Chapter 49: Chapter Forty-Nine: Puppeteer
Silas was laying awake, back in Pilloa HQ. He was remembering the times he was training with Loki, Thor and Athena. Suddenly, the words "You have the highest potential" from Loki came to his mind. "You just need to learn to use it. Siran and Zia have extremely high capacities for endo, but you don't have any."
"But if I really have the highest potential..." Silas thinks to himself, "how am I supposed to learn to use it? And what is it exactly that gave me that... no maximum capacity he talked about? Was it the shard of Chronos?"
"You take after your mother and father a lot... but you have the largest shard of Chronos inside of yourself." Loki's words play through his mind again.
"The shard of Chronos..." Silas says, worrying.
"The kid has a natural talent, like Siran does. It was crazy!". Now Satomi's words play through his head, from back when he first visited Japan when he was young.
"You... don't remember that, Silas?" Dana asks.
"What can't I remember?" Silas asks himself as he lays awake. "They said I took out people... did they mean I killed somebody before?" Silas's right eye suddenly flickers black for a moment. Though, he didn't notice it. However, he suddenly felt a strange shocking pain behind his eye. Some strange mumbling could be heard for a moment as Silas held his hand over his right eye. The pain suddenly went away and he sat up and looked around the room. He was in a room with Dana and Carl, but none of them were awake. "Could anybody else hear that?" Silas asks himself. Silas stood up and walked out of the room. He immediately ran into Benjie just outside of the room, as Benjie was passing by through the hallway.
"Silas?" He asks. "Are you okay? You're all sweaty."
Silas rubs his forearm over his forehead and looks at his arm to see many beads of sweat over his arm. "I'm alright" Silas replies. "Just... going to get a glass of water."
"Are you worried about Siran?" Benjie asks.
"Yeah..." Silas replies. "I hope my dad is okay."
"You know..." Benjie adds, "Filipinos are very family oriented people. I get worried all the time about my mom and dad too. But I know that because of your family, they're doing okay now. It's okay to be worried, but don't let it being bring you down. These are hard times, but they're hard times we must face sometimes. Get some sleep soon, and keep that in mind."
"Thanks, Benjie" Silas says in an exhausted tone.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Benjie asks.
"Yeah, no... I'm fine" Silas says.
"Good" Benjie replies. "Take care of yourself, Silas."
When Silas eventually sleeps, he found himself in a black void. He could hear more mumbling around him, though this time, it was much more audible. This time he could heard all the mumbling was a series of numbers and equations. Calculating something in the background, but he couldn't see or figure out what it was calculating. "Where am I?" Silas asks. Though, the numbers kept going. The mumbling suddenly stopped and all went silent. It was so quiet, that Silas could hear his own heartbeat and breathing loudly. But he heard something else along with it. It seemed like more breathing and another heartbeat matching his, in synchronicity, and it was coming from behind him. Silas slowly turned to look, and another figure matching his every move looked with him. The figure looked exactly like Silas and mirrored all of his movements exactly. Through, the other him didn't show any color. He was monochromatic, even his clothes. As well as, though the figure looked exactly like Silas, the figure had cracks throughout his body as if he were made of glass. A ringing in his ears could be heard, growing louder as they made eye contact, when suddenly, Silas woke up.
Silas's head shoots off of his pillow as Dana was sitting up in her bed, tying her hair back with a hair band. She was looking at Silas as she ties her hair, and asks "Had a nightmare?"
"I-I don't really remember" Silas replies.
"Well, you were mumbling something in your sleep for a while there" Dana adds.
"I was?" Silas asks.
"Yeah, it was kinda creepy." Dana says. "Though, I'm sure you were probably just having some sort of bad dream."
Silas looks at the floor for a while, then asks "Do you guys ever think I'm like... too weird?"
"Weird?" Dana asks. "We're related to The Six Guns, and you're worried about being weird? Yeah, you're weird, dude. But that's okay, I guess. Probably just natural."
"What if I'm dangerous to be around?" Silas asks. Dana finished tying her hair and tilts her head towards Silas in a show of disapproval. "Right... Six Guns... I get it" Silas says.
