I'm not a child...

"OMG YOU DIDN'T!!" a woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties, said with a laugh.

"I turned to my dad and said, 'Uncle Liam was the one who destroyed it, I even told him to relax.' Then my dad went LIVID, like girl, I never saw my dad that angry!" a woman with short rainbow hair laughed aloud, ignoring the looks they were getting while going down the street. The woman, Sera, then paused slightly before sighing, "Those were the days...I wonder if he's close."

"Oh, come on. It's your uncle. It's THE Liam Ender!" Sera's friend, Lila, turned to her. She then looked around before brightening up, "Come on. Sera, your uncle has beaten the GENERAL for fuck's sake."

Lila rushed to a store with Sera behind her. She immediately ordered two Gailems and slammed a crystal card on the table. She found a place to sit with Sera before they sat and drank the two Gailems made of pure energy infused with Worldly Laws. Sera took a sip before frowning lightly, she then continued, "You don't get it, Lila. When you go to a World, your memories get wiped. You don't retain anything other than your name, goal of finding the core and some of the concepts engraved in your brain. For example, his Worlds. If something jogged his memories, everything would rush back. If he saw another World, he would be able to use his own again, and he'd remember who he is...if only it was that easy though."

A small light appeared before Lila, it was glowing a bright brown. Lila spoke with a deadpan expression, "You're telling ME about Worlds? Oh my god, the sheer irony."

Sera blushed slightly in embarrassment. She looked towards her good friend and pouted, "It's not fair. Dad says you have to be 22 before you can go to Worlds."

"Honestly? He's right." Lila said as she looked down with guilt, "It was an absolute nightmare, Sera. By the time my memories came back, I've already slaughtered thousands. Kids who never got to see their mothers again, husbands who never got to say goodbye, the women who cried as they died over the bodies of their children...I don't want to do it. The moment you get there, you're just so...pure...innocent...gullible..."

She downed her Gailem and stood up, "But hey, bright side is you get to live for a thousand years extra and get unbelievable power. I'm sure your uncle would be fine, he's done it before."

Sera thought about it for a while, she downed her Gailem and stood up as well. "I gave him two of my Soul Savers, but they're already gone. In the first one, he got the body of a noble who got assassinated by soul poison. He grew into complacency and forgot his goal, my dad had to kill him and get him back, so that was one Soul Saver. The second one was used when he failed a World and died, he claimed the next one and only needs one more to reach Eternality, but..."

Lila looked at her friend that she considered a sister, pondering. She then sighed, "Let's go see his Majesty, he might allow you to start training. Who knows, it IS your 20th birthday."

Sera nodded, then started to glow with a brown hue. She suddenly rushed towards the sky, disappearing from this World. Lila let Sera out of her World as her Avatar inside her World vanished as well. Sera looked at her puppy that she got for her 7th birthday, "Come here, Queen! Come here, girl! Who's mommy's little girl? You are, oh yes, you are!"

"AHEM." a small cough came from the door. Sera immediately stopped and looked up with an embarrassed face. There stood a man who appeared to be in his late 20s. His short rainbow hair barely reached his eyebrows, the man looked at his sister and said, "Father wants you in his room, hurry up."

"No happy birthday? You might wanna get a new brother, Sera, this one seems to be broken." Lila looked at the robust man dressed in his signature red cape and white shirt and pants.

"Happy birthday," Ryan looked at his girlfriend and rolled his eyes, "as for my present, let it be advice. Don't go to Father with that training shit again, wait until you're 22!"

"It's not fair! How the hell did you start training at 10 while I have to wait until I'm 22?! Father spoils you too much! What's worse is that you don't know it!!" Sera shouted aggressively.

"FINE! YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW?! I'LL TELL YOU HOW!" Ryan snapped back, he was holding back on scolding his little sister since he came back 5 years ago. "PROVE YOURSELF! STOP BEING A BRAT AND PROVE YOURSELF!!"

"HOW?! NO ONE IS TELLING ME ANYTHING!! I'M NOT. A. FUCKING. CHILD!!!!" Sera hit her bedframe destroying it and causing her hand to bleed.

Ryan looked at his sister for a solid ten seconds, then sighed. "You won't be able to do it."

"Oh yeah?! How the hell do you know?!" Sera could only see red right now.

"Fine then. Ask Father to be tested, but you WILL regret it." Ryan said before he turned around and left.

