“Apologies. I may have let myself get a little carried away”

“I do not mind” Navek could not blame Runfar for his outburst.

In fact, that was the only thing about someone like him that was still normal.

“That being said…I do have the solution to our dilemma”

“Solution?”

“A way to beat Chronos”

“Now you are spouting sheer nonsense buddy. If you haven’t noticed, she is a goddess! An immortal deity that controls time itself! I told you already, no matter what you do, she can always rewind it, it will be like nothing ever happened!”

“Not if we manage to kill her first”

“Say what?!”

Now Runfar said something that made no sense whatsoever.

“I might have a way of killing her”

“Might have? Not definite way?!”

“I have yet to test it out on a deity, though I do have one in mind…”

“Then what you are claiming is a complete ball of horse dung!”

“Do not be so quick to dismiss the possibility, Navek.”

“If it’s possible…Will killing Chronos remove our curses?”

“We will not know until we try”

Navek’s thoughts were racing within his head.

On one hand, he wanted to believe that whatever this strange young man was spouting was a big fat lie, an illusion conjured by his unhealthy mind.

But on the other hand…he was tired of running away.

“What do you want from me?” Navek jumped right to the point.

“I would like you to join my group, the Shadow Lords”

“In that case, let’s make a deal. If you can prove that you can kill a god, then I will join you. But if you can’t….”

“Then I will abandon my goals completely” Runfar said before Navek had the chance to finish his sentence.

“Just now…did you use your curse to know what I was going to say?”

“No. After looping back so many times, you get really good at finishing other people’s sentences.”

That was the truth.

“But what if we lose and she turns us to dust?”

“Well, at the very least we will not have to worry about coming back to life anymore, do we?”

“Ha-ha! You are right about that!”

Essentially, it was a win-win.

If they somehow manage to triumph against Chronos, they will achieve revenge, but if they lose, then they can say goodbye to their miserable existences.

Either way, Dark Lord would win.

“In that case”

Runfar extended his hand and Navek, after hesitating a little, shook it.

If what this young man was telling him was true, then he, out of all people in the world, was the only one who could understand Navek’s ordeal.

And if there is a sliver of a chance at getting revenge at Chronos, Navek did not want to pass it up.

They had the same unbearable burden placed upon their backs by the same deity.

In a sense, they both got screwed over by the same fiend.

And as they say, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my comrade’

* * *

“Guess what? I have a subordinate now!”

Morphus was beaming proudly in front of the other Shadow Lords.

Being treated as a child by everyone except Dark Lord was rather annoying, so he liked the sense of importance having a subordinate gave him.

“Really? And where is that non-imaginary subordinate of yours?” Meros was a little skeptical of Morphus’s words.

“Oh, right. I put her inside my ring. One second…”

A form of a female vampire emerged out of Morphus’s Teleportation ring which doubled as a storage ring.

Lukalis’s magic items sure were convenient.

Verine was breathing heavily, gasping for air.

After breathing in and out to her lungs’ content, she ended up shouting.

“Master Morphus! What was that for?!”

“Not sure what you mean, Verine. I told you to wait there until I called you, so what is the problem?”

“What is the problem?! That place is a dark abyss in the middle of nowhere! Just an empty room used as a storage place! There isn’t even air in there!” only by the virtue of being a powerful lesser vampire did she manage to survive that ordeal.

“Oh…That is clearly my fault. I am very sorry.” Morphus ended up bowing his head in apology.

“Please don’t do it again, Master Morphus”

“What did you just call me?”

“Master Morphus?” Verine was not sure why, by a large smile appeared on Morphus’s face.

Feeling of importance.

It felt so good.

“Is something wrong? Master Morphus?”

“Oh no, nothing is wrong”

On the inside, he was positively squirming with delight.

‘Master Morphus…I like the sound of that’

In the future centuries, Morphus would often insist on his subordinates calling him Master Morphus, secretly due to how good it felt to be referred as such.