《Avalon》 Prologue 0- Godsmans Despair Heya Guysssss, Here''s the new fiction i was talking to you about. I was heavily influenced by Kingsman the movie for this one. Dont worry the story is completely different. I was also influenced by various revenge novels from authors such as, Alexandre Dumas, Jenny Han, Martina Cole (gave me s***t daughter idea, read to understand), and Steig Larson, creds to these awesome authors.who gave me idea for awesome prologue. i am still pondering on ideas of how i want to do this fic, but most likelly it will be a fanfic for douluo dalu/ combat continent. Check out my other fiction: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ....................................................... ¡°The Lord shall smite thee with madness¡± Deuteronomy 28:28 ¡°Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap¡± Galatians 6:7 ¡°For the wages of sin is death¡± Romans 6:23 The Godsmen were absolute existence in the late 22nd century. It had started, as a small organization of 5 individuals who were intelligent and accomplished people wanting to make a change in the world for the better. The arose when the world was in need and secretly helped the world in various ways without showing their faces to the general populous. Through this they were able to solidify their power over the entire world. The five of them had started a lineage of terrifyingly powerful men, who became more and more accomplished over the centuries. There were 5 of them and each commanded a sizable part of the world. From the underworld crime scene, to the government, the military and even the secret service were all in the palm of their hands. In the publics view none of them existed they were oblivious to the fact that 5 individuals controlled the fate of the entire world. These five Godsmen lived by a strict code that only had 10 rules: 1. The Godsmen must be Supreme, Absolute and Unfathomable existences; they must be at the pinnacle, second only God. 2. The Godsmen must remain secretive of their identity, only to reveal their power if absolutely needed. 3. The Godsmen must not fight each other. Each member must acknowledge one another¡¯s prowess and then only can one become a Godsman. 4. A Godsman never bows down to anyone weaker than them. 5. A Godsman, although an existence of boundless power must never exercise it on someone weaker than them. 6. A Godsman admits when he has done wrong, and exercise timely manners at all times. 7. A Godsman does not pick a fight with another. 8. A Godsman must never commit acts of hedonism, adultery, and must remain faithful to the one he truly loves. 9. If a Godsman is killed, someone of equal prowess, from the 5 families will replace him. If someone of such power cannot be found from the particular family, the others can converge to choose a new candidate. 10. A Godsman must maintain balance for any all the people under his reign. 2298 JANUARY 1st ¡°Hello! Are you not listening to me? My little girl has been missing for three fucking days. I think that might be worth your attention, don¡¯t you?¡¯ Enzo Demidov was so angry he was almost spitting his words down the phone. Over six feet tall and with a lean build he was a strong man and, as everyone in the room knew, he was more than capable of great violence. He was paying them for their expertise, which they currently seemed to be lacking in. In fact, they were irritating the arse off him with their stupidity. He was a 20th generation Godsman coming from the Demidov family, and had an almost towering air about him. The Demidov family controlled the most area of all the other Godsman Families; with their lands spanning over all of Russia and Europe. He had only been around the age of 39 but had accomplished more than any man could have done. Unlike the other family¡¯s the Demidov¡¯s were known for their notoriety, they would never let their potential heir live with a silver spoon, they would always push their heirs to the limits creating an unparalleled force. Enzo Demidov was a man who had reached a higher pinnacle than ever before, by anyone of the Godsman. He was a living example of a man who was the finest of humankind, in strength, intellect and also in combat expertise. He had reached such a height that the other Godsman almost revered him as their leader. He was a result of more than millennia of selective breeding. His family had always strived for the best and Enzo was the best. He had one fatal flaw, he doted on his family too much, raised in such a harsh environment; he had always wished for his progeny to be brought up in a loving caring family. He was not as concerned for the old, archaic values as the other Godsman, but he had always been the absolute ¨¦lite in everything he did, so he was never questioned. There was one person he could never have control over, one person he could not control, one person who aggravated him to no end but he could do nothing about. His one and only daughter Leila Demidov. Enzo never easily swore, he would always maintain his manners as per the 6th rule of the Godsman; but the rules went out the door when his family was in play. No one, and I mean no one touched the Demidov¡¯s. Aramis Kane listened to his boss, and best friend rant at the policemen in his employ. Everyone knew that Leslie Demidov, Enzo Demidov¡¯s daughter, was about as dependable as a 3 year old child; therefore, she held no importance whatsoever to anyone, especially to the police. She could get away with anything ¨C from possession of any substance, including a bomb, should she ever purchase one, and that was all thanks to her father¡¯s influence. He¡¯d controlled the police force to ignore her over the years; now suddenly he wanted them to make her a priority? Bit of a turnaround there. Aramis thought. ¡®Look, Enzo, with all due respect, you know your daughter as well as we do, she could be fucking anywhere. She goes on the missing list regularly . . .¡¯ Enzo Demidov was dark-haired and tanned-skinned, he had the Italian and Russian descent in him there was no doubt about that. He was a handsome man, and his good looks were part and parcel of his persona. Both men and women were attracted to him, and he had always used that to his advantage. His startling blue eyes were now strained on Aramis Kane, and the man felt an enormous weight of killing intent at the intensity of his gaze. Enzo was a man of great patience and everyone knew that he was the ideal ruler, the ideal Godsman; but when it comes to his family, he loses his shit. ¡°You having a fucking laugh, Aramis? You think I brought you lot here for nothing? My little Leila is on the missing list! No one, and I mean no one, has seen her for three fucking days! I know she is a lazy, I know she lives on her own time-zone, and I know she is the biggest pain in the arse since records began. But she is still my baby girl. So my advice would be to fucking well find her! Track her down, let me know where she is so I can deliver her back to her mother and then we can go home.¡± He yelled. He had just screamed at his best friend, who had been the head of the security under him, and in turn head of the security for more than 50 countries. He was one of the most powerful men in the world but he was nowhere as powerful as Enzo. Enzo remembered the last time he was this angry was when he had infiltrated a home of a high standing dictator in a remote country off the coast of Russia during a party held by the local tyrant. He had infiltrated it only to find that the fat filthy fuckers under his rule were regularly raping little boys and girls for their sick perverted fantasies and were indulging their most revolting, and twisted fantasies. Long story short, he had decimated the assholes tore them to piece bit by bit, and in a fit of rage had not exercised in an ounce of discretion, breaking yet another one of the coveted codes of the Godsmen. He was not a person who adhered to the archaic rules as the other Godsman but no one would ever question him, they could not¡­ Enzo looked around the room, and he knew that every bloke in there was thinking the same thing: Leila Demidov was probably tucked up in bed with another lowlife, another asshole she had picked up on her travels. She was a trollop of the first order, having been sleeping with the anything since she was fourteen years old. He wondered how many of his own workforce had serviced her at one time or another. She was a beautiful-looking girl, with the morals of a fucking alley cat. It didn¡¯t matter ¨C he still wanted to know where she was. More to the point, her mother needed to know. Maria was deeply concerned for her daughter¡¯s whereabouts. He loved his wife, whenever Leila came home at some point in time she would always be beyond ecstatic, giving her all the love she supposedly deserved. That was the trouble Enzo personally believed that girl needed a good slap but he could do nothing. If he one day found that their daughter had murdered a bunch of people, and had been caught on CCTV his wife would say,¡°they must have upset her¡±, in Maria¡¯s eyes Leila could do no wrong. He too had indulged her once, when she had been small and still lovable, but that had changed the moment she discovered the power of her sexuality and the harm it could bring to the father she had once adored. He had given up trying to force any kind of fatherly rules or regulations on her. Leila wouldn¡¯t listen to him anyway ¨C she was a girl after his own heart in many respects. She did exactly what she wanted, and she did that with the maximum amount of energy she could muster. But she was a whore, and that fact broke his heart. Not that he could ever let that be known ¨C in his game that would be seen as a weakness, and as a Godsman he could never show weakness. He scanned the room and looked at the men assembled in his office. These were some of the most powerful men in his control. They were the best at what they do and coveted Enzo for his extreme power. But now he was looking out at the men he knew as friends, not just as business associates, and he felt the prickle of shame wash over him. His daughter going AWOL was not something they saw as in their remit to sort but, as they were on his payroll, they had no option but to listen to him and offer their help in any way they could. His Leila¡¯s reputation had preceded her as always. They all assumed she was drugged and/or drunk out of her head somewhere, because that was what she was famous for. Twenty-two years old, and she was already a legend in her own lunchtime. She had been excluded from every school he sent her to, and instead she had embraced the underworld from an early age ¨C from the drug dealers, to the scumbags who hung around the council estates, the burglars, gas-meter bandits with homemade tattoos ¨C she spent her time in filthy squats until he brought her back home to her mother time and again. After cracking open a few heads, of course. He had sometimes wished he had given her the traditional Demidov upbringing he was raised under, he had wished he had not discarded the old ways just for his daughter to have an easy life. Enzo had given up on her completely by the time she was sixteen. Once he had found her naked on a filthy mattress in a condemned house in Kentucky with a junkie three times her age, who had given her not only a black eye but a dose of gonorrhea as well. He had known then that he had no choice but to step away from her emotionally. He loved her, but he could not get through to her. Nevertheless, he had gone back and almost kicked the man to death for doing that to his baby. He had vented his anger, looking around at how she had been living. She was available to any man who tipped her the wink and who she thought would anger her father, and bring him shame. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. He didn¡¯t understand it. She had had a home that was not only full of love for her, but was beautiful. She had everything she could have desired: the chance to go to a good school, and a good life ahead of her. But, from fourteen years of age, she had made it her business to find the lowest of the low, and make a home there for herself with them, and she had broken her mother¡¯s heart in the process. Unlike her father, her mother still felt her daughter could turn her life around, redeem herself. But Enzo refused to get involved any more; she was his Achilles heel, his only real weakness. Her antics were common knowledge in his world, and it was only his status that stopped people from gossiping openly about her. He had tried everything, and she had fought him every step of the way. She was his daughter, and he would protect her as much as he could but, in his darkest moments, when he heard about her latest escapades, or the police informed him she had been arrested once more, he had wished her dead, and he hated himself for that. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Leila Demidov opened her eyes, and fear enveloped her. It was pitch dark, and she was aware that she was bound, both her hands and her feet tied. For all her exploits, she had never found herself in a predicament like this. She was racking her brains to work out not only who she had upset recently, but who would have the guts to do this to her knowing who her father was. She knew, on one level, she was in serious trouble, but she was still having a problem accepting that. She was Leila Demidov, for god''s sake! Her dad was the biggest Face in town. That had always meant she was immune to aggravation of any kind ¨C even when she caused outrageous problems for herself, those problems were automatically negated by her father¡¯s timely intervention. She strained her eyes to see where she was being held captive, but the darkness was total. She was actually truly frightened, and that shocked her. She had never felt real fear before ¨C it was an alien concept ¨C and she swallowed down the scream that she could feel building inside her throat. She would never let anyone know that she was scared or worried about anything. All her life she had lived behind a mask of defiance, and she was not going to let this situation freak her out. 2 weeks later¡­ Leila was weak. The man who was holding her only gave her the minimum of water; she was always thirsty, although the hunger wasn¡¯t so acute any more. She couldn¡¯t work out how long she had been down here in the darkness. She seemed to sleep a lot, so she guessed that he was putting something in the water to keep her sedated. At least he had untied her hands although she was still manacled around her ankles, and the chain was attached to an iron hoop on the wall behind the mattress. She was still in darkness ¨C the only time there was any light was when he brought her water. He had a torch, but it blinded her, so she covered her eyes. She had a feeling he wasn¡¯t interested in her seeing him anyway. She played the game ¨C that was all she could do. Her initial arrogance was gone; she was not only stone cold sober for the first time in years, she was also acutely aware that she wasn¡¯t ready to die. She loved her son in her own way, and she wanted to see him again, see her mum, be hugged by her once more. She had to wonder if this was something to do with her dad ¨C he had stepped on a lot of people¡¯s toes. Surely she should have been out by now if it was about money? What if this man was holding her as a grudge against her father? Or what if he was a serial killer and her father¡¯s name and reputation meant nothing to him? What if he was such a low-life he wasn''t even aware of the existence of the Godsmen¡­ ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. 4 weeks later¡­ Enzo and Aramis, rolled up to the corner of an old suburban home in the middle of East London. Aramis had said that he had finally found the fucker who had taken his little girl. They pulled up called the police and sneaked past the back entrance¡­ The door opened slowly. It was obviously a very heavy door, and it wasn¡¯t easy to negotiate. Aramis and Enzo waited with bated breath for kidnapper to come into the back door, and to finally enter their orbit. The kidnapper did so slowly and, as he turned to face the men he knew would be waiting for him, he grinned amiably, saying cheerfully, ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you, and so has Leila.¡± Kidnapper laughed. ¡°You¡¯re too late, Mr Demidov. We waited for you, but you never came. Now your little Leila is dying, I¡¯m afraid.¡± Enzo stepped towards the man, intent on murder, and Aramis grabbed him. ¡°Stop it, Enzo. That¡¯s what he wants. Let¡¯s find Leila first. I wouldn¡¯t believe a word this slippery fucker says.¡± Enzo knew that Aramis was right, he couldn¡¯t do anything until he had found his daughter. Kidnapper shrugged. ¡°Be my guest, she¡¯s down there.¡± He gestured towards the basement door. ¡°She¡¯s been down there since day one.¡± Enzo grabbed the man by his throat, and dragged him unceremoniously down the basement stairs behind Aramis was unsure for a few moments if he was actually seeing what was before his eyes. The stench alone was bad enough, but Leila, if that really was Leila, was like something from a horror film. She was so bloated, and her feet, her lovely little feet, were almost devoid of skin. He looked at Enzi; he could see the man¡¯s disbelief at what he was witnessing. He too was wondering if this was some kind of joke, even though they both knew that wasn¡¯t possible. The ensuing silence was almost deafening. Enzo looked at his daughter, at the condition she was in. It was like a fucking nightmare, beyond anything he could ever have imagined. This was his baby girl ¨C no matter what had happened in the past, she was his only child, and he loved her with a passion. ¡°Oh my fucking God. Oh dear God. Please don¡¯t do this to me . . .¡± Enzo was trying to pick his daughter up in his arms, trying to comfort her. But she was unresponsive, her eyes were closed. Enzo was openly crying, sobbing in despair. He turned on Kidnapper then, and, after kicking and punching him to the floor, he grabbed him by his prematurely grey hair and, pulling him back on to his feet, he pushed his face into his and demanded, ¡°You shackled her, so you can fucking get her loose.¡± Both Aramis and Enzo watched as Kidnapper dropped to the floor. He then crawled through the filth and, pulling himself up with difficulty, he took a spanner from the windowsill, and he held it out to the men like an offering. ¡°It¡¯s too tight, I can¡¯t undo it. Her blood has dried all over it. Now it¡¯s like fucking glue.¡± He was still taunting me, I could no longer take it, I looked at her. Then finally I noticed that Leila was no longer breathing¡­ That bastard soaked her with cold water, he starved her, he fucking held her there with home-made manacles. You should see her poor legs. The fetters were so fucking tight they rubbed away every piece of her skin ¨C they even scraped against her bones. She must have been in absolute agony, I thought. My baby lived her last few weeks on this earth in excruciating pain, waiting for me to find her, to help her. But I was too late¡­ Suddenly Enzo felt 9 bullet shots go through his body, Enzo turned around to see Aramis was holding the smoking gun. He stared at him in disbelief he didn''t understand, ¡°Enzo, I could not let you live anymore, you have broken too many rules of the Godsman, I cannot let this continue. You are undeserving of such power. You have repeatedly broken the code and done things your way. You even raised this whore, of a daughter. You know she fucked me right before she was kidnapped just so she can piss you off!!¡± Aramis had smirk on his face as he was saying this, now it all made sense, Aramis had never been Enzo¡¯s friend. He remembered the reason why it was taking so long to locate his daughter, he had left Aramis to do it, Enzo trusted him. He never thought why such a powerful man was unable to locate his daughter, this man was controlling everything. ¡°Enzo I have always been in love with Maria but you took her. I have always wanted you to acknowledge me as a rival but you never even seem to think of me that way. I was never your equal, so now I get my revenge. You know I was the one who tricked your daughter in the first place, I gave her the means to go wild, gave her drugs, alcohol and introduced her to those guys who had their way with her. ahahahah¡± ¡° I wanted to destroy your most precious thing, and I know you better than you know yourself, Enzo. So I destroyed her, your daughter. Don''t worry I will make a better Godsman than you, and a better Husband to Maria than you..¡± Enzo looked at his friend in disbelief, he had always thought he was a good jusge of character but the one he was closest to was he one who had destroyed him, he could not let this continue. Enzo¡¯s mind went into overdrive, he used the innate skill he had born with, shutting all his emotions off, pumping the adrenalin in his bloodstream. He could process the emotions later. He had to accomplish two things ? Kill Aramis ? Kill the kidnapper Aramis had a gun, and the kidnapper has a spanner, he was at a disadvantage. NO he was not he could use surprise first kill aramis using the tiger stance of his deadliest martial art, SILAT, and rip his heart out, and then grab the gun and shoot the kidnapper. He would have his revenge, he would have victory, victory, victory¡­. Enzo lunged at Aramis, who had not realized that Enzo was calculating his death. As aramis tried to shoot enzo grabbed his wrist with his left hand and held it up. The shots were fired into the roof. So he did not retreat Enzo stepped on his foot. Made a sharp edge with his hand and with his full, and unrelenting force he went through the skin of Aramis grabbed his beating heart ripped it out. Normal men could not do this, something like this was only possible to people who had mastered Silat at its highest level. Enzo¡¯s wounds were profusely bleeding but, he grabbed the gun Aramis¡¯ lifeless body released, and shot the kidnapper right through the head. He then lied there among all the filth his daughter had to live her last days in, and carefully slowly snuggled in close with her cold lifeless body, while he himself was dying. He looked at her, tears streaming down his face, it had all been his fault, he cried and howled. Before he knew it his own life had ended. The world had lost the most powerful man in all of history¡­ ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Enzo suddenly opened his eyes. He looked around to find that he was on a thin extremely precarious bridge, his hands and legs shackled slowly pacing forward. There were at least a million people infront and behind him. He saw that below the small thin bridge was an endless amount of lava and in it he could see that a lot of people were screaming and wishing for it to end. He sighed this must be hell he thought¡­ Prologue 0.5- Godsmans Revelation Heya guys, Anyway here''s the second chapter of "Avalon" i realised my first title sucked ahahah, but yeh i havent gotten much time to write my other fictions but i promise i will dish you another chapter of Heroes tonite. Hopefully this chapter answers some of the wuestion you guys have and please comment if there are any flaws in the character creation. Anyway heres the second chapter please comment on what you dont like, what you like, i am striving to improve my characterisation on this one so hopefully it is working. Check out my fictions: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658- Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556- Heroes of Jorg ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 week before death: Leila was frightened and cold. She was also starving, which amazed her because she didn¡¯t think food would be high up on her priority list. But it was. She didn¡¯t eat that regularly anyway but, for the first time in years, her stomach felt empty; the hunger like a gnawing pain inside her. Her arms and legs were tied, and it was so painful; every time she tried to move her body, a burning pain shot through her limbs. She was terrified. It was so very dark. She felt tears running down her face, and she forced herself to stop them. She wasn¡¯t going to cry, that wasn¡¯t sensible; she couldn¡¯t afford to let her emotions get the better of her. She was going to keep her wits about her, and try and work out what the situation actually was. If this was a kidnapping, which she doubted, whoever had organised it had better take the money and run as fast as possible. Her dad wouldn¡¯t let something like this go unpunished ¨C he would take it very personally, see it as an act of treason against him, and all he stood for. The pain was shooting through her skull again, and it was so acute she closed her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip, trying to ride it out. It was a losing battle ¨C the pain was too intense. She felt herself losing consciousness again, and she didn¡¯t try to fight it this time. Her head was aching so badly, but at least it had stopped bleeding. She thought about the time, when she first saw her family for what it truly was, and shivered thinking it almost felt the same way. * Flashback * ¡°Leila Demidov woke up suddenly and, turning on her bedside lamp, she listened intently. Whatever had woken her from her sleep was still going on. She could hear her mother¡¯s voice shouting at someone. Her mother never shouted at anyone. She was one of the most inoffensive people on the planet. This was not something she had ever experienced before in her life. But she could hear panic and fright in her mum¡¯s voice. Jumping out of bed, she ran from her bedroom, and across the large landing to her mother¡¯s room. ¡°What¡¯s happening, Mum? What¡¯s going on?¡± Maria was at her balcony doors and, at the sound of her daughter¡¯s voice, she turned quickly towards her, saying quietly, ¡°Go back to your room, darling, and lock your door. Don¡¯t argue with me, just do what I say.¡± Maria didn¡¯t want the men on her drive to know her daughter was in the house with her. They were after trouble. They wanted Enzo, and she knew they were not leaving without a fight. ¡°Have you phoned the police, Mum?¡± Maria shook her head angrily. ¡®¡¯Course not, and don¡¯t you either! Just do what I said, will you!¡± She was almost shouting at her daughter now, and Leila was getting more frightened by the second. She could hear a man¡¯s voice shouting angrily, ¡°I¡¯m warning you, lady, open the fucking door or I¡¯m blasting my way in.¡± Leila watched in shocked amazement as her mother shouted back loudly, ¡°Go on then, I dare you. But it won¡¯t be easy. A cannon couldn¡¯t get through there. My husband will be here any minute, and he will kill you. He will fucking take you out, mate, and laugh while he does it.¡± She shut the balcony doors and pulled the wooden shutters across, locking them quickly. Then, as she ran from the room, Leila followed her mother down the stairs, and into her father¡¯s office. ¡°Mum, we need to phone the police!¡± ¡°No, we don¡¯t! Your father is coming home!¡± ¡°Leila Demidov couldn¡¯t believe her ears. ¡®Mum! We need to get the police here now!¡± Maria was opening the large safe Enzo used for his cash, and Leila watched as her mother removed a large shotgun. Priming it expertly, she pushed her daughter out of the door roughly and, standing in the hallway with the gun aimed at the front door, she bellowed, ¡°For the last time, Leila, will you do what you¡¯re told for once. We don¡¯t need the police, OK? I¡¯ve already rung for help. Now will you just move it!¡± Leila heard the urgency in her mother¡¯s voice, and she ran up the staircase quickly, but she turned at the top of the landing, and watched her mother ¨C her quiet, kind-hearted mother ¨C calmly lock all the downstairs doors, before she once more positioned herself in the centre of the hallway, the gun cocked, her lovely face set into a grimace of hate. This was unbelievable ¨C it was like something from a TV programme! There were men outside trying to get in, trying to burgle them and, instead of phoning the police, her mum was preparing to take them on single-handed. It was wrong. It was terrifying. This was something that the police should be dealing with, surely? Her dad knew the police, they were always round the house having meetings with him. She was shaking with fear now. She sat on the top stair and, pulling her nightdress over her knees, she watched her mother as if she had never seen her before. And she hadn¡¯t ¨C not this mother, anyway. This was a woman Leila had never met before. This was a woman Leila was actually frightened of. Her mother opened the front door quickly, and her father was inside the house. She could hear the sounds of his men¡¯s feet as they scrambled around. He was holding her mother to him tightly, kissing her hair and talking to her in a low voice, calming her down, making her feel safe. Leila watched silently, aware that none of them had even noticed her. She moved quickly and quietly, so she was out of view, tucked behind the banisters at the top of the stairs, and hidden by the darkness. She heard her father ask where she was, and her mother tell him she was locked in her bedroom. She saw him sigh with relief. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Who are these people, Enzo? What are they after?¡± She saw her dad take the shotgun from her mother¡¯s arms carefully. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Maria. This was an accident. It should never have happened, darling. You didn¡¯t call the police, did you?¡± Leila saw her mother shake her head quickly. ¡®¡¯Course not. But I tell you now, another ten minutes and I would have. They were nearly inside our home! Our home, Enzo! Leila was terrified. I was terrified.¡± ¡°Now you go up and sort out our little Leila. Tell her it was a robbery gone wrong, and it is all fine now. Bless her, she must have been terrified. I need to shoot out for a while, but I will leave some blokes here, so don¡¯t worry. This is a one-off, darling. A complete outrage, caused by two fucking imbeciles known as the Alexandrov brothers who, for some reason, they are related to the ones I took care of on the island, those sick fucks, they got the guns they needed by complete accident. It should never have got this far! After I have dealt with them ¨C and, believe me, they will rue the day they travelled down to front me up ¨C I will then deal with the men in my employ who let this abomination happen.¡± Leila ran back to her room quickly and, locking the door behind her, she went to her bedroom window, watching as the men her father employed forced the two culprits into the back of a Range Rover. She could hear the two men protesting, and see the way they were being punched and kicked violently. She was still shaking with fear as she watched her dad walk over to the Range Rover, and on to the driveway. She watched the man¡¯s head burst open as her father struck him over and over again with such force she could see the man¡¯s skull and his blood spraying everywhere. She could hear her father screaming in anger, ¡°You dared, you dared to come to my home! My home! I will kill you. I will fucking kill you, you were dead when you caused my wife to feel unsafe!¡± The other men just stood there, watching her father as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The violence was so matter of fact, and she didn¡¯t know how she was supposed to deal with it. She was still vomiting into the expensive porcelain sink in her beautiful en-suite bathroom when her mother banged on her door, demanding entry. Everything she had known about her dad was a lie. She had finally seen it for herself. But it was her mother¡¯s actions that had really shocked her. That had made her realise just how little she knew about the people she lived with. Suddenly, she felt she didn¡¯t know anything any more. Her father who composed himself at the highest order, my father who commanded presidents, and other strong political entities as if it was the most normal thing to do, and her father who by all means was the most eligible candidate for being a complete gentleman; had blood splattered on his face, and looked at the corpses with no expression. He quickly fixed his tie, and left the bodies there. That had been the catalyst for Leila¡¯s sudden change, she an innocent young girl felt as though everything he had ever been taught about her family was wrong. Her father, who would never disrespect any man, had just cracked a mans head open with a swing of a bat. Soon she fell into depression, all the people around her were wearing a mask a mask of deceit. She found release in drugs, and partying; at the beginning it was just to see how far her fathers influence would get her out of trouble; but soon she fell in with the wrong crowd, with the help of uncle Aramis, she met people who were ready to give her a fix any time anywhere. She knew the uncle had no good intentions, but he simply no longer cared¡­ ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ The endless line soon diminished and I was getting closer to what looked like a desk made of bones, with a man who was sitting on the other side with a small black notebook in his hands. I was tired and hungry, but could still continuously walk on this small thin bridge. The wails of the souls below were somewhat deafening and made the long walk all the more nerve racking. I had finally made it to the desk and stared at the man behind it. He looked like a 30 year old man, of African American descent, and was wearing long flowing robes similar to a traditional Mongolian monk. He had no hair and was buily writing down something in his thin black notebook. He suddenly looked at me and I noticed that he had no pupils, he had bright white glowing eyes, that seemed to be haunting yet somewhat beautiful. ¡°Ahhhh, Enzo Demidov, I have been looking forward to meeting you¡­¡± he said giving me a toothy grin. ¡°Is that soo¡­¡± I said giving an embarrassed smile. ¡°How could I not, you are the strongest of your race, in your whole planet you may be strongest, whether money or power you had everything¡­¡± He said giving another sly grin. ¡°Sir, I am extremely confused, if you could please get to your point, I would much appreciate it. If this is hell I would greatly welcome it if you could get to the torturing, I will not resist, I know I have killed countless men,¡± I said regaining my usual composure as per the Godsman¡¯s code. These last few weeks had him completely unable to control his emotions. When his family is involved his Godsman code went out the window. The man looked at him and said with a voice full of deceit and sly disdain, ¡°Would you not want to know about what happened to your daughter¡­¡± he said I was instantly reverted back to my rage mode. I reached over grabbed the robes of the African American looking man, my mind going completely numb. ¡°Tell me what happened to her, before I rip your fucking heart and cram it down your dead open mouth,¡± The man looked less than surprised, almost laughing at me. I couldn''t hold it in anymore I took the stance of the tiger, and with a quick thrust, made my way into the mans body, to rip his hear out. Hmm.. I where is his heart. ¡°looking for something?¡± the man said. ¡°Tell me where my daughter is¡­¡± I said teething with rage. ¡°I will man, but trust me you do not want to anger me,¡± he said, his white hollow eyes slowly seeping a thick white mist from them, I quickly released my hand and he dusted himself and looked at me. ¡°I guess introductions are in order, my name is Keres, the judge of the universe, the holder of the book of life, and the son of the most powerful being in the entire universe the great god of creation, Erebus,¡± Prologue 0.75- Godsman Reborn Heya Guysssss, Here''s the new chapter. I was heavily influenced by various Xianxia novels for this one. My inital base of this story was, ''what would happen if someone like Harry Hart from the Kingsman movie, was put into a world similar to Coiling Dragon'', but that slowly evolved into this, i am truly enjoying writing it, and i promise to get another chapter depending on the reception. I scrapped the idea of doing a douluo dalu/combat continent type universe btw. Check out my other fiction: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... He gave small bow spreading his arms to the side, the white thick mist no longer flowed from his eyes and they were back to normal. Well, as normal as they could be when they were completely white. He slowly paced back to the desk sat down on his chair, putting his arms over the desk he crisscrossed his fingers and looked at me, I could not tell if there held any emotion in this man, but sure as hell could tell that he was incredibly powerful, and powerful men tended to be devoid of emotion. ¡°Enzo Demidov, your daughter by no means is a saint, and you of all people obviously knows this right?¡± He said still in a somewhat mocking tone. ¡°Yes,¡± I said, using the indifferent tone, which naturally came to from my Demidov blood. I could no longer ignore the Godsman¡¯s code, I may have been able to ignore, when I was at the pinnacle of power but now I seemed less than insignificant. In front of this being that went against every scientific belief I held, I could no longer be complacent of the code. Godsman¡¯s code, ¡®Never yield to someone weaker than yourself¡¯ also could be interpreted as yield to someone stronger than yourself. ¡°Your daughters¡¯ a real piece of work you know, she justified her own rash behavior time and time again, blaming it on you, you seemed to be her reason for being such a¡­excuse my language ¡®whore¡¯,¡± he said still with the stupid smirk across his face. ¡°I have never done anything wrong to her, she had the best, the best family, the best education what more could she want. There are children in the world living with neither of those.¡± I said, looking at him with a dignified expression on my face. But with a burning hot ball of anger in me. I clenched my fist so hard, even air couldn''t probably escape it. ¡°Ahahah, it seems you are employing your Godsman¡¯s code, not revealing your anger, in front of someone stronger than you. No wonder the other men coveted you as their leader, you know went to step down. I guess you do take the code seriously. Well the matter of the fact is your daughter is in the 8th circle of hell, I didn''t even need to judge her, she was directly sent to Malebolge, and is continuously getting ripped apart, and put back together, with her memory erased each time so she doesn''t get used to the pain,¡± He said ¡°How do I get her out,¡± I said. Deciding to shut off my emotions then, I could no longer keep it in without doing so. This man was purposefully aggravating me. I knew he could crush me but I need to know where she is before I take my action. My mind was calculating analyzing, on how to get to her. My brain didn''t help, I could not come up with anything, this entire notion of hell and heaven may have their own laws governing it, I had no knowledge of that. I had read Dante¡¯s Inferno, and the 8th circle was the second deepest region and to get there I had to¡­I didn''t know¡­my train of thought was interrupted by the clearing of Keres¡¯ throat. ¡°Ahem, ahem, you can¡¯t even perceive going down there mortal. My brother owns hell and he doesn''t take to intruders lightly. The only mortal who had ever been able to visit him was Aligheri, but that as just so he could design hell. And you are nowhere near hell how do you think you will get there, ¡± He said looking at me. ¡°Where am I?¡± I questioned. ¡°Oh forgot to explain, you are right in between the two actually, most souls do not look up to notice what¡¯s over their heads, you will see that.¡± pointing his finger to the top. ¡°That¡¯s heaven. I guess the wails of the people downstairs kinda makes it seem like hell doesn''t it,¡± he said jovially. I looked up to see that the sky was clear blue with beautiful white clouds, the whole sky seemed to give a resplendent light as I gazed at it. It was inviting and seemed as though a place where dreams would come true. ¡°But onto the main point, I can see that you have shut off your emotions, which will probably make this conversation easier. You Enzo are a man who has done more to your world, than any other man that ever in existence. You have not only saved countless lives continuously, but you have rid the world of some truly vile and sick people. I even see that you have spent countless amounts of money helping children across the world that are in need of education, food and other basic necessities, and another thing that truly astounds me is you never took any credit for it. You continuously invested money into the research of curing terminal diseases. You adhered to the code extremely well and never did anything unsightly always thinking of ways to improve yourself. You were one of the best for sticking to the code, you took the Godsman as a bible but your only fatal flaw was that you care too much for your family.¡± He said ¡°In a normal circumstance I would never encounter such a man in the realm of judging, but I intercepted you before my sister upstairs could get her hands on you. Do you know why Enzo ?¡± he questioned me. My mind was continuously processing all the information he had given me. Heaven, Hell I thought to myself. I didn''t know, I was still processing the heaven and hell part. ¡°I would like to give you an opportunity, how does that sound. Normally if you had gone upstairs to my sister¡¯s realm you would become an archangel and continue protecting people in various realms around the universe. But I intercepted you and decided to strike a bargain. How would you like to live again,¡± he questioned. ¡°I would not,¡± I said, clear and precise. I didn''t want to live again. If I were meant to go to Heaven then I might as well ascend there now, why go through pain and pleasure all over again. ¡°Ahaha, I knew you would say that. That''s why I decided to strike a bargain, how would you like to save your daughter?¡± He questioned, now with white mist seeping out of his eyes again, this time it wasn''t hostile, it almost looked like¡­excitement? The thought of my only daughter being relentlessly tortured and torn apart, made my heart ache, a deep excruciating pain would emerge from just picturing it. I had to save her, and he was giving me the means, of course I would take it. ¡°Truth be told Enzo, I am bored, I am bored out of my mind. My brother Thanatos, is always angry and edgy and my sister Minerva is always freakin happy. I only have these people to entertain me,¡± and he pointed to my back signaling at the millions behind me. ¡°These people are the ones who aren¡¯t clearly good, or clearly bad, and they will be judged by me and sent to my sister or my brother. Have you noticed something about these people Enzo?¡± he said I looked at them, I had not clearly seen them before but when I concentrated I noticed that they were all shapes and sizes. Some seemed not to be human either, with small wings and sometimes even ears sticking out from the top of their heads. I carefully saw that their attire vastly differed from mine. I was dressed in my pinstriped Valentino suit, with an open collar myself, but the others, they had clothing that was not even remotely seen on my world. Some were wearing armor, while the others were wearing some tribal looking clothing, none of these people seemed from the same era as me. I even saw people with heads of various animals, and other bizarre creatures dressed in unusual clothes. ¡°You see Enzo, this is the center of our Universe, and this is where all the life from all the realms meet to; either go to hell, heaven or be judged by me. My father Erebus, himself created this Universe, and we his three progeny rule it in his stead while he is training on his own little planet,¡± he said. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°My father was born from the endless chaos that stretched across the entirety of the universe, he himself could not be bothered, dealing with any of this so he created us three. I surprisingly held the most power out of the three, but I am less than interested in ruling a whole fuckin realm, so I decided I would judge life.¡± He said as if it was the most obvious of choices. ¡°In this Universe there are multiple small galaxies and in those galaxies there are countless planets, and in one of the planets you were born, why do you think I would care about someone as obscure as you?