The Cursed King

"What do you think you're doing?" Loriel quickly stepped away from the woman and threw her a glare. He furiously rubbed his cheek and gave her a deep frown. "I took you along with me because you needed my help."

Hilde's face heated up and she looked away from him. "I don't understand you. After what we've been through together for the last months in this tournament. Don't you feel a connection with me?"

"We may have gotten along but it doesn't mean anything to me. I only see you as an acquaintance and yet you've done this." Loriel shook his head disappointedly. "I told you that I have a wife."

"But why do you have to suffer through so much to be reunited with her?" Hilde asked. "Why did you need to go here in Cretea to be a god, Loriel? If she truly loved you then she wouldn't make you suffer just to be with her."

"Don't talk as if you know anything about what Elise has been through," Loriel coldly said. "She has gone through so much by being my wife that she finally decided that she's tired of me and has gone to the future. I need to go after her."

"If she's run away from you, then why are you still chasing after her?" Hilde asked. "You don't seem to have understood the message from her that she doesn't want to do anything with you from now on. You're free, Loriel."

In another time, when Loriel was weaker and would have given up if he experienced something that made it difficult to be with his wife, then Loriel would have agreed with Hilde's assessment.

It's true that Loriel had experienced so much suffering on his mission to get Elise back, but he didn't care about it at all. Loriel could not deny that he had changed and no longer thought about such things as before. Instead, there was one thing bursting out of his chest.

"I'm not going to stop or go with anyone else because I love her! Only her!" Loriel shouted at Hilde and then suddenly stopped once he realized what he just said. "I've loved her for so long and I've only realized it now. How could I have been so stupid before?"

Loriel thought it was guilt and shame that moved him forward. 

It was because he felt responsible for Elise's suffering and the fact that she was carrying their child. They made him act against her wishes to be left alone. He thought that there were a lot of reasons why he wanted to become a god and see her again.

However, it all condensed to one reason alone.

He loved her.

Loriel had loved Elise all this time and it was what made him work so hard to be with her again. A part of it was because he felt responsible for paying for his sins and asking for forgiveness, but it was also because of love.

Especially after he realized that his wife was actually the 'fairy' who saved his life many years ago.

A tear trickled down Loriel's cheek and he smiled sadly. "I love her and I would stop at nothing to be with her again. I really love my wife, Hilde, and there's nothing that I can do about this at all. I love her so much that I can't imagine spending my life with another person except for Elise."

Hilde stared at the man and shook her head. "Unbelievable. You act so cold and callous but you're actually even more stupid in love than I am. It's clear that you've lost your chance with this woman and yet you still want to be with her?"

"I do." Loriel nodded firmly. "Even if it is impossible, I want to beg for forgiveness and then be with her again. That is the only thing that will make me happy, Hilde. So I cannot accept whatever kind of feeling that you have for me. Goodbye."

Before Hilde could say anything else, the king of Summeria moved forward and finally reached the peak of Cretea. Countless gods and goddesses stood together and awaited both him and others to join them for the godhood ceremony.

The entire mountain of Cretea was decorated in all of its glory, basked in warm golden sunlight that never seemed to end. If Loriel thought that the kingdom of Myreen shielded from the rest of the world was amazing, Cretea was far more spectacular.

What lay before Loriel was a kind of utopia that most humans could only dare to dream of. There was no sickness in Cretea, there was no individual that would die from age and rot and all of them were blessed with unimaginable powers.

Among them stood Loriel's greatest enemy. The Time Master stood at the center and even held the goblet containing the potion of immortality. 

There was a calm look on his face as the god addressed the crowd.

"All of you have gone so far into reaching this place," Dimitri said. "There were at least tens and thousands of participants that sought to ascend the mountains of Cretea and be worthy of this cup and all of you have done so. We give our commendations."

Hilde climbed up and joined the ceremony with a frown on her face, even as she accepted a similar goblet from one of the fairies and nymphs distributing the goblets.

Dimitri himself walked up to Loriel, slowly and confidently with a smile on his face as he offered the goblet to the mortal. "Drink and be filled with the power of eternal youth and a power that resides deep within you."

Loriel snatched the goblet from the man and glared at him. "This isn't poisoned isn't it?"

Dimitri chuckled. "Of course not. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. Brothers and sisters, we welcome you as our fellow gods in Cretea. Let us drink and be merry!"

All of the individuals gathered together drank the potion which transformed Loriel and all who made it this far into immortals. Energy unlike any other coursed through as his eyes lit up with power.

"Dante." Loriel looked at Dimitri and quickly lunged for the man's throat. "Now bring me to Elise."

Gasps of horror emerged from within the community of gods and goddesses. 

"I'm afraid that I can't do that," Dimitri laughed weakly.