I, the slave boy, awaken with the most potent seed!!

The temple air hung heavy with tension as Aphrodite finished her tale. Her voice trembled on the last words, and her radiant features, usually so composed, were etched with guilt. Silence followed her confession, oppressive and thick. Zafron stood rooted to the spot, staring at her as if she'd just struck him.

It took a moment for the weight of her words to sink in.

"So... this is how it all began," Zafron muttered, more to himself than to anyone else. His voice cracked slightly, his mind racing through the implications of what he'd just heard. He was astonished, appalled even, at the sheer madness of it all—the siege of Olympus, the birth of the XY virus, the punishment of limbo. Each revelation added another piece to a puzzle he hadn't realized he was solving.

His astonishment gave way to confusion. "Wait a minute..." His brows furrowed, his hands clenching at his sides. "You're saying the XY virus... the curse that's been destroying lives in the mortal world, my world—that's because of you?" His voice rose, the disbelief evident.

Aphrodite's lips parted as if to respond, but no words came.

Zafron stepped closer, his eyes wide. "You're telling me that because you couldn't control that... that throbbing bean between your legs, the entire mortal world has been cursed with this disease for centuries?! You're responsible for millions of men losing their ability to create life? For destroying families, for ruining everything?"

Aphrodite flinched, visibly shrinking under his accusations. "Zafron, it wasn't just me. It was the council's—"

"Don't you dare try to shift the blame!" he thundered, pointing a trembling finger at her. "You started this! You and that lunatic Nikolas—what, you couldn't resist your forbidden love story? You couldn't keep it in your pants? And now we're all paying the price!"

His chest heaved with every breath as his fury spiraled. "And wait—if I have the XY virus... doesn't that mean..." He froze, his face contorting in horror as realization struck. "Oh gods. Oh, no. No, no, no." He took a shaky step back. "You're my... my great-great-great-to-a-million-great-grandmother?!"

Aphrodite's eyes widened. "Zafron, it's not that simple—"

"Not that simple?!" He let out a bark of incredulous laughter. "Oh, it's simple, all right! I'm cursed because of you! Because of your inability to control yourself! Do you even realize what this means for me? For the people suffering every day? This whole damn virus is your legacy!"

His voice broke as his anger consumed him. "You're supposed to be a goddess! Someone who watches over love and life! Instead, you've cursed generations of people to misery. All because you couldn't keep your divine legs closed!"

Aphrodite's face crumpled as tears welled in her eyes, but Zafron was far too enraged to notice—or care.

Eros, who had been standing silently in the background, finally stepped forward. His calm presence seemed to radiate through the room. "Zafron, enough," he said firmly, his deep voice cutting through the storm of anger. "Aphrodite has told you the truth. You may not like it, but that doesn't give you the right to—"

"Don't you touch me with your self-righteous, sick-fuck hand!" Zafron snapped, jerking away when Eros moved closer. His voice dripped with venom as he rounded on the god. "You stand here, all high and mighty, while millions of men wallow in impotency—unable to have families, to live their lives—because of some god's cosmic screwup? And you do nothing? You call yourself the god of love, but what love do you show for the mortals you've condemned?!"

Eros's jaw tightened, but he said nothing.

"Exactly! Nothing!" Zafron spat, pacing now, his anger uncontainable. "You've just been sitting here on your golden thrones while the mortal world suffers. Do you know how many lives have been destroyed? How many families ripped apart? And you—" He turned back to Aphrodite, his voice trembling. "You sit here crying crocodile tears as if that's going to make up for centuries of pain."

Aphrodite opened her mouth to respond, but Zafron cut her off. "Don't. Just... don't. I don't want to hear another excuse, another pathetic justification. You disgust me." His voice cracked again, and for a moment, the pain behind his rage was visible.

He turned on his heel and stormed out of the temple, slamming the massive doors behind him. The sound echoed through the silent chamber.

---

Outside the Temple

Zafron stormed into the open air, his breath ragged. The cool breeze did little to quell the fire in his veins. He clenched his fists, fighting the urge to scream into the heavens.

'How dare they?' he thought bitterly. 'How dare they ruin so many lives and then act like they're the victims?'

"Zafron."

He turned sharply to see Calista standing a few paces away, her expression calm but concerned. She approached him slowly, her hands raised as if to placate a wild animal.

"Don't," he said, his voice low and warning. "I don't want to hear it."

"I'm not here to defend them," she said gently. "I'm here for you."

Her words disarmed him slightly, but the anger still simmered beneath the surface. "They've ruined everything," he muttered, his voice trembling. "And for what? For some doomed love story? Millions of lives, Calista. Millions!"

"I know," she said, stepping closer. "And you have every right to be angry. But you can't let it consume you."

He let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, I'm way past consumed. Do you have any idea what it's like to realize that your entire life has been shaped by the whims of some self-absorbed gods? To know that every struggle, every failure, every damn thing was because of them?"

"I don't," she admitted, her voice steady. "But I do know that anger alone won't fix it."

Zafron's shoulders slumped, the fight in him waning. "Then what will?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Calista placed a hand on his arm. "We will. Together. One step at a time."

For a moment, Zafron said nothing. Then, slowly, he nodded, though the anger in his eyes had yet to fade completely.

"Let's go," he said finally, his voice hoarse. "I can't be near them right now."

Calista nodded and led him away, the tension slowly bleeding into the wind as they walked into the fading light. Your next journey awaits at m v|l-e'-NovelBin.net