¡± he said. I knew it was rhetorical and kept my mouth shut, deeply concentrating on his explanation. ¡°Because, your planet although tiny in comparison to the others is special. Like all planets yours was also born with an immense amount of mana but a meteor, which destroyed the planets core, struck it. To heal its core the planet sucked 99.99% of the ambient mana in the atmosphere and rebuilt itself. So it resulted that the planet had no ambient mana. Even with no mana, somehow there started life on this planet and your planet flourished using science to make amends. This in itself was somewhat extraordinary but then you emerged and were the first to feel the miniscule amount of mana in the air. Do you remember when you were able to finally succeed in being able to feel ¡®ki¡¯, as you call it meditating for a long time, you dismissed it thinking it was nothing but you were able to suck the last of the ambient mana into yourself, giving you a somewhat stronger body than the others in your entire planet. That''s why you didn''t instantly die from those three bullets that struck you,¡± he said with a hint of marvel in his eyes as he looked at me. He remember the vigorous training he did while training in the martial arts of the monks in the distant Himalayan mountains. Those monks vigorously believed that through meditation you would be able to achieve a higher level of power, but to think that they were right. He had thought he felt something that time but dismissed it, as everything he learned from science was saying no such thing existed. ¡°The various beings behind you come from the countless planets my father created from his power.¡± He said pointing again at the odd creatures or humanoids behind me. ¡°Anyway, I will give you two choices you can ascend go to my sisters realm and live your eternity as a general archangel. It is a good life and you will be happy. The second option is in return for sending your daughter to my sister¡¯s heaven realm, you will have to be reborn for me on a realm of my choice,¡± He said. I thought about my daughter, her weak mind being repeatedly tortured, ripped apart, and tormented for eternity. I knew my daughter deserved it but as a father if I had the chance to save my daughter I would do anything. ¡°I will do as you bid. But in return I want you to not only send her to heaven but also erase her memories of anything that could remind her of her past self. Don''t let her return to being a¡­¡± Before I could finish the sentence ¡°Done,¡± he said. ¡°I have sent her to the heaven realm, she will be born as a daughter of an archangel, so she will have a nice life; don''t worry. Now on to you,¡± he said. Now I could see that the mist was seeping from his eyes in enormous amounts, he was thoroughly excited. The mist was bouncing off onto the table corroding it instantly but the table continuously reformed itself. ¡°Ok, I am going to send you to the largest and the biggest realm in all of the universe. My father personally made it himself, and it his pride and joy. This realm contains 3 planes in the realm. Each plane is the size of a single Galaxy, and so it is extremely enormous. The middle plane is the Mortal plane, filled with humans and various humanoids as well as magical beasts. The upper plane is the plane of Devas, filled with; humanoids and magical beasts that have achieved a sufficient power in the mortal plane and chose to go to the Deva plane. The lower plane is the plane of Yama, filled with other magical beasts and humanoids that have reached sufficient power but chose to go to Yama plane instead. I think it will be a fun little surprise for you, when you find out the difference in between these planes.¡± He said still excited ¡°My father himself created this realm to choose his successor. The crazy bastard that my father is; decided that my brother and sister are not ever going to be worthy of being his successor, I made the cut but I feel there is no competition. You see this realm, Avalon is special that my father gave these people method to become immortal and become powerful enough; to one day be able to fight on par with him. But these people are not even strong enough to fight with me let alone my father who is probably millions of times stronger than me. Right now I am on the forefront of becoming his successor but I have grown tired of the lack of competition and to be honest I have no motivation whatsoever.¡± I was still puzzled. Why was I being told all of this? It is just making me realize, how na?ve I was thinking that I had achieved the pinnacle by becoming a Godsman. But to think that I was so low in power. I was no longer worthy of the title. ¡°So to make things interesting, I have decided to reincarnate your soul into my fathers plane. I believe if anyone has a chance, it is you; you could probably give me some form of a competition. I have grown bored you see. Looking at those men in that realm, Avalon in the upper and lower planes thinking they are strong, it sickens me to be completely honest with you.¡± He said his eyes rolling, with a hint of disdain in them. ¡°Don''t worry, I will give you a slight head start. I will give you the technique my father, Erebus personally trained in. The technique he said gave him immense power, power of creation and annihilation. He gave it to me when he deemed Thanatos and Minerva were not going to succeed him hoping that it would help me. But I do not like it as it is tedious and takes a long time to give you power of actual value in my books. I prefer to train in my own method, my method is somewhat more¡­interesting,¡± He alleged. ¡°There are various humanoids and magical beasts in Avalon training in the three schools, the School of Minerva, named after my sister, who train in her techniques. The school of Thanatos, after my brother and the school of Keres named after me. Although they have been training in our techniques the strongest has barely scratched the surface of it.¡± He said. He suddenly stood up came up to me and put one of his fingers on to my forehead. I then was suddenly filled with pictures of the universe the various, intricacies. Various nebulae, various black holes, galaxies flashed through my head. In the background a voice repeated in my head. The voice was filled with primordial, raw power; so strong and so commanding it made my very soul quiver. ¡°That is the voice of my father, I had to control its power so that you body would not rip apart,¡± he said with a smirk on his face stifling a chuckle. He kept reminding me how pitifully weak i was. ¡°Anyway, you will not be able to be born in the normal way, as this is my first time sending someone to Avalon with the knowledge of their past intact, you will be born purely from nature just like how I was born, and you will be the first person in the realm of Avalon training in the school of Erebus¡± he said. He then without giving me anytime to think flicked his hand up, and my surroundings changed immensely. I was sitting in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. Trees surrounded me and the sun was bright and shining on my face. I shielded my eyes to block the sun. When I moved my hand up, I noticed that my hands were incredibly small, I looked at my legs. I found two small tubby cute little legs. I touched my face. My hard chiseled face was replaced with a plump cute baby¡¯s. Oh no,no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, That idiot Keres made me a baby, a freakin baby and left in the middle of the forest. Chapter 1- Mother? Heys guysss, Author here, bringing you a new chapter of Avalon, this chapter although not action packed or anything, is kind of needed, you know all fictions need that chapter where shit is explained, and in this one, this chapters it. I am slowly going to build my mc, he is going to go through a butt load of hardships and romance and stuff. What do you guys think about the length of the chapters so far, i am doing min of 2.5 k and if the words need to go over to finish the chapter then so be it. Anyway hope you like the chapter guyssss, Check out my other fiction: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Ariana¡¯s POV: I am the mistress of the king of the country in the North of Avalon. I was called the most beautiful woman in the Kislev country, which was situated in the north ruled by the noble house of Beherit. The lord of the Beherit house, Gotrek Beherit, was a man of great power; he had reached a rank of a Emperor combatant which was one step away from becoming a Saint level warrior, where the man would become an immortal. Becoming someone of such power, at such an age of only 45 was unheard of anywhere in the entirety of the continent of Avalon. He was called a genius the absolute prodigy of Avalon. People revered and adored him, looked to him as a role model. He was a strict and awe-inspiring man but was also a tender, gentle lover. The people revered and adored him; he was not only a wonderful ruler but also a warrior of great power. The people of Kislev were proud to be under his govern. I am the first and only mistress to Gotrek, he could never make me his queen, due to my common birth. I was the daughter of a travelling merchant, who sold jewels and trinkets, and when Gotrek saw me; it was love at first sight. The thorn at my side, his wife the Queen of Kislev, Melisandre was less than pleased when, Gotrek decided to move me into the palace. It has been 3 years since that happened and Gotrek, has already given birth to two sons, with the queen. I on the other hand was barren, completely and utterly barren. The queen would snide and deride me continuously making my life a living hell. I didn''t understand why has god given me such troubles why have I not been able to give birth to a single child, with the man I love. I asked Gotrek if I could have a leave of absence, to go look after my father as he was dying, afflicted from an incurable disease. 9 months later: ¡°Cough, cough¡­child go back to the man you love, don''t be afraid I will be here when you come back,¡± Ariana¡¯s father, Brano muttered. In an old shack north of Kislev close to the forest of the north, my father and me lived away from all the hustle and bustle of the inner city. It was summer, but due to Kislev¡¯s cold nature, even summer had a cool gentle breeze. I slowly put on my inner garments, and wore a plain white dress. ¡°Father, lets wait till you get better ok¡­¡± I said, giving him a bright cheerful smile. I slowly carried a bucket, and went outside to the well to fill it up. It had been 9 months since I came to look after my father, and truth be told, I do not want to go back. The continuous onslaught of the noble women¡¯s snippy comments coupled with that bitch queen leading them, I truly didn''t wish to go back to that stupid place. Even though I miss my husbands tender hugs, and the way he would touch and caress me; nibbling on my ear, giving me tender kisses. The way he would tell me about the stories of him defeating magical beasts of all kinds, and have unfathomable adventures across the continent. I slowly pulled the bucket up and looked at my reflection, a small tear fell from my cheek distorting my image in the water. I looked at myself; I had a thick head of brown wavy hair, coupled with bright green eyes. I looked nothing like my father, or mother as if god had intended me to be born this way. (Author note: God did want her to be born that way lol) I pulled the water out and went into the cottage. My father in his dilapidated state was on a small bed with his white hair falling out and his white beard was long and unrefined hinting at the months of unkempt hair. My mother passed away 3 years ago, and ever since then father¡¯s health also declined. I couldn''t bear to watch him in this state. I got a small wet towel and covered his forehead, and sang him back to sleep. My mother would often say I had too much beauty in me for my own good. She was right I thought more often now then ever. The next day as usual I woke up and went to wake my father, I rustled his body. ¡°Father¡­father wake up,¡± No answer came, fear and dread took over me. My heart sank my only support in my life my father wouldn''t wake up. ¡°Father please¡­wake up¡­oh god¡­please why are you doing this to me¡­¡± I muttered tears steadily streaming down my face. I don''t understand what I had done wrong. I buried my face into the bed and cried for what seemed like an eternity. I cremated him that day. It was the worst, most heart-wrenching day of my life. I knew now I had to go back, it had been 9 long months and I would have to go back now knowing my there was no one in my life I could rely on. Only my husband who was married to another woman who hated and scorned me. My eyes were red and puffy from the crying. I took my fathers ashes in an urn and went towards a clear lake situated close to the forest. I went to the lake, holding the urn in both hands and tipped my fathers ashes over into the lake; as per tradition. There was suddenly a strong wind that blew and the ashes scattered every where I blocked the wind with my back and turned to the side to find a small baby completely naked, sitting on the edge of the lake staring back at me. He had the same green beautiful eyes, and the brown luscious hair. I looked at the baby for what seemed like perpetuity staring back at him. He looked at me before giving me an intense stare, as if analyzing me, and then gave a bright smile, and muttered something incredibly cute. ¡°Auu gaga googoo,¡± he muttered. ¡°Auuu?¡± he said again in a surprised tone. I looked at him maybe heaven isn¡¯t cruel, as it seems. I quickly recovered and slowly walked towards him. Under his watchful gaze, he was somewhat cautious of me. I lifted him up his cute small legs giving me a kicking motion. I hugged him close. ¡°My son,¡± I said. ¡°Auuuuuuu!!???¡± he muttered as if he could understand me. ¡°Heaven is sincerely not cruel to me, you have taken my father from me but have given me a son, a beautiful baby boy.¡± I cried and sobbed holding him close to my heart he didn''t cry once. He only looked at me, as if planning his next move. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Enzo¡¯s POV: I was so pissed at Keres, that no brain idiot, he left me in the middle of a forest with no way to defend myself. I might as well have smeared blood all over me and jumped in a pool of sharks. I quickly formulated a plan, first I needed a food source, but it needed to be soft and mushy. There seemed to be no edible fruits of any kind that I know of here. So I could not eat them; the possibility of poison was way too high. I quickly scanned my surroundings. I seemed to be quite strong for a baby able to lift up a small rock, maybe that is due to my unusual birth circumstance. All I could see around me was thick foliage of greenery, in every direction. There was a small clearing in from of me and with a lake in front of it. I slowly and cautiously crawled to the edge of the lake to take a look at my reflection. I saw that I had retained my previous appearance, with my green eyes and my thick brown hair. Probably what I looked like as a baby when on earth I thought. I was looking at the fish in the water, their unusually bright coloured. Almost glowing and would suddenly move really fast completely unusual for me. I then noticed some dust was starting to fall on me. Wait this isn''t dust its freakin ash, I quickly wiped away the thick ash and when it settled, I could see the silhouette of a beautiful woman. She was looking at me her eyes were red, her cheeks flushed, she had obviously been crying quite a bit. She looked at me for while, I was scanning to see if she had any weapons that could harm me. Her dress was pure white, and her appearance was quite similar to that of my mother on Earth, I was perplexed, is this Keres¡¯ tricks. I guess he wants me to grow up with a family I thought. I needed to entice her with my absolute cuteness. I couldn''t live in the forest by myself, the first night I will probably get eaten alive by a leopard or some shit. I wanted to try and get her attention and I started making baby gurgles. My cute baby ness should have her unable to resist my charm. ¡°Auu gaga googoo,¡± I said giving her the most bright and enticing smile I could think of. She started crying, her eyes couldn''t stop from pouring down, as if a tap had been opened. I was perplexed, did I make her cry, I was starting think maybe she doesn''t want me. Ahh man, I guess I have to wait for the next person to come. She then picked me up, and I tried kicking my legs, and giving her short and cute little laughs. ¡°Aaa¡­ahah¡­¡± I said. She then put me close to her heart. I could feel her frantic heartbeat, her thud, thud, thud a steady drum of her heart. I think this is how I would feel if I did remember my mother, as a child. I felt so safe so secure. I felt as if she would guard me from the entire world if need be. I didn''t know what to think; maybe this was all according to Keres¡¯ plan. He purposefully made this woman, come here, and find me. His amount of power astounded me, just how powerful is he? That made me uneasy I didn''t want to follow a set destiny for me, but what could I do. ¡°Auuu?¡± I said, surprised by her sudden show of affection. ¡°My son,¡± she whispered holding me close. ¡°Auuuuuuu!!???¡± I muttered surprised at how well things were going for me. ¡°Heaven is sincerely not cruel to me, you have taken my father from me but have given me a son, a beautiful baby boy.¡± She cried and sobbed holding me close to her heart. What the hell? I thought, mystified by the whole turn of events. 1 week later¡­ I learned various things about this new world; from the stacks of books from my new grandpa¡¯s travel notes. I was surprised that I could read whatever and understand whatever language I read or heard. I ravaged through his diaries learning as much as I could from them about this huge country. The country was divided into the 4 different regions North Kislev region, known mostly for its military and its ability to produce one of the top most powerful warriors and the South Ambolina region known for its exotic produce and its trading center, to the other countries, the east Averheim region known for its powerful mages, and finally the west Giltari region was the region filled with various large academies and is on the border to the forest of the magical beasts of Avalon. I scoured through the journals trying to find a hint to where the various schools, such as the school of Minerva, Thanatos and Keres are situated, but they seem to be secretive which made me further ponder on how to get to one of these schools. My mother was the most kind, caring and compassionate woman, she was a mistress to the King of the Kislev country in the north; she was named the most beautiful woman in the entirety of Kislev, and was also deeply in love with the king. She would incessantly talk about how great my father was, and how he would love me and look after with great love. Before I know it I had also gotten a father. This week all I spent was trying to understand where I am, and how I should continue my life. I think staying with ¡®mother¡¯ should be fine. She was amazing with me, she would often sit me down on her lap and read me stories of various famous warriors and mages, but would always cicle back to telling me about my fathers amazing prowess. I would just roll my eyes in secret and continue to pretend to be interested. She would always look after me afraid to leave me out of her sight, afraid that I would be gone if she took her eyes off me. It kind of ruined any chance of me to start training in the School of Erebus. It seems the king of this country, my father was a genius, in the way of the Immortal; he was already an Emperor level warrior, I didn''t exactly know what that meant but I will soon find out. I was now heading towards the capital of the Northern Country of Kislev. In the capital my mother and I are returning to the king, who hopefully would believe as to think I am his son. My mother seems to be convinced that heaven had given me to her, so she looked after me as if I were his own. I was starting to feel small amount of affection for her, but I was cautious this time. I wont let family deter me this time, I need to become powerful, in this country I need to become a Godsman, I will go thorough my training again, start from scratch, practice the school of Erebus, continuously. The carriage was rocking as I was nestled in my mother¡¯s bosom; she was wearing a plain white dress again, but covered herself with a huge black cloak, covering me as well, keeping me safe, I could see that the carriage ride to the king only took about 8 hours as the capital was located fairly to the north, close to the mountains. After the long journey which I spent suckling on my mums teat and sleeping. We arrived at the castle. I could hear my mothers erratic breathing, she seemed to be extremely nervous¡­ Chapter 2- Father? Heys Guys, Double realease today, so technically i have finished my quota for the weekly 2 chapters for Avalon. But fear not i will try my best to pump out chapters for both fics, whenever hi have free time. How have you been liking the tory so far, it may be a slow pace to some but, i am more focused on the character building aspect of it than making him op so i am sorry if its not to your taste. How do you guys feel about the length of the chapters please tell me your opinion I have also started working on illustrations for both my fics so expect those some time next week Please dont forget to rate and comment means a lot to me when i feel as though my fic is being read and recognised, Check out my fictions: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658- Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556- Heroes of Jorg .......................................................................................................................................................................................... Enzo¡¯s POV We entered through the large thick iron palace gates, my mother still dressed in her cloak walked through the main entrance, she then did a quick turn, and arrived at the barracks, she swiftly avoiding the gazes of all the men entered the barracks and looked for a man. She precipitously sneaked into a private compound away from all the other regular, soldiers who were training in the barracks. When entering the private compound she frantically scanned looking for someone. She soon found a man who was wearing a thick heavy silver armor and had a large Claymore attached to his back. The pommel had a dragon coiled around it, with a ferocious glint in it eye. He looked like the ideal knight, training with his claymore doing swings and jumps, while holding what seemed to a Claymore weighing at least 500 kg. He had a thick head of Black hair coupled with his brown eyes, he looked handsome and rugged. He wielded the Claymore up and down, rapidly with ease, which made handling the heavy Claymore seem rather easy. He noticed my mother in the corner of his personal training compound and quickly dropping his claymore came rushing towards us. The Claymore made an extremely loud thud as it fell down and blew dust everywhere further strengthening my hypothesis that the Claymore was extremely heavy. He then dropped down, on one knee in front of my mother and looked up at her face, which was still covered in the cloak. I was still inside unable to be seen but through a small gap I was carefully observing every minute of the journey. ¡°My, lady you have returned, it has been too long,¡± he said, lowering his voice trying to not catch the attention of someone. ¡°It has Sir Loreck, where is my husband I need an immediate audience with him, he needs to see his son,¡± my mother commanded. She had no intention of hiding anything from this man, which surprised considering she didn''t trust anyone with my existence; always breast feeding after dark or while still inside the large cloak, she only taking the cloak off when in desperate need for some light. ¡°His SON!!¡± Sir Loreck exclaimed, he was perplexed at the thought of my mother having a son, why was that? I thought. We were still nestled in a small corner of the compound away from prying ears, so his little gasp couldn''t be heard. ¡°Yes I was with child when I left the city, I did not want to stay there knowing that my son might be in danger from the Queen. I was scared of what actions she might take to rid me of my only son.¡± My mother lied. I was surprised my mother did not seem at like a woman who would lie, she always treated me with sincerity and compassion; and the fact that she lied so easily surprised me. I was not at all appalled by her lie, she needed to do what was best for me, her basic instinct as a mother must have perpetuated such a lie. ¡°That was a good idea my lady, the queen has been having a wonderful time at your absence and if news of your child had reached her, she would have most likely sent assassins to take care of you,¡± Sir Loreck muttered, he seemed to be thoroughly and genuinely concerned about my mother well being. ¡°I know please take me to the king straight away, I need to show him to my husband before, his existence is discovered by the queen,¡± my mother urged ¡°Yes my lady, the King is in the study right now, I am will take you to him, unnoticed follow me,¡± he whispered. My mother followed him without a word, taking his hand. I was strapped to my mother inside the cloak by a cloth so I did not need to be held by her continuously inside the cloak. We took winding paths to the back door and from the smell of it seemed like the kitchen of the castle. We then took a series of winding paths towards the center of the hall and then took us up a spiral staircase. My mother¡¯s beating was getting more and more erratic; she seemed to be really nervous about meeting my father. We then arrived at a large double door, etched with a dragon on one side and a giant snake on the other. Sir Loreck, knocked on the door. ¡°Come in,¡± a booming low voice resounded; it was a voice that was low and almost billowy, making my mother¡¯s heart beat more turbulently. The door opened and a bright light shined on my face momentarily blinding me. Ariana¡¯s POV: My journey with my son was going smoothly, he never made a sound always observing his surroundings through a small hole in the giant black cloak I was wearing. Sometimes I wondered if he would every cry, but it never came. Once I thought he had died, because of how quite he was. But I quickly realized that he was just going about his usual routine of scanning across the entire location. Finding him after my father¡¯s death was a blessing God has vested on to me; he gave me my child to look after. To my surprise the first week after I found him, all he did was look for books, he was very inquisitive. In the night when I had him nestled close to me before going to sleep I would wake to find him, looking thorugh my father¡¯s journals as if he were reading them. Of course he couldn''t understand but it was amusing to watch him paying such close attention to books. I think he will be a great governor in the future. His future will be bright if he grows up in the castle. I then remembered the memory of the queen attempting on my life. When I first came to the castle I was sleeping in my room when suddenly a group of assassins attempted at my life. The assassins almost had me, but the queen had ordered the me to experience pain before dying so when the assassins were kicking me and beating me. Sir Loreck rushed in and managed to save me just in time. I was beaten to the point where I had to be looked after the healing mage for more than 9 weeks during which my husband refused to leave my side. From then on my husband always put two from his own kings personal guard to guard me. One of them was Sir Loreck a King ranked warrior. He was extremely kind and caring towards me and one of the only two people who I trusted in the entirety of the castle other than my husband. I felt extremely pained to lie to one of the only true friends but I had to, the secret that my son was not directly related to me cannot be known to anyone. We soon arrived at the doors to Gotrek¡¯s study. ¡°Come in,¡± he said. I nervously walked into the bright room. The room was filled with books stacked on each side towering high above me. The room was dome shaped, and had the painting of the battle between the dragon and the serpent painted on the top. He was still buried in his paperwork writing something with a long black feather. Without looking up he asked. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°State your business..¡± ¡°Gotrek, ¡° I called ¡°Ariana?¡° he looked up. His expression filled with pain, and a sudden burst of joy. He ran up to me coming to hug me. His 6-foot tall appearance paired with his handsome appearance would make any girl feel weak in her knees. He had thick head of brown hair, with bright red eyes. I quickly stepped back stopping him from hugging me. ¡°Gotrek, don''t hug me right now, there is something in my cloak I need to show I said,¡± I slowly lifted my cloak off. Suddenly there was a loud thud and the study door was flung open. From it came the queen of this country, the woman and person I detested the most in the world. Queen Melisandre. I looked at her, and her face soon turned ugly. She was looking at me with eyes filled with rage and anger. She had a beautiful figure with cascading Black hair coupled with her bright blue eyes. Following her were her faithful dogs. Her two knights who came from her own noble clan. She would use them to do all her ugly work. Often mostly focused on slandering and spreading false rumors about me. ¡°What is she doing here!!! Gotrek!¡± she called out unable to contain her anger. ¡°She lives here, Melisandre, and do not use that tone with me, you know I do not like to be questioned,¡± Gotrek replied. ¡°Sorry, my lord, but I wasn''t aware of your mistress¡¯ return and was unable to contain the surprise in my tone,¡± she said regaining her compouere. ¡°What were you saying dear,¡± he asked. His tone clearly different from the one he used to address Melisandre. I did not know if showing her my son would do me any good but she was bound to find out anyway. I slowly pulled my son out from under the cloak; he was still looking inquisiticely at the room scaning with his small emerald eyes. ¡°This is our son, Gotrek, the real reason I left 9 months ago was so I could nurture and labor him with the care of my father. I did not want to pose any danger to him.¡± I muttered. ¡°LIES!!!¡± Melisandre shouted. Her temper flared again. ¡°SHE IS BARREN MY LORD, HOW COULD SHE HAVE A CHILD, SHE MUST HAVE USED DARK MAGIC,¡± and with a malicious cry she shouted. ¡°GUARDS KILL THE DEMON CHILD IMMEDIATELY, HE DARE POSE TO BE THE SON OF OUR LORD, CUT HIM DOWN,¡± she shouted. I quickly covered his body with my own. My son was still not making a sound. He was still stoic with no expression on his face. ¡°MELISANDRE SHUT YOUR MOUTH,¡±Gotrek shouted this time truly furious, he infused a bit of mana into the shout and a large amount of wind blew towards her knights pushing them back to their original place. Melisandre looked at Gotrek truly baffled. She did not expect this turn of events. She stared looking back and forth between my child and Gotrek. ¡°Lord I apologize again, but how could she prove that the child is yours, she has been gone for over 9 months, maybe another¡­¡± before she could finish her sentence. Gotrek immediately used some sort of magic pushing her back out of the room and slamming the door shut in her face. He did not even give her the dignity of listening to her anymore. ¡°Arianna don''t pay heed to her words, you are the woman I love, I know that I our son, I feel as though heaven is telling me, that is our son,¡± Gotrek exclaimed. ¡°Ariana, tell me why you would leave without even telling me you were with child,¡± Gotrek questioned. ¡°I couldn''t risk it Gotrek, I was afraid for his safety, I didn''t think the castle was safe for me when I am with child.¡± I said giving him a sad sorrowful look. ¡°I understand, let me see him,¡± he asked. I slowly showed him our son. He held him to his heart. He had the grandest smile on his face. He couldn''t contain his joy. The boy coupled with his bright green eyes and his brown thick hair looked cute beyond measure. ¡°He looks just like you Ariana,¡± Gotrek exclaimed. ¡°Have you named Ariana?¡± he asked. ¡°No, I was hoping you would give him a name,¡± I said. ¡°Ok let it be known, from today forward, there is a third prince in the country of Kislev, prince Deimos, Deimos Beherit.¡± He called. As if understanding his words, Deimos gave him a bright cheerful smile and giggled. ¡°Auuu,¡± he said with his cute babyish voice. Gotrek and I looked at each other, I had finally managed to give him a son, I was truly happy. We then enjoyed each others company, we had not seen each other for 9 months. The uncontained passion and desire rushed forth making for a very beautiful night¡­ Deimos¡¯ POV: I now had a new name, Deimos, I remembered it was the name of one of the moons of Mars in my own Solar system. It would come really close to the sun more close than any other planetary body in the entire solar system, but still managed to keep itself alive. It represented resiliency to me, and my name was a constant reminder of my need to stay resilient and continually strive for my goals. Deimos also is the greek word for ''dread'', and featured in greek mythology frequently. Deimos was the son of Ares, the god of war and power and Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. he accompanied his father Ares into battle, and was said to bring forth most death, and misery. He was a personification of Trembling, Fear, Dread and Panic. I liked the idea that my name would produce fear and dread into the hearts of the people. Although that may be a myht i will make it come true in this new world, as a Godsman. I had now been left in my father¡¯s study, which turned to my pseudo baby¡¯s room, I was quite happy with the arrangement. My fathers study was extremely big, towering above almost 10 meters with a dome shaped, roof. In the far end of it was my fathers desk which in itself was extremely large. There was a small seating arrangement similar to the sofa on the far left side and stacks of books all around the right and left walls. The room itself was imposing and commanding. Coupled with the painting of the serpent battling with the dragon, it brought a ferocious feeling to the whole room. My father was quite an imposing man, he had left 4 of his own personal guards to guard me from outside the room and the room was completely barricaded so no one could get in unless it was through the main double doors guarded by the four elite soldiers. I learned that my father was man of great power, but was compassionate and loving to everyone around him. I had thought of a clear plan already, to start training myself, I was quite young but, over the years the Demidov family had created various methods to start the training for the next heirs quite early. Of course the training was made to start at the age of at least 2 years old but I have made it my goal to train in a similar manner, starting now. The training consisted of doing pushups, star jumps and various other exercises that not only increased your body¡¯s strength but also, your mental fortitude. I made it my goal to do my training everyday at night, but in the mornings try my best to start scouring the books in my fathers study. I then started accessing my knowledge on the School of Erebus¡­ Chapter 3- Purify Heys Guys, Whats up how you liking the story so far, ahahah hopefully it is to your liking. Anyway i am really in need of a PR bad please tell me if you are interested. I have gotten really into Avalon lately and cannot stop thinking about it. Thank god i finished all my exams last week, or else my mind would be elsewhere right now. I have not even had the chance to start writing the new chapter of my first fic, heroes of jorg thats how bad it has become. ahahaha Please dont forget to rate and comment means a lot to me when i feel as though my fic is being read and recognised, Check out my fictions: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658- Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556- Heroes of Jorg .......................................................................................................................................................................................... Deimos¡¯ POV: The school of Erebus, the technique that supposedly gave Erebus, enough power to create a whole Universe by himself. Erebus was a primordial being born from pure power, and through this technique he had been able to achieve enough power to create everything in space, from galaxies, to black holes, to nebula clouds, stars, and planets. His creation was the epitome of power. I knew he was a true Godsman, while on earth I was a frog in a well thinking I was the best, while unknowing of true power that lied outside, my little well. In this vast universe I was exceedingly insignificant. My supposedly exceedingly powerful father was just someone who was the best of the insignificant life forms. From the various books in my grandpa¡¯s shack coupled with his travel notes, meeting many warriors and mages, I was able to get a small understanding of the levels of power in Avalon. The pinnacle of power for most of the people was the immortal level, which is just above the level of an Emperor, which is what my father is. By my rough estimation from my grandfathers, transaction records on his various trips to the four countries, as a merchant I have estimated there to be around a 100 billion people in this continent. This exceedingly large amount did not mean everyone had the potential to become an extremely powerful entity. For every 10 million or so people there was one mage capable of practicing in mage craft and mana refining. Most of these people came from a noble bloodline; this is the reason why there was a clear hierarchical society in this world. The poor and the potential-less people were suppressed while the powerful nobles exclusively only intermarried with other noble houses, keeping the mage bloodline pure. My father seemed to have also been severely shunned when he had decided to let a commoner like my mother become his mistress and invited her to live with him. But with his awe inspiring power and the fact that he was the scion of the famous Beherit clan, the king of the Kislev country, and also the unparalleled genius of the continent; the people wouldn''t dare voice their opinions. This must be the reason why my stepmother was extraordinarily distasteful towards my mother. It must be blasphemous to her to let a ¡®commoner¡¯ like my mother in her presence. But the fact that she had to live with my mother, and also share her husband my drive her absolutely crazy. I need to remedy that in the near future; I cannot risk my mother¡¯s safety when I am not there to protect her. The Beherit clan was a clan who has a lineage of magically adept heirs for generations. The Beherit clan was famous for their continents best warrior mages, similar to a spell sword on Earth. From my grandfather¡¯s notes, I could see that we were overshadowed in the magic aspect by the royal lineage of the Averheim country in the east, but we were unparalleled in producing the strongest and the most powerful warriors. Each of the Beherit clans scions had legends made after their adventures, my great grandfather was told have ventured into the great forest of the west and has been in training for more than 300 years. The greatest hero of the continent was said to be the most powerful man in it history was named Beherit Lucifer, he had apparently gone missing more than 5000 years ago and hasn''t been seen since, his descendants were the Beherit House. Most of the countries were afraid of our military prowess but, they could do nothing, we were simply too powerful. But it seemed none of the Beherit clan¡¯s heirs were interested in taking over the lands, but more interested in the path of becoming an Immortal. I concluded that Beherit Lucifer had ascended or is training with the schools for a long time and these people presumably thought he had gone missing. This further aided to my hypothesis that the knowledge of the Immortal schools wasn''t available to everyone in public. In history there have not been many Immortal level warriors, or mages. Even in the Kislev country there has been only one man who has said to have reached an Immortal level in the past 1000 years my great grandfather who is supposedly in secluded training. There are at the most one known Immortal in the entirety of each country. I soon deduced that to become an Immortal would not be easy. My father was the pride of the country, everyone believed he would achieve Immortal status, and were proud to be the subjects of such a powerful man. I knew what lied after becoming an immortal joining a school and to start training in real power, to one day Ascend. The power levels in Avalon were, in ascending order of power, Serf, Vassal, Knight, Bishop, Cardinal, Monarch, Emperor, Immortal. To be an Emperor one must be both a Monarch level as a warrior and a mage. Then only can he train to become an immortal. Most mages who train can amass power to the level of a Knight at most, that is considered extremely powerful as one knight could kill more than 10 000 soldiers on a battlefield by themselves. Ascending further than that was exceedingly rare. A kingdom could have more than 1000 or so knights but could only produce 20 Bishops, and to have a Monarch was considered to be a powerful nation, for example Kislev has 2 Monarchs who are the generals of the army, and considered second only to the King, my father. My father was the only monarch in Kislev until he ascended to become an Emperor, which was unseen in the entire continent in the past 200 years. I slowly accessed my knowledge, of the School of Erebus and low booming voice once again serenaded me similar to the time in the realm of Keres. My mind drifted to montage of various stars. My mind was flooded with several images showing the life cycles of stars, stars that were 1000¡¯s of times larger, hotter and more powerful than our own sun. It then singled out to a single star and showed that the stars were born inside vast clouds of cold gas and dust called the ¡®interstellar medium¡¯, where dense lumps of material were gradually compressed under their own gravity. They soon form a giant ball of gas, becoming their own small thermonuclear reactors. The images then went to a molecular level, showing the fusion of Hydrogen nuclei, into helium in its ferocious central core. The pressure exceeding 200 billion times the earth¡¯s core¡¯s pressure. This giant sun was soon producing explosion on its surface, which spewed huge amounts of blue fire; the blue fire was ferocious, unyielding, and relentless. