CHAPTER ONE

IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE.

THE CAPITAL CITY

DENEVO.

" Your majesty!" a guard burst into the room, sweat dripping from his face showing that he ran there.

" Arl. It is rude to barge in, especially when I want to be alone isn't it?" The King sat on the golden armchair placed in the right side of the room while he ran his hands through the fur of the beast cub that lay on his lap. His head flooded with thoughts as he considered himself cursed to be the king when it's the time of the ritual to the deities.

" I'm sorry sire!" the guard dropped to his knees, head down and started apologizing for his 'disrespect' fearing what the King would do to him.

" What is the reason for this.... Insolence!"

" Sire! It is princess Olivia! She is awakening!" At that moment, the king's sense of logic and rationality left him.

Olivia Denvo. The first princess and also the first child the king. She has been a child prodigy as no one rivaled her intelligence, with her long black hair and red eyes, she is said to be the most beautiful princess ever born, but alas, she was unfortunate to be born with the mark that signified those who are 'blessed.' The mark is the infinity symbol, which is placed on the shoulders or backs, signifying that this once in a century children's powers will continue to come back. Killing these children had no major benefit, but ever since the deity came, he made the 7 emperors make an oath that these children would be sacrificed to him once they turns 9 and in return, he would grant them their wishes. But now the royal family also has a 'blessed'

Exceptional things came from the pact between the kings and the deity. Money, strength, breakthroughs in technology and many more, but when the Merde empire failed to sacrifice their blessed ones, They were wiped out from the map, but that is too quick a death so those demons made the royal family immortal and then tortured them until they got bored and killed them. They took the other emperors so they could witness it with their eyes and be living testimonies. Till today that story is told to all the crowned princes, to prove the importance of the sacrifices. And now, the royal princess now has access to her powers making it impossible for anyone to catch her.

Unless, they catch her immediately after the awakening because the child would be weak then. At least, that was what the king thought.

" MAKE HER UNCONSCIOUS IMMEDIATELY AFTER HER AWAKENING! TELL THEM TO KNOCK HER OUT AND TIE HER UP WITH CHAINS!"

" Yes, sire!"

When a blessed child reaches the age of 10, they go through a process to use their powers called awakening. During awakening, a surge of power overwhelms the child and they lose control of their body for a few minutes before regaining consciousness, they also undergo various temporal physical changes during awakening. When the power surge is too much for the child to handle, the body releases this power. When this happens, the surroundings of the child is in danger.

The princess who was 7 years of age experienced an early awakening. Whilst emitting an enormous amount of power, her eyes turned red, her black hair standing like medusa's as power surged through her. The whole castle was shaken by the sudden power outburst. The Denevo empire is famous for its majestic castle, as it was what the emperors took pride in for so many years, it is said that it took hundred years to build the eastern wing of the castle and a hundred more to build the rest. Gloriously reflecting the sun's light as it was decorated with gold and diamonds, it occupied one third of the capital city, the Denevo castle was truly a sight to see. But that night, during the princess' awakening, the whole eastern wing, which was also where the king stayed was removed from its roots, with nothing more than memories and history records to prove that such a glorious sight ever existed.

After a few moments, the princess fell to the ground as she didn't have much strength in her; She scanned her surroundings with her eyes as she remained seated on the floor, her mouth dropped open at the sight before her. The eastern part of the castle was gone, and so was the emperor that was in it.

A tear rolled down her cheek as the corners of her mouth curved to form a smile. To her it was ironic. She hated her father, She really did, and if she didn't kill him, he would have still been killed by the deity, yet here she was, crying, at the fact that the only parent she had left was dead, and that she was the one that killed him.

With the king dead, it meant that one prince would automatically take the throne. She had 2 step brothers, Noah and Liam. Noah was 6 years of age whilst Liam was just 4 years old. She loved them both dearly; she didn't hold a grudge against them, only their parents were the problem. She felt like the devil because she knew that she would make these children orphans. The king was already dead and she would kill the queen to settle an old score. She had to.

