A remarkably beautiful man with blonde hair reaching his waist and wearing an exquisite golden robe was walking circles around a black-haired man laying on the ground and missing both of his legs and arms. There was not a single place on his body that was not full of scars, evident from the torture that he has gone through.
With a smile on his face, the handsome blonde addressed the maimed man, "Artos, Artos, my dear. After Xena died receiving that prophecy, I felt threatened for the first time in my life. After all of my hard work of making sure that those two races are enemies of each other, your idiotic parents went ahead and made you."
The beautiful man clicked his tongue a few times and shook his head, "Nevertheless, I was easily able to find the two that did the deed, but those morons went ahead and sacrificed their lives to send you to a Mortal Plane. Due to the actions of those two fools, I had to start my plans a few thousand years earlier than intended. I was thinking that you will hide like a rat in the Mortal Planes, but thankfully you are no smarter than your parents and decided to ascend to Godhood, delivering yourself to me in the process."
Artos kept staring at the blonde-haired man with hateful eyes. He wanted to scream at him, curse him, spit on his face, but he couldn't do any of those actions since he was being suppressed by the man's Divine Power. Try as he might, he couldn't break it with his own. After all, he is a Lesser God, while the blonde man is a Supreme God and one of the strongest at that.
"With you out of the picture, there is no one left to stop me from taking what is rightfully mine." The blonde man let out a maniacal laugh and turned around to leave. Artos, on the other hand, slowly started disintegrating, not leaving even a speck of dust behind.
Artos was a slave, a cripple, anyone that he befriended died shortly afterward. He lived through dangerous situations daily, but he managed to push through. Despite there being no one to teach him and guide him, he managed to ascend to Godhood, through lucky chances alone.
He started learning more about himself, his parents and the reason why he had to live through so many hardships, but in the end, he was captured by the Supreme God of Life, Lightheaven.
All of that because of a stupid prophecy and the greed of a God. Artos was mad, he wanted revenge, he wanted to slaughter Lightheaven and anyone dear to him, but he didn't have the power to do so. In the end, he disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
After Artos died, the world shattered like glass and disappeared alongside him, as if it was everything was but a dream.
Artos woke up to the sounds of screaming and weapons clashing. Groggily, looking around he noticed that he is lying on the ground in a familiar steel cage. Two more Lion-kin boys were shivering in the cage wearing nothing but rags like him. They looked to be around 13 to 14 years old. Their golden manes would have looked beautiful, had they not been stained with dirt.
"What happened? Was what I experienced all a nightmare? Or am I dreaming right now?" Artos asked himself in confusion. He wasn't sure what to make of the current situation. Could he have gone back in time? Is that even possible? Even the Supreme God of Time, Huygen, was unable to turn back time. After all, time can only move forward and not backward.
After a moment of hesitation, Artos made up his mind. Dream or not, he didn't care. He had a grudge against Lightheaven, and he will pay him back a hundredfold for making his life a living hell. Even if this is nothing more than him hallucinating, he didn't care, he will live his life the way he wanted to this time. In the meantime, he would also return the favor to the few that helped him out in his previous life.
"Well, maybe I would still need their help." Artos thought to himself after taking a look at his missing right arm. He would need to heal his arm before his first Awakening, else he would be nothing more than a cripple again. Artos already went through his first Awakening with a missing arm and he paid the price for it. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
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But before he could even think about all that, he needed to get out of this cage first. Standing up, he figured he will try something and see if anything he did in his previous life has carried over to this one.
With just a thought, the Black-Steel bars of the cage easily bend enough for him to leave. Even a Silver-ranked Cultivator would have trouble bending Black-Steel, and yet he did it with nothing but his mind.
[Requirements met, Telekinesis acquired. Skill level set to Lvl.7]
Artos was happy that one of the few Skills he had acquired in his past life carried over, despite the Skill being looked down upon by those who aspire to become Gods. After all, Telekinesis is a skill that is believed to be impossible to level to a Divine Skill, which is extremely important when someone ascends to Godhood.
Surprised that even the skill level carried over, he quickly checked his status to see what else is there.
[Artos Forevermore]
[Cultivation: Iron-Beginner]
[Skills: Telekinesis Lvl.7]
His cultivation was the lowest level Iron, like he remembered, despite him never cultivating in his life until this point. He had no idea why was this the case before, but now, knowing that his parents were from the Divine Plane, he figured it's due to that.
Stepping out of the cage, Artos calmly observed the Lion-kin and Humans that were fighting. The Lion-kin currently had the upper hand, but he knew that the strongest Human amongst the slavers, has still not taken action.
In his previous life, the Diamond-ranked slaver slaughtered all the Lion-kin by himself. Although not having any friendly relationship with the Lion-kin, Artos decided to help them out. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
As he was observing the fight, one of the slavers noticed that Artos has escaped his cage. The slaver wearing leather armor and carrying a short sword and a buckler shield made his way towards Artos. He had already reached Silver-rank and decided to toy with the bald-headed cripple.
The slaver was not the least bit scared of the current situation since he was one of the highest-ranked amongst the slavers. A few others were Silver-ranked like him, while the rest of them were either Bronze or Iron-ranked, the two lowest levels. His boss and the leader of the slaver caravan was even a Diamond-ranked cultivator, as long as no Duke-ranked cultivator or higher shows up, his boss can easily take care of the situation.
"What do we have here. The pathetic cripple has decided to escape and make a run for it. I never really liked your pretty face, so I'll be more than happy to end your miserable life." The slaver smirked evilly while twirling the blade in his hand, but Artos didn't even bother responding.
Irked by not receiving a response, the slaver continued. "I shouldn't have even bothered shaving your head yesterday if I knew you will die by my blade today."
The Artos of before would have cowered and ran away from the slaver, but now he only shook his head, "Are you done talking?"
"What?" Surprised at the response, the slaver exclaimed. Wasn't this the cripple that always flinches when someone neared him? Wasn't this the weakling that never talked back? Why is he looking at me with those emotionless eyes? Before he could question him further, the slaver felt something invisible bind around his arm. The next moment, the arm that was holding his short sword, plunged the weapon through his throat.
"Argh." The slaver was completely bewildered by what happened. He didn't see Artos doing any hand gestures and didn't hear him say any incantation, and yet, he lost control over his own arm. He wanted to ask how, but in the end, he died without even knowing what happened.
Artos walked up to the slaver, and removed the blade from his neck, beheading him in the process. He gave the short sword a few practice swings and heard a familiar chime in his head.
[Requirements met, Weapon Mastery acquired. Skill level set to Lvl.3]
Artos was bewildered by what he heard since he didn't have such a Skill before. He was expecting to receive Blade Mastery, which he considered a Unique Skill, considering he knew only one person who had it. And that very same person was the one that gifted it to Artos in his previous life.
He wasn't sure why he acquired Weapon Mastery, but he didn't have the time to dwell on it at the moment since a fight was happening around him. At the moment, the Lion-kin had the upper hand with their Gold-ranked cultivator leading the way. But the moment the Diamond-ranked Human makes his move, he will turn the fight around single-handedly.
Artos was currently only Iron level and he wouldn't be able to use his Telekinesis like he is used to due to his low energy reserves, but he believed that even without that skill, he would be able to deal with anyone here beside the Diamond-ranked cultivator.
[Artos Forevermore]
[Cultivation: Iron-Beginner]
[Skills:
Telekinesis Lvl.7
Weapon Mastery Lvl.3]
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I have no idea how to make bluescreens and I don't think I will bother with them. Don't see the point. Thanks for reading, leave a comment if you enjoyed it or if you have any suggestions.