Brave, Heartless or Stupid?

I opened my eyes, only to witness a seemingly infinite space around me with countless stars and galaxies around me. As I tired to admire the beautiful view, a voice from behind me suddenly gave off a long sigh.

"I have no idea as to whether you were brave, heartless or stupid when you decided to fight a being that was clearly beyond your league."

I slwoly looked towards the voice as I wore a smirk on my face and answered.

"I prefer the term 'ingenious', for have I not avoided your control?"

"..."

When I finally completed turning around, I got to see the grand-looking warden whom I talked with before reincarnating into the Danmachi World. He went silent at my response and gave off another long sigh.

"When did you notice?"

"I noticed it when I felt pained at the sight of Chloe ignoring me. Back in my previous life, although I cared for my close friends, I didn't at all for acquaintances or strangers I knew nothing about. Also, I was already wary from the beginning since I was aware that there was no such thing as free lunch in the world as the system was obviously something beyond reincarnation and karma itself, for it was able to keep me from the cycle of reincarnation for a certain amount of time and even allowed me to allocate my karma to rather than being randomized. Where you made the most obvious mistake, however, was my obsession with Ambrosia. Every time I started to have doubts about my obsession with her, I would just shake it off subconsciously for no reason and didn't look for answers. The lack of an answer for the doubts of my obsession with her is what made me realize that I was being being somewhat controlled."

After listening to my explanation of how I figured out that he was trying to control me subconsciously, he took a long time to ponder before finally sighing once more.

"... Truly, you're an ingenious person. However, although I do admit that I enhanced your love and obsession for Ambrosia by a bit, you yourself truly did love her and wanted to protect her. So, why did you sacrifice her?"

The warden spoke as he seemed to just be truly curious as to why I did such a thing. After a moment of thinking, I decided to just answer him truthfully.

"The first reason was that I wanted to escape your control. As for the second reason... Whenever I realized that I fell in love with something or someone more that my love for myself, I would immediately try to get rid of them. For if I love something more than I did myself, I wouldn't be the one in control anymore."

I spoke while reminiscing about some memories in my previous life and subconsciously gave off a sigh.

In response to my reasons for sacrificing Ambrosia, the Warden once more went into silence for a while. Then, all of a sudden, dark wings sprouted from behind his back. As soon as he wings appeared, so did countless of holy-looking chains that appeared from the void which seemed to restrain him from simply just flying away into the wide universe.

"We Wardens were originally created by the Gods in heaven to protect them from the other primordial beings born from the void during the beginning of creation. We waged millions of years of war against them before either finally killing them off or banishing them to other dimensions. After the war, however, the Gods started to grow wary of our power as we were either on par or even stronger than some of the Gods themselves. Therefore, under the guise of a banquet to celebrate our victory against the primordial beings, they trapped and killed us in a palace which they carefully prepared for hundreds of thousands of years. I, however, was the only one who escaped from that slaughter house. But, as I flew away, the most powerful God there, Ouranos, casted a spell using his very essence which bind me down. Although I was finally able to arrive at this spot where even the Gods cannot detect me in, I've been continuously weakened by these chains over the countless of years..."

He spoke before coming to an abrupt stop for a bit as he stood there in silence, seemingly in a dilemma from what he was about to say next to me.

"My comrades... I loved every single one of them just as I did the Gods. Yet, I saw them being killed and slaughtered right in front of me. The only thing I could salvage from them at the time were their armors and weapons as the formation that they used against us directly bypassed our armor which was forged by our greatest friend among the Gods, Hephaestus, the goddess of forging. Sadly, the creed of the warden was never broken by even a single one of us, as we were sworn to protect and love all the Gods. So, as they stood there attacking and killing all of us, we did nothing but retreat."

Hearing his tragic story, I sighed and felt pity for the fallen angel in front of me, but once more looked at him in the eye and listened to what he had to say.

"Originally, I wanted to take control of your body to ask the Gods why they did that to us. I wanted to hear it from their own mouths even though it probably won't differ much from the reason that I was already aware of. That was until you, through your ingeniousness, broke the warden's creed."

It was then that I had an idea of what he was about to ask of me. Subconsciously, I started to smile at the thought of what he was about to say and looked at him with curiosity and anticipation.

"... Although we Wardens loved all of the Gods, only few of them were our true friends and allies. Among them were Artemis, Hephaestus and Hestia. When you get to know these three, all their friends are considered our allies and friends too."

He then paused for a moment and faintly trembled as he spoke the next few words.

"As for the rest of the Gods that aren't them nor their friends... Do away with them as you did Ambrosia..."

When he finished speaking, he knelt on the ground and looked towards the vast universe, as if he was silently crying his heart out. I stood there silently for a bit, hesitating whether I should interrupt him or not for if I make the wrong move here, he might just trap me alongside him in this weird space. After a few moments of thinking, I steeled my resolve and spoke.

"My deepest condolences to sir Warden for his loss. However, I'm sure you are aware of the fact that what you are trying to ask of me here is very dangerous and almost outright impossible, right? Add on to the fact that you tried to take away my free will before, I think you really owe me some benefits here that could help me in my endeavors."

I say strategically as to avoid any mention of fighting or killing the Gods as that might make him go insane. After I finished speaking, he stopped looking up towards the endless universe and stared down towards me once more.

"... I removed the [Order] menu and steel function. The [Shop] has now been changed into [Armory] and all weapons and armors of the Wardens of old shall become yours when you become powerful enough to wield them. As the weapons and armors of our order were forged with a substance robust and blessed by the goddess of forging, they shall automatically repair themselves as long as they don't get destroyed beyond a certain point. Beware, as the tides of time have significantly weakened these weapons to the point that they aren't even a fraction of themselves at their peak. In order to strengthen them... You will naturally figure out how to do so when you become strong enough..."

He then stopped talking for a bit while I was also contemplating and thinking to see if there were any other benefits that I could get from this warden. It was then that I thought of that made my eyes glisten and sparkle as I carefully asked the Warden to see if I could get such a benefit.

"Then, last thing, sir Warden. As I am now a part of the Order, does that mean that I would get the capabilities of an angel as well?"

After asking my question, the warden gave off another long sigh as a feather flew off from his wings and seemingly disappeared into my chest. Before I could ask anything about it, he cut me off.

"Return from whence you came."

With those words, my consciousness disappeared from the space as the lonely figure of the warden looked up to the boundless universe once more.