"We have way more to worry about than being weird or dangerous" Dana says. "Maybe you and Carl haven't quite accepted that, but I have. The reality is, we just do what we can. I don't see why you're concerned with the opinions of others."
"Well, you and Carl are my best friends..." Silas says.
Dana pauses for a moment, then says "I guess it would make sense to worry about scaring your friends away. But, put those fears to rest. You're a softie, I know you better than that. But, even if sometimes a few things about you may seem off, I know it's not something we can't handle. Otherwise, we would've kept our distance long ago." Silas thinks for a moment, then suddenly Dana picks up one of her shoes on the floor next to her bed. "Now if Carl's lazy ass would wake up" she says as she throws the shoe at Carl.
"Ow- what the hell?" Carl asks as he sits up.
"Work time, boys" Dana says. "I already took my shower and got ready in the bathroom. You two are late. We've still got more training with the security team here, and we still have guard duty to attend to. We are adults now, we don't live for free."
"Can't you let us live for a little longer?" Carl asks. "I'm only 17, let me have my time."
"17 is still an adult, you bum" Dana says.
"Come on, let me have like... three more years" Carl says as he lays back down.
Dana walks next to his bed and looks down at Carl. "Carl?" She asks.
"What?" Carl replied in a grumpy tone.
"The age of adulthood in Omnia and in Seeira are both 16" Dana says. She suddenly grips Carl's leg and drags him out of bed. "You've been an adult for a year now! You're not waiting until you're 20 while we're in the middle of a crisis like we are in these times!"
"Argh! Fine" Carl says as he slowly pulls himself off the floor, using the bed as support. Carl looks over and sees Silas giggling a little to himself. "What's tickled your fancy?" He asks.
"N-nothing" Silas says between laughs.
"I can't figure out how to close these damn things!" Athena says in irritation. "These damn holes in the seals... how did they do it?"
"Well, to be fair" Thor replies, "they did use the shards of Chronos to open the streams."
"Then, any guesses how to repair the seal that's leaking?" Athena asks.
"We've already spent days on end trying to work something out" Loki says.
"But if we can't add like a smaller sort of patch seal on top of the already existing seal" Athena says, "and like maybe create a temporary fix until we can get someone more capable to close this gap... then I'm out of ideas."
"No" Loki says. "We can't use a smaller seal on top of the already existing seal. It won't work out. Seals are like a sort of plank of wood we can just use to cover an open hole in a wall or something."
"Then what do we do?" Thor asks.
"Well..." Loki says as he thinks. "None of us have the ability to use sealing magic. It's not even a common ability. Even amongst primeval gods, the ability is rare. So it's not like we could just call over someone like Odin to do it."
"But what about teaching a human to do it?" Thor asks.
"None of them would have that kind of capacity" Athena says. "Sure, human can use any type of magic without being restricted to usages within a domain, but we gods still have the advantage of just purely having more capacity than they do."
"Wait, capacity. That's it!" Loki says.
"And that will be far enough" a familiar voice says from behind them. As the three of them turn around, they see Ares and Dolos. "I'm afraid I can't let you close that yet."
"Why are you trying to drown the world with endo!?" Athena asks. "I thought you wanted war! If you kill off the humans, who would have your war?"
"Who said I was going to kill them?" Ares asks. "Old man Zeus wanted these open to essentially smash all the universes back together. Have one big happy family of humans to rightfully rule over or something like that."
"Then why are you protecting it?" Loki asks.
"I have my reasons" Ares says. "Though, I can let you in on a little something. I have a hard time feeling motivated to close these gaps in the seals myself. You see, it's time consuming, and I'm a busy man. So, under one condition, I'll let you in on a way to close it for me."
"Nothing you say can be trusted" Athena says.
"Oh, I assure you" Ares says. "I have no reason to lie. You see, you can have your little God Slayer run around and pretend to be the hero. He should be more than capable of closing them himself. Of course, there's just two problems. One; the poor boy doesn't know seal magic, and two; if you try to teach him too fast, I will personally go and kill the boy."
"And your condition?" Loki asks.
"It's really simple" Ares says. "I just want you to wait about... hmmm... I'd say about three more months should do."
