How I died

After a moment, the purple man that had been standing next to the small blue woman suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

A few minutes later, a tall man around 6 feet, with blue skin, and the same piercing golden eyes as the little girl appeared in the opening where Grant was currently laying.

Seeing the man appear, the little girl glared at him for a few seconds to express her continual displeasure at his recent actions.

The real Loki couldn't help but recoil in fear when he saw her looking at him.

"I'm sorry, alright Amelia? You don't need to keep reminding me that I screwed up with every gesture and look!"

Amelia simply snorted and looked away in a huff.

"You say you're sorry, but you always do this! You need to learn to control your impulses! Stupid brother."

Loki wanted to argue, but as strong as he was, his sister was far stronger.

He had fought with his sister on many occasions and despite her small stature she was a beast in battle.

With her Path and subsequent skills, it was basically impossible for anyone to harm her unless they had some special skills or were far stronger than she was.

"I promise that I will not make the same mistake again. Now, where are father and mother? They should have shown up by now..."

Amelia could only shake her head at Loki's empty promise. She had heard those words many times before.

When he asked about their parents though, she thought about it for a second before looking around, "You're right.. where are they? Maybe they found something interesting and are investigating.

Or maybe they ran into other indigenous people and are working on a cooperation deal?

Why don't you go look for them. I will handle things here. This.. human I think they are called.. should be waking up soon."

Loki readily agreed, he was still annoyed at the man on the ground for treating him the way he had and did not want to be around when he woke up.

After Loki disappeared down one of the streets adjacent to where they were standing, Amelia focused on the cocoon of golden light.

Phoenix, had remained vigilant this entire time but he could tell simply from the pressure they exuded that he was absolutely no match for them.

When the real body of Loki had appeared, a shiver had run down his spine.

*****

Grant, whose body was recovering at a rapid rate, was lost in the darkness of his mind.

It felt like he was caught in an endless void.

He was in a corporeal spirit state which mimicked his real body perfectly. But no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't stop himself from floating deeper and deeper into the darkness.

At least, he thought it was deeper. Since their was no distinctions in the darkness around him, it was hard to tell which way he was drifting.

Aside from thinking about Ally, the kids, and his family, Grant was scared he would spend eternity simply floating in the void.

It had been this way for what felt like hours already and he had grown increasingly more scared.

Suddenly however, a large man who appeared to be hundreds of feet tall appeared in front of him and he suddenly stopped his aimless falling.

The giant man simply stood there observing Grant when suddenly an invisible force pulled Grant up towards the giants face so that their eyes were relatively level with each other.

"Please don't eat me!" was Grant's first reaction.

The giant man suddenly looked at Grant with one eyebrow raised before he suddenly burst out laughing. After a few minutes, he finally gathered himself and spoke.

"Young man, I cannot and will not eat your consciousness."

"My consciousness? Wait, is this still within my body?! So I'm not dead yet?!"

"Aye, you are not dead. What you see before me is my true form! It was my ultimate key to victory!"

Grant felt like he had been struck by lighting when he heard the final sentence. "Maximus?!"

"As you say young lad, I am Maximus. The Path has shrunk me down to be relative to your people when it comes to body stature.

But that doesn't matter right now, we are running out of time. Someone used the Cocoon of Light skill on you and you are being healed at an ever increasing rate. You will soon awake.

I must tell you something before you do wake up...

Don't trust Sherlock."

"I'm alive?! Someone saved me?? Who? I didn't sense anyone else as I was lying on the ground?

Wait, what do you mean don't trust Sherlock? He's done nothing but help me up until now!

Why are you telling me not to trust him all of a sudden? And why should I trust you?"

The giant could only shake his head, "I don't mean 'Sherlock' per-say, I mean the entity that is Sherlock. Each Guide is independent of each other, but they are all part of a whole at the same time.

That whole has to be something or someone in its own right, doesn't it? And something or someone with that much knowledge at their fingertips has to have an ulterior motive, right? Why go through all that trouble to help random people across The Path's planets? It just doesn't make sense.

And why the strongest individuals? Because they get the most data? Probably, but they aren't collecting the data you probably think they are.

Plus, on my planet, I was the one with the Guide. I have experience in this area."

Grant found himself lost in thought. It made sense in a way. Sherlock had said "The knowledge I possess is a byproduct of the experiences that previous iterations of me have experienced with their users.

In a sense you could say that I am a reincarnation of sorts or more accurately just a clone of the original Guide. Each and every iteration of my existence operates with a shared consciousness or databank, if you will." which meant that he openly admitted to being a copy of an existing entity.

So who was this entity?

Sherlock had also discussed a creator, who was the creator? Was it The Path? Then who created The Path? It had to be impossible for something like The Path to exist naturally.

And if it was natural, it wouldn't use something like The Flash, since that something born on Earth, or at least that was what he believed.

While Grant was pouring over theories and ideas, Maximus knew they were running out of time. He could feel Grant's consciousness slowly resisting his hold on it as it tried to return to his body.

"One more thing Grant. Do not under any circumstances, integrate completely with Sherlock.

As you grow stronger, the option will become available to you but you must not ever, EVER, accept the integration."

The idea of integrating with his guide sounded appealing in some aspects but terrifying in others, so he asked why. Maximus' answer, was not what he was expecting.

"Because that was how I died."