The strange, foreign sun beat down on Elliot’s face as he trekked through the grassy mountainside path. He wiped the sweat from his dirty, scruffy hair and smacked his parched lips, trying his best not to stare into the scorching sun for the millionth time. This was hell. Well, not literally. Now that he knew that gods (And by proxy, actual, literal hell) existed, he probably shouldn’t be using that kinda language…

But it was still pretty bad.

“…Ugh.” The bright ball of pain in the sky had been the only source of entertainment in this place for the last few hours. He’d had to catch himself from looking up at it, just to feel something other than boredom. He wished for the hundredth time that day that his clothes hadn’t been torn apart earlier. The sun was leaking through the holes and burning his innocent, pale skin. He shuddered at what he would do for a glass of water, or at least some sunscreen.

Oh, god, sunscreen… Ah, he sure took that stuff for granted. His skin felt like a piece of cooked ham.

“Ah!” In his frenzied mind, excitement built up as he looked in front of him, and he stumbled forward in a jovial trot until he eventually tripped over his own feet and fell. He looked up, and cried when what he saw had no longer existed. For a second, he saw what could have been some kind of civilization. Wonderful sky high cities and water, oh glorious water…

Then it was gone.

A mirage. Damnit. He turned around so his back hit the ground, and yawned. “You said I was gonna find ‘solstice’ or whatever soon. Where the hell am I, then?” He groaned out at the open sky. If people saw him muttering out loud to no one, they’d think he was crazy, or maybe just extremely lonely. He was neither, fortunately…

Though, In a way, he wished the lonely one were true.

The gods were watching after all, and they had made sure he’d known of his lack of privacy last night, back when he’d been bathing in the lake. At first, he’d thought it cool to have gods keeping him under “protection.” That quickly died on the first day, when he realized their protection hardly meant anything at all. They weren’t helping him, they were overseeing him with bated breaths as they watched him desperately survive.

He was nothing but a source of entertainment for them… Well, that wasn’t too bad, though. It meant he was rewarded if he did a good job.

He had to do a proper job of it, though. Only when he had managed to create a proper ‘sacrifice’ last time (how killing a single goblin meant that, he had no idea) did he get the rewards he had now. A single map and a compass.

Great.

…What was his aunt Jen doing back in the other world? He hoped she was doing fine, and hadn’t kick the bucket. She’d have given him a small baggie of bread crusts and sent him on his way at least. He said that casually, even when he hadn’t seen her in a while, though…

He opened the map again, and sighed, deciding to rid himself of those thoughts. The closest area being some sort of town named Gentle Mornings, with a wedge of cheese and beer on top as a symbol. He couldn’t drink at 17 and he was lactose intolerant, which killed the mood, but that hadn’t meant he was ungrateful for the gift.

It had been the first time the gods had given him something physical for his work, after all.

Even nude in the lake he had danced, surely a show the gods hadn’t minded. Or maybe they had, he didn’t care. The bastards put him in the situation he was in now, anyway. He checked around for even a spot of shade, possibly a misshapen rock that blocked the sin… maybe a single tree to hide under. There was nothing but short boulders in the way, though. It was just a straight path forward. Hopefully nothing would annoy him…

He wasn’t ever the type to be that lucky.

A couple of goblins slid out of the side of a particularly large boulder. One was the same green he’d seen before, but the other was a weird tinge of red. Nothing was different about it other than the way it carried itself. though. It seemed rather… proud(?) of itself, smirking while the other goblin walked alongside it with its head hunched submissively. It pissed him off a bit, honestly.

Well, it absolutely did not concern him. The moment he’d seen the two he’d bolted back in the direction he came. The last time he’d met a goblin it had fucking dropkicked him in the stomach the moment it had noticed him. He had almost lost that fight, the feral monster he had seen punching him while he was down. Now, despite them being about the same strength as ten-year-olds, he absolutely wasn’t sure he could beat two ten-year-olds in a fight, let alone these battle-hardened monsters.

His plans were immediately halted when the mountain shook. Hard. His legs turned to jelly mid-run causing him to buckle forward and land on his face. He tumbled for a few more seconds before stopping, not realizing a boulder about eight times his size had started coming right for him. He was too disoriented to move, and in his last moment, he watched as the boulder rolled right into him… Only for it to bounce off a shield of light in front of him.

