Chapter 1: The Beginning After the End
Born centuries too late to sail the seas and eons too early to voyage among the stars, a boy clasped his palms together as he prayed for deliverance from a menial life of corporate subjugation.
The same bleak servitude that had consumed his parents and siblings — dredges sacrificed to the machine that was known as profit.
Day by fading day, he would pray, beg, and plead for salvation to the silent stars above, whose brilliance could still be seen despite the smog and light pollution, even if only a little. Some lingering essence of natural beauty not overtaken by the metastasis of steel and concrete.
It had become a nightly mantra — not one of faith or hope, but of tenacity, a constant in the boy's life as he grew from a child to a man, yearning day in and day out for freedom.
Then one day, the boy's prayers were answered
In the night, she came — a lithe being whose form was akin to human but also not.
Her face was unnaturally narrow with eyes that held no pupils, and her movements and her head were reminiscent of an owl. Adorningher body were the trappings of archaic war; decorated in armor made of bronze over ethereal wavy robes, and in her hands she held crude weapons of war.
The woman craned her head to the side, ducking as her bronze helm barely scratched the leaking ceiling of the boy's particularly unimpressive hovel.
With a bright smile and gleaming blue eyes, the boy listened to the woman's proposition.
Glory.
Exploration.
Power.
Freedom.
She promised everything the boy wanted and more. He had pleaded and called out for years and finally — his tenacity would be rewarded. All he needed to do was to reach out and take the large hand extended toward him and become her champion…
And yet.
He hesitated. His soot-covered fingers retreated into his scarred palm, the boy's hand curling into a fist as he furrowed his brow and stared up at the ten-foot-tall warrior.
"What's the catch?" the boy asked, his eyes shining with wisdom far beyond his years, causing the being to smirk.
"If you embark on this journey, everything you wish for will come true," the woman reassured, her voice firm and stern with confidence that gave the boy comfort. "You will live longer than anyone you know, see sights that no other will see, and wield power coveted by all."
"But?" He pressed, having learned to always be weary of the fine print. The warrior then cocked her head to the side with a thoughtful smile on her face, as if assessing him, before letting her expression fall.
"The person at the end for whom this dream is realized is not you." The woman said, her tone cryptic as the world around the pair suddenly shifted into a field of so much green, blue, red, and yellows it captivated the child. Vibrant hues absent from his life of grey and brown that encapsulated his world.
Enraptured by the sight and smells, the boy could only gawk in amazement as sweet air untainted by smog filled his lungs for the first time. Air that wasn't tethered to by oxidized iron, acid rain, and pollution.
"I accept!" The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said.
"Do you have a name child?"
"Five-One-Eight."
"A name, not a number," she chastised.
"That's…all I have?"
"Names are important."
The boy scratched his head, his boyish face twisted with thought, "I'm… nobody."
The being let out a chirp of amusement.
"No." Pupiless eyes bore down on the teen soon to become a man, her irises brimming with ethereal power. "You will be Odysseus."
"Odysseus?"
"Yes." There was a notable lilt in her voice, almost as if she were recalling a fond memory as she took the mortal's hand. "You shall be the greatest warrior to ever traverse the realms."
TWENTY YEARS LATER
Odysseus, now a man, lay in a field of green, blue, red, and yellows. The same field he once saw as a boy, except his eyes no longer held the same wonder. Instead, the crimson dye of his life force stained his vision, his body weak and unresponsive. The boy who once had everything to gain now a man that had lost it all.
[ERROR!]
[SYSTEM FAILURE!]
He blinked and closed his system screen. Sucking in a cold breath, the silhouette of a woman with crimson-red hair and emerald green eyes came into focus. She stood over him, eclipsing his prone form in her shadow as the sky above with no sun overlooked the pair.
"I've finally got you, monster." The girl's eyes burned with hatred. She was neither a jilted lover nor friend. A complete stranger to Odysseus of whom he was sure he had never uttered even a word. Her features, however… He couldn't deny the familiarity — fiery hair reminiscent of another long dead by his hands…
"So you have," Odysseus muttered weakly, his scarred body — worn from war and stained by blood — paralyzed as his vitality visibly spilled from his wound, tendrils winding around the enchanted blade firmly lodged in his heart.
[ERROR!]
[SYSTEM FAILURE!]
He tried his system screen again, yet the result was the same. His eyes closing as the screams of those long past echoed through his mind.
This was the end.
"Go on then, kid… finish me," Odysseus spurred on his assassin, his words bearing the tiresome weight of his sins.
The number one ranker...felled by some assassin in the dark.
A fit and just ending for a beast in the guise of a man.
