58 A Talk with Loki (2)

(General POV)

Loki pursed her lips as Lyze wound the blindfold back on again, her eyes carrying a far away look in them as she pondered and recalled exactly what she had just seen.

And the thing was...she couldn't see!

She could not see the bottom of that great power Lyze was destined to inherit. When he finally did...he would undoubtedly be the most powerful being to have ever strode across the mortal and upper world. The was simply no way to describe the entity she'd just met other than complete confusion.

Yet that bewilderment was accompanied by a powerful sense of foreboding, an unspoken promise of something she couldn't even conceive. Loki was absolutely sure now that her brethren would in their majority not tolerate something like this existing.

In fact, had she been in their shoes it would be the same. Letting a mortal roam alive across Genkai while he acted as a vessel and improvised physical form for a being that could wipe out her kind with probably a single intention? Even now she had half a mind to turn him in now, and let Ouranos nip it in the bud before Lyze became powerful enough to wield this power in its entirety.

But that was her fear talking.

For her Arcanum had become completely inaccessible to her before Chaos. Even though the gods would seal their powers when they descended to the lower realms, they could still call upon it if they wished, the only drawback being the consequences they'd have to face after it was over.

But Loki felt her connection to her Arcanum just disappear, like her divine power itself was afraid and had scurried back into the furthest reaches of heaven in a desperate attempt to flee from this entity.

If Chaos's mere presence was enough to do that to her, what would happen when its true powers came into play?

But the bigger question was...if that was the way her own power betrayed her in the face of this fifth dimensional entity, then what about Nekros who existed out of all dimensions altogether? At the thought of potentially meeting that particular being, Loki had a sudden urge to just dust her hands of it all and go straight back to heaven.

But again that was her fear talking.

Loki's sphere was not love, but she held much of it for all her children and Lyze was no different. Yes, she would admit that he was particularly endearing to her thanks to all the fame and good image he'd brought her with his insane achievements and his absurd endeavours.

The mere fact that one singular battle with the current strongest adventurer had boosted his stats all the way to S rank, not to mention gaining another skill on the way spoke volumes of what was still yet to come in the future.

But Lyze was beloved to her, and so far he had shown no malicious intentions with this power. In fact it was quite the opposite; he was willing to actually part with it!

"Things like magic and other supernatural forces do not exist in the original world I came from." He'd said. "The laws that shape our reality back there demand that such things do not exist. I'm almost 100% percent certain that as soon as I go back there, I will lose all my powers and I will become an ordinary mortal again...but I'm not bothered with that. I'm content with having no superpowers in my life. I think they've done enough for me already."

The part of her heart that loved him encouraged her to protect him instead. To help him regain what he'd lost. In her opinion, he was making the ultimate sacrifice anyway, so the only person really losing in this situation was him. Thus Loki resolved to help him in whatever way she could to help him realise his objectives that he'd shown her with that mysterious power. And she would begin by concealing his secret.

But there was a problem. Loki was not a goddess who could see souls. But if that thing was living in his body, then she was beyond certain it was visible to those who could see life in its true form.

A silver-haired goddess came to mind, one with an infamous and unusually powerful ability to look upon the mortal souls themselves. Loki could probably achieve the same thing if she used her Arcanum but Freya had once resided over the passing of souls into the afterlife.

It was given that the same ability she would use to judge those souls would be one of the few powers gods were able to smuggle down from heaven. If it could not be explained as merely a part of her nature to see souls in their true form, then simply the power of her obsession for playing with them would be reason enough.

And if Freya could see Lyze's soul which Loki had no doubt she could, then it stood to reason she could see Chaos as well.

Now Loki was hit with a dilemma. The only reason that Freya, the patron of the most powerful Familia in the world, would want a private audience with a mere level 2 would only be if she knew what secrets he was hiding. And going off of Freya's track record, she would probably use those secrets as a hostage against him to make him join her as clearly her charm failed to work.

