Heavenly Opposers-Chapter 343 - 342-What To Choose.
Azrail’s mind shifted with the strategy he had chosen, though a moment late. He focused on Charmeine, who was looking at him with a calm gaze as she asked,
"Everything went well?"
Hearing the question, Azrail paused for a moment, after which he replied,
"In a way."
That was all Charmeine needed. As she nodded her head, she asked,
"You heading back?"
"Yup. Take me right back to the Goddess."
Charmeine nodded her head at Azrail, and some time later, the two of them directly teleported out from their place, right back into that same vast, majestic throne room as before. The moment Azrail arrived, he felt the pressure and gaze on him, assessing him tightly, trying to see if he still retained any sense of mind as before.
’This bitch... she’s trying to see if my brain is broken or not.’
Hera had set him up with the full objective to see him break. Hephaestus had already mentioned it to him in the scroll that was given to him. It contained hints that it would not be bad to attack Azrail too much, meaning she hoped that, in a way, Azrail would be broken mentally by Hera, meaning she had already been stabbing Azrail in the back long ago.
’She wanted to see how much she could break and play with me. No wonder several of them all came together to see her fall.’
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Azrail maintained his smile as he gave a respectful bow and spoke.
"I am back, Goddess."
Charmeine, at some point in time, had disappeared from the place, leaving just Azrail back in it. Azrail could sense the power of Hera trying to read him all deep and good, trying to sniff out any issues. Thus, a moment later, Hera finally spoke.
"What happened?"
"Things went as well as you can expect. Hephaestus did agree to craft some kind of weapon for me, but in the deal that I pass through some of the tasks he gave me, tasks of the hero, he said."
"Tsk... he is still playing with those stupid, childish notions."
Hera spoke back immediately, without holding back. Azrail could feel the disdain in those words.
"What were the tasks?"
"He asked me to get him some materials from some dangerous regions, to be able to handle a certain pressure range, pass through a simulated challenge he makes, and finally be able to at least resonate with one of his previously created divine weapons."
"....."
The silence was Hera digging for more information, so Azrail didn’t hold back as he continued.
"I resonated with one of the swords of his creation, which made me pass that quite easily, which earned a nod of approval from him. As for the test, he said he will prepare it for me next, while the rest I will have to deal with on my own. The good thing is, due to my special nature, I already got a good capture of his attention, more of a heroic toy for him to play with."
The only response to Azrail’s words was a simple tapping sound from Hera’s finger. Seemingly, she was in deep thought as she asked,
"Did you manage to confirm anything from him?"
"Not at all. Since I passed the first hurdle of his tasks, I have the opportunity to get closer and act again. I plan on doing it then. As you know, if I directly attack with the knowledge I have for a certain level of defiance, I will be killed quite easily and thrown away. Plus, suspicion would be on hard."
These words once again earned some kind of silence. After that, Hera replied,
"You did well. The information you gave me will make it such that I will be more careful against anything from Hephaestus, and since you have poked his hero complex, you shall get close to him, earning more chances. You have done well for me. Is there anything you need?"
"Just being able to speak directly with the mother Goddess herself is a great gift. I don’t think a price greater than that exists."
Azrail replied with an obviously flattering tone, and it hit the mark quite well.
"It seems you also have quite the silver tongue, too. Not bad. But I asked to gift you, so go ahead. Is there anything you require?"
To this, Azrail didn’t directly reply. He seemingly went into a thoughtful mode, his mind running in real time, working around different things he could ask as a reward, which he could use to further improve himself. Azrail’s mind had several things running through it. Within that instant, he tried to remember what he could use.
His perfect memory allowed him to run through several simulations, through which, later, he even asked for help from the All-Seer.
[Running simulations for data]
From the data Azrail had, he knew of all the treasures that lay within the most beloved treasures that Hera holds and hides away. These treasures, in essence, were what became the most hunted after by all, especially from the holders of the legacy of Hera. That was something much desired by everyone, but it was not easy to get at all.
And among those treasures, there are some that even Hera has no idea of the uses of, which Azrail does. Their uses are quite powerful, but even then, Azrail couldn’t just ask it outright. He could only whisper it in a way that would show that it would be useful to him.
[Running deep-memory override]
[Accessing sealed cognition layer: AZR-Ω]
[Data source: Pre-Collapse Memory | Status: Hidden from Olympian Perception]
[Injecting concealed option into selection matrix]
[Warning: This choice bypasses divine inventory records]
Azrail’s expression did not change, but internally, he locked onto the anomaly.
[These are the best choices:]
===============
Option 1: The Echo of the First Betrayal
Classification: Pre-Olympian Conceptual Relic
Status: Uncatalogued | Misidentified as inert memory residue
Description:
Not an object. Not a weapon.