"No. I want to watch you bleed," she snarled with venom. Many had come for him in the past, but none had come close to defeating him. Until her. A formidable warrior molded by his regrets and guilt that accumulated to create this avenger.
"My head… is your spoils. Do what you wish. You've earned that right," Odysseus whispered, his vitality draining rapidly as his vision doubled and a coldness took hold.
He balled his remaining hand, the soot-stained fingers touching upon a white ticket engraved with mythical runes that he'd spent the last seventeen years filled with bloodshed to obtain.
"I'm ready," Odysseus whispered, speaking out to no one in particular as the white ticket in his sleeve tore.
Suddenly the world faded away to a white void, and in the arms of an old companion donned in bronze armor Odysseus now lay, her pupiless eyes furrowed in sorrow as tears of gold fell from her narrow face.
"Is this? What you truly wish for my champion?"
"It's time… just like we planned…" Odysseus whispered as the goddess stroked his head with warm fingers that gave him comfort. "I'm ready."
"You have one wish. One wish I could use to restore you here and now. One wish to give you happiness, to wipe away your enemies. To make you safe," The being in armor pleaded. "And you would use it to attempt to defy the fates? To alter the ends of billions? To gamble?!"
"I have to at least try. Even if… my memories can't all be intact. Even with the limitations..." Odysseus whispered, his vision fading as his hearing wavered. "This… should be. The loophole we need to bring them back… everyone back… to correct... the mistakes… Please."
Images of his journey through realms flashed through Odysseus's eyes, the lovers he'd had, the friends he'd made. The companions who were no longer with him and the grief, betrayal, and destruction he had left in his wake to obtain one wish.
"You were ruthless. Smart. The greatest friend I could have," The herald of war said, her soft hands giving comfort to Odysseus.
"Did I… accomplish your wish Ath…"
The woman's hands shook, the last flickering vestiges of life in her champion going out as his voice trailed off before he could say her name.
She leaned down, kissing the forehead of the boy-turned-man she had named after a long-dead friend. The weapon she had forged, spurred on, and used to elevate her prestige.
And now he was dead.
What he wished for… was technically against the rules. It violated the sanctity of divinity and would disrupt the foundation of the universe, it would change everything. But like he had said, there were loopholes. One that could only be exploited and utilized by a being of divinity.
His wish. One rightfully earned.
An unfamiliar feeling blossomed in the goddess's core.
"I suppose this is what love feels like," The warrior said, the body of Odysseus glittering away in her arms and leaving the goddess of war alone. "Why would anyone want this pain?"
The goddess didn't know as her lithe frame swayed to the side for a moment.
She was alone again. Another champion dead. Another friend passing before his time. A tragedy she knew all too well. Yet this time… it was different.
"Have a well-earned rest Odysseus. Next you see the sunrise, you won't be alone," The being sighed, her body glowing with her accumulated divinity, her body unraveling as her energy resonated with the ticket that shot out a multitude of weapons and trinkets.
A bronze lightning bolt.
A feathered trident.
A crystal hammer.
A large obsidian sword.
A curved wooden bow.
A platinum chalice.
A gold caduceus.
A farmer's scythe.
A band of metal fit for a slender finger.
A iron xiphos.
A glass rose with a thorny stem.
And finally, out of the glowing goddess herself, a flag with an owl as the standard wrapped around a spear.
These wondrous items, symbols of power and authority of the Pantheon, conjoined together with the ticket, acted on her will to change everything.
She could feel it, the gathered divinity of twelve gods, the awesome power of the cosmic universe.
Then, the goddess's form began to shimmer and violently twist, her body seeming to split and release four other visages of the same person dressed in different attire.
One wore gold armor with red trim.
Another, a yellow and white robe.
A dark-skinned woman in a bikini with a bow slung across her back while the last figure was adorned with furs and leathers.
However, despite their differences in attire, each bore the symbol of a bird.
"I still dislike this idea."
"Noted," The main body said before all other figures disappeared and the goddess lifted her head to the endless sky.
The void of white suddenly began to crack with black lines, shake, and tremble as beings similar to herself reacted to the gears of time grinding to a halt.
On countless realms, in various domains, distant shores, everything ceased. Motion stopped. The universe itself bending to the will of one.
Suddenly a massive golden cloud punched a hole in the void, reaching in to grasp the edge of the white expanse and pull apart the wall as an eagle's cry was heard.
"CEASE! CEASE! WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" The voice bellowed as thunder rolled and ozone filled the space. "I COMMAND YOU! STOP!"
With her back turned the goddess shifted her head towards the primordial being breaking into her domain.
"Sorry father. But I suppose I've entered my rebellious phase," The woman smirked with tears flowing out of her eyes before all traces of her existence were wiped from the universe and the gears of time reversed.