A charm powerful enough to cloud the minds of other gods and goddesses yet Lyze had resisted. Loki now knew the reason why.

But this was where Freya's obsessiveness would probably be a good thing. The goddess of love simply relished in collecting rare and special specimens and Lyze would be the jewel in her Familia given his powers, his origins and his many natures. Therefore she would do everything to make sure she kept him for herself, and would not dare risk ever losing him.

Basically, Freya would not rat him out. Otherwise she'd be deprived of what she sought. Freya was also not the petty kind that carried the attitude of 'If I can't have him, then no one can!'. No, that harpy would not stop until she had her hands on him and then perhaps when he was older, in an intimate embrace with her. Even if it took her all of eternity!

But just because Freya would not snitch, it didn't mean that her presence would not make things difficult anyway. If Lyze refused her, she would not stop coming for him, and as Ouranos regularly dealt with Freya, his attention would be drawn if she started acting out line. The old man had a knack for getting exactly what information he wanted and if he came snooping around, Loki was not confident she could protect Lyze thereafter.

Loki clenched her fist as she came to a hard truth. If she threw everything out of the window, fame, interest, benefits and profits from the continued investment in Lyze's future and instead focused on not just his safety but hers and her entire Familia...the best choice would be to let him go if Freya wanted him, for his sake more than anyone else's.

What was worse, Lyze seemed to realise this too. And far from the petulant behaviour he'd displayed over the last few weeks, he just seemed accepting of everything now. Those that were beyond his control, he simply went with the flow now.

She could take solace in the fact that the silver haired goddess would have to still wait another 11 months before Loki released as an adventurer could only change Familia after a year's passing at minimum by Orario's laws. But still, Loki would have to let go of who had undoubtedly had become her favourite child. Ais barely reacted to her, and Lyze was the only one that seemed to 'play' with her, so it stood to reason that Loki had come to treasure him most.

It didn't make the bitter truth less sour to chew on.

"Hey Loki? Mind telling me what this 'Perseverance' skill does for me now?" He asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"It's a stat boosting skill." She replied. "As long as you possess the will and strength of heart to continue fighting against a more powerful opponent, your physical attacks will not weaken with tiredness, injury or fatigue. Your strength will remain constant until your stats are forced to grow in order to compensate for the lacking strength. Side effect is that once you stop using it, all the strain your body would have had to go through to raise those stats that high falls upon you entirely in a single moment." Loki shook her head.

"What are you giving me that look for?" Lyze asked.

"It's just that all the skills you seem to be getting are double edged swords and they also possess the potential to kill you if you push it too far. 'Overdraft' restores lost Mind by taking away from your Vitality, and now 'Perseverance' will make your physical stats grow for the duration of a tough battle only for it to kick you into a coma at best and oblivion at worst once the battle is over. Instead of feeling the strain and the pain of becoming stronger gradually, you experience it all at once in a singular moment which overloads your senses and knocks you unconscious."

"Well now that you mention it, my head did feel like its was boiling and splitting apart right before I passed out."

"My point exactly." Loki put her hands on her hips. "The good thing is though that as both are survival skills, they passively work to make sure that they restore you to good condition. The healer believed it would take you a week before you woke up, yet those skills helped heal both your body and Mind-pool faster. You really must be so hell bent on becoming stronger if you've actually swayed the Falna into giving you exclusively skills that will help with that ambition."

"After everything you've just seen so far, does any of that surprise you?"

"...No. It doesn't. It only helps things make sense." Loki sighed. "Listen Lyze, had you been like every other adventurer, I would've fought tooth and nail to protect you. But your connection to Nekros and Chaos changes things. Freya id probably the only other god that knows and so far she's done nothing which indicates she has no wish to expose you. However, if the others find out what you are the they will be gunning for your blood. They will not stop until they see you done away with."

"If fear is what drives them to act, would they not stop to consider what killing me would do for them if my master decides to come after them for it? The two of us don't exactly have the best relationship but I provide him entertainment. And if there is one thing I know about him, it's that if you take his entertainment away, he'll take your entire omniverse away. Are they going to risk that?"

