12,906-year period is now over. Re-Integration beginning now. Be aware Humanity, your days of peace are over. You must strive for betterment. Do not disappoint me. - Gaea

Words flashed in front of my eyes as I heard my dad shout, “Raz, weird things are going to happen from this moment on. Do not forget the Language. It will serve you better than almost anything else. I love you soon, I’ll see you once you fduisfhiduhdfv”.

I shot up out of my chair and started running to the garage, his voice definitely came from there.

Just as I barreled into the door and swung it open, a golden light surrounded his entire body and with a strange twist to the air around him, he was gone.

I stopped dead, looking at the space where he had vanished, the twisting air uncurling on itself to become a normal space again.

His words echoed back to me and a thought hit me.

This is what he’d always been talking about. The moment when humanity was pulled out of their aeon's old slumber and pulled back into a wider world.

I steadied my breathing and scanned my eyes across the garage, years of analytical training kicking back in as I catalogued everything that could be of use. From medieval weaponry hidden behind the modern tools to the months’ worth of supplies underneath the house.

A shrill ringing interrupted my thoughts and I pulled my phone from my pocket, Viv flashing on the screen.

“Hello”

“That all you’re going to say? Your dad talks for years about the apocalypse and then within minutes of a flashing message I couldn’t swipe away, he appears before me in a flash of golden light and tells me to get to you as fast as I can”

“Well, he vanished on me in a glow of golden light and a weird twisting, so that’s more than he gave me, just some gibberish at the end of him saying he’ll see me soon”

“I’m coming over now. Mark and Lisa are with me. They’ve got this odd light flashing from their hands and we’re kinda hoping you can figure out what it is”

“I’ll be raising the barriers around the house, you still remember the codes?”

“Obviously, idiot. We’re driving anyway, Mark stole his dad’s car again, we’re already coming up the drive”

“Okay”, I hung up the phone and flicked the switch that opened the garage door. The sound of it oddly soothing in its normalcy.

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A strange feeling overcame me as the rays of the sun fully entered the garage, as I gazed at the dust floating in the suns’ beams, a second set of words flashed before me.

Criterion met for Early Access into Gaean System - Designation: Homo Magus

Do you accept integration?

I immediately thought yes at the prompt, hesitation being the mother of all sin, an electrical current zipped through my body the moment I accepted and my entire body felt as though it was burning up.

A few seconds later, I dimly felt my body curl up on the floor, the flood of power cascading through my body negating any conscious control over anything happening to me.

As my attention turned inwards, strange system prompts started flashing in front of my eyes.

Designation: Homo Magus accepted. Beginning physiological change to the base template.

Undergoing Homo Magus transformation. Duration: 5 minutes.

First System Access by Homo Magus of New Age - Title Achieved: Pioneer

Existing Alignment detected - Neutral.

Existing Alignment alterations to base Homo Magus template - increased mental acuity, increased physical ability, increased spiritual connection.

Existing Deity detected - Thoth.

Existing Deity alterations to base Homo Magus template - enhanced ability for all magical and supernatural abilities.

Second Existing Deity detected - Morrigan.

Existing Deity alterations to Thoth-enhanced Homo Magus - unknown.

Changes recommencing.

Duration: 5 minutes.

As I struggled to comprehend the now fading text, I dimly sensed my friends coming through the open garage doors and standing around me, unsure what they were seeing, all I could wonder was why they were not helping me.