Power Thief's Revenge [BL]-Chapter 153: Publicity Stunt

Chapter 153: Publicity Stunt
Hermes slouched into the couch like he’d been peeled off the battlefield and stapled onto cheap upholstery.
His living room light flickered once, then steadied, throwing pale illumination across the stack of unopened mail, an empty pizza box that may or may not have been there for a week, and a normal dog sprawled in the corner.
Xolotl, the world’s most ordinary dog, raised his head. He almost wrecked the couch as he jumped around and licked Hermes as a greeting.
On the rug, the not-so-normal ones yipped in stereo. The Grrberus pups scrambled over each other to reach Hermes’ lap.
"Master! Master!"
"You have a new form, Master!"
"It looks glorious, Master! Can we get head pats?"
"Alright, alright," Hermes muttered, letting them crawl across his chest.
One of the heads gnawed on his sleeve. Another tried licking his jaw. The third just barked nonsense about conquering the refrigerator.
"Headpats later." Hermes told them. "I’m a bit tired right now."
The television screen filled the room with a warm glow. Paragon’s perfect jawline and golden smile practically glared back at him. Cameras flashed. ers tripped over themselves shoving microphones in his face.
Raphael. Paragon. The Golden Boy.
"The Night Cyclops has been defeated!" one er shouted over the roar of the crowd. "Paragon, can you tell us what happened on that rooftop?"
Hermes narrowed his eyes, chewing the inside of his cheek.
Raphael stood calm amid the chaos, costume pristine, voice smooth.
"The monster was formidable," he said. "But HavenCity stands strong. The people were brave. And the heroes gave everything they had."
"Did anyone help you?" another er demanded. "Firefly was taken down early, but there were dozens of heroes there. Was it truly just you in the end?"
Hermes tensed. His hand on the Grrberus pup went still.
Raphael paused. His gaze shifted, just slightly, toward the horizon beyond the cameras.
Then he smiled again. "In the end, it doesn’t matter who did what. We all made a contribution. What matters is that the city is safe tonight."
The crowd roared approval.
Hermes leaned back with a sharp exhale, pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead. Relief curled through him, sharp and sour. Raphael hadn’t said a word. He kept the secret.
But the bitterness was harder to ignore. Hermes’ teeth ground together as the cheers on TV grew louder.
"All by himself." the ers repeated. "Paragon saved the whole city!"
Hermes had done just as much. Maybe more. He’d risked everything. And now...
The world couldn’t know, or he’ll be labelled as a monster.
The Grrberus pups barked louder at the screen, offended by the volume. Xolotl sighed like an old man. Hermes muted the television before the taste in his mouth turned from bitter to bile.
The doorbell rang.
Hermes blinked. "What now?"
He dragged himself up, shoved the pups off his stomach, and trudged to the door.
When he opened it, four figures filled the hallway. Still in costume, still smelling faintly of rooftop tar and ozone.
Magni, mask tilted crooked, waving like an overexcited kid. Ymir, arms folded, expression sharp enough to cut glass.Aphrodite, meek but present, his bookish air out of place among them.
And Somner, grinning like he’d just brought a bunch of strippers to Hermes’ doorstep.
"Hey, room service!" Somner declared, hands raised in mock triumph. "You forgot to tip us at the battle, so we came to collect."
Hermes groaned. "Of course you did."
Ymir’s gaze narrowed. "We need answers. What happened up there? Everyone scattered. Then suddenly, the thing was gone. Melted. People are saying Paragon did it alone, but I know better."
Magni leaned in, curious. "Did you stab it with some special ice and fire knife in its one eye?"
"It wasn’t a knife," Hermes muttered.
Aphrodite shifted awkwardly in the back, soft voice just above a whisper. "We... were worried. We wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Yeah, well," Hermes said. "I’m alive. That’s something."
Somner clapped his hands together. "Fantastic! Crisis over. Now, since we’re all standing here in full costume like weirdos, how about we—"
"Get inside before the neighbors think we’re hosting Renaissance Fair." Hermes cut him off, stepping aside.
The four filed in. The pups immediately swarmed Magni, who shrieked with delight. "Ah! The Grrberus pups! Are they up for adoption?"
"They are not—!" Hermes began, but Ymir was already pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Please, Rockhead." Ymir muttered. "I just survived a rooftop massacre. You’re already like an annoying dog in my own house. I don’t need more."
Within ten minutes, costumes were abandoned for street clothes. Magni in oversized sweatpants Hermes suspected were stolen from a lost-and-found, Ymir crisp even in casualwear, Aphrodite folded neatly into himself on the couch.
Somner was already raiding Hermes’ fridge. When he found nothing to his liking, he opened a food delivery app.
Pizza boxes stacked on the table. Beers cracked open. The television muted in the background, Paragon’s golden smile frozen mid-frame.
For a brief moment, it almost felt normal.
Almost.
"So." Somner took a swig of beer, gesturing broadly with the bottle. "Big ugly cyclops. Where’d it come from? Rifts don’t just open up in the middle of five-star galas."
"Rifts that size would have been noticed," Ymir said coldly. "We’d have seen the signs weeks ago."
Magni tilted his head. "Maybe it was hiding in the buffet. Night Cyclopes are tiny in the morning. Maybe someone brought it in with the appetizers, and then it increased in size at night!"
Aphrodite frowned softly. "If it was intentional... then it begs the question. Why the Fiery Cross?"
"Publicity," Ymir snapped. "What better stage than the most televised event of the year?"
Somner raised his brows. "So, a marketing stunt. They unleash a monster, let Paragon shine, and boom! The city gets a new poster boy. Nothing rallies people like shared trauma."
The thought hung heavy.
Hermes leaned back, beer in hand, staring at the ceiling. The idea wasn’t insane. The Cyclops’ appearance hadn’t made sense from the start. Monsters didn’t just stumble onto rooftops ninety stories up. Someone had put it there.
And Paragon, conveniently, had been the one to "save" everyone.
Hermes swallowed, throat dry. He didn’t want to believe Raphael was part of it. He seemed too innocent. Too sincere.
But still... doubt wormed its way in.
The others kept talking, voices a blur around him. Ymir dissecting logistics, Somner tossing jokes to cover nerves, Magni misinterpreting every idiom, Aphrodite occasionally adding quiet reason.
Hermes only half-heard them.
Because in the back of his mind, something else gnawed at him.
The taste.
Paragon’s blood.
He remembered it vividly. The searing, rich, familiar in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. He’d absorbed a few powers, stolen from a variety of sources, each unique, each distinct. None had ever tasted the same.
But Raphael’s...
Hermes closed his eyes. He didn’t know why.
But it tasted familiar.