whoosh~

A gentle breeze comes and brushes Elysium’s back. The sea wind, laced with the comforting smell of the lilies, reached him. A bittersweet memory resurfaces, yet he does not look back.

Flap~!

Flap~!

The red piece of cloth flutters in the wind.

Elysium stops for a moment.

“…Goodbye. Cirrus.”

He resumed walking with some struggle staining his voice.

He takes a few more steps before disappearing.

 

The grave and, subsequently the area will never have a storm. The planet dared not desecrate the place where its god shed his first tears. A holy land.

The location would eventually be discovered a few years later, and a small community began to develop in the area as a sort of tourism or vacation spot for its warm and consistent weather and, of course, the location where many would travel to see the grave at the end of the world.

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