Surviving the Death Hunt-Chapter 80: Possibility

"With these legs, I can’t do much even if I wanted to. I have no option but to sit back and watch you guys put your lives on the line for Emma. The least I could do is be present at the arena but I’m not too sure about that either. I can’t run if things ever go wrong."

In room 266, Julien and Purple had taken one bed, sitting across from Scar on the other, his elbows propped on his thighs and chin resting in his fists.

For a moment, he was lost in thought. Asking Arthur about the Supreme Council’s plans for the Epic Competition was out of the question, it was a day away and that wasn’t the kind of thing Arthur would give up, but Scar wanted something.

Two things were sitting wrong with him. The first: he might never get the chance to fight Joel unless someone interfered from the inside. The second: Purple had told him to finish Joel off and clear the arena as fast as he could.

Honest words. Noble, even. Uncharacteristic of her, same as it had been these days. But she’d handed him the Vey family badge. Her affection and trust, pressed into his palm. After that, he’d stopped being surprised by her.

Simple enough, on paper. Get Joel early, before the competition ran away from him, fight it out, and be gone from the arena before anything had the chance to go sideways.

Hmph.

"What exactly do you think would happen? I know you already have your theories about what the Supreme Council and V’s alliances are planning."

Julien asked with a condescending tone.

No offense crossed her face. Purple sat with it for a moment, something moving behind her eyes, then let out a slow breath and spoke.

"I have no idea why I’m saying this but for some reason, it’s heavy in my throat."

Well...

"I’m just certain of one thing. The Kugo clan has no intention of cooperating with anyone but on the surface, they have to pretend they are.

"I wasn’t sure of this but judging by the fact that Julien encountered Mike with the Heart family’s bandits, I am certain they want me dead. Which brings me to one thing...

"The Kugo clan’s main purpose of being in alliance with the Supreme Council is for good name and information. They know for certain that with Aina Zheng in the Supreme Council, there’s no way they’d get enough recognition after V is killed. And that brings to me my second theory that the Kugo clan is in alliance with V’s alliance as well."

The room grew grim for a moment.

"Think about it. A clan that’s on the verge of collapse and all of a sudden, an incident appears that might help you get revenge on the person who brought the clan to its current state and also raise the clan again.

"This isn’t a victory that the Kugo clan will share with anyone. They want V to die by their blade alone and with that, they will get all the glory. They will be recognized as heroes of mankind."

Julien grimaced.

"But isn’t this the same proposal you gave them? So they want to use your advice but don’t want to share the glory with you? That’s pure evil."

Julien and Purple’s voices filled the room. Scar wasn’t really in it. He was somewhere else, turning the pieces over, and the more he did, the sharper the Kugo clan’s decision came into focus.

"This means, the Kugo clan wants to help V survive the traps the Supreme Council has set for V during the Epic Competition. The V alliance will be glad to have the Kugo clan even though they know they are enemies just for the information but in the end, the Kugo clan plans to backstab them?"

Purple nodded in agreement.

Scar frowned.

"But don’t you think V’s alliance also knows that the Kugo clan wants to backstab them? I mean, it’s kinda obvious."

Purple smirked.

"Well, they do but I believe they’d rather fight only the Kugo clan than to fight the whole of humanity."

Scar sighed.

He knew almost nothing about V. But Purple had spoken of him like something to be feared, and that wasn’t nothing. The monster they called him, maybe that was exactly right. Still, the question sat in the back of his mind: how were they getting V out of the academy?

Two possibilities came to mind. The first was Theo, Ally of Mankind, a Daywalker that surfaced when humanity crept close to extinction. A savior by nature. Which wasn’t far from what the Supreme Council was after either, with Morvan, Savior of the Lost, their chosen answer to V.

Theo didn’t pick sides, not really. Human or Scarlet Kin, the only thing that mattered was whether you were dragging humanity toward extinction. Some whispered that it was Theo who had carved out the small slice of land humans still lived on, back during the Red Day. No one could prove it. But no one could disprove it either.

It wasn’t a bad plan, until you thought it through. Morvan showed up for villains who’d crossed a thousand kills in a given stretch of time. But V didn’t have to be the one killing.

Manipulate enough souls, let them tear each other apart, and the conditions were met without V lifting a finger.

Theo hunts the greatest threat to humanity. And by that point, the greatest threat to humanity would be Morvan.

Dreadful, though. However it played out. V had been locked away for decades, and five hundred consumed souls were nothing to dismiss, but manipulating that many people at once was another matter entirely. Unless his strength had climbed to something exponential in the dark, it wasn’t possible.

Scar gritted his teeth, irritation settling in. There was no clean way to figure out what these people were actually planning, but even through the frustration, something nagged at the back of his mind.

’Wait... if they don’t summon neither Morvan nor Theo. Who could it be?’

Staring into Scar’s dazed eyes, Purple smirked.

"V is bound to kill during the Epic Competition. He wants all humans to leave this world so he could carry all of our burdens. With that mentality, he can’t waste an opportunity to kill so many people.

"And that’s why I believe something unique would happen on the day of the Epic Competition. The forgotten god of the universe might be summoned."

The same look crossed both their faces. Darkened expressions, mouths parted with confusion sitting heavy between them.

"What? The Gate God?"

Purple confirmed it with a gesture. Theo and Morvan were problems for that day, sure, but the Gate God was a different kind of concern entirely. How were they going to summon it?

Still, none of that was his problem, not really. He needed to fight Joel and get off the academy grounds before anything else unraveled. If it went further than that, the God Killers would step in. Defeating V wasn’t his fight.

Before any of that, though. The old man who had pulled him through after Adisa deserved something. Scar turned the name over in his head. Hazem? Was that it?