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Unrestricted by dimensions of space time, Achieve singularity, clement eternity, and exalt the gracious misconceptions of Immortality. Raise yourself weave the immaterial heavens to your liking the boundless space shall be your playground Create the blaze, the inferno, relentless, unyielding. The illumination of the soul, the cleansing of the soul. Embrace purity, forsake immorality. From here rise, and become a power devastating divinity ¡± I quickly recovered, and soon realized that this was the first stage and the most crucial stage of my path to become a powerful being. I realized that this technique did not give me any power what so ever. It was a soul purification method, an extremely commanding soul purification method. In this world the soul was the medium, the foundation to everything. A child was said to be born with the purest of soul, but the soul would be slowly tainted by various external influences, and when it became less pure, the smaller the potential of the child would become. If a normal school¡¯s purification technique was using the flame of a blacksmiths forge than comparatively School of Erebus¡¯ soul purification was similar to using the endless inferno of a star. I realized that this was the only method of the school of Erebus available to me until I reach the power of an Immortal. It was as if the knowledge itself was not willing to appear in my mind until I have reached a sufficient power level. The school of Erebus just like every other school was only available to me once I reach a power of an Immortal. Without the body, the mana and the soul of an immortal it was impossible to learn the teachings of any school. I had predicted that this would be the case. Giving a person such immense power since the beginning seemed unnaturally unfair, and Keres wouldn''t give me too much of an edge, he was my end goal after all. I had only the knowledge of my past and the purification as an added advantage. I need to single-mindedly make my self-powerful. When reaching the stage of an Immortal I will be slowly able access all the teachings of the school and hopefully rise to the pinnacle of the immortals before Ascending. Erebus¡¯ teaching involves attuning to the boundless the space, the infinite chasm of the cosmos. Erebus¡¯ technique for soul purification, Solar Flare flames, was similar to encompassing my soul with the flames of a burning star, to completely let the relentlessly hot searing inferno eat away at the corruption in a person¡¯s soul. Solar Flare flames get closer to the point of the strongest flames the Emerald green flames, the stronger they become. Right now they were at the weakest stage of blue, which is although extremely dominant, and exceedingly powerful compared to ordinary soul purification techniques, was nothing compared to the Emerald green flames. Erebus¡¯ techniques can be simplified in two words, Annihilation and creation. At the pinnacle of this technique I should be able to grab the folds in the space time fabric and move and manipulate it in whatever manner I seem fit, I could change the past present and the future and will be essentially god. I was a newborn child and I assumed my soul would be pure and in using this technique would become infinitely more pure, extra refined and powerful. I went to into the meditative trance and as per the instructions attuned myself to the cosmos and space, and covered my soul with the blue Solar Flare flames. I slowly sensed my soul to my surprise it was riddled with small amounts corruption. I quickly deduced that it was because my soul from my previous life was not altered whatsoever. I slowly started refining my soul, and the extremities were slowly being burned away. What Deimos was not aware was that the amount of corruption he had purified would have taken an ordinary technique 6 years to purify, and with the power of the Solar Flare flames he was able to cleanse his soul in less than 3 hours. This showed the profound power that the School of Erebus wielded. Deimos¡¯ soul was now completely cleansed and he continued purifying it, he knew that there was no more corruption but he continued, this was something he had deduced from his intellectual skills. He wondered if the profundities of the School of Erebus were truly as formidable as they said they were. He knew that he could eventually purify his soul with any ordinary method, but then why had this been said to be one of the most crucial steps for the school of Erebus. He had managed to clean his soul in less than 3 hours, and knew that if that were all that was there to the Solar Flare flame, it would be no different from ordinary purification methods. So he continued unknowing what was to come, but he knew that there was more to this technique than that meets the eye. The following days were nothing but an endless cycle of purifying my soul at night and reading whatever books were on the bottom shelf, at morning. My father was always at the study doing whatever was needed to keep the country working. He was a hardworking man and was deserving of my praise I thought. I would be often left with a small wooden toy and on the floor of the study, but I would always crawl around to the books and slowly read each of them one at a time. My parents were extremely proud for me to be able to crawl at the age of only a month, they were truly proud and my father would often bellow saying that I would grow to become a big powerful man just like himself. My mother would come as well in the mornings and would breast feed me and look after me; not that I needed looking after. We seemed like a small family, I was happy; I was slowly able to build up my knowledge of the world. I was going one step at a time to achieve my goal as a Godsman. I had often wondered where my two step brothers were but they never seemed to make an appearance so I decided to not let it be my concern anymore. I was purifying my soul at night one day and then suddenly I was picked up. I was never woken up so early in the morning before; it was a deep shade of blue outside indicating that the sun was just about to rise. I felt two giant arms holding him just under my arms. I looked at the man and saw that it was my father. My father had a complicated look on his face, suggesting that he was about tell him something bitter. He took me with him and sat me down behind the desk on his lap. He then sat close to me, and I felt a small tear trickle down from his eyes and hit me on my small arms. ¡°Life will be hard for you son, but be strong, you have great potential ahead of you¡­I will not be able to show affection to you from now, but know that I always love you and will cherish you,¡± he muttered before putting me back in my crib and leaving the room. Soon the doors flew open and the queen and her two guards were standing there staring at my small 2-month-old self. ..................................................................................................................................................................... Hey guysss, sorry if you dont think you will get to see the awesome power of school of Erebus soon,, but i dont want there to be an loopholes in my story so you have to bare with me ahahahah... but dw he is still gonna become a somewhat op charcter. and i can assure you him becoming immortal is not too far away Chapter 4- Cruelty HEYS GUYSSSSS, Wasnt gonna post this until i got new chapter of Heroes but, thats taking a while to organise.... Anyway this is the beginning of the story, my aim in thi fic is to create a true to earth stoic, pwerful unforgiving mc, i think this sort of backstory thing hasnt been done before, so i hope you guys like it. I dont like to make fics where the author has one goal and all he does is to get there, but he has a main goal that he is working hard towards, becoming immensely powerful, but there needs to be a series of small goals he has to achieve to get there.... I hope you guys like the new chapter..... Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658- Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556- Heroes of Jorg .................................................................................................................................................................................................... Gotrek¡¯s POV: My love had returned the woman who I loved more than life itself, had returned. The first time I saw her I was mesmerized, my heart felt like it was going a 1000 beats per second, my pulse accelerated and my body felt weak, I was an Emperor level combatant at that stage, and had been identified as the absolute genius of the entire continent. But when I saw her I felt similar to a 15-year-old boy, who was nervous about doing it for the first time. It felt as though the entire universe was commanding me to take her as wife, take her and take care of her. I was in love. I moved her to my home, in the castle located at the capital of Kislev. We were happy, everyday felt like a fairy tale, I was able to be with her whenever I want, I had not intended for her to be part of any noble gossip, but the people soon started calling her my mistress. I was furious determined to find the house who spread the rumors and obliterate them. But Ariana was not like that, she would always say ¡®let people think what they want. I love and I cherish you that is the only thing you need to know¡¯ She deserved more, she was magically inept but I was sure our offspring would be a great boy, so we had started to try to conceive a child. I knew that my wife would not approve, thinking that the boy would threaten her eldest child¡¯s chance of inheritance. My eldest boy Gunther was a 3 years old but I could tell he has similar potential to me, he was brim with power but the boy already showed signs of inheriting his mother¡¯s arrogance and her ego. He was my son, and I still loved him with all my heart. Then disaster struck, my Ariana was beaten kicked and severely crushed by assassins. I knew straight away that my wife was involved. I was certain that her pride would not allow her to let a commoner like Ariana live in the same vicinity as her; but I had hoped that her ego would melt when she saw how wonderful Ariana was. I was na?ve, I was unwise and simple. She had gone too far though. I went to her room that night and threatened to send her to a foreign land as an ambassador, away from her sons, but she was not the slightest bit scared. She knew my Achilles heel and she knew that she could kill Ariana any time she wanted, and she could get away with it, she after all herself was a knight level combatant, who I studied in school with, and was also from one of the strongest clans of Kislev. She could send out an assassin to Ariana¡¯s chambers and have her assassinated from the best in the entire country. Her House was far too influential, they were the House of Cletus, and she was the daughter of my first general Imperius Cletus, one of the two Monarch level combatants. Many in the kingdom were convinced that the Beherit House was just for appearances and that the House of Cletus were the ones controlling the country. They were not wrong, due to my House¡¯s long lineage of rulers leaving to train, the House of Cletus had generations to slowly weave a web of networks and secretly control situations to their liking. Imperius himself could come and murder Ariana and he would get away with it. Even if I kill him, the country would banish me for killing someone of such prowess for a commoner girl. The Beherit House would be brought down from the royal lineage and would be shunned for centuries, I could not let that happen¡­ The palace was not a safe place for my Ariana, but she continued, made friends with the workers, listened to their troubles and coaxed their woes. She never once complained that her life could be taken, in a second, she was scared I could tell but she never once voiced her concerns. I knew that she was being shunned by the court¡¯s ladies and that she was being suppressed by Melisandre, but I could do nothing. I couldn''t risk incurring the wrath of Imperius, who doted on his daughter. I could not do anything and it was eating me away. I knew my wife was troubled by the fact that we could not conceive a child, which further fueled Melisandre¡¯s wrath on her, her maltreatment magnified, whenever I went on long trips away from the castle I would return to find her in a state of dishevel, her eyes would be black, her hair would be tousled, I found once scratch marks on her hands, and bites on her back. From then on I never let her out of my sight refusing any trips and continued to stay close to her. Then suddenly she left for 9 months, claiming her father needed her. I was saddened I was sure that she could no longer handle such a harsh lifestyle and needed to leave. I was grief stricken; it was similar to that of a part of my heart was ripped out. But I endured, I knew she was doing the right thing leaving, but I couldn''t help but beg her not to leave but, she was determined and left. When she came back claiming she had a child, I knew she had done the right thing. Melisandre would have murdered her even if she had the small chance of giving birth. Our love bloomed again, I was ecstatic and I was determined to not let her stay be painful this time. For 2 months we were happy until disaster struck¡­ Melisandre POV: That Wench. She had brought back a boy my husband¡¯s son, I was sure she was lying, she couldn''t conceive I had made sure of that, the first assassination attack I had specifically told him to kick the lower abdomen of her body, to ensure that she couldn''t conceive. I had done the same to any girl who tried to get near Gotrek at the academy, and it worked like a charm¡­ Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I had made sure she couldn''t conceive but I see she had used deceitful ways to trick my love into believing her story. All the work I had put into this man was melting away at the notion that this street whore had returned. I quickly tried to open him to the truth that this woman was using dark magic to birth the child, but my love wouldn''t listen, he kept insisting that he had love for this base-born. I knew he was confused, he would always be confused, that''s why I had to be there for him and help him through this confusion. But today even I was angry; he had used his magic on me! And pushed me out of the room. How dare he do that to his wife? I was infuriated. He then went on to spend time with that woman for 2 whole months, he continued to care for her, shower her with love, and spend time continuously with that demon child. I need to save him; he just doesn''t know that that witch is tricking him. My sons, my two beautiful sons, Gunther, Polos didn''t need to be raised alongside that street whore¡¯s son. All of us don''t need to live with that woman, who is using dark magic to cloud my husband¡¯s judgment. She is using it to make him think that she was beautiful, and tricking my poor husband. This has been going on for far too long I need to put an end to this. I knew who to ask! I could just ask daddy Imperius and he will take care of it for me. I know daddy loves me¡­ I went to my daddy¡¯s personal manor, and went to meet him, ¡°Melisandre, my beautiful daughter, what brings you to your old mans place,¡± Imperius asked, coming to hug his daughter with his arms spread out. Imperius was a towering man, bigger than Gotrek, and was almost 8 foot tall, when he hugged his daughter she would only come to the middle of his chest. He had dark hair just like his daughter coupled with the Cletus family¡¯s trademark blue eyes. ¡°Daddy, this time Gotrek went too far, he..he ued magic on me,¡± she said putting on the show. Making a dramatic scene of her falling to her knees sobbing. ¡°What! I thought he was the man you loved, you said he would look after you, he is no doubt a man greater than your father, but I would die killing him if that''s what you want darling,¡± Imperius commanded. ¡°NO! daddy, he was being tricked by a malicious evil witch, she is using dark magic to make her more beautiful than me and manipulating him, please kill her for me,¡± Melisandre asked, using a cute tone to entice her father. ¡°Child don''t kill everyone because of your hate for them, no we can just do a little something to her, make sure she can never set foot in the castle,¡± Imperius grinned. ¡°But make sure she feels the pain father, she has been making my life hell,¡± Melisandre urged again. ¡°Whatever you want child, anything for you,¡± Imperius replied looking lovingly at his daughter. Ariana¡¯s POV: I had just visited my son that morning, he was growing beautifully, already crawling continuously looking at books, I was sure he would be very smart when he grows up, and that made me feel extremely happy. He had thick head of dark brown hair, similar to mine, but had glowing emerald green eyes, compared to my pale green ones and I swear his eyes would shine sometimes. I retreated to my room, going to the lavish bedroom my husband had provided for me. I thought of my husband my poor husband, I knew that my presence induced great pressure on him, and the fact that he couldn''t protect me was eating him away. I never complained however hard it got. I was happy that we were together, and that were raising a beautiful boy together. I lied on my bed, and slowly drifted to sleep. Suddenly my face was gripped by a fierce power, the big hand was covering my whole face only allowing for one of my eyes to see a huge man with his face in the shadows. I struggled against his grip; he made a low chuckle and suddenly thick yellowy brown smoke drifted from the hand, which had my head in it. There was a slow release of thick pungent smoke, I felt the smoke touch my face, and my face distorted beyond anything I could imagine. My skin was peeling away thick blood oozed from the crevices, and the exposed muscle was filled with the smoke, which continuously gave birth to huge blisters filled with pus, which was continually oozing. Searing pain, unbearable pain I screamed but my lips were slowly withering away, and my tongue was dissolving in my mouth. I could feel some of my teeth slowly eroding and my brain filled with agony. My whole head¡¯s skin my forehead, my cheeks, my nose and even my scalp, was slowly peeling away with a slight touch of the poison. The inwardly growing blisters were readily popping filling my exposed muscle with pus and further inducing more blisters. The pain was unbearable it was eating me away, I knew I was going to die, I readied my self for death I thought about my husband, my son, and knew that I didn''t want to die¡­ Someone save me¡­ Suddenly the pain stopped the man stopped hurting me and started healing me instead I didn''t understand, but before healing me completely he left as quickly as he came. I tried to scream but realized my tongue was dissolved, I couldn''t make a sound, I tried to feel my face and realized that it was riddled with blisters, huge pus filled ones. My teeth were almost dissolved and my hair was peeling away. I could no longer feel my tongue, which was severely eroded. I couldn¡¯t think, I was still in immense pain, slipping in and out of consciousness. I knew my face was no longer the same, I wanted my husband to save me but no one came. My heart hurt. My face was poisoned, and it was eating me away. Someone please save me¡­ Deimos¡¯ POV: I was greeted by the queen¡¯s guards, the queen was staring at me, her face filled with sinister ecstasy, she seemed to have done something. My heart suddenly ached, had she done something to my mother? ¡°Guards, the witches¡¯ true face has come to light, seize the demon child!!¡± the queen yelled. Chapter 5- Vengeance Heys Guyss, Heres a new chapter of Avalon didnt expect double release right ahahaha, i expected that there would be hate so prepared a double release just in case. BUt i guess i need to use it now to not lose my readers aahahaha. anyway hope you guys like it and dont forget to rate and stuff. You know what to do. Check out my fictions: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos¡¯ POV: I was held by the guards, and was escorted to the main hall, I was roughly handled, but I didn''t make a sound. I carefully observed, looking around at the long corridor trying to guess where they were taking me. My small heart was beating furiously, thinking about the various scenarios that came to mind. Judging by the expression on the queen¡¯s face coupled with the way the guards were handling me suggests that I no longer held any value in the castle, I was then held in front of two giant doors, and the queen opened them bursting inwards. Inside was the royal hall, with the kings throne at the far end with my father seated in it his face in his hands. I then canned around until I looked down and noticed something. My mother¡­ I had never seen such a sight before, in all my years as someone of such power I had seen enough confronting things in my life, but this was similar to when I had seem my daughter on her deathbed. I straight away new she was my mother, she had been chained, shackled and I then saw her face. They had done unspeakable things to her, her lips were eroded, her hair was left with all but none, and my heart ached, and twisted, looking at her. I knew the queen was involved her ecstatic face was all the proof I needed. I looked at her, my mind drifting into old habits, old colorful habits; I could taste her death, similar to tasting something metallic in your mouth. I wanted to break her, and break her, and break her, and break her, and break her, and break her, and break her, and break her until she was barely able to know herself, all that would be left in her mind was pain and all she would ever feel was pain. My inhumane side had come out after its long rest and it wouldn''t go back until it tasted this bitch¡¯s blood. I looked at my father, my anger was seething, he had yet again failed to protect my mother, I knew one of the reasons my mom¡¯s heart was so erratic when entering the castle was the countless abuse she had suffered. I knew when I saw her changing a couple of times I had seen the various bruises on her body. Everything clicked, Keres hadn¡¯t sent me here to get powerful or have an easy life, no he had sent me here to know what truly cruelty was capable of. I saw next to my father on either side of him, two small boys were standing, one exhibiting similar facial features to my father, his head held high a disdainful look on his face. I then saw another smaller boy, he was small boy and was looking puzzled trying to understand the situation. I knew they were my two step-brothers. This gave me more ways to torture the bitch I will destroy her, and her family and make her watch as it happened. Sitting on the right ide in a smaller throne was a big old man, of about 7 foot height looking intently at the situation, he had similar features to the bitch and it made it easy to discern that they had some blood relation to each other, and across him on his left side was woman of about 30 she had long blonde hair and was also observing the situation. I knew that these people were the Monarch level combatants of the Kislev country. The hall was devoid of anything else, making this seem as it were a personal situation. I was sat down next to my mother, whowas hiding her face from me afraid I would cry. I looked at her and snuggled in close into her arms, sitting in her chest giving the same bright smile I always gave her. She cried, all her worries seemed to spill out, she was not afraid for herself or sad that her beautiful appearance had been deformed into a monstrous entity, but she was genuinely afraid that I would not come to her. I cried then for the first time, the woman who had looked after me with all her heart, the woman who cared for me more than anyone in my present or past life. I loved my mother, and the bastards who did this will pay. ¡°Let the judgement commence,¡± the big man bellowed. ¡°This lady is accused of seducing the lord with her false appearance, using it to for her own gain, and has birthed a demon child who may be as vile and disgusting as her, I as the first General and Monarch of the Kislev country advice King Gotrek to hang the villainous woman,¡± he bawled. I looked at him, I knew that he was somehow related to the bitch, he had something to do with my mother I thought. He kept exchanging glances with the bitch and giving her nods. This worthless, asshole, I no longer needed proof I will destroy this fucker. Yet again a man had destroyed something I love I was bubbling with anger, I mind kept flashing back to the scene of my daughter dying I was seething with rage, but my body wouldn''t respond, I was too small too feeble. I had once again broken a rule of the Godsman, ¡®Always protect the ones who have protected you.¡± My father looked at my mother than at me, he then looked at the two monarchs. His eye were red, and his palms were bleeding. I could see his was raging with anger. But all I felt for this man was disappointment, an absolute disappointment, he had failed to protect the woman he loves, he doesn''t deserve to be husband, let alone a king. I no longer held any feelings for the man. ¡°That woman doesn''t have any knowledge of magic whatsoever, she has not enough mana to do such a thing either, of course a man of your caliber should be easily sense that Imperius,¡± the 2nd monarch questioned. ¡°She must have used human sacrifices or something of the sort, to temporarily increase her capacity¡± he bellowed trying to ascertain his claims. ¡°Those sort of rash claims are only made by mad men, you imbecile, I will not let you kill this woman, just for something you heard from your daughter,¡± she exclaimed. I liked this woman, I thought. My father, who was quite this whole time raised his voice, ¡°I also agree with Jeanne I will not let this sort of rash claims be justified in the court of law, I by the power vested in through the Beherit bloodline, pronounce this woman be banished and be sent to the care of Jeanne the General and the Monarch of Kilev country. This woman will no longer have any connections with the Beherit line, and her son will no longer be a Beherit. This is to ensure that on the off chance this woman is capable of such magic, she will be immediately subdued by Jeanne,¡± my father said, he was clearly angry a vein in his forehead raging to pop. Stolen story; please report. We were then slowly escorted with Jeanne, back to her manor, located in the mountainous region on the Northern border of the Kislev country. We were riding in her carriage, looking at each other my mothers, one eye was milky while the other was green, and Jeanne was looking intently at her. ¡°I am sorry for what has happened to you¡­¡± she said her voice filled with genuine concern. ¡°Fate has been cruel to you, but rest assured no will harm you, before Gotrek had never come to ask me anything, but he begged me for the first time, to take you and your son away from him. I don''t expect you to feel any feeling for him anymore but I just wanted you to know what had happened.¡± ¡°You will be safe with me, I will look after you and your child, and you will become part of my house, you will become my first sister Ariana, I hope you will take care of me, and little Deimos, you will become my nephew, she said with a hint of light on her face,¡± she was genuinely sorry for what had happened to my mother. I had seen many people and experienced first hand many acts of deceit, but I knew straight away this woman was genuine, more genuine than anyone I had ever met. I knew she would protect my mother whatever the cost. I looked back at the castle. I looked at the towering mass of stone and concrete, I felt anger, as this place reminded me of my past life, my inadequacies in not being able to protect the things I love. I will raze this castle, I will destroy every living soul that had done harm to my mother, I will leave it ruin, and will bathe in the blood of those who have wronged my mother. I Deimos, will destroy the queen and any and all she cares for, I will make her feel pain beyond anything anyone has ever felt. I will have my VENGEANCE¡­ ¡­12 years later¡­ I was running up the snow peaked mountains, bare foot, wearing nothing but my inner shorts and my black cotton pants. My hot sweat was dissolving any of the snow that would fall on my body. Heat was exuding from it at the intensity of my workout. I was shirt less and was almost at the peak of the mountain. I went up scratched a line on the giant rock and came back down. The rock now had more than 9000 scratches indicating the number of times I climbed it. I ran back down my brown medium length hair flowing and my green eyes bright. My face was handsome for a 12 year old and my body was quite powerful for one as well. I had a singular goal these 12 years. I need to become stronger¡­ I have read almost all the books in Jeanne¡¯s personal library and have read almost all the ones in the public library of Kislev. I had visited once month the main city since I turned 6. I ran down the mountain everyday and ran up, this was just one of the several hundreds of different mountains I had climbed. I was slowly building my strength, and my body. I was still a serf in combat but no one would become higher than that until they receive their Divine Tattoo. In this world for a practitioner to start learning magic or become adept at combat, they needed to gain their Divine Tattoo. A divine tattoo is a tattoo that every child of age 12 gets if he has the potential to be a combatant. The children all over the country would come to Kislev to take the test, even noble children would have to come, down from their manors to the common temple to take their test. A divine tattoo is not only a indication of how powerful one would become but also tells a person their respective magic affinities. The tattoos were divided to 10 different types: In order of ascending order of potential, Elementor, Alpha- Elementor, Beast, Demi-God, God, Cataclysm, Celestial, Asura , Olympian, Titan. There has only been one Titan in all of existence the founder of the Beherit house the greatest hero of all time, Beherit Lucifer, the King of Kislev himself has a Divine tattoo of the Cataclysm level, and Jeanne has Divine tattoo of a God level. I noticed that anyone who got above God were exceedingly rare. A God level Divine tattoo wielder would have the potential to become an Immortal. So anyone above that would be considered as being a monster level person. A Divine tattoo would also tell prospective academies the potential of their candidates. Each of the academies will invite children straight away at the end of the ritual, and would offer them various incentives to join their academy. I was gazing at the stars; with the continuous use of Solar Flare meditation, which now makes a bright golden color around my soul, one evolution after the blue flame, I could now see stars in the sky whenever I want. The stars would always guide me to wherever I would want to go. I was truly surprised when the color changed. I would be able to see stars whether it was night or day as if I was connected to them, My soul now was beyond pure, a soul is pure when it is completely white but my soul was clear, with no color, this truly surprised me, I did not know what that meant, but I knew my soul was stronger, and was continually getting stronger. The level of a Divine tattoo could be told by the color of the aura the produce during the ritual. Each had a separate color and would be easily distinguishable. I was heavily researching the divine tattoos, as tomorrow was the day of the ritual. I would have gotten one step closer to my vengeance. These few years had been quite for mother and I, I told her that I knew what had happened and she was truly surprised. I had changed my name, my mother who now did not want to be known to anyone, let me choose my own name. I decided to go with Deimos Demidov. I walked into a small shack at the edge of Jeanne¡¯s compound, and walked into the room, my mother was sitting on the floor knitting a wollen scarf. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Hey guys, HOW YOU LIKE ME NOWWW ahahah anyway you guys might think i am rushing it but trust me this is where all the good parts starts watch as Deimos goes full meticulous and carefull psycho on the queen and her family, while he going to academy. So the start of youth is onnnn Chapter 6- Divine Tattoo Heya Guys, Sorry for not updating for 2 days, i was really busy due to the school formal and i kinda got out of control at the party .I made this chapter extra long for you guys so hope you like it... Anyway heres a new chapter for you guys, hope you like it. I will try my best to pump out a chapter a day for the next three weeks cause i have HOLIDAYS yeah. Dont forget a rate and stuff, and i was sure someone promised me a detailed review once i get to this point cant wait for that.... Check out my other fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos POV: I glanced at my mother sitting in the small shack bordering on Jeanne¡¯s large estate. Jeanne was the 2nd most powerful person in the entirety of Kislev and equal only to Imperius, therefore her estate was extremely large and had a sizable number of workers. Our existence was kept a secret, no one, not even the king or Imperius was aware that we were not living with Jeanne instead living in the corner of her estate. When I had gotten to the age of 3, I told Jeanne everything about my mother and the king¡¯s situation. Jeanne cried for hours completely sympathetic to our plight. I had read that the affinity of an individual¡¯s element defines their personality; Jeanne was a dual element Light and Water style magus warrior. She was known as the Cruel Light Beauty; due to her expert use of Light style magic in the battles she had done, paired with her inexplicably striking appearance. Light style magi were known to have a very emotional and sympathetic response to situations. Dual elementals were extremely rare, being only 1 in every hundred or so magi, so this further amplified her status in the Kislev country, and no one dared to go against her. My mother could no longer speak, and she was blind in one of her eyes, and she also no longer had the sense of hearing. Her face was swollen, due to the pus filled blisters, continually exuding their filth. I looked at her felt an indescribable feeling of sadness. She could¡¯ve have chosen to live in the mountains at her father¡¯s shack at that time, but she wanted a nice life for me and chose to go back to that hell hole, of a castle. My heart gripped, I thought about the last 12 years how our life has been. We were sad, but my mother had only cried once. * FLASHBACK * It was the night my mother was banished, she was exiled from the castle, and we had arrived in the estate of lady Jeanne. I was hungry and intently looking at my mother trying to signal my hunger. My stomach growled, Jeanne chuckled and pulled me in close trying to feed me from her breasts. I cried pushing myself away from her and huddled close to my mother. I refused to be fed from anyone else but my mother. My mother looked at me, one of her eyes milky due to the attack, and looked away, indicating she would no longer feed me. She was heartbroken, she was sure that I was scared of her even after my display at the Castle. She was sure that I would no longer want to be fed by her. I cried and cried, I didn''t want to be fed from anyone else. My mother tried to pull me away from her, but I tried my best to hold on. She finally gave in and fed me. I intently sucked on her teat and after quenching my hunger; I looked at her, and smiled giving her my brightest smile again. She cried, and hugged me close and I knew then that she was scared that she would lose me. She was scared that I would be frightened of her. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Jenne had treated the wound on my mother to the best of her power but the infection my mother had would not go away. Jeanne said that it might have something to do with the fact that it was an attack, of power equivalent to her own. I knew straight away it was Imperius, the bitch queen¡¯s father¡¯s attack. I then decided that he is second on the list of people I would kill. Jeanne usually visited us once a year, on my birthday, giving me gifts. I requested every time for rare book, and she always complies trying her best to get at least one for every one of my birthdays. The King had visited Jeanne over the years on each of my birthdays, but Jeanne refused to let him come close to us, and she was right to do so. No one knew my appearance anymore only the King, Jeanne, Imperius and my mother knew my appearance. Jeanne cleverly made sure no one knew of my existence as the Kings ¡®son¡¯, and had discretely erased all the people who were at the Judgement day¡¯s the memory of my appearance, to make sure I was safe. The only one she could not was Imperius, and the king but she believed that Imperius would never remember the appearance of someone so much weaker than himself. My mother revealed a smile, handing me the scarf she had knitted, a beautiful black scarf, made from materials Jeanne had given us, supposedly string that was pulled out of a Cardinal level magical beast¡¯s core. Her dissolved lips, which were exposing her teeth, gave a scary sight to others. But I still found that my mother¡¯s smile is the most beautiful of all. My mother was the strongest woman I know, stronger than Jeanne stronger than anyone; she refused to fall into grief even after how much pain and suffering she had gone through, she endured and found happiness in the small things in life. She could no longer hear or speak, and was grief stricken for the first 3 years, but on my 3rd year I started teaching her sign language from Earth. She was ecstatic, able to communicate with me again. I made a thick book for her indicating the hand signs and then writing their meaning next to it. I had knowledge the language of this world easily and also self taught the writing in this world. My mother was surprised but was euphoric to be able to ¡®speak¡¯ with me again. She showed me the sign for dinner and pointed at the table at the corner of the shack. Small amounts of mist rose from it indicating it was piping hot. I put on my white cotton shirt, tied the scarf around my neck and walked to my dinner. I brought it over and sat with my mother. She made hand signs, questioning me if I was nervous for tomorrow¡¯s ritual. I signed saying ¡®no¡¯, I wasn''t nervous I was just methodically thinking about the possibilities of my Divine Tattoo. I was sure that I would get one of at least ¡®God¡¯ level but was scared of the attention it would garner. I was going to pose as an orphan named Deimos Demidov, and as the possibility of a non-noble having magical potential was extremely low; coupled with the fact that I would get Divine Tattoo coveted for giving a person a chance of being an Immortal level combatant, I wasn''t sure what the reaction in the public eyes would be. The knowledge that I was the ¡®son¡¯ of the Beherit house was not known to anyone, as far as the public knew, Gotrek only had 2 sons, one was as much of a Genius as his father, being gifted with a Cataclysm level Divine Tattoo, and the other younger son awakened his tattoo last year, and he was even more famous for being the first in the last 4000 years to be wielding a Olympian level tattoo. When people came to know the power the younger son would wield they were beyond ecstatic, calling him the future of Avalon, and maybe the re incarnation of Beherit Lucifer, the greatest hero of all time. His name was Polos, and was set to become the most powerful being in the continent in the future. His birthday is now going to be celebrated by the people as a festival, and this year would be the first year of ¡®Polos day¡¯. Every Divine Tattoo was different; everyone had his or her own specialized Tattoo similar to a fingerprint. All tattoos were said to be the channels of power, and were not an indication of the affinity. The tattoo¡¯s size was different to everyone, and was not an indication of how much power one would have. For example an Elementor level tattoo could appear on the forehead of a person and span till his neck and would exude an orange misty light, indicating that he was an Elementor level Tattoo holder. The Tattoo would not stay on the person and would slowly disappear. It would again appear only when magic is activated, and would exude the aura of an Elemntor tattoo. The size of a Tattoo would not tell a person the power level instead the light the tattoo would exude is the indicator. A magic crystal then tests the affinity of a person. When the Tattoo is activated depending on the power of the Tattoo¡¯s there would be an after shock causing collateral damage. When Polos awakened from his ritual his tattoo spanned from his palm all the way to his neck, due to his Olympian level Tattoo he exuded a pure white mist from the tattoo and he caused, the whole of the church to shake violently even with its defense system that was said to withhold an attack, by a Cardinal level combatant. It is important to note that the wife of Beherit Lucifer, Beatrice Verdant, a Celestial Level Divine Tattoo holder, had made the church in Kislev, merging her own magic into it, to give it power to with hold any aftershock from the ritual without any damage to the church. This building had existed for more than 5000 years without a single blemish on the stone, and when Polos had made it move, the people were scared thinking it might collapse. It is important to note the power of such a Tattoo. A Divine tattoo only appears in one location on the person¡¯s body, for example an extremely long tattoo could appear on a person starting from the leg spanning till his chest but it would still be considered one location. There is an exception to the rule where Beherit Lucifer the Titan Divine Tattoo holder was said to have his tattoo on two locations, on his face as well as his right leg. A Titan is said to have enormous power so it manifests in two different locations. Gotrek¡¯s Cataclysm level Divine Tattoo covers his entire face with various markings and would span till the middle of his chest. Every tattoo exuded a different color when activated, a Elemetor would produce a faint orange light, an Alpha- Elementor would produce a bright vermillion light, a Beast would produce a dark green light, a Demi-God would produce a light blue light, while a God level would produce a dark blue light. When going into the final five there starts to be an Aftershock from the activation like the activation of Polos¡¯ tattoo. Cataclysm would cause a blood red light, a Celestial would cause a purple light, a Aura would cause a black light, An Olympia would cause a white misty light, and supposedly a Titan would cause a bright gold misty light to exude from the tattoo. I slowly packed my bags; I knew that I could return again until I had gotten sufficient power. If I were to pose as an orphan I would straight away be taken to the academy after my acceptance. I looked at my mother, she knew of it too; she looked back her eyes tearing up. I embraced her, I myself crying my heart out. It was all going according to my plan, I lived 12 years only doing things to gain power and amass knowledge. I now needed to head to my next stage. Gain enough power to kill Imperius with my own hands. I would stop at nothing to get my revenge and find a way to heal my mother. I could not risk her life, if people were to find that a powerful Divine Tattoo wielder was entering Jeanne¡¯s estate they would come to her scouring for me, I could not risk anyone knowing of my background as they may even employ spies to find out more of me. I looked one last time at my mother, and gave her the sign thanking her for all these years and telling her to wait for me, I walked out without looking back, as she frantically made signs with her hands, I didn''t want to know what she said. I didn''t want to cry again. Then I heard groaning noises. ¡°Urrggghhhhaashsss,¡± I looked back and saw my mother was sitting by the door looking at me with tears in her eyes. It must have caused her immense pain to make even a little sound. I ran to her embraced one last time and parted with her, it hurt me beyond any weapon leaving my mother by herself, but it was necessary. It is for revenge and I cannot mess up, I will leave the House of Cletus decimated, and will not let my mother be hurt in the process. I am Deimos Demidov, I am a Godsman. I sneaked out of the estate, and slowly walked through the enormous city, towards the center, in the pitch-black darkness. It was the middle of the night the day before the Ritual, I slowly walked to the Temple and sat myself down next to the temple on its eastern wall, and went to sleep. * NEXT MORNING * I was awoken from a the loud commotion, I opened my eyes to see that there was an enormous number of people everywhere people from all over Kislev must have come to test their children. There must have been more than 5000 children waiting in line who think they may have potential. I looked at the Temple. It was an enormous almost Victorian church type building located right in the middle of the capital of Kislev. I looked at it, and saw that the huge white building was filled with people with their parents. There were people from the villages, who must have come hoping to god that their child had potential. There were nobles from the inner city, who came to see the level of Tattoo their own child wielded. I slowly walked carrying my single small brown rucksack with a pair of clothes and some of my favorite books. These were all the belongings I held. My mother and I had refused any and all gifts from Jeanne afraid to take advantage of her hospitality. We only accepted food and books, everything else was from my mothers work with fabrics or forcibly given to us by Jeanne. My mother also only accepted the string from the Cardinal level monster core after Jeanne started breaking down crying saying my mother doesn''t love her. She reminded me of a needy golden retriever Jeanne. She would only show this side of her to only my mother and I, but outside was known as the Cruel Light Beauty who showed no remorse in killing and was a fiend on the battlefield. