Smite Thee
Darkness.
Silence.
There was nothing around Ethan as he floated in emptiness.
But then it suddenly appeared. The slight bluish glow of a beautiful planet materialized in the darkness.
Ethan recognized the planet. He lived in it. Somehow he was floating in space observing his home planet in all its magnificence.
His admiring was abruptly interrupted, as a large hand reached from behind his shoulder. Ethan looked at the hand as it brushed past his face and pointed at his planet. He tried to look back at the person, but he couldn't.
Ethan followed the direction of the long pointing finger, and his gaze fell back onto the planet.
The scene disturbed him.
Ominous dark shadows started growing randomly on the planet. The dark shadows grew and grew, eventually consuming the earth. The vibrant and lively glow dissipated, becoming lifeless and dull.
Ethan felt a deep fear of impending doom.
"What is that!?"
However, no matter what Ethan said, there was no response.
"Who are you?! What are you trying to show me?!"
The being of the hand never said a word and only kept pointing. He could only be shown.
The scene changed.
Ethan was no longer floating in space. He panicked at the sudden shift. Swerving his head left and right, startled, he tried to make sense of what was happening.
He was now on his planet and in his city, however, he did not recognize it.
Ethan floated off the ground in the center of an apocalyptic disaster. Burning and fallen skyscrapers littered the landscape. Broken and damaged vehicles stuck out of the damaged buildings. Something powerful tossed them there as it cleared its path.
Only waste and mangled bodies filled the streets.
He almost didn't recognize the place, until he saw the street sign half dangling off the tilting street-light pole.
24th St.
Ethan suddenly realized where he was.
The terrified shrieks of a woman scared Ethan as he jumped in freight.
"No! Stay back! Stay baaaack!! AAAHHHH!!!"
A blur of a large misty shadow the size of two men crossed the street. The woman's scream became muffled howls as streams of smoke shot off the shadow creature, forcefully shoving down every open orifice on the woman's body.
The woman fell back as she slammed her hands on to the pavement, clawing the ground until her fingers were bloodied. Her back arched unnaturally as she twisted and convulsed in agony.
She was banging the back of her head on the concrete as if trying to kill herself, but suddenly she stopped.
She collapsed on the ground, motionless.
Ethan looked on, paralyzed by what he saw. It was like a scene from a horror movie. Like the woman was being possessed.
As if noticing Ethan's presence, the blurry shadow creature turned and glanced in Ethan's direction. It paused momentarily, as if surprised. However, that was short-lived.
Two red eyes opened from vertical slits within the dark mist. It gave a sinister stare at Ethan as it creepily grinned with its corroded yellow teeth.
"I seeeeeee yooooouuuu."
It rushed forward towards Ethan. With the same smoke that entered the woman, it launched forward, ready to pierce into Ethan's body.
However, Ethan vanished.
A screech bellowed out from the shadow entity and shook the immediate buildings.
"Daaaaaammmnn Diviiiiiiness!!! Your interference does nothing!!! Nooooootthhiiiiinnngg! We will take everything! You will pay for all you have done!!!"
The entity looked up into the sky. As if speaking to someone or something invisible there, it glared and threatened and belittled whatever was there.
"Your stupid plans will fail! Resistance is futile! I will start with that human first. He will become mine. And I will use your precious little helper to extract our revenge!"
The scene changed.
Ethan was back in space looking at the dull and lifeless planet. A blue screen popped before him.
***ding***
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System Notification
1 New Message from: The Divines
***
Choose the Diviner
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Ethan opened his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling. He laid in his messed-up bed. His dream had caused him to throw his blankets and pillows in disarray. However, he paid no attention to it as he only continued to look dumbly at the blue screen before him.
Last night, after coming home from work, Ethan somehow managed to call forth and open a blue screen. The screen was his status window.
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Name: Ethan Saltorie
Species: Humanoid - Primate
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Profession: Office worker
Condition: Healthy
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Skills: None
Abilities: None
Unique constitutions: Blessed Eyes
Talent: Psychic, Foresight
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Stats
(Relative to the universe average for similar species: humanoid)
Strength: .3
Agility: .5
Dexerty: .5
Intelligence: .7
Spirit: 1.2
Prana: .2
Ki: .1
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"What's with these shitty numbers?! Doesn't this mean I'm worse than a pleb? A complete noob?!"
Ethan didn't want to admit it. He was rather disappointed, but there were so many questions he had no answers to. He thought to himself pondering the possibilities.
He decided to search online to see if anyone else was experiencing the oddity.
"Is…anyone… seeing… a blue game screen… in real life?" He clicked search, but most of the results were just related to actual games. The only others were fantasy books and some memes, but nothing what Ethan was looking for.
Ethan was sure there were other people thinking about status screens besides himself. Whether it be playing games or just thinking about it.
"Was it because of the dream?" Did it manifest because I thought about the screen from the dream?"
With no definite answer, Ethan seriously looked at his status window again and thought over the information.
"The poorly lacking stats aside, at least I have some talent and a "good?" constitution. I don't know though. Something better than nothing, I hope."
Ethan focused on the species information.
"It doesn't seem we're alone in the universe after all."
Tired from work and the new surprises from the dream and blue window screens. Ethan decided to forget about it as there was nothing he could do.
"Maybe it'll go away like a dream."
With that thought he went to sleep.
However, with the vivid dream he had just woken from, and the bright blue status screen before him, he knew all of this wasn't going to simply fade away like a dream.
Laying out on his disorderly bed, Ethan just stared blankly at the blue notification window and the glittering gold words of the message.
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System Notification
1 New Message from: The Divines
***
Choose the Diviner
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Breaking out of his stupor and recalling the hand of the entity standing behind him from his dream, Ethan yelled out as he complained.
"That's it?! That's all you're going to tell me?! What the hell is a Diviner?! What am I supposed to do with that?!"
Seeing that there wasn't even an option to select anything, Ethan was more furious.
"And how the heck am I supposed to even choose that?! There's no buttons or anything I can select!"
As if annoyed by Ethan's complaining, the notification window disappeared.
Ethan went silent…
"Was it mad? Did I say too much? Hey. Come back! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have yelled at you, window screen! Window screen!"
***ding***
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System Notification
1 New Message from: The Divines
***
All in due time. Now. Shut up. You're annoying.
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"…annoying?! I'll tell you what's annoying! You not telling me anything, that's what! You're just ordering me around!"
***ding***
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System Notification
1 New Message from: The Divines
***
I SAID IN DUE TIME!!! YOU WANT ME TO SMITE YOU, LOUD-MOUTHED ONE?!?!?
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Ethan shut up, but he was pouting. Smiting from a divine did not sound pleasant. Still he could not hold in his emotions, and continued whispering his complaints.
"Stupid talking window screen. You talked to me first! Isn't it your faul…"
The rumbling of thunder outside made Ethan keep in his last words as he hid underneath his blankets. Though, not like a blanket could do much for him.
The blaring alarm from Ethan's phone went off, notifying him to get ready for work.