A former “chosen one” turns on the gods themselves in order to save future “heroes” from their plots and schemes. But first, they’ve gotta get past the new “chosen one.”
This prompt was found on the subreddit r/writingprompts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/gl5od0/wp_a_former_chosen_one_turns_on_the_gods/
Did I look this ridiculous? I wondered as I stared at her.
She stood several paces away from me, standing in the same defiant pose I’d struck only a few years ago. In her hands flickered a blue flame as she prepared to strike me.
I shook my head and stopped charging the energy within me. She gave me a confused look as she noticed my hands had stopped pulsing a light silver color.
“Alright,” I said, “I know what you think they told you, but-“
“They told me you betrayed them!” she shot back.
I sighed.
“They told me that about the last guy, too, when I was where you are right now.”
I wasn’t helping her confusion. I tried to think of something that would get her attention…
“Your parents!” I said finally, “They’re dead, right?”
She nodded, and the blue flames in her hands began to shrink.
“How did you-“
“Mine are too; the guy before me, his parents were dead too. Don’t you get it? It’s all the same! The same sad backstory, the same magical powers that only you can use to drive away the darkness!”
I think she was starting to believe me. She extinguished the flames in her hands, and I held up my own to show I wasn’t planning anything.
“Well,” I added with a small smile, “not exactly the same magic. What’d they give you, fire? I got wind. I guess the gods like to keep things a little bit different each time.”
“You said ‘the last guy’,” she said, “what does that mean?”
I approached her slowly.
“I used to be you,” I said, “the gods found me after my parents died; they said I was the only one that could stop the darkness, and gave me these powers… I fought who they told me to, and he tried to tell me the truth. I didn’t believe him… and after I killed him, do you know what the gods said?”
She stared at me. She shook her head.
“He was just a pawn for some greater master,” I said, “well I wasn’t going to play their game anymore. I felt fucking sick after I killed once, and I swore I wouldn’t do it again unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“What counts as necessary?” she asked.
“They do,” I answered.
Her eyes grew wide as she understood.
“So you defied the gods… because… they lied to you?” she said.
I nodded.
“And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them lie to anyone again,” I said, “I don’t know what their whole scheme is exactly, but I’m going to get the truth out of them-“
I felt the energy within me welling up uncontrollably.
“And then,” I said as I held my hands together, “I’ll kill them with the same power they gave me.”
I released the energy into the far, stone wall to my right, and the wave of wind collided with it; a large crack formed in the surface of the wall. I stared at it, then turned to face her again.
“Are you with me?” I said.
I could see the weight of it all washing over her; she looked down at her hands, at the blue flame that danced around her fingers. She glanced at the wall I’d struck. Then she looked at me.
“You’re right,” she said, “the gods need to pay for what they’ve done.”
I smirked.
“Good. But… I haven’t seen what you can do yet,” I said.
She smirked back at me and ignited a blue flame between her hands. The sphere of fire grew larger and larger in her hands, until it was as big as my head. Then she slammed her hands into the ground, and the flames burrowed and twisted their way through the floor itself; the writhing mass of flames collided with a chunk of broken stone, and wrapped around it like a snake. She closed her hands into tight fists, and the flames snapped the stone like it was paper.
She extinguished the flame in her hands and turned to face me again.
All I could do was nod in approval.
“I definitely can’t do that,” I said.
She just smiled.
“Where do we start?” she answered.
Wallflower Showcase 