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I wore my black pants and white cotton shirt, and was wearing the most ordinary clothes one could find. But my substantial appearance did garner some unwanted glances. Through the years my face was slowly becoming quite handsome even though only 12 years old I was quite the cute guy, with my almost coppery skin and my striking green eyes, my mother often called me the most handsome boy in Kislev. I looked lined up in between two high noble children, a boy and a girl, both had quite a lot of jewelry on them and were standing next to their parent who were wearing even more jewelry. The girl had flowing white hair quite an unusual color and coupled with her striking brown eyes, while the boy had bright red hair, with similar brown eyes. I could see they were openly making signs that they were disillusioned that I was in between them, making signs indicating I stink and calling me a filthy commoner under their breath. I knew the purposefully said it so I could hear them but I continued to look ahead not giving them an ounce of my attention. I could see that this annoyed them and the boy who was behind started ¡®accidentally¡¯ sneezing onto my back and spat on my back, which caused his parent to laugh. The girl started laugh when he did that and looked giving me a snide chuckle. I was quite amused at their display of hostility. I had done nothing to them, but they continued to throw disdainful and mocking actions towards me, just because they assumed I was of common birth. This made me understand the psyche of a noble and the circumstances they were brought up in. I felt sorry for these idiots not knowing that the world is filled with people that are much more greater than them, thinking that they can have anything in the world and were entitled look down on people because of their noble birth. I looked at the father of the children to see if they would do anything, but they continued to show an expression indicating that they actually approved of their child¡¯s actions. I sighed took my shirt off and fished for a new one in my bag and put that on. That brought a more distasteful look from the noble children who looked at me as if I was not permitted to wear something that was not dirtied by them. I maintained my stoic expression, giving them no indication that I was bothered by their actions. The boy behind me who was annoyed started to throw a punch before a man swiftly came and took his hands. It was the Ritual Guards; a group of people who were there to make sure no one would cause trouble, they were invented due to an increase in the fights between the commoners and nobles. To put so many people of all different class was bound cause some sparks to fly. The Ritual Guards were students form various academies in the west. All senior students had to come and act as guards at the Rituals as part of their obligation as a student of an academy. I looked at the boy, who looked to be around 16 years old, holding the young noble child¡¯s hand. ¡°Any and all action that may cause harm to another child will cause the attacker to be kicked off the Temple, and not permit to take the ritual, are you sure you want to wait another year child,¡± he questioned a firm expression on his face. The red-haired boy withdrew his hand quickly and made a scared expression, I just curiously stared at the Ritual Guard. The Ritual guard gave me smile before walking away not even looking at the parent who stared at him in disbelief. I looked at the children who were coming out of the room continuously, looking dejected some crying, and others screaming with their parents saying the Ritual was not done right, making wild claims unable to accept the fact that they were mundane. I noticed some who were wearing expensive clothing that were also unable to pass the test, and were staring at their parents in disbelief. I then looked at the noble children in front of me and behind me who had a hint of terror in their expression. That made me inwardly laugh but I continued to maintain my indifferent and apathetic expression. The test was divided to two sections one with 3 representatives of the Circle of Magi, an independent organization that run all the inter academy relations in the west. The Circle run everything from the inter academy tournaments, to the Ritual Guards present now. The three were a governing entity there to make sure no one gets hurt during the ritual. The first stage was done in seclusion in a small room with only the three representatives present. It was to make sure no one would get hurt from a possible activation of a Cataclysm level or a higher level Tattoo. When activating the Divine Tattoo there is a possibility where the child may have said the wrong chant and may suffer from the backlash, which may cause severe damage to their mana channels, the Circle of Magi representatives were there to make sure no child suffers from the backlash. When one is deemed to have the magical capability and successfully able to activate their Tattoo they will proceed to the 2nd stage where the various academy representatives and the parents of the children who have passed are present. The child at the second stage would touch the magic crystal to determine their affinity. As every time magic is activated the Tattoo¡¯s misty aura would exude so the academy will automatically know the level of the Tattoo as well as their affinity, and will themselves offer people to join their academy. I looked at the girl in front of me, she seemed nervous and slowly walked in by herelf looking at her father who wished her luck, I was praying for her to get rejected so she could know how inadequate she was. But to my disappointment she seemed to have passed as I was soon called up and I didn''t see her come out with a crying face. I walked into the Temple and was stupefied by the enormity of it. There was a small square room located in the center of the main Temple hall, with it door closed, but the rest of the hall was devoid of people except for man who was standing infornt of the room with a feather in his hands. I looked at a man who was waiting at the counter looking at me signaling me to come over. I walked over towards him. ¡°What¡¯s your name boy?¡± he said. ¡°Deimos Demidov sir,¡± I answered. ¡°What are the names of your parents?¡± he questioned. ¡°I have none sir,¡± I said. ¡°Well¡­ I guess you can try anyway, but child don''t be disheartened if you don''t make it, I am sure there is something else for you out there,¡± he said to me with his eyes filled with sympathy. I nodded before slowly moving into the room. I walked into a dark room with a dimly lit light and looked out at three people who were sitting behind a small table, looking intently at me. One had white hair similar to the girl I saw before, with brown eyes, he looked to be around 60 years old, and was looking at me with eyes of disdain. The other was a man who had dark hair, dark eyes and seemed to show a lazy expression on his face, he didn''t really seem to care for me, already inwardly deciding that I will have no chance, the last was a expressionless lady with glowing blue hair and similar blue eyes who was intently looking at me with eyes of curiosity, obviously unable to make sense of the fact that this small handsome boy was not a noble and wasn''t wearing any jewelry or didn''t have anything of value on him. I slowly put down my rucksack at the corner closest to the door. I took my scarf off laying it with my brown rucksack before returning to the middle of the dim lit room, waiting for instructions. Balthazar¡¯s POV: I looked out at the boy; he had bright emerald green eyes and quite a handsome face, but was not wearing any jewelry. I was puzzled, as I did not ever see a commoner with such a face. I was sent to this stupid place to do this stupid job, with these two idiots. One who would not shut up about his grand daughter who apparently was gifted beyond measure, Bovis and one who wouldn''t say word except look at the children intently with her cold blue eyes, Leslie. We were high level official of the Circle of Magi who were sent here just in case another one like Polos appears, which I knew was highly impossible having one Cataclysm level wielder is already considered a miracle but having another Olympian level wielder is beyond a miracle I doubted that there will be anymore high level wielders from this Country, but to my surprise Bovis¡¯s daughter was a God level user. When the granddaughter finally came a cute little white haired girl to my surprise she wielded a God level tattoo, after seeing only around a hundred magically capable people, out of thousands and thousands of children I was quite astonished. Even of those hundred the highest was only a Beast level Tattoo holder, so I was not that looking forward to going back to mundane who thought they may have magical capabilities. The boy after being instructed by Leslie, slowly said the words, of the ritual activation, without a single word missing, I was surprised as a child who only heard it once was bound to get it wrong. ¡°Audite verbum domne benedicere cum notis meis et tibi me divinam motionem ad voluptatem et dolorem in medio¡± Translation: ¡°Hear my word oh lord of mine bless me with the markings of the divine and show me a path to god amidst pleasure and pain¡± Suddenly a bright light shot forth from his body, before the tattoo started to appear, I was shocked and paid attention, the boy¡¯s right hand was slowly covered with the tattoo which appeared slowly coming from his palm winding its way up. I was surprised beyond measure another magically capable one had arrived. Then the tattoo stopped, right at the shoulder. I waited for the aura to come off which will determine his rank but suddenly to my shock, another tattoo slowly started forming from his left hands palm. My eyes opened fully unable to explain what was happening in front of me. The boy was severely sweating as the tattoo made its way up his hands and stopped just like his right hand at his shoulders. The three of us were standing from our chairs unable to understand what was happening in front of us. A TITAN, A TITAN level wielder, we looked at each other in disbelief and shock. The boy had two distinct tattoos on his right and left hand they slowly started to exude a bright golden hue, that confirmed our suspicion, a Titan had appeared. We were bracing ourselves for an after shock but suddenly the boy cried a sharp painful cry I saw him fall to his knees, ripping his shirt off, and in the middle of a chest a large star shape with eight prongs materialized slowly appearing, and the star made a silver light which shot forth from his chest straight into the sky. The Bright silver Light pierced through the containment room through the ceiling of the Temple straight towards the sky, the boy cried loudly from a pain, and was on his knees with his chest out and a bright beam coming of it in the shape of the 8-pronged star. Then we felt the after shock, it was beyond any pain I felt before, similar to a thousand mountains that fell on me. All three of us felt to the ground, were 3 Emperor level combatants of the Magi council, and I forced to activate my magic so we will not fall unconscious from the pressure exuded by this boy¡¯s activation of his Tattoo, the other two had failed to realize this and were already unconscious, most probably forgetting about what happened. I held on and then the silver light finally stopped. I looked at the boy who was huffing and puffing his tattoo was still visible but only his hands were giving off a golden hue, while the one on his chest was giving of a resplendent silvery aura, similar to the stars in the night sky¡­ I stared in disbelief looking at the boy, my eyes were bleeding from the pressure and from my ears blood was trickling down, I slowly crawled towards the boy whose body was now emanating a gentle golden light and a ferocious silvery one from his chest. I looked at the boy whose face and body was covered in sweat but looked to be quite composed and calm. ¡°Who are you boy...?¡± I questioned. Chapter 7- Understanding Heys guys, This chapter is quite close to my heart. I tried to use understandings from my religion and tried my best to explain it. If i might offend people i apologise in advance and if you find it is offensive and request a change i will definitely re do the chapter.. I used some of Stephen hawkings lectures and also read up a lot on other stuff to make this happen so hopefully you guys like it Anyway i hope you guys like the chapter..... Please rate and review and comment Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos POV: I said the words after the blue haired lady dictated it to me. My mind went into overdrive, the words seemed to be of Latin origin, and the translation came to my mind. ¡°Hear my word oh lord of mine bless me with the markings of the divine and show me a path to god amidst pleasure and pain¡± The words indicated that it was almost a plea to a superior being asking them to pave the path for their ascendance to immortality. It addressed not one of the three principle gods or the god of creation of the Universe Erebus. I slowly understood that maybe it wasn''t a direct meaning instead we had envision what our perspective of God is. I said the words but instead of thinking of some being of absolute power, I thought about the primordial power of something akin to space and time. Space-time a swirling mass of pure and unalterable fabric of energy. I was an avid reader of Stephen Hawking¡¯s lectures from my previous world, and his thesis of the world I felt were somewhat superior to the others. I thought about how the origin or god was explained in my previous world. According to the Boshongo people of central Africa, in the beginning, there was only darkness, water, and the great god Bumba. One day Bumba, in pain from a stomach ache, vomited up the sun. The sun dried up some of the water, leaving land. Still in pain, Bumba vomited up the moon, the stars, and then some animals. The leopard, the crocodile, the turtle, and finally, man. This creation myth, like many others, tries to answer the questions we all ask. Why are we here? Where did we come from? For example, Aristotle, the most famous of the Greek philosophers, believed the universe had existed forever. Something eternal is more perfect than something created. He suggested the reason we see progress was that floods, or other natural disasters, had repeatedly set civilization back to the beginning. The motivation for believing in an eternal universe was the desire to avoid invoking divine intervention to create the universe and set it going. Conversely, those who believed the universe had a beginning, used it as an argument for the existence of God as the first cause, or prime mover, of the universe. To this world apparently its Erebus but I was sceptical. If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was what happened before the beginning? What was God doing before He made the world? I felt there were logical contradictions, or antimonies, either way. If the universe had a beginning, why did it wait an infinite time before it began? That was my thesis. On the other hand, if the universe had existed forever, why did it take an infinite time to reach the present stage? This was my antithesis. Both the thesis and the antithesis, said that time, space and Erebus were absolute. That is to say, they went from the infinite past to the infinite future, independently of any universe that might or might not exist in this background. I then thought of the various religious people that have over the centuries have tried to understand what the universe was? How it started? And what its inevitable end would be? The Hindu¡¯s were avid advocates of attuning oneself to the divine. I found that fascinating, it tied in with Buddhism and the notion that one would need to attune themselves to the profundities of the universe, through meditation. They advocate almost transcendental values about attaining enlightenment, and that divinity was inherently in everyone but was tainted through the outside corruption; this made most sense to me. I could associate it similar to the way in which the people¡¯s souls slowly are tainted in this world but need to be purified. The divine sound ¡®Om¡¯ has the most elegant and beautiful meaning of the God to me. ¡®Om¡¯ in Sanskrit can mean, "humming." The mantra "Om" denotes God as the Primal Sound. This sound can be heard as the sound of one''s own nerve system, and the saints and the priests of my old world apparently hear it daily. It is a strong, inner experience, one that saints hold with great reverence. The meditator is taught to inwardly transform this sound into the inner light, which lights up ones'' thoughts, and to bask in this blissful consciousness of god. ¡®Aum¡¯ is also known as the sound of God. Hearing it one draw near to God Consciousness. In my old world we are told to be living in the lower chakras, or when the world, or superficiality too strongly dominates our mind, this sound may, for a time, not be heard. But it returns as awareness withdraws, as the mind becomes perfectly still, silent, static. ¡°Listen for this sound in your quietest moments and you will learn to recognize it as a daily encounter with the Divine that lives within all men, within all creatures, within all existence.¡± Vedic priest Throughout chanting this on the runic circle on the ground I thought to myself, I didn''t want to believe that Erebus was this ¡®Oh god of mine¡¯. I needed to surpass him not believe that he is the absolute. I instead thought about the fabric, the space-time fabric. Maybe the only thing that was infinite was Space and Time maybe Erebus was born with space and time, they were akin to brothers and Erebus is someone who was given some sort of way to be able to train in the way to manipulate the fabric. I then suddenly lost consciousness, and opened my eyes to an awe-inspiring sight. I saw myself, an ethereal version of myself. I was floating, in an infinite space, and right in front of me was a giant star akin to the sun, instead it was completely clear, and had a layer of Gold flames dancing around it. I recognized this, it was my soul. It was clear untainted by any extremities, I then heard the hymn, the divine hymn, ¡°Om¡± it was low throbbing sound, resonating in the background throughout this little pseudo space. It felt as though I attuned myself to the infinite, it was raw power and then suddenly the hymn stopped. I felt something divine for just a nanosecond, within that hymn, I felt it, something primal, something ancient, something that transcends universe and maybe even Erebus, and it was pure consciousness. God consciousness. It¡¯s aftereffect suddenly cascaded across my pseudo space in the form of clear silver ripples, and it distorted my soul, and the huge mass of clear liquid slowly vibrated. It slowly protruded from its center a small, thin silver strand that slowly entered my chest. I felt immense pain, unbearable pain, across my entire body, burning through my chest, I felt as though thousands of interconnecting links were being formed. I felt my muscle being ripped apart, and reattached each time; it was akin to being bludgeoned a thousand times and being reformed. I cried and howled in pain, as the energy greedily went into my body. I felt my soul surge into my body once more, and this time my soul, instead of gold flames around it, there were purple flames dancing and spitting around my soul. The Solar Flare flame meditation had evolved and I felt newfound energy coursing through my body. I understood everything that happened in an instant as if it were obvious to me all along. I had broken through a critical juncture of the Solar Flare Meditation, but due to this material planes shackles it needed the Ritual for me to transcend through the bottleneck into the first stage of my ascendance. Due to the purity of my soul, and my understanding of religion and science in my previous world I was able to attune myself with the god consciousness for a second, and able to make a small path towards it. I not only broke through the juncture but also made a small almost unnoticeable bond with something primal. I now knew my final goal, to ascend Erebus I need to make my own path and upgrade the things that Erebus had envisioned I would surpass him however long it will take. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I sensed that my body had immensely changed, becoming extremely powerful to be able to handle this extremely small connection, which was thinner than a thread; but it required my body to go through destruction and recreation more than a thousand times. Instead of attuning myself to Erebus I had attuned myself to something more ancient, something that created Erebus, along with space and time. I sensed that the next time I will get an upgrade in such power would be when I become an immortal. I felt strength, I felt power, I could feel everything around me. I had increased in power significantly, I hadn¡¯t increased in magical knowledge but my body was something akin to a Bishop level combatant. Something primal had entered me just for a second and had further altered me. I knew that when I again attune myself to god consciousness I will understand the profundities of it a little bit more. I now knew that I first needed to become an immortal for my real training to start. I will master the School of Erebus and understand the God Consciousness to become a being of absolute power¡­. I slowly opened my eyes to find that two of the Circle of Magi representatives were unconscious and one was on his knees with his bright blood red tattoo glowing as it repaired his body. The blood from his ears and eyes slowly creeped their ways back into his eyes. My whole epiphany of understanding and the blood curdling transformation had occurred in the matter of seconds. He looked at me, and muttered, ¡°Who are you boy?¡± he questioned. Before I could answer he slowly stood up walked towards the two unconscious people on the ground and put two of his fingers on the base of their necks. A black light came from the tips of his finger and pierced through their necks. I was shocked to see that, what was this man doing. I looked at him, he smiled and said. ¡°Don''t worry child, nothings going to happen, I am just erasing these people¡¯s memories so that we could have a nice chat¡­¡± he muttered an unsettling grin stretching across his face. ¡°Boy I have lived more than 800 years on this planet as an Emperor combatant, I have seen many things in my life but I have never seen a Titan level, for that matter a Olympian level tattoo appear. But I see now this country has yet again produced something indescribable, something that cannot be explained by logic. You child are that something. What are you, you seem to be something unfathomable. I knew that seeing a Titan would be something impossible, but to see one that is something transcending a Titan, just what are you,¡± he questioned. His expression filled with curiosity that seemed a little morbid to me. ¡°Sir, I am an orphan from the streets, I do not who my parents are, and I have been living in this country for the past 12 years by myself,¡± I said sticking to my story. My stoic, indifferent expression maintained, but the man didn''t doubt my claims. I guess telling if someone is lying is not something these people would know. In the past I would be able to tell from the numerous facial expressions one would make, but now I am able to listen to his small changes in his heartbeat. I looked at the man, with my newfound powers I closely listened to his heartbeat; I could hear it, sending small pulses throughout his body. ¡°Boy you are something of an Enigma, you have potential greater than a Titan something that is immeasurable, something that I never thought I would see. This Balthazar, is truly stupefied, tell me child what do you want¡­¡± he questioned ¡°The destruction of the High-Noble house of Cletus,¡± I said without batting an eye, I knew what I wanted and by listening to this man¡¯s heartbeat I could tell that he was not lying. ¡°Ahahahaha, that is one of the high noble houses of this country right, something so small is not even worthy of my attention. How about this child, during your stay in the Asgardian Academy, I will, help you attain all high level magic spells. Usually you need clearance for those but I will make it happen for you..¡± he said his eyes tracing my figure. ¡°You seemed to have the body of Bishop level fighter, ahahahahah, you continue to amaze me child. A twelve year old with the body of a Bishop. But your magical knowledge and mana communication is that of a normal human, that is to be expected of someone who just went through the ritual so do not fret,¡± he said. ¡°Why do you want to do this for me, sir?¡± I questioned. ¡°Curiosity child, I want to personally witness your growth, I want to see you at the pinnacle. I have grown bored of this mundane lifestyle, incessantly caring about worldly stuff such as this, I will become an immortal in the near future I can sense it but, the only thing that has excited me in centuries is you child. So entertain me¡­.¡± He said his maniacal expression filled with curiosity. ¡°Sir I have one condition for accepting your proposal, I would like to keep the secret that I am a being greater than a Titan a secret and I would also like to keep the details of our deal a secret,¡± I bargained. I knew I had nothing to offer him, other than satisfying his inquisitive nature, but I was determined to get something out of it. ¡°Hahahah, bargaining with an Emperor, you sure are interesting child. It is impossible to keep the fact that you are a Titan a secret child, but I will make sure no one knows of your third Tattoo.¡± He whispered coming close to me. Staring intently at the 8-pronged star on my chest which was slowly emanating a silvery aura. He lifted his hand again and a thick black aura emanated from him, his Cataclysm level tattoo glowing again. The black aura weaved and wailed and formed a full-sleeved cotton shirt, a plain cotton shirt that looked completely ordianary. He then handed it to me and indicated me to put it on. I put the shirt on and instantly only the golden aura from my hand tattoos was visible while the silvery hue was completely covered by the black shirt. ¡°That is a darkness shirt, it will make sure your silvery aura will not be visible. Now take your bag and leave, people will get suspicious if we take anymore time. They must have already been given a scare with the light show you put on. Good luck with your affinity test, I am sure it will be a wild ride for you,¡± he said chuckling knowing the amount of attention my golden hue will garner. I groaned and slowly paced out of the room and observed my tattoos in the bright light. There was a long tattoo winding itself up my arm, it seemed to be all scripture with no pictures whatsoever. I looked at my right arm which was covered in runes akin to the Viking runes of my old world, while my left arm was covered in scripture akin to the elvish tongue of the Lord of the Rings series. In my right palm was a small picture of an atom, while in my left palm was the Om symbol etched into it. Om- https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a5/82/f0/a582f0c600c5c7bbc9c04a1fd8586b53.jpg Viking Runes- http://www.viking.no/images/runer.gif Evish scripture- http://i.stack.imgur.com/nEI8H.png Atom- http://www.wpclipart.com/science/atoms_molecules/atom_stylized.png I calmed myself and thought of the tattoo disappearing. The tattoo slowly disappeared and when I wanted to call forth my power, the tattoo automatically appeared. After testing it a few times, I stepped into the second stage of the Ritual¡­. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Millions of Kilometers away somewhere in the middle of the Great magical beast Forest of the West¡­. In a dark hall similar to a kings hall, in the deepest part of the forest of the west. I lone figure sat on a throne. His bright red eyes could be seen and he seemed to have his face in his palm. ¡°Something Powerful has yet again awoken, and this one seems even more interesting¡± he whispered, before going back to its slumber¡­ Chapter 8- Prophecy Hey GUysss, So todays chapter was little late cuase i had to study for a test tmrw. But i finally got it done. Anyway hope you guys like it.. Dont forget to comment and rate and review Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Alexius¡¯ POV: I came to the ritual of the capital of Kislev this time. As the Dean and the head of the greatest school in the continent, Asgardian Academy. I usually would send one of my teachers, but this time I want to personally watch over the recruitment. This place was truly marvelous, not only is the city a nice, and bustling full of people. But produced one of the strongest and most accomplished combatants in the continent, the king of this country Gotrek. He is my pride, the pride of the Asgardian Academy, the genius of the continent. His son¡¯s the two crown price of this country, are also marvelous talents, albeit a little arrogant but still, Cataclysm and Olympian level Tattoo wielders. They will be extremely powerful in the near future, maybe their rate of improvement may not be on par with their father, but they still have a great future ahead of them, and will make the academy even more proud. I have spent more than 600 years building the academy; it has rich background being one of the founding 5 academies of the West. I reached the level of an Emperor than and decided to take a break. Although I am an Emperor I was miles below that of my master who could be called to be at the pinnacle of an Emperor. His power would completely envelop mine. My academy has been the top academy for the last 50 years, since Gotrek joined. He graduated only at the age of 18 being the youngest to ever reach the Knight rank. I personally came this time after the last year¡¯s appearance of an Olympian level Tattoo. I knew the probability of finding another great child was less than none, but I already found a small beautiful white-haired girl from one of the great Mage houses of Kislev, the House of Dawn. She was a God level wielder, although miles below Cataclysm, she was still going to become extremely powerful. I sat with the small girl and her parents, at the Affinity dome and was chatting to the family. The father was extremely proud to have a God Level in his family and kept boasting of his daughter. She blushed and looked at her father pouting and sticking her tongue out embarrassed. ¡°Thank you Lord Dean Alexius, for my daughter to be accepted to a prestigious academy such as yours, the House of Dawn thanks you, for your benevolence,¡± The father urged, with a face full of pride. ¡°Not needed, Lord Dawn, your daughter is a capable young lady. I rarely see a dual element affinity, with a God level Tattoo. Although I have seen a number of God level Tattoo¡¯s throughout the continent. None have been a dual elemental. So your daughter may yet be the cream of the crop for this year.¡± I expressed. ¡°My family is proud of her, she will become someone worthy, and be attending the prestigious academy. I am extremely proud of her.¡± Lord Dawn giggled giving his small daughter a tight hug. ¡°I have yet to see all the children from Kislev, Lord Dawn if you excuse me I will continue with my observations,¡± I said ¡°No need Lord Dean all that are left now are the commoners, and orphans, I only know of one noble boy who is left, and I am sure he may have the talent similar to my daughter. I will inform you when he comes out, although he is quite easy to find with his bright red hair,¡± Lord Dawn interjected. ¡°Is that so, nevertheless let us watch to see if any more students come,¡± I replied, a little bit annoyed at this man¡¯s arrogance now. I knew in this world all that matters is power, and wealth but it did not in the least agree with me. I remembered the time 600 years ago; Balthazar and I travelled the continent looking for new exciting places to go to. Of course I was only a child and Balthazar was my master but it still was probably the most exciting part of my life. I myself was just a small slum boy from Averheim, the magical capital of the continent; I was at deaths bed due to the arrogance of noble¡¯s then, until master picked me up and I learned that I had a Celestial level Divine Tattoo. I ignored his words, gave him a slight bow and returned to my front seat. I was looking out at the dome when a boy dressed in a black shirt, black pant and a black scarf came he looked stoic, his head held high. I looked at his eyes, and to my surprise they were emerald green completely green. I had never seen such bright eyes. Those eyes seemed to contain deep, sorrow and sadness. I carefully noticed his body and to my surprise and utter chock found that he had the body of a Bishop level combatant. His body was immeasurably stronger than any of the children I have seen in the continent. With his body alone he would be able to take the blows of Knight level combatant without any need to invoke his magic. This boy was already beyond my imagination, such small child with such power, it truly astounded me. I looked at him and then he activated his Tattoo. His right and left hand simultaneously had the tattoo appear and in a split second a Brilliant Golden Hue started form around him, dancing and blending together. My heart stopped, a Titan, a TITAN has appeared¡­ Siri¡¯s POV: I had made my father proud. YAY, I was finally able to make him proud. All my childhood I have been told that the House of Dawn is one of the most powerful families in Kislev. I had to succeed in becoming a great combatant. My father always pampered me since I was little. I was taught by the best in magic, and I already started purifying my soul when I was 10 years old. I was a prodigy, and have been told that when I grow up I will wed the elder prince of Kislev, Gunther Beherit. I was ecstatic, Gunther was extremely, handsome and powerful, and he always looked at me lovingly and always said I was beautiful. I was told that I would become the mot beautiful woman in Kislev, and will wed the King when I grew. I had visited many balls and many dances in my life, and I always was the center of attention. I was the bell and Gunther was the beau. I couldn''t wait to get to the Academy and spend more time with him. We were in love and nothing will separate us. I was in line waiting for my turn in the ritual when a boy wearing neat but cheap clothes came behind and waited in line. I looked at his face too see that he was an extremely handsome young boy. His green eyes coupled with his almost copper skin and medium length brown hair made for a exotic look. He was carrying his bags in his arms, and gave me short glance before going back to observing his surroundings. He didn''t even look at me twice. I was dissatisfied to say the least. How dare a lowborn commoner like him not give me any notice at all. My beauty didn¡¯t bewitch him or was he transfixed by my high status. To him I seemed to be nothing more than any other mundane person. I kept giving him glances hoping to see if he would notice me. He didn''t even look at me. I was infuriated and I started making gestures of disgust at him, how dare he not even acknowledge my presence. Luckily my cousin of the House of Tully noticed me, and carried on with the jig, he even went further by spitting on his back. I was satidfied then this dog needs to know his place. I smiled, my father looked at me and laughed. I was surprised when the boy suddenly took off his shirt fished out a new one and put it on. I was truly pissed now, how dare he fix himself in my presence. I am noble daughter of Lord Dawn, Siri Dawn. Adrian Tully noticed my anger and went to punch the boy when a Ritual Guard suddenly stopped his hand, the guard gave him a stern warning before going back to his work. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The boy behind me looked at me and stifled a laugh before going back to his observing. I looked at him and was truly angry, how dare he. I was soon called up to the Ritual and went away. I decided that a lowborn is not worthy of my attention, I should just forget about a commoner like him. I passed the Ritual with flying colors and was extremely happy until I saw the boy again. He walked up to the circular crystal ball and placed his hand on it. He invoked his Divine Tattoo and then I saw it. He was a Titan¡­ Deimos POV: I looked out at the Affinity Dome, as they call it. It was quite the structure shaped almost like a colloseum with a stage in the front and a small crystal resting on a mahogany desk on the stage. I walked over to the crystal ball; it was small and quite clear with not a single blemish on it. I placed my hand over it and invoked my Tattoo. My arms were instantly covered in the tattoos and thick golden hue oozed from the Tattoo. I again felt a surge of energy and I was connected to my mana chamber and my soul. The crowd of people seated there erupted into madness, clamoring their way to the stage, I was truly surprised, hadn¡¯t yet even found out my affinity yet the people are so intent on me joining their academy. Suddenly before they could even reach the stage, a man with long golden hair and brilliant blue eyes rose. He looked to be about 30 years old. He waved his hand and instantly a purple tattoo appeared on his face. He then with a wave of his hand erupted a clear white wall from the ground around the stage. ¡°My name is Alexius Asgard, and I will not let you interrupt the boy¡¯s affinity test. Go back to your seat NOW!!!¡± he yelled. Everyone quieted and with his sheer oppressive nature, he pushed everyone back to his or her seat. I gave him nod and went to the crystal. I looked out at the crystal and placed my hands gently on it. Suddenly all my mana channeled to the center of the crystal and in the air above mine I could feel the atmosphere changing. An extremely large ball of flames erupted in the air, spitting and dancing about, it was not like the purple flames of my soul but similar to the traditional fire. A ball of swirling wind then followed it, collapsing onto itself, making the wind even more turbulent, and finally a thick blanket of darkness enveloped into the atmosphere, almost 10 times larger than the fire and wind. I knew my affinities now, as long as I am not an immortal I will have no access to the complexities and the mysteries of the universe but for now, my power completely relied on the profundities of these elements. The blazing inferno, that leaves nothing behind, fire. The air, the infinite and endless atmosphere of the continent. The darkness the black oblivion, the infinite nothing that sucks and destroys everything in its wake. I read about the affinities of this world. The affnity of a person shapes his personality and influences his soul, it also gives them immense power over those elements. I read that most mages have an affinity to one element and the train that element for the entirety of their lives, very few have 2 elements, but only about 10 in the entire continent have 3 elemental affinities. All of them are on the circle of magi, and have been watching over the world for centuries. They sometimes preside over Rituals such as this but mostly send their subordinates to do their bidding. I looked out at the audience all of them had their mouths wide open intently staring at me. I didn''t pay them any attention and walked over to the man with long golden hair, who also looked at me flabbergasted. ¡°Sir I would like to become a student of the Asgardian Academy,¡± I said looking at him sternly straight into his eyes. ¡°Of course child, it will be an honor to have a tri elemental Titan in our academy,¡± he said. I gave small bow nodded and sat down next to him. Instantly the audience erupted they quickly sent messages to the people around them, coerced and talked to each other. A Titan, a Titan had appeared. Soon word that a Titan had emerged spread across the entire continent. In the Hall of King of Kislev: Gotrek¡¯s POV I was intently reading the documents in my own study. It has been 12 years since I saw Ariana. My heart wrenched and curled at my thought of what I had done to her. My love had destroyed her. I slowly took a small painting of her out, looked at it intently. These years I have become numb to love, numb to pain. My wife had destroyed my love, she had cursed me an eternity into damnation. I never see her anymore, unless it is mandatory functions that require a public hearing. Most of the time I stay trapped in my office, envisioning the time where my son Deimos, my love Ariana were here. I looked at the empty space where his cot was, he was so young yet so interested in books. He would continually look at them with his green eyes similar to his mothers sparkling. I never see my wife anymore, she was something I could not bare to look at. She had destroyed something I hold dear, something close to my heart more than anything in this world. She would come everyday and bang on the study door, maniacally calling out to me. I never see her, I never give her the pleasure of her entertaining that what she had done brought me closer to her. Ever since my sons have left she would come more often, but I did not care any longer, Melisandre was dead to me. Suddenly there was a frantic beating on the door. ¡°SIRE, SIRE URGENT NEWS!!!!¡± my messenger cried. ¡°Come in,¡± I replied He looked at me huffing and puffing, as if he must have run a a lot. ¡°SIRE A TITAN LEVEL DIVINE HAS APPEARED!!!¡± he yelled. ¡°WHAT!¡± I rose from my chair. I couldn''t believe it a Titan. How has a Titan emerged now of all times. I sat down intently thinking of what happened. I didn''t understand the. The prophecy I thought¡­ * FLASHBACK * In a decrepit old room right on the cusp of the inner sanctum of the Forest of the West. A young man with brilliant red eyes was intently looking at a decrepit figure of an old lady. She looked withering almost ethereal as if a small gust of wind would blow her to dust. She looked at the young man, and from her mouth thick green smoke oozed. ¡°Young man, why have you come here, I have not had visitors for almost 10000 years,¡± she said, her head cocking a little and the green smoke kept drifting from her mouth. ¡°I would like to know my prophecy,¡± He said, offering her a small bag. ¡°Hmmm, you have procured the necessary, beast cores, lets see,¡± she said and in an instant appeared right at hairs width from the man. Looking at him face to face. Instead of eyes she had small silver glasses lodged in her cornea. Her face had various holes in it and small worms were travelling from one to the other. She looked at him for what seemed like an eternity, holding his head in place in case he gets frightened. Sweat trickled down the young man¡¯s brow, as he looked at her glass eyes. ¡°AHAHAHAH, she cried. You young man will lead an interesting life,¡± she called. "Blessed you are with power and might A wife you have bearing sons of fright Love above the divine you will face A false prince you will embrace With Titans breath you will share A fate worse that death with the one you bare." * END FLASHBACK * I trembled, before sitting down. ¡°Do we know what the child looks like,¡± I called. This child is the one prophesied to destroy me. I need to annihilate him before anything could happen. ¡°The child seemed to have an unusual appearance, he seemed to have a distinct green eyes sire, and coppery skin.¡± The messenger called. I fell to the floor. Ariana, my son. I knew straight away it was the boy who was my son. The boy who due to my love has to watch his mother suffer everyday. Chapter 9- Noble Children HEys GUYS: I LOVE YOU ALL,,, I have gotten excellent revies from you guys about my fic. PLease continue to supprt me as this is going to be a long ride..... Hope you like the new chapter. Comment, rate, and review.... Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos¡¯ POV: The next few weeks were a blur, starting from the Affinity Dome all the way to the private quarters of Alexius Asgard in the inner city hotel. People of all classes surrounded us. Thousand¡¯s of nobles from the city flocked around us, as if a moth attracted to a bright flame. Without the power of Alexius I was sure the mobs of people would trample me. Everyone as the Titan of Kislev knew me. Hundreds of emissaries from all across the continent came to seek audience with me and confirm that I was a Tri-Elemental Titan, but Alexius barred the whole of the hotel to keep outsiders away. There was an instance where a man managed to make a small hole in Alexius¡¯ barrier and tried to sneak in, but he was shown the worst of hell by Alexius tight in the courtyard which made sure none of the others attempted to go overboard. I saw what he did to the man and that sent shivers down my spine¡­ I spent the next week in the inn with Alexius, discussing the terms of my stay in Agardian Academy. I knew all about the academy. It was one of the top 5 academies in the West, but was soon perceived as the best after the Graduation of Gotrek as the youngest ever knight only at the age of 18. The story of how an 18 year old knight level combatant has appeared and he was also from the Beherit clan made the academy all the more awe-inspiring. With the recent enrollment of the 2 prodigies of the Beherit house, the princes; the academy¡¯s reputation skyrocketed. Everyone at the academy was known to be the cream of the crop. Out of the hundreds of academies in the west, there were the 5 founding schools or the 5 Great schools, one of which was the Asgardian academy run by Alexius Asgard. He himself erected the school apparently 800 years ago. It never seized to amaze me how an Emperor could live almost indefinitely, being able to train for years and not succeed in breaking through to an immortal. I kept that to myself so as to not anger him. The academies to the west took up almost the entirety of the western continent on the border of the great forest of the West. The most common schools were situated at the outermost sector being the furthest away from the Great Forest, and the 5 founding schools, were pressed against the Great Forest. The closer the school was to the Forest the more powerful it was. Many schools¡¯ average graduating age is around the age of 35 but Gotrek proved himself to be a genius reaching at an extremely young age. During that time it was documented that only one other Genius reached at a young age but he became a knight at 20 years old. I was somewhat excited to arrive at the academy to learn more of the fundamentals of power here but I was sad to find that the arrogant girl from before had also been enrolled to the academy. The five academies were known to be extremely selective in choosing their candidates but apparently she passed. I paid her no heed throughout the ordeal of smuggling myself out of the country and heading towards Asgardian Academy. I would often catch her looking at me with a contemptuous look on her, she clearly disapproved of my presence but she never voiced her opinion. I was less than bothered by her, I had singular goal and I will fulfill it, and get my vengeance. One of the primary reasons why I joined this school was to see if the kings children were worthy of their lives. I had vowed to decimate any and all lives associated with her, but I am a Godsman, and a Godsman does not bully the weak or kill the innocent. I would not hold children responsible to the mistakes of their parents. After escaping the city we soon arrived at the edge of the academy and we were hovering over the huge monstrosity of a school. I was utterly shocked. The school was enormous, with training grounds spanning hundreds of kilometers, the school had an almost Victorian Palace ambience to it with children dressed in sharp uniforms. I looked at the children most had their Tattoo glowing continuously and were walking around with it. I saw not a single orange or vermillion coloured tattoo all were at the minimum a green tattoo, and even that child had somewhat unique feel to him. I saw that many were training running around, but halted and gave greetings when they saw the Lord Dean Alexius. I saw pupils from the age of 12 all the way to the age of 30. I quietly observed while Siri the detestable girl rambled to the Lord Dean begging him to see where Gunther Beherit is. He was the elder son of the King and seemed to have been engaged to this little girl. I saw that she was maniacally crazy about the boy and chose to ignore her juvenile rants. I saw that a large number of students were staring at me. I knew that with my distinct appearance coupled with the fact that I was a Tri Elemental Titan, I was the object of everyone¡¯s fascination and envy. I ignored the gazes and continued following the Lord Dean. We were seated in his large office and he looked over at us and quickly called over someone. He then went onto explain to us what would happen during our stay here. ¡°Children you are the last to arrive to the academy due to unprecedented circumstances and only have tonight to accustom yourself to the lifestyle here in Asgardian Academy. You will during the course of your stay, be going to the classes referring to each of your elements everyday followed by combat training, which lasts for the rest of the school day. Every school day starts whenever your element lessons start for you and ends after the sun sets. The food will be provided by the school, and you will have to go to the blacksmith tonight and ask for a weapon of your choice. Show him this coin, and he will know you are a student of the Academy.¡± He informed. ¡°That is about the crux of your stay here, and the minor more intricate details will be explained by your teacher so don''t fret. For now here are your room keys and you each will have a roommate to share your room with,¡± he said. I was somewhat reluctant at the idea of someone always at my room. I didn''t need further complications from incalculable outliers like another person to share my sstay here with. ¡°Lord Dean, I would prefer to have a room for myself, ¡° I said. ¡°Child just because you are a Titan does not mean you will be treated definitely, a Divine Tattoo is just an indication of your potential not your power. I have seen God level students be beaten by Beast level as they did not work hard,¡± he replied somewhat curiously. He must questioning my backstory due to the fact that I fabricated a false image of me being from an orphanage. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.¡°It is a good thing child, it induces competition, and provides motivation. I have paired you up with an Olympian level wielder so I am sure you will not be disappointed. Although from what I hear Titans are at a league of their own, but I am sure he will put up a good fight,¡± The dean replied. I instantly knew that I would paired up with Polos Beherit. This was good for my plans. I could understand his psyche sooner and deduce if they will be part of the destruction I will create. I gave a slight nod and sat down. There was a knock on the door and a girl of an age of around 15 walked in with her head held high. She was an attractive girl, with cascading red hair and black eyes. ¡°Dean Alexius, you called for me,¡± she asked ¡°Ahh, Mariana you have arrived I would like you to escort these two to their respective dorms and explain to them of how things are in Asgardian, I want them to know of the ways from a students perspective.¡± He asked. ¡°Okay follow me, ¡° she replied gesturing us to follow her with her hand. We quietly followed her, as she went on to explain to us the various ways in which this place works. It seems that there are a group of 12 students who are the most powerful and govern the school of any of its affairs. They are basically the elite of the school and are awe-inspiring powers. She gave us a small tour of the marketplace, the various inn¡¯s, the Temple, and also the entrance to the forest. In general this place seemed to be similar to a small city but all of its affairs revolved around the school. We finally separated our ways, Siri and Mariana heading towards the female dorms. Not before Siri made snide comment saying, ¡°I cannot stand to be with this commoner dog any longer, let us go sister Mariana,¡± she tooted. Mariana gave a small chuckle and a sympathetic look before leaving with Siri. I didn''t care for them, I understand the psychological condition of a spoilt brat better than anyone, and my daughter was the incarnation of arrogance. I went towards one of the inns that Mariana listed in her best dinner meals. I wanted to have a small meal before heading to the blacksmith and making an order from my weapon. I had one in mind, the same one that I used to decimate many mafia gangs in Europe and Russia. I entered the inn intoxicated by the fragrant aroma wafting from the place; I sat down on a table on the northern end of the bustling inn. I waited till a young waitress came over to me and took my order. I ordered a small meal showing the coin, that Alexius gave me. Suddenly a tall boy of around 16 walked in with an entourage of boys and girls in tow. He had black hair and bright red eyes. He had his head held high and looked down his nose as if he owned this establishment. My heart tugged I knew who this boy was Gunther Beherit, I could recognize those red eyes anywhere. He paced towards my table with no consideration towards any of the people there. They were silenced by his gaze alone and would quiver when he glared at them. He nocked down the waiter that was about to bring my hot tomato soup over, almost spilling it completely on her. At the last minute, I stood up and moved my hand towards the woman and without activating my tattoo, I intercepted the soup and let it fall on me, my skin was unblemished as if the burn healed itself completely and my shirt seemed to repel anything that came towards me, so the projectile spat back at Gunthers face. Making for a comedic sight of this sizable boy being burned by hot soup. Some of the children in the tavern muffled laughter before being silenced by his angry gaze. I gave a small bow, ¡°I apologize on behalf of the Asgardian Academy, it seems my fellow pupil does not know decency,¡± ¡°No need boy we get a lot of arrogant children come, I will personally inform my master of this oaf¡¯s behavior,¡± she said before fixing her dress and walking away. The boy was still infuriated by what had happened to him, and was seething with rage. He asked a yet another beautiful girl next to him with long blue hair to use her magic on him, she made a small wave with her hand and said an incantation. A small ball of water formed and creeped its way at all the soup on his face washing it off. I carefully observed her actions trying to deduce how magic worked. ¡°Boy are you the Titan,¡± Gunther said. I gave slight nod and sat down in my chair. Still standing up he continued saying, ¡°You are also an orphaned slum dog it seems,¡± he said snickering at the comment. I was starting to see a common retardation in noble children as of late, and was slowly skewing towards killing him with his bitch of a mother. ¡°I am curious Titan, how did a slum born like you get such high potential even the legendary tattoo that only my ancestor was said to have in the entire continent,¡± he said with a snide look on his face. I didn''t give him a reply, and just emulated and perceived that they were non-existent. This seemed to have gotten this prick angry as he suddenly flicked the table up with his hands before grabbing on to my throat and pushing me up against the wall of the inn. Everyone gasped. I still looked at him, he must have noticed too, however hard he squeezed my neck I wouldn''t budge. I had the body of a Bishop; of course he cannot hurt me. ¡°Your mother must have been a whore, and bedded thousands of nobles to make a magically potent child like you. Must been hard for she gave birth to you and died, and didn''t teach you proper manners, when addressed by your better,¡± he said turning around to see laughter that echoed in his entourage. My mind went blank, I no longer needed a reason not to hurt him, I am Godsman I will not let anyone who belittles my mother do as they pleased. I grabbed his wrist, and just from the intensity of my movement his wrist cracked and bent in a twisted and unnatural way. I kept twisting his wrist he howled and cried in pain, but the sound of his little bones cracking and distorting were music to my ears. Small gaps came from his skin that was stretched too much, and blood trickled and spurted from it. I completely dissolved, powdered the bones in his hand, snapped the various tendons and cut the little nerves into strands just from the strength of my body. I looked at him viciously. ¡°If you want to preserve your life, do not provoke me, as next time, I will slaughter you,¡± I whispered. His face was pale beyond reason; his body¡¯s tattoo had activated already, the red hue emanating from his frightened face. His hand was now purple I had cut off all the nerves in his hand and it had bloated to a size of a basketball. I gave him no further glance as I walked out of the inn, with astounded gazes following me. Chapter 10- Balthazar Heys GUys Sorry for the late chapter. BUt from next week there should be a lot of em coming. Anyway i would like to thank all my readers for reading my fic. I cant wait for you guys to see when it gets to the good parts in the 20th chapter zone. I am stil going to do characterization and stuff, till i feel its adequate. I just read some reviews, and i realised yeh i think my fic might be heading over to the wuxia kind of things. Ahahahah but yeh i love writing xianxia type stories so i dont really mind.... what do you guys think Hope you like the new chapter rate comment and review away Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos¡¯ POV: I walked out of the inn, giving no glance at the astonished looks and the fright that children showed when they saw what I had done. My mind was pounding I had not had a solid fight and engaged in slaughter for quite some time and my brain was prickling, prodding and teasing at me to continue. Ever since I discovered my affinities I could feel my old impulsive self-returning. People with Fire affinity were said to be ruthless and impulsive. Those are two things I couldn''t afford to be right now. Paired with my indifferent nature arising from the darkness element, and the gentle nature that came from the air element, it felt as though all my emotions that were dominant in my previous life were being amplified. I also doubted that due to the extreme power of my pseudo Titan tattoo it further amplified my elements, in turn amplifying my emotions. It was taking every ounce of my being and my austere code of the Godsman, which I was determined to uphold, to not go back and rip Gunther¡¯s head off. This was going to be cumbersome having to suppress my emotions every time; I need to see if practicing one element more than the other maybe supersedes the other emotions. I paced towards the blacksmith¡¯s workshop. In the dark night, it was about 2 hours after the sun has set. Ever since the Divine Tattoo appeared and the star on my chest appeared I felt as though, I could sense the stars much more clearly now. I could sense each of their properties like the amount of pressure one had, the amount of heat it gave off, and other such information. I didn''t know how exactly I could manipulate this information but nevertheless I think it has something to do with me breaking through to the next stage of the Solar Flare meditation, the purple flames. I soon arrived at the entrance of the blacksmith¡¯s workshop. It was a medium sized building, riddled with images of hammers, and fire everywhere. I could hear the heavy ringing as the metal was being molded under the hammer as well as the bellows, which would push air into the fire making it hotter and hotter. I felt a faint sense of nostalgia remembering how, in my teenage years under the guidance of my grandfather, I made my own weapon. I was cut short from my reminiscing as the door pushed open, and hot air gushed into my face. A large burly man walked out. He was completely bald but had a very long white beard. His muscles for rippling from the thick black apron he was wearing and he looked quite annoyed at the sight of me. He was at least 8 foot tall which further added an air of dominance to his imposing figure. ¡°What do you want boy?¡± he grunted. ¡°I was told to get my weapon made sir,¡± I answered. He looked at me raising his eyebrow, as if I had given him a request that was completely unheard of. ¡°Don''t you know academy year starts tomorrow, it is too late son, might take at least a week to forge your weapon,¡± he said giving me an apologetic look. ¡°Do we need our weapons on the first day sir?¡± I asked. Curious as to why he had a concerned look on his face. ¡°Are you a noble boy,¡± he questioned. ¡°No sir I am an orphan from Kislev,¡± I replied still confused as to what he was so concerned about. ¡°Boy I am sorry but tomorrow¡¯s going to be hard for you. On the first day all the new students will have to battle one another determine their rank. Those who the instructor believes is good will be moved up to a higher combat training class,¡± he explained. He seemed to have a soft heart for commoners I could understand why who would want to put up with these arrogant idiots. I thought about the prospects, it seems as though, the level at which I would train would be dependent on this class. I knew that the other students must have been practicing and mastering their combat since an early age to be assigned to a higher grade, but I haven¡¯t tested the capabilities of this body since the Ritual so I am unsure as to what I would be doing. I looked through my knowledge of the power rankings; if my body has the power of a Bishop then it should be a rank above the graduating requirements of a knight. My body should according to Balthazar have the toughness way above a knight. The jump from one rank to another is extremely large, but due to my limited knowledge of magic I could only be called a Serf as a Magus. ¡°Everyone wants to be called a genius child, remember that Gotrek, he himself moved up to the advance knight combat class, on the first day. Why wouldn''t these kids try their best in such matters? Most these kids would know their weapon by heart, even if I work all night to make you a proper weapon son, I doubt you would want a weapon that is done in such a quick manner,¡± he replied somewhat sad for me. I didn''t want a weapon that was a half heartedly built anyway. I drew him a detailed picture, accurate with measurement and the amount of hammering required and the folding. He looked at my design and showed a puzzled face. ¡°What child, that is such a strange weapon I have not heard of it in this continent, and I am one of the best blacksmiths in it. On my many travels I have seen, the great axe variant Dhorkarr that the Karshaki clan weild, the bladed Karakosh that the Desert clan wield but I have never seen such a weapon, are you sure it is practical.¡± He quitioned. ¡°Yes this is the weapon I want sir, can you please build it for me to the best of your abilities,¡± I asked. ¡°Okay child, but remember you only get one weapon from the academy no more, are you sure its this one,¡± I nodded. He shrugged before walking back into the forges. I didn''t want to return to my dorm just yet, as I wanted to make sure Polos heard what I did to his brother. I needed to judge him and his reaction would determine whether he inherited some of the arrogance that his mother profoundly valued. I decided to do run around try to accomplish the built up exercise regiment I had not practiced in weeks since the Ritual, I also needed to understand all that happened to my body since my tapping to the God consciousness. I was not sure what the exact capabilities of a Bishop were but it seems that I am probably 100 times my usual strength. I hit the street and disappeared into the cold darkness, where the race against myself began yet again. I was only 12 years old, this year but my body seemed incredibly powerful I was running extremely fast, my body¡¯s power had increased considerably, my every stride was leaving a small dent in the ground and the air around me made the wheezing sound similar to a fast moving motorcycle. Sweat was trickling down my face when I finally stopped, tired from exhaustion. I hadn¡¯t noticed but I travelled extremely far, I soon realized how much power a Bishop had. It was incredible. I was running so fast my surroundings became a blur, it was the thrill. I finally felt the thrill since coming here. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Balthazar¡¯s POV: My mind reeled, my chest seized up. I found myself unable to breathe, as if all the air had been sucked out of the place. Leaning on the gravestone, I struggled for breath, feeling frightened and wondering if I was allowed to live. I looked back at the gravestone etched with the name of my wife, Deborah Korsh, I remembered the terror, my hearts erratic beating, my mind flashed back to the day of her death. * FLASHBACK * (600 years ago) ¡°Gladius tenebris¡± I whispered. Staring directly at the white haired man riding atop a giant silver drakon. The drakon was the silver flash devil drakon. The silver drakon had bright red eyes, of its namesake devil eyes. I looked at the creature, which looked less than bored, casually looking at me as if I were nothing. My spell formed a giant dark black sword made out of pure darkness. The sword was humming brimming with power consuming and empowering itself taking away all light around it. I looked at the silver haired man, sitting atop the drakon, in a meditative pose, looking at me with an indifferent expression. ¡°Ascalon, you the silver haired demon, Demon of the South, I challenge you,¡± I shouted glaring at the man who had destroyed my village as a child. I remembered my mother and father hiding me under the door, while he came to our village and slaughtered all of us one by one. He looked at me as if I were nothing, nothing more than a pebble on the road. I had finally after 200 years of painstaking training, and countless sacrifice, managed to become an Emperor. I looked at him blinded with rage, and kicked off the ground making a slight sonic boom; my long black hair flew behind me, as I in an instant arrived next to him. I slashed him across the head, intent on decapitating him. Before my sword could even reach his head the drakon¡¯s mouth opened and it blew a cold breath attack at me. I crossed my arms blocking the attack while preparing the chant for the most powerful attack a darkness style Magus Emperor. A binding spell of the highest order, a darkness Magus¡¯ final spell before breaking through to becoming an Immortal. I looked at him he still wore his indifferent perfect composure, his silver hair and white robe still unblemished. ¡°Vinculis tenebrarum¡± I whispered, facing my left palm on him, while my right hand was wielding my darkness Claymore. I looked at him with a smile on my face. Giant obsidian thick chains came from my palm. The were each approximately the thick ness of a metre. The chains rushed at the man in large speeds, I had a grin on my face, I had finally done it, finally managed to destroy Ascalon. The chains circled around him and held him there; he did not struggle at all, still looking at me, the drakon did not even try to help him. I was completely puzzled but took the opportunity to pull him close to me; instead I was pulled towards him. I took this opportunity to use Darkness Claymore to decapitate him. Using my incredible speed to rush to him in mere matter of seconds. I was wheezing threw the air at blinding speed. Assured of my victory, I was laughing remembering how I was finally able to avenge my family, my friends everyone I loved as a child. I could finally return to my wife live of the rest of our long years together. I slashed towards him, but suddenly his cold lifeless face made a slight grin. Suddenly he flexed his muscles, and with brute strength alone ripped through the darkness chains of an Emperor. The large chains flew in all directions making loud noices as it hit the ground. I looked at him in disbelief. IMMORTAL he was an immortal, how could that be, just a few days ago I heard from an informant that he himself was also an Emperor. ¡°You came at the wrong time, Mortal, I am Immortal of the Thanatos House, the greatest School of all. But you impudent thinking that an informant would tell you information about me, he was my puppet all along, feeding you false information. HAHAHAHA. Don''t worry I am not going to kill you but I think you need a reminder of what the difference between us is, don''t you ?¡± he said his grin stretching from one side of his face to the other. He suddenlym moved close to me, in a blink of an eye, he drilled his finger straight into my solar plexus. I could sense him sifting through my memories, looking at my soul, if he wanted he could destroy it with a flick of his hand. He was completely aware of everything about me, I could see him looking at my memories as if it was a movie, and then he saw Deborah. I could feel it he was again grinning like a mad man. My heart filled with dread, he wouldn''t, would he? ¡°Seems like she might be the one being punished for your mistakes Mortal, ¡° he whispered before flying through the air at blinding speed creating a distortion in air as he travelled. I couldn''t keep up with his speed as I desperately used my magic to manipulate the darkness giving me short burst of extremely high speed. I soon reached my home. Located right on the cusp of the southern border. I slowly opened the door. A thick smell of blood assaulted my nose. I could see nothing but blood splattered across the walls, painted in a sick manner. My poor wife¡¯s guts, her innards were all ripped apart by that bastard. Thick tears welled up in my eyes. My body couldn''t take it anymore. Our small house was splattered with her blood and body. I fell to my knees unable to handle the pain coursing through my heart; I put my blood soaked fingers to my face. I cried. It was my entire fault alone. I was arrogant. Deborah¡­ * END OF FLASHBACK * I sat through the mist; I looked at my wife¡¯s gravestone. I knelt pulling at the contents of my bag. I bag full of bright pink dew kissed Thorngrace flowers. I used my magic, to dissipate the dead flowers free. I finished scrubbing polishing, and sat back on my heels, I was talking to her. ¡°I met a boy Deborah¡­it scares me he has the same eyes I had, when I went to challenge Ascalon.¡± I said. ¡°He has unimaginable potential, he will become great in the future but¡­I don''t know anymore, I feel he is being clouded by revenge,¡± I recollected thinking of Deimos. ¡°His name is Deimos, unusual right? We were going to name our son Deimos,¡± I said chuckling at the thought of how we were desperately trying to start a family, when she was killed. Tears were somewhat uncontrollable now¡­ ¡°When I see him, I see myself Deborah, and it makes me sad for his future, I hope I can lead him into a better path,¡± I said slowly standing up. ¡°I have to leave now Deborah, I will see you later,¡± I said before standing up, and walking away when I saw a small figure emerge from the thick mist rolling in the darkness. Deimos¡¯ POV: I looked at the lone figure sitting in front of a gravestone. I slowly walked over realizing it was Balthazar looking at a lone gravestone that had been freshly cleaned. He seemed sad his usual demeanor and madness in his eyes gone, replaced with a glazing one them. He looked almost somber¡­ Chapter 11- Necropolis (END OF ARC 1) Heys Guyss, Author here, new chapter is done.. and i hope you guys like it. I AM DESPERATELY IN NEED OF PR, someone please volunteer. Ahhahahah, anyway i hope you guys like it and thankyou for sticking with me to the conclusion of ARC 1 of AVALON hope you liked it so far, as folks cause its jut getting started... Please dont forget to comment, review, and also rate, i hope you guys like it... Croppingprince8 Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos POV: I made my way through the round walls of the cemetery until I found a convenient dark place to practice with my new body. I made a small vault up, caught one of the metal spikes and used it for leverage to pull myself to the top of the wall. Perhaps the spikes were ornaments after all; they served no purpose, who would want to go into a cemetery. The moon broke through the cloud and I found myself looking out over the graveyard. It was an eerie sight silvered light. Mist was rising. Gravestones loomed out of it, like islands rising from some sort of a dismal sea. Trees leaned over like enormous ogre like beats, raising branched arms as if in worship of the people entering this bleak place. Somewhere in the distance the fire I made for myself at the end of a large club-like stick flickered and then vanished. All around me loomed gravestones. Some were tumbled. Others were overgrown with weeds and black Thornrose bushes. Here and there an engraved inscription was almost visible in the moonlight. The graves were laid out in long rows, like streets of the dead. Old gnarled trees overshadowed them in places. Every where the mist drifted spectrally, sometimes becoming so thickly cloudy that vision was obscured. The smell of black Thornroses filled the air. It was easy to envision the countless bodies decomposing under the ground, worm burrowing through rotting flesh and the empty eye sockets of corpses. From there it was but a short leap of the imagination to picture those corpses emerging from beneath the ground, skeletal hands reaching upward through the soil, like fingers of drowning swimmers emerging beneath the sea. I quickly moved along thoroughfares between the graves, and slowly realized that the Graveyard was more like a necropolis, a city of the dead. It had its districts and its place just like the city outside. Here was the poor quarter, the are where paupers and commoners were thrown into unmarked communal graves. There were neatly tended gravestones where prosperous middle classes were buried. I felt like they competed with each other in the ornateness of the headstones, the way jealous neighbors might compete in life. Winged angels armed with stone swords held aloft books inscribed with names and occupations of the dead. In the distance I saw that inside the graveyard was a gate a similar one to the entrance but it had been neatly cleaned even buffed, reflecting the moonlight. I read the name etched across the gate ¡°Deborah Korsh.¡± I slowly opened the creaking metal door, looked through the compound. There was nothing in this enormous place, except for a small grave right in the middle with the black Thornrose circling around the edge of the entire circular compound. The black Thornrose¡¯s sickly sweet perfume assaulted my nostrils. I looked at man hunched over sitting on his heels at the base of the grave looking, at the grave as if he were talking to it. Balthazar? What was he doing here? I felt a somewhat overwhelming feeling of sadness starting mingle with my earlier feelings of anxiety. This place was an indication futility of human life. I remembered my wife, my daughter, and all the people I loved from my previous life. I guess death is a universal law all things alive must die, or transcend and become Immortal to avoid it. I walked close to Balthazar who saw me coming to him and stood up wiping his eyes. ¡°What are you doing here boy?¡± he asked. ¡°I just came for a run Lord Balthazar. May I ask what are you doing here?¡± I replied. Completely ignoring my question, Balthazar looks around as if something is watching him, ominously. ¡°Child, it is not safe for you to come out at night to the outer edges of the city, this where, magical beasts lurk. This particular place is famous for its Blightrats that emerge at night,¡± He said looking around more furiously now. ¡°Why are you here Lord Balthazar, and who is Deborah Korsh,¡± I asked my curiosity getting the better of me. Balthazar gave me a look of absolute anger. I shivered a little his indifferent maniacal eyes gave a somewhat ominous feeling, combined with his absolute strength as an Emperor, I was quickly turned to run back through the compound out of the graveyard. I turned to run out but suddenly Balthazar¡¯s cold hand gripped my shoulder. ¡°Be still,¡± The Magus whispered, ¡°Something comes,¡± I froze and glared out into the darkness, wishing that I hadn¡¯t come here. I remembered reading about Blightrats, they were a breed of rat type magical beasts, that are aggressive and highly dangerous in nature. When the lowest ranking normal Plague rat beast of a serf rank gathers enough power it morphs into a Blightrat, a powerful Knight rank magical beast. I was at best an ordinary human when it comes to magic, and even if I do have a Bishop level body, the special skill of the Blightrat its power to call swarm of Plague rats will surely kill me. My only consolation was that Balthazar is an Emperor; he surely will be able to kill them. The Blightrats were not really intelligent and will attack anyone in their line of sight, which further made it harder to deal with them. Balthazar looked at me then at his surroundings; he intently stared at my chest possibly at the tattoo underneath. He made a slight grin. ¡°Child, this will be your first test I want to see how long you will last, as I heard you have an affinity to darkness magic, I will be your master in that regards. This will be my first test to you, I want to see how you will act in a situation where you will surely lose your life,¡± he said his eyes no longer glazed over, but returning to their usual pitch black darkness. Before I knew it there was nothing left where Balthazar was, as if he had blended in with the darkness of the night. He isn¡¯t aware that throughout my adolescent life I had fought and battled always on the edge of death. I was a Godsman and retaining that position was not an easy one. I concentrated, my muscles, locked in their unnatural position, began to protest against the strain, but still I held myself immobile, hardly daring to breathe, hoping that whatever was coming would not notice me before I saw it. Suddenly I scented a foul and loathsome taint in the air. It smelled of rotting flesh and weeping sores, like the body of a sick man left unwashed in a hospice for weeks or years. If diseases had a smell, it would be like this, I thought. I knew in an instant that my suspicions were right. A hideous figure limped into view. It was a Blightrat. It was similar to a giant rat like creature, with dark black fur covering its body, here and there great boils erupted from its mangy fur, and something hideous dripped from its weeping skin. It was said that plague rats were, the carriers of disease and the all the kingdoms used their magus¡¯ power to run them into extinction but they always found their way into the darker dingy part of the city such as its sewage system, and its graveyards. They soon morphed into these Blightrats when they gained enough power through training. The Blightrats each controlled a horde of Plague rats, and that was what made them extremely hard for even a Bishop to deal with, and Balthazar wants to see what I would do, a 12 year old boy with no magical skills. That man is truly insane. The Blightrat was emaciated and its eyes glowed with a mad, feverish light. Its movements were extremely fast but looked almost drunken; it reeled as if in the grip of a disease, which interfered with its sense of balance. And yet, when it moved it sometimes did so with bursts of obscene speed, with unholy energy of a sick man mustering the last of his strength. It tittered loathsomely as it moved and screeched in its strange tongue. As it did this I noticed that on it back was a cage, and in that cage seethed rats. It stopped for a moment, then it opened the cage and the rats burst free of the open door and dropped to the ground on to compound. As they fell, they leaked urirne and foul excrement all over the Blightrat. When the foulness dripped to the earth it further amplified the hideous smell, which made me want to vomit. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The hundreds of Rats slowly scampered on the ground running towards me, they were so plagued that they were slowly gying on their way to me, and sometimes the little rats would stop for a minute and scratch themselves until they bled, or their festering scabs and they would taste the pus that stained their claws. Sometimes they would pause and stare into space for no reason. At times foul excrement would belch forth from beneath their tails and they would lie down and writhe in it, tittering insanely. I slowly dodged each of them and with precise movements, before slowly kicking and blacking each of the rats, attack. The rats would jump in wonderful heights and try to bite me with their sharp teeth, while the Blightrat was intently staring at me. I with unbelievable strength and speed dodged each of the hundreds of rats fluidly moving my muscles in precise movements. Due to the power of my body when I punched or kicked these rats they would explode on contact, like bag full of meat producing a foul smelling incense on their death. I slowly realized that the job of the rats was only to act as suicide bombers, so that I inhale or ingest some of the potent plague like poison hidden in their blood. I quickly jumped back behind the grave putting up a 5 meters distance between each other. There were approximately 50 rats left and the Blightrat was slowly making it move. Slowly coming to me in short bursts of incredibly speed. I brainstormed ideas in ways to get rid of these rats without inhaling any of the poison. I suddenly had an idea. I got to my bearing due to my previous combat expertise I was swiftly able to ran past the rat swarm and towards the Blightrat, which looked at me with its dark beady eyes. I knew that I should be able to destroy any order of attack this plague rats have if I destroyed its controller. When I was at hairbreadth from the Blightrat, I jumped up, about 10 metres in to the air and came down from the top like a hammer right on top of the Blightrat. The Blightrat knew that a punch from me would result in its death, and it moved swiftly back into the forest, it missed my kick from a whisker, and quickly scurried off. I looked around and noticed that the 50 or so rats were gone too. I looked around trying to see where in the world Balthazar was, I looked in the trees to see where he was trying to determine what was happening. I knew that most likely this was to test me to see if I had enough resolve, and survival instinct to come out of this skirmish alive. ¡°Balthazar I passed your test, Where are you?¡± I yelled, looking at the looming trees surrounding the circular compound. The black Thornrose¡¯s distinct smell was now masked with the scent of excrement, urine and flesh. I looked around and sat on top of the grave, looking and observing the internal structure of the rats. Suddenly I heard something. ¡°Screeeeee!!!!!¡± I primal and screeching rat noise was heard echoing throughout the necropolis. There was intense shuffling in the trees, making the trees surrounding the compound sway uncontrollably. Abruptly the intense disgusting smell became extremely thick. Making the white mist become a disgusting yellowish hue. I looked around at my surroundings, and to my abysmal dismay. I noticed that I was surrounded by 5 more Blightrats each with their own cage on their back, they were slowly crawling, limping towards me, those giant rat like bodies making for a hideous sight. From each of the gaps in the trees that overlooked and loomed over the compound these rats emerged. My heart tightened, however skilled I was I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to emerge victorious being surrounded by more than 500 rats, and be able to survive the onslaught of 5 Blightrats. Even the most powerful Bishop level combatant would not be able to protect from such an onslaught. I looked around at my surroundings, climbing on top of the grave, looking for a way to escape. ¡°BALTHAZAR!!!!¡± I called, yelling at the top of my lungs. ¡°BALTHAZAR!!!!¡± I bellowed again. I heard no answer, I didn''t know what to think. Maybe he works for a foreign country that doesn''t want me alive. I will figure it out later, I thought to myself, pushing aside all the countless number of hypothesis my mind was formulating about the reason of Balthazar¡¯s betrayal. I need to survive. I identified the Blightrat that I almost killed last time deducing that it may have the least amount of rats at its disposable, not giving another chance to the other Blightrats, I bounded at incredible speed towards the Blightrat, intent on killing it, and breaking through from there. I activated my Tattoo, which was now emitting a golden hue giving me an appearance of a golden flash. I made a tight fist making a loud bang from the intensity with which I curled my fingers, not letting even air escape. I was about to execute the Blightrat when suddenly I sensed an oncoming projectile from my right. I saw that the other Blightrats noticing that I was escaping had used their attack and spat a large mass of gooey green liquid towards me. I dodged the projectile, and kept going but I sensed that there was another coming from my left. I made a duck and let the projectile hit the tree next to me. The projectile instantly eroded the tree, making an hssing noise, letting out a gas. I suddenly felt a large green slime projectile hit me square on the back, I fell down tumbling grazing my shoulder, and making a loud thud as I did. I felt the shirt that Balthazar made me erode slowly, revealing the distinct silver light that was emanating from the star tattoo on my chest, which was now shining bright silver lighting up the surroundings. I was on my knees sweating profusely, as small amount of the liquid touched my back, giving me slight burn. I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by 100¡¯s of rats, and the 5 Blightrats each looking at me, their beady eyes glistening with hunger, and their sharp teeth, dripping with saliva. I had to formulate a plan; I knew I couldn''t dodge 5 of those projectiles at the same time, so jumping into the air was not an option; I touched the freshly lain dirt, trying to see if there was something I could make a small fire with. Slowly the rats came incessantly attacking me while the Blightrats, were spitting large green blobs, I didn''t know what do. I felt small bites all over my body, making small dents in my skin; the rats couldn''t get through my tough skin. But I was not able to heal from the thick throbbing burns that the green slime gave me, as fast as the Blightrats were spitting them out. I shook the slime off continuously, at the same time killing hundreds of the small rats. Each of my punches would destroy the plague rats, as if punching a small balloon fillend with meat. I tore through the rats and again rushed through to the nearest Blightrat, which was the one to my right. The Blightrat looked at me and used its speed to scurry off but with my Tattoo activated I could move a lot faster. I tore straight through the Blightrat ignoring its green slime that it shot to my chest, and ripped it into two. I came to the other side before I realized that the inside of my body was burning. I had inhaled too large an amount of the noxious gas. I slowly fell unconscious, falling to my knees. I looked at my chest which was now sizzling due to the amount of the green slime on me. The Blightrat¡¯s scurried intent on killing me, opening its pungent mouth to chomp down on my head. Suddenly I felt a slight trembling in my chest, the tattoo, and the tattoo on my chest was acting up. I suddenly felt my innards seizing up, my chest tightened the inside of my body was being slowly eaten away by the poison of the rats. I coughed blood and my vision became blurry. My heart was beating, I was at deaths door. Why has Balthazar done this to me? What is happening? Will I die with out accomplishing anything?