"Is that so?"
Hearing those words whispered into his ears in a chilling tone, Protheus' face turned as white as a sheet of paper; as he let out a startled scream.
"AARGH!! I DIDN'T DO IT! IT WAS HIM!!"
Unfortunately, his confession did not help him as Protheus felt an absolute force strike him in the back of his neck. In the next instant, he felt his entire body beco weightless.
'Only ten minutes have passed since I reclaid my freedom and I've already ended up becoming a ghost,' he inwardly shed tears while closing his eyes.
'Is it the fate of the gifted to be cursed? Lords, why did I have to be born so perfect?' Protheus internally rued.
"I haven't even fully lived my life yet. I'm not resigned!" he let out a yell.
Seconds passed and Protheus suddenly noticed sothing; he could speak.
"I can speak?" He repeated before exclaiming once again, "Wait, I can hear my speech too!!?"
"Why wouldn't you?" A chilling voice resounded from behind him.
Hearing the sa voice that had scared him, speak once again, Protheus opened his eyes by a tiny crack and looked around.
The corridor was still as dingy and dark as he rembered it to be. The musky slls of wet stone and dry rot were still as pungent as ever. Hell, he could even feel the faint touch of the cold wind as it brushed against his skin.
"I'm not dead?" Protheus asked himself, before noticing a minor detail that he had missed during his initial survey.
The floor seed to be farther than usual.
"Did I suddenly grow taller?" he vocalized before imdiately striking down his own guess. "Of course not. That would be stupid. It's not yet ti for my secondary growth spurt." Very sure of his explanation, he firmly nodded his head.
"Shut up!" The chilling voice finally declared; annoyance apparent in its tone.
"Eeeek!" Letting out a sharp shriek, Protheus finally realized the precariousness of his situation and turned around.
Standing directly behind him and hoisting him up by the scruff of his neck was a face that was very familiar to Protheus.
"IT'S YOU!!" Protheus scread at the top of his lungs while pointing his finger at Lucius.
Just as he was about to follow up on his scream by a series of questions, he noticed the growing look of dissatisfaction on Lucius' face.
Instantly, a fawning smile spread across Protheus' face as he spoke, "Hee~ey, buddy! Long ti no see!~"
"Wow! I have to say, you have not aged a single bit since our last etingten minutes ago. Could you share with your secret skincare routine? I have these little wrinkles that are starting to creep up into my fa"
"Shut. Up!" Lucius exclaid while tightening his grip over Protheus' neck.
Feeling the choke around his neck grow tighter and his breathing grow strained, Protheus wisely shut up. As a smart man who could adapt to any situation, hewell, smartly adapted.
"Why did you leave in there?" Lucius asked, feeling a little salty about being abandoned.
Hearing his question, Protheus rapidly blinked his big, watery eyes trying his best to portray the picture of innocence with his face. However, Lucius wasn't the least bit affected by his actions as he continued to nacingly stare at him.
"Uhm" Protheus nervously spoke. "Can I talk now?"
Lucius nodded his head. He then suddenly rembered sothing and added, "Keep it to the point. If I hear you say anything unrelated to the topic, I will kill you." Alongside the threat, he released a tiny portion of his murderous intent.
Feeling Lucius' murderous intent brush against his skin, Protheus imdiately dropped the sly plans of escape that he was cooking up within his heart.
As much of a genius as he was, Protheus had one small flaw. A weakness, if you will.
Protheuscould not fight.
He completely, utterly, unabashedly, unilaterally, without a question, sucked at fighting.
To iterate just how terrible his fighting skills were, let share a certain dark history involving Protheus.
One day, this was when he was a Mid-Level Stage 4 entity, Protheus had gone on a little walk through the capital of the Empire. His walk wasn't exactly voluntary and was more of a forceful order by his father, the Emperor, to have him leave his lab and go outside and touch grass.
Unable to go against the words of his father, Protheus had accepted his fate and went on a little tour of the capital city. As he was roaming through the streets, he ca across a group of children who were playing a very childish ga.
After watching them play for a while, Protheus suddenly let out an uproarious laugh when he saw one of the kids lose to his friend in a very stupid manner. He, being himself, couldn't help but make fun of the losing kid with his eloquent tongue.
Being subjected to harsh criticism and mockery by an unknown stranger, the kid, being the child that he was, could not withhold his anger and attacked Protheus with his little fists.
Looking at the tiny kid, radiating the power of a Low-Level Stage 3 rush towards him with clenched fists, Protheus let out an audible snort and faced the child with a single hand.
The resultProtheus was beaten up to the point where he couldn't even use his legs if he wanted to. All by a single snot-nosed kid who had not even hit his teenage years.
This single event forever turned into a scar, inflicted upon Protheus and reminded him once again of how terrible his fighting skills were.
Even while facing a child, who was an entire Stage and a minor realm under him, Protheus could not score a tie, much less a victory.
That was just how terrible he was at fighting.
Back to the main story
After carefully reorganizing the words inside his head while deleting every bit of extraneous text, Protheus inhaled a fresh breath of air and explained in the briefest manner possible.
"I left you in there for two main reasons. Firstly, I barely know you. Secondly, Tartarus is a prison solely for imprisoning terrible, horrible people. Now, I'm an exception. But the fact that you were put in there doesn't exactly speak well about your reputation."
"Now, don't get wrong. I'd love to make a friend who's not a wall or a chair. But to start with a criminal who could very well be a genocidal maniac or worseyeah, I think I'll stick to my chair," he concluded.
Hearing his explanation, Lucius thought for a few seconds before loosening his grip over Protheus. The latter, imdiately let out an inward sigh of relief and felt the sweating underneath his armpits decrease.
'Thank god, he at least seems to be sowhat stable. Lord knows what'll happen to if he was insane!' Thinking about this, increased the sweating below his armpits once again.
Just as he was having an internal ltdown, Protheus heard his captor speak once again.
This ti, the question was sothing that made him grow serious.
"Do you want to acquire the throne of the Grand Alcana Empire?" asked Lucius.
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