THEOS

“Who are you?” Asked a bald teen, the second Luke rounded the corner.

“Rex.” Luke said casually, and without skipping a beat, lifted the vial of healing potions in his hand, he gestured towards the door behind him. “I brought some potions for the Empress.”

The teen lifted an eyebrow, and cocked his head to the side. Slowly raking his eyes up and down Luke’s body, a confused expression settled over his face.

“I’ve never seen you before. Where are you from?” He asked.

Luke stilled his gaze, and met the suspicious gaze as calmly as he could. Very aware of the ring on the teen's hand, he activated the base version of the First Truth of Death. It would be enough to alert him if or more likely, when the Clan Skyscar member turned hostile.

“I’m from Sixra.” He said, cocking his own head to the side in faux confusion, while his heart hammered in his chest. That’s where Jax wanted to go, so it should be fine– hopefully.

The teen’s eyebrows furrowed. “Me too… Why do you have hair?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you have hair?” He repeated.

“Why don’t you have hair?” A dumbfounded look appeared on his face. “Look, what’s with these questions? I have to give the Empress her medicine, if you haven’t noticed we’re in a bit of a situation right now.”

Outside the castle, a particularly violent explosion went off, and even inside the barrier the resulting shockwave could be felt.

What is Heracles doing? Luke thought incredulously. Glancing out the window nervously. The bald teen didn’t budge from the door.

“Listen, do you really want to stall me when a God’s Child is outside the barrier?”

“Um–” The teen looked between him and the door nervously. A look of resolve came over his face. 0

His Technique practically screamed at him within his head.

Fuck. Luke shot through the air towards him.

His opponent's storage ring flashed.

With his fist extended, he punched the kid in the stomach as hard as he possibly could. Wincing slightly as he felt the other warrior’s rib crack under the force of his attack.

A dagger appeared in his foe’s hand, and suddenly, the drain on Luke’s mana exceeded his passive regeneration.

Alerted by the technique, he flew back a meter, causing the Skyscar teen’s dagger to miss his throat by mere inches.

That was all Luke needed.

With his opponent over extended, he called Bellerophon’s Blade from his inventory into his hands, and in a quick motion, he slapped the Skyscar clan member with the flat of his blade, leaving a shallow cut on his temple that both dazed him and sent him stumbling back deeper into the hallway. Then before he could recover, he sliced clean through his wrist. Both his storage ring and dagger tumbled to the ground along with his severed appendage.

A pained look came over his face, but the teen grit his teeth, and charged towards Luke.

He’s not making any noise. Luke realized. Why? He thought to himself, even though he already knew the answer. The teens oath made him fight, but it didn’t make him call for help. Nor did it make him fight well.

Kicking him in the chest, he knocked him down and pressed his blade against his neck. A single drop of blood ran down the side of his throat.

A look of acceptance came over his face, but Luke knew better than to believe it. He was scared.

Luke cursed under his breath, and with a quick gesture, impaled his remaining wrist with his sword. Making him lose the use of his hand, while keeping it mostly intact. Inflicting enough damage that he would lose use of it for the near future, but also not enough to leave him permanently cripled. A small mercy.

He’s weaker than me, he's eighteen, maybe nineteen, and I doubt he’s been a warrior for long. He doesn’t have a technique, so he’s practically disarmed, and without the use of his hands, even if he does attack, it will be weak.

With my technique, I should see it coming if he does try anything, and even my inventory isn’t a big deal anymore. He doesn’t know I don’t have a storage ring so…

“One move, and you’re dead, okay?” He said quietly, making the decision to keep his opponent alive. Then slowly stepping backwards, he picked up the teens severed hand. Not breaking eye contact, he separated the ring from its finger, and put it in his pocket. “Try anything, and you're dead. Make a single noise, and you're dead.”

“Ok–”

Luke glared at him, and his mouth immediately snapped shut.

He nodded slowly at that, and then feeling the severed hand drip blood onto his boots, he frowned in disgust. Stepping forward, he leaned over the figure of his fallen foe, and slid the hand into one of his pockets. Using the opportunity to search him for any surprises. Not finding anything, he nodded in approval, and straightened up.

“A healing potion should fix that. I have one that I’ll give you, but before that, I need you to get up.”

The teen looked at him confused. No doubt wondering why Luke hadn’t ended him. Nodding hastily, he rose into the air like a plank being lifted.

“Is she in there?”

The teen nodded.

“Good, open the door.” Luke instructed, lightly poking his neck with the tip of his sword.

He glanced down at his broken arms and back at Luke.

“What? It’s not like I do this every day?” He said, feeling heat rise in his cheeks. “Never mind.” Leaning forward, he turned the handle before stepping back.

Without needing instruction, the young warrior stepped through the door. His heart hammering in his chest, Luke followed after him.

Lightly closing the door behind him, he tore his eyes away from his hostage, and locked onto the broken form of the Rebel lying in her bed.

