“I died.”

That was the only possibility. The moments leading up to it vividly hung in my mind like haunting phantoms. The brilliant lights and rumbling explosions, the men with reflective gold masks, the gunshots...

“Those damn reformers had to attack us now, of all times…”

At least Cassie got away. In the moments preceding my death, I managed to sneak my sister out through a secret escape path. I held off the soldiers in a heroic final stand worthy of a movie - complete with a dramatic entrance, a pitched battle, and my ultimate defeat.

Really, the pain involved was a minor detail. My death was just too cool!

So, I distinctly remembered dying, but... where was I now? I glanced around but all I could see was a dark and empty expanse pursuing infinity in every direction. My body had changed; I was incorporeal and transparent and seemed to be floating in this dark and endless space.

With no reference point, time was a little vague. I drifted in nothingness for so long it seemed like an eternity until the darkness before me twitched and shifted. Streaks of white filled my vision as a large sphere slowly stretched out of the gap and spread across the scene before me.

A planet…? Was I in outer space?

“Welcome, new Overseer,” a somewhat dissonant voice interrupted my reverie. The tone sounded robotic, like the programmed AI in a computer or a smartphone. I turned, seeking out the source of the voice… but I saw nothing.

“I am Advanced Universal Training and Observation Unit#1124. I am tasked with teaching you about your responsibilities as an Overseer.”

An invisible training unit?

“What’s an Overseer?”

“In Earth terminology, you may know of them as gods. The world you came from, Earth, has hosted the powers of many Overseers. You may draw comparisons to deities such as Zeus or Thor.”

No way! I made it? I reincarnated as a god?! I totally called it! I told mom that heroic deaths were the way to go! But no, she had to get all sentimental and ask me not to die before her. Hah! I became a god!

“So, what can I do? Is that my planet? Do I get to create things?”

“An Overseer’s primary job is to aid their followers in developing their souls. There are several Overseers representing this planet. You might create things later when you have more power,” the robo-voice replied to each of my questions in turn.

“So, what do I do first?”

“First, you must choose a Tether.”

“A tether?”

That wasn’t a word I heard often. An image of a dog chained to a stake came to mind, but I couldn’t see the connection between that kind of tether and a god. Then I thought of an image of connecting two devices to share information, but there wasn’t any visible technology around.

“A Tether is an individual who will act as your representative among the people. They will speak your words and spread your religion.”

“So, they’re kind of like a prophet?”

“That is an adequate comparison.”

Huh. I hadn’t planned on going down the religion route, but I could roll with it. Dying wasn’t in the plans either, but it brought me to godhood.

I glanced back over at the planet slowly rotating beneath me. As the clouds parted I saw four continents spread evenly around a giant whirlpool.

Though I wasn’t privy to the modified topography of Earth due to the war, there was no way that seven continents were reduced to four. That was definitely not Earth.

What kind of world was it? Maybe…

Maybe it had magic? I mean, gods turned out to be real, so why not magic?

A sense of urgency rose inside of me. I wanted to find out more.

“So how do I go about choosing a Tether?” I asked.

“I have taken the liberty of selecting a few viable options. With your permission, I will present the most promising to you.”

Wait. This thing chose for me? Before I even knew about a choice, it took it away from me? But, I was the god, right? Wasn’t it supposed to be my choice?

Choosing my prophet was obviously important. There was no way in hell I was letting a random invisible space robot choose for me.

I was careful not to show my irritation, though. It probably wasn’t a good idea to show hostility as I had no idea what this thing was or if it was a bad idea to make it angry.

“Sure, let me see them.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I found my vision zooming in on the planet, moving towards the continent on the top left side. Within moments, I was flying over the land at incredible speeds, mountains, plains, and forests passing in the blink of an eye.

After about a minute, I felt a tug pulling me down. As I followed it, I fell into a mountain range and settled atop the tallest mountain. In front of me stood a beautiful woman with pitch-black hair drawing a pentagram around a gruff-looking man with a bandana on his head. From their body language, they seemed to be arguing. The woman had tears streaming down her cheeks, and loose strands of hair plastered to her skin.

I couldn’t confirm my inference though, because my surroundings were entirely mute.

The woman finished drawing the pentagram and stepped back. She seemed to be chanting something, her lips moving rapidly as she waved her arms while moving elegantly around the circle, almost as if she were dancing. The pentagram began to glow an eerie red.

I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye and followed it down the hill. A small group of four medieval-fantasy-looking humans carefully stalked towards the man and the woman with their weapons drawn. They looked like a stereotypical RPG group with a sword-and-board warrior, a white-robed healer, a rogue, and a hunter. All they needed was a mage…

The hunter raised his bow and drew back an arrow, sighting it on the beautiful woman. I tried to shout and warn her but, just like I couldn’t hear them, they couldn’t hear me. He released the arrow and I watched in despair as it arced through the air and fell towards her. Without pausing in her dance, she reached an arm out and smoothly snatched the arrow out of the air.

