Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 643: Now you tell me

Chapter 643: Now you tell me

"What do you mean you didn’t have a choice?" Nadia asked, unable to understand why a father would abandon his daughter and travel across the world.

Naturally, such a thing was foreign to her as the most impactful men in her life, her father and Arthur, had never abandoned her when she was struggling to find herself in the world.

So why?... Why was Gregory’s case different?

Gregory let out a melancholic sigh while taking the time to look around, seemingly indulging in the sights about him.

Silence persisted briefly causing Nadia to speak up. "Answer me!"

"... When my wife conceived Arwen, it was the happiest day of our lives. As Mystics, it was difficult to have children and in a way, we had resigned ourselves to remain childless for the rest of our lives. But then she came and everything changed."

"..." Nadia stayed silent, paying heed to everything that Gregory said, perhaps in a desperate bid to understand why he did what he did.

Gregory continued. "The fact that it took almost ten months for her to finally come should have been a sign that something was wrong, but we didn’t want to believe that, and so, we went ahead, hopeful that our daughter would come into the world a healthy baby."

"What happened?"

"She came into this world as a stillborn."

"... Ah." Nadia didn’t know when the word left her lips, only that it did, and hearing that, Gregory managed a smile, one suffused with the sadness in his heart.

"Cassia was devastated, no lesser than I was, and as much as we wanted to accept that the baby girl we’d been waiting for for so long, we couldn’t," Gregory muttered softly, his feminine features becoming more pronounced as he embraced the emotions within.

"I’m sorry." Nadia intoned. "But I don’t understand, if Arwen came into this world as a stillborn, how come..."

"She’s alive now?" Gregory chuckled, though it was not born out of joy. "It’s because her parents decided to be foolish, dabbling in arcane arts far beyond what they understood."

Nadia turned wide-eyed as she realized what Gregory meant. "You tried to bring her back to life."

"Indeed, we did."

"But resurrection..."

"Is forbidden and mostly impossible." Gregory cut her off, leaving Nadia staring at him, half in disbelief and half in curiosity.

Taking a deep breath, Gregory explained. "Though Arwen was a stillborn, she possessed a pneuma and an Avatar."

"Only her Soma was dead."

"Indeed. Her pneuma, for some reason, was so powerful that it ended up suffocating her in the womb, causing her stillbirth, and once my wife and I realized that... we decided to bring her back."

"What did you do?"

"We needed a way to revive our daughter so naturally, we sought out the agents of death."

"You reached out to an Emissary."

"An unfortunate decision on our part," Gregory admitted. "Of course, the process of reaching out was not easy as we needed to be close to death for the Emissary to even respond to our calls. For that reason, I became an Anomaly with the bones of a dead Banshee."

"That..."

"Was risky?... Dangerous?... Foolish perhaps?... Indeed, it was. Surprisingly, it worked. And I found myself forever cut off from the path to becoming a deity with the Devil Wheel." Gregory remarked before adding. "Of course, that didn’t matter as long as Arwen could be revived."

"The Emissary answered your call?"

Gregory nodded. "But that’s when things became problematic."

"How?"

"As I said, Arwen’s pneuma was too strong for her Soma. So to strengthen her, we needed two things; her body needed to be reforged and infused with enough life force to withstand the damage."

Nadia had a feeling what Gregory was about to say next would explain why he was alive and his wife was dead.

"Your wife gave up her life force?"

At this point, Gregory’s eyes appeared glassy as he replied. "She said that I’d already sacrificed enough and that it was her time to sacrifice something. So she gave up her life force but the Emissary wished to play a cruel joke as he didn’t take her into the Afterlife and instead left her on Eventide. If I hadn’t acted quickly to protect her, she would have turned into an Evil Spirit."

"The Emissary betrayed you?"

"No, at least it did as it said it would and revived our dear Arwen, infusing her with the life force of her mother and using the remainder of the banshee concoction I used to become an Anomaly along with my anomalous essence to breathe life back into Arwen’s Soma."

"I see," Nadia muttered. "But it doesn’t explain why you left. Sure, your wife was a disembodied ghost, but at least Arwen was alive."

"You must have an idea as to why those wishing to become Mystics of the Monster Wheel avoid the remains of dragons, Gryphons, draconic vampires, and banshees?"

Nadia hesitated, unsure of whether to respond or not before deciding to do so. "The essence of dragons is too much for a human to bear during the ingestion process. Also, the grudge the dragon race holds towards the human race ensures that even if one can endure the essence, one would undoubtedly run mad.

"As for Gryphons, the consensus about it is that they are on the wrong Wheel. The Devil Wheel is yin-oriented, yet the power of the Gryphons is Yang-oriented, leading to a clash in ideals. Also, the Gryphons were a proud race, ensuring that though one would be able to endure the clash in ideals, they would have a hard time advancing up the Wheel."

"Correct on both counts." Gregory intoned. "Continue."

Nodding, Nadia remarked. "As for the draconic vampires, the problem is said to be associated with the progenitor of the draconic vampires, who upon his death, caused his offspring to die along with him, causing the mass extinction of the draconic vampire lineage."

"And finally," Gregory said. "The banshees."

"... It’s said that the banshees are a cruel race and those that dare to ingest parts of their brethren to become Mystics would be hunted by the banshees until they are captured or killed."

With a mild smile, Gregory inquired. "Now you tell me, if someone were to ingest the remains of a banshee in Argent, Emet, or even Ra’as, all of whom are controlled by powerful forces, do you think the banshees would be daring enough to take on the uphill task of leaving Henos and crossing the Azure Seas just to catch that one person?"