What Blessing Will You Choose?

Am I dead? I thought as I scanned the area around me.

All I can see is a dark place without any sort of light sources. As I wander around aimlessly, I noticed that this place is awfully quiet. I keep wondering and wandering around, not knowing how much time I'm wandering.

"Is this how it feels after death? I'm afraid, I'm afraid, help anyone please I'm afraid. Dad where are you? Are you there Ryan? Are you there Lia? Please I don't wanna be here" I keep murmuring and shouting at different volumes each time like a madman. while I'm just wandering around aimlessly, the more I shoot, the more I keep losing my mind because of the eerie silence that accompanies me.

Suddenly I can feel someone touching my shoulder from behind. I couldn't help but be startled when I turned around and saw four human figures covered in Light. Are those four people kind of Angel? I'm going to hell, right? I thought to myself considering the last moment of my life that makes me lose my own life and the one I hold dear.

"Who are you? Where am I? Am I dead?" I asked with a trembling voice

"This is the place for the dead souls that had passed away. Yes, you are dead already" The angel-like figure answered my question.

I feel so lost when I hear the confirmation of my death. I felt a sudden longing for all the people I held dear in the past, and make me regret things I have done. I gritted my teeth to hold the emotion I felt after confirming my death.

"As for the question of who we are, we are beings that have reached divinity in another world, we are beings that are revered as 'god' in another world. We are here to offer you a chance to reincarnate to the other world, will you take it?" The figures covered in Light answered my question and gave me an offer.

I'm not going to hell? I thought to myself wondering if I heard it wrong. Considering how I feel about this place, I just wanna get outta here. Of course, the offer to be reincarnated sounds alluring compared to what would happen if I say no and stuck in this weird place forever.

"Yes", I answered without hesitation

Suddenly the world around me changed from a dark and eerie place to a bright place filled with flower fields. Mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers can be seen when I try to look around. This beautiful scenery is straight up from a dream, much better than all that I've ever seen before in my life.

So beautiful, is this heaven? Really? Is a sinner like me going to heaven instead of hell? I murmured inside my mind when I looked around. But then again if I see carefully I can see people moving around from far away, I can see a castle builds on those hills and a town nearby the castle, like how I see portraits of the medieval age from games and stories. Am I sent to past then?

The human figures covered in light stood in front of me. The light that covered them slowly dissipated, revealing their true appearance. It turned out that their appearance looked like normal people, consisting of 3 men and one woman.

The first man I see is a tall blue-haired man with the build of a warrior. I can feel the sense of authority coming from him. I feel suffocated when he was staring at me. The second man is a really good-looking man with red eyes and glasses. He looked like a dignified scholar, radiating a sense of hunger for knowledge.

The third man I see is a shorty, slightly chubby black-haired man. He looked calm, I don't feel threatened by his gaze as I felt by the blue-haired man, nor did he radiate the feeling of thirst for knowledge. He looked like a very ordinary person, a kind uncle next door. Last but not least is a white-haired woman. Her hair is long enough to reach her waist, and she wore a plain white-colored dress and shows no emotion on her face. I only feel the air of mystery coming from her.

Three of the four people I see have weird-colored hair. I think red hair is not that weird because there are some people with red hair in my previous world, but I never saw them directly. The white one is not that weird either because old people's hair naturally turned white. But for such healthy-looking and young-looked hair to have white color? It's weird. Is this a fantasy world instead of the past?

"So.." the tall blue-haired man started talking, "as we've agreed, you will be reincarnated to this world. You will be reincarnated to this world with a responsibility to bear"

As I thought. There is no such thing as a free meal in the world. I got reincarnated into this world with the price I have to bear. Suddenly the blue-haired man turned his gaze to the beautiful red-haired man with glasses beside him.

"You will be reborn as a hero in this generation, bearing the responsibility to defend the Central continent, and fight the demon race invasion from the Desolate continent that had been going since 600 years ago," The blue-haired man explained, "You will be born as one of the four heroes in this generation."