He stared for a moment, completely shocked at what happened. It was only until a small book materialized from the blue light in front of him that he finally moved, the shock of near-death finally lifting. He looked at the poorly maintained book in contemplation. It had fallen in a way that made it open face down, dirtying the pages inside with the floor. That was plenty weird already, the past few weeks he’d been here the rewards had always been neatly given to him.

That was the other thing… They were rewards. They’d always forced him to do some mundane task like burn a part of a rabbit, or carve their names in trees. In return, they’d stave off his hunger for another day, or make it so he wouldn’t be parched. It was the only reason he’d been able to make it so far, actually. But case in point, this reward had come without reason… He decided to finally stand up, edging closer toward the book with a bit of suspicion.

Maybe it was a trap? He kicked it gently, making sure it wasn't some type of horrible demon that was trying to hide as a book before hesitantly picking it up. It wasn’t until then that a note fell out of its pages, gently floating towards the floor. He didn’t even need to pick it up to read it, the words scrawled out in blatant, burnt-in, letters. Apologies. It was meant to block your path. Please fight. He looked at the note, then at the giant boulder that had almost flattened him, absolutely at a loss for words.

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“You give me a book for a goddamn attempt at my life. Haha… Hah!” His hands went to his cramping stomach as his snide chuckle turned into raucous laughter. He just couldn’t keep it in, placing a hand on the side of the would-be-murder-weapon boulder for balance. 3 weeks, four days, and about 10 hours… That's how long he’d been here.

Maybe he was just not being entertaining enough? They’d probably have done this with the goblin he’d faced last time as well had it not blindsided him. He sighed. Honestly… His remarks on him being a plaything to the gods were closer to the truth than he’d ever actually wanted.

Guess he’d check what the book did at least. The cover didn’t hold much entertainment, just a leather cover outlined with black thread to form simple decorations. No title, no nothing. What a great present. Giving up, he checked inside it for anything it might say, only to groan out loud once again. Nothing, not a single word inside the pages for him to…

His knees went weak as his mind suddenly started burning with every pain in the world. It took everything he had not to fall, the world around him blurring, all except for the pages in the book. The pages were crystal clear, words searing onto them at blazing speeds. Every word finished sent another pounding wave into his skull. Despite the pain, he didn’t let go of the book. He couldn’t let go of it, the damn book. “Fuck! Jesus christ you think this is a… good… thing!? A fucking reward!? Awaagh!”

His mind, desperate for any other stimuli other than the pain, reread the words burning onto the page. Every time he finished a sentence, the words were erased from his mind. And yet, his eyes weren’t aloud to look away, forcing him to reread and reread until at some point, he blacked out.

And then all of a sudden, he was back to a familiar setting.

“Oh, the poor child… I told you we would have pushed him too hard.”

A warm light, hiding a cruel indifference.

“You were the one that wanted the brat to fight! How else could he possibly learn!?”

A burning darkness, what hid deep inside, a selfish kindness.

What… the hell was that? He heard voices, but he also… heard something else? He broke into a sweat, trying his best not to look at the many others that held judging expressions. These two in front of him were the main gods, Darkness and Light. The rest of the gods stood with a stony face, staring at him with all the seriousness in the world.

All standing on a podium. It was this eerie the first time he’d been here, too. Honestly, he still wasn’t fully ok with the situation. He’d only been here once, after all.

“Elliot Dresmr, Apostle of the gods. It has been a while since we’ve met face to face, has it not?”

He nodded, his throat dry at the sight in front of him. It had been the first time they had used his name. He’d almost forgotten they were all-knowing gods. Almost “...Well? Don’t you want to ask why you're here? We don’t have all day, you know?”

The goddess of light chuckled as she spoke. She was dressed in a white formal suit, her hands clamped together as she smiled brightly at him. Her voice was laced with venom, and yet they still felt soothing to his ears.

The god of darkness sat beside her, rubbing his temples with an exasperated expression. He seemed a tad younger, despite his obvious attempt at looking more mature. He wore a suit as well. Black, obviously, though tinged tastefully with dark gold.