A crystallised moment.
The first time a god betrayed another god and survived.
This Echo was formed before divine law punished treachery. It was never meant to exist, and thus, it was never properly destroyed. Hera believes it to be nothing more than a corrupted memory shard trapped inside her vault, useless even as a curiosity.
She is wrong.
Primary Effect:
Grants the user the ability to act in contradiction to divine expectations without triggering immediate consequences.
When a user betrays, defies, or violates divine intent, reality hesitates before responding.
That hesitation grows.
Secondary Effect (Hidden):
The user can store one unresolved consequence at a time.
Divine punishment, karmic backlash, fate correction. All delayed. All accumulating.
Released only when the user chooses.
Tertiary Effect (Unknown to Hera):
The Echo remembers who betrayed whom.
If the user uses it against a god who has betrayed before, the delay multiplies.
Gods with clean records suffer less.
Gods like Hera?
Much more.
Activation Condition:
Requires conscious acceptance of becoming a future liability.
Once bound, a user can never return to being "clean" in the eyes of fate.
Hidden Cost:
Each delayed consequence sharpens.
When released, it does not strike randomly.
It strikes precisely.
---------
Option 2: The Scar of the Unanswered Prayer
Classification: Proto-Divine Conceptual Residue
Status: Archived as a devotional backlash artefact
Description:
Before gods learned to harvest faith properly, prayers were neither answered nor denied, but ignored.
One such prayer was powerful enough to leave a mark.
Not on a god.
On reality.
This Scar is the imprint of a plea made to no god in particular, yet heard by existence itself. Hera believes it to be a failed worship remnant, useless without followers.
She is wrong.
Primary Effect:
Grants the user authority to receive power without acknowledgement.
Azrail can gain strength, insight, or growth from actions that should require divine approval, faith, or recognition, without any entity being aware that the transfer occurred.
Secondary Effect (Hidden):
Actions performed in despair, defiance, or refusal to submit generate disproportionate returns.
The more something requires permission, the more efficiently the Scar converts it into progress.
Tertiary Effect (Unknown to Hera):
Gods cannot trace outcomes back to Azrail if those outcomes originated from ignored causes.
Miracles without a god.
Consequences without a source.
Activation Condition:
The user must consciously reject divine validation at least once while dying, failing, or being abandoned.
Survival is not required. The intent is.
Hidden Cost:
No god will ever truly hear the user’s prayers again.
Aid may come.
But never because it was asked for.
---------
Option 3: The Hollow Name
Classification: Identity-Level Pre-Law Fragment
Status: Sealed under erased deity index
Description:
Once, a god’s name was removed without killing the god.
Worship ceased. Records vanished. Memory followed.
What remained was the absence where an identity should have been.
Hera believes this fragment to be a damaged naming tablet, incapable of binding to anything.
She is wrong.
Primary Effect:
Allows the user to temporarily remove their name from divine perception.
Not invisibility.
Not stealth.
A gap.
Divination, contracts, prophecies, and fate references fail to resolve the user during activation.
Secondary Effect (Hidden):
While unnamed, the user can interact with divine systems without being logged in.
Steal authority. Break oaths. Enter sealed domains.
No audit trail is created.
Tertiary Effect (Unknown to Hera):
If used against a god whose name has been altered, stolen, or rebranded through worship, the effect can partially strip their authority permanently.
Gods built on titles suffer the most.
Activation Condition:
The user must willingly abandon a core identity once.
Name. Title. Purpose. Or allegiance.
Hidden Cost:
Each use erodes the user’s permanence.
Overuse risks becoming unrecordable even by allies.
---------
Option 4: The Weight of the First Lie
Classification: Foundational Falsehood Anchor
Status: Misfiled as divine rhetoric remnant
Description:
The first lie told by a god was not punished.
Because truth had not yet been enforced.
That lie became heavy.
So heavy it bent causality around it.
This Weight is not spoken, written, or remembered clearly. Hera believes it to be philosophical debris from early Olympus.
She is wrong.
Primary Effect:
When the user lies to a divine being, the lie gains temporary structural reality.
For a short duration, the falsehood is treated as true by divine systems.
Not belief.
Acceptance.
Secondary Effect (Hidden):
The more powerful the being deceived, the longer the lie persists.
Gods reinforce the illusion by interacting with it.
Tertiary Effect (Unknown to Hera):
If the lie aligns with what the god wants to believe, it becomes harder to undo than the truth.
Some lies never fully collapse.
Activation Condition:
The user must knowingly lie while fully understanding the truth and the cost.
Self-deception does not activate it.
Hidden Cost:
Every stabilised lie increases the mass of the Weight.
Eventually, even truths spoken by the user begin to bend.
===============
