The Nameless Heir-Chapter 89: Ignorance is Bliss

Since he missed almost all his classes due to god business, Victor had to give him a history lesson.

According to him, King Minos wasn’t just some judge in the Underworld. No, he was once the most feared ruler in Crete—a man who thought himself closer to a god than a king.

"Built the Labyrinth. Imprisoned the Minotaur. Made deals with gods like he could outsmart them," Victor said, almost impressed. "Spoiler: he couldn’t."

"And his wife?" Victor scoffed. "Pasiphae. Daughter of the sun god Helios. A sorceress. Some say she was cursed. Others say she cursed herself. Either way, she gave birth to a monster."

He paused, then added, "But you know how it started, right?"

Kael raised a brow.

Victor rolled his eyes. "Minos promised Poseidon he’d sacrifice a sacred bull—white as snow, born from the sea itself. A gift from the god. But when the time came... Minos kept it."

Kael narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why?"

"Because it was beautiful," Victor said. "Too perfect to burn. So he sacrificed a different one—an ordinary bull. Thought he could trick a god."

Kael didn’t reply, but the silence was enough.

Victor’s tone dropped. "Poseidon doesn’t like being lied to. So instead of punishing Minos directly, he cursed his wife."

"How?"

Victor grimaced. "He made her fall in love with the bull."

Kael’s expression twisted with a mix of shock and disbelief.

He blinked once. Slowly.

Then dragged a hand down his face like he was trying to wipe the thought from existence.

"...Gods really have the weirdest kinks," he muttered, voice flat. Dry. Like he genuinely couldn’t believe what he just heard.

His eyes narrowed into a lazy squint, like he was tired of learning things he didn’t want to know.

Victor just smirked. "Welcome to Greek history."

"So that’s just... normal god behavior now?"

He nodded with a snarky grin. "Yes."

Kael rubbed both temples like the knowledge physically hurt.

He had just learned way too much about his own family tree.

"Awesome. So they’re my cousins now. Because nothing screams divine royalty like thunder powers and a complete lack of self-respect."

"But I do feel bad for Pasiphae," he muttered. "She didn’t deserve that. The gods’ wrath always seems to find the wrong people."

Victor shook his head. "Yeah. That’s how the Minotaur was born. And Minos—brilliant king that he was—locked it up in a maze he had Daedalus build."

He opened his mouth to ask how she even gave birth to that—

Then closed it.

Some things were better left unknown. His brain had suffered enough today.

"Dad, if I find out you hooked up with a snake lady... or ladies," Kael muttered, rubbing his temples. "I swear, I’m keeping you sealed for life."

Victor raised his hands and backed up half a step.

"Relax. Not much is known about your dad anyway. He basically never left the Underworld."

Kael let out a dramatic sigh. "Good. Let’s keep it that way. For the first time in my life, I’m proud to be uneducated."

He turned to Victor. "How do you even know all this?"

Victor smirked.

"I’m old. I read books. Also, I’m the son of Poseidon. You sail around enough, people start talking. Especially after a few drinks. The stuff I’ve heard... gods hooking up with goats, turning into swans, giving birth through their legs—don’t ask."

He dragged his hand down his face like he was wishing he could wipe the knowledge out of his head.

"Stop educating me," Kael groaned.

Then he paused, eyes glazed over.

"I need a reset button for my brain."

Victor just grinned. "Too late. You’ve been cursed with awareness."

Kael muttered under his breath, "Sometimes ignorance really is bliss..."

They moved through the ruins in silence, stepping over the broken bones of a forgotten city... until they stopped.

In front of them stood a statue.

It rose tall from the rubble—King Minos and his wife. Untouched by time. Unbroken. Their faces locked forward, unmoving, like they were watching the world fall apart and doing nothing about it. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Who is she?"

"That’s Pasiphae," Victor said, arms crossed.

Kael studied the statue. "She’s... pretty."

"Oh yeah," Victor muttered with a smirk. "Too bad her love life was a Greek tragedy."

Kael ignored him and turned his eyes back to the ruins. "So... where’s the Labyrinth?"

He scanned the rubble, looking for the mark Minos described—the broken spear crossed over an owl’s eye.

Victor pointed. "You mean like that?"

Half-buried under seaweed, just near the foot of Queen Pasiphae’s statue, the symbol was carved into the stone—Daedalus’s mark. Faint, worn, but still there.

Kael crouched near it, brushing the seaweed aside. He pressed his fingers over the carving.

Nothing happened.

No rumble. No shifting ground. No secret passage.

He frowned. "There has to be more. A code. A trigger."

He glanced at Victor. "Any ideas?"

Victor shook his head. "Architect’s secrets aren’t exactly public knowledge."

