Aurora leaned against the car, humming softly. "Morpheus walked straight into the trap I set. Of course he did. That guy entire existence is built around trying to steal credit."

Wang Xiao raised an eyebrow. "Steal credit? Yours?"

Aurora's lips curled slightly, but her tone flattened. "He wasn't acting alone this time. It was Persephone."

That made Wang Xiao pause.

"She paid him," Aurora continued, brushing a white strand of hair from her cheek. "Ever since you rejected to help her back then… when she came with Eveline… she's been quietly breaking down. The Underworld lady was devastated."

Wang Xiao scratched the back of his neck, a bored look on his face. "What does she even want?"

"To find Hades."

"…Tch."

"She thinks you can track down his soul fragment and revive him."

"Stupidity," Wang Xiao muttered. "Even if she sold herself to me for eternity, she wouldn't be worth a single flick of my finger."

To him, humans and gods… were the same. Just ants in different costumes.

Aurora chuckled as she stepped closer. "You should stop leaving these old gods unattended. They're like mold, quiet at first, but persistent. Since you're busy, I helped sort out the ones worth killing."

Wang Xiao narrowed his eyes as she pulled something out from her sleeve. He expected an ancient parchment.

Instead, it was a sleek black cellphone.

"…?"

His expression twisted slightly. Right. He always forgot this witch was absurdly modern. Using tech while carrying a soul-bound guqin and brewing potions in bat blood.

Unlike thier daughter Ning Xue, who couldn't even use Bluetooth.

Contradictions.

Aurora added sweetly, a secret smile playing on her lips as she watched him sulk, "Want me to AirDrop the kill list?"

But the next moment, he snatched the phone.

"I'm curious," he murmured, "What secrets do you hide in here?"

Aurora's eyes widened. "You…" She facepalmed with a sigh. "Do you have to this... Again?"

Too late.

Wang Xiao was already scrolling.

Images flickered across the screen. Strange anatomical charts. Flesh-bound runes, photographs of skin-grafted dolls. Screaming test subjects. Failed chimera trials.

He gave her a slow, judgmental side-glance.

"…You're not a witch," he said calmly. "You're a biological war crime... I forgot… you were the one who created those cursed skinwalkers."

"Mm-hmm." Aurora sighed. "Satisfied?"

"No."

Before she could move, he pulled her close.

Her pupils shank. "Wang... What are you-?!"

"I haven't beaten you in a while…"

The last thing she heard before being tossed into the backseat was the click of the car door locking.

That night, a strange myth spread across the streets of Tianjin.

A taxi was spotted moving through the mist, no driver, no license plate, but with the faint, chilling sound of a woman inside… begging for surrender.

No one dared approach.

No one saw it again.

Aurora emerged the next day, naked, bruised, hair a mess, and silent like a tomb.

She'd conceded by the end, grudgingly.

She was reminded, he was far stronger now

Later, they sat quietly in the same car, discussing Ning Xue.

She asked why he never revealed his identity to that girl.

He didn't answer.

She glared.

Let the witch stew in her own curiosity.

As for Morpheus?

He wasn't on her kill list... Yet.

Aurora simply removed the body, like tossing out old furniture. If he was lucky, his soul might slither back together in a few years.

But Apollo… and the hideout of those ants playing god?

That decision was left to Wang Xiao.

After all, she only sorted the chessboard.

He was the hand that swept the pieces.

___

3rd January, 2032!

"Mmm…"

Aurora let out a low, satisfied hum, her white lashes fluttering as she leaned languidly against his chest. Her skin glowed faintly in the sunlight filtering through the tinted car windows.

The air inside was filled with the scent of sweat, beauty, and something ... ancient.

Wang Xiao's eyes, however, weren't on her body anymore.

They were distant. Sharp, and cold.

As if calculating the logistics of a massacre.

Aurora felt it, that peculiar stillness of a man debating genocide.

Her voice came soft, teasing. "Are you… planning to erase the old gods?"

She wasn't wrong.

It was on his mind.

He sat naked in the backseat of the taxi, her divine body curled over him, her wide hips still straddling his lap, moving faintly as her aftershocks faded. In any other world, it would be a scene of madness. Yet here, it was just another day.

To have sex in the back of a car… with a being older than history, a woman once revered as deity across civilizations, worshipped in the chants of dying kings and the birth screams of worlds.

It was a feat so absurd, it made Wang Xiao chuckle under his breath.

His fingers slid across her cheek, her beautiful face.

Flushed, curious, blinking like a girl in love.

She tilted her head, slightly embarrassed. "What… are you looking at?"

He didn't answer.

Just stared. Studied, memorized.

Then nodded to himself.

"You can handle them," he muttered.

She knows them better than he ever will, let her play the game.

If he moved?

He'd simply kill them all.

And that… would be counterproductive.

The gods weren't even worth the time it would take to bury their corpses.

Let Aurora use them.

He had better things to do.

"What better things do you have to do…? Play with Ning Xue?" Aurora muttered, resting her chin on his shoulder, a faint pout on her lips. Her tone was light, but the flicker in her eyes gave her away.

She didn't believe it.

He was almost always free.

Well, that's because she couldn't travel to the astral realm like him.

Wang Xiao raised a brow at her petty tone. "Why do all of you get jealous of your own daughters?"

Aurora pursed her lips, her lashes twitching in protest. "Isn't it because you ignore one and not another? After freeing me... how many times did you come looking for me?"

He didn't respond immediately.

Instead, he raised one hand and casually cupped her breast, large, soft, full in his palm like ripe fruit plucked straight from a forbidden tree.

His thumb lazily pressed into the rosy peak, eliciting a visible shudder through her pale body.

It was like touching snow silk warmed under a summer sun.

Aurora's thoughts scattered. For a moment, she forgot her own complaint.

"How many times," he finally said, "have I gone to look for anyone?"

She blinked.

That's right.

He never chased.

Never went out of his way.

Women came to him. When they wanted him, they came. When they didn't, they faded, and were forgotten.

He didn't beg, didn't play pretend.

You couldn't act cold with him. He was colder.

Aurora let out a soft breath and leaned further into him, her skin burning where his hands touched.

She had no real objections.

Not like Amelia or the others who still stick to their pride or rules.

She had chosen long ago.