Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power-Chapter 467: Your want vs Her want

Chapter 467 – Your want vs Her want

Incompleteness.

That was the feeling gnawing at Kaden’s gut since he had stepped out of the Church alongside the Malan tribesmen.

He didn’t know why. No, in fact, he knew exactly why. He only needed to look at the small hut the tribesmen had temporarily given him to find a logical explanation for the sinking feeling.

At one glance, anyone could see the hut was unfinished. Parts of it were deliberately left undone, and studying the pattern, Kaden knew it was intentional.

’Not only here.’ He mused, looking at the bed made of rock. ’The whole village is the same. Unfinished houses, roads half-built, tribesmen with half their hair braided and the rest left untouched. Blood and ashes, even their clothes are unfinished.’

The sight was so deeply wrong he couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through him. He had no idea what he was looking at, where exactly he was, or what dangers might be lurking. All of that, compounded by his current weakness, made the situation genuinely unfavorable.

Yet there was a silver lining.

’I don’t know how or why, but the tribesmen see me as a wounded traveler passing through.’ Kaden thought, limping slowly across the room as he tried to grow accustomed to this creeping weakness. ’And I noticed something else. They don’t seem to see Rea as Rea.’

It was as though the sight of Rea crying black tears on that altar was nothing but a normal occurrence to them. When they looked at her, Kaden saw the light in their eyes.

The same light a person used to assess an object — emotionless, only measuring utility and durability.

That bothered him in a way that nearly made him act. But it wasn’t what the quest asked of him.

’I need to decide whether to Finish the Tower or leave it unfinished.’ He clenched his jaw. ’In other words, I need to choose between the version I want Rea to be, and the version Rea wants to be.’

Because without a doubt, Rea knew exactly what would happen if she became one with the Woeful. She would be a Goddess, or something terrifyingly close to it.

Now, Kaden didn’t much care about her ascension to godhood. His heart was free of jealousy, for one could only be jealous of something they lacked and could never have.

That was not his case.

He would reach that level. He knew it without a single doubt.

What troubled him was not the power itself, but the price that came with it. This particular price was one he could not bring himself to watch unfold.

He didn’t want Rea to change beyond recognition.

But that was when another question rose inside him, one asked by his oldest, most faithful companion.

"What right do you have to decide for her?" Reditha said through his mind, her voice firm, not appearing outside.

"I am her fiancé." Kaden hissed, irritated.

"So what?" Reditha was unmoved. "Will you override Lady Rea’s choice of path because it’s not the one you want? Because that is what you are doing right now."

"Then what do you want me to do?" He snapped. "Just let her become someone else? Someone I don’t know? Someone I fear I won’t be able to love no matter how much she resembles Rea? Blood and ashes, Reditha! You have seen her face!"

His voice was breaking, cracking at the edges with fear.

"Her face is changing, damn it! Everything points to someone different!"

He said it with such force, such raw passion, that his wild gestures nearly sent him to the floor in his weakened state.

And then he did fall.

Angry, exhausted, and completely frustrated, Kaden cursed and knocked a nearby stone vase aside. It flew off, cracked against the wall, and shattered into a web of splinters.

The sound was loud. He didn’t care. Nothing that could happen right now would make him care.

He was exhausted, and things continued to get worse each time he believed otherwise.

Reditha held her silence for a long while. No one could see her face, but the pain gripping her existence was one of the rarest occurrences.

She understood the weight Kaden carried better than anyone. It was the kind of weight that drove most men to madness, or stripped them of the will to live entirely.

Yet Kaden lived.

Every step forward cost him something, and every time he believed things might finally settle...they only worsened.

Since when had he formed such a natural bond with someone? He and Rea seemed shaped from the same clay, by the same hands, on the same day. A privilege so rare it bordered on sacred...to find someone who could see all your darkness and use it to fuel her own.

Now he was supposed to surrender that?

Kaden was not selfish by nature. He didn’t mind sacrifice. But this...this was something he simply couldn’t accept.

Yet Reditha couldn’t accept him standing in the way of Rea’s path because of his own feelings either.

It was hard. Hard for both of them.

But she knew worse things would come if Kaden stopped listening to reason and let a heart rotten with selfish fear make the choice.

Because she feared the day Rea would come to resent him for it.

’And I don’t want to see that day, Kaden. You won’t bear it. And I won’t bear watching you unable to bear it.’

"It’s hard, Kaden." Reditha acknowledged quietly. "I know. I know more than anyone, I am your very origin after all. I feel your pain and your sorrow. But I am sorry. You need to think it through."

Kaden said nothing. He sat on the ground with his head buried in his hands, shaking and trembling, on the edge of tears.

Reditha bit her lip and pressed on. "You know it already, don’t you? You need to choose between keeping your love intact and pure, or risking it being poisoned by hatred and resentment. Because that is what would happen if you choose what you want instead of what she wants."

Kaden’s silence didn’t break. It was still as frost and loud as an unheard cry of anguish. Reditha knew then he had no intention of answering her.

She sighed, frustration and pain wound together, and chose silence as well.

The strange unfinished hut settled into stillness, broken only by the loud trembling of Kaden’s body.

Then that, too, was broken.

The hut door opened. Light footsteps pattered through, quick and small, belonging either to a child or someone with deathly quiet feet.

"I’m sorry, Wounded Traveler!" A young girl chirped brightly. "I’m here to bring you food!"

Kaden flinched at the cheerful volume. He let out a quiet sigh, then reluctantly lifted his head.

The moment his eyes landed on her, they went wide.

"Saintess?"

It came out before he could stop it. The face of the Whimpering Saintess stared back at him — younger, but unmistakable.

The young girl froze, her expression painting over with surprise. Then she tilted her head to one side and asked with genuine curiosity...

"Saintess?" She echoed, pointing at herself with her free hand. "Me?"

—End of Chapter 467—