` I slowly closed my eyes, and everything went dark¡­ . . . . In the depths of Deimos¡¯ soul the string of bright light was swimming in a sea of silvery grainy liquid, his soul. For the past 2 weeks it was continuously getting smaller until there was nothing left of it, completely merging with his soul. The soul suddenly burned bright, incredibly bright, and the Purple flames dancing around it became incredibly intense, the soul was continuously refined, condensing the immense energy that surged forth from the miniscule amount of god consciousness he absorbed during the ritual. With the overflow of energy a small gap broke through the purple flames, akin to a broken dam and the god consciousness travelled straight towards his brain, strengthening it. Deconstructing and rebuilding continuously until it was able to make a suitable brain, that was able to host its energy. . . . . Deimos¡¯ eyes suddenly flew open, and his bright green eyes, slowly released a cascading green mist. This is going to be fun, Deimos thought to himself¡­ END OF ARC 1 Chapter 12- Way of Pestilence Hey Guysss, New chapter is done.....Anyway onto more pressing matters, i was always not gonna do a harem, at the beginning i thought many females admiring the mc would be called a harem but i didnt think that all of them would need to be his love interest. I definitely am gonna stick to my original story which definitely does not include a harem, i apologise personally to people who think they have been cheated, but this is where i want the story to go and i will stick to my story. Special apology goes to Abyssdarkfire and lourdiemar who i feel as though i have mislead. I am extremely sorry guys. I finally found an awesome PR, he is a former rewriter for Reborn: Wolf Man, so he is definitely a really good one. He and i are going to be helping each other and are going discuss various ideas together. Cheers Thernn for mging me... Anyway dont forget to comment, review, rate and favourite Croppingprince Check out my fics: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1658 - Avalon http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1556 - Heroes of Jorg ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Balthazar¡¯s POV: I followed the capering Blight rat slowly through the mist-shrouded cemetery; I was forced to move cautiously, lurking behind tombstones, using magic to completely blend in with the shadows of the night. I was following a lone Blighrat that was scurrying to its master, scared out of its mind. I was about to come out of position after seeing that Deimos had securely scared off the Blightrat, which was attacking him but, When I was going down to greet him I sensed with my spiritual sense that more than 2000 Blightrats were scurrying towards his location continually, they were all coming for him, this wasn''t a normal attack, it was organized and efficiently acted out to destroy the boy. They had the compound of my wife¡¯s grave completely surrounded. ¡°Tenebrae Caveam¡± I whispered Quickly using one of my stronger spells and completely decimating almost all of the rats in my radius of about 2 km. This spell leaked an extremely thick black fog from my body, enveloping all of the whitey mist in the Graveyard and engulfed everything in a radius of 2km around me. I now could sense any and all things that were in this radius and with a flick of my hand; I crushed all the rats into mince meat with nothing but their innards laying where their bodies should have been. This darkness spell caused my magical reserves to drastically decrease but it decimated the oncoming attack and should save the boy for the time being. Even though I was am Emperor rank combatant decimating and completely liquefying more than 2000 knight ranked beasts was no easy thing, and for it to be done instantly I had to expend a sizeable amount of my energy. I needed to find the source of this attack and destroy it as soon as possible, I thought to myself. I was following this Blightrat for precisely that reason. The Blightrat at last made its way towards a vast mausoleum deep in the noble quarter of the Graveyard. I was creeping along paved pathways, between well-tended gardens. Here and there statues loomed over the sundials that were useless at this hour. I could see more and more of the Blight rats gathered around the place, but I could not waste my spiritual energy dealing with such things in case the perpetrator was a cardinal level beast or even a monarch level beast. I hid myself within the arched entrances to the tomb of some noble house. The mausoleum was built almost like a temple, as if housing a deity of some kind. In the moonlight hiding in the shadows I could see that the mausoleum was in a state of great disrepair. The stonework had crumbled, friezes had been eaten away by the effects of centuries of wind and rain, the faces had crumbled off the statues replaced by lichen. It looked like the stone itself was suffering from some terrible disease. The gardens around it were wild and overgrown. I could not be sure but I guessed that the family that built this place had fallen, or died out, whichever way they seemed not care for their ancestors. The place had a desolate look as if no had come here for centuries. I bounded up the stairs as fast as I could, at incredible speeds, making sure none of the Blightrats outside could notice my presence. I grinned at the prospect of confronting the Blightrat leader in his lair, and it brought a smile to my face, after joining the Circle of Magi, it has been a long time since I engaged in slaughter. The stench was worse within. The walls were thoroughly caked with filth. I could feel it squelch under my feet as I blended in with the shadows. With practicing and learning darkness magic for more than 800 years, I have fundamentally become able to blend in with the darkness as it were my home, and my eyes can see through darkness better than light. From somewhere from the distance I hears a faint scratching sound. I slowly moved making sure to not warn the Blightrats of my presence. Ahead of me now I could hear a loud chattering. It sounded like the Blightrats were invoved in some sort of obscene ritual. A faint slow of greenish, sickly light illuminated the corridor ahead. I swiftly walked and peeked through the shadows. What I saw was unbelievable, I saw Deimos his eyes were releasing an incredible green misty hue, dressed in nothing but his black pants which was littered with blood and innards making for a very disturbing sight. He was holding a crude club, which was caked in red abstract strokes of blood, with one hand and holding the head of a Green Bograt in the other¡­ What in the world happened? Green Bograt POV (Before annihilation): I cackled as one of my leprous claw broke off and fell into the bubbling cauldron. It was a good sign. My own plague eaten flesh would help feed the power, which lurked there and strengthened the brew that would soon bring death to my enemies. The God Poxes potion was at once the sacred relic and a weapon for the Rat Clan of Pestilence, and I intended that it would fulfill both purposes at once. From my pouch I took out a thick handful of Gastoad core dust and threw it into the great vat. My remaining fingers tingled from the Gastoad core¡¯s touch and I licked them clean, feeling the tingling transfer itself to my tongue as I did so. I licked my gums so that some of the dust would contaminate the abscesses and ulcers there and perhaps make their contents even more contagious. I hawked a huge glob of phlegm into my mouth and then spat it into the thick soupy mixture for good measure, al the while stirring with the great ladle carved from a thighbone of a Cardinal level beast. I could feel the pestilential power rising from the cauldron, the way ordinary Blightrats might feel heat from a fire. It was as if I stood in front of a mighty conflagration of toxic energies. I breathed deeply, pulling the heady vapors that rose from the mixture into his lungs, and instantly was rewarded with a thick, rough cough. I could almost feel my lungs clogging with fluid as the corruption brewed there. It was a just reward, I thought. My plans were going well. The test was almost complete. The new plague was as virulent as could be hoped, but most importantly it was mine. I had used an old recipe but had added the new secret ingredient myself. I will from now call this Vile Bograt Pox, from the Pestilence clan. Everyone would know our name and the great Twin Horned Godrat would bless us with his infinite power. I would be long remembered as the originator of a new disease, one that would ravage the furless ones like a ferocious beast of prey. With every night, the brew grew thicker. With every new plague corpse added to the mix, the disease grew stronger. Soon, I judged, it would be ready. I gave humble thanks to the Twin Horned Godrat the ruler of all the rat clans, one of the strongest immortals of the continent, for the inspiration which made me seek out a hiding place where I could observe a rich a source of contaminated bodies to drop into the brew! Tomorrow night I will dispatch these Blightrats to drop contaminated Plaguerats into the wells, and through the roofs of the great abattoirs where the humans slaughtered their meat. After that, the plague would spread very swiftly. I added more of the corpse roses to the mixture. These were my final secret ingredients to the brew; They grew on plants whose roots dug deep through the flesh of corpses. They were ripe and strong with accumulated death energies. I breathed deeply of the sent of corruption and peered out with my filmed eyes at the Blightrats. They lay sprawled across this ancient human death-chamber, twitching and scratching, coughing and hawking like true members of the Clan of Pestilence they were. I knew that each and every one of them was dedicated to our clans cause. They were filled with a sort of brotherhood, which few other rat type magical beast clans could understand. They had sought and found abnegation of self in true worship of the Twin Horned Godrat in his most concrete form: the bringer of disease, the spreader of plague. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. For each and every member of the clan knew that their body was a temple, which harbored the countless blessing of our God. Their rotted nerve endings no longer felt the pain. I knew that other Rat type magical beast clans thought us mad and avoided us, that was because the other Rat magical beats, lacked their purity of purpose, their total commitment to serving our God. Each and every Green Bograt present in this continent was prepared to pay any price, make any sacrifice to reach the goals of our Pestilence Clan. It was this commitment that made us the most worthy of all of the Twin Horned Godrat¡¯s descendent clans, and the most suitable leaders for all the Rat clans under our Gods¡¯ influence. Soon all the other clans would realize this. Soon this new plague will bring this Asgard City, located so close to our home in the forest, to its knees, even before the other Rat magical beast clans entered its precincts. Soon all would bear witness that the triumph belonged to the Pestilence Clan, and us Green Bograts, the humblest of our Gods chosen servants. Soon our clan will be the only vessel worthy of carrying our lords, blessings and words. I slowly opened the cage, which lay close at hand, reached in and pulled out one of the large grey rats. It bit me viciously, drawing some of my black blood, but I hardly felt the sharp teeth cleave my flesh. Pain was near-meaningless concept to me. I closed the cage and left the other rats scrabbling within. I took the rat by the tail and ignoring it frantic struggling, lowered it into the brew, The creature struggled as its head entered the foul liquid, Its eyes gleaned madly and it scrabbled frantically with its small claws to try to keep itself above the surface. I used my other hand and pushed it down until the liquid entering its mouth drowned its squeals out. I held it under for so long that its struggles almost ceased and then I drew it up again, still dripping and set it down on the floor. The rat sat there for a moment, blinking in the light, as if unable to believe that it had been reprieved. I scooped it up and threw it into the second cage where the newly treated rats were. It sniffed and vomited. I scooped some of the small rats vomit and threw it back in the cauldron. Soon the cage would be full and I will dispatch one of follower Blightrats to release them into the cemetery and use them to drive out strangers. Suddenly I heard our calling call, our emergency noise. ¡°Screeeeeeeeee¡±. My brother!. I knew it was serious, someone strong was there. I quickly dispatched the surrounding 2000 Blight rats, already on patrol in this large Graveyard straight to the location telepathically. We Green Bograts, were Peak Stage Bishop level magical beasts, eventhough our physical powers were limited compared to other peak stage Bishop magical beasts, but we had great intelligence and telepathic abilities. We were born with hereditary knowledge on how to spread our Way of Pastilence to appease our God. I continued my work dreaming colorful and wonderful dreams of being blessed by our lord¡­ Deimos POV: I felt in that small split second lying on the ground; my body, slightly red from the minor burns I was receiving from these green slime attacks, my soul was once again undergoing some type of change. It wasn''t powering me or changing my Tattoos, but it was as if my souls energy had finally managed to turn the minute amount of god consciousness into some kind of primal energy. I felt it the influx of the energy in my soul, as if this energy was too powerful to contain, and as if a dam broke in my soul . The energy came out of the confines of my soul and traveled straight to my brain, as if it were looking for a host. I felt all feeling go away, as if I was dead from the neck down. I felt nothing. After a split second I suddenly saw everything, felt everything, heard everything. I could hear the crow cawing off approximately 12.3 meters away from me in the north east direction. I could see the various calluses and warts present in this Bog rats jaw, squirting out pus continuously, in the pitch-black darkness. I felt like my brain was sensing and feeling at an extremely high level. I could sense the direction of the wind however small it was, I felt the rough sand against my back and could identify every grain from it. My mind was working overdrive comprehending and hypothesizing what had happened to my brain. In my previous world Consciousness is something we all believed we possess. Since the mid 80¡¯s on earth, scientists have found ways to probe brain activity, and linking it to traits we believe are vital for consciousness, such as free will and responding to stimuli. Study suggests that consciousness is a very small part of brain activity, as we are consciously unable to control or sense everything around us, scientist have done experiments to find out the extent of what normal consciousness does. The result is a conscious mind with a model of reality that allows us to do more than merely react to stimuli or the bidding of our unconscious instincts- turns us into incredible beings. The principle behind the practitioner of Buddhist meditation is virtually to understand the profound mysteries of consciousness. The Indian Philosopher Siddhartha Gautama, better known as Buddha, aimed to use this to turn the conscious mind in on itself and to watch it in action. I understood that my brain had transcended the normality, and reached a stage where it feels and senses everything, I could predict the movement of the oncoming rat chomping down on me, I could sense the slight variation in the air pressure as the other Blightrats sucked air into to shoot me again with one of their green slime balls. I could sense the movement of their muscle and heat that was released as various pustules were breaking on their body. I could hear the small pitter, patter of the Plaguerats as they were dying continuously, but could also feel slight movements in their muscles, to predict which one would die next. I knew that the God consciousness energy had done something incredible to my brain. I immediately used my two arms and vaulted up with my two feet pointing upwards kicking the Blightrat¡¯s mouth close and breaking its jaw at the same time. I immediately, giving the filthy creature no chance as it was bleeding profusely from its mouth; using the winding snake form of the Silat martial arts, turning my hand into a spear, and piercing straight through its temple, dodging its futile attempt at survival, and ripping its brain out. I held the black sludgy sponge like brain in my hand, as the other Plaguerats and Blightrats, stared at me with its filmic beady eyes unable to comprehend what just happened. I rushed out dodging all of the projectile green slimes that were coming towards me and, stepped on the 1st of the four remaining Blightrats paws restricting its movement and used the tiger claw movement to rip its heart out straight from its body. I forgot to control my power forgetting that I had a Bishop ranked body, and just went straight through its body bursting its tiny heart in on itself. It was amusing to watch as I executed another one of these bastards. I sensed that there was another projectile coming right behind my head, and ducked down dodging it and dodging the Blightrat which was coming at me in pursuit behind my back. The rat lunged at me, not predicting my sudden duck and was flying over me. I swiftly plunged my hand straight into the air, skewering the Blight rat right ints heart. I stood and with a swift movement peeled its body of me and flung it away. I knew that I couldn''t have done this without my newfound brainpower, and would have again, been constricted by projectiles I wouldn''t have been able to dodge. I saw that there were now only some of the Plaguerats left, and one Blightrat, I recognized this one. It was the one who called for its friends. I jumped determined to kill it with the same technique as before; plummeting downn on it like a comet. I pushed straight through its body drilling straight underground. With my leg skewered into its body. I looked around; I was utterly surprised as I found myself in an underground tunnel similar to the Paris catacombs. The tunnel was illuminated by the golden and silver light my tattoo was giving, which helped me see all the small skeletons lodged into walls of the tunnel. I had drilled a hole straight through the ground with the Blightrat skewered to my leg, I laughed, satisfied at my knew found perceptive powers which were simply amazing. I kicked into the air, sliding the dead rats body off my foot, and smashing its body into the roof of the underground tunnel. I was furious at Balthazar, and furious at these Blightrats, I could feel the small amount of poison coursing through my innards, but the regenerative powers of my Bishop ranked body was expelling it out slowly in the form of sweat. I did not expect that simple run and a bit of exploration would turn into such an exciting night. I was no doubt furious at Balthazar, but the mundane life I lead for the past 12 years was getting to me and I could feel that my body was prodding and teasing at me to see where this night would take me. I could feel the adrenalin coursing though my veins, finally finding some sort of entertainment. I ran down into the Underground catacomb like tunnel, to see where it leads¡­ Chapter 13- Catacombs Hey Guys Sorry for the late release, but first chapter PR''ed guys... Creds go to awesome PR Thernn..... Hope you guys like it, new character inspiration from Magician by Michael Scott, awesome book you guys should check it out. Indiana Jones also helped for this chapter.... As per advice toned down on the description and am going back to old writing style. Croppingprince8 Deimos: I ran down the long winding path examining everything around me. The catacombs were damp and soggy with puddles of water. From the corner of the caves'' walls I could see water trickling down. Giant spiders and millipedes scurried about and the whole underground cave smelt like rotting flesh. Packed skeletons filled scattered recesses in the walls. By my rough estimate, I guessed that these catacombs contained millions of skeletons, including those of magical beasts! This entire structure seemed to have been built from the death and decay of millions of life forms. I continued down the path in an attempt to discover where it led. Running my hand down the sides of the wall I attempted to find discrepancies in the walls, and discover an exit. Everywhere I looked the walls were littered with stained- yellow and bleached-white skulls. My ambient golden hue sent shadows dancing and twitching, making it appear as though the empty eyes were moving, following me. It was hard to control the shivers that ran up and down my spine. My legs moved swiftly, bounding down the path, but even with my strong body my feet did not dent the ground. I barreled forward naked except for innerwear and some black cotton breeches. One thing I definitely missed was the velvety texture of a Valentino suit coupled with comfortable Armani leather shoes. My usual repertoire for a perfect look. With the open collar white shirt from Prada and the Valentino I felt most comfortable. I promised myself that in the future I would definitely make myself a suit because these armor and medieval breeches were abhorrently barbaric. This was truly a strange place. I sensed that this pathway was built under this necropolis for someone important. Like the tomb of a Pharaoh these caves must have been created to honor an extremely powerful person or immortal who chose this as his final resting place. The graveyard was located right on the precipice of the Great Forest of the West and was bound to attract some monsters. I jumped swiftly to the left as a monstrous spider shot its web at me. The spider was skittering across the roof. Its eight furry legs crouching and extending continuously as it advanced by jumping from one place to another. It looked truly ghastly as thick saliva dripped down small teeth arranged in multiple layers much like a shark. A thick white web flew towards me, but I dodged jumping forward at a blinding speed towards the creature in front of me. I balled my fist and punched clean through the creature. I couldn''t even feel resistance from it as I spilled its white blood and guts all over my body, I grinned feeling excitement I had not felt in a decade. It was an 8- eye Queen Spider, a Higher-level Knight beast. I soon realized that due to the earlier change to my brain none of my physical capabilities were enhanced, my body was in no way stronger than before. It was just as if I could sense everything around me to the smallest degree, and use the full capability of my body. I knew that even a peak stage Bishop level combatant, would be overwhelmed if 5 Blightrats along with their accompanying 1000 Plaguerats attacked him. Horde type magical beasts were simply too overwhelming. They would surround the fighter continuously biting and expelling their poison into him, resulting in a gruesome death. I knew that combatants who had reached the rank of Monarch were able to probe their surroundings with their spiritual energy similar to sonar. However, while I was unable to currently project my aura, my physical abilities allowed me to sense and perceive things in a way similar to that of a Monarch level fighter. On the road to becoming an immortal there were three bottlenecks that were extremely crucial. Each would determine if one held the requisite power to advance to the next phase. The first when a Vassal becomes a knight which will give them a significant power boost. Then it was when a Cardinal becomes a Monarch which was said where 95% of the combatants fail. The final is when an Emperor becomes an Immortal, which was near impossible. A Divine Tattoo measures one''s potential. Thus they were given the utmost importance for academy recruitment. Divine Tattoos above that of a beast were incredibly rare and sought after. In many cases a commoner family whom gave birth to a Divine Tattoo wielding child would see their social standing rise tremendously. Alternatively when a noble family failed to give birth to a potential combatant, their reputation would significantly decrease. I encountered more and more 8-Eyes Queen Spiders, but I cut them down testing the various techniques of silat with my new body. I dodged their attacks with minimal effort, continuously testing myself. I also attempted to gauge the minimum amount of power needed to kill a high level Knight beast. I determined that I only needed to use 20% of my power to kill one of the beasts, however when they appeared in groups I would need to exercise 60% of my power as their coordinated attacks of white web were incredibly deadly. One would circle me and shoot webs to provoke movement while the other would predict my movement and attempt to coil me in another web. Unexpectedly I felt a slight change in the air. I realized that this path was completely straight and would eventually lead to the outside. I did not expect, however, to find a slight almost unnoticeable difference in air pressure. After not observing even a slight variation in this winding tunnel littered with death, a single small change was extremely noticeable to me. I slowly made my way towards the small crevice located on the right side of the catacombs. It was a small hole, shaped similar to an extremely thin oval, located between two skulls lodged in the wall. I peered in but even with my enhanced eyesight I could not see past anything as if there was some sort of a magical barrier covering my eyes. All I saw was endless darkness. Even with the bright light my Divine Tattoo gave off, I couldn''t see anything or hear anything, except for a slight whistling sound from the air being sucked in. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I slowly placed my hand inside, trying to see if I could identify anything. I wasn''t hesitant at all, from the creatures I have encountered so far, there were only the 1000- legs Bloodpede, a giant millipede about the size of a small dog and that was just a High Vassal Ranked beast, and the 8-eyes Queen Spider. My hand went into the crevice and I felt the dingy wet rock in the inside, the rock was grinding against my skin making small cuts on it. What!! I thought even getting bitten by magical beast wouldn''t tear my skin but, this rock cut through me. As my blood dripped on the wet rock inside I suddenly felt searing pain as my golden aura blazed to life in a fashion that was far from its usual gentle hue. Thick golden light radiated off my body and was sucked into the crevice¡­ Without warning the skulls surrounding the began to liquefy and the surrounding walls started to slowly dissolve. I didn''t understand what was happening. Soon the the crevice had vanished, instead in front of me stood a circular doorway, emblazoned with scenes of battle and countless methods of slaughter.The chamber was completely empty except for a long black rectangular raised stone in the middle of the room. My tattoo seemed more and more harsh its golden aura illuminating every corner in detail. Lying flat on the top of the black raised stone was a statue of a huge man in ancient looking battle armor, similar to archaic Spartan armor with flanged bronze cuirasses and leg greaves coupled with a Corinthian type helmet. A small metallic earring consisting of a chain with a cross at the end hung from the statue. It was the only object not made of stone. His gauntleted hands wrapped around the thick hilt of a broadsword that was at least 6 feet long. The statue was at least 20 feet high and was a masterpiece of art. Visibly disappointed by the turnout, I turned around deciding to leave after thoroughly exploring the small room. I looked back to the entrance to find that it was no longer there, replaced by a wall with skeletons lined on it. Suddenly, I felt a faint chill running down my back. I spun around just as two nightmarish, creatures materialized straight from the thick dark shadows. They were completely white, eerily white. This scared me as they looked to be living talking skeletons. But they were alive. They possessed large bulbous heads with two small slits for nostrils. A forked tongue could be seen in their open mouth and their clear fangs dripped a thick white liquid. Large reptilian eyes with black and white pupils were nestled in their eyesockets. Adorning their head were twisting black horns similar to mountain goats. They were 8 foot tall with something peculiar about their legs. Their thighs were curving backwards, and then the legs jutted forward from the knee ending in thick black goat hooves. It seemed chimarian, a cross between a giant snake and a goat. I scoured my memory trying to remember what type of creature this is. Nothing. Nothing came to mind, I knew that I had the knowledge of every creature in Avalon. All the books I had read in the library of Kislev, combined with the books in Jeanne¡¯s library, gave me knowledge of Every Magical Beast on this plane. I was already astounded that this creature¡¯s movements were something I couldn''t observe. I couldn''t tell anything of them unlike the Queen spider, and the Millipede. It was as if this creature¡¯s movements were too complex and too powerful for me to comprehend. I could usually observe everything about the creature I have met thus far, like their small variations in their muscle movements, their short rapid breathing and even the direction of each of their eyes. They separated from each other, appearing less than a second later a hair¡¯s breadth from me. Intently focusing their circular eyes on me, they slowly circled me. Their long icy fingers tipped with black fingernails. stroked my bare upper body, and pinched my blood covered skin. They chittered and chattered to each other in high pitched almost inaudible voices. I remained still, scared that moving might prompt them to do something monstrous to me. When their fingers touched the my blazing golden aura nothing happened as if the aura was too weak to fight back. However, when they hovered their hand over the silver star in the middle of my chest, it spat silver sparks, as if to ward them away. The creature jumped back, but that single touch had sent my heart racing. I was gripped by a boundless amount of fear; sweat pouring down my back, and all the nightmares that most terrified me flooded to the surface. The scene of my daughter¡¯s death played over and over again. Tears streaked down my face as I was unable to contain the emotions bubbling up inside me. The two monsters had done something to me. I was starting regret my decision to come to this place. Just where the hell was I? The creatures were jumping up and down from laughter, obviously delighted by my reaction¡­ Suddenly realization came to me¡­if these creatures were not from this Plane, Avalon, and then they must be from a different plane. I knew that from Keres¡¯ explanation anything plant, creature or man in a different plane was an Immortal level being at the minimum. I was shaking and gasping, bathed in bitter icy sweat. My heart was tripping madly; my stomach was churning from my mindless panic. The earlier slight touch from this creature itself gripped my heart in fear. Just what in the world did I walk into? ¡°Quinn, Finn enough with your games,¡± a primal overpowering sound came¡­ ¡°Fear not Deimos,¡± ¡°They are just my guardians¡­¡± And then with a grinding of ancient stone the enormous statue sat up and swivelled its head to look at me. Within the helmet two eyes blazed blood-red... Chapter 14- The Offer Heys guys. Sorry about the past few weeks, been having a lot of work in my RL and wanted to get that sorted out first. Exams are kicking my ass but what ever little time i do have i spend it writing and stuff. I even stopped watching my Tv shows ahahah. I am like 5 episodes behind in Flash....... Thnx Thernn for editing this for me. Thanks for being patient guys. Croppingprince8,'' P.s. Did anyone guess who the Stone figure was, thought i had been dropping hints this whole time........ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ¡°Finally the Titan has arrived,¡± a primal voice bellowed. He sternly looked at the two abnormal chimarian creatures causing them to back away in fear. A red light was visible inside the Corinthian Helmet. The head turned. The sound of grinding stone again echoed throughout the chamber. The enormous 20-foot figure looked at me. Blazing crimson eyes now intently stared at me. Those eyes. There was something about those bright red eyes of his. When they stared at me, waves of fear rocked my body.There was a layer of thick black crust over him that seemed to reform every time it crumbled from his movements. The layer was similar to lava crust, covering everything from his skin to his armor. The only touch of color about him was in his eyes and the glinting silver earing he was wearing. ¡°It seems, as though another Titan has been born,¡± he said, taking a deep breath. The stone statue swung his legs off the plinth and turned o that he was sitting facing me. I noticed that every small movement he took would send big flakes of the crust on the ground and underneath; a golden hue was present which would quickly harden. ¡°You mortal possess the Titanic tattoo and also something I have never seen before..¡± he said, tilting his head stretching out his gloved stone hand, towards the silver star on my chest. I tried to move away but it was as if my body was not my own, as if it were under someone else control. I could feel beads of cold sweat trickling down my back. His hand was still a foot and a half away when, when my golden mist suddenly erupted as if a moth attracted to the flame it flowed towards the great statue¡¯s finger as if being guided by him, but the starry silver aura stayed there refusing to be attracted. Squinting against the glow given off by his my own skin, feeling the hair on his head standing up, crackling with static, I watched in awe as the hardened crust began to fall away from the statue¡¯s fingertips to reveal deeply tanned, muscled flesh beneath. On the statue¡¯s hand was thick golden mist slowly wafting off from an intricately drawn Aztec tattoo that was attached to it. I frowned I didn''t know what was going on but for sure I saw his tattoo giving off a golden aura, and then the aura itself quickly hardened and became part of his stony exterior. ¡­Beherit Lucifer ?.... The name popped into my mind. This man has a Titan tattoo for sure. The only other Titan in existence has been Beherit Lucifer. My mind was trying to hypothesize any scenario where this is plausible, I was sure he was either strong enough to ascend to a higher plane, or is a student of this realm but to think that he would be here. I was sure I was wrong maybe there is another Titan; it cannot be the founder of Beherit clan. Could it? Mustering all my strength, I meekly opened my mouth. My cold, dry lips parted, and a small voice escaped. Completely uncharacteristic of my usual tone. ¡°Are you Beherit Lucifer¡­?¡± I said, with a small quiet voice. ¡°I haven¡¯t been called that in thousands of years¡­Hahahahah¡± he said. I couldn''t make out if it was laughter or not, from his stony exterior, continually crumbled and rebuilt itself. ¡°Over the years i have been called Infernal Devil, Hell Fire, been a while since i heard my real name......" I recalled my memory of what I read happened more than 10 000 years ago. When Avalon was supposedly filled with Immortals, thousands of them, who were constantly battling for supremacy over the continent. The lands were bathed in seas of fire, and the constant battle almost wiped out the entirety of the human population. Then emerged one immortal that apparently single handedly wiped out all the other immortals, the greatest hero of all, Beherit Lucifer. There were also rumors that he had gone missing in the past 5000 years, but I had concluded that he had ascended. ¡°How could that be? You never ascended to a higher plane¡­¡± I inquired before remembering that, that knowledge was something I should have never known. His expression became somewhat surprised. ¡°How do you know of other planes boy¡­ahahahah truly mysterious? Never mind, child, for now I have finally found you,¡± he said looking at me as if I were a tasty meal. The man planted his tall broadsword on the ground; the point sinking easily into the bone floor, wrapped both hands around the hilt and leaned forward to look at me. Show no fear and don¡¯t panic. I straightened and stood tall, then stared directly into the narrow rectangular opening in the stone helm. During the space of a single heartbeat, I thought I caught a flash of brilliantly bright gold eyes in the shadows before they turned red and glowing again. ¡°Child do you know of the great battle that happened 10 000 years ago,¡± he said looking at me. ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one who defeated all the other immortal who were completely desecrating Avalon? Saving the human race.¡± ¡°Yes¡­and No, to be honest, I never intended to save the human race. I just needed to eliminate the competition¡­¡± he said his eyes, glowing ever so brightly, making my skin crawl slightly. ¡°Don''t you find it strange that more than a thousand immortals suddenly appeared and started battling to the death, on Avalon,¡± He said, looking at me. I thought about the various books I read. Sifting through each and every one of them, in my mind, thinking of the various possibilities as to why such an incident occurred. I then came to a book titled, ¡°History of the Immortals,¡± it was a thin bounded book, detailing on all the immortals that were ever to exist. It had no record of there being thousands of immortals, prior to the Great War. Where did they come from? The records showed that even before the Great War there were only a few immortals alive. But suddenly there was an influx of immortals, battling each other. The collateral damage caused the mountains disintegrate. Great cities to crumble to the ground, more than half the population passed away. The ground was littered with great fires ever consuming anything alive. This was all until Beherit Lucifer destroyed all of them single-handedly; he was hence hailed as the greatest hero of all time. To be able to destroy that many immortals, I was sure that he was at least a top tier immortal, in this realm almost about to ascend. But to think he would be rotting away in such a place baffled me. ¡°Child, I am the first Titan. With my immeasurable talent, I was hailed as the greatest. I had ascended long before the war. But I returned with the rest of the immortals, for a reason. We all came to look for an object, something that even for the ascended, was unfathomably precious.¡± He continued. ¡°Something that more than a 1000 immortals were ready to go into war for. In the end I was unable to find it, betrayed by my wife, I was sealed here. Cursed.¡± He said, his aura now radiated pure gold, and his red eyes blazed with deep hatred. The golden hue was breaking his stony exterior, but the statue kept reforming. ¡°Your wife¡­?¡± I asked ¡°That is a story for another time child, for now, I have finally found another Titan. My wife, when she cursed, me, made it so that my very blood and my Divine Tattoo would keep solidifying on my body, making me unable to gather any spiritual energy, or break my way out of this place,¡± he said suppressing his, anger that seemed to want break out and destroy everything. ¡°She didn''t know that she couldn''t kill me that way, I was a being of immeasurable power. She thought using a poison would decimate me and sealing with curse would end it, but although I am no longer able to battle, I am still alive, and these Ivory Nidhogg¡¯s are the last constructs I made using all my remaining power.¡± He said pointing at the two. Suddenly his stony finger, accumulated thick black chains. These chains suddenly elongated, stretching out and tied themselves around the two Ivory Nidhoggs. They then slowly started dragging them back in towards his enormous body. The Nidhoggs, Quinn and Finn, were kicking and screaming, but Lucifer showed no remorse in dragging them back into his body. Their bodies convulsed and ruptured before being sucked straight into his palm. ¡°Now that you have arrived, it is time for me to be able to finally leave this place. I have waited for another Titan to find this place for thousands of years, my boy. My wife made it so this crypt is only able to house a Titan Immortal, but she didn''t know that another Titan could access it and take me out of here.¡± He said pointing at the opening, which seemed to have appeared again. ¡°I cannot leave this place with my body. The damn curse made sure I would be imprisoned for an eternity in this crypt. To escape, I am forced to destroy my body and add my soul and spirit into my most prized possession, my Earing. Vajra.¡± I looked at his earring, it was pure silver and proportional to his massive body, the only thing untainted by the curse. It was hanging on his left ear and seemed to have an iridescent light to it. It was kaleidoscopic, but at the same time looked extremely plain. ¡°What makes you think I will help you Beherit Lucifer,¡± I said keeping my indifferent tone. I couldn''t see the benefits in helping this man. He is intentionally keeping secrets of his imprisonment and I doubt he would kill me although his temperament seemed extremely aggressive bordering on the insane, he didn''t radiate bloodlust. ¡°Child, what is your name?¡± he whispered. ¡°Deimos Demidov,¡± I replied. ¡°You have talent child, if I were to escape this place, I won''t be able to live anyway as I would have to ¡°die¡±. But I can as a spirit help you through the Earring. I will help you train your magic and unlock your true potential as a Titan¡± He said his red eyes glowing more brightly. ¡°Why are you so willing to teach me¡­¡± I said looking at him. The bright red eyes glowed fiercely. Sharper than ever before, there seemed to be hunger in them, it wasn''t maniacal like Balthazar. It radiated a more primal emotion. It felt as though there was some boundless anger in his heart¡­. it felt as though i was being crushed under his mere gaze.I fell to my knees and his face, wearing the Corinthian helmet, came extremely close to mine, staring at me. ¡°Child if you let me out, you will come to know soon enough¡­.