Chapter 3: Revelation

You know, there is a lot a person would expect when they get taken to another world. Magic. Strength and an adventure. A princess who names them the hero she has been oh so desperately been searching for. But never have I ever been so disappointed in anything as this meal. 

I feel like I'm staring at my food the same way my actual parents looked at me. Utter disappointment.

The seasoning is way off, the steak is overcooked and the vegetables are not even supposed to go with steak.

"ah, I see the head chef has done a fine job once more." my father commended him as he poshly rubbed a piece of white cloth on his lips.

First of all, why would anyone rub the cloth on their faces like that?

Second of all, this? THIS is a fine job?

I try my best to not cringe and attempt to hide my disgust at, whatever abomination this is. I'm sure the cheapest ramen from a convenience store would taste better than this.  

Although I hate to admit it, I have to push the food down my throat. Is this what my dummy soul has been enduring for the last 15 years? Oh, wait actually he was born and raised here so it's probably used to it.

Sadly my taste preferences have also been passed along so I regrettably have no choice but to suffer. 

"what's wrong dear? Usually, you talk during your meals but now you're so quiet, are you alright?" mother asked me, her voice laced with concern. It's truly a wonder how she can sounds genuinely worried for me. 

"nothing, I-" I tried to reply but of course I get cut off.

"he's probably getting nervous. Don't worry, I have faith in you." My father roared as he laughed. Hopefully, this time he doesn't go off on a tangent about how he got his own skills.

As if I would care about a ceremony that doesn't change anything, I literally know everything about my abilities, all I have to do is put them into practice. Although... there is a nagging feeling I have.

The Coming of Age Ceremony. 

The most celebrated event in the world, the one everyone looks forward to should they get to that point. It isn't only the point at which they step into adulthood.

But also where they learn of their calling. They get their jobs, skills, and magic abilities. That's why the school in this world is so late, it's only from 15-18. Because before that, most people don't have anything to work with. Certain families of course pass on techniques like mine, and of course train their children but most often they simply wait. 

In the ceremony, you swear to serve one of the many gods and worship their representation. It is said there are seven key Gods, named the Legion, deities who make up the balance in the world. Each one is crucial and unique to its own.

Aeros, the God of Justice and judgement.

Kali, the God of War and battle.

Synthios, the God of Love and fertility.

Bejos, the God of Wealth and luxury.

Zynx, the God of evil and impurity.

Although it is said that there are 7 Gods, I so far have read mostly of these 6 Gods. Either I haven't found about the last God, or they are very underfollowed. 

Special people may receive boosts such as blessings from these Gods. Many worship devotedly for their entire lives to see the sight of their chosen God for even a single second. A sign of acceptance. An affirmation of existence.

Yet, they end up wasting their lives away. While others just go in kneel and that's it.

The God comes in and blesses them. They are given power and an insignia on their backs. Truly, a God giving a tattoo, just fantastic.

After that lunch, I had my first drink. In this regard, I guess things are pretty similar to Earth, in some cultures there children often had their first drink with their parents. But instead of normal sake, beer or soju, we had wine. 

The only thing actually tasted decent. However, soon it was time to go to a church. Of course, most churches were strictly for one God, but there were churches that allowed worshippers of all religions, and the one in my father's land was one as such.

It wasn't the richest. But it wasn't poor either. The Cathedral stood tall, made of white brick. Two castle-like towers on each side were erected taller than the others.

Overall, a standard expectation of a church. The only difference is that rather than the inside having paned windows of baby Jesus and the virgin mary, it had depictions of the many Gods. 

"Ah Lord Skybrone, welcome to the Church of Legion. How may I assist you?" a priestess asked as she walked up. She was wearing a pure white outfit. From head to toe, only her face was revealed and she bore an inviting and kind smile as she greeted us. 

She wasn't old per se, but she did have a wiseness about her which seemed to evident when even my father, the owner of the land responded to her rather respectfully. 

"It is that time for my youngest child." he replied, sounding a bit cryptic but his excitement was clear. How badly does he want me to become a knight?