"I swear, I need to talk to that idiot about something called composure..." Lila whispered underneath her breath. She then healed Sera's hand with her World energy before saying in a comforting voice, "Come on, Sera. His Majesty wants you."

Sera took a few deep breathes before she rushed to her father's room. She reached there with incredible speed, her rainbow hair fluttering as she ran faster than 10 meters per second. She paused when she saw a man who looked to be around 23 waiting in front of her father's room.

"Sup, bitch." Max raised hand as a greeting.

"Not in the mood, Max." Sera said as she walked past him.

She couldn't get far before Max grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her around. "Damn, what's wrong? What happened to the asshole that would cover me in make-up with a sadistic smile? Yeah, yeah, there she is." Max started laughing as Sera slowly and reluctantly started smiling.

"What's wrong? If Uncle Salas sees his little princess so mad on her birthday, we might lose the Spaghettis Star again." Max questioned as he blocked the door.

"It's...It's just that I'm mad." Sera sighed. "Everyone treats me as a child. I'm 20 not 2, I can take care of myself. I want to start training, but Dad said that I should only start when I'm 22...so I'll ask to be tested."

"No!!...Nononono, you do NOT want to do that." Max said with fear. "I remember my dad telling me about his test, Uncle wanted him to choose a random child from the orphanage and keep it in his room, until it died of starvation. Slowly watching the child die."

"Well..." Sera hesitated for a second, she knew her father had a ruthless side to him, but this was on a different level. "What about Ryan? I bet his test was way easier."

"On the contrary," Max started to tell the story that filled his heart with pride. The person from this story was his cousin! He continued, "Ryan was raised with his best friend from birth. When Ryan was 10, he went to Uncle to bargain with him. But he did so often, so Uncle decided to test him. Uncle said that if he refused the test, he'd have to wait until he was 40 years old before going to his first World. Since he saw a chance, Ryan immediately accepted. It was then that Uncle revealed his test, it was an order to kill his best friend! Your brother, at the age of 10, put his foot down in front of an Eternal Existence. He demanded another test, but your father refused. Ryan then suggested a test himself. He chose a prisoner duel!"

"A prisoner duel?! At 10?!" Sera started to panic. It was well known within the Ender Empire that all children who bear the name of Ender will not receive any kind of training whatsoever until they reach the age of 22, anyone who taught them would be punished severely! The most they've ever gotten is training on how to build muscle, stamina and a high pain tolerance.

A prisoner duel was something even she, as a 20 year old, could not do. A prisoner duel was basically fighting to the death with a prisoner who wronged one of the World Holders during their journey. The person who was wronged would claim the World, regain their memories, then exit the World, extracting the people who wronged them in the past. The prisoners were handed to the Ender Army, which would select the strongest of them and hand them to Salas Ender himself. Apparently, he enjoyed torturing them to near-death, letting them enjoy life as one of the kings in his Worlds, then pulling them back at their highest and throwing them to his World of Suffering; where they would continue to die until their souls dispersed.

"Apparently, he was like a demon!" Max further explained. "He picked two daggers and a pair of iron knuckles. He was put against two prisoners who were at the Peak of the Birth Stage."

"Why would someone who claimed a World bother to pull out a Birth Stage fighter?" Sera asked. As a child of an Eternal Existence, she was born at the Peak of the Infant Stage. Yet sadly, she was not allowed to level up any further without her first World.

"Who knows?" Max shrugged. "You're underestimating how hateful a human can be. What if someone killed your family? Or if someone raped you? Life's full of demons, it's only fair that you can have your revenge. Some people even reenter Worlds they died in, just so they can have revenge for themselves."

"..."

This was the first time Sera thought of it like this. She thought, 'What if I get enslaved? Will Dad even help me in that case? He only helped Uncle because he lost his will to claim the core, but in a situation where I'm wronged...it'll just amplify my want for power. He won't help me at that time.'

"Forget about it." Max scratched the back of his head with a sigh. "Just wait for two years, I did so and got my training. Hell, I'm even about to enter my first World in half a year. Just wait, I mean, we are practically children to the thousands of years old parents we have."

The moment Sera heard the word 'children', she pushed Max aside and rushed into her father's room, while declaring aloud, "Dad! I want to be tested!"

Salas looked at his daughter with cold eyes and thought to himself, 'How impulsive, she was even warned. I specifically told Ryan and Max not to warn her. Well, I'll deal with them later.'

