The Mythology Games

Chapter I

Julius fell onto the ground from taking a
punch to the face. The leader of the opposing faction sneered at Julius, "That's what you get for stealing from us. Say sorry and we may forgive you."

Julius spat onto the ground. "I would rather die than apologizing to you people," he stood up wobbling, "besides, didn't you snatch my food first? I was merely taking back what's mine."

Their faces twisted into a look of disgust. "You little-" one of the members kicked Julius in the stomach, forcing him to kneel down. "Now that's more like it." Coughing up blood, Julius tried to stand back up, only to discover his inability to put strength into his legs.

Police sirens rang outside of the alleyway. The leader flinched, and said after a moment of hesitation, he said, "we'll let you go this time. Never try to mess with us again, or things worse than this will be coming your way."

Staring at their shrinking backs with anger, Julius wanted to fight again, but he knew that it is impossible for him to win against three people that are older than him without any special means. Fighting the raging anger and unfairness inside him, he chose to stay down. What other choice did he have?

How unfair it may be, this was the daily life of Julius Kairos.

Slowly crawling up, he proceeded towards the other side of the alley. Walking on the streets, he ignored the occasional stares from the pedestrians and headed back to the public pool to clean himself of the grime he received.

As he headed towards the pool, he decided to scout around as he was not familiar with this area. Taking a turn to an alley, he marched forward and was expecting a shortcut to his destination. To be honest, even he himself did not know what he was looking forward to.

Under normal circumstances, it was not likely for Julius to take on a path that he was not familiar with, as he may be robbed of what's left of him. Even so, he felt like something was pulling him towards that direction.

As you may expect, the alley was not one to be found with a lot of people and they make great meetup places to handle affairs that should not be shown to the light. Julius, from his seven years of experience on the streets, knew that more than us safe in our apartments, not having to venture places like those.

The old man standing there was what Julius felt to be meeting, the sole reason for going into such a place. Little did he know, that encounter, be it fateful or someone pulling the strings, would change his, no, the entire world's future.

"Julius Kairos, son of Natalie and Felix Kairos, with your father leaving your mother since her pregnancy," the old man said in a raspy voice. "Since then, your mother has raised you until nine years old until her death in a robbery with you witnessing."

Julius took on a fighting pose and grew wary towards the old man. "Who are you?" he asked, "are you a stalker? What do you want from me?"

The man laughed. "You have so many questions," he said while shaking his head. "I'll answer your questions one by one, don't worry. My name's Kronos, I've observed you before your birth, and I want you to join a competition."

"Do you expect me to help a stranger to join a competition?" Julius snickered, "Even though you seem old, you are not really that smart."

"I have a prize for you if you win." A sharp gaze flashed in Kronos' amber eyes, "your mother."

Julius gulped. How can an ordinary man bring a person back to life? Who is he? Why would he know so much about him?  These questions spun around in his mind.

"Are you familiar with the Greek mythologies? I, Kronos, am the Titan that represents time, and by rewinding time itself, you could be with your mother again." Kronos smiled like a sly fox.

"And you expect me to believe a random person that just came up to me and said that they could control time?" Julius said. Although wanting his mother to come back to life, he still could not believe him. What if he was a madman that escaped from the hospital? But if that were the case, how would he know so much about him?

  "I can prove it to you right now," Kronos picked up a rotten apple that was thrown on the floor. "Watch closely." The apple, in front of Julius' eyes, reverted back to a delicious-looking red fruit.

Julius was utterly amazed. Just how did he do that?  Although not fully believing Kronos, he could not help but to imagine the possibility if reviving his mother. "I'll hear you out," Julius muttered reluctantly.

"Thank you." Kronos bowed deeply. "In this game, you are going against fifteen representatives of other gods... and they are not necessarily human. They would all hold some kind of abilities granted by the gods they represent. Your job is to survive between them."

"But what about me?" Julius interfered, "and you said there are other species apart from humans. How am I supposed to survive among dragons and giants- let alone with me winning?"

Kronos brushed the matter off. "I'm sure you'll be fine. You're a smart one. And of course, you'll be representing me." He closed his index finger and middle finger, producing a golden card out of thin air. He threw the card to Julius, which he caught in a similar fashion.

"That card contains time-manipulating abilities. It should already be absorbed into your body by now." Julius looked at his right hand to find golden particles flowing up his arm. "Don't get too full of yourself though. Your ability has two limitations due to those people forcing me to weaken the abilities."

"First," Kronos rose his index finger, "You have a limit to how many times you can use your abilities. There's a price for using each ability and they're all different. I'm sure you'll figure the limitations on your own. The limits will recharge at 00:00 sharp.

"Secondly, abilities other than "Time Stop, The World", which freezes the world, can only be activated through physical contact. That means you cannot just randomly speed up or slow down others without touching them." The name The World sounds vaguely familiar...

"You promise you'll bring my mother back to life, right?" Julius sighed, "Fine. I'll help you." When he said this, no one realized what was going to happen, not even Kronos, the Time Titan, knew how greatly everything will change.

"It seems like we don't have much time left." Kronos said as he looked up to the sky, "the competition starts a week later. May the odds be ever in your favour."

With that, Kronos walked away from Julius into the depths of the alleyway. Julius shook his head and continued walking to the pool. Receiving time powers is not an excuse to not wash off dirt and blood on you.