Darius Supreme

The reaction of Theseus so far seemed rather mild in Darius' eyes. He had expected something crazier, but in a matter of hours after the Demi-God had exhausted himself, he began laughing uproariously. 

Theseus laughed until his lungs gave out, after which he began coughing painfully, before returning to silence. Surprisingly, he did not cry and lament anymore, just remained eerily silent for another few hours until he rose and came before Darius. 

The two men gazed at each other through the bars of Theseus' cell, Darius with a contemplative soft smile and Theseus with a neutral expression and dark eyes. 

His voice was almost raspy as he asked his captor one question. "Why?" 

Darius folded his arms behind his back. 

"Because it was necessary. I don't plan to kill you as that would be too much of a waste. Rather, I could use someone in Elysium with your kind of intellect to co-ordinate with when the time will come for me to face the Fake Lords.." Darius admitted truthfully. 

When dealing with Theseus, someone who was as shrewd as himself, Darius preferred to respect the other's intelligence and be frank, rather than to beat around the bush or try to play petty tricks. 

Of course, he still held some things back out of caution, but Theseus would expect this much and even disdain Darius if he would be too honest. 

Theseus's face twisted when he heard the term 'Fake Lords', then laughed and ended up coughing right after. 

"Fake Lords, huh? Yeah, that really fits." He murmured. 

Theseus turned around and showed his back to Darius, remaining silent for a good long while as he thought, his captor not disturbing him. After a few minutes, the Demi-God spoke in a cautious tone. 

"You have to understand, even if I now know the truth, it is hard for me to switch loyalties so easily. I have worshiped that bunch for multiple millennia, even if I had recently begun to doubt them." 

Darius still remained silent. 

Theseus continued. "Apart from Dionysus, I have no real grudge against any of them since they had treated me relatively well and had given me many benefits. To some extent, I suspected what you just showed me, but I had failed to find any proof." 

Theseus then turned around to face Darius. "However, there is the problem of how they used us, and what they used us for." 

He waved his hands with a mocking expression. "'Heroes' they called us as we came back after 'purging' 'evil' races and groups all over Faust in years and years of crusades." 

"'Divine Odysseys' they call them, our journeys to perform dirty work they would rather not have on their hands in case there was ever an entity that could hold them accountable." 

Darius looked at him in understanding, but refrained from speaking, aware that the other had more to say. 

"In other words, we Demi-Gods are nothing but their expendable tools. We have three things that make us the perfect workers. We are in possession of Divine Energy, so we too could ascend to be Gods, though we do not have a Divine Domain. This makes us unable to ever mount a resistance against them as they could quash us at any time." Theseus shared with Darius. 

Darius nodded, aware about the distinction. The Gods deserving to be called 'Fake Lords' were those who had a Divine Domain, a Divine Spark, and a Divine Attribute. 

The first was their kingdom, what the mortals beneath them would call 'heaven' or the 'afterlife'. Divine Domains were not created by Gods, but had existed with their birth. 

Within it, they were impervious to all attacks and could resurrect infinitely as long as there was even a little bit of Divine Energy. 

That was exactly why they had turtled up inside them after discovering the existence of the True Lords during the Insect Invasion. 

A Divine Spark was obvious, it was the flame lit in the soul that burned eternally. It was what refined Faith Energy into Divine Energy by burning the impurities out of it, like the expectations and doubts.

If one could snuff a Divine Spark, a God would fall and become a mortal instantly, but that was extremely difficult as it was a God's most guarded part. 

Then there was the Divine Attribute. It was the power element that the Deity embodied and could control using Divine Energy almost on the level of the Laws of Faust itself. 

They were what had led the Gods to their presumptuous belief of them being the creators, as they were the only ones who could muster such a power. 

However, obviously meeting the True Lord who could embody Laws of Faust even better than them without using Divine Energy had caused a crisis in Elysium. 

Whatever the case, Demi-Gods only had the Divine Spark, but lacked the other two. As such, no God would ever fear them, except for cases like Achilles or Hercules who could be problems due to their special circumstances. 

"The second thing is that we can be easily blamed for the actions we took on behalf of the Gods due to our power, and we would likely even comply out of faith. This makes us perfectly expandable." 

"Finally, because all our power is given to us by them, they are the only ones who can control how we grow and progress. Without them giving us Divine Tinder, our Divine Fires cannot grow, and they only give this out as rewards for doing their dirty work." 

Theseus sighed and shook his head. "Not to mention our actions were done under the deception that it had been righteous and just. I certainly feel resentment, but I am not yet confident in myself and moreso in you that you can handle them." 

Theseus gazed at Darius pointedly. "I'd rather be killed or experimented on by you if you want that to fight the Gods and lose pathetically. I once served them, so I know their weaknesses, but there is nothing on Faust so far that can capitalize on them." 

Darius smiled, as he felt the other was done, expecting him to say something. "I would have it no other way, as I said, I currently lack the means to properly extinguish any Gods." 

Rather than being disappointed, Theseus' eyes glowed. "So, there is hope?" 

Darius rubbed his chin and thought about it before replying. "Indeed, though rather than a matter of chance or opportunity, it's more a matter of time." 

Theseus sucked in a deep breath. He had hoped, but this was completely out of his expectations. Darius was essentially telling him that there was a 100% chance for the Gods to fall by his hands, only that now was not the right time. 

However, the Demi-God was not one to believe just mere words, but he understood given his position he could not push too far either. Darius had been doing the giving so far, so he had to return something to show his sincerity. 

Theseus then gazed at the HoloBrace on his hand and smiled thinly. Focusing his mind he tried to connect with the network within the bracelet, and he was once more moved by the grandeur of it. 

However, instead of receiving, the Demi-God rather uploaded information from his mind to the network. Miranda appeared above Darius' HoloBrace with an expression of concentration as she received the info and decoded it. 

She then showed surprise as she immediately transferred it to Darius' mind. The Itemancer too had to pause to 'decompress' and digest the information, with Theseus watching him raptly. 

The prisoner hummed as he reached a conclusion that Darius likely had slightly above half his own mental faculties judging by the time he used to decode all of it. 

This surprised the Great Hero as he had expected Darius to be far less, and he realized it likely had to do with the weird presence that hovered around his captor. 

Ass a Demi-God, which could technically be counted as one stage higher than Grandmaster - although not officially recognized by the Laws of Faust - he could obviously sense the Supreme System and much clearer than others. 

He assumed that this entity had to be what Darius was relying on to usurp the Gods and was also the reason Theseus had even be willing to talk to Darius, otherwise he would have remained compliant but never truthful. 

It was pervasive and his feeling told him that it could overwrite everything around it, so it should be able to remove the 'invulnerability' and 'resurrection' trait of Divine Domains in time. 

Once Darius was done processing what Theseus had sent him, his eyes shone. The majority of that information had been about Elysium's inner workings and the inner dealings of the Gods the Great Hero had been privy to. 

One thing that was extremely precious in this set of info was the fact that the Gods did not trust Krona!!! 

They had long since noticed from the God of Knowledge's reclusive nature and weird affiliations that he had been different from them, so they had guarded their true operations against him since the beginning of their collaborations. 

There were many things Theseus had shared that were missing from the info from the Library! 

Either God Krona had withheld them or he had been unaware of this, and given the importance and volume of them, it was most like likely the latter! 

Darius was pleased with Theseus' offering, and nodded to the Demi-God. 

"We'll talk more. It's time for me to go and speak to your compatriots." 

Theseus nodded in understanding and moved to get some rest, but stopped and spoke solemnly. 

"Be wary of Medea. She is the embodiment of evil and chaos. Nothing she says can be trusted!"