1 Divine Blood

Earth, 2672 ad.

A middle aged man was walking to his day job on a cool Autumn afternoon. He had messy black hair, slouched forward posture, spindly legs and arms and wore a thick pair of glasses on his eyes. This was Caine. Caine was walking to his workplace, the Library, like he did every weekday. But today, something was off, everything around Caine seemed to have a tinge of grayish sepia to it. He had passed it off as not getting a good nights rest but something he didn't notice was that there was no sound on one of the busiest streets in his town.

As he approached the Library, an older looking man with raggedy clothes came up to him.

"Do you work here?" the Older man asked

"Huh? Yeah, we open in 15 minutes sir." Caine responded not paying attention to the man.

"Well I have a return right here for you," as the man said that, he lunged at Caine and a large knife appeared from his sleeve stabbing through Caines stomach.

Caine couldn't process what was going on

"Did this dude just stab me?" he thought. Caine wanted to scream for help but the sound wouldn't come out as the man pulled the knife out of his stomach he simply said, "You're welcome."

Caine came to but not as a body, as a consciousness floating in a dark empty space. Here, his life was played to him through memories that seemed so real that he felt like he had lived twice. After his memories stopped playing a message appeared in the back of his mind.

>System Activated<

>New User Recorded<

>Downloading...<

>Install Complete<

>Click finish to close the Install Wizard<

The message disappeared as quickly as it showed up and Cain was still confused, thinking this was all some fucked up dream.

But then, he woke up in a body that wasn't his, or it was his, just from his mid Twenties. In front of him there were thousands of other people all looking like they were around their twenties and some older and some far younger, all as confused as him. Before Caine could process any of what had just happened to him, an old man standing at the front of the crowd stepped up onto a stage and yelled

"WELCOME TO PANTHEON"

The man continued to explain to all the new arrivals that they were now dead and the History of the Creation of the Universe.

"You may notice you look younger, this is because Pantheon gives you the version of your body with the best potential. If you look at the back of your wrist you will see an emblem. This emblem will be the symbol of the God that has claimed you. To my right are banners," as he said this he pointed to his right where a huge wall of banners with a different complex symbol on each were hanging.

"Stand by the banner that matches the Emblem on your arm, you'll find wont be able to stand under a banner that doesn't match yours." the old man continued.

Everyone seemed to look at their wrists after the old man told them about the banners. Caine noticed that he couldn't find a banner with his emblem on it, His emblem looked like a black circle within another black circle. He thought to wait till everyone else had found their banners to see if He was the only one with a strange emblem.

To his surprise about 20 of the thousand that were there didn't have banners. He was about to approach one of the others when the old man continued speaking, "Those of you still in the center are what are known as "Orphans," your Divine Ancestor has not given you an Emblem to be claimed. Now you will be sent into the Void." No one in the center of the complex knew what that meant but they felt terrified and started screaming and trying to run away, except Caine.

He had an Emblem he just couldn't find his banner, does that mean hes going to die all over again? He started to silently freak out but kept his composure as he asked the old man, "What if my Emblem doesn't have a banner?" The old man, hearing this, walked up to Caine and grabbed his wrist. The second the old man saw the Emblem he was confused, he'd never seen the emblem on this boys wrist. On top of that it was the first time an Orphan ever had an Emblem. The old man seemed to ponder for a moment before saying "You will follow me after the Ceremony."

The old man then walked back up to the stage and continued speaking, "Those of you that have been claimed will be sent to the Realm of your Divine Ancestor within Pantheon. There you will be introduced to your Ancestor and trained in using your Divine Blood." Bright lights shone on the banner emblems and the Emblems on the peoples wrists, and with a flash they were all gone. Only Caine and the old man were left in the complex.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Charon" Charon said extending his arm to shake Caines hand. Taking it, Caine replied,

"I'm Caine."