The Chronicles of Time

Ring of Millennia

I Take a Tour with a Monster

Turning evil was not high on my "to do" list.

Well not that I turned evil on purpose, or even that that I turned evil. It's really turning against the gods with no selfish reason; sort of.

Entering a world of betrayal is hard, stressful, and depressing.

In fact it's even harder when your own family betrays you.

Being accepted and then having no choice but to leave is not lots of fun.

Sure fighting monsters and overthrowing the gods and the titans sounds fun, trust me, it's not. Well for me anyway.

Maybe I should start from the beginning.

My name is Syrus Devon.

I attend an easy school called Hallow Middle School. I am 13 years old and relatively smart for my age. I have jet black hair and yellow-green eyes. I live in Manhattan in a penthouse suite.

Yes I am rich. And that is the best part of my life. Here's the bad part; I can't use the money until I'm 18.

What about my life. Well, I'll sum it up for you; it sucked.

I've moved about 4 times. I have no parents, well; I don't know anything about them. I haven't had a birthday party ever. I haven't gotten a single thing I wanted in my life, like a piece of candy at the paying counter. This is all basically because of my guardian.

I have a stupid guardian, Jerome. The reason I don't get anything I want is because Jerome economizes meaning he saves money for stupid things like a TT table that I'm not allowed to play on.

I doubt he cares about me he just wanted to get money from my bank account through a bunch of legal reasons that I don't care about.

So as you can so obviously see my life sucked and will probably continue to suck till I die.

One more thing, I have no friends. People say it's because of how I act; arrogant, selfish, and usually bragging about my genius.

Remember I told you I was relatively smart. Well that's an understatement; I am most likely the smartest kid in the school. I have 7 classes; I have four one-hundreds, two ninety-nines, and a ninety-five. I think people don't like me because I'm so smart.

The only reason I'm not a straight A+ student was because of my Ancient Mythology class. My teacher, Mr. Renner, was always expecting so much out of me. He expected me to know who Orion was on the first day of school. I knew who he was but he was disappointed that I didn't remember that he was a constellation.

He also always asks me extremely complicated questions on his stupid oral exams like, "Apollo killed six of which king's sons while his sister killed the king's six daughters?" Then he asks the other kids in my class questions like, "Name a labor of Heracles?"

I wasn't going to enjoy today, not that I ever enjoy a day at school. But today was especially bad; we were going on a class field trip to the Empire State Building.

I went, in a bad mood, to school.

In second period the entire eighth grade boarded the buses. I, like usual, sat in the back of the bus. Bad luck; today was "the idiots" turn to sit in the back.

You see in my school the bus is divided into 5 sections-according to me at least-the football idiots, the goofy girls, the girls who think they're all that, the nerds, and Asian kids who are almost as smart as me.

On the bus each group gets the back of the bus one day of the week. On Thursdays the football idiots got the back of the bus. The "laws" of the bus don't apply to me because most people ignore me and I don't talk to them; but not on Thursday. On Thursdays I try to sit at the front because the idiots usually say something stupid. I must have forgotten because of the field trip. I eventually realized it was a matter of time before they said something that they thought was smart but was actually dumb like-

"When we reach the top I'm going to push you off, "Keith Rogers our classes' idiot/bully whispered in my ear, "That okay with you Brainiac?"

Brainiac, the name the whole school calls me by because I'm so smart. I think that they think that they're insulting me, but they don't. I actually am pleased by that name. But I don't tell them in case they change it.

Keith Rogers asked me again, with a baby voice instead of his fake thug voice that he usually uses, "is that okay?"

"Sure," I said in a bored tone.

That's another thing about me, I don't do comebacks. If you ask me, comebacks are a waste of time. Here's what happens.

Person A says, "You're fat."

Person B says, "Have you taken a look in the mirror lately."

Then Person A does some quick thinking and says, "At least I don't have elephant ears."

This cycle of stupid comments goes until both people run out of stupid things to say and walk away like it doesn't matter either way.

So, like I said, comebacks are a waste of time. If you're dragged into a "comeback war" you can't come out until the end of it. If you just agree with the person they won't know what to say and will just shut up and leave you alone.

We reached the Empire State Building in about an hour. When I got off the bus I learned that I was in Mr. Renner's group. Just my luck; again!

This was just what I needed; to spend a day with my least favorite teacher in a building I had seen many times before.

We started walking along; the building was packed, like always. We moved to the elevator.

"Let's go to the top of the building first," Mr. Renner announced.

A jolt went through me. I had never been to the observation deck before. "Maybe this could actually be fun," I thought.

"Hey Chi- Mr. Renner, which floor the top floor or top most floor," one kid that I had never seen at school before asked.

When the kid fumbled on his name I let out a silent snort but Mr. Renner had thrown him an understanding smile. But when he answered his question he spoke sternly, "Just the top floor Quinton."

Quinton smiled and said, "Just checking."

I thought that what Quinton asked was really ridiculous but the way Mr. Renner responded freaked me out a bit.

I consoled myself by saying that they both were idiots.

When we reached the top it was a magnificent view. I really enjoyed it. But then everyone started crowding around the edge.

I didn't care, I just walked around to the other side.

There were only two people on the other side a really pretty girl that wasn't in our group and Keith Rogers.

To be frank I was surprised that he had the brains to come to this side of the observation deck. He probably followed the girl.

I was right.

