If you had told Lydia Johnson that she would spend her days vetoing the inane decisions game developers kept pressing, she would have scoffed. It was a far cry from the degree she had worked for four years to get and there was no way she was going to waste it on something so ridiculous. And yet, here she was, listening to a young woman babble on about how her game was going to revolutionize visual romance novels.

Lydia sighed and set her tablet down on her desk, staring over the rim of her cat-eye reading glasses at the woman across. Across from her sat Melissa Daniels, a young brunette woman with blue eyes and a charmingly crooked grin. According to her portfolio, Daniels was an up-and-coming developer with only one game under her belt that technically hadn’t been released yet, called Sorceress: Love Springs Eternal. It was still in the beta stages, granted, but it had promised so much; an open-world concept, a non-linear storyline, engaging RPG mechanics, all topped off with a whopping total of twenty possible endings, four for every potential love interest in the game.

Like every novice game developer, she’d bitten off more than she could chew, and so she turned to the multitude of big-name developers for help, bringing with her the promise of riches and wealth unlike any they’d ever imagined. However, also like every novice game developer, she seemed to consider her brainchild the greatest thing since sliced bread.

“So… What do you think?” Melissa asked with wide blue eyes.

Lydia started in a careful tone, “I’m going to be honest with you, Ms. Daniels. Silverflux isn’t going to pick up this game. It’s too…bloated.”

“Excuse me?” She quirked a thin eyebrow at Lydia.

“I mean to say, this is a bit too much for a romance game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly an appealing concept. ‘After a chance encounter of a lifetime, a young girl is chosen to become the legendary Maiden of Light, destined to cleanse the world of darkness and bring peace to the realm of Midgard once and for all.’ It’s just that-”

“Yeah?”

“-Maybe you could spend a bit more time expanding on this? It seems like a waste to put this on the back burner.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a romance game if it didn’t focus on romance.”

“I understand that, but there’s a lot more to be explored in this game. Take the academy for instance. You could spend a little more time on what they do there, and how the heroine navigates the upper echelons of society.”

Daniels scoffed, saying, “This is not a stuffy Shakespeare play. You think teenage girls are going to care about what happens at a school that’s not real?”

“Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a complex narrative. The war at the end of the story is another opportunity for some complexity. Maybe you should just remove it altogether? It didn’t make much sense from a storytelling standpoint.”

“She’s supposed to cleanse the realm of darkness. War seems like an obvious way to wrap that up.”

“Yes, but the issue is there was no build-up. Now, this-” Lydia gestured to the disaster zone of sloppily written notes on her desk, “-has the capacity to become something truly beautiful, but right now, it’s just a mess of plot points stuck together with glue and a little red string. Ms. Daniels, surely you are aware that Silverflux has a reputation to uphold?”

Melissa scoffed. “Are you kidding me? You haven’t even released a game in five years!”

“Our motto is quality over quantity, and it worked for us for the past twenty years. Not to say that your game doesn’t have quality – there’s potential here – but in its current form, we would be losing money if we took you on. I’m sorry, but we’ll be rejecting your current offer for a partnership.”

Melissa’s ears turned red as she jumped up from her seat.

“You just missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime!” She snatched up the mess of papers she had plopped on Lydia’s desk, haphazardly stuffing them back into her portfolio.

Lydia blinked at her incredulously. “I didn’t say that we would never take you on, I just think-”.

“You had the next big thing, right in your lap! This could’ve been your masterpiece!” She stomped to the door, huffing and puffing all the while.

“Ms. Daniels, wait!”

“But don’t come crying to me when Silverflux finally kicks the bucket!” Melissa Daniels slammed the door behind her, and Lydia couldn’t help but wince in response. The door was made of frosted glass, and she wasn’t sure the company could afford to replace it.

Silverflux Entertainment Studios, despite it earning a name for itself in producing high-quality games, was indeed struggling. While their latest game had been released to critical acclaim, it barely managed to break even. This, coupled with the bonuses the higher-ups kept giving themselves, and the little regard they had for the game developers, meant the company was barely keeping its head above water. Lately, her boss had been putting more pressure on her for the publishing aspect of the company; their next game wouldn’t be ready for another year, so in the meantime, they had to search for something to keep the company afloat.

