After the light, God.

You know, getting old is when you weren't even drinking the night before and when you wake up you struggle to figure out where you are. Well, I guess thirty isn't old, even if I felt like I was forty at twenty. "You have such an old soul" The grandma's would tell me when i was growing up, patting me on the head as if it was a compliment.

A depressed soul, perhaps.

I groaned and turned on my side. My bed felt like granite.

"Wake, wake~!" A charming voice rang through my slumber. Many voices and questions followed, calling out:

"Where am I?"
"Oh god."
"Am I dead?"
"Where am I?"

Myself? I would have rather gone back to sleep, but my curiosity got the better of me and well, that voice that beckoned me awake was quite pleasant. Thus I opened my eyes and frowned. Under me was indeed granite. A shade somewhere between purple and red. Pushing myself up, I stood on my feet and I found that I was among the young adults that were in the class, and we all stood on a floating plane of stone, and the sky was filled with stars.

The platform that we were on was perhaps an acre from end to end. The sides were sharp enough that it looked like we would fall off into the void we were in if we got too close. My heart beat a little faster as I frowned. I did not want that. To the far end of the platform a giant throne made of the same granite was big enough that it looked like it was capable of tipping the land over. On it a young woman in her middle twenties sat with one leg crossed over the other. The Golden rings of her hair framed her face looked like they were copied strait from the bust of a Greek goddess. Her rather large breasts were barely covered in white strips of loose fabric, and the silken threads floating away from her waist told me that if she uncrossed her legs everyone would get an eyeful of her ladyparts. On her head rested a pretty silver crown, its light ever ephemeral, fading before brightening again.

"Yay! You are all awake!" She clapped once, smiling broadly. "Now, first: Are you dead? No! Not yet!" The clap sent her breasts jiggling. "My name is Elisia, and I am a goddess. Recently I was appointed to watch over a very dull and unchanging world, so I began looking out at other worlds for ideas to mix things up. I found Earth and couldn't be more happy. Of course gods have moved people and things around in worlds before, so you will notice some things from your ancient earth myths. I'm just updating it!"

I, like everyone else was silent. Perhaps my mouth was hanging open too. There was no way this was real. She continued, jiggling physics and all as she waved her hands around, explaining:

"So earth has fantasies of Demon Kings and Lucifer and the like trying to conquer the world, so on my world, I recently helped unite the Demon Clans under one banner for the first time ever!"

As she spoke I felt my heart beat faster, and my temperature rose. There was no way this was happening. Standing at the very back of the group of people I wanted to run at her, as if there was a vortex behind me, and maybe there was a chance I could be sent back to the drudge that was my life and being near to her would prevent that. She continued while my heart pounded,

"So I've spoken to my worshipers and answered their call to summon heroes to fight this new menace. You are they! Heroes! Yay!"

The Goddess Elisia stood up and clapped.

She was the only one. Everyone else stood in shock.

"So as it stands, if you die, you die forever. But if you kill the Demon King I'll send all of you back home!"

A handsome young man who looked like he came from money, or debate class (dressed in slacks and a button-up) stepped forward from the group, the first to speak,

"How do we know this is real? This must be a dream. There is only one God. Can you prove this is real?"

Heck, was he trying to ruin this moment?

The goddess hands were clasped from the clap, but let them fall to put them on her hips, "Now don't annoy me, not when I finally got you all here."

"I think before we take you at face value, you should demonstrate that you are indeed a 'god'."

He was a red wind, then. Debate-boy was standing there and then, a red wind was left, and a red, bloody streak at least thirty feet long was left on the purple granite floor. The goddess didn't move at all while she watched.

He was just, gone.

"Now," she continued, "That was boring. I will not talk about gods with you as earth is filled with simpletons when it comes to the cosmic understanding of things. Now don't annoy me, not when I finally got you all here. Anyways, heroes get gifts, right? So I've compiled a list of two thousand or so blessings and you all get to choose three, be they abilities or items, but, once it is taken it is taken so first come first serve."

She waved her arm and a giant, hovering list appeared in front of her, below her feet.

Several girls screamed, someone began sobbing. Those that screamed stopped suddenly, like an invisible gag was into their mouths.

Some of the young adults were still weighing whether or not this was a dream while seven or so boys ran to line up in front of the goddess. It seemed they understood the weight of the situation. Annoy the goddess and you die, and, first come, first serve and each item on the menu could only be chosen once. My heart began beating faster, and faster. was in front of me but I understood what had to happen. I was about to push through the crowd of which I stood at the back when it surged forward. The spaces between shoulders closed, hair and arms were pulled, people were punched. A frenzy was born called the mob, and I didn't see a way through. I was at the back.

