Exodus Ceremony.
A ceremony held by residents of the Prometheus Empire every ten years for the past eighty years. The Exodus Ceremony is a two-part event whereby a historical festival is held in remembrance of their first mass relocation to the fantastical world of Admetus.
Secondly, it is a reception hosted in a different and sacred location wherein a newer batch of earthlings will be transported into the world of Admetus.
And today is the day that such an occurrence would happen.
Throughout the entirety of the Prometheus Empire, festivals of epic proportions were happening, with sounds of clashing cups of beer and boisterous laughter ringing from everywhere. The excited and jovial mood spread throughout the empire.
The Exodus Ceremony has been of utmost importance to the Prometheus Empire.
A ceremony that celebrated the accomplishments of its forefathers dreams, with the current generation thankful for their sacrifices that allowed them to gain footing in a new magical world, giving them a steady foundation that allowed them to grow to become who they are.
Their ancestors's guidance and protection enabled them to grow into powerful beings capable of magical feats such as manipulating the elements to their will, controlling rain, slaying dragons, and regenerating lost limbs, to name a few.
Their sacrifices allowed them to stand here proudly as heroes.
Heroes to their friends and families.
Heroes of the Promethean Empire
Heroes to their brethren's saved from their dying home planet.
Through their strength, might, and wits, they fought hard to gather the resources needed to firepower an archaic formation engineered by their ancestors to save fellow humans stuck on Earth.
For seventy years, they continuously provided resources that repeatedly saved the lives of their brethren stuck on a dying planet. Their efforts have allowed the safe migration of their brothers and sisters seven times.
In these seven instances, almost 15 billion humans were safely transported to Admetus, and today marks the eighth exodus ceremony.
Far away from the festivities happening in the empire, in the most discrete and heavily guarded places of the Prometheus Empire stood ten thousand imperial guards, their auras fierce and stances sharp. They stood silently behind three individuals.
They observed a singular beam of light dance across the expansive, verdant plain of luscious grass. In its mystical dance, it carved out a fantastical formation composed of archaic arrays and symbols. When it completed drawing the formation, a brilliant pillar of white light surged into the sky.
From within the light pillar, resplendent colors of light flashed into and out of existence continuously.
Witnessing this, the three individuals standing in front of the imperial guards took a few steps towards the pillar of light. The light pillar lasted for 30 minutes before dimming and disappearing.
The veil that had been cast by the pillar of white light was drawn, revealing hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, of teenagers with colorful expressions.
Their faces were distraught with fear, despair, and anguish, but among them existed a singular oddity, Fritz; his expression was calm and tinged with a little curiosity.
Recovering their bearings, almost all the teenagers's expressions morphed from fear and anguish to disbelief, relief, happiness, and mostly confusion. Immediately, thunderous raucousness broke out as they started to question their present states.
"Oh my god, am I in heaven?"
"I am not dead... Hahaha, I am not dead!"
"The death cloud didn't kill us."
"Good lord, just what is happening?"
"Is this a dream?"
Their combined voices united to form a cacophony of loud noise that drowned out their own inquiries. This disturbance prompted one of the three esteemed individuals, an old woman, to swing, raise her walking stick, and knock it on the ground.
"Be quiet!" commanded the old woman.
She raised her walking stick again, knocked it into the ground, and added, "Be calm!".
With each hit her walking stick made against the ground, an invisible pulse would flow out of her and slowly distribute throughout the entire area. The first wave prompts the teenagers to involuntarily shut their mouths, regardless of whether they are still talking or not. The second wave calmed them down, preventing them from resisting the first command.
It was only now that all of them acknowledged the presence of the people in front of them. Their gazes inquisitively shot towards them, especially the three individuals in front of the frightening soldiers.
Leading the trio was a typical old woman with gray hair, wrinkled skin, and a hunched back. Yet what distinguished her from the typical old woman was her luscious green hair and bright, emerald green eyes.
"Hello children. I understand that a lot of you are confused and scared; fret not; Granny Eve will explain everything to you alright." Her soothing voice and warm gaze drew the attention of all the children towards her.
Seeing their reaction, she continued, "Before I explain anything, I have a question: does anyone recognize this young lady besides me?" She turned and pointed to her right, wherein stood Irina Nightshade.
The teenagers focused on Irina Nightshade, who stood calmly ignorant of the hundreds of thousands of gazes placed on her. They racked their brains in an attempt to recall where they had seen her before.
Her figure remained familiar to them, especially the scar that ran from her right cheekbones through her lips and ended at her chin. With such a mark on her face, it made a sense of familiarity; they felt intense, irregardless of how forgetful a person was. Such a trait made it hard to forget.
'Irina Nightshade, General Spokesperson of the World Council, huh? mused Fritz.
One of the teenager's eyes sparkled with revelation, promptly raising her hand to answer. Granny Eve said, "Yes, darling."
The teenager answered, "Irina Nightshade, World Council Spokesperson."
In acknowledgment, Granny Eve added, "You are correct, my child. The reason why I asked that question is because I want you all to understand that what I am about to say is nothing but the truth."
"Instead of a history lesson, I will keep things brief. Our mother world, Earth, is dying per se, as all of you know, but her death is a result of assimilation by another world, Admetus. That Death Cloud is just a veil we created to hide the truth in order to prevent the collapse of world order and national stability."
"To maintain order and stability, we decided between two evils, one greater and the other lesser. Between the threat of death by burning meteors and rupturing space and death by natural catastrophes, which one will you opt for?"
"I think the majority will say the latter. With this decision, we managed to salvage the already catastrophic situation by twisting the truth. Human lives gained a semblance of normality over the years despite the impending apocalypse, and we managed to adapt to the situation."
"All of the above does not answer the question of how you survived, right? Well, the reason you managed to survive is because of the sacrifice, bravery, and ingenuity of our forefathers."
"Before the establishment of the veil-death cloud, our ancestors ventured into the ruptures in space, and those who survived reached the magical world of Admetus. Through their blood and sweat, they manage to create a safe way out of Mother Earth."
"They created a massive archaic teleportation that, after every ten years, has enough power to transport a sector. This formation has saved the lives of countless humans over the course of eighty years."
"Today this teleportation formation saved you, as it transported you here to Admetus. A brand new magical world. This is a lot to take in, especially for kids your age, so I will give you ten minutes to digest all that."
Granny Eve cracked her back and stood silently, waiting for them to fully process and understand all that she said before proceeding to drop another bomb on them.
These teenagers lived their whole lives with a Damocles sword dangling above their heads, and the moment they thought it fell upon them, they were told that the sword was a lie, an illusion.
This would make the sanest individuals mad and fail to see the truth if the situation was not treated carefully, but the biggest advantage was that right now she was dealing with kids, and time has proven time and time again that the individuals with the highest adaptability and acceptance rates were kids.
She watched as their expressions morphed from different expressions to ultimately acceptance, and deep within their eyes, she saw something.
She saw exhaustion.
The children were exhausted.
Either physically, mentally, or emotionally, they were tired.
Despite the nuanced emotional and physical manipulations that she did to them, at the end of the day, it couldn't help; rather, it helped them last a little longer before collapsing.
For a human to be in prime health, they needed all their faculties to be functioning at 100 percent; if a singular faculty isn't in prime condition, it will affect the others performance.
Thankfully, the next piece of information she had, though shocking, was one that they would pleasantly appr eciate.
This is because each individual, at a certain point in their lives, has dreamt of wielding magic!!!