He slowly edged closer to her and asked, "Hey, my name is Keith Rogers what's your name?" The girl saw right through his plan-even if he really wasn't trying to be subtle.

"I'm not your type," she said without even looking at him.

She walked away.

Keith looked like he had been slapped. He turned around and saw me. His face turned from disappointment to rage.

"This is you fault," he snarled, "She probably thought we were friends and when she saw your ugly face who can blame her for leaving." He looked like he actually believed that. Then again, maybe he did.

You know how I don't like a comeback contest, well, I couldn't resist this one. "My ugly face, she probably saw you drooling all over the floor."

Comebacks are usually quick and sharp, but not for Keith.

"Ummmm, well your mom's face," blabbered Keith.

"Real relevant," I thought.

"Hey Rogers," the girl was back, "your slime ball leave him out of this."

"Stay out of it," Rogers said in a voice oozing with fake bravery and anger.

For a second, I was surprised. Why would this girl come back here, to a place where an idiot and a mysterious kid where "arguing."

"Your nose is so big," she said, "I can't see how any girl could like you."

Keith's eyes narrowed. Then he said, in a low whisper, "I said, stay out of it you bi-."

I started forward but she got there first.

THAWACK.

She got him right across the face.

I was impressed by her speed, but I was also a bit shocked. She moved unnaturally fast, one second she was there, and then she was right next to Keith.

She wasn't done. She balled her fist, raised it, and then launched it right at his gut.

Keith crumpled to the ground and started crying.

I was grinning hoping I could expose Keith as crybaby rather than an idiot/bully.

"Serves you right," she said. She turned around, froze, and said, "One more thing." She lifted up her foot and brought it down on Keith's nose. She walked away as if nothing had happened.

"Ouch," I muttered. I could have sworn I had heard a loud clang when she brought down her foot and I definitely heard a crunch, the sound of a nose breaking.

There was a microscopic amount of time before-

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH," Keith started screaming at the top of his lungs. People started coming over here faster than I thought was possible.

Uh oh, I was definitely screwed. There was no way Keith would admit that a girl had beat him up. He would definitely say that I had broken his nose. It was a perfect set up; I was a kid nobody really knew a lot about, I was pretty muscular, and I was the only other person on the other side of the observation deck other than Keith.

Keith barely managed to get up, point at me, and say, "Him."

Great, I had three options.

Say that I hurt Keith – Maybe people would see something suspicious in that; yeah right.

Tell the truth – usually a bad option, bad this time because getting a girl in trouble would make me really unpopular.

Run away – I was already at the back of the crowd, so what did I have to lose I was going to get expelled anyway.

I choose option three.

I sprinted to the other side of the observation deck and pressed the elevator button. It opened immediately; I strode in and pressed the button with two arrows facing each other with a line through them to close the door, it closed.

I took a breath and turned around. Who could be standing there but the girl who had beaten up Keith?

She grabbed a key card out of her pocket and swiped it next to a spot on the control panel. The up or down sign on the top of the elevator pointed up.

Okay, I was officially confused. Who was this girl, why she was here and why was the elevator sign pointing up.

I felt the elevator going up. But that was impossible, wasn't it.

"Will you serve your father or not," she asked me.

Her voice had changed from a cute, sweet voice to a raspy, wicked snarl.

"Yes or no," she asked me again.

Then it hit me what she was talking about. She knew about my dad. I wanted to ask what she knew about my dad when she cut me off again.

"Will you or won't you serve the lord."

Without warning, anger boiled in the pit of my stomach. My dad was a lord and he left to live on my own, without a family. More to the point, he was asking me to serve him when he never even met me. Without a second thought I gave her my reply.

"No I won't," I said.

Her answer was as fast, "Then die," she said calmly.

She transformed. First a white ring on her left hand melted until it covered her body, it then hardened in to embroidered armor with a belt that was equipped with many deadly bronze weapons including a sword, an expandable spear, a double edged axe, a club, and a lot of other things. Then her body transformed her legs changed one was a donkey leg, another was a human leg made of bronze. She then grew fangs just like-

"A vampire," I stuttered.

"You foolish half-bloods," she said, "I am an empousa." With that she drew her sword and lunged

That's when it happened, everything slowed down, and I mean literally slowed down.

The empousa looked like she was moving through oil. Apparently she noticed it too. I could tell from the look of panic on her face.

For some reason I wasn't affected by whatever was going on. Then, my instincts took over.

With my right hand I punched her in a chink in her armor, she double took. With my left hand I punched her wrist, her grip on the sword loosened. I took my opportunity. My right hand flew up snatched the sword from her clutches, spun, and swung diagonally down.

But as the blade came down I felt a slight drain in my energy level and, as quickly as it began, time returned to normal speed.

The empousa Jumped out of the way as she noticed her chance. She reached for her expandable spear and pulled it out. You wouldn't believe how fast it expanded. She did a sort of spinning jab aiming for under my rib cage at my heart.

Time slowed again. I didn't give her another chance. I slashed downward. The blade ripped through her Bronze armor fluidly.

The empousa wailed out loud and then burst into a cloud of dust.

The sword I was holding melted out of my hands and on to the ground where it reformed into the ring.

I then realized that energy was draining from me. I didn't know how to stop it. Black spots appeared in my eye.

I saw that I had stabbed through the control panel. The arrow was now pointing down.

I bent down to pick up the ring when everything went black.