I had a dream. In this dream, I was surrounded by darkness. An endless nothing so vast that it was something in itself. Out of the nothingness, I heard a Voice, calling out to me, and I trembled in fear and excitement. The Voice was deeper than the sea, all powerful, and all loving at the same time, like a new father, witnessing his offspring for the first time. With the voice, I got the sense of the ancients, an old, old thing, long forgotten. This is what I heard.

"Here, child. Do you hear my Voice?

"I do," I said, shaking with fear.

"There is no need to be afraid, child," said the Voice, "for I am here, and I will never hurt you. I am here to grant you power, power that may be both a gift and a burden upon your human life. I have deemed you worthy to rule the cosmos."

"The cosmos? Now I know it's a dream."

"This is no dream, child. Watch." Before my eyes, right in front of us, a giant ball of ice, and a ball of fire appeared. Balls the size of 1000 suns. As I watched, the fire appeared to cool down and shrink, as well as melt the ice. In the mist off of the ball of ice appeared a giant, and a cow. A giant cow. The giant was as big as both balls combined, and the cow was the same. I felt as if a thousand years went by as I watched. The cow licked and licked at the ice, and uncovered a man and watched him start a family in the nothingness, have a son, watch the son have a family and have three sons, and other than the fact that they were all floating around in a vast nothingness, I saw nothing wrong. Until everything went wrong. The three sons murdered the giant, and used his body to form land. As I watched, wanting to look away but not being able to, I saw it. The continents. The oceans were formed as the giant's blood, filling in the gigantic gashes left by the three brothers. The giant was unmistakably the earth. His skull was the dome of the sky, and planted in the center was a giant tree, made of all types of wood, the roots traveling down to the British Isles, Greece, and the Korean Peninsula, as Oak, Ash, and Birch. The tree grew, reaching higher and higher, taking pieces of the giant with it, forming worlds.

"Did you do this?" I stared in wonder. This was insane! I know it's a dream, but even still, "in the beginning there was a murder" was not how I ever expected this to go.

"It's time for you to leave, child."

"No!" I exclaimed, not wanting to leave. As I said this, I felt a rushing sound in my ears, and all faded to black. And then I opened my eyes.

Little backstory here. In the year 2020, China accidentally released a bioweapon on its own people, a subcategory of the Coronavirus. The R- Nought was extremely high, a whopping value of 5.7, and was registered as a global pandemic. Expected to disappear by the summer, the world went into mandatory quarantine, and unexpectedly stayed in quarantine for 5 years. In 2025, the virus mutated, killing more than 20% of the world's population. Shortly after, North Korea, taking advantage of the world's chaos, released a series of nuclear bombs to major American cities, New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Every one of them detonated in the air, but while supposedly harmless, these extremely powerful bombs quite literally ripped holes in the fabric of time and space, causing demons and monsters to appear from other dimensions.

There are 6 other known worlds, each named after a Norse World. These are- Midgard- a mirror version of Earth- unpolluted, ruled by small medieval human kingdoms, though the inhabitants are capable of using physics to their advantage- otherwise known as magic-users. The world looks like a classic fantasy RPG game.

Niflheimr, the world of ice, is an arctic world, barely habitable by humans. It is very cold, and without proper equipment, a normal human could never withstand it. Muspellheimr, the world of fire, is the exact opposite. It is very hot, and without proper equipment, a normal human could never withstand it.

Jotunheim, the world of Giants, is arguably the most beautiful of the worlds. It is home to the fearsome, magic wielding giants, masters of illusion. Alfheim, the world of Elves has two suns- both facing opposite sides of the planet at the same time. In other words, it is constantly day. On the other hand, one is a darker sun, a red sun, but a sun nevertheless.

Last, but certainly not least is Nidevillir, the world of dwarves. The Dwarves have magical technology millions of years in the future for us- all very ingenuitive people. While that is true, it is a volcanic world with seemingly no sun to speak of- relying on magic to heat them. In exchange for the service of the dwarves, our world has negotiated trade between the worlds and tourism for both sides.

The races of each world intermingled with those of this one. At this time 30% of the population is not originally from this world. The monsters and demons from the other worlds, in turn, also now appear and spawn in this world.

In the event of the bombs detonating, the people beneath them began to mutate, gaining supernatural powers and the ability to use magic. A very small population of those few (around 1/50 people) gained the ability to summon weapons forged from their souls, as well as the ability to use magic, taught to them by elves hired by the International Foundation. These people also are said to each be blessed by an individual god, using some powers of them, causing the nonhuman races to call them Allfather Candidates. The races follow the religion called Asatru- the ancient Norse religion, which is what sparked the name.

The school- Seidrkeld, (Supposedly meaning Magic Spring) is located in Midgard, in the Kingdom of Eraliand. A majority of the students there are from Earth, but some Candidates were born in other worlds. I happen to be a Candidate, and not a very special one at that. I have an unawakened soul- I have a blessing, but no power. See, a Blessing is essential to a Candidate, it makes you unique, gives you power nobody else has. See, a god can only bless one person, so the power varies from person to human- naturally, the more powerful the god, the better the blessing. I have none. In fact, on my hand, in place of a Blessing, is the same Magic Circle used in a blessing, but in place of a god's name, I have the word Gininguap. Void. On top of that, I have manifested no powers from it, nothing from this "Void." On top of that, I am unable to summon my soul weapon, despite having one registered on my blessing. One can only hope I can make it through my first day...