"...Malvad?"
Someone appeared behind Ayden, grabbing him by the neck.
"What did they tell you?" The man asked him. Ayden tried to kick the man, but only ended up hurting himself instead.
"The stars are sacred, I'm not letting a demon like you ruin them!" Ayden yelled. The man covered Ayden's mouth.
"Shut up. If you say another word, I'll kill you. You won't be able to find your savior then."
Ayden gave in after a few moments of struggle. "Now tell me, what did they say?" The man asked.
Ayden's lips gave into an odd smile. "No." He replied.
"If you don't, I'll kill you."
Ayden turned his head, humming.
"Then kill me. I dare you to, you pathetic animal." Ayden said.
Ayden felt a violent pain fill his body, but despite that, he still wouldn't give in. "Pathetic animal? That's what I should be calling you." The man sneered.
"You sure are a man of great integrity." Ayden commented, lifting his weary eyelids.
The man put his hands on his neck and Ayden found it impossible to breathe anymore. "Wait..." Ayden croaked.
The man smiled pleasantly. "Tell me what the stars told you."
Ayden smiled again. "Never."
Ayden closed his eyes in fatigue and fell asleep. Perhaps he would open his eyes again, but it was most likely only a wistful hope.
Ayden was dead.
>>>
Chazia woke up only to find Ayden cold and pale.
"What a joke my life is." Chazia said, looking at his dead body.
"I hope in my next life I might see you again." Chazia murmured, closing the door.
He walked out the inn and into the streets.
Waltzing past shops and memories, he was finally met with a choice. To return home, or stay in the past forever.
Chazia stopped in front of a shop. "Isn't this where I met Jupiter all those years ago?"
For Chazia, the past was safer than the present.
And so, he contentedly chose to stay in it.
---
"Sit." The Emperor ordered, and Jupiter sat on a chair.
The room was luxurious and smelled like lavender. The chair that the Emperor sat on was reminiscent of a throne. Perhaps the Emperor liked to feel wealthy at all times.
"Who are you?" The Emperor asked. In reality, Jupiter hadn't bothered to learn the identity of the body that he was in and looked to the void for answers. "Nikolas Leon." The void sighed.
"My name is Nikolas Leon, Your Majesty." Jupiter answered, bowing slightly.
"Nikolas Leon, huh?" The Emperor looked at his paper. He then raised his lips into a smirk.
"Don't you mean you're Jupiter Kalor?" The Emperor asked.
Jupiter frowned. "You'll see later." The void simply said.
For now the only thing that Jupiter could do was to pretend as if he wasn't associated with the name Jupiter. "I apologize, Your Majesty, but I am not familiar with anyone named Jupiter Kalor."
The Emperor sighed. "Of course you wouldn't be familiar with this name. I'll explain everything to you, so don't fret.
>>>
"Since the Lenean Family had a son this year, we're guaranteed a daughter." The Emperor said. The Empress seemed unsure.
"Don't tell me your still worried about that prophecy from those years ago? My mother also worried about that, but eventually she bore me and nothing happened."
"Yet, what if that myth was true? What if I end up bearing the child of the Preeminent Gods?"
The Preeminent Gods were the Creators of the world. They were the ones who handcrafted every single plant, animal, and acre of land. The other Gods were the children of the Preeminent Gods.
"Erina, don't tell me you think you're that special?" The Emperor glared at her.
Erina shook her head. "No, it's only that... I just feel scared."
When Erina gave birth to the child, it left the entire world in shock. The child had turned out to be a boy, which wasn't supposed to happen.
"Alistair, what do we do now? Is my fate going to be the same as the Empress in the myth?" Erina asked, crying.
"Don't worry, Erina, I'll make sure that you stay safe." The Emperor promised.
The myth was a story as old as time, a prophecy given to the priests by the Preeminent Gods Themselves.
The myth says that a boy will be born with black hair and yellow eyes, and the year after his brother will be born, and so on and so forth until there are 9 children in total.
These 9 children will be handcrafted by the Gods as the Saviors of the empire, except for one. That is the last-born, who ends up killing the Empress in his wrath. When this happens, the first-born will seek vengeance and kill the last-born.
Although the first-born does this for revenge, the Gods still punish him for fratricide and he is executed by the orders of the Holy Temple.
Thus, the Emperor decided to keep the rest of his children, but left Jupiter to another family under a new name, and abandoned the last-born on the streets.
>>>
"So, does that mean that I am the first-born?" Jupiter asked.
"Yes, you're my son, the first-born. That's why you are capable of using magic. Yet I still have never seen a person who has never used magic before use it so proficiently."
"Oh, I have been able to use it since I was a child, but I didn't know that it was magic." Jupiter responded, shaking off any suspicions the Emperor may have had.
"Really? Then why haven't you informed anyone about this great power you had?" The Emperor asked.
"My parents told me to keep it a secret."
"Well, since I did order them to hide the fact you were the first-born, that does make sense..."
"Whatever. It just came across as odd to me that you seemed so confident. Do you have a companion?" The Emperor asked.
The void that was once only visible to Jupiter took the form of a black cat, jumping on Jupiter's shoulders.
"How amazing! How long have you had it?" The Emperor seemed satisfied.
"I've been able to see him since I was three." From his knowledge of his world, he knew that people developed their magic at the age of 3.
Even though that's when people develop their magic, their core is unorganized and messy. That makes them unable to use their magic properly.
Although, some geniuses are able to organize their core at a young age and use their abilities. These geniuses have a head start and are the ones most likely to become renowned sorcerers.
"You must be a genius!" The Emperor applauded.
"I guess I could be considered one. But I am far from being what you would call a genius, though." Jupiter replied, stroking the cat's head.
