Henry's eyes snapped open. He didn't gasp for air. He didn't thrash. He simply woke up with the sudden, jarring clarity of a system reboot. He was lying flat on his back, staring up at the glowing crystalline ceiling of his bedroom.
For a long, agonizing moment, he didn't move a muscle. He ran a rapid internal diagnostic. His heart was beating steadily. His breathing was even. He mentally commanded his system interface to open, and the familiar screen materialized instantly in his vision.
I'm alive? Scar sat up slowly, his purple eyes darting around the empty room. Confusion warred with his baseline paranoia. The last thing he remembered was the balcony. Felicity had looked at him with that terrifying, triumphant gaze, and then the world had faded to black. She had caught him perfectly in her trap. She had him completely at her mercy, her psychic grip wrapped securely around his consciousness.
So why was he still here?
Did she spare him? Did her plan to erase him fail? Was this a trick? A dream? He pinched the skin on the back of his hand. It stung sharply.
Not a dream.
Before his hyperactive mind could formulate another theory, a crisp, polite knock echoed from his bedroom door.
Scar's hand instinctively twitched toward the inventory where his dagger rested. "Who is it?" he called out, his voice perfectly steady.
The door opened just a crack, revealing the impeccably dressed form of Walter, the estate's head butler. "Good evening, Young Master," the older man said, bowing his head slightly. "Dinner is served. Lady Felicity requests your presence in the main dining hall."
Scar stared at the butler, his mind spinning. Dinner? What's going on?
"I'll be right down, Walter," he managed to say.
"Very good, sir." Walter closed the door silently.
Scar immediately threw his legs over the edge of the bed and walked into the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and splashed freezing water onto his face, gripping the edges of the marble sink.
He looked toward the bathroom window. He could summon his speed right now, shatter the glass, and be miles away before the shattered pieces even hit the snow below. The urge to escape was practically burning in his veins.
But he stopped. His tactical mind overrode his survival instinct.
Think, he commanded himself. If she truly wanted to erase me, I would already be gone. She had me unconscious and completely vulnerable. She could have gotten rid of me, but she didn't.
Running away now would not only show fear, but it would leave him completely in the dark. He needed to know her endgame. Curiosity and a cold, calculated need for information anchored his feet to the floor.
He grabbed a towel, dried his face, and adjusted his clothes. "Let's see what you really want," he murmured.
He left the room and followed the winding, opulent corridors down to the main dining hall. The room was illuminated by a grand chandelier of enchanted ice that cast a warm, ambient glow over the long mahogany table.
Felicity was already seated at the head of the table, dressed in an elegant, dark evening gown. She looked every bit the regal queen she was. The table was set for two, laden with a feast fit for royalty: roasted venison glazed in a rich, dark sauce, a vibrant array of crisp salads, and warm, steaming bread.
"Ah, Henry," Felicity smiled warmly as he entered the room. "Please, come. Take a seat."
Scar walked over and took the chair to her immediate right. He kept his posture relaxed, but his muscles were coiled tight beneath his clothes.
Felicity smoothly picked up a silver serving fork, transferring a generous cut of the roasted venison onto his porcelain plate, followed by a serving of salad. She then picked up a heavy crystal decanter and poured a rich, dark red wine into her glass, swirling it gently.
"Emily won't be joining us tonight," Felicity remarked casually, taking a delicate sip of her wine. "She refuses to come out of her room. She is still quite shaky from the whole incident. Poor thing. Give her a few days, she'll come around."
Scar didn't say a word. He didn't touch his silverware. He just sat there, his eyes locked onto her face, watching her every micro-expression.
Felicity set her glass down and picked up her fork, cutting into her meat. She paused, noticing his intense, unblinking stare. She glanced at his untouched plate, then back up to his eyes.
A playful, almost wicked smirk touched the corners of her lips. "What's wrong, darling? Is the venison not to your liking?" She leaned forward slightly, her sapphire eyes glinting with dark amusement. "Or perhaps you'd prefer to eat me instead?"
Scar didn't bite at the joke. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with his dagger. He dropped the "Henry" facade entirely.