"We can't wait" Athena says.
"Really?" Ares asks, as he takes out his sword and ignites it with fire. "That's a shame."
"What's your aim!?" Athena demands.
Loki sticks his arm in front of Athena and Thor. "Get the boy" he says to them."
"But-" Athena argues.
"Get the boy and run!" Loki says.
"What are you planning, brother?" Thor asks.
"He wants time, I'm going to give him time" Loki says. "I'll keep him busy. You two protect Silas and train him to fix those seals!"
"Don't let them escape" Ares says to Dolos.
Dolos throws a veil of black illusion magic over the three of them. Loki throws his left arm to the side, and the magic veil starts to disappear from the left of them, all the way back to Dolos. "Master of trickery after all" Athena says. "You stay alive. We'll come back for you."
"They won't finish me off so fast" Loki says. "Now go!"
Athena and Thor run off as Loki faces Dolos and Ares alone. "Trickery indeed" Dolos says. "They seem to be convinced that your illusion magic was stronger than mine. But we both know that's not what happened."
"It seems you know more about me than you should" Loki says.
"You used debuff magic instead of illusion magic" Dolos says. "That's not within your domain."
"It's because he's not a natural born god." Ares says. "He was a mortal once. He was just granted the status of a god by Odin. Even some of his own family isn't aware of what he's capable of."
"Not a real god?" Dolos asks. "That explains the debuff magic. But how can you survive Valhalla then?"
"There's only one man who could take a piece of himself and give it to another person like that, while keeping it secret even from his family" Ares says. "Only one person I can think of who'd be that foolishly kind. Now, tell me, Loki. I've done my research and I know Odin took out his own eye and dropped it in the water of cosmic knowledge. However, there's been times other gods, such as us Greeks and even the Egyptians tried to recover it as an artifact." As Ares talks, he slowly walks in circles around Loki as he studies him. "However, not only had the well and world tree vanished when Valhalla was suddenly gone; or at least the old Valhalla... as we all know now that Valhalla was moved to that pocket dimension that we all call home now; but nobody could find that eye. Odin had another son for quite some time before then, but it wasn't until after then that the legacy and rumors of Loki began to spread. Where do you think that eye went, Loki?"
Loki remained silent, as Dolos says "Oh! Oh! I believe I know the answer!"
"Of course you do" Ares says to Dolos as he continues to walk around and stare at Loki. "We're looking at it now."
"How'd you know about that?" Loki asks.
"Much like Gaia and Chronos" Ares says, "a shard- or a piece of a primeval god was placed inside of you. That is the sole reason you gained immortality, increased magic capacity and the ability to walk into Valhalla. Am I wrong?" Loki was silent, then Ares says "But then that begs the question. If you can use all magic like a human can, then why won't you close the seals?" Loki clenched his teeth in anger as Ares continued. "Of course, unless that means you can't" Ares adds. "You may have more power than most mortals, but you aren't even on Ishmael's level, are you? Or, what was his name again? Siran? You're not even on Siran's level. Ha-ha-ha-ha! That's it! You don't have the capacity. You're just a man tricking the whole world into thinking you're a god! The best trick of all was that you even had your friends and family fooled!"
"Who's pulling the strings?" Loki asks.
"I'm sorry?" Ares asks as he stops walking in circles.
"Who's plan was all of this?" Loki asks.
"Mine" Ares says. "I'm pulling the strings."
"Bullshit" Loki says. "Don't lie to me. Who are you working for?"
Ares leans in close to Loki's face and says "The only string pulling you'll need to worry about is what I'm doing. There's no point in trying to look higher. You'll never reach it."
"Come on, Ares" Dolos says in a voice of sarcastic pity. "Grant the poor boy his final wish. He won't be able to tell."
"No, I guess you're right" Ares says. "If you want to know so bad." Ares then grabs the top of Loki's head and squeezes tightly as he sinks a heavy flow of his own endo into Loki's head. Causing Loki to feel his pain and anger of having to live an immortal life even though he should've died in ancient times. The frustration began to seep into Loki's head as he starts to lose control over his own body. "Chronos sends his regards." Ares says.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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