Mane's heart grew cold at Indra's rebuke. The god wasn't rebuking him per se, but Mane didn't feel that way. Indeed, he wasn't much different from the gods. He ignored others and had grown indifferent towards the life and death of the 'common people'. Here he was, condemning the gods for their callous hearts when he was just as detached from his world as they were. Indra was right. To the people of this world, Hidden Cloak was a god. It was an organization that he had built. So technically, he was their god. Yet he had failed them, and he didn't even realize that he had let them down.
Over the years he had grown indifferent to the death of others. As long as they weren't related to him in any way, he didn't care whether they lived or they died. Even in the simulation chamber, he killed and took lives as frequently as leaves fell off a tree during the Fall. And this was done in the knowledge that the simulation chamber wasn't really a simulation. Mane knew that he was essentially teleported to the realms he visited whenever he accessed the chamber. The people he fought against were alive, but he killed them all the same. Even the Celestials, a race who were difficult to kill, weren't spared his heavy hand. With a race like that, a race that he could kill and yet spare, Mane had ensured that they were dead by destroying their life pearls. He had grown detached from the world of life and death. And even more dangerous was that he didn't realize his change.
Indra calmly looked upon the pale face of the blonde haired boy. His words were brutal, but they weren't meant as a rebuke. He just wanted Mane to know that gods and mortals weren't so different. Mortals were similar to gods. As long as they had a little strength, they ignored the life and death of those who did not matter to them. It was the way life worked. The poor cared for only themselves; and the rich cared not for the poor. One would be hard-pressed to find a rich man who was genuinely concerned with the wellbeing of others.
"Thank you for your words. I know now what I must do." Mane took quite a while to recollect himself. It wasn't easy to come to terms with the painful truth that you were turning into those you hated- yes, hated. Mane hadn't met many gods, but he knew that it was because of them that his parents had left him here. He detested them from the start. Now here he was learning that he was becoming like them. He vowed to change. He vowed to make sure that he wouldn't grieve his heart so. Never again, will he take the path that led away from his heart.
Indra nodded and went back to the topic at hand. "Anyway, Shiva destroys worlds because the energy he would receive for killing a mortal is meagre, only a large number of mortal lives would make a difference. But all this would change if he is able to consume you. So he wouldn't kill you now."
"He wants me to grow to a stage where he can get a large amount of energy from killing me. That is the only way he would see a substantive increase in his strength." Mane interrupted.
"Yes. Killing the Supreme is a grand achievement that will elevate his power like never before. But he wouldn't allow you to ascend to godhood. Once you do, he wouldn't be able to take you on. My guess is that he would wait-"
"Until I become a Noble. Then he would kill me." Mane interjected once again. Indra nodded to show his consent. That was his assumption. After all, it would be too risky to kill Mane when he became a god. And he couldn't kill him now because it would be a waste. So the best time to deal with the young Supreme would be when he became a Noble. That was the only logical cause of action.
"He is a fool for not killing me now." Mane said. "It isn't your destiny to take his life, but it is mine. I would wring his head off his cocky body and sprinkle his blood all over the universe as an atonement for all those he has destroyed in his pursuit for power. He would discover in the most brutal of ways who I am- and even his spirit would not be spared the agony of Brimstone."
"Interesting" Indra remarked with a broad smile as he observed the young Supreme. The aura around the boy was majestic, and it kept increasing as he spoke. It was the aura of a king; a young predator; a budding wolf. All of a sudden, Indra started to feel pity for Shiva. The fool may have dug his grave by setting his eyes on Mane. Indra wasn't worried one bit that Mane would be felled by The Destroyer. Mane's destiny was huge. Even now Indra could see the threads of fate wound tightly around the boy. The entire universe was bond by these threads which swirled around Mane subserviently. Someone like Shiva didn't have a great destiny. He was bound to become a stepping stone for the seventh Supreme.
"That isn't the message you have for me, is it, Sir Indra?" Mane's aura settled after a while. He was calm, and his face expressionless. He didn't look like someone who had a god after him.
"No, it isn't." Indra replied. "There is a bounty on your head."
"You mean the assassins who came after me aren't going to be the last ones?" Mane pondered. He knew that for a god to seek him out to tell him these things, it could only mean that things were direr than they seemed.
"Indeed. An interplanetary bounty has been placed on your head." Indra replied. Mane was startled by the revelation. He knew that there were several planets in the universe; they littered the cosmos like the sand of the sea. But he didn't think that someone would place a bounty on him in multiple worlds.
"Who wants me dead now?" There was no way Shiva was the culprit. The god needed him alive for the meantime.
"We aren't sure. But our assumption is that the culprit is the Dark God Seth." Indra answered.
"Another god? Does he also know who I am?" Mane rubbed his forehead tiredly. In just a single day, he learnt that there were two gods targeting him.
"No, he doesn't know who you are. We believe that he is after you because of the organization he represents." Indra explained.
Mane waited for the god to continue. He had a bad feeling about this. Shiva was a distant threat. Sure the god would send his minions after him occasionally, but Mane was certain that was only meant to speed up his growth. Shiva didn't want him dead now. But Seth was different. He clearly wanted him dead. And for some reason the god knew that Mane was able to travel between worlds. He was more dangerous than Shiva. It wasn't a comfortable feeling- knowing that an enemy far stronger than you was breathing down your neck.