Chapter 3

  That first day he bathed the newly green ground in blood. To exemplify his control over Wes, Argyros made sure his momentum brought him to the same spot. Right next to his sister’s mound. He was never conscious when arriving on that first night. He would come back when his body healed enough. He could keep his brain going at first but eventually the days of torment piled up.

  Each time his cursing of Argyros became less as the wear on his mind became greater. By the end of the sixth day and night cycle, Argyros spoke again. The first time he had since that first day. “You will have one more day of this, if you can’t rise to the occasion then I will drag over all those fine people in your little village and do to them what I am doing to you. I will make you watch. The only difference is that I will not heal them. Best get to it.”

  Wes had tried everything he could think of through those six days. The only success he had, if you could even call it that, was that he was able to keep his torso intact. But even that seemed to be more chance than anything else. He would slam a limb into the ground to initiate a roll. He found that Argyros would always protect his head for some reason so he used that to his advantage. The damage to his limb when he sacrificed it was so immediate that sometimes he wouldn’t even feel the pain. His brain would never catch up to the rapid pace of damage his body accrued.

  His best run was keeping one of his legs as well as his body. It was no more than a mangled mess. But it still had enough of what made it a human leg to be called such. But since then he had not had any further success. A lot of times once his heart was destroyed he would blackout. Just to be healed the exact same way. Painfully.

  Just before Plinth's light pushed past the horizon signaling the end of the seventh day Argyros teleported them both up into the air just like the first day. It was extremely cold so far up into the sky. With Wes being naked for the last 7 days meant that he got pretty used to the cold but with Argyros taking his sweet time before speaking he had begun to shiver.

  “So who do you want to start with? The elderly or the children?” Argyros asked.

  Wes had prepared himself for this moment over the past seven days but hearing Argyros be casual about torturing children made him falter before responding. “I uh, I have wanted to ask you this since the first day. Why are you doing this?”

  “You don’t know?” Argyros asked.

  Wes shook his head.

  “Huh, forgive me. I thought it was quite obvious. Your sister asked me to, of course.”

  Wes thought he must have heard wrong. “Did you say my sister asked you?”

  “Yes.” Argyros nodded.

  “What? When?” Wes demanded.

  Argyros looked at Wes with a puzzled expression. “At her funeral of course.”

  Wes began to shake at the stupidity of his words. He saw his sister’s body when she passed. She was definitely deceased when he wrapped her in her best scarf and he laid her in her grave. She was stiff and cold to the touch. His jaw shifted as the friction from his teeth gave. He thought to himself. Yeah, this old guy is crazy.

  “Just kill me now. I thought this was some fucking test this whole time. Now that I know that you have lost your grip on reality it is starting to make sense.” Wes nodded along to his words.

  “Boy, I am not crazy. She gave me her blessing the day of her funeral.” Argyros replied.

  Wes’s voice cracked, “How the hell does a dead person give you their blessing?”

  Argyros raised his right arm and twirled his index finger. “Look around you boy.”

  “Stop talking in fucking riddles! What the hell are you talking about?” Wes pleaded for answers.

  “Now who’s crazy? You can’t see the planet?” Argyros asked.

  “What the fuck does that have to do with Marny? Wes shot back.

  “Wait, had your sister never told you that she was a Sub-Prime?” Argyros asked.

  Wes shook his head in total denial at Argyros’ words. He was numb to them.

  Argyros spotted the state of befuddlement on Wes’s face and lost it. He laughed so hard that he bent over at the hips. When that was not enough to satiate his burning sides he crunched his body over in a crouch while grabbing his sides.

  Hearing Argyros laugh seemed to make his words more true. He could not believe that his sister would keep something like that from him. No way in all the god’s hells was she a Sub-Prime. She would have been only two steps away from being considered a god. Those people live in the five thousands and higher. Wes did not tamper with his mind as it whizzed through the last decade after his parents died. He only ever remembered being here on this planet. If he was brought here then surely someone in the village would have said something. He thought to himself, what the hell is going on.

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  Wes could not control himself. When he turned his attention back to Argyros, he found him still laughing while rolling in the air like it was the ground far below. For the first time in days, he let anger boil up in him as Argyros' laugh bellowed through the skies.

  After entirely too long Argyros stood while he attempted to stymie his laugh. He was holding his sides gingerly. His legs looked like they would give out any second and he had tears running down into his small beard. They glistened in the last wisps of setting light. He wiped the tears from his face. “Sorry boy, I had no idea. I really do owe you an apology. I just assumed, I would not be making an error like that again anytime soon. So thank you.”

  Wes was rolling his jaw over and over again. He had constructed his questions as carefully as he could. And now that Argyros was somewhat contrite, he could hope for a thorough answer.

  “You say that she was a Sub-Prime but she never told me. Why do you think that is? And how and or why did she give you her blessing?”

  “Wait before I answer that. She really told you nothing?” Argyros asked.

  “Nothing.” Wes replied.

  Argyros nodded his head. “I suspect she didn’t tell you because she couldn’t. I do not know the extent of the vow she took with Goddess Tessonia. If I knew what it was I wouldn’t tell you. I would not risk my life and I suspect she did not want to risk your life either. This is awfully rude of me and feel free to turn me down but would you be so kind as to show me your status?”

