The Cursed King

Baron and Hilde realized, there was one person who could actually think of separating Loriel and Dante together completely, and that person was Elise.

When they reach Alexei's place, Baron and Hilde only found Elise who was sitting on the terrace, looking at the garden with a gloomy face. 

"Hey… are you, uhm… Elise?" Baron asked carefully.

He didn't understand why Alexei took Elise to his temple in Cretea. Shouldn't he take Dimitri's side since the man was the one who raised him? And where was Alexei now? 

"Yes, I am Elise," The beautiful woman looked up and saw Baron. She recognized him as the person who came with Alexei to Italy. "You are… Alexei's friend? Baron, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes. It's me," Baron replied. "What are you doing here? Why are those two men fighting over you? Is Loriel Ashborn really your husband??"

Elise caught distraught in Baron's voice and she suddenly felt alarmed. "Why? Did something happen?"

She was wondering if Loriel did something to wreak havoc because she left. And oh… what about Dante? Did they meet after Elise left New York?

"Yes, something big happened," Baron sighed. He pressed his temple in frustration.

"We need you to interfere and stop those two idiots from killing the planet." Hilde crossed her arms together. She looked at the earth goddess and sighed. "I think you'll be the only one who can stop those fools, Elise."

At this point, Hilde had set aside her personal feelings for Loriel and decided to ask Elise to come back and separate the two men who were fighting furiously and stop the world's destruction.

So, she shouldn't really think about her own feelings when the safety of the world and the people in them was threatened. Hilde looked at Elise seriously. "I think they will only listen to you. Please, you have to stop this madness."

Elise's expression became determined and she nodded. "Let us go then." 

Baron raised his hand quickly. "We must not waste time. Do you know where Alexei keeps his space folder? We can save so much time with it and go see the two fools immediately."

"Oh… you mean the thing he used to get us here quickly?" Elise asked. 

She remembered Alexei took out something from his pocket before they went to Cretea and they could arrive here much faster, unlike Baron and Hilde who must take the normal route and needed some time to reach the holy place.

I think he brought it with him," Elise said. She sighed. "I haven't seen Alexei all day."

"Huh? Where did he go? Do you know?" Baron probed. He was still wondering what did Elise have to do with the fight between Loriel and Dimitri. Or, was it actually Dante?

During their journey to Cretea, Hilde suddenly shared a crazy theory that came to her all of a sudden. She said it was possible that the man they knew as Dimitri all this time was actually Dante who took his twin brother's identity. 

She suspected something happened in the past and Dante asked Dimitri to switch during the tournament where he was one of the supervising gods. That would explain why 'Dante' couldn't fight Loriel when he attacked the Time Master after the tournament ended.

The reason why Loriel killed 'Dante' was that he wanted him to bring him to his wife.

Yet, earlier, Loriel shouted at them to go look for his wife, Elise, who went with Alexei. So.. was this the woman that became the source of rivalry between Loriel and Dante in the past?

But, what did she have to do with Alexei?

Ahhh..  so many questions!

"I don't know…" Elise replied with a low voice. She could guess that Alexei took it hard and needed time to gather his thoughts.

"Was he upset?" Baron asked again. This didn't sound like something Alexei would do, he thought. "What happened?"

Elise had heard from Alexei that Baron was his best friend. So, she thought perhaps it was okay to tell this young man what actually happened between them.

"What??" Baron and Hilde were both in shock when they heard Elise's explanation.

Now, everything made sense. The feud between Loriel and Dimitri… ahem, Dante, Alexei's disappearance.. and Elise being here.

"Wait, I think I know where to find him," Baron said finally. He turned to Hilde and motioned her to do something. "I will go get Alexei. You go to see the gods council and tell them what Dante did. They have to know that he has been impersonating his late brother."

"Okay…" Hilde took another look at Elise and then finally left. She felt displeased because, after all this time, Loriel still looked for his wife and was so devoted to her. And now, that woman finally reappeared.

It's not fair, she thought. How could a woman be loved so fiercely and deeply for such a long, long time? She, Hilde, was beautiful and attractive, she was in fact the goddess of beauty herself. Yet, no man ever loved her the way Loriel loved his wife.

"We'll be back soon," Baron reassured Elise, before he took his leave and go look for Alexei in a deep part of Cretea, the ghost woods, where the young god often visited whenever he was feeling upset.

Elise waited in her son's place, pacing anxiously. She was worried that Loriel and Dante would cause such severe destruction that the world she knew would be destroyed. And of course, this would warrant punishment from the gods council as well.

And what happened to Alexei? Was he still upset? Elise was feeling upset too. She felt like screaming and crying after everything that she suddenly found out on the same day.

She cupped her face with both hands and started crying again.

***

"Mother…" Alexei's voice moved Elise from her tears. She looked up and found the handsome young man, whom, the more she looked at the more he resembled his father, that Elise felt so bad she didn't recognize him earlier.

Loriel in the past had a very similar appearance to Alexei's, especially his messy ash hair. Now, he kept dark hair, for who knows why, but other than the difference in hair color, his face and build looked very similar to Alexei's.

Elise was so proud of her son. She got up and touched his arm. "You're back."

"Yeah. Baron told me, we need to go back… to separate Loriel and... Dante." Alexei pursed his lips when he spoke. Yeah.. now he felt embarrassed to admit that those two older gods were related to him.

"Okay, let's go, then," Elise said.

Alexei took out a scroll from his pocket and read a spell. Soon, a portal opened and they traveled back to earth. When Elise opened her eyes, she would step into the ice caps.

Across the sky, she would see both Loriel and Dante still fighting together and still exchanging blows. Even after four days, the two were still fighting fiercely and weren't tired for one bit.

Sigh. 

"Let me handle them," Elise told Baron and Alexei.  She step forward and mustered up a strong wind from her left and right. It created a huge typhoon in the sky.

When Elise raised both hands, the typhoon charged at the two gods and separate them from each other.. Loriel and Dante who saw the newcomer instantly slowed down.