The Message

Location: - Mount Olympus.

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Subject: - 'Banquet.'

"Ah…"

She heaved a sigh of relief and got swept in her thoughts.

'So it's that time of the year again.'

She was happy that the time for the next 'Banquet' had finally come.

'Most of the recruits last time were lazy.' She added.

'Ah, no there were those four greenhorns who at least amounted to something.'

'Will this time be different?' She wondered.

'Alas, I can't go greet the newbies this time.'

She suddenly remembered what had occurred the last time she visited the Lower Realm.

"I was accidentally going to erase half of the Beginner towns huh? Looks like I've gotten too old." She said laughing to herself.

It looked like she was all chatty without a care in the world with her free-spirited nature but only the existences with powers similar to her knew about her.

All that they felt when they saw her was just...

A Lofty presence emitting brilliance and a pure clean aura second to none.

She was the one born from 'Chaos'.

The one who held the 'First Seat' among even the gods.

She was…

Gaia.

­_

'The internship is finally ending tomorrow.'

Thought Axel while drinking soda.

"Looks like I'll have to start looking for a new place to work from- "Just before he was going to complete his sentence, he heard people shouting from outside.

Axel didn't understand why they were shouting so loudly.

"Just what- "

And then he saw it.

It was as big as a skyscraper.

A huge rock, falling out of nowhere had crushed the Aerinth tower. The house belonging to the biggest conglomerate of America 'Lawrence Aerinth' had been utterly destroyed in approximately 14 seconds. The seventh tallest building in the entire world and this was all it took.

Suddenly, the huge rock disintegrated and started emitting blinding rays of light. After about 15 seconds, the lights started to dim down and a holographic image of a handsome man possessing a silver helmet, boots with little wings embedded on them and golden and neatly braided hair came into sight.

He glanced at the people in that area and had a satisfied look on his face.

Even Axel was examining him with great care. Coincidentally, the man's gaze fell on Axel and for a split second there Axel could've sworn that he was smirking looking at him. He felt the chills down his spine.

"How can such a being even exist….?" Axel wondered aloud.

He had spoken the above words in a low voice but still the man heard him and said," There are a lot of beings like me out there in the world. Oh, where are my manners.

I'll introduce myself." Even though he said this, almost everyone at the scene knew who he was without him introducing himself. People read about him in various myths. He was known to many people as 'The skywalker.'

Not caring about the various gazes on himself the man spoke in a loud and clear voice," I am Hermes, and you may know me as the messenger of the gods."

Introducing himself, he began.

"Do not fret as the people inside the building were teleported to a nearby location. Citizens of Earth. I'm sure you must've known by now that there are beings other than you out there in this vast universe. You're planet has been safe from harm and you are living your life with peace and harmony. Truth to be told, you have always been protected by the gods. But the situation has changed. There is no time left to delay any further. The invaders' forces have increased. You will now be given 2 choices and I promise that we the gods, will respect your choice."

After saying so, Hermes took a pause.

Everyone looked tense. Some people were murmuring among themselves. The panic from before was nowhere to be seen as everyone seemed to have accepted reality. Gradually, everyone stopped talking. Now, there were all looking at Hermes.

Taking their silence as acknowledgement, Hermes continued.

"Remember. It is now your turn to choose. Following are the choices. One, you can live as you're living right now and you'll still be able to get the basic skills from the system just in case something happens. Two, the people who chose not to stay will be teleported to a special spatial plane created by the gods called the 'Banquet' to train different species and help them fight against the invading forces. You will be constantly putting your lives in danger. There will be no second chance. One small mistake here means instant death. Every year of all the billions of people participating in the recruitment, quite a low number of people prove themselves worthy of admittance. Further details shall be shared later."

After saying this, he stopped. The very air around his figure changed. He started exuding a chilly, fearsome, air-cutting aura. Most of the people started having difficulty breathing. It was at this moment that the entire population of Los Angeles, the large populace of 41.3 lakhs people felt the same emotion. Fear. Everyone suddenly felt as if they were engulfed in fear. Certain death. It was what they called.... Absolute Power. Everyone instinctively knew. One small step ahead would result in death. However, while everyone felt this, Axel did not feel anything. He even started feeling comfortable all of a sudden.

_

Just beside the crushed Aerinth tower, Celia stood staring directly at Hermes' hologram. She herself seemed to be unaware of the very faint, almost invisible golden glow surrounding her entire figure.

Hermes said, after giving a slight nod continued.

"Now, choose."

As soon as he said this, everyone present had something similar to a screen pop up in front of them. It read:

[Welcome to the Gaia System.]

[What will you choose?]

[Will you choose to enter the 'Banquet'? Yes/ No]

[*Note: - The choice registered here cannot be changed after answering once.]

[*Note: - The choice made here will affect stats and class-specific skills.]

Everyone now moved their attention towards the screen. As first, people were a bit flustered seeing a screen pop up in front of their face but they quickly adapted to it as they were similar to laptop and computer screens with the only exception being that the screen was holographic. Every single one of the screens had a voice recognition feature which helped with protecting private info.

Axel registered to the Gaia system and quickly got swept into his thoughts.

'Participation in the Banquet huh? At this point it should be obvious to everyone present. This is the only chance to explore the world and finally a chance to step out of a bubble called earth.

Axel pondered, still in deep though,

'What do I do?'

He suddenly started remembering the Orphanage, all the friends he made there and most importantly, Mr. Hearts, the man who took him in, a child crying on the streets on a rainy day and treated him as his own.

Axel suddenly felt refreshed.

'Why am I even thinking about this? Stupid me. It's obvious that Mr Hearts is going to stay here due to his damaged leg. The kids are small right now and even though some may take the chance to get out, the chances are quite small. So, all I have to do is enter the banquet, get strong; strong enough to at least be able to defeat Hermes here without a hitch and since he said that there are a lot of people similar to him, it means that there is a chance that even I can get as strong as him.

Thinking so, Axel made a mental note.

A mental note of the 'level' he had to reach.

Hermes reading Axel's thoughts, smiled and thought to himself.

'Look at this little kiddo, trying to surpass me? Defeat me without a hitch? So be it. Let's see how far you can reach with your lofty goals.

Axel without a hint of further self-doubt, said aloud.

"Yes!"

This was how, Axel started his journey to the 'Banquet' and to the place everyone called out to as 'The Beyond'.