Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

Training under those who were called gods in their world was brutal, especially when I had a mortal body, and later on a semi-mortal body. Ares, one of the foreign gods, called my training as Spartan.

“I’ll let you taste what it feels to be in Sparta!” he roared on the first day of our training and attacked me relentlessly. He became my main trainer in hand-to-hand combat.

As for my swordplay, there was Susanoo no Mikoto, who used to the Japanese god of the sea and storms, as well as Apolaki, who used to be the Tagalog god of the sun and warriors. They were good at using the swords, and Apolaki was a dual wielder which fit my sword style.

As for my powers, most of my trainers let me incorporate them to my moves. Basically, training my body to get stronger would let me be able to handle my powers better.

The method was kind of the same as Elthesia’s.

Now, other than the training in general, it was difficult to have and adjust to too many teachers. I mostly had sparring sessions with those who had war and battle as part of their domain. Meanwhile I also trained under a few other foreign gods who had an entirely different domain of power.

For example, there was Freya, who used to be the Norse goddess of love, beauty fertility, and a whole other bunch. She trained me on how to conduct myself in front of others, especially when facing in front of high-ranking people. She also attempted to teach me how to seduce others, whether man or woman.

I couldn’t help but shiver when I remembered those times she tried to do it.

Then there was Amaterasu, the one who lent me the flying carriage to get to Avalon Isles. She taught me what they called the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

I have to say, it really helped with my concentration and patience.

There were also the chess games with Athena, which was her way of teaching me about strategies.

It was a fruitful five years to be honest. My power had come a long way and I’m pretty sure comparing my current self to my previous one, there would be such a huge gap.

Speaking of, I finally had a total of four tails!

My third tail was retrieved from the Spirit Ball Senior Andrei gave me about a year and a half after I arrived. No one in Avalon Isles knew what to do as well, so I was left alone with it.

But then one night, I had a dream and I came face to face with Hilda Hysi, my current self’s grandmother.

“Luna, you have come far.” she said. “Being able to enter this dream just means you have become strong enough to break the mystical ball that has been passed down to our family. According to our clan’s history, the Spirit Ball carries a strong power of the goddess that gave our clan its beginning.”

-Wait, that goddess was me!

“The only way for you to gain the power inside is to draw it to you and let it recognize you as its master.” she smiled, her red hair fluttering despite the absence of wind. “I am happy to see at least one of us is still around and is going to continue our clan’s legacy. Treasure your life and live the way you want, my dear granddaughter.”

It made me cry to be honest. I didn’t know why but her words really affected me, as if I unconsciously recognized her as a real family member.

It went easy after that. I only had to make some sort of connection to the power that resides within the spirit ball. It took me a year and a half to get the power.

And then a year later, I regained my fourth tail.

I went with Hermes, who used to be a Greek god, to do an errand for Hestia. I accidentally fell into a tomb of some great ancient sage and found my fourth tail asleep in the coffin where the sage was laid to rest.

It was a creepy encounter to be honest, but I was happy nonetheless. I had my fourth tail. Since then, I hadn’t encountered any of my tails. Although I know where the general direction of the location of my tails, I was not allowed to leave Avalon Isles.

Avalon Isles wasn’t small so I had a lot of places to go. It also meant I had a lot of places to train. The entire place had a range of training areas and four seasons were also present in it, all year long.

At the moment, I was in the entrance of a fiery island they called Muspel Island[1].

“You have one goal inside.” said Ares as he stood in front of me. “Retrieve Freya’s Brisingamen[2] before the sun sets three days from now. Now remember, Muspel Island has a lot of monsters who are usually fire-based and/or immune to fire attacks.”

He smirked and looked at me intently. “Make sure I will not be retrieving your corpse instead three days from now.”

I nodded my head and checked my supplies one last time. I made sure to pack a lot in my inventory. Well, supplies check, but I wasn’t sure if I could find a safe place. The island is literally a volcano with rivers of lava and fire raging all the time.

-Why the hell did Freya lose her necklace in there?

I could tell it was just the foreign gods’ usual attitude. They had someone to do their grunt work, so of course they made use of them, even if I was supposed to be treated more like a student than a servant.

Ares also tended to agree on Freya’s whims. The two are in a relationship together.

They thought no one really knew but actually, everyone in Avalon Isles knew but the two did not know that.

I sighed and readied myself both physically and mentally.

“Here goes nothing.”

***

The first day, I encountered a lot of monsters. They were the usual fire-based grunt monsters, but facing a lot of them at once was not ideal. I couldn’t let lose my Fire Fox too since I would only cause more fires and make things worse.

Spoken from experience.

I enveloped my body in energy all the time as I trudged the island. If I didn’t, I would be toasted at the heat of the place. I was literally walking beside a river of lava! The island was, ad still is, not really a good place to take a walk.

On the second day, I found the necklace. Unfortunately, it rested at the horns of one fire bull.

I sighed once again and brandished my sword.

-Now then. Let’s make sure I don’t get skewered.

******************

Note:

[1] Muspel Island – I derived it from Muspelheim, one of the nine realms in the Norse Mythology.

[2] Brisingamen – according to Wikipedia, it is the torc or necklace of the goddess Freyja.