The preistess looked genuinely happy, as if she had truly cared for me all my life. She stared at me with a similar giddy excitement in her own eyes and guided me to the back. 

"You will be alone in the room, the process is very simple, you kneel towards the window pane in the wall and pray to your wished deity. After a while, you will know when the process is complete since you will feel a sort of boost in your abilities." The preistess explained. Not the most concise description but it'll do.

"do you have any questions?" she asked, it seemed like a typical question that she kind of knew to ask. Although a bit ritual I knew I had to ask this.

"um.. yes, how would you know if I have gotten an insignia?" I asked pretending to be a bit nervous. Honestly speaking, I would probably go in there, kneel and day dream for a bit before coming out and saying some random God's name.

She smiled in response to my question as if she had wanted for me to ask it. "oh we'll know if it does occur." was all she said before she starting walking towards the prayer room. She did not stop or turn back even though I hadn't started following.

Reluctantly and kind of worried that my kidney may be stolen, I still decided to start following her. After a couple of turns, she opened the door to a small room. It was small sure but the  ceiling was high, with a window in a particularly high position. The mid day sunlight peering in through it.

The format in a hexagonal form, and in the middle of the room was a pillar with a stone tablet on it.

"When you finish, you will be able to see your job and other things on the tablet. Do not worry, as soon as you leave the room, the tablet will be erase its writing." she reassured. It seems like she knew the type of questions I would ask. 

Very peculiar. Not to be a skeptic, but it does feel strange with the way she acts. The over familiarity. The predictions of what I will do, it's like she was ushering me into the right direction and nudging me to go through with the process with as little questions as possible.

And believe me, the glow in her eyes is not helping.

She shut the door and left through the main door, and so I was left there. All alone. With this pillar in the middle of the room and the sunlight coming in.

Enjoyable.

My ass! I just want to get things done with at this point. So I kneeled right under the sunlight, grasped my hands together as I mentally imaged and thought of some prayer.

'Oh holy Gods, I don't know who, Necros maybe? Can you just come out and give me my job so that I can go home and leave?' I prayed. 

While I thought I was being rather cautious with my surroundings, I didn't even realise how the place I was in changed. Or how the warm feeling of sun disappeared from my skin.

"It's been a while huh," I hear. 

This voice sounds familiar. I open my eyes and look up. 

Oh.

It's her again. Great.

"Hey there random woman I don't know but brought me to another world. How do you do?" I ask with certain sarcasm. She is an outlier. An extraneous variable, who I have no clue of what she is capable of. She is last person I want to spend time with in a seemingly endless white room.

"what? Are you going to tell me you're the deity of wealth and luxury?" I asked choking back a snicker, which regrettably seemed to escape ever so slightly. 

I cover my mouth, forcing the rest back down and just stare up to see the women with a pout on the edge of being considered cute, but just not quite enough.

"Well, not exactly. But if I may ask, how in worlds did you decide upon Necros? I mean that isn't even a real God's name. The God of wealth and luxury is Bejos." She corrected me.

It's the same thing, I swear that Gods accept prayers as long as we are sincere with our prayers.

"Yeah as long as you are genuinely sincere, which you evidently aren't. Either way, I am not here to judge you, I am well aware that you are an overly practical man...hence, I have summoned you with an offer." 

Oh?

Now that was genuinely interesting. "Although I have to admit, this is rather sudden. Say, were you planning this the whole time? Ah, were perhaps the one manipulating the preistess?"

...

Silence. None of the two said anything and simply stared into each other's eyes. A God and its "worshipper" someone she favoured, although not from this world, he was special. He has lived another life. He knows the pain, struggle, rejection and other wordly issues that arise with the life of being a normal salaryman.

Being treated like an outcast due to his unique way of looking at society, looked down upon by others. He knows most of the pain a typical person endures.

"Yes. As you know there are  7 Gods in planetary systems, 6 of them you already named: Aeros, Kali, Synthios, Bejos and Zynx. And as you may have guessed I am the 7th deity." She revealed in a serious tone. 

Ryu POV

Throughout the entire time that I had any interactions with her, whether it was when I died or now, I have not once forgotten.

She was a God.