"Why am I alive?" Scar asked, his voice a low, cold rasp. "Why didn't you erase me?"
Felicity stopped moving. The playful amusement vanished from her face, replaced by a profound, chilling serenity. She carefully placed her knife and fork down on the edges of her plate and folded her hands gracefully on the table.
She looked him dead in the eyes and smiled—a genuine, knowing smile.
"Because, my dear," Felicity said softly, the weight of her words echoing in the vast dining hall. "I never planned to erase you from the start."
Scar raised a brow, the gears in his mind grinding to a halt. "What? Then why'd you say—" He paused, the pieces suddenly falling into place. A terrifying realization washed over him. "Wait a minute... this was your plan all along."
Ever since arriving in this strange world, Scar had only ever taken over Henry's body in brief bursts, strictly during extreme life-or-death situations. But yesterday, he hadn't forcefully taken permanent control out of malice or an overwhelming zeal to survive. He had taken over purely because of the looming, terrifying threat of having his consciousness erased by Felicity.
"The only reason you said you were going to erase me was just so I would take over in an attempt to escape," he pointed out, his eyes narrowing. "You lured me out using my fear of being eliminated."
"Yes. I did," Felicity admitted casually, taking a slow sip of her dark wine. "And it seemed to work quite well. Maybe too well." She chuckled, a soft, chiming sound that echoed in the vast hall. "I can't believe you were going to leave immediately."
Scar frowned. "I wasn't going to just sit back and wait for my consciousness to be erased."
Felicity let out a chortle. "Well, then it's a good thing I bumped into you last night," she said. "You could have been long gone by now."
Scar's frown deepened, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists beneath the mahogany table. "I should have known all along. You were never concerned about me being a threat or hurting anyone. You didn't care about all that," he stated, his voice dripping with venom. "You never wanted to erase me... you just wanted to control me."
Felicity burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Oh, my, that's quite the accusation," she chuckled, her eyes sparkling with genuine amusement as she set her crystal glass down. "Why do you think i want to control you?"
Scar furrowed his brows, infuriated by her flippancy. "Why else would you keep me here?" he snapped. "Why use all sorts of mind games to get me to stay? I know you put all those thoughts in my head. I know you messed with my mind to subconsciously keep me from leaving, no matter how hard I tried to. It's why I kept staying, thinking you were watching me. When it was all just an illusion. An induced paranoia you intentionally set up."
Felicity's laughter faded into a soft sigh. She reached out, delicately adjusting a piece of silverware. "On that account, I am guilty. I did compel you to stay," she muttered. "But even that couldn't stop you. Earlier, when you headed out to leave for good… you subconsciously broke my compulsion. Only a handful of people in the world have managed to do that."
Scar scoffed, leaning back in his chair. "Should I be flattered?"
Felicity smiled, though her eyes remained sharp. "No. But it was impressive. And unexpected," she said. "When you broke my compulsion, I was surprised. I had to rush back home immediately to put you down myself."
Scar took in the admission, a cold smirk touching his lips. "So much for not invading minds without permission, huh?"
"I had no choice," Felicity replied, her tone perfectly calm, yet laced with a razor-sharp edge. "You tried to kill my daughter. And just when I already lost a son."
Scar raised a brow. "So, you knew all along that I… that Henry wasn't your son," he snickered darkly. "And you knew right from the start that your son was dead, replaced by two new consciousnesses."
Felicity nodded slowly. "Yes. I did."
"Yet you did nothing," Scar noted, his tone laced with dark amusement. "Why?"
Felicity took a deep, steadying breath. "Because there was nothing to be done," she said softly. "Everything that has happened up until now… the whole event that led to my son's death and your reincarnation into his body, was no coincidence. It had all been foretold. Predicted."
Scar shook his head in absolute disbelief. "You're trying to tell me that you knew all of this was going to happen? That your son would die in a pit, and I would take over his body?" He scoffed loudly. "That sounds ridiculous. Do I look like a fool to you?"
Felicity sighed, the weight of a grieving mother settling onto her shoulders. "I know you have no reason to believe me, but I speak the truth," she said.
