Chapter 4: (CH3)THE VETERAN’S PRIVILEGE
The sniper’s bullet had missed him by maybe six inches—close enough to leave Luis’s ears ringing, knees shaking, and heart thudding so loud it felt like it might rip through his chest. As he pressed tighter against the cold metal of the dumpster, he couldn’t shake the image of what he’d just seen: that shadow-knight, towering and silent, lingering in his vision like a burn behind his eyes. Its hollow gaze seemed to track him even now.
"Wait," Luis whispered, barely able to hear his own voice over the pounding in his head. "You said gods are assigned randomly. So... how does that guy get a soldier?"
Zyx, for once, didn’t have a quick quip. His smirk faltered, and something in his posture shifted—like he suddenly remembered a meeting he really didn’t want to attend.
"Ah," he said. "Right. Forgot to mention the vetting system."
A new screen lit up across Luis’s vision. Not a broadcast this time. Something older. Deeper. Script written in glowing gold that pulsed like a heartbeat. He didn’t know how he could read it—but he could.
[ASCENSION ROYALE HISTORICAL RECORDS][LAST CYCLE’S SURVIVING GODS: 17 / 1,000,000][VETERAN STATUS: ACTIVE]
"Most of us?" Zyx gestured to himself. "We’re the random draw. Spin the wheel, assign the freaky god to the unlucky soul, rinse and repeat."
He pointed toward the rooftop, where the sniper had stood just moments ago.
"But the ones who survived the last cycle? They earned the right to choose."