My expression turned dark when I heard that. I have to fight the demon invasion that has been going on since 600 years ago? 'this generation'? The battle is still going on even after multiple generations? 4 heroes each generation at that? Just how strong the demon race is? How am I supposed to fight them? I thought to myself. And what the hell is the demon race? Is this a fantasy world, not somewhere in the middle age like the earth world? Does magic exist in this world?

"Wait for a second, can you give me the general situation of this world and this war?" I asked with caution.

The white-haired woman pointed her finger toward me, and a wisp of light flies toward me. Suddenly, the flow of information comes straight to my mind.

The age of humanity started around 1700 years ago. Humans, guided by four gods, ruled the fertile land called the Central continent. By the year of 1054 Central Continent calendar, something major happened in the neighboring continent in the south. The Desolate Continent, a continent located south of the Central Continent, was a frozen, unfertile, and barely habitable land, ruled by a race called the demon race. That year, the leader of the demon race ascended into godhood. And then the rest of the demon race asked the newly ascended god to lead them in conquering the fertile land that humans ruled.

The demon god came to the Central Continent and confronted the four gods. If the 4 gods and one demon god fought, the only outcome would be the destruction of the central continent. The gods come into an agreement that they won't fight directly, but each god can bestow one blessing to the chosen ones. And from then on, the war started between the human and demon race with 4 blessed humans called "Heroes" on the humanity side, and one blessed demon called "Demon Lord" on the demon side.

Although the blessed from humanity's side was 4 times the number of the demon lord, humanity's armies are far from united. Humanity consisted of multiple cultured people, from different countries. Each hero comes from different countries as well, having different goals aside from fending off the demon invasion. Some countries even used the hero for their benefit, such as expanding their territory by invading another human territory. Humanity as a whole, keep losing land to the demon invasion, but not everyone cared about it, especially people that were far from the southern part of the Central Continent. Coupled with the fact that demon lords lived for almost 300 years, compared to heroes that only around 80 years, made things worse because the demon lords grew stronger as time by. By the present, the Central Continent almost lost 20 percent of its land, especially the southeastern part of the continent.

What the hell, I need to be the heroes in such disunited armies of humanity and fight the united army that only goes stronger over time? I cursed inside my mind.

"Yes, They are really strong, the battle had been going on for generations and you have to fight them," said the blue-haired man with a hint of disgust on his face, as if he understand my worries

"Although they are strong, you don't need to worry that much. We are not expecting to have the heroes to wipe them in one generation, all you need to do is to fight them and stop their advances. Of course, it would be better if you can kill the demon lord and push them to the south." The short and slightly fat man said trying to reassure me, "and with that responsibility, you will be given a power called blessing to use."

Ah, I see, with the great responsibilities come great power eh? But still, the fact that multiple heroes with blessings can't stop them even after generations terrify me.

"Enough with your cowardice," said the blue-haired man confirming my suspicion that they can read my mind.

"Anyway.." the black-haired man interjected "let's just talk about the blessing you will choose"

"You can choose any blessing that you want, but you can only choose one," the blue-haired man said coldly.

"But you have to keep in mind that blessing doesn't make you invincible in this world, it only makes you only better than the limit of human can do in one aspect of blessing you choose" the blue-haired man explained "for example if you choose the blessing of strength, you can't split mountain or sea in one slash, but you can still kill multiple men with one swing of your sword. Your strength will surpass the limit humans should have, but don't make you an omnipotent being"

"Unless you can ascend..." The white-haired woman murmured with a voice that can barely be heard

"That's being said, as the one who will give you the blessing, I'd recommend you to choose between the blessing of strength, magical power, or intelligence to choose because, in the past, those 3 blessings are the most used and successful of all other blessings that ever chosen," the red-haired man said, "of course, you can choose another blessing if you want to. so, what blessing will you choose?"

"I want the blessing of wealth," I said confidently.