A/N Pls lemme know what ya think D:
Chapter 1: The End of a Long Journey
Born too late to sail the seas, born too early to voyage amongst the stars, a boy clasped his palms together and prayed for deliverance from a life of corporate servitude
The same 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, plead for deliverance to the silent stars above whose brilliance could still be seen despite the smog and smoke, even if only a little.
A mantra it became, not one of faith or belief, but one of tenacity, a constant in the boy’s life as he grew from a child to a man. Yearning, day in and day out, of freedom.
Then.
One day the boy's prayers were answered.
In the night she came, a lithe being whose form was like a human but not.
Her face was unnaturally narrow, with eyes that held no pupils, her movements and head reminiscent of an owl. Adorned on her body was 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 as her bronze helm reached the ceiling of the boy's hovel.
With a bright smile and gleaming blue eyes, the boy listened intently to the woman's offer.
Glory.
Exploration.
Power.
Freedom.
Everything the boy wanted. 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 being's large hand and become her champion…
And yet.
He hesitated. His soot-covered fingers retreating into his scarred palm as the boy furrowed his brow and he stared up at the ten foot tall warrior.
“What's the catch?” The boy asked, his eyes unwavering with wisdom beyond his age, causing the being to smirk.
“If you embark on this journey. Everything you wish for will come true.” The woman said, 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.”
“But?” The boy asked with skepticism, always weary of the fine print. The warrior cocked her head to the side, a smile on her face before it changed to a frown.
“But the person at the end who sees this dream realized won't be you.” The woman said as the world around the pair shifted to a field of so much green, blue, red, and yellows it captivated the child. Vibrant colors that were different than the 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 oxidizing iron and pollution.
“I accept.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said.
“Do you have a name child?” The woman asked.
“I have a number.” The child replied.
“Names are important.”
“I’m… nobody.”
The being seemed to find this amusing.
“No.” With pupiless eyes, the woman bore down on the teen soon to become a man, her eyes brimming with power. “You. Will be Odysseus.”
“Odysseus?”
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“Yes.” The being smiled, almost as if she were recalling a fond memory as she took the mortal’s hand. “And you shall be the greatest warrior that ever walked the realms.”
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Twenty years later.
Odysseus, now a man, lay in a field of green, blue, red, and yellows. That exact same field he saw as a boy. Except the eyes that saw the world no longer held wonder.
[ERROR! SYSTEM FAILURE!]
He blinked and closed his system screen. Sucking in a cold breath as the silhouette of a woman with crimson-red hair and emerald green eyes standing over him came into focus.
“I’ve finally got you monster.” The girl spat, her eyes burning with hatred. She was neither a lover or a friend. A stranger Odysseus didn't know. But he knew of her features. Her hair that was so similar to someone long dead…
“So… you have.” Odysseus whispered, his scarred, tired body, worn from war and stained by blood unable to move as his life force ebbed out from the enchanted blade in his heart.
[ERROR! SYSTEM FAILURE!]
Odysseus tried his system screen again, yet still, the result was the same.
This was the end.
“Go on then kid… finish me.” Odysseus said to his assassin.
“No. I want to watch you bleed.” The woman snarled with venom. Many had come for him in the past, but none had come close to defeating him. Except this warrior. One 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...”
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 he had left in his wake.
“Thank you At…”
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.
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.
“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. Conjoined together with the ticket, acting on her will to change everything.
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 fist punched a hole in the void, reaching in to grasp the edge of the white expanse and pull apart the wall.
“STOP! STOP 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 turned 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 was wiped from the universe and the gears of time reversed.