When Miko opened his eyes, he was in a familiar white room, sitting in front of a mirror.

In the mirror, he saw the mosaic being looking at him.

“You should've listened to Tia.”

He said.

“She only cares about your wellbeing. Even if the world betrayed you, she wouldn't.”

“Shut it, Augustus.”

Miko replied.

The moment he said that, the mosaic disappeared and a man almost identical to him appeared in the mirror.

“Oh? You figured out my identity.”

Augustus showed an amused expression on his handsome face.

“I had my suspicions. I just confirmed it when I saw your portrait.”

Miko replied with an annoyed tone.

“You bastard, why are you inside my soul?”

“I can't say.”

“Why?”

“Because if I do, you'd received another backlash. But this time, way stronger. Strong enough to kill you. And if you die, I die.”

“….Then tell me, how are we connected?”

“Can't say.”

“Then what can you say?!”

Miko got irritated.

“Well, I can talk to you about Deus Malum.”

“?!”

Miko was shocked, and then after he thought about it he came to a conclusion.

“You're the creator of Deus Malum?”

Augustus nodded.

“Deus Malum(Wicked God) is a technique I spent 10 millenniums creating. It was original meant to kill that fucker Zeus, but I tailored it to kill all of those gods and demons who pissed me off during the war.”

“Do you have a grudge against Zeus?”

“Me and that old pervert are like oil and water. I made it my lifetime goal to wipe out his family and destroy his legacy and then kill him.”

Augustus said with a scrowl.

“You must've hated him. I mean, I hate the arrogant rapist too. But your hate seems personal.”

“Logan, do you know who killed Tiamat in the myths?”

“Of course. Marduk, the Babylonian god of heaven and earth.”

“That's right. But did you know that Marduk was Zeus’ original identity? More specifically, his prototype?”

“……What you say does make sense. Marduk was created a long time before Zeus. They're both gods of the skies and thunder. They both led a rebellion against the old gods. They both fought against a powerful serpent monster. There are a lot of similarities between them.”

There's a lot of evidence that indicates that Marduk and Zeus are the same. It's just that they were worshipped in different eras.

Its quite possible that Marduk’s legends got changed over time, because it was passed down orally, which led to creation of Zeus in Greece.

Over the years, the Greeks changed the story to their liking to fit with their culture and morals, thus led to the creation of Greek mythology.

It's similar to how Christians destroyed hundreds of pagan religions, but took some of their customs and festivals. Like Easter which was a festival in honor of the Germanic goddess Eastre. Even the religious meaning of Easter was stolen from the myth about Mediterranean god Attis, who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. Attis was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. Easter was later moved to April because Christians and pagans used to argue over which religion imitated who.

Another one would be Christmas, which was a combination of several pagan practices.

There were also Thursday, which was originally celebrated as Thor’s Day.

Tuesday named after Norse War God Tyr.

Friday named after Frigga, and Wednesday named after her husband Odin, who was the original inspiration for Santa Claus by the way.

Long story short, civilizations and religions stole from each other and made lots of stolen concepts into their own.

Hence Marduk became Zeus over time.

“That bastard always trying to harass Tia, this led to me and him having a series of battles.”

“You fought Zeus?”

“And Hades, Thor, Lugh, Siegfried, and hundreds more….Oh, I once bitchslapped Gilgamesh while stomping on Hercules.”

Augustus said boastingly.

“Anyway, I tried to kill the bastard but he's extremely hard to kill. In the end, I died before him.”

“So that why you created Deus Malum”

Augustus nodded.

“To kill Zeus you need to reach the fifth stage, Evil God. You've only mastered the First Stage, Dark Apostle, right?”

Miko nodded.

Augustus smiled and said-

“Then let me help you achieve the second stage.”

When Miko opened his eyes again, he was inside a spacious room on a big bed.

He felt someone's presence, and looked over on the bed.

There he saw Tiamat laying beside him.

“…….?”

This confused Miko for a while, but then he decided not to think about it too much.

“Hey, Tia. Tia, wake up.”

He said while poking her cheek.

“Hmm....”

She slowly opened her eyes and lazily looked at him.

“….Miko?”

After a while, she became aware of her surroundings.

“You're awake?”

“Yeah. How long have I been out, Tia?”

Tiamat widen her eyes when she heard his words.

“What did you call me just now?”

“Tia. What you don't like it?”

Miko asked with a frown.

“No, no, no! I like it. Tia is fine.”

She flusteredly said.

“Good. Because addressing you this way feels more natural to me.”

At that moment, he could feel a surge of happiness coming from her.

“….Anyway, tell me how long have I been out?”

“Only a day. I told everyone that you were fine. It's just that a technique you were using went out of control and cause you immense pain.”

What Tiamat said wasn't a lie.

It's true that the headache Miko felt came from the backlash of seeing Augustus’ Portrait, however everything else he experienced was because of Deus Malum.

Because of the nature of the technique, its directly linked with Miko's mind.

If he experiences immense stress, his mind will become cloudy and he will loose control of it.

If that happens, Miko will lose all rationality and return to the state that he was in the Illusionary Beast Valley. Only a thousand times more dangerous.

This is the reason why Miko said that if he had lost Luka he would've ended up killing everyone.

