As Yuna listened, she could hear the muffled liveliness from outside of her door. Sitting up, she realized she was in some ancient-based world. Looking at the tatami flooring and the rice paper doors, Yuna immediately thought she was in some eastern-based historical setting. Removing the blankets from her laps, Yuna saw that she was dressed in a beige-colored sleeping yukata. 

Yuna looked outside her window and saw the moonlight peering in. It was night time, but it was so lively as if it was New Year’s Eve. Who and where could people still be up partying so hard?

[Sending Host the information of this world] C-2 sounded in Yuna’s head.

This was a fantasy-based world, centering around the land of Fanria. Hundreds of years ago, 7 gods caused chaos and mischief in the Heavens which caused the King of Gods, Rhalios, to banish them to the human realm to seven different race kingdoms on Fanria: humans, elves, fairies, beastmen, dwarves, orcs and giants.

Although they lost their godhood, they still retained their godly aura, presence and power, thus were still revered as Immortals or Celestials. To atone for the mischief they’ve caused, Rhalios made a deal with the 7 Celestials - the celestial can only ascend once again when 100 warriors, who have been pronounced as champions, emerges from under their care and training under their blood pact. 

That is where the Colosseum of Champions comes in. Once every ten years, a battle royale is held in which disciples from each of the gods come together to fight for the glory of being named a Champion! It was a battle of life and death. There were two phases, the first phase was known as the cleansing phase. All of those who wanted to participate, being the ages of 16 and older, would enter a hunting ground which was crawling with demons. Their task would be to survive for a whole month and make it back to the entrance within the time limit. Once the one month limit was over those who did not make it to the doors will not get to advance and will be proclaimed dead unless found. 

The second phase is the tournament which takes place within the colosseum when it opens. Depending on how many disciples survive the first phase, the second phase may last up to five days before the victor emerges. However, when the victor emerges, there will still be the final trial - if they are worthy of becoming a champion who is to be blessed by all of the previous champions who have already passed on. The victor will drink from the Goblet of Champions: if they are worthy of being deemed a true champion, they will receive the champion’s blessings and when they die, their souls will go up to live in the heavens as vassals or gods, but if they are deemed not worthy, they would suffer an instant death and become the devils themselves.

The Colosseum of Champions was not just an ordinary Colosseum, it was one that was placed on earth by Rhalios himself, being enchanted with mystical powers. The colosseum would only appear and open when the time comes, which is the 7th day of the 9th month every 10 years. The location of the colosseum is always the same, never changing being within the Valley of Mull Rise. Once the Champion has been announced or rejected, there would be a 24 hour window for everyone to be evacuated before the Colosseum closes for another ten years. There have been several occasions in which curiosity gets the best of them, that people of different races would remain to see what would happen when the Colosseum closed. Ten years later, they were never seen or heard from again.

Once the victor has been blessed and has been deemed a champion, whichever Celestial he was taken under and formed a blood pact with will receive one point and so on. These disciples were not required to participate. They had the will to just be taken under a Celestial's care to improve their magic abilities to help people. However, the more disciples participated, the better chances each Celestial had with one of their disciples becoming a champion. However, being Celestials, all humans knew how shrewd and haughty some of these Celestials were given that they were gods once before. So while it was tempting to be within the presence of a former god, they were also harder to please. 

The beloved female lead of this world Hana Uvo, was a true beauty in both appearances and in the heart. She was found as an orphan and was taken in by the Madam of a brothel. She was given clothes and food. Although the Madam was impartial and other prostitutes did not treat her nicely, she still considered the brothel to be her home. However, she did not want to be a prostitute. She was only willing to be a maid that cleaned up after the messes. The Madam was willing to agree to that until she was 16, after that, she would have to comply with the rules of the brothel. 

On the day she turned 16, a frequent guest appeared, and it was none other than the great Celestial who reigned over the human race, the Celestial Yuri. He resided in the kingdom of Alfeya within the capital city of Ruins. The capital city was always very lively and festive, and that was because of Yuri. Yuri was known for being shrewd, prideful and egotistical. Not only that, but he loved women, loved drinking and loved partying. However, despite all of this, he was still respected; he was amongst the strongest of the celestials, having deemed 72 champions already over the span of hundreds of years. 

Yuri was immediately captured by Hana’s beauty and innocence. With the intention of being her first, Yuri was ecstatic, however, Hana did not think the same way he did and ran away. Yuri was hurt, but he thought that it would be fun to try and capture someone who was hard to get. Thus, Yuri took Hana under his wing as his disciple. As Hana was taken under Yuri, Yuri soon became intrigued by Hana; intrigued by her resolve and unwavering personality. He also discovered her innate ability to learn and develop her abilities, however, Hana’s philosophy was that she didn’t need to participate in the Colosseum of Champions and drink from some goblet to live a good and fulfilling life. As the years went by, Yuri’s heart began softening as he was drawn to Hana and the pure soul surrounding her. Hana also came to see that there was more to Yuri than meets the eye.

Although Gods were allowed to have affairs with humans, falling in love with a human, however, was taboo. When the other Celestials learned of this, they became uneasy and began doing all they could to help Yuri ascend to separate the two. Coming to learn of what was transpiring, the beloved male and female lead fought against the Celestials who were against their relationship. Because of this battle, it disrupted the flow of the Colosseum of Champions and the King of Gods himself descended to deal with yet another problem the 7 has caused. 

Because of his understanding of Yuri’s unwavering affection for the mortal, he took away Yuri’s godhood completely, making him mortal as “punishment” while he took the other 6 Celestials back to the Heavens to reflect on their actions and be chained up for the next 10,000 years in repent. It was only after Yuri died as a mortal that he would return as a God to the Heavens.