Kael sighed. "Figures."

He turned to him. "Go back to the Underworld. I’ll handle this."

Victor raised a brow but didn’t argue. He bowed, then vanished into shadow, leaving Kael alone with the statue.

He circled it five times, muttering to himself, checking every crack and corner like Daedalus had hidden some master-level riddle beneath a pile of moss. The kind of problem only the smartest person alive could solve—so difficult even the gods themselves wouldn’t bother trying.

He scanned for hidden mechanisms, pressure plates, divine traps—anything.

Nothing.

He even tried whispering old Underworld phrases, shadow commands, Athena’s name, Minos’s name... even the damn owl’s name just in case.

Still nothing.

He stepped back, arms crossed, eyes narrowing.

"There’s no way he would make it this easy," Kael muttered. "He’s a genius who skipped class for fun. This has to be some Olympian-god tier puzzle."

He stood there for a moment, dead silent.

Then he pointed at the statue like it owed him money.

"I am Kael Voss, son of Hades, breaker of chains, ruler of the Underworld. Creator of... whatever. Open. The. Door."

Nothing.

He cleared his throat and tried again. "I am King Minos. Open the gate."

Still nothing.

Then, without warning, he stepped forward and yanked the head off the statue of Minos. The old stone cracked and popped free with a grunt.

Kael held it in both hands and lifted it in front of his face like a cursed puppet show.

"I am King Minos," he mimicked in a deep, royal voice. "Look at me. I’ve got a throne, a curse, and a kingdom of bad decisions!"

He waited.

Still nothing.

Kael growled, then slammed the head down beside him. "Useless."

Climbing the statue again, he eyed the arms. "Bet these don’t do anything either."

He snapped one off with a sharp twist. Dust flew.

But then he paused, glancing sideways at the queen.

She stood tall. Serene. Beautiful, even now.

He stared at her for a second, brow furrowing.

"...Nah," he muttered, backing off. "She’s too pretty to mess with."

He dropped to the ground again, rubbing dust off his fingers—frustrated, tired, almost ready to give up.

That’s when he felt it again.

A sudden chill. Just beneath his feet—but it wasn’t wind. It was something ominous. He felt something cold—seeping from under the statue like a breath.

Kael sighed, dragging a hand down his face.

"Daedalus... you ancient bastard."

He muttered it under his breath as he pressed his palm against the stone and shoved the statue. This wasn’t a puzzle. It was a prison. And of course, no one ever expected Daedalus’s genius to come down to brute force. When people thought of him, they pictured riddles and brilliance, not a locked door that just needed a push.

The symbol gave way with a low hiss—like the statue had exhaled after holding its breath for centuries.

Then the door opened.

A gust of air rushed out, thick and hot. He couldn’t even describe it—like a monster with the worst breath in history. The kind that made you wonder if it had eaten something alive... and then forgot to swallow.

He hesitated for only a moment, then stepped forward.

There were stairs. Narrow. Steep. But they vanished the moment his foot left each one—like they’d never existed.

At the final step, the door behind him slammed shut.

He spun around, reaching instinctively for the statue, but there was nothing.

The entrance was gone, like it had never been there.

He felt stuck. He didn’t know where he was.

He couldn’t feel the ground under him.

He couldn’t see anything.

His jaw tensed. One hand hovered near his side, like he was expecting to hit something—stone, wall, door—but nothing came.

It felt like walking through the space between thoughts—like he had stepped into a dream that hadn’t been drawn yet. Blank. Colorless.

But then the world began to take shape.

It came slowly, like it was changing—forming piece by piece.

The path started to show itself. It looked normal at first. Flat. Narrow. Carved stone with faint lines.

But as he kept walking, something felt off.

Every time he turned a corner, it felt like the walls had moved behind him, just enough to trap him if he looked away. The air shifted with his breath, like the maze was listening. Waiting.

And then—he saw them.

Souls.

Some were whispering. Others sobbing. A few just stared forward, mouths open but no sound escaping.

They weren’t screaming for help.

They were trying to remember how.

Each one twisted by time, stuck in endless repetition. Their hands clawed at nothing. Their eyes followed Kael without blinking.

He stepped forward.

Left. Right. Right again.

But no matter where he went, the same soul passed him over and over—a woman with sunken eyes and pale hands, repeating the same soft mumble. Her face buried in her palms like she didn’t want to remember.

He stopped walking. His eyes followed her as she passed again. Same shuffle. Same sound. Same weight in the air.

He was going in circles.

His voice came out low. Flat.

"This place is messing with me now."

The same ghosts. Over and over.

Then he heard it.

A stomping.

Heavy. Distant.

Like something was smashing through the walls, coming for him.