The current Miko cant afford to lose anyone. If he does, Deus Malum would devour him and he'll turn into a powerful monster.

How powerful you ask?

He was able to throw Nero like a doll didn't he?

That was how dangerous Deus Malum was. Miko was continuously walking between insanity and rationality.

“I see. That works.”

He got up off the bed.

He looked at Tiamat laying on the bed, and found her figure very alluring.

Just seeing her face to face made him feel the urge to pounce on her.

As if realizing what he was thinking, Tiamat sat up and looked at him with a seductive gaze.

This gaze robbed Miko of his last bit of resistance.

“Ah, fuck it!”

He immediately jumped on top of Tiamat. Tiamat didn't resisted and even welcomed him.

Instantly, Miko had the beautiful goddess under him.

He looked down on her figure that had a mature and erotic look to it.

“Tia…”

He gently called out her name.

“I don't mind. You can do whatever you want with me.”

Tiamat's words sent an electric shock through his brain, that went straight to his lower body.

Miko's eyes turned beastly as the last cord of his rationality was cut.

He was going to eat this dragon goddess up.

Just as he moved to do that-

*Knock! Knock!*

He heard a knock on the door. However, Miko chose to ignore it.

However, that was a mistake.

“Miko, are you awake? Ms. Sasha told me to check-”

Ace opened the door and froze on spot when he saw Miko saddling Tiamat, with his hands on her chest and was about to tear her clothes off.

“…….”

The three looked at each other in silence.

And then-

Miko acted like Ace didn't exist and continued to removed Tiamat's clothes.

“Wait! Isn't it normal to stop in this sort of situation?!”

“You're right. Since you're about to witness our beautiful naked forms, we should charge you.”

Miko said with a serious voice.

“Seriously? How much?”

Ace asked seriously.

“Wait, no. Your siblings are not too far away! They also wanted to check on you!”

“Why didn't you say so in the first place?”

Miko relunctantly got off Tiamat.

He looked down and noticed Tiamat's disappointed face.

This caused Miko to glare at Ace.

“Hey, I didn't do anything! I was just following orders!”

Ace quickly defended himself.

“I understand completely. To show you my understanding I'll introduce you to some noble daughters.”

“Really?”

“I'll have to pick out the ugliest among them for you first.”

Ace was left dumbfounded.

At this time the twins came in and told him that Nero wanted him to see him.

Miko left with Tiamat but not before staring Ace down.

He and Tiamat arrived in a room past the throne room.

Miko saw a stone door with symbol of a horned, winged serpent on it.

“Hm?”

Miko suddenly saw a new symbol appeared along with the previous one.

It was a symbol of a lion-faced dragon. It was Gallu’s Symbol.

The door suddenly opened and four people stepped out.

They were Nero, Nova, Sasha, and Leon.

“Miko!”

Sasha ran up and hugged Miko when she saw him.

“Thank goodness that you're okay!”

She started inspecting his body.

“I'm fine. Sorry for losing control and hitting you.”

Miko's voice was sincere.

“That's okay. Tiamat already explained everything.”

She then frowned.

“But you really shouldn't use such a dangerous technique. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Miko nodded.

“I'll be more careful from now on.”

He then looked around and saw that Hina, Momo, Ravel, and Luka weren't here.

He decided to apologize to them as well. He already apologized to the twins on the way here.

As for Leon, Ace, and Sora.

……Well, it's not like they died or anything.

“Grandmother.”

Suddenly Miko heard a voice beside him, and looked and saw Rouge kneeling in front of Tiamat.

“Grandmother, it's great to see you again after all these years.”

He solemnly said.

“About what happened that night…”

“Enough, Rouge.”

Tiamat bent down helped Rouge to his feet.

“Rouge, I do not hate you. I never did, and I never will. It's the same for your father and siblings. Not matter what happened you're all my flesh and blood.”

She smiled at him.

“So stop being so hard on yourself and live your life.”

“?!”

Tiamat's sincere words had a huge effect on Rouge.

The thing that was tormenting his mind for thousands of years suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Even Rouge couldn't believe that his worries could be resolved so easily.

“…Th-Thank you, Grandmother.”

“Come on, Rouge. It's nothing worth crying over. You're a 10,000 year old man you know.”

Nero teased him.

“Sh-Shut up! Didn't you cry for three days straight when Sasha was born?!”

“That was different. I had just witnessed the birth of angel. It would be strange if I didn't cry.”

Nero said proudly.

He and Nova even looked like they wanted to cry from just remembering it.

Sasha strongly felt the urge to hit them.

“Hey, old man. What did you want to see me about? I was busy doing something very important you know.”

“Important? How important?”

“Let's just say if I had to choose between it and world peace, there would wars everywhere right now.”

Miko said seriously.

“Since wars are already everywhere, then it that wasn't important.”

Nero said with a smile.

Miko got irritated and almost shouted “I was about make you a new uncle or aunt you know?!”

But he restrained himself.

Even though, Nero didn't know what he was thinking he enjoyed Miko's annoyed expression.

“Well, it doesn't matter. This is far more important.”

Miko clicked his tongue.

Nero smiled and said-

“Get dressed. It's time for your coronation.”