Chapter One; The Miraculous Child

PROLOGUE

It was dark, too dark for the eyes to see unaided. In time, a lightning bolt so intense that it could illuminate a whole continent flashed. With it came a large boom of thunder that could shake a continent. Immediately, a thunderstorm began out of nowhere. Some minutes later, the thunderstorm suddenly vanished and with it the great darkness.

The location was above a certain great mounting. High above the clouds and in a different dimension. Two figures could be seen in the clouds. A bearded man with a white cloth covering his essentials and a beautiful maiden wearing an extravagant white dress. It was Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods, and his wife, Hera, queen of the Olympian Gods. Behind them was a city built on the clouds. Probably, they came out to bask in the sun. Yet someone dared to steal the sunlight from them for a whole thirty minutes. If not that they magically shielded themselves from the thunderstorm, they would be drenched by now.

"Is that from the Empire of Shen?" Zeus asked his wife, Hera whilst creating a cloud of remote viewing to look at what was happening on the continent of Shen. He looked and saw a baby cradled in the arms of a well-built man with deep green hair. His skin was not too dark that you would call him black, yet not so white that you would call him white. The view of the cloud of remote viewing was forcibly changed to the man who looked back at Zeus with murderous intent. Zeus hurriedly dismissed the cloud of remote viewing and murmured; "That troublesome line of ridiculously powerful humans have given birth to yet another ridiculously powerful child"

"Should we form an alliance with the gods of the other continents to finally take care of them?" Hera asked, stunned by the revelation.

"No! Even if we join hands with Ra and all the gods under him, we will still be incapable of defeating Rava." Zeus said frustratingly.

Chapter One; The Miraculous Child

What I am about to tell you is the story of a prince of a prestigious empire who is supposed to grow to fill his father's shoes as the most powerful entity there is. Well, why am I even talking about myself in the third-person narrative? The name is Mitchell Powstrava Stravapo, and whether I have been able to fill his shoes is to be disclosed later. But... before we get to the current me, I guess it's best I told you about how it all began. So let's go back to a little before I was born, the first day of the first month of the first year of The New Powstravian Calendar (NPC).

The sun shone brightly, directly above the Palace of Pride. Emperor Mitchell Rava, the all-powerful ruler of The Great Shennian Empire was having a walk in The Gardens, one of the many sceneries in The Great Palace of Pride. Walking by his side was Sir Roderick, son of The Count of Amania. Amania is one of the many countries that are vassal states of The Great Shennian Empire.

As they were enjoying the scenery, the emperor, who was wearing an extremely extravagant piece of clothing that far exceeded Sir Roderick's Sorcerer's garment in quality started the conversation with an unrelated topic.

"What do you think about my palace?" This was the emperor's way of making Sir Roderick feel at ease talking to him.

"It looks as elegant as ever, Your Imperial Majesty."

"All thanks to your father."

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, but he only designed it."

"I suppose that is true. But… to be able to design such a grand and marvellous palace is quite the achievement." The emperor smiled a little in the middle of his statement.

They gazed a little at the beautiful scenery around them that is called The Gardens. Although its official name is 'The Gardens' I think it's best you thought of it as a miniature forest that has been well groomed.

"Your Imperial Majesty, just looking at this beautiful scenery reaffirms my notion that simply designing the palace was not that which brought to it, its beauty"

"I am well aware that the labourers did their best in bringing his designs to fruition. And, the Gardeners have done very well in keeping the garden glamourous."

