Somewhere in America
In a police interrogation room
Two detectives opened the door. One was a round man, the other was a tall and lanky woman. You can see it in their faces that, these two… had experience working the force. But all of that experience didn’t prepare them for the current case they had been assigned.
The woman threw a manila folder on the table in front of them. “I don’t understand why we even have to have this conversation, he admitted to everything.” she said as she sat down.
“We still need to document everything and write down the suspect’s testimony.” The round man also started to sit. They looked at the man handcuffed to the table. A look of disgust, remorse, pity and sadness all rolled up in the detective's faces.
The man looked to be in his mid to late thirties, his whole body was covered in burn marks, the oozing pus still fresh, and he wore a bandaged eye patch. I’ll tell you now… his eye was permanently damaged. His thinning hair was amplified by the flames that damaged him.
Looking into his only good eye, you can see the soul of a broken man. One with no will to live, a living corpse.
“So you did it right? I had officers from the scene of the crime tell me you admitted to it all.”
The burnt man slowly moved to answer the female detective, a lifeless voice came out of him.
“Yes.”
His voice was soft and raspy, probably from the smoke of the flames.
“So you admit to killing Mr. Kein?”
“Yes.”
The round detective started to write in his notepad. He looked up at the burnt creature and asked him, “And you admit to causing the fire? The one that killed Mr. Kein’s two daughters? Rebecca Kein and Hilda Kein?”
There was a long pause, the burnt man looked at his hands. There was no tremble, no fear. He had to repent and take the punishment he deserved.
“Yes..” he softly said. “I caused the fire and I killed the two young girls.” He looked up at the two detectives, his soulless eye stared at the two, pleading, begging to them. “Punish me, I’m no hero. Punish me, for I failed.”
His mouth moved and the words that came out surprised the detectives.
“I also admit… I killed my wife and daughter.” No tears, no remorse in his voice. This was a man once “hailed as a hero” by his daughters, now a soulless living corpse.
“I failed them and they died because of me.”
//////
“Fuck.” Nuada whispered.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“This sucks.” Lugh sat down on the floor of the stage; the seven deities all looked dejected. The totem that Ra picked was gold, it was shaped like a humanoid figure. The pose of the totem was godlike . Inscribed on the totem read the dreadful word.
“Demi-God.”
Gold totems were considered special roles in the Tryfing. They were usually powerful unique roles that could change the trajectory of the competition. Some roles were better attuned with certain deities, allowing them to correctly use their powers known as Divine wills and Godsends. But we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, so let's get back to the draft.
Ra returned to his spot, and looked at the other deities. A smile crossed his beak as he smugly stood, holding the demi-god totem.
“Not only will I win but I predict that my retainer will be the first to kill one of yours,.” Ra declared. The other seven looked at him in annoyance. Ra enjoyed seeing their faces in such disbelief. What a dick. They all thought.
Lugh walked up next to the totems, he looked uninterested at a majority of them.
“Tactician… Polymath… Conqueror… Exorcist…” when Lugh spoke the last totem, Zhong Kui started to move around to see if it was true. The large deity made a lot of fidgety noise and Lugh took notice of this. He grinned a malicious grin, to Lugh the Tryfing officially started at this moment.
“Assassin…Hero… Oh!” Lugh found the totem that he was looking for. “I pick... The Knight role!” smiled Lugh.
The knight role, the second best role in this Tryfing, was snagged by the young trickster. While not as powerful as a special role, the Knight role is in the top three of all the standard roles. Lugh looked at Zhong Kui and gave him a grin.
“I know which role you want, so I left it for you, big guy.” winked Lugh. He threw the gold exorcist totem. Zhong Kui grabbed the totem
“Thank you, Lugh.” Even with the black cloth covering his face, you could see his gray skin flush red in embarrassment. Lugh had started his schemes and no one but Nuada caught on to it.
Trying to get favor with the king of ghosts huh? Nuada thought. Slimy little brat.
Inari went up next, she already knew which role she wanted to pick after hearing Lugh name them out loud. “I will pick the polymath role.” She then gave the totem to a fox next to her, and returned to her seat. Freya then got up and looked over the last four totems.
Freya was special among the chosen deities and arc-angels, She had no desire to compete in this competition and was praying that she wasn’t picked. She probably thought that because she prayed so hard to NOT be chosen, God himself did it just to spite her.
If this was any old Tryfing, she would have declined and given the invitation to her twin brother Freyr. But this Tryfing was destiny, She needed to be in this one. Inari was picked and if there was one deity that deserved to be here and to win, to Freya it was her sister in arms, Inari.
For now, she would keep quiet and play along. “So… which role is the best support role?..” she muttered to herself. Tactician would be fine, but Freya wanted a role that could also defend themselves. Conqueror was also the role that Ra lost with last time. She didn’t feel comfortable picking that role and the hero role, as powerful as it is, would bring too much attention to her retainer.
She had a specific goal in mind for her retainer and the only role that could fit that goal was Assassin. She sighed. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best she could do with the selection she had. She sat back down in the seat Inari provided her, lost in thought.
How can I help Inari win?
Nuada stared at Freya, he noticed something wasn’t right but decided to ignore it for the time being. Nuada already knew what he wanted and grabbed the conqueror role, he knew how well it synergized with his own abilities.
“I’ll pick the conqueror role, I want to show just how strong this role truly is.” he looked at Ra as he said this. “You lit—” Ra was about to step towards Nuada but the large hand of Zhong Kui stopped him.
“Let it go Ra, you know he is doing it on purpose.” As all of this was happening Minerva quickly went and grabbed the one she was hoping for.
“Tactician.”
She was a deity of few words but you can tell she was happy with what she got. The final role of hero automatically went to team Arc-angel. They weren’t that happy with it but it was better than nothing.
The hero was an interesting role, it was a powerful standard role that had restrictions. For one, only humans with the traits of a hero can be scouted, whatever that means. Michael looked at the totem and sighed. Were there still humans in this day and age that had a heroic soul?
Achilles moved back to the center of the stage, the giant screen behind him started to show the deities and the roles they picked.
“With that we move on to the selection phase! I’m giving you all seventy-two hours to scour the earth and find your retainer.”
The screen showed the numbers “72:00:00” and then started to count down. The eight deities warped out, heading towards earth.
Third Tryfing
Official judge: Heroic Greek deity, Achilles.
Support judge: Angel, Damaris.
Chosen deities:
Ra: Demi-God
Lugh: Knight
Zhong Kui: Exorcist
Inari: Polymath
Freya: Assassin
Nuada: Conqueror
Minerva: Tactician
Team Arc-Angel: Hero
Fantasia world: not yet created.
Starting year: not yet decided.