Not wanting to get crushed and beaten, I sighed and stepped back and assessed what was happening. Seven or so others had also stepped away. my mind raced as I walked alongside them all, towards the throne. What was i doing? I wasn't even sure, not with my heart pounding out of my chest. Eventually as I arrived at the front, I noticed that those at the front were large young men, who had determination and muscle. Text were guys who had fought to protect pretty girls, and after the pretty girls small guys and ugly girls were in the back of the line. A harsh reality.

Two thousand was quite a lot of blessings, I reasoned when I walked around the giant mob. Even if I was at the back of the line I had a chance at a new life with three gifts. Furthermore the goddess seemed petulant enough that perhaps she wouldn't worry too hard over each thing she added to the list, so many more than a few hundred could be over-powered, or hardly any at all. There were forty or so young adults on that platform, three items a person meant one hundred and twenty gifts would be spent before I got to the [front.

As my heart pounded I found myself stopping to the side of the throne and looking up at the goddess, speaking,

"I have a question." I asked, several feet below the very human-sized goddess.

She looked down at me, her blue eyes ever deep, ever clear and in them the mirth of the stars danced.

"Yes, young man?" She responded with a twinkle in her eye. She was smiling as her eyes shifted down from mine, looking at something on my body. I glanced down to see a body that was not my own. My arms were smaller, there wasn't much in the way of hair on my chin. And this hand had a mole on the side of my thumb that my mother had removed because she thought it 'looked cancerous'. No, wait, this is- or was my body, after high school, when I was nineteen or so. I was young! Eleven whole years shaved off my life!

"You start me with a curse?" I asked, looking up to her while trying to hold back a smile. She wiggled her nose and winked before her melodic voice rose over my head:

"A curse? it was going to be one of my three gifts to you~" Now that I was near to her, I could smell her. She smelled of cliffs and the ocean, and her eyes were a deep blue that reflected the stars around us. "But, I suppose since you didn't ask for it I will still grant you three boons."

Don't be boring. I reminded myself.

"You are very kind." I bowed my head. "If it doesn't count as a gift to ask, may I have a question?"

The goddess nodded.

"If I go last, can I look at the list now, before it is my time to choose?"

She tilted her head back and then I thought that no, she didn't look twenty, not with those new wrinkles next to her eyes, and the the only ever so slight sag to her breasts. Her blue eyes were almost grey, right then. She was a woman who had seen it all up until that point. Speaking after a silence,

"Will you be the one who kills the Demon King, I wonder?"

"Oh no, I am an old man."

She laughed, bringing a hand up to her mouth, "You may see the list."

"Thank you." I bowed my head, my heart beating faster. Why was I so hot? It wasn't her radiating beauty, I wasn't so young to be entranced by jiggling boobs. I was... excited. I had challenged , more than I ever had in my last life.

The list appeared in a small form, floating in front of me like a see-through computer screen.

No, I was excited because this was all a gift in itself. No enemies from my past, no baggage. A new chance at life and from the age I was supposed to start my life back on Earth, yet I held all of my knowledge and memories. What boy doesn't get excited of the thought of an adventure as a superhero through the ancient world?

I focused on the floating list, where my eyes locked onto the words, at the top of the list were the things I expected like:

"The Strength of Ten Men," "The Demonslayer Blade," "A Treasure chest full of gold and gems"

"You, step up. Choose three boons!" The goddess harkened the first young man forward. I watched as the top three things became greyed out one after the other. He didn't even scroll down.

He actually chose all three, right at the top. Chuckling, I shook my head and scrolled down. If I wasn't to get Hulk strength or something else immediately powerful, I needed to find things that synergized well with each other. Moreover I needed to not get attached to any of the abilities or items presented. I was going to be last.

As time wore on most, if not all of the strongest things were taken. People who had chosen were off forming little groups to the side and were talking to each other. More than half of them that had finished had come up to offer advice to me while I looked down the list.

They were completely unwanted. Children. Children picked things like, "Good at Fire magic." I did my best to ignore them while I scrolled down the list.

"Farmer's are friendly to you"

could be useful if I was always on the run from the law. Most were a little nonsensical like that. I had a few ready that I didn't think anyone would choose, that could give me a serious edge in the new world, that is until the final person chose their three things, and I saw something that gnawed at the back of my soul. My heart raced again, and my recently clear and calculating mind went foggy.

"Can craft runes of power."

"So? Young man?"

I looked up, startled. The goddess, and everyone else in the room was looking at me. Elisia waved me over to stand in front of her with the official list.

