I remember once reading about a man, who got smitten thrice by lightning in life, and once in his own graveyard. At that time I thought that fate was a whimsical son of a b***. I know, I know… Watch your language and all that, but what can I say, I’ve never been one to be careful around others, I mean, people should be able to swallow things like this, as long as they’re not said to be hurtful.

Aaaaaanyway, I’m losing the track of my mind, what I meant with all that is simple, I’m being struck by lightning right now. You must be thinking: Right now? How is that you’re able to think straight and how is that you have so much time? Well, it’s not as if I’m being struck, it’s as if time stopped when the lightning was a few inches away from me. I can’t move, I can’t breathe, but I don’t feel the necessity to do so, so it’s not a problem, it’s like I’m trapped inside a minuscule time bubble, and I don’t know what to do.

We have time so I will introduce myself. My name is Lyon Ironblood, cool name right? I don’t know who my father is; I just know this is the surname I have. I’ve been living with my mom since I can remember, and we never talk about him, we travel a lot, so I’ve got no real friends. It’s sad, I know, but that’s the life I have. When I was young, like 6 years, I was bullied at school. It was embarrassing but I told my mom, unexpected to me, instead of going to talk to the director, the teachers or even the parents, she signed me up for an aikido class and we went together. We had so much fun and we became closer, we practiced at home and she always beat me.

You know, my mother was the funniest and more wonderful woman I’ll ever meet, I’m sure about that. Once when I was 11 someone tried to rob our home, bad choice, if you ask me; the burglar ended in the hospital after my mom kicked his ass, quite a few broken ribs and bones, but after she did, she just smiled sweetly at me and told me not to hurt anyone if I was able to. Since then I avoided every fight I happened to be close to.

It’s not that I dropped aikido, actually since the burglary, we even trained harder, but what we trained for was to be able not to hurt someone even when protecting ourselves, because, you know, my mom’s the best and I didn’t want to disappoint her. That mentality died 4 years ago.

I was 15 that year, and I was excited to go partying with some classmates, it was nothing illegal, no drinking, no drugs, I didn’t even smoke, but it was so fun that I couldn’t miss it. I came home late, around 11 pm, and I heard screams. When I entered I found a guy with a knife full of blood, I recognized the guy; he was the same guy that broke into our house 4 years ago and whose ass my mom kicked, I looked past him and I saw someone on the floor, full of blood. I couldn’t believe it at first but I realized that she was my mom; she was dead. The anger took control of me and I screamed as I hadn’t screamed before.

The guy laughed at me and said I was the next, I didn’t seem dangerous, I guess; he approached me slowly and then I snapped.

Burglar POV:

I smiled as I aproached the house of that bitch. I remembered as she broke my bones years ago, sending me to the hospital, only to be sent to prison right after. I survived prison, though, and I had kept dreaming about what I would do the moment I got out.

[Aaah, so pleasurable, the screams of a whore getting slaughtered. To think years ago they thought I just wanted to rob them... Anyway I was lucky to be sent to prison just for burglary. Hahahaha, I can't just help myself, blood feels so good.]

As soon as she opened the door I stabbed her with a knife, puncturing her lungs and making her unable to defend herself. Then I took my time to cut piece by piece, bathing in the feeling of having her blood on my hands. After about half an hour of pleasure, someone entered the house, it was that kid, the son of that bitch.

[This kid is so dead, hahaha, he’ll pay too for what her mother did to me, hahaha.]

The boy in front of me was quite tall at 5’7’’, he was blonde, different from her mother that was redhead, and he had blue eyes. I started approaching him slowly and he was trembling.

[Haha, I’m sure he’s scared as hell.] - I smiled as I imagined getting my hands onto his neck, and then cutting him apart.

Then my vision blurred, and I lost consciousness.

Lyon POV:

I kicked him so strong in the neck that he just died, but I didn’t care. I ran to my mom and hugged her, and then I lost consciousness while crying on her arms.

[It’s been a while since I recalled that night] - I thought about what could have gone different.

“Yo, kiddo, u there?”

…I’m sure I didn’t hear that, it’s impossible, after all, time’s stopped, right?

“Hahaha! Quite the joker you are, ain’t cha kiddo? I’m Kronos, by the way.”

[W-who are you?!] - I shivered thinking about what he said, Kronos… He was the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, right? And even more, is he reading my mind?!

