"Phoooo…"

Nathan breathed in the fresh air of the Human World as he examined his surroundings. He was currently in Paris, France, searching for something that could be of value to him.

'Are you sure that 'it' is in France of all places?' Nathan addressed Kronos as he walked through the street amongst the crowd, changing his appearance to look unremarkable. He currently had an average face and brown hair- making a combination that one would forget about the next moment.

[My intuition tells me that it is in France.]

Nathan clicked his tongue, 'We're supposed to rely on your intuition? I'm already taking a huge risk by sneaking out.'

Kronos scoffed, [Rather than intuition, it is more accurate to say that the tracker I placed on it tells me that it is in France.]

That was when Nathan stopped for a moment, before resuming his walk, 'Can you a more… specific location? Or at least narrow the possibilities down? It won't be easy to search an entire country.'

[There's no need for that.] Nathan could feel Kronos smirking as he explained, [Because the thing that we're looking for is right in front of you.]

Nathan regained his focus and looked at whatever that was in front of him with expectation, only for those to melt away as he recognized…

'A gardening store? Why would 'it' be here?'

[Think. What do you think the part of a Titan's corpse could do as a fertilizer? And remember, it's not just any Titan's corpse, it's my corpse.]

Nathan paused for a moment, before replying, 'Would it give the plants their version of steroids?'

Kronos sighed for what Nathan felt like the umpteenth time that day, [Look up the store on your electronic device.]

'It's called a phone.'

Nathan took out his phone from his pocket and typed in the gardening store's name on the search bar.

'Hepius' Garden'

The rating was… astronomically high for a gardening store, in Nathan's unprofessional opinion. Out of the 12800 ratings it had, it received almost 12600 ratings of 5 stars.

'Dafuq?'

['Dafuq' Indeed. Well, I suppose that the rating is only fitting for a store that is named after the greatest medical practitioner.]

'What do you mean?'

[Hepius is another name for Asclepius. How do you not know this? I thought you received my memories.]

'The better question is how do you know this? I thought you were long dead when Asclepius was born?'

Kronos scoffed in his head, [Us Titans are never truly dead. Our 'death' is just another form of freedom to us.]

'Whatever you say.'

Nathan walked forward and entered the store, immediately noting the special scent that the plants had.

It smelled an awful lot like a rotten corpse.

Nathan resisted the urge to squeeze his nose and plug out the smell and greeted the owners of the store, a young couple.

"Welcome to Hepius' Garden! What can we do for you on this lovely day?"

Faced with an enthusiastic greeting, Nathan smiled and returned it, "I'm looking for something to decorate my front yard. My wife and children are bothered by the lack of decorations."

The husband nodded with a smile and joked, "I understand you. My wife here complained about the decorations so much to the point we started an entire store for her."

"Anyways," The wife, who had a faint blush creeping up on her face and ears interrupted, "What kind of decorations are you here for? What kind of flowers would you prefer?"

Nathan put a hand on his chin as he said sheepishly, "I didn't really think about this when I came here… I just wanted to get away from my wife."

The husband chuckled as he opened his mouth, only to yelp in pain when the wife pinched his ears.

"Well, my name is Juliette, and his name's Andre. Welcome to the best garden in Paris!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Jules."

"Well, come on then Jules, let's take a look around the house!"

Nathan was enthusiastically dragged along by the couple, with each of them introducing a variety of plants and flowers to him.

Nathan appreciated the enthusiasm, but unfortunately, buying flowers was not his original purpose.

"Hmm…" Nathan drawled thoughtfully as he pretended to think about the plants and flowers that were introduced to him, "Are there any more? I'd like to know more about this before picking one out, lest my wife forces me to return and buy another one."

Juliette put a finger on her lips in thought, before her eyes lit up, "How about we visit the storage room? There might be things that you like there."

Nathan nodded. That was well within his intentions.

"Okay."

The couple led him to the back of the store, before unlocking a door and ushering him into it, and locking it again.

'Kronos… something's wrong with Juliet and Andre.'

Nathan put on a front as he silently confided with Kronos.

[Mmh.] Kronos hummed in agreement, [Look at their eyes. They changed colors.]

'It's not just that. Their outgoing personality… almost seems fake now.'

[Indeed. They've either been possessed, or they sensed your demonic energy and are starting to show their true colors now.]

'... If they've been possessed, can we help them? I'd prefer to not kill them, or anyone as a matter of fact, if possible.'

