Zodiac: Book One

Prologue

First, there was nothing.

Then, two gods of light and darkness, Virgo and Scorpio, appeared from the pool of light. These two scythe wielding warriors fought their way through the darkness, fighting alongside the elders of the old world, and proved that they were beings to be worshiped, though they did not ask to be worshiped. They assumed, however, that this was an added bonus.
The old world, however, soon died from a terrible illness, leaving the Two Scythes alone in the world, finding themselves wandering the world of Everis.

Finally, they returned to their birthplace, the Pool of Light, and each pulled a hair from their head, dropping it into the pool as thanks for giving them life. As the hairs fell, two more beings came from the pools, and claimed to be gods of their own. Surprised and pleased, the gods made nine more gods, and named each one while giving them roles.

Centuries later, the thirteen gods decided to make the first man aware of the gods in the new world, and named him Cryzona. Cryzona was also the first of men to feel jealous of the gods, and decided to bless the rest of the world with knowledge. The thirteenth god, Anuhzilian, who had helped fuel the jealousy of Cryzona by taunting him, showing off his power as god. When the twelve kingdoms all arrived at the Temple of Zodia, Virgo was upset to see her own creation leading the world to war with the gods. Anuhzillian slowly approached the men and women of the kingdoms, grinning ear to ear.

"My mortal children... what has brought you here? What desires must we fufill?"
Cryzona answered, "We are here for one reason - we seek our own magical abilities."

The god of evil only grinned. "You want our power so badly? My power so badly? Here, child."

Suddenly, Cryzona was consumed by a giant beam of blackness, the same blackness from the pools of shadows, and when the beam subsided, the once peaceful man had been replaced with a vengeful demon, his hands and eyes black, and soon his hands were covered in the blood of those who were once beside him in getting the power of the gods.

Anuhzilian and Cryzona were banned from the overworld, and the remaining twelve gods hid away, never to be seen for centuries, their history turing to nothing but stories.
But their work wasn't done, for they saw the future - a future of darkness and destruction, ruled by Anuhzillian and Cryzona. Even with their power, they cannot stop this war alone.

They need guardians of the realms. Young, more honest souls. Children with powerful abilities and trained by the gods themselves will find twelve relics, and kill Anuhzillian.

This is the story of the fall of Anuhzillian.

                                  -

"That'll be twenty gem shards, please," the clerk told me, the other worker bagging the ingredients, and I searched through my bag, looking for my wallet and pulling out what was asked of me - twenty flattened, diamond-shaped crystals, ready to be traded. Handing them to the clerk and grabbing my bags was easy, and I slowly walked out of the store.

Haro had asked me, like every week, to grab supplies for the bar, which I did, but today had a specific list. I assumed it was for the anniversary for the shop, but that wasn't until the twelfth season, and it was only the ninth. I knew that it was also Haro's birthday, but he doesn't exactly celebrate his birthday, so why was he asking for all this? It was something important, since he really didn't want me to mess this up.

I walked up Angel Street, where all sorts of merchants and traders stood at the corners, along with restaurants and stores across the way. I pushed my way through crowds of people, sighing as I made my way to my home.
"Sasori," was the name of this lovely bar, where Haro and I had lived for the past two years. Our adopted mother and goddess, Virgo, had made this building, given us thousands of gem shards, some clothes, and practically told us to make do.

"Psh... sure, mom." I mumbled to myself, and walked inside.

Haro stood at the counter, drying off a glass while humming to himself. He was always cheerful, but today he seemed more... easily impressed. Easily excited, if you will.

"Hey, bro! You grabbed everything?" He asked happily, as if he was a boy in a candy store.
I shrugged. "Nah, I skipped a couple things," I joked, placing the bags onto one of the tables. "What's all this crap for, anyways? We celebrating some garbage festivity or something?"

Haro smiled softly, rubbing my shoulders. "You really don't remember, do you? Come on, man, it's probably the most important day in your life! In our lives!" He said, throwing his arms out for emphasis.

Slowly, the gears in my brain clicked. "...Oh."

Today was the same day my brother and I had escaped our old birthplace, our old "home", the village of Tempt. It's a day that I prefer not to think about, because...

"Demon! Make the demon suffer!"

I shook the memories away, and looked at Haro. "You sure that celebrating this is right? We were... extremely lucky to get out of there."

Haro shook his head, and patted my back roughly. "Come on, you're gonna celebrate with me today after work. And hey - maybe I'll make you a drink?"

I smirked, and crossed my arms. "Hm. I guess I'll take you up on that offer."

As we prepared the bar to open, I thought about myself - what my dreams are, what I really want in life. Sighing, I looked back at my brother, who was humming to himself again, cleaning the counters as I set the tables. When I finished, I snuck upstairs to my room, shutting the door softly as I looked around, seeing my plant on my window, swaying in the wind. My room was covered in shelves of books, and notebooks, which were filled with all sorts of things - dreams I remembered overnight, ideas I have for weapons, notes from my mother's classes...

The rest filled with information on Anuhzillian.

The god of evil, the bastard who had cursed me, ruined my life. I rolled my head around my neck slowly, stretching my arms upwards towards the ceiling. I then rolled my shoulders, flexing my hands. I took a deep breath, and looked through the book.

"Anuhzillian, the old god of evil. A prophesied doom bringer, the one who will kill the gods. The one who branded me with these symbols, which supposedly hold great power. I feel like he might also be behind my nightmares - the ones where black hands stretch out from the shadows under me, their jagged teeth grinning, ready to chomp on their prey.

"Me."

I closed the book, and put it back on the shelf. "Don't remind me.."

Those nightmares still plague my mind at night, and they've gotten worse in the past nights - I can't sleep at all without some sort of dark abyss of hands flooding my thoughts while I sleep.

I shook my head quickly, scratching my dark-skinned neck. I felt like shit after thinking about that, and I could have just walked away from my room. I rolled down the sleeve of my marked arm, and walked back downstairs, tying the green apron around my waist. As I walked downstairs, my brother flipped the sign on the door from 'closed,' to 'open'.

It started that day, the journey that would change my life forever.