Already, she looked a lot better than when he had last seen her. Her limbs were still missing, and although her eyelids were shut, one of them was empty. Even still, she had shed her charred skin. In its place, smooth pink skin covered what was visible of her body.

Eyeing the slow rise and fall of her chest, Luke tore his eyes away from her, and turned to the young Clan Skyscar member,

“I want you to stand in that corner, with your arms raised behind your back.” Luke instructed.

“I–” He opened and closed his mouth.

“What? Say what you want… just speak softly.”

“If you are going to try and kill her, my oath will compel me to fend you off. You should tie me up first. I have restraints in my ring.” He whispered.

“Why aren’t you attacking me already then?” Luke eyed him with suspicion.

“I’m compelled to obey her commands, and she didn’t command me to fight suspected assassins. I don’t know for sure if you are one, so–”

“That seems awfully convenient.”

He shrugged. “I suppose.” The teen shrugged. “If I were you, I’d hurry. If Cleo comes back…”

“Right.” Luke nodded carefully. Keeping his eyes trained on his hostage, he fingered the ring. A nervous, but somewhat eager look flashed across his opponent's face, and instantly Luke felt that something was off.

Unwittingly he remembered something Lukeus had said when Rex had told him that he had tried peering into Heracles’s storage ring.

They were protected, and they came with defenses.

He’s laying a trap.

“What are you waiting for, hur–” He dashed towards the door and made to escape, only to stop in his tracks when he found a golden blade stopping him from passing.

What the fuck, man? Just make up your mind. Do you want to die, or not? Luke thought miserably.

The teen stepped back. Luke stepped forward. His back pressed against the wall, he lifted both hands in the air. “It’s the oath I can’t resis–”

Frowning in resignation, he held his sword against his chest. He didn’t want to kill him, and a small callous part of him regretted showing mercy in the first place. It would have been easier in a way if he had just died in combat. At least then, he wouldn’t have had to feel like an executioner.

It wasn’t a role Luke was eager to play. To consign someone he knew nothing about to death… It was one thing with Tyrisa. She deserved it. Some like the bald teen though? His only sin was being weaker than her.

It would be wrong to kill him.

Luke didn’t know what his oath made him do, and what he did willingly. He didn’t know if the Rebel was holding his family hostage or not. He didn’t know a lot, but what he did know was that if he killed him, it would be final.

His soul would be sucked into the Aether, and from there, not even he knew what would happen to it. At the same time, he couldn’t risk having him around. Knocking out a Warrior-tier wasn’t easy. Restraining him with ropes wouldn’t work. Not when mana physically interacted with space.

Before he could make a decision one way or the other, the choice was taken out of his hands.

The First Truth of Death blazed in the back of his head, and with a sense of numbness, Luke let what he saw coming happen.

The bald teen kicked off the wall, and impaled himself on Luke’s sword. His mouth opened wide, he tried and failed to bite at Luke’s neck.

“I’ll kill–” Luke twisted his blade in his chest. “Ghhrrk.”

Stepping back, Luke watched with a frown on his face, as his foe stumbled onto his knees. A wind suddenly drafted across the room, and a cyclone started to form around his form.

What the– a skill or a bloodline? He thought absently, before erasing the thought from his mind. It didn’t matter now.

Taking a deep breath, Luke stopped and, pulling his blade free from his torso, he slashed it horizontally, and severed his foe’s head from his body. A deep frown settled on his face, as a message from the seed flashed across his vision.

+ 5 Stat Points

He had to know that wasn’t going to work, right? Luke thought miserably. Now isn’t the time to be upset about it though.

Shaking his head, at having killed yet another person, he turned on his heel and walked towards the bed, towards the prone form of the would be Empress.

It was finally time to do what he had come here for. It hadn’t been long since he had passed through the barrier, but he fully expected the other Warrior-tier, Cleo, as the teen had called her, to be back any second.

He wanted to be gone by then.

Out of the castle, and out past the wards. Where he could hopefully escape with Nel. Who he desperately wished had managed to calm down her griffin. Eyeing the golden storage ring on her finger, he quickly reached forward, and pulled it free. Turning it over in his hand, he attempted to send it into his inventory, only to fail. The second time it happened to him.

Are storage rings just incompatible to my inventory?

Frowning, he put the thought aside for the moment. It wasn't the time.

All this mana is going to hurt. He realized, as rose into the air above her and positioned his sword over her heart.

He had feared that she would have put up some manner of protection over herself, but if she really came here while she was unconscious, it wouldn’t be strange for her unwilling conscripts to be lax with her security, and as his blade poked at her robe, he realized that they truly hadn’t.

Finding his mouth suddenly growing dry, he reached into his inventory, and pulled out a handful of Heracles’s Hero-tier protective talismans. Ripping the tab of all of them, he sent most to his inventory, while leaving one between him and her, from which his sword stuck out from the bottom.

He hoped that she wouldn’t wake, and would instead die in her sleep. As it was though, he knew how unlikely that was going to be.

Taking one last deep breath, he heaved his sword into the air, and plunged it down onto her with every ounce of strength he could muster.