Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank! Chapter 370 - 370. Explaining Everything

Across the city to a nondescript door in a back alley. Scar opened it, revealing a dusty backroom. Ike went to step inside, but before he could, Scar closed it again, whispered sothing he couldn't make out, and opened it again. This ti, it opened to a sumptuous lounge, full of overstuffed furniture and heavy drapes. Light struggled to filter through closed windows, but only succeeded at lighting the dust motes floating on the air.

"What the…" Ike muttered, staring into the room.

Scar thumped him on the shoulder, pushing him through. "Go on already. We can't keep this open long, or he might find it."

Ike nodded. He stepped inside, and Wisp and Mag followed close behind him. Scar glanced over her shoulder, then shut the door.

"So what did you an by, 'did you rember?'" Ike asked. "I'm guessing this has to do with the Prince and the King? Or rather, the greater being that I'm made from a piece of… or whatever?"

"You know that much, then," Scar said, nodding.

Wisp thumped down on one of the overstuffed armchairs and crossed her arms. "Spill it, already. What's going on? Ike's explained, but I still don't get it."

"I don't get this part, either," Ike muttered. He'd never rembered sothing he hadn't experienced before. Not only that, but he'd quietly consulted with the King and the Prince, and neither of them knew what was going on, either. The infants had nothing to share, not that he'd asked them. He could already feel them lting away into him. They didn't have much personality to begin with, and they were quickly falling apart, subrged in a greater being with a much stronger force of ego than any of them. It wouldn't be long before he absorbed them completely.

Scar nodded. "You saw her, didn't you? My mother. She was one of your retainers."

"The greater being's retainers," Ike corrected her. Another retainer? It explained why he'd recognized her, at least… or had that strange mont. Ike frowned, a bit perturbed by the implication. If that was truly a result of the greater being slowly rging with him, then how much would he lose, to rember everything that the greater being was? If he rembered everything, would he even be Ike anymore, or would he only be the greater being?

He shook his head, forcing the fears down. He'd always be him. He was sure about that. Even if he had to face the greater being down and cut it to pieces himself, he would be the one to survive. Not it. Not that other being he'd never t. But him. Ike.

Scar opened her mouth, then nodded. "Right. The greater being's."

"What was he? If she was your mother, then surely you know. Or… can I just talk to her?" Ike asked. Mages lived for centuries, and if the greater being was stronger than him, it was at least Tier 4, and more likely 5 or even higher than that. Any retainer of such a powerful being would at least be close to its power, which ant 3 at the minimum, by his estimate, and at Rank 3, he was pretty sure he could live for a long, long ti.

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She shook her head. "Like him, all his retainers were punished. My mother… by so accounts, she got off easily; by so, she was one of the most harshly punished. Her magehood was ruined, and she plunged down to Rank 2, but she retained her human body, her will, her sanity, and her mory. So were not so lucky."

"Like Brightbriar," Ike said.

"By so accounts, he got off the lightest of all. By others…"

"I know. I t one of the greater being's retainers in the fog, beyond the limits of this realm. She ntioned that."

Scar raised her brows. "I didn't know other retainers still survived. My mother birthed at the limit of her lifespan. As part of her punishnt, she was no longer able to advance as a mage, and even with her vast knowledge of the world, could only extend her life so long. I was born when she was close to the end of her life, and she lived just long enough to watch Brightbriar burn down everything in the region she chose to call ho after she was banished from her true ho. Other than Brightbriar, she was sure all the other retainers must have died long ago."

Ike nodded. "I'm not too sure that the retainer we encountered was alive. She seed to be as much mist as woman."

"Another strange punishnt," Scar murmured. She shook her head. "The point is, I'm not only a victim of Brightbriar, but also the child of your forr retainer… of the greater being's forr retainer," she anded, before Ike could correct her. "You do realize you're him, right?"

"And so is the King, and the Prince, and Rosamund and Llewyn and gods only know how many other puppets. We're all nothing but shards of sothing greater. It's presumptuous to call myself 'him,' when Llewyn or Rosamund has as much a claim as I do," Ike said.

"You have the King and the Prince, though. What's the Prince, by the way? I've never heard of him."

"He's another fragnt like the King. One that Brightbriar mourned, rather than punishing, as he did the King," Ike explained.

"And the King… you got him from the trial, right? He's a fragnt of that greater being? One Brightbriar punished? We weren't aware of this," Scar said, frowning.

"Brightbriar has made many—"

"Many fragnts, yes. We know that. But as far as we were aware, they were limited to puppets and kept close to hand—Rosamund, Llewyn. We weren't even sure about you… but it seems like you are a fragnt, despite being flesh and blood. That'll cause so debate amongst the others."

"Will it?" Ike asked. It ca out a little sharper than he'd intended. He'd been challenged about his identity a lot today, and he was done with it.

Wisp, who was not done with it and would never be, giggled evilly in the corner.

"Yeah, there was a lot of disagreent over… well, it doesn't matter." She waved her hand, dismissing the subject. "Sorry about that, by the way—about telling you Llewyn was Brightbriar. It was simpler than the truth, and honestly, you weren't ready for it yet."

"It's a lot to take in," Ike admitted, not holding it against her. He'd struggled to co to terms with it, and he'd lived through rging with several pieces and delving them to understand them better. If soone had just told him he was a fragnt of sothing bigger without any of that, he would have just laughed them off and ignored them.

"Still, you're telling that he's been building these fragnts for ages? Putting them in flesh-and-blood infants, sohow?" Scar asked.

Ike took a deep breath.

Wisp snickered. "Sit down. It'll be a while."