Light opened her mouth to speak, but the god raised a hand, making her become quiet. “Do not listen to her. She merely tries to cloud your decision with the concept of time. You caught us unawares, and now we have to properly pay the price.” Elliot caught the Goddess’ smile twitching just a bit as the god of dark said this.

“Time stands still when we make decisions like these, boy. So, make your decision wisely. It will affect the rest of your pilgrimage.” Elliot smiled, ignoring the wave of uneasy pleasure he’d felt from listening to the god. It was as if everything he’d heard from the man should be instinctually refuted and ignored, while the light goddess was someone naturally trusted...

He ended up feeling the more trustworthy of the two gods, however. Especially compared to the light goddess. “So, why am I here? What big decision was so important that you had to bring me back here?”

The two gods, and terrifyingly enough, every god in that room, smiled. The goddess smiled, picking up a hand and tapping her forehead. “We’ve come to grant you a boon, child. An affinity for the great and mystical power that humans constantly strive to train. You had none when you came to this world, so we decided on remedying that small problem. Bring them out.” Before getting a chance to respond, every god in the room suddenly pulled an orb out of their robes. The goddess of light herself pulled on her sleeve and shook it. Out of it fell a tiny marble of light that stopped moments before it hit the ground.

Along with dozens of others

The orbs all spiraled around him, each with a different symbol in them. It was a bit disorienting, honestly. “Uh, powers? That’s… wow. Powers!? Like, Like invisibility and like… Flying!?” He shouted in excitement, and the silence following it was so profound Elliot could hear his own breathing. The god of darkness was the first to respond, looking at him with pitiable eyes. “Yes… there are those kinds of abilities in some of their skill sets… with time.”

Elliot nodded, profoundly putting a hand to his chin as he eyed the orbs. “So… Anything that can get me outta trouble’s a no-go? Damn…”

The dark god trembled as he heard that, and looked away, hiding their face with a hand.. Whether out of a need to cry or laugh Elliot was not sure. “…There are also abilities that actually help you in a fight. We didn’t say this last time but… we expect you to get stronger through battle, so don’t try to escape any as long as they’re manageable.”

Elliot nodded excitedly, too happy about the idea of powers to care about the god passive-aggressively judging his character. He looked around at the orbs flowing around him, some were as large as a volleyball, while the smallest was from the goddess of light. They had symbols… but that was nowhere near enough to know what they did. “So… that means I can choose any of these? How do I know which are which?”

The god of darkness sighed, obviously uncaring to Elliot’s attitude. “Don’t worry, choose whichever one, or tell me what you think you need and we gods will try to help… We are here to help you choose, so take your time.” He nodded, eyeing the orb of light and then looking up at the goddess.

Her eyes narrowed as they met his, and for a second he thought he saw her smile turn to something a bit more… sadistic. He couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down his spine, and looked away immediately. Nope. No way was he choosing her orb. Though, that may be just what she had wanted…

He still wasn’t going anywhere near it, obviously.

He took a look around, before giving in to his deep, animalistic desires. He turned to the god of darkness with resolve in his eyes, earning a response from everyone in the room. Greed, his eyes were full of greed. Even the goddess of light’s forced smile waned a bit, seemingly unsure of what had happened to the usually lackluster boy. “...you said you can find any power for me… right?” The dark god, his tired eyes suddenly taking on a sinister, gleeful look, smiled.

“Yes… whatever you desire.”

Elliot grinned, turning to the orbs and raising a finger to them. “Then give me the one that requires as little physical effort on my part!” He grinned as he greedily eyed the orbs, and if he hadn’t turned away from the two gods, he’d have seen their eyes take on anger only seen in the most terrifying of people, only to flicker back to normal. He turned with a radiant smile, which by all accounts only fed the flames. “Can you do that?”

The dark god looked at him with what seemed to be a complete disappointment, before reaching into one of his sleeves. “...If you want an easier time ascending the ranks, then I highly recommend not taking this one. But…” He rolled a small, black pearl from his sleeve, even smaller than the one the goddess of light had taken out.

“You could… take a hand in summoning.”