Scar wasn't convinced. The tactical survivor in him rejected the concept of unavoidable fate. "Okay, so if you already knew your 'only' son was going to die and his body would be taken over, why didn't you try to stop it? Why didn't you do something? How can you call yourself a mother if you couldn't protect your own son even after knowing that his life was in danger, huh?" he scoffed, leaning forward aggressively. "So you just accepted fate and subjected your son to death? What kind of parent does that?!"
Felicity clenched her fist beneath the table. In a fraction of a second, her expression cycled through mild amusement, to profound sorrow, to burning anger, before finally reverting to her serene, unreadable mask. "It was his destiny. His death was necessary for your arrival into his body. I… I couldn't do anything to stop it."
"Or maybe you didn't try," Scar spat sharply.
Felicity shook her head, a rare flicker of defensiveness breaking her composure. "No, I… you don't understand."
"Oh, but I do," Scar scoffed, his eyes blazing. "You are a woman who pretends to care, who pretends to be loving. When in reality, you're just a manipulative mind witch who's selfish and doesn't care about the lives of even her own children. You probably even wanted him dead anyway. After all, he never liked you. He never saw you as his mother. Which is why I think this story about all of it being 'predicted' is just a coverup. I think it was you who—"
"Enough!"
Felicity's voice boomed through the dining hall with the force of a detonating bomb.
The sheer intensity of her aura slammed into the room. The entire crystal castle shuddered. The heavy mahogany table trembled, the grand ice chandeliers rattled violently above them, and the ambient lights flickered as if suffocated by her presence. For the first time since he had met her, Felicity Myers was truly, terrifyingly angry.
"I will not sit here and be accused of murdering my own son, and by a boy who almost took the life of my daughter!" she snarled, her eyes piercing straight through his soul. "You have no right to lecture me about the value of life. Yes, I have killed people, but you have taken far more innocent lives than I can count."
Scar froze. The breath caught in his throat. He was entirely short of words. She had struck at a sensitive topic.
Felicity scoffed, her voice dropping back to a lethal whisper. "Or am I wrong? Were the memories I saw not yours? All those people you killed. All those children you orphaned," she muttered, her gaze unrelenting. "And yet you sit here lecturing me about life. How preposterous."
Scar clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms. "You had no right… looking into my memories."
Felicity frowned, unyielding. "And you had no right accusing me of killing my own son. Not especially when it is his body you currently inhabit," she said sharply. "If anything, you should be grateful. If he didn't die, do you think you would be alive right now? Huh?"
Scar was silent. Beneath the terrifying power of her anger, he could see the raw, bleeding pain in Felicity's eyes. His words had deeply, genuinely hurt her. The heavy silence stretched between them, the flickering lights slowly stabilizing as her aura retracted.
Finally, Scar swallowed his pride and spoke.
"I never asked to be reincarnated into the body of your son," Scar said quietly, the fury gone from his voice. "And I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was only curious as to why you would accommodate me. Accommodate us. No parent would be so kind if they found out or knew their son was dead and another person had taken over the body. It just seemed kind of suspicious."
Felicity took a deep, lingering breath. The chilling pressure in the room vanished, and her expression smoothed back into her usual calm, slightly amused face.
"Which is why you should have allowed me to finish," she said softly. "Of course I wasn't happy when I found out my son was going to die. But there was nothing I could do about it. It had been predestined."
Scar raised a brow. "By who?"
Felicity smiled thinly. "By the universe. And by logical necessity," she stated.
Scar looked at her, entirely bewildered. "Care to be less cryptic?"
Felicity sighed, gesturing vaguely to the empty air. "It had been ordained even before I was born. That my son would be the one to inherit the legacy of Mercury. Or, as you may call it... the Celestial Speed System."
Scar's eyes widened in genuine shock. "You know about the system?"
Of course, she had read his mind, but the way she spoke implied something much deeper. She didn't just learn about it from his memories. She spoke as if she had known about its existence long before he ever fell into this world.
"How?" he demanded.
Felicity exhaled, steepling her fingers. "It's a long story. Why don't I start from the beginning."
