As a man stepped out of a golden portal, the noise of the bazaar slammed into him like a freight train. Many multitudes of colourful stalls lined the sides of narrow streets where people were pushing against each other to move in any direction. Large plazas and courtyards dotted the bazaar with large, elaborate fountains and statues depicting gods placed at their centres. These plazas and courtyards weren’t the most impressive aspect of this strange bazaar. If one glanced up towards the sky they would see a perfectly clear night sky, on closer inspection however people would start to notice that it was not, in fact, the night sky but outer space. Though for everyone present in the bazaar, the fact it was located in space was not the greatest surprise that they would encounter. As the man exited the golden portal the guards stationed next to it immediately came to attention.
“At ease.” he said as he moved past them and stood at the top of a flight of stairs leading down towards the bazaar. The portal, a transport point that allows all the major gods to visit, stood atop a flight of gold streaked white marble and was very rarely activated. Before setting off into the bazaar, the man turned towards the guard captain.
“Where would I find the Elder?”
“With the upcoming group of new souls due to arrive in a few hours, he would most likely be getting ready at the grand entrance.”
Nodding a couple of times, the man started making his way down the stairs, the noise getting louder the closer to the bottom he got. By the time he reached the bottom people had started to take notice of his presence, many of the people who were milling about in the plaza the stairs joined to, stared up at him, many with curiosity and the stall owners with reverence and awe, with some even revealing looks of fear at his appearance. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs he was met with another group of guards who were preventing some of the overly curious people from seeing where the stairs led.
On the ground the streets of the bazaar looked more crowded than they did when he looked down upon them, though whether it was due to the way he arrived or the attire he was currently wearing the crowd parted to let him through. It took about an hour of walking to arrive at the grand entrance. The grand entrance was not in any way misleading, a room large enough for several million people to stand together and still allow them to swing a sword without worry of hitting anyone next to them and a domed ceiling with planets, stars and nebulae on a background of pure black, standing many kilometres high at the centre point. After passing through the pair of elaborate doors that lead to the bazar, the man walked in the direction of the only two people in the hall.
“I was not expecting to meet the elder of the demon gods here.” The man said as he stopped in front of two elderly looking men. The demon elder looked almost identical to a human, the only differences was the long hair that seemed to absorb all light that touched it, and a pair of slightly curved black horns that resided on his head.
“Today seems to be an interesting one.” The demon elder replied . “As for what I am doing here, we require more people with divine blessings.”
The man turned towards the other elder. The elder of the eternal flame, a man who could easily be mistaken as an ordinary elderly person on any human world was looking at a clock of blue and silver hanging above the door that led outside
“What news from the gods of the eternal flame?”
“The dimensional border is weakening, the order believe that it’s being bombarded on their side, they estimate a century at most.”
“I would assume that is why you are here, is it not?” Asked the demon elder
“That was not the original intention I was sent with, but plans can change.”
“Ah, he wants another champion, or champions, in the mortal realm.” The demon elder paused for a moment before continuing. “It’s the same with the sundered throne, we don’t have enough mortal champions to defend our realms.”
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“The lack of suitable mortals is becoming a problem, most of the suitable ones have transcended mortality.” Said the other elder
“The unfortunate truth.” The man said. “I suppose for this run I’ll be representing the eternal throne then?”
The two elders looked at each other for a moment.
“The eternal throne is, uh, preoccupied with internal affairs, so it is probably for the best you represent them today.” Said the demon elder.
“Why did those arrogant pricks choose such a name? At least the order of the eternal flame isn’t connected to them” The man muttered “well, I suppose with the representatives of the divine realms assembled we can begin?”
The other elder smiled slightly
“You always have such good timing.” He said as the three turned towards the doors that led to space.
As the doors swung open, the beauty of space, with the multicoloured nebulae and galaxies became visible, spreading as far as their eyes could see. However, the more impressive sight were the thousands of golden portals that were opening and closing every second, as clouds of pure white drifted towards the grand entrance. The closer the clouds came to the doors, the more detail could be made out, including the people who were sitting on top of the clouds, many of whom were a mix of scared and curious. The people on the clouds were not all human, there were Elves, Dwarves, Beast folk, Dragon kin, Demons and many others. As the myriad of races arrived outside the entrance hall and disembarked from their clouds, that faded away as they got off, they all stopped for a time to stare up at the ceiling, and while this caused the tide of people flowing into the entrance hall to slow considerably, the mass of people who were still arriving caused them to be pushed further into the hall. The three men stood at the end of the hall, in front of the doors to the bazar, and looked out over the chaotic mess of people crowding into the hall.
“I suppose we should get started.” The man muttered as the last people entered the hall.
At those words, the doors leading to space closed with a thud and click.
*******************
“No luck?”
Those were the first words spoken as he walked into a throne room that looked more like a war room than a throne room. Sat in a throne that belonged in a room of over the top opulence and not a war room, was the high god of war looking straight as his subordinate.
“None of their souls showed the resolve needed to take on the mantle of your champion.”
“You’re simply being too picky.”
“You set the minimum criteria too high.”
“I did?” The war god said minor confusion evident on his face.
“How can you not remember, it was 6 hours ago!?” The man said in a raised voice. He looked around and noticed bottles of wine and other alcoholic drinks scattered around the throne. “I’m telling Nature's Servant.” He continued in a calmer voice.
At this the war god bolted out of his throne is shock and horror.
“No, Don’t, please don't do it, I’ll do whatever, just don’t tell her I’m drinking again.”
While the war god was pleading with his subordinate, the throne room doors creaked open just enough to let a person into the room.
“A bit late for that Liz.” The person spoke
“It’s Lizel.” The War God roared in his mostly drunken state, before turning to the voice. As he looked at who had called him he froze, standing in the doorway was a beautiful woman with sharp brown eyes and long flowing hair the colour of grass. She was wearing robes of brown with green patterns that seemed to move along the seams and edges when looked at. Upon seeing the reaction of the war god, a slight smile touched her lips.
“We will be having a talk about this later, Liz.” She said, “For now, your lord commander wanted to say something.”
“Indeed.” said the man who had just raised his voice at the war god. “For the last 600 intakes there has not been a soul that has reached the requirements that you set. I do have a plan for this, however, I do not have enough authority to make it happen.”
“So you want me to help with this problem?” The war god asked
“Yes and no.”
“What?”
“You personally can’t help. However, you can call for the council to gather.”
“What sort of council do you want?” Nature's servant asked before the war god could
“A war council.” The lord commander said. “Preferably of the high gods, though, my idea may require the primordials as well.”
“The primordials should at least listen to your proposal.” Nature's Servant said. “I shall drag this ‘fool’ along as I call for the council. I look forward to your proposal.”