Since then, Lydia had encountered all manner of developers, many like Melissa Daniels, but a few managing to be cut above the rest. Unfortunately those worthy few happened to be protected by lawyers and agents that didn’t seem inclined to accept the contracts Lydia put forward. This left her between a rock and a hard place – everyday options like Daniels’ game would come to her desk and nine of them met the company’s standards.

“Miss Johnson?” came a soft voice from the order side of the door.

“Yes, Hayden, come in.” There was a weariness to her voice now that she had reclined into her computer chair.

The door swung open, revealing the familiar image of her secretary, wringing his freckled hands.

“Your mother called earlier. She had a message she wanted me to pass on.” Lydia’s heart stopped. Almost immediately, a sense of dread settled into her bones, accompanied by a deep chill that reached into the core of her being.

“… What did she say?” Hayden opened his mouth to respond, but he barely got even a syllable out before she interrupted him. “You know what? Don’t tell me. My mother is the last thing I need on my plate right now.”

Lydia stood up and strode to the coat rack, pulling her burgundy peacoat over her shoulders.

Hayden caught her shoulder as she walked by. “Where are you going? The meeting with the rest of the board is tonight.”

“Out. If this meeting is anything like the last one, it can just be an email.”

“What about your mother? She wanted a response from you at least before 7:00.” Her step faltered. If she decided not to respond, her mother would probably ream her out for ignoring her. But then again, whatever response she gave to her mother could just as easily set her off as well.

“Tell her I’m not feeling well.” There was a certain truth to that. “I’ll call her in the morning.” Still, she couldn’t stop the tight bundle of nerves settling into her stomach. She was already dreading tomorrow morning. She marched out of the office before Hayden prompt anything more.

And so, Lydia left the prestigious office to join the evening dredge of exhausted workers returning home. Where was she going? She didn’t know, but any place was better than the office, as long it meant she wouldn’t have to talk to her mother.

Lydia blinked with wide eyes as she took in the scene unfolding before her. Across the street sat a woman rubbing her head as he started forlornly as the wrecked sports car sitting a few feet away. Next to her car was a balding man in a suit – he had the air of a lawyer – yelling at the poor EMT trying to help him. To the left of that was a truck driver, sobbing into his hands as he tried to explain to the police officers what had transpired. And in the center of it all, sat Lydia’s silver BMW, with her body slumped over the steering wheel, wide hazel eyes staring into the unknown.

It happened too fast for her to react. There was a green light on her lane, and she moved forward, but the truck driver hadn’t been paying attention to the red light when he pulled up. Getting t-boned in the middle of an intersection always sounded like something that happened on TV shows when the directors were too lazy to give a character a satisfying ending. It was either that or a convenient job offer that just so happened to take them miles away. To think it could happen here, like this – it sounded asinine.

Even despite this, she couldn’t even muster up any anger towards the truck driver. He was only going about his day, the same as her. Although maybe he didn’t leave the office after getting a call from his mother. This had to be one of the most expensive mistakes she’d ever made. There was a sizeable dent in her car, although it would have been more accurate to say it was a crater. There was blood spilling over her once immaculate leather seats; it was hard enough to get blood out of clothing, so she could only imagine what a chore it would be to clean bloody leather. It hardly occurred to her that she wouldn’t be the one paying for any of it.

“Lydia Johnson.” Lydia turned to meet the woman who called her name, but she found no one. Instead, she found a set of talons as long as she was tall. Her gaze trailed up the animalistic arm, whose coat seemed to change from brilliant vermilion fur to gleaming iridescent scales to unfathomable cobalt feathers, until she finally came up to the head, adorned by a crown of antlers that seemed to change ever so slightly when Lydia blinked. It wasn’t sound to call her a god; she seemed too great to be disgraced by that title.