Salas smiled and said, "Happy birthday, Princess! What would you like this year?"

"I told you, I want my test!" Sera said with a confident smile. Lila already prepared her for a ruthless World by letting her kill monsters in her own World. "I know how to use a weapon already! Give me a test and I'll nail it!"

'It seems everyone needs punishment in this damn castle.' Salas thought for a second, it was obvious that Lila helped her, since Lila's World was the only place Sera went to that he couldn't inspect. He then spoke to his daughter in a strict voice, "Seraphina Ender, let me give you the pros and cons of this test. For the pros, you will receive any and all kinds of training you want. You will also be able to leave for your first World any time you want. As for the cons, you will never be trained and you will be sent to a World of utmost difficulty on your 60th birthday. Do you accept?"

"60th?! But Ryan's punishment was until he was 40!" Sera yelled in injustice.

"Ryan was 10, and he refused the condition by placing his life on the line. He said that since he couldn't refuse at the time, that I should take his head instead. It was only then that your mother suggested the prisoner duel." Salas had a light smile on his face, but it didn't take long for that smile to turn upside down. He looked at his daughter and coldly said, "You, on the other hand, broke the rules and trained with a weapon, while getting combat experience, plus you are already 20 years old."

"..." Sera was tongue-tied. What was she supposed to do? Everything her father said was absolutely true and logical. "I accept the test. How many prisoners will I fight?"

Salas then snapped his fingers and a small snow-white puppy appeared out of thin air, "Kill her."

Sera looked as her father levitated her dog right in front of her face, commanding her to kill it. "What?"

"Kill the dog." Salas said with no emotion in his voice. A dagger then appeared in Sera's hand. "Stab it once, twice, thrice, stab it in the head, shoulders, knees, toes; you can even punch it to death, I don't care. I just need it dead in 10 minutes."

"No! I'm not gonna kill my dog!" Sera shouted at her father as she threw the dagger away and grabbed her puppy. "What is wrong with your head?! How can you make your child do something like that?!"

"So, now you're a child?" Salas raised an eyebrow. "You are right. You are a child. You, Ryan, Max and even Liam when he started, you're all children when compared to me. I am wiser and more mature than any of you, but that's not why I don't want you guys going to a World before turning 22. Do you want to know the reason, Sera?"

Sera slowly looked down and whispered, as if to herself, "I wonder why, Mr. Oldest most mature..."

"You all refuse to do horrible things to others, when you know that horrible things will happen to you regardless. It is because you are naïve, Sera. You pretend to be a child, when you are an adult. Yet, you also pretend to be someone who understands everything from a single glance. You were always smart, but that was your downfall." Salas then closed his eyes and sighed. He then reopened them with a bittersweet expression, "Sera, how do you expect me, as your father, to send you into a World where you can be manipulated, kidnapped, tortured, raped, enslaved or killed? You won't kill a little puppy, but you also expect yourself to slaughter your way through armies of enemies to reach the core? You lose your memories in a World, Sera. The you that descends is the absolute purest form of your personality. I need to twist that personality. I twisted Ryan's from a proud and smug boy to a man that will never turn his back to a friend. He believed I would kill him, which I would've done, since it would help him in imprinting into his soul that moment of self-sacrifice, yet also wasting one of his Soul Savers."

He slowly showed a sinister expression, "I will make you learn something from this. Now, kill the dog or accept a scene from hell."

Sera stood her ground, "Hell it is!"

"..." Salas sighed as he showed a pained expression, "Why do you do this to me, my daughter?"

Sera's vision immediately blurred. She recognized that feeling, it was the same feeling as when Lila pulled her into her World. She was currently being pulled into a World!

She slowly opened her eyes in this new World. Her father's Avatar showed up, handed her a piece of metal and quickly said, "Just think of what kind of weapon you want, your objective is don't surrender or die for a week...remember you can still surrender if you want. It's just 40 years."

Sera gave a resolute look to her father. Salas sighed then disappeared into the night. Now that Sera looked around, she found herself in the middle of a rainforest with the full moon hanging above. She took a deep breathe and smiled, "My first day without being spoiled like a child...this is going to be so fun."

Thud! Thud!

That was when Sera heard a loud thud deep in the forest. She immediately held the metal and thought of a sword. The silvery metal turned into a silver one-handed sword with a red guard and handle. Sera started running in the opposite direction, 'First rule of Lila's survival training, whenever you hear a loud thud in the middle of an open field, book it!'