Chapter 218: Remember Me

*Time skip to the day of the main tournament*

3rd Person POV

Phineas, or Finn because Perseus is too lazy to call his full first name, overwhelmed his opponent as the opening act. And despite the hate for his cult, he is the favorite to win the tournament overall, which is a bad look for both the races and all the nations, no one wants him to win, but it will be a bad look to remove him without proper reasons.

Perseus saw Phineas giving him a nod after staring in my direction while he was among the thousands of live audience. If Perseus makes it past Rolan, there should be about one more opponent that he deems as tough competition and he will meet Phineas in the semifinals, if he lost there, he'll fight for 3rd place as the opening fight on the day of the finals.

As for the Russo situation, he survived the poison as he managed to get in contact with a hero whose holy blood was used for transfusion as he was drained of his own continuously much to Perseus' displeasure as he didn't think the heroes would actually go through with that, but he can somewhat understand the move since if Russo wins, Tehios will be an avid supporter.

Even if he manages to get the antidote on time, he should be weakened a lot, but Russo is only about 1 level weaker than he was and is predicted to recover around 95% of his original health, 100% if he continues the heroes' blood treatment, but it seems he's more than satisfied with his condition and chooses to not to go through it any further.

Rolan got into the arena with gleaming golden 10-star level equipment, his armor, sword, and staff got his family crest and everything to show off his wealth and status. Perseus, on the other hand, just had on black and dark blue clothing with some plating atop the fabric at some part of his body like his knees, shin, elbow...etc.

And the referee now brought over a large golden bell that floated in the air as they sent Reiner over to hit it and announce the start of the match, the crowd was silent as Reiner approaches.

Perseus POV

I complained to their committee that I'll be essentially fighting several of Rolan at once as his resonance ability with the other heroes was unfair, but I was told off as they said that not all fights were fair, I possess an ability that Finn deemed only a few chosen one can have while being the lord of the blue rose, I knew I was going to be rejected anyway, but I just wanted to make my fight easier.

With all that gear, it won't be wrong to say that he's on the verge of being a 10 star, still won't even compare to the demon lord though, but...I got a trump card of my own, hopefully, it'll scare the other contestants a bit.

Well if I'm fighting

*Flashback*

Loki POV

"Run!" I shouted to Alex and Brie as I mustered up the rest of my vocal cords to shout

I'm surrounded, and I'm too injured and dazed to summon any illusions to save my life here, I can summon enough to hide for a brief moment, but I'll be too tired to do anything after. I got the gun out and I contemplated on whether I should shoot myself, I don't want to go back, anything but there.

It hurts, everything hurts, everything was so meaningless...life out here, even in hiding, I felt some joy and excitement, but death is also empty, I don't know what to do.

"Don't do it!" Lucifer shouted from inside the barrier

He created a wall of light to separate himself from the other man inside the barrier, and due to my instinct, I went to the barrier, making it easier for my enemies to surround me better as the closer I got, the lesser chance I have to escape. He then enclosed me in a barrier made of light as well as he cast it from the inside like some sort of wizard.

"You'll suffer, probably even worse than before, but don't do it." Lucifer said "Don't worry about me, that guy will stay out for a while, so I'll just give you my last words. Those 2 will realize that you're a goner and escape, and in the worse case, one will get captured or killed, as for the other, they'll find help, and make this whole thing public, until then, you can be saved."

His voice was muffled and I was losing more and more blood by the second, my jaw isn't healing, even with my mutation, I'd lost too much blood to be able to focus.

"Just be patient," he continued his ramble "And it'll all be worth it, this world isn't as grey and black as it seems, maybe someday, you'll know what I mean even if you don't believe in it now. You'll have to endure it till then, and when you escape, they can no longer touch you, you can do whatever the hell you want. If you want to be rich, and they'll give you money, if you want revenge, you have time to prepare yourself while they can only watch.

"The world may have given up on me, but it still hasn't for you, you're young, maybe one day, you'll get to see your parents again and they'll be better than mine was." he then looked back to see that his barrier is cracking and turned back "Just endure it, it'll take only a couple more years at best, I promise you. I'm gonna die here, so just live for my sake, and when you get out, maybe burn some fried hash browns in my name, I've always loved those as a kid."

The barrier then cracked with the man on the other side turning into some giant monster, a monster so huge that even skyscrapers look smaller in comparison. A giant with serpentine tentacles for legs, hundreds and hundreds of serpents growing from its shoulder as it spewed fire from its mouth. It also had large draconic wings on its back with scaly reptilian textured hair.

There was fire behind him, everything was burning, and there are many voices, loud and soft, all with different tone and pitches, some hurt your ears while some tried their best to pleasure them, it all came from the dozens of heads on its large muscular body.

"Loki...we may not be great friends, but if I meet you in another life, I'll hope that we be brothers." Lucifer said as his hair started to darken into black and the light around me crumbled "Just remember me, that's all I can ask for."

'When it happens, you'll know.' he told me when he briefed me about his powers 'I can sacrifice my overwhelming speed for power.'