Slowly I ambled over, the heat inside me hadn't yet relented, but perhaps a fog had settled over my mind. I had planned on choosing a lightning and water affinity, to better combine spells, but now, as a creator of imagined worlds from my childhood, a drawer of maps and a dreamer of things throughout my life, I couldn't help but be drawn to that single gift.

I decided to take my time scrolling down the big official screen floating in front of me. Could I justify the change? Not if I wanted to be a mage. How did I miss the gift of rune crafting when I was scrolling through the first dozen times? I ground my teeth together, annoyed at myself.

"If you don't choose soon I'll choose." The Goddess had her young woman voice and attitude back, "You had so long to look over that list."

"This one." I pointed to it. Crafting Runes of Power. I didn't even know if it was strong. Could everyone craft these runes? Was it easy? hard? I had no way of knowing.

"Sure!" Elisia nodded, large breasts somehow jiggling from the movement.

"And, uh," I began, "It's up here." I scrolled up, trying to buy more time to formulate something to go with a crafting build. My mind raced as I tried to remember everything on the list. I cant fuck up now. My insides began turning, like when I was made fun when I was younger. I regretted choosing Runes of Power almost right away. I already had a great three ready. Fuck. Most combat choices like, "Gifted in Sword Mastery" had long been taken. Someone could probably rest on that alone.

Then I saw another one that my younger self would have chosen without hesitation,

"Spiritcaller."

Were spirits good? Bad? Shit I was going to make another gut choice, I pointed to it and the goddess nodded.

A third, a third. I needed a third that synergized or could stand on its own. The knot in my stomach tightened. I couldn't see any cohesion between my choices. Maybe "friends with farmers" isn't so bad, and I run away from trying to kill the bad guy? Was it up or down?

No, no, I wouldn't choose that one out of spite. Maybe a Hail-Mary? Maybe Something I didn't understand? Nothing synergized in this list with either calling fourth spirts or making runes.

"That one." I pointed at the strangest sounding one. One that sounded cool.

The goddess frowned, tilting her head as she looked at it. "I thought you were going to pick something that a reasonable old person would pick, like "good at making rocking chairs."

"No, no, thank you." I bowed and took a step back away from the list. I would keep my three gifts to myself as best as I could. Runecrafting, Spiritcalling, and the cool sounding one.

"Well!" She clapped her hands together, then sat back in her giant throne. "Before I send you off, I have one final thing to say. That is that none of you can tell anyone what happened here, nor anything I said. Or you will die horribly before the words leave your mouth. You are to never speak of this to anyone, ever again."

That made sense. She wouldn't want the world to know that she orchestrated the rise of some evil demon king for her amusement. I could live with that in return for a new life.

I guess, well, I figure that I should be thankful anyways being able to start my new life with three new blessings, even if I didn't get to meta-game it as I had the chance to.

"Hey," Someone said to my right. I turned. It was a group of five or so guys who were at the front of the line. "My name is Jacob." A boy that looked 18 or 19 held out his hand. I took it and shook it firmly. "You had some big balls, for real. After what happened to George. uh, you know." he trailed off before catching himself and continuing, "So did waiting and looking at the list pay off? What were your three things?"

So the kid who died was named George. I wondered if Jacob knew him, perhaps from their year prior in the university.

"Oh, fuck, well, one that made me want to learn how to smith, one that made me learn new things quickly, and one that gave me a magical dick." None of those things were true, but the first could help to align me in a place where I could learn smithing to some degree, and the second would make it more reasonable that I would seek out books and teachers of things.

Jacob's mouth opened slightly as he took a moment to process what I said.

"No, for real uh, what's your name?"

What was I going to call myself? They didn't know me. At this age I had long hair from spending too long listening to metal music. Evan and Mikey from the classroom wouldn't be able to recognize me. I didn't want to be called by my first name, "Jack" and my two youth already knew my last name. I guess something else that was cool sounding? When I was younger and I would run under the trees behind houses, and I would dream I was off in grand forests elsewhere, the hero of my little stories was always called Orion, like the constellation.

"Orion."

"...Yeah." Jacob didn't sound convinced, however he let it drop as he came up with more questions, "For real though bro? You asked for a magic dick? Shit I didn't see that as an option." The guys all started laughing. "Like how does it work?"

No I didn't. But I wasn't going to tell anyone what I asked for. Unfortunately "Mind Reading" was taken by one of the girls somewhere in the middle of the line. That was the most dangerous. I needed to stay away from the girls until I figured out which one chose it. I already had a plan that I was formulating in my head and none of these college kids could know it. "How my magic dick works? I dunno yet. I guess I have to find a girl down on this new world and try it out!"

The guys all laughed nervously. I noticed they were still taking in the stars and the throne and the goddess.

