So, I Transmigrated Into The Heavenly Realm

41. The Morning After

41

"I didn't know what I had done till much later." Elgaldir said, the hem of his shirt sleeve which he had been rolling nervously between his fingers for several minutes now was beginning to fray from the stress. "I don't feel like I can expect you to forgive me."

Dax didn't know how to feel about any of it. He'd re-emerged from the memory with a killer headache and so many questions he wanted to ask.

"What became of the Demon Realm's Emperor?" He asked, he'd already retraumatised them both might as well go the whole hog whilst he was at it. A shiver ran through him more from the weight of the memories than from actual physical cold.

He shuffled closer to the warmth radiating from the other god.

"I killed him too." Elgaldir said, sighing, "Things got very bad after you... die- were injured. They had to get the Heavenly Emperor to restrain me personally. They kept me in chains for a few hundred years until the bloodlust subsided."

"You shouldn't blame yourself." Dythos soothed, looking intensely at Elgaldir. He grabbed both sides of his face with his hands when he refused to meet his gaze for extra emphasis. "You were possessed by a demonic potion and trying to do what your believers wanted."

"Sometimes what they want... sometimes what they want hurts." Elgaldir stammered his face flushing red. Dax went to place a calming hand on his shoulder but he had suddenly changed his sitting position.

Except he wasn't sitting, Elgaldir had been kneeling.

Kneeling.

Kneeling on the polished tiles. The God of War's knees were used to kneeling. Enamel tiles were a luxury; it usually took place in pea gravel.

His subordinates in the War Department had viewed it as ceremonial or signs of some mental illness but he'd done it for years in search of forgiveness, some sense of absolution.

"I've thought about that night endlessly over the many years that have passed.... I should have protected you." Elgaldir said from his new kneeling position.

"I should have protected your people."

"I should have protected your temple." He was truly sobbing now. Not for the last time Dax cursed their size differences as he attempted to pull Elgladir to his feet. It was like trying to move a mountain. A very reluctant mountain

With a spoon!

He sighed reaching down with his hands and brushing away the other god's tears with his fingers. The handkerchief he had used before, now too wet to be of any use.

Dax sat down again when it became clear Elgaldir wasn't going to be moving anywhere for a while. He put his own hands into the fretting hands of the God of War as he tried to word what he wanted to say.

Instinctively he had wanted to go in for a hug but right now he wasn't sure if Elgaldir would welcome that.

"I'd give anything to be able to go back there again." Elgaldir sobbed. He would do anything he could, if given even the smallest of chances to do so, Dax could see it in his eyes.

"You don't have to apologise. The past is over and done with. We were different people then."

' No use crying over spilt milk, water under the bridge and all that.' Dax thought. He might not be the actual Dythos God of Wheat but the Dythos in the recovered memories didn't give him the idea he would be resentful. "I don't resent you. People die in wars."