Strongest Superhuman System - Chapter 848

Chapter 848: The Epilogue [5]
A Chapter Created for Sil3nt.

…

[The Underworld]

“Is this enough?”

Thanatos turned around in his seat when he heard a bag drop on the table beside him. Thanatos had been drinking a cup of tea in front of a fireplace when he was disturbed, and he looked further back to set his eyes on his unwanted visitor.

“You’ve become quite the thorn in my side, Vanitas.”

Mark shrugged at Thanatos’ words. Outside the gate, the guard dog Cerberus was struggling to raise itself off the ground after Mark had dealt it a life-threatening blow. Mark didn’t even look like he was winded from the fight.

Thanatos sighed and dropped the cup of tea on the table before his chair turned around and he faced Mark.

Mark was looking Thanatos in the eye, and Thanatos glared at Mark. This wasn’t the first time that Mark would be here. Mark had come to see Thanatos every day for the past hundred years. For the first twenty years, Thanatos refused to even allow Mark into his domain. The space close to the River Styx was easy for Mark to enter since it was open to all creatures in the vast dimension, but Thanatos locked his gate and repeated “no” for all those years.

But then, after those years, Thanatos realized that Mark was not going to give up, and he grew irritated by Mark’s constant presence. He finally gave him an audience.

Mark’s request back then had been simple. Mark wanted to speak to some beings that had died. Thanatos governed the Underworld, and all dead souls were his to command, so Thanatos knew that he could do what Mark asked of him, but the thing that Thanatos needed to know was why Mark thought Thanatos would try to help him at all.

Mark’s answer was very businesslike.

“I’ll pay you.”

Thanatos was shocked by the fact that Mark was willing to part with divine currency just for the sake of talking to a few souls. Thanatos had lost quite a lot of money to Sozin over the past few years from all the bets that he placed against Mark, and Thanatos wasn’t immediately against Mark’s offer. Thanatos thought about it for a moment and decided that, since it was simply a conversation, then it wouldn’t hurt.

Thanatos took five hundred thousand divine currency for a five-minute conversation with one person.

It was way overpriced, and Thanatos thought that Mark would just turn away when he heard the price, but surprisingly, Mark didn’t turn away, and he paid 1.5 million in order to have a conversation with three people. The first two were Mark’s parents, and Thanatos watched as they had their talk. There were tears from the mother and pride from the father, and when they were done, Mark said something to them that even Thanatos couldn’t hear. That was the only time Mark Vanitas asked to see his parents.

The next time Mark Vanitas spoke to someone, it was a woman named Freya. She was a prideful thing with an air of superiority around her even when she was dead. But while in the presence of Thanatos, she couldn’t relax due to his pressure, and he decided to give them both some space to allow them to talk. Mark had a conversation with her as well, and once the five minutes were up, he left.

Thanatos thought that this would be the end of it, but it wasn’t the end of it.

The next request from Mark was even more bizarre.

“How much would it take to move one soul from your domain to my own?”

Thanatos almost laughed. Almost.

Not only did Mark think that he could barge into his domain without asking for permission, but he was now attempting to encroach on Thanatos’ God Aspect? Thanatos immediately attacked Mark with the full force of his divine mana, and Mark was thrown out from Thanatos’ domain.

Thanatos would have killed Mark already for his insolence, but Thanatos heard about what Mark had done to Loki in his domain a few years ago, and Thanatos had a sort of respect for Mark now. Mark wasn’t weak, and he was someone who kept his word. For a god that dictated life and death as well as the concept of truth, Thanatos had a mild respect for Mark.

Even after being kicked out of his domain, Mark Vanitas didn’t give up on his attempts to get a soul from Thanatos. Mark came back once every two moons to ask Thanatos for the soul, and every time, Thanatos denied him his request.

It wasn’t that Thanatos couldn’t do what Mark was asking of him, but it was the principle of the matter that Thanatos was refusing to compromise on. If he gave a soul to Mark, then wouldn’t every other god come and ask for souls as well? That would become too much of a headache to deal with.