Olivia stood up, she had to hide the princes because the deity would come after her, eventually; she didn't want them suffering for the sins of their parents.

She ran to the northern wing of the castle where they stayed, a heavy sigh of relief left her as she saw that her brothers were unharmed.

They hid in a closet, hands wrapped around each other as they closed their eyes. Olivia opened the closet and stood in front of them.

"Noah, Liam, it's me open your eyes," she said stretching her arms

Still trembling with fear, the two boys only clung unto each other more tightly than before, before Liam finally spoke.

"Olivia?"

"Yes Liam, it's me, Olivia." she said in a calm voice, trying not to scare them. Liam finally let go of Noah and ran to Olivia with arms wide open as tears filled his eyes. Noah still refused to leave the closet.

"Noah?"

"WHAT ARE YOU?!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, his eyes were swollen from crying and his voice cracked.

'What am I?'

Olivia wasn't even sure she knew the answer to that question anymore. She was a cursed princess. That was the answer she accepted over the years, but not today.

"I am Olivia, your big sister, I've always been and always will be."

"But, I saw you Olivia, you're the one that shook the castle."

Olivia took Liam and sat down beside Noah in the closet; sitting in the middle, she intertwined her hands with theirs.

"Noah."

"Hmm?"

"Liam."

"Yes?"

"do you guys trust me?"

"Yes!" Liam shouted, but Noah remained silent before he finally nodded his head.

"Yes, I am the one who shook the castle but I am also your sister and I will never hurt you..."

She took a deep breath before she continued her sentence.

"I will be gone for a while, I have some things I have to do. Noah, can I trust you to take care of Liam?"

His forehead creased, as he vehemently opposed the idea.

"Noah, I don't have the luxury of time. I will take you guys to a safe place and I need you guys to stay there and not leave until I come to get you; please."

Tears rolled down their eyes as Liam clutched Olivia's gown.

"Promise you'll come back, if you don't we'll come get you." Liam said while Noah nodded in agreement.

"I... Promise."

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Sage continued running, without even knowing why; she just knew she had to run. The capital had sent troops to capture her. The same people that took her parents' life were now after hers. She was scared and confused; with so many questions to ask and yet no one to ask them.

She ran towards the forest where she felt that she could hide easily there. Running with no food, no water, no energy, and seeing nothing but the colour green for two days.

Pain swarmed her body as her legs slowed down. The world, which looked nothing more than the colour green turned black as her swollen eyes closed.

The smell of food, which she had longed for so long radiated to her nostrils. She felt warm and comfortable. It felt nothing like the woods; it felt more like home. Then she realised that she felt comfortable, a little too comfortable. The forest didn't smell nice, and it definitely wasn't comfortable, especially with people who wanted her dead, chasing her.

"WHERE AM I?!" she asked, jolting up from the couch she was placed on. She saw a frail old woman staring at her.

"WHO ARE YOU?" she said as she tried to move away but her legs were too tired to respond..

"are all children these days so loud?" the old woman whispered under her breath.

"I'm Preme. I was passing by and I saw you laying on the floor so I took you in." Sage was dumbfounded at how dubious that sentence sounded.

"you were... passing by? In the forest?!"

Preme laughed as she avoided answering the question directly.

"yeah, yeah, don't bother too much on the details, shouldn't you be asking why I helped you?"

"ah, yeah... why did you help me?"

"you have something I need, so why don't we help each other?" she said as she let out a grin.

Sage's eyes widened at the woman's words. Mother had told her not to trust strangers, and she finally understood why. Weird was word Sage deemed perfect to describe the elderly woman.

"something you need?" she said as anxiety and fear filled her thoughts.

"wow, so you don't even know why people were chasing you, interesting child." The old woman said as she rubbed her chin.

"Wait, please I do not understand."

"ha~ young child, let me make this as quick as possible. You have powers."

"huh?"