Chapter - 02
With a sigh, I stood up from the table, the warmth of the mac n' cheese still settling in my stomach, and headed back to my room. Back to the quiet comfort of my computer, where my weekly Sunday ritual waited for me. Sundays were sacred. While the rest of the week was filled with work and daily routines, Sundays were for indulgence—for diving deep into the world of web novels, my favorite escape.
I sat back down at my desk, adjusting the chair to its familiar groove, and moved the mouse to wake the screen. As the monitor flickered back to life, I felt a thrill of excitement. It had been this way for years. From morning till midnight, every Sunday, I spent the day immersed in fantastical worlds that had nothing to do with reality. It was my version of self-care, a tradition I kept religiously. I wasn't one for social outings or grand adventures. No, for me, there was nothing better than spending an entire day in the company of epic tales, magic, and sprawling battles between good and evil.
I clicked on the "Next Chapter" button, eager to continue the new novel I'd started that morning. This one was different from the typical fantasy novels I read. The world was intriguing—set in the medieval era but not quite like any history I knew. It was a world reshaped by something far greater and more terrifying.
In the story, it all began with an earthquake. A massive, world-shaking tremor that caused destruction on an unimaginable scale. Cities fell, landscapes shifted, and countless lives were lost. The main character's world, just like our own, was forever changed. But it wasn't just an earthquake. Something far more mysterious and dangerous followed in its wake.
Amidst the rubble of ruined civilizations, a colossal gate erupted from the ground in Constantinople. The city, once the heart of a mighty empire, was all but obliterated. The earth cracked, and from its core, the Celestial Gate emerged. It towered over the ruins, a dark, ancient thing made of stone so black it seemed to absorb the light around it. The gate was massive—so large that it swallowed entire districts of the city when it rose. Only the outermost parts of Constantinople, including its famed walls, survived. The once-great city had been reduced to a shadow of its former self, and with it came the end of an era.
At first, the world thought the earthquake and the gate were just natural disasters, but that illusion was shattered when the monsters came. They poured from the gate like a tide of nightmares—beasts the likes of which humanity had never seen. These creatures weren't just feral animals or mythical beasts; they were something worse. They were the embodiment of fear, destruction given form. They rampaged across the lands, unstoppable by normal human means. Swords shattered, arrows bounced harmlessly off their hides, and entire armies were reduced to nothing in mere hours. Fear spread as quickly as the monsters, and it seemed as though the world was on the brink of complete annihilation.
But just as despair reached its peak, something miraculous happened. Across the globe, massive buildings began to materialize out of thin air. Like the gate, they rose from the earth, vast structures of divine design that defied human comprehension. They weren't temples or fortresses—they were academies. Each structure housed the gods themselves, who descended to the mortal realm to help humanity in its darkest hour.
It was a sight no one could have believed possible. The gods, once thought to be myth or legend, were real—and they had come to fight. Four great pantheons emerged, each tied to the land they chose to protect.
In southern Europe, the Olympians descended, their marble academies rising from the ruins of ancient cities. Zeus, Athena, Hades, and the rest of the pantheon strode among mortals, bringing with them the ancient powers of Olympus. Their academy, a towering white structure that radiated divine energy, stood as a beacon of hope against the ever-looming threat of the monsters. Students from across the continent flocked to it, hoping to unlock their hidden potential.
In northern Europe, the Norse Gods appeared, descending from the frozen mountains. Odin, Thor, Freyja, and their kin carved out their academy from the very bones of the earth, a fortress of stone and ice that pulsed with the raw power of Asgard. Here, they taught their students the ways of battle, the arts of magic, and how to wield the power of the elements like the gods themselves. Their academy was a place of strength, where warriors were born to stand against the darkness.
Across Asia, the Shén descended—divine beings from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other Asian mythologies. Their academy was serene, yet filled with an undercurrent of immense power. Dragons soared above as gods like the Jade Emperor, Amaterasu, and Tsukuyomi took their place among the mortals. Their teachings focused on balance and harmony, but they were no strangers to war, for their students became masters of both martial arts and arcane forces.
And in the Middle East, the Ennead descended. The ancient Egyptian gods—Ra, Anubis, Isis, and Horus—brought with them the wisdom of the desert and the power of the Nile. Their academy rose from the sands, a golden structure where the sun never set. It was a place of knowledge and magic, where the powers of life, death, and the stars were taught to those who were worthy.
These pantheons had come not as rulers, but as teachers. In their academies, they began training humanity to tap into a hidden power that had always been dormant within them—Iridium, a mystical energy that could only be unlocked with divine guidance. Iridium flowed through the veins of every human, a latent force tied to the very essence of the earth. The gods taught their students to harness this power, to wield it in battle against the monstrous invaders and to heal the world that had been so badly damaged.
There was a caveat, though. The gods, despite their overwhelming power and presence, had limitations placed upon them when they descended to the mortal realm. They weren't the all-powerful beings they once were, bound by rules that stripped them of direct influence over the world outside their academies. Their academies acted as both their strongholds and their prisons. They couldn't leave, couldn't set foot beyond the boundaries of these sacred spaces, and most importantly, couldn't interfere personally with the Celestial Gate itself.