"It indeed is glamourous, Your Imperial Majesty. Frankly, this is the largest and the most beautiful garden I have ever set eyes on. Probably, the most beautiful there is." Realizing that he may overstep his boundaries with his next words, Sir Roderick stopped to consider his words while stealing a glance at the emperor to gauge his mood. "Rumour has it that this is the biggest and the most elegant palace ever in history. Well, with the least that I have seen, I more than second that. I can even go as far as to say it is bigger than most cities.-"

"Hahaha!" With a majestic tone, Emperor Mitchell Rava laughed cutting Sir Roderick off mid-speech. "Indeed it is. As befitting the greatest Empire in history"

Taken aback by the emperor's behaviour, Sir Roderick tried to find out why the emperor would go out of his way to be cordial with him. "I'm sorry Your Majesty, but I can't help but notice that you are being cordial with a mere son of a count of a state that is under the rule of Your Esteemed Imperial Majesty such as myself." Sir Roderick was not paranoid. The difference between their respective statuses was so huge that he was even amazed when he got summoned to The Palace of Pride by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Mitchell Rava of The Great Shennian Empire. One noteworthy fact was that he saw a princess he knew attending to the emperor as a maidservant. This beautiful princess was trailing them together with nine other maidservants, wearing maid uniforms that may be of an even higher quality than his garment.

"Haha, Let's get to the main topic then. To put it simply, you are the one that I picked out of the many mages under my rule to tutor my yet-to-be-born son in the art of magic, seeing how talented you are though you are young."

"I am honoured, Your Imperial Majesty and I would do my possible best in tutoring your son." Sir Roderick had already gone down on his knees before pronouncing his feelings.

"Henceforth, as my son's tutor, I am giving you explicit permission to address me cordially."

In the Shennian empire, the emperor's word is final. Directly below the emperor in power is the crown prince. Under the crown prince, you would find the rest of the royal family and some high officials. The nobility and royalty of the vassal states have the same status as the original citizens of the Shennian kingdom in front of the emperor. Yes, I said the Shennian Kingdom. Before it became an empire, the whole Continent of Shen was a kingdom under the rule of the Mitchells. As such the original inhabitants of the Shennian continent are given higher importance in the court than the other citizens of the empire. Killing a Shennian can lead to the ruin of a country. Below the royalty and nobility of the vassal states and the common citizens of the Shennian Kingdom are the citizens of the Vassal states. The rest of the world is simply seen by the Shennians as insignificant.

It seems I'm getting off-topic. After hearing the emperor's declaration, Sir Roderick immediately fell flat on his face. Before he was able to voice his opinion on the matter, the emperor turned to address a maidservant who was approaching them in a hurry.

"Your Imperial Majesty, Her Highness the Queen is about to go into labour." The maid enunciated bowing down in front of the emperor.

Just then darkness befell the whole Continent of Shen. The magic lamps installed in the palace did not turn on automatically. It wasn't because they were defective. No, they were rather set to turn on at specific times due to certain reasons. With the snap of his fingers, the emperor lit all the lamps in the palace and instantaneously teleported himself, Sir Roderick and all the maids around to his wife's chambers. Before entering the queen's bed chamber he informed Sir Roderick that he was done with him for now and left his party behind.

Inside the chamber, the emperor stood aside as his wife was doing her best to give birth to his firstborn. As you guessed, it was none other than myself. I'm not proud to say this, but I wasn't that good to her. On the queen's face, you could see just how much she was suffering. Do not blame me please, I was yet to be born. Some time passed but she was yet not done delivering me. The midwife after considering the situation asked the emperor to draw closer to his wife. The midwife did so because sometimes pregnant women find it easier to give birth when their husbands are around. The emperor did not hesitate in rushing to his wife's side. After all, when you take away his title as the emperor and the most powerful man in the world he is but a man who is worried about his wife and unborn child.

"My love, do tell me one of your songs." The queen asked whilst holding the emperor's hand tightly.

