"Deny what."

"I would ask for an explanation, and refuse to assist unless one was given. Deny this war."

"If he'd been planning to do it without even knowing of your existence, do you really think that would do anything to slow him?"

"A separate question, but does not affect my answer. I said nothing of slowing it, merely that I would want answers as to why. If that involves the equivalent of me taking a trip to Hades, I might do it."

"The reasons why are that he's a cruel, callous – being – with a great lack of anything one might term a personality. He has, at most, something I might call a drive."

"Well then, why would I stay with him?"

"What would you do, not with him?"

"Certainly you have not forgotten what happened earlier today."

The metal gauntlet reappears on Halta's left arm, though it seems much more uncomfortable at the moment. Fluttering memories that could be grabbed and brought to view seemingly blow past, none feeling positive in emotions.

"Attempt to fight him?"

"Well, that is an option. I chose to make something better than him happen."

"Unfortunately, he's… shall we say, prone to lashing out and very good at getting what he wants. The last person to stand up to him, a minor deity of stability, was turned to ash and scattered across several planes of existence." Pause. "Or something like that, I was trying not to hurl at the time."

"Sorry to hear... Wait, you refer to him as a deity? That seems to conflict with... A lot."

"He himself? … How does it conflict?"

"Well if he has the power to defeat a deity so utterly, he would be as powerful as one, which would... Seems I skipped ahead in that line of thinking. Apologies."

"Which would make him a deity? Which would make me one, too?"

"Supposedly, if you were made of the same stuff or have the same power. You have not told me how you came to be, but the inherent revival would support it."

"I wouldn't like to give away all my secrets."

[Minor annoyance resumes] "You have not given away anything. Presumably Lord of Hades is powerful, yes, but that has been all you said."

"Sometimes I wonder why I even bother."

[More Annoyed] "I wonder as well. Am I amusing of some sort? Some sort of verbal plaything, as you dance in my mind?"

"You're one step of a very long plan."

"Thirty-one long, I assume... Hmm, sabotage?"

"That would be the obvious thing to try, I'd think."

"Well it seems to have worked, presumably. Are you going to sit in my dreams and attempt to make my life a long one now?"

"I was thinking something a little more than that. Or maybe hoping would be a better word."