¡± he whispered. ¡°Ok¡­I agree as long as you do not stand in my way. Part of my plans include the possible decimation of your entire clan. I don''t want you to get in my way,¡± I replied. I was somewhat skeptical, but the positives of learning from the greatest hero of all time, was not an opportunity I was willing to let go of. I didn''t think he let loose his immortals on me. I stood up as his fierce gaze dulled down Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­I had no idea there was a house built in my name. So my son survived huh¡­ Child I do not care for what you do, as long you let me escape. If my descendants are unable to defend themselves. That is their problem,¡± he said, nonchalantly, returning to his previous demeanor. ¡°It has been far too long since I have seen the outside child, trapped in this cursed catacombs, and forced to feel as my blood hardened and softened continuously. ¡°HAHAHAHAH FINALLY I AM ABLE TO LEAVE THIS PLACE,¡± He bellowed. His laughter sending reverberations throughout the place. I was perplexed by the turn of events. I didn''t expect Beherit Lucifer to be cursed and imprisoned in such a place, and me helping him escape. With no further warning, he thrust his own arm straight into the region where his heart is. Making a cracking noise as he went through the layers of the stone crust, and breaking bones. I could see crimson blood trickling down from the opening and the crust peeled off to reveal a deeply tanned skin underneath. Suddenly with an enormous thud, his huge body fell down, lifeless, limp. From his body, a clear ball of light encompassed with a strange blood red aura, hovered over his flaccid body. The ball of light then at alarming speed flew straight into the earring. A bright golden light glowed from the silver earring before it shrunk back into the size of a normal earring. I looked at it¡­ I walked up onto the stone plinth, carefully looking at the artifact. Vajra, he called it. I picked it up and pocketed it. I simply walked out of the hall. I could feel the warmth emanating from the object, it was strangely comforting. I then picked up my pace. I needed to get out of these catacombs. I stepped out of the hall to find that I was no longer at catacombs. I had no idea what happened, but I found myself in front of a flight of narrow dilapidated stairs. They seemed to lead to some room where thick bright green light was emanating. It seemed that the crypts were some sorts of a spatial magic controlled place. Seemingly only Titans could have seen it. I looked back to find that none of the skulls were staring at me anymore, there were none. Instead replaced with a narrow passage and the there no longer was the crypt of Beherit Lucifer. It disappeared with his ¡°death¡±¡­ I slowly walked up the stairs a thick scent of feces, and death assaulting my nose. I covered my face, stopping myself from vomiting from the putrid stench I slowly creeped inside to find. More than 10 Blightrats, lazily sleeping licking their calluses and open wounds, from which thick pus was seeping out. They were surrounding one Green Bograt who was slowly working on some sort of a mixture, from which the stench was emanating. I was now more than confident in taking care of these disgusting creatures. I walked in making no sound whatsoever, utilizing my, KGB militant training creeping in and with no sound. I looked to the nearest Blightrat, Looming over its large rat-like head. Its tongue was hanging out, and it was snoring away, its chest rising and falling. It was a disgusting sight emanating a pungent, overpowering odor, but I was soon used to it and was not affected by it. I made my hand into a strong grip. I pulled its large hanging tongue out with a swift movement. Grabbing the slimy black muscle. I then closed its giant elongated mouth with my hand. Crushing its jaw in the process. It made a ghastly crunching sound as its jaw was crushed under the sheer pressure of my body. I then used my other hand and made it straight as an arrow, and I thrust it in between its two bulging eyeballs and waited for the body to become completely limp. This happened in a matter of seconds, I was swift, unrelenting and went on to kill all the Blightrats, one after the other, in the next 5 minutes. It was only after killing all the Blightrats did I finally, garner the attention of the Green Bograt. Its pupils dilated, filled with rage. I was staring at it, provoking it. It was beyond angry and was huffing and puffing filled with rage. It picked up the large caldron started gulping it down, its green disgusting stench filling the entire room. It then put the empty caldron down. Its body suddenly convulsed. It was like a balloon with excessive water. Ready to explode. I swiftly charged towards it, picking up a fallen club on the way. I jumped up holding the large club over my head with two hands. I came down towards like an enormous hammer. The Green Bograt¡¯s speed was beyond what I had expected. Even drinking so much of the liquid, its speed was extremely fast. It swept at my left leg, with its small hind legs. I landed on my bag making a loud thud as I crashed down on to the disgusting floor. I then sensed that its stomach became larger again, and a faint green light shined in the base of its navel. I could hear the thick liquid gushing through its esophagus back into its rat like mouth. Its small cheeks widened into the size of two large basketballs. It then spat the poison right at me, while I was lying on the floor. I rolled away, backwards and quickly got back on my feet, before carefully observing it''s strong poison as it withered away the ground underneath. Leaving a sizzling after sound as if an acid were spilled. This poisonous liquid was clearly 100¡¯s of times stronger than the Blightrats, green spit. I knew that touching it would cause me quite a lot of damage. I rushed towards the Bograt, not giving it chance to use its attack once more. I pulled my arm back and punched straight at its navel. I was surprised to find that i wasn''t able to push my arm through like i had when battling the Bograts. The Bograt sneered; its narrow rat-like face widening to reveal its jaw which was also riddled with gingivitis affected gums. In a split second it grabbed my arm and held it to its stomach. It quickly filled its mouth with the poison once more. Before spitting it right towards my face. I ducked down narrowly missing the top my head, but it brushed against my back. In an instant my back felt intense throbbing pain, as i felt pus filled blisters rising up from under my skin. The poison was withering away at my body, leaving pestilence behind. I could feel the stinging pain, as the blisters were throbbing and the skin on my back was slowly peeling away. I winced at the pain, and fell to my knees, and took this opportunity to kick the base of the Bograts navel sending it skittering away. I slowly stood hunched over and could feel my body trying its best to heal the injury but it was simply too aggressive building up at an alarming rate. My speed greatly decreased, and i wasn¡¯t sure if i would be able to get in range of the beast to use hand-to-hand combat. I looked at its big beady black eyes. I didn''t know how to deal with this situation i was heavily injured, and knew that i would be able to last any longer. The Bograt was also looking at me. It seemed my hard kick had also done considerable damage to it. I looked at the Bograt, and realised this was my first opponent in this world. He was the first creature that I am to dual. Utter silence. Its impressive how precipitated absence of sound can be as startling as a sudden loud noise. Both our bodies stiffened, my fists clenched, all our reveries abruptly truncated. The Bograt made its move, suddenly filling its stomach with a small amount of poison and spat at the ground next to its feet. I then heard the sizzling and the suicidal Plaguerats emerged. Charging at me. *patpatpatpat* The Plaguerats scurried towards me. I knew my dodging capabilities were severely reduced and knew that these rats will be relentless. So i jumped up over the swarm and landed right infront of the Bograt. Who in the time was preparing for the biggest poison spit. Its cheeks were enormous and it spat again while i was at point blank distance. This time i knew it was coming and ducked enough and the large amount of liquid spilled all over the swarm. The suicidal tendency abruptly amplified, and quickly blew up all the Plaguerats as if they were small balloons of meat. There was a spectacular green powdery liquid in the air as they blew up all almost at the same time. ¡°Screeeeeeeeeeeee¡± the Bograt howled. Realizing that it had used its own power too much killing all its Plaguerat swarm. I realised that this Bograt was extremely strong compared to ordinary Bograts i had read about. It was extremely fast and powerful when the Bograts were known as part of the weaker of the rat clan magical beasts. I also picked up that every time it spat the poison or expelled it out of its body. A sizable percentage of its power and speed reduced. I concluded that the poison acted as an augmentation, to its original powers. As if it were on steroids. When it had released an enormous amount of the Poisonous liquid on its last attack. i could sense that it had reached back to its original weight before drinking the poison. This meant it was back to its weak original self. I quickly grabbed the club lying next a dead Blightrat¡¯s corpse located in the vicinity and used it to hammer the top of the Bograts¡¯s head. It spasmed for a little bit, and while it was in shock i used my sheer strength and tenacity to tear its head right off its body. It made a sickly tearing and cracking sound as its head was decapitated from its torso. I fell down onto the ground as the Bograt¡¯s head less body fell forwards. I stayed down for a while before slowly getting back up knowing that i needed to get immediate care for my injury on my back. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ I finally defeated the Bograt, heaving at the expenditure of power I had to go through. I never expected it to be so powerful. I knew it would have been easy if I had any knowledge of magic, but with sheer combat experience and the body of a Bishop it was quite exhausting. I was holding the large head in one hand and the club in the other. The whole putrid stench had covered me. My back was ever so pulsating sending waves of pain into me. From the corner of my eye, I saw someone slowly peeking in from the entrance. I focused and soon recognized that thick black hair, and deep black eyes. ¡°BALTHAZAR!!¡± I yelled. All the repressed rage for leaving me such a stupid test surfacing. I couldnt feel the pain from my back, so blinded by my wrath i was. I ran towards him, through all the corpses, barefoot. Dropping the Bograts head. His expression changed, he almost looked puzzled. I didn''t give him any time to understand, before swinging the giant club right into his stupid face. *SMASH* *CRUNCH* It made a loud sound as the club broke right on the side of his smug face. Fragmenting off into splinters¡­ Chapter 15- Attention Whore HEY GUYS, Been a while, to say the least ahahaha. Anyway someone in my life recently passed and didnt give much opportunity to write. Coupled with upcoming exams, i have only gotten a smidgen of time to write stuff. Thernn also has RL problems, and he has backed out of PR''ing. I am still thankful for his help, for the las few chapters. Anyway i have started writing again so expect chapters coming out like before. This chapter doesnt have much fighting and stuff but we are slowly building a story arent we? Croppingprince .................................................................................................... Deimos POV: My eyes slowly fluttered open. I found myself in a well-lit hall, sleeping on a clear white bed, soaked with stains of blood, and sticky pus. I sat up, and the sun¡¯s rays shone on my face, blinding me slightly. I lifted my hand up to cover my eyes and noticed long bandages stuck on to my back. They slowly came undone as I straightened myself. My back was completely healed there wasn''t even a scar left in place. I looked to my side and noticed Balthazar on a chair nest to my bed sleeping away with a book on his face. I was still somewhat angry that he almost left me dead in the middle of a graveyard just for a ¡®Test¡¯. I threw a punch right in his face, but in mere microseconds, as if a shadow, his right hand moved in place and blocked my punch. ¡°Why do you keep trying to hurt me boy, did the Bograt¡¯s poison mess with your sanity?¡± he questioned looking at me. I was dumbstruck¡­ ¡°What do you mean you don''t know!!¡± ¡°You left me to fend for myself in the fuckin graveyard, fighting against those Blightrats¡­I almost died..¡± I yelled. ¡°Child, I had no idea you were assaulted by that many Blightrats, I saw the corpses after. It must have been hard, I had no idea there were still some left even after I casted my spell. I apologize for that,¡± he said lowering his head. I was quite surprised. Him being an Emperor level combatant, and a person of the Council, to lower his head was unprecedented. His authority ¡°Its alright,¡± I said recovering my composure. ¡°Mind you the poison on your back was quite strong the school healer was sure you wouldn''t survive the night. But you miraculously woke up. Your healing power is much stronger than a Bishop level combatant. I guess being a Titan comes with its perks. I didn''t know what I would have done if you died because of my incompetence.¡± He said grinning getting his usual maniacal expression back. ¡°I also found this in your pocket,¡± he said showing me the earing, Beherit lucifer gave me, ¡®Vajra¡¯. ¡°It seems like some kind of a treasure, did you find this in the tomb?¡± he questioned. ¡°Yes.¡± I said quickly snatching the earing. I went through hell for this earring and even if it doesn''t amount to anything I am not willing to give it up. ¡°Ahahha don''t worry child, I don''t steal from kids,¡± he laughed. ¡°You should be fine right, I left the school uniform on the end of your bed, and the opening ceremony is going to start soon, you seem to be the guest of honor are you up for it.¡± He asked. I pondered. To be honest I did not want to be part of the stupid farce, of showing off children as if they were goods, but I did not want to be thought of as a coward; scared of the consequences of injuring a prince of an extremely large powerhouse. I believed it might give me a chance to assess Polos if he were to show up. I nodded thinking better to show that I am not afraid of them. I was sure the news of me crushing the boy¡¯s hand must have gotten around¡­ ¡°Ohh, before I forget, the Blacksmith sent over that weapon you commissioned. He was quite exited to finish it too,¡± he exclaimed handing me over an ordinary looking silver bracelet. ¡°This is the ¡°Asgardian Bracelet¡± all the students here have one, it has the asgardian symbol on the back see¡­¡± he said pointing at sigil of a towering, imposing castle. ¡°This has a pocket dimension wherein a student can store their weapon of choice. It is a sort of special artifact. It has an extremely small pocket dimension and can only fit a weapon so it doesn''t have much use except helping you carry your weapon. They give it too all the students, as having the children carry their weapon everywhere didn''t make much sense. Some kids have some really big weapons so it is quite convenient for them. Your weapon is inside too, draw it out when you want to practice later.¡± he said. I knew that storage type artifacts, such as rings and belts were the most expensive of all the artifacts available for sale. Even this bracelet, which can only fit atmost, my weapon, would most probably cost hundreds of gold coins. Combatants of the Monarch level and above are the only ones usually in possession of spatial rings able to contain thousands of cubic meters of pocket dimensional space. Pointing at the bracelet Balthazar continued. ¡°It also acts as a beacon if you life is in danger, it will quickly inform the staff, and one of them will come rescue you. It is helpful for students who go to the Forest of the West to fight magical beasts and train,¡± he continued. ¡°Anyway I have kept you long enough the ceremony is starting in 30 minutes or so, get dressed and head to the hall as soon as your ready,¡± he said leaving me behind in the infirmary hall. I waited for him to leave and then pulled out ¡®Vajra¡¯. I slowly took out the earing Beherit Lucifer gave me, eyeing it. I was looking at the small cross; they were incomparably harp and looked iridescent in the sun. One of the edges pricked me and blood trickled from my finger. It was incomparably sharp, cutting through my skin as if it were butter. I should note that a Bishop¡¯s body is extremely strong, more than 100 times stronger than an average human. Suddenly the earing glowed brightly and flew towards my left earlobe, attaching itself. The Glow died down soon, and I no longer felt anything unusual. I was disappointed, I expected a power boost of some kind but nothing happened. I felt my left ear to realize that the cross and the chain were gone replacing it with a simple earing. * You seem disappointed child * A voice echoed in my head. I looked around seeing if anyone was behind me. * Child its Lucifer¡­you finally Bloodbound with ¡®Vajra¡¯. It took you forever. I thought you left it in that dungeon¡­* * How is he able to communicate with me¡­ * I thought * Ahhh, child. It seems you don''t understand. I stored my soul, my consciousness in this artifact. I can now talk to who ever is its new owner. * Lucifer replied * Its weird I can sense you in my head * I replied, I didn''t need to talk I just needed to think. * Yes we will communicate like this from now, and I can even hear your thoughts, makes It easier for me to help you * he replied. * Is that all this ¡®Vajra¡¯ useful for, just for communication¡­ * * You will soon understand its uses. Patience young one. I will slowly explain it to you in due time¡­ don''t you have an opening ceremony to get to * Beherit explained. * It feels weird saying it¡­ opening ceremony¡­ mortals are truly funny. I can¡¯t believe I, a being far above anything these puny plebeians can even begin to perceive is attending such a thing. Fate is truly funny¡­ * he chuckled. * You make it sound that like you were never once a human¡­* I replied. * Who said I ever was¡­? * He smirked. * What??? * * Child I will explain it to you slowly later, don''t you have things in need of more attention right now? * * You will explain to me what you meant by that, and I want to see how this teaching you offered works * I said still processing the notion that Beherit Lucifer may not have ever even been human. * Being ordered by a meek powerless child, what has my life come to¡­ * he sighed, sarcastically. Beherit Lucifer, who I expected to be a stoic stern man, was somewhat eccentric. He had a wild personality. He seemed to be a free soul, somewhat unrestrained and untamed. I changed into the school uniform, which was just a simple pure white medieval style jacket for the boys, emblazoned with the symbol of the Asgardian academy, which was located in the left breast pocket. The school allowed students to wear whatever they wanted inside the jacket. I wore just my usual black pants and a loose white cotton shirt. It was all that I bought from Jeanne¡¯s home. I refused all the gold she offered, as I did not feel comfortable owing her so much. I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to stand on my own two feet. I looked at the sigil. It was a gigantic castle, with an extremely high tower in the middle. The dean and the founder of the school is a person who originally came from humble beginnings and rose to great power, through relentless efforts. To have sigil of such grandeur, he seemed to be quite eccentric. I tied my hair back into a small ponytail sticking on the back of my head and ran my fingers back through my somewhat long brown hair. I looked at myself in the mirror, ever since last night it seems the color of my eyes have become much more brighter. The dark green eyes were somewhat sterner more intimidating. I wrapped my black scarf around my neck. The smell of my mother, reminding of the life I lived for past 12 years, the relentless training I put myself through. It reminded me of the pain and the sadness my mum had to go through. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. This is the start¡­this is the start of my path of vengeance... I navigated through the academy. I already memorized the whole map, and knew the location of the auditorium. As I approached the auditorium, there was an alarmingly large number of people. Ranging from students to gaudy wealthy looking nobles. There were also a few people who had a mall quill and parchment of long paper floating around them. One of them approached, as he came closer I realized that he was a wind mage of some kind, and could see that he was controlling the parchment and quill. ¡°Child, do you know who the Titan is? You have to tell me if you do. We are from the Bulletin and many people are clamoring for information regarding him. I really want to talk to him¡­¡± he said. His eyes filled with a pleading look. ¡°Are you a first year, are you the other student from Kislev???¡± tell me you must know him right??¡± he urged getting closer and closer to me. How desperate are they to search for child. It was obvious that I couldn''t reveal my identity. ¡°Sorry sir, I have no idea. I don''t know any information regarding the boy. Why are you so desperate to find him sir¡­¡± I questioned. Being as polite as possible. ¡°Hahahah. What a dumb question. Where have you been for last 3 days boy. Haven¡¯t you heard¡­the second Titan in all of time! Of course there are people who want to know him. Haven¡¯t you noticed the number of nobles entering the ceremony? All the major clans and houses of the entire continent have come just to see if they can win favor of him. Having a Titan by their side would solidify any House¡¯s military prowess!!¡± he exclaimed ¡°None of the ruling clans of the major kingdoms have come, but no doubt they sent spies to gain intel on him.¡± He said pointing at the entrance to the auditorium, which was filled with a myriad of Nobles and other figures entering a well as children of all age. ¡°Anyway student, it seems the ceremony is starting you better hurry,¡± he said before sprinting off into the hall. I chuckled a little, what a wondrous sight. People here seem to be obsessed with power. * HAHAHA, boy you become quite the celebrity. I didn''t think you would garner so much attention. Truly amusing * Lucifer¡¯s voice resounded. * Child be careful. Don''t trust people. Many of them are embodiments of greed, and materialistic gain. * He said in a spiteful tone. * I know¡­don''t worry Lucifer * I walked into the hall and could hear the hustling and bustling of the crowd. There were an enormous number of people. Including students of all ages I noticed that there were no more than 500 students in total. It was quite a small school I thought. This auditorium from my rough calculations should be able to hold up to 1000 people but to my surprise all of the seats were filled. There were an alarmingly large number of nobles, each having more than enough jewelry to buy a small town. I slowly walked down the aisle. It seemed that the first year students were stationed right at the back and I slowly walked over and sat myself down next a somewhat handsome looking boy. He had tussles of long blonde hair, and brown eyes. Next to him were two girls whose eyes widened when I walked towards them. ¡°Hi, my name is¡­.Li¡­Li¡­sa,¡± she stuttered reaching over the blonde kid. Her appearance was somewhat on the cute, innocent side with long brownish-orange hair coupled with brown eyes. She kept pulling her head down every time our eyes met, and I somewhat realized she had developed a slight infatuation due to my appearance. * Boy you sure do know how to get the ladies don''t you. * Lucifer¡¯s voice resounded. * Shut up Lucifer * I replied * Alright but just looking at her she will grow up to be quite the beauty, you know * I just ignored his remarks, and went on to introduce myself. I gave her a small nod, ¡°My name is Deimos,¡± I replied. She fiercely nodded before looking back to the front holding her cheeks, covering the slight red hue from her blush. ¡°My name is Eamon, I myself am a God level, dual elementalist.¡± He exclaimed holding his head high. He looked at me with eyes filled with confidence. ¡°Stop that you idiot, we get it you are gifted¡­¡± the girl sitting next to Lisa replied pulling him back into the seat. ¡°Hi I am Nisha. Sorry about him, ever since he gained a bit of fame for being one of the gifted to get into Agardian, he has become like this,¡± she said shaking her head. ¡°I have not¡­But don''t you think its awesome we are basically part of the most gifted people in the world,¡± he said dreamy eyed. ¡°We all are from the same kingdom and grew up together, so we know each other quite well. Our families are acquainted with each other as well.¡± Nisha spoke out. Completely ignoring Eamon¡¯s eccentrics. ¡°I see¡­¡± I replied. ¡°W..we...a..are.. fr..from..the..so¡­south..A..a..Ambolina..country, Wh..where..a..are..y..you.fr..from, Dei..Deimos?¡± Lisa stuttered. She seemed to be quite nervous. ¡°I am¡­¡± I started. ¡°Ladies, Gentleman, and Students of Asgardian. Welcome to the annual Opening ceremony. We have many guests here today, coming from all across the continent to meet our new extremely promising students.¡± He exclaimed. ¡°They are all here to see the Titan, the dean is just sugar coating it. Why doe he get all the attention aren¡¯t we talented as well!!¡± Eamon urged. ¡°What do you think Dei, don''t you think he is an attention whore.¡± Eamon asked. I chuckled lightly thinking of the turn of events. I became an attention whore. Sigh. He even inadvertently started calling me Dei. What a simple-minded guy I thought. ¡°I am sure he isn¡¯t fond of the attention too Eamon,¡± I replied. ¡°Nope he is quite the attention seeker from what I heard. Apparently he tried to kill the 1st prince of the Kislev country, Gunther. But his strength was too weak and he ran away,¡± Eamon said. ¡°Right, I see¡­¡± I replied. Those people really are good at spreading false rumurs. ¡°This year we have had many outstanding occurrences. Polos Beherit has already broken through to a Vassal stage magus, and serf stage warrior as a 2nd year student. He is also the youngest Vassal stage magus ever recorded, in the history of the continent. As recognition of his hard work he has been chosen as the replacing member of the Asgardian student council, with the departure of Liam Lorvus who has graduated last year. Polos please come up to accept your Badge of council.¡± Alexius beamed. Slowly a boy with pitch-black hair and bright red eyes walked to the podium. My mind flashed to the day in the throne room. I remembered the small boy, who looked stunned and confused at the scene, of my mother getting prosecuted. So he had grown up to look like this. He was quite tall for a 13 year old. He had broad shoulders and had a completely indifferent stoic expression plastered on to his face. I could hear girls screaming his name as he walked up to the podium. He seemed to be quite popular. ¡°That boy is quite the looker.¡± Nisha gasped. Before joining in with the other fangirls screaming his name. Soon it was our turn to be called out and introduced. Each of us were called out one by one on the stage, with our place of origin, tattoo and affinity called out. This was mainly for the faculty staff that usually attended the ceremony to know who their future students were. This year it was quite unusual as mostly nobles who come, were the parents cheering for their children, but now there were hundreds of nobles coming to get a glimpse of the famous Titan from Kislev. There was only one name that I identified which appeared mid way through the ¡°Siri Dawn, of the Dawn house of Kislev, God level tattoo, with dual affinity, of Light and water,¡± Alexius called out. The detestable girl came to the podium, holding her head high wearing the white school uniform coupled with her white hair. She had the arrogant look on her which continued to disgust me to no end. There bustling sound in the hall at the mention of her. ¡°So beautiful¡­¡± ¡°So..talented...¡± ¡°I want to marry her¡­¡± What is the hell is wrong with these people. I looked at Eamon and I swear I could see he was drooling. Soon it was our rows turn and I could still tell that everyone was looking out for the Titan. Even all the students were curious as to who was the mysterious boy. ¡°Nisha Titania, of Ambolina¡¯s famous Titania clan, Demi-God level tattoo, with affinity to Earth¡± Nisha gave us a smile, before walking on the podium and bowing to Alexius. ¡°Lisa Lorvus, of Ambolina¡¯s Lorvus clan, Demi-God level tattoo, with affinity to Light,¡± Lisa timidly walked to the podium and gave a deep bow to alexius. ¡°Eamon Henrick, of Ambolina¡¯s ruling Henrick clan, God level tattoo, with affinity to Thunder, and Wind,¡± Alexius exclaimed. Everybody was once again talking, they were surprised at the arrival of yet another powerful figure. First Siri, and now Eamon, both caused havoc. I could also hear some of the girls, quite happy at another handsome powerful boy joining their schools. Eamon reveled in the attention giving winks and waves to the girls. Whose the attention whore now, I thought. ¡°Deimos Demidov, of Kislev, coming from the orphanage in the main city, Titan level tattoo, with affinity to fire, darkness and wind,¡± Alexius exclaimed. I could visibly see the Ambolina trio¡¯s eyes widening as they hear the dean call my name¡­ Chapter 16- DO YOU UNDERSTAND! Heys GUys, I am also looking for a PR right now, and it would be awesome if someone can volunteer. I also started writing my other fic as well but i havent gotten as much inspiration for that one compared to this one. Please pm if you are interested in becoming a PR Please rate, review,favourite and comment Croppingprince. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Siri POV: He walked on to the podium head held high, an indifferent look to his face. Tch¡­ He hurt my most beloved. I heard he hurt him simply because Gunther made remarks of his mother. Him a mere commoner should know that if a noble makes remarks about a commoner no matter how crude, calls for no retaliation from the said commoner. That was common knowledge. Commoner¡¯s are fundamentally different from nobles, they are akin to nothing but livestock. Livestock do not retaliate if you kill them, so shouldn''t the commoners. Just cause he has a Titan level tattoo he thinks he has the right to stand against Gunther. He isn¡¯t he even allowed to be in the same room as Gunther let alone harm him. He looked out at the crowd who were making loud claps and noises, with the girls yelling calling him to be the most handsome man they had seen. Even all the noble girls I befriended had completely ignored my warning of him being a commoner dog and were entranced at his appearance. Wavy brown hair, swept back in to a small ponytail, with a few loose strands, coupled with piercing emerald green eyes, and a small silver earing on his left year. It made his whole image somewhat incomparably noble, but I knew he was a commoner, so I refused to admit it. Even at the age of 12 he exuded nobility and power, as if her were the one always deserving of power from the beginning. He looked everyone at the crowd. Many of the nobles were trying their best to garner his attention but he refused everyone¡¯s glance. One of the nobles got too greedy and, ran up to him as he was exiting the cage, yelling at the top of their lungs to support their clan, which set off a chain reaction of the other nobles to try to convince him. The whole front row was filled with the clamoring nobles. I could see the corner of Deimos¡¯ eyes twitching with annoyance. ¡°YOU ARE TO LEAVE THE PREMISES NOW!!!!!¡± Dean Alexius yelled, his golden hair was fluttering and a clear white barrier was erected around Deimos. There was immense suffocating pressure coming from him and many of the nobles who were there stifled a scream before leaving the premises in a hurry. Upstart commoner causing so much trouble for others. My hate for him grew more and more. Deimos POV: The crowd was pretty damn annoying, but just when I was getting ready to intimidate them, Alexius lost it, and willed them to get out of the academy. I wondered why he even allowed nobles to come if he knew this was going to happen. I looked back and the corner of his mouth was curled up into a smile. Sly bastard¡­ He used me as bait to get more attention for the academy, quite a clever device. He knew that making the opening ceremony public, would garner the attention of many nobles, and by showing me off to them, he solidified his claim as the number one school in the west Giltari school region. Before coming to the school I had researched immensely regarding the various academies, and their ranking and noticed that until my father joined Asgardian it was only one of the top 4 academies, in fact it was ranked as the 4th best. After my father¡¯s attendance and show of power in the Giltari Millenium Tournament the academy became number 1 in the entire region. Alexius seemed not to care much for other things but he seemed to dearly cared for the school, and its reputation. I slowly walked back sitting down next to Eamon who was looking at the floor, seemingly finding something extremely interesting between his feet. Nisha and Lisa on the other hand were completely awestruck still eyes wide open and looking out at the podium. ¡°Guys,¡± I asked. Eamon started rambling uncontrollably, he really isn¡¯t one for subtleties. ¡°I am so sorry Deimos, I had no idea you were the Titan. But seriously how could you not tell me that you were the famous Titan from Kislev. I even went as far as to show off in front of you. I must have looked pretty funny to you huh. I am so sorry man, please forgive me bro¡­¡± ¡°Eamon calm down, its okay¡­I knew you didn''t know it was quite obvious. We will talk after¡± I whispered. The ceremony continued with Alexius talking about work ethic and how we should continue to strive and achieve. He went onto then end the assembly with a display from a 3rd year wind style magus who sang a beautiful song using wind magic to amplify his singing. The ceremony soon ended and all the students started leaving the premises. Many were giving me glances and stares. I walked out pretending not to notice them and soon found myself in the company of Eamon ad the others who came running for me. ¡°Eamon, its okay. You didn''t offend me, you merely relayed the information you heard directly back to me. Its nothing to be afraid off.¡± I aid before he even opened his mouth. ¡°So is it true that you tried to kill the 1st prince.¡± Eamon asked eyes filled with eagerness. ¡°No not really. I merely broke his arm in a million different places. I did not definitely run away.¡± I replied ¡°Wow you beat a 3rd year student, just not any third year but one of the council, and a Vassal level warrior at that. You indeed live up to the name of the strongest Divine Tattoo.¡± Eamon replied awestruck. I only met Eamon a few hours ago but I soon understood that he may be quite straightforward and at times plain rude, but he is probably someone I could befriend. He didn''t seem to hide anything and spilled everything out. He was probably quite a genuine person. ¡°Deimos, so you are the famous Titan huh¡­I am genuinely surprised. Looking at you I don''t get that feeling.¡± Nisha blatantly said. ¡°Nisha, what are you saying!!¡± Lisa stifled; tightly pulling Nisha aside. ¡°Yeh I genuinely don''t know if having this tattoo makes me any different from you guys. I just want to be considered like every other student here.¡± I chuckled. ¡°Deimos, so do you want to eat dinner with us?¡± Eamon asked. ¡°Sure but I cannot spend much. Knowing you guy are nobles, I don''t think I can afford the kinds of places you guys go to,¡± I replied honestly. I don''t want to be indebted with them. ¡°No worries, I am from the ruling clan of Ambolina, and Nisha and Lisa are quite wealthy as well, so we will pay for your meal. In the future if you want any money just don''t be too afraid to ask me.¡± Eamon replied. Eamon seemed to be quite expansive with his affection. ¡°No, sorry I can¡¯t accept that. I am willing to let you guys buy for me tonight but I don''t think I can accept money for my every meal during my stay here in the academy. I will find a way to sustain myself so don''t worry.¡± I replied. ¡°That''s right a man has got to have his pride. Sorry for offering in the first place Dei. I think I am liking you more and more.¡± Eamon said slipping his hand on to my shoulder. ¡°That''s enough with your bromance. I am starving can we go get something to eat already,¡± Nisha said exasperatedly. ¡°I he..hear..of..of a¡­pla..place..th..that..sells..ma¡­magical..be.. beast meat,¡± Lisa stuttered. ¡°That sounds great. You cool with it Dei?¡± Eamon asked. ¡°Yeah sounds good.¡± Lisa and Eamon led us through to a rather large building with two levels. It was shaped similar to a Chinese style pagoda style roof and red lanterns illuminating the outside. We walked in, and saw that the place was very serene, filled with people of all ages from students, to normal townsman. The most wondrous thing was that including the waiters, waitresses and even the chefs were all teenagers or students. They were all working busily serving platters of food for everyone. I could see beautiful dishes plate in an expert aesthetically pleasing manner, and the aromas themselves were enough to intoxify everybody. There were no chairs instead there were 1-meter high tables where the costumers sat down on the ground ate, and even drank alcohol. The platters of food kept coming and teenage waiters kept handing them out to the costumers. We moved upstairs to sit down on small table with me and Eamon on one side while Nisha and Lisa were on the other side. Lisa sat across me and kept fidgeting with her clothes. She really cant hide her feelings can she? Sigh.. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I knew right now I was akin to an idol she finds attractive and is completely infatuated with me but as she was only 12 years old I didn''t see the need to burst her little love bubble. ¡°So what do you want to try!!!¡± Eamon eagerly urged. I flipped open the menu and was completely astounded by the prices. For the past 12 years I lived with my mother and we lived off the land. We grew our own vegetables, our own rice crops. We refused Jeanne¡¯s help adamantly and only accepted 200 gold every year, which was more than enough for us, according to mother. The prices for each of thee dishes were simply astounding. The cheapest dish, the ¡®Freshwater Fintail soup¡¯ was 60 gold. My eyes widened when I saw that astonishing price. I looked around and saw that the most expensive one was a ¡®Glazed Crimson-Fur Boar steak¡¯ which cot an astonishing price of 1500 gold. That was more than enough to fill us up for a whole year. What in the world is this place¡­ I also realized that the Crimson-Fur Boar although not as ferocious or demonic as the 8-eyed Queen spider I encountered in the dungeon, was still a high-level vassal ranked magical beast. I realized this was no ordinary place. They are selling magical beast meat as if it were every other meat. How in the world did they acquire the meat of such a beast? ¡°Wow the prices are surprisingly cheap¡­¡± Nisha spoke out. The trio nodded at her remark while I stared at them in disbelief. Freakin rich people¡­ ¡°What would you like to order?¡± a waitress walked over. She was wearing a black and white waitress uniform, with a small quill and parchment floating behind her. Similar to the reporters I saw earlier today. ¡°Oh my god, you are the Titan, I saw you at the Opening ceremony. You sure know how to make scene young man. Beating up the 1st prince of Kislev even before school starts,¡± the Waitress chuckled. I gave a small smile¡­ ¡°He deserved it¡­¡± ¡°I am sure he did. Anyway what do you guys want?¡± ¡°I want to try the ¡®Roasted Windhawk, with the yams and candy sauce,¡¯¡± Eamon suggested. ¡°Yeah we will all share that. It is quite a big dish¡± Nisha replied. ¡°Are you okay with that Dei?¡± Eamon asked ¡°Yeah sounds good,¡± ¡°Alright ¡®Roasted Windhawk, with the yams and candy sauce,¡¯ coming right up¡± the waitress disappeared with a skip in her step. We soon had the dish and ate it all in a gulp. It was beautiful cooked just right. Soft tender white meat would just roll of the bones. Coupled with a sweet sauce was truly a delightful dinner. Every mouthful was bursting with flavor. The enticing sweet sauce coupled with a sour and slightly spicy Windhawk meat. It was astoundingly delicious. While we were chatting some rather annoying guests soon arrived sitting down a few tables from us. It was Siri and a group of other students. They looked at me and were all stunned at me being at the restaurant. I guess they thought I wouldn''t be able to afford such a luxurious place. They aren¡¯t wrong¡­ I soon realized that I was getting extremely fierce glares from Siri. She wasn''t subtle with her hate for me. The rest of her group consisted of the same entourage of people who I saw with Gunther the other day. Of course Gunther wasn''t here. By my rough estimate it would at least take a week before he would be able to come back from the treatment I gave him. I simply ignored all their glares and continued chatting with my new friends. ¡°So you guys ready to pay up,¡± the waitress asked. ¡°Sure,¡± Eamon replied. He handed her a small card shaped object wich she accepted and soon returned with it. I will make sure ask Eamon what that was later. ¡°Why are there, only children working here?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh you didn''t know..¡± the waitress replied in surprise. ¡°All the children here are, students of Agardian. We are all not from noble houses, and can¡¯t afford much of the fees and food bills so one of the former Alumni gave us this place. The Alumni was also poor when he joined Asgardian so he was quite generous in building this for us less fortunate student. We work, cook, and even hunt our own ingredients. The money we earn goes to our schooling fee, and for our food and other needs¡± she replied. ¡°The hunting also works as training and we go in small parties, so there isn¡¯t much danger.¡± That seemed like a pretty neat system I thought. To be able to earn money, for your own schooling. ¡°Is there a way for me to apply for work here?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah sure, I heard you are from an orphanage, many of us are orphans too. I will put in a good word for you with Kedrick,¡± she replied. ¡°SHUT UP!!¡± a scream echoed across the whole second floor. I peeked behind to see Siri screaming at a waiter at the top of her lungs. ¡°YOU brought the wrong order. YOU are in the wrong. Not me. YOU¡± she screamed ¡°Ma¡¯am I can assure you. You ordered this dish.¡± The waiter insisted trying to maintain his calm. I could tell he was getting annoyed at her. ¡°YOU COMMONER, HOW DARE YOU GO AGAINST ME¡± she screamed. Continuing her pitiful little rant. I could see even her entourage were shifting at their seats uncomfortable with the situation. This girl seriously¡­ ¡°Hey stop making a commotion, cant you see people are eating,¡± Eamon spoke up walking towards them. Nisha and Lisa followed him so I too joined their little fray. ¡°Where do you get off calling people commoners? We are all students of the academy. You are no better than anyone here. You even being 1st year should respect the older students.¡± Eamon spoke out. ¡°Yeah Siri sit down, stop making a fuss.¡± A Blue haired girl, from last time insisted. Looking up at Siri. Siri soon sat down slowly and gave the Waiter a stern look, with which he just shook his head exasperatedly. ¡°We get one of these every year, when new kids join in. They soon learn their place, so it¡¯s no biggie¡± the waitress said. Our small group were soon walking down to the first floor and preparing to leave when I slightly heard something that made my temper flare up. ¡°Whore¡¯s son. Gunther told me he was a whore¡¯s son. Just like his mother he is trying to get it on with the nobles. Utterly disgusting¡± Siri tooted. I quickly turned my heal making a small crack on the wooden floorboard and in mere seconds I arrived in front of Siri and the groups table. They were all looking at me in bewilderment, while I just stared at Siri. ¡°What did you say about my mother?¡± Murderous aura was seeping out of me. It made the entire second floor even the staff hold their breath. Everyone was intently looking at me. The aura I was giving off made people¡¯s heart stop from sheer frightening amount of pressure. Waves of murderous aura were rolling off me and I could sense even the smallest little breath of everyone at the floor. I could hear frantic heartbeats and even the small wooden creaking floorboards. I could sense the sweat dripping down Siri¡¯s neck and even her extremely frantic heartbeat. I could hear her tear glands swelling up and could see the veins in her eyes turning red. She was absolutely completely terrified. ¡°I..I¡­¡± Siri tried to open her mouth but words would not come out of it. ¡°YOU WHAT!¡± I screamed. ¡°YOU DO NOT SPEAK ILL OF MY MOTHER, YOU DO NOT CALL ANOTHER PERSON COMMONER EVER AGAIN. IF I EVER HEAR THE WORD ¡®DOG¡¯ OR ¡®COMMONER¡¯ OUT OF YOUR MOUTH. I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF FROM YOUR BODY!!¡± I screamed. ¡°Ho..How¡­da..dare..¡±Words would not come out from her mouth ¡°DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!!¡± ¡°Y..Ye¡­Yes..