MIGHT AS WELL BE OP - Chapter 680

Chapter 680: Perhaps

Silence encompassed the grand hallway at Anthony’s words. Klaus stood quietly, his face betraying no emotion, though inwardly he was mildly stunned. For several long seconds, he did not speak. He did not even attempt to. He simply stared forward, his mind grappling with the weight of what he had just heard, struggling to piece together an adequate response.

He did not know what to say.

He knew, deep down, that what Anthony had said about his training methods being wrong was undeniably true. As a warrior, he had failed his daughter, but as a father, all he had ever wanted was to protect her. That desire, fierce and unrelenting, had guided his every decision where he was concerned.

He never wished to see her recklessly charging headfirst into danger. He never wished to see her bleed, to hear her voice rise in a battle cry like some Valkyrie’s scream echoing through the battlefield.

He never wanted her to be consumed by the universe, the same universe that devours all who dare step onto the path of cultivation and ascension. He did not want his daughter to lose anyone… or anything. He did not want her spirit fractured, her joy dimmed, her innocence extinguished.

He, Klaus, who could annihilate an entire race without losing a single night’s sleep, would instead find himself plagued by sleepless nights and tormented by nightmares if his daughter ever suffered. He wanted to shield her from the horrors of the world, to wrap her in an unbreakable cocoon of his own making.

It was the reason he had always kept her so close, never allowing her too far out of his reach. He had trained her, yes, for he knew strength was the only true safeguard in this ruthless cosmos. But at the same time, he had spoiled her, indulged her every whim and desire. And to his quiet relief and pride, his daughter had not turned out to be an arrogant young master or a prideful genius.

The silence stretched on, deep and unbroken, as Klaus’s gaze drifted to the vast mural upon the wall before him. His thoughts churned, a cascade of storm and sorrow and fear swirling within the confines of his mind.

Could he protect his daughter forever?

Well… ironically enough, he literally could, if he truly wished.

But beings like him, and beings like his daughter, those blessed or cursed with a ludicrous amount of talent, could live for millions of years, their lifespans stretching beyond mortal comprehension.

Would he still be standing as her eternal shield a million years from now? Would he still be hovering at her side, deflecting every blade, extinguishing every threat, denying her the freedom to stand alone beneath the crushing weight of the stars?

Anthony’s words echoed in his mind like a haunting refrain, and gradually, inexorably, Klaus’s thoughts drifted to his beloved wife.

He had been astonished, once upon a time, to meet someone who was as capable as he was in nearly everything. Their relationship had not been forged in haste or passion but in the slow-burning crucible of companionship. They had started as allies, comrades who trusted each other’s strength and brilliance, before they had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love.

They had taken their time, treading carefully upon that delicate bridge between friendship and love, until they became an official couple.

Even Amara, fierce and radiant, had stood by his side through battle and chaos, through bloodshed and destruction, through the forging of worlds and the crumbling of empires. She had been there in every step of the way, unbroken, unshaken, utterly devoted. She had never harbored even the faintest shred of doubt in her mind or soul. She had never hesitated, not for a single moment, not even as the universe collapsed and reformed around them.

Together, they had climbed over the corpses of those who sought to drag them down, who had tried to bury them beneath envy, fear, and hatred. And now, they stood upon a height of power so dizzying, so impossible, that most beings could not even dare to imagine it.

Their journey had shaped them. It had tempered their resolve like steel and bound their souls together in a love that was fierce, forever, and eternal. Their bond, their marriage, their happiness, their faith in one another, all had been forged in the crucible of endless trials.

Could he deny his daughter the chance to find something like that? Could he deny her the possibility of discovering what he and Amara had found together, something so tranquil yet so powerful, something so loving, so whole, so breathtakingly fulfilling?

Something worth dying for. Something worth erasing entire multiverses for.

He knew he could choose to continue protecting Vega for centuries if he wished. With her staggering talent, her progress would never be truly hindered. She could excel at anything with just a few attempts, surpassing all others with ease. Even if he delayed her path for decades, even centuries, she would still shine brighter than anyone.

Unlike those whose fleeting talent dimmed with time, Vega’s brilliance would only blaze stronger.

He knew precisely how absurdly talented his daughter was. After all, even he and Amara, monsters of power and brilliance in their own right, had not been as naturally gifted as she was, though they came close.

But Vega… Vega was something else entirely.

To them, her talent felt like the perfect amalgamation of their own, distilled and magnified beyond reason. She was their creation, their miracle, a being for whom they had sacrificed uncountable years, oceans of resources, and fragments of their very souls simply to bring her into existence.

Klaus sighed inwardly, though the sound never escaped his lips, as countless thoughts raced through his mind at maddening speed.

Anything concerning Vega was always a heavy, labyrinthine topic for him. He knew, all too well, that he was an overprotective father. After all, how many could claim to have beaten the Demon King to a pulp simply because the Demon had dared to make their child kneel and bow before him?

Amara had always warned him about this overprotective nature of his. She believed Vega needed to grow as they once did, through hardship, through trial, through pain. She believed their daughter deserved the dignity of forging her own path, of carving her own legend into the bones of the cosmos.

He understood her viewpoint, truly. But because of the ridiculous lifespan he and his wife possessed, and the one Vega would inevitably come to possess, he had not minded the idea of protecting her until she was perhaps a century old. To him, a hundred years was nothing but the blink of an eye. He had thought he could afford to shelter her just a little longer.

But now, Klaus felt a strange melancholia creeping into his heart at the mere thought of handing his daughter over to the boy standing beside him. His heart resisted the notion entirely. His daughter was everything, his pride, his joy, his soul, his light, and the thought of entrusting her to anyone else tore at him like claws of ice. But it seemed that fate had woven its own design, unraveling all his carefully laid plans.

It seemed he could not keep her until she reached a hundred years of age.

It seemed he could only keep his daughter for nineteen fleeting years.

Nineteen years… The words echoed in his chest like the toll of a funeral bell.

But, it was not as though he would never see her again. No matter where she roamed, whether she wandered to the farthest reaches of this galaxy or even to another galaxy altogether, he would always be just a thought away.

If his daughter were ever in danger, if she ever needed him or Amara, he would appear. He would come for her. He would burn the stars themselves if she called for him.

Perhaps… perhaps the time had finally come.