1 Prologue

In a dark, candlelit cavern, a boy was pacing back and forth with anxiety. He had short black hair, an average face, and was wearing a black hooded robe with small black tendrils squirming and twisting at the bottom.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Big Sis wants me to bring her a champion," the young boy said aloud from panic.

'Where am I supposed to find a suitable champion on such short notice?' he thought.

The boy sat down on a throne in front him and slumped down while sighing. 'I might as well start now.'

He then proceeded to scan Earth with his senses. Yes, the boy clad in darkness — despite his appearance, could scan the entire Earth and every living being in it with just his mind. He was a mighty being — a god.

Still, despite sounding like quite the feat, Earth was a small planet compared to other ones with gods. To a god like him, it was as simple as snapping his fingers.

He searched everywhere on Earth, and before his senses could reach a certain garbage dump, he came across a silver-haired mother and daughter pair.

The mother was gorgeous beyond belief. With ocean-blue eyes, round face, small nose high cheekbones, well-sculpted jawline and a slim waist despite being so buxom.

The daughter, although she was only five years old, was also incredibly eye-catching. She was the spitting image of her mother with the potential to be even more beautiful than she was.

'Oh, well what do we have here? That little girl has potential. I'm sure Big Sis would be pleased. Hmmm, her name appears to be Mary Greyfield.'

He pulled out a large book from thin-air. It was pitch-black with a large white skull on the cover, and an ominous aura was oozing from it. He opened it up and flipped through the pages trying to find a name.

'Looks like I only have to wait about ten years. Both incredible looks, and potential. I lucked out. I should tell Big Sis about her to ease her mind, so she doesn't bother me about it again and ruin my time here.'

He hurried to the floating crystal ball on the podium. "Hey Big Sis, I have good news! I found you someone for you!" Seconds later, the crystal ball flashed with bright, golden light, and a voice came from it.

"Kahlos, did you really?" it asked. The voice was feminine, yet dignified. Graceful, yet overbearing and powerful. So much so that just her speaking made the air around the crystal ball reverberate, and the young looking boy – Kahlos, wince.

"Of course I did! She has both looks and talent! The girl's talent in magic would be considered amazing even on Altera!" Kahlos said with enthusiasm while vigorously nodding his head.

"Excellent! Altera is painfully lacking in new and young talents that I can nurture since trouble is brewing on Alabastra." Her voice began to grate with irritation. "Not even the other gods on their planets could spare me a champion. I was desperate enough to have you find me someone on that barren planet."

"Still, to have someone as arrogant as you compliment this person is rare. Therefore, you even have me looking forward to her," she said with interest. "So, when can I expect the girl?"

"In about 13 Earth years I'll send the champion to you," Kahlos said carefully.

"Is that so? Sooner than I expected. Well, this could be considered that person's good fortune as their talent would only be wasted on Earth anyway," she said. Then, her voice went quiet as if she was pondering something.

'Shit, did she find out?' Kahlos had gotten scared at the possibility. "Is there anything else you need, Big Sis?" he asked trying to hide the tenseness in his voice.

With her thoughts interrupted, she spoke. "Did you find out why Mana would rarely leak from Altera to Earth and disappear quickly?"

Kahlos inwardly sighed in relief that he had not been found out. He replied, "I have not. I also have not figured out the other oddity either."

The female voice waited about 10 seconds before answering. "Well like you said, it has been eons since this has started and nothing has come about it aside from the Earthlings creating stories from Altera. Still, do not drop your guard and continue to monitor them when they do happen. Also, remember to send the champion, or else," she added a threatening tone, "hmph, what happened all those years ago will look like child's play."

********

In a chair was one of the most beautiful women to have ever existed that radiated majesty. She had long blonde hair that was just a bit wavy that went down just below her shoulder. Round face with high cheekbones and a well-matched jawline that complemented her facial structure. Deep blue eyes and a small nose that perfectly curved. Her body was also buxom like the mother of Mary but even more so. There was a small mole on the right corner of her red lips that accentuated their seductiveness infinitely.

After the black light had dimmed from the crystal ball, the heavenly woman fell into thought.

'That little muscle headed brat dared to lie to me about the date. Kahlos might have lied so he could surprise me sooner, get into my good graces and out of punishment. If the champion he sends is as good as he says she is then I might consider it.'

She reminisced about the suffering she had inflicted to Kahlos all those years ago and changed his form. Then she thought about how she would punish him if he failed this time.

A beautiful laugh escaped her lips, and an enchantingly beautiful, yet dangerous smile appeared on the woman's face. If Kahlos were to her, he would run and hide.

********

After the light from crystal ball on his side began to fade, Kahlos felt a shiver run down his spine. Only until the golden light from the crystal ball completely faded did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Although he called the woman, "Big Sis," he was terrified of her. He had been ever since he had fought her all those years ago and lost. After he lost, she put him through excruciating pain and made him take on the form of a 14-year-old boy. The pain was not bad as he was a god and could endure much, but what made him depressed was the way he looked. From his gigantic and majestic manifestation — to a boy who looked like he barely hit puberty.

