"Are you claiming that you alone are thinking about the world, Storm God?" the Sky God asked. "Do you believe that I have been ignoring my duties?"

"I won’t make any such claims, but we’ve certainly seen a few moments of failure from you recently, Newheaven. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is another in a line of mistakes."

The Sky God’s eyes narrowed. The wind stopped moving at the same time that the space itself froze. Alex felt the air in his lungs refuse to leave, while it became difficult for him to even move his chest.

The Sky God’s dual-colored eyes glowed with an eerie color.

"Be careful of what you say, Storm God. You are a guest in my place. I can remove you from here as easily as you have been invited."

The Storm God showed no fear, but he did back down a little. "Well, I won’t claim to understand what you’re doing," he said. "So maybe you can tell me. Why does he still walk freely? Why hasn’t he been put in prison? Or maybe even crippled?"

"What exactly does that achieve?" the Sky God asked. "I’m genuinely curious what you have planned to do with him were you to find him. Were you planning on forever imprisoning him? Or were you truly planning on crippling him?"

"I most likely wouldn’t cripple him. The prophecy claims that he needs to remain alive, so I would at least make sure that he can go on to live forever. However, I would imprison him in a place so hidden from the outside world that he will never influence the world at all."

The Sky God narrowed her eyes, as though she considered his plan.

Bladedance spoke up. "How exactly would this prison work?" she asked. "More accurately, I wish to understand how you are going to keep him there and stop him from leaving."

"Isn’t that simple? He is only an Immortal. I can easily come up with a thousand ways to keep him bound in a place for as long as possible," the Storm God said, barely even seeing that as a true problem.

"So you are willing to spend resources to both imprison him and keep him alive," Bladedance asked. "Doesn’t that mean that you will be diverting an absurd amount of resources to just imprison him? Resources that could be used elsewhere. Resources that could be the difference between life and death."

The Storm God’s eyes narrowed. "What are you implying?"

"What if you deciding to imprison him is what leads this world to its doom?" Bladedance asked. "If that were the case, you would be the one who would lead us to our doom, wouldn’t you?"

Bladedance’s words caused the Storm God to remain silent for a while. It wasn’t that he had never considered that himself. He had been thinking about it for over a millennium, so once in a while, he did wonder if his actions would be what led the world to its doom.

However, at the same time, what else could one do?

In a world where Alex’s survival was intrinsically linked to the world’s end, the optimal option was to remove Alex from the equation.

In a world where Alex’s survival was intrinsically linked to the world’s survival, the optimal option was to make sure that Alex lived anyhow.

However, in a world where both were true at the same time, what was the optimal option?

The Storm God had thought of Hell as that optimal option at the start. With its seclusion from the rest of the world, anything that Alex could do in that world would be contained to that world, leaving the rest of the realms free from his influence.

But Alex had somehow come out from that prison realm. Maybe he could find a way to send him back there again, but there was no guarantee that he couldn’t come out of there again. He had some doubts that Bladedance, whose Creation was clearly missing from her for so long, could bring themselves out of Hell. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

As such, his other plan was to forever lock away Alex in a prison of the Storm God’s making that he would constantly keep an eye on. That way, he could never leave.

With a paradoxical set of prophecies where a person, living or dead, led to the same result, there was no other option at all.

Alex was the only person there who was aware that the paradox didn’t exist. The prophecy regarding his death was one made up by the Divination God to make sure he wasn’t killed right away. Him being sent to Hell was a result of that very prophecy.

If that were to come out, Alex couldn’t even imagine what he could do to not die.

"There is nothing we can do to him that won’t directly affect the prophecy in some way," the Sky God said in the end. "As such, the only proper thing to do is to let him live his life as he wants to."

The Storm God didn’t reply immediately. He looked at the two women, as though trying to figure out just why they were so adamant about keeping Alex free.

He could understand Bladedance somewhat, as he had heard that Alex had become her disciple. But the Sky God didn’t make much sense. He remained silent for a few seconds before opening his mouth to speak.

"Do you know where I came from?" the Storm God asked.

Both of the women looked perplexed by his question.

"I’m not sure," Newheaven said. "Didn’t you come directly from your world?"

The Storm God shook his head. "I had heard that he had appeared in the Sacred Lotus Dominion, so I figured I would go visit the place. I didn’t see either of you, but guess what both the Beast God and the Wine God told me about you?"

Alex gulped silently, fearing where this was going.

"I had rejected the idea at first, but it appears that it might be true," the Storm God said. "You really have become a Half-God, haven’t you?"