THEOS

“Ta ta.” The mysterious woman waved him goodbye, and then before Luke’s eyes vanished into a warm gust of wind that washed over him, leaving behind a strong smell of popcorn and butter. It was not at all what he expected, and it left him feeling even hungrier. His stomach churned and loudly grumbled, like he hadn’t eaten in days.

What the fuck just happened… What the fuck is happening.

Luke blinked slowly, and wiped the drool escaping his mouth with the end of his sleeve, and stared blankly at the ruby colored pomegranate seed suspended in the air inches from him. It shimmered in the dim light of the barrier surrounding the castle, and the whole world seemed to be reflected in the vivid, juicy, jemlike, red kernel.

It somehow looked more real than anything else in his surroundings– as if it possessed its own gravity.

With a tremendous effort of will he shook his head, and lightly slapped his cheeks. Doing his utmost to stay in control, and not give in to his gluttony.

The moment he did, he felt his Arcana stat begin to steadily tick up, one point, then two. A few seconds later, it ticked up again, and gradually the draw of the seed began to weaken on him. Not by much, but enough to realize that he had been staring at it like an idiot for perhaps longer than was appropriate in an active battlefield. Even his protective talisman had expired.

Heart hammering in his chest, he scrambled, and fishing around his pockets, ripped the tab off another one.

What the actual fuck.

Tearing his eyes away from the seed, he tracked them across everyone in the barrier and beyond it, and just like Cybele had said, none of them were any wiser. Even the two guards standing beside him appeared completely indifferent to him having a minor panic attack in his bubble, and both were oblivious to the sinfully delicious seed hanging in the air an inch from his mouth.

He took a step back.

Is… Is it getting closer?

And… wasn’t she one of the guards. How are there two again? What’s even real?

He took a deep breath. Forcing himself to think rationally.

I’ve never heard of a Cybele before, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a god. Hell, I’ve never even heard of Aeolus and he was a god, so I can’t rule that out as a possibility. Yeah, that would be stupid. Let’s just assume that whoever she is, she’s a god. Or at the very least, close enough to it, that it doesn’t matter to me at this point.

He scanned the castle grounds again. Whatever spell she had worked on the Skyscar clan and even the Argonauts, it appeared that it would hide the presence of the gift she had left him for a while longer.

If it was a gift at all.

Many times since he had come to Theos, Luke had come to regret his limited knowledge of mythology, and he suspected that he would continue to do so long into the future, but there were some things he did remember.

The story of how Persephonie came to be the Queen of the Underworld was one such tale.

In the myth, she ate a single pomegranate seed, and because of it was eternally trapped in the Underworld. Until her mom broke her out? There was also winter? Which… This isn’t going to get me anywhere.

I have no clue whether the myth was Hades just being an asshole, or if there's some esoteric rule about not eating food in the Underworld, or a combination of both. Either way, I haven’t heard about anything that can compel me to do anything other than an oathstone, and the seed looks nothing like that. More than that, I’m not actually in the Underworld– I think. It would really be fucking something if this is the afterlife, I’m still dead, and this is all a dream, but NO. Fuck that, this is happening, focus Luke. No spiraling.

He slapped his cheeks again, and frowned in disgust as a string of thick saliva connected his hand to his face.

“Okay. That’s enough. Thirty seconds before I drop my spell. I have places to be, and I’m not going to hide you from all these gazes forever. Eat it, stomp on it, put it in a storage ring, do something!” Cybele’s voice rang out in his ear.

“Wha–” He snapped his head in the direction the voice had come from in search of her figure. A fruitless effort. She could be anyone, anywhere…

“Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven–” Her voice impatiently began counting down.

“Okay, okay… I’ll–” Luke nodded to the air, and lifted his hands in surrender. Not even a little surprised that the woman was still lurking around him.

Cyzicus had long since disabused him of the idea that he would be able to sense when a higher tier individual was around, and somewhere in the back of his head, he knew that sneaking around would be way too much fun to never do it if he had the ability. The Seed would tell him eventually, but its timing was almost comical, and it never, not once, told him when the danger actually passed.

Focus. He shook his head. Is this thing fucking with me? His stomach grumbled again. Stupid question, of course it is. How much though?

“Twenty-two.” Her voice rang in his ear once again.

A tight ball of nerves formed a pit inside his stomach. Stretching his hands forward, he gingerly plucked the seed out of the air.

A rush of mana seeped into his fingers, and his mouth almost dropped to the floor as his Constitution suddenly went up a point.

Instinct possessed him.

Slowy, he brought it to his mouth, and rested it on his tongue, and sealed his lips around it. For a brief moment, he considered inventorying the pomegranate seed, but discarded the idea nearly as soon as it came to him.

Whoever the woman was, she could see into storage rings. He had no reference for how easy, difficult, or common that feat was, but if she could find some random artifact in one, sneak past any protections the Rebel Hero had put on it, and find what she was looking for. Then it was safe to assume that she would notice something as obvious as the pomegranate seed she had given him, vanishing into something that wasn’t his stomach right after he put it in his mouth.

The last thing he wanted was her to find out about his greatest secret. Not when she had deduced basically every other one he had, moments after she met him.

His shoulders sank in mouthwatering bliss. Even more mana gushed from the seed, and sank into his tongue. This time, every single one of his stats surged over two points, and a rich taste of the fruit spread across every taste bud.