Kahlos had always been brimming with arrogance, and the form change was the biggest blow she could have given him.

That was why Kahlos said "13 years" instead of 10. In case something went wrong, it would allow him some leeway to fix things, so he would not have to face her wrath.

When he thought about the way his body looked, he became down and wanted to blow off some steam. He walked to the door on the left side of his throne. Out of place, it was an upholstered leather home theater double door with a sign above it, with what looked like Kahlos holding a gaming controller.

He pushed the double doors open, walked in, and flipped a switch. The room became bright with flashing lights and screens. There were handheld consoles lying everywhere and candy and popcorn all over the floor. 50inch smart TVs on every single wall, including the one with the door, and PS4s, XBOXs, and PCs connected to all of them.

Kahlos smiled as wide as he possibly could. Then walked to one of the TVs and sat down on a couch in front of it. He was watching animated characters fighting and a yellow-haired boy with a headband, and a pink haired boy with a scarf yelling, "THE POWER OF NAKAMA!"

He sighed contentedly. 'This is the life. I hope Big Sis never finds out about this. She still thinks she's "punishing" me.'

Kahlos found the humans on Earth quite ingenious when creating entertainment for themselves. Partaking in human entertainment was his favorite thing to do.

'I'll wait for Mary Greyfield at the appointed time, shove her off to Big Sis, and I can be free of worries and live a life of human luxury!'

********

"Mary! Why do you want to go into the alley?!" Helen yelled. 'This usually so clever girl has gotten a bit unruly since her father died,' she thought and sighed.

"But Mommy! I saw a little girl jump in the garbage!" Mary exclaimed. She thought she saw long silver hair rushing into the garbage dump.

"Honey, don't be silly. Why would someone jump into the garbage? Especially a girl?" Helen asked incredulously. She thought that her daughter had an overactive imagination or maybe was acting out in some way to cope with the loss her father.

"But Mommy, I'm not lying c'mon!" Mary continued to say but turned to see the look her mother was giving, and she could feel that she did not believe her.

"I'll prove it to you then!" Mary forcefully grabbed her mother and pulled her to the garbage dump in the alley.

Helen was about to have her quit her nonsense, but remembered that it was one her very rare days off and she wanted to go to the park with Mary. If she continued to show distrust in her, it might ruin the day, so she gave in.

When they got near the garbage dump, Helen could hear rattling from inside the garbage dump. 'Oh my god! Is Mary right, and there is a little girl in there?'

"See Mommy, I told you there was someone inside!" the girl said while giving her a mother a 'know-it-all' look.

"Okay honey, I'm sorry," she said. 'I should trust my daughter more.'

With a resolute look, she turned toward the garbage dump and reached a hand over the cover then turned to Mary. "Mary, step back a bit just to be safe okay?"

Although from what Mary had said, the person in the garbage dump was a little girl, she did not want her daughter to be in danger in case the child was dangerous.

"Okay, Mommy," Mary said while stepping back.

Helen turned back to the garbage dump grabbed the lid and lifted.

What she saw almost made her burst into tears.

She did not see a girl. Instead, what she saw was a boy with long silver hair. He was skinnier than twigs and had nothing but a small t-shirt and ripped jeans that only went down to his knees. What was worse was that his body was battered and bruised almost to the point you could not see what his normal skin color. She was also sure that he had broken bones as well.

She tried to reach out to the boy, but he flinched heavily, ran into the corner, hugged his knees, and cried, "I'm sorry! I promise I won't go in your garbage anymore! Please don't hurt me!"

'This poor boy. What did he have to go through?!'

She decided to change her approach.

In her most soft and gentle voice, she spoke. "Hi, my name is Helen. I'm not going to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?"

The boy looked up, and she could see his face in a similar state as the rest of his body. She could only sigh in sadness that someone could do this to a child.

He responded in a meek voice. Helen could barely hear, without tipping her head inside the garbage. "I'm Rae. Are you going to take me back to my parents? Please don't take me back. I promise I'll be good!"

Helen's face twitched at the revelation that his parents had done this to him, but she tried her best not show it on her face.

She reached out her hand ever so slowly and started patting him softly with a gentle smile on her face.

"No Rae, you're not going back; you're never going back; I promise."

At that moment, Rae thought Helen looked like a goddess.

********

Originally posted this on RoyalRoad up to Chapter 20, but I took it down. Not saying the chapters I'm posting here are not good, they are fully edited by me and are the superior version of what I did before. That's not to say the version I did before was bad either (I had a 4.5 rating with 40000 views and about 600 followers. Which is good for only 1 month), but I wrote with little forethought so there were a lot of issues that posed a problem for future writing.

Hoping for (final) feedback here before I do a mass release on RoyalRoad. After that happens, I will be posting the two sites simultaneously. So far, I've completely edited/revised up to chapter 7.

Now then, I hope you enjoy the story. :)

Also, screw the author's thought word count...

Ugghh, also, the formatting doesn't carry over from Microsoft Word like it does on RoyalRoad...