Wow.

“Observe the warrior. He should be an ideal Tether…” the robo-voice started when I interrupted it.

“Cut the bullshit.”

The voice went silent for a moment before speaking again, a hint of surprise in its tone.

“I do not follow.”

“You want me to choose that guy? Isn’t he just a novice?”

My personal combat experience was limited to guerilla fighting with guns, traps, drones, and chemical bioweapons, but I could tell with a glance that this boy wasn’t accustomed to fighting. Though his group seemed to have a bit of training, all four of them looked green. The warrior was on the verge of tears, the archer’s bow was shaking, the priest was shouting something fervently with a twisted expression, and the rogue had been frozen stiff since the moment the woman caught the arrow.

“That man is currently the third strongest adventurer in this region. He has high growth potential and meets the standard criterion most Overseer’s use when choosing a Tether…”

“Which are?”

“Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pretty face.”

If I had hands, I would facepalm so hard.

I examined the woman who had started running towards the adventurers at an insane speed that I could barely follow, baring her fangs as she snarled.

Wait, fangs? Was she a vampire?!

“What about her? What is her potential as a Tether?”

“I only considered human candidates. No Overseer has ever chosen a non-human before.”

Huh. Why not? Wouldn’t it have been cool to have a pretty vampire as a Tether? This one in particular seemed like an okay choice. From the moments before the RPG group attacked, I could tell that she wasn’t a heartless monster -- anything that could cry obviously had feelings. This wasn’t a good decision to rush though, so I asked about my other options.

“Do I have to pick one of these individuals as my Tether?”

“No, you could pick any individual who is not already a Tether.”

I closely observed the fight happening in front of me and cringed slightly as the vampire ripped the warrior’s arm off.

All things considered, she was probably a better choice than him.

***

The young woman groaned as she sat up, gazing blearily at her unfamiliar surroundings.

Directly in front of her lay a near-pristine, pale corpse in the center of a dimly glowing red pentagram. The dead man had a bandana on his head which covered his hair, two axes tied on either side of his waist, and a grizzly beard. Her eyes were drawn to the two punctures on his neck and, as she watched, a single drop of blood oozed out of the wound and began to trickle down the man’s neck. She unconsciously ran her tongue over her teeth and tasted blood.

She groaned softly at the overwhelmingly pleasant taste.

Delicious…!

She paused, feeling a piercing sting as she ran her tongue over two particularly sharp teeth.

A breeze ruffled her long, silky black hair. Though there was a faint sting when the wind contacted her skin, the feeling was not uncomfortable. Her questing eyes continued to roam the area and she found four more bodies on the slope behind her.

These looked a little different from the one in the circle. It was as if they were attacked by a feral beast!

The man wearing metal armor was missing his left arm, and he had a huge, gaping hole in his chest. On the ground next to him lay a young girl with blood-stained white robes, her face distorted and frozen in an immortal demonstration of terror. The attractive display of modern art was accented beautifully by her neck that was twisted three-hundred-sixty degrees.

The other two were face down on the ground further down the hill, likely having been cut down as they ran away. One of them had a big metal disc sticking out of his back, and the other guy’s head was on the ground several meters further down the road.

She licked her lips and shivered in anticipation when she noted the pools of drying blood settled around their bodies. There was something else she needed to do before that though. She continued searching her surroundings for a clue.

She was standing atop the tallest hill in the area and could see miles of rolling peaks in every direction. To the northeast, she could see walls with small lights walking back and forth atop them. Lording over the night sky, she saw three orbs that dominated the horizon. The leftmost circle was blood red, the rightmost a clean, azure blue, and the central sphere was pitch black with a visible white aura radiating out from it.

Three full moons. Their eerie glow was enchanting, and a strange yearning to move closer to them permeated her body and soul.

Unconsciously, she took a step forward and then stopped as the air around her began to hum. She glanced about and found that the glowing pentagram was becoming noticeably brighter. Light began to rise from the center, tearing apart and consuming the bloodless man’s body.

After a brief pause, the hill began to shake slightly. All three moons glowed with overwhelmingly intense light, and a heavy wind ruffled her hair again. She caught a loose strand and noticed that her dark hair was glowing as well. The raven-black slowly retreated, giving way to a silvery-platinum color. She could only look on in amazement and bewilderment as the lights from the pentagram and the three moons gathered around her body.

Almost as quickly as the light had come, it faded away until her surroundings stopped shaking.

“...”

She opened her mouth and spoke the first words of her existence.

“What the hell just happened?”

Before she could think too much about it, she felt a sharp pain in her head. She cried out as she fell to her knees, feebly clawing at her hair. She screamed in agony as the pain spread from her head down to her chest and then radiated out until it permeated her whole body.

Her scream was cut short as she coughed out blood.