Alan was standing half-naked in the bathroom next to what once was a wall with, a spear floating in the air next to him.
He had no idea how to react as he just sat there completely frozen, should he be angry, amazed, or afraid?
"That's Gungnir for you," came an old voice, clearly attempting to sound wise and old.
Hearing this voice Alan was quickly frightened and picked up Gungnir pointing it in different directions to defend himself from the threat from the unknown voice, something which only resulted in the old voice's hearty laughter.
"Who are you," with his spear ready to thrust into the direction in which he would hear the voice.
"I am your forefather, the high one, the all-father, I AM ODIN... " While saying this the old man attempted to create thunder and explosion sounds with his mouth.
Alan stood there completely shocked for a moment lowering his spear which resulted in a hearty laughter from Odin which stopped abruptly when Alan continued with asking "Odin who... ?".
As Alan said this he could hear a vein pop on the old man's face as a woman's voice began abruptly laughing hysterically.
As "Odin" heard this hysterical laughter he began lashing out at her in an attempt to restore his pride "You dare laugh at me little lizard" Odin said with a murderous tone.
Being called little lizard seemed to also have infuriated the other voice who then continued "Oh, what are you going to do about it, Odin who... ".
This seemed to have completely infuriated Odin "Tiamat if I wasn't a remnant soul I would make you wish you could return to your little lizard egg"
A comment that seemed to also have brought "Tiamat" over the edge as Alan could hear a growling sound from somewhere.
Odin then continued "Why are you even here, he is my descendant that I choose through the trials."
Tiamat rebutted "He is also carrying my bloodline so I have just as much claim over him as you"
Still standing half naked in a wrecked bathroom listing two voices in his head arguing Alan felt like he was slowly losing his mind.
Seeing Alan's confusion Tiamat decided to explain "Thousands of years ago all of us gods decided to collectively sacrifice ourselves in an attempt to save this dying world by fusing it with fragments of another world. We left behind our remnant souls to guide our descendants to inherit our mantel and guide this new world, and I chose you, but it seems like a shameless old leach also has set his sights on you".
"Who are you calling a shameless old leach you little lizard," said an angry voice dropping the entire failed persona he attempted to use earlier turning it into a complete dogfight.
Alan stood there shocked as these "gods" as they claimed to be didn't have any of the holiness and prestige that he had imagined gods would have.
Tiamat continued "You are the all-father, shouldn't you have f*cked at least half of åsgard to get that title, go and chose another one of your countless descendants"
Which resulted in Odin's rebuttal "Don't you lizard f*ck everything that can breathe causing every single species to have members with dragon blood, why don't you choose one of them." Said Odin with no intention of standing down.
Alan seemed to be sick of this dog fight as he suddenly walked through the wrecked wall returned to his room and began constantly muttering to himself "This is all just a dream... this is all just a dream... this is all just a dream... " as he laid himself down in his bed.
This seemed to shock both Odin and Tiamat who suddenly stopped talking.
"Have the mental fortifications from the trial finally stopped working?" Tiamat asked Odin with a much more serious tone than before.
"Yeah, seems like it all has begun to catch up to him," Said Odin without a hint of his former childishness.
After almost a minute of Alan's eternal muttering his mind began to reclaim its clarity and these "gods" seemed to have stopped arguing.
Having processed the former events a bit better he slowly stood up from the bed with a serious look on his face as he asked "How am I alive".
"When you awakened your bloodlines our gifts helped you survive," Tiamat said with a serious tone in her voice.
Feeling a little better he asked the most pressing question on his mind. "What was all that?"
This time it was Odin that took the lead in explaining "That were the trials we created to choose a descendant who would claim our mantel and defend this place from the invading races"
This answer seemed to have only left Alan with more questions. "Invading races?"
This time it was Tiamat that explained "As the world continues to fuse with fragments of the other world its mana will slowly begin recovering. The problem is that with these fragments races from the otherworld will also cross over together with it. To counter this we choose to leave behind our remnant souls to each guide one of our descendants to rebuild this soon broken world."
Tiamat's answer seemed to have temporarily put Alan's concerns to rest as his stomach began growling.
Feeling hungry Alan decided to change out of his bloodied and torn clothes and change into something more a bit comfortable and went down to his kitchen to begin making himself a bowl of cereal.
During all of this Alan himself was slightly surprised at how easily he seemed to have accepted all of it thinking that it might be something similar to the effect they said the trials had on his mind.
Alan then out of habit took his bowl of cereal to the living room and turned on the tv to see if he could find anything interesting to watch.
After looking threw some of the channels he found a news channel that seemed to have an emergency broadcast.