Yuna looked over the synopsis and thought the story-building surrounding this world was quite interesting. And of course, fate could not keep the beloved male and female lead apart. So, who was Yuna’s current identity in this story? Sen Kion, a young woman who has lived for centuries because of her selfless, heroic deed that lasted for several generations to come. Sen was the eldest daughter of the Head Chief of the Kion Clan within a small village. However, soon enemies came to destroy their village. The village fought back but was inevitably defeated. However, the leader of the enemy forces said that he’d be willing to leave the village standing under their rule if a sacrifice was made. At this point, Sen was taken by some young warriors to escape as she was the hope for the future of the clan, however, she could not stand by and watch her people suffer. So what did she do? She turned herself in for the sake of her people.

She was only 14 when she was taken in by the enemy forces and was subjugated to endless rape and torture. She lost her eyes when she was 15 and lost her tongue at age 16. Her body endured endless torture, but not once did she regret her decision. Sen was glad that she could be the one to endure this, not someone else for the sake of her clan. She was the Head Chief’s daughter! If she couldn’t even handle this then she was not worthy of that title. Because of the endless torture and stress, her hair became white as her skin complexion became tired and ghastly white. At the age of 20, as she lay limp in her prison cell, on the verge of dying, she was taken and buried away. She was going to die anyways so it was decided to bury her before she began rotting. However, no one would have ever expected that she would be one of the few rare human beings who would receive the blessing from the King of Gods, Rhalios! One hand emerged from the buried ground, trudging its way from the grave. Despite all of her suffering, Sen did not feel hate or remorse, just relief that her clan could live and thrive, and they did. Knowing that she was now dead to the entire clan, she decided to keep things that way so future generations could live in peace under the new rulers. 

From Rhalios’ blessing, her spiritual energy, also known as mana, capacity and magic abilities were boosted higher than ever before. From this point of rebirth, she became a traveling beast-slayer, exterminating demons and rampaging beasts who brought terror to humans, improving herself and her new profound powers. Unlike others who have been blessed by Rhalios, time stopped for her; she was revitalized and stopped aging as she retained the looks of a young teenage girl - and this was mainly due to the starving and neglect she received when taken by the enemies, never growing to her true potential. However, she did not know that what she received was Rhalios’ blessing, she just thought it was by chance that she survived. 

On one night hunt, Sen was caught in a pinch situation and nearly escaped with her life. When she was discovered, she was found by a middle-aged woman in the river. The woman took her in and raised her as her own. The middle-aged woman was the owner of a small brothel known as the Jeweled Manor at the time. Because the owner could not have a child of her own, she took Sen in and raised her as her own, having Sen inherit the brothel after she died. To pay back the debt to her adoptive mother, Sen took over the brothel. 

As centuries went by, Sen remained alive, watching people come and go, living their lives while she remained frozen in time. And while she was still alive, she was also bound to the brothel, protecting it and allowing it to thrive. She also did not forget to train herself in her abilities. The brothel remained in the same place no matter which kingdoms, regimes or dynasties took over the land. Each time war was waged and peace was restored, she’d always rebuild the brothel and bring back its business, rebuilding its reputation from the ground up. Years later, the 7 gods descended and became celestials, but Sen did not care for them or whatever it was they were doing. She only cared for the well-being of the brothel. 

Centuries later, she came across Hana Uvo within the kingdom that was now called Alfeya. Seeing the pitiful child, out of pity, Sen decided to take the child in, providing shelter and food. However, Sen picking up orphan girls off the street was nothing new. Hana just happened to have a fate that was tied to a Celestial.

Having lived for more than 2000 years, it is bound to change people, and Sen was one of the few people who wanted to defy that - afraid of losing sight of who she was before she was granted longevity. But after being alive for so long and having gone through hell and back, she did change, even if it was just the small things. Whenever she smiled, it would not cause the spring flowers to bloom but would make one shiver in the blizzard storm. So she rarely smiled.  And when she did, it would most of the time be a condescending smile, a one that does not reach the eyes - smile, or her business, polite smile. 

Before Hana came into the picture, Sen has always had a strained love-hate relationship with the Great Celestial Yuri, who was a frequent guest at her brothel. They’d always bicker but their relationship was nothing more than the Madam of the brothel and an esteemed guest. When Yuri wanted to take Hana away, Sen became protective like a mother would be of her child. But because Hana was also willing to go with Yuri, Sen caved in. Besides, it was a former god she was trying to pick a fight with.

During the final war when the other celestials went against Hana and Yuri, Sen disbanded the brothel and disguised herself as a stranger to aid them in battling against the celestials. More than anything, she wanted the girl she raised to live a happy and fulfilling life, unlike her. Sen also wanted to allow the girls who have been under her care to live a free life, unbound to such a lifestyle. When the battle ended, Sen was severely wounded, but she still lived.

After peace was restored and Hana and Yuri were allowed to be together, Sen disappeared and was never seen again. Although she lived for a long time, she was not immortal; she was only blessed with stronger abilities and longevity. Thus, when she left Alfeya, she went to where her old village once stood. It was nothing but a valley of flowers far east now. Taking a sword through her heart, she ended her life.

***

Yuna, or Sen, as she will now be known as, thought that this world was similarly cliched like the first world… Perhaps that’s why these worlds weren’t chosen to be traveled through…

After absorbing the memories of the original, Sen knew that Hana was going to be turning 16 in two days, meaning in two days, the beloved male lead, Yuri, was also going to be making his appearance. Sen also had yet to be informed on who her target was going to be in this world. But since it was C-2’s job to locate the target, Sen was going to do whatever it was she wanted. As she had already made up her mind on what her next steps were going to be, little did she realize that lingering on her left ring finger were barely visible markings that coiled around her finger like a ring.