The year was 2872 and chaos was brewing all over the earth.The world of data was almost fully overlapped in the real world and it consumed lives unworthy to function in order to survive and expand. No one knew what had started it, they just understood that if one were to survive in this world, one needed to fight. In this particular year, the evolved AI world decided that instead of randomly choosing who’d live and die, it should pit the people of humanity against each other in the hopes that they would be one of the chosen few. Of course, it knew that not all humans were equally suited to the task and as a result decided to create a database of heroes from the past; heroes that humans believed in. To be fair in the eyes of humans, it chose to have each servant of a selected master be the reflection of their heart, so no one could get who they desired and no one could complain to have a useless servant. Having laid the groundwork for society to wage war, the entity went about to select the first masters of this new “Holy Purge” to amuse itself out of boredom.
Hosea was a calm boy, even among the world being utterly destroyed, he still had hope that one day humanity would be restored to what it used to be. Everyone told him he was crazy, since no one remembered anything of the old earth. Even still, he heard the stories, the fairy tales as it were, of a peaceful place, one where humans and data worked together to continue onwards. He still obeyed the rules much like everyone else and yet he sometimes would be whisked away into his own little world knowing full well it was merely a daydream. As a result, no one ever paid much attention to him as they were too busy fearing when they’d be the next victim of the virus plaguing the world. Hosea just calmly took these things in as unfortunate truths to be overcome, always hoping and expecting that a better outcome would be brought forth.
It was near his eighteenth birthday when it happened. Something immensely bright showered him in light and a voice boomed out of it. “Hosea Alacar, you have been chosen for the Holy Purge. Please report to the nearest data center.” The spotlight vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Stunned as he was, he knew that no matter what he did, it would not change the fact that the entity had summoned him. So in the cold April winds, he tread the semi-electronic roads to the data center a few miles down, with a small hope in his heart that this was his chance to set things right.
Holy Purge did have an ominous name to it, but much like with all things this so called “government” came up with it was probably just twisted beyond belief. Hosea just went along with it and entered the data center with neither head held high nor hung low. A calm expression adorned his features as always, making it hard to tell what emotions laid hidden behind that mask. Upon seeing him, a few men and women in robes came up to him in shock, as if they expected someone different. However that shock wore off as if in remembrance to what they needed to do.
One of the taller men approached Hosea, “Welcome to the first ever Holy Purge.” He said with a forced joyous tone. “You among nine others have been selected to participate in the grand opening of this momentous occasion. To simply explain the rules; each participant will be given a servant that matches their according heart characteristics. Once the original heart reading is complete and the servant is given, no one may switch or change who they have. The only exception to this rule is if a person has more than one dominant heart characteristic, in which case the selected must choose one without knowing which servants are tied to it.”
One of the women stepped forward as the man caught his breath. “Upon completion of a summoning, the two will be interlinked and the master will be given four magic seals. Each seal represents the ability to exceed normal human limits. They can be used to give a command to a servant that’s impossible normally, use as a way to gain a power normal forbidden to those without data streams or may just be used as an escape tool. Once all four are used, no more may be given.”
By this point, Hosea got the gist of what they were saying, and tuned out the rest. It was mostly monotonous rule checks that he had to either nod or sign to each time. Much like a standard terms of service notice, it was hard not to just drift off into his own little world. He stuck it out though and did end up learning quite a bit, even though it was all too overwhelming to really understand right now. He made a mental note to replay it back later in his own time. He felt bad not asking questions, but it made more sense to come back later after this whole summoning thing was done.
Having finished the long winded “simple” explanation, which he believed to be a cruel joke on the digital world’s part, they finally moved on to the most important part of this moment: The Summoning. This world being somewhere in between digital and physical, Hosea could already tell from some of the monitors that this was getting quite the attention worldwide as most had already summoned their servants and were showing them off. Of course, they never told anyone what their true names were, as was the nature of these things. It felt to him that these people just liked showing off, he didn’t like it that much but it was certainly something that couldn’t be avoided. Similar to how a bull doesn’t suddenly become a scorpion.
Shaking off this wandering thoughts, he turned his attention to the assistants to this whole endeavor. They began bringing over a large machine that made him think of old movies of those robotic superheroes. It was akin to a giant metal suit that was designed to overlap his body, though perhaps quite bulky to be able to move around in properly. The men and women who brought it over must have seen the look on his face as they reassured him that he wouldn’t have to wear this more than a few minutes. Sighing in relief, Hosea relaxed as the molded the burdensome suit over him. It seemed a bit too large for him, but he didn’t have much experience with these things, so he assumed it to be normal. The device activated as many lights and signals began scanning every inch of his body. Hosea wasn’t certain the reason why it needed to scan it’s whole body, however he didn’t question it and just allowed it to do his thing while. His mind drifted off as the lights reminded him of his past.
