THE RITUAL

CHAPTER ONE: THE RITUAL

In a realm shrouded in mystique, far removed from the grasp of ordinary reality, three gods reigned supreme: God Exrez, God Aelion, and God Vythar. Their dominion over this enigmatic realm was upheld through a macabre tradition—a ritual as ancient as time itself, known only to the gods and their male progeny.

In this ethereal realm, women bore no significance, for their sole purpose was to deliver male offspring to these deities, their fates sealed from the moment of conception. These mothers were destined for a dark end; they were to be sacrificed by the very sons they had birthed. A somber festival marked the culmination of this sinister tradition.

The festival unfolded once a male child reached his twenty-fifth year—a pivotal juncture in his life. On this fateful day, the young man would be bestowed with a sacred sword, its edge poised to sever the most profound of bonds: that between mother and child. With this gruesome act, the son would relinquish his maternal ties, making way for his father's divine essence and power to flow into him, transforming him into the reigning god.

One such male child, Zerus, had now come of age. He was the offspring of God Exrez, born to a mother whose destiny was sealed from the moment she conceived. As Zerus reached the precipice of his twenty-fifth year, the day of reckoning loomed ominously.

The day of the festival arrived, and Zerus was summoned to the foreboding stage. He stood, his heart heavy with the knowledge of what awaited him. In his trembling hand, he grasped the sword—the instrument of his mother's doom.

But as he gazed upon the woman who had brought him into this world, a torrent of emotions surged within him. The love she had showered upon him, the sacrifices she had made—all of it rushed to the forefront of his mind. He couldn't bring himself to commit the heinous act demanded by tradition.

His hesitation angered God Exrez, whose authority was not to be trifled with. With a wrathful decree, he ordered his guards to seize Zerus. It was an unprecedented display of fury, a deviation from the age-old script of the ritual. In his rage, God Exrez raised his own sword, severing Zerus's left fingers as a brutal consequence of his defiance. Then, without remorse, he banished Zerus from the sacred realm of the gods.

Zerus plummeted from the celestial heights, his body torn and battered, landing in a realm unknown to him—a land of uncertainty and pain. The consequences of his choice and the unforeseen path before him were now etched in his very being, his destiny irrevocably altered by a love that transcended divine decree.