Despite everything, the little voice of irrational hope whined in the back of his head. Maybe Val would turn out to be an angel who could somehow lift him from the pit that was his life. While saving another person was impossible for a lost cause like Arius, Val might just be able to manage the impossible.

She was the daughter of Balduino, the Noble One, the previous God Supreme before his father had usurped hers. In the same way that he had always admired Balduino and Brixatorrixom in the stories that his mother had told, Arius wanted to put his faith in Val.

Dreams aside, he could expect him and Val to make for a couple nearly as horrible as Tavras and Evalaite. Destiny still gave dysfunctional people their soulmates after all, but it would only be fair if he gave Val a chance. Arius could give her three strikes, and she had already earned the first one.

Through Read Intentions, he could feel those disgusting feelings that she had for Tavras. Her mind contained the jaded sentiment of an unreciprocated crush, but those were affections there nonetheless.

Arius should have been enraged that his soulmate could see anything good in the Sea Itself, yet despite his temper, sometimes getting angry was too much work. Instead, he felt the way that he did about most things in his life: apathetic and helpless.

It seemed that whatever Suvier did not take from him, Tavras did.

Tavras had been looking for ways to dislike him from the very beginning, all because he was Suvier’s son. He remembered the way that Tavras had screamed at Ludo over him being a ‘psychopath per his blood’, simply because he had made an honest mistake when he was thirteen years old. Tavras had spoken as if he had the right to call anyone a psychopath, much less a child. The Sea Itself had one of the highest kill counts of mortals in history for crying out loud.

Arius had always hated Tavras, and the death of Urru only brought about more of his rage. Why should his supposed soulmate have the capability to see anything good in one of two people who Arius utterly despised? The other person who Arius hated was none other than Suvier, of course.

One of these days, Arius swore that he was going to snap. Now, he did not like to think of himself as a monster, so he would never try to kill his own father. Besides, that would be just begging to die.

Despite being the closest second to Suvier’s power, Arius would be obliterated if he ever lashed out against him. Technically, he had already died once by Suvier’s hand and would rather not do so permanently.

If Arius were to effectively kill himself, he at least wanted to do something productive with the end of his life. Namely, he would want revenge.

Without a doubt, killing Tavras would be the most pleasurable thing that life had yet to offer. The only reason why Arius had not avenged Urru yet was because the Sea Itself was proffered a special immunity from death. None of the gods, not even Suvier, could afford to lose the shepherd of the sea. Only, Arius had nothing to lose.

If he killed Tavras, then he would sing the lovely songs that his mother had taught him while the other gods panicked and banded together to end his life. With Tavras’s absence from the world, there would be no one to quell leviathan the next time that it would awaken. Then, the rest of the world could drown just like the world had drowned him.

No, that was wrong, and Arius knew it. There were plenty of innocent mortals in the world. Plus, he still liked Ludo. If Arius ever felt like sealing a death sentence for himself, he should jump into the volcano where Suvier had taken him as a child. That would not bring harm to anyone else. When the fire had first spoken to him when he was five, it had said ‘son of fire, burn the world’. Arius could always choose to burn himself instead.

“Wow,” Arius whispered and whistled to himself. He really should have just been the god of depression instead. That would have been more accurate. He should talk to Ludo soon.

While he waited for Val and Tavras to show up, he pulled out his phone and texted him.

Arius: Thanks for the quick turn-around on the hair regrowth potion again.

Can you schedule me to talk soon?

There’s been some changes in my life, and I’m not taking it too well.

I’m still planning the trials for the new demigods—don’t even know what I’m going to do yet. Worse comes to worse, I just draw up some last-minute brackets for a tournament, so I’m not busy at all. I can fly over to the capital again anytime.

Hopefully the open time window would put less of a burden on Ludo. He hated being a burden on him.

Ludo always had his phone on priority-only notifications with Arius as the only priority. He probably felt some immense responsibility as the shrink to the crazed god of war. After all, if Arius ever did enact revenge on Tavras, Ludo would witness the rise of leviathan and regret not having given him better psychiatric care. It was probably an order from Suvier too, or something like that.

