Chapter 10
Agatha's boots rolled over dead branches, and the musty smell of rotten leaves mixed with Billy's chattering drilled into her temples. The voice of the boy was like a dull saw, and she was using "hmmmm" as lubricant to prevent the saw from getting stuck in her brain - this trick always worked until Billy suddenly stopped.
"Agatha, you're not listening to me." Billy suddenly stopped, and Agatha almost hit her nose and then went straight through the teenager's body - going through it didn't really affect Agatha, but as a lesbian, she felt that going through a man's body made her feel disgusted.
"Damn Billy Maximoff! Why did you stop so suddenly! Is there a spring in your damn adolescent spine?"
"You definitely didn't listen to me! I just said that you absolutely love Rio, and you said yes! Does this mean that you have been perfunctory to me all this time?"
"No! I hate her! Forget it, you are a teenager who is only three years old in theory and don't understand what love is. Love and hate can coexist and transform into each other."
"Oh, so you love her." Billy raised his eyebrows playfully, folded his hands and shrugged his shoulders.
"I didn't say that. However - in order to restore my body and strength as soon as possible, I can barely convert hatred into a little love - Rio said that as long as I can get my lover's tears and hold a small ceremony, my body and magic will be back." Agatha smiled wildly at the thought of returning to the peak.
"But I have a question," Billy raised a hand, "Are you sure Rio still loves you? After you broke her heart?"
Agatha's fingertips drew a purple arc in the air, as if to cut off this stupid question. "Of course she loves me," the witch's voice was like poison soaked in honey, "Hundreds of years of chasing game - what do you think it is? Charity marathon?" She suddenly remembered that evening, when Rio's footprints on the beach were swallowed by the tide, and that farewell with the taste of sea salt still burned on her eardrums. Amnesia? Ha! Agatha's magical source laughed sarcastically in her chest. Even if the woman was washed into an idiot, her name Agatha Harkness must still be engraved in the depths of her soul.
The problem now is how to get her tears without telling Rio: it is not difficult to lure Rio out, anyway, there are silly witches chasing her along the way, she has plenty of opportunities to kill them and wait for Rio to appear; but how to make Rio cry? She is so powerful that nothing seems to be able to defeat her. No, she had a way to make Rio cry. She just needed to make Rio recall some insignificant memories that would not expose Agatha's identity.
Agatha snapped her fingers happily, and Billy always felt that something bad was going to happen. He swallowed the "Oh my God" that was already on the tip of his tongue. According to his life experience of just three years, when two lesbian witches who have lived for centuries started playing emotional Russian roulette, the safest strategy was to pretend to be a potted plant. Who knows if this is not another inexplicable foreplay between these two crazy lesbians.
Meanwhile, Rio found time to go home during her work break. As soon as she arrived at her parents' palace, she was eager to hug them. Her mother's knuckles were white as she held the teacup, and the lines of her father's jaw seemed to be carved out of marble. Rio's outstretched arms froze in mid-air, and finally slowly drooped, like bird wings wet by rain.
"Mother and Father, did I do something wrong? I know you are disappointed that I lost my memory, but why are you looking at me like this?"
The mother looked at her husband nervously. The father was silent for a long time and finally asked Rio to come forward.
"Death, my child, have you really forgotten what you did?"
"There is a big blank in my memory. I don't know what happened. To be honest, this really scares me a little." The goddess of death tried to liven up the atmosphere with a playful tone, but this did not bring any change to the solemn hall.
"It seems that the worst result has happened." The mother turned her head away and refused to look at her.
"Death, my daughter," the father's voice was like a cold mechanical gear, "you need to suspend your duties before you recover." He raised his hand to summon two silver-armored soldiers. There was no face under their helmets, only a rotating nebula-the guides of the "hospital", specializing in escorting cosmic entities that needed to be reset.
Rio pushed the soldiers away violently, and the collision of armor made a hollow echo. She knelt on the ground, and the marble floor was smashed by her knees, leaving spider-web-like cracks.
"Please!" She dug her nails into the cracks in the ground. "Even if I don't know where I'm wrong, I will never-"
"You fell in love with a mortal!"
The father's roar shattered the crystal chandelier in the dome. The nebula faces of the soldiers twisted violently, and they collided with each other while fleeing. Rio stood there, as if struck by lightning.
"I... what?" Her voice was as light as a feather falling to the ground, "I fell in love with... a mortal?"
In the dead silence, she mechanically turned her head to look at her mother-the eternally elegant goddess was clutching the hem of her skirt tightly; and then looked at the brothers and sisters who had gathered in the hall at some point, and they retreated into the shadows as if avoiding the plague. Eternity pretended to study the murals, and Infinity pointed his toes towards the exit.
Every evasive look was a sharp arrow, nailing the terrible truth into her heart:
She really fell in love with a human.
Rio's fingertips suddenly trembled.
A forgotten memory struck her mind like lightning - a long time ago, she had opened a dusty sheepskin book in the forbidden section of the cosmic library. The title page of the book had a warning written in divine blood, but the inner pages recorded a taboo truth:
Gods will give birth to hearts because of love.
But if they are hurt by the person they love and their hearts are broken to the point of disappearing completely, then all memories related to mortals will be annihilated. What's more terrifying is that any attempt to recall will cause a tearing pain in the chest - the last page of the ancient book is devoured by scorch marks, because no god has ever been able to endure this pain to the end. The book also mentioned that if the court allows it before the heart disappears completely, the god can repair it, but the price is eternal headache. At first, it was not uncommon for cosmic entities to fall in love with mortals, but in the end they either became depressed due to amnesia or annihilated themselves because they could not bear the pain. Because of this, this taboo was established - the universe cannot bear the simultaneous loss of functions of a large number of gods. And the "hospital" exists to eliminate this possibility.
Rio's hand unconsciously touched her chest. She could feel it - it had been repaired once, but it was broken again. And the one who broke her heart twice was probably the same person. A vague figure emerged on the edge of her memory, but she didn't dare to confirm it. Just thinking of that possibility, she felt a sharp pain deep in her chest, as if there were glass shards swimming in her blood vessels.
"I can give you another chance, child. But you must accept the punishment first. I want you to experience the feeling of heartbreak again, and then remember the pain of falling in love with a human forever." The father finally chose to give the goddess of death another chance. After all, this was his most beloved child.
The finger on the throne touched the air -
Rio's chest suddenly exploded with severe pain. It was not an ordinary pain, but like millions of ice spikes piercing from the inside of the heart, each with the barbs of memory. She suddenly arched her body, and her nails scraped a harsh sound on the gilded floor.
"Ah--!!" The shrill scream hit the dome and bounced back, shaking the crystal chandelier. The brothers and sisters turned around in panic, some covered their ears, and some closed their eyes tightly.
The pain came in waves like a tide. Every time she thought she was going to faint, a new round of severe pain would force her back to consciousness. Her vision began to flicker, sometimes she saw her mother's fingers clenching the hem of her skirt, and sometimes she saw her father's cold and scrutinizing eyes. Finally, when the pain in her chest suddenly withdrew, the remaining headache seemed so mild. She collapsed on the ground like a stranded fish, and her lips were bleeding from biting herself.
"Go to work, Death." Her father's voice came from a long distance, "There will be no next time."
"...Thank you."
Her vocal cords seemed to have been crushed, and the words she uttered were fragmented.
With her eyes closed, she listened to the footsteps going away and the muffled sound of the door slowly closing. The chill of the floor penetrated into my bones, but compared to the torture just now, this coldness was like a comfort.