Chapter Eighteen

Hel screamed from Izanagi’s pain as the vision faded around her. Izanagi was no longer in her presence. Instead, Hades leaned in the doorway, ducking his head to avoid smashing it on the frame. The room was crowded again in literature with no chair to be seen.

“Izanagi-sun is the only life, energy, force, in the universe to challenge The Void. Let alone to bargain with it,” Hades’s voice sounded filled with admiration. He knew all too well the pain Izanagi feels. The life he had lost. The love of his life torn away from him leaving nothing but guilt and hatred.

“Bargain?” Hel’s voice quivered. She couldn’t shake the pain. Tears rolled down both her eye and the socket with which held no flesh or muscles. She collapsed to the ground, catching herself on her palms. Her wispy blond hair pooling over her shaking body. Hel tried to be strong. She tried to save face.

But her understanding of Izanagi’s life petrified her. His pain. It’s not just a memory lodged within his being. There is no hope that time will lead a numbness to the pain. That pain will never get better; never go away. No. Izanagi’s life is now just a goal. It’s a mission. He challenged The Void. The Celestials.

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Zeus’s Law states that everyone is made up of stone; shattered in half and only complete when the halves finally come together. But for Izanagi, his half had already come to a whole. He had given Izanumi his life and god-like agelessness. She held his heart and therefore, his power. Izanagi defied fate. He defied the balance. And now he is simply paying his dues.

Hades helped Hel to her feet. Her knees shook, causing her left side to make a rattling sound as bone shook against bone. Hel took a deep breath in. She may be nothing. Her life a joke. She often wished that she would just die and be one with nature as all beings eventually become. But seeing what Izanagi had gone through… Hel started to think she had something to offer. Even if it was just helping Izanagi complete his part of the bargain, Hel would do something. Anything, to help.

Hel could still not help but question what part she could possibly fulfill. She was a mistake and a monster. And not a monster carved with Celestial image. A monster born out of deceit. A monster that could only have been created due to an oversight of their ever expanding universe.