¡± she said her voice almost a whisper. She looked down and tears uncontrollably started to come from her eyes. I slowly walked away and joined my friends who were also somewhat frightened at what just happened. ¡­¡­¡­¡­ Unbeknownst to Deimos when he confronted Siri, his eyes were emitting the strange green smoke like hue, similar to when he had fought the legions of rat type magical beasts. Glossary and Info (SPOILERS) This is a Glossary of all the Important stuff happened so far. I will update this as the story progresses, leave your thoughts on the comments below. Croppingprince8 CHARACTERS Major Deimos Demidov: Former Godsman on Earth, who is later reborn on the Planet Avalon. He is later adopted by Ariana. He is medium length brown hair, which he ties into a pony tail, with coppery skin and piercing emerald eyes. He is said to be extremely handsome even at the age of 12. Holder of a Titan Level tattoo. Age:12 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Bishop Magus : ------ (Hasn''t yet started to control Mana) Balthazar Korsh Part of the Magi Council. Incredibly powerful Magus who has reached a stage that is one step away from becoming a Immortal. He has a deep rage in him, and a longing for vengeance towards the man who slaughtered his village and murdered his Wife. Hals curly black hair, coupled with obsidian eyes, that Deimos often describe as having a maniacal expression in them. Holder of a God-level tattoo. Age:800+ Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Emperor Magus : Emperor Beherit Lucifer A former extremely powerful being, after being betrayed by the one he loved had been subject to constant torture for more than a Millenia. He was freed by Deimos, by transferring his soul energy into an Artifact named ''Vajra'' which now Deimos carries. Has bright red-eyes, but his other features are covered by a spartan-helmet, which he seems to never take off. Holder of a Titan Level tattoo. Age: ???? Race: ????? Rank: Warrior: ???? Magus : ???? Ariana Curans A woman whose former beauty was said to be the greatest in all of the Kislev kingdom. She was the mistress to the King of Kislev who later couldnt protect her from harm. After being attacked her face had been completely disfigured and she can now no longer even speak. She found Deimos, and showed him love and care of a mother. She has similar traits to Deimos with brown hair and green eyes. Magically inept and hasnt trained as a warrior either. Age:37 Race: Human Gotrek Beherit The king of Kislev, who failed to protect the woman he loves. He has shut him self off from his family ever since the incident and refuses the company of anyone. Had received a prophecy from an extremely powerful being, which he wants to avoid at all costs. He is robustly built with thick muscles. He has head of black hair and the Beherit trademark Red eyes. He is soon confronted with the knowledge that his ''son'' maybe the cause for his inevitable demise. Age:40 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Emperor Magus : Emperor Melisandre Beherit The embodiment of everything that is disgusting in this world. She is paranoid, and extremely hateful woman who since a small age has shown disdain and contempt towards the poor. She had cascading black hair, and piercing sapphire blue eyes. She abused and treated Ariana as though she were dirt, and plotted to disfigure her. Age:39 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Knight Magus : Knight Siri Dawn A girl who is showing much of the same disgusting traits as Melisandre at her age. She has extreme detestation towards the poor, and believes that she is fundamentally different from them. She is in love with Gunther Beherit and hopes to one day follow in the footsteps of Melisandre to become the queen of Kislev. She is said to become a goddess like beauty with her exotic white hair and chocolate brown eyes. Holder of a God-level tattoo. Age:12 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: -----(Hasn''t trained) Magus : Serf Polos Beherit 2nd prince of Kislev, who is also the roommates with Deimos. He was thought to be, the future of Avalon and the next in line to become the most powerful being. The whole country celbrate his birthday as a national holiday, ''Polos Day''. He is also similar to his father with black hair and red eyes. He is the youngest to ever breakthrough to becoming a Vassal stage Magus. Holder of a Olympian-level tattoo Age: 13 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Serf Magus : Vassal Gunther Beherit Another asshole. He is extremely arrogant and thinks himself as the top. He has many traits akin to his mother and always puts down people. He is also similar to his father with black hair and red eyes, but has much more robust body compared to Polos. Holder of a Cataclysm level tattoo. Age:16 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Vassal Magus : Vassal Eamon Henrick A recent friend of Deimos. He exhibits all the traits of a good natured simpleton, and soon accepts Deimos into his group of friends. He has a aloof personality but it is hard to overlook the fact that he is the 2nd prince of the southern kingdom of Ambolina, and therefore extremely powerful in wealth and influence. Has long golden blonde hair, coupled with piercing blue eyes. Holder of a God level tattoo. Age:12 This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Serf Magus : -----( Has yet to activate magic) Nisha Titania A childhood friend of Eamon and Lisa, who also comes from a noble house in Ambolina. She is headstrong and is always not afraid to voice her opinions. Has short red hair with brown eyes. Holder of a Demi-god rank tattoo. Age:12 Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Serf Magus : ----- ( Has yet to activate magic) Lisa Lorvus A childhood friend of Eamon and Nisha, who also comes from a noble house in Ambolina. She is somewhat timid and innocent, but is very honest with her feelings and is kind and caring towards the ones she loves. She has seemed to recently developed slight feelings for Deimos but is yet to be confirmed. She has long Orange-brown wavy hair and gentle brown eyes. Holder of a Demi-God level tattoo. Age:12 Race: Human Rann: Warrior: Serf Magus : ----- ( Has yet to activate magic) Alexius Asgard The dean of the Asgardian college. He is a fierce believer of equality, but is completely devoted to his school to try to make a change in the world. Holder of a Celestial rank tattoo. Age:700+ Race: Human Rank: Warrior: Monarch Magus : Emperor Minor Jeanne Justitia: Monarch level combatant. General of the Noth Kislev country, dear friend of Ariana. Imperius Cletus:Monarch level combatant. General of the North Kislev country father of Melisandre. Ascalon: Unknown and extremely powerful being. Destroyed the entire village Balthazar lived in for some unknown reason also responsible for his wife''s death. INCONCEIVABLY POWERFUL ENTITIES EREBUS: Not much is know. He is dubbed ''The Great god of Creation'' THANATOS: Not much is known. King of the Under realms MINERVA: Not much is known. Queen of the Upper realms. KERES: Not much is known. Judge of the Universe. POWER RANKS AND TATTOO RANKS Power Ranks Serf Vassal Knight Bishop Cardinal Monarch Emperor (Note: One needs to become both Magus Emperor and Warrior Emperor to become an Immortal) Immortal . . . Tattoo Ranks Elementor (Orange) Alpha- Elementor (Vermillion) Beast (Dark-Green) Demi-God (Light-Blue) God (Dark-Blue) Cataclysm (Blood-red) Celestial (Purple) Asura (Black) Olympian (White) Titan (Gold) FACTS Chapter 17- Understanding Fire Hey guys, So credits go to awesome new PR xecon who has joined the Avalon prject. ''clap..clap...clap'' I also think that more PR would help because that will allow me to get chapters out sooner and with more high quality. When one PR is busy another can have a look at it. This chapter goes into depth of how magic works in my universe so be sure to pay attention.... Inspired by Secret of the Immortals series.... The story is now finally entering the school arc so be ready for our mc to go freakin crazy and also learn that the world is truly large.... Croppingprince ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Deimos POV: Awkward silence was all that followed after we left the restaurant. Soon the girls drifted away to return to their own dorms, with out even a ¡®bye¡¯ or ¡®goodnight¡¯. All that was left was Eamon and I, who continued to walk until I could tell Eamon no longer could hold it in. Tightly gripping his hands into a fist, he stamped his foot and stopped. ¡°Wha¡­what..ju..just¡­happened,¡± Eamon stuttered. ¡°Nothing much¡­¡±I started. ¡°Nothing much!! What the hell are you talking about? That aura you exuded, it was simply too strong for even a knight level combatant to withstand. I had a combat tutor who taught me, and I could tell your aura is even fiercer than his. He was a freakin Knight level warrior. Coupled with those green smoky eyes!!What the hell are you?¡± Eamon asked his eyes filled with, shock disbelief and even a fain amount of fear. * Boy it is best if you lie to him¡­ * Lucifer¡¯s voice resounded in my ear. * I wasn''t planning to tell him anything, anyway * ¡°I don''t know what happened either Eamon. It happens once in while when I get really emotional. I think it maybe a backlash from the Titan tattoo. I am extremely sorry if I frightened you, I will apologies to Lisa and Nisha too.¡± I replied, somewhat using a rueful tone. ¡°No it was pretty badass to be honest, I can¡¯t wait for the academy to start, and having you around will probably make my stay here more interesting.¡± Eamon replied stifling a grin that was forming on his face. ¡°I hope everything goes smoothly¡­¡± I replied ¡°Doubt it, with what happened with Gunther and now with Siri. I am sure you have made a lot of enemies. I can tell you right now to watch out for not only students but also the teachers. Many of these staff are aligned to a kingdom and right now I can tell the ones from Kislev are going to absolutely hate you. They may even hire assassins!!¡± he exclaimed. He didn''t seem to sure worry as much as showing excitement at the prospect of what would happen to me starting now. Crazy bastard¡­ The rest of the walk back to the dorms was just filled with us talking about how our lives are going to change from now. I pondered about the long road ahead of me. I need to get to a power of at least an Emperor to be able to get my vengeance. My ultimate goal of fighting with Keres seemed inconceivably far away. I thought back to my daughter wondered how she was in the upper realms. I thought of my wife, how I had left her alone on Earth, with no warning whatsoever. I hoped to one day see them both but that thought was too far for me to even begin to contemplate. ¡°Dei¡­Dei¡­Dei¡­Dei¡­Dei¡­DEI¡± Eamon yelled, getting impatient at my unresponsiveness. ¡°Ahh sorry I spaced out for a bit there.¡± ¡°Anyway this is my stop,¡± he said pointing at the left wing. ¡°Ill see you in the morning.¡± I said before leaving. I myself have a room allocated in the right wing. The dorms were built like a giant rectangle shaped buildings with a five levels. Each level having around ten rooms. At the bottom floor there was an extremely larger parlour type setting where the dorm students could take on missions, and progress in rank. By taking on missions it not only helps you train but also gives some sort of reward. Each room had two occupants, and for every room there was a communal shower and bathroom. They were fairly large rooms able to hold a desk and bed for each person. I slowly walked into the building made my way to my room, which was situated on the fourth floor room 9. I opened the door to find Polos siting in the lotus position meditating deeply. He was wearing no shirt, and was exposing somewhat lithe muscles that seemed to be sweating heavily from the mana absorption. He had thick head of dark hair, and was taller than me by quite a bit even though being only 1 year older than me. My face would only come to his chest if he stood up. I could tell this wasn''t a soul strengthening technique he was practicing but was mana absorption mediation. The mana was being absorbed into his body at an incredible rate and was completely different from the techniques, which were written in the books he had studied in the library. It must be a Beherit clan secret technique I pondered. * Boy I can assure you that isnt a secret Beherit clan technique. I never passed down anything to my progeny. I didn''t even know I had descendants until you told me. Ahahah this must be some sort of a method created by my descendants. Hmmm¡­truly amusing. In terms of strength alone this would surpass your average cultivation by hundred folds. But with the accumulation of such large mage force, the refining process has been ignored. Hmm I see¡­ * * What do you think? Is it a good technique? * I asked * To be honest the user of the technique is basically acquiring mage force as if it were an extremely large river flowing into him. The overflow of such mana lets you ignore much of the impurities but¡­this method will not give a solid foundation. * Lucifer replied. * Truly disappointed to see that my descendants haven¡¯t realized that although the growth rate would extremely fast, they will not be able to compete with those who have acquired extremely pure, and refined mana over countless years. * Lucifer sighed. He really did seem disappointed. * Does that mean they will be weaker than people who cultivate normally in the long run? * * No they will be infinitely stronger but they will definitely not be the strongest. If someone were to cultivate extremely concentrated amount of Mana, they will definitely be stronger than the Beherit house. * Lucifer replied. I slowly shuffled to toward my bed when suddenly Polos¡¯ eyes shot open and he intently stared at me. I didn''t acknowledge his gaze and continued to move towards my own bed. ¡°Are you the one who hurt my brother?¡± he asked. There was not a single hint of emotion in his voice. ¡°Yes¡± I replied. ¡°I know my brother very well, and I know he easily aggravates people. I know his comment was somewhat upsetting but I do not think it needed such a harsh punishment. My brother has been stuck in the healing ward with 1 Vassal level healer continuously working to fix his hand, and the healer still thinks it will take about a week more.¡± Polos continued. He was not aggravated but showed a small amount of anger at my actions. I understood that from his perspective I severely hurt his brother only due to a comment, but I was still surprised that this boy and Gunther were both raised in the same home. He showed impeccable restraint compared to Gunther. ¡°I apologize sincerely for his actions. I understand it must have been upsetting being talked about your mother like that. I know that being an orphan, it must have hurt you quite a bit,¡± Polos apologized lowering head a little bit. I was pleasantly surprised. A child¡¯s actions fundamentally are built on the personality of the parents. But this child, he had humility, restraint and respect I was pleasantly surprised. He exhibited qualities of someone who has maturity far above children of similar age. ¡°Its quite alright, I shouldn''t have gone that far either,¡± I replied. ¡°One more thing that surprises me Deimos Demidov is that, you should only be a normal human, how were you able to do so much to my brother, someone who is much powerful than me, let alone a 1st year like you?¡± Polos asked. * Oh crap¡­ You in deep trouble now boy ahahhaha * Lucifer chuckled. ¡°Even if you trained at most you should only be a serf level warrior. How did you injure my brother?¡± Polos questioned. He had suspicious look on his face, but didn''t seem to be the kind of person to act rashly. ¡°I don''t know, I think it may be a back lash from my Titan tattoo¡¯s recent activation. I think the energy was too much for my body to handle and was released when your brother aggravated me. Otherwise your brother would surely kill me by now. Your brother could defeat me with his eyes closed and one hand tied to his back. Ahahah¡­¡± I replied awkwardly hoping he would buy my lie. People did not know about Titan Tattoos whatsoever so it gave me a nice scapegoat. If something unexplainable were to happen I decided to blame it completely on my tattoo. ¡°Hmm¡­ alright I will tell him to show you mercy and I will make sure he doesn''t harm you. Just don''t get his bad side again, because me right now cannot stop him from killing you,¡± He replied. He didn''t seem concerned more like I would be something annoying to clean up if I were to die. ¡°I am going to go to sleep now. Don''t disturb me,¡± he said and quickly went to sleep. What a strange personality I thought. He didn''t seem to have arrogance but didn''t seem kind either. I didn''t know what happened to him, but I think he may have deep emotional scarring. This sort of rigid and indifferent personality was not something that can be borne naturally. It wasn''t bad but it wasn''t good either. I will have to test him further to truly realize his personality. I thought to myself. ¡­¡­¡­ 3 hours later¡­¡­¡­ I slowly crept out the dorm window, not making even a muffle of sound. Trained in the art of espionage I am an expert in stealth. I jumped out of the window and tuck and rolled out on to the ground before going into the nearby clearing. This was the training ground for many of the dorm student, so it was immensely large. I found myself a nice, quite spot underneath a giant, tree and sat in a lotus position. * Lucifer, can you start the so-called teaching you were ranting about! *I ordered. *Hmph, child using that sort of a tone against your elder. Kids these days truly astound me. * He sighed. * Enough with the theatrics lets begin * I urged. * Child, I will only teach you one type of magic, the only element I trained in. Fire. * He exclaimed. * Hmm... So the only element you can teach is fire. Why did I go through all that trouble if all your going to be helpful for is Fire magic. * I sighed exasperatedly. * You insolent bastard. The magic you learn in this academy is nothing but child¡¯s play compared to what I will teach you. You will know fire like no other in this entire continent. * He bellowed! * Whatever you say¡­ * * Okay child, explain to me how magic works * Lucifer questioned. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. * Everyone in this world has the capacity to hold mana. As they go up in ranks, their mana capacity will increase as they absorb the ambient mana in the atmosphere. When magic is activated, you use your divine tattoo as a medium and control the mana to your will and activate different elements. The affinity of a person determines if they have the power to wield the certain element. * I answered * Yes that is the essence of it. Us Titans simply have a more powerful medium, which is able to more effectively control the mana. You do not have any special powers due to the tattoo, other than the fact that your power and understanding is much stronger than most. * He replied. * To learn the magic of a certain element, you need to completely understand it. So now I will activate the fire magic in your body. Hold still lets start your activation. * He said, somewhat in a serious tone. Suddenly I felt myself lose consciousness and woke in a world that was completely Pitch black. I slowly opened eyes. Only to feel as though I was in the endless nothing. Suddenly a booming voice of Lucifer echoed in my head. ¡°It is said that the Magic of Air or Water or even Earth is the most powerful of all. But that is wrong. The Magic of Fire far surpasses all others, for fire is both the life-giver and the death-bringer.¡± I¡¯d lost all sensation and was conscious only of the pulsating tattoos on my arms. I then concentrated on my tattoo now. I realizing that I wasn¡¯t afraid, yet wasn¡¯t excited, either ¡­ I was simply curious. ¡°In the beginning ¡­¡± A spot of light, a pinprick, appeared in the darkness. ¡°¡­ there was fire.¡± The tiny dot suddenly expanded, growing, growing, growing, amber, orange, red, before detonating into a brilliant white-hot globe. The left and right edges of the fireball peeled off into broad horizontal lines speckled with points and streaks of multicolored light. And as the light rolled toward him in a huge slow wave, I suddenly recognized it: I was looking at a galaxy ¡­ no, I was seeing the universe. ¡°Before anything, there was fire¡­¡± The wave of blazing light flowed over me¡ªFlames and curling threads of plasma washed around me, bathed me. I could see myself now. I was standing, floating, flying, and my skin was the same colour as the golden flames. On one level I knew I should be terrified, but I still felt no fear, only a peculiar sense of excitement. I was a human silhouette bathed in peculiar golden flames. ¡°Fire shaped your body ¡­¡± My skin became translucent. Looking down, I could see the thin twisting veins and arteries, the knots and strands of muscles, the darker masses of organs and the lines and curves of bones beneath my flesh. ¡°Fire breathed life in to you,¡± Fire was streaming off my skin in long ropes, thickening, hardening into a shell, trapping me inside a burning sphere. ¡°Fire is the creator of worlds ¡­¡± Suddenly I was back in darkness again, but this time the darkness was not complete. On all sides I could see the finest traces of light, wriggling hair-thin cracks of red fire. It was like looking at an eggshell, he realized. The cracks widened and broke apart, and then the fire cascaded downward. He realized then that I was in a cave, standing on the edge of a lava pool, while molten rock flowed past me. ¡°And at the center of every world is its fiery heart.¡± I was unsure whether I was moving past the images or standing still while the images raced past me. I felt as if I was rising up through bubbling rock and blazing stones, glutinous boulders and dripping globules of fire. I rose faster, faster, faster, the burning walls streaking by him ¡­ and abruptly there was sky above, shockingly, spectacularly blue, though smudged with filthy smoke and boiling clouds. ¡°Fire created this world¡­and shaped it¡± I soared high into the air, shot up in a plume of lava and smoke from the maw of an enormous volcano, one of a line that erupted in sequence, tearing away huge chunks of landscape, forming and re-forming the barren world, giving it shape before ripping it apart again. ¡°And fire destroys.¡­¡± The sky darkened; lightning flashed, and then fire ravaged the forest, and in a single instant the world was blackened, the trees scarred with the evidence of a terrible conflagration. ¡°And the fire which created this world can also destroy it, in a blink¡­¡± A huge mushroom cloud blossomed in the centre of the city directly in front of Me, the light at its heart brighter than any sun, burning everything in its path ¡­ and a heartbeat later, all that remained was an incinerated wasteland. ¡­ My eyes suddenly flipped open and I found myself again underneath the giant tree, It was still pitch black dark and it seemed as though time hasn''t passed for long. * How long did that take Lucifer. * I asked * Not long about 1 hour¡­ * he responded. * How is that possible I felt as though an eternity of information flooded my brain¡­* * That is Vajra¡¯s power all interactions between me and you take 1/100 th of the actual time. * * How is that possible!!! * I exclaimed. I had read every thing that is to know about magical artifacts from the various libraries in central Kislev. In it there was no such magic that allowed time manipulation. Time was fundamental, it isn¡¯t something that could touched, it was immaterial. * Child the story of how I got to become the owner of this artifact is a long and tiring one¡­For now lets say I found this item somewhere in the higher realms. Even I could not unlock the mysteries of this how do you think, you, someone so inexplicably powerless could even begin to understand this. Huh¡­ * He snorted. Unlike other normal people, I was a Godsman. Being a Godsman meant the pinnacle, the paramount of power. When knowing how powerless and weak I was in relation to the universe. I felt rather, feeble. Finally being out of earth, and seeing real power made me realize, that I was undeniably powerless. I felt akin to the frog that thought it was the king of the well only to realize that it was powerless when it came out of the well. * Child as I said, the magic in this world is completely based on understanding. Now that you know the basics of fire, try using your tattoo to bring forth a small flame. If all goes well you should be able to produce a flame the size of your fist¡­ * Lucifer explained. * Don''t I need chants? I thought chants were needed to produce magic. * I asked. * Child what did I tell you just a second ago? * He asked. * That magic is completely depended on the level of my understanding. * I replied. * That''s right. Do you think when in battle you will have the time to chant spells? What determines the power of ones magic is his mana capacity and his understanding of the element itself. I now instilled in you what fire is. Concentrate on this knowledge and try to create a flame. When one says a chant he is basically forcing the elemental energy to form a certain structure. But when you have sufficient understanding of the element, you will be able to draw out the correct formation without the need for a chant. * Lucifer explained. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my golden tattoo writhing in my arms. I cold feel the mana flowing directly from my lower abdomen while the golden glow carefully spit small amounts of its aura into the mana. My mind went through small flashes of the images I saw before; flames were relentless, unyielding, leaving everything in its path in a state of absolute annihilation. But this eradication gave birth to a life, and healing. I focused all my will into the mana path. I slowly opened my eyes, to see a small golden orange flame dancing in my path. It was spitting a crackling as it hovered 1 inch above my hand. Although at such close proximity with my skin it did not harm me at all. It was as if the flame was part of me, like an extension to my arm. I slowly lifted my left hand and placed it above the flame dancing on my right hand. I slowly expanded the distance between my hands and the small flame slowly protracted as if it were a thin cylinder between my hands. I then gripped the golden orange flame with my right hand and with all my might threw it straight across the training field sending it hurtling towards a thick extremely large tree approximately 30 meters away from me. The thin cylinder shaped flame, contracted under the immense power of my arm, and shot forth mid air at blinding speed imbedding itself deep into the trunk of the tree, it made a loud whoosh sound as it did so blowing air behind the projectile. It ferociously pierced through the wood singing of the outer bark. It then as if a dying flame glowed brightly and disappeared without a trace. * HAHAHA amazing boy, that is remarkable for your first try. * Lucifer bellowed. * What are you talking about I couldn''t even burn the tree. * I replied somewhat disappointed at the outcome. * Boy, this is the first time you have done magic. To be able to cast a fireball on the first try, and also manipulate it is something no normal child could do. * He replied. * You are indeed worthy of holding the Titan tattoo. * He bellowed. He seemed truly proud that his disciple was a genius. I nodded before slowly closing my eyes, and this time trying something different. I now concentrated on the silver tattoo on my chest. As I did the golden tattoo on my arms suddenly retracted and lost all color as the silver tattoo on my chest glowed brightly and exuded a grainy silver aura. I could feel the tattoo under my skin sending pulsations across my body. The silver aura was magnitudes stronger than the aura I exuded before. I again concentrated on flames. This time when I did I passed the mana channel the silver aura embedded itself into the mana. I opened my eyes to see a small clear blue flames coating the entirety of my hand. The blue flames unlike before I could not manipulate whatsoever. They were unruly and relentless slowly burning the air around it to an alarming degree. * UN¡­UNBE..UNBELIEVABLE¡­TH¡­THI¡­.THIS IS. * Lucifer bellowed. I could hear the shock in his voice as he could not make words. I then again stared at the beautiful clear blue flames. I abruptly felt immense fatigue gripping my senses and I fell on the cold hard floor, unconscious¡­ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Did you guys like the way magic works. Please leave a comment on what you think :D Chapter 18- Anguis [i]Hey guys Late post sorry, got lazy again.... anyway this was PR''ed by xecon and Root Greevil. THaksyou guys for the awesome job dont forget to rate,review, comment etc... croppingprince[/i] ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ¡°DEI!!! DEI!! WAKE UP!!! DEI??!¡± My ears trembled as I heard Eamon¡¯s voice sending reverberations through my ear canal. I squinted and opened my eyes to find Eamon¡¯s face extremely close to mine. He was screaming and seemed genuinely worried. ¡°DEI¡­oh my God¡­what happened??¡± Eamon asked. ¡°Is it the morning??¡± I muttered still dazed from what happened the night before. I remembered the crystal clear azure flames that covered my right hand. The flames were hot, extremely hot. They were hundreds of times more powerful than my fire magic. That was the last thing I remembered. Transient images of the flames kept assaulting my brain until I finally calmed down and found myself in Eamon arms. *Lucifer¡­* *Lucifer¡­* My shouts got no response¡­ I needed to know what had happened and, judging by Lucifer¡¯s reaction, I am sure those blue flames were not ordinary. I realized I was still in Eamon¡¯s arms in a somewhat awkward position so I quickly stood up and dusted myself off. I found that Eamon had a worried expression plastered on his face. ¡°Eamon, I am fine¡­can¡¯t you see?¡± I urged. ¡°What are you talking about? You had no heartbeat and it seemed as though your entire body had shut down. Did you stay here all night? What the hell in God¡¯s name were you doing here? I was sure you were dead. Were you practicing magic or something else?¡± He asked. I could see he was both annoyed and scared at what had happened. I was annoyed at what happened too. I didn''t know what the problem was with the Silver Star tattoo on my chest, but it was mind-boggling and troublesome. Noticing my silence as an admittance of guilt, Eamon spoke up. ¡°I knew it. You exhausted all your mana didn''t you? Are you pathologically stupid? Everybody knows that when you completely drain your mana pool the magic siphons off your vigor and completely depletes it. There have been cases where people have died due to mana exhaustion,¡± he explained. ¡°I didn''t know that. I am sorry for worrying you¡­¡± I replied sheepishly. ¡°Did you try to activate magic without supervision?¡± Eamon grunted. ¡°Yeh¡­¡± I replied scratching my head in an apologetic manner. ¡°You are an actual idiot¡­ Did you know the reason many of us haven¡¯t activated our magic? It¡¯s because activating magic needs extreme concentration. Sometimes without the correct guidance students are literally eaten away by the overwhelming nature of the elemental force,¡± Eamon replied. ¡°Anyway, we have our main class today. We need to quickly leave, we are late as it is,¡± Eamon said, before swiftly urging me to get ready. I hurriedly took a shower before putting on the white jacket and black pants. I wrapped my scarf around my neck and quickly headed out to meet Eamon. I was still apprehensive about Eamon. He reminded me a lot of Aramis and I when we were still young. It felt wrong to judge him because of something like that, but I could feel that my heart was still not at ease from the betrayal. I found it hard to make friends these last 12 years; I didn''t interact with any children my own age and focused singularly on training my body. I may have blamed my isolation throughout my childhood on revenge but I knew deep in my heart I was still apprehensive and the trauma from the betrayal on earth still hounded me. Both of us went through the large gate into the inner sanctum of this massive academy. When I opened the door, it creaked and I found a large membrane like barrier covering the outsides of the school. I could see the academy in front of me, a towering castle with massive stone walls, arranged as if it were a medieval castle. We swiftly passed through the membrane and entered. The membrane was clear and had small amounts of visible mana fluctuations in it. When we entered, The bracelet gave off a small glow as we entered and I realized that the bracelet also acted as an identification device. We hurriedly walked through the entrance and headed to the first-year section of the academy. It was a long walk and the hallways were completely empty. There were no sounds except for the muffled sound of our footsteps. I was now sure we were somewhat late, and saw that Eamon was visibly sweating from nervousness. We soon arrived in from of our classroom, 1-1. We walked in and were soon greeted with the piercing stares of classmates. Many of the students were looking at me with mixed expressions, some were staring daggers at me candidly while some were patronizing me. I could not see Siri, or Lisa and Nisha. They must have been assigned to a different classroom. I was somewhat glad to not see Siri. I wasn''t sure if I wanted to face the repercussions of yesterday¡¯s confrontation. I was quite tired as it is. ¡°Mr. Demidov, Mr. Henrick, it seems you are late¡­¡± I quickly did a full 360 to find a lithe man with long flowing green hair and eyes like slits staring at us. I was surprised; this was the first time since my metamorphosis in the Necropolis that I was startled. Ever since the change I was able to notice everything around me in a much higher magnitude. From the change in the movement of the wind alone I could detect the whereabouts of a person. His appearance was quite exotic with long flowing light green hair coupled with pale skin and a streamlined build. He didn''t seem to bulge out with muscle, but he didn''t seem skinny either. ¡°Eamon I didn''t expect to find you under my tutelage, well it is good to see a former disciple. I hope you didn''t forget anything I taught you,¡± he giggled. His voice was sly, evil, and I could hear a hint of malicious intent in every word he spoke. He reminded me of a coiled viper baring its fangs, ready to attack at a moment¡¯s notice. I made a small curt bow and apologized sincerely for my tardiness. ¡°Sorry sir, I made the mistake of oversleeping. Eamon was merely kind enough to wake me up. It is due to my sluggishness that he too is late,¡± I replied. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± he hissed. His snake-like eyes staring intently at us. Suddenly his expression changed and his evil aura was replaced with one of cheerfulness. ¡°No harm done. Go find yourself a seat so we can continue with the introductions.¡± He gestured at the two free seats in the front. ¡°As I was saying my name is Anguis Vetero and I will be your main mentor for your duration of your stay,¡± He smiled. ¡°As some of you may have known, I have somewhat¡­hmmm¡­what¡­do you call it¡­hmmm¡­a ruthless reputation in this academy. I can assure you that is nothing but lies. As you can see I am nothing but a cheerful and enthusiastic teacher, who wants nothing more than to see you guys succeed in your path to power,¡± He giggled. This guy is definitely not normal, I thought. He has the same look I saw in many of the people I killed on earth. The same psychopathic look that manifests in some of the truly insane people. I involuntarily shuddered and turned to my right to see Eamon quivering uncontrollably. He had a pale expression and looked quite scared. They seemed to be in a master disciple like relationship, but from Eamon¡¯s sudden change in personality, I could tell this guy was not normal. ¡°Traditionally, we have you guys fight it out to see which combat class you are capable of entering. Combat class not only trains you in the way of the warrior, but also trains you in using your magic in conjunction with your combat style to bring out your maximum potential,¡± He continued. ¡°I feel that there may be many who may be unusually talented in this class,¡± he said, his gaze coming to rest on me. ¡°So I have decided that each of you will fight me,¡± He said, nonchalantly. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I turned around to see hundreds of students, their eyes widening and jaws dropping. They were all extremely surprised. ¡°Of course, I won¡¯t fight you with my full abilities and will restrict myself to the level of a Serf in both magic and warrior cultivation. But I don''t want to see any of you unwilling to participate in this fun event¡­out of fright,¡± He grinned. ¡°Sir¡­every year, only the first-years have battled each other to determine their combat ability. Shouldn''t we also do the same?¡± A boy at the back asked, his voice somewhat shaky. Anguis swiftly turned and, even before I could follow his movements, in the blink of an eye I saw him right in front of the boy who had sat back down and was shivering with fear as Anguis stared at him. ¡°Mr. Levias, who is the master in this class?¡± Anguis asked, his voice returning to his dangerously evil tone. ¡°Y¡­yo¡­you sir,¡± Levias replied. His heart was beating wildly and his back forming massive puddles of cold sweat. ¡°Then let¡¯s not question the master. It is extremely rude¡­¡± Anguis replied, his tone hushed in a whisper but, due to the soundless nature of the room, everyone heard it loud and clear and didn''t dare to comment back. ¡°Well then. Everybody let''s head out to the training field shall we?¡± He said, back to his cheerful tone. He had quite the sporadic personality. We soon found ourselves in the massive courtyard and, in the far side, I could see other first-year classes who were already locked in combat with each other. The students in my class stared at them intently and were envious of their position. ¡°Who wants to volunteer first?¡± Anguis yelled, gesturing at us. Nobody put their hand up. They were somewhat aware that the first would be the victim. They somehow knew this guy would not go easy on them. I didn''t want to put my hand up either. His ability to sneak up on me means his capabilities were far above from mine. I also knew that I needed to get an idea of his combat style to see if I had a way to counteract it. ¡°Since we have no volunteers¡­Eamon!!¡± he called out. ¡°Let¡¯s spar boy,¡± he yelled. His grin becoming quite wide. Eamon just stared. His expression included denial, shock and, foremost, terror, but he soon steeled his nerves and slowly, cautiously walked out to the field. With a flip of his hand Anguis pulled out a small ordinary looking short sword. It was one of the spare sparring weapons provided by the school; if someones primary weapon broke they would use this until the blacksmith mends it. Eamon flipped his hand and an exquisite golden-red Partizan like spear flew out with Eamon clutching the middle of the spear in a strong grip. The spear radiated a fierce aura and could be easily identified as quite an exquisitely crafted item. The other students were transfixed at the beauty of the spear and were cheering him on. When the numerous students¡¯ encouragement reached Eamons ears I could see a visible change in his demeanor. He became more confident and had a smile on his face as he lunged at Anguis. His golden hair fluttered as he danced with the spear around him. I could tell Eamon had prior knowledge of Anguis¡¯s fighting style as he dashed forward with great speed while dodging his initial strikes. He seemed to be a Serf level warrior and was quite powerful, maybe even a Peak stage one at that. I was surprised, as it was extremely hard to even achieve the level of a Serf warrior as it requires extremely vigorous training. With my 12 years of fierce training I had just become a Serf. It was very unusual for a noble child to be able to train to that degree. Eamon soon arrived with a fierce thrust, small gusts of wind followed after his every strike. He jumped to the side and swept the spear across Anguis¡¯ midriff, to which Anguis reacted with minimal effort, expertly using his own strength to slide the spear off with the hilt of his short sword. Anguis then slid from Eamon¡¯s view, twisted behind him, and then twisted his spear in an unnatural position so he had no choice but to drop it. Eamon cried in pain, and I could see than Anguis used the full extent of a Serf¡¯s power to break a few bones in Eamon¡¯s fingers. It was extremely hard to use the full extent of your power in any power level as you would need years of experience and training. It would take an expert to use the full capability of his power in a masterful fashion. ¡°Pick up your weapon Eamon,¡± he chided Eamon quickly picked it up and quickly changed his stance. He held the spear in front him sideways before twisting and turning it in the air. I could see he was quite angry. He lunged again, this time more aggressively, grunting and making extremely animalistic noises. His expression turned extremely vigorous as he went on to expertly use the spear. He made large thrusts and slashes, and even managed to dodge some of Anguis¡¯ attacks. He was exhausted though, and I could see cold sweat dripping down his back. Soon he was on the ground admitting defeat with Anguis right in front of him. All the children were astonished. Without a doubt Eamon was extremely powerful for his age. Most of the children thought he would not even last 5 minutes in the fight, but he was surprisingly able to keep at it for a long while. His animalistic and sudden change also made him out to be an extremely powerful fighter. He was without a doubt the cream of the crop. I could soon see that there was an extremely thin amount of green fog drifting in the region around Eamon. He too soon noticed and his eyes suddenly contracted. He stared in disbelief and soon fell to the ground clutching his throat. He was battering on the ground, his chest heaving up and down. I was extremely surprised and went on to the training field to find that Anguis had thrust his short sword into Eamons shoulder blade. ¡°AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!¡± Eamon cried Everyone was incomparably scared. They were sure they heard Eamon admitting defeat, out of sheer exhaustion, but Anguis had not only poisoned him but also harmed him in an incomparably brutal manner. Many of these children being noble had never experienced real pain and cruelty in their life and clutched at their stomachs, throwing up at the sight of blood. ¡°This is what happens to late comers. Anyone who dares to come late again will feel pain one hundred times worse,¡± He sniped, still with an extremely thick evil aura radiating from him. Eamon was in extreme amounts of pain, gasping for air and begging for it to stop. I was beyond furious now. No teaching should be this harsh. My eyes were bloodshot and my golden tattoo was blazing with power. I ran across onto the training field and, just in time, caught Anguis¡¯ second attack. I summoned my weapon and in my hand landed a majestic steel Bokuto. ¡°Clang¡± The completely black, blunt weapon stopped Anguis¡¯ swing. Soon, golden orange flames danced across the metal Bokuto, circling it and making it incomparably hot. ¡°Ohohoh¡­what do we have here.¡± FLASHBACK (4 years ago) I was swinging the thick Wooden Bokuto down, thick beads of sweat glistening on my back. I had crafted this Bokuto myself. Using the largest tree I could find, I continuously practiced using only this Bokuto on the top of the hill every day. On earth I was undoubtedly extremely powerful. What made me this way was my prowess with the Bokuto. When called for a duel, I would defeat my opponents only using a Bokuto, nothing more. ¡°1051...1052...1053¡­¡± I counted. The art of swordsmanship I trained in was something known to no one. I was the only disciple to learn it from my master. The master who found a suitable person worthy of learning it passed it on from generation to generation. It was called Spiritual Forging! Spiritual Forging does not mean jumping around in wild abandon, but instead means attempting to perform each motion perfectly every time. The motions were complex, strained the mind, and required great concentration. Great fatigue overwhelms the analytical mind. Performing this technique perfectly in the face of exhaustion can reveal a type of power considered spiritual, since it seems to not be physical and is not easily understood but gives great power to the wielder. One that could make him the almost almighty.