Surviving the Death Hunt

As fate would have it, someone had been tailing Scar from the moment he and Amber left Emma. Thoroughly creeped out, he confronted Loki. Now he was stuck listening to an unbearable lecture.

’Oh, spare me... why didn’t I just leave him alone?’

In the comfort of Scar’s room, Amber and Scar sat while Loki stood before them, droning on about inconvenient topics without ever explaining why he’d been following Scar.

Actually, Scar was surprised by this side of Loki. The one he’d known as a kid was arrogant and wouldn’t hesitate to curse at everything. Though Loki was still confident and proud, there was a subtle humor to it now. He seemed genuine, wearing a smile that invited conversation.

"Missed it! I turned seventeen two months ago. Let me guess... yours is in two months? June? Eh, it’s fine... I’m too old to be picking on you anyway."

Scar was surprised Loki still remembered so much about him. But thinking about it, Loki possessed Arthur’s memories now, so it made sense he’d know so much.

Amber shook her head in disbelief.

"Going to keep yapping forever? Scar’s words are starting to make sense... you really are a creep."

Loki smiled awkwardly and exhaled deeply.

"It wasn’t my decision to follow him. I only needed to confirm something."

In the corner of the room sat a chair before a table that Scar had decorated for his reading sessions. Loki grabbed the chair and settled in.

"Everything stems from him, right? His parents’ deaths, Isaac’s, Arthur’s... and Emma, who’s already faced death twice. Scar’s being held responsible for it all."

Scar’s face immediately contorted with anger. He’d been foolish to think Loki had changed. The bastard was insufferable, making his blood boil. Everyone knew these things happened because of him. Why be so ruthless about it?

Tch.

"Kick his ass, Amber."

This was the first time Scar had ordered Amber to do anything since she became his guardian. Surprisingly, she obeyed.

"Wait... wait, would you let me finish?"

Loki looked scared for a moment. It was a shame the wielder of Sun Phoenix appeared so weak. Even though he’d known Arthur would pass the Inheritance to him, he’d done nothing to prepare. Such a waste.

Scar was tempted to let Amber keep going and beat some backbone into the kid. Loki looked close to tears. He stopped her.

Sweating and panting, Loki practiced a breathing technique to calm himself down.

"Don’t get me wrong. Harsh as it may be, it’s the truth. As a Rover, I hold my freedom. I can act as I wish, even with the Inheritance I bear. As long as I don’t bring shame to the family, nothing can hold me back."

Scar’s expression darkened. For a moment, Loki looked like he was sobbing.

"I only wanted a simple, carefree life. People die every day, but as a Rover, I’d have been protected. I could have married the princess and left this world with honor. But no... everything’s been ruined."

Loki sneered.

"I’m not here to complain, but this Inheritance has its own weight. And I need to make sure I live long enough to help you collect every piece of information Arthur left behind."

Huh? Information?

"What information do you mean? Are you talking about understanding the origin of my Inheritance?"

Loki looked disappointed.

"Do you think what I told the Rangers was the truth? Arthur did fight Dain, but there was no way he could have won. He told you that himself, didn’t he?"

Scar’s frown deepened. He’d known all along. The truth had whispered at the edges of his mind, but he’d refused to listen. He didn’t want to believe Arthur went there to die. That kind of sacrifice came with unbearable responsibility.

"He never intended to win. All he wanted was to push Dain to the point where he’d reveal his strongest attack... so you would be ready and someday defeat him."

Scar’s eyes found Loki’s. The sacrifice was noble, sure, but also idiotic and futile. Before he could express that opinion, Amber cut in:

"Dain is Tier-3, isn’t he? And Scar is only Tier-6 now. There’s no way Scar could win, even if we could see the future. Wouldn’t that make his sacrifice meaningless? And what guarantee do we have that Dain won’t grow even stronger before Scar becomes strong enough?"

Something was unsettling about hearing Amber talk about her own father that way. And yet Scar couldn’t argue with a word of it.

"Arthur already considered that. That’s what scares me... everything depends on Scar. And right now, he’s so weak that they might kill me before I can even tell him the truth."

Scar frowned. It was harsh, genuinely so, but he couldn’t call it wrong. Not with Loki’s life sitting in the balance alongside everything else.

"So what’s stopping you from telling me now? Isn’t giving me that information the very thing that frees you?"

Loki shook his head in contrast.

"I can’t... Arthur left strict instructions. You’re not supposed to hear it until you’ve become a Moon Killer."

"Even if I become a Moon Killer, that still won’t be enough to eliminate Dain. And now that he knows we’ve seen his strongest attack, he’ll only grow more dangerous by the time we face him again."

"Not exactly, but it isn’t impossible either. Reaching Tier-4 will be far easier for you than Tier-2 will be for Dain. Advancement is quick in the lower tiers, but once someone reaches Tier-5, progress slows drastically. A single step upward can take over a decade, and anything beyond Tier-3 may require decades... even a century for most people."

Scar turned it over. Every Inheritance kept its abilities locked until the wielder was strong enough to access them, and the stronger you became, the more you could reach and the harder everything hit.

Which meant Dain at tier-3 had a ceiling, and as long as he stayed there, the attack’s fatality might stay consistent.

That was an optimistic reading.

The less optimistic one was that the attack was already so far past the scale that no ceiling mattered, and survival simply wasn’t part of the equation.

Scar shook his head. That didn’t hold up. If the attack was genuinely unavoidable with a guaranteed kill, Dain would have used it on Monic long before now. Eight months of fighting that overgrown bat said otherwise.

’Let’s not underestimate it. We’ll operate under the assumption that the attack can kill a god. However, certain restrictions prevent him from using it freely.’

Scar’s attention shifted to Loki.

"I understand. But what comes next for you? The Sun Phoenix bears the weight of the world’s expectations... and the world won’t wait for you to catch your breath."

Loki got to his feet and ran a hand through his hair, carrying himself like he was headed to a modeling gig. Not that he didn’t have the right. Slick skin, golden hair and eyes, tall with a decent build. The man genuinely suited it.

"Arthur didn’t give me this Inheritance by accident. There was a reason for it... so don’t look down on me."

Without waiting for a response, he proudly walked out of the room.

The corner of Scar’s lip curled upward.

"What’s his deal?"

Amber shrugged.

"He’s right about one thing... Loki is a genius. Though he appears weak now, he once mastered countless martial arts and sword techniques. He’s simply grown complacent. Even so, I believe he may one day surpass my father."

All of it was new. Loki had been one thing before and was something else now, and Scar was still catching up to the distance between the two. But dwelling on it wasn’t going to close any gaps.

Getting stronger was the only thing that mattered. Same training but with higher intensity. That was the answer to most things lately.