"Yesterday approximately almost ten percent of the population seemed to have suddenly disappeared. The disappearances seemed to be tied to specific locations where large groups of people all over 16 suddenly disappeared. Today exactly 24 hours after this prior event a portion of the missing people seemed to have returned. The people who have returned all tell a story of similar experiences of fighting fantasy monsters in something similar to a trial and afterward awakened something they call a "bloodline" giving them superhuman capabilities. Many of these "superhumans" have been sent to mental hospitals after having experienced this traumatic event. The professionals are still stumped about the cause of their disappearance and reemergence "
The scope of this event exceeded Alan's expectations as he sat there shocked at the scale thinking that if ten percent of the population all went through the same trial then how many million died?
"It is only the first batch," Odin said slowly and then continued by explaining "There will be a total of there batches where the first is the trial, the second is the main with most of the population, and the third is for everyone that doesn't have any prominent ancestor and not inherent any bloodlines. The second trial will only begin when all the trials are finished"
This piece of information shocked Alan and he began calculating the total number of deaths which would be likely counted in the billions. "Is it really necessary... " Alan then slowly asked whit a hint of a chill in his voice.
"When mana begins to flood into this world again it will make most of your weaponry useless as it will begin to interfere with your laws of physics. And considering that in your group five people died fighting the lowest of the low of these monsters then yes, it is necessary." Answered Tiamat.
"When will they arrive" Was the only question that Alan could force out of his lips.
Right after he had asked the question he suddenly felt a tremor in the ground that slowly grew bigger until it was at least the scale of a 6 on the Richter scale.
As the earthquake continued cracks began climbing up the walls of his house while dust began falling from the roof.
Recognizing the dangerous situation Alan quickly ran out of the house as it began to collapse behind him.
The area where Alan lives is not near any edge of tectonic plates so they did not build the houses in his area with any earthquake support causing them to fall like cardboard houses during the earthquake.
As Alan looked around watching all of the houses in his neighborhood collapsing he heard Odin in his head saying "It has begun".
Suddenly a blinding light came from behind Alan, he quickly turned around to see some sort of a crack appearing in the middle of the air.
The crack just floated there silently before it began slowly leaking out strange multicolored particles that soon dispersed into the air.
As the particles kept flooding out of the crack a reaction came from Alan. The particles had a strange attraction to his chest as they created a whirlpool that soon compressed into a ball floating a few centimeters above him.
Before Alan could react the particles shoot straight through his chest in the direction of his heart, fusing with it.
Staring at the area above his heart the translucent window appeared again.
[Heart of Tiamat (sealed)
Abilities:
- Infant dragon heart (It is the heart of an infant dragon. It has a storage for mana that is almost unseen in any other living being and the ability to attract all surrounding mana when it's empty)
- Elemental manipulation (Increases the user affinity to all elements)
- ???
- ???
- ???
The heart of the mighty Dragon Tiamat]
Before Alan could fully comprehend what was happening a small green arm stretched out of the crack grabbing onto its corners to pull itself out.
The creature that had just exited the crack was the same type of creature that Alan had fought in the trials. As he continued to inspect them the translucent screen appeared again.
[Name: Nameless
Race: Goblin
Bloodline: Goblin foot soldier
Abilities:
Knife mastery
Fake death]
As Alan was standing there in fright at the sight of a goblin since he did not have the mental fortifications from the trial, a calming voice appeared in his head "Whisper 'Gungir' silently for yourself".
Alan calmed down after listening to Odin and silently whispered Gungir to himself. As he whispered it a reaction come from underneath all the rubble. The rubble began to shake as something suddenly shoot out from underneath it, stopping in front of Alan.
When he picked up the spear Odin continued "Repeat after me, ᚠᛚᚨᛗᛖᚱ"
Alan had never heard this language before but, it gave him a strange sense of familiarity that allowed him to replicate it perfectly. "ᚠᛚᚨᛗᛖᚱ"
As Alan chanted it he suddenly felt a weird energy leaving his heart and entering Gungnir from his hand. As this energy entered Gungir it began to shoot out strings of a translucent blue substance that began connecting to all of the red particles that were floating around in the air after having left the portal.
After these "strings" had connected to enough of these particles he heard Odin's voice once more "Gather them together at a single point by concentrating on that point".
Hearing Odin's command Alan began concentrating on these "strings" who seemed to move by his will. After focusing on a point beside the portal for a second they all flocked to that point beside the portal.
"Repeat after me again, ᛖᚲᛊ ᛋᛈᛚᛟᛞᛖᚱ"
"ᛖᚲᛊ ᛋᛈᛚᛟᛞᛖᚱ"
As Alan chanted he felt more of that energy leave his heart entering the Gungnir. Right after it entered Gungnir it shoot out a beam of the translucent blue substance towards the cluster of red particles that reacted to it. The cluster of red particles began to gather closer and closer together before disappearing completely.
A second after they disappeared strong light began flooding out of the same point as flames began to flow out 5 meters in every direction shortly after.
All of the goblins that had left the portal were now engulfed in these flames.
After a few seconds, the flames stopped leaving only a few charred corpses left on the ground.