Someone beyond the human comprehension. A person, who I could never fathom the power of, simply because of their divinity. 

But I always questioned the special. Being an overly average person myself, I sometimes wondered.

How did these Gods come to existence? Were the suddenly just...born? Were the created by someone of an even higher power?

However now standing in front of her, I am once more reminded of her origin. Me and her cannot compare. What I call myself being superior was simply human hubris, while hers was existential.

"I am Asterios, the Goddess of the afterlife and destruction. Yes, I know it's a weird combination but bare with me for a second." She took a heavy pause as if contemplating how to word her next sentence.

"Around a 1300 years ago, this world was progressing very well. Unlike what it is right now, it had tall buildings, not skyscrapers per se but it had a very primitive version of a car too. Due to these improvements people enjoyed life and grew and unlike your world where people value the material world more than the afterlife, here the people stopped fighting and genuinely started improving their lives because of their believe in the Gods."  

So the people actually weren't obsessed with the typical luxuries that others have, interesting. As far as I had thought to achieve equality or rather true empathy for everyone, society as a whole needed to have a unanimous believe in something. 

I guess God was the answer. 

"So? Where is this going to get messed up?" I asked neutrally. I was well aware by her looks. 

That gulity downtrodden stare. The shaky eyes. The twitching of her small delicate hands. Deities as she may be, she was still a being with emotions. 

There was a major accident. 

And I can bet my life that she was far from being the victim.

"I-I.... am sorry." She whispered out with quivering lips. She knew that I had worked out that she was in a bad position. She paused and took a deep breath, attempting to calm her nerves.

Which didn't work out as you may have expected. " The Gods don't only answer to your prayers. We may  be 

extremely powerful yes, but we heavily depend on your prayers and worshipping." 

Huh?

A deity depending on the prayer of their own creations? 

"Our purpose is to be worshipped, and provide power to you guys. To those who we deem worthy. We represent different parts of your life cycles, from birth to death, it is up to individual Gods of your stage of life to manage you. We basically give you boosters or perks of sorts." 

What is this, a game?

" We replenish our power from your worshipping. The more a God is worshipped, the stronger they are. At the very least, our existence is because of that. So, you can imagine what it was like being a deity of death and destruction in a world like that." She explained.

It made more sense now. If a God's purpose were to be life line, then they would gain more power as they are worshipped. Whatever was praised the most would have the most recognition.

"In an actual crisis, I wasn't followed at all basically. No one praised death or destruction, they stayed far away from it, and with less people dying, I stopped recieving prayers and began to become much weaker." 

As expected, people usually curse death. No being can genuinely accept death as we have a natural fear of it. So for her, the fear they felt was a prayer of sorts. It accomplished the same purpose.

" In a fit of rage and on the verge of being weakened severely, I threw a tantrum in the mortal world. I caused natural hazards to happen, deadly diseases spreading... truthfully, we Gods too have rules. One that restricts us to damage the mortal world for our benefit." 

"and you broke exactly that one rule huh..." It is fairly simple to be honest, she essentially had no choice. Who knows to what point she may have been weakened.

"yes, I broke it and that rightly so required me to be punished. However, it seemed as though the other Gods understood my reasoning and somehow gave me a pretty light punishment for my deeds." She once more paused, it seemed that the climax of her tale was fast approaching. 

" However, one deity decided to take up this opportunity. Zynx, he used what little followers he had and sent them a blessing and gave them a message, 'The deity of death and destruction was responsible for your suffering,' Of course, under any circumstances they quickly spread the word around." 

Ah there it is. The manipulation of a God.

"It spread like wildfire, they were desperately begging their deities to tell them the reason, and no one responded. But now, there was an answer. In unison, I was scorned and cursed. Dark groups began arising and started worshipping me, saying the destruction of the planet was the prophecy I sent them. Which in the first place I 

never did. We immediately held another meeting to ask him of the reasoning, but his excuse was that he wanted to help me by giving more power." Asteriod began crying, and her voice shook but she didn't stop.

Normally, I would give all the shit to just about anyone, but someone who was wallowing in shame of her own errors was not someone I could berate.

I was no hypocrite.