Touch the Sky (Hyunjin X Felix X San X Juyeon)

|Sixth Act - Of Times Lost Long Ago|

Felix was... confused. Where the hell was he?

"Hello, Prince Felix."

He turned around, a tad startled by the unexpected voice. Behind him stood a tall, somewhat androgynous entity with delicate features and an ethereal glow clinging to their skin – and by tall, he meant at least twice his size.

"Who are you...?" he asked, somewhat intimidated, but not scared.

"I am Tyche, Goddess of Luck, Destiny, and Fortune. Our meeting has been a long time coming, young one."

Felix was unsure of what to do. He recognized the entity as a minor goddess he'd heard about once or twice in his history lessons, but he didn't understand why she was appearing to him of the sort.

"I understand your confusion," she assured. "Come – I shall explain everything."

Not having much of a choice, Felix followed after her as she started walking away. It took him a moment to realize that they were in the gardens of the High Palace – or at least, a copy of it. It was a little strange, really. If Felix focused too hard on their surroundings, the details started blurring, and the light felt like it was coming from all around them, rather than from above.

The Goddess led them to a small bench, where she sat – though, even sitting, she was much taller than Felix. After a moment of hesitation, the freckled boy also took a seat.

"I'll go straight to the point: the entity that has attacked you is Eris, the Goddess of Strife and Discord."

"Eris...? Why would a Goddess want me dead?" protested Felix, even more confused.

"Many centuries ago, the world was plunged into an era of almost absolute darkness and chaos, and Eris became so powerful that she challenged the Pantheon Gods with the intent of becoming the only God to reign upon all realms.

Thanks to the Pantheon Gods unifying their powers, they managed to defeat Eris and seal her away. In doing so, however, the Pantheon Gods depleted their powers and, to this day, they still have yet to recover.

However, Eris had one last trick up her sleeve, and she managed to corrupt the seal before becoming trapped. And, though that corruption was quite small and minor at the time, it still allowed some of her power to slip through. Her influence became limited to what you call the neutral territory, but she didn't need much more than that.

Thanks to that weakness in the seal, she managed to eventually regain just enough power to mess with the Holy Ritual with which you Humans elect your Rulers. She corrupted the ritual and made it so, instead of finding the worthiest of the Gods' blessing, it would find the most unworthy."

Felix's eyes widened as understanding dawned on him. "That's why... that's why all of the previous Rulers were so ill-intentioned? Because they were the exact opposite of what a Ruler should actually be?"

"Exactly. And, while it may seem of no great consequence, that change is exactly what allowed Eris to slowly regain her power. Through the strife and discord caused all over the continent because of those unworthy Rulers, she began building up her powers again, only waiting for the day when she'd grow powerful enough to break the seal and roam free once again."

"But does- does that mean that I'm...?"

A small smile stretched her lips briefly. "You would happen to be the exception. With the Pantheon Gods still recovering, the Minor Gods decided to also unite and, with our powers, we managed to separate Helios from the continent, so to speak. The reason why Helios has never been implicated in those conflicts before is because of the protection us Minor Gods have placed upon it, thus blocking Eris's evil influence.