I followed Jim out into an office-looking area that was filled with beautiful and strange... beings working inside cubicles. Couldn't call them people because some of them were clearly not human. One of them I could see right through!
"What is this place?!" I asked as I paused to look around the room, and Jim snorted.
"This is just one of the many offices that I run for my boss. Come on. You will have a whole three days before you are getting shipped out next, and you can stare at everything then. Vamos!" Jim said as he herded me out of that room and down a hallway that seemed to never end. It was actually impossible to see the end of the hall. It just kept going.
We walked past about fifteen doors, and then Jim stopped and knocked on one. I was confused to know how he knew which door to knock on since they were all the same. He might have been counting, but that made me wonder how they remembered what was in the rest of the rooms?
"Come in, Jim," A deep and commanding voice replied, and Jim opened the door and then pushed me in.
"Hi, Zeus! Bye, Zeus!" Jim said, and then closed the door, leaving me to stand awkwardly with the King of Gods himself, but he was a little bit different than what I had read about in novels. He was wearing a crisp white shirt and black pants, had graying hair that was tied back in a ponytail and had the most intense blue eyes I had ever seen smoldering from his face.
"Ah, so this is Halberd?" Zeus said as he stood up to greet me and then waved for me to come closer. "I've heard a lot about you! You are quite the amazing hunter!"
I bowed my head, feeling slightly embarrassed but also proud of what I had achieved today.
"I hardly think that I am worthy of a comment like that. I just took advantage of the situation," I replied, and Zeus smiled before pulling out a file from his desk drawer.
"It's funny how this world works sometimes, isn't it? How we can go from one job to another and not even think twice about it. But, this job. You have the ability to control the chaos. While I am sure that you are used to what you probably term as bad luck, it is so much more than that," Zeus said, motioning for me to take a seat on the chair opposite him.
I sat down and looked at the file with curiosity burning inside me. I had thought I was coming to meet my next client, but Jim had told me Zeus would explain everything.
"All across the multiverse, creatures are born at random. They have the ability to draw the world's Chaotic Energy, or just chaos, into themselves without even knowing that they are. This causes them to have what looks like bad luck or that the world is out to get them. In truth, it is. These creatures are harbingers for destruction in the worlds that they are naturally born into, and the longer that they survive, the more chaos that universe is thrown into. You must have noticed wars and other bad things starting to occur more, right?" Zeus asked me, and I nodded.
"I hadn't really been paying attention, but I had been hearing about things heating up between nations. So you are saying that just by being alive, these people are bringing disaster to their worlds?" I asked, and Zeus nodded. "Okay, so not to sound psychopathic, but why are you not just killing them as a baby?" I asked, but Zeus shook his head.
"While that is a good idea, there are multiple problems with this. The first is detecting them. It is nearly impossible to detect them until they have reached at least puberty. Next, we need them old enough to be able to survive on their own. So, even after we find them, we need to wait until they are mature enough for the task that will be ahead. The last thing is that we can not kill them; only you can do that. You are an extremely rare creature that circumvents the laws that bind and connect all divine beings," Zeus explained, and my eyes widened.
"You can't kill them, but I can? That seems a little strange, don't you think?" I asked, and Zeus leaned back.
"Do you know how we kill them? I am sure you have heard that we always send two divine beings, right?" He asked, and I nodded. "Good, at least Jim did that much. The man must really like you, considering that is the most I have heard from him in the last 30 years. I will assume I am going to be getting more of these visits if you are involved."
Zeus was grinning, but I didn't really get why. Usually, a higher-up coming around bothered people. "Why does that make you smile?" I asked.
"Jim's wealth and fame are extremely far-reaching in the Heavenly Realm. Even to be able to say that he took the time to even greet me and bid me farewell will be talked about all over the realm! Females will be lining up! I just hope that you can continue to work with me!" Zeus laughed, but I just stared at him.
This was all about fame and women? I was new to this place, so I decided to withhold all judgment for now. I was a stranger here, and I was going to learn to live like everyone else. My old life, and lifestyle, we're not going to work here.
"All right. So back to how we kill. The process requires the two divine beings to get as close as they can to the target, and they act as attractors for the chaos. This allows the target to absorb it even faster, but it is still a long process. We send two types of beings because that is the only way that we can track who out of the two will win. Good and dark beings give off different energy, and whoever has got the closest for the longest gets to take them when they die. The only way they die is for an accident to happen," Zeus explained, and I raised an eyebrow.