"Fear makes everybody do irrational things Lyze. But more than that is arrogance. There are certain hierarchies among the gods that would look upon your existence as an affront even if they didn't know about Chaos."

"Why?"

"Lyze, you are the Apostle of a Transcendental. Even as you are now, that would make your status even higher than the Primordials, and those old farts truly are are full of themselves. Ouranos would be the most mellow of them but even he would not like your continued existence simply because of the shadow it would cast on his image."

"I see."

Loki sighed and to his surprise hugged him tightly.

"I don't want to let you go Lyzie." She said. "But if Freya wants you, there's no way I can keep her away without others getting involved and then it will be all over for you. I hate this as much as I know you hate it as well. But it will only be for now, until you become strong enough to wield that incredible power waiting for you."

Lyze pulled away and looked at her.

"But there are still 11 months until I would be allowed to leave. Could I not simply just reach the needed level in that time alone?"

Loki gave him a sad smile. Her personality had done a complete 180 after he'd showed her Chaos. It was really a little unnerving. He was used to the Loki that kept pulling off pranks, massaging her non-existent chest and overall just being childishly annoying. Not this motherly Loki that seemed to be so pained in the realisation that for his own safety she may have to let go of him, despite him having only been her child for a month. Was this the side of her that audiences couldn't see on screen?

"What level would you need to be?"

"Level 10 by my estimations."

Loki patted his head. "There has never been a level 10 in history. Even if you are able to someday accomplish what every other adventurer has been vying for over a period of a thousand years, as amazing as you are I doubt you could make it in less than a year."

"You know me Loki." Lyze cocked his head. "Saying that you doubt me only makes me more determined to prove you wrong."

She chuckled. "You're welcome to try. Just don't kill yourself. Tell you what, if you reach level 10 before you're at least 20 years old, I'll marry you."

Lyze's brow dropped as all amusement drowned from his face.

"Really? You'd make that kind of wager over something like this?"

"Just a bit of fun Lyzie. I can't see anything in the dungeon that could make you level 10 before then."

"That's not something to be called 'fun', Loki." Lyze smirked. "But tell you what, since you doubt me so much, I'll accept your challenge."

"What!?" She exclaimed.

"You heard me. I'm going to hold you to that now. I'm going to speed-run my way to level 10 just for the pleasure of seeing you look like a washboard in a wedding dress!"

She pounced him and pulled at his hair.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO KEEP MY CHEST OUT OF IT!"

"It's what you get for making something so childish out of something as serious as committing to marriage."

"Grrr." Loki rubbed her fists into either side of his head as her teeth became shark-like.

He felt nothing though as he stared down at his stats sheet. He didn't believe that 'Perseverance' was entirely responsible for stat growth like this. Didn't seem like a coincidence either that it appeared around the same time he put the chainmail on, and furthermore having effects similar to that of the artifact.

There was still that underlying reason, the one Nekros refused to tell him yet told him at the same time that it was obvious to see. Sure he'd burned out his Mind-pool more than enough times and he'd suffered so much damage to his body, it wasn't a surprise that magic and endurance were maxed out. But what of the others?

Did flying around increase agility? He'd improved his fighting style a lot by fighting Ottar and he found more rhythm to his fighting style as he tried to mesh swordplay and magic together, so dexterity going up wasn't a surprise.

He was by no means complaining. At the rate he was going, it was possible that he'd probably have to have another tussle with Ottar or an adventurer with similar power. Or perhaps he should continue training to kill Goliath with a singular strike like he'd aimed. Either paths would surely be to bump up his stats to maximum so he could level up to 3.

Whether he decided to marry Loki or not, Lyze was dead set on reaching level 10 as soon as possible. And when he did, he would leave this world with its residents knowing that there would never be an adventurer like him ever again. As much as he cared for going home, he'd be sure to leave his mark on more than just Ottar's face.

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