Chapter 261 - Side Chapter: The meeting that changed Alphonso's life

The rain poured down heavily on the gigantic divine trees, while thunder boomed in every direction. A scared little boy was running for his life through the forest of divine trees. The young boy looked no older than seven, his clothes have been torn, his hair was burnt, and his overall appearance made one think of a beggar. 

This young boy was named Alphonso, he was currently running from the God of thunder and the God of rain. He was using the divine trees as a cloak to mask his aura so that the two Gods would find it difficult to locate him. 

When he got far enough Alphonso then hid inside a tree hollow. He was shivering from the cold and he started crying. His mother was killed right before his very eyes, and she did everything she could to let him escape. Now he was all alone and he didn't know what to do. 

As he was crying the rain and thunder finally stopped, Alphonso thought that maybe the two Gods gave up or got bored and left. He then took a peek and the moment he did so, someone grabbed his head. 

It was none other than the God of thunder that held onto the little boy's head tightly. "Hmph, you think you can run away from me, you filthy mutant. Now tell me where is the spear that your wh*re of a mother hid."

Alphonso tried his best to remove the God of thunder's hand but his feeble arms couldn't even move a finger of the God. As the God of thunder continued to squeeze even tighter, someone suddenly spoke.

"Hey what's a grown as* man like you doing to a kid like that?" The God of Thunder let go of Alphonso's head and looked at the man standing behind him surprised. He didn't even notice the man coming so near him. When the God of thunder looked at the person who was talking he was stunned. 

"You're a mortal, how did you get here?" When the God of thunder asked that question the man then showed a vicious smile on his face. Alphonso who was looking behind the God of thunder would never forget that smile and the answer the man gave afterward. 

"You know I got bored. I have defeated every opponent in the mortal world, none could even match a single finger of mine. So I decided to look for worthy opponents elsewhere. Then I thought how about those so called New Gods, they should be strong. So with a little bit of effort, I tore open the gates of heaven and I came here." 

When the God of thunder heard what the mortal said he couldn't believe his ears. This mortal was able to forcefully open the gate that separated the mortal realm with the immortal realm. It was hard to believe but seeing the mortal was standing before him made it difficult to believe otherwise. 

"Then I met this woman and she gave me this." The mortal then showed a spear with a dragon's head holding the base of the blade. "She told me that if something were to happen to her, I need to save her son. In exchange for the promise of protecting her son, this spear would be mine." 

When the God of thunder saw the spear he quickly moved behind the mortal and was about to deal a lethal blow but then before he knew it he was stabbed in the head. The mortal had stabbed him using the spear without even looking back.

"You're pretty fast, unlike the other guy." The mortal man then twirled the spear and sliced off the God of thunder's head. Due to the effects of the spear the God of thunder was unable to regenerate and died. 

"That's the second God I killed... Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't use this spear next time. It won't mean anything if I win like this." While the mortal man was talking to himself, he finally noticed the frightened Alphonso. The mortal man approached Alphonso and smiled at the kid. 

"Hey kid, everything's alright now." 

"..."

"You're called Alphonso right? I'm Michael, your mom sent me to protect you. So how about you join me on my journey just for a short while." 

...

Years have passed since Michael saved Alphonso from the God of thunder and the God of rain. The two have traveled to different places in the immortal realm. While traveling the two sought different things, Michael was seeking to find a worthy opponent, while Alphonso was more interested in collecting the weapons the Gods and Goddesses use.

It all started from the day Michael handed the spear Alphonso's mother left behind. After getting that spear Alphonso who was amazed by its look and power, started to collect more powerful weapons, armors, and other interesting artifacts. 

The infamy of the two grew every day, and as it grew the more fear and hate they acc.u.mulated. So in one particular afternoon, the now twenty-year-old Alphonso was looking around the campsite trying to find Michael. 

No matter where he looked Alphonso couldn't find Michael. He started to grow scared and started thinking 'was I once again left behind?' Alphonso grew frantic in searching for Michael, it was then he noticed that there were multiple divine entities gathering in one area. Michael had a bad feeling about what was happening and quickly went to the place were all the divine entities were gathering.

When Alphonso arrived at the place what he saw was a frightening sight. Hundreds of Gods and Goddesses had their dead bodies lay all over the ground. The way each of them were killed was different, some were slashed in half, others were pierced in the area of their divine core, and many had their heads removed.

Right in the middle of the corpses of the Gods and Goddesses, stood a single mortal. His body was bleeding all over, he was missing an arm and it looked like he was stabbed multiple times in different areas of his body. If it was any other mortal being having such wounds, it would have spelled instant death, but not him. He had a vicious smile on his face as he stood before his fallen enemies. This mortal man was none other than Michael. 

When Alphonso saw this he quickly dashed towards his long time mentor, father figure, rival, and friend. Even though his eyes were already dimming Michael was able to see the approaching Alphonso.

"You missed the party. I had a very fine feast, and I'm finally feeling full... Sorry about the weapons I was unable to hold back and broke a few." 

"Stop talking, you stupid battle junkie! I need to heal you quickly." Alphonso took out the staff of the Goddess of Life and tried healing the wounds that Michael had. Unfortunately, no matter how much divine essence he used on the staff, the wounds wouldn't heal. 

"Don't bother, I have been stabbed by a lot of different divine weapons I'm not even sure of the effects of most of them... I won't be able to make it, this is the end of the road for me. Still, no matter, it was a fun road to walk and I even had the best battle at the end. I have no regrets." 

Hearing what Michael said Alphonso started to tear up. He desperately tried all the different divine weapons he had in stock hoping that one of them could heal Michael but it was no use. 

"Why didn't you bring me with you?" Alphonso asked as tears fell down his face. 

"Already so old and still a crybaby." Michael tried lifting up his remaining hand to pat Alphonso's head but was unable to move it. 

"This is not the path for you. This was the path that I have chosen for myself. I know you don't like being by yourself, but you're a grown as* man now. You should find your own path. The path that you will walk down on, right to the very end. Unfortunately, I can no longer accompany you on that path... It was... A... Pretty, fun... Journe-" 

Michael's body was about to fall to the ground but Alphonso caught it. At that moment Alphonso took out the scythe of the God of Death and was going to try and capture Michael's soul and guide it to a new body, but the scythe couldn't control Michael's soul. 

As Alphonso was shocked by what happened, Michael's soul left. Alphonso wasn't going to give up that easily, so he tried to find Michael's soul in the wheel of reincarnation yet no matter how hard he looked Michael's soul wasn't there. 

...

It took Alphonso a few hundred years before he figured out that Michael's soul wasn't part of the regular reincarnation cycle. While looking for one of Michael's reincarnations, Alphonso was able to learn a lot about the strongest mortal soul. Along the way, he learned about the strongest mortal soul's neverending battle with the ORIGIN. It took another couple of hundred of years before Alphonso met one of Michael's reincarnations.