REVENGE

Amynta's heart lurched when she heard this, but her lips were sealed, both by design and by her will. However, Leonel didn't really need to hear the answer, he already knew it. In this regard, Amynta and his grandfather weren't all that different.

Leonel had many thoughts about where his grandfather might be and what he was doing now. There was no reason for him to have been gone so long, it didn't make any sense, especially considering the time dilation between the regions.

However, seeing how far Amynta had gone to revive the Constellation Families, he had a guess.

When Leonel left, the Fawkes family barely had any members. Other than himself, who was already barely considered a Fawkes to begin with, there were only his grandfather, his mother and his uncle.

Whatever was causing his grandfather to drag his feet so much almost certainly had to do with the revival of the Fawkes. And as for how he would do it... would it be much different than what Amynta had done?

Leonel had known for a long time what kind of man his grandfather was. Emperor Gervaise Fawkes would take the path that suited him best.

He had personally handpicked Leonel's grandmother to be his wife for reasons that likely weren't purely out of love... if there was any love to begin with.

He hadn't hesitated to all the deaths of billions of his own citizens to ensure that Earth wasn't overrun by Invalids.

He had no qualms about manipulating his own grandsons to do his bidding, throwing them directly into the line of fire as he sat back on his throne.

And yet, Leonel couldn't say that he hated his grandfather very much anymore. In fact, as time passed, Leonel found himself cozying up to the old man, thinking of him as a real grandfather rather than the caricature of one.

Part of that was because he no longer had the right or the moral high ground to denounce his grandfather's actions. He was no longer that naive teenage boy.

Another part was the fact he could feel that though his grandfather's actions were cruel in the eyes of many, in a lot of ways he wasn't unlike Leonel...

Morality was too subjective. There were too many moving parts, too many differing opinions, so the two men, grandfather and grandson, did the only thing they could do...

Put their families first and foremost.

Leonel had a feeling that the day his grandfather appeared once more, there would be hell to pay.

What kind of painful existence was it to endure being the last of your kind? At one point, he was the only Fawkes that remained in the entire world... how much rage was buried in his heart?

Leonel shook his head and sighed. Then, he waved a hand.

The ball of yin and yang vanished and, caught off guard, Amynta practically plummeted from the skies. Without her Constellation active, she couldn't fly on her own so she could only quickly take out a flying treasure once more before she hit the ground.

"Alright, I'm not really interested in all of this. Like I said, you're useful to me. So are you going to cooperate? Or not?"

Leonel looked into Amynta's eyes. She still seemed to be a bit shell-shocked, not quite understanding what was going on. But when she heard Leonel's words, she looked toward him as well.

Her lips parted but no words came out. © 2024.

Just when Vivak was about to speak and refuse, Amynta nodded.

"We accept."

She spoke so softly it sounded almost like a light breeze. However, everyone here was an expert, they most certainly heard her clearly.

At the end of the day her thoughts could be summarized in a single phrase...

At least Leonel was human.

With Amynta's words, everything went quite smoothly. After one battle, her prestige amongst the Godlens rose to an entirely different level and it could be said that she was their de facto leader at this point.

Strength weighed too heavily in a world like this one, and Amynta was the wife of their Patriarch to begin with. It was easy to accept her.

Like this, they began to make plans to corral the rest of the human population under one banner and Leonel got the chance to be lazy again.

After a couple weeks, Leonel realized that things would stabilize, so he had a meeting with Amynta and Vivak once more.

Standing in the Godlen Patriarch's office, Leonel waved a hand and burst into a fit of laughter.

Simona and Eduardo appeared, their lips locked together. They were so passionate that they didn't even realize the scenery changed at first.

When they both looked up because of Leonel's outburst, they flushed as red as tomatoes.

Leonel had had Anastasia double check to make sure the two were decent, and when she told him about their current state, he chose to play a little prank.

Watching their faces twist in horror, especially when Eduardo realized both Simona's mother and father were here, Leonel was having the time of his life.

Eamon, who stood to the side, covered his mouth to stop himself as well. He had been shadowing Leonel for the past month or so and had learned a lot, both in terms of Crafting and more neutrally in terms of Leonel's personality.

He was hard to get a read on most times, but from time to time he would do something like this that would make him want to grin ear to ear.

"Mother, father!" Simona spoke after clearing her throat, sending several glares toward Leonel. If she could eat him alive, she would.

Amynta had a light smile on her face while Vivak's expression was rapidly changing colors.

Regardless, their lack of response left her feeling like a piece of meat on a hot skillet.

"Woo, that's funny. Consider this to be my last bit of revenge, Vivak," Leonel said after wiping the tears from his eyes.