"This is wack tho', some busty god sending us to kill some evil demon?" Jacob's sentiment was echoed around by the guys near him, before he introduced a guy around six foot, built like he was from some farm in Nebraska. He was the guy at the front of the line, "This is Titus, he chose super strength and got a cool sword and money, though for real we should be callin' him Titan. Yo, Orion your parents gave you a Greek god name, maybe we should all do that in this new world, eh?"

I could feel my braincells slowly killing themselves while listening to him. Ah, no wait. Thoughts like those were the thoughts of nineteen year old me. I hadn't thought like in a decade. Was my brain chemistry reverting because I was younger? Or was me spending time around young adults making me think like them? I didn't need to be rude.

"Sure man, just don't forget who you are."

"Woah. That's deep." Jacob stated, nodding.

Nope, yep. Wanted to jump off the platform. Goddess! Goddess?

The other guys introduced themselves as two guys and three girls began heading towards the group I stood with.

The two guys were of the white-knights, who protected the pretty girls near the front of the line. The first guy was at huge, at least 6'6 he had a strong brow and good cheekbones. Though his jaw was round he was certainly handsome.

"Hey!" The guy said, running hand through his bright blonde hair. "This shit is crazy. I'm Carson." He nodded at each of the guys. "You guys seemed to be forming a group so we came over here to put heads together."

"Suhp." Jacob nodded, his black curly hair bouncing on his head like a loose bird's nest. He began eyeballing the girls as each joined the circle of students. Girls. I needed to watch what I thought around them. I couldn't let the mind-reader know what was going on in my head. I should think like a 19 year old boy and ogle these girls.

"This is Mary," Carson nodded at the the tall, lanky blonde with pretty skin and a tiny waist that was hiding under his shadow. Her face was even and proportional, but it was skinny and she didn't have much in the way of a bust.

"Hi!" She waved, "I'm Mary, and I chose laser eyes, a fire staff and excellent at sewing."

Jacob outwardly showed on his face the disbelief that the rest of us felt. "We like, goin' into a war zone or sum shit, and you choose that?"

Carson stepped forward towards Jacob, "Hey, back off." Jacob was no pushover. he was a big kid new the front of the line, but he laughed away the tension anyway.

"I wanted to be strong, but also I always admired my grandmother and the cool things she could make. Like, perhaps we will get cold and need sweaters?"

I tried really hard to dislike Mary, but I just couldn't. That was too human of an answer. After all, I chose the things I would have picked if I was my child self, too.

"Oh right." Carson began, "My three gifts are a magic axe, a special shield and storm magic."

It almost made me feel bad, everyone being so honest about their gifts while I only planned to lie.

"Hey," the other guy nodded, "I'm Ben. My three skills are double-human speed, half-prices at all stores, and I can carry five times more than a normal human. My father taught me good economics from a young age, so..." he shrugged. Standing only a bit shorter than Carson, he was handsome in his own right with green eyes and a deep tan on his skin. The next girl stepped forward. With short purple hair cut to a bob, and a jawline that belonged on a cover model I had to do a double-take. And well, she had a rather large chest, especially considering she was the shortest one there.
She gave of goth vibes.

God, Ben chose three skills that synergized well. I also felt bad, with my elitist mode of thinking. I recognized there that I was looking down on others. it was a bad habit I carried with me from the past. I felt bad for Mary and Ben. They were being so trusting and smart.

"I am Quinn." the goth waved, smiling. "I can-" stopping she looked at me, smiling, "oh wow, you were very brave, walking up to the goddess like that." Was she being condescending? "And check out your hair, it's pretty and longer than mine!"

I was NOT blushing. She was too young. Maybe 21 or so.

Jacob snickered, "That's Orion. He chose good at smithing, good at books, and got a magic dick."

Everyone standing around looked at my clothed groin right then. The two new guys looked more surprised than the girls, who actually looked more like they were doing math inside their head, right then.

Thankfully one of the guys in the back introduced himself and that got the ball rolling, though Quinn didn't stop looking at me, and she didn't say her powers either.

"Can you read my mind?" I asked, but there was no response. "You have great tits." I thought, trying for any reaction on her face. "I like Joseph Stalin!" I didn't, I swear I don't. Her face remained passive. Perhaps it wasn't her.

"Take off your shirt!" Well. That was getting nowhere. The rest of the guys introduced themselves, and the final girl while I frowned at Quinn, and she stared impassively at me. Perhaps she noticed that I wasn't acting like a normal 19 year old?

The goddess's voice rang out over the din of many small groups talking,

"Alright! Off you all go! Remember, you can only go home once the Demon King is dead. And don't talk about what I said or what happened here."

Once again we were hit with an absolutely blinding light, then blackness.