The city of Mephisto holds no mercy, not even for a young boy. Gasping for breath pushing through the people in the streets to escape the pursuit of his pursuers knowing that if he was caught it would mean the loss of an arm or even his life. He ran and ran eventually outpacing his pursuers but only temporarily, he was lucky before. A guard had subdued him before but due to the unforeseen circumstance of a drunkard bracing the guard to the ground, it had prevented a "mark" being placed upon the boy. A mark was a magical symbol which acted as a tracking device and the soldiers in pursuit would possess a perfect knowledge of his location.

He ran into an alley with the thought he had evaded the pursuers. Every day the boy would go into the city to steal food for his family to eat. At this point, it had become a regular chore in his daily life. The people of the city regarded him with scorn and disgust but could do nothing about it as he lived at an unknown location even to the city guards.Although he would risk his life every day for the sake of his family, he was regarded as filth by his parents and siblings.

Hyperventilating from the run and taking a moment to catch his breath in the alley, he made a mistake, he took a moment too long for the pursuers had found him. It was a dead end and the thought occurred that he had nowhere to go. Frantically he looked around to the sides for an exit, it was pure luck that there was a small tunnel like hole running through a building. Forcing his body into the small hole whilst at the same time keeping the food was difficult but it had to be done, his arm had been dislocated trying to force himself into the hole and he dropped the food at the entrance of the hole. The food was quickly recovered by the soldiers and they gave up the pursuit. 

As he exited the hole through the other side of the building, in the belief that he was being pursued he jumped into a merchant's carriage. It was pure coincidence but he overheard a conversation amongst merchants about him.

"Did you hear, it's the demon's child again, stealing our merchandise, I hope he knows that someday he will meet his end at either the hands of the soldiers of at the hands of us merchants," merchant 1 stated.

"If I were to find him I'd put an end to his miserable existence myself after all he isn't wanted anywhere, it's just a waste of a life after all," merchant 2 said

"I couldn't help but hear you refer to him as the demon's child, do you care to elaborate I'm not from around here so I've never heard of it," a stranger interjected. 

"8 years later and it's still a big talk around here, so here's how the rumor goes, there once was a woman who got pregnant, at first the couple was overjoyed but at 8 months into the pregnancy the couple decided that they did not need another mouth to feed as the times were hard at that point. So they decided to have her have a miscarriage, the husband took a piece of wood and stuck her womb forcing the miscarriage. As she pushed out the fetus which was supposed to be dead, covered in blood and screaming as any other newborn was that boy, they say that the boy possessed a birthmark of a demon but it was never confirmed the couple was scared and disgusted and they tried to-," a female merchant told the stranger.

The boy had heard enough, as the tears rolled from his eyes, he laid there in the carriage pondering his existence. It wasn't the first time he had heard the story of his supposed birth. Exiting the carriage in tears he walked up to a wall and pushed his shoulder back into place and gave a loud scream as his joint moved back into place. It drew the attention of the merchants who were in a discussion about him and it suddenly went quiet as they stared at him. He began to run back home.

As he exited Mephisto he began to walk, the distance to and from Mephisto was roughly 10 miles. He lived on the far outskirts of Mephisto which had still fallen within the protective barrier placed by the magic users to stop monsters from entering the city.

As he stood outside of his home he heard his family laughing, he knocked on the door and entered. The laughter immediately stopped. He stood there staring at the ground and began to speak.

"I'm sorry mother and father I was unable to bring back food tod-," 

His sentence was quickly interrupted. His father was a large man, he was roughly 6 foot, had an athletic build, black eyes with black wavy long hair, a fairly decent looking man. Before the boy had realized it his face was searing in pain and he had the urge to puke, his knees trembled and he fell to the ground. His father had slapped him followed with a quick punch to the child's gut.

"How many times have I told you, fucking filth shall not address us as father and mother you are not our child, do not ever fucking address us by that or I will end your sorry existence," the man said

"Joshua, how many times do I have to keep telling you, losing your temper and killing that thing is not worth it," his mother said whilst looking at the boy with a look of scorn and disgust.

"You're right Marianne, I should have better self-control," Joshua said.

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Marianne was considered to be a beauty among all people within the city of Mephisto, she was a short woman roughly 5 foot 4 inches, possessed a great body, had blue eyes, juicy lips, and long straight blonde hair. Over the years she had been given the nickname of "Angel Marianne", it came from the belief that her smile was that of a true angel. It was something the boy had never experienced.