Ludo: Of course, Arius. Thanks for reaching out, as always.

My secretary knows my schedule better than I do and will send you the details.

I was concerned about you, the way you came here and demanded a regrowth potion overnight.

Generally speaking, may I ask what has changed?

Arius: It involves my soulmate and Tavras.

Ludo: As long as destiny did not switch Tavras to being your soulmate, it sounds like you are doing fine to me.

“Ugh.” Arius winced and groaned, but he also laughed. What an absolutely atrocious joke that was. It made him so extensively uncomfortable that it actually lightened his spirits. That helped pull Arius out of his spiraling mood.

In all respects, Ludo took his profession as a doctor and therapist seriously. Because of the way that he had raised Arius as his pseudo son, they had a closer relationship than the typical therapist and patient. It helped Arius feel a little more normal if they did not approach therapy in an overly serious way. He liked the rare occasions where he did not feel like he was crazy even though he absolutely was.

As he leaned against the apartment building where Val had stayed the night, he wondered when they would be back. The longer that she was out and about in that disguise as a boy, the more dangerous that her transition back to a girl would be.

On one hand, Arius had his Tracker on her, so he could always ‘accidently’ bump into her on the streets. If Tavras had already told Val bad things about him, neither of them would give him the light of day unless Arius planted himself right outside of their living accommodations like this.

Stalkerish much? Absolutely, Arius was acting like a stalker. He literally used his Tracker ability on Val so that he could keep tabs on his soulmate at all times. Given the way that he was looking out for her despite everything, he was the best soulmate ever. His behavior was worthy of only the highest praise.

Knowing Tavras, he would have set them up in an illegal unit where they could actually talk. Any time that Arius got to spend away from Suvier’s walls, he would savor.

Bored, Arius turned around the vial in his hand and watched the purple liquid swirl around inside. Luckily, Ludo had obliged his request and rushed to make him this potion yesterday. It would regrow Val’s hair in a few minutes, which would be his first act of connecting with his soulmate.

Whether he could completely salvage her from Tavras, he would have to see.

At last, the duo of Tavras and Val appeared down the street with some big boxes in their arms.

That majestic Doberman Pinscher went running up and welcomed him with some good doggy woofs. Even if the dog was barking aggressively at Arius, he was such a good boy for alerting his master to the stranger lurking outside their home.

The veil of Arius’s apathy was broken by a glimmer of happiness. Dogs had that effect on him. He would have a divine dog himself, if only he could bear taking another companion after Urru had passed. Arius genuinely loved dogs, especially a gorgeous beast like that Dobie.

Regrettably, he had failed to ask for the dog’s name. Meeting his soulmate—Balduino’s daughter disguised as a boy—had thrown him off badly enough that he had definitely messed up his first impression. Worse yet, he had missed an opportunity to pet a dog.

Nothing could be done about that now, so Arius focused on Val to make a better second impression. When his gaze met her eyes, an ugly frown pulled down her lips. Everyone always frowned when they saw him, but Arius put a big smile on his face.

It was time to be calm and not flip out at Tavras. Women liked stable and confident men. To keep his own spirits high, he would definitely crack some jokes and hopefully get Val to laugh too. He had his whole life of pretending as if he were happy and doing okay, so Arius should have no trouble with any of this.

Given how Arius was superior to Tavras in every single way, he had no doubt that he could draw such an impressionable, young woman’s affections away from that old geezer and onto himself. Arius was more handsome, more powerful, and probably had more money.

In regards to finances, Tavras might have made it off pretty well with interest, since he was probably around at the inception of money. The Sea Itself literally had all of history to accumulate wealth, but Arius would also not be surprised if Tavras did not even have a bank account.

Most importantly, Arius had a better personality than Tavras, and that was not saying much at all. On a related note, he even had better mental health because at least Arius always knew that he was human, never mistaking his identity for a big body of water like Tavras was said to lose himself to the sea.

Best of all, he came bearing gifts. All women loved gifts, especially considerate or expensive ones depending on the individual's taste. With this gift, he could not go wrong because the potion happened to be both.

Just wait until he gave her this potion to regrow her hair. Arius was going to turn that frown upside down.