Light.

Bright Light.

Bright White Light.

“Where am I?”

I close my eyes and re-open them to check if I'm not imagining things.

It’s still bright.

“No, really, where am I?” I mutter to myself. I slowly pick myself off the ground and observe my surroundings. The bright white light is still prevalent all around me and seems to be the only visible thing to me. My feet seem to be standing on nothing but my hopes and dreams but the surface seems sturdy enough. I do a double take on the environment.

Nothing but bright white light.

A certain anxiety creeps into my brain. There is absolute silence with the exception of myself making noise. My heartbeat increases.

With nothing to go on, I pick a direction and walk. I travel across this place but it doesn’t change at all. The sound of my steps and heartbeat make me go on edge from the lack of anything in this place. It all seems like a bad dream. A really bad dream.

“This is no way a dream.” I mutter again. An unhealthy habit of mine but any solace of sounds makes me less anxious from this situation.

“Indeed, it is not.” Bellows a voice all around me.

My alarm bells ring, this isn’t normal. Granted me waking up in this white plane is already out of the ordinary.

Calmly I inquire, “Who are you?”

The voice bellows again “I am what your kind refers to me as a god.”

“So, your kind does exist huh. Never thought I would actually meet a deity. What do you want from me...”

“Moruna”

“Moruna... yes why am I here and what do you want from me?”

“Let me open the door for you and we can discuss this at a table.”

I notice in my peripheral vision a large dark wood door emerges from nothing. The craftsmanship is rather exquisite and looks nothing like what I have seen at home. Unfamiliar runes and carvings on the edges that seemingly tell a story.

The door stands ajar and I hear the voice again “Come, come Gherman, we have much to discuss.” This time the voice sounds less like bass speakers and more feminine and archaic. Seems like the goddess refers to herself as a god, I wonder why. I speed up from my slow walk to finally get some answers to my situation. Putting my hand on the door I feel an almost steel like feeling in my hand, the wood is definitely not from earth, pushing the door slightly to let myself in I see a rather small room.

The first thing I see is a large brown table with its legs intertwining in the middle, two chairs with a similar design on opposite ends. The chair on the left is occupied by this god (goddess?) Moruna.

Our eyes meet. She has pure golden eyes, no pupils, just gold, enchanting. Shifting my eyesight, I see that she is puffy so to say. Not fat, just puffy like an omelet. This makes her entire figure curvy with a soft feeling. A spark of curiosity makes me instinctively shift my vision on her assets and I get a rough shape before my mind screams that this is a deity and ogling her would probably get me killed. However, she is quite moderate in the chest department, maybe due to her figure they are partially hidden and the same goes for the behind. Her attire is also simple, a white robe of sorts that covers most of her down to her knees.

She coughs softly to take me back to reality and says “Come, sit down.”

I briskly walk to the chair and sit down. My head wanders around the room again and it seemed rather barren. Only a circular bed with an abundance of pillows made from the same wood as the door and what I assumed was a closet of sorts.

I begin the conversation properly and hold my hand out “So... Greetings Moruna, I am Gherman Jalek although you seem to know that already, given you are a goddess and all.”

She playfully smiles and shakes my hand “Likewise Gherman, I am a god or goddess, however you deem fit to call me as they are essentially the same. What do you want to drink?”

“Black Coffee please.”

With a wave of her hand, the black coffee rests in front of me. Neat. I take a small sip to get my brain to run again at full speed.

“I have come with a task for you Gherman. You are going to become my champion and lead a certain group of people into conquering a newly formed galaxy.”

“Now that’s a task and a half,” I mutter. Conquer the galaxy? What? I’m just a regular guy who created and led a news station into becoming the number one channel in the world and she wants me to conquer the galaxy?

I hear a slight chuckle from the goddess, “Oh my! Your expression is gold!” Her chuckle turns into laughter. Indeed, my frowns are famous in my company. She stops laughing and shifts into a serious scowl. “Let me fully explain so listen carefully, us deitys all compete in an event called The Eternity Games in which many individuals of different species of sentient origin are sent to meet their patron deity. From there they choose a species to lead as their immortal King or Queen or however you deem fit to rule your people until they hold full authority over their home planet and from there the galaxy.”

She pauses for me to digest the information. So, I'm just plucked out from earth to compete in god games? Wonderful. What about my family and my business? What about everything I wanted to do before retiring?

Noticing my grim expression, she adds “Naturally everything you have left behind is safe and sound, you are a simple clone of your earth counterpart, your body is still inhabited by you, I just took a copy of you and planted you here. Everything about the Gherman Jalek on earth is the same as you here.”

“So why me then? Why abduct me over the 7 billion other humans on earth and why do you do these Eternity Games?

“Well, first of all, you are perfect for what I need.” She summons a pair of glasses and a piece of paper and starts reading “Gherman Jalek, 39 years of age according to earth’s standard, accomplished businessman, and leader who propelled his race after creating a company that handles information in a proper factual manner. That business leads to the downfall of the corrupt people in power all over the world as the civilians are given hard proof of their misdeeds. Many revolutions and coups later and the majority of the human race are back to working together in order to conquer space.” She stops reading and puts down the glasses. “You, Gherman, made my previous champion ecstatic in your actions so he is now trying to complete his Eternity Game in the next phase. You were protected by my champion when I told him of your company.”

Are the humans already led by a champion? My business did that? That is a bombshell.

“Yes, Gherman that is what happened."

“But still, why me? Although you claim that’s what happens next...” “Happened, in here time goes slightly faster than on Earth.” She interrupts me. “I chose you because you are a natural leader, a man of justice and ambitious. My previous champion of your race was quite the ambitious man but he lacked a just nature in his early days so humanity came out to be imperfect, although now he is on the right track.”

“Then what’s in it for me?”

Another chuckle escapes her lips “Gherman we both know you’re not going to let this pass but I can tell you that if you do achieve victory over everyone else, you get to join me into godhood but I cannot reveal anything else until you accept this proposal.”

It’s true. Since I heard that my life on Earth is still technically in my hands I considered this. Would be an interesting experience, who can say they played champion for a deity? I notice my leg tapping the ground in an excited fashion. My thoughts are direct about the specifics about The Eternity Games and my gut is propelling me forward.

“I accept your proposal!”

“My, my, resolute and without hesitation. We will get along just nicely.” She chuckles again. “Shall we get into the specifics?”

“Let’s Begin!”