Scar nodded slowly. "I'm all ears."
"It all began with a cataclysmic event known as the Great Schism," Felicity began, her voice taking on a hypnotic, storytelling cadence. "After Zeus, leader of the Olympian gods, went mad and joined forces with the Titans in efforts to destroy the world… chaos descended. The universe was reset and divided into a vast collection of parallel worlds we now call Realms."
"So the universe became a multiverse?" Scar asked, his mind absorbing the cosmic scale of the lore.
Felicity nodded. "Yes, indeed. Each Realm has its own Earth, its own solar system, its own similar but uniquely different timeline," she explained. "But most importantly, each Realm had its own set of deities. The gods of the once-singular universe were divided, allocated in small groups to govern over each of these Realms. Our realm… Realm One, was home to five of the most powerful gods. Athena, the Goddess of War. Kyberia, the Goddess of Technology. Triton, the God of the Sea. Freya, the Goddess of Magic. And Hermes… the God of Speed, and the one whose legacy you now hold."
Scar processed the information carefully, weaving the threads together. "And how exactly did you know that I hold it?"
Felicity smiled warmly. "Like I said before, every event up until now has been predestined. I was already aware of your coming long before you arrived."
Scar scoffed, skepticism bleeding back into his tone. "So you mean to tell me that it had been written somewhere that a boy would reincarnate into the body of your dead son? And that boy would be the one to inherit the powers of the God of Speed?"
Felicity nodded solemnly. "Yes. I was told that Henry Myers would be the next God of Speed. I just didn't think it'd be a Henry Myers who wasn't actually my son." Her gaze dropped to her wine glass for a fraction of a second. "Yes, I already knew my son was going to die, but I didn't know when, or how it would happen. That was the painful part. Knowing it was going to prevail but not knowing when or how to stop it. I did try… I did everything I could to keep him out of harm's way, but it was all pointless. I still lost him anyway."
Scar stared at her for a long moment, studying the absolute sincerity in her eyes. Yet, the paranoia was hardwired into him. He wasn't going to believe her that easily.
"And why should I trust a word you say?" he demanded. "How do I know this isn't another one of your mind games to trick me into staying?"
Felicity exhaled slowly. "You don't have to trust me. I'm not asking you to. All I'm asking is that you let me protect you. Let me care for you. Both of you."
Scar scoffed. "I don't need your protection. Neither do I want your care. I'm not your son. I might have his face, but I'm not him. And I refuse to let my life be dictated by you."
Felicity chuckled, completely unfazed by his defiance. "So what then? You want to leave?" she asked.
"I don't see any reason to stay," Scar replied coldly.
Felicity sighed. "I'm no longer a threat to you. I understand you wanted to leave before out of fear that I wanted to erase you. But I already explained to you that it wasn't my intention."
Scar shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't trust the words of the woman who mind-controlled me into staying. What's stopping you from doing it again?"
Felicity sighed softly, a touch of melancholy in her voice. "In truth? Nothing. But I have morals, okay? I don't invade the minds of the people I care for. I only invaded yours because you left me no choice." She looked up at him, her gaze piercing. "And sure, I might seem like a bad person. A crazy old lady with issues. A villain. But if becoming a villain means I get to protect those I care about? Then so be it."
Scar stared at her, genuinely conflicted. He didn't know what to do. She seemed so intensely keen on making him stay. But why?
"Why do you care so much?" he asked, his guard dropping just a fraction. "You said yourself I'm not a good person. Heck, I even tried to kill your daughter. So why would you still want me to live with you? What do you really want from me?"
Felicity's expression softened completely. "I only wish to protect you."
Scar shook his head in frustration. "You keep saying that. Protect me from what?"
Felicity sighed, the weight of the world returning to her shoulders. "I didn't tell you the whole story," she said gravely. "The truth is, we're all in danger. Everyone in this Realm. Most especially you."
Scar frowned, his combat instincts flaring. "Danger from what?"
"Keraunos," Felicity replied, the name hanging in the air like a curse. "A cosmic being that was strong enough to wipe out all the gods of fifty different realms. Including ours."