I sensed something in my spine, as if I was being looked by a bloodied creature full of hate, I’d never felt something so scary in my life.

“Don’t you dare pronounce those names in my presence, NEVER! Not even in your mind, or I’ll make sure you won’t see the light of day again!”

[S-s-s-sorry!] - Now I was sure that he could read my mind, and I was even more sure that if time was not stopped right now I would’ve pissed myself, how can someone be so scary?! I wonder what aspect does he have, I can’t see him at all and his voice echoes all around me.

“Well, now that we’ve left the things clear, I want to make a deal with you. You can decline, sure, thought the lightning will kill you half a second after you do, and so what do you say?”

[C-could you please explain yourself? P-please?] - I got to mutter in my mind. It seemed weird to have a ‘conversation’ with someone who I couldn’t see without talking at all. I hope I see him at some time.

“Ha! Sure, after all if I don’t how could you be of any help to me? First of all, I’m Kronos, and as you know I’m dead, more or less. While it’s true that I lost my real body, the one I was born with, I had a hobby back there, I created an alter ego of mine, which no one knew was connected to me, Chronus, the God - [It seemed he hated that word, but I guess it was normal considering what Z… N-nothing! Nothing Kronos!] - … of Time. Don’t interrupt me with stupid thoughts brat.

As I was saying, Chronus was quite interesting, I studied time and discovered lots of things, but back then I could barely slow time while leaving my mind conscious, but not my body, so it would be like having a faster reaction time, but nothing too useful against my stupid and treacherous sons, so I decided I wouldn’t reveal myself at that time.

Ages later, I got to use my powers to slow time by half while leaving my body unaffected, so I worked harder, and seven years ago, I managed to do the same while stopping completely the time, thought it’s not as useful as I had imagined. It’s true that I can stop the time everywhere, but I can only do so while outside Olympus, and I can’t enter the Olympus while the time’s stopped, so as those bastards don’t leave that mountain ever I won’t be able to get my revenge, not for now at least… And here’s where you enter Lyon, you will help me.”

“H-how could I help you? I’m just a mortal!” - I would’ve never thought that Gods were real, and much less that the terri-AMAZING Kronos… would be still alive.

“You see, here in this world you won’t be able to help me, that’s true, but I discovered something I didn’t share with anyone, the portal from where Chaos, the father of us all, came. It goes without saying that I entered so I could see what was on the other side, the answer is simple, it’s like the Mount Olympus but on a huge different level, there all people are minimum as strong as Zeus, and there are people stronger than Chaos, so even I was scared, but it seems like my powers over time are rather unique, and even there I could use some of them to make me invisible, so I explored unnoticed until I found something interesting, there were portals all over that place, but it’s as if there was a biological lock, only people with a certain bloodline was able to cross them, I guess that’s the reason that such a tiny place as this one survived so long. After a month of exploring, I found a rather special portal, a public one, different from the one Chaos or the other people owned, that portal could be accessed by anyone and on the other side there was lots of planets, full of strange creatures and intelligent races. The thing that I discovered there, was that, with the help of someone, I would be able to rebuild my body, a mortal’s help, your help.

You will come with me to one of those other worlds, it will be one of the lesser ones, at first, and you will build strength until you can participate in the Great Tournament of Eternity, a tournament which only happens once every millennium, where only people who started as mortals in that plane can participate and where the winner of the first place is able to wish for anything, and the being more powerful that has ever existed will give it to you.”

“A millennium?! But I will only live 80 years more max!” - How was I supposed to help him if I was dead?

“Hahaha, don’t worries, I won’t let you without anything, thought you will have to swear a lifeblood oath to wish a body for me when you win, I will provide you with something to start your travel and I’ll also extend your life but only if you pass my test. By the way, the tournament is in a four hundred years so you will participate in quite little time.

For now, let’s get out of here, this son of mine detected that I was up to something, and thought he doesn’t know I’m Kronos, he’s still wary of me, so when he noticed I was paying attention to you, he decided to kill you, just in case. You were lucky I stopped time just before the lightning hit you, don’t you think? Come, I’ll take you with me to another place; you will lose consciousness now and wake up in the test area. See ya’ in a moment kiddo.”

As he was saying those last words, I felt my world fall in to darkness, darkness so deep nothing could ever escape, and then I felt unconscious.