Everything stood still. Gods and devils alike lay scattered around the floor. Those still standing frozen in animation as they charged against an army of unspeakable horrors and magical constructs.

In between all this chaos a woman and a grotesque being stared at each other. The woman was the definition of beauty with lustrous white hair, a dress shining as the starry sky and a gorgeously decorated blindfold as if nothing was worth to come under her gaze.

Opposite of her was a tall, slender and slightly hunched creature wrapped in a cloak of darkness. Its head was a skull of a ram with four dangerous looking horns and tentacles growing out of the back of it. Its spine and ribcage that its body rattled as it clenched its badly bandaged skeletal fists. A shriek seemed to wake it from its thoughts as a humanoid silhouette, that had wanted to escape from the dark mist that was its prison, was dragged back by the twigs that adorned the entity’s cloak.

The being broke eye contact to glimpse at the person in the women’s arms. The man had a buff build littered with scars, which spoke of the many battles he’d been in. His handsome, bearded face together with his medium-length blonde hair gave him a heroic look, while his carefully detailed clothes gave him an air of nobility.

The creature gave the woman a sorrowful look before speaking with a deep echoing voice.

“sO yOU DId tHIs fOr Him?”

Blood started flowing out of the skull’s eye sockets.

“wHY? WAs i nOT EnOuGH?”

The woman thought for a moment before answering.

“I love him, so I will be with him forever no matter the cost. Go now and don’t come back, I’d rather not do something I’m going to regret.”

The being stared at her with a disbelieving look before its thunderous voice made creation itself tremble.

“YOU BETRAYED ME, BROKE OUR AGREEMENT AND STOLE FROM ME AND STILL HAVE THE GUTS TO THREATEN ME? WILL YOU REGRET WHEN I RIP YOUR HEROE’S HEAD OF HIS SHOULDERS?”

“He’s not a hero anymore. He’s a god. The god of fate.”

The entity slumped to the ground as the fierce look he had a second ago was replaced by a devastated one.

“yes, that’s right. he’s a god now. fate huh? that’s what you created with those stolen aspects. time, soul and luck to shackle all. i see it now.”

He gave the woman one last heart-broken look before turning around.

“SO bE It. aS yoU SHackLe THe mORTaLs tO A FuTUrE thEy CaN’t iNflUEnCe, I wiLL ShaCkLe YoU AnD yOUr sERvAntS tO ThIs pLaCE.”

The woman, Omnya, could only watch as her now ex-husband vanished into the distance.

--- --- ---

Thoa looked at the world he’d lived his entire life on and had sworn to protect. As the champion of the All-Mother and hero of mankind he had fought many battles. He had helped with the unification of all humans under the flag of the Empire, by ending racism against humans with non-human traits such as different skin color or additional body parts, such as a tail or a third eye. Textbooks would say that he did this by breaking up race-only zones and getting officials work with the motto ’when everyone is different, no one is’, but he knew that the biggest factor was giving humanity a new enemy with ’The Circle’.

The Circle was an alliance of magical races held together by a council, and at that point in time was thought to be vastly more powerful than the Empire as they not only controlled two of the five continents while they only had one, but had the technological advantage too.

He had asked his goddess why they didn’t conquer one of the other two continents first before starting a war against a superior enemy, but had only gotten the answer that they were ’uninhabitable’ and that humanity had nothing to fear as they had the gods on their side.

Later on, he would realize that this description was not entirely accurate just that one continent was inhabited by a bunch of war hungry races while the other was inhabited by powerful creatures where one slight misstep would get you killed.

So, they started a war against the Circle… and lost miserably. While it was true that they had the gods on their side, so did the Circle have their own and they were vastly more powerful. The Elder Gods, unspeakable horrors, grotesque both in body and mind and the Legion, an immortal army of magical constructs, fighting, thinking and existing as one.

Escaping back to the Empire, his goddess sent him on a new quest. To become stronger, worthy of his title as her champion, attain godhood and strike back at those foul creatures that had once barred his way. So, with a party consisting of him and the other three heroes that lived through, what would later be called, the battle for Uros, he set forth on his quest.

In the following years he had learned a lot about the world and its inhabitants and helped where he could. He set up a project to rid the warring continent Coga of its hostile races, helped the new arrivals to this world at the sea of beginnings and researched the continent of mysteries Garo.

But the other three heroes grew tired of the constant fighting and traveling, and thus left. Left alone Thoa became closer to his goddess the All-Mother and they began to develop feelings for each other, which ended with him being materialized in her realm and a night he would never forget.

Now a couple, the goddess Omnya wanted him to attain godhood immediately, which was impossible as he needed vastly more power and an aspect he could call his own. Omnya, deeply in love, did what had gotten them in the mess they were now in. She forcefully promoted him to godhood and stole aspects of her husband, the Old-One, to craft him the aspect of fate.

Which brought him back to the present. Gods and devils alike were imprisoned in this subdimension, everyone trying to escape was ripped to shreds by an Elder God named Mok’wa, a giant hydra with nonfinite heads which governed space.

Omnya had tried to wound one of its two main heads, but her forceful promoting Thoa had weakened her. She was powerless as Mok’wa’s heads hit her, its glowing eyes resembling a meteor shower as Omnya was swallowed by this tide.

Thoa sighed. Weakened and now deeply wounded Omnya had fallen into a deep slumber, leaving him as her husband as the leader of all gods and devils. He wanted revenge. Revenge against the Elder Gods and the Legion for barring his way at Uros and supporting his wife’s ex-husband, the Circle for worshiping them and first but foremost the ex-husband himself, of which he still didn’t know the name. A rather impossible task considering his current situation.

So, it dawned on him. He needed power. Humanity needed power. And he had the perfect aspect to get it without getting his hands dirty.

His lips curved into a grin.

“Wait for me and I will rip you apart limb from limb.”

Thoa looked back at the world he’d lived his entire life on as his grin slipped from his lips.

“That is YOUR fate.”