“You have been chosen.” The colossal being had a mouth to speak with, but her voice seemed to simply project itself into Lydia’s mind.

“Chosen? Chosen for what?” She still couldn’t comprehend that this wasn’t some strange fever dream.

“Do you know who I am?”

Lydia could only offer a dumbfounded shake of her head. The titan pressed a claw to Lydia’s forehead, and a great chill coursed through her body.

“Wait, you’re from that game – the one Daniels tried to sell me! Who are you?”

“It is no mere game.” She waved a talon, and the towering skyscrapers melted away, replaced by the rolling fields and extravagant castles of Sorceress’ setting.

“I am called Aen, Mother of All Monsters, Conqueror of the Abyssal Planes.” As Aen spoke, distant figures appeared on the horizon – from mammoth dragons to graceful unicorns to noble griffons,

“I am an Arnus Run – a Primordial. I was here long before the realm of Lofarion came into existence, and I will be here long after it ends.”

“When the Arnus Run created Vostea, the world of the so-called-game you speak of, we made humans and monsters as brothers and sisters.” The images around the two changed to a sprawling city, filled with crowds of orcs, giants, humans; all working and living together in a place that dwarfed even the greatest of civilizations.

“But humanity grew to fear their sister race. There were some among my children that believed they should be the sole rulers of the realm. They attacked humanity with a viciousness never before seen, and so humankind and monsterkind turned on one another.” The city was engulfed in flames and ash as the people began a bloody clash in the streets. They attacked whoever they could get a hold of, no matter their status, no matter their race. The once extravagant city was brought to its knees in an instant, with only ruins left to show for their accomplishments.

“Humankind ultimately won and established a vast empire – one you may know as the Golden Empire of Draentis.” Tall spires plated in shining gold shot up from the ruins, eclipsing the decrepit city behind walls of marble and luxurious palaces. The humans returned to the city in droves, but there wasn’t even a single goblin among them.

“Now my children live in shackles, under the hand of their New Gods.” The scenery changed once more, this time showing lines of orcs trudging along muddy roads, their backs raw from being flogged. Behind them came bloodstained cages holding despondent. One held a unicorn, its once pure white coat, matted and dingy, stretched over jutting bones. Another held a manticore, far too big for the cage it had been shoved in, its mane and claws suspiciously absent, and it’s tail limp against the floor of the cage.

“I-I’m so sorry,” Lydia spluttered out. “But why me? I’m just a businesswoman! Why not any of your followers?” The scenery melted away, leaving the two in a foggy expanse, with other looming figures in the background, all watching Lydia with piercing eyes.

“When the New Gods took power, they severed our connection to the realm. We can no longer answer their prayers, their cries for help, their desperate pleas for action. We can only watch and listen. But we found an escape. While we can no longer interact with Lofarien, we can find others do so for us.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Be my champion. Right the wrongs we cannot.” Lydia opened her mouth to protest, but no words came to mind. The images she had just witnessed had done their job in convincing her.

“What will happen to me if I go?”

“You’ll become someone else. The New Gods would stop us if they saw a human, not of their creation in their world. You must take the form of someone already there, take on a new life.”

Lydia’s mind raced at a million miles per minute. She thought of her mother – surely she would pull her back into the world if she tried. But it wasn’t as if she had power over her now; Lydia was dead. Then she thought of her brothers, they would weep if they knew she was going off to some foreign world to fight for a god. But they wouldn’t know that she was leaving because she was already gone; Lydia was dead. She thought of her job – they still needed her, especially Hayden, who was too meek to fight for himself whenever the directors tried to cut him away. But there was little she could do for any of them now; Lydia was dead. She was truly, unmistakably, absolutely dead. There was nothing left for her on Earth.

“… What have I got to lose?” she muttered with a tinge of bitterness. She closed her eyes, trying to scrub away the images of the monsters in chains. Instead, she thought of the ones before – of sprawling cities filled with human and beast alike, of kind smiling faces and open arms, of children playing in the street with no fear.

“I’m ready.”

Aen pressed a claw to Lydia’s forehead again and the world went dark.