I could probably still put it in a storage ring… but I don’t have one… What am I thinking? His thoughts were a jumbled mess, that darted from biting into and not. Uncertain even as he placed it between his molars and prepared to crush it.

A burst of deliciousness, tastier than anything he had ever felt before bloomed in his mouth, as one of his teeth accidentally made a small prick in its smooth shell.

Fuck it.

He closed the space between his teeth.

“That’s a good lad. I’ll be going now. Until next time.” She said, and he felt a soft hand rub his back, and the scent of buttery popcorn once again wafted through the air.

The seed dissolved into mana. Something he didn’t even know was possible.

A veritable river of energy ran down his throat and into his heart. With his blood, it was carried into every cell in his body.

Every stat he had, suddenly began to tick up. Eyes wide, and head suddenly clear, he opened his Status.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Warrior

Bloodline: Eyes of Insight

Mana: 499 000.05 / 2343 [178 seconds]

Rate: 17% per hour

Strength: 21 > 36

Agility: 15 > 41

Constitution: 50 > 66

Arcana: 50 > 71

Stat Points: 19

Charges: 7/10

He took one look at it, ripped the perforated tab off another protective talisman, and leapt into action.

While the improvements to his stats across the board were nothing short of astronomical, the most significant change was in his available mana. It was maxed out, and if the ticker meant what he thought it did, he didn’t have much time to spare.

A cocky grin stretched across his face.

He knew just what to spend the mana on too.

The First Stane sang its song in his head, and the First Truth of Death created ghostly apparitions of every single warrior in his sight. Each one showing him exactly where each of them would be.

Like a pane of glass shattering, the illusion that kept everyone ignorant to the comings and goings of the suspected goddess fell apart.

The two warriors stationed beside him were the first to notice his move, and the first to face the affects of his Technique. Both of them lashed out at the spot he had occupied, moments before, one with his spear, and another with his daggers.

Both missed him entirely, and Luke didn’t even bother attacking them, as raced toward the Rebel. Only vaguely aware of the one with a spear accidentally impaled his compatriot.

Poor amateurs. They aren’t even using talismans.

A pained yell, saw every eye in the barrier and out, immediately focused on him.

He grinned back at them.

They launched explosive talismans at him, but seeing them coming moments before they were even fired, he maneuvers himself so that each burst behind him, and added to his momentum as he shot towards their leader. Who for her part, seemed ambivalent towards his charge.

The man dressed in golden armor, stared down at him imperiously, and blades of wind formed in the air around him.

Showing Luke, for the first time, the might of a god’s bloodline.

Impressive, but… He grinned at the befuddled look on the warriors’ face.

One blade of air shattered harmlessly off his shield after another and Luke soon realized that the man’s attacks, while strong for his tier, were of no consequence to him. Warrior-tier attacks wouldn’t break a Hero-tier barrier.

Realizing that Luke wouldn’t be slowed down by his attacks, the man shot towards him. Luke’s blade pierced through a thin gap in his armor, and stabbed him right above his pelvis. Blood splattered onto him, and casually, Luke activated a Warrior-tier explosive talisman right next to his head. The concussive force did no damage in and of itself, absorbed as it was by his armor, but it succeeded in breaking his opponents concentration.

He tumbled towards the ground, and in the process cleared Luke’s path towards the would-be Empress.

Ducking between three attacks, his eyes met her eyeball.

She snarled at him.

Her ghost moved past her body, and towards his right.

He positioned his sword in her path.

Her blood once again sprayed into the air, as her last remaining limb tumbled to the ground.

The whole world seemed to hold his breath, and a look of fear flashed across her face. Vanishing as quickly as it came.

Her head blurred, and even with her apparition warning him of her attack, Luke didn’t have enough time to react as her forehead slammed into his bubble. The force of her blow sent him rocketing back, and towards the barrier encircling her castle, and nearly into Blinky’s eye-covered tentacles.

Desperately, he gushed mana out from his body, and latched onto the space around him. Barely managing to come to a stop before he was removed from the field of battle entirely.

She screamed incoherently.

A tornado swirling with blades of wind formed a shield around her. One after another, torrents of sharp wind freed themselves from her storm, and lashed out in random directions.

He ripped the tab off of the talismans Heracles had given him with increased urgency, while funneling tens of thousand of points of mana into the space around him. Keeping him rooted in the air, even as her allies that were unable to endure the wind were thrown out of their own castle, and into the waiting tendrils of Rex’s demon.

Her attacks, unlike her clan members, were actually capable of breaking through his defense. Not that it mattered.

He was undeterred by her onslaught, and gritting his teeth he inched towards her. Ducking and weaving between the blades of wind before they were even unleashed at the direction of his Technique.

Just a few more seconds. He thought, watching her carefully. She’s almost out of steam.

He was so close to victory, he could practically taste it. She was weak, her face was pale, her flight unsteady, and blood dripped from the wounds he had dealt with her.

Suddenly, the moment came.

Her cyclone flagged, and blood spilled out from her mouth. Even still, she charged towards his waiting blade.

Only this time it wasn’t her arm or her ribs that his sword bit into, but her heart.

“I hope someone eats your soul.” Luke whispered, as the light faded from her eyes, and more mana than he knew what to do with flooded his body.