Maybe he was already waiting for her to ask because it took him no time to come up with something to tell her. "The first day I met you was the best day of my life till then. I was astonished by the way you blended your sorcery with your swordsmanship in hopes of saving your kingdom from my empire. And at the way you moved swiftly through my soldiers killing them. So I stopped and stood watching you and there, I said to myself "What a strong woman you are". That is why I know that you are going to get through this, both you and my unborn son. Because you are the strongest woman-"

Before the emperor could finish with his supposed song, a bolt of great lightning flashed throughout the whole continent and the baby's cry… my cry went in line with a large boom of thunder that got everyone terrified. Immediately after the thunder, a thunderstorm began. As I kept crying, the thunderstorm got more and more intense. My father, the emperor realized that it was I, the just-born prince's doing, so he took me from the midwife's hands and caressed me. When he brought a finger of his near my delicate lips, I grabbed it and held it so tightly that he said; "This son of mine is stronger than a giant." I looked at him and smiled. My smile brought about the end of the darkness that had engulfed the continent all this while. The raging thunderstorm also vanished as a result. Astonished by the occurrence, he continued; "Truly you are the most powerful child ever born upon the surface of this planet. For that, I shall call you Stravapo. I do also know, that you shall grow and become a great and powerful being, for that I shall call you Powstrava." He stood there for a while still holding me in his hands whilst considering matters in his mind. After a while, the air around him suddenly changed and then he turned to look away. He stared into space as if someone standing there had pissed him off. Apparently, he was considering whether he should change the name of the Shennian Empire to The Powstravian Empire. This had many merits; It would show the distinct difference between the original Shennians and the denizens of the empire. The meaning of the name also suits the empire, and when people realize that the prince has the same name as the empire they would come to a certain conclusion. At least, the wise ones would. Yet a certain god chose to spy on him with magic at that very time which got him angry.

Handing me to my Mum, Dad informed her that I was a male. Just as he predicted.

"A boy? What is his name?" They had agreed that Dad would name me if I was a boy.

"Powstrava Stravapo. Prince Mitchell Powstrava Stravapo."

"It's quite a nice name but why did you choose this name?" Whilst trying to hold me properly, you could hear the pain in her voice.

"Because of its meaning."

"Which is?"

"Powstrava and Stravapo respectfully mean 'great and powerful ' and 'godlike strength and power ' in the Old Tongue."

"It does suit my little baby boy."

"Indeed it does. I picked it after all." They both smiled. The maids and the midwife who heard it also smiled, although they were doing their best to hide it. Dad then asked permission from Mum that he had to go take care of something.

"Summon The Twelve to The Throne Room," Dad ordered one of the servants to go summon The Twelve Paramount Sages. With the least bit of hesitation in her eyes, the maid run off to complete the task given to her. Dad then signalled to another maidservant. "Send word to the celebrations bureau, there shall be a celebration tomorrow to mark the birth of my son." This maidservant was not human but a Rabbit Folk Beastman. Beastmen are humanoid creatures that bear various traits of bestial appearance such as; the Bat people who resemble bats, bird people who resemble birds, Cat Folk who resemble cats and of course the Rabbit Folk who resemble humans but have a pair of rabbit ears. Their females are usually quite beautiful and so was this maid. Because of how cute their females are, a lot of nobles like employing them as their maids. Well, after giving out his orders, Dad left the room.

From my perspective, I was moving from my small world that only consisted of myself and some fluids, and the usual noises that I occasionally heard that I couldn't understand into a strange new world which was far bigger than I expected. It was far too strange that I cried out. I could feel some strangely shaped object holding my small tender body, and my mysterious abilities doing as they pleased. I was yet trying to make meaning of this strange new world, as such, I knew not that the objects holding me were hands. To be precise, the hands of the midwife. She handed me to yet another strange entity. By this time I was clad in some furry cloth that felt cosy, yet I wouldn't stop crying. This strange entity kept shaking me, and yes, it was strange. I slowly opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a big object with five digits coming straight to my face. I grabbed one of the digits firmly and the strange entity said something to me. Of course, I couldn't understand but it made me feel calm and perhaps I experienced my first feeling of joy. I looked at the strange entity and realized that the big object that I was holding was part of his body. It was a well-built man with long dark green hair. He had a distinct line of white strands of hair in his dark green hair as if that side was intentionally dyed making him quite handsome. I smiled when looking at his face and my mysterious abilities that were doing as they pleased calmed down. This strange entity that I would later come to call my father named me and though I understood not a single word that he said, I was pleased.