"Archie, come downstairs. It's time for the Celestial Recruitment Fair."
"This means you have to observe more and move your hands less," the voice added.
It belonged to Mrs. Grant, a middle-aged woman with tired eyes and her hair tied back. Several children stood beside her, all dressed in their best clothes. Their faces lit up with excitement they could barely contain.
"Haaaaah… so noisy," a boy complained as he dragged himself down the stairs, moving as if every step annoyed him.
His name was Archie Hunt.
His parents were dead. He was an orphan, just like most of the children scattered throughout the building. The orphanage had been his home for as long as he could remember and today was the annual coming-of-age ceremony, the day the Celestials came to recruit.
On this day, gods and spirit beings chose their people.
Those selected would join a faction and serve a higher deity. They would receive divine blessings. Some would be given weapons engraved with a god's symbol. Others would awaken strange powers that changed their lives forever.
For most sixteen-year-olds, this was the most important day of their lives.
They were excited.
They were nervous.
They were hopeful.
Everyone except Archie.
The orphanage soon joined the long stream of people heading toward the city square. Streets were lined with banners carved with divine symbols. Statues of gods stood at every corner, silently watching the crowd pass.
Children whispered to one another, guessing which god might choose them. Adults spoke in quiet voices, careful and respectful.
Archie walked among them without saying a word.
The closer they got, the heavier the air felt. It was not exactly fear, but something weighed down on his chest. As if the world itself expected him to kneel.
He did not like that feeling at all.
Ahead, the city square opened wide, already filled with people.
The Celestial Recruitment Fair was going on.
There was a general silence on the city square.
The sound of armored footsteps and polished boots on stone came to him out of the eastern road. The troops preceded, and swept a broad passage through the crowd. Human beings knelt automatically, others even dropped their heads without even noticing they were doing it.
The city lord had arrived.
He was riding in a decorated carriage, drawn by beasts of white color, and he was in a straight, proud posture. At his elbow stood his son, a young man of ceremonial armor, his breast covered with the crest of the city. The eyes of the boy were gently going over the crowd as though he owned the entire crowd
Archie gave them the faintest of glances.
They were dwarfed in comparison to what was to come later.
The air shifted.
It was subtle at first. The square was shaken by a weird pressure, which felt like the wave touching the flesh as it moved. Some children stiffened. Others gasped quietly.
Light-figures were falling out of the sky.
Thunder and fire did not come their way. They just existed, hovering on the platform as though the world had cleared a place to them. Their eyes were weak, full of remote authority.
Fourth generation gods.
The weaker Celestials opened their choice. Their divine intuition ran through the crowd, as it paused on some children. A symbol would burst a moment above the head of the one being looked upon by a god.
Cheers broke out. Some cried. Others dropped on their knees in a state of gratitude.
Then the pressure increased.
The light dimmed. The atmosphere became thick and one could hardly breathe. A number of the fourth generation gods retreated, turning their heads down.
New presences descended.
These gods carried weight.
Third generation gods never scan the crowd kindly. Their heavenly feeling came as a command. Unseen hands were groping at the souls of children. Some of them just fell on the ground because they could not bear the inspection.
Archie clenched his fists.
His chest burned.
Then came silence.
True silence.
Even the sound appeared afraid to live.
The third generation gods themselves draw aside as something huge and old awakened above the square. The sky grew dark, not with clouds, with attention.
The second generation gods were awakened.
They did not descend fully. They did not need to. The awakening of their consciousness sufficed. Whole divisions suspended their breath. City lords bent their knees. Other races were powerful beings who dropped their heads in respect.
Archie felt it then.
Not fear.
Expectation.
At last the world appeared to bow.
The light froze. Time slowed. Even the Celestials had stilled.
First generation gods.
They were not in the form of shapes or figures. They were ideas that were pushing the facts. The square moaned quietly under them, and the stone was like one that was bearing a heavy burden.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Then suddenly, as suddenly, the strain was taken off.
The entire sky was filled with immerse lightning and an insane pressure descended as the ground shake. The God of the Greek Pantheon, Zeus was scanning the kids with his divine sense. Each of the kid was lifted into the sky as they were being searched by him.He peered deep into their soul seeking for the secret within their soul. Soon the pressure disappeared and all the kids began falling fast towards the ground as non I then was considered worthy in the eyes of Zeus.
The sky then glowed with a white Divine light as two huge ravens floated downwards and a pressure that equalled that of Zeus appeared. Another God king appears. The leader of the Norse Pantheon, The God of Magic and Wisdom, The All father Odin. He stopped the kids from falling asleep his divine sense moved over them in form of a gentle light as he slowly dropped them to the ground. Soon his presence disappeared without him choosing anyone.
Then the God of the Roman Patheon decended, the sky father and Grand Protector of Law, Jupiter. The sky became cloudy as lightning flashed with echoes of thunder, soon The City Lord soon was picked up by his divine sense. The City Lord amour was covered with a dense amount of lightning as a oak tree symbol appeared on his amour. A spear descended from the sky into his arms. A voice sounded in the head of everyone present. "Marco Crassus has been seen worthy of carrying my blessings and enforcing my will on the mortal world, say your goodbye as I shall take him away in five days" Jupiter said as his presence disappeared as everyone looked at Marco with respect.
But the fair wasn't over, A bloody smell filled the sky and the sky turned red. Another God king level being. The king of Vampires, the progenitor, the impaler of humans. Vladimir Dracula. A kid was suddenly picked up from the crowd as his body became a stream of bats. "A new Vampire Emperor shall be made of the kid. She shall be Lord to many, a superior being" Dracula said before his presence disappeared.
Followed was the werewolf king. A God of ruin. The owner of the wild. The ancient wolf, King Lycaon of Acadia. He picked up Archie from the ground. Archie frowned, he didn't want to become a beast, especially a bloodthirsty creature like a wolf. He then fought back defying the will of the king, the pressure increased on him trying to modify his soul into that of a wolf. His soul rejected, refusing to be modified, slowly his soul was filled with immerse cracks.
A chuckle resounded in the sky and a drop of golden blood filled with a silver of divinity fell downwards towards his soul. The instant his soul connected with the blood it shattered as blood flowed down Archie body with cracks appearing. His height increasing, hair growing out of his body, his mouth expanding and everything changing. He moaned in pain as he transformed into a 3 meter tall werewolf.
"Archie Hunt the orphan shall be taken by I King Lycaon of Acadia, the Lord of lycanthropy. He is therefore given the name Archie Acadia" King Lycaon said as Archie body fell to the ground shattering the platform as his body thumped with power, suddenly he connected to the divinity in the blood in him. The power that made the Lord of the werewolves a God king level being. He fell to the floor in his Lycan form as he delved into divinity.
Mrs Grant and the rest of the children helped moved Archie back to the Orphanage. He was the placed in the stables since his huge body couldn't fit into the building. Seven days passed as Archie remained in coma fast asleep.