And truthfully, Thanatos just hated Mark because of how Mark was related to Sozin.

But finally, after a hundred years of him constantly coming and asking for the soul without fail, Thanatos couldn’t help but be irritated by Mark’s presence. Thanatos lived a solitary life for millennia, and he was used to being alone. Mark coming to him for so many years was the same as an introvert having to live with someone else for a week. It would drive the introvert mad with anger.

So, one day, when Thanatos was truly at his wits’ end, he shouted at Mark and called out an outrageous number.

“I’ll give it to you for three million!”

That was what Thanatos had said that day. Thanatos would rethink his choice later on and realize just how outrageous the number really was, but he was surprised when Mark didn’t even seem to bat an eye at it. Mark was only a fledgling god, and Thanatos knew that Mark didn’t have that much divine currency on him, so for Mark to not be shocked by hearing three million was surprising.

That had been a month ago in human time, and today, Mark came to Thanatos’ domain once more with the exact amount that was required and threw it on the table.

Honestly, Sozin and his child were a thorn in Thanatos’ side.

“Is this soul really worth this much?”

Thanatos asked this with a raised brow as he wondered if Mark was really willing to part with this much divine currency just for one soul. For Mark to be doing something like this, was he in love with the soul or something?

Mark just shrugged at Thanatos’ question and spoke in a melancholic manner.

“I made a promise to her before she died. If three million is the price to pay for me to keep my word, then I’ll do it.”

Thanatos stared at Mark with slightly narrowed eyes, and he saw the sheer conviction in Mark’s gaze before he turned around and waved Mark away with an irritated tone in his voice.

“Go take your fucking soul and stop bothering me. You and your father are both fucking irritating.”

Mark smiled slightly before he turned around to walk back out of Thanatos’ domain. As Mark was leaving, he heard Thanatos speak up.

“If you need help with money later… I wouldn’t mind giving you a loan.”

Mark turned around and saw that Thanatos was no longer looking at him. The god of death had gone back to staring at the fire while drinking his tea.

In a strange, almost upside-down way, this was Thanatos’ own form of extending his hand in friendship, and Mark was wise enough to see it for what it was. He spoke up.

“Thanks. Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”

Mark then turned around and left the domain of the death god.

Back in his domain, Thanatos hummed and took another sip of his tea.

…

Mark walked out towards the river Styx, and without caring for his own safety, he put his feet into the water and waded into the river. Thanatos had given him permission to enter and take one soul, so Mark didn’t need to worry about being swallowed by the river.

He swam forward until he reached a single soul floating gently on the river’s calm waves. Mark picked up the unconscious soul and carried it away in a flash of golden light.

Mark appeared in his domain with a naked figure cradled in his hands, and he gently placed it down in the middle of his Arena before sitting beside it.

He watched as Freya slept peacefully for a while before he called her name gently.

Freya’s eyes opened slowly, staring up at the night sky with confusion on her face. She sat up and noticed she wasn’t wearing anything. Her confusion grew even more, but it wasn’t until she turned and saw who was sitting beside her that her eyes flew wide open in shock.

“Mark… w-what are you doing here? Where…?”

Mark leaned back on his hands and spoke with a smile.

“Well, you see, I got this huge place, and I figured I needed a secretary to help me take care of it. Thanatos was kind enough to cut a deal with me for one of his employees, and I figured—who better to help out with my work than—”

BAM!

Before Mark could even finish what he was saying, Freya shot forward with the speed of a bullet and slammed into him with a fierce hug, her entire body shaking with intensity.

“T-This is real, right? You’re real?”

Freya’s voice trembled as she desperately tried to hold onto this reality. She didn’t know what she would do if this was fake. She couldn’t bear to have her last hope taken from her.

Mark patted Freya’s back gently.

“Yeah, Freya. This is real. I’m real, so you don’t have to worry anymore. You’re safe with me.”

All of Freya’s walls broke down, and she cried.