  “I don’t have a status.” Wes huffed out.

  Argyros shot forward and grabbed Wes by the neck. He lifted him up and ran his eyes all over his exposed body. He brought his gaze to Wes’s own eyes before he let him go and backed away. Argyros' face became serious.

  “Then if what you say is true, I owe you another apology.” You have so much mana coursing through you I thought you had your status already. You have the Mana of someone in their early 100’s I’d estimate.” Argyros said.

  “How can that be, I have just turned fifteen.” Wes replied.

  “No, you have the mana of someone in their hundredth Level. A hybrid build though, not a magus build. It makes sense now why you never did anything. This whole time I thought you were a bloody pacifist.” Argyros began laughing again.

  Wes had so many questions. The man across from him tortured him for the past seven days and did not bat an eye. But he was treating him so warmly now that he could not help but feel he was leading him into a trap of some kind.

  Wes asked. “How can I have the Mana of someone in the 100s?”

  Argyros shrugged his shoulders. “Boy, this whole time I thought that she kept you from me because you were some genius. Being a level 100 at your age is not unheard of. But they usually come from being spoon-fed. You however having the Mana of a level hundred already is unheard of since you do not yet have a status. You are going to die a painful death, boy.”

  “Can’t be any more painful than what you have done to me this last week.” Wes snidely replied.

  “Even with my grave error in judgement, I would still say, what you just went through was mild in comparison to what the Primes and Sub-Primes will do to you. A lot of them have plateaued and since they cannot reach the pinnacle they have made it their life's mission to create a God in their family line. It is starting to come together now why she accepted judgment so fast. My only question now is what level did you look like back then? Katara never discussed any of this with you? Do not lie to me, boy.” Argyros let his immense mana slam down on Wes to indicate that he expected the truth.

  Wes didn’t dawdle with his answer. “I swear she never told me anything.”

  Argyros was satisfied with the sincerity and tone of his words. Released his hold on Wes’s body.

  “Is Katara what you knew her as?” Wes asked.

  Argyros' mana became vivid around the moment that question left his mouth. He suffused it into a moving fluid around them both. It was nothing like the blue mana he had seen seven days prior. It was so thick, with a darker tinge and a few silver flecks here and there. He could see more and more being supplied around him until the opacity of it became as solid as a clay wall. No outside light or sound was able to push through. The only light at all came from those little silver strands in the mana. It gave Wes a very ominous chill down his spine.

  Argyros went to speak but then held his breath and bit his lip. He looked up as if to consider before talking. “This will be the only time I will say anything on the matter. You may not ask me questions. You will have to be satisfied with what I give you, do you understand?”

  Wes had no choice but to nod in agreement. He was paralyzed by the sheer output of Mana surrounding him and he wanted so dearly to know more about his sister.

  “Your sister ‘Marney’, was not really who you knew her to be. She at one point was one of the leading candidates for godhood. There is not a person alive in the higher realms who does not bear themselves or know of someone who bears the weight of her unique abilities. She however tried to use her ability on the wrong person. A person that is so far above what you know to be a god that I can’t even comprehend their power myself. My Level is 1789. And I am not even close to the top. I would be even more defenseless than you are now with me. Your sister however was born from different stuff. She had not yet reached Level 1000 before she was considered equal to most Sub-Primes. When you get as high up in levels, it is not the burden of power or your responsibility to a faction or creed that stops your ascent. It is your own personal drive. Us humans are gifted yet cursed beings. We can both achieve great things quite rapidly and simultaneously once that inner desire fades the levels stop manifesting.” Argyros chuckled to himself in reflection before continuing. “What I just put you through was in hopes of helping you manifest an achievement to harden both your spirit and Mind. Had I known that you had not awakened your Status I would not have considered doing so. I am not a particularly good seeker but even I could sense the Mana in you so close. It is why I estimated wrongly that you were a genius in hiding.” He pointed down and then around his body. “Everything that happened seven days ago was because your sister put a curse on either you or this planet. She used her body as the box holding back the stored mana. When I somehow passed one of your sister's desired outcomes her curse turned into a blessing for this planet. If it had been known that she was in fact able to use her mana still she would have gotten every single atom in this section of this galaxy annihilated.”

  Wes was well into biting his tongue and lower lip to hold himself back from interrupting but at that last part he couldn’t help himself. “Wait, explain that last part in more detail. Please?”

  Argyros looked up and then down. “You owe me in the next life, asshole.” He said while looking down. “Even I must be careful or alert the wrong seeker tied to the wrong God. But let’s just say she had to strike an accord with someone I hope you never meet. Mutual destruction was assured with this person otherwise. Well, really the destruction of thousands of galaxies if they came to battle. But I dare not say more.”

  Every word that left Argyros’ mouth pierced Wes’s skull with intrigue and frustration at his sister for never sharing this with him. He began to wonder, was that why she was always in my ass about pushing myself. Was she afraid that her enemies would become my enemies? Or did she just want to prepare me for when she would die? Or wait did she even know that she would die? Fuck this is so confusing. God Damn you Marny!”