[And I respect that. We'll see what we can do. Just keep going along with your little show for now.]

Nathan mentally nodded and continued talking with the suspicious couple, pretending to look and lose interest at flowers here and then to keep up his act.

Finally, after a few more minutes of showcasing, it seemed like they've finally reached the end of their stock.

Andre apologetically smiled, "Sorry Jules, that's the end of our stock. Have you decided on one?"

Nathan hummed in thought for a moment, before 'deciding', "Well, I guess my wife would like the lilies."

Juliette nodded in approval as she carried a bag filled with lily seeds in it, "Your wife has good tastes."

Nathan chuckled dryly, "I guess she does."

[I feel it.] Kronos' voice abruptly popped up in Nathan's head.

'... Where?'

[Behind the pot of celeries, there is an empty wall. The feeling is coming from there.]

"Jules?" Andre called out in concern as he noticed 'Jules' staring into space for a while.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was lost in thought for a moment." Nathan scratched his head as he apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go to checkout, yeah?"

"Sure."

Nathan and Andre walked to the entrance and exit of the storage room, with Juliette closely following behind them.

As Andre was about to unlock the door, he abruptly stopped. As did Juliette.

Nathan's eyes hardened. This was never a good sign.

"Is there something wrong?"

"You figured it out didn't you?" A raspy, distorted voice came from behind Nathan.

Just as Nathan was about to reply, Andre turned around. Nathan stifled a gasp as he saw Andre's face.

Andre's face was infested with maggots crawling under his skin, with his left eye socket abnormally big and his eyeball almost falling out of it. Andre's face was tainted with an ashen color, and he was so thin to the point that Nathan thought he was a decomposing corpse.

Nathan glanced at Juliette through the corners of his eyes, and saw that something similar happened to her, but rather than having her face infested with maggots, it seemed like thorny vines were underneath her thin skin, with some thorns even sticking out of her face.

Nathan sighed as he realized that there was no use keeping up the act. He let loose his demonic power and blasted Juliette backwards with a sudden burst of demonic energy, before isolating her in a barrier made by the Power of Time, slowing her down astronomically.

Andre, seeing his lover being flung back like a ragdoll, roared as he charged the short distance at Nathan with an inhuman speed, causing Nathan to wince as he deflected the claw aimed at him, before retaliating with a knee to Andre's solar plexus.

Andre keeled over as he looked up, preparing to charge at Nathan once more, only to be faced with a kick from Nathan that blew him backwards into the wall, before Nathan turned and ducked, narrowly dodging a vine that came out of Juliette's face.

Juliette, who had just broken out of Nathan's time barrier, screeched loudly as Nathan looked at her, puzzled, before realizing what she had just done.

The seeds in the various bags around him suddenly began contorting, before blooming into vines of various colors, all of which were charging at him.

Nathan gritted his teeth as he began making a plan to get the piece of Kronos' body that was hidden in the empty wall behind the pot of celeries, which also had snake-like vines slithering around its body.

'... I'll need to limit the use of my magic powers, unless I want Kronos to take over… but if I don't do this, I would've come here for nothing.'

After a few seconds of thinking, Nathan saw that Andre was quickly standing up, and that the vines started flying towards him as well. That forced him to make a decision.

Nathan immediately expanded just the bare minimum of his demonic power; just barely enough to stop time in the small storage room for two seconds.

Nathan took the advantage of the two seconds and broke down the empty wall with a punch, before seeing what was behind it.

It was a small piece of ground meat. One that was constantly contorting into weird shapes.

Nathan suppressed his disgust as he picked it up and stuffed it into his pocket, before he noticed that time resumed.

'Those two probably would've noticed the large hole in their wall by now.'

Nathan made a split second decision as he realized there was no time to draw a teleportation circle inside of the small room, and he stuffed a hand into his breast pocket and pulled out… a grenade. The one that he had made in case of emergency situations.

'I guess this counts as an emergency…'

Nathan pulled the pin on the magic crystal-powered grenade and threw it as hard as he could, calculating the impact so that he would barely be affected by the explosion. Of course, the same could not be said for the monster couples.

*BOOOOOOM!*

Nathan reappeared in the lab with a disheveled appearance as he held the contorting meat in his hand.

'I'll give a small piece of this to you if you tell me where I can find the adamantium.'

Kronos harrumphed, [You can find the adamantium in the…]

A/N: I just realized how useful a devil's ability to understand and speak all languages is in a fanfiction where the mc will visit a lot of countries.