The boy still in pain from the blows he received from his father, still holding his stomach made a terrible mistake, the words flew out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry for whatever I've done fa-," 

Joshua who's back was facing the child at that point in time turned around with a face full of enmity.

"What did I just tell you, take off your tunic!" Joshua ordered the boy.

The only form of clothing the child possessed was a tunic, which was given to him at the age of 4, it was severely undersized and tattered from all the years.

As the boy took off his tunic, wounds could be seen from whipping and some of them were still raw and had not finished healing. Joshua walked outside into the pig pen and returned with a thick leather whip. An excruciating pain surged through the boy's body, blow after blow he endured, the boy could not hold it in, he pissed himself, this caused Joshua to snap in the heat of the moment and he did not stop. Marianne intervened and calmed him down, then she turned around and picked up the whip telling the boy to turn around.

"See what you made Joshua do you fucking piece of shit!" she shouted in a hysterical way as she whipped him.

After she was finished, the boy laid there on the ground, enduring, as he felt his blood trickling down his back, he heard a giggling sound. It was his siblings, his brother Lucian and his sister Luciana.

Lucian was the splitting image of the father and Luciana inherited her mother's eyes, good looks, and her father's long wavy black hair. They were both the age of 12, 4 years older than the boy.

They derived some sought of sick pleasure from watching their younger brother suffer. Often they would make the boy go on all four's to mimic a dog and give him food. It was clear that they didn't see him as a human being but as an animal.

As the boy crawled out of the house towards the pig pen he collapsed. He was not allowed inside the house and often slept with the animals. He heard loud laughter and cheers of joy emanating from the house. Knowing he was unwelcome he crept up to the window to overhear and see what was occurring. It was a congratulatory feast for Lucian, there was so much food and he could see that there were gifts for Lucian such as clothes on top the table. Then he heard the parents say that the teachers in the school of magic deemed Lucian to have a great affinity for magic and he would become a great magician one day, one great enough to head the magic school in the late future.

Seeing this filled the boy with sadness, he limped back to the pig pen and thought about his existence. He had deeply wished that he would have been able to get the privilege to go to school and to be treated equally as Lucian and Luciana. He thought about it deeply, every day he would be sent to the city risking his life to steal food and bring it back for his family to eat their fill and he would be given the scraps. His parents were not poor people, they sold livestock and didn't require the boy to steal at all yet they made him do it on a daily basis. He cried himself to sleep that night.

At midnight there was a loud banging on the door of the house, everyone in the household awoke. The boy rushed to the house to see what was happening, only to be met with his parents having a discussion with an unknown man. Joshua told the boy to get out of the house as they were having an important discussion. As the boy patiently stood outside he saw a mysterious caravan with people in it shackled up with 4 guards around it. It was a slave trader.

As the door opened the stranger emerged pointing at the boy.

"Take him," the man said.

The boy did not understand, as he watched through the door he saw his father with a grin on his face. The boy shouted

"FATHER, WHATS GOING -"

The boy fell unconscious. One of the guards had struck him on the back of the neck with the hilt of their sword's.

"150"

"200"

"I'll give you 300 for him"

This is what the boy heard causing him to awake. He was in shackles on top of an altar in Mephisto being sold with other slaves. Then a random stranger approached.

"I'll give you 600 drachmas for the boy!" the mysterious man said

The other bidders for the boy went quiet. A slave was worth at most 300 drachmas, yet here was this man willing to spend 600 with no knowledge of the child's capabilities. It wasn't worth it for the other bidders.

"Sold to Cornelius for 600 drachmas, come collect your merchandise," said the auctioneer

The boy could identify the auctioneer as the strange man who had appeared at his house before.

Cornelius approached the boy

Cornelius was a short muscular man, who wore a muscular cuirass made of bronze, gauntlets and long black pants. He had short scruffy hair, brown eyes and a rigid jawline with thin lips.

"What is your name and age boy?" he asked

"I d-d-do not have a name and I am 8 years of age, p-p-please return me back to my family I am sure they can testify to me not being a slave" the boy whimpered

"A boy with no name, I like that, it's my strong belief that tools should not have names," Cornelius responded

"P-P-Please" the boy muttered

Cornelius choked the boy and lifted him into the air

"Now listen here boy, as you can see I've spent quite a lot of money on you and I have no intention of letting you go. Your life now belongs to me and I can do anything I want with it, however, I see fit, just remember that, I was thinking about what I was planning to do with you, I have decided, you will fight in the pits in all due time to pay your dues!" the man shouted to the boy in an aggressive tone.

The boy would not see the city of Mephisto for another 11 years.