"How humble of you." The Emperor said, sounding impressed.
"Humble? I've been called that one too many times." Jupiter smiled.
---
Neptune never expected that Jupiter would overthrow the Emperor. When he heard the news, he was shocked.
"Jupiter? Isn't that the pale boy who always wandered the hallways? He overthrew the Emperor?"
"That's what it says here."
Neptune couldn't comprehend that Jupiter, the one who admired the Emperor the most, would kill the Emperor.
"Do you think he might've gone mad?" Serena, the maidservant, asked.
"Even if Jupiter had gone mad, he would never have killed his father. That was the only person Jupiter could bear talking to." Neptune had always been intelligent, but he couldn't figure this puzzle out.
The baby in Serena's arms began to cry. "What happened, Malik? Are you okay?"
A feeling of worry came upon both Serena and Neptune, and they couldn't help but feel like something was off.
"Neptune, do you think that maybe He manipulated Jupiter?"
"He couldn't have. Because of the prophecy, Jupiter has protective magic blocking anyone with malicious intent from hurting him."
Serena finally got Malik to calm down. "But what if the protective magic fades away, since the Emperor and Empress are dead?"
"...Then maybe He might be able to get to Jupiter."
"Then we have to warn him! It's dangerous! You know what that demon wants, you've had to meet Him before!" Serena implored, standing up.
Neptune shook his head. "It's too dangerous. We're settled down and we swore not to get ourselves involved with Him anymore."
"But... Mal-"
"Serena."
Serena covered her mouth with her hand, and looked to her feet. "You're right, we really can't risk this. We have Malik now."
"We could die, too."
>>>
The Empress was drowning head to toe in her duties, and she had no one to help her. The intelligent Neptune had left the empire years ago. Chazia had left to search for Jupiter and hadn't come back, nor had he sent her a letter.
"What do I do?" Mikaela asked, sighing. She was sure that the empire would fall under her control.
"Maybe I should give up the throne and give it to someone who is truly deserving of it." But she couldn't find someone when she searched in her head.
"Maybe this is hopeless. How great would it be if I just fell asleep and never woke up."
"Would it really be great?" A man asked.
"Yeah."
"But who are you?" Mikaela stood up and asked.
"Well, I don't really know myself." The man suddenly shapeshifted into a cat.
"But what I do know, is that you need help. You need someone to run this place in your stead, right?" The cat turned back into a man and lifted her chin.
His starry eyes twinkled and a faint sneer could be seen on his face.
"Yes, I don't know how to run this place. I was never taught how."
"I can run this place for you." The man turned around and touched the chair and made it disappear, replacing it with a new chair.
Sitting on it he said, "Now this feels like home, don't you think so?"
"But who are you? The people of the empire won't accept a random man who waltzed in." The man touched her forehead, and she became the man and the man became her.
"What? Why am I...?"
"You see, I can be you. The people of the empire may be surprised when "you" change, but I assure you everything will work out fine."
To Mikaela, the supposed sorcerer seemed charming. From his hair to his legs, he looked confident and powerful.
"But then I'll be you." Mikaela complained.
The man suddenly made her invisible, then called for a maidservant.
When the maidservant walked into the room, he walked up and touched her on the forehead, and all of a sudden Mikaela was in the maidservant's body.
The maidservant, who was invisible, was quickly made unconscious.
"You're not me anymore. Only a maidservant. You can do whatever you want, whenever you a want. I'll be you and run the empire."
The man's irresistible charm had fully convinced Mikaela.
"How do I accept your proposal?" Mikaela asked.
The man smiled. "You simply have to sign this contract." The man slipped a contract onto the desk and Mikaela stared down at it.
Mikaela held a pen and quickly signed her signature onto it.
"Thank you, Mikaela Lenean." The man leered.
Mikaela suddenly felt a sudden pain in her forehead, and she felt her soul slipping away from her.
She tried calling out for help and reaching her hand out, but she realized that she was in the dark. There was nowhere to go, there was no place to be, as well.
Her eyes welled up with tears but she could not sob, she could not speak. It felt as though cold hands were wringing her neck, slowly killing her but releasing the moment she was just about to die.
Flashes of pain and memories appeared in her forehead, and she contemplated begging for death. But Mikaela knew that the man wouldn't kill her, and only make her suffer more.
Excruciating pain ricochet through her body until she felt numb. Then, only one question filled her mind.
"Did my life end as worthlessly as I lived it?"
Mikaela was sure the answer was yes, and the pain she felt grew stronger. She knew that all she had to do was to not believe the answer was yes, and to say that it was no, but she knew that in this Hell she was unable to lie.
Mikaela bit her lip and cried.
A worthless bloody lip and and worthless tear.
---
Jupiter laid on the king-sized bed that the Emperor had prepared for him.
Jupiter frowned and turned to look at the cat next to him.
"Isn't this a world where I don't exist?"
"Up until now, that is. If it's a world where you don't exist, but then you appear in this world, of course this would become a world where you exist."
"I guess you're right."
Jupiter watched the ceiling, muttering.
"Hm?" The cat asked.
"Do you think I can go back to my world?"
"If you save the world. If you find yourself."
"...It's still a long way from there, huh?" Jupiter asked.
"A long way."
---
Oliver trudged a heavy backpack to school. The colorful array of students making their way to the school weren't exactly colorful anymore.
It was more like grey people simply walking. No matter how much Oliver tried to remember how to feel so happy, he couldn't.
Suddenly, a voice spoke to him.
"Who are you?" It asked.
It was a man with brown hair and yellow eyes.
For some reason, as soon as he saw this man, his heart dropped.